#seems like a familial trend imo
Text
gotta say, I think the framing of Imogen's childhood as one lacking in all parental love and care because Liliana wasn't there is something that strikes me as both highly unlikely and as a far less interesting way of reading Imogen's early life with her father. If things were always as chilly and distant between them as they were after Imogen's powers developed, then there isn't much change in their relationship at all. But if we acknowledge that in her childhood she had a largely normal, functional, and loving relationship with her father, their estrangement after her powers becomes all the more heart wrenching. Yes, he's emotionally reserved and "was never the master of parental affection," as Matt said, but he's dependable. He cares for her, with actions over words. He's her dad and he's there for her entire childhood, making dinner for her, working to take care of her, teaching her how to ride, bandaging her up when she gets hurt.
Then the powers come. The night terrors that sound familiar to him, this terrifying pain that she's in, the way he doesn't actually know what's wrong with her because Liliana didn't know and she'd barely told him these powers so much as existed before she left him. Being close to Imogen hurts her and it also means she can root around in his head--so he puts distance between them. And that hurts like hell for a kid, to have their father pull away from them like that even though it's more comfortable, physically, that way. A gulf forms. Trust shatters. Their relationship deteriorates and deteriorates. More time passes--eight years of this--and they're further away from each other than they ever have been. Neither of them go into town or talk to people all that much because Imogen doesn't want to hear what people are thinking or deal with the pain of it and Relvin doesn't want to bring home what other townsfolk have said that she might be able to skim off him.
That's shattering for both of them. And so, so, so much more tragic than if there was never care or love between them to begin with. It hurts so much because it used to be so much better than this. There was a comfortable familial love between them before, and now it just feels like empty air
#seen this come up quite a few times lately around some platforms and it's like#why would anyone think there was NO love in imogen's early life?#THERE WAS#and isn't loving someone yet still doing something that hurts them because you think it's better that way#(such as relvin not telling her about liliana and pulling away and all this distance so she won't got after the same thing liliana did)#the exact same concept people are obsessed with (rightly) in the liliana & imogen dynamic?#seems like a familial trend imo#relvin temult#imogen temult
120 notes
·
View notes
Text
tell me why did I trust how much of these hills is gold even after knowing it had blown up on TikTok....
#why is this family of immigrant laborers from southern china (given the 1840s-1860s background) speaking mandarin#when realistically they should have been speaking Cantonese?#this trend of western Chinese-descendants telling stories about traumas they didn't experience while erasing languages and experiences#that non-Han Chinese people and other asian people have gone through is very weird#especially concerning since it's done by otherwise very knowledgeable and inquisitive writers#like why are PoCs in this book treated like faceless background characters (despite this being a diverse take on the Wild West novel)#with magical and Good connection to The Land#while the white villains are nuanced and extremely detailed? it's also clownish to paint the white characters as overwhelmingly rich becaus#of their exploitation of The Land - which the PoC characters seem to find abhorrent and oppose to - when capitalism is a sickness that#catches everyone and the white protestant man#while more powerful than the black or latino man#was /also/ made to sweat and spit blood on a land that gave him nothing#no war but class war but I guess that's too hard to fathom!#(good book with strong plot choices here and there - the dad pov chapter was very very good and deserving of its own book imo - but yeah. i#was made for a puzzling read at times)#literature#how much of these hills is gold
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
all the rise boys get done dirty on characterization by fandom in different ways i think. (not ALL the time every fanwork etc etc these are just like, trends i tend to notice?) every fandom suffers from losing character nuance.
- leo i’ve talked about plenty on this blog, how some of his canon traits (genuine belief in his skill and cockiness, capacity for joy, his manipulativeness whether for good or ill) seem to get watered down or wiped off the board and supplemented with generic sad boy. his struggles with purpose and identity and not wanting to fail somehow morph into “he hates and completely holds no value for himself”
- donnie’s canon personality gets blurred out and largely replaced with whatever list of Neurodivergent Traits. and i think there’s such a fine line to walk between exploring a character that’s been word of god confirmed as on the spectrum and overwriting what’s canonically there. it’s a hard needle to thread. it also feels like a lot of his canon emotiveness gets left off the table for some reason. bc he does have his moments of flat/deadpan delivery, but a lot of the time he’s honestly very emotive. he has the passion of a theatre kid and the vindictiveness of... also a theatre kid. and the mind of a scientist.
- raph loses so much of his rowdy teen boy energy it’s kind of wild? like interpretations sand off that he’s also impulsive and can be reckless and dumb and LOVES fighting and roughhousing and isn’t the most eloquent person. suddenly there’s this pitch perfect soft boy big bro who would never hurt a fly and always says the exact right supportive thing and singlehandedly raised his 3 brothers (which simultaneously sands off all the nuance of splinter’s issues emotionally connecting with his sons and how that affected all of them). and like i LOVE raph, he’s so full of love and care and anxiety, he clearly has learned to put a lot of work into being aware of his strength and size. but there’s a difference you know?
- mikey is like. where raph gets overparentified by fanon, mikey gets over “family therapist”-ed IMO. the impulsiveness, the goofiness, the powerful emotions including a VERY powerful temper, the flat-out dumb teen boy choices... they get ignored. suddenly there’s this only very sweet and earnest boy who has read a hundred psychology books and runs group family therapy weekly or something. he is crying in his room bc leo and raph are arguing about something. which is so. he IS very sweet and can be very earnest and is full of love! he HAS come in with his opinions and unsolicited advice a couple of times and life coached for the greater good. but there’s a difference between what he does in canon and the role he gets in fanon.
#rottmnt#rise of the tmnt#idk this is not a very eloquent rundown its very hard to explain exactly my vibe#ig the long story short is i feel like a lot of their most interesting and fun qualities get left in the dust#mikey as family therapist is getting under my skin the most rn i think its just so.#for as much as it seems like his brothers try to shelter him (esp raph with his overprotectiveness)..... i just dont see it#i dont see his brothers and definitely not his dad putting their issues on him like that...#him dragging donnie into that one dr feelings session and dragging draxum into a new moral alignment were different#than 'yeah everyone tells mikey their stuff and he has to do the labor of helping with it'#like it just doesnt vibe for me#i think he is very emotionally OPEN on all levels compared to his family#i think he is more likely to share when HE struggles#i dont think raph or leo is sitting with him at 3am like 'it all started when i was 4 and accidentally broke a plate' or what have you idk#it's all so ymmv i do just scroll past stuff i dont vibe with i dont drop hate on it i just#idk dudes its so hard to see the appeal in some of the choices made
2K notes
·
View notes
Text
Brooms by Jasmine Walls and Teo DuVall
[PHOTO ID: The title Brooms is in white all capital letters set against a night scene with a full moon. The cover features two shoulder up illustrations: one is a biracial woman looking away with long black hair and a large earing, one is a Black woman looking forward with a blue collared shirt and a purple biller har, one smaller shoulder up illustration of a Black man with a white collared shirt.
