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novelmonger · 4 months

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So I'm a pretty big LotR fan. And I'm a pretty big fan of the movies. No, they're not perfect, but they're a really good adaptation and a truly masterful work of cinematic art. I've grown pretty familiar with the movies over the past 23 years (@_@) - and not just the movies themselves, but I also love learning all about how they were made. I've watched all the way through all the bonus material in the Extended Editions at least five times (and some of the more fun bits way more times than that XD). I've even watched all three movies with the cast commentary.

But you know what I've never done, not even at the height of my obsession when I had way more free time than I do now? I've never watched the movies with the other commentaries. It looks like there are three more commentaries, with different groups of various people on the crew, and for some reason I never got around to listening through them. I can't for the life of me think why - maybe I thought I already knew everything they'd talk about? maybe I somehow thought it would be boring??? - but today that changes!

I'm going to just jot down the main things that stick out to me that I didn't know before. I've gleaned a lot of BTS information and stories about these movies from various sources, so I'm not sure how long this will be, but I'm sure there will be some new things that jump out at me.

From the FotR writer/director commentary with Peter Jackson, Philippa Boyens, and Fran Walsh:

There was a draft of the script where they didn't have a prologue, and all the information about Sauron and the Ring and Gollum and everything was going to be in that conversation between Frodo and Gandalf @_@ Can you imagine? I mean, yeah, it would be more like the book, but At What Cost? (At the cost of several memes and short attention spans, that's what.)

Peter Jackson says he doesn't like magic or wizards in movies. Um...sir? Why the heck are you making fantasy movies then???

The location where they shot the Ford of Bruinen was a real ford that was used during the gold rush in New Zealand! Because New Zealand had a gold rush around the same time as the one in the U.S.!

Hugo Weaving actually did the voice of Isildur when he claims the Ring and says, "No." I have...questions.

Peter Jackson says the journey through Moria is the best sequence in the book, and Fran and Philippa say it's the best-written chapter. Interesting! I don't know what I would point to as the best-written chapter of FotR; I don't think I've ever thought of that (though I might say some of the best descriptions in this book are in Rivendell).

They said they might redo the Gollum scene in Moria to make him look more like he does in TTT. Uhhh...it's been 23 years, guys, where's my remaster? XD

The Frodo-Gandalf conversation in Moria (the "all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us" conversation) was done with forced perspective??? I never realized that! I thought they just had Elijah sit a little lower than Ian so their eyelines would be right! They totally look like they're looking into each other's eyes, but they're not! :O

"Often in movies, that's a rare thing, to have shots in which nothing is real." - Oh, PJ, if you only knew what the state of things would be in two decades....

The scene of the Fellowship mourning Gandalf outside Moria was filmed before Ian McKellan had even arrived in New Zealand! :O So they were all mourning and reacting to the death of someone they probably weren't even sure what he looked like yet!

Sean Bean was apparently the only one of the primary actors who had any experience with a sword? Or at least he had the most experience. Viggo had to do the Weathertop fight scene on his first day, when he'd never touched a sword before @_@

In Boromir's death scene, the words sung by the chorus in the background is an Elvish translation of Faramir's line "I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend." ;A;

At one point, they were going to have Frodo fighting off an Uruk-Hai before he goes into the boat??? They even shot some of the footage?! Thankfully, they realized that was completely the wrong way to go about his end to this movie; it needed to be an emotional climax, not an action scene, and Frodo's victory is over his own doubts and the Ring's influence on him, when he grasps the Ring and marches forward to continue on his Quest, alone if need be. Thank goodness they realized that before it was too late.

SEAN ASTIN WAS NOT UNDERWATER IN THE SHOT OF HIM DROWNING WHAAAAAT MIND BLOWN

The shot of Boromir's boat going over the edge of the waterfall was actually footage of a barrel going over the Niagara Falls, and they just used CG to replace the barrel with the boat O.O

Fran Walsh: So Viggo's just put on Boromir's gauntlets... Me, a nerd: Vambraces, actually.

#lord of the rings #lotr #peter jackson #philippa boyens #fran walsh #these might be a little slow coming in because i don't want to binge the movies three times in a row #but i WILL be going through all the commentaries besides the cast commentary which i've already heard

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salt-volk · 2 years

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hopefully this can get through since its a different take & not just more complaining about the same, though i get it if its deleted bc we wanna get off this topic but: i thought the shitpost asks werent just lolz random humour? i read them as adjacent to satire, mocking that on a blog like this anyone can say anything with no proof.

the whole wave of anji shitposts first started after someone non ironically sent an ask about going to uni with anji which folks were questioning/asking for evidence bc anons can say anything & dont have to back it up. maybe some others eventually turned it into a "lolz random" thing with the asks about eating underwear or w/e, but i thought the initial group of anji shitposts were more intended to be humorous not from being "random", but from poking fun at how you can lie about anything online, like “yea i went to class with anji too”, inventing increasingly outrageous scenarios that can be presented as fact though theyre obv not.

not all were funny ofc, but i did at least get where they came from as a "mocking the idea that anything submitted to a salt blog w/o proof should ever be taken seriously" perspective, or typical "people will lie about anything on the internet" jokes akin to classic fake tumblr posts like the down with cis bus or oppa homeless style.

then those few that referenced npcs as if they were real people, i saw as just creatively expanding on the premise like what if instead of the blog just covering drama between users of dv it included interpersonal drama of npcs as well as if it were a gossip tabloid reporting from inworld dv, doing the same ironic outrageous scenarios but with characters instead, which is more of a genuine premise to me than just mindless lolz random.

really i think we all interpret humour differently & its valid to find it all a tad silly, but i also disagree that all of it was just try hard mid2000s xD humour. they would seem that way w/o context, but given the background like when asks were first sent, what they were in response to, i guess i interpreted them differently as a mocking commentary of online culture & how easy it is to speculate about anything when everyones anonymous (aside from the few that were just folks jumping on bandwagon with weird pee & stuff ofc).

context is also easily lost online as things arent presented neatly back to back always so it makes sense that if some folks are viewing the jokes w/o the background, it would indeed seem quite random to them, or theyd come in feeling like they dont "get it". even beyond folks having different senses of humour, its also a matter of original intent being unclear bc of context loss, plus others coming in on the joke when they didnt fully get the premise either.

or thats at least my analysis of how the anji shitpost asks became a mild topic of debate, when weve had many shitposts previously that didnt cause such a stir & what the original intentions or interpretations might have been.

theres also maybe something to be said about culture here & how folk view the aim of the blog differently. some see it as a serious space to air grievances, vent, commiserate, a “salt only” area they come to to engage in a specific type of emotion, while others may see it as lighthearted popcorn entertainment drama discussion zone with space to go off topic & fool about so long as it relates to dv. the camp you fall in on that may also affect how you see jokes in the space. but anyhow, thats too much extra to get into haha.

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teecupangel · 1 year

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Anon from last night:

Nah, I was not the anon who asked about a kink with Basim*.

I would send in a fic prompt about top!Desmond and bottom!Ezio but I have no actual ideas atm, it’s just a concept in my brain, but if I think of something I’ll send it.

If I could send a gif to convey how I felt about your smutty!headcanons it would be a gif of the end of the Actual Cannibal Shia Labeouf Music video, when Shia give the one person standing ovation. *chefs kiss*. (I forgot to mention that altdes is also my ac otp last night). Everything that you put down I picked it up and was like ‘yes yes good’ and put it in my pocket like a shiny rock.

*ok, so like, to be honest (and adhd over shared mood activated), I haven’t played very many ac games. I’ve only completed ac1, and I played half of ac4 and then watched my brother beat it. I have watched other people play bits and pieces of other games, but I honestly know nothing about the newer games. That being said, I did in fact read your Desmond #destroys Basim fic and it was very very good, #goodsoup (why am I in an old memes mood today oof). I really liked how you did the whole Desmond (clone? Half?) and his Ancestors thing that was really good, and kinky and nice.

Mmm, one more thing before I go! Thanks for letting me know about the whole won’t post an ask if you ask thing, it’s really good to know! (I don’t….. need that for this ask, unless you just don’t feel like answering it🤣🤣🤣🤣).

Take your time with your prompt, nonny :)

Hahahaha, I'm glad you enjoy my headcanons. I had fun writing them.

Yeah, I can understand why some people don't play all the AC games. Honestly, AC wiki is a good site for summary (and TVTropes too).

Since we're sharing our AC games experience (long rant ahead), the first time I played Assassin's Creed was at my best friend's place and she just gave me the controller and told me to whack people with a broom as Ezio while... I think we were waiting for her printer to finish printing our report or something? I don't remember anymore, all I remember was my main idea of Assassin's Creed before was that I can whack guards with a broom that sounds like a freaking hammer. We were in college then and I was a pure 'JRPG' purist back then so I was really confused by what this game was supposed to be. I know it was related to Prince of Persia in some way and the only reason why I know about Prince of Persia back then was because I watched my brother play all the games on the PS2. How times have changed, hahaha. Anyway, it would be a couple of years before I even actually play AC1 and AC2, then half of AC Brotherhood before dropping it, only coming back like maybe 3 years ago to play the entirety of Syndicate and its DLCs because my childhood friend suggested I would love the Victorian-era setting (I did) and I've been buying AC games either 2nd hand or when it goes super cheap in PSN as they've been part of my backlog since my best friend was a huge fan (she stopped playing after AC3 though XD) so I have all of them just gathering (digital) dust. The truth is, I finished AC Brotherhood to Valhalla only like... last year. From September last year to January this year, in fact. While it's never too late to play the other games, I'm not going to tell you to play them if you don't have the time or if there are any games that you want to play more. I do believe that if you can't play a game, watching let's play (with or without commentary) is an okay alternative and sometimes you can let it play while maybe grinding on the game you're currently playing. (just, FYI, all of the AC games except AC1 are available for free if you are subscribed to PS+... I think the 2nd tier at least? Ezio's Trilogy to Valhalla is free in PS+ as far as I know.)

Anyway, back to the Basim fic. Thank you! I really enjoyed writing about Desmond (considering the narration calls the ancestors 'shades', I think it's okay to call him Desmond's shade as well) and his questionable relationship with the other shades.

No problem! And I like answering asks so, yeah, I'm posting this hahahaha

#ask and answer #my best friend actually told me that i gave her ac revelations as a present #and i don't remember doing that at all #but it sounds like me to buy games as presents so it probably happened #i do remember staying in the line with her to get her preorder of watch_dog #and hearing her rant about it for a few days #good times #i don't know if anyone wants to hear about how altaïr became my blorbo when i played his games years ago so i cut that one out #if anyone wants to hear it ask me i guess?

