#you're absolutely right about the vibe at the beginning of the next season. everything that happened was okay so why does everyone feel so

[tkachunk]

Mattdrai shipper crashing the whole tim/matthew party going on because this is 🔥🔥🔥

When training camp rolls around, its low key awkward between brady and tim. no one did anything wrong - tim and matthew are both single and they just happened to hook up during brady's bachelor party.. everyone was consenting adults albeit fueled by enough alcohol that made then forget why this was a such bad idea.. but still, no one did anything wrong so why was everything awkward?

And tim - timmy cant talk to brady about this and he definitely cannot talk to matthew about this so he decides to rant to his dear friend and person he looks up to, leon draisaitl.. leon cant understand why, of all the people tim could have hooked up with at that bachelor party, he choose to hook up with matthew freaking tkachuk.. and leon also cannot understand why this pisses him off so much

oh we're coming full circle here

[i-cant-sing]

Just thinking about domestic vibes for different fandoms/AUs. So, let's begin with Todoroki Clan:

I'm thinking about yandere parents Enji and Rei, and their teen reader (who they definitely kidnapped as a baby). It's summer break, which means Rei won't have the urge to burn down your school so that you stay at home. No, now she has you all to herself! And despite Rei being Suffocating and smothering, reader does love her mom. Rei is just so soft and kind and sweet, it doesn't sit right with reader to break her heart by saying "no, mom. I just wanna be alone than watch you cook." At least Rei let's you be her little helper, taste the frosting for her, will you?

And summer also means that Rei gets to take you for shopping without you bringing up excuses like "sorry mom, I can't go. I need to study for a test." Now she gets to drag you along to as many shops as she wants, you can literally beg her to stop because you're tired but she'll just give you some homemade onigiris and off you go and change into the clothes she chose for you. Luckily for you, there aren't many luxury shops near you, and they take a lot of time to make Rei's custom orders because your mom never buys off the rack. (Yes girl, you dressed in Chanel and Louis Vuitton because daddy Enji's credit cards buy everything)

Summer vacations means time off from school to reward yourself for all of your hardwork. That's why Rei is making you take daily afternoon naps with her. And you can't say no, mostly because Rei has been mixing melatonin in your food so you tire out easy.

Enji won't lie, but he definitely enjoys your time off from school as well. He gets to see you more often, especially after exam season is over. He gets to take you out on a lot of daddy-daughter dates, which you absolutely enjoy because you get to eat a lot of food without your mom reminding you that she can make so-and-so dish at home and better than Michelin starred chef.

But now that you have holidays, instead of Enji just going around the world on missions and bringing you souvenirs, you now get to go with him and Rei to anywhere you want! Rei is happy because she gets to dress you up in more clothes and do your hair and APPLY SUNSCREEN ON YOU (DO NOT TAKE THIS AWAY FROM HER). Loads and loads of pictures are taken and memories are made, and it's good that Enji's there to hold Rei back from doing normal teenager stuff that she deemed "too dangerous" for you.

Also, Enji and Rei feeding reader together, no matter how old you are. Rei makes the food and serves it to you, Enji keeps on picking out all the good stuff from his plate (sausages, sashimi, eggs, etc) and using his chopsticks to feed it to you🥺🥺🥺

Or or when Rei is doing your hair and you're doing dad Enji's hair, maybe you're just applying a hair mask and massaging it in because Enji works so hard for all of you🥺🥺 of course, he returns the favour by painting your nails (he has gotten better over the years with practice, but it's still funny to see how small the nail polish brush looks in his gigantic hands.

Also thinking about Dad Enji and reader waking up early to make breakfast in bed for Rei for mothers day and Enji's soul leaving his body when a little bit of oil splatters on your hand. And no matter how much you convince hum that you're fine, Enji thinks you're not and now he has you sitting in the corner far away from the stove while he finishes off cooking. And when you two go and surprise Rei, she is so touched and is almost moved to tears until her eyes land on the smallest splatter on your hand (its a surprise she was even able to see it) and now you're wrestled into bed next to her as she ices your hand while scolding Enji for risking your life because "You're the adult Enji. You should know better!" And poor dad Enji is just nodding along🥺🥺🥺🥺

[ifmywishescametrue]

I know I’m late but can I ask for 5 for Just For Now, dust off your highest hopes, and you can call me babe for the weekend, and also 23 from the writing asks? You’re one of my favourite Stevetony fic writers ❤️❤️❤️

thank you so much! you're never too late for an ask game ☺️

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now!

i... can't think of a single possible question lol. let's just go with some behind the scenes fun facts? my favorite things about them? idk here's a mix of both and i'm sorry they ended up so long winded haha

Just For Now – this one is easily the most on the fly, no plans fic i've ever written. it was written pretty quickly in 2020, when i had just graduated college but was still unemployed because of things with the pandemic, so i had a lot of time to basically write a chapter a day. i posted as i went and almost never had a plan for where the next chapter was coming from before the current one was finished. there was only one later chapter i knew would exist from the beginning, which was them getting together at the sam and nat's wedding. everything else, even character background details, came at the exact moment they were written with pretty much zero forethought. all in all i'm pretty proud of how well it turned out without any real planning, but also i would never do that again lol

dust off your highest hopes – my absolute favorite moment in this one is the scene with them discussing the hyacinth tattoo steve almost got and the one tony has. i had the dialogue written fairly early on for tony asking steve to tell him something about himself that tony doesn't know yet, and i knew i wanted steve to tell him about a tattoo he almost got, but didn't. the only problem i had was that i had no clue at all what it would be, or why he wouldn't do it in the end.

sometimes i view scenes in terms of vibes and colors rather than plot, if that makes sense? so, this scene needed to feel like it was midnight blue with soft, hazy stars. that lead me to thinking that steve's almost tattoo should come from mythology, so i ended up googling something like 'gay love stories in greek mythology' just to see if one would fit. the very first one i read was the story of Apollo and Hyacinthus, and it just felt so right for steve to be sort of enthralled by that story, but also have a longing to experience something like it for himself first before getting a tattoo to represent it. personally, i've always been so intrigued by flower language, so i googled what hyacinths represent and that also felt very right for tony, given all the backstory i'd already established for him.

just generally, i love moments in writing where it feels like i've somehow stumbled upon the exact right thing to fit in the moment. there was no plan initially for tony to have any tattoos, let alone one that fit with steve's almost tattoo, but i love that it worked out that way. this particular moment felt almost fated to exist.

you can call me babe for the weekend – speaking of viewing scenes in terms of colors, this entire fic is maroon to me. i can't explain why, but that's what my mind sees.

now an actual fun fact! i think i've said this somewhere before, but i started writing this fic the same night evermore was released and started picturing it after my very first listen to tis the damn season. everything about that song screamed steve and tony to me. the longing, the idea of leaving someone you love to pursue a dream that you also love, the self-sacrificial nature of it. that was all just so tony. he would want to leave his small town, he wouldn't ask steve to come with him when he knew steve wouldn't be happy there, but he'd also never be able to move on and let him go in his own heart.

i've always just generally loved the concept of two people being so meant for each other that there's literally no one else they could fit quite right with. they always find their way back to each other, because they have to. tis the damn season came out and was basically like here's the blueprint, go write it. so i did

23. What’s a trope, AU, or concept you’ve never written, but would like to?

soulmate au! i love reading them, but i haven't had a solid enough idea to write it myself just yet. i do, however, know the exact song lyric i'd use to title it lol

[addictedtostorytelling]

Does Sara understand/share Grissom’s love of baseball? What’s your take on her POV?

