#anyways rant over minor characters my beloveds over

[eldritch-ace]

I need more bestie Will and Bev content so I make it myself. They are the only cool people to ever exist in the FBI.

Also the Fred(dies) whom I despise (I love them with my whole heart). They are my favorite AO3 authors.

#seriously I always need more bev and will #platonic relationships are always so important to me and I love them so much #also after (too many) rewatches I sincerely love freddie and frederick #like at first they got on my nerves and I don’t forgive Freddie for trying to take advantage of Abigail #however now I just see them as silly little girlbosses #like you’re gonna hate on them??? for simple malpractice and being goofy?? on the cannibal show #anyways rant over minor characters my beloveds over #hannibal #hannibal nbc #nbc hannibal #hannibal 2013 #hannibal fanart #will graham #beverly katz #frederick chilton #freddie lounds #art i made #image description in alt

[zeroducks-2]

Let’s talk Helena Wayne bc like it’s criminal that we barely get anything about her and that they completely changed her origin and family (the bertinelli mafia family) to add her into the main comic book line.

im torn bc I love both versions of her :(

But I wanted Dick to share some older siblings trauma with her and for Damian to have that “blood” sibling bc I think that would have completely rocked early Damian’s shit. All his life, he was told to be the true heir of Bruce Wayne, but it turns out he has an OLDER SISTER BRUCE HID FROM TALIA AND RA. Idk I just think that would have crushed his lil murder ego and made for some interesting sibling moments and an interesting dynamic.

Lastly, can we talk about how the Batfam fandom completely stole all of Helena (Bertinelli)’s character traits and gave them to Jason??? Im sorry but when in the material source has Jason ever been super devout and catholic? Helena is the religious one, why am I reading about Jason’s apparent Catholicism in fics and HC dumps? Also Jason (besides his Robin days) has never been this savour and protector of the woman and children of Gotham, that’s very very veryyyyyy clearly a trait from Helena and strongly ties into her backstory as a child who suffered coming from a rich bloodline of syndicate crime. And don’t think this is me bashing on Jason, bc it’s not!! I love Jason Todd - but for who he is. Not for this weird fandom version of him who is either still suffering from the craze the lazarus pit puts you through, or this Joan of Arc of Gotham character either.

I'm gonna be honest with you, this character confuses me a bit. I know that Bruce and Selina got married and had a daughter in their Earth-Two incarnations, and this daughter is Helena Wayne, who's Dick best buddy and a vigilante in her own right called Huntress.

Then I know Helena Bertinelli, daughter of a mafia lord who was introduced in the late 80s in the preboot comic continuity, and was a quite murdery vigilante called Huntress who Bruce didn't accept because she "reminded him of Barbara" (you gotta love DC's excuses for sexism and ableism lol it's not like Barbara was dead just paralyzed. Also it did not look like Bruce gave a shit about it at the end of TKJ that Joker had crippled her - "she reminds him or Barbara". LMAO Bruce).

Then post reboot the title Huntress was given back to Helena Wayne, however Helena Bertinelli is ALSO there and she's ALSO called Huntress? She appears in the Grayson run where Dick is an agent of Spyral, and she seems to be Italian-American but I don't think her origin is the same as in preboot? Also I have no idea about Helena Wayne's continuity post reboot - when she was conceived, who raised her, how did she become a vigilante, neither I have any idea where to find this info.

I agree that if she had been raised by Bruce it could have made for an interesting dynamic amongst the bats and birds. It did in Earth 2 even if only Dick is just there - they're not siblings but they also aren't not siblings? The dynamic is murky and I love murky. Pretty sure it would have changed everything for Damian as well, especially the fact that she would have most likely been the first object of Damian's need to prove himself worthy, instead of Tim.

That being said, not much of what you mentioned is fanon about Jason.

Jason had an arc in which he's a priest. Pretty normal that fans HC him as devout or anyway catholic.

Father Todd in Flashpoint: The World of Flashpoint Vol. 1 - this is an AU in which Jason was never taken in by Bruce and was never Robin.

As for the whole "protector of women and children" thing, you probably know that Jason was born in extreme poverty, his father was in and out of prison and his mother died of overdose. He is very much a child who suffered because of a broken system, and given how harshly he reacts when women and children are the recipient of violence "in his Robin days", is it really that strange that fans assume he carried these traits in adulthood?

We see him being sweet and protective to kids many times, or anyway losing his mcfucking shit when children are being harmed (like in Brothers in Blood). Imo that of Jason caring about vulnerable people is barely a headcanon, and I don't see how this would make him the Joan of Arc of Gotham either - if I'm being honest ALL vigilantes should care about minorities and vulnerable people, it's the other way around that is weird as fuck (like that arc in which Dick almost dies to prevent this guy from shutting down Bludhaven's casinos, like what the hell was Tim Seeley thinking exactly).

That being said, I understand your frustration if the character you like doesn't have recognition. Trust me I do! There's a lot of them for me too, especially female and/or non white characters who had maybe 1 run ages ago and then got forgotten by DC, and I would REALLY LIKE to see them more, and to see them acknowledged more by the fans (from the top of my mind, Jenni Ognats or Patricia Trayce).

But this isn't fandom's fault. As I mentioned before, Helena Bertinelli as a fleshed out character was a thing between 20 and 30 years ago, and most of tumblr's userbase was either very young or not born yet. DC forgot about her, stripped Huntress from her to give it to Helena Wayne, then brought her back but as an agent of Spyral and it really doesn't look like they care. Fans can't be held accountable for the fact that she's simply not there. They didn't "steal" Helena's traits to give them to Jason; this implies a willful and malicious intent from people who saw this character and decided her features fit another character better, and it's obviously not what happened - people barely know Helena Bertinelli exists if at all.

Also - I said this about Jason already and I will repeat it a million times: Jason wasn't picked at random from the sea of DC characters to be people's blorbo, he resonates with fans for a reason. Under the Red Hood is a deeply emotional and relatable arc for many people because it's the story of how a child was failed by every single person who was supposed to protect and guide him, and then was failed again as an adult victim who demanded to be seen and heard and acknowledged, and instead was silenced again. It's heartbreaking to see how many people see this and say "this is me, this is what happened to me", but it is what it is, and most of all there is no taking this away from Jason's fans. DC tried to villainize him, to make him look and sound like a madman, to make him unhinged and deranged and they had Tim suggest that "maybe it's the Lazarus Pit that drove him mad", but it didn't work and fans still love him and still consider him a symbol of how "bad victims" are treated worse than their abusers, and keep being retraumatized by a society that prefers turning a blind eye to violence than deal with the issue at its root.

And lastly, bitching won't get you anywhere. I am the living proof that the right way to make people interested in something is to be passionate about that something. You want more folks to pay attention to Helena Bertinelli, then since DC won't do anything with her, the most effective thing you can do is post about her - write essays, draw her, write fics with her, create webweavings and moodboards, commission this stuff if you don't have the skills. Complaining that she should be the recipient of fandom love won't make anyone more interested in her.

#my asks #long post #yall please stop blaming fandom for DC's sins #'no one cares about my blorbo!' look up and see if your blorbo is anywhere in the source material in the past 10 years #DC has historically culled female characters and minority characters even when their runs were beloved and successful #see Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain for an easy accessible example #if it hadn't been for fans yelling about them we probably wouldn't have them AT ALL since DC was adamant in pretending they never existed #despite both of them having had perfectly good selling runs #so no it's not the fans' fault for being sexist #of course there's sexism in fandoms there is sexism everywhere #but it's not that simple and fans aren't responsible for the fuckups of the source material anyway #okay rant over #jason todd #helena wayne #helena bertinelli

[kennahjune]

HI OMG HELLO

Just a little obsessed with the whole “projecting my interests onto Steve” train I have going so here ya go—

Steve who has an interest in mythology of just about any kind but specifically Greek Mythology because “holy shit everyone’s gay.”

Steve’s hosting the usual Saturday hangout at his house because it’s the one time everyone’s schedules line up. He’s sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table, Robin on the floor to his right and Dustin to his left. Everyone else is spread among the couches and armchair, squeezing together in a way that seems more uncomfortable and over heated than the Devil’s asscrack.

Dustin was going on a ramble about something science-y. Robin and Mike would cut in occasionally with their own arguments and begin a whole new debate. Steve wasn’t paying much attention though.

His focus was on Eddie, who was staring intently at the living room window. Specifically the one that held his mothers flower vases.

When there was a break in the argument where everyone caught their breaths and gathered their thoughts, Eddie struck.

“What kind of flowers are those?” He pointed at the light yellow vase with a complicated floral pattern.

Steve paused and debated answering. He knew it was a trap. The flowers in that vase held a long story— one that everyone in the room would be subjected to hearing if Steve couldn’t help himself.

But Eddie was looking at his expectantly, Dustin tilting his head in curiosity, and even Mike eyeing him with a genuine wonderment.

So, Steve naturally conceded. “They’re hyacinths.”

Argyle whistled lowly. “Pretty name.”

Steve grinned. “Yeah well— they get their name from one of the prettiest people in history. In my opinion anyway.”

That seemed to pique everyone’s interest. Bad move on Steve’s part. At this rate, he’s gonna crack and go on a rant. Nobody wants to listen to his rants.

“Who do they get their name from?” Will asked, pulling his feet up to sit crisscross on the armchair. Mike was sat right next to him on the seat, squished into the arm but making no complaints. Mike nodded at Will’s question, as if agreeing that he also wanted to know.

Steve shifted and pulled one leg to his chest, resting his arm on it and fiddling with his hands. He avoided eye contact with just about anyone, before cracking a little more and looking at Robin.

With the nod she gave him, Steve felt himself break.

“They get their name from the Roman Prince Hyacinthus.”

Nancy hummed and took a sip from her Coke. She waved her hand as if urging him on. Steve continued.

“Um— well Hyacinthus was a Roman Prince beloved by all, including the God Apollo—“

“But isn’t Apollo a guy?” Mike interrupted. Looking over, Steve saw the pure curiosity and something that looked like hesitation on his face. Next to Mike, Will looked equally if-not-more hesitant but also very happy (?).

Steve allowed himself a small grin and nodded. “He is indeed. Hyacinthus is actually the first openly gay Greek character that we know of.” Steve’s smile brightened at the grin that made itself present on Will’s face and look of pure endearment on Mike’s.