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birdgirlamp · 2 years

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Guillermo Deep Dive

Alright, I’ve gotten back into WWDITS fandom in the wake of binging the rest of Season 4 this week, and I’ve been in adjacent fandom orbits like Good Omens and OFMD for practically as long as the shows have been out. While I haven’t been seeking out a ton of fan content directly from WWDITS, I’ve seen plenty tangentially. Often, posts that mention our beloved Silly Vampires in passing make comments like, “Oh, I can’t wait for Nandermo to become canon” or, “I know things are bad between Nandor and Guilermo right now, but I fully anticipate them becoming a couple eventually”. I know that they’re some of the main leads of the show and people are hungry for more queer content, but I’m rather surprised about how universal and positive people are about this ship, and the extent to which people believe that their relationship is a foregone conclusion. Soo, I’m just gonna give my two cents in the form of an essay of a meta post. Whoops, my hand slipped. xD Full disclosure, as I’m writing this the last episode of the season hasn’t dropped yet, so this speculation may be rendered completely irrelevant depending on how the finale plays out next week. However, I hope that it still fuels fandom discussion about critically examining the show, especially through the lens of Guillermo’s character and how he impacts the show as a whole.

The two elements that I think would fundamentally make their relationship challenging to execute in a satisfying way are the goals of the show and Guillermo’s pseudo-character arc.

I’ll address the former first. As much as fandom, including myself of course, likes to celebrate the similarities between this show and other queer content like OFMD, Good Omens, etc., I think within that it is important to differentiate the focus of WDDITS from those shows for the purposes of this discussion. While OFMD and Good Omens are both tonally comedies, the plot revolved principally around their A couples and their themes. Both shows, with OFMD to a more obvious extent, were willing to sacrifice their usual levity for the sake of furthering themes or character arcs. The humor was a facet of the show, not it’s main purpose.

WWDITS is different. WDDITIS isn’t just tonally a comedy, being irreverent and absurdist is it’s entire goal. While characters may superficially change, their growth isn’t the purpose of the show, it’s mostly an element designed to keep the premise of each season fresh and to spawn new conflict for characters to bounce off of. The characters are exaggerated and selfish in service of the comedy. Continuity and logic are optional easter eggs.

Pointing this out is not meant to de-legitimize WWDITIS or suggest that it is vapid or meaningless. Tons of “pure comedy” shows can absolutely have value. Some people prefer a more relaxed, less serial show that’s fun to watch rather as opposed to all shows feeling like they need to have Shakespearean levels of tragedy and drama in order to have meaning. Additionally, a less plot focused show can perform more ridiculous stunts and satire and have more creative freedom. For example, the last season of The Amazing World of Gumball really found its niche in this ridiculous, over the top genre of comedy, but had some surprisingly biting sarcasm and political commentary under the guise of zany humor.

So, to bring it back around to Guillermo, what does Guillermo need to be to maintain this tone? At the end of the day, Guillermo is absolutely the linchpin of the show, both in universe and on a meta level. He’s the straight man, and the most intelligent member of the group. He keeps the ragtag band of vampires together, mediating their disputes and solving their problems. He protects them from both internal and external threats, and puts up with their absurd demands and mistreatment as the show’s punching bag. It is to the show’s advantage to maintain the status quo and Guillermo’s unique position as someone invested, but often a step removed from, the conflict. It’s funny and an essential component of the show for Guillermo to parent the vampires, constantly giving them advice to be ignored and feelings to thoughtlessly trample for the sake of a joke.

However, is that what’s right for his relationship to Nandor? Right now, for all that Nandor has made tentative, ham-fisted attempts to befriend Guillermo, there’s a huge power imbalance in their relationship. So long as Guillermo is his familiar, no matter how much progress they make or how much they bond, he won’t be Nandor’s equal, he’ll still be his servant, even if he’s treated better. That transcends comedic and becomes uncomfortable. If they’re meant to become a couple in any reciprocal way, Guillermo needs to become a vampire, and thus symbolically a full member of the household. While I personally may not be a huge Nandermo shipper, if this was the start of personal growth for them, I would accept this outcome as one of the few that could be the backbone for a healthy(ish) relationship between them.

However, taking this route would fundamentally undermine Guillermo’s pre-established role, and thus it would be difficult to retain the dynamic that makes him so crucial to the comedic elements of the show. Guillermo becoming a vampire would essentially give Guillermo the agency he is currently denied. Right now, he can suggest smart, efficient uses of the vampires’ powers as solutions to their problems, and then subsequently be ignored as a catalyst for further shenanigans. If he were a vampire, he would have the ability to follow through with his own ideas without having to persuade or seek the approval of his supernatural housemates. He would also be able to stand up for himself and pursue his own interests, rather than repeatedly having to answer to the whims or be the victim of the other vampires’ drama of the day. While this creates conflict, it’s a different kind of conflict that the other vampires can already have with each other, and thus Guillermo’s niche as someone the vampires can boss around and mistreat without consequence also vanishes, along with its liberal comedic functions. It also makes him a much less sympathetic figure for the audience, as his underdog and bullied status endears us to an otherwise flawed character. He helps guide and orient the audience by having somewhat relatable and (sometimes) altruistic goals to protect his found family in contrast to the vampires’ non stop egotism. As soon as Guillermo is just one of the vampires, his goal accomplished and no longer pushed around, it makes him less approachable for the audience’s sympathy.

This has been a lot of discussion about what would be best for the comedy, and what would be best for Nandor, but what would be best for Guillermo himself and his aforementioned germ of a character arc? Guillermo thinks he wants to be a vampire, but would that actually solve his problems or be the proper culmination of his character arc thus far? Each season we have a different “flavor” of Guillermo character arc. Season one he’s a door mat, slowly coming to terms with how little the vampires actually respect him. Season two he wears himself ragged grappling with his vampire hunting legacy and trying to protect the vampires without being found out. Season three is him regaining their trust, wrangling with his crush on Nandor, and then having their falling out. Season four Guillermo is more jaded and resigned to his role, but also stands up for himself more, and desperately tries to balance his familiar duties with a personal life. Again and again, Guillermo tries to balance his co-dependent relationship with these vampires and his desperation for their approval and companionship with his own needs, and crucially continues to fail. He runs himself ragged covering up for the vampires and fixing their self destructive tendencies, while only Nandor seems to slowly warm up to him and treat him with any semblance of decency. But even Nandor is often blinded by his own needs and is thoughtlessly cruel to Guillermo, most recently and obviously regarding Freddie. And Guillermo’s not a blameless little angel either. He obviously directly and indirectly kills and injures people on behalf of the vampires regularly, scandalized looks at the camera notwithstanding, and is embezzling from the night club. His relationship with the vampires is mutually unhealthy and toxic, and has been amply demonstrated in every season.

This why I propose, radically, that the conclusion of Guillermo’s character arc that makes the most sense logically is for him to leave. As much as we love these self-centered vampires, for Guillermo they’re a supernatural cult that preyed on his loneliness and desire for community and broke him down so that he feels like his own self worth is tied to successfully saving them from themselves. He considers the vampires family, but that sentiment is rarely if ever reciprocated. They see him as an occasional walking solution to their problems, but usually an unwelcome irritant. Even if Nandor is trying to improve, it’s against his nature to be kind, and as Guillermo’s closest confidant within the house he frequently looks down on and manipulates Guillermo in order to fix his problems. Guillermo has spent this entire season desperately trying to live with one foot in both worlds. He can recognize the vampires are bad for him, but he can’t bring himself to cut ties so he tries to squeeze in his personal life in around the edges of his duties. Each failure further isolates Guillermo and dilutes his confidence, thus making him even more bitter towards, but contradictorily more dependent on, the vampires. Guillermo has always been in conflict with himself and hiding secrets from others. His Van Helsing lineage, his sexuality, his affiliation with the vampires and all their subsequent secrets, and this pressure and secrecy stems from Guillermo’s insecurity and feeling like an outcast. He uses the vampires as a crutch because they need him as much as he needs them, so he can fall back on them when he feels like he can’t maintain a functional life of his own. Choosing to become a vampire would essentially be giving up on any semblance of a normal life, and all of his close personal relationships with mortal humans.

Now obviously, both Guilermo becoming a vampire and him leaving would be detrimental to the tone of the show, and I doubt the writers will do either. I don’t necessarily believe that’s a bad thing, as not every show needs to be Bojack Horseman and redeem their characters or call out their toxic patterns. Guilermo can retain his current dynamic, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But, the point I wanted to underline is, I don’t think that he can also have any kind of positive romantic relationship with Nandor within that context.

#nandermo #what we do in the shadows #wwdits #guilermo #guilermo centric post #nandor #meta post

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totaldramafan-lauri · 2 years

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Charging to a new era

The year was 2016. The first Splatoon was nearing the end of its life, with its sequel announced for that summer. And for the longest time, I wasn’t interested. I mean, why would I be? Not only was it a new series, so I had no attachment to the world or any characters, but it was also a shooter, a genre of game that I’d never played. I liked how colorful it was, but other than that, I just brushed it off as a thing that existed. When Chuggaaconroy, a Let’s Player I’d been following for years, started an LP of it, I was quite obviously disinterested....but that had happened before. Even when playing a game I was indifferent to (like Phantom Hourglass), I’d still watch his videos for his commentary. I’d watched every LP of his all the way through at least once cuz of that. And so, I decided to watch his Splatoon videos, even if they confused me.

After the first few videos, I was pretty impressed! I loved the detailed bios on every weapon, giving me a good idea of how they’d play, and his matches were exciting. I loved seeing all the different playstyles, and was getting immersed in the game a bit more with every video. However, it started out as yet another game that I was happy watching alone and not playing. I had zero confidence in myself to play an online shooter, but watching Chugga play was fun! I still imagined what it would be like if I played - I immediately picked out the charger as my favorite, due to its bio making it look so ridiculously satisfying to play.....YES, I’m serious! I’m one of those rare people who was immediately drawn to one of the hardest weapons in the game that even Chugga himself didn’t like using - right down to the kit I would main. What can I say? I’d always liked keep-away playstyles, which in a shooter setting, is called being a sniper. XD But I treated it as more of a “what if” for a while....like....”What if I was actually brave enough to play this? Would I be good? Would I suck?” I even thought up an Inkling OC....but imagining myself playing wasn’t the same as wanting to actually play.

About a month later....I was REALLY hooked on the LP at this point, but I was still apprehensive about getting the game (part of which being that this was the same time Pokemon Sun and Moon came out, which I was playing and loving at the time). I had started to lurk around the Splatoon fandom (Cafe Cardamari Tales mainly, after Chugga promoted it). Seeing fans happily talk about the game, combined with Chugga’s LP going on short hiatuses now and then due to how long the videos took to edit, made me start craving more content.

