#this trope only exists in my head btw

[inamagicalhallucination]

my favorite sskk trope is ppl like akutagawa’s acquaintances meeting atsushi and being flabbergasted that the sweetest, purest, softest, can do no wrong-est guy is with mr grumpy pants and no one believing akutagawa when he says that atsushi is actually feral

so essentially ppl having a very soft baby boy uwu perspective of atsushi just becuz he’s sweet and smiles a lot and so on 

but akutagawa obviously knows atsushi since theyre dating so he’s like ‘guys. guys no. guys yesterday i told him he should eat something other than chazuke and he tried to bite me. guys. guys please believe me.’

[smollsmule]

Ok ok but you wanna know the real tea?? I've read several beach fics at this point (which are all awesome btw, y'all are amazing writers) and it's a beloved staple to have Edwin be somehwat scandalised at everyone's beach outfits not to mention all flustered from seeing Charles in swim wear. Which is a Good Trope, don't get me wrong, I love that just as much as the next person

HOWEVER

I think actually it's Charles who should be more shooketh about Edwin in his funky lil edwardian two piece!!

Picture this. The year is 1916. You are 16 year old Edwin Payne with a bunch of repressed gay thoughts. Much unpleasantness happens, you die and get dragged to hell, even more unpleasantness happens, 70 years later you finally manage to claw your way up and suddenly women are allowed to vote. There's been not one but two world wars, several countries you grew up reading about in the news don't exist anymore and mini skirts are a thing now.

All I'm saying is, for all the teasing Edwin gets for "What is a handjob?" and "Crystal's internet", this kid was essentially thrust into a scifi world full of weird shit and gets mostly by via an attitude which can only be paraphrases as "fuck it, this might as well be a thing (maybe ask Charles about it later)". King of adaption, master of radical acceptance.

Charles on the other hand, and I say this with only love in my heart, is at his core a boomer. He was there for every tiny gradual shift from '89 to modern day. Sure, he was dead for most of that time, but that's not really relevant. All I'm saying is, seeing the bbc announce marriage equality was probably a bigger shock to Charles than it was to Edwin. That's a guy who already had to accept he will never fully wrap his head around home television.

Also consider the states of undress they've been exposed to seeing the other in. Edwin was stripped to his underwear in hell and still had his knees and elbows covered. And that was probably a more exposing outfit than he'd ever be comfortable with. His usual casual get up features a sweater vest for crying out loud! Meanwhile you have Charles going full 'ceps out in his undershirt first chance he gets. Edwin either got real cool with a lot of shit real fast or he would have combusted several times over those 30 years.

And yes yes, we've all seen Edwin "Haunted By Gay Thoughts" Payne's mental slideshow of abs n hips close ups after getting one (1) glance at the Cat King's stomach. But to his credit, the man was going through a full blown sexuality crisis at that and has since emerged victorious.

So all I'm saying is. Edwin seeing Charles shirtless at the beach? Probably not even the first time this is happening, a lil flustering for sure but just last week he saw two people making out nasty on the tube so hell if he knows. Charles seeing Edwin's kneecaps and upper arms for the first time? Incredible, show stopping, pride and predjudice 2005 hand flex level of suppressed horniness.

Anyway. I'm writing this fic now and none of y'all can stop me.

[crehador]

mulled it over for a while and ultimately decided i'm really digging this arajin-matakara fight, because like

the whole series has set up arajin as a piece of shit fuckhead (and i LOVE that for him) but this whole lying to matakara about wanting to be a honki people thing... is like the one thing he did not actually do

i get real rambly under the cut but tl;dr the way matakara treats arajin is the way arajin treats mahoro and that is suuuch a juicy parallel to me

throughout the whole series arajin has been not at all subtly trying to get away from these fights

could he have been more direct about that with matakara? sure maybe! but matakara was really ignoring all the signs that arajin is not who he thinks he is

which is such a delicious parallel to how arajin willfully ignores all the signs that mahoro is not into him

like. matakara built this version of arajin up in his head, with all these unreasonable, unrealistic, and honestly unfair? expectations based off some past foolishness from when they were very small children. he's clinging to this version of arajin that only exists in his head and has basically shown zero evidence of existing in real life

(yes arajin shows crumbs of courage but i think the scales are tipped pretty heavily towards his I DO NOT WANT ANY PART OF THIS moments)

this fight between them was like if arajin were to blow up at mahoro like "you've been leading me on this whole time!" when obviously. lol. no she has not

she did initially! just like tiny arajin as a child had those honki people ambitions! his ambitions may have been genuine, while mahoro feigned interest in him with malicious intent, but they're same in the sense that after that initial story beat, they have consistently demonstrated that actually no what happened back then no longer applies (whether because they grew out of it, in arajin's case, or they were faking interest in the first place, in mahoro's case)

but arajin is blinded by what he wants (mahoro) and ignores the reality of mahoro snubbing him at every turn, and matakara does the same, ignoring the reality of arajin really just... being extremely reluctant to have anything at all to do with him

anyway that's the main thing i'm chewing on and loving here, but ALSO i think the story paints this parallel in such an interesting way because like

matakara is just a big sweet ouppy dog of a boy! it's so so so easy to feel sorry for him, to root for him, to think the best of him. which i still do btw, in fact this episode made me like him more than i already did

because matakara is so uwu angelboy perfect, and arajin is such a dickhead, it's easy to instinctively think oh matakara must be completely right to be hurt and arajin must have hurt him. even if that isn't the case! this doesn't make arajin any less of a dickhead, but he's a dickhead mainly for other reasons

the fact that they've been set up as the perfect epitome of the Pure Boy and the Pervy Boy tropes is just such clever framing for this parallel between them, because i imagine a lot of viewers, if told what mataakara is doing to arajin is what arajin is doing to mahoro, would be like omg wtf no my pure angel baby is nothing like that disgusting freak?

except in this case! he literally is!! which is brilliant!!! i think it adds nuance to both matakara's character and arajin's character at the same time, making it so it's not just one of them is Perfect and one of them is Wrong All The Time

what's even better is that this made sense for matakara, like his reaction breaks him out of the Pure Angel mold but doesn't feel out of character. his emotions are already running high with what happened to his brother, plus akutaro is malewife mansplain manipulating him behind the scenes, so of course he feels like he's driven towards this emotional high that leads to this blowup

the groundwork was already laid out, and it wasn't even subtle. it was right on the surface! but this episode really highlighted how matakara's way of treating arajin is so much like arajin's way of treating mahoro and how inevitable it was that things would reach this point

(there are moments, even in this episode, that are in hindsight so clearly setting up this parallel! like arajin trying to talk to mahoro during lunch, mahoro CLEARLY not interested, making viewers think ugh arajin get a clue. then matakara often IMMEDIATELY coming in to try to talk to arajin, when arajin is the one who clearly isn't interested, making viewers think boo arajin be nicer to him! like i think the show deliberately set the audience up to have those emotional reactions, and this is the moment where the rug is pulled out from under us, so to speak, where it becomes even more obvious that... wait... double standard much?)

anyway. personally my only gripe with this episode is i wished they'd done more with aniki than just pseudo-fridge him, and hope they do still do more with him in the coming eps? but kind of understandable if they don't, because it is just a one-cour show after all

the actual blowup between arajin and matakara was just. mawh, chef's kiss. perfect

[lilisouless]

Rank all the Grishaverse ships and tell why they are at that rank.

Okay,I’ll rank by personal taste since writing wise I think you would have to be too cold headed to evaluate.

