#we kinda took her from one of the movies/specials but it's a long story

[spotted-owl-sketches]

And here's day two! I actually really liked this one uwu

So yeah my best friend @winsday09 / @winsdayink and I have SO many thoughts about Volo. We both love the idea of him being a faller too who landed WELL before the events of the game. So here we see a glimpse of his forgotten past, with his younger sister Shinji!

Eichi was an up and coming baseball star for the Hearthome Drifloons- known for his signature pitch- who suddenly disappeared one day... perhaps we'll get more glimpses as the month continues ;3c

[emotionaldamages]

healing the heart- max verstappen

summary- reader is red bull’s admin, which is the beginning of a love story for reader and a certain driver

pairings- max verstappen x social media admin!reader

authors note- this one is kinda long🧍🏽‍♀️ and a lot of repeating words

Y/N sat at her desk, scrolling through the latest photos of the Red Bull Racing team. As the social media admin for the team, it was her job to keep fans engaged and excited. Little did she know, her life was about to take an unexpected turn.

Max Verstappen, the talented Formula One racer, walked into her office. His eyes sparkled with mischief as he leaned against the doorframe, a playful grin on his face. Y/N couldn't help but feel her heart skip a beat.

"Hey there," Max said, his voice smooth and inviting. "Just wanted to see how our fans are doing."

Y/N blushed, feeling a mix of excitement and nervousness as she looked up at him. "They're loving your recent win, Max. The support for you is insane."

He chuckled, running a hand through his tousled hair. "Well, it's all thanks to the amazing team we have, including you."

Y/N's heart fluttered at his words. She had always admired Max's talent and dedication, but she never imagined he would notice her. The idea of dating a Formula One racer seemed like a distant dream.

As the days passed, Max and Y/N spent more time together. They would grab lunch at the track, discussing everything from racing strategies to their favorite movies. Max's charm and down-to-earth nature made Y/N feel special, like she was the only person in his world.

One evening, after a grueling race, Max took Y/N out for a surprise dinner. He led her to a cozy restaurant with soft lighting and a breathtaking view of the city. Y/N couldn't help but smile, her heart pounding with anticipation.

Over a delicious meal, Max reached across the table, his warm hand finding hers. "Y/N, I never thought I'd find someone like you. You bring so much joy to my life."

Y/N's cheeks flushed as she looked into his deep, intense eyes. "Max, you've made me believe in love again. I've never met anyone who understands me like you do."

They leaned closer, their lips meeting in a gentle, passionate kiss. In that moment, all the doubts and fears Y/N carried in her heart melted away. Max was not only healing her heart but also filling it with a love she had always longed for.

As they broke apart, Max smiled, his eyes filled with affection. "Y/N, you're the missing puzzle piece in my life. I want to be with you, always."

Y/N felt her heart soar, tears of happiness glistening in her eyes. "Max, I feel the same way. Let's see where this journey takes us."

———

One sunny afternoon, Y/N sat at her desk, scrolling through Red Bull Racing's social media accounts. She admired the team's recent victory and smirked, knowing that she played a small role in their success. Just as she was about to close the tab, a message notification popped up.

Curious, Y/N clicked on it. Her heart skipped a beat when she read the name of the sender—it was Max.

"Hey, Y/N," the message read. "I have a surprise for you. Meet me at the race track tomorrow. Can't wait to see your reaction."

Y/N's excitement bubbled within her. She couldn't help but wonder what Max had in store. The next day, she arrived at the race track, her heart pounding with anticipation. Max stood by the pit lane, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Hey, Max," Y/N greeted, unable to hide her excitement. "What's the surprise?"

Max winked playfully before leading her towards the garage. Y/N's eyes widened as she saw a bright red race car, glistening under the track lights. She couldn't believe her eyes—Max had arranged for her to experience a ride in a real Formula 1 car.

"Is this for real?" Y/N gasped, her voice filled with awe.

Max chuckled, his eyes sparkling. "Absolutely, Y/N. I wanted to give you a taste of what it feels like to be on the track."

Y/N's heart raced with a mixture of nervousness and exhilaration. She slipped into a racing suit, her hands trembling with excitement. As she buckled up inside the car, Max looked at her with a reassuring smile.

"You ready?" he asked.

Y/N could barely contain her enthusiasm. "More than ever, Max."

The engine roared to life, and the car sped off down the track. Y/N felt an adrenaline rush like she had never experienced before. The wind whipped through her hair, and the G-forces pressed her against the seat. She held on tight, laughing and screaming in pure euphoria.

As the ride came to an end, Y/N stepped out of the car, her legs trembling but her heart soaring. Max approached her, his eyes filled with joy.

"See, Y/N," he said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Life is full of unexpected twists and turns. And sometimes, those twists lead to the most extraordinary moments."

Y/N nodded, her heart pounding with newfound courage. In that moment, she realized that she had not only found love but also a partner who would never stop surprising her.

Little did Y/N know, the surprises were just beginning, and their love story was far from over.

———

Y/N's heart swelled with excitement as she stepped into the Red Bull garage. The familiar scent of rubber and gasoline filled the air, and she couldn't help but feel a sense of belonging in this world that Max Verstappen inhabited.

Max stood there, leaning against the sleek Red Bull car, his eyes lighting up at the sight of Y/N. She couldn't help but notice a hint of nervousness in his gaze, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his race suit.

"Hey," Y/N greeted, her voice filled with anticipation. "What's up?"

Max smiled, but there was something off about it. His voice, normally confident and vibrant, seemed strained as he replied, "Hey, Y/N. Listen, we need to talk."

A flicker of worry danced across Y/N's face as she sensed the seriousness in his tone. "Sure, what's on your mind?"

Max took a deep breath, his eyes searching hers. "I... I heard something today. A rumor about you and Daniel."

Confusion washed over Y/N. Daniel? As in Daniel Ricciardo, Max's former teammate? She couldn't fathom what Max had heard, or how it could possibly involve her.

"What kind of rumor?" she asked, her heart sinking with each passing second.

Max hesitated, his voice barely above a whisper. "They said you and Daniel... you had something before we got together. Is it true?"

Y/N felt her whole world crumble at Max's words. How could he believe such a thing? Her mind raced as she tried to find the right words to explain, but the hurt in Max's eyes made her stumble.

"Max, I... I can't believe you would think that. Daniel and I are just friends, nothing more," she pleaded.

Max's expression softened, but doubt still flickered in his eyes. "I want to believe you, Y/N. But... it's hard. I've been hurt before."

Tears welled up in Y/N's eyes as she reached out to touch Max's arm gently. "I understand your fears, Max, but you have to trust me. There's nothing between Daniel and me. You're the only one in my heart."

Max's resolve seemed to waver for a moment before he sighed and nodded. "Okay. I want to believe you, Y/N. I really do."

Relief flooded Y/N's heart, but a small part of her remained wounded. She never expected such a misunderstanding to tarnish their connection, their deep bond.

As they stood there, their emotions still raw, Y/N knew that healing Max's heart would take time. But she was willing to fight for the love they had found and prove to him that their love story was far from over.

With determination in her eyes, Y/N whispered, "I'll do whatever it takes to show you that you're the only one for me, Max. Trust me."

Max's uncertainty slowly faded away as he gazed into Y/N's eyes, seeing the sincerity in her words. "I want to trust you, Y/N. Let's work through this together."

Hand in hand, they walked out of the garage, ready to face the challenges that lay ahead. Love wasn't always simple, but the connection they shared was worth fighting for.

As Y/N and Max stood outside the bustling Red Bull garage, a gentle breeze swept through the air, carrying with it a feeling of newfound hope and clarity. Y/N looked into Max's eyes, her own filled with sincerity.

"Max, I promise you, there's nothing going on between me and Daniel," Y/N said, her voice soft yet resolute. "He's just a friend. The only person who holds my heart is standing right in front of me."

A flicker of relief crossed Max's face, his eyes searching Y/N's for any sign of dishonesty. Finding none, he let out a deep sigh and a small smile slowly formed on his lips.

"I believe you, Y/N," he replied, his voice filled with a mix of vulnerability and determination. "But there's something I need to tell you too."

Curiosity danced in Y/N's eyes as she waited for Max to continue. She knew that love required honesty and trust, no matter how difficult the conversation might be.

"When I heard that rumor about you and Daniel, I have to admit, jealousy consumed me," Max confessed, his voice tinged with remorse. "I didn't want to lose you, Y/N. You mean everything to me."

Touched by Max's honesty, Y/N reached out and gently placed her hand on his, intertwining their fingers. "Max, I'm sorry that I unknowingly caused you pain. My heart has always belonged to you. I'd never do anything to jeopardize what we have."

A sparkle of understanding glimmered in Max's eyes as he squeezed Y/N's hand. "I know that now, Y/N. We all have insecurities, but love is about overcoming them together."

In that moment, the weight of doubt and misunderstanding seemed to dissipate, replaced by a renewed sense of love and acceptance. Y/N and Max had weathered their first major test as a couple, emerging stronger than ever.

As they strolled hand in hand through the Red Bull paddock, laughter spilled from their lips, filling the air with lightness. Y/N's heart soared as they talked about their dreams, their future, and the adventures they yearned to embark on together.

Days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, but the spark between Y/N and Max never waned. Their love continued to flourish, fueled by their shared passion for life and their unwavering support for each other.

Y/N's role as Red Bull Racing's social media admin became the backdrop to their love story, punctuated by exhilarating races, joyous celebrations, and heartfelt tributes. Their connection extended beyond the racetrack, as they found solace in the quiet moments spent cuddling on the couch, watching movies, and sharing their hopes and fears.

Together, Y/N and Max had crafted a love story that defied distance, challenges, and rumors. They had learned that true love doesn't mean the absence of difficulties, but rather the strength to face them together.

As they looked ahead, excitement surged through their veins. The future held unknown adventures, but armed with the love they shared, Y/N and Max were ready to face whatever lay ahead.

[askinkiskarma]

Illicit Affairs | Chapter I: Willow

Pairing: Neteyam x f!Human!Reader

Chapter II Chapter III Chapter IV Chapter V Chapter VI Chapter VII Chapter VIII Chapter IX Chapter X

Warnings: Cursing, mentions of death and disease

WC: 3,4k words

A/N: Sooo.. I kinda did something. This is the first fanfic I have written that will actually see the light of day, and also the first piece of writing (outside of master's dissertations, papers, scientific essays etc) that I have done since probably high school, which is longer ago than I'd like to admit. Anyway, I have been hyperfixated on Avatar recently, ATWOW fully bringing back my love and obsession for Pandora that I have had since 2009. I adore the new movie and the Sully kids, but I have a special place in my heart for Neteyam, so here we go. Let me know what you guys think. I work full time as a PhD student, so I'll try my best to write in my spare time and hopefully I can get this done the way I truly want to. This story is also loosely inspired by the incredible @forever--darling and her "One of Us" Neteyam fanfic, which I adore and have probably memorised by now with the amount of times I have read it.

I'm like the water when your ship rolled in that night Rough on the surface but you cut through like a knife And if it was an open-shut case I never would've known from that look on your face Lost in your current like a priceless wine

“Wake up, Ace. It’s late already and there’s so much to do today, remember?” Norm’s voice pulled you out of a beautiful dream, one where you were flying on your chosen Ikran, high above the clouds, the worries…this lab. Albeit hard to swallow, you were almost relieved to be woken up, as feeding out-of-reach fantasies and dreams could lead to no good, anyhow. 

“I’m up… Jesus, Norm.” You felt yourself rise from your warm and comfortable bed and the feeling of your bare feet touching the cold, hard floor of the living quarters of the lab made you swallow a curse. 

“We left you some breakfast, get ready and meet us in the lab in 30, okay? We have the samples ready for you and you can run them after we’ve talked it through.” 

“Aye, aye, captain.” 

This was your life. You, among a few other people, were one of the only humans left on Pandora after the war took them back to Earth more than 17 years ago. Unlike the others, though, you were born here, on this foreign planet, the only home you’ve ever known. There was one more, a beautiful, feisty young man with a dark heritage, who liked to think that he is as much Pandoran as the actual natives. His name was Spider, and although you grew up together, there was not much you could say you had in common. He was wild and adventurous, has been his whole life; fully willing to immerse himself in the Na’vi ways and almost demanding a place amongst the people.

Although you have your doubts, he says the people were accepting of him, as he managed to befriend the most important family of the nearby Omatikaya tribe: the Sullys. Jake Sully, a former dream walker, rose to prominence as Toruk Makto, rider of Last Shadow. He brought multiple clans together to defeat the Sky People in their brutal quest for wealth and colonisation. He succeeded, after which he became Olo’yektan, leader of the Omatikaya. He is now fully Na’vi, after completing a consciousness transfer that allowed him to leave behind his human form and forever live as one of the people. It had never been done before. Jake was a great man, who became a mediator between the Na’vi and the humans left on Earth. His children, Neteyam, Lo’ak, Kiri and Tuk, were brought up to know English and be accepting of everyone, regardless where they came from, as long as they had pure intentions and a strong heart. Spider was considered one of them. And, surprisingly, you were, too. 

Your mum was a medic and researcher, brought here many moons ago to assist the Dr. Grace Augustin and her team in their quest to understand Pandora and its miraculous biology. Your dad, a former Master Sergeant in the US Air Force, joined the RDA for their military purposes. You never met your dad. He died when the Sky People attacked, although no one knows for sure which side he ended up taking. Your mum didn’t even know she was pregnant with you at the time, that’s how new everything was. Your mum loved your dad and she maintained her belief that he ended up doing the right thing in the end. You believed that as a child, but now are not so sure. Nevertheless, you still kept his dog tag, in a drawer at the bottom of your desk, a reminder of where you come from and what mistakes not to repeat. 

Your mum died where you were 10. It was the worst day of your life. The cancer, which slowly spread in the beginning, overtook her being one faithful day, which you will never be able to erase from your memory. There is no chemotherapy, no radiation therapy, no drugs that could have prevented this, not here, not on Pandora. Your mum made a decision to remain on this planet she loved more than her own and it eventually killed her. She had no regrets, she said. She was happy to have lived and loved and died here, among Eywa. The Na’vi loved her. She was good friends and a mentor to Neytiri and Jake, both of whom agreed to give her a Na’vi send off. You were there that day, one of the few times you had visited the Home Tree. You remember the pouring rain, falling so hard it washed away the tears spilling from your eye almost as soon as they emerged. You remember Lo’ak and Kiri, your beautiful friends that have always been there for you, mourning with you. Your mum was their favourite aunt. She introduced them to music and films, and showed all of you her favourite books and painters and made sure you all understood that humans, despite their many flaws, have beauty and love and good in them, that no matter what, will prevail. “It will prevail because of you. Because you will carry it along and share it. You will revel in the beauty and fight to bring it back because what better way is there to live?”

You finished breakfast quickly, some dry toast with some fruit Kiri brought you the last time she visited and made your way back to the lab. You found Norm and Max, alongside two other human scientists, Tim and Claire, sitting on chairs next to the lab benches, discussing plans for the week. 

“There she is, the brightest of us all.” You smirked at the compliment, raising your eyebrows in amusement and sitting down next to Claire. 

“You’ve done great work last week, Ace The ELISAs show promise that Relensa might have some effect against this type of Pandora virus. I need you to now repeat it with the samples we’ve provided and also include a different type of positive control to the experiment, if possible.”

“Will do. How about a combination therapy? I know Relensa is not the only type of anti-viral therapy we have available. Amantidin, maybe? We have to go at this from all angles, you know?” 

“Our Amantidin reserve is running severely short, but give it a try. Try a dose-response? Maybe 100 nano molars to 1 micro molar? Try 1milimolar as a positive control?”

This was your life. Unlike Spider, you avoided the clan. You did not want to be the walking reminder of everything they’ve lost. You were happy to sit back and dedicate your life to helping from the shadows. Your mum was a medic and a researcher, one of the brightest in the world. She wrote the book on Na’vi anatomy and physiology, she wanted to understand the people and hopefully help them mitigate losses brought by disease. You continued that work. Although young, you learned everything there was to learn. Not like you had anything else to do. You worked as a scientist and a nurse and a doctor if needs be. You patched humans up, stitched their wounds, ran experiments on Pandora pathogens and tried to find a cure against viral and bacterial diseases that plagued the Na’vi. You spent your life in the lab, and in the adjacent hub, learning, working out and playing the guitar and piano your mum taught you when you were really young. You couldn’t say you loved it, loved being here all the time, but you were content knowing you were, in your own way, making up for your species’ past mistakes. 

Around lunchtime, you heard commotion from the entryway. A very familiar voice reverberated through the hallways. Your lips raised in a soft smile. Lo’ak. 

Removing your lab coat, goggles and gloves, you made your way towards the origin of the sound. The tall, much-taller-than-you young man picked up a breathing mask from the designated shelf and waved at you with unwavering enthusiasm. You loved this boy. Your brother, for all intents and purposes, your partner-in-crime for all time. He loved you, too, you knew that, and you thought in a different life, in a different universe, you were soulmates, braving life’s tough storms together. 

“Brought you lunch, angel.” Your nickname for you made you roll your eyes. You hated it, but the more you hated it, the more he used it so you remained silent. “I thought you could use a break from the stale excuse you guys call food around here.” 

Lo’ak spoke English with you most of the time. He took to your parents’ (and his dad’s) culture the most out of all the kids. You spent a lot of your childhood together, hunched around a computer with old reruns of shows your mum loved in her youth, shows and movies that were way before even her time. She said she loved seeing what Earth looked like before humans killed their mother. Shows like Gilmore Girls, Friends and Modern Family were some of her favourites. You devoured them as a child, and Lo’ak did so too, with you. You drove her crazy as children, and drove Norm and Max crazy as teenagers, both trying to understand references and sayings, buildings and activities, games and idiosyncrasies. The Earth you grew up watching and reading up was beautiful, a star in the night sky you will never be able to touch. 

Lo’ak made his way to the dining room of the hub, and lay several carefully-packed items on the table. Fresh teylu, cooked over fire and Pandora vegetables, all full of colour and flavour, all much better than anything that could come out of this place. You realise that you are starving as soon as you lay your eyes on them. Before you even sat down, you dug your fingers in and quickly ate some teylu, groaning at the delicious sweet meaty flavour. It was your favourite, and Lo’ak knew. He laughed at your apparent desperation and motioned for you to sit down. You obliged, and you both sat in silence for a while, just enjoying each other’s company and the food he provided. 

“How’s training going? I haven’t seen you in a few days.” 

“I die a little bit inside every time you make me remember I spend my days training like a little robot. It’s going fine. Tiring, you know? My dad is fully back in his Marine ways. He knows it’s been enough time that the humans are bound to return sooner or later. He says they’d never leave this world, and all its untapped riches alone without a fight. So it’s a lot of military training… if we walk like them, talk like them and fight like them, it might bring us some sort of advantage, you know?” 

“Yeah, I know. I know it’s a pain, but he’s only doing this to protect you guys. He’s right. The humans are bound to return one day and when they do, we have to be prepared.” He doesn’t know this, but you have also been training, learning about guns, going through your dad’s old manuals and whatever else the RDA has left behind that could possibly be of use. You use the guns that are in the hub to learn how to aim, shoot, strip field, reload and clean the weapons, so you too can be prepared when the time comes. You might be stuck in a weak human body, but you will not be weak. 

“Neteyam’s driving me nuts. He used to be fun, remember that? He’s such a killjoy, it’s hard to stomach being around him anymore. He’s always giving out orders, always making sure everything is in order and perfect, like him. He’s been training like crazy, and sticking to my dad like he’s some sort of fungus you can’t get rid of. Drives me crazy.”

“Hey, don’t talk about your brother like that. There’s a line, Lo’ak. Neteyam only wants the best for you guys, and he’s the oldest. He has to carry the burden of being the responsible one while you guy cause mischief all the time.” 

Neteyam, Jake and Neytiri’s oldest, is more Na’vi than all the other children combined, in both looks and personality. Whilst the two middle children, Lo’ak and Kiri have five fingers, eyebrows and a more human appearance, Neteyam is all Neytiri. He’s tall and lean and seems like he was born with a bow in hand. A true warrior, you always found him a tad intimidating. Just like his mum, he has his apprehensions about humans and avatars, and although he used to come to the hub quite often when he was younger, mostly to keep an eye on his siblings, the visits have become a rarity as of recent times. 

