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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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Why is the art so unappealing in lore Olympus now Persephone looks like a highlighter and maybe it’s just me but the proportions like the fingers in arms are soul over the place I don’t think they used to be this bad. Am I just looking at it with nostalgia or am I crazy ?

Honestly, nostalgia does play a huge part in it, even to this day there are times I look back on old S1 panels and go-

Actually here's a great example that literally just happened yesterday in the ULO Discord that nearly had me on the floor LOL This is from Episode 70:

Like I didn't even believe that that was real until I was told what episode it was from and I was just. Astounded and flabbergasted. The over-shading of the blanket that just makes it look like a really bad edit. Insane.

And yeah, there are a lot of old panels that hit different now that the rose-colored glasses have been removed, crushed, and thrown into the trash compactor.

I think that's why it makes it all the more amusing when people come into my inbox and ask me "wait, why did you like LO to begin with?? It's always been ugly as shit, I think you're just romanticizing it" because like... there's something to be said about art and subjectivity, even if something is ugly to one person doesn't mean it isn't beautiful to someone else. It's why I try not to be too mean towards the fans of this comic for still enjoying it, because while I definitely have strong opinions about how "LO has gotten worse" and what kind of following Rachel has cultivated (cough cough), there are also just as equally valid arguments that LO has never begin good to begin with that I can't necessarily disagree with now that I'm looking back on it with a more critical eye.

That said, there's tons of media that I enjoy that is objectively awful. Like y'all, you don't need to take my opinions about a dumb pink x blue fantasy romance comic seriously, I like Starfox Adventures-

Like yeah it's a badly made rushed piece of shit that was developed right on the ass end of Rare's glory days and was really an original IP (Dinosaur Planet) that got Frankenstein'd into a Starfox game so it could "sell better" for Nintendo, but I don't give a fuck, I love Starfox Adventures and some day I wanna be in the top 10 speedrunner leaderboards for it, which I know doesn't mean much because no one is speedrunning Starfox, but I do and no one can take that away from me dammit-

Anyways. Lore Olympus has, in many regards, always had "bad art". But "bad art" can and should still be enjoyed by those who find joy in it.

And in LO's case, the world it existed in when it launched was a lot smaller than it is now - more specifically, the world of Webtoons. We can look back and see how 'bad' LO looks and reads now because there are genuinely way better comics surrounding it. It was unique and refreshing and experimental back then... now it's just "that stupid blue and pink comic for horny teenagers".

In most cases I would consider that "cringing in hindsight" feeling a good thing because normally it means something has grown and that it seeming "bad" in hindsight would mean that it's outgrown itself and moved onto bigger things. But LO has the more unique problem of "its current stuff is shit and it's making us want the old stuff more, even if the old stuff wasn't good either". In that regard, LO is closer to being like Harry Potter. Remember when The Cursed Child came out at the height of Rowling being exposed for being a TERF and even people who liked Harry Potter didn't like The Cursed Child because it was just objectively worse overall (with or without Rowling's bullshit attached)? It made a lot of people go back and re-read / rewatch Harry Potter with a more objective lens and go "wait a minute guys, I think we only adored these books so much because we were 12 when we read them". Often times it's the good memories we have surrounding certain things that make us have the opinion about them that we do.

Of course, LO is definitely not as politically weaponized as Harry Potter is, so that's where that comparison ends. But my point is that LO is definitely in a situation where it's been riding off the same privileges it had back in 2018 - having an 'experimental' art style while also utilizing tropes and characters that were VERY popular at the time (remember that 2017-18 was when Tumblr was at its height of H x P "Hades was a chill accountant guy who wore socks and sandals and didn't cheat on his wife like Zeus did" fantasizing) - and thinks that those same tricks and tropes will still work today.

Because of this, the art in LO really, really hasn't aged well, even the stuff that we look back on fondly. But I think it's the panels that we specifically think of when remembering "old LO" - the ones that stuck in our memories the most - that are the ones that make us miss or just not care about the panels that don't look good (the panels that make people question why we ever liked it to begin with).

We liked it because of how it made us feel to look at panels like these-

Those genuinely wonderful panels that we think back on the most don't exist separately from the bad panels, they exist in spite of them. Even if we can look back on panels like these and pick out problems in the lineart or the proportions or the color travelling outside of the lines, that can't and shouldn't change how those panels made us feel at some point or another. And that's why when people ask me "why were you even into LO in the first place" I don't have any one answer, because I can't fully explain how something made me feel to justify why it's good to someone who can see from the outside - without rose-colored glasses - that it evidently isn't. It's very much a "you had to be there" type of thing.

Unfortunately, nowadays even the 'best' LO panels in S3 still don't come close to what the S1 panels accomplished - because for many of us, the rose-colored glasses are gone, we can't appreciate the good among the bad because we know now how bad it truly is and so the good just feels like wasted attempts at trying to recreate something it can no longer be. It "came back wrong" so to speak.

LO came back just regular. But our journey to resurrecting it changed us to such a degree that even its closest intimacies are now foreign to us. Sorry dude.

This is still probably one of my favorite panels out of the entirety of S3 for being as close to "old LO" as I've seen since S2, and even it feels like a mistake, an accident, how could a panel like this exist in S3 when so much of it is a dumpster fire? It's like a flower growing in the ruins of an apocalyptic wasteland.

But wasn't that always the case? Isn't that 'always' what LO has been, since the very beginning? A poorly cobbled together mess of writing and panels that, every now and then, manages to leave an impression that makes you feel something? Did we ever truly know LO? Or have we just been relying entirely on an idea of it that we've built up in our heads that when it does do exactly what it's evidently always done (even if not made apparent until looking back on it in hindsight) we think it "came back wrong"?

#anyways sorry that was a way deeper response than it oughta have been #welcome to the AMA roulette game of “ask puff a simple question which they may or may not respond to with an introspective essay"#lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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brucebocchi · 9 months ago

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Winter 2024 anime roundup, Pt. 1: Ongoing/returning shows and the trash heap

hey y'all, this is also up on my ko-fi! it's free to read both here and there, but i'm struggling financially rn so i could appreciate if you'd throw a few bucks my way if you liked it!

I wasn't expecting to watch nearly this much anime in just the past three months, but life completely failed at getting in the way. So here's everything I either watched or tried to watch for the Winter 2024 season, and a short review for each.

I'm not going to bother with trying to rank them, so instead they're sorted by category, as follows:

Continuing series from Fall 2023

Returning series

What I dropped

Mixed reactions

On hold

New series that are actually good

With this first entry, I'll be covering the first three, with the back half arriving in another couple of days. As with the 2023 rankings, the OP for each show is linked in the corresponding title.

Here we go.

Ongoing shows:

The Apothecary Diaries

Looking back at my 2023 rankings, I think my placement of The Apothecary Diaries’ first cour at #11 may have belied how much I love this show and believe it to truly be one of last year’s greats. If anything, it was hampered by its status as an ongoing show making it incomplete by nature, and I worried myself over the possibility of recency bias taking over my top ten (Frieren is in the same boat, so its top overall ranking should really highlight how damn good it is). Make no mistake, though: The Apothecary Diaries fucking rocks, and it continues to fucking rock.

It’s largely more of the same, and that’s what you would want from another cour of this show. At the same time, though, more and more is uncovered about Maomao’s background and Jinshi’s status as the proverbial camera continues to pull back and the mysteries adorning the edges of the frame become clearer. I got a sense at the end of the Fall 2023 cour that the show was moving on from its episodic nature into something more serial and plot-driven, and I was mostly right: While several episodes of the Winter cour still revolve around various mysteries of the week, they all start to converge before you even realize it. It’s the same flywheel-effect approach to plot development that Kaguya-sama did so well: While so many of the events seem like one-off curiosities in the moment, these almost-imperceptible movements eventually barrel forward into an unexpected but perfectly logical momentum. The show teases out several plot threads that may not seem relevant at first, and it trusts you to be patient enough to see them play out.

I’m not at all exaggerating when I say that, along with the next entry on this list, The Apothecary Diaries is one of the best anime of the past five years. I had a feeling that this could end up being the case as 2023 came to a close, but I’m sure of it now. Watch this show.

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Last year’s best anime continues apace into 2024 as we get an honest-to-goodness story arc: Frieren, who has been around too long to bother taking any magical governing bodies seriously, needs a certified mage in her party order to continue on the journey north. She decides to take the necessary exam to be certified as a First-Class Mage, a rarefied status in this world, and has Fern tag along to do the same in order to double their chances.

And it’s still incredible! Great action, brilliant animation, wonderful character moments, and a beautiful score. It is still the top-rated anime ever on MyAnimeList, and by a significant margin. I’m not sure I agree, necessarily, but I can say with all sincerity that this has been a perfect season of television and my Fridays now feel empty without it.

That’s all I’ve got on this one. What else do you want from me? I’ve already written nearly 2000 words about this show alone since it premiered. You’re asking me for more? I’ll kill you.

Shangri-La Frontier

If the low placement on my 2023 list was any indication, I was pretty fed up with Shangri-La Frontier by the end of its first cour, and the first couple episodes of 2024 being little more than plot set-up had me teetering on the edge of dropping it entirely. But I’ll be damned if it didn’t reel me back in once shit actually started happening and the plot really began to move forward.

Well, for a bit, at least. The height of the series so far has been the Wethermon arc, in which Sunraku teams up with his fellow shit-gamers, Pencilgon and Katzo, as they vie to be the first to take down a notoriously difficult unique boss. As the fight plays out, we get to see the feeling-out process of a tough action-RPG boss, rife with attack pattern memorization, skill timing, and buff stacking as the margin for error grows ever thinner. As always, the animation is on point, the soundtrack rules, and the action sequences are exhilarating.