With the exception of one , they are all book wise (i could rank the show ships later if you ask)

From less favorite to most:

10-Sergei and Marie: don't like either character so there are not strong feelings here, the impact is more interseting than the ship

9-Mayu and Isaak: they were boring together, the chemistry was just "eh" , just like before the impact was more interesting than the ship but this one actually needed you to care, which i did but also no, i cared abotu them as characters but not as a couple. Only ranking them higher because i like both characters

8-Tamadia: please don't hang me for this , i wish i could like them more but their writing was kind of lazy, i felt Leigh wrote everyone to have their perfect match, made Zoya , Nikolai and Adrik wait for someone she thought would be good for them but with Tamadia she just paired her with the remaining girl with no real exploration of what they have in common or why they lile each other. I get why Nadia likes Tamar(who wouldn't like her?) but i don't see why Tamar likes Nadia because she is a very lacking character that Leigh keeps insisting is a main one. I am sorry but i read RoW and kept thinking "wish Tamar wasn't married cause she´d be more interesting if paired with Ehri" i shouldn't think that, Leigh never gave them plenty to work with mostly like i said: Nadia hardly was a defined character.

I will say positive things: their existence made homophobes rabid , and it makes Tamar happy, also she is very gentle and romantic in her relationship which is a funny callback on how Sergei said he believes Tamar would be harsh with her future husband.

7-Fivan (show only) /Adreoni: I put on a tie because the things i can say about one can be said about the other: they are fine, they are cute and the reason they are both above tamadia is that despite having less screentime, they do have a pretty defined dynamic so you know how they are behind the scene. I wouldn't say they are the same ship, but they have similar principles in one being grumpy and the other being happy. While i am very skeptical of romance tropes as a basis to the whole ship when we are talking about main ships, in secondary characters it works fine and give personality to otherwise characters with limited screentime.

6-Genya x David : This will be hard to explain, they are cute, i can't place them higher because my liking goes to more balanced couples. Which is very likely related that this are two secondary characters while the higher ranked are at least two mains. The thing is it took me a while to warm up to them.

I´ll explain so i give a better picture: Before the "I know metal scene" i honestly didn't really care about the couple, to me it was just pairing the secondary characters, but i melted at David´s speech. But i can't rank them higher if it took me that long. It´s NOT bad writing, i am not saying that, it´s just what happens when it´s two secondary characters. And btw, it was more personality than the average secondary x secondary in other YA books, so it´s not a place to shame (i just feel the need to apologize to put my beloved David so low)

5-Hanne x Nina: I think the reason they don't make a bigger impresion is that the writing is more focussed on each them as characters than their relationship, which is a sacrifice i can respect. They still have good chemistry, to Leigh it was clearly a challenge to not make Helnik 2.0 (people don't give her credit on how she manages to make it romantic and still respecting fan`s love for Helnik) and i´ll say she acomplishes it. I think the issue is that they are actually too good together so there´s not a lot of room for conflict which leaves me wanting for more, it could have been more interesting, but definitely i am not worried about Nina finding someone that understands her and it´s pretty clear why they are so good for each other.

4-Malina: I don't know how i would feel about it if people wouldn't be so vocal about them being abusive or something. Like, people lower your expectations as crazy, i think Mal could use a bit of more focus on his identidy but thats mostly because tgt would have worked better with a multiple pov. As it is, yeah they are adorable, maybe less original in dynamic than the previous ones but the portrayal of their love for each other is very genuine. It has flaws, maybe some parts were too mean but i don't think it´s something that will cause a future problem, they seemed to have put their act together by the end of Ruin and Rising. And most of the most romantic scenes is between them, Leigh doesn't shy up in giving them casual afection, which is pretty cute.

3-Helnik : I have to reread the books every now and then to remember I do like them, because between the awful netflix portrayal and a good chunk of the fandom. However, despite that the ship itself it´s pretty well written, specially since a lot could have gone wrong. My feelings aren't as strong as it used to be, but they are still pretty good if you turn off the fans that clearly don't understand it and only care about the sexual or tropey etl aspect. If you want an actual problem with canon helping it may be that i never undestood why Nina fell in love with Matthias pre character develoment. Post develoment yes i can see it, but before that not really, nothing that ruins it, just places it lower.

2-Zoyalai & Kanej (shared 2nd) I am not saying a lot here because, what can i say? you people know they are both god (nope, didn't forgot an o) i don't need to sell it to you. Let´s say this: my head said Kanej, my heart said Zoyalai, so they will have to share.

ZN: Not my first GV but definitely the one i started shipping faster, i needed just a couple of sentences because their chemistry is that good. I was writing "Sometimes i like them more than Kanej, just sometimes" then i realized, yeah, i will have to put them both in two"

KI -: objetively they are the better one, they have an unique dynamic,subverts plenty of harmful stereotypes and have great scenes, I kind of like the irony that the best couple in the Grishaverse is the one that features no grisha character. But like i said, this was a personal ranking so...

1-Wesper: I have a lor of personal feelings about this, i think its a bit underrated in a way because people think they don't have a lot of drama like Kanej or Helnik but it´s kind of what i like it, i feel it realistic because it´s two people with their own problems leaning on each other. Also, their versatility to work in many aus is great, not to say it´s the ship in soc you actually get to see fall in love since the previous was mostly flashbacks , not saying they are better (like i said, i think Kanej is better objetively) but just more appealing to me. Also well, Jesper being my favorite and Wylan being the fourth help a lot.

-

[ctimenefic]

utterly in shambles over three's a crowd. there has never been a more grander proof of devotion. i would truly eat up any lore about this verse, but i am so curious if you will, what was the thought process behind having "Outsider" as alex's superhero name? (and who is the new outsider. and how does george feel about them. IN FACT, is george even still in contact with the PIT (great name btw) agency?)

Thank you, dear anonnynonny! I've been truly gobsmacked by the response to three's a crowd (I must once again thank @latecomersprivilege who sat me down and with steel in her eyes stopped me scrapping the whole thing at the last minute - she is a queen).

So, the Outsider. I'll admit, the superhero side of things was rather thinly drawn in my head - it's mostly a means to an end to get us to the mad scientist trope, because a superhero setting lets us get a bit flexible with science and survival etc. It's also part of the deliberate fuzz of the Before Times.

But I did think quite a bit about what Alex's superhero name should be. (Largely because most superhero names are either 1) taken, or 2) extremely stupid-sounding. Like, Catman fits our boy, but it's not striking fear into hearts). in the end I based it on two things - real-world Alex's beautiful overtakes on the outside line, and his comments about how British media perceive him as "London-born Thai or not British at all". I can see Alex showing up for the first time, being dismissed by established roster, and making that a badge of honour and his whole heroic identity. He's the Outsider, but he doesn't need to belong to save the day.

Is George still in contact with PIT? Only in the sense that he maintains an artifice of an actual life to prevent anyone looking too closely at what he's really up to. So he sends them a few useful ideas if they come up in the course of the work and accepts precisely one call from his old deputy on the relevant anniversaries. They're a bit too light touch with monitoring him in return, in part because they saw his grief and are deeply sympathetic. A junior staffer is in charge of blocking his uranium orders though.

I have no headcanon on who the New Outsider is though! Pick your poison! (If I had to pick, I'd say Jamie Chadwick, but it really is up to each reader.) Regardless of who it is, George processes their existence about as well as he processes anything in three's a crowd. First he throws a fit, then he sends a petty cease and desist, and then- and then- he's gonna-

He's topside one morning fetching milk when they show up and ask for his blessing. White balaclava in hand. Wringing it out. Nervous. They're so young.

Alex was so young.

George is still using a cane, stiff from the accident with the third model - an idiotic mistake, not actively monitoring pain receptors - and they're slow and gentle as they walk back with him. Accept some nonsense about a fall down the stairs.

