#which suffered a bit from these problems of having the characters just SO Young for some of the things going on

[coolspacequips]

have been rooting around looking for spooky aesthetic supernatural series to watch, and randomly dipped into watching Legacies for the first time. It's one of those things where I can see why it's a 'hear me out' series for a lot of ppl, so I'm waiting for the show to grow, there's a lot of stuff that I like here but....

I'm like 6 eps in, operating on the assumption that these old ass looking teens are probably meant to be 18 like they often are, but I forgot that in a lot of these teen drama series they're actually 16, and in fact have been 15 this whole time which they drop after a sex scene and everything!!!!! MAN!!! I wish there were more shows like this for adults dflaksfjadskfja

[ittsybittsybunny]

ATLA Live Action Series Review:

The Good

Aesthetically this show felt right. Sure sometimes the outfits didn't quite feel lived in, but I always felt like I was watching a fantasy world with decent effects and interesting design. Also, I really enjoyed the sets!

Bending: Yes some of the fights feel very quick, but the bending looks cool. It is certainly better than 10 benders lifting one big rock. I can honestly say the opening bending fight scene gave me so much hope for this show.

Kyoshi Warriors: I loved seeing them in live action, and I thought Suki's performance was great!

Omashu: I think the mashup of the mechanist made sense since that is an important character overall and I would hate to see him cut. However, both Jet & the secret tunnels felt sloppily thrown in.

Northern Water Tribe: I really loved the way it looked, and appreciated the two episodes we spent here. I think Yue gained more agency in this interpretation, and why shouldn't the moon spirit be a waterbender. Also, episode seven felt the most in tune with the original show's spirit.

Zuko: I think he was one of the most fleshed-out and best parts of the show! Dallas Liu really captured Zuko's spirit, and the scene between him and Aang in episode 6 was wonderful!

Soundtrack: Hearing the original soundtrack bits is always great, and when I first heard the ending music I was so excited.

Is the show perfect, no - but I wouldn't mind a season 2.

The Bad

Pacing: Turning 20 episodes into 8 was bound to lead to some cuts...but oftentimes times things felt too quick or disjointed. I think there were editing problems contributing to this for sure, but sometimes things skipped around too much without a clear purpose as to why. Also, why bring in plots from later seasons when you barely have enough time already?

Writing: This show definitely suffered from exposition dumping, though it did get better as time went on. I think the biggest example of this is actually opening in the past rather than the present. We do not get to learn along with Aang that the world has changed, instead, we get to learn that 100 years have passed....which doesn't hold the same tension or worldbuilding.

Clunky Dialogue: Along with exposition, clunky dialogue is another example of bad writing. I think sometimes I felt like the acting was kind of meh in the beginning, but then over time I began to realize it had far more to do with the lines characters were trying to deliver. The actors themselves are not bad, just cursed with awkward writing and lines that feel out of touch with the setting they're in.

Main Trio: I don't entirely know that I believe Katara, Sokka, and Aang are friends as opposed to 3 people stuck together to save the world. Aang feels a little too somber for a young kid running away from his responsibilities, Sokka is protective, but not exactly the heart of the team, and Katara is sort of just there until the last two episodes. Where is her struggle, her desire to learn so strong she steals from pirates? Also, while Gordon Cormier did a great job, Aang does zero waterbending on his own, is overly serious, and tells Katara not to fight. Where is his desperation to protect his friends? It feels like they all lost emotional depth.

Tension: Bringing Ozai, Azula, and Zhao out in the beginning immediately causes us to lose the realization there is an even bigger bad. Part of why Ozai is so terrifying is he is a primarily silent villain until the third season when we finally see the face of the "big bad evil guy" behind it all. Yes, they add to Zuko's backstory, but again, they are revealing the villains too early. Azula is the antagonist of season 2 and one of my favorite characters, so I hope they do more with her in the future. Finally, Zhao is supposed to be an example of the uncontrollable nature of fire unrestrained, instead, he comes off as vaguely threatening with the supposed true power being Azula.

Characterization: While all characters are bound to lose something in a shorter show, it still felt like certain characters were more mutilated than others. I am sure there are 100 different opinions on who, but I think the biggest victim was Katara.

Katara: Katara manages to go from a complete novice to a bending master in what feels like a matter of days. The journey feels short, and that makes the results feel largely unearned. Katara is one of the strongest personalities in the show, determined, kind, and fiery. In many ways, she is the unpredictability of water - equally dangerous as it is necessary to live. She is the child of a war who lost her mother, forced to grow up too soon, and even raised her older brother. Yes, Katara often gets stereotyped as the mom friend, but overall she feels underutilized in this show. We really don't see enough of her journey until the very end.

Iroh: Iroh was always comedic but most importantly wise. Even when Zuko is trying to give himself advice, he mimics Iroh. Instead, he seems to be used more as comedic relief without the underlying experience. He just doesn't feel right. Also, he kills Zhao instead of Zhao getting himself killed - which is less about Iroh and more about the writing than anything.

Ozai is weirdly a little too nice. Yes, he burned Zuko and pits his kids against each other, but he feels toned down in a show claiming to be more mature than the original cartoon.

Azula is perhaps more realistically worried about losing her status as the golden child, but she is also missing the cruelty she and her father share. I understand worrying about making your character cartoonishly evil, but the Fire Nation is currently a deeply nationalistic empire trying to control the world. Where is the deep-seated belief that they are better than other people, not just trying to bring balance to the world? There is a line between creating complexity and toning down the very real evil inherent in this plan.

Roku: I can only say what the fuck was that. He was barely there, and not the serious master to Aang's youthful exuberance.

The Ugly

Show, Don't Tell: The show's single biggest issue seems to be speeding through story parts by simply stating things. Instead of allowing the audience to discover, trusting that we are smart enough to understand, let's just blatantly say things like Zuko is the only reason the 41st division is alive to their faces. Even though in the context of the story Ozai literally already said that.... it's the division, the division for Zuko, Zuko's division.

Thematic Misunderstandings: I think this show makes several minor changes with major implications, such as airbenders actively fighting the firebenders, when airbenders are known for their pacifist nature and the lie of an Airbender fighting force is actively propaganda. Similarly, Aang very quickly accepts his role as the avatar and doesn't even run away in the beginning. Without this conflict between his desire to be a carefree child and the fact that the world needs him - the show loses a key aspect of Aang's character. Also, the obsession with downplaying the avatar state as something dangerous feels like a disservice to the tradition, connection, and strength of the avatar, which can be permanently destroyed as the trade-off for that kind of power. It's dangerous for the balance of the entire world, not just because it's powerful!

The Agni Kai: Zuko's fight against his father is one of the defining moments of Ozai's cruelty, not just because he is willing to fight his child, but because Zuko tried to do everything right. Zuko shows deference to his father, apologizes, and most importantly refuses to fight! The determination not to upset his father and still be grievously injured and banished is a hugely important theme for the fire nation and Zuko's life as a whole. He tries to do everything he is supposed to and only regains his father's acceptance after he "kills" Aang. Zuko's struggle between moral vs. social right and wrong in contrast to his family is hugely important to his character.

-----

TLDR: ATLA was a fantastical animated television show that was never afraid to show character development and flaws. When you turn 20 episodes into 8, you are bound to lose something. You hollowed out the middle, leaving the shell of important moments and events without ever wondering if all the times in between formed the true spirit of the show.

Rating: 6.5/10 It's perfectly fine and worth a watch. Not a disaster, but certainly falls flat of the original.

[hotdogstandz]

My Lust tale. A story following a group of monsters living in a world in which humans and monsters have always coexisted side by side. Sure, everyone is above ground, but that doesn’t mean everything is easy. In this world, monsters face extreme classism, racism, and just general systemic oppression from the government. This story specifically follows the lives of a suffering but strong community of monsters doing their best to survive in a run-down city with a corrupt system not made for them.

We’ve got the aged-out foster skeleton brothers- drag queen Sans and security/accountant Pax (government name Papyrus) who co-run the hit club, Lust Tales After Dark, located on Snowed In Street.

Directly across from their building is a small rundown cafe run by the lovely Miss Toriel, and occasionally her eldest two children, biological son Asriel (15) and adopted Chara (16). She has another adopted kid, Frisk (7) that the eldest watch frequently as well. Pax and Sans (dubbed Sansy by Frisk) spend most of their off time either with the kids, running rehearsals, or working the food bank that Lust Tales After Dark and Toriels cafe run (along with several other monster owned businesses) for the unfortunate monsters and humans living on the streets in their city.

Chief of police, Asgore is what you could expect. A power hungry, corrupt, and selfish man willing to throw his own family away for the sake of success. I will reveal more about everyone’s dynamic soon enough.

Last bit….and I want you all to REALLY look me in the face and listen to every word I’m about to say.

DO. NOT. SEXUALIZE. ANY. OF THE CHARACTERS. WHO ARE. MINORS.

This is a story meant to raise awareness for real life problems. I am planning on using this series to educate younger people in this fandom about safe sex practices, consent, and the wide variety of sexualities, as well as SA, domestic violence, and STD awareness. As someone who read the original comic as a young teen, it was incredibly damaging and confusing. So, this is meant to be used as a tool. A comfort. Lust and sexuality can be really really scary for some. I hope to make it less scary. More educational and lighthearted.

If your intention is to come on my page and twist my content into what the original LustTale was or draw harmful art that you KNOW could damage someone, get the FUCK off my page. Unkindly.

That’s all :] thx for reading bbys

[jessicalprice]

So I've spent a lot of time untangling Christian exegesis of parables and talking about how the way Christians interpret parables almost always ends up being antisemitic.

But aside from how it makes them think about Jews and Judaism and Jewishness, I also want to talk a bit about how it makes them sympathize more with abusers than with victims.

The easy-to-point-to culprit here is the trilogy of parables that culminates in what most Christians know as the Prodigal Son story.

The common interpretation of these parables is that God does (and therefore Christians should) value a repentant sinner over someone who's never sinned.

The problem here isn't the stories themselves--they're pretty enigmatic as far as their actual meanings--but Luke's gloss:

"Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

(Mark says, "So it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones should be lost," which is very different.

So on its face, in 2023, that's a blatantly dangerous, abuser-supporting belief. What is it like to be a child sexually abused by your youth pastor and to hear that the fact that he hurt you is part of what makes him somehow spiritually "better" than you?

And we can see it play out in the way Kevin M. Young, a popular progressive pastor on Twitter (who describes himself as "post-evangelical" and was the senior pastor at a Quaker congregation) responded to being told one of his tweets was antisemitic, and then jumped in to support a woman who responded by identifying herself as a fan of John Chrysostom (the literal author of "Against the Jews" and the most antisemitic of the Church Fathers, which is saying something).

I'm not going to transcribe the whole thing, because it's not all that important for what I have to say about this, but I am going to call out a few lines:

"The American Christian approach to t'shuvah sees the victim's spirit, character, and speech as equally important to the offenders. I.e. in Christendom, the victim can exceed the sin of the offender simply by their reaction (if it be in sin or acted in a way that is not Spirit led)."

