#yeah its kinda cringe its LITERALLY SUPPOSED TO BE

[jesbiblesworld]

Shout out to Middleman's Love for giving me a fun silly story when all that's come out lately is emotional torture 😌💕

[mamawasatesttube]

So i was just rotating your "Jack drake lives au" in my mind and at the same time remembered those panels of superman shaking hands with Some Fucking Guy (i think he was being a bitch to Lois or smth) and he makes direct unflinching eye contact with the tight lipped smile and his grip is a little too tight to be friendly

Anyways im not saying he hates Jack but i do think Kon off-handedly mentioned the "joke" about his nail polish and Clark went "oh really now?" And didnt forget

So rip Jack at that family dinner night bc not only is Lois waiting for an excuse to obliterate him but Clark is right there with her and if jack thinks that Good Ol Country folk Ma and Pa will back him up then hes in for a surprise lol

oh yeah absolutely!!!! the thing is. literally Nobody likes jack in this au ksjdhfkd like kon and dick absolutely have texted each other to bitch about him, ma openly shakes her head when she hears about how he treats tim (and she WILL speak her mind if he ever tries to shut that sweet boy down in front of her!), cass literally won't speak to him bc he failed the vibe check so bad, etc...

and like. no one is telling tim this. they Know it'll make him feel like he has to defend his dad bc he loves him! but sometimes tim mentions oh he can't join for games this friday night, he and his dad are going on an early morning fishing trip. and cass just meets kon's eyes across the room behind tim's back and rolls her eyes so hard.

but yeah. clark will mostly let lois handle the obliteration with ma's backup as needed bc he knows she's got this. his form of expressing his severe disapproval of jack, his views, and his parenting? supporting tim. thanking him for doing the dishes after dinner, praising his work ethic, ruffling his hair and telling him he did a great job with that case he wrapped up last week, etc. it makes tim go "!!! :D!!!" like that pic of the cat getting patted. tim has always craved approval and affirmation and affection from people around him and he gets it in spades from the kents. and jack sees his son light up and open up around these people way more than he does with him. it's not a good feeling.

it's just tough bc like, tim doesn't want anyone getting mad at jack. but the idea of anyone getting mad at jack on his behalf is also just such a shock to him. he's not used to that. he feels like he has to manage jack and be responsible for him in a lot of ways (if jack says something shitty in front of lois, tim cringes because now jack is gonna get his ass handed to him and feel humiliated, and that's his dad and he was trying to help, and also he feels like it's on him that his dad is being like that. why? oh you know.) (its the unnamed emotional abuse, thats why.)

but also clark and kon watch lois ask tim how his degree is going now that he's in engineering school, and lightly rib him and ask if she can't poach him into investigative journalism instead, because she doesn't usually take interns but she'd make an exception! and tim cocks his head like a dog and says well, maaaybe he'd be down to consider an internship if she's serious? it does sound cool. what are the details? and jack, who barely gets more than one-word answers when he talks to tim about his future, is just kinda seething. heart rate goin up bc hes mad. and kon and clark just exchange extremely amused glances across the kitchen and sip their hot chocolates.

like the tim and jack dynamic is complicated; it'd be a lot easier if the love wasn't so real but it is present. its just that jack is soooo emotionally immature and grounded in Classic American Manhood and ideas of fatherhood. and the fact that tim is growing beyond that and not fitting in the mold he's "supposed" to eats at him. its a tragedy but also we are all pointing and laughing at jack every time superfam make him grind his teeth.

[eerna]

eerna what's going on in s3 bridgerton your posts and answers making me scared to watch on my life lmao

pls don't hate me, Colin lovers, but I was told by a friend who read the series that he's more fun and chill in the books and also i just....find Polin from even s1 is kinda uhhhhh?awkward?? cuz he's kind of unnecessarily serious and so not chill in the previous seasons?? maybe i don't see his appeal because I'm no Penny but i do not see his appeal in the show

so rn i haven't even watched it and seeing your posts is making me moreeeeeee 😶‍🌫️ it's okay give us the cringey details

Nsbysbbsb NO WORRIES!!! I have a weirdly big amount to say about this show bc I am no longer suffering as much as I did in s1 and 2. Prepare for an essay on my feelings on Polin and thank you for enabling me.

Ok so Colin. Not saying your friend is wrong bc I didn't read the book, but p much everyone I saw talking about it said Colin was very angry and aggressive in it, and for NO REASON since he's supposed to be the "calm brother". I'm glad that the show let him get upset, but never the way he was in the books/Anthony was in s2, where I legit worried about Kate's safety sometimes. Colin was my fav Bridgerton brother bc he was totally different from all the other men on the show, calm and silly and romantic.

Thar being said!!! I never ever thought of him as a GOOD love interest, and s3 only made it worse. First off, yeah, s1 and 2 do NOT show him and Pen as friends nearly enough to warrant the speed of their connection in s3. I blocked s2 from my memory bc I hated it So Damn Much so I can't 100% stand behind my words, but I don't really remember many friendly scenes with the two of them that didn't feel like he was just entertaining his sister's bestie? I remember he once danced with her, and he sent her letters from his travels, and that's it. Then in s3 we are supposed to believe Pen knows him soooo well, she sees through his tricks when no one else does, he can't stand losing her friendship when she stops talking to him. How, when the impression I got from their relationship was "oh she is clearly silly in love and he doesn't care about her enough to notice"!!!

And s3... Oh boy. Colin gets his "glowup" and becomes a rake bc Bridgerton writers would probably spontaneously combust if they wrote a virgin male lead. We see him flirt and smash other women and it is always so so so awkward. I've seen people trying to rationalize it as "Oh he is supposed to be pretending, oh we are supposed to find it cringe" but NO, he is objectified the exact same way Simon and Anthony were, and we as the audience are supposes to think it is sexy. To be fair, Pen finds it concerning but I think that has more to do with the amount of silly, vapid women constantly swarming around him. So now we are even FURTHER away from seeing any reasons why the two of them would be friends. And then we get hit with the "Colin teaches Pen how to find a husband" plot, and oh my god it is so bad, IT IS SO BAD, they have like 2 lessons across 1 episode before they are busted and stop and he literally taught her NOTHING she IGNORED HIS ADVICE AND FIGURED IT OUT BY HERSELF but everyone treats him like a war hero for taking one for the team and teaching the poor unlikeable social reject how to act. We also have the stupid scene where she is criyng begging him to kiss her because she is convinced otherwise she would die without being kissed, and he is trying to elegantly avoid it, and oh my god, I hated this, it is framed as cute and romantic but it is so uncomfortable and bad. AAAAAAAA. Anyway. Then there is this hilariously horrible incident where he saves her from a feral balloon, and if you are wondering wtf am I talking about, its because it is really bad and written like a Scary Movie slasher scene. There are exactly 3 moments that I liked, and ALL of them were bc Colin seemed very lost and desperate. First was when Pen told him they should stay away from each other after the scandal of them hanging out came out (which I liked bc if it were any other girl, some unhinged character would force them to marry, but since it was Pen they were like "Well obviously it's true there was nothing untowards happening it is just cringe haha loserrr"), and he looked like he stopped comprehending English. The second was when he was confessing his feelings, he got on his knees and looked like he was about to cry and I thought that was sweet! Well, he did mention torture which is a very ugly word to use in such a speech, but whatever. The third was after the Infamous Carriage Scene when he says something silly and the two giggle together and I was like PLEASE WHERE WAS THIS ENERGY IN S1 AND 2!!

And may I just say!! The actual Bridgerton Glowup one was PEN and NOT COLIN. In s1 and 2 you could tell she was pretty, but in s3 they made her so damn beautiful that my friends and I would go "Oh wow" several times per episode. And it's not only the clothes, they would put her in rooms where she pops out and sparkles and frame her in shots just perfectly. Idk why they only gave her 1 alternate love interest and then shot her Like That, there should have been at LEAST one more guy following in Debling's trail. Now she's the hot one in the relationship so I can't buy her desperation for Colin's approval or society's perception of Colin as a charity in any way.

With all that said. I think this is the best season of Bridgerton proper. It still isn't something I'd enjoy unironically, but at least it is neither a horrible age gap dynamic feat. SA nor a horrible disgusting juggling of sisters feat. murderer vibes. The only thing I'd say is worse than it used to be is the clothes, which are slowly creeping towards The Reign level of ahistorical and bad.

