#the way this game made me outright dislike a character I once loved and found sympathetic

[lizzybeeee]

I'll add that it's wildly invasive for a character whose entire trauma began with being coerced into a state of being he didn't want (spirit to flesh) to essentially alter the bodily autonomy of thousands of others without their consent?!

Don't hide your tags they're too good! Literally all of this!

honestly, maybe it's a hot take or whatever, but I think that tearing down the veil and *potentially* bringing back the immortality to the elves would not have helped them a lot

[soulmate-game]

Okay, I’m not sure if what I was trying to say in my last post was said very well.

I completely understand the tagging situation from the First Wave with the DC fans. That’s discourse that is mostly solved and we can’t do anything about those who are forever gonna be bitter or lazy. I’m not talking about that stuff.

The stuff I want to prevent/limit is the hate that comes after our fandom deliberately. And yes, I know I can’t stop it. None of us can stop bitter, antagonistic people from being bitter and antagonistic. None of us can stop people who just want to be angry.

I’m not talking about stopping them, though.

I’m talking about what we can do to protect ourselves as creators and consumers in this fandom. As people who love and appreciate what the creations and people in this fandom have to offer. In simplistic form, I’m saying we need to learn how to shield ourselves from bullies. And there are methods we can use to make ourselves less of a target to the people who go after us, and methods to cut their attacks off short. None of these methods are fool-proof, but they will work to filter out a good majority of the shit we would otherwise be showered by, like a big umbrella against Assholery. Sure, the wind might still blow some in our face and we might splash in a puddle or two by accident, but at least we aren’t soaked.

So let me list the various things that can help you shield yourself from hate/harassment/antis who might just be out to get you.

1) leave the fandom.

The most effective, but least attractive method possible. This is limited to being a last ditch effort, if things have just gotten too hard to handle. I’m covering it first though, because we have to acknowledge that it is a viable method. If you feel trapped, hated, bullied, I’m sure all of us in this fandom would prefer you take a break and leave us for a while in the sake of your own health and safety then stay where you are miserable. This is less of a problem for us though, because mostly this option is gonna be for fandoms where the discourse and attacks are internal. Maribat is largely a peaceful and supportive/healthy environment once you’re inside our little bubble, the main discourse comes from outside in. So let’s focus on the main point of this post— how to keep our bubble from popping.

2) Make it apparent right away that you are Unapologetic.

Whenever you post content or are approached by someone about the topic of your fandom, don’t you DARE ever apologize for liking what you like or posting unproblematic content. You need to make it clear right off the bat that you are not gonna be swayed, bullied, or shamed out of your fandom. Stand with pride and make it clear, but don’t be verbose about it. A simple “Don’t like, don’t read” is classic but sometimes if you’re posting/talking during a more confrontational period of the fandom, you need to up your game to reflect that. The funny thing is, people can easily be intimidated by swearing if it isn’t directed at them or clearly antagonistic. If you’re swearing in a joking, casual or even in a manner that shows you’re not taking yourself too seriously, people will usually avoid picking fights with you. For this, my favorite lines to use on my work include;

“Don’t like, I don’t fucking care. I fell down the rabbit hole.”

“Don’t bother reading if you’re not into this, this shit bitch-slapped me and dragged me along on it’s adventure.”

“I’m addicted to this fandom, don’t bother trying to save me. If it bothers you, I don’t give a fuck. Save yourselves.”

3) Don’t approach or interact

Unless someone comes at you first, never try to persuade someone away from hating us. That just makes you a target in an empty field, for the vultures to surround and gang up on. If someone approaches you with provocative but not overly insulting or intelligent language— I.e; trying to start a fight, vague insults not always relating to the fandom itself, trying to insult your character/judgement— do not respond. Delete the message, block the account, and surround yourself with fluffy good stuff to forget the wanna-be harasser. These people are often not brave enough to outright start a fight, and want you to get defensive first so they know the weak points in your armor to exploit. Defensive statements declare your own insecurities, don’t get defensive. It gives them a way to win without having to defend themselves or feel vulnerable— it’s like exploiting type differences in Pokémon. You wait for an unfamiliar Pokémon to expose it’s type, then snipe it with the moves it’s weak to. Then, you have a near sure-fire win even with under leveled Pokémon on your team.

Don’t be a proud Infernape that gets sniped by a weak-ass level 5 Piplup. We’re strong, don’t show them the chinks in our armor.

4) Have a support network. Even if they don’t know they are your support network.

The fandom as a whole serves this purpose, and this is mostly gonna be a tactic you use when the discourse is inside the fandom, but there can be uses for this in discourse from outside the fandom as well. If someone tries to act like they like your story/art “but...” they passive aggressively state things they “would prefer” or they try to make it sound like you made stupid mistakes (a tactic to make you insecure about yourself) instead of kindly pointing out errors or offering constructive criticism (ex: “you know you put your trigger list somewhere where it’s useless right? Love your story though.)—THESE ARE ALL PROVOCATIONS. They are trying to make you insecure so that you change things about yourself, your work, or jump through hoops to try to “make it up” to them when you did nothing wrong and there are no problems to fix. Do not fall for it! Instead, politely as possible, bring the issue into a public space where you feel safe/trust the people in that space to keep the bullshit from escalating. For me, I straight up explain my reasoning for the placement of my trigger list as if I’m advertising a particularly boring but important product that I’m selling, then offer places for them to bring the issue into a discussion with others. I send them to a discoed group or right here to my tumblr, and I immediately make the issue into a big discussion (do YOU think there is anything to change? Let’s ALL talk about it) so that I am no longer isolated and easy for them to harass. They might refuse to join the discussion and further try to pressure you, but do not cave. Merely say that a public discussion has been started, and if they are actually, legitimately concerned about the way you do things then they can debate it in a public setting. This way, you have back up. 9/10 people who try to target you this way will back off and never enter the conversation you started.

5) Do not fight back.

This sounds counterintuitive, but a lot of the time once discourse gets this bad, arguing/defending/ trying to prove your point only fuels their rage more. I have found that people hate very little in this world more than they hate being wrong. And people who hate being wrong will fight to the bitter death about their opinions, no matter how invalid or hurtful they are, in the favor of their blissful ignorance. Remove yourself from harmful discussions or those that seem to be going in circles as soon as possible, and try to surround yourself in your support group. Never let people make you feel stupid, your opinions illegitimate, or your likes/dislikes invalid or evil.

6) Try to learn how to recognize bullies in disguise

It’s too much for me to try to cover here, but you need to PLEASE look into how to spot gaslighting. Tactics of gaslighting are often used to attack others and try to make them feel like their own opinions are invalid or their mindset untrustworthy. People will often approach you in the guise of friendship/support/ “I am not into this, but...” and while this is not always a red flag, we have to keep our eyes open for any signs of this person or their approach being rooted in anything other than legitimate curiosity or kindness. Not all suggestions that say they are out of concern actually ARE. Keep an eye out for warning signs, and cut off interaction once things seem like they may lead to an argument or you being in a vulnerable position if you continue interacting.

(Brief mention of s**cide and threats in the section below)

7) If all else fails, BLOCK THEM.

No hesitation, we don’t need this shit. They make a second account? Block that too. Don’t respond, only take screenshots or reblog if it is directly harmful information that can/should be documented (words that encourage suicide, threats, insults that seem a little too specific for comfort) and give the evidence to someone you trust to look out for you. A therapist, a family member, or even the authorities if you deem that necessary. Just don’t handle it alone.

We are not responsible for other people’s actions, opinions, or anger. Take the steps to protect yourself instead of trying to reconcile. Sometimes, reconciliation isn’t an option. Both parties have to be willing to reconcile, and it is clear they have nothing in mind but hurting us. So raise your shields and protect yourself and your friends, we’re not gonna lose a war to petty jerks.

[connorinabeanie]

A slightly salty take on North and fandom

Disclaimer: Nothing in this post is meant as an attack on anyone. Fandom is subjective and you have the right to interpret media, form your own conclusions, and create whatever you want. These are my opinions about what I’ve seen, as well as my experiences in previous fandoms and the patterns I’ve seen play out over and over again. It’s okay to disagree with me, and it’s okay to have a respectful discussion in reblogs/comments! Just keep it civil. That out of the way…

North. She’s polarizing character in DBH; she tends to be loved or hated, and I’ll admit it: I didn’t like her at first either. I wanted to, but as I played through my first time I just couldn’t get past one of her traits in particular, which was that she was so convinced she was right; she blamed Markus for every mistake, refused to adapt her tactics or consider other methods, and seemed more driven by vengeance than anything else. So as much as I wanted to enjoy her character, I found her to be a poorly written “strong female character” archetype that fell flat in execution, as most characters of that type do.

Honestly, I think this is the reason most people who dislike North dislike her, at least consciously. They genuinely think she’s a terribly written character, and they’re not necessarily wrong. One playthrough on a standard route, with no extrapolation or extra consideration, combined with a lot of people getting the awkwardly forced romance (I actually avoided this, completely unknowingly, on my first playthrough) leads to a dislike of this character. That’s understandable! I would expect this from people who played the game once. But that’s where the problem comes in, for me.

People active in a fandom usually haven’t consumed the media they’re into just once. They usually don’t engage in surface-level interpretation, and they usually don’t lack context. But I find it hard to believe that so many of the opinions and interpretations regarding North could possibly come from people who have approached her character with an open mind and additional information, because just one major path divergence shows a completely different side to North’s character.

I’m talking, of course, about North’s leader route. When we see her in Markus’ role, leading instead of advising, her true motives come out: she loves her people and is willing to fight for them. She isn’t interested in playing nice with her oppressors, and why should she? There’s a whole discussion here about how oppressed people are judged for how nicely they fight for the rights they should already have, where there’s a ‘good’ way of protesting and a ‘bad’ way of doing it (which is, ironically and showing how tone-deaf Cage can be, supported in the narrative of DBH as well), but I won’t go into that in depth; other people have posted really good takes on this already. I’ll just mention it here and there where relevant.

Once of those relevant places is that, as I said, in North’s leader route she isn’t interested in peaceful protesting. And you know what? When I played this game the first time and had Markus, I had been peaceful up until Night of Soul, which is where North would be making her first major decision as a leader if you don’t have Markus. Yet when it came down to it I made the same decision with Markus that North makes on her own, because you know, as a Jewish woman, I wasn’t super interested in peacefully protesting at the gates of camps that were currently killing people. Playing nice hadn’t worked, and it was time to fight.

So maybe I’m in a different position that some others when it comes to interpreting North’s choices, and as I saw that she made the same choice that I did when playing Markus, I’m just… Not impressed that the fandom tendency to criticize this choice as warmongering, unreasonable, and a ‘betrayal’ of Markus’ peaceful actions (always assuming that Markus had been completely peaceful before, which is the way the story pushes on you, but certainly isn’t a given.) As far as I’m concerned, North is taking the action needed to save her people who are in danger right that instant, and humans don’t deserve a nice civil protest (and if I were in her position with Markus alive, I would be furious that he wanted to just sit and talk while people were dying.) They need to be stopped, and she’s going to stop them.

But it wasn’t just her choice in the church that brought me around to North’s side during her leader route, it was her behavior during Crossroads. Specifically, it was her behavior toward Connor, and how it contrasted with some of her actions earlier. So, going back a bit to Spare Parts, where the Jericrew goes on a mission to steal parts from the Cyberlife warehouses at the docks, and you run into John. North votes against taking him with them, citing that they can’t trust him and it’s too dangerous. Moving on a little, to Stratford Tower, if (or, more likely, ‘when’ since it’s pretty difficult to avoid) Simon is injured, North suggests shooting him. These are pretty harsh marks against her, because they seem needlessly ruthless, but are they really?

With John, the answer is maybe yes. But think about it from her perspective; they’ve never seen the ability Markus used, in turning an android deviant. So as far as North is concerned, John was a threat to them about two minutes earlier, and now wants to go with them? With no traumatic catalyst or trusted android vouching for and giving him the key to Jericho? To North John is a potential threat, a potential danger, and she has no reason to trust him. But as the story goes on, North never makes another objection to an android joining them in this way, because she knows they’re truly deviant. As soon as an android is deviant, they’re one of her people.

With Simon, the answer is probably no, because North is exactly right; if Simon lives, and Connor finds him, Connor finds Jericho. It’s that simple, and it’s not a rare series of events. North might be a little fast to jump on the option, because there’s a genuine argument to be made that it isn’t worth killing someone just because there’s a chance that something (even something very serious) might go wrong, but she clearly isn’t choosing this option because she wants it; she’s choosing this option because she thinks it’s the most guaranteed way to protect her people. It’s a difficult, ruthless decision to make, but it isn’t one made out of malice.

(It’s also worth noting that Simon suggests leaving North when she’s in danger in Crossroads, when the only people that would be at risk from saving her were Markus and Connor, and this happens whether or not North suggested killing Simon one the rooftop. Yet this choice is almost never criticized, because it comes from Simon, and I’ll get into that later.)

But with those particular attitudes from North out of the way, it’s interesting to see how she reacts to Connor in her leader route. North instantly shows concern for him, never blames him for the attack on Jericho, and—like Markus—tries to prevent him from going on his suicide mission to Cyberlife Tower. She’s kind and understanding, and it’s clear that she accepts Connor immediately as one of her people.

This is a place where I have some trouble with fandom interpretations of North and Connor’s relationship, specifically in terms of North being angry, cold, or extremely suspicious of Connor (a little suspicion, especially in a more ‘good end’ route where she has less direct interaction with Connor during the revolution, is reasonable; I’m talking about outright refusal to even consider accepting him.) It bothers me for two specific, and somewhat different reasons.

One is that it directly contradicts a theme of North’s history, which is that deviant androids are not their pasts. They’re not what they were before they woke up. The idea of North holding someone’s past, before they turned deviant, against them is just… I can’t imagine it. I can imagine her suspicion, as I mentioned before, until she's very sure Connor is truly deviant, but that seems very apparent to her right away in any route (I find it hard to believe she’d think he was faking deviancy after delivering the army to Markus.) Some concern or suspicion after finding out about the attempted hijacking makes sense, but the way I see it portrayed in fic is often jarring; it seems completely out of character for her to blame Connor for something like that, as opposed to being angry on his behalf, because North wants androids to be free (and, more deeply, she’s experience being used for something she never wanted.) She wants androids to have the chance to live, to become their own people, and to leave their pasts behind them. Why would she blame Connor for what he was made to do, whether before he was deviant or when Amanda tried to take control of him? It goes against everything North stands for, and that leads me to my second reason:

I think people choose this interpretation because it makes North a villain. Maybe it’s not an active conscious decision to do this (and in fact I doubt it usually is), but it reminds me very painfully of the trend in fandom of villainizing a character—especially a female character—in order to woobify a male character (and, often, get the female character out of the way of a ship) and I can’t help but see that here. It seems like a cheap, easy way to excuse other characters turning against North for her behavior, and therefore getting her out of the way as well as causing drama and conflict for the characters the writer really wants to focus on.

And that seems like a good segue into the big topic that people are gonna get mad about being called out on: misogyny. And even more specifically, misogyny when it comes to shipping.

I’m just gonna state this super clearly at the forefront: I have no problem with shipping whoever you want, whyever you want. I’m not personally into most ships for various reasons, but I do have some favorites (most of which other people aren’t into) and shipping is fun! Not everyone agrees on shipping, and that’s okay; not everyone has to like what you like, we can all still exist in harmony.

But that isn’t to say that people don’t engage in, for lack of a better word, ‘problematic’ behavior in their ships. As opposed to just going ‘hey, I like this, I’m gonna do it’, way too many people become obsessed with justifying their ship (and I think this comes from an underlying desire to ‘prove’ it’s canon or based in canon, as a way of making it seem more legitimate, which is a whole other topic I could rant about.) In the process of these justifications, and then often as a part of the fixation or obsession that some people develop about their ships/characters in their ships, any character or ship that ‘threatens’ someone’s favorite is a target that must be destroyed. And, in what I would say is arguably the vast majority of times, that threatening character is a canon female love interest.

Open bashing has (with good reason) gone out of fashion in fandom, so the way to get characters ‘out of the way‘ is to argue an unlikeable interpretation of them. I feel like this is what happens a lot of the time with North, and with the poor writing and flat portrayal of her character in the ‘good end’ route, it’s very easy for people to take the worst of her personality, say it’s canon, and then get rid of her. This is usually a bit side-eye worthy when it happens in any fandom, but it’s extra ridiculous in DBH for one very distinct reason:

North doesn’t have to be a love interest. As I mentioned before, when I first played through I never got the ‘lovers’ scene, because North said way back when Markus first met her that she didn’t want to talk about her past and so in the scene on the roof I just didn’t ask her (and I could write another whole discussion about how no means no and pressuring someone to tell you their past is NOT how to get a romantic option with them, but that’s an issue with another time.) The rest of the game progressed completely as normal, with the only changes being a lack of kissing options in a few later scenes. There’s no reason why fic writers can’t just choose this option for their fic’s canon, and move on.

And yet I can’t tell you how many times North is an obstacle that has to be overcome in order to get Markus with Simon or Connor (because let’s be real, North, Simon, and Connor are the only major ships for Markus even though Josh is RIGHT THERE, but again that’s another topic for another time.) It’s completely unnecessary, and yet there it is: North is this unreasonable, horrible person who is terrible to [insert love interest here] and Markus has to overcome this internal struggle to break free and be with [whoever] and truly be happy.

It’s such nonsense. It’s using this ‘undesirable’ female character as a source of drama and angst for this poor sad male character to have to deal with, as opposed to taking even a moment to treat the female character as a person who might have motivations, experiences, and emotions, and I’ve seen this over and over and over in every single fandom I’ve ever been in. This isn’t a North-specific thing, it’s a female character thing, and honestly if Kara’s storyline weren’t so separate from the fandom favorite shipping characters then I think the same thing would happen to her (as opposed to her existence just being entirely ignored.) This is such a pattern in fandom that I find it very difficult to believe this is a special case where it’s somehow legitimate.

One of those reasons is that the ‘justifications’ for disliking North tend to be complete double standards between North and whatever love interest the writer is going for, whether that’s Simon or Connor. With Connor, it’s extremely obvious; almost all of North’s negative traits are traits he has to some extent as well (ruthlessness, solving problems through violence, stubbornness,) but those traits are not only not usually treated negatively in Connor (and instead are depicted as justified and necessary in context, which I’m not saying they aren’t, but that it’s unfair to say that about him and not her) but often erased entirely, leading to the obnoxiously delicate, wilting flower version of Connor that shows up in so much fic. But again, an issue for another time.

