Hello!

[acequeenking]

Good morning! Since a lot of new faces are coming to Dreamwidth (including me, to be honest, beyond my exchange letters), I figured it was probably a good idea to try to try to fill out an intro on who I am and what I do.

I'm acequeenking, and I'm acequeenking pretty much everywhere (unless its taken, then I get creative):

acequeenking | acequeenking | acequeenking | acequeenkingpin | acequeenkingadingding 

I write fanfiction and meta and generally am a blabbermouth about...most things, really. Most of my fandom stuff is unlocked, but anything personal is flocked.

Here's my policy on some stuff:

Friending Policy: Feel free to friend/subscribe/follow as you wish; if you say hello, I'm more likely to add you back. I generally do try to comment on other people's journals and reply to entries on my own but I am not always the fastest person doing so. I try to only friend those over 18+ because my journal is not a minor-friendly space at times. (I do try to give warning if I talk about anything that's particularly adultish, but I'm an adult living an adult life, and I'm not going to limit what I talk about to be friendly for children when there are other, better websites for kiddos.)

Transformative works policy: I give blanket permission for anyone to: remix, translate, or create fanworks inspired by any fanfiction or fandom meta I've written. It's not necessary to ask me permission or link me (and I can't promise to comment on it if you do), but I'm always game to share fandom thoughts and have more content out there. I do try to link back most of the time if possible (eg on Ao3).

Locked/Unlocked policy: If a post is friends-locked, I'd appreciate you not spreading it around the internet. Odds are, it was f-locked for a reason.

A Non-Exclusive List of Fandoms and Characters that I Talk About:

I have several fandoms, though these are my current/eternal favorites that I'll probably yap about:

Ace Attorney: (Videogame)

What It Is: A series of visual novel games by Capcom about a defense lawyer, his clients, his rivals, and his assistants! Solve murders, expose contradictions, and look stylish yelling objection into your microphone!

Why I Love It: Honestly I just love the characters. The Ace Attorney writers are really sharp and they sometimes take risks in their characterization that I feel make the characters even better/more unique. I feel like there's a lot of damaged souls in the Ace Attorney verse (aka my catnip), and seeing how they grow and change (and sometimes don't) is incredibly fun. The fact that the games span such a large amount of time (Phoenix is 24, roughly, in the first game, and 36 in the latest) also gives you a rare chance to see a character's long-term journey: something rarely seen in videogames.

Favorite Characters:

Franziska: Franziska is my overall favorite: the daughter of a previous antagonist, Franziska comes in like a thunderstorm, with a strong desire to fix her parent's mistakes. Just what those mistakes are, however, comes clearer to her as she grows through the series. Despite being an incredibly powerful person, she's got a lot of vulnerability, and I love seeing how we get more of Fran's vulnerable side as Phoenix comes to know her better.

Lana Skye: Lana is such an interesting, stoic character: the person who wants to protect her sister at all costs and doesn't care what happens to her so long as Ema is safe. Lana's very competent and clearly talented, but she has skeletons in her closet, and the way that changes her character is pretty fascinating, especially when you see her willing to take the fall for stuff she did not do.

Favorite Relationships:

Lana/Gant: Oh, I love this ship a lot. They're both incredibly powerful, but they're never less than a few steps from ruining one another's careers, something that both of them are pretty intimately aware of. There's so much potential for a double-cross here, and yet it's impossible to double-cross themselves without implicating themselves (as someone finds out).

Phoenix/Franziska: I feel like these two both have kind of familiar trauma in their backgrounds that forced them to be super ambitious and try to be the best at what they do...only to find out later in life as adults that perfection is impossible. I particularly love Fran/Phoenix from around the time of Apollo Justice.

Athena/Blackquill: I feel like these two are the only two on earth who can really understand one another; they're both dealing with a lot of baggage over his mentor/her mother, and they're both trying to find their feet in a modern world after losing a lot of their youth to imprisonment/training.

Kristoph Gavin/Phoenix: This is another oh-boy-is-this-gonna-go-wrong ship (of many), but I feel like this one is almost uniquely bad for how much Kristoph plays the slow game here. It's so easy to see him taking advantage of Phoenix (especially a post-Edgeworth/Phoenix break-up, when Gavin acts so similar). It's so easy to see Phoenix falling for it too, for believing in the best of someone only to be blinded by their worst.

Phoenix/Edgeworth: It's the juggernaut of the fandom and it's the juggernaut for a reason. They're incredibly well suited for one another; Edgeworth is the inspiration for Phoenix's entire career, and I think Edgeworth is incredibly thankful to Phoenix for helping him to step out of the spell of his adopted father. Seeing their relationship grow over a decade just shows how they just grow closer through time, and I def ship it.

Franziska/Maya:  I just love Maya, and I love Franziska, and I feel like they would GET one another so well? Both of them have lost their parental figures rather suddenly, in early adulthood, and yet they've gone for very different coping methods: Maya is warm and helpful, and Franziska shoves everyone away. I feel like they have a really nice fire/ice combo potential and I love seeing them work through things together.

Franziska/Lana: Again, I just love Fran, and I love Lana, and they've got such similar trauma in their lives where they've both been put under the thumb of a father-figure who gave them a lot of fucked up ideas they are still trying to process! I think it would be really interesting to watch this one grow, especially when you consider that Lana is a prisoner for a fair amount of time and Franziska is a prosecutor.