You wonder how the young man changed in the time you haven’t seen him. You used to be close as children, or at least that’s what you thought. Whereas Spider took to Lo’ak and Kiri, their mischievous personalities a good match for each other, you took to the oldest Sully boy. He was quiet and thoughtful, and he used to look at you like a puzzle he was trying to solve, but couldn’t. He used to sit in the back as you used to play piano, and his gaze on you used to make your skin blush and your heart race. You tried not to think about the pang of hurt that rose in your chest as you remembered that he essentially abandoned you, without so much as a farewell. 

“Earth to Y/N, are you still there?” Lo’ak interrupted your train of thought and you were half grateful that you didn’t have to think about Neteyam anymore. 

“Sorry. You were saying?”

“I was saying you’re right, I know I should be more understanding, I am happy I don’t have to be the one to carry all of responsibility, but it’s hard not to hold a grudge when it seems my brother was abducted by aliens and replaced with a weird, no-fun replica of himself.” 

You groaned at the young Sully’s ongoing verbal attacks, but said no more. Whatever was going on between the two Sully boys was, at the end of the day, none of your business. 

“Anyway…” Lo’ak started, a mischievous grin appearing on his beautiful face, “I know something you don’t.” 

“Mmm, what is that?”

“I’m not telling you, but let’s just say I think it will make you very happy.” 

“Well that’s just cruel. You know I hate surprises.”

After lunch, Lo’ak joined you in the recreation hub, where you kept a guitar and the piano that the humans left behind. You didn’t feel like going back to work just yet. You sat down on the cold floor and picked up your copy of Pride and Prejudice, your mum’s favourite book. The book was coming apart at the seams, worn down from all the times you have held it in your hands, as if gripping it tighter would bring her back to you, even if for only a split second. You sighed as you passed the book to Lo’ak and motioned for him to put it on the table next to him.

“Sing for me, will you? I missed hearing your voice.” 

You smiled up at him. Nobody knew you like Lo’ak did. Nobody accepted you the way Lo’ak did. Both of you felt out of place in this world, like you didn’t quite belong anywhere. He has spent many an hour confessing how alone he’s felt all his life. You’d like to think you helped. You picked up your guitar and played a familiar song, one you knew he loved.

“Life was a willow and it bent right to your wind , as if you were a mythical thing

Like you were a trophy or a champion ring, and there was one prize I'd cheat to win

The more that you say, the less I know

Wherever you stray, I follow

I'm begging for you to take my hand, wreck my plans

That's my man”

You sat like this for hours, laughing and playing and singing. You tried to teach him a couple of chords on the guitar, which looked puny in his massive hands. With a loud thud, the open to the recreation centre swung open, making both of your heads turn in shock. 

“Lo’ak, what the fuck?” 

The harsh tone came from a man, a man you barely recognised anymore. Tall and muscular, he was not the same Neteyam you last saw. He was adorning a carefully crafted neck piece that matched his hunter’s chest piece and the knife holder he kept by his hips. You took a second to adjust to the man in front of you, that you haven’t seen in so long, that will always have a special place in your heart. Your gaze eventually fell on his face, which, like the rest of him, matured so much in all that time apart. He was beautiful. His hair was freshly braided and you couldn’t help but stare at the beaded strands that framed his face. As much as his body and face changed, they didn’t hold a candle to his eyes. The big yellow orbs that always looked at you curiously and intently were now focused on Lo’ak with rage flashed across them. 

“You were supposed to meet me at the Home Tree a fucking hour ago, Lo’ak. Dad asked you to join the hunting party and pull your weight for once, remember that? Are you physically unable to do anything that is ever asked of you?” 

He is yet to even spare a glance in your direction. You felt your blood pressure rising at the oldest Sully, but you pushed it down to look at Lo’ak, who was staring daggers at his older brother. As he was opening his mouth to undoubtedly say something that would get him in even more trouble than he was already in, you cut him off. 

“It’s my fault.” You say in Na’vi. You doubted Neteyam was in the mood for English, so as to not escalate the tensions further, you opted for your semi-decent Na’vi. “I needed his help with some samples Norm got for me that I couldn’t identify. I’m done now, though. Sorry for taking him from his duties.”

His eyes finally snapped from Lo’ak and laded on your frame. You saw his lips parting in confusion and then settle in a firm line. His eyes scanned your body from head to toe. You changed. A lot. Your hair was now close to reaching your narrow waist, which he hated himself for noticing. You were wearing what the humans called a “top”, that was cut above your abdomen and had the word “Stanford” written across it. He’s sure he’s seen it before, although he couldn’t place where. You were wearing bottoms, short and blue, with cuts in them, which Neteyam didn’t get. Why are your clothes ripped? It’s not like you fought some animal in the wild, you never got out. He couldn’t help noticing how lean you had become, so lean, in fact, he could trace your muscles with precision, something he is rarely able to do with humans. Your species was puny and weak, which is why they needed avatars and exo-suits to survive on Pandora. Realizing he was staring, his eyes moved from you back to Lo’ak, and motioned for him to get up. Although he huffed and puffed, Lo’ak obliged without saying a word. He turned around before exiting the room, giving you one last exasperated look. You winked at him and clicked your tongue in the direction of the forest, a small smile on your face. This skxawng. 

“Hey, you.” You called after Neteyam in English, as soon as Lo’ak disappeared from your line of view. You don’t know what you expected, but you had to try. He turned around and his eyes met yours. It was like looking at a stranger. 

“I really have to go, Y/N.” He said, with a deep voice and slight accent, and his eyes fell on the floor as soon as he noticed the look of hurt that crossed your face. 

“Fine, go.” You said, quickly composing yourself. You refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he can hurt your feelings. You turned around, and busied yourself cleaning up, not sparing a second look in his direction. His gaze shifted back to your frame, and with a sigh, he made his way out of the lab and your life, once more. 

[hawkeye221b]

Hi, im going to ramble about my oldest, most special of interests and its going to be long so i'll be hiding it under a cut but just know i have been enabled by internet strangers and the fact that tumblr (to my knowledge) does not have a word limit. and if it does, i will be finding it.

So i'll try to organize the ramblings?? maybe?? we'll see how organized it is but honestly i just want to talk about Phantom of the Opera.

------------------

So to start my ramblings i will be talking about the musical and book; mostly because i think about the differences almost all the time (it is my roman empire)

For example; to my understanding there are those who don't like the book because they think it says she's 15 which.. isn't true. it came from the line of 'she was as pure as that of a 15 yr old' but if she was that old during the events of the book, then the childhood friendship with Raoul would be impossible since he'd be 5 yrs older than her- an 10yr old and a 5 yr old basically if the 15 thing was right.

Another example is the shifting roles.. if memory serves me right, Madame Giry didn't have much of an impactful or big role in the book, but the musical pretty much just cut out the Daroga and split his roles between her and the music box. and even then it changes- in the 2005 movie version, there;s the flashback to show madame Giry as a little girl, helping the Phantom (my mans Erik) escape- but in the 25th anniversary recording, she says that he vanished (presumably without her help)

(Complete side note but why did we even have Daroga erasure in the musical?? justice for the man who put up with Erik's shit for so long..)

------------------- Another thing i wanna kinda ramble on is how Erik is almost always being exploited or used and its fascinating to analyze cause like.. i mean:

he was born with a deformity; he was shunned for it and cast aside and mocked openly

but he was a prodigy. mastermind in many different ways

and yet people took advantage of him- of his desperation as he grew cause no one wanted to be near or associated with what they considered a freak

they benefited and he was used because what else was there for him?

in the 2005 edition he kills because he was pushed to it!! to protect himself!! he was a child then!! a child shown as a freak and abused for people to laugh at!! ofc he was gonna snap! and since no one taught him right and wrong ofc he'd fall back on that defense mechanism whenever he wanted or needed something. its the safest thing he has!!

and in the other variations, its still similar. iirc he was highly under paid and unaccredited for his work. cause no one wanted to admit he was behind the success they benefited from.

and then he finds an orphan girl, come to live in the opera house. a soul broken as he was. and she longs for guidance, and he longs to teach someone. so they find solace in one another.

in my mind they both have delusions and dissonance with one another. he mistakes her friendship for love because no one told him the difference. and she mistakes him as the ghost of her father. its unhealthy yeah but they're both unhealthy people.

and then Raoul comes into her life once more. a reminder of the good in her childhood and the phantom panics cause hes about to lose something he hasn't had before. so he begins to lash out because he doesn't know better

and then.. and then!! because she goes to Raoul, its a betrayal all over again

even if she doesn't mean it the way he sees, she's still benefiting from his work. benefiting from his time in teaching her without credit. without praise or recognition.

in leaving him behind, she's become like the rest of them in his eyes- exploiting him for his talents while rejecting him for how he looks

Honestly i have more thoughts but i think this is really long already and the brain is wanting to over brain so like.. yeah. i love this story and i want to blorb about it all the damn time this is my roman empire

[poppitron360]

Have you read part 1 of this fic? Good. Because meanwhile, somewhere in the Sea of Monsters...

"Hey, what's the date?" Leo asked, turning to Calypso.

"How the Hades should I know?" Calypso replied.

Leo looked down at the stormy oceans passing below them. He rapped twice on Festus' forehead, "How's your internal chronometer working, buddy? Still haywire?"

Festus gave a frustrated creak.

“Damn,” Leo said. He got out a notepad and pen from his tool-belt. “The last time we were in range of land, Festus said it was November 15th,” Leo muttered, scribbling down on his pad, “By my rough estimation, the current ratio of real time to time passing in the sea of monsters is about… pi to one. It’s been 14 sunsets since then, which would put today as…” he punched the numbers into his calculator, “41 days after that… gods, that long?…”

He jotted the numbers down on his notepad, muttering to himself, “Thirty days in September, April, June and November… 41 minus 15… oh. That means it's..." Leo looked up from his calculations, and his heart sank, "It's December 26th."

He turned to Calypso, "Cal, it's-"

"I heard you the first time," Calypso said, "Is that supposed to mean anything to me?"

"Calypso… Christmas day was yesterday! We’ve missed it!"

"What's Christmas?"

The explanation took a while. First, there was the Nativity. That was easy enough- Leo had had it drilled into him since he was a kid. Calypso seemed to understand most of the story. Then, there was the more complicated question of describing the intricacies of modern Christmas traditions- the shopping, the giftwrapping, and mince pies and Santa- and the debate over whether Die Hard is, in fact, a Christmas movie (it is).

"What's a movie?" Calypso asked.

“We’ll get to that later,” Leo replied.

"I don't get it," Calypso said, "Demigods are born all the time. Why celebrate this specific birth? What makes this Jesus guy so special?"

"Well, he was the son of God. He had a lot of friends and followers. He kinda sacrificed himself to save a lot of lives and then rose from the... Oh- wait. Hang on a second-"

"What?"

"...Nothing. So… did you maybe wanna do something to celebrate?”

“Nah,” Calypso said, without hesitation.

“Oh…” Leo tried not to show the hurt in his voice, “But it’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

Calypso crossed her arms with an annoyed hmph, "Look, We've got no time for these inconsequential mortal festivities, we can't just stop because some hero was born two thousand years ago and you wanna get all sentimental about it. I mean, do you really expect me to care about every single one of your silly western traditions?"

"Well... Yeah," Leo said, "I mean, I get it if you don't want to celebrate it. Not everyone does. But it's a big time of year for a lot of people. It’s important to me, and it would mean a lot to me if you at least showed an interest. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt to have an open mind."

"Well I think it's stupid!"

Leo didn't respond. He stayed silent for a very long time. Eventually he said, in a small voice, "I miss Jason and Piper."

"Boo-hoo," Calypso sneered, “Just fly the damn dragon. My old lovers wouldn’t waste their time on weeping over forgotten birthdays of old demigods. They’d man up and tough it out.”

Leo frowned. From what he’d read of the Odyssey (and he hadn’t read much) Odysseus did spend a fair amount of his time weeping.

He flew in silence, lost in thought.

Christmas was a time for sharing with family. Or that was what Leo was told. Since his mom died, he'd never had a family. Not a real one. Not until Jason and Piper, Percy, Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, and Nico came along. They'd been his crew. His family.

He'd always dreamed about spending Christmas with his first girlfriend- someone he loved and who loved him back. Now, looking at Calypso, looking at the life they led, he realised it was a stupid dream. She'd never be willing to take part in the things he wanted to do. He had spent his first Christmas in a relationship flying somewhere over the Bermuda triangle, trying to avoid monsters, not aware it was even December. If this was the "normal life" he'd promised her, he was doing a swell job.

Festus seemed to sense his thoughts. He let out a low, long creak of sympathy. Leo patted the dragon’s bronze neck.

“At least I got you, bud,” he sighed, “At least I got you.”

— — — — — — — — —

Look, I realise I’m harsh on Calypso.

I don’t really want arguments in the comments about the way I write her. She actually has every right to not care about Christmas. I was just thinking about Leo spending the the holidays before TOA being separated from his friends and away from home, and his only travel companion being an ancient deity who might not fully understand how special it is to a lot of people.

Love you all, stay safe. I know this time of year can be hard if you don’t have anywhere to go, but I’m thinking of you guys. I like to spend this time of year with family, and in a way the PJO tumblr fandom has become like a second family to me. So feast on these angsty little fics, we shall dine on blood and tears. These works are my gift to you because I love and appreciate you all.

I’m still on hiatus, so this might be the last you hear from me for a while. There’s no fixed date on when I might return, but it’s probably gonna be at some point in early February.

Lots of love and happy holidays!

—Poppi <3

@euryvices-deactivated20241019 @deciduowl @lavenderfairiez @ottpopfic @ginnyluna @groverapologist @echo-stimmingrose @demigod-shenanigans @keefessketchbook @sleepyycapybara @123letsgobestie @kaleidoskuls @fairytalesociology @four-leafed-queer-gal @child-of-helios @green-tea217 @puzzled-pegasus @twomanyfandomshelp @lokiwiiiiiii @yoshuko-ew @frayna-of-the-hollow @via-rant @daonedaonlyskh @hadeslegacyhephgirl @siimplyapril @pjowasmy1stfandom @thetourturedwritersclub @m-for-now + everyone else!!

[alle-x-ao3]

IN YOUR WILDEST DREAMS.

Intro

There’s something about writing queer women in Hollywood that is like instant serotonin to me. I think it’s ingrained in our DNA as queer folks to love it. And I think it came from all the pre- code divas like Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Greta Garbo and the love of my life Marlene Dietrich.

It’s the glamour, it’s the innuendo and it’s the hint of something kinda gay happening in the background. As queer people, we actually don’t always like outward gayness in our stories, we like the suggestion of gay because it makes it sexier or more intriguing. Sometimes we like the subtext of gay more than we like straight-up homosexuality in our stories. Or at least I do.

And that’s why I like Hollywood – because everyone seems a little gay. The whole idea of actors and creatives at parties and on sets mixing and mingling is such an interest of mine. We don’t live those lives, but we do wonder what happens behind the gates. That’s why people write stories that incorporate Hollywood, because there will always be a mystique around it. Even now, when we’re not in the golden era and we’re becoming less and less enthralled by out-of-touch celebrities as we face the harsh reality of life.

Blah-blah-blah – all to say that movie stars are hot and we kinda ship them with their co-stars all the time because we’re gay and it makes sense.

Inspiration

If you’ve read my stories long enough you know that anything Taylor Jenkins-Reid writes is always going to inspire me. I’ve read most of her books, and I appreciate her commitment to writing characters that exist within this famous realm. If it were up to me, more of my own fics would incorporate a level of fame because the stakes instantly get higher when your characters are in the spotlight.

So, very noticeably, I took inspiration from her book, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. Now, the way I always reference this book will have you thinking that this is my bible and my only frame of reference and my favourite book of all time.

And it’s not.

I think it’s got a lot of elements that I appreciate, but it’s far from being my favourite book with my favourite couple. It’s a nice book, it tugs on the heartstrings, it stays with me. But it’s not perfect. At times I personally felt like it could have gone deeper with the exploration of sexuality. I wish that we got more of the little moments between the principal pairing, but what do I know? I’ll just write my own fanfic that’s kinda like her story, but gayer.

Another point of reference is the song and music video of Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams. I’m not the biggest Swiftie – don’t come for me—but this song and video was really special to me. It came out a time when I was first getting into my own sexuality and learning that I like girls. And I always wanted the music video to be gay, because that would have been more impactful.

The song invokes this longing, yearning, very glam aesthetic and the lyrics of the song are kinda sad… and that makes Wildest Dreams the gayest Taylor Swift song of them all. And I don’t care about her new, more performative songs – they’ll never be 1989. The lyrics are kind of sprinkled all over the fic, so that’s a fun little easter egg if you’re really looking

The last piece of media that inspired me was the press tour of the movie Wicked. I loved the movie, I’ve seen it three times already. But I think what I liked more was seeing Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande on their press run acting like... Well I’m sure you’ve all seen how intense they were on that press run and as someone who holds space for queer media, I was definitely inspired by all of it. So dramatic, so camp, so strange in an almost surreal way that kept me glued to YouTube waiting for the next interview.

The Story

I won’t rehash the story, because I’m sure you’ve all read it. But I wanted to expand upon some things, because I love talking about my stories and this one in particular has a lot to talk about.

Sometimes people don’t like stories about characters figuring out who they are. And I get that. We’re queer and we wanna read queer stories, but we’re tired of queer struggles. However, sometimes it’s good to read about characters and the journeys they go on to get to themselves.

Christen, in the story, is this ambitious but cautious actor whose career hasn’t gone the way she would have hoped. She was a young Broadway star, Tony-nominated and on the cusp of superstardom. But then the pandemic happened and she realised how fickle like on stage was, and how she’d be better off in Hollywood.

She moved back to California and put together a team who ended up getting her in the hamster wheel of Netflix romance, and her career has stagnated to the point where she’s not getting the roles she really wants.

So, she’s kind of settling in various departments of her life. She’s settling in her career and in her personal life. She meets Elijah and he’s nice, her parents like him and that’s enough for her to agree to marry him.

But she’s never been sure of anything, and she’s never been sure of her own sexuality. In chapter 5 we get a glimpse of how her sexuality has manifested over the years. She’s never liked guys, but she’s never been with girls so she doesn’t know what she wants.

Later chapters will reveal more of her backstory, and we’ll understand what else has caused her trepidation. But her character is someone that others can relate to; she’s so confused about her feelings and there’s no one in her corner who she can talk to. She has a fiancé who loves her, but who she feels she can’t be honest with. She has best friend who represents the ideal of finding a man and loving him and being in this heteronormative relationship where they’ll get married and have kids and she knows Crystal will never be able to relate, so there’s no use in talking to her.

Her family wants her to be the perfect daughter, and Christen knows that they’ll probably write her off completely if she wasn’t that. She has to marry Elijah and have his kids and be a mother and wife and she’ll only get their approval once that happens. And she wants their approval. At the day a lot of people just want approval from their family. And queer people understand that better than anyone.

We have complex relationships with our families, even if they accept us. And sometimes it’s better to acquiesce when you’re around them. Sometimes it’s better to tame your queerness around your parents, because even though they love you they might not fully understand you, and they may not want to imagine you as this queer being. They just want you to be their child.

Christen just wants to be her parents’ child. She doesn’t want to lose them, especially because she’s always wanted their approval. She was successful on Broadway and that wasn’t enough. So, she wants to be a big movie star and she hopes that they’ll finally be proud of her. But, she knows marrying the man they like will be the only thing that ever makes them proud. So, she doesn’t want to leave him because what if this is her only chance to get the approval of her parents?

I’m 25 and I’ve given up trying to make my parents proud because I know that ship has sailed. They’ll never understand my choices and I think there’ll always be a part of me that wishes they did. But I know they never will and so I live my life knowing that’s something I can’t change. And there’s a freedom to it, but it’s also sad.  And maybe some you have similar stories. It’s sad knowing that nothing you do will truly make your parents proud of you. So, imagine Christen… realising there’s a cheat-code to getting the one thing she’s always craved.

 She gets this chance – they like Elijah. Marry him and they finally approve. Marry him and she gets what she’s always wanted.

But then she meets Tobin Heath, and all of a sudden things shift. Her world was black and white, and then she sees in colour for the first time. Gay awakening-core.

I attribute my own gay awakening to She-go from Kim Possible. And in my mind, a gay awakening isn’t this epiphany where it hits you out of nowhere and all of a sudden you’re gay. To me, a gay awakening is meeting someone or seeing a character on tv and they make you feel like… like you’ve been eating salad without dressing your whole life. You’ve just been eating dry arugula and tomatoes, no olive oil, no balsamic, no salt. But it never bothered you, because it was all your knew.

