There Are So Many People In This Fandom Who Just Hate Valkyrie Or Think She´s Annoying, But Honestly

Playing with Fire cover comparisons

Annnnd we’re back! This time with PWF, which in my opinion is rather underrated? Definitely not the best book in the series, but I like it better than the other middle books. YEAH, GET READY FOR UNPOPULAR OPINIONS. Also, apparently almost every country universally decided the main character gets to appear, so this time there’s lot of Val! Yay!

Anyway, this list has some weird mixups. Let’s go.

1.

Indonesian Cover

In my opinion? The best Skulduggery Pleasant cover, ever. It’s beautifully drawn, the compositions great, the PERSONALITY!! the font is not the greatest (that blue is… out of nowhere) but good god I will forgive for that BEAUTIFUL val. this is the only official art i’ve ever seen that actually looks like a pretty teenage girl, so, props. I also love the hand tucked into her jacket. “yeah, im shooting fire, but it’s not a big deal.”

also, indonesian artist learned to draw skeletons!! it is kinda weird to see him standing far back not doing anything, but it works better here than other places…

2.

UK Hardcover

This and #3 are really close, but this is probably one of my favorites of the original hardcovers. I like the lemon/lime color scheme, and the composition is great - maybe the best of all of them. The hands popping up out of the frame really work, and the splatter effects actually look good here! Yay! I … kinda suspect someone else did the composition here, lol. Not sure how I feel about the bats, but. Eh. 

3.

Thai Cover

im sorry about the sticker/website, this is the biggest I could find :,(

ANYWAY! DAMN! Once again, love the framing, and especially love the hand creeping out! The chains are great, the fiery background is great … also the grotesquery is creepy as fuck, much scary then any of the art Percival’s done of it. thoo…. why put the villain on the front cover, is my question? 

4. 

UK paperback.

It’s okay. Playing wirth fire, so… Skulduggery plays with fire. Composition is good, colors are good. Not much to say.

5.

Bulgarian Cover

Yay, Val!! And Skul lurking protectively in the background. This one mostly comes down to me not liking the art style much. Also val’s weird very ooc (and age inappropriate??) top. Aight.

6.

US Ebook

You know how I said the Indonesian/Bulgarian covers with Skul standing back worked? Yeah, this is an example of one that.. doesn’t. Seriously, there are vampires coming at them and Skulduggery is … actually, I’m not sure what Skulduggery is doing. What is he looking at? … SKULDUGGERY, SHE’S 13.

Speaking of that background, it’s awful. I can’t believe we’re only about halfway down the list and it’s already this dismal. Oy vey.

This is a cute Val, though. Yay. Why does Val never age in Percival’s covers? Questions, questions.

7.

US Hardcover

this is hilariously awful to me in the way the czech cover of book 1 is. it’s just so HIDEOUS, I LOVE IT. i bought a copy of this in powell’s and it’s my ugly baby

people do not run like this. I mean, for one, they do not hover off the ground like this, but the arms should be opposite the legs (so right leg forward, right arm back). Both of them are wearing brown, for some reason? Val’s coat is super short? i don’t know, man. I don’t know. 

8.

Serbian Cover

It’s a massive improvement over the last cover, though it’s still a mess. Their photoshopping is a bit more coherent, at least. Look at val’s emo bangs. And I’m sure she’s very proud to be 2 inches taller than Skulduggery.

Also, the bats return. Were there bats in this book??

9. 

Czech Cover

Well.

I’m impressed that they did worse.

it’s like Skulduggery cosplaying billy-ray sanguine, I don’t even KNOW. 

10.

American Paperback

Exec #1: “well, the skeleton cover really didn’t work here… We think it might have been too scary. What should we do for this reboot?”

Exec #2: “what’s the title?”

exec #1: “Playing with Fire.”

Exec #2: “Hand. Fire. DONE, BOOM”

at least they TRIED with the first one by making a scepter. ths is just… utter laziness. 

