me: Aleksander Morozova deserves someone, who wouldn't be ashamed of their feelings for him, someone who wouldn't make his mother's words into a Holy scripture and would ask about his side of the story instead, someone who wouldn't dehumanize him to disregard his feelings more easily, someone who'd react to his immortality with empathy and concern. He deserves someone, who wouldn't demonize his every action, quick to believe the worst about him. Someone, who wouldn't interpret every breath he takes as a result of malevolent intention... McDonald’s employee: uhhhh do you want to order something or —

so i googled rachel gatina's fate and.. fuck that? my girl deserves so much more

aita for calling my roommate crazy?

I (28f) live with 2 other people, a former college roommate who I’m pretty close with (29f) and 2nd roommate (28nb) who we both met when we moved in together 2 years ago.

Let me start this out by saying, this isn’t a fandom aita, it’s going to sound a bit weird at first, but bear with me.

I have a medical condition (relevant later) which stopped most of my bones from maturing past puberty (growth plates closing, cartilage not hardening into bones, ect.), so my skeleton is basically stuck somewhere between 13-19, (I look about 17-19, but the last time I tried to buy hard cider, the cashier thought I was 14, so that’s how young I can look). I also have very pale skin (unrelated to my disorder, just a ginger), and (related to my disorder) lack some liver enzymes so I need eat meat or I get sick (the same reason why cats need to eat meat), I ended up in the ER when I lived with my vegan sister for a week and ate the same veggie diet as her.

Trouble is, Roommate 2 is really into conspiracy theories and other fringe stuff. Nothing alt-right or anything, just like, (for example) they fully bought into that Mermaids: the body found show, and wouldn’t be dissuaded, even when Roommate 1 googled it and showed them solid proof that it was fictional. Wholeheartedly believes the US government preformed 9/11, does alternative medicine (homeopathy, ect), wishes there were ‘all natural’ vaccines (still isn’t an anti-vaccer though, just needs to be persuaded that Bill Gates didn’t put microchips in them).

Anyway, Roommate 1 and I have a recurring joke that I’m a vampire because of the meat thing and the pale thing and the not aging thing. Roommate 2 overheard us and laughed, but weirdly. She kinda joked along with us, but she seemed...odd. About a week later, they start asking me stuff about being a vampire. But they seemed friendly and not nervous then and I was hoping they were just joking and I also sincerely thought they were just asking me about how vampires work on one of my shows (I’m a big fan of Carmilla and the Originals), so I tried to explain, but I cited each show when I’m explaining a thing. This continued for several weeks, but getting worse and more weird every time, eventually culminating about 2 and a half months later into them asking me more stuff about life as a vampire and I really realised that they were serious. Bear in mind, Roommate 1 and I were trying to be very clear that we don’t believe in vampires this whole time because we both know how Roommate 2 is about this. As a result, this was the first time I really registered that they seriously seemed to genuinely believe I was a vampire. I firmly told them that I am not a vampire and that vampires aren’t real, they’re fun to joke about, but they aren’t real. They implored me ‘to be straight with them about being a vampire,’ and that ‘I could trust them,’ and I’m ashamed to say, I kinda freaked out at this point, cuz I was afraid that they would be scared of me and maybe try to hurt me, since they seemed kinda unstable because of this.

This is where I think I was an asshole, I am usually very sensitive to mental health issues. I have some c-PTSD myself and there are a lot of mental health issues in my family (unfortunately, I think some history with my own mentally ill father may have made me react this way, since he has very similar issues to Roommate 2 (vaccines, alternate medicines, specifically involving me in his delusions) and I had a very bad experience in my early teens where he thought I was a demon and ‘sent to destroy him’). Anyway, I got very upset and I yelled at them, I told them they were completely crazy and needed to get mental help and said I thought Roommate 1 and I needed to move out because they might try to stake my heart or something. I feel really bad for calling them crazy, especially because Roommate 2 has some very mental health issues and words like crazy make light of and stigmatise that and I’m very big into not blaming people for their mental health problems, but this was very triggering and in this moment I was very distresssed.

So, aita, all things considered here? I’m still gonna feel like the asshole no matter what, since mental health problems aren’t to be taken lightly or blamed on the person, but I’m curious what the internet thinks.

What are these acronyms?

Hello, Dutch, I love reading your texts. Now that you've finished Rebirth, I wanted to know what you thought of the date with Tifa at the Gold Saucer. Do you think the fact that you can only kiss Tifa is a sign that the devs want to end the LTD once and for all?

I like to think the DEVs don't make those decisions just to prove people wrong. I'd like for the kiss between Cloud and Tifa to be about Cloud and Tifa, and not Cleriths, so no. I do think in general they decided to be more explicit this time around and leave less wiggle room. Which they have basically already confirmed by stating that the remake will have less room for interpretation.

"In final fantasy VII Remake, there will be much less room for player imagination. This fact will probably change feel of the story considerably. People who know the original might not know quite how to take it. Such is the fear that I have." ~ Nojima

The word he uses is "fear", not "hope". Based on this I'd say that with Rebirth they weren't necessarily intending to put a stop to people making up their own stories, but that it is an unavoidable consequence of telling the story right. With modern graphics and an expanding story you can't really write characters and scenes in ways that can be interpreted a 1000 ways. Because that means writing your characters without a strict identity. They lack clear goals and motivations. It's kinda like the story version of a "spork", by trying to be two things you just kinda end up with a shitty version of both. If you want to tell Cloud and Tifas story as engagingly as possible, then you'll have to have him react to her the way a man in love would, his love should be reflected in his body language and actions. But if you do that, then the LTD is dead, which it now is.

We have a story where Tifa and Clouds courtship is a big part of their continuing character growth, and a game where you're rewarded for maximizing your team members affections for you. But if Cloud and Tifa are already shown being romantically paired even in the most bare bones playthrough of the game, since it's a core part of their story, then you can't have the effort of getting max affection with Tifa culminate at the date with just a hug or something else that could still be sort of misconstrued as not being romantic for the people who can't stand reality. That would be hugely disappointing and anti-climactic, especially since they already hugged in part 1 and already nearly kissed in Gongaga.

No, Tifa and Cloud didn't kiss to disprove Clerith, they kissed because their romance is an integral part of their story, they kissed because you can't have FFVII without having Cloud and Tifas Romance.

Have you seen the leaked TOH pilot and pitch bible yet? IMO it’s crazy how most of it is better than the final product.

I have! And... I don't know if I entirely agree with that.

What I found most fascinating about it is that a lot of the contradictions and issues of scope with TOH that doomed it are still in the pitch bible itself. Just some quick examples of what I'm talking about: When talking about themes, they talk about Fantasy versus Reality but it's as shallow as it is in the show. After all, one of the episode concepts pitched within it features a plot that has Luz literally going "This is just like in my fanfiction!" and being better able to handle it because of that.

It builds up the emperor of the land and Belos (known as Oberon) when talking about them but NONE of the plotlines include Oberon in the episode pitches or even mention the coven system for that matter. They are still barely a thing to the show with the only episode concept about that part of the show being the one about William.

An utter lack of real stakes like how King has to face the deep crises of a decision of either being a lackey to the people he used to run with while also losing any chance to ever reclaim his lost power... Or he can save Eda and Luz and lose the chance to work with these people again. That's not really a compelling decision, is it?

The pitch also claims that the show will mostly be about Luz and Eda's relationship and how Luz's determination will push Eda to be a better person... And most of the episodes pitched are still not actually about the two spending time together. Just Eda making Luz upset so she goes off to do her own thing, just like the same problem as in the actual series.

You actually have MORE characters in this version which sucks harder for trying to narrow things down, especially since more of them are disconnected from each other than before. At least Boscha, unlike Pascha, has a connection to literally anyone in the main cast.

You also have stupidity with your magic still. "Look! I need to work hard to make small objects float!" And apparently that's enough to make all of Hexside lose their fucking minds. WHY!? In 90% of settings, that is as basic as the light spell Luz learns. It's why it's one of the first spells Harry learns.

Oh and let's not forget "Almost all known portals to the human realm have been severed" but apparently Amity has access to one of those known portals freely enough to attend two schools. It's a small thing but it would cause problems in theory.

BUT.

I will give credit to this: Luz is MUCH more compelling in this version. I think if there is something that is just unequivocally true, it's that. She is way less inoffensively nerdy, instead her interests being more upfront and troublesome, helping explain why that would be why she is rejected and not because, you know, she puts people in danger. Also her rise to power is just better.

