#the lore and worldbuilding is spectacular

[noblemalone]

dear god in heaven and also jesus

please let Dragon Age™: The Veilguard be fun to play

please im begging you

[kideternity]

Making a list of every time a human trying to like commit war crimes against digimon causes the dimensional barrier to start breaking down and fold into itself. Currently the list is at 2

[djarins-cyare]

✭ Series Masterlist ✭

Languishing in a dull and lonely existence on the forest moon of Endor after travelling there to help salvage Death Star wreckage, a nearly fatal encounter with a mysterious bounty hunter out in the forest heralds an opportunity to utilise long-forgotten skills and develop something more profound than you ever thought possible.

Second person POV, present tense. Set post-season 2, diverges from Canon events before TBoBF and season 3. This is a novel-length, exceptionally slow burn with an original plot, worldbuilding, and fully-developed characterisation. SWU concepts and lore are accurately researched.

WORDS: 406,690

PAIRING: Din Djarin x Female Reader/You

RATING: Explicit (18+)

CHARACTERS: Din Djarin, Reader/You/Female OC, Original Non-Human Character(s), Original Human Characters, Greef Karga, Cara Dune, Leia Organa, Luke Skywalker, Grogu, Peli Motto

TAGS: Slow Burn, Slow Build, Romance, Love, Sexual Tension, Eventual Smut, Smut, Sex, Sexual Content, Explicit Sexual Content, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Relationships, Healthy Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Injury, Dark Past, Additional Warnings In Author's Notes, Bounty Hunter Din Djarin, Soft Din Djarin, Touch-Starved Din Djarin, Din Djarin Needs a Hug, Smart Din Djarin, Soft Dominant Din Djarin, Ewok Species, Mandalorian Culture, Mando'a Language, New Razor Crest, Thoroughly Researched, Worldbuilding, No use of y/n.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This took me almost a year to write and four months to edit/proof. Each chapter is prefaced with specific tags and (where necessary) warnings, plus word counts. End notes contain translations and comments… this baby is thoroughly researched, so I’m sharing context where appropriate. I’ve also added definitions of in-universe terms so people less familiar with the franchise won’t be left wondering what the hell certain words or references mean. This is a slow burn (adult themes), and although the explicit content only occurs in the latter half, when it does, it warrants the ‘E’ rating. Basically, the first half is a love story, and the second half gets spicy. I hope you enjoy it!

READ THE COMPLETE STORY ON AO3:

(Chapters containing explicit content marked †)

Chapter 1: The Obstacle

Chapter 2: The Interrogation

Chapter 3: The Covenant

Chapter 4: The Snare

Chapter 5: The Strike

Chapter 6: The Groundwork

Chapter 7: The Genesis

Chapter 8: The Progression

Chapter 9: The Hide

Chapter 10: The Beast

Chapter 11: The Adjustment

Chapter 12: The Storm

Chapter 13: The Broadside

Chapter 14: The Intercourse

Chapter 15: The Village

Chapter 16: The Confession

Chapter 17: The Reprieve

Chapter 18: The Fortification

Chapter 19: The Ambush

Chapter 20: The Meridian

Chapter 21: The Homestretch

Chapter 22: The Union †

Chapter 23: The Overture

Chapter 24: The Crescendo

Chapter 25: The Harmony †

Chapter 26: The Cadence †

Chapter 27: The Ride †

Chapter 28: The Veneration †

Chapter 29: The Spree †

Chapter 30: The Tribute †

Chapter 31: The Courage

Chapter 32: The Feast

Chapter 33: The Exhibition †

Chapter 34: The Reward

Chapter 35: The Binding †

Chapter 36: The Synergy †

Chapter 37: The Match †

Chapter 38: The Flag †

Chapter 39: The Foundling †

Chapter 40: The Future †

✨Additional Media✨

@burntheedges has written a spectacular little drabble detailing what Din was up to during the paragraph break near the end of chapter 1 (*SPOILERS* you don’t find this out until chapter 27).

@roughdaysandart has sketched a fantastic study of chapter 33 and it’s absolutely perfect (*SPOILERS* cliffhanger ending for the chapter).

@djarin-desires has created some awesome AI images of a few scenes using Midjourney.

I spent a stupid amount of money on the Hot Toys official Din Djarin action figure, simply so I could photograph him in poses from my fic 🤷🏼‍♀️ This is just a taster of what’s to come, but here he is offering to help Reader climb onto the speeder in chapter 8.

🧡💚 Thank you for reading! 💚🧡

➤ MAIN MASTERLIST

Dividers by @samspenandsword

[homunculus-argument]

Another random worldbuilding linguistic thing: What about a language with a bizarrely massive vocabulary for relatives?

The finnish language has a separate word for "uncle" whether that's your mother's brother or your father's brother - and the latter one is used for General Unrelated Uncles like for the old-fashioned custom of teaching small children to refer to unfamiliar adults as "aunts" and "uncles". The Donald Duck -comics actually use the wrong one when referring to Donald in relation to his nephews, as they are his sister's children, though the otherwise spectacular finnish translation can get a pass since the first comics were translated and published before such background lore reached Finland, or was written at all.

Swedish has separate words for paternal and maternal grandparents, your mother's mother is "mormor" and father's mother is "farmor", and "farmor" and "farfar" for your father's parents. While finnish isn't as efficient with these, both languages have specific words for whether a grandchild is your son's or your daughter's offspring, or simply "child's child" (barnbarn) if you don't know the genders of either or - I presume - to remain gender-neutral.

So what about a people whose language has different and exact names for any kind of relatives, or can-be-regarded-as such people? Like there's a separate word for "aunt" if that's your mother's sister, one for your father's sister, and a specific "auntie" preserved for your mom's best friend who's not actually related to you in any way but they've been best friends ever since they were your age so that's your auntie now. And there's a specific word for your mother's sister's bestie, and so on.

So people who speak the language can go "yeah I've got fuck-all to do with this specific person but he's my father's sister's best friend's son", while trying to explain the relation in a language that doesn't have the same terminology. And someone else goes "damn, how the hell do you people always seem to manage to keep track of this kind of shit, I barely remember my second cousins' names."

And the person explaining just shrugs and goes "nah no I don't actually even know him, I've just heard someone refer to him as my paternal-honorary-cousin-once-removed in a sentence one time. I literally don't even know his name."

[sporesgalaxy]

I've been seeing a lot of Trigun posts around and ngl it's got me interested in the show! What's your recommendation for what to start with first? Like reading the manga first or starting with Stampede?

I actually really recommend MY experience, which was Trigun 1998 -> Trigun Stampede -> Trigun & Trigun Maximum manga

I'll explain why under the cut :) But tl;dr the order is

Very Little Lore Explained -> Some Lore Explained -> All Lore Explained And Woven Beautifully Into The Themes

Trigun 1998

the Trigun 1998 anime was made before the manga was finished, so some major plot points towards the end are very different because they were at least partially improvised. There is also very very little worldbuilding lore revealed in the 1998 anime-- but when they did touch on it, it really piqued my interest!

I'd imagine the 1998 anime might be a bit disappointing to watch after Stampede or the manga, when you're aware of all the cool characters and worldbuilding you're missing out on. Going into 1998 blind, I just felt vaguely confused yet emotionally compelled & willing to accept it because YeeHaw Space Cowboy, yknow?

