#this is also why I'm not super excited at the prospect of more characters getting introduced

[prince-liest]

@cringefailvox made the mistake of lamenting the lack of Hazbin filler episodes in earshot of me, and I went off about it a little bit. Crossposting to Tumblr because I need to vent my frustration on this publicly Yet Again. unu

I WANT FILLER EPISODES. I WANT TO SEE HOW THE CAST INTERACTS WITH EACH OTHER IN CASUAL SETTINGS. I especially desperately want to know where Alastor stands with the rest of the characters, and where Charlie stands with Angel Dust.

We kind of get Alastor telling-instead-of-showing that he's growing fond of the others in the balcony scene with Niffty, but it's such a short/small moment that 1) we have NO idea how honest he's being with himself/Niffty about this because we haven't seen ANY of the six month timeskip and also 2) because it's such a short moment I think it just doesn't sink in for a lot of people anyway! It's sort of rare for me to see "growing fondness" reflected in post-canon between Alastor and the various hotel residents, and it's understandable why, when that one little semi-private reflection is all the insight we get on the subject.

Additionally, because there was so little time in the season, most of the character interaction moments we see are, like, more punchy high-emotion plot-relevant moments that feel pretty polarizing. And that makes it SO HARD to figure out things like where Husk and Alastor's normal relationship interactions lie on the scale of pilot-level silliness to "Alastor about to eat Husk's face in the hallway," or whether Charlie and Angel resolved any of their brewing conflict beyond Charlie's apology for interfering with his work - because there was soooOOO much more than that and their relationship was absolutely building toward making Angel Dust feel underappreciated and like the "irredeemable sex-having crackhead" compared to Sir Pentious, which I think could have been really poignant considering Pentious is indeed the one who got fucking redeemed!!!!!!! But that plot basically got dropped.

Like, last we checked in, Alastor and Vaggie both disliked Sir Pentious. Angel was able to bond with him some during Vaggie's exercises, but Vaggie refrained from killing him pretty much just for Charlie's sake and Alastor just barely sees him as a person. I want to see how they progressed to actually caring that he died!

I just. AMAZON I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR THE 6 MONTH TIMESKIP FILLER WE WILL NEVER GET BACK. GREENLIGHT 12 EPISODES MINIMUM FOR SEASON TWO.

[hello-nichya-here]

Some Peter Pan 2003 edits, enjoy.

(Nichya, do you agree with me by thinking this movie is the few examples of a live action Disney remake being as good if not better than the original?)

I agree and there's a very good reason why that is the case: it wasn't made by Disney, but by Universal, who wanted to be more loyal to the original story - and like Jason Isaac's himself said, that was the thing that made this movie so different from most adaptations of it.

I'm gonna be real, I used to hate basically every version of Peter Pan, mainly because of the Disney cartoon being my introduction to the story. I just never understood why Wendy liked him, or why he liked her, or how Neverland was in anyway special/different from any generic "Magic place", or why I should care if any of these characters leave it behind or stay. And keep in mind, this was coming from a child that was all about the Disney formulas. Peter Pan, as a concept, just REALLY felt hollow to little me.

... And then I watched this movie.

Let me tell you, 6-year-old Nichya was OBSESSED with this movie (and with Jason Isaac as Hook). 24-year-old Nichya too, even more so actually, because EVERYTHING ABOUT IT is perfect - including the thing that aged "poorly", aka the special effects.

Neverland doesn't really look real and that's good. The dated effects, the epic music and the very colorful lighting make it look like a place that could only exist in dreams, so when Wendy and her brothers are in awe of it, I totally get it. Today's tendency of films in which every scene look super dark and/dull makes me appreciate it even more.

The lighting also does wonders for the storytelling, showing Peter's magical connection with Neverland as it changes based on his emotional state, or in moments like Wendy seeing Hook for the first time, with the extra focus on his eyes - you can practically hear the book quote of Wendy being fascinated instead of frightened.

Speaking of the book, the fact that this adaptation had the guts to go with THE thing that could end making it far too corny and silly, aka the "kiss" Wendy has on her lips and that shows she's starting to grow up and become interested in romance is SUCH an important plot-point and key aspect of her character arc, and is delightful to see an adaptation that goes "We already have a magical land, fairies, mermaids, and a boy that stays a kid forever. How is the 'kiss' going to make it less realistic? It's fantasy already!"

And I love, love, love how they make sure we know who Wendy is outside of romance (a storyteller that wants adventure, a child that is both really mature and responsible, but also activelly trying to escape that role, someone who is very motherly but has a ton of anxiety about the prospect of eventually being the adult in charge) - but without ever downplaying how much her romance with Peter means to her.

He was the boy that was giving her everything she was looking for at the moment: friendship, adventure, excitement, and, more importantly, a way to escape any responsibility she didn't want - forever. He really is the hero she had been waiting for, and that, as a consequence, makes her realize that growing up and eventually having a family is not that scary after all, as long as she finds the right person, someone who understands her and that she trusts.

Obviously, she doesn't want to get married and have a ton of kids NOW, but she wants the promise that this will happen - when they're ready for it, when they're older. But Peter Pan is no ordinary boy. It's not just that he's too immature to fully embrace his feelings for Wendy right now, and could truly allow himself to love her later. He is NEVER going to reach that point, he's far too afraid to allow himself the chance to even try. And that breaks Wendy's heart.

And it breaks Peter's heart too, because he WANTS to be loved, and he already cares for Wendy in a way he never cared about anyone else. But because of who he is, she, and everyone else, will inevitably leave him. Because ALL children grow up. He is the only one who was blessed, and cursed, to be the exception.

He'll never be a husband and father. He will never be someone's child or sibling. He's the true lost boy, out of reach forever. He is truly free from everything and everyone, but the price is the knowledge that, sooner or later, he will find himself completely alone time and time again. And Wendy, the girl he loves, will one day either forget him or grow old and die - after having lived a full life with someone else, because Peter couldn't, and wouldn't, grow old with her.

He's doomed to be lonely forever... just like Hook. But unlike Hook, when he is immature and selfish (like when he closes the window at Wendy's house in the hopes that she'll believe her parents stopped waiting for her and her siblings), he does it out of pure desperation, because he's a child that genuinely doesn't know any better.

Hook however, is coming from a place of malice. When he "pursues" Wendy, he does out of jealousy that Peter managed to find true love, while he will never have that. He does it to steal that from him, to hurt him, to make him endure the pain of knowing that, of all people that could have replaced him in Wendy's heart, he was the one who did it.

And, of course, while he never really does anything to Wendy, the constant implication that, at any second, he might, looms large. Their dynamic is inherently predatory, with Hook exploiting the fact that Wendy is mature enough to want a romantic connection, but is still too naive to understand all the implications behind it, and, more importantly, that no adult that wants to be with her like that could possibly be someone she's safe with it.

He is an intriguing, tragic figure like Peter and thus can "seduce" her rather easily too (the fact that Jason Isaacs is really fucking hot doesn't hurt either), but he is doing it through constant manipulation, reminding her that she can never have the boy she actually wants and exploiting her childish need to have some form of petty revenge against him for it, by "befriending" the person he hates the most in the whole world.

But there's another thing that brings her closer to Hook: the fact that, despite being the complete opposite of her father, he still LOOKS like him, is the real adult authority figure around, and he is offering her advice and comfort when she experiences her first heartbreak. He represents both her adolescent impulse to rebel, to proove she's grown already, and her childlike instinct to just run to the arms of her parent and let him call the shots because she's afraid of making mistakes and wants someone who can tell her what to do, how she's supposed to act.

There is a recurring theme through the movie of Wendy's mostly innocent fantasies being read through an adult lenses (see the teacher's concern and offense at the drawing of Peter above her in bed - because he's FLYING, not touching her in anyway). Much like when she was the "mother" of the Lost Boys, when she is by Hook's side, Wendy is a child playing pretend. But the threat Hook poses is very real and his intentions are downright evil. Because Wendy ran away from the flawed, but well-meaning adults she could trust, she walked right into the trap of a very dangerous man that is taking advantage of her need for a protector, a mentor.

And that's why the kiss scene is the perfect climax for the movie, as it concludes three character arcs at once. It shows us Wendy choosing true love, however fleeting, instead of Hook's lies, and indulging in one last childhood fantasy before growing up. It gives Peter the only form of closure he could ever have, knowing that even if he can't be with Wendy, he will always be "the one" for her and won't ever be forgotten, just like he won't ever forget her, because they mean too much to each other. And Hook is forced to accept that, because he can't connect with anyone without manipulation, which could never last, his life truly is void in a way even Peter's never would be.

So yeah, it's a great movie with serious guts, and everyone else can just quit trying to make a new adaptation, reboot, sequel, prequel or whatever because they're never getting anywhere near this level of quality.

[his-tamine]

Can we know more about Eden's trauma? I'm so into their story

Good question, anon :] tbh I've been pretty reluctant to go into too much detail about Eden's past on here, since even though he's a fictional character, the stuff that happened to him is more along the lines of "realistic fiction" - meaning that the mentioned events *can* occur in real life - and therefore could trigger real people who might've experienced anything similar.

BUT I think it should be fine, so long as I add a trigger warning. // TW for talk of: physical abuse, domestic violence, verbal abuse, death while in labor, murder, alcoholism, & a brief mention of hypothetical miscarriage. If any of the things listed trigger you, maybe don't read this one to be safe, ight? The short & sweet version is that Eden's father and stepmother are some stank bitches. and Eden's sister, Forrest's mother, & Eden's adoptive grandma are queens.

If you stuck around, here we go. (This is SUPER long, so I'm sorry ab that) Eden Ash Harmon's birth - February 5th, 2000 - was a long, painful, & ultimately fatal one for his mother, Lauren May Harmon. various complications occurred, and she ended up not even surviving long enough to get to see him draw his first breath. His father, Troy Harmon, was devastated over his wife's passing, and overwhelmed by the prospect of not only becoming a new parent, but now becoming a single parent. He had to grieve, whilst trying to raise Eden. which was even harder, because he was born prematurely and of course, smaller and weaker than normal, so he required a lot of extra care. This took a serious toll on him, and Troy began to unfortunately rely on alcohol - a reliance which only got worse over time, and developed into just alcoholism. By the time Eden was just three years old, his father had grown to resent him, and blame him for all of the struggles he faced. and by the time Eden was 4, he'd unfortunately begun expressing his resentment aloud. He'd say really nasty things like how he wished Lauren had just miscarried instead of giving her life to birth Eden, because he'd rather have his wife back than have Eden. To Eden's face. Both drunk, and sober. Making sure Eden knew exactly how much of a "burden" he was. Which, of course, was really harmful. Troy was also physically abusive toward him, doing things such as putting out cigarettes on his skin - the burn scars of which Eden still has to this day, though they're now more faint. Then, one day Troy brought home a woman called Sharon, and introduced the two to each other. It wasn't uncommon for Troy to bring women home for one-night-stands, but come to find out, Troy and Sharon had actually been dating for around three months before this introduction. Eden, at first, was honestly excited. He thought this meant his father would be happy again, and he may get a mother.

The first part seemed true for a while. Troy was much calmer than he'd previously been, but that didn't last. because Sharon soon got pregnant. Now Sharon was originally indifferent towards kids for the most part, and because of this, didn't become too close with Eden at the time, but she found herself wanting to keep the baby. The news of the pregnancy triggered Troy, and sent him into a panic. all of the memories of the day Eden was born and he lost his first wife, came flooding back. He didn't know how to handle this properly, and started to behave aggressive towards Sharon too, as he had with Eden. He hadn't physically hurt her, but he was getting close to it (think, punching walls or throwing things - aggressive hand gestures, etc.) and it soon dawned on Sharon that the home was not safe anymore.

So, she planned to leave without telling him. Eden himself still isn't sure why, but she opted to take him with her. maybe it was pity, maybe it was newfound maternal instinct due to having her own baby on the way, who knows? well, not long after her baby - & Eden's younger half sister - Beatrice Harmon, was born, while Troy was out one evening, Sharon packed what she could of their belongings - only the important things & clothing - that she could fit in her purse, & made for her mother's house, maybe 2 hours away.

Sharon's mother, Susan, was - for lack of a better term - an angel. Though they weren't blood-related, she immediately welcomed Eden as her grandson, with open arms. She stayed with them every day while Sharon was at work, and actively engaged with and played with them. Eden even had his first birthday celebration there when he turned five. This was by far the best year of his entire life at the time.

Well, of course, that also didn't last. (Here's where things take an even darker turn, so if you need to, refer back to the tw.)