So, to be clear, if someone assaults you, and you don't meekly forgive them in a "Spirit led" way, you're somehow worse than they are.

The uniquely Christian brain rot here is in seeing every sin as an opportunity for forgiveness. After all, if being a repentant sinner gives you a higher spiritual status--if there's more "rejoicing in Heaven" over you--than that of your victim, then you have to sin to get there. It treats other people as props in your salvation journey, not as fellow humans whose suffering matters. (Combine that with the Christian idea that suffering is somehow virtuous in and of itself, and you've got a very toxic recipe. Not only, by abusing others, are you guaranteeing your own value as a repentant sinner, but you're giving your victim the opportunity to ennoble themselves through suffering.)

Of course, a key word here is repentant. Put a pin in that.

These sort of exchanges on Twitter--a Christian being outright genocidal toward Jews, and a supposedly progressive Christian figure jumping in to defend the Christian, with seemingly no ability to comprehend that the Jews in the conversation are human beings who may have their own trauma around violently antisemitic language, with boundless empathy for the Christian abuser and none for the Jewish targets of their abuse--happen frequently and just as frequently leave Jwitter baffled in addition to angry.

Why all this empathy for the abuser and none for the victims?

I think a lot of this comes out of progressive Christian exegesis of parables, which is frequently looking for the radical "twist" to the story.

E.g. in the story of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, the assumption is that the audience of the time would have empathized with the Pharisee, and thus the twist is to make them empathize with the tax collector. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the assumption is that they would have seen the Samaritan as a threat, and the twist is to make him the hero.

The thinking goes that the audience would have had empathy for certain groups and none for others, so the stories push them to feel that empathy for the latter, and that this was needed to balance the scales, to make sure everyone was receiving love and empathy and care.

Except that this, in modernity, has the effect of simply reversing the roles, not balancing them. The groups that are assumed to be in good social standing get no empathy, even become the implicit villains, and the groups (supposedly, since this is now a Christian-dominant society) traditionally looked down on get all of it.

That might still be a balancing act if the "looked down on" groups were actually marginalized. But in the Christian imagination, that role is filled by sinners in need of Christian grace, not necessarily demographically marginalized groups.

The idea seems to be that the victims are getting sympathy from elsewhere, so it's the Christian's job to make sure the abuser/sinner gets sympathy too.

But I'll point again to that pesky word "repentant."

Ultimately, when it comes to treatment of Jews and Muslims and anyone else who points out that a Christian has in some way harmed them, Christian sympathy goes immediately to the offender before the offender has even expressed any repentance.

The repentant sinner is so much more valuable, at this point, than their victims that they must be preemptively forgiven, that they are more valuable purely because they now have the potential to repent.

And this seems to be lurking under not just how "progressive" pastors act on Twitter, but in a lot of our cultural narratives around, say, college rapists and their futures, around white people who are publicly called out for racist acts, etc.

[forever-rogue]

I just love your Steve writings and I'm absolute obsessed with the way you write. I have a little request if you don't mind? We all know Steve wants his six little nuggets but what if reader can't have children? I never saw someone write something like it and I think you would write it perfectly. The story and how they communicate about this is totally in your hands but I would just LOVE to read a happy ending.

AN | Please, this is such a sensitive but soft concept. He would be the best about it, fullstop. It has a happy ending 🥺

Warnings | Language, Mentions of infertility 

Pairing | Steve x Fem!Reader

Word Count | 2.2k

Masterlist | Steve, Main

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

“I…you - what?” your eyes grew wide as you looked between Steve and the small velveteen box in his hand. Your heart felt like it was about to beat out of your chest as you anxiously fidgeted with your hands. Steve grew confused - and worried - as he looked at you in worried anticipation. 

“Will you marry me?” he repeated his question as you still struggled to process what he was asking. It was such a simple question but it held an immense amount of weight. You could feel the eyes of almost all the other patrons in the restaurant’s outside patio on the two of you. Expectant and waiting…and you had no clue what to say. 

Well, no - that wasn’t exactly true. You knew what you wanted to say, which was yes. A thousand times yes. But you couldn’t do it…you couldn’t say yes.

“I…I can’t,” you whispered softly, wishing you could look anywhere but his face. But all you could see was him, “no.”

“W-what?” he let out a nervous chuckle, cheeks pinking and eyes wide. Surely he couldn’t have heard you correctly, “what did you say?”

“No,” you repeated softly, tears already welling up and threatening to run down your cheeks, “n-no. I can’t.”

“Oh,” the look on his face was the worst thing you’d ever seen. It was heartbroken and upset multiplied by a thousand times.

“Steve - I…I’m so sorry,” you almost jumped up from your chair as you stood up and grabbed your back, “I can’t do this - I’m so, so sorry.”

“Wait, don’t just go. Angel-”

“I’m sorry,” it was the last thing you managed to choke out and the last thing he heard. 

Steve walked you go, acutely aware that everyone’s eyes were on him. And his marriage proposal was rejected - which he never thought would happen. 

He swallowed the lump that had welled up in his throat and sat back down in his chair. The ring box was snapped shut and quickly stuffed back into his pocket. Tears burned the backs of his eyes as he tried to keep it together enough to at least pay the bill. 

“Sir?” a young waiter came over and offered him an apologetic look. Steve couldn’t even bring him to say anything, “it’s on the house tonight. I’m sorry about what happened. Hopefully things will be okay.”

“Thanks,” the bit of kindness caused the last of his walls to come down and he felt the tears run down his cheeks, “me too.”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

You spent the next couple of days absolutely wallowing in self-pity, regret, and anger. It all had to do with yourself too; it wasn’t Steve’s fault at all. It was yours and yet he was the one suffering. You’d contemplated calling him so many times, the phone halfway to your ear but you stopped yourself every time. 

Steve too was keeping his distance; it seemed so out of character for him. That’s how you knew that you had royally fucked up. If your golden retriever, sunshine boyfriend was avoiding you, there was a definite problem. 

After almost five days, you couldn’t handle it anymore. There wasn’t even anyone to blame but yourself. You were positive that all of your friends would hate you too - if you were in their position, you probably would have hated yourself too. 

You had to give yourself a major pep talk in order to drag yourself out of your apartment and over to Steve’s house. Once you spotted his car in the driveway, you parked your car in the street and stayed in there for about fifteen minutes before dragging yourself to the door. 

You knocked on the door, the key to his place that was on your keyring burning a hole in your pocket. It didn’t feel right to let yourself into his place without permission. You rocked and forth on yourself as you waited to hear the gait of his familiar footsteps. 

When you did actually hear them, you grew nervous and contemplated running away again. But it was too late because you’d already been cowardly enough. The door opened slowly and you were met with a very tired and surprised looking Steve. He opened and closed his mouth a few times before blinking owlishly at you. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked, and to your surprise his tone was void of any anger or malice. A wave of emotion washed over you, and you had the urge to wrap him up in a tight hug. 

“I…I umm,” you closed your eyes and waved a hand around, silently willing it to somehow give you all the answers, “I wanted to apologize…to talk. But if you don’t want to, I understand if you don't want to. I don't know if I really deserve it."

"Y-yeah," he almost choked on the single word as he nodded before opening the front door. You hesitantly made your way inside; it usually felt just like home but today it didn't. 

You trailed after him to the living room, sitting down on the couch as he sat down opposite you. A tense silence fell over the two of you for a few moments before you ended up clearing your throat.

“Umm-”

“So-”

The two of you spoke at the same time before you nervously exchanged a chuckle. You leaned back and exhaled slowly as he motioned for you to go. 

“First of all,” you allowed yourself to meet his eyes; there was nothing but gentle curiosity behind them. Of course he wasn’t furious…he had too good of a heart, “I want to apologize. I know that doesn’t solve a single thing or make anything right, but I definitely owe you a giant apology.”

“It’s…’s okay,” his lips pulled into a thin line, clearly mulling over his thoughts, “it hurt a whole…like a lot a lot, but I figured you had your reasons.”

“Yeah,” if only you could turn back time and change everything, “it was just a big surprise and I didn’t know how to handle it. But I shouldn’t have run away from you like that. It wasn’t right.”

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” he confessed sheepishly. He wanted to give you a huge surprise and gave you the most romantic proposal…but that was quickly shut down. Admittedly, Steve had wanted to be mad and angry but he couldn’t bring himself to feel anything of the sort to you, “we’ve been together for a couple of years so I just thought that it was the right time.”

“I know,” you couldn’t help the smile that crossed your features, “it’s been the best two years of my life…all because of you.”

“So why…what happened?” his brows furrowed as he tried to put two and two together. If it had been so good, why didn't you want to marry him? He was sure that it would be the two of you together forever. You knew you had to tell him…it was going to have to come out at some point so you might as well get it all out now, “you don’t want to marry me?”

“No, Stevie…I do,” you whispered, throat already thick with tears, “I do. You’re the only person I could ever see marrying.”

“But you…said no.”

“Steve…” you inhaled and exhaled shakily, “I should have told you this sooner…I just panicked. I thought that somehow it would work itself out but I see now that it never will. So I figured that I couldn’t marry you after all.”

“Angel, what are you talking about?”

“I can’t have children, Steve,” getting it all out in the open felt like a rush of relief and also like the weight of the world was on your shoulders, “and I’m so sorry for not telling you that before. I-I know you’ve always wanted kids, and I just…I was so selfish for never saying anything. I just didn’t want to let you go. I wanted to be with you because I love you so much; I’ve never felt anything like I do with you before. But if we stay together, we can’t have kids, and you deserve to have them. You’re going to be the best dad ever.”

He’d scooted over to the couch you were on while you were somewhere between rambling and crying, studying you intently. He hesitantly reached for your hand, holding it tightly in his when you slowly offered your hand to him, “how long have you known?”

“A long time,” you whispered, “before we started dating. I just didn’t want to lose you.”

“Why would you lose me?” he tilted his head to the side like a puppy as you blinked in surprise.

“Because you want children and I…can’t give you children,” you stated as though it was so obvious, “why would you want to be with me?”

“I’m in love with you,” and that might have been your favorite thing in the entire world to hear, “and I love you so much. There’s no one else I’d ever want to be with.”

“But-”

“But nothing,” he smiled gently, “nothing will ever change that. And if you think I wouldn’t wnat to be with you because of that - you must not know me very well.”

“Stevie-”

“I want you,” he promised, “and yes, I want children, but just because you can’t carry them, doesn’t mean we can’t have the family we want, angel. There are so many ways for us to have our own family.”

“I…you…” tears had rolled down your cheeks now and Steve tenderly wiped them away, “are you sure? You’d still want me?”

“I don’t want anyone but you,” he brushed his knuckles along your cheek, “no matter what. Why on earth would I not want to be with you over that? It’s something that you can’t even control. There’s so many ways for us to have the family we want. They don’t have to be biologically ours to be our children. Family is what we make it, yeah? Look at our family now.”

Steve was saying the exact opposite of what you had expected, but everything you wanted to hear. He was right, after all, your current family was found but that didn’t mean the love you shared wasn’t real.