For Simon, it’s less obvious because North and Simon are quite different, but not in opposite ways; North and Josh are opposites in many respects, but Simon is, in a sense, perpendicular to the line North and Josh are at opposite ends of. Simon doesn’t have particularly strong opinions about anything, just going with the flow and being supportive; his strongest opinions are about being cautious and not taking risks. Except, of course, for that scene I mentioned before, where he outright says they should just leave North to die. For such an overall bland character, that needlessly harsh moment stands out to me and I find it kind of amazing how it’s just completely ignored, often while holding it against North that she suggested shooting Simon on the roof.

So I guess the whole point of this rant is that I wish people would think more critically about North as a character, rather than a flat archetype, especially in the context of shipping. It’s cringey and painful to see blatant flanderizing of her character for the sole purpose of being ‘able’ to ship other characters together, whether to use her as an antagonist or just to get her out of the way, when it’s completely unnecessary to begin with. It’s also very obvious where someone’s priorities and biases lie when they’re happy to write North off but then obsess over other poorly written, bland, or even outright purposefully antagonistic characters that they deem somehow to have more potential and be more worthy of attention and character development.

Overall, there’s no requirement to like a character. It’s totally fine not to like a character. But double standards and needless demonizing of a character go far beyond not liking them, and it’s important to stop and think about why it might be happening. Is it always misogyny with North? No, I don’t think so, there are definitely people who don’t like her for her traits and that’s fine. But I think it’s very telling when someone who claims to dislike North for her personality and behavior then spends time in fan works purposefully making her a villain for the benefit of drama in their pet ship. It’s even more telling when someone who claims to dislike North for her personality and behavior, yet they celebrate the potential of characters that are canonically far worse (but who just so happen to be attractive men.) And, unfortunately, both of those situations coincide quite often with vocally disliking North, and there are only so many ways to interpret such a correlation.

[kob131]

Looks like Hbomberguy's hours long crap is up(publicly).

“Made a legendary animator, his most trusted colleage (shows Shane) and two-”

People he outright went to and he acknowledged were better writers, thanks for admitting that HBomberguy and not be an insulting jackass right?

“RWBY’s failures matter because it could have been something-”

So could Twilight- That means nothing at this point other than ‘I made a bunch of headcanons and the show dared to not follow them.’

‘It’s easy to see why this show has such a devote fanbase because it frequently threatens to become good-”

So did Fairy tail (except for real) and that died out. Also you are really chipping away at my goodwill

‘People say what it promised!”

You mean this?

‘Weaken REAL criticism by being given too much attention-”

Hypocritical much douchebag?

“*insert a bunch of sarcastic bullshit mocking critics of RWBY*”

*rolls eyes* You say as you mimick them down to using the DEAD.

‘It’s separated into two eras with issues that don’t necessarily overlap-”

Bull. Fucking. Shit. Most of RWBY’s problems now ORIGINATED in the early Volumes. 

“If you’re a fan of the show you’re probably gonna dread what I’m about to say and if you’re a fan of the second half then you’ll probably agree with what I’m about to say-”

Considering you’re stupid sarcasm is just a less smug version of what I do, pretty clear ‘agreement’ and ‘actual good point’ are very different here.

“If you love RWBY and are still gonna watch, thank you and I love you for joining me on this journey.”

Less a journey and more a Seven Page Muda but sure.

“My goal isn’t to make people think less of the show-”

Which is why you openly insult it in the beginning.

“-but to think more about it.”

So far you’ve shown about as much understanding of the show as FloofArtist, complete with hypocrisy. And considering what I’ve heard about your video, you’re not getting better.

“I hope to give credit where credit is due-/It’s said failure is the best teacher-”

Which is why you openly insult people.

“’Rooster Teeth is starting game development!’ *insert insulting Steam Statistics*’

Fucking wonderful. Like you haven’t already tested my patience.

“*gushes about the Red Trailer after about eight minutes of recaping*”

Cool, eight minutes wasted on knowledge that EVERY RWBY fan knows. Literally every RWBY fan knows the origins of RT and Monty and the bitch basic knowledge of how they came together. You seem to have targeted this to RWBY fans and yet to blab about shit that you get after looking at the fandom for 2 seconds.

To say nothing of how you prove something was wrong with the Red Trailer. Namely, you never mention a plot, a personal conflict, a display of character or anything other than ‘cool music!’ and ‘animation!’ despite the show being pretty plot dependent.

*Gushes about the White Trailer*

Yet another bitch basic gushing with nothing of substance to it. For a guy who says he wants people to think critically about RWBY, you sure don’t do that for what is considered the basis of the show. It’s just talking about shit you like instead of anything worthwhile.

*Yet more gushing with the Black Trailer.*

... You know, I watch these kinds of videos searching for some kind of intellectual stimulation. Something to make me think and engage with. Right now, I get more stimulation and engagement from RWBY itself than a supposedly critical video that doesn’t even have to bother with anything original.

“The show already has generic monsters who just want to destroy humanity and yet you have written your characters to act exactly the same-”

And within your own bitching, you discovered the counter. The Grimm have nothing really to explore about them outside giving them variations and powers whereas the human characters can have these things called ‘motives’ and ‘reasons’. Not to mention even you would say people act like that in real life *cough* anyone NOT of your political alignment *cough*.

“And the audience is left with one lingering though...he can make that jump.”

How does it feel that Family Guy did a better version of your joke?

“She’s written like two adult men who have never written anything professional before except Red Vs. Blue wrote a Teenage girl-”

.... Monty wrote her based off her voice actress.  You’ve also made me regret ever using this same insult against Miles and Kerry so congrats on that.

*Even more gushing...*

You know, I am legitimately considering rewatching the Persona episode of Game Theory because at least MatPat’s faffing about is short and he has more content in his first eighteen minutes than this.

“More people have gone back to watch the trailers than watch actual episodes of the show!”

The trailers are the first thing people would watch to know about the series- no shit they’d be higher in view count.

“It’s so hard to not be onboard with the trailers!”

It’s actually very easy, especially in their release.

Why? Simple, a lot of the depth in the trailers only exists with context from the show itself. The White Trailer is cool and all but it’s symbolism and deeper meaning comes from Weiss’ backstory and the truth depth of Blake leaving Adam and what it causes is found in the show, the two best trailers while Red is just mindless fun that you can get better from other places and Yellow is just kind of neat.

How the fuck am I the more critical of the two of us so far?

“Then the show actually came out and it was terrible-”

Piece of advice, don’t follow this up with a super janky, uncanny valley 3D animation that makes Volume 1 look appealing.

“RWBY isn’t just a bad show, it’s a bad show that could have been something-”

*cracks neck*

The idea that RWBY or any show ‘had potential’ is most often used when a person once had a fondness for the property in question but has long since lost the goodwill to see it in a positive light, trying to make up for the cognitive dissonance of the conflict between liking what it once was and disliking what it is now. The issue here is that these so called ‘issues’ are born of the original creator who either founded the show or helped found it which means that it was pretty much DESTINED to be this way as the creator’s specific interpretation of their own work is what resonated with you in the first place and was likely built up to in the subtle inner workings of the show, thus making the big changes you want so badly would cause a ripple effect that would have affected your past impression of the show because everything in a show is connected. And in all likelyhood, your impression would have soured no matter what.

Tl;Dr- ‘It had potential!’ is self defeating and stupid.

‘The creators are receptive to criticism!...well, they try to be.-”

Oh boy I can’t wait for Mr. ‘kill half of all babies’ to try and speak about THIS topic.

“You don’t engage with any of the good faith criticism and just reward shitty people with attention. And I hope to show them that as a lifelong fan of RT and Monty Oum, that I’m saying this thinking RWBY could have been good...and still could be.”

Says the man who when referencing Miles for the first time, actively SEPERATED him from being a ‘treasured college’ of his friend and insulted him with Yang even though the fault lied with MONTY. 

All while referencing a tweet where he chews someone out for saying EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE SAYING ( ‘God this is why i hate this fandom. You miss the point. If I critise the show I'm a hater because you worship it. I'M OFFERING CRITISM U IDIOT SO THE SHOW SEES ITS FAULTS AND FIXES THEM. HOW THE FUCK CAN U KEEP MOVING FORWARD IF YOU DON'T IDENTIFY YOUR OWN FAULTS AND LEARN’). Yeah great job there jackass- How exactly are you any different from this fucker?

So that’s my thoughts on the first twenty or so minutes. Can already tell it’s gonna be shit.

[miraculouscontent]

Pokemon anon again! I'd like to hear anything you have strong opinions on (either your personal ships, ones you dislike, etc). I just really like reading your thoughts, so whatever you feel like sharing is fine.

Welcome back, Pokénon!

And sure, I can do that!

Alright, so in terms of ships I dislike (I’m going to go with the English names just so I’m not constantly using both names)...

I guess I should get the obvious ones out of the way, because I’m not really a fan of either “Ash ship” extreme:

Poke//Shipping (Ash X Misty) and Amour//Shipping (Ash X Serena)

I don’t like either of them.

For Poke//Shipping, I have never liked aggressive tsundere characters and Misty is basically a textbook example of that. It’s not that I have a problem with strong/tomboy-ish (though honestly I don’t consider Misty a tomboy anyway) female characters, which I know it sounds like that when I have a distaste for characters like Alix too, but when they’re brash and angry and just so generically “TOMBOY GIRL POWER,” it grates on my nerves.

The idea of having an aggressive character - y’know - be aggressive to their love interest and then cue the sad music when the love interest argues with them or makes any sort of hurtful implication just... no.

Like, I want you to imagine the most sarcastic Clarity possible and then picture me as a little girl watching the scene where Misty is officially leaving the group, because that was literally just me like, “oh noooo, she’s goooone.”

It’s the same reason I don’t do Rocket//Shipping (James X Jessie). One character is too aggressive and the other character doesn’t even come close to balancing it out.

There’s also the fact that nothing comes out of Poke//Shipping. Misty is canonically crushing on Ash (*flashbacks to the friggin’ second movie where they shove it in your face*) but it’s just... there, not to mention that scene where Misty is talking casually to Ash like, “you and I will be married too someday,” which came completely out of left field and - whether for a joke or not - made little kid me very uncomfortable.

Like I said, it’s just there and doesn’t go anywhere, and Ash is already so oblivious that of course he wouldn’t get that Misty is in love with him. It’s basically a long-running gag of Misty pulling a surprised Pikachu face whenever Ash doesn’t understand that she likes him/wants to stay with him/literally wants anything specific from him.

As for Amour//Shipping, I did admittedly like it at first, but just--ugh, oh boy.

First, it’s shipping fanservice, kinda like Pokemon 2000 throwing a bone to the shippers except now it’s the whole two seasons. My followers know how I feel about fanservice just for fanservice and that’s basically all that Amour//Shipping is. That’s why Serena was already made to have met Ash when they were children; so the writers could get a “headstart” on all the blushy fanservice they could squeeze in on Serena’s end.

I fell off the ship sometime around Wulfric, particularly with the scene where Serena comforts Ash. Just that whole, “this isn’t like you,” and then trying to compare her contest losses to Ash’s battles as if Ash hasn’t been at this for seasons upon seasons and battles aren’t a completely different category because they involve actually watching one’s Pokemon get physically hurt (Pokemon battles are a sport, yes, but it doesn’t change anything; Ash also has a special Greninja so of course he’s going to be upset that having all this experience still isn’t enough to just sweep). Like, to relate to someone, yes, it helps to have something you can use as a mental comparison, but that comparison is (usually) supposed to stay mental.

Anyway, after Ash shouts at her because she doesn’t know how he feels at all (because she doesn’t) and he just wanted to be left alone (because he did), Serena throws snowballs at his face and that apparently helps make Ash feel better because Serena can do no wrong here and that just so happened to be exactly what he needed.

(I mean, that whole gym battle and what follows is already pretty trash but that solidified it for me. Basically everything XY&Z added were things I just didn’t care about.)

Oh, and Serena is also implied to steal a kiss from Ash at the very end of the season and you guys know how I feel about that. It’s mostly the fact that she’s so non-apologetic about it, just smiling and blushy and all happy whereas here’s me like, “Wait, I’m pretty sure we just missed a crucial step here??? Since when were you sure that Ash had a thing for you???”

So yeah, I’m not a fan of either ship. I have vague opinions about basically all other ships (The ship between Ash and Iris aka ”You’re such a kid” girl can rot), but Poke//Shipping and Amour//Shipping are the ones I have the strongest negative feelings for.

Brock being shipped with basically anyone is a no no for me. The guy flirts with anything that moves and I have never found it funny or charming. The closest thing young me ever came to a ship with him was Luck//Shipping (Brock X Pike Queen Lucy) but that’s basically it, and it honestly could’ve just been me thinking the idea that Ash and Brock both getting together with Battle Frontier people (I was for Ability//Shipping - Ash X Sailor Maiden Anabel - at the time) was a neat idea and both episodes that featured the respective ships had BLUSH FUEL.

I recall being into Advance//Shipping (Ash X May) when I was young (I was a multishipper back then, you see) but I avoided thinking about it too much because I wasn’t a huge fan of Max (aka “Iris before Iris existed”) and Norman’s game counterpart infuriates me even to this day so I just didn’t want to imagine Ash having to deal with those sorts of things. Plus, looking back on it, he and May were little too similar (then again, maybe that’s why I liked it?).

I expected to enjoy Aurelia//Shipping (Ash X Lillie) when I was getting into the Sun&Moon seasons but it didn’t really do anything for me. I guess maybe I was so burnt out after Amour//Shipping that I wasn’t in a shippy mood anymore? Though, it could also be that their relationship isn’t as “balanced” as I would’ve liked.

Anyway though, as for the ships I actually really like instead of just being indifferent towards or outright disliking, the big one really is just Pearl//Shipping. I suppose it makes sense given that I’m not a multishipper, don’t like Brock enough to ship him with anyone, and most other travel companions are ones I either hadn’t gotten attached to or that I’d paired with Ash long enough that, once I got older, I couldn’t really picture them with other people because my memory of their moments wasn’t strong enough.

Yeah though, PEARL//SHIPPING, I ADORE IT. Like, I’ll try to explain it as best as I can without rambling, but basically:

Dawn doesn’t make excuses when she wants to go with Ash. No “my bike," no meandering, just really casual.

THEY SING THE JAPANESE OPENING TOGETHER AND IT’S RAD. “High Touch” is like, my favorite opening theme???? And they do a duet for it??? I just???? Yes???????

It’s the little things. High-fives are like, their thing. They traded Pokemon with each other which is like, really rare for the series and it made total sense. They both have a Pokemon they keep out of their Pokeball who doesn’t want to evolve (Piplup was the Eevee partner from Let’s Go before it was cool) and no, Misty’s Togepi doesn’t count because it was Gold and Silver’s posterchild. Ash and Dawn also both gave up a speedy physical Pokemon (Primeape and Ambipom respectively) so they could participate in some sort of Pokemon sport that doesn’t exist in the games while I scream in the background because I really like said Pokemon.

DAWN IS ASH’S CHEERLEADER. SHE LITERALLY CHEERS FOR HIM DURING GYM MATCHES. THAT’S PRECIOUS.

They help and get ideas off of each other, which I think is really cool. Them trading Pokemon just furthers that sort of dynamic.

Them just supporting each other in general. There’s a moment where Dawn takes a pretty harsh loss and Ash can be seen sulking like he really gets how she’s feeling.

It also helps that Diamond and Pearl were one of the better seasons of the anime. Paul is a solid rival, I really like the creative battle techniques like spinning and countershield, and just Chimchar in general honestly. I remember the baking episode “Cooking Up a Sweet Story!” vividly and all the feels it gave me.

Yeah though. It’s not any sort of OTP pairing or anything, but out of all of the anime Pokemon ships, Pearl//Shipping is probably my favorite. I’d probably ship them a lot more if they were a little older (like, on par with the protagonists of the Black & White games, who are closer to 14/15; it’s just easier to get a gauge on personality that way).

[twistedtummies2]

Gotham’s 31 Most Wanted - Honorable Mentions

It’s New Year’s Eve, everybody! Just as I did back in October with my “31 Days of Disney Villainy,” before I begin my countdown of my Top 31 Favorite Batman Villains – one for each day of January – I want to go over some of the baddies who sadly didn’t make the cut. These are the Terrible Ten who ALMOST got onto my main countdown, but for various reasons ultimately didn’t quite manage it. Some of these guys are more well-known than others, so we’ll see how many you all recognize. With that said, before the countdown begins at midnight, here are my Honorable Mentions for Gotham’s 31 Most Wanted!

1.     Calendar Man.

Julian Day, a.k.a. Calendar Man, is a villain who has had a lot of ups and downs in his history. Depending on who you ask, he’s either one of the dumbest Batman villains ever made, or one of the most underrated. I fall into the second crowd. The Calendar Man is a deranged crook who commits crimes themed around holidays and seasons. I actually find that to be a very interesting concept, and I’m surprised that so many people dislike the character, and that for a long time he was considered something of a joke. In more recent years, however, the Calendar Man has been making a slight comeback; he’s still often the butt of bad jokes, but more people seem to be waking up to the potential this guy has to be a legitimately interesting and/or intimidating dastard. However, while I do have a soft spot for the character, I just like other rogues better. Not much else to it.

2.     Clock King.

As I said yesterday, when naming the rules for who could qualify on this list, I would not be including “crossover rogues.” These are villains who are TECHNICALLY part of another superhero’s rogues gallery, but whom Batman has faced on numerous occasions. Batman has faced Lex Luthor more than once, for example, but I think it’s fair to say no one’s going to lump him in with the same crowd as Clayface or Catwoman. Similarly, King Shark has appeared in various forms of Batman-related media, but he’s really a villain of Aquaman’s. With this in mind, there are four villains who I felt I just couldn’t COMPLETELY leave out of the running, despite them being those sorts of rogues. The Clock King is the first one. The original Clock King, William Tockman, was a foe of Green Arrow, and was, in my opinion, a better villain than people often give/gave him credit for. However, the character really took off when he first appeared in the 60s Batman TV series, and then got even more attention in a few appearances in “Batman: The Animated Series” and its spin-offs. In fact, the latter version was so popular, THAT version of the Clock King – Temple Fugate (pictured above) – later replaced Tockman, though even he was really more of a Teen Titans villain than a Batman rogue. In fact, while the Clock King does keep appearing in Batman-related media, I’m not even sure if the two have ever even MET in the comics. I will admit that he feels like he fits right in there, and I’ve always had a real soft spot for this villain, but I didn’t think it was right to place him on the list.