Arguably, Luz in canon is a chosen one essentially from episode FOUR onwards. Now, this is up for debate but being given a power almost out of nowhere, with no training, that no one else has, is usually a sign of a chosen in a narrative. Episode 4 is when she gets the light glyph. She doesn't work for it, it's not a big character growth moment, etc. like that. She mostly just oops into it. Making it that Luz ACTUALLY has to work for her magic and the show actually has to explore how the magic works, making it so she has something to learn is just strictly better, especially for the concept of her learning to be a witch. Eda would actually be able to teach her something instead of shrugging and going "Welp, good luck!"

I will say that the bible does also lean more into an adventurous aspect though. This version of episodes would easily be more fantastical and include more magic in them which would help the Isles not feel so much like our realm. I will say the fact that there's also active anti-human prejudice also would be good because then Luz being human would, you know... Matter. Not that the Isles is really given a personality even here besides the oppression they're theoretically under. It's still a very generic fantasy setting.

A lot of the rest though? It's really not that unique or different from the show itself. Lilith is almost exactly the same, Tibbles is just Gus but a demon, there are slightly more restrictions on things like being human or magic but, you know, the show didn't care about its one law, why would it care about three? Even Amity, who does look better on here, is only because it's on paper. This is literally just Amity's pitch in S1 after all. All the reasons people loved Amity are here.

Conceptually it is fine but I am surprised about how not only this got picked up but also how it was greenlit so heavily as to get a pilot animatic, with voice acting, based on these concepts. There's just some very clear cleaning up that needs to be done, basic questions on its own setting and own logic that isn't even playing into the comedy/fantasy angles that could let you let it pass. It's not all of them or even the majority but a skeptical prereader could even raise these basic sorts of inconsistencies like the ones I brought up above. After all, this is half a season's worth of episodes pitched and a fifth of them are still going to Amity and more of them have Luz directly interacting with King than they do Eda.

There's a final thing I have to bring up due to it being why I think the show changed so drastically from this pitch bible to its final form: This is way more complicated. TOH already has extremely decompressed storytelling and too many elements working in tandem. Meanwhile, every character is MORE complicated in this one and less connected to each other, necessitating that each, except maybe Eda, will take more time to get through their stuff. The writing team either had to sharpen how much they could do in an episode or simplify and congregate elements. We see this a LOOOOT in S2A, especially Escaping Expulsion, where it seems the writers went "Even with three whole seasons planned, we don't have enough time to do everything we want to, the way we like to, so we need to start cutting and simplifying even more than before."

One example of this that's really easy: In the pitch bible, Willow is a random witch who lives near Eda. Well that means she'll likely either take time out of a couple episodes as she's introduced or take up an entire episode just for herself. Tibbles is also just on their own, like in the show. Introducing both of these characters is not really an option. However, put them both into Hexside and suddenly you can introduce three characters at the same time organically, like we saw with I Was a Teenage Abomination.

Luz just being gifted magic is another element to this. Her having to actually experiment for every spell and having to have a real system to her spells limits what she can do but also means spending a LOT more time on her magic. You can't just have a flower open up and give her the glyph of the day as easily, nor have her be able to throw her spells around as she wants. Making it so she just needs reams of paper and/or a marker makes it a lot easier and simpler to have her start casting magic.

This version of TOH would have SHATTERED under its own scope while the current version mostly bends and cracks from it. However, if people do use this to go "FUCK DISNEY EVEN HARDER!" I won't be surprised. Grand scope ALWAYS looks better on paper than it does in action. It sounds epic and multi-faceted and complex. The problem is that it still has to fit its format and it is MUCH harder to execute on than a more simple concept.

There's a reason the only perfect project is the one you never do because you can promise the world without ever having to deliver. So, while it's nice to see an earlier version, I am by no means going to say this would have been a better version of TOH.

======+++++======

Sorry for anyone hoping for a link to the pitch bible btw. I just don't have one as I got given it as a document.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

the tortured poets department

i have thoughts!! surprising, right?? this is for anyone who cares to read them ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Before you read, note that this is going to be critical of things, so let me just start by saying I have loved and listened to Taylor since I was 8, so none of it is said lightly or without careful thought (in fact, this took me absurdly long to write). Most of the issues I have are very near to my heart, actually, so I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. If you don't want to read criticism, then just don't read more. DISCLAIMER that I did my best, but not even this fully captures the nuance I feel able my own opinions lol I recognize the other sides and points, I really do. I hold many conflicting opinions.

The short version is I will always love her music and her voice and she is capable of writing absolutely gorgeous lyrics (dare I say poetry?). I don't tend to think too much about the sound of it because if I like the sound, it's all I really care about—maybe it sounds the same as other stuff, but if I like that other stuff, I don't really care about whether she branches out or not. I think it's great and interesting when she (or anyone) does, but I also don't like change so it doesn't matter to me the way I know it matters to some people. That's just me!

What gets more complicated for me is the narrative, themes, and general trends that have been more prominent the last year or so, and that's what the rest of my thoughts are. It's me enjoying the music while also being acutely aware of all the grief tangled up in it because of how much less connected I feel in many ways.

Side note: this got soooo much longer than even I expected and it still just scratches the surface! so if you decide to read, 1. thank you, and 2. I'd love to keep talking to you. 🤍

———————————————————— 💭

I am an overthinker (shocking!) and will for sure be annoyed that I can't think of each and every thing I think about this album, but this is what comes to mind right now. Some things that have stood out to me more and more with each release:

a tendency to write self-aware lyrics that, in trying to be self-aware, betray somewhat of a lack of self-awareness

a frustration with never growing up that she expresses while also not realizing the way she is complicit in that and her own refusal to grow up

considering herself the victim, particularly after "overcoming" the accusations that she always plays the victim

venturing more boldly into the territory of serious mental illness/suicidal ideation/mental health treatment despite demonstrating a fair amount of ignorance regarding those things in the past

fame going to her head (in the sense of her becoming further and further out of touch) and the entitlement in a lot of the more immature attitudes that come across in these songs

self-awareness: for me, the first example that comes to mind is Anti-Hero: "it's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me." It's a claim at self-awareness because she's poking fun at the fact that she knows people always say "maybe she's the problem." The reason why it feels to me like it exposes a lack of self-awareness is because she explores it mostly as a criticism to overcome and not a valid point of self-reflection. @jakeperalta's tags on her post explain it better than I do. Yes, there's an issue when you reduce every feeling to "well maybe she's the problem," but part of growth is admitting that maybe you are part of the problem and coming to terms with the fact that there is often some inevitable truth to that statement—and being willing to work on it. This example is from Midnights, but I think it ties into the next point.

immaturity/never growing up: I actually think these first two sections are just two parts of one section, but it's easier to read this way anyway. There are lots of references to not growing up on this album, the first that come to mind being "So High School" and "teenage petulance." Maybe it's just me, but as a 34-year-old woman, I wouldn't want to be feeling "so high school." I mean, as a 25-year-old, when I talk about feeling like my high school self, it's usually because I'm recognizing how limited my judgment and self-awareness was in high school (despite all the therapy and my efforts to be self-aware in high school). And I am aware of my own bias here—I absolutely hate the football game days because I didn't even like watching people act like that in high school, but at least they were high schoolers—but I do think part of what we've seen is Travis allowing her to be more immature and take less responsibility because that's also where he is at. Obviously I don’t speak to it with any authority since I don't know what happened in the relationship, but based on her behaviors and what I know about Joe (which is VERY little), I kind of get the feeling that part of what she didn't like about being with Joe is that he pushed her to grow. "Your integrity makes me seem small," etc. etc., but not in an “I want to grow” way, but not liking that feeling because she shouldn't have to feel small just because she wants to be able to only do what makes her happy. Just looking at the difference in her behavior and the fact that it seems like she's stopped trying to learn (Miss Americana-ish), it seems like she very much resents the responsibility that comes with being such a famous person and mainly considers herself a victim of her fame.

