musing on jotunheim again. as much as i like to talk about the thor movies as self-subverting and critical of imperialism from the beginning (which i stand by, on a thematic level!), the way the jotuns are actually portrayed is uhhh Not Great.

like. recap: they wear very little clothing, they are presented as extremely physically strong and menacing, they have very deep voices and express themselves nonverbally more than asgardians (ie they growl :/), they use ~nature magic~ and blend in with their landscape, they have very strongly distinct facial features from asgardians, and their skin is a bright colour not found among asgardians. this is... looking uncomfortable close to a racial caricature. like if you made the small but vital change of making their skin red instead of blue it would be undeniable. as it stands, it's not quite literally there, but it's got Coding for days.

and on top of that, loki, while he is a twist villain, is definitely portrayed as more sympathetic for having more human features. like... yes, he has fantasy-dwarfism or something like it and is therefore in some ways inherently vulnerable... but his vulnerability is still visually represented through less othered features, which kind of frames the other jotuns as INvulnerable - in comparison to the average asgardian, not just loki himself.

(which is also just... not true. asgardians and jotuns seem to be evenly matched on a physical level. and also the idea that physical strength is the be-all and end-all of power and vulnerability to begin with is Bad. i guess the end corrects this a little: we see jotuns screaming and fleeing the bifrost, frightened, powerless, victimised! but we still only see adult men. loki is the only jotun we see as a child, and we never see a jotun woman. where are the jotuns who aren't warriors or kings?)

also. less important. but. the jotuns do not reflect any existing culture. which, on one hand, is like. great thanks for only putting in a vague racial caricature and not a specific one 👍. but on the other hand. what are you meant to Do. with a human AU loki.

like obviously step one is dialling down the formerly-space racism by a factor of about a hundred lmao. but like even if you do somehow manage to handle his whole deal sensitively... if asgard = scandinavia, what is jotunheim. what IS loki's culture. is he sami? is he white-passing mixed inuit? it's pretty damn significant that jotunheim has its own monarchist + imperialist past and was originally a competitor to asgard, so should he just be, like, a different scandinavian nationality from odin? or maybe russian or something? but then there isn't racism to deal with. potentially some level of linguistic/cultural shame, sure, but no accusations of devil worship, no dehumanisation via race science, etc. nothing quite fits.

or even disregarding AUs, what real-world culture can/should you draw on to flesh out jotunheim, if any? is it inappropriate to do so at all when they're treated SO horrifically and they're also, you know, Blue Fantasy Aliens. or is it erasive to act like scandinavian colonialism is pure fantasy with no real-world implications. OR is it inappropriate to draw on real-world indigenous peoples for a fantasy history that doesn't reflect their actual history very well at all (see above: nothing fits.)

a thought i had recently was that the combination of blue skin, gold body jewellery, and warriors wearing very little clothing actually resembles descriptions of ancient celts (with either tattoos or body paint). and i feel like having some historical basis for jotun warriors, even if it's centuries apart from the viking inspiration of asgard, can maybe slightly improve on what's currently there. but equally, that's still a description from an imperialist (roman) perspective and i'm pretty sure its accuracy is... controversial?

yeah. a conundrum! i have no solutions at present i'm just thinking about it all. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i do think that writers should be aware of the dark topics they're writing about; to me this means that e.g. if you're writing about an abusive relationship, you should know that it is abusive. i don't mean that you need to have a big and important point to make about abuse (especially not a necessarily moralistic one where e.g. the abuser "gets what's coming to them") in order to write it. just like that you should know what you're writing about. otherwise you get batman comics.

if you still have a checkmark you should send $8 a month to the nearest trans woman instead and if you have more than one row of checkmarks we should be able to throw rocks at you in public

shoutout to mianmian and her nameless husband for being the only canon mxtx couple where neither of them died

In contrast to Ulder Ravenguard, I think Gale could bring any of the Origins home as his fiancee and Morena Dekarios would be fine with it.

I am saying this not as a jab against Ulder or even claiming Morena is a better parent than him (we don't know anything about her except her and Gale seem to get along).

I say this solely because if your son gets dumped by a Goddess, has a magical orb that is stuck in his chest, spends a year in a tower refusing to leave, vanishes without a word, and then shows up months later minus said orb AND in a happy relationship? And that person talked him out of blowing himself up for said Goddess and helped him save the world? IDGAF who he brought home as long as they genuinely love him and treat him well.

Women my son is going to Hell for to fix her heart. Not an ideal place for him to be but fuck it, he's getting out of the house, as long as they send post cards.

