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mysticmetalmerchants · 1 year

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!!!~Fic Recs~!!! (Pt. II)

Here is a follow-up to my last post of Fic Recs (in which I listed my favorite completed multi-chapter ROTTMNT fics).

In this post I'll be recommending ongoing multi-chapter fics. In no particular order, here they are:

There Must Be Something in the Water by Filsamek

-This fic has been such a delight to read. The premise is interesting and even chilling, and the ways in which the turtles have to puzzle out how to solve the problem at hand has been exciting to follow along with. Very interested to see how the conflict will be resolved and what further Mystic concepts the author will introduce!

Blood, Water, and Thicker Things by JumpingInMuddyPuddles

-While this fic has but 4 chapters thus far, I am absolutely psyched for future updates! This is, in a way, a "sick fic" but combined with Leo pushing his needs aside and facing imminent danger while suffering AND featuring a Leo-Donnie team-up mystery with action and high-stakes...! In the words of Donnie in Lair Games: Nom nom. Nomnomnom.

The Old College Try by theashemarie @theashemarie

-There is just something about this fic that grips me in such a way that it almost hurts to discuss. Leo's characterization feels very accurate and very real, and somehow the ways in which he struggles with his identity in general as well as his identity surrounding intelligence/academia really hit me in the heart. I don't know if it's because I already relate to Leo so much, or if its because of my own (academic) experience of feeling like no one will take me seriously and having that odd and alienating (ADHD-related no doubt) infantalization grate on me, but... the ways in which Leo has to confront his relationship with his place on the team, the character he plays, his true interests and passions, and his relationship with his brother who has claimed the title of "the intelligent one" is hard-hitting. Add to that the struggles of humanity/fitting in with society, of the seemingly inherent selfishness of valuing your own pursuits despite risks or pitfalls therein... the tension is amazing. Oh, did I mention-- this is about Leo and Donnie going to university lmao. But its actually also about so much more, as you can see... Overall: this author is a master of character depiction and I cannot wait to see how the rest of the story unfolds...! Donnie in this fic is also so wonderfully rendered. Best of all are Leo and Donnie's interactions in such a foreign setting, and them having to (re-)learn to navigate one another's feelings this new environment brings out. Ah! Good, good stuff. And if that does not convince you, there's also action, a prominent villain, impossible choices....!

All the Ashes in My Wake by paperxcrowns @crows-murder

-Ooh, I can just tell this one is setting up to be some serious Leo angsting. The premise works so well, and I'm eagerly awaiting for that moment when Leo can no longer keep hiding things from his brothers and the dam breaks. The suspense of wondering how that's going to happen is so, so good. Also, insane dramatic irony that is causing sooo much angst. Leo's brothers hurting him/unknowingly forcing him to do things because of a curse... Dramatic! Irony! Delicious.

Last Grain of Sand in the Hourglass by TjLockticon @last-hourglass

-This fic is a sort of alternate take on the ending of the movie, wherein Leo stays trapped in the prison dimension, but not because Mikey's portal failed– rather, because it brought Future Leo back to the past instead. The ensuing chaos and angst is really well-done, and my favorite parts were actually how each brother came to terms with the situation and how to react around this version of their brother, all while their 'true' brother is still trapped and suffering. The chapters with Present Leo in the prison dimension are a really unique take on his experience there. Another thing I found very intriguing is how Leo's Mystic powers and his swords are included in the plot. I'm looking forward to seeing what further angst lays ahead and how the author chooses to resolve the complexities of feeling introduced with the bros getting attached to Future Leo and also Casey's suffering at the idea that this situation cannot endure, and he will lose his sensei all over again. Wild!!

Alpha Stage by snailsnaps @snailsnaps

-Oh I have so much to say about this fic. The premise is so heart-wrenching and interesting, and scratches that itch (in a way) of having had the planned turtle tots episode canceled. And yet, Donnie is still totally himself, mentally, despite being tot-sized. What is a total delight is the art in this fic. Each illustration is so charming and impeccable and adds to much to the story. I keep coming back to it, and I'm excited to see where the author takes the narrative!

The Same Little Faces by awkwardusagi

-This fic also scratches the itch of the canceled turtle tot episode, but the focus on this one is particularly on Leo being turned back into a tot! I love this take because the author explores the dynamic between Mikey getting to be a big bro for the first time, Donnie and Raph witnessing this, and Splinter giving all of them tips and tricks he knows about how to wrangle hyperactive turtle mutant babies. It also has the interesting and really innovative idea that tot Leo retains the memories and experiences of teenage Leo in his subconscious, and this plays a significant role in the plot. I won't say much more, but the cast of characters and how they slot into the big kerfuffle at hand is also so fun! Particularly my favorite Hippo and Worm duo... and Señor Hueso! The relationships explored are so captivating and heart-wrenching in their tenderness. Leo's insecurities manifested in the form of a turtle tot who cannot hide away their pain from their family... ahhh! It's overall super fun and super sweet and I felt so gripped by the narrative. I'm really interested to see how the author will resolve the conflict!

I May Be Invisible, but I Still Look Good by Dandy @dandylovesturtles

-Ohhhh my gosh, where to even begin with this fic... It follows Leo's (mis)adventures dealing with a Mystic curse that renders him invisible, intangible, and inaudible. I feel like I can't say much about the plot because I don't want to spoil the experience of reading it– each installment of puzzle-solving regarding Leo's curse is so unique and intense and gratifying to experience, so I won't go into too much detail. Leo's characterization is so wonderful and feels so real. His thoughts and reactions and struggles and how he chooses to endure them and cope with them is just... so Leo. Which means that there is a lot of silent suffering, of course! We love to see it. (I'll also briefly note that this extends to all the brothers! I just mention Leo particularly because we are in his head.) The author's ability to depict Leo's panic attacks and dissociation is my favorite I've encountered. It's also, of course, entirely heartbreaking to read. The enemies and the Mystic curse are incredibly engaging as well; they feel very much like classic fantasy adventure obstacles/antagonists that I used to read as a child, which is such a fun thing in the setting of Rise, and fits in very well. It's so believable within the universe. I'm super excited to see how the breaking of the curse will play out! I've probably re-read the fic in its entirety 2-3 times now, and each time it was equally as engrossing. Not only that– the author is such a master that I've noticed foreshadowing interlaced throughout, and that has been such a delight! This fic inspires me, and invigorates me, and leaves me wanting to read basically anything else from the author. I cannot recommend it enough!

Mutant Ninja Midlife Crisis by a_platypus

-This fic includes Future Leo being transplanted into the past, but his meeting with the turtles and April and Casey as well as the circumstances surrounding his presence are not so innocent. The tension and dramatic irony created by this set-up are gripping and exciting. And kinda makes me wanna smack a Leo (or two). The dialogue and relationships are so well-written, and the pacing is really nice. Everything feels very in-character and believable and intense. Also, just an aside, but the interactions between Present Leo and Future Leo feel so believable, and the way they change how they relate to one another over time feels very organic and natural. It's handled and presented very well, and is one of the central reasons I'm excited to see how the plot progresses moving forward.

The Aftermath by Starrcrossrose

-This fic is set post-movie, and focuses on the healing process Leo (and the others) have to undergo, and all the complicated emotions involved. There's particular emphasis on the relationship between Leo and Donnie. The author does an amazing job showing the reader what is going through both their heads and how they're struggling under the burden of Leo's decision to sacrifice himself, as well as the circumstances surrounding this (namely, Leo's mental health). It's heart-wrenching to see them both struggle under this burden and knowledge, and even more so to witness how it drives a wedge between them. Another aspect of this fic that I love is the angst surrounding the idea that Leo is doing all he can to cope and to heal, but his family is so worried and so anxious for him that they push him to recover more quickly, and this actually ends up complicating things and even making things harder for Leo. The frustration is real! The depiction of a well-meaning family making a suffering family member feel even more isolated, ironically, feels very realistic and therefore all the more maddening and heartbreaking. The recent chapters made me have to go and like. Lie down. It's that intense. And that good.

As before, I did my best to figure out which authors have accounts on here and tag them, but if I've missed you/you know the author's @, please let me know and I'll update the post!

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #tmnt 2018 #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt fics #rottmnt fic recs #fic recs #tmnt fics #tmnt fic recs

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chiriwritesstuff · 4 months

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The Girl in IT - Chapter 4 - Gooey, up now!

You guys, I just pulled an all-nighter to finish up chapter 4 of 'The Girl in IT', because who am I to break a promise? It's probably my favorite chapter in the series thus far, and I hope you guys love it as much as I do. Chapter 5 - After Hours - should be up sometime in the next few days! Which line item do you think Joel and Sugar are going to check off next? - The hint is in the title! - Sound off in the comments!

Read chapter 4 - 'Gooey' here!

Here is an updated list:

Also, listen to the song Joel was caught singing in the shower here. Just like he says in the series, everyone loves Def Leppard!

#The Girl in IT #pedro pascal #joel miller fanfiction #joel miller x reader #joel miller x you #joel miller #pedro pascal fanfiction #joel miller x female reader #joel tlou #joel the last of us #the last of us fanfic #tlou fic #pedro pascal characters #joel miller fanfic #joel miller fic #joel miller smut #joel miller tlou #Spotify

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katnissdoesnotfollowback · 3 months

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For the WIP game, do you have plans to add add any more to Outside the Lines from the Outside Chance universe? You single-handedly got me shipping Prim & Rye(n) hard b/c of this fic 😂 And from in progress, You + Me and/or The Cold Side of the Bed?

Alright, we'll cover all three. <3 Below the cut because it's a lot of text.

Friend. I am totally going to throw my beta under the bus on this one. PRIM AND RYEN WERE NEVER PLANNED. I was not gonna go there. Buttercupbadass, however, had other ideas. "Wouldn't it be funny if Prim's 'spa day' was her sneaking away to be with Ryen???" she asked. "Oh it's so cute she had a crush on him!" she says. "Screw it. I want them [Prim & Ryen] to get married," she puts in her edits/comments on ch 17 of Outside Chance, and not on a Prim and Ryen interaction even. That's what bba commented when Prim is saying goodbye to Eirik when she and Katniss are leaving Skaid after their summer visit!

Thus began an entire barrage of her reasoning, possible scenes and dialog, and then... THEN bba mentioned how funny it would be if Katniss accidentally saw a naked Ryen in the background of a Skype call one day and I lost it. So much of that story has roots in my personal life and well... so does that, unfortunately. But after that, the whole concept became too delicious for me to resist. And also, bba was right. They belong together.

I absolutely plan on adding more to Outside the Lines. At the moment, I feel the need to finish writing the next chapter of Outside Chance because that's the root story. I build Outside the Lines and Outside Expectations around what's in Outside Chance, and in a lot of ways, Otl and OC are kind of written simultaneously. So here's a snippet from the next chapter of Outside the Lines and lord help me if bba sees this, I won't hear the end of her prodding to get it done lol ;)

“So you’re the flavor of the week. Is there anything you can tell me about Ryen’s mental state going into this competition?”

“If I were really just the flavor of the week, why would you think I’d have any insight into his mental state?” I retort. There’s not much I remember about Agnes Mellark, other than a vague impression of cold aloofness. But how much of my idea of her has been stained by what Katniss and Ryen have told me about her? I don’t know.

I can’t even tell if she recognizes me right now. Maybe it’s too soon to play this hand, but I can’t resist. Maybe because it’s proof that I know Ryen far better than any of his previous flings. Maybe even better than the woman confronting me right now.

“Aren’t you his mother? You should have a better idea of his mental state than me,” I say with a smile. Really, I’d like to stab her in the jugular, but with what? Couldn’t smuggle in a knife, and am unfortunately not wearing my favorite four inch heels, which would be a perfect weapon.

Agnes purses her lips and her eyes wrinkle at the corners. Oh shit, I think and prepare to run, but she shakes her head and chuckles slightly.

“I wish I could say that my son were smart, but he usually thinks more with his dick than his brain,” she says and eyes me. “You’re every bit as beautiful as the others, but smarter, aren’t you?”

“I’d like to think I am,” I say.

“Good. Maybe you actually have a shot at getting him to commit, but don’t hold your breath for it. He won't admit it, but he needs someone with a brain to keep him in line, to challenge him and keep him from squandering his talent.”

“Multiple Olympic medals and world cup titles count as squandering his talents?” I ask. She takes a step back from me and I hold in my triumph that I got a response.

“Maybe not, but his personal life is a mess. I just want to make sure you deserve him and treat him the way you should. Don’t be like that trash his younger brother keeps falling for.”

Oh no. She did not. Fuck this bitch. I don’t need a knife to destroy her.

"Oh you mean my sister?" I say with a wide smile and hold out my hand to her. "I guess you don't remember me. Primrose Everdeen."

You + Me is another one of my outstanding Everlark Fic Exchange prompts. This one is from 2019 (I think? *cringes in shame*), and was for either K or P as a romance novelist who secretly uses the other for inspiration in their writing. What happens when they find out?

This one has been super fun to write, if a little slow going, mainly because there are multiple moving pieces to it. Now for a snippet!

Katniss… we live together when we travel. I think I’m aware of all your annoying habits by now. ;)

And here I thought I was something of an enigma.

Nope. Open book to me.

Shit.

Does he mean…?

My brain is scrambling, but I take a deep breath and manage to reign it in. He knows I’m a published writer. His words could merely be a reference to that. This can’t be good. Has he already figured it out?

Before I start plotting a heist to break into his house for a book burning party, I manage a decent, mostly innocuous text.

Hey what’s the title of the book you’re reading? Maybe I know it and can spoil the ending for you. ;)

Not on your life, Everdeen.

Just reached a plot twist in between your texting barrage.

A delicious plot twist. ;)

Oh?

The hero is not who I was expecting. Dun duh dun!

The wheels squeal and I rush off the train as fear rises up in my throat. Oh god, he’s figured it out. What gave me away? The food porn passages, probably. He’s got to be reading The Thrill of the Hunt. That’s the only one I can think of where I pulled a bait and switch with the hero.

The street is crowded and I have to tuck my phone in my pocket to navigate the crowds. When I get there, I’m still unable to answer him because even though I’m early to meet my editor, she’s ready for me.

“Katniss, darling! Welcome, welcome! Have a seat please. The cappuccino is fresh,” Effie trills as I’m ushered into her office and offered coffee.

Oh this cannot be good. Whenever Effie has liked my pages, she forgets her manners. Excitement precludes etiquette. But when a writer needs a kick to the creative pants… that’s when she’s the picture of perfect manners.

“That bad?” I ask when her assistant is finally gone, the door shut and a hot cappuccino gripped in my hands.

“They were...how to say this…?”

“Shit,” I supply and she scowls at my language.

And finally, since you asked about it, The Cold Side of the Bed was something I started for one of the "This Would Have Happened Anyway" challenges. I don't remember which one, only that the prompt was for Everlark in District 13. I never managed to finish it, in fact I've barely started it beyond a vague outline and the opening scenes, mainly because I was still finishing my degree at the time and pretty much would crash after finals then not be able to muster up the energy to write fanfic. But also because it kind of turned into an epic story. Short synopsis: Non-reaped Everlark winds up married to different people after their last reaping. The rebellion still happens and 12 is still bombed. Some of the story would be about them getting to 13, but the juicy stuff happens while they are in 13.

When I wake, the other side of the bed is cold. I reach out through the rough material, seeking a shred of the warmth that would exist if Primrose didn’t still climb into our mother’s bed after a nightmare. Not that I am surprised she had a nightmare last night. This is the day of the reaping, after all. I slowly lift my head to peer across the room at them. The three of them curled together for comfort. My mother, my sister who grows more achingly beautiful every day, and the ugliest yellow cat in the world. He sees me watching and hisses at me.

“Yeah, I know you’d be happy if they called my name today. Lucky for you, they just might.”

After all, my name is in the bowl 28 times today. I dress and join Gale in the woods, relaxing as I make my way through the thick summer foliage to our meeting place.

“How’re you planning on celebrating your freedom?” he asks as we make our way back towards the fence when we’re done hunting. It’s been a glorious day and we’ve got quite the haul. I’ll need the woods to keep providing like this in a few weeks. When the Games end this year, I start working in the mines.

I shudder slightly and give Gale a look. He just shakes his head and laughs. I don’t need to say it. It’s not exactly freedom, aging out of the reaping and into working down in those mines.

“You thought about what I said?”

“Gale,” I say and stop walking right before we reach the fence. He stops too and sighs, looks up at the sky. “I told you I can’t think about that right now. Not when Prim will still be—.”

“And I’ve got Rory still eligible and Posy about to start in a few years, but I’m still thinking about it. How’d you explain that? How about Nathan Dawson and Lilah Bronski? They’ve already decided they’re getting married some time after the reaping if they both make it through. Lots of people think about it, Catnip, and lots of people do it.”

“Well lots of people are stupid then,” I snap and Gale sighs.

“Alright look, just forget I said anything. Let’s go make our trades before we make you late.”

#wip file game #outside the lines #outside chance universe #you + me #the cold side of the bed #distractionsfromthefood #look at that ask

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a-student-out-of-time · 1 year

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Danganronpa and the Mean Girl Problem

Hello, everyone! I’ve come to once again share my thoughts on something.

With the (as of writing this) recent release of Despair Time Chapter 2, I felt this was an appropriate time to discuss some things. First off, I am very interested to see where this fangan is going from here on out, and even from the first episode, I’m hooked.

