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multigenderswag · 10 months

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Survey Results: Anything Else Relevant

In the open ended question “share anything else you find relevant about your multigender identity,” 72 participants (4.88%) stated that being a system was a relevant part of their multigender identity, and 24 participants (1.63%) stated that being intersex was a relevant part of their multigender identity.

Some other responses that stood out:

"Gender is diverse and vast. It is beautiful and it's often whatever makes me happy. My experience of gender cannot be the same as anyone else's and I like that. It's part of who I am at my core and is proof that even that part of me is not static."

"I am who I am. If other people want to assign me a gender, that's their problem. Sometimes I wear a gender like an outfit, sometimes it's who I am, and sometimes I resent the whole concept. My body and my clothes are a way to express my creativity, and gender is one of the paintbrushes. I contain multitudes."

"1. I prefer a different definition of bigender. I use it in the same way people use bisexual: that I am two OR MORE genders. 2. I technically use all pronouns but I only put my primary ones in the survey. 3. I haven’t seen a term for this before but I see my sexuality as being “straight both ways” meaning that I am attracted to men as a woman and attracted to women as a man. My only attraction that feels gay is any attraction towards other nonbinary people."

"I eat gender for breakfast lunch and dinner!!! I'll eat you too!!!!!!! Watch out!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"If I visualize my gender it's as if I am wholely a girl. My girlness is a solid sphere. My boyness is softer and hazier and surrounds the sphere. That's the best way I have to describe it!"

"Despite fitting the 'definition' of nonbinary as in 'not binary man or woman' I genuinely hate using it as a term for myself and only use it through gritted teeth as just quick shorthand. It's mainly because 'nonbinary' in the public eye has become less of an umbrella term and more of a 'third gender' with its own 'gender role' (not too masc, but not too femme, unless you're 'making a statement' and usually society treats those folks as complete jokes) There was a comic I saw about boxes. First there are two, then there are many, but finally the main person says 'ARGH!! NO MORE BOXES!!' That really captures how I feel. I hate having to put labels on myself and when i can feel people figuring out what box to put me in. I'd like to just BE ME and slide between whatever role and presentation I feel fits at the moment without people thinking I'm 'lying' or 'faking' or 'too queer' or 'not trans enough"' I hate all the labels and gender essentialism that comes with it. I just can't work in this binary framework, and I don't WANT to have to be an activist just to have permission to exist. I just want to live my life. At this point I just state my identity based on which flag I think looks nicest at the time."

"Gender is a highway and I'm riding down it the wrong way on a tricycle"

"I never really understood gender in general, and as such identity with aspects of many. I think that everyone’s gender fluctuates every so often and that it’s A-okay to not fully understand your own gender."

#survey results #survey stuff #some of this is borderline poetry ngl #i especially like the one where girlness is a solid sphere and boyness is hazier. for me it's like the same but flipped

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onewomancitadel · 3 months

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This is bordering on psychoanalysis but I don't think Tumblr's meme of cannibalism-as-metaphor-for-love/sex isn't because of a pretentious pseudo-intellectual trend catching on since it sounds cool, instead I would propose it is emblematic of an increasing shift of the erotic away from the sexual. I think it's telling despite more ostensible ease around the topic of sex than before, the erotic and the pornographic are becoming abstracted from each other, to the point that for something to be passionate it cannot be sexual.

I also think the taboo here of cannibalism is interesting, because it is a classic racist stereotype of colonialism (hence its shorthand for barbarism in fiction often being a racist shorthand) but it is also one of desperation (I read about the siege of Leningrad as a teenager and I think about it, often, often) - it's this strange intersection of lots of cultural ideas about the way people are supposed to eat and die.

But the divorce of the erotic from the sexual doesn't just emerge in the context of commercialised, objectified pornography, it is also a way to often navigate sexual taboo, e.g. this is why violence in film/television can stand in as metaphor for sex or flirting (foreplay); a cigarette can be phallic and suggest fellatio; and so on and so forth. In this case I would say that is the 'in-joke', whereas I would dispute that the divorce of the erotic and the sexual is much more serious and impressed upon the individual psychologically.

Consumption as a metaphor for love is not groundbreaking. In fact I would then further dispute that this is exactly why cannibalism has inserted itself so successfully - because there is that cultural bank to draw on. It is taboo (like the erotic), it is metaphor (the sexual act is abstracted, the 'in and out' is mechanical and divorced from libido, in the sense of intimacy and sexual desire but also the desire to live/love), it draws on eating (eat/sex is the vitality of life), it's bloody (body fluids, semen/vaginal fluids), it's got all the parts to make it facsimile of sex, tip-toeing around the shame of sex and the abstraction of sex. You would think that the latter can't really be related to the former, but that's untrue - they are precisely related. Pornography is titillating, commercialised, and objectifying because it is taboo, and exists solely to document the act divorced of every other human element - sexuality, emotion, empathy, belief, libido. (That is to say, the issues surrounding pornography in its cultural reception reproduce themselves). This is why I think sex scenes are more successful in television or film (a simulation of the act, 95% of the time) or erotica in writing (a different topic I've written about before) - or should be - because it is put back in context.

This is what people mean about the divorce between the erotic and the pornographic, and I don't think I have really seen it articulated this way. This is why you have the trend of 'cannibalism-as-love/sex' even though you wouldn't catch them dead thinking about the taboo of menstrual sex (bloody sex???) as I've seen some posts suggest they ought to. Fermenting in this trend is the shame of sex, the desire for the erotic, the abstraction of sex in the pornographic, and the lust for intimacy, the projection of taboo. It is trying to be as intimate as possible (the consumption of a human being inside you - oneness) without the weight of sex.

Is this a value judgement on the memetic transmission of cannibalism-for-love? It's more of an observation really, and I think these types of interactions/projections are more telling about deeper beliefs than I think they are individually 'wrong'. Many people want sex. Many people want love and to be loved. It is the reproduction of existence, not just literally, but in the sense of empathetic community bonds. Many people want to be able to talk about the sexual and the erotic together, navigating cultural taboo. Many people find stories about these ideas interesting, and being able to navigate sex through facsimile this way can be really rewarding.

You can say 'I want this person inside me' and it doesn't mean that you are an objectified thing, or that you aren't yourself anymore, or that you don't belong to anybody but yourself. It's freeing that way, and that's why I think it's worth talking about. Because objectification is dehumanisation, and putting the human back in sex - even if it's that literal consumption - is meaningful.

#stirring the pot

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joseopher · 8 months

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how do you interpret the "it only broke because i broke it" scene/conversation with tristan and callum in the atlas paradox? what are the important parts of it? i really like the scene and i feel like you'd have more thoughts about the significance of it than i got on my own

I DO HAVE MORE THOUGHTS!!!

Spoilers for The Atlas Paradox under the cut!!!

So we begin.

"It took three days after the incident with the captive witch for Tristan to come find him. Ridiculous. As if they were schoolgirls waiting three days to text back."

This implies that after their interaction (Tristan taking a hostage and Callum having some fun) it was a given that Tristan would come to find him. Callum could think this because:

a) He's arrogant and "understands" emotions well

b) Callum and Tristan know each other so well that they don't need to make a verbal agreement that Tristan will eventually find Callum

Option B is suggested by this earlier line: "The shorthand between Callum and Tristan had been long enough established that Tristan did not require clarification."

They were very close friends, they knew each other very well.

This line is also important: "'Finally,' Callum said without looking up from his book."

What says the most is that Tristan does not question what Callum means by "finally". Meaning it's very likely that they both understood this meeting was inevitable.

Another quote that caught my attention was:

"I thought, ‘You know what will be fun? I’ll just make up a nice little story that will haunt Tristan for three days and then I’ll simply tell him it was all a joke, ha ha.’ Certainly it’s not an extremely fraught situation. After all, what possible knowledge would I have of such fragile emotional tangles? None whatsoever, methinks—"

This may sound reasonable for a normal person to say. But this is Callum, he has crafted a persona that plays with people like toys. The version of himself he trying desperately to make everyone believe would indeed fuck with someone like that.

And Tristan has every right to buy into this. Tristan's paranoid, Tristan's been manipulated by Callum and Tristan has seen Callum try to make someone he cares for take her own life in front of him.

But all he says is, "Fine. Point taken."

HE👏TRUSTED👏CALLUM'S👏WORDS

Not necessarily because he believes Callum deserves his trust but because he knows that this isn't what Callum would do.