Assassin's Creed: (Videogame)

What It Is: It's a long series of games about assassins who kill people, through history in a game of cat and mouse between the Templars (team order) and the Assasins (team Chaos), with some absolutely bonkers worldbuilding about mythology. So naturally, I love it.

Why I Love It: The aforementioned absolutely bonkers worldbuilding about mythology really captivated my interest in this one; without spoiling it, I am probably the one person on earth who liked the Isu reveal. I'm also really fond of the relationships built between the characters in this series, particularly how the women in the series navigate life in the past.

Favorite Characters:

Claudia: Claudia is Ezio's little sister who really grows through the series from a spoiled baby sister to a whorehouse madam. The way that she responds to her  personal tragedy makes her fascinating to me, and I Love how she and Ezio remain close all their lives.

Kassandra: I adore her! I love the idea of a woman merc in ancient Greece, and she's so pretty and so witty -- and yet her relationship with her second-home island and her family are so complicated.

Connor | Ratonhnhaké:ton: This poor kid is straddling so much: his journey is IMO among the strongest single-game protagonists.

Haytham: He's a trash man, but so charming, and I love him. I especially love his saucy walk.

Favorite Relationships:

Connor | Ratonhnhaké:ton & Haytham: There is just something so fucked up here that I love to see explored. I always love an antagonistic father/son relationship, and this one has so many extra issues packed in: assassins and templars, white and mixed-race, old-school and new world. It's a super complex and super interesting relationship.

Kassandra/Odessa: I really love how Odessa has this little glittering hints that she's got a darker story than she says: is she really the great-granddaughter or Odysseus or just a con-woman? Either way, I feel like Kassandra enjoys her moxie.

Kassandra/Kyla: I always have a thing for relationships that could end in making out OR knifing one another.

Stentor/Kassandra: I like the het version of this just as much as the slash version mentioned below. The further complication of Kassandra's gender I think adds a different sort of angst to this, both with how she may not be the classical "spartan" ideal, as well as issues of conception/pregnancy.

Ezio/Leondardo: I really love the chemistry between these two; Leonardo is clearly Into Ezio and wants to keep him safe, and Ezio is a flirt with everything with legs. I feel like the dreamy artist + playboy is such a fun dynamic and I love that Ezio got so many games with Leonardo, so we really get to see them grow through a long period.

Stentor/Alexios: Brothers, but not raised together; Stentor is everything that Alexios was supposed to be, and I think they're both painfully aware of that. This is basically Daddy Issues: the Ship, but you know, I'm into that!

Dragon's Age: (Video Game)

What It Is: A series of darker fantasy stories based in the world of Thedas. Magic usually comes with a cost, and that cost is sometimes demonic possession! And if you're a solder for god, well, better hope you don't get an addiction to red rocks that make you go crazy! TL;DR: Fantasy, but make it less LOTR and more super creepy, leaning towards horror.

Why I Love It: Most fantasy tends to stay pretty firmly on the "Orcs and Sporks" sort of the line: that is to say, there are heroes, there are ugly monsters, and there are special weapons which dispatch them, and it's best not to look at the origins of any of those elements too closely. Dragon Age complicates that with a considerably more complex universe: there's a fantasy invasion, but it's from hell, sorta, because of a religious schism that took place thousands of years ago, that is also kinda-sorta a geopolitical problem, and now has a great big force meant to fight it except that that force is constantly hamstrung by the geopolitics of the age... Like most Bioware games, there's a fairly thoughtful (if not at all perfect) worldview here that's complicated, with racism, classicism, sexism, and more rearing their ugly heads...and also dragons!

Favorite Characters:

Merrill: I love how she isn't really what you would expect her to be: she's cute and very much a fish out of water, but underneath that, she's also very much a woman dealing with some pretty dangerous magics and absolutely convinced she's right. She's got a lot of layers, I'm saying, like a very cute Elvin onion.

Vivienne: is my favorite from Inquisition when all is said and done. I feel like she's one of the most slept on characters in the fandom because Bioware tends to be a bit quiet about her (sometimes, I think, Bioware did not entirely know what they wanted to do with her), but she's utterly fascinating: a mage who doesn't want a revolution, the status quo defender who has mastered a system so regally she isn't entirely sure how those other mages haven't had the same experience. She's absolutely fascinating.

Anora and Loghain: I have such a soft spot for the Mac Tirs, mostly because I think the role they find themselves in is interesting. Loghain's failure to do something early on in the story may well be justified (and may not -- it truly depends on the reader's impression of him, which I also like). Anora is often bound by her father's decisions, and her courageousness to step past them -- perhaps even including what the player chooses to do with Loghain -- makes her a fascinating character to me. I virtually always spare Loghain just because I like their relationship so much!

Favorite Relationships:

Anora & Loghain Mac Tir: As I mentioned above, I am just really soft for the relationship between father and daughter here. Loghain has done so much, and his past is anything but an open book; yet, everything he does, he so clearly does for his daughter. There's a conversation with him in camp in origins where he acknowledges that she is so much his focus...And yet. I'm trying to write these in a spoiler-proof way, but Anora I think is so very much her father's daughter, and sometimes in ways that lead her away from him. Anora survives no matter what the player does in Dragon Age: Origins and remains an ally, and I can't help but feel this says something intriguing about her.

