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artbyblastweave · 3 months

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hello. I am in the middle of doing My Take on vampires and would appreciate your thoughts on Them in fiction. they don't seem to pop up more than occasionally in superhero media, but also you are pretty widely read & they have noticeable Eras/Tendencies that I can see.

I'm definitely not as much of a vampire guy as I'm a Superhero guy, so all my opinions on vampires should be taken with a grain of salt, and with the knowledge that a lot of this is stuff I've picked up through Osmosis and the occasional lit-review for that one class in college. But here goes-

One of my potentially more controversial takes about Vampires is that I think Vampires (and adjacent creatures like werewolves) are great at capturing the emotional truth of being part of a marginalized group, or sometimes just for being subaltern- the world against you, people make you feel like you're wrong for existing, that you're dangerous, etc.- and this is why they go gangbusters both on this website and in general. But the narrative often faceplants for me if it tries to portray vampires as a literal marginalized group because all of that stuff is often objectively true within the fiction in a way that it isn't true of real-life marginalized groups. It's a souped-up version of the X-men problem, because most of the X-Men aren't obligate cannibals! The result of this is that there have been several times I'm consuming something vampire-related that wants me to primarily sympathize with the vampires, and meanwhile I'm going "geez, that's a rough deal, but I think you all need to be killed on purely utilitarian grounds, sorry."

(I do also get the sense as well, right, that this is inextricably tangled up in the fact that a lot of foundational vampire literature was kind of just taking a lot of the horrible lies people tell about the scapegoat group du jour to justify their oppression and then making a guy of whom these things were objectively true. I get the impression, at a distance, that Dracula demonstrates like fourteen different flavors of "Those Depraved Easterners Are Coming For Our Women," although to truly lock in that Take I'm gonna have to read the thing instead of just absorbing it through Tumblr Osmosis whenever Dracula Daily is running.) There are ways to thread this needle, the big one of which is to just sand down the negative externalities of vampirism. Have them feed on animals or voluntary donors or make the human predation thing an in-universe slanderous fiction to begin with. Have them feed on exclusively on quote-unquote "criminals," if you have the right unexamined assumptions about the validity of the death penalty. Go the Elder Scrolls route, where drinking blood isn't necessary to survive but is necessary to maintain a human appearance, thus ensuring that the most morally conscientious vampires are the ones most likely to be identified as vampires and scapegoated by the angry mob. The issue I sometimes take with this is that the act of implementing a "fix" of any kind can sort of broadcast that you're trying to have your cake and eat it too- that you're cutting away the ideatic core of what makes vampires interesting when divorced from metaphor, taken objectively- that they're living trolley problems. As others have said, if you sand them down too much, what are you getting out of a vampire story that you couldn't get from a Tolkien Elf, or from Batman?

A fictional group which I've never really had this issue with, though, is Zombies, in the Romero tradition. When a work wants to construct Zombies as a primarily sympathetic group, it's much easier for me to get on board with that without feeling like the core Vibe has been compromised. This is because there's actually a fairly recent source text for zombies in the form of Romero's Living Dead films, and a major component of the Living Dead films is how much it sucks without recourse to become a zombie.

I was working on a post once, which I never finished, about how there are like, three-to-four vectors of horror that zombies can embody, which different works play up to different extents. While obviously one of the big straightforward ones is the fear that your entire community starts trying to kill you and eat you one day for basically no reason, a major anxiety on display in the original Living Dead trilogy- Dawn in particular- is that in the face of a weird but manageable problem human society would act as its own condemnation, totally failing to rise to the challenge-the horror is that we would let something as inept as a zombie be dangerous to us! Also present in those films? The horror of the idea that your daily routine is so rote and conformist that you wouldn't need to be sentient to continue to carry it out- that the biggest difference between you and them is that you can occasionally be evil in more interesting and evolved ways. And there's this fear of physically and mental degradation with zombies, which for a host of reasons I find extremely fucking relatable. The sense that your body is falling apart piecemeal, bits of you sloughing off when you turn the wrong way or turn your head too quickly. There's this fog over your thinking. The bone-deep knowledge that you used to be more, and are now fundamentally less capable- that there's just enough of you left to understand something is missing. (Read into my personal circumstances whatever you want from this.) Being a zombie is foundationally, fundamentally gross in a way that being a vampire isn't; when people try to do "sexy zombies" half the joke is the pairing of those two words. There's this horror comic Kieth Giffen did once called Tag which is basically entirely about the horror of being a corpse that could feel it; I think about that comic a lot. Anyway, because so much of the horror of zombism is external to whether they're actually attacking and killing people or not, you can totally sell me on zombies as an unfairly-maligned demographic in a way that's much harder for me to buy with Vampires- dropping the danger they pose to other people allows you to maintain so much more of the core of the thing than it does with Vampires, where it feels much more like you're tip-toeing around the tensions between Wanting To Have Fun and the moral horror inherent to what you're trying to have fun with.

#sorry for hijacking your ask to talk about zombies!#not sorry enough to not do it obviously #ask #thoughts #meta #vampires #zombies #untitled zombie project #night of the living dead

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two-white-butterflies · 10 months

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fence | d. targaryen

Description: Daemon Targaryen meets his best friend's daughter in a Taylor Swift concert.

Genre: social media au

Rating: Teen [age gap, dad's best friend, beach au]

Author's Note: picture below is by the lovely @nyctophilic0vitnir 🥰

Daemon's smiles slowly - seeing that both of his daughters were enjoying the concert. Of course, it cost him a fortune - but anything for his twins. "If we survived the Great War!" Baela kept singing and dancing to the sound of Taylor's acoustic melody.

"Uhuh, uhuh..." she hummed while holding her sister's hand.

Daemon turns to the scene in front of him - another woman was blocking his view. You were wearing a white button down shirt, and colorful pants that were decorated with purple-pink butterflies.

"Clôture," he mumbled in French, and to his surprise you turned around. "Excusez-moi?" your eyebrows merged into each other. "Sorry," he rolled his eyes - not in the mood to get into a fight.

A frown is permanently etched on his face after that.

Annoying.

ilikesojubutsojissilent 🔐 some old asshole called me a fence in taylor's concert....like know ur place oldieee mcoldddieee

swanchiken9: didn't u call him 'lana del rey' vinyl? - ilikesojubutsojissilent: I CAN'T REMEMBER THAT

ssexretary22: 'idc if he cheats on me or something but he's kinda hot' - ilikesojubutsojissilent: THE VOICES, THE MF VOICES 🥰

Of course, fate wasn't happy with just one interaction.

Daemon saw you again - a few weeks after the concert.

"Ah, this is my daughter." Harwin smiles, pulling you closer to his body. "Last time I saw her, she was still 'this' tall." Laenor chuckled, hands pointing at his knees. Oh, does he remember seeing you - the little cunt that blocked his view during the concert.

"She's already taller than you," Harwin laughed, gaze trailing towards Daemon. "Don't remind me." Laenor rolled his eyes while taking a swig of his beer. His jaw clenches seeing you in front of him.

Plump lips that were perfect for kissing - eyes that were perfect for staring - most of all, he liked the way he hated you.

Harwin turns his head slightly in your direction. "He's Uncle Daemon - we used to be friends back in high school." Harwin explained and you extended your hand for him to shake. He clicks his tongue in distaste, but he still shakes your hand - soft and fragranced.

"It's nice to meet you," you mumble shyly - staring at the floor.

"You too." his lips settled into a thin line.

itz_y/n: the mood for today 🦋

14 comments 459 likes

helaenablackwidow: amazinggh rhae_strong: I LOVE IT 💗 - itz_y/n: thanks auntie!!

Daemon was beginning to regret staying in Harwin's house.

A groan escapes his mouth, watching you play with your food. It seems like everything you did managed to anger him. "So, Daemon? You've ever been to this part of Australia?" his friend inquires, one hand was holding a fork - and the other was around his new wife, Rhaenyra (his niece.)

"Never, actually - I've only been to Sydney." he confesses, choosing to ignore your existence. "Well, you're going to enjoy it here - it's calm and the beach isn't filled with that much wildlife." he pointed, and Daemon's gaze moves in your direction.

There was a slight tan on your face - hair slightly matted from saltwater and he could smell the salt breeze. He'd enjoy it here.

"I've heard a lot of conflicting reports," he chuckled, exchanging a knowing stare with his niece. "I got bitten by a spider once!" she defends herself, knowing that she wasn't used to Australia's fauna. "She got very lucky - it wasn't venomous." her husband grinned.

"But my daughter, not much." Harwin looked at you.

"Got bitten by a venomous one - but trust me, I wasn't the one panicking." you giggled, and Harwin smiled defeatedly. It was hard raising a child on his own - since your mother was a no show. "I had to rush her to the hospital via airlift, it was a good thing they got the antidote in time." he informed.

"Via airlift?" Daemon questioned.

"Yep, because apparently the car isn't fast enough." you rolled your eyes playfully. "The helicopter gives them a sense of urgency," Harwin shrugged, turning towards Daemon. "I'm sure you get it mate. We'd do anything for our daughters." your father looks for an ally.

Rhaenyra chuckles quietly.

"Don't let his cold exterior fool you. He once rushed Rhaena to the hospital because she got a rash - and he thought that it was sepsis." Rhaenyra rats out, and her uncle lets out a small laugh.

"I guess we are the same, Harwin."

itz_y/n: surfing weather 🌊

10 comments 829 likes

"I remember you, actually." your opened your mouth - taking a casual sip of the newly-fermented kombucha that your dad made. "You called me a fence," you pouted, and he kept staring down at you. He had a murderous glint in his eyes - one that spoke 'sex' and lust. He keeps looking at you - gaze trailing up and down from your navel to your face. "You were." he admitted, no sign of remorse on his face.

"It's not my fault that you're short," you rolled your eyes, adjusting your bikini top. "But I'm still taller than you," he yapped - amused by your sudden fieriness. What was inside that kombucha?

"It would be embarrassing if you weren't, right?" you smirked and he leaned down on your body, butt firmly pressed on your bed-bed. By this point, your hips were barely touching each other. "Shame too because you'd be handsome, if it weren't for your attitude," you mumbled - seeing how far his temper would reach.

A light scoff exits his lips, his hands were on your thigh.

"My attitude, now?" he growled - rubbing small circles on your inner leg. It made your blood pump - eyes see red. The thought that anyone could walk in on the both of you eye-fucking was exhilarating. The chase was fun - but to have this man? It was wrong, immoral, weird - and you liked that.

"You should be thankful that I find you handsome, not a lot of men are." you replied - seemingly unfazed with his seduction. "- and not a lot of women are pretty too," he answered, eyes staring deep into your soul. "When you say it - it sounds offensive," you narrowed your eyes and his hand reaches for your cheek.

"You're a pretty girl - if that eases the offensiveness," he mused. He was the pomegranate - and you were Persephone. "A little," you stared at his lips - smiling as his face moves closer.

He was just about to kiss you - but you pull away.

"It was nice chatting, Uncle Daemon." you grinned, rising to your feet and wrapping the dainty towel around your hips.

Uncle Daemon, the word seemed to stir something inside of him.

itz_y/n: late nights and early mornings down under 🦘🪖

Daemon keeps staring at your instagram post - he doesn't usually do social media but he wanted to pry deeper into your private life. It wasn't hard finding you - Harwin and Rhaenyra posted you regularly.

A low growl escapes his mouth seeing the first photo - only a sheet was covering your body.

"Daemon, we'll be gone for a few hours. Can you watch the little girl for me?" Harwin offers with a kind smile and he closes his phone immediately. His friend would kill him. "Sure," he nodded - quickly handed with a bottle of beer.