Despite his best efforts, the conversation drifts to the inevitable. They talk about the first time they'd seen him. When they realised they were like him. How that helped.

They're similar, George concedes. But not up to Alex's level, he doesn't say. He just heavily implies it. They roll their eyes and- no. That's too much alike.

"New," he suggests. Not the same. Not a-

"I couldn't replace him. Obviously. He's irreplacable."

Hm. Well. They'll see about that.

[snaillock]

hi!! it's me again 😭😭 I was going to ask for one of my favs, my boy Barou ☹️ I love this trope and even more with his personality 😓. So yk he's like so strong characted and it's like 🤨😠 well what about a small drable(? (I think it's called that way, like a little fic? bcs rules say u don't write much of that and I don't want to press 😿) when he's like that even with m reader (when they're in public) but in an affectionate way? like angry love, and when they're alone he's a complete cutie pay 🤭 I love him so much please 😭😭

anyways if you can do that please it would be great! take care!!

i’m sorry this took a while to finish😭 for some reason, i was having so much trouble writing this so i hope it’s to your satisfaction. also bc of this request, the rules have since been updated cause there were worded very very poorly (my bad) but it should be all good. hopefully there will be no more confusion from now on

tags: male reader, barou’s loving insults w.c: 0.3k

“barou!” you yelled out before running towards him and wrapping your arms around him, “great job at practice today!”

“god, don’t do this around here, you idiot,” barou complained while glancing back at his teammates but still hugged you back.

“oh please, me being here doesn’t take away from your king status.”

he rolled his eyes and released you, “shut up and let’s head home already, dumbass.”

you giggled and grabbed his hand, “alrighty you asshole.”

“ugh,” he groaned and averted his eyes away from you but didn’t pull his hand away, “don’t embarrass me in front of the team”

“why do you care about what they think?” you raised an eyebrow in amusement, “you once told me that ‘they’re a bunch of lowlife servants that only exist to live under your rule’”

“whatever let’s just go already, you damn loser”

once you got to barou’s house, you immediately dropped your backpack on his bedroom floor and flopped onto his bed.

“nope! bag at the door and no uniform on the bed.”

“come on… you’re really going to make me sit on the floor, baby?” you whined, already relaxing in his bed.

“don’t think you can sweet talk me of all people just because you’re my boyfriend.” he crossed his arms.

“yes i can. now get over here.” you patted the spot right next to you.

barou glared at you in disbelief before sighing and giving in, sitting right next to you. you grinned and threw your arms around him, leaning on his shoulder. “see you can’t resist me because you love me!”

he rolled his eyes and wrapped his arm around you. “yeah unfortunately you’re right. i do really love you,” he said, unable to hold back an adoring smile. he then kissed your forehead. “you damn idiot.”

taglist(if you want to be added let me know!): @userwithlotsoftime (ty for asking to be in a taglist btw!)

[strawberryraviegutz]

I really REALLY hate those kinds of stupid “hot take” posts. I think they’re just garbage to purposely farm more discourse to cause infighting, but I’ve been holding this in for so long and I need to get it out of my system so here it goes.

Alastor fans are allowed to dislike Valentino. Valentino was made to be a dislikable Villain while Alastor BY VIV’S OWN WORDS is a chaotic neutral antihero based off of Dexter with a moral code. Of course people are gonna like Alastor more than Valentino. The antihero/vigilante is a very popular beloved trope. I mean just look at Magneto and Venom.

You guys claim to want more nuanced characters but when we try and tell you that Alastor is more nuanced BASED OFF OF EVIDENCE FROM THE CREATOR and little possible context clues in the show we get accused of “babying/woobifying him”(as if Val fans haven’t done that to Val). This isn’t a hit piece against all Val fans/simps btw. I may hate that moth, but you guys should be allowed like him without receiving hate and or death threats.

It’s not “hypocrisy” to dislike Valentino or the Vees and like Alastor for the reasons I said above and the four of them aren’t comparable. Yeah they share some traits but overall the only thing Alastor and the Vees have in common are the mistreatment of the souls they own. Like I said, Val fans shouldn’t be attacked for liking him but the thing is…if you’re gonna preach those words then do the same for Alastor fans/simps because we get attacked too.

(Again it’s not all Val stans but it sure it a lot of them. I’ve all so seen Val haters do it too.) Yall claim not to harass people over fictional characters yet will go under Alastor posts and or discussion threads and be like “Uhm actually him and Valentino are the same🤓☝️”.

“He’s worse than Val” “Why can’t we just have a good villain” “Just accept that Alastor is a villain stop babying him” when we’re just minding our own business. Not to mention people going under fanart of Angel! Alastor and being like “erm actually he’d never go to heaven🤪”.

Along with yall bullying the hell out of Alastor selfshippers/simps and using tumblr sexyman as an insult(which reaks of internalized misogyny btw because majority of Alastor simps are women + women are always the first to be made fun of when it comes to characters that Classify as tumblr sexymen being found attractive by them or any character you personally wouldn’t find attractive.)

And yall going around and keep calling Alastor ugly under posts about people gushing about him and i don’t mean lighthearted jokes either because i make fun of the back of his head sometimes too. And full blown harassment. When an Alastor fan provided evidence of Alastor being a more nuanced character which were clips from Viv’s streams, people in the comments and qrts were being extremely rude and dismissive. It got so bad that op deleted the og tweet.

Don’t go around and claim to be against cringe culture but then make fun of people for finding Alastor attractive. And for goodness sake STOP FUCKING CALLING HIM A SLAVE OWNER. And yes he owns souls but that doesn’t matter.

Alastor is canonically half black and its overall disgusting to slap the label “slave owner” onto him knowing damn well that he grew up in the Jim Crow era of America in the Deep South of Louisiana. His existence as a mixed black person back then was basically considered an abomination. With how terrible it was for black people back then, Alastor probably bore witness to a lot of messed up shit growing up and if that’s the case then it’s no wonder he’s so messed up in the head.

This type of behavior has been going on since the days where we only had the pilot and it’s only gotten worse since the show came out. As soon as I saw that scene with husk and Alastor in hell’s greatest dad I automatically knew what was coming. I’m not saying that Alastor Is a good person nor am I saying that what he did to husk was ok. But to go after/make fun of Alastor fans,purposely denying evidence of his character while in the same breath preach against bullying people over liking certain characters makes YOU the hypocrites. So much for anti-harassment. I’m tired. Bye.

[drumlincountry]

recent things

tagged by the inimitable @gowns

Last song you listened to: I listened to As It Ever Was, So It Will Be Again by The Decemberists on my way home from work (thanks @alasse-irena for the rec!). If we count music playing in my head, we have Two Outta Three Ain't Bad by Meatloaf playing full blast up there at the moment.

Last movie you watched: The most recent movie I've watched was Conclave (2024). The second most recent movie I've watched was also Conclave (2024). The third most recent movie I've watched was The Substance (2024)

Last show watched: Jamie and I watched the first three episodes of Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries over the weekend. Solid 7/10 pulpy detective show set in the 1920s. Hot flapper detective. There's communist cab drivers.

Currently reading: Every Decemer I read a Jane Austen novel. This year's one is Persuasion.

Also, I'm reading a concerning amount of Game Of Thrones fanfiction for someone who hasn't watched the show or read the books. I just love it when a character who styles themself as an honourable and successful person is forced to realise that all their success and 'honour' exist only because of and in service of an evil horrifying power structure, which is destroying all that is good and free in the world*. I love to watch these characters be destroyed & rebuilt. Standard redemption arc stuff. And Astolat has some pretty good game of thrones fics about that.