Merrill/F! Hawke: I really love this pairing. Two people who have been hiding their magic for a long time, ultimately driven from their home in part due to it. I feel like Merrill and Hawke have gone through a lot of the same bullshit (right down to having Flemeth involved in their initiations at points!) and really feel like this pairing can be both heartwarmingly sweet and absolutely (if quietly) devastating.

Merill/Isabella[/F! Hawke]: I love the way that Isabella flirts with Merill when both are in your party! Calling her kitten, really, how could I not ship it? I deeply enjoy when F! Hawke is added to this awesome sandwich, but Merill/Isabella is great all on its own too.

Leliana/F! Warden (any background): Leliana is my favorite of the Dragon Age 1 LI's, but where I love to imagine their relationship best is in what happens after that game ends. I really love the idea of these two women, separated but both still fighting the same fight, having a beautiful queer romance of letters -- while distributing bloodshed to Darkspawn and, occasionally, their political rivals.

Anora/F! Cousland: I'm always fascinated by the option the game gives the player to marry Anora and secure the throne -- provided one is high-born enough, anyway. I feel like that's such a complicated relationship depending on what baggage is going into it - at minimum, an associate of Anora's dad murdered Cousland's entire family, and Anora's father may have been "dealt with" by Cousland or Alistair -- and there are so many ways it could grow, and I'd like to see them all.

Solas/F! Lavellan: Very popular ship, I know, the dark-fic pumpkins spice latte of the dragon age fandom, but I would not be the person I am if there was an ancient love interest who has lived through some seriously messed up stuff and I did not ship it with the young, but still traumatized LI. It's just how I am.

Solas/F! Adaar: Similar to the above, but I like the way that this combines Solas' feelings about spirits being underappreciated in society with Adaar's similar feelings about qunari, especially qunari who have broken away from the Qun. I'm interested in how these two deal with, ostensibly, being heretics from their own kind.

Sten/ F! Tabris: I really love how these two interact: Tabris is tiny, but stabbity, and she's had to claw her way up for everything she's ever had. That's very much a part of the Qun, and I can see a Tabris raised in the squalor of Denerim to find the option of becoming part of Sten's qun really bewitching. I love how they gradually come to respect one another, and especially that Sten gives you a big relationship boost if you beat him up when he challenges your leadership.

F! Cousland/ Loghain: Again, I think this is interesting; enemies-to-lovers, two people who are bound through their order to fight to the end, and knowing that no matter how well they do fight, there will always be an end.

Doctor Who (2005--) (TV Show)

What It Is: The endless stories of a mysteriously humanesque alien and the hundreds of humans he meets along the way. The era I love the most is the RVD era with Rose, Martha, and Donna. I've seen some past that, but I really am most deeply fannish for the first few years of the show for whatever reason. I'm currently somewhere in 12's run.

Why I Love It: I love the RVD era specifically because it really nails the exploration of both a doctor who has just survived a horrific event that has left him very damaged and isolated and the more human issues that crop up in the companions and the difficulty that can occur in trying to bridge that. It really focuses on the human element in the sci-fi, and although later seasons somehwat drifted from that, the earlier seasons still fascinate me for this reason.

Favorite Characters:

9th Doctor: He's 99 pounds of woobie in a 10-pound leather jacket. He's closed off emotionally, he's done some bad things, and he's the sole survivor of a real traumatic war. He's got every reason to try to end it all, and yet -- he never does. He strives to be better, to do better, but it's still a struggle for him, and the older I get, the more I feel for him.

Rose Tyler: She's a shop girl, a slacker; she's never been told she's special all her life, but suddenly she is very special indeed and she struggles with that. Rose I think is really unusual in that she's a very imperfect character: she's not particularly nice to Mickey, she struggles with her feelings with the Doctor(s) she travels with, and she's def worried her mum more than once. But there is such strength in her, and I love her journey a lot.

Martha Jones: I adore Martha, who gets such a raw deal: her family life is clearly a disaster, she's got a doctor who is too preoccupied to really guide her, in love with someone who he can never have (even with a time machine), and, oh yeah, she's got the master breathing down her neck. Martha's got so many bad takes but she never quite lets it get to her: she takes everything in stride, and becomes the woman who walks the world. She's stronger than 10, and, in the end, he knows it.

Favorite Relationships:

9th Doctor & Susan (Classical Who) - I really love the first doctor's stories with Susan; their relationship is so strange. We really don't know for sure if she's even his granddaughter, or if that was a facade! It's fascinating to me how much of their relationship is kinda faked and yet it's also obvious that there's quite a bit of genuine affection between them as well. I feel like regardless of how you draw the relationship between them, there's probably no one that 9 would have liked to have seen more in the last days of the time war than his granddaughter/old friend. He promised her one day he would return -- why not with 9? (I know there's an audio drama with 8, but I haven't listened to it yet!)

Rose Tyler/Martha Jones: The girl who walked the world + the girl who's seen a million dimensions; they've both seen so much shit that I feel like it would be hard for anyone else to understand them the way they understand one another. I feel like we didn't get enough time for them together and I'm always craving a bit more.