They know each other so well but also not in the ways they need.

The misunderstandings start here: "False. I do not hate Rhodes. I do not even dislike Rhodes. She simply does not matter."

Callum does not waste effort on those that do not matter to him. But in this line, he's saying that Tristan does matter to him, that he wouldn't be presenting this information to him if he didn't matter. Tristan does matter to him, despite all their betrayal, despite the resentment and hate, he is important enough to be worth Callum allowing himself to feel for, even if that feeling is dislike. (But these lines suggest he still likes Tristan: "'Tristan doesn’t have his own ideas. It’s what I like about him.' He meant to say liked, but it obviously didn’t matter.").

Tristan doesn't see this and instead fixates on Callum's next words that suggest he wants to kill Libby.

Moving on, I find this quote very memorable:

"Callum remarked, producing a very neat and well-prepared document from the inside cover of his book—which was actually How to Win Friends and Influence People, chosen for its many wonderful techniques. For example, one way to make people like you was to smile, which Callum winningly employed now."

This quote suggests that Callum still wants Tristan to like him. He's still trying to recover from Tristan considering killing him, still trying to process rejection from the one person who saw him for who he was. He longs for Tristan to like him again, to heal over that injury or just have the power to reject him back.

This is furthered by this quote:

"No, no, wildly incorrect. I don’t just want you to try, Tristan. I want you to succeed. I want you to succeed so valiantly and with such flying colors that you believe yourself to be invincible and invulnerable and, ultimately, a more evolved version of your current self. But of course you won’t do that. Which is honestly very sad for me, because I really am an optimist."

Callum rarely lies, so it's likely that he does want Tristan to succeed, he does care.

"You’re manipulating me somehow. I know you’re trying to talk me out of it.

But, of course, in Tristan's pov, anything he had with Callum was just manipulation. He does not allow himself to think that Callum still cares because of his own self-doubts. He does know Callum very well but his own disbelief that anyone would care about him + assuming everything between was manipulation which is because of his self-doubt stops him from even considering the idea that Callum desperately wants to be liked by him. He knows Callum but his own doubt and self-loathing opens room for misunderstanding.

"And yet, I am the only one in this house who’s been any help to you at all, Tristan, so you’re welcome."

Callum is practically screaming at Tristan. He's like, "See I'm helpful, no one else, I'm helping you Tristan despite everything, please for god's sake pay attention to me."

"The glare he received from Tristan was a ruthless thing of beauty."

I have nothing to say about this quote other than: GAAAAAY

"Which was thoroughly impossible. A comedy of errors to the highest degree. And this was who Tristan had chosen over Callum! This was what he had done, and in the murky plumbing of Callum’s allegedly nonexistent heart, he hoped that Tristan suffered for it."

Callum's intentions are stated here. He is jealous, but more than that, he still feels betrayed. This was the person he had ACTUALLY brought himself to care about despite his trauma (Direct quote: "Callum did not enjoy this, the destruction of a human psyche for which he had actually allowed himself to care."), Tristan would always be the most important person in his life, but from his pov, he is not Tristan's most important person, no, he's disposable to Tristan.

AGAIN THIS IS THE PERSON THAT SAW HIS FLAWS AND STILL ACCEPTED HIM (to an extent). Tristan saw him murder Parisa and still hung out with him. Everything was almost okay between them despite Callum revealing a lot of himself to Tristan.

This quote happened after Callum murdered Parisa:

"I’m not here to have a row," he [Tristan] said. "You’re right, of course. I know you’re right."

Callum looked warily unconvinced. "Is that supposed to be concession or a compliment?"

"Neither. A fact. Or rather, a white flag."

“So this is a truce?”

"Or an apology," Tristan said. "Whichever you prefer."

CALLUM HAD FOUND SOMEONE THAT SAW HIM:

"I see you" came out of Tristan’s mouth before he had decided fully what to say.

AND IN HIS POV TRISTAN REJECTED HIM FOR SOMEONE "GOOD". Tristan rejected him for someone who would never do anything unseemingly like him. That is the crux of this, that is the deepness of this hurt, that Callum can never be like this version of Libby he perceives, someone good, innocent and moral. He thought that he had someone who would accept his damage and trauma and (in his pov) he was wrong.

"This was just the world. You trusted people, you loved them, you offered them the dignity of your time and the intimacy of your thoughts and the frailty of your hope and they either accepted it and cared for it or they rejected it and destroyed it and in the end, none of it was up to you. This was just what you got. Heartbreak was inevitable. Disappointment assured."

He is back to his typical apathetic ways, as earlier in the book it is implied that this isn't the first Callum has been rejected like this, with his mother and father (potentially his sister) and others that he had watched himself fade out of significance to them:

"They loved you one day, didn’t the next. Callum had watched himself fade in significance from too many people’s lives, and yes, okay, that was not an excuse for … what was it that Tristan had disliked about him, ultimately?"

And also, I find this important:

"Honestly, Callum was doing just fine with his grief."

Callum labels what he has been experiencing for this past year as grief. Showing just how much Tristan's betrayal hurt him.

But enough about Callum, that's pick apart Tristan's most important words:

"Whether you put it there or not," Tristan said, his voice heavy with irony, “this—between us—it was real for me."

Tristan's belief that this might not be real, was what made him agree to murder Callum. Parisa describes him as being in agony with this decision until:

"A little slip of parchment from his head ignited suddenly in flames; curling edges that fell to smoldering pieces, crumbling to ash."

This is interesting because the paper/talisman that Tristan uses to discover that Callum is manipulating him is described as a "slip of paper", which is essentially the same as "parchment".

It was not Callum's "killing" of Parisa that made him decide, nor Callum's constant suggestions to kill Libby, not even that if the initiates didn't kill Callum they would likely start attacking each other, which would put Tristan's life on the line. Tristan and Callum's bond went beyond those things. Instead, it was the concept that their bond, which was so strong it made Tristan (eventually) overlook Callum murdering someone he cared for, was fake, meaning that he had no reason to continue to care for someone that doesn't give a fuck about anyone else.

So this is Tristan acknowledging that the reason he justified murdering Callum wasn't good enough. That he's realized, even if it was fake, he doesn't care. Because what they had was great enough that it didn't matter. It was real to Tristan.

"You can pretend that it didn’t matter."

This is interesting because both Callum and Tristan believe that the other is acting like what they had was nothing. For example Callum's pov:

"As if Tristan’s resolution to kill Callum was less of a betrayal purely because he’d changed his mind. As if everything that Callum had ever shared with Tristan—every intimate thought, every private confession—had been a falsehood—or if not a falsehood, then so very paltry that it could be unimagined, rescinded, undone."

It's miscommunication at its finest.

"That I was the one who wronged you. That you had no hand in how things happened. That I made a choice based on nothing, based on my own insecurities and flaws."

This is Tristan saying that the murder and betrayal, should not be ignored either. Callum should not sit all high and mighty and analyze what happened through an unfeeling, apathetic lens, then, claim that Tristan did this because of the intricate way his emotions and trauma clashed together. Callum knows why this happened, they know each other very well and ignoring all the messed up fuckery that led to Tristan's betrayal would be denying their relationship.

This is furthered by:

"But I am not such an idiot—I’m not so devoid of feeling," Tristan spat, "to not be perfectly aware that you and I had something rare and difficult and fucking significant, and in the end it only broke because I broke it."

The most important part here is that Tristan is admitting fault. He knows they could have continued their homoerotic friendship if he didn't choose to kill Callum. That, yes, Callum is also to blame but Tristan was the one who ended it. And he's sorry. Telling Callum sorry before didn't work so he's saying it in a different way. This is desperation. It's saying: I don't care if you hurt me or manipulate me. I accept that. I accept your faults. What we had is more important. Please stop pretending that it was nothing.

Now back to Callum's POV:

"He felt his victory ballooning into rage, pure rage. He felt anger with an intensity that was incandescent with bereavement. He wanted, just as he had wanted at the beginning of this godforsaken year, to murder Tristan. To take him by the throat and slice him into ribbons and serve him like a roast—and also, to meticulously and with great inconvenience inconvenience to himself weave a flower crown laden with unrequited meaning, with which to adorn Tristan’s incredibly stupid and perfectly functioning head."

