#spoilers in the tags from this point on ----->

[the-grand-gemini]

This is my favourite Varric Hawke art and I'm crying in the club again. Thinking about their friendship over the years and their two endings.

1. Hawke's final sacrifice in the Fade:

Varric having to cope with Hawke never getting a hero's happy ending that he always wanted to write for her. Instead having to write all their remaining friends and family of her sacrifice. Knowing that he left her behind even if he wasn't given a choice.

2. Hawke does not stay in the Fade:

Which leads to DA1 end credits with Hawke assisting Varric with rebuilding Kirkwall with him as Viscount...

Then VEILGUARD comes around smashing that all to pieces. So even IF you chose to save Hawke from the fade: Varric who, depending on your choices, is Hawke's longest and most loyal friend/remaining family is taken from her after all her loses. 🥀

💀❤️💀

(Also both endings being directly/in directly Solas' fault? It's on site Solas!)

If anyone has any good fic recs for coping... 👀💦

(Varric/Hawke survival fics...)

(Alternatively if anyone wants to crush me with a Hawke holding Varric's funeral fic...)

the last he saw of her

[bloopitynoot]

Reading TGCF: Chapter Ten

For those who don't know, I am reading TGCF for the first time and sharing my thoughts!

If you have not read it, there will be spoilers! Consider this a warning.

Also- if you want to follow along, I am aiming to post updates daily. You can find all the posts in the tag Bloopitynoot reads TGCF. You can also check out the intro post for context on my read BUT if you followed along with my SVSSS read, the rules and vibe are the same.

I truly wish I could say this was a different tea, but from now on unless I state otherwise it's probably masala chai.

Body update: I feel less like trash than yesterday, but my right arm did take a hit LOL. Thankfully my hip is doing a lot better too so sitting is much better. (I'm not even a writer or specifically a writer on ao3, yet, it feels like I have the ao3 curse).

Nevertheless- onwards to chapter ten!

Immediately Xie Lian is here using his body to protect San Lang! You tell Fu Yao! p329

I should have waited one more sentence LOL. "Because...if I stand next to him, the snakes wont come". p329

omg. There is a 6th person in the pit and I am still not sold that that kid (a-zhao) is actually dead. I'm still thinking about the garden face man and what he was saying. p331

WTF- General Pei jr?? p333

okay! But now I need to know General Pei jr.'s motivation for destroying a whole city! p335

ofc Xie Lian knew General Pei jr from when he was General Hua. Who does this man not accidentally know? p336

Jeeze. Banyue's people were going to strap bombs to themselves if they lost. This is wild. Based on the history between the two warring countries I really don't think there was hope for a peaceful end. pp337-338

Oh yay! we finally get to meet the two cultivators from the street! Also that art is absolutely stunning, I love them both so much. I do hope we meet them again. pp341-343

Oh no! The entire time they have been running from her (The Wind Master) thinking she was evil as shit but she was actually trying to help them. p343

Dang this makes sense. General Pei jr couldn't just murder people directly because of his position. So, instead he lured them to their deaths (snake deaths, pit deaths, but definitely not him killing them technically!). This is some dictatorship misuse of power shit with full technical deniability for this guy. Gross. p345

Xie Lian had me suspicious about the wind master too, but thank fuck Banyue was let go for her good deeds. p347

Bro just wants to do the right and good things but heavenly politics are too much. He is definitely going to offend everyone at some point. p350

Whos cutting onions?? My heart at this small child who decided they would be building Xie Lian a large temple when they got home :'3 I'm totally normal about this. p352

The speed in which Nan Feng fled when Xie Lian offered to make food LOOOL Nan Feng: oh no, so sorry, my basement is on fire, and flooded, definitely need to leave right at this moment. Terribly tragic. p353

eeeeeeeeeeeeeep! "I still prefer the name 'San Lang'" p354

ONE CHAPTER LEFT!

Now the question is, how will mxtx ruin my life in the last chapter of this book?

I do own book 2, BUT I think tomorrow I will order the third in celebration of finishing book 1. I might do this the last chapter of each book to prep for more reads.

[duchessonfire]

Savior Carl!AU re-read Part 1 Chapter 1

In honor of the Savior Carl!AU celebrating its fourth birthday this week (on Thursday 9th to be precise), I'm re-reading the whole series with a running commentary for anyone who might be interested in it. If you're not interested and don't want to have your dashboard spammed, you can block the tags Duchess reads and Savior Carl AU reread.