Might be cute to see a story about them attending a Cub’s game. Especially since I don’t think Sara gets baseball and Grissom’s love of the game.

hi, @gleness522!

so i can't exactly offer you fic—as a writer, i'm really beholden to the muse, so i'm terrible at taking prompts—but i can offer you some loose headcanons, if you're interested:

in terms of sara's feelings on baseball, i definitely don't think she shares grissom's love for it at first—see the strong "watching baseball is something i'm doing to try to be a good wife, and while i get the sport in theory, i'm still not exactly sure what the point is in practice" vibes she gives off when she talks to catherine in episode 10x01 "family affair"—however, i personally believe that the longer she and grissom are together, the more into it she gets.

it's a gradual process.

at first, it's the kind of deal where she's just charmed because of how cute grissom is as a fanboy—watching games together on tv or even attending them in person, she gets to see this stoked, almost "little boy" side to him that she just absolutely adores—more so than because of anything having to do with the game itself.

particularly once she understands that part of his love for the game stems from the fact that he and his father used to bond over it, she starts to feel very tender about the whole thing. it's kind of like that ada limón poem, you know?

he has all of these extensive rituals surrounding the game—the right stats to check, the right concessions to buy at the ballpark (in a right order during the right innings), a right way to talk about each series and the season's prospects, etc.—and she delights in how committed he is to teaching her each and every one, as well as how seriously he takes everything.

however, eventually, once she begins to understand that there's kind of a narrative aspect to the game—where it's about the history of the teams and the players and following their rises and falls over time—she starts to become a bit more interested for her own sake, even beyond the "grissom of it all." especially after she's followed a couple of consecutive seasons, she gets a feel for how decisions that are made and outcomes that are reached one year can come to bear in the next, and she develops a bit of "team pride"*.

* more on which team in a second.

when grissom buys her her first team ballcap, she feels like she's really made it.

of course, the more she watches baseball, the more she develops an eye for what the game is supposed to look like and what exactly about it, per grissom's original description, is "beautiful," until eventually she can recognize what's special about a perfectly executed triple play for herself, without any explanation from him.

whereas in the beginning, she was kind of humoring grissom (or at least only paying attention for his sake), now she gains an enjoyment of the game all of her own. she forms her own opinions on things.

the first time grissom witnesses her pick a fight with nick over the rule change on takeout slides when they're visiting him in san diego one summer, he has never been prouder of her.

by the time of the reboot, the transformation is complete: she is very much the kind of obnoxious, loud-mouthed fan who will yell at the umpires through the tv and rant about "the unwritten rules" given the right conversational opening. she knows all of the extensive rituals by heart. she can recite the lore. she has favorite players and predictions on the season.

as for what team she and grissom support, well—

fwiw—and i know what i'm about to say here is close to heresy—while the cubs are billy's favorite team, i don't assume they're grissom's.

i mean, he grew up in the los angeles area, so i've always headcanoned that his ballclub is the dodgers.

unless we imagine that one or more of his parents is from chicago (which i personally don't), he'd have no real ties to the cubs otherwise.

thanks for the question! please feel welcome to send another any time.

[welcometogrouchland]

did u like arcane? personally i didnt find it that.... good. i mean considering the hype i expected sth more cohesive, but the narrative was all over the place. i think few more episodes could really do wonders about the show, but alas. sorry for this ask, im just eager to know ur opinion!!! (i know u as "correct opinion on tma" person)

Firstly, I'm very flattered u think I have correct tma opinions, and second of all, that's a good question!

I have to say I definitely did enjoy it a lot- thought it was well written. VERY interesting and morally grey characters, plus some very interesting parallels, as well as in terms of themes and parallels and imagery. You know. The shapes and colours of words.

Plus the animation was extremely fucking sexy on a technical level. I would never call myself an animator but I love the medium dearly and I love animation that pushes boundaries, which arcane definitely did, even on a purely technical level (side-eyeing the YouTube video I have saved in my watch later called "how to paint like arcane". Perhaps it's finally time)

But also, I did have to watch it twice, the second time with subtitles, in order to actually understand the plot. Like, I enjoyed the vibes of everything so far, but I was. Remarkably lost. I had no clue why Vander and Silco hated each other, why Vander was so important, what Silco actually did, etc etc. I definitely would recommend a second watch if you really want to like it but didn't understand.

Also, I get that it's very much directed at ppl who like LoL? Like, I watched it with a friend who plays league and during the first episode he was just. Pointing out references the whole time, explaining bg details, and generally seemed to be having a lot more fun than I did watching the first episode- and I say that as someone who enjoyed it from the beginning. Also there were moments towards the very end where I was like. Oh yeah this is based on a fighting game lol.

I wouldn't be surprised if that inherent connection to the game makes ppl feel iced out from the series. I do also 100% relate to ppl hyping a thing WAY UP and then you go to watch it and it could just. Never meet your expectations based on what ppl were saying. Absolutely been there.

I'd say I'd have liked one more episode but then you couldn't have gotten the cliffhanger ending of season 1 (though some ppl might trade that for setting up where characters will actually be going forward next season, y'know? I'm torn)

Woof this got long. Uhhh final thoughts: I definitely did enjoy arcane and thought that more than being enjoyable, it was a well made and well written show. But I also think you're right in that it IS kind of hard to understand. If you're really invested, I'd recommend a second watch with subtitles, and if not, I'd say that's very fair. Your dislike of the show has many legs to stand on. Like a spider! But likewise, the hype is pretty justified.

You're right if you don't get it and also right if you do, essentially

[ducavalentinos]

lol i just started following everyone who was talking about Moncito and fidelity from @thesolotomyhan’s page and i love how you are getting posts on here about it too😂😂😂

also, i agree big with your response about men being “desmadre,” compartmentalizing sex and intimacy. even tho i was the one who said i get Rafa vibes from Mon, if we got a window more into Mon’s personal life, i could actually see it being written the way you described, so like self-loathing after he cheats but cheating bc he also doesn’t know what else to do with himself or how else to channel more nuanced feelings (bc men aren’t allowed to have the full range of them bc gender roles/conditioning :/). i still stand by the Rafa vibes being how he is enamorado, in the beginning at least, mostly bc they’re similarly childlike and impulsive, yknow happy-go-lucky one minute and pinches pistoleros locos the next. and Ramon would be a shit liar like you mentioned which is also attributable to him being a little bebe, like not wanting to disappoint his female caretakers early on in life i.e. his mom or Dina, and that translating later to his romantic partners to the point that he just tries to lie and sulks bc he knows you see right thru that shit just like Dina would lol. anyway, basically yes to everything and i love this fandom and that y’all get me and are willing to let me lurk and shout at you on tumblr. okay that is all byyeee

lolool oh god, yes, I still can’t believe how my ask sparkled all this in-depth debate over Món and fidelity, but I’m loving it 💜💜💜 I think we absolutely should discuss every tiny little aspect of that man and his life, he deserves our full devotion ok dsjdjsdjs. And yeah, not to get more into this because it was never what I intended to do here, but I do think overall men’s psychology and behavior works different than our own, esp. in regards to sex and intimacy, and how they deal with emotions, too, which I don’t tend to see it in terms of either bad or wrong versus good or right, but rather as healthy or unhealthy. The same applies to our own pyschology and behavior, it’s just different and I personally try to understand these differences in order to have good relationships in my life, and sure, we can add the social factor into their behavior, but as I said in the other ask, I don’t believe (anymore) that it is as significant a factor or even the base factor for it. With Món, the way I see, the way I approach his character takes into consideration his sex, his age, his environment and his personal/family relations, unfortunately like you said we didn’t had much of a window into his personal life :(((( so we have put the pieces together ourselves to think about how he would be with certain things or react to things and well...I’m doing it!😄 But I agree 100% with you with the Rafa thing, I thought that was so spot on because I can also see some similarities between them, (pinches pistoleros locos 😂 I LOVE IT) although I think Rafa was more emotional, more reckless than Ramón, like he felt things too intensely. I don't think Món gets to that level, he is emotional, yes, he is hot-headed, he’s quick to react to things, esp. if it’s connected to his family, but I also think he’s a bit more chill than Rafa, and a little less reckless, less irresponsible than Rafa, like even with his temper, as far as I remember, there are no mentions of him doing anything that jeopardized his family in the way Rafa does with Miguel, for example. AND OMG I’m having a cuteness overload with what you said, of him being a little bebe that didn’t want to disappoint his mom or Dina 🥰🥰🥰 and then that translating to his partner, you're totally right! I can see that, him trying to lie, sulking about it because he knows that you know, and then not knowing what to do next.... AY MI NIÑO PRECIOSO! <333 And same, I didn't know how lovely and fun this fandom was, otherwise I'd have join sooner, it took the last season for me to jump right into it, because the Arellanos obsession got out of control, haha.

