#short stories with moral

[theriverbeyond]

important fact to ME is that on the Sixth House, canonically the Niereds' (the sex troops) final exam was memorizing erotic poetry. the Sixth House own prime directive is making sure all their citizens are as attractive and fuckable and erotically capable as possible at all times. and they're institutionally encouraged to be nerds. and when Palamedes was bored in the River bubble and only had one terrible book to read, he spent 8 months writing fix-it fanfiction on the walls.

what i'm saying is that birthday cake erotica would have been GOOD.

[thisisadonaldduckblognow]

all the rise boys get done dirty on characterization by fandom in different ways i think. (not ALL the time every fanwork etc etc these are just like, trends i tend to notice?) every fandom suffers from losing character nuance.

- leo i’ve talked about plenty on this blog, how some of his canon traits (genuine belief in his skill and cockiness, capacity for joy, his manipulativeness whether for good or ill) seem to get watered down or wiped off the board and supplemented with generic sad boy. his struggles with purpose and identity and not wanting to fail somehow morph into “he hates and completely holds no value for himself”

- donnie’s canon personality gets blurred out and largely replaced with whatever list of Neurodivergent Traits. and i think there’s such a fine line to walk between exploring a character that’s been word of god confirmed as on the spectrum and overwriting what’s canonically there. it’s a hard needle to thread. it also feels like a lot of his canon emotiveness gets left off the table for some reason. bc he does have his moments of flat/deadpan delivery, but a lot of the time he’s honestly very emotive. he has the passion of a theatre kid and the vindictiveness of... also a theatre kid. and the mind of a scientist.

- raph loses so much of his rowdy teen boy energy it’s kind of wild? like interpretations sand off that he’s also impulsive and can be reckless and dumb and LOVES fighting and roughhousing and isn’t the most eloquent person. suddenly there’s this pitch perfect soft boy big bro who would never hurt a fly and always says the exact right supportive thing and singlehandedly raised his 3 brothers (which simultaneously sands off all the nuance of splinter’s issues emotionally connecting with his sons and how that affected all of them). and like i LOVE raph, he’s so full of love and care and anxiety, he clearly has learned to put a lot of work into being aware of his strength and size. but there’s a difference you know?

- mikey is like. where raph gets overparentified by fanon, mikey gets over “family therapist”-ed IMO. the impulsiveness, the goofiness, the powerful emotions including a VERY powerful temper, the flat-out dumb teen boy choices... they get ignored. suddenly there’s this only very sweet and earnest boy who has read a hundred psychology books and runs group family therapy weekly or something. he is crying in his room bc leo and raph are arguing about something. which is so. he IS very sweet and can be very earnest and is full of love! he HAS come in with his opinions and unsolicited advice a couple of times and life coached for the greater good. but there’s a difference between what he does in canon and the role he gets in fanon.

[luminous-orb]

doodle comic i made just before beating VLR. not to worry, I Know Now :)

[aviscranio]

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story (2024)

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

Happy Lesbian Visibility Week to Alisaie Finalfantasy

[factsilike]

Really tired of constantly seeing posts declaring that everyone in MXTX novels is complicated and 'morally grey' and that's what makes her works wonderfully written, and that everyone else who doesn't see that is stupid, or is 'demonising' characters and bashing them for rightfully criticising their shitty, very much unjustified actions.

And ironically it seems so simplistic to just declare that, because yes her stories are wonderfully written and complex, but not for that reason. You're clearly not reading her works and only spouting what you think her stories say. There are many morally grey characters in morally complex stories out there, but MDZS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

NONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS (i.e protagonists and their male leads except for LBH maybe) ARE MORALLY GREY OR MORALLY COMPLEX.

THEY ARE ALL MORALLY RIGHTEOUS.

Just take a closer look at their actions compared to the actions of literally everyone else around them, it's not that hard to see.