“Are you sure?” you asked softly, “you won’t change your mind in a few years and hate me?”

“I could never, ever hate you,” he insisted and you knew in your heart that he was telling the truth, “I am so in love with you, and nothing is going to change. The only thing I wish I could change was how worried you were to tell me. I’m sorry if I ever did anything to make you feel like I could ever love you any less.”

“It was me,” you shrugged slightly, “I’d convinced myself a long time ago that no one would ever want to be with me because of that. But with you…I should have known better. You’ve never given me a single reason to doubt you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.”

“Don’t apologize,” he insisted softly, gently tugging you towards him. You obliged without a second thought and let him pull you into his lap, “I’m glad you were able to tell me now. I love you, okay? Nothing is going to change that.”

“But I…I was awful to you,” you pouted and Steve couldn’t stop himself from peppering kisses to your cheeks and forehead, “and I just…I left you. How could you still love me?”

“Because you’re still you and I’m still me,” he grinned, “and last time I checked we’re still in love. And I’m hoping that maybe you’d still agree to marry me one day?”

You gasped audibly which caused the boy to laugh softly. Your brows furrowed in surprise as you looked at me curiously, “you still want to marry me? Are you sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he insisted and you almost melted into a puddle, “but only if you want to.”

“Yes,” you looped your arms around his neck and clung onto him tightly before burying your face into his chest, “there’s nothing I want more. Of course, I-I really want to marry you, Stevie.”

“Good,” you felt his chest rumble with his relieved laugh, “that settles that. We’re going to get married. And, when we’re ready, we’re going to have the family we want. Deal?”

“Deal,” you pulled back and looked at him with misty eyes; you could see that he was trying to hold back his own tears, “I love you, Steve. So, so much.”

“I love you, angel. More than anything.”

[ryuichirou]

I notice you said that Azul doesn’t like sex very much so I was wondering, who enjoys sex to a regular amount, who can do without it but wouldn’t deny it if it happens, who is practically addicted to sex, etc?

Hi Anon!

At first, I wanted to say that I already wrote a hc post on a topic somewhat similar to this, but then I decided to go through the list again and think about your specific prompt.

The post I’ve written before was about calculating the characters’ degree of sluttiness lol and sex drive was one of the parameters used for this, but being horny and loving sex are probably a liiittle bit different. I’ll talk about both in this post of course, but I’ll still try to add some nuance.

Riddle – normally, he doesn’t even think about it, he is rather pure; but I feel like he is the type to almost get addicted for some time once he figures out what it is and how it works. It’s like opening a Pandora’s box... But he will calm down eventually. Probably. He hopes so. Sex makes him extremely nervous, but he feels so satisfied and weirdly happy afterwards...

Ace – in general, he is a very horny “masturbates at least once a day” type of guy, so he is probably obsessed with sex. The moment he gets access to sex, he won’t be able to think about anything else for quite some time. It’s partially due to him being young, but he will probably keep his horniness intact even as he gets older...

Deuce – pretty much as addicted as Ace, but unlike Ace, he is going to calm down overtime a little bit. He thought he had a sex thoughts + masturbation addiction problem back when he was a delinquent, but now it’s gotten worse somehow. I guess that’s Ace’s bad influence... if these two are a couple, they probably have sex most frequently out of the entire school. He’s a rabbit, after all...

Trey – it’s not like he’ll die without sex or anything, but he is more into it than people think. This is why he had fun here and there during his first year at NRC; people were into him, and he didn’t mind it too much if it didn’t lead to anything more than sex. I feel like he would still do something like that these days because sometimes he kind of craves it, but for the majority of time he’s ok!

Cater – he craves sex, and then when it happens sometimes feels weird about it, i.e. when it feels too intimate and personal (one would think he would expect that from sex of all things). But when it’s good, Cater enjoys it a lot, and he wants to have more good sex. He is the type to whine about it sometimes actually.

Leona – very into it. He could go weeks without having sex, but it almost feels as if he is just trying not to look like a nymphomaniac lol As if anyone would judge him for that. After these “breaks” he demands sex multiple times per day sometimes.

Ruggie – he himself thinks that he isn’t all that into sex at all, but it’s mostly because he is the resident of one of the horniest dorms: boys from Savanaclaw sniff and hump each other all the time, and Ruggie really can’t relate to that. But in actuality, I’d say he likes sex quite a bit. He is good at it, he gets pleasure from it, a lot of times he gets something out of it as well. Still, he won’t die without sex.

Jack – the first time Jack has sex he’ll get scared by just how much he loved it. He would hate how he wouldn’t be able to think about anything other than sex... he has periods during which he is obsessed, and it’s very difficult for him to keep it together. But then after he calms down, he judges those who complain about wanting to have sex. Kind of hypocritical of him.

Azul – like I already said, he doesn’t like sex all that much. He loves it much more when he is in his merman form though, both because he doesn’t suffer from his lack of stamina this way + because he is hornier this way in general, it just feels right. He also has periods during which he wants to have sex more often, but those are rare; in general, Azul wouldn’t mind not having sex for months or even a whole year.

Jade – he is still kind of an enigma to me lol Somehow Jade feels like someone who wouldn’t care about sex at all and wouldn’t have it for years. But it’s just about sex on its own, unfortunately for everyone else sex implies a lot of things that Jade finds interesting and would love to both explore and practice. So uh... In terms of having just regular sex with someone under the blanket – he doesn’t really care?  

Floyd – probably no surprises here, but he is the most addicted one out of the three mermen. Sometimes he isn’t in the mood, but for the majority of time if something remotely sexual happens, it’s like his brain switches to a separate mode, and doesn’t switch back until Floyd is satisfied. Floyd’s appetite is huge.

Kalim – very into it. The only reason for him not to have sex every single day is because sometimes he miraculously gets distracted. Still, he adores physical touch, anything that implies having fun with someone or being close in a very special way, especially if this is someone he loves. He is the type to get clingy and make sad eyes because he really really really wants to do it, even if they don’t really have time...

Jamil – a bit similar to Ruggie because he is surrounded by horniness and would probably think that he doesn’t want to have sex ever, but there are still aspect of sex that Jamil genuinely enjoys whether he wants to admit it or not. He probably won’t die without having sex, and right now he is either overstressed or oversexed (thanks Kalim), but if he is left alone for quite some time, he might start craving it a little bit.

Vil – he loves sex, this is why he has to actually remind himself that too much of a good thing is bad, this is why he always wants to pace himself and his partner. Sometimes he spends longer periods of time without having sex (I keep mentioning it in every Vil-related hc post lol but this is his “no sex until the event/important date” thing), but by the end of those he is in a pretty desperate shape. Also, just because he thinks that he is responsible and paces himself and his partner, doesn’t mean that he won’t ever give in when Rook wants to have sex with him out of nowhere. After all, he wants it too. He’ll scold himself later.

Rook – absolutely addicted. Would only survive without sex because he is a survivor by nature, and if a whole-ass tiger didn’t end his life when he was lost in a jungle back when he was still a kid, lack of sex also wouldn’t. But it feels just as deadly sometimes..!

Epel – another little rabbit; I think he is pretty much the same as Ace and Deuce. To Epel, however, sex is also about feeling cool and mature, and he loves this feeling a lot. He is pretty obsessed, I would say, and would probably love to spend an entire day in bed with someone special.

Idia – it’s always funny to talk about him because he is our main porn star, but I really don’t think Idia is into sex at all. He doesn’t plan on losing his virginity, and if he isn’t a virgin, he doesn’t mind not having sex at all and just playing games together with his partner. He could get horny of course, but in very specific cases + he would never initiate things. In general, Idia thinks that sex is overrated. And also has severe anxiety about it.

Ortho – kind of obsessed?? In a weird way because to him it’s a research thing, but also sex is such a big topic in all kinds of media, such a huge source of drama, anxiety and happiness for a lot of people. Sex is everywhere, and Ortho wants to figure it out and experience it fully! So he would ask for sex a lot. If we’re talking about real!Ortho, he’d still be much more into sex than Idia. Unlike Idia, he doesn’t have severe anxiety about sex, and he loves intimacy with someone a lot.

Lilia – obsessed, but also doesn’t have as much steam as he used to, which is still too much fucking steam for the majority of non-fae people. Lilia is the master of sex, and he loves it a lot when he gets to either learn new things or have fun with someone new. Which doesn’t mean that he doesn’t have some stuff that he is used to and loves doing! Sometimes Lilia thinks that he should probably chill with all this sex stuff, but then ends up having sex two times that exact day. Oh well.

Silver – he isn’t super into sex, but he loves both a physical sensation and emotional satisfaction that it brings. Silver loves it when he knows that he’s made someone feel good. So I’d say he wouldn’t usually initiate anything  himself (there are some exceptions), but he would also almost never refuse when someone wants to have sex with him.

Sebek – he wants to hate sex so much. He wants to be revolted by it sometimes because it really, really messes with his head. He is similar to Jack, but somehow even worse because while Jack calms down every now and then, it’s like Sebek’s body is trying to drive him insane, and his brains don’t help either because his thoughts keep wandering off somewhere... he would think that after having sex he’d get better, but nah, he’d only get worse because now he knows what sex is all about and desperately wants more.

Malleus – it’s not like he is addicted to sex, but he loves it. He loves both the sensations and the connection between two people that it implies, but he mostly craves the latter. It’s not like he has to be completely in love to have sex with someone, but he craves chemistry and adoration, so just any dick wouldn’t suffice. And if such a thing isn’t there, Malleus would easily stay away from sex for months, years, centuries... He would rather suffer from his body aching and pining for someone than let anyone take him just for the sake of scratching an itch.

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

EWAN MITCHELL IN CONVERSATION WITH EMMA D'ARCY FOR HERO MAGAZINE.

EMMA D'ARCY: — WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU IN AMERICA?

EWAN MITCHELL: NO, BUT I WAS SHOOT IN NEW YORK. HAVE YOU EVER BEEN?

ED: YEAH, I DID THE CRUCIBLE THERE [AT THE YARD THEATRE IN 2019] AND WE GOT A GREYHOUND TO SALEM, THEY'RE REALLY INTO THE OCCULT THERE. — WHAT ARE YOU UP TO AT THE MOMENT?

EM: I'M SUFFERING SEVERE JET LAG FROM NEW YORK, BUT I LOVED IT. I LIKE THE AMBIENCE, THE PEOPLE, THE FOOD. I LOVE HOW EVERYONE SAYS, 'I GOT YA.' — WHAT ABOUT YOU?

ED: I'VE JUST DONE A WEEK OF REHEARSALS BUT I'VE HAD A NICE BIT OF TIME NOT DOING ANYTHING PRIOR TO THAT.

EM: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM.

ED: I'D BE QUITE HAPPY TO DO NOTHING FOR A REALLY LONG TIME. I FIND IT INCREDIBLY INTERESTING TO DO ALMOST NOTHING AT ALL. I DON'T KNOW HOW MUCH OF A PROBLEM THAT'S GOING TO BE FOR MY CAREER GOING FORWARD, BUT IT'S BEEN NICE. [LAUGHS]

EM: I HAVE TO STAY BUSY WHEN I'M NOT WORKING.

