#these aren’t new drawings obviously but I just wanted to show them off

[blobbei-art]

Comparing studies from 2017 vs 2019 vs 2020 vs 2022

I’ve recently been reflecting on my artistic progress with how far I’ve come especially since I hated that 2017 drawing and thought I’d never be able to do art studies

[physalian]

“Why doesn’t the villain just kill the heroes?”

Ah, plot armor. If you want to be a real go-getter and think up a more creative way for the heroes to always narrowly escape death out of sheer dumb luck, the villain being too slow on the draw, or the villain simply not thinking of it in the moment, you have to come up with a reason for why the villain doesn’t just kill the hero.

Four examples today.

1. Zhao & Aang

In “The Blue Spirit,” Aang is captured by Zhao, a man normally not above anything to further his agenda, including murder. The Avatar is the largest obstacle in his way, second to the Earth Kingdom, and all he has to do to take Aang off the gameboard is to kill a twelve-year-old. He’s got Aang in chains, not quite powerless but harmless enough, and could do it quickly.

So why doesn’t he? Per Zhao himself, if he kills Aang, the Avatar cycle will continue, born into some random water bender that may take them years to track down. Sure, they’ll be harmless for a few years and the Fire Nation might get lucky and find them easily, perhaps even sway the new one to their side, but what if the waterbending Avatar is born into the Foggy Swamp? Or they end up having to kill them, too, and then have to track down an earthbending Avtar across the entire Earth Kingdom? Does Zhao really want to take that chance when he can just keep Aang alive? Just barely?

Of course not.

Killing the hero in this case might stop the immediate threat, but it will just delay the inevitable, thus it’s in the villain’s best interest to exploit a loophole while likely committing war crimes in the process. He gets to secure a Fire Nation victory and make Aang suffer for the rest of his life.

Ozai doesn't kill Aang until the first chance he gets, which just so happens to be the series finale. And we all know why Aang has a no-kill policy.

2. Sam, Dean & The Angels and Demons

Hahaha it’s the show known for its refusal to kill its heroes. We’re gonna ignore everything past season 5. There’s obviously meta reasons—kill the main characters and you have zero supporting cast that could realistically take over the show.

But in season 4, despite multiple deaths already for both of them, so begins the “if you die we’ll just bring you back” threat, because they’re angels and angels can do that. Similar to Aang, Sam and Dean risk a fate far worse than death if they don’t cooperate with Zachariah’s plans. He happily gives them both a slew of diseases and illnesses to get his way whenever he gets the chance and reminds them both that if they just kill themselves to escape the Apocalypse, he’ll happily revive them. The Demons won't kill Sam and Dean because they're necessary to further their own plans by breaking certain seals on Lucifer's cage, though they're not above breaking bones and killing bystanders.

Fate worse than death is a popular threat, but usually the heroes offing themselves is still a viable, if deeply unpopular, option. Supernatural removes it entirely and for such a simple little detail, it does a lot to make their survivability believable.

3. Batman & Joker

Ahh the age old furious rant by people who don’t understand Batman: If Batman killed his villains they’d stop busting out of Arkham and murdering innocent civilians, Batman has so much blood on his hands—

Babe. Babe, he’s a comic book character. By his very nature, he can’t kill his villains otherwise he’d have no rogues gallery. Comic books are like a giant board of Monopoly, going around in circles and occasionally having a timeout in jail.

But the in universe reason there’s no killing has been essayed about extensively and so has why Joker doesn’t try harder to kill him, but I couldn’t not include these two. Batman does not kill because he is not judge, jury, and executioner of his villains, most of whom have mental health issues and while they certainly know better and their crimes aren’t justified, his villains need actual therapy and help and medication, not death. Even those who he might agree must be stopped and there’s no other way except murder, Batman himself will not be the one to pull the trigger. He must remain a hero, so that no matter who he comes across in the dark alleyways of Gotham, they know he’s not here to kill them, be it criminal or victim.

Joker doesn’t kill Batman for a much simpler reason, and Heath Ledger literally says it: “I won’t kill you because you’re too much fun.” He does not need a more convoluted reason, he enjoys the game, the chase, the tug of war (most versions of him, at least) and to kill Batman would be to end his greatest form of entertainment, and the only person probably in the whole world who is neither afraid of Joker nor dismissive of him as simply a freak.

4. Optimus and Megatron

Optimus Prime and Megatron are very similar to Batman and Joker but with literal eons of history between them. In most serialized Transformers media, as opposed to movies where the plot is more urgent, Megatron both wants to win Optimus over and just can't quite let himself finally win. Who is he without his rival, after all this time?

Optimus is in the same boat, refusing to kill him because he's still holding out hope for Megatron's redemption, that there's a peaceful way to end this war (no matter how much collateral both leaders end up causing). Shit gets real whenever Optimus breaks the unspoken rules of their no-kill rivalry and Megatron gets incredibly pissy about it because he's in love.

—

Suggestions to workshop this plot hole in your own narrative:

The hero staying alive is absolutely paramount to the villain’s plan (in which case, you have to have rock solid reasons for why they keep narrowly escaping capture)

The villain is so confident in their plan that they don’t even consider the hero a proper threat

The villain doesn't really have a bodycount, but if they kill the hero, suddenly all the other powers that be will take them seriously and they'll have a huge mess on their hands

The villain is so full of themselves or so in love with their rival that it’d break their heart to have to kill them just to win

The villain is simply not capable of murder either physically or morally (perhaps because the hero is a child)

Killing the hero would make them a martyr and the villain would end up with a far bigger mess on their hands when the lone hero is replaced with an avenging army

The villain is too proud to simply kill the hero and wants to win fairly in a proper fight on the battlefield and not take the cheap and easy shot

The villain does not have a phyiscal form or real presence in the plot, acting through their minions, and their minions are incompetent

It’s simply not fun if the hero dies/the hero is the only one who understands them and they’d lose far more than they’d gain by killing them

The villain still wants to try and win the hero over and is so dedicated to this path that they regularly sabotage their own plans desperate to change the hero’s mind

The villain firmly believes in a fate worse than death and while the hero’s survival isn’t crucial to the main plan, they want the hero to watch their own failure/become the villain’s minion/ prisoner/ partner by the end

There’s a million examples out there to pull from and I could keep listing them all night. So long as whatever it is doesn’t come out of nowhere or open a plot hole of “why didn’t they just do that earlier?” you can get quite creative.

One last example that’s a personal favorite of mine to implement: In Eternal Night of the Northern Sky there aren’t too many opportunities to ask this question, but when it does arise, Villain A has Hero B as a meat shield, and while Hero B’s love interest, Hero C, is more than happy to shoot through them to incapacitate Villain A, the person they take orders from isn’t so reckless, which later leads to Drama and Issues.

[brotpqueen]

Good Omens hot take!

So we all love drawing parallels between the ineffable husbands and the other big ships, right?

Ineffable Husbands

Ineffable Bureaucracy

Vinylatte

Most of us imagine the mirror characters to be this, right?

Well that’s where I think we’re getting this wrong! I do agree with the vinylatte parallels, but as for ineffable bureaucracy? I have a different view. To me the parallels go more like this.

Okay so hear me out! I know it’s easy to draw comparisons because obviously the angel character will have more in common with another angel and vice versa for the demons. And that may be true on the surface. However! The more I think about these characters the more it makes sense to me.

Well start with the Crowley-Gabriel comparison, because I’ve seen this floating around a little more.

They have a good amount of traits in common.

Cold exterior, sharp language and mannerisms, secret soft side, all that good stuff. But what makes them so comparable to me is their impulsiveness. They (and Nina) tend to deal with their problems through schemes that aren’t entirely thought through and, most obviously, avoidance/escape. Crowley suggests multiple times that he and aziraphale run away together, and Gabriel’s grand plan for being with Beelzebub is to simply - literally - go to hell. (Nina’s example of avoidance is avoiding her feelings about Lindsay leaving her and her avoiding maggie so she doesn’t have to deal with any potential new feelings on top of those. This is a much less extreme version of how the dudes™️ handle things but then again vinylatte are really just the realistic balanced version of all the other idiots.) They’re not STUPID by any means, but they’re a lot more prone to an ‘act first, think later’ tactic. They also tend to show a lack of consideration about how anything they do to be with their chosen partner will affect the rest of the world. Crowley wants to go off with aziraphale and let the earth get blown to bits so long as they can be together and Gabriel leaves for hell not seeming to give much thought as to what will happen without him as supreme archangel. Gabriel’s plan also gives Crowley himself another chance to show his avoidance as his plan is to simply dump Gabriel somewhere. I love these dudes but they are, and I say this with love, a little silly.

Now to my favourite comparison! And no it’s not just because I’m delusional and think they’d be besties (though if you do wanna see that my fic Camp Armagetalong is full of my propaganda for that cause). It’s just genuinely such an interesting thought to me. In contrast to their respective partners, Aziraphale and Beelzebub are both a lot more strategic. More logical. To be quite blunt - they’re smarter about it. Aziraphale, while his hesitation may be frustrating, is correct in his judgements most of the time. He’s right that heaven and hell knowing about he and Crowley’s relationship would be dangerous and he’s right to try to cover it up for their safety despite how painful it may be. His plan when Gabriel shows up with his memory wiped is to figure out what happened and go from there.

In a similar vein, Beelzebub, while it may be less intentional, goes about trying to find Gabriel in a similar way. They ask the person they think is most likely to know where he is and when they get a lead they don’t simply go knocking down the door themself, they have an organised fleet breach the bookshop. Their gift to Gabriel also acts as a sort of backup plan to save him should his brashness get him in hot water - exactly what it does.

But above all the biggest similarity I see is that while Crowley and Gabriel deal with their problems by avoiding or simply destroying the issue, these two are fighters. These are people (beings?) who know what they want, face their issues head on and try to find ways to work through problems instead of jumping ship.

