#she thinks that her role in the story can be easily replaced

[haliaiii]

fuck romeo and juliet i want what kane and kalani have

Thank you, have some more 👍👍

Also some misc. facts about them:

- Kain was the captain of the baseball team in highschool, his dream was to become a professional if he didn’t loose his leg

- Kalani did ballroom dancing in highschool with Val

- Kalani works for the government under the Council, her boss is Virgil who’s the Chancellor

- She lives in the capital but comes down to see Kain and the others on every other week on weekends/her days off

- they both like going bowling together with the girls

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

If you were to write Lila would you keep her being a con artist criminal with multiple identities but hinted at/revealed it earlier than S5 or would you cut that part down of her character entirely ?

It would really depend on how much space I had to fill. Gabriel is not the kind of villain that you can draw out forever. His story needs to have a clearly planned ending right from the start. In fact, I think they drew him out at least a season too long. So, if I also had to fill eight seasons, I could see myself going the Lila route. I'd just make a few changes. Off the top off my head, here's how I'd handle serious villain Lila as opposed to what canon wrote, which is petty school bully Lila who is entirely unbelievable as a serious villain.

First of all, Lila wouldn't be introduced at the end of season one. While her and Gabriel probably need to have some overlap, that's way too soon. In my version, she shows up at the start of season four and she'd be heavily toned down. We'd know that something was off about her, we may even keep the liar thing, but it would be a lot more subtle. Lies like, "Ladybug rescued me" and "I got to go backstage at a Jagged Stone concert" instead of "Ladybug is my bff" and "Jagged Stone wrote a song about me." Her goal would no longer be gaining peons, but instead gaining true close friends who like and trust her. The reason for this is that Lila is replacing Optigami as Mayura's last sentimonster.

See, season three ended with all those identity reveals and most of the revealed identities are in the same class. That's curious, so it makes perfect sense for Nathalie and Gabriel to want someone undercover in Adrien's class, but they can't do it. So Nathalie makes a sentikid of her own, gives her the power of manipulation, and sends her off to try to find Ladybug and/or Chat Noir by whatever means necessary.

This would give a clear reason for Gabriel to trust Lila, a clear reason for Lila to know all about the miraculous, and a clear reason for Lila to hate Ladybug. In this version, I wouldn't do Nathalie's lackluster redemption. Instead, Nathalie stays bad right up to her death. Perhaps her last act is getting the butterfly to her daughter and ordering her to get revenge on Ladybug and Chat Noir should Gabriel fail. After all, Gabriel can't wield more than six miraculous at once, so it makes sense for him to send Nathalie off with at least one of them while he enacts his master plan just in case it fails.

That's just one potential path to take. I also like the idea of having Lila be someone who came to Paris in order to find the miraculous, but who has no ties to the Agrestes. That would require some pretty big changes to her character, though, as I can't see that type of character caring about things like dating Adrien or being a model or all the other crap that has nothing to do with gaining a miraculous and everything to do with popularity and social clout. Lila canonically doesn't know that Gabriel even has a miraculous until the final of season four, so she basically just lucked into finding one instead of doing anything logical to find it because this show has no clue how to actually write smart, clever characters.

In summary, I'm totally fine with complex, master-manipulator Lila, it's just hard to figure out the best way to make her work when we don't know anything about her backstory or motivation. The version proposed above is just the best I can do to fit her into the role canon placed her in. A role I could easily see later seasons flat out ignoring.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

It genuinely keeps me up at night that when Van Eck attempts to reveal to the Merchant Council that Wylan can’t read, they all react exactly as Wylan feared they would. (Spoilers ahead!) Of course since they don’t believe him and Wylan’s brilliant memory for Jesper’s words protects him we don’t see the full force of their response, but it is made PAINFULLY clear that they all would have responded the same way Van Eck did - “How could you say such things about your own blood?”. It’s an incredibly meaningful and arguably subtle detail that Bardugo implements to remind the reader that although Van Eck was our main antagonist in this case, there is no singular villain in this story because what the characters are fighting is an ultimately unbeatable source. The system is impossible to truly defeat because it is a hydra, we see that when Dryden’s father died he took on the role of the Council and acted the exact same way he did, and if Van Eck had raised Wylan to one day take over from him then he too would have been forcibly moulded into that shape by the poisonous environment of this governing body. The defeat of Van Eck, had Kaz not amended his will to name Wylan his inheritor, would have been only that: the downfall of a singular man, to be easily replaced by another with the same dangerously capitalistic values and crude methods of implementing them. It would not have been any change in the system that oppresses the main characters - I think it’s kind of similar to the Hunger Games (spoilers ahead) when Katniss chooses to kill Coin instead of Snow because she realises that killing Snow doesn’t actually change the system if someone else will simply step into his shoes. We also see this reflected in Kaz and his mission to destroy Rollins, since by doing so he too has taken the actions Rollins did. When Inej points out their similarities he denies it, saying “I don’t sell girls, I don’t con helpless kids out of their money”. Inej replies with the gentle, HEARTBREAKING sentence: “Look at the floor of the Crow Club, Kaz”. And this is so important because Kaz has no consideration for what happens to those people once they step outside his door. How do they fair after he scams them? How many of them have had no other money to fall back on? Did one of them sell their daughter to be able to pay off their debts to him? He’d never know, he just had the money and that’s all he thinks about. But if that girl survived long enough to want revenge, who would she blame? Say she didn’t want to blame her parents, like Kaz doesn’t want to blame Jordie, then who becomes the manifestation of all her hatred, the one thing she has decided that destroying will cure her? Kaz does. Just as Rollins has for him.

Every system of this city is a hydra, and there are so many beautifully written reminders of this without forcing it down our throats, but there is also the hope of genuine, real change. In Wylan, joining the Merchant Council as someone opposed to its views, as someone who has lived in both sides of this city and been abused by both of them, as someone who understands that real change is hard to implement. In Inej, as she journeys against the system that abused her not for revenge, but for the protection of all the children who have been hurt and killed, of all the children being hurt and killed, and of all the children who would have been hurt and killed if she didn’t stop the slavers who sought them, as someone who knows that real change is action. In Jesper, as someone raised far from the suffocating closed-minded atmosphere of the Merchant Council and who can support Wylan through it, as someone who knows that striving for real change is messy and chaotic, but that it’s where he thrives. In Matthias, who died believing that the world could truly change, who died believing in Nina, believing in himself, and believing that his death was a necessary sacrifice to real change, even though he wanted it to be peaceful. In Nina, as someone who had learned that real change cannot always be won with violence, as someone who will learn to use her new power to restructure a civilisation, as someone who will spend the rest of her life striving for change because nothing could ever be worse than her beloved having died in vain. And in Kaz, in the small ways, in the fear of what he could become that will hold him back from becoming the next head of the hydra, in his love for Inej shifting his perception of the world, and in his slow journey of healing, maybe one day killing Rollins will be enough. And if that doesn’t work, he’ll burn the world down and start it all again.

[coleszzzworld]

Baby daddy Keigo Takami (hawks) x fem reader (she/her pronouns.)

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Author’s note ✰~(hey guys!:) , I really don’t have much to say , but I think I’m going to make a baby daddy series ! , so lmk some characters you would like to see! Enjoy!) ✰~

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TRIGGER WARNING,~ ✰ cussing , suggestive content, reader is a mom , and hawks is a dad , hawks is a douche in this Ngl , definitely Yandere story:)~ ✰ POSITIVELY DO NOT READ IF EASILY TRIGGERED. -✰Enjoy the fall.✰-🐇♦️🖤

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-✰”I love you so….But why I love you, I'll never know.✰-

✰-Baby daddy! Hawks who loves you and his and yours son very much , like he would lay down his life for you both , he would blow up the sun if you or his child asked.

✰-baby daddy! Hawks who doesn’t think the break up between you and him was mutual, I mean yes you wanted to break up , but he didn’t , you say he’s to “clingy” , yeah whatever he thinks , but trust me when I say this , even tho you two aren’t together, you can never truly get rid of him. He’s your baby daddy , the father of your son, your first love , I mean for god sake ! You two are child hood best friends ! No matter how many people you try to get to replace those roles , you can never get rid of him , he’s like a stain that’s permanently stained in your life!.

✰-Baby daddy! Hawks who spoils the hell out of yours and his child and spoils you too!, that kid gets what ever he wants , new iPad ? He has it , new Nikes and Jordans? He has every pair , even the expensive ones , oh your kid wants the newest iPhone? , it doesn’t matter that he is five years old , he’s getting that new iPhone 14! , not gonna lie , hawks lowkey stalks you while your out shopping, you see a purse you like , but you can’t afford it? , don’t worry hawks got you , you’ll be walking around the city with the newest parda bag , oh you want those new Jordans?! , don’t worry hawks will get you every pair and the new ones on top of it oh you like that 500$ necklace don’t worry he got you it but… he wants you to get it engraved with your and his initial’s!!, he wants you to show off , let the world know who you belong to…

✰-baby daddy! Hawks who definitely has your and y’all’s kid name tattooed on his neck , on the left side of his neck , right above his collarbone he has your name tattooed with a heart , and on the right side he has y/c/n (your child’s name) tattooed with a dove! , you think it’s pretty…dramatic? , but then you remember when you two were a thing you had got his name tattooed on the side of your middle finger , and when your son was born you got his name tattooed on your shoulder….with a dove , well now you both have matching tattoos.!

