#also for context she has only watched one anime in her life and it was w me many years ago so this so completely out of left field for her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

olderthannetfic · 3 months

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Until I read the comments on that one post I had no idea the Bechdel Test was a joke and wasn't supposed to be a serious measuring stick by which you gauged if something was feminist or not. Everywhere I'd ever heard it brought up, it was brought up as a very serious thing, and it was a failure of media if it didn't pass it. I remember the debate about Mako Mori from Pacific Rim and if she was a character you were "allowed" to like as a progressive person despite the fact that Pacific Rim doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, the discourse, the discussion of if the director was sexist for not writing in another woman for her to chat with about non-men related stuff, the camp of people trying to insist that having a fully realized character arc and being as developed as any of the male leads = good writing even if she doesn't talk to another girl...

And I've also had the remark about my writing not passing the test, just not to my face. I searched my fanfic's name once, curious to see if anyone was discussing it outside of tumblr and AO3, and found a Tiktok complaining about it not passing the Bechdel Test. The top comment was "motherfucker YOU don't pass the test but we still watch your ass". I cackled and moved on, but neither the commenter, poster, nor I had any awareness this wasn't Feminist Media Critique 101 theory and was, in fact, a goof.

Right now there's a segment of fandom debating if Blue Eye Samurai is feminist since when Mizu and Akemi talk, they do bring up men, since, y'know. Women aren't considered people with rights in their era in Japan and thus it's something they mention instead of only talking about being cool girlboss badasses who never bring up gender. If something doesn't pass the Bechdel Test, a smug segment of the internet high-fives itself and congratulates one another on being More Feminist Than Thou.

They then get really angry if you disagree, even though by this metric, Sleeping Beauty (the original animated one, where Aurora has only 16 lines of dialogue) is more feminist than Blue Eye Samurai.

*DYING*

Okay, so, nonnie....

Dykes to Watch Out For (1983-2008) was a long-running comic and major piece of lesbian media. I grew up buying compiled volumes at the bookstore. To be honest, that kind of 90s-ish lesbian culture isn't really my scene despite me being bi, but it was very nice to have this slice of life-y somewhat realistic, occasionally somewhat parody, look at the queer communities around me. It's up there with Tales of the City for me in terms of being a window into a particular culture and time and place.

If anybody is interested in queer history, in addition to looking up factual info, I think a read of the complete Dykes would give a really good overview of how people were thinking about things and what issues came up a lot. You'll see things like Barnes & Noble increasingly putting feminist bookstores out of business in the 90s, attitudes towards porn in lesbian circles—all kinds of cultural issues of the day.

I drifted away as I got later in my teens and found more genre fiction I cared about, but at one point, this comic was a very welcome antidote to the glurgey coming out stories that made up a lot of the more realistic media.

Anyway, here's the comic itself, reproduced in its entirety because I think it's important to actually understand the context.

This is from 1985, so the era of Rambo, Conan, and Death Wish, each of which you can see being made fun of here. It's based on Bechdel's friend Liz Wallace's actual rule for seeing movies.

That's it. That's the origin of this whole stupid test.

"LOL, fuck 80s action movies". That's it. That's the joke.

The fact that blockbusters still routinely fail to pass in the 2020s is shameful, but that was never the point of the strip.

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the-martyrfication-of-the-matron · 10 months

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Hey new to the aphmau fandom, like days old, and i was wondering what order to watch her rps as its kinda confusing to me

This is going to be such a long post because there’s so much to say! (There is a TLDR at the end if you don’t care about specifics and just want a watch order)

The inclusion of side-series and stuff just convolutes things a tad. But I promise, you will get an answer.

First;

I suggest a side series to start. Which isn’t to say that they’re all short, they’re just not relevant to the Big Two.

But, yeah, just dip your toe in the pool first.

Dreams of Estorra- never watched it. But it’s popular. It should be on the Aphmau Stories channel instead of her main one, if you can’t find it there. If someone can offer me a summary for it I would love you.

A Royal Tale- a weird mishmash of Disney and the Aphverse. A lighthearted fantasy show with some adult humour, Lo (< an icon), and romance. It will introduce you to some of the characters from the other series without overwhelming you with references you won’t understand. Aarmau, but they’re exes who hate eachother. It’s only a roleplay

Mermaids Tale- similar thing to ART, a mermaid au for Aphverse. Very Aarmau centric, there’s lesbian mermaids. I cant actually remember the plot but it got me into my train (the singer) phase. It’s only a roleplay

Mod Mod world- never watched it, but it did get a sequel that I’ll bring up later. Again, would love a summary from someone.

My Inner Demons- it’s one of the only non-aphmau centric shows and doesn’t include ANY aphverse characters. The main character is Ava, and it’s set up like a Harem Anime with a bunch of male demon love interests for her. It has quite adult humour, but it’s pretty cute aesthetically and deserves a second season. It’s only a roleplay

HeartPoint- a girl sees how much people like her platonically and romantically by little stats that appear above their heads. I believe Aphmau is the only Aphverse character, and whilst the romance is pretty obvious to me, I’ll leave who she ends up with blank as that’s kind of a part of the series… iirc. It’s only a roleplay.

There may be more… I’ll have to look.

Anyways.

So.

Onto the behemoths.

Minecraft Diaries is the first of the Roleplays to really get her popularity. It’s a medieval fantasy, with both roleplay and let’s play elements in it. It ran for three seasons, seasons one and two being 100 episodes each, however season 3 ended short. It was never completed. Season three is regarded as the worst season, and most either don’t consider it canon or haven’t watched it at all, but I consider it canon solely because it introduces us Lo, who I love. The two main ships when it was popular were Laurmau and Garmau, and if it weren’t for MyS, they probably still would be treated as such.

If you want to watch the main series in chronological order, I would watch MCD first. It is my favourite tho so maybe I’m biased. The lore can be contradictory and the quality slowly improves over time. It started to get remade with Rebirth, which you can watch before hand to get a general gist of the show before you dive into it, though it isn’t incredibly accurate to how the original is. Seasons 1-2 are on Aphmau’s main channel (I think), but season 3 is on Aphmau Stories. You don’t need to watch MyStreet but, you will probably end up watching it anyways.

Brief intermission: Void Paradox. The Mod Mod world sequel, is also a side series for MCD s1, and was made years afterwards. Very high quality, probably one of the better side series in general, and deserved a continuation. MMW isn’t required to watch it, but for context on Laurence and what’s up with him, MCD s1 is.

The next is MyStreet. It started as a modern Au for Diaries with the side stories and The Big Move, however began to be made into its own series. It begins as a slice of life, and is very light hearted with an Aarmau emphasis. It faces a genre swap for Season 4, before reverting to a slightly more solemn version of what it once was, before it goes back to a darker vibe for s6. Until s6, it existed in a separate universe to MCD, and you don’t need to watch MCD to understand it (though it does provide some context for s6)

There are prequels and side series (and a three episode sequel, which is fun). PDH is the main one, and because MyS was made first, they can contradict, however you will need to watch PDH S2 for context for MyS S4. Otherwise you won’t know the villain or understand what the fuck he’s doing. After them, there is PDH: Graduation days, and FalconClaw University. Neither are particularly important, but again, FCU offers some context for s4, so… you could watch it. It’s just not mandatory. There’s Aphmau’s year after s4, which is just a recovery mini-season, and there’s Her Wish which was released before s6, but set after it. And I will give them credit, they did preplan when they wrote her wish and watching it after s6 and realising everything they did to retain continuity… oh it’s good. Her wish does require watching MCD S3/late s2 though, it won’t make sense without it.

TLDR;

If a series isn’t Void Paradox, Mystreet, MCD, Phoenix Drop High or FalconClaw Uni, you can just watch it whenever.

MCD / PDH / MYS is my personal favourite watch order, because it’s all chronological. But just go with whatever you vibe with!

MCD is the OG and fantasy Medieval, but is a mix of roleplay and let’s play, and doesn’t have entirely consistent lore. It has a partial remake and it’s final, incomplete season, sucked.

PDH is higher quality and a highschool drama with fantasy undertones but less relevant, and is a prequel for MyS

MYS is the most popular and is a slice of life with more fantasy undertones, as well as very high quality, but suffers through genre swaps, and requires some context from the other two in later seasons.

#aphmau #aphverse #aphblr #minecraft diaries #mcd #mystreet

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cerastes · 10 months

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The more we watch crappy high school romcoms or high school wish fulfillment shows where the ostracized-slash-lonely main character is actually a super genius and never misses with the gang, the easier it becomes to appreciate Oregairu, which even without the context of being in part explicitly a parody of the genre is already a good show, but it becomes even better the more you understand what genre it is mercilessly ripping to shreds without coming across as a *anime youtuber voice* deconstruction high on the smell of its own flatulence. To put it in other terms, while it is in fact a parody of the usual High School Loner Genius Romcom/Harem formula, it also actually cares to deliver a good story with its own themes and depth beyond “parody”.

