#to get into it even more its so fun that the “not being hypercritical of imogen is sexist actually” discourse is happening mere days after

[astralleywright]

the thing is, like, imogen is blunt, and indecisive, and impulsive. she's cynical, angry at the world, and seemingly much less interested in doing good than in holding on to her loved ones. she's hypocritical, incredibly violent one moment and horrified at the prospect the next. she's passive aggressive, on occasion. she's overly critical. she's scatterbrained.

and all of that stuff is very fucking fascinating, and so fun to watch, and core to what makes her her. but not only are those things not the totality of imogen as a character, they're very much inextricable from the things that make her sympathetic.

imogen has spent much of the last decade of her life in pain, and isolated because of it. when she wasn't alone she couldn't relax, having to keep tight control over her mind so as to not get overwhelmed or invade the privacy of others. because even through all that pain and loneliness, she still bore the responsibility not to impose on other people's minds. and when she fails or slips up or gives in, all of the distrust and suspicion she recieves regardless is suddenly viewed as justified.

which is not to say imogen is not responsible for her actions, or the harm she causes others. of course she is! no one is saying she isn't! but, just like literally every other person, her actions don't exist in a void but within the context of both her past and present.

analyzing that context and coming up with explanations of her behavior that consider it is not excusing her actions or refusing to acknowledge her flaws. it is not coddling imogen to sympathize with her even when she's fucking up. these are pretty standard ways to discuss a character you enjoy actually! it's weird that having a nuanced perspective on a character's actions is being treated as an issue!

[an-android-in-a-tutu]

Been seeing a lot of takes like this and I appreciate where they're coming from, it's a good idea to be especially wary of excessive criticism aimed at things made by and for women but like. Yes you do see hot takes about Marvel, and the lego movie, and Batman films. To say this with your whole chest you have to spend zero time in leftist circles and pay zero attention to criticism of big blockbuster movies or just. Yknow. Lie to make your point.

More relevantly you see this specific thing happen whenever a big corporation makes flaccid listless gestures towards progressivism for the sake of their bottom line. Because the end result is always too toothless to have meaning for leftists while still being offensive enough to right wingers simply by virtue of having a lot of women or gay people or people of colour in it to have them frothing at the mouth. Sexist dudebros hating Barbie doesn't shield it from feminist critique, they were going to hate it whether it succeeded or failed but it can still fail.

And as nice as the big feminist speach in barbie is I have to wonder if its primary purpose is to actually uplift women so much as it is to shut down criticism of the movie and the brand. If even Barbie can't escape this criticism what hope is there for the rest of us, right? Except Barbie isn't a real woman, she's a plastic toy made in sweatshops by a brand attempting to rehabilitate a progressive image out of a long history of being criticized for its portrayal of women because that's what will boost sales. This movie is part of that, and pointing that out is important.

You don't need my or ayone's permission to enjoy the Barbie movie, if it was meaninful to you I'm genuinely happy for you, if you just thought it was fun and funny, great! But to act like the only reason to criticize the movie is sexism is glossing over some very real problems and like, straight up falling for the corporate propaganda. Yes every big blockbuster movie actually does get criticized bc they are political tools that serve the people in power. Not every big blockbuster is also being sold as a feminist masterpiece though, so you probably are gonna hear it more about Barbie. You'll also hear it more about Barbie bc people are hypercritical of women and that will motivate some critique, but to assume bad faith is to shut out conversations that need to happen.

[glassrowboat]

Red Ribbon. Chiori.

Summary: A not so peaceful morning with your girlfriend. Well, not when you're up to mischief anyway.

Word count: 900+

Authors note: The start of a small series I'm going to write of the seven colors of the rainbow in ribbons with some of our genshin faves! Also, a slight spoiler for Chiori's kit.

The small shop was always such a cozy place to huddle up in, the one specific chair that had been covered in loose scraps of cut out fabric currently occupied with your figure as you fiddle with a spool of something or another. Pretty red ribbon right under your fingers as Chiori slowly walks around the pinup body adorned with a dress.

The click of those overly complicated heels filled the room as you watched Chiori circle around the mannequin in the center of the room, its fabric body adorned in layers of cloth. Another commision she was working on no doubt as she snipped a loose thread. Precise as possible, that is until she tries to toss it over at you.

The string falling on the ground between you two. Apparently it was your fault you had become her designated place to pile scraps after you took the chair she would usually use for such a task. Red ribbon being wrapped around your finger and undone again and again mindlessly as you watched her.

“Now where did I put that?” Talking to herself again, a habit she would never openly admit to, Chiori pat down the apron she had on that held her tools. “(Y/n) have you seen-”

“This?” Holding up the spool of ribbon you had been playing with a smile easily crossed your features, even as her eyes narrowed. “No, I haven't.”

“Then you have no issue giving it to me.” Walking over to you Chiori tried to snatch the item in your hand, her sleeves rustling from the action as they flowed behind her. You never got how those kimono sleeves didn't get in her way all the time but she always pulled it off somehow. Good for her.

That however wasn't enough of a reason to give in as you climbed up further on the chair, feet pushing against the cushion as you stood up from your curled up position, knees no longer pushed up against your chest as you held her prize high in the air.

Hopefully she doesn't deem this offense enough of one to use her visions abilities. Stupid teleportation abilities.

“If I recall correctly, taking possession of another's items could be considered a crime. Would you truly really want me to take you to court over this, (Y/n)?” A flick of her dress, those same sleeves billowing in the wind as she crossed her arms. Oh she was so cute when she tried to look mad.

Deciding to play along you held the ribbon up higher, making sure it was above even your head. “Well, when I go down to the Fortress of Meropide should I come back with a fit rate of the Guards uniforms?”

Wait, is she actually considering it? Head tilting, pretty brown hair shifting over her shoulder as Chiori stood in silence before softly shaking the thought off. “Just give me the ribbon back.”

Huh, this must be for a commission if she's being such a little stickler. Not that that would lessen your need for a bit of mischief. As they say, breaks are healthy. “How about a deal?”

“A deal for my own possessions?”

What's a synonym for stickler again? Hypercritic, perfectionist, nitpicker.

“Don't make it sound like that.” Even if it is true. “Come on pretty, a kiss is all I want and then I'll give it back. Please?”

A small sigh could be heard as she glanced back between her prize and you. Red ribbon tickling at your wrist as the spool unwound from your earlier actions. A standoff is currently happening in Fontaine's very own Chioriya Boutique. At least there's no guns involved, just a miffed geo vision haver and her lover.

“You make such a big deal over a kiss?” She asked, brows furrowing as she looked up at you. “Next time just ask instead of acting like this.”

But where's the fun in that?

“Well?”

Leaning down just enough so she could get on the tip of her toes, or more like those heels, you pucker your lips to try and coax her into giving what you wanted.

Oh that heavy sigh. Yet there her pretty face was coming in closer. The details of Chiori's eyeshadow clear to you, the pretty light tint of powder as her eyelashes fluttered closed. “Fine.” And with that she kissed you.

The rich, heavy taste of coffee from Cafe Letece you had gotten for her earlier filling your senses. She had always been so insistent the run there was better than opening some random can she had imported over from Inazuma despite the fact she went through all the effort to have Kirara deliver it in the first place. Perhaps it was the fact she was so selective when she wanted the taste of home.

Well, the taste of your home was her as Chiori slowly pulled away. Her soft lips abandoning yours as the spool was snatched from her hand, robbed right under your fingers as the cardboard that it was wrapped around was replaced for air. Not even the sticker smacked on top labeling the thing for sale you had been picking at earlier was clinging onto your skin.

How rude.

“Beautiful,” you cried out as you hopped off the arm chair, stumbling over the floor as you landed, trying to chase after her in the small shop. “Wait, wait! Come back I want another!”

“Then it seems you'll have to find more ribbon to bargain with.”

Ignoring you Chiori went back to the pin up mannequin in the center of the room, holding up a strip of the ribbon to the sleeves of the dress as she pinned it in place with small metal needles.

Well…that's your girl alright.

“Love you, my pretty.”

[charmanderxerneas]

yeah saying this again: pokemon fans piss me off. they hate the newer games when guess what: they are pretty much exactly the same (if not better) than the older games story and character wise. If anything the games re getting better with more gameplay, bigger worlds, technology is just generally getting more advanced.

youre just not ten years old anymore and youre jaded hypercritical adults. Trust me i’ve literally played all the games (except for the black and white sequels. and platnium. but ive played black and diamond so :/) i have experience with pretty much all the games and i can say for certain: its all just pokemon. and i love the older games as much as the next guy (Johto is SO nostalgic! Sinnoh is beautiful and one of my favorite regions, the older generations are beautiful and so fun and rich with stuff to enjoy)

but honestly the story and gameplay has only gotten better if youd give it a chance. i was hesitant to play swsh because i had heard bad things about it: but its a really good game with wonderful characters! and scarlet and violet is also fucking amazing with the different storylines, the beautiful new models and textures, the new gameplay and freedom to do what you want in this new world, the music, the ending which blew me away: Its all great. Legends arceus is the best pokemon game they ever made fight me.

People complain about “bugs and glitches” that are very rare and do not hardly ever interfere with gameplay. people complain about the graphics or animations like “its not realistic enough, i wish it was better or more” sorry to break it to you: The graphics are fine, not everything needs to be super realistic (cartoony styles are good actually). I never even understood that complaint because ESPECIALLY in scarlet and violet when weve FINALLY got brand new models with NEW TEXTURES and stuff: The graphics look better than they ever have! and the animation complaint is fucking stupid, it is literally on par with (and id argue better than) games like black and white and yall seem to love that game. the pokemon move all the time and have unique animations, and even the way your character stands, their idle animations when they shivers in the cold, looks around with wonder in their eyes: im sorry its way better than it was before and i just. cant take that shit seriously

im sorry for being mean i just. it pisses me off so bad. the only reason you like the older games more is because you were a baby then. and theres nothing wrong with liking the older games, but the newer games are not as bad as you make them out to be.

[tosin-talks]

Tosin Talks about the neverending game

It’s been a long time and a lot has happened within that time frame that’s taken a lot of my attention. There’ve been significant new developments in my personal life. There have also been fun things going on in my professional life. I began my practical experience as a student counselor in February. Being a counselor has surprisingly been the most comfortable role to shift into as well as one of the most meaningful roles. I’m immensely grateful to be entrusted with such an important job and thankful to those who have shared a piece of themselves or their story with me. 

I have just 5% of my master’s degree to complete! When I began the program two years ago, I wholeheartedly thought that it would take me forever to finish and there were days that I really wanted to drop out…and by that, I mean every single day! I received a passing score on the exit exam on my first try so that was a relief! I’ve been consistently receiving good grades these past few semesters.