But my major gripe with the series remains: There’s hardly any actual story here, even after 25 episodes. There are broad gestures towards a larger plot (“the truth of this world,” as the NPCs call it), but they are too vague to even resemble anything enticing. Everything in between the major fights is just set dressing, and there’s a lot of in between. There’s decent stuff in there, to be fair; the adorable rabbit NPCs are always a delight, and I love the commitment to depicting our top-level gamers as smug, preening shitheels. These are long walks for short drinks of water, though, and much of the main cast isn’t likable enough to make the downtime tolerable, to the point where watching the many set-up episodes feels like more of a grind than the actual grinding in the show. Even in the best fight sequences I still had moments where I found myself yelling “STOP TALKING ALREADY” at the screen. Internal monologues are a constant in battle shonen, I know, but if there’s any demographic whose internal monologues I want to hear the least, it’s gamers.

I kept watching this show despite myself, and six months later I’m still not sure how much I actually enjoy it. I haven’t seen any of the lousy VRMMO anime that people favorably compare it to, so at least it isn’t Sword Art Online. Yay, I guess? Yet here I am, still plugging away at a show I can’t strongly recommend to a lot of people. Shangri-La Frontier has turned me into a Steam reviewer.

Undead Unluck

The stakes continue to rise exponentially in one of last year’s more underrated shonen hits (or it would’ve been a hit if Disney gave a fuck about marketing the anime on its own platforms). The Union neutralizes a threat, gains a new Roundtable member, and then shit hits the fan.

The scope of this series goes into absolutely buckwild directions, and all I will say is that “Kimi ni Todoke predicting the future” was not a piece of worldbuilding I would have ever expected. But at the same time, it never loses focus on the human element, which only gets more poignant as it goes on. There’s a really beautiful message in the last arc about how people can live on through the memories of others, well past their bodies dying, which hits nice and hard considering this season aired at the same time as Frieren.

This is a show that I tended to watch sporadically (because I just plain forget to open Hulu just to watch one show every week), and I would say that it was the ideal way to watch it, except the pacing issues from the first cour only got worse during a monumentally consequential sequence in the middle of the second. There was an episode that had, I shit you not, 90 seconds of new content in the first seven minutes of runtime, and at the exact point in the series where you’re salivating for something, anything new. In a season where so much goes on in just 24 episodes, I’m baffled that they felt the need to pad the runtime so much.

That’s the worst of it, though, and the momentum fortunately builds up from there and barrels downhill until the end. The story becomes incredibly meta, which was a very ballsy move for a Shonen Jump series that was still relatively early into its run. The gamble pays off, though, and the debut season ends on several incredibly strong episodes, and now I want more. I’ll be hopping on the manga soon.

It also struck me towards the end of the season just how goddamn cute everyone looks. For all of the spraying blood and grim marching towards Armageddon, it says a lot that I still wanna pinch everyone’s fat little cheeks.

Returning shows:

The Dangers in My Heart, season 2

The first season was absent in my 2023 rankings but I decided to pick it up while the second was still airing, and I’m so glad I did: The Dangers in My Heart is an almost-too-precious middle school romance that is endlessly endearing and bluntly honest (if a little exploitative) about what middle schoolers are actually like, warts and all. Insecurities are amplified, they struggle to figure out their identities, and mental and physical development run on different schedules from one kid to the next. And amidst all this raging hormonal nonsense, we have ourselves a lovely little romance story.

Kyotaro has (mostly) kicked his chuuni tendencies and realized that he’s madly in love with the beautiful, cheery Anna. He’s as aware as anyone of what a mismatched couple they’d be, though, and continues to self-sabotage any progress in the name of maintaining her good social standing. To pile onto his loner’s perspective of middle school politics, Kyotaro also gets a front-row seat to Anna’s part-time work as a model-slash-actress and he wonders if an underdeveloped shrimp like him should be seen anywhere near someone so obviously more mature. At the same time, though, he’s a growing boy, and we see lovely moments of progress as Kyotaro takes initiative both for her sake and to achieve what he wants. To both ameliorate and complicate these situations, Anna reciprocates his feelings towards her, and we creep ever closer towards what we want to see, in increasingly awkward and precious fashion.

So much of this anime is just gorgeous. Even setting aside the visuals and music (which are on point at all times), there are really lovely themes in here about insecurity, teenage perceptions of maturity, and self acceptance. On top of all of that, though, this is just a delightful slice-of-life romance story. You can probably guess where we’ve ended up by the end of the second season, but it’s the getting there that makes it all worth it. The manga is still running (and I plan to pick it up), so there’s clearly plenty more of the story to tell, but if this is where the anime ends, it ended perfectly.

Holy shit, though, did the first season really air at the same time as Skip and Loafer and Insomniacs After School? Dentists must have made a mint that season because every single one of these shows is so unrelentingly sweet that my teeth start to itch. Not that I’m complaining.

Mashle: Magic and Muscles, season 2

I honestly think I might’ve been too hard on Mashle in my 2023 rankings. I gave up on it a few episodes in when it’d initially aired, but I eventually came back to finish out the season and ended up having a pretty good time. I’ll cop to having forgotten that latter part when I mapped out those rankings, but that enjoyment quickly came back to me when I picked up season 2... even if the season begins with a ton of table setting.

Plenty of battle shonen take time to find their voice, both in manga and anime, and Mashle really seemed to hit its stride fairly quickly into the second season. Mash Burnedead’s lack of magical quality is no longer a secret, and now magical society has to find a way to deal with it, so the series’ initial stakes are raised and Mash HAS to become a top-level sorcerer lest he lose his life. Also, the bad guys are back. Unfortunately, just as I started to genuinely appreciate the ensemble cast, most of Mash’s friends took a backseat to the larger plot (Lemon is nowhere to be seen almost all season) as the villains raise the stakes with increasingly JoJo-esque magic abilities. There’s still plenty to like, though, and some of the new characters help. Props for having an openly nonbinary character play a major role.

The music is a real highlight here; a surprising amount of hip-hop paints the backdrops during dialogue, and any show with an OP by Creepy Nuts will immediately grab my attention. "Bling-Bang-Bang-Born" actually turned into a bona fide hit single, much like Oshi no Ko's "Idol" and Jujutsu Kaisen's "SPECIALZ," and I'd say it's well earned (seriously, it fucks, please click the link above). The animation has also started to really pick up where it felt like it kept falling short in the first season as well, and I found myself looking forward to action sequences more as the season went on.

And hey, it might’ve taken 21 episodes to get there, but I finally laughed at a cream puff gag!

Urusei Yatsura (2022), season 2

I really don’t have much to say other than it’s more Urusei Yatsura, and that’s just swell. We continue the modern adaptation of the classic gag manga as the OG anime babe and her piece-of-shit “darling” get caught up in yet more bizarre hijinks. Despite the 48-episode run being touted as an “Urusei Yatsura all-stars” cherry-pick from Rumiko Takahashi’s 34-volume opus, not all of the segments hit on the same level, but the stories that last entire or even multiple episodes have been killer. Lum and Ataru, despite their myriad flaws, genuinely do care for one another, and this series is at its best when those feelings get to shine through. Takahashi remains a legend for her expert balancing of comedy and heart, and while this particular adaptation doesn’t have the built-in benefit of 300+ chapters of familiarity, those moments still feel earned.

It’s Urusei Yatsura. It’s a classic for a reason. Watch it.

Dropped:

Gushing Over Magical Girls (dropped after one episode)

For the TL;DR version, consult the image above.

All I’d heard about this show going in was that the manga it’s based on was good and that there would be boobs. I wish I’d known more than that before watching, though, because if I’d known that said boobs would belong to middle schoolers, I wouldn’t have bothered with even the one episode I did end up watching.

I was drawn in by the initial premise, too: The protagonist, the conspicuously-named Utena (who looks enough like Bernadetta from Fire Emblem that I was immediately endeared to her), is an enormous fan of the magical girls who keep her city safe, so when an adorable maho shoujo mascot approaches her with an offer, she immediately takes him up on it. As her sinister-looking (and unnecessarily revealing) costume suggests, though, Utena doesn’t get to live out her magical girl dreams; she actually got roped into—and blackmailed into keeping—a role as a villainess. The magical girl team she idolizes quickly finds her, and to stave off their assault, Utena is forced to summon a monster to bind them. As they continue to struggle and squeal, Utena goes further with it by ripping their clothes and spanking their bare bottoms red, because it turns out that she’s actually into this stuff, sexually. The title, it turns out, is a double entendre.

Credit where it’s due for a clever concept: On paper, this is really goddamn funny! My issue is with the execution: I don’t really care to see someone’s sexual awakening if it involves repeated violations of consent, and much less so if I have to see nudity of ostensible middle schoolers (Japanese middle schools are the equivalent of seventh through ninth grade, meaning these girls are 15 at most). After 100 Girlfriends, I thought I could handle whatever trashy bullshit any anime could throw my way, but the longer I chewed on Gushing’s premiere, the worse it sat with me. I have no intentions of playing morality police here, but I can’t bring myself to watch any more of this than I already have.

Early teenage sexuality is a very difficult subject matter to handle delicately, especially in a comedy milieu, and I can levy plenty of criticisms on that matter towards series I otherwise enjoyed, like Call of the Night and the aforementioned Dangers in My Heart. And although there appear to be some coming-of-age elements here, Gushing doesn’t seem interested in handling it without being exploitative. Maybe it gets better, but I don’t plan to find out for myself.

I just feel like it’s a shame that in a season with some actual halfway decent LGBT representation, the breakout yuri hit is about middle schoolers performing dubiously-consensual BDSM on each other. And maybe that speaks to something for some sapphic viewers, and I have no intention of speaking over them, but I do know that this isn’t for me. I would’ve gone fucking feral over this show when I was like 13, but I haven’t been a 13-year-old boy for a long, long time.

I may not have a leg to stand on here as someone who watches Mushoku Tensei (and frankly, that one’s on strike two with me), but I have to put my foot down somewhere. For me, that “somewhere” is borderline pornography involving 13-15 year olds. I try to meet media where it is, even the squicky stuff, but I cannot put myself at the level Gushing Over Magical Girls sets for itself.