✰-baby daddy hawks! Who basically lives at your house , like no lie , this dude lives at your house , when you both broke up , he some how convinced you that living in the same house would be beneficial for y/c/n , obviously it doesn’t work y/c/n knows you two aren’t together but he questions it …. “Mommy?, if you and daddy aren’t together….then why do you guys live together?..” he asks you , looking up at you as you get him ready for bed , you inhale looking down at your kid … questioning what to say , your child looks like you , I mean he has some of hawks features like he inherited hawks quirk ! , and he has the same eyes as his dad , but mostly your child is a spinning image of you , as you breathe out feeling the awkwardness of the question, “i don’t-“ hawks cuts you off , “because even tho we aren’t together, I still love you and your mother very much kid.” Hawks says as he enters the room , “well… mommy do you love daddy?” He says as he looks back up to you smiling, ouch you don’t know what to say , you don’t want to crush your own child’s spirt ! , you do still love hawks , but your annoyed of his presences he’s so… overprotective. Hawks then looks up at you , curiosity in his eyes , he genuinely wanted to know your answer, you breathe out “i do…now let’s get you to bed hun.” You say as you pick y/c/n up , looking at hawks as you walk out of the room.

[✰-nsfw below! ✰-]

✰-baby daddy! Hawks who doesn’t let you go out on tinder dates , you could get hurt! That’s his excuse, I mean it’s valid but still , you can’t even go out with your girls unless hawks with you , I mean yes it’s to much the overprotectiveness… but when you two do go out , he knows how to have fun , so here you both are drunk as hell, and y/c/n is with your family for the weekend and you two are having a heated make out session in the back of the taxi , and your on top of him grinding your cunt into his hard on , you two only stop when the taxi driver stops at your house , of course you tip the driver greatly cause he was force to endure that .

✰-baby daddy! Hawks who fucks you so hard after that, actually you guys didn’t make it to the bedroom or any room at that… you guys just start going at it in the kitchen… so here you both are on the kitchen island him on top of you , thrusting in and out of you , clothes thrown on the table and the bar stools near the kitchen island , you can’t help but moan out , well actually whine out , yeah hawks was annoying but damn … his dick definitely wasn’t . As he keeps thrusting in and out of your tight pussy , he grabs you by the neck lightly choking you , “f-fuck I missed this pussy… h-how would you feel if I got you pregnant again …hmm? Fuck I bet you would like that.” He says as kisses you , he then lets go of your neck , letting you respond, “yes p-please… f-fuck I’m about to cum.. fuck hawks please harder !!” You say as your toes curl from the pleasure, your thighs shaking your on the brink of your high , “yeah , you want my cum?…..you want my babies ma?…god your such a good girl for me baby..” he says , and almost immediately you cum , and he wasn’t far behind, his thrust get sloppy , he groans as he puts his face into the crook of your neck , breathing in your scent , “I love you so much y/n… I’ll never let you go. Your mines …” he mumbles in your neck.

✰-baby daddy! Hawks who buys you a pregnancy test , let’s just say he won’t be moving out anytime soon, and let’s say you and him had some celebration sex later that night.

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A/n - Ik this was mad short but no kidding writers block hit me while I was writing this 😭 but let me know who else you want to see as a baby daddy!

Love y’all !🫶🏼

[lavendersugarplum]

Why Ben’s Death Was Important.

These two TUA characters could've died earlier, and I would not care.

Now that The Umbrella Academy has come to an end with Season 4, I feel like it's the perfect time to share some of my thoughts on the characters, and one in particular—Jennifer. If Jennifer had been killed off at any point during the season, it honestly wouldn't have affected me in the slightest. I just couldn't bring myself to care about her character. Jennifer's presence throughout the series has been minimal at best; she's barely had any screen time or development, making it hard to connect with or invest in her story. In many ways, she felt like a character who was simply there to serve the needs of the plot, rather than someone we were meant to root for or even understand on a deeper level.

The show could have handled her just as they did with Harlan—abruptly writing her out without much of a send-off. Harlan, who was once an important character, was discarded with little fanfare when his role no longer fit into the narrative. But because Jennifer is more closely tied to the central plot and Sparrow Ben's storyline, the writers clearly felt she was too important to be cut off so easily. Despite her being integral to certain plot points, it felt like her character never truly got the attention or development needed to make her compelling. So, while her survival made sense for the overall narrative, it didn't do much to make her any more memorable or likable to me as a viewer. If they had killed her off from the start, then the show would basically be over. Happy Ending for everyone....except her.

Another character I would have had zero qualms about losing is Sparrow Ben. Especially him. I HATE this character with a passion. No one can ever replace Umbrella Ben in my eyes; he will always be the best Ben, the only valid Ben, and the one who truly mattered. Sparrow Ben, on the other hand, is an entirely different story. I wouldn't give two flying fucks if something terrible happened to him. 😭 From the moment he appeared on screen, it was clear that his character was meant to be unlikable—arrogant, self-centered, and constantly at odds with everyone around him. And while it seemed like the writers tried to soften him up in late end of Season 3, hoping to make him more sympathetic or relatable, it just didn't work for me. Any attempts to redeem Sparrow Ben fell flat, and he remained just as obnoxious as ever.

Frankly, I'm convinced that the only reason the Umbrellas kept him around was because he looked like their beloved Umbrella Ben. If it were up to me, I'd have left his ass somewhere along the way, probably "accidentally" letting him get swallowed up by the Kugelblitz or one of the many other apocalyptic threats they faced. The Umbrellas' insistence on keeping him around felt misguided; he's not their Ben, and he's made it painfully clear he doesn't want to be part of their found family. I kept thinking, "Just let him go! He's not your brother!" The whole dynamic was forced and uncomfortable, and it's hard not to blame him for a lot of what went wrong this season. The group's willingness to cling to this hollow version of their lost sibling only made things worse.

Because let's be real, most of the things in Season 4 can be traced back to Sparrow Ben's actions or his selfish decisions. If they had just left him behind earlier on, half the disasters they faced might never have happened. The Umbrellas should have cut their losses instead of trying to see something redeemable in a character who had no interest in being part of their story. To me, the only decent Sparrows were Sloane and Marcus—characters who, unlike Sparrow Ben, showed some sense of loyalty, vulnerability, and a willingness to grow. Sparrow Ben was just dead weight, a constant reminder of what the Umbrellas lost, without offering anything meaningful in return. He is a prime example to show how none of the Umbrella's are willing to just let go of some things and move on.

The entire series of The Umbrella Academy revolves around one central theme: the siblings' refusal to let go of the past and accept things as they are. They're constantly clinging to old traumas, memories, and regrets, unable to move forward. This is why Sparrow Ben's antagonistic personality is in a way important to the storyline. If he had been as loving, kind, and brotherly as Umbrella Ben, his role as the catalyst for the Umbrellas' downfall would have made no sense. Sparrow Ben's cold and selfish nature was a direct contrast to what the Umbrellas once had, highlighting just how much they were still trapped in the past, desperately trying to hold onto something that was long gone. So even though a lot of us might absolutely loathe this character, he role was a reminder that you can't recreate what you've lost, no matter how hard you try, and this refusal to accept that truth is what ultimately led the siblings down a destructive path.

Rewatching the series with this context makes Umbrella Ben's death feel even more important. On its own, his death is a heartbreaking and tragic moment, a sudden loss of a beloved character. But when viewed within the entire narrative arc of the series, it transforms from a purely sad event into something more complex—almost a bittersweet relief. I believe now that Ben's death was a subtle foreshadowing of how the story would ultimately end. It was a powerful hint at the series' overarching message about the necessity of letting go. Ben's journey was a microcosm of what every character needed to learn but often resisted—the painful but necessary act of moving on.

Ben was the first sibling to accept his fate, to realize that holding onto people, memories, and pain when it's time to let go is not only unhealthy but self-destructive. His decision to let go wasn't just about moving on from his own death; it was about ending his cycle of self-inflicted suffering. He recognized that by clinging to the past, he was only perpetuating his own misery. His final act of release allowed him to find peace, breaking the cycle and allowing his spirit to finally move forward. This stands in sharp contrast to the rest of the siblings, who repeatedly fall into the same patterns, unable to break free from their own personal demons.

To break the cycle, you must be willing to let go, just as Ben ultimately did.