And then you see her, and it’s like ‘what have I been doing my whole life? What have i been missing?’

Christen is taken by Tobin and she thinks it’s because of the Oscar and the fame, but it’s really attraction. It’s attraction hidden behind adoration and respect. But it’s there, inside and flickering and lingering and eating at her to the point where she can’t deny it anymore.

Now, every interact is fuelled by this desire and denouncing of that desire. It’s an internal struggling that manifests itself in Christen second-guessing every little move. She doesn’t even know what to eat because she’s starting to doubt every decision she’s making. Because her heart and her head are in constant conflict.

Tobin is even more ethereal and magical than Christen could have ever imagined. But it goes even beyond that – Tobin is real, and she’s something that Christen has to confront for the first time in her life. And that’s the story.

Outro

In the second part of this little write-up series, I’ll focus more on Tobin and on lines, passages and moments in the story that I like and that carries a lot of weight. I just think the characters are very layered and we will get into their backstories more, and I think that will help explain the direction the stories goes even more.

Thanks for reading, and hope you’re having a good day. Stay safe and be gay.

[stevenbasic]

Growing into the Job, Post 336: A Saturday at Melissa's, p11 (9PM, Randi)

We were kinda sorta still watching the movie, another superhero thing that was in the theaters a couple years or so ago. Sushi had all been cleaned up, and we’d let him start to recover, dialing back on our, uh, whatever they called these things - pheromones. Missy was reclined, he was cuddled up into her and had been put back into some loose clothes after he’d complained a bit. Most of us were still in swimsuits, though I’d put a little tube top on over mine after our last spurt nearly burst me out of my bikini. Fuck, my tits were getting huge. We’d all grown. 

“Hey, has anyone heard from Marisela?” I asked, to no one in particular, stretching my jaw, “She was supposed to be here.”

I didn’t really get a response. I’d been here only a few hours but he’d came like a bunch of times today already. We were all just sort of lazily recovering, enjoying the new size and energy. Some of us handled it differently than others, and though nobody really talked about it too much some of us were beginning to change in different ways. I stretched out my jaw again, which tended to feel a little sore afterwards, and considered Marisela once more. “Should someone call her?”

“I already tried. Nothing,” Josie replied, casually rubbing J's bare foot. I thought I saw the ends of her long brown hair twitching. She’d gone back to watching Black Widow shrink Ant Man down for like the third time, Amelia was checking her nails.. 

Hm. Well, fuck it. If no one else cares I don’t either. These were odd chicks, for sure, this little friend group of ours. That I’d become the responsible one was a laugh, and I tried not to get too concerned about the weird shit that was going on. I figured I’d worry about whatever Marisela was doing later tonight. Maybe tomorrow. 

Scarlett was holding the guy in her hand and scowling down at him while he tried to joke his way out of something stupid he’d just done. I gererally thought superhero movies were fucking stupid but had to admit the effects in this one were pretty amazing. It was one of the first ones, along with the first She-Hulk movie, that really caught people’s attention, big girls and all that. 

“Haha I dunno..!” Missy laughed back, hugging his head back into her boobs, “Maybe! Would you like that, sweetie..?”

We all laughed as a few girls turned to watch him blush and stammer something we could barely hear. Missy, for her part, took it upon herself to gather him in a little closer, bundling him in the thin blanket he’d been given. I didn't even have to look. One of her hands was definitely under that blanket.

I’m sure I don’t have to spell it out for you people, but for all her quirks, we all adored Missy. Josie, Katie, Amelia and I have known her a long time, Shanette even longer. She’s a special friend to have. It’s been a trip, watching what’s happening to her in the middle of all the crazy shit that’s going down in the world and seeing how she’s drawn this hive of girls all around her. This job had been haha really good for her, to say the least, and it had given us all the opportunity to not only make bank, but to become more than what we were before. Some of us were worker bees, some were becoming more like warriors or soldiers, but everyone had their part. I like to think the boss girls were something even more special still. But Melissa, again for all her oddities, was definitely our queen bee…and she seemed blithely happy with this new little boyfriend of hers. It’s good, she deserves to be happy, especially with what her life story has been. And I have to admit he was pretty cute, so vulni and getting more so everyday. It made my mouth water, thinking of it, and my jaw flex remembering the couple times I had him in the car and in his apartment a few months back. Yummy... 

The guy was a hard-triggered mess unable to think with anything besides what was between his legs. Most of the time that didn't seem weird anymore. It certainly didn’t bother Melissa. In fact, I think she sorta loved it. She would've had trouble seeing anything odd or strange about it. Her view of men was certainly different than most people’s, with the way she was raised. That she even seemed to consider this guy as human, let alone someone to care about, was a big step for her. She’d had him tamed through his libido, which was sort of her go-to automatic thing and not a surprise seeing as how she’d treated boys before, but she honestly seemed to love him. 

Jesus Christ I sound like such an adult. The important thing was that she had him by the dick and that was that. Her new thing was that she wanted us all in on the deal. Well, okay, we could become his protectors, his guardian angels or whatever. It certainly felt good, this new kind of energy we were all getting since yesterday. I could feel it in my teeth and jaw.

Watching Black Widow zipping up her top, hiding away and trapping Ant Man in her bra and then having to fight off some robots got Melissa thinking. She and the rest of us sort of chatted about it, and it was obviously making him kinda nervous. I sensed it, and she certainly did too. She spoke up, finally, and sat him up a bit on her lap. It was weird, kinda. How her voice seemed to make the movie go quiet as all the lasers and punching noises faded into the background. We were all - all like, I dunno, dozen of us - turned to her. Attentive. 

”Jay, I want you to tell them what we talked about last night,” she said. Melissa was half-reclined on the couch, her long legs stretched out and taking up a good number of seats. Shanette sat alongside her on the other wing of the sectional.

He was turned on her lap a little awkwardly at the waist, so he could look back down at her. He nodded his head, like he knew exactly what she was talking about, what she wanted him to tell the crowd of us. “Melissa, uh…because of what’s going on with my, uh…health, thinks I need some…protecting.” 

As the words left him I watched Shanette whispering in Missy’s ear. As she pulled back, Melissa shook her head in the negative and spoke up again. “No,” she said to him, “That doesn’t sound right. Try again, sweetie.��

I saw his reaction - he was a little taken aback. But he paused, and rather than argue, he thought for a moment and reworded what he’d said. ”She believes it’d be in my best interest if you all helped her-“

Shanette was whispering in her ear again, and again Melissa stopped him. ”Uh uh uh,” She said, herself stopping to think now, “I know what’s wrong. Try saying it like this ‘I’m starting to have a hard time, and I need all your help. I need you all to become more protective of me.’” Melissa looked at him with those big, golden-green eyes of hers and I could see the gears turning between them. “Try that, honey,” she instructed, already expectant.

You could tell he felt awkward, all those female eyes on him, the center of attention. But, he was able to repeat her word for word: “I’m starting to have a hard time, and I need all your help. I need you all to become more protective of me.” 

When we all gave several half-claps and ‘good jobs’, you could see his face growing redder. He felt happy and self-conscious at the same time, surrounded by a bevy of bosomy bikini girls praising him like he was a shy schoolboy.

“Much better,” Melissa lauded, petting his shoulder and gracing him with that big dimpled smile of hers.

”Melissa, th-that was embarrassing,” he said, plainly, making us all purr in delight. The light of the TV screen silhouetted the shapely figures of Aubrey, Katie and the B-girls from behind, covering J with their shadow.

The room erupted with an “Awwwww..!” as I watched his vulni little eyes settle on his reflection in the glass pool doors. The TV gave off just enough light for him to see his shrunken little self - and I swear he was smaller now than he was this afternoon - surrounded by his big beautiful protectors on every side. He was seated in the middle, a little man on his girlfriend's lap, right where he belonged.

”Don´t think of it that way, sweetie,” Shanette giggled, “think of it as a lesson…”

“...and you just needed some help with it,” Josie chimed. 

“But I´m sure that, from now on, you will pay attention to what every woman says, right?” Melissa finished. She was sitting up straighter, now, and had pulled him slowly closer to her. I could see her eyes light up as he had moved closer to her right breast again. This whole exchange was so, like, enlightening. She obviously didn’t want him to feel as if he had no say in the matter. She wanted him to think that he had at least some power in this relationship of theirs, but she also needed him to know what’s what.

“We’re all excited to help you,” Lakshmi spoke, turning ever so slightly towards him on the couch, that big rear end of hers pivoting and causing something - springs in the sofa? - to groan.

“We want to keep you safe,” said Aubrey.

Melissa continued. ”Does that make you happy?” she asked, “Are you happy you have us, you have me to protect you?”

His voice cracked, adorably. ”s-SU-ure?” he answered, “Yes?” That caused the girls to titter and giggle excitedly, though I could tell he couldn’t make out what they were saying even as they were all - me included - drawing in closer to him. The whole place already looked like a big slumber party from some weird-ass porno.

”So tell me… why?” Melissa pressed. Their gazes were locked, intent on one another.

”Uhhh…” he began, searching for the right answer, “if someone tries to h-hurt me, you’d stop them?”

Melissa shook her head while her words came quickly. “Oh no no no,” she said, “If someone were to try to hurt you I wouldn’t just stop them. I’d absolutely murder them.”

When his smile changed we all felt the electricity. Her own excitement surged and we all began to warm slightly. He was picturing it, we could see, he was imagining what someone with the size and strength of Melissa could do to another human being, and it turned him on. Missy shivered, and needed to squirm her legs below him.

“We all would,” someone else said. I think it was Amelia, at first, but then the others joined in in chorus. 

“Yes, cutie…”

“You have us…”

“Your girl army…”

All our voices were echoing off the high ceilings, sounding louder and louder. I don’t know if the others were noticing it but I was watching him flinch.

“Your big pretty bodyguards…”

“We’d fucking kill them.”

Girls were laughing, and onscreen Black Widow was again arguing with Ant Man, who was complaining from deep inside her cleavage. The robots were crumpled and smoldering, beaten, but she still hadn’t unzipped. 

Melissa continued to smile, satisfied with the enthusiasm of her girls. ”What else?” she asked him, “What else are you happy about?” The smell of our perfumes, the chlorine in our wet hair, and the lingering tang of wasabi filled the room as we waited for him to answer.

”Uhhhh….” he began, struggling again under the attention of a dozen jigglebunnies. He knew there was a right answer, somewhere.

Josie spoke up to help. ”How about this, Dr. J…say this:” she began, “‘Now I don’t only have one girlfriend, I’ve got thirty…”

Lots of giggles.

”Th-thirty?” he stammered, looking over at Josie. 

”Haha yes!” Missy laughed, “Thirty girlfriends! You lucky little guy!”

“So lucky!”

“And soon we’re going to hire more,” Missy added.

“More girlfriends??” someone sang, “OOOOoooo YES!”

“Okay, Fifty!” Josie called.

“Sixty!” offered someone else.

“And the more of us there are..?” said Brittni.

“...the stronger we get?” finished Bobbi.

“A hundred!” called the redheaded Julia, who’d arrived an hour or so ago. She and a couple others were actually standing on the second-floor balcony above us, outside the bedrooms, watching from up there.

“A thousand!!” laughed Stephanie after her, also from the balcony. When’d she get here? I think there were three of our witchy friends up there, too.

Anyway, I felt it myself, for sure - this group of women swelling in strength, excited and energized. We were a unit, a hive, a family - and we were growing. So weird; three months ago you’d have never been able to convince me I’d be hanging out with some of these people. But now, look at all of us. Each one of us that joined the group just makes us bigger and better, makes her bigger and better. Is that what’s making Melissa so strong? I thought, The more of us there are, the more powerful she becomes? I’d seen her, in the parking lot just yesterday, casually pushing one of the construction guy’s pickup trucks out of the way. He’d parked it blocking in her beemer, and she moved the thing like it was nothing. 

“A million!”

Does she even realize it?

There was the patter of strong footsteps as several more girls came in from the kitchen, bare feet and high heels, both. Silvia, Nadia and Kori were here now, and had been swimming and looking for wine in the fridge. Bessie had also arrived, still in her BOOMfood uniform and pumps. Among everyone, the growing, giddy crowd, Missy seemed to draw all light and attention to herself. Look at her, I remember thinking, seeing her holding him so small on her lap, I fucking love her.

“A million girlfriends, Jay, how does that sound?” Missy laughed, “Could you handle all those kisses?”

The girls loved that, and we all smushed in closer. The movie still played, and with the doors out to the pool now left open you could hear the sound of the hot tub from outside the room. The floor was damp in places and there were warmly wet towels everywhere, left by the few who had not fully dried their hair. Some of us - oh yeah, me haha - had their towel around their waist.

“We need you, sweetie, to start getting used to having as much physical contact with the girls as possible,” Missy continued, as the pile of girls swarmed in closer still, some crawling onto the couch, across the ground, gathering towards him with the sofa pillows they had brought to sit on the floor, “It’ll help you bond.”

“Yes, bonding. Lots of bonding,” Shanette cooed, pressing her big breasts together in her overmatched blue bikini, causing his eyes to goggle.  

“I’m going to need my good morning hug every morning,” Josie offered, pushing a pillow up alongside him, between him and the back of the couch.

“Me too, and a good morning kiss,” said Katie, also adding a pillow to support him and leaning in to smooch him on the lips. 

“Bonding…” Shanette cooed again. 

“Everyone will need their good morning hug, and their good morning kiss when they come into the office, okay Jay?” Missy charged, watching his eyes follow Katie’s chest up and then rivet to her brilliant smile as she pushed back her thick blond hair.

“Yes lots of physical contact,” I said, moving in myself towards him seeing how hard he obviously was, with a tent pulling the thin blanket up off his hips, “Let’s try it out…” 

At that I scootched in for my own kiss, my mouth opening wide - though not nearly as wide as haha I could open it - to take his own. The girls were building pillows around him, attempting to make him even more comfortable as I could taste Katie’s cherry chapstick on his lips. I added my own lipstick to his face, my mauveness, smearing it on him. How do you like that flavor, boy? I then heard him grunt, feeling the surprise when he realized the size of my mouth. I chuckled thinking about how he’d react if he realized I could probably swallow his whole fucking head if I wanted. I grabbed his cock through the throw blanket, and we all heard him groan, everyone giggling as his body tensed into spasm.

“Who’s the best kisser, Dr. J?” I asked, giving him another quick peck, this time right between the eyes. Then I licked him up his face, chin-to-nose-to-forehead. “Me?”

“No no no you have to try us all!” Josie squealed, suddenly leaning in aside me to plant her own lips on his. His eyes had closed, so he couldn’t see how her hair, in the strange way it had started to do over the past week, began to swirl and curl, with a movement of its own. One strand reached out towards me, one towards him, caressed his face.

I sat back and Missy, for her part, just watched and smiled as the entire crowd of us moved in for kisses. His face, I could see, was quickly coated with smears of lipstick, the sheen of glosses, pink and red and shiny. Aubrey, Lakshmi, Brittni and Bobbi. Amelia and Katarina and Shanette. Even the new girls Silvia and Kori and Bessie and the rest got in there, everyone taking their turns on his lips, settling for his cheeks and neck and shoulders, back and belly when needed. He was a-glob with lipstick, all over his body, the girls sitting back to apply more to themselves, to each other, when others slid in to take their place on him and his skin. The blanket, which had been across his hips, was gone. If he’d had on shorts or anything underneath those were gone too, and now it was cock, all cock. Huge throbbing cock again, nearly ten inches of it rising from his weak-ass skeleton. As we kissed him - I’d gone in for seconds, thirds - hands were on him, now. The other girls were cooing and clucking, groaning and texting and taking selfies and group pics with him swimming in his harem, drowning in their lipstick, trying to stay afloat as our mouths sucked him into our depths. In all his glory he was now only weakly twitching and he would have long ago collapsed and flopped over were it not for us all, for the pillows around him, and for Missy’s strength holding him up from behind. She, in fact, finally eased us all away to allow him breath, while we all writhed alongside him, buzzing and squealing. She turned him, gently, pivoting him at the hips and - his chin in hand - took him in for a kiss of her own.

If you’ve never seen a man’s brain melt, it’s quite the fucking sight.

Missy drew him into the kiss, and I could see how his jaw stretched and his eyes widened as she was pushing her huge tongue into him. She moved it around his mouth, down towards his throat, claiming her territory and then, drawing breath herself, began pulling the air from within him. His eyes began to flutter closed. She wanted to take him deeper into herself to make him closer to her. Just as I’d felt the pull, the instinct to eat him, the want to suck him right into me, I could see Melissa was struggling with the same hunger. She wanted him. She wanted all of him. She wanted to suck out all his brains along with his come and all his manhood, leaving him a dribbling pathetic husk. She didn’t want to kill him, she wanted him alive to hug and cuddle and care for. But she would take his breath away. She would control his breathing, filling him with her own oxygen and keeping him alive at her whim. Haha she wanted to do more - I could see, I could fucking see how she wanted to just be able to open her mouth wider and wider and wider and just YOMP - but she wasn’t quite that big yet. What she could do is fucking suck the life out of him if she wasn’t careful, and so she released the kiss before he began to suffer any real discomfort.

“C’mon, Daddy,” she urged, “Come for us...”

The other girls, too, cooed their encouragements. I was chiming in myself, my lips the closest to his left ear. 

“Let’s go, you little shit,” I sneered into him, as my mouth all but ate up his ear, “come for us again.”

I was in his left ear, Lakshmi had moved into his right, both of us were purring and slurping and tonguing his brain. Others were between his knees, sliding lips up thighs and around his sac. Hands caressed arms, slid over chest and shoulders. Still Josie stroked him, as Melissa gazed into his failing eyes. 

“Go ahead, Jay, it’s okay,” she said, giving him permission. This was her boyfriend, her new man, the love of her life, and she haha was willing to share. We were all his, and he was all ours. “Give yourself to them, Jay, I want you to…”

“Come for us,” we hissed.

“Come for us now,” I said.

My smile grew so huge around his ear when, yes, finally, we all felt him shudder and collapse, like a dying fucking beast underneath us all, this pride of lionesses. When he finally came the girls - and me, and Melissa - all sang his name and Josie pumped and pumped and pumped. We watched him wither, we watched his jaw fall open and his head bob like a marionette on his neck. Though he’d climaxed countless times today, come still rocketed from his dick in gushes and fell onto his chest, into my hair and Lakshmi’s. And then, as she still pumped, Josie sat up straighter and drew his eyes to her tits. She pulled back her shoulders, thrust her big breasts out, straining straining straining at the top of her bikini and waiting waiting waiting for - oh god, there it was, there it fucking was - the warmth, the strength, the power that swelled and there it was she knew it, we all knew it - we were all just about to-

Josie’s top burst, her bikini snapping apart. Her tits ballooned outwards, and Missy began to laugh as he moaned an ‘oh my god’ in the weakest, most pathetically male voice you could imagine. She had  begun to grow, we had begun to grow, all around him, visibly. He was watching us and he was watching us fucking grow. Staring at Josie’s burgeoning tits and the swirls of her hair dancing about her shoulders, he was staring into his future and feeling his world close in all around him. “Get ready little man,” I whispered into his ear, “your girls are going to eat you alive…”

========================================

thanks in huge gobs to ResistanceIsFutile for his inspiration, contributions to atmosphere and editing on this one.  I’m also using brother Beetlebomb’s render of Dr J…again.

[dragonfly0808]

An Incredibly Long and Wholly Unnecessary Disection of How Fate: The Winx Saga Missed the Mark on What Made the Winx Club Special

So, I decided to make this cause I have way too many feelings on this and I saw someone make something similar about a different franchise and loved it so here goes.

DISCLAIMER: If you’re a fan of the Winx Club and enjoyed Fate, I have nothing against you, these are just my feelings and I 1) am really glad you were able to enjoy it and 2) genuienely sorry a show you loved got canceled cause I know how much that sucks

SPOILERS FOR FATE AND THE FIRST 3 SEASONS OF THE WINX CLUB (AND A BIT OF SEASON 4)

One more thing: I’ve only watched Fate once since I’m not about to make myself rewatch it for this so if I forget any certain scene I apologize.

