#where another character basically 'got between' the ship and a lot of people were really mad about it

[lanalaynetalks]

Tenrou Island is one of my favorite arcs! I love this arc so much. I think this is possibly a controversial take. I don’t know. My favorite thing about shows is learning more about systems in the world. I think it’s just so interesting to see how wizards become s-class. This is going to be long. I am so sorry I love this arc so much. It’s a lot of Cana… I ADORE CANA. Plus a lot of Levy and Gajeel! I just think this arc features so many fan favorite characters so well. This is also before The Thunder Legon was nerfed so they have some cool moments. Just I love this arc so much!

1. I do think it’s crazy that they really just throw us into the arc with no filler episodes/arc between. I think this is one of the only arcs that doesn’t have filler episodes before or a filler arc.

2. Fairy Tail having a sacred place implies that other guilds do as well.

3. Something I find weird about S-Class wizards is why does the title follow you from one guild to another. Juvia and Gajeel were S-Class in Phantom Lord, but not Fairy Tail.

4. Silly thing time! Hiro Mashima trying to put all the main characters and main side characters on the island.

5. Lisanna and Juvia. I wish we kept seeing them as friends.

6. Evergreen and Elfman are one of my favorite ships and should be a main ship. It should be the big 5 instead of big 4. They were more together by the end than any of the other ships! I LOVE THEM!

7. Oh Mest… I miss your silly personality. Also how did he go from ok looking, to hot, to Nastu wannabe. I will be mourning when we see hot Mest for the last time.

8. Why did Makarov keep picking Cana? It seems a little cruel.

9. First Mavis mentioned. Mavis is one of my favorite characters of all time. I love her so much. Fairy Tail Zero is so good and made me love her more.

10. While pacing was my biggest issue for the last two arcs I feel like this is when the show found its pace. Without this arc the grand magic games would have not been as good as it was. I said what I said!

11. If I walked into the route and saw it was Mira I would have just walked away. Mirajane scares me the most out of all characters in the show.

12. I’m going to say it! I ship Lily and Carla! I said what I said!

13. I never got why Hades was so obsessed with Zeref. Because Zeref literally taught him how to use magic. I also wish we got more info on why he turned evil. It’s hard for to believe e he would attack Fairy Tail because he was a founder and was like best friends with Mavis. Him being Precht makes no sense because we never get a full explanation on how he turned evil other than he basically accidentally went down the alt right pipeline

14. I will never get over the Iron with a heart in the O. When I saw it for the first time I screamed and I still scream and fangirl over it!

15. Makarov talking Gajeel into joining Fairy Tail will forever be one of my favorite Gajeel scenes.

16. This arc is really when we start seeing Wendy come into her character and she becomes less of just the little kid to a true character.

17. It’s heavily implied you can’t say no to being Fairy Tail’s guild master. We see Makarov be like lol no and Precht being like lol too bad. Then we see Guildarts being like lol no and Makarov being like lol too bad! Then we see Guildarts being like lol as master you are now master again! Like can they really not say no?

18. I wish we could see Makarov in his prime. I know there has been discussion about how the series is going to continue. I don’t want next generation Fairy Tail I want to see old generation Fairy Tail. I want to see Makarov and his old team beating people up. I want to see Precht as guild master. Or even early days of Makarov being guild master! I would even be ok if it was like Fairy Tail Zero where it was a one arc story.

19. I do have a theory that Precht made Fairy Law. I don’t think it’s stated ever that Mavis made all the grand fairy spells but I maybe wrong. So that’s how he was able to make Grimoire Law.

20. Another theory I have is that Precht took care of Makarov after Yuri’s death.

21. Now this is an out there theory. I know it. I believe that Yuri called Laxus back to the island. HEAR ME OUT! We know that some things just happen in Fairy Tail especially with the living and the dead. Yuri promised to always protect Mavis also his son was in danger. His legacy (Fairy Tail) was in danger. I also think that it could have been Mavis, but I think it’s more poetic coming from Yuri.

22. Makarov saying it’s up to his successor and us being shown Laxus… I am going to call it right now. The end of 100 year quest we will be seeing Laxus becoming master. This would be a perfect way to end his character. This is not the post to get into it, but ya that’s my prediction.

23. God Slayers… oh the magic that was sort of forgotten about. How sad.

24. I will die on this hill. Laxus should have been the Lightning God Slayer. This would had been able to connect him, Ivan and Hades together in a perfect way.

25. This arc also has some of my favorite speeches.

26. One thing about me is I am absolutely sat every time Mirajane transforms.

27. Elfgreen is such an underrated ship.

28. I love Evergreen so much.

29. Capricorn is cool! I really like him even if he isn’t used enough. I love him! Probably second favorite spirit. First is Aquarius because I am an Aquarius and she is just awesome.

30. Favorite Juvia moment is when Meredy said she was wanting to kill Gray.

31. Also wow the show that has shown over and over again to become more powerful is to channel your emotions is showing how emotions makes people more powerful. I really don’t get why people give Fairy Tail so much hate using the power of friendship. It’s almost like we are shown over and over again that is literally how it works. More emotion = more power. It also makes me more mad now knowing the show was created because Hiro Mashima was lonely.

32. One of my favorite things to come out of this arc is Juvia and Meredy’s friendship.

33. Honestly Juvia vs Meredy is my favorite Juvia fight.

34. Cana my love. We both have daddy issues. She just like me for real!

35. Me realizing I’ve misspelled Gildarts name this whole time… oops

36. Seeing Cana’s mom’s will and seeing Cana’s cards being around it. I think her mom also used card magic.

37. Can we talk about how Cana was defeated by Laxus in her first S-Class trial. We don’t talk about this enough!

38. I truely believe that any minor inconvenience Cana threatens to use Fairy Glitter.

39. Fairy Tail having grand spells implies that other guild have grand spells

40. Rip thunder legion…. They aren’t dead they just get hella nerfed after this arc. Well more than they already were after the battle of fairy tail.

41. One thing about Gray is going to try to cast ice shell.

42. I love Ultear so much. She is one of my favorite villains.

43. Lily being scared of thunder and lightning. Adorable. I love him.

44. I do think Hades being a founder was added later on because when he revealed he was the second guild master he didn’t mention being a founder and I think that’s something that would have been mentioned.

45. LAXUS IS BACK BABY! ONE THING ABOUT LAXUS HE KNOWS HOW TO MAKE AN ENTRANCE!

46. We are so spoiled in this arc. We got so much of side characters showing their skills.

47. So Nastu just got the flame lighting power. Honestly don’t understand how it worked! But I don’t care because it’s cool! Wanna know what’s not cool? The fact that Wendy is the only 1st generation dragon slayer to not get an extra dragon slayer element. I hope by the end of 100 year quest she gets something. I want cobra to give her poison. Because that would be badass.

48. The exceed side mission is so adorable and goofy. I LOVE IT.

49. To think of Hades just kept his Fairy Tail emblem he would have been able to win the final fight because the tree was restore

50. People say it’s a plot hole that Ultear was able to restore the tree because she said she can’t use her magic on living things, but I think it was just bad phrasing and really it’s like humans and animals she can’t us her magic on.

51. The Laxus ship that makes the most sense to me is that him and the thunder legion are just a poly relationship. Yes Elfman is apart of this.

52. Another reason why I don’t think Hades was always supposed to be a founder of Fairy Tail is because how did he not recognize Zeref as the man who taught him magic?

53. I love Gildarts and Cana so much! I know if Cana told him from the start he would have stopped going on his long jobs to take care of her. He is such a girl dad.

54. Everyone begging Makarov to let them stay and fight is another moment that makes me cry every time. Honestly the whole episode does.

55. Most iconic scene in Fairy Tail is them holding hands and no one can change my mind.

56. Mavis protecting her guild. Her babies! I love her. The foreshadowing of fairy sphere being more powerful than Acnologia.

Tenrou Island is one of the best arcs. It is also a soft reboot of the show. I can’t wait for the grand magic games. I don’t know if I’ll watch the clock arc. I haven’t watched it in years. It is always a skip for me because I want to get to the grand magic games. I know I missed a lot during this arc and forgot to write things down. I watch the show while working on my school work. I love talking about Fairy Tail so don’t be shy send me things! Thank you for reading me fan girling over my favorite piece of media! The grand magic games post will likely be multiple parts because I think it’s peak Fairy Tail.

[spaceorphan18]

Okay, some Glee discourse, because it's been a while ::

@lilacdaisyrose mentioned in a comment :: I’m so shocked that Ryan Murphy actually revealed that!! Also, I’ve always wondered (sorry kinda related), at the time was Adam quite a big thing in the Klaine fandom? To me I find Adam so confusing because there’s so little character development and I always wish there was even a bit more, but also wonder why they introduced him if they weren’t going to really add to his character? 🙂

Okay. So. There are a lot of components to this. In order to understand the whole Adam thing, you kind of need to have the context of what was going on within fandom at the time.

The short version (because this deserves it's own psychological thesis piece) is that Kurt Hummel had a huge fan base that had been fractured into many different sub fandom groups, all of them centered around shipping him with different characters. But mostly the big divide was between people who liked Kurt with Blaine and people who didn't.

[This whole sub culture fandom thing is so fascinating, and I really should write up a giant master post about it some day.]

So, we got wind that Adam was coming some time around Christmas (And, I mean, originally his name was Paul, and it was Paul's Peaches. I wonder why that didn't clear Fox Standards and Practices, huh.) And so the Anti-Blaine Kurt Stans got a hold of this info and just raaaan with it. Like, it did not matter who he was or what kind of character he was -- he was not Blaine and that's ALL that mattered.

So, Adam became a thing before he was even a thing.

A couple of things happened, though. First of all, like usual and typical, the Klaine fans (and I mean, I'm not even getting into the sub culture of Klaine fan divides either, because that is another post) began harassing everyone - including the actor, which, you know, made him a little cold (understandably). He did one interview attempting to insinuate that his role was important, but it definitely bristled and I don't think it was his best PR move, but that was lower compared to all the rest of the nonsense going on.

The big thing that happened was that Adam's first song -- the remix of Baby, Got Back, was tied up in some legal issues. Basically, Ryan Murphy used the mix without crediting or even asking the person who mixed it if they could use it. Now, they got permission from Sir Mix A Lot (or whomever did that song originally) but then it got into some weird legal gray area stuff, and blew up in the media and left a bad taste in everyone's mouth. So the general audience soured on him pretty quickly.

On top of that -- there was a shit ton of stuff going on BTS -- Cory's addiction was becoming a problem, the network wanted to kill the show, the tinhatters were driving Chris to murder, like there are a bunch of layers of stuff going on that made all this complicated, and it all kind of results in Season 4 just being wonky on a lot of levels.

(Btw - do Kevin and Jenna talk about Adam at all? I haven't listened to the podcast in a long, long while, so I don't know, but my curiosity is piqued.)

But during that time, this was when the Glee cast was finally beginning to set some boundaries concerning social media, but Ryan Murphy was beginning to try to use it -- and he kept getting himself involved in fandom, and flying a little too closely to the sun. I do think Klaine was always where he wanted to go (because the actors (mostly Chris) did complain -- which, again deserves it's own post). But they were loud, and they were obnoxious about it.