“Anyways— Apollo fell in love with Hyacinthus but so did Zephyros, the God of the West Winds. Hyacinthus chose Apollo over Zephyros, however. And one day while Apollo and Hyacinthus were being all couple-y or whatever in the fields and playing discus, Zephyros took advantage of the winds and sent a discus spiraling straight at Hyacinthus and it ended up killing him on impact.”

He paused to take a breath, the story taking hold of him. Steve could feel the rush of excitement at finally talking about it— this story was his favorite and the next part always got him.

Among his break, he looked up and started at Eddie’s eyes on him. Of course, everyone’s eyes were on him, but Eddie’s shone with such a fondness that Steve felt himself having to do a minor breathing exercise to calm his heart down.

He cleared his throat with a cough and picked up where he left off, tilting his eyes down and keeping them on his fidgeting hands.

“Well— um, it was typical ‘if I can’t have you no one can’ fashion but the death shook Apollo to his very core and after trying everything in his power to get Hyacinthus back he finally gave in and grew the hyacinth flowers from the grass wherever Hyacinthus’ blood touched ‘to keep him in the sun where he belonged’.”

And with that, Steve looked around at everyone in the room. El’s eyes were filled with wonderment. Sitting next to her, Max looked shocked— though, at the story or Steve, he was unsure.

Jonathan had a small smile playing at his lips as well as Nancy. Argyle gave him a thumbs up and a “cool”.

Mike and Will were both seemingly buzzing with excitement and joy, Steve could see it in their eyes and on the matching grins they wore.

Dustin and Lucas— the latter sitting behind Steve on the couch— we’re both grinning at Steve and talking over each other, trying to tell him several different things at once.

But over the chaos surrounding him, Steve’s eyes were drawn to Eddie’s. Doe eyes filled with fondness and endearment. Steve’s grin turned to a bashful smile and he was quick to turn away.

He instead focused on Dustin and Lucas, pretending to not notice when Will followed Mike to the kitchen. From the knowing glint in Jonathan’s eyes, he also knew what was happening. They shared a snort and cheersed their Coke cans.

When the night was over and Steve was fresh out of mythology tales to tell the Party, everyone began leaving.

Mike, Will, and El left with Jonathan and Argyle. Nancy drove Robin, Dustin, Lucas and Erica as well as Max— who was spending the night at the Sinclair’s.

It was when Steve went to clean the living room that he noticed he never saw Eddie leave.

Instead, the metal head was standing by the window in the living room. The same window with the hyacinths. Steve furrowed his brow in confusion and walked over.

The moment Steve was within reaching distance, Eddie pulled him into his side. Steve let out an ‘oof’ sound, and caught himself on Eddie’s chest. Rather than pulling away from the other, Steve made himself comfortable and settled into Eddie’s side with his head on his shoulder.

“I love hearing you ramble,” was the last thing Steve heard before Eddie kissed him soundly.

#stranger things #steve harrington #dustin henderson #mike wheeler #robin buckley #eddie munson #will byers #el hopper #found family #max mayfield #lucas sinclair #erica sinclair #argyle #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #steddie #steve x eddie #stevexeddie

[incorrectinfinity]

Ok I need to rant about jjba part 8 because my brother is taking literally forever to finish it and I need to talk about my feelings

Ok. Hi. You have entered here willingly and so now I don't have to apologize. Lmao.

Ok first off Jojolion is not bad. I liked a lot of it quite a bit, actually. Josuk8 is great, I love Yasuho SO much, and Rai is literally my babygirl I love him so much I wish he was introduced sooner DAMMIT!!!!!!!

The romance between Josuk8 and Yasuho is also the most adorable thing I have ever seen. Jjba is a series that rarely ever focuses on romance (well unless you look at it with the perspective of These Bitches Gay but I digress) and that is genuinely one of my favorite parts of the series, the only downside being that a lot of jojos are paired up eventually, and usually to a woman who is barely a character which is really unfortunate. But Josuk8 and Yasuho's relationship is literally my favorite thing about Jojolion.

They are so fucking cute and wholesome and avoid so many pitfalls that usually come with romances. For example when Toru is introduced as Yasuho's ex she clearly talks to Josuk8 about it and how he doesn't have to worry. Josuk8 and Yasuho are never torn apart by Toru because they COMMUNICATE, even if Josuk8 does still act out of jealousy a few times.

The thing that bothers me about this is how their relationship is resolved, mainly due to the worst thing about the part: pacing.

Josuk8 and Yasuho never actually become a fully certified couple by the end of their part. Idk what part 9 may throw in but I personally think this is REALLY disappointing, even if it was just a minor piece of dialog in the lasg chapter or something really I wish their relationship was fully solidified. (Maybe I missed something, I dunno)

Another pacing issue comes with my aforementioned beloved lil shit, Rai.

I love Rai. He literally shows up and serves cunt for like 40 chapters and then he dies an icon and legend for all to aspire to. But the thing about him is that he shows up for 40 chapters in a 110 chapter part. Rai is supposed to be the final member of the Jojolion cast, but he shows up so late that he feels like such a wasted opportunity. Also his death.... very unfortunate. The deaths in part 9 never resonated with me aside from Johnny (because holy fuck) and Jobin (because damn I did not expect him to die). Unfortunately Rai's death is no different. Jojo deaths after part 1 are always fast and unexpected and moved on from quickly because they have to be, but they still get their time to resonate with the audience. Rai's death to me wasn't like that, it felt glossed over. I got the same feeling with Kei too, which just really made me sad. I loved those two and they felt like they were done so dirty because of how fast the plot moves in the last few chapters compared to almost everything else in the part which is so weird.

And aside from the pacing... sigh.

Joshu fucking sucks.

That's all I'm gonna say about him. Well actually I just wanna say that literally the only arc I have ever skipped ever in the entirety of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure was one where the focus was on Joshu and only Joshu. It was also an arc very similar to one done in part 7 and it was done INFINITELY better there because it's part 7.

Anyways I have done so much complaining and I want to do more (like how a lot of the Higashikata family felt wasted, or how Kei deserved more time in the spotlight, or how the Fruit and existence of stone humans confuses the fuck out of me, or how Toru was barely even a character, or-) but I really want to talk about the things I fucking adore about this part. No strings attached, just things I fully loved.

Firstly, the Fun Fun Fun arc is one of my favorite arcs in all of jjba.

It's a fucking INSANE introduction to the part and has a gag so fucking amazing I literally drew a shitpost inspired by it which has never actually been posted to tumblr so uhhh. Enjoy.

Wonderful arc, absolutely horrific and just utterly perfect. I can't believe it took so long for jojo's to take inspiration from Saw.

That's not the only arc I love either! The one where Josuk8 is hunted by people who can only go in straight lines?!?!?!?!?!? WHERE HE LOSES?!?!?!!?!?!? BECAUSE THE STAND USER FORCES HIM TO EITHER GIVE IN OR KILL A FUCKING BABY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? AND THEN YASUHO SAVED HIS ASS!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!!??!!?!?!?!?!? FUCKING PEAK ASS SHIT RIGHT THERE.

And the arc with the ski lift!! Rai you little freak of nature I love you SO MUCH.

HIS INTRODUCTION IS FUCKING PERFECT HE LITERALLY JUST SAYS THIS

AND THEN HE'S FUCKING RIGHT

PEAK CHARACTER. LOVE THIS MAN.

AND THE BEETLES AND THE CAR IN THE TREE (???) AND THE HATO ARC AND THE JOSEPH JUMPSCARE AND LOVE LOVE DELUXE JUST AUAYSHSNZJZK

This part has so much amazing stuff in it I swear!! It's so good!!!!!! And so weird!!!!!!!! And then it just kinda. Joshu.

This part is so upsetting to me because I love it so much, the fact that it is such a mixed bag makes me sad

But it is what it is, and we don't know wher part 9 may lead. Maybe Josuk8 will be like his alternate self and stay in Morioh, or maybe he'll come visit his (half) cousins in Hawaii... who knows.

I have a love/hate relationship with part 8 and I am still really conflicted about it. I do want to read it again though and give it a second chance, skipping the arcs that really dragged it down in the process. Maybe that could improve my future experiences idk.

Anyways, in conclusion: Yoshikage Kira is a bitch in every fucking timeline he literally drove a man insane for no reason what the fuck is wrong with him???????????

ALSO THE MONA LISA JUMPSCARE??

(Apologies for calling Josuke "Josuk8" the whole time it's just so I could avoid confusing myself lmao)

#🎀.txt #jjba rambles

[iamanonniemouse]

End of Year Book Asks

Okay, @vector-to-the-heavens, to add insult to injury, after I drafted a reply to your ask, and then tumblr wouldn't let me edit my draft but instead queued my incomplete draft, and then forced me to delete the queued post -- THEN it ERASED your ask!!!

the good news is I screenshotted my drafted reply so ALL IS NOT LOST no thanks to tumblr though

Seriously vec why does tumblr hate our friendship so much????

Anyway, you asked for 3, 11, and 16 from this list of books asks!

Putting this under a cut now cuz my ranting took up most of the post lol

3. What were your top five books of the year?

Oh man. VEC. HOW. WHY. God. Lemme see :pulls up list of the 265 books I read in 2023:

Okay, in no particular order:

Babel, by R.F. Kuang Incredible, mind-blowing, heart-breaking, just :flails: The magic in this world is fascinating in its own right but then Kuang turned it into such a pointed look at the results of colonization and how important language is to culture and identity andandand--

American Eden, by Victoria Johnson My friends know I have gotten into an absolute obsession with reading nature-related books, from the history of natural science to biographies about famous nature people to plain old books about birds and bees (literally. really.) This book is one of my favorites, it's the biography of a man who was a ground-breaking surgeon in America after the American Revolution -- who also was a huge botanist and created America's first botanical garden. (He was also the Hamilton's family doctor and was The Doctor present at the Burr-Hamilton duel.) I adored this book on so many levels, truly. It was just incredible to read.

The Scholomance Trilogy, by Naomi Novik (ssh I can absolutely count a trilogy as one book)@silverbrume has been singing this series' praises to me for AGES and I finally read it this year and WOW. It's just so good! Love the world, love the characters, love the found family, lovelovelove that it's a well paced and well tied-together trilogy where things from the first book that seemed like minor mentions turned into major plot points by book three. Just incredible and lovely and I already want to reread it.