Hachiman’s 4-D chess seemingly works at first, but it’s explicitly shown to be simple stopgap measures that don’t fix anything and may even make things worse in the long term, and throughout the story, it takes actually realizing that he’s burning bridges that he desperately wants and that he’s not some Loner Genius high schooler The Joker that has it all figured out, and only then does he actually start working his ass off to properly solve the problems in front of him through what is a refreshing combination of sheer humane, considerate solutions mixed with his inherent cunning, with the long term in mind. Yukinoshita is the genius hot girl that is good at academics and sports, but she is so utterly incapable of making meaningful connections with people that it doesn’t really help her at all because, well, not just in school but in life, you really need to know how to handle people and work together with them, no matter how intelligent or capable you are, and this weakness overshadows her strengths, completely negating her advantages. Yuigahama is the preppy popular girl that is charismatic and good looking, but pretty naive or even ‘dumb’ sometimes, but then it becomes clear that not only is she incredibly mature emotionally, she WILL be ruthless and assertive when she actually needs to be and isn’t some selfless little goober, but at the same time, she also doesn’t have anywhere or anyone she feels she truly belongs at or with until she meets these two other strays, whose bluntness and sincerity she appreciates greatly.

Then, a third of the story in, we are introduced to Iroha, who represents the cunning younger student that is always this beloved, charming girl who actually is a pretty cunning and even malicious trickster that always gets what she wants... Except, NO ONE falls for it for longer than maybe a few seconds, and then it turns out that she and Hachiman are just really compatible, and they become good friends in that sort of caustic, vitriolic way that is only natural for the two of them, cynic duo that they make.

And needless to say, Hachiman’s sister, Komachi, is immediately, frame one shown to not only have a perfectly believable relationship with Hachiman in that they dunk on each other on sight, but also REALLY wants Hachiman to start dating a girl already and actively tries to get him to grow closer to any of his lady friends. The closest to a siscon joke in Oregairu is when someone reacts to Hachiman’s (grounded and not exaggerated) protectiveness of her by asking “oh, are you a siscon?” to which he replies “what in the fuck are you talking about, no, I’m worried about my sister because she’s my sister, don’t be weird about this”.

Oregairu has this habit of consistently showing you tropes and archetypes you will very clearly recognize from formulaic anime and novels, and then immediately humanizes them, not enough to fully remove them from the context of “you are watching anime or reading a light novel”, and just to remove them from “you know exactly what to expect from This Character”. It’s at that point where the narrative mix-ups, as it were, begin: Is this character going to at all follow the usual role you’d expect from them in a romcom or harem, or is this character going to go off the rails and pleasantly surprise me?

And it always goes off the rail when it matters with Oregairu. It’s always a pleasant surprise with Oregairu.

#oregairu #watching classroom of the mid with a group of pals and man #watching these garbo shows really makes me appreciate Oregairu a LOT more #and it's already one of my top 3 anime ever lmao

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hyperfixated-fan · 7 months

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Here is some of those wonderfully nostalgic girly-girl shows in vague order in which I watched/discovered them that no one asked for but I’m giving to you anyways.

1. First up, we’ve got the Horseland

Back in the day, I was a major horse girl (a part of me still is), but this show was so awesome and adorable. It’s just a bunch of gals riding their horses and hanging out at the barn. And their horses and other animals talk amongst themselves. It is all an animal lover like me could want. It’s just so cute and gives sweet life lessons. And occasionally, I found it interesting that they do touch upon some serious topics such as eating disorders and loss. The episode “Mosey” always makes me cry. All the episodes are on YouTube.

Overall, I have to say my favorite character is Alma Rodriguez.

2. LEGO Friends

The first generation of LEGO Friends is nostalgic, but I also seriously love the LEGO Friends: Girls on a Mission. It’s just a bunch of teenage girls getting up to shenanigans and being besties (Oddly, though they are high school age, we barely see them in school XD). I particularly enjoy Girls on a Mission (the episodes are on YouTube) because the episodes were so well put together and it fleshes out each girl a bit more uniquely. It’s a genuinely fun show though I generally am partial to LEGO shows. I am personally not a fan of latest generation of LEGO Friends. I’ve watched a few episodes and it’s just blegh. It might be the nostalgia talking but I just can’t get into it.

My fave character has always been Emma (she’s so adorable) and my fave ship is Emma x Ethan in the Girls on a Mission iteration.

3. Barbie Movies

Not sure if all the movies are pictured above, but there’s a good portion of them. I admit, I haven’t seen all of the Barbie movies (especially the good old classics mainly due to animation that did not age well so sorry) and did not really become a fan until later than most little girls. However, I still find the movies to be very enjoyable and cute. I think a lot of my affinity comes from many familiar Canadian voice actors being in most of the movies and I find it fun trying to pick out familiar voices.

A few of my personal favorite movies are “Princess Charm School” (it’s the first Barbie movie I ever watched with one of my best friends), “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” (so many voices and characters to listen to and try and remember), and “Mariposa” (I am rather partial to the voice of Chiara Zanni and loved her playing Barbie).

4. Ever After High

It is so sad that Ever After High ended after Epic Winter. I really wish we got to see more. I loved the imaginative twist on fairytale characters and the whole “facing your destiny” storyline. The princesses, knights, dragons, and wonderland were all great components as a lover of fantasy. Disney Descendants ain’t got nothing on Ever After. It was a very creative show and it was interesting to see all the characters that would pop up.

A few of my favorite characters are Rosabella Beauty, Ginger Breadhouse, and Lizzie Hearts. Call me basic but I really do like the ship Darabella (obviously the execution of it could’ve been better but I still like it.)

5. Miraculous Ladybug

Simply put, this show is a mess. Miraculous Ladybug barely made the list only because I have fond memories of it. I’m not caught up on any recent events and admittedly quit watching it after season 3 or 4 (I don’t exactly remember). The show had potential and many amazing fanworks, but after a while, the episodes just get repetitive. I still like the earlier seasons before things got too messy. As a lover of side characters, I also wish they fleshed out the side characters a bit more instead of keeping on creating more and more side characters. I still occasionally pop in to see what is going on and apparently Nathalie is dead?! Idk what’s going on and I love looking at spoilers with no context because it makes the show all the more funny.

My fave character list includes Alya Césaire, Nathalie Sancoeur, and Juleka Couffaine and I’m partial to the ship DJWifi.

6. Monster High

Since I was a fan of Ever After High, it was only inevitable that I would eventually become a fan of Monster High. It took a while but I eventually did fall in love with the show. And I fell hard. All the characters are so unique and while I absolutely love all the generation 1 content, I do not completely hate the g3 series. I loved the message of standing out yet belonging at Monster High, freaky flaws and all. The animation is very dated yet endearingly nostalgic at the same time. I love all the different twists on various monster creatures.

My favorite characters list gets pretty extensive, as I love g1 and g3 Abbey Bominable (I always love an ice queen), along with g1/g3 Cleo De Nile (bc she’s your typical mean girl/diva but truly cares for her friends), Robecca Steam (her steampunk aesthetic and little accent are adorable), Deuce Gorgon (a kind yet popular jockish character is rare), Jinafire Long (Chinese dragon is always a win), and Rochelle Goyle (she’s just neat).

Fave ships = Cleuce (CleoxDeuce) and AbbeyxHeath. I just love them okay!

7. Lolirock

I believe I discovered this show coming off of Storm Hawks and Steven Universe so the crystal motif and everything was already an intriguing concept for me (plus familiar Canadian voice actors drew me in). I just love the trio of girls trying to “secretly” protect earth with sparkles and spells while putting up the front of being a girl band (the songs are very catchy by the way if you can get past an ungodly amount of auto tune). The episodes gave me vibes similar to Miraculous Ladybug but somewhat better with less convoluted characters. Overall, it’s a very bright energetic show and I wish they would’ve delved into the backstories of the other princesses a bit more instead of focusing on Iris all the time. Here’s to hoping they eventually do come out with season 3. All the current episodes are on YouTube.

My favorite characters are the sisters Izira and Talia. They have so much power and the show needs to actually do them justice.

8. Mysticons

This one is definitely lesser known than most on this list. I found it shortly after LoliRock since it has similar features and characters. It’s a very simple show with simple characters but I am fond of it still (and I’m pretty sure it made me cry at one point. I don’t remember when but I remember something about it made me emotional). The fantasy magic of the world was definitely a big win for me. I think the creators did a decent job at world building. It’s your typical prophesied heroes must save the world from certain destruction but I found the show overall enjoyable and cute with a nice dose of found family thrown in.

My top favorite characters are Zarya Moonwolf and Emerald Goldenbraid.

9. DC Super Hero Girls

I started out as a G1 fan when it was still coming out and became a fan of the reboot as well. It was interesting to all these wonderful kickbutt superheroes placed in a high school -esque setting. The original series was very average with their shorts but it was such fun to see what characters would pop up to help (I even will tolerate and enjoy the LEGO specials). The reboot had better design and animation. I am sad it didn’t get a chance to run longer. My only qualm was that some characters had such a drastic change from their backstory and original character development that it moved from being whimsical and imaginative to simply keeping the name and having an entirely different character. *cough* Jessica *cough* They don’t get that she was such a powerful Green Lantern because she was bold but because most of the time she was scared out of mind due to her past trauma but still acted and pushed through the fear to save people.