He leans on your doorframe, watching while you scrolled through social media mindlessly. "Are you always left at home?" he cleared his throat and your attention shifts to him. "I don't mind," you answer, patting the empty space beside you.

"Well, I do - it's boring here." he complained - having no issues in laying down beside you. His father always told him that his best asset was his command of everyone. Daemon took up space, he could say what he wanted to without fear of consequence. "What do you propose we do?" you place your phone on the pillow.

"Fuck?" he teased - a laugh escapes your mouth. "You're older than me - aren't you supposed to make more sense?" you joked, staring deep into his purple eyes. He was wearing a tight shirt - you could make out the small curves of his body - his abs and his nipples. "I'm making perfect sense," he shrugged - hands moving to your hips.

@nyctophilic0vitnir @watercolorskyy @bellastwd @icarusgloom @pearlstiare @areaderinlove @hc-geralt-23 @rozendiors @immyowndefender @ammo23 @xcinnamonmalfoyx @ammo23 @immyowndefender @bitchyunknownuser

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wyrdwulf · 3 months

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I've been looking at Palworld discourse as I come across it because it's something that interests me in a few ways. Discussions of AI usage and of plagiarism in media affects artists, and I am a big Pokemon guy even if I am highly critical of the games and company practices rnow. I think there's a lot of valid reason not to support Palworld/studio that made it, and to criticize the game-- the dev being a huge fan of using AI in making games and Cryptobro is enough for me, tbh. But I also feel like there are some arguments and reactions being had about why the game is bad where there's like, validity to them to an extent, but that people are working on assumptions or being overly reactive in a way that muddies valid arguments that can and should be made? And I think overlooking that is. I dunno. Not helpful in trying to have conversations on what is and isn't bad form in making art.

One of the big things is the whole accusation that the monster designs in Palworld are AI generated. I will be perfectly upfront with my take-- based on comments and tweets made by the dev, (especially the one below) I really do suspect that AI could have been used to either make monster designs wholesale, or to 'help' the process along. However, there is no definitive proof of this. This has not been confirmed. But I see so many people spreading that 'fact' as if it is. And again, I really do suspect that could be the case, but like. It's not helpful to spread misinformation, even if it's for a cause that might be good. Both because misinfo is just generally harmful and because it can do so much harm to your argument when you include falsities or state conjecture as fact to people.

Side note-- I've been seeing now that there are claims that the Palworld models are either direct rips of or heavily copy Pokemon models. For that, too, I've already been seeing that the claims of them being full rips can be proven false, but that it is very arguable that there are some severe similarities between elements of certain models, etc. I'm no 3D modelling expert, so for me I really just want to take this information with a grain of salt and wait until I see definitive proof one way or another.

Another thing I've been thinking about is the claims of the monsters fully plagiarizing existing Pokemon... To start, there's a whole question of parody and what constitutes being fair parody versus just stealing which I feel could be debated here. From what I've seen, the game was kinda marketed as parody, and looking at for example the Salazzle clone, its description really seems like it's parodying Salazzle to me. But moving past that, I do really feel that some of the Palworld monster designs are blatantly ripping off Pokemon-- however, I think that it's like, WAY less than I see a lot of people asserting. I've seen some people arguing that the Palmons are legally distinct enough that none are ripoffs but like, c'mon--

I genuinely think someone who argues that this guy doesn't look like Luxray is lacking observational skills.

This is another one for me that like, yes, the silhouette and certain features are different enough to make it 'distinct', but I feel like anyone with pattern recognition should be able to see the colors and design elements being waay too similar here to be a coincidence.

Also, there are definitely designs that feel like mashups of multiple Pokemon features to me, like this guy feeling like it's got Meganium, Serperior, Lilligant, Goodra in it--

But then there are some that I see people using as examples of plagiarism where I'm just like. Brother. That's just Common JRPG Mob Design.

I'll just use this guy as my one example but like. Claims that this is just a Wooloo rip are wild to me. This looks like I can find it in like half of fantasy JRPGs. There's other examples like this where I'm just like... I get that because a good amount of these monsters ARE very likely ripoffs/inspired by existing Pokemon, people are trying to find the Pokemon 'in' each Palmon, but I feel like so many of the comparisons are stretches which can weaken genuine argument.

Also this is an aside but a very petty thing-- I'll be seeing people claim X palmon is a ripoff of Y Pokemon when there's a different Pokemon that feels like a better comparison, like this guy?

So much closer to the unreleased water starter line from gen 2 than Lapras. C'mooooon.

I guess tl;dr though, I think there are genuine issues about artistic integrity, plagiarism, possible AI use and such which should be discussed about this game, and again, the company's ties with AI and crypto are reason enough to not support them, but. I feel like when having these conversations it's best to critically think about what's proven fact and what's speculation, and to consider what's a strong argument for why it might suck and what's not.

#I can't believe I'm using my blog to actually blog.#Sorry to the viewers I've just been thinking about this and wanted to get it out.#ora ora oratories #Palworld

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sugarygxodness · 9 months

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i know hobie age discourse is annoying and frustrating. i've been watching from the sidelines ever since atsv came out and tiktok is being absolutely insufferable about it. i've also seen the plethora of arguments from both sides about it. but i wanted to put in my two cents about hobie's age because it has been yelling for attention inside my heart and i need an outlet for it desperately.

so here is my official warning. ⚠️ if you don't want anything to do with the hobie age discourse, please ignore this post ⚠️ (i doubt anyone is going to see this post anyway)

first of all, i ship punkflower. i respect chaipunk as well, though i do not ship it. when i was watching atsv, it never occured to me that hobie would be older than the spidergang by any more than 2 years. so it boggles my mind that people left their theatre thinking hobie was any older than 19 years old??

second, as i've mentioned, i have seen the plethora of arguments coming from both sides. i have heard (incessantly) about the director talking about early concept hobie being 19/20 years old. i always always take early concepts with a grain of salt because that is what they are - early concepts. from the conception of the spiderverse trilogy, a lot of stuff can change. we know that even though early concept hobie was 19/20 years old, his age is now "up for interpretation". all of us were not in the writing room when they came up with hobie. none of us can say for sure what hobie's age is. so let's leave it at that - hobie's age is up for interpretation. i have also seen people talking about hobie being bitten at 16 years old in the comics and in the movies he says he has been spiderman for 3 years. quick maths - that makes hobie 19? well, maybe. it is also important to note that movie adaptations of comics very often leave out or change information. they do this all the time. they even did it with miles. in the comics, miles morales gets bitten at the age of 13. but in the movies, miles get bitten when he was a freshman in visions academy, 15 years old. if they changed that fact about miles from the comics to the movie adaptation, who's to say they did not do the exact same thing to hobie or any other character? using comic book canon to apply to movie canon is always iffy. across the mcu, there are many many comic details that get changed or left out for the movies. this is just something i want everyone to keep in mind.

third, this is my main point. i'm going to talk about hobie's age from a storytelling point of view. keep in mind, i am not a writer. i do not have any experience writing or making original characters. i just like overanalysing creative aspects of media that i consume and i also briefly studied literature in school. if there is anything you would like to counter about my upcoming argument or add to it, i would love to see it.

from a storytelling point of view, hobie being old than 18 years old makes absolutely NO sense. if we look at miles' conflict during atsv, his whole thing is that he feels betrayed by the adults in his life because all of them view him as this incapable clueless kid who needs to be protected. his parents, while being unaware of his identitiy as spiderman, are too protective of him and doubt everything that he does. while they eventually start to accept the idea of letting their child grow up, they only start doing so when miles is already stuck in another universe. the adults in the spider society betray miles too. miles, upon meeting more spiderpeople, probably thought that they would understand him more than his own parents could. however, the adults in spider society still look down on him and treat him like a child. this is especially evident in peter b, who constantly emphasises that miles "doesn't know any better". miles is 16 (in atsv) and while that IS technically a child, those rules don't really apply to spiderpeople. after all, though he is technically a child, he watched his uncle aaron die right in front of his eyes, he saved the multiverse, and he saves brooklyn from crime every single day. as unfortunate as it is, miles has had to grow up a lot faster than the average kid. miles views himself as an extremely capable spiderman, but it feels like nobody else agrees with him. that is miles' conflict throughout atsv.

so it makes no sense that miles feels constantly betrayed by the adults in his life, yet one of the members of the spidergang that he is surrounded with in atsv is an adult? the whole point is that he feels he cannot depend on the adults in the spider society, so therefore it makes sense that his closest allies (gwen, pav, hobie) would be teenagers. making hobie an adult completely throws this theme out of balance.

furthermore, i hear people say hobie holds a mentor role in miles' life. i disagree. peter b held a mentor role in itsv. this was when miles was newly bitten, had no idea how to use his new powers, and had just lost the only other spiderman he knew. in atsv, miles has grown very well into his role as spiderman. he developed his own spiderman techniques, learned how to use his venom shock and invisibility in an effective way, and successfully saves brooklyn from crime every day. this miles does not need a mentor. this miles feels betrayed by the people he thought he could trust. this miles needs allies. that is what hobie is to miles in atsv.

to me, the r/s between hobie and miles in atsv is very reminiscent of the r/s between a new transfer student in highschool and an upperclassman. imagine this - miles just moved to a new unfamiliar environment and is a transfer student in a highschool where he knows nobody. hobie spots him, somehow decides to help him out, and gives him the ultimate tour of the school. not the proper "this is the gymnasium, we hold our pep rallies here" tour that the student council body would give miles. nah, his tour is more like "this is the best place to smoke weed without getting caught. this bathroom is almost exclusively for hooking up. this teacher once called me out for plagiarism, so he sucks." then he pats miles on the shoulder and tells him that he's got his back. if anyone tried to give him shit, hobie will not hesitate to make their lives hell. this is how i interpret hobie and miles' r/s in atsv. he is not a mentor!!! miles is capable enough to be spiderman without a mentor!!!

lastly, this isn't exactly my place to talk about it, but i have heard a lot of black people talk about how a lot of people place harmful stereotyping and adultification on hobie. and the infuriating tendency for people to be against poc ships rather than white ships. and that is A LOT of food for thought. that's all :)

i ended up writing a lot more than i thought i would. clearly i care too much. oh well atsv brainrot era go brrr

#spiderman atsv #atsv #atsv spoilers #punkflower #miles morales #hobie brown #atsv hobie #hobie spiderverse #if i hear someone say hobie is 20+ once more i will lost my shit #punkflower nation rise up #across the spiderverse #spider punk #spider man: across the spider verse

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avidbeader · 23 days

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So, I've been doing the Great Sheith Reblog for a while now, gradually reblogging almost everything I shared before that was tagged as Sheith. Lots of art, gifsets, fics and recs, old merch posts, and meta to go around with the occasional dash of salt because lord, dumbness about shipping brings out the salt sometimes. But most of the time it's a lovely nostalgia hit and a reminder of why I still love this ship with all my fandom heart. It's bittersweet sometimes, seeing the usernames that left with Tumblr's worst decision ever, the fellow fans who have moved on to other things, and yes, the hopes and dreams we had before Season 8.

Long blathering under the cut: musings about the persistence of anti-shippers and what queerbaiting actually means.