Troy found them. Susan was behind the corner, fixing lunch for Eden and Bea, when he showed up, and broke in. In broad daylight. Eden completely froze at first, unable to even believe that this was happening. Troy destroyed things, and stomped all throughout the small home, calling Sharon's name. But Sharon, ironically, wasn't even home - she was at work. Susan yelled for him to leave, and grabbed a kitchen knife in order to protect the kids, then dialed 9-1-1.

Troy flew into a rage, and injured her, very badly. She was only in her mid-sixties, but she was still an older woman. She kept screaming for Eden to take his sister and run to the neighbors, since the front door was still ajar, but Eden couldn't yet hear anything. His ears were ringing, and his body was completely paralyzed with fear. Troy injured one of her legs badly enough that she couldn't get up off of the ground, and then ended up knocking her unconscious.

when Eden could finally make his body move, all he could think was not to stop Troy. Stop him from hurting Susan any further, and not to let him lay a finger on his baby sister. So, he grabbed the kitchen knife and did what he had to. The end result wasn't immediate however, and - still pumped full of adrenaline - Troy ended up injuring Eden quiet badly as well. Then, he realized how badly injured he *himself* was, panicked, and promptly took off on foot.

Eden was unable to move due to his injuries, but still semi-conscious. Susan was gravely injured, and he wasn't sure whether or not she was even still alive. Bea ended up being completely physically unharmed. Neighbors came outside, found them, and dialed 9-1-1, successfully hitting 'call' this time. All three were rushed to the hospital to be examined & treated. The hospital also contacted Sharon, and she got there as fast as she could.

At first, Sharon was just so relieved that her mother and Eden were alive, and that Bea wasn't injured. But after a day & a half, authorities found Troy. Not alive. He'd failed to get medical attention for his own injuries, obviously for fear of going to prison. When Sharon found that out, she was - surprisingly - devastated. apparently at one point, she'd gotten it in her head that they could reconcile someday in the near future, and had - stupidly - given him strong hints as to where they were all staying.

and of course, now that he was dead, all those plans went up in smoke. So, who does she blame? If you said Eden, you win! :,]

Eden, still being a kid - and a severely traumatized one, at that - of course did the same thing he did the last time he was blamed for someone's death, and believed that it really was his fault. So now, in his mind, he'd killed *both* his parents (which of course was not the case - it was not his fault at all.)

Sharon took custody of he and Beatrice, as she was pretty much all they had left. And like last time, she let her resentment fester, and turn into physical and verbal abuse. Only toward Eden though. Bea grew up witnessing this, and since her older brother was literally nothing but nice to her - and practically raised her due to Sharon's neglect of both kids - she fortunately stood up for him whenever she got the opportunity.

Susan held on as long as she could - until Eden was eleven - but eventually succumbed to her internal injuries. Infections played a role. Eden was forbidden from attending her memorial service, by Sharon, because - in her words - "She wasn't even really your grandma." She forced Bea to attend with her, and left Eden home alone that day.

Fast forward, and Eden's sixteen. Sharon demands that he start paying rent, or else she'll kick him out. Eden's not stupid, so he at first refuses, stating the obvious - that she couldn't kick out a sixteen-year-old. but she does anyway. she kicks him out, then calls the cops, and reports him as a runaway. Making him out to be an unruly teenager, who just wears her out all the time, and runs away when asked to do simple house chores such as cleaning his room (lies, lies, lies.)

She did this multiple times, and every time, the cops believed her. Eden got sick of it, and finally agreed to get a job so that he could pay rent. He went to work at a shitty local coffee shop, as a barista. There, he met Forrest! :] Yes, we finally get to some GOOD news.

At first, they didn't talk much, but after a while, Forrest noticed Eden struggling with certain things, and that whenever he asked for help, he was either ignored or insulted for "not knowing how to do his job." So, he offered to help him, since he knew his way around the place by then. That's how their interactions started. Coworkers to friends to lovers, basically.

Eden began spending every lunch with Forrest, listening to him infodump. everyone else thought Forrest's constant yapping was "annoying," but Eden was just glad to have someone who wanted to talk to him. Especially someone his age, and especially someone friendly.

By the time Eden was 17, he'd already filled Forrest in briefly about his home life, and Forrest and his mother Margaret, had made it clear to Eden that if it came down to it, he was welcome to stay with them. Sharon was constantly ranting about how she couldn't wait for the day when she was no longer legally responsible for him anymore, so Eden prepared. He made sure Bea still had a way to keep in touch with him whenever she needed, and he packed one bag of essentials, and kept it hidden until his 18th birthday.

On his 18th, he was immediately kicked out. I'm talking 2 o'clock in the morning, woken up, and told to get out and never come back. So, he did. He went to stay with Forrest & Margaret, and stayed there for 3 years. During which he remained working with Forrest at the coffee shop, and offered to pay Margaret rent, to which she laughed and told him to save his money, and he didn't need to do that.

Margaret too is an angel, fr. Anyways, at 21, he and Forrest were dating and decided to move in together. And ofc, Beatrice later ended up moving out right away at 18 because she couldn't stand her mother. And the rest is history. :]

I always say, the silliest goose has the most fucked up backstory

[korshrimpski]

Recap of this podcast, but kinda not really as i only focus on matthew and josh's interview

Before we start, Josh had some ugly curtains in the background, that is literally not important but during the podcast i couldn't stop thinking about how ugly they are (i can rip on his curtains because i used to own the same ones they were terrible 😭)

To start they were ask how long they have known each other

JOSH: "...we've been played together since we were seven or eight years old now-- so not anymore but we did for eight years-- Growing up there wasn't really a time where we weren't on a line together... but a lot of memories just playing together and a lot of road trips together."

MATTHEW: "...it's been a long journey so far, so I'm happy to see Josh having so much success. And you know as kids I think we always, you know, competed against each other and that made us better. And like he said we played with each other for countless years so that's definitely helped and you know, it's pretty surreal that I got to play with him."

They were asked about the hockey academy. And it's was like a group project where Josh made Matthew speak because he didn't want to. But Matthew explains it originally started as a joke and the more they talked about it the more of a good idea it became. Then Matthew met with someone called Jacob Mars who runs a lot of hockey development in Minnesota, and Mars agreed to help, and from there it became easier to organize. And they both were excited for this camps as in arizona they didn't have the opportunity to be in a hockey program because there was none. But the main goal of the camp that they both talked about is to bring fun back to hockey.

JUNIOR COYOTES DAYS!! when this was being bought up they both became super smiley

to starts Josh LIED about them both not being competitive towards each other, they are professional athletes i'm not going to believe them when they say they weren't competitive

they would play mini sticks in the hallways of hotels, when they were travelling, until they got 100 noise complaints (matthews words not mine) then they would go somewhere else until they got another noise complaint

when they got older they started playing tag because their knees would hurt playing mini sticks

when traveling to places like detroit and chicago they would have snowball fights

there was one time they set off the fire alarm (on accident) playing tag. In Matthews words "a big disaster" and then Josh blamed it on matthew 😭

They played super smash bros together. And that got very competitive and Josh stands by his word that Matthew is TERRIBLE at it. And Matthew likes to say he was so much more better than josh. (they were asked what character they play with, Matthew said Bowser, Josh didn't answer)

But to add more about the super smash bros the coaches and Josh's dad would get involved and where convinced that they were better, so matthew and josh would team up together competing against their coaches and josh's dad.

They went to Bratislava (🇸🇰) together and josh kind of said it like they bought matthew along so he could translate everything (because matthew knies is slovak if you didn't know)

During this section Josh said something and I want to highlight it because it is important (and sweet):

"I think on the ice having Matthew is one of the reasons why the two of us were able to kind of make it this far."

Back to more stories: they never played on a 3 vs 3 team together and those would always get very competitive between the two

But to present time (aka when the podcast was filmed) they are now golfing together and that is also very competitive

However i encourage you, if you aren't planning on watching the podcast in your own time, to watch that section of it, it's just really fun and really sweet (timestamps: 8:01-11:00)

Talking about the NHL dream, and both of them very thankful that form a young age they had skilled coaches training them, just really wholesome stuff

They were then asked about Auston Matthews where Matthew called him a superstar and he also talked about skating with him when he was younger and how Kniesy would try and mimic his play after auston (the potential that storyline has PLEASE LEAFS FANS YOU HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY HERE)

Then a question about Arizona hockey growing was asked... and man they were both happy to talk about it they were both so happy that it was growing, and they said they want to make an impact for Arizona hockey as well... don't even talk to me i thought i made peace with the coyotes relocation but it turns out i didn't and after hearing that, i'm fragile.

But to people wanting to understand the state of arizona hockey and why the coyotes was important please watch this bit of the video (timestamps: 16:17-18:07)

Doan Family Ranch- where crazy things happen apparently (tyson nash, buddy, please tell me what happens there). But for that summer (2022) they were going to train a little together before heading to their respective development camps.

Then the sun devils (josh's uni team) asked a question in the chat if matthew was ready to face the inferno. Matthew laughed and said that game is on thanksgiving and he's excited because he gets to spent time with his family on thanksgiving and that it's going to be a competitive game. But there of course was chirps and trash talk at the end:

JOSH: "...we gotta get some Matthew Knies poster boards in the student section for that game and just abuse him. Every chance we get. I'm gonna get all the baby pictures [of you] and you're gonna be plastered everywhere..." MATTHEW: "Yeah, for sure, for sure. Love it" JOSH: "I'm going to make shirts. I'll pay for those shirts to be made."

(if you're wondering ASU ended up winning that game in OT)

And that is the end of the interview.

But i hope you liked this recap, this is my first time doing something like this.

Also if you found this randomly this post is tied into another that you can find here

[cursedvibes]

I started reading Tengoku Daimakyou and am now up to chapter 20. It's an interesting story and that plus the human experimentation and world building is what is keeping me hooked so far. The School in particular is what's really up my alley. Experiments, clueless superpowered kids, incubators behind the scenes. It reminds me a bit of The Promised Neverland, particularly the early chapters and when we started to find out about the farms. I hope there will be a bit more focus on it in the future. Can't wait to find out how it and the Man-Eaters are all connected.

Haruki is definitely my favourite character so far, although Dr. Usami is also very interesting, but I'm not sure how long he will stick around. Unsurprisingly in Haruki's case, since he's by far the most well developed character. Besides exploring the world, he and his backstory is what makes the chapters outside The School worth it for me. I just wish they wouldn't push this romance with Maru so much. Maru is the type of knucklehead character I'm never that interested in anyway, but ever since Haruki came out to him, he's really grating on my nerves. Haruki tells him a very personal and traumatic detail about him and all he can think about is how this inconveniences him and complicates his attraction to him. Not to mention that he just keeps on misgendering Haruki and has now tried to force himself on him twice (and the 2nd time the only thing keeping him away was "she screams like a girl"...). He's like the worst aspects of Denji (csm). I get being a horny teenager and growing up in a lawless society, but if Denji understands consent, I see no reason why Maru can't be a decent person as well.

That's another thing that puts me a bit off with this series. It's so horny about kids (or more specifically girls). Haruki's body gets sexualized so much and I really didn't need to see naked 13 or 14 yo. I'm guessing Shiro getting that shower pic will become important later again, but you don't need to close in on it this much. I get it. She's naked, he finds her attractive. It's not hard to figure out. And that thing with Maru and the girl from the inn was just...idk why that needed to happen at all. A kid getting into prostitution wouldn't be unusual in such a world, but don't sexualize her this much and make her super excited about that prospect?? And apparently the important thing between Kona and Tokio getting closer is that we get a full page of Tokio's breasts... I'm sure this story could function perfectly fine without the naked kids even if you want to explore sexuality.

But anyway, despite the things that bother me about it, I will probably fully catch up on it in the next days, since it's not that many chapters. I'm looking forward how the Dr. Usami situation will develop.

[rookie-critic]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023, dir. Aaron Horvath & Michael Jelenic) - review by Rookie-Critic

We no longer live in a world where video game adaptations can be written off as soon as they're introduced. Modern adaptations like Paramount's Sonic the Hedgehog films or HBO's The Last of Us series have started to change the landscape and the expectation for what these adaptations can do and how good they can be. So, when Illumination announced they had partnered with Nintendo to put a new Super Mario Bros. film project into production, naturally hackles went up. The Mario franchise does house one of the most classic examples of a video game film adaptation gone bad, but there were also a fair number of people who wanted to wait and see what happened. I, at this point, was unsure. I was excited at the prospect of a new film starring some of my favorite video game characters, but at the same time Illumination doesn't have a fantastic track record with me. I love the first Despicable Me film, and I think the second one is ok, but since then I almost actively despise the Minions as a thing that exists and think a lot of Illumination's other films have this really cheap and obvious humor that only children and middle-aged moms would find funny. I also get that this is the exact audience they're trying to please, but I could easily point to animation studios like DreamWorks and a film like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish that manage to be naturally hilarious without ever feeling forced or cringey. Regardless, I was worried. My uncertainty was only deepened when the cast list was announced and I saw that Chris Pratt would be voicing Mario. The plucky, Italian plumber was going to be voiced by Star-Lord, but the rest of the cast looked perfect, so I still held out hope. Then the trailer dropped and my whole outlook changed. It looked good. Really good. Now, after having watched it, I'll come out and say that it was... just fine.