Rant aside, my fave character is Jessica Cruz despite the reboot overhauling her character and erasing her backstory.

10. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Not necessarily my favorite glittery girly series I’ve watched but definitely an enjoyable series. True to my usual form, I unfortunately did not end up caring for most of the main plot and characters. However, the idea of this show was fun nonetheless and it had its nice moments, so I’m glad it got a decent number of seasons. The magic, weaponry, and elemental powers drew me to this show. I wish they delved a bit deeper into the true effects and trauma that fighting a war would have on all of the characters as they are leaders of their respective kingdoms.

My favorite characters include Entrapta (little nerdy characters are almost always a win for me), Mermista (Vella Lovell was perfect for voicing her and her character design is nice), Netossa (another awesome blue character; if anyone’s seen Six: The Musical, does she vaguely remind you of Catherine Parr?)

Bonus: Rainbow High

An interesting premise though it ultimately falls flat for me because I am not a fashion-oriented person in the slightest. However, I still like the show and all the drama that comes with it. I just overall find it hilarious to watch the squabbles that happen because everyone is just so high strung. (Why do all the guy characters literally look the exact same with that same stupid little hairstyle?) XD

Fave characters are Ainsley Slater and Jade Hunter.

Bonus: God’s School

Greek mythology! Need I say more? This is such an imaginative show. It is even more amazing considering one guy does all the animation. The webisodes that are out are great and I definitely recommend watching them on YouTube. Zeus looks like Disney Hercules and I find that hilarious. All the character designs for the gods are so awesome and I love the details that help indicate who they are. Ignore the fact that over half of them are related in some form or another and everything is fine.

Fave definitely has to be Athena! (…bad*** in the arena. Unmatched witty and queen of the best strategies we’ve seen.)

Bonus: Tinkerbell

These are just cute adventures. I wish the series could’ve continued so we could’ve gotten movies highlighting each of the fairies.

My fave is Silvermist.

Bonus: Steven Universe

I personally enjoyed this show and know it had a large fan base so I don’t get why so many people are going back and hating on it so fervently. It’s a flawed show like any but it still has it fine points and I have a soft spot for it. I heavily debated on whether this qualified for a magical girl show but I think it does. It’s nice seeing Steven grow alongside the gems and it’s a good show to put on in the background.

My favorites have to be Garnet and Sapphire.

Honorable mentions that I never fully watched but seem nice:

My Little Pony - I’m disappointed in myself for never getting into this show because it has all the right points for me to like it, including great Canadian voice actors and magic and ponies. I have watched some episodes and enjoyed them but I don’t think I’ll ever be able to sit through and binge the entire show.

LEGO Elves - watched some but I never got truly immersed.

Totally Spies! - never really gave it a go but it seems okay.

Winx Club - I tried to like it but the characters just didn’t hit for me.

W.I.T.C.H. - watched the first few episodes but nothing made me want to continue.

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dianethepisceswitch · 1 month

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🧞‍♂️I watched Aladdin🧞‍♂️

Please read this post to gain needed context. Thanks.

**Spoilers for Aladdin (obviously) and Twisted Wonderland (Book 4 and Yasmina Silk Event)**

TW: Negative portrayal of Arabic people, general ickiness

Tropes Completed: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13

🐅The Good🐅

Every. Song. Fucking. Slaps. The only exception to this is "Arabian Nights", which is just because Bruce Adler's singing voice didn't match the song. But Will Smith's version from Aladdin 2019 is perfect.

Gorgeous animation except with the CG in the Cave of Wonders. That's the only scene that dates the movie

Every character is flawless. I especially loved the Sultan, when I wasn't really expecting to. Even though he's forcing Jasmine to get married, you can tell that he truly wants what's best for his daughter.

Robin Williams as the genie and Gilbert Gottfried as Iago was perfect casting.

I. Love. Jasmine's. Voice. She sounds so cute while also sounding strong, powerful, and sensual at times.

I WANT RAJAH. He's so fucking cute.

Watching Aladdin after playing Book 4 is an enhanced experience. I didn't think I could appreciate Jamil anymore than I already did. But thing change I guess, because HOLY FUCK. I love Jamil 10x more than I already did after seeing his inspiration. Jafar is so evil and mischievous, I love it.

A Whole New World needs to be seen to be believed. Go watch it right now, if you haven't. I will take no slander.

I love Aladdin and Jasmine had opposite drives, but are kind of the same in a way. Jasmine made her life worse by running away so she could follow her heart. Aladdin made his life better by lying so he could follow his heart.

Ugh, I love the apple symbolism.

🐍The Bad🐍

I'm not really a movie person, but I feel like it took a long time for the movie to really get started. It felt like it took 30 minutes for Jasmine to start running away, and another 30 minutes for Jasmine to get caught. I know it didn't take this long, but that's how if felt.

Abu was really annoying after the first few times he was on screen.

The law that Jasmine has to be married by her 16th birthday was both unnecessary and gross. That combined with the fact that Jafar ends up trying to marry her and people keep pointing out how old he is. The cherry on top of this disgusting sundae is the kiss towards to end. Like, no? That did NOT need to happen. Him calling her "pussycat" before that was so fucking rancid, it literally made my eyes water and I gagged.

🐪The Bad- A Racist Background🐪

The song, "Arabian Nights", originally contained the lyrics:

Where they cut off your ear If they don't like your face It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

This paints Arabic people as barbaric and violent people. After large criticism from Arabian Americans due to the racist lyrics, Disney agreed to change the lyrics. This was largely due to a meeting with the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee back in 1993, a year after the films release.

🌺Twisted Wonderland References🌺

In the Yasmina Silk event, the owner of the silky melon stall owner mentions that Jamil stole one while in middle school. This refers to the scene where Aladdin and Abu work together to steal a melon from a stand.

The Golden Scarab on Jamil's Dorm Uniform card mirrors the Scarab in the movie

During "One Jump Ahead", Aladdin and Abu attempt to hide with pots on their heads, which is something Jamil used to do when he would get in trouble.

"...Give me adequate cause. To send him packing on a one-way trip. ..Whoopeeeeeeeee! So looooooooooooong! Ex-Priiiiiiiince Aaaaaaaallllllliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"(Aladdin) "Your personality flaws give me ADEQUATE cause... To send you packing on a one-way trip to the ends of the earth! WHOOPEEEEE! SO LONG! MWA HA HA HA HA! Ex-Housewarden Kalim! HYAAAH HA HA HA HA HA!"(Book 4)

The peddler in the beginning is a shady figure who attempts to sell the viewer useless objects that are marketed as valuables, which is something that the various merchants in Silk City attempt to do to Jamil's classmates.

The flower in Jamil's hair on his Yasmina Silk card looks identical to the flower Aladdin gives jasmine during "A Whole New World".

🐒Additional Notes🐒

Aladdin has earned two direct-to-DVD sequels, The Return of Jafar(1994), and Aladdin and the King of Thieves(1996). Aladdin has also had a live action adaptation in 2019.

While not created by Disney, Twisted: The Untold Story of A Royal Vizier, is a parody musical based around Aladdin.

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supernaturallyliterate · 3 months

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Okay I know I’m late but I just watched PJO episode 7!

SPOILERS FOR SHOW AND BOOKS AHEAD

We get so much more Sally POV!! I am here for it honestly

The fact that Poseidon showed up for Sally when she prayed to him?! MAN this is a change I can stand by. It shows so much more depth to Poseidon’s character, shows that he is fully aware of how much his family sucks but that he is still bound by its rules. He is still powerless to stand up to the norms of Olympus. He knows he can’t interfere in Percy’s life because it would be 1. Acknowledging that he’s his son and 2. Would make him a target for an insta kill like Zeus killed Maria Di Angelo & tried to kill Bianca and Nico. Don’t tell me Poseidon didn’t know about that.

The RAGE on Percy’s face in the preview during his fight with Ares! YES. GIVE ME FERAL PERCY.

The little scene preview of Luke clapping Percy on the back during the foreworks JDKDKDKFKRK BOOK READERS Y’ALL KNOW WHATS COMING

I am really interested in the moment on the Fields of Asphodel when Annabeth gets rooted to the ground by regret. This is a significant change from the books and honestly I liked this one too. Especially Annabeth’s line, “I trust your dad.” If you noticed, she calls Athena, “mother” but she calls Poseidon Percy’s “dad.” It is doing so much set up with just two simple words.

But also! What is she rooted by? Regret for Thalia’s death? She was six! Regret for Percy getting turned into gold? He did that shit intentionally. Honestly there’s so much that baby Annabeth could be regretting but I think it’s Thalia’s death. Especially because she’s seeing what happens after death here. So she can’t help but imagine her friend Thalia. Being turned into a tree in life. To prevent her from… being turned into a tree, only in death.

And of course there’s Elysium and rebirth and the fields of punishment. But most people go to the fields of Asphodel.