No, Klaine fans did not like Adam. At all. They wanted him gone, and we wanted reconciliation. But the Anti-Blaine Kurt stans made Adam the measure of who Kurt's bf should be. They did not really care that Adam only had three episodes and very zero development and was clearly dropped like a hot potato because it's obvious Kurt still has feelings for Blaine because, you know, Kurt's sleeping with Blaine while this whole dating Adam is going on but...

It was just a mess.

The other thing you have to remember is that -- while this was live, we didn't get the chance to just watch quickly in succession and go onto the same thing. Those of us who were spoiled knew of this character for months before he appeared. And it was a whole fucking long time before Love Love Love finally closed the door on it officially. So while he was only around for those three episodes, the open endedness of it last a LOOOOONG time. And no one knew what was going on.

So the shipping wars, as usual, continued on and on and on.

I'm trying to think if I at all answered your question, lol.

Why did they create him? the tl;dr version is that since Season 3, they had Klaine (the now b-couple) mirror Finchel (the a-couple) -- prior to that Finchel was the b-couple and Wemma the a-couple, and Glee loved to do parallels with them. But Wemma really wasn't a thing much by season 4, and Klaine was much more popular, and my god they just loved having Kurt be Rachel lite sometimes that they're basically telling the same story with both couples.

So, Rachel gets a season long boyfriend only to wind her up with Finn again (only the cory stuff threw a wrench into that). So, clearly, Kurt needed to have one, too. But also -- they needed to have Kurt do something. They weren't going to put Klaine back together until sweeps week, or the finale because that's how network tv paced things back in the day. So Adam was just subpar character development.

I don't know what their original intentions for the character were. I don't know if they knew. I think they had their story up until 4x15 (overall) and then it got rocky because things with Cory were getting weird and it all just fell apart.

I do think, like Darren, the actor playing Adam got a three episode contract, and they wanted to test the audience's reaction. Clearly, it did not go well, and the added legal issues of the song just kind of made them sweep it under the rug all the faster.

Hopefully, some of my rambling made sense.

Maybe at some point in the future, I'll do an expansive history of the Kurt fandom series.

Or y'all can keep asking questions. What ever you'd like to do <3 lol

[olderthannetfic]

I just got a comment saying I should have tagged for dom/sub undertones and I'm a little confused. In canon, this guy always bosses his wife around re: doing shit that's healthy for her - napping, drinking water, remembering to eat more than once a day, getting more than 3 hours of sleep - and she lovingly calls him "Boss Man" as a nickname because of it. On some occasions where she's gone more than a day without eating he'll swipe her phone and order her to eat before she gets it back, something she always seems to find endearing. There's a lot of 'I didn't mean to worry you', 'you're worth worrying about, now here's your favorite homemade walnut bread' stuff, all there in canon, just lifted from canon and transplanted into my fic.

Is this dom/sub stuff? I'm aroace so I've never been in a relationship, but I assumed "take care of yourself" "I will but I will call you a silly nickname over it" was regular relationship stuff. Or is it that the frequency of it makes it dom/sub stuff, and I'm just not grasping that because my neurodivergency is making me not read the social cues correctly? I was only recently diagnosed but this has been a problem for a long time, the whole line between normal and abnormal behavior, so I thought I'd ask you. You're much more well-read than I am and know a lot more about shipping dynamics and how they're tagged. I feel like you're an expert whose opinion carries a lot of conclusions-informed-by-knowledge and so your take could help me figure this out.

People who are doms or subs or write them, if you have a guide on this stuff, that'd be cool, too. I want to educate myself more so I know if I should tag something. After all, I can't get my story to people who want to read it if it doesn't show up in the tags they're searching for. Readers aren't mindreaders. It's on me to make sure they can get ahold of the things they're looking for. I just need to work around my own ADHD-addled brain to do it.

--

I think this is the usual pattern of demanding silly tags that would only make sense in that reader's own bookmarks.

Yes, caretaking and food control of various kinds can be a part of BDSM. No, your description of canon does not make it sound like this has obvious undertones.

Readers are going to have different interpretations. It's possible that other readers would agree with this one. I have my doubts. I suspect they're projecting. But sure, maybe other people would think there was some of that vibe.

However, if you did not intend the fic to read this way, I would not add the tag. This is not what the fic is about.

--

As for what this kind of thing can look like when it is intended as a dom/sub activity, the movie Secretary has a bunch of examples. She calls him on the phone to tell him what her family's dinner looks like that night; he gives her instructions about which things she can eat how much of. The way she acts while making that phone call makes it clear it's an exciting game to her. Another time, he tells her she's not allowed to cut herself anymore: he will provide what she needs.

Even if the characters are being playful, just nagging someone to do basic self care doesn't really come across as this. It's more charged when it's an intentional power exchange thing.

It's more like... hmm... if you and a friend agreed to LARP as characters for a day. Even if you were acting fairly normal and doing things you'd often do anyway, there would be this added extra vibe to it that someone who knew you well could probably detect.

It's not so much about the specific behaviors: it's about the extra meaning those people ascribe to them. If it doesn't seem like the canon characters think of this caretaking any specific way and you, as the fic author, don't see it that way, then I don't think it will generally read as a dom/sub thing to most readers.

[weyrwolfen]

Happy Cody Day! Have Some Fic Recs

I wasn't able to finish writing anything for the 2-2-24 cause, so it seems like the least I could do was throw some recommendations for a few of my favorite Cody-centric fics into the ring to help celebrate. Enjoy!

Gen:

And Your People Shall Never Be Destroyed (complete) by independent_variables

Summary: A-017 turned and regarded him silently for a long moment. “You ask a lot of questions, Kote.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Is it really as simple as being one or the other?”

Kote bit his tongue.

‘17’s expression tightened, and he stepped forward to grip Kote’s shoulder.

“One day you’re going to ask a question you don’t like the answer to,” he said, eyes bright and burning. “And that’s when you’ll have to decide: is this a good thing, or a bad thing?”

My Comments: Features a whole slew of precocious CC cadets dealing with the horror show that is Kamino, but Cody is the POV character for the first, longest fic in this multi-story series. Heartbreaking with a happy, hopeful ending.

First Choice (complete) by smilebackwards

Summary: The clones get to choose their Jedi generals.

My Comments: This series has three fics in it, and while the first one is Obi-Wan-centric, the next two are from Cody's POV. The first two are a bit more serious in tone, while the last one is basically Cody's brothers relentlessly trolling him.

Shippy Fics (nothing explicit, because those fics are between me, God, and probably some overworked Ao3 website volunteers):

Our Own Choices (WIP Cody/Obi Wan) by heartofroses112

Summary: CC-2224 made the choice. Cody had to live with it. The Commander... well, he was prepared to burn the galaxy down as penance.

Or, Cody decides to leave the Empire, but that doesn't stop his past decisions from haunting him. In the midst of trying to repent for the crimes he 'willingly' committed, Cody may very well start a rebellion against the Empire while he's at it.

My Comments: Can it really be called shippy if we're 88 chapters in and the tagged pairing hasn't actually laid eyes on one another? Anyway, Codywan is pretty clearly endgame, if that either is or distinctly is not your thing. I'm mostly here for my catnip, which is the post-Clone Wars clone rebellion angle.

Our Caches and Constellations (complete Cody/Obi-Wan) by johanneb

Summary: Eleven years ago, the Jedi order got wind of the closing pincers of a Sith trap and scattered to the remote corners of the galaxy. Ten years ago, millions of clone commanders and troopers were introduced as the Republic’s new Army, made for fighting a war alongside people the galaxy seemed to be forgetting ever existed. Nine months ago, Commander Cody decided he was no longer going to risk his men's lives for the whims of clueless generals. Now, his decision to save a boy and a man in the desert, and the plan he comes up with to get away with it, will change the galaxy.

My Comments: Cody quiet quits the Empire as a prelude to loudly quitting the Empire, which is a lot easier in an AU where all space flight and communications technology is steampunk-y and fairly slow. Very creative world building.

100% open to receiving some recs too. I know both shippy recs were Codywan, but I'm not actually all that attached to that ship over any other. Happy @codyday2224 everyone!

[baenyth]

Bizarre V3 AU Explanations and More!

I wanted to explain a bit more about the ongoings of my Bizarre V3 AU a bit more and explain some behind-the-scenes stuff, so let's-a-go!

All of the main 16 characters have or will have superpowers! This was foreshadowed in Miu's, Maki's, Ryoma's, Kokichi's, Gonta's, Kirumi's, and Tenko's character descriptions. I don't know what everyone's will be, but a basic description of the power system is that they have the rareness and luck factor of Stands from Jojo but resemble the Devil Fruit users in One Piece more in that the abilities are physical and can be seen by anyone. Unlike Devil Fruits, abilities can be stacked and there can be multiples of the same ability, so two people could be elastic, but one can drain stamina and convert it into light while another can generate electricity and make metal and plastic float around.

There's also a second power system that's essentially Haki from One Piece. Willpower shaped into three different forms.

The Seven Holy Essences are one of the main things Bizarre V3 will be about aside from the characters themselves. Their inspirations are the infinity stones, the chaos emeralds, antiquated western and Japanese astronomy/mythology, and the general concept that plot coupons could be anything, really.

The "smaller, lesser essences" are based on the fixed stars and are a pretty important part in the overall backstory.

I don't have too much of a plot laid out so far, but I want it to be five "seasons" of sort. All I have is season 1 (basically what the character introductions set up,) season 2 (Idabashi lore, maybe take inspiration from Sonic Adventure 2? Add in the Purple People Eater somewhere, first final boss fight, etc.) and season 3 (version 3 of Star-Hunter Squadron: Elite Rangers!)

Characters do wear alternate outfits, including day-by-day clothes (well, most of them have day-by-day clothes.) Shuichi has clothes on and off the job, Kaede has a variety of sweater vest-related combos, Miu wears various outfits that are not lab-safe, etc.

Ships I'll feature are as follows: Saimatsu, Harukaito, Tenmiko and maybe even polyamory with Angie, Irumatsu (in the form of awkward and bitter exes,) ambiguous and possibly one-sided Saioma, Omota, and Omeno, Kokichi x some original character that appears in season 2 and is supposed to have a ludicrous amount of chemistry with him, and Kirumiu (is that the name for Kirumi x Miu? Miurumi?), mostly because I like it and my idea for it is that two women trying to get information out of eachother end up bonding over a lot of similarities between the two.

Writing-wise, the hardest part for me is trying to fit the Himiko plots into everything else. Himiko's busy with her overprotective girlfriend, joining what may be a cult, and serial killers while the other three-fourths of the cast is trying to figure out what the hell is going on with displacements and blue glows. Maybe Gonta gets depressed and exhausted from finding no results and goes to see one of Himiko's shows or even invites Himiko and her lovely assistant over, but Tenko gets involved in said displacements and blue glows.

To explain what I mean by "disappearances, reappearances, and displacements," here's some of the mysteries described: "Help! I can't find my husband" solved as "Oh! There's my husband! At a restaurant we went to once and hated? And he doesn't know how he got there?", "I couldn't find my keys, but they were in the attic. I wasn't in the attic since five years ago.", and "What the heck is the TV remote doing in my neighbor's front lawn?"

Danganronpa will appear as an in-universe franchise, but non-V3 characters will appear. It'll make sense when it comes up. Also fake memories implanted into vessels may show up.

There will be a fight scene between Maki and Kirumi in season 1 where they both use their powers because 1. They are on opposing sides and 2. Cool strong women fighting.