The Seed Keeper, by Diana Wilson Really beautiful writing and so delicately handled. Speaks to so much about what America has done to the Native American peoples in terms of cutting off entire generations from their heritage with the boarding schools, and how difficult it is for someone to find their way back home when they feel so separated from it. I'm summarizing this one so bad, but just. Trust me. This book is incredible and you all should read it. I've got my MOM reading it, and she is awful about finishing books, but she is like...80% of the way through it and just keeps telling me how good it is.

Cherryvine, by Marina Vivancos Hey look since I've been reading majority MM romance I need to have at least ONE on here okay?? But more seriously, Vivancos is a phenomenal writer and almost always has stories that involve healing from past trauma/abuse. And what I love about her writing is how much she focuses on the healing process itself, and how gentle it always is. I could write you a laundry list of all the Vivancos books you should read, but that's for another post probably. This one is just beautiful though, really beautiful.

Honorable mention to The Cider House Rules, by John Irving, which honestly should be on this list but since I raved about it in my other ask response it felt like cheating to put it here again. But lemme just say -- JOHN IRVING MY BELOVED.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

I answered 11 in this one but I'm going to cheat and answer again because I also read Pride and Prjudice this year and omg it was ADORABLE. I was over the moon with how much I enjoyed it. I am shamelessly obsessed with the 2005 movie (Matthew McFadyen as Darcy my beloved) and I was tickled with how many lines from the book were in the movie! Anyway, 10/10 highly recommend, it was just FABULOUS.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

Okay, not necessarily over-hyped but I read More Than This, by Patrick Ness. As backstory, I read A Monster Calls years ago and omg. Talk about an incredible book. One of my all-time faves, forever on a recommendation list, just. Really good. And I never read anything else he wrote haha. But I heard a lot about More Than This, so I grabbed it from the library, and it was really intriguing at first. It seemed like some interesting, mind-twisty kind of story, like an inception limbo fic almost. I really really intrigued and I loved it. And then the last third of it just went....totally off the rails. Like what the FUCK. It was wild and whacky and also just so extremely violent??? In the final fight?? Like, in a way that was jarring because everything to that point had been suspenseful and tense but not gory. Anyway, yeah I was very disappointed in that.

#mousie rambles #omg i get asks now #ask thingy #vector to the heavens #books #mousie talks books #look vec i finally got this posted!!!

[dreamyyang]

summary: you made taeil’s undead heart soar and he was absolutely addicted to the feeling.

pairing(s): yandere!zombie!moon taeil x reader | kim doyoung x reader

warning(s): swearing, obsessive behaviour, mentions of blood, gore (kind of..?), minor character death, cannibalism, non con (taeil forcefully kisses the reader)

word count: 2.6k words

a/n: this is pretty heavy stuff so if any of the aforementioned content triggers you, do not read. please note that I do not condone taeil’s behaviour and that this is purely a work of fiction. my fic is not an accurate representation of taeil’s actual personality. 

part of @127-mile’s addiction collab

emotions were as foreign to moon taeil as brains and human flesh once were. while he doesn’t mind either of them, they were just very hard to come by. that changed when he got a job at the qian family’s mortuary, courtesy of qian kun, a mutual friend. johnny had already explained taeil’s special situation to kun, who agreed to give taeil access to the bodies so long as he worked as kun’s assistant. it was an excellent arrangement for both men - taeil could finally eat some proper food while kun finally had help. for obvious reasons, not many people were willing to work at a morgue, especially for such low wages.

taeil managed to ease himself into a routine of work, brains, sleep then repeat. while many people would eventually go insane from being constantly surrounded by cold, still bodies, taeil couldn’t care less. a zombie couldn’t ask for a better arrangement. while he did not experience emotions, he still felt a semblance of peace.

at least, that was before you showed up, completely unannounced. of course, your arrival wasn’t completely random, kun did warn taeil that his cousin was coming home after getting their phd, but you weren’t what taeil expected. he had this mental image of you being stoic and reserved. he thought you’d briefly acknowledge him with a slight nod while visiting your cousin and that would be it. imagine his surprise when he came to work and was greeted by a smile brighter than the sun. you were like the human embodiment of a meadow of flowers in the summer - warm, wonderful and welcoming. hell, you even smelled like flowers.

suddenly, his daily routine was ruined. 

most mornings, you would meet him at the mortuary, looking as fresh as a daisy, and hand him an equally fresh box of baked goods from the bakery next to your clinic. if it was a slow morning, and it usually was, you would make small talk with him while kun went over the day’s plans in his office. he began to cherish those morning conversations with you and his undead heart would sink when the clock struck nine and it was time for you to hug him and kun goodbye. from then on, he was usually in a sour mood for the rest of the day, not humouring the silly jokes kun made as they worked. he would get off work with a dull ache in his heart if you weren’t there to pick kun up or offer to take them out for drinks.

this abrupt change frightened taeil more than anything. why was he suddenly experiencing these strange feelings? he hated it. every day, he was going through a rollercoaster of emotions that would be decided by whether or not he saw his boss’ cousin. it was so absurd. in the past five years of him being a zombie, he hadn’t felt such extreme emotions before. they all felt so...so human.

when he consulted johnny about these strange occurrences, his friend began to howl with laughter, “dude, it’s so obvious!” 

taeil glared at johnny, “care to explain what exactly is so obvious?”

“you like y/n. why else would you be constantly pining for them?” 

taeil scoffed. johnny must have smoked something because there was no way he liked you. at best, he had known you for three months and it isn’t like you regularly spent time together. plus, you were related to his boss. johnny had no idea what he was talking about, he was full of shit.

“that’s bullshit. I don’t buy it,” taeil shook his head, leaning back in his chair.

“no I swear, it’s true! we drove past this factory and they were just beheading these chickens out in the open,” you sighed. “anyway, the sight was so sickening, I’ve never looked at meat the same way since.”

“yet you decided to be a thoracic surgeon.”

you shrugged, “yeah but operating on people and eating meat are two different things. I don’t mind looking at flesh and blood but the thought of eating any makes me sick.”

taeil silently thanked you as you made that statement. ever since johnny had suggested that taeil liked you, he’d been searching for reasons not to like you. and of course, there’s no way he could like you if you were a vegetarian. you would be absolutely disgusted if you knew what his main diet consisted of. yet, every now and then, he felt his mind drifting away to a different mental list - a list of the things he liked about you.

he liked how you would come up with the most absurd conversation starters, just to make him crack a smile. he liked how your hugs were warm and comfortable. he was even beginning to like the fuzzy feeling that would envelop his heart whenever he was around you. you made him giddy and lovesick and eventually, he didn’t mind anymore. being around you all the time forced him to accept that he had very strong feelings for you. in fact, he was certain that even as a human, he had never had feelings this intense. there was just something special about you that had him feeling some sort of way. normally, he would have been afraid of how you controlled your heart but now? he was in too deep to care.

he decided it was better for him to just accept the fact that he loved you. why try to fight it? it was highly unlikely that he would feel this way about anyone ever again. he had to hold onto you, he would be insane to let you go. 

finally, he plucked up the courage to confess to you. he was falling for you more and more every single day, and not being with you was slowly killing him. he decided to surprise you at the clinic where you worked with a bouquet of your favourite flowers. he planned to treat you to lunch at a romantic café then confess to you while walking you back to the clinic. he had rehearsed the little speech he wanted to give over twenty times with johnny, who repeatedly assured him that everything would go well. 

it did not go well.

taeil was greeted by a unpleasant surprise when he reached the entrance of the clinic. there you stood, his beloved y/n, in another man’s arms. taeil watched, horrified, as the man placed a soft kiss on your lips. you looked so happy with him and it broke taeil’s heart. he felt awful as he watched you smile at the man. that same wonderful smile that he wished was for his eyes only. it felt like a cruel joke to have your laughter fill his ears as tears pricked his eyes. taeil was glad that nobody was paying attention to him as hot tears stained his cheeks. he couldn’t have gotten away sooner, pushing past the people on the street to go home. 

he quickly texted an excuse to kun about how he felt sick and would be gone for the rest of the day. it wasn’t exactly a lie - he did feel sick and every time he thought about you and the stranger, it only got worse. he ripped up the bouquet and the plastic that had been wrapped around their stems, screaming as he did it. pain bled into fury as he destroyed the beautiful flowers. he was unbelievably angry and wouldn’t stop until every last petal had been snatched from the base and scattered on the floor. he was blinded by rage as he made a mess of his apartment floor. finally, the bouquet had been completely ripped apart and tears cleared taeil’s vision.

he dropped to the floor, feeling miserable as he stared at the mess, tears streaking down his face. he loved you so much, but someone had stolen you away. how dare that asshole? you were supposed to be taeil’s, how could he just come between the two of you like that? how incredibly selfish of him. taeil had to get rid of him, as soon as possible. the more time you spend with that jerk, the more he’ll ruin you. taeil scowled at the memory of the two of you kissing. he will pay.

 it was decided. taeil was going to make you his, one way or another. whether you liked it or not.

“I hate this, taeil.”

taeil nodded, feigning sympathy as you pouted and continued to complain, “doyoung’s been so busy the past week that he hasn’t been able to call me even once. he just sends brief texts… I really miss him.”

“that sucks, y/n, but you know, it’s a very demanding job.”

“yeah I know…but would it kill him to at least call to say good night?” you sighed, sipping your tea. “whatever. thank you so much for listening to my rant, taeil, I really appreciate it. you’re an awesome friend.”

the word stung, but taeil tried not to show it as he smiled and promised you that he didn’t mind. which was half true. taeil could never get tired of listening to you talk about any topic but one - kim doyoung, your boyfriend. it didn’t really matter, though. soon, taeil would make sure that you would forget all about that piece of shit. soon, moon taeil would be the only thing on your mind, just like how you were the only thing on his min

but first he had to punish you. you deserved it. if you hadn’t gone and dated another man, he wouldn’t have considered such a thing. you needed to be disciplined. you belonged to taeil and he was going to make sure that you remembered that fact. so he sat there in front of you, politely nodding as you vented about your boyfriend, and tried to think of a suitable punishment.