[rpg-elf-girl]

Shadows House

I have a lot of thoughts surrounding this particular show, both good & bad.

Allow me to give a quick summary for anyone who hasn't seen/read it!

Shadows House is about 'a faceless family of nobles who all live within this giant manor, the Shadows House.

When a Shadow comes of age they receive a 'Living Doll' to both serve as their face and to clean the soot they emit from their bodies.

The most important rule of the living dolls is "don't fret over trivial matters"

A task which is difficult for the ever curious doll Emiliko.

Watch this tale unfold as Emiliko & her mistress Kate navigate this ever mysterious Manor together.'

For a fan of slow burn thrillers, horror, slice of life, supernatural & mystery series' this has been an absolute blast!

It's not quite the combination of genres you'd expect from a show, but it works really well here!

In fact I was so into the anime that this is actually the first show where I broke down and read the manga!

Unfortunately there's no official English release, but at least there are some people translating the series!

As much as I'd like to go on about the manga, this post is meant to be more so about the anime so I'll (try to) leave it at that.

Though i feel obligated to warn anime onlys I'll likely refer the manga a lot in a spoiler section latter in this post I'll try to be vague but I can't guarantee anything. For anyone worried about that I'll lable it do you can read on until then.

Everything from the animation to the music was amazing & completely fit the mood of the story! I remember a couple scenes where I actually teared up because of this!

The Ending theme is an absolute banger! I've listened to that on repeat ever since I first heard it! And the Opening is also great! It's cool for it to be an instrumental, stuff like that is pretty rare! I also heard the song in the op as a motif in the music throughout the show! It really sets the right mood in each scene it's in! It's amazing for getting into each episode!

In terms of adaptation almost everything from the beginning to the end of the Debut arc was done amazingly well!

Even with the stuff they cut it still holds true to the spirit of its source.

The main important part that was cut is something that could easily be introduced latter if they decide to go for a second season, so I'm not too mad about that.

However! Everything after the debut is a bit of a different story.

There was a lot I liked about the last couple episodes but there were some parts that were immersion breaking for me.

I've been being vague up until this point l, but I'm planning on going into spoiler territory for both the anime and manga after this. So I'll make a quick spoiler free summary of my thoughts before moving onto that.

I really really loved this show but in my opinion the last 3 episodes were the weakest of them all. They went anime only for the ending. I don't mind that on it's own, but it was rushed and the writing was sloppy at times.

Now I'm not telling you to not watch the show! Most of It's really really good, and I can still see people enjoying the parts I'm talking about if they want to give the anime a try. Overall I've fallen in love with this series and I could never recommend it enough.

If what I'm saying is giving you bad vibes the manga is available and doesn't have the issues I've mentioned. You can look for a translation online, it didn't take me long to find one so don't worry too much about that.