“Vampires are just part of the problem!” what was wrong with don’t try this at home?? IT MAKES EVEN MORE SENSE HERE. it’s the only one of these covers with a tagline, too. lord. 

so I know that you hc Nat as being the one to pickup Tony from Siberia, do you think there's any other reason beyond keeping the avengers together as to why she came back? Just found your fics and I'm loving what you do to their characters :)

omg i love that you guys send me asks like this! literally send them anytime (and i promise i'll get to everyone's prompts!)

so, the hc that nat saves tony is really just a vehicle for nat and tony being able to speak without not knowing whether rhodey will be okay hanging over their heads. the more i think about ironwidow peri and post cacw (and i have been thinking about it since 2016 haha) it's tony's emotional state that causes him to reject natasha so thoroughly in that scene. he's scared and furious, but more than that, it's not his best moment because he's indignant. that's why nat's comment about his ego hits. he's not in a good enough place to evaluate nat's actions objectively; he only sees the betrayal. and natasha is more vulnerable and hopeful than we've ever seen her too, causing her to take him at his words instead of digging deeper. (i'm midway through my im2/cacw ironwidow parallels meta, where i think i explain this better!)

but after 'he's my friend' 'so was i'? tony has spent all of his anger. i imagine he sits there on that cold floor, not angry, but numb. how did i get here? how did we get here? what do i have left? and if nat shows up there, he goes, well, i have natasha. i'm upset, but i have natasha. the avengers are ruined, but natasha is here - whatever her intentions are, she came.

i know it might seem like i'm focusing on tony a lot given your question is about natasha, but i think it's important because natasha knows her team. she knows that steve has come away from this upset and worried about the future, but he did not thoroughly break the way that tony did. i stick by my assessment that natasha's overarching goal is to keep the team together. they're really (other than yelena) all she has, and they give her a purpose. if natasha saw tony in siberia, her endgame would require her to adjust her plans to make sure he's okay, because tony stark and steve rogers are both indispensable to the avengers. steve has backup and moral support. tony has nothing, or at least he feels that way. so she stays because tony needs her. it's as simple as that.

in delicate, i suggest there are other reasons, because of course there are. one, natasha would want to have a say in the accords. two, her skillset aka pulling the strings is better served in nyc than in wakanda, where all she can really do is make sure the others are protected. for example, i imagine she likes ensuring that the un is not wise to steve's activities, whatever they may be. three, i think there's a possibility that she's more upset with steve than tony about the events of cacw - though i doubt she lets her personal feelings enter into the equation, and though i don't like "choosing sides" in the traditional way in cacw, i think she perceived steve's motives as more selfish than tony's.

all of this, however, is secondary to my earlier point. tony needed natasha. natasha goes where she is needed, because her whole psychosis is about being needed because she doesn't see how someone could want her for herself. and when natasha realizes she starts relying on tony as much as he relies on her? that tony sees beyond what she presents the world, that she wants him to (queue the 'you let them go' scene, where she's the most vulnerable we've seen her at that point imo)? that's what creates the perfect conditions for ironwidow.

How to show emotions

Part I

How to show annoyance

slightly shaking their head

rolling their eyes

looking to the side

closing their eyes for a moment

sighing

taking a deep breath

clucking their tongue

huffing

crossing their arms in front of their chest

tapping their foot

How to show hurt

turning away

avoiding eye contact

closing eyes

lips pressed together

eyes filled with tears

breathing deeply

How to show anger

clenching their fists

pressing their lips on each other

breathing loudly through their nose

eyes getting smaller

clenching their teeth

clenching their jaw

looking away to calm themselves

speaking with clenched teeth

whole body is tense

screaming

throwing things around

stomping

moving around a lot, can’t keeping still

open body language, like they are ready to attack

frown wrinkles on their forehead

prominent veins

grabbing someone they are angry with to get them to understand why they are angry

becoming violent

non-stop talking, ranting

shaking their head

throwing their arms in the air

eyes either going from one point to another while ranting or completely fixating on the person they are angry with

How to show excitement

jumping up and down

not being able to stand still

clapping their hands

bright eyes

grinning

squealing

giggling

flushed face

bouncing

dilated pupils

tapping their foot

How to show boredom

biting nails

leg bouncing

sighing

playing with everything close by

twiddling your thumbs

spinning around

grumbling

staring into the distance

propping your head on your hand

Part II + Part III

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de una forma una mini pimer es como una cinturonga …

Skulduggery Pleasant AU: Valkyrie is persuaded by kenspeckle to leave skukduggery and work with the irish sanctuary in a different capacity/deal with the magic/mortal-life divide differently.