Two full body illustrations on brooms. One of a Chinese woman riding the broom like a surf board wearing a blue handkerchief, white t shirt and blue skirt the other is a Black woman in a yellow dress with one leg up in a stirrup and one arm out with a glow.
And two waist up illustrations of biracial sisters one in pink with glasses and braids and one in purple with her hair up.
Next to the girl in pink and the woman in yellow are the author, illustrator, letter setter and colorist names, in large text: Jasmine Walls, Teo DuVall then in smaller text: Bex Glendining & Ariana Maher. END ID]
Image from Goodreads
Overall rating: 10/10
I can't do a traditional pro cons list because I can't think of a thing I would have wanted different, outside of topics I cant "review" of course (more on this later). However before we get too far I need to lay out the setting so you know what you are getting into! This is a graphic novel about magic realism set in 1930s Mississippi. It follows women (and two girls) of color and their attempt to make cash doing illegal broom racing to make their lives, well easier for one, but also safer.
This isnt a utopia, magic is woven into the racism of the era. No slurs are used but subtle racism is depicted. There is a hierarchy of legality of who can use magic and what kind. It's a underdog story of solidarity and love, it has that "one last job and we retire" energy. While the young girls learn to harness their magic the police patrol, they are supported by a type of found family along side their blood family.
There is a happy ending I will at least spoil that much.
The blending of era and magic is lovingly crafted. For instance one character, Loretta, works as a laundress, she, like a lot of women in the time and place struggle with money and finds work where she can. Magic here isn't like the cheat code for easy living, she cant just magic the cloths clean and mended. It's a muscle to train and partner with not a deus ex eject button for every little thing. Each character reveals so much yet so little of themselves to us and there is an epiloge of sorts that delights the mind to want more of these characters. So I guess my point is, yes magic but also hardships and I've never seen it done like this before.
So all that said let me pull back on all the other things about this story and answer the question...
Hows the fat rep?: The characters come in many sizes, Loretta seems to be the biggest of her friend group. Her weight is never mentioned, no jokes about how a fat person could ride a broom! She's got a loving husband (no jokes about the size difference!) Billie Mae is the second biggest of the main cast perhaps more musclar than fat but is distinct imo in body shape and build and its my review so...she's different from Loretta, Lor is femme leaning and Billie is butch and here too there are no jokes it's simply a part of her design, shes the only woman on the team to wear pants. There are background and unnamed fat characters! You'd be suprised how hard that is to find.
This is very much a situation where weight is not brought up, it exists as a thing and thats it. And I appreciate that because fat peoples lives shouldn't be all about our weight, we deserve to exist with hobbies and interests and jobs.
Additionally: You might have seen that trend where people list off rep of a book and don't even mention the plot? Well I hope my introduction was enough to cover story and such because this comic has: visible and invisible disability rep, sapphics, a trans main character, and remember how I gushed about unnamed characters? There's also physical disabilities. The attention to detail while designing otherwise nameless characters is appreciated.
My limits as a reviewer:
I can't say if there good enough representation for Black women btw. For me this was obvious but I'm adding it just in case.
A main character is Deaf and due to the limitations of the medium the artist and writer had to imply signs. Consideration for the eye line of this character is given, she will bump and nudge people to turn towards her so she can read lips. I cannot say if this is a good compromise or not.
The issue of cultural appropriation could be had. It is mentioned that the author worked with the language experts from the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and in story residential schools are mentioned and briefly depicted. Was this respectful or enough research I cannot say.
You mighy find additional concern with the trans rep, it is mentioned that an outside source was consulted to bring authenticity. Related, a person was consulted about the Cantonese depicted. Was this enough I cannot say.
Individuals will each have their own feelings about own voices vs researched stories. There's no one perfect answer but I can only provide the info that's in the book to help you make informed decisions.
On Goodreads
#Mod squirrel#Fat book reviews#Brooms#jasmine walls#As far as my limits I'm just letting everyone know#You can read the same thing as me and find it lacking even if I loved it#Or if I thought enough research was done#You could find it wasn't enough
20 notes
·
View notes
Note
Your blog feels like somewhat of a safe haven because you seem like a very reasonable person, which is why I feel safe saying this here only. Some of the responses to L*udna calling Im*gen sister make me very uncomfortable. People literally saying that m*risha is wrong about her character or that it doesn't mean anything, or that laudna doesnt know how she feels. It reminds me of my least favorite aspect of the Fandom, where people will decide how they think the characters feel or think about something or how they would act in a given circumstance, and then in their minds it becomes Canon and they get frustrated when the actors (who in dnd are the storytellers) don't act upon their Canon. This is different than just being disappointed that a ship you like didn't become Cano, IMO. I really like Imogen but I LOVE laudna, and I feel like a lot of the times she is reduced to just be Imogen's other half, and now that people denying what marisha says her character thinks, saying she's wrong, being mad at the choice, it makes it hard to interact with the fandom on this site because I feel like I can't talk about Laudna or Imogen without it circling back to their relationship. My favorite pairings in C1 were Vex and Percy and Vex and Keyleth and I feel like I didn't have this problem as much with them but also I wasn't as deep on the internet or in fandom back then. :(
Hey anon,
Thank you so much for this - it’s really nice of you!
I don’t have a ton to add or say about this, honestly; the post I reblogged about it said it better than I could. This has always been what put me off the ship as it exists in the fandom: I’m not opposed to Imogen and Laudna becoming a couple, but the fanon is deeply boring while also being all consuming and crystalized before the end of the first episode. It’s frustrating, as someone who enjoys both Imogen and Laudna, to try to talk about them without getting obnoxious responses to anything that even hints there might be misunderstandings or conflict between them. It lessens their characters and the work both Marisha and Laura have put in. It makes it impossible to explore their flaws, and it makes everything about them uncompelling, when they are both very interesting characters. I’ve found Laudna especially to be coming into her own in this Team Issylra arc.
The fact is, Laudna said what she said. It doesn’t mean a romance is impossible, but I think it’s genuinely indicative of how Laudna feels at this time. Which to be honest matches how I’ve felt regarding Laudna’s feelings about Imogen from early on! I think Imogen is romantically interested in Laudna, but I think Laudna has always seen Imogen in a more familial way, and I don't know if it's fair to her to try to explain that as just Laudna's insecurities. I also think it's possible Imogen has exacerbated those insecurities - if I were Laudna, I’d be feeling a certain way about Imogen’s exploration of the validity of the Vanguard, and I might even still be feeling the unresolved pull of the gnarlrock fight.