Another super cool thing that I did since my last Tosin Talk was publish a children’s book! I wrote a children’s book called Tiny Tim that talks about navigating big feelings and creating positive narratives about your emotions and experiences. It’s being sold on the Barnes & Noble website and on Amazon. It’s still surreal to say that I have a children’s book published on websites and storefronts that I frequent…it feels even more of a dream to know that people are actually reading and enjoying it! It’s so rewarding as a creative when your work gets noticed. The book was initially a class project and with some encouragement from my professor and colleagues and collaboration with a brilliant illustrator, I published a book! 

Anyway…what’s next? 

That’s genuinely how quick I move on from my accomplishments sometimes. I don’t sit in my success for long enough, I even make myself feel bad for not having a seemingly bigger accomplishment. I remember sobbing when I won a silver medal at an international science fair because I diminished its importance and only focused on how I could’ve done better.

The week after I released Tiny Tim was spent self-loathing. I was so hypercritical of the work that I put out into the world. I was beating myself up for not making it “perfect” despite not really knowing what the perfect children’s book was. I imagined the faces of people I loved and admired, reading my book and saying all the mean things that my mind made up to make the thoughts seem more true. I was fearful of letting people down because it wasn’t as amazing as some of you made it out to be. I didn’t believe that I was deserving of the praise and excitement that I received. And as a result, I discredited my work and told myself to do better. 

Something I noticed and others pointed out is that I’m constantly moving the goal post. As soon as I score one phenomenal goal, I’m on to a new strategy to earn another goal. I didn’t take a second to do a dance, wave to the crowd, or anything. Doing this creates the belief that nothing I do is ever enough. It’s a bad habit that I think I picked up from my culture and the way I was raised. It’s almost endearing to keep playing this game with myself because it means that excellence is my standard and I know that I can achieve it. On the other hand, it’s so unnecessarily exhausting and honestly unproductive to live this way. What good is it truly doing for me to tell myself that I wrote a “bad” story and no achievement is ever “good enough”? Am I really motivating myself to work harder or am I just making myself more susceptible to burnout? 

I’m extremely grateful and lucky to have received validation and praise from many others these past few months, it makes my accomplishments feel more real. However, I’m trying to remember that this is a real milestone and achievement, whether or not others say so. I did a really cool thing and I’ve done really cool things in the past as well! 

I don’t need the validation to make that true and no amount of criticism will ever make that untrue. At the end of the game, the most meaningful goal is making my younger self proud of who I am today. Another goal that’s important to me is helping at least one person with my words and actions. I don’t need to move those goal posts dramatically because I think I score those goals everyday. 

Background music by creek

[fallen0203]

Venty but ultimately just ranting below:

its too stiff, not enough variation, my understanding of anatomy and facial structures can be a lot better, BGs are a distant thought, etc. etc. etc.

I know im being hypercritical of myself and my art, because its not that bad, but I am so frustrated with it all. I want to be happy with my art, but god. With not having the motivation to draw 90% of the time, it makes it so hard to improve to a point where I'm happy with it. I hate going to make art and then having my mind go blank or being unhappy with how it looks because it's not what I want and the cycle just repeats endlessly.

I can't even rely on my enjoyment of media to inspire me for more than a few weeks! my drawing skills aren't up to my own personal par so I never draw my OCs either and I hate it! I want to! but then I get frustrated when I dont like it and scrap it all!

I dont know but at some point I just, haven't been having fun with art anymore. I dont know if its a side effect of just being kind of tired all the time and not having the mental energy for it, but it sucks. I dont allow myself to make weird, fun art anymore and I dont even know why. And I dont know how to identify and break whatever mental barrier is stopping me from making fun, weird art and I feel like a fraud sometimes. Which, Is really stupid, and yet the feeling persists.

I have got to get more weird with my art

[ichayalovesyou]

Star Trek is A Life Raft

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the nature of my hyperfixation with Star Trek the way I tend to do with most of the things I feel like I might be obsessing over “too much” because my self hypercriticality never sleeps even if my body does.

I’m always afraid, however rightly or wrongly, that I will develop an unhealthy relationship with a piece of media that’ll somehow consume my life and alienate me from my peers. Even though it never actively sabotaged my life, nor alienated me from anyone I felt was worth keeping in it.

Still, I keep asking myself “Why can’t I let this one go? Why won’t it let me go? Why can I not talk about it, even when it’s not immediately relevant? Even around strangers who have no clue what I’m talking about? Why is it always in the back of my mind even when I’m hyper focused on other things?” even though I know part of that is me being neurodivergent, I know a lot of it just… isn’t.

I don’t associate Star Trek with the feelings I associate with my normal hyperfixations, I wouldn’t even call it a special interest, my love for it is derived from the same place my creative passions come from. The same place where my desire to create gives me, not to be dramatic, but my will to live comes from. That everpresent spiritual need to write and to analyze and to draw and to sing and to make videos comes from the same emotions I associate with this fictional universe.

I was writing fanfiction (poorly disguised as original material) for this universe before I even knew what fanfiction was (let alone accepting the fact that it was okay to write and to love it). I have an incredibly distinct memory of the summer between elementary and middle school, right as my best friend and I were getting a little “too old” to play pretend. We were basically role playing TNG in his backyard, or more like, I was being a bit of a control freak and infodumping and drawing about it. I realized he wasn’t having fun, so we stopped, and I told him how important Star Trek was to me and how I wanted to make something just like it. It was then, at the ripe age of 12, that I realized I desperately wanted to be a writer. It is a dream I have not let go of since, that has Star Trek inherently baked into its core.

Looking back on it, there is no part of my life that hasn’t been touched by Star Trek in some way. I literally don’t have memories of that show not being at least in my peripheral. (Time to get VERY EMOTIONAL under the cut!!)

I could hear my parents watching Voyager after I was sent to bed when I was really little. Janeway and Chakotay’s voices are almost as familiar to me as my parents’ voices. No matter how long the bouts between me trying to finally finish the series are 😅

I first watched Star Trek myself (instead of it just being on in the distance while I was in bed) when I was about 5 or 6 years old. The first episode I watched was Yesteryear, I watched Spock get bullied and feel like an outcast who just wasn’t normal, and imprinted on him like a duckling long, looooong before I watched TOS.

I got introduced to TNG right as my parents separated and my mom got together with a more… unpleasant, partner. I would stay up late or hide in my closet watching TNG through the Netflix app on my iPod to drown out their disagreements and to stave off my nightmares. I would pretend and theorize that maybe I was an Android like Data when I couldn’t figure out social situations in elementary school. I even auditioned for my high school’s drama class using Picard’s closing defense of Data from “A Measure of A Man”. I couldn’t think of anything else more powerful than that that I could possibly deliver, even if we were technically told to do one from a play. I took the L of getting a couple points taken off for that because it was inherently, extremely important to my 15 year old self to say those words out loud on stage to my peers even if I couldn’t articulate why. As if, through emulating Picard defending Data, I was advocating for my own personhood.

I watched most of DS9 (and a bit of Voyager) with my earbuds in to tune out the overstimulation I didn’t know I was experiencing through middle and highschool. Like the rest of my life, I was using Star Trek as a life raft to cope with a world that would not accept or accomadate me as I was. The inherent (if accidental) transness of many of the characters in DS9 helped me cope and understand when my sibling came out as non-binary to my family and our mother had a very hard time accepting it (as did I, who doesn’t inherit their parents misgivings). I got attached to Julian very quickly, and YEARS later, during the pandemic, I realized why the gender complexity made me so uncomfortable. Bashir, in all his awkwardness and half-earned cockiness, in all his rebellion against what his parents designed him to be, he would help me realize that I too was trans. 🏳️‍⚧️

When the pandemic hit, I got very, very isolated very quickly (as did we all). I also quickly, violently learned “do not kill the cringe inside of you, kill the part of you that cringes” which made me finally stop acting like I had any pride to lose and to actually watch TOS. Returning to Spock after many, many, many years of deliberately avoiding The Original Series. Not only did I discover the shocking amount (to me at the time) of excellent, timeless social commentary therein. More important than that, more than exploring the unknown, more important than knowing the right thing, more important than anything else, is the power of friendship. The triumvirate is the beating heart of that series. Most especially, the bond between Spock & Kirk. It is an incredibly rare thing for a relationship to bend reality, break time, transcend labels, and even transcend death the way that theirs does. To reach for someone who seems to be farthest from you. It’s something I continue to be in awe of, transcending brotherhood, transcending friendship, transcending romance, there’s something strange, even queer about it 🏳️‍🌈. I may even be so bold as to say, that after ten years of defiantly durable friendship, I may have realized I have a t’hy’la of my own. ❤️

Then, again, like it always does, as huge changes for better and worse in my life rock me to my core. As I wade into the waters of becoming an independent young adult, Star Trek is there to hand me a desperately needed life raft, and yet I need it more and less than I ever have. Characters like Spock, Data, and Julian Bashir were touchstones of my figuring out who I was as a kid. My sense of connection to Captain Pike (and the shows in which he’s featured) is something new. A life raft based in the things I know I am, and striving to become.

I could, and have already as much followers can attest, go on and on about the many facets of this character that I recognize in myself. He has given myself (and I’m certain others who identify with him) a great many gifts. This is the first time in my life that a male character in a position of power exhibited the same kind of masculinity I identify with the most, and that it was received by fans and in-universe as something overwhelmingly positive. The mere notion of it gives me an overwhelming sense of gender euphoria. As a trans man who doesn’t quite fit and never will, visually or in personality, the typical expectations of masculinity.

His struggle lies in allowing others to help him, when he builds himself around supporting others, something I also relate to. His struggle with impending disability is one with which I’m achingly familiar. The questions his sacrificial destiny raises regarding the religions he grew up influenced by. That innate desire to foster others and a need to be needed. Being unable to prevent himself from throwing his entire being into the work he is passionate about. He’s even given me an avenue through which to heal from some of the more, intimate, ways I was abused. I can’t put into words how much that means to me. Nor how healing it has been to let myself be so unashamedly attracted to someone and willing to explore that in a written, creative way.

The best part is that Pike really is just some guy! He’s a good one, but his strengths lie in the balancing act of knowing he is unremarkable while also understanding how valuable his personhood is to others. He is content with who he is, he doesn’t need to make history in a tangible way. He just needs to focus on being alive, and being kind, and knowing he’s not alone. Pike becomes (like I have) somebody who can reach out to those characters that are convinced they are completely alone in the universe (like Spock) and tell them it’s okay, and that they’re gonna be fine even if it doesn’t feel that way right now. His relationship to Spock and to his crew, that sense of compassion and paternity, at this point in my life I live in the between space of serving as a paternal figure and desperately needing (and even finding!) one. Realizing you’re not the center of the universe, but not alone in it, and being okay with the person you’ve become is a quintessential step across the threshold of childhood into being a happy adult. Captain Pike has, and still is, profoundly helping me do that.