Former warlock who was cursed by patron and is now either a duke (heck yes) or going to Hell for his bestie and my son is going with. Same as above, sounds great, did you know my son's fiancee can dance.

Warrior from the astral plane going to fight a lich queen? I cannot stress how exciting it is to see him to get out of the house and she can and will carry him to safety, zero objections.

Vampire spawn? A little blood loss is WAY BETTER than the orb situation, just make sure to watch your iron intake son. Eat more spinach.

Former cultist to an evil God? Let bygones be bygones, key word here is former.

Former leader of a cult of an evil god. KEY WORD HERE IS FORMER IT'S FINE.

I have a ride or die headcanon that little Murtagh was obsessed with Morzan’s dragon. He absolutely loved him.

Murtagh sees him often enough from a young enough age that he’s never scared of him. So naturally, he’s absolutely enamored with the huge, beautiful, glittery, fire breathing monster that hangs out outside the house. He’s kept at a distance, but he’s still the dragon’s biggest fan. Murtagh’s very upset to learn that he doesn’t have a name which feels very unfair to him, so he musters up all his creativity and dubs him “Red”.

Morzan doesn’t always travel with his dragon when he leaves the estate, depending on what he needs to do. So sometimes the dragon stays and rests while Morzan is gone. During one such time, when Selena is also away on a mission, a freshly 3 year old Murtagh escapes his nurses and goes to Red. He’s careful at first, testing the waters gently, then getting increasingly close and comfortable with him when Red seems utterly unbothered. He’s no more than an ant next to the dragon’s enormous size. Murtagh is immediately in love, clambering all over him and constantly babbling to him, undeterred by the lack of response.

The servants do eventually find him after a frantic search. Morzan’s dragon doesn’t like any of the staff, so despite letting Murtagh nestle into the crook of his foreleg, he snarls and snaps at anyone who tries to get close enough to retrieve him. The servants are stuck in a grim dilemma, because no one’s willing to test the limits of a gargantuan, irascible dragon, and they don’t have anything to bribe Murtagh with that’s cooler than said dragon, so he refuses to budge. They’re absolutely terrified the dragon will kill him, either inadvertently or not.

After three full days of Murtagh glued to Red’s side, remaining miraculously unsquished, Morzan returns. The servants are in a cold sweat, stuttering and shaking like leaves in a storm as they try to explain that his son is fine, there’s no need for alarm, but there may be just a small issue. He goes to his partner and does with insulting ease what the staff have fruitlessly tried for three days, he steps right in and scoops Murtagh up. He looks completely unkempt and ignoble, dirty and scraped from being outside the whole time, giggling unrepentantly and singing Red’s praises.

To the servants great luck, Morzan finds this all quite amusing. Carrying Murtagh back to the house, he accuses, “Trying to replace me as the dragon Rider, are you?” and Murtagh cries, “Yes! Take me flying!” Morzan says that he will, but it never happens.

Selena is less thrilled when she learns of this, also afraid that the dragon might kill Murtagh in a moment of annoyance. But Murtagh adores him and she can’t reliably keep him away, so she tries to accept the incongruous match. Red doesn’t show any perceptible warmth to him, and yet he makes the effort to keep tabs on him and stops him from doing anything too dangerous. Of course, since the banishing of the names stunted his mind, the dragon doesn’t have any nuanced opinion of Murtagh, but he can recognize that his little ant feels incapable of malice and he comes to like Murtagh in the way he can. Learning of Red’s death on top of the loss of both his parents utterly devastates Murtagh.

After a little while in Uru’baen, Tornac asks Murtagh which parent he was closer to, and Murtagh tells him Morzan’s dragon. Tornac takes a very long, very strained breath, thinking Oh dear gods help me I have so much fucking work to do.

it's insane to me that the chibnall era of dr who gets treated, both by people who love it and by people who hate it, as like. radically progressive. when it is arguably the most conservative the show has ever been (relative to the political climate in which it was airing)

what was that writers room even like. i'm imagining something like

"now how should we handle this scene between our two characters of color that we've sent to 1950s georgia"

"let's have one character look another in the eyes and say to his face "oi not this cop" after he says he as a black man gets stopped by cops more than his white friends"

"jerry you fucking genius. here are my keys. go to my house and fuck my wife."

