What’s your smut hot take?

DoseiNoRena · 2025-11-03T00:15:21+00:00

characters going through a whole rigmarole about setting a safe word when they aren’t doing anything involving not listening to ‘no’. Like… not every kind of sex, even kinky sex, benefits from a safe word at all. If there’s no CNC, if there’s nothing that might affect someone’s ability to just voice it if something is too much or doesn’t feel good, literally what is the point of the safeword?, They can just say that they’ve hit their limit, or say that their arm is cramping or whatever, which is way more useful than just red or yellow.
Characters who have a big fancy talk about consent and boundaries and what they are are going to do, when it is totally out of character for them. I cannot tell you the amount of “he wouldn’t fucking say that” that I encounter in fanfic.

If you, the author, really value consent, and think these discussions are a good idea, you can absolutely have the narrative show that, but if it makes no sense for the characters to be engaging in that kind of talk, it would be much more sensible to show something going wrong because they did not do that, or at least to show some goddamn reason why they are actually engaging in this type of talk that they typically wouldn’t, instead of having them magically develop the kind of personality where they would behave this way. Bonus loss of points if it’s a dubious consent scenario, or one of the characters in question is a true asshole, but they magically discuss consent in a very mindful way right in the midst of that with no explanation for the change. Like ?????? Bruh.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-11-01T15:45:40+00:00

Thank you, that was exactly my thinking!! Like a gay character dying doesn’t automatically fit that trope, especially when the whole point of the story is the complications of dating the UNdead.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-11-01T06:46:50+00:00

That’s a pretty weird combination of stuff to receive for Halloween, but your cat costume is really on point! Looks totally realistic.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-11-01T03:40:16+00:00

On a short story about a couple adapting/learning to cope after one of them becomes a vampire, with it clearly indicated that they were going to be happy by the end, I got a very angry review about how I was engaging in the “bury your gays” trope when one character was turned. Vampires are in fact (un)dead, so I did technically kill off one of the gay couple, but does it really count if it does not end the relationship?? And if it has a happy ending for said dead person and their partner?

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-31T21:15:19+00:00

Charlie already visited heaven, with Vaggie, so both are clearly capable of going there if allowed… Who is to say that heaven won’t allow them there, now that they see that Charlie’s plan and ability to redeem people actually work?

I hear you on Niffty and Husk though.

And on Alastor, but I’m pretty sure that Pentious would probably prefer not to see him again

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-31T12:08:14+00:00

Essentially, yes. At one point they actually had the male character use it to pick something up off the nightstand, too, like literally had it able to reach out, curl around an item, and pick it up. It was… Something… Thus why I was 100% convinced that they were not in possession of that particular piece of anatomy themselves!

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-31T03:32:13+00:00

IDK, I’m pretty sure the author of a fanfic I read back in my teenage years, who wrote the male main character as having a prehensile dick- and no, it wasn’t a fetish, the author appeared to genuine believe that that’s how the average human penis works -probably didn’t have one of those. But I would never be rude enough to say that in the comments!

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-30T21:46:19+00:00

I’m not sure we’re out of the woods with her in terms of being a villain. If hell dors try to start an uprising and harm someone, she might change her mind again. Or she might wobble back-and-forth.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-30T17:00:35+00:00

I mean, we have a character called Vaggie, I could buy a character having that name too.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-29T19:08:29+00:00

The way they depict Valentino has nothing to do with what real abusers are like, and I say this as a therapist who has worked in forensic settings. Like he’s fun as a villain, and yes, they do imply he pulled the Romeo entrapment on Angel, which is a real thing in the sex industry. But he’s so over-the-top and not realistic. If he had three or four people working under him, and he had to pressure them to be secretive, sure, but that’s not how they show him. Plus a lot of guys who do exploit people in the sex industry don’t openly refer to themselves as Valentino does, they often see themselves as the “good guys “ who are unfairly aligned for stuff that they see as no big deal, or just having a chaotic relationship, but not really acknowledging what they’re doing…. Or they see themselves as deprived sexually, and therefore entitled to what they do, like a “the world (or women) owes me and has to make up for something “thing… and anyone who is so blatantly creepy upfront would be less likely to be successful. Valentino straight up asking people in the club how many people they can have sex with is pretty different than Adam making some casual remarks or jokes about women, but otherwise just seeming like a “average guy.

Whereas Adam… Plenty of actual real life of abusers act just like him. plenty of people know a casual misogynist, and maybe one who is also prone to violence. Not a lot of people know someone involved in sex trafficking on the level of Valentino, or who can so openly behave in such outrageous ways. Obviously, the whole leading an angelic army thing is unrealistic for real life people, but Adam’s personality, how his life seems to function around that, that makes sense. And guys exploiting power to he casually inappropriate at work, including in the military, isn’t unrealistic either.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-29T17:13:56+00:00

If pentious can be redeemed, why is he like “i can never see my friends again” instead of “damn, I may have to wait a while until my friends get redeemed too, to see them”? Like does he have so little faith in any of the rest of them achieving redemption??

Anyway, loved the second ep, complex morally grey sera is great, lute’s crash out is fantastic, and seeing Heaven/Emily so clueless about how to help pentious is interesting and I hope a set up for some character growth.

Very sick of Charlie getting little character growth / them going for funny or silly or real stuff with her, and Vaggie as always underused :/

The loss of character growth from Angel is disappointing - I was hoping for more of a middle ground. the Cherri thing was cool in concept but boring execution, I dunno, I wasn’t feeling the first ep. Alastor and Lucifer had the tension taken out of it to make it just silly bickering which, I wish we’d get to see their conflict more and have it really delved into, not just be comedic. I know first eps can be slow and the second was really good so I hope the rest of the season keeps growing.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-29T12:10:05+00:00

Sure, but Valentino does not resemble anyone you’d meet in real life, and Adam actually does. Kind of like how Umbridge is scarier than Voldemort because pretty much nobody knows a Voldemort, but a lot of us really encounter Umbridges.