With that out of the way, the themes I will be discussing in this essay will be divided into 4 categories: The Problems I Have In General. Questions That Will Never Be Answered. Character Deep Dives/Character Rants. And finally, How Fate failed to capture the Essence of Winx Club.

These will be the themes of every category (feel free to skip any that may not interest you).

The Problems I Have In General:

The Abandonment of an Amazing World and Dimension for a Hogwarts Rip-Off.

The Erasure of Good Adoptive Parents

Polyamorous My Ass (Srsly What the Fuck was that?)

Fake Feminism and Pitting Women Against Each Other

The Love Triangle Took Years From My Life and I’m Tired

Why Glitter and Love was Essential to the Feminism of the Winx Club

Questions That Will Never Be Answered

What Makes the Specialist Special?

Where are the Witches?

Why are Riven and Sky friends?

Character Deep Dives/Character Rants

From Naive but Loyal and Heroic to Boring and Annoying (A Bloom Deep Dive)

How Stella Became Everything She Stood Against (A Stella Deep Dive)

Why Musa Kinda Works but Really Doesn’t (A Musa Deep Dive)

Was Terra Necessary? What made her unique? (A Terra Deep Dive)

From Hero to Zero (An Aisha Deep Dive/Rant)

Why Sky Somehow was the Most Interesting One but Still Boring (A Sky Deep Dive)

Why Riven will Always Get the Short End of the Stick (A Riven Deep Dive/Rant)

Bea Could’ve Saved the Show, BUT- (A Beatrix Rant)

Why Flora Mattered (A Flora Deep Dive/Rant)

A Retrospective Look at Soft Boys (A Helia and Timmy Deep Dive/Rant)

The Forgotten Protectors (A Brandon and Nabu Rant)

Why Tecna is Often Discarded and Why She Shouldn’t Be (A Tecna Deep Dive/Rant)

How Fate Failed To Capture the Essence of the Winx Club

How Fate Forgot the Most Important Aspect of the Winx Club: Friendship Amongst Young Women

Now with that out of the way, let’s get to it, cause this is gonna be a long one.

The Problems I Have In General

The Abandonment of an Amazing World and Dimension for a Hogwarts Rip-Off

So. I think we can all agree that the world of Winx Club is one that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also very unique and magical.

We have Magix, where the three schools of magic are, all with very different but equally interesting aesthetics and designs that make sense for what the schools teach. We also have the city of Magix, where we have magical ships and a cool toned color pallet that makes us feel like we’re in a futuristic world, Red Fountain also feels right out of a sci-fi movie, whilst the clothing, stores, Cloud Tower and Alfea remind us of the magical aspects of the world.

Further into the series, we see the girls’s home planets, which are all very different, creative and fit the girls perfectly. We have Solaria with two suns, Lynphea as an ecologists utopia with hollow trees for houses and giant ladybugs for transport, Zenith as a sci-fi dream, Melody with its glittering oceans and singing whales, etc.

Watching Winx Club, just looking at the world adds so much to the feeling of magic, the setting just helps the story so much. Also it’s just fucking gorgeous.

Now compare that to Fate… where we get a dark forest… and an old Mansion, that serves as both Red Fountain and Alfea…

I would just like to say, I’m a sucker for dark academia, I love this aesthetic, for other shows, but this is supposed to be an adaptation of Winx Club, where there already was an amazing world where the story was set in, so why didn’t they even try to use that? I don’t know, but it really bothers me that they didn’t try even one bit.

Especially when the vibrant colors and fantastical environment were such a big part of what made the Winx Club stand out.

The Erasure of Good Adoptive Parents

I remember watching Winx Club for the first time and when it was revealed that Bloom was adopted I literally was like… but… her parents love her…

Yep.

We very rarely get good adoptive parents in stories (it’s getting a bit better but still, at least as a kid this was pretty much the only time I ever saw fictional adoptive parents that actually loved their child).

So, the fact that in Fate we get Vanessa (the sweetest mom ever in the cartoon) be a maniac who takes away Bloom’s privacy and tries to live vicariously through Bloom just really fucking pissed me off.

Like… what was the need for that? You didn’t need Bloom to be pissed for her to lose control of her powers and accidentally burn her parents.

In fact, I think it would’ve been even more traumatic and dramatic if Bloom had a good relationship with her parents (like she did in the cartoon) but still lost control, maybe in her sleep, and burned the people she loves most in the world, that would’ve been so angsty it would’ve been great. 

But no, let’s continue the narrative that adoptive parents can’t be good parents.

Polyamorous My Ass (Srsly What the Fuck was that?)

This just… I’m so tired.

We pretty much never get Polyamorous relationships in shows like this and then we get… whatever the fuck this was.

So… Bea is obvs just using both Riven and Dane (it is Dane right? I don’t care enough to check). Riven, only likes Bea and is very biphobic towards Dane and Dane seems to be in love with Riven and kinda like Bea.

This relationship (if you can even call it that) is weird. Sometimes it’s portrayed as toxic, other times it isn’t and it’s just weird.

This also really fucking pissed me off. Because… why? You could’ve had Dane as a separate character, in the original we already had the Darcy/Riven plotline so why did you have to add Dane?

Honestly, Dane could’ve just had a crush on Riven and become genuienly friends with Terra or smth, he didn’t have to be involved with Riven and Bea, that should’ve been a separate plotline. If you wanted a bi character so badly you could’ve just made one of the girls (Flora- sorry Terra, Musa and Aisha are already largely headcannoned to be bi, they could’ve used that) be bi. You didn’t need to introduce a new character for the sake of diversity, especially if you were going to screw it up that badly.

Cause Riven and Bea are already dramatic enough on their own, we didn’t need this poor, horrible attempt at a polyamorous relationship.

Fake Feminism and Pitting Women Against Each Other

Next up… oh dear…

Where can I even start? Okay, one of the first things we see in the series is Bloom telling Sky he is mansplaining… when he’s very clearly not…

The desire to come across as feminist and be an #womenempowerment show is so obvious it almost hurts. But they never do anything to actually show this.

From the very first conversation between Bloom and Stella in the show, it was very obvious to me that they would be competitors, not best friends like in the show.

Throughout the show, we see the girls berate each other, compete and insult one another, and I don’t see how any of that can be seen as feminism.

Stella literally almost causes Bloom’s death out of jealousy over Sky.

How is this anything like the Winx Club?

The closest bond in the group is probably between Musa and Terra. And even then, a lot of the time I feel like Musa only tolerates Terra, and they feel like roommates, not best friends who would die for each other like they were in the Winx Club.

There is very little support amongst the women of Fate, there are few instances when we aren’t being told to compare them or to see who is best. That is not feminism.

Now, it would’ve worked very well if the girls got off on the wrong foot but we got to see them slowly bond and slowly trust each other and become good friends, but I never felt that. The only time that they join forces is to clean up the mess that they made, and even then it never feels like all 5 of them are on the same page, it’s more like the world (and story) is forcing them together.

This was a tad bit better in season 2 but there were mostly moments between 2 Winx not all of them (the only moments I liked were the sleepover and Terra coming out) in season 2 the strongest bond was clearly that of Stella and Bea.

So yeah, with constant competition, fights and very few moments of actual friendship, almost all of which feel forced, I can say that Fate does not feel like a Feminist show at all.

From the moment I saw they were going to ignore the gem that was Bloom and Stella’s bond in the original I knew they weren’t going to try to actually make the girls friends and support one another.

The Love Triangle Took Years From My Life And I’m Tired

Why? Why? WWHHHHYYYYYYY?!?!??!??

What was the reason? What was the fucking reason?!

There was none.

There was not a single reason why the love triangle between Bloom, Sky and Stella should’ve happened or was needed.

They could’ve easily introduced Diaspro, a character we already know and a character whose only purpose in the cartoon was to create drama and tension between Bloom and Sky.

Love triangles are dead. We all know that. You will never be Jem/Tessa/Will, stop fucking trying.

Okay so, first off, I would’ve honestly been okay if we’d seen Sky and Stella be exes and they like ‘Yeah we tried that was a huge mistake but now we’re friends’ and then Bloom comes in and Sky isn’t sure cause she’s Stella’s bestie but Stella is encouraging, that could’ve been cool. But that is obviously not what we got.

Why do we always pit women against each other over a man? I think we all know the answer to that.

The Love Triangle was bland, boring and useless. Nothing came out of it.

We apparently got Stella and Sky realizing they were codependent and toxic which… duh. But nothing comes from this, we never see them get closer and have a healthy friendship, we get 1 scene in season 2 that is never expanded upon and that’s it.

They threw Stella and Bloom’s friendship to the trash for a Love Triangle that absolutely nobody wanted. And even in season 2, Stella and Bloom? They’re not friends. They’re barely cordial with one another and that pisses me of so fucking much I can’t even describe it.

In the cartoon the girls NEVER fought over a man, if there were moments of jealousy they were passing (I can remember exactly 1 with Aisha and Bloom in season 2. That’s literally it). There could be drama with other girls and even that was very little mostly Diaspro and the messes with Mitzi and Crystal in later seasons but the cartoon almost never relied on that to create drama against the girls because they knew it wasn’t really needed.

This triangle did nothing for any of the characters and the drama was petty and stupid. I just… I honestly don’t think I’m really saying anything of substance here but this particular topic just makes me sooooo mad that I can’t even describe the particulars of how this Love Triangle makes me just so mad cause it was FUCKING USELESS, IT DID NOTHING FOR THE CHARACTERS OR THE STORY IT WASN’T NEEDED, IT WASN’T WANTED AND IT WASN’T…. UUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

Why Glitter and Love was Essential to the Feminism of the Winx Club

The feminism of the original Winx Club (especially the first 4 seasons) was honestly very simple. It wasn’t in your face or even really ever called out.

To me, the feminism in the original Winx Club was just… the girls themselves.

We had six very different young women, who were all portrayed as strong, funny, beautiful and just awesome.

We have Bloom, who’s a bit of a girl next door. She can be a bit hotheaded, but she’s crazy loyal and incredibly strong. We see her be naive sometimes and be really nervous and attempting to find her place and we also get to see her step up to the occasion when it’s time for blows.

We have Stella, a fashionista who I will talk a lot about in her section cause I am pissed of what they did to her. We see her be a kind person and try to grow and be dedicated to her passions.

We have Flora who is the girliest of girls but still portrayed as strong and smart. Her softness doesn’t erase her strength. And she doesn’t have these big stand up moments of ‘I’m strong and I will prove it to you!’ She just is strong.

We have Musa, who’s a bit of a tomboy and slightly more rough around the edges but who has a lot of emotional depth.

We have Tecna, who can come across as cold but who we see literally almost die for her friends and who has such a big heart.

We have Aisha, who’s very sporty and who has to seek out her place in the group and kinda learn how the whole friend group works and who we see grow in season 2.

We have a hotheaded girl next door, a kind fashionista, a girly girl, a musical tomboy, a tech girl and a sporty girl who are all portrayed as different and unique but are also all portrayed as strong.

Yes, we see them occasionally butting heads (if I remember correctly Musa/Flora and Stella are the ones that butt heads most often) and fight sometimes, but we see that their friendship is stronger than all of that.

We see them support each other in so many different ways and be the definition of ride or die.

Something I really like is that they don’t really make fun of each other’s interests despite having vastly different personalities. And they also don’t compare themselves and understand that they’re all awesome in their own ways.

The girls are united in friendship in such a deep way that they could probably never stop being friends even if they tried.

And… none of that is included in Fate.

Which is a fucking shame.

We don’t really see the girls’ interests in Fate, we just see them all acting like angsty teenagers who are either lashing out at pretty much everybody or being a bit of a doormat. They’re not really portrayed as strong either.

I can’t see the uniqueness that was there in the cartoon. The girls aren’t really… they’re just not interesting. Especially when compared to their cartoon counterparts.

Also, this part is a bit more petty and something personal to me but I think a lot of you can relate so… 

Seeing girls that were fashionable, girly and weren’t afraid to show off their girlie side was awesome. Especially in a world of ‘I’m Not Like Other Girls’ protagoinsts that just hate dresses and only wear them once.

As a girlie girl myself, looking back on the Winx Club, I love that they didn’t try to make the girls more masculine to make them seem stronger. Even Musa, Aisha and Tecna who are arguably the least ‘girly’ show off their more feminine side in a way that feels natural.

So yeah… that last part doesn’t have to do that much with Fate I just wanted to add that.

Questions That Will Never Be Answered 

What Makes the Specialists Special?

First off, I would like to say that I loved that in Fate women could be Specialists and guys could be fairies, I just thought that was really neat. So kudos to you for that Fate. Enjoy it, I won’t give you many.

Now on to the question. What makes the Specialists special?

In the cartoon, the reason I really liked the Specialists was their weapons, they were colorful, creative and straight out of a sci-fi movie. Brandon’s sword, Sky’s boomerang, Riven’s bolas, Timmy’s gun, Helia’s gloves etc.

It always felt like the Winx got magic and fantasy while the Specialists got technology and sci-fi.

And that is, once again, gone in Fate. The Specialists are now generic warrior driving Jeeps and wearing leather.

Where are the capes? The Owls and Wind Riders? Everything that made the Specialists cool even when they didn’t do much in a fight?

Where did that all go?

This one was more of an aesthetic thing but I still feel like it took a lot away from the Specialists and what made them low-key iconic.

Where are the Witches?

Where are they? Seriously I wanna know where my girlies are?

I get that, since they got rid of the transformation and gave us half assed CGI wings it might’ve been hard to differentiate the witches from the fairies but still… you can’t just not have freaking witches!

I like getting to see evil fairies but still. I don’t like this! 

I just feel like it takes away so much not having the witches. Can you imagine getting Lucy and Mirta in Fate?… actually no, they would’ve been screwed over but you know what I mean.

Yet another topic that makes me so mad and petty that I can’t quite describe it.

Why are Riven and Sky friends?

Okay so, this is actually a genuine question.

Most of the boys were excluded from Fate (which I’m lowkey grateful for cause if they’d done my boys Helia and Timmy dirty there would’ve been blood) so they kinda had to smush Riven and Sky into bestie status.

Now, looking at this objectively, we know that in the cartoon, Sky’s bestie is Brandon. And Brandon and Riven have more things in common than you’d expect.

They’re both good fighters and work hard at Red Fountain, they’re kinda ladies men, they can be jokesters from time to time but take their duty seriously. They’re also pretty competitive.

I think Brandon is what Riven would’ve been if he had a normal childhood.

The main difference is that Riven has walls. He shuts people out and can be a bit of a jerk sometimes. The Riven in Fate is a straight up asshole.

So… why is he friends with Sky?

I’ll be honest, I really wanted to see more of these two, I think the dynamic could’ve been really interesting and cool to explore but… we got… pretty much crumbs.

With the like… two moments we have with them I don’t see why they’re friends and it ruins my sense of disbelief just that much more.

Character Deep Dives/Character Rants

From Naive but Loyal and Heroic to Boring and Annoying (A Bloom Deep Dive)

Let’s talk about our favorite hotheaded redhead shall we?

I’ll be honest, Bloom was always my least favorite Winx and I actually grew to dislike her post season 3, but… she didn’t deserve this.

I’m honestly not sure how to describe why the Bloom from Fate is just… so fucking boring… I don’t really feel many emotions coming from her.

In the original (at least the first 3 seasons) Bloom has quite a bit of personality, she’s a bit naive and impulsive but also THE ride or die bestie.

She’s fun to watch even if I would sometimes get frustrated when she acted a bit stupid or when she was impulsive.

Bloom worked as a protagonist partially due to her impulsive habits (since they make her take the lead/initiative in many occasions) but I feel like with Fate Bloom that impulsive nature comes across as more annoying since Fate Bloom isn’t as friendly as OG Bloom and doesn’t really have anyone to bounce her impulsiveness off of like she did in the OG.

I don’t know, I just never really felt any connection with her but overall I think she’s still the one that was done the least dirty. And the one I’m the least furious about.

I think the main problem I have with Fate Bloom is that she’s got that ‘I have to do this alone’ attitude and it never really changed, so she doesn’t really have anyone to bounce off of to make her impulsive and stupid moments less annoying.

How Stella Became Everything She Stood Against (A Stella Deep Dive)

Welp… I am fucking furious now.

I think most of us will be able to agree that one of Stella’s main purposes in the original show was to break the Dumb Blonde/Mean Blonde stereotype that was much more prevalent in the 2010′s.

Stella could come across as a bit full of herself and could be mean since she didn’t really have a brain-to-mouth filter but she was never mean on purpose and always made up for her mistakes.

We see that Stella is at her core a kind person and soft-hearted individual when we see that after knowing Bloom for a whole of one day and Bloom helping her once, Stella is willing to risk getting herself expelled to give Bloom the chance to go to Alfea. 

We also see there’s more to her than just superficial stuff when, after the Sky-Brandon reveal she tells Brandon that she cares more about the face that he lied than the fact that he isn’t a prince. The quote was along the lines of: ‘My parents are the King and Queen of Solaria, didn’t do them much good.’

And of course in season 3 we learn that Stella is actually very insecure and believes people like her just because of her looks and get one of the best moments/episodes of the entire series.

Yes. Stella cares about her appearance and loves fashion, but there is so much more to her character than that. She is a loyal friend, incredibly kind person and willing to do anything for those she loves.

Now let’s look at Fate’s Stella

………..

I am just… Fate turned our Stella into a bitchy mean girl. That is all Stella really is.

Even in season 2 she still acts like a mean girl to the rest of the girls most of the time. I never felt her bond with any of the girls or even Sky for that matter, her best scenes were easily with Bea.

I just don’t understand how they missed the entire fucking point of Stella’s character and made her exactly into the stereotype she was supposed to subvert. How do you fuck up that much?!?!!?!?!

She tried to fucking KILL BLOOM OVER A GUY!!! The original Stella would’ve killed her with her staff for even laying a FINGER on her bestie.

Stella’s character in Fate might just be the one that pisses me off the most because of how much they missed the fucking mark with her.

They made her literally everything she stood against and then acted like they did something when she did the bare minimum for her ‘friends’.

And I cannot bring myself to care about the drama with her mom because of how fucking pissed I am about this.

Okay let’s think about it. This could’ve worked if Stella was only acting like a bitch because her mom expected that but, in the rare instances when she was sure no one was watching and no one would noticed, she revealed her soft side to the girls and they were like ‘Oh, this is the real Stella, bitchy Stella is just a mask’ but it doesn’t go like that.

Even after the reveal of her mom, she’s still a bitch!

Our Stella would never and I hate whoever thought this was a good idea, you sir or ma’am  are stupid and the whole point of Stella’s character flew right over your fucking head! (No hate to the actress or any actors in the series though)

Why Musa Kinda Works But Really Doesn’t (A Musa Deep Dive)

I was wrong before. Musa is actually the one I’m least pissed off about because I actually kinda enjoyed her character in Fate, especially in the second season. (Doesn’t excuse the fucking white washing though).

I think out of the girls Musa would’ve probably been the easiest to adapt into a more ‘mature’ setting cause she is kinda the ‘angstiest’ of the girls due to her mom’s death and being the tomboy of the group. However… the Musa we know can be a little sassy and get annoyed with the girls from time to time but with Fate Musa, it’s a lot more prevalent.

Which makes sense with the change to a mind fairy (which I hate, can you imagine all the cool visuals we could’ve gotten if they’d kept her as the fairy of music? Also they still could’ve had the empath thing with her being able to ‘hear the songs in people’s hearts’ and just cranking that up to eleven).

I actually don’t have that much to say about Musa. I enjoyed her character, especially in the second season, I feel like she’s the only one that’s reasonably lashing out and it makes sense when she’s annoyed and I feel like we got to see her soft side in a few moments and she was involved with all of my favorite moments of Fate.

The only issue is that she’s angstier than the original Musa but again, it actually makes sense this time.

The only thing I am actually pissed off at is that we lost her dynamics with Tecna and Aisha cause there is no Fate Tecna and Fate Musa doesn’t really interact with Aisha and when she does it’s a far cry from their cool original dynamic and her chemistry with Terra isn’t enough to make up for it.

Was Terra Necessary? What Made her Unique? (A Terra Deep Dive)

So, we all know what happened with Terra. They white washed half the cast realized that we would obviously be pissed and tried to save it by changing Flora’s name to Terra and saying she was a new character… nice try.

Also as a latina myself, fuck you. If you’re going to claim you were going for plus-size diversity you do realize you could’ve just gotten a plus-size latina right? Anyways, fuck you.