9th Doctor/Rose Tyler: I know 10/Rose is the mega-pairing, but I've always preferred the flavor of 9: He's more damaged, rawer, and Rose and him have this fascinating push/pull that isn't quite as strong in 10 (and 10 tends to have a lot of the barriers that Rose had with 9 removed: no mickey, no jack, etc). Their kiss in this season is nothing short of scorching, but the moment I love best is during the point where they're locked in a basement full of reanimated gas-corpses (it's complicated), and they grab hands and reiterate how glad they are to be with one another. Oooph, my heart.

Any Doctor/Any Master (including Missy): I really love this pairing, and these two. They really bring out the worst in one another, and, paradoxically, it's the best to watch: I love how much they bicker, their arguments. The fact that the new show made them the ONLY surviving members of their race (well, at least, for a time) made this especially delicious. I honestly ship any combination of doctor/master.

The Good Place: (TV Show)

What It Is: Welcome to the afterlife, everything is fine! Or an Afterlife Coordinator and his group of souls try to find how to be a good person in the Good Place. Eleanor, the main character, secretly knows she was a garbage person, and worries about being found out in the Good Place -- and potentially expelled.

Why I Love It: It's a philosophy major's type of show, and I really love how it absolutely uses the way the characters interact with one another as a way to explore what it means to be a good person in the afterlife. It's kind of fascinating in that with a group of characters who can't be put into physical distress -- because everyone here is, mostly, dead -- the series finds so many ways to comedically twist the knife.

Favorite Characters:

Michael: Michael goes through so much in the series, and has arguably the widest moral swing. He's such an interesting character, and his turn is written excellently both times that it happens. I love how he winds up going through such a journey, and his ending words at the end of his last episode are perfect.

Eleanor: It's hard not to love her. She's so much the everywoman of the cast, but she really shines in both her human foibles and her likes (the shrimp love and mailman fetish are both GREAT character quirks). It's hard not to love her journey.

Tahani: Sweet, but a bit of a braggart, with style for ages: I want to be Tahani. I love Tahani. Her relationship with her family tends to really hit me right in the feels, especially the relationship she holds with her sister. Also, I want to wear all her clothes.

Jason: Bortles! I just...I love him. He's the core himbo, but he's a beautiful soul.

The Janets: Honestly you'd think the gag of the different Janets would get old, but it really doesn't, and I love them all, up to and including Disco Janet.

Chidi: I love him a lot, and I find solace in him a lot; he's very much an academic, and seeing the way he comes to trust in his own actions is really lovely.

Vicky: She's just hilarious and I love her and I wish she was in the show a lot more than she is.

Favorite Relationships:

Chidi & Michael: There's something delightful about the relationship between Chidi and Michael, especially when Michael is talking to him about his great unpublished work. These two both manage to torture each other in a lot of delightful, hilarious ways and I'm always having fun watching it.

Tahani/Eleanor: There's a scene that suggests these two might be soul mates early on and that lives in my mind absolutely rent-free. These two have crazy chemistry and my one regret with this show is that it did not exploit that further.

Vicky/Eleanor: I really love this pairing early in season 1 because I feel like Vicky is the sort of actor who would want to really get close to her target. Like. Really close. Like what better way to learn how to have her role than to seduce Eleanor?

Vicky/Tahini: I feel like these two are both ambitious as fuck and sexy as hell and I would very much like to watch them kiss. I'm sad we really never got to see them interact very much on the show.

Chidi/Eleanor: This is the rare ship where I'm pretty satisfied with canon! I love how Eleanor and Chidi are absolutely the two people who you would never think to put together, and then it turns out of course they are perfect for one another. This is a lovely slow build and I'm absolutely satisfied with the relationship in canon, but I would never say no to seeing more of them together.

Michael/Eleanor: I ship this like burning through the early seasons: Love the dynamic so much, especially given how Eleanor is one of the most ordinary of the four humans: Chidi was a relatively accomplished professor, Tahani is a social climber, and Jason...well, Jason has a darwin award. But Eleanor was just mostly a normal (if not very nice) person living her normal (if not very nice) life, and the idea of this relatively bog-standard person having to find their way in a relationship with a being like Michael is -- ah, chef's kiss.

Michael/Tahani: I really like this as a late-stage ship; I feel like she and Michael would be working together a lot more. I would love to see what happens when really, it's just them who are left (especially because Michael will presumptively be returning back to the place where she is) who remember the crew. I feel like they'd grow together pretty naturally.

Greek mythology: (Folklore)

What It Is: Ancient stories from long ago, Greece and Rome, including the Illiad, the Odyssey, and that weird story about Dionysus fucking himself with a dildo on his friend's grave.

Why I Love It: If it's a "fandom", it's one of my three forever ones. I have been obsessed with it since reading Tanglewood Tales when I was a young kid, and nothing has changed. There are so many women here dealing with such strong bullshit from such a patriarchal structure and ancient greek mythology/religion and lore does not let us forget them. The relationship between these women and real women's struggles is...tenuous (real women in ancient Greece were mostly treated poorly), but man the older I get the more I vibe with these women who are often forced to make terrible choices. It's a world that's so different from our own, and yet, in a lot of ways, it's very similar.