My worry about Illumination injecting their sense of humor into it was well-placed, because they absolutely packed the film with it. Characters deliver one-liners that are neither funny nor clever in places where it completely disrupts the flow of the scene (seriously, sometimes it almost felt like they paused to wait for the laughter they assumed they would get), and there's even a Luma (a little star creature that was first introduced in the Super Mario Galaxy games) that is, in my opinion, a really poor and unnecessary attempt at edgy dark humor that I immediately hated. This thing gets a massive amount of screen time for something that actively detracted from the film's quality (in its defense, I will say I've talked to a handful of people that thought that Luma was the best part of the movie, so maybe it's just a me thing), and every time it showed up to say some really cringey line about the only escape from suffering being death or whatever, I would audibly groan. A lot of the film has an air of an Illumination film that just happens to have Mario characters in it as opposed to a true blue (or red, rather) Mario film. To me, nothing makes this more apparent than the incessant use of licensed songs throughout the film. With a library of music as vast as the Mario franchise's, why would I ever need to hear "Thunderstruck" or "Holding Out for a Hero?" What's weirder is that they do a very good job of working classic themes and music from the games into the film's score already. Why even bother with the licensed music when you clearly are adept at doing it the better way, anyway?

So far, I'm making it seem like I hated it, but that really isn't true at all. I can almost forgive a lot of the very blatant cheap humor because the film is incredibly fun. For fans of the games, it throws a ton of references at the screen, so you're never at a loss for a good dose of nostalgia. Between a fun play on the classic "The princess is in another castle" line, to taking a shortcut on Rainbow Road, to the ringtone on Luigi's phone, to a massively meme'd rap song about a certain red-tie-wearing gorilla, you're being bombarded with beautiful callbacks and hilarious references. The playful ribbing at the fact that Bowser is hopelessly in love with Princess Peach while also constantly in an attempt to take over the kingdom she rules over was very cute and fun, and, while the film's story is very formulaic, the characters feel dynamic and fully realized. The loving, brotherly relationship between Mario and Luigi is very touching, and I loved that they took the baseline personalities the games give the brothers and molded them into this loving sibling unit that always has each other's backs. It's the sibling dynamic I've always wanted out of the duo, and I love that this film gave it to me (even if there could have been way more Luigi, but I feel that way about most Mario properties).

The last two compliments I'll give the Mario movie before I wrap up this incredibly long-winded review are these: the animation is gorgeous. They brought so many set pieces from the games to wondrous, big-budget animation life and it was great to see all these locations and characters that I've grown up with on the big screen. Lastly, the voice acting in the film is impeccable. Chris Pratt did better than I thought he was going to (my main concern was that it would just sound like Chris Pratt coming out of Mario's mouth, which it didn't), and Charlie Day, Jack Black, and Seth Rogen steal every single second of screen time they get. I really do hope they give Luigi a larger role in the sequel, because Charlie Day needs to be this character more. Ultimately, I'm glad that The Super Mario Bros. Movie exists. Sure, it has its flaws, but for fans of the games and fans of Illumination's films in general, this is a fun time. However, if you're not a fan of Illumination or Mario, this isn't going to convert you.

Score: 7/10

Currently only in theaters.

[elytrafemme]

Hey. Ive been following you for a while and yk just friendly neighborhood kid trying to get a following

I try and write, but i was wondering how to start bringing up my account as to how to get my writing up and about, as well as like what formatting i should try out first in the begining (like blurbs, 1 para descriptives, one shots) (i dont do x yn it unnerves me)

... Honestly im a bit confused and lost and ur a huge deal to me so some advice to the fan if you will :>

hey hey! keep in mind that i'm just one person out there who writes, so take everything i say with a grain of salt, but i will do my best to give advice :]

i think the absolute main thing when it comes to writing is that you HAVE to write things that you yourself enjoy writing. a while ago, there was a fic i started for a fandom, and it got the attention of a pretty popular person in the fandom space, who was super super excited for me to continue it. it ended up never getting a second chapter, because while that external support was nice, i was never truly in love with the concept of the fic and honestly found myself more and more stressed at the prospect of working on something i didn't care about.

getting support for the things you create is amazing-- everyone loves validation and getting to have a community of readers is so so nice-- but you have to love what you're creating, not just go after what you think people might want. and it took me personally a while to learn that but once i did, i started enjoying the things i wrote way way more, and i think people who read the works i made could tell that.

in terms of the /kind/ of writing you put out there, i haven't noticed one type of piece getting more attention than another. i recommend that if you post a piece, you give some kind of header with the title of it, if it involves characters list the main characters involved (if it involves OCs you could describe them briefly but i am not experienced in posting original works on tumblr so i can't really speak to that), list off any major content warnings (i.e. death, core, etc.), and give an approximate word count. that way, especially with one shots, people know the length of what they're about to read and can set aside time accordingly for it.

when you do that, also, you can then tag for those things! I'm not the best at tagging my writing in all honesty, so I'm not sure of all the tips and tricks there, but I think you can get a lot out of tagging the main characters involved (if a character only shows up as a brief reference in 1 line, i don't recommend tagging them). past that, you can always look in the tumblr writing tag and see how other people tag their things; that might give you a better idea than i can.

also, if you do start to get people reading and enjoying your writing, you can make a tag list! i'm ... also notoriously bad at using mine, but basically if you get a few works up you can ask if people want to be tagged any time you post a new piece of writing. that's a good way to have people consistently look at things!

last tip i'll give is that you should absolutely reblog the FUCK out of your own writing, because that seriously does help. a lot of people also tag on "reblogs are appreciated" or "reblogs > likes" to encourage other people to share their writing. don't go up to someone directly and ask them to reblog something/why they haven't, since that is a pretty uncomfortable experience, but on the actual post itself i think it's fine to say that you would appreciate people who like the post to also reblog it! just a gentle nudge y'know.

also this is super minor but one of the good things about reblogging your own writing is that you can queue things (albeit i have never used tumblr's queue system so again, grain of salt), and hit different timezones! 4-6 PM EST is the time range i usually shot for with posting anything i wanted people to see, but i have no idea if that's actually the best time, so you can use self reblogs to experiment

i don't know if this is what you wanted me to answer for you; truth be told i was a little confused at your intiial question haha, but i hope that this is somewhat helpful! best of luck with writing :]

[junijunijune]

I am novelizing my favourite tav and writing the game up as a long story with lots of weird sex but I do want it to have a satisfying arc so I am trying to find ways to build her into the story so she has more MC energy to keep up with the main cast.

And I'm trying to balance it so she feels real and integrated without being too much.

I have a blood mage mod and I've built that heavily into her game progression and I think it would be a good multi-class with an acid dragonic sorcerer because you get the acid buffs and the draconic scales and the copper scales look cool.

In her first iteration when I played she was a wild magic sorcerer who had been experimented on as a kid and the learned to suppress her magic extremely hard and it isn't until she winds up in the events of the game. She was a street kid who had come up to work mostly as a fence - so she plays charming merchant very well but she has a good eye for treasure and doing a bit of guild artisan stuff with repairs or make overs on stolen goods so they're easier to re-sell.

This could still work with the draconic sorcerer but something about it feels different.

I had this Ansur-heavy backstory imagined for a Draconic Sorcerer when I was trying to build a lightning god. And there's this possibility of tying it into Gortash which gives her interesting character notes with Karlach and allows me to go a little harder on the Artisan side of things and make her an expert at the craft side of things.

But we're starting to stray into Angel and Dakota, my OCs from when I was 11 who are super super special and the best at everything and and and ....

Also - that's going to be a character shift. She started her first story off as "the lower city nobody" and the draconic sorcerer I am building right now is not that.

Born into an extremely diluted draconic bloodline where no one has actually been born with scales or more than the tiniest capacity for magic, the scales and the obvious affinity are concerning. Her mother does not want the scaly baby to be ruining the marriage prospects for the older daughters so she spends a lot of time in her father's workshop. He's the one with the "tainted" bloodline and he tells her old family legends about other magic users in the family.

He's ambitious and a climber just like her mother is. He takes jobs from Gortash who is an inventor but needs expert hands to create some of the things that he needs. She learns weapons smithing and more intricate skill sets at her father's elbow.

Eventually Gortash takes her on as an apprentice in one of his workshops. This seems like a good thing. Her parents are thrilled! She is excited to be moving out of soldering and into the actual engineering side fo things.

It isn't great. This isn't quite as bad it is for the Gondians but it gets obvious fast that she is an asset not an ally and she won't be allowed to leave. It's a gilded cage but it is a cage. She's seen Durge around. Maybe she's even seen Ketheric around.

Rather than streetwise and clever, she's sheltered and extremely expert at what she does. She has some magic training but mostly channeled towards artifacing rather than offensive magic. She has been steeped a little in Gortash's bullshit and that might help explain why she is the type to fearlessly talk Orthons into killing themselves. She's not actually involved in the plot but she sees pieces of it cross her desk because she does Gortash's magic as well as his soldering. She's seen bits of Netherese magic. Fragments of Illithid technology. Gondian machinery. Not enough to put the pieces together but enough to be suspicious.

She's asking too many questions so Gortash tells her it is time to explain it and takes her along with him on the next trip to Moonrise. She gets tadpoled and sent out in the same shipment with Durge to be sent back to Baldur's Gate and then the ship crashes and now she's in this mess.

When I write it out it sounds like a story that makes sense.

It seemed like too much in my head but I think I like this.

I'll go make some lunch and chew on it a bit more.

[lovecolibri]

SaL anon here my friend, back after a couple of weeks visiting family and refereeing family drama (I love them but visits remind me why I physically live far away from them). Anyway I'm sorry your work is being super shitty and you have to walk a fine there right now, that sucks and I'm reviewing them poorly on your behalf 😤.

So instead of indulging in the salt this time I am here to get super excited with you over the upcoming RWRB movie!! After seeing the trailer I immediately went and read the book and I am now aggressively glaring at the calendar waiting for August 11th to fucking get here already. Its been too long since since we've gotten to flail about our blorbos on here and I am ready 🤩🤩🤩.

And do you know the best thing bestie?? There's no self-indulgent showrunner behind the scenes to force out-of-character narrative or unneeded and unwanted side characters on us because they think it makes good drama (okay maybe this will be mildly salty). The story is set, the director seems to excited about the chance to do the actual source material, and everything we've seen from clips looks on point. And its not that I don't enjoy the prospect of seeing a story unfold in new and unexpected ways that a good procedural can do, I love that anticipation and love it even more when it pays off well, but its been awhile since that's happened. It feels like all the shows we've indulged in have just disappointed and I'm so ready to have the story of my blorbos have a happy ending that makes some fucking sense for the characters, that's been built up to and not "earned" through pointless drama but through a real journey that shows the characters discovering the ending they deserved from the start.

So let's get excited about this!! And if we're going to be excited about this do you think we should be song level excited?? Let me know!

Hello my friend! I'm glad you had time to visit family, and then time to be away from family. I know that feeling for sure! Sorry I'm so late getting to this. Work is stressing me TF out, so to relax, I spent the weekend camping (RV-ing) which was nice but also did not involve a lot of good sleep (it's just...so hot. and some people like to play music until 2am). Then I nearly spent this evening on a 4 hour round trip to see my brand new nephew but that was blessedly cancelled so I have time to finish the last few rows of his baby blanket and also answer this ask before it somehow ends up being already Friday and time for RWRB!