So Terra… I don’t really care about her and kinda dislike her. I’ll admit that I am very much biased due to Flora being my fave and my latina rage but I just don’t find Terra interesting.

I don’t know what it is about her that makes her rambling annoying instead of endearing or whatever it is they were going for. They didn’t really give her anything interesting to do, she literally just had the ‘I’m fat self-confidence’ arc. I think I might’ve kinda liked Terra if she’d had something interesting to do.

The only scenes I genuienly enjoyed with her were her conversation with Riven (right before the final fight if I remember correctly) and her talk with Musa while Sam is dying... Coincidentally the moments she reminded me more of Flora…

Then in the second season she had a super weird attitude with Flora, I wasn’t sure if she was jealous or angry or what it just made her that much weirder to me, like, what the fuck was going on there? I don’t really think we ever got an answer for her weird behavior with Flora, cause I’m not buying it was just cause of Riven. That was weird.

The only girl she really bounces off of is Musa, and even then it mostly feels like Terra is following Musa around hoping for some love. None of her friendships really feel reciprocal. And her behavior with Stella is also weird as fuck. Like… you like it when she insults you? What?

Yeah she’s just weird and I don’t really like her. I feel like she brings nothing to the table. There is no real reason for her to be there. If they were going to try and replace Flora, they should’ve at least tried to make her cool and iconic.

From Hero to Zero (An Aisha Deep Dive/Rant)

Pffftttttt… okay let me get this straight. You took Aisha. Icon Aisha who climbed a fortress for her pixy friends, was a Princess that was pretty much a runaway and a sports goddess who challenged the boys and easily had the most depth/cool backstory from the Winx.

You took that Aisha… and gave us *checks notes* ‘Oh yeah, I flooded a hall in my school with literal shit once’ as her backstory.

Okay cool, I see how it is.

But seriously though. They made Aisha into an annoying teacher’s pet who kinda felt a little full of herself from time to time but was also constantly ignored as the voice of reason and had no arc of her own, instead acting as a therapist/scapegoat for the other girls.

Why is that? I think we all know the answer to that…

But yeah, I just… I am so tired. They reduced her to… to nothing really. She doesn’t feel interesting or compelling at all. I felt no connection to her and most of the time it felt like the other girls only spoke to her when they needed something from her.

In season 2 we get a little more about how she feels pressured by her parents to be perfect (which kinda alines with the cartoon) and she talks about not being experienced at relationships, which also makes sense with the cartoon, but it honestly still doesn’t feel like enough.

It still doesn’t feel like she’s actual friends with any of the girls.

They took away a lot… most of what made Aisha into one of the most well-developed Winx. She doesn’t feel fun like cartoon Aisha did, she’s uptight which just doesn’t make sense if she’s supposed to be Aisha.

She was just done dirty. Our Aisha was never so much as implied to be a teacher’s pet. She was more into dancing and sports and exploring. 

Winx Aisha was a girl who’d been trapped most of her life, excited to finally get to be a a free soul and explore the world. Fate Aisha is stripped of all of that and we don’t really see why she’s so uptight outside of that one conversation about her parents where we still don’t get any real depth.

My girl deserved so much more and I will die pissed.

Why Sky Somehow was the Most Interesting One but Still Boring (A Sky Deep Dive)

Sky makes me feel conflicted. I think he (along with Musa) was the only one I genuienely liked and enjoyed watching but at the same time he annoys me.

I loved his dynamic with Silva but I just… I don’t even know how to describe what it is exactly that annoys me about him but he’s just not interesting enough. I’ve literally forgotten almost any scene that he is in.

I’m trying to remember right now and the only scenes I can remember are the mansplaining scene, when Bloom drugs him, when he comforts Stella, one or two scenes with Silva… and when he beats Dane’s ass… and that’s literally it.

He’s not that bad, he’s got interesting dynamics and a cool story behind him and with the revelations in the series, he is one of the most affected, so in paper that should get you to be invested but… he’s just not memorable.

Why Riven will Always Get the Short End of the Stick (A Riven Deep Dive/Rant)

One of the things that annoys me the most from the original Winx Club is how Riven is pretty much reset every season to learn the same lesson over and over and over again.

This is because his scene in the Cloud Tower dungeons when he sees himself as a monster and decides to change is one of my fave in the series and probably my fave scene in all of season 1. So having him be reset was just… such a disservice to that awesome scene and to his character as a whole.

I think we can all agree that Riven could’ve been such an amazing and iconic character if he’d been allowed to slowly grow and if we’d seen him mature over the seasons.

So in this aspect… a part of me really likes Fate Riven. He’s an absolute ass and a bit biphobic but I like the possibility of taking this and allowing him to grow after his whole mess with Beatrix (I kinda loved the chaos of their relationship up until they got Dane involved).

The set up is there and we really see him try to move on in season 2 which I love. He still has his moments of being an ass, but through a few conversations with Sky and his bond with Musa we do see him trying to grow.

However, I would’ve loved to see him be more vulnerable. Sometimes it feels like instead of his own character he’s there to bounce off of Bea, Sky or Musa. I don’t know I just feel like he has a lot of potential but for some reason he just doesn’t feel like a complete character to me. Maybe this would’ve been fixed in season 3 but we’ll never know.

All in all he was one of my fave parts of Fate, especially in season 2. Whether he would’ve been allowed to keep his progress unlike his cartoon counterpart, we’ll never know.

I feel like the more mature setting actually kinda fits Riven. Though I’ll be the first to admit that the writers occasionally tried too hard to maintain his ‘bad boy’ image in season 1 and I cringed a few times at his lines.

But he was one of my fave parts of season 2. So overall I’d say that, in a way, Fate actually improved Riven ever so slightly.

Bea Could’ve Saved the Show, BUT- (A Beatrix Rant)

So, I love Bea. She was my fave character in Fate, she’s just a chaotic gremlin and quite frankly she deserved better.

Her dynamics with Riven, Stella and Bloom were excellent. I love how manipulative she is, it makes her vulnerable moments all the better. When she goes to the Winx dorm crying to ask Stella to hang out but gets rejected and she just looks on at the group having fun like an outsider… That scene got me.

It’s a little confusing how she goes from menace in season 1 to kinda a teacher’s pet in season 2 but it kinda makes sense and she does become a menace again so it’s cool.

I both love and hate her ending. I love her constantly switching sides, being unpredictable, turning around last minute and going ‘I just saved the world, feels pretty great to be a fucking hero’, I love that concept but I hate her just being thrown away and killed like she hadn’t been carrying the show.

I don’t think they saw the amount of potential that Bea had, personally I would watch an entire show all about Bea. Them just killing her shows me that she was only really a plot device to the writers, a way to introduce her mysterious sisters. And I hate that.

Bea was the wildcard of Fate, the character plenty of us thought we’d hate but that ended up being a diamond in the rust. She was cunning and had the best of all the Trix, Darcy’s plot line with Riven and her manipulation, Stormy’s powers and chaotic energy, Icy’s ambition, personality and charisma. 

Quite frankly, she’s probably the character with the most depth and motivations. She’s the most interesting. 

And they killed her off for shock value.

I hate that we lost the Trix’s dynamic and different personalities but for me personally Bea was worth it, she was an awesome character who deserved to be in a better series. But yeah… I love Bea but even she wasn’t enough to save this shit show.

Why Flora Mattered (A Flora Deep Dive/Rant)

Disclaimer, I am very much biased here, even more than before cause Flora was always my favorite Winx. Now with that out of the way…

I think one of the reasons that Flora mattered so much is that she was never shamed for being very feminine. Flora was a cottage core, soft hearted, kind, soft spoken young girl who was still allowed to be strong and a badass. She was never made more ‘masculine’ to show her being strong. Her transformations always involved skirts and dresses, bright pinks, long flowy hair, bracelets and necklaces and cute tiaras. 

She was never shamed for her girlieness nor stereotyped as someone overly shy. Flora could have a few shy moments but they were pretty rare in the large scheme of things.

She was shown to be incredibly smart, especially in seasons 1 and 2 with her love of potions. Flora gives the girls a lot of support and a safe place but we also see her be vulnerable and insecure, but she never changes her girliness nor does she feel the need to ‘grow out of her girly traits’ to gain confidence or confront her fears, she also doesn’t feel the need to ‘toughen up’ keeping her soft heart throughout the entire series.

I love this. I loved that Flora was so soft but never shamed or considered ‘weak’ for it. She mattered cause she was there for the more sensitive girls. The more introverted, soft spoken girls.

The girly girls that can still be just as strong and confident as any other woman despite loving pink and flowers and skirts. 

I think that’s a big part of why Flora matters. She’s allowed to be a heroine with a soft heart that is never forced into an angsty personality because of the events that occur around her. She’s a special kind of softness. She’s not the kindness that comes from naivety but the kindness that is forged in steel from tough experiences.

We eventually got Fate Flora but I don’t think she really captured the essence of OG Flora, she just doesn’t feel like the soft, introverted, gentle soul we know. 

She feels a little… full of herself? In a way?

I won’t talk much about Fate Flora cause I can’t truly put my finger on what it is that just throws me off about her.

But I’m pissed that they truly thought they could get away with tossing Flora to the side, cause we all know they only included her in season 2 to try and save their asses.

Because soft, sensitive girls deserve to see themselves represented without the whole ‘break-out-of-your-shell-and-become-more-wild arc’. Because soft girls can be complete and happy without becoming party animals. That was what Flora was to me. That’s why she mattered so much to me personally growing up.

That is why Flora mattered.

Why Helia and Timmy Mattered: A Retrospective Look at Soft Boys (A Helia and Timmy Deep Dive/Rant)

Now, I am honestly glad that Helia and Timmy weren’t included because they would’ve botched it.

So, I always adored Helia but, looking back on him and Timmy now I almost find them surprising that these two were incorporated into the show the way that they were.

Helia was the definition of a soft boy, he was into poetry and art, he wore loose shirts, had long hair, was soft spoken, loved to meditate and was introduced as a pacifist, but he was also a Specialist. Something I really liked was that instead of a sword he had his strings which incorporated his way of being a pacifist into his Specialist gear.

There were never jokes about him being Helia being gay and he was portrayed as attractive, the second Flora meets him she’s already blushing and giggling. Helia is a poet, a sensitive boy in a school filled with soldiers and warriors, but they rarely make fun of him for it, and when they do it clearly is meant to be in a teaseful way amongst friends. And we see the boys go to him for advise.

And then we have Timmy. Timmy is a nerd. He has a laser gun instead of a sword and is more of a pilot and tech guy. He’s shy and socially awkward, lanky, and his portrayl is very dorky.

In season 2 we see him doubt himself as a Specialist when he can’t stop the Trix, the same happens in season 4 when he is chasing Anagan.

But we see that at his core, Timmy is an incredibly courageous person. He goes after Anagan even when he’s doubting himself. The boys may tease him occasionally but they never treat him as an outsider and in fact try to help him, even when it backfires, it’s done from a desire to help their friend.

Timmy may consider himself as the weak one, but he is never portrayed as the weak link in the Specialists. We see that his role is a crutial one. 

In season 3 we see him break down when he thinks that Tecna is dead, but his tears and despair are never considered to be ‘weak’ or ‘exaggerated’.

We see all the boys break down at the end of season 4.

And that is something important. Especially for a cartoon  in the 2010′s.

Seeing soft and dorky boys be portrayed as heroes was a great thing that we shouldn’t forget.

The Winx Club never revolved around the Specialists, they could’ve all been just the generic hero, but we see the small difference between Sky, Riven and Brandon and then we get Timmy and Helia who are completely different and not what you’d first think off when you think ‘heroes in training’.

This is an extension of Flora’s softness and kindness never being something that she is ashamed of or for.

Helia is allowed to be a poet and to love meditating and to be a bit of a pacifist whilst still being strong and a hero in his own right. Saving Flora in his introduction and Sky later in season 2. He is never shamed for being the sensitive one.

Timmy has a lot of self-doubt. But he is allowed to grow, he is allowed to be a nerd and dorky and socially awkward whilst still being a fundamental part of the group. His intelligence is portrayed as an advantage not a freak trait. He may be teased for being the nerdy one from time to time but he is never bullied or shamed for it.

And they are both allowed to have good love stories. Helia and Flora, two gentle souls that find each other and are like Snow on the Beach, falling for each other at the first time.

Then we have Timmy and Tecna, where it seems that Timmy falls first but doesn’t know how to act and Tecna always cares about him but seems to catch feelings a bit later on. That it takes them a long time to officially become something because they are both unconventional in their own way. And when they go on a date and feel stressed they decide ‘Screw doing this the traditional and ‘normal’ way, we’re doing it our own way’.

From what we see in Fate, I can tell they much prefer angsty characters. And Helia and Timmy would never have been allowed to be soft.

We saw 2 kinda soft boys in Fate. Dane who was just… a bit of a train wreck to me. He was an ass to Terra and was just super weird with Bea and Riven and was just willing to go along with whatever Bea said and then we have Sam who I wouldn’t exactly describe as a soft boy and well… he almost killed someone in season 2 so… yeah. He’s just boring and with zero depth to me.

If they’d been in Fate Helia would probably be emo or very angsty and Timmy would probably have been bullied a lot more. So I’m glad they weren’t included at all.

Because soft and sensitive boys shouldn’t be erased. They are important, especially when the stigma against them is still kinda strong. 

We need this in the media, we need to see boys loving poetry and being proud to be a bit dorky and nerdy. We need to see boys crying and breaking down and not being ashamed or shamed for it. We need boys that are absolutely in love and not be teased for it.

Angsty boys can be fun to watch, but soft boys are also important. We need more of them.

The Forgotten Protectors (A Brandon and Nabu Rant)

When I think about it, I think that Brandon as a character, at his core, is a protector. He is Sky’s squire and is willing to trade places to keep him safe. He tries to keep Stella safe, is willing to risk his life to get Sky back in season 3 and well… he’s a Specialist so this is clearly what he loves.

Brandon was always a support character, he’s never really given a lot of backstory or traits outside of being a dedicated Specialist, being charismatic and sometimes flirty and caring deeply about his friends and Stella.

Brandon is a fun character not because of his depth but because he’s just a great guy. He’s charismatic, definitely an optimist and cracks jokes in the middle of a fight. When Timmy struggles over why Tecna is mad at him, Brandon is randomly punching the air and offers him hair product.

I would classify him as a himbo. 

Brandon worked as this protector character, especially since not many of the Specialists had a lot of depth. And I always loved him,

So I’m glad he wasn’t in Fate cause, again, they would have erased his optimism and just, slightly goofy instances for an angstier attitude.

To me, Brandon’s main purpose in the show was to be a protector and a friend. He was the voice of reasons amongst the boys, especially in seasons 1 and 2. He’s there for his friends and would do anything for them.

I think Brandon could have perhaps benefitted from a more mature setting, mainly to get more depth but I think the Fate writers would’ve fucked it up. I don’t think they could handle having a non-angst, let alone an optimistic character.

Then we have Nabu, our second forgotten protector. I call him a protector mainly due to his sacrifice in season 4. All I have to say is… Nabu was a fun character. He was a bit weird in the beginning but we got to see he was calm, had extreme trust in Aisha.

We only had him for a season so I really don’t have much to say about him other than… I cannot see any iteration of Nabu working with Fate Aisha. I just don’t.

I can’t see either of them in Fate not just because they’d be fucked over but also just because I can’t see their characters fitting the ambience.

I don’t know why but to me Brandon and Nabu just emanate happy calm vibes and I can’t see that working with Fate’s desperate need for shitty angst.

Why Tecna is Often Discarded and Why She Shouldn’t Be (A Tecna Deep Dive/Rant)

I think most of us can agree that Tecna is neurodivergent coded. Most consider her to be autistic.

In the OG, Tecna rarely gets to be the center of attention, but when she does, man does she shine. I love Tecna because her arc throughout the seasons isn’t necessarily about changing to fit in, but it’s more about growing into yourself if that makes sense.

Tecna doesn’t change her personality or who she is, she doesn’t try to mask how she is. The only thing she really does is working on expressing her emotions and showing that she cares about her friends, but this doesn’t equal her changing or suppressing her quirks and more neurodivergent tendencies, which I think is just beautiful.

I think that’s a great example on how to write an autistic character growing into themselves (though I myself am not autistic so feel free to correct me on that if you have feelings about Tecna being seen as autistic),

In season 3, we see the way the club literally falls apart when they think she’s dead. We see that they love her and when Tecna reunites with Bloom in Omega, she is crying cause she knew that her friends would find her.

This is the moment that cemented for me that these girls would truly go to the end of the world for each other.

Those episodes in season 3 may be some of the best, and my favorites, in the entire series. 

Tecna is the character that is underrated, and who some may believe doesn’t add much to the story, but when she’s gone it hits you like holy shit, in a way she is the glue of the group.

She may not always be the voice of reason but the girls know to always listen to her cause when she’s determined to figure something out, she will do just that. They know that they can count on her.

She is a pillar in the group, just as much as the other girls, even if the show doesn’t always give her a spotlight, we know that it’s true.

And… Fate just threw her out the window.

The fucking disrespect.

I personally think they just didn’t want to be bother with a complex character like Tecna.

I just… I hate that they couldn’t even be bothered to try while another part of me is glad that they didn’t ruin her with an angsty hacker take on her.

But my girl deserved better.

Anyways, on to the final section…

How Fate Failed To Capture the Essence of the Winx Club

How Fate Forgot the Most Important Aspect of the Winx Club: Friendship Amongst Young Women

The final section is something I’ve already touched on a bit but, in Fate, the girls aren’t friends. They barely feel like decent roommates.

I will never forgive the way they disregarded Stella and Bloom’s beautiful bond. They were each other’s person, they were bonded for life and truly they were just THE besties ya know?

And Fate just made them into competitors. There is not a single moment in the entire two seasons that they felt like friends, let alone besties. I cannot picture OG Bloom and Stella EVER acting like their Fate counterparts. Like my girls would rather die than do each other dirty like that.

Then we have Aisha. In the OG Aisha had 2 amazing bonds, Musa and Flora. We all know how big SonicWave is. Musa and Aisha immediately connected, they went clubbing and got into a bit of trouble together and Musa was the first to really understand Aisha’s backstory, and we see Musa trust Aisha with her boy problems.

Aisha and Flora feel like besties, they’re there for each other and have casual chats in the middle of the night.

With Stella, especially in season 4, Aisha and Stella can but heads from time to time but they know that their friendship will always prevail because all the girls are bonded for life.

None of that is present in Fate. In Fate when they butted heads I couldn’t care less. I just wanted to slap Stella because she was being a bitch and I was annoyed by Aisha. She doesn’t really interact with Musa and Terra isn’t Flora so it doesn’t work. And she and Bloom don’t feel like friends. Not really.

There is no Fate Tecna so we have no chance to get the amazing chemistry between Musa and Tecna, those two were perfect as besties, they just worked so well. 

It’s just… so many amazing bonds and friendships and dynamics all thrown away for the sake of angst, drama and useless conflict. 

The event that sets into motion the entire story of the Winx Club is Bloom running into Stella and choosing to help her. It’s Stella deciding to help this girl she just met get into Alfea because they just immediately bond and that’s who Stella is.

The very first time the girls hang out, when Bloom is attacked, the other girls don’t hesitate to join in on the fight to save Bloom, not necessarily because they’re close at this point but because all these girls would never just stand back when something like this is going on. But as their friendships and bonds grow, we quickly see that they are all ride or die.

They don’t fight over boys, if they tease or take things too far, they apologize. They may but heads and get into fights but they know (and we know) that their friendship will always prevail.

In Fate… they’re not even friends, let alone besties, let alone ride or die besties that would go to the ends of the world for each other.

All of those bonds and friendships are just… nonexistent .

How can Fate claim to be an adaptation of the Winx Club when they throw away the most important aspect of the show?

In the show, friendships always take center stage, romances always felt like sideplots or add ons, not the main drama, or they were rarely the main drama. And when romance was the main drama, there would be an inevitable scene of the girls comforting each other. (Stella comforting Bloom. Tecna, Bloom and Stella comforting Flora about Crystal. Musa letting out her frustrations about Riven with Aisha. The girls helping prepare Tecna for a date, etc.)

Friendship was the bloodline of Winx Club. And Fate somehow… missed that.

I’m too tired and frustrated to make an actual outro and I’ve been working on this for literal weeks so… that… is the end.