victimhood: to an extent, yes, she is a victim of her fame. No one should have that much fame and power, and of course she didn't sign up for it in this way. But wanting to have the kind of influence and reach that most artists desire is intertwined with fame. There isn't a way to separate it (in an ideal world, maybe, but that isn't what we're dealing with) and it's something that, to some degree, artists do sign up for. And I think she resents that she's expected to take any sort of responsibility for anything that she doesn't want to do, in a very, "but that's not fair!," teenage petulance kind of way. She even says in Sweet Nothing that "I'm just too soft for all of it." We're all too soft for all of it, but that doesn't mean we get to ignore it. It bothers me that she doesn't seem to feel any sort of responsibility to use this giant platform to do better. Everyone is aware of her influence, including her. I think that's part of the grief. No, it is not her job to use her platform for good, but I thought that it was something she valued and something she wanted. The other line that really stuck out to me was from Cassandra: "They say what doesn't kill you makes you aware, what happens if it becomes who you are?" You may be a victim of what doesn't kill you, but if it becomes who you are, that's not their fault. It reminds me a bit of the exhaustion of living with mental illness. For me in particular, it affects my relationships in a very fundamental way, and there are days that I sob because I am exhausted of things that are so normal being so, so difficult for me... but even though I didn't ask for it and it's not fair that this happened to me, it's still my responsibility to understand how my issues affect how I show up in relationships. It's still my problem, even though it isn't my fault that it's my problem. And if you're lucky, you find really beautiful people who are willing to help you and see that it's not their responsibility, but they want to make it easier for you—I recognize how lucky I am to have some people like that, but it never makes it anyone else's problem. If they decide one day it's not their problem, the truth is that it isn't (and then there's a more complex conversation about what you want to do to preserve a relationship). This is also very connected to something about Kate Beckett/why I identify with that character, and I can touch on that if anyone wants to know, but I don't really have cohesive thoughts about that prepared (it makes more sense if you already know the character). This also goes to other things, like her being upset that people always focus on who songs are about while ignoring the part she played in feeding that culture (like with secret messages).

mental health: this goes to a bigger discussion of how we turn to celebrities who are HIGHLY unqualified to have opinions on things for guidance (the nuance of the above discussion about using your platform), but the more she ventures into the discussion of mental illness, the more upset I get by some remarks she has made in the past. And yes, people grow, she may not feel this way anymore, but nothing in her behavior gives me any reason to believe that she doesn't still have this attitude. This is one that I know I have to be careful of because of how personal it is for me (I've been placed on a 5150 "danger to self" hold and I am a therapist), but one interview that has always made me so upset is that one where she talks about how she's never been to therapy, then ends it by saying "I feel like we just had a therapy session." She has said multiple times how she has never wanted to go to therapy when she has her mom, who already knows everything about her. And that is highly irritating to me because 1. that's why she's your MOM, not your THERAPIST, and 2. there's already so much stigma and apprehension around therapy and many people feel this way, so to have someone like Taylor Swift validate all the people who say "I'd rather talk to someone who already knows me" or "so and so is my therapist" is unbelievably frustrating. There's a reason it's unethical to treat people you know—that isn't therapy. And I think I wouldn't be so bothered by it if she didn't speak about it with such authority, like she knows what she's talking about when what she's saying shows that she doesn't (edit: this is specifically in regard to therapy, not mental illness. I am highly aware that anyone can be mentally ill). The other thing about this album is that it does seem to be an album about loving people with mental illness, and I've already seen a lot of interpretations that simply feed the narrative that people with mental illness are unlovable and mental illness is the reason people mistreat you (particularly the discussion about her lovers being blue all the time). And the issue with that is it's already a common misconception among people with mental illness, that their mental illness is an excuse or reason why they don't treat people right. It's disrespectful to the people who recognize that they have a mental illness that affects how they interact with others and choose to try to overcome it. I'm all for honest discussions about mental illness, but it's so disheartening when it happens on such a large scale and some of the loudest voices are people who don't know enough to know how to (at least try to) do no harm.

fame: I'm not really going to go into it because this has already turned out way longer than I meant for it to, but also because I feel like it's already been touched on. For me, it's the conversation about her feeling she should be able to just do what she wants. I think we all feel that way, but because of her fame and the fact that she's just about untouchable (as shown in how she came back from being cancelled), she can just tune everyone out. But one example was how uneasy I felt about this album being announced at the grammys. For one thing, it's not a fan-voted award, so even if it should, it doesn't feel the same. And regardless of your take on award shows, I do think it showed a level of insensitivity to the other artists who haven't won a bunch of grammys to decide that she would announce a new album at the grammys. Because even if she had a backup plan and said she didn't plan on it, the truth is that, to decide to have a backup plan, you did have to count on it happening, at least to an extent. You had to feel it was likely enough that you wanted to have a back up plan just in case, but it probably would go the way you wanted. To me, it just felt so... disrespectful. Because for many other artists, it doesn't happen more than once. (not to mention the many other things happening that got completely overshadowed, like Annie Lennox calling for a ceasefire)

So if you read all that... I don't even know what the point is at this point. These are just thoughts that, to me, don't feel right to simply ignore. I know there's an argument that you can enjoy music without enjoying where it came from, and it's true to an extent, but I also think part of the music is where it comes from. So... I don't know. Do with that what you will. And if you are reading this, I love you (I can't believe you're reading this).

Okay, stop what you’re doing and watch this RIGHT NOW.

Are you telling me THIS Chloe, the genuinely remorseful girl ready to burst into tears in front of her idol, THIS Chloe who confesses to feeling ‘useless’ on a regular basis without a single trace of dishonesty, THIS Chloe, who confides it’s not even Marinette that’s her main problem, it’s her own lack of self-worth that makes her lash out at others…

…Can be the same sociopathic monster we see in S4-S5?

Because if you do, I’d go and get my eyes tested.

Just viewing this clip now brought it all home to me. How much they’ve ruined Chloe’s character, by stripping away the few layers she had to reduce her to this wretched caricature we see today.

To reset ALL her growth in one fell swoop and now pretending it never happened. To think what we could’ve got instead of this Mary Sue wannabe Zoe turning up…

…A fascinating character study of a troubled girl with major issues blossoming into a true hero, (or anti-hero, if you prefer) and the impact her new personality and outlook has on the people around her.

Nope, let’s ditch all that in favor of this perfect ‘long list sibling’ turning up out of nowhere, and inheriting everything that Chloe could’ve had after a lengthy redemption arc (true friends, a healthier relationship with her father, a permanent position as Queen Bee) all in the most lazy two-parter ever conceived.

After all, why ‘waste’ seasons worth of gradual development on an established character, when you can pluck one out of the great blue yonder as the finished article? So much more satisfying from a storytelling perspective, right??

Oh, and it forever tarnished my view of Ladybug too, that the solution for Chloe’s problem was to encourage her to be even nastier and more horrible so she could ‘bond’ with the main perpetrator of her feeling of inadequacy and self-loathing for years e.g her own mother.

Yes, let’s continue the endless cycle of toxicity and abuse because it’s so much easier than giving a traumatized teenager in need proper help and support.

This is why I laughed out loud when Miss Bustier announced in the leaks for S5 (not really a spoiler) that ‘everyone had tried to help Chloe’.

Really? Since when?! I must’ve missed an entire season of the show where this happened… (considering the quality of the writing, perhaps this isn’t a bad thing).

Anyway, thanks Ladybug. Some ‘hero’.

hi rae! do you have any articles/resources on like. why tiktok sucks. because i had a conversation with a friend earlier today about this very subject and i want to show her some information (plus youre like the tumblr smart person so i thought you might have something)

tumblr smart person....love that for me lmao

i don't have a ton of like. articles that are specifically like "here is why tiktok is bad" bc most of my anti-tiktok critique is coming from the synthesis of various ideas about capitalism, art, surveillance, identity, media + control. like -- i don't think tiktok is the root of most of these issues, it's more that i think it's a petri dish for the rapid growth of the already-existing virus of capitalism. so this might feel a little disjointed but here is like. a web of various articles/essays/writing that has ideas which connect back to why i dislike tiktok

capitalist realism, by mark fisher - i think this text provides essential background on the ways in which capitalism has become so ingrained; if you don't wanna read the whole book then at least read ch 2, which talks a lot about the role of media + is particularly relevant when thinking about social media platforms like tiktok

social media is not self-expression, by rob horning - also start here for a perfect explanation of the ways in which social media encourages us to police our own identities as if we ourselves are consumer products

the anxiety of influencers, by barrett swanson - this is my rec that deals most specifically with tiktok and is just. such a great synthesis of the way the app is spreading the poison of a consumer economy such that the boundaries between consumer/product are broken down and we are all becoming consumers-as-products

personal style is dead and the algorithm killed it, by charlie squire - a really excellent essay that also gets into the way that consumerism + algorithms are like....eroding our sense of art + identity

cj the x's youtube channel - really fantastic video essays about art + media consumption in the modern age which make me reflect on the ways tiktok promotes engagement with art as a product rather than art. in particular i recommend 7 deadly art sins and the kronk effect

west elm caleb and the feminist panopticon, by rayne fisher-quann - another excellent essay that gets into the ways apps like tiktok can like....create this online surveillance state where we're all being encouraged to police each other

against character vapor, by brandon taylor - an essay that gets into how modern anxiety over embodiment + the sense that everything is now a performance thanks to social media influences our literature/art

keep it in the group chat: fanfiction and influencer culture, from into the fic of it - podcast episode where they discuss a lot of these issues with art + consumer culture specifically in the context of fanfic

objects of despair: mirrors, by meghan o'gieblyn - another article that touches on social media + identity formation

every "chronically online" conversation is the same, by rebecca jennings - discusses an issue that is not unique to tiktok but is exacerbated by tiktok

and if u wanna read some of my own more organized thoughts about tiktok, i have 2 essays on substack. one is you are what you eat: identity as consumption and what went wrong with jegulus, which ignoring all the jegulus stuff just contains like. a synthesis of how i think tiktok/algorithmic social media promotes a fucked-up method of identity-formation. and then i also have why does tiktok hate masculine lesbians? which is less about tiktok itself and more just an example of one issue that has festered on the site thanks to lack of critical thought + discussion -- both of which are literally impeded by the way tiktok is set up.

