Disney movies aren't real. The Hallmark Channel isn't real. The Princess Bride isn't real. Romance novels aren't real. Adult videos aren't real. Hashtag-riddled Instagram posts of celebrity couples aren't real. 80s love ballads aren't real. And, as much as I hate to say it, The Addams Family isn't real.

Most Americans' (and Canadians') view of love is primarily influenced by one or more of these. Before one gets married, one needs to disavow all of these things as remotely realistic depictions of how couples are to love each other. Loving is an action, and if your concept of the act of loving is based primarily in self-fulfillment and emotion, your relationships are all doomed to fail.

when I get a gf I imagine just staring at her with lovey-dovey eyes as she’s sleeping and I think how lucky I am to share my life with this amazing woman and snuggling close to her and examine how pretty she is.

listen im ace and im pro kink at pride and whatever, but the way some of yall are wording your posts in response to the backlash against it is uh. really taking me back to the ace shitcourse era.

yall know theres nothing wrong with being a "virgin", right? that its not inherently shameful to have not had sex, to never have sex, even if youre not ace, even if you do want to have sex someday, like, its fine that you haven't had sex?

maybe if your problem is that theyre trying to police your behavior and shame you for expressing your sexuality, you can say that? instead of resorting to "haha stupid virgin gets no bitches" like my god. do you not hear how fucking regressive that attitude is? i know, i know, youre "joking".

get a better joke

Every now and then I think about how subtitles (or dubs), and thus translation choices, shape our perception of the media we consume. It's so interesting. I'd wager anyone who speaks two (or more) languages knows the feeling of "yeah, that's what it literally translates to, but that's not what it means" or has answered a question like "how do you say _____ in (language)?" with "you don't, it's just … not a thing, we don't say that."

I've had my fair share of "[SHIP] are [married/soulmates/fated/FANCY TERM], it's text!" "[CHARACTER A] calls [CHARACTER B] [ENDEARMENT/NICKNAME], it's text!" and every time. Every time I'm just like. Do they though. Is it though. And a lot of the time, this means seeking out alternative translations, or translation meta from fluent or native speakers, or sometimes from language learners of the language the piece of media is originally in.

Why does it matter? Maybe it doesn't. To lots of people, it doesn't. People have different interests and priorities in fiction and the way they interact with it. It's great. It matters to me because back in the early 2000s, I had dial-up internet. Video or audio media that wasn't available through my local library very much wasn't available, but fanfiction was. So I started to read English language Gundam Wing fanfic before I ever had a chance to watch the show. When I did get around to watching Gundam Wing, it was the original Japanese dub. Some of the characters were almost unrecognisable to me, and first I doubted my Japanese language ability, then, after checking some bits with friends, I wondered why even my favourite writers, writers I knew to be consistent in other things, had made these characters seem so different … until I had the chance to watch the US-English dub a few years later. Going by that adaptation, the characterisation from all those stories suddenly made a lot more sense. And the thing is, that interpretation is also valid! They just took it a direction that was a larger leap for me to make.

Loose adaptations and very free translations have become less frequent since, or maybe my taste just hasn't led me their way, but the issue at the core is still a thing: Supernatural fandom got different nuances of endings for their show depending on the language they watched it in. CQL and MDZS fandom and the never-ending discussions about 知己 vs soulmate vs Other Options. A subset of VLD fans looking at a specific clip in all the different languages to see what was being said/implied in which dub, and how different translators interpreted the same English original line. The list is pretty much endless.

And that's … idk if it's fine, but it's what happens! A lot of the time, concepts -- expressed in language -- don't translate 1:1. The larger the cultural gap, the larger the gaps between the way concepts are expressed or understood also tend to be. Other times, there is a literal translation that works but isn't very idiomatic because there's a register mismatch or worse. And that's even before cultural assumptions come in. It's normal to have those. It's also important to remember that things like "thanks I hate it" as a sentiment of praise/affection, while the words translate literally quite easily, emphatically isn't easy to translate in the sense anglophone internet users the phrase.

Every translation is, at some level, a transformative work. Sometimes expressions or concepts or even single words simply don't have an exact equivalent in the target language and need to be interpreted at the translator's discretion, especially when going from a high-context/listener-responsible source language to a low-context/speaker-responsible target language (where high-context/listener responsible roughly means a large amount of contextual information can be omitted by the speaker because it's the listener's responsibility to infer it and ask for clarification if needed, and low-context/speaker-responsible roughly means a lot of information needs to be codified in speech, i.e. the speaker is responsible for providing sufficiently explicit context and will be blamed if it's lacking).