Sasaki and Peeps (dropped after eight episodes)

This show is frustrating to even process postmortem. After a mildly intriguing hour-long premiere that introduced a whole lot of concurrent concepts, Sasaki and Peeps somehow managed to not only continue heaping new ideas onto the pile, but also fumble every single one of them in a way that wasn’t even entertaining to watch.

Sasaki, a lonely 40-something salaryman of modest means, decides that instead of living vicariously through adorable animal photos on social media, he should pull the trigger and get a pet of his own. He settles on a reasonably-priced and suitably adorable fat little Java sparrow, who as it turns out speaks human language and is actually named Piercarlo the Starsage (Sasaki settles on calling him Pii-chan, or Peeps in English). The bird was reincarnated from another world, where he is able to take Sasaki at will, and the man realizes he can use the other world’s relative dearth of technology to his advantage and sets up an interdimensional trade full time so he can make coin on his own watch and help Peeps try the delicious beef he heard is the best food in Sasaki’s world. To the latter end, he also invests in a restaurant. Peeps also helps teach him magic, which Sasaki is forced to use in a pinch in the real world. He is quickly found out and gets roped into a secret government bureau of psychics, because the agent who caught him using ice magic decides he’d be a perfect complement to her water powers (think Kanne and Lawine from Frieren, but stupider). Sasaki now has to balance these multiple lives, which hardly ever interact with one another, as the stakes rise in Peeps’ world in the form of palace intrigue and in Sasaki’s world in the form of a growing threat of evil psychics or something. Also, there’s magical girls, because why the fuck not at this point.

If you actually managed to process all that and went “wow, that’s a lot, I wonder how they can tie all that together,” it brings me no pleasure to report that Sasaki and Peeps completely fails at that task. This is a work of fiction with entirely too many ideas, to the point where it feels like it has no ideas. There’s a saying in football that a team with two quarterbacks is a team with no quarterback, and Sasaki and Peeps has, like, six on its depth chart. You ever hear a band that managed to cram multiple genres in the same song and you get whiplash every time it switches up? Those are bands with a lot of influences, but no identity or vision to call their own, and that is Sasaki and Peeps to me: It is the Twenty One Pilots of anime. A lot of shit got thrown at the wall, and none of it stuck: This show, conceptually, is shit-stained drywall with a pile of turds adorning the moulding.

For a show about a 40-year-old man, it gave me serious pause that there was not a single named adult woman in any of the episodes I watched, and I grew even more frustrated waiting for one to show up. Sasaki’s partner, Hoshizaki, seems to be a driven, professional young woman, but it turns out she’s a 16 year old high school student, for some reason. The daughter of the viscount doing business with Sasaki is a young girl who likes to tag along with him, and Sasaki’s neighbor is a latchkey high school girl who may or may not have a yandere-ish fixation on him. The magical girl we meet is also definitely a kid. The female psychics they face off against don’t appear to be older than teenagers, though the one who appears to grow fond of him turns out to be several hundred years old, which especially gave me pause because we all know that unfortunate trope and the type of person who hides behind it. Before progressing any further, I found out that the light novel series upon which this show is based was written by someone with the pen name “Buncololi,” which told me the rest of what I needed to know.

That part made me increasingly uncomfortable, and I became less and less convinced that this show was capable of sticking the landing as it continued to pile on new, contrived ideas. This was a waste of an excellent voice cast, but more than that, a waste of time.

Tales of Wedding Rings (dropped after nine episodes)

I can’t believe how much goddamn isekai I ended up watching this season. That Tales of Wedding Rings wasn’t the worst one (see above) was a minor miracle, because boy howdy was this one a dud.

Satou is just a normal high school boy, blah blah blah, his childhood friend he’s in love with is actually a princess from another world and she has to go back to fulfill a political marriage, he follows her into the portal to pull a Benjamin Braddock. But then, gasp, the palace is under attack, so the princess (her native name is Krystal, but growing up in Japan she was known as Hime, which means… princess) instead decides to marry Satou, bestowing upon him her kingdom’s ring, which gives him powers that he uses to fight back the demons. It turns out that her ring enables him to use one elemental affinity out of five, so of course now Satou has to collect the rings held by the other four kingdoms in order to become the Ring King and save the world, and to do so he has to also marry each corresponding princess.

This is basically Tolkien’s Rings of Power but as a harem isekai with bonus nudity. What I saw of the season was basically a MacGuffin hunt that had waifus of various fantasy races attached. Fine character designs for each, to be fair, but it wasn’t enough to keep me interested. It’s funny on paper that (to paraphrase Geoff Thew) our protagonist’s power level scales with the size of his harem, but Tales didn’t do enough to make me actually care what was happening. And I wanted to! There were elf titties and I didn’t care. That’s criminal.

What makes Tales especially difficult to watch is that this show is fuck ugly. The color palette is muddy and unappealing, everyone looks uncannily shiny, and there’s a smudgy Vaseline filter over everything. The action sequences are uninspiring, the animation is lousy, and every character looks terribly off-model unless they’re naked. Watch the OP I linked if you don't believe me; that's the best of it. The aural element isn’t much better; ecchi scenes are punctuated by a Cinemax-caliber smooth jazz score that I pray was chosen ironically, and most of the show’s humor consists of “an old guy is screeching.” And if you’re wasting Shigeru Chiba’s talents on that one lousy joke, you’ve fucked up catastrophically.

What completely pushed me out of wanting to see any more of this show, though, was how hard it doubled down on the worst elements of harem anime by having Protag-kun be a wishy-washy little ninny even though he’s openly declared his love for and is literally married to Hime/Krystal. And I wanted to care about her; the narrative made me want to care about her, and her jealousy of the other princesses is warranted, but alas, the harem demands bodies. To his credit, Satou recognizes her mixed emotions and makes extra time for her to make it clear that she’s forever number one in his heart, but every single time their shared romance and emotions actually push them towards consummating their (all caps for emphasis) MARRIAGE, the show goes Rent-a-Girlfriend on us and finds a cheap excuse to ruin the moment. No thanks, I’m out. Nothing else about this show is good enough to make me wade through that shit.

Honestly, the only thing that had me coming back after my Persona 3-induced hiatus was that I wanted to see the dragon girl, and that alone was almost worth it, but there really isn’t much of a draw otherwise. There were better isekai, better romances, better fantasy settings, and even better uncensored harem shenanigans this season. I might pick this back up as the second season approaches, but I’m not in any hurry.

#anime reviews

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ceo-mochee · 4 months ago

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Right I'm gonna say it cus I've seen and heard enough.

If you ship something toxic, Do NOT complain when people hate it.

(NOTE : Do NOT send me hate asks/comments if you choose to read this, cus I really do not gaf if you hate me for this. It's just my opinion and I wanted to get it off my chest.)

If the ship your shipping is a healthy pairing and people are hating you for it, then sure you have a reason to be upset. However if you're shipping something like Romesse, Aidesse or I don't know...... AXDEN.... (which are pretty toxic ships in general (my opinion)) then yeah people have a right to hate the ship.

I will agree on some part that attacking people is not a good thing, and this goes to both sides. People who don't like your ships shouldn't have to force you to change that, but at the same time if people hate on the SHIP itself (and are NOT namedropping people), then why should you be so worried? I literally watched one of my moots get attacked by someone because they wrote about not liking Axden.

Hell I'm even gonna take a quick minute to slander this ship now. Why? Cus it's pretty toxic- Aiden bullied Axel and tried killing his friends, do you reaaaaally think Axel would be friends with someone like Aiden, let alone get in a romantic relationship with him?? Yeah I don't think so either.

Here's the thing tho, this is just MY OPINION. If you disagree, COOL! But making a huge fuss about it and attacking others who disagree is only fueling that belief that "its not the ship itself, it's the shippers that are the problem." Getting pissy cus you CHOOSE to read someone's opinions and decide that because you disagree, and believing that you should go send anonymous asks attacking said person is also just making yourself look real pathetic.

I'm sorry, but if you're gonna get sensitive over a fictional pairing getting hate, then I don't know what to tell ya. s

I, of course, may or may not be the one to talk. I've shipped Axel and Lukas together for a long while and I may or may not have been hurt by some people's opinions myself, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna go off with my pitchfork and torch and bombard someone with hate asks/comments, you know how much easier life is when ya just silently disagree with one's opinions and move on? It's amazing lemme tell ya.

So far I've only seen this happening with the ship Axden (Axel x Aiden), which is pretty damn bonkers if you ask me. Why can't y'all just accept the fact that no matter how much you preach, self project onto characters, or fuss about your own opinions, not every single person is gonna agree with you. My ass already got turned into a damn PTSD trigger to one person (who I'm of course choosing NOT to namedrop) cus I disliked that ship.

"I know Aiden bullied Axel but... but I made it to where he redeemed himself!!!"

Okay??? Still doesn't change the fact that you're getting upset that people are understandably uncomfortable with that ship mate... do you understand how happier we would all be if you'd just BLOCK people who disagree instead of burning an innocent user at the stake because they dislike a toxic ship.

Like seriously if you're gonna get upset and attack someone for not liking a (pretty toxic) ship that you like and not just like- Idk- BLOCK them... then you're probably already a lost cause my friend.