The change of the Fields of Asphodel having people wander around aimlessly to being turned into trees rooted to the ground unmoving is interesting. It felt a little like an intentional parallel to Thalia. But I wonder if it’s based in any Greek myth lore

Grover being eaten by Cerberus not gonna lie I was worried about our resident goat boy!! But it makes sense for him to be the one to lose his pearl. Even though it also could’ve worked with Annabeth

Not gonna lie I was a little disappointed that Annabeth wasn’t the one to almost fall into Tartarus instead of Grover. That would’ve been an AMAZING parallel to the fall into Tartarus later in the series. Heroes of Olympus.

Hades is characterized a little differently. More friendly? More animated? Lmao lively. He gives queer or metrosexual energy. He still has his unbothered attitude about the godly affairs which sets him apart from other Olympians

CRUSTY’S. Okay. I was excited that they included the scene with Crusty. But again, I felt like it was another moment of “Percy knows too much”. He immediately knew who Crusty was, I assume because Hermes told him. He knew how the bed trap worked. He knew about the secret passage to the underworld. I just. I don’t like how the series just GIVES Percy and the trio so much information or they just HAVE it. It’s one of my biggest critiques of the show. Give me clueless Percy asking Annabeth who someone is from Greek myths. Give me Annabeth’s AHA moment when she remembers a Greek myth and puts in context with their situation. I wanna see the trio being so fucking confused and have to work to figure out who they’re up against.

Even Percy realizing that it’s Kronos in his dreams! It felt like something mundane and not a big revelation.

I like the gold percy and gold Sally Jackson parallel. That was good.

I’m so excited to see Percy kick so God of War ass (well, ankle) next episode!

I have more thoughts but have these ones for now

#percy jackson #pjo #percy jackson disney+#annabeth chase #pjo show spoilers #pjo show #pjo spoilers #percy jackson show spoilers #Percy Jackson and the Olympians #percy jackson and the olympians spoilers #spoilers #major spoilers #grover underwood #hades #Poseidon

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bakubunny · 2 months

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Apologies, another sharing session involving a fandom you've never mentioned, also I've been realizing that every time I do this it results in a long ass ask so I apologize once more 💀🙏

Context: As a kid the first ever anime I watched was Fairy Tail and I was absolutely obsessed with it but never actually finished it. So naturally, recently I've been rewatching through it to relive that part of my life. Long story short, back then I had a crush on Natsu Dragneel and I still do to this day. In the show, he's something called a Dragon Slayer, specifically the Fire Dragon Slayer (side note: people usually call him Salamander in the show which I just think is really cool—) He was raised by a dragon and was taught special powerful magic along with developing dragon-esque characteristics like an enhanced sense of smell, increased strength, increased stamina, fangs, sometimes he gets scales during fights, he growls when he's pissed, etc. Dragon Slayers have to eat whatever their respective element is to be able to replenish their magical energy, so obviously you can commonly see Natsu literally eating fire, just as long as he didn't make it himself.

OK AFTER THAT LONG ASS EXPLANATION— I haven't been able to stop thinking about primal play with Natsu.

I feel like bro would be absolutely clueless about what it is until you explain it to him and he's all in. One night when Happy is off hanging out at the guild for the night and you two aren't, he takes you out to a secluded forest and says he'll give you a head start since you're obviously gonna need it. So you excitedly giggle (or nervously, you can't tell) and take off into the forest.

You're trying your best to make it hard for Natsu to reach you, ducking under fallen trees, going through bushes, jumping over small streams, etc. He gives you about 30 seconds, then bolts. With his enhanced senses and endurance, he's easily able to catch up to you. Almost too easily.

To make it more fun, he lets you get away a few times, just to give you some hope and also to let you wear yourself out. I feel like he'd get really into it, like he's growling as he chases you. He thought this would be fun but he didn't realize how amazing it would feel to just let his predator instincts loose for a little bit.

To just have fun chasing and teasing a cute little lamb, giving her hope that she can escape when he knows she won't. Only to eventually tackle her to the ground and pin her hands and legs to the forest floor as she tries to fight and her chest heaves heavy breaths from the excursion.

He savors the sight for a few seconds before he clicks his tongue in mock disappointment as he shakes his head. "Seriously? I gave you a head start and everything. It's like you wanted to be caught. Isn't the whole thing with prey that they're supposed to have survival instincts?" He mocks.

You continue to gasp for air and fight against his strength even though you know it's hopeless. He takes the hand he isn't using to pin your wrists to your stomach and begins running it up the side of your thigh, his warm palm ironically sending shivers down your spine. It goes under your shirt, stopping at your side to which he gives a squeeze.

"So warm and soft... almost too warm. You okay down there, lamb?" He chuckles, tilting his head with the biggest shit eating grin on his face. There's just something that makes him so happy to know that you're this attracted to his dragon nature. You both know how much your arousal is growing. If Natsu couldn't already smell it on you he can certainly feel it due to him sitting on top of the heat between your thighs in order to pin your legs down. Of course he has to tease you about it. He leans down and gets right up close to your face.

"What? Too shy to talk?" He mocks. You turn your head away and bite your lip, too shy to look at him as your face burns. Natsu laughs. "Aww... look at that! Too shy to even look at me or talk to me. That's alright though. I can make you talk for me." He then practically rips your clothes off, tearing your top, your leggings, everything to shreds, leaving you bare and vulnerable to him. He licks his lips at the sight, his forked tongue peaking out from between his lips for an instant.

He leans down next to your face, his breath fanning against the shell of your ear,

"Or maybe scream for me..." he growls.

Also I've seen the concept of Natsu going into a rut come up a few times which like 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 we'll save that for another day—

first thought: “this just in: miz is into another stupidly strong redhead who’s into primal play. add him to the list.”

but in all seriousness, i… need to watch fairy tail apparently. sounds like there’s at least one more pretty boy whose cheeks i might want to smoosh. 😔😵‍💫

also thank you for sending this in! i don’t mind rot from other fandoms…. that’s usually what pulls me in lmao.

you and i both seem to suffer from the “same man, different fonts” ailment with many of our favorite characters lmao.

#let’s see hereeee #kiri yuuji sukuna natsu #who else? 😆#i’d add joe to the list but he’s not a redhead #all in jest and good fun of course #im right there with you #on fridays we share with the class #x reader #natsu dragneel #fairy tail

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yoinkschief · 4 months

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I have to talk about this because the Glass Animals How To Be A Human Being album is one of my special interests that album is so cool you guys don't understand please

The album features 11 songs, each one corresponding to one of the people on the album's cover(s), each one telling a story about that person

I bring this up as context as to why, even though everyone in this community makes memes about it, Pork Soda is THE TomTord song, and here's why:

Pork Soda corresponds to the old man with a paddy cap and glasses in the back of the album to the left of the basket ball player, and as such it's sung from his perspective

The song is about two lovers who fell in love with each other because of their spontaneous nature,

Somewhere in South End when you were fun You took my hand and you made me run Up past the prison to the seafront You climbed the cliff edge and took the plunge

However, this song is sung from the future(ish?), it's the old man yearning for the days when he and his lover were younger and full of sporadic energy, for when they would just pick up stuff suddenly and leave off on some crazy adventure,

Why can't we laugh now like we did then? How come I see you and ache instead? How come you only look pleased in bed? Let's climb the cliff edge and jump again

This is further pushed by the song's official music video where it shows a literal divide between the two lovers, living different lives as they live on completely separate floors of the house

The old man is portrayed as bitter and its suggested this song is him complaining about how his life isn't what it used to be to the listener, as he sits in his living room watching TV and doing pretty much nothing with himself, stuck in a constant loop of disappointment and resentment

Versus the wife who's seen with a dog that she's trying to get joy out of having, she tries to keep having a spontaneous life and do fun things to keep that spark in her going, seen with her dancing with the dog in the floor above the old man

I think this is great symbolism honestly, and it suggests the old man is to blame for this lack of spontaneousness in their love life anymore

Furthermore this is perfect for TomTord, more specifically, imo, enemies/friend to lovers to enemies WTFuture TomTord, although The End was also pretty good I think it would've worked better if it was pre Tord leaving and then Tord coming back, as that gives similar vibes yk?

It's perfect for them and I know this song is everyone's personal hell in this fandom and I understand why but you NEED to realize this is THEIR song

Along with songs like I Love You Like An Alcoholic and The Masochism Tango, the list goes on

I can make a list

I have two separate playlists for TomTord you don't understand how much I love songs

Extra information I know about this song that's cool to me:

Glass Animals got inspired to write this song after they met a girl (at a concert I believe?) with a tattoo on her arm that simply said "Pork Soda", and when they asked her why she got such a random string of words tattoo like that she said "cause I wanted to", thus inspiring them to make a song about spontaneousness

HOWEVER

I know the reason she got that tattoo and why she said that she is so funny to me

She got that tattoo because there's actually a second Pork Soda, a band album: Primus' Pork Soda album, which is, I'm sure, why she got the tattoo because that album probably meant a lot to her

Thus making her answer "because I wanted to" seem like the generic answer every person who has a tattoo answers with because everyone always asks "why did you get that tattoo" or belittle them for the tattoo "not having meaning", etc.