While rewatching some videos, there was this series that would constantly be recommended to me, called “Why Splatoon has no voice chat”. This was a series of compilation videos, one for each Splatfest, made by a guy called WhiteHawke, an E-liter main. This series can still be found, but before anyone looks it up, I will warn you that it’s not gonna be everyone’s thing. Even tho he’s just acting, in the first few videos, he makes a lot of comments that could be considered rude or “cringy”, cuz the series was first started as a parody of what the game would be like with voice chat. But after the first few, it evolves from that into just a highlight compilation of each fest. B-but the thing is....even though the jokes were hit and miss (like his weapon, pffff)....I got HOOKED on this series cuz of his gameplay. The clips of him sniping were SOOOOO cool to me, and made chargers look so FUN to play! They already looked fun in Chugga’s LP, but Hawke, someone who LIKED sniping, being so awesome, absolutely SOLD me on it. Even though he’s only a casual player and not top-level or anything, he’s still pretty dang good, and I had no point of comparison at the time, so he was just so awesome to me...I binged through all his videos.....It was at the point where I was watching him sniping people jumping off Moray Towers in midair while laughing maniacally and happily singing a parody of “My Favorite Things” that I finally.....gave in. I ran to Tumblr, and made these posts.

It was December. Luckily only a couple weeks away from my birthday in early January. I was fortunate - it was the PERFECT time to want a new game.

LOOK at how hooked I’d become, after weeks of watching! I was going crazy!

Lo and behold, on my birthday, I got the game. VERY late to the bandwagon, I know, but....with the sequel on the way, having some time with the first game beforehand was a good place to start, right? Especially since I didn’t have a Switch at the time....For all I knew, I could’ve ended up not liking it, which would’ve saved me from buying a whole new console for it, pffff....Thankfully, that didn’t happen....

The game was super fun (once I got used to the controls)! I unlocked the charger as soon as I could, and.....Hoo boy....I still remember my very first game ever using a charger.....It was at Ancho-V Games....I got five splats. On other low-leveled players, mind you, but with my inexperience? I felt useful...I felt POWERFUL.

And I never looked back.

I was in love with this game, and this weapon.

I had seven months with the first game, and I got ALL the enjoyment out of it that I could. I played it for hours at a time daily (as long as I had Wii U access), documenting my experiences though Miiverse. I tried multiple weapons (which is how I got on the Carbon Roller and Sploosh-O-Matic - my fondness for those two have been a thing since the first game too), but I realized very quickly that you couldn’t keep me away from a charger for long. As soon as I unlocked the Bento Splatterscope, nothing topped that (for those unaware, the Bento kit is basically the Firefin of the first game, having Splash Walls)

I knew that I would like sniping, but I was NOT aware of just how much....But once I started, it was like I discovered a part of myself that’s always been there....Like, the feeling of “man, this is something I should’ve tried AGES ago”, y’know? I gelled with it so well, that it really did feel like that....That incredible feeling of realizing that....holy crap, this is something I can DO. This is something I wanna KEEP doing. It’s not easy, but it’s SO FUN that I just wanna keep improving! A-and when I felt myself getting better, it was SO satisfying!! Learning to work with motion controls to play something THIS precise? Being able to scare and pressure people just by existing nearby? Picking people off from a bird’s eye view? It was an addiction-

(This, however, led to me getting super attached to Moray Towers (sorry Chugga) as a result, but eh, I’m fair from the only one! It was popular enough to be in 2 at launch AND Smash! L-leave me alone! >.>;)

(As a sidenote, I also got addicted to doodling on Miiverse, doing that daily as well, which is why the Switch’s lack of a stylus hurt so much...You can see my best doodles from those in my “i arted” tag)

So....yeah! I adored the game to death! I even made it a goal of mine to reach the level cap of 50 before the sequel came out. But...I-I wasn’t aware then of just how much longer it took to level up the higher your level got, so I never got there.....I was level 46 when I stopped playing, which....for seven months, showed just how in love with the game I was.

That summer, I got a Switch just to play the sequel by the time it came out, and by then, Splatoon as a franchise had my undying loyalty.

ALL of this.....stemming from my love of chargers. If chargers weren’t in the game, I probably wouldn’t have gotten it. Not only are they fun to play, but they mean a lot to me cuz of that fact, too.

I don’t need to go into detail about my experience with said sequel. I’ve said enough. My entire Spla2n journey, from launch all the way to the final Splatfest in early 2021, is well documented on this blog (under my “lauri plays splatoon 2″ tag). I’ve seen this game grow every step of the way. It repeatedly topped itself with how varied and awesome it’s content is, adding so many new weapons, soooo many fests, sooooo many QOL improvements, and one of the most addictive side-modes in gaming history (even if it involves flying missile demon fish). It’s SO much better than the first game that I already loved. I’ve created so many memories with it, whether alone or with friends. Splatoon 2 is a game that pretty much owned my life, and even when my interests led me away from it during its last year, I never stopped loving it. (Ending with, fittingly enough, Chugga’s LP)

When Splatoon 3 was announced, I was at first nervous. I mean, how can you improve on near perfection? I worried that maybe the only way they could go was.....sideways, changing things maybe too drastically? Or maybe I just worried that it would be an....irrelevant sequel, on the same console and everything? But I shouldn’t have worried. I know now what Splatoon 3 is - it’s a game that adds things I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW I NEEDED. Spla2n was not perfect after all, cuz it didn’t have THIS and THAT. Things to DO while waiting in a lobby and Salmon Run being available 24/7 being the biggest things. But also, Splatfests are a lot more interesting now, we have customizable title cards, AND they topped themselves by giving us flipping Shiver (my favorite character design in the series outside of player characters)? Yeah, the Splatfest demo SOOOOLD me.

Hmmmm....I wonder what else this potentially-even-better threequel has in store? How good will the story mode be? What’s been buffed or nerfed? What will future updates bring? Will Moray Towers return? M-maybe....? *trying to be hopeful*

Well....

We’ll see.....

Time for another fresh start. Yeah, I’m not leaving any time soon....I’m ready to explore all new places, learn new things, and scout for the best perches along the way.

Chugga, Hawke, you’ve created a monster~

#lauri talks to herself #im feeling emotional....sorry for the length XD #im so happy....#it came early too! they said it wouldnt be here till tuesday! o.o

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shadlad24 · 3 years

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Tumblr Master Post

(Third Mensiversary)

Hey, guys! So, instead of the usual monthly post, I decided to consolidate everything. From now on, I will update the following list and reblog it every 22nd. Enjoy!

Please note that Tumblr either cannot or will not preserve my formatting. So, I have used Google Docs as well. Please click on this link if you’d prefer that. It’s open to all. Thanks!

My posts are almost XWP-related and can be categorized into eight main categories (The pic below is merely for record-keeping and visualization purposes; scroll down for the actual links):

Questions

Curious— Why does everyone think Gabrielle/Renée O’Connor has green eyes?

A Favor to the God of War?— What in the world was the favor Ares wanted from Gabrielle during “Sacrifice”?

Smoking Gun?— Why did Hope knowing Solan’s name give her away as his killer?

Good Luck, Kid!— Why was security so bad in “Maternal Instincts”?

The Love of Your Love— Wasn’t the second verse of this song frustrating and hurtful to Gabrielle?

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares— Why does so little about Ares’s character make sense?

Hard Ask— Can I PLEASE get a willing, able, AND reliable beta-reader for my Xena fanfic???

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares [Reblog]— Three more questions about the god of war

No Way— Is the titular image of “Xena: Warrior Princess” what it seems?

Episode Reflections

Random Thoughts While Watching XWP— funny moments from “A Family Affair,” “Them Bones, Them Bones,” “Married with Fishsticks,” and “Coming Home”

Observations from “Sins of the Past”— fifteen things I noticed while watching the episode for the second time (first after completing the series)

Running Commentary on “A Family Affair”— just what it sounds like XD

Concluding Thoughts on “A Family Affair”— a defense of Hope and Gabrielle

Echoes Across the Years— how Solan’s last conversation with his mother echoed Gabrielle’s first with the warrior princess

Redeeming “Fishsticks,” Part 1— how the adults and themes in Gabrielle’s dreamworld held great significance

Redeeming “Fishsticks,” Part 2— how Crustacea’s monstrous children were re-imaginations of Hope and The Destroyer

Fault— my thoughts on the series finale

Good Luck, Kid! [Reblog]— a fun little extension of the original post showing the impression Gabrielle made on Hope

Original Fanfic Excerpts

The Mother of Hope, a collection of one-shots exploring Gabrielle’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences with/about her daughter

Disparity— Hope’s and Gabrielle’s conversation during the final commercial break of “A Family Affair”

Somewhere— Gabrielle searching Tartarus for Hope while Ares was harassing Xena and Solan in “God Fearing Child”

Super Challenge— the entire Rift Arc summed up in a single conversation, the lines of dialogue coming from each of the twelve Rift episodes of season three

Aperture— Gabrielle’s thoughts the night of her wedding

The Daughter of Duality, Hope’s life story from her perspective

My Great Hope— Seraphin prepares her goddess for childbirth

Hope Rising— Baby Hope makes a terrible mistake

“Tears of a Goddess: Blood Rain,” a one-shot exploring “Motherhood” from the goddess of love’s perspective

Useless— Aphrodite agonizes over what to do when alone with Gabrielle and Eve

Tears of a Goddess, a story in which Aphrodite comes clean about the large part she played in Gabrielle’s life behind the scenes

Gabrielle Rages against Xena— the bard finds herself at Aphrodite’s temple, heartbroken and lost after the series finale

Aphrodite Ribs Gabrielle— Aphrodite complains about Gabrielle’s mishaps throughout the show

Rapprochement, a story about Xena and Gabrielle hashing out The Rift Arc before finally coming together as a couple

The Answer— Xena reminds Gabrielle of who she is

Divine Intervention— Aphrodite blesses Xena and Gabrielle’s union

Adventures in Moving Forward, a chronicle of Aphrodite’s and Gabrielle’s adventures together post-AFIN and all my other XWP stories

Stranger— Aphrodite protects Gabrielle from a mob in Brittania

The Betrayer, Gabrielle's untold experience during “The Deliverer.”

Disturbance— Xena makes an unexpected suggestion on how to stop Gabrielle’s recurring nightmare

Deception— Khrafstar fills multiple voids in Gabrielle’s heart

Defilement— Reality slips away from Gabrielle with the loss of her blood innocence

Desecration— Gabrielle becomes one with darkness

Dissolution— The return of Gabrielle’s hero brings about only more tragedy

Fan Theories

Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes— how Xena and Gabrielle got their children through equal and opposite people and circumstances

Shazam!— how Xena might be able to come back after the series finale

Man-Killer— what really happened to Toris

An Unsung Hero— Aphrodite being Gabrielle’s guardian angel throughout the Rift Arc

Infamous, Infuriated— why Xena engaged in the GabDrag (and BardBraining)

Solving Some Problems with Ares— answering two of my own questions about the god of war

Odd, Sort of Beautiful Symmetry— how we ended up with Annie and Harry

Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes [Reblog]— an extension of the original theory that focuses more on Solan and Hope themselves

Solving More Problems with Ares— answering my next questions about the god of war

Episode Cracksubs

The Comedy of Amphipolis— “The Haunting of Amphipolis”

What in the Gurkhan?— “Who’s Gurkhan?”