I can’t speak to Campaign 1 ships specifically since I watched that campaign after it had already finished, but at the very least Imodna has felt notably different to me in that usually people talk about at least one of the parties of a popular ship as an individual, even if they reduce the other to nothing. Here it feels like they both get folded into ship fodder. I’ve also seen a really strong trend of people tagging fanart of one of the characters alone, without the other, with the ship name, and that feels new compared to past campaigns and popular ships though the obvious cynical answer is just that the ship is more popular than the characters on their own and so artists are just trying to get eyes on their work in the most effective way. And as I’ve said a few times, the fact that Laudna’s death was more than once referred to as throwing the ship away has stuck with me as an illustrative moment. I think the fandom response to this ship is different than some past ones, and not in a good way.
With that said, I am trying, despite myself, to practice good faith here. I’ll admit that I’ve had enough bad faith interactions with fans of the ship such that it’s no longer an option when I get reblogs on my posts or anons in my inbox. But in terms of what might transpire in the hypothetical situation where Imogen and Laudna end the campaign without becoming romantically involved, I would like to give those who ship it the chance to respond with grace rather than assuming they will not.
53 notes
·
View notes
Text
🎀Pansy, My Beloved Mean Girl🎀
Although her goth-grunge haircut in the PoA film turned fanon!Pansy into an edgy badass, book!Pansy is a caricature of the girly mean girl.
Pansy bursts “[into] tears” over Draco's hippogriff injury, and later “simpers” at him; she wears “very frilly robes of pale pink” to the Yule Ball; she “shrieks” and “giggles” at cruel jokes; she spreads gossip about the Golden Trio's love life.
However, what sets Pansy Parkinson apart from the more celebrated mean girls is that Pansy is completely one-dimensional. While others — Kate Sanders, Sharpay Evans, Regina George, Blair Waldorf — are allowed to be charismatic, attractive, powerful, vulnerable, Pansy is only presented as annoying, “pug-faced” (i.e. an ugly bitch), and “thicker than a concussed troll”.
While other works examine the motives and the secret pains of the mean girl — distant families, insecurities, lack of true friends, pent-up rage — Pansy is simply mean, because she is. You’re not meant to see her as a human being at all; Pansy is an effigy to be burnt.
In the words of JKR herself:
I loathe Pansy Parkinson. [...] She's every girl who ever teased me at school. She's the Anti-Hermione. I loathe her.
So, if Pansy Parkinson is so unlikeable, why do I like her?
🎀 First, because she is girly.
The construction and treatment of Pansy’s character fits what’s termed “demonisation of hyperfemininity”: a trend in media to associate girly girls with villainy, spite, and everything not nice, often in opposition to a virtuous Not Like Other Girls girl (such as Hermione).
If this concept has been used (rightfully, imo) to discuss the mean girls I described above as multi-faceted, then Pansy’s lack of nuance hyperdemonises hyperfemininity. Even her name itself is an insult used to deprecate femininity.
Once you’re aware of this trope, though, it’s not difficult to separate the hyperfeminine wheat from the demonic chaff. There is no doubt that Pansy has condemnable traits, but must every trait of hers be condemned? Is it shameful to pursue your crush, giggle, and like pink frills? Of course not.
For years I thought it was, but now, in the era of bimbocore and barbiecore, I am finally overcoming that internalised prejudice and reviving the girly part of me I had repressed. Now, I really enjoy exploring the positive side of Pansy’s girliness: she’s affectionate, bubbly, interested in cute aesthetics (and in my mind she knows all about beauty products).
💋 Second, because she is mean.
At the same time, observing that a part of Pansy is unjustly maligned doesn’t warrant downplaying her flaws. Just as Sharpay is self-obsessed and manipulative, Pansy is a bigot and a bully. But I love that in a fictional character.
I admit her canon taunts are pretty insipid; you can’t make a “Pansy Parkinson being iconic” quote compilation. Nonetheless, I can only see her wanton meanness towards other girls as a sign of insecurity, which I find sympathetic and relatable — even if JKR refuses to give Pansy any humanity, I simply do not believe that she is the way she is for no reason.
I think Pansy has the need to put others down so much because she doesn’t know how else to feel good about herself — the insipidness of her bullying actually makes her seem even more like someone who lashes out out of desperation for assurance, even if she herself may be in denial about that.
Pansy was probably taught, both by our patriarchal society and by her own individual upbringing, that she had impossible standards to conform to and that other girls were her competitors.
Indeed, many of Pansy’s insults focus on the appearance of her female peers — beauty standards being the most obvious tool of the system to make women hate themselves and each other.
On top of that, I imagine Pansy’s mother must be overly critical of her and of everyone else too, instilling in Pansy a lack of self-confidence and modelling viciousness as acceptable behaviour — things Mrs. Parkinson herself must have learnt from her own trajectory under patriarchy.
It’s the tragic old cycle of hurt women hurting women, which so many of us end up being part of in one way or another.
Plus, in general, I relate strongly to any character who is an insecure little bastard. I admit it: I have a fragile self-esteem and I’ve always struggled with envy and urges to seek validation in toxic ways. Although I've got a lot better at dealing with these feelings, I love to see a character who makes me feel less alone in my issues.
Lastly, Pansy’s meanness is just fun to write. I find it a fun exercise to come up with the most egregious things for someone to say or do in (fan)fiction.
🌸 Third, because JKR hates her too much.
There are many criticisms Pansy undeniably deserves, but JKR goes beyond those, which makes me feel compassion for the girl.
Exhibit A:
On her old website, JKR once made a post called “For Girls Only, Probably,” which discusses incidents that made her reflect on “being thin”, or “the issue of size and women”.
Besides the hypocrisy of her writing that without addressing the rampant fatphobia in the Harry Potter books, the post itself is full of misogynistic clichés and, once again, demonisation of hyperfemininity.
In the first paragraphs, after assuming (yikes) that a girl on a magazine has an eating disorder and body-shaming her (“her concave stomach, protruding ribs and stick-like arms”), JKR concludes:
This girl needs help, but, the world being what it is, they're sticking her on magazine covers instead.