I really enjoyed the character moments in the first episode, from Eden to Levi to Teruko to J to one of the subjects of my discussion today: Arei.

Now, I have to admit, Arei’s one of the most interesting characters in DRDT to me. She’s not my favorite- that honor goes to Hu- but she’s the one who I think has the most potential for character development within the narrative of DRDT. And that’s also something that concerns me.

See, that brings us to the point I want to address here is in the title. It’s something I’ve noticed across both the canon games and some fangans, which I’ll call the “Mean Girl Problem.”

(Spoilers for the canon games, DR3, the Another series, Despair Time, DR Antebellum, etc. will follow. You have been warned.)

(Also, this became a long-ass post. You’ve also been warned on that.)

As I’m sure many of us are aware at this point, Danganronpa is a very formulaic series. While we see different stories and character arcs play out, we nevertheless see similar archetypes and story beats across them. Sometimes these are broken in unique ways, but we often have very similar starting points.

Oftentimes, these repeated tropes have been deconstructed and explored in different ways, either in the games themselves or among fan games that seek to go beyond the formulaic writing. Even then, however, there tends to be repetition with a lot of them, mostly in terms of things like my least favorite trope, the double murder in Chapter 3.

What I want to focus on here is an archetype I’ve seen a lot and one that often leaves me thoroughly disappointed every time: the eponymous mean girl.

These tend to be female characters who are presented as bullies, either toward one character in particular or members of their group as a whole. I feel this archetype really got its start with Hiyoko in DR2, and it understandably became a point of contention with a lot of people. And it was later repeated with a lot of characters.

I can’t speak for all fangans, so I’ll stick to the ones I’ve seen. Among them, we’ve got Hiyoko, Ruruka, Natsumi and Miu in canon; Rei, Kizuna and Hibiki in the Another series, Mitsuba in Brave DR, Emilia in Antebellum, and Arei in Despair Time. I’ll leave Mitsuba out of this discussion, since Brave DR hasn’t made it quite as far as other fangans, but we still have a lot we can talk about here.

The Mean Girl Problem is a writing trend I’ve seen where these characters end up not receiving much narrative importance or opportunities for development, particularly in comparison to their male counterparts. And when they do, it’s usually squandered hard.

If you already have objections to this, I understand, but allow me to explain what I mean, character by character.

Now, DR1 didn’t really have a Mean Girl character, which is interesting. There were no female characters who were really openly malicious or antagonistic, unless one wants to include Celeste. However, she isn’t really an example of what I’m talking about. The problem really started in DR2:

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Hiyoko Saionji

As I said, this archetype began with Hiyoko. Her introduction had her crushing ants, making her creepy face and then calling Haime a wuss. From there, she spends most of her time complaining, manipulating and insulting everyone, aside from Mahiru who’s the only one that really puts up with her. Her worst insults are saved for Mikan, which...grr, but I’ll move on.

Now, Hiyoko being a selfish bratty girl is by design. She’s a member of the prestigious Saionji Clan and thus sees herself as superior to everyone else, so it’s at least understandable why she’d feel this way. Even if she plays it off in her Free Time Events that she’d been the subject of “assassination attempts,” which some of my friends have attributed to others getting back at her for her bullying, it’s clear she’s not well-liked in-story.

My point here isn’t that Hiyoko is a bad character. Quite to the contrary. Many people who defend her point out that she does have a lot more going on than just being a bully, and I fully agree. I like how much she loves her nation’s culture, how much she misses her dad and her belief that protecting something is a sign of love. That’s interesting.

The MGP stemmed from me asking a simple question: what purpose does she serve in the story?

It’s a serious question: what does her being a bully contribute to the narrative? What role does she serve, either thematically or in the plot itself other than being a member of Ultimate Despair? How does she actually change as a result of the story?

To all of this, I have to say “Not much.”

Now, I’m not going to say she didn’t have any purpose. Again, there were good moments with her. I like how she tried to make a memorial for Mahiru, but it came off as ominous and creepy to everyone, and she admits she’s not good at anything but dancing.

...Of course, then she turns right around and insults Mikan again.

And this brings me to another point about her: nobody in the story really seems to actually acknowledge Hiyoko’s cruel moments. Sure, they get annoyed with her, but nobody takes her aside and tries to explain why it’s wrong. Hajime makes some snarky comments about in her her behavior FTEs, but all he really seems to do is tolerate her.

Her bullying never really seems to factor that much into the plot, other than it just being something she does. Hell, even her being killed by Mikan had nothing to do with her bullying, but simply because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Her being a bully was basically irrelevant to everything that ultimately happened with her in the story.

But here’s the part that really gets me: this moment in Chapter 3 where Hajime claims she’s changing:

Which, I guess I understand. It’s not the same thing as earlier, when she basically raged that Teruteru deserved to die horribly for committing murder, and that she wished she could’ve spat on his corpse.

Like, I guess that’s progress, going from “He deserved what he got” to “We’re only working together to escape because we don’t have a choice.” Still though, jeez.

And what comes off this? Again, basically nothing. Hiyoko can’t get her kimono on, Sonia suggests she use the full-body mirror at the music venue and that’s where she gets shanked by Mikan. Not because she was mad about the bullying and nobody doing anything to help, not because Hiyoko confronted her or she confronted Hiyoko.

No, she just walked in and Mikan went “No witnesses.”

And later on, DR3 confirmed that Hiyoko more or less acted the exact same during her time in Hope’s Peak. The only real progress we can really say she got was the fact that she acts more like a platonic tsundere toward Mikan in Side Hope.

Overall, it really seems like being a bully was the focus of Hiyoko’s character, when the game clearly wanted to acknowledge there was more going on with her. Yet most of the deeper elements with her were relegated to her FTEs.

And if she was bad, Ruruka was even worse.

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Ruruka Ando

Probably the biggest contender for the most hated DR3 character, Ruruka is, in a word, a self-centered bitch. Now, again, that isn’t to say that’s a problem and that there isn’t anything deeper going on with her character.

It genuinely seems like she has trouble with empathy, something that was shown when she and Seiko first met and she didn’t even really address that Seiko was crying over the dog she couldn’t save.

One could attribute that to her being a child, but throughout Seiko and Ruruka’s friendship, it becomes quite clear Ruruka asks her for more and more favors, going from medicines she needs to basic things she could probably just buy herself. This is acknowledged and addressed by the story.

What the story doesn’t do a great job of addressing is Seiko’s side of things, where it kinda seems to blame her for constantly accepting Ruruka’s requests and acts as if this is a “both sides are wrong” situation. I don’t think the story presented it well, and just made Ruruka look incredibly toxic and manipulative toward someone who has trouble saying no. Not quite the same as bullying, but more than enough to meet the standards of a Mean Girl.

The manga actually did one better and worse at the same time, where it brings up the idea that Seiko can’t eat Ruruka’s candies and addresses why she doesn’t make sugar-free ones: she refuses to acknowledge that Seiko even has an allergy and that she’s making it up to spite her. Sounds shallow and petty, but it’s a real thing that’s happened with some people.

If you don’t believe me, look up the woman whose in-laws fed her mushroom soup because she didn’t believe her when she said she had a mushroom allergy.

But again, the story wants there to be something deeper with these two. In the Future arc, Ruruka internally admits that she always saw Seiko as her hero, as someone with the talent and skill to do anything, and she was jealous because all she could do was make sweets. That’s an interesting motivation.

And the story doesn’t do all that much with it. Once again, the way it’s framed, Ruruka is a toxic and manipulative friend who wanted to use Seiko’s talents to cheat in her practical exam, and it was largely Nagito’s fault that things went south, then they had a falling out and were expelled.

There is a good story buried in this narrative. The problem is that Ruruka is presented in far too much of a negative light to really come off as someone with a valid point, while Seiko didn’t really do anything wrong. Izayoi is also barely a character and just follows her around everywhere, when maybe he could’ve been the mediator between the two of them.

But instead, after Seiko and Izayoi die, Ruruka nearly kills Kyoko and gets Koichi killed thanks to her bullshit. Granted, she was under threat of her Forbidden Action, but it was still framed as her being a villainous character, with her glaring evily.

This is not the face of someone who was forced into committing evil for the sake of her own survival.

And what happens after all this? What role does she have in the story? Nothing.

She wanders off on her own, rambling to herself about how she’ll survive, and then she gets killed by the hypnosis monitor thing- very graphically and excessively, I have to say- and then nobody even acknowledges her existence again.

I’ve heard speculation that the story of Ruruka, Seiko and Izayoi is meant to show why it’s important to trust your friends, but she had so few good qualities to her and so little going on within the narrative beyond just fighting with a roided-up Seiko that I could barely glean something like that.

She really just feels like she’s there to be an antagonistic force for a while, and when she’s not needed anymore, she’s shoved off to die. And if the story wanted us to at least feel for her, why kill her off in such a mean-spirited and graphic manner? Were we supposed to feel bad or feel like it was karmic?

Either way, it’s not a good look.

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Natsumi Kuzuryu

Here’s what turned out to be a retroactive example of the MGP: Natsumi, the girl who was originally only known through flashbacks and Twilight Syndrome Murder Case, in SDR2, who was originally just Fuyuhiko’s unnamed sister

DR3 came along and gave us a better look at her, though in a way I doubt we were expecting. From what Fuyuhiko had told Hajime, it seemed as if Natsumi was an Ultimate. Hell, he was sure she deserved the title of Ultimate Yakuza far more than him:

But what DR3 gave us was a girl who joined the Reserve Course, and just called herself the Ultimate Little Sister.

She certainly lives up to what Fuyuhiko was talking about, at least in how she was self-centered and arrogant. Even so, it’s obvious the two of them were very close, especially with how Natsumi looks up to him and dreams of joining the Main Course so she can stand by him as an equal.

The problem is, though, her intense rivalry with Mahiru and Sato, who she’s been in conflict with since Middle School. Once again, a character who we were lead to believe was an Ultimate turned out to also be in the Reserve Course.

Regardless, the two of them had an absolutely bitter rivalry, which as we’d learn would eventually lead to Sato murdering Natsumi, then Fuyuhiko murdering Sato in retaliation. DR3 had the opportunity to tell us a little bit more about Natsumi’s side of things.

And what we learn is that Natsumi fears being left behind with her brother in the Main Course, and wants to be acknowledge not for her talent but to earn a title so the two of them can be equals.

Now, Natsumi’s inclusion this way, while a weird retcon, isn’t pointless. It’s a pretty decent means of reinforcing the idea that talented and talentless people can’t mix, fueling Hajime’s insecurity. But once again, it really seems like it brushes over a lot of things with her cruelty toward Mahiru and Sato, none of which prove relevant for the larger story.

This is especially odd because the anime seemed more than willing to sympathize with Natsumi, while also neglecting to giving Sato a full name. And given that both of them die shortly afterward, it does feel a bit emotionally manipulative.

But once again, no relevance to the larger story. They’re not even mentioned once afterward.

_________________________________________________________

Miu Iruma

Now, Miu’s an interesting case because she has a huge fanbase. I understand why: she’s vulgar as hell, but also confident and hilarious. I call her a Mean Girl because, again, she often goes out of her way to insult and antagonize people for no real reason.

She’s different than the others, however, because she actually does contribute a lot of important details to the plot with her inventions.

It’s thanks to Miu that they get an overhead view of the first crime scene, she’s the reason why Chapter 4 happens, and she’s the one to provide the group with the weapons they need to take on the Exisals and learn the truth about their situation, both the manufactured one and the real one. So overall, she makes a massive impact on the story of V3.

My question is this: does this make her a character or a plot device factory?

Miu has basically no character development through the story, and is mostly just there for either making devices to move the plot forward, for comedy or for fanservice.

We do hits of greater identity and motivation for her in her FTEs and in Chapter 4, where we learn she received her talent after she was in a car accident that left her in a coma, waking up and finding she had a ton of ideas for inventions. And in Chapter 4, just before she attempts to kill Kokichi, she says the world needs her and her inventions.

This suggests either Miu knew what had “happened” to the world as part of the flashback light, or she didn’t but believed this idea in general. That, despite her crude behavior, she has genuinely altruistic motivations. That’s a good character quality for her.

And we don’t get much of that after this moment. The only memory of her anyone really has is of her and her inventions, and everyone except Kiibo basically hates her guts as a whole.

But what makes all of this worse in its own way is that this isn’t even Miu’s real personality, but a fabrication from Team Danganronpa. I can only go off of what we see here, so it’s hard to say what the real her was like, but the version we get here definitely falls victim to the MGP.

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Kizuna Tomori

Moving over to the fangan side of things, we have Kizuna Tomori, Class 79′s Ultimate Cheerleader from DRA.

Now, Kizuna is definitely closer to the Mean Girl archetype you might’ve thought of, i.e. a Regina George or Heather Chandler type. She acts all sweet and touchy-feely with Yuki, calling him nicknames and asking if he’ll buy her things when they get out.

And it goes on and on in her FTEs, where Yuki eventually wises up to the fact that she’s incredibly materialistic and she gets mad when he calls her out on it. Then she goes on to reveal that she’s the Queen Bee of her school, having boys do whatever she wants, buying her things and basically pimping out her fellow cheerleaders to them in exchange.

And it really seems like she doesn’t understand that this is a bad thing. Not that she knows and doesn’t care, but that she can’t comprehend that this isn’t supposed to be how things work.

Things get interesting in the last one, where she basically tries to have sex with Yuki, and he demands to know what the hell is going on with her.

She did all of this deliberately. She understands that she’s not a good person, but she’s also scared of guys who are only interested in her for her looks. She basically turned every guy who was interested in her into her servant, but in the process, she ultimately isolated herself from everyone else.

And there’s also the influence of her mother, Minako, who also seems to value her appearance. I can only image what kind of situation Kizuna was in to feel this way, where she was scared of being taken advantage of by guys if she drops this facade. One that’s kept her from even having friends.

In the game itself, Kizuna also isolates herself from everyone thanks to Tsurugi’s tyrannical rule, and also ends up quite lonely. Something Akane goes out of her way to help her with after she and Yuki find her crying.

It’s a really sweet and wholesome moment, where Akane assures her that she does consider Kizuna a friend, never saw her as weak and that they can confide in each other. Something Kizuna never really had before then.

And what happens afterward? Well, turns out she’s a fake bitch.

Which inevitably leads to Kizuna attempting to murder Akane.

The thing is, lying and scheming aside, Kizuna actually kinda has a point here.

The motive in Chapter 2 of DRA is, naturally, secrets. The one she found suggested local normal protag Yuki Maede might actually know the identity of the mastermind, and as we learn in Chapter 6, that turned out to be him.

Not only that, but Akane was actually his colleague and fellow Ultimate Despair. Kizuna unintentionally targeted both masterminds, and had she pulled it off, she may have actually ended the Killing Game early on. True, she was only focused on escaping, but it would’ve been beneficial to a greater number of people.

But what really bothers me is LINUJ’s attitude toward her. He created a pretty sympathetic backstory for her, which doesn’t excuse but explain her behavior, yet he admits in her design document that he made her to be the character everybody would hate and wanted to give her the most painful death possible.

Which he did in the form of a stab would in the stomach that took about thirty minutes to kill her. Like...jeez, dude. It’s also kinda hard for me to hate her not only when she’s actually kinda right on repeat viewings, but she also took the time to try and tell everyone it wasn’t actually Akane who killed her via dying message.

I also don’t want to be that person, but the fact that the character with the most sexualized design, the most overtly flirty and outgoing personality, and a backstory about trying to prevent guys from taking advantage of her weakness, is portrayed as an unrepentant villain?

Maybe it was unintentional, but it doesn’t sit well with me.

Really though, once again, I must ask why? What was gained from all this? What does it actually organically add to the story? Is there a lesson to be gleaned with this?

Not really any that I can see. I understand the points LINUJ raises when he talks about how we shouldn’t ignore the wrongdoings of a character because we sympathize with them, but I must also ask if utterly demonizing them for those wrongdoings is a bigger issue.

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Hibiki Otonokoji

Oh boy.

I’ve already talked at length about my problems with SDRA2 Chapter 3, but that was mostly me rambling about Kanade and the story. Instead, I’ll keep it short and focus strictly on Hibiki. Because out of all the victims of the MGP, Hibiki got robbed the absolute hardest.

I’ll start by saying that Hibiki isn’t so much a general bully as she is big sister bully. Her ire is mostly directed toward Kanade, who she insults, belittles, orders around, and harasses for her own amusement. At least it seems that way.

As we learn throughout the game, the Otonokoji Twins really have a mutually toxic relationship. Hibiki bullying Kanade is, according to the latter, because Hibiki’s actually a try-hard who’s jealous of Kanade for being better at her in everything: academics, athletics, even music. She hates losing more than anything.

That setup is at least an understandable motivation, and it could’ve made for some decent development opportunities, which the game actually did take at first.

See, because of SDRA2′s unique setup- there being five masterminds in the group- she understandably doesn’t feel safe trusting anyone except her sister at first. It takes a lot of work to get her to even leave her room and hang out with everyone.

Thanks to Setsuka’s encouragement, she admits that, yes, she wants to be friends with everyone. Hibiki is naturally a social butterfly, and even if she’s scared of what might happen because of the Voids, nothing will change if things stay the same.

And that’s a lesson she actually takes to heart afterward.

She genuinely tries to change her attitude and be more of a team-player with everyone, hanging out with them and trying to cheer up the group when they’re down because of their situation.