here is like. TikTok Thesis from my jegulus essay:

right now, in our current historical moment, almost all social media is being slowly (or not-so-slowly) swallowed by the vast and yawning chasm of the Algorithm. that’s because the Algorithm is good for capitalism. the Algorithm breaks down the boundaries between content and consumer, streamlining the system so that everyone is consuming each other all at once. we, the social media users, are consumers consuming the content of social media. at the same time, social media is consuming the content of our data. that data is then consumed by advertisers, who use it to sell us more content. we are thus increasingly stuck in a never-ending cycle of consumption, held captive by algorithms that soothe our anxieties by offering us tiny, consistent dopamine hits while working to break down our attention spans and our capacities for critical thought so that they can keep us trapped in echo chambers of endless consumptive entertainment.

and then there are of course all the rantings and ravings i post here on my blog lol!

anyway, a lot of what i've collected here is a little more philosophical and focused around identity + consumerism + art, but i'm sure there are also plenty of people out there making additional points about the way tiktok is horrible for privacy, how it's harvesting all our data, and how it's designed to be addictive + keep you scrolling + is in the process deteriorating your attention span. these are all issues that, again, are not unique to tiktok, but are grossly exacerbated by tiktok. especially bc the rapid growth of tiktok as a successful social media during the pandemic has made it like....this epicenter of pop culture such that

a) other social media apps are now trying to copy tiktok's model and become more like it

b) almost all commercial art is now influenced by tiktok to some extent. books, music, etc -- if u want people to invest in something, it needs to go viral on tiktok!

the consumerism of capitalism is the cancer and tiktok is the malignant tumor growing at an unprecedented + life-threatening rate <3

Utero Dentata, Negative Returns on Human Capital and Existential Anxiety

I’ve been thinking about that thing Roman said in the S3 finale script about how Shiv’s womb has teeth. I hate that I immediately thought of that urban legend about vaginas that have teeth so that when you fuck someone, it bites your dick off. With that in mind, it was interesting that he didn’t say her vagina has teeth, but her womb. It’s past the sexual part and refers only to the maternal part of reproduction. This means that it wouldn’t really be Tom’s fault if the baby dies in the womb because it would be Shiv’s body that killed it. After that, he also says that whole bit about Tom carrying the baby and breastfeeding it. Of course, this is about their reversed gender dynamic; Shiv is the femalehusband and Tom is the malewife. Although Tom is mocked a bit for that, he’s also positioned as the one who would be able to nurture the baby. Roman is saying that there’s something wrong with Shiv that makes her fundamentally incapable of being a mother and must rely on Tom if the baby is to survive at all. He obviously is insulting Shiv by declaring her currently most valuable asset (to Logan and Tom) as defective.

The fact that it’s specifically Roman talking about Shiv’s utero dentata is significant because he’s recognizing his own lack of virility as the inversion of her “infertility.” It creates a connection between her masculinity and his femininity. By doing this, he is doing to her what she and the rest of the family do to him; he accuses her of having something fundamentally wrong with her right down to her body, but unlike them, he doesn’t deny his own “wrongness.” Roman presenting this as an essential part of Shiv points out how little control she actually has over her own body or more precisely, that her body is able to betray her. Betrayal by the body is something we see all over Succession from Logan’s UTI to Kendall shitting the bed to Roman being unable to get it up. No matter what they want, their bodies defy them. This forces them to confront, at least in the moment, their own humanity or rather, mortality— something that is incredibly vile to them.

Before that, they’re talking about Logan’s sperm and Roman refers to it as his “hellseed.” It’s the opposite of “sacred seed,” or what Connor, a no-fap advocate, might call “good seed.” Connor’s opposition to masturbation was talked about in the context of his new goal to be president; he called it one of the “great dangers” along with usury. To frame onanism and usury as the two biggest threats to America is a bit Ezra Pound of him, which is to say it’s a bit antisemitic. Whether or not Connor is aware of this is another thing because unless it was stated outright in his “readings,” the antisemitism is (thinly) disguised in the form of anti-usury. In the context of racialism, the sin of masturbation is tied to the survival of the race. This means the sperm of their race/ethnic group is viewed as a finite resource that must be spent wisely to ensure successful growth, not unlike capital. Every drop counts and to waste it, to invest in the wrong things or on nothing at all is contributing to the extinction of the race. In Abrahamic religions, it’s a sin because it’s wasting the “seed” in vain. It’s selfishly indulging in earthly pleasures while ignoring the true purpose of sex which procreation. It is also seen as a type of infanticide because the sperm is what contains the life of the child.

Connor taking this position in politics reflects how he still thinks of business and family as the same despite being exiled from Waystar. This being paired with usury only makes this more apparent. It fits in with Connor’s American libertarian politics because the value of the sperm is relative to it’s usefulness so, it places responsibility on the individual to use it in the correct way. Connor’s relationship with Willa was founded on a financial transaction. By funding her career as a playwright, he decided that this relationship is a long-term investment. Connor sees having children in the same way. This shows how he understands his place in the family. He sees himself and his mother as a failed investment on Logan’s part. It’s how he justifies Logan’s abandonment of him and his desire to invest in new children with a new wife. He concludes that Logan is trying for another baby because of both the Macca root smoothie and the fact that the new children he invested in turned out to be a huge loss for him. By running for president and getting married, Connor is determined to “turn a profit” for his father. As an adult, his father does give him actual money and he doesn’t want to be a waste of his father’s hard-earned money (and sperm).

Roman seeing his dad’s sperm as “hellseed,” Shiv’s uterus as cannibalistic, his own dick as being defective and even Kendall’s parenting as shitty says that he sees his family as having an inherent “wrongness” in their abilities to reproduce. Ever the nihilist, it reflects Roman’s bleak outlook on life. While he wouldn’t actively attempt suicide, he could do it passively by fasting, by destroying relationships and by baiting other people into hurting him. Ideally, however, Roman probably wishes he were never born because to live life, at least in this physical realm, is a punishment in itself. If he could go back in time,  he’d try and convince his mother to abort him. This might be the first time we see Roman express anything close to resentment toward Logan. It’s still in this typically Roman self-victimising way, but it is placing blame on Logan for doing something to him that he’s clearly unhappy about. The idea of Logan trying to impregnate Kerry triggers existential anxiety in Roman. He was jealous of Kerry before Connor suggested this, but it’s Kerry’s ability to reproduce and the possibility of a new heir that pushes it over the edge. Since Logan has been forcibly made aware of his failure in heterosexual masculinity, Roman fears that his dad will no longer see use for him. He isn’t an adequate partner or heir nor can he reproduce. For him to want to “kill that baby,” shows that this anxiety is deep enough that he is willing to commit what could likely be viewed by Logan as a sin against him. He would be trying to interfere with God’s (Logan’s) will. When Roman comes to his father with only his love as a token, he is, in part, asking for an answer to his own existence. He wants to know that he was born to love and be loved because he sees no other value in his life.

...I have such complicated feelings about the Anger Management ship. This isn't to say that I don't like the ship (I do, I actually adore it) but I happen to be very nit-picky about the execution and dynamics that I'm always super hesitant to read new fics with these two as the main pairing.

(If you plan on reblogging this, please do not put the crossover fandoms or the ship name in the tags. This is a rambling essay, not a purposefully antagonistic vent about other people's writing style or preferences. I KNOW not everyone likes or dislikes the same things that I do, and just as they are due their own opinion, so am I.)

