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sgiandubh · 6 months

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Machiavelli took a day off

... when the Telegraph article was written in great haste, by someone blatantly given a last minute task, who had no fucking idea to whom she was talking and what exactly meant the PR vetted or even prompted questions.

Instead of a line-by-line analysis, we'll take things differently, on this page, using the '5 W rule of journalism' (or even non-fiction writing, in general, if you ask me):

Who? SRH, EP of the OL series and one of the two male leads of the TCND series, which will be shortly broadcast by Channel 4, in the UK and IE only (and Movistar in ES). The rest of the world is not concerned.

What? A promotional article, focused on the actor's personality, CV and projects.

When? At a particular moment in time, just after the SAG-AFTRA strike and before shooting OL's eighth and last season.

Where? Crucial to place it in LHR (to imply he is 'just visiting') and God forbid it would be in GLA, which (for some curious reasons) seems to be off-limits.

Why? An actor with solid credentials hopes to keep agents and employers interested, after above OL project is done, which is rather sooner than later. Also addressing (as per the actor's PR agent specific requirements) three particular issues: the Palestine letter, the Bond project and his 'private life'.

Onwards to the three issues at stake, which probably prompted the article. In chronological order, this time. And no, I am not going to address the Scottish independence mention, because this is a sincere, well-known position of his and this page never bitches about people's convictions - also because I educated myself on it and I agree with S.

Palestine:

It was important, for obvious reasons, to push damage control a tad further. Also, strictly from a hypothetical POV, I would be very curious to read your compare and discuss thoughts with regard to this particular post on this page:

A sort of answer came in the Telegraph paper, too. Not only to me (I am less than nobody), but to all the people (of which we were many) who thought he should not get involved in this type of debate:

This is not the first time he uses this specific talking point. Last time known to me was on the day the Queen died, on X (I looked for that post, but can't find it, because I am just a filthy lurker, like that: but it is there).

The really interesting question, therefore, is: does he/somebody monitor what is being said on Tumblr? The answer is, I think, yes, and it shows. Will it stop me talking in here? Nope, as I trust my discerning abilities, for the moment. Other than that, his damage control op does not bring anything new to the table.

Bond:

What can I say, Sir? While there's life, there's apparently hope. But that doesn't translate well, given the context of your interview. That spells desperate and it's not a great picture. Also, let us keep a pious moment of silence in fond memory of a 25 year old who had a dream and the dream went to Daniel Craig (who I detested as Bond, because every girl has her Bond and mine is Pierce Brosnan, amen).

I know people still speculate about it. I have very high reservations and I cannot, for the life of me, seriously consider even thinking about the possibility. He could do it with flying colors, no doubt. Does he stand a chance? I prefer to have zero expectations on it and be floored if it happens. If he naively still yearns/pushes for it, this interview could very well be as abysmal as C's VF tantrum.

'Private life':

Ugh. Slippery when wet. I have already touched the subject in a reactive re-blog of @samheughanswife's post about it and I will not get back to what I said even without reading the article.

Some more extraordinary wording, in here: 'there might even be space for a personal life' - begs the question 'when?' In general? (in general, all men are created equal, too - it's practice that kills the theory) Now? (it is my staunch belief the answer is yes). After OL? (then and now and after Hiroshima, too). Can you program these things? (nope, stars simply aligned) Heh. Enough said. Also, 'might' spells cheap insinuation to me. But that's just me, a blonde voice in the audience.

Now, onwards to the daughter thing. I believe this specifically addresses the cheap, abundant clickbait content on You Tube, hence the vague 'online' reference (not Tumblr, not fans, not blogs - he is not C, he kept it clean). Such as this very recent one (last 'clip' on the topic was five days ago):

The two I chose to share here, which are very conspicuous FAKES, are originating from the same 'source', an account that seems obsessed with S&C and has no problem changing its narrative three times a week, if needed. My opinion? PR induced shite, to prod numbers/interest and see what sticks.

No newborn daughter? I hear no lies.

As for OL leaving 'no time for relationships', ahem. *urv will be thrilled to read that, I bet the farm. As will Flukenzie Floozy, at least her - damn, she was persistent! Also, hello, back to 2014-2016 playbook, aren't we?

No new relationships? Whatever for, when IYKYK? I hear no lies.

'I want a cat' ('because she's great', says my shipper brain on autopilot), 'but I am too scared even for that'. Humph. A very poor lie. But admitting you wanted and got a Ca(i)t scares the bejesus out of you, since 2016. I hear no lies. Yes, I am being tongue in cheek and damn the consequences.

Morality of it?

The easiest solution is never to take personal questions in interviews or panels. Why These Two still do it completely mystifies me.

#shitshow

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utilitycaster · 1 year

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What are your honest, unfiltered thoughts about everything going on currently with this “are the gods really good and necessary” line of thought the latest cr episode has been tackling, both in terms of your feelings on the subject in general and also how it’s being portrayed/discussed.

I don't agree with the idea of gods using mortals as batteries - I don't actually think we have any official canonical support that the prime deities (or, presumably, betrayer gods) do need worship to sustain them - but in terms of a conversation being had I don't actually mind it because the general attitude among Bells Hells and among Deanna and FRIDA is "does it really matter how important the gods are? Actively unleashing them seems like a cataclysmically bad idea." It's actually really interesting to me that this is the focus! A lot of D&D in which there are divine entities explores religion and faith in a scenario where the existence of gods is unquestionable. This is instead exploring whether it's legitimate to destroy something simply for not being important to you personally.

I'd also add that what Deanna is saying and how she's acting are not always in sync - which to be clear I believe to be a deliberate choice from Aabria in her portrayal. Like, I think it's obvious that Deanna has complicated feelings towards the Dawnfather, but that's the key - there are positive and negative feelings, and when she says "batteries" there is a symbiosis here, not a simple "they're using us and controlling us".

Just to give a brief overview of where I am personally coming from, like, IRL, philosophically: I'm Jewish, and my personal religious practice is heavily focused far more on what one does rather than what one believes, which I feel fits very well with Bells Hells. The Yom Kippur service, which one reads while fasting and spending a day in prayer, actively includes a reading (from Isaiah) that boils down to "It's cool that you're fasting right now but if, tomorrow, you go back to engaging actively in systems of oppression that you have the power to fight against, this was all meaningless and performative."

This covers two things I feel very strongly about religion and morality: First, actions speak way louder than words and religious observance should serve as a reminder of what you need to be doing during the rest of your life, ie, you can't show up at your place of worship with an attitude of "ok cool gonna cleanse my soul and then it's ALLLLLL fixed and I can go back to kicking puppies". Religious services, should you choose to attend them, are more about the meditative process of setting one's intent via symbolic rituals, but really, it matters way more that you are not a fucking dickhead in the rest of your life. And second, you, as a mortal finite being who is not a god have the power to throw off these systems of oppression, because in a world where divine entities step in constantly, we as mortals do simply become mindless puppets, and that would suck.

Which I should note also means that one's issues with an organized religion must be taken up with the mortal leaders of that institution. I mean, in our real world, if you are an atheist, I think that's a completely valid belief, but also, in the end, it does not matter if or if not there is any cosmic entity or higher power. If you're an edgy FACTS NOT FEELINGS neckbeard 4chan atheist bigot, or a hard-right evangelical bigot? the bigotry is what matters. The existence of deities is a moot point. What people are being shitty? How do you stop them? You are welcome to overlay religion if it helps or avoid it if it doesn't. Like, one last note re: Jewishness, which is that there's a parable that a guy once said "I will convert to Judaism if you can teach me the entire Torah while I stand on one foot," and the first rabbi he asks scoffs and sends him off, and the second tells him the golden rule ("that which is hateful to you, do not do unto your neighbor") and it's fucking great not just because it's a good moral principle, but because it also removes religion from the equation. If this guy were scamming you? You've given him some solid advice at no cost to yourself that requires no adherence to any religion. If he were in earnest? You met his conditions.