CALLUM AGREES WITH WHAT TRISTAN SAYS, FURTHER PROVED BY THIS:

"Mostly, though, Callum wanted Tristan to suffer profoundly for every honest word out of his mouth."

But he doesn't understand exactly what Tristan is saying. Because yes, everything between them was important and they both had a role to play in its downfall. But Tristan still rejected Callum. Tristan's emotions tell Callum that he loves Libby. Everything that Callum is not.

To him, Tristan doesn't love Callum but Callum loves Tristan.

"—and also, to meticulously and with great inconvenience inconvenience to himself weave a flower crown laden with unrequited meaning, with which to adorn Tristan’s incredibly stupid and perfectly functioning head."

The key word is "unrequited". Callum loves Tristan with his everything. He admitted before:

"I love you. That’s why you can’t turn your back on me, even if you want to."

Of course, Callum slipped this in while he was manipulating Tristan so he could play it off as just part of him telling Tristan what he wanted to hear his father say.

However, he doesn't believe Tristan feels the same.

But that's not necessarily true. Emotions are complicated. We know there has been a tarnish on their relationship since Callum "murdered" Parisa. As described by Callum himself:

"There is bitterness now, resentment. A bit of tarnish, or rust I suppose, on what we were.”

This is furthered by Callum manipulating Tristan, because how is Tristan supposed to trust any affection from Callum after knowing that Callum was playing with his emotions? Especially since Callum said he loved Tristan while making him more miserable than he's ever been in his entire life.

So Tristan is very upset with Callum, but that doesn't mean he doesn't love him. But to Callum, it's the same sort of love Tristan holds toward his father, too bitter and wounded to really count.

Whereas Tristan's feelings toward Libby are more "pure" in a way. There's not that bitterness there, in fact, it's an obsession with her innocence as Parisa explains:

"You like her because she’s innocent, Tristan. Because she’s moral. Because she’s good. Because she represents something to you that the rest of us no longer have, because we came here. And because we made choices."

and:

"Libby Rhodes is not your goodness, Tristan,"

Libby hasn't hurt him like the others, so his love for her is pure.

To Callum, this is a rejection of him as he is not everything that is good.

Not to mention, Tristan acknowledging that what they had was real is terrifying to Callum. He refuses to open himself up to love and trust after Tristan's betrayal. He knows those emotions only weaken him. He cannot allow it to happen again.

So Callum does the only thing he knows how to do:

"Good luck," said Callum. "With everything. Hope it works out between you and Rhodes."

Tristan’s expression darkened. "Did I not just say—"

He continues his plan.

"Like Atlas Blakely, Callum was going to stick to his plan, even if it was objectively flawed and would lead to either despotism or tears."

In Callum's mind, he can't have Tristan even if he wants Tristan. He cannot trust and cannot untaint Tristan's feelings for him, so he continues with his plan, with his depression, with his persona of apathy because he is the only safe option in his mind.

So those are my thoughts!

#novacaine #tristan caine #callum nova #the atlas six #tristan x callum

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youhavethewrong · 1 year

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Horror/Comedy: The most elusive genre of fiction

In many regards, it is easy to consider Horror and Comedy to be about as opposite as two genres can go. Horror seeks to cause dread and fear in the viewers, while comedy (usually) seeks to comfort them and improve their moods. A good comedy can help you feel better after a bad day - a good horror can completely ruin a good one. Maybe this is why these two don’t often collide. Another reason could be that although Comedy is easily combined with other genres, like the RomCom, Horror is hardly ever mixed. More often than not, it just branches out into other kinds of horror, like Psychological horror or Slashers.

However, something that is easy to forget is that Comedy and Horror are far more similar than one would assume. Both rely heavily in misdirection, surprising the viewer with an unexpected result. Both require perfect timing to pull off, and... well, this is not really related to my point here, but both have a tendency to be done reaaally badly when the people making them don’t care. Hack Comedy uses the not-actually-funny shorthand of fart jokes and falling down, while Hack Horror uses the not-actually-scary shorthand of jumpscares and loud sounds. Anyways.

So if they supposedly go hand-in-hand so well, why is it they almost never meet? How come there’s almost no horror/comedy? Well, for starters, they’re each separately extremely difficult to pull off. Making someone laugh is not fucking easy, and neither is scaring someone. They require tremendous amount of talent and effort to do separately, so at the same time? When they already feel opposite? Forget about it! Secondly, it’s already quite difficult to picture something that is equals parts funny and scary. How would you even do that??

The first thing that came to mind when thinking about horror/comedies were those Scary Movie movies. Though I don’t really think they fall into horror territory? They’re not scary at all, they’re just spoof movies. They don’t even come up with their own ideas, they just borrow from popular horror. And they’re not even fucking funny. Comedy (in quotes) with horror elements, not what I’m looking for.

Then I started looking for artists that are good at making both Comedy and Horror. The one with the biggest audience right now is obviously Jordan Peele. It’s certainly curious to think how he went from making a sketch show to becoming a horror movie director! There’s certainly a conversation to be had about how making the former helped him become better at the latter. Problem is, he either makes one or the other, not both at the same time. So is he what I’m looking for at the moment? Nope!

Then my mind then went to a favorite of mine: Jack Stauber. His unique way of creating art has allowed him to make both hilarious comedy and touchingly deep horror. His masterpiece Opal is one of the most unique takes on the Horror genre I’ve seen! It’s not only stop-motion, which is quite rare, but a musical, which is even rarer! However, that one’s just horror. What about his individual sketches? The one that got closest to what I’m looking for right now is Future, though it’s... pretty hard to say it’s a joke? I’m sure some people would find it funny, but it’s difficult to say whether it was intended as such.

Don’t worry though, I didn’t come here just to talk about an idea that I thought of with 0 examples. The whole reason I wanted to make this post talking about Horror/Comedy is because I watched the perfect example, and it made me realize that I hadn’t seen much else quite like it. And the example I watched came... from The Onion

Although The Onion hasn’t been on its... best streak lately - mostly reposting articles from 7 years ago and making unimpressive TikToks - the Youtube content they created in the late 2000′s early 2010′s was... brilliant. And I don’t mean that as in “funny”, I mean that as in brilliant. Expertly written, produced, and performed layered comedy that drove points home. In The Know with Clifford Banes, and Today Now! being two of my favorite pieces of satire comedy. The Onion also seems particularly qualified to tackle Horror/Comedy, as the heart of their satire was pushing the inherent darkness and cruelty of the 24 hour news cycle to its highest possible, most absurd degree. And tackle it they did, in their 9-episode mini series Porkin’ Across America

Porkin’ Across America is a parody of travel shows, where Jim Haggerty, host of morning news show Today Now!, travels around the 50 states looking for the best pork he can find. As this happens, his life starts steadily falling apart in the background, unraveling into a grotesque cacophony of errors. This show is, in my opinion, the best example of the Horror/Comedy genre. Because it’s not just comedy with horror elements, or horror with comedy elements: it’s the perfect combination of the two. The setup - misdirection structure that gives both genres their kick is used in tandem, intertwined. Punchlines to jokes are also horrifying revelations and imagery. I won’t spoil the ending, but I’ll just say this: the last line that is uttered is both the hilarious punchline to a series-long running joke, and such a horrible thing to say at that moment that it will send shivers down your spine. I highly recommend watching it, but be warned: the specific type of horror this show uses is body horror. You’ll be laughing, but you’ll also be extremely uncomfortable by the imagery. Definitely avoid this if that’s not your thing.

Horror/Comedy is one of the rarest genre combinations in fiction, for a variety of reasons. It’s difficult to pull off, horror hardly mixes with other things, and most people don’t even know it can exist. But it can! And when it’s done well it’s an extremely unique experience, one that I believe is worth experiencing.

I hope my explanation of this topic was clear enough, and I’m really excited to hear what you guys think! Can you think of any other work that could be defined with this genre? If so, I’d really like to hear it~

Thank you for reading this whole stupid thing if you did! Yui OUT!

#yui rambles #if your immediate response to this is 'too long not gonna read' thats completely fine btw #this is a buncha paragraphs about something that matters very little #but if you do read it i'd appreciate it~#i tried to make it at least a little entertaining

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youkaigakkou-tl · 1 year

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What do you think makes this series so good/fun to read?

AHA YOU’VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD

(using a readmore bc its 1k words)

I think a manga has to do 2 things well, mainly. To grab your attention so you start reading it, and to keep your attention so you don’t drop it, and come back every month/week/whatever for it.