Also! if you're an anime only who's finished the series and want to know where to pick up the Manga I'd recommend at least skiming through the beginning. I know it might not be what you're looking for but there were a bunch of small scenes that either got cut or were merged for adaptation purposes that I think are super cute & give more context to different aspects of the setting. However! Pay close attention during the "night watchers part" something important got cut .

~~~Now for spoilers!!!!~~~

I don't want to make it sound like I'm some manga purist who hates the very thought of the slightest change from the source. I'm anime only for a lot of different shows and I've always despised it when that type of manga reader reared it's ugly head.

While I'll admit some changes did bother me I won't make a fuss about the smaller stuff.

With that said!

I hinted earlier in this post that I didn't have a big problem with Robe-same being cut. That was because without them there it does make for a more complete story if they only get one season to work with.

If there is another season they can easily be introduced latter on. Like maybe Emiliko & Shaun can meet them when the Debutant class reunion is going on before they talk on the roof (or right after that) I actually think that would be the perfect time to introduce them (other than the time they were supposed to appear, but I digress)

Louise teaming up & being friendly with Kate can be explained with some dialogue changes at the first Debutant Class Reunion. Louise can say she was just trying to show off or that she just wanted to get back at Edward and that she isn't interested in helping Kate with her problems. Things can then go on as they did in the manga.

Kates being reckless & telling everything to John can be explained by her being extremely panicked when Emiliko went missing, as long as there are some lines of dialogue adressing this it's fine. Though I do wish she tried to keep some stuff a secret but couldn't because Shaun tries to interfer because he's still brainwashed, or something along those lines. It felt a bit weird after she just told Emiliko to keep that stuff between them. Still that could be explained by how panicked she was.

There are other things, but I don't want to drag the post on too long. Most of the issues can be fixed with little changes here & there.

I never had a problem with the idea of them going in an anime only direction. I just want to have a good time with the show.

Unfortunately I can't 100% vouche for the direction the show went in. There were elements that I can't excuse, even viewing it as it's own entity instead of an adaptation.

My main complaint with it is how they handled the brainwashing of Ricky & Lou. They didn't say a word when the Debutants were talking badly about Edward & even went along with a plan to go against him. It makes absolutely no sense!

Shaun freaked out when John only suggested that he didn't have to be loyal to the house. These guys were flat out rebelling against an adult! It felt like Ricky & Lou didn't have a purpose & were just there to be there.

The whole point of the coffee is to influence shadows against doing stuff like this. It makes the coffee seem pointless and the adults seem dumb for relying on it to control the kids.

I haven't even brought up the fact that both of their brainwashings were broken by something as simple as a few kind words. It straight up contradicts the rules established by both the Anime and Manga.

This becomes very apparent when you consider all the trouble John & Kate went through to free Shaun & Emiliko.

This was my biggest complaint, but I have some other issues as well.

The next big one is how they handled Edward.

1. Why on earth would he even consider kidnapping Emiliko when he had complete control of the childrens wing? Before this point he was depicted as being a lot more crafty than this. He could easily have Kate monitored or something.

2. Why didn't he use his powers to stop them like what he did to Maryrose & Rosemary when they fought back being taken to the adults wing? He's already shown off his power at this point, why not?

3. Why did he reveal his soot powers at all!? Especially while using his face in front of the kids! The whole unification thing is one of the biggest secrets of the house for good reason! There's no way he wouldn't get in huge trouble for exposing it to children!

Here are some other related questions.

Why didn't Kate, Emiliko, & John react to Edward using soot powers? They shouldn't know about unification yet so why didn't they act shocked, or say anything about it?

Is Edward being banished even an option in the Shadows House? Wouldn't the third floor lords just dispose of him rather than risk letting him leave?

How did John even get a veiled dolls outfit? Louise had to use her powers to get Kate one & she left a long time ago.

I can't think of much else at the moment, but I think you get my point.

Please don't take this as me saying that I hate the show because of these episodes. Even if I consider them the weakest of the series I still found a lot of parts to be very enjoyable!

Like I thought it was adorable When Edward was attempting to interrogate Emiliko & she kept being her sunshine self pretending to eat & falling asleep.

Barbara getting to tell off Edward for breaking the rules was great!

I loved seeing Shaun hatch the plan to get Kate into the adults wing to save Emiliko.

Seeing John (attempt to) sneak around the adults wing had me rolling!

The ending scene of Shaun, Ricky, & Lou singing gave me the chills.

(Though I wonder how they'd handle Shaun & Emiliko being brainwashed again since they already used the scenes where they're freed)

Kate & Emilico being propelled by John back to the children's wing was absolutely amazing! I found Shaun & Ricky running over to catch them to be super sweet! (Not to mention the way that scene was animated was absolutely gorgeous!)

Getting hints to what was supposed to come after the debut was nice, at least the groundwork is there in case this gets a season 2!

To (try to) wrap this all up while there were a lot of things I loved and disliked about this show I still had a really fun time watching it!

I kinda hope there's a season two just to see if they can tidy up the mess that the last few episodes created.

Regardless of whether that happens or not I came out of this with a series I absolutely adore.

Heck I could make a whole other post about the manga. (Hopefully one that's less ranty)

Anyway! I won't take any more of your time.

I hope you all have a wonderful day/night! And I hope to see you in my next post!

(Sorry if this one was a bit of a mess!)

[hoefette]

All the petty things I hate about fate!winx and their shitty universe/world building because

I'd added most if these in tags of other posts but I'm still so mad lmao

The way characters, Aisha and Mrs Dowling specifically make references to explicitly human or American things like instagram and Harry Potter

These people are from a different dimension for ffs why are they concerned with or are even aware of this very earth-specific shit? Do they teach earth classes at school over there?

I understand not wanting to have them be oblivious so Bloom wouldn't have to explain it to them, but it simply could be ✨omitted✨

Why would you go out of your way to date your work like this lmao ew

Ms. Dowling calling Tinkerbell an air fairy.. I cannot breeve with the stupidity why did they keep that in there

Why is Ms. Dowling.. the headmistress.. teaching classes? Where are the other teachers?

We ended up with a trio of antagonists (I guess you could call them that?) by the end of the season anyway so why not give us the trix, why have the characters play double roles as friends of our protagonists and also the villains/bullies? They clearly wanted a delinquent trio, in which case they could've gender bent the trix if they wanted to keep all the unnecessary sexual tension.

It just feels like the production team was lazy, they didn't want to hire more actors, they didn't want to bother with making the world immersive or lived in or believable at best, they just didn't give enough of a fuck

They wanted to make this show and attatch Winx to it for.. what? Like did you even google the main plot points? The abridged version or sparknotes to get details on the very literal, basic characteristics of our main characters or their roles or the world they inhabit????

It lacks wonder and intrigue.. I mean Bloom moves to another dimension, a school for fairies and we don't see her marvel once at anything.. and that's because she might as well have been in Switzerland because she's in exactly the same environment she would've been in over there anyway.

They could've said Alfea was in Europe and I'd believe it because nothing about the setting makes it feel otherworldly. I'm sorry but I'm not impressed.

Why do the teachers and graduated specialists communicate via facetime ?? In the magic dimension. ??? Why do they text each other and those texts then appear on screen like .. oh look, like a bad netflix teen movie ????? HELLO ??? it's the way technology and magic could've blended in so seamless into the world THE WAY IT WAS ALREADY DONE/SHOWN. Missed opportunity. it just takes you out of it imo every time you see the ugly, bland, gray text bar. Some fucking flavour pls I'm begging

How stupid the specialist must feel clonking around with the skinniest shreds of armor, plastic swords on their backs and battery powered flashlights and cellphones in their bags. R we larping?? I know I'd be laughing and asking why we hadn't already come up with something more effective .. idk like guns. I'm surprised I ain't see one gun in there.

In the beginning Ms. Dowling says some nonsense about fairies having lost the ability to transform to explain why there are no wings, which means they could've transformed before. So are we to assume that this supposed to be set in the time proceeding the original then?? Because something is not adding up with where they should be as a magical society technologically if that's the case

How does the production team want to keep the dark academia vibes with torches lining the walls and also want them to be face timing each other, presumably from miles and miles away in the dark forest???

Pls pick an aesthetic and stick to it everything was so unnecessarily dark. Where do they charge their phones since it's the only device we see that is the slightest bit modern and dont fucking tell me they charge it with magic I will punch you in the face

Why is there only one major monarchy that we are shown? Why are Solaria the only ones contributing to the efforts to defend the school and where is this mysterious battalion we never see lmaoo it's all so bad its laughable.