Another relevant way to put this: The oft-used but really good Brennan quote! " 'On the level of individuals and civilizations, personality predates ideology.' Meaning that before you were a fascist, you were a bully and an asshole." Replace fascist with hateful religious right-winger; it's not about god, it's about a system that lets you feel justified in hating other people for who they are or like you're getting a reward for not doing stuff you weren't interested in anyway.

So uh, getting back to CR, it's interesting in that it's managed to recreate the real-world argument in D&D. I happen to prefer stories in which characters are actively engaging with deities in a positive manner, as we've seen with say, Pike, or Vax, or Fjord, or Caduceus, or Jester, or Yasha. However, in the end, all the theological arguments are purely academic. The point is that no one's controlling the Vanguard - Tuldus's quarrel is with his abusive family, not their gods. Ludinus says he's mad the gods didn't step in to stop the Calamity...but in many ways the Calamity happened because the gods let the people have free rein. If the gods stop everything bad from happening, how far do they go? Sure, stop the Calamity. Do they stop every individual accidental death? Do they stop all wars? What happens if they slip up? Can they slip up? It's an inherently contradictory spiral if you start getting into this - are you saying the gods are perfect and infallible and choose not to use this, in which case, wouldn't that make them fallible? If the gods are actually powerful enough to constantly control you, why are you openly talking about their destruction and Kord hasn't vaporized you with a bolt from the blue?

And you can tell this because the only arguments that matter in the end are people like Orym and Ashton saying "I don't fucking know about the gods, but these guys are murdering innocents, which seems really bad." Like, sure, I'd like to see some more for lack of a better term traditional clerics or paladins pop up, or someone with a high religion score who can talk through the theology, but it's kind of nice to have a story where most people are like "I can take or leave the gods, but actively unleashing an even more powerful entity to kill them seems dumb and unnecessary" and I think that argument is ultimately more successful than a head-on discussion of the role of the gods.

#answered #Anonymous #critical role spoilers

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cross-my-heartt · 1 year

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Three Act Structure of TBB

(Part Two: Season Two aka Act Two)

Part One here

Here we are finally discussing season two. This one was more difficult to write for a few reasons, namely that:

Act two generally has the least defined internal structure of all three acts

Season two doesn’t have the same clear cut internal three act structure as season one

The midpoint, the most commonly found element of act two, is harder to pinpoint here

All of this isn’t to say that season two is a bad season. Like I said, a vague internal structure is characteristic of the second act and season two acts more as a transitional season than one that could potentially stand on its own (like, say, season one).

How does season two hold up as a second act though? In my opinion, pretty well.

Act 2: The Middle (Complications)

To quote my reference material:

"Moving into ‘Act 2’, the protagonist is working toward their goal. As such, they are learning new things, testing what they learn, making mistakes, and probably meeting new people. […]

The bulk of the middle of your story will be a series of obstacles, challenges, tests, trials, etc., known collectively as The Road of Trials. This is where your protagonist comes face-to-face with antagonism. In many stories, the protagonist will use newfound knowledge and skills to get past these obstacles, or they’ll experience setbacks. If nothing else, these challenges can show that the protagonist is learning from their mistakes and growing (or not)."

This is all stuff that is present in season two. We have many examples of Omega learning new things (from the batch, from Phee, from Riyo, etc.) as well as the batch still learning to adapt to life with her and any new circumstances they’re faced with.

On a more thematic level the batch is applying what Omega helped teach them: the value of helping others, the values of family/community, of doing the right thing.

As for challenges and obstacles, each mini arc has its own while also sometimes putting the group face to face with the main antagonist: the Empire (Spoils of War, Tribe, Clone Conspiracy, Metamorphosis). And we can’t deny that we get our fair share of character growth (Hunter’s shifting priorities, Tech’s development as Omega’s brother, Omega applying her new skills, Echo resolving to stay with Rex, etc.)

(Don’t worry, I am purposefully omitting Crosshair for the time being.)

These mini stories don’t only serve to build character but also contribute to the development of important subplots. For example, the episodes where we learn more about Phee and Pabu set up the question of ‘should the batch settle down?’

Mistakes are made (losing the Marauder), new relationships formed (meeting Phee) and overall there's a good variety of mini arcs.

So tldr, season two is doing a great job in this regard. What about the midpoint then? Well, for starters, what is the midpoint.

The midpoint is found in most three act structure models. It could be a mid-act climax or a twist but most importantly:

"[...] your protagonist has a moment of clarity or revelation about something. They might learn something new that allows them to see their journey differently. Perhaps they’ve learned something that makes them view The Other World differently."

Knowing this, we have two candidates (or at least I’d argue we do).

One is the more obvious one, ie the two episodes smack dab in the middle of the season that deal with a big revelation, as well as a smaller twist that affects our protagonists. I’m of course talking about The Clone Conspiracy and Truth and Consequences.

My only issue here is that the events of these episodes are more closely related to the show’s subplots rather than its main plot.

Is the fate of the clones important? Yes. However this arc establishes something that's been foreshadowed from the very beginning: that the clones are being phased out. The fact that Palpatine achieves this sooner rather than later ups the stakes while also giving Echo the final push in making the decision to stay with Rex (the revelation that changes his course as a character).

And I’d argue that this… doesn’t really affect the main plot as much. Clone prisoners are still being transferred to Tantiss. Rex’s operation is still functioning. And Echo’s departure, while significant, sets up the theme of ‘settle down’ vs ‘continue the fight’ and the batch having to deal with his absence, both of which are subplots.

The thing that sets the act’s climax in motion – the batch’s attempt to save Crosshair – could still happen even if Echo had stayed with them. (yes, Echo was pivotal to getting the data but it’s really not that hard to rewrite those events without him).

So what’s the other possible candidate for a midpoint?

Well, here is where my biased self comes out and suggests that (you guessed it) it’s actually a Crosshair episode. The Crosshair episode of the season.

Although it’s positioned further on down the line, The Outpost accomplishes several things at once: there's a revelation, a twist, a character changing their viewpoint and the whole thing plays a huge role in the events to follow.

It's an episode where Crosshair not only manages to regain his status as protagonist, but also does it while having his very own mini hero’s journey, with classic elements like meeting a mentor (Mayday) who later dies tragically to push the protagonist’s story forward.

These events serve as the catalyst for the coming climax: Crosshair’s imprisonment and subsequent actions lead to a rescue attempt and that’s where everything starts to go wrong.

In a way you could say that Crosshair hijacked the midpoint of the whole act… and I love that for him.

After this we get a few more mini arcs such as Pabu and Tipping Point until we eventually reach the act two climax. The rock bottom, the crisis, the big change that leaves our heroes devastated and hopeless.

This could either be The Summit and Plan 99 or just the final episode, depending on what you define as the beginning of the crisis.

And here we are. A dire hopeless situation (Tech seemingly dead, Omega captured, Crosshair still imprisoned) that awaits its resolution in the form of act three.

That's where the protagonists rally before the final act three climax, followed by a deescalation of the action as the remainder of the story’s subplots are tied up (more of my thoughts on that here). Unless it's an open ending of course... but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Either way, the odds of a happy ending are in no way low. I promise.

(Thank you for reading this far if you did! I hope you enjoyed and dropping my little tag list here: @lightwise @kixs-husband @ladykagewaki @intellectualfairy @arcadianmoonshadowjedi @tigerthespahget)

#tbb #the bad batch #tbb season 2 #tbb omega #tbb crosshair #tbb tech #tbb echo #tbb hunter #tbb phee #tbb meta #clone force 99 #my meta

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atopvisenyashill · 8 days

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Book Daemon, at least, appeared to have genuine feelings for both Laena and Rhaenyra. If she said she would marry him after winning the throne, I don't think he would have left her. Show Daemon though seems to care less for anyone except Viserys.