I keep going back and forth because on the one hand, there are things from the book I know for sure have been cut and I'm going to miss (whyyyy was this not a 6-8 episode mini-series?!) or things that are going to play out differently than the book which is always a little sad when you're waiting to see how these actors deliver a particular scene only for it to never happen, or the scene to happen differently, or with different dialogue. On the other hand, everything, even if it's not exactly what I would have pictured, just looks SO good and SO funny and fun, and like it all has SO much heart and love and joy behind it. It's like...it's going to be different, but out of necessity for run time/rating, not because someone got tapped to make a story from source material they didn't particularly enjoy or respect and therefore don't really care how they butcher the source material to meet runtime, as long as the studio can make merch with pretty faces. (No, of course I haven't been burned multiple times by books I loved being turned into movies/shows by people who scorn the source material and the intended audience. Why would you think that? 🙃) So I think I can leave space to mourn the changes and missing characters (Cash my absolute beloved! The June/Alex sibling relationship forever relegated to my re-reads and my dreams, the fact that I've seen several mentions of "the/a sex scene" strongly implying we aren't getting as much spice as one would hope given the source material etc), while still being REALLY excited to see what we get and to enjoy a movie so clearly crafted with love and respect of the source material. It's going to be a wild ride of emotions for sure!

And bestie you are sooo right, that after a long string of disappointments, it's going to feel soooo good to win! (Also, the director going back and adding more f-bombs because he found out about the R rating is hilarious and I love him for it.) It's going to feel so good to not have everyone bending over backwards to push just enough subtext to keep people saying "surely this HAS to mean something!" and then turning around and telling fans they're seeing things and it doesn't mean anything. 🙄 (oops! My own salt slipped out there a bit 🤣) ALSO!! There is something that really stood out to me and it was one of they guys saying how great it was they were friends because it was important for the love to be "real". Which struck me because it was almost word-for-word what Vlamis and Tyler said about playing Malex, and the love between them needing to be real, and we all saw how that turned out! Chemistry wise, it's unmatched (even if the show squandered it at every turn) and it's getting me really excited to see how it translates to screen for Henry and Alex with TZP and NG working with the same theory of the love being real. I think they are going to blow everyone away and I can't wait to see it!

I ABSOLUTELY think we should do a song if you're so inspired and I will do my absolute best to respond before Friday and also convince my mom that we don't need to out of town to see the baby until Saturday morning so I can watch it as soon as I get off work Friday.

Cheers bestie! We finally have something to celebrate!

[recurring-polynya]

Do I mind if I ask how you approach writing longer fic? I've always struggled to write anything more than maybe two chapters long and I'm curious if you have a particular method to how you approach such stories.

Thank you so much for this ask! I absolutely love it when people ask me for writing advice because it makes me feel like a Smart Person Who Knows Things.

Before we start, here is one grain of salt to take all of this with: I have a naturally long-form brain. It is very hard for me to write something less than 1k. Short fiction is great, and there is nothing wrong with sticking to short things if that's what your brain likes to do.

So. You have decided to write a story. This is going to focus on "stories". Some people write fic that's more freeform or whatever, I am not going to cover that. What I mean by a story is this:

It starts

Some stuff happens

It ends

It is highly probable that your story contains a change of state, which could be that a villain is defeated, or a goal is reached, but it could also be that character falls in love with another, or someone learns to like broccoli.

I like to start out by completing the sentence, "This is a story where _______". This is basically like coming up with a summary for an ao3 post, except that it doesn't need to be catchy. Lots of different kinds of things could go in that blank! It could literally be what happens: This is a story where Ichigo goes back in time and punches young Aizen in the nose. It could be about what you want to explore: This is a story where Hitsugaya gets a better understanding of his zanpakutou. It could be about the vibe you want to achieve: This is an AU where everyone is in a punk rock band and has cool hair and outfits. The idea of this is to clearly define what you, the author, is interested in writing. Make sure it feels right! Maybe you pick the first one, but when you say it out loud, you say, "You know, I really just want Ichigo to go back in time so he can horse around with young Renji and Rukia and punching Aizen in the nose is just an excuse for that." That may sound dumb, but it's fine, actually! Most people don't read stories strictly for the plot, they read stories for the implications of those plots! Will my favorite two characters kiss? Will there be funny interactions between these two groups of characters? Will there be sick fights? Stories are excuses to have scenes. Sometimes, you will have a story where the interesting sequence of events is the draw, but the point is to know what you're about.

Once you feel happy with your "mission statement", you need to decide the bounds of your story: where it starts and where it ends. It may be easier to start with the end. In some cases, it may be obvious from your mission statement: everyone gets home, a villain is defeated, Kenpachi realizes the meaning of friendship. On the other hand, let's look at that punk rock AU. You've picked a vibe, but you don't really have a natural story arc. It has to have a destination, though, otherwise, it's not really a story, it's a recipe for 3 chapters of an abandoned fanfic. So brainstorm a little: Maybe they get a record deal? Maybe they win a Battle of the Bands? Maybe Byakuya accepts that the band is actually good and tells Rukia he is proud of her. Do not settle for a plot just because it works. Pick something that makes you excited! You're the one who is gonna have to write it!

I said that we needed to pick a beginning point, too, but I'm actually going to skip that for now. The next thing I do is think of all the Big Scenes I want to write, the ones you are hype to write, the ones that pop in your head as you think about the premise. Make a bullet list. They don't need to be in order. The descriptions don't need to be super detailed, but write down anything about it that is important to you. If there's a mood or a snippet of dialogue or a joke you want to make, go ahead and jot that down so you don't forget it later. What you're doing now is putting broad blotches of color on a canvas, filling in space and leaving the detail for later.

Once you are pretty happy with what you have down, try to arrange it in chronological order. Put your end at the end (if it wasn't one of your big scenes, add it now). The next task is figuring out how to traverse your scenes. You've already picked out where you want to spend the majority of your energy. The rest, I regret to tell you, is your slog writing. Now, it often happens that you will find joy in some of these scenes and your best writing may occur there, but that's serendipity. These are the scenes that you are gonna have to make yourself sit down and write, so you honestly want to limit them to just the ones you need.

So how do we do this? Look at the first thing on the list. Can you start there? If so, congrats, that's your beginning. If you can't, what needs to happen to get to there? Where can you start so that you can get to your first fun scene as soon as possible? There. That’s it. You’ve picked your beginning, good job! Now, go through the rest of your list, and add in things that must happen, even if you don’t particularly look forward to writing them. The characters need to travel from geographic point A to point B. Shuuhei needs to say something that Izuru hears and misinterprets. The Central 46 makes a new law. If you have a good idea of how these things happen, go ahead and write them down, but it’s okay if you don’t know yet. Fill in all the blanks so that if you think of each bullet list as a scene, you could read it as a story, start to end. Once you get writing, you might add more scenes, or move things around or whatever, but you should have a thing that functions as a story.

If you struggle with this, an alternative is a story with a very strong structure that is going to guide you though what you have to write.Here are two examples from my own stories Hold On, Hold On (which is only one chapter, but the principle is the same) is structured around the 5 stages of grief. Not Broken, Just Bent takes place over roughly a week, and I just decided what happened every day of the week. See You on the Other Side takes place in the middle of a bunch of canon events, which worked at mile markers.

Congratulations. You’ve just made a rough outline!

Special note for avoiding burnout!: I am a slogger. I will drag myself through the broken glass of an interminable plot to get to a single thirsty scene. That's why, at this stage, I try to look at the ratio of what I want to write to what I must write. It's gonna vary for everyone, but this is a hobby, and if looking at this proto-outline makes you feel deeply tired, maybe this isn't a good story to be devoting your time to! Can you carve it down? Can you chuck two scenes you really want to write and get rid of 80% of the slog? Or maybe you can't! In that case, just write that thirsty scene as a standalone drabble! Or just go work on something else! Maybe in the future, this one will come back to you and you’ll have a fresh idea or a renewed enthusiasm for it.

Another thing I sometimes like to do at this point is to write out some notes about my characters and their motivations and moods. Character A is homesick. Character B is so determined to defeat the enemy that they are having a hard time being sympathetic to Character A. Character C cares for both A and B and is trying to support them both. This is sort of background info that you want to keep in your head as you are writing. Depending on the type of story you are writing, this might actually be the main plot, or it might be happening subtly, but adding to the emotional impact of the story. It’s very easy for me to write these sorts of emotional arcs, but if you struggle with that, you may wish to go ahead and made a more detailed outline for that, too.

Now, it’s time to start writing! I am great at beginnings-- it is very often the case for me that the opening scene was one of my Big Tentpole Scenes. (Before you hate me too much, I make up for this by being double horrible at endings; just let me have this) Usually, I will start at the beginning and write linearly for as long as I can until I get stuck. Then, I will look forward on my outline and do the next chronological scene that I feel like writing. In general, if I sit down to write and there is something I have an urge to write, that trumps everything else. Inspiration is a precious commodity, and you should embrace it when it hits! You can slog any day. I will occasionally hold off writing a scene that I really want to, because I am saving it, like a prize for myself for getting that far. This is a very personal process of figuring out what motivates your brain and then giving your brain what it needs to be its most productive.

Eventually, you will run out of things you are excited to write, but the good news is, you’ve got a bunch of story now! Odds are that what’s left is going to be a lot of those connective tissue scenes, and you’re just going to have to do them, except that now, because you’re connecting two concrete points instead of two abstract points, it will be a lot easier. You can continue running jokes you’ve started. Maybe you invented a cafe in an earlier scene where your characters hang out and you can have them return there. Try to think of ways to make these scenes more fun, both for yourself to write and for your reader to read. 

Around this time, I like to start refining that rough strokes outline into what I will call an “as-built” outline. (This is an engineering term where you update your plans or models for something to reflect any changes that had to be made along the way). This is a great activity to do at times when you feel like you have writers block. I write down every scene I have written as a 2-3 word blurb, in order. I break the scenes into what I think makes logical chapters, and I will do a word count on those prospective chapters and write it down. As you do this, you will realize that maybe you can move a scene from here to there, which will make it 1000% easier to write. Things may be happening too much, or you’ve got the characters eating three times in the same chapter. If you have subplots and dangling threads, this is where you make sure they get closure. I know this sounds very headache-y, but you are so far along in the story at this point that it’s really not-- it’s a way to look at the problems you have left. Use some sort of formatting (I like to bold things I haven’t done and sometimes I put them in red) and it gives you a very visual to-do list.

You specifically mentioned multi-chapter fanfics and I admit that I don’t tend to think in chapters, I tend to think of the story as a whole and just break it up where it feels natural. The as-built outlining I described is very helpful in making sure that my chapters feel balanced. They don’t necessarily need to be the same length, but I like them to have the same amount of stuff in them. One chapter may basically contain one long scene, and other may contain many short ones. I don’t tend to, but you can certainly have a fanfic that varies between short and long chapters, that can actually be an interesting effect. But like I said, I always like to know what I am doing, and so having it mapped out, you can say “welp, this is what I’ve done, how do I feel about that?”

Polynya, you may be saying at this point, do you write the whole fanfic before you post any of it? and I regret to inform you, the answer is yes. A lot of people write as they go, and I have made one attempt at this and I didn’t like it. I don’t like locking myself in, I just need to be able write out of order and go back and change things. Here is the story of a little in love: someone gave me an AU prompt and I got mildly obsessed with it, and wrote 5 snapshots drabbles in that universe, ending with a slight cliffhanger ending. I probably should have stopped there, but I decided to keep going. I wrote out an outline of 5 acts where the first act was detailed to the degree of each chapter being specified. The chapters here were much smaller than I usually make chapters: 1-2k. I wrote act i and ii and it was actually great, and then I hit act iii which required a lot of set up for misunderstandings and a mini romance arc. I couldn’t wing it, but nor could I figure it all out with outlining. I write dialogue in almost sort of an improv “Yes, and...?” style, so until I do it, I don’t know what’s going to happen. So, what I did was treat the second half of act iii as a complete story in the process I describe above, wrote the entire rest of it, and then posted it. One might notice that the chapter lengths grew to 3-5k each. I have two more acts to go, and I haven’t decided how I am going to do them yet, but I suspect I will treat each of them as their own mini-stories.

(I will admit that in Heart is a Muscle, I tend toward chapters that are about 10k long, and this is honestly too long, someone should smack me. If you like punchy chapters, 1-2k is good. I think 3-6k is probably an ideal chapter length. Is this how long the chapters are in my latest fanfic? Absolutely not.)

Okay, so there’s one more step, which is quality control. I am habitual re-reader-- I read my fanfics-in-progress over and over and over while I am working on them. I understand that not everyone does this, but I am usually the primary audience for my own writing, and this is the actual fun part for me. Nevertheless, you should re-read your work at least once, to make sure it hangs together.

