#yes I'm fine thank you for asking

[coccineum-vocatorem]

"Will you stand by my side until we are parted by death?" "I'll stand by your side, always."

[the-crowe-and-the-magpie]

Not me taking copious notes upon my ???rd rewatch of Midnight Mass

for my ???? page fanfiction magnum opus

***In related news, I have a full transcript of Father Paul’s Good Friday homily, the conversation between Joe Collie and Riley after their first AA meeting together, and the ENTIRE

yes I mean ENTIRE 

scene of Father Paul giving Riley the psychokitty shakedown of his newfound undeadedness

and I MEAN from “good morning starshine, the earth says hello also you’re DEAD” 

all the way to the ever so slightly homoerotic “when you find someone to suck on remember to do it in the name of the lord” spiel at the very end.

if anyone wants them for similar purpose. 

[oblivious-aro]

I remember you saying you had some thoughts on Morro being a less effective version of Tai Lung from the Kung Fu Panda movie. Do you have any more thoughts on that :o

Quick introduction, both Morro and Tai Lung are students who turned evil much to the of their old teachers (Wu and Shifu respectively). If you watched Kung Fu Panda 609 times as a child like me, you probably caught on that Morro's character was taken whole cloth from Tai Lung.

Now let's get into the details!

So Tai Lung and Morro have two parts to their character: the threat/villain aspects, and the tragic relationship/falling out with their mentor.

As a villain, Morro works pretty well. Possessing Lloyd establishes him as a threat both emotionally and power wise, since he's taken someone the ninja care for deeply and robbed them of their most powerful member in one swoop. I always kind of thought of him as the dark version of Lloyd, but he’s really more of a “What season 1 Kai could've been”, further supported by Kai's unyielding determination to protect Lloyd this season, contrasted against Morro literally using Lloyd as an actual meat puppet and casually threatening to kill Lloyd to get what he wants.

He’s threatening, hateable, and thematically appropriate as a villain.

As for his “tragic” relationship with Wu, well…despite general fandom opinion, it's actually pretty weak.

Tai Lung's screen time is dedicated to building up how powerful of a threat he is, outside of two key scenes that establish and build on his relationship with Shifu. The first is a flashback that happens somewhere around the half point of the movie. Reveling that Tai Lung was groomed to work his entire life for a role he ends up being denied point-blank recontextualizes the audience's feelings about Tai Lung. Up to that point he was presented as just some dangerously power-hungry villain, but now that the audience knows that Shifu has a personal connection to Tai Lung, and that changes their feelings on both of them.

The second relationship-focused scene is the penultimate fight between Tai Lung and Shifu. Before the combat, the two of them have a conversation that is just loaded with tension, and that tension stays prominent for the rest of the fight. The audience obviously doesn’t want Tai Lung to win, but watching Shifu attempt to take down the child he raised with his whole heart doesn’t exactly feel all sunshiny. Everything from the dialogue to the dark and rainy atmosphere (later heavily contrasted against Po’s triumphant fight in the rising sun) is meant to emphasize the heaviness and tragedy of the fight, building the flashback and Shifu's character growth to twist the knife in the audience's heart.

On the surface, Morro works similarly, spending the majority of his screen time being built up as someone that needs to be stopped, outside of two scenes that focus on his relationship with Wu. While Tai Lung's flashback happens in the middle of the movie, Morro's is told in the second episode of the season. Changing the timing of the flashback changes the effect it has on the audience. Instead of establishing an evil scary guy and then going ‘oh wait, there’s also this other important aspect to him’, we see the more human (literally) side of Morro almost straight away and then spend the remaining 80% of the season showing how evil he is. If Morro’s backstory garnered any sympathy from the audience, it will inevitably be overshadowed by the proceding 8 episodes of Morro doing nothing but make selfish choices. Doing Morro's flashback earlier has the exact opposite effect that Tai Lung's flashback had on his story.

Also worth noting that while a large part of Shifu’s characterization comes from his hand in Tai Lung’s fall (his cold relationship with his new students, his need for control, etc), Ninjago shifts the fault more so onto Morro as a person:

Wu: After I told him he could be the Green Ninja, there was a hunger unmatched.

Morro: (He kicks some of the other trainees, making them fall. Aggressively) Get up. Get up!