WEll.......while I do agree it's very obvious in the books that Daemon loved both Laena and Rhaenyra, and I kinda roll my eyes when people insist he only loved one of them, and yeah, I definitely agree book Daemon would agree to hold off on marrying if she promised a Specific Date (ie after I get the throne/after Jace and Baela have a kid). BUT. I don't agree he doesn't care about anyone but Viserys in the show. I think a) erasing his love for Laena is just point blank nonsensical and stupid and i will fight and die on that hill against anyone who wants to argue that stupid ass "well what relationship does it make sense to make the emotional base of the show, rhaenicent and daemyra or laenyra and daemyra" because none of those things are actually in opposition to each other but also b) again, like most of the blacks in the second half of the show, daemon seems to not have many very close relationships outside of Viserys and Rhaenyra because they just cut all the relevant scenes. We barely see him interact with Baela, Rhaena, or Jacaerys, and they don't really make Steffon Darklyn stand out, he doesn't live on Driftmark with Laenor, Rhaenys, Laena, and Corlys, so Daemon is just like, being a weirdo all over Westeros without any real emotional ties.

BUT. I do think the fact that Daemon doesn't have as many clear cut emotional ties also does make his more erratic or goofy ass behavior in show canon make more sense. Because he's constantly waiting for (imo) Viserys or Rhaenyra to make the first move here, he isolates himself, but he also never quite explains that he feels discarded/jerked around outside of moments where he's just straight up arguing with Viserys. I also think show Daemon has a few more....scruples? shall we say? When it comes to his seductions of both Rhaenyra and Laena than book Daemon does. Book Daemon clearly does not care about the age differences between him and the women he's involved with (or, well, if he does care, he doesn't show it very much) whereas show Daemon is (rightly) wrestling with the appropriateness of eloping with a teenager. IMO, that's why he stays in Pentos instead of writing to come home to Viserys; he can't really tell Rhaenyra "you were too young" when he's shacked up with someone even younger than her, whereas in the book, he never "abandons" Rhaenyra nor does he keep Laena from her home for very long, so he just doesn't have that emotional issue with them.

So like yes, while I do think his attraction to Rhaenyra is completely tied up in his attraction to Viserys, I think it's also very clear he is attracted to Rhaenyra, and he craves emotional validation from her in the exact same way he does from Viserys. It's why he's so weird at Driftmark with the both of them when he first comes back; he's once again panicking, feeling both that they don't want him there, they're just placating him and they'll reject him again soon, he's third wheeling this dynamic, etc., while also feeling extremely guilty over not fulfilling his "role" of protecting them, of once again taking advantage of Rhaenyra when she's emotionally vulnerable, of being able to ~see clearly~ that Viserys is surrounded by vipers and doing nothing to stop it, etc etc.

#like yeah he DOESN'T seem to care about baela rhaena OR laena in the show. but a) that's bad writing so i just fundamentally ignore some #of it the way i ignore the entire talisa thing in got and b) they just wholesale cut every bit of personality from the characters #that daemon intercts with the most pre the dance kicking off outside of rhaenyra. so it's like 'oh he doesn't care'#about the cardboard cut outs he interacts with? yeah because they are cardboard.#asks #anons

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basuralindo · 6 months

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You'll Have Me Rise ch.19 is up!

Content warnings for nongraphic discussion of animal death, relatively graphic arachnophobia, mentions of family death and funerals.

Editing by @kamikazequail

And as always, commentary under the cut

-Yeah Jamil just walked straight into that pickup line completely unaware… Jade's never gonna let him live it down, if anyone ever tells him.

-Jade hides his emotions as well as he wants to when he's prepared, but have you noticed he's totally transparent when caught off guard in canon? I think he'd be more obvious than expected if something he wasn't prepared for made him uncomfortable.

-Yugioh voice: "You've activated Jade's special interest! You must stand by and listen to nature facts for a full hour."

-Yeah Jade totally picked blue for poison specifically because it's such a universally innocuous color

-Jade: "Yeah I got whosits and whatsits galore" *opens door to reveal a horde of roadkill and mold*. Rizz game like no other

-tbh I just love slime mold and wanted to bring up slime molds because they're so fucking cool <3

-Oh btw, another fun psychology thing: If someone has a lot of stressors that they can't control or afford to be afraid of, the repressed terror can manifest as really intense irrational fears to things that are safer to avoid. For example, Jamil can't do anything about his situation and the risks and pressure involved, but he can absolutely obliterate a bug with very little repercussion. I feel like that phenomenon explains the level of fear he has with bugs in canon tbh.

-I also just really love bugs and didn't want Jamil killing them for character accuracy, so I've inserted Jade as protection.

-I might go into this more in some other post but like, I love the contrast of classic fishtail mermaids in their reef environments vs deep sea monster mermaids. There's just so much room to build on the potential cultures surrounding that.

-Did I need to go on a tangent about mermaid funerals? Will the details ever be plot relevant? Probably not. But hey, world building. (I'm considering Azul keeping a locket with his stepdad's teeth)

-!!! I've been waiting to drop more info about the tweels parents! Anyway, it's a personal headcanon that the twins' social issues developed in response to being involved in mob violence early on. Too much ugliness to handle as kids, and they both kinda broke in opposite ways. Also kinda ties into their unique magic imo: Floyd being expected to handle himself in a fight and needing a defense, and Jade needing a more efficient way to extract info from people.

-I could go on a whole ramble about my ideas for the Leech parents, but the short of it is that I think Jade and Floyd each picked up some personality quirks from the parent they were around more, but mostly developed emotional responses to balance out each parent's behavior (ie: reserved, observant, and meticulous in response to unpredictable emotional outbursts, vs emotional instability and exaggerated emotional reactions in response to emotional neglect and under-reactivity), hence the two comparing each other to opposite parents last time it was brought up. It also resulted in them balancing out each other's dispositions, leading to the kinda codependent dynamic they have as adults. I think they'd both feel like they specifically came out wrong as a result too. Like, Floyd believing he should be more pragmatic and levelheaded like Jade (like his mom wanted), and Jade feeling like he's too far gone and distant to connect with other people the way Floyd does.

-Mind games can be a form of foreplay, if you're tedious enough.

-I think Jade and Jamil would have similar ways of showing insecurity, Jamil's just more flexible about it. Jade, meanwhile, has ensured a position where he doesn't have to relinquish control unless he chooses to

-Will these people ever make out with Jamil in a normal location? The world may never know.

#jeijami #octaviper #jade x jamil #twst fic #yhmr #yhmr fic #you'll have me rise you'll have me fall #chapter babble

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tumblingxelian · 1 year

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I gotta give CRWBY/RWBY credit,

In one year they have introduced 3 concepts I normally hate and yet made me like all of them.

Cos normally, I don't like creator god figures in any story because they undermine the stakes by being able to end the story whenever. I normally hate time travel because its a giant can of worms to open as once its established it feels like only so long before everything unravels or revolves around it. And generally I am not a fan of crossovers cos universe jumping being easy and consequence free again goes back to the can of worms problem.

Yes those sons of guns pulled it off!

I love the Tree/Blacksmith and she works because she's not passive by choice, so much as by nature, the Tree is akin to the primordial deities of Greek Mythology, a big and broad concept combined with being more a location than a person. This seems very deliberate, cos while the Blacksmith has agency, she creates a certain dividing and connecting line between herself, the Tree and the Ever After, they are one being but also not quite. While also making it obvious that while she can create things she doesn't get a say in how they behave, she can be involved to speak, she can open doorways and make new things, but she can't just snap a swig and solve the story. Time travel meanwhile is great, cos rather than it just being "Time travel is possible" its a case of needing to travel to an entirely other realm a functionally primordial fae realm with more limber rules of reality for it to even stand a chance of working. This neatly solves a lot of the issues of, "And then X invented a time machine!" And that's without addressing the complexities of said time travel, IE no real way to experiment with it, needing to access the Ever After, find it, find a way out, get the timing right and so on, its present but its not game breaking.