But occasionally what both amuses and frustrates me is how things line up because it's 2024 and we still have klantis/antis over on the former Twitter spreading the same lies about Shiro and Keith - about their ages, about how they met, about what their relationship is. Right now over there, arguing is happening again because someone put up a clout-chasing poll about which mlm ship was the most influential and included KL but not Sheith (KL beat Johnlock and then lost to Hualian, so I'm happy twice over). Side note - I think if we take "influence" as a completely neutral term, then yeah, KL has been a huge negative influence on fandoms as it was one of the places that allowed puriteen attitudes and anti behavior to grow unchecked for so long. That helped turn some ship fandoms into cults, in which you had to believe with utter certainty that your ship would be canon or you weren't a "true" fan of the ship. That put more emphasis on opposing a rival ship through wank and harassment instead of focusing on the joy and fun of creating for the ship you supposedly love.

And that poll prodded someone to create a Google Form for soliciting answers as to what the biggest examples of queerbaiting are in media. And of course people are saying KL and Adam/Shiro, among other things that are not at all queerbait. These are examples of people guessing wrong and getting mad about it. Queerbait requires that the producers/writers/etc. say outright that a ship is going to happen and then it doesn't, without any influences from the powers above them making changes. Not received fan "wisdom". Not marketing doing things without consulting the producers.

And I just reblogged someone's ask in which they said they felt queerbaited by Sheith solely because of the "brother" line in "The Black Paladins". The answer is excellent and worth a ready if you haven't seen it on my blog already.

Breaking it down:

KL is not queerbait. KL was never planned as a potential ship and LM/JDS said so multiple times. They said it never occurred to them as a possibility and by the time KL's popularity took off they were too far along in the writing to try and go back and make changes, because animators need time to draw. LM flat-out said she was surprised that it became a thing. If the producers are telling you over and over in no uncertain terms that a ship had never been on the table and couldn't be added to the table now, that's not a case of queerbait. And they spoke of Lance's love interests as female every single time. JDS/LM never said anything that would lead fans into thinking KL was a possibility without the deliberate and willful misinterpreting of their words.

Adam/Shiro is not queerbait. Adam is a minor character in a series with a large cast. He has two functions: to be evidence of Shiro's status as a queer man and to be a "face" for all the pilots that died in the first wave of Sendak's invasion. Some people try to claim that LM and JDS queerbaited with their answers at SDCC 2018, but they're wrong. The only thing LM said was that we would see more of Adam in S7. And we did. She did not promise we'd see more of him with Shiro. That was people inserting what they wanted to hear, just like them trying to elevate Adam's status to a fiancé when again, LM clearly stated that they were serious and considering getting engaged. Not engaged. Not married. Just a couple that was serious about each other but broke up.

I don't consider Sheith to be true queerbait. It might fall under the cryptoqueer situation explained at the end of the post linked above, but JDS and LM were mostly very careful to talk of Sheith in terms of deep friendship and devotion to one another, after the initial wave of support for fan content during S1, prior to the klanti movement taking off. The only thing that skirts the line for me is a quote, I think from JDS, saying that if Shiro had a new love interest it would be someone he has known a long time. Or maybe that was about the romances in general being developed over seasons and not Shiro-specific - I would need to research. (Yet more proof that the endcard "wedding" was not planned since we didn't see the unnamed groom until S7 and they never interacted.) And that was said before studio execs started meddling and caused the trainwreck of S8.

I do think we were supposed to have an open ending for Sheith. Klantis like to point out a storyboard artist claiming that "no one wins" this ship war as evidence that KL was supposed to happen and got changed, but that statement applies if Sheith is left open-ended and Allurance happens, even without the endcards.

When I have a chance, I'll try and dig up the links for the various quotes I mention above. Thank you for reading if you made it this far!

#voltron #sheith #why K/L and A/S are not actually queerbait despite anti claims

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ephhemeralite · 2 months

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writing pattern tag game!

post the first line of your last ten posted fics and see if there's a pattern! thanks for the tag, @ful-crum !!!!!

not quite sure how i got here, real glad i've got more than ten fics posted (if only barely), excited to see how it goes

"Aziraphale bustles back into his shop with all of the energy of a raccoon holding a goodie they never expected to stumble across." – no skin like the skin you woke up in (gomens canon divergence au)

"Ed has spent the vast majority of his life as a pirate. Get as old and experienced as he’s gotten – far older and more experienced than he ever expected, mind you – and you form some opinions, about salt and the sea and the way of things." – and i feel so proud when the reckoning arrives (this is two lines so it's cheating but whatever 💚. very dumb black sails/our flag means death crossover)

"The first time Dick notices himself call for Batgirl and the wrong sibling respond, he doesn't think much of it." – no difference between the past and the ground (dick grayson thinks he's going crazy until he realizes [REDACTED])

"Tommy thinks that finding himself stuck through the Blood God’s sword – stuck through – should come as more of a shock to him than it does." – this is mostly what happens in dallas (au of my dsmp hero/villain major character death series where the major character death doesn't happen but it's still not great! hence the wtnv if he had lived title)

"Wilbur drops onto the couch with a groan and some sort of weird, histrion-type flail." – a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun (dsmp hero/villain au, companion piece to the actual mcd, probably my best piece of posted writing)

"He isn't looking for trouble today, but he isn't surprised when the blade of a sword finds him regardless." – the truth is like a sickle (it'll cut you to the middle) (dsmp hero/villain au with the mcd)

"The flickering lights of the tavern seem soft, in the late hours of the night." – drunk in a field (on dandelion wine) (unfinished 5+1 from a folk witch!jaskier universe that i got super super attached to but eventually let go of because my life kept getting more insane and the concept more intricate)

"Peter had spent a lot of time trying to psychoanalyze Neal Caffrey before his capture." – acquainted with the saint of never getting it right (white collar/batfam crossover, dick grayson is neal caffrey, my most popular fic by a chunk)

"Geralt can already tell that Jaskier plans on dragging them both out tonight, probably with quilt, to force him into a night of 'stargazing and communing with nature like we used to!'" – it could feel like an end (to have to keep going) (immortal/modern times geraskier au fic i haven't read since i wrote and posted it in a day. i think it's contemplations on mortality, helplessness, and the climate crisis?)

"Briefly, he contemplates sitting up on the couch to give himself better lung capacity for his incoming tirade, but figures that he may as well put his vigilante training to good use, and continues to lay back." – more like me (less like you) (technically the second line of an emotional conversation between dick and jason, but the first line was dialogue and it is too early for me to mess with quotation marks like that)

so, full disclaimer that i don't post a ton (no skin was last updated in august of last year and more like me was posted in july of 2021) so a lot of this writing is kind of old, but! i did notice that i've tended to open in media res, but recently i have been incorporating more exposition. i've never tried to make my first lines great hooks — i'm honestly more concerned with giving myself a good jumping-off point than anything else. it also struck me how many fandoms i've written for that i no longer engage with, basically at all. maybe i've just been really focused lately, but i don't think a few of these fandoms would hold my attention anymore! ironically, i'm talking about the more recent fandoms like dsmp/gomens/ofmd and not the older stuff like the batfam or the witcher.

this was really fun, i loved looking back through my work like this!! thank you again ful-crum for tagging me :)! i'm gonna tag @doingthewritethings, @b10000p, and @alavenderleaf !!!!!!

#tag game #me when ive been writing plenty of fic recently but not posting any of it so my most recent thing is gomens s2 cope fic......#and by cope fic i mean Make It Worse fic. for the record #augh i'll finish something eventually

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unchataparis · 5 months

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I gotta say, one of my most hated salt trope is when Gabriel or Audrey prefer Marinette over Adrien and Chloé. They see Marinette as the better child/the more talented/the more deserving and the entire fic's plot revolve around Adrien/Chloé's realisation and concluding devastation over that fact. :/

Salt has a questionable status in this fandom, as it does in most fandoms, but as I've come to unpleasantly realise, most people who are writing salt are, in fact, not twelve or thirteen year olds but full grown adult with jobs, career, even children of their own.

Sometimes, I see posts that are so overwhelmingly filled with hatred for certain characters, it's shocking to realise that you guys aren't being ironic, you're being for real. Your opinion is yours to have, and all of your emotions and feelings are valid. It's always good to be passionate rather than bland. I'm sure that if we were to meet on the streets, no one would be this zealous over their opinion of a children's cartoon show. But I feel like some of you are so sucked into this imaginary, badly-written, fan service-orientated world, you've forgotten your common sense and dedicated effort that this show does not deserve into defending your favourite, mistreated characters.

This show isn't well-written. It has questionable plots and characters. Thomas Astruc is a dubious man. These are all facts that no one is arguing against. But even with all these truths in the air, it still doesn't justify the sheer amount of unregulated hatred reserved for certain characters.

I'm speaking to the 'I live for salt' girlies who churns out Marinette Deserves Better wips on the daily. The people who are swearing at each other on the Internet over whether or not Chloé is a good person and deserves to be redeemed. I'm talking about those who accuse Lovesquare shippers of enabling toxic relationship and misogyny.

What are you talking about?

I don't think any of you truly believe that Miraculous is bad for children or that it's upholding the patriarchy, you're simply grasping onto whimsical straws of social justice in order to advance your own egocentric agenda.

Fandoms are meant to be a safe place to discuss your interests and find like-minded friends who aren't available in your local area. Not a feedback loop of aggrandising, disproportionate speculation.

If you hate the show so much, you're not even watching it anymore and following other people's social media AUs instead – nothing wrong with that, but you do realise that means you have no idea what you're talking about, right? If the show is so terrible and you don't even care about XXX or YYY, why not just leave? Place your time and effort into something that wouldn't make you so angry and dissatisfied?

I've been watching Miraculous for about six years now, and this show has a lot of impact on my artistic and internal psyche and it means a lot to me and I can see both the good and the faults in it. But at the end of the day, the characters of Miraculous are literally just characters. They're not real, they don't have opinions of their own, and they do what they do at the behest of the people writing them. You can't let yourself be consumed by their fictional plights.

Take this statement with a grain of salt and know that there is fluctuations to the fact of it, there are always exceptions, but: fandom arguments are ultimately pointless. There's better, more worthwhile things to do. There's always going to be annoying, infuriating people, you don't want to add yourself to the mix. Think about it, what's your endgame? That everyone will apologise to you and admit that you were right and follow all your opinions? That the writers of the show will change the story and rewrite everything according to your suggestions and 'corrections'? You're bitterly giving all your energy to something that will never reward you.

#miraculous #adrien agreste #marinette dupain-cheng #lila rossi #chloé bourgeois #opinion piece #also: be nice #just be nice #don't swear at people don't be mocking don't condescend #understand that you're not always right and you're not always wrong #and life is full of moments where you're simultaneously wrong and right at the same time

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bunnieshoneys · 1 month

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hihi!! which accounts do u find helpful for keeping up with f1? been searching but there’s loads of news i still miss so i was curious! 🥰

long post ahead!! but these are the accounts i find most useful for keeping up on F1, primarily on twt.

first off, the actual teams, on both instagram and twitter. they'll post live updates. I don't personally follow all the teams because I pretty much only care about Ferrari and McLaren, lol, but if you want live updates during quali or a race, then teams will post updates on their drivers in real time.

The formula one twitter account does the same thing for ALL drivers in one during races/quali (i also follow F2 and F3, along with prema, to keep up with the feeder series!)

of course, the actual drivers' accounts will post some interesting stuff, but it tends to be late, and not in very much detail, lol.

all of those are pretty given, though, so let me provide some personal favs for news, baring in mind i have mostly been focussing on news i.e. upgrades/pace/data analysis. im a leclerc fan, lol, i have to have the numbers to fight the sainz fans (joking... mostly)

@/fiadocsbot posts all the FIA documents post and pre-race, regarding component replacements, penalties, etc. its super useful to see them as soon as they release.