Wu: Enough.

Morro: But Sensei, I'm gonna be the Green Ninja. I need greater tests.

Wu: I said, enough!

Kung Fu Panda meanwhile feels no need to shy away from the idea of Tai Lung's actions being the result of Shifu's failure as a teacher. In fact, it embraces it:

Tai Lung: Not your fault!? Who filled my head with dreams? Who drove me to train until my bones cracked? Who denied me my destiny!?

...

Shifu: I...I have always been...proud of you. From the first moment I've been proud of you. And it was my pride...that blinded me. I loved you too much too see what you were becoming...what I was turning you into...I'm s-...I'm sorry...

Ninjago doesn’t completely kill the vibes, it’s still understandable that Wu would be sad a student of his didn’t turn out well, but lessening the responsibility Wu’s bears for the way Morro turned out gives their relationship a lot less weight than Shifu and Tai Lung’s, and lessens the impact their relationship had on Wu’s character compared to Shifu’s. They do retroactively imply Morro's reaction was the reason Wu never told his new students about the green ninja prophecy, which is kind of neat, but Wu doesn't really seem to be affected by his relationship with Morro beyond that.

They're not showcasing Wu being affected by the soured relationship, or building up any kind of emotional conflict about having to oppose his old student. The fact that this season's antagonist is Morro doesn't make Wu behave any differently than he would with any other run-of-the-mill Ninjago villain.

Shifu's character, as I mentioned earlier, is felt in pretty much every moment he's on screen. You can feel his fear of history repeating itself in everything from how frugal he is with praise for his students, to the sheer panic in his voice anytime he and Oogway talk about Tai Lung returning.

In fairness to Ninjago, Shifu was a character made entirely for that movie and nothing else, so his character was built from the ground up with his relationship with his student in mind for the whole process, while Wu is an already existing character in an establised franchise (that's also on a much smaller budget than a Dreamworks movie *ahem*), but they aren't really trying to build up the relationship between Wu and Morro outside over the course of Posession at all, outside of the two specific scenes I mentioned.

Speaking of, there’s the final scene between mentor and student that both charaters share. For Tai Lung, this was a fight, and for Morro, it's a redemption, and I don't think the writers considered how that key difference would affect Morro's story very deeply. Morro and Tai Lung follow the same structure of building up how evil and threatening they are until their ultimate defeat, and since Tai Lung’s story wasn’t building towards redemption, neither does Morro’s. This is fine for Tai Lung, because the emotional climax of his story is acceptance of the tragedy that his and Shifu’s shattered relationship is completely and totally beyond mending. Not only that, but it mainly takes place over a fight. It makes sense to just continuously ramp up Tai Lung’s threat level.

Morro on the other hand, completely switches sides at the last possible second of both his life and the season. With no buildup, his redemption feels very sudden and insincere. This guy who’s been plotting around the same obsession he had as a child for decades, kidnapped and possessed a child, put in the work to literally rewrite destiny, and made deals with satan/hell herself just decided “Actually I’m good now okay byeeeeeee!” in the space of two seconds?

Tai Lung and Shifu’s fight crushes your soul a little. Morro’s redemption just leaves you going “I guess that happened?”

They ripped off Tai Lung and only got him half-right.

[crimeronan]

Wondering if a fic in which Amity thinks Luz 'forgot' about her (don't know why, maybe she and Hunter were away for a long time) could work well (by that I mean produce quality Lumiter being stupid moments), I mean it somewhat adds another layer for Amity that is sort of "Luz WAS too good to be true for me".

if it's with the Terrible Kidnapping Premise then i'm not sure i can see amity thinking luz has forgotten her specifically.... but her thinking luz has been brainwashed and needs rescuing, even if she won't understand why amity cares?? and amity being braced to deal with All Of That?? Delicious.

amity eventually after like many many months of failed attempts or whatever busting down a door and actually getting to luz like "HELLOOOO....! SO WE NEVER DTR'ED AND I TECHNICALLY MEAN NOTHING TO YOU AND I DON'T KNOW IF YOU EVEN KNOW MY NAME BUT YOUR BOYFRIEND! IS! EVIL! LET'S GOOO!"

then hunter walks in. who as mentioned has had many many months at this point to get to know luz. and before amity can even skewer him, he's like oh. thank the titan. Get Her Out Of Here Immediately .