Meanwhile, they made the crossover with DC operate under such rules that simply hopping between universe simply cannot be viable. People from one universe infect one another, they de-stabilize things, its almost eldrich in a sense, these things from another reality create instability simply by existing where they aren't meant to. It creates a plot, a chance for characters to meet and play off one another, but there are consequences and reasons to keep it from ever happening again.

#RWBY #CRWBY #DC//RWBY #RWBY/DC #The Blacksmith (RWBY)

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glareandgrowl · 7 months

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Everyone Saw it coming if they are on my blog but

Kiyotaka Ishimaru for the ask game plsssss !

Ask game Here

Sexuality Headcanon:

Now, see, starting off with a kinda hard one... Taka's an interesting bean in what I calculate his sexuality to be. Most people assume Gay since... ya know. And while I don't think that's necessarily a bad take, its the popular take. And I am one who tends to shy away from popular takes. (I am also one to vehemently project onto the characters I love). Hence, I HC Taka as Demiromantic! (and demisexual to an extent...)

Forms strong emotional bonds with people close to him? Check. Only ever seems to fall romantically for those he is extremely close with??? DOuble check babeyyy!

Gender Headcanon:

Aaaand now its simple. Taka's a male. Cut and dry. Rather fondly a guy, I must say. He strikes me as the kinda guy who would be so excited to share with you that he uses he/him pronouns! He probably did some soul searching when he first learned of transitioning and other gender orientations only to find he was rather comfortable and happy where he was. (you know he spent hours studying to learn all he could) and would be all for helping others explore their gender too!

I know a lot of people hc him and mondo both as trans, but personally I think hes just very proud of his manliness.

A ship I have with said character:

I couullddd go the easy route and say Ishimondo... But you all already know that. Instead I'm going to go with a more... scandalous... ship.

Its KiyoKiyo. Korekiyo and Kiyotaka. Its my guilty pleasure ship.

Now, granted, I imagine this as a Korekiyo who has shaken himself of his 'sister's' grasp and is "normal" (Ie LOTS of therapy), so its more like the shy introvert getting dragged along by the loud golden retriever boy but I digress. Its sweet to me. Tall lanky and smol but strong.

(And YES this originated from Danganronpa Redemption FIGHT ME---)

A BROTP I have with said character:

Once again I could go with an obvious, that being Chihiro or Hina, but you ALREADY know this and I GO AGAINST THE ORDINARY!!!

I think Sayaka and Taka would be great friends :3

Hardworking, burnout-having besties who have to be told numerous times to slow down and take a break by their chiller, sweet yet partially annoying boyfriends.

A NOTP I have with said character:

There are so many... who do I begin with... Genuinely who do I begin with. Alr I hardly see this one in the wild but Kokichi and Kiyotaka I despise. Either that's just because I hate kokichi but-- BESIDES THE POINT. Hiro and Taka is another one I don't particularly like.

I get where it comes from, the few times they interract in the canon could be seen as brotherly (I GUESS) from Hiro's standpoint but-- Idk it just kinda rubs me the wrong way. Hiro's character in general does that...

A Random Headcanon:

Taka enjoys, and is really good at boxing. (Or wrestling) Like how some stories I've read put him on the football (soccer for us americans) team (or rugby ig idk.) I have a (self-inflicted) HC that Taka has slight anger issues hes still recovering from as a child and ABSOLUTELY uses the environment of controlled violence as a way to work off pent up steam. Any sport could do that really, but the inherent homoeroticism of wrestling is just *mwah* too good to pass up.

I know people like to HC he's into some kind of martial arts lessons for the same kind of vibe, and the art of him and Peko, but I find the inante physicality of using yer fists and body as a much more... *Taka Centric* activity. Idk.

Its the same reason he really enjoys thrill rides like rollercoasters and horror movies (if he can stand to not postulate the entire plot the whole time, ruining climactic moments and making people shush him.)

General Opinions:

HE GOT FUCKING ROBBED IN CANON MY BOY---

anyway feel free to ask me about more characters!!! This was fun :3

#longsheepanswers #kiyotaka ishimaru #danganronpa #danganronpa trigger happy havoc #ishimondo #kiyokiyo #ask game

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destyni-is-me · 1 year

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okay so I read Brave New World yesterday and I am going to be talking out of my ass for a minute because I got some stuff I want to say but also I am not willing to articulate it in a way that makes more sense so without further ado here is my bullshit analysis about Lenina Crowne thank you

The book takes place in a society that believes “everyone belongs to everyone else” ie there isn’t really anything like monogamy and having multiple partners is a societal expectation. Not only is it expected, but it is indoctrinated into the citizens during their youth so it’s not just an expectation, but something they feel practically compelled to do. One of the themes in the novel is about challenging the societal conditioning- actively vying for freedom and choice over psychological manipulation and an assigned fate.

Okay, you might be saying... what’s that have to do with Lenina?

Lenina, in the book, is described as a healthy and beautiful young woman. She is popular with the men at her job and she likes society how it is. Every inch of her appears to be the model citizen.

But she has one flaw...

When we meet Lenina, she has been going out exclusively with the same man for nearly four months. The man, Henry Foster, has been seen not participating in this exclusivity in the same way as Lenina as he is a healthy standard society male. Lenina doesn’t mind that he’s doing this, but she has to be coerced by a friend of hers to see other people aside from Henry. The person she ends up going out with aside from Henry is Bernard, who everyone deems undesirable because he is short and negative.

After her disastrous time with Bernard, there is a new man she is interested in. And once again, we see her falling into a monogamous mindset. John isn’t from the society, and thus was not indoctrinated in the same way as everyone else and doesn’t understand their world. Still, Lenina finds him attractive and tells her friend that she can’t stand being with anyone other than John to the point that it’s painful. Even taking drugs is pointless, because when they wear off she’s still only interested in John.

John likes her, too, but has a very negative attitude towards sex most likely stemming from his mother and how her many lovers impacted their lives when he was a kid. Lenina is sexually active, though, and offers herself to him only to be attacked by him. John’s attitude towards sex continues to be an issue as towards the end of the book, Lenina once again offers herself because despite everything she still likes him, and this time instead of just his hand against her it’s a whip. Her overall fate is unknown.

I’m sure it’s obvious where I’m going with this, but I will explain anyway.

Lenina plays the part of the average, healthy society citizen well. However, she desires just a single partner on multiple occasions. In fact, at the end of the book she is with Henry again. Throughout the book, Bernard tries to impress and shock her with his own radical thinking, and though it disturbs her greatly she doesn’t get him in trouble or anything when she so easily could.

Lenina herself is just the kind of individual that the society in the book should be afraid of. With her monogamous streak in her interest in both Henry and John, as well as the same romantic singular feelings she herself inspired in Bernard, a woman like her would be considered dangerous. Yes, Lenina enjoys sex and she enjoys the sports she is conditioned to enjoy, but she is also at heart a romantic which is the exact kind of thing they don’t want in their society. On top of that... Lenina is one of the 30% of women left naturally fertile. It is entirely possible, though highly unlikely, that she could become pregnant and give birth to a future generation of dissidents and thus be the very key to bringing the society down.

I’m probably overthinking it, though, because honestly they never bring up Lenina’s own oddness outside of the inciting incident where she accepts Bernard’s offer of a date to avoid getting in trouble for only showing interest in Henry. All in all, I think Lenina was an interesting character who I wish had more focus in the book.