“I know I’m complaining about him a lot, but I really like doyoung,” you laughed. “even though he took me to a barbecue place for our first date.”

that’s when a lightbulb went off in taeil’s brain.

for someone who couldn’t survive without eating brains, taeil sure was an idiot. somehow, he’d gotten roped into a dinner date with you, doyoung and doyoung’s sister, jisoo. at least he managed to convince you to let him host the dinner at his apartment, insisting that he wanted to make a good first impression on jisoo. you’d wiggled your eyebrows and teased him about it but he knew, deep down, setting him up with someone else was hurting you. but you wouldn’t have to worry about hiding your feelings for much longer - taeil would soon relieve you of your misery. ideally of course, he wouldn’t want to start off your relationship with a double date with other people. not to mention your little punishment, but hey, all relationships have their ups and downs.

now if he could just get that pesky little jisoo out of the way.

after briefly stalking doyoung’s instagram account, taeil managed to find jisoo’s account and figured out where she worked. getting her to stay away was easier than he thought it would be. all he had to do was press a small knife against her neck and she was begging for him to leave her alone. he left her trembling in the alley behind her office, with her tears stinging the small cut that ran down the side of her cheek. he wasn’t worried about her telling her brother since that’s who he’d be visiting next.

he had to say, out of all the humans he’d made dishes out of, doyoung was certainly the best. probably because his meat was actually fresh, but you really seemed to enjoy him as well.

“god taeil, your spaghetti is wonderful. I can’t believe doyoung and jisoo are missing out,” you nearly moaned as you devoured your dinner. “these are the best vegan meatballs I’ve ever had. seriously, how’d you make this?”

taeil shrugged, “I used a pretty basic recipe, although I did use something extra special for those meatballs.”

“would you mind sharing what that special thing is, master moon?”

taeil’s smile dropped, his expression completely serious now. you didn’t think much of it, taeil was probably just being dramatic. however his tone as he spoke his next sentence sent a chill down your spine.

“enough dilly-dallying. tell me, sweetheart, did you really think you could get away with dating another man?”

you were too stunned to speak, what the fuck did he just say?

“woah, don’t get shy now. did you seriously think you could go be someone else's whore and I wouldn’t get mad?”

“taeil, what on earth are you talking about?”

you looked like a scared and helpless little rabbit and taeil would be lying if he said that didn’t make him feel some type of way. taeil’s predatory gaze burned into your eyes, ensnaring you and refusing to let go. you were confused. why was taeil behaving like this? why was he so angry with you? but you were certain about one thing: tonight was not going to end well for you. 

with a gentle voice, you tried to calm him down so the two of you could have a rational conversation but taeil wasn’t having any of it. he grabbed you by the wrist and pulled you up to your feet, stepping away from the dining table and pulling you close till your chest brushed against his. suddenly, his steely gaze slightly softened.

“y/n, my love, I hope you know that I didn’t want to do this to you, but you left me no choice. you forced my hand.”

tears were beginning to well up in your eyes. taeil was getting frustrated. you knew exactly what he was talking about yet you were acting as though taeil was speaking in cryptic messages. taeil noticed your tears and tsked, cupping your cheeks. there was no point in you crying now. the deed was done. taeil was hoping you’d learnt your lesson so the two of you could move past this.

“don’t cry, sweetheart. at least, not until you know what I did.”

“but taeil, I don’t even know what I’ve done,” you sniffed lightly.

“darling, I love you. and I know you love me too, you don’t need to say it. but why did you have to go and date doyoung? do you know how much that hurt me?”

you shook your head, “taeil, I really didn’t know how you felt. but I’m sorry, I don’t feel the same way.”

taeil glared and tightened his grip on your jaw, “fucking lies! that dickhead doyoung has brainwashed you. oh my precious y/n, I feel so awful for punishing you the way I did, but how else will I fix you?”

“what do you mean?” you asked, afraid of the answer he was going to give you.

“those vegan meatballs, darling. although I suppose the term ‘doyoung meatballs’ would be more accurate.”

your beautiful features were twisted into a look of pure horror as realisation dawned upon you. taeil couldn’t help but let his lips form a maniacal grin. he was rather proud, even if he did say so himself. doyoung would never be a problem ever again. nor would anyone else be, for that matter. taeil knew that you were his good, obedient little y/n. you wouldn’t dare to hurt him ever again. satisfied, he leaned in and forced you into a kiss. you were too shocked to fight back.

as he pulled away, he pushed the hair out of your face.

“remember to behave yourself, darling.”

#nct 127 #nct #moon taeil #nct taeil #nct writings #nct fics #nct angst #nct 127 angst #nct 127 x reader #moon taeil x reader #taeil x reader #taeil angst #yandere!nct #yandere au #zombie au #nct au #yandere!taeil #nct horror

[ask-the-good-creeps]

i was just curious on your take of tobys story to see if you would make any changes to it. don’t have to write a whole though

//It’s been a while since I’ve read Toby’s story, but from what I remember the only thing I ever thought needed some help was a few grammar and spelling issues, and maybe some less abrupt scene transitions here and there. 

Toby is among my top three favorites because I really liked the plot, themes, and concepts of his original story, and I can’t really think of any changes I’d make to it. I certainly can’t see myself doing a complete overhaul on it like I’ve done with the Brothers Woods, haha. 

My general take on Toby’s story is that:

a.) I liked that he had reasonable motivation to snap and become a killer. I see a lot of stories (mainly in fanfiction with OCs, but also with some characters that were intended to be canon) where a kid with a relatively normal life and no psychiatric disorders mentioned at all just randomly decides “I’m gonna kill people now!” (or they start murdering over a minor inconvenience that somehow causes a mental health issue? Idk, a lot of them are hard to understand in that respect) and it bugs me a lot. Toby already suffered from multiple issues with his mental health and was managing somewhat decently at first; then the trauma of losing the person that cared for him most (and the natural fallout with his family/home life that followed) became the catalyst that declined his mental stability and made him into who he is. That makes sense, his reasons for snapping like he did are logically justifiable.

b.) Though Slenderman is mentioned in Toby’s origin story, Toby is the only one who can see him and Toby is known to be a paranoid schizophrenic; meaning that as you read, you can’t tell for sure if he’s really seeing the Slenderman or if it’s one of his delusions as he gradually becomes more unstable. I like it when stories, especially in the horror/thriller genre, leave things like that unexplained and somewhat up to the reader’s inference and interpretation. 

c.) The side characters and their personalities in the story are consistent and believable. Mr. Rogers is an abusive drunk; he’s that way from start to end of the story. Mrs. Rogers is a kind woman who cares for her kids, but also a bit of a pushover, and the stress of losing her daughter and the financial struggle of having to handle Lyra’s funeral make her feel there’s no choice but to let Mr. Abusive Asshole back in the house to manage everything despite how horrible he is and how hard she had to have fought to escape him before. She doesn’t want to, but grief isn’t letting her think of another way. That’s a plausible motivation for her actions.

d.) The mental and neurological illnesses Toby has aren’t overused in the genre, and they actually fit together. Toby’s symptoms and the actions he takes throughout this whole thing are consistent with how someone in his position might be. I had someone tell me once that his story didn’t feel believable to them because “he had too many things wrong with him” between the CIPA, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, depression, PTSD, and later amnesia, and they also said that “most people with mental illness aren’t violent anyway” (I agree with that particular sentiment and don’t like seeing people with mental illness demonized, but in the start of the story Toby isn’t shown to be violent at all - it’s the events later working in tandem with his illnesses that drive him to violence, which is indeed plausible).

Plus, if you research CIPA (I did; it’s rare so there wasn’t much info on it when I searched, but there are medical journals and such) it turns out that people with that condition are actually more likely to suffer from other neurological illnesses (such as Tourette’s) and mental illness (such as bipolar and schizophrenia) and have a higher likelihood of not being able to develop empathy for others due to the inability to feel pain and relate it to events that others experience. Then the PTSD is a logical side effect of seeing your beloved older sibling die violently in front of you, the depression is something someone with bipolar is naturally more susceptible to and comes as a side-effect of ill-managed grief from the loss of a loved one, and amnesia isn’t unreasonable in the minds of people who have PTSD, depression, and schizophrenia hitting them all at once (plus, if we take the Slenderman to actually be in the story and not one Toby’s hallucinations, there’s another explanation for it). Yeah, he has so many issues that it seems at first glance to be illogical overkill for his personality, but looking deeper it all makes perfect sense.

Like I said before, Toby’s story could use a little work in grammar and structure in my opinion, but that’s about it. I loved everything else about it, and still do. I’m actually personally bothered by all the fandom ideas that Toby’s some happy-go-lucky, carefree idiot because in canon he’s a really well-made character and his reputation deserves some justice. Everyone is entitled to make up their own interpretations of a character, but seeing that kinda shit happen to my boi after everything he’s been through really hurts my heart.

Sorry for the long reply - I could rant about how much I love this character and his story for hours if ya let me. c: //

#ask the good creeps #ask creepypasta #creepypasta #ticci toby #Toby Rogers #ask

[lurafita]

Canon is fanfiction’s little bitch

So, my friend wrote a fanfic for The Walking Dead. A kind of retelling of events, but with one very specific change to one of the main characters. And even though I haven’t seen the show, she wanted me to read it and tell her my opinion. 

And, look, I haven’t seen the show, but my friend is the type of person that calls you after an episode that was either especially great, or especially upsetting, to rant to you about it. We all have that friend. 

Anyway, due to those conversations, I knew that there were things and scenes and character developments in the show she didn’t like, that she wished had gone differently. 

So, when I read her fic, I was pretty surprised that she kept those things in. And, I guess I don’t have to tell anyone who has watched The Walking Dead, that this is a pretty gruesome, devastating, depressing show at times. 

And, again, I knew that my friend hadn’t liked a lot of the things that happened in the show.

So when I asked her why she wrote it like this, she kinda shrugged and said: “Well, it’s how it happened in canon.”

 When I then told her that, okay, if you want to keep things like they happened in canon, that’s fine. But, you know you don’t have to, right?

She looked at me like she was a little lost in that moment. Probably how I look when I can’t find my fucking shoes, every morning!

We talked for a long while after that, and I can’t possibly repeat our conversation verbatim (my memory has never been and will never be that good).

But let me check off the highlights here. 

- Canon is important, but it doesn’t have to matter. A Tv series, movie, book, comic, video game, whatever you want, is the doorway into a world full of characters and circumstances that you get to discover and fall in love with. However, the feelings you develop for these characters, are your own. Canon has no hold over those. 

