#the set list was perfection

[ca-d]

Sleep Token // 5.24.24 ✨

[ittybittyremy]

“The white light of Catha is looked upon by the Moonweaver. Great goddess of illusion, shadow, trysts…”

“hidden love…”

“beauty in that regard…”

[emry-stars-art]

Was inspired to draw kisses and of course they’re royal au flavored

Find the royal au masterpost here 💕

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

The fandom can't make up its mind on what's supposed to be a joke and what's supposed to be serious because the show can't either half the time. It's a tonally disjointed mess that wants to have absurd over-the-top humor as well as a plot and moments of drama, romance, and angst that demand you see the characters as people and feel for what they're going through. Except you can't do that without also treating the dumb bullshit in a somewhat grounded way. Like, you're still dealing with the same characters. You can't just go "Oh, that? Let's ignore that!" the moment it's no longer convenient to you. You've opened this can of worms and now you have to sleep in it. So, every character flip-flops between two different versions of themselves depending on what the writers need in any particular scene.

This is not to say surreal humor can't be used right alongside characters you're supposed to empathize with, Teen Titans (not Go) did that and it worked. It's just that the absurdity can only come from the setting (Mad Mod, Mother Mae-Eye, pretty much anything Control Freak is in) or from designated joke characters (Date With Destiny). Teen Titans never had the main characters acting in clearly absurd ways as the butt of a joke unless those characters were brainwashed somehow, because the writers knew that would ruin any of the more grounded moments they wanted to write. The writers of Miraculous missed the memo on that one.

I don't disagree. A perfect example is Derision where the show takes all of the bad jokes about Marinette's crush and decides to take them seriously as if you can possible take them seriously without making Marinette come across as unhinged and dangerous. You can't, which brings us to the topic at hand: how do you even begin to understand these characters when the show is constantly making character-breaking choices?

My approach - and the approach I recommend others take if they're going to keep watching the show - is to focus on the characters' cores and reject anything canon does to violate those cores. I don't argue for this stance because I love the characters so much that I only want the good things to count. I take this stance because, if you don't, then the characters fall apart. There is no way to make them work as fully realized characters while embracing every choice canon has made. Miraculous has massive characterization issues that go well beyond the humor.

For example, Adrien has multiple moments of terrible behavior that are played in a serious manner such as the moment in the episode Frozer where he tries to start a fight with Ladybug in the middle of an akuma attack because she wouldn't accept a rose from him earlier:

Setup

Ladybug: I can't accept this rose from you. I told you already. I'm in love with someone else. Cat Noir: I know, M'lady. But if he weren't here, would things be different between us? Ladybug: Well, you know, I can't even begin to imagine him not being here. I'm sorry, Cat Noir. I really gotta get going, and you better do the same. (Swings her yo-yo to head back home; Cat Noir is sad, looking downwards, with one petal of the rose falling.)

Payoff

Ladyice: Cat Noir. We need to set up a trap for whoever turned the city into a giant ice rink. (throws yo-yo) Icecat: (bitterly) My feline instincts prefer to track and observe before I attack. You go your way, I'll go mine. Ladyice: Please don't tell me you're mad at me about the rose. Icecat: There may be a certain chill now between us. Ladyice: I get it, but we should really focus on saving Paris right now. Icecat: We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple. (skates away)

There's no way to argue this off as a bad joke. While Adrien has every right to feel hurt, those feelings don't excuse him acting like a pouting child in the middle of an akuma fight. It doesn't excuse him acting like this at any point! Ladybug is not a villain for telling him no. She wasn't even mean about it!

I clearly fully agree that Adrien looks awful and selfish here, but I'd still argue that it's not something that should be used to define Adrien's character if your goal is to tell the "ideal" version of Miraculous. "Ideal" being the version that canon seems to be going for based on the overall picture we can sort of make out if we back way, way, way up and look at the extremely abstract picture canon is clumsily painting.

Unless canon is going to do something monumentally stupid, Adrien is Marinette's endgame romantic interest. It's also clear that there is no plan to cut him from the team. He's going to be Chat Noir for the rest of his life or at least well into his adulthood. This means that he is supposed to be a good hero who deserves his miraculous just like he's supposed to be a charming and cute romantic lead. These are the two things I keep in mind when trying to shift through canon to figure out what writing choices I should fully embrace and what writing choices I have to either ignore or treat as true flaws that get an actual character arc. In my book, either approach is fine because most of the characters are deeply flawed at this point and you can't give them all arcs without bloating the story to nonsense levels.

My goal with this approach is never to say, "oh, that moment shouldn't count in terms of how people feel about the character." It's more, "that moment goes so hard against who this character is very clearly supposed to be that I can't take it into account if I want to tell the kind of story that Miraculous is trying (and clearly failing) to tell."