#brave new world #lenina crowne #I know I shouldn't expect much because the book was written in the 30s but also #lenina deserved better I think #and that's all I have to say about that

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teagrl · 1 year

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Andor 10

Amazing to have a show to love every week.

Prison break! Prison break! That whole sequence was truly amazing. I enjoyed it so much more than Aldani, mainly because of Kino. You couldn’t take your eyes off him.

Throughout I kept thinking about how good Cassian is at being a second (the King’s/Queen’s Knight! A figure I love). He knows he doesn’t have the leadership to move masses of people. He is intelligent enough to recognize that his talents are to set up the conditions to make a ploy work. He’s ruthless and observant and cunning. I appreciate that so much, since we get so much emphasis on “leaders” and “heroes” elsewhere. Cassian is a hero, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a hero like Luthen is a hero. His heroism is about working behind the scenes, he wouldn’t be the kind of hero to be lionized and fawned over (and that is even beside the issue of his beginnings not being innocent). I think about Kino’s heroism too, he gets everyone out (I LOVED the bit where he asks the prisoners to help each other!), but then he can’t swim and he knows it throughout which makes that part when we, the audience, find out incredibly wrenching.

Nowhere is it as obvious that this show is deconstructing heroism as it is in the Mon Mothma bits. You see her shocked at Luthen’s plan, but now you see her walking into something that’s worse, because it’s *personal*. Mon’s built her standing on her principles, but principles aren’t enough anymore. She’s being pushed to open her home to this dude she views as a thug so he can launder her Rebellion money. And it’s obvious from what I reblogged, but what struck me about the whole thing is that Mon’s nightmare scenario is not about being forced to present her daughter for a child marriage. It’s that Leida has already grown away from Mon and she’d be open to influences that Mon disparages simply because it would revolt Mon. That banker dude WOULD just have to introduce his son and Mon’s reaction would be enough to make Leida intrigued. In itself, that’s dangerous -- all the more coupled with Perrin who the banker also mentions. It’s all so fraught and fascinating. I wonder how she’s going to maneuver there.

And! Lonnie. If Mon’s segment shows the way even Rebellion royalty have to compromise (haha here I think about that legendary dirty liberal thread), the bit with Luthen and Lonnie shows how the Rebellion have ALWAYS been a bare knuckle fighters. We forget that sometimes because in the OT there’s no space for quagmires of that sort. I kind of wanted that way back when the trailers of Rogue One started coming out and Jynn Erso was depicted in her Imperial get up with Saw yelling, “what will you become.” In Legends we see quite a bit of Imperial spies *ahem*, but I think Rebel spies with the texture we saw today with Lonnie are quite rare. Living a full double life? HATING the Empire but then actively doing its bidding, ie the killings, the torture, etc just to find the most vulnerable spot to stick a knife in? And this is without counting the situation he meets Luthen over, how he has to take the info of Rebels marching into their deaths in stride and sleep knowing it, because that’s what it takes to keep operating one step ahead. They die so he can keep betraying the Empire. So brutal. I love it.

#andor #spoilers

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sanstropfremir · 1 year

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(About the Alice in borderland) So I'm not the only one who thought so! I had read the manga before the season 2 came out and when I saw this arc, I wondered how they would cover the guy up. Everytime I thought that surely, they won't really put him naked, that would be too hard to cover... well imagine my surprise when watching the episode. Btw are you enjoying the new season so far?

uh spoilers i guess since its only been out for like a day but i'm already finished?

i don't like it as much as the first season, tbh. i kinda zoned out in the middle and don't remember what happened, which makes me think there was something up with the pacing. but also maybe i don't think you're supposed to watch an entire season of television in one sitting and while you're making jam, so maybe it was a me issue. what i liked about the first season is that they were able to disguise the fact that it is based on a manga relatively well when adapting the visual design. there are some visual design conventions that are common in manga character design that when adapted to live action just do not make sense logistically, and so it can be really obvious when you're watching something that has been adapted. i don't usually have a problem with that kind of thing, bc it usually happens in places where you would expect there to be whack ass clothing, so the fact that it looks weird isn't going to break immersion (ie like the fma adaptions etc). but i found the second season had way more trouble due to just the absurdity of some of the characters, especially with the return niragi. normally i don't really give a shit about weird costuming, but his post burns look is just. well. i thought he looked like someone airdropped in an anime character in the first season and i think it even more for this season. idk, i don't really think that it's a problem per se, it just took me out of it enough to remind me that it's an adaptation of a different media form and i think i would have preferred them to have been more uniform in adapting the character designs across the board at the expense of one being less 'canon' accurate, as opposed to having one that stands out very strongly despite looking 'accurate'.

#excessive bandages will literally give everything away like do you know how annoying those are in real life #its really easy to make your designs look uniform when you are drawing everything #but its much harder to do so for real life when youre bound by physics and people's perceptions of like. how clothes work #idk the whole premise of the show is already crazy so like. is some unrealistically half burned guy really a problem? not really #there's sky death lasers #the other thing is that i watch like ZERO japanese tv so my familiarity with the visual conventions is really low #and most of the stuff i have seen is adaptations in the first place #so this might be a case of 'guy who just watched boss baby: getting a lot of boss baby vibes from this'#alice in borderland #non kpop questions #i did actually really like the ending though. which i did not expect #i was a bit iffy on it for the first 20ish minutes of the episode and then as it went i warmed up #text #answers #also you will LAUGH at how long it took me to realize the main characters are literally named alice and rabbit #my brain was turned OFF lksdfjsldkfjds #actually i zoned out in the beginning as well i tuned out of the king of clubs game bc it was just waaaay too long #i beat several grandmaster games of solitaire during that episode lsldfjsdljf

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bg3fandomcritical · 6 days

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ask(s) for clarity, not a critique: I went through the entire blog and had a few questions. Personally, I am neutral on this idea. It could prove to be insightful or inciting, it is too new to say either way. However, I am concerned for the safety of people and the possibility of different posts potential to incite and inflame more conflict vs. a place for general complaints and wanted to know some of the parameters utilized for the blog. What is the criteria for qualifying something as bigotry? How do you determine whether something someone says is detailed enough to single out another person or group? How will you keep your own personal biases in check? For example, and I love him as my precious bean but how would you handle an anon criticizing Wyll's character in game for some reason? How do you determine whether or not the reason is something that is able to be posted or not? Thank your for your time. Side note: It is hard to tell on posts with multiple paragraphs and spacing whether or not it is your response to the comment or a continuation from the original anon. I did see the period that worked as a differentiator but perhaps consider maybe something within parenthesis that stands out more? like (anon comment ends here)

in the parameters I have already specified in the faq: racism, antisemitism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, ect. im not saying I have omnipotent knowledge of what is and isn't bigotry but I also have a working brain and those people are not as subversive or subtle as they may believe they are when they use certain language to describe someone else, generally it is quite obvious when someone is being bigoted especially in reference to someone else even dog whistles are more widely known now, and if anything feels even slightly suspicious I have multiple avenues for searches to check if something is. I set those parameters because I've long been aware of the issue poc fans and creators have faced on many platforms as well as this one and that is being targeted with hate speech and specific slurs. I also am aware that there is a concerning overlap between terfs and bg3 fans, there's plenty of examples just within many blogs that are frequently active in the main tags. people like that will seize any opportunities they believe they can display repugnant behavior without consequences and I wanted it to be extremely clear that it isn't tolerated here.