Because she takes responsibility for the things that happened, be it Yuri’s death at the party and Kokoro’s death due to the concert they held. And she’s doesn’t want there to be a third one.

She knows she’s not very smart, but she doesn’t want to be a burden on everyone and wants to contribute however she can. And the start of Chapter 3 actually shows her practicing what she preaches, even cracking jokes with everyone.

The disappointing thing is that everything that was going on with Hibiki was far, far more interesting to me than what actually ended up happening.

But instead of focusing on her trying to change and grow as a person, we got to spend the rest of the chapter glorifying another serial killer, turning Hibiki into a background extra and then revealing that her life had been literal hell, her parents are dead and her real personality probably doesn’t exist anymore, capped off with her dying a meaningless death.

A chapter that also effectively made her and her sister’s presence completely irrelevant to the actual story. While I complain about the MGP, nobody got it worse than Hibiki.

She deserved so much better than that.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Rei Mekaru

Danganronpa Another’s original bad bitch, Rei is one of the few mean girl characters who actually managed to not only survive, but also receive development as a result. Good for her!

The thing with Rei is that she’s largely more similar to Byakuya than Hiyoko or Miu, although she dabbles in the Mean Girl archetype on occasion, particularly toward Kizuna. I’ll still include her because it’s an interesting example of slow-burn character development.

Rei starts out as cold, dismissive and condescending toward her classmates, and while she’s clearly intelligent, she’s also more than willing to let everyone try and solve the cases themselves while also insulting them at the same time. This continues on for some time, at least until Chapter 4.

It isn’t until she sees Haruhiko and Satsuki willingly sacrifice themselves, allowing the rest of the group to survive, that ultimately rattles her view on things and gets her to reconsider. She almost seemed baffled when Satsuki gave up any chance she had to escape.

Likewise, in what was a pretty hilarious moment, when everyone basically isolates Yuki when it seems like he might be the traitor, she calls them out on their sense of false righteousness when they talk about the power of friendship. It’s not often you see these sorts of characters touch on something like that : P

Really, Rei’s character development really seems to take place in the second half of the game, which is probably how she manages to avoid falling victim to MGP. SDRA2 hits us with what looks like Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome, only for it to be revealed she survived.

Of course, given that DRA already has Kizuna as a victim of the MGP, it was probably a given. Still sad that, by the end of SDRA2, she and Tsurugi are the only survivors of Class 79.

Emilia Carmine

We now come to what’s probably my favorite fangan thus far: Danganronpa Antebellum, which has its own resident Mean Girl, Emilia. Now, I’m gonna be frank with this: Chapter 3 of Antebellum isn’t finished yet, so I can’t really call this an example of MGP, and I hope I don’t have to.

What I will say is that Emilia does fulfill a lot of the Mean Girl tropes: she insults everyone, antagonizes them, and she’s easily the most foul-mouthed out of everyone. However, in contrast to the previous examples, she also has a genuinely sweet relationship with her best friend Mint, who she considers a brother. She teases him a lot, but it comes off more as teasing than actual bullying.

Even toward Shinku, she gradually goes from mocking him to opening up to him, to enjoying his presence. Emilia herself was raised in a very controlling, heavily restrictive manner by her father, who also kicked out her sister Elodie on account of her being trans. Emilia was very close with her, and would do anything to reunite with her. A motivation that nearly drives her to murder Shinku in Chapter 2, which, if it hadn’t been for Mint and the BDA, she very likely would’ve. Something she regrets immensely.

The sad part is, at the end of Chapter 2, her crime is revealed: burning down her father’s hospital, killing and injuring many people. A revelation that drives a wedge between her and Mint that never ends up resolved. While Emilia wants to make up with him, the group is split in half when the ceiling caves in and Emilia is killed in the game’s double murder, never even getting to see Mint again.

It’s too early to say, but this is feeling more like a genuine tragedy than a case of MGP, and I highly doubt she’s going to be forgotten by the end.

____________________________________________________

And that finally brings me to the subject I brought up at the beginning: Arei Nageishi.

Now, I called Arei the most interesting of the Despair Time cast because she has a quality that makes her a bit different from the other Mean Girl characters: she legitimately values friendship.

That might sound bizarre, given that she still openly insults and antagonizes the group. While she does go out of her way to be cruel to Teruko and Xander in her introduction, it seems like she wants to be included in group activities.

And of course, she falls into a self-pitying session of fake crying to get sympathy, which Hu shuts down immediately. Now, one could easily just write this off as attention-seeking behavior, but it’s the small details that interest me.

They shut her down on that.

Xander is, of course, disbelieving that she could be that oblivious to the situation. However, I think her behavior has less to do with her being oblivious and more to do with her having a skewed perspective.

See, when MonoTV shows up to announce the new motive, he specifies that there might be some bad news about their friends and family. Arei’s reponse?

No jokes, genuine concern over the motive.

And another moment that caught my attention was in the wake of the trial and Min’s execution. It was fucked up and horrifying, and everyone is understandably freaking out, but the reactions differ. Most everyone is freaking out about their situation, wanting to leave and being afraid of dying. Others are genuinely sad for Min, and among them?

Yeah, after the girl she’d previously accused of excluding her gets executed, Arei is genuinely upset to see her go. This was also after she’d spent the trial railing against any potential murders, mostly Teruko. She doesn’t make jokes, she doesn’t say she deserved it, she doesn’t shrug it off like it’s nothing.

She’s genuinely sad to lose Min.

Another insightful bit comes from her FTE with J, where she thinks to herself how fun it is to mess with her, and how she finds her cute.

Yeah, Arei has a system for how she bullies people, ranging from just teasing to wanting to utterly destroy their lives if they’re mean to her. A lot of this stems from the fact that she was the Queen Bee of her school, and like Kizuna, she used her looks and status to get guys to do whatever she wanted.

But the most interesting part to me is when J starts ranting about her mother, and Arei has this to share.

We’ll come back to this, but suffice to say, Arei has a very odd idea of what friendship is. She’s under the impression J likes her because she didn’t leave the situation.

Something else worth bringing up are the characters quotes from the tumblr page, both the public one and hidden ones. For Arei, these are as follows:

Public: “If I tell you a secret, will you promise to keep it?”

Hidden: “Because that’s what friends do”

And then there’s a hidden one in relation to the mysterious Mai Akasaki, who seemed to have been a friend to the entire group:

“She doesn’t like when her friends fight.”

For someone who continuously insults and looks down on the group, Arei sure has a lot of quotes in reference to friendship and trust.

Which brings me to the first part of Chapter 2, where MonoTV distributed the group’s deepest, darkest secrets...to the wrong people. And Arei, who’d previously been complaining about the situation, immediately quiets down.

She’s not making jokes, she’s not making fun of whomever’s secret she got. No, she is horrified.

This might’ve been easy to overlook after everyone is confused about not getting their own secrets, but after Arturo reveals J’s true identity to the group, Arei once again drops the jokes and complaints. She makes some pretty good points about their situation.

To me, this feels like a pretty group-oriented approach, subtly hinting she saw something really concerning and thus it’s better that they all start sharing secrets before things escalate in the four days before everything is revealed.

And the comments about having a famous parent like J are compounded here. I’m starting to get the sense Arei might’ve been neglected by her parents. Bullying and attention-seeing behavior like hers often stems from a lack of self-esteem, difficult home lives, and even being subject to bullying themselves. While Arei certainly has a high opinion of herself, what she really seems to want is attention and companionship.

I feel this makes for an interesting potential arc for her, given Despair Time’s themes of trust and betrayal. If her focus is on making and earning trust, it makes for a nice contrast to Teruko, who’s said she won’t trust anyone again and doesn’t want to leave. Like it or not, though, they’re gonna have to work together if they want to survive.

Of course, as interested as I am to see Arei’s development, it’s also a cause for concern. With how many death flags have already been raised just in part 1, both for her and for others, all we can really do is wait and see.

The True Issues With The Mean Girl Problem

Let me just say upfront what this essay isn’t about. This isn’t about how Mean Girls characters should never be made villains, this isn’t suggesting that anyone who engages in the MGP is inherently sexist or misogynistic and this isn’t about how any of the games or fangans I’ve mentioned are bad. DR3 is bad, but for numerous reasons.

No, this essay is me wanting to touch on the existence of a double standard I’ve noticed and how I feel this limits the works in terms of creativity. This isn’t a call-out post of creators in particular, just the acknowledgment of a writing problem.

Broadly, the MGP can be summarized in four points:

Mean Girl characters have sympathetic qualities to them, but they're very understated or left unexplored in the main story. Their defining feature there is being cruel or antagonistic to others.

Despite that, their bullying is often brushed aside and is simply shrugged off as annoying by the other characters. It has no impact on the story, does not catalyze character development and rarely has anything to do with their actual deaths or the death of any other character.

When they do start to undergo any significant character development, especially before Chapter 3, they tend to die more often than not.

Following their deaths, they're rarely mentioned by the narrative again, highlighting their overall unimportance to the story as a whole.

As I’ve said, a lot of these Mean Girls are much deeper than their portrayals within the main stories tend to want to explore, yet they’re often subject to much harsher criticism both in these stories, from creators and from the fandom.

On the other hand, male characters who present these traits are often given the label of The Rival, and I have to be honest in saying that a lot of Rivals end up doing things that are much worse than simply being bullies. Despite that, they all get a chance to develop:

Byakuya: Has a very condescending, classist view on everyone, and is the one who takes the entire concept of a Killing Game completely seriously. Seriously enough that he tampers with Chihiro’s body in the name of making the game more interesting, exposing Genocider Syo’s presence and figuring out who’s his biggest threat. He doesn’t give a damn about anyone but himself, at least until Chapter 4, when Makoto and Kyoko save him from getting everyone killed because he doesn’t even consider that someone might do something altruistically.

Fuyuhiko: Starts off SDR2 as a loud, antisocial asshole, one who wants nothing to do with the rest of the group (sans Peko) and who also contemplates what he has to do in order to win. He also makes threats, however baseless, like selling Mikan to a whorehouse or selling Hajime’s organs on the black market.

Kokichi: The biggest troll in all of V3 at best, and someone who self-identifies as an evil villain. A lot about his character is meant to be ambiguous, but within the confines of the story itself, Kokichi actively antagonizes and even endangers the group, from the Insect Meet-and-Greet to revealing Maki’s identity against her will, to tricking Gonta into killing Miu while believing their situation is a hopeless nightmare in order to save himself, etc.

Tsurugi: Essentially takes a page from Light Yagami in his utter dehumanization of criminals, viewing all those who dissent from his commands as potential criminals as well. His sense of justice is incredibly black and white, where killing for any circumstance whatsoever makes someone human garbage, and he’s happy to say as much. It gets to the point that he’s willing to force the group to commit mass suicide to prevent another murder.

None of this is a complaint about any of them as characters. I happen to enjoy seeing them and the roles they play in the story; Fuyuhiko gets the most development out of them all, Byakuya becomes more of a team player with his fellow survivors, Kokichi dies but is vindicated in that he helped bring an end to the Killing Game, and Tsurugi...well, that’s another matter entirely.

Tsurugi is a prime example of negative character development; not full-on villainization, but progressively becoming worse from his experiences rather than better. He doesn’t become a less violent and morally absolutist figure, but doubles down when he becomes leader of the Kisaragi Foundation, even willing to sacrifice Teruya and work with Syobai to stop Mikado.

The thing is, that’s still a form of development. It still falls in line with the concept of character progression, which the Mean Girls rarely seem to get. For them, their negative qualities aren’t brought on by the circumstances of the game, but are simply part of who they are. They’re rarely even worsened by the game itself, at least not in the same way Tsurugi is. They only seem to exist.

Now, I’ve seen some points raised about this, such as “Some people don’t change” or “They’re meant to serve as a warning about X”, and while I can understand those points, I have to ask why they don’t seem to be applied in the same way to Byakuya, Fuyuhiko or Kokichi, along with what sorts of object lessons rival characters are meant to serve as. Chapter 2 of DR1 has a solid and understandable lesson about the dangers of toxic masculinity, how succumbing to it in different ways ultimately culminated in the tragic deaths of Chihiro and Mondo.

It’s hard to have any sort of object lesson about Hiyoko, given that her death was unrelated to her bullying Mikan. It’s hard to say anything about Kizuna other than “she’s a bitch,” according to LINUJ. The closest you could get to with any sort of object lesson is probably Ruruka, but even then, it was so imbalanced and tried to show there being two sides that it doesn’t work.

Furthermore, if the goal is to show them as awful people, why is it that these characters are given so many sympathetic qualities that get people to like them, only to them cut them down in their prime and tell those audience members they were stupid for getting invested? Are they meant to be characters we hate and whose deaths we should find karmic, or are they meant to be tragic examples of someone not meeting their true potential? You can’t have it both ways, especially when those sympathetic qualities are barely touched on in the actual story.

I can genuinely see both sides of the argument; the ones that don’t like these characters because they’re bullies and the ones who want to see more because they clearly saw potential in them as characters. I completely understand why you might feel one way or the other, and I’m not saying you’re wrong.

If you want to make a character who serves as a foil to another, where both of them have similar flaws and negative qualities but one changes for the better while the other gets worse, you can absolutely do that. You can have characters who are genuinely bad people but who are still engaging. You can have mean girls, you can have rivals, you can have all kinds of wonderful creative characters like we do across this series and its fan entries.

My point with this is to show you why I feel that following the exact same character traits, and then writing them off as bad people simply because they’re bullies, feels not just uncreative, but borders on genuinely toxic and harmful. The idea that people can never change and that only bad people do bad things is not a healthy mindset to hold, especially when we might display these very traits without knowing it.

We can and should always work to be better, both as people and as writers. I love seeing people in stories and the real world learn from their experiences and grow better, hopefully with the benefit of hindsight. That can often come with needing to address the harm that’s done by actions and ideas we regret ever doing or holding, and if we look back and cringe at those moments, we do better for ourselves and others.

So what can we do here? Simple: let the Mean Girls get the same opportunities for development, growth, change and narrative impact as other characters do. As I said, it happens with Rival characters and it also happens with others through the games. Don’t restrict them or yourselves to the archetypical or formulaic writing you’ve experienced. If you don’t want to include a Mean Girl, you absolutely don’t have to.

For those that do, we also need to be willing to acknowledge and accept when mistakes are made by them, realistically approach the problem and see what can be done about it. Do they get better? Are they forgiven? What happens if they’re not? Or only some members of the group forgive them and others are hurt by those that do? Would they change by their own desire or would it be from someone calling them out on their behavior?

I know we love to say things like “X did nothing wrong” as a joke, but sometimes people will jump through mental gymnastics to justify liking a character, inventing stretched-out reasoning for why they’re not really at fault. I’ve never felt that way about any character I like; I fully acknowledge some of my favorite characters of all time have done some horrible things, and I still love them in spite of that.

If we could simply accept the idea that characters we love are and can be fucked-up people, we’d be a lot better off for it. Liking them doesn’t mean you fully support everything they do. Fictional people in fictional settings gives us a chance to explore things we may not be able to in the real world, either as a lesson, out of curiosity or for whatever reason we wish. And doing research for this essay, I can see Mean Girls have that appeal to them too, especially for those who relate to them.

I believe allowing Mean Girls to be more than just bullies is beneficial to both sides: people who want to see them move on from bullying because they don’t like bullies, and those who want to see them grow and have more prominence in the story. The multiverse of DR is rich with story potential for these characters that so rarely gets tapped to its full extent.

After all, in a series with a core theme about the importance of hope, wouldn’t it be best to show that some people do change for the better?

#danganronpa #mod talks #mod rambles #a student out of time #long post #dr1 #danganronpa thh #dr2 #danganronpa 2 #sdra2 #Super Daganronpa Another 2 #dra #danganronpa another #dr3 #danganronpa 3 #drdt #danganronpa despair time #v3 #danganronpa v3

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netherfeildren · 7 months

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what do the gods' names in chapters mean? i've been trying to think but it's been hard to make out a connection between the chapter's content and the particular deity

they're kind of vague and not entirely accurate I suppose and to be honest, but I will try and provide my own convoluted explanations for why I chose them!

apollo: the cassandra was a priestess in the greek myths dedicated to the god Apollo and fated by him to utter true prophecies but never believed. in tcc our mc harps a lot on her belief that she always knows how a thing will end, most especially in reference to her relationship with din, leading to the implication that she believes the relationship is meant to end in disaster. din is a little bit like her Apollo in her mind, this figure she meets who she sees as like the end all be all of goodness, a man with a whole sun inside of him (Apollo being the god of the sun, wasn't I clever with that? :] ) who she feels she knows she'll never be able to keep. choosing Apollo for the first chapter just seemed obvious to me when thinking of his connection to the Cassandra.

prometheus: I kind of saw her as giving din a gift when she heals him in chapter 2. prometheus gave humans the gift of fire, she gave him the gift of life. prometheus is later punished by zeus for his theft and as the story progresses you'll see that her story follows a similar pattern. but that's ALL I'LL SAY ABOUT THAT!

psyche: goddess of the soul - I felt like they kind of bared their souls to each other a little bit in this chapter. he gives her his name, she tells him about the force, about her inability to have children, they share a lot with each other and connect intimately in a way they'd not connected during their previous encounter. also also, in metamorphoses, psyche's given a series of trials she must face to be with eros, a little bit like our mc will have to face as well, even if those tribulations are of her own making :)

aite: my favorite choice thus far!!!!!! actually, and fyi, it's origin is supposed to be simply 'ate' but I didn't like the way that looked aesthetically and felt it might be confusing or something and that people would think it was like "to eat" bc that's probably what I would have thought without prior research but whatever anyways. goddess of mischief - our girl is very mischievous, that's pretty much it lol their sparring and chasing in that chapter was so funny to me, so provoking. it seemed apt. also aite was known to lead men to their ruin sooooooo will she lead din to his ruin? who knows

morpheus: god of dreams (shoutout dream of the endless) simply chosen for the dream sequence at the start of the chapter. I have nothing but horny excuses on my mind that's it

sisyphus: he cheated death and was punished by hades for it, forced to push a boulder up a hill only to fail once he neared the end, repeating the action for all eternity. I'm trying to instill a sense of the same mistakes repeated over and over again and trying to break free of that pattern. she's attacked, cheats death - or capture, and what's going to happen now? is she going to repeat the same actions - mistakes - that she's always made before din? she's very sisyphus-like over all I think

and... spoiler alert! the next chapter is titled hysminai - the personification of battle

so yes :) that's all! thank you so much for the question, I have so been waiting to share all my thoughts and reasonings on this actually hehe :)

#vic replies #TCC fic

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battleangelaelita · 11 months

Text

Because I’m back on my bullshit and apparently one major Azula-centric fic is not enough, I’ve drafted treatments for two more in between picking away at the next chapter of Cinder.