Current obsession: This is very sad to admit but I am TOO TIRED AND WORN to have an obsession. That's a lie see the footnote below. I'm obsessed with people attempting to have equitable and fair relationships while living in a fucking hierarchy. I'm obsessed with how the hierarchy invades and taints every interpersonal interaction. I'm obsessed with resistance tactics, successful and spectacularly pathetically unsucessful. I'm obsessed with how easy it is to convince yourself you're resisting when you're not. I'm obsessed with how easy it is to convince yourself you're only temporarily complying so you can resist more effectively later on. I'm obsessed with the evil empire in which we all live, and I really enjoy art that heightens and dramatises all that. I'm obsessed, as always, with Anne Boyer's "no" essay.

Also, started making beeswax candles.

tagging: @alasse-irena @annabelle--cane @saintssebastian @jealousofthetea @camelcasebestcase

*you might think "ah, the Zuko arc", and YES I love a Zuko arc, I read a lot of ATLA fic for the same reason. It's also a Roger Casement From Real Life arc and for me it will always be the Bendick Much Ado About Nothing arc. Kill Claudio.

The fanfic for Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe is another rich ore for this trope btw, if you want to read about a little roman boy realising slavery.....might be ....bad? And bottoming....might be...ok???

[devyuence]

Controversial take: People's hatred for Mew is related to their attachment to real life ship which takes the fun out of Only Friends (at least on their end)

This is going to be my random thoughts and I had a couple of shots of gin and tonic while writing this so excuse me. I am gonna mix up the real-life and fictional scenarios so sue me, I guess.

Before anything else, I like ForceBook a lot but I can understand if TopMew will not end up together. For the most part, I see Top as a person I can never like in real life and you cannot blame me if he just gives me bad vibes.

However, I want to know more about him and how their story unfolds. I actually want TopMew to pull a 188 Men's Group wife-chasing crematorium trope (look it up) or an ending like Cruel Intentions.

In addition, even if I will be proven wrong soon, I will still defend Mew. He is just complex and reminds me of myself. Someone who just wants to graduate with flying colors in an Asian society (SEA to be exact) then came along Boston pestering him about his virginity.

Now you know my biases, let's get to the real reason why I used the said title.

People are hating Mew for cock-blocking Ray and Sand. Calling him names and anything but never Ray. Never Ray. I am actually glad that happened because at least Sand knows that Ray is still hung up on Mew—even if some viewers will say that it is not love but more of the idea that he loves Mew. Again, Ray is still hung up on Mew (or has lingering feelings) and I am glad he stopped what they are doing. At least Sand had a heads-up, a warning that he is just a rebound.

If we go back from last week, people hate Mew for ditching Ray and P'Jojo had to explain that Boston and Syrup forced him to go home with Top. You will not see people making threads gaining hundreds of likes of how Boston is a bad friend for Ray—it is always Mew that is the face of betrayal. Never Boston because he is not a threat. Or Neo. Or Mark. Unless Nick hooks up with Sand. Lol.

This leads me to the conclusion that some of the viewer's hatred for Mew (or Book) stems from how he intervenes with the existing ship. People nitpick everything he does. Some shippers feel threatened about his existence—may it be in the series or real life. His ghost ship with Khao (or Ray with Mew) annoys the hell out of people. In some clips with Khao and Book sailing RayMew, fans are saying First is jealous and Khao should pay attention to him. This is somehow converted to how people pity Sand even more and dislike Mew in the series. Ray can be an alcoholic and Mew saves his ass multiple times but Ray can never do wrong. Even if he wants to drive while drunk. Never Ray because Ray is Khaotung. LOL.

Some are also saying that only Ray cared for his friend group when in the very first episode, the first cut at that, Mew is picking up Ray's drunk ass. Hell, he even reprimanded him (R) for picking fights while drunk. Now, people are saying that Ray should have continued the deed with Sand instead of taking care of his friend who does not care about him. That or people throwing a pity party for Ray by being a true friend when it was implied that Mew is always the table keeper, taking care of his drunk ass and it did not happen only once.

I know some of you are raising your eyebrows right now but I mean, everyone just tends to nitpick about Mew. Or Book. Before, I had seen people calling him bland and boring. Like a cardboard without personality. People are like: How the hell Ray even like him? Now that he is showing his true colors, people are calling him scheming and manipulative.

When Mew did not let Top go further from his advancements, some are criticizing him for acting like a kid and virgin (he is btw). When Top did not pick up his calls, people are saying that he is evil and manipulative. That he deserves it. When Boston does something problematic, people will say he just have insecurities and unresolved daddy issues. When Nick installed that in the car, people will say that he is just in love and obsessed. When Ray wants to crash his car, it is because he has mommy issues. That they are just kids and needs guidance but Mew? Mew is hated for acting like a kid aka stopping Top when he realized he is not ready. That he deserves getting cheated on. That he is the most evil guy. Hell, even Top, according to viewers cannot be an assault victim because he is not played by an actor who is a crowd favorite.

See what I mean people? Like make up your minds. You love to psychoanalyze other character's personalities and why they are behaving but Mew (even Top) has no excuses. Heh.

In addition, people are questioning why Mew did not call Syrup or Boston. Bruh, Syrup cannot drive. Boston is yeah, Boston. Also, some viewers say that Ray does not really love Mew but is in love with the idea of him or because Mew cares for him. Some even theorized that he has an Oedipus Complex. Now tell me, Mew does not care about Ray but the reason why Ray is still hung up on Mew is because he is caring? Make it make sense, please.

Some viewers will disagree with me, especially those who have a strong attachment to their own ship, but I wonder if they are still having fun going through hoops and hoops and throwing pity parties over characters? I, for real will still defend Mew but I acknowledge that he is gray. I wonder if they will combust if we get a RayMew kiss in the next episode? I wonder how they feel seeing everyone in the Only Friends casts are friendly with each other?

Anyway, I just said what I said.

If your hatred for a character is unreasonable and you see him as a threat (esp in real life). I think you need to reevaluate and ask yourself why. Or maybe you just need a Sand, a shrink. Either way, everyone in OF needs therapy.

Cheers to people who consume this drama for pure bliss and whatnot. The not-too-invested crowd with real ships. The messy crowd.

If the show is not for you and you want chummy cutesy BLs, you can save yourself, honey. This is Jojo we are talking about. If you think that you have the right to watch despite nitpicking everything (I mean we all have the freedom), okay. Please feel free to do so.

However, if you think this will not affect how others, even the directors, will see your fandom, I am speaking in general, well, you are in for a ride. Idk, be sensible I guess.

I do not even know how from an OF meta, I ended up saying something about fandoms. Guess alcohol in your system really does wonders. I will never hate the actors for their fans though. I just think that this is something that people need to think about.

Like if you have seen the reception in the F app and T app, it's more welcoming but the former chicken app? It is a more restrictive echo chamber that dismisses discussion because again, it is dominated by big accounts of shippers.

We are only in Episode 3, I hope everyone is ready for the chaos not just in the show but in the fandoms.

Anyway, I am done editing this. Hate me but I said what I said.

PS. For the Mew defenders out there, hi! I love you! For my cutesy Forcebook fans, how is it that we like unproblematic besties? Toughen up though! It's gonna be a war zone.

From your resident Mew defender until the end

XOXO, Yue.

[joys-of-everyday]

MXTX's women

Let's do ✨discourse™✨

Addendum: I checked out twitter (x now?) for the first time in ages and... um... maybe this isn't a good time for discourse. But hey, I love mxtx so I'm just going to do a Shen Yuan and pretend absolutely everything is fine.

