Can't I just write? must I title it as well?

Most Ardently 🌸

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Art by @/mage_krove on twitter.

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This artist permits reposts with credit. Do not remove their name. Do not remove this note or the links. Screen cap of permission (taken November 11th, 2021):

murder, mysteries, masquerade! 

hannibal’s endearments for Will pt 2

Pt 1 -> here

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fellas, is it weird for your cannibal husband to call you food related endearments :/

Pt 2 -> here

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nobody telling cicero anything even though they knew he hated caesar because cicero is incapable of shutting the fuck up

them calling out to cicero to save the republic as they stabbed caesar was the first cicero heard of the plot

cicero crying in a letter afterwards about how it hurt his feelings that he wasnt invited to the stabbing (”how i wish you had invited me to that glorious banquet on the ides of march!”)

liberatores massively underestimating how much the middle/lower classes loved caesar and having to barricade themselves on the capitoline and then flee italy altogether because they were going to get ripped apart

them trying to defend their assassination by claiming that caesar was a tyrant and his authority should not have been recognized and therefore it was a just action. only for them to flee to the provinces that were awarded to them by caesar, meaning that they actually did recognize his authority

mark antony thinking that he was going to be named caesar’s heir only to find out during the public reading of his will that caesar had actually named his great-nephew his heir.

octavian wasn’t even in rome at the time. mark antony really rolled up to the reading in the forum thinking he was gonna have it made only to be publicly embarrassed

antony claiming that the only reason octavian was named heir was because he bribed caesar with sexual favors 

mark antony accusing anyone of sexual impropriety 

the triumvirs being two middle aged generals and one teenage boy who knew he held all the cards. all three of these people hated each other.

cicero somehow thinking that he could win octavian to his side (despite cicero being a very vocal opponent of his late adoptive father) and that if octavian held high political office cicero could manipulate him to secure his own political power 

these favors amounting to absolutely nothing when octavian was like yeah we’re gonna put him on the kill list

the irony of marcus tullius “yeah lets execute the catilinarian conspirators without trial despite them being roman citizens. this will absolutely not come back to bite me in the ass” cicero getting executed without trial

lepidus not realizing he was the lepidus of the story and trying to rally his legions to get rid of octavian only for all of them to go “nah, fuck that.” and defect to octavian

i need to emphasize how funny this was. lepidus was a general with years of military experience and all of his men just fucking up and left him for the kid who hides in his tent during battles

octavian didn’t even kill lepidus for this he just told him to fuck off and he did.

Well first, there are Basic Rules(TM):

Must see her as a human being, not as a pretty object, disposable or replaceable. Examples of villains that don’t do this: Jabba The Hutt and Ming the Merciless

He must be clean. He doesn’t have to be pretty, just hygienic. Grima, from LotR, is ugly, but I still ship him with Eowyn, while Jabba The Hutt is just a disgusting worm.

He is powerful and talented; has to have some sort of confidence. I can pity him, sometimes it's even better when I do (like with The Phantom of the Opera) but some stalker movies make the character so realistically obsessed because he is an insecure and repressed person. This also has to do with not seeing her as an object. Most of the time they don’t even know why they want the girl, they are just searching for any replacement for the maternal love they didn’t get. They don’t think they are special, they would just take anything to fill the gap.

He can’t be willing to watch her die. This usually ruins the ship. I mean hurt her, okay, but to kill her would mean he thinks he can live without her. And if he thinks that, he better get into a deep depression and regret afterward, or be well-aware that he has dammed himself for the rest of his life. Leôncio from Isaura The Slave Girl, Bill from Kill Bill, Jack Devlin from The Net, and Frollo from NDdP do that.

Either the heroine wins or neither of them do. The villain must not triumph at the ending, keep the girl hostage and miserable at his side. Either he is redeemed or he is ass kicked. There is no evil triumph - nor in the sense that he gets everything he wants without reforming himself into a better person, neither in the sense that the heroine is corrupted and rules as mistress of darkness by his side. The most I can accept of a good character losing is that she loved him despite it all and after rejecting him, they both perish.

