sometimes while i think about that while a lot of adults did not treat me very well as a kid i also get a lot of 'in hindsight this person was so good to me and i didnt even realize it until now' as an adult. today i was thinking about how the first anime convention i ever went to was when i was 10 and i asked the man working the manga cafe what manga was/what a good place to start was (because the con was very overstimulating for me and i had gotten lost) and he asked how old i was before recommending yotsuba and asking if i wanted any water or something to eat. its really simple but theres a lot of bad things that couldve happened or he could've been careless in his recommendation, but instead yotsuba has remained one of my favorite manga for years, and probably a large portion of why i continue to read manga as an adult... i think adults who try to involve kids in the world safely/kindly even in little ways make so much more of a difference than they ever really know.

Pocahontas (1995): 3 times Pocahontas is compared to her mother + 1 time she's recognized on her own merits.

rambling lil meta under the cut

see, what's crazy about this whole situation is that it makes me wonder what exactly pocahontas's mom was like to have left such a massive impression on literally everyone in their community? there's that outright statement that "yeah, your mom's spirit is in the wind, basically, and our people venerate her as a spiritual guide (at the very least)." we know that she's the main connection between pocahontas and grandmother willow, and there's an implication in there that whatever leadership role she held in the village is expected to fall on pocahontas's shoulders someday.

i am so convinced that this role is some kind of spiritual leader/shaman position. wise-woman, priestess, whatever it's called. we don't see anyone else besides kekata performing any kind of spiritual rites, and even he isn't seen acting in direct contact with spiritual entities. kekata has to perform chants, provide offerings, and use a medium. pocahontas can just fuckign. talk to the things. how is she doing that? why isn't anyone else really able to do that? john smith could talk with grandmother willow but would he be able to if pocahontas wasn't there (i actually think he could but that's a different post)? has she ever done that for literally anybody else? nakoma never mentions grandmother willow. nobody mentions grandmother willow. apparently, the only two people who knew about her before pocahontas brought her new bf over was pocahontas and her mom.

i'm losing track of myself here, but the point is pocahontas is Highly aware of the ghost she's expected to live up to. and it sucks. and there's a lot more to her character arc about this but the eventual come-around to accepting that she has a responsibility to be more than herself and more than her mother's ghost is so heartbreaking because it also meant she had to let go of her soulmate at the same time so i c ry

y’all really think cis dudes who dress femininely as a joke for views online are more enlightened and nuanced in gender than literal trans women lol

I highly recommend getting a highly social dog breed. Being told by pet professionals that my dog is delightful just really never gets old.

i’m not going to pretend to be certain one way or another about what level of agency muir intends to give gideon in becoming kiriona/in aligning with john, because i think the level of uncertainty we’ve been given is both important and intentional, but i do think it’s specifically interesting how every other character we see be resurrected in some way and renamed by john it’s heavily implied that he also altered their memories and/or personalities; we see the renaming of titania and ulysses when he turns them into literal zombies entirely under his control and we see that the other lyctors, at some point, had different names and that their resurrection involves john altering them, and we see in some ways that kiriona falls right in the middle of those two - renamed like both of them, and still dead like titania and ulysses were and with her body having been altered by john and able to be “turned off” by ianthe at will, but also moving to some extent under her own power and retaining aspects of her personality (or her entire personality, depending on the reading - and i do think there are multiple legitimate, supported readings here)

and i think what’s specifically interesting here is that the set up of the original lyctors forces us to see them as complicit with john even though he does change and alter them - it is impossible to ignore the fact that m—- and a—- and g—- and c—- (and p—- and n—- and the nun and a—-‘s little brother!) stood with john through acquiring the first nuke, through killing hundreds of people, through necromantically piloting a world leader, etc. they’re fully complicit in the nuclear death of earth’s population even though most of them turned on him last minute, which translates over to being complicit in his empire, where we see the exact same pattern of them standing with him until eventually, later, individually deciding to betray him for whatever personal reasons they individually have. they are inarguably complicit, regardless of what alterations john made to them!

in contrast, titania and ulysses, at least prior to the resurrection, had no control, no ability to go against john at all, and so without knowing more about their resurrection and function as lyctors, it becomes almost impossible to say whether or not they had agency, ability to go against him, etc, and so all we know is that john used their bodies after their deaths in a way in which they could not resist against or do anything about

so by placing kiriona in this middle ground between the two, where we don’t know if she’s working with him entirely by gideon’s choice or if john altered her mind in some way, she’s in between total death and true resurrection, her wounds are still there but she isn’t rotting, the question becomes a question not of “is this her choice” but a question of “regardless of if this is her choice, how complicit is she?”

even if kiriona is mentally altered in some way, she’s only in this situation because she learned and embraced the cavalier role to such an extent that she died so that harrow could go lyctor. even if kiriona is mentally altered in some way, gideon was only in canaan house in the first place in order to earn the ability to “go free” and join the cohort. and, in contrast, even if she hasn’t been altered in some way mentally, she literally does not have physical control of her own body. kiriona isn’t a portrait of how people choose to align themselves with empire, but rather she’s the centerpoint of three books’ worth of themes about complicity, imperial corruption, death as something which the empire owns and corrupts, family, and memory. to say definitively that kiriona is only aligned with john because of trauma and her behavior is exactly how gideon always behaves in this situation or to say definitively that gideon would never act like this and so kiriona must have had her memory fucked with or her soul altered in some way i genuinely think is to miss the point - regardless of how much quote unquote agency gideon has in the way kiriona’s behaving and who she’s expressing loyalty to, she both has no power over herself (ianthe can and does shut her off!!! she spent her entire life obsessing over her body as a method of escape and now her body has been physically altered by john!!!) and is complicit, has been absorbed into the imperial seat of power and is being used as a weapon by that seat of power, etc.