I feel like a lot of the discourse around MXTX and sexism don't hit the mark? Things like 'there are few female characters', 'the female characters die', 'the female characters don't hold positions of power' are not indications as to whether a piece of work standing on its own is sexist. For example, you could write an entire novel about a sexless robot (which miserably fails the Bechdel test because there is only one character) and that says nothing about whether the work itself is sexist. This is an caricature of an example and of course, overall trends give a very different picture to individual works, so its not to take such works off the hook either. Similarly, including sexist troupes isn't inherently sexist, but equally arguing something is a 'critique' isn't a shield against criticism. Critique can be done badly, critique can become outdated, critique itself can be critiqued.

But equally the counterargument to this can't entirely be 'but look at x, y, and z - aren't they great female characters?'. Look, I love mxtx's women. I can write essays (plural) about mxtx's women. Many people already have. Then again, Eowyn from lotr is arguably a pretty deep character, but I would have problems if lotr was the best example of female representation we could come up with. The point being, the existence (or lack thereof) of strong female characters isn't (entirely) the point, even though it's often made out to be. Don't get me wrong, good female representation without strong female characters is... erm... hard. But if it was the crux of the argument, the discourse could be killed in three tumblr posts.

The bigger question(s) (possibly) is: What is its intent? How is that intent received?

SVSSS, MDZS, and TGCF are all extremely different pieces of work. SVSSS in particular stands out, because at its heart, it is satire. While debates around what kind of comedy is and isn't good exist independently of SVSSS, needless to say, judging satire in the same way you would say a murder mystery or a romantic fantasy is not advisable. Sha Hualing is a sexy demon lady whose clothes rip off in the middle of a battle. Why? Because that's saying something about a particular trope of a particular genre.

(Side note: I have opinions on how we shove different BLs together when they really shouldn't be under the same umbrella and how this muddies the discourse unnecessarily. I'm talking about Killing Stalking btw)

For SVSSS, if you get it, you get it (it's impossible to read without understanding this). While some loose threads exist about how female characters could have been more developed... man, do you know how much development my boy Mu Qingfang got? You're not sexist if you punch everyone (only half ironic here). (In terms of character development I also think this might be a fandom thing as well as a SVSSS thing.) But I think more relevantly, SVSSS tells you something about the way MXTX writes critique.

If you didn't notice, SVSSS is critique on two levels. First is the blatant critique of the harem genre, and the second is more subtle critique on BL, on fandoms, on webnovels, on literature. But while we get Shen Qingqiu's commentary guiding us through the first bit, this drops during the second bit. It takes Shen Qingqiu so long to realise that what he's living through is a crazy mishmash of BL tropes that the only narration you get on this is Pure Confusion. To realise Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu's early interactions is commentary on the 'dark and obsessive love' trope, you need to immediately realise that Shen Qingqiu telling you Luo Binghe is trying to kill him is just... Wrong. So (possibly, ofc I've no idea what's going on in the author's head) the intent is critique. But intent is meaningless without it being conveyed to the reader. So how are we meant to 'realise' what is going on?

Firstly, MXTX tells you. Shen Qingqiu goes: 'damn Luo Binghe isn't acting like in those weird danmei novels' and you're meant to go 'oh weird danmei novels I know about those'. Second is her very obvious use of tropes (even flagged!). 'Clothes rip/disappear in the middle of a serious situation, isn't this weird? Where have we seen that before?'. And thirdly, by introducing a sense of absurdity. Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu's relationship is presented in such an unconventional way (the master-disciple pair which generated a famous porno!) that it forces you to engage with it critically.

Okay, so what does that have to do with sexism? Take MDZS. We have a set of very tropey characters - 'the older sister', 'the scary mother', 'the strong independent woman', 'the damsel in distress'. We have explorations and subversions that go beyond tropes: Jiang Yanli's character shaped by her experiences in an abuse household, Yu Ziyuan's pride and loyalty, Wen Qing's well... everything, and Mianmian needs no explanation. We have flags to tell us we are meant to care about these issues: most obviously Mianmian experiencing gendered harassment for speaking up. All the women die! Yeah, isn't that a problem. Because it's the women sacrificing themselves, women silently taking on burdens, women chained by the circumstances of the world around them and still making choices about what is important to them (and it's often not themselves). The women aren't in positions of power/aren't shown to be as competent as the men! They're literally put down when they speak up, and don't the wives have a great time with their husbands. MDZS is critique of society. MDZS's women too are a critique of the society they (we) live in.

But not all critique is good critique! The first way that critique can fail is if it just isn't registered as critique by the reader. And this isn't always on the reader. If the author isn't clear enough on this, then they have failed to execute the intent of their work. And to this extent, I've heard enough people say that MDZS is maybe sexist as a first reaction (myself included) to think that yeah, maybe this wasn't well done. The flags are scarce. The subversions of tropes are subtle enough to be missed in it's entirety. Then again, MDZS often ends up as people's gateway piece into danmei, when it is probably better understood with more context - for me, coming back to MDZS after a big BL reading spree was exceptionally enlightening. As to whether it could have been better done in the bounds of the genre, without detracting from the banging story it was... I honestly don't know.

One way to go about it is, well... TGCF. Here everything is laid out to you to an almost bizarre degree. 'Look, isn't this a Hard Question' the narrative stops to tell you at multiple points, from Bai Wuxiang and Xie Lian's back and forths, to 'I don't know if what I did was right' speeches on a regular basis (maybe not regular but it was enough to notice). The troupes are still there but their twists are far more obvious. Xuan Ji is the 'deranged woman' who is (we are told multiple times) surprisingly normal and competent when she isn't around Pei Ming. Yushi Huang and Banyue are just obviously strong, competent, and in positions of power. Shi Qingxuan shines in all of her wonder, kindness, and unfortune. The flags are more glaring as well: Just Pei Ming's Existence, Ling Wen's whole backstory, Jian Lan's tragedy... And it probably worked? Since people seem to complain significantly less about any supposed sexism of TGCF.

Do I like it? I like elements of it. Ling Wen is honestly great.

But I love the subtlety with which MDZS weaves its themes and tbh I think some of the magic was lost there. (I love TGCF to bits for different reasons but yeah)

Does MXTX's writing of women merit discussion? Of course, everything merits discussion. Particularly MXTX's works which rely so heavily on genre tropes to craft themes. Is MXTX's work sexist? Idk, I would say no, but these things are Hard Questions.

But my feeling? My true feeling? At the very least, it is So. Much. Better. than a huge amount of work that tries to be feminist and pitifully fails.

My current pet peeve is the 'strong independent woman'. Depicting a sexist society then including a 'strong independent women' with no true appreciation of the realistic struggles she would face, as if the only barriers that we face within these societies is to stop being a loser... is worse in my books than not including any women at all. Or 'strong independent women' who turn out to be utterly pathetic and in constant need of saving. Or 'strong independent women' who have no other personality than being the 'strong independent woman'. The intent here is to come across as feminist and progressive without critically engaging in anything. It's paper thin.

Ultimately, the core theme of MDZS and TGCF isn't about women's experiences (whereas SVSSS is, I would argue, right into the nooks and crannies). Do these works explore such themes to the extent it explore privilege, conflict, and oppression? Not really. But you can't do everything - the role of an author is inherently about choosing what to prioritise. And given what it does do, I think it does some pretty neat things.

[heywriters]

I don't know if this has happened to you, but, I know that when it comes to fiction I know there is a lot of similar ideas going around when it comes to a certain character or situation, specially if they are popular.