Shattered God

The first, more fleshed out of the two, I’ve given the working title Shattered God, and in vibes I’d say it’s got a healthy dose of John Le Carre spy fiction. It begins ten years after ATLA’s finale, with Azula living under an assumed name in the nascent Republic City. This is not a redemption arc fic; in the time since she escaped the asylum she was incarcerated, she’s tried very hard to just leave it all behind her.

Some days, she’s almost succeeded in forgetting about her old life. Here, as “Lazuli”, she’s made a life of her own, by her own sweat and blood. It’s something she can be proud of, an achievement that can never be taken away. She fell into the brickmaker’s trade when she arrived here, and now she’s a master of the craft. Every day she goes down to the docks with her earthbending apprentice and they buy clay, ash and chalk. They mix them in the right proportions with waterbenders working hand in hand, and they mold them into bricks. When they’ve dried, they kiln them, leaving behind something that will outlive any of them; bricks are used and re-used as structures rise and fall.

This daydream where she can forget she’s Azula ends one day when Toph arrives to arrest her. Azula decides to go quietly. This turns out to be Zuko’s rather heavy handed way of recruiting her for a special job; he’s known her whereabouts for several years and decided to let sleeping dragons lie.

There was an attempted assassination against Zuko and his wife, Fire Lady Katara. Though it failed, it was clear immediately that this plot had men on the inside. There’s a fifth column forming against the Fire Lord, and without knowing who to trust, in desperation Zuko has turned to the one person 1) canny enough to unravel the conspiracy 2) who could not possibly have been involved: Azula.

After a very tense meeting, Azula agrees with great reluctance. It’s only the knowledge that the plot also targeted the Fire Lord’s infant child that sways her, even with Zuko’s strongarming. There is no love lost, but Azula will sus out the traitors.

Act II will be Azula working clandestinely through the threads of evidence, and the many power players in the court. Faced with an overabundance of people with means and motive to be involved in a potential coup, she has to tread carefully. Azula’s not the prodigy she once was; she’s tried to leave that martial part of her life behind her, and her minimally treated PTSD poses a serious threat if she does get into a fight.

Cast-wise, Azula’s interactions, besides the unresolved conflict with Zuko and Ursa, will revolve around Aang and Mai--two people at the top of Zuko’s suspect list, but who nonetheless still are willing to help regardless of how they’ve been personally hurt by the Fire Lord and Fire Lady.

Untitled Irredeemable Azula fic

The second one is less fully fleshed out. It is at this point mostly a concept, and I am still working out how to make the plot and structure less obviously derivative. But the basic idea that has been haunting me is a burning need to create an ATLA story where Azula can play the role of the monster that some people think she is, and do so in a way that can really just pull the rug out from under the reader.

The concept has been heavily inspired by one of my favorite novels, Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks. It’s one of the few works of fiction that deploys a devastating third act twist that totally turns the reader on their head about the entire story thus far, yet has already given you ever clue you need to know the twist.

The spoiler free version is that it’s a story about a man named Zakalwe whose been spending decades playing mercenary for the good guys, fighting their fights against impossible odds because he’s got a knack for that, while trying to live with and redeem a past that’s haunted him. It’s slowly fed to the reader that many years ago on his home planet, Zakalwe and his foster brother Elithiomel had a very fraught relationship being raised in an aristocratic military family, fighting for recognition for their achievements, the affection of their family, and their place in this rigidly militarist society (does this remind you of anybody).

This conflict culminates in the two of them being major leaders on opposing sides of their country’s civil war, and the man called Zakalwe has been living in the shadow of their final confrontation and how it tore their family apart.

The challenge, of course, is keeping the twist and it’s revelation without being too derivative. It may ultimately not be worth the trouble. I’m mostly throwing this into the void with the hopes of finding at least one other ATLA fan who has also read Use of Weapons and can maybe talk sense into me.

#ATLA #fanfiction #Azula #Zuko

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whatsnewalycat · 2 years

Text

Just Dumb Enough to Try

Chapter 17: Run Away With Me

Word Count: 5k+

Pairing: Javier Peña x F!Reader

Rating: Explicit (18+ only)

Tags / CW: swearing, cheating/infidelity, smoking, smut, meeting extended family, alcohol use, let's talk about Lorraine, abandonment issues, panic attack, fluff, impact play, pain play, use of daddy in sexual context, oral sex (F receiving), PIV sex, karaoke, no Dan in this chapter hell yeah

Chapter Summary: Our heroes go on an overnight trip to San Antonio to attend a family get-together, then go out and sing karaoke.

Notes: Chapter title from "Run Away With Me" by Carly Rae Jepsen. I feel like this is one of my favorite chapters, but I also think that every week so WHO KNOWS. I just think they're cute. Alrighty, shall we?

[ First Chapter ] [ Previous Chapter ] [ Spotify Playlist ] [ AO3 ]

Hilton Palacio del Rio, San Antonio, TX July 18, 1998

Out of all of the situations you’ve put yourself in these past few weeks, this is, by far, the most reckless. Which is saying something. Not only did you disobey Dan’s specific orders not to go to a party (although, frankly, he can go fuck himself), but you went to a party with your lover. And not only did you go to a party with your lover, but he introduced you as his girlfriend to his family. Exacerbating circumstances include (but are not limited to): staying the night with him in a hotel, drinking all day in the hot sun, and displaying affection very publicly.

It’s like the stars aligned for it to happen. Dan had a softball tournament 100 miles away all weekend and wouldn’t be back until Sunday night. Javi was already planning on going to his cousin’s house in San Antonio for a party, and asked if you wanted to come with him. When you told him yes, he called around and got a hotel room for the night, then came over to watch you freak out about what to wear for a half an hour. You were finally satisfied with a red slip dress adorned with a white floral pattern.

“See, it coordinates with your outfit because you’re wearing a white shirt,” you told him while applying red lipstick in the vanity mirror.

He smiled and shook his head, eyes glued to your ass, “Whatever you say, cariño.”

On the ride out, he tried his best to prepare you for what was to come. Being that you have 36 first cousins, you were raised in the world of chaotic family gatherings. However, you haven’t seen your extended family in years, and, thus, are out-of-practice.

“Now, you don’t have to drink everything they try to give you. Because they will try to liquor you up to extract information,” he ran his hand over his face and sighed, taking his eyes off the road, glancing down at your hand, “You should take off your engagement ring.”

“Oh, sure. I never think about it, sorry,” heat rose to your face as you took it off, dropping it into your wallet for safekeeping.

“I don’t know what would be worse: everyone finding out you’re engaged to another man or everyone thinking we’re engaged,” he chuckled.

A pain radiated through your chest as you winced and mumbled, “Yeah, because being engaged to me would be horrible.”

“Fuck, that’s not- I didn’t mean it like that. I- I mean my family would jump all over you with a million questions,” he stumbled, shifting in his seat, “I don’t think that… that would be horrible. I, um, I hope that some day I’ll be able-“

“You don’t… have to tell me that, Javi, it’s fine. I get it,” you smiled weakly and lit a cigarette, rolled the window down. An awkward silence settled until you sighed, “Besides, being engaged to me isn’t that great. I heard I’m kind of a slut.”

“Well that’s perfect, I love sluts,” he grinned over at you boyishly.

You laughed and rolled your eyes at him, “I love you.”

As soon as you opened the door to hop out of Javi’s truck, you knew this was going to be a wild day. The music playing in the backyard could be heard a half a block away. You brushed off your dress and shook your hands out nervously before he strode over to embrace you and whisper, “Try not to worry, baby, they don’t bite,” into your hair before kissing you, transferring a tint of red lipstick onto his lips.

You laughed, “Red is a good color on you,” before helping him wipe it off.

The rumblings of conversation grew louder with every step up to the house. The moment he swung the door open, time started to blur. A blur of faces, names, foods, drinks, questions, comments. More than once you were compared to Lorraine; you still didn’t know what to make of that. Apparently, that’s the only girlfriend he has introduced to his family in the past 15 years. You ate so much food you thought you would fucking explode, but wished you could have somehow eaten more because it was so delicious. Javi’s cousins offered you a few drinks, which you graciously accepted, not heeding his warning, because you figured the alcohol would counteract the anxiety.

As predicted, his cousins Jose and Ricardo did try to divulge information once you had a few drinks under your belt. Javi went to go to the bathroom while you were sitting at a table, tapping your foot to the music, just looking around, observing people. The duo sat down at the table, then Jose asked how you met his cousin.

“Well,” you squinted and tilted your head, then leaned forward towards him, “We actually met a few years ago here in San Antonio. He um-” a loud laugh flew out of your mouth, “I was out with my roommate, and they went home together, ditching me at the club.”

“No shit?” Jose laughed, throwing his head back, “What an idiot.”

“We ended up talking and watching the movie IT after she went to bed. And then we got to talk more and, um, stuff when he came to visit her again,” you nodded, looking away when heat rose to your face at the implication of and, um, stuff in that sentence.

“I swear, I remember this happening,” Ricardo told you, his warm brown eyes sparkling, animated face expressing freely as he talked, “He stayed with me for a few days while he was back from Columbia. He went home with some chicks while he was here, you know how he is- er, was. But I remember this time because he came back at 5am, waking me up, telling me about ‘I watched the killer clown movie with this girl’ like, what the fuck dude let me go back to sleep?”

“That is me, I am that girl!” you smiled from ear-to-ear, pointing to yourself.

“Look, he wouldn’t want me to tell you this, but,” Ricardo leaned in to spill the tea as Jose started laughing at his brother’s antics, “When he came back after seeing you the second time, he was talking about ‘I think I found her’, like ‘I didn’t even feel this connection with Lorraine, it was fucking crazy’ and I just tried to tell him that he needs to get some sleep, man.”

You laughed and your face hurt from smiling so big, “He’s never told me that before, that’s so sweet.” Instead of basking in the after glow of the saccherine story, you feel something ugly gnawing at your brain. It's that fucking name again. After looking around to make sure Javi isn’t nearby, you inquired, “So… what's the deal with Lorraine?”

The mood immediately shifted from playful secret telling to something markedly more serious. They looked at each other, then Ricardo sat back and shook his head as if to say I’m not touching this one. Jose leaned forward, “What has he told you?”

“That it was a relationship that didn’t work out,” you responded with a shrug, then took a swig of beer.

“I guess that’s one way of putting it,” Ricardo howled, shaking his head, “That fucking guy.”

“They were engaged,” Jose explained, ignoring his brother.

“Oh, shit, really?” your eyes widened.

He was fucking engaged? Why would he hide that from me?

“Yeah… yeah. He uhh… he left her at the alter,” Jose grimaced.

There it is, that’s why.

“Oh fuck,” your eyes widened through a nervous giggle, “That is… horrifying.”

“What is?” Javi questioned as he pulled out the chair on the beside you and sat down, leaning in towards the conversation.

“You guys want to do a shot?” Ricardo offered, changing the subject promptly.

“Fuck yes,” you slapped the table, “Let’s do it.”

I’m going to save all my worrying about the Lorraine thing for later. Maybe never. Maybe I can just forget I ever knew.

Trying to avoid turning into a complete shit show and embarrassing yourself, you tapered off your drinking after this. You wanted to toe the line between socially lubricated and drunk, but started stumbling into drunk territory. When the sun started to go down, you and Javi bid everyone farewell so you could go check into the hotel. You received goodbye hugs from at least a dozen people who told you that they were happy to have met you, and they’d see you again. You were tense during the drive to the hotel, which you tried to keep under wraps as long as possible.

As long as possible just happens to be until he swings the door to your room opens. You know that you have to talk about it or you’re going to fucking detonate. It feels like you’ve been lied to, or at least misled, and the weight of that knowledge is pressing down on your chest, growing stronger every time you turn the words over in your head:

He was engaged. He left her at the altar. He abandoned the fuck out of her. Is that what he’ll do to me?

“What do you wanna do tonight?” he asks as he sinks down into the bed next to you. You swallow hard and take a deep breath.

“Ok, first thing I need to do, actually, is umm… talk to you about something... so it will stop eating away at me,” you stammer, biting down on your cheek as you look to him.

He looks alarmed as his brow furrows and he sits up on his elbow, waiting for you to continue.

“Tell me… more about Lorraine,” you request as you search his face for clues. His eyebrows raise and eyes widen as he scratches his neck, obviously trying to figure out what to tell you. Trying to figure out what you know.

“We were together for years. We were… engaged,” he sighs, looking down at his hands, then back up to meet your eyes, “I couldn’t do it. It wasn’t… right. It wasn’t real. I backed out.”

You continue to bore your eyes into him, making him squirm.

“Fuck, ok,” he groans, “I didn’t show to the wedding. Turned around on my way there. Got the fuck out.”

His words hang in the air like a cloud of noxious gas. You get lightheaded.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” you breathe, drawing your eyebrows together as your shoulders slump.

He shakes his head, exhaling in exasperation before admitting, “I didn’t want you to know about that part of me. It’s ugly.”

Doesn’t he know I’ll love every ugly part of him?

“Yeah… yeah, I get that. It’s literally my worst fear,” you swallow hard, “Is… is that going to happen with me one day where you just… can’t? And disappear without warning? Will you decide this isn’t real?” You tear up at the thought. He doesn’t respond right away, just stares, mouth agape. Long enough for you to think that maybe you shouldn’t have brought this up. Long enough for you to think that you shouldn’t have even asked his cousins about Lorraine. Long enough to think that he must trying to figure out how to tell you yes. Once those thoughts start, it’s like a floodgate has been opened.

Of course he will disappear on you too, why wouldn’t he? Especially now that you’re confronting him about something. Now that you’re upset about something.

His tendrils are in my heart, if he rips them out I will die.

Panic spreads through your body like venom, burning your veins. You stand up out of bed and start pacing, flapping your hands back and forth frantically. The sobs start to rise in your chest but you try to shove them back down. You walk over to the dresser to dig in your purse for your cigarettes.

Javi jumps up and cups your face, bringing your eyes to his as he furrows his brow, “Hey, hey, what’s going on? Talk to me.”

“I- I- I- I shouldn’t have said anything, I’m sorry. It’s none of my fucking business. I shouldn’t have tried to talk about this and ruin our night. I’m always fucking ruining things like this. Fucking crying all the time, fuck. So fucking selfish. I’m sorry, Javi,” you ramble through the fat salty tears rolling down your face.

His face drops and he pulls you into a bear hug, then kisses the top of your head and mumbles, “Don’t apologize, there’s nothing to apologize for. I’m not upset with you at all, cariño.”

You let your emotions run free as you bury your face in his chest, sobbing all of your racing thoughts into his shirt, “You don’t want me, Javi, I’m fucking crazy. Do you see this? This is me. Do you see me? This is who I don't want anyone to know. I’m broken. I’m so fucking broken. I always have been. Just- just get it over with and leave me, it’s ok. At least I’ll know, it helps if I know, I can prepare-“

“Hey hey hey heyheyhey-“ he shushes you and cups your cheeks again, stroking the tears away from your eyes with his thumbs. His lips press against your forehead, then your nose, your cheek, other cheek, your chin, your lips. He whispers, “You ruined nothing. Don’t be sorry. You didn’t do anything wrong. I’m not leaving you-“

“You will, though, you will -“ you cry. Panic has fully hijacked your brain.

“Hey, I need you to look at me,” he tells you sternly, forehead pressing against yours. You nod, then look up into his eyes, chest heaving between the two of you. The connection starts to calm you down. He whispers again now, “Take a deep breath in through your nose, out through you mouth,” you follow the instruction, releasing tension on the exhale, “Good, that’s good. Keep doing that. Now… You didn’t do anything wrong. I love you. I swear on my mother’s grave I will not disappear.”

Your body shudders with a sob, “Ok.”

“Ok. Come lay down with me, baby,” he pulls you towards the bed. You sniffle and nod, following him, then settle into a fetal position on your side and concentrate on breathing. He lays down next to you and plays with your hair as you work through your terror.