[fuzzystudios]

yk when I started reading toa I was kinda disappointed at the lack of power that apollo / lester had, bc pjo and hoo had their main characters be basically op, and this is literally a (former) god. apollo in tho made me cringe and reading his perspective was like looking at pills in an orange prescription bottle. but he was the whiny teenager that felt like an out-of-depth teenager more than the actually lived for years-in-teen-numbers, because they were more heroes and soldiers than teens, like they were supposed to be. he is simultaneously whiny child and responsible adult.

the moment I really latched onto him was when he basically dropped everything and tried to dive into the forest to go save his kids. bro wasn’t actually a selfish idiot like he kept making himself look like. bro was an emotionally constipated loving loser (affectionate) and loveable. he would risk the wrath of styx to save these kids. positively skrunkly

oh and his power! look guys the former protagonists always had some power to back them up, some good strength. this guy? first not demigod protagonist and he goes from straight up zero to launching a guy to the clouds with his bare hands. and tfw he uses his voiceTM. BEGONE SNAKE! and he acts so pathetic lol and if you look through whatever sunglasses he’s wearing and you look at the things from 3rd person pov dude what is he doing. he just flew off a road driving a car, and puts himself in front of the gremlin child to face one of those creepy zombie things that scream FOOD!!. bro straight up stabbed himself. bro sings the most heart wrenching song that even giant ants that don’t even understand what he’s saying get the point to the extent that they go catatonic with depression.

and holy cheez-its what kind of pain tolerance does this guy have?? dude??? you fell from the literal sky above the Empire State Building which like literal greek heaven (ouch) straight into a dumpster and then gets beat into unconsciousness by a pair of thugs under Nero like??? and with broken ribs, injured nose, hurt shoulder, etc. he walks up the stairs, runs through the woods insane. dude is literally insane. he gets flayed alive, forgets his other half, trapped in place by molten chains all at once and still trying trying to walk wth like this guy’s pain tolerance is beyond ouranos. idk how he does it I can’t even tolerate a hot summer day.

bro gives advice to a lost gremlin child who betrayed him anyway, helps her defeat her abuser the way he never could. and he grew, like everyone around him, to something better, something hopeful. “you’ve changed” heck yeah!! we love to see it

and humor?? like random mentions of things no one else in pjo would give you like playing the zither at 2am, godly toilet seat, ares roundhouse kick, waking up in Argentina. I love that they’re so offhand but they’re so funny and random

the haiku. they’re hilarious, works of art.

the characters. Chiron. Chiara. Damien. Austin. Kayla. Cecil. will. nico. Rachel. Lavinia. emmie. Josephine. heck even Commodus. lityerses. Abelard. Diana. frank. Jason. piper. the trogs. lu. reyna omg. meg. aaaaaaaaAAAAAAAA I love them so much! just how they fit in with his own journey of self and how they grow with him, like a garden, like an orchestra building its crescendo together, in unity. little things like reading frank’s admiration of apollo first in hoo, and now we get apollo’s side of it, and he’s so cute. Reyna’s whole journey of “finding the one who will heal her heart”. (gods I loved that thank you rick.) and will’s “dad!” and making apollo literally weep and meg: “the beast is dead. I killed it.” and taps her head and I'm just so proud of them.

“YOU ARE NO GOD!” he isn’t the same god who fell to earth in the winter. he likely won’t be ever the same ever again. ‘cause he’s gonna work to being better. he’s saving the world, but he’s also having a journey of his own self, rediscovering himself, building onto himself like everyone else, they’re all gonna be a better version of themselves.

k one problem: not enough content. I am starved for content. please feed pet. ty

[kenjiyabuki]

DMD FTR: finale thoughts

i forgot to put this out because i've been in the process of being an employed adult human person these days, unfortunately (no one who saw my previous DMD FTR posts is surprised that i was unemployed). now i wont even get to have my weekly crisply shot and edited hang outs w Gen 3 besties while this new job is sucking my soul... but this was a pleasant finale to this sweet and chill and incredibly unsurprising show!

here's the thing: i dont even know who Domundi is trying to fool w this double win stuff cause they did literally announce the new gen would be acting in TWO (2) new series during their 2023 Line Up event???????

so the double win wasn't a surprise AT ALL but it's okay, it didnt really diminish my enjoyment out of the show at all. i wanted both couples to have series anyway!

as i've said in my first post about this show, it has been very obvious that this shows' intention isn't to be a competition, it's more of a new gen "inauguration". they could've just put the boys through bunch of workshops and let them choose partners off camera too but they chose to put money and time in to make it a whole show, so people could witness their journey and premature fan clubs would form and develop. i think its fun and clever marketing but did it work???

well, the boys def have more fans now BUT on the same day this episode was premiering, some ZNN fans were crying about their faves (who just had a movie come out, also filming a show rn AND scheduled to film another one after) being slighted by the company and they didn't need to "add more". like i said, i don't really follow Domundi closely, if the fans are right about artist management i might not know... but their Gen 2 was extremely successful after all and people are BEGGING for more series, so it's not a bad move for a company to want to grow. i wish fans would be more mature and learn more the industry the person they "stan" works in! why would a growing company would just make shows w 2 actors over and over man, cmon 😭

okay now that i got that out of me, back to the finale. some notes about the general:

the group performance of the theme song was a bit cringe to me bc i just hate that kind of music. but everyone's ending fairies were really cuteeeee so i forgive them

real winners of the episode is the background dancers because they literally did all the performances and acted too, very well!!

Domundi members and variety of industry people in the audience was sweet to see and added valuable comments/advice for the boys. i was especially happy to see Jimmy and Tommy, whom i ADORE!!!!

i was laughing at that LOUD ASS clapping and hollering track they kept playing to add some more noise to the audience's. like i know why they did it but how much that big sound didn't match w that small crowd just tickled me..

well, yeah, i cant get into idol-ing stuff personally so i was kind of bored during the solo performances. i dont really have comments that hasn't already been said by the judges. i thought all the boys did what they were supposed to do and showcased their talents, EXCEPT Latte........ my dude, what happened? i think he could've lip sync to the song, which IS a skill (Rupaul's Drag Race battles and just drag performances in general as evidence...) that would add a lot to his performance.

Firstone leaving the competition w Best Friendship & Best Performance Awards in his pocket and two guys wanting to be his partner. What a little star... Deserved and love his cocky attitude.

about couple jukebox musicals:

in my last episode commentary, i joked about Mandee getting inspired from my ideas but then they actually kinda happened lol🧐🧐🧐🧐 ThomasKong's performance was a coming of age, young love story while KengNamping's story was more complex romance w an angsty core, almost exactly like i wished for.

all in all, KengNamping's performance grabbed my attention the most. mostly because their acting & chemistry seemed improved to me (that kiss fake out at the end, what the hell??? you guys couldn't hold an eye contact couple eps ago...) AND their storyline just ATEEEE. i dont know who came up w the forbidden romance between kinda out of touch but well meaning rich boy & his "i suffer through love quietly" village boy bodyguard, w humour sprinkled in, but they need to get their ass eaten regularly...

ThomasKong don't even need to try that hard, they are just natural born charmers!!!! i liked their friends to lovers, nerdy guy cant believe popular one' love bc he doesnt see his value storyline (Thomas could've busted out One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful"). With the romantic prom climax, it reminded me of American high school movies and fit their vibes perfectly. i wish it was more humorous, because i think comedy is one of their strong suits. like how did it ended up that shy kings KengNamping got more laughs than ThomasKong, the goofballs themselves??? whoever is writing their series, please take notes, now that i know you are reading these...

after the glorious double win and the cute four-way hug, Aof said that two shows would be announced this year which clearly meant that most we are getting this year are pilot trailers. which is fine. not easy to be patient but i get that they are a smaller company w lots on their plates already. i hope they will use that time to work and work and work on the shows!!!!

i honestly want Domundi to kind of change up things in their filmmaking/producing styles, maybe switch directors sometimes and try diffferent styles idk... this show and Gen 3 in general felt very refreshing and i hope they keep that vibe going! and maybe i will finally watch a Domundi show till the last episode.

P.S.: Extra clips were released this week and KengNamping's was sweet. i was kinda laughing at how much of a set up it was like, them conveniently sharing a blanket, all mic'd up, getting filmed w lights on etc. but their conversation and mood in the moment seemed sincere, which is enough. it was nice to see the context for ep 5, when they found each other at the other end of the red ribbon and said that so much happened on that bridge. what a perfect circle moment, from comforting each other about not winning a challenge to winning the show!

[lollytea]

I just know Hunter would quote star trek to be romantic and impress Willow, mostly because she doesn't know it very well and he can be cringe without fail, but Gus would bust his ass nearly every time. Like, I can totally see him quoting that one moment from Wrath of Khan of "You're my superior officer and you're also my friend, I have been and shall always be yours" because he just marathoned the og series until Gus is like "dude, for real? What mr. Scoops said to admiral (former captain) Kim in Rage of Gengis?" and exposes his ass right in front of Willow. I. Just. Know. It.

I mean, Willow thinks it's cute, but most of the time Gus is there so it turns funny.

Omg I promise I didn't mean to ignore this ask. It kinda got lost under others and I forgot about it for a bit but I was reminded it existed today cuz THIS IDEA IS SO SILLY AND I LOVE IT A LOT

YES Hunter would absolutely feel more comfortable flirting with Willow if he just had a SCRIPT!! And he does not trust himself to come up with shit on his own. At least not yet. So initially, Hunter memorizes lines from Cosmic Frontier that he thinks are the definition of romance. (Literally putting himself through TORTURE by meticulously combing through the O'Bailey/Keiko scenes which are known to give him a terrible case of giggling/kicking his legs disease which takes him hours to recover from.)

It's not a seamless plan in the longterm cuz its basically just regurgitating quotes that aren't his and if Willow happens to flirt back he's at a loss on how to answer. However the first time he recited one of his favourite romantic monologues on her, she was literally too stunned to flirt back. He even made her blush!! Willow!! Hunter did that!!! It went AWESOME!!! SO AWESOME!!!

Well it started out awesome and he would have been riding that giddy high for the rest of his life if Gus hadn't immediately butted in like "Hey man, you seriously just flirt with Willow using dialogue from Book 4 of Cosmic Frontier? Is that really a thing I just witnessed with my own two eyes??"

LEAVE HIM ALONE!!! HE'S FIGHTING FOR HIS LIFE OUT HERE!!!