People always talk about transformative works but, how are you supposed to feel when a single universe transforms you three, four, five times and still counting? How are you supposed to be normal about something that you can contribute most of your most personal moments self-realization to? Why would you EVER want to be normal, when a piece of fiction has done so much for you that not even one of the longest social media posts you’ve ever made hardly scratches the surface of how you feel about it? That every social media post, text, discord comment, or rant you’ve ever done about the topic doesn’t break the surface of the depth of your obsession? Of it’s meaning for you?

And I’m sure I’m not the first, only, or let alone the last person to feel this way about the franchise. I mean, just look at us!! Look at what we’ve done! What Star Trek and it’s insane, beautiful, unhinged Trekkies have done for the world! We reach for the stars, pull beautiful love stories out of the woodwork, save whales, create elaborate fanzines and costume culture. I couldn’t be more proud to be just one part of it in its 55 year legacy! Couldn’t be happier to be a Trekkie, there really isn’t anything else like it.

So maybe I should be okay, maybe it’s okay to find myself unable to stop talking about it. It deserves to be talked about.

LLAP 💚🖖🏻💚

[greatfay]

what kind of bad fandoms you in?

Off the top of my head? Like most of them lol. But for the things I’m currently watching/reading?

HxH. The good parts of the fandom just post fanart and memes, the bad parts post essays on reddit about how “the Chimera Ant Arc is the greatest arc in all of shounen and if you don’t think so then there’s just too much depth for you to fully comprehend, also I’m going to ignore the montage during that arc that demonstrated how capitalist greed, political corruption, police brutality, nuclear warfare, economic inequality, and propaganda demonstrate humanity’s true evil because Hurr Durr Ants Have Feelings and also I’m going to misgender all of the GNC characters introduced this arc did I mention I’m so smart?” that and the Ging apologists who think he’s this chess-master role model father sends me. If I hear someone say the word “subversive” one more time... and why is there so much cisnormative homophobic BS in this fandom? Even when I encounter the good part, I’ll see comments added on attacking the OP or saying shady shit, like what’s going on.

Berserk. I can’t with all the Donavon jokes and potato Casca jokes and, much like with the HxH fandom’s dark side, there’s a very pretentious self-important lot who love to hype out how “layered and dark and subversive” the manga is to inflate their own importance for being Manga Connoisseurs that read it and then they go on to make more child r*pe jokes and also defend every creative decision Miura makes. Like... I’m not “unable to fully appreciate and understand the tone and message that the Genius Miura is trying to invoke,” I quite understand, I’m just not a pervert fuckface who gets off on r*pe scenes. And I’m not alone, but since there are like maybe 10 other dudes in this fandom without brain rot and it’s a Hostile Fandom Space for women, and also queer dudes, and also people of color, it’s hard to get a good consensus.

AOT. There are people who have written the series off due to the author’s Imperialist Japan viewpoint and latched on to the conspiracy that he’s a holocaust denier and vilified Jewish stand-ins in his work; these people have, strangely enough, remained in the fandom to then remind everyone of this and repeatedly share that polygon article that has so much reaching you’d think Reed Richards had written it. The author of AOT is a brainwashed nationalist idiot, and it just so happens that he, whether he realizes it or not, has written his main cast (the heroes, the protagonists) to be analogues of the real-world Jewish people (specifically Ashkenazi Jews) combatting oppression and the deliberate annihilation of their people. I don’t think he did this on purpose, especially if he is indeed anti-Semitic, but that’s how it turned out, and stranger still is how he’s explored over the course of (idk the arcs I’m going by the anime) 2+ seasons how the State can lie and manipulate its people to increase nationalism and military power—the opposite of what some have claimed his manga is about (promoting imperialism and glorifying isolationist views and making the military and police seem cool). Despite writing this kind of story, he seems unable to question his own political views in the real world. Which isn’t my problem. Still, it’s complicated, we don’t have full answers, all we have is a very well-paced, well-written, mature manga with great plot twists and a masterclass of suspense and mystery, and now even reblogging an AOT gif can get you blacklisted.

Kingdom Hearts. This fandom is 90% chill people who want to cry and love it, they hear the first two notes of Dearly Beloved and already they’re like “fuck... emotions... I haven’t felt these in eons” and for that they’re valid. Great fanart, everything gif’d to hell and back (when I tell you for 15 years this fandom gif’d every possible frame out of just 12 collective minutes of the Good Graphics during the beginning and ending cinematic scenes). The bad part of the fandom is annoyingly homophobic and use shipper strawmen to spout out bigoted nonsense, and there’s another part of the fandom consisting of (some, not all) speed-runners who think the games should be designed with their play style in mind, fuck everyone else. I only encounter this bad 10% when watching Let’s Plays; even the Kingdom Hearts subreddit is a nice place and gets gay af sometimes, and everyone rolls with it.

Star Wars. The most recent SW stuff has not been consistently... good, but I enjoy Star Wars just for the feel of Star Wars. There are people who hate everything SW that’s come out recently and make their voices known but are still IN THE FANDOM. They’re still here, hating EVERYTHING. It’s just so disruptive to the normal fun fandom stuff because they’re everywhere, like if you’re not having fun you can leave. Go rant about the Wimminfolk and Blacks are Ruining Everything and whatever violent, disgusting thing you want to do to Kathleen Kennedy that definitely is an isolated feeling and not at all how you feel about women in general. Like parts of the SW fandom is the opposite of Berserk and HxH; with those, I’ve been critical of things while still enjoying the media, but any critical statement gets nitpicked and the vultures come. SW? It’s the overly hypercritical “ess jay dubba u” shit that drives me up the wall. Every flaw in the new SW stuff can be pointed to screenplay issues and contradictions but, gee, it must be cuz a Wimmin is in it. Fucking whatever.

[autisticstarseed]

sorry to sound cringe or w/e the fuck but. half the fandom shit you all whine abt being unhealthy is fully normal behavior, we’ve just gotten too used to hiding our like. basic humanity from each other? fiction affects people yall, its supposed to do that, you are supposed to read a story and feel smth, its supposed to engage you, thats 100% how it works, being invested in a fantasy world is literally..... just normal human shit and what fiction straight up exists to do. like. we’ve done it for a while now. we have imagination for a reason. we are supposed to use it in our daily lives. its a human skill. literally why would ppl even make stories if not to impact others. you all cannot in the same fucking breath agree, that certain content which harms others and glorifies awful shit is wrong and should be retaliated against because fiction ofc affects reality, and then go on to do your stupid whiny funnyman fandom cringe bullshit any time you decide people are letting themselves have too much fun in a way that makes you uncomfortable but doesnt hurt you. 

like sdjfjsdf okay we get it you dont have interests outside of the 5-10 tumblr accepted ones, you’re a cool unfeeling social media robot that acts like every other dumbass jester craving validation for being abrasive and uncharming to the rest of society but hey at least you can make a shitpost right i get it i get it sure, but its truly not my job to keep validating your personality of being a hypercritical nihilist and i need for you to understand. it is normal. to like media. many different kinds of media. it all exists for people to like it. stop exaggerating and strawmanning every single person you come across that expresses their interests in a divergent way as this like. horribly unhealthy disconnected nerd who is LOST in a fantasy TM and lives in their basement and jerks off to their waifu instead of talking to real people and is ~hurting themselves~ with their lack of social endeavors or w/e. thats not fucking real you idiot passion is regular, its not anybody elses fault you killed yours off bc you wanted to make certain ppl think ur cool. its normal to project, its normal to feel emotional attachments, its normal to ‘let yourself’ like the ‘cringe’ medias, its normal to buy merch or make your own, its normal to make long and depthful content (forreal so much of this ‘support’ for the hard work of artistry can be so conditional and hollow from you guys), its normal to discuss stories from a realism standpoint because again thats generally the intention, and its. just normal to like shit that isnt real sometimes. it rly is. ideas and thoughts can be valuable. fantasies arent completely worthless.

‘’escaping reality’’ with distraction and immersion Can become unhealthy but it doesnt mean you are literally incapable of having critical depthful valuable thoughts on the reality you live in just bc you find daily joy in something unreal as well and you are honest to god the weird one if you cant get that. especially if you try to use peoples harmless passions as a way to like. jab at their harmless identities or their harmless appearance or their harmless fucking ‘i think harmless behaviors should be supported and left alone’ stances. like wow i am ever so fucking Sorry that the CRAZY TM su kins and marvel stim blogs and theatre kids and tiktok cosplayers creating all this cringey content thats meaningful to them and full of effort and passion just Really truly gives you hives bc of your wretched personality and weird fabricated dramatic assumptions abt their personal life and your inability to positively socialize with nonjudgmental people anymore but like honestly at least they act like a real person and their art and fun matters more to me than your bratty cringe feelings ok those mean dick to me they hold no value in my mind and they dont have to its not my responsibility to baby you for your judgments they dont even equate imo like oh my god just go get some interests you loser maybe it’ll cure your bastarditis !

[teashadephoenix]

fandom meme: letters N and Z?

N - Name three things you wish you saw more of in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice)

I don't have a main fandom so I went with fandom in general.

Comments. Tumblr isn't really great for engagement. I grew up in the era of message boards and LJ, and similar interests used to lead to conversations, discussions, friendships. These days people reblog/like and that's it. (They don’t even put stuff in the tags half the time. Makes me has a sad.) Admittedly I am also guilty of this, but that leads in to my second point...

Enthusiasm. I don't care for this hypercritical attitude of modern fandom. I go into the tags of whatever I'm into of late and just see people bitching. Bitching about the writing, or the ships, or whichever character got done dirty by adaptation or bad writing and I just... am tired. I liked the thing. I want to talk about the thing I liked. Let's gush about how much we liked the thing! (Honestly why are you a fan if you don't like the canon IDFGI) I am not shutting down being critical of art, because honestly as a queer lady we still have many miles to go, but when that is all one sees, it saps the fun out one’s fucking hobby.

Kink memes. I miss those. They were fun.

Z - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go (prompts optional but encouraged)

I rewatched Fushigi Yuugi in its entirety a few days ago, as I do occasionally. It startles me how much of that series I can quote on perfect recall even after twenty years. 

It is so melodramatic and literally goes through trashy shojo anime tropes like its going through clean underwear and I do not give a single solitary fuck. I love it. I still love it. (Tasuki is my bae and has been since I was fifteen years old.) It's the perfect escapist fantasy for a teenage girl: get sucked into a magical book where you become the heroine and all the handsome boys fall in love with you and you save the world even though you're literally just a ninth-grader with a great attitude? Dude I would do that now.

[im-lmfao]

I find a post with and I want to express my opinion about it. It's okay have opinions, it's just a talk. And it's okay have opinions BOTH sides. I would gladly tag and talk directly if they wouldn't block me for a lack of polite confrontation.

how Sean seems to dodge valid criticism and brush it all under “hate”. 