After a few minutes, he takes a deep breath and speaks softly, “I'm sorry for not telling you about Lorraine. This is real. Me and you. I don’t know what it is, but it just feels… right with you. When I’m with you, I don’t want the time to end. I love you,” he rolls over on his side to face your back, words kissing the nape of your neck, “Even when I knew you before. I know it sounds like bullshit, but I swear to god… after I met you, almost every night while falling asleep, I would think of the beautiful woman I met in San Antonio who- who watched movies with me and made me smile and,” he cautiously envelops one of your hands in his. You roll over to face him. Once he realizes you’re allowing him to keep your hand in his, a soft smile dances across his face, and he strokes your palm with his thumb.

He continues with shaky breath, “She held my hand in one of the darkest times of my life. I would think about how being with her felt… like that’s how it’s supposed to be. I felt I could talk to her about anything. How the sex was fucking incredible, as if we were made for each other,” he gulps and waits a beat before whispering, “I would think about how badly I fucked up by letting her go.”

Hands lay intertwined between your bodies as he waits for you to say something. It’s so quiet you can faintly hear your heart pounding in your chest. All those nights laying in bed, restless and lonely, longing for the connection you felt with this fucking guy, feeling pathetic, wondering if he even remembered you. And he did the same thing.

“I thought about you all the time, too,” you whimper. He squeezes your hand and the corners of your mouth turn upward, “I didn’t know it was like that for you, too. When I saw you again and you didn’t recognize me… I was devastated. I felt like… such a fucking loser.”

He sighs and licks his lips thoughtfully, then meets your gaze, “When I was in Columbia, it changed me. I don’t remember a lot of details from that time. I was just... surviving. I- I couldn’t recognize your face when I saw you in Laredo. I just knew I was drawn to you. Even after you screamed at me in the middle of a fucking parking lot,” he smiles and you burst out laughing at the memory. He continues, “But as soon as I heard your laugh, it clicked. You’re her.”

The way he says her makes heat pool in your stomach. Her. Like you’re Aphrodite herself. A goddess, the answer to a prayer. You’re breathless as the butterflies are roused and start flittering around your chest.

He brings your wrist to his mouth, parting his lips to kiss the knotted scar tissue. A reminder that he loves every part of you. Even the parts you find so revolting that you’ve spent countless hours trying to decide if they’re worth fixing, or everyone’s better off if you scrap the whole project.

You reclaim your wrist from his grasp to run your fingers through his hair. To trace the wrinkles on his face, the shape of his lips, the arch of his nose. His face softens at your touch. In just a whisper, you tell him that you love him.

The response comes in the form of a kiss, delicate at first. But it’s like when sharks taste blood and go on a feeding frenzy. You taste his saliva and need to fucking devour, arching into him as his mouth responds with the same ferocity. He wastes no time blindly yanking your dress down so he can grab handfuls of your bare tits so hard you gasp into his mouth.

“Is that too hard?” he asks, already a panting mess.

“No, no I fucking love it, baby.” you mewl breathlessly as you push yourself closer.

“Fuck,” he groans as he squeezes even harder, watching you, eyes hot on your skin, as you moan and bite your lip. It’s pain, but it makes you feel fucking electric, tugging at something so satisfying in you. After so many blue, wretched, draining feelings hurting you from the inside… you want the red, bruising, stinging feelings on the outside. To reach some kind of equilibrium. Balance the scales.

A hand slips up the hem of your dress and rips your underwear off, then rubs up and down your slit. He moans, “Fuck, baby girl you’re so wet for me,” when he feels the slick spilling out of your aching, needy cunt. You whine and nod frantically as you thrust into his hand and start to grind against it. He tightens his vice grip on your tit, making you shudder, then he releases, “I want you face down ass up.”

“I want you to get undressed,” you huff in response.

He grins and raises an eyebrow, “Your wish is my command, princess.”

This brings a wide smile to your face as you watch him unbutton his white shirt, still wet with your tears, mascara and red lipstick smeared on it.

I must look like a fucking dream right now if that’s what his shirt looks like.

You pull the dress over your head, throwing it on the floor, then prop yourself up on your elbows, ass in the air facing him. One split second after you hear his pants hit the floor, his mouth is on you, lapping your juices up. You groan, “Fuck yes, Javi,” and tilt your pussy towards him as far as you can. He starts rolling his tongue on your clit, sending you sputtering. The fire is stoked inside you, swirling around.

He pulls back from eating your pussy to slap his hand to your ass cheek, literally making you growl, “Fuck yes, daddy, keep slapping my ass I fucking love it.” He complies, smacking until you’re sure your ass is beet red. The entire concept of humanity flies out of your brain. Each lash pulls a guttural moan from your lips. He grunts and curses, watching as your cunt floods more and more.

“Holy fuck, eat my pussy again, baby, please-“

“Please daddy,” he corrects, pulling all contact off of your body.

“P- please daddy please eat my pussy,” you whimper desperately, arching back.

“Ooooh fuck baby girl,” he coos, running his fingers through your swollen lips, covering them in your slick. His tongue returns to your clit, flicking the sensitive nub, as he sinks two fingers inside you and starts to fuck you. This causes you to dissolve into a whimpering, blithering mess. The fire in your center grows wider and wider.

“Keep- keep going daddy I’m going to cum yes yesyesyes just like- that it’s fucking perfect oh-“ your mouth holds the o shape as an you convulse around his fingers, still pumping into you. You try to clamp your legs shut with no avail. He holds you there, spread open so he can work you through the orgasm. He pulls his fingers out and runs his tongue between your lips to your opening, lapping at your cum, moaning into your cunt as you writhe and whimper.

Once satisfied, he climbs on top of you, taking hold of your face to wrench it towards him, letting you taste yourself on his tongue. You reach behind and clutch his hair, pulling his face closer, licking and kissing indiscriminately. You even lick his fucking mustache, even though it feels rough against your tongue.

“I want you so bad,” he rasps, grabbing at your waist.

“Then fucking take me, Javi,” you growl, pushing your ass against him as you start to grind against his throbbing cock, “Make me fucking cum again, please, daddy.”

“Fuck, I love you,” he whispers, “get on your knees.”

As he returns to the end of the bed, you slide back onto your knees, presenting yourself to him. His fingers dig into your hips, lighting your body up with goosebumps, and sinks his cock inside you. He chokes out, “H- holy shit, baby girl, your pussy is fucking perfect.”

He drags it out, and in your state of delirium, you whimper, “Its just for you, Javi, it’s yours- nobody else can have me.”

He starts driving into you, languid and deep, taking time to bury his fat cock in your cunt as far as it can go with each thrust. It feels like every nerve ending inside you is lighting up. Javi croaks, “Fuck yes, you’re all mine, cariño,” and starts fucking you faster, snapping his hips into yours, hitting something with just the right pressure and pace.

It’s at this point you start reduce from a human into puddle, choking out moans as his cock fills you over and over again. He groans and pulls out of you to flip you over, then starts rutting into you with such speed and force, it rips a sob from your throat. He pants, “Look at me.”

When you meet his gaze, your eyebrows draw together, there’s a tangible connection between the two of you. Love pools in your center, hedonistic as it swells, making your ears ring and your legs tremble. Your foreheads press together and the whimpers you’re panting out become gasping breaths as another wave of ecstasy crashes down onto you, swallowing you whole. He cups your face and steals sloppy, frantic kisses from you when his hips stutter and he finds his release.

The kisses slow to a trickle of delicate pecks as you both start to regain humanity, sweating and gasping for air. He tumbles sideways and sprawls out next to you.

“Jesus Christ, Javi,” you pant, casting a glance his way.

“What?” he laughs while grabbing blindly for his cigarettes and ashtray.

You shake your head, unable to get rid of the dopey smile plastered on your face, “I think that’s the hardest I’ve ever cum in my life.”

He has an equally dopey smile as he rolls onto his side and lights two cigarettes, handing you one. On the exhale, he mumbles, "Fucking love magic."

You smoke in silence for a minute or two, regaining your composure and resting heart rate.

“What now?” he asks eventually.

“Ok, well, I was thinking… I’ve really been wanting to do karaoke,” you tell him, observing his reaction.

Yes? No? Maybe?

“Karaoke?” he groans with the faintest hint of interest glimmering just below the surface.

I’ll take that as a maybe.

“Come on, it’ll be fun! We’ll get drunk before we take the plunge,” you slap his chest playfully, then bite your lip and jump up, puffing on your cigarette as you float over to the bathroom mirror. The person in the reflection has mascara bleeding down her cheeks and smeared around her eyes, lipstick gone, skin and hair drenched in sweat.

“Fine,” he smiles, peering over at you through the bathroom door.

You look at him in the reflection and scoff, “First of all, don’t act like you’re not a little excited. Second of all, how could you fuck me when I look like this? I’m a mess.”

He grinds his cigarette out in the ash tray and makes his way behind you, wrapping his arms around your bare belly as his lips press against your shoulder. His eyes meet yours in the mirror and he mutters, “You’re fucking beautiful.” It’s so sincere it makes your stomach flip, smile stretching across your face. He lays a kiss on your temple then inquires with a slap on your ass, “You wanna hop in shower with me?”

—

Four.

It takes four drinks before the two of you have enough gusto to put your names on the docket for karaoke. You agree to keep your songs a secret from each other. In the meantime, you people-watch, joke around, and talk about music. He asks what your favorite musical artist is, to which you reply it’s impossible to pick one, to which he replies, “That’s absolute bullshit.”

“It’s not, there’s so much good music! I can’t choose!” you throw your hands up defensively.

“Fine, give me 3,” he slaps his hand on the bar top. You’re both a little boozy, needing the liquid courage to do the dang thing, so the conversation is growing rowdier by the minute.

“FINE,” you snarl like a brat, earning a cheeky smile from him, “Let’s see… Hole, Violent Femmes, and…” you shake around the options in your head until you decide, “ABBA.”

“I can respect those choices,” he nods, takes a long sip from his drink, then adds, “Prince and Johnny Cash are the big ones for me.”

You smile from ear-to-ear and lean your head onto his shoulder a little, “I love that. Both very worthy artists.”

“So what song did you pick?” he asks with a sly smirk, then lays a kiss on your forehead.

“Javier FERDINAND Peña you know I can’t tell you. For shame,” you gasp theatrically, then sit up straight to take a drink.

Your name comes over the speakers and it’s your time to shine.

It is… terrifying. And so fun . You sing “Me and Bobby McGee” by Janis Joplin. Javi stands close to the stage with an unshakeable smile on his face, cheering you on and swaying his hips. When the song is over, he howls WOOO so loud your face turns hot as you walk off stage.

Javi sings “Kiss” by Prince. He dances in place and points at you while singing in his falsetto voice, almost hitting the highest notes. Which is, honestly, shocking and impressive, considering how deep his voice is. While watching, you dance and sing along, face hurting from smiling. And there’s not one single doubt in your body that you are hopelessly, irretrievably, relentlessly fucking in love with him.

On the drunken amble back to the hotel from the karaoke bar, you’re in love with the world, too. You stop in this 24 hour diner to get some greasy food before going to bed.

“Do you ever, like, just stop and think about how fucking beautiful this earth is? How amazing humans are?” you ask him loudly, “I don’t know if it’s because I’m drunk, or because I’m in love, or because this is the best cheeseburger I’ve ever had in my life, but its like… I’m so happy, Javi.”

He giggles at your introspection, “I am too.”

“My best friend is coming down this week, do you want to meet her?”

“Claudia? Fuck yeah, I’d love to meet her. What day does she come in?”

“Wednesday. Maybe we can go out to the bar or something.”

He nods as he takes a bite of his cheeseburger. It’s quiet for a moment as your mind wanders from all of the lovely things in the world, into real life.

“You know what sucks? I just know when I go home, it’s going to be hell. I hate it there,” you frown, picking at the french fries on your plate, “I want to run away with you. I hate him.”

“Running away doesn’t work long term, trust me,” he dismisses the comment immediately, then reaches over to grab some of your fries and shove them into his mouth, “The chickens always come home to roost.”

“That’s not the saying,” you scoff, “It’s the rooster always comes home to the chicken.”

Laughter bubbles out of him, “You’re so wrong right now, I don’t know where to start.”

“Kiss my ass, Peña,” you shoot back, so loud that a fellow customer turns and glares at you.

He keeps laughing, then looks up at you with sparkling eyes, “Has anyone ever told you that you’re kind of a fucking brat when you’re drunk?”

You hum, “Once or twice.”

“I like it,” he coos.

“Good,” you wink.

“You’re getting better at that,” he grins, “Alright let’s go.”

[ Next Chapter ]

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why-so-serious-lucifer · 6 months

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K-pop Discography Deep Dives: TXT

A Disclaimer: I was planning, when I first started Tumblr, to be a lurker, but then I began an office job and needed something to listen to to keep myself occupied. And then, I started going through entire K-pop groups’ repertoires, album by album, and jotting down my thoughts. And then, I stumbled into K-pop tumblr and decided, you know what, there’s at least four people on this hell site who would read in depth rants about these discographies and at least five who wouldn’t read it and then get mad because it’s kind of our job as K-pop fans. My lukewarm takes should be taken with an entire silo of salt and the knowledge that this is completely for fun and occupying my very bored, very neurodivergent brain. All this to say, for the love of god, I’m a sleep-deprived student and I don’t have time for internet hate, so don’t kill me. With that being said, enjoy!

Here are my credentials: yeah…none. I think the amount of TXT songs I know can be counted on one hand, and besides one, they’re all singles. But like with BTS, I’ve been a K-pop fan for four years and I figured that it was about time I make an effort to give them a try. It’s funny; I feel like with every girl group I cover I’m like “well obviously it was July 2017 because Joy had red hair” and with every boy group I’m like “um…are there seven or eight of them again?”

But I digress. TXT was formed in 2019, by Big Hit Entertainment, with five members (and yes, it’s five, I googled it, I promise), Yeonjun, Beomgyu, Heuning Kai, Soobin, and Taehyun, and they’ve been pretty popular since then, which is an achievement in and of itself, coming from an agency best known for the biggest boy group of all time.

They debuted with double title tracks, the first of which was Crown. With the somewhat moodier image they have now, I didn’t expect to think their debut so adorable, but that’s definitely the word I’d use. Despite them being a 4th generation group, the way this is shot, the bright colors, and the comic book drawings remind me very much of late 2nd, early 3rd gen, which hey, I’m not complaining. The song, fittingly, is upbeat and bubbly, very much pop with some synthy influence. Overall, I liked it, as a 2nd and 3rd fan, but something about it doesn’t leave that much of an impact on me. Maybe it’s that I’m not the biggest fan of very young-sounding music, and this is a little too reminiscent of Chewing Gum by NCT Dream for my liking.

Cat + Dog is also from this first EP, and basically all of the comments I had for Crown repeat here, though I did like Crown more. I know that this is more me than the song, but something about this one just…creeped me out?, in a way that Crown didn’t. I know that they were young when this came out (between 16 and 19), but they’re acting like they’re 10 and it’s a bit unnerving. From the EP The Dream Chapter: Star, I liked the calmer but still poppy beat of Our Summer, though I wish it was a little slower to stand out from the other songs in the album more.

Run Away is a song I’d already heard from TXT, but I like it more in the context of their work thus far. It’s still pop, still full of that youthful energy and hope, but leans into an ethereal and nostalgic feeling, and overall feels a lot more suited to them as older teenagers. It has some good humor, and both its Harry Potter references and its message of running away from the monotony and cruelty of the real world with your friends turns it into something universal.

From The Dream Chapter: Magic, I enjoyed the odd percussion and the melodic chanting in New Rules, the gentle vocals in Magic Island, and the sweet love story between childhood friends in 20 CM. My favorite was probably Can’t We Just Leave The Monster Alive, for the interesting trope deconstruction and its encouragement of taking your own path in life.

Can’t You See Me starts with some interesting almost-stop-motion in its ruffling pages, and I couldn’t decide where I thought it was going to go. At first, it combines both the young love idea of Crown and the themes of magic and isolation from the world from Run, which work pretty well, but it soon devolves into something resembling a cry for help with its unusual structure and odd vocal fry segways. It leans very into ethereal, while speaking about the dark side of a friendship gone bad. It took me a couple listens to make up my mind, but I do like this one.

From The Dream Chapter: Eternity, I had two standouts in Fairy of Shampoo and Maze In The Mirror. Fairy of Shampoo (despite the odd name) feels a bit like floating with its citypop synth and jazzy background, and I wish it’d been promoted as a special single instead of Puma. Maze In The Mirror is another song here that was written by the members themselves about their time as trainees, the difficulties they faced, and their friendship. As I’ve said before, some of my favorite songs in k-pop are this kind of acoustic, genuine b-sides that convey such honest emotions, so of course I loved this one.

Blue Hour’s very calm vocalizing and acoustics caught me off guard before the synths I was expecting came in, and I found myself nodding my head. Like with Run, I appreciated the brightness and humor here much more than I did in the first couple of songs because I thought it was better balanced here without overdoing it on the aegyo. It’s not a world-changing song, but I did have a good time with it and it made me laugh a few times (especially with that cowboy hat because what on earth were they thinking).

Minisode 1: Blue Hour reminds me a lot of BTS’ ON album, down to having a song about COVID (in this case the aptly titled We Lost The Summer), which I can’t bring myself to actually critique because of how sweet it is, though in the year of the whoever 2023 I wince to remember 2020. Besides it, I loved the airy vocals and video game esque synthy production on Ghosting and the anthemic chorus in Wishlist.