3.     Deathstroke.

Ever since the “Arkham” video games, in particular, I always hear Deathstroke referred to as a Batman Villain. I’ll confess that it’s always cool, both in and out of comics, to see him square off with the Dark Knight, but Deathstroke really isn’t a Batman Villain in the strictest sense. Much like the Clock King, in the comics – heck, even in other media – he’s typically depicted as the arch-enemy of the Teen Titans. I guess you could say this perhaps makes him Robin’s arch-nemesis, but that’s not quite the same thing. I do love Deathstroke – he’s definitely one of the greatest DC Villains out there – but I don’t think he fits here any more than Clock King does.

4.     Gentleman Ghost.

This is the third example of a villain who I didn’t QUITE think counted as a Batman Villain. And of them all, he honestly came the closest. See, in the comics, I’m not even sure if Batman and the Clock King have ever met, like I said; and in regards to Deathstroke, sure, they’ve fought on several occasions, but Deathstroke is pretty much well-renowned as the foe of the Titans, and especially Robin. Close, but no cigar. The Gentleman Ghost, however…I keep feeling like DC WANTS to make this guy a Batman Villain definitively, but haven’t quite done so yet, if that makes sense. This dapper phantom thief is TECHNICALLY an arch-enemy of Hawkman & Hawkgirl, of all characters. However, in other media, he often seems to have no set foeman, and in perhaps his most famous incarnation, from “Batman: The Brave & the Bold,” his origins were outright changed to make him a Batman Villain, with no ties to Hawkman whatsoever…in fact, did the Hawk family even APPEAR in that show? I sincerely can’t remember right now, so if anyone can remind me, please do. On top of that, not only has the Ghost faced Batman in the comics, but in one particularly seminal story – “All My Enemies Against Me,” in which a whole group of Batman Villains teamed up to try and take down both the Caped Crusader AND an invading Killer Croc – Gentleman Ghost was included among the ranks. Keep in mind, he was kind of the one odd guy out: all the other villains, from obscure ones like The Spook to more popular ones like Penguin, were DEFINITELY Batman Villains. So to see Gentleman Ghost counted among those ranks was a bit strange but also seemed to indicate he’d found his niche there. However, he’s never been OFFICIALLY counted as one of those villains, and again, in the comics, he’s still most closely tied to the Hawks, or at least the Justice League. So even though I was EXTREMELY tempted to count him on the Top 31, I felt it was still cheating.

5.     King Shark.

Our fourth and final villain who I didn’t really think counted as a Batman Villain. Just like the Clock King and Gentleman Ghost, King Shark has been in a lot of Batman-related media, but in the comics, his encounters with the Dark Knight are fairly minor. He’s real arch-foe is Aquaman, unsurprisingly. This is one of the reasons why I feel I can’t count King Shark on the main list, but the other is that I legitimately have an issue with the character: he’s constantly changing. True, comic book characters change frequently, and villains like the Mad Hatter and the Joker have undergone significant tonal shifts over the decades…but with King Shark, it seems like every single writer who uses him has a 100% different way of handling him. Sometimes he’s a strong and noble warrior; sometimes he’s a blood-hungry, animalistic monster; sometimes he’s a wisecracking psychopath; sometimes he’s actually fairly nice polite until his instincts get the better of him…heck, even his APPEARANCE changes constantly! Sometimes he’s a Great White, sometimes he’s a Hammerhead, sometimes he’s a Tiger Shark…there’s just an absolute zero for CONSISTENCY with this guy, and it drives me up the wall! In recent years, the character has become more popular, but I’ve never really been able to latch onto any version of him more than another, and I’ve never really had any strong attachment to him in general. I don’t hate the guy, I just wish people would handle him better.

6.     Maxie Zeus.

Much like Calendar Man, Maxie Zeus is one of those villains who, depending on whom you ask, they’ll either call one of the dumbest supervillains ever made, or one of the most underrated. Admittedly, between the two, I prefer Calendar Man, but there’s actually a lot of untapped potential in Zeus. The key problem with this character is essentially not his fault: he’s inspired by the campy character of King Tut from the 60s series. (He was adapted into comics himself, incidentally, but that version sucks in my opinion, and is hardly ever used…good riddance. I’ll stick to Victor Buono, thank you.) For those who don’t know, King Tut was a professor of Egyptology who, due to a mental issue, came to believe he was the reincarnation of the famous pharaoh. In Maxie Zeus’ case, he was a gentleman who came to believe he was actually the Greek God of Thunder, Zeus. Just as Tut thus embarked on a mad quest to turn Gotham into his new empire, Zeus plans to turn Gotham into his new Olympus. With such daffy inspiration, you can see why Zeus would be underestimated, and in recent years he’s often been depicted as a “joke villain” - similar to characters like Condiment King. However, in my opinion, Zeus actually CAN work as a legitimate antagonist when handled by the right people in the right way, and I even think that’s been done a couple of times. I tend to think he gets a bad rap. Still, again, there are other villains I simply like more.

7.     Orca.

Dr. Grace Balin used one of those handy-dandy super serums to transform herself into a half-killer whale, half-human hybrid, all in a plan to try and wreak havoc on her hated nemesis: a nasty woman called Camille Baden-Smythe. Dubbing herself simply “The Orca,” she began to rain destruction down upon her enemy, constantly leading to face-offs with the Dark Knight. However, at the end of her first adventure, Balin was mortally wounded, and found the only way to survive was to permanently become the Orca. Since then, the Orca has gone from vigilante to frequently more of a true villain, and still makes off-and-on appearances in comics and even spin-off comics…though, unless you count a jokey cameo in the LEGO Batman Movie, the comics have so far been her only home. I know a few people who are big fans of the character, and I actually have a soft spot for her, too. I just didn’t like her QUITE enough to include her in the Top 31.

8.     Professor Radium.

Now, chances are, even if you happen to be a major comic book fan, you’re probably wondering “Who the Heck is Professor Radium?” Don’t worry, you’re not alone in that. Professor Radium is an EXTREMELY underrated and equally extremely little-known and little-used supervillain who I actually have a personal nostalgia for. In the core comics, he was once a well-meaning scientist who wanted to use radiation-based procedures and special formulas to enhance and extend people’s lives. In a twisted paradox of fate, he wound up instead turning his skin a glowing green, and developed a “Touch of Death.” Radium, in his initial appearance, desperately tried to fix his condition, but the mixture of the accident plus his tragic situation led to him steadily going insane, and he was seemingly killed at the end of the tale. He would later return many, many years later, however, forced to resort to a life of crime due to his terrible condition. I actually found out about Professor Radium through means that are somehow even more obscure than the character himself: the Batman comic strips. Yeah, Batman had a comic strip, all the way back in the 40s, and Professor Radium was one of the few villains from the core comics to appear. (It figures.) The comic strip story was essentially a remake of his origins, but now with a darker twist: his story starts the exact same way, until Radium has a chance encounter with a man planning to commit suicide. He “helps” him with his powers, and from that point on, instead of trying to fix his condition, Professor Radium decides to use his “Touch of Death” as a “Good Samaritan.” He begins bringing the peace and bliss of death to unhappy people, so they no longer have to endure the torture and pain of life. This version, too, was seemingly killed…and since this version never appeared again (his was the last story arc in the strips, and this take never carried over into mainstream), we can presume that death was permanent. I find both takes on Professor Radium to be surprisingly tragic, complex, and fascinating villains, especially for the time period. His occasional, albeit often minor, reappearances in more recent years have helped to ensure he isn’t COMPLETELY forgotten, but I really would like to see a proper new reinvention of this villain. He’s got a lot of potential that hasn’t been fully realized.

9.     The Spook.

In the 1970s, the Spook – real name Val Kaliban – was one of Batman’s most recurring villains. In his original format, the character was a former member of the mafia with a fascination with escape tricks and illusions; after faking his own death to escape from prison, he began using this knowledge to commit crimes – everything from finding masterful ways to escape from robberies, to selling “escape insurance” to caged crooks and busting them out for a hefty fee. Starting in the 80s, the Spook began popping up with far less frequency. Attempts were made in the 90s to reimagine the character; that version had him as a nameless black ops soldier who, traumatized by a mission that went horribly wrong, actually believed himself to be a ghost. It was an interesting, radical reinvention, but it never really went anywhere; future stories would feature Val Kaliban again, and no mention has been made of that second Spook since. As of now, the character has not been seen in the mainstream since 2006, when he was seemingly killed off during the events of the storyline “Batman & Son.” However, the Spook HAS appeared in some comics from spin-offs and crossovers, and is known for – both in-universe and in reality – going long periods of time without so much as saying “Boo” before popping up once more. I personally really like this character, but I guess there are just others I like more or have more nostalgia for.

10.  Tally Man.

The much-underappreciated Tally Man is a villain who I really wish I could love more than I do, if that makes sense. This somewhat theatrical gun-for-hire came from a tragic and disturbing childhood: his family was regularly harassed by a mobster who demanded they pay protection money for some sort of debt. Eventually, the boy that became Tally Man snapped and beat the mobster to death, after the man attacked his mother for not paying him. He was sent to prison, and in the intervening time, his mother killed herself, while his sister went insane. The boy became obsessed with the idea of debts not being paid, and turned to a life of crime: he acts as a sort of agent of Karma, in his own mind, collecting “pounds of flesh” for the highest-paying crooks from their enemies, their clients, and so on. I really love the character’s design and past, but the problem lies in his actual appearances. Tally Man first appeared in the immediate aftermath of the famous “Knightfall” saga. At that time, Bruce Wayne was out of commission, and the Batmen Tally Man faced were actually people taking his place while he recuperated. To me, that’s kind of cheating; it’s not quite the same when you’re facing an Imposter Batman, if you get my meaning. After these initial appearances, Tally Man quickly descended on the ladder of villainy: he ultimately just became little more than a stooge – an average gunman with kind of a cool name, effectively a mere pawn used by more popular rogues, most notably Two-Face. Heck, even his crazy costume was eventually eliminated, as a second Tally Man took his place, and was REALLY just a normal gunman with a cool name. There was nothing about the second one that made him any different from any normal gangster character. Since then, the character has totally disappeared. Apparently there were plans for him to appear in the DCAU, but that never came to pass. I really wish the character had been used better in the comics, and I hope he makes a comeback that fixes these issues.

And that concludes my list of Honorable Mentions for my Top 31 Favorite Batman Villains! As I said before, the countdown proper starts at midnight, just in time to ring in the New Year! I’m fairly sure the first choice on the list will be quite a surprise. ;)

HINT: …I seriously don’t have a hint for the first guy, just…I’m pretty sure you’ll be in absolute DISBELIEF at who it is. That’s all I can give you for now. I’ll do better next time. XD

[earthnashes]

LAST OF UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!

I started playing the very second it was made available to play and just finished it last night at like 4 in the morning. And of course it destroyed me. I love this series man so much man. ;w;

SO! I don’t usually do this but I’m like, fuckin’ dyin’ to talk about it a lil bit so if ya have plans to play it, SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT. <:

-Aight so lemme just say right off the bat that this game is fucking. Gorgeous. The environments, lighting, visual design, the level design, everything was spot on. And don’t get me started on the CHARACTER MODELS. AND ANIMATION. Like bro that shit was lifelike in not just appearance, the characters emoted and carried themselves with so much life they felt legitimately real. They were all so unique too; characters had unique special ticks to just them (Like Ellie pinching her fingers when nervous or upset, or Joel standing taller and squaring himself when talking about hard subjects like he’s bracing himself for it, or Jesse giving his stunted headtilt when he talks) and expressed in a way that was just. Bruh. Aight I’mma stop but fuckin hell what they pull off with the characters in specific in LoU (both part 1 and 2) is just somethin’ outta this world.

-For anyone interested in playing it, the game is roughly 22-30 hours long if you’re just focused on the story, and much longer still if you take the time to explore and find all the little secrets. Some secrets include unique cutscenes and dialogue that are well worth the look; I haven’t found all of ‘em yet but I’m considering trying a completionist playthrough.

-Joel’s death fucking destroyed me. I’m in no way surprised he died, but it hurt regardless, just how quickly things went south for him and Tommy there. And ELLIE. FINDING HIM AND WATCHING HIM GET REKT WAS PAIN INCARNATE. Set the tone hella hard and I’m fuckin’ here for it.

-I’m not gonna lie I fully expected to dislike Abby given she rekt Joel, even though I figured it was for a pretty good reason before it was revealed her pops was the doc Joel killed. But damn. I really enjoyed Abby, a lot actually. From a gameplay standpoint I dare say I enjoyed her section more than Ellie’s since you were BLASTING ENEMIES with those fuckin’ GUNS of hers. And by guns I mean her arms’, jesus she was shredded. As a character, she felt a lot like Ellie from a different perspective and mindset, and I really appreciated the reflection the two of them had. Two sides of the same coin, basically. Also I really, really liked how killin’ Joel brought absolutely no peace to Abby at all, and you caught her beginning to regret it. And it kinda sorta acted as the catalyst to her shift in how she viewed the world. I think that’s a good portion why she latched onto Yara and Lev so hard. Perspective is everything, and there is always more than just one side of a story.

-In the same vein I had a blast learning more about Abby’s friend group, dynamics, how she lived, who she worked for and her past and everything. Of them all I think I liked Nora the most, but Mel and Manny were both reaaaalll close seconds. O:

-Speaking of, DOGS. DOGS DOGS DOGS. So many dogs man and you got to play with and pet them! Fuck yeah. That should be a rule in gaming; if you have a cat or a dog in the game, you should have a button to pet it. Also good gorl Alice is best doggy don’t fight me on this. uwu

-Jesse and Dina were the beez knees I fuckin loved them man. They were exactly the sort of folks I can see Ellie being best friends with. ALSO, this one isn’t major, but I really appreciated that there was no love-triangle here? Dina and Jesse dated, smashed, didn’t work out but they still remained good friends. Ellie’s first reaction to seeing Jesse is to confess that she and Dina kissed, and Jesse readily accepted the fact that Dina moved on (and he had too). It’s just refreshing. No bullshit love triangle there, just three people who really understood each other. Also jesus christ, I really didn’t want Jesse to die. Goddamnit. But I’m so glad they didn’t kill Dina too like, I was fully prepared to see her get fucked up. Base rule of LoU: anyone you like has a high probability of dying. ;w;

-BRO THINKING OF JESSE, ELLIE, AND DINA MADE ME REALIZE THE PARALLEL OF THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO MEL, ABBY, AND OWEN. Ellie’s triangle was essentially non-existent; no feelings of betrayal or anger, just understanding and love, like there was a deep-seated bond here that would weather anything. If Jesse had lived, I wouldn’t doubt he, Ellie, and Dina would have lived together to raise the baby together. Meanwhile Abby’s triangle had Owen seeming to unable to let go of the past he and Abby had together, that poor bastard was still in love with her, and how that supplemented the slow deterioration of all three’s friendship. I was sad to see Mel turn on Abby the way she did but like. I mean.  Dude was ready to leave Mel in the dust for Abby despite HIM GETTING MEL PREGNANT. Abby also kinda did drag everyone into this, even if it was of their own violation. Oof. Though it did feel like she was angry at both Abby and Owen equally, not just blaming Abby for everything there... or at least the romantic relationship part. Honestly probably one of the few times I actually enjoyed a love triangle in a story, or at least of this caliber.

-Isaac, the leader of the WLF? He was cool as fuck. I love how much character they packed into him without even showing him too much. Like there was a scene where Nora mentions she tried to question Isaac about Owen and she said “he gave her that fucking look and told her to drop it”. Hell, when he was talking to Abby, he isn’t that much taller than her but he felt like he outright dwarfed her with the way he carried himself and how they reacted to him. I love shit like that man. But anyway fuck Isaac. uwu

-Not gonna lie I kinda wish I got to see the leader of the Seraphites, but it was hella cool to learn that she had been dead already and how the Seraphites operated with and without her. I don’t think I found everything regarding that specific point in game, but it sounded a lot like a peaceful religious leader who’s words and teachings were twisted to suit the goals of corrupt members of the tribe. She was essentially an equivalent to Jesus, at least to the Seraphites.

-I honestly really loved all of the characters introduced but I have to admit that Lev and Yara were standouts. Yara’s one hell of a big sister, lemme tell you, and the lengths she went through to make sure Lev was safe really shooketh me. AND LEV. MY CHILD. MY SON. To those of you who are familiar with the LGBT+ controversy around the game, he and Ellie are what people are complaining about. Ellie because she’s gay, Lev because he’s trans.

Lev in particular was heartbreaking. His tribe were outright hunting him for who he was, as well as Yara because she chose to protect him. The mindset the tribe had was pretty much isolated to them though.

And jesus. That scene with him and his mother? Fuck.

-YARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :( BRUH that scene pissed me off, fuck you Isaac, you bastard.

-THE SCENE. WHEN YOU PLAY AS ABBY. AND YOU FIGHT ELLIE. WAS SO FUCKING COOL. AND SCARY. Ellie man, that section really showed how efficient and smart she is. She legit tricked me a few times not gonna lie, like I thought she didn’t see me but she’d pretend she wouldn’t, only to ambush me with a FUCKING MOLY. Also the fact that the game outright says “hey uhhhhh you can’t actually take her head on, she’ll fuck you up in a heartbeat bro”. Welp. A really strange mix of horror and sadness and pride there. Hm. :/

-Mom!Ellie was so fucking sweet to see. And it made me catch a glimpse of hope that Ellie actively tried to soldier through for her fam’s sake. But she clearly had demons she had to confront and I’m angry at Tommy for disrupting her and Dina’s life, but it felt necessary. Still made me sick to my stomach to watch her go after Dina fucking BEGS HER TO STAY. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

-Speaking of Tommy, it was so sad to see how much he fell after Joel’s death. It really showed just how much he was like his brother though; underneath a gentle man is someone you best not trifle with, and is very familiar with doing horrific things to reach a goal. Because fuckin hell, Tommy is legit a badass. That sniper part was SO. COOL. Aaaaand terrifying. RIP Manny. :/

-Bro, I’m very curious to see more about the Rattlers but. They were fucked up in a special kind of way. There’s no telling what they did to those people they captured and enslaved. Seeing Abby in the state she was in after seeing her throughout all the game in tip-top shape was painful. That poor girl was literally skin and bones and... just beaten down.