My idea of "Ryoma heavily interacting with DICE" partly came due to my desire to do something unique with Ryoma. I'm honestly getting tired of him being paired up with Kirumi and Gonta. I think there'll be a scene between Ryoma and Kirumi in season 2 and possibly onward, but in general I want Kokichi and Kirumi to interact, maybe a few Kokichi-Gonta interactions too, but little-to-no Ryoma-Gonta interactions. Also it makes sense to pair up the criminals and the gentleman and maid together.

The Gokuhara manor's description of vegetation growing in and around it is supposed to be similar to how there was vegetation growing in the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

Rantaro has to be the green ranger because his western VA played The green ranger. I had a power rangers hyperfixation when I was 10.

[collectionoftulips]

Thoughts following the most recent episode of The Way Home

There's probably maybe like one other person on here or maybe a few who watch The Way Home and if so, hi!!, and secondly, I hope my regulars will excuse me for talking about another show for a minute. (For those who haven't seen it - I really recommend giving it a watch!) Basically - I've had some thoughts swirling around my head since the latest episode (this is mainly about some of my changing thoughts on who I ship on the show):

(Spoilers for 2x08 of The Way Home and it's mostly Kat-centric thoughts)

In some ways, my thoughts can be summarised by two points and I will make the case for them below: I feel like I have outgrown Elliot/Kat the way they are currently being written and I'm pretty heavily going on the Kat/Thomas ship.

If someone had told me at the end of season one, that I would be finding myself torn between Elliot/Kat and a new ship, I would have said that they are bananas. But after thinking about it some, at least the way the ship is being currently written, I'm not the fan I once was - and I don't think it's entirely because I'm 'intended' to have those feelings at this point of the show.

I really appreciate how this season has really given Elliot more space to grow as an independent character outside of his romantic relationship with Kat, but I think by giving him that space, the show inadvertently, or perhaps too successfully, made a case for why they are not right for each other at this very moment in time. The fundamental issue, to me, is that Elliot has spent so much of his childhood idealising Kat and he has in some ways put her on a pedestal. He knows her, but the way he knows her is so intimately wrapped up in his feelings towards her and that coupled with the weight of their past together, makes it an increasingly less attractive ship because of a few reasons:

a) he knows her very well but it's going to be very difficult disentangle the reality from the fantasy he has grown up with in his head (and being friends with someone is very different from being in a romantic relationship with them) b) she's been put on this pedestal that the only way she can change in his eyes is by disappointing him; she's already got this aura of 'endgame' status in his head c) it's very difficult to see where they get room to grow in a way that allows them both the character growth they both need/deserve, especially given the amount of trauma that especially Kat is going through (Elliot has also been through stuff, but that's mainly in the past that we partly get to see or it's off-screen in the past).

Additionally, seeing Kat going back to the 1812 has really highlighted some aspects of her characterisation that were previously not as prominent; she's spent most of her life blaming herself for Jacob's disappearance and now that she is on the precipice of finding him, she's displaying really a lack of self-preservation and desperation (to the point where she even forgets Alice and Thomas has to literally remind her that she has people depending on her and obviously there's the subtext that he might have feelings for her that I'm now very here for). These things make total sense for Kat as a character, but I don't think any of the people back in her time fully realise the extent of that self-destructive tendency (we also saw a less Jacob-related instance of this in the most recent episode with Kat's idea to go to London and leave Brady, but Elliot was too busy to be all 'this is my shot!' to really notice).

My growing hypothesis since 2x07 is that a lot of Kat's interactions with Thomas is fundamentally fuelled by Thomas' acknowledgement and frustration with Kat's lack of self-preservation (a skill he himself had to learn growing up in the time he is from), a tendency which is also amplified by the fact that Kat is from a different time and doesn't really have the same kind of sense about the scale of danger around certain tasks. I'm might be reading into it, but I was thinking about what was going on during their superdramatic beach scene, when he picks her up and it looks for a moment like he is about to wade out to sea with her. On the surface, of course, Kat's terrified that Jacob might die and also a fear and frustration that she does not know her brother, that even if he survives it might not matter because he might not remember her, that he has grown so much from the little boy that she knew that the fact that she found him might matter very little.

But I was wondering a little about Thomas' reaction regarding that whole scene. He's of course frustrated that she doesn't seem to have much understanding of the extent to which the world that they inhabit is not one that is forgiving or allows one to stay on any kind of moral high ground, but I also thought that probably from his perspective, he's probably getting quite frustrated with Kat. This is a woman who seems to have absolutely no self-preservation, and while he has recently learned that she is a time traveller, that lack of self-preservation runs much deeper than just being ignorant of the time period. She is a woman he clearly deeply respects and admires and has growing feelings for but that regard is seemingly not one she has of herself, and it has to be pretty frustrating for him to see someone whose strength he admires seemingly not respect herself or have such little regard for her own wellbeing. Which is why I think he reacted the way he did, trying to snap her out of the emotional spiral she was going down when she was in a panic trying to grasp at anything to soothe the sense of crisis that was exploding inside her.

In these ways, I sort of feel like the show has propped Thomas up to be the opposite of Elliot; this is not a man who has been in love with Kat Landry a really long time, but one that only recently realised it, and where Elliot sees this idealised 'prize' version of Kat (informed by his childhood), Thomas sees all of Kat's 'flaws' and all of the 'cracks' that she conceals from people in her regular life, and loves appreciates her for those qualities.

While obviously the extent to which they have any future depends on what the writers have decided to do for season two (and for season three), and it is looking pretty bleak, I like the path forward for Kat/Thomas more, as there is more ground to cover there and I think it would be a very different dynamic that I would find refreshing. Hence me going a bit cold on Elliot and Kat (despite that kiss in the most recent episode which felt like the most shoehorned thing ever that had extremely poor build up but that's a rant for a different post) and am now leaning towards the potentially doomed ship of Thomas/Kat.

I don't know if this made any sense, and I'm not sure if anyone is interested in my thoughts on this but it's either ranting about it here or at some point writing fic, so I decided for the former for the time being.

[atticoratticus]

I decided to fill out a list of questions to flesh out Rollo and Yuuyas relationship more than I already have and it got uhhhhh a little long !!! So the entirety of it has been placed courteously under the cut 🙂‍↕️ (linked is the original list of questions)

1. What were their first impressions of one another?

Rollos first impression of Yuuya was lumped into his general first impression of the rest of the Yuus - that being pity for them due to their enrollment at NRC. In terms of his initial impression of Yuuya specifically, it was a mix of amusement and distaste. Yuuya generally spoke the more scathing thoughts that Rollo kept to himself which is part of what drew Rollo to him, but at the same time Rollo wasnt exactly fond of how volatile Yuuya could be at times. When Yuuya revealed that he at least partially shared his views regarding magic (albeit to a MUCH lesser extent that stayed at mere irritation) Rollos view of Yuuya started to become more positive and something specific to him rather than just a collective opinion of the Yuus or the NRC students.

Yuuya first viewed Rollo in a neutral bordering on negative light, similar to how he initially views basically everyone. In general people need to earn him liking him rather than needing to earn him disliking them, and Rollo was no exception to that. The first time they speak one on one is when Yuuyas view of Rollo miraculously tends to grow more positive, mostly as a result of Rollo seemingly sharing Yuuyas distaste of some mages tendency to flaunt and show off their magic (though Yuuya of course wasnt aware of how deep that distate actually went on Rollos end).

2 .What was their first date like? If they haven't been on a date yet, how would it go?

Their first date was to a cafe in Fleur City that Rollo personally recommended. This was the first time post-GloMas that Yuuya visited Rollo and Fleur City in person, and as such he decided to give Rollo freedom in where their date would be as Rollo naturally knew the city much better than Yuuya did.

3. It's late at night and your characters want food, what do they order/find in the fridge?

Especially if they were at Ramshackle, small snacks made by Yuukimi tbh,,, they coul either be pre-made lunches/meals or smaller things

4. What's a typical Sunday like for them?

On their typical Sunday they're not with eachother in person, but if they were with eachother they would likely find a small, quiet spot to spend the day together if Rollo had no student council duties and Yuuya had no one demanding he do anytbing for them.

5. What's their love language like? Are they compatible with one another?

Rollos main love language is acts of service and Yuuyas is quality time. This is mostly in terms of their preferred ways of showing love, but in terms of how they prefer to recieve love then Rollos wpuld be words of affirmation and Yuuyas would be acts of service. I would say that they were combatible for this, especially in terms of how Rollos giving and Yuuyas recieving are both acts of service.

6. Do they have any pet names/nicknames for eachother?

Neither of them are exactly fond of typical petnames, Rollo much less so than Yuuya. If they were to directly refer to eachother 9/10 times it would purely be by name, especially when they were in public. When they write letters to eachother they add more typically romantic titles to address the other (my love, dearest, more traditional stuff like that). Even when theyre joking (or when Yuuya is joking, Rollo doesnt really joke around) they wouldnt use needlessly cheesy or embarrassing petnames.

7. What do they argue about?

A major source of conflict between the two is how Rollo tends to be needlessly protective over Yuuya in terms of his perceived safety at NRC. While Rollo may not realize how it comes across and believes he's just looking out for Yuuya (especially as someone he genuinely cares about), this irritates Yuuya since he thinks its dismissing his ability and capability to look out for himself.

8. Who does what chores, and why?

Rollos hobby is literally cleaning so i feel like he would assign most of it to himself whether Yuuya agreed or not (he honestly doesn't mind tbh). Yuuya isn't just deadweight and will obviously chip in and help out, but Rollo is entirely willing to do the brunt of it.

9. What's the most difficult thing they've been through together?

The whole uhhhhh Rollo trying to permanently erase magic thing was pretty difficult I think !!

10. How do they make up after a fight?

They're both the type to hold grudges and stick stubbornly to their own perceptions so itd be pretty rough if they did have a huge argument i fear,,, Rollo would be more likely to apologize for the sake of resolving an argument, though thats after a bit of letting it settle in his mind.

11. Who causes the most arguments?

Neither of them really cause arguments per se, but as stated before some of Rollos behavior towards Yuuya can cause disagreements between them. However it's not because they WANT to cause arguments.

12. What would they say each other's worst quality is?

Rollo would say that Yuuyas most irritating quality is how dismissive he can be. This leads to him not taking certain things as seriously as he should, which for someone like Rollo who tends to take EVERYTHING seriously is a trait hes not exactly fond of.

Yuuyas least favorite quality in Rollo is ironically how closed off he is. This might seem hypocritical for someone as emotionally reserved as Yuuya is, but he takes more of an issue when he thinks Rollo is hiding things from him. He views his own more closed off nature as less of him hiding things from other people and instead just him being himself if that makes sense (i.e its not him going out of his way to be closed off, its just a natural part of his personality). He understands not sharing everything about yourself with other people, but he expects at least a bit more transparency than what Rollo tends to have in their relationship.

13. What would they say each other's best quality is?

Rollo most admires Yuuyas independence and how self-sufficient he is. He views Yuuyas responsibility as a a breath of fresh air compared to most of the people he has to deal with in his day-to-day.

Yuuya most admires how steadfast Rollo is. He loves how unwavering Rollo is in his ideals and how he doesn't let other people's opinions dictate his own.