- Canon, (unless you are reading or seeing a documentary), itself is fiction. It is a fantasy dreamed up by one or more individuals, and brought to life in different forms of media. It’s makers (writers, actors, producers, etc) do deserve our respect and gratitude. But that does not mean you have to adhere to their vision completely, or at all. 

- Canon can give you characters and worlds you adore. It can give you deeply intricate and developed nuances for both of those. And it can lead those characters and worlds in directions you don’t want to see them take. And you don’t have to be okay with that. 

- Fanfiction is a way for fans to feel closer to their beloved characters and worlds. It can shine the light on things that aren’t focused on in canon, and can develop characters and relationships that canon doesn’t explore. 

- Fanfiction is a way for fans to live and breathe and share their love for these characters and worlds with others. It can be a welcome handshake, or a long embrace. Or sometimes just an easy smile. It can give you a sense of camaraderie and belonging. It can be a plot point explored, or a dynamic exploited, or a different route taken. It can be that constant, burning question, that every fan has at some point in time, in the back of their mind: What if?

- What if that character did that? What if that hadn’t happened? What if things were different?

- Canon is for everyone, but fanfiction is for you and you alone. It is your creative outlet. It is every piece and plotbunny you ever dreamed of. It is your passion given life in the written word. You are the King and the Queen and the God of your story. In your fanfiction, these characters and these worlds are yours. And you should use them, to tell the story you want to tell.

- Fanfiction is self-indulgent. Each and every one. It is supposed to be. Because TV-series and books and movies and everything else is for entertainment and profit. But fanfiction is for you. 

So you are the one who calls the shots in your fanfiction. If you want to follow the canon story line, with only some minor differences or added dialog, then that is what you do. 

But if you don’t want that. If what happened in canon doesn’t sit well with you. If you wished it had gone differently. If you wished you could change it. Then you can. Then that is what you do. 

It is your desire. Your passion. Your story. It is your effort put into writing it down, fleshing out plot, developing characters and relationships. 

And you do it for you, because it makes you happy. 

My friend wasn’t happy with canon. And she wasn’t really happy with her story. After our talk, she scrapped it. Started anew, went back to the beginning, got things rolling, and then completely derailed from canon. She has texted me about all the changes she has done, and still wants to do. All the things that will be different, and the things that now won’t work anymore the way they did in canon, and how she has to find ways around that, or think of something completely different from it now. 

And this story probably isn’t gonna be some kind of master piece when she is done. From what I can tell, it gets a little out of character at times, and some of her resolutions in the plot seem a little too easy and perfect, and not at all in line with the general tone of the show. 

But you know what? It doesn’t matter one fucking bit. Because I can hear her enthusiasm and joy for her story in every text and every phone call. Writing this story makes her happy. She is the goddess of her story, she calls the shots, and she made canon her little bitch. 

Canon is for everyone, but fanfiction is for you. 

#fandom stuff #fanfiction #canon vs fanon #canon vs fanfiction #the walking dead #you write whatever the fuck you want #and whatever the fuck makes you happy

[lamiahypnosia]

Hype Train Keep A’Rollin, or, The Obligatory The Outer Worlds Deep Dive Rant

Okay so…

There’s like. Maybe three things in the game world I’m looking forward to.

Baldur’s Gate 3, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Peril on Gorgon. My interest in FF7R has waned, admittedly but my love of The Outer Worlds is still pretty strong.

I did preorder Shadowlands for World of Warcraft and there’s not much on my radar. I am debating checking out Mass Effect since as a person of taste I enjoy BioWare games.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is still contentious to me as I truthfully don’t care much for the tabletop RPG hit rolls and all that math shit. I enjoyed the first two Baldur’s Gate games because of the story, true. That’s my main draw, I love a good story. A good story and characters I’ll actually give a shit about. Is that so hard? Apparently it’s really fucking hard to do. But back to the Outer Worlds for a second. It wasn’t really hyped that much unless you count the obvious wink nudges to the New Vegas stans who were holding out hope that The Outer Worlds is New Vegas IN SPACE.

No, it’s not. It’s really not. As I mentioned in my review TOW is a new IP that can stand on its own two legs and sure it has a developer behind it that put out a really good game in eighteen months.

Yeah, the reason New Vegas is so sparse looking is because Obsidian could only snare the rights for Fallout from Bethesda for a little over a year so they reused assets from Fallout 3 hence why it has a DLC feel but not really, that sounds harsh. Was that too harsh?

For what it’s worth I give credit where credit is due. Obsidian busted their asses on New Vegas and it shows- the places are oozing atmosphere and the characters are outstandingly written. Too bad Fallout 4 only got that second one for the companions and don’t @ me, the companions are good and you know it. Even if Fallout 4’s story is a dumpster fire.

Fallout 76 is a dumpster fire too, not just because of the bugs and subscription platform it just…it was so full of potential, the atmosphere is perfect. Just not for an MMO. Wavy Willard’s Water Park is creepy as fuck to me, something about the decayed place of innocent fun. Though wouldn’t a water park be closed in October, because the bombs fell in October. I can’t recall if the old terminal entries were written in summer or what twenty five years before the bombs fell. This game is confusing.

Wastelanders feels unfinished and half-assed. That’s all there is to say about it. I don’t have the energy to talk about it. I was set up for disappointment. I still really enjoy exploring and crafting but I don’t enjoy inventory management (I’m a serial hoarder, ask my husband) and I really don’t enjoy getting pasted by a gaggle of level 14 cryptids while I’m level 42 because the hit detection in this game is pretty much non existent. I just wildly swing my super sledge and pray I can glitch my way through it.

Anyway.

I fell down the Reddit rabbit hole and boy, r/theoutworlds is chock full of New Vegas stans foaming at the mouth. People compare The Outer Worlds to New Vegas so much (same developer) that talking about one or the other on their respective subreddits is against the rules. I saw a review of some salty stan whining about how few choices there are in The Outer Worlds. What I hear is ‘Why is this literally not the exact same as Fallout New Vegas?! I want to be a capricious god with unlimited agency.’ The reviews are full of ‘I want, I wish, I miss.’ I made a shitpost a few weeks ago on Facebook about wanting to fight people regarding my opinion on New Vegas which is in a nutshell ‘It’s a good game, but I can’t get invested.’ The Outer Worlds on the other hand for all that it’s full of satire and black comedy had me invested.

So after my stellar review of The Outer Worlds you’re probably thinking ‘okay so where is your full disclosure essay, you love Fallout 4 and what you love you chasten’. Well now that you mention it…

From here on out there be spoilers, major spoilers for both endings of The Outer Worlds.

The Outer Worlds was NEVER stated to be an open world. I made a few minor griping points in my review about there rarely being new dialogue when you talk one on one with a character. I also think the combat is fairly standard but I don’t really care about that all that much plus the science weapons are fun. Trailers also showcased Ellie as a companion though you don’t meet her in Emerald Vale you meet her on the Groundbreaker. Also Ellie is boring.

She’s a doctor, a surgeon from Byzantium who got tired of the bureaucracy and her uptight parents so she became a pirate and…that’s it. Until you drop in to visit her parents and find out they faked her death and are living off the insurance payouts. They’re not even happy to see her because they’re keeping up appearances. All you can do is help Ellie commit insurance fraud to screw them over and Ellie is slightly less aloof from now on.  That’s the character you wanna hype? Dr. Do Nothing?

Moving on. People latch on to Parvati Holcomb, the dorky precious engineer and her quest is to get things for a nice date with somebody who is already obviously into her.

She’s the cinnamon bun of the gang, full of sugar and no substance. Don’t get me wrong I love and must protect Parvati but she’s nowhere as interesting as Vicar Max or even Felix. She comes out of her shell because she gets a girlfriend.  Whoop de doo.

Felix Millstone is an orphan kid from Groundbreaker who has a rebellious streak and that’s it. His personal quest is learning his old mentor is a Board bootlicker. The end. His whole arc is basically don’t meet your heroes which can include you if you’re a jerk. A filthy Board bootlicking jerk. He’s at least got a few more aspects to him, he treats Parvati, Ellie and Nyoka like big sisters and depending on actions made, treats Vicar Max like a big brother. Who were his parents? Why was he abandoned? DLC material please?

Speaking of Max.

Oof. Max is a fan favorite because priest kink. I don’t have a priest kink and we don’t kink shame here but Max is kind of an awful person. He’s mister holier than thou, only interested in his religion as a topic of debate. He’s not interested in guiding people and while you could say he spouts corporate approved platitudes he’s clearly not dumb. Far from it, he even immediately pegs the Stranger (the player character) as an outsider because they don’t look dead inside and you can call him out on how bad of a shepherd he is. Max never really gets better if you do his quest successfully. He does become less of a prick but I hold that he’s still a bad person. Maybe he’s open to not being a dick, and his banter with the other characters changes accordingly. His best ending indicates he does become a true missionary and even uses his combat skills to defend the town. It’s debatable.

Max’s character develops. He is a character who grows and changes. Sort of. Most of his character is based off how salty he is. So he learns to use the salt sparingly. Direct anger where it should go, ask questions in the right circumstances, stop acting like you know everything, embrace chaos.

It’s not like dodging the lesson is just to fit the irreverent tone. Nyoka is sad because her friends all died and that’s why she drinks. She’s still competent, trains Parvati with firearms and helps Felix with his drink recipe experiments. it feels good to help with her quest and her saying she lost a family but got a new one will give you the warm fuzzies.

SAM is a robot. I guess he’s funny in theory but I never use him. The ship ain’t gonna clean itself.

So now that I’ve thoroughly trashed all the beloved companions you might wonder what character do I actually like?

Okay. If my constant posts weren’t evidence my favorite character is Phineas Welles, the guy who wakes you up from cryosleep. Forget Parvati a second, Phineas is the best and most endearing character and I will fight you over this.

From his defiance of the Board to having the foulest mouth of the cast, his cartoony movements and love of puns, how could you betray Phineas to the Board for wealth and power? Also he builds a gun and names it Phin’s Phorce. I don’t care who you are, that’s adorable.