To be completely transparent, I don't think Jazz would like Red Hood. Oh, I think she'd absolutely adore Jason, but I don't think she would like Red Hood. I honestly believe that if she found out Jason was Red Hood sometime later into their relationship, she would want to take a step back and think things through. This isn't to say that she would break up with him because of it, or hate him suddenly now that the truth is out, but it's one thing to find out your boyfriend is secretly an anti-hero vigilante, and it's another thing to find out your boyfriend is secretly a crime-lord who beheaded EIGHT PEOPLE and stuffed their severed heads into DUFFEL BAGS to send a message to Batman. It's one thing to find out your boyfriend doesn't get along with his family, and it's a whole other thing to learn your boyfriend beat his adopted brother brutally and PAINTED THE WALLS WITH HIS BLOOD without ever meeting him first and based on information he hadn't even found out firsthand but was given to him by a woman that was purposefully stoking the flames of his anger and hatred to make things easier for her son.

She knows Jason a little more personally now, so she's aware of the layers to his character and history so she has a better understanding of what his motivations might/could be, but that doesn't lessen how HUGE of a shift in perspective this could be for her. It'd be worse if Jason hasn't expressed any regret for what he did to Tim, especially considering Red Hood supposedly protects kids but went along and beat Tim so viciously anyways. You can't even use the excuse that Tim is a 'child soldier', when Jason is just as willing and ready to use that same excuse when he gripes about how terribly Bruce treated him or Bruce's supposed lack of grief and regret over losing Jason. It doesn't mean what he went through was any less terrible, but it does make him a hypocrite.

I feel like they would have to steadily overcome this obstacle, and I do honestly believe that Jazz would implore him to get therapy to help him, and if he didn't agree, she would be seriously concerned about their relationship. Seeing as Jason has also inherited Bruce's miscommunication (or general lack of communication) and poor coping mechanisms.

Of course a lot of this could be outright avoided or fixed in the background, but I don't find that it happens a lot? Or, if it does, it's never properly explained? I can understand if it's a short fic and all that background plot points can't be properly addressed in the short amount of time, but when it's a longer fic I always feel like it's a missed opportunity NOT to have and/or show more growth in Jason as he learns what a civilian relationship (hell, a healthy relationship in general) is actually LIKE after losing so much of his life to his need for revenge.

Which kind of leads up to my next point... I'm very nit-picky when Jazz is shown to be super BAMF and always ready to throw down. Jazz has always been badass to me, but I always felt like her type of strength always relied more on her intelligence, sharp wit, and most of all her compassion. She's a good shot, and she's always willing to step in physically if she feels like it's necessary, but violence has never been her first choice. She wants to be a psychologist/psychiatrist - for her to constantly be willing to roll up her sleeves and punch someone out is not conductive to a working and trusting relationship between a doctor and their patient. Or between most people, in general.

(Another thing! I feel like Jazz would believe that people deserve second chances. While she might agree that someone like the Joker might be beyond saving (something she might agree to with great hesitancy and reluctance), she wants to believe so badly that people can change for the better. This could be caused and/or linked to her childhood, and how her parents never spent time on her and Danny but she was desperate to fix their family. Which could be the reason she got into psychology in the first place. For her to admit that some people can never change, would be like Jazz admitting that she wasted the early formative years of life trying to fix a broken home all for nothing. This, however, would cause more contention between her and the Red Hood. Can you tell I don't think they'd get along?)

However, this sort of personality and behavior is very reminiscent of someone else. That person of course being Danny himself. Danny is the one that's often throwing himself into fights and roughing it up before thinking twice. When he grows up, he might learn to rein it back in and think things through more, but I find it strange that the exact opposite it applied to Jazz's character when she has already succeeded with a balance of careful forethought and affirmative action. I like when there are differences between their characters, I like how they differentiate and balance each other out. I like how it shows their opposing thought processes and principles.

This does lead me to my next point... Liminal!Jazz is very hit and miss for me. Giving her ghostly qualities not only takes away some of the things that make her unique to Danny (it sucks too because I adore how Jazz is so sympathetic and tries so hard to understand what Danny is struggling through, it really shows how supportive Jazz is and has always tried her best to be). It particularly irks me when it's explained that this is caused by ectocontamination when Danny supposedly never had those same ectocontamination effects BEFORE his Accident? When he was similarly contaminated for all of his life as well. Technically speaking, their parents should be contaminated too in order to make the reasoning consistent. But most of all it... and I hate to say this, but I feel like it cheapens Danny's tragic death. Danny went through SO MUCH and suffered excruciating pain and now whenever he looks in the mirror he will never see the same human kid he'd once been, while Jazz didn't have to suffer the same thing or even CLOSE TO IT and still got those same physical characteristics. ESPECIALLY when the reasoning feels hollow. And even I hate how I can't get into the concept because I've seen the headcanon utilized in some pretty inventive ways! Nonetheless it still bothers me and I see it so much that I find that I have to outright avoid so many fics to get away from it. The premise of the fic itself might interest me but the concept bothers me THAT MUCH that I just can't.

And a lot of this is connected to how Jazz is so often characterized or shown in conjunction to Danny. De-Aged!Danny fics where Jazz takes care of him are really cute- god knows I love a good baby!Danny story- but I feel like these fic concepts don't give Jazz the opportunity to shine on her own. When I heard people complained about where Danny was in Elizabehta_Beilschmidt's Friendly neighborhood vigilante (and yes I know what her @ is, but I am PURPOSEFULLY not tagging her), I was honestly SHOCKED. I loved that Danny wasn't really around. That might sound harsh, but I came for a Jazz/Jason fic where these two were the main characters. And who we, naturally, should spend the most time with.

Most of all, Jazz's whole personality and life should not be based on babysitting/caring for her little brother. Especially in a lot of these fics when Danny is an adult of his own. Danny has been shown to take care of himself even at fourteen, if he's eighteen or even in his twenties, that shouldn't have suddenly changed. Jazz should not have been forced to take care of her younger sibling to begin with, for her to be forced or feel obligated to continue and spend more of her life unnecessarily worrying and fussing over her brother is not fair to her. I hate to separate them, but their lives take them in different directions and it's not healthy or fair for them to curb their wants and dreams to satisfy their desire (and perhaps even codependency) to stick together. It's both adorable and heartbreaking in kid!Danny fics to see how she continues to hold strong and try to do her best for him, but she already spent so much of her life doing that. Let her have time for herself and her interests and her cute boyfriend GODDAMMIT!

So yeah. I have Complicated TM feelings about Anger Management. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

2 3 7 11 & 12?

‼ theres some suggestive to downright implicative shit going on in this one (due to the nature of the first question) watch out ‼

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

it deleted my entire thang i have to type it.again hold on

ok this is a tough one. because i have like. insane people thoughts on faust guilty gear and sexuality mostly revolving around his canonical masochism and how that intersects with his atonement complex and his profession.

I Do Not Think Faust Tops In The Ways People Think He Would, Usually. theres been an exception or two where i understand fully where OP is coming from and it feels like they understand both why hes desirable and how he would wish to be desired rather than just wanting a size difference “”monsterfucker qualifier“” character to jump after. but these are exceptions in an already rare enough situation.

I Think He COULD Top If He Wanted To Though. talking pre-strive i imagine he could be caring about it but i think sex with him in a more traditional sense would lack closeness. i think there are some things you can only strip bare from him if you get a little weird. i have conflicting thoughts on the common placement of him in a sort of medicalplay or “sex as treatment” scenario where i think the only way it would be Truly intimate and not just him using his body as an extension of his profession without much care to his own physicality and such would be like. I don't know bro you have to get a little weird with him! am i even allowed to talk about fausts canonical masochism on tumblr dotcom.

TLDR there should be more serious character exploration of pre-strive faust and how he expresses himself as a vessel for servicing others and how that interlocks with his self-proclaimed “shameful” masochistic desires and the freedom that only actual selfishness in this regard can give him. and there should also be more exploration of sexuality with post-strive faust because You motherfuckers cannot be that afraid of him. If you already want his kidney scraper so goddamn bad you can care for him a little bit more.