additionally, this is a series heavily interested in themes of agency around death and how death is constantly being exploited by john and necromancers. it is important that gideon died on purpose (although obviously under. external pressures lol) and has been brought back in a manner which robs her of control over her own body, and i think being willing to engage with that and with what we’re told about the original lyctors and how john used them is important to a reading of kiriona

Stonn/T'Pring

Possible spicy take but I’m so bored of people crying ABLEISM!!! whenever someone has a controversial opinion such as “hi I am a service worker and I feel dehumanised when all you do is stare blankly at me or bark your order at me please smile and say hello”

As an autistic person who until just 2 years ago was so socially anxious I couldn’t go outside alone, if you’re an adult and you can’t even give someone a quick smile and a “good thanks how are you?” that’s not poor social skills due to autism or social anxiety, that’s you being a prick.

It is the absolute most basic human decency and manners to fucking smile at someone and say hello and if you’ve made it to adulthood without learning that then someone deeply failed you. It takes 2 seconds and costs absolutely nothing. Yes you may find small talk or whatever uncomfortable, but most people do and it’s just a part of life that you’ve got to learn to deal with. Being a bit awkward or uncomfortable isn’t trauma. You don’t have to tell your whole life story when they ask you how you are, but don’t just fucking ignore them. And tbh associating neurodivergence with acting like an asshole is ironically one of the most ableist things you can do

Also, I see a LOT of people daily who just walk up to service workers and go “CHEESEBURGER” without a “please” or “hello” and I know that 90% of people aren’t autistic adults who were never taught the bare minimum social skills so don’t bullshit me with that excuse. You all just want any reason to be mean or rude and it’s gross

*NOTE: This post is obviously not talking about non-verbal people or anyone else who may struggle with the simplest general conversation due to disability. It’s about people who are capable of having a normal social interaction with for example friends, but then use neurodivergence as an excuse not to treat others with basic decency

i truly don't understand how people can get really into a fandom without seeing all/most of the material involved. how are you doinf that

Hunter literally throws him on the ground and I. Can’t stop watching this.

Ok so literally no pressure, but I do have a kofi and if anyone feels like showing appreciation for my writing or art or I guess my cat via its medium, now would be a good time because there's a thing I really want to buy and I don't have enough birthday money left over for it lmao

(the thing is an art oriented android tablet. So that I can still draw shit when post work exhaustion compels me to collapse in bed against my desire to,,, you know, draw things.)

Link to my Kofi 👌

either tag the "pretending goncharov is a real film and critically analyzing it accordingly" meme as unreality or stop fucking posting it. i am no longer asking.

a bunch of people have already registered for my mentoring workshop! unfortunately this means i have to plan and host a workshop aaaaaa

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All I'm gonna say is y'all hate "he would not say that" now, but when you can't find fic that represents the character at all y'all are going to be begging at the phrase's door like a regretful ex </3. Same thing happened with the whole "said" debate.

“the white hart scene was showing us rhaenyra is divinely chosen to sit on the iron throne for a shitty girlboss moment”

idk how people come to this conclusion beyond the fact that a lot of people wanted the show to flesh out and empathize with the characters the way f&b doesn’t, but are mad the show decided to flesh out rhaenyra even though she’s one of the main characters, bc they’re too dedicated to her as The Born Evil Queen bc that’s how she’s been treated by fandom since the princess and the queen came out.

it’s not just “she sees the white hart and it means she’s divinely chosen” that’s such a basic, surface level reading. for her part, the point is not just that she sees the white hart, but that she recognizes it’s personhood, it’s beauty, and it’s uniqueness, and spares it’s life in empathy. the point is that she slaughters the boar in self defense and brings it home to her people but is scorned for the messy way she did it. it’s not just that she’s “divinely chosen” it is that she can recognize the fear and humanity (so to speak) in another being and can empathize with it enough to let it live even though killing it may make her look really good in front of the lords. she does the moral thing because she is capable of empathy despite what the lords may say, a clear hint to the last episode where she attempts to do the right thing by avoiding war despite pushback from the black council.

on the other hand, she kills the boar - she is just as capable as any man of great violence when she feels threatened, and equally capable of a vindictive sort of violence that all the men of her house (and many of the other houses) are capable of. she brings them an animal she killed by her own hand and they are disgusted; the greens will strike first at every opportunity never realizing that she is capable of much greater violence bc a woman being capable of being violent is not something that would ever occur to them. they gladly named her princess of dragonstone to stop daemon from being heir but they are disgusted by her independent mind despite it being the exact reason they named her heir.

but just as important is viserys’ killing of the red hart. the white hart ran from his woods while the red hart is held down by his advisors for him to kill without viserys doing any of the work; still, he has to try twice to kill it, and only with the hand rotting from contact with the throne is he capable of taking its life. like robb’s messy execution of lord karstark being the definitive sign that he’s utterly lost control of the war, viserys having to be coached step by step and handed this “win” on a silver platter only to bungle it anyway is a definitive sign that he’s lost control of his court and of the politics in westeros. and as robb’s dark, shadowy parallel, viserys too will not live to see the bloody climax of a war he helped kick off.

Not gonna lie I think "media literacy" based accusations have quickly devolved into name-calling that means nothing and completely fails to address the core points of the disagreeing perspectives