[uniquecellest]

Some fun AU ideas for Adashi

- Adam is half Galra/human but remained unaware

-Adam is half Altean/human

-Adam half Altean/Galra

-Adam was sent to earth to be a spy however he was extremely young and does not recall his mission at all

-Adam was captured; Shiro gets recaptured and thrown into the Gladiator ring again, they have to fight. Adam doesn't remember Shiro

-Shiro and all Paladins get to Earth the day the Galra invade. Shiro ends up saving Adam before Adam can unalive and Shiro is p i s s e d they went after Earth, especially Adam

-Adam and Lance get captured at different times/places resulting in Keith and Shiro to go after them, only they have to make a choice who lives: Adam or Lance (bonus for Adashi/Klance parallels)

-Matt teasing his friends Adam and Shiro constantly being a little terror to them

-more Adam, Shiro, and Matt being the og Garrison trio

-Krolia meeting a young Adam while she's with Keith's dad and Keith's dad being a mentor/role model to Shiro

-Matt, Shiro, and Adam discover Voltron earlier and are the paladins

-Adam meets Zarkon, Lotor, and/or Sendak and goes ferral on them for hurting shiro, Keith, and the other paladins

-They never broke up when Shiro went to space making

-Adam went on Kerberos replacing Matt, Sam, or Shiro

-Adam gets captured but is released as if a hostage, he was brainwashed/had a chip put in him

-Shiro vs. Kuron and Kuron brings Adam up to emotionally hurt Shiro (lowkey pisses Keith off bc no disrespects his brothers like that)

-Shiro and Adam reunite but are stiff thinking the other has moved on. They're only around each other when necessary unaware that they're also spending longer times together again - /and of course I still want him, but I can't when he's clearly moved on/ (cue Matt and Keith pulling a parent trap)

-rebel leader Adam whether it be on earth or a different planet

-Adam helps make Shiro a new hand

-trouble makers Adam, Matt, and Shiro (i.e. Matt and Shiro causing chaos while Adam tries to get them to chill)

- teenage Adam wanting to impress Shiro so he does something stupid that could actually result in explosion from the Garrison

-Shiro and Adam having relationships with the other Paladins before Kerberos (Pidge especially)

-Adam making Shiro blush easily

(Shiro: you know what you're doing

Adam: what are you talking about. [Actually knows what he's doing])

-Shiro and Adam loving to observe each other from afar from when they're cadets all the way to when Shiro leaves for Kerberos

-Adam is secretly an heir to a great fortune, but he had cut ties with his family and didn't get it til his grandparents passed away (Adam is not the only living relative just a sole inheriter)

-Adam sees Kuron and Shiro fighting and is the meme of "hey what's x + x kuron: correct answer Adam: shoots him Paladins: that was the right answer Adam: yes, but Takashi always does this (cut to Shiro and Keith doing the same fucking movement)

- Adam giving Shiro a silent treatment for dying in space

-Adam thanks Haggar for curing Shiro before unaliving her

-nervous cadet crushes bc they're 50/50 if the other will say yes if asked on a date. Someone makes a remark on the other making Adam or Shiro punch someone. The fight is broken by the time the one who wasn't present gets there (or maybe they're pulling their crush off) and don't get the full story until the one who wasn't fighting is helping patch up the one who was

-they're roommates as cadets

-Adam or Shiro is roommates with Matt while the other has a single room (cue Matt doing his best in getting the two idiots together)

-young Keith unaware that Adam and Shiro are dating so he tries to get them together (he enlists Matt's help)

[gibuckaroo]

Buck has never been jealous before because he thinks he has no place and right to be jealous about Eddie.

Of course he’s been uncomfortable with Eddie’s relationships before, any person who has expressed to be close with Eddie. Of course, he felt it with Ana, with Marisol, even Lena Bosko (and if he was being honest maybe he felt the most uncomfortable with Lena, because Lena wasn’t a partner outside of their space—she was there inside their home. She sat in the same bench press, she ate the food Cap made and shared it with Eddie, she bumped her knees with Eddie in that corner in the fire engine Buck thought would just be theirs, she exchanged war stories with him. She was his partner for a time, in the way Buck was Eddie’s partner), but the difference was they were all women.

And don’t get Buck wrong—he’s not lumping women together to just generalise and categorise them all in the same way. Women are all unique and strong and Buck loves women. He does. And that’s not the point, but the point is—even Lena couldn’t really occupy the space he thought he made in Eddie’s life because they were women. Nobody can know Eddie the way he does, in their self made relationship that rarely made sense to anybody else. Nobody can share that part of Eddie’s life other than him. Nobody can take care and relate and talk to Chris the way he does.

In Buck’s head, no man can ever be close to Eddie this way. And women, well, he has learned to live with it. After all, Eddie was married when he met him. He knows Eddie with women. He understands it. He accepts it. He knows someday, Eddie will settle down with an amazing woman and it will be hard at first, but Buck will be happy for him. He will accept it, he will learn how to live with it because that’s just how life is supposed to be.

And he was prepared, he’s been preparing.

So, sure, he’s been uncomfortable. Sue him, he has abandonment issues and a thousand other things wrong with his self esteem, so of course he’s going to be slightly uncomfortable with any new relationship Eddie forms.

But nothing prepared him for the gnawing that happens at his chest for the image of Eddie and Tommy Kinard.

Women, he was prepared. He knew, even platonically, he can never truly offer what they can to Eddie. He’ll never be able to fill that space, that role, that was never his to take.

But this? This is Buck’s space, this is his territory, this is his home.

And Eddie is smiling and touching him, letting his eyes flit over that man in such a fond earnest way that Buck thought it’d take him years to give. But here he was giving it to Tommy.

This; Buck can’t comprehend. This; Buck can’t understand. This; is eating him from the inside out. He can’t even bring himself to say anything afraid that anything that’ll come out of his mouth would reveal just how truly ugly and selfish and rotten his feelings are.

Tommy can come in Eddie’s life and fill the Buck shaped whole he has made sure to be there for the rest of their lives. Tommy can be Eddie’s best friend. He can easily imagine Tommy slotting in Eddie’s life, in Christopher’s too. He can imagine him there in the kitchen, beer in his hand and talking to Eddie about their days. He can picture him in the Diaz’s living room sleeping in Buck’s couch after ten rounds of video games. He can see him making Christopher laugh and taking him to the zoo and baking cupcakes with him.

Hell, he can even see Tommy and Eddie arrive at the Grant-Nash residence, shoulder to shoulder and laughing and talking and people would just accept it.

Because Buck has already taken that spot and people won’t notice that the person Eddie’s with now has a new face, has a brighter laugh, probably easier to be with, too.

Because fact is, Buck is replaceable. He is forgettable. Eddie once told him he thought he was expendable, and Eddie was right, but he was wrong about Buck being wrong.

Buck knows it.

Buck feels it already happening.

He’ll just be another person that went through Eddie’s life and Eddie will forget about him, about everything they’ve been through and he won’t pay him any thought after he leaves.

But Eddie?

Eddie will be with Buck wherever he goes after. Eddie will be there in the corner of his loft holding a beer that’s never going to be finished. Eddie will be there on his couch waiting for him. Eddie will be there in the passenger seat laughing as Buck zooms through traffic, but tells him to be safe once he gets off. Eddie will be there in every corner and every memory and every reason why Buck has become who he is the past few years.

Buck will never forget him.

But Eddie? Eddie’s already slowly forgetting him.

Eddie’s replacing his spot, and soon after, he won’t even remember that once, Buck was here.

And that Buck loved him, and Christopher, and the life they have made so much. And Buck will just fade, and fade and fade.

[annabawritersdream]

IMPORTANT!

I've seen some of my moots post New Year Resolution lists/To-do lists so I thought I'd share mine. It contains important information my mutuals deserve to know.

I suppose you all don't remember my WIP The Lady of Ithilien.

Don't worry, it's a very small thing I've never really talked about. Enna? Eönwë? I don't know who these people are (just kidding, of course). Well, I have to announce that it will no longer be a WIP. It won't be a WIP for a long time, since I don't plan on posting new chapters until the latter part of this year and possibly even early 2026.

Much has changed since I posted chapter 3 back in April. I've created many, many, many OCs and some of them will appear in the story quite soon. As such, I need to have them completely (or semi-completely) figured out (full names, lineage, background, personality and role within the plot) BEFORE I start writing about them.

This is why answering character asks will be my main priority for early 2025 at the very least. I need to know who my characters are before I write them and make a mess. Please send as many asks as you can (even random questions), so that I can flesh them out as much as possible. Even stupid questions are okay. Seemingly stupid questions—I reckon questions are never stupid—are actually the best because they force me to think. Trust me, I do need to think 😂 it's the overthinking part that which I don't like.

I was re-reading the LOI prologue last night and I couldn't help but notice how different Ioreth's personality is if compared to how I wrote her character just two chapters later. She sort of has some of the same traits, but she's much more gentle and understanding in the prologue than she is later, and I don't think Enna "misbehaving" could trigger such a massive change in her personality if she hadn't shown signs of being a complete b*tch beforehand. Luckily for me, I haven't written much yet, so that issue could be easily solved by deleting the prologue and reposting it separately as a general introduction to Enna as a character. I have already copied the prologue in my AO3 drafts in case I decide go through with it, but I will wait a while longer before I make a decision since I'm notoriously volatile and change my mind every five seconds about everything. This example is just to show how writing instinctively and without thinking can impact things in the long run, so I definitely need to develop my characters. That's the first thing I intend to do this year.