-ELLIE AND ABBY’S FINAL FIGHT WAS SO SAD. I HATED (but I loved) EVERY SECOND OF IT. I was so scared Ellie had fully lost herself there, when she threatens an unconscious Lev to force Abby to fight, who at that point, very clearly didn’t want to. Honestly. Ellie clearly didn’t either, far as I could tell, but it felt like it was the only way she knew how to confront everything. Fight it, until you kill it, or you die. It also felt like Abby understood that since she was in Ellie’s shoes once upon a time.

-I don’t care what anyone else says I’m so happy Ellie let Abby go. I’m so glad she chose not to go through with it. For so long Ellie has been angry and resentful about a lot of things, and she never got a choice once throughout the majority of her journey. As much as I will 100% agree with Joel sayin “fuck this supposed cure, fuck the Fireflies”, it’s not fair of him, or the Fireflies, to just outright take that choice from her, that she didn’t really have one to begin with. She was justifiably angry with Joel and the moment she chooses to try and forgive him, he dies. Another choice stolen away from her. The fact that she chose mercy despite everything, and it was prompted by a memory of Joel, the very reason she was doing this, is profound to me. Like she finally understood why he did what he did, and why he said he’d absolutely do it all over again. Hell, she probably even reached the understanding that her and Abby really aren’t that different from one another in that aspect.

-Ellie returning to an empty home, with Dina and JJ gone, was heartwrenching. I fully understand why Dina left and she honestly had every right to, but it still hurt man. :C AND ELLIE. PLAYING THE SONG JOEL MADE/SUNG FOR HER. ALWAYS KILLED ME. But this instance in particular was something else man like fuck I balled like a baby. Especially when it was followed by the fact that Ellie and Joel were on the cusp of mending their broken relationship only for it to be ripped away man. Goddamnit.

-ELLIE AND JOEL DUET NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. FUCKIN HELL I love this game.

-----------------------------------------

So, this isn’t really a review more than it is me just sharing some of my thoughts on the game, but if ya want me to give it a rating? 10/10. If not a perfect score? At least a 9/10.

The Last Of Us as a series is one that’s moved me more than any other game I can think of honestly (outside of Telltale’s The Walking Dead), and just like the first one, LoU2 left me thinking about it for hours after. It’s thought-provoking, it’s compelling, it’s fun as fuck, aaaaand it’s made me cry like a baby a good number of times. I also really appreciate the fact that, in this game, they actually show the consequences of your actions. Like, they made you consider the fact that you aren’t just killing grunts to get to the next enemy or mowing through mindless drones. You’re killing people, who have lives, and friends, and families.

We got to see Joel for who he was: a very broken man, with a very dark past, who has done very horrible things in this shitty post apocalyptic world, but he is a father, and protective, and loving and thoughtful, who will do anything, anything, to protect Ellie. Blood or not, Ellie is through and through his child. But Abby only saw a monster, and could you blame her? He killed her father, and countless others, and she never got the full story. Just that a man came in and killed the entire hospital, put an end to even the smallest possibility of finding a cure, killed her dad in cold blood, and walked away no problem. And then it cycles right back to Ellie, where Abby becomes her monster.

It’s just some grade-A storytelling as far as I’m concerned, and I’m someone who usually prefers happy endings. LoU always leaves me feeling bittersweet but goddamn do I love this series. I’m kinda hoping for a DLC, to be honest? Like LoU part one, where you found out about Ellie and Riley. I wanna see what happens to Ellie; I get the distinct feeling she returns to Jackson and hopefully scrounges out some semblance of a decent life there, after confronting Tommy and (hopefully) making peace with Dina. But we’ll see! uwu

[ragnaofazure]

Characters that were, or never were.

((Hello! This is a list of characters I have actually played on or off the site (like Discord), wanted to or considered quite strongly but never followed suit to do so or whatever.))

((It will all be under read more; this is a long post! If you are interested? Have fun discovering who was in any corner of my repertoire! The list should not be that extensive! I will reblog it if I added anyone new I could recall and forgot to initially should that happen. These are mostly in some form of chronological order with added notes about what their place is with me and more.))

Yu Narukami - (Persona 4)  

Additional note: (Have to biasedly put him first at the top and say how he was my true first muse here, lasted literal years. All my experience comes from him and his blog. He reached nearly 1k followers between both regular and not safe blogs, my true labor of love lost to me deciding to deactivate the blog. Some know me from him originally! You all know who you are!))

Sal (or “Syake”/”Syake-san”) - (Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea)

Additional note: (My first attempt at a second character and his blog did kinda work for a while, getting a lot of interactions during the original Funamusea craze back in the day. First time playing a truly well evil character and learned lots. His blog eventually died down and faded, but it was an experience I haven’t forgotten.)

Nepgear - (Hyperdimension Neptunia)

Additional note: (A standalone blog attempt again, flopped hard due to how the fandom seemed to have it’s problems on the RP side as well as my own personal reservations (met some couple of awesome people there still around me today though!). One of the most ways to trash a character by a series that had a bit of an identity crisis in the writing department as the years went on. Still not over how hard they literally screwed this good girl over. Every single time.)

Iku Nagae - (Touhou Project)

Additional note: (Part of an incredibly failed multimuse project (that Nepgear was the face of and part of as well for that matter after her blog flopped) and she never got to really experience light of day. I had only the idea of how I wished to portray the character and I still do, but at the same time, I have no idea if it would have earned me the most interactions, admittedly. All due to how passive she is.)

Varus - (League of Legends)

Additional note: (Me having a thing for characters with tragic stories of loss? Are doomed as if fittingly to pay for their sins and as a cost for the tools to live and revenge? He spoke to me way before Ragna. I knew how I wanted to write him, give him flair given his character, which other Champions I wished for him to interact with soon... I had a much clearer idea. But ultimately, also part of the doomed multimuse blog that never took off.)

Goomy - (Pokémon)

Additional note: (No gijinka, only small, sticky bby that I debatably would never allow to evolve and, of course, could talk. Best Dragon type line to ever exist don’t even @ me okay. It’s just... cute. The anime really made it stick out and I loved it. I always also have loved essentially weaker characters and creatures a lot, thus... It resonated with me greatly and idea of how I was going to go about him (yes, had decided on male for it). Again, multimuse failed, so he went away with it.)

Karol Capel - (Tales of Vesperia)

Additional note: (Weak that could be truly strong when overcoming his fears, and that resonated with me given how I consider myself a coward in real life. I also have a thing also for playing characters everyone finds annoying to make them look better when they should not be as disliked too. And once more, multimuse, gone with it, never found a place to remotely discover if I would have also wanted to play him at large either too.)

Elphelt Valentine - (Guilty Gear)

Additional note: (I don’t need to say anything, most of you knew her enough! Blog flopped hard and I couldn’t find the activity I desired. Why I played her? Just... bubbly sweet girl that didn’t want to act on her capability to be deadly as a Gear and only wished for happiness, I liked all that sugar with that depth I tried to give her. As of recent times, Tumblr locked me out and I could not log back in. I sort of took it as a message as to why I maybe shouldn’t try with secondary blogs to a big degree.)

The Masochistic Admiral/Commander/Master(?)/Doctor(?) - (Kantai Collection-Azur Lane (Maybe even Fate and Arknights???) )

Additional note: (So this is a nameless original Admiral/Commander character by the artist known as “Yamamoto Arifred” (look up on danbooru tags under Kantai Collection alongside). I absolutely fell in love with this guy. How I wish it was possible to play him further then I did, I revisit the art work every so often and every day I recall why I liked him so, so much. He’s just beyond amusing, wacky, outright insane and nonsensical in many good shapes and forms. But he only wants one thing: All under him to succeed and become the best they can be under his very questionable yet effective command. I could go on and on but this is already long enough. Standalone blog, flopped due to lack of activity.)

Thief (”Touzoku”) Arthur - (Million Arthur series)

Additional note: (Super unknown series, super unknown plot, I only met all the characters via the available and uncared for fighting game... And her backstory plus design gave me so many ideas I wanted to play around with as a thief wielding a goddamn Excalibur. Of the first characters I said I wanted to play on impulse alone, but who would have cared? Where could she have fit? It was the bigger discouraging thoughts. I have some icons still... But as always, the hesitation from impulse in itself.)

Hassan of the Serenity - (Fate Prototype/Fragments - Grand Order)

Additional note: (Best Assassin, best girl, only Servant that has brought me to tears in this extensive series, for the love of anything holy let her be happy I swear to God, everything about her cuts me so deep, I can’t deal with it every time I think about it ...I’m calm. But really. She touched me so, so deep. I was normally indifferent for so many years about Fate until I stumbled upon the Prototype duology, and subsequently, the Fragments side. After learning her origins and more, her wishes... I can’t state it enough. I am passionate about this girl. She deserves the world. And I would have loved to give her the best if I got to write her.)

Peri - (Fire Emblem Fates - Heroes)

Additional note: (What everyone sees as an annoying, questionable character and way more, I see as yet another pick for me with great potential to try and develop to be liked more by many, for she is not completely disposeable. I had ideas and wanted to take her further while still having her not lose the tendencies she has, because that would be breaking and disregarding character, but sadly, Peri never as much as left my constant thoughts then trying to privately sample around for myself, would have loved to, though. Very.)

Sigurd - (Fate Grand Order)

Additional note: (Amazing design, amazing voice... Literal definition of: “Do it for her”, loves his partner despite their fate... Incredibly underrated man. He is simply the best and I was interested in finding footing to play him, as he deserves to be noticed more for just being... Simply amazing. There is not much more to say than that, he is cool and that is final. Don’t even fight me on these cold, hard facts.)

[ftslianne-blog]

            (  KIM  DOYEON  ,  CIS  FEMALE  ,  SHE/HER  )  did  you  just  see  LIANNE  RYU  pull  up  on  campus  for  the  new  semester  ?  they’re  the  TWENTY  ONE  year  old  in  DELTA  ZETA  ALPHA  right  ?  i  heard  they’re  a  TREASURER  .  it  makes  perfect  sense  because  they’re  RANCOROUS  ,  but  at  the  same  time  BEGUILING  .  i  wonder  when  the  black  sheep  is  going  to  drop  the  big  secret  that  they  PAID  OF  THE  PEOPLE  SHE  USED  TO  BULLY  TO  KEEP  HER  REPUTATION  INTACT  .  anyway  ,  i  constantly  hear  them  blasting  SPICE  GIRL  BY  AMINÉ  ,  tell  them  to  keep  it  down  ,  it’s  quiet  hours  .

            whew  ,  miss  doyeon  could  step  on  my  neck  !  hello  angels  and  gems  ,  i’m  koa  and  i’m  super  excited  to  be  here  .  i  love  a  good  greek  life  rp  ,  so  i  was  happy  to  come  across  this  in  the  tags  !  i’m  not  gonna  lie  ,  lianne  is  a  pretty  brand  new  muse  but  kind  of  a  mosh  of  characters  that  i’ve  played  in  the  past  ,  so  let’s  cross  our  fingers  that  all  goes  well  .  my  discord  can  be  shared  dependent  on  request  as  sometimes  it  doesn’t  want  to  let  people  add  me  ,  but  if  you’re  down  to  plot  in  the  dm’s  i’m  fine  with  that  too  .  i  have  a  link  to  some  connections  that  can  be  found  here  ,  and  at  the  bottom  of  this  intro  you  can  find  some  more  !  without  further  ado  ,  here  is  miss  lianne  ryu  !

BIRTH  NAME  :  ryu  do - hee  .  PREFERRED  NAME  : lianne  ryu  .   NICKNAME(S)  :  lia  ,  exclusively  . BIRTHDATE  /  AGE  : january  17th  ,  1999  /  21  . ZODIAC  :  capricorn  .   HOMETOWN  :  sherman  oaks  ,  california  (  take  a  peek  )  . GENDER  : cis  female  . NATIONALITY  : korean  -  american  . ETHNICITY  : korean  . HEIGHT  : five  foot  ,  eight  inches  (  5′8″  )  . LABEL(S)  : the  sovereign  ,  the  million  dollar  baby  ,  and  the  amaranth  . ROMANTIC  ORIENTATION  : biromantic  . SEXUAL  ORIENTATION  : bisexual  . OCCUPATION  : international  relations  major  at  ucla  ,  treasurer  of  delta  zeta  alpha  ,  and  outsider  hitter  for  the  women’s  volleyball  team  . LANGUAGES  SPOKEN  : english  ,  korean  ,  and  conversational  french  (  as  a  major  requirement  )  . POSITIVES  :  beguiling  ,  candid  ,  ebullient  ,  intelligent  ,  and  cosmopolitan  . NEGATIVES  :  rancorous  ,  haughty  ,  bull - headed  ,  unscrupulous  ,  and  sanctimonious  .

background  .

            bang  ji - eun  and  ryu  tae - ho  were  students  at  the  university  of  southern  california  when  they  met  one  another  .  tae - ho  was  a  human  rights  student  with  intent  on  becoming  a  lawyer  ,  and  he  encountered  the  beautiful  romance  language  and  literature  major  that  was  ji - eun  when  they  both  attended  a  peaceful  protest  .  the  two  wound  up  next  to  one  another  and  sparked  a  conversation  from  there  ,  and  once  their  protesting  was  over  ,  they  decided  to  go  on  a  date  that  very  same  night  .  their  relationship  was  something  of  a  whirlwind  ,  and  within  a  year  ,  the  two  were  eloping  at  the  courthouse  .  

            their  families thought  they  were  crazy  ,  especially  since  their  rings�� consisted  of  little  cheap  ones  from  macy’s  (  and  tae - ho  proposed  with  her  favorite  food  )  but  it  was  that  shared  weirdness  that  kept  the  couple  together  .  as  tae - ho  worked  his  way  through  law  school  following  their  graduation  from  usc  ,  ji - eun  jumped  right  into  working  for  a  publishing  firm  .  the  couple  didn’t  come  from  a  wealthy  background  by  any  means  ,  but  they  were  living  comfortably  .  after  a  couple  of  years  of  marriage  ,  tae - ho  graduated  from  law  school  and  went  to  work  as  a  defense  attorney  .  it  wasn’t  an  easy  job  ,  but  he  loved  what  he  did  and  made  that  evident  in  the  work  that  he  did  .

            fast  forward  a  few  more  years  ,  and  ji - eun  has  moved  up  in  her  company  as  has  tae - ho  .  they’re  making  more  money  ,  and  they  make  their  move  to  the  beautiful  suburbs  of  sherman  oaks  .  they  work  hard  for  more  years  ,  and  just  as  they  enter   into  their  mid - thirties  ,  they’re  welcoming  their  first  and  only  baby  girl  into  the  world  .  they  decide  to  name  the  big  brown  eyed  baby  do - hee  ,  and  she’s  showered  in  their  love  .  her  parents  began  calling  her  lianne  from  the  time  she  was  a  baby  ,  often  switching  between  korean  (  where  they  called  her  do - hee  )  and  english  (  where  they  called  her  lianne  ,  but  sometimes  the  lines  blurred  )  .  as  lianne  grew  older  ,  her  parents  made  even  more  money  with  her  mom  becoming  the  editor - in - chief  of  the  publishing  house  and  her  father  becoming  one  of  the  most  sought  after  defense  attorneys in  the  los  angeles  area  .  

            for  lianne  ,  that  meant  growing  up  with  whatever  she  wanted  .  however  ,  her  parents  were  still  quite  hands - on  with  her  ,  so  she  was  never  left  in  the  care  of  nannies  .  she  grew  up  doing  everything  she  could  imagine  ,  but  that  didn’t  stop  her  parents  from  putting  her  in  different  week  long  camps  over  the  summers  .  she  tried  her  hand  at  tennis  camp  ,  basketball  camp  ,  ballet  camp  ,  and  even  a  stem  camp  ,  but  when  she  was  in  middle  school  she  attended  a  volleyball camp  right  before  her  seventh  grade  year  .  she’s  been  hooked  ever  since  .  lianne  always  made  sure  to  keep  up  her  grades  while  playing  because  she  never  wanted  to  miss  a  game  ,  so  it  was  no  surprise  when  she  obtained  a  partial  athletic  scholarship  to  ucla  !

            during  her  high  school  years  ,  though  ,  it  was  no  secret  that  lianne  was  at  the  top  of  the  social  ladder  .  she  played  a  sport  ,  was  whip  smart  ,  and  was  student  body  president  so  it  wasn’t  all  that  shocking  for  her  to  be  mean  to  the  students  around  her  .  it  wasn’t  necessarily  on  purpose  ,  but  she  can  be  quite  domineering  at  times  .  she  didn’t  know  how  to  take  no  for  an  answer  despite  not  being  ridiculously  spoiled  as  she  grew  up  ,  but  she  was  also  in  the  mentality  of  being  an  only  child  so  she  ultimately  did  get  what  she  wanted  .  she  definitely  wasn’t  the  bully  that  got  onto  people  about  their  lack  of  money  ,  but  she  was  definitely  going  to  get  in  your  face  about  voting  for  her  for  something  she  was  running  for  until  you  stuffed  the  ballot  with  her  name  .

            lianne  is  an  international  relations  major  at  ucla  and  she  joined  delta  zeta  alpha  during  her  sophomore  year  ,  and  worked  her  way  to  becoming  the  treasurer  of  the  srat  .  she’s  super  into  her  major  and  will  probably  go  off  to  work  in  politics  as  a  political  analyst  ,  or  she  might  pull  a  meghan  markle  (  also  an  international  relations  major  )  and  dismantle  a  royal  house  .  you  know  ,  icons  only  .  that  being  said  ,  she’s  still  relatively  new  so  i’m  still  working  out  some  kinks  ,  but  that’s  the  gist  of  my  daughter  !

headcanons  .

she  cruises  around  los  angeles  in  a  white  volvo  xc60  .  we  love  a  practical  queen  .