@/formularacers_, @/fastestpitstop both post all breaking news. the one thing i would say about this is that they provide the source / article (which are often foreign language e.g dutch, french, spanish) and it's up to you to kind of decide how reliable that source is. for example, during the horner scandal, they reported on articles coming out of de telegraaf, which is intensely unreliable, but is still breaking news. not everything will be accurate, but all paddock rumours come from somewhere!

There are also news accounts for each team. @/fanaticsferrari, @/RBR_daily for example. I don't follow any others, but they definitely exist. They post news only pertaining to the team in question, often data from races, driver performances, or TP/driver interviews and press conference transcripts. PLEASE bare in mind: these are FAN RUN, and intensely biased in favour of the team!

the rest of the accounts i list are primarily not news, per se, but for data/race pace, all of which have to be taken with a pinch of salt due to bias in data analysis, and due to the fact they are fan accounts.

For data, there are a lot of different accounts, but @/FDataAnalysis is the most comprehensive, and the least biased/objective (yes, there is still bias in data analysis, even when looking at raw numbers). They primarily compare teams, though, and the best account I've seen this year for comparing teammates is @/FormulaPace. They display the fully tyre/fuel-corrected lap times in a race and analyse pace. there is always some bias, but this one shows where the data comes from.

@/fiagirly - a lewis hamilton fan, but she provides some great news and analysis, particularly on mercedes: that's where her bias lies.

@/_allthatglitz - a leclerc fan, provides some good laptime stuff on ferrari in particular, and some opinion stuff.

@/vetteleclerc - translates ita and ger articles on f1

@/feeder_series - news on ALL feeder series across the world! they're brilliant, and update on F2 right the way down to various F4 series and F1 academy, and super formula lights in japan.

and of course, the FIA accredited journalists all have twitter. However, I personally avoid most of the broadcast journalists (mostly Sky Sports) as recently they've been very weirdly biased to the point even I'm noticing it. they tend to really push british drivers and particuarly after bahrain, they just spread straight up misinfo about leclerc's braking issues. The written media journalists tend to be a bit more trustworthy, but everyone has their biases. Unfortunately I don't have any particular @/s for them, they pop up on my algorithm a lot, lol. @/ChrisMedlandF1 is great, though!

Sites that are worth following:

RaceFans - brilliant independent coverage of all things motorsport including WEC and feeder series

AMuS (Auto Motor und Sport - German) - reliable source for rumours.

The Race - motorsport coverage, all series.

There's also a good few reliable italian sources, but most of these are reported by formularacers/fastestpitstop and i get the articles there. the only one i follow individually is racefans. im a big fan of their content.

hope this helps!! most of my news is curated by my algorithm, teehee, but there's defo interesting stuff out there!!

(there's also a lot of content here on tumblr, but i tend to avoid it, for reasons..)

#bunny answers #bunny talks f1

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beatcroc · 1 year

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Do u think u could elaborate a lil about btb and pizza tower lore?? Thank u

oh god i'm not the most well-read on either BUT uh. spoilers for both medias i guess.....i need to stress that these should NOT be seen as like dramatic edgy series because of what's going on under the hood though, that's not the point of them or what they focus on, and it'd be a huge disservice to think of them as 'taking themselves too seriously' type things for this, haha.

EDIT: it's been a bit since i made this post and in looking around since then i've discovered i might've gotten the wrong impression about some of the pizza tower stuff. i intended to only mention what was fact/hard canon here, but some might be extrapolated anyway, so take it with a pinch of salt.

---

bigtop burger is, for all intents and purposes, a chill and lighthearted series of animated shorts about a bunch of college kids who work at a clown-themed food truck. their clown boss is more than a little strange and suspicious but they're content to let it slide because he's generally friendly and well-meaning; and again, the series is only really About the kids and their day to day lives, and the wacky cartoon antics that may occasionally come with that. such as, say, watching their boss slice a truck in two with a katana. it's a little weird for sure but we don't question it.

they have a rival burger truck, zomburger, which is zombie themed, and led by a guy who is defintiely totally not actually undead. the kids this guy employs are pretty into the whole gimmick [because theyre theater majors and "get paid like thousands of dollars per hour" <-presented as the most bizzare thing that's happened], and so have no issue doing things like firing cannons at our clown-thmed protags during a highway chase. their boss has some kind of serious beef with the clown boss, but that's their problem. the kids are chill with eachother.

what they're Not telling you is that the clowns and undead have some kind of ancient feud [possibly even a war???] going on, and zombie guy was apparently[?] only using the food truck thing as a ruse to get at clown guy. both types of guys are insanely powerful and it's heavily implied that neither of them should be mingling with normal humans in the first place, which is why the food trucks and the other employees have their respective gimmicks as cover. also magic of some kind seems to be real, with illusory and portal-type stuff seen so far.

there is a possible implication that clowns are Actually Dangerous and the zombie guy's hunting them is like warranted, but given this unrelated short by the creator apparently set in the same universe, i'd like to more confidently say that it's just zombie guy being an asshole assassin type and they're both high-ranking freaks duking it out in public which is like the worst place possible given their general disinterest in hurting anyone else.

aside: bigtop's lore is a lot more plainly-presented and actually meaningful to the series and the character dynamics, but as it is currently it's nothing more than a backdrop for The Hijinx to play off of so they still never really say anything too direct about it or have characters respond to it. [that said, the most recent episode could easily be considered a turning point so we'll see how things go from here]

----

pizza tower is, for all intents and purposes, just a funny 2d platformer game where lots of silly things happen to its really excitable protagonist and you get tons of endlessly amusing expressions and animation out of it. it feels somewhat like a playable 90's cartoon, and this is its primary charm. again, you aren't supposed to really question the framing of everything. that'd be like asking why bowser is a fire-breathing turtle. because he is. that's just how it works who gives a shit. pizza tower has you kill a big pillar guy halfway through a given level and then you have to get the hell out on a timer before it all collapses, and there's a funny little janitor guy you can get as a bonus pickup to help you out in each level. each floor of the tower has a different Theme for its set of levels. traditional game stuff. you get to the top of the pizza tower and beat up the jackass pizza guy that threatened to blow up your own pizzeria. [there's more to the gameplay than that but this is just what's lore-relevant]

what the game slides under the radar with its completely-dialogue-less style is that the big pillar guy more or less IS the tower, pillar and janitor were the original residents of the tower before it got turned into the pizza tower [yeah.], and the little janitor guy, who is pillar's brother, is generally fine with helping you destroy the place because for the past [amount of time] he's been fighting a losing battle of helping keep his bro intact in the wake of it being taken over by the jackass pizza guy, who has pretty much defiled it beyond repair for his own amusement since finding it. pizza guy cloned pillar guy a bunch of times and split his consciousness between the duplicates and made them all keep all the portals to the pocket dimensions in the tower [the levels] open. pillar guy's original body has since become derelict and horribly overgrown with.,....pizza..., and it's the last one you destroy to bring the whole thing down. he gives you a tired-looking thumbs up as you blast him off the screen.

none of this has anything to do with the protagonist, who doesn't know about any of it and is Exclusively there to beat pizza guy's ass for threatening his business. and if he has to bring down pizza guy's whole tacky-ass establishment to do that then SO BE IT.

you might notice in the larger background screenshot that the protag guy is Also being cloned in that facility. you do fight a clone of him as the 4th boss and encounter more of them in the level that background is for, but there seems to be very little concrete canon for what exactly pizza guy's intention with protag and his clones was.

aside: this isn't even touching on the other side to this, which is the weird amount of actual character depth that mr. funny cartoon protag man himself seems to have. i am not going to get into that on this post because it will make me really abnormal but oh my god dude.

#give me an excuse to ramble about peppino's implied character depth see what happens #i'm not saying he's like especially complex or anything it's just WEIRD for a game like this to humanize him like they did #is this worth putting in the tags. probably not but block me about it #bigtop burger #pizza tower #bweeeaaahh #EDIT: I HAVE BEEN ASKED ABOUT THE CHARACTERIZATION STUFF I AM MAKING THE POST but it will be awhile. ok

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wizzard890 · 2 years

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how do you deal with liking an author's work when you find out the author has done something shitty/harmful? i found out yesterday that hilary mantel made terf-y comments and i'm (what feels like) unreasonably devastated. thought you might have a good perspective on this, thx.

There are two questions here, as I perceive it. So I'll answer both, separately.

1.. You're basically asking how to separate the art from the artist. This is a question that has been litigated to death, but my thoughts are blessedly short: you decide it for yourself. If someone has done something or holds opinions that irrevocably color your opinion of their work, that can be all there is to it. How you choose to engage with art is your own business, and so are the things you think are a bridge too far. However, we all should appreciate that other people don't have the same cut off points as we do, and let them navigate their own feelings in peace.

2. A few things, right off the top. At this point, TERFs are a fascist hate movement. They're no longer exclusionists, or uncomfortable, or confused, or asking bigoted questions. They're like (and often allied with) Nazis: their goal is to suppress and destroy people in order to make the world fall into line with their politics. A seventy year old woman getting her dander slightly up about The (British media's largely fictional) Gender Wars is not the same thing as TERF apologism. I understand that it can be upsetting to see an author whose work you love espouse views you feel are self-evidently wrong, but at this point we need to be very very clear about what it means to be a TERF. What we could call "terf-y comments" in 2013 are a world away from what TERFs have become.

With that said, I'd like to take a look at the comments in question, which I'm quite familiar with. I've thought about them a lot.

(They're all from this interview in la Repubblica, a centrist Italian newspaper, if anyone wants to play along at home.)

The conversation is wide ranging, but eventually the questions begin to hone in on nationalism and the state of the country, and the interviewer asks Mantel about the future for women in the UK.

You are also a great example and symbol for all the women in this country and worldwide. Are you optimistic about the future of women’s equality? Mantel: "I would say, as I did above, that from where I stand, the world seems to be getting better. But I would hardly feel that if I were a young Afghan."

This response reaffirms Mantel's attitude in the larger piece: she approaches liberal ideas of progress with a grain of salt, and emphasizes that the world does not improve for all people at the same rate or through the same means.

The interviewer then pivots somewhat sharply into a question about JK Rowling.

From the point of view of a woman, what’s your opinion on the TERF-accusations against your colleague JK Rowling? I recently interviewed Margaret Atwood and she defended her. What’s your opinion about all this?

Mantel's answer is long, and has therefore been pull-quoted by all sorts of people in all sorts of different ways. So let's break it down a section at a time. First, her response to the direct query about Rowling:

Mantel: I have never met JK Rowling, but I know her to be a woman who has brought much pleasure and done much good. I think the attacks on her were unjustified and shameful. It is barbaric that a tiny minority should take command of public discourse and terrify those who disagree with them.

So here's the thing. JK Rowling has brought much pleasure and done much good. Does this uncouple her from the fascist shitheels she pals around with? Absolutely not. But we are on Tumblr, we all know how much joy people have taken from her books. It's also a matter of public record that Rowling has been very generous with her wealth.

She also has been viciously harassed online. This was happening long before she went full TERF, when she was circling the top of the radicalization funnel, liking gross tweets and "just asking questions." I understand why some people, especially trans and GNC people who have a fraction, a skerrick of the power JK Rowling has, lashed out at her when they saw her teetering at the top of that long drop. She was deluged with threats of murder, rape, and violence.

Two things are true at once.

One: JK Rowling's decision to loudly side with a hate movement is hers and hers alone. It is her responsibility and her inexcusable moral failing.