As an example, let's list off Adrien's worst behaviors. The things that make him look terrible:

He sucks at communicating his needs and feelings, leading to multiple moments where he gets mad at Ladybug for things she's totally unaware of

He has quit or considered quitting without warning multiple times and only one of those was because of something he did "wrong" (NYC Special)

He puts his feelings before the safety of Paris on multiple occasions, even going so far to purposely miss akuma fights to see what happens

He is incredibly pushy about his crush, often ignoring Ladybug's feelings on the topic by continuing to bring it up even after she asked him to stop

There have been multiple instances where he almost cataclysmed multiple people in a fit of anger

His love for Ladynette isn't strong enough to let him break free of things like akumas and nightmare dust even when he's looking her in the eyes making him a pretty crappy romantic lead

People will argue that some of this behavior makes sense for his character because of the abuse that canon has technically introduced, but that the writers seem blissfully unaware of. I don't disagree with that argument, but that doesn't change the fact that none of this is acceptable behavior for a hero and Adrien is a hero who keeps doing these things. A sad backstory doesn't give you the right to behave poorly without consequences.

At the same time, if I fully embrace these elements of canon, what I get is an Adrien salt fic where he loses his miraculous for good while Marinette finds her real true love or even just a non-salty fic where Adrien leaves for his own meatal health and gets replaced by someone who can handle being a hero right now. Canon's not writing either of those, so the only way to engage with these flaws while enjoying canon or aiming for the same end goals as canon is to say, "I guess this doesn't count" or "I guess I need to tone this way down and work through it via a character arc" or even "I guess that was just a bad joke maybe?"

That is the essence of what I mean when I call myself a writing salt, character sugar blog. It comes from looking at canon and seeing that there's simply no way to embrace the worst moments and the best at the same time. We're not dealing with a coherent plot and/or complex characters. We're dealing with a nonsense plot that will warp the characters to bizarre shapes to make random ideas work even if those idea go wildly against canon's end goals.

As an example, Glaciator and Frozer should not exist in the same universe or, at the very least, something should explain why Chat Noir randomly changed his stance on Ladybug's crush from acceptance to pushiness. As is, the pieces don't fit together. The behavior is too contradictory. Remember, this is how Glaciator ends:

Perhaps Ladybug will love me someday. I mean, like, I love her. I have to believe. In the meantime, her friendship is the best gift of all.

Where did this version of Adrien go? Why did he regress in Frozer? There's no in-universe reason. It happened because the writers weren't ready to let the love square date or grow close, but they also wanted the love square to cause drama, so Adrien ends up looking terrible just like Marinette ends up looking terrible when it's her turn to cause love square drama. Her terribleness takes a different flavor so it can be hard to realize that this is a systemic issue, but that's what it is. It's deeply frustrating, but it also clearly stems from cheap writing and not quality characterization.

This is also why my stance is that canon as a whole only supports my Doyalistic core-character analysis style of approach. The writing is too poor quality to do Watsonian analysis where you embrace the full picture and try to put it all together. The closest I'll get to Watsonian analysis is pointing out how much the writing botches a Watsonian take by showing you all the way the writing contradicts itself, twisting into a nonsense pretzel of frustration where the payoffs never satisfy! (See the season four rant for an example or anything where I talked about Chloe's supposed damnation arc.)

There are even characters where canon is such a total mess that you can Doyalistically argue for two separate takes! Gabriel is a perfect example. He is all over the place and his ending was so poorly handled that you can make strong arguments for writing him as a cold-hearted villain or a sympathetic villain without the end result feeling like it spits in the face of canon because both takes maintain his one core element: villain.

That's the big thing I keep in mind when I look at the characters and the lore and the plots and try to come up with versions that the average fan would like. I don't think that there's one true version of any of these things, but I do feel comfortable saying that there are versions that will very clearly only appeal to people who are salty about a specific thing that canon did poorly. That's not who I want to appeal to in my adaptions, so while I'm not going to argue that those takes have no backing in canon, I will argue that those takes are not supported by canon as a whole. Embracing them requires you to take the worst parts of canon at face value while ignoring what canon is clearly trying to do with the overall story.

I get the appeal of that, but it's not fun for me because that approach feels like rolling around in the mud with the pigs. I don't want to sink to canon's level! I want to have fun! That's why I talk about how to make canon into its best self, not its worst self. If you want its worst self, just go watch the actual show. I will be shocked it if disappoints you.

