strange that "skinny" means thin. it should mean...skinny. characterized by skin. possessing or characterized by an above average amount of skin. more skin rather than less skin. but somehow it means less skin? preposterous

It looks like they fell asleep.

floating, falling, sweet intoxication...

@shakeatradefeather's master. august 2023.

who is bryce charles? to the blind, she’s the vision. to the hungry, she’s the chef. to the thirsty, she’s the water. to the dead, she is life. to the sick, she’s the cure. to me, she’s everything.

Wait, what’s going on with Embers???? That fic has been on my read later list since 2021, what’s happened with it???

Brief overview, then I'm likely never touching this topic again, because this is not a Drama Blog:

Context: Embers is a super old AtLA fic that was written during the early fandom days, read widely at the time, and was the origin of the widely-used fanon name of "Wani" for Zuko's ship (kind of by default that it was one of the first popular fics to give his ship a name, I think?), even though most fic writers don't seem to realize it's from there anymore.

"What's Going On": I used to include a link in all my stories to it, because I believe in crediting other writers for borrowed elements, and I was using "Wani" in all my fics. But BOY did I not want to be sending readers that way anymore, so I've adopted a new name for Zuko's ship, and removed all Embers links.

None of the criticisms about Embers itself are new; I'm assuming they date back to when the fic was being written, because this isn't an "it aged badly" thing, this is an "actually yeah this gets worse the longer you think about it and I shouldn't have ignored my bad feelings just because some of the worldbuilding was interesting" thing.

An Incomplete List of Why I Made the Change:

I don't actually like the story that much anymore, and don't want to rec it

I tried to re-read it recently to see if some things were as bad as I remembered and it turns out they were So Much Worse Oh Yikes. More specifically, the treatment of Katara and Aang and their respective cultures has... rather a lot going on. One example: The Fire Nation and Air Nomads are both given multiple backstory elements in an attempt to make the average Fire Nation soldier's participation in the genocide/war in large part the fault of the Avatar and the Air Nomads themselves, and also fully justified from the Fire Nation perspective. And I do mean fully. One of its core tenants is "People from the Fire Nation (and only people from the Fire Nation) who don't follow orders Literally Die, therefore murdering pacifists and babies and continuing the war (and their regularly scheduled war crimes) is the only thing it is physically possible for them to do". I cannot emphasize enough how literal that is.

Also the name "Wani" means "Alligator" and is... objectively a pretty lame name for Zuko's ship? Where's the personality, where's the deeper meaning, where's the resonance with Zuko's themes? @tuktukpodfics initially thought I was calling the ship "Wanyi", and that's what I've switched to, because it is Objectively So Much Better. In their words: “Wànyī (萬一): Literally ‘one in ten thousand,’ ‘perchance.’ Used grammatically in Chinese to mean ‘what if’ or ‘just in case.’ I think a ship called ‘The Perchance’ is perfect for a boy clinging to false hope.”

TL:DR; I don't rec Embers anymore, because I don't actually like the story anymore, and there are things about it that get worse the more I think on them. I've removed links to it and renamed Zuko's ship to "Wanyi" ("The Perchance") because our boy deserves a ship name that reflects his character arc.

Attempting to get the beast used to a dental hygiene routine is… well, it’s going.

(She stayed that way for a solid 8 seconds despite hating being held belly up so I think it’s safe to say that Mim is not beating the ‘tiny speaker playing elevator music instead of a brain’ allegations any time soon.)

its a cornerstone of radfem ideology that women are incapable of making real choices Because Patriarchy. if a woman likes makeup, its because shes been conditioned to. same with heels, dresses, anything stereotypically feminine, any kink, sex work, etc. etc. and you can literally do this to anything you dislike.

and because of this, women need the Enlightened Radfems to tell them how to think and feel. its justifiable to deny other women's autonomy, because they can't really think for themselves, they are brainwashed by the patriarchy. so it doesn't matter if you violate their autonomy, ignore their wants, and demand that they do whatever you think is morally right. because you know what's best, and they don't. you have taken the red pill and they just can't see it yet. radfems essentially take the patriarchy and just replace cis men with themselves, and all women with non-radfem women (or radfem women who have different beliefs than them). when you build your ideology on the idea that anyone who disagrees with you is brainwashed and you are justified in ignoring their autonomy and opinions because of that, you end up with a pretty fucked up worldview and way of interacting with others.

Absolute most annoying of the innocuous bad habits that people have on the internet is when people condemn fictional characters like they are real people. Just sets my teeth on edge every single time! E.g. ,I saw recently someone say about a character whom I have never, ever heard of, something along the lines of, "She literally raped and tortured a mentally ill indigenous teen, so she can rot!" and, again, I have no idea who this character is or what media property they are from, but I can assure you that they did not do any of that shit! On account of not being real!

Fanon mischaracterization of the Drakes is how I end up making a post defending Tim’s parents from baseless fanon bashing only to immediately after make a post complaining about their canon parenting.

The Marvels is such a delightful movie.

It’s also so unique in the modern superhero genre that it exists without love interests at all (well,,, there are some implied fruity ones). It’s about family and moral obligations and the standard we hold for ourselves versus the one others hold for us. It’s about connection and healing and reconciling. It’s about being able to say sorry and being able to accept our own faults and wrongdoings.

I just love it so much. People can be as mad as they want about lines like “black girl magic” as if that wasn’t the funniest in character line Fury could have possibly said in that moment. It’s on my comfort movie rotation now.

Kanade's another cut for the Twilight Light 3DMV is a direct reference to her untrained The Dream I Saw Will One Day 4* card.

Screencap source

Now that I'm a good ¾ of the way through one piece I'm gonna complain about something that's kinda been bugging me; I don't like how little time the crew has actually been together - and I'm not saying this in the they get split up each island type way I mean in more the Brook was on that ship for a week before the 2 year gap and its not like the rest of the crew is much better from what I can gather from the time Luffy first met zoro til they arrived on sabaody about 6 months had passed if we're being generous I don't know something about the fact that usopp spent more time with that bug man then his crew annoys me so much

any other uk people wanna come scream in a field with me over the state of the government

[ID: its canon complaint bc technically u cant prove these people arent haunted by literal ghosts]

Marc Márquez showed off his secret talent as a beautician to his girlfriend, Gemma Pinto, via Gemma's Instagram Stories.

[Image description: screenshot from The Owl House of King saying: "No one wants to think they've wasted their life following the wrong person." End description.]

The thing about rewatching Hollow Mind, after the finale, is realizing this sentiment isn't just about Belos's followers, or about Luz initially looking up to Philip. In fact, it's just as much about Belos himself.

No one wants to admit you spent years chasing a brother who didn't want to go home. Who wasn't the witch hunter he once claimed to be. Who, in every reincarnation, still won't become the person you wanted him to be.

No one wants to admit that — for the centuries you saw yourself as following your God, doing what He required of you to save humanity's souls, and wipe out the Devil's witchcraft — that you were the only one doing evil. That your devout faith and countless sacrifices were misplaced, and that your former home has moved on from witch hunts anyway.

No one would want to admit any of that, and in combination with Belos's personal obsession with being a hero, it becomes clear he was never going to admit it. Not even on his deathbed. Because that would be nearly four hundred wasted years on his conscience, four hundred years of following the wrong people, and how could he possibly let himself believe that?