she’s  been  playing  volleyball  since  she  was  in  middle  school  ,  and  has  stuck  with  it  ever  since  .  she  does  club  during  the  summers  to  remain  in  shape  ,  but  she’s  sad  that  it’s  coming  to  an  end  .  

some  people  don’t  think  she’s  an  international  relations  major  because  she  wants  to  be  ,  but  she  does !  

that  being  said  ,  she  doesn’t  dress  as  conservatively  as  most  business  majors  but  she’s  very  serious  about  her  major  .

she’s  100%  based  on  red  head  doyeon  at  this  current  moment  but  black  haired  doyeon  is  gonna  make  an  appearance  once  i  get  tired  of  it  lmao  .  

a  tennis  skirt  enthusiast  .

she  uses  way  too  many  emojis  in  her  texts  and  that’s  never  going  to  change  .

she’s  most  comfortable  in  her  own  space  ,  but  she  likes  being  around  other  people  as  well  .  her  favorite  thing  to  get  food  from  is  leo’s  taco  truck  and  that’s  probably  never  going  to  change  .

personality  .

overall  ,  lia  is  a  girl  who  knows  her  worth  and  isn’t  going  to  let  you  forget  it  .  she’s  really  smart  ,  but  not  in  an  annoying  way  ,  and  she  definitely  won’t  dumb  herself  down  for  anyone  .  she  likes  to  have  fun  and  when  she’s  out  for  the  night  she  definitely  won’t  be  thinking  about  school  ,  but  if  she’s  studying  ...  don’t  even  ASK  her  to  go  out  .  you  gotta  have  a  solid  work  /  life  balance  ,  y’know  ?  very  headstrong  and  it  takes  a  lot  to  admit  that  she’s  wrong  ,  but  she’s  also  the  worst  person  to  cross  ,  so  be  careful  !  she’s  fun - loving  and  she  isn’t  an  outright  bitch  for  no  reason  ,  but  she’s  not  gonna  take  that  and  just  sit  back  with  it  .  she  barks  back  .

desired  relationships  .

            as  for  some  connections  ,  i’d  genuinely  love  just  about  everything  !  i’ve  listed  some  specifics  down  below  ,  but  if  you’d  rather  work  based  on  chemistry  or  if  you  want  to  simply  brainstorm  we  can  do  that  !  also  ,  if  you  had  anything  that  you  wanted  to  do  ,  please  let  me  know  !

a  best  friend  !  they  don’t  necessarily  have  to  be  from  delta  ,  but  honestly  someone  who  she  gets  along  with  the  best  and  who  she  can  really  be  herself  around  .

i’d  die  for  an  enemy  /  rival  ?  someone  who  she  genuinely  does  not  vibe  with  or  like  at  all  ,  and  there’s  really  no  way  of  them  ever  becoming  friends  .  they  probably  subtweet  each  other  or  be  really  shady  on  instagram  ,  but  they  feed  into  their  dislike  for  one  another  and  probs  let  their  friends  hype  them  up  sometimes  ?  i  don’t  want  to  godmod  the  plot  ,  but  it  could  it  could  be  fun  !

some  generic  things  like  friends  with  benefits  ,  gym  buddies  ,  high  school  friends  ,  confidant(s)  ,  good  or  bad  influence  ,  one  night  stand(s)  ,  ex(es)  ,  enemies  with  benefits  ,  and  frenemies  .

ooo  ,  a  squad  from  high  school  !  maybe  they’ve  since  drifted  a  part  or  they’re  still  as  close  as  ever  ,  but  omg  reliving  high  school  memories  🥺  .

alright  i  am  a  lover  of  any  and  everything  written  in  angst  ,  so  please  give  me  an  angsty  exes  thing  so  i  can  hand  you  my  heart  on  a  silver  platter  !  

a  slow  burn  /  will  they  ,  won’t  they  would  be  so  much  fun  too   ESPECIALLY  if  there  are  extenuating  factors  on  why  they  can’t  be  together  and  ugh  .  please  rip  my  heart  out  i’m  actually  begging  you  to  .

[vecna]

Oohh for the fandom meme! Dragon Age?

Send me a fandom!

Oh boy, this is going to be spicy.

It’s also very Anders-negative, so apologies up front.

The character(s) I first fell in love with:

I’m actually not sure which was the FIRST, but it’s a tie between Morrigan and Alistair. I saw fanart of them going around at the time Origins first released, and that’s what got me to try the game! 

Alistair was a breath of fresh air, because at the time, I was used to warrior men in games being all Edgy and Rough, and he was the total opposite and a sweetheart.

And Morrigan was just instantly my goth wife, and had Claudia Black as a VA, so I was sold immediately.

Both still hold a special place for me!

The character(s) I never expected to love as much as I do now:

Loghain is the main one. He does a lot of truly reprehensible shit in the first game. But once I sat down and read the prequel novels about young Loghain, plus saw what he’s like if you recruit him, he grew on me A LOT and now he’s a top fave.

Nathaniel I expected to hate as soon as I saw his name + who his father was, but then the expansion came out and I ended up loving that dude almost immediately. I really wish he was around more after Awakening, and also really wish he’d been a romance option, especially for a Cousland haha.

Merrill is a weird one because she was totally uninteresting to me in DA:O, so when they announced her as a companion in DA2 I was like, “Ehhhh.” Then they punked me by making her adorable and sweet and now I love her.

Plus a bunch of side-characters like The Architect? I liked him a bunch in the novel + Awakening – although I found his Plan in the novel much more appealing. But as the years have gone by, I keep surprising myself at just HOW disappointed I am he’s never appeared again haha.

The character(s) everyone else loves that I don’t:

There’s a few, and all of them will get me yelled at, but here we go.

First: Isabela. This one’s a bit complicated, but it really just boils down to her attitude towards how you play your character. I actively dislike characters who are super sexual – regardless of gender. But Isabela in particular bothers me because she’s constantly pushing her lewdness and sexual humor on you, and when you try to discourage it, she admonishes you with, “Well, you’re no fun.” Her whole character is just… like that for me. Super pushy, overly lewd, gets uppity when you don’t have the same ~liberated~ opinions she does, and this is all played up in the writing like she’s this Empowered Woman the player absolutely must love, especially if they’re playing a male character lol. I hate her for the same reasons a lot of people hate Liara in Mass Effect, but with the addition of pushy lewd jokey characters always rubbing me the wrong way.

Second: Iron Bull. I’ve written a lot about why he makes me more uncomfortable than any fictional character I’ve ever encountered, and I just outright hate him, he makes my skin crawl. If you want details, feel free to DM me, I don’t really want to rant about it again publicly.

Third: Anders. Again, I’ve written a lot about him before, but. I hated him in Awakening, for a lot of the same reasons I hate Isabela in DA2. But the changes they made to him in DA2 are just kinda :/. While I absolutely agree with him about Mage Rights, the level of preachiness they added to him drove me nuts, and the fact that you’re painted as a Bad Guy if you don’t like him blowing up the chantry. And from a purely OOC standpoint: He’s become a figurehead for all the aggressive Discourse people in the fandom, and if I see someone list Anders in their sidebar bio, I know pre-emptively that their blog is going to be full of 6 page long essays of meta about how everything is Problematic, and no thanks.

To a lesser extent, I’m also not fond of Zevran. But in his case, it’s not anything major like the others, I’m just tired of Bioware’s habit of making the bisexual characters overly lewd sex-focused rogues/deviants.

The character(s) I love that everyone else hates:

Loghain, lol.

But also Sebastian Vael? There’s so much about him that I find genuinely fascinating, especially regarding his backstory, and his struggles between his feelings of responsibility to his family vs his dedication to the Chantry and bettering himself. He’s such a dear character to me, and such a pivotal part of any playthrough, I’m always blown away when I remember he’s a DLC character and many people don’t have him.

HOWEVER Anders being the fandom darling means that people tend to unfairly shit on Sebastian for reacting poorly to the Chantry explosion. People also like to label him as a poster child of a White Straight Church Boy, while refusing to acknowledge he’s… not straight, and not exactly a church boy either lol.

Also Vivienne, but I think that one’s really self-explanatory. I love her, and she gives a really needed perspective on the Circle, since most of the mage companions previously were apostates. But of course, she gets written off as a Chantry apologist, and an uppity bitch, when people would def love her for the same traits if she was not black lol.

The character(s) I used to love but don’t any longer:

Justice. And by extension, Anders. A lot of people like to rant about how Justice ruined Anders, but I always saw it the other way around.Justice was my favorite character in Awakening. The whole concept around him, that he was a Fade spirit who took human form and was experiencing life for the first time was SO fascinating. I felt like there was so much to explore there with his character.

Buuuut then they had him merge with Anders. With the narrative being that he WAS a spirit of Justice, but the moment he connected with Anders, it corrupted his entire spirit into something he wasn’t anymore. So essentially, the character I used to love no longer exists, thanks to Anders. And it reminds me of that phrase recently, about how the destination is so terrible you can no longer enjoy the journey? I can’t even appreciate Justice in Awakening anymore, knowing what happens to him.

To a lesser extent, Corypheus. He was SO COOL and the premise of him was AMAZING when he first appeared in the DA2 DLC, but then Inquisition had to go and turn him into a weird shallow mustache twirl villain.

The character(s) I would totally smooch:

None? Idk I don’t really have the Smooch Fictional Character gene.

The character(s) I’d want to be like:

MAEVARIS TILANI. May I one day finally have the confidence in my identity that she does, and also marry a sweet bear man who adores me.

The character(s) I’d slap:

Too many to list, really. Probably Anders.

The pairing(s) that I love:

THERE’S SO MANY. And most of them are with the PC, because I generally don’t ship NPCs together. But my top 3 are:

M!Hawke / Fenris is my ultimate OTP in the Dragon Age series, by a long-shot. Not even sure where to start on how much I love it, but two damaged guys leaning on each other to work through their respective loneliness and trauma is MY JAM. And lmao I love silver-sideburned Hawke chillin in retirement somewhere but being a supportive husband while Fenris goes off hunting the Bad Guys, it’s great.

Solas / Lavellan is a close second, with the caveat that I increasingly prefer it with a male Lavellan. Having the Inquisitor in love with Solas just changes the entire tone of the game for me, for the better, and him actually being the villain trying to end the world while in love with this normie elf is just (chef kiss). Too bad I’m burned out by how overly spammed it is.

Dorian / Inquisitor is in third, I will just always be fond of how it’s a story of the Inquisitor helping Dorian be happy with who he is, escape an abusive family, and realize that he’s allowed to be loved. Good shit good shit.

Some others:

Warden / Morrigan is probably my favorite Origins ship, and that only intensified with the way she talks about the Warden in Inquisition, esp if they’re Kieran’s other parent. What a cute goth family, regardless of the Warden’s gender, cause you can pry Bi Morrigan from my cold dead fingers.

Cassandra / Inquisitor might have a lot of Romance Cliches, but I adore it – although, similar others, I increasingly prefer it with a female Inquisitor. I actively dislike the weird no-homo rejection with her, and come on, a lady Inquisitor being her Knight In Shining Armor is just good storytelling.

Cullen / Inquisitor, for a lot of the same reasons as Cassandra. I love me a cliche romance, but I’m also fond of the narrative w/ him of someone he loves helping him heal through the lyrium withdrawals and take time to rest.

Josephine / F!Inquisitor is just adorable all around, and wholesome, and great.

Varric / Hawke COME ON HOW WAS THIS NOT AN OPTION.

On the rarepair end:

Sebastian / Hawke doesn’t seem like it would be a rarepair – you’d think everyone who loves Cullen/Inquisitor would love this one too. I do! But alas. That said, I’m also pretty aggro about this one with a male Hawke because SEBASTIAN IS CANON BI. WHY WAS HIS ROMANCE STRAIGHT.

Maric / Loghain is a rarepair I will take with me to my grave LOL. Never forget the scene where Maric thought Loghain was leaving, and bolted across the camp with almost no clothes on to beg Loghain to stay. Come on.

Nathaniel / Cousland is dear to me, and I love it so much more than Alistair / Cousland haha.

Greagoir / Wynne, I can’t believe this got validated in canon ahhhh.

The pairing(s) that I despise:

Again: THERE’S SO MANY.

Iron Bull / Dorian is my least fave by a longshot. Again, I have written about why I hate this pairing a great many times, but it’s awful and toxic and makes me deeply uncomfortable, and I could happily go the rest of my life without seeing anything about it ever again. Please keep poor Dorian away from that man. He deserves someone that doesn’t sexually harass him until he’s finally worn down into dubious consent (while drunk) and then outted to everyone about it.

Isabela / Fenris. Sorry, but it’s just bad writing that Fenris bails on Hawke because the physical intimacy triggered his PTSD and he needs space to process, but then will turn around and have a casual sex relationship with Isabela instead. Yikes.

Anders / Fenris. Aveline / Isabela. Alistair / Morrigan. All of the DA2 Hawke/companion rivalmances. I don’t enjoy “these two people hate and antagonize and want to kill each other… but they fuck” in any form.

Cullen / Amell. Yikes.

And basically ALL of the canon wlw pairings in this series suffer from the fact they have men writing them, and as a result they’re almost always some kind of abusive or racist, and skeeve me out. See: Celene / Briala, Leliana / Marjolaine, Branka / Hespith, etc. Please Bioware, I’m begging you to consult some actual queer women. It’s insane how badly they’re treated compared to how the canon mlm couples are written.

FINALLY, I recognize this will be the most unpopular of all, but. As much as I love M!Hawke/Fenris, I just honestly cannot stand seeing F!Hawke/Fenris. There are some pairings where I’m so attached to the m/m or f/f version, I cannot deal with the m/f version anymore, and that’s one of them. (The others are mainly non-Bioware.)

[calliecat93]

Top 5 Things I Liked About Red vs Blue: Season 2

(Top 5 Dislikes)

One post down, one more to go… and then twenty-six more to go for the rest of this series. Why did I decide to do this again? Meh, whatever. Let’s just get on with it as we resume looking over Season 2.

#5. Machinima

Okay, this might sound weird, but hear me out. The machinima last season was… basic. Not bad mind you, there is only so much that you can do without a lot of creativity and resources. Resources that RT didn’t have at this point in time. But mostly, they just went through the default motions. Nothing really stood out. It had some cool stuff, like them somehow managing to blow the Warthog on top of Red Base. I think they even said in the commentary that trying to replicate it for the remaster was a pain in the ass. Still, it just didn’t stand out, though the humor made you not notice.

Clearly, the RT guys wanted to push themselves a little more now that they knew how Halo operated and they could machinimate better. Which they did. I noticed a lot of little things when watching the season. Like having Caboose jumping up and down during the opening gunfight while behind a rock, or even Doc just pretending to fire his blaster. Or having Simmons more or less trembling in the finale when his… ugh… fax parts act up and you can tell what Grif is staring at when he questions it. Or adding in things like Lopez’ note in the finale, and even having it written in binary. Heck, we even have smoke come out of Grif’s helmet when Simmons catches him in the act.

These are small things, but it helps make the world and characters feel a little more alive. Clearly, machinima has its limitations, and we’re a long way away from them adding in animation. But creative people will find a way to work within their limitations, and even use those limitations to their advantage. Considering how long this show has been going, I’d say that they succeeded.

#4. Caboose’s Mind

One of the most memorable parts, and one with some actual effects on the characters, is when Church and Tex go into Caboose’s mind to kill O’Malley. It’s one of the weirdest, yet funniest parts of the season. We get to see how Caboose views everyone, with Tucker being stupid and Church being obsessed with being Caboose’s best friend. He gets them wrong, but it makes sense because it’s how /Caboose/ interprets these individuals. They aren’t supposed to be accurate. It’s especially funny when we see the Reds and only Simmons is close to right Grif is Yellow (which they outright did to prove that he was Orange to viewers), Donut is a girl since that’s what Caboose thought at the time, and Sarge has a pirate accent instead of a Southern one. 

It’s just funny to see Caboose, who at this point had been portrayed as the most dim-witted, and how he views these people. It kinda reflects what he wants with Church being his best friend and the Reds fearing him and his greatness. His ideal version of himself is pretty much a cool version of himself, though otherwise not too different. Church’s reaction and frustration at all fo this, especially Caboose!Church, only makes it funnier as is Tex being unfazed by all of it. It did kinda throw me off when I watched it the first time, but God it’s funnier on rewatch now that I know what’s going on. It’s a nice look into Caboose’s mind, and we got to see glimpses of the others int he S14 episode Head Cannon.

I think the biggest things though were for one, we got a location that wasn’t Blood Gulch finally. Sure it’s pretty much a standard video game map with a bunch of cubes, but after having the only setting be a canyon, it was refreshing. We also have some major impact with this since due to all the chaos, Caboose’s character becomes what it is now. We can debate all day how we should view Caboose and his intellectual level, but I do think that this helped endear the character to people and allowed him to stand out much, much more. Even now I know very few people, if anyone, who dislikes Caboose so while maybe they should acknowledge that he was more or less brain-damaged, the character himself has become better due to this. Which is nice~

#3. O’Malley Subplot

Speaking of Caboose’s mind, the O’Malley plot was by far the standout in this season. At first, it wasn’t too much since only Tucker cared about Caboose’s sudden murderous behavior. But once Tex came back, things picked up. While the backstory wasn’t totally accurate, it would certainly lead to more ahead. The fight in Caboose’s mind was fun. Tucker got to show some genuine competence when he came up with the plan to make the Reds turn their comms off and even using Lopez as a backup plan. With how much more competent Tucker grows later once circumstances pretty much force him to, this was an early sign showing that he is capable. He just needs to be pushed into doing it.

O’Malley himself didn’t stand out too much, just being kinda murderous. Then he escaped into Doc. I’ll go more into this next season, but this was the best decision ever. Doc is a whiny goody-two-shoes while O’Malley is gleefully, over-the-top evil. The contrast of the two personalities works super well and is just really funny to watch, though again it applies more for the next season. By the end, O’Malley makes his move and firmly sets himself up as the first proper Big Bad of the series, and he’s the perfect villain for the Blood Gulch Chronicles.