Not to mention that MXTX herself literally says that WWX and LWJ are both morally ideal and that ahe hopes her readers can be like them, but people seem to have no respect for the word of authors in the name of their self projection onto the characters being contradicted nowadays 😒

(also saw someone dismissively say that HC may think that the world revolves around XL or whatever, but others don't and they're right??

First of all, did you even read the novel? HC made his judgement based on how others treated him versus how XL did when he was a CHILD. And how XL continues to treat others to this day. He is well within his rights to think the world of XL, especially since XL suffered more than every other person and still doesn't succumb to evil, despite having every right to do so, miles more than others. He all but regards XL as his moral compass, because he's proof that truly good people do exist in this world, and not ONE other person in the novel is shown to be as good as him.)

One of the reasons why I really don't like the Xianle Trio is this; neither FX nor MQ seem to regard XL as his own person with his own agency, who is capable of making his own decisions initially as HC does, and only near the end of the novel do they let up a bit when their asses had to be saved by XL multiple times. (especially considering what fools they made of themselves in that spiderweb cave lmao)

Both of them try to enforce XL ALL THE TIME ("Your Highness don't do this or don't do that or don't say this or don't go there or don't talk to him"), as if XL has not survived perfectly well on his own without them FOR 800 YEARS.

The difference between them and HC is clearly spelled out when FC asks HC about why he is not stopping XL, and HC replies that while he may not agree with some of XL's decisions, he would never force him to do what he thinks is correct, something both MQ and FX are CONSTANTLY shown to try to do.

Like please. Xianle Trio who? More like suffering XL and his pair of nuisances who think themselves to be his babysitters. And most of the time he's the one babysitting them.

Another thing that irks me is that their frequent arguments are often played off for laughs, but XL is truly a saint, because if my friends were constantly bickering over petty things all throughout our dangerous journey and giving me nothing but headaches, especially in survival situations, I'd given them the boot a long time ago.

[thekidyouforgot]

I just want to say that history, when it arrives, may not look as you expect, based on the reading of history books. Things in there are always so clear. One knows exactly what one would have done.

George Saunders, Love Letter

[gebo4482]

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story

Dir: Jarelle Dampier Star: Brian Tyree Henry / Shameik Moore

[iwasbored777]

I want to say that it's unrealistic for Gwen and Miles to be so dramatic about love so young but when I remember what being their age and experiencing falling in love for the first time was like I say they're not being dramatic enough

[myimaginationplain]

Another thing about episode 8; I absolutely called Viktor being grateful to Singed for resurrecting him, & I'm glad that I did. I saw some people assuming that he'd be pissed off about it, but I think that's a misread of where Viktor is mentally atp. He's long past the point of wanting to die, & even longer past the point of being resigned to death; Viktor now has a goal, a mission all his own, & has all the spite in the world in his heart.

Singed has given him the necessary tools to see this mission through, just like he always has. That's just how their relationship is; Viktor rejects Singed's methods & ideologies, balks at then...but then he comes back around. Always. "I understand [it], now," Viktor said twice. Once in reference to keeping Rio in suspended animation, & again in response to Singed's disregard for humanity.

this is Singed & Viktor @ one another to me (especially on Singed's side of things) :

[strangelittlestories]

The necromancer, Bonaparte, stared at the horizon with bored black eyes. Beneath his gaze, the visitors bearing their flag of truce were ushered forwards by his skeletal honour guard.

“I will accept your surrender now.”

The commanding officer - not the original, but the surviving one - stepped towards the tyrant. She wore a Brigid’s Cross made of dirty reeds on her lapel. 

She could see the setting sun reflected in the necromancer’s obsidian gaze. Soon, the light would fade and dead would be at their strongest.

“I’m afraid I cannot offer you a surrender, Emperor of corpses. But I will beg for mercy, for you are the only soldier in your army with a heart to feel it.”

“My heart stopped beating long ago.”

“Yet I pray that enough feeling echoes in it still to grant clemency, despite your profanities.”