Favorite Characters:

Persephone: Persephone is so fascinating to me because in her main myth, she's never presented as the main character! All her characterization comes from shadows and suggestions, and we get almost nothing directly from her own PoV. That's just fascinating to me and I love seeing the wide, wide variety of Persephone characterizations out there.

Artemis: My childhood fav and still one of them; the idea of running in the woods with my girlfriends and staring up at the moon is an elemental image that's never quite left my mind. I admire her independence and living her life on her own terms.

Rhea: I find her such a fascinating character and I'm mystified why there is no Rhea resurgence in the way that Persephone and Demeter have had resurgences. Her story is fascinating to me: an abused child who finds love with a fellow abused child, but the child turns into an abuser, and winds up abusing five of their six kids. Rhea gives up everything to keep the sixth safe, but the relationship she has with all her kids is complicated as hell. I love her and I want so much more media with her.

Demeter: I feel like Demeter's story as a mother, literally bringing heaven to its knees in order to get justice for her child is absolutely awe-inspiring. Unfairly maligned in many adaptations, Demeter is the ultimate mama bear and I find so much inspiration in her.

Hades: Fascinating for reasons similar to Persephone; he tends to only be characterized as a side character in the story and I guess my love of minor characters bled over here. He's a man of contradictions: a kidnapper and at times a brute, but also the god of good console and the dispenser of justice. The fact that he's the only god who meets every human makes him really interesting to me on that level as well.

Favorite Relationships:

Demeter & Persephone: I love their relationship and I'm a bit sad so many modern retellings often go for Demeter being evil rather than letting the relationship be as complicated as a relationship between a woman, her parents, and her spouse so often is. That they are so close, even as adults, is honestly great and I love stories about them spending time together in the springs and summers.

Hades & Cronus: In an opposite way: this relationship is real, real messed up and I love seeing examinations of it. Hades literally was swallowed and tortured by his dad, and they've been in a bloody war literally as long as Hades has existed...and yet, I feel like there's no one better at getting into his crevices.

Aphrodite/Helen of Troy: I really love this as an illustration of how having the gods' interest in you is not always a great thing. Aphrodite has always possessed beautiful things, and Helen of Troy is no exception...except so much of her life has been uprooted by Aphrodite, that I can't help but feel she'd be a bit resentful...but also, too, there is honor in being picked by the gods, and poor Helen just winds up in the middle.

Demeter/Hekate: Theia Mania put this in my mind and I love it. Give Demeter a spooky gf! The only goddess who helps her when Hades kidnaps her daughter! The quiet loyalty, the sweet comfort!

Persephone/Aphrodite: I feel like Persephone would have a bone to pick with Aphrodite in some versions; she makes Hades fall in love with Persephone, just to bring his realm under her control. I feel like this confrontation could lead to sparks flying and, well, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, so it's entirely within her purview to make sure Persephone feels just how lovely she is -- even if Persephone isn't sure she wants to.

Persephone/Artemis: I feel like Persephone has gotten a bum deal if she winds up in the underworld for a nature goddess; she can't see nature half the year long! So who better to reintroduce her to nature than her good friend/half-sister, who roams in nature all the time?

Persephone/Hades: There's a million ways to take this ship, and I like most of them. I really like the bad wrong version where Seph is a captive of a madman whose customs and culture is far different from her own, and the versions where it's a more equal love affair, and a thousand shades in-between.

Demeter/Iason: Demeter, honestly, needs a better significant other than Zeus and Poseidon. Iason the farmer seems to get her on a level Zeus doesn't, and I love the idea of a goddess loving a mortal man, and enjoying their seasons together, even knowing that the time will end.

Hades/Hephestaus: In a version of this mythos where Persephone never fell in love with Hades, I feel like he and Hephaestus would have a lot in common. Both married with wives who don't love them, both forced to be alone, and both stigmatized, in part, due to their powers or their looks. I feel like they could find common ground they really haven't/can't find with anyone else.

Hades (Videogame)

What It Is: It's a game about family, of the dysfunctional sort. You play Zagreus, the song of Hades, trying to escape your abusive father's realm. Fortunately, you have plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins trying to help you reach Olympus.

Why I Love It: It's a game about family and love and all the difficulties that come from being in love and having children and messing up those children and wanting to be better than your parents; its a game about cycles of abuse and regret and trying harder and messing up and trying again. It strikes a chord. Also it's just fun and a perfect 15 to 20 minutes a weekend sort of game.

Favorite Characters:

Zagreus: How can you not like him? Zagreus is so sweet and so unfailingly kind, trying to improve the life of everyone he comes in contact with. Zagreus is an incredible protagonist and I love our short king.

Nyx: I feel like Nyx goes so far above and beyond here; her relationship with Zagreus makes it clear that's helped to keep Zagreus from the worst of his father's anger and helped him grow into such a powerful young man. When we learn she too has a troubled relationship with her parent, the parallels are clear, and I love how she helps Zagreus be better and he, in turn, gives her hopes of a better future.

Demeter: This game gave Demeter such a glow-up. Making her a titan rather than Hades' sister helps avoid the incest in the main character to some level, but it also gives Demeter a cold and beautiful and horrifying aspect as we discover the world is shit, in part, because she made a bad decision with her daughter and she's in mourning for it. And has been. For 20+ years.