Is this a mouse or a rat? Guess based on context clues! High-context languages can and frequently do omit entire parts of speech that lower-context/speaker-responsible languages like English regard as essential, such as the grammatical subject of a sentence: the equivalent of "Go?" - "Go." does largely the same amount of heavy lifting as "is he/she/it/are you/they/we going?" - "yes, I am/he/she/it is/we/you/they are" in several listener-responsible languages, but tends to seem clumsy or incomplete in more speaker-responsible ones. This does NOT mean the listener-responsible language is clumsy. It's arguably more efficient! And reversely, saying "Are you going?" - "I am (going)" might seem unnecessarily convoluted and clumsy in a listener-responsible language. All depending on context.

This gets tricky both when the ambiguity of the missing subject of the sentence is clearly important (is speaker A asking "are you going" or "is she going"? wait until next chapter and find out!) AND when it's important that the translator assign an explicit subject in order for the sentence to make sense in the target language. For our example, depending on context, something like "are we all going?" - "yes" or "they going, too?" might work. Context!

As a consequence of this, sometimes, translation adds things – we gain things in translation, so to speak. Sometimes, it's because the target language needs the extra information (like the subject in the examples above), sometimes it's because the target language actually differentiates between mouse and rat even though the source language doesn't. However, because in most cases translators don't have access to the original authors, or even the original authors' agencies to ask for clarification (and in most cases wouldn't get paid for the time to put in this extra work even if they did), this kind of addition is almost always an interpretation. Sometimes made with a lot of certainty, sometimes it's more of a "fuck it, I've got to put something and hope it doesn't get proven wrong next episode/chapter/ten seasons down" (especially fun when you're working on a series that's in progress).

For the vast majority of cases, several translations are valid. Some may be more far-fetched than others, and there'll always be subjectivity to whether something was translated effectively, what "effectively" even means …

ANYWAY. I think my point is … how interesting, how cool is it that engaging with media in multiple languages will always yield multiple, often equally valid but just sliiiiightly different versions of that piece of media? And that I'd love more conversations about how, the second we (as folks who don't speak the material's original language) start picking the subtitle or dub wording apart for meta, we're basically working from a secondary source, and if we're doing due diligence, to which extent do we need to check there's nothing substantial being (literally) lost -- or added! -- in translation?

having thoughts about dnp saying the reason they wanted to write tabinof in the first place was to commemorate the era and give fans something to look back on and remember when they're older & how they consistently talked about the tatinof/tabinof era like it was an ending (or at least the end of their "peak")

the idea that in 2015!! they were preparing for their audience and community and their popularity to go away eventually so they wanted to create a physical reminder that "once upon a time there were these two guys called dan and phil who met each other on the internet who created this entire world"

it's like they were assuming the world of dan and phil and this community would be another trend and that their audience would lose interest in over time, especially after they'd just hit this massive peak. except it wasn't and we didn't

thinking about how that was almost 10 years ago and we're still here

I want to sit on your face gf 🤝 i want to rail you so hard gf

I'm pretty sure I've already made a post about cannibalism in hallownest but it still fascinates me the difference between a person bug and a food bug. You could say sentience but a good amount of bugs that are simply scurrying around have thoughts (dreamnail) and once tumblrblazed by the Radiance every bug tends to have narrow and simple thoughts, something else I froth over

The Deepnest bugs (are implied to) eat people, or do they eat bugs, is it out of disrespect of their humanity, or the culture. There could be a natural foodchainare aspect but maybe PK influence disrupted the structure. Are nosks people? I'd love to know what's up with nosks

Bugs were capable of thought before PK (tribes and communities existed before him or WL took power and the Radiance mothtribe seems very advanced) so it could have been a way of life where "cannibalism" had no definition. Imagine the furious debates PK got up too about citizenship and laws, god I love that silly colonizer worm

i don’t want to be overly essentialist or talk outside my cultural lane but... there is something so intensely not anglo-’murican about the way the way andor treats death and it’s so fascinating and refreshing. like on one level this is a show profoundly about death from the very structure of its narrative, but it’s about how you live knowing you will die rather than the glorious death-from-martyrdom-death-as-redemption narrative, and therefor, inversely, about the profound interconnections between the dead and the living and those on the liminal in-between. now we have maarva’s death, and the very introduction of her death comes through the assembled chorus of communal voices who have come to clean her house and take her to rest. (i also love the fact that maarva died, explicitly, of old age and so many of the other related issues. i don’t think you can make the case that the empire *wasn’t* involved because she’s someone so utterly and clearly destroyed by its actions, but i do like that this was a so-called “ordinary” death, because of the thematic purpose that even “ordinary” deaths are heartbreaking and awful and worth remembering.)