0X1=Lovesong was another song I had already heard of TXT’s, because I happen to be a fan of Seori, who’s featured on this track, and I have to say that my biggest gripe with the track is that she’s just not featured enough, but that’s really the only criticism I have of this one. I confess that I love this song, and it was actually the reason I wanted to do this review. Remember how I called Wishlist anthemic? Well, clearly I don’t know the meaning of the word, or didn’t until I heard this song. It takes TXT’s youthful energy and pairs it with a full on alt-rock ballad. It feels like a follow-up to Run with its immaculate roadtrip energy, and though the verses are a bit slow, that chorus is just a knockout and just makes me want to be a kid again, grab my best friend’s hand, and run for the goddamn hills. Probably won’t be lighting a car on fire, though, sorry.

Far be it from me to dissuade from some extra drama, but LO$ER=LOVER…well, it’s giving full on “when I was…a young boy…my father took me into the city…”. No but really, I want to think that this level of ridiculousness is some kind of intentional My Chemical Romance parody, because it’s honestly hilarious. It has some of that anthemic quality that I so loved in Lovesong, but that great build-up in the front half of the chorus is just undercut by a lack of payoff and the abject silliness that is “I’m a loser, I’m a loser, lover with a dollar sign is a loser.” I think that I would like this more if I was sure that the joke is intentional, but I’m honestly not sure that it is. Either way, they’re clearly having a lot of fun with this, so it’s tough to dislike.

From The Chaos Chapter: Fight or Escape, I have a lot to talk about, since it’s such a long album. Firstly, I already knew the chorus of Anti-Romantic due to its popularity, but I liked it more in context with the rest of the song. No Rules (which I assume is a follow-up to New Rules) has a great beat and in my humble opinion, there’s never enough disco. MOA Diary, a song for their fans, is very sweet and I can totally see it being a crowd favorite at a concert; I loved the harmonizing. Dear Sputnik was probably my favorite though; it’s another song written by one of the members and has an excellent alt-rock drive that totally should’ve made it be the single instead of LO$ER=LOVER.

Good Boy Gone Bad had me wincing before it even began, because the title already hints towards more non-self aware drama. And it turns out my instincts were right, because while LO$ER=LOVER is so ridiculous it’s basically camp, Good Boy Gone Bad just had me rolling my eyes and wondering not why the good boy had in fact gone bad but why I had to hear about it. Also why Yeonjun was driving a motorcycle in a faux fur coat, but that’s a story for another time.

From the EP Thursday’s Child, which is the second “minisode”, I liked the intro Opening Sequence more than I expected, mostly due to the charisma in their vocals, which really do the heavy lifting in such a minimalistic song. I also enjoyed Trust Fund Baby (give it a chance, I know the title doesn’t inspire confidence), again due to the strength of their vocals and the emotion they carry, when singing a song about a relationship that’s ended due to poverty. This is overall a very melancholy EP, a sharp contrast to Blue Hour’s optimism. Even the more synthy Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go isn’t totally upbeat, but as an album closer, it does hold a little hope that things won’t always be bleak and ended up being my favorite.

Sugar Rush Ride is, thankfully, a return to the synthy, ethereal, upbeat sound that has become TXT’s signature for its verses and pre-choruses, but for some reason opts for a very simple whistling hook and an incredibly jarring anti-drop chorus instead of resolving its great build-up. The bridge, likewise, feels harsh in what’s otherwise a calm song, and honestly, I find this song more disappointing than I would if it used a style I hate throughout, because I really enjoy the greater part of it…but I just can’t get past that chorus.

From The Name Chapter: Temptation, there’s three b-sides I want to talk about. Devil By The Window is a fully English song, which normally I would complain about, as I often do. But this one’s actually really good; it’s tense, attention-grabbing, and has a very taut arrangement. Also, this is probably me reading too much into it, but the chorus is giving me such queer energy (“I met the devil by the window, traded my life, temptation touched my tongue, spread the wings of desire. He’s whispering ‘give up, don’t you put up a fight.’”). But…c’mon guys, maybe I’ve missed something, but last time I checked straight people don’t get seduced by random devils of the same gender standing near their window, but hey, how should I know?

Besides that, I also liked the acoustic guitar in the pop-rock Farewell, Neverland and the chill vocals here as they sing goodbye both to a childhood lover and to childhood as a whole. Tinnitus (Wanna Be A Rock) pleasantly surprised me with its Afro-pop influences, because it’s not a common pairing in k-pop and I was surprised by how well it works here. Also, apparently some of the members wrote both of these, so kudos!

Do It Like That is an English-language collaboration with the Jonas Brothers, and between its very mainstream pop sound, the English, and its beat, I admit that it gave me war flashbacks to Dynamite. Here is where I invoke my disclaimer of: Dynamite is not a bad song (see my way-too-long BTS review for a whole two paragraphs of thoughts on that), but k-pop doesn’t need to try and replicate it. I know that this is totally down to my own bias, because Do It Like That isn’t a bad song either, but I won’t be returning to whatever concerningly white void they filmed this in anytime soon.

Back For More is another English-language collaboration, this time with Brazilian singer Anitta. I was preparing myself for another paragraph of disclaimers and having to do some overly dramatic sighing, but actually, I liked this! It feels like any other TXT single with its disco influences and catchy beat, just in another language, as it should be. I also appreciate that they collaborated with a Latin pop star, who sings in both English and her own language too, which made it feel less like a cop-out. The first time I heard this one, it was the shortened version that they performed at the VMAs, but the longer version with the bridge really elevates the song and I’m glad I watched it. It’s not my favorite but I’m not going to throw a tantrum if it comes on.

Chasing That Feeling is from their latest comeback just a month or so ago. I was feeling optimistic from the first verse’s beat, although after being burned by Sugar Rush Ride, I was still a bit wary. But, thankfully, Chasing That Feeling does what it predecessors didn’t do: it delivers, with those head-bopping synths, citypop influences, and electronic background. I admit that I wish it had a bit more of a climax and went against the grain, but it’s hard to not be won ever when a song’s chorus starts by saying “I’ve turned my back on heaven” and telling fate “come on and kiss me”.

The Name Chapter: Freefall is another full length album, so I have a lot of highlights. I loved the exploration of a harsher version of rock mixed with metal in the teen angst driven Growing Pain, which their voices were surprisingly suited to. I also enjoyed the vulnerability and slowing rising vocals in Deep Down’s pre-chorus, the acceptance that “life is not a fairytale” but is still worth living in Happily Ever After, and the moody Skipping Stones, which tells the listener not to be too hard on themselves, because what they’re going through will pass. I think that Skipping Stones was also written by the members themselves.

So, I enjoyed this more than I expected! I confess that I did expect something similar to BTS, which is probably unfair given the fact that besides having the same company, they have nothing to do with each other. Calm down, I’m not laminating my stan card just yet. I’m not a MoA, but I think that I could probably consider myself at least a casual fan after this. We’ll see how it goes. Maybe the next comeback will absolutely blow me away.

My Top 5 songs are Lovesong, Run Away, Thursday’s Child Has Far To Go, Dear Sputnik, and Maze In The Mirror, with Skipping Stones as an honorable mention. TXT gets an 8.75 out of 10 from me, which, again, is a surprise for both of us. I do love synth, rock pop, and disco, and I’m excited by the fact that they’ve already written a bunch of songs. Here’s hoping that they keep getting better and they end up getting as much creative freedom as some entirely self-produced groups.

We’ll be covering a girl group next week (that was supposed to be a one parter but accidentally became two posts long, oops), so stay tuned! Tschüss!

#k-pop #review #k-pop deep dive #k pop boy groups #txt #tomorrow x together #yeonjun #beomgyu #taehyun #soobin #heuningkai #chasing that feeling #run away #lovesong #sugar rush ride #can’t you see me #Spotify

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the-algebra-thing · 19 days

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okay so I'm reading east by edith pattou because it is one of flynns favorites and he's been telling me to for probably years at this point. what this means is that I'm finally reading a book flynn has already read rather than one he wants to read (deerskin) or that I want him to read (captive prince, and he'll realize how bad he wants to read it immediately I swear. it's literally tailored to so many of his preferences) and thus I can feel completely and entirely confident saying whatever the fuck I want to about it on here without fearing that he will see it.

so. my very first thought is holy shit it's already all coming together, which is actually just because I am beginning to understand why it's titled east and the setup of this directional theme is super exciting to me. I'm obsessed with cardinal directions and spatially symbolic thinking. my second thought is I loveeeee how circular this feels. I've read a chapter from father's perspective, then one from neddy, then one from rose herself, and I'm starting another father chapter rn. so far these chapters are pretty short (especially compared to deerskin lmfao whose chapters were at least ten pages with twice as much text on them as these) and i am SOOOO much a fan of the way we are circling the yet unvoiced idea that we've been referencing this entire time. this is awesome

#in unfathomable detail #east #edith pattou

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raccoon-eyed-rebel · 11 months

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✨If you get this, someone thinks you are awesome!✨

✨Send this anon to 10 blogs that make you happy when you see them on your dash ✨

Hi anon, anon, anon, anon, anon, and anon. I hope you'll forgive me that I'm just gonna answer this once - but with a li'l twist!

I love that people took time out of their lives to tell me they think I'm awesome; I think they're all awesome, too! Now instead of answering this six times and then sending this on to 10 people anonymously... I'm gonna call out the people I was gonna send this to publicly! With a little bonus...

It has to be @geralts-yenn! I couldn't call myself her rodent bestie if I didn't have this number 1 spot reserved for her. Now, first this bitch wonderful person writes me Ray of Sunshine, a modern-day Melot AU wet dream filled with bikers and beaches and sex, but she also hit us with anahita - a Napoleon smutfic so hot you'll be sweating like a whore in church before you're even through the first paragraph. Go read that. You're welcome.

Next, we've got my co-Dutchie @keanureevesisbae, who is busy with her own projects instead of fanfics nowadays. Still: Go read endeavors and thank me later. Or, if you're into a little RPF and want to live life vicariously through sugarbaby Becky there's also sugar sugar, which is very nice as well... (I just want a man to come take me shopping, okay?)

@deandoesthingstome is an amazing writer, I am often jealous of her way with words, and she is one of the kindest people I know on here. Go read Holiday Angel. It has everything. A luxurious mansion to mentally vacay in for a bit, gentle!Dom!August, forbidden fruit romance. It's a long one, but so, so worth it... Another good one? Why, of course! Hall Pass. Just read it. She also deserves a shoutout to being one of the most supportive readers in this entire fandom

They haven't been on here long, but my tumblrverse would already be so incomplete without @ellethespaceunicorn! Not only did they write Treat Me Like A Slut, which has August just the way we like him; dominant and deep inside you, they also found it necessary to write Make That Kitty Purr. And I agree. It was necessary. Nevermind that my babyboy Mikey gets hurt, I'll forgive Elle for that because this shit was so fucking good.

Next up we've got @peyton-warren, who only recently returned from a little Tumblr hiatus, and I thus haven't spoken that much just yet, but the drabble Arresting and Arrested should be enough to get you to take a look at the rest of her masterlist.

Go check out @mayloma, creator of Behind The Curtain, which has a lovely August and some anal action - which means I'm always game! She's also very sweet. I know I haven't read much of her stuff, but if I ever get my act together and get reading again, Yenn assured me there's some Sy to check out here.

It's no secret I don't particularly like my Sy's in the military, which makes it all the more impressive that @sillyrabbit81 wrote one that I did fall head over heels in love with! He's in Even if you don't mean it, and if you haven't read that, go do it now. And I do mean that. Then, perhaps my all-time favorite fic so far has to be The Fallen Wolves Brotherhood. Maybe I should elaborate on that, probably, but instead I'm just gonna say: Bikers. Proceed with caution, because when that next chapter hits, you're gonna have to pause Criminal Minds. I'm also going to leave the link to Prying here, because it's so fucking dirty it melts my brain a little every time I re-read it.

Now, we all love seeing @angryschnauzer on our dashes, keeping things horny on main and yeeting the occasional fic into the dark void that is this hellsite. For instance Cuddles and Snuggles, an unholy combination of Mike and Charles - something that had never even crossed my mind - and a guest appearance from sugardaddy August. Mad perfection. Now my next rec for her may be a little odd, because she makes it very clear that it's a crack fic; Full Mast. I'm a sucker for everything pirate - and so is reader... just check out Part 2...

@poledancingdinos amazed me with You've got me hooked, which has stripping and sex work and Sy, who is great. I think I read this entire (or almost entire?) series in a single night while I was in bed. Couldn't stop... She's also responsible for Soundtrack of Debauchery, which I still haven't finished, because my ADHD has been a bitch, but I started it, and it was very good!!!

#10

And last but not least: @littlefreya. I'm fairly sure there are still things on her massive masterlist I haven't read, and a lot of which I read in my pre- and early fandom tumblr days, and haven't reblogged (for which I apologize, by the way). The sheer vastness of her masterlist makes it a bit tricky to pick, but let's go for some delightful dark fics; The Devil's Tongue and Destroyer of Angels

SO: The challenge. If you're on this list (or if you're not on this list, this is an open invitation to everyone!) rec some fics! Write an essay, like this one, or don't. Toss a few names and some titles in a list and be done with it, that's fine. Recommend one, or ten, or twenty authors. Hell; Recommend yourself! Recommend your favorite artist, link some art! Spread the love!

#anon ask #anon positivity #spread the love #fandom is community #I woke up with an unexpected amount of energy today #fic rec #not mine #author rec list

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mania-sama · 2 months

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If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top favorite fics that you've written (feel free how much that you want to list)? Why they're special to you? Is there a specific inspiration when you wrote them?

Thanks if you want to answer.....

Hello! Thank you so much for sending in an ask, this is so exciting!! I would LOVE to answer this question!!

I've grown and changed a lot over the years since I began writing fanfiction when I was like, ten years old. Some of the fics I'm going to list aren't objectively well-written or my best work thus far, but they still have a special place in my heart for whatever reason. This question is so fun and I actually think about this all of the time. A lot of my most popular fics are ones that I'm not particularly proud of myself, so I'll gladly take the opportunity to talk about the ones I do like!!

In no particular order:

rule #8 - otherside [Bungou Stray Dogs] -> I wrote this for my Whumptober prompt series (which currently makes up a HUGE chunk of my works right now lmao). The reason I like this so much is mainly because I really enjoyed writing it. I've always wanted to write a fic where a character's mouth gets stitched shut, but I never got / found the opportunity to do so. Then Whumptober came around. I think I executed it well enough, especially since I chose Akutagawa, who struggles with breathing on a good day. If I get to grind my favorite characters through the Whump Machine, then I'm always very happy. I guess I just like this specific trope leaps and bounds better than all of the other ones? X

with every line, a comedy [Genshin Impact] -> I had a lot of fun writing this one, too. I got to explore PTSD in a way I'd never had before, going through the eyes of someone entirely disconnected from the traumatic event but knows the person being affected by it. It's my longest completed work, too; I write mainly short one-shots, around 1-4k words on average. This was a bigger project for me, and the first long-fic I've ever finished. I also used one of my favorite albums for the fic and chapter titles, so every time I listen to the songs, I think of this fic. I just. Really love this fic. X

Dear Kaeya, Signed Diluc Ragnvindr [Genshin Impact] -> I like this fic a lot because it's stylized very differently from everything else I've written. While not being an x reader, it is technically in second person, like I, the narrator, am talking to the reader. It's written in that same "talking" way, too. So I don't use any dialogue tags or anything like that. That is all for the second portion of the fic, though. The first half is made up entirely of letters the Diluc is sending to his adopted brother. I don't write him writing the letters, it's just the letters themselves. You read it like he's talking to you, in a sense, but the reader knows it's directed at Kaeya. It was a very fun and cool way to explore a new writing convention. X

the difference between hurt and injured [Genshin Impact] -> Lots of Genshin, I know, but this was when I was starting to fully fledge as a writer. A lot of my gradual progress can be seen through these fics, and this is a really good one to use as a comparison. This is my first attempt at much more serious writing, I think. It's longer than anything I had written at the time, sitting at a nice 20k words I wrote in the span of a few days. In general, it has a lot of things I really wanted to write about: the failures of the foster care system, complex / failing relationships, and the consequences of failing to act. The title comes from something an old softball coach would say, and I hated it but I could never get it out of my head. So I used it to title the fic, and it relates very well to what happens in the fic. Diluc is the "hurt" portion; he's fine, really, but his stubbornness makes him think his wounds are still bleeding. Venti, twelve years old in this for the sake of the AU, is "injured"; he is not fine. His wounds are bleeding, and he's doing the best he can to patch it up before he bleeds out, but more keep opening and he doesn't know what to do. X

rule #13 - waterfall [Jujutsu Kaisen] -> I like this fic because of the idea, more than anything. I have a very specific image of Megumi falling into a coma after Itadori saves his soul from Sukuna. If I could write this fic a million different times, I would. I simply love this vision. I also got to talk about literature, because Itadori is reading books to Megumi. Another idea I love that I got to convey through this fic is the idea of souls being separated from their comatose bodies. It provides an interesting take on being caught between life and death. I won't lie, I was probably inspired by one of my favorite fics of all time, When I Awake. But I also think it comes from a series I read when I was younger, the Serafina series. In the last book, the main character's body gets split into three different parts: flesh, spirit, and animal. Very interesting, and I think it's stuck with me for all of these years. X

rule #17 - two sides [Genshin Impact] -> Another case of finding a new writing convention. I wanted to focus more on external and internal dialogue to be the main contributors to the story, though I'm not sure how well I achieved this goal. It's crime-focused, and I wanted to slowly reveal the information rather than it being outright known off the bat. I wanted to put these characters who obviously know and trust each other very well into a situation where all of that shatters, where one is at the complete mercy of the other's decision, where both of them are suffering from the same crime, but one of them is the suspect of that crime and the other is the main investigator. SO much fun!! X

rule #26 - gideon [Bungou Stray Dogs] -> This one I debated heavily on adding, but I'm going ahead with it anyway because I happened to realize I really, really love this one. It's just Atsushi and his backstory, but if there were no abilities. He escapes, and Chuuya and Dazai happen upon him on the road. It's simplistic in comparison to some of the others on this list I think, but I love Atsushi and I love his horribly messed-up backstory with all my heart. Along these veins, I'm going to put rule #31 - calamity [X] as an honorable mention. Another horribly messed up backstory where Atsushi stars as the tortured main character, and I happened to really enjoy writing and thinking about it. The final honorable mention is rule #15 - four aces [X] where I toy with Dazai's character, and what it would mean for him to have finally defeated Fyodor. X

Again, thank you so much for asking!! Most of my works are on Ao3, so if you're curious to read more, I have a lot there! Much love <3

#fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 fanfic #ao3 #ao3 writer #archive of our own #fanfictions #answered asks #genshin impact #jujutsu kaisen #bungou stray dogs #jjk fic #genshin fic #bsd fic #bsd #jjk #genshin

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eclysia · 9 months

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Hi!! You reblogged my pokemon fan games post and I would love to hear your full rec list 👀👀 I’ve been interested in pokemon rejuvenation and thinking about trying it out once I finish playing pokemon insurgence!

oh i have lots! im going to throw some rom hacks in the bundle as well. ill sort them by rom hacks and fangames.

here we go!