What happened to Gabriel? Time to investigate.

The system won’t let you be with your husband? Keep it a secret until you figure out a proper plan.

Someone’s being annoying? Either insult them right to their face or use the power of sarcasm! (Gabriel watch and learn. ‘Shut your stupid mouth and die’ is not as effective as an extremely bitchy glare.)

Okay I know this isn’t a very good analysis or argument I just wanted to ramble about my thoughts

[parkinglotdelulu]

How Stray Kids show they love you…

All members 

Genere: 🧸🧸

Word count: 1182 🤎

Chan: This man is such a dad boyfriend! He will always tell you he is proud of you or loves you! I just know he would give you a million little compliments throughout the day. Just little things like you smell nice, I like your t-shirt, or just how much you mean to him. But the thing is they wouldn’t be empty compliments either, every single time you would tell that he meant everything he says to you. And god forbid if you ever complimented him back, oh my god it would become the biggest competition! Just a back-and-forth battle of compliments and he wouldn’t back down either, you would give up and he would win every. single. Time.  Chan would just always feel the need to take care of you, if you're cold he would give you his hoodie. Shoes are untied he would tie them for you, Chan would also just walk on the outside of the sidewalk. Chan just always wants you to feel safe and comfortable.

Lee Know: I just feel like he would show you he loves you with food. We all know that he struggles with telling you he loves you but shows you he just has his own way of doing it.  He would love to take you out for meals to ensure you are eating all three. He would always choose all of your favorite places, even if he really doesn’t want to eat there. When you aren't looking he would take things from his plate and add them to yours. He would just get so happy seeing your smile while you eat and you better not even offer to pay because he will death glare you. He would also just love to cook with you while at home making each other's lunches the night before. Lee Know would also always slip snacks into your bags so when you are out and about and get hungry you’ll always have something to eat.  Whenever you both split something he will always give you the bigger piece. 

Changbin: just loves to show you off. Like excessively! He will bring you up in every single conversation he has with a person. Sees something you would like? Boom would instantly be like “They would love this!” Goes to a new place? “I should really bring them here!” Would literally just randomly start showing pictures he’s taken of you to the other members. It is just nonstop! He will post you on social media! If anyone even looks at him would immediately scream “I’m taken!” And just hold up his phone and surprise surprise you are his background. It would get to the point where the other member physically has to shove their hand over his mouth to get him to stop. But he doesn’t care he loves you and wants to shout it to the world…

Hyunjin: Would be doodling for you all the time!!!! Like obviously he would make these extravagant paintings and drawings for you. But I also feel like this man would absolutely make you tiny doodles. Whether it’s on a napkin or a gum wrapper. He would steal your books and make a doodle on the front cover when you open it. Or in the corner of the journal when you flick through the pages it will move. Sticky notes all over the place I swear. He would also just love to draw on you! Literally would just come up and grab your arms and doodle on it. Some of them would be really sweet and cute real lovey-dovey. But others I feel like would be hilarious like just corny comic doodles. 

Han: He is such a music lover, not that the other boys aren’t. But music to him is something he needs and it helps with his anxiety. You just never see him without his headphones. I just feel like he would know so much underground, obscure music! Just would have a song for anything. So I feel like Han would just always send you random songs throughout the day. Whether it’s a song that reminds him about you, your relationship, or just a corny love song. You bet he’s gonna send it to you. Feeling sad, he will either send you the best song you have heard that will make you bawl, or just a happy fun loving song to cheer you up. He would have a playlist for everything! Every emotion! Every moment! Driving in the car in the rain, coming of age, sleeping, gym, happy music, sad music. But he would make playlists specifically designed for you. Just playlists like how it felt to fall in love with you, or every single song he’s heard when you were out together(cause for some weird reason he’d remember that.) But his all-time favorite thing to do with you is keep his wired headphones in his pocket so that you two can always be so close while listening to his playlists.

Felix: Obviously Felix is a very touchy person and of course, he would love to hug and cuddle. But I feel like he would just love simple touches! Playing with your hair when he’s standing by you. Linking pinkies when your hands get sweaty. Rub your head or arm when he walks past you. Even if it’s just a small little one-second touch he will not miss his chance. 

Seungmin: He would absolutely insult the hell out of you. Playful teasing is just his type of love language! He’s not good at telling you he loves you. When the other members see your bickering, they say things like “You shouldn’t talk to them like that.” Little do they know he secretly has his sweet side. Seungmin is a big reader so I feel like he would annotate your books. Just cute little notes in the margins, highlighting things that remind you of him. He would gift you beautiful hardcover books and just write on the inside cover just how much he loves you. And so help me god if another member picked up a book he annotated for you things would not be pretty…For Seungmin showing he loves through writing is just easier. 

I.N: he would just be the best at gift-giving! Like when he would be on tour he would get you postcards, keychains, and a cheesy t-shirt like the I Heart NYC. He would just get so happy buying you stuff, like seeing your reaction to all the little things he gets you. And this man would not be able to keep it a secret! He would literally call you all excited and be like “Guess what I just got you?” He would also just love gifting you old clothes of his. Like he would just show up one day with a garbage bag of old clothes to give you, just full of hoodies and t-shirts. I just know he would also love to twin with you, just matching t-shirts, hoodies, and jewelry. If he buys you anything like that you bet he’s getting two. 

[triscribeaucollection]

Hole in the Wall, Part 1

Lyle never needed to wonder ‘how did it come to this’. He could point back to the exact date and time of day, when the door of his small bar swung open, and all conversation between the handful of patrons died a sudden death.

Kid Flash, either bold as brass or too dumb to notice, walked right inside with his bright yellow costume and little red boots. To make matters worse, he dragged along a second, even smaller kid - though at least the boy with a cape seemed to have the good sense to look rightly alarmed. Most of the guys inside wore regular clothes, but off in one corner, Heatwave and Mirror Master were decked out in full gear, weapons obvious on the table between them, both men just as obviously staring at the two pipsqueaks with baffled suspicion.

Didn’t matter to the Kid, though. He came straight up to the bar’s counter dragging his buddy, and put on exactly the sort of great big grin Lyle’s nieces used when they were trying real hard to politely ask if they could break a rule. “Hi! Can we use your phone real quick?”

Lyle blinked. So did half his patrons. “...the phone.”

“Mmhm!” Kid Flash nodded towards the old landline Lyle kept up on the wall. “Our comms kinda got fried and Flash isn’t around, so-”

“KF,” his little friend hissed, casting a quick glance at the nearest guys, who made no effort to disguise how they were glaring right back.

“What? Dude, it’s fine-”

Getting over his shock, Lyle thumped a hand down onto the bar to draw their attention. “Phone’s only for paying customers.” Saying that, he cast a glare of his own around the room, saw how it immediately made most of the patrons ease back down. 

Kid Flash winced, turning an apologetic expression on his friend. The smaller boy sighed and grumbled something under his breath, but nonetheless pulled a crisp twenty dollar bill from one of his belt’s little pouches. “Do you have any soda?”

Lyle grabbed them a couple of root beers.

“Thanks. Keep the change.”

And with that, the boys became patrons themselves, and thankfully everybody else inside the bar understood Lyle’s biggest, firmest, ‘broken under no circumstances’ rule: no picking fights with other customers. Now, if someone came in to cause a scene, they either ignored Lyle or he flat refused to serve them, which lit the green light for the rest of the room to ‘escort’ the troublemaker to the door. But once money and drinks changed hands, that was that, everybody enjoyed their beverages in peace Or Else.

In the back corner, Mirror Master and Heatwave scooted their weaponry out of sight, but otherwise went back to sipping and swapping complaints like nothing happened. And slowly, the rest of the bar followed suit.

Kid Flash chugged down his root beer in five seconds flat, before letting out a belch that wasn’t half bad for a middle schooler. “Okay! Can I please use the phone now?”

Lyle tipped one shoulder up in a shrug. He stayed put as the Kid came around the far end of the counter, one eye on the smaller boy still fiddling with his own bottle. “Don’t have bars like this where you’re from, huh?”

“Oh, sure. But I’d get shot full of holes in ten seconds if I tried walking into one,” boy replied flatly. “Or grabbed and tossed into a box until Batman showed up.”

That gave Lyle pause. “You’re the Bat’s kid?”

The child who couldn’t have been more than ten, maybe twelve years old at a stretch, lifted one hand to wiggle his fingers in a wave. “Yep. Robin, nice to meet you.”

What the actual hell.

Following that new train of thought got derailed, though, as Kid Flash’s phone call went through. “Hey, it’s me! Look, I know you guys thought me and D- uh, Robin- were just gonna go do some normal stuff, but we kinda interrupted a bank robbery-” Ah, that was the job Miggen was talking about the day before, “-and we’re fine! But there might have been an EMP emitter around that went off, and our comms kinda aren’t working, and since I can’t carry Rob back and he doesn’t want us to just take a bus in our costumes-”

By this point Robin had dropped his head onto the counter, both hands still gripping his bottle of root beer. Age him up a bit and swap the drink for a beer, Lyle thought he’d fit right in with the usual I’m surrounded by idiots patrons who came in to groan about friends and co-workers at the end of a long week.

“-no, we left the backpack with our regular clothes on the other side of the bridge,” Kid Flash went on. “Well, yeah, I could, but- look, Rob is from Gotham, if I left him alone for ten minutes there’s no telling what would be on fire when I came back.”

“Hey!”

Lyle almost snickered at the insulted expression on Robin’s face when he picked his head back up. A couple of other patrons also listening in did snicker, which just made the boy’s expression twist up even further.

“...where are we? Uh. So- do you, uh, remember that place Flash mentioned? The hole in the wall bar all the Rogues like to hang out at...?” Kid Flash abruptly pulled the phone away from his ear, wincing, and even from three steps away Lyle could hear a very loud voice on the other end.