And for some reason, sometimes I feel kinda scared of posting things that already exist. And I've seen some... authors getting beef for it, cause

A) No. I'm not ripping off your work. I swear, the idea of x character doing x thing came to me in a random moment while doing a mundane thing.

B) I know some other fiction authors inspire others (Wich is cool) but that leaves me with 3 questions.

1. When does the line of similar ideas and a complete rip off blurs?

2. Thoughts of this?

3. How to avoid it?

Thanks! Sorry if it's too much. Recently followed your blog in hopes to improve my writing (quite effective btw) You've been incredibly helpful ♥️.

It's essentially only a rip-off if you're profiting off it financially, and even then it's probably legal (see competitive movie studios releasing similar movies at the same time).

You really only need to be aware of plagiarism, and that's easy to avoid since plagiarism is extremely intentional (e.g. copy/paste and say you wrote it).

If you're just writing a similar story without knowing or intending for it to be similar, you're completely within your rights. Reference/inspiration have always been allowed regardless who complains.

If your worries are based on the Two Cakes allegory [You bake a nice cake for a party only to find someone else has already brought a cake, but the partygoers don't care because, hey, TWO cakes!] then there isn't really a problem. Readers are always content to have multiple stories containing their fave subject material, tropes, archetypes, etc.

If your worries are based on a fear of others, excuse me but screw'em. Maybe you're in a toxic online group/fandom, or maybe the problem is actually bigger in your head than in reality. Either way, screw'em. And if your work is in any way fanfiction, the only thing that would ever deserve backlash in this regard is outright plagiarism (stealing scenes word-for-word, copying OCs, etc).

Lastly, it's highly likely that whatever you're nervous you've copied was itself copied from something else. Many writers have come to me or other writeblrs because they are afraid their concept is copying some big franchise. My advice is always to find what that big story used for inspiration. Instead of their work, find the source material (or the thing they are being sued for plagiarizing, lol). Once you confirm for yourself that nothing is original, you can breathe easier writing whatever you want.

—

+ If you enjoy my blog and appreciate my advice, consider visiting my ko-fi and Buy Me A Coffee! 🤗

[le--fruitcake]

In the meantime while I anxiously await your plentiful truths, might I ask for what cartoons you might recommend my humble self?

Ah, my vassal! I am neariy finished writing that essay, I promise. Just a while longer, I need to be sure my sources are accurate.

I will say you should watch Samurai Rabbit, despite it being almost painfully cringeworthy at times. It's surprisingly well-written, though! It's only on Netflix.

In terms of TMNT, the only one I can recommend with my whole chest is Rise of the TMNT. I like the others (mostly— 2012 is on Thin Fucking Ice with the Donnie/April thing), but Rise is the best by far! I am Extremely Biased and am going to say you should watch the Usagi crossover episodes of 2003 (S2E23-26, S3E01 [does not contain a whole lot of Usagi, but he and Leo uh. Exchange swords], S3E22-23, S4E13, and S7E13 [no speaking lines, appears as a background character only]) and 2012 (S5E15-17). The 1987 ones (S3E32/34) aren't as good, but you do get to watch Mikey slap Usagi in the face with a pizza. Fucking LMAO. All the TMNT is on Paramount Plus, but far be it from me to tell you not to hoist the colors, matey.

The Amazing World of Gumball... exists! It sure does. I really like the way they play with animation and art style, and it has some honestly amazing physical comedy, but it's very, um... 2012. I think it popularized a lot of tropes you see in more modern cartoons that make them borderline unbearable, but I found myself watching the entire thing and kind of wanting more! It's pretty good if you just want some batshit insane cartoon nonsense, but it has no story to speak of, really. The episodes are both startlingly interconnected and purely standalone. Anais is my favorite character, followed by Nicole, and honestly the men in that family are trash lmao. I think I watched it on Hulu, but it might have been HBO Max.

I like Star Wars, too, specifically Visions, Clone Wars (both 2003 and 2007), and, though I haven't finished it, Rebels. (I like the movies, too! Real shame they never made any past Episode VII. Had so much potential. Smh my head.) Visions S1E8 is my favorite thing Star Wars has ever done btw. Very Heavily Biased. All of this is on Disney Plus.

I have of course seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Legend of Korra, and recommend Avatar if by some miracle you haven't seen it, but tbh I don't know if I would recommend Korra. It has very interesting concepts, but the execution is um. Bad. Watching the Straights™️ frothing at the mouth over Korrasami was an Experience! "we poppin' the biggest bottles when Makorra happens tonight" is a regular part lo my vocabulary. Both are on Netflix, I think.

I like Teen Titans! I used to have the first two seasons on DVD. There are a lot of jokes I didn't get as a kid, and so rewatching it as an adult was interesting. I also didn't appreciate Cyborg enough as a kid, man has the best jokes. Robin was always my favorite, but on rewatch, I really can't say who's my favorite. I like Beast Boy's power the best, but Raven is p cool, and Starfire is wonderful, and Cyborg is funny. This is available on The Max Formerly Known as HBO.

I also watched all of the original animated Batman. Batman: The Animated Series, I think it was called? I really really liked that one, it was the perfect mix of edgy and funny, and is my favorite Batman iteration. Mark Hamill Joker also! That interpretation of Two-Face is my favorite, and made him my favorite Batman villain. I still want a silver dollar btw! I already have a $2 bill and several dollar coins, so if I get one of those and a half-dollar, I'll have one of every kind of defunct American currency. I think. I believe this is also available on The Max.

If you count anime as cartoons, Bleach and Fairy Tail are good, if you skip the filler. My Hero is... Pretty good. Mirko is of course my favorite character, and I am now only invested in the show for her sake. Crunchyroll is kinda the go-to for anime, but Hulu also has all three of these. I think Bleach might not be on Crunchyroll anymore also? Very Odd if so because it's one of the Big Ones, but I couldn't find it when I looked last.

Little Witch Academia is adorable! Lesbians abound, and features a surprising amount from actual Celtic lore. It's also quite possible the only anime featuring high school girls that doesn't make any blatant attempt to sexualize them, which is a breath of fresh air. The official anime is a Netflix original, but there apparently exists an OVA that I have not seen, and a movie, that I have, also on Netflix.

Castlevania is extremely good, but I guess it's technically an anime? It's originally in English and has some of the best lines I have ever heard come out of someone's mouth, ever, but it is heavily gorey, and S2 has some Unfortunate Rather Graphic Heterosexuality. Fortunately, one of the characters is confirmed bisexual! It is also a Netflix original.

This was a doozy to answer! I don't watch too many cartoons, per se, because I wasn't allowed watch most of them growing up. Never seen Spongebob, Powerpuff Girls, Phineas and Pherb, etc. etc. Despite that, I am a fan of animated shows over live-action shows, generally speaking, due to the liberties one can take, and the fact that you aren't limited by what you can achieve with human actors and such. The same goes for video games— I prefer heavy style to realism, though the GameCube/PS2 era games had the best of both worlds.

[anamazingangie]

Is every fandom this petty or just this one? My god. This is the second time someone has implied I've plagiarized the majority of my fics and i'm just...sick of it.

Both times this has come from the HEAD MODS of the daemyra, helaemond, and rhaegon discords and it makes me really sad that they might treat other people like this too.

Can I prove these tweets are about me? No. But the dates line up with when my fics were published, the accusations are very similar to ones I received from their friend. Come to your own conclusion.

I don't have a twitter so I'm posting this here:

I HAVE READ TWO OF YOUR FICS. TWO.

I didn't know about your work until I had written hundreds of thousands of words for the Daemyra fandom (which you haven't written any content for, btw).

I liked them! But I'm just baffled how it could extrapolated that they inspired all my fics. The only remotely similar fic is my OT3 fic which also features pet names and BDSM.