ROM HACKS:

Emerald Rogue is the way to go if you want a roguelike experience like TBOI or Hades! There's virtually no story, but it's quite a lot of fun to play and has lots of replay value, fit with sidequests and challenges with intriguing rewards.

Recommended if you want to jump right in and get to battling, testing your skill!

Unbound is a ROM hack that truly has it all; fit with an original story and region, postgame, difficulty options, and the CFRU engine that has added a myriad of QOL features to Fire Red hacks, it is undoubtedly one of the very best hacks of all time! It also has an original soundtrack!

Recommended if you want to play a story-driven game with countless quality-of-life features!

Gaia is a more grounded ROM hack that could very easily fool me for a mainline game; this is a compliment, as it's wonderfully done! It has a plot centralizing around the legendary golems, an original region and characters, and flavor that just feels homey. (This also maaayy be getting an update in the future, so keep that in mind.)

Recommended if you're looking for a casual but intriguing experience!

Onto the fangames- I have an extensive list, but I'm going to keep it at three games each since this post is getting quite lengthy.

I won't go in depth on these two since you've played one and are going to play another, but Reborn and Rejuvenation are musts for me! With that out of the way,

Tectonic is a fangame that turns the entire Pokemon experience on its head. Rather than EVs, Style Points can be freely distributed and taken away. Every Pokemon has been reworked from the ground up, and there are even new status effects like Dizziness and Numbness. The plot revolves around the Avatar Phenomenon, ghostly apparitions of Pokemon wreaking havoc across the region, and racing your brother for the title of Champion to gain the approval of your cold-shouldered mother.

There's quite a steep learning curve, but I think it's worth it; this is one of my favorite plots in a fangame thus far.

Recommended if you want to shake up the original Pokemon formula!

Desolation is the third major 'Rebornian' game along with Reborn itself and Rejuvenation. It plays similarly to the other two, with a cohesive, dark plot and field effects, difficulty, and choices that have consequences. It also features gorgeous art and a lovely soundtrack!

What is it your dream? Is it to be a hero..?

Recommended if you enjoyed pretty much anything about Reborn!

Flux is the final fangame I will be recommending today. It's quite incomplete, with one chapter of three being finished, but it more than makes up for it with the story content, gameplay, and gorgeous art. It's also the only fangame in this list that consists almost entirely of Fakemon; some may even seem familiar!

The same people who created Uranium (also do recommend) are currently working on Flux, and some designs have been remastered and carried over into the new game.

Recommended if.. you're breathing. This fangame is amazing. I love it!

If that's not enough, some people over on the Reborn Discord have compiled a list of virtually every ROM hack and fangame out there, with the means to filter to your tastes. I hope it suits you well!

#i hope you enjoy my recommendations!#rotund-spheal

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skywalking-through-life · 6 months

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I know imma lil late for the WIP title game but I’m here!! lol anywayyyy i was looking thru and there are just so many to choose from i was like imma ask about this one oh no wait what bout this one?? lolol but seriously for my ask i have 2 and you can choose which one you wanna do but it’s the Poseidon and Ms. Lafayette parent teacher conference or the fed kidnapping one which 👀👀 I’m actually really intrigued by but whichever you choose lol 🫶🏽🫶🏽

Hello there, dear friend! You are not at all late, but I am so excited that you decided to send me an ask even though you thought you were! 💙

You are too sweet - there ARE a lot of potential ones to ask about, lmao, because I have no chill and make notes about every idea I have. And I'm happy to say that I've actually already answered the Poseidon-Ms. Lafayette parent-teacher conference one here...

...so you're going to get an answer to both! I am honestly SO thrilled that you asked about the Fed kidnapping fic, because I have been DYING to talk about it! The amount of space it takes up in my waking and sleeping thoughts is CONSIDERABLE. Just the outline is right now is as long as [conduct not unbecoming]! 😭 I'm still holding a lot of cards close to my chest regarding this fic, but I'll give you some basics, and a tiny snippet of my outline! But before I do, just a heads up: this fic is actively going to explore darker topics and themes than I've explored in any of my published writing thus far. Characters are going to get seriously physically and psychologically hurt, face some pretty sadistic enemies, and have to reckon with some really intense moments. Because it is me I can promise 1) no major character death, and 2) a happy ending, but there will definitely be suffering before that happens. See more below the page break. 💙

Essentially, it is going to be one long sequel to my entire 'Percy's senior year (mis)Adventures' series (you'll see why once it's out), and it will be set just after his sophomore year at New Rome University. He and Annabeth are back in NYC for the summer, Annabeth has an internship, but he's still trying to figure out how to spend his summer. He's got some tentative hopes and plans, but because he's Percy Jackson...well, does anything ever go right for him? Here's a chunk of what will become the first chapter. You'll probably be able to tell what I mean by 'Fed kidnapping' after this. 😉

"Percy absently unlocks the front door, arms full of bags, not looking up but calling to his mom that he's home.

It's as if the apartment is holding its breath. No one greets him, he looks up, concerned. "Mom?"

A toddler's squeal is heard from the living room, and is abruptly cut off.

He doesn't even stop to put down the bags, palms Riptide but doesn't upcap yet, comes charging in…and is brought up short by the presence of men in dark suits surrounding his terrified parents and baby sister. More suits emerge from the kitchen, weapons drawn.

Percy thinks for a moment about fighting, but freezes when the suits in the living room also draw their weapons and point them at him. He stiffens and holds his bag-laden hands away from his body. Too many guns to risk an open fight, not in this setting.

A suit who looks like he might be the leader has been sitting in Percy's favorite chair, cool as a cucumber, the whole time. With everyone frozen, he stands and casually starts talking. He is bland and boring looking, very gray, and he looks oddly familiar to Percy - though he can't figure out why.

"Hello, Perseus."

"Who the hell are you?" (Angry but controlled, eyes darting)

"An excellent question. But we need not concern ourselves with those particularities right now." (Smiles placatingly)

Percy gives him a withering look.

"Now now, none of that. Your country is in need of men like you, son." (Charming, but only barely, flashes an official-looking badge)

"If this is the beginning of some kind of weird military recruitment spiel, don't bother. I heard enough of those in high school. I'm, uh…a pacifist." (Wary, thinking frantically)

"A pacifist, eh? Been in a lot of fights for someone who doesn't believe in violence," Rattles off a brief list of Percy's history of school incidents. (Still barely charming)

Percy is shaken by how much this guy knows, but doesn't want to show it. How does this guy know who he is? Who is he?

"...so don't try to lie to me, boy. It won't end well for you." (A hint of real menace)

Percy wants to snark back, but his danger sense warns him to shut up…for now. Probably not for long.

"Now, if you're done with the smart remarks, this is how this is going to work. You are going to put those bags on the floor. You are going to turn around, and you are going to put your hands on the wall behind you. You will be searched and secured. You will not resist. And you will come with us, quietly."

Percy is still, mind racing. This is no military recruitment spiel. So why does the government want him? Do they still think he's a potential domestic terrorist, or have they discovered he's more than meets the eye? So he falls back on the old standby: making fun of his enemies. "Very original, 007. What movie are you stealing all the cheesy lines from?"

Lead Suit does not like Percy's attitude, but mostly stays cool - only small cracks appear in the armor. But he now gives a command, and suddenly red laser dots appear on the heads of his mom, Paul, and Estelle.

"I don't think you really appreciate the gravity of your situation, Mr. Jackson. Should you not decide to cooperate with us…well, actions have consequences."'

...dun dun dun! So yeah, I think you can parse out where this might potentially be going. 💀 I'm actually incredibly excited to write it, to get it out of this abbreviated form and onto ao3! But I have to finish 'Percy's senior year (mis)Adventures' first, or a bunch of things won't make sense. 😉

#moonfrost you win the prize!#this is the one I was really really really hoping someone would ask about!#I hope you'll enjoy it when it comes out if it isn't too dark for you!#If it is no worries I get it!#pjo hoo toa cotg #percy jackson fic #percy jackson fanfiction #pjo fic #percy jackson #fed kidnapping fic #kidnapping #threats #guns #violence #wip title game!

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karalynlovescake · 1 year

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2023 writing list

Not exactly a New Years resolution, as those don't often pan out, but more of a personal checklist. Please feel free to stroke my ego by asking me about any of these. If I remember I'll update with links as I finish.

I did not expect to start writing again in 2022, and the fact that I did is completely because of Sandman and the amazing tumblr fandom for it. So. Things I would like to write/finish in 2023:

1.) Black Unicorn AU: it has languished while I put off rereading the source material and write other things. I know HOW it ends but I don't like the ending scene I've written and until I do it won't click. But no one else is going to write this one so we'll keep working on it.

2.) He Would Not Say That: which has expanded to the point where I'm overwhelmed by it and overthinking the morality of fucking your boyfriend's dream subjects, which is a buzzkill because it was supposed to be very un serious sex comedy. Hob would give Chidi Anagonye a massive stomach ache if I could justify the crossover.

3.) Crack one-shot: Come Live With Me and Be My Cat - a spin-off of love to Avelera’s amazing fic and inspired by that great picture that @twottie-m8 did of Hob throwing Cat!Dream at the Corinthian

4.) Some kind of SandOmens side piece PROBABLY attached to Least of These so we can have a good fun "you built a what to whom" reaction from Aziraphale and Crowley.

4a.) The Next Level - wrote this instead, a very soft fluffy little piece where Dream asks Aziraphale and Crowley for advice on being the type of friends who hold hands. We'll see if that scratched my itch to write SandOmens.

5) Actually, let’s throw The Least of These on this list. Didn’t include it before because I started it in Nov/Dec, but it was SUPPOSED to be a soft smutty 5k and now it is 25k and is more plot than smut, and has taken up more of my time than I anticipated

6) As of yet untitled longfic #1: if published will be two separate works, part one a setup of "Dream shows up every couple of years for sex, but in a different disguise every time because he thinks he's smart" and part two is your standard fishbowl rescue/let's rewrite season 1, because we like them. I want this to be better than I feel I'm capable of writing but I keep plonking away at it, and it's 16k words already, which is too much for me to give up on.

7) A Secret Third Thing: (not actual title) where I come to terms with the fact that in killing off Morpheus by having him put half his soul in the Corinthian I accidentally made an OC that I'm kind of interested in.

8) Honeymoon piece: I don't want to write the wedding, that sounds exhausting, but Hob wants to honeymoon somewhere he hasn't been where they can just be themselves, and Dream takes him to a little side project he, Delirium and Destruction started a few centuries back: a friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while everyone pretends to sleep. The King of Nightmares is a minor celebrity in Nightvale, and he gets to show off his new husband. Silly.

8a) I did, in the end, write a wedding, if a rather hasty one, so we have: Then maybe, maybe, maybe you'd stay which was written almost entirely in 72 hours in a tiny hotel room in a foreign country 6000 miles from home, after my husband's passport got stolen 15 hours before we were supposed to fly home, thus turning the end of our dream vacation into nearly a literal nightmare. Apparently I stress write. You learn things when you travel.

9) The Financial Crimes of Hob Gadling, only of I can think of a way to do it that shows off my special interest without publishing a "How to crime" guide.

10) Longfic #2, working title "All the Things That Lie Undone" - loosely based off the plot of a favorite out of print smutty historical romance novel. Basic plotline is worked out, but so far all that's written so far is the first two chapters and one sex scene.

11) Longfic #3 which has eclipsed all desire to work on Longfic #2, which will hopefully be my Centennial Husbands Big Bang entry.

12) Anything I want, there are no rules, I have permission to have fun and make myself feel happy.

#writing #new years resolution

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twistedtummies2 · 1 year

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Top 15 Portrayals of the Scarecrow

A while back, I did lists for what many would consider the four key villains of Batman: Joker, Catwoman, Penguin, and Riddler. I recently updated those countdowns, should you wish to go back and revisit them. However, lately, I’ve been on sort of a kick for another great antagonist of the Caped Crusader…that being the Master of Fear himself, Scarecrow.

Jonathan Crane, a.k.a. Scarecrow, is perhaps one of the most analogous villains to Batman himself in the Dark Knight’s Rogues Gallery. While all of Batman’s best villains tend to parallel the hero in some fashion - either acting as a dark reflection of the Caped Crusader, or as a direct contrast to him - I would argue the Scarecrow is the one who most obviously and directly has this comparable element. Batman’s entire modus operandi revolves around intimidation and fear; he dons the trappings of a mysterious creature of the night and behaves in seemingly ghoulish ways as a means of frightening his opponents. He is also a being of great intelligence and cunning, using his scientific and deductive reasoning to outwit and pursue his antagonists.

The Scarecrow mirrors this quite directly: Jonathan Crane is a psychiatrist, a brilliant man, who wears a creepy costume and uses a variety of weapons to instill fear and spread terror and horror throughout Gotham City. The most notable of these weapons is his patented Fear Toxin: a hallucinogenic substance that causes people to experience their worst fears with shocking realism. The difference is that while Batman uses his mind and his scare tactics to mortify criminal scumbags, the Scarecrow is far, FAR less moral: abused and tormented constantly as a child by his family and his peers, Crane is an out-of-control sadist who wants nothing more than to see all of Gotham City scared quite literally to death. Sometimes he uses the excuse of furthering the cause of science as his motivation, but it’s always clear that Crane is simply a cruel man lashing out at what he perceives to be an equally cruel world. In a way, he is the most obvious example of who Bruce Wayne could have become if he’d allowed his heart to be twisted to evil.

The Scarecrow is a villain who has had a steady sort of rise in popularity over the course of his long career in comics. He’s more popular nowadays than he probably ever has been, but he’s not quite as iconic as characters like Joker or Catwoman. Still there’s been some decent reinterpretations of him beyond the comics. So, today, I’d like to give attention to my favorites! Without further ado, here are My Top 15 Portrayals of Scarecrow!

15. Dave Wittenberg. Wittenberg provided the vocal effects for the Scarecrow in the first LEGO Batman Video Game. (In the first game, none of the characters actually spoke, they just…sort of made noises. XD ) In the first game, Batman has to take down three separate groups of allied villains, each with their own sinister plots to foil. The Scarecrow is one of several villains - including Harley Quinn, the Mad Hatter, and, of all people, Killer Moth - who joins forces with the Joker in the third chapter of the game. He agrees to help in an elaborate scheme that will destroy Gotham Cathedral, and spread a deadly gas all across the city. Scarecrow serves as a playable character on the villain’s side of the story, as well as in the “freeplay” mode of the game; for the hero side of the story, he is the designated “vehicle boss” for the Joker’s chapter of the game, as he uses a suped-up crop duster to spread his Fear Toxin across the city. The heroes thus have to hop into the Batwing to stop him. The character would later reappear in other LEGO titles, but this was the only major role he ever really played. Playing as the Scarecrow - even in LEGO form - is a lot of fun, and the biplane boss is pretty cool, too; ultimately, I just feel other Scarecrows are more impressive.

14. Jim Meskimen. Meskimen voiced the Scarecrow in the gloriously wild crossover film, “Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Loosely based on the comic book miniseries of the same title, the story focuses on Ra’s Al Ghul and the Shredder working together in a mad scheme to - of course - destroy Gotham City. As part of their elaborate plan, the two villains make a deal with the Joker, who releases several of the inmates inside Arkham Asylum, and then douses himself and them with the mysterious green goo called “The Ooze,” causing all of them to transform into human/animal hybrids. In the case of Jonathan Crane, he transforms into - what else? - a giant crow, and does battle with both Leonardo and Batman himself. Scarecrow turns out to be one of the more prominent rogues of the bunch to appear, as the haunting images he forces Leo to see under the power of his Fear Toxin come back to haunt the leader of the TMNT later in the picture…however, I’ve never really liked the look of Crane prior to his transformation, and his role is ultimately just too small for him to get any higher placement.

