#there’s some canon descendants relationships I don’t vibe with but I still put them in fics bc it makes sense to me

[kingchad]

Do you ship Audrey x Chad? Because I do!

No, I think they’re both gay actually

[maester-of-spreadsheets]

Okay yes

You know what sure let’s do this on a Friday night (going from least to most)

One of Those Nights - somehow I can’t bring myself to make jokey jokes about the Sewol ferry song

Wild side - I don’t know her. Literally this Japanese release somehow passed me by? And I haven’t absorbed it into my personal lore

Queendom - this isn’t even a good red velvet song. Like in general.

Umpah Umpah - absolutely no one in canon is having this type of fun

Peek-a-Boo - oh this comeback ruled but frankly the song and especially music video have way more to do with Claudeline

Happiness - way more appropriate as a komm süsser tod end of the world song than anything else

Bad Boy - I think Loumand WANT to project this kind of languidly sexy toxic relationship vibe but uh.

Be Natural - The soft beige pillow of their releases (probably because it was rushed to cover various scandals lol)

#CookieJar - I guess repeatedly saying “hash tag cookie jar :)” gives “electronic mailbox” a bit

Birthday - other songs on this list sample classical music in a more compelling way

Russian Roulette - Putting this one right in the middle because it feels like it COULD fit whatever he had going with Lestat or Daniel but will see (also if you’re new to kpop or this group I’d genuinely recommend being the song you check out because it’s lethally catchy)

Dumb Dumb - Cringefail Loumand initial flirting hours!

Sappy - has that horn part that makes no goddamn sense and is probably even more jarring than fake memories

Power Up - this video kinda implies cannibalism. Can’t really put it lower than this

Ice Cream Cake - the song and video are sooo subtly menacing. I don’t know how to explain it but it feels like you’re about to turn a corner and encounter a movie monster

Chill Kill - samples movie soundtrack sounding string instruments but more importantly it’s literally about a person who kills good vibes while somehow being sexy about it

Really Bad Boy - oh my god he’s a really bad boy he’s a really really really really bad boy!!!! You’re a bad boy and you’re bad for me you’re a bad boy and you’re bad for me you’re a-

Rookie - and we’re live! Produced by the theatre des vampire! Take one! [the most grating shit you’ve heard in your and somehow you go back for more]

Zimzalabim - literally about hypnotism. And throwing yourself over the flat earth for some reason?

Automaric - the vid is so vampire coded I wouldn’t be surprised if the OG iwtv movie was on the moodboard. Everything is so moody and shadowy and yeah they’re pretty but made to look as unsettling as possible. Also the scene with them sitting in front of tons of untouched food is very “how many courses are there going to be????”

Psycho - probably would have been on the playlist if the Spotify version wasn’t missing the SYNTHS THAT BRING THE SONG TOGETHER??? Anyway- no one asks- why did you say Bad Boy didn’t fit the vibe even though Psycho is in a very similar vein? Is it because the Favourite (2018) was definitely on the MV mood board? Is it because it also draws on classical music sounds? Is it because Armand is the original visual? Well yes but also the lyrics are about how toxic and beautiful the narrator’s relationship and how people just don’t GET IT and how the two of them WILL BE OKAY all somehow delivered like a mantra someone makes through gritted teeth. I love this song so much maybe I’m just lying to myself and it’s only ranking so high because I listened to it all the time while wandering graveyards during the pandemic um

Feel My Rhythm - has a video centered around paintings and a sound built around a Bach sample. In my playlist I mentioned that the hihats sound like they want you dead and I was right. But also the whole song kind of has the desperate energy of Psycho dialed up to eleven. It clings to that Bach sample with all its worth and it always sounds like it’s going to descend into chaos but even at it’s weirdest it still holds on the beat. Just barely. Makes you kind of wish it would while you admire that it doesn’t. Or something.

Red Flavor - is blood, duh. But also wow does this song feel sad while sounding so upbeat. The lyrics go back and forth between metaphors about forbidden fruit and openly pleading for reciprocity in a relationship. There’s also a [over used internet word alert] liminality to the video where the characters seem to have one foot in the past and one in the future. But it also has the lyrics’ fear of being totally vulnerable all the time so it throws absurdities at you like a watermelon having a conversation with a watermelon. The song is bursting with emotion, but also holding itself back too. You can surrender to the way this song is trying to invoke the nostalgic hope you might have felt when you were young and optimistic (and that might include mourning the person you used to be). Or you can just see it as a fun song to sing along to on the radio (do people even listen to the radio anymore.) it’s fine! It’s all FINE.

Lying by the pool like “what if I ranked every red velvet track by how Armandcore it is”

[garrothromeave]

How would you redo the pregnancy plot in Diaries if you could? Would you get rid of it all together or just make some changes? I personally believe the conflict would've been resolved if Aphmau was just more upfront about her feelings. Laurance and Garroth may have crossed some lines but at the core of it they just wanted to know and to not be lied to.

ohhh, good question - and my answer? i’d write out the pregnancy entirely.  would i get rid of the relationship between aaron and aphmau? mm, no, but i would make some changes. i feel like rather than growing romantic feelings for each other, they’d just have a strong connection - like, platonic soulmates kinda thing. they can rely on each other when the other doesn’t know how to feel, and they exchange advice often. i can see them being more as outlets for one another. i feel like this would have been such a better alternative than what their relationship ended up being.  and aaron would still have made that sacrifice because he loved aphmau - just, in a different sense. he’d still do anything to make her happy, and he put his life on the line to do so. LIKE, THIS? THIS IS AN AARON I COULD VIBE WITH.  and if i were to change that aspect of the story, some things would obviously have to change; and in this case, it’d be the descendent of shad. i’d make it laurance - because this fuels the reflection of shad and irene being in love but also enemies. while i don’t like how laurance ended up going to the nether, i feel like if he really were a descendant of shad, the calling would have been even stronger, so he wouldn’t have needed that finally push over the edge (that was aphmau’s pregnancy). i feel like the moment laurance realized the slow-growing hatred of those around him, he’d leave and go to where he felt is more “home” - and at the time, this was obviously the nether. by the time aphmau found out that she was irene and that laruance was the decendant of shad, it’d have already been too late - laurance would have fled to the nether, only to have his body been overtaken by the shadow lord.  “b-but, he’s been in the nether before!! why wasn’t he possessed then?!” i’m glad you asked. it’s because his transformation was never completed while he was in the nether; ungrth had saved him before that point. laurance once stated that the thread keeping him from losing himself was aphmau - which, was true - but y’know, he’d still technically died. my theory is, laurance made himself a proper vessel for shad to take over the moment his shadow knight form was (for a lack of a better word) unlocked in episode 20 of season 2, at the werewolf wedding.  and the difference here is, in the canon diaries i think aaron’s like - gone gone when he dies, like his soul and everything. that was because he died and didn’t get a chance to fully become a shadow knight - that’s because shad took over his body before he could do so. in my version, laurance is still there. i imagine it as something like forever potions - he’s very aware of everything he’s doing, but he can’t stop himself because he has no control over his body. he’s begging to be set free, but his soul is slowly intertwining with shad’s, and will eventually disappear completely. this, my friends, would have been an excellent plot point for season 3 of diaries. and imagine, maybe a moment - a brief moment - where laurance gains control over his body and tries to kill his body so that shad wouldn’t have a vessel anymore. laurance raising his sword, scared, but before he can do anything, gene stops him and he loses control of himself once again. MAN. I WANT TO WRITE THIS NOW. that’s how i woulda done it, anyways. though i do agree with your point, if aphmau had said something sooner i feel like things would be different. for garroth, at least. laurance already had an unstable mindset during the time, so i feel like he would have lashed out. not intentionally, but more so heartbreak and the whole “calling” thing messing with his head would not be a pretty combination. even if she’d told him sooner, the laurance we know and love would have still been gone by this point. no matter when he found out, laurance going to the nether in response to her pregnancy was inevitable.  on garroth’s end, i could see him being upset; but not as upset as he was. i mean, she did tell garroth literally the day they were leaving to save his mother from o’khasis, which is a pretty stupid decision. i could see him being dead silent for a while and not wanting to talk to her so that he could have time to reflect and think to himself, but not running off the way he did. he still wouldn’t leave her side, though he would be heartbroken. but i feel like he would have learned his lesson during the whole irene dimension thing, y’know? i don’t like how that character development was just kinda tossed out the window. then again, i would be pretty mad too if the woman who’d told me she liked me didn’t tell me that she was pregnant with someone i didn’t know’s child after the short time i was gone. 

[thequibblah]

directors cut for WTRF? 🥺👉👈 not biased at all obviously just objective third party asking for a directors cut hmmm hmmmmm

literally how could u do this every other word in that fic is an easter egg i can't shut up about..... bestie u are about to have regrets

one thing u should know is that 90% of things in this fic have real-world equivalents and its not even like....... hidden equivalents. serie primo = serie a, for instance. this trend is going to continue and i won't apologise <3

fun fact i named the bar the Bar and the drinks after shapes because i was too lazy to come up with something actually clever

this bit

I’m grinning to myself by the time she approaches my table.

was a very intentional fakeout and if you read this and thought "she" would be lily, feel free to sue me for emotional damages

the biggest conundrum of this AU was, how are jily not going to have met in school when magic exists? the solution was, of course, having multiple magic schools. but i couldn't let one of them have hogwarts, that didn't seem fair. i know i did sort of let lily have it..... but i felt more comfortable making hogwarts a university so there was a legit reason why james wasn't there and in gryffindor (if he'd gone he absolutely would have been)

once solved, i did the fun thing of naming them! ottaline gambol's was easy, i just scrolled through the list of ministers for magic and picked a progressive one. peverell hall was a whim, made all the funnier when lily's reaction is:

Much was made at Otty’s — one of the more progressive magical schools, named for one of the more progressive Ministers of Magic — of schools like Peverell Hall and St. George’s. The latter, I know, is chock-full of pureblooded elite. Peverell Hall is supposed to be slightly better, but still.

dang, it's gonna be funny if she ever finds out james is a descendant of the guy it's named after

fun fact, i included this because peter's question was a real thought i had when reading bond and free, your inspiring writing knows no limits:

The first thing you conjure in Walking Wombat is a yellow quill... “Why yellow?” Peter asked. Eddie gave him a strange look. “Why not?”

i realised i'd put jily in the same conundrum they had in tis the fucking season here:

It’s only then that I remember she’s just bought us drinks. I turn back to my triangle. “Oh, shit.” I suppose I can pawn it off on one of the others.

...but of course the resolution is rather different, and i do so enjoy a james with no filter (aka default james)

I briefly lose control of my brain and my tongue. “Is it too soon to say I’m in love with you?”

by the way, no-filter james will be a theme. wild things sure do run fast but not as fast as this boy runs his mouth!

also, another interesting challenge here was making sure james has a reason to be the way he is in AU. i love playing around with james's childhood/background and seeing how that affects his character while (hopefully!) staying true to who he is. i did that in ttfs by having him move around a lot and not meet the marauders until after the flashback timeline, which is why he's less of a git — he doesn't have the level of comfort in a social setting that canon james has with hogwarts, which is basically his playground from day 2 of first year lol

here, james was probably a fkn nightmare all through school, but of course he gets a big ego check when his quidditch career is derailed. i imagine his years in italy as a continuation of that humility lesson.

I will fully admit I used to be a cocky prick. This is what comes of being a kid who grew up with everything. But one useful thing that the whole fiasco four years ago taught me is humility. I’ve learned how to ask nicely for another chance.

and so much of writing him in wtrf is juggling that typical confidence with the insecurity/fear of losing something he's invested so much in (and has seen slip away before). it's really new to me, because typically i give lily uncertain life circumstances, but i suppose it's both of them in this AU.

the car thing was... i swear didn't start out as smutty, it was purely because i wanted a way to establish lily as muggleborn in a world where the connotations of not having magical parents is very different. more to come on that!

also, come to think of it, by this metric...

I’m now in dangerous territory, since that adds another impressive action to her running tally.

...i think james is already in love with her LOL

this bit:

The street is considered indecent and the downstairs hallway would have our landlady come running at once, so if it pleases Your Honour, we would recommend the sitting room sofa.

...was actually because in draft one lily was a lawyer, but then it was funny enough that i didn't want to take it out, but NOW i realise it makes it sound a little like she's addressing james as your honour, which.... hm. but anyway, we move on

Marc Bolan begs us to get it on through the stereo, vocalising my thoughts exactly.

the song here was initially "you shook me" (h/t @keepingupwithpotters) but i chickened out because zeppelin is SO horny dfjkhgkjs

also, it gave me so much joy to read everyone reacting to lily thinking about her ex (the general vibe was "who the fuck is this guy!!! ew!!!!") — rest assured (or, unassured??) that he has a part to play in all this. anyway, this is one of my fave lines:

He’s just a person, and there’s such a relief in sleeping with James and not the myth of a guy.

because as any come together reader knows....

Just James. Just James. It was never just James.

wtrf lily will learn!

literally the whole world knows i'm obsessed with needle drops that have no subtlety at all, but this one...

We just laugh, tangled together in a sweaty heap, as “Heaven Is in the Back Seat of My Cadillac” plays through the car’s speakers. “On the nose, isn’t it?” James says, sitting up.

...was pure luck, because i was looking up the top hits on the uk singles chart for the week(ish) this scene takes place in so that i could find a song that would realistically play on the radio, saw this, and was like omg the stars really do align

i feel like the thing i enjoy most about writing romance is the importance i get to place in noticing/looking/observing (and sometimes, not noticing!). it's just such a powerful but simple writerly tool, and god knows i am obsessed with pithy descriptions anyway, so this bit i am especially happy with:

James is already waiting, leaning against the car with his hands in his pockets. I feel as though I’m seeing him for the first time, the faint light of the flickering streetlamp catching him in profile: the strong slope of his nose, the hard line of his jaw, the curve of his smile. He studies the facade of our building with open curiosity, and I wonder what he’s looking for.

(one can only imagine james's train of thought in this moment. perhaps "ah. here lives the future love of my life"?)