Anyway that's the only time he manages to actually take Willow completely off guard with it. She definitely malfunctioned a little because she didn't expect that to come out of Hunter. And he really did have her going there for a second. She seriously thought he came up with it himself. She was having a complete crisis wondering how the FUCK she was supposed to function from this point on if this was the shit he was apparently capable of. Honestly, thank Titan it WAS from a book.

But yeah Willow is actually really charmed by it. She's SUCH a loser about the eccentric stuff Hunter does. Cuz in her mind, she doesn't see it as him not bothering to come up with romantic lines on his own because he doesn't want to put the effort it. She knows Hunter and she understands how his brain works. She understands that books are something that help him better understand the world and his own emotions and give him guidance on how to approach things. So the fact that he's taking snippets from the books that he loves and using them as a tool to better express how he feels about her is a sentiment that Willow finds super sweet.

She's probably skimmed through Hunter's Cosmic Frontier books a few times and wound up melting because of everything he had highlighted. He uses different colours for different things. Sentences upon sentences in neon green about protection and loyalty and love and devotion and Willow knows immediately that they made him think of her.

Anyway Hunter is also pretty creative with his terminology. (I mean this IS the boy who came up with "Emerald Entrails" on the spot, with a really clever meaning behind it.) But the things that come out of his mouth are also pretty odd.

So eventually he gets comfortable enough with speaking to Willow from the heart. He still uses the occasional book quote obviously. But as soon as the words leave him mouth, Willow knows if this is a sci fi passage that made him blush or a Hunter original. She honestly loves both 💚💛

[nacaharachuya]

Okay so i realised im a fucking idiot and that i’ve been sending you shit through “?” And i have no idea where those messages go through so whoopdy doo ig but in my defence i wasnt able to send anything any other way bc.. uhh.. yeah my email wasn’t confirmed n all that. Im telling u man i’m a whole ass boomer rn🤦‍♀️ can’t even remember how to send an ask smh.

Anyways i only now finished reading svs because i’ve been putting it off in favour of reading different fics (works from other fandoms and… ooc soukoku fics. Listen i hate mischaracterisation as much as the next guy but i find them very entertaining okay) and AAAUURGGHH WHAT A BANGER. The way you write is immaculate if svs was a food it’d have a savoury taste like i’d be liking my fingers n shit. I found out about it when you posted on twitter you updated it (it was the smut chapter, by the way) and i was like “huh” and decided to read it and my god am i glad I didn’t skip over that tweet.

Idk if this was on purpose or not but verlaine is kinda cringefail in your fic and i love it. I am a firm believer that as badass as verlaine is he is undeniably embarrassing and i need MORE of that.

My one criticism for svs is that we needed more adam scenes. He should have been added like really, unnecessarily early on in the fic and act as a third wheel in the fic. But like a third wheel soukoku did not want or ask for but he’s just kinda there they can’t really get rid of him. Chuuya and dazai in their divorce arc arguing and adam is in the background thinking “i could crack a really funny joke from this” (on that note i added the lines “Adam’s blabbering makes more sense now, so they act as if nothing has happened. “When I lift this veil, you will seal the deal with a kiss.” He can’t stop himself from laughing, “I hope you enjoyed that joke too.” “We didn’t,” Verlaine says from across the shrine. “Paul be quiet.”” In my “collection of fanfic lines I chuckled at” in my notes. He’s so silly i love him. I love how he laughs at his own jokes he just like me fr.)

Anyways here are like two extra svs doodles. I keep thinking about how you said that chuu can fluctuate between genders (literally) and its so… zamn.

And reading the scene where verlaine is brushing chuuya’s hair inspired me to draw this

I have no idea how long chuuya’s hair is supposed to be like idk if it’s “yeah his hair is a little longer than it is in canon haha” or “yeah mf got some LONG ass hair looking like rapunzel”. Also I don’t remember if his lil ribbon was red or blue but.. i jus went with blue and i didn’t know if the pearls were supposed to be like on his head or woven into his braid so i just went with the latter. And again ALSO i know he was barefoot but i’m not drawing his fucking dogs okay.

This ask is long as hell never let me talk again LMAO

Currently looking at a detail i forgot in the drawing… not pointing it out in hopes you don’t notice it either smh but GOD DAMMIT 🤬🤬🤬

DAWG I OPENED THIS YESTERDAY IN SHOCK IA M ALWAYS BLOWN AWAY BY YOUR ASKS AND ART IT MAKES ME FEEL SO LOVED AND SO CRAZY LIKE!?!?! I'M SO GLAD YOU LOVED IT ENOUGH TO MAKE ART I SAVE IT AND LOOK AT IT CONSTANTLY ;_; IM LIKE.....

AND ALSO THANK YOU. I need svs criticism and ur right I should have introduced more characters earlier I just got carried away with skk because...IDK BUT ADAM WAS MY SAVING GRACEE. He was so silly I wanted to add him sooner but I was like wait....no... BUT HE IS IN THE SEQUEL!!! DW!!! His silly ass is there and he's cracking them jokes and Verlaine is like o_o. THE ADAM LINES WERE SO FUN TOO CAUSE HE'S NOT CRINGE HE'S JUST....HIM.

Verlaine is cringe-fail on purpose tho and I'm glad you saw that because I see him as an incredibly pathetic person who can't do normal human things. He would like bite open a metal can or rip it open with his hands because he doesn't know what a can opener is. He is that type of guy.

The art is just immaculate bro like straight-up BEAUTIFUL. Chuuya's literal genderfluidity is something I'm glad people like cause when I imagine divinity I think of someone not bound by sex or gender and whatnot plus I just don't think he'd give a fart. so like....world's most wonderful tits...but he's shorter.

THE WEDDING OUTFIT IS SENDING ME TO THE GRAVE THO LIKE. IT"S PERFECT AND IDK WHAT DETAIL YOU MISSED CAUSE I FORGET EVERYTHING BUT BUT BUT BUT BUT I"M. THE HAIR LENGTH I DIDN"T SPECIFIY !!! He looks so *crying emoji cause I don't have my phone* you don't have to draw his toes I just think barefoot chuu running up the stairs to meet dazai is very him. perseverance.

BOYCACA WHAT IS YOUR TWT LET ME FOLLOW YOU AND BOTHER YOU THERE AND SPREAD THE BOYCACA AGENDA

[wolfstrong]

Buffy season 1 reflection!!!!!!!!!

My feelings on Buffy so far are very complicated because I find it crazy entertaining but there are so many things in the show that I just KNOW are terrible. I really enjoy the character dynamics its probably my favorite thing about the show. I find it endlessly funny that Giles has to hang out with a group of teenagers, and (when xander isn't making it weird) the main group is super cute and funny together. Also really like the setting, highschool shenanigans are always fun and idk it just seems like it would have been very cool to be a teen in the 90s. Also I like monster of the week stuff with a more overarching plot, you can kind of just enjoy things as they come and have the security that it's pretty much always gonna be resolved by the end of the episode. FOR WHAT I DONT LIKE. well "Buffy Speak" is annoying. like I'm getting more used to it and even able to find it charming at some points but BOY when i started the show it was almost making it unwatchable. i can see myself liking it by the end of the series but for now lets just be a little annoyed with it. Other thing that really gets me is the buffy/xander/willow love... line? idk i think i could stand it if xander didn't pine over buffy and wasn't weird to girls because he's very weird to girls. Somehow buffy manages to be like girlboss feminism win while also being the most sexist show every created. and maybe that was just like the era but yeah i don't enjoy watching male characters I'm supposed to like perv out over women.

Character Thoughts

Buffy- shes so awesome like honestly!! i like that she lives this very bad ass life and like we the viewer know how cool she is because we see her do all these bad ass things, but to the rest of the school shes just kinda like this weirdo kid who hangs out in the library. it kind of makes her an honorary fail girl in my opinion. And just her whole attitude of wanting to be a normal teenage girl so when it comes time to slay monsters shes like "ugh. guess its monster slaying time! whatever!" and acts bad ass as hell but doesn't really care. also its just awesome that she is physically super strong. like she will just randomly be punching through walls and doing sick backflips. ugh i love it

Giles- I. LOVE. GILES. im a Giles fangirl all the way like what else is there even to say about it. When he comes on screen I'm just like instantly smiling. funniest character ever invented. And again i just love that he has to hang out with teenagers all the time and sometimes they just like bully him for being old and lame and into books and he's constantly getting beat up and thrown around. yeah i don't even have much to say he's just awesome

Willow - Literally the blueprints for dorky nerdy girls everywhere like what else is there to say. we all know she is literally BEYOND iconic. Shes so cute and smart and charming and like honestly its like. how many girl in media really DO get to just be dorky like its pretty rare i feel like that's why its like. she was the blueprint man.