13. Don Messick. Messick was one of the earliest depictions of the Scarecrow in other media to exist. He played the character in the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon series “Challenge of the Superfriends,” an early incarnation of the Justice League. In the series, Scarecrow is one of the (unlucky) thirteen villains who make up the nefarious Legion of Doom: a coalition of supervillains, led by Lex Luthor, who have banded together with two simple goals in mind. First, destroy the Superfriends…and second - you guessed it - take over the world. Messick’s Crane was a wonderfully creepy character, with a very off-putting design and a disturbingly raspy, sinister voice; he was one of the most unsettling villains of the whole group. Oddly enough, the Scarecrow did NOT use his signature Fear Toxin as his weapon of choice; instead, he apparently had control over a flock of trained crows, which he used to help him spy on people, commit robberies, and do all sorts of other dastardly deeds. I have a lot of nostalgia for this show, and I do love the look and the voice for the Scarecrow. However, much like with the previous two versions, there just wasn’t enough time devoted to the character for him to be a truly grand interpretation.

12. Andre Stojka. Stojka played the character in a follow-up series to Superfriends, entitled “Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians.” The series took place in the same continuity as the earlier Superfriends show, but by now, the Legion of Doom had disbanded, and its villains were working all on their own. Scarecrow appeared in one of the most well-known episodes of the show, “The Fear,” which delved into the dark and tragic origins of Batman. It was here that we met the Scarecrow’s alter-ego of Jonathan Crane for the first time outside of comics, and it was also the first time the Scarecrow’s signature tactics of making his foes’ worst fears come to life was finally put to use. In the episode, Crane masquerades as a well-meaning psychiatrist, attempting to help the police and cure Batman of his mortifying fears…while, in reality, he commits daring heists as the Scarecrow, using not Fear Toxin but “Fear Transmitters” to bring to life the horrors of his nemeses. While I personally feel Don Messick’s voice and appearance were more frightening, Stojka’s Crane - despite getting only one episode to his name - has more layers to his character, and more time to shine, as well as having his signature gimmick in some fashion. This was the first time the Scarecrow really started to come into his own in other media, I would say, and this episode served as a template for basically every future introduction to the character.

11. Dee Bradley Baker. Baker’s Scarecrow is perhaps the quintessential example of the character just not having enough time to fully come into his own. Baker played the character in the TV series “Batman: The Brave and the Bold;” in the series, most of the episodes were opened up with a pre-titles teaser (similar to a James Bond movie, for example), which would usually be disconnected from the rest of the episode’s story. The Scarecrow served as the antagonist of the teaser for one of my favorite episodes of the show, “Trials of the Demon.” In the teaser, Batman teams-up with Jay Garrick - the original Flash - to combat both Scarecrow and an original villain, Scream Queen (a sort of evil Black Canary). It’s Halloween, and Scarecrow has somehow managed to infect all the pumpkins in Gotham City with a special form of his Fear Toxin. While Flash and the Scream Queen have a merry chase throughout the city, with Garrick using superspeed to gather all the pumpkins before it’s too late, Batman does battle with Scarecrow and his goons directly. Baker’s voice was glorious, and I love the design of Scarecrow here, as well as the way he’s depicted as a strong physical fighter, along with his Fear Toxin’s effects. This easily could have been one of the greatest interpretations of the character in animation…but unfortunately, this Teaser (along with a non-speaking role as a villain in the video game based on the show) was really the only role Scarecrow had in the entire series. I really wish we could have seen more of him.

10. Christopher S. Field. Field plays the Scarecrow in the online game “DC Universe Online,” where he serves as one of the mission bosses. The mission is one for the heroes’ side of the game: the Player is sent on a mission to rescue Batwoman, who has been kidnapped by Crane. Both the Player and Batwoman end up trapped by Scarecrow in a huge arena, flooded with a special form of his Fear Toxin. The battle involves multiple stages, as Crane uses the Toxin to bring to life numerous hallucinations, all based around specific phobias. It’s a fun boss fight, and Field delivers one of the better vocal performances of the game. His Scarecrow is theatrical and over-the-top, but also genuinely creepy at some points. Definitely an underappreciated portrayal of the character, in my opinion.

9. Robin Atkin Downes. Downes played the Scarecrow in the two-part animated adaptation of one of my all-time favorite Batman stories, “Batman: The Long Halloween.” This classic tale takes place at an odd sort of “middle time” in Gotham’s history: on the one hand, many of its famous supervillains - like Joker, the Mad Hatter, Catwoman, and, obviously, Scarecrow - already exist and are active. However, they are still very much “on the rise,” with Gotham’s gangster families - the Falcones and Maronis - being the real major threat to the Gotham populace. The story, in a way, tracks the fall of Gotham’s old guard of criminals, and the takeover of the supervillain; an evolution in the way crime works in Gotham City. The film is a pretty faithful and solid adaptation, in some places even improving on the book. Downes plays a truly creepy take on the Scarecrow, with a dangerously dark voice. He first appears in the second half of the film, where he escapes from Arkham Asylum and teams up with the Mad Hatter, the pair of them, in term, joining forces with Carmine Falcone in a plan to kill Batman. The visuals for Scarecrow, as well as the actor’s vocals, are really fantastic, and I’m glad that the film jettisoned the bizarre writing tactic Jeph Loeb used in the book of having the Scarecrow speak almost entirely in quotes from Nursery Rhymes. (He does something similar with the Hatter, but him speaking in Wonderland quotes is one thing; Scarecrow talking in Mother Goose language never really made sense to me.) However, once again, the Scarecrow is just a supporting player in the events that unfold; he’s fun to watch, but other versions just do more with the character.

8. Charlie Tahan & David W. Thompson. This is where things with the Scarecrow, in my opinion, start to get REALLY good. In the TV series “Gotham,” we get a great new interpretation of Jonathan Crane’s beginnings. In Season 1, Jonathan Crane - played by Charlie Tahan - is still a teenager, living with his abusive father: a scientist named Gerald Crane, who is experimenting with a chemical formula that will one day become Jonathan’s own patented Fear Toxin. At the end of Jonathan’s story arc in Season 1, he ends up exposed to these chemicals, which causes him to go completely insane as he begins to hallucinate visions of a demonic scarecrow monster chasing him around. Later, in Season 4, Jonathan returns, and a series of events causes him to completely lose his grip on reality, thus becoming the Scarecrow. Tahan left the show at this point due to scheduling conflicts, so for the remainder of Season 4 - as well as into the 5th and final season - the Scarecrow was played by a new performer, David W. Thompson. It was interesting to see a younger version of the Scarecrow, effectively just seeing the character get started on his evil path, and the reimagining of his origin story - inspired by the incarnation from the New 52 continuity - was pretty well-handled. The only reason this Scarecrow doesn’t get higher on the list, is that - while I personally think Thompson’s Scarecrow costumes were better than Charlie Tahan’s, and he had a more menacing voice to accompany them - the character sort of takes a downgrade after Tahan’s departure, as he ultimately just ends up playing second fiddle to other villains, like the Valeska Brothers and Bane. Once again, they didn’t really DO much with Scarecrow in his later appearances. Still, it was always cool to see him, and I do like what both performers did with the part.

7. Dwight Schultz. Schultz played Jonathan Crane in the direct-to-video Halloween special, “Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!” The film focuses on the Mystery Inc. Gang trying to stop a horde of man-eating monsters, and features no less than three special guest characters: Bill Nye the Science Guy, Elvira...and, of course, the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow is the secondary antagonist of the film, as he starts off as a red herring figure, seemingly the villain behind the evil goings on. However, it’s later revealed he’s not responsible, and he actually joins forces with the heroes to stop a greater threat. There is so much that’s AWESOME about this Scarecrow that it’s hard to list everything succinctly. It bizarrely shows the strength of the character by surprisingly NOT having him team-up with Batman (the Dark Knight never even appears in the story), and by having him never use his patented Fear Toxin. He has to stand up on his own terms, without any of his usual support structures. I also like that the special actually takes Crane pretty seriously; there’s humor involved, make no mistake, but neither Schultz nor the writers turn the Scarecrow into a joke. He’s a bit of a ham, and is revealed to actually be a sort of fanboy for Elvira, but he’s also able to be legitimately threatening and dangerous. Finally, it’s really neat to see Crane go from villain to reluctant hero in this story. He doesn’t help out of the goodness of his heart, but seeing him work together with the heroes - ANY heroes - is just something I don’t think has really been done before. I never would have expected a Scooby-Doo Halloween special, of all things, to give us one of the most fascinating depictions of the Master of Fear to ever exist in animation…but by Gadfrey, these mad fools found a way to do it!

6. Henry Polic II. The portrayal of the Scarecrow in the first three seasons of “Batman: The Animated Series” seems to be somewhat polarizing. I personally think this is a great interpretation. While ultimately not especially frightening on his own accord, Henry Polic II gives us what I would argue is one of the most comic-accurate renditions of the Scarecrow to date, with some of the most fun episodes to his name. This take on the Master of Fear would prove rather influential; performers like Dwight Schultz, Christopher S. Field, and Dee Bradley Baker all seemed to take a leaf out of this man’s book, with Scarecrow voices that were able to be both creepy and quite melodramatic. There’s really not much to say about this version; in my opinion, it’s a classic interpretation.

5. Robert Englund. In the fighting game “Injustice 2,” Scarecrow appears as a member of a reimagined version of the classic Legion of Doom, this time led by Gorilla Grodd rather than Lex Luthor. While, much like in Superfriends, he actually doesn’t have that much to do in the actual main story of the game, Injustice’s Crane wins major points largely due to the medium he’s being presented in, combined with his voice actor. As far as the former goes, Crane is a playable character in the freeplay and Arcade modes of the game, as well as a recurring boss in the main story; this means we get a lot more time to enjoy him when compared to Superfriends or some other interpretations. Heck, the aforementioned Arcade mode basically gives you a special story with Crane as the villain protagonist, which ends with him on track to become a veritable God of Fear intent on spreading terror to the entire universe: that’s more than a great consolation prize, in my opinion. The way Jonathan Crane is allowed to work in this kind of medium is also pretty imaginative: the Scarecrow pictured here, you see, is actually a monstrous hallucination that appears as a result of the Fear Toxin. The real Crane (who has a design inspired by the Nolanverse version of the character) is a much shrimpier and less physically imposing individual; the Nightmare is what we are really fighting. Speaking of Nightmares…you can’t really go wrong with Freddy Krueger as the voice of the Scarecrow, can you? Disregarding previous forays into the DC Universe, playing such characters as Felix Faust and the Riddler, Robert Englund basically already played a depraved Master of Fear and made his bloody career out of it. If making him the Scarecrow wasn’t the most ingenious vocal typecasting I’ve ever heard of in my life, I’d like to know what else would fit that description.

4. Cillian Murphy. I actually revisited these films recently, and I have to admit…I was a little torn on whether or not Cillian Murphy’s depiction of the Scarecrow really deserved this high a place in the ranks. In some ways, upon revisiting the character in these films, he’s better than I remember, and in other ways…I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s WORSE, but he’s more underwhelming. The reason why is very simple: I think the actual DEPICTION of the Scarecrow is a pretty solid one. Interpreting him as a corrupt doctor at Arkham Asylum itself was a nice new twist to the origin story of Jonathan Crane, and I personally think that Cillian Murphy - while by no means an OBVIOUS choice for the role of the Master of Fear - delivers an absolutely spellbinding performance across all three pictures. There’s also a lot of great visual moments and scenes for the character, in general, that just sort of collect in one’s mental soup and stay there. This is especially true in the first film: the sequence where he reveals himself to Falcone, the scene where Batman gasses him right back, the imagery of a fire-faced Crane racing through the misty streets of Gotham on horseback a-la “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” all of it is just breathtaking to see in action. And, of course, there’s definitely credit to be given with the fact that Murphy’s Jonathan Crane is the only antagonist who appears in all three movies of the trilogy, and - aside from Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn in the DCEU, perhaps - he’s the only cinematic Batman villain to HAVE that distinction. The real issue with Murphy’s Scarecrow is simply that, like so many other versions of the character, he never really gets to shine in the spotlight. He’s always working in the shadows of other, more prominent antagonists. In the first film it’s Ra’s Al Ghul, in the second film it’s primarily the Joker, and in the third film it’s mostly Bane. I feel like if Murphy had been given a starring role in a movie, at some point, he could have been one of the greatest cinematic Bat-Rogues of all time, and easily could have made my Top 3.

3. Jeffrey Combs. When “Batman: The Animated Series” entered its fourth season, entitled “The New Batman Adventures,” the decision was made to revamp a lot of elements of the show. The most notable change was in the visual style; all of the characters were redesigned to fit the new aesthetic. While some of these redesigns were fairly minor in their adjustments - such as with Two-Face, Clayface, and Harley Quinn - a lot of them were quite drastic in how they changed the characters. With the Scarecrow, not only was Jonathan Crane given a newer, much more horrific design - apparently inspired by Leatherface from “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” - but also a new voice artist to replace Henry Polic II. Who better to tackle the Master of Fear than Lovecraft’s Reanimator, Jeffrey Combs? For many fans, this was the first truly frightening version of the Scarecrow put to the screen. Much like with Andre Stojka, Combs really only got one major appearance in the part, but it was certainly a memorable one: in the episode “Never Fear” - inspired by the comic book story “Fear For Sale” - the Scarecrow uses a new form of his Toxin that, rather than instill fear, takes fear AWAY from the victims. It doesn’t sound so bad, right? Well, here’s the thing: fear is largely what gives people self-preservation and common sense. We typically avoid doing dangerous or illegal things at least partially because we fear the consequences of such actions. Without fear, we have far fewer inhibitions. Scarecrow thus plans to plunge Gotham into a state of chaos, unless he’s paid for the antidote. This Scarecrow would reappear briefly in another episode, “Over the Edge,” but he was really more of a background presence there. He would also return, complete with Combs’ voice, as the first villain featured in the beat ‘em up video game “Rise of Sin Tzu,” where he uses a variant of his Fear Toxin to summon ghostly visions of some of Batman’s other enemies to help him do battle during his boss fight. This, to me, is still one of the greatest versions of the Scarecrow ever made. Once again, the only real issue with him is one wishes we could have seen even more of him…and I’m very grateful to report, that is the last time I have to say that phrase. It certainly does not apply to my top two choices.

2. Dino Andrade. While “Batman The Animated Series” and the Dark Knight Trilogy were instrumental in introducing the Scarecrow to a broader audience, I think many would agree the Batman: Arkham Games were what officially cemented his popularity as a character. Until these games came out, while I heard a lot of people say the Scarecrow was one of their favorite Batman Villains, I almost never heard any of them say he was their ABSOLUTE favorite. But, ever since then, it seems like almost any time people name their favorite Bat baddies, Scarecrow is at least in the Top 3, if not number one. Dino Andrade played Crane in the first game of this series, “Arkham Asylum,” and most people agree that the Scarecrow Nightmare Sequences were probably the best part of the whole game. Andrade described the character as “essentially a demon” and “a Shakespearean villain,” and his performance definitely matches both these descriptions: much like some other Scarecrows on the list, it’s a vocal set dripping with melodrama…but unlike such performers as Henry Polic II and Dwight Schultz, there is absolutely NO humor to Andrade’s diabolical and deranged Prince of Panic. He’s a truly unhinged, nightmarish figure, easily one of the most frightening versions of the Scarecrow ever created. While Scarecrow is not the main villain of the game, this is a case where I actually don’t think he’s underutilized at all. Partially due to the nature of the story and the medium its presented in, Crane feels as if he really does get his just dues in this interpretation, neither overstaying his welcome nor coming across as glanced over. Andrade would reprise the role in a spin-off game of the series, “Arkham Underworld,” where players were actually able to play AS the Scarecrow, along with a few other villains (namely Killer Croc, Harley Quinn, and Riddler). His work there is just as magnificent.

1. John Noble. After years and years, and numerous interpretations, of the Scarecrow being a character who occasionally stole the show but never really claimed the spotlight, “Arkham Knight” finally gave the character the break he’d been needing. In the third and final major game of the Arkham series, Crane returns not just as a supporting antagonist, but as the main villain of the story. While the Joker certainly has a role to play, and the actual main ANTAGONIST is the titular Arkham Knight, the Scarecrow is the rogue whose actions and desires really drive the plot forward. He is the mastermind behind all the misery befalling Gotham City in this tale. John Noble - an actor renowned for his dark and sophisticated voice - plays Crane with urbane frostiness, presenting a more intellectual and manipulative Scarecrow than the one in Arkham Asylum. The game even offered updated reinventions of the Nightmare sequences from the first game; instead of stealth-based platforming sections, they instead became obstacle courses and action sequences in the Batmobile, but with the same hellish and depraved scope. While I wouldn’t say Noble is my definitive Scarecrow, I would say he was, at the same time, the Scarecrow who had a little bit of everything: able to use fear not only through his Toxins, but simply through psychological warfare, and with truly frightful appearance and a performance to match. I fear there is no doubt in my mind that he is My Favorite Portrayal of the Scarecrow.

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