Commentary for Part 1, Ch 1 below the cut (spoilers for part 1 ahead):

First of all, it always blows my mind that I never realized the first thing Negan says to Carl in the Savior AU is... that he finds Carl hot. I wish I was kidding but this is literally what Negan says to Shane when he offers himself and Carl as Saviors:

"Hey, no offense, big guy. That's a good looking kid you have here, must take after his mama, that's all."

Like... That man noticed Carl the second he laid eyes on him. Iconic. And as if that wasn't enough, Negan throws in another compliment about Carl's eyes:

"Same goes for you, kid, if you don't want Lucille to bash your head in, eyes first. She likes ‘em baby blues, and you're just her favorite shade."

Jesus, Negan, just go down on one knee and propose, why don't you.

Something that's also hitting me as I'm re-reading the chapter is how frayed Carl and Shane's relationship already is when the story starts:

As Carl lies on his bare mattress in the Saviors' compound, Shane sleeping soundlessly on the bed, he reminds himself that it all rests on him. Shane is a gun always ready to go off. As long as Carl can point him in the right direction, it can all be alright. It has to be.

Shane lets Carl sleep on a bare mattress on the floor like a dog at his feet, while Carl thinks of Shane as a weapon he can use for his own survival. They are both dehumanizing the other, seeing the other as a mere tool. Shane's death at the end of part 1 was inevitable and all the elements for it are foreshadowed from the beginning:

Suddenly, Carl doesn't just long for his gun, he longs for a knife. A machete. A hatchet. This is the man who killed Abraham. This is the man who killed Glenn. Suddenly, he longs for a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.

It's especially telling that Carl already wants to wield the bat (even if here he's thinking about killing Negan with it). I think it's Chandler Riggs who mentioned in an interview that when Carl sees the Sanctuary for the first time with Negan, part of him is attracted by the power Negan has. This is very much present here. Carl already wants *to be* Negan here, to have the same power he has, to be able to inflict pain and vengeful retribution the same way Negan did in the clearing.

Okay but now that we've talked about Negan's first words to Carl, we need to talk about Carl's first words to Negan:

After spending all day being shown around the Sanctuary, after being fed and brought to a cozy room with a kitchen area and a comfy bed, Carl feels the sudden need to correct him. "He's not really my dad."

AKA, "Should you want to be my new daddy, just know that this slot if available" lmao

Okay no, but for real, this is especially interesting that Carl's first words to Negan are used to distanciate himself from Shane. This is due to what happened at the clearing. Shane was humiliated, brought low on his knees, submitted by a more powerful Alpha male. And here, this is Carl distanciating himself from Shane's defeat. In my mind, Carl is a sub craving male authority and power. He needs to be by the side of the most powerful man around, it's how he feels safe and protected in the apocalypse. He needs to be under the wing of someone stronger to protect himself and baby Lori. Until the clearing, this used to be Shane. But the second Negan entered the picture and made Shane kneel, Carl's allegiances shifted, whether or not he's aware of it. This moment is Carl sending Negan a very important subtext: "We both know Shane lost, and I need you to know I'm not like him, I'm not a loser." This Carl is a savage and I love him forever.

"Then why in the hell are you calling him that? Fuck, wait, tell me this ain't some kinky baby/daddy shit. A few of my wives call me that and I'd really like to be able to get laid without thinking about Shane's ugly mug while I'm balls deep in pussy."

Right, Negan, because that's the most logical explanation and the first one your brain should arrive at. It's for sure not related to the fact that you think the kid is hot. This being the first thing that comes to mind is no doubt purely a coincidence and not at all fueled by your already raging lust for him. God, he was probably thinking about tumbling Carl on the bed right here and then in Carl's new room.

Back on a more serious note, it blows my mind how much foreshadowing there is in chapter 1 (yes, I know I wrote it, but sometimes I realize something is foreshadowing *after* writing it):

“I’m not leaving you alone with these people,” Shane says darkly once she’s closed the door and her footsteps have receded down the hallway. “They’re trying to split us up. Weaken us. We won’t let them.”

This is almost prophetic. Shane knew exactly what Negan would try to do because it's what *he* would do. Divide and conquer. But Shane here is only thinking in physical terms: separating Carl from him physically so the Saviors have them isolated and can easily be overpowered. He didn't realize Negan would be driving a wedge between them by connecting with Carl. And by the time he did, it was too late to stop it from happening.

Conclusion; tldr: I really like this chapter. It's short, compact, non-linear, and yet everything is already here. The frayed relationship between Shane and Carl, Negan's interest in Carl, Carl's interest in Negan, Carl's utter loyalty for his little sister and no one else's. My favorite thing, though, has to be the ending with the boat. I'm really really happy that I thought of taking this element that was part of Rick and Aaron's storyline and that I managed to use it as a test of loyalty for Negan to put Carl and Shane through. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm proud of myself on this one. I love playing with canon and reusing it in a different way.