andor makes it canon that there are communal aid organizations- i immediately think chevra kadishas! though many cultures have their own organisations and social structures for how to support the grieving and honour the dead- which is just one of the ways it highlights community and the complexity of interpersonal relationships. the daughters of ferrix are introduced an episode earlier, and i realised on a rewatch with my family that the daughter of ferrix - keezy maybe?- introduced at the beginning of the episode is also mentioned by bee in the first episode as being someone who helps maarva with her dinner and medication. we don’t see maarva’s body go alone, we see her transported through the streets by the women of ferrix. andor makes the case of elder care as communal connection and antifascist work, AND that it is done by the same people as those that bury the dead. and the way that andor is building up t having the season finale be the funeral, the thing that drags cassian home and into the line of fire being his mother’s funeral, the storytelling possible about funerary customs and memorialisation as acts of cultural resistance and aggressive rehumanisation... i’m too verklempt to say much more but i think the way this thematic arc is so intertwined with cassian’s time in narkina 5 and the scene with him and melshi at the end of the episode like! no one is lovingly honouring every one of those men with two-day funeral ceremonies through the streets. NO ONE remembers but cassian and melshi. two episodes earlier ulaf died, but the closest thing he had to the daughters of ferrix was the doctor, the fellow prisoner, who refused to learn his name and quietly euthanised him in the hallway. until we know more there were nearly five thousand other deaths. and the episode ends with melshi saying, it’s our duty as survivors to carry the weight of memory so that other people will know and remember this. they are also carrying the weight of mourning those whose time it was not to die. fuck. this show guys. it has me 

Bebe Neuwirth as Avis DeVoto in episode 2x07 of Julia, "Shrimp and Grits"

my thesis statement will of course always be that the angels + demons in good omens are aspec (and nonbinary) but crowley specifically was so aromantic this season. man who goes "oh, romance? yeah, i know how that works. practically an expert. i've picked up so much from the way that people talk about it and represent it in media. i know all the perfect steps to execute romance. it has nothing to do with personhood and feelings; there's a certain list of requirements, certain steps that you take, certain subjective prerequisites to be fulfilled, and then you'll have romance. easy. simple." when he has no idea how romance actually works because it's never been something that was accessible or valuable to him. the general conventions for love seem so simple from the outside when you pick up an idea of it through cultural osmosis but not any real experience or investment in the idea. maggie and nina come in to tell him that he can't be messing with people's love lives because it's serious and personal but how should he know? when you're outside of it and don't even realize that you're outside of it, romance is just a thing that happens. and it seems so simple...

I imagine me leaving her little notes of affirmations around our house to show how much I appreciate her

This is very important and I am up at 1 am wildly asking you this

DO BOTS DREAM

And if so

WHAT DO THEY DREAM ABOUT? DO THEY HAVE BIT NIGHTMARES? IS THERE A BOT EQUIVALENT OF THE GO TO CLASS IN YOUR UNDERWEAR NIGHTMARE?

I NEED ANSWERS AND YOU FEEL LIKE THE MOST QUALIFIED EXPERT TO ASK

Mwahah! You came to the right writer for this dear anon! I have enough thoughts on Cybertronian culture and biology to write a novel!

Cybertronians and Recharge Cycles

As a general rule, Cybertronians do not "sleep" or hibernate as organics do. While there are certain medical conditions that replicate the phenomenon to a degree, those are rare, and often temporary. Instead of sleep, Cybertronians have recharge cycles which they use as their way to sort through data, clear their processors of unnecessary sensory information, and run through alerts and protocols that are hyperactive. In short it is a chance for their systems to relax and for their minds to be cleared of stress inducing data that may clutter the processors and make functioning harder.

The frequency of recharge cycles depends entirely on the level of stress a Cybertronian is experiencing. Sparklings recharge frequently so that their processors can go through the data they collect and catalogue or discard it. Younglings recharge less as they know more and have largely set up their processors with all the basic knowledge needed to function, but lots of physical activity can lead to more frequent recharge cycles. In fully developed adults recharge cycles are a rare thing since their processors have adapted and their frames have grown into an equilibrium.

Of course there are also minor recharging cycles that function almost like a nap, and those are taken rather frequently, often a few times in a human week and lasting for up to three hours. In those instances the bot in question shuts down a large portion of their sensory capabilities and higher processing to sort through surface level data and allow their systems to have a brief break. They can still perform basic actions, but they are largely unaware and will be left incredibly groggy if broken from their half recharging state. However true recharge cycles are long and rare things that are often only taken once every few human months, often lasting for a few days at a time. It is polite to allow a recharging bot to remain untouched and to offer them energon when they wake since they will be rather starved for fuel.

