#save me lesbian rook

[garffenjoyer]

My warrior Rook is so hot it makes it hard to focus on the dialogue tbh

[vigilskeep]

omg thank you for the support... feeling emboldened to return and be gay in your inbox but i was just thinking about how neve might actually feel a bit put off by a more uncaring/cold assassin rook. she has that conversation with harding in the ign gameplay where she says that authorities being corrupt is how she is employed essentially, but given her character descriptions, i feel like she very much does care a lot and corruption is something she Really Wants To Fix, Actually. but authorities being corrupt is actually great for business for an assassin. i mean lucanis was literally introduced to us as "the magekiller" and one thing we know about him is he specifically targets corrupt magisters. like taking down corrupt officials is definitely great for neve, but i feel very interested in the toxic yuri potential of her butting heads with someone who doesn't care about saving the world beyond putting down an obvious threat because their background relies very much on the world being broken. if this makes sense? femme fatale rook also adds an extra level of distrust which is fun! but there's also so much yuri development potential here... learning to care through neve or rook always secretly caring and neve bringing that out in them. cynic4cynic and all that. this doesn't have to be about a romantic relationship either, it's interesting to me even for a platonic neve/rook relationship!

and this also could be a potential point of contention for neve and lucanis, depending on his own world views. this group being referred to as a found family makes the idea of them not getting along (at first at least) pretty interesting to me LMAO anyway yeah if lucanis shares this kind of view then it really is as you said: (crow rook voice) no lucanis you're not insane. and neither am i.

SORRY FOR THIS. but also thank you for supporting the lesbianism.

YES...

the thing that i certainly believe about neve is what’s been emphasised over and over in marketing: she’s a cynic, but a cynic with a heart of gold. she may be our hard-boiled detective who’s seen the worst of people and the worst of her city, but that’s never made her love her city any less or fight for it any less. she’s intensely idealistic in her ambitions and her commitment to the job, putting her own comfort aside to doggedly pursue any mystery she’s taken on.

i think that conflicts delightfully with an assassin who is more self-preserving in what they are willing to take on and has no such high ideals or sense of community, but has it in common with neve that they’ve come face to face in the same way with the worst of people. they could make each other better—neve could definitely stand to take better care of herself and perhaps even take more direct action, and this type of crow rook could probably do with a moral or two beyond World Destruction Is Bad—or worse! i really like your read on crow rook being dependent on the world being broken, and corruption being good for business. i also think the kind of worldview that the crows teach is that nothing ever really can change. it doesn’t matter what you do or who you kill, because someone just as corrupt will always take their place. there are no moral obligations because there is no fixing the world even if you did try. i’d be so curious to see neve’s impact on that... whether she could get them to believe in something, or their jaded outlook would rub off on her

neve definitely has trust issues and high walls up for whatever reason (i still believe in venatori ex-husband theory) so i love the idea here of really playing into that and making a rook she actually shouldn’t trust. i love that for you. yeah why put this all on her. why make anything easy

i’m definitely interested in lucanis and neve’s dynamic. they have a lot of similar worldviews when it comes to, say, the venatori, but i wonder if neve necessarily approves of lucanis’, uh... impulsive and destructive approach, to dealing with that kind of problem. or if lucanis’ sympathies necessarily mean he takes the shadow dragons’ chances of achieving anything seriously. super excited to see them interact

[visenyaism]

If the King Visenya Dance ends with Rhaenyra on the throne, who’s crowned after her? Just curious no worries if you haven’t thought about her?

Does Aegon IV still exist since Viserys was sent to Lys?

no i have a outline for this very silly conflict. buckle up under the readmore this is barely hinged and deeply unserious

so.

- Queen Rhaena (the lesbian) dies, names Saera as her successor at the last minute which no one wants to honor.

- Starts with Rhaenys on dragonstone, Baelon in KL, and Saera in Volantis headed to KL.

- Baelon still gets appendicitis and dies pretty early but everyone thinks it’s some kind of treachery.

- The war officially starts when Damon Targaryen runs into Corlys at Riverrun, trying to negotiate a betrothal between his daughter and some Muppet to back Rhaenys for the throne. fresh off of losing his father and currently consolidating support for his brother, Daemon wants someone to blame and kills Corlys.

- Daemon and Aegon (Viserys I) try to jump Rhaenys at Rook’s Rest, but she gets her way out of the trap and manages to take down Aegon’s dragon and severely injure him in the process. Aegon goes back to KL to rule and protect his daughter Rhaenyra, Daemon spends the rest of the time flying around the riverlands and lighting stuff on fire.

- while all of this is happening, there’s also an extended naval conflict between the Targannister faction, which exists, Viserra has a dragon(this is my mind palace i make the rules) and the Saera chaos faction. Two battles there:

1. combined Greyjoy/Triarchy chaos faction, almost successfully take Casterly Rock while Viserra is down by the gullet and little Jaeson (lol) tries to flee on his dragon at which point Saera’s daughter Aerea takes him down. However he just barely survives even though he loses his dragon, and the last man ended up killing Aerea, who is pinned down in enemy territory in the keep.

2. While trying to break the Triarchy blockade of the Gullet for her nephew who holds King’s Landing, Viserra and Saera have a dragon fight. Balerion is old and slow and unwieldy: takes a few scorpion bolts meant for Vermithor and goes down. Viserra and a severely injured Vermithor go down as well, some historians argue she was trying to save her drowning sister. Who knows.

- With both other factions, looking pretty bad, Rhaenys takes King’s Landing: Aegon (Viserys I) dies here, but his 10-year-old daughter Rhaenyra is able to see the city on her dragon. However, Syraxis very young at the time and takes a few hits which get infected and dies right after they makes it to the Eyrie.

- Daemon and Rhaenys kill each other over the gods eye on their parents’ dragons.

- Some variation of the storming of the dragonpit happens. Laenor and Laena successfully flee to Dragonstone, but Silverwing and Seasmoke do not :(

- No longer worried about being burned by Daemon. The Riverlands, Crownlands, and Stormlands forces are able to muster enough troops to actually get to Kings Landing and restore order.

- The war ends when they put Laenor on the throne. it ends with the wedding of Laenor and Rhaenyra to create some form of stability after everything.

- They have three kids “together.” Baela the Bdefiant, future mother of Daena Darksister, Jakey who dies in dorne with cregan stark, and Joffrey the religious freak.

- Laena stays in KL and later becomes master of coin.

- Saera’s son Viserys II is in Volantis and comes to King’s Landing with his wife Larra Rogare and their son Aegon to serve as Laenor and Jake and Joffrey’s hand after they extend an olive branch.

- The Targannister kids technically survived but lose their dragons so they’re just sort of like well you guys didn’t see any of that. we’re just lannisters now.

arc 2 of this absurd fire and blood revamp where everything is cringe in a way that’s specifically appeals to me complete

[shirakinagi-san]

OK, anyone who follows me on Tumblr knows I'm a MASSIVE Dragon Age nerd. I've put literally THOUSANDS of hours into the titles.

Well, I'm here after coming off my first 10 hour binge session of Veilguard. And you know what?

I'm having fun! Is it like the previous titles? NO! Is that OK? YES!! I really truly see nothing to hate about it.

"Ohhh Rooks evil dialog isn't evil!!"

Ok, so do you really think VARRIC TETHRAS of all people would recruit someone with EVIL morals to save the world???? No he wouldn't! You would need to be at least a LITTLE bit of a decent person to get on his radar!

"I miss when the warrior characters kill moves were smashing a head in!"

There's still plenty of gore and adult themes- you dont need GOT levels of gore in every video game.

"It's all just trans agenda!!"

YES because ANDRASTE FORBID your Rook is canonically trans and proud of it! God forbid a trans person enjoys playing video games and wants to be represented! Go ahead and make your generic white human male Warrior and let me enjoy my queer ass transgender lesbian elvhen mage!

Honestly my biggest complaint is that it's not open world. Aside from that? I'm having fun, and if you weren't sure about this one, give it a shot when it goes on sale, or watch a walk through on YouTube or twitch. For me, a massive lore nerd and DA fan, I'm having a GREAT time.

[gyrovagi]

hello and welcome to my gamer's den. here's a quick and dirty guide to the ocs i talk about constantly

CANON PROTAGS/NORMAL MEN. INNOCENT MEN:

eloy "el" surana (blood mage/arcane warrior) - i'm like if a control freak could control things ❤️ with blood magic ❤️. generally well-intentioned but hypervigilant, always playing 5d chess about the worst scenario. world's first moral (not necessarily ethical) male bigender manipulator. wields a wholly inappropriate degree of political influence in denerim

seongmin hawke (primarily diplomatic, sword + shield berserker) - afraid that his abandonment issues will leave him. pathologically conflict avoidant, fawn response to the max - up until someone he loves gets threatened, at which point good luck leaving alive lol. 'i don't think i need to talk about my feelings,' says man who just broke the arm of a templar asking around too much about the darktown clinic and then continued making casual conversation with varric as if nothing happened

ciuying "arav'assan" lavellan (archer, assassin) - king of compartmentalization. would really prefer to be one guy helping people on the ground rather than the unwilling inquisitor chained by power he never wanted, fighting for his life to be as politically uninvolved as possible. guy who is duty-bound never to return home

dak-wai (wi)thorne(s) (spellblade) - prospective rook, direct port of my bg3 durge. vashoth grey warden mage seeking a righteous purpose after a complicated and bloody past, but who has yet to find a better general approach to problems than killing things with hammers.