Is this set in the kingdom of Solaria? And why does the queen of an alleged interdimensional superpower monarchy pull up in black SUVs??????????? Why does she pull up with Andreas?? Is he not the king of Erakleon?? Where are his soldiers and his battalion and just?? Huh!? The world just feels empty like nobody lives here fr

Are we supposed to believe that the specialists get paired up with fairies just as a normal occurence and that they have to 'trust each other' and not because the plot demands it suddenly half way through when all we've seen so far are the fairies doing normalish school and homework, and the specialists outside, being physical everyday all day. This was never even implied that they'd have to work together apart from when we see the faculty as youngins with Rosalind. But even then.. it's like well why are they even together lmao? Is this a special team formed from Rosalind’s protégées? Were they formed after graduating from Alfea or what is this?? Are they the ONLY team of specialist/fairies hunting every single burned one?? What?

Are we now supposed to buy that Musa is being switched to 'support' because that's where her strengths lie and not in combat?? Are we supposed to believe that these girls know hand to hand combat?? When was this established? We see Terra wrapping some baby vines around a dude and I'm sorry is that the practical application of her power? Is this what the fairies are supposed to do once they graduate? Or is it just a switch in curriculum because of the threats outside the barrier?? This is never made clear.

Because if not then what's the point of this?? Why do they suddenly have endless classes together when the expectation was never set for the fairies to be like soldiers or out in the field fighting ?

Where exactly are they supposed to be what was the purpose of including Aster Dell and why is it a joy ride away from Alfea lmao?? Where Bloom is from and also not from?? Plot pls make it make sense

Why are fairies from another dimension vaping or smoking weed?? They are not human so why are they engaging in specifically human vices, yol couldn't come up with anything else to characterize 'delinquents'?? Very lazy very como se dices.. no effort. Nothing a little more spicy yol could invent, at least change the name and some properties holy shit did yol even try ??

So its fairies everywhere, having a lil party in the east wing of a phat castle.. and they are playing beer pong and dressed in t shirts and jeans..

Can you hear me screaming? Can you hear me vibrating with rage?

Not one floating decoration or magical anything in sight. Just purple lights and subpar vibes

Stella's costume design: tragic. I won't discuss further because we don't have the space or time but just know that it was absolutely atrocious and I hated it. Giving very debutante vibes

The entire budget going to that lame transformation sequence that was not a transformation sequence and those horrible, barely-there fire wings

Edgelord bloom and all her fucking leather jackets. Why do 30 yo, white cis men think girls exist in a binary? They could keep her earlier characterization and make her a hothead.. Bloom literally screamed herself into a couple power upgrades in the original come ooonnnn

Let girls be feminine without it being a character flaw what is wrong with yol its 2021. They could make her more mature, more angsty or whatever the hell else and not style her like that

The way Aisha's abilities flipflop between episodes and scenes. Very inconsistent. One minute she's struggling with a drop of water and the next she is moving an entire body of water for her bestie Bloom to fake transform because the plot demands it. Why even add in her struggles at all if you're just going to ignore it?

Why was Stella with them in that scene? She didn't do anything literally.. Aisha pulled the water and she did .. nothing.

Who the fuck is Rosalind? Why would they add her in,, to add nothing to story? The company of light was a thing, they could've plucked one of them hoes to be the antagonist. Why did the winx club need their own Delores Umbridge? Valtor was right there if you wanted an evil educator type character.

The camera work was so bland during the down beats, stagnant and fixed during a fairy party and erratic and ugly and disorienting during the fight scenes

I'm not getting over the fairy party because it was a good opportunity for the production and everyone else to show the differences between where Bloom was and where she is now but instead it just looks like a regular teen high school party?? This could have been set in Switzerland fr.

Everyone's just kind of standing?? You mean to tell me these people are from all different places in the magical dimension and their customs are all the same? They all throw parties like this ??

White and flavorless I am very bored

I guess the main question or takeaway I have is just.. who is this for? Because everyone, including the showrunners keep saying that it's for us, the fans of the original. But apart from the characters sharing some names, there are really no other similarities. So again, who was this supposed to appease or placate or satisfy? Because it sure as hell wasn't the winx club fans.

Overall, this feels very much like something I wrote and probably published on ff.net when I was 13 because I thought girls couldn't be taken seriously if they liked pink, and injected angst into everything that didn't need it and had no idea how to structure scenes or dialogue. It's just bad, objectively and N*tflix will keep making shit like this because apparently some people have bad taste??? Idk yol, be easy

[alexiaugustin]

good morning mutuals and everyone else on tumblr who is cool and made my year! this is gonna be my mutuals appreciation post 2020 because if anything good happened this year then it's getting to know all of you guys so there's that. i love you all so so sooo much and always love to see y'all and your gif sets / memes / crack posts /rants / edits and so on and so forth on my dash. you made this year beautiful and i just wanna thank u for that!💘💘 (also im sorry if the picture above activates anyone's fight response i just thought that it would fit if i went back to where it all started)

@engelkeijsers mare my love i don't even have words to describe how much i love you and am happy to have you in my life. i consider you one of my closest friends by now and that's why i always message you whenever exciting shit happens in my life (or whenever shit goes down that ofc depends🤪). our phone calls were so fucking funny and i loved talking to you sooo much i can't wait to meet you in real life one day!!💖 please feel hugged you're such a beautiful human.

@dreamaur ann my beloved mutual i love you from the bottom of my heart and just wanna thank you for being the cute bitch that u are who always remembers our mutuals anniversary like....🥺🥺 i just love that we always watch and read and stan the same things like what kind of soulmutuals behavior is this?. can't wait for s&b to air so we can always freak out about kaz and inej and everyone else together. i'm kissing your cheek and wish you the absolute best for 2021 because u deserve the best😽

@sotorubio silja i love you and your blog so much you just have such a galaxy brain and you're so eloquent and your blog is one of the few that i check on regularly because i don't wanna miss a single post you make. here's a fun fact before i properly got to know you i thought that you were sooo intimating i don't even know why and then we started talking at some point and i was like "hold on a second they are SO lovely and warm actually and not intimating at all hdhdh" as you might have figured out by now i always love talking to you about skames or rant about 13rw and everything else. i just love u!!!🧡

@helmtaryn aurore you are probably the first person who ever started talking to me on here and so it all began and we always talked abt skam france before s6 started and during and you're just such a wonderful person!! thank you for always being there for me and helping me with my french homework i truly cannot thank you enough for that because you're constantly saving my ass jdhd. you're just so fun to talk to and such a talented gif maker like... for real your gif sets always knock me out and you're always so original in what you gif🥺❣

@geminibf i know i've told you that before but your blog is my comfort blog on here literally just seeing your posts on my dash always makes my day and you're one of the most beautiful ppl i've ever known like how do you even manage to do that🥺💘 plus you're sooo talented at this point im convinced that there's absolutely nothing that you cannot do so yeah i have no idea where this sentence is going but i guess what im trying to tell u is that i love u and im so happy to be ur friend

@alterlovex niiiii❣❣❣ you're not even like a tumblr mutual you're like my tumblr sister (figure out what the hell this is supposed to mean jdjd) and you were one of the first people who hyped my stupid posts up and it always made me go 🥺😭. i started following you despite the fact that u had a wtfock icon (honorary) and i absolutely never regretted it. you're so beautiful and warm and so is your blog and i will try to talk more to u again in 2021. im virtually sending you so many flowers🌷🌻🌸💐

@jorgecrespo you're just the coolest bitch alive. i followed you for your skam rankings and stayed for your whole entire personality. every post you make truly just slaps, you never miss, and i relate to you so much jdjd. the way you answer anon messages will forever be my favorite thing about your blog and just the way you talk in general like without even seeing your url i always know when it's you who wrote a post. i love you❕❕💖

@jusdekiwi you and aurore are the reason why french people deserve rights, you are such a lovely and genuine person and i absolutely love you and your chill vibes on your blog. also thank you for helping me out with my french homework thingy once like. thank you so so much for being so lovely and taking your time julia!🌻

@suburbanenigma carmen i love you and all of your posts and just the vibes on your blog!!! also omfg your riverdale side blog always makes me laugh soo much i truly cannot wait for s5 to air so we can make fun of it together because i will live blog the shit out of it too!! you're just one of the coolest bitches ever i don't know how else to say it. i love you and cant wait to talk to you more next year. you're such a blessing for this hellsite🦋✨