If you squint, there could be a salvageable point there about toxic beauty standards being pushed by the media, but by the end of the article that is lost in victim-blaming and derision:
[Pink’s] latest single, ‘Stupid Girls’, is the antidote-anthem for everything I had been thinking about women and thinness. ‘Stupid Girls’ satirises the talking toothpicks held up to girls as role models: those celebrities whose greatest achievement is un-chipped nail polish, whose only aspiration seems to be getting photographed in a different outfit nine times a day, whose only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs.
[...] I don't want [my daughters] to be empty-headed, self-obsessed, emaciated clones; I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin'. And frankly, I'd rather they didn't give a gust of stinking chihuahua flatulence whether the woman standing next to them has fleshier knees than they do. Let my girls be Hermiones, rather than Pansy Parkinsons. Let them never be Stupid Girls.
Excessive preoccupation with weight is a ubiquitous feature of a fair few 2000s mean girls — Regina and Blair, of course — but the character JKR’s rhetoric most reminds me of is Shelby Cummings from A Cinderella Story. You know, the one who asks, “What can I get here that has no sugar, no carbs, and is fat free?”
That film puts a lot of emphasis on food as a marker of a woman's morality: while Hilary Duff's Sam is a good-natured, booksmart tomboy who loves greasy cheeseburgers, Shelby is portrayed as a vapid, spiteful girly girl obsessed with dieting.
Hyperfemininity, shallowness, cruelty, and weight concern are all framed as parts of the same contemptible character flaw. Liking beauty and fashion equals being dumb and bitchy; body image issues are an individual moral defect, not a response to hurtful social pressures.
That is exactly the same unfair treatment JKR’s post gives both Pansy and real life “Stupid Girls”, which drives me to side with Pansy. In fact, because of this blog post, I've started headcanoning Pansy as not only being insecure about her appearance, but also struggling specifically with her weight and with disordered eating/an eating disorder — one more element that increases her relatability.
Exhibit B:
The quote cited earlier is from an interview where JKR was asked who Draco had married, and if it had been Pansy. Her full answer:
No! God, it wasn't Pansy Parkinson. I loathe Pansy Parkinson. I don't love Draco but I really dislike her. She's every girl who ever teased me at school. She's the Anti-Hermione. I loathe her. Yeah, sorry! Sidetracked there by my latent bitterness. He married Astoria Greengrass.
Essentially, marrying Pansy is a punishment too harsh even for Draco, because while he is bad, she is worse — but how is Pansy worse than Draco?
As school bullies, they often act together, but Draco’s insults are arguably harsher: Pansy targets appearance and we never see her say “Mudblood”. Draco often mocks Harry’s orphan status and grief, plus uses the word “Mudblood” 15 times (I counted lol). They both abuse their power as prefects, both join the Inquisitorial Squad and try to take down the D.A.
In the war, Pansy clamours for Harry to be handed to Voldemort. Draco enthusiastically becomes a Death Eater, attempts murder twice (necklace, mead), lets Death Eaters and a feral werewolf into Hogwarts, and actually tries to capture Harry to hand him to Voldemort (right before the Fiendfyre).
Not to mention, Pansy is the one always treating Draco like a king and being used or led on — which she puts up with for years. He accepts her affection when it suits him and never reciprocates, yet she remains loyal to him.
If anything, Pansy is too good for Draco. If anything, instead of being sentenced to “not getting the guy”, Pansy should dump Draco.
(Though to me they are both problematic faves & I ship them fixing their relationship <3)
But no, the bad girly girl must remain irredeemable and be punished for it, while the more charismatic bad guy is allowed depth, self-improvement, and happiness.
JKR’s personal trauma with Pansy-like classmates might be a factor in her bias, but the way this bias affects her writing still results in choices that come across as illogical and sexist.
💗 Fourth, because she is a scorned woman.
That said, Pansy’s chasing an emotionally unavailable boy is relatable, and makes for a kind of story I’m interested in (and also contributes to why I believe she has self-esteem issues). However, I have mixed feelings about its canonical ending: on one hand, it’s infuriating; on the other, it’s an effectively moving tragedy.
I don’t like love triangles between a shining Refined Woman and an utterly contemptible Obnoxious Woman, and I tend to root for the latter. I don’t see myself in the glass slippers of the victor; I get horrified at the nightmare of being labelled a despicable failure and being replaced by some perfect, virtuous, better woman.
In Pansy’s specific case, it’s doubly frustrating, because there is some unrecognised good (or at least neutral) in her, and she is flawed in precisely the ways I connect with. Meanwhile, Astoria is much harder for me to like, since her main trait and sole reason to exist is “being better than Pansy” — as per the interview above, JKR was the first to define Drastoria by Pansy bashing.
Astoria is barely a character; she’s a mere tool in Pansy’s punishment and Draco’s redemption, which is doing Astoria dirty, too. Astoria and Pansy are both scenery in Draco's journey — and it’s a bit rich that Pansy is the Corruption-upon-Styx from which he must distance himself, given that his offences are greater than hers.
Another facet of Pansy’s punishment is that she couldn’t marry Draco because she shouldn’t be a mother.
Exaltation of motherhood is a huge theme in Harry Potter: the motherly love of Lily, Molly, and even Narcissa is a great force against evil. Plus, nearly all Light Side women either are (or become) mothers, or have a caretaking role as school teachers.
Being childfree, on the flipside, is stigmatised by its association with the worst female antagonists: Rita Skeeter and Umbridge, who are also hyperfeminine, and Bellatrix — the latter directly defeated by Molly's love for her daughter. The only exception is Petunia, yet another hyperfeminine antagonist, who represents a perversion of motherhood.
So, in this reactionary framework, of course Pansy was forbidden to have children. Childlessness is her burden for being an irredeemably bad woman, which in turn reinforces how bad a woman she is. Inversely, Astoria gets to be a mother because she is a good woman, and motherhood makes her even better (than Pansy).
Paradoxically, though, as much as I hate JKR’s approach to this whole thing, I’m glad my OTP Dransy isn’t canon endgame, because Pansy’s thoroughly whumped figure is even more compelling for it.
I can’t blame anyone if, even considering all this, Pansy is still not their cup of tea — after all, she was created to be as unpalatable as possible. But despite JKR’s efforts to convince me to hate the character, everything about Pansy Parkinson ends up making her very much my cup of pink strawberry hot chocolate.
97 notes
·
View notes
Note
Welcome to the "having a bad day/week" club! As the president I'd like to welcome you personally.