Them Bones and Boneheads— “Them Bones, Them Bones”

TL;DRs— cliff-notes version of longer posts

TL;DR #1: Soul Orbits and Psychic Echoes

TL;DR #2: Infamous, Infuriated

TL;DR #3: The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares

Funny Little Moments— (Five:) a series highlighting overlooked silly things from each episode, illustrated in pictures and cracksubs / (More:) summation posts showcasing additional funny moments from each episode, in half-season chunks

Five Funny Little Moments #1: “Sins of the Past”

Five Funny Little Moments #2: Chariots of War

Five Funny Little Moments #3: Dreamworker

Five Funny Little Moments #4: Cradle of Hope

Five Funny Little Moments #5: The Path Not Taken

Five Funny Little Moments #6: The Reckoning

Five Funny Little Moments #7: The Titans

Five Funny Little Moments #8: Prometheus

Five Funny Little Moments #9: Death in Chains

Five Funny Little Moments #10: Hooves and Harlots

Five Funny Little Moments #11: The Black Wolf

Five Funny Little Moments #12: Beware Greeks Bearing Gifts

Miscellaneous

Golden Ticket— Renee O’Connor’s initial responses to me on Instagram

Bath Time— a fun self-challenge involving making a story from recently downloaded/screenshot images in just a few minutes

Mensiversary— review of my first month on Tumblr

Confirmation/Affirmation— Steven L. Sears’s essay of support for my Furies theory

K.O.— Renée O’Connor liking my comment about ^

Hooray!— The Mother of Hope is finished (kinda)

Aww…— a quick picture post to try something new while I was bummed about the deadly tech bug that obliterated my posts for weeks

Second Mensiversary— review of my second month on Tumblr

NOOO!— a lamentation related to The Mother of Hope

The (Many) Problem(s) with Ares [Reblog/Response]— answering a reader

More Funny Little Moments #1: Season 1, Episodes 1-12

*Other

Black Hole— a poem about depression

It’s Nothing— a poem on invalidation

What the?— the beginning of the bug :(

#xwp #xena warrior princess #xena #xena and gabrielle #gabrielle #link post #fan theory #fanfic #fanfiction #xena fanfiction #gabrielle fanfiction #cracksubs

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project-paranoia · 3 years

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Let’s Watch - My Roommate Is A Detective Episode One

There's this interesting thing about discovering cdramas where you watch shows from the last twenty years interchangeably and as a result I had no idea that My Roommate is a Detective came out in 2020 until I pulled it up on iQiyi. I usually watch on youtube for no other reason than it's easy, but the youtube version doesn't have the intro and I really love the intro.

In my experience, intros in cdramas either spoil the whole show, are a feels reel, or are artistic - in the West there are any number of title sequences that try to be artistic but miss the mark because they're so highbrow they don't really mean or do anything. These intros in cdramas however stay anchored with object, characters, and scenes that actually have an impact on the story - they just make them beautiful.

On another note, a lot can and has been said about whether or not BBC Sherlock's legacy in the West in constructive or destructive in the way that it inspired drama and mystery shows. In China however there are a number of mystery dramas which take very obvious stylish cues from BBC Sherlock, but don't fall victim to its foibles. My Roommate is a Detective is one of them, it embraces visual elements and framing, but with a much warmer palette and the titular character never looses his charm to fall into viciousness nor does he overstep anyone else's personhood - for all that he is childish.

These dramas are sleek and saturated with rich colours, every object feels polished and arranged by the art department, and the sets are gorgeous. The show feels beautiful and young, like the inside of an old fashioned adventure novel with all the hate trimmed out and tossed away. It's short, fun and a delight I'm excited to write about.

- The intro song is also - as the kids say - a banger. It's young and energetic and it's just a fun song

- I always get distracted at the beginning of these watchthroughs. I'm very easy to distract. Spoilers below!

- The way they handle the lighting and the characters alternates between making them part of the environment which makes them feel very big and doll like which makes them feel very small which given the themes of the show is very appropriate.

- I've watched almost all of these series before if you can't tell.

- The visual gag of what is ringing is a great way to show us the set and the characters personality, as well as a funny joke.

- (The blue robe and running music already has BBC Sherlock vibes if you want examples, this isn't a compare and contrast though, so this is the last mention of it.)

- The fact he's just running from the cops is great.

- So is that framing in the arches. Can I take take a moment to cry for this great shot?

- So is that little whistle XD

- One thing I really like about the show is the little details they add. The extras actually have acting direction and respond to the situation instead of just Walking Past. It makes the actors seem more outrageous and funny and makes the world seem more alive. Most directors avoid it because it takes extra time and effort.

- Fun fact! The director - Zhang Wei Ke - mostly does movies including The Mutant Python 2 which is exactly what you would expect, but exactly what you would expect framed and filmed well. That's the way to do it; no matter what you do, do it well.

- Even small things like hearing the police whistle, seeing Lu Yao's face, and then seeing the police. It's small things like that which lead to the emotional buildup for funny scenes.

- Also, honey no, what is that weird snake thing, I cannot watch ;-;

- Lu Yao is a goof and makes no secret of it.

- Also "deacon of UK's freemasonry" is an amusing thing to add for a lot of reasons

- The Mystery Begins!

- Some lines for the Common Lines Drinking Game

- This show moves so fast it's hard to write for ;-;

- Lu Yao is definitely a big goof he also uses that goofiness as a smokescreen for all the nonsense he gets up to, but it's real a lot of the time

- The First Clue

- Also, if they're rude to their staff they probably deserve the murder

- I love this bathroom, it's an artpiece and it's glam

- The Murder has arrived!

- Also the face work on these three is lovely

- The quick shots are great because they both show you everything you need to see and their speed distract you from thinking they're too important

- The scene of him vandalizing the car is so good, including the first try of bouncing the rock off the window, and the reveal of the night watchman

- Ah! Bai Youning is amazing and I love her.

- When you fun away from home and you go bother your friend at work

- The emphasis made on the blood like >_>

- The way the information was communicated about the murder is so smart on the part of the murderer

- Lu Yao pulling out his detecting skill, all his reasoning works particularly well because he uses multiple clues to come to a conclusion instead of just, there's ink on your sleeve, you went to Paris last summer

- Qiao Chusheng is so nice and patient with Bai Youning, he's a man who establishes himself quickly as being morally upright (considering his past) and someone who has filial piety

- Also, like, I get who Bai Qili is, I just love him and his birds and all the interactions between him and Qiao Chusheng

- Bai Qili also just has a lot of faith and fondness in Qiao Chusheng it's a really sweet relationship

- Uh oh Qiao Chusheng, you're about to bite off more than you can chew

- He thinking, he considering

- It's not easy to switch back and forth between being a bit silly and being a serious type police man

- And I do feel bad for not having more commentary, this show moves fast

- Lu Yao accidentally found another clue in the autopsy report

- Lu Yao's little face as he found a clue but doesn't want to give away the game

- As goofy as Lu Yao is, he does have moments where you can see a lot is going on below the surface

- Oof! The facework! The way Qiao Chusheng's eyes moved!

- It's smart for Lu Yao to play it so close to the vest, he doesn't know much about Qiao Chusheng's personal character yet and too much information too soon is like building a castle on sand

- Qiao Chusheng plays it so cool like he knew all along.

- He gets this little smile, it's great

- And that's it! Thank you for joining!

#My Roommate is a Detective #watch through #民国奇探 #watchthrough

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sweet-evie · 3 years

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Señorita: When Its Been Said and Done: What Happened? [Fanfic Commentary #5]

Art by: Creayus

Fanfic AO3

It was a Summer she could never forget. A summer that left imprints on her very being. [Companion piece to my one-shot Señorita]

[FANFIC COMMENTARY]

I know a few people who will probably murder me in real life simply because I left this in a cliffhanger, and I promised to write more for this series. I broke that promise, and trashed whatever idea I had brewing in my head at that time. 😥👉👈

Now why is that?

It wasn’t because I lost interest in the core idea for the plot.

It was because I couldn’t stop visualizing Lelouch & C.C. having babies in the actual Code Geass universe (this obviously birthed The Emperor’s Wish as it is). But hey, if you’re reading this for some reason, now you know that the ideas I had for The Emperor’s Wish started sometime around September 2019 after I published this one on FFN. And there it stayed until I published the Prologue in April 2020.

I don’t have much to say about this one, other than the fact that it inspired my most favorite Code Geass fanfic to-date.

On that note, I will admit that I had big plans for this one -- had I turned it into a full multi-chaptered fic.

What the Plot was Supposed to Be

I wanted to write the real struggles that came with dealing with a pregnancy that resulted from a short summer fling. In particular, I had my heart set on writing about the confusion, the conflict, and the heartbreak. C.C.’s parents in this AU were supposed to be super-conservative, so pre-marital sex and a child from wedlock was, sadly, disgraceful to them, and C.C. even weighs the pros and cons of having an abortion for the sake of her family’s pride.

Of course, she doesn’t go through with it... This conviction made even stronger after Lelouch finds out.

Lelouch was supposed to be super close friends with Suzaku, Kallen, & Shirley. And no, there’s none of the classic Lelouch-Shirley one-sided affection. They’re just really good friends. Rivalz is Lelouch’s personal assistant. Lelouch’s penthouse looks something like this: (Build by Marmelad, my Sims 4 Building Queen 🤩👑 She’s amazing!)

youtube

There was the classic frustration of figuring out how I’ll go from Point A to Point B.

But point is, Lelouch makes his way to Australia at some point and meets up with C.C. under circumstances that I forgot about now. He finds out she’s heavily pregnant with his baby, and he insists on her getting maternity leave and traveling to the US with him.

There was also supposed to be loads of domestic fluff, pining, slow burn, and sexual tension (because I’m a trashy and shameless shipper). I think there was a scene with almost-preggo sex, but Lelouch and C.C. stopped because 7 months preggers, and Lelouch settles for foreplay.

Marianne is super happy about Lelouch having a child, and C.C.’s parents hate her for a bit, but eventually they accept the circumstance for what it is -- especially after they meet Lelouch’s & C.C.’s daughter.

FUN FACT: I was supposed to name her Aurora too. xD

C.C. resigns from her job as Lelouch insisted on expediting her Visa papers and shit so she can migrate to the US and live with Lelouch. Speaking of Lelouch, he sells his fancy-ass apartment in Manhattan to buy a considerable house in the quieter side of the East Coast.

The typical good ending shit was supposed to follow, and C.C. & Lelouch would have their happy ever after.

Do I regret not writing a complete multi-chapter fic for this AU?

No, not really… Because The Emperor’s Wish is miles better than this idea altogether.