This is purely optional, but I recommend it: get a writing friend (if you don’t like re-reading your work, I recommend this even more strongly). If you can get a full-service beta reader, that’s great, but if you can’t find someone, or if receiving that level of critique stresses you out, it’s perfectly valid to just find a friend who will read your stuff and a) shower you with compliments, b) reassure you about parts you aren’t sure about (or suggest ways to help) and c) point out any huge problems you missed. When I am writing a long fanfic, it is a huge motivational factor for me to be able to send my beta chapters as I finish them. If you are already an established writer, and you have people who consistently comment on your fic, they might be overjoyed to get a sneak peak at your work.

And that’s it! That’s the way I do it, anyway! Some people are able to sit down and write a very detailed outline and the write it start-to-finish. Good for them, I say! I have tried this and it doesn’t work great for me. I will admit that some of my fics (especially my early ones) I just sat down and banged out whole-cloth like an insane person and they are generally better than the ones I actually plan out, but that’s not a reproducible process.

As one final mechanical note, I usually write in Google Docs, which I can access on multiple devices (I used to write a lot on my phone), has convenient sharing functionality, and I use the ao3 html formatting script add-in. I generally have two documents for a single story-- one is the outline, and any other notes I want to have handy. I’ll usually put a trashcan space at the bottom for scenes that got cut but I don’t want to lose. The other is the fanfic itself.

I hope this is helpful! Please feel free to follow up with other questions and good luck with your writing!

[haleigh-sloth]

Hello beloved

I just wanted to say that i am incredibly excited about the prospect of having shigi fighting mirio because their quirks contradict each other so i feel we will get great moments and hopefully new shigi moves and tactics to combat mirio

Also i would like to confide in you about the damage anime dabi did to him and his round face by giving him that ugly chin like please let him be round he has a soft face literally why do that? 😭

Hello!

Admittedly, I'm not super into fight dynamics and stuff. So the cool moves or whatever don't really interest me. Although I will say I WAS wondering why Mirio wasn't there since he's the only one who can fully avoid decay if he's touched lol. So, cool to see that some sense was made here.

BUT in terms of the fight--Mirio CAN give him a run for his money so I'm really hoping that similar to the S&S fight, if Shig is put in a tight spot (even if barely, and for a few seconds) we'll see inside his head for a bit. I really, really want to get back inside his head lol. Ever since those chapters with his last fight, we've only had the outside. Which I know is on purpose, but y'know, I'm just sitting here waiting to watch Shig have another nervous breakdown in public. Because I love him. Lol. I like the fight scenes when they weave in character development to make it have more substance, and I DO see potential for that here, so I'm excited.**

Also if you mean season 5 Dabi (I'm not sure if that's what you mean)--the anime was just mean to all of the LOV in season 5. The only good thing they did was completely redesign Shig's face to look like the manga. Season 6 looks like it'll be better, here's to hoping. \

**mini rant below the cut

**I'm curious to see what the plan is with Bakugo. There is a lot to explore with Bakugo/Deku/Shigaraki so I'm hoping it's something more than just taking Bakugo hostage, as I'm pretty sure it was mostly Shigaraki talking when he mentioned Bakugo and Midoriya (the mole and the lip scare were very much there). Like idk...I feel like we can do better than another hostage/rage boner situation that's already been done with these three characters. Please. /endrant

[bobohu4eva]

Pink Lace - Chapter 5

Characters: Baekhyun x Reader

Genre: College AU, stripper AU, fluff, smut, slow burn

Summary: Baekhyun, a philosophy professor with mysterious wealth, got himself completely fucked over a girl who can’t let him into her life.

Word count: 4k

Warnings: sex work, mentions of sexual assault, adult themes/situations, eventual smut

Tag list: @smolbeanmika @leave-me-in-the-summertime @totallynerdstuff @bbhmystar @nana-banana @kimyhappy @thegreatandi @geniusloey @deligxt @baekswifey @bbhyun506 @lovebuginlove @bellamendoza @baekyeonoreo @bobohumyonlyboo

Masterlist

After your conversation with Baekhyun Monday evening Tuesday was spent desperately trying to get Baekhyun off your mind, with little success. He’d asked you if you liked him like that, and you couldn’t tell him no. Hell, you knew in the back of your mind that the answer was definitely yes, you just couldn’t bring yourself to say it to his face. 

As much as you did like him, the prospect of starting something with a customer who was also your professor was still terrifying. What if you two got together and people found out? Or what if things started to go south and you were still stuck with him as your teacher? 

Despite your other schoolwork, and cleaning basically everything you possibly could, your mind just kept racing with every different possible scenario for if you did tell Baekhyun how you felt. And most of them were quite unpleasant. He could lose his job, you could make class absolute hell for yourself if things didn’t go well, and so on. Different possibilities played themselves out in your mind over and over, and there was little you could do to stop it. 

However the thoughts that stuck with you the most were the ones where things didn’t end badly. Thoughts of his arms around you, his comforting words whispered in your ear, and the gentle touches of his pretty hands on your skin. As much as you fought it, the attraction was there. 

The way your mind bounced between thoughts was stressful to no end. Every time you tried reasoning with yourself, you just thought about how good he made you feel when you were alone together. 

Baekhyun was always so willing to be vulnerable with you, it made you feel appreciated. He was so open about his feelings, and honest with his intentions towards you that it made it difficult to push him away. You wanted to be able to show him the same kind of vulnerability as well, but the possibilities if you did still frightened you too much. 

You knew you wouldn’t be able to go on like this forever, sooner or later you had to figure out what to say to him. 

Your essay was plaguing you as well. You’d tried to start it on several occasions, but Plato’s writing was so old timey and incomprehensible you didn’t even know where to start. It also didn’t help that every time you tried to start writing, all you could think about was what Baekhyun would think. The idea of turning a shitty paper in for him to read and grade made you feel sick. You knew you were shooting yourself in the foot putting it off but you just couldn’t bring yourself to start it either. 

“You’ve cleaned everything in the apartment. Twice. What’s with you today y/n?” Mia asked as she walked out of her bedroom and into the common area, finding you once again wiping down all the surfaces in the kitchen. 

“I’m trying to distract myself, was that not obvious?” You knew what was coming next. 

“Baekhyun still on your mind?” 

Yes. He was. In every possible way, good and bad, and you couldn’t stop it. 

“I think I do like him.” 

“See! I knew it!” You rolled your eyes at her. “Anything exciting happen yesterday? Did you decide to keep the money?” She asked, sitting down at the dining room table, you sitting down across from her. 

 “I’m keeping it, I tried giving it back but he told me some stuff and turns out he doesn’t need it after all.” 

“So he IS rich?!” 

“Yeah... although not from anything cool or fun. His rich parents died recently.” 

“Oh shit, that sucks. That must’ve been an awkward conversation.” 

“Not really. I don’t know why but talking to him is getting easier and easier. I even stayed after he told me I could go.”

“You really must like him then, damn. Can’t blame you though, he is hot.” You shot her an angry look but you both knew she was right. “So what are you gonna do about it?” 

“Do about what?” 

“You liking him. He obviously likes you a lot too, so what happens next?” 

“Nothing. He’s my professor.” 

The look she shot you next said something reminiscent of ‘are you fucking serious’.

 “Oh come on y/n this guy is hot, and rich, and super into you. Even if he is your professor you can’t pass up a fling at least.” 

“And when it ends? What then? Or if someone finds out he’s fucking a student? He’d lose his job and it would be my fault.” 

“No, it would be his fault, and he’s rich anyway so it wouldn’t even matter.” 

You thought back to your last conversation with Baekhyun, and what he said about his parents. Even if he did choose to risk it for you, the thought of him losing a job that meant so much to him still didn’t sit right with you. 

“It would matter to me. Either way I don’t want other students shit talking me either. If my classmates found out there was something between us it would be hell.” 

“All I'm hearing right now, is that you just need to not get caught. The semester is only 16 weeks, as long as nothing gets out while you’re in his class nothing too bad can happen. You just have to be careful.”  

You thought about it, and she wasn’t exactly wrong. As long as nothing got out while you were his student, nothing too bad could happen. 

“He won’t lose his job if people find out we’re together later on when I’m not his student anymore, right?” 

Mia shrugged. “He doesn’t hold any power over you anymore then so I don’t see why he’d get in any trouble. People might just think it’s weird since he’s older. How old is he anyway? He looks young.” 

“I’m not exactly sure... Somewhere around 30? Late 20s maybe? I should ask him.” 

“Yeah you should. I still have homework I need to do, I should get back to that.” She said before getting herself a glass of water and retreating back to her bedroom. 

~

The next morning you were exhausted. You hadn’t gotten much sleep because of everything that was going through your head. You wanted Baekhyun, and he wanted you, but there was still too much risk involved. But part of you kept thinking about what Mia had said as well. Could a fling really be that bad? 

You were nervous to see him too. You still hadn’t given him an answer to his question, and you knew you wouldn’t be able to dodge it forever. Lying seemed like a decent option, but you knew with how honest and vulnerable Baekhyun always was with you, you wouldn’t be able to bring yourself to lie to him. Especially when you did want something more with him, you were just scared. 

As philosophy class drew closer and closer you felt uneasy. You felt bad seeing Baekhyun again without giving him an answer, but you didn’t know how or what to say. You only hoped he wouldn’t press you for it. 

Class went by and you didn’t speak to him. He didn’t keep you after either, which was a relief. You had been hoping he’d at least go over some stuff that would help you on your essay, but you had no such luck, and you needed it done by midnight if you wanted any credit. 

When you got home you cursed yourself for procrastinating so much, but you had other homework too and you knew you’d be able to focus on that better, so you started it first. 

Eventually your mind got sucked into your physics assignment, and you forgot about Baekhyun and the essay, too focused on the task at hand. 

By the time you were done with your other assignments it was 8pm. Four hours until you had to submit your essay. One hour went by just reading and rereading the text you were supposed to write about. Another was wasted on an intro paragraph you kept deleting, because you still couldn’t understand the text. When 10pm hit, and you started to panic.  

You realized that you weren’t going to be able to do it. Your mind was now in freak out mode and you couldn’t concentrate anyway. Either the paper wasn’t getting turned in at all, or you needed to do something fast. In any other class you would’ve BS-ed  your way through it to turn at least something in, but you just couldn’t do that knowing Baekhyun was going to read it. You weren’t going to be able to submit it that night, but you needed to at least contact him and explain so he wouldn’t think you were stupid. 

By 10:30 you found yourself scrolling through your contacts, staring at his name. You’d thought about emailing him, but he probably wouldn’t see until morning and you didn’t have that much time. 

In hindsight you probably would’ve been fine to just send an email and try to get an extension, but the combination of anxiety over your grade and wanting to talk to him had his name in your phone looking better and better. 

So you called. 

Your nerves were on fire as you waited for him to hopefully pick up. Was this stupid? Would he even answer? Worst of all, what if he was disappointed in you for not being able to do the assignment?

After a few rings, he picked up. “Hello?” 

“Hi Baekhyun, it’s y/n.” 

“Y/n? Are you alright what’s going on?” You could hear the concern in his voice even over the phone, and you remembered why he gave you his number in the first place. 

“I- I can’t do the essay.” You felt your voice shake, before unloading all your grievances in one breath “I read the thing a million times and I still have no idea what it’s about and I put it off until tonight cause it was making me so anxious but I still can’t focus and now it’s too late and I don’t know what to do and I’m freaking out.” 

You heard him sigh. “Slow down, It’s okay, I know it’s a difficult assignment. Have you at least started?” 

“No..” You felt tears swelling in your eyes, threatening to spill and you’re sure he can hear it in your voice even over the phone. “Can I just skip this one? I tried to start it so many times but I don’t know how to analyze something I can’t even understand.” You choked out. 

“Y/n...” You could tell he was thinking of what to do. He probably shouldn’t give you special treatment, and you knew that but right now you hoped he would just give in. Unfortunately you had no such luck. “I’m sorry but I can’t let you just not do it. It would make it too obvious that I’m treating you differently than other students.”

“Then can you at least help me? Or give me more time? Please?” You begged.

“I’m still in my office. I can help you if you meet me here.” 

You felt your palms get sweaty and your heart beat faster at the idea of going to his office again after what had happened last time, especially this late at night and in such a fragile state. 

“O-okay. I’ll be there in 10. Bye.” You said, hanging up before he could respond.

Quickly you got on some shoes and drove yourself to the building his office was located in. Last time you’d been in there he’d asked you about your feelings for him, and now you had to go back. You told yourself to just focus on getting the essay done, but the thought still hung around in the back of your mind as you walked down the hall towards Baekhyun’s office. You felt jittery and embarrassed, but you needed to do this for your grade.