#like i said don't try sending me anon asks hating on me for this #I'm just gonna leave ur ask to collect dust in my inbox #mcsm #Moch meetings

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k4txlulzz · 6 months ago

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(warning: this is a random late night rant y'all , feel free to not take this seriously its just my scrambled thoughts lol)

vanitas no carte fandom is a lot more chaotic than i remembered it to be😭guys what happened i just came back to see how the story progressed (BTW MY FAVE SCENES GOT ANIMATED SO WELL !! the eng dub is so good too)

okay so! vanitas is my favorite character and i truly think he has a good, selfless heart. but yk what? that kiss scene with him and jeanne keeps popping up in my head. but then i remember that if i consider that moment SA i'd have to consider ALOT more romance scenes in the story as that too and i just don't think there can be that amount of **intentional** assault scenes from the creator ?😭

folks have brought up the cabin scene and??? that just confused me. because i never even thought of that possibility while looking at the panels or the scene. people hate vanitas or vanijeanne or even jeanne because of this kinda stuff and . while im conflicted and even uncomfortable(the kiss scene specifically) i also believe that the creator would not make a character SA anyone like that and make it seem romantic. i see this as: if its shown to be cute or romantic and does not show negative mental consequences of the characters after the event, it was not **intended** to be assault. (edit: while vanitas is shown to be malicious in this scene, the incident gets brought up like once after and doesn't really turn into an obstacle in vanitas' and jeanne's relationship which is what made me think this) basically, if it's shown to be harmless, it was most likely intended as that. and i understand the issue with that one weird kiss scene, i don't like it either. its just that vanitas happened to be my favorite before i learnt all this and that made me try and look for an explanation or some sort of evidence that maybe this is a "suspend your disbelief" moment but i dunno. i just desperately don't wanna think that a character and one of the dynamics that mean a lot to me have gross, scary implications . the creator wouldn't write jeanne or vanitas to do something so horrible because those are some of the characters she wants fans to be invested in and that can't be done if those characters are assaulters😭 the kiss scene still does ick me though and i think the moment should have been done differently? in any case, i generally think that media literacy is something every fan needs to have. because otherwise we back ourselves into a corner and "criticize problematic stuff" ourselves into viewing every character as a terrible person who should not be liked

but then again, this IS just my opinion and, to be clear, i don't support assault being brushed off in any media

[edit 2: i also acknowledge that i may be leaning towards copium with this one but that doesn't mean i don't recognize the creator's attempt to create a complex dynamic and characters; i just feel like because of this one scene a lot of people hate vanitas and brush off his dynamic with jeanne entirely which is sad because they have a lot of stuff thats worth getting interested in. i just wanted to make it clear that this post is just me ranting about something and not meant to be taken as a proper analysis ^^🙏🏼 it has also been a while since i looked at VNC stuff and may have gotten a bit rusty. i acknowledge that SA may perhaps be a significant part of the storytelling in VNC but i don't really want to think about those moments for personal reasons and especially when it is shown to be done by a character that really does mean a lot to me:) i enjoyed reading the comments i got on this post and am genuinely quite grateful for them]

#vnc #vanitas no carte #case study of vanitas #the case study of vanitas #vanitas #vnc vanitas #vnc jeanne

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lillysilvermoon · 2 years ago

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Messages from your guardians

Pile 1

Signs: mentors, spiritual guides, ancestors (old woman), dragons (I heard "dragon soul" but I don't know much about dragons so,,,, takes what resonates), guardian angel, Archangel Raphael, green color, rivers, 1111 (I heard that you should read about this number's meaning and also to pay attention to how you feel when you see this number, it's important because has some kind of message in this and will be different for everyone!).

I feel like some of you has been through some kind of "spiritual awakening", it's like something has happened and now you understood what was necessary and a change of some kind is coming. Wait this is the message of someone: yes you understood and yes the change will happen - well, actually already is lol - and that's your confirmation. Also: there will be a "crisis" of some kind, or happened already, it's to remind you what YOU truly want and what's need to let go, it's kin the way of the Universe test you (I know it's sucks, believe I know......... but, this kind of situation teaches A LOT so me EXTREMELY aware, try to take notes because I swear to you, helps!).

Humm, some of you need to do little adjustments here and there and have a moment of rest, you know when we start our spiritual journey and we read about so many things, we wanna try it all but at some moment just feels like you are stuck? That's it here, it's like you are a vessel and you have been filled more and more and some of this was good but some wasn't and you need some time to "take the trash out", you need to stop and look at all this and see what servers you and what not.

If you are going through some hardships your guardians want you to know that first: you are not alone (please call upon them when you need, I promise they will help. But you need to ask guys😭💗) and you need to have trust to move forward of this situation.

"What you believe it's true becomes true, kid. You are halfway of your goal but you need to be more disciplined and put effort. Commit yourself to what you wants and don't give up." Alright for you all I need to say this: remember the thing about the universe test us? It do this to see if we have learned our lesson, so any dramas that may happen you need to see just as a stepping stone to where you want to be/your goals.

This is now just my own advice: call them, talk to them. It can be ANYTHING. Light a candle, write a letter to them and read out loud, pray, meditation. Can whatever y'all want to be. They are with you and really want to help.

You shall receive good news because abundance is coming at waterfalls to you, give abundantly and you accept with gratitude if you are given (I feel there is people here that just don't know how to accept things, either material or emotional help and your guardian wants you to learn this).

For anyone trying a business: it's gonna be blessed!! Expect thing to work really well because I can tell you: wealth is on its away to you.

Please have more faith in yourself Pile 1, seriously you guardians see you like someone SO capable (king of Wands) you can do it! (Whatever this "it" means to y'all, know that YES U CAN! and I believe in you👽🙌)

Last but not least: When was the last time you heard your feelings? You give them some kind of, you know, attention?..... pretend you are fine, you are strong, a warrior blablabla it's needed sometimes, but if this is your normal it's bad, blocks your heart center and the energy which can make you feel sick and warm you hole body. You need more balance when related to your emotional and self-care. Take more care of your spiritual body. (People who likes crystals: rose quartz it's good for you!)

Pile 2

Signs: green color (pile one had this too lmao maybe y'all need to work on your heart chakra just saying 🤷‍♀️), leo, fire signs and fire placements at your big three (so weird when I receive this things because it's very specific and because I don't even know too much about astrology so I was be like "damn... its really specific" lmao never mind ignore me), aquamarine (loved this because the picture of this Pile is a mermaid🤭🥺), color pink, pisces, 111, 444

Humm okay, first of all your guardians want you to know that some things need to comes to a end because teaches you what was supposed to teach and now it's just time to end, and you don't need to be sad about that because ends also means create space for new things, people, experiences. I feel like this is Love matters, well there is 2 options here: the first one it's all that I said, and the second one is that you are ending this to meet your "special someone" (since there a increase of Twin Flames on earth this time, maybe you are ending this relationship because you gonna meet them soon and you learned the lesson with this person). But for some of you is a friendship. Yeah, it's right, nothing will come of this situation (its literally what the card says), meditation, time out and you know, just be a little contemplative will help you. Surrender to the Divine (whatever The Divine are for you) will help, believe that you will get what you need (I thought this were for the people that are working on there skills but your guardian was like "NO! IT'S NOT!!!!!!) and I came back here and yes it is for you really).

If you are into mantras I recommend "Om Namo Narayani" which basically means I surrender to the Divine.

(I think this is for a really small group: don't let your pride get in your away okay? You need to work in group and balance your needs with the needs of others. Its important and you need to work on this!)

The other message here is that: you are doing SO GREAT at your job/craft. Really, your guardians are proud of you for better your skills and know that you are doing a really good job!

And you need to hear you on thoughts, someone here has been anxious as and your guardian wants you to calm down, repeat to yourself "this thought isn't mine" and start to calm yourself, your guardian wants you to know that you are not alone, but you need to take better care of yourself especially related to your anxiety!

Pile 3

Signs: male guide, trans men (fo explain: someone here reading this are and this is the sign that yes, this is your Pile Hello😙💗), seashells, collect rocks (I don't who you are but you have such a good and fun energy lmao you know this person who just looks like a really good friend and person? It's you), color read, Divine Feminine path (or something related to the topic), life path number 3? (You got FIVE number 3), 666, number 9, pink hearts, Grenade and red jasper (it's more likely you should try to use them, will help you have more energy)

This pile have STRONG feminine energy and also priestess energy (which means that you can be one, become one in the future, was one in some important past life or just have the characteristics of one!)

Okay, some of you has Mother Mary as one of you main guardian (She and Archangel Mary are not the same! I can talk more about this if y'all be interested♡) and I feel a lot of you are working on something new and she wants you to know that: it's worth, this project is important, the world deserves to see the incredible person you are. And also to know that you are entering a knew phase and will bee FULL of good things and blessings, omg I can't calm myself its SO AMAZING really there us so many blessings, so many good moments. Okay I need to calm myself down or things gonna be all messy lol sorry I get really excited with this messages, your faith will be renewed, you are entering a peaceful loving phase, filled with calm energy and personal growth. Your belief that your dreams can manifest are working well, there us a big "yes" coming your away (I'M SO HAPOY FOY YOU, HERE, TAKE MY HUG). Whatever situation this is: is blessed, if you chose this pile probably you are starting all over again in some away, can be on a new/better course or just feeling more positive about archiving your goals.

(Very small group who are feeling stagnant: life goes on cycles and you are going enter a new one now! Likely our friend Pile 3 it's a moment to you to trust in the Divine (again: whatever the Divine is for you). Your guardians want you to trust your feelings and intuition (because logic won't work right now) and speak positively because "your words have power. Say what you want will work, and believe in it" (someone guide said and it's a man).

I need y'all to take care of yourself, your guardians want you to be more in touch with your intuition, your body (dance, yoga and stretching can help) and on do creative things, also try to just go more with the flow, be less controlled (some here are control freaks help) and just... take better care of you, u know?

Oh, I almost forgot: Its time to spread your wings and fly, universe is supporting u right now (your guardians want you to know that because apparently you don't have much physical support so ita important to you to know that). Youe hard work will pay off, I promise you (and for anyone who was wanting to travel: can happen soon)

Pile 4

Signs: aries, pisces, waterfalls, Mexico, ireland, 333, 6666, Angel's, Saint Mary (it's a place in Jamaica).