“You are so dead,” Robin remarked.

“Shut up,” the Kid hissed back, before returning to his call. “I know, I know, but Rob bought us root beers and customers aren’t allowed to fight so it’s fine, we just- oh no. No, wait, you don’t need to-!” Lyle raised an eyebrow at the boy’s sudden panic. And understood it perfectly a moment later, when Kid Flash slumped in place and said in a very small voice, “Uh, hi Mom.”

Several more patrons in the bar snickered, or choked on their drinks, or otherwise looked like Christmas just came early. Robin’s head dropped back down onto the countertop.

“No. Yeah. Yes- I know that, but- yes, ma’am.” From what little of it Lyle could see, the Kid’s face appeared to be turning an even brighter shade of red than the color of his boots. “But I did do my homework!”

In the corner, Heatwave let out a startled bark of laughter, and Mirror Master went ahead and turned in his seat in order to watch the scene with a wide grin.

“That’s not due until next week!” Kid Flash continued to protest. “And it was on my desk, how did- you didn’t need to do that, I would have brought dishes down tonight!” The next pause dragged on, until the boy abruptly burst out, “Three WEEKS?!”

“I should’ve gone to bother Speedy instead,” Robin mumbled into the counter.

---

When I need a break from Inflicting Awful Things on my favorite boys in other fan fic stories, I of course turn around to instead Inflict Awful Things, Humor and Embarrassment Edition xD

[deathnguts]

do you think reg and rab would ever have children? how do you think that would looks for them?

HI HI HI YOURE MY FAVORITE ANON EVER I THOUGHT NO ONE WOULD EVER ASK

So I LOVE making love child ocs I think they’re so fun and I’ve actually made three for Reg and Rab! But before I show that here’s just my blanket answer that isn’t specific to the OCs about them having kids as a dynamic.

I feel like the mockery of the nuclear family type of relationship they have definitely calls for at least the expectation of children. Whether they actually have them I think entirely depends on Regulus. Rabastan is already alright with living a slightly different life than what’s expected of him because he’s kinda a rebel in that regard, but I think he would definitely like having kids but not more than he likes being married to regulus so he’d never force him. And I feel like regulus definitely likes kids, they just scare him. He doesn’t know if his broken sense of love will ever make him able to love his own children properly and being a parent, especially a mother, changes the course of your life and that’s terrifying. Regulus likes being in control and losing control of things like his privacy and time and such scare him, so children obviously do that. So I feel like the most realistic option for regulus to have kids is probably on accident because planning to have one would stress him out more than just accepting that he’s going to have one (because I also think due to his upbringing he probably doesn’t believe in or maybe even know about abortion)

And as for the type of parents they are, I feel like they’re pretty similar in that regard. They’re both very loving ti their children, more loving than their own parents ever were even though that bar is literally in hell. They’re actually very affectionate, which not everyone would guess, especially when their kids are babies like they never put them down if they don’t have to. They’re kids are immensely spoiled too, with attention and money and with their parents thinking they’re incapable of doing wrong it’s hard not to be. Regulus definitely likes having his kids be cultured and involved in extracurriculars so they are enrolled in plenty of things like music and writing and such while Rabastan would be equally as proud if they could only manage to draw a stick figure for the rest of their lives. Rabastan kinda proves to be the more involved parent like emotionally, he has a harder time letting their kids go as they grow older and spent more time with them when they were toddlers and children age because he genuinely couldn’t bare leaving them alone and found a whole new fulfillment in the unconditional love a child can give you, so he was practically a stay at home father since he didn’t want to be anywhere else. Regulus loved his children too but he didn’t want to grow to resent them by feeling trapped by them so he made sure to have a life outside of them, rabastan doesn’t know how he does it.

And they’re not perfect, obviously. They’re still themselves, they still fight and often it’s in front of their kids since they also like never let their kids out of the house before they started school because they themselves were afraid of the outside world a little why would they subject their children to it. They’re kids are so used to yelling from the other room and witnessing their parents try to hit each other but never them that they aren’t even afraid of it, they accept that as so normal that it’s a mild annoyance when they hear glass shatter in the other room. And reg and rab are weirdos so they rub off on their children like all parents do, so their kids are too.

So onto my little weirdo ocs!

Their oldest isn’t actually theirs, he’s Rodolphus and Bellatrix’s! His name is Atlas and he’s a total Slytherin mommas boy.

He grew up immediately understanding that his real mother and father had just as much love for him as they did each other, which is to say none at all. Bella only agreed to having him because it was expected she have a least one and she bitched and moaned her whole way through it and then tossed her baby away to Regulus the first chance she could and never looked back. Rodolphus also doesn’t care because he’s equally as paternal as Bella is maternal (again meaning not at all) and he only needs his son when he’s old enough to be useful and responsible so why bother with a baby? Let reg and rab handle it if they seem so excited about it.

And reg and rab absolutely were! They did not realize at all how much they cared for kids until they were haphazardly given someone else’s. Atlas was doted on immensely immediately by Regulus, Rabastan took a little longer because it felt like he was just being given his brother’s responsibilities and he didn’t like that but he got over it. When I say Atlas is a huge mommas boy, I meant for Regulus. He loves regulus so much he would do anything he told him to in a second, it was almost comical how quickly he would stop crying when simply being handed to regulus as a baby. And that’s kind of a surprise because he was a rough kid to try and raise for people that weren’t regulus. He was super prone to tantrums, hated everyone and everything and would take it out on anything near him, and he never really grew out of that because even as a teenager and a grown man he still stubborn and prone to whining or punching holes in walls over things he doesn’t like. It’s definitely rooted in the fact that he knows he wasn’t born from any sort of love and people only care about him when they have to and he would rather they hate him for being himself than pretend to like him when it’s convenient. But regulus has always loved him without being asked to so it’s still comical how quickly he calms the second his momma tells him to.

Despite it all, Atlas actually convince them to have their own kids when Atlas was like 5 so here comes Ursa and Mira, the second pair of Lestrange twins.

They are the epitome of the Twin Trope TM. They look the same, talk at the same time, wear the same clothes, react the same way to stuff, always hold hands, and are immensely creepy to be around do they blink? It’s an act, of course, twins aren’t actually psychologically linked or anything. They just think that the best way to love each other is to the same and it’s definitely not because of how much they witness their parents and other family fight for being different. They’re not actually as alike they pretend to be though and it becomes obvious the more comfortable they are with you. Ursa is way more assertive and demandingly unimpressed than Mira is, it becomes clear that she is the one leading their dynamic very quickly the more you see her boss Mira around with a single withering glance. Mira, on the other hand, is more excitable and way less stubborn than Ursa and is kinda always jumping to please her sister, though she grows to be slightly more chill about it when she’s older. Not that much tho, lest she end up alone. They are weird as hell to be around even when they’re not pretending to be the same, like they are way too comfortable with each other. They are the kind of twins to date the same guy at the same time because they share everything.

And what you came here for, relationships with their parents: Mira is a huge daddy’s girl and Rabastan returns her love ten fold they are peak father-daughter relationship and it’s very sweet. Ursa has kinda always been independent and doesn’t really lean towards one parent more than the other at all, but she does seek regulus’ validation more and asks rabastan for more things because she knows he’s more eager to please than regulus. They have definitely debated on which parent they would stay with if they got divorced when they were younger and they agreed it would be Rabastan (they never get divorced obviously and the girls realize that pretty quickly as they get older) Ursa more agreed just because Mira was so sure about it though, she doesn’t actually care. If anything she can be caught getting jealous of her own parents when her sister shows being more attached to them than her, which is insane because they’re literally both of their parents.

Draco was born when the girls were like 4 and they low key bully him, they (namely Ursa) think it’s funny to see him cry so easily and that never really goes away they’re mean. They wreak havoc on their underclassmen in hogwarts when they get older, it’s a problem. Also having Draco on the time line shows you how early compared to everyone else they had kids. Bella was the oldest with the oldest husband so she had Atlas when reg was like sixteen so he was like twenty one or a little younger when he had the girls. I imagine Narcissa had a lot of pregnancy problems so she would have had kids sooner but she literally couldn’t, Draco was 100% a rainbow baby in my head and birthing him nearly killed Narcissa so he’s not an only child by choice.

But yeah, Reg and rab were pretty satisfied with just them until the girls were sent off to school at eleven and they (namely Rabastan) got smacked with empty nest syndrome and he was immediately begging regulus for another baby. Regulus tried to be firm about not having kids just to satiate their own lonely needs but he figured out it was cruel to keep this from Rabastan pretty quickly so he was pregnant by the time the girls came home that summer.

This little guy is fucked. He’s the exact thing you would imagine a house as foreboding as reg and rab’s would have kept inside. If Ursa and Mira were creepy kids, Canis is a nightmare. He’s practically just a haunted doll rabastan loves on like there’s nothing amiss. Canis barely moves if he’s not actively doing something, he never fucking speaks, he barely even blinks it’s insanely creepy. He’s literally the kid that cuts his dolls heads off and drags their bodies around in the garden for no reason. He’s the kid swinging in the fog singing a creepy ass song during peak October fear. He’s drawing demons he claims to have seen in the attic mirror and regulus says he’s so creative.

By the time Canis is old enough for school, rabastan is like 52 so he’s actually prepared for the empty nest syndrome now and fine with no more kids, he’s content with like a cat or a carnivorous plant or something. Regulus is grateful for that because he did not want more kids. And besides, their kids are clingy (besides Ursa) so it’s not like they’re completely gone from their lives.

In summary, yes I think they would have kids because that’s the natural next step for the nuclear relationship they strive for and yes they’re kids are just as much of a mockery of the perfectly nuclear kids as their parents are a mockery of perfect nuclear parents.