After taking a few deep breaths to ready yourself, you knocked on the door, and heard a muffled “Come in” from the other side, so you let yourself in. Baekhyun was sitting at his desk, which was covered in papers you assumed he’d been grading. Instead of the nicer clothes he would usually wear during lecture, he was just wearing a black t shirt and sweats now. 

“You know you scared the shit out of me when you called. I thought you were in danger or something.” He said to you as you sat down in front of him. “I really didn’t think you’d call me over school work.” 

“I’m sorry..” 

“It’s okay! I’m not mad or anything, just surprised. What part of the text are you having trouble with?” 

“All of it...” You felt your lip starting to quiver. “I’m sorry I know this sounds so stupid and you probably think I’m just trying to take advantage of how you like me but I promise it’s not like that.” You said, looking down and fidgeting with your hands, trying to hide the frustration on your face.

Baekhyun crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair, smiling. “I never said I thought that. I told you it’s not an easy assignment, it’s ok if you’re having trouble. Plato can be difficult especially for people who aren’t used to reading things that old.” 

“I should’ve at least started earlier...” 

“Probably, but it’s too late to dwell on that now. Let’s just try to go over the reading together, yeah?” You nodded. 

He moved his chair to your side of the desk before opening your textbook to the reading for the essay. 

“So the first thing that makes The Ring of Gyges so confusing is that you don’t really know who’s talking. Basically it’s a conversation between Plato and his brother Glaucon where they’re discussing justice, and it’s actually Glaucon speaking for most of it, not Plato.” 

You were listening to what he was saying of course, but you were still distracted by the proximity. Baekhyun was sitting right next to you now, arms almost touching. The only other time the two of you got that close was at the club. And you did not need to be thinking about that while he was explaining your assignment to you. 

“Are you following me so far?” 

Your eyes immediately shot up from the book to meet his, and you quickly nodded. Having him look you in the eyes again like that made your face feel hot.

“Glaucon argues that people only peruse justice for the benefits of it, and not because they actually want to be good people. He uses the example of a ring that grants it’s user invisibility, therefore allowing them to do unjust things like steal without being caught. He tells Plato a story about a man who finds such a ring and uses it do overthrow the king.”

You groaned. “It still doesn’t make sense though, what does some story about a stupid ring have to do with justice?” 

“Well, if you were given the ability to steal and deceive people for your own benefit, without ever having to worry about getting caught, wouldn’t you do it too?” You stayed silent. “Basically, what you need to understand is what Glaucon is arguing. He’s saying that doing good deeds isn’t a part of human nature, and everyone would behave unjustly if they knew they would never get caught. Therefore, justice is something people pursue not out of want, but out of fear of the consequences if they don’t.”  

All you could do was stare at him. It was infuriating how attractive he sounded while explaining it to you. 

“Do you have a bit of a better idea what to write about now? Remember it’s only two pages, so don’t stress too much.” 

You snapped yourself out of your thoughts. “Yeah, it makes a bit more sense now... do I still need to finish it tonight or?” 

“Friday. Just email it to me by midnight on Friday and I won’t count it late.” He said, smiling again. 

“Thank you for doing this, I’m sorry it was so late and everything.”

Baekhyun just chucked, “You know if it’s you I don’t mind. You could keep me here all night with questions and I wouldn’t stop you. But you understand now, right?” 

The way he was smiling at you now along with the closeness was making you slightly dizzy. 

“I think so, Glaucon is basically saying that injustice is better than justice then right? Because everyone would do unjust things if they’d always get away with it.” 

Baekhyun nodded. 

“So according to him the best way to live life would be to do things you know are wrong, but without being caught.” 

“Exactly. See, I knew you were smart, y/n.” A smirk had made its way onto his face as he spoke. 

You couldn’t help connecting what he was saying to what you were feeling inside towards him. You wanted him, and you knew it was wrong, but how could you deny it to yourself when it felt so right? 

“Baekhyun...” You asked, hesitantly. “D-do you think it’s okay to do things you know are wrong, as long as no one finds out?”

“I think it depends what you’re talking about.” He answered, now looking you in the eyes again with intensity. “I would never kill anyone, for any reason, even if I knew I could get away with it. But, if I really wanted something, I think I would take it.” 

You were hyperaware of how his eyes were now scanning your face, lingering on your lips. “Take what?”

A hand made contact with your thigh, slowly moving up until he stopped, right below the hem of your shorts. His thumb drew soft circles on the sensitive inner flesh, giving you goosebumps. 

“I know you feel it too, you want this, don’t you?” Baekhyun asked, now moving a stand of hair out of your face. He let his hand rest on the back of your neck, keeping you facing towards him. 

Your heart felt like it was about to short circuit from how fast it was beating. Your palms were sweaty and you could feel yourself shaking slightly. The way his thumb stroked your neck beneath your ear made you shiver, and you knew he saw. All you could do was stare back at him, dumbfounded. Any words you tried to get out stuck in your throat. He was right, you did want it. Now more than ever. 

“Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me you don’t want me to kiss you right now. I dare you.” He said, running his thumb over your bottom lip, eyes fixed on how it trembled beneath his touch. He was slowly moving your face closer his, but you didn’t stop him. 

Your silence told Baekhyun all he needed to know, and his lips quickly found yours. Immediately you let yourself melt into the kiss. You felt your whole body buzzing, finally getting what it had wanted for so long. His lips felt unbelievably soft against yours, moving in a slow rhythm as his other hand came up from your thigh to cup your face as well. You wrapped your arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, letting it become messier and more desperate. 

“I like you” you pulled away just enough to whisper “so fucking much.” You felt him grin into the kiss as your lips met again. 

He tasted like strawberries, and you felt high as your lips kept crashing together with more and more need. Your whole body felt like it was set on fire and simultaneously dunked in an ice bath, every nerve vibrating with want.    

When Baekhyun pulled your bottom lip gently between his teeth you let out a soft moan, and he started to lose it. He broke the kiss, standing up and pulling with him, before backing you up against the wall, a hand on either side of your head. 

“Sweetheart, don’t push me” He breathed, and started peppering kisses along the side of your neck, from under your ear down to your collarbone, sucking and biting on the way. 

Trapped between him and the wall, you felt weak and breathless. Your brain was in overdrive and you gasped at his ministrations, hands burying themselves in his soft hair.  His hands had traveled down to your waist, holding you against him tightly.

“Baekhyun” You breathed out, rubbing your thighs together as he sucked on a particularly sensitive spot. 

“Fuck, y/n. Don’t say that.” He forced the words out through gritted teeth.

His body pressed you into the wall, and your arms wrapped around him pulling him into you even tighter. He was completely consuming your senses and your knees felt wobbly from the intensity of it all. He was already smothering your entire front, but you tried to pull him even closer regardless.

You felt something hard press into your hip as his mouth covered yours again, and this time you shamelessly moaned his name into his open mouth. 

Much to your disappointment, Baekhyun immediately detatched himself from you, backing up until his back hit the opposite wall of the office. You could see how turned on he was by the outline of his dick through his pants and the pained look in his face. 

“Fucking christ...” He said, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. You just watched from the other side of the room. He kept his eyes closed and you observed as his jaw clenched and unclenched before you heard him continue. “You have to go. If you don’t I’m gonna fuck you on my desk and I won’t be gentle.” 

Your throat went dry at his crude words, but you couldn’t deny your own arousal. You walked back towards him, reaching out to touch his chest which was now rising and falling rapidly, but he grabbed you before you could make contact. His grip on your wrist was so tight it was almost painful. His knuckles were white, and you could see a drop of sweat trickle down the side of his face. 

His eyes bore into your own with a stare that warned you not to try anything more. 

“I’m sorry y/n but you have to leave. Not tonight. Not like this.” With his free hand he grabbed your belongings off his desk, shoving them into your arms. 

Still speechless, he opened the door and pulled you outside before going back in and closing the door behind him. You stood and stared at his office door for a minute, recollecting yourself and processing what the hell had just happened. 

Eventually your shaky legs began making their way down the hallway, back towards your car. You were pretty sure a janitor saw you as you turned the corner just down the hall from Baekhyun’s office. You kept your head down, trying to hide your face best you could while hurrying past. 

Once you were sitting in your car, you slumped into the seat, mind still in a daze after what happened in Baekhyun’s office. You waited for your breathing and heartrate to slow down before you drove away. 

Baekhyun left shorty after you as well, unable to concentrate on anything but the sound of you moaning his name. He felt terrible for throwing you out of his office but he’d meant what he said. He didn’t want his first time to have you to be in his office, purely fueled by pent up lust. He wanted to give you more than that. 

More than anything, he just couldn’t believe he��d gotten what he’d wanted for the entire summer. It didn’t seem possible, but now it had happened. And you actually kissed him back. It felt too good to be true. He felt himself once again struggling to sleep, but this time because he was too excited. This time, he didn’t have to keep himself up wondering, he knew he had you. He just couldn’t wait to see what would happed now.

You on the other hand couldn’t stop worrying about that exact thing as you stared at the ceiling above your bed. What would happen now? The thoughts weren’t fearful anymore, there was just too many of them to shut your mind down enough to sleep. 

You’d finally allowed yourself to give into him, and there was no more turning back. 

Next Chapter

[mkstrigidae]

I HAVE SO MANY THEORIES and i want a distraction from my physics hw so thank you. So what evil stuff did Petyr teach Sansa that was normal that in reality is super weird? You mentioned something about Sansa balancing Petyr's books? MYA FINDING OUT THAT THE KING IS HER DAD?? THAT GENDRY AND HER ARE SIBBLINGS?? What reeeeaaaly was up with Lysa's death? Why did Baelish feel that he had to unalive her? What's gonna come up in the trial? How is the media scrutiny gonna affect Sansa? Also I kinda want to see how Sansa peruses her career and how her new situation is gonna change her prospects/ alter her timeline/ help or hinder her? I would very much like to see Robin's buried trauma cause he's honestly a fascinating character. you've also hyped up the shopping so much im v excited with Rhae and Cate and eeeveryone (im sensing buried trauma). random also, there's something up with the lemon tree too I can feel it. I LOVE APWH and thank you so much :))))

Hello friend!!! I don't think Petyr deliberately set alarms on his phone like '3:30pm- teach my kidnapped daughter eeeevil stuff' or anything- but his idea of a normal father-daughter relationship is warped in some ways because he sees Sansa as an extension of both himself and of Catelyn in some ways- I get into this a bit more in later chapters when getting into why Petyr actually decided to kidnap Sansa in the first place. But yes, Sansa does help do some of the accounting for Baelish's businesses! Petyr considers basic Shady Accounting Skills™ to be the kind of domestic thing that dads teach their kids on weekends (instead of idk teaching Sansa how to change the oil in a car?? He doesn't know that either, so sketchy finance lessons it is) and I think it's genuinely like a dad sentiment on his part- like he considers understanding how money works to be really important and wants Sansa to be successful! So he teaches her about money and politics and she's like, secretly plotting to sneak off to the movies with Mya the entire time. Mya and Gendry's stuff- i'm still trying to figure out if it fits in the main story, but if it doesn't, they're getting their own lil mini story because it's gonna be super interesting. Everyone in this story has so many daddy issues.

Lysa's death is... complicated. I can't quite spill that one yet! But I hope the final answer will be worth it. As for the trial- lots of things will come up! Jon's there, and Dany's there and in her element, and Sansa's getting the worst crash course in North Westerosi law imaginable and also like, wildly crushing on one of the prosecutorial interns (i.e. Jon) which is a wild emotional spectrum for anyone to exist on, quite frankly. Sansa's career and her goals for the future are actually something I really plan to dig into during the trial arc- long story short, she's going to spend some time doing an internship in White Harbor that really makes her reevaluate what she wants from life and her work. And you know I'm going to dig deep into Robin's trauma/past/relationship with both Lysa and Petyr. I love APWH Robin so much and he's growing in leaps and bounds where he is right now.

The lemon tree represents home to Sansa in a way that the house in Braavos doesn't even- she loves it in the way that you can only love a gift that came from one of the people you care about most in this world, and it's something that I think is very grounding for her. She doesn't have it with her now- adding to just how off-kilter she feels still at Winterfell.

Thanks so much for your thoughts!!! I love reading these!

[doof-doofblog]

"This Is Your Proof That I'm Not!"

Double Episode Catch-Up

Monday 8th March - Tuesday 9th March 2021

Hello everyone! Hope your week is going well so far, once again this is going to be a double episode post. Hopefully by the end of the week I'll be completely caught up to date, I realise there is a lot to get through so I'll jump straight into it.