As for asks I want every little thought headcannon and random facts about the chiss :D
howdy! my first question as member of the club is can we burn it down lmao. but fr tho, here's to hoping we all get a break soon
I'm dying to talk about chiss fashion but I've vowed to illustrate those headcanons first so let's talk biology. I've got quite a few about our alien blorbos, starting with the headcanon that they're generally taller than humans. their body temperature also varies more on average with the added bonus that they can tweak it at will
and let's see, skin color usually falls into three categories, indigo darker tones (for me that's Ar'alani and Thurfian), cerulean sky blues (Ba'kif, Samakro) and the more turquoise tones (Thrawn, Zistalmu, Lamiov). there are also chiss that fall somewhere in between of course. you can guess a chiss' likelihood of going gray based on their skin tone with the indigo group being most immune to it and the turqoise gang being most likely to turn grey early. not Thrawn though, he's an exception to that rule in my mind, as he is for so many things lol
the way they perceive colors differs from humans. they specialize at distinguishing shades of blue and its adjacent colors on the spectrum (purple and green). this is due to the predominant coloration of their natural habitat: even before Csilla’s shift to a cooler climate, the flora and fauna of their world had mostly blue pigmentation, the same reason their own skin is blue
they're also good at seeing shades of red because it's close to the infrared spectrum we know they can see (even though their brain filters out some of the excess red bioluminiscent glow of their eyes), leaving the orange and yellow part of the spectrum as the shades they can least differentiate between
speaking of colors, I headcanon that their culture ascribes a lot of meaning to them and they influence the way people dress and pick their outfits in their society, especially among the Aristocra. they have traditional meanings assigned to the primary colors that politicians often use to signal the values they want to project. and there's also popular meanings assigned to other shades that vary depending on fashion trends. but more on that when I pull myself together and finish my fashion illustrations!
as for politics, I think this is implied by Zahn but I believe the Stybla are much more influential than it seems at first glance. imo they never really 'stepped down' as a ruling family as much as they retreated into the shadows to puppeteer things from there. which is probably why I'm so fascinated with characters like Ba'kif and Lamiov
anyway I think that's enough for one post! as always, if anyone wants to discuss more of this I'm always open to it
#thank you so much for the ask and wishing you a great week! 💙💙#thrawn ascendancy#thrawn books#chiss#chiss ascendancy#chiss headcanons
18 notes
·
View notes
Text
getting real tired of people who are shitting on “found family” more generally as a narrative concept and specifically named familial dynamics in fan interpretation of characters in particular because it all seems to be getting painted with a really wide and really homogenous brush. “we need to take found family away from people because they think it all has to be In Nuclear Family Terms and do you know friendship exists and you don’t have to call these characters siblings to legitimize their relationship while making it clear you Don’t Ship Them Ew Gross and THEN you sneer at people who Do ship them” cool cool that is a lot of really intense characterization and assigning of motive to other people en bloc!
like sure there’s some meaningful critique to be found in a broad trend to label every single relationship directly and specifically with terms that have very specific contexts and roles but im waiting to be told when anyone IS by the standards of people making and reblogging these very sweepingly generalized posts allowed to call a relationship parental or whatever. is that Ever allowed. who is handing out the permits. sometimes a specific term for a relationship isn’t actually about wanting an excuse to sneer about your ship (and frankly there’s a lot of projection going on there imo from people who are actively sneering about other people’s interpretation of a relationship!) and it’s because there are very specific contexts and details about a dynamic that makes exploring it from the lens of siblings or whatever very rich and compelling and interesting because words mean things and assuming everyone is just being reductive and demanding conformity to a nuclear family is, ironically, really reductive.
so like. cool it. stop being really fucking mean about people having an interpretation of a dynamic you personally don’t like or makes you feel a little weird or uncomfy because you ship them.
#gav gab#im so tired of seeing people do this lmao#is someone actually being reductive and trying to get your ship labeled ‘basically incest’#or did they just express on their own blog that they don’t ship something bc they see those characters as siblings#so it feels weird to them#you know#the exact personal preference and interpretation you’re expressing in the opposite#it’s all ‘UGH not every relationship NEEDS A SPECIFIC LABEL’ as soon as the label isn’t romantic lmao#like amazing of you to start caring about how friendship matters as is legitimate without anything else#as soon as it’s not about your fucking ship anymore :)#be real you do not care about friendship lmao you can just dismiss it more easily and comfortably#when people aren’t using terms that are more loaded to your ship#are the big meanie found family enjoyers actually harassing you for shipping fake incest#or are you just uncomfortable when it is not about you#and chronically unwilling to curate your experience the way you demand other people to#because fandom has always catered to shipping and why should it ever Not be expected to do that#bc I sure see a lot of shit talking of familial dynamic labels based on people who use those labels being weird to other people#and not a lot if any of those people actually being weird to shippers#and one or two isolated incidents is not indicative of a widespread problem#do what everyone who doesn’t like a popular ship does and unfollow and block lmfao grow up
14 notes
·
View notes
Text
Rosegate Masterpost
I talk way too much about this theory so I figured I might as well make a list of all the posts that I consider relevant and important so nobody has to slave through my blog for context. Turned out to be way too fucking LONG though. RIP to you I guess (please read about this theory please please please *gives you the biggest wettest saddest eyes*).
Really the only purpose of this post is to pin it.
Anyways. All the information is under cut:
Basic Summary: The basic premise is that the Wheelers are connected to the Creel home somehow. However since the similarities (as you will see in the post links that I am sharing below) seem to be with the objects that were in the Creel home before the Creels even moved into Hawkins in 1959 (eg. the grandfather clock, the wheelchair, the wedding dress, the rose wallpaper, etc etc) it seems that the Wheelers actually may be connected to the home in a way that may not be related to the Creels themselves at all. Now, every guy and their mother knows all the Karen theories out there so hey why not throw out a Ted theory ya know spice it up a bit.
This theory? The Creel home is Ted's childhood home- *gets boo-ed off the stage*.
This show is for Freaks and Weirdos so I'm 100% in the right for being a Freak and Weirdo who hyperfixates on this lol.
Now more seriously, not only are there the parallels to the Creel home, but also this theory surrounds an urn that has been sitting on the Wheeler mantle place since s1. This urn is decorated with pink flowers (could possibly be roses), which is not only a repeated design in the Creel home itself (the rose door being particularly important), but it also in the Wheeler home: the upstairs/ dining room wallpaper and the variety of other fake urns-vases around the Wheeler dining room that have rose designs on them. And yeah this could all be a coincidence, but the show all but confirms the urns significance when they intentionally switched it out with a different urn in the ST4 climax.