“Thanks,” she tacks on at the end. I tip my head to one side in confusion. “For what?” “For, I don’t know. Being nice.” She laughs awkwardly. “I don’t do this very much.”

it wouldn't be a quibblah original tee em without some discourse to come about the nature of romantic/sexual relationships, would it? one thing i enjoy about this AU ("one thing" i say as if this isn't the billionth thing in a list) is that i get to write a romantic lily who's squaring that romanticism with what she perceives as the culture of the times. (this is a bit of a staple in all my characterisations of lily, but it is not often paired with casual sex, the complication of all complications!)

oh this bit literally wrote itself like i didn't even pause to think just vomited it out:

In the morning — and it must be early still — the sun streams through Lily’s sorry excuses for curtains with aggression that cannot be ignored. I crack open an eye to find myself sprawled out across her bed, quite literally spread-eagled. She’s attached to my side like a barnacle. Or a very pretty barnacle, anyway.

i'm especially proud of james's voice in this story. i don't often write first-person fic and i was worried how it'd turn out, but i think james as a character/narrator typically colours his own 3rd-person narration so strongly that it ended up a smoother transition than i'd feared!

also i just. i can't resist throwing in comic relief and i hope that this whole segment was a gentle enough preparation for the awkwardness that followed LOL

All of a sudden, the balcony door bursts open. I nearly drop the mug. “What the—” Mary pokes her head around the corner, sporting a righteous smile. “Morning, handsome.” Over her shoulder she shouts, “He’s on the balcony!” I blink. There’s a sound from inside the flat, as if something very large has just been dropped. Then a swear. “Oh, shit,” I say, realisation dawning, “you weren’t looking for me, were you? It’s so loud out here—” Mary cups a hand around her mouth and stage-whispers, “Lily was frantic.” She’s quite violently yanked back, and Lily herself appears in the doorway, slightly out of breath. “Should’ve checked the balcony first,” she says, and closes the door before Mary can insert herself into the space again. “Hi,” I say, which is agreed-upon best practice for greeting a woman you’ve just had fantastic sex with and ideally would like to have sex with again.

to this day i don't know what lily dropped. let's hope it wasn't expensive!

Captained the under-17 English squad at the World Cup some years back, Serie Primo’s lead goal-scorer of last year… Only an injury in what should’ve been his first season at Puddlemere mars his record. I wince reading about it and comparing it to a heap of press clippings. James Potter was hurt, and Puddlemere didn’t fancy paying for him not to play, so they shipped him off to Milan.

(you cannot imagine how much pointed interrogation of my brother it took to gather this intel.) i constantly worry that i've got dates or timelines wrong somehow — you might notice i tweaked under-17, which used to be under-19 until i realised that made no sense (even though in terms of its career importance i would much preferred it to have been u-19.... anyway). i also found out that u-17 football squads don't actually have captains but i said fuck it on that count.

but obviously i started writing this AU for the sports possibilities, only to discover i'm going to have to interfere a great deal with the Timeline (you shall see in future instalments).

god i really went through the whole fic. like i reread the whole thing to do this. here u go clare jfbghjfd

[brawltogethernow]

So on the whole, how useful would you say Death Note is for teaching someone how to write a convoluted plot between enemy chessmasters that's at least... 50% watertight?

General disclaimer that I haven’t touched the source material directly in many years, and all my dn posts are me feeling my feelings. But yeah, I can shake my 8-ball about this.

There are two components to dn’s approach to “a convoluted plot between enemy chessmasters”, and they’re only roughly stapled together. There’s the rivalry/characterization part, which is both compelling and silly, and is mostly about aesthetic. That never really concludes in a satisfying way. It’s not TRYING to, because the characters are pretty much there to hold up the thought experiment premise, which demands a lot of grit and unpoetic death and not solid foundations of character/relationship work. Like there’s stuff there but you’re really deep-mining for it and doing a lot of the work yourself, and that’s by design. All of the character arcs, which are pretty thin on the ground, trend in a negative/dismantling direction (because it’s a tragedy), and few of the relationships play out all the potential they have (because it’s not a tragedy about relationships).

The character aspect of the chessmaster stuff is heavily reliant on the conceit that once people are smart enough they will start reaching the same conclusions in the same way. Like there’s a single most ideal train of thought for every situation that even people who should have very different thought processes will reach with the assistance of enough little gray cells. This isn’t uncommon in smartboi stories, but dn went absolutely ham on it, if you want to make a study of that trope.

The biggest takeaway there is probably noting how the creative team seems to have been unaware that a lot of their audience was actually buying into that between the lead and their rival as a “meant to be enemies” kind of thing and didn’t realize that faction would be less interested once it became obvious that no, all geniuses in this world are taking turns using one brain. I’ll freely admit I deliberately misread this element to maximize my own investment.

Then there are the tricks and puzzles. The odd logical hole is inevitable, but overall they’re solid. They’re also just procedural plots delivered in a less formulaic story than that usually makes one think of. There’s nothing distinguishing them from the weekly puzzle of a House episode or a Detective Conan arc except for raw creativity and panache. There is rarely any characterization going on whatsoever. The twists require players, but you never get the sense that only whoever is being pulled to act could fill their part. They’re always stand-ins for perfectly generic individuals, putting their distinctive quirks and intense personal philosophies aside. This is that idea that there’s one way of thinking that everyone is accessing at staggered intelligence levels in play again. People are simplified until they can be pieces in contraptions no more complex than Light’s exploding desk drawer trap.

This is why the trick plots of dn don’t get pored over a lot by fans. They’re looped too loosely to the rest of the story to have an emotional impact that will make them memorable long-term. They’re deceptively simple, too. Kind of the opposite of a story twist that makes you rethink everything that came before it in a new light. You can’t dismantle dn and reassemble it like pentominoes very easily. A lot of it is grand set pieces, and if you tease out any of the puzzle plots they sort of lose structural integrity and flake away. This is why most canon divergence fic for dn is “diverging” by asking the question “what if Light were less of a shit”.

Ultimately, Death Note only gives the impression of being a complex engine made of moving parts. Its strong suit is its showmanship. It’s very good at carrying you along from twist to twist in a state of mild beffudlement that doesn’t quite escalate to belligerent and securing that “Oh wow! That was clever!” reaction. The mastermind-offs of are deceptively static, pretty much coming down to one party either failing or succeeding to thwart a plot laid out by another in advance without a lot of combating each others’ machinations in real time. Once resolved, twists vanish from the consciousness like disappearing gold. There’s no fiber to them, just flash.

This isn’t critique! Most elements of this story do what they’re deployed to do. (If the tricks needed workshopping, people would analyze them more, ironically.)

I’m myself shit at (de)constructing brain tingler twists and can’t really identify if dn’s are useful for instruction purposes. Not for people who don’t already have a natural talent for them, I guess! It might be interesting to identify why they’re not immediately identifiable as bloodless trick plots, except I suspect it might just be that the rest of dn is so insane and dissimilar from stories that usually contain those? Like I already compared it to two Holmes descendants, and it definitely has BBC Sherlock “let the asshole speak, genii are a protected species” vibes, and the criminal protagonist facing off with a detective premise is Arsene Lupin-y, yet I still feel weird identifying Death Note itself as in this broader genre because *gestures to all of it*.

It’s the least formula-reliant example of the breed I can think of right now, which is neat. (Annnnd also definitely feeds in to people being dissatisfied with it because they miscalled what it was trying to be. Dn is just generally pretty unique, and I imagine the team was making up a lot of its playbook from scratch as it went along, which leaves the audience in kind making up the experience of consuming it.)

All of the above is incidentally why dn is infamous for being very compelling in the moment but then having people revisit thinking about it and decide the he-knows-that-I-know-that-he-knows conceit is actually ridiculous and needs to be taken with a grain of salt.

So uh. This all SOUNDS like bad form, but that’s arguably me being a basic bitch who “likes when plot and character and aesthetic inform each other”, and that’s just fundamentally not what Death Note is. Also it’s kind of a lofty starting goal and writing is hard. Like! This approach worked! We are discussing a very successful property with many fans. (And a weirdly finite cultural impact for its popularity but this isn’t necessarily why.) I guess this is an acceptable playbook, and the takeaway is that you CAN successfully Frankenstein together different unconnected storytelling methods, and it will look dazzling and impressive and barely leave any of your readership feeling confused and hollow inside and likely to return and make fun of themselves for accidentally liking your work wrong.

Oh, also, dn as do’s and don’t’s of building a mastermind character. Do give headlining characters eye-catching, memetic traits. Don’t fail to trace those traits down so they actually represent something at your character’s core because you crossed over the line from “spinning characters out as foils and parallels who compare and contrast to each other in interesting ways” into “all of your smart characters are basically the same challenge-seeking misanthrope stamped with different surface features” -- except WHO ELSE IS GOING TO HAVE THAT PROBLEM? THAT’S NOT NORMAL.

So yeah you COULD study Death Note, or you could binge some crime dramas and then some X-Men issues that have battles in the center of the mind over the same weekend and get basically the same net effect.

[therenlover]

heyy jac I first wanted to say you are amazing, thank you for going out of your way to give us tfatws content. it brightens up my day whenever I see you post. I was just listening to your zemo playlist and I’m one of those people who when I listen to a song I love to make scenarios in my head. I was wondering if you could walk us through some of your favourite songs on the playlist and tell us how you associate them with zemo. I’d love to hear your thoughts on some of the songs. (if that isn’t too much hassle sorry if I’m being annoying lol).

 Anon, you are currently my favorite person in the whole wide world. I absolutely want to give you my favorite songs on the playlist and tell you exactly what I see when I hear them, and you have given me an excuse to do so. This post will probably be long as hell, so I’m putting it under the cut. 

Foolish To Think from A Gentleman’s Guide To Love and Murder

We all know Zemo is a baron, but like... we don’t know how powerful baron’s are in Sokovia. We also don’t know pretty much anything about his childhood or rise to power. I am a firm believer that he’s been ever so slightly unhinged even when he was still just a normal dude, so this is him deciding “you know what, I’m about to climb my way up the Zemo family ladder however I need to,” This, in my mind, is the epitome of fresh faced, 18 year old, canon Zemo ready to go fuck some people up for power. 

If Music Be The Food Of Love arranged by David Dickau

During his rise to power, still just a normal dude, Zemo falls in love with his wife. I’m a big believer in the fact that, because Zemo was raised as royalty, he knows a whole lot of pretentious shit like Shakespeare and recites it to his partner to be romantic. The line “Though yet, the treat is only sound, sure I must perish by your charms unless you save me in your arms,” is what he used to woo her early in the relationship. So cute, it would be terrible if something bad happened to her...

Bogoroditse Djevo arranged by Arvo Pärt

This one is more of a scene I get in my head. It’s a Christmas tune, and I can see him, his wife, and their infant going to their first Christmas market as a family in Novi Grad. Just... walking from stall to stall, giggling at the performers, eating the food, buying little gifts for the baby to remember the occasion. It’s a calm before the storm.

The Swan by Camille Saint-Saëns

This song, in the playlist, marks the death of Zemo’s family. In the past, dancers have interpretted the melody as a badly injured swan, slowly struggling as they die but still being graceful and elegant as they do. As he searches through the rubble, his hope slowly dies, and in the end his hope dies where his family did. Thus begins his descent into madness in...

Daemon Irrepit Callidus arranged by György Orbán

Daemon Irrepit Callidus is Zemo’s descent into madness. From this point on, he slowly loses his softness. The tone of the songs is often much more modern, pulling away from his roots as a baron and man of high status and leaning into something more gritty for much of the Civil War era in the playlist. He has descended into hell and he believes there is no turning back from here. 

Songe d’Automne performed by The White Star Orchestra

Reportedly (by Harold Bride, surviving Jr Telegrapher who was washed off the deck as the ship sank) this was the last song the orchestra played as the Titanic sank. Zemo is going nuts. ‘Nough said.

If I Believed from Twisted

This song, along with a few more, is an outlier in the Civil War era. It represents his reasoning for what he’s doing. I imagine this song is the feeling he has after he listens to his wife’s last voicemail. He’s doing everything for her, burning a whole superhero organization to the ground so that he can assure nobody else has to live through what he did, but he can’t deny that a part of him wishes he could just bring her back no matter how illogical that is.

How Does A Moment Last Forever (Music Box) from Beauty and the Beast

This is, again, a softer moment. He looks back on the time he spent with his family and tries to keep it safe in his mind. It anchors him to reality and keeps him focused on his goals. The end is coming soon in his mind, so he clings as hard as he can to those remaining memories of peace.

Dies Irae arranged by Giuseppe Verdi

He sets the Winter Soldier loose murders all the remaining soldiers in the Hydra base on his day of reckoning. Yeah, that’s basically it, it’s just hype music as he has his big moment.

As The World Caves In by Matt Maltese

His plan has been carried out and now Zemo is simply watching as the world caves in around him. He’s succeeded in all of his plans, the avengers are crumbling, he’s listened to his wife’s voicemail one last time and now he’s ready to be dead. He thinks this is it. Well, until he’s taken into custody and locked up forever. 

Leonardo Dreams Of His Flying Machine arranged by Eric Whitacre

My man Eric is coming in clutch once again. This is Zemo, brilliant mind and all, stuck rotting in jail. He has nothing but his dreams of grandeur to tide him over So, he dreams. He dreams of escape, of his family, of what waits for him once he dies. 8 years of dreaming pass before Bucky finally approaches as Lacrimosa plays.

Lacrimosa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Fuck you, Mozart. You’re only here because you played in the show. Moving on. 

The Sweet Escape by Gwen Stefani 

You cannot tell me that this isn’t what was playing in Zemo’s head as he escaped from maximum security prison and rolled up to that warehouse looking all hot and mysterious. 

Sibella from A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Look who’s back! This time, though, I included this because I am adamant that Zemo fucks someone he used to know while he’s escaped and they have a big dramatic love affair. Like, he just does. I don’t make the rules. 

WAP by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion 

Zemo would just love WAP. He says all that woke shit, so like, he vibes with female empowerment and the idea of them taking back their sexuality. He also loves the annoyed look on Bucky’s face when he plays it, so it stays on the playlist. 

The Man I Used To Be from The Count of Monte Cristo

Now, this one is more speculative, but I feel like Zemo will have a minor change of heart. he won't suddenly be a morally straight good guy to the bone, but I think he’s seriously rethinking his ideology and at some point, he might find a way to let go of a lot of the pain and remorse he’s been carrying around. 

No More from Into The Woods

This song, in my mind, takes place at the Sokovian memorial. Zemo is there and he’s so tired of running and fighting and grieving. He just wants to be okay again but he doesn’t know how to. He has this mental moment where he’s asking his deceased father for help and yet the memory (ghost?) of his father, who he resented for most of his life, isn’t helping him straightforwardly. He has to figure it out for himself in the end. This line speaks to me most. “No more giants waging wars. Can’t we just pursue our lives, with our children and our wives? Till that happy day arrives, how do you ignore...” 

and finally...

Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep arranged by Laura Farnell

Of all the songs on this list, this one was the only one I was absolutely certain of including and I knew it had to be the last song no matter what else I included. Its contents, a famous poem by Mary Elizabeth Frye, could refer to either Zemo or his family. In the case that he visits the monument, it could be the feeling he gets there. Finally, he knows that his family is somewhere better, not buried under the rubble of his home. He’s finally free. 