Second, I need to finish the Tolkien OC Week one-shots that should've been done by the end of this past August. I am still working on the one-shot for Day 5 and I have changed my mind about the prompt for Day 6 at least a billion times. I have to expand the one for Day 7 and finish the one-shot for day 1 (Maiarin world-building is the stuff of nightmares).

Plus, I need to make sure that I don't further change my mind about things I've already written, which is something I unfortunately always end up doing. I change my mind all the time and it's honestly kind of debilitating at this point. I feel like I'll never finish anything and it's disheartening.

I legit can't stop coming up with newer ideas that I think are better than the old ones and replacing stuff I've already written with new scenarios. The thing is, my excitement wears off pretty quickly and I soon get even better ideas that quickly replace the new ones. It's a never-ending cycle which needs to stop ASAP.

I do plan to make some changes to the LOI chapters I've already posted. I'll edit the story before I resume posting later this year/next year. I've planned the following changes so far:

Possibly take out the prologue and reposting it separately [the reasons for this change are mentioned above]. Should that be the case, LOI will start with chapter 1. I haven't really made up my mind about this though. I kind of don't want to delete it because, in doing so, I would lose all my comments and comments are very important to me, but I suppose I could screenshot them, print them and frame them 😂

Change Eönwë's Quenya lines in what is now Chapter 2 to Valarin. I mean, the guy is basically in a coma and starts speaking in a second/third language? I know that Maiar and Valar are supposed to be more or less masters of all languages, but I think it would make much more sense if he muttered stuff in Valarin rather than Quenya. I did not think of this when I first wrote the chapter a year ago and I wasn't not yet obsessed with Turkish period dramas.

Carefully review the parts of Chapter 4 that I have already written and make major adjustments. Write new parts that make more sense considering the events that have just occurred story-wise (don't worry, I won't discard anything. The "current" chapter 4 will be pushed back in the timeline and possibly become Chapter 7 or 8.

Pay a lot more attention to grammar and spelling. I usually don't mind it when other writers make spelling mistakes, but when it happens to me...it's a whole other matter entirely. I've been learning English for a long time and the fact that I still make that kind of mistakes—mostly due to distraction—really irks me. I'm talking capitalization issues, wrong vowels and such. I know how to write correctly and I cannot stress how I roll my eyes whenever I spot misspelled words I perfectly know how to write. And it usually happens after re-reading the same paragraph four or five times.

Stop adding lore to asks I've already posted. How are people going to keep up if I keep adding more and more things? I literally posted the Eleniel/Celebrían ask on New Year's Day and I've edited the post twice already because I obviously came up with slightly different concepts and ideas. It's been two days and I have no doubt I'll come up with slightly different variations of things anytime I re-read the post. I don't think it's fair to the person who sent the ask (@lucifers-legions in this case, but it could be anyone) to keep changing things. I never do it on purpose (it's more of an impulse things), but I need to make decisions and stick to them. People should be able to read the answers to my asks without stressing over what I'm going to change. This applies to everyone sending asks (anons and mutuals alike), but it's even more important when someone is borrowing your characters for their story. So, I plan to be better and I really hope I will succeed. Also, constantly updating things is not good for me either (I forget half of the stuff and get confused, which is...not ideal)

Try and work on all the other asks I have queued. They include a second unusual OC/creator questions ask from @fishing4stars, four more from @lucifers-legions (three character asks and one fic-request), one from @dilettantefeminist, one from @jhelenivarsimae, one from @quillofspirit and two from @saurongorthaur9 (one character ask and one fic-request). I have started some of these and for others I had ideas which I momentarily abandoned/discarded. What I am trying to say is that I HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN about these and that I'm working on them. I wish I could put things out more quickly, but...you know me by now. I'm slow. And I wish I wasn't.

Try and be more organized. I have a bunch of random files and notes that need to be neatly stored somewhere. My brain is a mess as it is and it doesn't need any more distractions.

Speaking of distractions...Tumblr (and social media in general) happens to be one. While I love scrolling through my feed here...it prevents me from actually writing and planning. Which is why I think it won't be surprising if I take even longer breaks from it. Despite this, I would like to keep in contact with all the awesome people I've met on here so. You can text me on Insta (I can give it to you via text on here) or you can email me if you like. Just text me and we'll talk about it. I'll still come back to Tumblr every once in a while (I'll never deactivate my account or things like that), but...I think I need to take drastic measures to stay focused and actually update my fics. I'll come back here to reply to the asks I get and to comments and texts I might get, but I don't think I'll ever be as active as I once was. Maybe I will be again one day, but I need to work on my concentration skills first (I honestly think I might have ADHD and I kind of would like to get it checked out. I've been doing some reading about it and most of the symptoms I have are a match for ADHD. It might also not be the case, but...I don't know.)

Update (sometime down the line) my masterlist, make it more pretty to look at and make a headcanon list to be kept in my files and also to be posted here. Most of my asks are buried somewhere and I need to keep them all in the same place so that I can easily find them. Not urgent, but also...quite urgent.

All in all, I would like to thank all of you for your continued support and thank you for putting up with me. 💕

I understand I can be a pain and I'm sorry (I'm honestly starting to think Enna and I are the same person. She's just way more unlucky)

PS: *As a testament to my overthinking, it seems I cannot stop thinking about that darn prologue (it's been LITERAL HOURS since I first queued this post and it's been haunting me ever since). Ioreth's characterization is my main issue with it at the moment, but, on second thoughts, I suppose that the whole "personality change" issue could be attributed to her acting nice while Enna was a young child in an attempt to gain her trust and manipulate her into thinking that she was way better than her mother. That's kind of plausible. She basically gaslighted her throughout her childhood and started showing her true colors when Enna grew up and started to "rebel". Okay, that's more or less fine, I suppose.

It's just that the prologue is set in Ithilien and the first chapter is literally a year later in Minas Tirith and she's already met Mairon. Mmm...���

Should I add a few chapters in between showing Enna's pre-drama daily life, her lessons with the most sensible tutor in Middle-earth aka Finnas, her moving to Minas Tirith with Faramir and Elboron, introduce her two main attendants and address the differences between her life in Ithilien and in Minas Tirith? Should I also include a chapter where she meets Mairon and he starts manipulating right off the bat?

I'm literally debating whether I should rewrite the story from the start [the most complicated option what will probably cause me to abandon the fic altogether], add the extra chapters between the prologue and Chapter 1 [if that ends up happening, the prologue will go back to being Chapter 1 and the other chapters will follow accordingly], or just delete the prologue and leave everything else as it is now [the easiest option]

In any case, I doubt I'll be able to post anything before next October/November, my ultimate deadline being early to mid 2026.

IF I DON'T UPDATE BY THEN...then you're allowed to consider the story officially discontinued/abandoned.

Writing LOI requires a lot of work and hopefully finishing off the one-shots first will give me inspo and motivation to work on the story. If not, Elenwë and all my OCs will only live in my mind and in the one-shots that are already posted.

Also, all the planned fics I listed on my masterlist... probably won't happen either. Let's be realistic, I'll never ever get to them in this lifetime. I get distracted too often, I can't meet deadlines and I'm never satisfied with my own work. I am never happy about it. Perhaps I'm just not cut out for writing. Maybe I should stop writing right this instant.

Lastly, I would like to thank all of my moots for their unwavering support. I have met so many wonderful people here and, even if I stop writing, I'll always keep reading and commenting!

[fishbaitslime]

Princess and Sandstorm for hypokits? 👀

“Sandstorm … the forest isn’t my home.”

“I’m there! Fireheart’s there, your nieces! What do the housefolk have that you won’t find in Thunderclan?”

Sandstorm and Princess met way later than Fireheart in canon would’ve found his sister, I think somewhere around the time of the new prophecy. Sandstorm would also become leader much later, probably either during the great journey or afterwards. They at first were pretty stand-offish to each-other, princess being in search of her brother originally- but they slowly became friends and eventually falling for each-other.

Once the clans learn they have to leave, Sandstorm immediately races to tell Princess and beg her to join the clan so they may be together. Princess is unsure, she never had dreams of being a warrior like her brother- which Sandstorm assures her there are much more relaxed roles within the clan that Princess could take up. Despite the reassurance, she isn’t sure, and asks Sandstorm to retrieve her on the morning they leave- just 3 days after this conversation she’ll have her answer then.

Sandstorm shows up, and waits. She waits as long as she can, Fireheart eventually (gently) telling her it’s time to leave. As they do, Princess frantically scrambles over her fence with a panicked “Wait-!” her collar, having been torn and dirtied by her trying to tear it off through the night, finally shattering as she comes to stand before her mate and family. “I’m sorry, I was trying to impress you with a big entrance- fancy, like the stories my mother told me…” She almost looked embarrassed, “I’ve made my decision.”

princess then becomes a permanent queen and spends her days with her wife and helping raise kittens :0) i also think this is apart of the fireraven au!! read my hypokit stuff for that if u wish <3

FLUFFYBELLY is a bit different from his canon counter part but also not. I think he’s born on the great journey, and kind’ve yearns for the traveling life of his kithood- replacing his kittypet desires for more of loner/rouge desires. He is still very jovial and silly- also a bit spoiled as a kit :P his moms wouldve, and did, give him anything he asked for. They just loved him sooo much. He still had his kinda weird teenage phase where he would run off from the clans, this time hanging out with the rouges that lurk around the clan territory. This is how he gains his disbelief in starclan, i think eventually getting his ass beat at some point which makes him realized that clan cats aren’t the only bitches who b fighting lol. he then settles back into his clan life pretty easily!

requests for warrior cat hypokits are open!