TGIRLS SAVE THE WORLD(STATE):

sang tabris (champion) - next shem bastard who pisses me off i'm just going to fucking kill you. alistair did you eat yet ^_^. struggling to reconcile an irrepressible hope for a better world with the abject horrors he's been subjected to by the world he lives in at present. morrigan's lesbian husband.

so-min hawke (blood mage) - girl could you at least pretend not to be a chantry-hating apostate in the middle of the gallows. carver just got suddenly pissed off in a darkspawn tunnel and he knows it's not because of the genlocks

r trevelyan (rift mage) - tranquil since 18, and at age 33, honestly dealing pretty well with accidentally getting a magical lobotomy reversed. yeah ok so maybe the random prolonged neutral-expression weeping is a little off-putting. it's hard when you're the white girl who needs to save yourself

yazmin de riva (duelist) - embittered bastard child of the young lord owain trevelyan. frighteningly competent and driven, but has difficulty taking orders and working with others due to the huge chip on her shoulder. thinks lucanis dellamorte is a nepo baby

INSANE WOMEN AND MALE MANIPULATORS:

ngayu brosca (reaver) - what do you MEAN the fate of the country is dependent on two twenty-year-olds one of whom gets scared looking at the sun. has never once in her life believed she would live past twenty and that's looking increasingly likely as a prediction

rina hawke (assassin) - when you are endlessly bitter and refuse to deal with it in any healthy way because that would require you to acknowledge your resentment towards the family members you perceive as a burden. chronically insincere, subservient but seething the whole time, wouldn't be able to name a solid belief if you asked her, incapable of self-reflection. crack baby you don't know what you want...

caden trevelyan (templar) - gay transgender homophobic misogynist. has weird ideas about being a man. constantly develops obsessive fixations on authoritative older men. believes he has the divine right to mete out violence. white boy who sucks 🔥

ha-neul aldwir (slayer) - prospective rook, veil jumper. fascinated by magic and magical artifacts. something of an oddity by both dwarven and non-dwarven standards, a guy with an endless thirst for life and little interest in denying himself pleasure or dwelling in guilt, for better or worse. can be surprisingly callous and self-interested, despite his generally upbeat, affable vibe.

PRONOUNS USERS GOING THROUGH IT/TRAGEDY WORLDSTATE;

enasa mahariel (ranger) - deadalive nothing girl who isn't. didn't anticipate that taking the vallaslin of dirthamen, twin brother to death, would be quite so prophetic. very clearly crumbling under mounting pressure while refusing to stop dragging the rotting corpse

bryn hawke (force mage) - half-avvar on malcolm's side, raised with what avvar beliefs and practices their father could half-remember from childhood. never quite at home in ferelden and struggling to come to terms with the idea they'll never be quite at home in their mother's city either. quietly shouldering other's burdens until it chokes them.

meiying lavellan (knight-enchanter) - turns out when you take an anxiety-ridden elf burdened with excess responsibility since youth out of their familiar environment and support system she'll have a bad time. solas' ex-spouse still misses him… but their aim's getting better!

orpheus ingellvar (death caller) - < he doesn't know (that he's the child of the last theirin king and the missing presumed dead hero of ferelden). surprisingly cheerful for a guy collectively raised by a bunch of necromancers, seems like a polite young man, but then he says something weird and offputting that makes you realize he's spent a lot of his life interacting with skeletons

ASSORTED GUYS:

dea surana - reserved but observant, knows it's best not to attract attention, tries to look after herself and her own in the ways she can. surprisingly worldly/cynical after her brother was taken by the templars at a young age and her life afterwards was spent largely on the road. then her situationship was like 'you know the hero of ferelden is named surana? circle mage, relative of yours?' and now she regularly talks to the king of ferelden

owain trevelyan - never really stopped hoping his older brother would come back from the circle and everything would be fine again. he's socially well-connected and charismatic, and could make for an influential heir to the house with motivation and an advantageous marriage - but he's a lot more interested in dragon hunting and boy bestiesisms with the prince of starkhaven.

valerie trevelyan - black sheep of the family, annoyed that this is more about lesbianism than being a fantasy communist. managed to pull off a 'buy my silence - for $8000 a month i will stop' ploy on her parents at 20, before she knew that this would end with her as the warden-commander's sister-in-law

ga-ying lavellan - middle sibling b/w meiying and ciuying, closer to both of them than they are with each other. tends to take things a little too lightly, an optimist unconcerned with anything outside of the clan and the present. the siblings' dads (and meiying, and his wife) are hoping the birth of his daughter will make him more serious. ciuying likes him as he is.

everybody's parents tend to be less developed than their kids are but they exist. In my mind . there's also a couple other extremely incidental fellas but they'll come up when they come up. i might also ramble about my non-da guys here but (closes my eyes and passes away silently)

[ladytabletop]

My GenCon bookstack!

There's a lot I can say about my first GenCon, but for now I just wanna talk about the cool games I picked up. Starting from the bottom:

Spire: the City Must Fall by Grant Howitt & Christopher Taylor

You got your oppressed elves and your ruling elves and a big ol fucked up city to skulk around in. Anyone who knows me knows I love the themes of this game. @monsterfactoryfanfic just did a fantastic video essay on the game that really highlights the politics and setting, which are what drew me to it in the first place. Grant and Chris signed this one for me, which was unexpected! I picked up Orc Borg for a friend at the same time.

Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings

The ultimate solo game; how could I resist? You are the titular vampire and you live lifetime after lifetime, trying and failing to hold onto memory. This book is so aesthetically pleasing! Very excited to crack it open and play.

Voidheart Symphony by Minerva McJanda

You have the real world and you have the Void, and you gotta try and rescue people from the Castle in the Void. Inspired by Persona! I'd heard of this one in name only - I kept conflating it with other games, though I couldn't tell you which ones. This one's also published by Rowan Rook & Deckard. I was intrigued by the mechanics of this one. Playbooks that change based on whether you're in the city or in the void? hell yeah, I'll give that a try. (also it was less expensive than Heart, which I was on the verge of buying)

Dream Askew/Dream Apart by Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum

Dream Askew has you playing queer post apocalyptic survivors in a community outside of what remains of society. Dream Apart is an alternate history of an Eastern European Jewish community. This is one I've been eyeing for a while. It felt like the gap in my game design knowledge - defining "belonging outside belonging" online turns into a cyclical discussion, so straight to the source I went.

CBR+PNK by Emanoel Melo

Technically my partner picked this one up, but I was an enabler for it. Love cyberpunk. Do not love six pages of rules for a machine gun (looking at you, Shadowrun). The design of this one is super tight, both in terms of game design and in its packaging/materials design. It comes with dry erasable character pamphlets!

Bang: The Duel by Emiliano Sciarra

Okay so it's a board game, not a book. my bad. I love the original game and my partner and I like playing two player games, so this was a fun find.

Void 1680 AM by Ken Lowery

I can't gush about this game enough. You play a lonely radio DJ taking calls from your listeners. It's a solo game where you build a playlist and it takes me back to my radio days! I was so excited to see this at the @indiepressrevolution booth at the con!

Hunt by Spencer Campbell

This one was also new to me, but I knew I'd buy something at the GilaRPGs booth. I was sold on it as Lumen 2.0, because I already adore the Lumen system. You play a doomed order of knights on a quest to slay a beast. If you succeed, the order is saved, and if not, it's doomed. The design of this one is really tight and modular, so even though it's a self-enclosed one-shot, you could certainly run it repeatedly with different combos every time.

I almost bought so many games, but I did have to be mindful of my spending! Honorable mentions I'll hopefully get in the future: Monster of the Week, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Into the Wyrd and Wild, Anamnesis, Slayers, Moonlight on Roseville Beach, Cowboys with Big Hearts, Signal to Noise, I Have the High Ground, Apocalypse Keys, and more I'm sure I'm forgetting!

It was absolutely wild to see so many games I've got in PDF in print, and to meet a few designers and publishers I admire!

[invinciblerodent]

I feel like as the release draws near, I should update my Rook concepts a little bit, post a bit more about how they've been taking shape in my head... (no visuals of the designs yet- while I have loose ideas, I'm also undecided, and kind of going back and forth on many things, lol.)

Divvying them up by class, the warriors are gonna be:

Verbena Mercar, main Rook

the Idealist, who likely wouldn't really be in this mess if it wasn't happening right on her doorstep (and ngl, fully thought she was just taking this job for like, a month at best), but someone has to do something, and it might as well be her. So far what I know about her is that she has a good head on her shoulders, a strong sens of justice, and few scruples about breaking the rules to do what's right, and she will trip over her knickers the first time she sees Davrin.

She'll be the first character I play, a human sword and board warrior- she's had a first name since roughly 2016, and I can't wait to explore her personality more. For now, I'm kind of torn whether on her appearance I'll want to lean more into her being from Minrathous (so stealing Dorian's color scheme a little bit), or her being distantly related to my Inquisitor Trevelyan (so kind of resembling Ray)(and Kate Bush)(I can see her looking more like Ray's sister than his actual sister, that'd be fun)- but either way, the one design thing I'm firm on is that she'll have some really interesting steel-grey eyes. (I'm calling them her dagger-greys in my head, and I love the thought of them looking cold and almost colorless until there's something for them to reflect- like the warm light of the fire in Davrin's room~)

Tristan Thorne

the Professional, who is Totally Not A Zombie or a Wandering Spirit looking for Purpose, but maybe, just maybe, saving the world will be the way to finally find it. (maybe it's somewhere in Emmrich's pants, who knows, he'll need to investigate.)

For him, I've a short snippet of his backstory as a very normal 17-year-old human Fereldan boy who once took up arms to fight for his village, and "died" in the Battle of Ostagar, so I hope to kind of lean into the "undead" angle a bit more.