"You need to take a break" that's what I heard, for some of you I feel like you have to much energy, and you are doing to much things and it's time to get inwards and have some time of to chill, I think you don't like to open up to others because what I'm feeling is that you guided are talking but I just can't understand (like you didn't want help from other person, or that anyone no one knew what going on...) okay I assume its related to your job, or group you live with, looks very...heavy, a sense of hostility and conflicts. Your guardians want you to know that: first isnt your fault! Sencond: try to find common ground and focus on mutual collaboration rather then the competition. You need to focus in maintai you inner peace and don't let the environment you are get the best of you.

For other group here: your guardians always you to take action, to do you best and BE HAPPY (and proud) WITH THAT! (My perfectionist group, maybe?). I think there is something you want and this is a huge YES, but you need determination (and probably a long term plan).

And our last group (but I think this applies to the one before) you need to balance spirituality and practicality (I feel you, same boat here 🤡) WAIT A MINUTE BECAUSE I'M A HOPELESS ROMANTIC SIR, the card says "a new male is coming into your life" nd the other one (the one about balance) SAYS THAT THE PERSON CAN BE A SOULMATE OMG GUYS THE CARDS COMPLEMENTS EACH OTHER THIS IS SO CUTE I CAN'T I'M SORRY-

I couldn't help myself to freak out sorry Pile 4, getting back to what I was saying: Your intuition won't let you down and you need to trust it, and your guardians also wants you to know that you need to take more practical steps and be with your head in the clouds less, they ask you to find balance between your responsibilities and your dreams (maybe you have to work but are trying or want to try your new business, stop dream about it and think "what can I do NOW to make my dream happen?" Or "What step can I do NOW with what I already have to start my business?" Questions like this will help!.

This is coming so strong omg: Your soulmate is coming guys, I mean really appeared 3 times in 2 cards (besides you got The Emperor which can means Divine Masculine depends on the topic. Anyhow just takes what resonates).

COME HERE: When things get hard you have emotional balance? Your guardians want you to work on this, because sometimes the solution is right in front of you but you are to angry, sad or agitated to realize.

I hope this message reaches everyone who needs. Bye bye from me and your guardians 🤣🤭 see y'all soon.

- Lia

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icarustypicalfall · 1 year ago

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ALRIGHT LISTEN

this is just an opinion no need to get in my inbox and hate :)

i GENUINELY wonder if my fics are not good enough, or it's just because i am writing about the "side charachters" and not ghost or könig..

i mean ofc everyone have tastes but the way pepole act on socials and keep out charachters like Rudy and Alejandro makes me wonder if this is a preference or r*cism.

(before you say it, i am not making drama and we can't keep turning around the pot forever)

(also Horangi and Gaz are extremely underrated, fortunately ppl started to include them back after the chaos of September. i understand some people may not like a character or not write for him because they don't want to mess it up. but leaving him out like MANY did isn't okay.)

I am not blaming anyone but genuinely wondering why some charachters get all the attention while we can berly find content for any other character, who are really interesting as well and deserve appreciation.

I am not against any headcanon, sticking with the canon events is fine.

y'all need to let people do what they love, even if you don't like it, someone enjoys it. And the purpose of a fandom is to recreate and make new stuff out of the actual product.

Although, what is extremely wrong is oversexualizing the charachters, making from them some mentally ill monsters and manicas. You should educate yourself on disorders and similar stuff before writing it, you may think it's ok, but in reality love, you are making a huge mistake.

(I've seen some stuff that was extremely messed up and the people who wrote that really need to touch some grass and urgent therapy. Some stuff shouldn't be posted at all..)

Also, the face models are actual people.. and the comment section under their posts makes me sick.. some of y'all took the digital footprint for granted..

remember they can read, or see anything you'll say. they have family, friends seeing what y'all say about them..

imagine seeing someone say that stuff about your friend or parent..

Also Samuel Roukin and every other actor are beautiful, they are humans and don't have to be a flawless super model.(he is in fact very handsome 🤭)

Look in the mirror darling and remember that the person you are hating on is a human just like you and have feelings.

AS A CONCLUSION

- you can like whoever you want i am not judging anyone and i am not forcing you to like any character 🤦🏻‍♀️

can't believe i had to add this ppl seriously need to touch grass

-give other characters attention

-dont hate on others for having different opinions

-the face models are humans

-there is some point where you should ask yourself if what you wrote is okay

-its könig not konig

-graves is an antogonist and was supposed to be evil

- all of the charachters did something wrong at some point, this is war and not roses and flowers

this is my opinion and idc i wanted to rant cuz i had enough

masterlist

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shutupheathersorryheatherr · 1 year ago

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“What hair product I think each svt member is”

Summery: a holiday fic that has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays! Wanted to try my hand at writing something a bit different and thought this was a good idea to start. Not really comedy but amusing none the less! (idk if what I wrote makes sense hopefully yall are picking up what I’m putting down) approximately: ten minute read

A/n: THIS IS NOT MY ORIGINAL IDEA! (In a way it is buuuutttt still) I can’t find the author who wrote the “what piece of furniture svt are” or something to that effect so they’re the ones who gave me the idea so if yall find them please tag them unless I do first!

warningz/info: mentions of pain, mentions of chocolate, I think what, three curse words? y'all let me know if I should start keeping them to a minimum or remove them entirely because I know some people are uncomfortable with them! I feel like the spacing between paragraphs is weird in this fic but oh well. no idea how this is gonna go over and im scared that I tagged it with "x reader". plus I dont know if anyone would read/enjoy it but I had loads of fun writing it! as always, if you did like it, please leave some love like comments and or reblogs!

~this is simply a piece of fiction. My imagination onto “paper. This is in no way is mean to be taken as an actual and real representation of anyone.~

•••••••••••••••••••

>Seungcheol<

gel. Sticks to you like glue once you find each other (romantic music starts playing in the hair care isle when you pick up your favorite gel) everyone has their preferred brand/ look they worship. Thicc. Either smells putrid and chemical like or good enough to transport you to a magical land of chocolate, pink grass and purple clouds

>Jeonghan<

he is a Bobby pin. And I will provide no further explanation on this except that he holds you together but will stab you lmao

>Shua<

an Afro pick/ hair pick. Its what everyone’s looking for: that little somen’ somen’. That little poof we all desire. Also scalp massages :)

>Jun<

wide tooth comb. My fellow thick haired/ curly haired people will know about this one 😭 this shit can be mean to your scalp tugging on your hair and UGH helps you greatly and is a necessity but damn… that’s all I gotta say

>Hoshi<

Refresher product/ moisture product. wakes you up in the morning. Gives you a reason to NOT look like you just rolled outta bed even though you did. For most this is one ofthe holy grails in life. What would I do without it? Makes us all smile even at 4:00 am because oh my god I look better after I slapped this in. Just all around a day-brightener

>Wonwoo<

curl cream. Grounding. Has many different looks n stuff

>Woozi<

a rat tail comb. Everyone should have one. Versatile, used for many different things. Good for every sort of job and is a natural to be honest and is small but mighty lol

>DK<

a satin/ silk bonnet. And no, not one of those that most moms wear with the lace trim. Those end up at the foot of your bed by the morning. The ones with the thick elastic. I choose this cause it goes by many different names, just like him lol just has that comfy homey feel to it

>Mingyu<

hair mask. Made at home with some questionable ingredients. Seriously sometimes I don’t think he’s real lol

>Hao<

a denman brush. It sounds to helpful and great. And it is great!…. When you figure out how to use it. Hard to figure out but once you get the hang of it you’ll never go back (another thing my fellow curly haired babes will understand)

>Seungkwan<

co wash. A little something extra, a boost of energy, if you will. a well kept secret but also a well known fact

>Vernon<

hair tie. Easy to loose but also easy to find. especially in places where youd think: “why the fuck would it end up here?” Like idk man, but you should definitely check the dark corner collecting lint— that’s where they always are

>Dino<

leave in conditioner because with use over time it makes your hair (you) healthier

~End~

a/n: annnnnnnnddddd thats it! hope y'all enjoyed this disaster of a fic lmao if you liked it, please leave some love like comments or reblogging!

stay safe, y'all!

2023 ©️copyright for shutupheathersorryheatherr do NOT repost, steal, or translate my work even if you give me credit

taglist: @itz-yerin

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quaranmine · 1 month ago

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Hi, sorry, its me again

My friend got upset cause I didn't explicitly stated how her life has also been irreversibly changed cause of Incandescence. She can't wait to name her first born Oscar and always pronounce it like O! Scar! To commemorate the Scar specifically from your story lol

I'm gonna name my kid Rotting Corpse and the surname will be Mumbo. And yeah, we think Scar and Rot will be best friends forever. I proposed she and her kid should get into an accident with a lot of glass so the kid can own up to a name like Scar, but she's not that fond of this idea :/

Anyways, yeah, I'm just passing the message of how it's also one of the best fics she's read. She also said your parents are artists for making you xd. She made me send this seperate message 👍

Have a good daaaay

Think of the children! 🤣 I'm sure they'll grow to appreciate their names in time.....surely

I really appreciate the message from your friend! And you for passing it along, lol. It means a lot that people are such big fans of my work. I think my mother would be very pleased to hear that compliment! She says any good trait I have I got from her, haha (But in all seriousness, she's the one who introduced me to reading early on and helped me with all my writing homework in school. She's read the fic and I sometimes tell her what people are saying about it!)

Thank you. I hope y'all have a good day too :)

#mine's extra good because i'm getting off work in like 30 mins (hair appt)#but i did have to work extra hours earlier in this week to make it up. oh well! doesn't erase the feeling of getting an afternoon off #quara asks

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bootleg-b0i · 9 months ago

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I hate the a college course rabbit hole has my Swiftie-posting, but honestly, my feelings about her so ugh...conflicting.

On the one hand, she's the poster girl for white millennial cishetnormativity, I have little in common with this woman demographically. And yet I've listened to her music for as long as my conscious memory goes back. I don't consider myself a fan but I know all the words to 75% of her songs.