If someone is criticizing his character then it will be points in wylls character not points on his skin color or hair texture or background nor attempting to sneak in other attempts at subtle racist language. A character can be critiqued without racist language

and when someone is talking about a person or group it is also usually fairly obvious. most of the ones I have seen today name drop people specifically either by the name they go by on here or with their username, which would be highly inappropriate to post. I also do not post about specific incidents ie say someone had an argument with one specific user then attempts to use the inbox here as a way to throw punches at that user, it will be fairly obvious that is whats happening from the way they would describe the situation and so it would be deleted.

finally it shouldn't be hard to tell where the answer to an ask begins. The ask is posted with an outline around the box containing the ask. im not sure how it looks on mobile. also I only answer asks meant for me anyway. all others are posted with the . simply because why would I add anything onto them

also generally speaking to everyone potentially reading this not just the sender if you have not please read the faq page before sending long asks for clarification just in case your question was already answered there

#faq

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jeniffercheck · 4 months

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tw // but you are the shivpert to ME and I was wondering what you think about the scene early in season 1 with logan and shiv when she goes to visit him and he's delirious and moves her hand down. I know a lot of fandom people don't consider the early season 1 stuff canon because so much was still being figured out but I would love to hear what you think

aw omg i'm honored to be your shivpert, there are so many in our fandom i feel like i am always learning something new from someone else 😭

light TW for SA (not talking about anything outside of the canon of the show) and of course i'll tag it as well -- but this topic is actually really interesting to me, and i've been meaning to think about it more just with myself LMFAO. i can see where a lot of people are coming from when they think these small moments in s1 don't count toward the rest of the show, but i actually do consider them really integral and informative for a lot of things they get into later on!!

that scene, shiv x roman's date rape by calvin klein scene (one of my favorite jokes of the whole show Pilot you will always be famous), and kendall getting a boner for rava in the hospital in s1 all stand out to me as kind of scenes of the same vein. i do believe to a certain extent that Succ was trying to live up to the HBO raunch, and the show seemed a lottt more interested in sex as a plot point then, (the shivnate car sex?????), but that's not to say it was just "needless," because i don't think it was excessive even if the tone is a little bit different than the rest of the show.

that moment with shiv, to me, is the earliest defining moment of shiv's entire "fuck around and find out" arc, and i honestly think that even IF s1 had the same tone as 2-4, they might leave that scene in. it was such an earnest display of the way that her stubbornness/honest efforts always blow up in her face and it's not all that different to her other standout moments in the show, ie. tern haven, the "would you stop buzzing in my ear" at the shareholder meeting, the s3 finale, 'rape me' speech at waystar, argestes panel, etc. etc. etc. -- also all culminating in voting TOM as CEO, which was not her plan when she negotiated a board seat for herself!!

succession at its core is just soooo wild, and that scene was very wild (i would argue kendall's boner at the hospital to be one of their bolder choices i will say) and i do also have more (and different) thoughts about the sexualization of shiv roy, BUTTT like i said above, i think the point of it was to be jarring, (and the jarring part about it is that when you get to that point of that episode, you're not really used to succession's antics yet, so they start at 100 instead of 0) and really show in one isolated incident, Shiv Roy's dedication to fucking around and finding out<33 it's so HER like truly only that would happen to her 😭

[as an aside: i do think it's very interesting under the context of shiv's sexualization as well, especially with all of the slut jokes aimed at her in season 1, and the focus on her promiscuity and obvious daddy issues, but i think it's more intentional symbolism than maybe people like to give it credit for]

#i hope this makes sense #marcia easily could've said 'hey shiv he's been acting a little weird' instead of making shiv think she's got him as a meat puppet up there #but then we wouldn't have had the drama #i love this show #and shiv<333 #answered #tw sa

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dreamhot · 3 years

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nt to talk abt the mc mob vote or anything (this isnt in relation 2 dream much) but im v tired of minecraft's use of the golem as a sort of like. mob. bc as a jew im like, "why r. u appropating tht. of all the things." and we already have the iron golem as a mob. im just v tired of ppl ignoring antisemitism in the game itself. and seeing ccs like dream refer 2 the villagers (their appearance looks...concerningly like those caricatures) as annoying its just kinda :[ like. i know they don't mean it but it still. yknow. hurts a little bc of the fuckin block game stealing and sterotyping us. -tangerine

yeah this is something i've been seeing around a lot lately. obvious disclaimer but i'm not jewish so like, stop me if i'm out of line for commenting on this, but i've tried to do some reading from different [jewish] sources on golems in popular media lately. i've seen a mixed bag of responses, varying from 'it's never okay to appropriate this figure' to 'if it respects the original intentions of the golem premise, ie protection etc, then it's not such an issue.' the impression i've gotten is that the iron golem itself might not be as iffy if it wasn't paired with the undoubtedly stereotypical portrayal of the villagers. like the golem is certainly a protective figure, but the villagers being emerald-driven & looking like caricatures is more starkly concerning

imo this is a circumstance where mojang could stand to redesign the villagers at the very least and change the name of the golems to ... idk, iron sentinel maybe ? i think that was a suggestion i saw someone mention. at the end of the day, it would be best practice for the current developers to distance themselves and the game from the lingering traces of notch's antisemitism asap

#smile.ask #tangerine anon #antisemitism cw #like i think the most common joke abt villagers rn is like. parallels to squidward lmfao #so lots of ppl prob don't even clock the issue #but it would be like. a relatively simple fix imo #obv some people would kick up a fuss but who cares about them

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antiloreolympus · 2 years

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10 Anti LO Asks

1. lo hades def looks like he's into crypto, you know what I mean? especially bc you cant be taxed on it, the richer the better!

2. This isnt even just LO but why do so many of the romance comics have such a desire to sexualize barly legal young women who are of COURSE naive virgins (but also super sexy and horny and know how to flirt out of the blue!) and try and make us root for them to get into relationships with their Christian Grey knock-off bosses?? like Let's Play (spoilers I guess) thought it'd be funny to have the MC be in physical PAIN after having sex, like why are you showing your teen audience this???

3. Nah I feel the same way as other anon. LO is way too confused on whether it's a light hearted YA story or a serious drama for Mature™️ readers. Like the SA and (one) therapy session was more or less handled perfectly fine, but everything from the AOW to the Trial is either incredible goofy or tries way too hard to be "serious" with RS and her team both not putting the writing nor art skill into it to hold any weight. It just comes across as melodramatic and try-hard over genuine and well planned

4. There's so many "quirks" in LO's art that are bad but WHY is it a thing where when a character is just standing there their arms and legs are just glued to the side of their bodies like🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️🧍? that's not how even soliders at attention stand, there's still bones and muscles to account for but they end up with that end product? I just do not get how her and her team have probably 50+ years of art education and practice between them and yet they fail on such basic concepts every time.

5. I for one think that the differences between how characters slapping each other is depicted as either good or bad depending on who’s doing the slapping isn't hypocritical of RS: Hecate slaps Hades because she thinks he’s being predatory towards Persephone, this is a well-intentioned slap. Minthe’s slap on the other hand, is not justifiable because she was in the wrong in the context of that conflict: you don’t get to just stand your boyfriend up and hit him when he’s hurt by it.

6. it's just funny WT itself has a posting rule that your comic "cant show topics like incest or grooming" as if thats not the majority of the romance genre itself. yall ever read eggnoid? cmon now.

7. punderworld made a myth rec list and go figure some lo fans were in the comments saying "LO was all [they] needed" and its like how would you even know this episode happened unless you were subbed to punderworld, therefore proving they keep up with other myth comics? also the creator got upset at the lo fans being mad she didnt also rec LO as if its not the most advertised series on that whole site and she was promoting smaller creators. LO fans are so entitled even to other creators it's crazy.

8. I think the issue with the “let people like things” argument (and the fans do this so much) is that I’m All for that, I and every other critic isnt saying you can’t like, hell there’s parts of it I do like and wish there was more of! But if you go “just let people enjoy things!!” when it comes to legitimate criticism (ie misogyny, racism, classism, mishandling of trauma and assault to push a romance along, etc) you don’t care about others opinions, you just want them to like YOUR thing.