But yeah, thanks for making it this far, those who are still reading! And again, thank you for the ask Anon! Clearly I think about this a lot! They make me ill!! I’m frothing at the mouth for them so if you have any questions for the love of god feel free to ask!

[darkrpfinders]

🥩💖 Hello‼️ I’m a 23yo trans dude looking for 18+ writers for some LONG TERM dead dove/super dark fandom roleplays, specifically Invincible, The Boys, and Cookie Run.

I tend to trans some dude’s genders, which is nonnegotiable!

I really want to have gore, cannibalism, eroguro + snuff, and power imbalances in the roleplay, but obviously, I can adjust accordingly (only regular gore is nonnegotiable for me, sorry). Other things I dig are yandere (although I heavily prefer that the characters are both crazy for each other), dubcon and noncon. All can be discussed later.

I am semi to advanced lit, and I would like my partners to be around the same range. Quality over quantity for me! ALSO, it’s okay if it takes weeks or even months for a partner to reply, as I still will be interested even in their absence. I just need a heads up first.

If you don’t care for the roleplay anymore or lost your muse or something else, I would heavily appreciate it if you’d tell me before leaving. Communication is key.

Smut is a must, but don’t let that think that it will be the only thing happening in the roleplay. I LOVE narratively driven stories, and I write my replies as such (roleplaying multiple characters in a scene is second nature to me and I really don’t mind it, so don’t feel too pressured to mirror me there). For the plots I have in mind, most will have several story arcs, and usually an end goal, but this can all be talked about and discussed!

I prefer wacky AUs to canon divergence, as I love worldbuilding and seeing where everyone would fit inside it. Canon divergence isn’t completely off the table though; I just have a preference. I am in LOVE with the concept of cakeverse and I really want to add those types of elements into the rp, though!

OOC chatter is a MUST, though. I LOVE talking about the rp and how it’s going. I may even draw some stuff too if I’m enjoying it a lot (for some pairings here I will draw ideas/concepts if I think it will help get whatever point across). I want to make friends, not just roleplay like it’s a job.

Now, onto the pairings - highlighted characters are the ones I prefer to muse and italicized characters take higher priority than those that aren’t. If they are both highlighted, then I’m comfortable with either or (some of my top/bot dynamics are not fixed, but my dom/sub dynamics are, just a heads up).

Invincible

Mark Grayson x William Clockwell

•one of my favorite pairings. I’ve been playing around with the idea/AU of an evil/morally dark grey Mark who is a pure-blooded Viltrumite (Debbie is a Viltrumite here) arriving to Earth for the first time with Nolan and Debbie. He meets and saves William his first week on Earth and.. it goes from there.

Mark Grayson x ..Mark Grayson

•Selfcest is so, so good actually - Evil Mark x Good Mark! They get trapped in a dimension together thanks to Angstrom and have to find their way back to their own timelines, but not without fighting first, of course.

Invincible/The Boys

Omni-Man x Homelander

•Another favorite pairing of mine. I have a few plots in mind that are not canon divergent at all (mainly a space pirate au where Homelander is actively getting hunted for various crimes, but I also really like the idea of the two meeting in an MK1 tournament!), but again, everything can be discussed. All I ask for is that Homelander gets manipulated like hell 💖

The Boys

Homelander x Billy Butcher

•I’m still fairly new to this ship (and The Boys parings in general), but I really love their dynamic. There’s no set plot or ideas here, we can brainstorm something together. I would like Billy to be manhandled a little bit ✨

(MALE) Stormfront x Homelander

•Ok I will admit, this is pretty out of left field. I’m a show only, and I recently found out that Stormfront was originally a guy in the comics. I’m aware that the two medias are VERY different in story, but I’d like to combine bits and pieces of both of them into something weird and new, like this version of the ship, for example.

Cookie Run (Kingdom & Tower of Adventures)

Milk Cookie x Dark Choco Cookie

•This is probably one of the few times where I prefer standard yandere dynamics to knife romance or mutual yandere shenanigans. Milk Cookie being absolutely obsessed with and overprotective of his prince.. he’s chasing after him in the pancake tower, trying to reunite with him, maybe. (Also, I’ve been brainstorming a silly superhero au with them and how Dark Choco was once a hero turned evil due to corruption, and Milk is trying to save him/bring him back by any means necessary).

And that’s it! Very long winded of me, sorry about that. Either like this post and I’ll dm you, or just dm me! Ty~

.

[laughlulee77]

* I N T R O *

[DISCLAIMER: This is (mostly) a t-word blog. I will randomly post non-tkl related things according to my fandoms/interests and will mark them accordingly in the tags, but I will share mostly tkl-stuffs as I don’t feel comfortable with sharing this interest with irl friends or friends on my other socials. If you aren’t into tickling in any shape or form, or just see it as a NSFW k*nk/f*tish, then kindly go away.]

◄●►

STUFF ABOUT ME :

• I’m an adult (I’m not yet comfortable sharing my age yet, but if you want to know you can ask. If this bothers you then you don’t have to interact with me. Thank you!)

• I’m a cisgendered male

• I’m asexual ! (Came out about five years ago)

• I’m agnostic but was raised Catholic. I don’t practice Catholicism anymore as the values I was taught did more harm than good. (I don’t discriminate against anyone’s religion btw you believe what you believe in, but please keep it to yourself. I don’t want to be converted, I want tiggles lmao.)

• I have ADHD and am an INFJ personality type. A very shy introvert, but somewhat extroverted online!

• I love helping friends with issues they’re going through and try my best to offer them so sage advice or just be there for them in general.

• I live in America. Yahoo.

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THINGS I LIKE :

• Tickles (duh…)

• Drawing/Art

• Writing

• Singing

• Role-playing (if you do, please add or message! I need more friends who RP!!)

• Photograpgy

• Filming

• Video Editing

• Cooking/Baking

• Video Games

• Set Design

• Acting/Voice Acting

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FANDOMS :

(subject to change to add/remove)

(These are in no way tickle related!)

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

• Back to the Future

• The Amazing World of Gumball

• Sims 2

• Thomas the Tank Engine

• Blue’s Clues (I love Steve, Joe and Josh!)

• VeggieTales (I’m agnostic, but those songs…)

• Jordan Peele films (Get Out, Us, Nope, etc…)

• Green Day

• *NSYNC (since childhood)

• Knives Out film series

• Home Alone film series (obviously not “4”)

• Tales from the Darkside (TV series and film)

• Creepshow (films and Shudder series)

• Pixar films (Toy Story, Cars, Incredibles, etc…)

• Kevin Smith films (primarily Clerks!)

• Disney’s Primos (yes, that Primos. It’s a good show! Fight me.)

• Fairly Odd Parents: OG (from Season 1 to Channel Chasers) and A New Wish

• High Potential

• Beetlejuice (1&2)

• South Park

• The Last Of Us

•Among Us

• Marvel (mainly Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man series, and the Spiderverse series. Not too much a fan of any of the Avengers movies and any of its spin offs.)

• DC (primarily Batman! No not you, adam west..)

• Goosebumps (excluding the film series and messy asf reboot)

• Star vs the Forces of Evil

◄●►

NSFW/18+ CONTENT DNI

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Guess what I did last night, everyone? I performed stand-up in a club for the first time! I’d done five nights at pub open mics, which I can quickly summarize as:

- July 26: Go to a pub night with my brother, who’s been performing comedy for years. They have about eight scheduled comedians, plus a “lotto spot”, where literally anyone can put their name in a pitcher and they draw one out and that person can perform. The lotto is mostly used by comedians who aren’t on the bill, but turn up to watch, and throw their name in on the off chance that they’ll get stage time. It’s also sometimes used by new comedians who haven’t established themselves enough to get booked spots when they ask for them, but they can build up some cred by doing lotto spots. It is not generally used by random members of the audience, but it technically could be.

I wasn’t quite a completely random member of the audience. I’d been going to open mic comedy nights at a different pub, which ran every Thursday, for a few months. Just going to watch, but often enough so I had an idea of how they work and who performs at these things. And my brother’s been doing it for thirteen years, early in his career I used to go see him all the time. And I had written some stuff down, practiced saying it out loud a few times, thought maybe I’d try performing someday. But had no concrete plans to start at any specific time.

Then I went with my brother to a night at a different pub from the one where I normally went, he convinced me to put my name in the lotto, just to try, it probably won’t get picked. Obviously it did get picked. I think there were about ten names in that pitcher, I’m still not 100% convinced my name really did get picked, I think my brother might have told the comedians that this is his sister’s name, if they want to see his sister try comedy then just call that name out regardless of what paper is drawn. But I have no proof.

Anyway, I did it. I talked for about six minutes. I said the things I had written down and tried out in my bedroom. It was less terrifying than I’d expected. The crowd laughed quite a bit, but only because I’d said at the beginning that I have never done this before and didn’t expect my name to get picked so they were all being nice. But it was fun. It was a huge adrenaline rush. Afterward I got drunk with comedians.

- That was a Monday. Three days later, I go out to the regular pub open mic night that I’d been going to for ages on Thursdays. Turns out the guy who runs that night was at the other pub on Monday and saw me there. After the comedy show ends, he goes up to me at the bar and asks if I want to be on the bill in two weeks time. I say yes. Get very excited for my first time on an actual bill, not just going up with the lotto.

- August 10: I perform at the Thursday night. I’m incredibly nervous. I have spent two weeks refining my material, figuring I can do a better job if I actually properly write a set for a specific day, rather than just get up unexpectedly and say some stuff I’d only vaguely planned. It’s definitely better this way. It goes quite well.