I actually started reading Yohaji because I saw it in a bookstore and the art, characters and premise caught my eye. While the “student transfers to a wacky school” scenario has been done to death (though I do enjoy it), I’ve never actually seen the teacher version of it done. I think I’ve started appreciating it more as I’ve grown up and grown out of “14 year old swordboy saves the world” plots, it’s just as fun to see an adult MC and adult characters having fun.

And speaking of characters, I think Haruaki is the perfect character, in general. His design is clean. Simple. To the point. I think a good indicator of a good character design is how easy you can shorthand it, how many details you can take away and still have it be recognizable. You put a ahoge on a distressed circle and that’s him.

My favorite phenomenon is the fact that on any book website, the first volume is always rated the worst. The biggest criticism I see of the manga, and of Haruaki specifically, is his sailor uniform fetish and “I can’t stand to watch him get bullied”. The second one is a common attitude problem I see of people going into comedy media, of taking things too seriously. Of course different genres of media have to be enjoyed with different metrics, you don’t go into Looney Tunes expecting high literature, and “sucks that Wile E Coyote got an anvil dropped on him”, said no one ever. “You’re supposed to laugh” is the most cringe thing to say about a joke, but I think some people ought to have a wider collection of lenses to look at media through.

I have thought about the sailor uniform fetish thing long and hard. The knee jerk reaction is “fetish is a strong word” and “he doesn’t need that character trait” but those are COWARD THOUGHTS! The more I think about it, the more I think it’s a genius move. First of all, it grounds him. In another more serious series, his combination of character traits (smart, athletic, has exorcism powers, reincarnation of Abe no Seimei) would be pretty scary, but his patheticness and his sailor uniform fetish grounds him firmly in the comedy genre. It’s also a good setup for jokes, and punchline to other jokes. Also, it gives him a reason to use his powers and do all the other weird shit without the story getting too serious.

Second of all, it acts as the great filter. Too many manga have your turn-off way too late into the story, whereas Yohaji has it in the synopsis, and if you don’t read that, on page two of chapter 1. It sets the tone, and you’re immediately confronted with the decision of “am I okay with this”. And if it’s not a turn-off, it’s almost certain you’re the target audience and are going to enjoy it. It’s almost like a thesis statement, “if you like this thing you’ll like the rest of it”.

The progression of the story is good too, while it starts with the tried and true “ahh the students are youkai so scary”, it’s actually a good thing, since it grounds the reader and gives a point of reference to jump off from. And as someone who reads other manga, and has seen fiction before, you probably get used to it pretty quickly, and the story does as well, and by the end of volume 1 it’s no longer doing the “youkai so scary” thing. (Chin up, Seimei-kun! There’s more things to be scared of in the world!)

The 25 students of class 2-3 are also handled super well. It’s a daunting number going into it, but most of them get a focus chapter early on, as well as earlier chapters being focused on the core group of Sano, Mame, Hijita and Beniko to ease you into the world. Even the ones that don’t get focus chapters show up in the background and interact enough that even if you’re bad with names, you can at least remember a trait or schtick of theirs. (See: the amount of times I’ve heard “oh yeah the merman” or “oh yeah the toilet paper”)

As a comedy manga, Yohaji gets to pull my all-time favorite trick: “Ohhhh there’s plot”. This is something I realised watching chainsawman analyses, which is “openly showing emotion is cringe”. This is true of basically everything, casual conversation with your friends, a song that hits too close to home, a story that sees you like a specimen under a microscope to pick apart; instinctively, many people show aversion to this, after all, isn’t it terrible to be seen so thoroughly by something other than yourself?

The great trick of comedy, is its ability to let your guard down to things like that. Unlike sadness or outrage, also exploitable and addictive emotions, joy is positive, and there’s no reason to pull yourself away. Comedy also typically doesn’t take itself as seriously, so when there IS an emotional moment, you’re vulnerable and it hits you full force. Basically it’s like this:

And now, the most important thing that Yohaji does well IMO, is each chapter’s structure. With monthly manga, a huge problem is by the next month you’ve forgotten what the previous chapter was about. (This is a problem I personally have with a lot of the Jump SQ monthly mangas, that shit just keeps escalating and I don’t know what’s going on anymore and I’m just along for the ride) This isn’t even usually a problem with Yohaji, since most chapters are standalones anyway (or 2 parters) but we’ve gotten to see how it handles this with Renren arc and Kyoto arc, and I have to say, really well!

Each chapter sets up its own minor conflict and resolves it by the end, while also setting up a vague direction for the next chapter. And the first 1 or 2 pages of each chapter has enough information to remind you what happened previously. This self-contained conflict-resolution makes each chapter a lot more memorable and satisfying, as well as being more effective for establishing new information for the rest of the arc to act on. (See: the common complaint on monthly manga chapters of “what? that’s all that happened this month??”, which is what happens, I find, when you keep escalating and escalating without ever resolving anything)

Well. All that said, the simplest answer to “what makes this fun to read” could probably be boiled down to clear panelling and clean character designs. Without those nobody will stick around to see what else the manga has to offer. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal taste, and I think it’s better to have a specific target audience than casting the net wide, and it just happens you find out if you’re that target audience by page 2 of chapter 1.

#asks #rambles #i always feel like i go off topic when i write stuff like this and im gonna get docked points

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waterloggedsoliloquy · 14 hours

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remember reading comments on the rgu chruncyroll page and there were a lot of comments like "why the only dark skinned girl) calling saionji master why did he hit her" 🤨

and i can't speak for how well rgu handles race but i feel it doesn't take much to realize that you are not suppose to agree with anthys treatmeant

why were you reading comments on crunchyroll

jokes aside LMAO yeah its just fuckin dumb. the point of an audience surrogate or a watson (which is always an audience surrogate, but not every audience surrogate is a watson) is to ask questions and react to the world in order to give us a sense of what's normal and what isn't. this is especially important in fantasy settings, and settings where the rules are a lot looser. a good example is twilight sparkle in MLPFIM-- when she first comes to Ponyville and starts interacting with the other ponies, we get a sense of what magic is normal, what magic isn't. what behavior is normal, what behavior isn't. this is like storytelling 101.

so when the obvious audience surrogate and primary POV character of RGU, Utena Herself, begins the show with saying "This is too far, this isn't normal, someone should put a stop to this", even the most foolish of audience members is expected to understand the verbalized disapproval being shown to them. "why is she calling him that, why did he hit her?"

Things like the open-palm slap as physical abuse and school bullying is also a well-established trope in shoujo manga/anime, overwhelmingly depicted as the petty abuse that it is (petty here to mean "everyday, over small issues" not inconsequential). So if one had seen any shoujo anime or manga before, especially from the 80s-90s, one would understand the genre convention at play here as the shorthand for "this is a villain/school bully". and since RGU is a satire (and began as a parody of sailor moon) it relies HEAVILY on the genre conventions and tropes of works in the shoujo demographic and assumes that the audience is familiar with these tropes-- so they can play with them, turn them on their head, or deconstruct them later. it makes me wonder what people think of RGU if theyve come at it without any history with shoujo.

and RGU isn't perfect about race. there is a lot to critique there. but it also does have genuine things to say about racialized misogyny and colorism. randos on crunchyroll r just approaching it in bad faith at that point

#cecil drawls #hope this doesnt come off as me explainin to u smth you already know! just talking out my thoughts as i think them

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edalynn · 2 years

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huntlow shippers say its pretty much confirmed they'll be canon and i do see some of their arguments. blushing is used as shorthand for romantic feelings so it makes sense for some to interpret hunter blushing as a crush. and to make it more balanced shippers then look at scenes of them interacting and stretch the logic a bit to argue that willow also has a crush (though i absolutely don't see it lol).

but i feel like the crew is more teasing the fans with the ship than actually foreshadowing that it would happen in the story, you know? they go out of their way to avoid any actual conversation between hunter and willow after their first episode together. and even though hunter is given the "romantic" shorthands willow is given none.

in that one stream when someone asked if the ship would happen dana found it rly funny and reacted like they were going to tease the fandom with something unexpected. and they can't kill off one half of the ship bc that would go against the vibe of the story and hunter and willows character arcs. but if they're just going to make them canon then it's weird that dana would have such a big reaction to it. i would have just expected a cryptic smile and a "stay tuned ;DDD"

same with that one promo art of thanks to them with huntlow holding hands like if they do get together why would you show that on a piece of promo art? especially for an episode where they don't get together? it would have been more impactful if they just let it happen in the show without alluding to it in the promos. they definitely didn't do that for lumity or raeda. same thing with some other promo arts where huntlow are standing next to each other or that one where hunter is looking at willow.