14. How would they describe one another if asked?

Rollo would describe Yuuya as an incredibly well grounded and realistic person. While he's very aware of Yuuyas shortcomings, he is also just as aware of his positive traits as well and values them greatly. The (many) flaws that Yuuya does have arent dealbreakers for Rollo and are instead just a part of Yuuya that he embraces the same as any other.

Yuuya would describe Rollo as someone who is doing his best despite the cards his life has dealt him. He doesnt endorse or agree with all of Rollos actions, but he does still recognize that Rollo was put into a position that wouldnt be easy for anyone to deal with.

15. What names are they saved as on each other's phone?

Rollo has Yuuya saved as ‘my love’ in his phone and he cringes every time he sees it because he views it as excessive, but he can't bring himself to change it to anything else.

Yuuya has Rollo saved as ‘Rollo ♡’, not of his own doing but because of Yuuzuki changing it for him. Same as Rollo, he cant bring himself to change it.

16. What would they consider quality time?

They wpuld consider quality time to be anytime they can spend time focused on eachother without external interruptions or disctractions, which is frankly a rarity for both of them.

17. Who decides which movies to watch?

Yuuya methinks 🙂‍↕️ Rollo rarely has the time to just sit down and watch movies in his free time so he doesn't really have any tried and true favorites to recommend, so he often just let's Yuuya decide.

18. How are they like on a road trip together?

Yuuya is the driver fr !!! Since he canonically has his license and I can't really imagine Rollo driving for some reason. He fs has his license and is able to drive, it just isn't clicking in my brain. They're fine sitting in silence or engaging in basic conversation for the duration, without the need for much else to entertain them (Rollo sleeps in the car methinks because just being near Yuuya makes it easier for him to sleep more soundly,,,)

19. It's raining, did either of your OCs bring an umbrella? If so, who, and do they share it?

Despite Rollo being very careful in regards to his image, he does tend to neglect small things and would probably forget to bring an umbrella with him sometimes, even though he very much is able to combat the rain with magic to keep him dry. Yuuya would so let him share his umbrella though, and tbh the close proximity would be nice too !!

20. What are they like when sharing a bed?

The first time they sleep in the same bed they both sleep without touching on either side of the bed just for their own comfort. After they get more used to it they start to sleep closer together, most often with Rollo on his back and Yuuyas head on his shoulder.

21. Who is better at games? Does the loser take it graciously?

In terms of video games Yuuya is VERY much better. Rollo is better at strategy based board games like chess. Both of them hate losing but try their best to play it off to varying degrees of success

22. Do they ever share clothes?

I do notttt think so tbh !! They have very different tastes in fashion and prefer just wearing their own clothes in general

23. Your OCs are on a trip and there's only one bed! What do they do?

Rollo is the first to offer the bed to Yuuya (because he already doesn't have an easy time falling and staying asleep, so Yuuya would probably get more out of actually using the bed), but they would just end up sharing the bed after a while of going back and forth on it.

24. What do your characters think about marriage? Are they for or against it?

They would ABSOLUTELY want to get married in the future if possible, but they don't view it as a required step in their relationship. However they both agree that its too early for them to think about that at the moment

25. Pick a physical attribute that they love about each other.

Rollo loves Yuuyas eyes, whether it be their color, the shape of them, his eyelashes, literally anything about his eyes. Yuuya tends to have a really sharp gaze most of the time, but when hes with Rollo his entire expression tends to soften. That softer expression is something Rollo thinks he could never forget or stop thinking about.

Yuuya loves Rollos hands. Rollo is relatively expressive despite his best attempts to keep it under wraps, but that's mostly in terms of his facial expressions. His hands tend to give away a lot that his face migjt not, and Yuuya finds himself often looking down at them whenever they hold hands

26. Do any of them have bad habits that the other can't stand?

The answer for 12 (which traits they dislike in the other) covers this too

27. Who is more down to earth?

Hands down Rollo. While they are both pretty straightforward, Rollo tends to come across as more of an impartial voice than Yuuya does.

28. Are they affectionate in public? Is it too much?

Neither of them are super into PDA. They will walk/sit close to eachother or hold hands, but neither of them feel comfortable with doing much more in public.

29. How are they affectionate in private?

Theyre more affectionate in private as opposed to in public, but most of it is through non-physical means. When they do show physical affection its mostly through Yuuya initiating it.

30. How does your OC react to being broken up with?

I don't want to think about this tbh !!!

31. Do they fall in love easily?

They didn't fall in love easily, but they did become interested in eachother in general sense pretty fast.

32. Your character is in love, do they confess? If not, how long do they wait?

Yuuya tried to keep his feelings to himself at first due to a discomfort in having to actively confront such an unfamiliar feeling. There was no big confession, but Yuuya was the first to bring up the idea of their relationship becoming romantic.

33. Who was the first to say 'I love you'?

Rollo was the first to say it through one of their letters and the first to say it in person.

34. Who is more stubborn?

Both LMAO, they're both incredibly set in their ways and very much stick to their own opinions. Rollo maybe slightly more so though,,,

35. What moment did they realise that they were in love?

Yuuya probably first realized in while talking to Yuukimi after bringing up Rollo unprompted for like the third time in that single conversation, maybe after she pointed that fact out. That realization made him go ‘oh fuck, i like him dont i’

Rollo likely realized all of a sudden in the middle of the night when he was trying to sleep. The type of realization where it makes you shoot up and start pacing back and forth in the middle of the room FJSJD

36. How long have they been friends?

Would they consider each other best friends?

All things considered they didn't know eachother that long before they started to gain romantic feelings for eachother. While Yuuya is the closest person to Rollo both before and after they started dating, Rollo wouldnt have chosen to describe that as them being ‘best friends’, even if that's basically what they were

37. How did they become friends?

Through Glomas!! They started talking more extensively during the Ball that took place the last nigjt Yuuya was in Fleur City after Yuuya approached him

38. Who's more ticklish?

Man idk

39. If your OCs has/had a child, who would be the stricter parent?

Children are not in their future, but Rollo wpuld be tbh,,,

40. What do they do when they miss one another? Is one more needy than the other/s?

THEY SUFFER !!!!! Yuuya gets in such a bad mood when hes missing Rollo tooo bad and it makes most people hate being around him even more, as much as the GloMas group hate Rollo and the fact that Yuuya is close to him, they hate Yuuya when hes not with Rollo as well and will put up with being in Rollos general vicinity as long as it means Yuuya is in a better mood,,, only sligjtly though,,,

Rollo gets more easily distracted when he misses Yuuya, since his thoughts tend to keep going back to him. This is decently noticeable to other people since its so odd for someone like Rollo, but they at least dont mention it to his face

41. What green flags do they have for one another?

Rollos main green flag to Yuuya is his patience and self control. He tends to think all of his decisions through and almost never acts on impulse, which Yuuya VERY MUCH appreciates especially considering how impulsive and reckless some of his peers (Ace.) can be.

Yuuyas main green flag to Rollo is his ability to speak his mind without trying to appeal to anyone else. While he rarely needs a second voice to help rationalize his thoughts, on the off chance he does Yuuya is the first person he thinks to go to.

42. Have they ever been jealous?

Yuuya honestly isnt the jealous type. Hes pretty secure in his relationships and only tries to grow close with people who he KNOWS won't try to backstab him or suddenly drop him. Especially in regards to his relationship with Rollo, he knows basically for a fact rhat Rollo is just as dedicated to him as he is to Rollo.

Rollo gets jealous more easily than Yuuya, but its not something he projects onto Yuuya or blames him for. He doesnt get jealous over the idea of Yuuya having friends or other close relationships oitside of their own - if anything hes jealous of the idea that NRC students get to be around Yuuya every day while he only gets to see Yuuya occasionally.

43. Is one more introverted/extroverted than the other?

They are both pretty introverted, though Rollo is more comfortable with being around other people. This is mostly in terms of him being around non-mages, as shown in his vignette. Yuuya dislikes being around most people and will absolutely make it known, and he prefers to spend as much time as possible either on his own or with a VERY small, specific amount of people.

44. Who's the better cook?

Yuuya tbh,,, Rollo wouldnt be horrible but I just can't really see him being an AMAZING cook. Yuuya had to learn to cook for himself to an extent as a result of his parents very frequent absences throughout his childhood, so hes more proficient in the kitchen than Rollo is.

45. Are they good at comforting one another? Does someone hide their feelings usually?

ERMMMM !!!! They are both pretty emotionally inept i fear !! Theyre both people who were forced to grow up too fast and rely pretty much entirely on themselves and this reflects in their ability to show vulnerability to eacbother, but they're growing and healing together trust,,, even if it's a slow process. Rollo is better at comforting Yuuya rather than the other way around, since he seems like the type who's good at giving advice and whatnot to other people rather than taking it himself.

46. Would they have been friends with each other in school?

In my heart of hearts if Yuuya had been transported to NBC instead of NRC they so wouldve been friends too,,,

47. Who made the first move?

Yuuya made the first move in terms of taking their relationship from platonic to romantic, however some notable events in their relationship (first time saying ‘I love you’, first one to ask the other out on a date, etc) were initiated by Rollo. Their first kiss (AUFJSJJDJSJD) was a result of both of them though

48. Do they get on well with each other's family? Is family important to them?

YES !!! Rollo and the yuus 4ever !!!! Rollo gets on especially well with Yuukimi and they eventually grew to basically be siblings even outside of their technical ‘inlaw’ status. Yuuya is yet to meet Rollos parents as of this point in the twst timeline, but trustttt they have heard about him and are very happy that Rollo has found someone who genuinely makes him happy

49. Do they tease each other? What about?

Rollo almost never teases Yuuya, and when he does it's moreso just dry sarcastic statements (even if its not the intended effect on Rollos end this pretty much always gets Yuuya a bit flustered internally because of how unexpected it is,,,)

50. Is there anything that scares them about their friendship/relationship?

The basically inevitable fact that Yuuya will eventually have to leave Twisted Wonderland (and by extension Rollo) for good is something that scares the both of them. Yuuya is torn between wanting to stay with Rollo for the rest of his life and wanting to return to his original home outside of the Yuus and Ramshackle. Rollo is torn between wanting Yuuya to stay with him and wanting Yuuya to go back to a world that in Rollos eyes is ideal and best/safest for him (aka a world with no magic)

[mariyekos]

3, 5, and 14 for the fandom/fanfic asks!

Fandom/Fanfic Asks!

3. All-time favorite pairing?

Hmmm, good question. Probable Tidus/Yuna from FFX? I absolutely ADORE their relationship. It felt very natural, it was touching, and thinking about some of their scenes is giving me the chill. So often in media I feel like a relationship is rushed or stilted or like one of the characters is bent out of shape solely for the sake of romance, but not with them. They bring out the best in each other, and what I find so important is the fact that even though their love/relationship DOE make them reconsider some choices...they don't throw everything away for that. I think their relationship and interactions lead to cases in which their eyes are opened and they undergo some change, but what's important is that they're not changing for the other person. The other person gives them a new perspective that allows them to grow.

FFX is interesting to me because even though I don't know it like the back of my hand as I do with FFVII (or once did, it's been a while), so many of the scenes and messages have stuck with me a decade and a few playthroughs later. The Sending and this scene are some of my all time favorites in gaming. They're just so in love.

I know I'm being a bit vague, but I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't played FFX. Though if you haven't played FFX, DO NOT WATCH THAT VIDEO. The video has spoilers even if my commentary (hopefully) does not.