If he dies at the end of the series though, it takes on a whole new meaning. It’s about him, how he isn’t trapped by his mortal body anymore. He’s now everywhere, both a constant reminder to the world of the atrocities committed in Sokovia and a testament to how powerful a father’s love for his family can be. Once again, he’s finally free to reunite with those he loves, but this time it’s he who isn’t truly dead so long as people heed his life as a warning. 

Wow, this was longer than I thought it would be even when I cut a few songs... I hope you enjoyed!

[staggeringsmite]

HELLO! just finished properly listening to your (amazing!) corruption arc playlist! I have many thoughts, and so I wanted to ask you about specific moments and/or characters that you associate with songs (as mentioned in your tags), as I am simply SO intrigued. (did you have certain songs that were added for certain character(s)? were any songs for specific what if's? etc.) also, please consider this a free pass to ramble about anything related to the playlist that you wish. it is SO excellent!!

AHHHH!! thank you jade (both for the compliment and the free space to yell about my thoughts here because when i get playlist brainrot i get it Bad <3) // the playlist in question

i think i'm genuinely going to do a song-by-song thoughts below the cut, but here are some overview thoughts/associations if you don't wanna read all of that or don't have the time!

overall this started with athena by nova twins! i thought the sp*der imagery and overall vibe was great for a more sinister look at the wacky (mostly) chaotic neutral party as they are, just going full lolth. i wanted the pacing to be semi-slow and then drop into the more rock-heavy reckless villain-y section before moving into a (?) bittersweet? i guess? end that feels a bit more like a question mark of if it was worth it.

i think this party is full of extremely interesting motivations to side with an evil power for their own gain/the benefit of the people they care about, and each one of them has a very complex relationship with that so things spun wildly out of control as a thought about this.

for songs i associate with specific characters here's an overview, but you'll notice there aren't a lot for fy'ra rai or orym which i get into a bit more in the song-by-song:

all: i come with knives, into the spin, steady/steady, control, bad dreams / lolth: million years, athena, diggers / dariax: diggers, plenty, hollow / dorian: athena, grenadine, dangerous / fearne: plenty, you should see me in a crown, black wave / fy'ra rai: home / opal: home, grenadine, black wave, you should see me in a crown / orym: i'm not calling you a liar, dangerous

song-by-song >:)

1. i come with knives (acoustic) - this song, zoowee, so i went with the acoustic version because i think it's a nice slow but sinister start and it very much gave me the feeling of whenever you begin as a character to question taking this kind of power, that is a Source yes that you can do whatever with but is rooted in temptation and associated with evil, is there any real justification for that which is not in some part selfish. "i come with knives and agony to love you" if that isn't the chosen ones to a T in their overall reasoning for even considering a deal with lolth. and as much as that may be rooted in care, and wanting to be strong and powerful enough to protect the people they care about, it is a painful way to love when you really choose that path once and for all.

2. into the spin - this one is based on "slow climb but quick to descend" and i love the instrumentation as a part of the overall vibe, but it's about sowing the seed here. planting even a hint of consideration in accepting the power of the circlet and lolth's words is going to need time for the person to mull it over, but once it's on it is On baby.

3. million years - this is what i mean by All In Baby, and while it isn't the playlists narrative point of anyone actually accepting the power for good, it is a glimpse intended to shake things up after an 8 minute slow start with the first two songs, and this is all about lolth who is a Chaotic Evil entity, who is a reckless and hauntingly destructive force <3

4. home - "everything you made will end up broken" i think this song to fy'ra rai is more of an omen, of everything that she cannot fix but wants to, knowing that she cannot make choices for the group and seeing the potential path they could wind up on and knowing that fundamentally if they go that way it is their decision no matter how much it will hurt her - for opal there is SOMETHING about the tone of this song that feels very much like her, and the complete lack of care it seems to have to rattle off mundane things to the intimate drama of the place, to omens, to demands/declarations i think it shows her personality well and how that pairs with a chaotic neutral entity being offered something like the power of the circlet

5. steady, steady - idk if this is necessarily everyone but the mix of you know when you're ready and i am ready to be the one, this is the song about taking the leap and grabbing for power and/or fy'ra rai and orym's feelings of diving in with them or resisting/leaving them

6. diggers - for lolth this is just the consistent "i've been waiting for you" in the bg which i found fun and disconcering but also i think this is the perfect party and perfect storm for her to convince someone to use the circlets power >:) - for dariax! it seems with what we know he doesn't really know that he is a divine soul sorcerer? unless that is a show he is putting up. still, i feel like him carrying the circlet is Very interesting as someone with a divine bloodline who is in a way being given/chosen for that type of power holding onto this artifact born from evil and perhaps being tempted by it & i think this song works as an interesting back and forth for him with the strange double-entity grab for him in a way

7. athena - truly just a banger that fit the vibes wayyyy too well and started this whole thing, it's loud and reckless and out for blood babey <3 - i think i associate it with dorian mostly because i also associate it with lolth and he is the closest to really taking that leap in canon (and also probably the first one the go if we're following this playlist like a story with everyone/most everyone going corrupt, though it can be read truly infinite ways these are just compiled songs) i think it has a certain flair and appeal that just makes me Feel like it's the song that would play the second dorian puts the circlet on (which! fun fact! decreases your charisma by 2! have fun beloved bard!) - i think it's a very intense conversation

8. i’m not calling you a liar - okayokayokay it's orym thought time bc there are sooo many worlds and routes for orym here and i truly have no idea where he would even end up in this hypothetical. do i think that orym loves these guys and wants to protect them? yes. do i think that he may genuinely take the pain of loving them and keep his morals by walking away and/or turning on them if they all go evil? maybe. do i think he also might love them enough to throw that away? maybe. in a party of all chaotic neutrals besides him without fy'ra rai he is surprisingly the wild card here. while they have each other and no one else, he has the teachings and wisdom of the voice of the tempest and a moral compass that does not align with theirs at all. so, something has to give! dorian's slide into chaotic neutral was natural, but i think orym would be giving up Much More of himself to let himself slide from neutral good to chaotic neutral. i have no answers only sad, sad hypotehtical questions and scenarios so i will just, leave you with "and i love you so much, i'm gonna let you kill me." - this song also comes here before the storm of the 3-5 because whatever way he goes i think orym sees it all happen before anyone else does.

9. grenadine - Do Not Tell Me You Couldn't Hear villainous opal and dorian say the lines "what a big heart i have, i'll be your savior now. what a real catch i am, all the more to pull you down." - i see this song as playful but more genuine for dorian in terms of Truly Really believing any action he does to protect his friends is justified and good to him in his eyes whereas this is a very playful song for a villainous opal - they both give off this vibe strongly though (could see this one for fearne as well but don't have a good a justification)

10. black wave - helloooooo my favorite druid and warlock?? going apeshit with power? more so than they already are on a day-to-day basis (esp given episode 6 combat)? that's what this song is about. "stumbling down the street i swear to god you don't wanna test me" - i also think they both have an interesting question with "what do i believe?" with fearne being of the feywild which is a place of considerably different moral standing to exandria and opal being so young that she doesn't have the world figured out at all <3 terrifying and upsetting when you get into those questions on a corruption arc <3

11. you should see me in a crown - okay i knooooow this one is on the dorian playlist BUT vibes for my brutal babes <333 something about opal’s whole personality and fearne confronting the mirror self But eventually choosing/heading down the path anyway?? impeccable i love it there’s very few other thoughts here

12. control - OKAY not only does this song Fuck but i put it as party wide because i think it transitions nicely into the end of the mix which is more of the “questioning this decision after going all in but not being able to turn back/was it all worth it in the end?” part - i mostly love the “though i like the idea of providence... i’m in love with control” repeated because! i think the circlet is very interesting in that it has been iterated many times over that though it has connections to lolth and she has some claim/twisted abilities with it, it IS just a power source. so, the idea of going all in and accepting this power is an incredibly interesting dilemma of “who’s in charge here? did you really put it on/would you have without these dreams and lolth’s influence? are you really in control?” i think this song really represents that admission/delusion of control in this situation.

13. plenty - okay this song in any context is just my Feywild/Faerie Vibe song so i think this trails back to my feelings about fearne leaning into that different set of fey morals along a corruption arc, and as for dariax i think this is about abundance! following through that mixture of divine power source and chaotic evil god origin over dariax and his chaotic history of vast and varied experiences in emon, i think this very much befits a corrupt version of him.

14. dangerous - this song makes me insane, and the first reason i put it on the mix was the “the dead are true believers. rest assured. we are all believers” really just made me think of a terrible and cinematic moment of them discovering the circlet with the dead aboard the ship ESP in the context of this playlist’s narrative where that was the point they were destined to claim its power and go through their corruption arc - “how does it feel to be your own deceiver?” is the main reason and feeling as for why i made this a dorian song as well in line with “don’t worry i would do anything for my friends.” bc i personally find dorian’s corruption arc to be disillusioned with his own intentions and takes a lot of convincing himself that taking this power for his friends is noble in the scope of this group’s collective morals and self-interest in keeping each other safe and prosperous so <3

15. hollow - woowee dariax corruption, at least in this scope, i think is very frightening to me in that i think he’s going full maximalist, abundant, greedy, impulsive chaotic evil if we’re realllly leaning into a villain arc but still many of those things if we’re just going “this group is the only thing that matters and i’ll do anything for them no matter the cost” - i also think this song has a tone of resentment towards this? apprehension a bit? recognizing that this is how the person singing is but not entirely enjoying or feeling justified in it? as impulsive as dariax is, i think he cares A Lot, and is even a character i could see pulling a reverse dorian and going chaotic good in a different story than we’re in? “so simple when i was younger” and “i’d be a dancer of a different tune” really give me angsty dariax vibes in the height of his corruption arc

16. bad dreams - “don't you worry about your bad dreams cause I'm not in them. don't you worry about what change brings cause you can't stop it.” WOOF i don’t know that this one really needs to be explained but it’s the climax and the descent all in one of the party/corrupted individual being too far gone in their decision to step back or be saved. i think the tone of the song lends itself well to a mixture of uncaring but also giving some question to if they regret it or not based on the narration of the crowd against them.

[bananajun]

SuJu OTP Challenge

OTP Challenge: Pick your top ten ships without reading the questions

Eunhae

Teukchul

Kyuwook

Yeteuk

Teukmin

Kyusung

Hyukmin

Kyuteuk

Heehyuk

Kangteuk

(Disclaimer: All of this is for fun! I am not trying to insinuate that any of the members are actually romantically involved.)

1) Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6?

I think it was the scene in the SJ Returns episode where some of the members had a meal with Kyuhyun before he enlisted (You have to pay to watch it tho). I love how cute their older brother-younger brother dynamic is!

2) Have you ever read a fanfiction about 2?

 Y e s, and it still haunts me to this very day.

3) Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr?

 Nope!

4) If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?

 Since Sungmin is a married man I would be very concerned...

5) Why is 1 so important?

 Because Eunhyuk and Donghae have been friends for what, twenty years now? And they’re still going strong. Most people don’t have relationships that last this long, so it’s very heartwarming to see how far they’ve come :)

6) Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?

 Well seeing as it’s Heechul and Eunhyuk the two biggest clowns of the group I’d call them a funny ship, they have that kind of friendship.

7) Out of all of your ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?

 Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Eunhae I guess? You can’t beat their bond.

8) Out of all of the ships, which ship has the strongest bond?

 Mmh Eunhae, Kyuwook, Teukchul, and Hyukmin probably

9) How many times have you read/watched 10’s fandom?

 Only once but I noped out of there faster than Hyukjae can run away from Jongwoon

10) Which ship has lasted the longest?

 Haven’t they all known each other for around the same amount of time (almost two decades)? But I guess Eunhae, Hyukmin and Teukchul.

11) How many times, if ever, have 6 broken up?

 Um they’ve never broken up before haha but maybe when Kyuhyun kept ignoring him.

12)  If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive?

Eunhae, Teukmin, Hyukmin, Heehyuk, maybe?

13) Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?

 Yes, because of K-Elfs’ incessant boycotting and hating on Sungmin basically all the members were forced to hide their relationship with him. Sucks because Eunhyuk and Sungmin used to be close :(

14) Is 4 still together?

 Sure? Maybe.

15) Is 10 canon?

 LOL No they are in fact the least canon ship on the list.

16) If all ten ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

 I have a weird feeling it would be Hyukmin, they just give me the Katniss x Peeta vibes. Plus Sungmin knows martial arts.

17) Has anyone ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

 K o r e a n  E l f s

18) Which ship(s) would you defend to the death and beyond?

 Ships 1-9, but especially Teukchul.

19) Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

 H a h a no, I once did it for about ten minutes though.

20) If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all up forever, which ship would you choose?

 Easy, Kangteuk, they’re already broken up anyways xD x3 uwu owo

[dragonshoard]

@markala5 

(Because the thread was getting too long i made a new one // I’m sorry for any typos ;( I’m super tired lol)

I agree with the fact that she is super stubborn. She’s set on not only creating an alternative for the extermination Hell goes through each year but also proving herself to her father and the people of Hell in general. It would definitely be something inherent to angel!Charlie because she aches for people to care about her and people to care about. 

She’s definitely developed her own sense of self after all these years, but the problem is that it’s based off of validity from people around her which IS NOT HEALTHYYY. It’s actually really sad. She’ll be her perky self and be immediately shut down by the people around her. She may be willing to brawl, but she’s just as likely to shut down. 

Long post is long so I’m putting it under read more

On the thing about apathy. I find it an interesting concept with this world. There is a certain level of Apathy to Hell but its the type where everything is super active and violent, just everyone is super blase about it. There’s the half of hell actively always looking for a fight/power and the other half that just sort of... exists in misery.

As an angel who not only needs people around them but also NEEDS a purpose, it’s an extremely toxic environment. With the system you’re describing... just ow. I can only imagine how many times Charlie has nearly faded and just what needed to be done to get her back. 

Like, Vaggie is a recent development (not even 10 years) and there hasn’t been anyone else around Charlie that would function as a support other than her parents, possibly. 

(I’m still shocked that Vaggie only died in 2014. She’s super young but comes off as acting like one of the oldest - I genuinely thought she had been childhood friends with Charlie lol)

I’d imagine that instead of fading away, it would be more like she falls into a coma (I need Disney references, she’s literally a Disney princess). And I’d like to think that its more like a self generative state because, again, been established that you can’t exactly die naturally in Hell (or Heaven, presumably). Longest she’s slept would probably me... probably a year? It’s been established that Lilith and Charlie have a close relationship, so I’m thinking that most of the time it’s Lilith bringing her back after the fact and supporting her. There was one time where her father showed he cared enough (the time she slept for a year - he was even nice enough to preen her feathers) but he went back to being mostly apathetic after that (jealousy is no good :/). 