ED: YEAH BUT YOU'RE YOUNG, I'VE CROSSED THE BOUNDARY INTO A DIFFERENT TYPE OF LIFE.

EM: NO WAY.

ED: I DON'T MEAN IT IN A BAD WAT EITHER, IT'S ACTUALLY SO CRAZY. FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER I'M QUESTIONING, 'WHAT DO I WANT MY LIFE TO LOOK LIKE?' IT'S NOT A QUESTION I HAD EVER ASKED BEFORE — IT'S COOL. I THINK MAYBE IT COMES WITH A REALISATION THAT THIS IS IN FACT YOUR LIFE.

EM: OH WOW, WHAT AGE WILL IT HIT ME?

ED: HOW OLD ARE YOU?

EM: I'M 26.

ED: YOU'VE PROBABLY GOT FOUR OR FIVE YEARS. [LAUGHS]

EM: WHEN I'M NOT WORKING I DO HAVE TO KEEP BUSY. I DON'T KNOW HOW IT IS FOR YOU, BUT I HAVE TO ADOPT A KIND OF SLEEPER AGENT LIFESTYLE, I HAVE CREATE A ROUTINE. I BOX EVERY OTHER DAY AND KEEP MY MIND BUSY. I THINK MY MATES KNOW I COME WITH A DISCLAIMER THAT IF ANYTHING COMES UP, THEN I'M DROPPING EVERYTHING FOR WORK — I JUST LOVE IT.

ED: WHAT YOU DESCRIBE IS A STATE OF PERPETUALLY LEAVING.

EM: EVERYTHING I DO ALWAYS RELATES TO ACTING WEIRDLY, IT HAS TO INFORM MY PROCESS IN SOME WAY, SHAPE OR FORM AND IF IT DOESN'T, IT SWITCHES ME OFF.

ED: — WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS?

EM: I NEVER WENT TO DRAMA SCHOOL SO EVERY JOB I DO IS AN OPPORTUNITY TO HONE IT AND TRY NEW THINGS.

BRUCE LEE SAID, 'ABSORB WHAT IS USEFUL AND DISCARD WHAT IS NOT,' HE WOULD CHERRY-PICK FROM DIFFERENT COMBAT DISCIPLINES AND IN DOING SO FORMED HIS OWN MARTIAL ART.

SIMILAR TO ME, I'M TRYING IT ON THE FLY AND SEEING WHAT STICKS, WHAT DOESN'T, MIXING IT UP FOR DIFFERENT CHARACTERS. AND SO FAR, SO GOOD. — WHAT ABOUT YOU?

ED: I ALSO DIDN'T GO TO DRAMA SCHOOL AND STRUGGLE WHEN DIRECTORS VERY KINDLY ASK, 'HOW CAN I BEST SUPPORT YOUR PROCESS?' I DON'T FEEL PARTICULARLY CLEAR ABOUT WHAT THAT MEANS.

EM: — SO YOU'RE QUITE INSTINCTUAL?

ED: I THINK I'M PART COMPLETELY PRE-MEDITATED AND PART NOT.

I WOULD SAY THAT I HAVE A CONFIDENCE PROBLEM SO I DO A LOT OF PREPARATION, BUT FOR ME PREPARATION IS CONFIDENCE, WHICH ALLOWS ME TO LET GO OF THE PREPARATION ON THE DAY.

WHEREAS, IF I WERE TO COME IN EMPTY-HANDED, MY CONFIDENCE PROBLEM WOULD FLARE UP.

EM: I HAVE TO CONGRATULATE YOU ON YOUR SHORT FILM 'THE TALENT' [EMMA CO-PRODUCED AND STARRED IN THE 2023 BIFA-NOMINATED SHORT], I LOVED IT.

ED: THANK YOU, IT WAS A JOY.

EM: WAS THAT THE FIRST THING YOU'VE PRODUCED?

ED: YEAH, I CO-PRODUCED IT. I WOULDN'T HAVE MANAGED IT ON MY OWN.

EM: I'D LOVE TO DO THAT ONE DAY, IT'S SO COOL.

ED: I'VE LOVED GOING TO FILM FESTIVALS WITH IT BECAUSE IT'S NOT SOMETHING I'D DONE BEFORE, IT'S SUCH A NICE PROCESS. — WOULD YOU LIKE TO DIRECT?

EM: I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE NOT YET. I STILL FEEL LIKE I WANT TO ACT. I LOOK AT WHAT MARGOT ROBBIE HAS DONE WITH LUCKYCHAP [ENTERTAINMENT, ROBBIE'S PRODUCTION COMPANY] AND HOW SHE'S PRODUCED FILMS SHE'S REALLY PASSIONATE ABOUT, FILMS YOU THINK CAN CHANGE THE INDUSTRY IN SOME WAY. I'D LOVE TO DO THAT. GROWING UP, THERE WERE THE FILMS I REALLY ENJOYED, NOT THE NORMAL LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT ONES, BUT THAT EXPANDED MY UNDERSTANDING AND CHALLENGED ME. THOSE FILMS ARE THE ONES I WANT TO BE A PART OF IN SOME WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. IF NOT ACTING, I GUESS IT WOULD PRODUCING. — HOW LONG WAS THE PROCESS FROM START TO FINISH?

ED: PROBABLY AROUND A YEAR FROM THE SCRIPT NOT EXISTING, BUT IN A MORE STRUCTURED WAY, MAYBE A PRE-PRODUCTION OF FIVE MONTHS. I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY I ASKED YOU IF YOU WANTED TO DIRECT BECAUSE EVERYONE ALWAYS SAYS THAT AND I FEEL LIKE INHERENT IN THE QUESTION IS THAT CULTURALLY, WE PRIVILEGE THE IDEA OF THE PRIMARY ARTIST. IF YOU'RE AN INTERPRETATIVE SECONDARY ARTIST, WE DON'T CREDIT THAT IN QUITE THE SAME WAY, BUT I DON'T AGREE WITH THAT VIEW. I DON'T WANT TO DIRECT BUT REALLY LIKE PRODUCING AND FEEL VERY CONFIDENT IN MY SECONDARY ARTIST STATUS.

EM: I FEEL LIKE THAT WITH BOXING, IF I EVER WENT INTO AMATEUR THERE ARE A LOT OF OTHER HUNGRY UP-AND-COMING BOXERS AND IT'S JUST NOT MY GAME, I'M NOT AS INSPIRED BY THAT AS I AM BY ACTING. I DON'T WANT TO BREAK MY NOSE AND GET KNOCKED OUT.

ED: IF YOU'RE BOXING A LOT, HOW DO YOU ENSURE THAT YOUR NOSE DOESN'T GET BROKEN?

EM: WE KEEP IT LIGHT AND IT'S USUALLY JUST PADS, IF I HAVE TO WEAR A HEAD GUARD I WILL DO, BUT SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ARE IN PLACE. [LAUGHS] — DO YOU BOX?

ED: I DON'T, BUT A FRIEND OF MINE TOOK PART IN A QUEER CHARITY BOXING EVENT AND I WAS SURPRISED BY HOW VISCERALLY TERRIBLE I FOUND IT TO WATCH THEM FIGHT.

EM: DID YOU NOT WANT TO GET IN THERE AND JOIN THEM?

ED: I SUDDENLY FELT SO WILDLY HELPLESS AND ALL I COULD DO WAS SCREAM FROM A PLACE OF WANTING TO PROTECT AND SUPPORT BUT ALSO FROM A PLACE OF FEAR. MY FRIEND DID BEAUTIFULLY AND THEY'RE AMAZING, BUT I'D NEVER BEEN IN THAT ENVIRONMENT BEFORE AND WHEN IT CAME TO IT I COULDN'T HANDLE IT. — HOW DID YOU GET INTO ACTING?

EM: I ALWAYS WANTED TO DO IT BUT I'M NOT TOO SURE WHERE IT CAME FROM. I HEARD ABOUT THE TELEVISION WORKSHOP IN NOTTINGHAM AND APPLIED THE FIRST YEAR BUT DIDN'T GET IN. FOR THE SECOND YEAR, I HAD THIS LITTLE NOTEBOOK THAT I WOULD JOT DOWN IN BECAUSE I KNEW THE STRUCTURE OF THE PROCESS OF THE AUDITION. I CAME UP WITH ALL OF THESE NEAT LITTLE QUIPS I COULD USE. I GOT IN THE SECOND TIME, THEN FROM THE WORKSHOP I DID A SHORT FILM CALLED 'FIRE' DIRECTED BY CHRIS ANDREWS. I GOT IT BURNT ONTO CDs AND I GOT ALL THE NAMES OF THE AGENCIES I KNEW OF IN LONDON. I WENT DOWN [TO LONDON] ON THE TRAIN AND POSTED THEM TO ALL OF THE AGENTS.

ED: SIDE NOTE, ARE YOU UNCONSCIOUS YET? I'D SAY I'M STILL SELF-CONSCIOUS IN INTERVIEWS.

EM: I ALWAYS WANT TO FLIP IT ON ITS HEAD AND ASK THE INTERVIEWER QUESTIONS, JUST BECAUSE OF THAT INNATE FEAR THAT IT MIGHT BORDER INTO THERAPY AND YOU MIGHT BE ROBIN WILLIAMS AND I'LL BE MATT DAMON SITTING ON A PARK BENCH IN BOSTON SOMEWHERE AND IT'S GOOD WILL HUNTING.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MYSTERY AS WELL, AND ONCE YOU LOSE THAT MYSTERY YOU CAN'T REALLY GET IT BACK. IF PEOPLE GET TO KNOW THE REAL ME, I DO BELIEVE IT'LL DETRACT FROM WHAT I'M TRYING TO DO AS AN ACTOR. I WANT YOU TO ESCAPE INTO MY CHARACTERS, I DON'T WANT YOU TO SEE EWAN. — HOW ARE YOU WITH INTERVIEWS? I'M SUPER GRATEFUL YOU'VE DONE THIS.

ED: I'VE GOT BETTER, I DON'T MEAN BETTER AS A QUALITY JUDGEMENT, BUT I HAVE BECOME MORE COMFORTABLE. I WAS VERY BAD AT THE BEGINNING, I HAD THIS 'GOOD SCHOOLBOY' WHO CAME OUT AND ACTUALLY, HE COMPLETELY WIPED MY PERSONALITY. HE FEELS THAT IT'S A TEST AND THERE IS A RIGHT ANSWER. I HAVE TO BANISH MY GOOD BOY OTHERWISE I AM VIOLENTLY DULL.

EM: AND THAT'S ME RIGHT NOW, RIGHT? [BOTH LAUGH]

ED: EWAN, GET ON THE CHAISE LONGUE, WE'RE GOING TO TALK. [BOTH LAUGH]

IT IS FRIGHTENING AT THE BEGINNING; I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU FEEL BUT I'M ONLY JUST AT A POINT NOW SINCE THE SHOW CAME OUT THAT I FEEL OK.