Stampede

Trigun Stampede was made after the completion of the manga, and was clearly more than excited to dig into the worldbuilding and villain buildup that the original anime missed out on. But as I've said it ends up so tightly paced that it's missing the weight 1998's slower pacing could lend to the Average Human Lives around Vash.

It will offer you much more worldbuilding and some very strong character introductions, which I think are good lead-ups for meeting the characters in their Fullest Forms in the manga.

The Manga

Now, the animes are gonna leave you with a lot of questions. About character motivations and Plants, mostly. You'll feel the themes were well-delivered, but have the distinct feeling that they could be stronger. They're also going to leave you wanting more time to spend with these charming, lovable characters.

I am delighted to say that the manga delivers everything you could possibly be left wanting for after the animes BEAUTIFULLY, AND THEN SOME!!!!!!! I've been devouring it at a record pace and it has yet to disappoint. The themes and their spectacular deliveries are changing my brain chemistry. I'm absorbing it into my soul.

Please Please Please even if you dont like either anime, read the manga anyway. Especially if you don't like either anime because you feel they don't deliver on their philosophical musings adequately. Because the manga DOES deliver. So much. Please I'm begging. It's so good it's so fucking good

[melsrainpod]

Probably spoilery, unsure at the time of writing this, thoughts about Wyrdwood under the cut. (Update: it's also rambly as all hell. You've been warned.)

I'm not sure if I can express my feelings about Oxventure: Wyrdwood right now. I'm not particularly sure what is it that I'm feeling, if I'm honest, but that's just a testament to how much there is to feel. Now that the season's over and there's more to come, there's gonna be this Heorth-shaped void in my metaforical fandom heart that I, for one, will be filling in by piecing fanlore into the shapes of the various districts.

The initial pitch of "folk horror Oxventure" was intriguing, but as not a big fan of horror I was more excited for just more of a serious tone and seeing how everyone in the oxboxtra(way) crew grew as a roleplayer. But oh wow, did they not only gain levels in roleplay, but apparently also everyone acquired proficiency in persuasion because this folk horror was somehow really up my alley. Unsettling, unnerving, genuinely scary monsters mixed with the psychological unease of not knowing when and how the magic will go wrong, interspersed with talks about throwing buckets over buildings or unexpected religion lore. Both the decision-making within combat and the casual chatter in calmer periods were rich with character and incredibly insightful.

Combat, by the way, was spectacular. I know Johnny isn't a big fan of combat, but after the usage of lair actions by the bear in the pit I genuinely whooped in excitement — the combat in this series is not only full of genuine stakes, but is also not boring to watch (props to all the producers and editors as well! lighting, sound effects, cuts to close-up rolls on initiative rolls — they are not unnoticed, I absolutely love it!). I think starting on fifth level was the right call, I just hope the group will get to level up for if not the second, maybe the third season and manages to nab some more cool powers. The mechanic of debt is also quite fun, although personally I would prefer for it to go off a bit more frequently, but I doubt it would be particularly fun to stop the game in the middle just to see who'll get 'loped just for the sake of more chaotic magic.

But speaking of magic and debt! Worldbuilding. Oh my absolute gods, the worldbuilding is so juicy. I want to know everything about Heorth. I want to know the courting rituals in Fennfold, where Willowfine is from. (I also want to know all the spellings, Johnny, please release the spellings guide, thank you very much, all the writers and theorists will be in the magical debt for you.) I want the map. It genuinely feels like Heorth is alive around everyone, and I want there to be more stories, big and small, set within its regions, because I truly think there's an almost onfinite number of them. I love the fact that the mysteries are now multi-layered — of course, we're trying to figure out why the magic got borked, but there are also questions of how the magic works, who is this Poor Man, who are those higher beings, and that's not even counting the side mysteries of common folk in Baelwood and Morven's death. It is crystal clear that Johnny has put their heart, sweat, and excitement into the worldbuilding and I would give a (non-monetary, because. well. real life geopolitics.) big value to get to see even one document of the hundreds on the google disc folder they have.

In short, absolutely bloody loved the season one. Can't wait for more. In the meantime, I've got some theories to write!

[neverunderestimatea711]

Doppelgänger was FABULOUS! The character and plotlines were super interesting as well

SPOILERS BELOW

I loved Machina X Flayon/Abandoned Automaton plotline. It was my favorite out of all the routes.

An abandoned machine, who loves his master despite not having a human heart. The expression of his emotions through the frustration of his "master" trying to leave him again results in a very tragic and violent end.

The character building in such a short amount of time was so impressive. You could really feel the anguish and the mechanical nature of the Automaton.

The voice acting was also excellent, as expected lol. The passion Flayon showed through his voice lines were spectacular.

The Josuiji Shinri/Huntsman route was also incredibly tragic and beautiful. I love sacrificial love displayed in fiction, and The Huntsman delivered.

There was a great deal of storytelling and worldbuilding in his route in particular, bur it was never confusing to understand. He was such a sweet character and gave up everything to see the MC live. Although I knew him for only a short time, his route was incredibly impactful plot-wise and emotionally. The Huntsman route is my second favorite route.

I wonder how the game will influence Tempus lore, because members of Guild Tempus were involved in the plot somewhat.

Amazing game! Shout out to the Tempus boys and all the managers who were involved in this project.

[fereldanwench]

so i finished my rewatch of s1-s3 and new watch of s4-s7 of the 100 aaanddd i wanna ramble

spoilers and, from what i've gathered, unpopular opinions under the cut lmao

i watched the first three seasons in 2015-16, iirc (binged s1 and s2 on netflix; watched s3 as it aired)--i remember losing interest towards the end of s3 so i wasn't super hyped about s4 and just kinda forgot about it. on rewatch, i was also getting bored with s3, lmao. it starts off pretty strong, and the end revelation is a banger, but the last 4 eps or so just draaaggggg

i really liked seasons 4 and 5, though, with one big exception: giving clarke a daughter-figure to go all mama bear over was quite possibly one of the most obnoxious character development choices they could have given her

clarke in general is kind of a frustrating character for me because on one hand, i fuckin love a female character who does awful things for what she believes are good reasons, and that is clarke 100%

but in spite of that awesome set up, she manages to be so fucking boring

i think a lot of it is the actress' performance, tbh--the acting on the show overall generally isn't anything spectacular, but i find her particularly bad. i cant quite pinpoint my gripes, i just find her very bland

and given that the show is basically one extended trolley problem and there are dozens of characters who are also constantly put in the position of making the most difficult decisions in the universe, that just isn't enough to make her compelling

i found myself really drawn to echo in the later seasons because i am predictable af and i love a character who is loyal to a fault and bases their entire identity off being a loyal follower. i do feel like the relationship with bellamy was a little shoehorned, though. like i see the enemies to lovers potential there, but i think having most of that transition happen off-screen took all the fun from it

and i was stunned when i went looking for echo gifs to find out that most people hate her but love clarke apparently, lmao. hard opposite

s5 also delved into one of my favorite dark apocalypse tropes: what will push people to become cannibals to survive? it's always been a morbid fascination and i wasn't expecting them to get as fucked up with it as they did, but it was compelling shit

s6 had interesting elements to it--the worldbuilding/lore i think is part of the reason i got so sucked into the show, and seeing how becca's influence managed to reach a whole other planet was cool. i also liked the personality chip stuff bc it gave me ideas for valerie, haha. i also liked russel as an antagonist--love a very polite and calm villain being pushed to their limits

but i could see it was starting to lead into a setup for a whole metaphysical aspect to everything that had happened, and i just really don't like that shit

oh, also, kane and abby were my absolute favorite couple and i'm very sad they didn't get their HEA

so s7 was very meh to me. lovedlovedloved echo, dioyza, octavia, and hope getting to be badasses together, but that's about it. the transcendentalist shit was so fucking tedious, and bellamy got done dirty. and i've found myself overly fixated on the logistics of the "finalkru" situation with clarke and her buddies living on earth for the rest of their lives with no hopes of procreation or extending the human race

like at some point there's just gonna be one person remaining, right? and they have to spend their remaining days all alone? unless they do some kind of death pact? or how exactly do the transcendents ensure there are no babies? can the humans undo this? like what if they clone themselves or do in vitro fertilization? i have questions!!!