Because even people with the strongest sense of self and will power will crash in that environment. Lilith would definitely be her number one supporter until Vaggie (and especially how now Lilith is very busy in canon time), but it wouldn’t be enough (especially when flocks typically have around 10-15 people). 

She’d fight for as long as she could. Towards the end of the “cycle” (about to go to sleep) it would be the hardest for her not to sing and her passive song would be the strongest and most violent/desperate (enough that even her Dad can vaguely hear it and typically starts preparing her room). At this point it would be the hardest to keep her angelic features in so she starts isolating herself, speeding up the process. Her song would come out stuttery (imagine the first song in the pilot - constantly singing that one but in between sobs) and she’d try to stay awake but would fall asleep each time. 

And when she wakes up her song would be bright, loud and optimistic, determined to break the circle (it never works).  

Alastor would have no clue that this happens so the first time she goes through it after meeting him, he is beyond curious. He knows little about angel biology, only bits and pieces he’s picked up over the years. He spends the two weeks she spends sleeping taking care of her and feeling out her (for once) peaceful song. 

(I do the same. Making myself sad should be a professional job lol)

Charlie displays steel and passion on her shoulders just as clearly as her insecurities. Alastor was drawn to her from first song, tbh. There was something about it that he found fascinating and when he actually met her she was far more interesting. To be frank though, I’d imagine that initially she reminds him of the type of people he would hunt when he was alive. Meeting her, it would kind of reinforce that because he doesn’t really see her thinking for herself. The more he would get to know her, the more he’d see that she is truly someone born of Hell and the more interesting she becomes to him. She’ll say some things that are so blatantly inhuman that it’ll just make him double take. 

She would be an itinerary of knowledge for horrible things (like how to kill, how to torture people, etc) but she doesn’t use or like any of it. It’s just a result of living with her family and in Hell as a general concept. I’m kind of imagining a young Charlie being forced to sit through executions and torture sessions either performed or ordered by her father (maybe even forced to do it herself). 

....ok i went on a tangent whoops. 

And YES SHE ASSOCIATES HELL AS HERS ALL HERS. This is canon. Actual canon. She doesn’t care about silly turf wars, doesn’t care about who is on whose side. They’re all hers. I remember reading in the wiki that she takes the approach of treating rehabilitating sinners like children. I think this would come in here. 

It would kill her to lose so many souls so constantly but, holy hell, she’s also getting just as many people daily so she’s constantly hearing new songs join the already mixed and jumbled song. It would be really distracting and sometimes interferes with her higher process thinking.

But you gotta admit the angel part of her would be super confused at all the killing because, technically, it’s her own kind that’s killing off her people. One half of her would be screaming “WHY WHY WHY DO THIS KIN WHY ARE YOU HURTING ME” while the other half is screaming for blood and respite. 

And yeah, being unable to do anything about it and no matter how much her Mom tries to calm her down and how thick the walls of her bunker are, it doesn’t stop her from hearing the screaming and sheer devastation. Coming out after the fact is draining and she spends at least a day or so crying and singing her heart out (her voice practically broken at this point from her own screaming). Her skin would be especially ill-fit but there’s no part of her angel half willing enough to show itself. It’s akin to feeling like you’re swimming in a sweater that’s three sizes too big. 

....she is totally a lion. She has the mane for it despite identifying as female xD

Tbh honest, when I first thought of angels in this universe and what not, I likened them to being a species in which you’re one or you’re not. So a hybridization like Charlie is not only rare, but unstable. Her demon and angel halves fight for dominance and, eventually, one half will win and there’s no going back from there. Omg CHARLIE BEING THE FIRST SURVIVING CHILD IS SO SAD. NOOOOO ;((((((

Charlie goes underground during the extermination for a good reason lol. As she gets older, her instincts would severely change. The older she gets (and the more powerful), the more prone she is to fighting back. By the time canon comes around, she has to be chained during the extermination and Lucifer or Lilith have to be there to make sure she doesn’t break out of the chains.

Charlie is aware of this and so she would be terrified af when her friends suggested they get together during the extermination for support. By this point, Charlie is starting to feel more stable and feels that she might actually be able to control herself better with her flock surrounding her. 

Alastor probably wouldn’t know about it until he shows up out of nowhere and sees them barricading the hotel and is like wtf are you all doing. He side eyes the chains that Charlie sneaks past her flock. He immediately decides that it would be a splendid and fun idea to join them. Vaggie tries to deny him, but Charlie is quick to agree, hoping beyond hope that she wouldn’t have to be chained. 

She sticks close to him when the clock hits midnight and the angels descend. The chains were a precautionary measure and in between Alastor and her flock, she thought that she wouldn’t have needed them but she was WRONG. 

Somehow, Charlie manages to hold herself back until an angel shows up at her door. A part of her is whimpering cousin-friend-family-brother-sister while another part of her knew what exactly this meant.and was screaming in the only way she knew how to tell the angel to GO AWAY. 

But yeah, they don’t and they get messed up and Charlie ends up revealing her eldritch form to her friends (other than Alastor who has already seen her in this form by this point).  Alastor would definitely draw her into a duet to bring her back to herself. 

During this Alastor would be so excited to see his angel kill an actual angel. Sadly (to him) they end up getting away. The feathers clenched in her hands were trophies of another kind. He wanted to pin and frame the wing in one of her clawed hands. 

But it’s still kind of a horrible moment too because the extermination is still happening and Charlie can still hear and feel her people dying. She’d be crying to tell him to make it stop and all he could really do is sing quietly to her, emphasizing his own song to try and mute some of the carnage. 

But if there’s anything Alastor can do, it’s talk and talk about everything but nothing. 

FUTURE LA MUERTE/XIBALBA AND ADAMS COUPLE VIBES AHHHHH. I support this so much. I see them in the future as a fairly antagonistic and competitive couple I don’t know why (so kind of like La Muerte and Xibabla xD). They love each other more than anything but, at the same time, they can only handle each other in contained doses. There would of course be the honeymoon period, but eventually when they settle, their personalities and morals combat each other quite a bit. Both of them are unyielding in their beliefs and unwillingness to change so it would cause some clashing. 

Can’t live with em, can’t live without em’.

They would be that couple that’s always singing and dancing though, from tango to intense and dramatic songs to slow ballroom. It would annoy everyone around them and Charlie would feel some embarrassment at first but, in the end, absolutely love it. 

Lol this was all very very great :DDDDD  I feel you. I feel like I’ve written a fic but its great xD

[southern-continent-skies]

Mirror Barrayar

I’m not writing this fic, but I wrote out a bunch of world-building/bios for a Barryar Mirror Universe while I was trying to write something else that ended up being too dubcon to fit into canon, and instead went sideways into this.

The concept of Mirror Barrayar is basically like the Star Trek version. The main difference is that the Terran Empire in Star Trek is inherently atomized and selfish; everyone is murdering/sleeping their way to the top on their own, with no personal or community ties except to The State. Mirror Barrayar still has the feudal aspect to it, so it’s different, in that you do have some residual notions of Family, Honor, and Loyalty (especially loyalty), but there’s a great deal of F You I Got Mine, as well. 

Generally, the Vor see an obligation to their proles and liegemen, but its the same way you might see an obligation to a pet. It’s reprehensible to, say, chain them outside with no food, or beat them for personal entertainment, or abandon them. But it’s also reprehensible to just let them do what they want, because they’re animals; if they snap, it’s because they’re poorly trained, and if they’re obese, it’s because you overfed them. You have absolute authority over their lives, so you need to step up and exercise that authority responsibly. But you don’t go through the motions of making sure your terrier wants you to pet it, that’s ridiculous. If it doesn’t growl, it’s fine - and if it does growl, obviously it needs more training. Keep them well-fed and happy, but never make the mistake of offering them respect.

Bios behind the cut because Long.

Emperor Gregor is recognizable, but much more Ezar-like; sharper, less concerned with ethics and more concerned with keeping power. Vordrozda was a much more conscious ploy to smoke out any actual disloyalty of Aral’s; he knew what Vordrozda was doing, and he played both sides against the middle. He didn’t want to execute Miles, but he would have done it without an existential crisis; he’d rather keep the campstool than his cousin. Not only is the position of Emperor intrinsically valuable, but it’s the only way he stays alive. Ride the tiger, however many of your friends it eats. 

He’s still depressed (neurotransmitters are a bitch), but his saving grace is duty, which he knows he can do better than anyone else - he took a swan dive on Komarr primarily because he was temporarily convinced otherwise. He wants to avoid civil war, because that needlessly endangers proles and civilians, but he’s not remotely above strategic assassination. He found Cavilo entirely attractive, and very Vor, but he didn’t really want to sign up for a marriage where he’d always have to watch his back. He doesn’t really want a partner, either; feudalism doesn’t understand the concept. Sorry, Laisa; you (and his conception of Kareen) are more like chivalrously-accommodated pets. It’s less male/female than political combatant/civilian, but the distinction is definitely there. He respects and relies on Alys, but he watches her like a hawk because he knows she has ambition. He almost wishes Ivan were a woman, because he’d hate to have to execute his favorite social General for treasonously plotting his replacement. Maybe they can come to some arrangement anyway...

Aral Vorkosigan really is loyal, because he recognizes Vorbarra authority as legitimate and therefore voluntarily submits to it. However, he’s more apt to seize power himself as a “last” resort if he feels Gregor couldn’t keep it in his own right; better, in his version of honor and duty to Ezar, to have Gregor as a puppet than a corpse. He’ll be glad to step down as Main Power Broker in Gregor’s favor, but mostly because that shit is exhausting and he’d rather retire than die. The post to Sergyar is less a compassionate sinecure and more a board-clearing move on Gregor’s part, that happily also allows him to avoid killing them (he really does like Aral and Cordelia, but you can’t make compromises on power). On a personal level, Aral is the “switch” he sort of is in canon, except he’s not remotely that self-aware, and just chalks it up to Authority Moving As It Should, i.e. Sempai Is Always On Top - which is also why he and Ges were so explosive. Technically Aral, as a Count’s heir, outranked Ges, but they weren’t in each other’s chain of command, feudally or militarily, so they had to continually fight about it. That’s what made their affair so transgressive, not the m/m aspect.

Ges Vorrutyer needs no alterations. 

Neither, for that matter, do Ezar and Serg. Really, this is just a universe where Barrayar never socially progressed beyond Dorca’s Game of Thrones bullshit, except that now they have spaceships and fast penta.

Cordelia Naismith ran ALL the way out of fucks to give after Mehta, and is much more convinced that nice gets you killed. She still wants to be nice, if it’s possible, but she’ll shank you pdq if you might be a threat. Her advice that Aral execute Carl Vorhalas was on purpose, here: show them you’re ruthless enough to kill their sons, and they’ll fall in line. And if they fall in line, they won’t threaten our own children, so win-win (except for Carl; sorry Carl. But not too sorry). Aral’s “fountain of honor” is, uh, a very relative term. (And then, of course, her Carl Vorhalas ploy backfired horribly, because that sort of relentless back-stabbing is what the Mirror Universe attitude generally gets you in the end.)

Piotr Vorkosigan died much earlier on; Cordelia isn’t taking those chances with her son, and Bothari knows which way his bread is buttered, too.

Miles Vorkosigan is much more like the caricature of himself that he and Gregor feed Cavilo, except not nuts; that same scene happens here, but it’s full of a lot more barbed back-and-forth between them, with Elena watching not in incredulous giggles but in the kind of silence that means you’re storing up actionable intelligence for later use. He loves Admiral Naismith because it gives him a stage for the plots he’d be executed for in Vorbarr Sultana, and Gregor likes it because, again, he can make use of his family members without having to execute them for being themselves. Miles nearly gets executed for his Memory falsified report business, because if Gregor can’t trust him absolutely then he just has to die. He definitely sleeps with Bel; if he can’t swear it into his service personally, establishing a sexual pair-bond is the next best thing - and besides, it’s a willing subordinate and it’s hot. Likewise, the Elli/Miles relationship is much more fraught, and Miles’s involvement with other people is much more pointed in her general direction. Elli has too much non-Barrayaran self-respect to take the hint and *submit* to Miles, but she likes him enough to put up with way too much of his power-dynamic shenanigans anyway.

Elena Bothari is much more ruthless. She leaves Barrayar because she’s tired of the barriers put in place on her gender AND her class. She wants to play the game, to be a combatant and not a civilian, but on Barrayar she was born unarmed and would be trampled sharp-ish. And that’s why she wouldn’t ever marry Miles; she wants to be an officer, not a pet. And even though she has to leave the Imperium to do it, she’s still very much operating in the Barrayaran style. Baz, the poor puppy, still doesn’t quite know what hit him; but for a pardon, a Vorkosigan connection, and a kickass, gorgeous wife, he’ll do whatever she wants.

Lady Alys is the reigning domme of Vorbarr Sultana. She rules the entire social scene, and social ladder, with an iron fist, tastefully draped in very plush velvet. Marriage contracts for the High Vor go through her first, or good luck getting an invitation to any of the Residence events this year - and she absolutely insists on her version of droit de seigneur. Unlike in canon, she is very much not in a hurry to get Gregor married off, because then she’d have to step back, and fuck that noise. She may have sabotaged a few potential matches by fucking with their gene scans. If Ivan were a woman, that dynastic loop would have been closed yesterday. As it is, she’s been hinting since forever that it might be a good idea for him to cultivate a, ah, “closer” relationship with his cousin, ifyouknowwhatimean. And her relationship with Simon Illyan is equally pragmatic, though no less enjoyable for it. After all, if Gregor dies without heirs, who would be better placed to pull her son’s strings right into the campstool? “Dowager Empress” has a ring to it, don’t you think?

Simon Illyan, Negri’s student in every way, has internalized enough Barrayaran class sensibilities to accept, and even enjoy, reflexively submitting to the Vor - as long as they’re at least as competent as he is. He’s loyal to Aral, and to Gregor, as he was to Ezar before them - but in a much more “I have weighed the pros and cons and come out on your side” sort of way. Aral and Gregor both take proper care of their vassals, after all, and better to be 2IC in heaven than to scrabble for a fighting chance in hell. If Gregor died without heirs, he would have some serious problems trying to decide between Aral and Alys (i.e. Ivan), but until that happens, he is more than happy to let them both think him Their Man. If they require assurances of such in bed, he’s more than happy with that as well. 