Other usage of rose symbolism can be found particularly surrounding female characters- and even more smaller in scope is the reoccurring motif of the Blonde Mother (tm) whom are also associated with roses *eyes The Urn again*. When looking at the similarities at how these female characters are dressed you start to notice that there are certain trends- pink/white/blue color scheme, certain hair styles, and jewelry. Which is why I believe that Rosemary's Baby may be a huge inspiration for this ("Rose" Robin aka her fake identity in Penthurst being my favorite because literally- Rose Wheeler Weaver). Given that Holly is a blonde to two brunette parents its not a stretch to believe that Ted had a blonde mother who's urn sits on that mantle place. There are multiple gags in s3 made about a "nana" who has cancer and I just think its veryyy interesting that one of the things that Victor pays particular close attention to in the attic is an old wheelchair. Anyways, think of this as a "haunting the narrative" sort of thing.
Also Rosemary's Baby is a classic horror movie literally about forced female conformity in the 20th century, so I find it really hard to believe that it would be left out of the show that is literally a period piece about conformity. So if you see me referring to "rosemary" or "rosemary wheeler" I'm talking about dead blonde nana in that urn.
Also The Shining is on the ST4 inspo board and I wrote a bit about how the Creel & Wheeler homes may have been inspired by the Overlook hotel. Not only that but The Shining possibly being a huge influence since S1 and all the stuff that comes with that including themes of abusive cycles in families and supernatural manipulation (detailed in the posts below).
This could also be related to by Mike seems to be able to sense El in the void despite not being supernatural as far as we know- especially since Nancy and Holly (I mean Holly is a bit weird too but imo not like Mike) are not shown to have a sense for the void like Mike. Mike and Ted are repeatedly paralleled throughout the show via clothing and scenes.
The crux of this theory is very metaphorical as a lot of it is about using visuals to portray generational cycles (hence Mike-Ted parallels which I don't really get into on here but its all over my blog just search up either character or mike-ted or whatever key word).
This summary is a bit of a mess and I'm pretty sure I've missed a lot but whatever. Please feel free to drop any questions in my inbox I'll be so happy to answer them.
It would not be fair if I don't give credit to @boysdontcryboycry as the co-founder of this theory because they do So Much and they're Great!!
Anyways here are the links:
Basically....
A humorous brief overview
Also Something Longer I Wrote
Rosegate General
The Urn Watch Post (TM) aka the Rosegate Bible (Post Credit Goes to User boysdontcryboycry)
More Wheeler Home-Creel Home Similarities
Fake Urns with Roses on Them All Over the Wheeler Home
More Urn Shenanigans (aka T(urns) Outs the Mantle Urn Has Pink Flowers (Roses?)) on it! (Post Credit Goes to User boysdontcryboycry)
Mantle Urn Changing/Holly and Her lite brite/”Mothergate”
The Urn Intentionally Changed for the ST4 Climax
Blonde Mothers Association With Roses
S4 thoughts surrounding female conformity (pink/white/blue color symbolism+roses etc): Part 1
S4 thoughts surrounding female conformity (pink/white/blue color symbolism+roses etc): Part 2
Dustin Ringing The Wheeler Doorbell Scene in ST2 Possibly Referenced Three Times in ST4 (Steve + Jonathan + Victor- The Duffers confirmed they're returning to things left out of ST2 in ST5 so I just think this is very interesting plus Shaun Levy has said every scene has a purpose- read "PTSD" Pt.1 & 2 under Long Misc if interested)
Billy’s Mom/El Rose Symbolism
Possible Oedipus Reference
Virginia Reflections + Grandfather Clock in Creel Attic (Trailer)
Short Thoughts on Rose Symbolism in Creel Home Pt.1
Short Thoughts on Rose Symbolism in Creel Home Pt.2
El’s S1 Blonde Wig Confirmed to Have Belonged to Nana Wheeler? Lol Pt.1 (Post Credit Goes to User coldninjaruins-blog) Pt.1
El’s S1 Blonde Wig Confirmed to Have Belonged to Nana Wheeler? Lol Pt.2
Shared Characteristics Amongst Some Female Characters (Clothing, Jewelry, Hairstyles) Pt.1
Shared Characteristics Amongst Some Female Characters (Clothing, Jewelry, Hairstyles) Pt.2
Shared Characteristics Amongst Some Female Characters (Clothing, Jewelry, Hairstyles) Pt.3- Nancy/Karen Edition
Shared Characteristics Amongst Some Female Characters (Clothing, Jewelry, Hairstyles) Pt.4- Nancy/Karen Edition
Karen/Angela Clothing Parallels
Victor = Spiders??
Rosemary’s Baby
Initial Rosemary’s Baby x ST Thoughts
Karen/Nancy/Terry/Rosemary All in Blue Nightgowns
Possible Steve/Guy Woodhouse Parallel
Rosemary’s Baby Pink+White Outfits
Grid Symbolism in Rosemary’s Baby
Long post on Rose Symbolism (plus others) in Rosemary’s Baby and ST
Thoughts on Nuclear Family Dynamics in ST and Parallels to Rosemary’s Baby
Pendulum Clock and Other Time Symbolism in Rosemary’s Baby
Rosemary’s Baby and Stranger Things Clock Symbolism
“Aren’t You His Mother?”
Gingham/Roses imagery?
Mr Castevet’s Speech
The Shining
Holly- Henry “Explorers” Parallel Possibly Being a Reference to The Shining
The Shining Visual Parallels (Karen = The Woman in the Bathtub? Jack Torrance = Victor?)
Will Byers/Danny Torrance Parallel?
The Shining and KarenTed
More Karen/The Woman in the Bathtub
If you are also interested I suggest you read Rob Agers analysis of The Shining because its very fascinating and goes into mirror symbolism, bathroom symbolism, and intentional production "errors" and how this all intersects with denial that is also utilized in ST. Warning for discussion of CSA, sexual abuse, and physical abuse. You will find that it is pretty enlightening, even if you don't subscribe to a lot of it.
Long Misc (rosegate related thoughts pre rosegate itself)
“Bad” Blonde Mothers Reoccuring in The Show
TODFTHR (Post Credit Goes to User stranger-chichka)
PTSD Parallels Pt.1
PTSD Parallels Pt. 2
Updates
*Some of this stuff may be repetitive, I'm just collecting posts*
The Curious Case of The Dead Wheeler Granny
Are the ages in TFS weird age fuckery or just canon inconsistencies/retcons? (link to @/aemiron-main's blog because for some reason this iteration of the post wont link to mine -.-)
Alice Creel Haunting Funerals
Oedipus the King in ST
Henry and Jason's Monologues: Are They Mirrors of One Another?