EM: REALLY? DID YOU NOT FEEL YOURSELF GETTING WARMED UP THE MORE YOU WERE DOING THAT MASSIVE PRESS RUN FOR SEASON ONE?

ED: NO. [LAUGHS]

I THINK MY GOOD BOY CAME OUT, BUT YOU CAN'T PREDICT THE PARAMETERS OF A CHANGE LIKE THAT IN YOUR LIFE UNTIL IT HAPPENS AND YOU'VE SAT IN IT FOR A WHILE. I FOUND IT QUITE FRIGHTENING [AT FIRST].

EM: YOU'RE WORKING WITH BEN WHISHAW AT THE MOMENT RIGHT?

ED: YEAH.

EM: I READ THAT WHEN HE'S OFF STAGE HE HAS THAT ANXIETY TOO, WATCHING HIS WORK YOU'D NEVER EVEN THINK OF IT. IN 'PASSAGES,' HE'S AMAZING AND EVEN IN THE SMALLER SUPPORTING CHARACTERS TOO.

HE JUST KILLS IT IN ANYTHING HE DOES. I FOUND IT INTERESTING BECAUSE YOU DON'T SEE [ANXIETY] IN HIS PERFORMANCES, WHICH IS INSPIRING.

I DID A COMIC CON IN BRAZIL AND IT WAS SUPER FUN BUT AT THE SAME TIME, I HAD TO BE SOMEONE ELSE. I HAD THIS LEATHER SUIT ON AND IT WAS SO EMPOWERING. I FELT UNSTOPPABLE AND IN THE END I ADOPTED THIS CONFIDENT CHARACTER.

I RECOGNISE I NEED TO BE MORE MYSELF IN THESE SITUATIONS, FOR SURE.

ED: I HONESTLY DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S TRUE, IT DEPENDS ON WHAT YOU WANT TO GIVE AWAY.

EM: I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU AT ALL WHILE SHOOTING SEASON TWO.

ED: — HOW DID THIS SEASON FEEL?

EM: I LOVED IT. I LIKE THAT SEPARATION BETWEEN OUR TWO SIDES OF THE FAMILY BECAUSE WHEN WE DO MEET AGAIN IT'S GOING TO BE SEISMIC. THE FIRST SEASON IT WAS GREAT TO FINALLY SEE THAT CRESCENDO AND NOW SEASON TWO IS THE FALLOUT.

I REALLY CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR PERFORMANCE, IT'S QUITE NICE NOT KNOWING WHAT'S GOING ON.

ED: I AGREE, AND IT'S NICE HAVING SO MUCH TO WATCH THAT YOU HAVEN'T SEEN. I HAVE A WHOLE HALF OF THE SHOW THAT I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. — DO YOU WATCH YOURSELF?

EM: I DO, IT TAKES A GOOD TWELVE OR THIRTEEN TIMES BEFORE I CAN APPRECIATE IT. I FIND IT REALLY DIFFICULT BUT I ALSO RECOGNISE THAT I WANT TO KNOW WHAT WORKS AND WHAT DOESN'T. — DO YOU?

ED: YES, BUT QUITE MINIMALLY. — DO YOU WATCH PLAYBACK ON SET?

EM: — I CAN'T LOOK AT MYSELF, DO YOU?

ED: NO, BUT I GENUINELY THINK IT WOULD BE HELPFUL IF I COULD STOMACH IT. SO MUCH ON SCREEN IS SO TECHNICAL AND BECAUSE SO MANY FACTORS MEDIATE YOUR PERFORMANCE, IT'S REASONABLE THAT THINGS MIGHT NOT COMMUNICATE AS YOU'RE IMAGINING.

BUT THEN I DON'T KNOW WHETHER THAT WOULD BE A DEGREE OF CONTROL THAT IS JUST NOT REAL BECAUSE WE HAVE SO LITTLE CONTROL AND FUNDAMENTALLY THE NARRATIVE WILL BE IN THE EDIT.

EM: — WHAT IS IT LIKE WORKING WITH MATT SMITH?

ED: IT'S GREAT, I LOVE HIM AN EXTRAORDINARY AMOUNT AND FEEL PRIVILEGED WHEN I GET TO WORK WITH HIM. IT'S SO NICE TO KNOW WHAT LIGHTS SOMEONE UP, HE'S SO REACTIVE AND HE RESPONDS BEAUTIFULLY TO NEWNESS, IT'S SUCH A DELIGHTFUL GAME.

EM: I REMEMBER THAT MOMENT IN SEASON ONE EPISODE EIGHT AROUND THE BANQUET TABKE AND AEMOND AND DAEMON HAVE A FACE-OFF, AND IN ONE OF THE TAKES MATT SPOKE IN A MURMUR BUT IT WAS HIGH VALYRIAN. I DID NOTICE THAT QUALITY IN THE LIMITED TIMES I WORKED WITH HIM. THERE IS SOMETHING SPICY ABOUT MIXING IT UP, KEEPING YOU ON YOUR TOES AND IN TURN, YOU PICK UP A FEW MOVES IN THE PROCESS.

ED: IT'S REALLY GOOD. THE GUY'S GOT GREAT TASTE AS WELL, SOMETIMES HE HAS LOVELY IDEAS ABOUT HOW A THING MIGHT PLAY BEST AND AT WHAT SIZE. I GET THE SENSE HE HAS A REALLY VIVID PICTURE IN HIS MIND'S EYE AND THAT'S SO HELPFUL BECAUSE IT REFERS TO THE TECHNICAL PART OF OUR JOB. IT'S A PRIVILEGE TO BE 'LOST IN THE CHARACTER' BUT THERE IS A SPECIFIC TECHNICAL PART OF HOW SOMETHING COMMUNICATES AND I THINK HE IS REALLY GOOD AT THAT.

EM: THAT'S SO INTERESTING. I DO TRY TO TAKE THAT INTO CONSIDERATION WITH FRAME SIZES AND WHAT TO PLAY UP AND PLAY DOWN. IT'S ALL A BIG LEARNING CURVE, ISN'T IT?

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Top 10 favourite portrayals in Austen adaptations?

Hi!

10. Peter Gale as John Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility 1981

John Dashwood is most often portrayed as a weak, stupid fool designed to get on everyone's nerves, which tends to shift all the blame that belongs to his character upon Fanny. It is not so with this version of the character. It is obvious that he is rather stupid, but he's also greedy, selfish and callous himself, and an all around superficial person you can laugh at and be infuriated by.

9. Joseph Mawle as captain Harville in Persuasion 2007

Another example of a minor character done well, specially meritorious in this case because this adaptation is a tv movie. It is usually a problem that Wentworth's friends come across as a bit of a blur, but in this case, between writing and acting, Harville comes across as intelligent, loyal, amiable, etc, an all around gentleman whose friendship does credit to Wentworth's character.

8. Guy Henry as John Knightley in Emma (ITV) 1996

And another one! There's several "minor character in movie adaptation" in this list, because it is really hard to make a minor character feel "alive" or nuanced when said character is given very little screen time. Guy Henry steals the scene every time he appears in this adaptation. His delivery of the famous Christmas speech is impeccable. He also comes across as a loving father and husband too.

7. Angela Pleasence as Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park 1983

Jemma Redgrave (Lady Bertram in Mansfield Park 2007) is, in my opinion, a mesmerizing actress, one of those beings that are both beautiful and have a very strong scenic presence. I love her version of Lady Bertram, but Angela Pleasence is something else in the role, and somehow specially because her vibe is the strong opposite of JR. Always sweet, delicate, and soft spoken in her roles, her Lady Bertram is hysterical; I don't think there's a scene where she gets a speaking line where I don't laugh, and laughter is so very welcome in a story that can be as heavy and as painful as Mansfield Park. She provides a characterization that fits Austen's (pliable, lazy, dim, perpetually distracted) without making her insufferable.

6. Kate Beckinsale as Emma Woodhouse in Emma (ITV) 1996

Kate Beckinsale has always had queen bee energy, but her youth in this movie softens it enough that we can see how Emma is ultimately a young woman who means well, and means to be just. I don't read Emma as having the finishing school affectations of a Caroline Bingley (something that in my opinion happens in 2020 and to some degree in the Miramax movie); she was raised at home by an indulgent governess and rarely if ever meets other ladies of her rank. But I also do see where people are coming from when they criticize 2009 Emma for being too modern and her way of carrying herself as one that would have been considered vulgar in the regency era, and I think this Emma strikes a happy compromise. Emma has good manners and a sense of rank, but she's also decidedly provincial.

5. Hayley Atwell as Mary Crawford in Mansfield Park 2007

Love, hate or be baffled by this adaptation of Mansfield Park, most people seem to agree that this casting choice was great, and there's reason to it. Atwell is a very talented actress, and despite the script not helping, she brings out both the best and the worst of Mary out, avoiding both the femme fatale and the pure victim we don't talk about the expose my ankle scene

4. Olivia Williams as Jane Fairfax in Emma (ITV) 1996

I feel like Jane Fairfax also suffers from a problem similar to Emma in adaptations. She's made to have these very suspicious vibes and heavy-looking aspect (against the trendy more Heroin Chic look of Palthrow) in the Miramax movie, she's a mousy creature in 2009, and a sort of severe schoolmistress in disguise in 2020 (I'm exaggerating for effect, but for a character that is traced with few, delicate strokes in the novel, she surely gets a lot of rather sharp depictions). Olivia Williams gives a Jane that is very accomplished, but also elegant, understated and reserved. She's someone we can look at with Emma and see as a glaring spotlight on our shortcomings rather than an interloping rival.

3. JJ Feild as Henry Tilney in Northanger Abbey 2007

I feel a bit silly, because rivers of electronic ink have been poured over this beloved interpretation of one of the favorite Austen heroes, so what can I say about this one that hasn't been said before? Most of the choices in this list are unusual, and while I picked them because I think they are spotlight worthy and truly are favorites at the moment, I won't deny there is an element of... isn't it boring to repeat to each other ad nauseam what has been said over and over and over again and almost everyone is already familiar with? So I'll let you all fill in the blanks here.

2. Robert Swann as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility 1981

This one is very high on the list because Sense and Sensibility is very dear to me, faultless despite all its faults, I obsess over it, and colonel Brandon is a very dear favorite of mine. So I am very picky about it all, and have grown dissatisfied with the 95 adaptation (I was never particularly keen on 2008) despite acknowledging its many merits as a movie and a period piece. One of the most interesting things about this novel to me, is the treatment of strength and power in its male characters -it's not a central theme, but it is certainly there. John Dashwood and John Willoughby are men who have power, and the power society and money give them, they use to vulnerate the women under their care or influence; and they are morally speaking, extremely weak men. By contrast, both Brandon and Edward are men rendered more or less "powerless" in the circumstances presented in the novel, in appearance "emasculated"; they are soft, unimposing, they don't demand attention or space, but underneath all that lays great moral strength, and it's said moral strength to do what is right and helpful that makes them dependable and even admirable.