I know regardless of what the CC actually allows, he'll have a number of tattoos chronicling his life (and death) all over his body, partly as a way to reclaim ownership of it, and I'm hoping that in the background, I can kind of start off what he'll have going on with Emmrich underscored by a ~purely clinical~ interest. (until the pierced nipples on a wide, hair-littered barrel of a chest come out, which is when all scholarly sense goes out the window.)

(I'll need to see the CC for him most I feel, because no picrew I've found lets me make burly greying gentlemen with appropriately sad and haunted eyes, lol. But I'm thinking fairly low-maintenance short hair, maybe a touch lighter than the black I had planned initially [so he'll not look like a knockoff Blackwall], pale skin, and eyes that are a shade of brown that look unsettlingly red if the sun hits them slightly wrong.)

The rogues:

"Tanner"

(or Nalinda Bramunt, Elena Firavanti, Loseck Brovo, Stéphane Rousselot-Poincaré, and honestly, who even knows how many more, the list goes on and on- but as far as anyone is concerned, Laidir will do), the Daredevil: adventurer, treasure hunter, poet of some renown, spy more than just incidentally. She's an Orzammar-born dwarf and ex-Inquisition agent enamored with the ocean, she's 500 pounds of whoopass in a 120 pound bag, she likes knives a bit too much, and she's here to sweep Harding off her feet and get paid.

I'm thinking a butch/futch lesbian(? unsure on that, could be bi, she'll have to tell me herself) dwarfette with dual daggers, I'm thinking blonde and sea-tanned, I'm thinking pierced lip/tongue, I'm thinking tattoos ("gaatlok-spots", as a reference to gunpowder-spots of actual sailors), and I'm thinking her having more trouble confessing her actual first name to Harding than she'll have confessing her romantic feelings. (She smokes. She 100% smokes. And if there's at all a chance for her to have a poly romance with Harding and Taash, she'll TAKE it.)

(myesh i knoooow that there's a Sister Tanner agent in Redcliffe and a Tanner in Bull's first Skyhold friendship scene, I figured it's both a spy's profession name and a fairly common unisex name in Ferelden- I was thinking about tanning leather, because I wanna call her and Harding "leather and Lace" in my head.)

Coris de Riva

the Cynic who'd like to correct all in the rumor that she once dispatched a mark by tearing his still beating heart out of his chest with her teeth. (He actually bled out when she bit through his windpipe- she only cut his heart out afterwards, upon the client's request.) A pretty surface dwarf with a checkered Chantry past, enough arrows in her quiver, more than enough resentment in her heart, and no small desire to force the First Talon to his knees- if only he'll then actually look her in the eye.

Her plan is going to be to live out her grudge deeper than a Titan's asshole against the Crows by making herself the Lady Macbeth whispering in a Dellamorte's ear, and she'll be very pleased to have the more favored grandson that was believed dead (she had her doubts on that one) dropped into her lap. Except she'll not expect to realize that, along the way, he'll actually worm his way into her cold little shriveled up heart, and suddenly, pushing him to take over the Crows and then stabbing him to take over herself doesn't sound like that fun an idea anymore.

The mage:

Marcus Ingellvar

the Scholar with more talent, curiosity, and compassion (and excellent sideburns) than good sense, who's not really had a conversation longer than 20 minutes with a living person in more years than he can count, and will likely feel his very core turn into warm vanilla pudding the first time he lays eyes on Taash.

I'm toying with the thought of fucking with gender a little bit on him, but I'm unsure what that means for him. I'm getting a Vibe, but I'm wondering if it's just that he'll have an interesting approach to masculinity (which sounds like heaps of fun to explore and contrast a little bit with Ray's fairly traditional masculinity), some flavor of nonbinary-ness, or if this guy is just... trans, and that's it lol. But for him, I'm really thinking of an appearance that's rather tall and lanky, and... kind of if Rezaren from DA: Absolution was both very, very tired, and a semi-starved Victorian urchin child. (With, again, excellent sideburns.)

Either way, my goal is that people will look at him, and immediately want to feed him warm soup. I hope Taash will need to physically pull him from danger and carry him to safety more times than either of them can count, and I think he'll be very, very pleased with that. (And let's be real, no matter who happens to be wearing the penis at the time, she'll be the one topping.) (And again, he'll be very, very pleased with that.)

Undecided:

Syl Aldwir

the Double Agent who, after having worked with the Friends of Red Jenny as an Orlais-born elf (long story), joined the Veil Jumpers in hope of connecting with her elvish roots, but wound up with her butt planted firmly on the ground between the two proverbial chairs she could have landed on.

Her design is the one that varies the most wildly in my mind, but my inspo for her is a certain piece of Tabris concept art, so she'll probably look either a bit like that, or like Cid, the Tabris I had played once.

I'm planning for a lot of sapphic yearning with Neve, but depending on her relationship with her elvishness, I can see it ultimately being Bellara too- it'll need to unfold during the gameplay (hoping for a love triangle type of thing, or some jealousy-dialogue, if there is any in the game), but personally I'm leaning towards Neve- partly as a rejection of the elves' clinging to the unclear ancient past, and partly because, well, fucking look at her lol.

(She'll either be an archer rogue or a sword and board warrior, depending on which type of gameplay I enjoy more.)

[orbital-obvious]

Some more personal opinions about HOTD season 2

So this blockade. How does it work. It's not a siege, the Blacks only control Blackwater bay. I'd assume that food arrives to Kings Landing via land - Stromlands and the Reach are both close and are also Green supporters. Yes, a sea blockade can screw up the economy (cutting off communications with Essos) but. Like. it wouldn't starve the city. SO. how.

On the topic of the blocade, I can 100% belive the smallfolk would cheer for Rhaenyra because she brought them food even though SHE is the reason to the starvation in the first place (though, again, I have no idea how). Also I hate how the show doesn't adress the fact that Rhaenyra is fully willing to starve the people and only give them food as a PR tactic.

Hey, Mysaria, quick question, what is it exactly that makes Rhaenyra so great? Why do YOU, specifically, believe she is the rightful and good queen? In the show Mysaria is the voice of the smallfolk, but Rhaenyra is uncaring for the smallfolk (not in any way that matters) and a mediocre leader besides.

Corlys being mad at Rhaenyra was such a good moment for me.

I understand they are pushing the angle of "Rhaenyra's council wouldn't respect her cause she's a woman" which, yeah, 100%, but I think a more interesting aspect I see int he show is how Rhaenyra is NOT GOOD at running her council. Slapping a person in plain sight would not make them respect you, it's the abuse of power you have towards them. Saying crap like "I want prince Aemond's head" and then LEAVING, giving the council the option of either ignoring what you said (which sets a problematic precedent), or have an excuse to do whatever they want (which led to Blood and Cheese and in general encouraged Daemon's unruliness) is BAD. Fucking off to an udnercover mission without telling anybody is BAD.

Rhaenyra, people keep bringing up Daemon not because he's a man that needs to save you, but because he's a warrior and a battle seasoned commander whom you should use. The fact that you can't utlize your men properly is a you issue, but saying "well we have Daemon" when talking about getting Dragonriders is actually a very reasonable point. I just wish the show would have her confront her flaws instead of saying "she's a great leader they just don't like to see a girlboss winning!!!". Jace is coming close, though.

Like, don't get me wrong, the Greens aren't some awesome megabrained function, but the show makes their flaws very clear (As it should) and I just... want to see the same treatment for Rhaenyra.

You know what? At this point, Let Rhaenyra ride the dragon to battle. If she can't heed what JUST happened to Aegon in Rook Nest that is a her issue.

So.. why are they trying to tame Seasmoke? Rhaenyra knows that Laenor might yet live; therefore, Seasmoke cannot be claimed by a person and any attempt to do so is a suicide mission.

Alicent being actively kicked out from the small council was such a good scene, actually. Yes, the side that uses misogyny as a tool and justification cannot have a woman lead them. But, I think Aemond didn't kick Alicent out of the council ONLY because she was a woman. I think part of it is because he knew she would still champion to Aegon, and he can't have that. The scene where she tenderly touching his cheek... His mother still have power over him and Aemond is clearly fighting it ohhhh the acting in this show is soooo gooodddd.

Lady Arryn my love, the show might have forgotten that you are a female ruler who never married and was a lesbian but I NEVER will. At least they gave you a kickass dress, you look amazing. You are everything show!Rhaenyra tries to be and they would not let you shine

I don't like the way they write the Smallfolk view of the dragons and try to pass dragons in general as "gods". If the smallfolk are in dissarray over killing 10 ratcatchers when one of them is guilty of killing the crown prince (which was horrible), they should be furious at Melyes stomping and killing tens if not hundreds (which was also horrible). "It's an ill omen" no, actually, it's the best thing to ever happen to non-royalty in years.

I never thought I'll be so happy to see the freaking TWINS. The scene with the Freys was amazing. I found it interesting that the Lady was the one to take charge in the negotiations.

I really like Jace. I think he's my fav Team Black member, even if he brings into the table this vibe of "actually fucking doing something" that Rheanyra doesn't like.

Aemond in his Kingslayer, Kinslayer, outfit slayer era, going out there being a blockhead and taking the worse decisions. Love her. Aemond really screwed the Greens over by almost killing the king and gettting rid of one of three (four?) dragons they had. It's so fun to see everything implode.

Also, in my favorite interactions list, Larys-Aegon was not one I expected to see but one I welcome. It's just really good - you can tell there is emotion in there, but also that Larys is using him (he tried moving from Alicent to Aemond, and Aemond rejected him, so Aegon is his grasp for power). Might be one of the most layered relationships in the show.

lol at the Lannisters summoning Aemond, and having lions for some reason. They are just doing the most.