Plus, as much as heavy as this was supposed to be, I don’t think it would have been as cool as I imagined in my head. Because it’s been there, done that. It’s not as charming as, say, the son of an immortal Code Bearer and the deceased Emperor of the world.

The trope I wished for this AU was given to The Emperor’s Wish instead, and I don’t regret it one bit.

#code geass #fanfiction #cluclu #lelouch x c.c.#c.c. x lelouch #lelouch vi britannia #c.c. (code geass)#senorita #wbad blog #wbad fanfiction #fanfic commentary

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fatalism-and-villainy · 3 years

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☕️ talk to me about your svsss thoughts?

Oh man, SVSSS. I will say it’s probably my least favourite of the MXTX canon, but it is extremely fun. Honestly, the aspect of it that had the biggest impact on me was all the parodic commentary on webnovel fandom and its forum dramas. Like that first Airplane chapter with the long comment thread on PIDW just had me cackling from the accuracy of it (especially the whole “if you don’t like it then WHY DON’T YOU WRITE YOUR OWN, let’s see if you could do it better” “I don’t need to be able to do it to know it sucks” exchange, like wow, you broke every argument in the comments down to its bare essentials). All the snarky (self-)deprecating commentary in the narration on tropes and genre expectations and the constructed nature of fiction were delightful. (Have I ever mentioned that I have a deep and abiding affection for MXTX as a personality? Because I really do.)

I also love the fact that so much of it is a commentary on certain fandom attitudes - like Shen Yuan is very much the kind of entitled fan who harasses creators (the fact that Shang Qinghua has nightmares about Shen Yuan yelling at him about his writing is funny, but also uhhh... telling), but there’s also a lot of pushback against simplistic moral impulses on the part of fandom. The subplot about Shen Jiu’s backstory (which Shang Qinghua omitted because readers wanted him to be a straightforward villain) is VERY much a statement about how circumstances influence behaviour (and fandom’s reluctance to contend with that, imo). Same with how Shen Qingqiu’s perception of Luo Binghe is handled - he’s so fixated on the future of Luo Binghe’s character arc (although for understandable self-preservation reasons) that he doesn’t realize how much he’s altered Luo Binghe’s character by treating him better, and that character isn’t deterministic and set in stone. As I’ve mentioned, I love the fact that the effect of his presence on Luo Binghe is very much in the usual MXTX vein of “the presence of absence of attention and care make a drastic difference in someone’s character,” except in this case there’s an added layer of “and sometimes it will cause their gay awakening.”

Also, the whole setup in which this extremely straight hypermasculine genre would be better and deeper if it were gay? MASSIVE POWER MOVE. Especially with the presence of that girl in the aforementioned PIDW forum shyly being like “uhm I wrote some SQQ/LBH slash if anyone wants to read?” This book is truly a vindication for slash fangirls and villain lovers everywhere.

I also loved both the leads. Shen Qingqiu is delightful as a nerdy, extremely online personality who unwittingly ends up as a curmudgeonly but beloved mentor to a bunch of teenagers. The way the disciples at Qing Jing Peak grow attached to him with him barely being aware of it was one of my favourite parts and I really wish there had been more focus on it! The scene with both Ning Yingying AND Ming Fan crying after he’s come back to life is extremely sweet. Luo Binghe is also very very good... putting on a tough and cool persona when he’s actually a massive emotional mess who’s desperate for affection and validation. (He’s SO eager to please during his disciple days. “Do you like my cooking? Do you? Do you??? Please let me do this for you every day pls pls pls.”) And he gets jerked around so much! You have to feel for him!

That said, while I do love the two main characters, the central romance doesn’t really land for me. I really do like Luo Binghe’s adolescent crush on Shen Qingqiu, and him having his gay awakening through the first authority figure to ever be nice to him. And I also like the “omg so cool!!” response to Luo Binghe-the-character that Shen Yuan has that could totally be sublimated gay feelings (@coldwind-shiningstars raised the possibility that he had a crush on Luo Binghe while he was reading the book, which I could see). But the way they actually come together in-story.... there’s a lot of Shen Qingqiu capitulating to what Luo Binghe wants and appeasing him (including in the novel’s climax!) without much regard for what he himself wants and is comfortable with, and it’s uncomfy for me. You can convince him that he has worth and that you’re not going to abandon him while also setting boundaries with him, you know?

And Shen Qingqiu’s internalized homophobia runs so deep that after awhile his freak-out responses stop being funny and just start being sad. Wei Wuxian’s closetedness in MDZS is at least expressed through him taking genuine joy in plausible deniability flirting with Lan Wangji. Shen Qingqiu on the other hand is just grossed out by Luo Binghe’s feelings for him so much of the time. The extras suggest that he is genuinely attracted to and attached to him, but is just suuuuper repressed, but that being the case, I just come away feeling as if he’s not remotely ready for a relationship at all until he’s worked himself out more. And I kind of want Luo Binghe to just try dating other people.... given the amount of women who were swooning over him, there’s got to be a bunch of potential boyfriends in this world for him as well. He could even have more than one at once (like, he was the protagonist of a harem novel! why’s he gotta become monogamous just because he’s gay now? XD)

So yeah, I loved the main characters but didn’t love the love story. And the setting and plot felt pretty empty for me - I had trouble getting attached to any of the characters or potential side pairings. The one exception to this is Shang Qinghua/Mobei-jun, which is delightful for its “scary demon falls for the first person to ever tell him off” feature, but wasn’t integrated into the story well enough for me to feel strong emotions about it - it’s relegated to extras, and that it feels at a thematic remove from the rest of the story. That is to say, obviously Shang Qinghua being gay and not being able to express that in his writing choices is thematically central to the story (which makes the relegated-to-extras backstory for him unfortunate), but the specifics of his relationship to Mobei-jun don’t feel to me to parallel or offer commentary on the central relationship. Though it’s entirely possible that I’ve missed something there and just haven’t read the right meta yet.

So, overall - it has a lot of individual aspects that I really like, it’s very funny in a lot of places, and I really appreciate what it’s doing thematically and with its meta aspects, but as a whole, it’s not entirely satisfying to me.

#veliseraptor #svsss talk #mxtx talk #awkwardly memes #replies #fandom natterings #readmore'ing this actually because it's super long

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kitkatopinions · 3 years

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Accidentally deleted my Tyrian and Watts asks while I was trying to fix a mistake so... Sorry about that, everyone! Here they are! Tyrian and Watts for the RWBY character asks!

Let’s do Tyrian first, because I have less to say about him, I feel like.

My top three ships for the character

Tyrian/Watts. Dysfunctional villainous romance of the century, no one knows how they’ve managed to make it to their tenth anniversary without killing each other, including them. Tyrian/Salem is my second top ship for him. Major Bellatrix/Voldy vibes with this one, but I could see it. Tyrian/Hazel is my third ship for lack of options. Does this one make sense? No. But I can at least see Tyrian being super flirty and Hazel being endlessly tired, but never really stopping it. (Also I hate Hazel so much lol.)

My three least favorite ships for the character

Tyrian/Qrow sucks for me. Like... I kinda feel like two people fighting each other just gets shippers, which is fine and totally understandable. But for me, Tyrian poisoning Qrow and almost killing him and calling his beloved niece a bitch and then killing Clover is a big no from me, dog. On that note! Tyrian/Clover is also one big no from me, since Clover murdered him. And Tyrian/Ozpin is another really big no from me. Tyrian and his crazy Salem worship can stay five hundred and fifty feet away from my son.

My biggest criticism for the character

They went a little too much on the crazy in the fourth and fifth season and it made him feel annoying. Like, I don’t mind the Bellatrix vibes, but I do mind the movie version Bellatrix vibes, sometimes. It just got kinda annoying. I wish his crazy was always more on the dangerous side and less on the kooky side, but that’s just personal opinions.

My favorite thing about the character

The way people are so uncomfortable around him. Whenever Tyrian talks to Emerald or Mercury, he’s honestly freaky. Like both me and the characters are waiting for him to snap. That’s a great quality in a villain that we’re meant to hate or love to hate. He has a real presence and it’s enjoyable.

A headcanon I have about them

Tyrian doesn’t often try to act normal, but he can, and he’s got a great ‘respectable, cool guy’ act that’s actually a little reminiscent of Qrow or Clover. He’s even passed himself as a Huntsman here and there.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

More involvement in volumes 4 and 5, and I’d treat him a bit more seriously and make him a bit more dangerous. Maybe I’d have him wound a member of Team RNJR in his attack as well as poison Qrow (maybe give Jaune a reason to unlock his semblance in season 4 and in response to the pain of a member of his team. Also, his ‘Tyrian purple’ color should be more than just the color of his eyes. Like, how come so many RWBY characters season 4 and onward have such boring colors? I’d give Tyrian some strong purple and pink.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Tyrian alludes to the animal fable ‘the Scorpion and the Frog,’ and that’s... really in name only, I think. A part of me wants to give them some kind of points for having Qrow work with him against Clover, only for Tyrian to kill Clover, which lines up with his ‘its just my nature’ scorpion stinging the frog so that they’ll both drown and die. But they didn’t mean for Qrow to really be wrong! They didn’t mean for the lesson to be ‘Qrow shouldn’t have trusted the poisonous villain’ it was ‘wowza does Qrow’s semblance hurt him. :( Too bad Clover got himself killed.’ Which makes the whole allusion kind of suck.

Now for Watts, the single best villain in my opinion.

My top three ships for the character

Tyrian/Watts. See above. This ship would be a dysfunctional mess, but it’d be a wild ride. Watts/Villain!Ironwood. I kind of hate this ship when it’s ‘fallen hero turned villain’ Ironwood. But if he actually had been written as a secret villain or obviously headed that way from the start, I can see him and Watts also being a dysfunctional mess of a wild ride ship, only with way more ‘evil power couple’ vibes than Tyrian and Watts would have. Also my favorite version of this features Watts having been the one to build Penny (maybe by stealing the plans from Pietro) and him and Ironwood raising a still bright and cheerful, still innocent and trusting, villain Penny who will attack to kill with a smile on her face and a ‘it was nice meeting you!’ And this is very weird and niche but Watts/Evil Stepsister (specifically the one with the sharp bangs and highlights.) Someone sent me an ask saying the Evil Stepmother and stepsisters should’ve been connected to Salem and gotten Cinder involved and I totally agree with this. I then started envisioning a world where the step sisters competed with Cinder and all three of them were raised in Salem’s circle. In this version of things, I could totally picture one of the step sisters having a romantic tension driven connection with Watts and the two of them subtly flirting sometimes (and bonding over their mutual hatred of Cinder.) I picked the sister with bangs for no real reason except that I like her look more.