Some S4 Rosemary Coding Thoughts
The Talisman
Wheeler Family and "normalcy"
Rose Connie
Mike, Victor, Fred, and Ted: weird murder/killing & PTSD subtext
The Changeling/Rosemary's Baby/The Devils Advocate/The Omen: Anti-christ media
Short Misc (random small thoughts/shitposts etc etc, may not have context to them but I think they're neat)
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
In short:
34 notes
·
View notes
Text
Cbs ghosts prediction (and therefore I guess potential spoilers??) under the cut
Okay so my wild theory for who killed Alberta is that it was (at least partly!) Thomas Woodstone.
Like we know some long-held secret of Hetty’s is gonna come to light in the next few episodes, we know we’re gonna find out who killed Alberta, in the trailer released for the tail end of the season we even get a glimpse of Hetty as a ghost in the midst of a big event that, based on the 20s-era costumes, is likely the night of Alberta’s murder. Hetty has adamantly said Alberta wasn’t murdered but just died of a heart attack on multiple occasions, suggesting she has a vested interest in the truth remaining hidden. The writers have also followed a trend of putting Hetty B-plots with Alberta A-plots (Alberta’s Fan, The Podcast, Alberta’s Descendant) which means that when big clues are revealed related to the murder, Hetty is almost never present (with the notable exception of the letter discovery), meaning we don’t get to see if she reacts to new reveals in a way that would suggest she already knew the information—for the most part she's kept fairly separate from the murder investigation. If Hetty knew who the killer was, why would she hide it for a hundred years…unless it was one of her own descendants who did it or was in some way involved.
Thomas is the only immediate relative of Hetty’s that we’ve seen; also, there’s the fact that his name starts with ‘T’ (I know, so does Alberta’s sister’s name, Theresa—but the show seems to be setting her up as a red herring way more than the actual killer imo). I’ll be honest, I don’t exactly know how to do the math on this one when we have no idea of the year for the flashback he’s in, and we also don’t know how old he was when Hetty died (or even exactly what year she died). But if he was still a child when Hetty died, as she implies in The Family Business, and we assume she died in the 80s or 90s, then he could reasonably be in his 40s-50s and the current owner of Woodstone mansion the night of Alberta’s murder. This would also put a whole new dimension on Hetty’s statement that she watched “generations of Woodstones make mistakes in this house”, and to the flashback we see of Thomas where he struggles with uncertainty over whether a particular girl is “the one”.
In less concrete evidence (as though any of this is “concrete” lol)—cbs ghosts continues to use the occasional bbc ghosts plot point; Hetty is based off Fanny, and I think this could be their spin on Fanny discovering her husband having an affair with a man, a discover that led to her husband killing her. In this version, Hetty’s son is in a secret relationship with Earl, and it’s Alberta who gets killed, with Hetty the only one who knows the truth.
We also know that the reveal of this secret will test one of Hetty’s “most enduring friendships”; depending on Hetty’s reason for keeping the secret, this theory could mean the friendship tested is either Alberta (because Hetty hid the truth about her murder for so long) OR Isaac (if she kept it secret because she wanted to hide her son’s involvement with another man). The phrasing of “most enduring friendships” makes me feel it’s slightly more likely to be Isaac, especially considering they were officially deemed besties in A Date to Remember.
I could be way, WAY off base, of course…admittedly, this theory doesn’t really account for the fact that Earl does go on to date Theresa, nor does it explain Hetty’s seemingly enthusiastic reaction to the discovery of the letter in The Liquor License. Still, my money’s on Thomas having something to do with the murder, and that being what Hetty has kept secret for so long.
#cbs ghosts#I’m most likely WILDLY off base but the thought occurred and I couldn’t get rid of it#realistically I may be looking WAY too deeply into the character motivations and intentionality of a sitcom#but half the fun of a murder mystery plot is coming up with completely unhinged theories anyway#so just gonna view this as my own personal Pepe Silvia#long post#cbs ghosts spoilers#potentially? I guess? Altho I think that’s giving myself way too much credit#who killed alberta#there's been SO much more about parenthood throughout this season too which would kinda fit
29 notes
·
View notes
Text
Utter Self-Indulgence: What I Fantasize about Blorbos [Alucard, Sebastian, Aizawa] Smelling Like
This is inspired by THIS POST that someone else made about Aizawa (post also reblogged on my tumblr). I haven't been able to get the "what fragrance would I pick for them?" thoughts out of my head.
Before we get started, I want to acknowledge again that I know that men in Japan traditionally don't wear the type of fragrances I'm discussing here. But, I like fragrances and I also like thinking about these characters. Final Warning: Absurdly self-indulgent post incoming.
I think we need to have an incense fragrance here, as I like to think that it would amuse even the non-Abridged version of Alucard to smell like incense just because it would make Maxwell angry. (He shouldn't have insulted Integra, eh?)
I also like the idea of picking at least one fragrance marketed to women for Alucard because he transcends these categories. So maybe something like Bois d'Iris by Van Cleef and Arpels, which dries down on some people like what can best be described as cold smoke, which is a visual that feels very Alucard to me.
Another way this fragrance is often described is: imagine silver had a smell and that smell had just a hint of florals to it. Again, I think Alucard would appreciate the humor in a vampire such as himself smelling like silver.
Since Alucard is so changeable, we can't have just one fragrance pick, can we?
When Alucard dances vintage ballroom dances with you, staring down at you with those hypnotic red eyes, wouldn't it be lovely if you could smell a classic Givenchy when he brought you in close? I'm thinking original Gentleman, which has lots of deep, dark, notes, while also playing around with the fougère structure, and, while I don't like straight fougères all that much, it seems wrong not to imagine Alucard wearing something that pays tribute to that fragrance family.
I also like the idea of Alucard layering something very dry and medicinal with an over the top sweet warm vanilla, maybe like Guerlain Double Spiritueuse (another perfume marketed as feminine but again who fucking cares?) just for the contrast, and because smelling that hint of comforting vanilla would be so nice when he wraps you up in those massive arms.
Something that defies the usual trends is necessary here
There is literally a perfume named Ciel by the fragrance house Amouage
And yes, it is damn cheesy (and possibly creepy) to imagine Sebastian wearing a perfume called Ciel, but it's a compelling fit.
(If it really squicks one out to imagine Sebastian wearing a perfume called Ciel, there is also Amouage Dia, which travels in the same scent family circles as Ciel, IMO. However, I truly believe Ciel is the more unusual fragrance and thus the most suited for Bassy.)
Ciel has aspects of fougères, but it also has this big peachy, floral-aldehyde blast.
It is a scent that feels very geometric to me
Like, if any of you know the Thoth Tarot, the components of this scent block together and push against each other like the angular, transparent wings of the Sword Court Cards.
The shifty, airy, gender-eschewing nature feels very appropriate for an immortal demon being.