(Also, I'll have you know Estimeric is definitely up there as it's the pairing I've written the most for and one I've spent sooo much time thinking about, but Tidus/Yuna wins out because I think it's impacted me more as a person, or stuck with me longer. Estimeric is lovely, but Tidus/Yuna is precious. That may or may not make sense, but they occupy different spots in my brain, basically.)

5. Favorite platonic pairing?

Right now I'm super into Devil May Cry so I'm going to go with Dante/Lady. I feel like those two would do basically anything for the other, and I really enjoy when you can get a long term friendship between a male and female character that's just that. Sometimes I'll ship it and I've enjoyed ship content between the two, but I really prefer them as platonic partners. Or sometimes FWB without romantic attachment, which I clarify because I've always thought of "platonic" as meaning non-romantic but apparently it means non-sexual, which leads to some conversations about the conflation between romantic and sexual attraction but I digress. Usually I like them as just friends. The FWB is actually more like a HC of two people who slept with each other once (and only once) when they were young to see what it was like and then decided that nah, they're not really into that, they're better off as friends and they'll stay friends, no hard feelings, so they do.

14. Fandom you keep returning to?

Final Fantasy VII! I was absolutely obsessed with it when I was 13-14 (maybe up to 15), and every few years I go through a phase where I feel like that obsession has woken back up.

Funnily enough, I've never really shared anything I've made for the FFVII fandom. I've written so much fic over the years- the first fic I can remember writing was a 38k word time travel fic about FFVII when I was 14ish- but I've never posted any of it. I ran a FFVII blog for years, but it's on another email and eventually it got so inconvenient to access that I kind of let it die. The remake coming out has helped somewhat, but other times I'll just randomly feel like I want to play FFVII or want to read FFVII fic or look at FFIVI art or watch FFVII videos etc. and so I come crawling back.

Thank you so much for your asks! Fun to think about these things and what my favorites are. Honestly one of the biggest things this game has revealed is that I don't really have a lot of hard/firm feelings on things. I'm very indecisive and choosing favorites is hard, but it's nice to be reminded of all the things I love as I try to come up with my answers :)

[the-lincyclopedia]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Pretending I got tagged by @cricketnationrise!

How many works do you have on ao3?

As of an hour ago: 214. I just recorded a podfic tonight.

What's your total ao3 word count?

494,201. I really hope to pass the half-million mark this year. It won't take much. I just haven't had basically any writing energy lately.

What fandoms do you write for?

These days? The Queen's Thief, when I write fic at all. Historically also Check Please, Carry On/the Simon Snow trilogy, Sherlock, the Lizzie Bennet Diaries, Yuri on Ice, PJO, Boyfriend Material, Good Omens, and more.

Top five fics by kudos:

Love in the Time of Influenza - Carry On - Snowbaz sickfic

Face the Future with You - Check Please - autistic!Jack x ADHD!Bitty

The Aftermath of Angelic Assumptions - Good Omens - Ineffable Husbands sickfic

Man Oh Man, You're My Best Friend - Check Please - Zimbits fake dating

Nightmares - Carry On - Snowbaz hurt/comfort

Do you respond to comments?

Basically always.

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

the only soul who can tell which smiles i'm faking - a Kent-centric ficlet set just after Jack's overdose

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of my 200+ fics have happy endings, so I don't really know how to answer that.

Do you get hate on fics?

Not recently, but it was a pretty regular and normal occurrence when I was on FFN in my teens. Once, someone sent me flames on 18 separate chapters of a multi-chapter fic in a two-day period. It sucked. But also, comments with concrit were so, so common for me to receive in my teens that I figured they were a normal and expected part of the fandom experience, and I have so much cognitive dissonance when people say they're not and never have been. I've neither given nor received unsolicited concrit in quite a few years, and I fully understand that they're not part of the culture on AO3, but two of my longest-lasting fandom friendships began with concrit on FFN (once giving, once receiving), and I think "this has never been a normal part of fandom culture" is an overstatement. I also think there's a difference between hate (which I've received several times) and the majority of unsolicited concrit that I've received. Not everything that's rude is hateful.

Do you write smut?

I have written M-rated grinding once and E-rated sex once. Not sure if I'll write either again. I'm pretty darn ace.

Weirdest crossover:

A Little Help - Lizzie Bennet (firmly of the Lizzie Bennet Diaries canon, not the original P&P) meets Eric Bittle at Vidcon and the two of them become close friends.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. I know of at least three spinoffs of fics of mine, though.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not to my knowledge.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Not exactly, but when I'm in a relationship with someone I share fandoms with, the alpha reading/cheer reading/yes-and-ing/etc can blur into co-creation. And honestly I've also had key alpha readers who I haven't dated.

All time favorite ship?

Gosh, I can't pick.

What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My Queen's Thief fic where the characters all study abroad together. I have a detailed outline and a few thousand words, but I've had so little creative energy for the past several months.

What are your writing strengths?

I usually say persistence, but I don't know if I've had as much of that lately. Um . . . clarity, SPAG, and like--I have a really clear memory of what it was like to be younger, and I think that brings life to the stuff I write about college/other parts of life that I've already passed through.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Describing things. I prefer writing dialogue, but I'm also never sure if my characters sound like people. Realism in general is tricky for me--I get too hung up on logistics and then completely fail at writing people with realistic motivations. So lots of stuff.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

I almost never do it. I could maybe swing it with Swedish, although one time I tried and got corrected by a Finn (which was welcome and they were right, but it made me wary of trying again).

First fandom you wrote in?

I don't want to answer this publicly because I feel like the story of me getting into fandom/into writing in general is pretty unique, and I might tell it someday with my real name attached if I ever get published. (I just checked, and there are literally zero fics on AO3 for the book I first wrote fic of. The fic that I wrote is not on AO3, since I was ten years old and it was 2006, and I'm very grateful that, although I entered online fandom young, I didn't enter it quite that young.) The first fandom for which I posted fic was probably the wizard one that we're no longer naming. May have been Artemis Fowl or PJO, though.

Favorite fic you've written?

To Every Single Kid I Used to Be - an epistolary fic in which 25-year-old Jack Zimmermann writes letters to his younger self, one letter per year of his life. Featuring autistic!Jack and a whole lot of real details from my own life.

Anyone who wants to play, feel free to say I tagged you, but I'm specifically tagging @doggernaut, @eponymiad, @worldsentwined, @cartograffiti, and @the-knights-who-say-book!

[wildwinterlunas]

Hi! i know you already get those asks but i really want to vent: i think them making pharmercy canon now would not be satisfating for me - im a lesbian, i feel like there was no indication since the game release that they have anything for each other, if anything mercy was very close to genji, they were very sutil with that, and all pharmercy 'flirt' lines are so recent feels like rushed. One of my favorite lesbian ships ever is Caitlyn and Vi from league, they construed they relationship for YEARs, from partners to lovers and just NOW in 2023 after years and everything they confirmed both as lesbians and even in Arcane they doing great with their romance. another exemple is leona and diana and killjoy with reze in valorant, compared with overwatch feels like they dont know how to develop a organic/fresh relationship between their female characters from the game, rigth now looks just pandering for me.

And yeah I do see where your coming from, Gency has had years of build up in canon while Pharmercy has just started being pushed. Though because of the fact that in the past we've seen OW writers say that they ship Pharmercy I don't think it pandering exactly. I think it's more wish fulfilment.

I also agree with what you're saying about what happened in other games when it comes to LGBTQ+ rep, those ships have had build up. To the point where I, a person who doesn't play either game, know what your talking about. I myself am also a lesbian and I have recognized Pharah as lesbian coded since I first got into Overwatch, which was back in 2016, they've had plenty of time to add things like voice lines or lore to this relationship but they haven't. I looked up their old Overwatch 1 interactions for this post and basically none of them have that flirting vibe that the new voice lines have, most of the personal ones being Mercy saying how she thinks Ana would be proud of Pharah and Pharah just going "are we talking about the same person here?"

Also I've stated it briefly in other posts on Pharmercy but I just don't think they would work, at least they wouldn't stay a couple for a long time. A big thing that people forget when it comes to Pharmercy is that Angela has a lot of issues she needs to sort out, one of those being her terrible communication skills and her ability to say goodbye to people. The reason this is important is because Fareeha has abandonment issues, and we see how Angela's inability to communicate already affects their relationship in "As You Are", we clearly see that Angela leaving without saying goodbye affected Pharah.

This also culminates into this being a story where one person has to wait for the other to sort out their issues, which is something I don't want for Pharah. This plot line with Gency works because it's mutual. If Pharah is going to be with someone I either want them to be dealing with something that Pharah can actually help with (like Symmetra and her inevitable identity crisis) or for her partner to be just as sure of herself as Pharah is (like Sombra or Kiriko).

Again I don't want Pharah to have to wait for Angela to get her issues sorted out, she already has to wait for her mother to come back, she shouldn't have to wait for her romantic life either, and Angela's problems are not something Pharah is really equipped to help with. We actually see how Genji and Angela talk while Pharah tends to offer silent support.

I don't hate Pharmercy and under different circumstances I think they would work, however, not only are the writers kind of fumbling to get me invested but Pharah and Mercy have so many things working against them on a personal level. Not only that but they're fundementally different morally, I think a lot of people forget that Angela doesn't like helix calling them mercenaries with no regard for civilian life, while knowing full well that Pharah works for Helix. That kind of difference would work in a friendship but that would not go well in a romantic relationship.

Anyway, again I don't hate Pharmercy, it's not one of my top ships but I do like it. However, what has been presented in canon either just doesn't get me invested or I just don't want to see happen in terms of characterization (again Pharah shouldn't have to wait for her romantic life in the same way she needs to wait for her family).

[langernameohnebedeutung]

(Referring to this post: https://langernameohnebedeutung.tumblr.com/post/725361975543185408/you-heard-of-hating-female-characters-for-traits)

Do you think it's always a case of people being sexist, or do you think there are cases where the problem is the execution?

(sorry, I had my tabs mixed up).

I mean, for one, "always" is a word that I like to avoid because it's a word that is too big of a commitment to me.

I think execution as well as interpretation both play a role most of the time. And most of the time, they overlap and together they can develop their own very specific dynamics.

The thing is, when I entered fandom at now...almost 15 years ago, things were far worse. Far, far worse. Female characters were routinely portrayed as soulless evil and often violent harpies for no reason (the way they're e.g. often still treated in other, more dudebro-y spaces where female characters can basically be sorted into the categories "hot", "helpful" and "hated" (cough, Borderlands reddit and youtube, cough) - or their entire personality was erased to make her the perfect love-interest.

On the other hand, I feel like in the fandom spaces that have kind of reflected on these issues since then - both the misogyny in the original execution as well as the misogyny in fandom spaces - there is a certain anxiety that makes people ping-pong between these two problems and ultimately, shy away from the issue and the characters entirely.

One example is: How do we deal with female characters who are written to be problematic in extremely misogynistic ways (e.g. the nagging wife). Do we pile on by writing long texts about how she is annoying and nagging and doesn't support her poor husband, therefore meriting the poor writing while at the same time being true to her character and taking her at face value? Probably chiming in with the actual misogynists who will openly hate her AS a woman? Or do we ignore her entire personality and re-design her character into some fandom staple trope that feels more salvageable (but is often also ultimately a cliché like the long-suffering but good-natured doormat wife and isn't the act of making a woman more sweet and manageable sexist in its own right?)? Do we simply pretend her relationship with her husband is just a little bit quirky and fun that way? Or should we let her fade into the background? Do we ascribe a higher motive to her actions? Do we write "hey, yeah, Jane and I got divorced a few months ago" into our fic about the male lead to clear the road to whoever we ship him with? Or do we let him cheat because his wife is so horrible?