What happened I blacked out.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you’ve seen on tumblr

if this was on twitter (so many people are weird about faust there) or ao3 (i dont want to ask triptych_triptych_triptych why they're so mad that guilty gear doesnt show faust and may experiencing anti-asian racism as a result of 9/11, which did not happen in the guilty gear universe, because id rather not read another word of their pseudointellectual nonsense parading their lack of media literacy and completely unnecessary self-flagellation as Real Transsexual Art) i would have perhaps worse things to send but here you go

this post was so long and disgustingly descriptive while saying pretty much nothing at all. when i sent this to my friends to complain about i blur-stretched everything past the first couple lines in mspaint because i think looking at it unfiltered in the future (like now) would make me literally fucking tremble with rage and i have forgotten OPs url. i hope i blocked them but i have the memory of an ant. you only really need the first few lines to know this post is insanely bad. and this isnt a dig on it for being a Sex Post. i just think if youre the kind of rinse and repeat nothingburger blog whose entire outwards appearance is that of a postironic "im not like the other channies" 4channer who thinks theyre hot shit because theyre over 20 and Not Afraid To Say Slurz you probably shouldnt touch guilty gear because without love it cannot be seen and you desperately need to find love for yourself before you touch ky kiske again. ok

7. what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

i really dont want to say bidget. i love bidget. bidget is a reminder of self love and discovery, of living and growth and understanding and all that shit. i look at her in-game or i listen to the town inside me and i think about that time daisuke said smth in that interview that amounted to “i make a lot of guilty gear characters because i want underrepresented people to see a vision of happiness for themselves“.

but oh my god nobody that Posts Her seems to get it. all i see are the same tired memes and using her as just boring-ass iconography. claiming that she SHOULD be more popular than the Mean Brown Protagonist because shes a transgender white woman who has a side-part in the main plot. like holy shit im SO grateful shes here and that They Fixed Her but oh my god dude ive genuinely heard more than one person say that they were glad that she seemed like the protagonist more than sol.

11. number of fandom-related words you’ve filtered

my only filtered tags are Goncharov (just didnt find it funny but not in an offensive way and wanted to let everyone have their fun) and umineko spoilers but back when i was a moreso mentally unwell teenager i had like every variant of zato-1 muted that i could possible come up with. i would say i dont know what was wrong with me but i was like 17 and going through some things.

12. the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them

I THOUGHT YOU GUYS LOVED TWINKS WHERES THE ADORATION AND CARE FOR MY GOOD FRIEND ZAPPA GUILTY GEAR!! not only is he, on a surface and aesthetic level, sooooooo kyute but i think hes genuinely very gripping. he had to be stronger for himself than i think he shouldve ever had to be and i kinda wish we got a light novel chronicling him trying to dispel the ghosts before landing his government job or something like that.

I honestly don’t get why antis, Rinis or PWs say the things that they do. One of things in particular, “Ricky was a bad boyfriend to Nini, so therefore he’d treat Gina no different.” First of all, he has completely different experiences with both girls so he can’t love them both for the exact same reasons. Also, Ricky’s lack of growth in S1 with Nini versus his growth with Gina in S3. I mean, you can have romantic feelings for 2 or more people simultaneously. Who would’ve thought? smh

The amount of PWs who seem to actively want Ricky to treat Gina badly is absolutely wild to me (& honestly, concerning). It feels like they resent Gina for not choosing their Fave White Boy™ EJ, to the point where they think she should suffer for recognizing her own worth and breaking up with him, after coming to terms with the fact that he could not & would not give her the love that she wants & deserves. They want Gina to be punished for what they perceive as her having “wronged” EJ in some sense (I won’t even get into the racist connotations associated with that — but they’re there, in big, flashing neon letters).

& on top of that, I can guarantee you nearly every rini/PW who claims Ricky will somehow treat Gina badly 1. Thinks EJ was a model boyfriend, despite the fact that he lied to & repeatedly ignored Gina + her wants/needs — making her feel like she was asking too much of him or that she (being a girlfriend for the first time where EJ was/is much more experienced) had done something wrong. & 2. They’ll jump at the chance to say that Ricky has only ever/will only ever love Nini and that they should’ve gotten back together.

So, basically, Ricky was a bad boyfriend to Nini and that’s why he shouldn’t be with Gina, yet they want him to be with Nini, the person they claim he treated so poorly? The level of hypocrisy is insane.

& implying that Ricky was a “bad boyfriend” to Nini and, because of that, he’ll be a “bad boyfriend” to Gina suggests that every relationship is the same, that you can’t possibly be a good partner to someone when it didn’t work out with the person you dated before them. If that were true, no one would ever be able to fall in love more than once. We’d all be doomed to either spend the rest of our lives with the person we were with at 16/17 or spend it alone. What a miserable existence that would be (at least for those of us that want romantic love). People change and who they love is often a reflection of that, as it should be.

Ricky isn’t solely at fault for the fact that he & Nini didn’t work out, either. They didn’t break-up just because he was unsupportive or because he was too clingy (two things he has never once been to Gina, by the way — even when things were strained between them while he was with Nini, he complemented her BATB dance routine & that continued into s3, where he was constantly in awe of her talent, encouraged her & told her he was proud of her. & in contrast to being overbearing with Nini, Ricky gave Gina space, no questions asked, when she made it clear she needed time away from him, mid-s2).

Ricky & Nini also broke up because they couldn’t communicate with each other or understand what the other needed. Nini, despite knowing that Ricky hates change & has abandonment issues, stemming from his mom moving to Chicago & starting a new life without him, waits until the very last second to tell him she’s moving to Denver. Oh, and she tells him in front of everyone, having apparently learned nothing from the last time she sprung some big news on Ricky in a very public forum a whole season prior. Then, when Ricky wants to talk to her about the parallels between “The Rose Song” and their relationship, she tries to convince him the song isn’t about him, even though she knows it is, and basically runs away from Ricky to avoid talking about it. Meanwhile, Ricky & Gina have, on several separate occasions, sought each other for advice & comfort. They tell each other things they don’t tell anyone else. Communication is their strong suit. 

& I know some people could/would argue, “but what about when they weren’t on speaking terms during 2b?” to which I would say that, when you give someone the room they need to process their own emotions, alone, because you understand that that’s what they need in the moment, that’s a form of communication, too. The problem (or one of the problems, among many) with Ricky & Nini is that they couldn’t understand what each other needed.

My point is not to suggest that the breakup was Nini’s fault specifically, or that I think she’s a bad person for treating Ricky the way she did, but to say that Nini was as much of a bad girlfriend to Ricky as Ricky was a bad boyfriend to Nini. That’s what happens when you try to force a relationship with someone you’ve outgrown. & just because Ricky & Nini have outgrown each other, it doesn’t mean that they didn’t love each other and it doesn’t mean that either of them aren’t deserving of the chance to be able to grow with someone who is better suited for the person that they are now, who makes them the happiest, most-fulfilled, best version of themselves — the way that Gina does for Ricky & vice versa.

You’re so right, you can love two people at once. I’m sorry if that upsets #them, but that’s the way it is — just because he loved Nini, doesn’t mean he ever stopped having feelings for Gina. Feelings aren’t simple, love isn’t simple. & while Nini will always be Ricky’s first love, his love for Gina is different, better. It’s healthy and it’s selfless & to suggest he’s not deserving of that love because his past relationship (one that he’s learned a lot from, mind you) didn’t work out is…well, it’s stupid. 

At the end of the day, Ricky treated Gina with nothing but love, kindness, respect & admiration when they weren’t dating and we’ve been given no reason to believe he won’t continue to do that now that they are dating (the only difference is that now he can kiss her while he does). #They can stay mad about it.

Hi! I really enjoyed reading memento vivere after seeing it here. When I went to find similar things to it through the hermione: illness tag only a handful popped up so maybe I’m looking in the wrong place. I enjoyed that hermione and Draco’s relationship is tentative, that she sought him out for help, and he’s the one to be healing her, but I also liked that they’re squirreled away from her friends for a while without it really being anti- anyone despite her relationship with Ron falling out. The presence of narcissa and Theodore nott are an awesome bonus, too. Could you recommend something similar or point me to a tag that would help me find one please?

Try these:

Regression - WritexAboutxMe - E, WIP - re·gres·sion: return to a former or less developed state. 16 years have passed since the Battle of Hogwarts and the Wizarding world has gained some semblance of peace. Draco Malfoy is no longer the hot-headed boy he was during the war, but has matured and faced his dark past. However, Draco’s growth is tested when occult-like murders rock the DMLE and he is asked to return to England to assist in solving them. Hermione Granger is still haunted by the ghosts of her past. She works for the DMLE as a rune and ward specialist, but she harbors resentment towards the Ministry of Magic for its lack of progress following Voldemort’s defeat. What happens when Draco and Hermione are assigned as partners to solve the murders? Will they be able to place their differences aside and catch the culprit before another Dark Lord emerges?