Just a silly addition I thought I'd add to this because I love this album so much please ask me about the other songs I know about all of them

#jay talk #eddsworld #ew #ew tord #ew tom #tord #tom #tomtord / tordtom #pork soda #songs #albums #glass animals #how to be a human being album

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anncanta · 3 months

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***

It's amazing how some things reveal themselves when you look at them from the outside, through someone else's eyes, or after some time, when you forget the details that lie in the foreground and therefore seem obvious.

I couldn't figure out where I got this pattern in which Dracula in my fanfictions is very careful with Agatha the first time he bites her. It was so bright and acutely palpable, and it appeared again and again. Dracula behaves gently, he does not rush her and somehow makes her understand that it will not be painful and scary, and interesting discoveries await her. You see, it seemed to me that this was just my fantasy. Well, you never know what kind of kinks a person can have. Such light BDSM in a vampire way.

And then I understood, thanks to @moremoveslessannouncements-blog and her post, why. It's in the text. Fanfiction never lies. Fanfics always show what is in the canon, it just may be the main feature of the hero or plot or a secondary one. But in this case, everything was right before my eyes.

You see, I always thought that in the scene in the workshop, he was threatening her. ‘I will make you last’, ‘You'll be part of me’, ‘You'll travel to the new world in my veins’ ... This text is truly threatening. If it weren't for the body language that accompanies it.

Context is important, especially the physical, bodily context.

This is not a threat.

This is a threat.

If you forget about the text for a moment and watch what Dracula is doing, he slowly approaches her, looks at her intently, and gently runs his hand along her neck.

Let's turn on the sound and look at everything together. And again we ask the question – what is he doing?

I mean, not what are his actions, but what are they about?

And I'll tell you. He explains to her what will happen.

And when I realized this, I realized how blind I was. Because, well, look. How many of his victims did Dracula explain what he was going to do to them and how it worked?

Jonathan didn't even know what Dracula was doing until he found himself exhausted at his desk with the prospect of being locked in a box in a couple of weeks.

The Grand Duchess was eaten during a passionate waltz, without further ado.

Abramov and Portman were devoured almost without ceremony.

With Dorabella, Dracula made a good attempt to be polite and gallant but did not go into details of what was happening.

I purposely describe this so cynically so that it is clear what I mean.

Agatha is the only one of all Dracula's victims (perhaps except for Lucy, but that's a separate discussion) to whom he explains what would happen.

I only now realized what it was.

Let's return to Agatha's workshop. Dracula lets Mina go, and he and Agatha are left alone. He knows she's scared. He doesn't see, he knows it. He has an animal sense and can smell her fear. Agatha can be calm outwardly as much as she wants – he senses it. This is not yet Dracula we will see in the third episode, so it doesn't even occur to him to let her go. But he is interested in her. He likes her. And he – clumsily, in his own way, as best he can – calms her down. ‘Don't be afraid. You won't disappear. You will become a part of me. Your life will continue in the new world in a new form.’ And then this touch on the shoulder: ‘Hush, it won't hurt.’

I heard it. This appears in literally every text I write about them, one way or another. But I sincerely thought that it was my imagination.

If anyone still doubts it, then there is a scene between Dracula and Zoe in the third episode. Here, Dracula has already come a long way and therefore can express what he feels, not only with a gesture – now frankly intimate – but also with words. He can tell her this, still rather rudely and seasoned with mockery, but directly: ‘It doesn't have to hurt.’ The scene in his mind palace is not only a dialogue with Zoe here and now. This is a memory. He can afford more now. And he does. But it's still not quite ‘that’. We will see how he succeeded in the finale.

Well, to summarize, I would like to note that this entire storyline is missing in the script. It has the text that Dracula speaks on all three occasions (episode 1, in Agatha's workshop, episode 3, in the mind palace, and the finale), but it doesn't have the body language and subtle interactions that create this entire plot. Which is logical – the film and the script are not the same thing, the film is formed in the process of working on it, and some things are simply born on the set. But when the text is ready, they are impossible not to be noticed and impossible to be ignored. Luckily, fan fiction exists.

Thanks again @moremoveslessannouncements-blog.

#dracula bbc #dracula 2020 #bbc dracula #count dracula #agatha van helsing #dragatha #fanfiction

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sethnakht · 1 year

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fic recs feat. darth vader

Back in the day, I posted a list of fics (centered on the character of Darth Vader, in relation to Leia in particular) that left a strong impression on me as a reader. As part of a 2023 resolution to ease back into active reading, I wanted to shout out some newer stories that have equally grabbed my imagination. Like the original list, these stories are focused on Vader, especially if not exclusively in dialogue with Leia.

For context, I look for stories that grapple with the suit, with its effects, so you can expect medical and psychological horror as a theme. I also really like the kinds of horror stories you can tell with a character like Vader: I'm drawn to stories abounding with ghosts and gore. tl;dr - you can expect graphic depictions of violence and body horror, and please heed the tags on the fics themselves.

✦ appenza, multi-chapter wip by zinoviev, darth vader & leia organa, leia organa & luke skywalker

As a girl, Leia always dreamed of the stars. She had two passions: to become a pilot and to make the galaxy a better place. On her sixteenth birthday, she ran away from home to do what she thought was right. Two years later, she is a stellar recruit at an Imperial flight academy when an unwanted foe takes interest in her: Darth Vader.

Leia's characterization takes a stark departure here from the norm - she's alienated from her family and role on Alderaan, and has run away to become a pilot - offering a fresh and bold perspective on the AU scenario where Vader discovers her before Luke.

✦ divine comedy, multi-chapter wip by frodogenic, darth sidious & ghost!padmé amidala

Palpatine knows exactly how Padme Amidala died-trying to save her fool of a husband. What he can't understand is why she won't stop trying... Canon-compliant multi-chapter fic, spanning ROTS to ROTJ.

Padmé lives on a ghost, but only Palpatine can see her. Banger of a set up, and I love how this story is told from his perspective, slippery and odious; the cunning displayed by both as they make competing bets on Anakin’s fate.

✦ greater intrepidity than I could behold myself, orphaned oneshot, leia organa & darth vader

A towering, sinister shape in all black trudges into view. The sight of it is a confusing clash of associations as she and the creature try to identify it, an amalgamation of man-machine-beast. Its loud respiration cycles send chills down her spine. It is the center of the abnormality, she realizes.

In a dream that is also an allegory, Leia enters the mind of a red-eyed animal drawn by gnawing hunger into Vader’s presence. Sharp, visceral writing.

✦ heartstrings, completed multi-chapter genfic by severnlight, darth vader & leia organa

Forced to deliver a mysterious message, Princess Leia suddenly finds herself on a quest to chase ephemera alongside Darth Vader. Things wouldn't be so bad if he only acted like himself.

Fantastical, atmospheric variation on the AU scenario where Leia’s parentage is revealed to Vader before their relationship is irretrievably soured on the Death Star.

✦ in the deep and perfect dark, completed multi-chapter slashfic by qqueenofhades, darth vader/obi-wan kenobi

Obi-Wan considers cursing at it, or shouting at it, neither of which would do the least amount of good. Droids are nothing more than the reflection of their makers’ wishes and intentions; if this one has been designed to sit back and watch him suffer, that is not its fault but those who ordered it to do so. No machine can replicate the simple, spontaneous hatred and cruelty of an organic being ...

AU from the Kenobi show. I came to this by chance and am glad I took the plunge; there are scenes that continue to present themselves to me vividly weeks later, thanks to evocative writing.

✦ madhouse promenade, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader/ghost!padmé amidala

In a bid to save his new apprentice's life, Darth Sidious siphoned the life force from Padmé Amidala, ultimately killing her. Ten years later, after finding out the truth, Darth Vader finds himself haunted by her ghost, and Padmé finds herself face-to-face with what her husband has become.

It's a thankless task to try and explain why this hits so hard, in multiple registers; the premise is gruesome, hilarious, the scene gothic-romantic and post-apocalyptic, the characters melancholy, bitter, unleashed, and cruel, somehow also at their best.

✦ more to me, and more in my mediations, multi-chapter wip by whetstonefires (Kieron_ODuibhir on AO3), darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

The threads of life he’d felt slipping away were clutched fiercely now, as though for the first time since the Emperor’s death—for the first time in Luke’s lifetime possibly—his father had a reason to survive.

It's never explicitly established in ROTJ whether Vader picked up that Luke's sister was Leia or merely called the word, the feeling from his mind; this story launches from the premise that he was going to die in ignorance, and that learning Leia is his daughter gives him a reason to hold on, to actively atone. There's tremendous humor and sadness and discomfort here; Vader is at once pitiable and impossible to pity, and Leia's perspective gives room for many shades of ambivalence to fester and bloom.

✦ mythology, multi-story series by husborth, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker, darth vader & obi-wan kenobi

In a universe where Darth Vader uncovered his lost twins and raised them in the heart of the Empire, Luke more-or-less accidentally instigates the most painful family reunion the galaxy has ever seen.

I'm desperate for this series to continue, for more of this particular Vader, this Leia, this Luke, and this Obi-Wan - all flawed, all hurting, all slowly beginning to heal.