thinking about moon knight having marc call steven the best superpower he's ever had during a really emotional moment and how that show handled DID better than just about any piece of media I've ever seen and. I'm sobbing actually. they equated his neurodivergence with being the greatest part of him after marc had spent so long trying to hide his DID out of shame. and maybe that sounds like bordering on glorification but it really wasn't. because they made it so obvious that what marc meant was that steven kept him ALIVE and that's the most he could ever ask for and anyway. whatever whatever it's fine

for real, we need to tear down Confederate monuments and replace them with Sailor Moon and Pokemon ones

astarion is so pro woman I love him. when lae'zel went against vlaakith astarion said "good for her" and when I told lorroakan I wouldnt hand over the nightsong astarion said "we should tell aylin that lorroakan is hunting her. she has a right to know. also, she'll want to cave his skull in and, honestly, I would not mind seeing that" I love him

dead strawhat! booo dead strawhat!! 😂

he is so damn MEAN. she already wasnt hiding that she cares about luffy A LOT you didnt have to test her 😭😭

[rant bc I read a really bad kuzu/peko fic, it’s an old fic so don’t fucking witch-hunt for it]

Can we stop writing Peko being unremorseful over killing Mahiru? Why did I have to read THREE SEPARATE FICS where Peko didn’t feel the need to reconcile with Mahiru WHEN SHE LITERALLY APOLOGIZE AT THE END OF THE SECOND TRIAL?

Why is the only fic where Peko felt remorse over killing Mahiru was in a Peko x Sonia fic?

I say this as a Mahiru hater, there is no fucking universe where Peko wouldn’t feel the need to reconcile with Mahiru. That is literally against her whole character and what she stands for.

The closest thing I could see would be:

—

Peko: I’m sorry for what I’ve done in the Neo World Program. You are a dear friend to me, so I truly wish it didn’t have to come to that.

Mahiru: … if you knew what you knew now, would you still have done it? I want a honest answer.

Peko: if the situation was still the same… then (looks away in shame) I would.

Mahiru: so you’re saying… there’s not a universe where you would’ve picked me over fuyuhiko

Peko: Mahiru-

Mahiru: I’m sorry, I can’t accept your apology. If I knew what Sato was going to do to Natsumi, I would’ve stopped it. But if you would’ve killed me no matter what, that that’s not a mistake. That’s a choice.

Peko: I don’t expect you to accept it, but I want to assure you that I will make it up to you.

Mahiru: You can try. Well, let’s go get dinner.

Peko: Y-you’re still willing to talk to me?

Mahiru: (sighs) I don’t forgive you, I might never. But if we’re gonna be stuck on the same island we can still be pleasant to each other.

you know when I thought of Jude's "if i cannot be better than them I will become so much worse" line as a motto, I WAS NOT TALKING ABOUT LIKE ACADEMICS

I TAKE IT BACK PLEASE

i think the problem with a lot of tumblr-favorite media that i watch, enjoy, and then have absolutely zero interest in ever thinking about or watching again is that a lot of it just doesn't really have many relevant women in it.

ive GOTTA appreciate how legitimately forever kidnapped dapper tho. lured dapper to Secondary Location on the basis of being their uncle (and someone who their dad cares about a lot). was acting Weird, but otherwise trying to be nice. lying to dapper about wanting to make amends with bad and asking for advice. luring dapper into secondary location pt2 (the hallway) under the guise of going somewhere else with him, then asking them a question and shooting them down while they were distracted with the sign. the only real hiccup was that dapper didn't fall into the pit when @v@ pressed the button, but i dont care because then there were the conveyor belts that FORCED DAPPER THROUGH AN ITEM SCANNER. and. man!!! that was awesome that was a Legitimate Kidnapping. im sure dapper as the beast they are have ways of crawling through the fucking walls or somehting but. yknow im delighted that dapper's 7th kidnapping gives them Legitimate Reason to have been taken and stay kidnapped. thank you ccforever what a king

My god I’m fucking leaving this fucking sport. Extremely disappointed in so many people. Sexual Harassment is not something that’s only 'noise and distraction' (said by Ricciardo). You can’t just say you don’t care because you just 'want to do your job' (stated by Stroll, Bottas and Hülkenberg). Guess what?? The victim also just wanted to do her job. AND NOW SHE GOT SUSPENDED.

Be so fucking serious for one moment here. Susie Wolffs career is permanently damaged because of a false rumour and yet when actual complaints get made about Christian Horner nothing fucking happens. I care more about my and any other women’s rights and safety than I care about Formula 1. Always will. I will not be supporting Formula One this weekend. Fuck those men and fuck this industry.

Don’t be quiet about this.

Edit: Found a thread where a user listed all drivers responses/statements. You can find that here.