Haunted, Hollow, Hopeful, Cursed - HoneyOvercast - M, 56 chapters, Words: 267,306 - “Pansy, I’m still not seeing what this has to do with me. You all clearly know more about the curse than I do. So what could I…” “Granger…” Pansy interrupted. “We need you because aside from Astoria, who is worsening with time…” Pansy had to take a breath and steel herself at the words before she could continue. Astoria gave Pansy a brief nod and squeeze of the hand. “You’re the only person who has ever survived it.”

Ceremonials Chapter 2: Your Heart Is the Only Place That I Call Home - HeyJude19 - E - no summary.

Necessary Evil By: CourtingInsanity - M, 32 chapters - Hermione Granger is a case worker for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Draco Malfoy has just been released from Azkaban nearly five years since the end of the Final Battle. Throw in a vindictive boss, an ailing mother and a common goal, and you’ve got a recipe for a slow burn Dramione. Rated M for later chapters. 

House Elves, Office Etiquette, and the Other Indifferences of Draco Malfoy - kale0914 - M, 26 chapters - With a bit of luck (and blackmail) Hermione has become the youngest department head at the ministry. Her dreams of house elf equality would be coming to fruition- if it weren’t for the mysterious disappearances, stolen artifacts, and even darker discoveries. To Hermione’s great displeasure, she must enlist the help of the only available auror. He’s impolite, unprofessional, and entirely indifferent to her cause. Can they put their differences aside, or will Draco Malfoy live up to his reputation?

Bone Mortar by mightbewriting - M, 6 chapters - Draco clenched his teeth, forcing sharp, shallow breaths through his nose as he ripped open the door to his usual lecture hall only to find—someone at his desk. Well, he supposed it was technically less his desk and more the desk as he didn’t actually own this particular classroom. But since he’d taught in it for the last four semesters he at least felt like he’d earned a sort of common law ownership. The woman—presently possessed by what looked like a semi-sentient mass of curls atop her head—looked up, eyes widening before she graced the space between them with a kind smile that could cut through any density of grit or dust or grime. The sort of simple smile that could pulverize rocks: be them buried in the earth or caged behind ribs. He stared at her, belatedly and painfully aware that his mouth had curled into a sneer mostly without his consent. [In which two otherwise intelligent and dignified people fight over a classroom and realize they are very, very into each other.]

A Dangerous Collection - Lia_Redrose - E, 34 chapters, Words: 208,277 - Eight years after Voldemort's defeat, Draco Malfoy has left England for good. He has become a potioneer and works in a Potion Shop in Florence. He thinks he has done with the past, until one day a famous girl with messy curls and curious eyes storms inside and asks for a cure. The words and the newborn smile died as the woman turned to face him. Her mouth opened and her facial features became confused and astonished. “Malfoy?” There were surely some deities - three at least - that hated him and conjured for that to happen, because there was no other explanation to what was happening to him. It was a catastrophe. A catastrophe Draco couldn’t escape unless he bolted out of the shop to never come back again, which was something he couldn’t do. That’s why he cleared his throat and proceeded to greet his customer with a simple and clear “Granger.”

The Assignment - Nightbloom7 - E, 17 chapters - Cursed objects are causing death and destruction. When the objects themselves are found to hold no trace of Dark Magic, the Department of Magical Artefacts is stumped. Draco Malfoy leant back in his chair and crossed his arms in bafflement. “And your professional assessment is that the best way of gathering evidence is sending Granger and I together to a sex club?” “Worried about your reputation, Malfoy?” Hermione asked flatly. He scoffed. “Hardly. If I were outed for going to an expensive parisian sex den it would be considered very much on brand.” "That’s why it’s so important we’re believable as a couple. We should talk about touching,” Hermione insisted. "Touching,” Draco repeated, alarm bells going off in his mind. "As in how much of it you’re okay with, where…" "Casual touching,“ he nodded. "But also, passionate touching,” Granger pressed. Merlin’s beard. Draco was quickly coming to the realisation that he was likely to regret this.

-Lisa

Hey, give this FE8 fan hack a try :)

So recently, Rengor told me about this FE8 fan hack that I decided to give a try, and it was WELL worth it.

Made by Scraiza, Souls of the Forest is a fan hack of Sacred Stones that tells a completely new story with all new maps of its own. It’s still under development, but it’s in a very good place as of the time of this writing, with one of its two planned story routes completed.

So fun features?

It’s got a bow lord (they’ll have customizable features in a later version, but as of the time of this writing Beryl can only be youthful guy), while your Jagen is the troubled Valkyrie Rakel.

The game gets unabashedly busted, with items both early and great having seriously high power behind them. Foot units especially tend to make out like bandits to compensate for their lower move and lack of access to Canto.

Though that’s not to say the mounted units are completely screwed, because they have the Tellius version of Canto.

There’s also holdable items that grant hefty stat boosts for being held, and staffs that boost the damage or durability of the units they’re used on. You also pick up multiple Hammerne (though they can only be used on weapons in this hack) and Warp staffs for extra fun.

Let that sink in. You get two mounted staffer dancers, and a unit with Xane’s gimmick!

Rest assured, the gameplay is balanced around these features and you’ll have to use all the tools in your arsenal to come out on top. You’ll just have a lot of fun doing it with crazy numbers in the meanwhile.

Effective weapons and the weapon triangle play a larger role, and as such, both have upgraded versions, as do Brave weapons. There’s even weapons that exist to impart stat bonuses to the holder if they have S rank in the given weapon type.

Speaking on the Weapon Triangle, it’s made stronger in this hack, modifying damage by +-4 and hit rate by +-15%. Reaver weapons double this modifier, and Reaver vs Reaver combat doubles it again. Since effective damage in the GBA games scale with being at triangle advantage or disadvantage, using a Reaver weapon to place an effective weapon at disadvantage will harshly reduce the damage dealt. Then you get Reversal weapons, which reverse the triangle and have double the impact on it that Reavers do.

There’s also other smaller quality of life mechanics, such as a warning indicator for effective or killer weapons in enemy possession, an indicator for when thieves will open chests or brigands will sack villages, an indicator for when enemies will drop items, and an indicator when enemies have an item to steal. Vulneraries and Elixirs are always dropped, so steals are almost exclusively master seals or stat boosters.

Although there’s a LOT of units in the game, Scraiza did an excellent job of giving them fascinating stat lines. For example there’s Troy here who joins as a Brigand with capped Power, Speed, and Luck, and high growths in the first two stats and high hp, but with basically zilch in either bases or growths for Skill, Def, or Res. Then there’s Emma, the tank thief, or Tero with his shitty bases but ability to endless promote while also having high stat caps and the ability to use weapons and items locked to armor units, or Nuar with her 0 across the board bases but access to unique prf status staves (the only ones in the game in fact!) and growths that hover around 200% in each stat.

And you’d do well to train a pretty good selection of units, because the final few maps have some very high deploy caps!

The hack has three levels of difficulty (it’s balanced around the highest, Lunatic) and has built-in customization options for Reverse mode, Anti-Reverse mode, Fixed growths (meaning no RNG upon level up), 0% growths, and several more options.

The game very much follows the design principles of New Mystery of the Emblem’s highest difficulty, meaning difficulty is more geared toward enemies being placed with devilish precision and not by simply throwing a lot of them at the map or giving them huge stats.

DS-era save points also dot nearly every map. (You can see one in the first screenshot I posted). Also returning from the DS era are generic replacements for your units if too many of them die that you can’t fill your deployment slots.

Though the story and writing are not the focus of the mod, the story is reasonably engrossing anyways, and tells the tale of the soldiers of the Treuran Empire as they try to bring peace and security to a brutal, hard land.

The characters are all very well-written, the villains included. Supports are not yet completed, but work on the hack is ongoing and Scraiza promises to have them in a future version. There’ll also be an alternate story route in future versions of the game.

In terms of representation, no classes are gender-locked. You can have male Pegasus Knights and Troubadours or female Fighters and Pirates. Female generic enemies are also frequently present, as are female bosses and major villains.

Some characters are explicitly LGBT+, and there’s even a weapon that can only be used by gender nonconforming characters. Genderlocked weapons do exist, but with a twist in that some women can use the supposedly male-only Mars tome (such as Aenny who finds the idea of throwing fireballs cool enough to call herself a tomboy) and some men can use the apparently female-only Ladyblade (like Steel who’s so insanely dedicated to the blade that he’ll become whatever the sword he’s holding requires). But the real fun behind them is they’re locked to the UNIT, not to the CLASS, so you can give a swordsman the Mars tome to let them hit at range, or an archer girl the Ladyblade to let her defend herself up close.