Also, I mentioned in my 2024 fic wrap Tumblr post that when I first posted this story on AO3, the engagement with it was very low and the Cegan fandom was pretty much dead. To give you an idea, I posted chapter 1 on January 9th and didn't receive a comment until January 14th. The second comment was posted almost a month later in early February (by no one other than the wonderful @reallygreatblogname222!!). It took me a month to get 2 comments on this fic and I didn't get another one until June, 6 months after posting. As discouraging as it can be to write a fic with very low engagement, always remember to find the joy in your own writing and to persevere regardless of what sort of feedback you get on it. 4 years later, Part 1 has over 900 kudos and 151 comments. None of it would have been possible if I had let myself be discouraged and stopped posting before finishing the story. It takes time to build a community but know that your people will find you eventually <3

PS: boy did I love commas back then. I'm cleaning them up as I re-read the chapter but, wow, 2021 Duchess, ease up on the punctuation.

You can find the commentary for chapter 2 here.

[mettywiththenotes]

I think one of the things I love the most about Haikyuu is that even though the whole manga comes from a place of love from Furudate who created the story specifically to get people into volleyball, there is nothing to make you feel bad about not wanting to play anymore

There are characters who are completely obsessed with volleyball. There are characters who aren't obsessed but are interested enough to keep going. There are characters who weren't into it but did it anyway and then just couldn't stop. There are characters who started doing volleyball and then realized they didn't like it anymore, then left and were better for it. There are characters who are like "this was cool and it was nice but I don't want to do this forever". There are characters who never play but still support the teams anyway

And the story validates every single one of these experiences. There's no "this experience is better than that experience", there are just characters who like it, don't like it, are obsessed with it or can appreciate everything that happens in a game regardless of their feelings towards it

It's just really nice to go through the story and feel the whole acceptance through the writing itself, to see that Furudate is encouraging you to try volleyball, to experience how fun it can be, and if it's not fun for you or you fell out of love with it or just don't want to do it anymore, then that's fine! At least you experienced it! At least you tried! At least you learned something about yourself! And hopefully you made friends along the way!

Haikyuu inspires people to try something new but never does it show a characters negative feelings or lack of feelings towards it as invalid and wrong. It just encourages you to do what makes you happy. I really appreciate that

[malewifesband]

tags from @yuri-puppies:

#dunmeshi is SUCH a breath of fresh air#there is so much nuance and thoughtfulness to every character's feelings opinions and position in the world#and i love the connection to the environmental concerns and the need for balance#laios' kingship is the best solution to this complicated balance for everyone including himself#i do have to push back a bit on the implication that laios is pressured into becoming king/is a figurehead#it's a tricky thing because i do agree that he would not have done it without the pressure#and that he is terrified of leadership and Living In A Society TM#but ultimately he becomes king because he himself accepts that a) he is capable of supporting and helping his people#b) kingship is the best way available to do so#izutsumi chooses to face eating a dish with vegetables and laios chooses to face leadership#bc they both have reached a point where they can accept the benefits of doing so despite their natural aversion to it#laios may not want the crown but he does want what the crown would enable him to do for others#he even explicitly rejects the option of being a figurehead and chooses to move forward his own way#even if it's the harder road it's the one he can claim as his own#tl;dr laios didn't jump at the chance for sure but he also wasn't dragged kicking and screaming into it#dunmeshi#dungeon meshi manga spoilers#good meta op

I enjoyed a lot about the ending of "Dungeon Meshi" (SPOILERS) but especially its depiction of an ascension to kingship. Laois does become king kind of on a legal technicality, yeah, but it's that PLUS the backing of all of the allies he's made along the way. His claim is kind of tenuous and it's obvious that more powerful nations could probably steamroll him if they choose to violently challenge it, but that would be a big mess that no one really wants to get into right now.

It was just extremely refreshing after recently dealing with some more magical-bloodline-based and divine-right-chosen-one fantasy. Laois gets that tenuous claim to the throne because of stuff that he actually did, but the claim only really goes through because the local community allows it and supports him (not unanimously, for various reasons), ALSO because of stuff that Laios actually did to make them want to do that. Democracy is not suddenly invented because that's not really how this world works (that's not the focus of the story here), the foreign nations involved probably wouldn't respect that kind of move, but even so, monarchy isn't something that goes forward here without other people behind it and behind Laios.