Two: a woman who has been a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault getting inundated with online harassment absolutely sucks. The fact that it happened at a delicate point in the radicalization process, and at the hands of people she associates with the entire trans rights movement, likely shut off some routes that might have been used to reach her.

What a shitty, ugly situation all around. But, returning to Mrs. Mantel, it is worth remembering: this is a shitty, ugly, very online situation all around.

The legacy media has covered Rowling's harassment. Beloved author devoured by her own fans! That's news. Online radicalization and the struggles of the trans community? Less so.

Mantel is famously analogue. She has no internet presence, and used a typewriter for comms with her editor at The London Review of Books until the mid-aughts. She presumably knows about JK Rowling what your grandma knows about JK Rowling: she wrote the Harry Potter books, and used that money to become a famous philanthropist. People on the internet are harassing her for -- vague reasons, reasons that those big articles in the Guardian never quite manage to explore in depth.

What does Hilary Mantel know about cancel culture? The same thing, again, that your grandma does, because that's the moment of moral panic we're in. This doesn't come from exclusively right wing sources, either. You know what The New York Times writes, you can find ten fuckin...coastal media listicles on this shit right now.

Cancel Culture, as a concept, is an amorphous blob of lies (trigger warnings are for kids who Just Can't Handle Shakespeare), actual infighting (the cultural elite just can't decide whether watching a movie about about rape makes you a rapist), and the complex rendered flatly as possible (someone said that abortion is in many ways a women's issue and now everyone is screaming at one another). And then this whole blob is just thrown, undifferentiated and sensationalized, into the opinion sections of every newspaper in Britain and the United States.

What a seventy year old woman is going to glean from this pearl clutching from the papers of record, rightly or wrongly, is that a small group is taking "command of public discourse and [terrifying] those who disagree with them."

Is that what happened with JK Rowling's harassment? It's more complicated than that. But you know what else is more complicated than that? An elderly woman's uncertainty as to whether gains that she fought for, struggles she lived with, will be elided by a fast moving world with no grace for nuance. I think you can see a genuinely confused and defensive human moment in the second part of Mantel's answer to the interviewer, something that makes me take her comments in much better faith:

"I recently found myself ‘misgendered.’ I received a university publication, with news items relating to alumni, where I was referred to as ‘they,’ not ‘she.’ My books were ‘their books.’ I wasn’t singled out – the other alumni were similarly treated. I thought, ‘Being a woman means a lot to me. My sense of it has been tested. I have thought deeply about it. I value it, even though it has meant struggle and pain. I do not want my womanhood confiscated in print. It is not right to deprive an individual of identity on a whim, and make him or her into something neuter, plural. I have not given my consent to become a grammatical error."

You see this sentiment a lot with older women. You see it with Gen X and Boomer lesbians. You see it with second wave feminists who have fought for reproductive justice. Women who have had to really fucking knock their heads against a brick wall in the mid-20th century, trying to establish themselves as creatives or career people or someone who wanted to have a fucking abortion, or a lesbian who didn't want to give dick a chance because who knows she might Change Her Mind. Being a woman means a lot to them. Accomplishing what they have, as women, means a lot to them.

I have empathy for her dismay at seeing herself misrepresented, especially in such a top-down way, from a university publication that was clearly covering its ass rather than reaching out to the authors in question to discern their pronouns.

Unfortunately this adds fuel to that Cancel Culture moral panic: you will not have a say in how you are understood or perceived, you will have something personal and intimate about yourself dictated to you by a group that does not know you and cares for you only insomuch as you acquiesce to their worldview.

(Note: this is what trans people go through at the hands of a cis-oriented culture every day.)

Older women have been through a lot, and I want us to remember that they can and should be our allies. Often all it takes is for someone to explain to them what the trans rights movement actually is. Away from splashy newspaper articles and the shit that they have swimming in our brains that we heard somewhere once and take as unconfirmed but emotionally urgent concerns. If a person is, overall, thoughtful and compassionate, I think it's best to extend a hand to them in good faith, and see what can be achieved with dialogue.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend that I was born fully formed with a nuanced and evolved and sensitive understanding of trans people or their struggles or the social aims of their justice movement. I'm not going to pretend I had one five years ago. Or even now. I'm just trying my best here, and I only can because people who knew more than I did gave me the benefit of the doubt when I said dumb shit.

So, in conclusion, how do I feel safe saying that Hilary Mantel is thoughtful and compassionate, and would hopefully respond well to a larger conversation about trans rights? Here is an answer she provided earlier in the interview, to a question about racial justice:

Do you think Britain and England are places of “systemic racism” as Black Lives Matter and other activists say? Is England more racist than in the past? Mantel: "To me – but what would I know? – it seems that we are going in the right direction, and most people aren’t as racist or misogynistic as they were when I was growing up. But once sexual and racial discrimination are ‘baked in’ to a country’s opinions and institutions, it takes generations to scrub them out; language may be made over, but real-world change takes longer. I fully concede that the changes may be cosmetic, and I have great sympathy with those who say radical action is needed."

That seems to me like a promising person.

#uhhhhhhh jesus #tw: transphobia #(I guess? discussions of it I suppose)

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life-in-the-monster-haus · 1 year

Text

In Defense of Gillington “Gil” Webber Part 3

After a small hiatus I am back with the same mission of clearing Gil Webber's good name! but now with EXTRA motivation!

We last left our lovelorn lovers at the end of Welcome to Skull Shores in Part 2 of the media analysis. Let's jump back into the Webisodes shall we?

In Episode 94 "Defending your Lagoona" we get an episode all about Gil standing up to his racist parents on Lagoona's behalf. All this labor I have done to explain that Gil is a loving boyfriend to Lagoona could have been summed up just by this episode alone HOWEVER, I've never been a fan of doing things the easy way and brevity is not one of my strengths. But it's all said in the title now isn't it?

Gil is at home getting ready for a date with Lagoona. Gil seems to live in a decommissioned submarine. Seeing where the kids live is something I loved in G1! it was very rare when we got it but it was always a good time! however with G2 and G3 both choosing to go the boarding school route we lose this unique glimpse into our monsters lives. pity, I loved this!

We find him gong through his closet looking for something to wear to impress Lagoona, this is the first time we see one of the boys do this as it's usually the ghouls who are always looking for the right outfit. Just has he's about ready to leave his parents stop him.

These are Gil's parents!? the big bad bigots we've been hearing about all this time!? Obviously it's not ALL of them, just a tentacle. but still! ah ha ha! what makes them more hilarious is they don't speak English they communicate via a series of bubbles, gurgles and gibberish that only Gil understands. Is this River Monster? their native tongue? Now I am very sad we never once got a frustrated Gil going off in this language. I come from an English as a second language household and when my mother cannot find the words to express herself in English she will usually fly off into Spanish.

I'm sad we did not get a pair of faces to attach to Gil's parent's in the web series but a fan artist @sarahsota-artpopp did a banging interpretation of The Webbers.

Before Gil leaves for his date his parents get on his case for once again, dating Lagoona. They remind him that she is a Salt water monster and what their people say about her kind.

it's cute that he has pictures of Lagoona on his wall.

He tells his parents (his dad? mostly) That "Lagoona isn't like that, she's wonderful!" I don't like that he phrases it this way, it reeks of "She's one of the good ones" which is rhetoric I'm not a fan of as we discussed in my review of Skull Shores. But if we look at Gil and understand the home he is coming from, his phrasing makes sense. This is baby's first escape from a racist household, he is going to carry some of those prejudices with him and prejudice is different from racism. Gil's parents bubble something and Gil replies "She IS different! you always said that Sea Creatures were mean, spiteful monsters! but Lagoona is the sweetest most sensitive ghoul I've ever met!" A lot of this episode is just a clip show of things I've already gone over so I'm going to focus mostly on the things Gil says and his parents say back. "You told me that Sea Monsters were disloyal and treacherous but Lagoona is the most faithful, true and protective friend that anybody ever had"

Gil has nothing but nice things to say about Lagoona. His parents start spurting out ink in anger. After this his Dad (?) says something and Gil gets upset. "You're still clinging to those worn out old prejudices!?" Gil looks very angry by this point.

They gurgle something and Gil says "You're wrong about this! I'm not going to stop seeing her! so you're both just going to have to deal with that!"

Gil turns his back on them, gives them a dismissive hand wave and walks away.

Y'all wanted to see Gil go toe to toe with his parents well, here it is! this is the throw down you've been waiting for! This is 100% genuine as it's just him and his parents, Lagoona isn't here this time like she was in Episode 45 so you know this isn't performative, this is how Gil genuinely feels.

Gil returns after his storm off because he forgot the flowers he was going to give to Lagoona. Gil you ditz. However, despite the fact he was just cross with his parents, he still says bye and tells them he will be home early. Still the attentive son even while angry.

The episode ends with Gil's parents frothing with rage and inking up the screen, fading to black.

Now, Because this is a cartoon we can accept the fade to black as the ending, but in an actual situation? one or both of his parents would have snatched him in the water and been like "You're not going anywhere!" and threw him back into the sub, grounding him, beating his ass or even eating him. Look at them! they're huge compared to him! I'm surprised they haven't eaten him already, he's been so disobedient.

He must be their only son but I'm sure the desire to eat his disobedient ass is ever present.

Speaking of eating people I have a theory that this is how G3 is going to finally put an end to the whole Lagoona can't date Gil because his parents are racist drama. Gil is going to introduce Lagoona to his parents, they call her a filthy ocean dweller and she's just going to unhinge her jaw like a snake and eat them and that will be that, That is how we're going to deal with The Webbers racism in G3, Lagoona fucking eats them, the end.

Eat your local racist 2k23.

Anyways "Defending your Lagoona" is one of my favorite episodes because it is irrefutable proof that Gil loves Lagoona, Gil stands up for Lagoona and Gil does not agree with his racist parents.

However this episode does have one major flaw, it's just a re-hash of stuff we already know, that is the nature of clip show types of episodes but this is the first time we revisit the same fight of "Gil's parents are racist against Lagoona" and I think this is what annoyed many fans, we have this same fight over and over for the next 3 years after this. I think this is where the writing starts to fall apart and Gil's character suffers because of it. doesn't matter if Gil didn't do anything wrong, fans were sick of hearing about the fight by this point. it was very nice of the animators to put all this info into one episode for us, but we've heard this fight before.

We don't see Gil again until Episode 101, "No Ghouls Allowed" Where the boys are all ditching their ghoulfriends and lie about it, Gil's lie was the boys were going to his house to work on their rap album.

Clawd: "Rap Album!?"

Gil: "Sorry, I'm a terrible liar"

He's right, this entire review has been Gil being punished by his compulsive need to tell the truth. Gil would have a lot less problems if he just lied better, like what are his parent's gonna do if he told them Lagoona was fresh water? DNA test her? Poor sweet honest soul.

The rest of the episode is the ghouls spying on the boys to find out what they are actually doing and a lot of what they find is very aggressive.

Cleo assumes this means they are going to fight but the reality of the situation is they are just a bunch of nerds who are playing D&D.

This doesn't really have anything to do with Gil's love life, I just wanted to showcase him being a fuckin' dork.

*Pew Pew!*

In Episode 107 "Flowers for Slo-Mo" Lagoona helps Slo-Mo to be worthy of Ghoulia, long story short: Slo-Mo knows Ghoulia is a genius and worries he's not smart enough for her. He takes a potion from Cleo that makes him hyper intelligent, but it also makes him a pompous windbag.

This new self important attitude pushes Ghoulia away.

Slo-Mo goes to talk to Lagoona and she tells him Ghoulia doesn't like what he has become.