i don't mind a story ending with unanswered questions--i even really like that sometimes--but ending with a bunch of new unanswered questions is annoying lmao

plus i find the premise of finalkru surviving and maybe trying to figure out a way to continue the human race to be more interesting than 87% of the plot of s7

also two of the big themes throughout the show was never giving up hope and always seeking to rediscover their humanity after doing horrible shit--i just don't feel like this ending really tied those motifs up in a satisfying way. 99.9% of the human population no longer experiencing pain because they basically don't exist anymore feels less like a reward for Good Behavior and more... idk, just unsettling to me.

i mean, it's basically sci-fi rapture, and the whole idea of the rapture always freaked me out too lmao

i know the show is based on books, which i haven't read and don't plan to, so maybe some of this would be better explained there, but i've also seen commentary that it deviates a lot from the novels so who knows

anyway, i do like the show overall. there's a lot of juicy stuff here, but very weak ending. reminded me a bit of how i felt watching lost, actually, although not as egregious

[skyloftian-nutcase]

So random worldbuilding question

Are households in skyloft more matriarchal, patriarchal, neither, depends on the situations, or depends on the couple?

How many generations after SkSw is the royal family established?

When did the tradition of naming the eldest daughter zelda start?

Does hyrule have more written or oral history? If it’s one before the other, when did it change?

Just stuff like that if it’s ok

There doesn't seem to be a dynamic pushing one way or the other, honestly. Like... it looks like women take care of home affairs a bit more, but that doesn't make it patriarchal.

Hmm, it would have to be a good while, they went from nothing existing on the Surface to what looks to be a fairly vast and relatively well connected country. Maybe a couple hundred years after Skyward Sword? If Hylian lifespans are roughly ours, that would make it like ~6 generations.

I know the only canon lore related to Zelda naming is from Adventure of Link, where they name all the princesses Zelda in honor of the one who was cursed. As for other timelines... I think it varied, like you'd get a Zelda every other generation or so until one of them did something spectacular, maybe they started doing it after Ocarina of Time in the Adult Timeline in honor of their queen doing everything in her power to restore her kingdom. Not sure with the Child Timeline.

It seems like Hyrule generally has more oral history than written, which is fun because you can really fudge up details with that. Just play telephone with any group of people, it doesn't take long for the story to change entirely! Hence why I had fun with it in Breath of the Sky :) (Cloud is definitely made from clouds. That's a fact)

[astralbooks]

Any Other Name - Alex Nonymous

Read: 2/12/2022 - 3/12/2022

Rating: 5/5

Rep: agender main character (uses he/she/they in the text, author has confirmed uses any pronouns), Black sapphic love interest, nb/f relationship

CW: suicide (in backstory, described in detail), death of a parent (in backstory and on page), misgendering (both unknowing & deliberate), abuse & child abuse, fantasy violence, on-page death, loss of autonomy

Review:

This book is a loose Rumplestiltskin retelling and it’s spectacular. We follow our protagonist, a faery whose human father has used their name to control them into being his personal assassin for their entire life. Through this their father has established himself as King, and he’s now sent her to kidnap the princess of their neighbouring country in order to destabilise relations between that neighbouring country and a third. Of course, our protagonist isn’t happy about any of this, and when they find himself falling for the girl she’s supposed to be delivering to his father it becomes a whole lot more urgent that they find a way to break free.

I really loved the protagonist! He’s magically compelled to follow their father’s instructions, no matter how much she might not want to, but throughout the whole book they always exert as much of her own free will as they possibly can by doing Exactly what he’s been told and no more. When Commanded to kill someone, she can’t spare them, but she can make it as quick and painless as possible, and she can pass on their last words, and she can make sure their loved ones are safe. When Commanded to kidnap a princess and bring her home on a journey that should take no more than a month, he can’t let that princess go free, but he can make sure to use every single second of that allowed month to give the princess as much time as possible to figure out a way to escape. The protagonist considers herself to be a monster, and has resigned himself to this, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The kidnapped princess, Chryssa, was also excellent. As the sole child of her country’s monarch, it’s expected that she’ll marry for the sake of a political alliance and that she’ll be Queen one day. She’s not exactly overjoyed about either of these prospects, but she’s determined to make the best of it, and during the first half of the book she shows herself to be a caring and friendly person who I’m not surprised the protagonist fell for. She’s also great during the second half. She isn’t easy to kidnap, she doesn’t go quietly, and she doesn’t simply just take it at face value that the protagonist isn’t doing this of his own free will. The protagonist is just as much a victim in this situation as Chryssa is, but they have to earn back Chryssa’s trust regardless, which just makes things even better once he has earned that trust but there’s still nothing either of them can do about the doom they’re hurtling towards.

The worldbuilding is loose and not very detailed. The main focus of this book is Chryssa, the protagonist, and the relationship between the two of them. We learn a good amount about the history between humans and fae, but ultimately this is a character focused novel and that doesn’t require a huge amount of lore to achieve. This may not be to everyone’s tastes, but I prioritise characters over worldbuilding so it was a non-issue for me. 

The narrative style of the book was unusual! The entire book consists of the protagonist recounting everything that happened, addressing Chryssa the whole time. Due to this he refers to themself as ‘I’ and he refers to Chryssa as ‘you’. I’ve only ever read one other book like this, coincidentally I read it immediately before reading this one, and if these two books are anything to go by then I need more books written like this immediately because I thought it was so cool and it worked so well. And the final line of the book was really strong. I don’t remember the final line of many books, but I’m sure I’m going to remember the final line of this one for a long time.

A huge part of this book is the power that names can have and I’m honestly obsessed. The protagonist’s name is a major plot point, hence why I’m not directly saying it in this review. His father uses the name she was given by their mother when they were born in order to control him, and she’s been forbidden from giving that name to anybody else. In my opinion, it’s not a difficult name for the reader to guess, but that doesn’t matter. Chryssa has less information than the reader has, and she needs to be able to call them something, so she comes up with a new name to address him with.

Here’s the part I’m obsessed with, and this paragraph may be mildly spoilery but this plot point is so important to me that I’d be doing it a disservice if I didn’t talk about it. Plenty of real people, especially trans people, change their name at some point in their lives. Their old names, their ‘deadnames’, aren’t who they are and aren’t reflective of them. In this book the metaphor is made literal. The protagonist’s name is used to control him, and as long as that’s her name they’ll never be free to live his own life as they want to. This follows through to its natural conclusion, and if I could print this book onto my soul, I would. I’m not kidding.