My opinion: Sorry for being accusative but it's exactly the fault of who said this. You can't be offensive 24/7 and expect that he accept your "suggestions”. Nobody would do it, neither themselves if where in Jack's shoes.

he dodges all points we make about current issues and turns it into “you just miss the green hair!!”

My opinion: he's basically mocking your constant destructive criticism. If he wouldn't change you wouldn't criticize him so much. He act passive aggressive for the reason I explained in the previous point. And it's quite understandable. Jack could face it better, tho.

Sean also really has a hand for praising the people that kiss his ass. whether it is on purpose or not - he does it a lot.

My opinion: depends on what kind of people they think they are. If they mean that just prize who never criticize him, its hypercritical. I said it, it's all about HOW people expose their concerns. Continuous destructive criticism doesn't open him to listen.

i personally don’t like the reddit videos and i can’t believe we lost FHV to that -

My opinion: He still does the "Funniest home videos" as "Laugh", "meme time" it's Reddit.

so many empty promises, and no i don’t just mean the ego stuff.

My opinion: just as example: Mark made Discord, he's never there. Mark said he would make video blogs each Monday, he did it a while then stopped. Mark gave his number, he use it rarely (also promised of make it international and he didn't). This doesn't makes him an a**hole. Sometimes because busy or missing resources people break promises. No big deal.

Seans entire?? “not everyone will like what i do! it’s ok if people leave!” mentality has reached such a weird extreme? like the community is falling apart and he just thinks it’s cause he isn’t as hyper in his videos anymore???

My opinion: It's true, famous people CAN'T please everyone. It's impossible. Or every famous people would have all the people on the world fans. Are called tastes. On YouTube, on the Film industry, on show industry, and so on, there are tons of famous people that surely please your tastes. That you think is not clickbait, that makes want to see, act like he was 20, never change and deal with your destructive criticism.

and as much as people don’t wanna admit to this one, there’s some pretty obvious favoritism. which in itself isn’t an issue!! we all have favorites!!! but when you watcha twitch stream and he only talks to the same 5 people, only interacts with those same 5 people on twt and also on tumblr,,,,that’s when it gets annoying.

My opinion: I don't know about Twitch, but I can personally swear that here on Tumblr Jack liked and commented very small blogs. I'm a witness of this.

he lost his transparency. i don’t mean sharing his private life with us, but just overall. he’s become,,,,weird.

My opinion: I reply about it in the next point.

it’s also really fucking hard to take anything he does as genuine nowadays. which sucks, but that’s just how it is for me.

My opinion: I will reply this and the previous two points at once.

same with his videos, his commentary feels so off and forced a lot of the time, i personally think it’s even more obvious in collabs.

My opinion: here's the reply to this and the previous two points. It's hard be transparent and genuine when people constantly wait your wrong move. Guys, put yourself in his shoes, are you sure you would work good with such judging people? Yes? Because you didn't taste this yourself.

Sean mentioned a few times that he wants to make sure to have affordable merch too besides 50€ hoodies, but never actually came through with that - unless you count the socks, but…

My opinion: Nothing to hide,I made a simple Google research, goes from a poor 20$ from Target to a 145$ Lacoste. You know what's your problem? That you will always cry or for the price or for the quality.

the whole EgoArtWeek event thing which started out fun but quickly turned south.

My opinion: I'm not sure to know what happened so I will not speak about it.

[corancoranthemagicalman]

New Year’s Wrap Up!

I decided to do this again this year! This year, I don’t think I wrote quite as many small ficlets on Tumblr, but I wrote a shitload of unposted things between a few friends of mine. I won’t even begin to try to give the word counts on those, so as last year, I shall be using my stats on AO3 strictly. I might mention one or two WIPs that I had hoped to finish this past year, but probably not overall.

Fics that you wrote in 2019:

I Dream In Wishes And Triangles (Found on AO3, Gravity Falls, 2.3k, T+)

Steal The Stars (And Put Them In Your Eyes) (Found on AO3, Voltron, 6.6k, M)

Can’t Fight the Moonlight (Found on AO3, Voltron, 2.9k, G)

Traces of You (Found on AO3, Gravity Falls, 2K, T+)

A Long Walk Home (Found on AO3, Teen Wolf, 2.8K, M)

Take A Deep Breath (We’re Doing Just Fine) (Found on AO3, Voltron 1.9k, G)

Death’s Discrimination (Found on AO3, Voltron, 2.1K M)

Where Sleep Never Comes (Found on AO3, Voltron, 1.2K, G)

Something Understood  (Found on AO3, Supernatural, 2.9k, T+)

The Names Are Coal For My Furnace (And It Burns, Burns) (Found on AO3, Critical Role, 800, M)

Dragon’s Gold (Found on AO3, Voltron, T+, 3K)

A Rolling Stone From Texas (Found on AO3, Supernatural, 20k, M)

Lighthouse On The Shore (Found on AO3, Stardew Valley, 2.8k, M)

In Darkness She Is All I See (Found on AO3, Stardew Valley, 1.3k, T+)

Putting On The Ritz (Found on AO3, Good Omens, 3.3k, T+)

Age It 6000 Years, Then Let It Breath (Found on AO3, Good Omens, 2.5k, T+)

Talk To Me (Like Victorians Do) (Found on AO3, Good Omens, 3.5k, M)

My Life Is Very Lonely (For I Want You Only) (Found on AO3, Good Omens, 2.7k,  T+)

You Only Want To Socialize (But I Don’t Think We Should) (Found on AO3, RPF, 5.5k, T+)

With a Good Omens WIP that is currently at +20k and several fan fics in the Game Of Thrones fandom with my friend, one of which. between. the both of us resulted in 60k words in just the month of June. I have a few pieces here and there that are all WIP as well, but as before I’m just gonna used what I posted. (And possibly that one Good Omens fic because I had planned on it being done already but school happened.)

Total Fics: This year including that WIP but not including my self indulgent and unpublished works, I’ve done 20 fics! Last year I did 19. But, to be fair on myself, I did not have college last year.

Total Words: This year, including those precious 20k words on that WIP, I’ve hit 95,661 beating last year’s 75,533 by 20k words! HA. Definitely counting that WIP in my records for this year.

Ship/Character Breakdowns: Percival De Rolo, Crowley/Aziraphale, Original Characters/Original Characters, Bill/Dipper, Bill/Original Character, Shane/Original Character, Sebastian/Alex, Dean Winchester/Castiel, Jack Kline, Stiles Stilinski/Derek Hale, Sheriff Stilinski, Shance, Svance, Hunk, Klance, Lotura, Pali/Nick, Cee/Tom Holland, PJ/Aquabats, Pali and the Crew.

Best/Worst Title: My Best Title (because obviously, I’m so great at that) Talk To Me (Like Victorians Do) cause I am a bitch weak for a pun. Gonna go with The Names Are Coal For My Furnace (And It Burns, Burns) because it’s just so lengthy for a title. :/

Best/Worst First Line: Putting On The Ritz definitely has the worst. “It was a fancy restaurant. Suzanne would give it that.” It fits the comedic sort of narrative I was going for, but if I’m being hypercritical, it’s not very attention-grabbing. For my best, I’m going to go with a favorite. I love beginning lines that are picture-esque and my most picture-esque was from You Only Want To Socialize. “The wind howled on this fine October evening. It sang the tune of skeletons coming out to socialize. Ghouls and creeps from the depths sauntered and laughed their way into the moral realm. Candles hidden in the mouths of grinning pumpkins lit the way into town from the graveyard from which they all had risen from. As the undead crossed the threshold of the graveyard, they were given human form on this one night as the moon hung overhead.”

General Questions

Looking back, did you write more fics than you thought you would this year, less than you thought, or about what you predicted?

I wanted to write more this year but was worried about school getting in my way. What actually happened was instead of writing fics that I published, I wrote shameless self inserts with one of my best friends to help me relax in between my very busy schedule. I wrote way more than I thought I was going to be able to just because there was absolutely no expectation on an unpublished story.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted last year?

I’m gonna be honest, I think the most unexpected one was writing porn for Stardew Valley, fam. But also Good Omens? I had always seen it on the outskirts being a Supernatural fan but falling in love with the televised series so heavily made them own me completely and I don’t think I had truly expected it.

What’s your favorite story this year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you the happiest.

Another year where it’s not my most popular but I enjoyed writing it. I loved writing A Rolling Stone From Texas. That piece of work took me three days to write and it’s the most I’ve written in the span of three days. So out of pride, that one. Out of just... the most love I’ve had for a fic is My Life Is Very Lonely if I’m being honest. A trope I’ve fallen in love within the Good Omens fandom is the Outsider POV, and researching a very specific year in American history just so I could write Irving Berlin understanding pining was just so much fun! And the reception of it was something I was woefully underprepared for and every ounce of attention I’ve received to it has clenched my heart.

Okay, NOW your most popular story.

I’d say A Long Walk Home is my most popular story with Putting On The Ritz as a fairly close second. The day I had posted A Long Walk Home that Teen Wolf fandom devoured it and I love that fandom so dearly.

Story most underappreciated by the universe?

Uh, this question is always hard. Maybe A Rolling Stone From Texas? My Life Is Very Lonely is like, my lowest kudo’d and hit Good Omens fic but the love I get for it is overwhelming whilst I’ve never really had any attention to A Rolling Stone. Maybe A Rolling Stone isn’t that great (spoiler: it definitely isn’t). At the time it felt underappreciated, but at the moment I can’t think of any that I feel are underappreciated. 

Story that could have been better?

A Rolling Stone? The Names? I would say I Dream too but I’ve just evolved in my writing style since then. I’ve evolved so much since I’ve written everything, since I’ve written what I wrote last week, so I feel like there’s no point in thinking about what could be better now when I know that I did the best I could at the time.

Sexiest story?

My sexiest story this year did not get published. I’mma be honest. Actually, this year I’ve both written more sexy but also more sensual. I’m a fan of the sensual. My Life Is Very Lonely would probably be sexier if it wasn’t so sad. Lighthouse On The Shore and Steal The Stars were both fairly sexy. (If you wanna know my really sexy writings, Ask C Something and maybe I’ll drop a line or two from some very sensual self-inserts that include Jon Snow, other GOT characters, or a certain Mandalorian ;)

Saddest story?

Last year I answered this with “I don’t like sad.” This year, my saddest piece is hands down - without a doubt - My Life Is Very Lonely. Can’t Fight The Moonlight was more bittersweet than sad, as was Steal The Stars and Traces of You. My pieces all had more diverse emotions, I think, but overall I myself felt so sad and as if I was actually the one pining while writing My Life Is Very Lonely.

Most fun?