@sundaymorninghangover julian you are one of my oldest friends on here and i've loved you ever since i found your blog and figured out that u were a part of the having taste club (skames fandom) too!! you're so chill!!! i love your brain!! i love your posts!!! and most importantly i love you. please keep on blessing my dash with your cool posts because they are definitely appreciated and loved in this house. also i miss your frog icon (please don't hit me in case it wasn't a frog) it just spoke volumes about your vibes but i love ur new one too!! still associate the purple heart with you so here it is 💜💜

@lesbeanfatou clara you simply are an angel. you used to have a nora grace icon and i went: that's it, she's the one, she has taste im gonna follow!! and look it was one of the best decisions ever. you're my favorite chaotic n cool mosquito hater and i just love you so much and you made my year beautiful!! thank you for always listening to me when i came into your inbox to have a break down (positive or negative) over the we feel in love in october girl and thank you for teaching me how make edits!!!💐💘

@aoixe you're one of my favorite skamfr hate blogs and certain men hate blogs (if u know u know) i always love talking and ranting with you and am so glad that we're sometimes just dming!! you're vibes are so cool a d you seem like such a chill person i love you and wish you all the best for 2021!!❣❣

@fatoudixon ana i love you and your blog so so much and especially your druck reaction videos on youtube!! you seem like such a genuine and beautiful person and even though we're not talking much please just know that im always happy to see you on my dash. happy new year to you!!💘💘

@cash-queens sam🥺 you're so sweet and kind this hell site truly doesn't even deserve you but we all love that you're here anyway!! i would protect you with my life and i hope that we will get to talk more in 2021 because you're such a lovely person and for now im just gonna wish u a happy new year✨

@avaceleste sophiaaa💌 you've been here ever since the very beginning of skamfr season 6 and i always love talking to you and long live our eliola jokes, you were probably the person i started this cult with so here is our eliola emoji starterpack one more time in 2020 💏🌧🎬

@hashtag-ohboy-nicetry i have no idea whose side blog this was but the url alone made my entire year🤭🤞

@ random love anon❤ i love you and hope that 2021 will be a good year for you because you absolutely deserve it!!! wishing u nothing but the best i always love to see you around!💐💘

all the other amazing blogs i love and am always happy to see on my dash (doesn't matter if we're mutuals or not)

@floraflorenzi / @bi-kieu-my / @gumptin / @thegirlnooneknows5 / @littleweirdoss / @sohereisthisasshole / @noramachwtz / @nori-in-pink / @ayellowcurtain / @mailinrichter / @ijzermanora / @fudgetunblr / @lesbianfatous / @norgestan / @cfgc / @avaspereira / @theflowerisblue / @smblmn / @jon-astronaut / @amiraamore / @parelmoer / @stqrz 💘❣💐🦋💌🌸

i wish all of you a very happy new year and thank you for all of your gifs, posts, translations, fanfics & edits you all truly make this place beautiful❕💘

[liquidstar]

I'd love to hear some of your recommendations! And I'm good without any content warnings, but since you're posting this for all your followers to see probably best to add them

Alright sure! I’ll be general then and since you’re just starting out this will sort of be bringing up a lot of really popular ones, the really good ones where the general consensus is “you gotta see this!”, but I’ll also try to give ones from different genres so you have a variety of things to pick from, so this isn’t really a list of personal favorites but I’ll throw in a couple of those too lol, but generally think of this as a handy beginners guide with just a little personal bias.

I wrote a lot so I'm gonna put them under the cut here.

Fullmetal Alchemist

Fullmetal Alchemist is a franchise that’s considered a must-watch, it takes place in a world where alchemy is a borderline magical power, but is considered scientific in-universe and follows scientific laws, namely the law of equivalent exchange. Something can’t be made from nothing, to gain something of equal value must be lost. The story follows the story of two brothers, Edward and Alphonse Elric, who at the ages of 10 and 11 committed alchemy’s one and only unforgivable sin, human transmutation, in an attempt to bring their mother back to life. As a result, one brother lost his arm and leg and the other lost his entire body, leaving his soul bound to a suit of armor. However the brothers are resolute to regain their original bodies, and the older brother, Edward, joins the State Alchemists, a branch of the military, to try to gain access to research materials to help them achieve their goal. But was that really such a good idea?

Fullmetal Alchemist can be a bit confusing to get into due to the fact that there are two series: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003) and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (2009). The latter is a reboot with a different story that follows the original manga. They both have the same beginning, but diverge paths and tell very different stories. My recommendation for how to watch this show is: Watch 2003 first, and Brotherhood second. Everyone has a different opinion about which is better, but everyone agrees that 2003 has better backstory but a contrived ending, and Brotherhood has a rushed beginning (Because it works off the assumption that you’ve seen 2003) with a great and fulfilling ending. If you can’t do both I say just watch Brotherhood because it will leave you more satisfied and you don’t have to watch 03 to get into it.

For both series the biggest trigger warnings are: Parental death, child death, pet death, war, genocide, dismemberment, religious themes, and miscarriage. For brotherhood specifically: on-screen suicide, and for 2003 specifically: rape (not on-screen) and pregnancy from it. The 2003 series is also a lot darker than Brotherhood which has a more optimistic tone, so that’s worth noting too.

Soul Eater

A show I think is incredibly fun, and a good one for an October watch if you wanna save it. It takes place in a world where certain people have the ability to transform into weapons, and they team up with other people who become their meisters. The characters often travel around, but the main setting is Death City, a fictional city in Nevada based off of Las Vegas but with a huge Halloweentown vibe, and a school right at the top of it called the Death Weapon Meister Academy (DWMA) where a bunch of kids that turn into weapons learn how to hunt down witches and kishins (Beings that consume human souls). The school, of course, is run by the grim reaper, Lord Death himself.

Our main characters for the series are a group of 7 students. Our protagonist Maka Albarn and her weapon partner Soul “Eater” Evans, a scythe. A loud mouth assassin named Black✰Star and his weapon partner Tsubaki, who has many weapon forms. And the son of the grim reaper, Death The Kid, and his two weapon partners Liz and Patty Thompson, who are twin pistols. There are also a bunch of really lively colorful background characters and antagonists, and the cast of the show being as insane as it is really makes it, on top of the great atmosphere and of course the plot, which just builds more and more as the series progresses. Also Crona is there and we all love Crona.

Trigger warnings for this show include: Child abuse (Mental and physical), manipulation, snakes and spiders (The motifs of two major villains), some very surreal moments that can verge on unreality. Also, in the dub and most subs: misgendering of a canonically trans character. Crona is a character who is non-binary, but the dub and subs use gendered pronouns for them due to general ignorance about neutral pronouns in 2008, though this isn’t the fault of the original series and falls on the translators hands.

Also it’s important to note: that the first 3 episodes are prologues and they take themselves less seriously, there’s more fanservice in them than there is in the rest of the series (Except for Blair she stays the fanservice character :pensive:)

Zombieland Saga

Idol anime is really prevalent as a genre, the most popular being Love Live, but my personal favorite is Zombieland Saga. It’s an idol anime, but it’s also a comedy about zombie girls who become idols. It sounds ridiculous but there’s an insane amount of heart in it regardless, it wasn’t a show I expected to get emotional at but I did! It also made me laugh a lot too. The series itself can serve as a bit of a subversion on what idols are, not just because they’re literally zombies, but because of who the characters are.

Sakura Minamoto is a character who starts off as a more typical idol, a peppy pure girl, as the series continues her struggle with depression gets highlighted. Saki Nikaido serves as her initial foil, a delinquent girl with a criminal record who subvers the idea of pure perfect idols. Ai Mizuno, a former idol who has since undergone severe trauma (The way she died). Junko Konno who has ideals that seem very different on what idols “should” be due to the time period she died. Lily Hoshikawa, an explicitly transgender idol. Yugiri nolastname, a former high ranking courtesan, subvering the pure image of an idol by being a sex worker. And Tae Yamada, a completely nonverbal idol who’s still treated with the same amount of importance as the rest of the team. The premise here really is just that these girls don’t fit the incredibly rigid mold of what idols should be and yet they still all deserve love and they gain a fanbase by being their earnest selves.

Trigger warnings for this series aren’t incredibly severe but since they’re zombies there’s still talks about death and they way they died (Including motorcycle/car accidents, plane crashes, getting struck by lightning, and a heart attack), there’s also comedic dismemberment, as in their arms just sort of pop on and off and stuff like that. The most notable thing is the deadnaming of Lily, the trans idol, by her father, but it doesn’t appear to be malicious in any way.

Note: this series is in the middle of it’s second season right now, if you want to wait until it’s over it should be 12 episodes long and just aired it’s 3rd, so about 9 more weeks.

Death Note

This is also absolutely another series that gets recommended to people right off the bat, and for good reason, this show is an intricate game of chess between a serial killer and a detective trying to catch him, and it’s incredibly easy to get super invested in the suspense of what happens next. The story begins when a shinigami, a god of death, drops his “Death Note” into the human world out of pure boredom. A Death Note is simply a notebook where if you write someone's name in it… They die! And who better to pick up such a powerful object than Light Yagami, a prodigy praised for his genius and academy accomplishments as well as his charm and popularity, and with a very strong but juvenile black-and-white sense of justice, likely due to being raised by a cop.