It’s right there in the dedication! The book is dedicated to anyone who’s ever felt trapped by a name. Through this plot element, I’m sure this book will resonate with many.

I would recommend this to people who like fairytale retellings, character driven stories, and those who want to read something that truly encapsulates the importance of our names being our own, rather than simply an indicator or extension of our parents’ control over us.

Thank you to Alex and NetGalley for providing me with a free e-copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[vcutparis]

@03jyh23 (my heart leaped out of my chest reading that 3shot of hj i still cant move on and read longer pieces on here tysm 🤪🚬)

@seonghw4ffles (i need to learn how to make my characters alive from you like omg u have a way with distinct visualizations of a setting also friend, i'll be there for every post of your tumblr.)

@ennysbookstore (you're a gem. your works are a piece of literature. LIKE WHY AM I DOWN THE LEATHER WORK RABBITHOLE BECAUSE OF A FANFICTIONS GOO DLORD?>q)

@lividstar (ill be there for every work u put out on here. i have run out of time to finish your works liekhrjhng WOW. i want to take a day off from my lectures to binge read ur masterlist because spectacular give me 14 of them rightno- oh shit there's a lot i wont ask for more but ill be there)

@nonclassyparty (on my knees. what a world u ahve build in variations of a heartbreak and starring role, i felt like i'm reading a screenplay(?) thank you i have cried, laughed and hugged myself all while reading your works. i'll keep them tucked in a safe cool place and not under direct sunlight. 🫂❤️‍🩹)

@yundeob (*tasty in candy crush voice while looking at that hollywood masterlist* u have a cinema wh*re at ur feet, please keep writing *pops the confetti, bows and leaves the stage*)

@berryunho (OH HELLO THERE LEGEND, THANK YOU FOR MAKING GO DOWN THE RABBIT HOLD OF ATEEZ LORE. I THINK YOU'RE THE REASON I KINDA CONVERTED FROM A CASUAL STAN TO A ATINY. THANK YOU ‼️‼️🫡)

@bvidzsoo (oh my god, oh my good lord. your brain? your worldbuilding? let me inside ur brain. ur a gem. u captured me when i was new to ateez fanfic community on tumblr. black ocean masterlist is my home. i will always be there no matter what u think of writing.)

@hwaslayer (THE LEGEND OF ARMY FANFIC COMMUNITY TYSM FOR THE CONTRIBUTION TO THE ATEEZ COMMUNITY IM ABSOLUTELY BUZZED I CANT WAIT TO FIND TIME TO READ THE NORMANI ALBUM INSPIRED CHOIS SAN OH EMGEEEEE. )

@jiminrings (PRESIDENT!!!!!!!YOU ARE SO COOL SUCHA REVOLUTION IN MY LIFE EEEEEEKKKK YOU DONT KNOW HOW MANY TIMES U HAVE BROUGHT ME OUT OF MY CREATIVE SLUMP OH MY GOD IM IN ABOSLUTELY LOVE WITH YOUR WRITING ALL THOSE SCRIPTS I HAD LEFT BECAUSE I WAS SO FRUSTRATED BUT WOW THE ANGER I FELT BECAUSE OF FS YOONGI AND HB JIMIN????? applied all that emotion to my scripts and all the characters i ahd to write for my theatre class. please consider screenwriting, please please please)

@jeonstudios (i love the diversity of aus and tropes u use? absolutely fabulous, raised my standards as a reader)

@songmingisthighs (DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH YOUR UPDATES MAKE MY DAY????? i wish to be a background character of all your worlds in the fics because damn THE DRAMA THE EMOTIONS THEY ERUPT IN MY BEING???? abosolute sucker for that. please never leave writing i live your MCs)

@welcometomyoasis (if i could grow another heart to love all your fics, i definitely would make it happen anyhow. thank you for making me love seventeen from your persective)

@eightmakesonebraincell (YOUR'E SO KEWL? YOUR WORKS ARE SO KEWL? TEW GOOD? LITERALLY LIKE KAI SONGS OF ATEEZ FANFIC COMMUNITYidk if u got that but please know i just love your fics, your honour)

@wordstro (i knew i was fucked up by ateez when i stayed up and read all your fics and still cant finish the last parts of each one. thank you, from the heart.)

@fairyhaos ( JUST KNOW I ACQUIRED YOUR HABIT OF WRITING LONG TAGS IM STUPID FOR THSIBD BUT WOWBRFB I LOVE YOU HEADCANONS????? BEST HEADCANON-ER ON TUMBLR. PLEASE NEVER STOP. THEY ARE MY DRUG. SEVENTEEN FROM UR VISION ARE SO LOVE LOVE LOVE. SO ADORABLE CUTEIEBR FPIES.)

@sorryimananti-romantic (you're the kohinoor of this community. i adore all of that you have put out.)

@ahundredtimesover (miss mimi, your works have kept me company during the worst of my days and they have helped me grow a lot. thats all i can say. your characters always come to my mind whenever im going thru any phase of life. thank you so much. 🫂)

@go1denjeon (publish ur works and ill buy each copy from the nearest bookstore. i am so serious. i cant express how much ur fics ahve imapcted me in a revolutionary way.)

@seongwars (i ran a lap before entering the lecture room when i saw ur update of away with the wind. yes or no by jk was playing in my head i felt like i loved that day. ALSO THE WITCH READER AUDBGHVNBFHNDBGN I GRRRRRRR THANK YOU THANK TYOU THANK YOUUU)

@hwaightme (i love seonghwa from your eyes. i love ateez from ur eyes. thank you. i hope u get flowers gifted to you everyday, with a happy love movie soundtrack playing in the background.)

@skrrts (EVERY DAY i scroll thru tumblr and everyday i add fic from ur masterlist. i swear to god, i get a week off and ill read each one of them, i have read a few and wow GASP DOUBLE TRIPLE 100X GASPS i cant wait to marinate all of them and leave my thoughts in the tags T-T)

@adelusionforyourthoughts (YOUR TEXTS ARE SO SCRUMPTIOUS. I EAT THEM UP EVEYRTIME THANK YOU FOR THEM I LOVE TO READ THEM AAAGHHHH I HOPE YOU NEVER GET SUNBURNT, PILLOWS ALWAYS COLD, SOCKS NEVER GET WET)

@tomodachiii (slice of life au never au-ed like u made it do in svt tumblr. im in love with mingyu and his lil fam)

special mentions to all of them @kpopfanfictrash @whatifyoulivelikethat @namfinessed @pbandjk @bangtangalicious @yeojaa @crystaljins @hansolmates @suhnshinehaos @mint-yooxgi @yoonia (your stories had grabbed me by the throat, blurred my eyesight and unclogged my thoughts so good i really have no words left to convey what your characters and words have contributed to my mindset, my goals, my everything as a person. so thank you so much ☹️🤝)

It's Fanfic Writer Appreciation Day! So go on, appreciate the fuck out of those who generously share their ideas and talents with us. Today and every day after.