My friend said: "Rhaenyra should've sent Jace to Harrenhall" and oh, my god. yeah. This would be a safe place for him (at least for a while) and Jace does have better diplomatic skills than Daemon. but then we wouldn't get the Daemon getting tortured in Harrenhall plot. And that one's my fave.

Daemon fucking up and getting chewed up by the Riverlords... yeah, my skin is cleared.

Alys killed lord Grover, right? That's what they were getting at?

Daemon blaming SIMON for his dream sequence side quests is just.... Chef's kiss. I get the idea he doesn't suspect Alys because she's a woman, which might be my favorite way the show explored misogyny.

Alyn and Addam, my loves. I don't know why I just like every scene they are in. And having a discussion while Addam is shaving his blond hair while Alyn had a head full of black hair... The way one has given up any connection to Corlys and the other one is striving to get the acknowledgement of his father and the privileges that come with it... The drama, the tension.

Also Seasmoke and Alyn's meeting was the first time since Sunfyre headboop that I actually felt something for dragons.

Ser Gwane Hightower >>>>>>>. That is all.

[victoryshowers]

Gorgeous butch lesbian named Rook Hunt save me

[ireadyabooks]

Books to #ReadWithPride

🏳️‍🌈 Happy Pride Month, everyone! 🏳️‍🌈

Seeing our identities and the world around us reflected in the books we read is vitally important. This Pride Month and all year long, we’re excited to spotlight some incredible LGBTQIA+ stories and creators. 

Check out some YA books to dive into and #ReadwithPride!

You Should See Me in a Crown

A joyful book about a queer Black girl who runs for Prom Queen to win a college scholarship…but then finds herself falling in love with one of the other girls in the competition. Start reading here!

Here the Whole Time

A body-positive YA love story between two boys who must spend 15 days living with each other over school break. Start reading here!

The Bridge

Two teens. One bridge. Four ways their story could end. A powerful novel about mental health, identity, and how our choices shape the world around us. Start reading here!

The Ghosts We Keep

After their brother is killed, Liam faces the world without the person they loved the most. Their brother's best friend is the only one who knows what they're going through...for better or worse. Start reading here!

Zara Hossain is Here

Zara’s family has waited years for their visas to be finalized, but now that dream is in jeopardy. Zara seeks justice to stay with her girlfriend and in the only home she's ever known. Start reading here!

Follow Your Arrow

When bi influencer CeCe breaks up with her famous girlfriend and starts dating a boy who is very much NOT online, she'll find out what it means to speak her truth. Start reading here!

Girl from the Sea

After Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie, everything they're each trying to hide will find its way to the surface. Start reading here!

Heartstopper

Boy meets boy. Boys become friends. Boys fall in love. A sweet coming-of-age story that explores friendship, love, and coming out. Start reading here!

Where We Go From Here

A story about three boys whose lives will become intertwined in a story of HIV, friendship, love, and self-acceptance. Start reading here!

Technically, You Started It

A hilarious, snarky, and utterly addicting book that explores friendship, sexual orientation, mental health, and falling in love (even if things might be falling apart around you). Start reading here!

The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali

When Rukhsana’s conservative Muslim parents catch her with her girlfriend, Rukhsana’s carefully planned future begins to collapse around her. Start reading here!

I Wish You All the Best

After Ben comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’ll move in with their estranged older sister and find friendship, love, and acceptance along the way. Start reading here!

The Music of What Happens

Over the course of one summer, two boys will have to face their biggest fears and decide what they’re willing to risk – to get the thing they want the most. Start reading here!

Openly Straight & Honestly Ben

This heartfelt series follows two boys, Ben and Rafe, who struggle to find who they really are in the midst of falling for one another. Start reading here!

Lie to Me

A pulse-pounding novel about love, betrayal, and a serial killer that features a bisexual protagonist. Start reading here!

Muted

A riveting story of ambition, music, and innocence lost - and a deep relationship between two girls who could be something more on their quest for stardom. Start reading here!

Tarnished Are the Stars

The Lunar Chronicles meets Rook in this queer #OwnVoices science-fantasy novel that features asexual, bisexual, and lesbian characters working together to put an end to a deadly epidemic. Start reading here!

The Witch Boy

In Aster’s family, all the girls are raised to be witches and the girls are raised to be shapeshifters. But Aster is fascinated by witchery--can he find the courage to save his family and be truly himself? Start reading here!

King and the Dragonflies

A story about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one's identity. Start reading here!

I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain

A powerful novel about navigating death and navigating life, at a time when the only map you have is the one you can draw for yourself. Start reading here!

[ripjaws]

Ben 10 Survey Results!

Huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response, it was really fun looking through them all and I was genuinely surprised by the results of some of the questions.

Hopefully this will work under a read more because it's quite long and I don't want people to have to scroll a hundred years to get past it.

If anyone has any questions or anything please feel free to ask! :)

Thanks again!

General

Q1. How would you describe your gender?

36% - Female 25.3% - Male 24% - Non-binary 8% - Prefer not to say 4% - Agender 2.7% - Genderfluid

Q2. How would you describe your sexuality?

32% - Bisexual 20% - Heterosexual 20 % - Asexual 8% - Lesbian 6.7% - Prefer not to say 5.4% - Pansexual 4% - Gay 1.3% - Demisexual 1.3% - Questioning 1.3% - Polysexual

Q3. Current age

48% - 20-24 39% - 15-19 13.3% - 25-30 1.3% - Older than 30 1.3% - Younger than 15

Q4. Age when you first became interested in Ben 10

86.7% - Younger than 15 9.3% - 15-19 2.7% - 20-24 1.3% - 25-30

Episodes and season

Q1. Which series did you watch first?

88% - Original Series 9.3% - Alien Force 1.3% - Omniverse 1.3% - Reboot

Q2. Rank the series in order of preference

[IMAGE ID: Five separate groups of five vertical bar charts. The individual columns for each group are coloured in the same order and corresponds to what ranking they recieved on that question of the survey. According to the key at the top of the image the order is; blue = 1, red = 2, orange = 3, green = 4 & purple = 5. The Y axis of the graph goes from zero to thirty in intervals of ten.

The first group is labelled ‘Original Series’ and shows that it got twenty votes in blue, seventeen votes in red, sixteen votes in orange, ten votes in green & twelve votes in purple.

The second group is labelled ‘Alien Force’ and shows that it got nine votes in blue, eighteen votes in red, twenty-one votes in orange, twenty-two votes in green & five votes in purple.

The third group is labelled ‘Ultimate Alien’ and shows that it got thirteen votes in blue, ten votes in red, fourteen votes in orange, twenty-two votes in green & sixteen votes in purple.

The fourth group is labelled ‘Omniverse’ and shows that it got eighteen votes in blue, fifteen votes in red, seventeen votes in orange, fifteen votes in green & ten votes in purple.

The fifth and final group is labelled ‘Reboot’ and shows that it got fifteen votes in blue, fifteen votes in red, seven votes in orange, six votes in green & thirty-two votes in purple. END IMAGE ID]

Q3. Favourite season (Original Series)

40% - Season 1 18.7% - Season 2 18.7% - Season 3 17.3% - Season 4 5.3% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched

Most popular episodes were Ken 10 (S4E10) & Kevin 11 (S1E7)

Q4. Favourite season (Alien Force)

52% - Season 2 28% - Season 1 16% - Season 3 4% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched

Most popular episodes were Alone Together (S2E2) & Save the Last Dance (S2E4)

Q5. Favourite Season (Ultimate Alien)

36% - Season 1 25.3% - Season 3 20% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 18.7% - Season 2

Most popular episodes were Forge of Creation (S1E16) & Duped (S1E2)

Q6. Favourite Season (Omniverse)

18.7% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 18.7% - Season 2 16% - Season 5 12% - Season 6 10.7% - Season 1 9.3% - Season 8 8% - Season 4 5.3% - Season 3 1.3% - Season 7

Most popular episodes were And Then There Were None (S6E1) & And Then There Was Ben (S6S2)

Q7. Favourite Season (Reboot)

60% - Don’t like/Haven’t watched 17.3% - Season 4 10.7% - Season 3 6.7% - Season 1 5.3% - Season 2

Most popular episodes were Omni-tricked (S1E37) & Innervasion (S2E36)

Q8. Which live action movie did you prefer?

40% - Alien Swarm 22.7% - Race Against time 22.7% - Didn’t like either 14.7% - Haven’t watched either

Characters and aliens

Q1. Favourite main character

45.3% - Ben Tennyson 28% - Kevin Levin 17.3% - Rook Blonko 9.3% - Gwen Tennyson

Some ‘Why’ responses:

Ben -

I know it's a really basic pick but I enjoy Ben alot as a character. Even though I feel like he took an extremely sharp turn into immaturity in the final season of Alien Force onward (from what I've heard it was due to ratings), it still fit well after a bit of time of adjustment. Him being rash and selfish at times while still having a good heart feels...very human. I'm a huge fan of flawed protagonists and Ben is a prime example of such, imo! Plus I hradcanon that he has autism and it's a big comfort for me :)

I love his potential as a character and the way he hands having such power and responsibility thrust upon him. Ben has done so much for the people in his life and the universe, and I absolutely adore him.

I think of him like a kind person who tries his best to the right thing, he's pretty chill and optimist and in my mind he's a chaotic bi and i can relate to that

Kevin -

I like that he's always been an antihero in the original series. And in the reboot I really like the direction the showrunners are taking his character. He has a different backstory, motivations and I'm really enjoying his character development. It's a fresh take on his story and they're treating it with care, which I really appreciate. His Antitrix aliens also have some really incredible designs.