So naturally Light begins his power trip as soon as he finds the notebook, he intends to “fix” the world by cleansing it of all the bad people, but truly he intends to become the world’s new god. Or the “God of the new world” as he puts it. But there’s one thing standing in his way, a detective resolute on catching him with the codename L. The series entire crux is a game of cat and mouse between these two, as they try to outsmart each other and the murders continue, Light loses more and more of his humanity, L becomes more resolute on catching him. There are more twists and turns than a cheetah race, and it’s honestly pretty addictive to see what happens next.

Trigger warnings here obviously include a lot of death and murder, including suicide, but in some cases it’s a forced suicide at Light’s hands. Also abuse, as Light loses his humanity he isn’t above manipulating and discarding people who love him. And one instance of near-rape on screen fairly early on, but the purpitrator dies before it happens and the victim escapes.

K-On!

Slice-of-life is an incredibly popular genre, and K-On! is the quintessential example of it. It’s a series that not everyone will like, because not a lot truly happens, and it can be overly saccharine or “moe” for a lot of people, and that’s fine. But I personally think that despite not a lot happening, the story has genuine substance, more than you may gather at first glance. It’s true that not much in the way of big plot really happens, it’s mostly life events, that’s why it's a slice-of-life. But it’s not about nothing. The real theme of the show is the fleeting nature of youth. It’s about how important the friendships you form at that time are, how they’ll stick with you for a lifetime, and how everything comes to an end. It’s sweetness even becomes a little bittersweet because you knew their after school tea time would end come graduation, and as they realize this it breaks their hearts a little, but they continue on, because they’re still After School Tea Time!

The series itself is simply about 5 girls in a band, Yui Hirasawa on lead guitar, Mio Akiyama on the bass, Ritsu Tainaka on the Drums, Tsumugi Kotobuki on the Keyboard, and Azusa Nakano on Rhythm Guitar (Who shows up later). They’re in a club at school called the light music club where they waste a lot of their time just drinking tea and eating cake, but they’re having fun and that’s what counts! The series has a lot of really great direction and expressive animation despite the fact that a lot of it is just sitting around and talking, it’s incredibly visually interesting so you don’t get bored.

I honestly don’t think there are any big trigger warnings I can give for this series, maybe that Sawa-chan can be a little too forceful when she wants to dress up the girls in cute outfits sometimes but it’s usually not presented as too creepy especially after season 1 where they tone it down due to straying from the manga.

Mob Psycho 100

This series is an absolute love letter to the art of animation as a whole, the artstyle itself may not seem like much to look at but the animation is some of the most expressive, fluid, creative, and vibrant out there right now, it’s the type of series that you can tell was made with a real passion for its medium and it’s story. It’s protagonist is Shigeo Kageyama, nicknamed “Mob”, a term that literally means “Background character”. Mob is a middle school kid and an incredibly powerful psychic, like, insanely overpowered, but he’s currently working part time for a shady conman, Reigen Arataka. Though it may seem as if Reigen is just using Mob for his powers, their bond is actually a very sweet one and you can tell they care for each other, it’s a very important one at the heart of the series.

The core themes of the series itself are what really make it shine, it’s message is stated as clearly as possible in the opening songs, “your life is your own” and “if everyone is not special, maybe you can be what you want to be”. Put simply, you’re the protagonist of your own life, but the other important message of the series is that all the supposed background characters are just as important. The friends you make, the connections you have with other people and the way they impact you, they’re what make you strong. No one is born special, everyone is just a normal person, and everyone deserves kindness. It’s a series that I recommend incredibly strongly for just how powerfully it portrays this message.

Trigger warnings for this series include kidnapping, possession, a scene with a “man in a dress” joke, and a racist design for a background character. Also (spoilers) a scene where it seems like a child was murdered and a scene where it seems like Mob’s entire family was murdered.

Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War!

Hey, speaking of amazing animation, Kaguya-Sama is a romantic comedy series centered around the premise of two incredibly arrogant people falling in love. Kaguya Shinomiya and Miyuki Shirogane are the vice president and president of the student council at the prestigious Shuchi'in Academy, they eventually develop feelings for each other but they’re both simultaneously too proud and too insecure to admit it, so the real crux of the series is the 3D chess they play with each other to try and get the other to confess first. Along with the scatterbrained secretary, Chika Fujiawara, the treasurer in desperate need of Prozac Yu Ishigami, the cast is incredibly fun and they all fit into the comedy great. Every single little game of “do you like me?” that they play is written like the most intense thing in the world, the insane animation absolutely adds to it, making it seem almost like a psychological thriller, the comedy comes from the absurdity of just how much they hyperbolize it.

It’s not pure comedy though, due to a lot of the series being set up around mindgames, the characters are actually fairly psychologically complex with a lot of genuine development stemming from their childhood to explain why they are the way they are. The series may be about mindgames, but the actual narrative frames them as a juvenile way to go about relationships, a way to try to protect yourself from getting hurt because you’re afraid to trust. The entire core theme is that communication in relationships of any kind is the most important thing and you cant replace it with clever little tricks, so the main pair only ever make actual progress when they’re actually upfront with each other. Even if it’s scary to be that vulnerable with someone, especially if you’ve been hurt in the past like they have, the relationships you build off of mutual trust and openness will be worth the risk, and they can help heal you. And one of the things I love about the series is that this doesn’t just apply to the main pair, but it places equal emphasis on the importance of friendship. All the characters' relationships with each other are unique and interesting and they all develop the same way, with trust and openness, and they become better because of each other.

Despite being generally a comedy, a lot of the characters deal with some really heavy things too so trigger warning for: child abuse (not on-screen), child abandonment (again not on screen), anxiety and panic attacks, suicidal ideation- initionally played off as a joke but it becomes very obvious the character in question is legitimately suicidal and in the manga he nearly attempts it but is stopped, this plotpoint will most likely be in the anime at some point as it’s also not complete.

Your Lie In April

Alright I gave you a funny show now I’m going to make you cry. In fact it’s hard for me to type this synopsis because I’m an absolute crybaby and thinking about this show gets me, but I think it’s absolutely worth checking out because it’s a very beautiful sadness. Your Lie In April is a series that follows the stress and trauma young musical prodigies face in their lives, as well as the people around them, and it’s a series about the beauty of music and art, and just how much it affects people. The music in the show is absolutely gorgeous, the way that they convey emotion through it is so beautiful and intricate that it just sticks with you. You feel the music, and you understand.

I’m actually going to give the trigger warnings right now instead of at the end because in order to explain the plot I’ll have to talk about them so tw for: Child abuse (phsyical and mental, on-screen), terminal illness, death, in depth depictions of PTSD, vomiting, panic attacks, the works.

The series follows Kousei Arima, a formal piano prodigy who hasn’t performed since the death of his mother two years ago. Kousei's mother was terminally ill, but she was also incredibly abusive. Kousei has incredibly complex feelings about his mother because of this. The trauma she instilled in him is severe, but because he was a child, he still is a child, and he loved his mom a lot, as any child would, and he didn’t want her to die and he blames himself for not being good enough. He wanted to make her happy, and the only way he knew how to do that was to play the piano. So he played and played and practiced until he was perfect, they called him the human metronome. But he would still get severely punished for being anything less than perfect. He had lost all the passion he once had, and after his mother died it was the final nail in the coffin, his trauma manifests now in a way that makes him unable to play. But all that changes one day in April when he meets a violinist named Kaori Miyazono, a girl full of life and passion for music, she’s someone who according to Kousei “Exists in springtime.” and she’s going to help him play again and refined that love for music whether he wants to or not! Teen drama happens of course, but there are much bigger roadblocks ahead.

Assassination Classroom

This series is thankfully generally more lighthearted… Most of the time at least. The premise is pretty simple, but incredibly ridiculous. An incredibly powerful octopus-like creature is the teacher of a classroom of middle school students tasked with the assignment of assassinating him in order to save the world. The series starts off very slice-of-life as it focuses on introducing the very large cast of characters inside of Class E, also known as the “end class”, but it quickly gains traction and gets a lot more intense as time goes on.