i can buy that hunter has a crush but i can't see willow having one, or them getting together in a well-written way. im really hoping they go with the "willow rejects hunters love confession" route bc they haven't had a conversation in almost 10 episodes and i trust the crew to write romantic relationships better than that. i hope the crew's push for the huntlow ship is just a big troll on their part (although it would be kind of mean to huntlow shippers if it was just a troll)

The whole belief that it’s “confirmed canon” is honestly my biggest gripe with huntlows because the ones that insist it is canon are the ones that come after people that don’t ship it, as if there haven’t always been people in fandom spaces that actively ignore actual canon ships anyway. It’s definitely frustrating because blushing is often used as romantic shorthand, but toh has down an amazing job from day one of showing characters blushing at people they look up to or admire with absolutely no romantic context (I.e. Willow at Luz, or Luz at Eda which is CLEARLY one of awe and admiration) so I think if they pull the rug out from under shippers and have it said or implied “it was because he looked up to her the whole time, not romantic!” It would be very on brand and also hilarious. And if it IS a crush, I’m going to decide to ignore canon and say Hunter has very little social skills and has no idea what just admiring and wanting to be a person’s friend feels like so he thinks it’s romantic attraction lol. In the other hand with Willow, she clearly has no romantic interest in him whatsoever. As I said before, we’ve seen Willow blush and it’s only ever been in a platonic sense (aroace Willow 👀) so if that’s shippers’ marker for romantic attraction she definitely is NOT interested in him in that way.

I definitely agree with you that it feels like a tease, and it would definitely be Dana’s MO for a show she’s so heavily laden with queer rep for the straight “couple” to get the usual queerbait treatment. It would feel like a fuck you to Disney and every other show that has made queer ppl the butt of their jokes for so many years and I think that’s beautiful. Also im so glad you think the same thing about that stream. I’ve said the EXACT same thing in the past- that reaction was definitely not a blushy uwu my pairing reaction that was the reaction of a person that has some shit up her sleeve in regards to the question lmfao. Dana hasn’t reacted that way visibly about lumity OR raeda which she later in the same stream said was her favorite ship, so reacting that way to a ship that’s not even canon and that fans are constantly theorizing about seems SO un-Dana terrace to me. Like I cannot stress enough how much that would not make sense lmao.

I haven’t seen the promo art of them holding hands??? Kind of glad I haven’t seen it? But yeah, the way they’re always looking at each other in promo art. It definitely seems like a tease, though because none of those episodes have really had them interacting at all. I genuinely cannot see how they could produce a well written romance like you said even before this last episode, but ESPECIALLY now after this last episode. It would feel cheap and like they’re using a romance as the thing to heal hunter after all the trauma he’s gone through. With flapjack, you know,, and being the most important thing in Hunter’s life, it feels they’ve narratively gone too far for huntlow to end up being anything more than a “sure your best friend might have died to save your life, but you’re all better now because the girl said yes :)” type deal. It makes me feel kinda sick thinking about it because it would feel disrespectful to everything he’s just gone through. Hunter needs time to grieve and re-find himself, the thought of him having any romantic feelings for anyone/a crush on anyone after what happened wouldn’t make sense. Like “oh yeah that was traumatizing, but potential romance!!”. Like it would be shelving all the trauma he now needs to process and make flapjack’s sacrifice feel so cheap because I cannot see hunter having any interest in anything like that anymore directly after that’s happened. When people are traumatized like that they tend to close off, emotions shut down, etc (not to say that’s exactly what will happen, but it narratively makes sense after all that with how we already know hunter acts) and wouldn’t actively be thinking about a romance but would more likely be distancing himself. I swear to god if we get a scene of the hexsquad and camila of hunter explaining being a grimwalker/what all happened and it ends with him blushing at Willow because she for once ever does something romantic back or just hugs him or something I will snap because like I said it would make it feel like flapjacks sacrifice is being pushed to the wayside just to further a random ship that barely has any canon evidence. It already would have felt cheap to make it canon before, but it REALLY would now. That being said, I agree with you that I trust that if they were going to end up romantic the crew would have done much better writing for it rather than it feeling like a constant tease AND I trust Dana to handle the aftermath of all the shown physical abuse Hunter just experienced better than to make huntlow canon to “fix him”. The amazing quality of writing for lumity and raeda really doesn’t lend high hopes for huntlow actually becoming canon & I hope it stays that way for the sake of the writing.

#taako talks #toh #toh spoilers #the owl house #toh hunter #hunter toh #hunter wittebane #hunter clawthorne #hunter noceda #asks #sorry this took a few days I wanted to respond meaningfully

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vermillioncrown · 2 years

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i want to say something adjacent to the post i reblogged, re: op's request and perspective for not wanting mdzs/cql meta tagged as 'worldbuilding' or 'lore'.

i almost didn't reblog it. not that i didn't empathize nor understand why that post was made, but it felt like... not my place to say since i didn't do meta.

but it made me realize the feeling it stirred up in me was the type of avoidance and deflection learned after years of growing up as diaspora, being treated as alien, learning how to laugh off and play ignorant to microaggressions and other off-color remarks just so i didn't 'rock the boat'.

first and foremost, if i was still doing that, i wouldn't have written dream before daybreak. i want people to know that no matter the humor, no matter the silliness, the inherent cringe and self-indulgence of writing an si: i wrote that because it made sense. the feeling of isolation, of being not quite right - isekai into something that didn't require handwaving to understand and survive because the culture should fit; and it doesn't. and it will never. it is analogous to my diaspora experience. no other piece of media ever felt quite right to write for - if you've seen my 'project: double bastard' tab, i've had naruto brain rot since middle school. that's nearly two decades. and yet it was this story that i found and immediately latched onto.

mdzs is a chinese story. sounds obvious, right? because a lot of us are writing in english, communicating with other english-speaking fans, you can say you know but your brain is very good at getting used to things. if this is not a conscious thing that you are looking out for, you will miss it if you're not chinese.

i am happy to interact w readers, write funny and absurd things, be a clown, make connections, all that. i also don't treat writing that seriously as a craft. i do treat the content of what i write with deliberation, though - no matter the spectrum of silly-to-serious, from an ask that's joking around to each chapter i publish. the cultural consideration is always there in everything i post for mdzs or svsss. it's overtly there for chinese-based media, and i can't hide even if i tried for everything else because that's who i am. i am diaspora chinese.

my writing can stand on its own without the cultural perspective (eh. maybe not with the bilingualism in dream before daybreak). you can still enjoy it. i've put it out there, it is free to read, no one can stop you. but this is from the mouth of the author: you will never understand or follow 100% why something is happening if you are unable or unwilling to recognize that the base media and my fanfics are chinese (chinese-adjacent) by nature. even in something as cracky as lorenz attractors resemble butterflies - especially for that fic. it's easier to forget because i'm not up in your face with the chinese phrases all the time. and it's the collective effort of all the readers willing to have fun with me, so it seems very light-hearted and for the lulz.

here's me telling you the effort it takes to write that fic, hell, the entirety of the 'endure through the night' series. every piece of dialogue is thought through for how it might sound in chinese. i need to carefully balance zyx's inner thoughts versus how they'd talk. mannerisms. how someone is thinking. i also can't help that i'm american, and have english essentially as my first language. i'm always catching myself through speed writes, editing my drafts, correcting my outlines because some shorthand or thoughts came out automatically from a western perspective.

i try to keep things civil and fun on my blog because frankly, i wouldn't have the energy to deal with a perpetual fight in something that's my hobby. however, this is an important fight, one that i'm part of regardless of choice. this post was written as-is, so it is likely not very concise and hard to follow. but i hope that if you took the time to read it, you guys can continue to have fun reading my work but also have more understanding of where it comes from. i believe that understanding can only lead to more enjoyment.