Still Phineas is interesting, he’s definitely a deceitful little bugger. Space grandpa, my left butt cheek. If you decide to side with the Board for whatever reason- money, you think Phineas is a liar- and skip the Hope to Tartarus for its inhabitants to be yeeted out so the elite of Byzantium can live in luxury while the filthy peasants are frozen Phineas gets pissed off and flies to Tartarus to start a prison riot taking Adjutant Akande hostage. You can try to talk him down and even if you succeed and try to talk him into surrendering to the Board he refuses, stating that he will not crawl back and beg them for forgiveness. Then he pulls a gun and shoots himself in the fucking head.

If you’re an immersion addict like me you might get on a lawful stupid ‘kill what I see as evil’ streak and you plugged Chairman Rockwell and Adjutant Akande because they’re bad evil guys you’re missing the point.

I’m not saying this is some kind of character deficit in you in real life but to get a better picture of how good the writing in The Outer Worlds is, hear me out.

I had a discussion with a friend asking what alignment Phineas and the Board would fit in. He said Phineas is chaotic neutral, bordering chaotic good whereas the Board is lawful neutral.

The Board is just greedy and  they’ve lost their sense of identity which makes them a blank corporate face instead of individuals. They’re built up as this faceless omniscient entity but when you pull aside the curtain you find they’re just people stumbling about screaming ‘oh shit now what do we do?’ as becomes abundantly clear when you meet Minister Clarke. There’s a coverup happening because of course there is.

Phineas has kept his identity, his truth. If you think about it Phineas is only doing what he does to prove the Board wrong and that just happens to save the colony- an altruistic middle finger if you will. He’s standing off to one side pointing and screaming ‘see I was right!’

He had no qualms about sending you to your probable death- you were lucky but you still only had a twenty eight percent chance of not becoming a puddle. Phineas also had some rather jarring dialogue about shooting the members of the Board in the back of the head. His actions, his beliefs are absolute. And that, dear readers, is what keeps him from being chaotic good.

You can talk both Chairman Rockwell and Adjutant Akande into helping you and Phineas isn’t thrilled but he trusts you to handle it. It’s easier to shoot everyone and sweep our problems under the proverbial rug, isn’t it? Are Rockwell and Akande bad people? Maybe? A little, but mostly they’re ignorant and shit has to hit the fan before they’ll listen. But they do listen.

The pro Board ending puts me in mind of an old George RR Martin short story called  In The House Of The Worm. It takes place in an old crumbling ruin deep underground where there two races, the grouns and the yagalla’hai, are constantly at war with one another. They fight, kill and eat each other. The yagalla’hai are nihilists who worship decay and don’t really give a fuck about that they’re probably all going to die unless they mate with the grouns and the sun is dying but sure let’s feast, dance, fuck and party all the time.

You can yeet everyone on the Hope into space and live a life of extravagant wealth til the end of your days while Halcyon crumbles apart around you. Meanwhile all your cuddly companions are miserable beyond human comprehension, their dreams crushed and that nice old man who saved you dies, betrayed and alone.

Do you feel good about yourself? Are you happy with how that turned out?

Nyoka makes an interesting point that Halcyon needs order. You can still talk to her like an edgy teenager who favors absolute anarchy. Yes, the colony needs order, they just need BETTER order. I think I had a point to make? Oh yeah, The Outer Worlds is fucking amazing and deserves every drop of hype and I cannot fucking wait for the DLC. That’s the post.

#the outer worlds #spoilers #major spoilers #i am not kidding there are spoilers #phineas welles #i love him so much oh my law

[bkdkink]

here’s part 2 for the ehhhh stuff 

“okay, so dy,” you ask, “if it looks good and plays well, story is excellent and music is perfect, wtf is up your ass about it then?”

so bear with me. what i am about to straight-up complain about rn is by no means anything major or even something that should prevent anyone from ever being apart of the game and its story. these are minor, personal complaints that i want to vent out, and if it so happens that i have people who agree with me then great! if not, then yeah i totally understand because people see the story differently and want different things, as life goes.

long rant ahead, beware. 

so the negative about kh3, ill start with the annoying and lead up to the heart-crushing part (yet expected) part first.

The Frozen and Tangled levels were rough. lmao, not skill-wise, no. Just. Tangled was going through the whole damn movie......right? without songs and certain minor characters, but we...went through the whole movie with Rapunzel and it was sooooo awkward to watch the cutscenes....because sora, donald and goofy were just. there. they did nothing to progress the story. they were just....there? eugene died. they witnessed a man DIE. and it was........anticlimatic a little in how they reacted???? like that they dont quite understand death so they were just like awwwwww :/ and then he came back so yeah, but. it was so weird?? with them there???? why were they there??? why this way???? why not make up a whole new story or add to it or something or other??? is it cuz she’s one of the new 7 princesses of light so we had to do a whole thing??? cuz we didn’t for any other princess??? oh besides Frozen.

Frozen was the worst level for me. just the worst. i never liked the movie, so that’s strike one, strike two is i had to re-listen to two of those infamous songs.......because sora had to listen to them. why....when....when was there disney songs shot frame-per-frame.....in KH? and no, ariel in KH2 doesn’t count because that whole WORLD was a MUSICAL WORLD. the only actions you could take was THROUGH muSICcccCCCCC.

my point is that there was too much pandering going on there, also the story was just as nonsensical as it was in the movie. if i never saw it i would have been so confused as to where that brunette dude came from, how he got Elsa, WHY he wanted to kill her---the game (tangled was a tad bit guilty of this too, wtf did Rapunzel start calling Flynn Eugene? i saw the movie so i knew but they didn’t explain that until their world was finished) so....good luck to whoever did watch the movies?? KH assumes you’ve seen both of them, compared to the Carribbean where I never saw the movie but i knew wtf was going on??? also big hero 6, never saw that but could get the gist!!!!

they were just WAY too movie heavy which isn’t the usual for the series, and im sure if they are included in the next game itll be a different experience because the movies are now established, so there hopefully there won’t be any pandering from Frozen’s end too much.

Now......the stuff that is more personal. okay here goes. 

KH, from the jump, has somewhat kinda tried to establish a maybe romantic angle between Sora and Kairi. Now, because of how friendship heavy the whole series is and the love friends share....I for one never picked that up until i was reading tvtropes and i was reading up on Kairi being one of the main reasons that Sora and Riku were even beefy in the first game to being with??? the both liked her but she chose Sora or something????? that shit flew so far over my head and no, i wasn’t a child playing the first game for the first time---this was only a couple years ago. i just....did not...pick up romantic interest? i picked up...friend?? because they kept saying....Friend™? 

anyway, series goes on, Kairi is known to the fandom as being written mostly out of focus and is never used well enough in the plot. and i agree. they never used her to her potential, and even in KH3, where she is now a keyblade wielder, she still becomes something to save...............even in the very end.........even when she and Sora had their moment of “imma save you this time!” .....no........sora still leaves to go and save her.............so.like.......yay for....growth? kinda....? i just feel bad for her tbh. 

that’s one thing. the main, large thing that i did see coming but was disappointed in nonetheless was that several games later of pushing her aside, of focusing much more on the relationship between Sora and Riku with an ENITRE GAME narrowed in on both of them and their journey toGETher---KH3 begins to focus on the romantic angle between Sora and Kairi again. and its obvious enough where NOW yes, even I picked up on it this time around.

and at this point......it just.....came off so forced? they lay it on thiccccccc my dudes. and it feels like it. yes, there are still moments between Riku and Sora, sure, but that is down-played SOOO much compared to fuggin KH:DDD or hell even KH2....

like.........i don’t expect any gay male video game protags from Square Enix, I really dont. but i also dont want some  last-minute romance shoved down my throat??? when i was fine with how it was before??? maybe if they still kept the subtly that they had done and with newer games continuing to build off of that, I wouldn’t be so put off by the idea. KH2 did a good job of building it, like when Sora imagined Kairi and him dancing together in halloween town--that was cute af?????? and well integrated????? and could STILL be taken as him just missing a FRIEND or yeah, a potential love interest! but just. jesus. you didn’t care about them being together then, don’t do it now because it comes off a little cheap.

also fuck Riku i guess???? kairi doesn’t give a fuck about Riku at all?/??? is the overall vibe i was getting???lmao aren’t all 3 of them friends??????? no???????? kairi only messes with sora and riku only messes with sora?????? can i get some uhhhhhhhhhhh riku and kairi time too or nah????? we had a moment of them at the beginning of the game i guess and then....that was....kinda it? so fucking disappointing how they write her man. she’s so much more than a love interest and there are moments when that shows, but there’s too many where she just....is only sora-focused? 

you want an example of how forced it was that they were switching Sora’s relationship from Riku to Kairi? now don’t quote me on this i could very well be wrong because i never actively listened for bkg music until DDD, but Dearly Beloved? the titular theme song for every single KH menu and emotional scenes? the theme song that DDD later ESTABLISHED in CANON that it was Riku and Sora’s heart song playing together????? a song that plays in some kinda version whenever Sora and Riku are having a moment??????? WELP. i wanna say they still kept it for Sora and Riku for at least one cutscene with them together. at least. i can’t name others, but they at least did it once cuz i remember getting excited about it. 

they now played it more frequently whenever Kairi showed up on screen, or when she and Sora were having a moment together. 

SORA. and RIKUS song....playing now for SORA and KAIri???? please correct me if im wrong, absolutely tell me if im wrong that im just not observant and it’s always been like that because tbh that’ll make this better for me lol but they just took Riku and went YEET. “Sora is the hero. Sora gets the girl because of course he does. Sora is GOD and fuck yall for not expecting him to have a love interest at the end of this and YES it will be a girl and YES it WILL be the one we keep forgetting about to make his love interest up until now because yall were getting the most wrongest ideas of where this was going so we’ll fix that right up for ya” 

i still loved the game. hell, even with the ending like that (”i gotta go save Kairi! again! even though we had a whole thing with the papou fruit about how she was going to save me and protect me this time! and i gotta do it alllll by myself!!! she has a keyblade you say???? she wants to be more useful to me you say???? well FUCK that imma go rescue her because im Sora and i am hero boy!!”) i still had a good time! it really is a good game, please go play it to get all the feels in the world, if this minor stuff is minor for you too, then go play it RIGHT. NOW!!!!!

but yeah. ya girl was disappointed by how forced it was. expected it, but still doesn’t negate how i feel in the end. so now im gonna indulge in soriku art. 

Rant over! if you actually read over this and wanna talk about it, feel free to hit me up! let’s rant together. maybe im wrong and too focused on my ship and i have ship glasses on too tight. 