Cool powers, uncommon character in children's media, especially as a primary character often cast in a good light (ex con, high school dropout, masculine, not emotionally mature). His character development is some of the best in the series.

Gods, we could be here forever... Okay, short version- 1) I can relate to him on a mental health level, especially in the OG series we seemed to have similar issues and to handle them in similar ways 2) there's a lot of depth and variance to his character, he's angry and aggressive and dangerous but also a dork, a sweetheart, and very affectionate once he lets his walls down, he loves cars and supernatural romance, violence and magical girls, he'll rescue an aggressive dog for no reason other than it needed help but also he might consider how much he could get for selling you, he's a complex character and he's allowed to be in a way the Tennysons can't because of how firmly they sit in the Hero seat 3) for all of this, we never really know all that much about him and his experiences, at least in comparison to what we know is there- we never learn about his time traveling the galaxy, we haven't heard anything about his time stuck in time, it's only in the reboot we're getting trustworthy information about his background and even then it's rare tidbits- he's ripe for exploring in fic, headcanon, and so-on 4) his powers in the OG series, his status as mutant or alien or both who knows anymore leaves a lot of doors open to play and to look at the world through different angles 5) dude has turned into six different monstrous chimera forms over the course of the franchise and honestly you have to support that sort've shit in media otherwise they might stop

Rook -

Alien catboy with a glorious voice and have you seen those arms??? And he's so polite while also being hilarious when he gets a little rude/snarky and his character development is amazing!!

While I would normally say Ben himself, Rook is his only friend that hasn't tried to kill him. Additionally, he provides Ben with guidance as well as support the Gwen and Kevin are fickle about.

Having an actual alien joining the cast and serving at Ben's foil worked well to me.

Gwen -

Smart, talented, funny, snarky, confident, and super cute. Jock-prep-nerd energy all in one. Deserves the world. Criminally ignored by the majority of the fandom. Knows karate and judo?? College at 16?? Icon.

Angel, can do no wrong, was capable of so much more than the show let her do, potential to be the most powerful member of the team if they'd just let her go a lil feral sometimes :/

She was a good voice of reason most of the time. Her powers were really interesting and overall I think she had a lot of wasted potential having to be sidelined since the series was about Ben ultimately

Q2. Favourite minor characters

40 votes - Paradox

22 votes - Max Tennyson

18 votes - Tetrax

17 votes - Argit

16 votes - Julie Yamamoto

15 votes - Azmuth

12 votes - Ester

10 votes - Looma Red Wind

9 votes - Glitch

9 votes - Kai Green

7 votes - Alan Albright

6 votes - Jimmy Jones

4 votes - Cooper Daniels

3 votes - Eunice

3 votes - Helen Wheels

2 votes - Elena Validus

2 votes - Manny Armstrong

1 vote - Cash Murray

1 vote - Driba

Other votes went to Penny Bennyson, Kenny Tennyson/Spanner, Lucy Mann, Rook Shar, Eddie Grandsmith, Myaxx and Pakmar.

Q3. Ship or Zed

64% - Ship 36% - Zed

Q4. Favourite main antagonist 

20% - Albedo 13.3% - Kevin 11 12% - Vilgax 10.7% - Charmcaster 10.7% - Zs’Skayr 9.3% - Malware 5.3% - Forever Knights 5.3% - Eon 4% - Highbreed & DNAliens 4% - Aggregor 1.3% - Servantis & Rooters 1.3% - Khyber 1.3% - Dagon & the Esoterica

Some ‘Why’ responses for top 3:

Albedo -

When I first saw him during the airing of Good Copy, Bad Copy, I was scared that Albedo might be a one-and-done evil clone that doesn't get much development. These fears went away, and I was pleased to find out about his backstory and motives, just a sour soul in an unpleasant situation. Even in Ultimate Alien with his reappearance episode, he tries to work on his own to cope in a horrid human world. He isn't necessarily malicious until Ben gets in his way, he just wants to return to his own body and leave, even stating that he wasn't going to fight Ben anymore while he had temporarily returned to his Galvan form. I know DJW stated in some interview that Albedo could never be redeemed, but I believe there's some hope if he gets help. And I'm a sucker for those redemption arcs :)

Tragic frog man that could have been helped but nobody helped him and he doubled down on his hatred which led to him getting stuck in a cycle of revenge and punishment and it's the tragedy of how much better things could have been for him if someone just helped him that I love so much!!

Kevin 11 -

He’s very dangerous and has a terrifying power to absorb electricity and living DNA to have the same powers of who he absorbed it from and even turn himself into a mutant with all those powers combined leading to destructive power 

Kevin was a good antagonist and a good protagonist, although i feel the transition was rushed. Anti-hero kevin in the reboot is great!

Vilgax -

He was always the endgame villian for Ben, despite how many battles they've had, despite countless losses, he always tried to stay one step ahead, and plan everything.

"Speak with care, Psyphon. Your counsel is valuable...not irreplaceable."

Q5. Favourite minor villains 

38 votes - Animo 20 votes - Hex 18 votes - Michael Morningstar/Darkstar 14 votes - SixSix 13 votes - Zombozo 9 votes - Vreedle family 9 votes - Vulkanus 8 votes - Rojo 5 votes - Inspector 13 5 votes - Billy Billions 5 votes - Will Harangue 4 votes - Fistrick 4 votes - Nyancy Chan 3 votes - Lord Decibel 3 votes - Simian 3 votes - Subdora 3 votes - Viktor 2 votes - Addwaitya 2 votes - Fistina 2 votes - Kraab 2 votes - Psyphon 2 votes - Steam Smythe 2 votes - Sunder 1 vote - Liam 1 vote - Ssserpent

Other votes went to Maurice & Sydney, Bugg Brothers, Alternate evil Bens, and the Mummy.

Q6. Favourite canon relationship

66.7% - Gwen & Kevin 13.3% - Max Tennyson & Verdona 5.3% - Ben & Kai 4% - Rook & Rayona 1.3% - Julie & Herve 1.3% - Max & Xylene

Q7. Favourite non-canon ship

36% - I don’t have one 30.7% - Ben & Rook 6.7% - Ben & Kevin 4% - Ben & Julie

Other responses included Ben & Rex, Kai & Julie, Looma & Attea, Alan & Cooper, Ben & Looma, Kevin & Manny, Gwen & Cooper, Ben & Ester, Max & Phil, Azmuth & Paradox, Cooper & Elena, Kai & Ester, Ben & Zak Saturday, Ben & Eddie, Ben & Albedo, Ben & Kevin & Gwen, Kenny & Devlin, OC & canon, and Ben & a therapist. 

Q8. Favourite alien introduced in the Original Series

18.7% - XLR8 17.3% - Upgrade 13.3% - Ghostfreak 10.7% - Diamondhead 9.3% - Heatblast 8% - Wildmutt 6.7% - Ditto 2.7% - Blitzwolfer 2.7% - Snare-oh 2.7% - Grey Matter 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Four Arms

Q9. Least favourite alien introduced in the Original Series

22.7% - Eye Guy 18.7% - Spitter 8% - Articguana 8% - Frankenstrike 6.7% - Upchuck 6.7% - Stinkfly 5.3% - Buzzshock 5.3% - Snare-oh 4% - Four Arms 2.7% - Blitzwolfer 2.7% - Ditto 2.7% - Wildmutt 2.7% - Grey Matter 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Diamondhead 1.3% - Ghostfreak

Q10. Favourite alien introduced in Alien Force

46.7% - Big Chill 17.3% - Rath 8% - Goop 6.7% - Lodestar 5.3% - Swampfire 4% - Chromastone 4% - Spidermonkey 2.7% - Alien X 2.7% - Echo Echo 1.3% - Humungousaur 1.3% - Jetray

Q11. Least favourite alien introduced in Alien Force

18.7% - Lodestar 17.3% - Brainstorm 13.3% - Alien X 10.7% - Humungousaur 10.7% - Spidermonkey 8% - Jetray 8% - Chromastone 5.3% - Goop 5.3% - Echo Echo 2.7% - Rath

Q12. Favourite alien introduced in Ultimate Alien

18.7% - Juryrigg 16% - AmpFibian 14.7% - Clockwork 12% - NRG 8% - Armodrillo 8% - Shocksquatch 8% - Terraspin 8% - Water Hazard 2.7% - Chamalien 2.7% - Fasttrack 1.3% - Eatle

Q13. Least favourite alien introduced in Ultimate Alien

30.7% - Fasttrack 18.7% - Eatle 13.3% - Juryrigg 9.3% - Chamalien 8% - Shocksquatch 6.7% - Terraspin 5.3% - Water Hazard 4% - Clockwork 1.3% - AmpFibian 1.3% - Armodrillo 1.3% - NRG

Q14. Favourite Ultimate Form

38.7% - Echo Echo 24% - Big Chill 10.7% - Swampfire 9.3% - Way Big 8% - Wildmutt 6.7% - Spidermonkey 1.3% - Cannonbolt 1.3% - Humungousaur

Q15. Favourite alien introduced in Omniverse

29.3% - Feedback 13.3% - Pesky Dust 12% - Gravattack 9.3% - Ball Weevil 8% - Bullfrag 6.7% - Whampire 5.3% - Bloxx 4% - Atomix 4% - Walkatrout 2.7% - Gutrot 1.3% - Crashhopper 1.3% - Kickin Hawk 1.3% - Toepick 1.3% - The Worst

Q16. Least favourite alien introduced in Omniverse

24% - The Worst 14.7% - Bloxx 12% - Mole-Stache 8% - Bullfrag 6.7% - Astrodactyl 6.7% - Kickin Hawk 5.3% - Atomix 5.3% - Gutrot 4% - Crashhopper 4% - Walkatrout 2.7% - Toepick 1.3% - Ball Weevil

Q17. Favourite alternate Ben timeline

29.3% - No watch Ben 24% - Gwen 10 17.3% - Ben 10,000 8% - Mad Ben 6.7% - Dimension 23 6.7% - Eon 4% - Nega Ben 2.7% - Benzarro 1.3% - Bad Ben

Misc.