Jeepers, the most fun to read? Putting On The Ritz? It was definitely fun reading my first anon hate! I’ve never gotten any anon hate (bless) but the first and only time I have it was the most resentful piece I’ve ever received and I am telling you I was so flattered and my ego so boosted that I had made someone so infuriated that instead of doing something enjoyable with their time they just sort of cooked over what to tell me I was doing wrong with my writing.

(oh wait maybe that one Destiel ficlet I wrote on Tumblr about Dean calling Cas nicknames? That one was light and cute.)

Story with the single sweetest moment?

You know I’m going to cheat and pick three again this year.

That dangerous four-letter word that Crowley had warned Warlock about reared its head like an angry bull in the China shop of his heart. He swallowed the broken pieces, tears stinging at his eyes. “Aziraphale.” Crowley gasped, clutching at the lapels of his coat and pulling him forward. “I’d wait six more millennia for you.” He confessed. He felt dirty. Dirty in the gaze of this pure being. This being of pure light, love, encompassed him in this rapture of a dangerous, four-lettered word. - Talk To Me (Like Victorians Do)

His words still Cee’s movements as she moved back to look at him. Her soft expression melted into something fond and adoring. It was enough to make Shane feel overwhelmed again, but this time it was in a good way. Slowly, this overwhelming radiance was a good thing. No more nights of a cold, chilly companion. Now his sunshine laid in bed, wrapping itself around him in warming beams. - In Darkness She Is All I See

Jack nodded and swallowed the forming bitter-sweetness on his tongue. He turned to the picture frame beside his bed. He paused as he reached for it. Sparing Uncle Dean one more glance, Jack took the picture reverently in his hands. He turned and took two steps toward his uncle before holding out the picture.

“This belongs to you.” Jack’s voice wavered for a moment and perhaps he hadn’t done as well swallowing that emotion as he had thought.

Uncle Dean shook his head. “Nah,” he pushed the picture frame back toward Jack’s chest, " take him with you.” Uncle Dean took in a deep breath before nodding. “He always wanted to see the world.” Giving a half shrug, Uncle Dean gestured with his chin to Jack’s suitcase. “Take care of him for me.” - A Rolling Stone From Texas (going back, this was a completely rushed fic that I wish I had bitten the bullet and taken my time with, but overall it was littered with a few small and sweet moments.)

Hardest story to write?

Mhm, probably the WIP I’m doing now? Just because I’m at the sad part near the end (yanno, the Day of Darkness or whatever the proper writing term is) that’s always the hardest part for me. Everything else was an experiment for fun. Maybe like functionally all the Good Omens fic since I’m teaching myself HMTL so I can make footnotes, but like anything else wasn’t too hard.

Easiest/most fun story to write?

The easiest was probably any of the ship focused ones. I just get into a “this makes me happy” mood set yanno? I definitely had fun writing A Rolling Stone, My Life Is Very Lonely, and actually most probably the WIP I am trying to finish up. I keep counting it since most of it was written in the previous year.

Did any stories shift your perceptions of the characters?

As in like did I project pining so hard that I completely understood heartache but also happiness in knowing who owns your heart in My Life Is Very Lonely? Cause yes. I think also writing A Rolling Stone really helped me understand how old Dean Winchester is since I felt like I didn’t even have to age up his character. RIP Dean, man.

Most overdue story?

The WIP that I’ll finally maybe drop hints of? I want to drop hints but I’m also so afraid of someone beating me to the punch and doing it better. My one true fear. It was supposed to be done back in October but unfortunately the holidays and such took everything over that my school didn’t already own. Anyways, it’s a Good Omens fic fused with my literal favorite movie of all time. So there’s your hint.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I think I took a lot of risks in creating lore this year. It’s always so hard to know whether your lore will take off or not and I think I took a chance on that. Not only in my published works but in my unpublished works as well. I learned that if you take the time to really just dedicate yourself into that lore that it doesn’t matter as much if other people enjoy it because you’re putting down those ideas and creating art. Creating a world of your own and it’s amazing.

What are your fic writing goals for next year?

To complete my writing goal of last year and write a piece of work longer than The Cat and the Shadow. To work on writing more things to be published to really share what I love so that hopefully encourages other people to share what they love! And, maybe, eventually start a fic that has weekly updates because I crave for that validation of someone waiting eagerly for an updated chapter.

Last year I had the goal to have a more popular story than Eat A Little Dream Of Mine. Eat A Little Dream Of Mine still has the highest hit count, being one of the first few dozen Monster Prom fics to have ever been published to AO3. A Long Walk Home wasn’t too far from matching it, though. Only off by 300- or so hits. But Putting On The Ritz beat A Little Dream’s kudo count by 19!! Goal accomplished!!

I don’t know if anyone wants to do this, but my followers and mutuals are more than welcome to! I’ll specifically tag @paliseizy @damejudyhench @yuzuling @revasnaslan @ineffablefool @isthatbloodonhisshirt And I’ve probably missed someone in my post-holiday haze and I apologize. Thinking is hard.

[aro-aizawa]

alright so i finished up playing all of pokemon shield including the post-game mini plot, so here’s a quick fire list of all the things i liked about it and disliked about it before i go on to explain it in more depth (also spoiler warning). here we go.

what i liked:

the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

what i didn’t like:

they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

wow this post is longer than i expected it to be already. but anyways, the rest is super long and under the cut further going into depth about the points i raised. 

to start with, i’ll talk about the good points because honestly?? i really wanted to love this game. i really really did. maybe it was just the fact that at first i didn’t like sun and moon because they changed the formula so much, but it turned out to become my favourite game in the series. or maybe it was just that i don’t like being hypercritical of things i spent fifty fucking pounds on. either way, i wanted to like the game, and overall i sort of did but i sort of didn’t. lots of mixed feelings. anyways. onto explaining the good stuff. (or you can skip to “now on w the bad junk” for the bad stuff)

1. the graphics, a little weaker in handheld form but largely unnoticeable unless you were looking for it. GREAT graphics when playing on tv mode.

one of my favourite things about the pokemon series in recent times is seeing the process from 2d undetailed sprites to 3d incredibly detailed models. the most ambitious thing about gen 5 was the way the camera moved with your movements as you crossed the bridge, and now i just sometimes sit back and thing “wow 13 year old me would FLIP if she could see how good they got”. bc i kept just....admiring all the graphics and the quality of them. 

2. the new pokemon. they were all really cute, and i especially loved the alternate forms and new evolutions of older gen pokemon.

definitely one of my favourite things about the game was seeing the new forms of pokemon we already knew and the alternate forms they’d take when dynamaxed. i love seeing pokemon with new types that completely flip the script, like darumaka becoming an ice type instead of a fire type. or the fact that they gave mr mime a galaran form and it actually doesn’t look bad. 

i really loved that some of the galaran forms had unique evolutions, such as linoone evolving into obstagoon. or meowth into perrserker. it makes sense and i’m always super happy to see new evolutions for old pokemon, it keeps things interesting when pokemon other than eevee get new evolutions.

(tho that being said, still disappointed there’s still not another eeveelution. still holding out hope for that ghost type.)

3. opal, she’s hands down one of my favourite gym leaders so far only shortly followed by bede.

i’m not super well versed in the pokemon universe besides from gen 1 and gen 5 onwards (if you couldn’t tell), but its really refreshing to have an old gym leader that’s visibly elderly rather that just grey haired maybe retiree man. her personality was also really fun, it sort of felt like she literally had the most personality of all the gym leaders, which kind of sucked but it made me really love her character. 

and bede i didn’t wholly expect to really like as much as i did? i mayhaps might have spoiled myself a little on their gym leader status by dipping into the swsh tag here on tumblr before i fully completed the game. but still, they seemed just generally really annoyingly stuck up? but something endeared me to the darl and i just think it mostly had to do w the fact that opal took one look at them and declared they was her grandchild now. 

4. bede is a nonbinary icon as proven by the fact that they didn’t use any pronouns to refer to them until after the fourth gym, and the fact that when they’re in their gym uniform its trans flag colour. it may not be canon, but its canon in my heart.

argue with me on this point all you like, but you can’t deny the fact that in CANON they literally did not use any pronouns to refer to bede until after the fourth gym. the only mention of pronouns before that was their trainer card, which i did not check because good character development should be shown not told through an impersonal medium such as character cards. 

5. gym battles are treated as they should be -- huge spectacles that gets people amped the hell up.

i’ve always loved the way the league is set up, because it makes sense. the pokemon formula works and its interesting, but in previous games most people only vaguely acknowledge it as something every kid tries but doesn’t really complete. it’s already set up people love pokemon battles, there just wasn’t a spectator sport about it unless in the anime or movies. they’re just a thing that happens that none of the npcs care about. 

finally its treated like the spectator sport that it should be. like,,, hell yeah,,, 

(also do you think that in the pokemon universe there’s various stories/tv shows about made up kids completing the league and becoming champions? because i definitely do.)

6. dynamaxing. its so goddamn satisfying to finish off a gym battle with your best pokemon as a fucking giant behind you, no matter their actual size. tiny pyukumuku behind you? badass. huge ass wailord? bad. ass. an actual baby pokemon? bad. ASS.

i p much summed up most of my thoughts in this point well. but i love when pokemon are so visibly powerful. like these creatures have powers that we’d equate to actual gods like summoning whole storms, creating giant waves, create earthquakes and so much more. pokemon are so powerful and to see them become giant and have so much weight and power? its so satisfying controlling that and bringing down other giant pokemon. 

7. the wild area. introducing camping was a good system, it definitely helped a lot when you couldn’t exactly jump back to a pokemon center so you cook your pokemon some curry to revive and heal them. i imagine they took some inspiration from breath of the wild, tho i haven’t played it to really confirm.

i really appreciated the change that started in pokemon let’s go with some pokemon being visible and easy to encounter wandering through the grass. it makes it so much easier to search for the one pokemon that you don’t have in your pokedex yet, or if you’re looking for a specific pokemon to join your team.

i love how large and expansive the wild area is, and with the camping system you can just explore and fill out your pokedex without ever leaving if you’re fully stocked up on supplies. it makes you really believe the whole “yep this kid isn’t just blasting through the whole thing in one day”. kids sleep in tents on their journey with their pokemon and cook curry for them all. adds a nice level of immersion and convenience. 

.

jesus fuck this is so long and i haven’t even gotten to my criticisms yet, is anybody actually reading this chunk of text??? well rip to you my friend and thank you. but now on w the bad junk.

1. they cut so many corners in the game, you can definitely tell it was made in a hurry.

they did a decent job considering it was in development for only two years w one only for the concept and the second actually making it. but they cut so many corners it doesn’t quite feel like a true installment into the pokemon universe. it feels like it was made by another dev studio rather than gamefreak. like how fallout new vegas and fallout 3 barely feel like the two installments in the same franchise. 

this point sort of leads into many different points that i raised, so i’ll explain those a little bit more in depth there. but to sum it up, the easiest way to see it is just how...flat things are. if you only pay attention to the things the game directs you to, then you will not miss a single thing. flavor text is less about adding depth to the world and more just...pointless. it adds. nothing.

and in the post game when sonia gets a new assistant, even though she plays a fairly important part in the post-game plot, she doesn’t get a name nor a unique character model. she get’s a generic doctor model yet it’s treated like we should feel betrayed that nameless npc 234 went behind sonia’s back and stole from her. 