[the-journal-of-liliare]

An Introduction to li’Liare and Her World

Since this blog is recording li'Liare's in-character journal, essential worldbuilding and character details are left out of the entries in the journal proper. As a result, I've decided I should create a lore post. As a player in this campaign I don't know everything about this world though! So I'll primarily be telling you the concept of the world, and li'Liare's place in it specifically.

The world concept

The world is roughly renaissance in styling and technology, though this is not fully true. Odd bits of industrial era technology also exists. Also, the world is full of skeletons. They are reanimated to work for the amount of years that they lived. Why? I don't know! This was mentioned, then quickly and openly shoved to the side! I may find out more later, though!

But that's not what the campaign is about. The campaign is about a few students who have come to a school to train heroes and villains. You see, the core concept is a world where hero and villain are job titles. As a hero you are paid by the city you work for to stop villains dramatic and theatrical plots! As a villain, you are paid by the city to create and execute these dramatic and theatrical plots! Why, you may ask? Because of tourism of course! You're there to attract tourists who want to see your spectacular fights!

The school is called H.A.R.O.L.D. or Harold's Academy Resourcing Offensive (as in opposite of defensive) Learned Disciples. On the map, it stands at the bend in the river east of Sahreh.

Who is li'Liare?

li'Liare is a woman of around 19-20. She grew up in a small town named Filista south and west of the school's town. Her father is a half-elf, her mother a changeling. She has a much deeper bond with her father due to him being the one who was around during her childhood. Her mother, while certainly providing a good extra income to the home, was gone multiple months out of the year, traveling the realm as an Impersonator, someone who presents themself as a hero or villain for events such as signings, ceremonies, and other civilian focused events. As a result of this disconnect with her mother, li'Liare uses her own changeling abilities to present herself nearly constantly as a half-elf, rather than her usual pale changeling form. The whereabouts of her mother are currently unknown, though in the 2 years since she was last home, money has arrived for the family at regular intervals.

li'Liare grew up relatively healthy and relatively happy with her friend Siofra, an avian-related humanoid much like a harpy in appearance. While initially turned off to the idea of entering the Hero/Villain industry due to her mother's involvement, li'Liare decided she would enter the industry due to her knowledge of it and Siofra's love and desire to enter the industry. She has promised Siofra she will be her "nemesis" and had entered to train as a Villain. Out of character, no one but the DM and Siofra's player know that li'Liare is a changeling. In character the only person she's interacting with who knows is Siofra.

Credit for the wonderful art of li'Liare in both her forms goes to Meep#1194 on discord!

[mitskiesques]

i have to say. the owl house has been doing something pretty ballsy in the best way, not quite in the obviously inspired by horror imagery sense but mostly in a political sense, when developing their villain in the last couple of episodes. even amphibia doesn’t manage to be this ballsy about its politics and amphibia is a show whose ideology is basically marxism. the owl house rlly made its villain a colonizer puritan white man who wants to literally commit genocide, who was initially presented as phillip the mysterious tragic explorer when nobody even thought about the implications of the word “explorer”. the reveals of both phillip being an asshole and colonizer AND the evil emperor signature villain of the story made a ton of sense and were wrapped up pretty nicely and logically, but it was still very shocking to see for some reason. because i don’t think other shows have quite managed to make its villain irredeemable in this particular heavily political way, calling out this particular group of people so directly, changing the narrative within the narrative about phillip the explorer and turning it around so hard and keep it that way until we arrive to the events of hollow mind. i just think. yeah. pretty cool

[theoryofweirdness]

1. Not really

2. Either A Link to the Past or the Oracle duology collectively.

3. Skyward Sword. I just love how she and Link are such good friends. Though Spirit Tracks is a very close second, since that's the game where Zelda has the most actual screentime.

4. That I've played? Probably Breath of the Wild. Unpopular opinion, I know. It's pretty and all, but there's only like eight unique items in the game (counting the Runes), and only like 12 unique enemies. It's a huge world that can be fun to explore, but everything just gets really samey after a while. Plus the story sucks.

5. Three-way tie between Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, and Wind Waker, with Ocarina of Time as a close second.

6. Adventure of Link. I've heard the horror stories.

7. Jabu-Jabu's Belly from OoT because it's just such a unique setting (the OoA version is technically the same, but it's both way more annoying and also doesn't feel as much like the actual insides of a creature); Stone Tower from MM because its main puzzle mechanic is just so creative; Goron Mines, Arbiter's Grounds, and Snowpeak Ruins from TP because they feel like actual locations with a specific in-universe purpose rather than just "random place full of monsters and treasure;" the Temple of the Ocean King and Tower of Spirits because I really like the "central superdungeon" idea (honestly don't know why TotOK is so hated; reach new item unlocks shortcuts, so it's not like you have to do the same thing every time); both of the timeshifted dungeons in SS (Lanayru Mining Facility and the Sandship) because I love that mechanic (and also for the same reason as the TP ones; Ancient Cistern from SS because I really like the sharp contrast between the bright and airy "upper world" and the dark, zombie-filled "underworld;" Sky Keep from SS because it ties together everything from all the other dungeons with a very challenging and fun puzzle mechanic. Basically I just think SS had top-tier dungeon design.

8. The Oracle duology, hands-down.

9. The postman from Twilight Princess. I don't know why everyone hates on Navi when this guy exists. WHY IN THE NAME OF DIN CAN'T I SKIP HIM?!!?!

10. Beetle from SS, Magnet Gloves from OoS, Bombchu and Hammer from PH, Ball and Chain from TP, and Double Clawshots from TP/SS.

11. Wind Waker. It's where he's got the most actual character.

12. Probably Twilight Princess. It's the first one I played through entirely on my own.

13. Overall? Much as I dislike the rest of BotW, I can't argue that its character design is top-notch. After that, it's a tie between Skyward Sword and Twilight Princess.

14. As in, which one do I prefer? That depends entirely on context. Design-wise, the Gilded Sword takes the cake, but Biggoron's Sword is probably the most satisfying given that it's the reward for such a difficult side quest, and the Master Sword of course has so much lore tied to it that it's practically another character…then Skyward Sword made that literally true.

15. If Skyloft counts, then that. Otherwise… hmm… the Temple of Time is cool, since it's one of the few constant locations that ties multiple games together.

16. Lorule because it answers the interesting worldbuilding question of "what happens if the Triforce is destroyed?"; the Great Sea because it's somehow exactly the right balance between full and empty to not be boring but still feel like a vast ocean; and New Hyrule because it's just so satisfying to ride the train around (plus that song slaps).

17. Probably Twilight Princess or Majora's Mask

18. Also Twilight Princess or Majora's Mask

19. Twilight Princess or Majora's Mask (three in a row!)

20. Too hard to pick. Not the Switch ones though… for the others, it just depends on which one I'm feeling nostalgic for at the moment.

21. Breath of the Wild

22. So hard to choose… OoT/MM is classic and has a spectacular three-game-spanning arc, but TP, SS, TWW/PH, and ST have so much more personality within their own games.

23. Spiritual Stones. They look the coolest.

24. Either A Link to the Past or A Link Between Worlds. Those had the biggest inventories. Though the Oracle games also both have a pretty unique lineup. TP's are cool but too many of them are sadly underused.

25. Tie between Midna and Spirit Zelda (ST) because they participate the most in the story and actively help Link out instead of just being lore dumps, with Ezlo in second and Tatl in third.