Then did the necromancer turn his gaze towards her. They were eyes that read fate and defied laws. She could have sworn she felt the air curdle, the ground buckle, and the light twist with its weight.

“Oh, your kings and queens are all so horrified by me and by what I do. They call it a crime against nature, a sin against god. Or *gods*.” He gestured to the cross on her uniform. “But if one has a war to fight - and if one believes in equal parts that war is *just* but also that no war *can* be just … is this not the most ethical, most correct thing? To fight the war in such a way that does not harm your subjects? Surely only a coward would let the disapproval of a few dozen gods sway them from saving a life?”

He paused as if to take a breath, but his chest did not move (he no longer needed air and considered it ill-disciplined to fall back into the habit of breathing). 

The officer paused too. His words felt heavy in her head. His dry voice scratching uncomfortably at her mental walls. But in his eyes, she still saw the last dying rays of sunlight…

“I suppose, tyrant of sunset, that were I in your shoes I *would* be tempted to keep harm and death from me and mine. But even if I could, I hope I would not do what you have done. For I would fear what other harm I was doing.”

“And what harm is that?”

“To put it simply, marshal of styx, those bodies that fight for you? They’re *not *yours*. You stole them. Dug up graveyards, cracked open tombs, emptied ossuaries.” She tutted and sunlight flared in her disapproval. “Maybe a few are honoured comrades, true believers, but most? They wouldn’t even know you to say good morning, yet alone to salute. Their spirits may be gone, but that doesn’t mean you get to make their dust dance.” 

“You defy me because you think my army is … theft?”

“That’s my line in the dirt. It may not be a good line. It may be a damned stupid line. I don’t know. But there it is - I know it, I feel it, it’s mine - like the bones that hold me upright.”

Bonaparte permitted himself a small sigh as a luxury.

“And after you die, those same bones will bow to me.”

[aviscranio]

The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story (2024)

[skalidris]

i'm reading an article on guanyin that's really re-affirming some specific opinions i had developed regarding the importance thereof to the sub-narrative of jin guangyao in mdzs

nodding to myself i am onto things occasionally.

[mcrtalstrike]

We could have learned more about Vol'jin in the heritage questline. Like the entire part about the rush'kah mask.

You know, like one Vol'jin wears thats on the banner and tabard to represent the Darkspear. Maybe Rokhan reminiscing when Vol'jin made his own to emphasize the meaning behind them.

[infosphere]

Shadows of the City - A Spider-Man Story

Peter Parker trudged home after a long day at the Daily Bugle, his mind occupied with school and his crush, Mary Jane Watson. As dusk settled over Queens, he felt the familiar tingle of his Spider-Sense. Ducking into an alley, he shed his ordinary clothes for the iconic red and blue suit of Spider-Man. Swinging through the night, Peter spotted a group of masked men loading bags into a van. “Time to crash a party,” he muttered. He landed in front of them, quipping, “I think you dropped something—your dignity!” The thugs lunged at him, but Peter deftly dodged their attacks, using his agility to take them down with a mix of quick punches and well-aimed web shots. As the police arrived, Peter slipped away, feeling both exhilarated and weighed down by his responsibilities. He thought of Mary Jane and their plans for the weekend, knowing his double life often kept him from normalcy. Standing atop a building, he gazed out over the city, a tapestry of lights stretching before him, accepting the burden of being Spider-Man. The next day at school, he nervously approached Mary Jane. “Hey, about the movie—” “Peter, I get it. Just promise me you’ll try to be honest,” she said, concern in her eyes. Her words hung in the air, a reminder of the balance he needed to maintain. That night, as Spider-Man, he swung through the city, determined to juggle his dual life. He realized being a hero wasn’t just about fighting crime; it was also about connecting with those he cared for. Embracing both sides of himself, he felt ready to face whatever challenges lay ahead, knowing he was not just a hero in a suit—he was also Peter Parker.

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