Overall, the whole subplot was really fun even though it did kind of have a slow start. It brought back Tex, had some really funny moments like the Reds' reactions to Lopez’s horrible love song. At least Donut liked it, haha~ It gave us our first proper villain, which led to one Hell of an insane finale. Even everything in between with Donut getting captured by the Blues and them trying to use this to make Sarge build them new bodies was fun to watch. The first half of S2 s super fun, but the second half is, without doubt, the best part for me. O’Malley was the catalyst, and to this day is one of my favorite villains. Love it~

#2. Improved Production Standards

Season 1 was good but flawed. It was clear that the RT guys weren’t really sure what they were doing. Audio quality was meh, jokes could drag, and the pacing was rather slow. It makes sense though when you read about what the original plans were. RvB was meant to be a miniseries, and nothing more. But pretty much a combination of them not getting to what they planned as soon as they thought (Donut was supposed to be in pink armor much sooner for example, and they realized how long it was taking to get there) as well as just coming up with more ideas extended things to a nineteen episode run. So there was no long term plan and things like writing and machinima were done in mere days in between releases. Plus there were only two main machinimators, Burnie and Geoff, and if you listen to the original S1 commentary they are both clearly exhausted. Burnie even said on a one-on-one podcast with Geoff on how they had pretty much had every conversation ever and they’d be like some old married couple just staring at each other. You can find it here if you’re interested, it’s a fun one~

So yeah… when you look back you can kinda tell that S1 was a bit of a rush job, and a tiring one at that. It’s still very good and like I said, they found ways to use so much you barely notice things were made up on the fly. But clearly, they needed a better system. Enter Matt Hullum. He had already been voicing Sarge, but he ended up stepping in to play a larger behind the scenes role. He joined Burnie on writing and directing, and thus they started planning things much farther ahead. As such, they knew the general plot and thus things could be tightened. The pacing is much better with episodes feeling faster, but having plenty of things happening. I already talked about the machinima improvements, which having Matt as well as Gus coming back from Puerto Rico also helped there. The voice acting, while still amateur, improved as well as the audio mixing. The filter is still a little distracting, but it and the general audio mixing is greatly improved. Pretty much every aspect of S1 was improved big time. It wasn’t perfect, but still, they clearly put a lot in creating a more quality product.

Season 2 had a hard job. Season One had to prove that this was a show worth watching. Season 2 had to prove that it could keep going and wasn’t just a one-hit-wonder. And ho boy did they. It’s funnier, it’s more ambitious, and even starts adding in some story. This season got the viewers from last time to come back, and probably brought in some new ones. It proved that this was a show that was sticking around and that RT had staying power. If this season failed, RvB would probably just be remembered as this funny Halo show. But it succeeded because they wanted the show to keep succeeding and be good, and that effort shows.

#1. Improved Characterizations

The thing that I enjoyed most about Season 1 was the character interactions. They just had natural chemistry and their interactions were funny. The characters themselves though were a little one-note. They had personality, but they didn’t really stand out when you compare them to other comedies like The Simpsons or South Park. I guess that RT realized this as well because this is where the characters really begin to become the same ones that we know now. Not all of them mind you like Simmons and Tucker are the least fleshed out here, but even then the signs of who they would become are there with things like Simmons clinginess to Sarge and the joke about Tucker’s rock, as well as the previously mentioned show of competence when pushed.

Donut and Grif show more of their personality, with Donut expressing his hobbies like home decor and growing to like his lightish-red armor. Grif shows his more lazy slacker attributes, like sleeping during meetings and forgetting the ammo, and his unhealthy habits like smoking and his constant eating. Which he’s pretty much doing intentionally to annoy Simmons and mess up the parts that he got from him. Lopez also got a lot of personalities now that he can talk. Namely, after the Reds nearly kill him and the Blues use him for their own means, he hates them all and his apathetic personality has stuck ever since. Poor guy has had such a hard time, haha. And I already went into Caboose, so there's no need to repeat myself. Even Shelia got sassier this season~

The one I think got the most improvement though is Sarge. In S1, he was just kind of a standard sergeant character you could find in just about any military movie, and the voice reflected it. Here? Matt just goes off the wall. He said in the S2 commentary that Sarge is pretty much the combination of various 50’s character tropes, like the grumpy old guy and the mad scientist. It shows. Sarge’s hatred of Blues and love of warfare are much more evident, especially in the finale. His hatred of Grif is also much more played up. We see that he is absolutely insane with his conspiracy theories about Lopez being brainwashed by the Blues instead of reprogrammed and turning Simmons into a cyborg instead of just getting a new robot. Sarge is the opposite of sensible, and having this guy be the leader and forcing everyone to follow his plans due to it is freakin’ hilarious. Matt exaggerating the accent from this point on only adds to this characterization and is much, much more fitting.

The characters, in my opinion, are the best part of Red vs Blue. This season demonstrates that very well. Unlike S1 where there were only shades of their later portrayal, this one uses broad strokes. I think some of the better voice acting can also be due to this since the cast now has more of a character to fool around with instead of just having to more or less act like their everyday selves. The characters were stronger, and as such the interaction and humor were even better. As such, it is my favorite part of Red vs Blue Season 2. Can they keep it up in Season 3? Well… we’ll find out soon~

[some-cookie-crumbz]

Another Set of Updates

Okay, gonna try to keep this as brief as possible!

My poll regarding which Kidge-a-Palooza AU I should turn into a story proper is still available: [here]. I’m gonna leave it up for another week or so, so please give it a vote if you haven’t already!

Chapter 4 of Here (In Your Arms) is up and available: [here].

Chapter 2 of Paint me in Trust is up and available: [here].

Chapter 2(6) of Time, Space and Everything Between is up and available: [here].

Since the update for Time, Space and Everything Between is up, I wanted to clarify a few things about where it’ll be going from hence forth. That information (spoiler free) can be found below for those that are interested.

Okay, so, confession time! This fic wasn’t supposed to become what it is now. Originally, I planned for this fic to be about six/ seven chapters and go in a somewhat different direction than it has. There was going to be an entire chapter dedicated just to the Kogane and Holt families bonding. The rescue of Shiro was going to go almost the same as it did in the series canon, with Keith being kept on Earth with his father using his camouflage device and entering the Garrison in hopes of snuffing out who the Blue Paladin was. The only big changes to it that I intended to make was Keith and Pidge knowing each other prior, Keith actually being a Galra, and when they head back to the shack, they’re greeted by Papa Kogane. From there, I was planning to end the fic with them going through the wormhole and implying events played out mostly the same as canon. But, then I decided I didn’t really like that idea either, so then I thought I’d go the route of letting Keith grow up with the Holt’s. Like, Ethan moving out there and Krolia leaving Keith on Earth to have a tradional human childhood.

As you can see, I didn’t end up doing any of that. And you may be wondering why.

Because the last season of Voltron left me that disappointed but I will admit I had issues with the show even before that Spit-in-the-Face ending but we’ll get there and I was raised by parents who said “If you don’t know how you’d improve something, you shouldn’t be the one to complain about it.”

Well, fine then. I’m gonna do just that.

ALSO I WANT TO CLARIFY that I am NOT saying I could have written the show better than the show runners themselves! I’ve never been in the position(s) they were in. I do, however, have the benefit of hindsight, which allows me to look at where the show succeeded and failed respectively, and take steps that I think would offer a more cohesive, enjoyable story-telling experience as a whole. I am taking the things that I, personally, took issue with, as well as some of the bigger things I’ve seen the fandom at large take issue with. At the end of the day, though, most of these decisions will be made from my own personal desires/ whims (since, you know, ship-feels and all that jazz). I will, however, be open to criticism from any and all who read my fics, so please feel free to tell me what you think does or doesn’t work as we go along.

I’m gonna break this down into four main categories down below; Things I’m Adding, Things I’m Cutting, Things I’m Adjusting, and Cut Fic Content. All but one of these is pretty self-explanatory, I think, but I promise to explain that little oddity when we get there. I’ll also touch on what and why I chose to approach certain things the way that I did.

Things I’m Adding

Melenor and Garett

Queen Melenor is kind of an anomaly in the series, don’t you think? It was kind of implied throughout most of the series proper that she died while Allura was still pretty young, which would have made a lot more sense for both Allura’s relationship with Alfor, as well as why Alfor was so distant from Zarkon when Daibazaal began tattering at the seams. But then Season 8 happened and threw all that out the window! All of a sudden, Melenor’s death suddenly carries this great significance for Allura, to the point she has a hallucination about her. Plus, it also kinda throws a wrench into scenes from the earlier seasons. Allura specifically says “Zarkon killed my Father and my Mother!” but… If Melenor was killed by Zarkon, where was she during the fall of Altea? Why wasn’t she with her daughter and husband in the final moments? And it makes even less sense when you look at that first scene where Allura and Coran were introduced. There were eight pods there. You mean to tell me Alfor didn’t think it might be a good idea to save an extra body or two to help guide Allura as she steps into the role she will have to take once he’s gone? Or even to help with maintaining/ rebuilding the Castle of Lions?

So, I’ve decided to add Melenor as a way to give some more characterization to not only she herself as a character, but also Alfor. Plus, I decided to make use of Garett (whose name I spell differently for reasons), Coran’s son from the original series, too. I think it’d be more fun to have an extra set of hands on board to help maintain the Castle of Lions and teach the Paladins, but maybe closer to their age range. So, we’ll see how things go with adding him to the roster. :3

Backstory for the Blades

This was something that we should have gotten a little bit of exposition on, considering how inflated their importance got. Like, the Blade became instrumental to the functionality of both Voltron and the Rebels due to their intelligence gathering. I think it’d have been kind of cool to see where it all started and what events in specific triggered it into becoming.

More Focus on Team Relationships

I didn’t really feel like the big victory against Zarkon was earned at the end of Season 2. I also didn’t think the team really earned any of their bigger victories, such as against Lotor and Honerva. They never felt like a real team that meshed because they just kinda stuck the same pairs/ clicks together. This was my biggest issue throughout most of the show and I really want to explore the dynamics we never really got to see. There are a few standout relationships that definitely needed some retooling, but I’ll mention those farther down. 

More Alien Worlds

Sci-fi and Fantasy are my big genres because I. Fudgin. Love seeing the designs for different technology, worlds and races. And while we did get some interesting ones with the series proper - which I’ll be mostly still including - I wish we’d gotten to see more. So, because I have no self-control, I’ll be planning to do that here!

Shiro’s Love Life

Shiro deserved better. I feel like that’s kind of something that most of the fandom can agree on. I don’t say this from a place of hate for Curtis, though, because… Well, what is there to hate? He was a literal background character who did nothing, said maybe two lines of dialogue, and that was it. Considering how much they pushed Shiro being the rep for the LGBT+ crowd, they did literally nothing with his love life. Hell, Adam was only revealed as his fiance because Bex fought tooth and nail for them to say it! If they hadn’t pushed the way they did, it would have all been subtext.

So, Shiro is going to have a romantic side plot in this fic, where we’ll focus on him and the character I’ve picked to be his partner.

Minor Side Romances

Some other little side pairings are gonna get a bit of love, here, too, since Voltron really only did the romance side of things well with, like, two couples. All the main couples are also gonna get plenty of spotlight, but I also think it would be fun to do some smaller side ships every now and then, too.

Things I’m Cutting

Villain Roulette

There was way too much jumping back and forth between who our main villain to focus on was. Bam, it’s Zarkon! No, wait, now it’s Lotor! Just kidding, here comes Zarkon again! Except that it was actually Lotor! Or so you thought; it’s actually Honerva haha great prank amiright? It was exhausting and I think it’d be a lot simpler to just… Stick with one villain who controls the smaller monster-of-the-day bad guys for an extended period of time and, once they’re for reals defeated, then move on to the next. I’ll be taking this approach for the sake of not only having a more focused story, but also my own sanity. I’ve never been good at gambling so trying the same thing as the show would probably turn out even worse for me.

Keith’s Excellent Blade Adventure with His Mommy

This is all unnecessary in this story, so we won’t be doing it at all. Keith’s sorry purple tail is staying with Team Voltron; no buts, no fuss, no coconuts.

Shiro’s Illness and Adam’s Death

Adam’s death is something I could go on about for hours specifically because it seemed unfair and kinda petty. Like, I feel they killed him specifically because they couldn’t kill Shiro, and they wanted to amp up the Tragic Backstory for our prior leader. So, instead, that’s getting the boot, as well as Shiro’s illness, since it’s also unneeded for plot convenience. Plus, it could have been nice to have a character that was willing to call Shiro out on the Atlus. Shiro always got treated like some kind of flawless entity, and I think it’d been nice to have someone call that Nice Guy Schtick out.

Allura and the Entity Plotline

This whole thing made no sense, got no proper development because of how late into the game they introduced it, and ended up being nothing more than a tool for them to kill Allura off. So, that can GTFO of my house post haste.

The Ending as a Whole

Some parts of the ending worked, but most of it just sucked. When the ending is so bad that it makes me feel obligated to stan characters I was ambivalent/ outright disliked? Yeah, gonna need to walk that back a bit.

Most of Seasons 3-6

The pacing in these seasons really was terrible. We derailed working on the team dynamic, building up the Coalition and Rebel forces, and developing the Paladins’ characters to instead focus on all that shit with Lotor. That… Was infuriating. Especially considering it was all basically a waste.

Additionally, we had Keith sidelined and his arc - which was clearly going to be center around him learning how to be a leader - completely pushed aside and then treated as if it did happened when he showed up late with Starbucks at the end of Season 6. That felt really unbelievable to me.

Time Skips

There were way too many time skips, for serious. Especially when those time skips didn’t include any kind of change in development/ character for the team. There’ll be smaller time skips, but nothing as egregious as what we got in seasons 6 and 7.

Things I’m Adjusting                                                              

Lion Swap

This’ll still be happening, but the circumstances that trigger it will be different. I may also shift around who gets to take which Lion when we get to that point. I haven’t decided just yet, but I’ll have it figured out before we reach that point. Most of this fic is already planned out and, honestly, the Lion Swap will be finalized once I figure out what I’m doing with a few of the other characters.

Shiro and Keith’s Relationship

This, right here? This was one of my biggest issues with Voltron. Keith was completely codependent on Shiro, while Shiro clearly cared about Keith’s well-being but it always felt like he’d have been just fine if something similar to what happened to him happened to Keith. It’s just… Really gross to me. It doesn’t help that I also find the whole “Dying for Your Lover” Trope – which I’ve seen a lot of people praise The Black Paladins for implying - to be incredibly disgusting and unhealthy. Also Keith’s flagrant hypocrisy never getting called out bothers me a lot since I actually like when a character behaves in a hypocritical manner, since it feels organic, but it has to be called out because hypocrisy can lead to double-standards and create harmful environments and I need to stop for now

So, Keith and Shiro are still going to be close, but they aren’t going to be that close.

Keith and Allura’s Relationship

Oh, look! Another potentially interesting aspect of the show that they kinda dropped the ball on! I really hated Allura’s heel-turn on Keith when it’s revealed that he’s Galra in S2 because a) It’s not like Keith himself knew this and was actively hiding it, and b) It felt out of character for the way Allura had been presented thus far. Her lashing out at Zarkon when she was captured made sense since he directly killed her father, her people and her planet. And I could understand being wary of the Blades – to the extent that she was in the first half – but after Keith’s heritage is revealed, she’s completely cold to him and only seems to decide he’s a good guy when he’s willing to take on a potential suicide mission! They either needed to drag the animosity out and show it effecting Allura’s ability to work with the team as a whole and also show the team sticking up for Keith because the fact that Hunk was the only one that said anything is kinda messed up like where tf was Shiro if he and Keith are oh so close? or they needed to tone Allura’s attitude towards him back a bit more, have her approach him in a manner similar to how she addressed the Blade members; acknowledging he is there and contributing, but not praising or thanking him outright.

And since Keith presents and knows he’s part Galra from the start in this fic? Well, we’ll actually get to play around with that dynamic a little more. And while I’m on the subject of our favorite Altean princess…

Allura’s Character Inconsistencies

Allura’s character jumped around a lot in some of the earlier seasons and I’d be willing to wager that this is because the writers never settled on an age for her. And I don’t mean during the big changes like her becoming a Paladin or Lotor’s betrayal, since it’d make sense she be shaken by situations that drastic. One minute, she’s this composed, confident and well-spoken young leader doing the best she can. The next, she’s a more temperamental sort who has low self-esteem/ confidence in her own abilities to even successfully contribute to a team. Now, I think I kniw what they were trying to do; they were trying to show that the more impulsive side of her is more genuine while the composed side is her trying to be the leader she is expected to be. I get it. They fixed this and improved on it later down the line, but they could have done better by maybe addressing it and using it as a chance to develop her relationship with another member or two of Team Voltron.

Season 2’s Ending

The defeat of Zarkon happened way too soon. Especially since then, because they wanted to play around with Lotor’s intentions, they had to bring him back as a cyborg-zombie fueled by quintessence. Zarkon should have only been defeated once and then we should have been allowed to move on to the next main villain. As such, I’m moving Zarkon’s defeat further down the line and will be modifying some of the consequences there in.

P Much Everything About Lotor’s Acr/ Motives

Lotor… Man, Lotor was confusing and a lot of wasted potential. They painted him as if they wanted him to be a morally grey villain, where he does terrible things for what he considers the betterment of others, but then, once it’s revealed that he was keeping secrets, he just… Goes full ham. He becomes Evil McAwful incarnate and it felt unrealistic. There were about 20 different directions they could have taken Lotor – before and after the reveal – and I just didn’t care for the approach they took. So, I’ll be doing things a little different and seeing how that goes.

What I’m Keeping from Seasons 3-6

Very, very little things are going to be kept from each of the aforementioned seasons and implemented in the fic. I’m not planning to keep too many of the big plot moments because they all bled into the issues I had with the story as it stood on its own. I will, however, take some of the small things from those three seasons and include them here. This also applies to certain elements from the other seasons as well, but we’ll get there when we get there.

Adopting Kosmo

Kosmo will be in this fic, come Hell or high water. He is the Best Boi and deserves to be here.

Cut Fic Content

Okay, so here’s the weird one in this line up! As the title implies, there’s some content that I have cut from the fic, even this early on. I actually have some of the Kogane-Holt bonding scenes still drafted up somewhere in my files. I removed them because I was worried that they’d feel too much like filler. There’s also some scenes I started to work out from when I planned to have Keith grow up with Pidge and Matt; specifically including a scene where Krolia and Ethan talk about the idea and decide to commit.