#redglyphs #no one has been overtly rude to me in this fandom #but living as someone 'different' doesn't require overt rudeness to feel unwelcome #and it gets fucking tiring #and moreso because of the fact you feel tired somewhere you should be able to call home #i will never become a meta blog #but am happy to provide my thoughts on a thing if people ask in good faith and are willing to learn #and also understand i'm not perfect and my voice is just one of many as well #... okay i think one weirdo was rude to me but that was more baffling than anything #opinionated verm

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ukus-so-much-potential · 2 years

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Mixed Signals; Junior Year, January; Rated M

James Elliott is the history teacher with whom Arthur shares his office and he is also the assistant coach for the boys’ swim team. For this reason, Arthur doesn’t initially do anything other than nod congenially when Elliott enters, but he does note that there must be a meet this evening since he is already dressed in his team t-shirt and jumper.

Elliott does have a certain urgent energy about him as he checks his phone and his email, cursing under his breath.

“Is everything alright?” Arthur finally asks.

“Ahhhhh, yeah. Sorta. Two of my timers called out. Now we’re even more shorthanded than usual and since we’re hosting the meet, we’re supposed to provide the timers, so I’m in a bit of a bind.”

Arthur nods and returns to his grading. “That’s a shame. It can be hard to find reliable help for things like that.”

Elliott sighs. “Yeah. So what if we don’t pull in the backer money that the football team does? We still need help.” He pauses. “Hey Kirkland, I really hate to ask this, but would you mind helping out? Just this once, I swear.”

Arthur freezes, clenching his pen tightly. He could help, he would be happy to help really, he’s ahead of schedule with his grading and his lesson plans are complete through the end of next month. There’s only one problem. Alfred is on the swim team. He has made a point of telling Arthur so. Against his better judgment, Arthur says, “Alright. I’ll do it. Just this once.”

“Thank God, you’re a life saver! I owe you one.”

Arthur can’t even admit to himself what it is he can’t, doesn’t want, to face... a half naked, soaking wet Alfred. And Arthur certainly doesn’t want to give Alfred the satisfaction of knowing he has seen him in that state.

Yet he finds himself at the indoor pool, a digital stopwatch in his hand, while students stretch, rest, hydrate, and laugh and joke with each other. The sounds echo off the walls and the humidity and heat of the large room coupled with the strong smell of chlorine make Arthur dizzy.

“Hey, Arthur,” Alfred’s familiar voice murmurs from behind him, just a little too close.

Arthur whips around to glare at him. He notes that Alfred is thankfully well covered by his hoodie. “It’s Mr. Kirkland to you.”

A delighted smirk twists its way from Alfred’s mouth up to his eyes. “You come to watch me?”

Part of what irritates Arthur the most about Alfred’s ridiculous infatuation is the fact that he actually quite likes Alfred. Or rather, he would easily say Alfred is one of his favorite students if not for said infatuation. He’s a bright young man with a lot of excellent ideas about class material as well as other things--when he can be arsed to participate. Arthur thoroughly enjoys having similarly intelligent students in his other classes, yet Alfred has ruined what could have been a perfectly pleasant, perfectly healthy teacher-student dynamic. Arthur wishes he could say it is all Alfred’s fault. “I came to help Mr. Elliott,” he says, “Apparently, he needs people to keep time.”

“But you could have said no,” Alfred says. He’s not yet taller than Arthur, but he’s tall enough to meet him at eye level. He shrugs casually. “Not much to see anyway, right? It’s all underwater and you ain’t lookin’ of course.”

Arthur rolls his eyes. “Your grammar is atrocious. I should make you stay after class and diagram sentences until your brain leaks out of your ears.” He removes his waistcoat and rolls up his sleeves, which is probably a mistake since he catches Alfred honing in on his tattoos--again, but the heat is getting to him.

Alfred huffs a laugh. “You can make me stay after class any time you want, Arthur. But you’re too scared.” Before Arthur can respond, Alfred walks away, whistling innocently.

Thankfully, the infamous Speedo brief has fallen out of fashion and the current mode is for male swimmers to wear skin tight shorts that reach almost to the knees. It’s not much better, but Arthur’s sanity definitely prefers Alfred in those. The other boys, of course, of course because he is a normal human adult, don’t catch his eye in the slightest. Only Alfred.

Thankfully, Alfred is on varsity and Arthur is spared from timing varsity given that he is new at this and that their times matter more than junior varsity and the rest of the team.

Unfortunately, this affords Arthur the opportunity to observe with full attention while Alfred swims. Alfred was right though, there isn’t much to see in the water. All of the swimmers in Alfred’s races are so fast that it’s generally just a blur of furious white splashing. But he does not miss the powerful roll of Alfred’s shoulders during the 100m butterfly race nor his stamina during the 500m freestyle. He surely does not miss the way Alfred effortlessly hoists himself out of the water after each race, yanking off his goggles and silicone cap, scrubbing his hand through his wet hair. It’s impossible to miss the little grin Alfred sends his way each time.

At about the fourth time, Arthur leaves the pool area to get fresh air. He paces in the hallway, wondering what the hell is wrong with Alfred. Wondering what the hell is wrong with himself. He shouldn’t be feeling these things he can’t even name for fear of breaking some kind of dam in his mind. Alfred is sixteen.

Sixteen.

Arthur wants to attribute all of this to his own frustration brought on by going just a little bit too long without sex. Which he wants to do with an adult. Not a sixteen year old.

Alfred suddenly opens the door and stands directly in front of Arthur. “Hey Arthur--”

“That’s Mr. Kirkland,” Arthur grinds out.

Alfred grins like the cat that got the canary. “How come you had to step out? The chlorine go to your head or something?”

Alfred has a towel draped around his broad shoulders and his goggles hung around his neck. He’s damp, but not dripping wet and Arthur can see his toned body very clearly--lean chest and strong thighs and god damn it. Damn it.

Alfred gives him a sweet smile with half-lidded eyes before he places his cold hands on Arthur’s flushed cheeks and kisses him, eagerly, warmly, rather ineptly, just like the last time. His towel falls to the floor in the process.

Arthur melts for what surely is less than a second, but then snatches Alfred’s wrists and pushes him back. “Are you mad? What do you think you’re doing?””

Alfred frowns momentarily, but shakes it off and grins cheekily. “I dunno, teach, you’re kinda giving me mixed signals here, so I thought I’d try and do a close reading, like we talked about in class.”

“There are no mixed signals!” Arthur growls. “I am your teacher. Your are my student and a child with a bad crush. You need to work on directing that energy toward someone your own age, is that clear?”

Alfred picks up his towel and flings it over one shouler as he turns to head back into the pool. “Sure thing, Mr. Kirkland, I’ll work on that. You did kiss me back though.”

Arthur stands, frozen, his fingers pressed to his lips of their own will. Bloody hell, had he?

#so much potential au

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peysk · 10 months

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It's weird how "ironic memes" as such are not nearly as much of a thing in japanese popular web culture. memes that are sarcastically making fun of something, yes, purposely badly drawn image memes, yes, internet memes that are deadpan, surealist, nonsensical, yes. But the medium itself of "the meme" is not put into question basically at all. the anglosphere's use of "top text bottom text" , how that evolved through all of its phases, and doge and what that did to memes, and demotivational posters. I get the impression that those memes way more significantly affected chinese meme culture than japanese. It's also interesting how in japan old media and new media have always had a fuzzy boundary. it feels like old media can easily appropriate or reference new media culture without much issue. old media personalities doing new media things is not seen as cringe or tryharding nearly as much. Stories of youtuber drama and tv personality drama are not that different, it's all kind of 芸能界.

All of this to say i saw a tiktok which i think was originally from douyin of a lady doing man on the street interviews with invariably attractive people and at one point there's a "sigma bale" meme reference and i realized the shorthand of "we're referencing the idea of as a joke treating the ideals people project onto patrick bateman as good advice and showing two seconds of american psycho footage with the words 'don't fall into the woman trap' to punctuate humorously the fact that this interviewee said he doesn't care that much about going on dates with women" is just not a thing you see in popular japanese tiktoks and shorts. in general foreign memes don't penetrate japan's borders nearly as much

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thedevilscarnival · 3 years

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wish you people would stop making elias your by the book hyper-feminine homophobic gay stereotype. i know the hot new trend is all about making characters “gay and homophobic” or whatever but making him wear heels and eyeliner and saying that he’s the “only gay person who doesnt get rights” when the popular designs for almost all other mlm characters (jon/martin/tim/oliver/etc) aren’t nearly as feminine just comes off as saying gnc men are inherently evil and deviant. if your design for your gay antagonist (that you say doesnt have rights!) looks like a british version of him from the powerpuff girls, i think you need to do some self evaluation.