But where yours is an extremely abusive/unhealthy/dub-con dynamic mine is a soft consensual agreement with different characters.

Like:

and

I'm not hating. I really enjoyed your fic. It's just gross to ownership over an entire lifestyle and multitude of kinks within a fandom because you feature some aspects of it in one fic. And then use that to claim you inspired *all* of an authors work.

It's really frustrating as an author not to mention highly inaccurate (let me reiterate, I've read two of her fics).

Before this I was a reader and I can't tell you how many BDSM Reylo or Darklina fics I read. Was this pettiness happening behind the scenes? Or is it JUST this fandom where big fish act entitled over common tropes?

Let me say again: THIS IS A MOD OF THE BIGGEST FANDOM SERVERS.

Like fuck, how many writers are you discouraging and turning away from the fandom with this? Because you feel possessive over tropes that have tens of thousands of results on A03. Just be better.

edit:

I guess I do have an only fans inspired fic too but I wrote it before I knew theirs existed. You don't have to believe me, but it was published back in December.

Here is me finding out their username in February. At this point I hadn't read ANY fics for the HotD fandom outside of Daemyra (which as of now I still don't think they've written for?) so I didn't know who they were until they talked about expanding the AU to include Daemyra.

I guess i'll ALSO say that T accused me of stealing my idea for Gauche from Cor because it was published the same day as a discussion about Cor writing a petwife Daemyra fic...which is true.

But T brought this up as a response to MY idea for a fic with this concept.

Also for the record, in my fic, she is a magical human that can literally turn into a cat so I don't see the cause for comparison to begin with but OK.

edit 2: still bitter, adding more.

So I originally left the Daemyra discord because of the main mod, T.

I was part of a discussion about a prompt someone else had submitted to the prompt thread in march. Several people seemed enthused about the idea of a tattoo AU and the topic was on my mind since I just got one.

I wrote the fic using the major plot points I came up with in the conversation.

I credited the convo as inspiring me because we were all brainstorming, right? I guess not. About six people accused me of copying all her ideas and shared screen shots of my fic alongside her "plot points" which were like..."the existence of gloves", despite this being against the rules.

This was all instigated by T who publicly called me out for it. I was originally confused, and then apologetic because I thought it was a conversation and I used the ideas *i* contributed as well as the original prompt that she was not the author of.

Not to mention "Tattoo AU" is a trope with 10k+ fics on A03. It isn't an original idea.

During this pile on she:

-Said I had done this many times before, mentioning the kitten!fic by name and implying there were others.

-Mocked me for not having a life/writing quickly before other people could use ideas.

-Claimed I didn't *really* get a tattoo or have the idea because I hadn't mentioned it before....on a HotD discord?

(is this proof enough? i didn't think i needed a fucking alibi)

Anyway. It all got deleted so I have no evidence, but you can see her tweets about it.

The other day, I gather another author was bullied off the server. And this is how they responded. THE IRONY.

"This type of attitude is what drives active and creative members of our community away."

Since when is that your concern??

"I want you all to read t’s message and really reflect on it."

I want T to read and reflect on it!!

Again: These are the head mods and creators of the community servers for these ships. Maybe practice what you fucking preach?

....

adding this is an edit so there is no link back to them;

They claim the tweets aren't about me. Maybe I’m wrong and this isn’t about me. But from my perspective: 

This was tweeted by Cor the day her friend (T) accused me of copying her plot line and idea for a fic, as well as doing this ‘many times before’ including with Cor’s pet wife AU.

Cor made a tweet accusing people of stealing ideas the same day as I reposted my fic that was, according to T, copied from Cor. 

To be clear, Cor NEVER said she felt this way to me. But given her lack of participation in the conversation where I was directly accused, and support of her friend after the fact, I thought It was implied.

So given the date of this tweet and that, I assumed this was about me.

Cor's tweet implying an author stole all their ideas from her was posted the same day as my bdsm AU. Given the context and date, it kind of seemed like that could be about me too?

Cor sent me 32 messages this morning. In them she (among other things) insisted they were about someone who was line-by-line copying her fics. Despite the many messages, no proof of that was shown. 

Maybe it is a big fucking coincidence but it sure felt targeted to me, which is why I made the post in the first place.

edit: I said she could send me screen shots of the plagiarism since she mentioned many times that she had them, and she blocked me so. Idk man.

Most of the messages were her calling me names and accusing me of outing her for writing a kink fic by mentioning it in the same post as her twitter.

For the record the account that fic is on was linked in her twitter bio while she was making those claims. The account has multiple fics co-authored by her other account that also has her full name.

The only thing that wasn't public was the discord convo which had no identifying information.

I didn't tag anyone in this post. I didn't want to start a witch hunt. I would LOVE for these tweets not to be about me.

But I thought they were (based on other experiences where they *confirmed* were about me) and wanted to share my side of things.

I now know multiple people who have had really bad experiences while writing for this fandom and it fucking sucks to be bullied out it.

[writingquestionsanswered]

Hello! I'm back again bc I need more help :3

Sadly it's not about the last story I was working on because I had to stop the project- but! I'm here now and I have a new idea and I wanna start working on it!

The only though is that...it was an idea that was inspired by a work that already exists. So I don't know what to do! Shpuld I take the idea and change it a bit so it's not exactly like the one they used? Should I not use it at all? Theese are the questu9ns that keep filling my head and it's only making me realize the line between inspiration and copying is a very fine line so...what do I do? What would you do? Please help me ;-;

Also, if you need more details, DM me, and again, tysm for being here on your page has helped me so much 🧡 (<- platonic heart btw)

The Line Between Copying and Inspiration

Here's the thing... the line between copying and inspiration really isn't that thin. It's actually quite thick. Consider this:

High school girl meets a handsome guy at school. After falling for him, she tumbles into her small town's hidden supernatural world. She gets involved with his supernatural family, finds out some of her own friends are supernatural, becomes the target of various supernatural foes, and even becomes a vampire herself eventually.

What story am I describing here? Twilight? Or The Vampire Diaries? It could be either one, and with some minor tweaks, it could be True Blood/Sookie Stackhouse, or any number of other supernatural love stories.

My point is, we tend to overthink similarities way too much when it comes to fiction. Most of these similarities actually fall under tropes, and tropes are actually a good and expected part of fiction. Tropes are the things that keep us coming back to the same types of story over and over again. They're why when a certain type of story becomes popular, there are suddenly several others just like it.

The key when being inspired by something is to take the thing and make it your own. Change it enough that it's not exactly like the thing that inspired you. For example, there are quite a few differences between Bella Swan and Elena Gilbert and their specific situations. So while they're so similar on the surface that you can write one paragraph and not know which is being referred to, if you go beneath the surface to all the specific details, they're actually quite different stories.

Here are some other posts to help:

Similarities vs Plagiarism Beta Reader Sees Similarity with Existing Character Taking Inspiration from Another Story’s Premise Afraid of Plagiarism Accusation

Have fun with your story!

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[cryingforhyo]

i guess it's safe to say that I'm one of your old readers in this fandom. 😅 I've been a reader since you drop Push and Pull out on that holiday night.

I read most of your fics too. there's only one or two fic that I haven't read in the past year because life is a bit hectic now.

this is not a subtle request btw, but I'm curious if you have a 'verse focused about coming-out or realizing one's sexual orientation. I don't exactly remember every detail but, iirc, most of your fics' characters have implied sexuality which are lesbians.