Q1. Favourite watch design

37.3% - Original Series 29.3% - Omniverse 17.3% - Alien Force 9.3% - Ultimatrix 6.7% - Reboot

Q2. Favourite alternate watch design

29.3% - Biomnitrix 20% - Gwen 10 18.7% - Negatrix 17.3% - Antitrix 8% - Power Watch 6.7% - Hero Watch

Q3. Favourite planet visited

32% - Anur Transyl 20% - Revonnah 13.3% - Mykdl’dy 10.7% - Galvan Prime 9.3% - Vilgaxia 6.7% - Piscciss 5.3% - Petropia 2.7% - Khoros

Q4. Favourite locations

34 votes - Undertown 23 votes - Ledgerdomain 23 votes - Null Void 22 votes - Bellwood 19 votes - Friedkin University 18 votes - Mr. Smoothy 16 votes - Forge of Creation 15 votes - Los Soledad 7 votes - Burger Shack 7 votes - Plumber Headquarters 4 votes - Incarcecon 2 votes - Mt. Rushmore Plumber base 2 votes - The Perplexahedron 1 vote - Plumber Academy

Q5. Favourite Vehicle

33.3% - Kevin’s car (Original) 25.3% - Rustbucket 18.7% - Proto-TRUK 13.3% - DX Mark 10 5.3% - Kevin’s car (Omniverse) 4% - Glitch

Q6. Favourite Kevin mutation

40% - Original series 20% - Ken 10 future 12% - Ultimate Alien 8% - Omniverse 8% - Alien Force 6.7% - Omniverse flashback 5.3% - Reboot

Q7. Favourite Omniverse redesign

66.7% - Ben 26.6% - Kevin 6.7% - Gwen

Q8. Least favourite Omniverse redesign

76% - Gwen 18.7% - Kevin 5.3% - Ben

Thoughts

(Putting every single response here would make this insanely long so I’ve just put the most detailed/most echoed responses & include all sides of opinions when possible.)

Q1. Thoughts on the Osmosians retcon?

Okay, first up, do you know how much work I had already put into building shit surrounding those fuckers by the time of the retcons? I had been working on this crap since AF season 2! But no, they gotta go ruin that in one fell swoop, thank you, much appreciated. Second up, I wibble on it? Like, working with mutants is fun and interesting and I've done plenty of shit with them as well, but in the end I'm always going to be a pro-Ossys person. Mostly the retcons left more questions than they gave answers (how, if Osmosians never existed, did everybody and their mother know Kevin was an Osmosian? why, if Osmosians never existed, did none of the people not-involved in this whole disaster with Servantis's mindfuckery look at Aggregor being reported as an Osmosian and go 'wtf that's not a thing'? do they really mean to tell me that not only did Kevin never bother to look into his heritage, but neither did research-happy Gwen? or am I expected to believe the Rooters made enough fake information and put it out publicly that they fooled literally everyone? and if they did then why? when it would've done the same thing with less effort if they'd just, let Kevin be a mutant with a Plumber father who died) and I feel like they didn't really give enough to justify them. One of those cases of 'making your work less interesting to make it more 'accurate''. Personally, I forever keep working on Osmosians (where's the line where it just starts becoming your shit, I think I may be heading there) and I love on mutants and I flip between or combine the two as needed for whatever story I want to tell.

While the fake memories plot isn't great I think it's for the best because the original series meant for Kevin to be a mutant while UAF changed it to alien. I like him better as a mutant human. Too much alien connections in UAF.

I could scream for hours. Easily one of the worst decisions they ever made. Omniverse picks and chooses what canon to follow from AFUA + the original run and throws it in without care or concern to what it means for the timeline. Retconning something and keeping the effect it had is just bad writing. Kevin coming to terms with not being human and that’s okay was important to me when I was a kid. Knowing that he’s just been on an unending series of brainwashed nonsense all his life deprives him of his agency. I hate this decision more than several dozen essays could ever convey.

I wasn't mad about it. Mainly because I liked the idea of Kevin being a mutant than an alien. Alien Force really was pushing that aspect even with Gwen. To the point where she called her powers 'not spells' because of her heritage. Stupid that the rooters and fake memories were a thing, but necessary.

I was never a big fan of the Rooters Arc, but this doesn't bother me too much. It makes UA a little weird with Aggragor, but again, it doesn't really bother me, as most of Omniverse didn't explore Kevin (While UA Did), and was mostly about Ben.

Osmosians were such a cool idea, and it would've allowed for more exploration into what Mike Morningstar was as well, but just writing them off as mutates is so boring. As well as it makes Aggregors whole part not really make sense, like who is he then.

While well executed, it was unnecessary. You could have had the same story line where Kevin was used to mutate other kids and still had him an Alien. You could have had it where it was another alien species that used Osmosians to morph other species to theirs; a call back to the DNAliens if you want.

Q2. Thoughts on how the Ultimate Kevin situation was dealt with in UA?

Terrible. They wanted to go far. They wanted to go dark. But they didn't think their viewership could handle it so they dialed it back. I will always be curious to know what they would have written if they didn't have those constraints. Because the final product was a mess of contrasting tone and unsure footing about how far to go with questioning our hero's moral compass. They wanted to push Ben to see what he would do and apparently, we got that he would kill Kevin and maybe Gwen if she got in the way of saving the universe.... but not really because he didn't. And then the gang is happy all back together like none of it ever happened. They wanted to explore dark themes but have it leave no consequences on the characters. Also... it was so ableist and awful and Kevin deserved better than how Ben and Max (and the writers) treated him.

If they did everything the same but the argument was 'we need to capture him and lock him away' instead of 'we need to kill him'? I would be fine. It's the fact that they slipped so quickly into murder, into murder by his 16-yo bestfriend, that gets me. Like, there's apparently no space between 'recklessly risk our safety trying to talk him down' and 'Ol' Yeller his ass' and that just does not sit right with me.

Ben should have looked for alternate solutions before jumping on the "Let's kill Kevin" train. I understand why he did (this took place immediately post-Aggregor so Ben was still traumatized about having lost so many people and because he failed and "let" Kevin get turned into Ultimate Kevin, he felt as though every person Kevin hurt would be on him) but I wish he hadn't.

Pretty good actually. I like Gwen's emotions becoming a hindrance to the job, I like Ben putting on his big boy pants and I like Kevin going up to Aggregor and saying "y'know, I was a big boy villain once and I'm tried of just getting kicked around" (obviously paraphrasing)

Other than the scenario being overplayed, I think Ben was right. Kevin was eventually going to end up killing Gwen and he'd already put others in the hospital. He needed to be stopped.

Ben jumping straight to murder, yikes. Kevin dismissing Gwen to hang out with Ben almost as soon as he turned back to normal, yikes. Otherwise, it was an interesting plotline.

Really bad. Really shows how awful max and the plumbers really are. I mean , the guy saved the universe and now he clearly needs help but all they wanted to do was kill him.

it really felt like Ben just wanted to murder Kevin because he saved the universe that one time and Ben couldn't stand someone else being the hero for once

The worst, Max straight away wanting to put him down makes u wonder how long he's been waiting for that kind of opportunity.

I'm fine with it, maybe they could have spent some time dealing with the consequences of Kevin's actions, possibly even the ramifications it had on Ben and Kevin's friendship, but overall I'm ok with it.

Q3. Thoughts on the Plumbers

Plumbers ain't shit. Individuals can be acceptable or not but the organization as a whole has too much power, not enough oversight, utilizes child labor, uses a deathtrap of a hellscape dimension as a penal colony, has been shown onscreen sentencing people to imprisonment in said dimension without a trial, and I'm sorry the fact that a Plumber official could walk into a base with his team, assault several members of staff, attempt to kidnap a boy, admit to having and planning to continue to run illegal experiments on him and others, admit to having altered the memories of other Plumber officials, all in front of the entire base, and nothing was done until he tried to kill the golden child Ben 10 and failed, got his ass kicked by one of his victims, and in a place where presumably there were security cameras? And that the response was, again, to sentence him and his team without trial, take all the evidence, and peace out without so much as looking at nonetheless apologizing to his victims? Yeah, that don't fly. Doesn't sound like an organization that has it's shit together. Either the Plumbers don't have their shit together or the higher ups were in on it until it became something that could actually damage their reputation, and either way I Do Not Approve.

They're pretty cool. I know everyone's talking about how Plumbers are space cops and therefore absolutely corrupt and bad but this is a fictional universe in which corruption in organized forces isn't a necessity. Plumbers don't function the same way real cops do, they don't follow they same chain of command, they don't have the same motivations and they definitely don't have the same biases. Plumbers perform an essential function in the Ben 10 universe, which is to capture and contain aliens who aim to hurt anyone (or those who Ben defeats).

My knowledge of the Plumbers' unfortunately doesn't go beyond UA. They're not my favorite thing ever. Some of my least favorite episodes were the ones where the Plumbers or Plumbers' kids are involved, except for the episode "Everybody Talks About the Weather". The way Alan is introduced is really cool and very X Files-esque, and it ties into the DNAlien plot very well. But throughout the series I stopped caring about the Plumbers in general and I think that concept was given too much attention.