#korro.txt #tma #elias bouchard #i know that there is a fine line between inherently choosing to play into historically harmful stereotypes as a form of catharsis #but the way tma fandom treats gnc men as a joke and almost decides to make the antagonists the gnc ones #while straight up saying that they are worth ''less'' than the comparatively more gender conforming popular designs for the main cast #it has some extremely unfortunate implications #uhh #i guess #discourse #you could also argue a similar point with michael but ive mostly just seen this with elias #you can have gnc elias designs! just be aware of the very real harm gnc men have faced due to harmful stereotypes in media #and make sure to not accidently emulate or contribute to them #also before anyone brings up ''but op people draw jon in dresses all the time!'' the way jon is portrayed is almost always positively #and rejoices in his non adherence to cis gender norms #however when elias is gnc its almost always either because of a punchline or because of Course the snooty victorian would be feminine #tma fandom does not rejoice when the make elias feminine like they do with jon. they do it as either a form of subconscious mockery #or as visual shorthand to show that ''hey! this guy is evil!''#jonah magnus #ok to rb #tma discourse

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tepkunset · 4 years

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Look, I find “folx” strange too. I don’t see the point in changing an already gender-neutral word such as “folks”. In fact until just today I thought it was a joke.

But I gotta tell ya, I’m really wishing people wouldn’t drag the honorific “Mx” into this debate.

There is no preexisting gender-neutral form of “Mr” or “Ms”

It has an actual pronunciation (“Mix”)

There are real life situations demanding you use an honorific; some documents I use at work for example have a place to fill it in, and I’ve been using “Mx” on them for like a year now

It’s been in the dictionary since 2017, but has history of usage going back to the 1970′s; it’s not even new

The difference is “Mx” is expanding the English language to fill in a gap, whereas “Folx” is gratuitous.

(But for the record, I got nothing personally against people who use “folx”. Suit yourself or whatever, I really don’t care, so long as you’re not pushing that everyone must use it.)

EDIT: Some people are saying “folx” is just aave or internet shorthand. But seriously, I learned yesterday that people are using it to be gender-neutral form of an already gender-neutral word. They doing the same thing with “y’xll” and dear lord, I’ve seen “wxmen” which I’m not even sure what that one is supposed to be about. If it’s coming from aave then that’s all the more reason I don’t see the point in changing its meaning / usage.

#non binary #genderqueer #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbt+

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alifeasvivid · 3 years

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related to the student/teacher au. this bit would take place a little ways along, Alfred’s junior year, when Arthur knows that he is quite possibly in actual danger of liking Alfred too much.

[the reason Alfred is on the swim team and not any other team is that it doesn’t consume your life with hours and hours of practice and extra team-bonding activities. You practice for two hours a day, you go to meets a couple times a month, you race, you cheer for you buds. You don’t have to be super committed and I want Alfred to have lots of time to spend seducing harassing bothering Arthur.]

Elliott does have a certain urgent energy about him as he checks his phone and his email, cursing under his breath.

“Is everything alright?” Arthur finally asks.

Arthur nods and returns to his grading. “That’s a shame. It can be hard to find reliable help for things like that.”

“Thank God, you’re a life saver! I owe you one.”

“Hey, Arthur,” Alfred’s familiar voice murmurs from behind him, just a little too close.

Arthur whips around to glare at him. He notes that Alfred is thankfully well covered by his hoodie. “It’s Mr. Kirkland to you.”

A delighted smirk twists its way from Alfred’s mouth up to his eyes. “You come to watch me?”

Alfred huffs a laugh. “You can make me stay after class any time you want, Arthur. But you’re too scared.” Before Arthur can respond, Alfred walks away, whistling innocently.

Thankfully, Alfred is on varsity and Arthur is spared from timing varsity given that he is new at this and that their times matter more than junior varsity and the rest of the team.

Sixteen.

Arthur wants to attribute all of this to his own frustration brought on by going just a little bit too long without sex. Which he wants to do with an adult. Not a sixteen year old.

Alfred suddenly opens the door and stands directly in front of Arthur. “Hey Arthur--”

“That’s Mr. Kirkland,” Arthur grinds out.

Alfred grins like the cat that got the canary. “How come you had to step out? The chlorine go to your head or something?”

Arthur melts for what surely is less than a second, but then snatches Alfred’s wrists and pushes him back. “Are you mad? What do you think you’re doing?””

Alfred picks up his towel and flings it over one shouler as he turns to head back into the pool. “Sure thing, Mr. Kirkland, I’ll work on that. You did kiss me back though.”

Arthur stands, frozen, his fingers pressed to his lips of their own will. Bloody hell, had he?

#usuk #ukus #wfsn-ish #student/teacher au #poor Arthur #he's trying so hard to be good #okay i edited it now

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ilikekidsshows · 3 years

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Great points about bully characters. I like how miraculous handles Chloé so far. With set ups where she had chances to be better while she herself doesn't realise there's a problem with how she treats people she sees as lower. Even if she gets a redemption, its more impactful if she realises there is a need to change herself and her behaviour to others to be better instead of others just all accepting her being mean. ppl can't be forced to change, they have to realise & want to themselves

Thanks. And yes, exactly. Chloé's change has to come from Chloé realizing there is a problem and fixing it. Other characters deciding Chloé is a good person because she belongs to a superhero team sometimes while she doesn't alter her everyday behavior one bit actually strips Chloé of her agency and goes against the show's theme of self-actualization. It also says others decide whether you're redeemed or not, not your own actions.

@chicoriii pointed out that some people want a Chloé redemption arc because they see that as character development and yeah, I've seen that defense about as often as the projection one, so agreed. However, the people claiming this are missing an important fact: the kind of "redemption" where Chloé doesn't do anything to earn it and other characters just start reacting to her differently is not really character development either. That's changing the status quo and not the character. If others accepted Chloé without her changing, that's the other characters changing, not Chloé.

Just like Bakugou being accepted as "Midorya's friend" in Hero Academia didn't require Bakugou to alter his behavior towards his classmates at all. The other characters just decided that, because he does a competent job as a superhero, he's now a good person and fun to be around even as he spouts verbal abuse at them all. Bakugou's status in the class changed, not him as a character, and it's caused him to be very divisive among the fandom, because people diagree on whether or not he deserves to be viewed as a good guy in-universe.

The Chloé situation is the exact same, but the story decided to side with the other interpretation. Chloé never once altered her behavior towards her classmates in the show, but she was sometimes a competent superhero. Miraculous' narrative declared that this meant that she was still a bad person who hadn't changed just because she's good at a job. The fans defending Chloé are going against what the narrative is telling us, and instead claim there was a redemption arc going on that was then backtracked on.

It's a bit like relying too much on tropes when telling a story. Usually, when a character is an archetype, you use that archetype to set up the starting point and then start fleshing out the character from there. However, when a writer relies too much on tropes, they forget to establish their characters properly, expecting people to just get the shorthand. Like, very often modern "Jerk With a Heart of Gold" characters are just jerks with some sympathetic traits. They never treat anyone kindly ever, but the narrative treats them like they do and the other characters are more sympathetic towards the jerk character than they'd be in real life. Just watch any DC production with John Constantine and you'll see what I mean. He's an asshole but his life is a mess and he has witty oneliners, that means he's actually nice deep down!

Seeing Chloé as "the character that was supposed to be redeemed but then wasn't and the showrunner did it specifically to hurt this character and her fans" is the fan version of this. Chloé is the jerk with a Freudian Excuse, not the Jerk With a Heart of Gold, but we're so used to getting the latter that people have started having difficulties with recognizing the former. Sometimes a villain has sympathetic traits and it's not a way to pave way for a redemption arc, but simply meant to make them a more nuanced character. Some filler to fill out that character sheet, so it's not just an archetype. It's good writing.

The people claiming that Marinette is a terrible person, or toxic, or purposefully mistreating Cat Noir are using another track to do the same thing as the people caliming Chloé was totally owed a character arc. They're saying the show has "bad writing" to justify themselves wanting different things from the narrative or willfully seeing things that aren't there. Marinette making mistakes and sometimes not even learning a lesson is good writing. Chloé having a reason for being awful is good writing. The show making these characters more nuanced doesn't change the fact that only one of these two characters wants good for others and the other only bad for others. Just a hint: Marinette is the one always wishing for others to be fine and happy.