✦ nameless, on the edge of nowhere, multi-chapter wip by ambivalent-cosmos (Taxonamie on AO3), darth vader & leia organa

Commander Luke Skywalker is MIA. Darth Vader is MIA. Rebel command has hopes, and they have fears, and the wrong ones will come true. Alone in a big bad galaxy, what will Anakin Skywalker do to find his son? Whatever he has to, including walk the razor's edge of tentative alliance with the Rebels who would be happy to spit on his corpse. Free from all Masters, can Anakin learn who he wants to be, at last?

Vader survives the second Death Star with no inkling that his daughter is Leia; separated from Luke during a hurried last-second escape, he ends up having to fend for himself, half-dead and without his suit, to the point of negotiating with the Alliance on his own. There's splendid tension here from the fact that Leia knows more than he does; even exposed as an invalid, on hunger strike, and at a knowledge disadvantage, Vader remains palpably dangerous, volatile, compelling.

✦ notes from the dark side of the moon, completed one-shot by amylion, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

When suddenly some of the rich and powerful of the galaxy begin to disappear and later turn up dead on a consistent basis, it worries both the Empire and the Alliance enough to open up an investigation. Only half-heartedly though, because there's also the matter of the war to distract them. That is, until Darth Vader disappears...

I love this set-up: Vader, deprived of his mask and further neutralized with Force binders, ends up shut up in a prison cell with Leia, and she can't begin to guess as to why.

✦ order carnivora, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader & leia organa

In a universe where Leia is told the truth of her biological parentage as a child, she makes a deal to save the galaxy from certain destruction; she'll surrender herself to Vader if he'll destroy the Death Star. Between the galaxy and what he wants, there's only one choice Vader always makes.

Leia saves herself from torture on the Death Star by revealing her parentage to Vader - the trope feels fresh in this giddy, wild ride of a take. Vader is as insane, Leia as exasperated, foul-mouthed, and unpredictable as one might hope.

✦ red meat, short stories by husborth, darth vader & darth sidious

A collection of short stories about Darth Vader and the Emperor, and the absolute vile nonsense evil wizards do in their spare time.

It feels pointless to try and describe what is best experienced for oneself - the superlative character study, more wickedly imaginative and gloriously unhinged than anything the official canon-makers could even dream of producing. NB. - dead dove, do not eat

✦ the good he seeks, multi-chapter wip by husborth, darth vader & luke skywalker

After killing the Emperor, Darth Vader agreed to serve the fledgling New Republic and destroy the last true-believers of the Empire he had once helped create. But he's living on borrowed time.

Images from this story haunt my waking hours; husborth's command of language and gift for building scenes of ruin and devastation into which love and humor nevertheless shine - leave me speechless. One of my absolute favorites.

✦ this place loves what it eats, multi-chapter wip by roadtripexpert, darth vader & leia organa

What could be called but isn’t death, or Leia Organa doesn't kill the man formerly known as Anakin Skywalker.

Leia, not Palpatine, is the one who retrieves Vader from the banks of Mustafar, in this feverish, lyrical, astonishing time-travel AU.

✦ twin suns at the door of night, multi-chapter wip by achrmy, darth vader & leia organa, darth vader & luke skywalker

In the ruins of Polis Massa Medical Facility Vader finds the memory bank of a midwife droid, and within…multiple revelations. Luke Skywalker has a vision of Vader in an unimaginable state, engulfed in flames, hunted…and vulnerable. An alternate universe story, beginning from Darth Vader 2020 #5

AU of the ongoing comic series, set after Vader is brutally punished by the Emperor for failing to capture Luke at Bespin. Enjoyed this both as a commentary on the comic and as a standalone adventure story.

✦ wastelands, completed multi-chapter genfic by mistress_siana, ghost!darth vader & leia organa

When Leia’s ship crashes, she’s faced with a choice: die, or accept help from a Force ghost who used to be good at fixing things.

Vivid reimagining of the trope where Anakin's ghost helps Leia survive a crash. There's a toxic cloud, "pulsating green" on the horizon, that I've not been able to forget months after first reading this.

✦ white orchid, multi-chapter, multi-fic wip by husborth and whetstonefires (Kieron_ODuibhir on AO3), darth vader & leia organa

Emperor Palpatine dies unexpectedly a year before the Death Star would be deemed operational. His heir apparent, Darth Vader, startles the galaxy by passing up the throne, and then passing it on to the newly-elected Senator of Alderaan, Leia Organa, after the Force leads him to directly to her. The new Empress inherits a terrorized galaxy, a broken Empire to tear down from the inside, and the weirdest second-in-command anyone can imagine.

See also this glorious illustration by symeona. The story that got me to start reading here again, replete with ironies and delights like a murderous garden and a palace designed to be impassable.

#fic recs #darth vader #anakin skywalker #leia organa #genfic recs #long post

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chirpsythismorning · 7 months

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Willel Twins Crumbs Because Why Not

Subtitles for the news report stop at this point for this scene, so I will provide them:

Can you remember your favorite stuffed toy from childhood?

And how heartbroken you were when it left your life?

Then you’ll relate to the story, of a girl named *unintelligible*

So right from the jump, directly after the opening credits, we are being bombarded with shots of keys and Hopper showing off his blue bracelet and his watch. We know the bracelet was actually a ponytail that belonged to his daughter Sarah, however I think the importance of this scene runs a lot deeper.

It might not seem important, but the dialogue in the background also connects to not only Sarah, but to Will and El too.

As we know, Sarah had a stuffed Tiger on her bedside at the hospital during treatment for her cancer (also featuring the blue ponytail on Hopper's wrist).

As it turns out, Will and El also had a stuffed toy that was referenced in this same season, though they both had stuffed lions, in contrast to Sarah's stuffed tiger.

While it is understood by the majority at this time that these parallels exist only to jog Hopper's memory of his own daughters death, to give some more depth and impact to these moments, it still doesn't answer the question as to why these 3 kids all have the same stuffed toy to begin with? And apparently enough importance for them to drop an easter egg in the first 10 minutes of the show?

In the context of El for example, she has the stuffed lion because it was essentially the only meaningful toy in her possession while in the lab. Sure, she played with toys in the rainbow room and colored with crayons, but those were all things they were tasked to do to test out and improve the kids' powers. The lion in contrast, was simply there to operate as something more personal, tied to her innocence and a life she could have had outside of the lab. And yet at the same time, this being the only thing El had in the lab, gives its importance a tie to the lab itself, which is why I am so wary about this whole thing.

In the context of Will on the other hand, we don't really know much other than that it was shown a lot more than El and Sarahs' combined.

Will's lion and the prominence of it in s1, more than anything else, is what makes me think the meaning behind these parallels is so much more than how we currently understand it. Because while we assume right now he has no ties to the lab, the fact that this stuffed toy has ties to the lab for El and Sarah, begs to question why there was a need to focus on it so much in Will's case, when he was never in the lab pre-s1 (or was he?)...

Which then brings us to Sarah, where you might think her case has no ties to the lab, but it does!

Sarah received treatment for her cancer at Hawkins Lab. This is something so many people either overlook and don't know about, or forget and just brush off as being insignificant, which I just cannot fathom.

It would be one thing if this was common knowledge in canon and actually spoken about, with Hopper talking about how it's not his first time here, and yet they don't make any effort to establish that. All we got is this stairwell shot of Hopper mourning Sarah's death, in the same stairwell at Hawkins Lab, which we see not only referenced in s1, but also s2 and s4.

Yeah... Owens knows exactly who that is. Let's not forget he's the one who, in another universe (Aliens) signed a document back in 79' that led the death of a lot of people...

So... what's the deal? Why has there been such an effort to put in easter eggs to allude to something unanswered related to Hopper's memories of Sarah, often triggered by instances regarding Will and El, who have almost identical stuffed animals to his daughter's, all tying them to the lab to some extent, and without that being touched on at all by the writers outside of the show?

Well, probably because there's still one season left and this plays a big part in the key to everything...

#byler #stranger things #jim hopper #el hopper #will byers #willel twins #willel literal twins #twelvegate #will = yellow #el = red #you get the gist #premium crackers featured in a scene about el's parents 'forgetting' to feed her #us seeing those same crackers in that same episode when joyce and hopper looking for signs of will #this concept of forgetting #el matching will in her plaid w her bracelet paralleling his watch at rink o mania: 'idk i just forgot...' will: 'right...'#'CRIB' SCORE PLAYING WHEN WILL IS CONSOLING EL OUTSIDE THE SCHOOL IN LENORA #THE FIRST TIME WE SEE THE CRIB BEING CRYPTICALLY ACCOMPANIED BY JOYCE AND HOPPER IN S1 #WHEN THEY WERE LITERALLY TALKING ABOUT THE TRUTH BEING COVERED UP #the lucky charms with the rainbow + upside down horseshoe #hopper cast in a rainbow before he walks up to the shed with a horseshoe above the door...#el's memories of the lab being triggered which included many shots repeated #but specifically 2 shots of her when she was a baby and 2 shots of her when she was 5 years old in the lab...#the lights in that s4 promo above el and will being identical in blocking like literally spot on #something something 'you didn't really think we were working out of a shed did you?'