Laois is Just Some Guy with a tenuous claim and a force behind him to solidify that grip to persuade everyone else to go along with it! Which is historically how a lot of "kings" have happened! And it's clear that he has and needs a lot of people around him to actually do the work of governing a country. (There does admittedly end up being a anti-monster demon curse helping Laios's position here, but that's again specific to Laios because of things he did, and that alone wouldn't cut it.) It's neat to actually see that... social balance and maintenance at the forefront of his ascension, which matches all of the ecosystem-related messages throughout the story.

I also enjoyed the fact that Laios Did Not Want This and that it only really happens because other characters are yelling at him to grab the opportunity to maintain their nation's crumbling independence. That was funny. He's simultaneously a person with agency, a responsible and skilled leader, and also kind of a figurehead! It's messy and fun.

[shelfperson]

okay but WHYYY is no one talking about louis and daniel WHYYYYYYYYYY is no one talking about the greatest grandpa4grandpa relationship known to man and i don’t even mean romantically i mean in the most basic human platonic level their relationship is FASCINATING.

like louis SAUGHT HIM OUT after FIFTY YEARS he FOUND HIS BOY, this horrible infant who DID NOT UNDERSTAND A THING HE TOLD HIM, who saw his raw, decades-old pain and wanted in on it, AND HE GOES BACK FOR HIM BECAUSE HE KNOWS HE’S CHANGED. he can understand now. he can help him find the truth.

and like, they’re both absolutely terrified by each other because they’re both uniquely skilled at getting under each other’s skin and finding that truth (and also because… louis could just up and eat daniel anytime but shhhh…) and it’s because they UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER. louis’s interviewing daniel as much as daniel’s interviewing him, just. pulling teeth from each other’s head, trying to pull out all the rot with such violence and cruelty (from both of them!! daniel is a cockwallop!!) but they want to help each other they CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER.

LIKE THIS????

THIS FUCKING SHIT?????

GAGGED ME. RUINED ME. I HAD TO STOP AND TAKE A WALK AROUND THE ROOM.

(the gifs are from @loumands account btw. great work my guy)

[itseghost]

a few meager cr3 sketches :] ft feywild fearne, orym's sending stone blues, and the revival scene from blood and dust that i sketched ages ago and decided i was never going to finish lmao

[krittec]

there’s something extremely extremely creepy about taking an actor that you have known since they were 13 years old, only JUST a teenager, and making them kiss a fully grown woman the second that they turned a legal adult.

Steve Blackman already has a ton of shit out against him which came out recently so it unfortunately doesn’t surprise me that he would write something like this but it makes me genuinely concerned for everything behind the scenes.

There has been a HUGE problem in the Umbrella Academy fandom since season ONE when Aidan was a 13-14 year old of people writing insanely disgusting stuff and defending it because his character was mentally an adult but oh my god did they make it worse. You’d think they’d protect actor & character by avoiding any romantic interaction but instead you have him kiss an actress 15 years older than him. The age gap being the age that he was when they filmed season two. Quite honestly I feel that if he could’ve done this seasons previously and gotten away with it then he definitely would’ve done it, given the jokes that are actively made.

Quite honestly may Steve Blackman never work again if this is how he treats his actors because this is awful. I’m not even done with the season but that gave me very little desire to continue and this show has been important to me in ways I can’t explain. Maybe I am blowing this out of proportion but it feels so insanely creepy and horrific to me and I needed to rant.

[meamiki]

silly comic based on a time i struggled to read live on stream :thumbsup:

context clip compilation below ASDASDFASA

(cw for brief mention of hospitals/strokes)

[ginumo]

so much for the power of friendship

[vellichorom]

you sick little animal, even death itself pities you.

[copia]

"It. Is. Going great, now. Innit."

PAPA EMERITUS IV and SISTER IMPERATOR in RITE HERE RITE NOW (with ASHLEY MCBRIDE and KEVIN "JESUS" KAUFMANN)

[felassan]

What kind of spirit do you think Felassan waz?

Swag

[cozymochi]

I lived, bitch. I did it,,, I made an animatic again after 2 years…! And it’s not an old thing just dumped out! 😭 I’mma be honest, it’s not reaaaally spoilers exactly… but it sorta falls into it in a zig-zagged way. The timing’s off slightly for my liking, but at this point I shouldn’t complain about little things like that when making one at all was the huge hurdle. Rip my subscribers. THANKS AND BYE.

Original audio: Maleficent (2014)

Ko-fi

[sandushengshou]

to defeat monsters: become the greater monster | m.a.w

(requested by @highwarlockkareena for my 1 follower celebration)

[dixidin]