[love-killed-the-superstar]

The Last Ronin 2: Re-Evolution Issue #1 LIVEBLOG

SPOILERS ABOUND. I'M NOT GOING TO BE NORMAL ABOUT THIS IT'LL PROBABLY GET SUPER LONG

Okay so Casey Marie's muscles are something I'm never going to get over. SHE LOOKS GOOD!!!!! Her getup is feeling a little too reminiscent of a cape-wielding superhero for my tastes to be honest - I really loved the more practical outfits she wore in TLR Lost Years, especially in issue 4 when she was running the training mission for the kids. But ah well, I'm sure this will grow on me. It may not be practical (edna's law of no capes is coming to mind, also PLEASE TIE YOUR HAIR UP WHEN YOU'RE FIGHTING GIRL!!!) but it's very cunty anyway which I appreciate

Straight up thought she killed this guy - what was that sound effect if he's still able to walk??? I fr thought she snapped his neck

IDK if we needed a whole 8 pages of punching and kicking to exposition dump what we kinda already knew from what's been shown in the lost years (esp the lost day special) but IT'S FINE IG... NOW ONTO THE BABIES

SORRY, SORRY. TEENAGERS NOW.

GIGGLING KICKING MY FEET. We're ALREADY getting the leo-v-raph adjacent dynamic with these two and I'm living for it. if one of them drops a stone cold 'fearless leader' jab i will lose my shit

HI? HELLO, EXCUSE ME, MIND-TALKING? PICTURES IN HEAD? ARE WE A FAMILY THAT LUCID DREAMS OR SOMETHING?!?? I DON'T REMEMBER THIS BEING SOMETHING THEY COULD DO?? every new speech bubble here is like a punch to the gut, wdym telepathy wdym secret lair wdym honouring everything master splinter taught you???? (although i'm proud that when this panel dropped on news sites i was immediately like THAT ISN'T THE KITCHEN FROM LOST YEARS. turns out it was a Secret Lair TM)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Seance -- TURTLES COUNT IT OFF!!

not gonna screenshot the whole backstory but they're basically doing a telepathic puppet show explaining the backstory and it's pretty much the mirage origins with a bit of extra tlr flair. as always it HURTS ME seeing the turtles dying so thanks for that tlr2 :'')) icb these kids watch a mind movie of their uncles dying every fucking night. yall are messy

SOBBING AND CRYING,, I WISH YOU'D ALL HAD THE CHANCE TO KNOW HIM TOO!!!!!! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN TO KNOW ALL OF THEM!!!!! (tlr splinter doesnt count tho because hes a dick)

there was a cool sequence of them rooftop hopping n stuff but i wont cover it bc we already saw it in a bunch of news articles weeks ago

i just did the SHARPEST INHALE. casey marie you and your beautiful muscular arms have aged like the finest wine

YI NO!!!!!

lmaooo moja is JUDGING your taste in women u two

lots of text... blah blah blah jobs, crimerates, blah blah... jiro in pig uniform jumpscare.. casey marie i thought u were going to fix him :(((

YESSSSS KIDS ARE GOING ON A MISSION WITH THEIR MOM, LETS FUCKING GOOOOO

MY BABIES ARE KICKING ASS!!!!!

....,.HUH

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY BABY BOY ODIE!!!!!!!!!!! WHO DID THIS TO HIM!!!!!!???? WHAT??!???? HUH/1?!!? EXCUSE ME????

I'M . LIKE WHAT DO I EVEN SAY TO THIS. IT CAME OUT OF NOWHERE??? WHAT IS GOING ON!!!

FINAL THOUGHTS:

dude that first issue was wordy but the kids were ON POINT. they were so fun!! their dialogue is fun and they kick ass.

i loved yi announcing the punishment for casey while the others were like NOO SHE DIDNT MEAN THAT DONT LISTEN TO HER. we're getting more of their personalities and it's great!! it was a nice throwback to issue 2 of lost years when they were cleaning - yi refused to help because of how strictly she was following instructions. im picking up that she might be neurodivergent but i did get that from the lost years too - only doing things within strict instructions, getting frustrated at teaching odyn chess, not because of him playing horseys with the knights but that it was Against The Rules Of Chess - and now not picking up on some social cues. It's nice to see!! I love her very much, but it feels like besides rehashing the origin story she took a bit of a backseat to the other three.

i want to know more about why uno said being a rebel was moja's 'thing', since she didn't seem to be any more rebellious than the other three in this issue. we didn't get any unique interactions between her and casey marie which is what i felt was lacking from lost years but i wonder if this is hinting towards a more turbulent mother-daughter dynamic with them... I REALLY HOPE SO!! her and uno butting heads in a leo-raph way is very fun - i don't mind one or two prior group dynamics leaking into the new turtle siblings because they're all so different from the original 4.

uno seems to be taking on slightly more of a leader role than moja so i think he won the title of fearless leader. which is fine, i think it'll be fun to see and he's definitely less of an asshole now than when he was growing up in lost years. still picking on odyn a bit but seems to snipe at moja just as much. even when he was commenting on yi's storytelling he didn't make fun of her, though - i think she may have inherited the 2k3 don ability of being Completely Unbullyable.

i was really pleased that odyn felt more involved!! i feel like he took the backseat a few times in lost years - it was fun seeing more of his personality shine through! he and yi seem to get on the best, and i giggled at them rolling their eyes at moja and uno's raph-leo schtick. i didn't expect him to TURN TO FUCKING STONE THOUGH, so i'm nervous about that. WHAT DOES IT MEAN? WHO DID THIS TO MY BOY? IS HE GOING TO TURN BACK NEXT CHAPTER OR IS HE OUT OF COMMISSION UNTIL THE END OF THE RUN??? (if it's the latter i'll be a bit annoyed - don't take odyn away from the equation please!!)

I do wonder if by introducing casually that they can PSYCHICALLY CONNECT, the turtles will use that as a technique to reach odyn's mind to make sure he's still in there and piece together what's happened to him. i mean, their casual telepathy has gotta be some sort of chekhov's gun right?

and shit.... april was so fucking mad casey took the babies out so she's going to EXPLODE when she finds out what happened to her baby boy, her beloved favourite, her baby odyn :''(( im giggling rubbing my hands together waiting for the fallout but also if she cries i might cry too. speaking of april, she seems to be working on a new project and i saw nano particles mentioned - are we going to have a roninverse version of nano in this run???? I NEED MY ROBOT SON

as always, casey marie... u have aged like fine wine. u are stunning. disappointed that ur still believing that jiro can do good as a cop when their entire police force and government is corrupt as fuck. just feels very naive of her. i'm excited to see her break down at the concept of losing odyn - in fact i need everyone to mourn this beautiful kid. they tell us so much that shes a super clingy helicopter mom and i am picking up on the strict part, but it would be nice to see more of her just... hugging her kids. holding them. i get why she didnt in this issue but id love more mama casey squishing their cheeks and kissing their foreheads.

i have zero fucking clue what's going on with odyn. im wondering if it's somehow related to nano, or to whatever project April is working on - she says it's to do with clearing the tunnels, but I''m not convinced. who knows, there might be some ulterior motive happening.

Anyway, that's the end of my liveblog!! thanks for reading all the way to the end... go read it wherever you read ur comics!!!

[workingforthewidow]

‘Sweetest of the Sunflowers’

This started off has an HC list of the Sinclairs dating twins but then it took on a mind of its own and now its over 25K words and I have no end in sight. So I’ll post a portion every couple days! Title inspired by Sun to Me by Zach Bryan you don’t have to listen to understand but I think it fits the way the story is heading :)

Summary: Twin sisters Catherine (Katie) and Caroline end up in Ambrose after their car breaks down on their drive from Georgia to California. Bo convinces Vincent they should keep the girls and make them their wives. A twin for each twin. Will the girls escape? Will they learn to live their new lives? Will they even survive?

I have a post where I kinda give some insight on certain aspects (ex- I hc Vincent ‘can’ talk but doesn’t like to and why) here

This is for 18+ only minors DNI just go watch the movie with your parents permission.

Warnings: kidnapping, forced marriage, dub-con, attempted non-con, abuse, Stockholm syndrome, age gap (15 years- K&C are 19 Sinclairs are 33 soon to be 34 yes we will have a birthday party for them). Don’t like it don’t read it.

So welcome to the first chapter of this story!

Tag list: @ostricx (let me know if you want to be tagged!)

Bo couldn’t hold back the smirk when they walked in the shop. Two beautiful twins. They were identical with the same dark chocolate hair and hazel eyes that seemed almost green in the lights but they were different- one had her long hair down and following freely in wavy curls looking lost in space as she wandered around his shop while the other had half her short hair pulled up in two buns and was trying to explain what was wrong with their car looking very focused on getting back on the road. “Well doll it’ll take me a while to go over everything. Why don’t you go on up to see the town jewel. House of Wax, just go on in I know the owner you’re safe.”

“Okay. Thank you so much. Come on, Caroline.”

“But Katie, why can’t we just stay here? I don’t want to walk anymore.” The one with curls, Caroline complained. Caroline, pretty name for a pretty girl.

“Just come on. This is your fault anyway. I can’t believe you have never taken your car to get checked.” Katie huffed out grabbing her twins arm pulling her to the door.

“Well sorry some of us weren’t so far up dad’s ass to learn all the special shit about cars, Catherine.”

“This is basic knowledge Caroline, don’t go full name on me. Let’s go.”

She was finally able to pull her out the door and towards the museum.

He knew what was wrong with the car it needed oil- from what he just heard hadn’t been changed in a while or maybe ever. But he had no plans on fixing that anytime soon. He made his way through the underground tunnels to find Vincent, “Vinny you ain’t gonna believe what little slices of heaven just fell in Ambrose. Walking through town like angels.” He said forcing Vincent away from his work and up to the museum so they could watch the girls.

“Oh my god this stuff is creepy. It’s like a house full of dead people.” Caroline said with a disturbed look.

“1. Be nice someone worked really hard on these. 2. They aren’t creepy they are cool. The artist is so talented.” Katie scolded her sister and continued to admire the art.

The boys continued to follow them around the museum until they had seen everything. Suddenly Caroline gasped, “A puppy! Look, look! Hi puppy.” A black and white dog trotted over to where the girl had squatted down. “Oh she’s so cute. Do you think she lives here?” She looked up to her sister.

Katie sighed softy almost a laugh and bent down with her sister, “Probably, she seems content here. She probably belongs to the owner of the museum.” She looked at the dog’s collar, “Jonesy, that’s a cute name.” She scratched the pup’s head before Jonesy licked her arm, “A sweet baby too.”

The girls loved on Jonesy a few more minutes without noticing the watching eyes on them.

—-

The boys went back to Vincent’s studio under the museum.

“So what ya think? We could keep them. I’ll take the curly hair and you can have the other one. She seems to appreciate what you and Mama do.” Bo looked at his twin who had already started getting back to work. Vincent shook his head and continued working. Sure the girl was beautiful and it was nice to have someone besides his brothers say nice things about his art. But he could never live a normal life like Bo or Lester could.

“Come on, Vinny. I think its time we find us some girls. Get to work making Ambrose full again.” Bo wasn’t backing down.

Vincent scribbled fiercely on a notepad and thrust it at his brother, ~Do whatever you want. Maybe Lester wants the other one~.

“Nah, it’s perfect for us. Twins and twins. I know you think she’s pretty.” Bo said tossing the notepad back letting Vincent write out his reply.

~How do you expect this to happen? How is it going to work?~

Bo read over the replied and chuckled darkly, “Easy. Knock ‘em out. I’ll bring mine back down under the shop and you bring yours back here. They gotta listen and cooperate eventually if they want anything.” Of course Bo’s plan was by force. Vincent thought it over knowing his brother wouldn’t back down. It would be nice to have someone has his own. He had been alone for so long since Mama had died. And if this girl liked his art than maybe she could learn to like him, even love him.

He finally turned fully to look at Bo and nodded his head.

“Well damn that took less convincing than I thought it would. Okay they should be back at the shop by now looking for me. Just gotta get behind them and grab.” Bo smirked and started walking away with Vincent trudging behind.

—

‘Oh no the cute car guy is gone.’ Caroline thought as she and her twin walked in the door before speaking out loud, “Where’d he go?”

“Maybe he’s in the back or something. Let’s just stay here and wait. Then we can keep going. We’re almost halfway to the coast.” Katie said stepping back looking around for any sight of the mechanic, Bo he had said his name was. Then she heard what she thought was a footstep behind her. “Did you hear th…” before she could finish her question a rag was held up to her face and a hand wrapped around her waist from behind. The rag smelled funny and her eyes grew heavy before she went limp in the arms holding her.

“Hear what?” Caroline was about to turn around to face Katie when hands grabbed her from behind clapping a rag over her face too. She tried to scream but nothing escaped as she too grew tired before everything went black.

[seriously-nobody]

Hey I figured I should do a lil about me type thing. Plz don't judge too harshly again this is my actual life. So anyway here we go! 😵‍💫

@all-things-ghostly thx for this idea

I was born in 2004 in Newport Beach and grew up in sunny southern California, specifically one city over from Anaheim. And yes, I went to Disneyland, quite often actually. I'd say I went maybe 2-3 times a month or if it was around the holidays or a special event it was every weekend if I could. So, needless to say, I know Disneyland pretty well. Unfortunately, I had to move out of California in 2017, but that's a story for another day.

I was, for a long time, afraid of the mansion, surprisingly enough. The only thing I was afraid of was the pop up ghosts so everytime I passed the gate to the graveyard I'd close my eyes until the ghost host said his line "Ah there you are." and I knew I was safe. That was until a friend of mine who was a few years older than me took me through it and pointed out which graves had pop ups and when they usually spring up. I wanna say that I was around 5 or 6 when this happened. O also I remember the beating heart bride before Constance kicked her out lmao. I remember not being afraid of her because she just kinda chilled out there, she was super pretty according to mini me. My parents r super mega Disney fans and we used to go to an actual Disney club in CA and I remember it was a big announcement at our monthly meeting that a new ghost was taking over the attic and it was super exciting. I also remember when they announced they were installing Hattie into the mansion again and it was super cool to me since I already knew the history of the figure.

Anyway enough about the mansion (for now). For a long time my favorite attraction in the park was Splash Mountain. Yes I understand everything now but back when they were taking it out I had no idea about song of the south and the underlying story of it all. Now that I understand tho, I can say that it was super problematic and really shouldn't have been there. I really just thought it was about cute fluffy animals singing about a rabbit escaping death and u get wet. I mostly liked it because it had a single rider line and it was nice to ride alone on a hot day.

I'd say Indiana Jones was my 2nd favorite, even tho their single rider was kinda on and off sometimes, and I didn't come around to actually riding it for fear of the mummies that come out at you, that big projection of kali that appears on the cieling in the skull room, and the giant snake, until I was 6 or 7. I say 6 or 7 because again that same friend helped me through it. But after I got through it with my eyes open I loved it.

Ok enough of park rambling because I could probably talk about the parks until I die and I still wouldn't be finished talking. So I moved away from Cali sadly and I had to part with the park and characters I so loved. I wouldn't say I forgot about my love for these characters but I would say it faded, a lot actually. So let's talk recent, like early July 2023. I forgot what movie I was watching but I remember seeing a certain trailer before the movie that hit me over the head with a comically sized cartoon hammer. I remember seeing the purple wallpaper and I got real confused because I didn't hear /anything/ about there being another HM movie much less a scary one. Like this trailer made me so incredibly happy I cannot even tell u. When I saw that jerky constance in the corner shot I damn near cried. I was finally getting a more scary Haunted Mansion movie WITH ACTUAL HAUNTED MANSION CHARACTERS. Ya that went on the calendar real quick. Then I saw it in theaters and o my god was that THE hatbox ghost?? O my god??? They put him in here! O... o no... he's... he's evil... and he's so sassy and stupid... And then I fell. I not only fell for Alistair but I also fell back in love with characters and places I hadn't been since I was 13. And that love that had faded from being away for so long grew vibrant and close again. Ok quit it with the gushy mushy shit, me. Anyway so I really loved this movie and I had a Tumblr account at the time. I mean I wasn't posting anything but I had it to look into cool niche Fandoms. So I did just that. I didn't expect like anything but I was overjoyed to see so many people loving characters that I feel don't get enough of it.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

[sarasarami10]

All about my OC (Käyan):

Idk if its gonna interest anybody but i wanted to post it somewhere

Image details; App used: procreate/Time it took: 24 hours (about 3 weeks) /brush used: round paintbrush

Background story: Käyan is an 18 years old [is this image] na'vi girl that I created for my personal entertainment. She is a human that came on Pandora approximately 5 years before Jake (at the age of 20) but died one year before Jake's arrival (24). She used to go by the name of Serena Dorsey and she worked as a mercenary for scientists (to make sure the RDA didn't mess too much with their stuff) She also worked a lot with Dr. Augustine. She is an orphan and was raised by Madame Crow (fake name), who made the children of her orphanage sell drugs and do other illegal stuff [she was a mean ol'women]. At the age of 18, she left the orphanage and started working as a hitman/mercenary to try to get by. She decided to leave earth after her best friend [and only one] died of cancer.

Cause of her (human) death: She did not want to harm Pandora and believed in Eywa, so when the RDA tried something against one of the clans she worked with, she went against them and became a traitor [like jake yes]. She was shot while running to alert the clan and died at the foot of a spirit tree while begging Eywa to warn the people.

Description of her human appearance (will draw her): She is a curly red-haired (long) 5'9 woman with light brown eyes. She has one big strand of white hair on her left side and her left eyebrow is mostly white too (vitiligo). Has big hips and medium boobs but is not overweight (could barely afford food). One big scar on her right eyebrow going over her eyelids and a little one on her lips (got into a bad fight). Resting bitch face. Missing her left ring finger (punishment from madame Crow). few other small scars on her legs/arms. Helix piercing (right ear) and two lobes piercing.

Why is she na'vi: Eywa took pity on her [and kinda liked her sacrifice] so she gave her life again [in the form of a baby hehe]. She created a body from basic na'vi DNA and Serena's DNA [explain why she looks like this later].

Human features:

5 fingers because of human DNA

White hair due to having vitiligo as a human [her hair as a human wasn't fully white but Eywa saw this and just went with it plus in my world having white hair is something special associated with Eywa]

Na'vi features:

White hair means she is one of Eywa's messengers [although she doesn't see it as that] and is very respected. Her role is similar to a tsahik but she is not necessarily bound to one clan.

Darker blue skin than the Ometicaya but lighter than the other members of her clan. Also matches her (adopted) twin sister.

Slightly more orange-ish eyes that turn closer to red in different lights (because) [like how Quaritch's turn green in certain lights].

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About Käyan:

Personality type: INTP-T

Favorite colors: Red, orange, purple.

Favorite foods: Smoked fish and lionberries.

Likes: Shiny stuff (especially sea pearls she uses a lot in her outfit), singing, dancing, making clothes and jewelry, getting drunk or high with Lo'ak and/or Kiri, swimming, collecting sea shells and trinkets, her guitar (made herself one na'vi size), getting involved in fights, seeing people fall, sleeping, watching movies, flying her ikran Zeayli, Playing with her sister and/or her little brothers, festivals, being alone, having boys drool over her (as long as they don't speak to her).

Dislikes: People who argue with her, stupid people, hunting, getting awakened from her nap, people who stare at her too much, being called demon/sky person [cause like stfu, Eywa herself brought her back she's na'vi now], being dirty, having to do her hair [we love some extra long and curly hair], having to sharpen her weapons, screaming children, long meetings, being cold, getting pushed into the water, going too far outside the reef [talassophobia], having to dye her hair (for special hunting parties so that she does stand out too much).

Love language: physical touch and gift giving.

The best way to get her attention:

Romantically; giving her something shiny (necklaces are her favorite thing to receive).

As a friend: Go speak to her but do not comment on her hair (unless it is in a respectful way)

Best positive traits: doesn't judge (unless you do something really stupid), kind, smiles a lot (if she likes you), good listener

Worst negative traits: Anger issues, impulsiveness, sly tongue (if provoked)

Things she misses from Earth: The music (especially party music), cinemas, junk food and snacks, mirrors (she has one but doesn't like not being able to see if she has something on her face or in her teeth yk), and public transports (riding an ikran or an ilu can be very tiring).