- Some other day in late August: I go back to the Thursday comedy place just to watch. I put my name in the lotto, thinking there’s no way it’ll get called again, may as well just do that, but I’m just here to watch. My brother is hosting. He’s just had a breakup and is messing around with the crowd so much that it distracted me from doing any mental preparation. My name gets called from the lotto. I go up unexpectedly. I can’t remember most of what I was going to say. I panic and stutter a lot. It’s fucking horrible. I get off stage and want to hide under my bed forever. After, my brother tells me it wasn’t quite as bad as I thought. But still. Not great. I have just moved to the suburbs to housesit for a few months, making it hard to get downtown where the comedy venues are anyway, so I don’t go back for a while.

- Early October: I go back to the Thursday pub night, just to watch. It’s an exciting night and inspires me to try again. I go through the proper process this time, of going on their Facebook page to request a spot for the following Thursday. I get one.

- October 12: On this Thursday, I show up and try something slightly different. The previous nights, I had just told one story for six minutes. This time, I trim that story and add a separate bit at the beginning. I am, again, very nervous, with the fear that maybe I just happened to have only one funny story in me but can’t actually write good stuff generally so the other bit will fail.

It doesn’t. Both bits go great. This feels like my best one yet. I leave happy and excited and wanting to do it again. I go back on Facebook and request a spot at the other pub that runs on Monday nights for the next week. I get it.

I also email one a local comedy club. There are three comedy clubs in the city, and those are where the “proper comedy” happens. New and established comedians alike work out their material at pub nights like the Monday and Thursday ones, so that they can perform at clubs. At the club amateur nights, where no one gets paid but if you do enough of them then you’ll get noticed by the owners and maybe get to go on the pro nights, where people do get paid. Multiple people had told me I should sign up for a club amateur night, but I’d been too nervous until that point. Then, however, I send an email to the designated address requesting a spot in November (that’s how it works – you email the club on the fifteen of one month to see if they’ll give you a spot at any of the amateur Mondays the following month).

- October 23: I perform at the Monday night pub. Do the same two bits as before. They go okay. At this time I remember them, I’m not up there panicking and stuttering. They just don’t get as much from the crowd, and the more they go badly, the more I doubt myself and then don’t perform as well. Afterward, my brother tells me my stuff was good, and not to feel bad because the crowd didn’t laugh much at anyone who was on that night.

I am sufficiently demoralized to think maybe I won’t go back for a bit, at least not until December when I go back to living at my own place downtown and it’s easier to get to these places. However, this plan falls apart in November, when I receive an email telling me my request for a club spot has been granted, I can perform at the club’s amateur night on Monday, November 13. I am terrified.

- For about four days before the night of November 13, particularly all day at work on November 13: I am fucking terrified. Going to a club to perform material that didn’t go well last time.

- November 13: I arrive at the comedy club. See the sign that reminds me the audience has paid $10 to get in. None of the pub nights cost money for the audience. So this will be my first time performing to people who have paid money so if I’m terrible then I am personally wasting their money as well as their time. There is an actual stage (a very low one, but still). They turn out the lights and put a spotlight on the performer. They play entrance music and everything. It is much more intimidating than a pub night.

I’m on third. The host is a comedian I very much like, doing stuff that I think is funny, but the audience isn’t laughing. The first guy up is an established pro comedian whom I also like (and used to run a school wrestling team with him in 2015, actually, but that’s another story), he also doesn’t do great. I talk to my brother, who’s on later in the bill than I am. He warns me that this crowd seems quiet in general, so I shouldn’t feel bad if they don’t laugh much at me either, I should be mentally prepared for that. I pace around the back being very nervous.

- November 13: Guys it went so fucking well! I did my two bits, I remembered everything, I think I said it in all the right order and did it right. And it worked! They laughed! Afterward multiple came and told me I did well! I was not mentally prepared for how you can’t see the audience if you’re in a spotlight and they’re in the dark, that threw me off, also the light hurt my eyes a bit, but once I was used to it I realized that not seeing the audience is slightly easier. It was good! It was so good and I’m so happy.

I have to say thank you, again, to my Tumblr friends @my-excellent-bicycle, who listened to the stuff I'd recorded alone in bedroom early in the year and told me what was good in it, because the bit he said was good is what became the first bit I performed. The second bit I ran by @lastweeksshirttonight, who was also super kind and supportive and helpful with advice. And, you know, I never would have tried without having comedy Tumblr in general. I am still a bit high on the adrenaline of how exciting that was.

...I feel like I should clarify, again, that all I actually did was sign up for an amateur night and do six minutes. It was the bar area in the basement, not even the proper club room, which is upstairs. It was not particularly objectively impressive. But subjectively, I'm really fucking excited about it.

[dumborangecat]

I think a universe where Simon is the villain would have been great to see

Not an ice king simon (like winter king) but just Simon.

Maybe he still has the crown and he’s hiding it away from everyone else, or he used it’s magic to make his own different wish and it messed everything up, or maybe he used to be ice king and broke free somehow, but when Fionna and the gang ask him about the crown he stops at nothing to prevent them from finding it.

Either way a universe where Simon lets all his problems get the best of him and totally encompass him to the point he’s basically a whole new person would have been interesting. Building off the ‘used the crown for a wish’ maybe he wished to have betty back? Maybe it didn’t work, or something went wrong and he just couldn’t take the idea that his one last chance to have her back failed. or maybe it worked perfectly and he and betty live together in a sweet little cottage in the woods, but he knows that it’s not truly real, that is someone where to steal the crown, make a new wish, that she may disappear, and he’d be left all alone again.

All that culminating in Simon having no choice but to kill his counterpart, or be killed by them in an attempt to protect their current life would have been a cool scene to see play out. The questions it could leave simon with after too (and the possible fionna development as well) would be great. Say the crown wish did work, and counterpart was living peacefully with betty, Simon just not only ruined a man’s entirely livelihood, that he worked so incredibly hard to achieve, but after ripping away everything this man ever wanted from him, he kills him. Is his quest to find a crown, to save betty, even to save fionna and cake’s dimension, really worth all that? What if it was all for nothing? Simon and the gang can’t get the crown back to it’s orginal wishing form, now they’ve just killed a man alongside his hopes and dreams in cold blood for absolutely nothing, they just have to move on to the next world looking for a new crown.

It would be a cool (but admittedly much to morbid for a pg-14 show) way for Simon to realise just how destructive this quest is to both himself and people around him. If he’s willing to kill his own counterpart to acheive his goals, who’s to say the real him isn’t next. Even more so depending on what happens to crown betty next; does she die? forcing Simon to watch as he basically kills his one true love in his desperate attempts to either get her back or find meaning in his life? Does she live, get forced to watch as an alternate universe counterpart of her fiance kills her fiance right infront of her? Does Simon see how his actions aren’t truly helping her?

This is obviously an idea that would never be ‘canon’ within the show, it doesn’t fully fit in to the narrative and again it’s much to gruesome for an adventure time plot, but it’s still something neat to think about in my opinion, i might draw a comic or something based on it sometime

[cospinol]

time for the summer 2024 isekai log☆! the count of actual, by-the-books isekai this season was surprisingly low, on about even footing with the number of single-wold rpg sludge settings; it's purely an academic distinction, but is nature healing...? both populations' crops were pretty decent this season either way, though, so maybe there's something in the water

far and away the best of the bunch is of course isekai shikkaku. this show has essentially the perfect premise, because probably the most interesting aspect of the genre as a whole - and always, by design, completely unaddressed - is the way it so often functions as a suicide fantasy. miserable about your everyday life? bullied at school or beaten down by your shitty job? Don’t worry, the perfect solution is always waiting for you, just a half-step away - all you have to do is die! it’s quick, painless, and also obviously always accidental (whether truck or random heart failure) because you can’t just admit that the power and joy of your escapist fantasy make the death of the ‘real life’ proportionally appropriate, desirable, and necessary; most shows move past their premises as quickly as possible to escape the implication but that doesn’t make it any less present.

so isekai shikkaku’s dazai (who is coincidentally hit by a truck moments before going through with suicide, establishing a Narrative for all the other characters who are coincidentally hit by the same truck while at the lowest points in their lives) is the perfect lead for a show about drawing portraits of the circumstances that lead people to seek that kind of escape, hearing them out, and sending them home. it’s an incredible anti-fantasy, and I could easily see myself outright hating it in a slightly lesser work, but this show is sympathetic and clever enough in its character depictions that the payoffs of characters being returned to their everyday regular lives for a second chance always feels satisfying & well earned.

it’s still not the perfect show by any means; it takes several episodes before it actually gets to the point, and not all of its standalone stories work (tama’s focus arc is unfortunately weak, for example), and although most of its comedy/antics work, it has an equal amount of gags about vestigial genre trappings that aren’t any funnier than they would be played straight (don’t show me those goddamn dialogue boxes). Still, this series has way more meat on its bones than any of its peers and is among the best of the season, even outside of the genre!

of course the other show I kind of liked is its polar opposite iseyuru, new reigning sovereign of No Thoughts Head Empty. once you’ve read the sentence ‘average op isekai protagonist adopts two equally op kids and takes them on low-stakes adventures’ (which is also the series’s title, incidentally) you can easily picture every single thing that happens in this show’s entire run.

the only thing that’s unusual to any degree about this show, given how overwhelmingly by-the-book it is in every other respect, is the absence of 50% of the usual hax-and-harem staples granted to mc-kun. totally excising any ecchi inclinations is not only reasonable but imo necessary to the success of a show with this specific premise, of course, but the absence of any romance on any level was a little surprising to me and, in the void left behind, left me feeling like this might actually be a sleeper Gay Isekai. beyond just being love-interest-less, it’s almost entirely homosocial; all but one of the adult characters takumi spends any amount of time with are men, as are the majority of the supporting roles, not to mention the divine co-parent who saddled him with the kids in the first place. Like…

this is where the main heroine goes in the op, right? also, there is a subplot with an explicitly gay character who wants to kill takumi for supposedly trying to take his man, and the whole thing is just brushed off as kind of a no-harm-no-foul situation. much to consider

i initially assumed that konofuka would end up in a much higher position on this list since it was one of my most anticipated shows of the season and the energy its first few episodes generate is honestly a rare treat. the atmosphere is incredibly rich for a simple trapped-in-vr-mmo story (with an intentionally simple storybook aesthetic), and the tension is electric; the power dynamics/interplay between player groups operating under limited information & the carefully-placed moments of horror/violence in its semi-cutesy setting all work together to raise its stakes in a way that feels natural and immediately immersive.