So the first thing I want to briefly mention is the gorgeous Janet! The young girl is helping her Dad on his stall, I love how energetic and happy she is about helping her Dad. Billy teaching her how to approach their customers was so adorable. No matter what you think of Billy, the one thing he has always been is a supportive Dad of his kids, always making sure he's there for them. As Honey praises her daughter for assisting her Dad, she questions whether Billy would be free to catch up in the week, of course we all know that she's dating Jay now, but poor Billy once again is happy to spend time with his ex-wife, in the hopes of her wanting to rekindle their romance as much as he does. As they begin to make plans for their meet up, a random stranger named "Amelia" approaches Honey from behind, mentioning that she's from a talent scout and claiming that she's found someone who she's really interested in, of course with Honey's past of being model she believes Amelia is asking about her, but interestingly she corrects Honey and points to young Janet, to her parents surprise. Now of course Billy and Honey have always been protective of Janet, but do I remember rightly when I say that Honey took Will to America or somewhere to pursue modelling? Surely it would be really nice for Janet to have her opportunity in the spotlight if she so wishes.

At first Honey isn't too sure whether to let her daughter be exposed to that type of business and work, but during their meeting, Billy reassures her that their daughter is at a decent age now where she can make her own decisions and regardless of her disability, she deserves the best opportunities in life as other kids. With her children's Father being so supportive of their daughter, Honey agrees and allows Janet to go for this opportunity of a life time! But, unfortunately, as soon as Billy recalls about them having a meeting, Honey informs him that she's hoping he would sit down with Jay just for an hour to resolve their differences. Billy is once again crushed and informs his ex-wife that he simply can't just move on from recent events, he treated Jay as his own son, as far as he's concerned, he's betrayed him in the worse possible way that he can't see in ever forgiving. I'm seriously hoping we get to see this storyline play out for Janet, it would be beautiful to see her become a success, but then again, could it be also be a scam where people judge her because of her disability? That would be absolutely heart-breaking and devastating to see, but either way I'm intrigued to see where this story goes for Janet, it's lovely to see her in the spotlight!

--

Okay so they second thing I'm going to mention is Ash and Peter. As much as I'm loving Kim right now and her new business prospects, I don't know what it is, but I really don't like Peter and Ash together. I don't know whether it's just me or other people feel the same way, I just don't like it, I can't really explain why. I don't like Peter, I think the way he's treated his brother since his return has been disgusting, especially considering the scene where he was basically slagging him off to Ash, poor Bobby heard every word. All Bobby has ever wanted was to make his big brother proud and to be able to build a bond with him. Hearing him state that he's "Strange" and possibly has "Ex girlfriends buried in the garden!" is so cruel! So you can fully understand Bobby's hurt as Ash realises as he's heard every word. Okay, just because I don't like Peter, doesn't mean I don't like Ash. I actually liked the way Ash sat Bobby down and reassured him that one day he will get a girlfriend who will love him for who he his. I also don't like the way Peter thinks he's God's gift to women, he needs to a good slap round the head I reckon and be put in his place! Please tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way?!

After the success of getting Lola and Isaac together, it looks as if Kim has eyes on Peter and Ash as her next clients. As Peter and Ash return home from a day out at a waterpark, Peter is visibly soaked through, with enormous amount of flirtation going on, Peter decides once again to strip, completely unaware the Suki is still in the house. To be honest, Suki catching him stripping made me laugh out loud! "HA!" Obviously he was left feeling completely embarrassed and awkward, serves him right to think he can win any woman he wants! He quickly makes a sharp exit! Later on, Kim finds Ash at the Prince Albert and they begin to discuss the possibility of them becoming a couple, Ash confides in Kim that she can't understand why Peter fled in such a hurry, other than being caught by her Mum. Kim seems to suggest that perhaps Peter is just shy, but we all know that isn't true. However, in the meantime, Peter finds his way back to the Panesar's place of work to confront Suki. He seems pretty desperate to get together with Ash, but most of you will remember that Peter and Suki did have a one night stand not too long ago, his visit is to simply ask her if she'll keep quiet about their encounter. To be honest, is it crazy to say that I'm liking Suki more than Peter right now? She informs her one night stand that the thing that is most important to her is her children's happiness, so why would she stand in the way of that? (Erm, can I just mention Jags?! Thank you!) She confirms to Peter that she will keep quiet.

Returning to the club, Kim and Ash are still discussing the possibility of Ash and Peter becoming a proper couple, suddenly Peter appears after his confrontation with Suki and apologises to Ash for running out so quickly. He proposes going out for another date, which she softly responds by planting a kiss on Peter, not being aware that Iqra is watching everything unfold from across the room. As Kim is excited to see another match she's brought together, she notices Iqra and her upset and decides to console her. I guess you could say it's fair to say that Ash has moved on pretty quickly, but for Iqra - not so much. Kim takes it upon herself to once again try and match Iqra with someone else to cheer her up, but Iqra simply states that she's not interested in another relationship right now, but a face we haven't seen for a while - Mila, arrives for her shift at the bar and once again, there is small spark building between the two girls. What do you think, would you like to see Iqra get together with Mila? I personally think they'd make a lovely couple, and I'm really hoping Iqra will take that jump and move on from Ash to build a relationship with Mila.

--

Okay, so I have a very important question: What is going on with Chelsea?! Does anyone else understand what's going on with her? I get that she's got herself in so deep with this Caleb and she's fretting about going to the police or her life being jeopardy, but the way she's acting is just completely out of character, they've not just changed the image of Chelsea, but her personality too. I guess it's fair to say that character has been through a lot since she left the Square. After trying to blackmail Jack and coax him into sleeping with her, Jack does the decent thing and tells Denise everything. Understandably, Denise is incredibly hurt by her daughter's advances towards her partner, but Chelsea shows no shame, trying to explain to her Mum that she wouldn't have slept with him and was only trying to blackmail him to make sure Jack would keep quite and not tell the police about their situation.

But when Lucas hears about his daughter's behaviour from Denise, he tries to confront Chelsea, trying to get to the bottom of why she's acting out of the ordinary. As Lucas tries to understand his daughter and try and help her to keep positive, she does get a little emotional, claiming she's completely ashamed of her actions and was only trying to sort out the problem her parents had caused, BUT the second Lucas leaves her to be on her own, she dries her tears away and continues the drink her drink as if she doesn't care about what she's tried to do. It looks as if as far as she's concerned, she's looking out for number one, not any members of her family who could be caught in the firing line. Later on, on the Square, Lucas then witnesses Chelsea chasing after Jack, demanding to know whether he's going to go to the police or not after what he's learned, but when Jack warns her to stay away she turns in the most horrendous way, claiming that if she went through with wanting to sleep with him, he wouldn't have been able to say "No" to her! As Lucas witnesses everything, he's disgusted with his daughter. Chelsea really doesn't care anymore, all she's really bothered about is getting this job sorted as soon as possible, without any interference from her family or the police. I mean, if she was scared for her life then maybe, yes, I could understand her lashing out, but something tells me there is more going on. Has spending her time with Caleb taken it's toll on her?

Also, I know it was only a very small part of the episode, but I have to mention the first meeting between Lucas and Karen! I absolutely love Karen's first glimpse of Lucas, clearly she's besotted with him! But of course, she has no idea about his history on the Square, for all she knows, he's a brand new neighbour. I love how she was forward about seeing him again after doing his dry cleaning for him free of charge. Only the first red flag to fly was Lucas introducing himself with the wrong name, naming himself after his deceased son, "Jordan"! As much as I love Karen, she needs to be super careful, but of course - how is she going to be when she knows nothing of his past? None of her family do either to be fair, let's hope someone will be able to give her an insight into who she's dating before it's too late! But if Lucas is a changed man as he says he is, why would he give her a false name? Maybe to hide his true identity because he'd feel ashamed if she was to find out the truth? Who knows?

--

Right, so the last thing I have to mention is Stacey, Ruby and Martin. Ruby continues to grieve for her lost baby, of course it's the most devastating and heart-breaking thing any parent has to go through, every day where she doesn't have a child is going to be a struggle, but she informs her husband that she simply just wants to move on. Martin happens to mention that he has to pick up his daughter Hope from nursery, but interestingly Ruby offers to pick up his daughter. Now I have to mention how such a sweet little girl Hope is, she is so adorable, but it's quite sad to see how Ruby is such a natural with her, it's quite sad that she's missed the opportunity of doing the same things with her own child. Am I hearing things right or did little Hope accidentally call Ruby, "Mummy"?! If so, then that must've caught her completely off guard, of course little Hope hasn't realised the extent of her calling Ruby, Mummy, she's just a small innocent kid who has no idea what Ruby has gone through.

The moment which really moved me though, was when Martin showed his wife the memorial he had created for their lost child. Informing to meet him at the Arches, Ruby goes feeling a little bit anxious and/or suspicious on why her husband wanted her to meet him there. But then he shows her a beautiful memorial set out with stones, flowers, beautiful plants for them to visit to remember their lost baby. Showing her that she can write little messages on the stones, he writes his own message, claiming that their child would've been a football fan and support a specific football team. Ruby is completely touched by Martin's beautiful gesture and hard work, she voices that she felt she had a strong feeling that their child was a girl and writes down on a stone the name she had in mind for their baby daughter, "Lulu!" - which, to be fair, is a gorgeous name! I really felt this scene really touched me and reflected perfectly on how parents cope after losing a baby.

However, as the day carries on and the couple return home, Ruby notices Stacey with her children on the Square and it seems as if something has bean eating her up inside for so long, she can no longer stand and watch while Stacey is on the Square with her children. Asking whether Martin would do anything to support her in her time of grief, he reassures her that he would. But then they take a visit to Stacey, even though she's thankful to Ruby for picking up her daughter, Martin informs her that she'll probably have to get the children away pretty early in the morning, revealing the blow that she'll be getting a visit from the police. Of course Stacey is completely stunned to hear that it was actually Martin who had called the police on her, as she actually hadn't done anything wrong.

As she takes in the news, the next day as expected the police come knocking for her, as she's wanted for questioning about an assault. But of course we all know she never actually touched Ruby during their row, Ruby did in fact slip, the fall was completely an accident. While at the station, Stacey informs the police about everything that happened on that day, yes the did argue but Stacey never touched her, as she tried to walk away from the confrontation, Ruby followed her up the stairs, tripping on the stairs as she did. The only thing that could back up Stacey's story is if the police manage to get their hands on the CCTV. Eventually let her go, but on her way back to the Square, Stacey once again bumps into Ruby and Martin claiming the police are going to be searching the club for CCTV of the staircase of the club which should prove her innocence. However, Ruby seems to think that there is no CCTV as it's been dodgy for months, but then Martin happens to mention that he got it fixed without her knowledge and it's been working fine the past few weeks, this sends Ruby into a blind panic, she knows full well that Stacey didn't touch her and knows that if the police were to find the CCTV, she'd be proved as a liar!

Returning home, she pleads for Martin to go and fetch her a hot chocolate with all the works from the Cafe, and trying to be the caring and doting husband, Martin does as she requests. Only once he's left the house, she quickly rushes to the club to search for the CCTV footage. Clear as day one camera shows that Stacey did not touch her and the fall was completely an accident on Ruby's part, she had simply tripped as she hurried up the stairs. However, as the police knock on the office door, Ruby quickly deletes the footage!!!! Ooooo she really is wanting revenge on Stacey isn't she? For what though? For stealing her money all that time ago? Or is she simply just jealous? Ruby eventually allows the police to come in and check the CCTV, to their shock they find another clip from the staircase, from a completely different angle than the clip that Ruby deleted. Unfortunately, from the angle of this specific clip, it looks as if Stacey had swiped her arm, causing Ruby to lose her balance and fall backwards down the stairs, which is incredibly unfair to Stacey as we all know she's completely innocent! As the police show Ruby this footage, Ruby is left feeling completely smug!!

Ooooo things really aren't going to be looking good for Stacey, I have heard a rumour that Stacey could potentially lose custody of her children and they'll end up being in Martin and Ruby's care. Is that something that Ruby has been wanting? If so, she would have succeeded in taking everything from Stacey, her husband and then her children! Lacey Turner is due to go on maternity leave, so I believe that Stacey going to prison for assault could be the start of Lacey's temporary departure. What do you guys think? Will Ruby's lies eventually catch up with her?! Or will she end up getting away with it?! Either way I'm really looking forward to seeing this story unravel! Thank you all for taking your time to read this post, I realise it's quite long but I really appreciate all of your support! It means the world! Thank you again everyone! Love you all xXx

[scabopolis]

HOHOHO! I'm so excited you're participating this year! I was like you when I first joined the fandom, and this event was a huge reason why I got out of my shell and started making the incredible friends I have today. I want to make sure I give you the best gift ever! Tell me what you love about CS? Favorite kind of tropes/fics? Can't wait to hear from you xoxo Santa

So I just went back and looked and I first posted about OUAT in 2014, so it’s been a while! And for posterity sake, I looked at my thoughts as I did my first watch of the season. here’s some interesting things: 

1. I thought Killian was SO pretty from the beginning, thought he was a super fun character, but didn’t love him as a shipping prospect for Emma; and 

2. Loathed Neal. Loathed with the fire of 1,000 burning suns. Also didn’t want him with Emma. I actually was so confused about him and felt like I was going crazy that no one in universe saw what I saw. 