Xander - ... yes my complicated feelings yes yes. he's soooooo annoying and fail but... you know i like when guys are fail guys.. BUT HES ALMOST TOO FAIL. of course like i already said i hate the way he acts to women and when buffy rejected him and he acted super pissy and like "ugh whatever you only don't like me because you like that chad Angel ugh nice guys always finish last" I literally wanted him dead. so beyond cringe with that kind of behavior. BUT when he's like being sweet and goofy then I'm like.. aw hi funny guy from the 90s lol! and i do think his relationship with willow CAN be super cute cuz idk i just like the whole childhood friends vibe and i like that they have a relationship outside of their time with buffy and its nice to get little glimpses of them together just being buddies. I think the whole situation would be 100% better if xander was pining for willow instead of Buffy and willow was the oblivious one. I am not against their relationship at all i just hate to see willow be the one pinning for him cuz its like girl. you can literally do better okay. you are awesome. whatever. sorry for being a halfway Xander apologist

Cordelia- literal girlboss. every time shes on the screen its a treat. I just love the vibe where she is like?? friends with the main characters kind of? but also just bullies the shit out of them and is so mean in every interaction. see the thing is if they were't friends at all she just wouldn't talk to them or they wouldn't talk to her. but they always end up talking so there is obviously some kind of relationship there. but its just like one where she calls them losers and they are like "alright. well see you next week cordelia" If you are a hater and think shes mean get out of my face shes literally awesome and funny. also in the final when she drove her car thought the school doors... SO . GIRLBOSS. i am very excited to see where her character goes cuz i got the feeling at some point shes gonna turn into some kinda supernatural monster. i just feel it.

Angel - eh lowkey who cares. I am never one to be interested in the mysterious brooding guys its just not my thing. He reminds me of Edward from twilight both in face and attitude and because he's a vampire of course lol

Episodes

Honestly they were all kind of of equal quality. Nothing was so horrible I couldn't stand it they were all just good. One that kind of stood out as a favorite was "I robot, you jane", it was nice to have something more willow focused and it was very funny to see what people thought of the internet back then. Willow kind of online dating a guy was enough to make everyone freak the fuck out. And i really really love the way the demon robot looked. the idea of a demon existing on the web was just a cool idea in general. idk just a cool way of combining the supernatural with tech stuff

idk just look at this guy and tell me this isn't awesome

.... okay then... see yall in season 2!!!

[vaugarde]

continuing to be a dick abt this show i claim to like i know i know but wow uh. they certainly made Choices during the roxie battle

roxie herself was really cool, shes a good character and i love how shes cocky and harsh but still a good sport. while other gym battles in this arc just seemed to be like “lol ash is CRINGE and FAIL” like elesa and hints of that in skyla, there wasn’t any of that here, when he was losing, it didn’t feel like everyone was just kinda watching in secondhand embarrassment, but it didn’t feel like it was drooling over him either. plus no one had to evolve to make it feel climactic which was refreshing. idk its hard to describe but tldr roxie battle managed to avoid a lot of problems i have with other gyms in bw

on the other hand though, that just kinda means it has problems exclusive to it. i feel like this battle is inherently held back by the fact that it so obviously wasn’t supposed to be the last gym. not bc its only there to promote bw2, but like… cmon, iris being his companion this route HAD to have been made with opelucid gym plans in mind, right? but now we gotta rush over to virbank, hit pokestar studios, and now the second gym leader in the sequel is his final boss. like thematically, that’s just weird because while we know that gyms can be challenged in any order in the anime, we still expect ash to have a similar journey to those playing the game. idk if im wording this right but like, i remember being 11 when i first saw this episode and being confused when i encountered roxie so early in the actual game.

and yeah this has been mentioned, but the 3v6 that he barely won by rng was not a good decision. it feels like it was done to make the gym feel more climactic, and while it does succeed in that at least, not only does it make ash look worse than he should for this point (ok i promise im not one of those guys who thinks ash should be hashtag hardcore and the strongest ever, hes allowed to struggle, but this is literally the season 1 finale and the climax to the gym arc. they could stand to make him semi competent.)

but the pacing felt really off, like with koffing, it took out boldore really quick, then unfezant gets kinda hyped up to be the one to knock it out, then it really quickly gets shoved aside so leavanny can rush in and knock it out really quickly. and then scolipede only takes two pokemon to take down in comparison? that doesn’t make sense my dude

and then boom, yet another reason why the rotation team is a bad idea and the anime shouldnt do it- ash uses his full team to “spotlight how far he’s come” supposedly. but then his team is boldore, unfezant, leavanny, pignite, palpitoad, and pikachu? only two of those guys have had consistent screentime and victories throughout the season and this is far from his best unova team. i literally forget boldore exists, i think hes shown it less than five times since it evolved at this point? this is not a unova allstar team thats grown and matured and bonded over a season, this is a group of guys that occasionally hang out once a month out of obligation.

idk. best wishes certainly is an arc where the writers sure did make decisions.

[freytful]

Hello! Could you tell me more about the blorbo from your profile pic? I know he's a bird guy from fe but I want to hear your thoughts (sorry if blorbo is cringe but I wanted to emphasize the tone lol)

!!!! YEAH SURE

okok reyson is from Fe 9/10 (the games with ike) and in those there are these species of magic animal people called laguz, and hes from the Heron tribe, which is like. calm and mystical and also can sing to make people move again which is always a great skill.

HOWEVER like 20 years ago the heron tribe was genocided. And hes been living with the allied Hawk tribe since, with, of course Tibarn. And, unlike what a heron is supposed to be, he is angry. Hes this character defined by being physically pathetically weak - he literally cannot fight - and yet absolutely refusing to act like it. He has a whole thing about Tibarn, whos huge and bulky and powerful where they read like boyfriends, esp in fe10, but he also clearly, desperately wants that power for himself, and wants to be like tibarn, despite it being impossible. Its the gender envy/attraction dialectics!!! But also the grief over his people and wanting to be strong enough to protect people!! Theres this to me absolutely soulcrushing scene where hes damseled for a while and he punches his captor and while it breaks olivers nose it also breaks all the bones in his hand. and its kind of supposed to be a joke but i just. idk. He canonically considered suicide because he couldn't be like tibarn. Thats a canon fact about him.

And yet hes already strong hes just support... hes one of the most useful units in the game... He seems to accept this in game - his supports where he confides with Ike are optional and kinda difficult to get but Theyre Important To Me and in them its clear that hes getting better... and while i have a couple complaints about his portrayal in fe10 his relationship with Tibarn in that is,,, chefs kiss. Im p sure they actually got together during that timeskip because their whole vibe seems to much easier afterwards. Despite this he maintains some of that Anger and drive that i love so much and he gets to find two of the siblings he thought were lost and find hope in life and i just,,, hes important 2 me.

Also theres a piece of dialogue you basically cant get in normal gameplay that vaguely implies that his husband and his brothers wife are fucking and i dont know what to do with that information so here you go

[fujimen]

Hi. Józef. Hand him over 🤲🏼

(Tell us anything about him! Is he from an original story of yours? What is his role? His age? Anything you want!) ☺️

Ok ok so, first off - his name was originally Yuji but it evolved into Józef (Yuzew actually, but calling him Józef doesn't give an eyestrain to people not used to it) due to my messy handwriting - the way I wrote it it looked like Yuzi which sounds similar to Józio which is a diminutive to Józef. My cousin and sister made fun of that and it sticked.

He's from my original """"story"""" if you can call it that - its literally a sandbox for my OCs to play in with a cringe-ass-not-even-trying-to-be-something-more plot. I've created him when I was like 10-11 years old and originally he was supposed to be a son of Tenten and Neji XDD basically that story was supposed to be a Naruto spin-off kind of shit (now it really has nothing in common with it). But anyways. He's the apple of my eye and that kinda goes with being the mainest of main characters. The main cast consists of my 4 OCs and he's the muscle of the group, due to his superpower being the Power Of A Beat Down™. Because he's actually a demon. Yeah. Look, I told you its cringe. I thought a lot about giving him an element-based superpower but none of that didn't really suit him. So swift and merciless beatdown it is (or as I call it in polish - 'moc wpierdolu').

His age...... lmao back when I was younger I was like "yeah... he's 17. Thats such a mature age" but now that I'm older I just can't do it to him, you know. So I've changed his age to above 20, I don't really have an exact number.

He doesn't have a half of his left ear because I really wanted and NEEDED to humble him. That story is with me since 3rd or 4th grade, his character evolved from a courteous smart boy to an evil little shit that was so full of himself, showing off constantly. So I grew up and did what I had to do - gave him a cool permanent bodypart loss (if you can call an ear that. I blew it off) that I really like to accentuate whenever I draw him and I've also reworked his character so it doesn't change with the gust of wind and is more or less consistent (he's still edgy tho, I can't take that away from him). Gave him love for tomatos while I'm a tomato hater, peak character design right there

What else.. he can lie without batting an eye and he immediately goes beet red when flustered in any degree. He has a constantly judging, looking-right-through-you stare. And a stick up his ass. Awkward as hell. Swears like a sailor too (I thought I gave him a normal or slightly above average amount of profanities in his speech pattern but my friend told me 'he's so vulgar haha' and they were actually so right. That man won't hesitate to swear when he really doesn't need to). He's ugly but I still draw him like a sexyman or some shit. Thick and bushy brows, massive widows peak, permanent dark bags under his eyes, long and strong slavic nose (at least in my head, my artstyle can't really do justice to everything I imagine). Bored&fed up grimace on his face at all times. Literally an edgy red&black coded OC. He's tall as hell, like ~190cm and has a light muscular build.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to infodump about him 🥹

As an endnote here's a quick drawing of how he changed during the years

[siren--squid]

i need to know your south park opinions/hot takes/whatever you want to say about south park

My biggest opinion on South Park is to just let the fandom do whatever they want with the characters honestly, and I don't mean like bad shit or weird shit with the kids. Obviously.