[password-door-lock]

Mystictober Day 30-- Role Swap

Ray would love to spend his life with you, if only you weren’t fictional (732 words).

Ray knows he has better things he could be doing than playing games. The Savior, in her infinite wisdom, has blessed him with several very involved tasks at once: he needs to get into that redhead’s messenger app and figure out how to plant somebody in the chatroom remotely. He needs to keep Magenta and the Mint Eye server both secure. He needs to keep Saeran at bay, not to mention the believers. He also has to pick someone to use for the Savior’s plan— but learning about games is important too, right? Even if he’s not actually going to be developing a game, knowing more about them will surely help him to ensnare somebody, right? 

Not that any of the candidates so far are to his liking. Nothing is particularly wrong with any of them; they all seem like good people, though easily led and excessively trusting. Dutiful, but not the type to overachieve and try to stand out. In other words, they’re exactly what Ray is looking for… but, inexplicably, he can’t get his mind off of you. Despite his better judgment, he glances down at his phone for the fourth time in three hours.

y/n: I love you so much, Ray. y/n: I can’t wait for the day when you come to stay by my side y/n: I’ll take really good care of you y/n: You’ll never have to worry about a thing

Ray runs his finger gently over the image of your hair, though he knows it’s only pixels on a screen. “I wish that were possible, my y/n,” he mutters aloud. Not for the first time, he imagines how you might take care of him. Would you feed him a nice meal and send him to bed? Would you hold him in your arms? Would you… kiss him? Would you even want to do those things, knowing who he is and what he’s capable of?

Ray has played your route upwards of a hundred times. He knows exactly what you like— he thinks that if he got the opportunity, he could be just like your MC. He could follow you around quietly like a little lost puppy, speaking only to tell you the things you need to hear for your character development. He could do it easily— but would you like that? 

Ray knows it’s risky, but he’s been logging into a website called tumblr to talk about you with strangers online. Nobody could find Magenta just from that, could they? User (y/n)s--love has assured their followers that you’d love them all so much, as have sweet(y/n) and (y/n)sbf, as well as dozens of other accounts. Ray has found stories and drawings online of you with all different MCs… but none that look like him. None that are disgusting, horrible, and vile, as his Savior has assured him that he is— so maybe Ray would be the exception to that rule. 

Still, he can’t help but write his own little stories about you. He’s too scared of the Savior finding whatever he puts on his computer, so he writes them out by hand in his diary. Ray writes about you holding him, communicating exactly what you want from him so that he can make you happy. He writes about leaving Magenta to live in your world instead, about starting again, building a brand-new life with you in a universe where it’s safe for him to do so. He writes stories where he tells you about Saeran, and instead of getting upset or asking Ray to go away in favor of the stronger one, you assure him that as much as you look forward to meeting Saeran, you’re still pleased to be here with Ray right now. Is that too much to ask for? 

Ray isn’t the smartest person in the world, but he’s beginning to think that he’s not as stupid as others have claimed. He knows you’re never going to come through the screen and allow him to bask in the warm glow of your sweet love. Sooner or later, he has to resign himself to his inevitable fate— helping the Savior however he can for as long as he can until she gets sick of him and replaces him with Saeran forever. For now, though, Ray is happy just to play your route again.

[dia-souls]

DIABOLIK LOVERS DAYLIGHT Analyzes [ Vol. 2 Sakamaki Shu ]

Original title: 自己満足

Source: Diabolik Lovers Daylight Vol. 2 Sakamaki Shuu

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke

Analyze by: Admin Afra

Admin’s note: Sakamaki Shu is one of my favorite boys and also one of the most disappointing characters 😭. But I personally love this CD and how Shu receives karma for all the words and behavior he had with Yui and that he realizes that no matter how hard he tries to will not dear anyone to himself, Yui has entered Shu's heart without him realizing it, and Shu cannot live without her.

The story begins with Shu complaining about how long Yui has been asleep or in a coma. This is very funny for a boy who sleeps 90% of the time.

But as he said himself, he never thought he would put himself in trouble to take care of Yui, or at least that's what he thinks because the evidence shows otherwise from Shu here.

Shu's main trauma is losing his first and best friend, so it makes sense that it would be a nightmare for him to lose someone he loves. This is the most important reason why Shu tries not to get attached to anyone so that he doesn't get hurt if he loses them.

Shu and Yui's usual roles seem to have been replaced. Now that Yui is in a coma, Shu takes care of her and gives his blood to keep Yui alive.

But as Shu said, the days of living without Yui are driving him crazy. Shu does things that he would never normally do, so he feels crazy after what happened to Yui and what he did to her.

When the flashback ends, we see the usual story of Shu and Yui's relationship. Shu, who is sleeping as usual, and Yui, who tries to wake him up so that he can get to his daily work such as school and attend his classes, and Shu, as usual, finds Yui's efforts useless and annoying.

We can say that this is the normal state of their relationship. But in my opinion, there is something obvious here. Shu thinks that if Yui doesn't do her job properly, she will be blamed by Reiji, which is why she is worried.

Well, this guess can be true to some extent. But in my opinion, Yui just simply wants to be with Shu. In many CDs, Yui has already noticed the bad condition of her heart, and I suspect that it is the same in this one. Maybe she knows she doesn't have much time left and she just wants to spend the last moments of her life happily with the man she likes. But unfortunately Shu does not cooperate with Yui in this matter.

Honestly, it's always strange to me how he can be so tired despite his long sleep time. But Shu chooses this method only to spend his days. Even from his own point of view, he is alive but not living.

He has chosen a life without excitement and monotony so as not to get involved in trauma again, and this can be somewhat smart from Shu's point of view.

When Shu meets Yui again at night, something is very clear about Yui, and that is that Yui resents Shu's cold behavior towards her. Yui is not an expectant girl and does not expect much from her partner. All she wants is affection and love.

Maybe it's hard for Shu to understand this because he is a vampire and has an eternal love and he doesn't know how valuable this little time he spends with his favorite girl can be.

But when Shu told Yui, all I need is your blood, I'm sure Yui was hurt more. It may not be easy to understand that only her blood is important to the man she loves, especially since she doesn't have much time left to live.

Shu thinks it's nonsense, but all Yui wants from life with her partner is pure and simple love.

In the second part, it was really funny that Shu didn't even bother to sleep because he didn't want to be tired of being woken up again by Yui.

Unlike last time, Yui gave in to Shu more easily this time because he was not feeling well and Shu was surprised by this but ignored it as usual.

It really broke my heart when I found out that Yui had put her blazer on him so that he wouldn't catch a cold. I always knew that Yui is a kind girl, but I really wish that she would think a little more about herself, especially when she is not feeling well and is sick, because in any case, it is impossible for a vampire to catch a cold.

Undoubtedly, Yui knows this and even her purpose of doing this was not to try to warm Shu, but to show her love for Shu.

But I really wanted to bang my head against the wall when Shu took this issue and called it a nuisance again.

The thing that upset me the most was that when Yui was in the hospital and Shu hugged her, he noticed that she had lost weight and looked thinner, but still ignored it.

It was very sad when Yui asked him what her existence meant to Shu and Shu again disappointed her with his cold words. It is true that Shu is a bloodsucker and only the blood of humans is important to him, but here something is suspicious about Shu's words.

Shu claims that Yui's blood is the only thing that matters to him, but when he left the hospital, he muttered to himself, "You should never expect or wish for me."

Here we can understand that Shu really values ​​Yui.

But he doesn't expect Yui to feel this way. In a way, we can understand Shu's words that he expects Yui to ignore him. Because he ignored Yui all the time. He just simply doesn't want to become Yui's dependent, and the same goes for Yui. He doesn't want Yui to wish and hope for him because even Shu himself considers himself useless in this matter.

No matter how hard Shu tries to ignore Yui, he eventually realizes that she has a problem, and when he complains about Yui's distraction, she backs to sleep. He tries to take her to his room, but this time Yui's low weight attracts his attention.

But when Yui doesn't wake up, Shu realizes that this is really not normal anymore, and when Reiji explained to Shu about the abnormal condition of her heart, it was not really expected that Shu would not be surprised. In any case, he tried to ignore her all this time. Even he finds it funny how he realized this so late when he spends most of his time with Yui.

It is from this moment that the place of these two people changes and Shu cannot sleep without hoping that Yui's voice will wake him up.

Maybe this was something that was bothering him all the time. Worrying that this voice, which wakes him up every time and he calls her a nuisance, will stop one day. As he himself said, he cannot sleep when he knows that there is no one to wake him up. Shu has always longed to hear Yui's voice even without realizing it. Maybe he always denied it, but Yui had entered Shu's heart for a long time and Shu even dreamed of hearing her voice in his dreams. This is what Shu himself admitted.

