hm. this is going to be vague on purpose bc i'm not interested in arguments, but i am once again getting REAL uncomfortable with how some people talk about edward's actions at the end of new moon

recontextualizing this story through the lens of buck/eddie and what it means for them, is like. it's so interesting because recently, i got an anon that asked me (paraphrasing) if i thought 9-1-1 would actually "go there" with buck and eddie as individuals, and that three main characters discovering their queerness would be "too much" for the general audience. and, like, not withstanding that it's actually true to life — that queer people can and do naturally gravitate toward each other even when we aren't out / passing / aware of our sexualities at the time — it's also just like. the belief (or disbelief) that 911 wouldn't "go there" with their stories also comes with this inherent assumption that there's only one way to tell a queer discovery story.

like. when michael came out in season 1, he was already at the end of his journey. he had already walked through the self-hate and forced closeting and came out on the other side to self acceptance. when we meet michael, he is a queer man, a gay man (because the word is important), who has already stepped into self actualization and is ready to live his truth. this is not the story 911 is telling with buck.

and then with eddie, you have this character that is introduced with the idea of being perfect, as ryan said, of having it all together, only for the audience to realize he's not. only for the audience to realize that he's broken and cracked on the inside and that a lot of it stems from war. but most of it? most of it doesn't. most of it stems from his father, and from how he was raised. raised to shut it down, to swallow things whole even if they hurt, even if they make him bleed. he was told to keep it all quiet, repress repress repress. and so. i know this is an unpopular opinion, but to that end, i don't think an explicit queer discovery storyline is necessary for him, in the sense that, subtextually, i think it's already happened. season 5 was very much eddie's unrepression arc. we dug deep into the things that make eddie diaz, eddie diaz. and a lot of that was war. violence. chaos."warzones are my thing." but if that was all that his arc was meant to be, why have it end with a conversation with his father? they could have played that arc out in so many different ways.

for one, they could have had mills still be alive. they could have had her and eddie reconnect. they could have had her and eddie have a conversation where she shoulders some of the weight that eddie's been putting on himself and have him settle into the peace of the realization that he's not alone in this specific thing, that he never has been, that other people survived what he did and that he can find solace in them. but the writers didn't do that. they took it back to his childhood, to the root of where eddie diaz began and they said, this is where you need to go. this is what you need to address before you can heal and move on. so that conversation with his dad that culminated in him choosing wellness, in him choosing happiness, in him choosing safety in his body for himself has very much always read to me as queer acceptance even if not explicit (due to the assumed barriers that were placed on that story at the time).

eddie has always been with women, eddie has always liked being with women, so i'd be shocked if he's ever even thought about the nuances of his sexuality. but his unrepression in season 5, to me, has always made him open to the possibility of falling into whatever comes next, whatever that looks like.

this is also not the story they're telling with buck.

(as a side note, i'd just like to say that queer subtext is still queer existence. subtext is how our stories have been told for generations, well before we were able to take up space on the page, and subtext is still a wholly valid and beautiful way of telling a queer story. please don't forget that).

so then, finally, we get to buck, and he's so very new at this. so very green he may as well be a blade of grass on a country club golf course. and so, despite the fact that there have already been two queer storylines prior, this is the first time in 9-1-1 (and tv!) history, that we have ever gotten to see an unplanned queer character discover who he is at this intimate, detailed level. we get to see buck's story unfold in real time, we get to learn about who this actualized version of himself is, as he is realizing it, and we get to know and dissect the layers and nuances, the ebbs and flows of his sexuality as he's taking himself apart and seeing what's underneath.

friends. this is the story they've always needed to tell.

and so, when i think about buck and eddie, and i think about their progression toward a romantic relationship and what that would look like, realistically and in the eyes of the audience, buck has really always been the missing key. we've talked about it before — who he is, who he was, has in no way been ready for eddie on multiple levels. whether it was because of his insecurity, his lack of place in the world, etc, buck has always been (for lack of a better word) too immature for eddie. eddie is a single father. he doesn't have time to play games, and though he will always love and reassure buck when he needs it, he doesn't have time to heal buck for him. nor should he. so buck was the only one who canonically, canonically, needed to be yanked from point a to point z.

and. it's like everyone's said, even before the season began — buck has been on a hamster wheel, buck has been stuck in a rut, yadda yadda yadda, which means that, as far as the audience was concerned, what always was for buck (women) is what always would have been. and there was nothing in canon, nothing concrete to disprove them from believing so. so we needed him to fall into something, not just radical, but sometime new.