Favorite Relationships:

Hades & Zagreus: I love the relationship between Hades and Zagreus, which is strange to say because it is so oppressively, hauntingly bad. But I love how you can feel how the cycle of abuse has perpetuated itself in this family; how Hades, an abused son, has become an abusive father. How the insults he learned to cut Zagreus to the bone have so clearly come from his own trauma. It's not happy, but it's fascinating to me.

Zagreus & The Good Shade: Look it's just cute, okay? I'm always of the headcanon that the Good Shade is Zag's mortal grandfather, cheering him on, but even without that, I feel like Zagreus constantly tipping his hand to his one fan, and his one fan's cute little fandom (the flag!) is so cute.

Megeara/Aphrodite: Oh yes, Aphrodite knows that one! I feel like Aphrodite loves the violent ones, and Meg being a punisher of oath-breakers would be a bit fascinating for a love goddess - someone who inspires oaths, and, also, plenty of breaking of them.

Tisiphone/Eurydice: Someone brought up the idea of Eurydice not really minding Tisiphone's quietness because she's singing all the time,and Tisiphone being curious about someone who was, effectively, murdered but still holds love in her heart for her murderer, and I've always thought that was such an interesting idea that it basically lives in my mind rent-free now.

Hades/Persephone: I love this not for the original love story, but how things change with them through time, as they get older and their full-grown child comes into their lives and they struggle with being together and being parents to an adult. Hades is so bitter, and Persephone has her own damage, but seeing how they're trying to get past it is fascinating to me.

Hades/Persephone/Nyx: I really love these three as a V-Triad with Hades and Nyx both absolutely wild for Persephone, and learning to share time with her...and then having to learn what to do when she's...absent. 

Achilles/Patroclus: I really, really love the incredibly sweet, queer love story of a love that transcends time and life and even duty. I'm so happy that you can work these two back together, it legit made me a bit misty.

Ares/Zagreus: NGL I just deeply appreciate how horny Ares is for Zagreus' bloodshed, all the time.

Hadestown: (Theater)

What It Is: It's a musical about going to hell and back again! It's a tragedy, but it might turn out this time! It's the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, writ large on broadway, with an apocalyptic mix of jazzy and singer-songwriter tracks!

Why I Love It: This musical came up and ate my brain and I just adore it. There's nothing quite like it, and I'm in love with the mix of ancient greek mythos and modern Americana. The critique of capitalism, the deeply depressing idea that love could, almost, be enough -- ah, I love it. I live in it. I want it to soak in my pores.

Favorite Characters:

Hades: Oh, Hades. You're so messed up. You're so messed up, and you're ending the world, and yet somehow this musical makes us feel so bad for him because we really get how much he's been suffering from this arrangement he's been caught in for thousands of years and has no way out of it. He's messed up, but he's fascinating to me.

Persephone: Putting the fun in dysfunctional, I love this Persephone, who is such a party girl desperately trying to deflect from her sadness. When she lets it show, it's raw, and it's ugly, and I love her. Somehow she says so much in relatively few words, and there's no one else who I'd identify stronger as the real heart of the show.

Eurydice: Poor Eurydice: she makes all the practical choices that the audio would make, but she's punished for it, and the musical doesn't hesitate to rub your nose into it if you so much as think of judging her. Fiercely independent yet longing for community, Eurydice is such a strong character here in a way she very often is not in traditional Orpheus and Eurydice retellings.

Hermes: Hermes has a quiet role in the story as the narrator but the more I listen to it the more I appreciate the grace of the Hermes actors. Each one seems super distinct - Chris Sullivan is TIRED, Andre de Shields is full of grace, Levi Kreis is a preacher on a pulpit, and..apology to Kingsley Leggs, but I haven't listened to him yet. It's a difficult role, to get the audience's attention but not too much, and I love seeing how each Hermes manages it.

Favorite Relationships:

Persephone & Hermes: They have such a fun bro/sis energy! Hermes shaking his finger when Persephone talks about wanting her "medicines" sends me, and I love how she kisses him on the cheek and he plays like he has heart palpations. I feel like they have such fun best friend energy and I love fics that focus on that relationship -- or his awkward role sometimes being stuck as the literal messenger between Persephone and Hades.

Persephone/Eurydice: In a world where nothing gets better, post-Hadestown, I really love the idea of Persephone/Eurydice. They both long for a love long ago and a world that no longer exists, but they can't quite cut that cord from the men in their lives and also need an outlet for someone who truly loves them now...but the love they have now isn't enough to get rid of the love in their hearts for something long past, and oooh. It's angst, it's jet fuel, I want to bathe in it.

Hades/Eurydice: Not a Feel-Good Ship by any means, but I love the idea of Hades/Eury being a Thing when Persephone is gone; they're both substitutes for other people they love better, but both of them are practical to the point of being mercenary, and I think they know there's a comfort in the other person seeking the same thing, even if they're never not going to resent the other for not being what they truly wanted.