9. we already know rachel is a weeb but it's most obvious when it's a kissing scene because she does NOT draw lips but all of a sudden they get huge and glossy when theyre about to smooch but nothing else about the face adjusts with it and it's like what the hell is that 😭

10. i honestly dont blame lo fans for buying books of it even if the quality of it degrades rapidly after vol 1, once it ends (maybe in five years at this rate) webtoons will right away put it on daily pass which is notoriously a bad venue for rereads/new readers who missed when it was originally published and given how rachel has no sense of less is more, itll cost hundreds of dollars just to read the current 190+ episodes, much the many more shell milk out of it. might as well avoid that now 😵‍💫

#anti lo #anti lore olympus #lo critical #lore olympus critical

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potteresque-ire · 3 years

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Hello. I just turned to be a turtle recently after being a solo fan mostly because of toxic atmosphere of solo fans. May I ask, were relationships between XZ and YB solos always so intense and also bad attitude to BJYX even during the promotion “the untamed”? Or did this conflict start after the events of 2020? Thank you in advance.

Hello, and Happy 2021! I’m a super new fan of the fandom, and so these aren’t questions I’m qualified to answer at all. I’m more comfortable providing some wider sociopolitical contexts to fandom-related events because I’ve been reading about Chinese news for a loooong time. My “investigative interest” (oh dear, that sounds so pretentious) is also more on understanding the CP culture in general, how it ties with the country’s state of affairs rather than focusing specifically on Gg and Dd. While I’ve read back on some history re: gg and dd’s fandoms, Tumblr is the only site where I’ve interacted directly with fellow fans.

But I’ve written up what I’ve understand about solo and CP fans for c-dramas so far, mostly for my own benefit (I have a ridiculously poor memory!). Maybe it can offer some insight? This is very new information to me as well; so, if anyone spots something wrong or wants to supplement, please jump right in!

Wars between the fans of the leads of a CP (“ship” in English; stands for “couple”) aren’t new. Conflicts between solo and CP fans also aren’t new.

Competition is the most obvious cause of wars between the fans of the leads of a CP. Especially in the case of M/M pairings, the person “bound” to each idol by their CP is also, by default, about the most “direct” competitor one can have. They’re likely to be of the same age group, share similar fan demographics. Popularity of young male idols (often called “Little Fresh Meat” 小鮮肉, a nickname I’ve abhorred for the decade or so it’s come to existence) also isn’t expected to last, so the two CP leads must make the most of their newfound fame within the same time frame. The competition is more than fighting for similar roles; in China, another major arena is endorsements, in which an idol’s popularity is by measured by 1) the number they hold and 2) the units they sell. Here in the US, stars choose their endorsements based on how well they fit their image; there, stars take as many as they can as long as the negotiated terms are satisfactory. Hence, dd is the spokesperson of 25 products / services in 2020 (including an insurance company (!!)).

I’ve also read about this norm in the industry, which I have yet to verify: in China, if two stars compete for the endorsement of the same brand product, the one who loses will not get endorsements of same products from different brands — at least, not in the short term — because any brand who uses the star who lost would be seen as inferior. Hence, to lose the competition on one endorsement deal can mean losing the endorsement deals for an entire category of products.

(Someone on Weibo has pointed this out: while Gg and Dd have often endorsed competing brands of the same product: Budweiser (gg) and Yenching beer (dd), for example; they have never fought for the endorsement of same brand product. Again, I haven’t verified this.)

This part is easy to understand.

The next question is: why are solo fans against CP fans? “Girlfriend fans” — solo fans who can’t bear to seeing their idol paired up with anyone other than themselves — only make up a fraction of the fandom. How are CP fans generally perceived?

My key findings so far: CP fans are *perceived* to be more likely to express negative views about their idol paired up with other actors / actresses, which will affect viewership and ratings, restrict the kind of roles their idol will be invited to play. More importantly, CP fans are *perceived* as fickle — more likely to walk away after their favourite CP drama has ended, because as CP lovers, they’re thought to be equally in love with the romantic gestures as with the stars who perform them on/off stage. ie, When another drama comes along featuring the same romantic gestures, the CP fans are expected to jump ship.

I highlight the word “perceive”, because while it doesn’t matter how solo fans see CP fans, it does matter how the business side of c-ent view CP fans and it appears to share this view. The c-YiZhan fandoms have been unhappy with the publicity of the upcoming adapted BL dramas for this reason — aside from their allegations that it’s copying The Untamed’s BTS, the thing that has offended them the most, perhaps, is the very idea that the marketing departments thought a few “leaked” photos of the leads acting intimately close are enough to woo them away from YiZhan, from Gg and Dd.

Given this, perhaps, prevalent view of CP fans, CP fandoms have been viewed as something disposable, almost, to be made, used and discarded quickly.

Before and during the airing of the drama, the marketing / publicity teams fuel and encourage CP fandoms, reap the benefits in viewership from the ensuing discussions and hot searches. Solo fans usually aren’t threatened by CP fandoms in this nascent phase—CP fandoms have been far smaller in size and only grow during the broadcast.

More importantly, the norms have been that CP fandoms do not last.

CP fandoms do have a tendency to “self-combust” over time: fans * within * the fandom accusing each other of being partial to one of the leads — spending more money on A’s endorsements, for example, or buying more copies of B’s music. However, this isn’t how many CP fandoms die. Instead, once the show is over, the process of “Breaking the CP” begins. I’m not sure who gets this process going, but my guess is the leads’ management companies, with consent (willing or unwilling) from the actors. Breaking the CP means having the CP leads avoid each other as soon as the drama is done airing, and for as long as it takes for the CP fandoms to dissipate. It means no more appearing in the same drama and shows; no more sharing a stage; and if they happen to be at the same event, they are to communicate as little as possible. This “loosening the bind” between the leads is designed to free the actors up for the next CPs, and its way of execution can be very abrupt, very … cruel for the CP fans. For one of 2020 summer dramas (Love and Redemption 琉璃), for example, a popular character (het) CP pairing was broken up in the last fan meet, 10 days after the final episode had aired. The fan meet was marketed as a CP event (there was even merch for the CP); CPs fans bought the tickets, perfectly aware of the unsaid “CPs are made to be broken” rule and it’d likely be the last time they’d see their CP together. But the organisers denied them even this last chance; the leads of the CP had no interactions, not even eye contact during the entire event. The actor didn’t acknowledge the actress in his farewell speech. The fans understandably got upset; even outsiders sympathised, stating that the CP-breaking could be handled with a little more consideration. Word on the street was that because the male lead already had other dramas lined up, the CP had to be broken up as quickly as possible.

(Weibo Night from almost a year ago was seen as a “Break the CP” event for Gg and Dd. Some turtles still cry at the memory of it.)

There’s a term related to the breaking of CPs: 提純 (“increasing the purity”). It describes the ultimate goal of breaking CPs: increasing the proportion of solo (”pure”) fans by breaking up the CP and having the solo fandoms of each lead absorb the CP fans. Because solo fans are *perceived* to be more loyal (won’t jump ship the next romantic drama comes along), less likely to draw criticisms (especially if the CP is M/M and/or affect the RL lives of their stars), and have more purchasing power (as CP fans have to divide their resources between the two leads and equally).

How does this affect how solo fans see CP fans? Another way to say the above is: one CP fan is one fan the two solo fandoms fail to capture. One more CP fan is one less solo fan. “CP fan” should be a temporary identity. CP fandoms sequester resources from the solo fandoms until they’re broken up.

This sets the stage for conflicts if the CP fandoms refuse to fade, if the CP fans refuse to turn solo.