and when i think about buck, and when i think about eddie, and when i think about their stories both as individuals and together, buck has, realistically, been the only real stopping point. at least with eddie, when the time is right and buck/eddie go canon, we, the audience, can go back in time and we can look at the way he came into himself and settled into his identity as a person, as a man, and say, like, oh okay, this is the moment. you know? we don't need the writers to take our hands and guide us through the same processes buck is experiencing because eddie's already had his ah moment, he's already experienced the moment where he decides that his life and his needs and his joy and his liberation are just as beautiful and valuable and worthy like everyone else's.

so when people ask, like, "would 9-1-1 really go there with three queer discovery arcs?" it's just like. well yes. they already have. we've already there. in fact, we're well into the third and final act. buck, eddie, and the audience, are almost ready — as in, actively ready — for each other. and yes, sure, even after the meat of this arc has passed, there will still be some things buck and eddie need to learn — specifically, they will need to learn that, not only do they have feelings for each other, but that feelings for each other is actually an option — but. for all intents and purposes, this is the crescendo before the final chord. this is it. and the thought that we've been here, that we've witnessed these three beautiful queer storylines unfold with these three beautiful characters (two of which are gentle, loving, present men of color) makes me entirely too emotional for words. tbh.

personally i really dont like the theory about totk potentially being about seperating ganondorf from demises curse when its framed as in that gan was just an uwu innocent guy used as a literal puppet by .. just another one-note incarnation of evil™️

like, im all for a "good" ganondorf or him as an ally or something, but this just robs him of so much while adding nothing

the way demises "curse" is often spoken about in fandom is as if its a literal spell, magic he did in his last moments, i always interpret it as a warning, if they contiue this way they will have to battle someone akin to him again and again, there cant be life without death ect

he is a force of chaos and shadow in a world that wants only control and light, if the ones capable of shaping the world keep striving for a one sided one a force akin to him will rise again, to tip back the scale, they want it to be one sided, but all has to return to balance

the gods (in canon?) want a purely "good" world, but who decides what is good and what isnt? neither a purely "good" world nor a purely "evil" one is the correct one, its a battle of balance, both want to tip the scale in their favor, but it has to be balanced, so they fight again (and even if the "good" people are in charge, will they discriminate against those they deem to be too different, will those suddendly be stapled as evil, as something that must be eradicated?)

its like ... they keep fighting a force of nature, and try to seal it forever, but some forests are laid out to be burned down every few years so it can sprout anew, eliminating the fires destroys more than it protects even if it may look like the objectively good thing at first

yet they keep trying to fight it instead of adjusting life with it, if the world of loz has to fall to grow anew, theres surely a way to work with it instead of fighting it again and again, next time always being worse than the last

( this at least is how i see the canon as it currently is, in my own AU comic its a very different deal )

gotta love seeing people going "did cecil have any cultural impact though, no one listens to podcasts" during the whole sexyman rematch because friends. comrades. amigos. wtnv was one of the first fandoms on tumblr, with cecil clearly and openly stating he was in love with a man within the first six minutes of episode one. in 2012! gay marriage in the us wouldn't be legalized for another three years and media representation at the time was very few and far between. smh learn your tumblr history

i admit that i find it a little bit frustrating how Wildly Astonished other antizionist jews act when i tell them my israeli jewish family have lived in the region since [some unknown length of time before 1800 when there start being records about it]

Some tweets from Lea (ex admin) for people who don’t understand what the problem with the merch announcement is.

The french part in the first tweet can be translated something like « they were born before shame was invented » aka « they should be ashamed of themselves »

I’d like to add that we know for sure that the figures were thought of and being conceptualised for a while, so while I hope the revenue can be used to pay the admins now, there’s is a chance that would ex admins not have spoken up about the issues, the egg merch would have been released and the admins would have remained unpaid and overworked all the same.

UPDATE because idk if i expressed myself well enough : No one has an issue with Qstudios selling merch using the eggs image, it’s most likely legally their property and people have been wanting it for months. Merch itself also isn’t an issue, the problem lies in the context and timing. While legally there’s nothing wrong with it, morally I personally believe it’s not a good look to make money off the likability of a character that was made possible due to the work of someone who was mistreated and who is still unsure of their future within the company.

i am still not over the fact arlecchino is referred to as "father" by the house of the hearth kids btw. the gender of it all

I was laughing at Xie Lian not really knowing how to use curse words properly in the flashback arcs. but it just dawned on me that it was probably to show how young and naive he was during all of it

It's understandable to be disappointed right now but I'm wondering if FOB even knows about the things Gabe posted?

He posted all of that to his Instagram stories back in October and hasn't posted anything since. FOB was busy getting ready for their Europe tour at that time. Patrick isn't on Instagram. Joe and Andy rarely are. Pete does get on but not as much as he used to. There's a good chance none of them saw any of that. And most adults don't go around asking their friends if they are Zionests or not.