Fighting skills: Good with a bow and arrow but prefers guns unless she's hunting (gotta respect the great mother y'all). Very good with knives (daggers are her favorite short-distance weapons). Knows a lot of different fighting styles (often gives her the upper hand in a fight). Also quite good with a stick (a custom from her clan). Not that good with throwing spears but great with throwing knives or small sharp objects.

Other random facts: Has a hard time controlling her tail and ears movements when shy or flustered [those ears be twitching], mumbles or hums when she is lost in her thoughts, tried to make alcool once (it was disgusting but did the job), prefer sweet over salty, sneezes a lot (probably allergies), prefers to be the big spoon (unless she's cold), big chances she starts petting you if you sit too close to her (does it unconsciously, she is used to having a clingy little brother), cannot handle second-hand embarrassment (HAS to run away), she has a hard time controlling her facial expression when she is disgusted or disturbed, will cuss at people in English a lot, a bit of a hoarder, ticklish.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About her family (will draw them later):

She has 6 siblings [I like making characters, sue me!] and two parents (all alive).

-----------------------------

Why are they at the Metkayna:

Because Käyan is one of Eywa's «messengers» they have to travel a lot plus they needed to go see the reef people about joining the war against the sky people.

------------------------------

Parents;

Mother: Tekke Te Mäongki Stewaley'ite (45)

They have a good relationship but Tekke has an important role in the clan and 7 children to care for so they might seem distant to others but they love each other very much (only got two daughters so she spoils them often)

Got her mother last name because her dad isn't originally from their clan and in their clan it is most common for the mother to give it (plus I didn't know tonowari's last name.)

Tekke founded her as a baby in a cocoon-like structure at the spirit tree next to her human corpse and decided to adopt her

Father: Änawi Te ?? ??'itan (tonowari's older brother) (43)

He was supposed to be the olo'ektan but fell in love with Tekke (so he moved to her clan)

Has a good relationship with his brother

Spoils his daughters too (Käyan is a daddy's girl)

Siblings;

Sìnka Te Mäongki Änawi'itan (M24):

He and the girls love gossiping

Her favorite older brother (although she won't admit it)

Cares so much about all his siblings

Had to make sure his siblings liked his boyfriend before actually mating with him

Almost died from stress when Kayan first tamed her Ikran

The only one of her siblings who is able to actually intimidate her

She likes to go hunt with him the most because that way she doesn't have to actually do anything (he's a very skilled hunter)

Zaot'sey Te Mäongki Änawi'itan (M21): (Rani's twin brother)

Käyan is always getting herself involved in the twin's schemes (there the troublemakers)

Loves her big brother but he can sometimes be really shy and quiet so she doesn't always know how to approach him

Protective older brother (scares off potentials suiters)

Käyan usually always has the upper hand (the bitch knows how to fight dirty)

Rani Te Mäongki Änawi'itan (M21): (Zaot'sey's twin brother)

Biggest troublemaker of all 7 children

Always gets into arguments with Käyan

Protective older brother (scares off potentials suiters)

Can't win against Käyan in a fight

Sister: Vä'at Te Mäongki Tekke'ite (F18) (her twin sister)

Says there twins because they were literally born minutes apart and until they were like 5, they really looked like twins (apart from the white hair)

Their mother took Käyan in her arms which triggered her labor so she was born shortly after Käyan

Used to be attached to the hips (still are) but grew to be their own person

Almost always together

Knows everything about the other

They used to say that Tilue was their son

Likes to sing with her

They are each's others biggest supporters

Tawtey Te Mäongki Änawi'itan (M14):

Doesn't have a lot of friends so he often hangs out with Kayan and Va'at (they don't mind)

Kayan always had to get him out of trouble (almost scared her to death a few times)

Clingy

Often imitates her (not in a mean way)

Ask her to do his hair

Goes to her for advice

Tilue Te Mäongki Änawi'itan (M6): *Deaf*

Purest little thing you have ever seen

He doesn't even have to ask Käyan (or the others) to come with her because she almost always brings him anyway because he is really well-behaved and cute (he knows when to leave her alone tho)

Always cuddle with her (that's why she developed the habit of petting people)

Käyan is his second mother (their sister is his third but she his person)

Always asks her to sing (puts his head on her chest to feel the vibrations)

Always go to Kayan when he gets bullied so she can kick some ass

------------------------------

Distant familiy:

Tonowari (uncle):

They have a very good relationship

Always hug when they haven't seen each other in a while

Taught her to ride an ilu

Used to bring her, her sister, and tsireya everywhere he went (Ao'nung is a momma's boy)

She first did her hair like him because she liked him so much but soon adopted the style has her own

Ronal (aunt):

Ronal isn't really fond of her (because of her demon blood), doesn't dislikes her, and respects the fact that Eywa choose her

Used to do her hair because Käyan said that she did it better than her dad (Ronal is the one that does Tonowari's hair) and she saw her do Tsireya's so she just asked (Ronal couldn't bring herself to say no to a child)

Ao'nung (cousin)

Kinda hate/love relationship (he never hesitated to throw her under the bus)

Only he can call her a freak (she is not that impressed btw)

Used to cling to her (because she was a year older than him) and he was a shy kid (she still teases him about it when he annoys her)

Tsireya (cousin)

The inseparable 3 (Käyan, Vä'at, and Her)

Would play games like water princess together (na'vi version of mermaid pool game)

Often made matching bracelets or clothes

Tsireya told her ALL about Lo'ak

Gaters information on Neteyam for Kayan (she's their biggest shipper)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About her outfit:

Hair:

The top part of her hair is braided (was too lazy to actually draw braids so it looks like dreads but it isn't) and pulled into a bun.

Most of the rest is let loose. Her hair is very long but really curly so it only reaches her boobs.

Has 2 medium-sized braids that start from the side of her head and join in the middle falling on top of her hair.

Many small braids with beads but only in the back because she hates when they hit her face.

Two braids in the front, one with beads and the other with lace, both ending with feathers.

2 small braids that start from the top of her head and go around her face and join under her hair.

One big braid in the back that covers her Kuru.

-------------

Necklaces:

One choker-like pearl necklace that she made herself (took her years to find the perfect pearls).

One longer necklace with 4 pearls, 2 small teeth, and one big tooth (she collected the teeth from her first hunt, and the pearls were given to her by the tsahik of her clan)

----------

Bracelets (left arm):

One armband made of many teeth and leather gifted by her brothers.

One red dyed fabric armband (dyed in her sister's blood. It is a custom of her clan for twins)

One [special] crystal black beads bracelet (worn by a special order of warrios from her clan [women only])

-----------

Bracelets (right arm):

One armband made with dryed seawead and smal carved sea shells (made by her and Tsireya)

One long bracelet made of one string (*custom from her clan* often used as a last resort weapon, warriors are trained to used this from a young age (she is really skilled with it))

One large simple leather bracelet (gifted to her by her dad)

---------

Top:

Two large pieces of fabric that cover most of her boobs (she does like looking naked), attached by a wooden ring in the middle.

(wooden ring) Linked by 8 strings (to make sure it does come off easily). Two top strings are connected to the wooden ring and attached in a cross pattern with the lower strings in the back. The other two top strings are sewn to the fabric and tied to the other two strings (for more support).

The four lower strings are all connected to a crystal ring that sits on her stomach. They are all tied in a cross pattern starting from the front to the back and are sewn to the fabric.

---------

Loincloth:

Two long pieces of dark pink dyed fabric (one in the front and one in the back to cover her ass cheeks too) that hide a thong-like attached underwear.

Four thick braided strings attached to the fabric (to make sure she does looses it)

----------

Songcord:

Very long songcord for her age that starts from the back of her loincloth to the front (added a few beads that signify the important moment of her old life like why she decided to come to pandora) [I drew it as loose because i didn't know how they wore it, my mistake]

-----------

Knife:

Long knife made of a very hard stone (made by herself).

Green leather handle

Wears it on her leg holster

Small bone on the knife's holster (given by her Tilue)

Pearl trinket attached to the handle

---------

Earings:

Made of bones small crystal beads and small feathers.

---------

Trinkets:

[Leg holster] trinket made of a green crystal and green wooden bead (matching with her sister's)

[Top] trinket made with blue beads and a big sea pearl (made by Sinka)

One waist belt made with beads that are her favorite colors

[chiefatticcreator]

original reddit thread here

[Comic books] That time Wonder Woman became a BDSM dictator and ruled the world, ending an entire series of comics

If I had a nickel for every time Wonder Woman launched a fascist state and took over the world, I'd have two nickels. Wait, no, there were the Justice Lords, so I'd have three. Oh, and the vampires, so four. Flashpoint also counts, so five. And I guess DCeased half counts, since she was a zombie dictator? Wait, there was also that time she became a Nazi after Hitler won...

OK, so I'd have a lot of nickels. Maybe Batman has been making contingency plans for the wrong friend.

But forget all those, because this time is special. Fascist Wonder Woman variants are a dime a dozen, but this particular one was sexy. Which apparently made it all OK, and her dictatorship was framed as a complete positive.

As per usual, I've included various TL;DRs in bold throughout in case (for some weird reason) you don't want to her about how Amazons conquered the world via hogtie. If you want to have extra fun, take a shot every time you see the phrase "submit to loving authority".

(You may have read this writeup before when I posted it in the scuffles thread a while back, because it didn't fit the requirements for a full post. I then read the rules, and realized I was a dumbass and that it did fit the rules. So, here we are.)

It takes one to Earth One

The Earth One concept was pretty simple: Streamlined, revamped versions of classic characters, given a few new twists, kinda like how Batman movies “start from the beginning” every few years with the basic stuff that everyone knows. It was a pretty clear attempt to copy the success of Marvel’s Ultimate Universe, with one major change: instead of being long running comic series, they’d be full graphic novels, written and illustrated by some of the best in the business. The obvious problem with that was that the best writers and illustrators needed a lot of time to make a full book, especially given that they had a full time job with other series in the meantime. That meant that the series has been going for twelve years, with only thirteen books released over that time, and certain characters having four to six year gaps in between each graphic novel. However, the comics were a success. Not a massive goldmine like Ultimate comics, but they all had pretty solid sales, and got high critical reviews. Turns out, giving skilled writers the time and space they need to achieve their vision produces some pretty good content. Who woulda thunk?

And then along came Morrison

Grant Morrison is one of the most successful and respected writers in comics today, known for taking on more difficult or philosophical narratives. They were placed in charge of Wonder Woman’s Earth One story, which came out several years after Batman’s and Superman’s. The first graphic novel was pretty much what people expected from Earth One: similar story with some fun new twists. Diana was canonically bi with a girlfriend now, fulfilling years of coding and hinting (also, all Amazons are super duper constantly gay), as well as being the offspring of a rape by Hercules (rather than a child of Zeus). She also got a relatively regular body, with more time being spent drawing her muscles than her boobs, so that was nice. Overall, it brought back a lot of the classic Golden Age version of Wonder Woman, like the frequent bondage (SFW) and weird ideas of what 1950s men thought feminism was, but in general, it was a good comic.

Side note, which is kind of disconnected but is too bizarre not to share: Morrison explained in an interview that

Wonder Woman’s Invisible Plane is now shaped like a vagina, it’s the most incredible thing. It opens up in the back and it has a little clitoris hood, everything is a female-based design. It’s all based on shells and natural stuff.

Honestly? Hell yeah. Pussy plane it is.

The real issues wouldn’t start until the second book, and would culminate in the third. Although the publishers of DC repeatedly hammered home the idea that Earth One comics would never cross over or impact one another, Grant Morrison stated they felt such a crossover was “inevitable”. That opposing idea may be partly behind the drama that unfolded next. If you don’t have the time or inclination to read all this, the best way to sum it all up is a quote from a review of it:

“Wonder Woman: Earth One Vol. 3" is literally the phrase "I want Wonder Woman to step on me" extended into an entire book.

TL;DR: Earth One was a series about classic DC heroes reimagined in a more modern world. It was never a smash hit, but maintains a steady popularity. Grant Morrison was in charge of Wonder Woman's Earth One version, and took her back to her 1940s roots.

The Plot (or lack thereof)

You can feel free to skip ahead past all this if you don't have the time or inclination to read. However, I highly recommend you do. Partly because it'll help you understand how truly bizarre this was, and partly because I must free myself of the curse of this knowledge by passing it on to another. And remember: no matter how crazy or wild this may sound, this recap is somehow less bizarre than the actual comic.

Wonder Woman Deuce (Both the number and quality)

The second books started off a bit weird, with Nazis invading Paradise Island, home of the Amazons. And they were lead by a weird sexy Nazi girl because of course they were. Surprising no one, the heavily militarized Amazons kick their asses using orgasm guns, and Queen Hippolyta told them that they would be taken to the “Space Transformer” where

They will be transported to Aphrodite’s world where Queen Desira and her butterfly-winged Venus Girls wait to purge them of their need for conflict. They will be taught to submit to loving authority. They will learn to embrace peace and obedience. They will be as happy as men can be.

Yes, that is a real, unedited quote. It was revealed that apparently, the Amazons had a magic butterfly black ops site where they’d be brainwashed. Not the most… ethical concept, but hey, it’s Nazis, who gives a fuck. Sexy Nazi girl then tries to take on Hippolyta, but has her entire body weakened by Hippolyta’s… aura of control? I guess? Hippolyta then gives her a magic girdle that encourages obedience, causing her to renounce Nazism, and tells her

If you truly long to be a slave to the ideas of others, well… we can find you a loving mistress to explore your desires in a healthier context.

Remember that thing about BDSM subtext from the first one? Yeah, it wasn’t really subtext anymore. Nazi lady (aka Paula) then developed an obsession with getting dominated by Diana. Remember that, because the thirsty Nazi submissive will be important later. (Sweet holy fuck above, what has my life come to? Why does this sentence exist?)

Oh, also, Wonder Woman’s pet kangaroo Jumpa was made canon, which automatically makes this the best comic of all time.

Speedrunning through the rest of the comic: Wonder Woman became a celebrity on Earth, pushing an idea of female empowerment (which included trans women because Wonder Woman is fucking based) and also encourage the submission of all men (because Wonder Woman is fucking based?). The whole thing came off as a bit “Achieve all your dreams by buying my book and following these 11 principles for life, but there were some decent messages involved.

However, Leon Zeiko (aka Dr. Psycho), the most cartoonishly sexist man to ever exist, was hired by the US government (and a guy called Maxwell Lord) to seduce Diana and take her down. The government was threatened by the military and technological superiority of the Amazons, and wanted to take them out, or seize their knowledge.

Psycho pretends to be a harmless negotiator who Diana saves, and slowly seduces and draws her in, playing up how weak and helpless he is before her, before slowly starting to challenge her ideas. Some of his points are genuinely good (like how a society revolving around an ultimate authority using mind control and eugenics is a tad evil), which are immediately made meaningless by the uber sexism he then reveals in inner monologue or to the military. To get a general picture of how it went:

Psycho: Diana, you have to understand that people are going to be afraid of a bulletproof superhuman wielding a magic sword who says she's going to tear down their society. Just... take it a little slower. Also, maybe don't kill government officials. Psycho's inner monologue two seconds later: Foolish female, as all women are. She will be a slave to me, because that's what women should be. Consent is meaningless. I'm the bad guy.

With the military, Maxwell Lord builds the totally-not-Iron-Man, aka the Armed Response Environment Suits (get it? It’s like Ares, but it’s modern and related to the military industrial complex. Subtlety of a brick.)

Also, his Dr. Psycho villain name is revealed to be his username on their version of 4chan where he posts misogynistic Andrew Tate style rants. Honestly, as much as I hate most attempts to “modernize” comics, this is absolute gold and should always be canon.

Psycho then somehow proves immune to the lasso of truth, lying to Diana and turning her against Steve Trevor and her girlfriend. He then manages to lasso her and touch her creepily while she’s tied up. Surely that straight up sexual assault will impact Diana later, right? Believe it or not, no, it's just kinda forgotten. Also, he mind controls her, because he can do that I guess. Mind control Diana punched out Steve Trevor, and called her mom Hippolyta, who gave some vague shit about Diana being a weapon and her own impending death. Also, Nazi super lady was drawing swastikas everywhere, but I’m sure that won’t lead to anything.

The swastikas everywhere lead to something. Shocker.

Two seconds later, the Nazi girl confirms her mind control was activated via radio by Maxwell Lord and kills Hippolyta. Also, Hippolyta spends half her death talking about how “all is proceeding as planned”, which will definitely not lead to anything.

Mind controlled Diana gives a speech about needing to overthrow the world of men, giving Lord the power he needs to effectively launch a coup. Diana breaks out of it, her girlfriend beats Psycho’s head in, and Diana beats Nazi girl, who reveals the whole thing was because she was super turned on by the idea of Diana enslaving all men, and wanted to kick start that by killing her mom. Psycho is sent to the magic butterfly brainwashing dimension, and Diana declares war on the world of men.

It’s good to note that this was a first for Earth One books. They’d had continued plots across books before, but generally, each story could be read on its own (given that it could be years before the next one, and they were never 100% sure if they’d get to keep writing). So a big cliffhanger and completely unresolved story were very new.

TL;DR for the second book: Lots and lots of BDSM stuff happened. Diana got dominated by a super sexist guy and used to start a war, and her mom got killed by a Nazi submissive. Diana then beat the everloving shit out of everyone, and prepared to do the one thing that the Nazi girl wanted.

​

The Queen is dead! Long live the totalitarian state!

The third book kicks off with a utopia called Harmonia set a thousand years in the future, with “Diana Day'' celebrations preparing. The day celebrates the end of all patriarchy, and women taking charge. Also, every man shown in it is basically what Fox News anchors think gay men look like. A hooded speaker steps up to recite their history, of how they took power.

In the past, Diana cremates her mother, then goes to get advice from her butterfly mind control aunt, who tells her that

Long, long ago we tamed the beast in man. Here, as you’ve seen, our men are pampered and subdued creatures. Domesticated, content with their privileged lives, their all-consuming hobbies … perfect submission to a loving authority.

It’s basically a Tucker Carlson/Jordan Peterson speech about masculinity, but framed as a positive. Diana is then shown the imprisoned and tormented Dr. Psycho who tells her that her black ops brainwashing island is why everyone feared the Amazons, which… honestly, fair. Again, you really hate to agree with the guy, but they keep having him make perfectly reasonable statements in between all the insane sexism.

The Amazons then set out to recruit allies in the war, revealing that their entire cavalry rides kangaroos, which makes all other issues with the comic meaningless, because it’s the best thing ever. The leader of the rebel Amazons, Artemis, points out that a monarchy is probably no longer relevant, that the war is Diana’s own fault, and that Wonder Woman’s anti-violence stance doesn’t fit much for a person walking around with a sword and massive army. Aaaaand then she goes off the rails and starts talking about killing all men. Because Kirby forbid we have a single reasonable person in this story. Diana then defeats Artemis through the power of BDSM and making out, and gains her alliance.

Also, the Nazi girl is there too, and she’s super chill now guys. Because they believe pollution is worthy of death, but an ethnic cleansing is just quirky.

The battle of the sexes

Maxwell Lord then launches all of the ARES suits, and reveals that he is Ares! Whoa! Who could have guessed. He then has all the women protesting violently attacked and imprisoned, all while repeatedly mentioning “fake news”, “deep fake liberal media”, and all kinds of other political commentary with the subtlety and maturity of a brick through a window.

Then comes the massive battle. Mechanized suits of ultimate war against ancient Greek super soldiers. A devastating battle ensues, neck and neck with neither side having a clear advantage. A vicious struggle for their home, their people, the whole world, a story that had been built up since years ago–

Oh. It’s over in like two seconds. The Amazons realize the suits are piloted by remote control and unleash their full power, with Diana destroying nearly half personally. No Amazons died, because they have insta-heal ray guns.

The world is then 100% on Wonder Woman’s side because sure, I guess America is the only country that exists. She offers complete liberation and free shit for all women. On a side note, she mentions “the women of Lysistrata”, which enrages the classicist in me. Lysistrata wasn’t a place, it was the name of the play. It felt like they googled “Greek women stuff”, and just included it without reading the full Wikipedia entry.

Oh, we're still going? There's more "plot"?

Diana then goes on a spirit quest to Hades in order to get her mom back, which immediately fails. She almost dies, but Steve Trevor saves her. They kiss (which ruins the fucking point about this version of them having mutual respect instead of romance), and then he dies for some reason. They can’t use any of their magic healing on him because… unexplained reasons. I'm gonna be honest here, it felt like Morrison realized the day before the book was due that they needed five or six extra pages to get paid and went "Shit, shit, shit, uhhhhhh... people tell her not to go to Hades, she goes to Hades, she immediately fails".