Lagoona: "Rude, Full of yourself"

Slo-Mo: "But I'm an absolute genius! that's what she wanted!"

Lagoona: "That's what you said she wanted! She liked who you were before. if you were really a genius you'd know that."

... I don't know why people keep going to Lagoona for relationship advice when she is the least qualified to give it. She is being a huge hypocrite here, getting mad at Slo-Mo for assuming what's best for Ghoulia when she did the exact same thing to Gil! she wanted him to tell his racist parents he was dating a sea water ghoul, Gil didn't want to do that Gil wanted to hide the relationship.

Where was this same understanding for Gil, Lagoona? why is it always "Tell your parents about me!" and never ' You like me and that is enough." hmm? huh? hmmhuhhmmhuhhmm?

Anyways the episode ends with Slo-Mo becoming less smart again and Ghoulia likes him just as he is. I only brought up this episode to shine a spotlight on to Lagoona's dating advice. She really should practice what she preaches.

Volume 3 of the Webisodes technically ends after Episode 118 "Playing the Boos" HOWEVER! a DVD Came with 6 bonus episodes that are the official end of Volume 3! Which DVD this was Wikipedia does not say, but I have the "Scaremester Collection" bonus DVD that came with 18 Webisodes and none of these are on there, they MIGHT be on the "Best of the Ghouls Collection" DVD which I also have but unfortunately that DVD doesn't include an episode guide and I just got done watching 118 Monster High Webisodes, I'm not gonna sit though another 32, 26 of which being ones I've already seen. I'm dedicated but I have limits, ya feel me?

Because these Episodes are DVD exclusives they are not all on Monster High's official YouTube, the links I will be posting were uploaded by third parties so the quality may have suffered a wee bit...Any-who... in Episode 119 "Department of Monster Vehicles" We see something VERY interesting! Everyone is trying to help Frankie prepare to take their road test. Gil offers to help by offering a video game for Frankie to play and...oh ho ho!

Some intriguing developments at Gil's house! this window in his bedroom turns into a TV screen! they're playing "Extreme Graveyard Derby" which is some Monster world version of Grand Theft Auto by the looks of it. The first time we saw Gil's room I assumed that box with the lifesavers on it was his bed, but upon closer inspection it's probably a footlocker trunk and he might sleep in the hammock that's behind everyone. RIP Gil's spine.

I'm highlighting this episode because Lagoona is in Gil's house! so either his parents suddenly got cool with a lot of stuff very quickly... which we know didn't happen... or they are more than likely not home, which is why he feels safe having his friends (and girlfriend) over. it's kinda sad that Gil only feels comfortable bringing his friends around when his parents aren't there but that is the sacrifice you gotta make when you have bigoted parents.

In Episode 124 "Monster-morphoseas" Lagoona is trippin' She bites off Heath's head, is apathetic in Mr. Rotter's class and overly aggressive at her swim meet. Cleo immediately blames Gil which... might be where everyone gets it from. But Gil promises to do a "loud crazy gesture" to show Lagoona how much she means to him.

After a few failed attempts to cheer Lagoona up the ghouls find her sitting by the ocean just enjoying the sounds it makes, She then explains the reason shes been such an emotional roller coaster is because "Every 100 years the Ocean goes through a magnetic reversal, causing all of us sea creatures to go though a Monster-Morphsis" Frankie wants to know how they can fix it and Lagoona tells them "You can't fix it, it's part of who I am." Frankie understands this and asks what they can do for her. Lagoona continues. "Be there for me, Be my friends, Listen to me... and Right this second? be quiet" Lagoona just wants silence so she can listen to the waves and they are silent for about a second (Because... 2:33 run time) before Lagoona speaks again "I'm kind of glad Gil isn't with you. This is so hard to explain, especially to a freshwater boy" Basically what I'm getting from this is Lagoona is going through sea creature PMS and all her ghouls are there for her... But nobody had any time to tell Gil that she wanted peace and quiet. Soooooo...

Gil went and threw Lagoona a parade to cheer her up.

Gil found dead in Miami.

In all seriousness no wonder people think Gil is a bad boyfriend, some of his best moments praising Lagoona are either in a clip show episode (which nobody watches) or like in THIS episode "This is one of the three webisodes first released as an extra on the "Frights, Camera, Action!" UK DVD on March 17, 2014" which is a DVD exclusive I'm not sure anyone outside the UK saw, I know I didn't.

But the episode ends and with it so does Volume 3 officially which is still a good Volume despite not being one long ongoing plot like Volume 2 was. But Gil's characterization is the same, this boy is wiling to bend over backwards to make Lagoona happy and y'all just wanna throw him to the sharks.

I've been asking people on Twitter why they dislike Gil and the answers vary but the two biggest ones are "He's ugly" to which....Yea, Sure, Okay... and that he is racist. But I'm looking at this content really, Really, REALLY hard and I am just not seeing it.

I am actively looking for the racism and I am not finding any! which is actually pretty hard to do because racism is everywhere but even so, not finding it. Has he said some off color things? Of course he has, He's 16 and dumb and comes from a racist household he's gonna say some prejudiced things that he may not even know are prejudiced (it's important to note in Skull Shores he did apologize after saying something bigoted to Lagoona). But look at his actions! He treats Lagoona with so much care, attention and affection! at her command I have no doubt our boy would walk across a bed of nails if it pleased her. He finds out she is kinda bummed and throws her a parade. Even when she isn't around? He goes to blows with his racist parents to defend her honor. These are not the actions of a racist or a bad boyfriend. These are the makings of a great boyfriend and a great person in general.

Gil could have let his parents racist ways taint him, it's so easy to just go with the flow isn't it? do what the family wants, date a nice freshwater girl to appease Mama and Papa Webber, But he didn't.

In the face of adversity Gil chose love.

And that is where I am going to end this part of my media analysis, not because I'm out of space but because this feels like a good place to end, Volume 4 went on hiatus after this and we're diving back into movie lore in the next part, yes there will be another part, I'm gonna keep doing this until I run out of content or I get bored with it. If you've come with me so far on this journey I hope you are not too tired yet, we still have much to discuss!

Part 1 + Part 2 + Part 3 + Part 4

#Monster High #Gil Webber #Lagoona Blue

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not-a-puzzle · 1 month

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Why the "pick-me" insult is sexist and transphobic, and why it needs to stop being tossed around like rice at a wedding.

I can't hide it; I've hated this insult ever since I first heard it come out of a snobby teenage girl's mouth. Something about it fired up my instincts, it got under my skin like salt on a snail's underbelly where it scratched and burned until I had to get myself to address why I hate it so much.

Well first off was the way I first heard it used, in a snobby, holier than thou tone said in a very mean girl type way, y'all know what I'm talking about. The Blaire White type tone. Judgmental, derogatory, like the way Fundamentalist Christians say slurs against trans people.

And that brings me to my next point, the term is undeniably transphobic, or at least, regressive to non-binary expressions of gender. Ya'll might think it's an insult used towards a certain attitude or behavior, but alas, I've seen this term used against tomboys or any girl who doesn't express herself in a hyperfeminine way enough times to know it's really sexism fueling the sheer amount we hear this term flung about now. (And I suspect there's actually a right-wing element to this.)

But on top of that, it runs under the assumption that any thing girls do is soley to catch the attention of men. Wear a crop top? You're doing that for men? Showing your shoulders, OH YOU WHORE! So by assuming a girl is a tomboy or likes video games or whatever that they're just screaming, "OMG BOYZ PICK ME OMG!!" you are making a judgement based off fucking nothing, often by people who do nothing but yell the second they turn on a camera, or want a reason to bully someone, cause a guess life is too boring for y'all if you're not harassing someone at least once a day?

What makes it worse is that most girls aren't super feminine. Lots of girls like things boys like too and vice versa, and yet our society is still so segregated based on gender that we STILL gender things from color to hobbies to clothing. Isn't that so old-fashioned you can smell the rancidity??

My point is, GOD FORBID WOMEN DO ANYTHING!

And do you ever consider if she's trying to not be like other girls, maybe it has nothing to do with her not liking girls, but with the rapid capitalist fueled consumerism and shallowness and unwritten social rules girls are being brainwashed with. (I mean, look at the 10- and 11-year-olds making a mess of Sephora and tell me that's how girls are meant to act naturally. No, they've been brainwashed by social media, and sadly, they want to grow up far too quickly and don't value their childhood, but rant for another day.)

And to round out this rant, I will say a lot of tomboys are girls on the autism spectrum, thus they may find it easier to befriend guys than girls (at least when they're all young) because guys generally (note I say generally here) are less prone to enforcing unwritten social rules and confusing figurative language than girls are. And guess what? A hallmark autism is a more literal mindset than a social one.

And besides, in the situation that a girl takes on a new way of expressing herself to attract guys, what's actually wrong with that? Don't you know how often I've seen girls dress up and fake act like a guy's jokes are so funny so they can start a relationship? Because someone wants to loved or horny or both. (Which there's nothing wrong with.) So, why is it wrong to use the technique of wanting to attract someone by being interested in things they're interested in? Or worse yet, not running around shouting about how "all men are pigs." So, oh dear, pick me isn't just sexist against women, it's sexist against men, because I also often see it used against women who don't hate all men.

Or say it's an incel type situation, JUST FUCKING CALL HER AN INCEL? WTF is up with gendering our insults. Why do guys and girls need different terms if it's actually the case for showing the same behaviors? Call women simps, call them incels, stop reserving insults for guys until you want to assume a girl is just doing something for guy's attention for which you want to shame her for that aspect. (Because it's wrong to be horny all the sudden? This not only pisses me off, but it also confuses the hell out of me.) But hey, you judgmental bitches out there, maybe she, a girl a woman, LIKES SOMETHING!! OH NO!! How dare she, she's a femiod! (Do I need to point out the last few sentences are sarcasm?)

And remember girls, pick-me is not an insult against loser-type, blaming everyone else for their mistake's behavior like incel is, it's a direct insult against a girl DARING to go against pre-established gender roles. Who are the people actually putting boys and girls in boxes, affirming established gender roles by implying other types of behavior is against the norm? Is it the simple tomboy, or the jerks who continue using this insult without realizing it's an insult created specifically to force traditional femininity upon women instead of letting them be who they are.

(A lot of these "dreaded pick-me's" are probably non-binary too folks.)

Don't get me wrong, this gif goes both ways. Obviously when girls have been boxed in all their lives, they're gonna get obnoxious about it when they aren't inside the box anymore. Yet, those who fling around the pick-me insult are calling attention to the breaking of gender roles all the more, and in the way that actually enforces them rather than the thing I think "pick-me's" actually do, and that's desperately trying to build a unique personality and find themselves in a world that still limits women so much. Can you blame someone for trying to fight against something, even if they are doing so in a sloppy way?

Well, I'll leave off this long rant post with saying this was inspired when the Misery Machine posted a video of a woman who fucking murdered people, but instead of actually focusing on the crime, they focus on the aspect of her being a pick-me. Why? She was goth. Yup. I bet you're pissed too now. Her being a pick me had nothing to do with being a murderer, so why even bring it up?

I'm not trying to language police, I'm just trying to call out attention to quite frankly might just be a new slur, which people will look back on in shame. There's so much hatred against a lot of today's slang, so why isn't the worst slang getting more hatred than words like gyatt or fantom tax, which are harmless at the end of the day.

My main point, LET PEOPLE ENJOY THINGS and MIND YOUR OWN BUISNESS!!!! Let's be aware of all the little things designed to degrade people and bring them down while the corporations profit off our insecurities they created in us, and we can start by not using insults coined by Grey's Anatomy of all things.