Ivan Vorpatril still has the whole “no ambition I prefer my head thanks” vibe, but it’s more pointed this time, because this Gregor would actually execute him if he put a toe out of line. He doesn’t want to get married, not only because then he’d have to deal with a wife, but also because it would put him in the middle of his mother’s schemes and potentially at odds with Gregor, and no thank you. The Arquas’ “analysis” in CVA that he’s been kept in the capital on purpose is actually accurate here; Gregor won’t risk such a photogenic descendant of Xav anywhere he can’t see him, and/or shoot him if necessary. Definitely potential Gregor/Ivan sequel here, in case this one doesn’t have dub enough con for you. Ivan generally tries to make himself as small a target as possible on that end of things - but he also does a great deal of “swiving” of his social inferiors, because he’s the Emperor’s cousin and he can. The Vor/“high prole” young women don’t like him very much, primarily because he expects something for nothing, but it’s easier to go on a few dates than to try to refuse. The “low prole” women who end up in bed with him… don’t bother to complain.

Laisa Toscane is as ruthless as the Barrayarans - all the Komarrans are. They cut their teeth on cutthroat capitalism, after all. Adapting to the feudal structure of the Imperium has meant some sacrifices, mostly of their pride - but pride doesn’t earn shares. She’ll bend both her knees if she can win her children, and her conglomerate, advantage in the process. Gregor’s not a bad husband - and the more he underestimates her, the more she can slip by him. Her gene scan came certified from a Komarran doctor straight to the Emperor’s personal physician - no Vorpatril fuckery possible. She hasn’t yet acquired the social capital to tell Alys to fuck off, but she’ll get there; she’s one of those Toscanes.

Duv Galeni is at least as ruthless as Laisa. He left his academic post for the Imperial Service Academy, because of course he did; he knows which way the bread is buttered, and he wants as much butter as possible for himself. His father was a naive idiot; fighting an overwhelming force for “principles” gets you nothing but pain. Duv, having learned from that experience, will do what it takes, whatever it takes, to get his. Bend over for the Butcher? Why not? It works for the Vor.

Byerly Vorrutyer only has one hand of cards, for the moment, but he plays it really, really well. He’ll suck anyone off for the social capital - and then promptly sell their pillow talk to ImpSec for extra points. Fuck you, pay me - twice, if possible. He may not be a high-level player yet, but give him a decade and a metric ton of blackmail material acquired along the way, and then we’ll see. Loyal to Dono, and to Gregor, to the extent Gregor can spare the attention; he’d gladly serve his Emperor in any sense of the word his Emperor wanted. Byerly’s attracted to power - in other people. What he wants for himself is security. His ideal endgame is to level up out of the game entirely, and just be someone’s pet - but he’s having difficulty finding anyone who would keep him in the style to which he would like to become accustomed. Dono doesn’t count - they both have had it up to here with the Vorrutyer penchant for incest, thanks. His second choice is to acquire enough cards to be untouchable in Vorbarr Sultana. Failing those, his contingency plan is to retire to the District on Dono’s pension and play court jester, but they both hope it doesn’t come to that.

Oliver Jole, bless his heart, is a junior prole officer whose competence is more military than social. He still has enough stars in his eyes to be dazzled by Vor authority, and he hasn’t been spoiled by having to serve a bad boss. On both a personal and a professional level, he’s completely in love with the idea of submission to the Vor - but whereas Simon is doing the same thing in self-awareness and as Part Of This Complete Strategy, young Oliver actually considers it some combination of personal choice and cultural obligation. It’s a good thing he’s pretty, and that Cordelia takes him in later, because the ingenue never quite grows up in that regard.

Admiral Kanzian, as a likely irrelevant-to-the-hypothetical-fic side note, is an absolute dragon of a superior officer. He got his position on the General Staff through both merit and social savvy (and, in his younger years, a bit of, uh, “personal competence”), and he’s not giving it up this side of the apocalypse. Junior Vor members of his office staff reportedly have to suck his dick before they start work, just to get them in the properly subservient frame of mind, for once. Rank hath its privileges - especially on Mirror!Barrayar.

[carmenlire]

Hi! I am pretty new to SH, and when I went to ao3 to find some malec fics I saw there were 19k fics there and I just... noped out. But then I came across one of your fics somewhere idr (prob tumblr) and I really really liked your writing style so I may or may not have spent my spring break reading all your fics... rip. I'm still way too intimidated by the sheer amount of fics on ao3 and since I really loved your writing, I was hoping you could maybe rec some, either fics or authors? Thanksss

holy shit, anon, I’ve written so much dkfgjhsdfkjg that must have been quite the undertaking for spring break lmao! I’m super happy to hear that you like my writing though, especially enough to read most/all of my fics! 

Okay, so. When I first started in this fandom, it was overwhelming too and that was in August of 2017 lol! I read a lot of fic rec masterlists on here and then once I went through those, I explored ao3 a little more, along with those authors that captured my interest. I don’t know what you’re interested in but I’ll just go ahead and list some of the fics I started with along with my favorite authors! Everyone on this list is a delight as a person and a writer and I hope you like them! 

(This is going to be probably a lot of me rambling variants of read this!! but I’m gonna put a short summary so you know what the story is actually about. I will most likely oversimplify the fic lmao but check out those links for the full synopsis!)

Over 100k

Fall Without Wings by @notcrypticbutcoy (WIP) This was the first fic I ever read in this fandom and it topped every masterlist when I started– for good reason. At the time, it was around 180k? and I read it in one day/sitting. The writing is impeccable, plot to die for, and the way the author builds the characters in this story is just engrossing as hell. This is god tier lmao!

One Line Summary: Canon divergent AU where shadowhunters have wings, Magnus is actively on the Clave’s shit list, and Malec’s relationship is the best sort of slowburn.

One Easy Answer by @maleccrazedauthor This is the first of a two part series and holy. shit. I was enthralled from the first sentence. Apparently, I have a thing for canon divergent AUs and I read this a year and a half ago but still remember gasping at a certain point, hanging on the edge of my seat as I waited to see what the characters would do. I love this canon divergent AU– it’s written so beautifully. (Note: The series itself is over 100k. This particular fic is around 36k)

One Line Summary: Magnus and Alec are leaders of their people and have to learn how to make things work when a marriage of convenience is their only option.

Anything You Say by @milominderbindered Admittedly, I’ve only read the first 80k? of this because I started it like over a year ago and it was a wip at the time but I remember being Super Into It and desperate to see where the story was going. Now that it’s finished, I’d totally recommend it!

One Line Summary: Detective Alec and Forensic Expert Magnus. Honestly, need I say more lmao.

Deeper than the Truth by @insiemes This was one of the first fics I read– probably within the first week of entering the fandom. It’s a wonderful story and a classic for a reason. And that ending:’)

One Line Summary: Alec is a famous author who uses a pen name and Magnus is a fashion designer in love with Gideon’s books.

60k-80k

The Haunting of Lightwood Hall by @bonibaru There are tragically few historical Malec fics in ao3 and this is a gem! The plot is interesting and the love story is super well done. And that ending! I loved it so much.

One Line Summary: Magnus Bane, a psychic, is invited to the Lightwood estate when a murder mystery implicated the heir, Alec Lightwood.

42 North, 71 West by @lecrit Okay so, admittedly, I haven’t read this yet but it’s because I don’t read wips and this just concluded like, last week lol. However, lecrit is a brilliant author and I’ve read several of her fics before and loved all of them! You really can’t go wrong with this author and I would encourage you to read anything/everything in her ao3!

One Line Summary: Politics!Alec and Actor!Magnus in one AU? Sign me up!

The Strength of (Un)Broken Bonds by Blue This is the first of a three part series and I love it so, so much! This is a little grittier though not angsty. The plot is tightly woven, the characterization spot on, and it’s an excellent exploration of the parabatai bond done right. Wildly creative and I everytime I reread this, I’m just in awe at this author’s skill!

One Line Summary: Post 2b, shadowhunters realize just how intrinsically their biology is tied to demon energy and Alec has to deal with a fritzing parabatai bond.

Addicted to You by AlxSteele I’m not a huge fan of fuck buddy AUs but this author is prolific in the shadowfam so I took a chance and I’m so glad I did! This was a realistic portrayal of this AU without being needlessly angsty. Everything was just right and I was so ready to see Magnus and Alec get their shit together!

One Line Summary: Magnus and Alec lead busy lives and neither one has time for a relationship– only what starts out as a string of one night stands leads both to catch feelings big time.

A Fighting Chance by HeartsDesire456 This is a classic for me. I read most of this in one sitting and was almost late for work! But it was totally worth it. I love the build up and the world that this author created. Really, one of the best malec fics I’ve ever read and I love it so, so much! I would recommend anything else by this author, especially Hard Choices, though that fic is considerably heavier though no less well done.

One Line Summary: Alec owns an MMA gym next to Magnus’s dance studio. What starts out as a noise complaint quickly changes Magnus and Alec’s life irrevocably.

We Break That Way by ifallonblackdays_fics and valfromrome I’ve read this several times and it’s a fic of substance. I love fluff but this is a really excellently plotted story that does a fantastic job of showing both Magnus and Alec as the leaders they are. It’s darker but realistic for the shadowhunters universe and I love how amazingly well these authors created a story that picks up after 2x18 in an excellent canon divergent AU where Magnus and Alec didn’t reconnect at that Hunter’s Moon party?

One Line Summary: Not all shadowhunters are happy that Alec’s trying to build relationships with the downworld– what happens when a group of extremists go after the Head of the New York Institute in a bid to return to the old way?

40k-60k

The Lonely Heart Hotline by @unrestrainedlyexcessive Anon. Listen. I am putting Fatale here because this is her latest completed fic and it’s 40k but I would heavily encourage you to read every single piece of writing by this author. I have read all of her fics at least twice and I love them to death. She does such an amazing job of portraying real life, even when her AU is fantastical. I’m partial to her Ave Atque Vale series, which was the first fic I read by her, and her Home series but as I was scrolling through her ao3 profile, I just kept remembering all her stories and how amazing they are. Seriously. I can’t stress enough about how much i love this author’s writing!!

One Line Summary: Alec’s a law student who moonlights as a phone sex operator and Magnus calls him one night, only to talk about music and his questionable phone professionalism.

Love is a Gamble by la_muerta This is another author that I adore and I’ve read all of her fics! This is a western historical AU that I read last spring and simply loved! I’d also recommend her series The Universe is Conspiring Against Us!

One Line Summary: Sheriff Alec Lightwood is busy enough keeping Nephilim Falls from descending into chaos but when Magnus Bane opens a gambling house in town, Alec’s has more on his mind than his townspeople.

20k-40k

Give Me the Pain (Then Take It Away) by LadyOxymoron This is a beautifully well-done story of Alec and Magnus exploring BDSM, particularly Alec’s submission. But it’s so much more that. It’s about their relationship and Alec learning to take better care of himself and overall, I was stunned at this fic. I would really recommend anyone read this for something that pulls the heartstrings while still being hot as hell.

One Line Summary:  After a near death experience and throwaway line from Magnus, Alec finds out that he can let himself fall, as long as Magnus is there to catch him.

Appassionato by chonideno This is a classic in the shadowfam. A wonderful story of malec falling in love before properly meeting. The vibe is so ethereal and full of feeling. Really lovely story.

One Line Summary: Alec plays the piano and one day, a request slips under his door– what follows is months of Alec playing for a stranger, both of them falling one note at a time.

Pillow Talk by lacheses This was one of the first fics I read and it’s a really beautiful story that takes place during season one. It’s gentle and really does a fantastic job of building Magnus and Alec’s relationship, both of them so cautious and invested so quickly after meeting.

One Line Summary: Alec Lightwood falls in love, one nap at a time.

Good Our Whole Lives by @beatperfume This fic ruined me. I was invested from the first word and read it in one sitting. The emotions are enough to put you in a stranglehold and while I was wildly unsure based on the synopsis/AU (hooker AU) I gave it a chance and I am so glad I did. I remember reading it and just feeling so much. Wonderful, 10/10. I would rec anything by this author (she really is very creative!) but particularly and I will be your shade.

One Line Summary: When Magnus catches Alec, a shadowhunter, hustling his club the two of them reach an agreement.

Three’s a Crowd by GoldenDaydreams I’ve read this a few times and I love it to death. Super lighthearted and funny, it’s a fun story about Alec and Magnus trying to have sex and Jace being a perpetually pain in the ass cockblock lmao.

One Line Summary: The story where Jace keeps interrupting Alec and Magnus’s ‘alone time,’ and they’re both super fed up.

Sympathy for a Prince by @ketzwrites This was a hella fun story about Magnus as a literal prince of hell and Alec, a no-nonsense detective just trying to do his job. Ketz has written several fics I’d recommend but this might just be my favorite!

One Line Summary: When Magnus, prince of hell, comes top side he doesn’t expect to meet Homicide Detective Alec and become his partner, so to speak.

Hold Onto Me (Cause I’m a Little Unsteady by MagnificentlyMagic One of my biggest pet peeves with the show is that scene in 1x09 where Jace betrays Alec and then it’s never spoken of again. This is a great fic that takes that scene and runs wild with it.

One Line Summary: His parabatai rune was burning, not with death, or injury, but with betrayal.

10k-20k

Yours is the Light by @theonetruenorth This author is an autoread for me and I love a good abo fic. This is so beautiful and I really, really love this. It spins the trope on its head while still in the shadowhunters verse and delivers a really satisfying love story for Alec and Magnus! I would really, really recommend literally everything they’ve written though!

One Line Summary: It wasn’t exactly a secret that out of all three secondary genders, it was the alphas who were the strongest, the most aggressive, the most territorial– It was also completely wrong.

Inimitable by Bumblebeesknees. I adore anything by this author but this. Wow. The plot is super creative as Alec and Magnus get sent back to Victorian London and Alec has to do something both of them would rather he didn’t. It explores a murky area that has the potential to ruin both of them and the writing is perfect. I don’t want to ruin anything but you gotta read this. I read it when it was first posted then scrolled back up to the top and immediately devoured it a second time. I’d recommend anything and everything by this author.

One Line Summary: Stuck in London in 1882 without Magnus’ magic, the way back to New York in the 21st century requires securing a charmed amulet from the Magnus who lives in that time.

It’s a Kind of Magicby @thealmostrhetoricalquestion I love every single fic by this author and would highly suggest you read everything by her but this one has a special place in my heart. It’s light and sweet and a wonderful AU!!!

One Line Summary: Magnus and Alec live on the same floor and are highkey into each other– the only thing is that Magnus is a witch and Alec’s a mundane.

1k-10k

You Only Live Twice by partnerincrime I love this story so much!! It’s a fun little Simon POV on Alec as a gardening billionaire recluse and Magnus as a CEO of the shadow world’s largest department store. It’s hilarious and I lose my shit every time I read it!

One Line Summary: In which Simon Lewis becomes an entrepreneur, and, through a series of highly improbable events, fails upwardly toward success.

Lonely Starbucks Lovers by partnerincrime is also a hoot and I love this author so much!! It’s the quintessential coffeeshop AU.

PWP

The Way I Feel for You by @theonetruenorth Goddamn, this is a masterpiece. I’ve read this several time and like I said earlier, anything by this author is guaranteed to be amazing.