OH! and i almost forgot!!!! but that one part where rose is trying to talk leon into something “mysterious”??? they straight up just used images!!!! like,,,, what???? you didn’t have time to program the minimal animations for that?? who’s fault is that for pushing the release!!! give your employees time to work at a decent pace and not crunch them to reach an impossible goal. game freak, you don’t have to release a game every november.

2. a minor note here, but for me i have this annoying bug that makes it so some pokemon have the exact same cry. its a sort of whooshing noise that you’d expect for a flying type pokemon, but it frequently appeared instead of well known and familiar cries. i can’t pin down exactly what the cause of this is, or if i’m hearing things wrong, but it was infuriating.

also p much just explain this in the point. BUT it happened all. the. time. the only pokemon i know for sure was effected by the bug was gyarados, because instead of the roaring cry i heard the whooshing sound that was probably meant to be another pokemon’s cry. it sounds wack when im saying it rn bc im not 100% convinced i wasn’t making this up, but it was the sole reason i turned the pokemon cries to get drowned out by the music and sound effects.

3. the towns are empty and barely even give you flavor text anymore. you might as well not speak to any npcs except shop keepers and named characters.

i touched on this previously in 1 but basically walking around a town and talking to npcs will not get you any interesting dialog. going into the houses/rooms, and you’ll only get one npc who’s all like “i’m brushing my hair!” and that’s about it. there aren’t any items tucked away in houses or corners of buildings for you to explore or battle people. when you acknowledge that there’s no flavor text from npcs all the towns feel practically empty whereas in the previous games it actually alive.

not to mention how little the diaglog changes? like it may just be my faulty memory at play but im pretty sure that the npcs in the previous games had more dynamic dialog in which they’d change what they said depending on your action in the town or for the plot. after a major event just happened, if you walked around and talked to everyone in that area they’d talk about it. but that happened like....once.

4. there is exactly three cute outfits and three cute hairstyles and that’s about it. i know a lot of this point is mostly about personal taste but please nintendo, we had such a good range in the previous game. 

one thing i loved about the series was the increasing freedom in customisation of trainers. fashion kept getting wider and with more variety, clothes that were still cute and i’d frequently have about 2k because i just kept buying them. by the end of my playthrough of swsh i had almost a million saved up because i didn’t like most of the clothing options. i found one outfit and hairstyle i liked a quarter of the way through the game and stuck with it until the end. they drastically cut down on the options, and that sucked. 

5. don’t explore. there is literally no point in looking in all the nooks and crannies of this game, because i guarantee that if the game doesn’t tell you to go there, then there’s nothing there.

again, already touched on this point but one example i know is this. when you go to the energy plant to battle rose, or go to the roof to battle eternus, i expected to go back to it when the event was over to see if something was left behind or because i’d been locked in a cutscene and unable to explore before, that meant there would be something now. but nope. don’t bother. even when you think you might be able to do something fun, don’t try until the game points you in that direction itself. if something interesting is going to happen in the game, i assure you they will point it out for you. 

6.  it’s too easy. it’s....actually crazy that i’m even putting this as a point, because i’m a strict believer in making games playable for everyone. but it’s just....too much.

hard games disinterest me. if a game is renowned for it’s difficulty, then i will avoid it. i don’t care if defeating dark souls is a badge of honor for your stubbornness or skill. i simply don’t enjoy playing a game that makes me want to quit in frustration because i am not good at video games. i appreciated how easy the games have been in recent years because it makes it a lot easier for me to actually complete them and enjoy them, it’s why i have trouble getting into the earlier gens of pokemon. 

but when it got to the point where after only about an hour or two of dynamax farming, by the time that i got round to the championships i was literally one shotting every single pokemon. even when i didn’t have super effective moves. i was almost 20 levels ahead of the competition, and blasted through the whole thing in a total of 10 minutes battle time and 30 minutes dialog and cutscene time, with a 20 minute pause for a phone call. 

i defeated leon with only very minimal struggle. i couldn’t one shot all his pokemon, i will admit. i two shotted them. i went into the championship fully stocked up on potions and revival items and left with all of them. none of my pokemon fainted or even sustained major damage. 

while satisfying feeling that you’re op enough to utterly annihilate your opponents, there comes a point where it’s just “why bother i know i’ll win” which kind of sucks. 

7. the cut down pokedex will forever inject salt right into my veins. especially when they had the audacity to include one of the first starter pokemon, but not the other two. charizard is an okay pokemon but its overrated, nintendo please accept that.

sorry to charizard fans, but please acknowledge that it’s overrated. its design is basic, and already has multiple different forms. the fact that they passed over the opportunity for the creativity that dynamax venusaur or blastoise could give, for another basic dragon design is so annoying. 

not to even mention the fact that they didn’t even bother to keep the rest of the starter pokemon either. i vaguely remember one time some nintendo employee or big shot saying that the best thing about it is that every pokemon is at least one person’s favourite. the underused or underloved pokemon will always be ONE person’s favourite, and that’s why you can get the whole pokedex. but y’know fuck that philosophy in the name of getting the game out on time. when they could have very easily pushed the release date back. i’m lucky that most of my faves got included but i know that a fair amount did not. and i’m pissed. 

8. the plot didn’t exist until suddenly it did and then it made no sense. 

9. i hate the fact that the team in this game were just delegated to fans. i understand the whole “fake out” thing they might have been going for by getting the player to think that they’d turn out to be bad, but no. it just sucks. 

these two go so hand in hand, that i’m taking the time to address them together considering in every single previous game so far the team has had some HEAVY influence on the plot in one way or another. they’re always linked to the legendary pokemon of the game and they’re always included in the overarching plot, either by driving the player to act or subtly there. 

i kept seeing team yell show up and trying to work out how they were going to join the plot. were they a cult doing Science Shit in the background trying to revive the legendaries? was marnie the leader of this cult and going through the league to distract people from her totally devious going-ons? or would it turn out that marnie though the team harmless but really it was a front for her relative’s secret cult? 

nope!!! they were annoying roadblocks who added literally nothing to the plot. 

and when i realised that, it was the seventh gym battle and so far the only plot i’d glimpsed at was the mysterious explosions in hammerlocke city and the overarching tale of the sword and shield that had been obvious since literally the first time sonia started to talk about it. there had been no plot. there was literally no plot other than the gym battles which sonia and leon specifically called out to “leave this to the grownups, you two just focus on the gym challenge”. 

and when i got my eighth badge and was completing the equivalent of the elite four, i was still confused as FUCK because where the hell was the plot???? and then the whole weird ass “we have to save leon” from a meeting with.....a chairman? how about you wait just an hour jfc it’s not that bad? he’s not being held against his will? the chairman wasn’t doing anything obviously evil or even hinted at? 

the whole thing was vague and rose’s motivation was just ??????? i don’t know???? i still don’t exactly know what the whole deal was. it came out of nowhere and made. no. sense. it had completely lost me. along with the fact that they were suddenly introducing dynamax raids like we hadn’t already been doing that so many times in the wild area????

which leads me to my next point.....sigh. 

10. fucking. swordward and shieldbert. i???? literally. have no. words. (i do but they’re super long so hmmm down below)

first things first, is that i hate everything about these characters. from their names, to their designs, to their motivations, to how they’re handled in canon. it was shitty and while i had fun playing with the whole “this is what a champion does after they beat the previous one” thing, it was just in general really bad. 

like, i cannot get over how shitty their designs were. their hair was literally a sword and a shield. i kept thinking “wow swordward has a penis head that wiggles when he moves” and couldn’t take a single thing he said seriously. i literally wanted to weep at the horrible character design. 

not to mention the suddenness of their whole schtick. “yeah we’re royalty and we’re “”””CELEBRITIES”””” even if none of you have heard of us”. like what????? the fuck????

it just sort of pisses me off to an astronomical degree that this low quality shit was jammed into a pokemon game when they were getting so good at storytelling. it felt like game freak were hammering me with a club while singing “YOU PAID 50 WHOLE POUNDS FOR THIS IN PARTICULAR!!!” like,,,, thanks. thank you. thank you for waiting until after i’d finished the game to really hammer home that point. 

which somewhat leads me to my last point that really just sums up the majority of my thoughts on the whole game:

11. a game worth about £20 ($25) less than i paid for it. its a decent quality game, but not nearly nintendo quality. 

if i knew what i knew about the game know, i wouldn’t pay fifty fucking pounds for it. it physically pains me to spend more than £30 in one sitting, that i actually winced while i was buying it even though i was being 100% optimistic that i was going to love it. at most i’d pay £30 for it, but only then. it’s a good game to really distract you and power through but other than that, i don’t see it as a game i’m going to come back to so i can complete the pokedex and i certainly am not going to buy the other game so i can play it again unlike how i’ve done in the past with my favourite installments. 

maybe i’m just picky, or i don’t buy games often enough, but i really would not classify this as a quality installment in the pokemon franchise. if you get a free copy, or just the opportunity to play it for a few hours then fine it’s a great game. but not quite something you should want to spend your money on. but don’t pirate it. that’s a fast way to get bugs.

to sum this whole mess of a post up: immediately after finishing the game i said to myself “now time to go play a REAL pokemon game” before booting up pokemon moon.