My three least favorite ships for the character

Watts/Cinder. Watts thinks of her like a bratty little girl, and Cinder kills him. Watts/Lionheart. Kinda really hate this one because of how clearly Lionheart was terrified of him. Just a bit uncomfortable for me to see that in a relationship. Watts/Hero!Ironwood or Watts/HeroTurnedVillain/Ironwood. Sorry, but Ironwood in canon got such a bad, bad portrayal in season 8 and the end of season 7, and I just can’t help but blame Watts for quite a bit of it. I only like them as a ship if Ironwood is an antagonist from the start.

My biggest criticism for the character

They shouldn’t have killed him! He was one of Salem’s best followers and one of the best villains and it was such a big mistake to kill literally one of the only actual loyal followers. It threw off any character development for Cinder and it was a big mistake. I really wanted the Cinder / Watts / Neo team up to keep going! I’m so disappointed it got thrown away.

My favorite thing about the character

Watts is an entitled, petty bastard, and I think that’s so good for a villain that isn’t meant to be social commentary (because tbh, RWBY never should’ve tried to be social commentary.) Watts isn’t sympathetic, he’s an Atlas born and raised guy in a three piece suit, he’s posh, he’s upset because he wasn’t given exactly what he wanted. Most of the villains in RWBY are either victims of abuse, systemic oppression, or poverty, and that’s... Not fun in a show that’s never handled social commentary well and is about magical girls destroying Voldemort/Satan with the power of friendship (Ruby literally never says anything about Faunus rights iirc.) Watts is refreshing because he’s exactly the type of villain that you can expect in a show like what RWBY should’ve been, and he flourishes as that. Why would we be sympathetic to Watts when he’s just doing this all because he wasn’t picked first for his tech? Why would we feel soured towards conflicts with Watts and Team RWBY? He’s just a petty bastard being evil because he was snubbed. Why would we be frustrated that incredibly significant problems are being shoved to the side with Watts? He’s a fun villain, he’s not meant to be more, he’s not meant to make you emotionally invested only to then be gutted for it. You can hate to love him without it feeling bad. Maybe that’s why he’s just my favorite non-kid villain (other than Roman.)

A headcanon I have about them

Watts has been trying to build his own AI robot like Penny, in his spare time. He wanted it to be done in time to become a Maiden, but it wasn’t, and Salem gave that slot to Cinder and got after Watts for not contributing enough. He of course thought this was deeply unfair (especially after being made to contribute a lot to Cinder’s Beacon success without getting any credit for it.) And this just fueled his hatred of Cinder, his hatred of Pietro and Ironwood, and by extension, his hatred of Penny.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

I would keep him freaking alive and keep up the pair up he had going on with Cinder and Neo! But also I’d increase his relationships with Emerald, Mercury, Tyrian, Hazel... Just some more Salem’s Inner Circle moments to flesh out their characters. Other than that, I wouldn’t change much. He’s a pretty good character.

What I I think of their character allusion and what (if anything) I would change about it

Okay, I’ve talked about his character allusion in a very long post awhile ago, but I’m not scrolling down that far to tag it. To sum it up... I hate his allusion. XD I loved the Sherlock Holmes books and read most of them, and I didn’t realize he was supposed to allude to John Watson until I read someone else’s post saying so, and I started freaking out about how awful it was. Watts has so little in common with Watson, he’s essentially the anti-Watson. Which basically means he’s Sherlock Holmes, the opposite of Watson in almost every way, up to and including freaking faking his death which is one of the most iconic Sherlock Holmes thing ever. Watts is everything Sherlock Holmes is on his worst days, arrogant, callous, consumed with his projects, petty, smug, over the top - as well as being hyper intelligent and a genius who often just gets passed over. He has rivalries with his colleagues like Holmes did. And like I said, he faked his death, only to reveal himself to an old friend later on the cusp of carrying out a scheme. He’s evil Holmes! He has nothing to do with John Watson - caring, humble, down to earth, not brilliant like his friend but content to be ordinary and special because of his emotional depth and devoted heart, medical former doctor who spends quite a lot of time chronicling the successes of someone else because he’s content to live in the background. Don’t get me wrong, a ‘Watson’ character who is evil could work - Watson himself indulged in crime for the sake of Holmes sometimes in the original works and if he worshipped Salem or one of her followers and did everything for her while still being a more humble, more friendly, not brilliant person he could be good - but Watts is not that person. Even the gimmicks Watts is given are stupid and don’t make it obvious he’s Watson. Boy’s got a moustache and a revolver and they thought that’d be enough. Idk why they thought 'we’ll make him Watson’ when he’s clearly a Holmes! Also, he’s supposed to be ‘Watson if he’d met Moriarty instead of Holmes,’ and to that I say boo! Watson wouldn’t turn into a super genius just because he meets a different mastermind!

...That’s summing up my feelings, yeah. Because I have so many feelings about his warped, weird character allusion. If I was changing it, I’d just make him Holmes like I think he was clearly supposed to be.

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inthedusksynria · 3 years

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@until-lune

Hello again! Summarized version: Honestly, hats off and thumbs up, you convinced me. Below a few more commentaries, as well as the highlighted comment that ultimadely convinced me that F!Byleth is it This was a pretty fun! (and hey i finally learned how to paragraph on tumblr editor here)

i will do on order of your messages

Oh definitely agree with you on Colorless F!Corrin, the colorless pool did need more variety. I think too it was the color that featured more reruns thanks to being smaller right?

I do think RN the worst looking pool is the red tho... like utility wise(Red Spammer, Astra Dancer, Anima Dancer) is pretty good but arena/powerwise is....okayish at best.

Hmm... regarding M!Corrin, i feel like thats a bit complicated. More on the fact that a win for M!Corrin being “diversified” is a win for whatever pool he ends up being and increases its value.

Like, someone might not like Bramimond but damn if he isnt a good unit and PERFECT fodder. So, i feel like if it hit them they could be a bit wild with him. Although i lean towards recolor dragon on one of the spreads... more likely Red or Green since those have no Mythic or Leg dragon in it atm.

Yeah you are right on that one, dsaojsaijo.

This pattern wise i think i would need still a bit of convincing and am going to hold until Monday/Tuesday.

Reason: I am not very convinced on the pattern, because of distribution problem-wise, i feel its a bit weak. Say, the example you used with Corrin, Fates is so powercrept that at the time of release, the only valuable one i could see would be Midori. Anyone else is just very meh to be on a Leg Banner.

Someone on Reddit kept track of the re-run New heroes characters, and the distribution on Leg Banners, feels to me, to follow more that one pattern than a pattern. There have been oddities before (random CYL popping or other strong units like F!Lyon and Nagi)

Oh? They shared a support? huh didnt know of that.

UNTIL-LUNE said: It’s on the FireEmblemHeroes subreddit post titled “Who do you expect as this month’s legendary hero?” Railroader had a very in-depth response to it

This one! This one convinced me.

Points 1-4 pointed just as much to Micaiah as to Byleth but -

What ultimadely sold me on “its F!Byleth” is the 5th point the person brings. Regarding the special 3H sale on the Golden Week. This one i take my hat off for it, it really points to Byleth and makes sense, i could see IS doing that.

Hey! And it would be a ... shout out/reference/parallel(?) to the special promotion of when 3H launched, that M!Byleth was associated with.

I can really see this.

Regarding the BHB: Ii feel it would be a new pattern emerging than a pre-existing one. At least as far as i remember no month showcased this pattern. And I was associating this one more with the fallen heroes.

It will be a nice complement tho with the Legendary, and its pretty cool to be a representation of all routes. Its pretty neat when they join BHB with events.,

Regarding M!Micaiah with a Savior skill

Ohhhhh It would be pretty cool! And a nice ref! For some reason i thought of her as a flying type, but it would be a pretty cool parallel (and also hey more chances on her as queen of daien!) and ref to her sacrifice ability ! Although i wonder on how it will work with her staff, as in we are so used to razzle dazzle effects that it will certainly be interesting on how they will fit both together

Its so funnny you said that because like, yeah, same! i was also one of the people that thought this month would be Claude xD

Oh! As of a note, M! Byleth(picture) appeared on Dimitri’s meet new heroes page

#until-lune #text post #syn rambles #this was pretty nice #i enjoyed writing and the back forth! thank you! :D

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darklightsworld · 3 years

Note

Hello, I remember you saying some time ago you didn't like how female characters are portrayed in (current) anime because of how annoying and, maybe, misogynistic their archetypes are. Could you maybe elaborate on this point? I feel similar but can't articulate well and always end up feeling like I'm the one being misogynistic whenever this type of subject comes up in conversation x.x Sorry if this comes up as too personal.

Sorry about the late reply, I have been busy with a conference. Also sorry, because my answer is a bit long and all over the place ^^;

This is a difficult question, especially because nowadays people like to think in black and white, and everything is so extreme, like if they don’t like something, then it must be wrong and eliminated, not to mention the policing of every content based to this – which kills diversity and dismisses personal (and gendered) preferences. What I think is really a personal preference and not exactly a general critique of female characters in anime, especially because there are many factors to consider (genre, age and gender or the target audience, cultural background, etc.), and there’s also the audience with its multiple readings.

Personally I dislike most female character types manga and anime has to give, because I’m not really a person for overly feminine and girly things. The Japanese ideal is very cutesy and it’s the standard in both media for men, women and also real life. Not just looks, there is also the behavior side of things, the cutesy, childish, girly ideal, the passivity, helplessness, pretending to be stupid, etc, and I outright hate it when female characters are treated as stupid, clumsy messes. The question is, though, is this ideal really conservative and an embodiment of the toxic patriarchal system? Actually not necessarily. They definitely originate from the oppressive system, but over the decades girls made these ideals their own, and turned them into a weapon to get what they want. Even in real life, fashion is very feminine for me, always with frills, ribbons, flitters, tons of dresses and skirts, and it’s difficult to find plain clothes without any decoration, not to mention all the cuteness in goods and stuff, but as for the behavior of girls and women, the cutesy ideal seems more like a role to be played at a certain age or for certain purposes, like getting things they want and eventually the man. A woman, who didn’t like this ideal herself defined it as “they had to play the wounded deer”. Actually women, who use this role too much and even among women, are usually hated – this is the infamous burikko.

But no matter how they were in their younger years, married women don’t use this role anymore, and they seamlessly slip into a different identity, one that rules the family and the finances with iron fist (I’m stereotyping) – nothing cutesy, helpless or stupid about that. The Japanese themselves are aware of this cutesy role, both men and women, it’s their version of cunning flirtatiousness, it’s just a very different type of flirtatiousness than in the West. For example, there is currently even a tv show enacting certain situations where this cutesy behavior is used to get the man, and the hosts rate how effective the cutesy behavior was. But while I understand intellectually that these are not necessarily misogynistic stereotypes, I have some kind of a visceral hatred for them. The above tv show makes me outright nauseous. It’s a personal preference, and I don’t think I have to like these character types. But I also don’t think they should be erased from Japanese media, and it would be a mistake trying to push my very independent Western values onto such a different culture, so I rather avoid these characters – which is not easy.