That's why it is very important to me for Brandon to keep these traits -that softness, melancholy, humility, unobtrusiveness- besides his moments of high dramatic emotion that showcase his affinity to Marianne, and Robert Swann is the closest to this that we have ever gotten (I cannot call it perfect, but it is so very close), where other adaptations, to different degrees, try to "butch up" his character.

Elizabeth Garvie as Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice 1980

We have had our good Lizzys and our bad Lizzys and it gets on my nerves every time someone says "[actor] is [character]!" even and maybe specially when I say so myself, but, boy, has it happened very few times in my life that I have seen a performance and been struck by its likeness to the experience of reading the source material, and this is one of those. She's witty and she's lively but she's also young and vulnerable at times. She makes mistakes, she rationalizes, she reflects and changes and grows. She is what Caroline Bingley would call small and brown and not a beauty, but we see with Darcy the charm of her expressive eyes. I'd say if there wasn't any other reason to watch Pride and Prejudice 1980, Elizabeth Garvie's Lizzy would be reason enough and some.

Some honorable mentions:

Felicity Jones as Catherine Morland in Northanger Abbey 2007 and Hattie Morahan as Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility 2008

I struggled a lot back and forth with the first. It is a really, really good portrayal of Cathy's ingenuity and honesty and JJ Feild's Henry wouldn't have been as good without her to play off of, but I also sincerely couldn't find a spot in between the others for her anywhere either at the top or the bottom of the list. So she remains in limbo without fault of her own, and I apologize to her for this failure.

Now, the second... there's this story Emma Thompson tells in her diary of the making of the 1995 Sense and Sensibility where she talks about sitting on at casting auditions for Elinor, and, unlike other roles, there being many candidates who gave great auditions, and her commenting "this is a country of Elinors". EDIT: it's been called to my attention in replies that it was Ang Lee calling Britain a country of Fannys, as it was Fanny's casting process. I do feel the dictum also applies to Elinors, on othe opposite end of the spectrum. That's probably the main thing keeping Hattie Morahan off the list. She's my favorite Elinor, but I don't think we ever had anything closely resembling a bad Elinor. 81 wasn't directed well, and Emma Thompson was indeed too old for the part, but characterization wise, they were good. Joanna David was really good in 71. And I felt on making this list that the "standing out significantly" was a key aspect. but she was, indeed, a really great Elinor.

Dan Jeanotte as Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility 2024/Bosco Hogan as Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility 1981

These interpretations of Edward are dear to me, and linked by being sort of opposites that complement book!Edward. Bosco Hogan is an unfiltered portrayal of Edward's diffidence, depression, and lack of personal charm even if his manners are polite. Jeanotte's captures an undercurrent of sass and glimpses of the character's deeper feelings and active negative emotions. Each on its own is incomplete, and yet show something essential to the character that is dissimulated or erased in 95 and 08; I wish I could mush them together somehow and have an Edward portrayal I could wholeheartedly love (From Prada to Nada's Edward gets relatively close, but then that is a rather loose adaptation).

Ask me my top5/top10 anything!

[thegirlwhorideslikeasamurai]

Writing Update: In Love an War

Since I had two very busy weeks, I fell slightly behind my revision schedule, which at this point is more annoying than a problem because I can look forward to a stress-free autumn with lots of spare time for working on the second post-canon story of my "A dream too large to bear alone"-verse.

The timing is just perfect, though because the story is launching into its most exciting. The honeymoon and the long hours of daylight of the northern summer with its scandals and dramas are over. The Grand Prix Series has just started and Yuuri and Viktor are burning to prove their supremacy over each other carve their undying love for each other into the ice.

When I wrote the GP chapters, I focused on the new Viktuuri dynamic that has been evolving since Viktor announced his return to competition. Now, I'm adding layers to the storyline that will flesh out the different facets of their character arcs like ghosts from the past and personal demons. My Young Vitya backstory has proven a great help in that endeavour so far.

I still have 14 chapters to work on until I can continue writing. I'm planning to be there in the second half of October, which will leave me two weeks to refine the plot of the remaining story, which I will write in November / December.

That doesn't sound like too much workload, but some chapters require more work than giving them a read, fixing poor wording, cutting redundant rubbish and adding important bits. Not to forget the chapter that popped up because of Vitya's backstory and that needs to be written and fitted into the story.

Getting a character who, in figure skating terms, is a geezer back to competition after a break of one and a half year and suffering from creative burnout, is not as easy as it seems. Even with a Yuuri helping.

[hemi-demi]

I have a lot of feelings about TMAGP 23, and I gotta let them out. As much as I would love to talk about the amazing statement and the other lovely moments between the cast, I am unfortunately very stuck on one specific part, and not in a good way.

Spoilers below cut:

I'm gonna be perfectly honest, this one hurt me way more than I thought, and I'm worried about my enjoyment of the series.

I truly want to enjoy Protocol for what it is. I've been an Alice defender since day 1, I love her moment with Gwen this episode, I love that Lena seems to be showing a bit more care for her employees. But even with all that, I can't keep doing this with the TMA references.

Look, I've never in my entire 32 goddamn years of living felt like a character in media represented me. Ever. And now I have two. Jon and Martin's relationship feels like seeing parts of myself love each other despite their problems. It's a relationship that resembles the one I have with my partner, and I see a lot of him in Martin especially. Listening to TMA was a wonderful experience because, yes, I knew it was a tragedy and I wish they could have a happy ending, but it was the ending they earned, and they got to go together, and the ambiguity was good enough for me.

I want to enjoy the new writers, the new characters, the focus on alchemy and try to piece together what's happening in the story with everyone else because I missed out on that with having binged TMA after the fact. I cannot do that if they keep taking the corpses of characters I love and dangle them in front of me with the vague hope that they might spring back to life.

But they teased that maybe Jon and Martin can be okay in one reality. I've seen people say they haven't, but between the "Hey, this sounds like them in therapy!" bit, and the Gerry and Gertrude scene, I genuinely believe they did to a degree, even if unintentionally.

Maybe we could have something nice, just one little scrap of "they're happy somewhere else" with the TMAGP versions as a nice cameo. I got my hopes up, hopes I didn't ask for, only to be told "Oh, they never knew each other, and they're dead. If they're happy together in any reality, it sure isn't fuck in this one. The characters you relate to more than anything can never be happy, and you're stupid for thinking that they can ☺️."

This hurts. I feel like I've been stabbed. We were told explicitly this could be enjoyed separately, and that Jon and Martin's ending would be left ambiguous. Unless they pull the rug out from under us and say "Oh, Fr3ddi isn't Jon and Martin at all" (which I've been saying since the beginning. I'm of the "stolen voices" camp and I hope that's what it is, or something else.) then I'm now listening to a show where my favorite characters are suffering, again. And even if they do, the versions in TMAGP are presumably dead anyway.

It's like in fanfiction how you always tag stuff like "Bad endings" or "Major character death". You do that because people have grown attached to these characters and don't always want to watch them suffer again (or do, then you filter by it). The new characters I signed up for hearing their pain and torment, I don't know them yet, and I want to see how their stories play out even if it's painful. But I feel like I'm reading an untagged fanfic right now that is cutting into the original story I did want to listen to.

I want this to be its own thing. I want to care about Alice and Gwen and Sam so when they inevitably die I can feel like I did with TMA again, in a sort of reverent peace with things.

And then chasing that with "Oh, also, Basira and Helen-" just felt like extra salt.

I don't want people to take this as being cruel to the writers, or that I'm being entitled. I genuinely didn't want them to have to dive too deep back into TMA, I'm here for the new stuff. And I'm sure I'll get a bit of "this isn't the genre for you, then, horror is-" I know. I've been engaged with horror since I was much too young. It's my favorite genre. I'm fine with character death. I thought TMA handled it very well.

But I can't pretend that this doesn't hurt, either. I'm sure they have more planned, that this could just be a red herring, but that doesn't stop this from hurting right now when I have no idea what comes next.

I had a glimmer of hope that I was perfectly fine with watching from afar, that they made into a beacon too impossibly bright to ignore. Then, when I steer my boat towards it, I'm lured onto the jagged rocks. Just because they throw me a life preserver a few weeks later doesn't remove the water from my lungs.

Idk. I know some people are excited about this, and I hope they get everything they're looking for out of the story, but I worry that at this rate, I might not. At least not until the wound heals some more.

Okay, I'm gonna go back to writing fanfiction where they get to be happy. Pretty sure that's as close as I'm going to get.

[nightmareofthelake]

Monster High G3 Opinions (Part 1)

I loved Monster High since the first time I saw them in stores. I was neck deep in my creepypasta phase and seeing this dolls that were the decedents of well-known monsters was something special to me because I never saw something like that ever before.

I loved their fashion and and (at the time) unique doll features (transparent limps, skeleton bodies, colorful skin, etc,..) but unfortunately I never owned a single MH doll until I was well into my twenties. Even though I was obsessed with them in my teens, I now have a much deeper love for them since I'm now able to buy them myself.

I was quite exited after hearing that G3 was coming and seeing the first images of the new dolls was something special to me.

After seeing G1 and G2 I was quite surprised how much they actually changed for G3 both look and personality wise and it took me a while to get used to some of the changes. What I can't get used to is the constant complaining of other fans who grew up with G1.

Yes, G1 had nice outfits but it also came out in the early 2010s so it's a bit more of a reflection of that time. G3 is meant to appeal to this generation of kids and young teens. We are not the main demographic of this dolls. Your childhood is not ruined! It's still there! Let the kids have their own thing!

Draculaura

Draculaura. MH's favorite child. Why else would she get so many dolls?

G1 Draculaura probably appealed mostly to the girlies who had an obsession of vampires thanks to twilight and vampire diaries (I know this because I was that "girl").

Ten years ago I would have thought that the G1 doll was one of the best looking dolls out there but comparing her with the G3 version I have to admit that she is quit boring. I fell in love the G3 doll immediately. She got such a nice glow up and I love the new body type for her.

Small doll rant: The new bodies of G3 are such a nice upgrade from G1. One of the issues I had with G1 was the fact that felt so fragile in the hand. Like holding a couple of sticks. Even compared to a regular Barbie doll they were awfully thin. I liked what they did with the different heights but the different body types just makes them so much better.

G1 Draculaura had over the years a lot of great outfits mostly because she had so much dolls made of her. G3 still goes strong with a witchy touch but they still put her in almost every thing. She is the only character to be in every single skulltimate secrets series. Give that girl a break for fucks sake! Give the spotlight to somebody else!

Clawdeen

Clawdeen was the very first Monster High doll I ever bought. It was the Boo-riginal Creeproduction and she was the only doll left at the store. I love her so much and she has a special place in my heart.

Unfortunately, G1 Clawdeen had the problem that had the most misses in therms of outfits and suffered the most skin color changes (they turned her gray in Freak Du Chic and blue in Great Scarrier Reef which is weird since she was the only one who had her skin changed. Clawvenus gets a pass because she got fused with Venus)

I understand why they used so much animal print and fur in her outfits but a lot of them just weren't it. Like they did her dirty so many times but the few good ones were iconic.