It will be cool to know how you guys write about the experiences of coming out from your time period. ( I don't mean to make you feel so old 😭 but I know you two are in your 30s and are wiser and more experienced than we are (early 20s) ) I remember reading a post that it was really a different social scene compared to now.

maybe I'm also curious how you two became friends, then roommates *cough* *coughhhhh* and then wives because tbh I'm surrounded by hetero couples irl that reading about you two fascinates me.

I'm sorry for this ramble. feel free to ignore it too if it's borderline invasive. and sorry if you'll see this on a Monday morning

first off, thank you dear reader for being with us for so long! time surely flies when you're having fun, because wdym push & pull is approaching its 3rd anniversary??? creating for this fandom has been such a joint delight for the both of us, and we're just happy to share the journey with friends like you :) take your time re the new fics, esp if they're wips! we're working on them relatively slower, because life has also been hella hectic hereabouts.

onto your second query: i think this question is very interesting, actually! to address it head on, for this particular fandom i don't think i've written a 'verse where the specific challenge for any of the characters is coming to terms with their sexuality. i quite like living in this fantasy world where people are simply as-is-where-is lesbians haha. for example in our childhood best friends to lovers stories, when someone realizes their attraction, the realization is not so much about falling in love with another woman, but about falling in love with this specific person.

this way, it's the characters' shared context and history that makes their dynamic compelling, instead of the much more global milieu of lgbt relationships existing alongside all these issues and history, etc. which i also think are interesting stories to tell! but for purposes of this fandom in particular, which i think exists in a sociopolitical context that is beyond my expertise--i leave those stories to better-positioned storytellers :) in the true spirit of creating in this era, i do not want to get anything so egregiously wrong it will detract from the reader's experience.

but seriously, i have been obsessed about writing coming out/ coming of age stories for the longest time, mostly for my original work, which are set locally with local OCs. they were all i wrote about back in the day, so i guess for fanfic i figured i could instead try all the other tropes that weren't so close to real life, where coming out can be fraught and complicated. it's for the same reason that i don't write compulsory heterosexuality (comphet) or i avoid writing men as third parties in general... i've already spent a significant chunk of my writing life writing /that/ story, or at least that’s how it felt like.

but you make a good point! i'd love to try revisiting that coming out/coming of age trope and give it some aged-up flavor. let's see about that :)

on a personal note, many times when i look at today's digital landscape, I often go, thank god [this or that] did not exist just yet back in the day [or at least not in this manner] when i was figuring my shit out, because oh boy. the clout i could have chased and cancellations i could have booked haha.

suffice it to say i'm happy the digital footprints of past egregious mistakes are now buried with the deaths of old platforms. we were very lucky to have lived and loved and lost in an age where the internet could still afford some measure of forgetting.

(i know there's probably no going back to that kind of landscape, but i hope it's not too late for us to be a little kinder to each other, and definitely more forgiving of ~youth and elderly~, given how fast information cycles around these days and how wide the age range of users concurrently using the same digital spaces right now can be. it's NUTS.)

that said, c would like to clarify she is still in her twenties! hahaha. i confirm this. i also confirm that you're right to say i (k) am already out of my twenties haha.

we actually became friends through fandom! we met on tumblr lmao because that's where you met other wlw back in the day (idk if that's still where people are, istg i would not survive the current dating landscape either!) so i would not be exaggerating when i say fandom brought us together, and we're still cycling through fandoms together, having been to various ones in the past handful of years. that said we look forward to more fandoms to add to our list lol.

thanks for this ask - it's actually the PERFECT thing to see on a monday morning, in fact. hope your week goes well!

[doodle-pops]

Oh, hell yeahhh! I'm the anon who sent the ask about the modern girl trope, and I loved reading your thoughts :) But I had different ideas involving the reader! One idea I had was keeping her human but immortal....through some alternate universal logic I can come up with LOL. But trust, I'd want her humanity intact because there'd be a lot more dynamics between the old elven world and a modern human being. Another was a specific idea where I'd start my story. I was thinking of maybe at the very beginning of the story when Melian and Thingol first met in the forest (can't remember the details because it's been a hot min since I read the book)??? I was thinking that the reader wakes up in that forest after being isekaid into SILM. but they first think it's all a dream until, well yeah, the realization sets in like a big "WTF" moment. Is she tweaking hard right now or are there two gigantic (I'm assuming there'd be an insane height difference as the reader is a human) beings who look otherworldly gawking at her like she's completely alien???

The hardest part right now is tackling the multiple characters and the entirety of Tolkien's legendarium...it's a difficult goal to implement when you want to consider staying somewhat canonical and within ME logic. How would specific characters react to the reader? How would their relationship progress as the story goes on? How do I even give justice to a character; am I portraying them right? How will the readers existence affect the plot and the events--because that's a big part of SILM. You know...the wars and stuff.

Speaking of which, with the readers modern perspective and outlook on life, I think it'd make up for a pretty funny journey for not just the reader, but for everyone else involved. I can just imagine the reader trying to get used to the culture shock, as daunting as it is, and learn to accept the change of scenery. But sometimes she'd be faced with trials and tribulations, it's hard to keep calm sometimes. I can just imagine if there is ever a certain point where if the reader meets an unhinged character like Faenor, she'll definitely butt heads with them. Perhaps her personal moral and ethical compass is seen as........foreign. It would get heated, I'm sure, with all the "outdated" politics and standards within SILM. that the reader will be in for a ride!

BTW, do you think adding romance would do? I think about adding some romantic relationships between the reader and some characters, but I'm not sure how I'd pull it off...hmm...who'd even be a good candidate LOL??

Also, I wanted to come up with a reader who's probably an overworked desk worker, so her attitude at first would be: "I don't care, I'm not getting paid to fix anyone's problems," while simultaneously trying to make it alive for the next day.

Sorry I took so long, I've been busy running around the place 😖. But I'm liking these ideas 😯😯. They're intriguing!!

Given that you want to stay on par with the canon of the story, you can have moments where reader makes suggestions, however as mentioned, due to their morals and ethics being outdated and modernised compared to traditional ways, the character can have a moment of awareness but eventually return to their original plan. This only makes reader's relationship strained with the character.

You can also contribute to some of the discarded drafts Tolkien wrote for characters or fill in the plot holes for unspoken events by the loremasters. Like certain events that took place was believed to occur a particular way, however, you being there and having witnessed it can attest and say otherwise. Then observing that eavesdropping and miscommunication led to feuds between the groups of elves and so forth. Maybe have a moment where you break the truth to one of the main characters (preferably for an event that doesn't pertain to them, but showing how themes of hate and spite can lead to unnecessary consequences).

As for adding romance, that's solely your decision, but I can provide options to choose from if you're stuck in a dilemma.

You can have reader and character's relationship purely romantic.

A flirtatious relationship where both are aware of their feelings, unfortunately due to their future ahead, they wish for nothing intensely romantic. Sorta like a fling.

Mutual pinning which makes this more tragic.

Unrequited love

Purely friendship because there isn't anything wrong with being friends. Friendship tend to have some of the most heartbreaking emotions and moments.

Picking a character is something you could spin the wheel and select. because at the end of the day, they'll all be dead 🙈. The office worker vibes you want to include would bring so much humour, I'm here for it. Insert the, "don't speak to me until my shift begins" or the, "I'm here to work, not solve your problems unless you pay me overtime". 🤲

There's lots of themes being included, history, traditions, personalities and perspectives, differences, and the original silm lore to remember. The real question is, how in depth are you going with the lore and plot since the 1st Age had multiple events and you wish to begin from Melian meeting Thingol?

Like are you planning on skipping through big chunks of the years and focusing around the important events and the years before, during and after? I think this would save you the stress of focusing on every detail and you still get to mention history in the chapters.