Some of these ideas won’t work in the fic as it stands now, though. I also, however, like the idea of putting it out for everyone to read. So, I’m debating on making a separate one-shot collection of things that could have happened, or just adding them as the occasional buffer between the arcs of the story. I’ll make a poll when I get closer to the point of deciding how to proceed, so keep an eye out for that. :3

That’s all for now! I hope you all enjoy the updates and I’ll hopefully be updating again sooner than this time!

[a-shrieking-cloud-of-bats]

okay so long breakdown of my experience with Morrowind as a starter I first tried to play the game last year, fumbled it, repeated that a few times, before dropping it for a while and eventually coming back to it the past few days and running through it! Ran a Nord, Heavy Armor, Warrior, used almost no non scroll magic, notably used them to deal with locks, used divine intervention once during that one Baar Dau bit in the main story, probably a handful of other scroll usages for random junk. I also didn’t do the expacs and I haven’t played Oblivion in a while so I’m trying to avoid in depth comparisons to it. I’ll start off by saying I did enjoy it overall, and while I don’t think it stole my Favorite TES Award,  it definitely left a mark, and I think my favorite bit of it was the main quest, the tone was just something I liked more then the other two TES games and all in all the whole mysterious diseases angle felt a bit more urgent then more nebulous threats like demons and dragons. Additionally, the plot conceptually I think is just a lot more fun to think about rather then “x is attacking!”, and I think the things like ash creature ambushes and ominous dreams helped that feeling a lot. All in all I feel it was a bit better handled to boot, and I particularly liked the whole “your cover story for being in the blades is that you’re an adventurer because they’re all over the place, you’d blend in, and you’re gonna need to be fighting anyway so you might as well develop that skillset”, since it allowed for explicit breaks in the main quest line where he’d tell you to go do other stuff for a while and “keep your cover story up to date” while he did research or whatever. Added to the settling, added to the plot, added a reason to go faff around in a dungeon and maybe find something cool. Maybe. We’ll get to that.

But the cover story thing is super appreciated because it’s an issue I frequently ran into in other games where it just never really felt like you had a stopping point in the main quest line, if you were playing as if you were legitimately concerned with the status of the main quest. Like, with Skyrim you start out. . . -escape from Helgen -go down to Riverwood with whoever -they tell you Riverwood’s in potential danger so you go up and talk to the jarl -he tells you to help with his investigations of the dragons (if you’re playing a bit more apathetic of a character this could potentially be a time to step out but let’s assume a sort’ve “lawful good” here) - you go down to bleak falls barrow, come back - a dragon attacks the tower, you go investigate and fight it - End Scene; and even then I think it wouldn’t be a stretch to feel like you had to answer the summons, and that goes through a very long road trip, a dungeon, and a dragon fight before you get to a solid “I need to do things, go outside and play” style stopping point. and after all that you’re like.... an hour or two into the game? It’s not absurd but it’s quite a bit compared to silt stridering over to Balmora and getting told to go have fun, and it’s not a game breaking thing, obviously the player doesn’t absolutely have to be told to stop doing main quest stuff, but it was a nice touch that I liked. At any rate I liked the main quest, but I think the thing I was most impressed with was the travel. I went into Morrowind thinking I was going to hate wandering around 24/7 and paying fees and so on and so forth but actually it felt pretty great after a while! I came out of Morrowind preferring the “carriage” system rather then the fast travel system, just because getting more mobility options and strength in that category was interesting to me. Given that I was playing the least mobile “class” in the game; heavy armor weighs a lot which slows your ground speed (I think) and weakens your jumping, with no magic and no knowledge of how to get propylon indices working, I think that’s pretty glowing praise. I also liked the way enchanted gear worked in Morrowind, where there are usable artifacts and passive artifacts, passive artifacts just give you the boost, and usable artifacts are purposely triggered to get an effect and slowly recharge over time, which is a game changer. I know I don’t really use enchanted weapons in Skyrim because it’s not that big a boost and juggling soul gems and soul traps is a pain in the butt, but if they recharged over time I might be more inclined. Again, a nice little thing the game does differently. The graphics were wildly better then I expected, and I think the game is an excellent example of restrictions creating a unique and good looking style in some cases. The polygonal models really add a lot to the fairly eerie main quest backdrop and pretty hostile game world overall, and ultimately the game just sort’ve creates its’ own aesthetic and it’s super good despite being very obviously dated. The entire inside the ghost fence part of the end game was spooky as hell and felt very climactic despite the landscape looking like something that came out of 3D Studio Max circa 1990. And on a side note, Diyavath Fir’s tower and the Corprusarium were a really cool dungeon concept and I’m very surprised the whole “sequential treasure chests with keys in them that eventually lead to a prize” thing hasn’t been done again since IIRC. With all the praise out of the way, let’s get to stuff I was more neutral on or outright disliked (there’s surprisingly little of the latter, by the way). To start off, I felt gear progression felt super weird. I started out by buying a full set of steel armor and an iron long sword and I didn’t get an upgrade until like, halfway through my playtime, so like, two days total, and my long sword went un-upgraded even longer. After a while I found a silver long sword and about an hour after that I found a daedric katana and suddenly the game was basically over past that point because I was 2 shotting everything that wasn’t a higher end ash creature or daedra. It felt very spotty, it wasn’t a game changer or anything, and to be fair once the armor upgrades started going, that progression didn’t feel too bad either (though my shield did get upgraded from steel to daedric). Not a huge deal, but it was a thing. The end game quest line where you’re re-uniting the tribes and houses is a huge chore and also holds the only two escort missions in the game which I don’t think is a co-incidence. I liked the house quests more initially since they were more tightly packed in and had fast travel options around. . . buuuut they quickly became a gold count check. Having to get confirmation from councilors that, by their own mention, wouldn’t be necessary, was also obnoxious, though I didn’t mind that as much, as the whole declaring a war leader thing is a big deal and I can believe that from a plot standpoint. Still didn’t like it. I am aware I could’ve skipped all this with reputation, and that’s fair, but I still think as a quest line it’s a bit much; though I dunno how I’d fix it without banging up the plot significantly, to be fair. All the side quests I did were pretty bland. Lotta “go here, clear this dungeon, come back get x gold”, some “go here, fetch y guy, bring him back, get z gold”. Sometimes you didn’t even get rewarded, though the reputation system makes up for that. I ended up stopping about halfway into House Redoran because the quests were, by and large, just dungeon clear quests and I was vastly more interested in the main quest. It’s something I might take more interest in on a second play through. You can end up trivializing combat very quickly, which was probably a part of why I didn’t end up liking the end game so much. Part of that’s my fault; athletics and acrobatics were minor skills, it basically put me on a timer, and some people like the “I’m level 20 and I can crush anything in the game like a walnut” thing, which is fair. I did end up finishing it at about level 23, and I’ve heard scaling stops at 20, so that’s about right to be fair. Though I’ve also heard Dagoth Ur scales up to 35? It sure didn’t feel like it, and overall it kind’ve made the whole lead up into Dagoth’s big moment a bit of an anticlimax, I hit him like six times for the fight and I got most of the heart fiddling done before he brought me to half. A big part of why I even almost died was because I didn’t realize I had to run back over the bridge. Though that all might be a side effect of running a heavy armor warrior, IIRC they’re pretty easy, but I also did surprisingly little side stuff. It just sorta feels like if you do anything other then the main quest you’ll trivialize the final stages of it, and if you do the main quest you trivialize the extra stuff? It’s a bit of an odd problem to solve and it seems like they’ve still not gotten it quite right, to be fair. I’m trying to think of stuff I outright hated and really all I can think of is the fact that NPCs stand in “one NPC wide” hallways and doorways like it’s their job. A not insignificant part of why I gave up on Redoran is because getting through under-skar was hell because of all the guards just shuffling around on rope bridges and staring at me anytime I got anywhere near them while they clogged up the road. But yeah, overall had a good time and I probably played the least complex character type, so that’s definitely a good sign. I look forward to playing it again and playing with magic more; already thinking on an acrobat like, athletics/acrobatics/whatever magic school does jump/move speed boosts character and getting a bit more into the setting with it, eventually. I definitely get why people love the game so much and while I don’t think I hooked into it quite as hard I admit I haven’t played something quite like it before, between the aesthetics and mechanics either, and admittedly most of my complaints were half complaints, so that’s definitely not a bad track record. Will definitely play again at some point.

[ramenfallsbutnotudon]

Twirling Around Earth’s Minerals – a (short) Erik Killmonger Fanfic

Twirling Around Earth’s Minerals – a (short) Erik Killmonger Fanfic (w/ some slightly added smut lol)

Word Count: About 2,300 words.

TW: Slight inclinations of co-dependency, murder/killing trigger, mind games, mental illness and depression. Sexual undertones. Not outright smut…

Possibly one shot? Idk lol

Synopsis: It’d been a few days since you (the reader) and Erik had really spoken. You hadn’t been fighting, but you hadn’t been really ‘connected’ either. There’s a lot of unsaid words hanging in the air, and a bit of sexual tension. You decide to break the tension by talking about rocks and Earth’s Minerals. Yes…that���s right. Minerals found deep within the Earth’s surface. And your feelings about Erik…

I seen a post here a while ago on Tumblr about a writing prompt generator. One of them was “Your character is prone to hair-twiddling when bored.” I meant to write a descriptive exercise with Erik twirling his hair but it turned into some philosophical bullshit and an (attempt) at exploring his psyche and whoever chooses to be in a relationship with him. I shouldn’t even post this. This is in the same universe as my [other fic]. So basically following the canon BP storyline this is a few months (or maybe more) before he goes to London.

If anyone wants to send me writing prompts, please do. I don’t think I can do T’Challa (I can’t relate to him/kind of dislike his character), but I can definitely do Erik and/or M’Baku. If the character is complicated & “messy”, it is a go…

-Ramenfallsbutnotudon

(Writing music this time was just “Focus” by H.E.R. on repeat. Then “Hallucinations” by dvsn towards the end. Hence the slight sexual undertones…)

I don’t know why he does that…

Erik was sitting across from you beneath a window, the light catching in his hair. A deep reddish tint cast his dreads with light golden undertones. His baby hairs were unkempt and his hair was due to be re twisted soon. Erik sat listless; twiddling his locs absentmindedly – deep in thought about something that seemed far off. He was here physically, but his presence was nowhere to be found. It’s strange, isn’t it? How a living breathing human being could be less than a yard away from you, but you suddenly feel all alone.

He’d been moody all morning. He was always moody. Or maybe you had just been too cheerful these days. You liked looking at the way the light reflected off of his skin. It was a beautiful chestnut brown color when the sun shone on it.  The shadows cast mahogany undertones. Or maybe Sienna would be a better way to describe it. He reminds me of minerals deep in the earth. Hard to find, but precious and valuable once they come to light. But the earth buried so many secrets. So many things that could take ions and innumerable centuries to recover. Darkness breeds secrets and harbors things only those in those circumstances would understand. That is Erik. That is how he is when he is like this. I don’t know if I am the crane pulling him from the dark place, or another lost gem hidden amongst the dirt. Something that was here all along but is treated as foreign and alien – yet prized for its beauty and uniqueness.

Erik was sprawled out sideways in a purple armchair. His legs dangled and danced over an arm rest anxiously. You thought the armchair was kind of gaudy but he said he was “feeling it” when he seen it online. It had a very wide back and looked like some shit you’d see out of The Jetsons.

Some futuristic shit.

On the flip side, maybe it looked a bit like the wicker chair from that iconic Huey P. Newton photograph that hung in Erik’s room for years. Erik had always been into photography and all that other artistic shit. He loved going to indie photo exhibitions wearing glasses with a coffee in his hand. He always choose a different small Black-Owned business to support each time. Of course though, he didn’t always return. Sometimes the coffee was just that shitty despite his need to support it. You tried them along with him. However, your tastes sometimes didn’t match. He liked bitter coffee with a tiny drop of sugar and hardly any milk or cream. You liked too much milk and cream and even sugar. Sometimes it was just like that, loving someone who purposefully drank bitter things. Someone who didn’t want sweet things all the time because he knew that life wasn’t always sweet.

You stand up and slowly saunter over to him. Not in a provocative way, but in an airy almost dreamlike state. You didn’t know why, but you always felt a bit nervous around him. He didn’t scare you or intimidate you. You knew he’d never harm you…he was just too damn unpredictable. Not in an “I-am-walking-on-eggshells-because-my-partner-is-a-loose-cannon” type of way, but an “I-want-him-to-open-up-to-me/don’t-spook-the-deer” type of way. Is that even a thing, “don’t spook the deer”? I don’t think people would even think he was a deer. They’d think he was the jaguar. After all, he does have golden fangs.

But it’s true – he is a bit of both. But how can one be the predator and prey? Can a person be two people at the same time – two shifting dynamics melding into one?

Maybe it is the issue of the outward appearance vs the inward self. Erik has this bravado about him – like he’s Robin Hood or the Hood’s Daddy or some shit but other times he just seems scared. Unsure of himself and his actions. I don’t even think he notices that sometimes when he’s trying to be guarded – he’s completely transparent.

You lower your body down and rest its weight on your hind legs. Crouching in front of Erik’s body you tenderly caress his leg.

“Erik?”

He shuddered before turning his head to acknowledge you. In one swoop he lifted both of his legs and rested them between your frame. His boots made a light thud as his feet touched the wooden floor.

You look up at him and slide to your knees.  You felt like his eyes were looking right through you. They were dark, like newly formed chunks of obsidian after a volcanic eruption.  His eyelids seemed heavy, like he’d been up all night. Thinking back, you weren’t even sure if he slept fully the entire night or just lay silently next to you so you wouldn’t worry. There were so many little things you seemed to miss about him, and others were as apparent as the day was long. But then again, even the days take a break in winter and let the darkness yield over. Erik seemed like winter and fall and you felt like the spring. You met in summer and since you were spring you could handle the temperatures of fall. But not winter. It was a bit too cold and dark for you but he seemed to thrive in it. He pursed his lips before letting a smile break over his face.

“Hey, Princess” he said in a husky voice.

“Princess? When did I get that upgrade?”

His smiled seemed to fade a bit. You only meant to tease him.

“It’s always been yours. Just because I never said it, doesn’t mean I never thought it.”

You rose to your feet and looked down at him. He followed your body up and gazed wistfully at your stature now towering over him. His eyes then traveled down past your breast and to your navel. He leaned in and let his forehead rest on your womb.

“Hey…” you started, unsure of how to start the conversation you’d been having in your head for the last half hour.

“Hmm?”

You felt the vibrations of his voice mix with the rhythms of your body. Your heart beat. You felt your palms start to get clammy.  

On a seemingly queue, Erik reached for your hands and encircled his arms around your hips.

“I’m-I’m sweaty”

“I don’t care” his muffled voice indicated coolly.

You felt the weight of his head and the warmth of his body. It felt nice. Just standing here, in this moment.  You looked around his apartment. The living room was a bit bare, but there was an abundance of natural light. You watched dust particles lightly dance in a breeze coming in from an open window. He didn’t seem to enjoy being alone at home much. He mainly stayed at your place often…that is when he wasn’t out of the country or “on a mission”.

Your head started to throb at that word. Mission. You hated when he left. But you understood that he needed to find closure, even if his way meant sometimes killing people.

Erik kills people, but I still love him. What type of person does that make me?

You hold onto his arms. The grip in his biceps are tense.

Does he expect me to let go?

You decide to move closer, your heart beating out of your chest. You slide down onto his lap and position yourself in the sideways manor he was initially sitting. He exhales deeply and shifts himself in the chair. You feel a growing bulge between his legs. You angle your bottom over it sideways and smile at him. He beams back at you before attempting to kiss you. You turn away and let his lips brush against your cheek instead. A confused look passes his face for an instant before he sags his shoulders and reclines back in the chair.

You instantly feel bad.

Back to square one now.

You shift in the chair again and you see him close his eyes. He inhales deeply; you rest your head on his shoulder.

“You teasing me today, huh?” he says in a gruff voice.

He sounded frustrated, but you didn’t feel like it was about that.

“No” you chime innocently, reaching a hand over his face to stroke his bristly beard. He needed a shave as well, he’d been in a mood the past three days and hadn’t really done much. Then again, you were on a five day old wash n go so you couldn’t really fault him there. Maybe both of you were in your feelings, and not talking about it had made things worse.

But despite the tension hanging in the air, it didn’t feel uncomfortable. It just felt like you were vibing on each other’s energy, waiting for the other to make the first move; Afraid of saying the wrong thing and creating an environment that takes a turn for the worst.

He closed his eyes and you reached your face down to his lips. His breathing stopped in anticipation for a kiss. You licked his lips like a cat and his eyes flung open before smiling.

“What was that?” he asked, now starting to giggle. His eyes lit up with a brightness that reminded you of metallic stones.

You put up a hand and curl it into a paw.

“Meow” you say while patting the paw across his chest.

Your eyes meet and you both burst into laughter. He wraps his arms around you and you kiss his forehead. He then leans up to kiss yours.

Maybe now.

“If we were stones, what type do you think we’d be?”

He holds your gaze for longer than usual, still smiling.

“Babe, sometimes you have some weird shit on your mind” he said before laughing again.

“Here I thought you were mad at me for some shit I couldn’t think of-“

“-I thought you were mad at me?”

The corner of his mouth twitched. He swallowed hard before trying to make himself smile again. He thought you didn’t notice, but you did. You pull away from him and he stiffens up. He readjusts himself to sit up straight, the swell in his pants semi-stiff.

“Erik” your voice begins to crack “what is going on with you lately?”

Erik looks away from you and over his right shoulder. He licks his lips. You felt him grow hard beneath you. You raised your eyebrow.

“So you noticed….I guess I have been acting out of pocket, huh?” he said in a clearly forced calm voice.

I guess he thought that was convincing. His breathing is uneven. Maybe I shouldn’t say anything.

He lifted his shirt up over his head and took it off. There were shadows cast on his scars. You also noticed that there was a fresh black and blue mark on his shoulder blade.

“Erik…when did…” you tried to begin but were at a loss for words. He always at least hinted at when something like this happened. You had no idea. Had he hid it from you? Were you not paying attention?

“It’s two, actually…” he let his voice trail off after looking at your horrified face.

His eyes looked distant. He lowered them and nodded his head as he looked at something far away on the floor. His brows were scrunched together. His nostrils were flared. You could feel his heart beating in his chest. Fluttering, like butterfly wings.