How do we deal with the female characters from old-timey works who are given basically no agency? Do we call her out for being useless and annoying and not contributing anything? Or do we construct some deeper agency to her actions? Do we turn her into another "reasonable, good-natured mom-friend"?

Another common complaint against female characters I see is that they're "annoying". On the one hand, I think this comes from the habit of writers of canon, who have decided that the peak of female character agency is to turn them into a token hindrance and rival for the male character who ultimately is wrong but still gets a lot of screen-time arguing and disagreeing and working against a male-character that the audience might like. Which often means they dislike her. The obvious solution is to ship them because they clearly have some hate-love kinda thing going on (I'm saying this in good humour, I love those ships). But sometimes that goes to another extreme where that same character who really, really, really hates a male character for very understandable reasons, has her personality erased and her values and priorities and boundaries ignored to ship her with him - and then fans will suddenly call her abusive and mean if her behaviour in canon doesn't reflect that fanon rationalisation. (though to be fair, I think this is also something that happens with m/m ships) Which is where we end up in the original scenario again, only worse.

I also think the low regard for women's experiences and feelings and the prevalence of misogynistic writing play a role. In execution, the female character's pain and experiences aren't given the same stage (especially if they would inconvenience the male characters around her). In fanon, because I think there is a certain discomfort with putting female characters through certain experiences because it is a misogynistic trope or because it has very specific connotations - and meanwhile, the idea that writing a male character dealing with these same experiences on the one hand (best interpretation) removes the lens of misogyny that causes this discomfort and let's us examine the issue from a less mapped out perspective and b) (less favourable interpretation) on the other hand, it might feel like this experience receives an upvaluation when a man is shown to be dealing with it.

For example, ages ago I saw this clip of an interview with...I think a director? and he talked about how he has to frame scenes, where the male lead cries very differently from the way he has to frame a scene where a female character cries because the audience reacts very differently because female characters are portrayed as crying so much more often, while a crying scene for the male lead is a show-stopper. It has a lot of gravity. This is something we also probably reflect at least subconsciously when we let a character cry. And I think this applies to a lot of things - both in our writing and in our interpretation of works that, e.g. are very male gaze-y. Showing male characters feeling love-lorn and sensitive and sexualised or domestic - that's an interesting exploration of masculinity, it is actively engaging with characters who probably weren't written like that in canon.

Showing your favourite action hero padding around his apartment making breakfast for his boyfriend in bed while thinking about how pretty he is (also, just to drive the point home, he might be pregnant now) is...just that tick more experimental than showing a female character in that same role. Especially if she, too, is a super-strong action heroine who can do anything. (and you are the one impregnating her and making her make breakfast? That doesn't feel nice!)

So yeah,...uh. I think both are an issue.

[olderthannetfic]

The “noncanonical pairings are usually wish fulfillment” thing is so bonkers because there’s so much variety in terms of what is “non canon.” By the strictest definitions of canon, something like Anthy/Utena isn’t “canon” in the original anime series because they never explicitly say they’re romantic lesbian lovers or kiss (except in the ending theme, which people often don’t count), even though the entire fucking show is about that relationship and it makes significantly less sense if you interpret them in a platonic way. Same with something like Yuuri and Victor in Yuri on Ice. Most people would call those “canon” (I would with both) but I’ve seen people fight over it because it’s not “explicit enough.” A lot of people who are used to really didactic storytelling — which, lbh, is clearly a lot of people in fandom spaces based on the discourse that gets started here — don’t really know what to make of works like Revolutionary Girl Utena that rely a lot on symbolism and allusion, and in expecting their audience to do the work to meet them where they are rather than getting down to where the dumbest possible viewer is.

Then, on the next level, you get relationships that were built up to in some way, but then the writers later decided to take it another direction. You get ones that got a lot of subtext, but they were a same-sex relationship or an interracial relationship or something else taboo in a time before that was permissible in mainstream media of that kind. You get ones where it was the actors interpreting it that way, but not the writers; or the writers, but not the directors; or the directors and script, but the actor didn’t play it that way. (A good example of both of the last two examples: Garak/Bashir from Star Trek Deep Space Nine, whose actors have both admitted to playing them that way and supporting the ship, and where the creators have basically said they saw that there was something there but knew they wouldn’t be able to get away with that on a Star Trek show then.)

On the next level down, you might get something where it fits into a well-established romantic trope but the creator somehow has no idea of but the fans pick up on it — for instance, maybe they would only see it as romantic if it were between a man and a woman, but this is two women, and they don’t recognize how it’s going to look different to someone who is less heteronormative in their thinking. Maybe the creator just has such a strong bias against some particular combo of characters that they don’t want to acknowledge what they wrote by accident. (Like how J.K. Rowling was so mad that so many of her readers liked Draco Malfoy even though it’s pretty obvious to anyone else what’s so appealing about how she wrote that character, but for relationships rather than individual characters.)

And then of course, you do get some ships that are just completely out of left field, someone projecting a particular dynamic really hard that they wish was there on some characters that don’t have that kind of chemistry at all to anyone else watching/reading/etc. One of my fandoms had a really vocal group get really into a ship like that recently (because the person who started it framed it as “progressive” and herself as a bit of a BNF so a lot of younger discourse-addled people went along with it who also thought the more popular main ship was “problematic”) and it was annoying because they were so self-aggrandizing about how there was all this hidden subtext that no one but them was seeing because we were all less social justice enlightened than them or something. When it was really just that those characters didn’t have that dynamic at all, but they THOUGHT they should. There was a lot of hilarious misinterpretation of scenes that were in context, not remotely shippy, but one character was touching the other one very slightly or something.

But IME, those kinds of ships getting any kind of substantial following is rare. Most fairly popular ships that are non-canon, including pretty much every non-canon juggernaut ship I’ve ever seen (going back to DS9, Garashir is like 45% of the DS9 fanfic on AO3 last time I checked, so it’s definitely a juggernaut ship), there is at least SOMETHING there that comes from the original work. Even if it’s just “these two guys have the kind of buddy-cop dynamic that slash shippers often like to envision in romantic ways,” “this guy and this girl are the kind of lifelong childhood friends that we’re used to being romantic in anime like this so a lot of people started shipping them immediately,” “these two girls have the kind of Fuffy/Catradora/etc. friends-to-enemies-to-friends-again-to-lovers dynamic that makes a lot of femslashers lose their minds,” etc. Even with those three examples, while it may not be *intentional* on the part of the creator, it’s bizarre to say those people are “projecting” when they’re responding to those couples fitting into longstanding media trends that a lot of people identify. “Projection” to me is something like the earlier example I gave of the obnoxious people in my one fandom, where they are just determined to make some square peg fit a round hole because they’re desperate to have everything be round. And again, I don’t think that’s nearly as common as a lot of people, and especially salty het shippers who want to demonize the popularity of M/M or F/F in their fandoms, seem to think it is. (Also, like het-only shippers aren’t the ultimate in seeing romantic dynamics with every time a man and a woman are close at all, and throwing a fit when it doesn’t happen in canon, lol)

(I also think some of these people confuse the “projection” for people who are more dedicated rarepair shippers, where the motivation is often more “okay this might not be here but WHAT IF” than sincerely thinking the work is actually doing something that it isn’t really doing. Again, I’ve met people who are into rarepairs who just seem to have a really bad lack of understanding for what “subtext” is and confusing anything they wish was there with “subtext,” but I think those people are a rarity. For a lot of people who like rarepairs, the fact that it’s not at all what canon is suggesting is something they are aware of and that is The Point. It’s “I know the work doesn’t actually suggest this, but how can I change it so that it does”)

--

In my experience, that particular flavor of oldschool homophobe invariably ships tons of het that is not actually canon.

They just don't like it when 1. anything that's not their favorite gets popular and 2. people think a character could be queer without it being literally stated in the first episode/page.

[luminantrondo]

4, 5, 14, and 15. (I don't know if I sent this or not, my memory is spotty. If I did send something before, ignore it.)

(nah, didn't send smth in before, no worries. Thank you for sending these ones in!)

tales ask meme

4. something you wish to see in future games

Another female protagonist would be cool, esp if they kept her girly but still kicked ass (like Zelda in Echoes of Wisdom lol). I'd also like some interesting antagonists that aren't 1-dimensional like Ve//speria and Ze//stiria's.

5. something you hope never is used again in future games

The Arise-style skits (wtf is this, a comic book?), a "main couple + pair the spares" (...again, Arise), and no Tales traitor. That trope is so overdone and sucks, tbh.

15. a side quest that stuck with you

I have one for Vespy, Abyss, and Symphonia. For Vesperia, it has to be the brionac quest + Hermes' notes. It's the closest we get to Judith lore (in the game) and Judith & Rita's relationship is well done. I also liked the Sword Dancer one, too, if only to see Flynn lose his cool a bit. For Abyss, I like the Tear's pendant side quest, and I remember farming the last bit of Gald just to get it back. If you know me, you know I don't ship these two together, but I think their relationship and how it naturally grows is one of the best in the series. It's so sweet of Luke and a huge change from how he was in Act 1. For Symphonia, it's the Virginia Sage one, where Raine and Genis find their mother again. The voice acting in the scene (in English) is phenomenal, it really caps off Raine's conflict (even humanizes her more), and there's a sweet follow-up skit between her and Genis. I rambled about this scene in a previous post of mine, so I'll spare you my babbling lol...

14. an unpopular opinion

(lmfao. i have so many that i could make it its own post... but i'll go with the one that's been on my mind lately.) (i got wordy, rip)

Flynn Scifo was not a "bully" to Yuri in the beginning.