So yeah, all in all, Souls of the Forest is a delightfully (in many ways absurdly) fun fan hack and well worth giving a ghost! It can be found here:

https://feuniverse.us/t/fe8-fire-emblem-souls-of-the-forest/4300

And have fun!

it is vitally important that Sloan and Don exist

And I know that is true for me because I had an overwhelming urge to log in and leave myself a record of my sudden re-obsession. Because it's been 3 days and I already can't remember what reminded me of them in the first place.

Cassaravi's Counting Paths is a fantastic fanvid btw. I'd never heard the song but am growing more and more attached, I can see why it's used in vids a lot. Very much Dead Can Dance around the edges, I'll probably analyze it in a different post. I want to do something with it. And I really just want to write something that I can find the click and follow the beats. Everything I try has been uneven at best for quite a while.

So Sloan and Don. I do't know what the original intentions were for Sloan. I know Don evolved quite quickly from the initial plans. But some of the absolute best of Sorkin comes out of stuff surprising him and him being very wise and running with it. Donna/Josh ftw? I think because once the characters, actors, interactions take on a life of their own, he just writes them and great stuff happens. Otherwise his attempts at (non established relationships) are forced and the characters are defined by that, which is so anti-Sorkin that I'm too disappointed to have bought the thing so I could rewatch at leisure.

That's actually why I meh'd on The Newsroom quite a bit. It followed logically from everything he'd done (I adore Sports Night and The West Wing and have seen both many times), with swearing, and a hard left into a pond with the absurd characters. I actually like Mac, though it's sometimes hard to buy her as a real person. I hate Maggie and Jim because why are they there? Maggie especially, because, hilariously, she seems to serve as Don's girlfriend, when he was supposed to be her boyfriend. She's not great at her job when the hallmark of Sorkin is that everyone IS FANTASTIC AT THEIR JOB, that is the point. If they aren't, there's a reason, and the reason generally is because in his world, if you're inept it's because you are being willfully ignorant.

They're like Sorkin decided to write a different genre and should have tried writing a few shorts.

In this context, Sloan and Don are nicely fleshed out characters who I buy as real people with flaws, who are not written as star crossed lovers because there's no need, they actually fit together. Sorkin writes them as friends and the falling in love happens because sometimes that happens, and leads to the bestest relationships.

Don does a lot of the heavy lifting. I like the lowkey gender reversal, where, despite his fear of commitment, Don is actually a pretty emotional guy who is so straightforwards that intimacy just happens when he really cares about someone, and whose eyes show everything he's feeling. Who learns to trust his gut and shake off his jade armour. Sloan is a nerd lacking human skills, who starts tripping over the curb where intellect abuts emotions, and is comfortable with Don being there to catch her, help her up, or be the thing she lands on.

And the writing uses their relationship to highlight their growth individually and with the rest of the crew, a little sparkle around the edges gives it that littl..e something extra.

When Sloan is having a nutty, it is founded in logic (a logic) and the way she approaches the world. Which is why she doesn't feel ridiculous. And Don is a great foil because his sarcasm and emotionality means that he can bounce back whatever she needs, and what will connect with her.

It's super cute that Sloan asks a stranger (I think) if it would be too forwards to ask a man to coffee. I don't think she's ever asked a man out in her life, which leads to a lot of superficiality, and she likes it that way. But not really because when naked pictures are posted, she hunkers down in Don's office, where she's guaranteed to not be alone - even if she's "used to [it]" Also useful is her statement that you can't tell that bad guys are bad guys - in contrast with her being dead certain that Don isn't a bad guy. Maybe it's like how if you're worried you're crazy, you're probably not. If you think you're a bad guy, you're not. Not really.

Only one set of clips I've found had the scene where post "not a bad guy" speech, Sloan lays down a conversation and eye contact embargo. With, of course, a logical response to Don's fair point that the plan isn't realistic. Sloan demonstrates both self-awareness and also the sense of comfort she has with Don. She lays out her embarrassment, she doesn't immediately avoid him forever. Meanwhile I can very much picture her getting into a mortifying situation (especially if emotions are involved) and spending the rest of her life ducking around corners to avoid them. Yeah, working in the same offices poses a problem, but I don't believe that is what motivated her laying it out for him.

My first impression is that was her tacitly admitting she revealed too much, accepts the rejection, and would like to live pretending that never happened. This despite the fact that her belief they'd never see each other if she quit knocked up against his conviction that they would.

Bedtime but head canon that Don knew it wasn't her who signed the book, because he knows what her handwriting and signature looks like. Which is exactly the sort of irony Sorkin likes. I hope we saw the counterfeit book in his office somewhere - once Sloan found out about the forgery, her obsession with righting the wrong would make it valuable to him beyond making her feel good and not embarrased.

What is your female characters pet peeves? How do you think female characters should be written? And do you think people often minimise violence against women when it is subtle or passive?

One of my most reblogged posts on tumblr is quote by writer Foz Meadows, about the lack of redemption arcs for female anti-heroines. So that's definitely something I'd like to see more of, for instance. It doesn't mean that I think you should never write iredeemable female villains though. Firstly, because "should" is always a tricky word in the context of art, wouldn't want to sound dogmatic, etc. Secondly, because I don't generally mind cartoon villains; sometimes that's just verissimilitude.

Sure, I usually prefer multidimensional, dynamic characters with complicated motivations, drawn in a nuanced, psychologically plausible manner. But there's also a place in story-telling for cartoon villains and Mary Sues, broad archetypes and blank slates for audiences to project onto. Characters don't have to be relatable, redeemable, admireable, complicated, dynamic, nuanced, plausible, active, memorable, unique, not even interesting. The interesting thing about a piece of fiction doesn't have to be a character. Not every piece of writing has to be character driven. There is no way any individual character could be written that I would consider categorically wrong.

One does notice patterns though, some of which I'm not too fond of. The dearth of redemption arcs for female anti-heroines for instance. Or how the prototypical Blorbo on Tumblr is probably male.

A Blorbo is not necessarily a protagonist, or even a character with a lot of agency, lines, scenes. A Blorbo can play a quite minor role in the source material. The whole thing about the Blorbo is that the fans do most of the work themselves. They sift the canon for every crumb of info, no matter how meagre the yield, and create the most lavish meals by adding home-grown ingredients. It's an ever repeating miracle at the foot of the mountain, a perfect use-case for the age-old wisdom that a little can go a long way, with a bit of crowd participation, if you know the tricks.

But it doesn't just happen, there are some tricks, and they are, it seems to me, sometimes a bit neglected for female characters. A lazy writer might consider a female character as likelable by default, merely by virtue of not having her do anything overly objectionable. Or they might equip her with all sorts of interesting characteristics on paper, but fail to follow through on show-don't-tell. The biggest issue however, the biggest obstacle on the road to potential blorbo-hood, is being done with creating a character too quickly, letting her remain as the placeholder that was introduced in the first outline.

The important thing about a Blorbo is that you can imagine a life for them beyond the narrative of the source material. They must seem more than a mere plot device, an obstacle for the protagonist to overcome, a victim to avenge, a trophy to win, a provider of exposition, a token to meet a diversity quota.

Of course a lot of writers, in their first outline - if they use an outline - might start with plot devices instead of characters. Ideally these are just placeholders, to be replaced by the actual characters in revision after revision, as their image becomes clearer and clearer in the writer's mind and the organically evolve beyond their initial conception. Some writers say the characters take on a life of their own. I tend to find this too cute by half, implying there's not much agency on part of the writer. But I do think there's a valueable idea in there, the idea that you have to let the process take you beyond your first idea, because let's face, first ideas are often very dull. To allow a character to come alive in that way, there has to be willingness to let them grow beyond the place initally reserved for them by the placeholder, to create that space for growth in your mind, to revise and adjust original plans accordingly.

Some writers won't do that, they'll stick to their initial outline come what may, they have no curiosity for their characters beyond their plot function and they're never going to be my favorites. But not everything has to cater to my preferences, and compelling characters are not the only way to sell a story. That's not really my issue.

My beef is with writers who can apparently make that space for evolution for their male characters, and seem to stick with their first outline when it comes to the female ones. Of course I don't have any conclusive evidence for that, it's just a feeling you get with some characters who seem to remain mere placeholders to the end, there's just never the slightest whiff about them that seems to point beyond a first idea. I think this is a subtle violence already, this lack of curiosity, lack of imagination, lack of willigness to change plans to do a character justice, comittment to keeping a character in their original place. Especially because it's an attitude all too easily transferred to real-life-relationships with women and might trigger a lot of frustration and agression when women fail to serve the function they were assigned at the start.