They don't do what they're meant to. They act like heros yet I don't think I've ever seen them do anything heroic. The DNAliens situation, the aggregor situation, dagon etc etc. Where were they??? Why did they leave the fate of the universe in the hands of a 16 year-old boy? Ben has the omnitrix sure , but he's still just one guy, how much can he fight? They showed up every once in a while but that's it. They were useless.

Of course the Plumbers have their problems, but looking at most characters we've met that were plumbers seem to be pretty good people. Max, Patelliday and Rook (and even Kevin, technically) are great examples of Plumbers, Servantis being a bad example of one.

Honestly liked it when it was disbanded. It’s cool they introduced Rook but like there’s so much wrong with how they run most things. My favorite version of the plumbers was tbh the first live action movie. Where it was just a bunch of old people watching out for Ben cause they actually cared about the people they protected (in this case Ben).

Q4. Thoughts on Grandpa Max

(The responses to this one were way more divided than I thought they would be omg)

He said Kevin was a mad dog that needed to put down. He's terrible. Military. Secretive. Kept his kids out of the loop and probably told the grandkids not to tell them about a huge and extremely dangerous part of their lives. Thus creating a gap between them and their parents that didn't need to be there. Child endangerment. Other than that....? He's important to Ben and Gwen so I tolerate him and he had some good life lessons to share. Also legendary adult figure in a kids cartoon who had relationships with multiple aliens.

He’s incredible, he worked in the Air Force, was going to be one of the first people on the moon (But he refused because he joined the Plumbers) had children with an Energy Being, he has a few grandchildren, and not to mention knows how to still kick butt despite him being in his 60s and was there to help Ben grow

He’s a complicated old man. Love him to bits in the original run and I love him in AF! He’s a utilitarian doing what needs to be done and suffering the consequences when need be. He does what he thinks is going to lead to the best possible outcome for the most people in any situation.

Needs to get knocked off his pedestal more often, both in and out of canon. He's got good traits, they're very nice, but there's other shit that gets glossed over, ignored, brushed aside, too easily forgiven, and just. They really needed a character who served double duty being a counterforce to him. Somebody to go 'wtf is wrong with you?' or 'yeah, no'. Ideally this would've been Patilidae, but no. We couldn't be so lucky.

Conflicted. Was he grooming Ben for plumber work, or just trying to support him in a situation he knew would be dangerous? It’s not made very clear...

I think he's got some sort of narcissistic personality disorder. I just can't forgive him for making Ben carry the burden of the Omnitrix at the age of 10 without ever explaining anything, and for not letting Ben and Gwen know he was alive after the Null Void grenade incident in AF. He clearly could have, if Helen could reach Gwen so easily. I think he views Ben more as an asset than a grandson at this point and that's really sad.

I love him! The progression from family hero to questionable old man felt kinda natural, like learning about a family member as you grow older and realizing they aren't perfect

He's awesome. He was a good role model for Ben and he was very supportive to both his grandkids. I hate that they made him mute in Omniverse and changed his design so drastically. I loved Max in every season from the original till Ultimate Alien. After that, he was pretty much just a prop.

Q5. And finally, give me your most controversial Ben 10 opinion!

It seems to be the worst thing to say that Ben isn't perfect and that Kai isn't demonic. And it's pretty standard for the women of color characters in every fandom to get the most hate so to me all the hate towards Kai when her personality is so close to Ben's AND she's also more hated than the ex-villain and the actual villains that tried to kill Ben multiple times just seems- hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. But really, and really I've needed to say this for a long time but I'm afraid of being strangled. Some fans will denounce incest/pedo shippers and people that interact with them and then reblog from a proud Bwen shipper with no self-awareness. Please I have the tags blacklisted are you safe to interact with and you just don't know? Or you're just saying you hate Bwen shippers to give yourself an out for reblogging their content????? Or are you all closeted incest shippers trying to maintain a public image???? I'm at my limit.

I do not think the reboot should have existed tbh :,D I know that it has a ton of fans and all due respect to them, but from what I've seen of it I don't think it was worth tossing away four interconnected series' worth of development and starting from scratch to end up with what we have now. I would be fine with it existing if we got an Omniverse continuation alongside it, but CN screwed OV over by the decisions they made near the end of it's run. So it's probably impossible it would return, even moreso because of the reboot already airing, and it would probably confuse younger audiences that don't know about Omniverse if two Ben 10's were running separately. I just really miss Omniverse, it had more potential and the reboot placed the final nail in for it to ever return.

The Ben 10 reboot is fun and meant more for kids rather than the ones watching for nostalgia. I didn’t like how Gwevin were sidelined and downplayed to make Ben look better. Sometimes it felt like Gwen was a bit naggy towards the two of them. I didn’t like how the fact that she was the only female lead how she had sometimes act like a parent or that they put Gwen and Kevin together just because. Their relationship felt forced and awkward a lot of the time. Omniverse’s designs while controversial were fun and unique but I didn’t like what they did with Gwevin, especially Gwen.

Kevin is totally smart enough to figure out an Omnitrix with the blueprints in front of him, we see him do amazing shit with technology- including the Omnitrix- in the OG series, people just don't notice he's as brilliant as Gwen because the show never made it as big a point that he and Ben were so very smart like it did with her before the reboot, so now they're being forced to acknowledge that Kevin might have two braincells to rub together and they're pushing against the supposed 'change'.

idk if it's controversial but there should've been way more episodes of just gwen & kevin & rook without ben or ben having a very minor role in the episode. just more time for those three to shine and show off how capable they are without ben always having to come in to save the day at the end

Gwen and Kevin aren't good friends to Ben. I mean they were initially, but once he got famous and they didn't, they stopped putting more than a half-assed effort to help him. They also don't really consider his feelings nor really care about the toll heroing takes on him.

The Reboot has the best jokes in the entire franchise and I don't why people give it so much crap.

Kai Green is an abuser and I refuse to find anything redeemable about her character. "Worthy to wield Excalibur," my entire ass. And Ben and Julie's breakup was good for them both, as people, and just as much her fault as it was his.

Ben 10 is an incredibly flawed show and people need to stop getting butt hurt when the blatant misogyny, and copoganda in the show get pointed out or when any even minority critiques Ben's character.

Ben is the worst character in Ben 10 and the whole franchise would be better off without him.

Azmuth is fine for the most part and malware was not exactly the most understanding person

I think Ben should've stayed single. Every episode where romance (or the girl Ben was dating) was the focus of the episode was pretty boring to me, personally.

Ben's parents were right to try to stop him from being a hero, so were Gwen's.

Ultimate alien force season 2 and 3 were amazing.( not comparing the OS since obviously that's the best, or omniverse since I haven't watched all the episodes of that)

Pierce deserved to die for being a boring character. I just wish his death had actual consequences.

The reboot is a genuine improvement over the original continuity in MANY ways!

Oh geez, um, Kai was a good character, just her and ben were obviously toxic. Not everyone needs to like Ben and she isn't an abuser, they just don't get along and that's fine but by God, why did the writers have to force them in a relationship? That's all I could really think of on the spot. Oh! And that the first two season of AF were a watered down version of Ben and the plot focused more on Gwen and Kevin than it did Ben. He felt like a side character and I'm not mad about that, but I don't understand why people praise that characterization of ben when I remember more about gwen and Kevin then Ben. Dude, I've been watching the show for the past week and I can name more about kevin and gwen because they're memorable.

Azmuth's hot af, but y'all aren't ready for that conversation...

----

If you’ve made it this far then thank you!

Again huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response and if you have any questions/comments please feel free to leave them in the replies/send me an ask/dm/whatever ^^

[eohwyyn]

mitali!!! congrats on 500- that's amazing and you deserve them all and more! for the celebration- 💌 + 🦋 please! my creation tag is "arwen makes stuff" and you know my taste in books already, but i'll offer seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle yet again- mystery + sci-fi? what's not to like?

arwen!! thank you so much! 

url: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★★ icon: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★★ mobile theme: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ★★★★ | ☆☆☆☆☆ desktop theme: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆☆  posts: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★★   original content: ☆ | ☆☆ | ☆☆☆ | ☆☆☆☆ | ★★★★★       following: no but i love you | +following now | yes | forever & always!! compliment: arwen the talent!! your gifs are amazing - this one was absolutely hilarious! You’re such a nice person, and all of your blogs are so pretty - 1000/10 would recommend to everyone!! Also: christie/mystery novel nation forever :)  which fictional character you remind me of (mutuals only): rory williams! 

🦋

ngl narrowing this down was honestly SO FUCKING HARD for me bc we share such similar taste in books. Like as i was scrolling through goodreads to answer this, ever other book i’d tell myself “arwen needs to read that stat, it was so good!” 

anyway if you ever want to talk books feel free to come scream in my inbox haha 

ok you asked for mystery + sci-fi so here we go: 

1) The Rook by Daniel O’Malley (& it’s sequel, Stiletto) - hmm i’d describe this one as a mix between the xfiles and xmen. Our protagonist is a female agent who works for a hidden govt agency that protects the planet from supernatural enemies (v who-ish, now that i think about it). She has powers too, and the writing is super dry and funny

2) Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway - this one is less mystery and leans more into sci-fi, but i think you’ll really like it! Features a clockmaker who is actually the son of a notorious thief, a badass lesbian female spy (can you tell I have a Type?? I blame peggy carter lol) and a bisexual female inventor, and they’re all  racing to save the world and shut down a machine that could lead to the end of the world

3) Slade House by David Mitchell - every 9 years, passersby find themselves invited to slade house and are then never seen again. I won’t give away too much, but the story’s really gripping! 

 join my 500 followers celebration!