Hades/Persephone: Persephone and Hades are my favorites; there's something about a couple breaking apart and coming back together stronger that just eats at my soul, and the fact that they're immortal means there's lots of fun to play with: the times they've lived through, the way their relationship has changed over time. That they come from a different start from Greek Mythology Hades/Persephone means the world makes them a lot more distinct to write for, and I especially love how they've made the relationship something that has obviously faltered through time and could, possibly, come back again

Eurydice/Hades/Persephone: This one is SO complicated and I'm so curious to see how it develops. Does Hades bring in Eurydice as just a third person to "spice" up their marriage? Does Persephone bring her in, figuring that Eurydice needs to at least be kept well, given how they've basically ruined her life? Does Eurydice herself seduce both of them, trying to guarantee herself better treatment? There's so much focus one could make here on class and complicated relationships and just the idea of being a mortal third in an immortal couple that has existed longer than any of your ancestors is absolutely inspiring.

Mass Effect: (Videogame)

What It Is: Star Trek, but not idyllic. Turns out humans successfully made it into space and kinda-sorta got past their own racial problems, but then it turns out space was racist, too! It's a sci-fi universe that is adult without being Super Grim DARK and it is ultimately somewhat hopeful, particularly now: when a gigantic problem arrives, there's something that feels almost nostalgic now about watching diverse groups coming together and even laying down their lives to repel back the threat.

Why I Love It: Once again, there's nobody focusing on writing characters as deeply as Bioware. They're not always perfect and some of the developments have been Not Great, but they're generally good at writing fully fleshed out characters in a way that's rare n gaming. I love the sci-fi universe, which is grimy but not grim-dark. And I love the sheer POLITICKING of it all.

Favorite Characters:

Garrus: Garrus is an interesting character to me because he goes from this utter posh asshole in the first game to someone who goes through shit in game 2 and becomes a more productive member of society in 3. Garrus has an interesting breakdown in the game series that I always find interesting, the way that after Shepard dies he goes by far the most "off the rails".

Tali: I love Tali because she's young but she's smart and brave and even though she's delicate and has difficulties, it never really stops her from doing what she percieves as the right thing. I like how over time, the games suggest that she has to examine what the right thing is.

Wrex: Wrex is the dude who tells it like it is and I love that he's here to do that. He's always honest, even if it's inconvenient, and he's been burned enough by this society to really understand and even sympathize with Shepard when she's treated poorly by the "higher races." I wish he was datable tbh.

Miranda: Miranda is someone who was raised to be perfect and I find her whole journey interesting. Like she's raised by this absolute racist as a disgusting totem, and ultimately comes to reject everything he stands for. I don't love how much the game loves to take T & A shots of her, but I do love the journey she goes on, and how ultimately she comes to so deeply love her sister (and, perhaps, Shepard).

Favorite Relationships:

Femshep/Tali: I really love this pairing, not so much in Mass Effect 1 but in Mass Effect 2 and beyond. Shepard has just recently had their life re-invented; if anyone understands what it's like to have a body that feels overly delicate, it's Tali. I love how they both face so much loss in ME2 but come out for the better for it.

Femshep/Miri: I feel like this is such an interesting pairing of two idols. Both have been in some ways made to be figureheads; both ultimately reject the cause that made them those figureheads. I feel like they go on a similar journey and I love watching them do it together.

Femshep/Garrus: It's the fandom juggernaut for a reason; these two both go from yes-sir soldiers to kind of going through the darkness of their respective societies and coming out the other side with an interesting perspective. The game I like best for this relationship is ME3; it might be the end of the world, and the odds might be long, but they're Shepard and Vakarian and they're going to keep going until they can't anymore.

Femshep/Wrex: I love this because I feel like Wrex is probably the character who has the lowest "bullshit tolerance" on the scale. He knows exactly how society is stacked up and when Shepard runs into problems in it, all he can do is say that he saw it coming. I feel like they're so able to relate to one another that they would be perfect together.

Saren/Nihlus: Okay, this ship has five minutes of canon development but what a five minutes. Starts with a bang (literally), and only goes more tragic as you learn more about the backgrounds of these two.

Tekken: (Videogame)

What It Is: It's a family story about abuse, demons, fighting game tournaments, and, sometimes, fighting kangaroos. Banger soundtrack and generally on-point character design, though they've sadly stopped caring about the story.

Why I Love It: It's a family tragedy, it's the first story that I really stumbled on that focused on the idea of abuse going through generations and it really stuck in my craw. It's long-abandoned caring about its story, really, but I find the Mishima clan pretty fascinating and I still show up for the new installments just to see them turn the gears. Every once in a while, a good fic idea crawls out.

Favorite Characters:

Kazuya: By far my favorite, the anti-Ryu, a spoiled little rich boy who was horrifically abused as a small child and had all his supports either turned against him or killed. It's hard not to feel bad for him, and harder still not to be afraid of him, because the game never shies away from how horrific a person Kazuya turned out to be.

Lee Chaolan: Kazuya's long-sufferig adopted brother, a Chinese orphan adopted by a Japanese imperialist and drilled into a bunch of imperialist bullshit. It's hard not to feel bad for Lee Chaolan, who's been used as a punching bag and manipulation tactic for his family as long as he's been a part of it. The best bright spot of the latter games is that they really do come into using Lee Chaolan properly, and give him a really satisfying arc.