3. Adored Emma. Like she was undoubtedly my favorite character and all my analysis of the show was “CAN EVERYONE CUT EMMA SOME SLACK, PLEASE?!?!” I at one pointed tagged a gif set of Emma with “precious little sugar dumpling” and another with “look at this little peach.” Emma is my favorite.

Which leads me to the eventual shipping of Emma x Killian. It was because HE CUT HER SOME FREAKING SLACK and was 100% team Emma. Emma became his favorite, and then he became my second favorite because of that fact. And now they’re tied for first. 

And holy shit I apparently decided I wanted to talk, so there’s more below the read more. 

So, things I love about CS would include: 

I love how, despite appearances maybe, Emma loves deeply and she wants to be loved deeply in return (I just rewatched Tallahassee and that episode is heartbreaking because it’s Emma solving problem after problem after problem in order to be with Neal and both him and August letting her down so much)

I love how focused and determined and single-minded and driven Killian is

I love how when Emma outwits Killian, he admits it and is delighted by it (seriously, it’s one of the first things that I noted! that for all his swagger and confidence there is very little ego)

I love how much you can see Emma just melt when someone hugs her

I love how much the idea of home matters to both Emma and Killian

I love how confident Killian is that he is going to find a solution to any problem even when circumstances seem bleak

I love the rare Emma smile when it’s happy and carefree

I love the look on Killian’s face he gets where it is 100% heart on his sleeve you can see everything he’s thinking BAM!

I love that in their first real conversation Killian wasn’t like “so tell me where you grew up” but is like “TELL ME ABOUT ALL YOUR THOUGHTS ON LOVE” and that instead of Emma being like “so, how’d you get into pirating” she’s like “SO...THIS MEMORIAL TATTOO. PROBABLY LINKED TO THE MURDER YOU WANT TO DO?! YES?” like, guys, have you heard of get to know you questions? did it not occur to you to warm up to the big questions? 

Favorite things to have in fic: 

Tropes: fake dating (obvi), sucker for a coffee shop AU, love it when the grumpy one meets the smiley one, secret dating, “who was going to tell me we’ve been dating this whole time?!?!”, have read 1,000 sleepy domestic fluff fics;

Smut: smuff or smut glitter over the really dirty stuff (mostly I get distracted by the logisticals of a lot of smut), and this is getting long;

I love a little bit of everything, to be honest. My only “requirement” is that Killian be on Team-Emma and Emma be on Team-Killian, which given this is a CS fic exchange feels like a given. 

I AM SORRY THAT YOUR SECRET SANTA GIFTEE IS SUCH A WORDY BITCH. 

[dent-de-leon]

Wait, i just... I need to ask you 'cause i'm really confused. You think sheith will be canon? Please don't take it as an attack, you can of course ship it in fanon but i really don't see how it could ever happen in canon? It's been mentioned multiple times that Shiro is a mentor/brother figure to Keith (and even said by Keith in the show) and hinted that there's this big age gap, and we actually saw Keith in his student uniform while Shiro's wearing his teacher one in the flashback so?? pls tell

Alright, so–the fact of the matter is, I just don’t see how Shiro or Keith could end up with anyone besides each other in canon. All of their major character development coincides with one another, they’re each integral to each other’s story arcs. They care for one another first and foremost, are closer to each other than anyone else. Keith in canon has this desperate desire to see Shiro–in his trial, Kolivan says as much. Keith’s constant fear of losing Shiro and this sense of longing for him–you don’t see that in a platonic, brotherly relationship. Keith’s fear of Shiro walking away and abandoning him is far more characteristic of unrequited love. 

Shiro and Keith’s dynamic is built up like a romantic relationship rather than a brotherly one. It’s written with clear parallels to zaggar, 

and the dynamic is noticeably different from Matt and Pidge–two actual sibling characters. This isn’t an accident, it’s very much apart of the narrative. Compare the way Matt looks at Pidge to how Shiro looks at Keith. There’s an obvious difference:

Keith’s overarching quest to save Shiro “as many times as it takes,” is also incredibly romantic. The way Keith mourned Shiro like his grief was the only pain that mattered, like no one else could’ve possibly cared about Shiro the way he did, like he’ll keep carrying a torch even when everyone tells him Shiro would want him to move on, that reads far more like someone grieving a lost lover than a brother. And you could see it in how differently Pidge reacts to losing Matt. 

There’s also the fact that Shiro always gets these very personal, tender goodbyes with Keith, something you’d expect from a love interest. Not to mention how Shiro is the only one Keith will prioritize over the mission. And even Shiro and Keith’s first scene would’ve established them as clear love interests if Shiro were a girl. The longing gazes Shiro and Keith share certainly aren’t brotherly either. And so many sheith scenes are very purposefully given a mood, framing, and intimacy of romance. Consider how Keith reunites with Shiro in the first episode compared to him seeing the other paladins. The closeups, softness, and tender way Keith reaches out to turn Shiro’s head closer. Or how they both hug after the BOM like they’re the only two people in the world, with Allura staring on and then quickly turning away guiltily–as if she’s intruding on something very private and intimate.

Or how the reunion between Keith and Kuron was exclusively for them and no one else. No team, no loud excitement or group celebration. Just two people longing gazing out at one another as they slowly drifted into each other’s orbit. Or look at any scene where Shiro and Keith are having a tender heart to heart. They’re usually either under a sunset or lowlight. The bedroom scene is especially telling, particularly when you compare it to Keith’s talk with Lance afterwards. 

One shows Keith and Shiro in the dark and vulnerable, there’s a heavy atmosphere and gravity to the scene that you didn’t get with the lightheartedness from Lance. The way Keith and Shiro are so close yet so far, closer to one another than they’ve ever been with anyone else, but still backing away and holding their distance–that’s not brotherly. It seems more like two people who are trying to suppress their feelings and are afraid to make that breach. And there’s always that sense of gravity that draws them together anyway

There is the “Shiro, you’re like a brother to me,” line. But curiously, I’ve never seen anyone say kl/ance was impossible because Hunk throws his arms around Keith and Lance and says, “We’re brothers.” I’ve never seen people say ka/llura or all/urance or sha/llura is impossible because Allura says “I’ve grown to consider you and the paladins my new family.”

I’ve never seen people say you couldn’t ship Keith with anyone on Team Voltron because, prior to the brother BOM line, holo Shiro says, “We’re all the family you need.” We as in, everyone on team Voltron is seen as Keith’s found family. Keith singling out Shiro with his brother line response is interesting though, because–yes, he does see all of Team Voltron as family. 

But he only focuses on his bond with Shiro, because it runs much deeper than what he feels for everyone else. Focusing on one line out of context as if Keith and Shiro is the only instance of found family is really transparent to me. If you’re going to discount sheith for that, every other ship between Team Voltron is out too. All of them. 

And as a bi guy, I’ll tell you that I’ve pulled the “you’re like a brother/sister to me” card before because I was scared of admitting my feelings for someone and it was a way to backpedal out of the situation without worrying that the other person would leave me for it. And we do know Keith’s worst fear is feelings, know that Josh said “[Keith’s] constantly scared he’s gonna say or do something wrong and he’s gonna lose Shiro.” It makes sense for Keith to hide his feelings. Plenty of people who’ve felt romantic attraction have done something similar. Also–Harry and Ginny, Ed and Winry, Aang and Katara–why is it that thinking of someone as just being like a brother or sister and then having it evolve into something more is seen as a natural progression if you’re straight, but somehow doesn’t apply if you’re gay? 

We already know that age isn’t a problem in canon because Matt flirted with Allura. He did that. That was fine. Allura has been said to be about the same age as Keith (who started at 18 and now is either 19 or turning 19) and we know Matt is the same age as Shiro. They were in the same class, and they graduated together. One wears the cadet uniform though and one wears an officer uniform. This is because, despite age, they have different ranks. Shiro has never been referred to as a teacher and has only been acknowledged as a past student at the garrison by staff. And we also know that Shiro graduated only a few years prior to Kerberos. You also don’t go up to your teacher and say you think of them as a brother. That’s not how it works and they’re not student and teacher. And if Shiro mentored Keith a bit in piloting, I don’t see a problem. Katara mentored Aang in water bending, but they still got married.

Staff have repeatedly supported Shiro and Keith in a romantic context, and have done so since the very beginning. To the point where Shiro’s VA came up with the ship name for it and one of the episode Directors drew fanart of it. Doesn’t sound to me like they were trying to push the whole “brotherly” idea very much. 

And we’ve been told that the show runners are fighting for lgbt representation, and that it’s something they’ve been working towards since the very beginning, that the start of that has been there since the first season:

Lauren (after being asked about the lgbt rep in korrasami and whether Voltron would ever “take that step”): “We have those first 13 episodes and if we ever went beyond that, we would like to push the envelope.” (source here)

Will we be seeing any lgbt representation?

Lauren: “It’s super important to us.”

Joaquim: ��Just know that from our prospective, we’re fighting to create as open and broad a spectrum of characters as we can.”

Lauren: “We can’t give you any definite answers, but just know that–”

Joaquim: “We’re fighting for as broad and open representation as we can.” 

The only possible relationship I can think of that could’ve grown between two characters since season 1, that the writers have been steadily growing and still supporting, that has even a fraction of a chance of happening and would be worth fighting for in how prominent and well written it would be–is sheith. I know people like kl/ance too, but the writers have already said point black it isn’t happening and have only used female pronounce to describe Lance’s future love interest:

Interviewer: “I feel like there was a little tease? It seems shippers want to ship Lance and Keith together, so are there gonna be any hints of that at all? Or is it just more like–okay, they’re friends, they’re starting to become friends.”

Lauren: “I think we had a very natural arc in mind for those two. Which is, they start out at odds, but then they grow to kind of respect each other. And if that leads into people being like–they’re spending time together! Then that’s a ‘thing,’ but…We’re not trying to cater to or bait anyone into anything, we’re just trying to do what’s right for the story.”

Joaquim: “We also try not to be overtly affected by what popular opinion might be.”

Lauren: “And we’re working in animation. Our schedule is so far in advance for that–even if people shipped Keith and Lance, we couldn’t go back and just change the story–to be like and now they’re in love!”

Joaquim: “There’s just no way. We’re already years past that storyline, you know?” (source)

Interviewer: What would Lance look for in a future Mr. or Mrs. Blue Lion? I’m gonna guess she meant Red Lion now. I think she’s trying to fill out her space Tindr profile. But yea, what is Lance’s–And I like this, because Lance is kind of all over the place. He hits on anything that moves and is pretty, which all the aliens are pretty. But what would he look for, really, in a partner or a soulmate?

Lauren: I don’t know if Lance knows what he needs. I know what he might look for, but what he might look for is not necessarily what he needs. I think he needs someone who is self-assured and knows herself, so that he can kind of become that same person and know himself.   (source)

So if there’s going to be any lgbt relationship, I’m certain it’s sheith. Recently, Lauren has also talked about fans pointing out the sheith cameo at the garrison, and excitedly said, “I put that shit in there!” And added that, “Shiro was still his guiding light. It was good.” I honestly think part of why she got so enthusiastic over it was because they’re coming closer and closer to revealing a relationship they’ve worked very long on and fought hard for and have kept under wraps. This was also teased when Jeremy said, “Hey, backstory guys. There’s more of it.” And Joaquim added, “It exists!” So there is a big story there, and we’re definitely getting it. (source)

Unlike Matt and Pidge, any inkling of Shiro and Keith’s backstory prekerberos is something the narrative’s always very secretive about it. Why keep that hidden unless it was going to reveal something monumental about their relationship? Like say, Keith harboring feelings for Shiro? Even just throwing in this little cameo like that, people might say it’s nothing. But we saw a similar background cameo with Zarkon and Honerva in the Black Lion’s flashback–and that leads to a whole love story. It honestly makes sense to me if they were planning something similar with Shiro and Keith.