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morallygay · 1 year

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🟩⬜️⬛️ Animes for aro/ace people - Part 2 ⬛️⬜️🟪

The list was getting a bit too long so I decided to make a different post.

~if you see this post as a reblog, make sure to go to the original post, chances are I edited and updated it! ;)

part 1 here

“Yofukashi No Uta” / “Call Of The Night” (13 episodes)🔻

The protagonist wants to become a vampire, but for that to happen you need to be bitten by a vampire you are in love with, and he’s aro (can be both seen as aroallo or acespec). It’s not canon canon in-universe, but like, it’s canon, that’s literally what the plot is about. It has awkward wording/takes coming from the characters sometimes but it got the spirit. I haven’t finished the manga but I’ve been told that the character’s aromance is not invalidated to the end, and the story is precisely about how he doesn’t need to be “fixed”. The show tackles amatonormativity and the value of platonic relationships :). If you can’t handle or don’t like sensual/sexual stuff though, know that it’s omnipresent.

“Shimanami Tasogare” / “Our Dreams At Dusk” (4 volumes)🔻

An LGBTQ+ manga with multiple kinds of representation, including an AAA battery (character who is agender/nonbinary and aroace). Canon and they said the word! Although they didn’t differentiate between aromantic and asexual; in my translation they used ‘asexual’ and meant it as aromantic as well I assume.

“Death Note” (37 episodes)🔻🔹

Another big one but I’ll assume you don’t know about it so, basically: So misogynistic it’s gay. But also so homophobic it’s aroace. And since it’s a psychological thriller, romance is virtually nonexistent, except for a side character annoying girl who is in LOVE with the protagonist. Protagonist who does not show any interest whatsoever in romance/sex. He’s a serial killer but #diversity win I guess. I have admittedly only read the manga once when I was 12 so I may not remember these things accurately.

“Jormungand” (12 episodes)🔻🔹

A personal fav for its eccentric and amoral vibes and characters. I see the protagonist (woman with white hair) as aroace. Problematic points: she has a weird groomer thing going on with the kid character; it’s implied that she’s teasing and she kind of does this with everyone and it’s part of her personality but it’s still uncomfortable. Also a secondary woman character has romantic feelings for her. This is a cool point but it’s also eh because it’s done in a pretty fetishistic way.

Also heads up: our main cast are arms dealer and there’s violence and war and child soldiers and it’s morally ambiguous

“Mob Psycho 100” (37 episodes + 2 OVAs)🔹

A must watch regardless. But in this context, a show about life wisdom and connection in the most fundamental human way, which makes it a very platonic show. Because of the nature of the relationships between the protagonist and the other main cast (master/‘parental’ figure, brother, intergenerational friendship), there is literally not even the place for shipping, apart from the 1 friend his age. And these platonic relationships, oh boy, are they explored and developed and heartwarming. The protagonist has an idealized crush on a girl and that’s the only romantic element there is, and it’s handled maturely and to carry the same main themes I mentioned earlier; it’s absolutely not there for the sake of being romanticized.

! Mp100 is a phenomenal show in many ways, queer representation is not one of them. it is very much incredibly cishet. warning for transmisogynistic humor.

“Kimi No Sekai Ni Koi Wa Nai” / “Is Love The Answer?” (1 volume)🔻

Another manga. It is a queer manga specifically about aromance and asexuality, following an aroace character (touch repulsed) and their experience of comphet and general compallo, feeling alienated, and then learning about this identity, finding queer community and accepting herself. It delves into the topics of labels and identity, acknowledging and embracing fluidity, vagueness, and spectrums. It actually presents specific aspec microidentities I’ve never seen acknowledged anywhere else in fiction, much less explored. It made me feel like crying and kicking my legs with glee. I won’t go say everything it talks about but I truly recommend it for anyone, not just aspec people; in general but especially if you want to learn more about the world of aspec identities. (Also not that any are reading this but I recommend it to exclusionists. Like idk how you can read this and not feel it evident that aspec people are queer)

The same author also did a manga called “Mine-kun Is Asexual” prior to this one, and wrote other things on the topics of romance, sexuality and gender identity :)

“Koisenu Futari” (="two people who can't fall in love" idk the official engish translation if there is one) (8 episodes)🔻

This is a japanese drama. I have broadened the original topic of these posts a bit but I realized that with the microscopic amount of representation we have, why would I intentionally deprive people from knowing about the existence of this show? It is specifically about aromance and asexuality, and follows 2 aroace people who decide to live together and form a queerplatonic relationship. There are many other elements to the story and it touches upon multiple aspects of the aspec experience (lol aspects aspec), starting obviously with allonormativity and amatonormativity. Also our 2 main characters are both fully aroace but the show does make the distinction between aromantic and asexual, and shows a alloromantic asexual character at one point just for that clarification.

“Last Gender” (2 volumes + 3rd and last one to be released in English in June)🔻

Similar to Shimanami Tasogare; it’s an LGBTQ+ manga. This one is centered around a sex bar which 'accepts anyone of any gender or sexuality'. It has an aroallo character, a lithromantic character, and a character who, to my understanding, would be the closest labelled as greyromantic and greysexual. That’s just for the aspec characters but there are other, particularily underrepresented, identities and kinds of people in this manga, like a pansexual person, a bigender person, polyamorous people, or ‘simply’ a gnc woman.

content warning: it’s sexually explicit. I mean the setting is literally a sex bar.

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shihalyfie · 8 months

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Hi. I'm someone who has been planning to rewatch Digimon Frontiers. I remember watching it as a kid, but hoping to rewatch it as an adult to see how it still holds up. Before that though, I've been wondering about how that series has treated Izumi in light of a lot of the fandom's complaints about her. I've only watched the American English dub, but I am wondering about why she was written as she was and how it differs from the Japanese version. I also saw your meta on the writers for her episodes, honestly surprised that her episodes were written by female writers. I can use your perspective on why she was written that way since you seem more knowledgeable about the franchise as a whole.

I'm also curious how much romance has actually been a thing in the Digimon franchise, or if it is mainly just a small subplot that's usually kept in the back.

I appreciate any information you can give.

Hello! Thank you for dropping by!

Regarding Frontier and Izumi, to be honest, I don't really think there are too many substantial differences between the American English dub and original Japanese version to the point I could make any in-depth analysis. (There are changes, but it's in a very vague blanket realm of "the insults and bantering are a little harsher", and it's definitely not Adventure or 02 level.) The Japanese version has the infamous "Sexy Dynamite" frame, so one might argue that it was even worse about it, but small details aside, I think the good points and the complaints you could make are pretty much the same.

As for why the writing around Izumi is so glaring compared to prior (and perhaps most other) Digimon series, I honestly can't say. As far as female creator presence in the main staff room goes, as you mentioned, Izumi's key episodes were by female writers, and Seki was still producer. And on top of that, while Tomita fully admitted that he had a hard time writing girls, I honestly can't believe that's the (sole?) cause of it when I look at his other portfolio works, including some fan-favorite episodes of Sailor Moon and, in general, some magical girl series with excellent female characters.

Perhaps it's the fact that it's the first Digimon anime series to not have any involvement from Yoshimura Genki (who was responsible for most of the writing around Ruki in Tamers and is currently known as a hardcore feminist), or perhaps Bandai panicking about the franchise's poor sales made them lock down harder on "we need to Please the Boys" (something that does sometimes end up in being neglectful of female characters), or perhaps the fact that Izumi was the only girl in the core group made them more inclined to treat her like the Designated Girl Character™ of the series...but this is all speculation, and your guess is as good as mine, especially since we have so little information on Frontier's production compared to others.

As for the question on romance, it's pretty much always been a subplot at best, most likely because the majority of major human characters in the franchise are elementary to middle school age and are thus way too young to be considering "serious" romance or relationships (middle school being probably the youngest you can push the limit as treating a relationship as "serious" instead of just being a puppy crush). Moreover, Adventure and 02 seemed to take the stance of "romance is a part of one's life, but not the most important thing in one's life" (something that seems to have frustrated a lot of fans regarding the series not caring enough about shipping), so even stuff related to Yamato and Sora is carefully squared off to the side like it's not anyone's business. As much as I like to make ship-related jokes, if asked in a serious context, I personally never believed that most of anyone's behavior towards anyone in Adventure or 02 had legitimate romantic sentiment behind it, mostly because they were too young for it; even Daisuke's crush on Hikari comes off to me as him being clingy because she's cute and not really taking the time to think about what the next steps would entail.

Other than Yamato and Sora, putting one-sided humorous crushes aside, the closest to explicit depictions of (human) romance that actually seem plot-relevant would probably be Takato and Juri in Tamers, which even then is not really that explicit (although the people involved in its creation love to talk about it like it's a sort of damsel-in-distress plot), and Kiriha and Nene in the Xros Wars manga, which also is prominent and related to the plot but also not that big of an element in it. Sometimes it seems like it's milking the concept of romance more than it's usually done in practice (an episode of Savers is styled like it's Yoshino having a love story with a childhood friend, but if you actually watch the episode it's at most just her having mixed feelings about a childhood friend falling from grace). So it's honestly been a series that's hands-off with romance for the most part, with most of the shipping and romance-related content being on the part of the fans.