[This ask is a prompt for this headcanons post]

First of all, let’s take a moment to appreciate this tag courtesy of the AO3 Tag Generator:

[image reads: “sappy scientific femslash”]

Surprising absolutely no-one, I am 100% here for Valkyrie and Clarabelle as magiscience wives. Lab partners, even. 

Like, sure, Kenspeckle could get Val to do something that isn’t either Skeleton Detective Assisting or Sanctuary Scientisting, but also. Clarabelle is right there y’all. And Val likes coats.

Ghastly would be delighted! He would make the best labcoats!

Now for the plot nonsense. Handwavey I-haven’t-read-these-books-in-many-years ye-gods-there’s-some-kind-of-second-series-I-haven’t-touched-isn’t-there? time, but I’d imagine some kind of complicated Darquesse related fuckery goes down anyway, because look at China. Being a librarian has not stopped her from being very much involved in drama!! I see no reason for Val to be any different.

I just typed “does valkyrie cain like math” into google and one of the suggestions along the way was “does valkyrie cain have a girlfriend”. oh my god !!! oh my god !!!!!

But anyway! I cannot remember if she likes math! I think the reflection likes at least one of the STEM things in school though. A Valkyrie+Stephanie teamup sounds like a good time.

Also, Valkyrie gets a dog at the end of the series right? She should still get a dog. The dog should have its own set of lab gear. 

Like, the goggles and the boots and the coat. Ghastly should be the one making the dog’s clothes. Ghastly should be chasing this dog around the shop with a teacup. 

Yes.

My favorite troupe

Bad Ass women cops with their sassy Consultants who will provoke people and run behind said bad ass women cop

Kate Beckett and Rick Castle

Lucifer and Chloe Decker

Teresa Lisbon and Patrick Jane

Back to the Saracen mentoring Val au and here’s Saracen introducing Val to Dexter

Dexter: so this is your new partner?

Saracen: yep. This is Valkyrie and I’m moulding her into a fine, upstanding citizen

Dexter:

Dexter: so Valkyrie what’s your magic

Saracen: *winks and nods at Val*

Valkyrie: I know things

Dexter:

I recently found out why my mom would never sleep around me when I was a kid. Like she’d never let herself take naps or sleep if I was awake, ever. Or if she did, she would lock her bedroom door. So when I was 6, I was asleep in my bed in the middle of the night when I hear a loud bang, like a pot being dropped and come out to the living room to see my mom standing by the window, with just a huge pile of spaghetti all over the sill, and a pot on the ground, and I ’m like “Are you gonna eat all that?” And ya’ll she get’s BIG MAD and yells at me and chases me to my room but then a little while later a bunch of cops show up and ask me a bunch of random ass questions about my art? Like this one cop lady keeps asking me to draw dragons for her?! And they seem mad as hell

I didn’t want to get arrested so I just never asked my mom for spaghettis after that. Lesson, learned. Don’t ask mom for spaghettis or she’ll call the damn police on you. 

So I have this memory in my head, and it goes unquestioned until I say it outload for the first time a few months back and as soon as I say the words “When I was six, my mom called the cops on me for asking for spaghettis” My adult logic slams into place and is like “Hang on. Your mother definatly did not call the police on a 6 year old for asking for spaghetti.” 

So obviously that’s not what really went down. I call up my mom to tell her how I remember it and on top of her figuring out why her kid has always been really cagey around spaghettis for the last 3 decades she tells me what really happened. 

So on that night, a man tried to break into our house through the front window. It was just my mom, and her kids so she did what she felt she had too and shot him in the head. He’d been wearing a helmet, which landed on the floor under the window.

Now I just want ya’ll to put yourselves in my moms shoes for a minute here. This woman has just taken a human life. The trauma of that- the instant agony, the panic, the guilt, the fear- all of it hitting her at once, her only solace the knowledge that her children are safe. She protected her daughters. No matter the cost to her soul- her children are safe.

Then she looks up and sees her six year old staring at the inside of this mans head before saying “Are you gonna eat all that?” 

sp as scottish tweets pt. 1: val’s family

this may be the best post idea i’ve had yet

val:

desmond:

melissa:

beryl & the twins:

alice:

fergus:

gordon:

New Star Wars side blog

I read a couple of books and now I´m completely obsessed with Leia Organa again, so here´s my new Star Wars side blog: @leia-organa-fics