The ideal villain x heroine is when they are bond by their loneliness. Most authors believe the villain is always the hero's antithesis - the classic "Two sides of the same coin".

Maybe they share trauma, neglect - people think they are strange or too erratic. Maybe the heroine's willpower is walking the line of ruthlessness. Her power inspires fear in people, even in her, but the villain admires it.

Either way, they feel there are parts of them no one else would understand. That only they could know and love. That the villain, in an curious way, challenges her to become the greatest version of herself.

They would be the perfect match in different circumstances, or if the villain wasn’t so far gone. But he has hurt too many people and to forgive that would be impossible. Maybe forgiveness is not what he seeks. Maybe he just wants to be sure she will never leave him, the only way he knows how.

She hates him, but once again he is the only one who matches her. Examples of ships that do this: Steerpike x Fuchsia, Annie x the Teacher, Alina x Darkling, Reylo, Casey x Kevin...

Other interesting premises:

They have a telepathic connection. A spell was cast on them and their hearts are connected. One can only die when the other does. They could even be born from the same womb at the same time. Like, they came to this world together; their destinies are intertwined oh no Nuada/Nuala.

They were childhood friends or met when they were younger oh my gosh I love this trope.

The heroine is socially acceptable in her sexuality, meaning she is not sexually active or she is a full-on virgin. The villain is comfortable with his own and teases her.

He never loved anyone before. EVER.

He is more invested than she is, or at least he gives in and expresses his feelings more than she does, showing her the possibilities and getting frustrated when she discards them once again. He will be willing to sacrifice everything for her while she will hesitate (Lizzie from The Blacklist) or will rather kill herself later (Lady Fuchsia Groan) than to be with the man she loves because of the moral boundaries, people who depend on her, the complete absurd of saving such a despicable person and etc.

Or else, let him be tormented. Let his feelings for her confuse and scare him. Let it be against everything he is and believes. Let her be a whore or heretic and he, a devotee. Let her be his family and he, in a position of power and prestige like a king or a millionaire, wanting the only thing he can’t have and would make him a joke to those who fear and respect him now. Let him stare at her intensely, without her knowing why, trying to kill or imprison her or send her away, only to succumb and confess his feelings. Let him be disgusted with himself for wanting her, blaming her, and then coming back on his knees for crumbs of affection from the one he has disgraced. Let his power be drained from him and delivered to the hands of whom he judged unworthy, to such an extent that he is the one to make the delivery. Let his feelings consume him to the point he doesn’t even know what he is doing anymore, things he never thought he was capable of; burning a city, destroying a kingdom, enslaving a galaxy.

BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT IS:

VIDEO SOURCE

Before fighting, these frogs tried to resolve their differences peacefully with shouting. Usually, you can tell from the sound of the call which frog is bigger (and thus presumably stronger). Bigger frogs generally have deeper, louder calls, and if the other frog is significantly smaller, they'll often just give up and leave without a fight on the basis of a rival's call alone. It's kind of hilarious, actually: if you take 2 fairly even frogs, and modulate one of their calls to make them sound bigger, the other one will often just dip. Like "no, that guy sounds like he could kick my ass, I'm not touching that!"

So the first bit, they're calling close to each other, simultaneously to attract a female and to size each other up, but after a while they realise that they're pretty evenly matched. If a lady shows up, she might pick either one! Can't have that. Plus, maybe this is a great spot! The acoustics are EXCELLENT, and the call reflecting off this concrete wall makes me sound even BIGGER and STRONGER, but this other dude is RUINING it. Only solution is to declare this territory as my own and kick out the other guy!

Basically, there comes a point where yelling isn't enough and the frogs need to fight it out to determine who's the strongest. Even then, it tends to be a strength test more than a trying-to-hurt-you fight (think arm wrestle vs fist fight in humans). The stronger one pushes the weaker one, the weaker one realises he's outmatched, and he leaves with no one sporting any significant injuries other than on their frog-pride (which may or may not exist, idk if frogs feel thinks like "pride" or "envy." P sure they experience "avarice" tho).