G3 Claweed is just adorable. I love her so much and she got so many cute outfits so far. The only thing that annoys me is the fact that they keep giving her purple hair. I like the purple streaks she has in her core doll but every time they give her full on purple hair it's too much. I clashes with her outfit too much make her look like a purple blob.

Frankie

Frankie! My favorite since day one! G1 Frankie was an icon. She had so many gorgeous outfits.

I just love her so much.

G3 Frankie dethroned G1 the moment I read their bio. As someone who is non-binary having a doll who shares the same identity as myself is just huge. It's just something that I never thought I could have and I almost cried after seeing them in person. This doll has so much more meaning to me than any other doll.

I will be biased about them. I love them too much.

[zeroducks-2]

I've just finished Gotham Knights and I get that people aren't happy with the fucked ass haircuts but like, I do believe this is the most progressive and well written Jason Todd we've ever gotten in recent times. Even in recent comics. Like damn, bro goes to therapy, picked up his interests and hobbies again (e.g. the cooking and the reading and the shit talking) from his "Robin makes me Magic" days. Like yeah, he's still edgy, but he was murdered by a fucking Clown, he's allowed to be edgy. We got a Jason Todd that isn't diluted to "the angry black sheep character" archetype. He's healing, working on himself, his relationship with his family, and he's fighting his way (brutal and all strength and tact) to do what he stands for and what he believes is right. And his heart is just so big and full of compassion, but it doesnt blind him and make him wishful or naive. He's so well balanced in Gotham Knights. I hope this version of his character is written in future comics. I'm sick of DC writers making him this angry anti-hero who's only reasoning and purpose in life is to get back at Batman for failing him and so many others. Jason is allowed to be more than his trauma. Thank you Gotham Knights for seeing that.

I'm glad you enjoyed the game anon. I personally am not a fan, not because of Jason but because of the game itself. The dialogues felt stale, more reminiscent of tumblr "incorrect Batfam quotes" than the source material, and the NPCs felt dull compared to how full of life they were in the Arkham series (so much so I would hide in random spots just to hear them talking about the current game events, especially in AK). The most unforgivable bit to me was Tim not having ever fought the rogues because he's "young" - I've never seen anything more insulting and infantilizing for a character which already heavily suffers for being treated as the useless one, never allowed to participate in the game changing dynamics or to have meaningful arcs, and is relegated to being the cute little bisexual twink.

That being said it's a matter of taste, and Gotham Knights is surely a good game for those who prefer a wholesome loving family approach to these characters. Jason working on himself and going to therapy and having a good relationship with his "family" is surely what lots of people (especially in here) want to see. Me, I don't think any amount of therapy would help since therapy is based on shared human experiences and repetition of patterns, and Jason died and dug himself out of his own grave. That's not a trauma any therapist would have the means to help with. They indeed "diluted" the event in the game, changed the fact that Jason dug himself out of his own grave and was functionally braindead and homeless for two years, and made it so UTRH never happened in order for therapy to make any sense, because there is no reconciliation possible with a parent that slit your neck to save the person who broke all your bones with a crowbar and then murdered you.

It's kinda like when Wally went to therapy (canonically) after Barry's death. The therapist was a good one and he tried! But ultimately he didn't manage to make a real difference because Wally is the Flash, a super-powered creature with time bending powers who does things on the scale of absurdity, and who also happens to have had an extremely traumatic childhood and to have just lost the only person who ever loved him unconditionally. His problems have roots in reality but are out of the scope of any therapy method currently known to man.

And Jason is more than his trauma, but pretending his trauma doesn't inform his actions and can be solved with him "working on himself" is not an approach I hope they take in comics. I'd rather they went back to Jason doing things his way and protecting the people of Gotham in the only manner he finds helpful, because he experienced on his own skin (twice!) that Batman's methods don't work. I'd rather they allowed him to stop clashing with Bruce as main theme of his stories, and have his own plotlines in which he's in between a vigilante and a mafia lord (which they were doing with Dick by the way, before chickening out and have Slade bomb Bludhaven) with Bruce only as a cameo sometimes.

We have a high number of morally irrepressible characters who always do the right thing more or less. I'd like Jason to be something different, something darker, because there is a dramatic lack of grey characters and anti-heroes which were sanded down to either 100% bad guys or 100% good guys. I hate that, why can't we have nuanced choices and people struggling with the darkness they carry, why does everyone need to be a perfect "unproblematic" paragon of goodness who would never do anything wrong. We have A LOT of characters like that and I love them, I really do! But if everyone and their families are like that then it's really frickin boring!

Plus, I'd like the characters to actually struggle with their past traumas in a meaningful way, otherwise why even giving them those traumas to begin with. Give me Tim still grappling with how he couldn't save his father, give me Dick haunted by all the times he slipped and let go of the no killing rule in a way or another, give me Jason haunted by the tragedy of being abandoned by every person who was supposed to protect him and working from there to being the protector of everyone else.

That's what I hope DC would pick up and write about. I was never much for fluff and wholesome things unless it's in small amounts, I always preferred strife and complexity. But hey, I'm glad you enjoyed the game, at least one of us did!

[invested-in-your-future]

Is Yang a people pleaser?

I think it's bit more complicated than just that.

I think it's the only way she knows how to function.

Even going by just what has been said in the first three volumes (because everything after makes her VERY inconsistent and messy in terms of characterization), there are five things we know about Yang:

She lost her mother figure at a young age.

Her dad shut down in depression from what happened.

She was left with her little sister to essentially take care of themselves(and to be each other's emotional support) for indeterminate period of time.

At some point in time Yang found out that her mother figure is not her biological mother, which, for a child, threw lot of her life and interactions into question, shaking the foundations of who she saw herself as.

At some point her need to find her mother has put her sister in danger (the cabin incident), which essentially taught her to protect her sister, but also seems to have taught to put the needs of others above herself.

Yang puts the needs of those close to her above her own because she derives self-worth and value from that.

She grew up as her sister's protector, and Yang never stepped out of that role, even when it came to other people. She never really developed a goal for herself or any real reason for who she wanted to be. How Yang handles Oobleck's question shows that - her first answer is utilitarian, with her just restating the technical meaning of being a huntress, and her "real" answer is easily the most unclear and reliant on emotion and impulse - it's devoid of the ideological side of things. Unlike the three others, her reasoning lacks any ideological core - there's no future-tense "goal" there - she says she wants to do what she always did - and that's not a why. And even before that - you have Yang equating being a Huntress to fighting with how she's disappointed Oobleck is not doing "pro-huntsman things".

Yang is still running on auto-pilot, essentially taking damage for others so she can protect them and prove her own worth to herself that way - even her semblance, as it's described in the first three volumes, places her in front of any danger coming at people around her - she's there to get hit.

It's truly fascinating that the characters view her as "a party girl" - which speaks miles about how closed off Yang is. On one hand, she dedicates herself to others - on the other, she avoids her problems via a rush of adrenaline that chaotic situations cause her - the first time we see her in the Yellow trailer, she gets into a fight with an entire mafia nightclub.

Yang loves avoiding actual self-reflection or dealing with her issues. She keeps chasing her mother, but all she does is get into unrelated bar fights and the like (and she needs Qrow's confirmation that it's her mother once she actually encounters her meaning she could have passed her in the street and she would never know) and when Qrow offers her to help to meet her? Yang outright ignores that until she suffers something horrifying.

She likes the idea of finding her mother but not so much of acting upon it - she likes having a dream and having a goal, but when asked about it, she has no concrete thoughts on what those are - she likes the IDEA of a goal, but doesn't have one.

But she does open up a bit once team RWBY gets going - I genuinely feel that honest conversations like the one she had with Blake in V2 are too far and few in between.

It's no wonder failing Blake at end of Volume 3 should affect her a lot - ALL of those things come crashing down at her all at once.

She's unable to protect Blake at all and ends up being protected by her instead.

For once she can't just "crash" through her issues anymore.

She's unable to protect her sister from traumatic experiences.

The people she opened up to all "leave" her.

The entire world views her as some awful person who broke her opponent's leg.

Yang acts like a people pleaser because she doesn't know who she wants to be, and the only inherent value she could find for herself till now was in how others view her.

I think it's interesting to explore where she goes from there.

It's why it's so disappointing how the show treats her after V3 - the brash loudmouth whose issues and trauma are ignored (because, according to her VA, "it's boring"?), the relationship is not given a proper build-up and whose loudness is treated as development instead.

It's actually one of many reasons I started putting up the AU idea I am writing.

[flower-boi16]

The Owl House Is A Bit of A Mixed Bag When It Comes To Ships

The Owl House is a show that I love a lot, but when it comes to relationships I have some mixed feelings. Now, I don't hate ships in TOH but I do have some issues with them.

The Good

First let's start of with the good; one of the things I like about how TOH handles its ships is how they don't overtake the plot or anything, which is a pretty easy trap that any show with romance can fall into (looking at you Star vs). There's also no bullshit romance drama in the show (the closest thing we get to that is Luz not opening up in S2 EP11 and EP14 but that was about it and its also executed in a way that's not absolutely insufferable).

Lumity is also the show's best relationship; it's gradually built up over the course of season 1 and the first half of season 2 and they are legitimately pretty cute together. Ships like Veesha and Aladraius are also pretty neat. So now let's get into...

The Problems

NOTE: Any issues I have with TOH's ships are most likely due to the shortening, so take my critiques with a grain of salt. Also there will be some criticism levidied towards Huntlow and Reada, if you don't like that don't read the rest of this post.

I think my issues with TOH's ships have to come with the ship's themselves, mainly Raeda and Huntlow. Lumity is good as I already said but the other two have a few issues. First I'ma talk about Huntlow; I don't hate Huntlow as a ship, It's OK, I just think it could have been done a bit better.

The ship mainly suffers from being less developed than Lumity, as Willow and Hunter don't really have that much-developed chemistry with each other. There is one interesting thing about the ship though, that being how they are both young witchlings that were shunned for not being born strong and called a "half-a-witch". That is an interesting parallel, but I don't really think the show develops they're relationship beyond that. The ship is just kinda underdeveloped which is my main problem with it, they're relationship just isn't that fleshed out to me, and as a result, it feels a little bit rushed.

I WILL say though, the moment they had in FTF is cute, it's neat harmless little fan service that doesn't take away from the plot or characters, which is nice.

But overall Huntlow isn't terrible but I have my fair share of issues with it. I honestly feel like this ship has more developed chemistry in fan works than in canon. Like, seriously, Willow and Hunter are incredibly cute together in a lot of Huntlow fan works more than in the actual show.

Anyways, now let's get into...Raeda. I've already talked about this ship before and why I personally don't care for it so I won't go too in depth here, but Raeda to me just suffers from how Raine, as a character, is heavily defined by Eda, and they don't have much depth outside of that. If Raine as a character had more independence from Eda I would have liked this ship a lot more, but they don't.

Again, my issues of Huntlow and Raeda are purely there because of the shortening. If the show wasn't shortened than Huntlow would've definitely been more developed, and Raine would have been a better character with more actual development beyond "Eda's ex".