So, what does this mean for anime and manga? Both are largely determined by genres (manga more than anime), genres work with clean-cut character types, tropes, traditions and reader expectation, so there is a reason why female (and male) characters are the way they are in different genres. Male-oriented works will obviously have female characters that appeal to men even if the work doesn’t have in your face fanservice shots (though let’s face it, if it’s anime, most of them do). I don’t like these female character types, I don’t think I have to like them, they are clearly not geared toward me, but I also don’t think they shouldn’t be there in a clearly male-oriented media. Sure, there can be discussions about removing overly exploitive situations, harassment and rape or things like that, but I’m not really against letting men have their fun – because I expect to have that same freedom in media geared toward women. There are occasionally unisex anime, but usually they still serve one or the other demographic in a way, and I don’t think it’s possible to create truly unisex anime that everybody will be satisfied with – fanservice for women will always bother men, and fanservice for men will always bother women.

Shōjo manga is a more difficult question, because somewhere in the 70s romance started to focus on imperfect heroines who still got the best guy, because he loved them regardless of their imperfections (“I love you the way you are”), and since then the genre is full of the stupid, clumsy, indecisive, housewife material archetype without any dreams beyond getting the boy (or very old-school women job dreams), which does not appeal to me either, so I usually avoid most romance shōjo manga, especially the high school variant, and even most josei manga, because I don’t care for the adult version of the same with marriage as the end goal *shrug* Actually it’s not even about these things only, like, I disliked Arte too (though not shōjo manga), despite it trying (and failing) to pose as a feminist social commentary, just because the mc way annoying. Fortunately there are a lot of other types of shōjo manga as well, even with more appealing female characters or the best, without female characters (plus the whole BL scene), so it’s not all that bad, at least in manga, not so much in anime. Interestingly, I’m much more compatible with shōjo manga by fujoshi artists. If I like a shōjo manga, usually the artist ends up coming out as a fujoshi after a while by posting BL fanart on her twitter or drawing outright BL manga – it’s been a pattern XD

Anime is more difficult, but I also admit, that my tastes might be extreme. In Japan there are many female fans who love the cute female characters of male-oriented media. Many women like Love Live, for example, because the girls are, I quote, “so cuuuuuute” – while I am fighting nausea… Yeah, Japan is imbued with cute. It’s especially difficult, because I’m usually not willing to watch a series even if there are such female characters in supporting roles or as a second protagonist with male characters I would love to see (Cop Craft was a recent-ish example). And while I avoid female only casts on principle, sometimes there are surprises. For example, the Yashahime anime has terrible writing, but I don’t hate the three main female characters (even if occasionally the anime has some iffy things to say about femininity).

I also mentioned multiple readings. It is important to note that the audience does not necessarily interpret everything the same, especially if there are cultural differences. One of the most famous examples for this is Sailor Moon, which was the incarnation of girl power and emancipation in the West in the 90s, but it has the same “dumb heroine gets the dream guy” trope, and the same conservative message of getting married and giving birth to children as any average shōjo manga, and the same “so cuuuuute” packaging. It really depends on the audience what they get away with.

All in all there are preferences, genre conventions, cultural differences, so the whole thing is quite difficult. But I don’t think you need to be worried about not liking or being uncomfortable with certain character types. And it would be a stretch to consider tastes like mine, for example, misogynistic. Sure, even in real life I make a wide berth around overly girly or feminine women (among others), but it can’t be helped, you can’t like and be friends with everyone, and I guess they wouldn’t like me or wanting to be my friend either. And that’s fine, and I don’t think it’s misogynistic for me to reject certain types of femininity for myself and to interact with, as long as I don’t want to erase or invalidate them, or deem them as inferior – and I don't. Of course, this is the attitude I expect towards myself as well. Live and let live 🖖

#magnoliawaltz

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spnreactions · 3 years

Text

The Booklet

This is a short reaction, but I just want to talk about how cool this little booklet is.

The photos, while admittedly nothing compared to the giant Behind-the-Scenes book (which I also got, because for me, money is nothing when it comes to this show XD), they're really fun, and it's nice to see pictures that correlate to each season and each of their episodes.

The organization is also so nice, and honestly helps so much. It lists out each of the special features, which means I can appropriately watch episodes that have commentary after I watch the actual episode, and it means I can plan how I wanna watch things and react to them a little better, which is amazing. Plus, in general, the content on these DVDs is incredible. Appropriate music, first of all (darn Netflix and its royalty rules), and all of the gag reels, panels, featurettes, commentaries, interactive road maps, unaired scenes, webisodes--it's AMAZING. I'm so excited to check them all out and dive even deeper into this show than I have in the past!

Most of all, though, by far my favorite part of the booklet is the little letters/notes from Eric Kripke and Bob Singer at the very beginning. They made me cry the first time I read them. Even with all of the recent drama, I truly do believe in our SPN Family, and everything it's stood for, and I still feel so, so lucky to be a part of something so special and loving and so incredibly real and true. Eric and Bob are exactly right--our family is special, and we've been through a lot, but no matter what, we will always, always keep this flame burning and going on, because it's what we do, and it's what we love. It's what makes us a family.

With all of that said, and my love of this little booklet properly expressed, let's get into our first episode of September 13th, 2005... <3

#spn reactions #spn dvds #spn box set #supernatural #supernatural reactions #spn rewatch #spn binge watch #my reactions #my thoughts #the best tv show #the best fandom #the best everything #i love it all <3

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gilded-green · 3 years

Note

In celebration of the 10th anniversary, I’ll probably reread GG and send updates/highlight areas and as for commentary. Probably XD

But first. What aspect of Gilded Green was your favorite? What was something you put in a lot of world building for but never got to show either in fic or on tumblr. Who is your favorite character and why, what makes them special in your eyes? Which character has turned into a completely different one as soon as you started writing them? Which part of the fic did you like most when you finished it, do you still like it? Similarly, which part do you dislike most?

Lasty, anything about gg2’s story you want to share/talk about/rant?

-love, the dai li fangirl

Haha, no pressure! But at the same time yes if you do feel free to send me passages for commentary here! <3

What aspect was my favorite? Hmmm. *thinking face* I think, when I first came up with it, I was just thrilled to have these two small things - minor character Lu Ten, overlooked villain organization Dai Li - that I was able to combine into something so big. That was pretty nifty!

As I started developing the story, I think what really caught my attention was the fact that “Wow, all these characters are awful people!” Like. The Dai Li aren’t good.The Fire Nation aren’t good. Lu Ten is a victim but also an oppressor. All off these people have extremely different beliefs and worldviews - Fire supremacist, police state enforcers, classist academic gatekeepers - and all of them think THEY’RE in the right here and none of them are. I think Tien and Hoang might be the only people with a decent, non-oppressive worldview in the story so far. XD I was growing out of the storytelling trope of black-and-white morality at the time, so it was really fun to start experimenting with writing awful people as enjoyable, sympathetic characters.

World building? Hmm. I was just learning how to use my worldbuilding muscles back then. I seem to remember reading up a lot on how brainwashing actually works in the real world and going “I don’t think this is compatible with what we have in ATLA” and just kinda tossing that whole thing out. XD I also recall looking up a lot of stuff for the bits about Jouin, some of which - kalua pig! - has since shown up again in WFFD. I also recall someone on FFdotnet at the time saying “All this chapter did was tell us more about a dead character than the living one” and I was just kinda like -_- yes because he is DEAD and this is your chance to feel sorry about that, we’ll get plenty more of the living one later on account of him still being, y’know, alive. XD

Oh, and Shirong’s personal side projects. I finally got into that a bit in A Meeting of Minds, but the dude DOES have his own stuff going on, which Delun so rudely interrupted to drag him off to see Long Feng about brainwashing a Firebender.

I also did a bunch of research for the birthday party interlude, I think. Mostly appropriate alcohol for such an occasion? And....okay, this’ll sound funny, but.....food containers. I wanted Fen to pack up leftovers for Suyin and Shirong. That’s what my Italian family does after get-togethers, and I assumed that a Chinese family/friend group would do the same! But I also had, like, zero exposure to everyday Chinese life, let alone everyday Chinese life in the 1800s, and I just didn’t have the...idk, cultural osmosis? to figure it out. Like, if you asked me how Victorians would transfer food I’d probably come up with “Idk, wrap it in cloth and stuff it in a basket?” and I assumed people living in modern China would also be able to explain what their people did for food storage/transport 150 years ago but I didn’t have that cultural background, now, did I??? Also this was 10-12 years ago I was looking this up, mind you, the internet was still very different, there was plenty of information on Chinese historical events but not on everyday life objects, CDramas weren’t easy to find if they were translated at all and I certainly didn’t know they existed, and no one was posting beautiful aesthetic videos of life in a rural Chinese mountain village to youtube yet. Eventually I learned that bamboo baskets were a thing, but there wasn’t much info on THOSE either and I wasn’t sure how to describe them, so I just tentatively typed “basket” and called it a day. XD

YOU CANNOT ASK ME TO CHOOSE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER THAT’S LIKE ASKING ME TO CHOOSE BETWEEN MY CHILDREN!!! *shoves Yong off a cliff*

I’m very fond of the Dai family, along with the Trungs and Sais. I’m very proud of how Tuan turned out. I adore Yuan, who you’ve barely met, and Xun, who you haven’t. Huang and Wu Sheng are also definite faves and I can’t wait for y’all to get to know them better.

Characters do usually behave for me in terms of personality development. They surprise me, but they never really turn out to be the complete OPPOSITE of what I was expecting? They just kinda develop organically. Huang and Wu Sheng surprised me, tho, those boys got deep. I knew they had the potential, but developing their backstory actually caused Stingrae and I to develop Ba Sing Se’s socio-political backstory and Long Feng’s rise to power, all because of an inkling I had. That was a very satisfying few years of worldbuilding and story development.

Um, favorite part of the fic....idk, I’m very fond of the final scene, with Azula and her wall chunk from Lu Ten. I’m doubly fond of it because of how it always resonates with readers. Heck, during Azula week last year, I used that chunk of rock as an ongoing theme in Sandstone, and someone commented like “I DIDN’T REALIZE YOU’RE THE ONE WHO WROTE GILDED GREEN” and that made me really happy!

Lu Ten’s time stuck underground - I used the seven stages of grief to get through that one and it was very helpful in structuring that part of the story, and I figured it was deep or something because PSYCHOLOGY.

I’m also proud of myself for getting through the dark brainwashing scenes. So, like, FYI, fanfiction could get...very dark, back in the 00s. People love to play purity police these days and complain about how nasty people get can, but listen. Listen. Do you have any idea how dark FFdotnet got back in the day? Legolas And Aragorn Get Captured By Orcs And Brutally Tortured was an entire genre. I feel like torture fic was actually a lot more common back then, and darkfic in general - I’m sure someone could write a whole thesis on why it’s not so prevalent anymore, I’m gonna guess the fact that fandom is less-insulated and more public now could be part of it, maybe also the fact that the internet is more social media/influencer culture based so people care about their image, and also the purity police which is its own kettle of worms, but I also think that the Bush Administration had something to do with it? You have all these kids who were pre-teens when 9/11 happened, growing up during the Iraq War with an awful presidential administration while everyone was scared and conservative Christianity started to realize that their control over the nation’s “morality” might be slipping and reacted accordingly......yeah there was a lot of darkfic back then.