A large chunk of fandom (or maybe early fandom and isn't so prevalent now) think he was a bully to Yuri in Act 1, "harassing" him to rejoin the knights. In all the pointing fingers at Flynn, I never see anyone look at Yuri or try to see it from Flynn's POV. I know it's because Yuri's more popular and because he's the main character. But Flynn has a point when he calls out Yuri in Capua Nor (or was it Torim? Idfk). What has Yuri changed since he quit the knights? All he's done is sat around in the lower quarter since he left. Yeah, he doesn't know what to do because the knights was basically the "dream job"/ticket in to enact change. But Flynn's right. The reason Flynn keeps asking him to rejoin the knights is because that's what they planned on doing to change the world. To Flynn, Yuri walked out on their hard work, so he's understandably bitter, too. In fact, this is exactly why things are so rocky between them at the start of the game. I also have to wonder if it's a translation thing, too, because I'm aware a lot of lines were rephrased to make Yuri sound more aggressive at parts and Flynn sound more... demanding (referring to Nordopolica scene), for lack of better wording. And before you ask, I can read and understand Japanese, so it's not a "he said, she said" scenario. I think the reason everyone calls Flynn a bully is because he not only succeeded in his dream, but he doesn't beat around the bush when talking to people. Like Judith, whose bluntness people are more aware of, Flynn's blunt. He tells it like it is, and that's probably because he's captain of the knights...? Think back to that one event where he and Yuri stop some thieves, and the little boy that tried to help says he wants to be a knight when he grows up. Does Flynn pat his head and go "wow you were so brave"? No. He tears the fucker down by calling him out on his recklessness, saying that just because he wants to be a knight doesn't mean he will. Granted, he does bandage the wound a little when he commends the kid's courage, but the compliment doesn't come after a lecture. And lbr, no one likes being told the hard facts. No one likes being called out. I think Flynn hit a personal sore spot with the "Flynn's a bully" crowd. Yuri's not the special snowflake, depresso espresso protag that he's praised to be. He's a good character, don't get me wrong, but he's not always in the right. It's just jarring to see when it comes to the romantic side of Flynn and Yuri, there's a heavy bias for Yuri, yet Flynn somehow gets villainized in some form or another. Like the narrative molds itself around the fact that while both characters fucked up, Flynn's the bigger fuck up because in canon he's a "bully." Flynn calling him out isn't to pressure him back into the knights. The way he sees it, Yuri sits on his hands and bemoans how the rich suck ass and should stop being assholes to the poor... but he doesn't do anything about it. He just keeps getting thrown in jail for harassing the Tweedles. Flynn's basically telling Yuri to back up his words with action, and he says the knights because, again, that was the only way they thought they could change things. And no, Flynn does accept that Yuri's way of doing things is ultimately different from his own. You even have a fucking skit to showcase this (the skit where Yuri wears the knight's uniform). I honestly think the whole "rejoin the knights" by act 2/3(?) is said not in the same way it was in act 1, but more of a jest. Because by then, Flynn's seen that Yuri has made changes - more than he has. He's got no room to drag Yuri back to where he doesn't want to be, and it wouldn't make sense for his character to do so. Flynn's got a lot of issues and he's not the sweet, perfect, somft knight boy that he tricks people into thinking he is. But him being Yuri's "bully" is definitely not it, chief.

[13eyond13]

25 for Griffith?

[character ask meme]

GRIFFITH + 25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Hahaha, an excellent choice of a question for him

cut for spoilers, because I know I have a mutual who is freshly reading this series right now... (don't look, Dilly!!)

OK so my reactions to him chronologically can basically be divided into three parts:

(1) Pre-Eclipse: I like him, but I'm also side-eyeing him a bit... What's he up to, exactly?

(2) During the Eclipse: yoooo Griffith what the actual fuck you actual piece of shit!!!!

(3) Post-Eclipse: I HATE HIM AND EVERYTHING HE DOES ENRAGES ME BUT ALSO I REMEMBER HE'S A BIT COMPLICATED AND ALSO IT'S MORE BORING WHEN HE'S NOT AROUND SO WHERE DID HE GO AND CAN HE STOP DISAPPEARING FOR DOZENS OF CHAPTERS AT A TIME PLEASE

So initially I liked Griffith as a character and found him interesting to follow on the page (especially because I was like woah I can't believe how outright gay for Guts he's written, like I knew that people shipped them but I didn't think it would be that unambiguous? Good for him, good for him, I like how bold he is about it) BUT I was also side-eyeing Griffith and distrusting him a bit from the beginning, just because I knew that SOMETHING crazy must have happened to make him and Guts the kind of mortal enemies they were now before we got into the flashbacks, and because I don't trust endlessly ambitious characters trying to make themselves increasingly powerful, and because he did some shitty stuff at times (like making Casca warm Guts up with her body heat because it was a "woman's job")... but I think I remember believing that whatever it was he was still going to be a somewhat redeemable character, or that maybe the antagonism between him and Guts was based on a misunderstanding or something. So whenever the Eclipse stuff happened, I was genuinely shocked and completely horrified (here is the post with my live reaction to that part (x)

I REALLY got mad and really disliked him after that, and it nearly made me quit reading the story, because I wasn't a huge fan of how porny that whole scene was drawn in comparison to how the previous assaults were depicted on the page / wasn't incredibly sure if it felt super in-character of him / necessary for the plot / wasn't sure if Casca would ever be allowed to come back as a character in the story again ... but I also found I couldn't stop reading it for long, I was already way too emotionally invested in the characters and enjoying the Berserk universe as a whole. And stuff like how mutilated and broken and pitiful Griffith was after the torture he endured, and the scene of child him feeling obligated to keep going with his dream because of all the people he'd lead to their deaths already, made him stay more interesting to follow and more complex to contemplate as a character to me.

ANYWAY, the longer the story went on without him showing up again (if I recall correctly it goes on for at least another like 80 chapters more or something before we even see him again after that?) the more I realized that he brings a lot of the intrigue and make the most of the plot stuff that I'm actually most interested in happen, for better or for worse. So even though I was always enraged by him basically just existing and everything he did on the page after that I was also like "!!!! there he is, FINALLY" and glad every time he showed up again, haha. I wish sometimes now that he was still a bit more of a volatile/human character as he was before he made the sacrifices, because that's definitely more interesting to watch... but I can't say I'm not still very intrigued to see what happens in the end / how everything was meant to resolve between him and Casca and Guts, and if we'll ever see a big break in his aloof facade again, even after he tried to ascend to godhood and erase all of those more vulnerable human qualities from himself.

IN SUMMARY he's not my absolute fave in this series, and that's remained the same for me the entire time (it goes Guts>Casca>Griffith for me, and that order of faves hasn't changed all throughout) ... but he's definitely an iconic character, the one that brings a lot of the drama and the intrigue, and for some reason is the one I find most fun to discuss and post and speculate about in the fandom rn

[punkrogue]

Confession: I used to be one of those antis who hated the Roguneto age difference and saw Gambit as the "correct" love interest. But then I got older and stopped thinking about things in black and white, I realized that Rogue doesn't give a shit since her two adopted moms also have an age difference. I think a lot of Rogue "fans" project their thoughts and desires onto Rogue instead of accepting some of the less stereotypical sweet "Southern Belle" image they like to compartmentalize her into (one reason why 80s Rogue is superior to 90s Rogue is she's a subversion of the stereotype instead playing it straight like the more palatable to general audiences 90s version of the character). Looking back, I like how the "I can't touch a man" problem was sorta resolved with Roguneto in AoA, so instead Rogue's character focus in that universe is being a team leader and going apeshit to protect her son instead of angsting over Remy and how she can't have sex with him.

First off I think that regardless of context concepts like the "correct" love interest are never good. I think that's just become more and more obvious over the years as fandom has become more toxic and more people feel comfortable calling you shit like an abuser for liking a "problematic" or hero/villain kinda ship. The ships are fictional, the people aren't. Who gives a fuck if people ship milo from atlantis and yzma from the emperor's new groove (yes this is a real ship i've seen) it's not my problem. Neither of us will gain or lose brownie points with a god or whatever because we shipped the right ship. Not an attack on you just my Thoughts because that's a common issue now in fandom that I know I certainly didn't see it at these scales when I was a teen.

AS FOR THE OTHER STUFF--

god you're spitting SO MUCH TRUTH.

Okay I wrote the rest of my reply to this originally in notepad bc i don't trust tumblr and god.... this is so long 💀

But then I got older and stopped thinking about things in black and white, I realized that Rogue doesn't give a shit since her two adopted moms also have an age difference.

It never occurred to me before how the age gap between Mystique and Irene would effect her perspective but that’s such a good and interesting point! We’re not clear on even when Mystique was born or how old she really was when she met Irene and we know Irene is like easily 100 when she dies. She and Mystique met in the late 1800s — even if you keep her dying in the 80s and don’t fudge around the timeline at all for the current date 1880 to 1980 is a century. Rogue was raised by geriatric lesbians. Idk WHAT this means for her psychologically or in how her love map got formed but it’s a Thing lol. I think the big takeaway really from being raised by mystiny is really that she expects a certain level of partner care and maturity and in syncness. Say what you want about Irene and Mystique as people but they’re absolutely an in love and loving couple. They’re totally in sync and have complete faith in each other, they’re each other’s rocks. Which ofc is why Mystique went so off the rails when Irene died.

There’s definitely a lot to be said about her expecting/needing/wanting a certain amount of maturity in her partner as a result of being raised by two older women in a very established relationship. Barring the dudes who’re born in test tubes (Longshot and Joesph) basically all her love interests are older than her by some amount. Even Remy is at least a few years older than her no matter how you pace out his life.

I tend to think worrying about age gaps in a society/world or whatever like comics is dumb when everyone in question is legal. Half of them are like 50+ by now (the 05 were teens in the 60s technically, xavier fought in the KOREAN WAR, etc), some are aliens, some are gods, some people got stuck in a time loop for like 2 years, some people where in another dimension for a while, etc etc etc. It’s more trouble than it’s worth to get up in arms about it when you’re not talking about adult/minor pairings. Magneto is like, 100 now sure. He’s also been de-aged like, twice, once that I remember to the point of being a fucking toddler again. This is automatically so fucking wild and impossible to map to anything real world you’re just gonna hurt yourself trying to comprehend the ramifications of that catastrophic life change on even how the fuck he STILL REMEMBERS HIS PREVIOUS LIFE AS AN ADULT AFTER THAT let alone his future relationships with anyone lol.

I think a lot of Rogue "fans" project their thoughts and desires onto Rogue instead of accepting some of the less stereotypical sweet "Southern Belle" image they like to compartmentalize her into (one reason why 80s Rogue is superior to 90s Rogue is she's a subversion of the stereotype instead playing it straight like the more palatable to general audiences 90s version of the character).

I think you’re very right about that. When you sit down and read Rogue’s comics through all at once the difference between her in the 80s and her in the 90s is wild and not in a good way. All the edges get knocked off of her, her morals become simplified, they gloss over her tense relations with the rest of the X-Men even more than they did before. She was created with the kind of character design slogan “the girl from the wrong side of the river” and it very much seems like few people remember that when writing or drawing her and I know why that is to some extent — stripping away her “problematic” nature (remember, Rogue DID stalk and attempt to murder Dazzler and did some other fucked up shit), stressing her more mainstream insecurities, removing her heavy metal/punk/butch interests and making her more in line with a 90s pinup girl in looks makes her more appealing and fuckable to the mainstream predominately male audience of comics. Alt girls are niche. She only got to get her tat sleeve and be a motorcycle mechanic and sing rock songs and be really wild again when Claremont takes her over again in X-Treme X-Men in 2001 and it really does feel like a breath of fresh air. She’s rough and coarse and rude again. She and Storm are at each other’s throats at times. She’s angry and she’s reckless and she’s funny and she’s you know That Bitch.

“Okay but characters change and grow, they kind of have to, and just because their creator intended them to be one way doesn’t mean they have to stay that way,” some will say and this is true! If we kept to the letter of the character creator’s intentions Cable would be boring as fuck and Shatterstar wouldn’t be pansexual. But here’s the thing—

Both of those Liefeldian monstrosities still to this day have maintained their “character slogan”, their Vibe, their Flavor if you will.

Cable is still a super douche with mega guns and 80 pouches who loves shooting things and is Edgy. He’s just better written now and has more depth. Shatterstar is still an American Gladiator made into a Real Gladiator clone boy thing who loves carnage and communes thru media lingo. He just sucks dick now. And is better written.