Gendo Ikari tragically lost his wife in an accident years before Evangelion happens. Does this mean he's actually a good person whose heartless using of the people around him is justified and he gets redeemed? If Joker's (probably made up) backstory in the Killing Joke where he lost his wife and unborn child was actually true, would it justify him being the most dangerous criminal in Gotham's history? Is Gabriel's abuse of Adrien justified because Emilie is missing? Is André spoiling Chloé justified because his wife emotionally abuses and domineers him?

What would you require from these other characters to consider them "redeemed"? Probably for them to change their ways and make it up to the people they hurt in some way. Then how come Chloé was totally having a redemption arc in seasons 2 and 3 that was cancelled if she never did either of those things? The only trait about her that's sympathetic is that she's an abusive victim and wasn't raised right. Things done by other characters. For the narrative that Chloé has good in her to thrive, Chloé would need to express it, and so far she hasn't. Chloé is actively making the choice to do bad things. Chloé chooses to be bad. So, unless that changes, she will never be a good guy.

#ml fandom salt #ml meta #media and fandom response

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presumenothing · 3 years

Text

first: do no harm

(AO3)

Dr. Mensah’s attention zeroed in on me like a well-tuned surgery bot arm. “You have medical training.”

I was going to deny the hell out of that. I really was.

And then I said: “Not recently,” instead of no or even more accurately I frankly don’t think the company’s education modules count as training by your standards. (As far as I was concerned, the only thing worse than those modules was the one on breaking bad news, but what did I know. Maybe humans actually felt comforted by those tactics they described.) (No, I didn’t think that was likely, either.)

Which reminded me of a necessary addition. “The company won’t cover liabilities related to any non-security tasks you assign me to, if that’s what you’re intending.”

Mensah made a sound that was both grim and viciously annoyed at once, which I immediately saved for further analysis and replication. “Then we’ll just have to not make any mistakes, won’t we?”

–

I hadn’t exactly been thrilled with getting assigned to this mission. Not that mining installations were much of a walk in the park, but this was just asking to turn up memories that were better off buried (preferably forever) in my organic parts.

I don’t usually pay attention to mission briefs, as you may have noticed, and I wouldn’t have this time either except that my half-assed scan turned up the fact that the team weren’t science-doctors on a survey like I’d initially assumed, but medical-doctors. On a medical mission.

Of course they were.

(I wanted to say that someone had allocated me to this on purpose, but realistically speaking the company didn’t give enough of a shit, and the universe disliked me enough that this could totally be pure chance.)

Considering all that, the mission so far had been… much less worse than it could’ve been. Though the bar for that was admittedly very, very low. Possibly somewhere in the negatives.

Anyway. Up until the whole thing with Bharadwaj and Volescu getting almost-but-not-eaten, the task of making sure no one died had mostly been the clients’ job for once, which was a nice change since they were actually competent at it.

I still didn’t care enough to read their background info, but it was pretty clear just from observing that these doctors had experience with working in less-than-great conditions, even if Ratthi did sometimes sigh wistfully about equipment they couldn’t have in field hospitals. It meant that my job had pretty much amounted to patrolling, lurking visibly around the supplies storage in case anyone got ideas about that, and helping to fetch various medical items when I happened to be there and it wasn’t Gurathin asking.

It wasn’t terrible. I’d even got some media-watching time in.

(There might have been the vague thought that things could’ve gone much better if I’d been deployed with a team like this instead of Corporation Rim fuckery that literally bled payment from patients, but part of the reason medical-use constructs had been developed in the first place was so that hospitals could draw up forty-hour shifts and other assorted fun without worrying about doctor and surgeon unions, which told you everything you needed to know about our existence.

Also, the thought was inherently depressing and I already had enough of that in my head, thank you very much.)

The contract was more than halfway through. All I had needed to do to avoid awkward questions was continue making sure no one noticed that I was weirdly well-versed in all this, which wasn’t difficult since they only seemed to have theoretical knowledge about SecUnits at best.

Then the fauna happened, and poof went my cover.

Now all of PresAux knew I was – whatever the hell you called a catastrophically failed MedUnit who got turned loose onto security, because at least if I screwed up here the press wouldn’t be as bad. And that wasn’t even getting into the hacked governor module.

Even constructs didn’t have a term for all that.

–

Of course, none of that stopped this from being a Very Bad Idea. Even if apparently no one except Gurathin (ugh) seemed to agree.

“I’m a SecUnit, Dr. Mensah. I scare people. Patients are harder to assess when they’re running away.” I thought basic logistics might work here.

“You had better bedside manner with Bharadwaj and Volescu than many doctors I’ve seen. Human ones, might I add, and not actively injured themselves at the time.” Mensah’s tone was brisk as her pace – which wasn’t difficult to keep up with either, given my vertical advantage, but impressive nonetheless. “And no one wants to be around Pin-Lee when she’s holding a scalpel. That’s what the sedation is for.”

It’s because SecUnit hasn’t seen her in court yet. Trust me, it’s much scarier, Ratthi chimed in over the feed, with the text signifier for “amusement” but not “joke”.

Pin-Lee just smiled.

It was terrifying. I wasn’t even looking directly at her.

“I don’t have a valid license.” That’d been a part of the legal fallout from the disaster on RaviHyral, though no one had actually bothered with adding malpractice charges or barring me from ever doing medicine again. (Just another side effect of being considered as equipment – I doubted the company would’ve even secured licenses for constructs if not for their paranoia about covering their asses on all fronts.)

But it was a last resort argument, and I knew it.

Mensah knew it, too. “There’s special dispensations for that, especially under the current circumstances, as long as a fully-licensed doctor is in the vicinity at all times. It’s not like any of us can actually get out of each other’s hair in this base anyway.”

Mensah had stopped in a less-chaotic corner and turned to me, not that she could see anything behind the faceplate. I fixed my gaze a generous distance to the left and let my drones do the looking.

“I’m not going to make you agree. You perform a valuable function as our security – far more than I had initially expected, to be honest, and we would all be grateful if you kept doing that. But with Bharadwaj down for the count and Volescu still recovering, we could do with the help.” Her expression was still steady as ever, even though she probably knew better than I did the risks of continuing to operate shorthanded like this. “It’s your decision, SecUnit.”

Right, just the very thing I didn’t need to hear.

I kept most of my sigh internal. “Triage and first-aid only, between patrols. No procedures, and I won’t be responsible if any patients freak out.”

Mensah nodded. “Of course. Gurathin’s on receiving duty today, how about you work out a roster with him?”

I knew it. This was a bad idea.

–––––

You’d be my guardian.

Yes. The education opportunities – most of us were trained on Preservation, if you’re interested in learning and getting your license properly this time. Or not. You can do anything you want.

–––––

ART barged its way into my feed. You’re exhibiting a mildly elevated temperature and respiration rate. Though it could of course merely be a sign of inferior processors rather than emotional distress.

Do you talk to your clients like that?

Do you? ART retorted right back, but obligingly brought up the documentation for its MedSystem before I finished the query for it.

I ignored ART’s attention (with some difficulty) as I flicked quickly through the top few files, taking in the glaring disparities from my existing data. The notable lack of suggesting costly procedures that no-one actually needed, for starters. I’m assuming some of these are your improvements on standard procedure?

I am the cutting edge of medical research, ART proclaimed. You couldn’t accuse it of humility if you tried.

I still wasn’t sure what I wanted, and I still didn’t want anyone to decide it for me. But moving towards the one thing I did want (at least in the short term) had ended up with me running into what was very possibly the most advanced and opinionated diagnosis-treatment AI currently in existence, because that was just the kind of luck I had.

I didn’t have a medium-duty surgical suite in my arms anymore, since that was the entire point of modular Unit construction, but neither did Mensah.

And I didn’t think I wanted to stop doing security, anyway, since it turned out I might not be completely terrible at it; having actual medical knowledge that was MedSystem-malfunction-proof couldn’t hurt.

Plus, overwriting those shitty education modules seemed like a pretty great fuck-you to the company. I was always interested in that.

I tagged some of the more emergency-related files, then added a bunch of the weirder injuries I’d seen on contracts, and prodded ART. Tell me about these?

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot #murderbot fic #tmbd #fanfiction #mine #long post #me staring at the wordcount in disbelief: okay then #????

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