Conclusion

So ya, that's my thoughts on TOH ships. The shipping in the show isn't bad but I think it could've been better, though again, it's worth mentioning the show got shortened so these problems aren't necessarily its fault, buuuuuut my points still stand. So....bye.

[tinukis]

scared to share my one piece ocs part 8391

but anyway luffy caring abt other kids touches my soul that i just. created a young boy for him to adopt as a little brother 😭

cept a few problems. he and luffy didn't get a long at first bc 1) this kid is rude/bratty attitude... 2) he looks a bit like ace when he was younger and it freaked luffy out a bit. luffy Knows it wasn't young ace bc he's dead and he has to remind himself that. but also to kinda parallel zoro @ tashigi "why do you have ace's face!" "?!!??? who the hell is ace??"

but yeah anyway lets call him Z for now and he is 13 years old. on the island he resides on, he was raised as a slave and the people of the land dont know that or feign ignorance for their own safety/lives. im not gonna get deep into this particular island but it's not a very nice place.

Z is tough and doesnt emote very well. he mistrusts every adult except those that are recognized as natives to the land. most of the people don't like him either but he's used to it.

Z has to pretend he cant read or write. he idolizes a book character that went through a lot of suffering but always comes out strong. he read it so many times that he was allowed to keep it. although, he couldn't hide it at "home" so he handed it to a woman that looks after him sometimes.

also Z is a devil fruit user (which is why he's even kept alive in the first place). his abilities is similar to blueno's/the doa doa no mi. cept instead of doors and being able to go to one spot to the next, it's just like creating an invisible room any place you want. (outsiders cant access it obviously. it's like. a pocket dimension.) and definitely because i didn't want to write further and that Z's existence only came to be this week, Z doesn't know of its other usage yet because hes really using it to hide orphaned kids from the island's "leaders"

and im ngl !! a couple of my fandom ocs are created just to have a relationship with a character. so luffy gets to have another little brother and a new territory !! hooray !!

theres still things left to say buT: im shy

[waterloggedsoliloquy]

Carousel Waltz: A Primer

Since I talk incessantly about them and that frequency is only going to increase it's probably for the best that I give a bit of a rundown for my little OC verse!

Carousel Waltz is a psychological thriller young adult magical girl comic in the making. Its primary influences are Revolutionary Girl Utena, Twin Peaks, and Over The Garden Wall.

It's 1993. The town of Potter's Fields, Washington is the last bastion of civilization and has been for the past 25 years, for around the town and as far as anyone can walk in any direction grows a magical apocalyptic wilderness called the Garden of Sorrow, which threatens evermore to encroach upon the town in a war of attrition. With the population of the town dwindling and time standing still in the Garden's embrace, de facto town leader Midas Schiller, with the help of the town's only psychiatrist Thomas Hythloday, have reverse-engineered some of the Garden's very own magic to use against it. Somewhere within the Garden of Sorrow lies the source of its power, the Primordial Heart-- and if mortals can find it and destroy it, they can free the town from its clutches and find out if truthfully there is anyone out there.

Midas cannot use the Garden's magic himself, due to its vendetta against him, so he has scoured the town for proxy agents-- people who can rise to the occasion and fight back against the Garden of Sorrow and the monsters it spawns from its coiling depths. Magic requires harmony and accord to be employed most effectively, and so these magic wielders must fight in pairs. So they have come to be known as Dancers, armed with magical weapons and conditional immortality.

note: When referring to the genre/role as a whole, I use magical girl as conjecture-- referring to these characters as magical boy/enby/man/woman is for on an individual basis. it's just easier than saying "magical mixed gender group of varying ages" and remains true to the genre conventions i'm working under.

Sicely Tecuani - (they/them) The Protagonist. A jaded and socially awkward cowboy, they hide their shyness behind a wall of prickly fatigue. Sicely easily notices the strange and unusual, as well as the faults and foolishness of others. They’re of a practical mindset and enjoy things that work the first time without the bells and whistles. They're dependable and protective, savvy and eloquent, but they're desperate for guidance, yet habitually pushes others away. They're easily impassioned! ... But also easily impassioned into fits of self-loathing. Sicely is transmasculine agender and a closeted lesbian. Their weapon is a pair of bear-paw gauntlets, and their flower is the red spider lily.

Anthea Patel - (she/her) The Other Protagonist. A prodigious young girl, Anthea seems to excel at just about everything she tries her hand at. She's pleasant and romantically-inclined, and sees the world through rosy eyes. She carries a deep well of love and strength within her to meet problems, and she's always trying to cheer others up, but she tends to assume she knows what's best for others while avoiding communicating her own needs-- a girl who thinks she can do everything except admitting she's wrong. And like her namesake, she carries a deep wrath. Anthea is a trans girl and a lesbian. Her weapon is a pair of flintlock dueling pistols, and her flower is the calla lily.

Ariadne "Ari" Astra - (she/her) Ari is a mover and a shaker, and a top-class seer. She wants to know it all, uncover the secrets of the universe, and wield magic to the best of her discretion. She adores unexplained phenomena like cryptids and UFOs. Chipper, observant, and witty, Ari doesn't suffer fools willingly. She is, however, willing to suffer most anything for a mystery. Her infatuation with mathematically proving the afterlife, to reconnect with her dead sister, borders on obsession. She’s deeply lonely, and feels like she lost the only person who could possibly understand her, which has alienated her best friend, Lucerne. Ari is bisexual and would probably ID with the term gendervoid if she knew it. Her weapon is an armillary sphere, and her flower is sunflower.

Lucerne Lowe - (they/he) Lucerne is seemingly difficult to rattle and nonchalant, offering advice where possible and deflecting with a blunt affect away from themself. He enjoys a running commentary, as long as he's not in the middle of things. Lucerne dislikes being the center of attention, and keeps things to themself more often than not. He'd be a great friend to tell your secrets to if you need a listening ear or infodump about that niche interest of yours that no one else has the patience for, but you'd be hard-pressed to get him to tell you something back. Not after what they saw. While the advice they give is usually good, Lucerne is more likely to meddle in your own business than walk the walk. They are unlabeled. His weapon is a polearm, and his flower is rhododendron.

Opal Schiller - (he/him) Rare holographic dipshit. Next.

...

OKAY FINE. Opal is the morally ambiguous pale-haired tragic anime boy archetype. He believes he is being charming and friendly, but in fact his social skills leave something to be desired, often acting on strange impulses or operating on assumptions and rules beyond typical understanding. This makes him presumptuous, pushy, and ill-equipped for when things don't align with expectations. He's very flamboyant and self assured, as long as he feels in control. As soon as his power over a situation is questioned, or he behaves like a dorkass teenager, he immediately begins to flounder, and goes to extreme lengths to regain that sense of security. He’s really, really bad at not getting his way, a problem exacerbated by his father. He is bisexual but enjoys the rewards of heterosexuality too much to consider guys an option. His weapon is a scythe, and his flower is larkspur.

Jiro Kohaku - (he/him) If you asked what Jiro wants in life, he'd shrug his shoulders and say things are pretty good right now. He likes video games and tv and comic books and especially likes hanging out with Opal, because Opal gets to do whatever he wants. Despite his seemingly flippant attitude, he's easily excited and enjoys the spectacle of things, getting caught up in adrenaline rushes. He seems cosmically cursed to be forever in second place, which drives a deep frustration to his core that manifests as him wanting to impress and impose on his peers. Look at him, not Opal, not his older sister, just this once, look at him. Jiro is probably gay but covets girls anyways because of his problems and issues. His flower is nasturtium, and his weapon is a wakizashi.

Who else is there? Oh right, the grownups.

Araceli Levin - (she/her) is a Dancer that has betrayed Midas, gone rogue, and aligned herself with the Garden of Sorrow. She should be considered armed and dangerous. She killed her last dance partner to steal his power, and should not be engaged alone. 

...So Midas says.  

Araceli is a renegade Dancer. She is dangerous-- she’s had her powers for thirty years longer than anyone in the cast. But she didn’t kill her partner, she isn't aligned with the Garden of Sorrow, and she's not the betrayer here. She's a miserable old wretch of a woman whose social skills have deteriorated from the insanity of grief and the self-exile she's placed on herself. Before she was a Dancer, before the Garden of Sorrow closed off her entire world and Midas ruined what was left of it, she was a marine biologist and a cetacean specialist. Now she has no ocean, no husband, and no way out. Her only friend is a talking Canada Jay named Whiskey. Her weapon is a spear, and her flower is hellebore.

Jorges Beaufoy - (he/him) Araceli's late husband and fellow biologist, and Midas' best friend in life. He died a few years back. The immortality afforded to Dancers does not extend to adults. His hair used to be light blonde before magic turned it pink. His weapon was a sword, and his flower was star of bethlehem.

Thomas Hythloday - (he/him) An anodyne, denial-ridden scientist who works as mission control for the Dancers and is also their only psychological health monitor, which is great except for the part where I mentioned denial up there. He's a bit morally bankrupt, and willing to go too far sometimes, but he very rarely holds any true malice. He's polite in an off-putting way that holds little, if any, kindness to it. Politeness is easier because it's a social script that makes the other person more pliable and agreeable. It's pragmatism. After his twin sister Leda died, he threw his life into his work studying magic full-time to avoid the pain of existing. He was Midas' brother in law, but now they're lovers behind closed doors. Thomas is gay and gnc. He has no weapon, but his flower is hydrangea.

Midas Schiller - (he/him) The de facto leader of Potter's Fields due to a power vacuum and a dwindling population. Opal's father. Midas Schiller is fastidious and charismatic. He’s one of very few adult role models in Potter's Field, and thus a lot of children look to him for guidance. He genuinely believes he is a force for good in the town and is the only thing keeping it from falling to ruin. He’s terrified of what might happen if he’s no longer there to keep things going, and the safety of his flock. Naturally, this means he feels justified to do whatever it takes to his flock, even endangering them, if he thinks it will keep himself in power and therefore ascertain the safety of the whole. Midas believes that he's entitled to the Golden Life that (cis, white) men are supposed to be given and feels cheated that he has not been guaranteed it and thus is taking it into his own hands to build that illusion of comforting paradise. everything in its place. whatever he includes in his sphere must make him happy, must comfort him, must entertain him. anything that does not contribute 2 his identity of Nuclear Family Man Patriarch With A Good Satisfied Life And The Years Ahead Of Him must be trimmed away. He’s obsessed with Thomas Hythloday, due to looking extremely similar to his late wife Leda, and despite being in denial of being attracted to men Midas exploits Thomas’ crush on him and solicits him for sex to keep himself in Thomas’ life. While it wasn't the only reason the relationship deteriorated, Midas attempted to pressure Araceli into having an affair with him. He tried to get her to change careers and stay on dry land. After it was made evident that she could not be controlled, and that he could not guarantee her compliance as a Dancer, he attempted to have her and Jorges killed. Unfortunately, he only got the one, and made a lifelong enemy out of the other. His weapon is fire, and his flower is poppy.