The conflict between solo and CP fandoms is, of course, even more heated for real-person CP’s, which can, indeed, pose a significant threat to the leads’ life and career. An easy example of the former is if one of the CP leads are in a RL relationship, and/or if the lead is straight but the CP is queer (this is the case for The Guardian (2018), the first popular adapted BL “dangai” drama). Another major issue with real-person CPs (queer or not) is that the media will make frequent comparisons of the leads’ follow-up career. If the CP “bind” remains, the lead perceived as less popular may be viewed as using the more popular one to sustain their popularity. Fans of the more popular lead do not take that well. The management company of the less popular lead takes that even less well, and its PR team will work even harder to eliminate the CP from public discussion.

Overall, the “breaking the CP” strategy works as intended. As long as the CP leads stop interacting, no more new candies are generated for the CP fandoms, and even the best candies have an expiration date. The CP fans move on, often to other CP pairings—the CP breaking process often leave them hurt and disappointed at the leads—and further propagating the perception that they are fickle souls who prefer candies over actors.

With this background, it doesn’t surprise me that the relationship between the fans of Gg, Dd, and Yizhan has been so intense since the airing of the Untamed… it would actually surprise me (much) more if it isn’t.

First and foremost, if I take away my YiZhan-tinted lens (as much as I can anyway!), the competition between Gg and Dd automatically becomes The Battlefield in c-ent. Gg and Dd are among the most popular idols right now, and there’s a strong urgency in this competition as idol popularity is perceived to have a limited shelf life. Now, 18 months after The Untamed, Gg and Dd are not only vying for survival in the same industry—which may encourage cooperation between the two solo fandoms—they’re vying for the throne.

Things are already extra tense that way. Here’s an analogy I can think of—it’s easier to accept losing a lottery by getting every number wrong than getting a single number wrong, and by one count. It’s harder for solo fans to accept being number 2, when number 1 was a co-star, the other half of their idol’s CP.

Now, into this unresolved tension, throw in a huge curveball known as the YiZhan fandoms. A curveball that isn’t even supposed to exist — CP fandoms are all supposed to fizzle out quickly after the show is over. Instead, the BJYX supertopic on Weibo (by far the biggest of the three Yizhan CPs) had 1.5 million members in January 2020. It now has 2.8 million (January 2021).

(For reference, dd’s supertopic has 5.4 million members and gg’s, 7.7 million.)

These YiZhan fandoms aren’t merely living on their last breath, their stale candies. They’re thriving. Self-combustion hasn’t happened. CP fans of Gg and Dd keep finding fresh candies, keep having new things to rejoice and scream about.

If I put myself in the shoes of a solo fan, what does this continued growth of the YiZhan fandoms mean? It means the “binding” between My Idol and That-Other-Idol-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, each a contender of the c-ent throne, is strengthening instead of loosening. It means more and more fans of My Idol are exhibiting signs of wavering loyalty, by becoming fans of both My Idol and That-Other-Idol. Fan culture in China is highly organized, requiring strategy, cooperation and obedience when it comes to generating the best numbers for their idol (sells, ratings, viewership etc). Having to rely on the fickle CP fans to generate these numbers means uncertainty and anxiety.

People behave differently when they’re nervous. Some chew on their fingernails. Some attack.

2020, of course, make the solo fandoms even more nervous about each other. Gg, post-227, isn’t a safe person to be “bound to”, and also to have one’s career compared against—given the bad publicity that has circulated around him, given the fact that he has managed to stay on top in spite of it. Dd, meanwhile, has grown in popularity while Gg goes into hiding—while I personally do not, for a moment, believe Dd has anything to do with 227, it is within human nature to ask: if one loses—and in a manner so publicised, so catastrophic that even the Western media reported on it—who has the most to gain? Work culture in almost every industry in China is extremely cut-throat, and securing victory by not-so-clean methods isn’t uncommon with the immense pressure to perform. Fans are bringing in their experiences from RL in how they view their idol’s competition—with suspicion, with defensiveness. With swords sharpened and ready for counterattacks.

The ultimate cherry-on-top when it comes to causing conflicts between Gg’s, Dd’s and YiZhan fandoms is, of course, the fact that YiZhan is no garden-variety, heterosexual, character CP. It’s a M/M real person CP, in a society where homosexuality, while legal, is still considered “non-mainstream values” and explicitly censored from TV; where personal freedoms have overall been tightening and laws can change overnight. It’s one thing if their idol is truly in a queer relationship and chooses to announce it themselves; it’s a whole different story if it’s some fans of another idol who “out” them—who publicise their queerness that, in the eyes of these solo fans, may very well be fictional. 227 has already confirmed that in c-ent, idols pay the price of their fan’s wrongdoings and in this case, all it takes is for the YiZhan fandoms to make a single mistake—to celebrate one candy too loudly, for example (“to dance outside the circle”), and catch the attention of the wrong government official — to not only cost their idols their popularity, but their whole career. To the solo fans, therefore, the mere existence of the YiZhan fandoms pose a huge risk to their idol that should’ve been avoidable in the first place. And when they check out the new candies, what do they see? They see Gg leaving hints suggestive of Dd; they see Dd doing inexplicable things that can be linked to Gg. c-Turtles joke sometimes that solo fans are even better than they are at spotting the connections between Gg and Dd. But while turtles see these connections as evidences of a romantic relationship, what solo fans see is the other idol latching onto their own, whose fame makes it a reasonable act; they see it as the other solo fandom carelessly jeopardizing their own idol’s career for the sake of more noise and popularity.

The solo fandoms end up fighting. They have few reasons NOT to do so without the YiZhan-tinted lens.

That said though, I’m not sure if the wars between Gg’s, Dd’s and YiZhan fandoms are truly getting worse. As I write this, my thought is: perhaps it’s not that the fans are disliking each other more, but rather, more and more people are getting involved, and the stakes, the risks are becoming higher and higher. Gg and Dd both had fans during the filming of The Untamed, but they were a small fraction, quantity wise, to what it is now. Even if, at the time, 100% of Gg and Dd fans hated each other, they still wouldn’t have generated the noise than, say, if 0.01% of Gg’s fans are arguing with 0.01% of Dd’s fans now. The arguments then, however ugly they could be, would’ve stayed off hot searches, and largely within the two fandoms. These days, however, when even Gg shaking a pen can make it into hot search (as he did during the Tencent Awards), every heated exchange is amplified by passer-bys, by antis, by done-for-money re-bloggers. Quarrels snowball exponentially to the number of mouths pitching in; so does the antagonistic sentiments behind the hurtful words purposefully or accidentally spilled. Meanwhile, the c-YiZhan fandoms have reached the size that as much as they’ve tried to keep everything away from the public eye, it’s not really possible anymore. Search BJYX online, and videos after videos pop up for any outsider who wish to get a primer—and there’s no control over that content. Gg and Dd’s commercials hint at it. The Tencent Awards show host cued it. Before, the YiZhan fandoms may still be able to get away with a mistake or two. Now, they can make half a mistake and all the info already floating around will make sure that half a mistake will round to one.

If I were a solo fan, perhaps I’d scream my lung out too. Think of how terrible this all is, if Dd(Gg) is actually Gg(Dd)’s most fierce competition, as his being the other half of the CP is meant to be. Think of all the damages these fantastical speculations can do, if My Idol isn’t queer and tomorrow, the government comes down with a decree that outlaws queerness. Maybe My Idol will be spared if he isn’t at the top. But My Idol is at the top. Everyone will point to him. The hot searches will show his name, make sure the powers-that-be see it. He … his downfall… can be made an example …

Okay, okay, I’ll stop playacting here. Phew. That was scary * pats turtle shell to confirm its presence * :) . But can you see how deep that fear can go, for a fan who really, really loves and is therefore protective of their idol? How this fear, which stems from love, can turn into hate and generally loud, angry yelling across the internet?

#Anonymous #pie answers #pie metas #yizhan #bjyx

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