[horsemeatluvr23]

etho doodle!!!!! this one is late because i was having an identity crisis and thinking about moving to lebanon. anyways the necklace is bdubs missing tooth from secret life <3

[mycurrentobsessionis]

BG3 Companions as Out-of-Context Shit My Friends Said

Astarion: Your moral compass and poor sense of direction will lead you to fail in life. Gale: Just remember kids, if college doesn't work out, you can always get hit by a car. Halsin: The deer gave me a hickey. Jaheira: All children are six to me. Until a few years ago, [Tav] was six. Karlach: My body is doing surgery on a grape and I'm the grape. Lae'zel: You are on notice to never apologize for me, because I am not sorry. Minsc: There's no escaping the leaves. It's like we're in the ocean. Minthara: Would you be mad if your boyfiend inexplicably went missing? Shadowheart: The Unholy Matron doesn't accept asshole souls, so we can't sacrifice him. He's got to be diluted first. Wyll: I'm going to go from wanting to shoot myself to actually being happy about my life, and I don't know what to do with that.

[himblebo]

What’s wrong babe? You’re thinking about Glinda’s face before she is handed the torch to light the funeral effigy of her friend? Her best friend who was fundamental to the woman she has become? The woman that she abandoned at the most pivotal moment of their lives in an act of cowardice that she has spent the rest of her life running from? Her best friend that, through her own lack of action when it counted most, is widely believed to have deserved her murder?

[zahri-melitor]

Okay reasons why Gail Simone’s Secret Six (2005, 2006, 2008) is totally worth your time:

Do you enjoy Suicide Squad 1987 but want something written a bit more modern? With no Harley Quinn in it?

Would you prefer your selection of B and C list cringe fail villains to be trying their best to be working legally as mercenaries but also be the absolute worst at morality?

Do you want it to read something that is complete ship bait in every possible direction because the entire cast picked up a document headed ‘found family’ and are all wildly misinterpreting it in different ways? (While also in the middle of an argument over what is family, and do we like our families anyway?)

Is your idea of the peak ship dynamics for the title to be between characters who are very specifically not doing it on panel and in fact are very much doing other people, while still radiating homoerotic tension off the charts whenever they’re in the same room or talking about the other?

Do you enjoy reading a comic with this level of queer coding and queer bait, with the full knowledge that the writing and art team are doing it deliberately for their OWN entertainment as much as the audience’s?

Would you like the team's inability to actually count to six be a running plot point?

Also if you like Flatline as a character - I REALLY want you to meet Jeannette.

[kareenvorbarra]

Meme: favorite books read so far in 2024 (tagged by @child-of-hurin)

Ju's post doesn't say how many books to pick but she listed four, so that's what I'm doing.

Honorable mention goes to the six other Sayers novels I've read so far this year, because I've been absolutely devouring them and it was hard to pick a favorite (and no I'm not done with the series yet)

tagging @wizardysseus, @anghraine, @yavieriel, @thecrenellations, @roseofbattles, and anybody else who would like to do it!

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

still thinking about how Taylor deliberately picked Invisible String for the Eras setlist so that she could sing it every night on her 50-something stop tour and then two weeks in said "never mind" 😬

[thisismyobsessionnow]

I still don't know if I have any words for this night?? My brain is still processing

Some highlights? I don't know, everything?

[peepersponies]

Listen I know that like... Screens and lighting make colors vary. But man these are just not the colors I ordered though. I just. These aren't the same colors.

(and flash just makes it worse)

Any chance someone wants to trade some brand new saran and nylon with me?? 😭

[thetangibleghost]

my entire life I've been attempting to tell people that any relationship with me ends badly. When I was younger it was just "my family moves a lot" then when we settled down in highschool it became "because my family moves a lot I tend to blow up relationships after a year or so, or find some reason to run." then I was like "Im super mentally ill, I don't want to be the bad guy, but I'll end up being the bad guy." then I just tried to simplify it like "I'm a bad person, I promise you don't want to get to know me." I have now opted to stop saying anything, just to see what happens. but I don't even have any irl friends any more! I wanna participate in the music scene whenever I move back to the states... but I'm so fucking shy and I might've already fucked my reputation in a way that would take another paragraph to explain. it's not like EVERYone would know, like the scene where I'm from is really big but the fucking Truman show delusion I have makes it's fucking impossible sometimes. like I always just end up convincing my self that nobody wants me there, so unless I have a buddy.... it's unlikely. I like, went to a few hardcore shows cause I was dating a band member, I probably wouldn't even try to go to anymore hard core shows? I did make one friend that was outside their friend group? idk if they're still doing shows though...... and like I said it so fucking hard to convince my self that I'm like. allowed to go. I feel like I'm like. idk. it's hard to explain.

I had so much fun tho 😭😭😭 I love going to shows I love any kind of live music. I just wanna sit a watch bands play while looking pretty :((( but I'm so embarrassing and awkward.

[spotaus]

Actor AU of Eternal Ashes where the kids are all teen YouTubers doing a personal series for Stereo's thesis project that blows up online. (Reset teases Kane on the regular for dying the first episode.)

Actor AU of Doppletale where it's a horror/thriller series. (K is absolutely great at crying on command, and the crew is really friendly outside the set.)