I mean like, normal fan shit.

Like, if someone wants to write a fanfiction where Eric Cartman was an awful and terrible child of literally eight years old but grows up and gets better and actually ends up as a sweet guy then just let them, if people want to ship things like kyman then literally who cares? Especially if they're doing the redemption arc Cartman thing.

If people want to draw anime teenage versions of the boys then who cares, it's actually really funny

Gender and sexuality HCs? Awesome, everyone everywhere does that, yet I've seen people say it's "just cringe" with this fandom? Yeah, this is FANDOM of course it's cringe, "but the show itself would make fun of-" nobody cares! The show makes fun of EVERYTHING dude! Have fun! You think Stan Marsh is a girl? Awesome! Butters as well? Epic!

This is SOUTH PARK. Go crazy.

If you personally disagree with something or dislike it, then just move on. Who cares if people are doing cringey fandom shit with the adult comedy cartoon. Who cares if they're shipping Cartman with people. Seriously it's never that deep

Unless people are doing harmful and dangerous shit, it's fine. Like, it's kinda funny??

Side note, because its funny as fuck:

I've been watching this show since I was the age of the main characters, I've been in the fandom since we were drawing Kenny as a lanky anime boy with purple eyes. I remember being like.. maybe seven at MOST sitting on my dads carpet while he watched this show and i played with littlest pet shops.

I remember those slide show fanart music videos of twink anime boy Kenny to "time of dying" by three days grace. This fuckin show introduced me to three days grace lmfao

I've seen some wild shit around here, the uwu-ification of Kyle for weird Style shipping purposes, etcetera etcetera. But this shit is literally so.. normal, in fandom spaces?? Yeah it's weird or silly or something but, meh.

I cosplayed Wendy to my first day of fifth grade.

I wore a neon pink jacket almost identical to Kennys in middle school. This show is like fucking stuck with me for life lmfao

I made a paper cut out of Kenny and another of Tweek and glued them to popsicle sticks and carried them around everywhere when I was a kid. (My dad hated those things, "perfect show for a kid to be watching" as if he didn't introduce it to me)

Whenever my mom lost me outside she'd do the "Oh my god, they killed Kenny" thing to find me, but I wasn't allowed to swear as a kid so I couldn't finish the line, I'd just run to her.

This show is a special interest for my autistic ass and it really, really shows. I stopped in my tracks in a Walmart to buy hats that reminded me of Craig, when I was supposed to buy new shoes and pants. (I did not, in fact, buy shoes.)

[pepprs]

ok update i just finished making my card and i said / drew (lol) basically everything i wanted to say in it (except for the things i definitely can’t say now that this is happening lol). so i think maybe i might be ok with not saying what i want to say directly to her. but then when i say that im not ok with it at all LOLLLL so i think i need to sleep on it and maybe see what tomorrow brings

[harringtonspolaroids]

omg ok so robin x popular! reader where she’s a cheerleader who robin thought was out of her league (and straight) but they both just have massive crushes on each other

a/n: anon this literally took me out of my writers block ty ty i loved this sm 🙏🙏 also the ending kinda sucks but its wtv !!

word count: 1054

warnings: light cursing, this is not proofread

𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐞 | 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐞𝐲

Robin sighed as she watched you walk right in front of her, with the rest of the cheer squad onto the gym’s floor.

She tried to look uninterested, like she merely thought the team's dancing and efforts to draw the crowds attention was just decent. But Robin couldn’t help but look at you. The way your smile seemed to brighten the entire room, the way you waved your arms and jumped around laughing, shaking those ridiculous green and white pom poms. She thought you looked like the most gorgeous girl in Hawkins, hell, maybe even in all of Indiana. 

Then the basketball team walked out onto the floor. 

You so clearly liked them. Robin watched you try to hide your embarrassment of being singled out by one of the team players, as he sent you a wink. Robin rolled her eyes at his pathetic attempts to flirt, but she couldn’t deny that was partly jealousy. She wanted to be the one who made you get all nervous, she wanted to be the one you liked, not some ugly basketball player that probably reeked of trashy cologne and was a total pig. 

Robin just faked a smile and continued playing her trumpet. It was ridiculous to think that you would ever like her, even as a friend. You were too good for her.

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

You let out a laugh, as the guy whose name you had kind of already forgotten, continued rattling on about a party you’d skipped over the weekend. 

In reality, you weren’t paying attention to him. Your locker was at the perfect location, right in front of the band room, allowing you to peer inside. Sure the people you mostly associated with thought they were all a bunch of dorks and losers, but you thought they had substance. Specifically the girl with the short hair and raspy voice. You had never gotten her name. All you knew was that she was pretty, and nice, and funny. Or at least you hoped so. You didn’t really talk.

“See you Friday?” the boy looked nervous, and you didn’t even remember what plans you had agreed to.

“Of course, I’ll see you then, buddy!” You cringed slightly at your use of the phrase, but Jesus Christ you had no idea how to let him down easily.

You watched as he left, some disappointment in his eyes. 

Robin walked out of the band room, her backpack slung over her shoulder, as she held her trumpet case in her hand. She hated having practice because you would always be right outside, close enough that if she wanted to she could just talk to you, yet still out of reach. Yet it seemed that today, you would be closer to her than before. 

“Ohhhhh, shit, I’m so sorry-” Robin stammered as she knelt to the floor picking up the instrument’s case.

“No- no- it’s my fault I totally tripped you- on accident of course, I never would've wanted to trip you on purpose it’s just that I wasn’t looking.” You rambled on kneeling on the floor to help pick up some sheet music that had also fallen onto the floor.

You looked up over at her, as your hands met when you reached for a paper. “Oh, is this supposed to be for the next game?”

“I’m sorry what?” Robin's mouth felt dry, she couldn’t believe she was standing in your sheer presence and now you were talking to her and touching her hand? It felt unreal. 

You waved the paper in the air as you handed it to her, “Is it the music for the basketball game, next week?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s uhm, supposed to be for the next game- you already knew that though because you just said it and of course you are going to be at the next game because you, well cheer and- and I- I cannot shut up holy shit… I’m sorry. You probably don’t,” Robin cleared her throat, “want to hear me talk that much. Shutting up now.” Robin let out a nervous laugh. She was so convinced she had ruined everything, even the chance of you becoming friends or even just people who you talked to in the hallway. 

“It’s totally okay, don’t worry about it. It’s actually kinda cute.” 

Robin was sure she looked like a deer standing in front of headlights. Her brain was definitely fried from pulling all nighters and drinking too much coke. There was no way you just called her “cute”. 

Calling her “cute” was totally different from you calling her “nice” or “friendly” or even “not as annoying as everyone said.” And there was also no way you were actually flirting with her. Or were you? 

Robin’s mind felt like it was running a thousand miles a second.

You could feel what you thought was an uncomfortable silence. Maybe Robin didn’t get your hint. “Hey you know what I just remembered? I’m supposed to come up with a new routine for the girls on the team- its a whole thing- but, I was thinking, maybe I could come over and practice at your place on Friday and you could serve as the music? It’s silly, I know but-”

“It’s not silly at all, it sounds like a great idea. I love it, but are you sure you don’t have plans with your boyfriend?” It was Robin’s last ditch effort to confirm that you were in fact into girls.

“I don’t have a boyfriend. I’m actually not really looking for a boyfriend right now,” you said, trying to enunciate the boy part of it all. 

Robin’s eyes were wide open as she got your message, “Oh! Okay, then yeah it totally works for me, I can swing by later and give you my place…”

“So it’s a date?” you asked hopefully.

Robin swallowed, “Yeah. A date.” 

You smiled and squeezed Robin’s arm, “I can’t wait.” 

Robin watched you float down the hall, a new bounce in your step as you headed over to a group of girls Robin wasn’t really a fan of. ‘A date’. The words echoed in Robin’s mind. She was going on a date with you. It felt truly unreal. Yet somehow, a part deep inside of Robin felt like it was meant to be. It was just you and her.

[heartshapedbubble]

Hello again! I requested the spring heated wine headcannons! I wanted to request another luchino fic/headcannon but something angsty if you're comfortable ^^

I just love angst lol -🍄

oh my god i was supposed to finish this yesterday but i literally got lost ?? and spent like an hour walking outside in the rain without an umbrella and my phone on 1% until i found my way back but um anyways hi im back and i hope this fic is good enough anon🤲 sorry for the wait

the person i once knew, a luchino diruse oneshot🦎

art creds: @/micro_menbow on twt

not proofread woo!!!, cw: mentions of blood and syringes/injections/needles, this one is kinda cringe tbh i hope its good enough anon, reader's gender not specified, a little less italian pet names than usual, luchino is a cocky little shit and i love him, yet another fic i did in samsung notes yas slay, the formatting is weird but im too lazy to fix it so uhh yet another slay i guess?

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

"Looks pretty charming, right?" The brunette man was beaming with excitement.

You two just arrived at the small, fishing village, where you were appointed to do some research on reptiles. The shack that was supposed to be your shelter for the week wasn't in the best condition - the roof had a couple holes in it and some of the windows were broken, but it was clear that it didn't matter to Luchino, your research partner. As he was excitedly inspecting the shack, the combination of damp air and annoying mosquitoes left you exhausted to the point you laid down onto your luggage to catch a breath.