Note how this is not what happened with Rogue. Consider how LITTLE of her time in the 90s was say, about her conflicted feelings about her Still Evil Mom or her trouble really making friends in the X-Men because of personality differences or you know HOW HER POWER SUCKS THE SOUL OUTTA THEM or her love of mechanics or any of the other things that really only seem to crop up when it’s Claremont or someone taking notes from his characterization at the wheel. Her Character Vibe is “girl from the wrong side of the river joins a different paramilitary group for better healthcare”. THAT’S LITERALLY WHO ROGUE IS. THAT’S WHY SHE JOINED THE X-MEN. There’s absolutely room for growth here but that growth does not mean she has to stop having a mullet, or stop wearing studded belts, or stop being the other lovable unwashed mongrel in the house next to Logan.

But Possum Girl is not fuckable to most men so they don’t wanna write it and they don’t wanna see it and very few girls wanna see it because they can’t project themselves onto that. Also, misogyny— internalized or otherwise. Girls aren’t allowed to be ratty, loud, coarse, butch, aggressive etc etc etc. Rogue’s name is FUCKING ROGUE she’s NOT A SOUTHERN SWEETHEART that literally DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF HER.

“When she was younger, Rogue thought the name made her sound like an outlaw. she played the part to perfection—using her power to imprint the skills and psyches of anyone she touched—until she realized she was stealing little bits of their souls." — X-Treme X-Men I think I cannot for the life of me remember what issue this is from but I know it’s a comic quote I had to type it out myself years ago since it’s not quoted anywhere else.

“The name 'Rogue' is not just a super hero code. She is very much a wild child. She likes danger and is much more of a Mississippi soul than a Louisiana soul.” — Claremont in a 2016 interview.

Rogue is SUPPOSED to be rough and wild and reckless and YEE-FUCKING-HAW MOTHERFUCKER. She’s r/THE_PACK in mutant form. There’s SO MANY WAYS to allow her to grow and change that do not mean she must sacrifice the skynyrd. But she doesn’t get to keep that. Cable gets to keep his stupid fucking pouches and his grimdark 90s patina but Rogue’s gotta have BIG 90S BAYWATCH HAIR and wear DAISY DUKES LIKE THAT ISN’T FUCKING VICIOUS ENDANGERMENT OF EVERYONE’S LIVES all so she can be the sexy southern gal and spend the majority of the 90s hemming and hawing over the practical logistics of hopping on Remy’s dick as though that man doesn’t have enough working general sex and BDSM knowledge to tackle the logistical end of a hookup with her and instead of trying to WORK WITH HER ON THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ISSUES just kinda fucking pressures her like a 10yo boy demanding a kiss from his crush for a while there before someone fucking LET HIM HAVE BETTER WRITING. Both of them are done dirty by that and most current writers more likely than not came in on this version of Rogue and Remy which is why we’re now being subjected to their malformed vapid bastard children in modern comics.

80s Rogue (and a lot of 00s Rogue) Imo are the superior Rogues because she’s an alternative girl. We have PLENTY of more mainstream girls in the X-Men but we don’t have any really who are ratty and mentally unstable and metal/punk and cause issues and don’t always sync up totally with X-Men “philosophy” and who’re Really Okay with committing Lots Of Violence and who are like, AGGRESSIVELY not perfect.

Why they chose to live in fucking nowhere Mississippi and what their financial situation is and just— whatever the fucking deal with Mystiny while they raised Rogue aside — Rogue is created as a mentally ill at risk runaway youth living in a foster/adoptive home and is heavily coded as poor/white trash. Like, I get very baffled by what the fuck is going with her early childhood with Mystiny (there’s a LOT of conflicting info) but i tend to assume they're living middle-classish since you know Mystique got that $$$. But Rogue absolutely at least coded as a lower class rough and tumble girl in the 80s and that’s like….. actually very important????????? That’s huge????????? Especially since the X-Men are the Disenfranchised Minorities with Superpowers wonder show.

Now look at any 90s comics or 10s-20s comics and show me ANY issue where “white trash” or “raised by Mystique and Destiny” shines through. Didn’t find any did you? Yeah. Thought so. This is why they’re the shittiest eras of Rogue Comics.

Looking back, I like how the "I can't touch a man" problem was sorta resolved with Roguneto in AoA, so instead Rogue's character focus in that universe is being a team leader and going apeshit to protect her son instead of angsting over Remy and how she can't have sex with him.

Part of why I like Roguneto in general is we just generally skip all the gross borderline fetishist talk about how she can’t fuck because she’d kill a dude or whatever. Magneto fucks. He just DOES. You look at him and you go "oh this man FUCKS". We don’t need to spend time on the fucking mechanics of it — in fact to do so seems INSANE. OFC HE FUCKS!!! NEXT QUESTION! Now yes Remy elicits the same kind of response but not the same level. Magneto is 3 grown children levels of fucks. DILF and GDILF fucks levels. This whole drama is completely fucking stupid with MAGNETO as the stage partner. HE’S LIKE 100 YEARS OLD AND HE OWNED A METEORITE. ROGUE HAS FIST-FOUGHT LIKE ALL OF HIS CHILDREN AT LEAST ONCE. WE HAVE OTHER THINGS TO ADDRESS.

After like 20 years of writers being weird little fetishist creeps about how exactly the logistics of Rogue and Remy fuckin would work when like that’s what a gimp suit and condoms are for, it’s refreshing to just not feel the WEIGHT of that forced conflict hanging over a romantic relationship of hers. With romy there’s SUCH a hyper focus by the writers on their sex life half the time not their overall relationship and it’s just weird and gross. Like they fuck, they figure it out and she works thru her fear of touch— can we talk about rogue’s mental instability and how that affects the relationship and remy’s fear of rejection/abandonment now?????????????? THAT'S WHAT I'M ACTUALLY HERE FOR!!!!!! YALL CAN'T SELL ME SMUT SO STOP OBSESSING OVER IT LIKE PRETEENS AND TELL ME ABOUT THEIR MESSY RELATIONSHIP DRAMA!!!!!!

Rogue also tends to just be fucking bonkers more when she’s with Magneto and I like that. She’s less southern belle and more fuck it we ball and it’s refreshing. It’s a nice combo of personalities platonically and/or romantically because Magneto is really an EXCELLENT emotional/mental rock which she needs and Rogue is 10000000% not afraid to call him a lil bitch to his face and he NEEDS people around him to help keep his ego/doom spirals in check.

Their arguments feel more like real conflicts and debates. When they team up it feels more solid and like a partnership. They just feel like there's more weight and oomph in their interactions. Magneto has such a power and gravity to him. He's literally one of the immovable tent poles of the X-Verse. They'll be finding ways to keep him on the field even when he'd be 1,000 in comic years. So by interacting with him it let's her be more of a serious character. She gets to square up unstoppable force to immovable object and really test herself against him while also knowing at the end they're gonna shake and say "good game."

You don't get that with Remy because Remy's not solid like that, he's built to move. He's meant to be flexible. If you take away his flexibility (morally, in personality, in allegiance, in wants, in self-image etc) then he's just not him anymore. But the issue there is Rogue is also malleable — she's literally absorbing other people. That's two rubber people trying to help each other stand. It ain't gonna work and none of the comic writers wanna put in the real effort to MAKE it work. (fic writers ofc, have cracked this code and know how to write romy who can actually work and be compelling even into the modern era)

for me, Remy was a good first love interest for her and I love his character and I still love their dynamic — just now in a more platonic way. Meanwhile Magneto is a better second and potentially endgame relationship for her. He's more where she is in life now and he both gives her someone to depend on when she's going fucking batshit from her powers and also someone to sharpen her claws on who can take it and dish it back.

[disappearinginq]

5, 7, 13, and 20 for fanfic asks?

5. Fic most proud of writing This is a toss up - because I am one of those people who likes their own stuff a lot. :-D But, one of the Big Three: Damnatio Memoriae from the Lucifer fandom, Running Up That Hill for Agenst of SHIELD, and Wrong Side of Heaven for Magnum 2018. Mostly for different reasons, but they all have the same vein of "I got mad at canon and I fixed it".

Lucifer was a roller coaster for me - I loved season 1, season 2 was okay, 3 made me want to throw something at the screen 90% of the time, season 4 WAS EPIC, and I gave up halfway through season 5 and never finished the series. Damnatio was written because I wanted much more involvement of the supernatural, not just a therapy/self discovery mixed in with crime of the week. Also, being raised adjacent to Catholicism, I was getting really irritated that they weren't even using the comic lore, and missing the basic fundamentals of the sources they were pulling from. This story had a lot of reader feedback, to the point of it being almost choose your own adventure. As it went on, I would ask readers to pick from two options that I had rolling around in my head, and it actually worked really well to keep the ball moving with my writing.

Running Up That Hill was again another one where I just got mad at canon, but because I don't like the narrative of "these people are exempt from moral standards while this person is Wrong No Matter What", and I probably would've let it slide except the issue I had was that the one that Wrong No Matter What had all of his life changing trauma as a child and then had it reinforced his entire adult life. Everyone else was an adult when Bad Things happened, and I don't like the hypocrisy of saying "get over it" to someone who legitimately doesn't have the toolset to do that.

Wrong Side I love because this actually was my first foray into something that had no supernatural elements to it whatsoever, and based firmly in reality, and a reality I knew pretty well. I wasn't a huge fan of how the TV show just glossed over the fact that these guys were POW's for a year and a half of a terrorist organization that tortures and kills people with such violence that they became a whole new subsect of terrorism. Like, no, these guys aren't just going to walk away without an issue. And the fact that they were sold out by someone who said to have loved them? AND THEY HAVE NO FALL OUT FROM THIS?! Get fucked, shitty narrative. Suicide in the veteran community is at a high not seen since post-WWII, and these fuckers have the audacity to suggest that you're just being a little bitch if you can't acclimate to civilian life.

7. Favorite ship to write Well, that's pretty easy - none. Romance is rarely done well, and I have never liked anyone enough to relate to the narrative of "Well, I'm throwing all of my friendships out the window because now I have a RomAnTic InTereSt" and it irritates me to no end. if anything, my favorite ship is between Captain Kirk and the Enterprise.

13. Latest fic written/last WIP? A fix it fic for Yellowstone that showcases the brothers Kayce and Jamie, and because I am on a western kick, research for a Magnificent Seven fic that will likely never see the light of day, but I still love the show and the characters, where Ezra (the gambler from Georgia) is a spy for the Union during the Civil War.

20. Hardest Character to write/get the characterization right for? The female characters written by men. And I realize that sounds really weird, but because I swear to god men don't understand being a woman, they're just shit at writing them, and they say/do the dumbest things because guys would do that shit, or, worse, the guys writing the character are using them as hyperboles for women they think did them wrong. And then because the writers don't understand them, I can't understand them, and they wind up being the people that in real life, I'd want to hit with my car. Beth Dutton is a great example of this - some of the things she says that I know are supposed to come off as "strong, powerful woman" make me physically recoil and hide my face with a pillow while watching because What the fuck nobody would ever say that and it's actually cringeworthy. Until women started getting involved in the writing process for Magnum and Lenkov was fired, I absolutely wanted to stab Higgins in 90% of her scenes. Post Lenkov - I actually found her really sweet sometimes, and actually relatable.

That being said, the other ones that I'm not good at because it is so far outside my sphere of comprehension are characters like Angie or Dani off of Will Trent and Prodigal Son. I love those characters, they are complex and unique and I love them, but I don't have relatable experience to them at all, and they are some of the hardest people I have tried to write (which is why I don't have fic in those fandoms even though I love them).