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chaotic-on-main · 1 year

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☆\\ Where I'd take AoT characters on a date IRL HCs:

(may or may not have based these off of places I’ve been to before and things I've done. also every one of these are to be assumed to be over the age of 21)

↓ Marco, Armin, Sasha, Eren, Levi, & Hange ↓

➳ Marco

➤ I’d take him bowling

➤ he’d be very adamant to pay for everything

➤ he'd spend a lot of time trying to find the perfect ball

➤ offers to help me after my 5th gutter ball in a row, even though he’s not very good at it either

➤ with his help, I'm able to hit the pins at least and when I look back at him with a big smile after knocking down 2 pins, “Marco!! Did you see that?! You helped me do that!!” - he would get so nervous and bashful

➤ when he ends up getting an accidental strike, I’d give him a very enthusiastic kiss on the cheek

➤ His face is beet red for the rest of the night. (just imagine those freckles, I'm crying)

➤ neither of us break 100 points but we laugh about it anyways and applaud each other for trying

➤ we'd spend some time in the attached arcade after our lane time is up

➤ he's not very fond of the violent games but he did indulge me with one Mortal Kombat game in which I won purely by being the better button masher

➤ he has a lot of fun with the strategic games though, and even ends up winning enough tickets to get that massive plushy hanging off the wall behind the prize counter that I've been staring at the whole time

➤ afterwards we'd go get greasy food and milkshakes at the diner in town, 90s grunge music plays in the background

➤ I sneak my debit card to the waitress to pay when he's not looking

➳ Armin

➤ I'd take him to an aquarium

➤ he absolutely info dumps on every creature we see

➤ he refuses to let go of my hand the whole time as we walk

➤ at one point he just wants to sit at a bench and stare up at one of the largeest tanks in the building, and we do in comfortable silence

➤ he laughs at my enthusiastic behavior when it’s time to see the sharks and penguins

➤ a kid comes bounding up next to us and starts blabbering about how pretty the fishies are and Armin will lean down and start pointing to specific ones and informs the very wide-eyed child of what they are

➤ I'd watch him with heart eyes the whole time he spoke

➤ I buy him a little stuffed octopus from the gift shop (that his bed is never seen without after this)

➤ he gifts me a small necklace with a little silver conch shell, his face is SO pink

➤ “I-I got you s-something too.”

➤ we’d take a walk down in the park next to the aquarium which just so happens to be by a river

➤ the sun is just starting to set so oranges and pinks are dusting the sky and reflecting off the calm water

➤ we get an ice cream cone from a vendor off the path

➤ I’d get cotton candy whereas Armin finds delight in sea salted caramel

➤ still holding hands of course, and if I pull away for anything, even to get a napkin out of my purse, he whines

➤ the night ends with some stargazing on the dewy grass of the park, both of our arms pointed to the sky as we talk about the stars, our hopes, our dreams, and everything in between

➳ Sasha

➤ I'd take her out to a Brazilian Steakhouse

➤ she'd never heard of them before so the moment I told her the concept of the restaurant, she already had drool down her face

➤ she makes the cost absolutely worth it because she packs away so much meat

➤ We would laugh the whole meal because we'd talk about our favorite weekly memes that popped up on our social medias

➤ we’d go axe throwing after dinner to blow off some steam, which is just a short walk from the restaurant since we’re downtown

➤ she’s getting a couple bullseyes (not a lot though, they’re mainly accidental) and doesn’t hold back her laughter when I utterly fail at even getting the axe to stick

➤ when I do manage to hit the wood and it sticks, she’s screaming so loudly in praise that the people next to us are eyeing us with dirty looks

➤ on the way back to the car, we run across one of those city fountains that spray water straight up from the ground (like for kids but more elegant) and out of pure mischief I shove her straight into a water stream getting her soaked

➤ she pulls me in and then we’re chasing each other through the water while screaming in laughter

➤ we’re dripping wet by the time we make it back to the car but luckily, I come prepared for anything

➤ it’s 11pm by the time we end up finishing our shenanigans

➤ “Taco Bell??” “Fuck yeah.”

➤ our stomachs are so sore from laughing so much

➳ Eren

➤ I’d take him to a rage room

➤ I’m not surprised to see how much pent-up aggression he needed to let out, but he is surprised by mine

➤ everything in the room has no mercy between the two of us

➤ once he’s over the initial shock of “smol but angy”, we’re both cackling like maniacs as we beat the shit out of the car sitting in the center of the room

➤ “Is that all you got!?” “Not in the slightest, Jaeger, watch this!!”

➤ Eren pays for another 30 minutes us because we’re just having so much fun

➤ the room is a chaotic mess by the end of it

➤ when we’re done with that, we’d grab dinner at a pub just down the street

➤ drinks will be had, him a beer and me a fancy ass cocktail that’s stronger than his by a landslide

➤ we’d be having loud drunken conversations about something stupid, probably work related

➤ his cheeks are just so flushed as he stares at me rambling about something going on in the world

➤ “What are you looking at?” “Nothing of importance.” He smirks. “Fuck you.”

➤ he plays the loudest death metal I have ever heard on the way home

➳ Levi

gif by @tatakaeeren ↑

➤ I'd take him home (hear me out)

➤ we'd make a home cooked meal together, something cozy and comforting

➤ maybe it's a recipe that his mom loved to make for him

➤ there’s soft lo-fi jazz playing in the background and the sun is setting just outside the kitchen window

➤ he loves to cook, like me, so we'd work well in the kitchen together.

➤ it takes longer than the recipe states because I'm slow as fuck when it comes to moving around in the kitchen but he would be so patient with me (not without his dry retorts though and me shooting daggers at him, all in light fun)

➤ “Those potatoes could peel themselves faster than you.” “Shut up.”

➤ When chopping onions, I'd be a puffy-eyed mess but he wouldn't even bat an eye

➤ matter of fact, his knife work is impeccable, and I’d have him on cutting duty

➤ eating together consists of comfortable silence and meaningful stares

➤ after dinner, he'd demand that I go sit while he handwashes all of the dishes as well as wipe down all of the counters (which I do without complaints though I still ask “Are you sure you don’t want help?”)

➤ when he's done, he'll come over with some dessert tea and we'll watch a movie or show together snuggled up on the couch

➤ sleepy forehead kisses as I nod off and he stays up half paying attention to the movie

➳ Hange

➤ I'd take them to a science museum center

➤ it's one of those interactive museums with the water features and outdoor activities

➤ Hange gets so giddy at the chemistry section

➤ they’d spend an ungodly amount of time at the physics station

➤ the system they made with the gears and tools provided is way too complex for me to understand but I am proud of them nonetheless

➤ even though most of the science discovery museums are catered to children, they are the most excited and happy one there

➤ there was a moment where they almost pushed a kid aside to gawk at something, but I grabbed their arm in time

➤ I’d have to physically stop them from buying everything at the giftshop

➤ we’d get pizza for lunch (a little Unspoken Words might have made its way in this)

➤ Hange is rambling on about some sort of experiment they would have made had the science center had the resources, a wicked gleam in their eyes as they talk

➤ “I’m just saying, if they ditched the construction paper and used real, raw materials, it would be even better.” “Hange, that’s not safe for kids.” “Who said it would be for the kids?”

➤ we’d go for a drive around town for a while with the windows down and music is cranked as high as possible as the sun sets in the rearview mirror

➤ the shared playlist we made makes no fucking sense

#i have more that i started on but decided to not add because they weren't as fleshed out as I would have liked #aot hcs #attack on titan #attack on titan headcanons #shingeki no kyojin #snk #marco bodt #armin arlert #sasha braus #eren yeager #levi ackerman #hange zoe #i think this warmed my soul actually #forever crying over marco #usertorichi

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redheadgleek · 10 months

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Books Read April-June

I read a lot these last few months. A bunch of them were on the shorter side, but also because I've been reading more, I'm reading faster.

I've stretched my goal to read 120 books this year (10 books per month). We'll see if I make it.

April (10 books):

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde. I really struggle with reading nonfiction, so this took me several months to get through (I do much better with audiobooks for nonfiction). The first work I've read of hers, I'm really interested in seeing her poetry.

Frogs In A Pot: How one woman mentally and physically abused five men in her life - and her own daughter - to satisfy her narcissistic needs by K.D. Kinz. I already ranted about this one.

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green. Sci-fi meets social media culture. Ended on a cliffhanger, not sure when I'll get to the sequel.

The Rose That Grew from Concrete by Tupac Shakur. He had some really lovely thoughts. Gone way too soon.

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens. Not quite as good as their other books (Monster of the Week and Ever After are fantastic), but still enjoyable.

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff. Recommended by @ckerouac. I loved it until around the last 30 pages. It just felt rushed of an ending.

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh - this was much more heavy than Hyperbole, in both content and weight (the book was a workout).

*In the Lives of Puppets by TJ Klune. A retelling of sorts of Pinocchio (reminded me a lot of A.I. which I loved even though the critics did not). It's weird and lovely and while not exactly happy, it's wistfully hopeful.

O Lady, Speak Again by Dayna Patterson - a collection of poetry using Shakespeare's female characters as the voices. I would love an audio version.

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher. A dark, little more adult, Beauty and the Beast retelling. Very imaginative.

May (13 books):

Madison by Ngozi Ukazu. I'm not sure I should really count this, but it was a delightful little comic to close out the Check Please universe.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow. I struggled with the beginning, but there were some great little twists towards the middle.

Assassin of Reality by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko. The sequel to Vita Nostra which I haven't stopped thinking about since I read it earlier this year. It was still off-balance and haunting, and I'm still left with questions. Sergey died this year, so it's uncertain if there will be another book to finish.

The Sleeper and the Spindle by Neil Gaiman. A Sleeping Beauty/Snow White retelling with some absolutely gorgeous illustrations. Lots of twists in this short story.

*The Raven and The Reindeer by T. Kingfisher. Retelling of the Snow Queen. I really liked this one - I felt cold through the whole thing.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. Very creepy in world building and the horror was a slow drawn-out dawning, but it sort of fell flat in the end.

Tastes Like War: A Memoir by Grace Cho. A half Korean woman recalls the relationship with her mother, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia. This was a "Everybody Reads" book club book from my library. I found the writing quite engrossing. There's a lot of controversy with it, with her brother calling the author a liar - but as he and his wife spend every moment of their free time replying to anybody who says anything positive about the book and they also have this "there isn't any racism any more!" attitudes, I've had heaps of salt with their perspective.

*Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik - a Rumpelstiltskin retelling, but it weaves in several other fairy tales. This one is unique because there's about a dozen 1st person perspectives (who aren't identified, you figure them out from the context) who tell the story. Makes me want to read more of her books.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar. I wanted to love this because everybody else is. And I didn't. It was okay, it just wasn't fantastic.

*Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow. Middle school novel about a kid who is the only survivor of a school shooter and then moves to the middle of nowhere to escape it all. The friendships were the best and it made me feel all the emotions.

The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill. Yes, May was my month of reading fairy tale retellings, this one of the Crane Wife. Weird and short. I'm looking forward to reading When Women Were Dragons.

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher by E.M. Anderson. This was a book based on that tumblr post circulating around about the chosen one being an old woman instead of a teenager. It was enjoyable, mostly, but did feel like it was trying to check off all of the diversity boxes, and the ending was rushed.

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry by C.M. Waggoner. Apparently it's sort of a sequel to another book. Knowing that would have helped. The undead mouse character was the best.