The concept of "dreaming" is a bit of a foreign one for Cybertronians as a whole. Most often bots do not "dream" in the human sense. Their processors instead review memory files from all over the course of the time in between recharge cycles. Often the Cybertronian in question does not recall this process as their higher functioning is nearly entirely shut off so their systems can recalibrate. However that does not mean they do not experience anything while recharging. Young sparklings often tend to "dream" in that their processors recreate an event as best as possible based on how the sparkling sees it to try and collect the most important data. The sparkling relives moments, usually small ones while they rest and that helps them to fully absorb what they learn.

Younglings can still have this happen, but more often than not their processors run through probability sequences instead. While recharging their processors use their memories and experiences to recreate possible outcomes to events that already happened. So if a bot were to have been anxious about classes but still have had a reasonable cycle going to them, their processors may conceive the worst case scenario just to test probability. In such an instance they may predict a situation in which their plating is not properly cleaned or where they are without any of their outer armor, instead left bare in their protoform through some inconceivable event. Such predictions are the closest thing they have to "nightmares".

With grown bots, these predictions stop for the most part, especially as they grow older and have more experience and thus less need to play the probability game. At most they will have an odd prediction routine run when they are particularly stressed or going into a new environment. But once again, as soon as they are acquainted with a new environment or situation, their processors will stop such "dreams" because experience makes up for it.

Of course these rules only apply to normal Cybertronians. With the war, recharging properly has become impossible, and that has led to recharging having some unusual consequences.

With shortened recharge cycles or little to none, when a Cybertronian fighting in the war does recharge, it is often not a fun experience. For younglings it is... intense to say the least. Often they can spend a week or more recharging when allowed simply because there is so much to review. Not only that, but their prediction routines run at high paces to try and get through the millions of outcomes, often leaving younglings groggy or even traumatized if they recall the "dreams". Their frames also tend to be so very exhausted from sometimes years of nonstop effort that when they do finally drop, they can be left passing out randomly for weeks afterwards as their processors try to get through whatever it might have been unable to fully review.

For grown Cybertronians, the consequences of little to no recharge come in a variety of forms. For some, they suffer much like younglings and are forced to endure horrendous prediction sequences that leave them struggling against their own minds. Others recall nothing but are left to endure complete and total shutdown, with absolutely no way to wake them until their recharge cycle is complete. They wake far more happy and effective than others, but during that time they are totally exposed and vulnerable, a glaring weakness during war. It certainly doesn't help that these recharge cycles can come upon a bot almost randomly with at most a few minutes before they drop.

Cybertronians who have experienced more trauma than others may find their frames wandering the halls as their minds struggle against all sorts of predictions and scenarios. Their minds are more rested, but they often are left sluggish and unhappy due to how little rest the remainder of their frame received. A scant few who suffer the most may end up unable to recharge properly due to how severe the prediction routines are. Those unfortunate few end up living near entirely off partial recharges and can only endure a day or so of proper recharge before they wake barely rested enough to continue onward.

However its not all doom and gloom.

Cybertronians can have happy "dreams" too. It is a rarer thing, but in response to extreme stress or increadible joy, Cybertronians can pull up old memory files of happier times, or when none are available, create predictions based off of hopes and dreams. Those sorts of "dreams" are rarely remembered, but they have shown to have a soothing effect on a strained mind.

my other thing I like about DECT is that it’s a very friendly introduction to metafiction literature that isn’t just smarmy fourth wall breaking but also isn’t so intensely layered like house of leaves that someone completely unfamiliar with the concept couldn’t get it

Still thinking about aliens and nesting, anyways:

Nesting Species who logically knows that just because their non-nesting partner doesn’t wanna spend a ton of time in their nest doesn’t mean that they’re rejecting the nest/them, but they still get anxious when it’s been awhile since they’ve hung out in the nest

Just picturing a Human getting really into a movie series or some games and their nesting partner is nearby, ready to snatch them back to the nest

They don’t do all that in the nest because you gotta have snacks with you, but getting crumbs out of a nest is the worst, but they also can’t hang out near the nest, because hanging out near a nest but not going in it for that species means that while you accept that partner, you find their nest lacking, and it can cause their partner distress

happy Valentine’s Day remember to tell your favorite friendly penguin you love him

if you don’t have one of those then a friend is fine i guess :/

(kidding. go hug your friends <3)