amity: what?? aren't you going to fight me. she's your girlfriend...??

hunter: No. Please For The Love Of Fuck Get Her Out Of Here Right Fucking Now. Thank You Byeeeee

[anto-pops]

I still cannot with this. It’s beautiful. Amazing.

tHERE'S MORE-

OH MY GOD

[ubersaur]

one weird part of my job is sometimes I get little old ladies with sweet hearts poking through the compost box on the bottom of my cart that tell me I shouldn't be throwing away what I am throwing away. Like yeah, I get it. Food waste sucks! I hate throwing anything away. But everything down there is rotting or bruised or withered or just ugly enough that I know it will sit on the shelf until it is rotting, bruised, and withered. I cannot mark it down, and you will not buy it at full price. "But poor people---!" Poor people deserve food that isn't moldy or bruised or withered or ugly! And afaik our company already donates actually edible food to pantries!

[deeisace]

..

[imminent-danger-came]

you have a point about fandoms as a whole having a sexist lean but isn't mei is literally one of the most popular characters in the fandom and dragonfruit one of the most popular ships in the fandom? It's one of the top 5 most written about ships on ao3 if you remove self insert stuff.

So I'll preface this with I only have experience with the lmk fandom on tumblr.

But like, it's 90% shadowpeach stuff (with maybe MK as a third wheel). I know this, you know this. If you look through the "lego monkie kid" tag right now Ne Zha has more content related to him and only him than Mei does—she's usually gonna be thrown in with dragonfruit and traffic light trio (though, admittedly the lmk fandom has a problem of viewing characters outside of shipping in general). For every 1 Mei fanart there's 1 piece of Ao Lie fanart to match despite their vast differences in screen time. Like, am I insane? Am I insane for thinking it's the sexism?

[dootznbootz]

opinions on helen of sparta being compared to prey animals? blink blink

*blink blinks back* Then immediately sits like this because of the question.

It's a good question that I'm happy to answer! It just makes me mad.... I sincerely hate the wording of "prey" being used to describe her.

SHE IS A VICTIM! THAT DOES NOT MEAN SHE IS "PREY"!

I can...see how people in ancient times may have used that word and still meant it in how she is a victim... but modern-day English-speaking people calling her that??? (considering how in different languages the word "prey" could have different meanings.) I'll just say that as someone who has been "prey" herself at one point, I REALLY hate that word as a descriptor. Just say victim or survivor. 👍

Honestly to call ANY victim "prey" is so fucked up. "Prey" to me, feels like "it's meant to happen." "Prey" are part of the food chain and so that's what happens. And to compare that to abduction and SA? Almost as if "that's our place"? It also kind of implies something being "eaten" or killed... Helen SURVIVES. She's traumatized and definitely needs healing and support but it's not like she can't find joy or peace ever again. Prey just feels so fucking gross.

Also, if someone calls victims "prey", I hope they know that Moose, Elk, Boars, Bovine, ZEBRAS, etc. are technically "prey". And these are VERY aggressive animals while still being "prey" for some other animals. And also that doesn't mean that "Oh, they're powerful! Clearly they should've been able to stop it." That's victim blaming :P

She is a clever, determined, caring woman who was ripped from her home for YEARS because Paris was a dipshit who decided he needed the prettiest woman in the world despite already having a wife. He didn't care about the fact that Helen didn't want to be there and was already married. He is so selfish that he will not let her go back even when THOUSANDS have died in the war! EVEN HIS BROTHER HECTOR AND PRIAM DO NOT BLAME HER! Granted, we do not know if Aphrodite would have let him undo their deal of "I want the prettiest woman" if he DID end up feeling bad for Helen and he wished to let her go home (I doubt it based on his personality though).

"Oh, if she is so independent/strong, then why didn't she just kill Paris and leave?"

AGAIN! Victim blaming!!! First thing, people who ask that have media literacy that is piss on the poor. You also have no idea about the political implications that would have happened if she DID kill Paris. She literally cries about staying there and argues with Aphrodite about seeing Paris, only to get strongarmed by Aphrodite as, guess what? A GODDESS WILL ALWAYS OVERPOWER A DEMIGOD. (This isn't Percy Jackson where he "killed" Ares as a 12 year old (Percy, you were my childhood, but that's bullshit.))