[e8luhs]

btw got this ask on my classpecting blog (which is basically super dead because i rarely ever have the time/energy to get around to posting on it) but since its cb related and were on a spree here, i wanted to put some info here because well... you know me :3c

yes i made the base of the characters personalities with their classpects in mind. obviously they still developed past that point (quite a few of the characters ended up completely different from how they were when i originally wrote them (rivian, crylus, vergas) because of the original writing being more based around classpects)

also ill write some real quick classpect descriptions for all of them under the cut since i dont want this post to get too long. i dont really want to say exactly why the puzzle pieces fit together because i think its fun to hear about other peoples opinions and also show w/o telling but i also really love classpecting and just some baselines doesnt really count as spoilers i dont think

rivian: witch of void, typically witches are quite a bit more fun and optimistic and generally just all around more Expressive than rivian is but like... youll understand when we get to it. witches are also just Incredibly Stubborn and i think thats quite a rivian thing.

witches have their aspects permeate throughout their life, and manipulate their aspects actively; they bend their aspects to their will, either by going totally against the notions and boundaries of their aspect or by simply modifying it to suit their needs. they thrive in environments where theyre able to go along with their own organized chaos and sense of structure. 

void is about secrets, irrelevance, the enigmatic the mysterious et cetera. i think void is also about hidden interpersonal knowledge. its working on the sidelines and in the background. void players always seem to do the hard work, but are in someone/something elses shadow.

lyreni: sylph of time, honestly lyreni is still basically The Definition Of A Sylph. shes caring, very aware of her surroundings, acts according to what she deems is important, shes patient shes exacting... but she can be a bit meddle-y and pedantic and pushy due to her own anxieties.

sylphs analyze and heal their aspect. they find where people and where their session is lacking in it and essentially poke and prod and go about whichever way they possibly can to fix the lack of their aspect. theyre very opinionated about their aspect and what it means to them and what it should mean to others, and therefore sylphs need to learn to wield these ideas and use them to help others.

time is about time itself and the flow of it, death, progression, etc. not only that, but its about order and structure, singleminded focus, all of which selfimposed. time is more like a chain of events that needs to be kept in order than it is about inevitable events that are out of your control.

kapreo: rogue of rage, i usually say rogues follow two different archetypes (1. they either start with an abundance of their aspect and need to find a comfortable balance, or 2. they start with a percieved lack of their aspect and need to accept it into their life. either way, once both of them grow into those second stages they then redistribute their aspect to others). kapreo is a v2 rogue. rogues also as a whole are very friendly and generous, passionate, determined. though on the other hand, rogues can sometimes have the tendency to isolate themselves from others when they face stress and other struggles.

although both types of rogues have different types of deeprooted insecurity when it comes to their aspect, v2 rogues in particular lack in confidence comes from the fact that they could never handle their own aspect. therefore, they might have difficulties ever allowing themselves indulge in their aspect even when worse comes to worse. as stated above v2 rogues need to learn to accept that their aspect CAN be a part of who they are, and that they CAN handle it.

rage is about skepticality, defiance, boundaries, intense feelings, adrenaline, its putting your foot down and not taking anymore bullshit. its about putting yourself first. rage is also just a very like... sensory aspect. its the burning feeling in your chest that you get when youre in those states of passionate, unrestricted emotion.

sebran: knight of space, You Know Why Lets Be Real Do I Even Have To Say It. knights are boundlessly loyal, committed, reliable and nuturing people, however obviously they have a tendency towards the Emotional Constipation and are constantly concerned with their own sense of usefulness and competence.

knights essentially have to unlearn their obsessive facades and sort of... perfectionism when it comes to the way they come off and the way they interact with their aspect so that they can exploit and wield their aspect. basically knights have to put the metaphorical shield down and take out their sword instead. their facades usually tend to reflect their opposite aspect due to their insecurity with their actual aspect. 

space is about creation, lack of bounds, infinite possibilities, the universe, isolation, loneliness. making something out of nothing. everything is at the universes whims, its unable to be contained. theres kind of a lack of any sort of structure or stability when it comes to space.

crylus: prince of doom, now hold your fucking horses before you say anything okay i know a lot of the times princes make everyone go “Oh god oh fuck” but i can promise you that crylus is a GOOD prince. princes can be incredibly capable and confident, goal oriented, helpful players. on the other hand though YES they can be a bit impulsive, arrogant. princes also tend to be a bit hypercritical as they hold people to high standards but they hold themselves to even higher ones (see dirk) a lot of the time.

princes ghost their opposite aspect and either just straight up destroy or destroy WITH their ACTUAL aspect, as they have strong internal brewing anger and hatred for their aspect and what it stands for. for the most part, princes need to learn how to channel this energy towards only flushing out the genuinely NEGATIVE parts of their aspect, as destruction sometimes isnt inherently a bad thing. in fact, sometimes tearing things down to make new ones is necessary and part of the process. but princes are REALLY high risk/high reward.

doom is about order thats outside of your control. its pre-established rules, guidelines, fate and futility and inevitability. similar to the death card in tarot though, even if doom is about the unavoidable end of a cycle, its also about the beginning of a new one.

vergas: bard of blood, i think its pretty easy to understand Why. originally he was going to be a bard of light which youll still see some remnants of that when his land comes up. bards are faithful in their beliefs and can be very committed to those ideas... but due to that faith they can be at their best just kind of annoying and stubborn to at their worst, antagonistic, unaccomodating, and dogmatic. 

its kind of hard to explain, but bards ghost their opposite while destroying THROUGH their aspect. i usually say that to mean that bards use their own aspect as a sort of vessel of destruction. theyre also incredibly unpredictable players, as if their convictions ever waver theyre likely to go totally off the shits. i usually call that their Bardly Revelation aka when a bards world views and ideas about their aspect are finally challenged. a bards challenge then is to figure out how to take these challenges in stride and become open to new perspectives rather than letting it consume them whole. (hint: a lot of bards have a very hard time doing this. you can kind of figure what im getting at here).

blood is about bonds, strength, unity, responsibility, society, norms. i relate blood also to expectations, and relationships but more like… in the sense of working together as a team. commitment.

hopefully thats vague but informative enough for you to get why i picked their classpects out. as always im really excited to get deeper into the story and actually really Show like Why they fit rather than just give some overly wordy explanations

[bugheadfamily]

Bughead Family Discord Member Spotlight

This week the spotlight is on Cat ( @shibbycat ), our newest admin! Click the read more link below to get to know our member!

Spotlight by Mila, @jughead-jones | Graphic by Katie, @betty-cooper

Cat | @shibbycat

Name: Cat 

Age: I’m old enough to own a Sega Genesis bought in a store the year it was released, and yes. I still play it. 

Location: Northern Italy for the time being, but I’m prone to moving quite bit. 

Any other languages aside from English people can contact you in?: I can do some conversational Spanish, and I can have Eric (my husband) tell me what you’re saying in Russian.

Favourite Riverdale characters and ships?: What gave you the impression that I like Riverdale or its ships? JK. Shockingly, I’m all about that Bughead. ALL about it. I care about most of the characters & their successes/failures… with Betty, Jughead, Veronica & Cheryl in the lead. 

Favourite moments from S1 & S2?: Wow. Talk about a Sophie’s Choice. Here goes nothing. I legit yelled at my screen during The Look in 1x02, “omG. IT’S HAPPENING.” My childhood ship was exhumed. Best day. The dynamic between Jughead & FP in 1x07 rang particularly true to me. I also took away that Jughead talks about Jellybean like she’s his kid, not his sister. It guts me every single time. The end bit where Betty & Jughead walk away together really demonstrated how close they already were as a couple. Bonus for that being the scene where it clicks with Archie his two best friends were 5000% together, & their friendships was never going to be the same. It’s a small moment but I love it. Picking one thing from Season 2??? Co-Presidents. The absolute equality in their relationship was so perfectly on point here for me. The support and respect for one another was on display in blinking neon lights. WAIT. The hospital scene. I can’t leave it off. Jughead “I’ll never stop loving you” Jones almost gets murdered & only feels bad about not being there for Betty. All that matters to Betty is Jughead getting better. Plus, down-the-face kisses. I can’t with these two. 

What are your hopes for S3?: I’m really hoping to see more of a focus on the friendships. I want to see them all work together in general & specifically, to defeat Hiram. We got to see an entire season of Hiram doing nothing but succeeding in his various nefarious causes & successfully pitting Bughead/Varchie against one another. Seeing his takedown at the hands of those whose lives & relationships he thought destroyed as they’re instead working together? Yes. Very yes. I’m of course beyond stoked for the Bughead Detective Agency & them working/growing together in their relationship & lives. Some actual fun times would be great to see. Yano, ones that don’t end in someone getting murdered or going to jail.

Other fandoms you’re into?: Besides Riverdale, I only exist in lurker status (thanks anxiety!) for fandoms, but I lurk(ed) super hard in Harry Potter (Except that I’ve totally written terrible HP fic. Really happy no one’s going to read this to know that), Reylo, Doctor Who, & Sherlock.

What are some of your favourite movies/TV?: Besides the obvious, just about everything Disney touches owns my pocketbook, dedication & continued attention. Parks & Rec, The Office (both UK & US), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls, Doctor Who, Star Trek: TNG, & Sherlock are all shows I can watch on repeat. I’m not even going to start on non-Disney movies, because I’ll be here all day.

Favourite books?: This is literally the most difficult question to answer, because books are life. I’m going to keep it brief & say “Harry Potter.” They changed my life, they saved my life, & they’re always there to welcome me home.

Favourite bands/musicians?: Favorites are so hard. I like a little something from most genres of music, but I can never turn off classic Elton John, BSB (I had full plans to marry Kevin as an 11 year old), Linkin Park, John Williams, Lady GaGa, Guns n Roses, The Killers, or Queen. Big picture wise, I’m particularly attached to Classic Rock, practically anything 80s, late 90s/early 2000s pop (I still know all the choreo to Bye Bye Bye & Oops... I Did It Again), The Great American Songbook, classical music, popular songs converted classical arrangements, and I’m a sucker for 1960s/70s R&B/soul. Long story short, I make a lot of playlists. 

If you could live in any fictional world which one would you choose and why?: Harry Potter for sure. Wands which choose you. Broomsticks which get released like new car models. Owls which deliver mail anywhere. Portkeys/Apparating/Brooms/Floo powder making travel dirt cheap/free. Butterbeer & Pumpkin Juice. If it’s not clear, I’m really into Harry Potter. OH. I also did a HP LARP a few years ago in a Polish castle, & it was the greatest thing EVER. 

Favourite food?: Oh food. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. Seriously. I travel around just to eat. Limiting to one kind? Mexican food. I could eat it everyday. 

Favourite season?: Fall/winter. First of all, I like to wear a GRIP of layers. I’m also a big fan of being lazy & putting a beanie on over my unstyled (often unbrushed) hair. I’m also VERY into Halloween & Christmas. I decorate for both with gusto. Christmas goes up in my house the same day it does at Disneyland: 10 November. I’m also obsessed with Christmas Markets. So many quality Halloween/Christmas films too! I have an entire list of mandatory watches every year. 

Favourite plant?: Really large sunflowers with the dark red/deep orange petals. Their seeds also demonstrate the Fibonacci sequence, and I’m a human who believes math is the most beautiful thing in the entire world. 

Favourite scent?: There’s something magical smelling about old books for me. I also really enjoy the way rain smells on dry pavement when it first starts falling.

Favourite colour?: It’s been purple ever since I learned how the Phoenicians made it when I was 9. 

Favourite animal?: Cats. All kinds & sizes...except Sphynxes. & unicorns. Are you a night owl, an early bird, or a vampire?: Night owl/early bird. The insomnia is strong with this one. 

Place you want to visit?: I’ve been lucky enough to check a lot of places off my “must see” list, but Madagascar is still a life goal. OH! & to visit every single Disney park around the world. 