26. Oracle duology collectively, with TMC as a very close second.

27. Probably A Link Between Worlds.

28. The Wind Waker. We need more games where Link actually has a family.

29. Depends entirely on the game

30. That's a hard one… Ballad of the Goddess from SS and themes from both TWW and TP are all very good, but I'd probably go with TWW or SS since those themes are actually incorporated into the game itself instead of just being background music.

31. Jabu-Jabu's Belly from OoA, Sword and Shield Maze from OoS, Ganon's Tower from ALttP, or Eagle's Tower from LA. Those ones are brutal. Though I would say that Mermaid's Cave from OoA is the most annoying with constantly having to go in and out and no easy means of doing so.

32. Probably BotW/TotK. Much as I dislike their gameplay, the map design is top-notch and looks the most like an actual fleshed-out world.

33. Depends. I like when the two are mixed, like in SS.

34. Moldorm in ALttP. He appears in ALBW and LA as well, but is more reasonable in both. Other contenders are Ghirahim III and Demise from SS, Evil Eagle and Dodongo Snakes II from LA, Mothula and Ganon from ALttP, and Knucklemaster and Yuganon from ALBW.

35. Demise from SS, Ganon from ALttP, Yuganon from ALBW, Majora from MM (without the Fierce Deity Mask)

36. Skyward Sword. It filled in a lot of worldbuilding holes. Though LA was also pretty good with the whole dream world thing.

37. Assuming we're talking about normal enemies and not bosses/minibosses… Technoblins from SS are pretty annoying. So are the flying tiles from ALttP, especially in that one room where you can't just cheese them by staying in the doorway, but even with that, it's still really irritating to have to just stand there until they're finished.

38. Dead Hand from OoT

39. ALBW or SS. Maybe TWW.

40. The stupid motorcycle in BotW. And also the Sheikah Slate. Really just everything from there (and TotK) that looks like modern technology. It breaks the fantasy too hard.

41. Song of Healing because it's so moving, and Song of Storms and Saria's Song because I can play them.

42. Bunny Hood. It's the most useful one.

43. In original MM, Zora, because the swimming mechanics are so satisfying. In MM3D, I don't know… the Zora isn't as satisfying, but the other four (counting the Giant's Mask) are pretty much the same.

44. Biggoron's Sword trading sequence from OoT and Gratitude Crystals from SS. The latter is the only one I've never finished, thanks to that stupid harp minigame.

45. Also Biggoron's Sword from OoT, or Maiamais from ALBW. They have the most satisfying rewards and also aren't super annoying.

46. OoT 3D. The dungeon redesigns were AMAZING. It was like a whole entire new game.

47. Skyward Sword

48. I like all of them.

49. Depends on the game, they all have different stuff. Plus they all have different numbers of bottles, which makes the storage capacity more or less valuable of a commodity.

50. OoT Mirror Shield or SS Hylian Shield

🌟 TLOZ asks 🌟

1. Is there a Zelda game(s) that you associate with each season or time of year?

2. Favourite 2D title?

3. Favourite incarnation of Zelda?

4. Least favourite entry in the series?

5. Favourite LOZ soundtrack?

6. Is there a Zelda game that intimidates you/looks too hard?

7. Favourite dungeons?

8. Most underrated Zelda game?

9. Least favourite character in the series?

10. Favourite item?

11. Favourite Ganon characterization?

12. Which Zelda game has the most sentimental value to you?

13. What Zelda game, in your opinion, has the best character design?

14. Master Sword, the Four Sword, Great Fairy's Sword, the Koholint Sword, or the Biggoron Sword?

15. Favourite location within Hyrule?

16. Favourite location outside of/parallel to Hyrule (Termina, Lorule, Holodrum, Subrosia, the Dark World, Labrynna, the Great Sea, etc)?

17. Most atmospheric game?

18. Which Zelda game feels most mature to you?

19. Which Zelda game has the darkest story to you?

20. Favourite 3D title?

21. Prettiest Zelda game?

22. Favourite incarnation of Link?

23. The Pendants of Virtue, the Spiritual Stones, or the Goddess Pearls?

24. Game with most impressive/useful lineup of items?

25. Favourite companion (Midna, Ezlo, Navi, etc)?

26. Favourite handheld title?

27. Game with the best title (Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Link's Awakening, etc)?

28. Most wholesome Zelda game?

29. Favourite item to use (aside from the sword & shield)?

30. Favourite title theme from a Zelda game?

31. Hardest dungeon played?

32. Game with the best map design?

33. Do you prefer puzzles or combat?

34. Game with the hardest boss?

35. Game with the hardest final boss?

36. Which game had the most engaging story, in your opinion?

37. Least favourite enemy?

38. Creepiest enemy?

39. Which Zelda game, in your opinion, had the most satisfying ending?

40. Most out-of-place thing in the series?

41. Favourite ocarina song?

42. Favourite non-transformation mask from Majora's Mask?

43. Favourite transformation mask from Majora's Mask?

44. Hardest sidequest in the series?

45. Best sidequest in the series?

46. Favourite remake/remaster (Ocarina of Time 3D, The Wind Waker HD, Link's Awakening for the Switch)?

47. Most fulfilling Zelda game?

48. Favourite graphical style within the games (cel-shading, realistic, 16-bit, etc)?

49. Favourite thing to keep in a bottle?

50. Favourite shield?

[a-very-tired-bitch]

Y’all didn’t need me to say this but Arcane’s kinda amazing

The art, the storyline, the characters, the design, the soundtrack, the score, voice acting, the tiny little details. You want it? Arcane’s got it.

Now, I’m the kind of person who needs to fall deeply invested in the characters to even consider caring about the show. Arcane heard me and smacked me upside the head with an incredible cast of characters. We have a wide array of archetypes: the tortured scientist (Viktor, also my beloved), the young politician (Mel), the young prodigy with greatness thrust upon him (Jayce), the hardened bruiser looking for her past (Vi), the sheltered dreamer (Caitlyn), the haunted father figure (Vander), the broken child (Jinx), just to name a few. These characters play into their assumed narratives while also existing outside of them with nuances and traits that don’t put too violent a twist on their trope. It’s really good example of balanced and detailed character writing.

I can’t even fully talk about the brilliant work of the artists and animators behind this show who worked on each character’s individual movements and the shapes that make up their silhouettes let alone the beautiful landscapes and backgrounds that are distinct and easily recognisable and really really cool. The way they draw faces? Spectacular. That shot of Vi leaping across the mural? One of the best things I’ve ever seen.

I dream to be able to twist together storylines the way Arcane did. The cutting of shots and the narrative connections between characters was so beautifully done. The show even made me kind of care about lore and worldbuilding! Brandon Sanderson was barely able to make me even think about it!

[ckret2]

Alright let’s talk GVK spoilers!!!

My reactions as best I can remember them!

- love how Kong is humanized from the very first scene, like every time he shows up he’s humanized so much more than other titans are. If that was at the expense of other titans being made likable I wouldn’t enjoy it so much, but like, Godzilla is made pretty lovable over the course of Monsterverse, Mothra is too, and all the titans featured for long are given recognizable emotions that let us see them as more intelligent and feeling than “just” animals; so all of them are made understandable/likable/sympathetic. But of them all, Kong is the only one really humanized. Which makes sense, because like, big monkey! Basically our distant cousin!