Even confined in Troy, she ARGUED with APHRODITE about going to see Paris! She is not some meek woman who just does as she's told with no pushback! She argued with a GODDESSS! Very few survive doing that!!!

She's not "Prey to fate", she's a "VICTIM of Fate".

[sparrowmoth]

ASK GAME 1 4 7 gogogo

@finitevoid HI BLAKE!! OKAY LET'S GOOO <3<3

1. Have you written scenes (sex or otherwise) that actually made you feel uncomfortable, and how did you deal?

God, yes. Most recently, just about everything that happened in all this (but heaven too) since that dealt with so much violent non-con. Rule one for me when writing that kind of thing is I have to be in the right headspace for it. Even then, I check in with myself frequently.

With that story, there were many scenes that had my heart beating so fast, I had to take myself out of it and ground myself with some food and water or time outdoors. I still knew it was something I had to/wanted to write though. It's important to me to write things that make me feel uncomfortable sometimes. Specifically, things that I want to "suck the poison out of," so to speak.

I'm an anxious person. A lot of things make me uncomfortable. But I don't like fear to control me, so I write things that feel like meeting my demons in a wrestling ring. It's not so scary when the fight is staged... I win, no matter what.

4. Do you write in public? Like where people can see your screen?

Answered here! <3

7. What's the gnarliest physical injury you have written in detail?

Oooh, I'm pretty sure that would be Wylan's series of injuries in The Show Must Go On. That fic was inspired by an episode of Criminal Minds where people were being turned into living puppets. I was morbidly fascinated by the concept, so that fic has Wylan going through the process of having holes cut into his hands and feet, his shoulders ripped out of the joints, and such. It's gruesome stuff, but I think if I wrote it today, I would have made it even worse, so djakgjkd

cursed and deranged fanfic writer q&a

[gender-ihardlyknower]

Undertale but toriel pulls me through the screen and i join her and instead of leaving the ruins I live with her and garden and bake and never break her heart

[unproduciblesmackdown]

listened to the obcr Voices In My Head over confirming there's that like half step up of the "made" in "me and the voices in my head have made up our collective mind" that makes it a line that comes to mind & loops there & gets sung to myself often enough, but then was freshly appreciating what's going on instrumentally behind jeremy singing the "(then make up) my own mind" of the chorus which i'm not even sure what it is, but the effect is striking, initially i was like is there an eighth note in the vocals there vs all quarter notes? b/c like noting that jeremy's pitch/steps go up, Up, down vs the instrumentation going [same starting pitch] down, down, but that there's Something going on rhythmically so that the instruments kind of happen "behind" / not exactly On jeremy's, and then i was like is it also just that jeremy is also singing evenly in quarter notes but the notes being played instrumentally are like just slightly barely After his, though following the same rhythm, like, an eighth note behind, fuck it a demisemiquaver behind. anyways it pwns & the end of the song getting me all hype of course like argh The Energy fr

[essektheylyss]

I cannot stress enough how much I am like. one of those cats being forcibly restrained from shoveling food down their mouth when it comes to class readings. I finished the first week's readings and I have to wait until the week actually starts to do reading responses and my first instinct was to start on the readings for week two. It's a good thing one of my professors suggested two books as intro reading if we wanted it because I do in fact want it, thank you very much

[ayakashibackstreet]

I swear to God, these games want me fucking dead

[the-whispers-of-death]

would u be comfortable with writing stone x reader? bc even knowing he's ur OC, i find him so fucking interesting and i would love to read some x reader with him

Anon, thank you for this question.

Actually, I was contemplating writing Stone x reader drabbles with him but I didn't know if it would be received well. As it is, my OC stuff doesn't do too well, but I have significant brainrot about Stone because when I daydream scenarios with the 141, I just use Stone in place for me. So while yes, he's an OC, but in my head he's just another character, if that makes sense. And like I often have more brainrot about Stone than I do with the 141, hence why I'll go a day or two without posting on here and like I can see him romantically with Reader more than I can see him romantically with the 141 (I've talked about how I cannot see him dating any of the 141).

All this to say, I would love to write Stone x Reader drabbles, I just have no idea where I'd start.

[singsweetmelodies]

k