But mainly, my feelings recently are just like, what role creatives and public figures have in shaping the people who parasocially connect with them. Her dating that racist is so vile, but also fans sending her that tantrum letter about how she has to break up with him to be a good role model for the fans is WEIRD. And I think she has every right to read something like that and think y'all are being WHACK.

But its not like those fans didn't have a point? Idk, it's like, maybe we wouldn't care that she was dating a racist weirdo if she hadn't tried to frame herself as the paragon of allyship back in Lover era. I watched Miss Americana doc recently and like, seriously the whole thing devolves into morality propaganda. Propaganda I agree with mind you!! But girl, why was that necessary?

Alternatively, she wouldn't feel so much responsibility to voice her opinions if she wasn't always forced to be aware of the millions of media-uncritical teens who lap her every word right up. Like, we don't hold men to that kind of standard, that's why Matty Healy is even still relevant!! He can say all this heinous shit to HIS OWN teen fans and everybody lets that slide, but suddenly its Taylor's fault for dating him that the teens are gonna think its okay to being a racial fetishist? The math is kinda missing me on that one.

At one point, early on in her career, she had to dodge down allegations that she was convincing teen girls to break up with their good boyfriends by constantly writing break-up songs. Some of the discourse really feels like that kind of ridiculousness. Nobody is gonna go out and date a racist cuz Mommy Tay told us it was okay. Literally nobody is doing that unless they already wanted to.

It's hard really. I think she has every right to be angry and feel like she's going crazy under that kind of scrutiny that just gets worse all the time. I think there should be, and probably is, an onus on fans to be media-critical and decide for themselves "hey this is kind of fucked up and I think that's wrong, even if I look up to this person". And believe it or not! Most people not on the internet are able to do that!

But all that said, no matter what documentaries she makes, we need to impose a belief that girly is not a paragon of anything, but especially not:

Good Decisions

Allyship

Mental Health

Or Moral Credibility!

She's right to say that its literally her life, no one else's. Be a responsible consumer and don't listen to people who you think aren't worthy of support, and if you don't want to stop listening to her music even then, then you have to sort out that moral conundrum for yourself. It's not her job to be a moral figurehead for you, even if she wants to be and tells you she is.

#taylor swift #taylornation #ts ttpd #ttpd era #tortured poets department #ttpd #reputation #reputation tv #THIS IS NOT ME CONDONING HER ACTIONS BTW #THIS IS STILL A /neg POST #anti taylor swift #the anthology

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ddreamghost · 3 months ago

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Guys. I need to get this off my chest because I fr needed to get rid of this obsession of this Smug Gremlin Merchant and the ship itself,🧍and also how I felt about Remilia ending up with The Demon King. I have actually created this a long long long time ago because I was too shy to share my thoughts but then I remembered, Who cares!?

So lemme share y'all a madman obsession, all because of a Smug Gremlin Merchant.

Do Note: This isn't a proper paragraph text because I just copy paste from my Google Docs, So No Beta We Die Like Men.

⚠️Chapter Spoilers Ahead and Madman's Ramblings⚠️

The One Within the Villainess

Reasons why Remilia (Remilia Rosa Graupner)

the OG Villainess should have gone the romance route with Thorne the Merchant/Shopkeeper.

(The symbol or emblem should be Thorn vines shaped like a Web with Purple Rose in its Center)

(THORNE HAS LORE IN CHAPTER 9, WTF- THORNE HAS LORE, HE HAS LORE!!!, I HAVE TO REDO!!!! AND FU- ANGST, ITS GONNA BE ANGSTY BUT I WANT A HAPPY ENDING THAT THOSE TWO ARE THE MAIN COUPLE!!!)

1.) It would be WAY INTERESTING! There would be some CONFLICT! DRAMA! and SOME FINALLY FREAKING FRESH AND NEW ZHIT!

- Okay seriously you could do a freaking lot with this like YOO! Have you not seen it?! THE POSSIBILITIES OF THIS SHIP?!?!

- Like obviously, it ain't the Demon King, it ain't the soon-to-be King aka Crown Prince or motherfreaking Powerful asf Mage but A GUY WHO IS A MERCHANT

- Plot Twist but not really, HE IS A DEMON

- There is probably one but SEE, IT IS FREAKING RARE

- I also want Malewife and Girlboss Dynamic

- Like Charming Sly Malewife and Powerful Cunning Girlboss, they're both intelligent in different ways

- For Thorne, it will be People Skills aka He has great interpersonal skills or is great at being empathetic and communication skills (Ironic kuz He is a Demon) and is great with finances (His a Merchant Damn it!), also he should be great at being an alchemist (Kuz I am taking this idea from the premium items he sells), and appraiser (kuz obviously).

- While Remilia is somewhat good at those things, she is mostly great at being a Battlemage or mage warrior (Thanks to Emi), politics, strategist, smooth-talker and most of all being a badass queen (Honestly Remilia is too Badass OP, that I will think again what she is great at)

- I want Thorne to be great at reading people's body language (Merchant) or great at reading at people in general and can clearly tell someone is not whom they seem

- As much as Remilia is good at reading people, Thorne is way better because of his merchant experience and his high Intuition & Instincts, and he may not look like it but he is quite observant that he is able to tell something is off from someone, especially if he has a lot of information about them or knows them well enough

- Like Thorne has Kinesics(?)

- Also Thorne is secretly skilled at using plant magic since he is quite proficient at using plant magic

- You see where I am going with this? HEHEHEH

- So I find out from Chapter 9, the reason why Thorne doesn't have demon-like features is that it is a sign of lower or weak magical energy/power

- Usually, that will prevent me from making Thorne a Powerful Plant Mom Demon but I did type a skilled plant magic user, So Thorne is still a Skilled Plant Mom Magic User

-So I also find out in Chapter 9 about How Thorne believes that Remilia will make the Demon King, Angel Happy and erase the pain that has burdened him like the chapter was literally dedicated to Angel's Lore and Suffering, and how he deserved better which was stated by Thorne.

- and I am like "Oh Zhit, HOW AM I- OH BOI- OH NO- FU-"

- But then Remember why I was very hyper-fixated or obsessed with this ship of mine

2.) One of the reasons why I was obsessed with shipping Thorne and Remilia was that I DID NOT LIKE THE REASON WHY REMILIA AND ANGEL ENDED UP TOGETHER! (Update Again if Big Change Happened, like Chapter 9)

The reason was that Pina the Bish, favorite character was the Demon King, and Remilia who was out for revenge was like "Oh? Thats your favorite character? And you want to Marry him? WELL SIKE!! HIS MINE NOW!"

And thats like one of the greatest revenge ever but I found out even more that Remilia didn't marry out of Love for Angel, She married out of Spite to Pina's face

And She doesn't mind marrying Angel because he loves "Emi's Remilia" but I, the Hopeless Romantic Fool does not consider that as Love at all! I rather if Angel loves Remilia for herself! Even if it pains me even more that Remilia and Thorne will never be a together.

And Angel deserves someone who's freaking honest, isn't used for the sake of revenge, and is an actual LOVE! I mean chapter 9 was literally dedicated to Him freaking crying because he is killing his own people (and his brother, which I know won't happen kuz Remilia is gonna prevent that) and the burden of being King who has to kill his own kind just to stop even more killings

It honestly hurts knowing that they "Love" you or marry you because of revenge, To Spite a motherfreaking bish. Angel deserves better. Angel deserves someone that actually loves him

If I guess, Remilia could slowly fall in love with Angel when they are married but that's a big "IF" and knowing that she has to pretend to be "Emi's Remilia" to him and not herself in front him is already a no-no

I just want Remilia to be herself, even if it is only a single person, and also talk about Emi (LOL She needs to boast about her favorite reincarnator)

3.) Why Thorne? Why Him?

I can't fully explain it since I am clearly bad with words and constantly forgot the knowledge I learned, especially with my vocabulary. So I will say this as I explain in number 1 but let's add more. The reason that I have chosen Thorne, and why I was hyper-fixated with that character and would love for him to be the main love interest for Remilia is because of how he was drawn. His drawn cat eyes were the moment I instantly love this character and the way his personality showed the more you look at his expression whenever he reacted to Remilia's words or actions. Honestly, I already explained more in number 1 that Thorne and Remilia will be interesting asf, and something brand new or something fresh of breath air.

I also wished Thorne to be ML because if I tried to understand based on chapters alone, Remilia always went out to grab the quest items and always come back home to either spend a day or a few days. So it probably means Remilia and Thorne also spend quite time with each other, and it's usually because of business but don't you bond with your business partner? Yes! Yes, you do bond with them, which means their connection with each other will go better and stronger. So, I know Thorne is merely a merchant but that's the interesting part he is merely a merchant which is a breath of fresh air since the male leads are always either, a crown prince, a knight, a powerful wizard, or a demon king. I mean sure the plot twist of Thorne was him being a demon but that's it.

I am just taking advantage of the fact that he and Remilia spend more time together than Angel and Remilia because I have a headcanon that Remilia is a type of person who falls in love with a person if they bonded emotionally or spend so much quality time with each other. Usually one of the factors is her love for Emi, thats like the biggest reason she started her revenge but what if Remilia also fall in love while still doing her revenge for Emi. Because I just imagine Remilia remembering Emi's wise words as she starts to slowly fall in Love with Thorne's being, his expressive face, his wit, his cat smug face, and his honesty with her as they bond together.

I want Remilia to slowly fall in Love, and finding out this how Love is, and how different loving someone like a family and a lover. Of course Thorne will be similar to the original but let's make his personality even shine more, especially the way he reacts, talk, and How the hell did become a capable chief!

4.) Thorne is Cute ASF, and he probably is one of the people who understand her way better especially if she confesses about Emi and more. No.3 explained better.

- This on Reddit that was explained way better but Yes. The 2nd Picture was my Response.