By the way, the official reason there's no explicit depiction of Yamato and Sora in Kizuna (despite them being a known endgame canon couple) is that it would have been overly conspicuous and obstructive in a movie that only had 90 minutes to tell its story. (I know there are a lot of people who think the real reason is "because it was controversial and they don't want to get people mad," but personally, I feel that if they were worrying about controversy, they wouldn't have given Kizuna such a controversial premise in the first place!) So I imagine that's the main reason we've gotten so little romance; it's exactly because it's such a crowd-pleaser and overly conspicuous element that they want to avoid it, because Digimon is frankly a complex franchise with a lot of expectations and mechanics that it needs to worry more about, and it's hard to cram a prominent romance plot in there in a way that would be tonally appropriate.

#m0nk767 #shiha's ask box #digimon multi series talk

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mythical-fangirls · 6 months

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Watched Apothecary Diaries and then I bought vol 1 & 2 of the manga and read them both within 2 hours so I probably should've bought vol 3 as well but I didn't.

Anyways, differences from the anime vs the manga, mainly small details I like from both. Edit: Any Light Novel Readers, please correct me! I would love to know what was cut when it was turned into a manga!

In the manga we see Maomao put the flower with the note on the table for the respective concubines to find, as opposed to a windowsill in the anime

Jinshi, in the anime, is shown to gush over Maomao's disgust of him to Gao Shun twice as opposed to once. And honestly that just makes it funnier

The physician gives more background info on Concubine Fuyou in the manga. How the officer she was going to be given away to is a childhood friend of hers, which adds more context to who the soldier is

But the extra scenes from the anime on the couple is honestly so precious

Also, the incident with the poisoned food from the village, apparently the level headed soldier in that is the same one Fuyou ends up with. It's an anime exclusive

Chapter 2 & 3 are relatively uneventful, mainly filled with more information on things so those two chapters make up the whole of episode 2. Meanwhile episode 1 & 3 are whole chapters, with added scenes to add more context

It didn't feel obvious to me in the anime, but Jinshi did snag a piece of Maomao's snack during that neck kiss. In the manga he's seen wiping his lip, probably from the extra chocolate

Wording differences between the manga & subtitles. Depending on scene, I prefer one more to the other as. Ex: Maomao's explanation of why she can eat the chocolate thing as a snack and not worry about its effects. Her wording in the official subs is weird to me, while in the manga is more straight to the point

The increase amount of chibi kitty maomao in scenes in the anime, 10/10

In the manga, it seems that Maomao lived in the brothel but worked with her dad for apothecary stuff

In the anime, it's more coded that Maomao lives with her dad and just visits the brothel often

Speaking of, added scenes prior to Maomao becoming staff for the Inner Palace in the anime that shows her life before hand

Consort Gyokuyo laugh is cute in both, but her laugh in the manga looks cuter to me

The woman who requested to have tea with Jinshi is a mid-tier concubine. Three concubines have invited Jinshi to their private chambers, all of varying tiers (Manga)

A consort's place in the tier varies depending on several factors outside of status. It grades intelligence the strictest of all (manga)

Jinshi does know of others who have taken no carnal desire to him but looking at him with such blatant disgust is new (Manga)

Maomao's chocolate making includes some herbal oil and spirits, and the exact thing she wanted was solid cacao but they only had powder (Manga)

Maomao's chocolate cubes are bread that soaked up the excess chocolate, while the ones made for the Jinshi use dried fruit (Manga)

Due to remember the smell of many drugs and poisons, Maomao is also good at remembering foods

They made the scene with Maomao saying that the chocolate's aphrodisiac effects being three times stronger than the normal stuff a lot funnier in the anime lol

A detail I like in regards to episode 3/Chapter 4's main plot, is that episode 3 implies that saving that village from being wrongly prosecuted got the soldier high prestige while Chapter 4 states that he has worked hard for it

Fanfiction writers, I suggest having that incident in the village/barbarian attack be the final tipping point into Fuyou's childhood friend/lover reaching a certain level of prestige to be rewarded Fuyou's hand

So the explanation was confusing to me in the anime, but the second courtesan incident Maomao speaks of is that she feigned sleepwalking to be sold at a lower price to the man she actually wanted to be with. Because he lacked the silver to free her, so he had an acquaintance request to buy her, she starts to "sleepwalk" and the offer is dropped and due to her being sick the price is lowered (manga)

Concubine Fuyou looks happy on the day she leaves the Inner Palace in the manga

Little bonus manga pages. Xiaolan does Maomao's hair in a style popular with the other servants while Maomao's asleep. Jinshi is the one to see her and point out her hairstyle

Chibi strips, one is Maomao apparently gaining weight due to being the poison checker and being fed by the other ladies-in-waiting. Jinshi asks if she's been gaining weight

The second one is Maomao being thinner and Jinshi feeling guilty because was it what he said?

No, Maomao's workout routine is just getting distracted picking medicinal herbs as fast as possible

And I believe that's all that comes to mind? If anyone else who's read the manga wants to add more details please do!

Also, Maomao is my demi-aroace icon (demisexual & demiromantic btw). I can't wait for episode 4, I have no idea wtf the release schedule is like for this series

#the apothecary diaries #kusuriya no hitorigoto

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secretgamergirl · 5 months

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Does anyone actually like the whole "this total loser is the chosen one" thing?

You start playing some new game. Immediately, you are introduced to the protagonist. He's a total deadbeat loser idiot who has no greater ambition in life beyond playing games/becoming a cool rock star somehow without learning to play an instrument or form a band/watching some TV show. But through just the absolute sheer dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time, he gets The Thing, that lets him do main character in a video game stuff. Much to the frustration of this cool competent badass woman who's actively invested in saving the world and has a concrete plan to do it. Our accidental hero can't be bothered to care about any of that, and any time she's talking he either tunes out completely or sexually harasses her. Then once she eventually gives up trying to explain him he says something like "now here's the part where I do my thing!" and you jump into the action of doing 3 hit combos to enemies or whatever.

I hate that character. I can't stand him. His presence makes me not even want to touch a game, which is a real shame because I swear the paragraph above describes like... half of them. Also most shonen anime come to think, the bulk of superhero media, and a surprising amount of fantasy stuff.

Now, I understand why we have that guy. The thinking is, he's "relatable." We're making a not particularly challenging piece of escapist media, we're assuming most people who are going to be interested are losers who just sit on their couch all day, and we're also assuming they're at-least-mildly-creepy dudes even when demographic info suggests a given genre/medium appeals primarily to women.

Does anyone actually want that, though? I'm not some pathetic dude on a couch, so I probably wouldn't get the "he's just like me!" factor regardless, but like, I remember being a small child and having media constantly cram some annoying piece of garbage kid into everything for me to "relate to" and I was never able to stand any of them either.

Like if I'm watching Transformers the Movie as a kid, I am just rolling my eyes every time we have the dorky little kid going fishing or trying to use power armor, and for that matter as an adult I'm not too big on the pink girly one playing babysitter and being flirty. I'd be cool just giving all that screen time over to Kupp and Grimlock thanks.

And really, it always seems like a huge insult to whoever you're trying to give a relatable stand-in to. Some deadbeat loser who'd just be sitting on the couch watching TV if he didn't get a magic yo-yo or whatever isn't exactly an aspirational sort of character. Even if that's where you'd picture yourself at the start of the cool action narrative, if it were you, you'd want to get your act together and live up to the heroic role you fell into, right?

Like, recently I've been marathoning through Farscape for like the 5th time because a friend had never seen it, and there's a show where the protagonist is just a big fish out of water nerd in a crazy setting constantly making obscure pop culture references that absolutely nobody else is possibly going to have the context for, and I can sure as hell personally relate to that! But the key difference is, he doesn't suck. He does his best to adapt to situations and show compassion and actually learn how stuff he doesn't get works, so he's, you know, likeable. He's not some complete loser who only gets by because he has the spoon of destiny or whatever.

Actually come to think of it, I'm really combining two separate media trends I can't stand here. Loser protagonists get on my nerves even when they aren't the chosen one, and even when they aren't a total loser, I kinda hate chosen one narratives too.

Like... have you ever played a Bethesda game? They always want to do this whole bit where you come from the humblest of roots and go on to save the world or whatever, but they just cannot for the life of them wait until you've actually started accomplishing cool stuff before everyone starts in with the totally over the top hero worship. Just, "behold! This stranger to our lands has picked up the empty soda can and tossed it in the recycling bin! Truly such a feat of heroics means this is no mere mortal before us, but the great one foretold in legend!"

Like, can we please just have narratives where the protagonist is a decent person, who accomplishes things by virtue of actual competence and/or determination, and any respect or admiration they might receive is actually properly earned? Is that too much to ask? And if that IS too much to ask from a protagonist, can we at least stop treating members of the supporting cast who pick the slack up like total garbage?

And speaking of getting treated like garbage/the concept of supporting, I still don't know how I'm going to get through the winter with a roof over my head.

#writing #chosen ones #deadbeat protagonists #OK so mostly I saw someone streaming Hi-Fi Rush and the contrast between Chai and Peppermint just made me sick.

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