Playing the violin for Yui because he knows she loves him, giving Yui his blood because it might keep her alive, and talking to Yui because he misses her are all things Shu does to take care of Yui.

As Shu himself admitted, their usual roles have changed and this is how Shu gets karma. He tries to wake up the one he loves but she still ignores him. Shu now realizes how much his behavior towards Yui has hurt her when someone keeps calling him but he still ignores her.

The fact that Shu missed the same behavior that he always found annoying from Yui shows that none of Yui's behavior was annoying to him, but even Shu was always waiting for them. Because Yui is the only one Shu has given his heart to.

When Shu tells Yui that he misses Yui being loud, we realize that Shu never hated being woken up by Yui. Maybe on the surface he was trying to show that he doesn't care about her, but in reality Shu was not honest with himself either. Even with this pretense, he tried to lie to himself because he thinks that not being dependent on others and having a monotonous life will not cause him to get hurt.

But the truth is that Shu is guilty of not taking advantage of the short time he had with Yui. He now realizes that Yui is not worth just because of her blood. He used to claim that he can survive without Yui, but now it turns out that this claim was just a lie so that he wouldn't try to depend on Yui.

Shu realized his lie to himself and tried to save the person he loves.

Bring back the person he cares about, even if it means staying awake for hours and not sleeping for several days in a row and just studying and researching. surprise The lazy boy who is always tired is ready to not sleep for a few days or even a few weeks to save his lover. A great sacrifice.

But when he knows that this work is useless, what is his reaction? Knowing that he won't be able to see Yui anymore makes Shu panic, so why doesn't he give Yui the last drop of his blood?

This is what Shu himself said. If all options are closed, be willing to let all your blood and being flow into your lover's body so that her heartbeat will never stop. When did you become such a gentleman Shu?

If Yui has entered his heart without Shu realizing it, Shu has no other choice. Playing the last violin piece and expressing his pure feelings to Yui is the last thing this boy can do.

In any case, he claimed that he can live without Yui, but now he accepts his lie and wants to join Yui.

Shu has experienced this trauma before with Edgar. But this time is different. Edgar's death made Shu depressed, but Yui's death makes Shu want to die too. This simply shows that Shu loves Yui even more than his own life, so that he is willing to donate his last drop of blood to Yui. Even if this does not bring Yui back to life, Shu will be sure that his existence and his blood will always be in Yui's body, at least Shu will hear the heartbeat of the girl he loves until the last moments of his life.

What does Yui mean to Shu? If you ask Shu this question again, he will say that Yui is the only girl that Shu doesn't want to lose. Before Yui, he didn't hope for anything and just passed the days. But after Yui came, he slept with the hope that someone would call him. Someone always looks at him and someone always loves him.

Yui simply made Shu no longer involved in a repetitive life and spend the nights hoping to see the day and hear Yui's voice and live again. All this is because he loves Yui more than anyone else.

When Yui regains consciousness, he tells her these words. He will never repeat the mistake of the past because he has already realized that he failed in his decision not to love others. Now that there is a dear person in his life, he will cherish her forever and dedicate his love to her, because without her he will neither be alive nor live.

[chutkiandchotte]

"All shows are women-based, but somehow the men always get more money"

Watch from 4:00 onwards to see Sanaya Irani talking about pay parity in ITV. I think she's talking about Gul Khan and 4 Lions for sure.

I've been out of IPK loop for a bit but this part in the Sanaya Irani interview I stumbled on, made me so angry (not at her, at the world). She heavily implies that Barun and her were never paid equally while doing the show. And later, when asked to reprise their roles/do a new show together (she's not clear about exactly which), she asked for equal pay as the success of their pairing was due to both of them, and she was DENIED.

This is outrageous to me, considering Sanaya was definitely the bigger and more popular star prior to IPK. And as IPK 3 undoubtedly proved, the big draw of IPK, the thing that made it super successful was the PAIRING of Arnav and Khushi, not just the music or the love-hate story or Barun all by himself. No shade to Barun, he's a fine actor of course. But this is about what made IPKKND work - and the credit for that is EQUALLY shared between the two leads, and of course the writing and the supporting cast are also critical in that success.

Anyway, I'm sorry but I am not mature enough to not be kind of happy that IPK 3 didn't work out, not because of any other reason but just because it made the producers and their misogyny look really really stupid. They really thought they were having a "we can re-do IPKKND, we don't need HER (the HER is always replaceable), as long as we have HIM" moment, and I'm glad they were proven wrong.

It's what fans have pointed out forever, which apparently the producers were too damn stupid to know - of course as fans of Barun himself, we are glad to see a NEW tv show with a totally different story and new co-stars. But if you're going to shove the IPKKND branding in there, you're going to make us listen to the background music in every scene, you're going to name the lead character similar to the iconic ASR, then SORRY - you're the one who is inviting us with garlands into comparison territory, and you WILL be found wanting. IPKKND without Sanaya as Khushi, is really not something anyone who loves this show wishes to see or imagine.

Barun Sobti has his own brand and fan following, which they could have easily cashed in on by making a totally new show with him. But what they wanted to do was cash in on the IPKKND brand, imagining in their arrogance that Sanaya Irani (not to mention good writing 👀) is only incidental and expendable to that brand.

Like there is a reason there are so many fucking ITV shows these days with 17-20 year old girls paired with 32 year old men. Because audiences will easily swallow these odd pairings, and you can get away with paying a 17 year old peanuts. Because the successful 32 year old woman is going to ask for what she's worth. And while producers can make peace with paying men what they're worth per their experience and popularity, doing the same for women, is considered too extreme to even be an option.

[soo-won]

Hi!! I’ve been following your tumblr and Twitter for a while now and I love all your akayona analyses. ❤️ I remember your rambles about headcanoning Suwon as transmasc/transfem? Could I hear more abt that? It’s rlly cool cause I feel he’s portrayed in an incredibly gender neutral light, in comparison to many other male leads :)

Thank you so much for wonderful ask! I'm glad you like my analysis :') Idk who you are but thank you for the support!!

And yeah! I headcanon Suwon as non-binary and there is a lot to unpack about his gender imo...I very much believe akayona has a lot to say about gender especially through Yona and Suwon's characters, and in that Suwon being a man and Yona being a woman is thematically important. But the way the story presents this theme in Suwon's character in his struggle (or lack of) with balancing between "masculinity" and "feminity" can make him easily readable as trans. Transfem or transmasc and every nuance in between.

I've also been headcanoning him as non-binary from before the manga truly explored these aspects only because I'm non-binary and I related to him too so it's not that deep. But as you said he is portrayed more gender neutrally than most male characters of the cast from the beginning and I think it's worth exploring. Whether he's gender non confirming in universe is interesting to discuss too, because you have other characters like Joon-gi for example, but he's at least not really traditionally masculine from our standards when you first see him.

(Long post under the cut)

But as much as it doesn't have to be that deep, I'm also convinced it actually is and that's why I'm entering character analysis territory here, so please stay with me ahah. When I think about Suwon's gender, I just can't not think about his parents and what they represent to him and how that ties to his overall character arc. Yuhon and Yonhi are pretty much the "ideal" symbols of traditional masculinity and feminity we have in the story in their gender roles and the values associated with them. Suwon is one of the rare character we have a glimpse of both parents that lived long enough for him to remember and be impacted by both. This sounds silly but basically Suwon's gender is like,, if a man and a woman had a baby to me fnbkjhbgkjhbgh.

In universe, Yuhon represents strength, courage and reason. He is the traditional and ideal male. He is bold, brash, dominant. He is the parent Suwon deeply admires and longed to be like, and that he then took upon himself to replace after his passing. He's the figure everyone in Kouka remembers positively as a competent and strong leader. He's the parent that taught Suwon to see people as pieces on a chessboard and to always be pragmatic, to make the most effective and straightforward decisions. Suwon inherented some of these traits himself, but the entire struggle of his character is that he isn't and cannot exactly be his father, that he can't follow in his father's footsteps (or what he thinks they are) as much as he and the people around him would like. This ideal masculinity represented by Yuhon is not something Suwon is able to achieve and that we should wish for. The other side of the coin is dominance and violence, it's stealing the agency of others with no regard to their person, it's causing a chain of pain and more violence. Suwon, ultimately, cannot and shouldn't respond to all these expectations. They're not him. Because he is also Yonhi's son, which he tried to cover as much as he can as a King.