- And they kept playing, like, normal songs for him, which cracked me up.

- I really appreciated how you could SEE the titans in this movie. After all the weather effects to hide the titans in KOTM, there was such a clear difference in this one from the very start. Kong in the daylight! Godzilla makes his first attack at night, and even then you can see him much more clearly than you can for most of KOTM! Nice!

- after the Iwi were portrayed as silent stoic witnesses in Skull Island, I really appreciated that they took an Iwi character, made her a main character, and gave her dialogue and a real role to play in the story while also keeping her deaf/mute. I think that was a good way to improve on the way that the Iwi got got sidelined in the last movie while still maintaining the worldbuilding!

- I didn’t appreciate so much that, y’know, they murdered the rest of her people off-screen in order to do it. Couldn’t they have gone “her parents died so she got adopted by a Monarch agent that was close to her family, but like, the rest of her tribe is fine”? Or at the very least “their island got fucked up so they had to be evacuated but like they’re settling in somewhere else”? “They’re living under this island dome with Kong and they know what’s up and Monarch’s keeping them in the loop and they decided they’re chill with their new dome home, but this one girl likes to go on adventures with Monarch”? Something? Did we have to kill them all off? Y’all make up an entire fictional indigenous culture and then murder them off-screen when you don’t need them? Just let them live.

- a few minutes in I was like “hold on, we’ve got two characters that speak sign language, we’ve got a giant gorilla, gorillas learn sign language, is there any reason they can’t teach Kong?” and then later I was like “OOOOOH!!” Humans and titans learning how to communicate with each other has been one of my favorite themes to explore in Monsterverse fanfic so I was absolutely tickled to see it getting explored in canon, too.

- That said I think it’s hilarious that the girl managed to teach Kong to sign without, like... anybody seeing. Kong’s hands are above the tree line and there are cameras everywhere, how did NOBODY with Monarch see him signing.

- Bernie’s weaponized being an annoying coworker to such a degree it can only be called an art, and I really appreciated it.

- Godzilla’s extra chonky in this movie and I dig it. Roomie noted he was extra crocodilian and I dig that too.

- “There’s been no confirmed titan sightings in three years” I don’t buy that for a minute. They’re BIG. Rodan NESTS IN VOLCANOES. They found a MOTHRA EGG. Humans have A SCARILY WELL-FUNDED ORGANIZATION DEDICATED SOLELY TO FOLLOWING TITANS AROUND. Like, most of the lore in GVK that I don’t personally like, I can be like “eh... I can tweak it just a little bit with headcanons to make it work for me...” but NO confirmed titan sightings? You expect me to believe ALL of them moved underground when we’d previously seen them all prefer to live above ground? You expect me to believe that now that they’re all AWAKE, they learned how to HIDE?? Uh-uh. And at the end of KOTM there was stuff in the credits about using titan droppings as biofuel, obviously they’re still walking around up top! Can’t take that from me. Nope.

- Who the FUCK is Ren Serizawa and how is he related to Ishiro Serizawa? IS he related? Maybe they just dropped the surname as another “yeah this is a Godzilla movie for Godzilla fans” easter egg but I have a hard time believing that he can’t be somehow related to the other character with the Very Important Last Name who was so important in the last two Godzilla movies. If he is related I’m sure it’s been explained in a tie-in comic or the novelization or something, I’ll look it up later.

- I had to look up how much weight huge battleships can carry while writing a KOTM fic where Ghidorah hitches a ride on one, and y’all, I had to pull weird gravity-negating magic to get him to ride on that boat. Godzilla and Kong woulda sunk that boat like a rock. All I could think during that scene is “this wouldn’t work and I know that because I DID THE RESEARCH and I wasn’t even getting PAID.” I’ll choose to believe that Monarch gets special heavy duty ships designed to carry titans but nobody mentioned it because it wasn’t relevant to Kong’s journey.

- The bit where they could see where Godzilla was swimming because he’d got half a ship hooked to him that was bobbing around on the surface, didn’t Jaws do something like that with a buoy? It’s been ages since I’ve seen Jaws. Anyway good reference.

- Insert “they’re gonna need a bigger boat” joke

- I LOVED the part where they shut down all the ships to get Godzilla to leave. Both because, one, it’s a spectacular callback to KOTM’s “turn off all the guns so he knows we’re not a threat” that makes it seem like now that’s just what Monarch knows what to do to get G to chill out, and two... we know that Godzilla backs off either when he’s killed his enemy or when his enemy has yielded to him. At the end of KOTM—and the end of GVK—the act of yielding is presented as very ceremonial and uniform across species: everyone lowers anything they’ve got that could be dangerous (claws, fangs, beaks, axes) and bows to show Godzilla they’re not gonna fight. Battleships, obviously, can’t bow, but even without being inducted into whatever secret titan cultural intricacies might be going on, humans have figured out their own way to “bow” to Godzilla: cut all the power, so their ships can’t move and can’t use weapons. I know the movie presented it as “playing dead,” but c’mon, if Godzilla could hear MechaG power up from halfway around the planet then he could hear that Kong’s heart was still beating, and he’s been around enough boats to know humans can turn them off and on when they want. The humans bowed to Godzilla. He accepted that they yielded and left.

- Mark Russell looked like such a dad in this movie, like he’s retired 100% from being a rugged action hero and now he’s just Pure Dad. I like him better when he’s a dad, it’s a good development for him. He got like 3 lines and I’m like “I appreciate this character development.”

- Despite all my qualms about how conspiracy theories and extremist groups are handled in Monsterverse (and WHICH conspiracy theories they decide to reference), I really love Madison and Bernie’s dynamic. The adult man who’s the excitable wide-eyed believer in every BS conspiracy you can possibly imagine; and then the serious, severe Teenage Girl On A Mission who’s hypercompetent because she was raised for five years by a friggin doomsday cult militia; and despite having wildly different personalities they’re just, in total agreement about everything. Handled just a BIT differently (like, leaving out the more gross IRL conspiracies) they would be a wildly fun comedic duo—especially with Josh the Only Sane Man coming along as the hapless sidekick. And they all play off of each other so well! Both in a comedic sense, and in more serious moments—when Bernie talked about his wife, there was a real moment of empathy between him and Madison with very little said. I’d watch an entire movie just about the three of them. I’d watch a TV show.

- On the one hand I wasn’t too much of a fan of KOTM’s “all titans... are inherently In Tune With Nature... nature has a Balance, because that’s a Real Thing and not an anthropocentric concept to describe how we like nature to act, and they automatically restore it... because they’re like, some kinda borderline divinities or something... we should probably be worshipping them...” thing; but, now that it was totally absent in GVK, I sorta miss it. Like I feel like there needs to be a balance, a few humans who are like “i lowkey worship these dudes?” and a few others who are like “they’re cool but like, that’s a lil extreme” and that neither side be presented as Right in how they regard titans’ relationship with nature.