#kh #kingdom hearts #sora #riku #kairi #soriku #destiny trio #wayfinder trio #dyrants #kh3 #kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #spoilers #kh spoilers

[catherinexlinton]

I’ve been walking around listening to yt rants of 8.03 and trying to heal my broken hopes, and i can say it right now : it was some ol bullshit. The world I invested my time and heart in, my skills rping those f characters around here on tumblr, the show I was comming back to when all of my life was going downhill, it was all bullshit. 

And if you’re trying to find some meaning in this bullshit, then I am sorry, but I judge you, I do, feel free to unfollow : Im not sure if Ill be around tumblr anyways.

What was Jon for ? Why bring him back? He did nothing. He wasn’t the prince who was promised. His parenthood reveal goes to shit. There is no reason for him being targaryen other than for him to sit on the iron throne ( no “his is the song of ice & fire, azor ahai will come from targaryens” prohpecy stuff ) and at this point : who even gives a fuck about this chair anyways ? 

White walkers were the ultimate darkness and evil. To show the readers/watchers that politics, conflicts, revange, betrayal, religions our minor poblems are NOT IMPORTANT compared to the greater enemy to be defeated : be it climate change, or death itself, or insert any theory here. 

How am I suppose to care about politics and thrones rn ? After the greatest enemy has been defeated? 

It’s as if Voldemord was killed in the middle of the series, and now Draco Malfoy is the big bad to be defeated. 

As if Sauron was defeated in the middle of Two Towers and now Aragorn’s claim to gondor is all we have to care about. I CALL BULLSHIT ON THAT.

What was Bran for? His almost decade adventure beyond the wall, his ability to CHANGE MADAFUCKIN TIME, his knowledge of everything? To throw some bullshit one liners “chaos is the ledder” or “the things we do for love”? What was he here for? To throw refrencess to better seasons? 

Some of the scenes which were VISIBLE, like the dragons flying on clear sky above clouds ( FUCKING MATRIX RIP OFF, OKAY ? ) or lighting the trenches were okay, but what looks good doesn’t make something GOOD, okay ? A person who’s pretty & dum is still dumb? A nicely taken photo of a shit with filters on is still PHOTO OF A SHIT ???!!???  

I’m not an expert on the fucking art of war so I’ll leave it out, but one thing : the fuckin dorthraki rode into the open field? WHAT FOR? Oh i know what for, to get that cool shot of their swords dissapearing into darkness, it was PRETTY but it was DUMB!

The fuck jamie lannister, a guy who has one had, managed to fight all night ??? He should be dead. They all should be dead. Alle the people in the crypts should be dead, with sansa, varys, tyrion, gilli&her stupid non-aging baby, all DEAD. They are all just shells of who they were, so it’s a mercy killing at this point.

Fucking Sansa don’t even get me started.... What’s with “once im queen i will make them love me” ? She walks into crypts, doesnt even care about the scared people and children, doesn’t bring them comfort, anything. At least Cersei have some wine for her women during Blackwater battle.

And Arya.... how much I hate her character... after Arya sailed to Bravos she’s as good as dead to me, really. I can’t stand how non-george-martin-overpowered-tomboy she’s become and I don’t get anyone who sees her as “badass”. The line Mel gave her about shutting “brown,blue,green” eyes wasn’t prophecy about killing Night King, it was a probhecy about her becoming a MURDER ASSASIN, bc that’s what her story is about : revange, and becoming a dark shell of a human because the need for revange overcame her = it’s better to let things go sometimes. 

They gave her the night king kill bc FEMINISM, YAY, KWEEN SLAY, and if THAT’S how women are empowered right now - by female characters in plot armour killing logic and stripping other characters (Jon/Bran/Dany?) of their purpose in the story - then I am ASHAMED to be a woman.

They should have died... brienne, jamie, podric, tormund, grey worm, missandei, sansa, tyrion, varys, sam, gilly, little sam, + those who were actually killed this episode. At least their deaths would be meaningfull - heroes fighting for humanity against the death, the foe bigger than any of us - I bet now they will get killed for mad!kween d@ny on the battlefield, fighting for a chair.

Or even worse : if they all gonna get happy ending... j0nerys with their incest babies, grey warm&missandei holding hands on the beach somewhere, jamie pushing bran’s wheelchair, while brienne brushes their daughter’s hair and sings jenny’s song.... that will be the ultimate bitchslap for all of us.

I would say to you : fuck the d&d, fuck hbbo, go read books, wait for the REAL ending. But tbh... I don’t even know if we will ever get Winds of Winter. Forget about Dream of Spring! GrrM is 70&doesn’t look healthy enough to live next three decades (don’t want to fatshame or anything, cersei would love me cuz I look like an elephant myself) and mind you.... he hasn’t wrote a good book in like 19 last years? The two last books in asoiaf series weren’t that amazing, Dance of Dragons was HORRIBLE in my opinion actually, heard various reviews about his other work. 

Maybe this world, this saga really IS too big for one man... maybe we will never get the ending we were promised, just like the prince that was promised was actually a bravos ninja.... maybe we shouldn’t hate on d&d alone bc george martin is guilty of the same thing they are : pride. He was sure he will be better than Tolkien, with his rian-johnsony’s subverting expectations that he cought himself in a web of plots he can’t solve.... ? 

Or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe next episode we will see Bran waking up from the coma and the whole last 8 seasons will be just a dream. Hate me all you want, I dare you, but you can’t change the truth :  All those hours of rping, video making, art making, listening to asoiaf/got theories an my bus to school, then university, or as I was falling asleep, crying over beloved characters ......

it was all

bullshit.

#rant #anti got #anti d&d #anti g r r martin #anti asoiaf

[cursedcomics]

What’s right and wrong (to my tastes anyway) on comicbook TV.

This is going to be a little bit of a love letter/ report card of hate for comic related TV shows.   And, honestly, a rant.

TV is a different breed. Any discussion of this subject has to begin with that point. You have to acknowledge that they cannot just mirror comic stories.  You have to give them the freedom to write their own stories.

That said, the entire point of basing a TV show on a comic is that it will start with an established fan base. If you honor the source material, you gain.   If you shit on it , you lose.

The Walking Dead may be the best example of this.  The characters from the comics show up. They are generally the same characters, but each character’s chronology is different. The show has taken a different direction on TV and that changes their path to death. I love that. That is a healthy relationship with your source material.  That gives your comic readers and your new TV fans something to watch.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is the polar opposite.  It is really a pretty bad show I have binge watched. Almost every character in the show is a jacked up version of their comic selves or doesn’t exist in the comics. Sure, there are some exceptions.  They got Martin Stein right, although his dialogue is way too whiny.  Arguably they more or less got the hawks right. The guy who played Vandal Savage was a good actor, although IMO way too short.  It would be almost totally unwatchable if not for the fact that they have pretty good actors.  They floated a comic based on it and it totally flopped.  That could mean something about the TV show, or nothing at all.  In this instance I think it is your dead mine canary telling you that comic fans have tuned out because your writers are not universally good,  They have jacked up the characters turning off the fans, and that you probably have the wrong characters on the show. 

I would argue that the LOT would profit greatly from a comic-style reboot.  THe Arrow-verse is well suited for reboots. 

Have something irrevocably change the timeline and recast your time travelers.  You only NEED Sarah Lance and I’d argue, Rip Hunter, out of the existing cast.  The other 5 can rotate new characters in and out. I’d love to see Jonah Hex get pulled into different eras, eventually abandoned in the future,  and meet his own stuffed body.  Why not have Booster Gold show up and (intentionally) accidentally screw up missions to yield better results.  Bring in the LOSH for a guest appearance.  There is no reason to restore vandal Savage.  T.O. Morrow, the Lord of Time, Good and Bad Chronos are all ripe players available for season long baddies. I would argue it is time for something new. 

The Flash seems to bounce between fresh and tired. I can’t tell if the status quo or the writers yield the tired stories. While the Central City status quo is perfect for telling “Supervillian X shows up and flash saves the day” stories, it feels dated now. Plus no one really likes Barry and Iris dating as brother and sister. The one good thing about the flashpoint reboot timeline is that it temporarily cleaned up that awkward relationship into one that TV fans could tolerate. 

I think they would be wise to have some new character unwind the original flashpoint (the one created by the reverse flash) and leave Iris and Barry to have a normal committed relationship, even a married one, with Joe seen as Barry’s beloved mentor.  Keep the characters people like and flush the dead weight story baggage that fans don’t like.  You can bring back the popular Officer Thorne. The guy who plays the reverse flash is fantastic and really hasn’t been given top scripts to go off.   Here is a Zoom who as a scientist from the future, might (should?) have some fairly big concerns about killing "Historical figures” (although he didn’t show any in the past).  The danger of Zoom without the bodycount. 

You can kill off Barry’s dad to make it a stronger relationship and that could be an impetus to explore Keystone City in Jay Garricks’ earth and get out of Central City for  a while.  DO Jay Garrick and Jesse Quick remember the flash and everything that happened?  I would think so, so you don’t have to revisit Zoom.  That might be neat for Barry and Vibe to start calling Jay Garrick’s world Earth 2 as they wouldn’t  remember naming them.   You could then toss the comic fans a bone by introducing the crime syndicate on Jesse's now Earth 3.  But that is admittedly, robbing peter to pay paul.    It would be somewhat befuddling for easily confused TV folk. But that is just some random thoughts, not a prescription like I mentioned for LOT.

Green Arrow is a series where they took everything cool from the comic, added new pieces, and built a new coherent world from it. The dialogue and stories have gone downhill since season one and team arrow is way too big, but they is a good nucleus there. A LOT reboot could tighten that up too.  Mr. Terrific could fall into Jay Garrick’s world and meet his boyfriend there that he just likes better.   Mad Dog could be an Arrow adversary. Ras Al Ghul could stay dead.  Ray, Roy and Speedy could also migrate to earth 2 or 3. John could get back both kids in the reset, which might push him into semi- retirement as a hero.  That could clear the table for fresh new villains to threaten Star City. 