Because in contrast, Yonhi represents the "ideal femininity" that is passive, sentimental and kind. Her assigned role was only to serve Yuhon and Suwon, and had no power for much else. In appearance, she's the ideal wife and mother. She is conventionally very feminine, we see her with different garments, accessories and haircut in every scene, hinting that it's something she likes (especially when you compare with Kashi)... She's kept in the dark about Yuhon's secrets and all he does when he leaves the castle and fights on the battlefield. She has no agency. She is the parent forgotten by all, never mentioned even by Suwon, who died with nothing to her name. She is the parent that didn't want Suwon to kill Il but to think about Yona, she is the one who taught him about kindness. (i also mentionned yuhon and yonhi's respective legacy here)

And the irony is, physically Suwon is almost a copy of his mother. At first glance, Suwon is in general much more like her than he is like Yuhon. Suwon is pretty and cute, and is assumed to be weak, passive, and lacking in general as a warrior. Suwon, who wishes he was like his father, looks "nothing" like him and actually looks like his very feminine mother. And the thing is, what makes him so gender ambiguous is that he actually embraces that. Suwon uses his appearance and plays with the perception others have of him so they underestimate him (Geuntae, Soojin, Li Hazara,...) he has a very similar haircut as his mother, is interested in swordfight, tactics, but he's also into flowers, tea and sweets, he wore clothes with flower and butterflies patterns before his coronation (which is not supposed to be only a women thing of course but in universe I don't have any other example of male characters having those so I take it into account), he interacts with other female characters like a peer that share the same interests, too. He is first perceived the same way as Il and the opposite of his father or warriors like Geuntae, Mundok or Hak. He isn't like Il or Yonhi though, and that's what makes him not entirely feminine either, he actually proves himself as a man to these people after all.

But even as a child, Suwon took up the role of a mother for Yona like it was the most natural thing in the world. And in a similar fashion he also took up the role of Yuhon to "take care" and "protect" his mother, and to lead Kouka. Suwon is able to navigate both feminine and masculine roles depending on what is the most fitting to the situation at hand, and he achieves that with little struggle. This is probably the point that makes him so gender fluid? He's fine with both, it feels natural to him, this is what differentiates him from his parents' image shackled by very stereotypical gender norms. It's definitely what makes him so unique and himself. Suwon is always described as having equal interests and curiosity for everything and everyone, and it plays a part in this as well. In a world where interests are gender divided, where women are encouraged to have interest in love, fashion, luxuries and where the men are rather into sword training or studies, Suwon who can jump from one to the other with ease, like gender doesn't matter feels especially liberating.

But Suwon is actually still shackled and not immune to patriarchy and it all ties to the meaning behind the position of a King. Suwon loved his mother, and he sincerely loved Yona before the coup just like she was for being cute and kind and bringing him warmth. "Feminity" isn't a sin or bad to Suwon, he even values it. However, for him and many others in universe, all these things are unfitting for a King, like...he likes it, but he thinks he doesn't need it for his goal. Which leads us to King Il.

Suwon values "feminity" and is aware of that part of himself, but rejects it when he has to act as a King. "Masculinity" is about being strong, strong enough to protect, and being "feminine" puts you in a position of weakness and powerlessness. I don't think it's a coincidence that he inherited his illness from his mother either, which literally puts him in a position of vulnerability and weakness that he absolutely hates and tries to cover up. Feminity is fine for women and the roles assigned to them, they are lovely as they are, left behind but where they can keep being kind and sentimental while the strong men go to battle and manage affairs, basically. Kouka is a patriarchal society with all these norms being continuously enforced, and where being King was exclusively a masculine position until recent development. Before Suwon ascended to the throne, Yona was the first heir, yet the position of next ruler after her father wasn't to be given to her, but whoever would be her future husband. Yona would have been only a Queen, not one with particular ruling power, but in the sense of being the wife of the King, the same way Kashi was.

So then, Il appears as a failure as a King. He's the example and proof to Suwon that "feminity" is not compatible with the position and that he has to differentiate from him in every way. Suwon liked Il for his kindness and believed in him until he killed his father and proved to be uncompetent as a ruler. Il's kindness and reliance on the divine are unreasonable and based on emotionalism for Suwon. His refusal to use any weapon makes him a coward and weak, and waiting for the gods to save them makes him passive...It's what led Kouka to the sad state it was at the beginning of the story.

To Suwon, feelings, kindness, traits associated with feminity as we've seen, make him weak. He doesn't need it. It's what makes him reluctant and risks to deviate him from his goal and duties as a King. He can't afford to feel for Yona or anyone, he has to take the most efficient decisions with no remorse for people's feelings and especially not his. This is why Yona is so important and the lead of Akatsuki no Yona. Yona redefines what we associate with either masculinity and feminity. Strength, kindness, sentimentality, reason...They're all needed, they don't have to, and they shouldn't be divided so strickly and imposed on people based on their gender and roles. (Especially when it's obviously girls and women suffering from it the most). This divide between Yona and Suwon doesn't have to be, Suwon takes time to accept it, to accept Yona to enter his chessboard and value her as an equal and not just because she's kind and cute. And in doing so, it opens the door for him to also accept his own feelings, his own "weaknesses". Feelings and kindness actually hold so much power, they can actually make you stronger, that's what made Yona and Hak so bright to his eyes from the start, even if it took him long to fully realize it.

I feel like I deviated from the initial topic, but it's all important I swear. It doesn't mean Suwon gave up all his old ways either, he still embraces what he learned and admired in his father, not everything was forced upon him and I believe he genuinely connected with his father's vision. But it's about balancing this with the things he was convinced he had to reject and discard all this time.

That said, here are some examples of how it opens the door for transmasculine and transfeminine interpretations of Suwon's character arc, there can be others of course, but those are the ones I naturally came up with thinking about all this:

If you read Suwon's story as a transmasculine experience, it clicks. From how he was "cute as a girl" in his childhood to the experience of feeling like to be a man, to pass as a man, you have to reject everything that is associated with feminity and force yourself to accept masculine values that are just not your real self, to then realize you don't have to do all that to be a man and it's fine to embrace your "feminity" too. (Btw I really encourage you to read the Requiem of the Rose King manga that is explicitely about this topic!)

If you read Suwon's story as the transfeminine experience, it clicks too. Suwon feeling like he has to and being pushed to follow in his father's footstep when that's just not his real self. The way that he represses his self, the metaphor of closed box and how he locks his true self and feelings into them, until it becomes too much and he can't ignore it anymore. That being a man is not for him, and he doesn't have to be.

Of course, you can also read him as a cis man that is more or less gender non-conforming, or in any nuance of non-binarity in between, but in conclusion, that's what makes Suwon so gender to me. (and again, you don't need any of what I wrote in this post to headcanon him however you want)

There is also something to say about how he's "lacking as man" in how he has no romantic or sexual interest in women, if you take into account all the junctions between gender and heteronormativity that I didn't really bring up here. This point always made him really stand out to me, but Suwon's sexuality is such a Topic I didn't want to adventure myself into today ahah.

[ccapdis]

One Piece manga spoilers

Every romance stands up a chance //thoughts//

At this point, so close to chapter 1100 (omg), I think there are, clearly, things that can be extracted from the global image that the story and its characters give away.

In the case of Sanji's character, anyone who has kept up with the manga can easily tell that, for whatever the reason is, his role is significantly linked to Nami, and it revolves specially around her.

When it comes to Nami, Sanji is a dog with a bone. She's always his first thought, his first option when it comes to women and romance. He refuses to give up on her, and all his advances will go (mainly) to her.

"Rejection" from Nami doesn't com from despise or exhaustion. It comes with distance.

In fact, to this day, advances and attempts from the sort, when they are not made on Nami but on other women, are still softly declined or ignored.

Still, partially because of the lack of self-confidence, I doubt he genuinely believes that there's really a chance for him.

But partially, too, because none of them takes him seriously. And that comes with the joke: Sanji is the only character interested in women and romance in the crew. Probably the one who has more chances to end up paired EOS. Still, he doesn't get any woman.

It is no surprise that women can't take him seriously, as most of the time he's simping and longing for women/romance, and he barely ever tries to flirt expecting to succeed (as opposed to his initial character description he is no ladykiller (lol), in fact, it really surprises me that cover 1089 has him asking Nami almost directly to go on a date with him, something he has never done before with her or any other woman).

So to understand Sanji's issue with women as a recurrent joke on the manga (not getting any of them as much as he wishes he would), you have to appreciate as well the fact that he, actually, gets them when he is not trying so hard, when he is basically himself, the kind, pure and selfless version of him.

In summary, having Nami in the 1089 cover decline Sanji's invitation is in character and makes sense for both characters. It has no greater meaning. If we ever see something from Nami's part, it is going to go unnoticed to Sanji when he is not trying at all.

But back to the present and regarding chapter 1089, it is worth noticing too that at the end of the chapter Sanji is approaching Nami with his "hearty-eyes" despite Bonney being there too.

Since the Egghead arc began, Sanji's role has almost exclusively orbited around Nami and Oda has worked, from the beginning, to build a common thread between him and Nami, since the first scene of the Mugiwaras facing the Seraphim has Sanji fighting back the S-shark to save Nami and that was, too, the last scene we saw of him, repeating the first scene. I deduce that Oda has bothered to do so surely because it serves a purpose we haven't seen yet.

Last but not least, Oda loves making recurrent jokes and gags with Sanji; be it his bounty posters, and eventually Duval, him meeting for the first time a real mermaid, Kokoro, Hiyori and Hacock being all lovey-dovey with Zoro and Luffy respectively, and finally when the latest bounties came out and he was replaced by Jinbe in the third position with the highest bounty of the crew (implying too his legitimate position in the Monster Trio).