And I read a lot of darkfic too, but, uh....well, statistically speaking, a lot of writing is bad, okay? A lot of those fics were just weird; you could see where the writer had this idea, and also where they failed to execute it in a way that resonated or made sense. And whatever, writers were young and just wanted to pound out some catharsis, it’s cool, but it still just felt narratively awkward when you could tell how the writer was more focused on LET’S MAKE THIS AS DARK AS POSSIBLE instead of “Let’s tell this as well as possible.”

So the first several attempts at writing the brainwashing scenes, I was nervous because I didn’t want to get TOO dark, and when I finally decided “eff it” and said to Stingrae “I think I need to let this be as dark as it needs to be” I was still nervous because I didn’t want it to end up WEIRD. Idk if that makes sense, but anyway I seem to have done a decent job at it!

As for parts I dislike the most, uhhhhh Iroh’s retreat (I didn’t care, I just wanted to get it over with), Enlai might’ve been promoted too fast? idk, the fact that I came up with Nanyue AFTER I finished publishing GG so I couldn’t work that into the Quy bits, the fact that I was young and innocent and didn’t understand sexual slang or innuendo and randomly chose Dong as the name of the court physician which could lead to some awful puns except no one ever seemed to pick up on that and maybe I’ll regret pointing it out but the man IS going to appear again so I might as well get the first shot in myself. XD

I might have GG2 stuff to talk about but not sure, if I do I’ll make another post on that!

#GG tumblr escapades #GG 10th anniversary

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my-arlington-academia · 4 years

Note

Hi! I love the way you write! I was wondering if you could make a headcanons of the 10 Sweet Elite characters, on jealousy! But not towards a boy / girl but towards a tender kitten who is our great love, an affectionate cat and who will always find the way to receive all the attention, but not by making spite, but in a more subtle way, with purr, meows and ball eyes! Of course, only us and the others are not even considered XD A kiss!

Awww thank you so much!! 💘💘 It means a lot to me that people like what I write even though it's just silly stuff. Anyway... making the main 10 jealous of a cat? 😂 Alright! I guess I can do that much 👌 (Sorry if this isn't exactly what you had in mind but I made the cat a stray in the hcs.)

Alistair

- honestly he is a dog person but he's not the type to argue which are cuter: dogs or cats?

- but when you met that kitten in the street and your voice suddenly shifted to "baby talk" mode?

- at first he doesn't think much of it but later on, for some reason he starts feeling a bit irritated

- wants to show you his puppies from back home but he knows just how childish his reasoning is

- ends up not only feeling jealous but also pathetic

- starts talking to himself

- "Come on Alistair, why are you feeling jealous of a CAT of all things?? That's so stupid..."

- You notice him figeting on the side looking like a sad doggo

- out of pure impulse, you run your fingers through his hair

- he doesn't really get what's happening but he's happy that your attention shifted back to him

- if he really was a dog, his tail would be wagging right now

- "Y/N? W-what are you doing? Not that I don't like it! But uh..."

- "Sorry, you just looked really cute for a sec haha... Well, I mean you always do but um."

- the both of you get embarrassed and move on from this silly situation

Axel

- a dog person as well but he didn't expect to feel so frustrated over... a cat

- in a matter of seconds, he felt like he had disappeared and he didn't like that

- for once that the both of you were alone he didn't want anyone to get in their way

- feels like he's being an idiot

- you continue petting the cat and when you scratch him under its neck, the little kitten starts purring

- suddenly Axel bends over and points to the space under his chin

- "Scratch me here."

- you're so taken aback by what he said that you actually do it... and he starts purring too??

- it sounds pretty identical to how cats purr

- "See? I can do it just as well as this little guy over there..."

- Axel looks down in shame knowing just how ridiculous he must sound right now

- you kiss him on the cheek to cheer him up

- "Come on, you know that you're my favorite!... and honestly, that purring was surprisingly good."

- "Uh-huh, I should try voice acting for cats or something."

Claire

- starts off gushing over the kitten with you

- but quickly realizes that she became almost invisible to you

- all your affection is now aimed at the cute kitty which makes Claire feel a bit abandoned

- she feels horrible for being envious of a cat, especially since she's also the type of person who loses herself in front of cute animals

- "No sad thoughts allowed! Stop thinking about ridiculous things Claire..."

- tries to cheer herself up

- somehow gathers the courage to snuggle her head against your shoulder

- you ask her what she's doing

- "Oh uh! Y-you know... I'm just imitating the kitten! Isn't it just so adorable when they press their little heads against your legs when they pass by?! S-so cute, right? Haha..."

- has realized how stupid she was being and is sad all over again until you do the same thing as her

- her cheeks heat up and she's super embarrassed

- "I-it would be nice if we were allowed to have pets in the dorms, we could've taken the cat with us..."

- "Adopt it? So we can play parents? What should we name it..."

- "W-wait! We can't actually take it with us! Lady A will be so mad..."

Ellie

- is thrilled to find a cute cat in the street!... until you start playing with it that is

- becomes silent and watches how you're smiling like a dumb-dumb

- finds you cuter than the cat and is a bit sad that she has become a second thought to you

- in an attempt to catch your attention (or more precisely get it back) she bends over and tries to imitate the cat's meowing

- at the same time, she moves her arms as if she has paws instead of human hands

- you try to ask her what she's doing but she only answers in meows

- "Meow meow meow 😥😤 Meoowwww 😖"

- you give up and start talking in "cat language" as well

- "Uhhhh... Meow?"

- at the end of it all the both of you laugh about it and make a plan to somehow find a home for the kitty

Karolina

- tries really hard to act like she doesn't give a damn

- but she's extremely annoyed

- "Oh so a cat is more important than spending time with me, huh?"

- is petty af

- keeps on sighing loudly and has had her arms crossed for a solid minute now

- sees that you're not even noticing how annoyed she is

- starts walking away and makes sure to make each one of her steps really loud so you can hear her

- when you try to stop her she's all like "Oh no it's fine. You can go on ahead and have a cup of tea with this... cat, and while you're at it kiss it under the moonlight why don't you?"

- is red of both anger and embarrassement because she knows just how childish she sounds and she hates it

- like a kid throwing a tantrum

- in the end you convince her to pet the cat as well and she gets charmed quite quickly and forgives you

- even gives it a name and refuses to give the cat to anybody else

Neha

- stares at you with a neutral expression ...or so it seems

- that is the face of BETRAYAL

- she's thinking "Seriously? You're ditching me for a cat?"

- starts asking you questions to see if she can distract you

- "So... you like cats too? I had the impression that you were more of a dog person but I guess I was wrong..."

- tries really hard not to sound passive-agressive

- fails at it.

- "Neha um. Are you like... jealous? Haha! No way, right? Sorry it was a dumb ques-"

- when you see the blush on her face you immediately understand what's going on

- you let go of the kitten and hug her

- "Want me to scratch your head too? Haha..."

- "Oh shut up! Don't make me feel more ridiculous than I already am..."

Raquel

- is super thrilled at first

- "Let's adopt it! I'm sure we can hide it in your room since you don't have a roommate."

- quickly changes her mind on the way back when she sees all the attention you're giving to the kitten

- knows exactly why she feels that way so she tries her best to play it cool, knowing how idiotic it is to be envious of a cat

- "So uh. Y'know, I know I'm the one who said that we should take it with us but now thinking about it, it's honestly kinda dangerous, isn't? I mean I don't want you to get in trouble because of me and all..."

- is rambling and rambling, telling you all the reasons why maybe it is actually a bad idea to "adopt" the cat

- you take the hint pretty easily and agree with her

- but in the end you guys manage to shelter the kitty in your room during a week before finding someone in town who'll take care of it

Tadashi

- loves cats but plays dumb when you first find the kitten in the street

- "Cats? Uh. Yeah. They're cute I guess..."

- really wants to pet the cat after he sees you doing it

- you have to push him a little bit

- "All right! If you insist so much then I guess I'll pet it..."

- (side note: you didn't insist at all 😂)

- has a small smile on his face, he's trying to conceal his happiness even though he really doesn't have to

- after a while though, he starts feeling frustrated when he sees that you get along with the kitten better than he does

- but at first, he thinks that he's jealous of you, not the cat

- however it's the other way around

- he tries to catch the cat's attention to get it away from you

- He's shyly making cat sounds

- "N-nyaaa..."

- "What are you doing?"

- "Uh... that's the onomatopoeia for the sounds cats make in Japanese..."

- "Haha! So you're meowing in Japanese? 😂"

- "So what if I AM?!?"

Tegan

- likes animals but he often sees them through a screen rather than in real life

- he's honestly a little bit scared of getting scratched so he stays on the side at first

- but when he sees you having so much fun he gets envious and gets closer, trying to play with the cat

- he's not really successful...

- "Looks like it doesn't like me. I only get along with the villagers in Animal Blessing..."

- is so sad that not only have you been snatched away by the cute kitty, but also he can't join in on the fun

- you trick him into meowing for the cat because apparently "it will feel at ease if it hears you make the same sound as them"

- "Wait, really? You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

- "Nope. Seriously, you can moogle it."

- "Whenever you bring up Moogle it means that you're lying because you don't have any solid proof..."

- does it anyway

- is super embarrassed when you start laughing because he got tricked so easily

- curses himself for being so gullible

Tyler

- loves animals, but mostly loves how funny they can be under the right circumstances

- pulls out his phone camera to film you playing with the cat

- "A really cute kitten and a really adorable human being side by side, this will definitely gather a lot of views on ViewTube!"

- he's being silly again while flirting with you, that's the part you like about him though

- he gives commentary on every single thing the cat does

- "Oh my GOD! Look at its paws!!! LOOK AT ITS PAWS!! WOOOOOW! That is spectacuLAR LaDiES AnD gEnTLeMeN!!"

- is talking with a nonexistent crowd

- but when he's done filming you keep on playing with it and Tyler feels a bit forgotten

- hugs you gently from behind then SQUEEZES you really hard

- "Tylerr... I can't breath... Hhhhhhhh."

- "Really? Good! You shouldn't ditch me for a cat Y/N! Howww daaare youuuu..."

- is joking about it but he's genuinely a bit jealous

#sweet elite #se #main 10 #requests #asks #headcanons #sorry it's taking me so damn long to write those 🙏#but I promise I'll do all of them!#and wow I'm breaking all laws of writing aren't I?#adding emojis in quotation marks and all 😂#could it be that I'm actually chaotic evil?

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