"Well, if you call that ruin charming, I guess our research will be done in no time." You laughed. "Phew. As if housing is the most important thing about our mission!" You rolled your eyes - he put on the oh-so-high-and-mighty voice again. "This is a great opportunity to explore and find new species. Just look at the conditions! Perfect for finding various reptiles and snakes."

"Okay, okay, ramble all you want, but first, let's go inside and set everything up." You knew that once you start an argument with him, it never ends. But as much as he annoyed you with his stubbornness, it definetly was a valuable trait for his profession.

As you clacked with various bottles and equipment, you saw him already putting on his coat and gloves and preparing himself to head outside.

"But, Luchino, you barely ate today, you can't just go outside like that! I know you're excited but-"

It was obvious he wasn't listening. "Yeah, okay, I'm just going to go outside and check the surroundings! No exploring or anything." He basically rushed out of the house. Not much could be done except roll your eyes - but, oh well, it gave you enough time to prepare your microscopes and books.

A few hours passed. You already did a big part of the job - took notes about your previous researches, set up the petri dishes, labeled various sample bags and what not. There was so much to be done and it occupied you to the point you just forgot that Luchino even left. Him sprinting into the house took away the peace you just got to enjoy. He was ecstatic, his eyes twinkling and him doing weird hand motions.

"Okay, ___, you won't believe what happened! I ran into the university colleagues, who happened to be on vacation a couple of miles away from the village, and they told me they have something that might help our research, a snake actually, and that it might be the rarest and most fascinating specimen we-" He spoke so quickly you barely understood him and ran out of breath.

"Oookay. Now slow down and try again - what happened?"

"Our colleagues offered to give us a snake - no, lizard - they think might help our research a lot, they said that it's not like any other species we researched before"

"Give it to us? No payment or anything?"

"Nope. Not a cent."

The new situation made you think. It all just sounded too good to be true. And you knew that said colleagues were not the most generous people, so what led them to such an offer?

"I... don't know. Something smells fishy there. I'd recommend you being extra careful."

"So you're in?"

"I mean, I guess, but-"

"Alright! Perfect! I'll get it tommorrow then."

He headed straight to bed, not even willing to drink some tea with you.

"And the surroundings, Luchino? You said you'd check them ou-" "They're fine! Just a regular lake or swamp area. Nothing special." He turned his face towards the wall and covered himself up with the blanket. You sighed - the situation occupied his brain and now nothing was on his mind except it. It was a common occurence and something you constantly scolded him for in the university's laboratories, but this time it worried you more than usual.

You tried to shake off your anxiety. I mean, it's just some weird snake, apparently, It can't be that bad....

Can it?

the next morning

You stabbed your dry, canned food with a fork. You couldn't decide if it was the weird flavour or the whole reptile situation that took away your appetite. Luchino said that he'd be back in an hour, but it seemed like years and years have passed. "Maybe for the better", you thought to yourself. The dizziness and nausea that your anxiety caused you were already present and it wasn't just something you could shrug off as usual.

"I have it!" The sudden scream shook you out of your trance as Luchino burst through the door yet again, holding the little cage like it was a trophy of sorts. He gently put it on the table as you tried to get a peek of the creature that hid inside it.

Your anxiety was put aside as curiosity won over.

He grabbed a key from his pocket and nervously opened the cage. A small snake crawled out of it - no, a lizard? You leaned in to get a closer look. The little animal had the body of a snake, but the scales were unusually big and tough. It also had something that looked like small limbs growing out of it.

"What the hell did you bring here? What kind of peculiar animal is this?"

"Good question! I have no idea." He gently opened his fist in front of the animal as it crawled onto his palm, his fingers gently petting the scaled surface. "But, this little guy sure is something. Apparently he grows limbs and other parts of his body, not just the tail. When i picked him up, he was just a snake - but look at him now! His legs are growing already." He picked up his notebook and the quill and started sketching the snake-lizard on the first empty page he opened. "Even if we don't know what he is exactly, he's certainly helping us out during our research. Actually, I'm pretty sure we're at an advantage over everyone else right now!" The little creature gently rubbed its head against his arm, as if it just understood what he said.

"Ah, well, I guess you'll be so occupied with it to the point I won't be needed to complete the work?" You rolled your eyes. Luchino and you were always bickering at work and always wanted to do things by themselves, but you couldn't ever say you hated him. In fact, you cared for him, a lot. He was someone you used to look up to before you applied for your job, and he still is, even though you hate to admit it. Even with his (sometimes) unbearable attitude, he was a very charming man, in his own peculiar way.

"Oh, no, your help will definetly be needed! And well appreciated, too. I'll just... take care of the little guy." The animal was back in its cage. "Now, go to sleep, ___, I could bet you're very tired already."

the next morning

"Morning, ___."

Luchino's voice made you turn your head. He was standing at the door yet again.

"Oh, hey, Luchino. Let me guess, you went out again without me, right? And probably did most of the job again?"

"Well, I didn't want you wake you up or anything.."

You suddenly noticed his weird mannerisms. He was hiding his arm behind his back, and the cage wasn't easily visible either. His expression didn't help him much anyway, since he looked like he just bit into a lemon.

"Luchino, could you show me the reptile again?" You mumbled, waiting for the response. You wanted to bait out as much information as possible.

The man just sighed and sat down next to you.

"Well, here's the thing."

He placed the cage on the desk. It was empty, and the lock was hanging loose on the side.

"How? Where? Did you lose it?"

"In a way, yes. I decided to go out with the little fellow, you know, to see how he reacts to the habitat and to see what exactly he eats, but when I let him out of the cage and went to set up the sample bags, he..."

He then showed you the arm he has been hiding since he entered. The pale skin of his wrist has been penetrated by the animal's fangs, leaving a sickly green color around the wound.

"Oh god, are you okay? Is it venomous? I may have a bottle of antidote laying around somewhere.." you mumbled as you grabbed his wrist to get a closer look. You traced your fingers over it, causing the man to shiver.

"I doubt so. I... actually never got bit by a snake or any reptile since I was always cautious around them, but it seems like I was too carefree this time..."

"The animal escaped, right?"

"Yep. Ran away right after the bite. Guess we can forget about being at an advantage."

Damn it! The chance you two had slipped right out of your hands. "Ugh. Well, it seems like we'll have to resort to basic research." You knew it was too good to be true. While rummaging through your medicine kit, you found some bandages, and gently wrapped them around Luchino's wrist.

"Here. It's all I have. At this point you can just pray that it's not venomous"

"Thank you."

You stood up, heading towards the cupboard where you stored various serums and other concoctions. Some bottles spilled over and created a sticky, intoxicating mixture that was pouring down the wooden door of the cupboard.

Your partner drummed the desk with his fingers, seemingly lost in thought.

"Did you know that he didn't have fangs when I first got him?"

The question snapped you out of your little chore.

"What?"

"The animal grew fangs today in the morning. I had no idea how, since yesterday he barely had them."

"Well, they weren't lying when they said that it's a very interesting specimen.."

"Truly. A wonder of evolution, if you will..."

three days later

If you could go back, you'd probably bite your tongue over what you thought about Luchino. Looking back at it, you were a bit ashamed of it... especially considering he hasn't been around recently. It was incredibly lonely, to say the least. He woke up before you, and arrived back to the shack when you were already long asleep. He didn't eat, didn't talk to you, yet you always woke up with a cup of coffee on the table and your desk tidied up for work.

However, you thought of a plan. You knew he'd probably hate your guts for it, and that taking in that much caffeine would probably keep you awake for the following 3 days, but your curiosity was stronger than your morals. What could he possibly be doing?

You were on your sixth cup of coffee, your heart beating like crazy while you were curled up in your bed, waiting for Luchino to arrive.

Almost as if you manifested him, he appeared, gently locking the door after entering. The lantern sitting near the door wasn't enough to fully illuminate his slender figure. He slowly went into the working room, sitting by the desk and slowly shutting the door. You waited for some time before getting up.

Since the keyhole was stuffed with cotton, you pressed your ear against the rotting wooden door, trying to make out the words he mumbled.

"Scales...Need...More venom...Experimental...."

It was a horrible idea, really, but you slowly opened the door a bit, praying to whatever gods out there that it doesn't creak.

You had to look twice to reassure yourself that yes, you're indeed seeing what you think you are - parts of Luchino's skin were covered in tough, green scales, his shirt torn in the front to reveal his bare, scale-covered chest. He wore an eyepatch above his eye, but you could make out some green blotches hiding behind it. The syringe he was holding was full of green liquid with honey-like consistency. You gulped watching him precisely aim the vein with the needle, injecting the thick mixture into his bloodstream. The eye bags under his eyes were not something easily ignored, but they definetly didn't take away the smug grin he had on his face. His disheveled, tired appearance and the way he maneuvered with the syringe made him look like some lunatic.

"Luchino...?"

Your whisper was enough to kick him out of his trance, his eyes opening wide upon seeing you.

"___! What..are you doing here? Shouldn't you be asleep?"

"I propose a better question - What the hell is happening to you?" You approached him and tapped the exposed scales, the rough surface scratching your fingertips.

He only chuckled in response.

"Well, my dear ___, we might be reptile-less, but now, we have something much better...", he said as he victoriously raised his scaled arm, showing it off. You also saw black claws replacing his nails, making his hands look predator-like.

"And by that you mean?"

"We have me."

"I... still have no idea what's going on."