I really like the supergirl series.  It’s not that they do everything right, it’s just a another show where they have a very likable star.  And they really cater to the comic fan.   They write the show from a premise akin to “Hey what if we took the core 1/3 characters of the DCU to populate this universe and then had Superman almost always away on special projects leaving Supergirl to save the day?  How would things shake out?  Anything Superman would normally handle, we will give to her. ”

The writing feels much more organic than on LOT.  I don’t like the guy who plays the Martian Manhunter, but I love that the Martian Manhunter is in the show.  (note you could always “kill off”  that identity). Mon-el is a nice add.  Bringing in the LOSH is very much mirroring what I perceive to be the concept of the show.

Agent Carter has gone by the wasteside and that was a shame. I think the show really blew it by not getting more into the era. Why not have the 1950′s avengers or Marvel’s 40′s Heroes trickle through?  A hearthrob alien from Venus with advanced technology and questionable motives? A killer robot? Venus? Namor and Namora? The Original Black widow?  The Torch? All handled by Agent Carter with an occasional assist from the wasp and Ant Man?  Their directive shunned their comic audience, IMO.

Agents of Sheild has also gotten into trouble for similar reasons. I get that Marvel didn’t want to give them access to the main MU heroes, so they tried to build around a cast instead and an assigned shit storyline eater ---the inhumans, but I think they didn’t make the right arguments.   Ulysses Klaw would have made an awesome villain for shield for the last season....adding to his impact in the black panther movie.  They should have focused on minor villains with International operations.  The Kangaroo.  Batroc the Leaper would have been a screen munching over the top villain straight out of a bond movie.  He could have a plan to kill his nemesis, Captain America, that shield could thwart.  I have always been partial to the mandrill, (and his sister Dansen Macabre), and the success of the purple man character tapping a nerve suggests it is high time for a little monkey business.  

I get that getting the Ghost Rider right was an expensive investment dictating they used that a lot for a season.   The storyline just wasn’t that good.  Another Mort. Maybe guest star the shroud.  Werewolf by night.

Like LOT, the AOS show is really built on only a small portion of their cast.   Three characters since they offed Grant --- Mockingbird, Daisy, and Coulter.  Really everyone else SHOULD be nameless agents who come and go.  It’s a spy show.  You don’t have to have ongoing arcs each week. It’s great to be the prisoner, but  you can be the 1960′s Avengers some weeks.  I think they lost sight of that.

That’s all I really got today.  End rant. 

[admhawthorne]

Pulled Thoughts Regarding Supergirl’s Cast’s SDCC Behavior

I posted a little about this on Twitter this morning, and I’ve been talking both online and offline to a few friends about this throughout today, and I wanted to pull together everything I’ve been saying about this situation and how it applies to the big picture of media with regard to LGBTQ+ representation and fan treatment.

This is probably going to read more like an essay than my typical rants, but I’ve been in fandoms for a long time, and I’ve been blessed (if you can call it that) to see how things work from both the network’s side and the fandom’s side, so I’m going to throw in my two cents here.

But, just in case, the TL;DR for all of this is simple: Nothing will get better until everyone on all sides are educated on how things work and why things should and/or shouldn’t be said or done starting with networks teaching their actors and showrunners how to appropriately engage with their fandoms.

The SDCC interview heard around the internet is, as I’ve said before, a perfect example of why actors, showrunners, and those who represent shows/films need to be schooled on how to answer questions and requests appropriately.

Even if an actor doesn’t support a specific romantic pairing, knows that pairing will never happen, or isn’t personally supportive of the fan base who supports a specific pairing, I feel they have an obligation to maintain a certain amount of professionalism when asked or given the opportunity to speak on that subject.

They are there to do a job, and it is imperative they do it well, which means answering questions and interacting with the media and fans in such a way as to be attuned to people in general well enough to understand what will cause potential lashing out from segments of their fan base. They should all possess a basic understanding of what not to say or do.

It’s simple Corporate Representation 101.

Say whatever you want on your own time and your own dime. Campaign for a conservative party, protest to save the whales, or donate your time to fight for the rights of a traditional family. However, on the company’s dime, you should be diplomatic. It is entirely possible to disagree with something regarding the show and/or fan base’s desires for the show and still manage to discuss your job without coming across as insensitive and destructive.

I’ve seen this insensitivity and destruction happen time and again with actors, showrunners, and the like who truly hate a particular fan favorite pairing or they don’t like something the fan base has been very vocal they’d like to see happen, and the actors/showrunners/etc.’s reactions are very disappointing.

Their job is to support their show/film and to keep that show/film from incurring a bad reputation. Their job isn’t to lash out and act foolishly because they’re tired of the fan base.

If they don’t like their fans, they need to consider retirement. If they don’t like their character, then they can do what the rest of us who don’t like our jobs do. They can suck it up and wait until they can move on to a different project. It’s not difficult to sidestep undesirable questions during press junkets and conventions. All it takes is a little well practice pivoting to move the interview or conversation along to something else to keep things moving, and it’s equally not that difficult to refrain from saying things that will inevitably hurt a show/film’s reputation and/or credibility.

Conversely, it’s equally imperative that fans understand who has control of what.

Even if an actor, showrunner, or show writer supports a specific thing, it doesn’t mean they can do anything about that thing. Their influence is limited. Even showrunners have a box they must work within that is created by networks, sponsors, and production houses.

Most importantly, actors have no say at all. They have a script they are contractually obligated to film. That’s all. If they support a specific pairing or thing for the project they’re currently working on knowing that pairing or thing isn’t going to happen, then they have to go along with whatever is in the script anyway. There’s no choice there, just like you have to do what the boss says when he calls a last minute meeting ten minutes before work ends.

You do what you have to do to make your paycheck.

Therefore, lashing out at actors when something doesn’t happen on your show is not only foolish but destructive. A fandom’s biggest advocates are always the actors, but, if a fandom has a small group of very vocal people who consistently belittle, demean, and threaten those actors, it should come as no surprise that the actors will eventually become bitter and jaded about whatever section of the fandom those destructive fans are coming from.

It’s human nature to both generalize and to start to hate groups you perceive as abusive. That’s factual. Is it fair? No. Does it happen? All the time.

Actors are people doing a job. They don’t control how the network advertises their show. They don’t have any say in the narrative created by the PR teams. They rarely have a say in how their character is written unless they are lucky enough to have showrunners/writers who are willing to entertain the actors’ thoughts, but, in the end, actors are puppets to the script put together by writers/showrunners who, themselves, are writing said scripts based upon direction given by networks and production studios.

If fans want to change the narrative they see on the screen, then we must start with the networks and put our focus on where the money is. Namely, the sponsors.

You want change? Hurt their bottom line, and change will come. You want representation? Stop feeding money to shows and franchises that don’t give it to you, and, yes, that may mean putting actors you love out of work. Consider that they have a chance to find work in a project that has the representation you’re looking for.

Networks are there for a profit. They go where the money is, which is why they queerbait both in show advertisements and in the shows themselves. Queerbaiting is profitable. It has an immediate short-term effect of getting the curious to watch the show to see what is actually happening. They anticipate it will cause audiences to keep watching either because they can string the hopeful along or because the others watched to see what was happening and stayed because they liked the show.

Queerbaiting is never really about getting LGBTQ+ market share. It’s about getting the controversy coverage for free adverting so they can pull in the core demographic they really want.

In the long-term, it makes for effective marketing, and, once the LGBTQ+ community gets fed up and leaves, there’s very little impact on the show’s overall profits. When you use a marginalized group of people for the sake of sensationalizing a project to get ratings and those marginalized people leave but the others remain, the effect on the show is marginal.

When a minority leaves a show’s viewing audience, their voice leaving the crowd of support is a lot like a mosquito bite on an elephant’s behind. It’s noticeable, a little inconvenient in the moment, but quickly forgettable.

However, the point is that no one should forget the minorities. In fact, it is the majority’s moral obligation to remember the minority, who cannot always create a big enough voice on their own to be heard.

That’s why it is so very important that actors who are in shows/films that have fans who are asking them to help support their call for representation in those shows/films/franchises need to keep in the back of their mind the fact that, much too often in media, the minorities have been used as the butt of jokes, to show examples of how not to be, to be used as pawns, to be examples of undesirables, and, overall, to simply be the negative ‘other.’

People in marginalized groups develop sensitivity to being continuously labeled as ‘undesirable’ by a media that consistently represents the majority and actors who forget that ‘just a joke’ is sometimes the last straw when you’re always the butt end of ‘just a joke.’

Being invalidated by people you admire who live in the public eye can be soul crushing, and invalidation comes in a myriad of ways. Often, that invalidation comes in the form of an actor who has had enough of being berated on social media by a small but vocal group of abrasive and abuse fans who are belittling the actor over something the actor has no control over or interest in.

The actor is lashing out their frustrations, or the showrunner/writer is locking down on something they are creating and are done with demands being put upon them to change the direction of their artistic vision.

The problem with that is that, once something is out there, it’s open to people’s interpretation of that piece of art. That’s the beauty of creating something designed to be consumed by the public; people add their own personal life filters to the work and make it their own.

However, that means that the creators of that work have to accept the only narrative they can control is their own, and fans have to accept that their input, though appreciated, doesn’t have to be followed. Again, if the fans don’t like what they see, then it’s time to take a stand and move on to projects they do like, even if that means leaving beloved characters and actors behind.

Fans, actors, writers, showrunners, and producers are in the most emotionally abusive five-way relationship ever. Everyone wants something from everyone else, everyone thinks they know how to get what they want, and everyone is trying to manipulate the narrative and the situation to get what they want at the expense of leaving the others behind in the dust.

If we really want to make this better, we have to be better. Fans have to STOP making threats and harassing people. The media has to learn where the fine line actually is between acceptable and not. Fans have to put their money and interest into projects that support what they want to see, and fans have to be able to live with missing out on aspects of media they love because that media isn’t supporting the fans as the fans would like. Media has to learn when it’s time to grow, and fans have to learn who to focus their ire at.

It’s a two-way street, and, right now, we’re all playing a big game of chicken waiting to see who is going to turn away first. Will fans throw it in and accept what’s being fed to them, or will networks learn to change their programming lineups?

I’m not sure, honestly, which direction it will all go, but I do know this is a cycle that keeps repeating, and, to make it stop, we have to start with some basic education. I feel part of that basic education is teaching actors what not to say/do during press junkets and conventions and to teach them how to steer conversations gracefully away from topics that could end poorly for their shows/films and leave their fans hurt and upset.

The first step is to admit we have a problem and offer a starting solution. I’m doing both, but I wonder if anyone will follow suit?

#supergirl #fandom #rant