unfortunately, at the show's approximate halfway point, that just...... stops. it's not shocking for first-arc villains to be dispatched at the end of the first arc, but once our main party foils the enemy debugger team, there's simply nothing left. it has places left that it wants to go, but is content to meander there with no sense of urgency at all. i'd be less bothered by this if the first group of opponents our main party was facing felt like less of an urgent threat, but what sold me on this show was the real sense of danger that suffuses the first arc, and the pivot to kind of half-hearted stumbling-into-danger-that's-not-danger that ensues just isn't compelling in the least in comparison.

it doesn't help that none of the characters have any skin in the game after amano's gotten his (kind of...) revenge; it's a real killer combo of lack of character development, plot progression, or really any sense of purpose at all. there's a little bit of growth for nikola (and haga, by association)... and then a glimmer of akira's nascent maybe-my-team-is-evil arc, though curiously that one doesn't seem to be pointing in the direction of her PKing tendencies (i guess her murdering that man in cold blood was just fine) and instead is just about her getting teleported into a dungeon by alba in a random accident, and i have major issues with the premise of that entire arc and its main villain's villainous activities being a partial retaliation (and also an incidental straight up accident) against tesla, who initiated aggression and is actively trying to harm him. her (& haga's) rigid dedication to enforcing the game's rules to the detriment of others is an interesting setup, but with so little else going on in the back half of the show it can veer into slightly repulsive (i don't really know how else to describe the yamanaka situation and its conclusion), which would be great but i also don't think it's intended at all. so... meh (regretfully)

annnnnddddd at the bottom of the barrel, in every sense of the word, is failure frame, of course, lol. i can't even muster any real contempt for this show the way i can for a shield hero or even an arifureta; it's mostly just a little pathetic. you can tell that it's really aiming for the grimiest depths of those shows at every turn, but while it is almost always at least a little unpleasant, it's also incompetent enough that it's almost endearing; there's just something about how badly it wants the viewer to believe that mc-kun spamming the same three status effect spells and defeating the strongest man in the world before the show is even half over that makes me want to... just pat it on the head and send it on its way, i guess. there are so many little things that add up, like the ugly cg models of the two leads that the designers were so proud of that the entire op and ed sequences are dedicated to showing them off, or the fact that the protagonist has to tell us and his party multiple times not just that they are his found family, but which of his family members back home they individually remind him of. anyways, i'm not actually going easy on it, this show's shockingly badly made and never actually fun to watch, but it's at least not quite as repellent as its peers in the subgenre. also to be honest it gets 1 extra point because misaki watada voices a lead <3

andddd a brief lightning-round for the ‘all the required tropes except the isekai part’ light novel sludge:

mobkara is bad and looks bad but, in the season’s most shocking heel-turn, paid off the previously near-despicable secret-keeping drama between the two leads with a very charming moment of real character growth and mutual understanding. also, the real point of interest is whatever happened in this series’s production that resulted in the character voiced by kanahana regularly singing songs provided by nana mizuki, it’s so funny and jarring every single time

nazeboku looks bad and is bad, and somebody involved in its production should at some point have taken action re: the fact that its character designs/art style are complicated beyond its means to animate, & as such the sheer effort of trying (and failing) to keep them even close to on-model prevents the characters from ever emoting correctly. just nothing but stone-faced staring in all the most emotional scenes lol

and that's the state of the season, more or less! well, i guess i forgot i parry everything which is also genre slop but very pleasant about it. also i feel like i'm slowly dropping my pretence of caring about anything except seiyuu content here so it should be clear i wasn't paying attention to anything in that show except for toshihiko seki playing a smug blonde character. that's what watching anime is about, thanks for playing

[starryredpandawrites]

Bendy Bites 4: Kitty

So, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that I’m not going to have the next “Born from the Same Ink” post update ready until sometime next week (hopefully).  The good news is that I wrote a bunch of Bendy Bites drafts while procrastinating working on the chapter so y’all get to enjoy those instead! I’ll be posting them throughout the week. 

Anyways, at the end of the story I’m planning on Audrey and Bendy escaping the machine eventually, right? There are some other details about their escape I can elaborate on if anyone wants to ask but that’s a subject for another post. 

In the game, it’s mentioned that if Joey Drew Studios ever went under, the Gent corp. would seize all of their gent-related property. This makes me wonder if Audrey and Bendy count as that property. 

Audrey decides “better safe than sorry” and hides Bendy immediately after they make it out. This is fine for the first couple of weeks they’re living together but eventually he starts getting restless. She does her best to sneak him outside every once in a while but she doesn’t get a lot of time off work and there are only so many secluded/safe/people-free places she can take him. He’s doing his best but there aren’t always interesting TV shows to watch and there are only so many drawings he can make before losing his mind. 

She starts getting worried that if she doesn’t change something about their home life, Bendy (in Ink Demon form)  is going to eat the mailman or the neighbor’s slightly-more-yappy-than-average dog or something worse.  

Then one day, the solution finds them. 

Audrey comes home and Bendy is nowhere to be seen. She’s terrified and rushes around the apartment shouting for him. 

She sees movement under the bed and looks underneath it to find two sets of eyes staring back at her: a pair of pie-cute eyes and a pair of cat eyes. 

((I think you can see where I’m going with this))

Bendy comes out from under the bed with a black and white kitten in his arms. He sets the kitten on the bed where it proceeds to walk towards Audrey and curiously sniff at her. 

((quick note, I headcanon that after they break out, Audrey and Bendy learn sign language so he can communicate in his baby form. Audrey speaks while signing))

Audrey: where tf did the kitten come from?

Bendy, signing: the window

Audrey: You just let a stray cat inside the house?

Bendy: It’s cold outside!

Audrey is about to say they can’t keep it when she realizes this could be the solution to their problem. She wonders why she hadn’t thought of getting a pet before. A dog would need to go for walks and be more maintenance than she had time for but a cat is a lot more self-sufficient. They need play too though and that’s exactly what Bendy needs while Audrey is at work. Obviously, there are other pet options too. 

Then she realizes she needs to check something first. 

She picks up the kitten: Bendy, can you change really quick?

Cut to the Ink Demon standing there. 

Audrey, holding the cat protectively: Are you at all tempted to eat this cat?

Bendy, with an offended gurgle/gasp: HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST IT? INK BLOT IS FAMILY!

Audrey: Ink Blot?

Bendy: IT’S A FITTING NAME. 

Audrey: Alright…why were you guys under the bed though?

Bendy, while reaching out to allow the curious kitten to sniff a claw: THEY WERE EXPLORING. I WANTED TO EXPLORE WITH THEM. 

A bit later, Audrey warns him that they need to take the kitten to the vet and ask around to make sure no-one is missing him. Of course, they can’t find any owners so they have a cat now, all thanks to the cat distribution system.

I could make a whole other post about Ink Blot/the kitten but I’ll just shoot some ideas here:

They are a very friendly kitten. They have to be to not be afraid of Bendy when he’s a big boi

I don’t want to decide the gender so I’ll leave that up to reader interpretation. 

They are black and white with white splotches on their front two paws and their face (mimicking Bendy’s gloves and face, of course)

Toon Bendy is their favorite, followed by Ink Bendy, then Audrey. They like Audrey but she’s too busy/stressed to do much with the cat other than cuddle and take care of their money-related needs. 

They tear through cat toys ridiculously fast. Bendy learned to stash away all of his plushies

I was going to name the cat “Inky” but I’m used that name in my Big Brother Bendy fic so I went with “Ink Blot” instead. 

If anyone has any questions about their post-escape life (or anything, really) send me an ask! I would love to answer them 😊

[zukkaoru]

i am. love you. tehe.

oda & naomi + "you look very manly in this photo"

sigma & margaret + "that's it. i'm leaving"

fyodor & chuuya + "Because you’re not to step within a thousand feet of a Cinnabon, [name]"

lucy & gin + "i'm gonna kick your... HEAD"

kyouka & jun'ichirou + "umm, we just exploded a bus!"

ranpo & elise + "sit down, shut up, and i'll buy you a candy bar"

ango & chief taneda + "professor you are bald as hell"

hiiii beloved <333 umm okay obviously the oda & naomi one is beast au. and the fyodor and chuuya one is a no abilities au?? no other context though. also the gin & lucy one kind changed to gin/lucy bc uhhhh i'm a lesbian. thank u

“You look very manly in this photo,” Naomi muses. Oda looks up to find her holding a photograph of Kunikida, taken from a security camera during his most recent mission. Kunikida, of course, ignores her. “Let me see,” Oda says. Naomi hands him the picture and he looks it over before nodding in agreement, just to see if he can draw out a better reaction. “I agree, Naomi-chan. It’s a good photo—very manly. Only thing I’d change is the glasses. He could go for something sexier.” Naomi snorts. Kunikida’s brow furrows. “My glasses are perfectly fine. I would appreciate it if you would stop gossiping about me while I am right here, trying to work.” Naomi rolls her eyes, and Oda bites back a snicker as he passes the picture back over.

-

“That’s it.” Margaret slams her hands on the table, standing up. “I’m leaving!”

As she goes, Sigma eyes the spread of cards warily. There’s no way this wasn’t stacked, though they’d assured Lucy wasn’t the one dealing, since she likes showing off her new illegal skills whenever possible. Apparently she isn’t the only (former) Guild member who can stack a deck of cards.