Favorite Relationships:

Kazuya Mishima & Jin Kazama: Father and son, but wow boy is it complicated. Kazuya doesn't appear to have really been aware of Jin's birth, and only comes into interest regarding Jin because Jin has "some" of his demonic power. The two share a family demon/curse but have taken very different paths, and I'm always weak for the idea that Kazuya or Jin are forced to deal with being in the same area for a while and what exactly that entails.

Jun Kazama/Anna Williams: I blame my friend C for this entirely; total crackship and she got me 100% into it. Jun's an environmental officer charged with figuring out if Kazuya's selling animals (he is, and experimenting on them for good measure), and Anna's the slinky femme fatale hired as his protection. I feel like there's such a good smoulder here (and Anna is always good for a good smoulder), and rivaling for dominance, and complicated-as-fuck family/friend relationships. And, anyway, C, it's all your fault!

Anna Williams/Lee Chaolan: I just adore this. Two underappreciated siblings from two absolutely bonkers families that put every little bit of their love based on dominance. They struggle with being able to trust one another -- and dominance issues run rife with these two -- but the two just sparkle together and I love when they get a chance to interact with one another.

Nina Williams/Kazuya Mishima: The flip side of the previous couple: two elder siblings from absolutely bonkers families that told them they'd only love them if they excelled in every way. Perfectionists without emotion (or at least not willing to admit they have emotions) and more than a few demons in the closet (literal or figurative), they are always a delight, whether they're trying to kill one another or if the relationship goes ah, a different way.

Kazuya Mishima/Lee Chaolan: Who else could understand these two but the other? Born and raised in the same hellhole, this is incest as character study: no one could understand them the way they understand one another, and even if they're never quite stable, they're stable enough to almost but not quite make it healthy together. Also holy power issues batman. Everything I learned about fighting scenes that go into make-out scenes I learned entirely from this pairing.

What We Do in the Shadows (TV Shows)

What It Is: It's a show about vampires, but it's also a Taika Waikiki comedy. I liked the movie, I LOVE the TV show. It's mostly a daily life story, about one particular vampire "family", their familiars, friends, and their lives on Staten Island.

Why I Love It: It's wacky and funny and bright and yet also plays a lot with horror tropes. It's one of the easiest shows in terms of following the plot, and it's gone down smooth in the 2020-onward timeline. It's got a lot of heart.

Favorite Characters:

Nadja: Nadja is so strong and I love how she doesn't take crap in that household, even living with all these dudes who are SO old-fashioned. She's smart and deadly and I love how they trace her loves through time, and how she still struggles with some very old-world thoughts even in a newer and gentler world.

Guillermo: Everyone's favorite viewpoint character, I love how Guillermo has this destiny that he always thought that he wanted, and then it turns out that oops, he's got a whole new destiny that he discovers through hijinks. He's delightful and fun and I love him.

Favorite Relationships:

Nadja/Lazlo: I really love them for being this poly couple that is fairly healthy. I love how both of them have other lovers and the only issue that Lazlo has with it is that one of her reincarnated lovers makes her cry. They're adorable, even bickering, and I love them.

Nadja/Lazlo/Nandor: They're into it, Nandor clearly needs it, and its not any more complicated than that. Also, I feel the change of hijinks seems fairly high.

Nandor/Guillermo: This is such a great slow-burn romance, and I love how the series has spent seasons trying to explore exactly what it is that Nandor and Guillermo want, and it keeps giving them more and more obstacles that make them really think: are they making the right choice?

Yakuza: (Videogame)

What It Is: A game about the Yakuza that's all about the messy bonds of brotherhood.

Why I Love It: It's all about giving you these fairly lovable main characters and absolutely taking them through the wringer. All these games deal a lot with good, good angst and twists and turns on friendships and duty and power and toxic masculinity and honestly mixes them with some of the whackiest side-quests to keep the mood from getting too heavy. It's often great, always entertaining.

Favorite Characters:

Kiryu: It's hard not to love Kiryu, who is so very much an easy man to id with -- a little stiff, but he has a good heart for a Yakuza and his loyalties and heart are truly impressive. I really can't wait to see more of his journey.

Majima: On the flip side, I loved Majima's journey, who starts off as a relatively calm character and becomes somewhat of a nihilistic "nothing matters so why not live with ALL your personality hanging RIGHt out" type. They're very much mirrors to one another and I adore it.

Favorite Relationships:

Tachibana/Kiryu: Tachibana is such a powerful player and yet such an outsider; Kiryu is just adjusting to the gap between insider and outsider. I feel like they're on such an interesting, similar path, but what they decide in regard to "family" is radically different. I really love these two and wish they were a bigger fandom presence.

Sagawa/Majima: GOD the power play in this is so fuuuccckkkkeeed and I am here for it! I am 100% here for it and have been since Sagawa held out a cigarette and Majima immediately lights it with utmost loyalty. I feel like when we get to finally see Sagawa embress his violence, you see a bit of where Majima gets it. Really wonderful.

Comments

[acequeenking]

Aaaah that's wonderful! Lets be friends :)

I feel you on the attention problems...I have ADHD and so much of my games are in my "it sure would be nice to play this if I could focus, which I cannot" bucket.

[vriddy]

One day... These games will get played... One day... 😂🤝