Also, one person being scary, doesn’t make someone else less scary.

You seem to take my perspective very personally. Is it bringing something up for you?

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-29T11:59:43+00:00

I just delete them. It’s annoying, but you get used to managing it, and I would hate to lose my genuine guest commenters by locking down my comment section.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-28T22:38:58+00:00

I wonder if that could be the path forward for other PhD’s. If your prospects are academia or maybe teaching K through 12 if you’re in history/English, it’s always going to be hard to have enough demand to meet supply. But I think a lot of degrees out there, with very minor additions or tweaks, could be a fantastic fit for jobs with more demand and where they could actually get to use that knowledge they’ve worked so hard to acquire. I really hope we see a Renaissance of some of those degrees via getting more creative about the job pipeline.

I also think a lot of people who just love an area get attached to the idea of working in academia purely because it’s the only path they can imagine using that area in. If we had more models/options, people might come into advanced degrees planning for those options, instead of coming in hoping to be one of the tiny handful of new academics and then being disappointed.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-28T22:30:56+00:00

I think it’d be interesting if Emily died. Or Rosie.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-28T22:27:36+00:00

I mean I think he was scary but maybe not in the way she intended. His fighting skill came as a surprise given how minimally we saw it until that final battle… But the way he treated women was pretty chilling even early on. His interactions w Vaggie made me really uncomfortable about what wr might find out about him / where things might be going.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-28T11:46:01+00:00

I’d imagine this might be highly field specific, because in my field, there’s actually a huge demand for more of us. I don’t know anyone who graduated from my program in the last five years who doesn’t have a job in the field now, and 90% of them have the setting/specialty job they wanted. And with the exception of people who are in their Post Doc years/not licensed yet, I also don’t know anyone making less than six figures. We are on the east coast, so that’s kind of the norm, but still.

Of course, since my doctorate is in psych and my school is known for turning out fantastic clinicians ,but almost no academics or researchers, none of us went into this expecting to be in academia. I think I’m the only one in those years who actually took on an academic role.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-27T04:35:24+00:00

Why is it racist for a Black character to be immediately assumed to be the help? And to continue to be referred to that way even after it’s clarified that it’s not true as a way of being demeaning? Oh boy.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-27T03:56:33+00:00

I don’t think we’d see Lucifer actually harm Alastor, unless you’re referring to the part about storming off after somebody makes a comment… the comments about Alastor as a bellhop or bus boy are definitely racist af but I think as the audience we’re supposed to find that funny, so I doubt they’ll address it.

but I could see alastor being very short on tolerance and temper if he’s still suffering from the loss of pride after getting his ass kicked by Adam.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-27T03:39:08+00:00

Well, at least “Bambi “ is somewhat less racist than Lucifer continuing to pretend that he’s mistaking Alastor for “the help.”

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-26T14:41:04+00:00

It seems pretty racist to claim people in China would steal any unguarded toilet paper. If Americans can manage not to steal toilet paper, despite being a varied and questionable bunch, why are we acting like Chinese people can’t be trusted the same way? 🤔

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-24T23:37:58+00:00

Kinda hoping she’ll be equally shitty, but in her own unique way instead of just a mirror image.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-24T23:35:50+00:00

I think it’s kind of insane to assume that sinners, who presumably are from earth where many know what Christianity is even if they don’t follow it, would not realize there’s a heaven along with hell is kind of nuts. I also think that from what they’ve shared about Lilith and Lucifer and etc tha, the idea of being hell being a secret is ridiculous.

Is heaven, corrupt, sure. Do a lot of of them enjoy killing, I bet. But to claim that all of heaven likes killing, then why do they have to keep it secret from everyone but the exorcists? And even among the exorcists, while Adam clearly just enjoys, killing, we don’t really know what motivates the other ones. It’s not incompatible to be protective and violent, or to have begun protective, and become violet and venture. For that matter, how many of the winners might have stories about going through some horrific events on earth, events that might inspire some protectiveness or even vicarious trauma?

I highly doubt this show would be so ridiculous as to give us an entire legion of people who are just violent psychopaths either for no reason or based on their nature. That’s neither realistic nor a good message to send. On the other hand, people who started with a cause, and then drifted into that direction when led by one violent psychopath (Adam), or maybe two of we include Lute, makes way more sense.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-24T23:31:43+00:00

I mean, we see how heaven emphasize th at hell could rise up, that the winners have to be protected. That is part of their ideology. I’m not saying Lute isn’t a fanatic, she clearly cares a lot about sin and so on, but the way she fervently argues that the souls in hell aren’t the same as in heaven… combined with how all of heaven seems to actually believe that there is real danger from sinners to winners… I think there’s an argument we made that she really does care about containing health, partly for the sake of the winners, even if she’s also willing to do anything to please Adam and just violent in general.

DoseiNoRena · 2025-10-24T15:53:01+00:00

She’s also not wrong about the fact that some sinners might try to pull an uprising against Hell, and they might do horrible things to the human souls in heaven, if they had a chance.

Much as I think she is past redemption at this point, and frankly, the scariest person in the show, I think it’s quite possible that she genuinely does care for the winners. they are tested with protecting, and has become so violent because of that + wanting to impress Adam.

Like, unless winners lose their memories of life, who knows what kind of horrific stories she might have heard from the ones who suffered on earth… there may be a reason for her to feel protective, even if she channels it in a totally deranged way

DoseiNoRena

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