So like, yes be a little critical, but we don't know if they know anything about Gabe's postings/thoughts.

i understand wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, and to an extent i had a similar thought process about it. there is a possibility they are unaware of gabe’s opinions, given how rare their presence is on social media as you mentioned, and are just misinformed. it is my sincerest hope that this is the case and that they aren’t knowingly platforming a zionist and celebrating it. either way disappointing, but to very varying degrees.

however, not knowing for sure if they know or not actually makes me even more want to be critical and express disappointment (not that i think you’re trying to tell me not to, just to clarify). the only way to make any real change or educate anybody, either if they know abt gabe or not honestly, is to hold them accountable and spread awareness. not even just to fob in the hopes they’ll do better in the future (and i do hope they do), but also to other people who didn’t know gabe was an active zionist and were still supporting him, so they can be more aware as well.

Yorozu's line about Sukuna knowing "love" despite in the past that in his eyes looked "lonely" wasn't about no love interest he had in the past (nor about love in the romantic sense) but he found a kindred spirit who is similar to him and looks forward to their clash as a way to fill that void

I suspect Sukuna's feeling of "loneliness" is similar to Gojo's in being alone the strongest, or the honored one. What Sukuna's "love" Yorozu saw was finally fighting someone like him, to give him that thrill that he never felt during his life. It's going to be an interesting clash of ideals along with obvious strength as Gojo wished to raise the next generation to be equals to not be alone vs Sukuna ruling through strength to spur someone to be on his level.

You can’t force people to be honest with you. If you’re an up-front person who doesn’t have a problem asking for what you need, it can be easy to interpret wishy-washiness as cowardly and manipulative. It obviously sucks to be in emotional limbo, and I don’t blame you for interpreting their silence as a punishment. But have you considered it might also be a form of self-protection?

“Why won’t X tell me what’s wrong? I’m not a mind reader!” is a common complaint. But the question which often occurs to me is, who does that clarity benefit? Does the teller have reasonable grounds to believe expressing their anger is a safe or productive thing to do? Is it going to lead to deeper understanding, or just another argument? Is the person demanding an explanation going to listen, or use the teller’s complaint to retaliate, linguistically outmanoeuvre them, or adopt a position of victimhood? Often a request for clarity is disingenuous. We know what we’ve done and just don’t want to have to be the one to bring it up, because we feel guilty, and it’s easier to take a defensive posture than proactively apologise.

Not to mention that when we’re upset, the last thing we want is to give the person who offended us an opportunity to relitigate the situation. Especially if there’s wounded pride involved. It can be humiliating to confess the depth of your hurt feelings. That kind of honesty is an act of generosity, not emotional obligation. 

Help Me Hera: Our Couple BFF's Won't Forgive Us

In India there's a specific type of bread roll called 'Pav', the name of which comes from the Portuguese 'Pão', which just means bread. This is just how language and loan words work, we use another country's general name for bread for a specific style of bread we got from that country.

Caffè Latte in Italian has just become Latté in English, even though that just means milk.

I'm sure there will be examples like this in almost every language under the sun. Language is descriptive and is a tool for communication, and we use shortcuts and loan words and abbreviations to make that tool easier to use.

I'm sorry people are being mean to you over it.

lol thank you anon. I guess I asked for it, in a way— I did make the original post because I was frustrated about a movie featuring a joke that would revive a (in my opinion, misguided) debate about the nature of chai as a loan word in English, and people did indeed revive the debate about the nature of chai as a loan word in English in response to my post.

seriously starting to get annoyed by people equating sad and tragic endings with meaningfulness. happy and/or hopeful endings don’t mean less. they’re not silly or less impactful. i'm just really tired of people telling me that the tragic ending is more romantic or beautiful or interesting or that the main character needs to "learn" something from the loss of a loved one.

Little guy that lives in my brain breaking laws of nature and laws of gods

I don't know how to articulate this, but like! Was I already kind of irked by the like... dare I say the TikTok-ification of Autism, or like, the "haha quirky" thing, like... or how people are like "acoustic" or whatever. Like all of that was annoying and whatnot (the TikTok-ification somewhat less so because people may just be misinformed) but!!! Today!!!

Today some kid in class offhandedly mentioned that he was Autistic, right, and then everyone in the class did that, like, "WOAH!" thing in the "you did not just say that" way like if someone had said a slur and it was infuriating to me! Like... I dunno... I dunno how to articulate it (I could but I'm very tired), but it's like...

I think jokes about Autism are fun and can be done well, but they aren't done well and now Autism itself is seen (by some people) as a joke to the point that you cannot seriously mention it without other people assuming that you are joking. I don't know! It just struck me as fucked up.