[fatgothgf]

all those tweets about what you’ve done in the past decade have made me feel weird and stressed so im just gonna write it out in this text post

i have this vision of my head of like. me in several decades, which i finally believe i will probably live to. the shit in my life right now, these are stories that, when i am a sweet old lesbian baker i will recount to the lgbt youth i will inevitably adopt due to them having a bad/nonexistent home life, while i serve them tea and whatever recipe rook and i have been testing recently...........

i met the love of my life!!! but that was in the last quarter of this century. the other 3/4ths were spent suffering alone and being in a cycle of unhealthy relationships and extreme self esteem issues and even more extreme depression and anxiety

but most of those stories still havent ended for me. im really still just beginning recovery in the grand scheme of things. but its the most progress ive ever made and im very well and truly doing my best. i feel a small twinkle of hope again and i am going to cherish it

so like. i havent really accomplished anything tangible this decade. i mostly fucked up. but it was more like i was shoddily stacking panels of glass all around me and eventually when one slipped they all shattered down on me 

ive been licking my wounds for a while and im finally, finally, fucking finally seeing a small amount of improvement. it isnt even small! i started therapy! i finally got appointments for all the shit i;ve been pretending i wasnt dealing with. and its been awful! im so tired of the smell of the drs office! therapys nice but its still so much effort to like. prepare for and go to and follow thru with talking about all this shit

getting help is not easy but it is the only way to save yourself so buckle up fuckers we all gonna continue to make progress at our own paces in the next decade

and it doesnt matter what the fuck anyone else has done or is doing

[catinthepines]

New Writeblr Intro

Hi there! I'm Rook, a 20 year old autistic environmental scientist from Arizona. I read and write a lot of different things, but my favorite genres and tropes are:

Found family

Science fiction

Fairy tale retellings

Urban fantasy

LGBT+ rep where nobody buries the gays

I have six (6) WIPs going all at once because I crave chaos in my life.

Phork:

Teens on a space station full of anarcho-communist counterculture communes try and wrangle resources and support for their pet radio project of theirs, which just happens to lead to the communes terraforming an old abandoned half-terraformed planet.

Found family? Hell yes

Sci-fi

Very very gay

This is gonna get political, folx

Antioch:

Heaven and Hell make a bet that leads to seven random college students being given the powers of the archangels. Hijinks ensue as the gang tries to solve the mystery of their new powers while being dragged into a world of paranormal weirdness.

Angels and demons creating rival frat houses

Romance, most of it gay

Even MORE found family

A college campus in the Pacific Northwest

No less than three mentions of Waffle Houses

A coven of witches and a coffee shop ran by faeries

Honestly the plot of Antioch is ridiculous and that's the point I love it

Everything was Great Until we Drowned the Protagonist:

Two socially awkward neurodivergent teens meet in a high school English class. Their friendship helps them through the rough patches of being a high school freshman.

A story within a story

Aro-spec representation

Ownvoices autistic representation

Sorta a classic coming of age story, to be honest

Green Light:

A brilliant philanthropist decides that he needs to try to fix his past mistakes so that he can begin his charitable works earlier and help even more people. He consults with a scientist to create a time machine, but the scientist's wife (who is also a scientist) sabotages the machine to protect the timeline. Something goes wrong, and the scientist's wife ends up trapped in the past, trying to get home without messing anything up.

Ambiguity

Morally grey characters

Time travel with a lot of angst attached

Romance? Maybe

Chosen:

A world in which the chosen one always defeats the forces of evil is thrown into chaos and war when their chosen one fails. A ragtag team of adventurers must go on a journey to save the world and become the chosen ones their world is counting on.

Superheroes in a fantasy setting

Heroes being the people who choose to be heroic, not the people who get told to be

Polyamorous lesbian romance

The Cloud:

An ex-con and a scientist go on a road trip while a cloud of poisonous and noxious gas descends on and corrodes entire cities.

Falling in love with an apocalypse in the background

Magical realism which I can't explain here because of spoilers but trust me it's there

The world is ending and nobody is straight

I was inspired to start my writeblr by @writeouswriter , @toboldlywrite , and @mlgwrites , and I hope y'all don't mind me tagging you in this post!

[warmcoals]

Trans girl diana cavendish? I need the Facts

thank you so much rook….it’s a terrible hobby and a great reflex 💀im honored that ppl have honestly cared remotely about my baseless theories but it’s fun to write them up!!

speaking of which…..have you seen little witch academia!?!? if you have i extremely want to know your opinions bc omg what an oversight on my part. and even if you havent (thank you for humoring me 🙏) i’ll totally explain trans girl diana cavendish:

-last prodigy child of a prestigious line of royal assholes who she hates and treat her terribly all her life-lives in her own extra-big solo room in the crowded school dormitory-most powerful witch at her age (and most other ages), probably some kind of divine goddess/spirit connection….and you know what i think about trans girls+the divine-noted as being extremely beautiful, but people place her on a pedestal and are afraid to approach her; she doesnt really make herself approachable either-very super serious about most everything, doesnt understand social cues but is also v polite and smart-Tragic Mother Story (this one is a real trend in these things)-wasnt allowed to do many silly fun things as a kid, but her mom thought that was bs and snuck her into another fucking country to see a beautiful witch-Additionally said beautiful witch was her driving inspiration to grow up, learn magic, and help others-Double additionally, same witch who she adored and trusted accidentally eliminated all her magic power as a kid: the thing she loved took everything from her and made her suffer. BUT EVEN THEN she literally works so hard she gets her magic back like how-required by family to give up going to school and the whole life she wanted in order to Do Her Duty bc she’s the only living one in the family worth a shit; BUT THEN her girlfriend helps her love herself and she says “fuck that”-the magical hair streak is always fun-saves the fucking world with the power of gay lesbian love-magic, though that’s sort of a whole LGBT Win™

anyway clearly i love this fucking show and it’s not like amazing at many parts but it is Really Gay and very sweet and magical. i love diana and akko very much. thank you for enabling me to write this 🙏🙏🙏

[figjelly]

this isn't fic-related but i want to know about your wips! tell me about them! what are they about?

                                                 +_+*insert shing! sound effect anime eyes do when locked on target*FanfictionLeading the BlindElder Scrolls fanfic where I take a very minor npc from Skyrim, make her a lesbian, and have her take the hero’s journey. oh, and she goes off to find her hero who is an alcoholic with ptsd. deals with themes of abuse and trauma we don’t see our heroes suffer through (among many other esoterica because I’m a nerd). Fantasy, adventure, and I’m not afraid to write explicit sex scenes RelentlessThat hero I mentioned? This is her prequel. This is a story about pushing people away, feeling abandoned, feeling like only the hero can solve the problems of the world so everyone dumps their crap on her. It’s about watching a hero fail to do the right things because what’s the fucking point? Fantasy, adventure drama Raven’s SongThe brother of the hero who has always felt less than adequate compared to her. Runs concurrently with Relentless.  my blood on your lips, my lips on your mouth (currently unpublished)Klonnie TVD au feat. Little Red Riding Hood, gratuitous real-history used for fictional purposes, fantasy Romania, and lots of made-up moon myth. And, at some point, menstrual cunnilingus because I don’t know what being subtle is like Toxic Love (currently unpublished)Hey, one day I wondered what a Poison Ivy x Captain Planet ship would look like and now I’m working on a fic where these two are gonna bring out the very best and worst in one another (humanity is fukd, spoilers)Original FictionWickStraight up romance where Cinderella is a witch and the royal guard is investigating her for putting out a possible hit out on the crown prince. Gaelic and Slavic language/culture (especially Ukrainian) are the influences here. No explicit sex scenes--only ooey, gooey schmoopy crap. Omens, Threads of Magic Book 1Eliska Bitterhalf lives in a world with magic long-gone but that doesn’t stop her country from warring with a neighboring nation. Since her dad died, her mom’s been absent and she barely functions keeping house. But, one day she has a dream that predicts the future and, what the heck, that’s some high level stuff she shouldn’t be able to do. After she saves a bonafide Chosen One--prophesied to end the war--she joins him and two others on a quest to end the war.Spoilers: It’s a story that takes used and tired tropes, puts them into the garbage, and says, “We’ve heard this one before.” Things get wild. Bitterly accidentally saves a demon lord! Her best friend is kidnapped! And why the hell is she suddenly able to control fire? Magic doesn’t exist anymore!ShardwalkerStill very much in its nascency, this is a story about the hero after she’s saved the world. Ellery wanted to live out the rest of her life in peace but it seems like she was born to carry burden. Heavily inspired by Rook of Skyrim and its themes. It Starts with Fire, Adept Book 1Another day, another dead dad. Greer Novak lives in a world where abilities exist that we would describe as “superpowers” but they’ve always been a part of her world and its history. But she’s not one of them. She’s listless. She can’t keep a job down and she desperately needs to help her mom with the house finances. Her sister is obsessed with the Adepts (the ability-users of the world). After breaking up with her girlfriend, the closest she’s come to a stable relationship is masturbating to fantasies of a powerful Adept named Altitude who is a Flier and is the face of one of the leading crime prevention groups in the city.That’s the state of things until a local terrorist organization attacks an area Greer happens to be in one day. She’s saved by Altitude and takes the opportunity to kiss him. Next thing she knows, she’s in a gas station bathroom, holding onto the sink because why the fuck are her feet not connected to the floor anymore? Wait, no. This doesn’t feel right. Shit shit shit, she’s hovering in the air and doesn’t know why. Early adulthood sucks.Untitled Project, Marchen Book 1Uh, well, the idea was that I’d take Little Red Riding Hood, make the wolf into the protag and, for good measure, pretend the magical equivalent of a nuclear bomb hit so everyone’s fighting for resources and survival. Basically, I had an idea for a plot but could never make ends meet. So, the plot is going over into a fanfic (see above) and I’m trying to think about what to do with this one now.