- “All titans come from THE HOLLOW EARTH” nah I don’t buy that it’s silly. Basically, what I object to is the idea that all titans have some sort of intrinsic similarity (they all come from the same hitherto-unknown location; they all are part of the same pack that has the same alpha; they all are fueled/fed by the same energy source; etc) rather than letting them be SEPARATE species whose only unifying traits are “they’re all big enough to fuck everything up everywhere they go” and “they’re big enough that the typically-insurmountable barriers between different biomes (mountain ranges, valleys, long distances with terrible weather) aren’t insurmountable for them, so even if they’re specialized in different environments they still all have to deal with each other pretty often.” I’ll make some exceptions for convergent evolution (i.e., claiming multiple titans developed similar traits that are relatively easy to spontaneously evolve and a prerequisite for a creature to survive at such a large size). But I can’t buy “this big gorilla has more biologically in common with this big crocodile-iguana than he does with, say, gorillas,” or most of the other “all these titans have THIS IN COMMON” claims that Monsterverse makes, including “everyone’s from hollow earth.” So I’m tossing that out the window and substituting my own headcanons. Some might’ve evolved there but some evolved on the surface. Maybe a majority of them like ducking in and out of the hollow earth like some kind of titan shortcut system. Kong’s species, I can buy, IS native to hollow earth, considering that they built a whole-ass society down there with tools and architecture.

- I’m SO curious about the little underground Kong home, the Godzilla motif in the floor, and the axe that appeared to be made with a Godzilla scute. What’s the story there??? We know Godzilla’s species and Kong’s species are ancient rivals. Is it because Kong’s species hunted Godzilla’s to steal their scutes to make weapons, seeing them as a valuable resource the way, like, early humans considered woolly mammoths a valuable resource—thus making that Godzilla on the floor equivalent to cave art of mammoths made by people who hunted them��until the Godzillas got pissed and started fighting back en masse? Or were Godzillas and Kongs already enemies when Kongs decided to start making weapons out of their corpses? Did they use to be allies, fighting together, with Godzillas voluntarily offering shed scutes and/or bones of their deceased members to Kongs, and that place used to be a shared home until they started fighting?

- What about that power source, is it something that was already there that both Kongs and Godzillas started to deliberately harvest for technology/atomic breath? Or did Godzillas automatically channel that stuff and Kongs exploited/borrowed/traded with Godzillas to utilize it too? Or is the power from Godzillas who collaboratively poured a bunch of power into the place thus that Kongs were able to use it too? I doubt Godzilla’s species CREATED all that weird energy but the question remains of whether, like, they channel it FROM underground, or naturally produce the same thing in their own bodies, or what.

- Godzilla using his atomic breath to dig a hole STRAIGHT TO KONG just to KICK HIS ASS is hilarious. How lucky that Hong Kong just HAPPENS to be straight over Kong’s house! Were all the tunnels to the hollow earth made by pissed off Godzillas who wanted to kick monkey ass??

- I loved the aesthetic of the battle scene in Hong Kong, with the brightly colored neon building outlines, VERY cool look. The choreography of the battle scene was great too, especially

- we literally broke into applause when Kong shoved the axe handle in Godzilla’s mouth. Love it, perfect callback, that was the ONE thing from the original King Kong Vs Godzilla I was hoping to see referenced and there it was.

- You could really see a difference in how Kong and Godzilla fought—Kong doing a better job at using tools and the environment, Godzilla fighting more like a reptile. They seemed to emphasize Godzilla’s more animalistic behaviors in this movie to accomplish that contrast—he was down on all fours and moving like a crocodile more often, he was clawing at Kong’s chest—but even though it seemed a bit different of a combat technique it also didn’t seem out of place compared to how he fought in prior movies. And we’ve already seen that if Godzilla’s involved in a fight and one of the combatants knows how to use the environment, it’s typically not gonna be Godzilla. (See: Ghidorah using the reflection in a building’s windows to see what’s behind him, and recognizing a nearby power source and biting it to juice himself up.)

- So many of Godzilla’s enemies seem to have specialized in negating his atomic breath in order to combat him! The MUTOs directly suppress his ability to use it—and it makes sense that that’s an inborn ability they have, since they evolved to use Godzilla’s species as prey. Kong has a weapon that both acts as a shield to absorb the breath and turn it back against Godzilla’s species—they didn’t evolve to counter Godzilla, but they developed tools once a rivalry happened. Ghidorah’s the exception—which makes sense, since he came from space—but even at that we see him using tactics specifically to take into account Godzilla’s most powerful weapon (such as keeping one head on lookout for when he starts glowing so that they know when they need to dodge).

- LOVED the reveal that MechaG was based off of Ghidorah’s brain, it has vibes of both the Kiryu Saga and the way that Heisei MechaG is based off of Mecha-King Ghidorah. Not the most surprising plot twist, since we’d theorized that they might use San to make MechaG, but I wasn’t 100% sure they were gonna go with it until they finally did. Even when I was going “huh, the mecha pilot’s chamber looks weirdly organic” I didn’t make the connection to WHY until the reveal, lol.

- “Ghidorah’s necks are so long that the heads have to communicate with each other telepathically” that’s COMPLETELY WILD but I love it, it follows very well from their prior portrayal as telepathic empaths in Heisei, it lines up with their emphasis on electricity (because BRAINWAVES AND ELECTRICITY, hey ho movie monster pseudo science!), and it very much compliments my own private headcanon that they’ve got some psychic/mind control abilities.

- The movie ended with both “Godzilla won, technically” but also “since they teamed up as equals, the ending doesn’t FEEL like ‘Godzilla wins, Kong loses’ but rather ‘they both won against a common foe’” and since I’m on both Team Godzilla and Team They Should Be Friends, I’m happy with this outcome. Plus since the last time they fought, the Japanese movie company graciously let the American monster win, so it’s only polite that the American movie company graciously let the Japanese monster win.

- There were just a few too many humans in this movie. I was intrigued by Ren but we didn’t get much out of him, but like I guess somebody had to be in the pilot’s seat other than the Apex CEO. Didn’t care for the author of the hollow earth book, I feel like his role was superfluous. Didn’t need the Apex CEO’s daughter there at all, coulda done without her. How about this, combine all three roles. Instead of having a whole-ass author who knows about the hollow earth, just casually reference that Rick from KOTM wrote a book about it since he was the expert, and (since he wasn’t in this movie) say that he tragically died going to explore the hollow earth himself, and that way we’ve got the book with the “titans are from there” theory AND an excuse to share the “humans die when they go underground” info. Now, have Ren be working for Apex as a pilot for Mechagodzilla, but have him be MechaG’s pilot because he’s also a good pilot in general, and can fly those HEAV things. Have Apex send him to Monarch to be like “hey, you guys trust me right, since I’m Ishiro Serizawa’s relative? We at Apex have heard all about your failed hollow earth expedition, and due to Ishiro I’ve got some past ties to Monarch so I’ve got high clearance with y’all, so I could bring over this useful Apex tech that’d let you go underground and use what I know about hollow earth from my past time at Monarch to help guide things.” Once they’ve got the little chunk of energy stuff and go topside, he hustles it straight to Apex and straps into his seat to run MechaG. Bam, you’ve combined “person who knows enough about hollow earth to help the expedition,” “person who represents Apex’s interests and gets the energy,” and “person who pilots MechaG” into one character, in a way that takes three flat/underdeveloped characters and turns them into a single interesting character with a lot going on and some intriguing ties to the rest of the cast.

I think that’s everything?? Hoo.