Shadows. Shovels. Joy. by oncethrown While this isn’t strictly a pwp, it’s about the parabatai bond and Jace’s POV on Alec having sex. Heartwarming and super well written! another example of how the parabatai bond could be well done.

In Plain Sight by redorchid. Holy shit, I love this to death and it’s actually the first in a series called membership, about Magnus and Alec’s exploration into exhibitionism.

hit me like a ray of sun, burning through my darkest night by liamandzayn I’ve read all of her malec fics at least twice and I just think she writes great sex lol. Definitely recommend!

With Bones Unbuttoned by @ohfreckle No smut list would be complete without ohfreckle. She’s an autoread author for me and I think I’ve yelled about this particular fic literally every chance I get. Goddamn, the sex is hot as hell and the emotions that pour through are enough to make my own heart ache. No one does it better and I wish everyone would read this and die with me.

Lionheart by Bumblebeesknees Both this one and the one above are 2x18 makeup sex fics but they’re both very different. I also love this one immensely and this author, as I’ve mentioned above, is amazing. 

Series

Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things by @my-nameless-bliss This series ruined me. I can’t stress enough how much I love this series. It’s beautiful written, the emotion gut wrenching, and it’s a wonderful exploration of Alec’s masculinity and what that even means. It really made me think and reevaluate my own life and I am awed by this author’s talent and everyone needs to read this. There’s also ALDNT extras which is a multichaptered work set in this universe.

We Built a Dynasty Like Nothing Ever Made by Madalena. This was a canon divergent AU set after 2x17 that does a great job of exploring shadow world tensions and Alec as a Leader and Head of the Institute. Creative and stunning and wonderfully plotted, I’ve read this series several times and love it so much!!

The Boundless Saga by sarcasticfluentry and teumessian This is a canon divergent AU that starts in season one and it’s a classic for the shadowfam in my opinion. I particularly love Parts 4 (which could go in the pwp section) and 7, which I think it’s an excellent exploration of shadowhunter tradition and expectation.

Authors

@laughingmagnus Serendi has been an autoread author for ages, since the beginning, really. Her writing is wonderful and she really hits emotions in a way that’s enviable. Her Maryse centered fics are superb.

@gingergenower I’ve been yelling about Kat’s writing since I discovered her last winter. I started with goddamn right (you should be scared of me) and I’ve read all of her fics multiple times. You really can’t go wrong with her!

@thattrainssailed Monica’s writing style is very distinctive and literary. She writes Malec like they’re set in stone entities, powerful and always in control, even if everything else is a chaotic mess.

@bytheangell Elle can write fluff or angst depending on her mood and she does a wonderful job with whatever strikes her fancy. She has a >100k fic called Support System that I’ve heard really great things about, even if I haven’t had a chance to read it yet.

@royaltybane Lydia is an OG in the shadowfam for good reason! Her writing is fluid and suitably full of feeling. You really can’t go wrong with anything by her!

Ohprongs is a wonderful author and I’ve read all of their stuff on ao3. I’d highly recommend them for shorter pieces.

This is by no means an exhaustive list! I’ve quite literally read thousands of Malec fics since I joined the fandom in summer 2017. These are the most memorable to me, however, and the ones that I’ve returned to time and time again. Any author I mentioned would be worth going through their backlist. I often just picked my favorite fic of theirs. 

If there’s something that you’re into– a trope, a general tone– you can always come back and I’ll do my best to answer your questions and give you recs! I hope that this helps and isn’t too overwhelming– I tried to organize this masterlist by word count and then misc categories. Thank you so much for thinking highly enough of my writing to ask me this and I’m sorry it took a little while to compile this fic rec list! Happy Reading!!

[ifeveristoday]

team Slow Burn/Burn it All Down

“Real monsters don’t announce themselves or present opportunities. Not here. They enter your head, your heart, tear at you from within.” -- Angel, Hellmouth #2

Are we talking about the demons underground or the demon walking around with Angel’s face?

Hellmouth leans heavy on foreshadowing and having unspoken/underlining meanings that differ from the actual words on the page. It continues using elements from Egyptian and Roman/Greek mythos but the main draw of this issue - and I’m assuming the rest of the series, is the reluctant partnership of Buffy and Angel. I don’t agree with the criticism that taking Buffy and Angel away from their respective apocalypses ruins the flow of the overall arcs. It’s a vast story to tell and the pace of the reboots (which is something I have criticized) makes it difficult to include in the main storylines without sacrificing important character development. There are just so many characters, especially in Sunnydale. Jordie’s writing excels at the character and emotional beats rather than plots, and while we have had some great strides in Willow, Xander and Jenny’s personal journeys, there remains some distance from the namesake characters, which I feel like it was intentional to get to the place that Hellmouth occupies. 

Love it or hate it, the Buffy and Angel relationship is a huge part of both of their stories and character developments and we’ve had inklings of how Buffy is going to change/possibly wreck Angel’s life in Angel, but he’s remained a shadowy figure in Buffy’s story. Hellmouth changes all of that while retaining some of the original canon’s flaws/trademarks but also poking gentle fun at them.

Spoilers from Hellmouth #2 below the cut.

Buffy and Angel are slightly different from their canon selves - Angel is independent of Buffy’s journey at the very beginning and already has his purpose set in Los Angeles. Buffy is a newly minted Slayer, living with her secret for a whole three weeks before wacky Slayer hijinks puts her in the path of Willow and Xander. Their initial meeting/relationship is reminiscent of the very early episodes of Season 1 Buffy - with a reasonable amount of wariness on Buffy’s part and Angel’s dry/slightly cocky attitude with a 2019 update of their anxieties. There’s also a flip in roles as Angel asks Buffy how she’s feeling and what she wants to do in the future at the start. It’s just the feeling of a connection with no romantic overtones. 

The comic recognizes the fucked-upness of Buffy being a child and fighting the forces of evil and sympathizing with her via the character of Jenny. While there is an obligatory nod to Buffy’s desire to be normal, it also makes a point of isolating her from the Scoobies and her frustration at knowing how to be the best Slayer she can be. Giles tells her that he’s to direct her, but not tell her explicitly what she has to do sounds an awful like parents preparing their children for adulthood. There is no handbook. While Buffy is welcomed into Willow and Xander’s circle (and that’s another flip - it is Willow who reaches out to Buffy first and invites her into being social), they’re very much a unit while Buffy sort of floats between their friendship. But I feel due to them being so young, it’s easy to claim best friendship, because - the intensity of feelings and hormones.

This makes Buffy’s character kind of harder to read, and less sunshiney than her OG counterpart. But it’s a shared facade - TV Buffy just hid it better underneath girliness and bouncy hair, while Boom! Buffy is focused, for better or worse to her duty. This is a Buffy that hasn’t quit Slaying before, who gets slightly conflicted guidance from her Watcher and who needs Willow and Xander more than they possibly need her to be a connection to being sixteen. Everyone has their own stuff to deal with.

Hellmouth gives Buffy the spotlight and also drops her into an immediate partnership with Angel. It very pointedly is not a romance - they both get on each others nerves actually, and it inspires A+ bantering while revealing the most of each character so far. Buffy’s venting to Angel (Buffy #8/Hellmouth #1) implies that she’s worried about her friendships and failure to connect, that she’d rather tell a complete stranger this than confide in her friends/Watcher. 

Angel listening and not judging shows an immediate empathy for her - and his actions during Hellmouth show a more vulnerable/less closed off Angel. He doesn’t occupy the same caretaker vibe he has with Fred and Gunn that he does with Buffy, namely because Buffy refuses it. She calls him out on trying to be the mysterious weight of the world Loner who takes on all of the responsibilities. 

Angel quickly realizes he just can’t be That Guy with Buffy, and it makes his character hilariously resigned/looser in response. He warns her about dangers in the Hellmouth but accepts Buffy’s way is different from his, but that doesn’t make it wrong. He’s willing to admit he might have been wrong about demons being upfront when the slithery shapeshifter demon confronts them - and Buffy’s snarky response “Cool, cool. Won’t rub that in.” lightens the tense moment. 

Notably, Angel is the one that gets injured/dragged by the demons while Buffy runs to save him. The fighting sequences are highlighted and Buffy’s scenes, in particular, are very smooth and highlights her Slayer grace. They fight beautifully together and despite their prickly banter, feel a shared responsibility to each other’s well being. Their separate confrontations with the shapeshifter shows their fears - Buffy ‘abandoning’ her family and friends and failing to protect them, Angel seeing the ghosts of the people he’s failed to save. Buffy reacts strongly to how her family and friends need her, while Angel angrily tells the shifter to stay out of his head and that it doesn’t know anything about him. Circling back to Buffy saying she doesn’t know what she wants, the Ominous voice implies Angel doesn’t really know what he’s doing and who he is.

Ah, vague accusations of something evil and upsetting, how I haven’t missed you.

After Angel demands to know who’s blood is needed for the further escalation of Evil Plan, and the Voice doesn’t reply, he immediately realizes Buffy is in danger and runs to find her.

Buffy’s still fighting the shifter and it mentions she could put an end to her family and friends’ suffering with her sacrifice - namely, that her blood will save the world.

While Buffy logically knows that the shifter isn’t her mom (because of course, the shifter would take on the form of Joyce), this emotional blackmail breaks her out of the illusion and she kicks it’s ass. Almost punching out Angel in the process. 

Angel is less emotional about his ordeal and Buffy lets him have it again, telling him that it's unfair that she’s the only one being vulnerable - “I opened up because we need to work together, and you haven’t said a thing.”

Instead of being defensive and defaulting to Sir Mopes a Lot - Angel sincerely apologizes and tells her that his fears were also centered around his friends and him not being able to save them in time.

And it’s Buffy’s turn to reassure him/pass on wisdom - she realizes that the Hellmouth wants to separate them to make them weaker and that Angel deserves a little more empathy from her.

THEY’RE COMMUNICATING THEIR FRUSTRATIONS AND CONCERNS WITH EACH OTHER, Y’ALL.

Angel does have a moment of saying, “Silent suffering is more my cup of tea,” and Buffy’s quick response of “And how’s that working for you?” showcase their differences/similarities nicely. Angel despite making friends doesn’t tell them what he’s thinking because he’s used to being alone, Buffy with her very loud opinions isolates herself (un)intentionally because she’s new to Slaying and being a teenager at the same time. They can’t talk to the people who care for them--- but they can talk to each other.

When they face hurdles, they take turns reassuring/pointing out the Obvious Evil, and then a tiny moment - Angel adds onto Buffy’s observation of not getting surrounded by the demon horde by saying, “Just like Thermopylae.”

As with each issue of the Boom!verse, when names I don’t recognize I obviously google them - and Thermopylae is a reference to both the battle of Thermopylae (think the 300 comic and uh, history) and the “Hot Gates,” and is the cavernous entrance to Hades.

Is my theory/wish that there’s going to be Persephone/Hades parallels and Eurydice/Orpheus vibes in this story going to play out? God, I hope so.

Anyway, back to the moment - when they inevitably get surrounded by the demon hordes, Buffy remarks, “Well, there goes thermometer.”

The. Classic. Buffy. Malapropism.

My heart.

Angel gets slashed in the fight, and Buffy worries about him, but there’s a bigger problem - 

narrated by the Voice - “Are you sure everything is as it seems? You’ve been wrong before.”

“Blood is spilled...vessels are filled...every pretender killed.”

Shot to Drusilla as Prometheus in chains, spouting some of the worst “Dru-esque” dialogue I’ve read. Sorry Jordie, this is up there with the clunky faux Whedonisms of the early issues.

So Dru isn’t the major Big Bad, but rather the unseen Voice, who we, of course, don’t know.

Is she ultimate sacrifice, the vessel (after all she is of Angel’s bloodline) and oh, Angel Still Hasn’t Told Buffy He’s A Vampire which...

Boo.

All of the voice overs hint that the confession when it happens is going to cause Buffy Big Mad - after all, Angel knows more about her than she does of him, AGAIN.

The art and coloring is stunning as ever in this issue - Carlini really knows how to draw action sequences, and the varying light/color schemes really make the sense of Buffy and Angel descending into the Hellmouth feel vivid and real.

tl;dr I loved this issue and each issue the stakes definitely seem higher. The bantering and a slow reveal of their personalities are also excellent. The foreshadowing/double meanings of the dialogues.

The stuff I don’t like - the Dru dialog at the end, Angel being secretive about his Vampire self.

[boycrowned]

@evlfae asked : meta about your thoughts on ben + mal?

my feelings on ben and mal are vast and wide but i think they come down to their very basics to a thing of i like their dynamic , but i don’t like or agree with the way they ( the movies ) built it or made them. i don’t like what it says for ben’s character , i don’t like the way it played out in his treatment towards people , and i have had it as a ship and loved it but only if it formed differently !! i’m going to take this movie by movie for ease !!

descendants one : a huge thing about ben and mal is that it’s built from a spell. it’s built from a lie , from a manipulation regardless of the fact mal felt it was what she had to do and she did try to sort of .. make it better so to speak when she could. on the flip side ( canon wise , because it’s not a thing in my divergences ) ben should’ve told her the second he came out of the spell after the lake. i do think it’s very accurate that ben assumed it was because she liked him and audrey was in the way versus that she had bad intentions. that’s always made a lot of sense to me. i don’t like to say ben is naive because i think it frames what really is just wholehearted kindness in a bad light , but he does choose to think people do the best they can and have good hearts and good intentions.

descendants two : i’ll be going over the canon stuff because re : my main verse they simply do not date post the first movie. i think a huge … necessity to talk about and a thing many people who don’t vibe with ben disagree with here is that a huge point of the conflict in d2 regarding mal and ben and how they solve it is this: mal thought that ben wanted something from her that he didn’t. thats’s okay, it happens, but what we see at the end of the movie via the gift he had for her is that ben didn’t want or ask her to be anyone she wasn’t. mal put those expectations on herself ( and like, she’s young and she’s been through a lot, no shade to her ) and ben didn’t… know, because he can’t read minds, that mal wasn’t making all these changes because she wanted to but because she felt like she had to. 

ben couldn’t know that because she did not tell him. to ben, i think it just appeared as though she was in auradon longer, she was switching it up, she was making changes and obviously he knew that but change isn’t always a bad thing especially if from our point of view it’s out of the person themselves’ desire to change. of course he supported that, but he couldn’t know that to her it might’ve come off like oh so this is the way he wants me to be. i think another big thing i highlight is that ben wasn’t mad at mal because she was having a hard time or because the stuff was fake, really. he wasn’t even mad about the magic usage, we’ve seen that unless it’s harmful magic he straight up doesn’t care. he was mad she was lying to him when he thought they were doing things at a team, which is fair, and also circles back to the fact this relationship was built off … a lie. 

even in my default stuff ben does still go after her when she goes to the isle. ben cares, he’s always cared about her, she’s someone very close to his heart and he does ! feel guilt over the way the lunch interaction went down and how he reacted to it. i think here it was important for mal to realize (here meaning the movie) that she didn’t have to be someone else to belong in auradon. i think ben wanted her to know that, but didn’t know it was something she was struggling with so much. ben believes in auradon and one of the reasons he believes in it is because he believes it can and should be a place where people have that freedom to exist as themselves. there was never any reason he would’ve wanted her to be exempt from that. 

descendants three : oh buddy. okay ! i think this movie damaged mal and ben’s relationship a lot regardless of how their relationship is at the time of it going on. again , re divergence , a lot about d3 isn’t in my portrayal but i do think … ben has a really hard time understanding where mal is coming from in her ideas in d3 ( he feels the same about his parents ) and that’s not something he usually struggles with. 

he’s very good at being understanding, and it’s not often he looks at someone or something and has genuinely no idea … why they’re doing what they’re doing , let alone someone he does love. and he does love mal, i think that’s important in my stuff. he’s not in love with her but she’s close and important to him. i think it hurt mal to be so sure the way to go was something she knew would hurt ben. and it did hurt him .. but i think in some ways it was ... probably unlikely that they hadn’t disagreed on how to go about things ruling wise before that, because they’re such different people.

i’m sure I could say more ... in general. they’re very interesting characters and i don’t think they were ever supposed to be similar. that’s not to say they would never work, because i, again think with a different approach to them they could’ve been good but they’re not supposed to be the same people. they represent different things. i think it’s fun that their names are very clear reps for malevolence vs. benevolence ! and i think ... that’s kind of what comes to mind right now !

tl;dr : their dynamic isn’t bad and could’ve been good but the build up was ... bad for them both !!

accepting          &.          𝙩𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙖 𝙤𝙣.