June: It's Pride Month! (12 books)

Queerly Beloved by Susie Dumond. Once a bridesmaid, forever a fake bridesmaid? Some fun characters in this one.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. Read as part of my friends-recommendation challenge - I own this book and my sister has been trying to get me to read it for years. I still haven't quite decided how I feel about it. The atmosphere was deliciously Gothic.

Imogen, Obviously by Becky Albertalli. I related a lot to this book, of figuring out who you are, and how boxes and definitions may not fit you. I wish that Becky would start writing books about college students instead of high schoolers though.

Kiss & Tell by Adib Khorram. A quick read.

Loveless by Alice Oseman. I was really disappointed by this book. The characters and plot weren't well fleshed out.

*Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanne Clarke, audiobook. Shortly after this book came out (nearly 20 years ago), I started reading it and got about half way through before getting distracted and I never finished it. I started listening to this at the beginning of March. It was 32 hours long. It's such a slow developing, meandering story, and I absolutely loved it. I felt completely immersed in the world.

Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun. "A Charmed Offensive" was better but it was a nice twist on the fake dating trope. Although for taking place in Portland, very little of it actually took place in Portland.

Lily and the Octopus by Steve Rowley. I loved "The Guncle" so much that I bought this when it went on sale and put away all of my other books to read it. It was ... weird. I think part of it is that I don't have a pet, but also the voice of his dog kept changing? It's magical realism, part The Life with Pi and part Moby Dick.

Scythe by Neil Shusterman. Friend-recommendation. A dark utopia and a sort of fascinating exploration about death. I'm on the waiting list for the other books of the trilogy.

*What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. Audiobook. Friend recommendation. An Asian woman explores the relationship of her abusive mother and her recovery from complex PTSD. I listened to the audiobook, and while I don't have PTSD or a history of abuse, it surprised me how much I related to her. The last chapters about love and connection were really healing to listen to.

*Above Ground by Clint Smith. Audiobook. His poetry about about parenting, but also about racism and connecting to the past. Really powerful and lyrical.

*The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I do love a Greek tragedy and this one was so good.

Currently reading:

The House Witch by Delemhach. The writing kinda sucks, but I like the idea and plot?

The Grace of Wild Things by Heather Fawcett. It's an Anne of Green Gables-inspired book about a young orphan witch who seeks out a reclusive woman as her mentor. It's utterly delightful.

The Celebrants by Steve Rowley. "The Guncle" may have been a one hit wonder for his writing for me, because I'm a couple of chapters in and I'm already annoyed.

A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland. I've heard lots of good things about this one.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh. Audiobook. I'm loving the narrator - for a while, I thought it was the actress who plays La'an on SNW as they have very similar cadences.

Next up: Book Lovers, When Women were Dragons, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, Thunderhead, and A House of Good Bones. Still on my "friend recommendations for 2023" to-read list: The School for Good Mothers by Jessamine Chan, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zavin, Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, Sweet Like Jasmine by Bonnie Gray, Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt, Dinners with Ruth by Nina Totenberg.

#reading #books #book club #reading goals 2023

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the-hornedwitch · 15 days

Text

Utinam Ne Illum Numquam Conspexissem

Part Four: No Good no Bad, only consequences.

AN: Again, what I write and talk about is strictly my experience, from my perspective. I know what the books say or do not say, they aren't always right. Take what I say with a grain of salt, or what resonates with you.

As I've stated in previous posts, I started noticing media, posts, and music related to Lucifer. The pagan woman in me, took notice. The girl who believed in magic and the gods got excited. So, I did that little makeshift candle ritual, and like I said prior. He showed up. What I haven't talked about, or tried to in the most convoluted way, is how He lingered.

Due to various things, such as memory and perhaps fear of being called crazy, I've held back. A great deal of it has to do with putting my experiences into words. Most of my life, my spiritual experiences were shunned or waved off. Plus, I often question my own sanity, and do not want to come off as one of those nut cases that sees signs and synchronicities in every little thing. That being said, back to Lucifer.

He lingered, I had dreams (which i've talked about before) I often felt like i was being watched, especially at work. He continued to pop up in my algorithm, friends would bring Him up in conversation, I felt compelled to put His sigil on my car. I got sucked into that silly CW turned Netflix show. I started greeting the dawn for no particular reason, other than The Baphomet Codex had said He liked early morning ritual. Fellow satanists on Instagram shared information on Him, and spoke of rituals they'd done. I was enamored. Then He said Hello and I lost my ever loving shit. Which If You've been following my previous posts, is right where I left off last time.

Yes, He said Hello. Gulp Nah, wishful thinking. Yep.

I honestly can't remember much after that, covid happened, we went into lock down, I still did my rituals, my husband and I started hating each other. It's all a blur. I felt myself slipping back into that unhealthy woman I had been years ago. Lots of arguments and rage occurred. I wanted My husband gone and far away from me. When my husband eventually left, I felt some relief and freedom, but my life became very confusing. I started having break downs. I felt awful, and I slowly started to realize, after discussing a few incidents with outside people, (My Therapist, trusted family, and friends) that I had been in a rather toxic and possibly abusive relationship. The last few years flashed across my third eye, like a PowerPoint presentation. All the red flags I had ignored, all the boundaries I let get crossed, the disrespect I let slide. All the while Lucifer sat in the background, legs propped on a desk, (He likes to present human) clicking away at slides. “You have a listing problem Sweetheart” Click “Gave you plenty of opportunities” Click “Shined My light on the subject” Click “But you don't fucking listen do you, little girl?”

He likes to make His point.

As I worked through the emotions, and consequences of my decisions. I sat in the Void and came face to face with all the parts of myself, I resented and hated. He stayed and listened. Pointed out the things I did not want to hear but did so in the most supportive and loving way. As my soul broke, He held me close. Whispered firm words of understanding and support. There came a point, however my rage surfaced, and I lashed out. Shut myself off from Him and refused to listen. My tantrum was answered with a very hard smack from the cosmic belt.

The thing about Lucifer, that I feel many overlook, or do not understand, is His capability, and talent at intervening with the material and mundane world. As other practitioners will share, our Dark Lords have offices. Lord Lucifer, being a Crowned Prince, has reign over many realms and Offices. Being both a Dark Lord, and Angelic Being, His power is immense and profound. His will is simply that, His. He will enact His will as He sees fit, and when He damn well feels like it. He does not answer to the magician or practitioner, you do not command Him. He is the one in “charge.” And there I was, a simple human, whom He had called priestess, having a five-year-old level tantrum. Because I was mad that my life was falling apart, that I wasn't getting what I wanted, as quickly as I wanted. Boo Hoo.

After one intense emotional break down, followed by a "string of this is so unfair". I was searching for a meditation track to calm down. I believe I had looked up binaural beats, which I had gotten into at the time. As I scrolled, I found something that caught my full attention. A hypnosis track, one with His name in the title. So, Click I went. The voice I was introduced to hit all the right notes. (I have an awful attraction to how men speak.) I soon found the Hypnotists page and Patreon. All geared towards various fantasy, with many BDSM themed tones, coupled with meditation tracks. It is rather delightful. I am very familiar with what hypnosis is and isn't.

After a few days, to a week of actively listening. (I binged ok) My meditations with Lucifer changed. His presence became more prominent, there were a few instances I was touched (Sensually, grabbed, and pushed). Trance became easier and easier to fall into, without the assistance of cannabis or alcohol. There were times I would be in the kitchen listening to music doing dishes, and there'd I go, straight into the ether. stuck between a strange half-awake half asleep, and He'd be there. I awoke at night from extremely erotic dreams that left me wanting. I started questioning my reality again, not sure if it was the Hypnotist or Lucifer. I panicked, was very rude to the Hypnotist for not being able to answer my questions and lost myself in the sauce of psychic awakening.

Brain fried, emotions raw and soul torn open, Lord Lucifer stood over me and patiently asked, if I was "done, and have you learned how to behave?" Our relationship continued in that manner for a while. I was pushed to the edge of the void again, and again. Made to look at all the things I hated about myself. (He truly is amazing at alchemy and transmutation.) I'd go between hypnosis and meditation, going deeper within myself as much as I could. There were a few times I lost myself and broke in ways I didn't know where possible. However, Lucifer was there every step, even when I couldn't “feel” or hear Him.

The word surrender frequented my thoughts, meditations, hypnosis, and social media algorithm. (I try not to trust the algorithm, sometimes though) I approached Lucifer during our morning conference, asking why the word continued to present itself. His answer was like everything else He ever tells me. Double meaning laced with undertones. “You're a smart girl, you'll get it”. Yes, He makes you do the work and assigns the most grueling homework at times.

I eventually figured it out and it took moving from my home in California, to Arizona. It gets better, I moved to Arizona, on a “whim” to a man's house, that I had never met, and only talked to for a few months. Crazy, I know. The thing is this man understood. He knew of Lucifer, He knew Lilith, Sammeal, Hekate, Leviathan, and the other Seventy-two Lords of Hell. In ways I had never known anyone outside of myself. We had a connection, that neither of us could really pinpoint or deny. As life on the Left Hand Path proves to me time and time again, nothing ever works out exactly as you plan. It's the nature of this reality, from chaos comes order, and vice versa. There are lessons to learn, and as I said before, Lucifer loves to make His point.

There are behaviors and choices I tend to make in regard to men. Most are not the best choices, nor the healthiest choices. And while my friend is a rather decent man, our initial concept of our "relationship" wasn't what we had anticipated. Plus, Lucifer likes to make a point, and He did so with both of us. Humbled and shock up my friend in his dreams, while making it very fucking clear, WHOM I "Belonged" to. (A story for another time perhaps)

I broke, I cursed Him, yelled at Him, said I hated Him (No you don't sweetheart) “You are the Devil, and I should have never trusted you” Screamed from my soul more than once. Much like before I was taught yet another lesson in regard to respect and gratitude. This time Asmodeus paid me a visit. Still took me time to work through my frustration and anger. Then it all just clicked, like it often does. I had been searching, yearning for something deep and meaningful. I looked for it, behind doors that lead me to heartache and pain. I went into a lifestyle looking for it, gave sacred parts of myself to men who were not worthy of it. Who couldn't comprehend what I was or offered. “Desire leads to surrender; surrender leads to power” yes i know thank you Jared Leto. I surrendered to Lord Lucifer in ways, ancient Priestess did to their Gods. In the way a submissive surrender to their Dom, “Lucifer take the wheel”. I had done this long before realizing it. In ways I hadn't noticed. Through my rituals, my words, my actions, how I honored Him in meditation, how I approached Him in conference. I instinctively gave into Him, followed, and listened (Still working on it). Gave my mind, body and soul to Him. Promised myself to Him, Devoted myself to Him. (As I type this, I continue to have the neatest little synchronicities through the music I have playing.) All the “bad” things that happened were simply the consequences of my actions, or lack of. Yet at the end of it all He was always there, to pick me up, dust me off and set me back on course. His love can come off as cruel, but Their love is beyond our human understanding.

I hid from the title of Priestess; thought I was undeserving of it. thought I was undeserving of His love, attention, and adoration. As I've sat and gone over my experiences these past five years with Him, as I allowed my thoughts and feelings flow into this writing, I've come to accept this. I may not have a church (I do have a discord) or be some high magician with a grand following. I am His Priestess; I see and Love Him for all that He is. Angel, Dark Lord, sadistic asshole, Devil, all of it. Call me crazy, call me a liar, call me delusional, I probably am. At least I accept and know where I stand now. I know who I am.

#left hand path #theistic satanism #witchcraft

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