Sigma sighs. They stand too, heading to find Margaret. They tune out the background noise of Lucy yelling at Mark and John while Louisa tries to calm her down.

When they find Margaret, she’s standing with her back against the wall, arms folded over her chest. She huffs. “I know they’re cheating so I’ll lose.”

Sigma purses their lips. “You’re probably right. …But they aren’t the only ones who know how to cheat at card games. …I could help you get a little revenge?”

Slowly, a smile spreads across Margaret’s face.

-

Chuuya grabs Fyodor by the back of his jacket, preventing him from taking even one more step.

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because,” Chuuya sighs. “You are not to step within one thousand feet of a Cinnabon. Your partners were very specific. If I have to babysit you, I don’t want you getting high off cinnamon or whatever the hell you did to make them give me that warning.” They begin walking in the opposite direction of the mall, dragging Fyodor behind them. They don’t know how they let Dazai talk them into agreeing to this.

“I have done no such thing.”

“Full offense, but I don’t believe you. Now pick up your feet or we’re going to be late. Sigma is waiting for us and she deals with enough shit just having to be friends with you.”

-

“I’m gonna kick your…HEAD!” Lucy exclaims.

Gin raises their eyebrows, clearly calling into question Lucy’s ability to follow through with her threat. Which only serves to fan the flame of anger burning bright in Lucy’s chest. Stupid Gin and their stupid piercing gaze and perfect looks and nimble fingers and Lucy hates that they probably could kick her head, if they tried. It’s infuriating. Gin is infuriating.

“I could do it!” Lucy argues. “You’re not that tall! I could get my leg all the way up there! Just watch!”

Lucy kicks, and while she does come close, Gin easily evades her foot. They dodge effortlessly, and in one swift movement, they’ve got Lucy pinned against the wall with one arm against her throat. Their eyes seem to stare into Lucy’s soul, grey like swirling storm clouds.

Lucy swallows thickly, her gaze dropping to where Gin’s mouth is covered by their mask.

Shit.

-

“Um…” Jun’ichirou swallows nervously. “We just exploded a bus.”

“Yes,” Kyouka agrees. Her tone is far too calm for their current situation. The remains of said bus are still smoldering before them, and they’re lucky everyone else managed to escape in time.

“After being attacked by demon triplet ability users.”

“Yes,” Kyouka repeats. She sheaths her knife.

Jun’ichirou stares hopelessly at the smoke wafting into the sky. He’s already imagining the damage report he’s going to have to complete once this case is wrapped up, and they’ve barely even started it. The ability users got away, and Jun’ichirou has no idea which direction they even escaped in, and when he and Kyouka were assigned this case, they weren’t even aware there were ability users involved!

He sighs. It’s going to be a long day.

-

“Sit down and shut up!” Ranpo snaps. They are at the end of their rope, and if Elise doesn’t chill out in the next two seconds, he’s going to attempt murder. “If you do, I’ll buy you a candy bar.”

Elise stops her singing and dancing immediately. “Really?”

“Yes! Just— Stop being so annoying!”

Elise sits down obediently. “Okay. I want my candy bar now.”

“I can’t go buy it while I’m babysitting.”

She glares at him for a moment, and then starts singing again, even louder than last time. It hurts Ranpo’s ears and his head and God why is she like this?! If Mori can make her behave however he wants, why is she literally the worst person on earth?!

“FINE!” Ranpo shouts. He marches over to where his stash of snacks is, grabs the first candy bar he sees, and throws it at Elise. “Now be quiet!”

Elise grins smugly as she begins unwrapping the candy.

-

“Professor,” Ango says, the word slurring with sleep as it falls from his lips. Taneda looks over at him, unsurprised to see he’s nearly started dozing at his desk. What does surprise him, however, is that Ango meets his gaze and finishes his sentence with, “You are…bald as hell.”

“What?”

But Ango just hums absentmindedly before returning to his work. As if he’s said nothing out of the ordinary.

Taneda lifts a hand to his head, unsure if the comment should make him self-conscious or just concerned for Ango’s well-being. It’s certainly not something he would have said if he were in a sound state of mind, but a sleep-deprived Ango is often one who is unable to control his brain-to-mouth filter.

So, Taneda simply sighs and prepares himself for the battle that is convincing Ango to go home and rest.

[eisforeidolon]

https://www.tumblr.com/eisforeidolon/728741971448954880/it-also-needs-to-be-reiterated-that-bi-lighting

You already covered this really well, but a little extra discussion on "bi lighting," and how stupid it would be as a way to demonstrate a characters sexuality. For one thing, say in the bar scene in season 15 of Supernatural where Dean is visiting his old friend. He’s not the only person in that scene, so is everyone in that scene bi?

Also, I know that filmmakers use colors to evoke moods and make us feel things, to draw focus, etc, but that being said, 8% of men and 1 in 200 women (according to a quick Google search) are colorblind. So, they are going to use color cues only to tell us someone is bi, but not actually make them, you know, attracted to the same sex at all, but just use the color as a clue. I get that not a huge amount of people are colorblind, but I know quite a few who are, myself included. But still, show runners are going to do things like put characters in "bi colored shirts" and light them with "bi lighting" but not actually say it out loud? Not to mention, I am sure there is a considerable amount of the general audience who won’t automatically knows the colors of the bi flag, and if they don't know them off the top of their head, they’ll have no reason to look up color choices of shirts and stage lights to check. So, now colorblind people and people unfamiliar with the bi flag colors aren’t going to know your character is "bi." That’s not the entire audience, of course, so maybe that’s fine, but then you also have the people who just watch a show to enjoy it and aren’t actively looking for parallels or clues about characters. These viewers are just, you know, watching the show. They are doing this crazy thing where they watch the action and listen to what the characters say (not what they wear unless it funny, out of character or otherwise stands out in some way) to find out information about the characters.

Anyway, I don’t have anything profound to add, just wanted to add weight to the absurdity of big lighting, and help demonstrate why hellers are delusional.

It doesn't need to be a profound addition to make it worth continuing a discussion. I mean, I don't think I was saying anything really new in the first place, but sometimes, especially in a fandom so full of really bad interpretation? I think it's a good idea to keep pointing out all the ways it obviously all falls apart if you actually look at it.

At the end of the day, it just comes back down to the fact that subtext and symbolism simply don't work like that. You don't tell a story ONLY through symbols that could potentially have a multitude of other meanings (if they're significant at all) and ONLY count in terms of one of many characters they could apply to. You don't tell a story ONLY through symbols large parts of the audience will not catch - or may not even be able to catch. You definitely don't tell an extended story ONLY in the subtext contradicting the directly told main narrative. These kinds of theories always rely on a fundamentally flawed and frankly bonkers assumption a canon's writers are telling a secret hidden story that will only be satisfying for the fraction of super special people in the audience *cough* clever and dedicated enough to decipher it being hinted at for years and years without materializing in the actual narrative. In this case, a CW tv show's writers where the previously on segments made it clear they sometimes didn't trust the audience to remember what happened an episode ago writing a hidden story across fifteen fucking seasons (since they insist there were totes hints in the first three, too). Yeah.

I admit there's an evil troll part of me that almost wants to go write a D/C fic where Dean and Castiel treat each other just as they do in canon, but I constantly include background detail nonsense like bi lighting from their meta. Then in literally only one line at the end of the final of many long chapters, apropos of literally nothing building to it, shove in something vaguely romantic and just end the fic. Because I'm sure they know damn well that would be an absolutely shit excuse for a story, and wouldn't be shy about saying so - if it was divorced from their campaign of "proving" their ship totes exists (or they deserved for it to exist) in the canon. But I won't because I'm lazy and not that much of a dick.

[diaborodevil]

Manaless

Beasts take on many forms some are disproportionate while others are oddly perfect some retain a humanoid shape while others have drastically different forms some even grow scales or feathers some even grow more limbs

Catherine:

Carlos: but a commonality between beasts is that they usually have a tail

Catherine: okay wait a what

(Catherine looks and sees that there is obviously a tail)

Catherine: oh great fathers oh great fathers I have a tail

Carlos: calm down calm down uh that’s the last thing you tell them

Catherine: ahhhhhhh

Carlos: hey hey uh look

(Carlos turns around lifting his robe to reveal a small tail)

Carlos: see your not the only one here with a tail

Catherine: why are you telling me all this stuff

Carlos: it’s to ease the fact that your now a different type of human

Catherine: give me a mirror

Carlos: what

Catherine: GIVE ME A MIRROR

Carlos: woah bad idea last time I gave someone a mirror they freaked out badly

Catherine: grrrr hmph

Carlos: okay your decision just don’t freak out

(Carlos proceeds to hand Catherine a mirror as she takes a long look at her reflection)

Catherine: GREAT FATHERS IM

Carlos:

Catherine: oh yeah no freaking out wait a minute am I ah don’t look at me

(Carlos proceeds to turn towards the cave entrance takes a book from his back and looks through the pages)

Carlos: hm what page was it aw there it is

Catherine: where what is

(Carlos turns around eyes closed and aims his staff)

Carlos: fabricate clo thing

(Suddenly a toga like outfit appears on Catherine)

Catherine: huh

Carlos: did it work can I look

Catherine: uh yeah why is it an outfit like this though

Carlos: beasts are random so beasts clothes are hard to make also being asymmetric makes it’s harder

Catherine: asymmetric

Carlos: all your limbs are different sizes

Catherine: are they

Carlos: enough chit chat (Carlos pulls his hood up) if you don’t want to get caught it’s probably best to follow me

Catherine: no I think I’ll stay in this cave

Carlos: they’ll find you eventually and there isn’t much

Catherine: where are you headed

Carlos: new leaf I got a horse and wagon there then it’s off to cyeris

Catherine: okay I’ll follow

Carlos: stand still

Catherine: what

Carlos: I can hear you reveal yourselfs

(Pan up to the top of a cliff some distance away)