Ares then sends a second, bigger robot, which lasts about five seconds longer, and he dies in the process. Diana reveals their island is actually a flying island, and goes forth to conquer the whole world, and bring them into submission to a loving authority (there it is again). Diana goes full dommy mommy on the world, and women seize power. There’s one mention of mind controlling half the population being “problematic”, and it’s never questioned again.

Remember that initial framing device, of the future utopia? It cuts in and out, showing a “manly party terrorist” coming into the speech with a suicide bomb, talking about how the Amazon takeover and control was morally wrong. He then talks about how the superior male sex should take over again, because there can’t be a single fucking rational person in this comic. He fails, because “You just can’t get good bomb parts in a utopia”, and is arrested by the “love police” to be taken to “reformation island”. He makes very valid points about how mind control is basically slavery, and how a matriarchy isn't much better than a patriarchy, but he's ugly and cowardly, so he's wrong. It basically gets reduced to "Nice argument, but I have drawn myself as the chad and you as the soyjak"

Also, Steve Trevor is alive again? There's no explanation for how the guy they specifically said could never be brought back to life got brought back to life. It ends with Diana showing that she’d used her mother’s indestructible heart with clay to sculpt herself a mother-daughter hybrid, because why not at this point?

TL;DR: Wonder Woman kicks the entire world's ass with the power of love and BDSM. Steve Trevor dies (but not really), Hippolyta dies (but only partially), and the entire world becomes a utopia ruled by women who have fucked men into submission.

Even more TL;DR: It's 1984 with pegging.

So, what the fuck did I just read?

William Marston, eat your heart out

Marston was the original writer for Wonder Woman, and Morrison heavily drew on his views while writing Earth One. As most people have pointed out, the entire Earth One debacle is basically what would happen if DC editorial hadn't stopped Marston from letting Wonder Woman conquer the world.

Marston's views on women and gender relations... exist. They certainly are things that a person believed. This would usually be the point where I talk about how the 1940s man had some really dated views on women, but Marston's views are genuinely bizarre enough to exist in a vacuum.

He was a pop psychologist (and inventor of the lie detector), who came up with a theory about human nature and sexuality based on studies with his wife and their polyamorous partner called DISC (Dominance, inducement, submission, and compliance). His wife and their mutual girlfriend were also a massive driving force behind Wonder Woman, and their theories were heavily influential on her and the Amazon society, as you can see here. Remember that "submission to loving authority" quote from earlier? Yeah, that was a direct quote from him.

It'd take way too long to get into his views, but the very short version is: Some people are submissive, some are dominant. Society would be super-duper cool if all the submissive people just realized that the dominant people were right, and let themselves get tied up. To his credit, he acknowledges women are every bit as capable of being dominant as men, and that men can (and should) submit to ferocious pegging loving authority.

OK, but why?

The fact that Grant Morrison chose to address Marston's beliefs shouldn't be all that surprising in retrospect. They have a history of taking weird elements from decades old comics and experimenting with them. The weird part is that... there's no "Morrison twist". There's no statement on it, no parody of Marston's values, no critique of 70 year old pseudo-science which has been widely discredited, and is very dubious on consent. It's just "Hey, remember this shite? It's right fuckin' weird mate."

In an interview, Morrison would say that

It wasn’t even so much about trying to be timely. It was about trying to honor Marston’s original vision, and saying, ‘What would this really be like?’ The Wonder Woman: Earth One books are very much set in a contemporary, believable world. The simplicity here is about what would happen if Marston’s ideas were taken seriously, and some of those are very strange ideas.

Ok, yeah, but why? "The guy obsessed with bondage wanted everyone to be in bondage" isn't exactly a surprising twist. Not to mention, again, Marston's views on sexual consent really aren't great. People have also pointed out that choosing to make Steve Trevor a black American, then having Diana lecture him on how him being bound and submissive is the rightful order has some really fucking messed up implications. Finally, there's no mention of what happened to gay or asexual people. Again, while it probably wasn't intentional "gay men get sent to a camp where they're 'fixed' and are sexually submissive to women" has some... troubling implications.

Personally, my thought is that somebody snuck LSD into their lunch for months, but we’ll never really know.

(It’s also more than a little ironic that an author who is proudly and openly nonbinary created a future divided squarely between men and women, with no mention of what happened to everybody else).

TL;DR: William Marston, Wonder Woman's original creator had a bunch of views on sexuality and dominance that he included in his comics, which Morrison then picked up. However, many of those concepts are deeply fucked up, and Morrison plays them entirely straight with no real critique. The only guy who questions them is the uber-sexist who gets mocked and basically raped.

​

Wait, why don't people hate this?

I find it truly, utterly, and deeply hilarious that all the Gamergate and Comicsgate people who have been whining about "muh women taking over" have apparently all ignored the comic which has literal feminazis in it. There is a woman. Wearing swastikas. Who says all men must be conquered. And the edgelord crowd just kinda... ignored it.

As for the rest of fans, while a decent number of people pointed out the myriad weird shit involved, everyone else... well, it's Wonder Woman in high heels stepping on you and telling you to put on the leash and submit. It checks a lot of boxes.

And, to be fair, it had some absolutely gorgeous artwork and fight scenes, so you could just kinda skim over the pretty pictures and purposefully block out all the weird shit in the speech bubbles. There's also a decent number of people who think that Morrison did a good job exploring Marston's ideas. As you may have noticed (although it was subtle), I strongly disagree with that, but to each their own.

Finally, there are the fans who just went "Man, this is an absolutely batshit kinkfest with kangaroo armies and sororities undermining the government, hell yeah". Honestly, nothing but respect for those people. DC can often wallow in grimdark and grit, so it's nice to get a bright and fun comic that revels in the weirdness of the medium.

Goodbye Earth One

This also functionally may very well end the entire Earth One line. Green Lantern could continue in space, and they managed to squeak out the third Batman a few months later (because it was already 99% done, and they just said it was set a little while before Wonder Woman). The issue is pretty obvious: if Wonder Woman established a global utopia free of crime and struggle, there’s really nothing for anyone else to do. Gotham is a lot less dark and gritty for Batman when the Riddler is too busy putting on his catboy costume to rob a bank.

They may decide to go the same route as before, and just retcon that the Wonder Woman story takes place years after everyone else’s stories, but the future is left uncertain. The creators for Batman Earth One mentioned that they thought they were continuing the story, and had plans for the future. In a particularly shitty move, DC didn't tell them that the Batman series was canceled until after the third book was released, which may spell the end for the whole series. They had also been planning an Earth One Aquaman book, but insiders have revealed that it was most likely scrapped and repurposed for other comics. DC is keeping quiet on it, and is claiming they'll release the same Flash book they've been promising for years, but they may use Wonder Woman as an excuse to end the line.

​

So, I guess the moral of the story is that if you want to have a successful authoritarian state, just make all its rulers hot dominant women in speedos and people will be cool with it.

Edit: I can't believe that I almost forgot the best part of it all. This was Morrison's last comic with DC. After decades of working there, Morrison agreed to make one final comic... then went "Hey, Diana fucks now, deal with it", dropped the mic, and left.

[admirange]

Mcl style contest outfit dump pt. 6

Slimy and gooey

I ACCIDENTALLY SUBMITTED HALFWAY THROUGH LMFAOO otherwise I just took it literally and used purple/green bc those are the slimiest colors

Got really low ranking with it but it was obvious from the start

Forbidden forest

I was thinking so hard to figure out what piece of media has the forbidden forest😭 a google search helped me out, I knew it was familiar. So idk, it's sort of between a student and a person doing business in there? Like illegal ones lol

Got really low ranking with it

Reaper

I'm addicted to Sims again so that was my inspiration, kind of. WE STILL NEED CLOAKS PLSS

Got well ranked with top 25% (speaking of cloaks, what Cerise (3th place) did was pretty cool!!)

The witch's lair

I did a forest-witch kind of thing but it just didn't look good. Hard to work with stuff if most of my things are white, black and blue with a few other colors scattered. I rarely let myself spend AP on different clothes to use in the contest so yeah. I remembered Galadriel from lotr was called a witch sometime? So I went in that direction and did a fantasy, elf-like witch of some sort. I'm just bored of witch themes like everyone else

Got well ranked with top 28%

Spooky

I was once again not creative but in my defense I created this when I was on a call with friends and didn't really pay attention to the game. The idea is a chill night while watching/reading horror stories. That's it lol

Got really low ranking with it

Cruel queen

There's a lot of characters that came in my mind, but Maeve from tog was the only one I could do from my clothing options. The elf hair is in shared items atm so I used the other long hair:P no idea which would've been better.

Got low ranking with it

Haunted manor

Just did a classic frightened lady living in a manor that's haunted lol. Didn't want to do a ghost again.

Got low ranking with it

Darkness

Basic black clothing. Put some spookier stuff on her to get the feeling of being scared in the dark, as you never know what's in there. That's it, basically.

Got well ranked with top 11% (surprised me since it was pretty low effort)

Nyx's daughter

Well shame on me but I had no idea how many children she has and who are they (still don't lol). I did a search on google but I got tired quickly so I just asked my greek mythology nerd friend. She said her daughters are the moirai (along with a lot of others), the fates. At that point I kinda knew what she was talking about since my memories from school started to come back. Also Hercules was my favourite childhood movie lol. I tried to do a magical cave of some sort with the background? My memories can be wrong but I remember they're in a cave or something. We did a whole conversarion with my friend to decide which hand accessory would fit the best, since we don't have scissors, nor any spinning thread or whatever they're called. Maybe I didn't have to do all of this research and just make a "the night's daughter" outfit, but that's lazy and lame imo🫠

Got low ranking with it

Forsaken crypt

I could do either an explorer, or something old that's in the crypt. This is something in the middle and idk how I feel about it (I'm lying, I don't like it). Pretty low effort, nothing special can be said about it.

Got low ranking with it (as if it was surprising)

Vampire ball

I still love vampires! But my previous vampire was my ultimate creation and didn't want to copy that, so this isn't a winner outfit😔 I'd say that maybe this is a little more elegant, or just extra. I wouldn't consider it bad, but we all have eyes lol

Got well ranked with top 26%

Candy corn

I did a candy corn inspired outfit already when trick or treat was on. I only have a few yellow & orange clothing so the outfit turned out pretty boring 🫠

Got really low ranking with it

Cursed grimoire

Okay so this is embarrassing, but I had to look up the meaning of a grimoire and I was so fixated on it that I forgot the cursed part😔 I'M SORRY but if I have to be honest I think the fit is fire, just maybe not for this theme. I was confident I wanted to use purple but then I saw two shared items and built the outfit around them lmao. The lore is a spellcaster student finding this particularly magical book in the school's library.

Got low ranking with it

Ghost whisperer

There was this show called this I think? I was obsessed with it as a kid. That, and the Conjuring movieified Warrens were my inspiration. I love how it turned out, I won't lie.

Got low ranking with it (the theme was ghost WHISPERER, not ghost🤦‍♀️ I shouldn't be surprised tho)

Haunted circus

Well. Does it give circus vibes? Idk. I tried. I liked the circus season of ahs. The theme is cool btw, I just suck at creating a normal fit for it

Got low ranking with it

Harbinger of doom

Tried to do something spooky/unnatural. Mothman is a great idea but I don't have wings. Not much thought process here.

Got low ranking with it

Green goblin

Well I have to add that I made this with my friend and we didn't take it seriously so it's not that great. But yeah, the spiderman's green goblin was our inspiration. Had a whole discussion if pumpkin Taki or bank robbery Taki is better.

Got well ranked with top 27% (I jokingly told my friend the winners will have fairy wings, butterflies, sparkles and the elf pack clothes in green - I was so right)

Werewolf

Also an average outfit, more like a werewolf in the everyday life than an over the top wolf cosplay. That wouldn't really work out. Not a high effort one, but I like it.

Got low ranking with it

Undead

I got style contest block or I don't know, half of the time I just sat there and had no idea what the hell I want to do. I became the very person I despise and just put random clothes on that's somewhat okay with the theme. Skeleton parts are obvious, the necklace is to give somewhat a spiderweb vibe? Flowercrown for some religious nod to Jesus? I was trying but I'm on a losing streak here.

Got low ranking with it

Inferno

At this point I should give up because. Oh my god. I'm so so sorry. The themes are really cool but I just have 0 inspiration for them, or can't 100%. Maybe it's really because at this point it's kind of repetitive. Using the same clothes differently all the time, I think I'm just at my limit of what I can do with them. This is like a demon of some sort who's there to torture people? Used as many gold stuff as possible because fire and riches and I don't know. I'M NOT PROUD.

Got low ranking with it

Evil clown

Pennywise, obviously. Although it's not a cosplay, I used the new doll skirt and built everything around it. I think I'm back with this (okay no I'm not 100% satisfied but better than the 2 before). Don't judge because of some elements, some stuff from the halloween bank outfit were shared and I just had to try them out 😔 (thanks from here again for the shared items!! I love you guys. Can never thank them enough)

Got low ranking with it

Posting this earlier than I wanted to because tumblr for some reason didn't save it as a draft but tossed it out as a post. No idea why, I only clicked on save.

Thank you for reading and/or looking through my creations!<3

[denimreviews]

Disenchanted (2022) Review

3/5 Pips

It's kinda weird that a movie this mediocre is what motivated me to start this blog.

"Disenchanted" is the direct sequel to Disney's 2007 film, "Enchanted" that took roughly 15 years to release. It's... pretty much everything I could have expected from an Enchanted sequel. That's not to say it's bad by any means, in fact it has some fun whimsical moments. It just also lacks a bit of charm that could have set it apart as something special.

It's worth noting that I wasn't the biggest fan of the original Enchanted. I liked it for what it was and then moved on. I think that Disenchanted is in the same boat for me, just a bit less memorable.

SPOILERS AHEAD

THE GOOD

Amy Adams does great as Giselle, and really shines when shifting between her natural princess demeanor and wicked alter-ego. I think the dynamic between Giselle and her family is cute, too! The premise of the movie is a natural progression of the story established in the first film, and I think the concept of magic being stolen from the fairy tale realm was a clever use of the two worlds. The set design and acting was enjoyable overall.

THE EH

While Amy Adams did a great job in the role, I wish Giselle's naivete had been a bit more understated. She's been in our world for how long? Yet she still acts every bit the airhead as she did at the start of the first film. I do believe she's childlike in nature, but she should have some self awareness after everything she learned in the first film. I'm all for a dainty, kind, airheaded protagonist, but Giselle felt a little too detached from the growth she should have already undergone.

The other issue I took with Disenchanted was the music. With the exception of the villain song, none of the music in this film stood out. Every song was forgettable for me. It felt less like a musical and more like characters simply HAD to be singing. "But Denim!" I hear you say, "that's the POINT of the Enchanted films!" And while I agree to a certain extent, the first film had similar themes but the music there was memorable. If the mediocrity of Disenchanted's music was somehow intentional to emphasize the disconnect between the two worlds, then my point still stands. Because while a musical should tell a story, it's also pretty important that the songs are actually enjoyable. I mean, we all know Idina Menzel can belt one out, but I can't recall a single moment of her big climactic number, "Love Power."

THE VERDICT

Overall, I enjoyed watching Disenchanted but I don't forsee myself rewatching any time soon. Personally, I had an okay time with this movie, but there were just a couple hiccups.

As far as 2020's Disney films go though, it was stupendous!

[pyroclastic727]

Notes from the Amphibia panel!

• Matt Braly got into animation when a Pixar guy came to his school to inspire him. Then he took figure drawing classes, went to CalArts for 4 years, worked at Dreamworks storyboarding, and started pitching shows.

• Jessica Chandra went from live action to applying for the Nickelodeon animation internship. Then she worked on Tangled before Amphibia

• Roxanne Cole did character design at first and then switched to storyboards--then Matt reached out to them

• Joe Johnston followed Matt's path, even being college roommates--but before that, he and Matt went to California Summer School for the Arts (now Interspark)--along with Alex Hirsch and others. He got Matt to work on part of SU.

• They start with a clip! It's an animatic for the Marcy Theme Song Takeover, and Haley Tju sings

• IT ENDS WITH HER SINGING "HOPE NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME"

• What are challenges in balancing the show's tone, after the s2 finale?

Joe: The tone kinda marches along with you as you go, esp with s1 and s2, and it's been pretty easy.

Roxanne: I came on for season 3, so my experience is watching the tone evolve from the beginning to the end, which is a lot of fun. Stuff about when are we getting into plot, into fun episodic moments (there's plenty of both). The characters are complex and flawed, albeit fun and goofy.

Jess: We had to bolster our design team and add to our schedule to make Matt's vision come true.

• Favorite episode you've directed, and more specifically, favorite scene?

Roxann: it would be from season 3...

Joe: From season 2, is Bessie and Microangelo, since it's funny and lighthearted

• How does Amphibia explore Loss?

Matt: Loss is one of the many feelings that is part of this cocktail called life. It will be something that everybody deals with. These intense things that the characters go through create realistic scenarios. The running theme of Amphibia is that the price is paid and every dream costs something. It will get heavy. Kids love to see these things explored. You want the full spectrum of the human experience in the show.

Jess: I agree. Watching this, I was like but why, Matt, why? It is part of life, and I think it's gonna be interesting to see how this is gonna affect all the characters and how they deal with it.

Joe: being 13 is tumultuous, and it's all about change and loss.

Roxann: I'm trying to be real careful because I know more about s3...Anne from s1 to s2 has become a completely different character and they [characters] are gonna change more in s3

• What do you love most about your role on the show?

Matt: It's less about what I can do and more about inspiring others... it's good to see people do their best work because they're motivated and have a rapport.

[Jess, Roxann, and Joe agreed, that the people are important.]

Roxann's first directory experience was on season 3.

• How do you decide what needs more budget? How do you balance action and comedy?

Joe: You can plan ahead a little, and roll with the punches. Jenn Strickland storyboarded everyone when they fought the robots.

[It got boring and I zoned out. They discussed distributing episodes to boarders.]

• What inspired some of the episode

Matt: Studio Ghibli, Legend of Zelda

Jess: Movies that came out recently, Jurassic Park, Star Wars, magical world genre

Matt compartmentalizes. Which is why Anne does that as well.

[They discussed their hobbies outside work. Matt has none.]

A season takes about a year to produce. They are produced stacked so that you don't have year-long gaps between airing. Episodes are done in production order usually.

Holiday episodes are out of order because of when they need to air. (Christmas special might be out of order).

• Out of all the roles, which goes underappreciated or doesn't get enough attention?

Roxann: Production gets glossed over. Artists have terrible time management and production keeps them on track

Matt: Revisionists, who "spackle" everything and go unrecognized. Basically, they clean the boards and get underpaid for it.

Jessica: The Checker! At the end of the production line, they catch ALL the errors. They're also called continuity editors. Often people will forget the right number of props, such as swords.

• What is it like, balancing episodic comedy and story art? Both dealing with heavy topics and making them approachable.

Matt: it's designed to be an episodic show, one that you can watch out of order if needed--although jumping in can make you a little lost later on. He wants self-contained AND long-form stories. (This is probably why we have lore-bomb episodes matched with plot arc episodes). He was inspired by Steven Universe's pacing, especially with the buildup "to a fever pitch"--and he hopes they can do the same.

• Is there a story you haven't told yet, that you have always wanted to tell?

Matt: Had wanted to tell a story about someone stuck in the hospital, since he was stuck in the hospital once. (Might be the inspiration behind Marcy in the tube, implying she won't get out quickly).

Jessica: Mrs. Boonchuy's childhood--coming to America, raising a child...

• What are your feelings about pitching boards?

Matt: I personally really like it. The energy in the room when you're pitching a new board.

Roxann: It's not my favorite thing. I was more involved in the animatic process, and recording scratch was the only pitching I did. (She pretended to be Hop Pop and took psychic damage at her recorded voice).

Joe: I really enjoy pitching (he's great at it, does voices and plays music)--especially when you have time to prepare.

In the chat, the top questions were about LGBTQ+ representation. All were ignored in favor of the

• They showed the s3 trailer rough, with music written by JAKE NEUTRON

It's really quiet and sad

"Making friends and enemies" showed Marcy and Sasha respectively

Lots of reused clips

MARCY HAS A CRUTCH AND IS MOVING