Actor AU of Ec-4o.Verse that's like The Walking Dead so it's super long, but it also functions like a sit-com at the same time. (The cast doesn't really talk to eachother outside the set, but they love being on the show.)

[babygray]

The Gintama Sound Ultra Soul 24 set list.

It's made up of the top 10 songs as decided by fans via a survey conducted last year, with some fun surprises sprinkled here and there. For each song, video would play of the scenes or characters related to the song. In between songs, the cast (voice actors Tomokazu Sugita (Gintoki), Daisuke Sakaguchi (Shinpachi), Rie Kugimiya (Kagura), with Mikako Takahashi (Otsuu/Sadaharu) as the MC, "DJ Otsuu" and Elizabeth as itself) would occasionally chat on stage.

The track list (with a couple of notes) is under the cut.

Omae mo Touningyou ni shite yarou ka! (お前も糖人形にしてやろうか！)

Temeeraaaa!! Soredemo Gintama tsuiten no kaaaa! (てめーらァァァ！！それでも銀魂ついてんのかァァァ！)

Subtitle da konoyarou (サブタイトルだコノヤロー) (as 10.5 in the top ten countdown)

Yorozuya Ginchan to ha Oretachi no Koto Da ! (万事屋 銀ちゃんとは俺達の事だ！)

Saraba Dachikou (さらばダチ公)

Makoto no Michi (真選組の道)

Rakuyou (烙陽)

Kono Mabuta No Oku Ni (この目蓋の奥に)

Zura ja nai Katsura daaa!! (ヅラじゃない桂だァァ！！)

Shougun Kayoooo! (将軍かよォォォ！)

Ohikaenasutte! (お控えなすって！) (afternoon)/ (Evening) Kettou Mae niha You wo Tase (決闘前には用を足せ)

I am Shock (afternoon)/Dondake! Gintaman (どんだけー！ギンタマン) (evening)

Sukonbu Okawari Yoroshi ? (酢昆布おかわりヨロシ？) (Introducing one of the Yorozuya members, Kagura)

Hatsujoki Desuka Konoyaro (瞳孔が開いてんぞ ) (Introducing Gintoki)

Mimawari Gumi -Isaburou No Theme- (見廻り組 －異三郎のテーマ－)

Ibara Gaki to Bara Gaki (茨ガキと薔薇ガキ)

Elizabeth Hajimete No Otsukai (エリザベス はじめてのおつかい) (the audience played a clapping game with the cast)

Taisetsu Na Ni Hodo Omoku Seoi Gatai (大切な荷ほど重く背負い難い)

Rokudenashi Futari (ろくでなし二人)

Yamiyo no Mushi ha Hikari ni Tsudou (闇夜の虫は光に集う) (the opening bars were played on a shamisen)

Jinsei ha Belt Conveyor no yoni Nagareru (人生はベルトコンベアのように流れる) (top ten #3)

Okite ha Yaburu Tame ni Koso Aru (掟は破るためにこそある) (#2)

Ore mo, mo Jump Sotsugyo Shinakya Ikene Toshi Dayo na (俺も、もうジャンプ卒業しなきゃいけねぇ歳だよなぁ)

Housou kodo Gananbonomonjai! 放送コードがなんぼのものもんじゃい (Otsuu Unplugged)

Omae no Baachan omae no Basshu haitetaお前のバアちゃんお前のバッシュ履いてた (afternoon)/Omae no Too-chan chome-chome (お前の父ちゃんチョメチョメ) (evening)

Temeeraaaa!! Soredemo Gintama tsuiten no kaaaa! (てめーらァァァ！！それでも銀魂ついてんのかァァァ！) (#1)

[stellewriites]

https://www.tumblr.com/stellewriites/765416328730460160/httpswwwtumblrcomstellewriites76539322117719?source=share — managed to get through the non con since it wasn’t focusing so much on reader’s perspective, was fine until i realised they DID THAT SHIT BEFORE?!? happy where you ended it cus the anxiety otherwise 😓. loved it! can i be 🌪️ anon please? (haven’t checked if it’s taken tho.)

hiii 🌪️!!!

aahh i’m so glad you enjoyed it and that you were ok through it!! when i was doing my final editing last night i was scouring for anything i missed so i could post a warning for you,, being jump scared by untagged/unspecified points in dark fic can be rough :(

and YES!!! BAD MEN!!! idk if you’ve seen the film before or not (original or james macavoy remake) but that bit fucked me up seeing all the previous photos (it was kids they were taking in that and not partners but still OOF) 😭

i answered in another ask from three about what i think might happen after but idk if ive got the capacity to write that and i certainly didn’t have the time lmaoo,, think it would’ve pushed the fic up to about 35k if i started getting introspective about da relationships, isolation and the difficulty of leaving even when you know you should etc etc etc