5.) Thorne's Headcanon full name is Thornevine Amin Ginton

-Actually idk if I prefer Thorne Amin Ginton or Thornevine Amin Ginton, I just added -vine on his name full name kay I thought it sounded good (PLEASE DON'T LAUGH-)

-Amin means Devoted and Ginton means Garden

-A Devoted Garden 🥺💖❤️💖

-So I found out Thorne was an Orphan Kid from Chapter 9, So I will headcanon that he learned those words from Miss Mizari or a wise old person and instantly falls in love with it, and turned into his full name

-THAT'S HOW CUTE THORNE IS!!

-OR! When Remilia and Thorne decided to become a couple or Married even 😏, They will make their own last names together!! TO REPRESENT THEIR LOVE~! 🥺🥺💖❤️💖

-THAT'S HOW WHOLESOMELY CUTE THEY ARE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I can't believe you just read all that. Here, have some of my Fanarts that I didn't get to share because I was Internet Shy-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I imagine a scene where Thorne is asking Remilia if she is willing to forgive him for what he did to Emi (The Love and Charm Potion/Perfume)

[I have no clue what Remilia is wearing on this one ⬇️]

This was just my take on Manga's "ML" in every otome romance manga. Also this whole time, Thorne isn't Tan Skin but a Milquetoast Guy 😭😭

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So anyway, Thank you for Reading a Madman's Obsession throughout Last Year-

Will this obsession be over? I have no clue. 🧍

#the one within the villainess #Akuyaku Reijou no Naka no Hito #getting off my chest #manga #I swear I ain't insane #I think anyway #Thorne #i still love them #Also his white?!#no beta we die like men #character obsession

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bittyfromquotev · 4 months ago

Note

Second controversial take of the day, bc apparently we're on a roll

but just with how some of the way y'all be talking, I honest to God don't blame bitty for throwing out the fact that at any point some of you fuckers could be the gore anons (which is never out of the realm of possibility, it's not hard to hide typing quirks or mimic someone else's). you act the Exact same

'bu-bu-but we don't send gore we're just-' white knighting? yeah. exactly my fucking point. the whole, "doing it for the greater good" and speaking over the actual people that want you to shut the fuck up. The Exact. Same. Thing.

With the g-anons, they do it in the name for defending solarmoon shippers by running 'fake queers' off the internet. they speak over other shippers, that explicitly tell them to shut up and fuck off.

And here you are, trying to defend the gore victims by trying to control and criticize how others chose to cope with the situation. Even though Several people including some of the victims want you to shut up and fuck off.

This isn't assumption either, this is fact. Your actions speak loud and clear all on their own, regardless of how you may try to justify them.

Learn to take a hint, that your opinion is neither wanted or asked for. it is not your place to decide what bitty should or shouldn't do. better yet, ✨it's none of your business✨

Congratulations for being a hypocrite btw and contributing to another actual problem in general fandom spaces. I don't even want to acknowledge the toxicity of unsolicited criticism, but you're doing just fine indulging in that topic all on your own aren't you?

[side note: "To that anon? Way to completely not read what I said at all." you sure do like to pick and choose what you read and complain about don't you? awfully convenient to miss the point of the whole paragraph. ironic considering you then go on to complain about bitty not seeing your dozen of points that are explicitly unwelcome on this blog. And that's not ever addressing trying to side with a harasser anon, not a good look. dare I say, blatantly obtuse if not worse.]

Seriously tho bitty, you and anyone else getting this bs (bc I doubt you're the only one rn) really should just block them the next time they try to repeat themselves. Don't matter if it's the same person, or 3 different ones. People like these are the how and why g-anons exist in the first place. This mindset is explicitly Dangerous. Which sounds extreme, but as someone who's been in more than 60+ fandoms for over 7 years, I know wtf I'm talking about. It always ends the same. Twitterhead whiteknights doing bigoted shit in the name of the greater good, no matter how well meaning, is how petty callouts come about. And when it doesn't stop immediately in its track, it snowballs and gets even worse from there - ❄

Thank you so much! Lmao I almost thought you were them because of how this ask started off but I’m glad it’s you :)

Yeah they—

They don’t seem to want to listen to me. They keep telling me the same stuff over and over and it’s funny yet irritating because I’d explained myself already (I know I’ve said this like 15 times but I need to get this point across). I do plan on blocking them if they ever try something though.

But like ❄️ said, I am allowed to cope and react to things however the fuck I want. I do my best to comfort or be there for my friends and those affected more severely, but I’m personally not gonna cry about it.

No one should speak for anyone else. I let the “friend” who abused me for 10 years speak for me a lot and it doesn’t make people feel good. It’s very invalidating and no one wants someone to speak for them.

Once again, thank you so much anon. I greatly appreciate it :)

#q is dead #from the bitty jar #the bitty has been yoinked (ask tag)#anon #❄️ anon

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sarandipitywrites · 1 year ago

Text

saran's year of writing (2023)

hey y'all! saw a couple posts like this floating around and thought i'd hop on the train, because this year has been WILD for my writing (in a really good way). let's start with the bullet points version and i'll put the details under the cut. here we go:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

shared snippets of my work with other, actual humans!

made friends?!

started (and finished!) draft 2 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

wrote 1 short story for every week in october (that's 5 stories in a month! that's great for me!)

first NaNoWriMo in 10 years (and i finished it!)

drafted and re-drafted The Art of Empty Space

started draft 3 of Dead Roots, Dark Water

details, links to projects, me getting maybe a tad too personal, and those all-important wordcounts under the cut:

I JOINED WRITEBLR

i just realized i only started participating at the beginning of october, but it feels like i've been hanging out with you all the whole year 😅 maybe that means i should cut back a bit? nah...

really though, this year was the year i started taking my writing more seriously (not in a 'gotta get published' kind of way, but in a 'writing makes me happier than anything else and that's enough reason to set aside time and energy for it without feeling hella guilty' kind of way) and seeing you all posting your work and being so positive and encouraging to each other was what helped me get up the nerve to join in. and i can say without a doubt that it's the best choice i've made all year. y'all are such a supportive community and i've never once felt like i was encroaching or didn't belong here (and for me, that's really saying something)

so i guess what i'm getting at is: THANK YOU! i've loved reading your snippets and projects this year, and i'm way more confident in my own than i've ever been 💜 y'all are good peeps

Dead Roots, Dark Water

word count (edited and written): 187,789

that's a lotta words! DRDW is both my longest work wordcount-wise, and the work i've dedicated the most time to... probably ever. and i'm SO happy with it, it's a little concerning (/positive)

DRDW is now on its THIRD draft, and (assuming i don't do a massive re-edit) should be ready to start posting in 2024! *excited screaming* i've never released anything i've written in its entirety (the snippets i've been posting are actually a lot more than i've ever shared before), so this is MASSIVE for me and i'm both excited and terrified! overall, though, it's a very, very good thing

Short Stories

this october, i decided to challenge myself to do several things i don't ever do: write short stories; write them on a timeline; and share them. and i did! i wrote one short story for each week in october, and posted them here. they're far from my best work, and due to the timeline, they never could have been my best, which oddly i think helped make it easier to post them? they were also the first pieces i shared here (or anywhere)! they're not awesome, but i'm proud of them and i'm proud of myself for sharing them

NaNoWriMo and The Art of Empty Space

i've done nano once before, ten years ago. i was in college and had a lot more time then (and a job where i could spend the entire day just writing - i didn't know how good i had it), and even so i remember struggling to reach my word goal. but by the power of writing everything in wingdings so i can't second-guess my word choices, i made it this year! and even though i decided to challenge myself by writing a romance-heavy project (something i've historically avoided because IT'S HARD FOR ME, DAMNIT), i love AES and its characters and that feels fucking awesome.

even though my brain decided to spring a surprise plot restructure on me and now i have to rewrite like half of it. it'll be better for it, though, so it's all good 🥲

What's Next?

my plan for early 2024 is, of course, going to be to work on draft 3 of DRDW with the hope of getting some chapters posted (they are LONG, so i'll probably post to tumblr in chunks and the full, unbroken chapters on Ao3 due to formatting). once that's ready, i'll be able to return my attention to AES and getting draft 1.5 all written up. i've mostly figured out where the plot's going there, so it'll just be writing it up to figure out the gaps. if i'm able to write something for november again next year (which i really hope i will; nano did some great things for AES), it'll probably be one of the other Jak & Daxter fics i have kicking around in my head, because i am Obsessed (and switching it up between working on fanfic and original fic seems to work well for my brain).

i've been not super active here for the last month or so because Real Life Work is kicking my ass, but hopefully that will calm down and i'll be able to do more of what i want: writing wild shit, reading your wild shit, and screaming about it together 💜

good vibes and best wishes to everybody in the new year 🥂

#ayearofwriting #a year of writing #writeblr #2023 #writers on tumblr #saran rambles #the art of empty space #dead roots dark water

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three--rings · 2 years ago

Note

Hello! Sorry to bother but I am waaay too curious

If you have time/energy/mood, could you please elaborate? I am curious about your perspective. Psychology is one of my biggest passions and I want to start a degree in it (with possibility to advance further with the degree maybe) I am aware of some of its flaws, and the fact that it can be biased and inconclusive and not exactly exact and precise like the other sciences. Is there anything else that perhaps I should keep an eye out on? Thank you for reading and if you reply, thank you for replying as well.

So the thing about studying psychology, especially at the undergrad level, is that you spend all your time being taught about these landmark studies that defined the thinking of decades of psychology theory and practice.

And then at some point, which may be during or after your education, you learn all of those studies were terrible research bullshit that can't be reliably reproduced even if they could get past a modern ethics board.

Psychology is a field that is really uncomfortable with itself because it desperately wants to be taken seriously as a hard science and not be thought of as just people thinking about people. But it is REALLY REALLY bad at being a hard science. The research is just not rigorous at ALL.