[raeynbowboi]

The Other Ships in My Fleet

So, I’ve already made a post talking about how I feel about certain ships in My Hero Academia, and another post about some of my other fandoms. Both posts got a lot of likes and reblogs, so I figured I’d talk about my ships from other fandoms. If this post also gets a lot of positive feedback, I’ll consider starting a second page to post my fan content for all of my fandoms, while still maintaining this one almost exclusively for My Hero Academia and Kiribaku specifically.

Klance (Keith x Lance) Voltron: Legendary Defender

I’m fully aware that this ship is probably not going to happen, but it’s really the only ship in the series that speaks to me. I will not lie, I am a big fan of dark and moody dating happy-go-lucky, and the rivals to friends to lovers element is just icing on the cake. It’s only further helped by Lance being Keith’s second-in-command. They help each other grow, and the trust that forms between them is cute and endearing. They also shared a major element to their characters. Both of them feel out of place, Keith because of his Galra heritage, and Lance because he doesn’t have a niche role.

Rabies/Rae x BB (Raven x Beast Boy) Teen Titans (2003)

While there wasn’t a lot of shipping fodder for these two in the 2003 iteration, the two are a canon couple in most versions of the teen titans, having been married in the comics (more than once, I think) so this is sort of a unique ship in that I ship it across every version of the two characters. Sporting a snarky moody goth and a lovable goofball, their dynamic was like that of an old married couple, or a moody teenager and her annoying little brother. Still, the two were good friends, and even though their personalities were polar opposites of each other, they had a lot of quiet, emotional moments together in the series. Whether you want to read them as friends or potential lovers, I think it’s hard to deny that there was a genuinely nice bond between the pair.

Garnet/Rupphire (Ruby x Sapphire) Steven Universe

As the show’s literal physical manifestation of love and a perfect relationship, it’s hard not to like the relationship between these two adorable lesbians. With the show sometimes being edited to remove the queer elements, it’s absolutely hysterical that they had the two get married in an episode very important to the plot, and put Ruby in the dress so that absolutely nobody could misinterpret her as a male. Editing it would only confuse viewers as to why everybody is in wedding attire, thus taking a very satisfying stance against censors and bigotry. Garnet also marks a first in children’s programming as the first same-sex wedding in a children’s animated show, at least as far as I’m aware.

Pearl x Mystery Girl Steven Unieverse

Although only featured in a single episode and having no dialogue, Mystery Girl (possibly named Sabina) is a very important element to Pearl’s character, being her first step toward moving on from Rose Quartz. There were fans that hoped that Mystery Girl would come back, but even if she doesn’t, she’s still important to Pearl’s character development.

Amedot (Amethyst x Peridot) Steven Universe

I know a lot of people prefer Lapidot, but frankly I find Lapis too selfish and cold-hearted to be ready for a relationship as she currently stands. I find Amethyst to be a better fit for Peridot, since they both share issues with their height. That, and the way the show frames them has romantic comedy tropes interwoven into their scenes. But even if they’re just friends, Amethyst’s approval means so much to Peridot.

Stevonnie (Steven Universe x Connie Maheswaren) Steven Universe

I’m not usually a fan of lead boy dates lead girl ships, as they tend to be very poorly done, and many feel forced, or are just boring and predictable. However, the bond between these two feels very genuine. They don’t feel like a lead boy and lead girl forced into a relationship at all. They come together very naturally, and the show takes its time to build their friendship up slowly. The show remembers that they’re kids first, friends second, jam buds third, and love interests last.

Tomstar (Tom Lucitor x Star Butterfly) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

Considering the show’s themes of monsters, racism, and not judging evil at face value, this ship serves as the most thematically poignant to the narrative that the show is setting up. It also makes Star a stronger parallel to her “evil” great great something grandmother, Eclipsa. Both are monster sympathizers with monster boyfriends. While the blood moon bonds complicate things, I see this ship as the most relevant to the themes and messages the show seems to want to send.

Tomco (Tom Lucitor x Marco Diaz) Star Vs the Forces of Evil

More of a joke/crack ship, I know it’s unlikely, but the entire episode of Friendenemies had romantic comedy written all over it. Between the literal in-universe break-up song to the show’s promotional art being inspired by dime store pulp romance novels fuel the fire that keeps this ship afloat.

Bumblebee/Bumbleby (Blake Belladonna x Yang Xiao Long) RWBY

Partners, teammates, and close friends, the ship really took off starting in season 2 during the episode “Burning the Candle”, as Blake spiraled into self-destructive habits due to obsessing over her problems. Nobody is able to get through to her until Yang comes in to talk to her. She doesn’t lecture her or beg her to stop. She instead forms a bridge of trust by first opening up about a similar situation she’s been in, and how she knows first hand that this sort of spiraling can only have negative impacts. They are shown to be parallels, as both girls are negatively effected by a loved one no longer in their life, and the trust issues that spring from that loved one’s actions. Yang was abandoned by her mother, a problem which she mentions Blake repeated. For Blake, it was the uncertainty of trusting someone’s character, and being afraid of someone slowly turning into someone else. She explicitly states in season 3 that her ex started off a nice guy, like Yang. The first time he hurt someone, there was a reason. There was always an excuse. Until eventually, she became the pardoner. The one excusing his actions. And, she expresses the fear that Yang could be following a similar path. Both girls have been hurt by someone in the past, and both girls are afraid of being hurt the same way again, and inadvertently hurt each other the same way as someone else has. It’s also known that RWBY characters tend to represent or be based on fairy tale characters. Yang is Goldilocks, and Blake is Beauty from Beauty and the Beast. However, based on the lyrics from Red Like Roses “Black the Beast descends from shadows, Yellow Beauty burns gold”, there seems to be an implication that Yang is the Beauty to Blake’s Beast. This is interestingly supported by Blake’s name. Blake is a Celtic name meaning both Black and White, and Belladonna literally means Beautiful Woman in Italian, but is also the name of a very poisonous plant often mistaken for the harmless blueberry. The duality of her name could be pointing to how she plays the dual role of both Beauty and Beast.

Seamonkeys (Sun Wukong x Neptune Vasilias) RWBY

A bit more of a crack ship, these two lovable idiots are far less likely to be canon, but since Sun is Yang’s main competition for Blake’s heart, I have no problem shipping him off elsewhere with his goofy best friend. Although they act more like usual best friends in the canon show, their relationship does have a much gayer tone in the less canon comedy show RWBY Chibi, where Neptune almost seems to act like a jealous clingy girlfriend a lot of the times. I doubt the ship would ever sail, but I mostly ship it because they’re cute together. Although, with season 6 just starting, I got the vibe that Sun was stepping aside to let Bumblebee sail uninhibited. Sun doesn’t really have a third popular ship, it’s just Black Sun and Seamonkeys, so this ship may be gaining validity in the future.

Gumlee (Marshall Lee x Prince Gumball) Adventure Time with Fiona and Cake

The male counterpart to Bubbline (Princess Bubblegum x Marceline), there’s no real difference between the two pairs other than their genders, and Gumball preferring baking while Bubblegum prefers science. Because they are effectively just gender-swapped clones of the canon ship, anything canonical between the girls is also technically canon with these two. It’s not that I don’t like Bubbline, but when given the choice between gay or lesbian versions of a couple, I’m going to be naturally inclined to lean toward the gay version.

Sasunaru/Narusasu (Sasuke Uchiha x Naruto Uzumaki) Naruto

Maybe there’s a cultural aspect I’m unaware of, but it’s a bit of a running gag in the Naruto fanbase at this point that Naruto is obsessed with Sasuke. So much so that he seems to care about him way beyond normal friendship. With how much these two obsess over one another, it’s no surprise why this became such a popular pairing. Their dynamic even dwarfed Hinata’s heartfelt confession of her love during the Pain Invasion Arc, because as soon as that ended, did Naruto go talk to Hinata? No, he immediately started thinking about Sasuke. Hinata definitely got the shaft in part II, which is a shame because I really loved her character.

Bob and Linda Belcher Bob’s Burgers

More of an honorable mention than a full on ship, I wanted to highlight them as one of adult animation’s only married couples that actually still like each other. In the wake of the popularity of the Simpsons, and the cementing of the genre with Family Guy, the stock dynamic of idiot husband and enraged but supportive wife became a recurring trope. Before long, every single animated sitcom-esque family fell into this very annoying cliche. So, finding a couple in adult animation that are not only married but still manage to show they love each other is amazing. Their marriage isn’t on the rocks, they find time to at least try and be romantic, and even when they have bets or are on opposing sides of something, the show never forgets that these two love each other at the end of the day.

Captain Swan (Killian “Hook” Jones x Emma Swan) Once Upon A Time

This relationship between Captain Hook and the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming might sound odd on paper, but this couple is by far one of the healthiest relationships in the series. Both Hook and Emma come from broken lives, and together build themselves up to something stronger. In a melodrama surrounding fairy tales, both characters are surprisingly grounded, realistic, and skeptical cynics, a very stark contrast from the usual wide-eyed lovey-dovey couples Disney is known for. Emma’s tendency to put up walls and Killian’s tendency to always put himself first are both slowly broken down over time as Killian tries to tear down Emma’s walls and get to know her while she works on building a foundation of trust between them. The pairing feels very organic, and they definitely feel like the most realistic couple in the series as they both take turns stumbling and working toward being good for each other.

Rumbelle (Rumplestiltskin x Belle) Once Upon A Time

In the early seasons, this couple was beautiful to watch. I truly loved their chemistry and dynamic, as both of them were given such strong characteristics without simplifying either of them. However, as the show went on, it started to lose that power. The couple started to feel toxic as Belle kept waiting for Rumple to change, and he kept on lying and lying. It even reached a stopping point. A perfect one. Rumple was redeemed. He was a good man again. He could be the man Belle deserved. But instead, he slipped right back into his old ways. It was then that I fell off the band wagon for this ship. I loved it once, until I got sick of watching him hurt her over and over.

Daenerys Targaryen x Khal Drogo Game of Thrones

Although together only for a short while, this power couple won audiences over very quickly, as Drogo’s gruff but passionate affection mixed with Danny’s growing confidence and rise to power made these two iconic.

Renly Baratheon x Ser Loras Tyrell Game of Thrones

Another short-lived relationship, the remarkable thing is that Renly was literally the only character vying for the throne with fully good intentions for the realm. He was concerned with the needs of the people, and was the only morally good candidate in the War of Five Kings. Sadly, the ydidn’t get much screen time, but they were still a strong couple.

Peraltiago (Jake Peralta x Amy Santiago) Brooklyn 99

A rare exception to the don’t force the leads to date rule, the show let them form a bond over time that went from a friendly childish rivalry to a friendly dating rivalry. While each character experiences change and growth, it is not at the expense of their personalities, and the progression feels like it was meant to happen.

[convenientalias]

Yuletide Rec List

Y’all there are 3365 fandoms in the Yuletide noms and some of them are really good so I thought I’d just make a promo post here and also rant a little bc I’m excited even tho it’s barely October just looking at this list.

So I’m gonna put the rest of this barely coherent ranting under a read more but like guys, I’m excited.

So here goes. Some fandom recs!

Books

The Alpennia Trilogy by Heather Rose Jones

Mistress/bodyguard ship in the first book, which leads to so many possibilities! Loyalty kink! Power imbalance! All that shit!

Amazing worldbuilding and magic mixed in with religion

I’ve only read the first book but I’m totally gonna request it

Best for femslash fic tbh, but I guess you could do gen.

The Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab

Again the worldbuilding is good. But the series is overall very dark. Also, an ensemble kind of feel.

My ship is two powerful magicians who seem to be the last of their kind, both working for royal families, one of whom lives as a prince and the other of whom is enslaved.

They’re enemies most of the time but still.

But a lot of people ship other things bc ensemble cast. There is one canon m/m ship. There is a slightly OP female crossdressing thief. There’s angsty brothers. There’s lots of people basically.

Good fandom for m/m, f/m, gen, even poly. Very good fandom for dark fic or whump imo.

Peter Darling by Austin Chant

Trans Peter Pan who used to be Wendy Darling

Ship is Peter Pan/Captain Hook

Writing style is gorgeous

Captures the cruel, childlike side of Peter Pan.

Good fandom for slash mostly, but I imagine you could pull off gen too.

Nero Wolfe series by Rex Stout

Detectives in New York in some vaguely historical time period.

Narrator is Archie Goodwin, very snarky and charming, one of my favorite characters of all time.

All the mysteries are fun but you’re mostly here for the dynamics between Archie, Nero Wolfe himself, and all the other regular members in the series--the detectives sometimes brought in to help out, the house cook, the pissed-off policemen, etc etc.

Also totally fine to read out of order, I’ve never really paid much attention to the order myself. Includes both novels and novellas.

A lot of people write slash in this fandom; I don’t really ship any slash ships for it (I’m kind of a gen bitch here) but I admit the potential is there.

Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner

Technically YA fantasy but I’d say it’s not that firmly YA except for the first book.

Land of twists and intrigue with the occasional questing adventure. Pseudo-Greek setting.

Includes one of my favorite f/m ships for which I long for more dark fic.

Surprisingly active fandom, I am nowhere near caught up on the fanfic for the last book published.

Good fandom for het, slash, occasionally poly, and very good for GEN (sorry, the MC’s name is Gen and I couldn’t resist).

Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti

Idk why there’s a fandom nomination for a poem but I guess I’ll go with it, it’s a good poem.

Very ripe for femslash tho technically the MCs are sisters (but do they read like sisters? No, no they do not) so you might have to go AU for it.

Kind of dark and weird but childlike at the same time.

Movies/TV Shows/Anime/Literally Anything But Books

Kakegurui (anime/manga)

I’ve only watched the anime but I hear the manga is good.

Crazy high school obsessed with gambling gets even crazier when Yumeko the gambling freak shows up just to start drama.

Weirdly dark even tho nothing life threatening really happens. Ridiculously grotesque facial expressions on absolutely everyone.

Very good for femslash, decent for het and poly. You could probably write gen. But how.

Kado: The Right Answer (anime)

It’s sci-fi show that’s half about contact with aliens and half about the unhealthy relationship between an alien and his favorite human. And when I say half I mean “gets really dark in the last third”. But if you’re mostly interested in that part, it’s short enough that you still get there pretty quick.

I really just want dark slash fic, that’s all guys.

Two Faces of January (movie)

This is also a book by Patricia Highsmith but I nominated the movie bc it has Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen.

Dark thriller vibes

Slashy vibes with weird daddy kink overtones (it can’t be helped, and this remains constant whether it’s book or movie)

Somehow I still ship it despite not really liking daddy kink.

Just trust me

Singin’ In the Rain

I’m really hoping this was nominated by someone who wants OT3 fic.

That’s all.

Gattaca

If you don’t already know about Gattaca are you even following me

It has Jude Law in it

Also it explores dystopian ableism and yet has an oddly ableist ending which consistently PISSES ME OFF, which is why I always request fix-it fic.

People really like slash for this movie and I get it but I don’t really ship it but a lot of people do so if you watch it, you will probably ship it too.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

British miniseries which I somehow like despite not liking most BBC shows. (Seriously, my roommate and sister have both tried to get me into Sherlock and Dr. Who and I just can’t, good for y’all who like such things tho.)

I’m mostly here for the fae aspects and one of the MCs being traumatized and descending into insanity.

But the aesthetic is also pretty rad.

 Harlots

It’s about harlots. Kind of Victorian? I think? Idk time periods guys.

It portrays sex and sex workers in interesting, pretty down to earth ways.

It’s a good place for femslash but I somehow find myself craving gen.

The aesthetic is strong.

Luke Cage

I’ve still only seen the first season but it was rad

A lot of black people, guys

Also superhero-y things

Probably best for het, tbh, tho I would slash ship Luke with Cornell. Why doesn’t anyone seem to ship that?

Sakeru Gum

It’s like a five minute commercial compilation that will change your life.

I’ve probably reblogged it at some point. Otherwise, search it on Youtube.

Loooong looooong mAAaaaaan

Fandoms I’m Not Actually In But Might Join If The Prompts Look Good

There’s a couple different books nommed by Mary Renault! I’m reading the Alexander Trilogy right now (Alexander the fuckign Great, guys), which is nommed, so if things work out I might write for that. There’s also The Last of the Wine and Mask of Apollo.

Also, there are two series nominated that are by K.J. Charles. I’ve only ever read The Henchmen of Zenda by K.J. Charles but that was really good, so I may have to try one of these series out. Of course, I’d have to actually have time, and series are a bit lengthy for me this semester! But I might read a book or two if the prompts look excellent.

Someone nominated Learning Curves by Ceillie Simkiss? Which is an indie lesfic romance novella which was published only this August. I’m shocked it somehow ended up in the tagset and very curious about prompts. But I haven’t actually read this book, I’ve just heard of it.

The Caper Court series by Caro Fraser sounds interesting, too. It’s about a guy trying to become a lawyer who needs to fulfill a pupillage first, whatever the fuck that is, but apparently there’s gay people and intrigue, so I’m interested. I’ve started the first book.

Also, Zorro by Isabel Allende is nominated. I’ve never read this book but I’ve always wanted to because I love Zorro--the old TV show was one of my favorites as a kid. But I’ve never read a literary take on it.

If I can watch the Kdrama for Orange Marmalade, I’m interested in that too. I’ve only ever read the webmanga, didn’t know it was a live action now. It’s got vampires :) and high school drama.

So this rant was kind of unnecessary, but I just have a lot of feelings, guys, okay? Just...a lot of feelings...

[candlewisps]

Will you write anything related to Bloodline? In the Metas, I mean. Because while I think that Kylo's fight with the dark voice in his head (aka Snoke) has apparently been longer than initially expected, I think the fact that he learnt about his connection to DV rather violently if Leia's ominous reaction tells us smtg, with learning that his family had been keeping smtg that important from him... Must have been hard. Any thoughts? (I love your meta)

Sooo many thoughts @luciemiddleford, but I’m almost positive my response isn’tgoing to answer your question in any kind of satisfactory manner whatsoever.

My reaction to Bloodline, while mostly positive, is a bit ofmixed bag, and that’s due entirely to inconsistencies about The Family™ betweenthis book and the information we were given in TFA. Aaaaand how Bloodlinemesses with the timeline we more-or-less had previously established (more onthis later) and how this new set just feels wrongto me. In order for me to get across just how I feel in regards to him findingout about Vader in this manner, its necessary for me to discuss why I don’tfeel confident whatsoever about what little info we did get about the Organa-Solo Family Dynamic. Like, at all. I don’ttrust relying on the glimpses we got in Bloodline, including Ben finding outabout Vader in such a jarring manner.

I haven’t gone through the tags on here so idk if otherpeople have broken down some of the inconsistencies and issues with continuitythat Bloodline through into the mix, or if anyone has noticed them at all. Justto start off: I loved the novel. Fucking loved it. One of the best Star Warsnovels ever, in my opinion. I’m a sucker for politics/undercover/conspiracystories, so this was right up my ally. Basically everything related to Leia,the New Republic, the First Order already working within the Senate, anythingthat set up the political outlook for TFA had me overjoyed and I found itincredibly well-grounded in that regard.

It was just those few throwaway lines (I read the wholething twice and I think there are only like six or seven references) about Ben+ Luke that threw everything off. I was expecting this book to give us piecesof the puzzle to put together about HOW exactly everything went down, or atleast glimpses into how the Organa-Solo family life was pre-academy training.Instead it just made me scratch my head and question the canon-ocity of ClaudiaGray’s work. And there’s honestly good reason to question it??? Gray clearlystated that she had not seen/read the script for TFA prior to writing the book,she was clearly Surprised when she saw TFA and it didn’t outright contradictwhat she wrote in regards to the Fam, and beyond that any information shewould’ve been given about The Family™ in order to make Leia’s relationship tothem seem believable would’ve been pretty cut-and-dry (as in: they have a kid,here’s his name, he and Luke are busy doing ~something~). Rereading it justseems like they told her to name drop Ben and Luke a couple times just to makeit clear that she keeps them in her thoughts. They didn’t give her anymore towork with because obviously they’re saving that stuff for TLJ and didn’t wantto spoil it. When Gray was going through the details with Pablo Hidalgo andRian Johnson on what to center the novel around, the only information shereceived for how to make this a setup for TFA was concentrated solely aroundThe New Republic government, the Vader Scandal, hints of the First Order, andthe forming of the Resistance. Just another reason I don’t feel confident withany of the information that isn’t strictly political in nature. The familyaspect just feels like a fill-in-the-blank game (minus what we got with Han,that was all very believable).

Two of the prime problems I have, inconsistency/generalproblem-wise, are in regard to Ben’s age and in how he found out about Dear OldGranddad.

For starters, it was established pre-Bloodline that Ben leftfor training when he was 10 (still canon). It was also the prevailing andaccepted idea pre-Bloodline that Ben fell to Snoke and did-whatever-deed-he-didat the Jedi Academy when he was 15 (I believe I even saw a source at one pointthat confirmed everything went down at 15 but idk where it would be hiding,someone link me if you find one). Makes sense. HOWEVER. According to Gray’sbook, Ben is still with Luke at the age of 23 and hasn’t gone all Dark Sideyet. Here’s the inconsistency: according to the TFA script, when Kylo takes offhis helmet, “Han is JOLTED, seeing the face of his son for the first time as aman”. So Han hasn’t seen his kid since early adolescence, probably. That iscanon. Unfortunate and heartbreaking, but canon nonetheless. I imagine, butcan’t firmly say, it’s been the same amount of time for when Leia last saw Benas well.

This Bloodline continuity hogwash actually creates a majorproblem for Han and Leia’s characters. If we go pre-Bloodline assumption thathe turned at 15, then it means that, at most, Han/Leia went 5 years withoutseeing their son, in person or holo-vid (that assumption is pushing it btw, theystill could have visited him in early teens). We don’t know how busy they were,don’t know where Luke’s Academy was, don’t know if there were any rulesattempting to limit disturbances in the kids’ training. The only thing we canglean is that the Academy, wherever it was, was fairly isolated and hard toreach. So 5 years (again, pushing it) sucks, but is understandable under the rightconditions. BUT. If we adhere to Gray’s timeline, then it means that they went13 years without seeing their kid. It goes from sucky-but-understandable tofucked up in a big way. It is canonically established that Han hasn’t seen hisboy since he was an adolescent, but 23 is an adult. If Han hadn’t seen his kidin that many years, and was able to with him presumably just chilling with Lukeand not off doing dark deeds, then it makes Han and Leia look bad for notputting in any effort to see Ben (or Luke for that matter #rude). It reflectsbadly on Leia and Han. It was already canonically established that Han and Leiaweren’t there enough to guide him—this makes the setup for his upbringingunfortunate, heartbreaking, sorta-kinda understandable. But going 13 yearswithout seeing your kid when you have the means is not understandable andmakes one a shitty parent. This is why I don’t like it one bit. At the previouslyaccepted 15-year age mark, everything flowed together naturally and made sense.At the “new” 23-year age mark it just makes everyone seem like an asshole. It’sjust pushes things a little too far to be believable imo.

In addition to this, Leia states, “I never should’ve senthim away. That’s when I lost him”. This strongly implies that what happenedwith Ben happened relatively quickly (and that there was probably minimalcontact), as in FIVE years, not THIRTEEN. Thirteen years is a long time to sitback, think, and pinpoint exactly when you lost your son without actively doinganything about it. Which is not in Leia’s character. And Han says, “There wasnothing we could’ve done”, which also implies to me a relatively SHORT periodof time between when they actually had personal contact with him and when Bensplit for the Baddies™. Someone who has had repeated personal contact, evenfavorable/positive with their child (messages or otherwise) over a period ofthirteen years after training began would not be making such absolutiststatements. Again, five years makes a certain amount of sense, thirteen has mewtf-ing. Also??? Both Leia and Han’s statements sound like ones to familiar topeople who have had years upon years to come to term with things (as in, 15years ago, not a measly 6).

Onto my other major problem: how Ben found out about Vader.I have a really, reallllllllyyyyyy hard time imagining that Ben found out abouthim out of the blue. I can see where Gray is coming from, but actually thinkingabout it in terms of how Kylo is portrayed in TFA makes no sense with theBloodline timeline. Just for starters: as a descendant of the Chosen One, Benis ridiculously Force sensitive?? So despite the fact that Leia and Han keptthe Grandpa Bomb from him (I imagine Luke would’ve wanted to tell him the truthbut had to adhere to Ben’s actual parents), I don’t see how he would’ve gonehis entire upbringing not picking up on, at the very least, that they werekeeping something huge from. When Han says that there was too much Vader inhim, it implies there were many signs from him as a kid that made his parentsuncomfortable/nervous. For a Force-sensitive who can sense emotions and readthoughts, he would’ve at least picked up on that kind of ~vibe~ they sometimesgot around him and been curious about it. I even have a hard time believingthat, after a while, he might not have “pried” a little bit by trying to readthe thoughts of his “weaker” parent (Han) without detection. He wouldn’t havemeant anything inherently malicious about it, just a curiosity/desire foranswers for why some things made his parents ~share a look~ if you get mydrift. Kids pick up on things. Not to mention he might’ve picked up a vibe fromLuke himself. While I don’t doubt that Luke would’ve agreed to let Leia/Hanreveal things on their own terms, I still think it would’ve been difficult forhim to maintain the façade of “Vader was the enemy and I hate him to this day,glad I killed the bloke”. Ben would’ve been raised on stories of his family’saccomplishments, especially of Luke’s vanquishing of two Sith Lords, so I thinkhe would notice when they either tried to avoid discussing such things or thatmaybe his uncles retelling just didn’t feel right.

The other problem with the “he found out about Vader out ofthe blue” is the fact that that doesn’t organically coincide with hisdedication to Vaders cause that we see in TFA. For Ben to have gone 23 yearsclueless ala Bloodline, his unnerving conviction to finish what Vader startedfeels out of place. Six years is a little short to go from clueless to the “Iwill do everything in my power to finish what you started” idolization we havegoing on. FIFTEEN years on the other hand…well, you get my point. There’s alsothe issue of Snoke. Snoke was in this kids head from the beginning, so I can’timagine that he wouldn’t have used Vader’s identity as an additional tool toget Ben to mistrust his family as early as was feasible/useful. I already madethis whole post about how Vader’s identity/”ghost” was one of the integraltools Snoke was using to secure Ben’s loyalty, so there’s that as well.

While Bloodline is “technically” canon, it is still dubiouscanon at best, prone to changes and mistakes. There are only three “officialofficial” sources of canon (more or less indisputable), and those are the films,the scripts, and the official novelizations of said films. Any othernovels/comics/etc that doesn’t accompany one of the actual movies is canon only until/unless details within it areproven false or clash with Official Canon. And there’s enough weird informationin Bloodline regarding everyone’s favorite Family™, combined with the fact thatGray never even saw the script for TFA, that has me questioning just howin-universe I can take it.

It’s not that I have a problem reorienting myself intobelieving that he made his dark turn as an adult (I do actually), it is just afar less organic and natural string of events compared to him turning at 15. Samewith how he found out about Vader. Bloodline-timeline requires a suspension ofdisbelief. And it affects the narratives of other people around him as well, ina mostly negative way.

Maybe it’s just me that this really bothers. But theinformation Claudia Gray gave us (again, dubious canon at best) just fills liketrying to fit a square peg in a round hole and it throws me off thinking aboutit. I’m just gonna wait for TLJ to confirm/deny anything regarding the Family.