The octopus creature in question, Korosensei, is actually a very kind and genuinely good teacher to all his students. The real crux of the series is that it’s sort of a critique on the educational system, the students in the end class are there because they’ve been ostracized from the rest of the campus, far away in the mountains, to be made examples of. Why? Because they’re students that are considered worthless, instead of getting help they’re only pushed back further down in the system and left to struggle within it fruitlessly. They’re given up on, despite being children with so much potential, because they don’t fit a very rigid mold. That’s what Korosensei wants to help them with, and they’re able to grow as people together. As the series progresses you feel such a great sense of unity for the class, they’re like a family, they stick together and it’s very heartwarming. And watching them work as a team of assassins is so fun!

However the series can get heavy at times too, it doesn’t stray from heavier subject matter at all and i found myself incredibly shocked by it a few times, so trigger warning for: Child abuse (on-screen and off), both at the hands of a parent and a teacher and in one case a parent who is also the principal, misgendering of a character, sometimes as a “joke” but other times played dead serious at the hands of his mother, child death- specifically suicide, a successful one as well as 3 assassination attempts that doubled as suicide attempts by the main 3 characters (weird parallel they all got there huh)

Puella Magi Madoka Magica

Honestly this is a series that is good to go in blind for if you need to tws, it’s a deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but if you don’t want to know more than that you can stop reading here. If you want to know more, it’s a series that starts off very light-hearted and in tune with typical magical girl conventions at first, however by episode 3 it’s made painfully clear that these girls are being led to sign up into something they shouldn’t. It’s heavy, though not incredibly so, but it’s also a lot to explain in a summary. Madoka magica is… It’s Faust with magical girls.

I’ll explain as much as I can without giving too much away. The story begins when Madoka Kaname and her friend Sayaka Miki encounter a creature who calls itself Kyubey, who says it can grant a wish of theirs and in exchange they have to become magical girls and fight witches. Both the girls are hesitant, but Sayaka wants to wish for her childhood friend’s injuries to be cured so he can play violin again, while Madoka is content as she is and can’t think of a wish. Luckily they have a mentor, a magical girl named Mami Tomoe who helps introduce them to everything. However something is stopping Madoka from becoming a magical girl, a mysterious new student who is also one herself, Homura Akemi, is resolute on keeping Madoka from becoming a magical girl by all means possible, for reasons Madoka doesn’t understand. Things get even more complicated when a rival magical girl shows up, Kyoko Sakura, who becomes Sayaka’s new rival. As things get more heated between those two they discover a terrible secret about the nature of magical girls, and what they truly signed up for.

Spoilers ahead but trigger warning for: Child death, parental death (backstory only), decapitation (off-screen), needles, incredibly surreal imagery inside the witch’s labyrinths that may feel unreal, mind control, suicide, depression and despair expressed by young characters. Also don't bother with Magia Record

The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K.

Alright something lighthearted now, there are a lot of comedy anime I enjoy, a lot of series that have made me laugh, but none has made me bust a gut like this series has, it’s absolutely hilarious. It follows the life of a boy named Saiki Kusuo who has psychic powers. His powers are incredibly overpowered, and he absolutely hates them, in his eyes they cause him nothing but trouble. There’s not much in the way of a plot to describe, because there isn’t any, the series is comprised of 5 minute segments surrounding Saiki and an incredibly vast and colorful cast of characters that are just all completely insane, many serve as parodies as types of anime tropes because the series as a whole is very self aware and doesn’t shy from breaking the fourth wall a lot, but the characters surrounding Saiki are what make his life… Disastrous.

Like I said there’s not really a plot to describe but like FMA people may get confused with this one, there are 3 seasons but one of them is titled “The Disastrous Life Of Saiki K: Reawakened” as is a continuation of the first two with just 6 episodes in it. Also for some reason only the second season isn’t dubbed so if you’re planning on watching it that way you’d have to either stop or switch to subs for season 2

The only major tw I can give here is an ongoing joke about a character being into his sister, he’s treated as disgusting for it of course because he’s a parody of that trope but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable, luckily he doesn’t show up much.

Little Witch Academia

Little Witch Academia is a series I personally just adore, it takes place in a world where witches are common and well-known among the people, but the era of witches is over and magic is dying out. However that doesn’t mean passion of magic doesn’t exist, the protagonist is a young girl named Atsuko Kagari, or Akko for short. She’s resolute on being just like her icon, a witch known as Shiny Chariot, as she attends the same magic school: Luna Nova! Unfortunately Akko isn’t exactly a magical prodigy, in fact she can’t even fly a broom, but that’s not gonna stop her, nothing will. Just like Chariot said, believing in yourself is your magic.

Once at school Akko gets into all types of crazy shenanigans with her with her two roommates, Lotte Yanson and Sucy Manbavaran, and occasionally her rival, Diana Cavendish. Akko still struggles a lot in school, in fact her inability with magic is pretty explicitly handled as a metaphor for a learning disability, and though this makes it harder for her she’s still resolute. Though the series is generally episodic, a concrete plot starts to form by the second core. Along with the help of her guidance counselor, Professor Ursula, Akko learns that she needs to unlock 7 “words” to bring magic back to the world, each time she learns a new one it comes with an important lesson to her and ultimately relates back to each of the core themes of the series

The series is pretty lighthearted so the biggest trigger warning I can give is one for bullying, two characters in particular tend to target Akko for not being a good witch and it can really sting to watch. Other than that none come to mind

[james-stark-the-writer]

My new WIP

So, just thought I'd introduce you people to my new child. As I (think I) said in the Get to Know the writer tag, I've decided to put off The Immortals till I feel confident enough to write it and till I finish this one. The title of the new WIP [as of this draft which I haven't started yet] is A Year At The Opera (or AYATO for short).

There's also a tldr at the end if you don't want to read this.

First off, why am I writing this? It's not a very long or interesting story. I was watching (for the first time in over a decade) Sabrina The Teenage Witch and I'd gotten to episode 20 of season one. I was sitting there, ready to watch another episode, have a good laugh, and episode 21 just blew me away. The episode is called As Westbridge Turns. If you haven't watched it, here's a short summary. The episode has a really good concept (that I'm not sure there are any books about but I'm sure mine's different). So, Sabrina's bored out of her mind cause there's nothing interesting going on in her life. And, to help spice it up, she goes to her Aunt Hilda who gives her a can of Worms. And, once she opens it, for a day, Sabrina's life becomes an episode of a soap opera. Hilarious chaos ensues.

Like why the heck has no one made a book on this that I've heard of?!

So, you've probably guessed off the title and the episode summary what the premise of the book is. But, here's a version of it. (as non spoilery as I can keep it). It's kind of written like a blurb because that's just how I like it. It's a urban fantasy (not a whole lot of magic involved at least so far) about a murder mystery and with soap-opera-ish vibes. And if it's sounds cheesy and cliché, it's supposed to be. Its a book about soap operas. It's gonna be cheesy (but hopefully well written and reasonably cheesy).

'When you're sixteen, everything is a soap opera.'

Summer is over and school is about to start. Everything seems to be going fine. There's new people in town (Svetlana and Ivana), the town's hottest boy (Ingram) is currently in a relationship, the kid with the abusive father (Boris) is alive, the quiet girl (Sabrina, just cause) is keeping secrets, the writer (Aaron) is still sleep deprived and on the first day of school, multiple fights break out. Just an average day of a high school.

But this serene scene is about to be shattered.

Aaron Adler's life is changed when his father, the only man who's ever been there for him, is tragically killed in an accident at work.

And on the night he receives the news, Aaron makes a wish. A wish that changes his life. A wish his father wasn't dead. A wish his life was more interesting. A wish the world was like those soap operas Sabrina enjoyed.

And, to Aaron's absolute shock, his wish is granted. When he wakes up the next morning, his father waits downstairs for him, eating breakfast. And it dawns upon Aaron what he's done. Athea (the town) is about to get a whole lot weirder. With a serial killer on the loose, the party of the year drawing closer, relationships at stake and a year of this, Aaron's life is about to get a whole lot interesting.

Tldr: Aaron's a writer. His dad dies. He makes a wish his life was a soap opera and his wish comes true. Chaos ensues.

My progress on the project: I haven't actually written anything yet, but... I've outlined the first two chapters. The inciting incident is the beginning of the third chapter. I'll start writing once I have the first five chapters outlined. Why am I outlining? I've only tired outlining once before (and that was a short story) and all my other books have been without an outline (at least until two-thirds of the way in and they're riddled with plot holes). Thought I'd give it a try. See how much coherent I can make the story.

Anyway, I'll probably be posting excerpts in a few weeks (once I get to work, you know). Let me know if anyone wants to be tagged. And, I'm still working on the character board I promised I'd post today, so, sorry. It's impossible to find the right pictures.

Also, before I forget, if anyone goes to high school in the UK or America, what usually happens on your first day?

Edit: A Year At The Opera Masterpost