He propped himself up and put his legs on the table. "Well, after the bite, I managed to suck out most of the venom", he spoke as he spinned the syringe between his fingers as if it was a majorette's baton, "but I noticed some very...interesting side effects from the bite, such as those scales you see on my body right now. This might be the best thing to happen - as much as I was concerned at first, this is a miracle! Using me as a test subject, we could potentionally evolve the human race to have bulletproof skin or something!" He didn't seem to care about your concerned expression. This all seemed so insane, so inhuman that you started shaking and couldn't withold yourself anymore.

"Do you even hear yourself when you speak? You're batshit insane, Luchino! This transformation you're enduring is nothing natural, in fact, I'm 100% sure it was caused by some form of witchcraft! I know it's inevitable but please! Stop making the problem even bigger!" You unleashed your anger upon him, waving your hands around as you felt your face heat up. Luchino looked at you unphased as he waved the injection around.

"You're making such a big deal out of all this, amore. I know you are concerned, but please, trust me on this one. I might look different, but I'm the same old Luchino, trust me." He said with a soft voice, you could even say he said it mockingly. As he glared at you he carelessly aimed the needle at his vein yet again without even looking, the liquid pulsing as he pushed the plunger. You felt nauseous just looking at him parade with the venomous substance, let alone injecting it.

"God, you have always been so stubborn... ugh, okay, fine, I'll let you be, but stop with the fucking pet names, damn! Where did you even get those from..." He just smiled at your little angry fit.

a week later

It was about time you two presented your work - you luckily managed to stop Luchino from handing in the notes he made about the changes on his body though. The university decided to hold a small banquet in order to celebrate the successful researches.

Luchino sat beside you by the dining table, your concealer hiding the scaly skin, and bandages covering what the concealer couldn't. He was visibly nervous, and to be honest, you weren't really calm either. You could see him discreetly pull out the syringe again from under the table.

"Put it down! At least wait until the banquet ends", you hissed at him as you smacked his hand. "Okay, jeez, it's not like anyone would notice..." he groaned as he put it back in his pocket.

Suddenly he stood up. "I'm going to go outside, I desperately need some fresh air", he mumbled to himself. You tagged along with him.

He picked up the syringe yet again and injected it, his nervousness seemingly disappearing as he sighed out of relaxation. You zoned out, staring at the rain that soaked the nearby park and washing all the vibrant colors off for a short while.

"I also wanted to thank you for your work", he suddenly murmured, "sorry for getting preoccupied with my own research. That was selfish of me."

Your glared at him, suddenly mellowing out - from your two years of knowing him, one thing you were sure about was that he wasn't the type to shower everyone with praise.

"Oh... you're welcome", you stumbled over your own words, stuttering as you felt your face turn red, "...but I mean, you provided me with coffee everyday, and tidied up my desk and everything, so I mean, all those succesful researches were also thanks to your care-"

"That's nothing compared to your work, compagno" he grinned as he stood up straight. "I knew you were the right one."

"Wait, what?

"Oh, you don't know how the headmaster set up the research teams?"

"No??"

"Oh well. Basically, I was the one who asked him to pair me with you."

"What?!"

You were red in the face, staring at him. He just curiously tilted his head.

"But... why?"

"I wanted to use the time we'd have during our research to bond with you. I admire your work a lot, even though we constantly bicker. Sadly, the situation was unexpected, as you know. Sorry for being so selfish."

He took one step further, and now he was standing right in front of you. You never really noticed the height difference between you two, but god, was it prominent now that you looked at it.

"I... really like you, ___."

His hand gently grabbed your cheek, carressing it. His claws slowly scratched your face, but it didn't matter.

"Woah... did it hurt your dignity to finally admit this?"

"Oh god, shut up."

You laughed.

"The feeling is mutual, Luchino."

He bit his lip.

"So, does that mean that I can...?"

"Go ahead."

He gently tilted your head with his cold hand, softly pressing his lips against yours.

The warmth of his lips was everything to you. No matter his scales, his claws, low body temperature and all the inhuman traits now present, the hot sensation that unfolded once he kissed you reminded you of how human he was. You lost yourself in the moment, slowly reaching for his hair and playing with it as he put his other hand on your back.

"I love you too, Luchino."

two weeks later

Perhaps this was the happiest you've ever felt in a long time - your relationship with Luchino was blossoming, and your chemistry improving with every second you two spent together. The usual bickering also wasn't as common - who would have thought?

It was almost midnight, and you were patiently waiting in front of your beloved's door. He said he'd pick you up in a minute, but it has been over half an hour without a trace of him - you started biting your nails out of anxiety, contemplating if you should enter his home. You didn't know if he lived with anyone, either.

"Luchi?" You quietly called him, knowing that it was in vain. You picked up the courage to knock one, two times, and the third time was seemingly a charm.

"Amore, I... please, go home. I'm sorry. I think we should put off our date for now." His voice sounded strained, almost like he was in great pain. You didn't let it slip, knowing something was up.

"Stay put. Is everything okay?" you mumbled as you decided to push the door. It was unlocked, and all lights in the house have been turned off. Everything was veiled by darkness, except the pale blue moonlight illuminating the corners through the open windows.

You anxiously stepped in, the floorboards creaking with every step you made. The volume of his voice indicated that he was in his workroom, in the corner of it. Suddenly, you heard a loud crack coming from beneath your feet.

"Scales?"

You were right. A thin silk-like fold of shedded skin was lying on the floor. The moonlight beam shining on it made it glisten like a polished diamond. As you glanced at the skin, you noticed more of it laying around the floor, all seemingly leading to Luchino. This wasn't good.

You cautiously continued walking, avoiding the scales dragged around the house. Finally, you found yourself in front of your partner's door. His muted groans behind the door worried you even more.

You gently opened the door, not prepared for the sight.

He was laying on the floor, his body seemingly semi-paralyzed as his shaky arm covered his face.

"Tesoro, please, stay away before I hurt you, please, for your own safety..."

You slowly approached him, gently moving the arm away from his face.

He had a painful grimace on his face, his head shaking as his other eye turned into a reptile's, the tough scales tightening the surrounding flesh. He pushed himself away from you with his hand. Droplets of cold sweat poured down from his forehead to his chin.

"You... shouldn't see me like this. Go away, please, leave me!" His cries were interrupted by another layer of scales growing out of his body. You could hear him whimper as blood started staining his shirt.

You wanted to run, wanted to help him, but you couldn't. You froze, your legs paralyzing and your jaw dropping. You could only watch him cry in agony as he squirmed with each transformation. He was helpless, and there was nothing that you could do for him.

"Luchino?" You finally mustered out a word, waking up from your frozen state.

It was funny, and you knew it. The creature standing in front of you was no longer the Luchino you knew. Its eyes were deprived of your beloved's usual curiousity - instead, all you could see was bloodlust. The lizard-like monster hissed, slowly approaching you. You tried to run, escape to save your life - but it was faster than you. His hand gripped your waist, the claws stabbing into your skin and drawing blood, making you scream. There was no escape.

You tried to squirm from the tight grip he held you in - you even tried to bite him. All your attempts to escape were interrupted by a rusted blade stabbing into your abdomen, paralyzing you. Trying to speak through the sea of blood building up in your mouth, aching and writhing while the pain was becoming unbearable, you let out your pathetic last words:

"Please...let me die a painless death."

[blockgamepirate]

Technoblade’s purpose in the political narrative of the Dream SMP

I can’t sleep so I decided to finally write the post I’ve been struggling with for literal months, except way more casual because I can’t be bothered anymore and also I’m sleep deprived.

So the thing is: to me the DSMP storyline has always been primarily political, probably because I was introduced to it through Wilbur who was definitely going for political, and also because I’m just generally interested in political narratives right now. Obviously I appreciate the character work and the personal relationship stuff, that’s what makes it more interesting than just dry allegory, but when it comes down to it, this story is about politics to me. So that’s the angle I’m going to approach it from.

Also not to spoil the conclusions here, but I’m an anarchist, that’s my lens.

(Obviously all of this is about rp from here on out unless otherwise specified)

Basically the situation as Techno joins the server is this: L'Manburg exists as an autonomous nation and is de facto independent although not officially recognised by the Dream SMP. The self-appointed president Wilbur Soot decides to hold an election and rig it in order to consolidate his power over the nation he founded and he gets his VP Tommyinnit to join in on the plan. Their scheme fails and they end up voted out instead. The new president, Schlatt, immediately establishes himself as an authoritarian figure and exiles Wilbur and Tommy.

A couple of points on what the election arc demonstrates:

1: the appearance of democracy can be used for distinctly undemocratic purposes.

2: even if the elections aren’t rigged, the electoral system could be massively flawed and end up favouring a party that in fact didn’t have the popular vote

3: even if the winning government (the coalition in this case) has the majority vote, that doesn’t guarantee that they’ll actually act according to the popular will.

4: the supporters of the losing parties basically just have to let the majority overrule their wishes, espcially since apparently L’Manburg doesn’t have an established role for an opposition, yikes. That’s actually a MAJOR oversight in the system but I’m not gonna go into that too much.

5: frankly as an anarchist I am just deeply cynical towards representative democracy, and just because you have a token appearance of choice and consent doesn’t mean that it isn’t a hierarchical and authoritarian system. And to be fair, from my point of view this applies even to so-called liberal democracies and progressive parties. Full disclosure: even if L'Manburg was the ideal example of a representative democracy (which it very much isn’t) I would still be opposed to it because I fundamentally do not believe in top down systems, even electoral ones.