But we all know that Sanji is in the Monster Trio, and that eventually he's going to get back the third highest bounty. And as much as the gag of him with women can go on, eventually things are going to fall into place and Sanji will get his happy ending EOS.

[rabbitbonesandsheabutter]

On your “I’m gonna answer these two together :)” post, totally agree that Longlegs is kind of in the father role. But that makes me think that Lee’s family was selected specifically for Longlegs to live there. I mean, other families were given the same choice, but Lee’s was the only one to have the father role empty.

Lee’s would have been the only one where Longlegs would have had to act as the killer if her mother refused to help. Idk, it just seems like it was more intentional than her just being the 7th that happened to agree to help. That makes me feel like Lee’s family was never supposed to be killed like the others.

Other thing that made me think there was more build up to the story: both Carrie-Ann and Lee’s mother talked about bleeding a lot when their daughters were born. Maybe there were some devil workings behind that. Or maybe that combined with the birthdays to be why they were chosen. I wonder if the other mothers had the same experience when the daughters were born?

Oooo, I definitely agree with you anon. Idk why I hadn’t thought about how they were being selected.

Ruth and Lee being chosen specifically to live makes sense. They’re much more vulnerable than the other families. Ruth has no family or friends to fall back on, and would be much more likely to beg for their lives. They’re estranged enough from the community for Longlegs to be able to live there, but religious and respectable so they’re deaths would still be shocking if she said no. And he didn’t even go through with his whole routine of the doll being a present from the church, he just said let me in there neeeooooow!!!

The birth complications is inch resting too, like marking them, a reverse baptism the moment they’re born. The families were all supposed to project a perfect happy image as well, but Carrie-Ann thought her mother hated her. Maybe that started to taunt Ruth since that was the first murder she helped with. There’s also nothing on birthdaymurders.net about the Camera family even though it’s mentioned in the letters and later murders are on there, idk what my point is but that feels deliberate.

Again I’m going off track with my own thoughts, but what if Dale starts getting less enthusiastic about serving satan, he’s like 40 and been doing this for nearly a decade by 1974, and gets given a choice. He can have someone else see through the murders for him if he can convince her to do it. And if not he has to kill her and her daughter, giving Mr Downstairs another sacrifice by his own hand this time. If she didn’t agree, I wonder if he would have had to kill himself since he’d taken that father role. Even though he hadn’t finished the pattern, like a reminder from Mr Downstairs that he’s so easily replaceable.

[breakfastteatime]

hope you don't mind the rant but argh i finally realised why i feel so disconnected to survivor in comparison to how close jfo is to me

spoilers for those who haven't played survivor

but i really dislike major decisions made and i'm gonna babble on a little (i've had like eight panadol and two sleeping meds as of the last hour n a half so if this doesn't make sense that's why)

one that's been swirling around my head ever since i played us that it really felt like they brought cordova back JUST to kill him off. this also ties into my next point that i find bode's betrayal hard to believe as well. every role he had in the story could easily be replaced by someone such as cere, and i felt like the only reason he was there was to have someone for bode to kill to show how really evil he was but respawn didn't want to kill any of the main cast off. he's such a useless character in the plot that killing him off didnt effect anything LMAO

my next major dislike is, understandably, about bode :,) yes i know this can come off as making excuses for a character i was attached to since the trailers dropped but the more i think about it the more i really cannot understand both the timeline and the motive that was behind bode's betrayal. i kind of get the idea he was lax about betraying them UNTIL cal mentioned using tanalorr for the hidden path but according to the echoes you get after the game bodenis plotting and scheming the whole time... plus, you think that his whole motive relies on creating a safe place for kata on tanalorr where no one can find them but also like. you have two (technically three) jedi, a nightsister, and a whole clan of anchorites that kick the empire's ass every day. "will you be able to protect her when the empire comes?" fuckass have you SEEN cal use a lightsaber?? kata is safer with cal then she is bode

dagan was hella underwhelming too which disappointed me tbh i was excited for this high republic jedi to show us all this cool stuff only for him to die in like three seconds 😔

ANYWAY i hope this ain't too long but i'd love to hear your thoughts/criticisms on js bc i love the game and all the little bits are amazing but some of the decisions made have me a bit hrghh

Okay, friend, you asked for it ;)

The decision to bring back Cordova was an unexpected one, but the sight of him makes me cry happy tears every damn time, so it doesn't bother me at all. I take your point re: Cere being able to do everything he does, but part of Bode’s betrayal also hinges on him betraying Cere to Vader, who clearly wants vengeance after Nur (which is SO IN CHARACTER for Vader I can only lol. Petty bitch.), so Bode killing her wouldn't have had quite the same impact.

Because I was so convinced he was dead that him *actually* being dead didn’t strike me as ‘brought back only to die’. I would argue that killing him off did put them at risk of not being able to reach Tanalorr and defintely drove Cal to Nova Garon, but yes… Cordova's character probably lacks development and definitive purpose compared to the others… Although even as I say that, I find myself thinking of the logs he left behind in the various ruins on Jedha and the words of advice and I just can’t get mad. Plus there's that teeny hint that he's been unwell when Merrin asks how he's feeling. I see your points, yes, but I'm not too fussed by any of it.

Moving onto Bode...

So, here’s my interpretation of Bode, based on the post-game echoes and the little nuances that take on a totally new light on a replay. Bode is playing Cal from the very beginning. They are never friends from Bode’s perspective, and he is a master manipulator. He’s a textbook abuser – he lovebombs Cal with compliments and praise to cement their relationship, and does the same with everyone in his family. Plus, he used his knowledge of Cere’s location to further his cause with the Empire.

There’s also a power dynamic at play here because Bode was a Jedi Knight during the war while Cal was still a Padawan. Bode is older and more experienced with the world than Cal. He knows Cal longs for friendship, and he wields that against him more effectively than any weapon. Every action, every word, every choice Bode makes is solely to dig in deeper with Cal so he can and Kata can escape the Empire. Had Cal agreed that Tanalorr would just be for them, *maybe* Bode wouldn’t have betrayed him the way he did, but Bode is well on his way to the dark side because of his attachment to Kata. And Cal very nearly follows him because of his attachments to his family.

To me, this is what the Jedi Order meant by 'no attachments'. Jedi are allowed to love, but when that love becomes all consuming, when it becomes an obsession, that’s when the attachment becomes dangerous. Bode’s story is very similar to Anakin’s, he’s just not as powerful. Hasn’t got those Skywalker genes 😉  

Bode’s motive to me is clear – he *thinks* everything is about Kata, but actually it’s all about him. It’s about his grief and rage and fear because of his wife's death the terrible choices he made. Denvik promises that if Bode gives him what he wants (Cal and Cere), he will reveal which Inquistor murdered his wife. Bode is already in it for revenge, not his daughter's wellbeing. His choices are very pre-meditated. He is a parent, yes, and I can understand that overriding love of a child, but he is also a grieving husband who is so broken by his loss that his love for Kata has become too possessive. He is terrified of losing his daughter, and it eclipses his love for her. Kata is aware of this, and her love is also turning to fear. Bode is neglectful (he's always leaving Kata behind) and bordering on abusive at the end. He trusts no one but himself, and he even asks Cal at the very end if he can protect Kata. Cal says nothing because he knows he can’t – he’s tried protecting so many people, and he’s lost nearly all of them. He won’t make a promise he can’t keep, and that’s what completely breaks Bode. Bode doesn’t believe anyone *but him* can protect Kata because he has become completely consumed with fear and anger. Cal gave him a chance to make a better choice when he disarmed him. In fact, Bode had *so many chances* to make a better choice, and he didn’t. So, when Bode responded by choosing to try and kill Cal, Merrin *and* very nearly his own daughter, Cal had no choice but to put him down – hard. That second shot took my breath away both times I played the game because Cal knows he cannot save Bode and protect the people who matter, and by showing Bode mercy, more people will die. It's also about control - Bode tries to control everyone. Cal knows he can't, so he takes the only option left - killing Bode. Honestly, the more I think about that finale, the more intense it becomes. It's an astonishing moment.

I do wonder if the reason people struggle with Bode is because he is so nice, and he fits in so well, but it’s all fake and it’s all an act. Whether you saw it coming or not, that hurts. Cal – and the player – want so badly for Bode to be better than he is, and that’s the tragedy. Bode’s not capable of that. He has suffered losses just like Cal, but he couldn’t overcome them. It’s a lot to deal with emotionally!

And as for Dagan, I quite like him! Mostly because that final battle with him incorporates my favourite Star Wars thing – WEIRD FORCE SHIT. He’s also a mirror held up to Cal – this is what you could become if your obsession takes over you. I also think his relationship with Santari Khri is meant to show Cal the potential pitfalls of his relationship with Merrin if his attachment overcomes him… but we’ll have to see what happens next…

Gosh this got long. It's always fun to see other people's perspectives and share my own! Hope you've got some rest and feel better soon :)