You breathe in.

“…you…” you look into his eyes and he looks away. You grab his face. “When-?” your voice sounded breathless.

“A few days ago” he affirmed nonchalantly. Erik began to pick at the lining in the chair.

How could he be so callous about this?

You wanted to ask details but decided that maybe you didn’t want to know. You lay your head back on his shoulder and kiss his neck. He wasn’t hard anymore. You were happy about that.

He didn’t disgust you, you just didn’t understand him sometimes. Or understand the secrets he harbored deep within himself. You weren’t afraid of his truths, but rather his lies. Lies were capable of doing more harm than any truth could. At least that had always been your experience.

He closed his eyes and let you kiss his neck. You started to use your tongue, leaving wet marks across his skin. He shifted in the chair and let out a stifled moan. You moved up to his collar bone and left marks with your teeth. He wraps his hands around your body and picks you up to push you against the nearest wall. You both smile and you laugh as he goes up your neck with his lips. They feel soft and springy across your body. Like they are soaking up any doubts you held deep in your heart. You looked at him and caught his eye before closing yours again. He seemed troubled. The image burned in your mind as he slid off your clothes while cradling you in his arms. You tried undoing his clothing. He slammed you back into the wall hard and broke off a kiss to ask if you were alright. You held his face and nodded yes. Slowly, he slipped inside of you.

Obsidian and Praseodymium. That’s what we’d be. One was born from volcanic eruptions, the other a rare mineral found in the Earth’s crust. One is used to make tools for cutting but is brittle. The other is only completely stable in water. It has to be submerged to survive. Maybe that’s why I like him so much. He was born in waters only I can thrive in.

Obsidian and Praseodymium.

A/N: About the slight co-dependency…I was trying to target emotionally destructive behavior. I added this in because I think Killmonger would definitely exhibit some of this in his personality. Like yeah he’s confident and swaggering and sexy but he wouldn’t be like that 24/7 – or when he was alone with his thoughts. Also…I don’t know him personally or whatever – but it seems like MBJ might have a bit of this in his personality as well. I basically searched through his entire Instagram because I had an idea for another fic, and some of his posts seem kind of…lonely? Especially that “lost files” shit from 2016 and then posts after Black Panther he seems like a totally different dude. No more videos, cutesy photos, photos with actual friends…Which is understandable but at the same time it’s kind of like…dude what happened? It’s a visible shift. Then the whole lowkey thottie thing and Saweetie’s song 23 that talks about how he was really hung up on their last conversation then fucked her brains out in broad daylight…speeding down the highway high and she said they could have fucking died…I mean again I will probably never meet that man but if he hides his personal life and shit like this can be interpreted by the low-key actions we do hear about him? Unless I’m just projecting Lol, I fucking could be…

Really been in my feelings lately and it won’t go away, so I may as well milk it until I return back to “normal”. I’m also trying to decide on the journey to the ending for the last smut piece I wanna write that has now turned from a one-shot to a trilogy in my head lmao.

I also referenced photos of him as killmonger and one photo with that coon Donald Glover at the Met GALA on his Instagram for tone descriptions. That one has some weird lighting but it’s in line with what I was imagining lol. I wish I was better at describing skin tones, or more confident with it I should say.

[rax-writes]

Title: Third Time’s the Charm Fandom: Stranger Things Characters: Steve Harrington x Reader Word Count: 2,120 Warnings: None Notes: Request from anon for “52 with steve harrington please :D,” followed by “Hey, for the Steve Harrington preference 52 fic it's the one where it says ‘are you guys dating or?’ Thank you! X” (Thank you for clarifying, dear anon. ♥) // I’m really sorry in advance if this is a bit shit. I’ve been struggling with my writing recently, but I wanted to try and make myself write something. So, again, apologies if this isn’t great, but I do hope you all enjoy it. 💜

Your relationship with Steve Harrington had always been a bit odd. The two of you had been friends since birth, which meant that you were extremely close, and comfortable around one another. You would cuddle up to him when you were cold, and he’d lay his head on your shoulder when he was tired. You’d spend hours on the phone with him, talking about anything and everything, and there’d been many times where you’d driven to his house in the middle of the night, just to sneak into his room and hold him when he had a nightmare that he couldn’t shake.

The familiarity that you two shared was typically reserved for couples in committed, long-term relationships, which often led to one increasingly familiar question: “Are you guys dating or…?”

The first time anyone had asked that, the two of you were twelve years old, and you’d both outright laughed at the question. The idea of you two dating was the most absurd thing either of you had ever heard. However, it had prompted the thought: Would you date Steve? Sure, he wasn’t ugly, and you got along with him better than anyone in the world… but above all else, he was your best friend, and that was just the end of that. You never entertained the thought again – until someone asked the question a second time.

It was two years later, and you were both fourteen. Just like before, Steve had laughed at the question, and informed them that the two of you were just friends – but all you could do was chuckle halfheartedly. Once again, you questioned yourself: Would you date Steve? But unlike the last time, you couldn’t banish the thought from your mind. Steve had become fairly handsome, and his blossoming maturity definitely didn’t help your proliferating feelings.

You would ultimately attribute these thoughts to the onset of your crush on Steve. You suspected that it was inevitable, but when you finally realized just how head over heels you were for him, it hit you like a ton of bricks.

Steve had started dating a girl for the first time, and it bothered the hell out of you. He asked you about it several times; he’d known you for long enough that he could tell that you had a problem with it, but he couldn’t figure out why. For a while, you couldn’t either. At first, you’d just thought that maybe your disdain was the result of sheer dislike for the girl, but truthfully, she was pretty alright. Then one day, when you saw him kiss her, and you felt something in your heart snap, you realized that it was because you’d fallen in love with him.

You didn’t take the realization well. When it hit you, you’d abruptly stood up from the lunch table and left, and you distanced yourself from him for a couple months afterwards. Steve felt horrible – although he had absolutely no idea what it was he’d done. He actually dumped the girl in an effort to fix things, and he felt even worse when it didn’t.

Eventually, you realized that distancing yourself from him was doing nothing but damaging your friendship. You couldn’t bring yourself to risk losing Steve by telling him the truth; maintaining your friendship was the top priority. So, you sucked it up, and apologized to him. You gave him a vague excuse, telling him that you were just in a bit of a funk, and that you were sorry that you’d upset him as a result. How readily forgiving he was broke your heart even further. He’d hugged you and said, “That’s fine, I’m just glad you’re doing better now. And if you ever need to talk about it or anything, you know I’m always here for you, alright?”

The ‘funk’ returned when he started dating Nancy Wheeler. He’d been with a few other girls since the original incident, but it was never anything serious. You were capable of grinning and bearing it, sometimes even going as far as to hang out with them, or to find someone to drag to a double date with them. But Nancy was the first girl he’d ever had real feelings for. He was positively love-struck; you could see it in his eyes, and in the way he’d smile whenever he was around her.

It made you absolutely sick.

Then one night, Steve showed up at your door with tears in his eyes and a faint smell of alcohol on his breath. He told you about how Nancy had drunkenly confessed that she doesn’t actually love him, and sobbed that “It was all just ‘bullshit’ to her.” You had thought that their breakup would be music to your ears, but seeing the heartbreak clear on Steve’s face was one of the worst things you’d ever experienced. All you could do was lay on the couch with him and hug him while he cried, and hope that you were helping, at least a little bit.

After the new onslaught of crap with the Upside Down, and everything that entailed, you and Steve had time to actually relax and just breathe. You occupied his free time with movies and board games, trying to keep his mind off Nancy. It was all you knew to do to help, and you weren’t even sure that it worked, until one night he quietly thanked you for your efforts, and told you how much he appreciated it.

It was the night before graduation when everything took a drastically unexpected turn.

Steve had enrolled in the same college as you, which did away with your worries about college – as well as your worries about how often you would get to see him after graduation. He finally seemed to be fully over Nancy, which you were incredibly thankful for. You still weren’t going to act on your feelings, which had unfortunately grown more and more intense over time; it was just nice to see him break free of the emotional turmoil she put him through. Both of you were actually happy for the first time in quite a while, and you relished it.

The only light in your bedroom were the lamps on either side of your bed, as you and Steve attempted to prepare for graduation. He sat with his back against the headboard, his legs stretched out and crossed in front of him, and his arms crossed leisurely, as he watched you dig through your closet, a faint smile on his lips. You didn’t dare linger on the thought of how godly gorgeous he looked.

“Alright, this outfit…” you questioned, holding a hanger in front of you, before switching to another, “or this one?”

Steve hummed for a moment as he thought, before finally deciding, “The red one.”

You nodded, and put both hangers back in your closet, then closed the doors and leaned back against them, sighing.

“There’s just going to be so many pictures, and I always look bad in photos. My outfit always ends up looking ridiculous, or my hair is messed up, or I’ve got something in my teeth, or –”

“Alright, alright, I get it, you always end up looking like hell,” Steve said, laughing and waving his hand as he cut you off. “I’ll be on ‘make sure you look good’ duty. I’ll let you know if your hair gets screwed up, or if you have anything in your teeth, and your outfit has already been Steve Harrington approved. You’ll be fine.”

“Thanks,” you grumbled, but you couldn’t prevent a small grin from forming.

“You never look bad, by the way,” Steve added a few moments later, his tone serious. “I know I never really tell you, but you always look great. Like, I mean… really great…. What I’m trying to say is: you always look gorgeous.”

His declaration briefly stunned you into silence, but you managed to whisper a “Thank you.”

Steve only nodded in response, and it was a few minutes before you realized that you were just standing there awkwardly, so you moved to sit next to him on the bed. You immediately relaxed into the bed; Steve’s presence always had a calming effect on you. For a little while, the two of you just sat there, then he was the first to speak up.

“I’m really glad we’re going to the same school. I don’t really know what I’d do without you.”

Once again, Steve’s tone was serious, but you chuckled lightly and elbowed him, “Yeah, you’d be pretty lost without me, huh?”

He grinned, “Yeah, I would.”

The comfortable silence returned, but again, Steve was the first to break it. His voice was soft and sincere, and it took your mind a few seconds to register what it was he had said.

“I love you.”

Eventually, you managed to stutter out, “Well, uh, thanks…. I love you, too.”

“No, I mean…” Steve began, then licked his lips and shifted on the bed, turning so that he was facing you more. “I’m in love with you. I’m sorry if right before graduation is a bad time to tell you, and if you want to go back to just being friends, that’s fine. And even if you don’t want to see me again, that’s fine too, if that’s what you want. I just…. I had to say it. I love you.”

You finally looked at him, searching for any trace of a lie on his face. Because surely, if Steve Harrington – whom you’d been in love with for years – was telling you that he was in love with you, he had to be joking. But you found nothing but genuine affection in his features, and he nervously licked his lips again as he waited for you to say something. And finally, you said the only thing that came to mind.

“I love you, too.”

Then, before you could even blink, Steve was pulling you into a kiss.

It was gentle and sweet, filled with hesitation, and much shorter than you would have liked it to be – and yet, it was perfect.

Graduation went smoothly, and you were exceptionally proud of yourself for not tripping in front of everyone. After an excitement-filled embrace, you and Steve were separated by your equally-ecstatic families, but you weren’t worried, because you knew that you’d be seeing him again soon.

Steve arrived at your house right on time, just after your extended family began leaving. He’d changed out of his graduation clothes into a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, and you couldn’t help but grin the second he entered the living room. He flashed you a warm smile in return, and your mom sighed with exaggerated discouragement, smiling as she asked, “Is it that time already?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Steve answered smoothly, and she gave an “Oh, alright,” before hugging you goodbye. “Have fun, and be safe! Call if you need anything!” she hollered after you, as you and Steve made your way to his car.

When you reached the party, the house was already filled to the brim with rowdy graduates. Everyone greeted the two of you when you walked in; even people who you’d never spoken to before gave you a “Hey, good to see you!” The atmosphere was one of sheer joy at the fact that nobody had to experience another day of high school. Everyone was moving on to the next chapter in their lives, aiming to have a night of nothing but celebration.

You and Steve stuck together, and you wondered if the other party attendees would notice the change between the two of you. You were holding hands or standing with your arms around one another, but physical affection wasn’t necessarily unusual for the two of you; you’d always been close, and they’d learned a long time ago that it didn’t mean you were dating. Finally, after seeing the two of you share a smiley kiss, a halfway intoxicated classmate asked the all too familiar question: “Are the two of you dating, or…?”

Unlike the previous instances, you two gave a different answer. With a wide, proud grin, you nodded at the guy, stating “Yeah, we are.”

“Alright!” the dude bellowed, sloppily knocking his cup against Steve’s before sauntering off, hollering, “Hey, they’re finally dating, everybody!”

He was lost in the crowd in an instant, and Steve just laughed and shook his head.

“I have to agree with him. It did take you a long time to finally make a move,” you teased, and Steve shrugged, a smile tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Better late than never, though, right?”

“Yeah,” you agreed, grinning as you pulled him into a kiss. “Better late than never.”

@patrineptn @kingkleenex @babiijayla @suckmysweetsweetsweetass @not-a-glad-gladiator @myblackwings5 @queen-of-the-pineapples @pansexual-and-a-geek @myfriendmagislit @maryjanes @whoarumancek @paperclipmac @emmcfrxst @v-writings @victorystone 

[simplyonehellofahokage]

Can I ask you why you don’t like Minakushi?

I put this under the cut because it got RIDICULOUSLY LONGJC.

I don’t necessarily dislike it. When it’s well-written, orfor some reason just jives with me I think it’s one of the cutest and arguablyone of the healthier ships in the series. For example, if you are the same anonthat sent those two MinaKushi asks, I thought they were rather fun. Othertimes, depending on the source at best it inspires apathy and at worst, createsa certain dislike for one or both of them. I think my conflicting feelings stemfrom the difference between how their individual characters are portrayed in canonverses how fanon portrays them. Please keep in mind, all of this reflects myown personal experience and nothing more.

When it comes to canon, I don’t have a lot of problems withit. True, I don’t care for the damsel in distress bit but I argue if Kushinahadn’t had the cunning to leave her hair as a trail no one would’ve found her.So she played a large part in her own rescue. Minato also suffers from theHinata complex of watching her from afar and not really doing anything until itescalates from school yard bullying to international incident. I understand hisreasoning, not wanting to infringe on her right to defend her own honor (let’sbe real she’d probably kick his ass if he tried to play her hero back at theacademy), but he could have at least let her know that he didn’t dislike her,as she had assumed. Maybe I’m nitpicking (I probably am, I hate themisunderstood/miscommunication trope I really do) but it isn’t the only issue Ihave with it.

It was speculated for a while that Minato was Naruto’s dadbefore it was officially revealed and that just drummed up the mystery of whohis mother could be even more. With that, came my own expectations and guessesand when Kushina was finally revealed…she didn’t exactly match what I imagined.She wasn’t a bad character by any means, in fact I found her rather fun but thedissonance between the reality and what I thought kind of stayed with me. Itdoesn’t help her full potential wasn’t really allowed to bloom. I have so manyquestions about her old home, about her that are never really answered andgiven the narrative, it’s understandable why. She is long dead before the firstchapter and it’s all thanks to ninja bullshit we even get to meet her but itleft me dissatisfied.

The video games that included her gave more crumbs but notones I necessarily liked. Let me be clear, there is absolutely nothing wrongwith being a housewife. It’s one of the hardest, most underappreciated jobs inthe world and it doesn’t have the usual benefits like a retirement plan or paidvacation. People are always judging. That being said, why would you make one ofher attacks be slapping the shit out of someone with a frying pan? I thought ‘oh,well that’s amusing at least. I wonder what her main attack is’ and….it wasjust the same thing she did as a kid. Turning red, hair floating and justbeating the shit out of the poor NPC you picked for that round. We are told shehas a unique ninjutsu style and uses fuuinjutsu….so why weren’t either of thoseused instead? Why wasn’t this used as an opportunity to learn more about her? Ilike Kushina, but I wished more had been done with her.  

Minato suffers from the same problem in that we have some informationbut not enough. I still don’t know what his motivation was for becoming Hokageto this day. There are aspects of his personality I don’t really care for, butthen it may make me pettier of a person if I’m being honest. I don’t like thathe forgave Obito so easily, the man was responsible for not only his death butthe death of his love, and nearly destroyed their home. Also he nearly killedNaruto and made him an orphan. I don’t hate Obito but the dude did a LOT offucked up shit both in and out of the Land of Fire and Minato just….forgivesthat and even takes responsibility for it. It makes it hard to connect with himas a character that way because dude has to be a saint to do all that. I alsodon’t really care much for his naïveté when it came to sealing Kurama inNaruto. He grew up with Kushina, who was bullied just because she was from adifferent village. He should have known that Naruto would have it worse, butmaybe his blinding optimism is both a negative and a positive of hispersonality. His choices are also bound by the plot of the story, and becausewhat happened that night is told so far into the series, Minato’s hands arefairly tied so that the timeline stays consistent …even if it doesn’t exactly painthim in a positive (or always intelligent) light. I may not like any of thesethings but I can live with them and work with them.

Fanon portrayals can, in my experience, can either make thecharacters and the ship great or take one of their aspects and just…twists itfurther. It gets to the point where they are unrecognizable from their canoncounterparts. People are allowed to write what they want, I will never, ever tell anyone what they canor can’t write or what topics they can or can’t explore. But I take responsibilityfor my own happiness and health, and won’t read fics where Kushina is reducedto an overbearing bitch or ones where Minato is reduced to someone viler than theseries’ worst villains. Or the ones where they are the neglectful parents, apopular troupe in the Naruto and Harry Potter fandoms and I get the appeal, butthere is only so many times I could read it before I wanted to bang my headinto a wall because their actions crossed from cruelty into outright stupidity.These examples, I must admit, have left quite an impact on me.

In the end I suppose, I take it case by case when it comesto MinaKushi. I’m willing to role play it but I ship primarily with chemistry.Just because its canon isn’t a guarantee it will happen and I don’t want toforce a romantic involvement if for some reason the muses aren’t clicking. Itgets awkward fast. Romance isn’t the only aspect of their relationship I wantto explore either. What about them as friends? As rivals? As enemies? Asteammates? How would things change and how would they differ if they were in anAU?  All avenues are open and I’m willingto walk down them at least once.