6: despite all these flaws, all the characters seem to implicitly accept the electoral system as legitimate. There’s criticism against the actions of individual characters acting within the system, such as Quackity calling out Wilbur for trying to rig the election, but nobody is questioning the system itself.

So at this point I’m sitting there, watching all this go down, and thinking “man, this would be so much more bearable if there was an anarchist point of view being represented in the story.”

And hey, look who IMMEDIATELY SHOWS UP.

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, early installation Technoblade is not the best representation of anarchism. I was mostly rooting for him out of sheer contrarianism initially. I didn’t really even care if it would be another Killmonger/Magneto/Zaheer situation because I’m used to reading against the authorial intent when it comes to these things. Sometimes any representation is better than no representation, even with political ideologies. That’s not to say that him just straight up spouting this hobbesian notion of a “dog-eat-dog world” didn’t grate on me, obviously it did.

That kind of worldview of humanity needing authority in order to prevent chaos and conflict is literally antithetical to anarchism and is the favourite talking point of authoritarians, the least anarchist people there are. It’s literally what people use to argue AGAINST anarchism. I think it’s mostly because cc!Techno obviously wasn’t particularly educated on anarchist thought and was just basically having fun roleplaying with his friends at this point. Which is frustrating but fair enough I guess.

Cynical ideas about human nature are pretty deeply rooted in the mainstream, unfortunately, most people just consider it common sense. And like I said, it’s a huge talking point in the propaganda against anarchism.

(… even though in fact these arguments were originally used against proponents of representative democracy. Hobbes himself was very much a monarchist, the idea of letting normal people vote for their representatives would have been terrifying to him. Like surely the world would descent into a free-for-all war, all against all. Imagine letting commoners have OPINIONS, the horror.)

So yeah, that stuff was pretty ehhhhh. It was basically what I’d expected though: cc!Techno isn’t an anarchist and we just don’t get accurate representation from non-anarchists, ever. What I dared to hope was that Techno’s character would at least stay consistent about his opposition to ALL governments. I was pretty sure that he would, even though it seemed like the majority of the fandom at the time was convinced that he would switch over to Schlatt’s side or something. It would have been a really shitty twist, I would have ragequit immediately. I mean what would have been the entire point of his character then? He might as well have been a random mercenary. Why even have his character be an anarchist if you were just going to make him work for a government?

(ftr this is kinda my biggest problem with the Hypixel Skyblock revolution event lol, honestly I think that was a worse depiction of anarchism than early DSMP Technoblade. I mean the speech was good, but… still became a government official, tho. booooooooo, cringe)

And yes, I was rooting against L'Manburg, obviously, and I would have even if it had meant having to deal with another badly written anarchist villain character. I never understood why people saw L'Manburg as the good guys, they were nationalist and exclusionary and their whole existence was based on trying to scam people for money.

I mean they were definitely funny, they were great entertainers. I have no problems with people rooting for them because they’re fun to watch; I did that for a bit too. But people were starting to get really into the story and talk about Wilbur and Tommy, the corrupt politicians, and the country that literally excluded people based on nationality as the heroes, unironically, which was wild to me. And when Wilbur started his “villain arc” well: people called it a villain arc, as if he hadn’t been pretty much a bad guy from the beginning, constantly just out for money and power and taking advantage of the people around him and then pretending to be the victim when challenged. I mean yes he got worse, but I wouldn’t call it a villain arc, more like just a mental breakdown arc.

More importantly, to me L'Manburg represented so many things I hate about the status quo in real life, and seeing the fandom mostly unquestioningly accept it as good just pissed me off. Still pisses me off tbh. I mean, to be diplomatic I could say that I understand the emotional attachment and the way L'Manburg was built up mirrors a lot of how real nations are built and how they create a sense of patriotism out of symbols and a sense of honour and loyalty, and it’s actually really fascinating how it even works in a Minecraft roleplay. Says something about the human mind I guess. Doesn’t mean I have to like it though.

Anyway, I just wanted to see literally any kind of opposition to power, even if it had to come from a character that was unquestionably a villain, which I fully assumed Techno would be. Because political narratives so often just leave us out, or at best barely mention us. And even from a narrative point of view, adding an anarchist perspective to a political story just objectively broadens its scope and actually challenges people who are used to only arguing along the lines of conservative or liberal, welfare state or privatization, nationalism or multiculturalism, etc. Even if the original work dealt with it poorly, at least it would give me the excuse to rant about it on Tumblr, which is kinda why I revived my old Minecraft sideblog for this. (That and pig!Techno fanart.)

Also how can you have a story so fundamentally about power without its counterpoint: the rejection of power?

(Yes, Dream SMP as a whole is definitely a narrative about power, it’s a huge theme for Wilbur, Quackity, Dream, Eret and the Badlanders at least, as well as obviously the anarchist characters from the opposite direction.)

So yeah, the build up to November 16th for me was mainly about the anticipation for what Techno would do, how would Techno’s character respond to the seemingly inevitable formation of a new government. THAT was the point of interest for me, that was what I was the most invested in. Would we get an actual anarchist opposition as a new side to the conflict or would they just awkwardly drop that whole angle? Or even have him team up with Schlatt like a complete sellout? There was so much potential but I worried they might just waste it.

And I was right to worry since apparently in the original script Techno wasn’t supposed to do anything, he was just there to help fight Schlatt and witness the explosion along with everyone else.

And WOW that would have been so incredibly boring

Not even just from the political perspective, just talking about the narrative in general terms here: imagine November 16th without Techno’s plot points. Not only would it have been boring for Techno’s character but it would have been equally boring for basically everybody but Wilbur and Philza. An anticlimactic fight followed by a big explosion that pretty much everybody had seen coming already. Yes, the button room scene is dramatic and heartbreaking… for Wilbur and Phil. But nobody else was there to see it. For everybody else, it was just a big explosion. It would have been such a huge disservice to anyone watching the other POVs.

Techno’s intervention gave everyone an ACTUAL climactic fight, it allowed characters other than Wil and Phil to witness some actual drama happening and to participate in it, rather than just waiting around for the explosion, while also foreshadowing the explosion. Even better, it provoked SO MUCH discussion in the fandom AND gave a perfect hook for future conflicts to arise. Wilbur’s end was tragic but it was, at the time, final. L'Manburg would have still suffered a catastrophe but it would have been left with just the same exact antagonist as before: Dream.

And at this point Dream’s core goals had barely changed, just his approach was now different. Yes, that makes a difference for the plot, but it doesn’t really change much in terms of ideological conflict. Especially since there really isn’t that big of an ideological difference between Dream and Tommy, because arguably neither of them are particularly big on ideology in the first place, they just have conflicting goals and use different tactics to achieve those goals (well, the tactics aren’t always even that different *cough Spirit cough*).

Techno’s conflict with Tubbo and especially Quackity (and honestly most of the other characters in general) brings in so much more depth to the story, just by introducing another angle, not to even mention how much it brings to focus questions about power and violence. These are themes that exist in other characters’s storylines too but nowhere in the same way or as central as with Techno.

I’m getting kind of ahead of myself here, though.

The real twist of November 16th was the fact that Techno WASN’T a straight up villain, actually. It was a twist to me anyway, because with all my cynicism I just didn’t see it coming, I didn’t expect him to actually start making reasonable criticisms. I didn’t expect him to drop the hobbesian arguments entirely and start making points that actually sounded like anarchism.

I have to assume that cc!Techno must have seen some of the criticisms of his character and been inspired to adjust because the difference is pretty notable.

(Sidenote: I’m just forever kinda sad that Techno’s “I may seem like the villain here” monologue was cut from the video and most people never heard it.)

And I felt SO validated by the way, because it works so well in the story! Everyone is mostly content with the restoration of a status quo of some sort, Schlatt is gone, this is supposed to be the good ending, and then Techno calls them all out and turns the narrative around completely: This was just a coup d'état. This was just the previous political leadership retaking power by force. Why is everyone celebrating the same exact system that lead to Schlatt’s authoritarian rule in the first place?

What he does there is force the audience to question the narrative they’ve been presented so far, that they’ve accepted without a thought. It might not convince them, but they can’t just ignore it either.

Whatever you wanna say about the discourse around Techno on that day, in the ideological narrative THIS IS THE IMPORTANT PART. Not who betrayed who or when is political violence justified, that’s about personal relationships and morality and it’s mostly all more relevant to the aftermath than the event itself. In my opinion, the REAL point in the moment is that the characters and the audience were comfortable with the ending only to be presented with a completely new perspective on the events.

It also recontextualises the finale, including Wilbur’s actions! It’s a much more ambiguous end to the Pogtopia vs Manburg arc and to Wilbur’s original run as the head writer. Wilbur’s “even with Tubbo in charge I don’t think [that ‘special place’] can exist again” is vague enough to be dismissed as just part of his paranoia and internal conflict, but with Techno, there’s a concrete question: what if Tubbo, given the same powers as Schlatt, will turn out to be just a new Schlatt? And suddenly you have to wonder what Wilbur meant by his words too. And was all this foreshadowing something about L’Manburg’s future?

Okay I’ve only made it to November 16th and there’s so much more DSMP to talk about but the post is getting too long and I’m starting to lose my energy. Will I ever make a part two? No idea. But I’ll try.

Standard disclaimer: I’m not the spokesperson of anarchism, other anarchists might disagree with my reading