Do you have pets? If you do, tell us a little about them: Ah! Something I LOVE talking about. I have 3 incredibly spoiled cat children who want to cuddle all the time. That’s right. Cat loves cats. They’re all rescues, Maine Coons, and little characters to be sure. Their names are Dorcas, Knick Knack, & Elmo. We’ve had Dorky for 10 years and Elmo & Knick Knack for 9 years. Knick Knack likes to walk on a leash & paws at the door for his walk. Dorcas plays fetch with toy mice, and Elmo likes to cuddle so hard Eric is genuinely worried I’ll be suffocated by his snuggles. 

Tell us a little about yourself?: My grandma once told me that I’ve always known exactly who I am, even as a child, and I’ve let that sense-of-self guide me (not always to greatness mind you) every day. I’m an introvert with fairly crippling anxiety & depression, and I simply don’t care who knows it. If me being upfront about it can help anyone, I’m happy to do it. I’m hypercritical of myself & what I put out into the world. Being frank, honest, and sarcastic are how I say “hello,” but I’m also a firm believer in “don’t say something rude just to say something rude.” Tact is key. Encouraging people to find their own happiness & fulfillment in life are things which bring me joy. Likewise, I’d do pretty much anything for a friend, & if there’s something I can do to help them/help someone in their journey to find happiness in life, I want to do it. Uuuummm, I laugh so hard I cry a lot, and my eyeliner runs. It always makes people think I’ve been crying for real & filled with emotions. It’s awkward. I guess I’m creative? I like woodworking, pyrography, crafting, and making nerd stuff through those mediums. 

Fun or weird fact about you?: I entered my wedding reception to “The Imperial March.” It’s safe to say I’ve been a wee bit obsessed with Star Wars for longer than my Sega Genesis is old.

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This is the ninth instalment of Bughead Family’s Member Spotlight series. Each week, a member’s url is selected through a randomizer and they will be featured in a spotlight post. In order to participate, please join the Bughead Discord (more information found here). Thank you.

[edge-of-bizarre]

how would fishlegs and rosethorn's wedding go? Would mama ingerman approve?

Long post about engagements, weddings, and impatient mother-in-laws

I don’t think there would be a wedding without mama ingerman’s approval. I’m pretty sure that Mrs. Ingerman has long since changed her hypercritical nature (perhaps an event leads to Rosethorn proving herself worthy idk, probably just time and she notices Rosethorn actually LOVES her son, love love loves, and she’s a good influence and you KNOW rosethorn gasses fishlegs up all the time, his confidence increases)

Mrs. Ingerman goes from iffy and of course, very critical of this new woman in her son’s life, to perhaps pushing it. I think it would be a “my boy is too perfect for anyone” to a “she loves him and will take care of him and if that boy doesn’t act quick-” Her once sideways glares have changed to a rather outrageous, outright proclamation that that girl will become an Ingerman by the years end (well… sometime in the future at least) Aka Lock That Girl Down phase 1. I assume Fishlegs prob lives with his mom, perhaps he moves back in after Hiccup moves in with Astrid (i just want hiccup and fishlegs to be roomies), and i think he isn’t too thick to understand this could be seen as lady repellent, therefore dates usually end at Rosethorn’s place or he picks her up there until she’s like “you… you live somewhere right” “…. yes” “… this is setting off a lot of alarms for me, so unless you answer correctly-” “i live with my mother” “… that’s it?”

Anyway! Rosethorn is part of the family the christmas she receives her first Mama Ingerman knit sweater (think the weasley’s) and then family dinners usually involve “Have you thought about the future?” or Mrs. Ingerman asking why for the love of god he hasn’t proposed yet. She is probably giving him her old engagement ring, or at least a family engagement ring the moment she approves because “i’m not getting any younger”, I think it would be a family ring, Fishlegs does get it resized as his gf is not the same stock as the large Ingerman clan, and more than likely gets it stuck on his finger in a moment of absentminded fiddling or what if she doesn’t like it? What if it’s not good enough? What if-

Fishlegs is anxious. He is nervous. I believe he would be in a place where there is no way Rosethorn would say no to a proposal, she is totally, completely in love with him, but anxiety does not allow for logic. I’m sure he has thought about rejection, but i think she definitely calms those thoughts through actions and so more of his anxious energy is designated to making this absolutely perfect. IT MUST BE PERFECT. It is an ultimate proclamation of love, besides the wedding itself, therefore it’s his forte, but it’s also so important he wants to get it just right. He wants it to be about her, and them, and probably talks Astrid and Hiccup’s ear off because they’ve done it before.

It takes a few tries. During the picnic he planned, it rained and he couldn’t possibly do it now. He stumbled and stuttered through breakfast in bed, “Sweetheart, are you feeling ok?” As Rosethorn puts a hand to his forehead because she thinks he’s ill as he tries to put together words. That was scratched off. He workshops and finally decides on a romantic evening, his mother knows nothing because if she knew she might blab to relatives. Maybe they go to the opera, or a play, something fun before a very nice dinner. @e–wills did a wonderful post on engagements here and she even included rosethorn, my heart, also took the words outta my dang mouth. Rosethorn and Fishlegs definitely have talked about the future and marriage and it’s something they both want, just a matter of when.

Fishlegs plays off the night as their anniversary (i feel like he’d come up with a lot of anniversaries… first date, first kiss, etc, eventually Rosethorn is saying let’s just stick to one as the big one) Rosethorn is delighted with the night, she’s smiling to herself because its so lovely, and she can’t wait to see his face when he unwraps the present she got him even though they promised no presents. So she’s distracted and not expecting anything more from the lovely little speech he’s made. I think if he was super nervous, she’d suspect something is up, but maybe once in his life he isn’t nervous, he’s excited, so she is completely unaware as the ring makes its way over via dessert. Lots of tears. A lot from him. He probably doesn’t get out fully what he’s going to say because of tears or because Rosethorn is saying yes before he’s even gotten on his knee and “wait- i wanted to say something” “ok ok ok- go-” “I love you so- you’re already crying? I’m going to cry now too!” it’s private, it’s romantic, it’s sappy and oh so sweet, lots of kissing and later on adult stuff, and he does make a dumb face she likes when she reveals the limited edition comic she bought (ben wyatt and the iron throne face) Rosethorn is beside herself and is sitting up in the early morning looking over the ring because she really should have seen it coming and fishlegs has so many tells, how did she not see it? he probably asked her if she still wanted to get married recently, and decides making breakfast is more useful than wondering about the other things she misses. 

I think they’d try to wait until morning, at least that’s what they’re going to say they’ll do and either are too interested in smoochin and being together or it’s 1 am and he’s rolling over to tell her he will die if he doesn’t tell anyone right this second.

Mrs. Ingerman phones anyone she can get, puts a post in the ingerman family facebook page, the whole family knows. Meatlug is very pleased, she drools plenty to show how happy she is. Mrs. Ingerman is planning the wedding already, she has a binder (fishlegs prob has a binder) of wedding stuff, she wants to be a big part of the wedding.

Rosethorn’s family is delighted by the news, they all like Fishlegs, they probably stop by because rosethorn’s mother had to “see it for me self” and her father is weepy. They’d be paying for it, but I also feel like Mrs. Ingerman would be trying to pay, “We don’t have the budget for that!” “I’ll pay for it myself then” Mrs. Ingerman has her standards, plus they HAVE to have the whole family. 

Rosethorn invites Mrs. Ingerman to come wedding dress shopping with her mother and friends. I think mama Ingerman probably is pulling a wedding dress out of the attic “it was my grandmothers” and Rosethorn politely agrees to try it on, but it is truly hideous, Fishlegs manages to say “Well… it’s white?” while Mrs. Ingerman is admitting it isn’t as trendy as she remembered. 

Both bachelor and bachelorette party are on the mild side, perhaps not so traditional, i think the girls treat themselves to a spa day coupled with a night out on the town, Ruffnut is griping about no strippers because she has a wallet full of ones but those complaints died when the hot masseuse comes in for her massage.

Mrs. Ingerman wants her nephew to be the ring bearer because he’s so cute, except he will only go by “Thor Bonecrusher” now, and promptly tried to eat the rings (fishlegs was giving the kid the side eye and keeping his distance cause this kid kicks him every time) and once the child proves himself a bad idea, Meatlug is crowned ring bearer, and is absolutely adorable, she is a good dog.

Wedding is early summer or autumn, when its not scorching. I think autumn just cause fishlegs’s designated color is orange haha, smaller wedding, but it’s still a lot of fun, the Ingerman’s are lively.

Rosethorn probably spends the night before the wedding with her parents, and Fishlegs is weepy already, and “I just want to give her a call- let me just call her really quick-” Rosethorn LINED his pockets of his tux (or if he goes for the kilt combo idk what the jacket is called) with tissues and he weeps more when he finds them with a hand written note and a lipstick kiss print. He’s nervous about everything going to plan, but he’s not totally nervous cause Hiccup and his mom are both there. Rosethorn’s father is very very clearly bawling. He’s a crier, her mother tears up a bit while he sniffs through words. I think they’d prob blindfold the couple for some words before the ceremony because Rosethorn said he’s not allowed to see her in the dress and so he turned around and said she’s not allowed to see him in the suit.

The wedding itself was short and sweet, lots of tears on both ends. Fishlegs prob hugged the life out of his father in law and mother in law, Mrs. Ingerman CRIED, the two held hands the whole time and the vows were disgustingly sweet, Meatlug did a wonderful job with delivering the rings, and the couple probably kissed before the I Do’s, they’re just very over excited. the cheer from the large ingerman family side was deafening when I Do’s were finally shared, and it is a smaller wedding compared to the hiccstrid and rufflout weddings, but it’s a pretty good party. The reception lasted a while, the dancing never seemed to stop so the newly weds were absolutely wiped, especially after greeting so much family. The wedding night included Fishlegs falling asleep the moment he got home, still in his dress shoes because “i’m just going to rest my eyes a moment while you’re in the bathroom” and Rosethorn puts a blanket over him and he manages to mumble “I love you so much” as she pulls of his shoes off (he undid her dress so she could go to the bathroom) Meatlug happily snuggled in between them and sleeps very well, and in the morning she is given a toy bone with peanut butter inside and is plenty distracted as the wedding night actually happens before pancakes, coffee, and kisses are served, along with plenty “Good morning, Mrs. Ingerman” cause there is a younger mrs. ingerman on the block now.

They honeymoon somewhere with historical significance, I can def see the two going to Ireland or Scotland, staying in bed and breakfast’s and going to see castles plus the landscape. Maybe Italy? France? They have a wonderful time and learn a lot and of course it’s romantic, they have picnics and see the sights. Meatlug couldn’t be more happy when they return. Mrs. Ingerman then begins Phase 2, which is grandchildren. grand kids aren’t too far off, don’t worry. Mrs. Ingerman probably wants Rosethorn to call her mom but it just won’t stick.