My senior year of undergrad for my research methods class my group of slackers who rarely went to class put together a research study where we drew up entirely new models and tools that looked far better than the published ones, applied them to a much larger and more diverse population of subjects and basically put the leading research in that little niche to shame. On the weekends. Our prof wanted us to publish but we were graduating and it never happened. We sent it to the leading researcher in the field and he was all...uh, yeah, I'm working on some new stuff too...but good for y'all. He was a known prick though.

Like, it's not that there's not good stuff in there somewhere. But my god there's so much chaff.

Then you get into the grad school degree maelstorm and...ugh. There are a lot of options. They are split into practical i.e. you want to help people in the real world and clinical i.e. you want to do shitty studies and publish.

I worked both in psychology research (so I got to see how the sausage was made on the ground) and in social work for mental health care and...most of my coworkers at both jobs had some kind of advanced degrees and were making something around $30K doing the same jobs as me. There are far too many people with masters in psychology because they are easy to get and even if you get your LPC they are still way too many people with them with no idea what they are doing. Like you can go to Christian College Number 304 and get your Marriage and Family Therapy masters and come out and have only learned to Pray On It and do some supervised hours and now you're licensed and yeah I worked with these people. (Go get your masters, they told me. It is SO EASY they told me. Uh, yeah that's not winning me over to your program.)

Anyway, if you can't tell I'm jaded. Besides the fact that the field is one that will eat you alive, burn you out, and then spit you up, with no money and no accomplishments. I also deeply loved it even though it destroyed me. (I mean also my spine exploded, which didn't help.)

If you want to do hands-on helping people stuff I like the social work programs out there. And if you want to study hard science of human behavior neuroscience is killing it. Psychology is...IDK. The most hopeful way to look at it is that it's a discipline going through a transitional period maybe. But I'm also fairly out of touch with the field these days so talking to someone actually in the field now would be a good call for further advice. Unfortunately most faculty in my experience are...deeply behind the times. You would not believe the kind of 1960s relics I had to deal with teaching me.

And most of what I learned about mental health I learned on the ground, in mental health crisis work, on the go. Most of psychology doesn't really enjoy dealing with "abnormal psychology". Which is literally the term for people with any mental health diagnosis. I had one class on it.

So that's my entirely personal experience based opinion. For more, look into the replication crisis of psychology research.

#wikipedie #asks #psychology

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elvish-sky · 2 years ago

Text

A Queen in Body, Mind, and Spirit Part 2

A.N: Guess who did the writing? Me! So sorry this took an unimaginable amount of time but here you are! Hope it's worth the ridiculously long wait (seriously tho if I was a reader of my own writing and had to wait this long I would have murdered myself thu my screen y'all are angels).

Word Count: 1,574

Chapter 2/2.

Read on Ao3 or Wattpad!

*****

At the banquet, it was all you could do to sit there without fidgeting. People kept coming up to the high table to congratulate you, and you were so nervous all you did was smile and nod. It took Legolas coming up and wishing you well before leaning down to whisper something to Aragorn and pinching your arm at the same time to make you remember you knew how to speak.

Aragorn, thankfully, seemed equally nervous. He’d clearly thought more about this hairbrained scheme in the time since proposing it to you, and that thinking hadn’t done his confidence in it any good. But he was the one who’d gotten the two of you into this mess in the first place, so he had to deal with it.

“You know…” you said, leaning over to Aragorn, “I’ve been thinking we should do some sort of performance. Or an announcement. Something to make this seem extra official.”

He looked at you like you’d sprouted a second head.

“You want to do something to draw even more attention to us? Why?”

You shrugged. “It seems like something we should do? But honestly, my ass is starting to hurt from sitting down for so long.”

He snorted, and quickly tried and failed to conceal it with a not-so-elegant cough.

“Fine. Let’s dance,” Aragorn said, before rising and offering you his arm.

“I had something a little more along the lines of sneaking out of the banquet and going to sleep in mind, but I guess dancing works too?”

You grabbed his proffered arm, letting him help you down the steps from the raised dais where you’d eaten onto the dance floor. As you walked to the center, you saw Legolas rise and tap his spoon against his goblet.

“The king and his betrothed would like to dance!” Legolas declared.

With that, every eye in the room that wasn’t already on you—which was admittedly few— looked at you. And you stood in the center of the room, alone except for Aragorn, waiting for the band to start playing.

The band began, strings of notes floating down to your ears as Aragorn placed one hand on your waist and clasped your own in his other. Your other hand rested on his shoulder, careful not to crush his cape. You began to move together, stepping slowly until your feet started to remember the pattern and you picked up speed. You spun around each other, all the other dancers on the floor falling back to simply watch the two of you move in complete harmony.

Aragorn whirled you around the dance floor, spinning you out with arms always there to bring you back to him. Neither of you really knew what specific dance you were doing, you just let the music take you with the other. The music swelled to its apex and you began a circle of spins on your own, your only point of contact your hand clasped with his above your head, his other arm always there to catch you. Revolving only through the light touches of your feet on the ground, the exact right touch happening almost as if by magic to propel you through. And as you finished the twirls he clasped your waist once more, steadying you as you danced with him again.

As you moved together his hand crept from your waist to rest on the small of your back, drawing you in closer to him. Your own hand traveled up to rest on the back of his neck, bringing his head down until your foreheads pressed together. You looked into each other's eyes as you slowed your movements, breathing in unison as you pulled apart to silence from those watching.

Until you saw, out of the corner of your eye, Faramir’s hands raised to clap and then the noise of applause bombarded your senses. You heard a wolf-whistle and knew without looking that it was Legolas.

You felt a hand on your waist again, and Aragorn guided you back up the steps. People were starting to move back onto the floor as the first strands of a new piece began to trickle through the air, but you didn’t notice. Your eyes were locked with his as you reached your seats, your body knowing that you were supposed to sit but your heart keeping you in place, one hand resting on his shoulder, his still on your waist, poised almost like the beginning of another dance.

And then the moment ended—his eyes broke from yours and looked over your shoulder as Legolas bounded up the steps behind you.

“Aragorn, we cannot have you taking all her time the whole night! The kingdom needs to see their soon to be queen mingle!”

Aragorn seemed surprised for a moment, before dropping his hands and nodding.

You turned, and took Legolas’s offered arm, gliding down to the floor with him, and spent the rest of the night making small talk with various nobles, none of whose names you would remember the next day. Your mind just kept flitting back to the way Aragorn had looked at you, like you were the only person in the world. It had confused you, because that was the way you felt that you looked at him. But he was not in love with you, so it didn’t make sense.

Much later that evening, after having excused yourselves from the banquet, you found yourself walking down the torchlit halls, Aragorn alongside you. You reached the door to your rooms and pressed your hand on the handle, ready to open it and say goodnight, but then Aragorn took your other hand and spun you around to face him.

You stood there for a moment, breath unconsciously held as he simply looked at you.

And then he moved, and held you by your waist and spun you around until you felt the cool wood of the door against your back. He hesitated for a moment, looking at you before slowly kissing you. And then he deepened it, pressing your body against the door as your hands tangled in his hair and you melted into his touch, kissing him in return as you marveled at his actions. You didn’t know how long you spent there with him, kissing each other for the first time, not quite realizing what this meant but knowing it was bringing you delight to be with him.

Later, you stood on the balcony outside your room together, gazing down at the city before he turned to you. Your eyes didn’t move from his as you mirrored him, gazing at the picture he painted. He practically glowed in the moonlight, dark clothes not drowned out by the moonlight but instead set apart from the rest of the world. The silver thread looked like liquified moonlight, and in that moment, even without the crown that had doubtless fallen off somewhere inside, he looked every inch a king.

But he didn’t seem to care. He was simply drinking in the sight of you. You were sure that your cheeks were flushed, eyes bright and hair mussed but he couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away. And he was right not to do so—however much the moonlight made him glow, it was nothing compared to the vision before him. It practically set you aflame, bright colors burning in the night sky as the white light caught the shimmering threads at just the right angle

And then his eyes left you as he moved, suddenly.

“My queen,”Aragorn said, bowing his head.

You stood there, shocked for a moment.

“Aragorn—”

He looked up, meeting your eyes once more. “I was ignoring what I felt for you in order to make both our lives easier in some way. But I cannot ignore it—I suspect it was this that made me suggest this inane plan in the first place.”

He laughed then, a small, wry chuckle.

“But I do hope that in doing so we may have found ourselves right in the place that I, at least, was trying to deny in the first place.”

You tilted your head, deep down knowing where he was leading but your heart pounding in your chest was too nervous to follow.

“Where might that be?”

“Love,” he said. “For me, at least, I have been in love with you for a great deal of time. I am not so presumptuous as to assume that you return my affections, however I must tell you that I dearly wish for us to be betrothed in truth. I want to spend every next step, every coming spin, with you.”

As he spoke your eyes widened, hardly daring to hope but knowing that these words were real. You could tell by the depth of emotion held behind his eyes now, the softness but sureness with which he spoke. And you realized then that you had somehow always known—this was who you were meant to spend all the joyful moments, all the sad moments, and every moment with.

He took your hand as you opened your mouth, searching your eyes as if bracing himself for your answer.

You laughed, nearing giddiness in this moment, standing on a balcony that overlooked all of Minas Tirith, flaming in the moonlight as the man you loved looked at you as if you were the only thing in the world.

“Well, then. I believe we should make this betrothal official.”

******

everything taglist: @entishramblings @itgetsatadhazy @boyruins @anjhope1 @kumqu4t @katbby16 @thewhiteladyofrohan @kirstenscaffeinateddisaster @beenovel @shethereadinghobbit @guardianofrivendell @hey-its-nonny @errruvande

#maiawrites #aragorn #aragorn x reader #aragorn/reader #aragorn x y/n #aragorn x you #aragorn elessar #lord of the rings #lotr #lotr fanfiction #legolas #faramir #eowyn #fake relationship #fake dating

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