Kyle: seems like someone beat us to the punch

Herry: do you really think he heard us

Kyle: no he’s probably trying to scare us

Carlos: hey stop the chitchat I can hear you

Catherine: wait are those oh hey there my friends maybe they’ll understand

(A fireball flys past her face)

Catherine: eep

Carlos: they aren’t currently your friends run

Catherine:

Carlos: RUN

Kyle: oh my god he must be insane thinking he can converse with a beast

Herry: then you better beat it out of him

(Kyle jumps down the cliff towards the bottom of the cliff and draws a sword)

Kyle: you are in our way from helping our friend

Carlos: how do you plan on doing that there’s only two options for beasts slavery or execution

Kyle: we’ll figure something out

Carlos: well I started helping her first so get in line

Kyle: you think your qualified

Carlos more qualified then you

Kyle: oh I’ll show you qualified

(Kyle tries to strike Carlos with his sword while Carlos keeps blocking it)

Kyle: just let me hit you

Carlos: no way pal

(Carlos tries to hit Kyle with his staff but Kyle keeps dodging)

Kyle: this is taking to long igneous burst

Carlos: oh so you a fire mage is that all you got

Kyle: it isn’t cocytus flow

(Suddenly a trail of ice forms causing Carlos to jump as Carlos lands his hood falls off)

Kyle: so it is true your mother is a beast

10 years ago

Kyle: I can’t wait once you become a mage you can pay for me to become one early

Grace: that’s right sweety it’ll be easy just wai

Arch mage: are you ready for the enlightenment process

Grace: I am

Arch mage: it should be a quick process

Grace: what what’s happening to me

Arch mage: uh uhhhh

(The arch mage passes out)

Kyle: mom mom are you still there

Grace: rawr rawr ruh rawwr

Kyle: don’t worry I’ll help you

Later

Arch mage: uh what happened wait did your mother

Kyle: yes she ran into the woods

Arch mage: I’m sorry at least you have your father

Kyle: yeah

A week later

Howard: if only you were still here grace I need you wait a minute I hear something in the shed

Grace: grawr

Howard: ahhh

Elsewhere

Herry: wow that’s a lot of guards

Kyle: yeah going towards the lower class section

Catherine: oh isn’t your dad supposed to be home early today

Herry: hey where are you going

Kyle’s home

Kyle: dad what happened

Howard: there was a beast in the shed but the guards were able to take care of it it’s okay

Kyle: yeah it’s okay

3 years later

Kyle: hey mom it’s me

Grace: grawr

Kyle: things have been going okay dad is still single says you were the only one for him

Grace: raw

Kyle: I’m trying my best but it’s hard to keep going on with you in here it’s hard

7 years later

Kyle: hey mom it’s it’s finally time for me to officially become a mage can you believe it

Grace: rawr

Kyle: I’ll I’ll let you know how it goes

Back to now

Carlos: are are you crying

Kyle: I I can’t imagine how it feels growing up with a beast as a mother your entire life

Five years ago

Carlos: are you sure it’s a good idea for me to become a mage what if they find out what I am

Sean: it’ll be fine I believe in yeah ain’t that right sweetie

Sera: reahhhhhhh

Carlos: your right mom I’ll do it

Sean: still so hard to believe you can understand her

Later

Arch mage: are you ready

Carlos: I am uh uhhhhhh

Later

Arch mage: I can’t believe it he’s he’s

Doctor: he’s half beast

Arch mage: that means one of his parents must be a beast

Later

Arch mage: look at this man procreating with a beast

Sean: no it’s not like that

Arch mage: and look at this abomination guards take him away

Carlos: augh

Sera: GRRRREAWWWWWWWWWWWWH

Arch mage: despicable take the beast away

Sera: reahhh

Carlos: mom

Sera: CARLOS

Carlos: mommm

Sean: run Carlos run

Present

Carlos: wait where did the other guy go Catherine *inhale* *exhale* enhance beast

Kyle: huh hey where are you going wait how does he know wait earlier he said can he wait he’s getting away uhhhh

Carlos: I am not failing another person I can’t fail any more people

Further in the forest

Herry: can we truly help her wait how is he moving so fast

Carlos: stay away from her

Herry: you don’t know what you’re doing

Carlos: neither do you

Herry: what do you mean

Carlos: you really think catching her is the best course of action taking away her freedom

Herry: she’s out of control so she must be contained

Carlos: wow the church really has you hypnotized

Herry: silence half beast

Carlos: do you know what beast I’m half of

Herry: what do you mean

Carlos: I am Carlos Mcklaine the prince of sheep

Kyle: Herry catch him

Herry: he’s he’s the

Kyle: the what

Herry: he’s the prince of sheep

Kyle: what does that mean

Herry: it means his mother is a strong beast

Kyle: that doesn’t change anything we need him him out of the way to catch Catherine

Carlos: take me on illuminos Maximus

Kyle and Herry: augh

Kyle: uh we lost them

Later

Carlos: hey are you in there

Catherine: yeah why would they

Carlos: normal people can’t understand beast I can but that’s cause I’m half n half but I uh got my wagon if your ready to start heading towards cyeris

Catherine: uh yeah I am

Carlos: it’s been a crazy day so you might want to get some rest

Westloft slave barracks

Kyle: hey mom I’m sorry for not coming yesterday it’s just things have been crazy but it finally happened I’m a mage now

Grace: rawh

Kyle: but my friend turned into a beast

Grace: reaah

Kyle: have you heard of the queen of sheep

Grace: rah

Kyle: well I met someone who might be son to a beast and I think he might be able to understand beasts

Grace: rar

Kyle: so hopefully I can save my friend and convince that guy to allow us to have a full conversation

Grace: reeah

Kyle: I’m sorry but it might be a while till our next conversation I love you mom

And that is that wew

[hopeshoodie]

If you were writing s3, what drama would you have added?

So I’ve tried to rewrite S3 before, but now I feel like I overdid it with the conflict there lol. I’m much prouder of my rewrite attempt for Boat Party, I think it gets at the themes better than the former.

But I would agree that the biggest problem with S3 is the lack of drama (followed closely by the juvenile writing). So here’s just some spitballed ideas that could’ve been implemented in S3 without changing the entire story structure, but would have added way more drama:

I would have a recoupling early in the game where MC has no input because it’s a guy’s choice. I think in general LITG under-uses the player not being in control of the couplings, and those were the most suspenseful parts of S2 (wondering if Rahim would get eliminated, the disaster recoupling). Maybe this could be done by having MC as the bombshell and then immediately having a guy’s choice recoupling, or having MC come in as a bombshell and steal someone, but then two days later having a guy’s choice recoupling. 

I like the idea of MC being the bombshell because I love the concept of her not being the center of the villa. People were really upset how S4 implemented that idea (I can’t really say, I haven’t played it), so I would try to soften it by allowing MC to approach different LIs and get them to secretly confess that they’re interested in her, but also that they’ve got something going on with their current partner and they’re willing to see how things go. That could create drama between MC and their partner or the LI and their partner, which I like. 

I would keep the ‘your LI forgets your name’ bit, but customize it to each LI like I suggested here. I like the premise- a simple insulting thing your LI says without context/explanation so it causes the player to question their relationship and wonder if the LI will switch on them. So your LI still forgets your name, but each LI handles it differently/has different motivation. We also have to have a REASON you can’t talk to your LI about it, so I would make it clear-er in the narrative that MC is being rushed into activities by other islanders and not just that the LI is avoiding her. 

I would bring Rafi in much earlier (because he’s objectively the most successful character in canon) and have three different girls be VERY interested in him and willing to leave their partners for him. I don’t think LITG has used the ‘one person is way better than everyone else and everyone’s into them’ thing in regards to a NPC, just with MC. So I think it’d be super interesting to have three girls acknowledge they’re gunning for Rafi, and basically say ‘may the best win’. Especially if the girls are already friends and trying to be respectful of each other’s feelings. You could play that out for 1-3 days, with Rafi reacting in confusion to being so aggressively shmoozed, the other boys being put off that their partner’s ignoring them, and the girls trying to be civil with each other while obviously being frustrated. 

Instead of what, five challenges? That did nothing for the plot and were just filler? Have a couple of challenges that force people to do uncomfortable things (lie detector, guessing their partners interests, physical game where they get up close and personal with not-their-partner). Those conflicts aren’t good to draw out more than a day, but do add a foreshadowed problem with relationships or add spice to an uneventful episode.

I HATE how Nicky/Elladine left. It felt so performative, because they literally only have a couple days left before the finale and weren’t visibly THAT into their partner anyways. I do like that Rafi/Lily leave if rejected, it shows a lot of integrity, but I think more than one person just walking during a season starts to feel… Cheap… Like the characters want out as much as the readers do… Instead, I would have one (1) islander walk out, but have it be the person that the new islander stole. So for example if Lily takes Nicky from Elladine, have Nicky walk out because he told Lily not to couple with him and he’d rather leave than be coupled with someone who doesn’t listen to him. Then you have more drama instead of people just pretending to be ok with the new coupling, because Lily and Elladine would both be single and would be incredibly irritated with each other. 

The only other way I would have someone walk out on the show is if it’s a couple we’ve genuinely been rooting for, like Seb and Viv, who say they’re leaving because their relationship is more important that the drama happening for the show and leave together.

Finally I need to have an explosive finale. I HATE how none of the characters really react if MC cheats on them or steals the money. I would have customized reactions for each LI to both if it’s revealed through the montage that she cheated with Tai and didn’t tell them, and more intense customized reactions if she steals the money. There’s no way in hell Rafi or Harry would still be friends with MC if she took the money, we need an argument to SHOW that.