Dark horse selection: Lorenzo Villoresi Garofano (marketed for women, but a big floral and green combination that plays off Victoriana without having any elements I dislike.)
Goddddddd, just imagine he's getting dressed for his once-every-three-months fancy occasion
And then he applies some Knize Ten, the warmest, most traditionally masculine, least pretentious (IMO) of the leather classics. Like good, classic boots and other quality, long-lasting things.
I associate leather with nature, groundedness, comfort, and, strangely enough, competence [look, humans are weird], which are all things I associate w/Aizawa, which is probably why I'm so fixated on him smelling like this.
I'm sorry, my brain just about fucking shorts out at this point. Just imagine walking by and seeing him with his hair already up and then surprising him as he's about to put on his dress shirt, wrapping your arms around him, running your hands over his bare chest, just breathing in sexy leather
ohhhhh myyyyy godddddd
(Forgive the 2010's typing style, but my overwhelmed brain is reverting to what it knows.)
Another choice that would be really hot: the Tiffany for Men (as in the one that practically can't be found any longer): a warm, comforting, delicious, cinnamon/nutmeg/cedar-y treat to smell as he holds you close on a cold night.
#sebastian michaelis#shouta aizawa#aizawa headcanons#alucard headcanons#sebastian michaelis headcanons#perfume#men's fragrance#aizawa imagine#alucard imagine#sebastian michaelis imagine
24 notes
·
View notes
Text
Reading Ursula K. Le Guin is so wild imo, cause she's simultaneously one of the most progressive famous writers I know of, but also somehow misogynistic? I should say that I've not read that much of her works, but I am noticing a worrying trend with the female characters she has written. If they're beautiful, there's a chance there's a dark and insidious side to them, and if they're ugly, there's a almost guaranteed chance that they're loud and obnoxious (not even from my own perspective as a reader, but from the perspective of the main characters themselves). I've noticed the one type of 'good woman' in her stories so far are the ones that are dedicated to marrying a husband and having a family, and it... doesn't quite sit well with me. But who knows, maybe I've just seen one side of her female characters, I'm only through like two books from her. And again, every other element of her stories seems actually really based! I should stress that I like them so far. Just a strange pattern I've noticed, and I hope that it isn't as prevalent in her works as what I've seen so far.
8 notes
·
View notes
Note
curious about your thoughts on EEAO because i do think it's overrated but unfortunately a lot of the downright dislike for it just seems like cynical - like straight up just people trying to be as cynical as possible (i'll never forget avery edison's tweet about how the wang family is unsympathetic bc laundromats are inherently exploitative). unfortunately the search feature on your blog is broken so i can't find any other posts you might have made on this.
its so funny you sent this because i fell down a 2+ hour rabbit hole reading negative reviews of EEAO on letterboxd this morning/afternoon and frankly i don’t really think anyone is being overly cynical. i mean, that laundromat thing is just silly, but a lot of the reviews i read that were wayy harsher than mine i think raised a lot of really fair points. one thing i didnt even think about was the stereotypical representation of asian americans and specifically asian american mothers, and that it fits into a trend of films about asian americans and ~generational trauma~ that focus on a tiger mom who gets all the flak and a husband who gets off easy. i think that one in particular is an important perspective and i have to say i definitely notice that too now that i think about it actively. like turning red had a similar plot, but imo did it better.
#the reasons i liked turning red are a bit too deep than a disney movie for kids deserves but. you know#anon
17 notes
·
View notes
Note
hi!
so wiki claims people of the mitanni kingdom worshipped "indo European" deities. I assume that's just bad pseudo archaeology correct? knowing that, who did they worship then?? I assume they worshipped hurrian deities (since they were hurrians themselves) right?
Weasel words at play!
First things first: you are correct that the average subject of the Mitanni state would speak Hurrian, or alternatively Akkadian (or a closely related dialect) or both. That's the norm for the north of Syria and Iraq in the late bronze age. These were also the languages used in the royal correspondence, as evidenced by the Amarna latter corpus, which does include letters sent from the Mitanni court. They consistently use Akkadian, the diplomatic lingua franca of the second half of the second millennium. They reflect a typical "Syro-Hurrian" milieu, with nothing really out of ordinary. Even the name of the kingdom is most likely Hurrian, since -ni is a common Hurrian suffix, as pointed out by Ilya Yakubovich here (not open access but I can post a screencap if so desired).
What little can be said about the religion of the area under Mitanni control follows a similar pattern. The head of the pantheon was Teshub most of the other major Hurrian deities show up too though iirc there's a closer overlap with the eastern sources from Nuzi than western from Alalakh, Ugarit or Kizzuwatna. Where do the alleged Indo-European deities come from, then? From a total of one source, where they do not occupy a major position.
A treaty between Shattiwaza (Mitanni) and Shuppiluliuma I (Hittite) lists "Mitra-ššil, (W)aruna-ššil, Indra, Našattiyana" among various other deities, but far behind the big shots of the pantheon. Gernot Wilhelm summarizes the issue here and concludes that the royal family alone preserved, for some reason, a small number of traditions which did originate in Indo-European tradition, but how they came to be incorporated into fundamentally Hurrian culture is anyone's guess, and their scope was obviously very limited, otherwise they just include some horse-related terminology and regnal names (note kings still had Hurrian -given- names, as did princesses, let alone vassal rulers). Alfonso Archi more broadly suggests aristocracy rather than royal family might have venerated these minor deities but I have seen no real evidence for this. Worth noting in the past attempts have even been made to check if maybe these aren't just accidentally similar names but that trend did not catch on, iirc the main proponent was Annelies Kammenhauber.
So, to go back to the deities: we are looking at a level of relevance below even Kassite deities in Babylonia in the same period. Odds are decent the average Mitanni citizen didn't even know these deities existed, they are not really attested anywhere outside of a single treaty (in i think two copies?) and they seem completely disconnected from the bulk of evidence for Mitanni religion (if it is even possible to speak of such a thing). Once again inflated importance is given to trivia because of PIE "mythology" reconstructions which are largely fanfiction - the connection between languages is indisputable but it's foolish to pretend the entire bronze age Pontic-Caspian Steppe was more religiously homogeneous than the Iraqi Marshlands alone. And the less said about vintage theories where the "Indo-European" Mitanni are presented as culturally and militarily superior to Hurrians and Mesopotamians, the better - I'm sure you can tell where this is going though if you can't, Gary Beckman wrote a good article on somewhat related deeply unpleasant matters.
Wilhelm imo summarized the whole issue well when he already wrote in the 1980s that it is a case of assigning "undue importance" to details (see here; note he seemingly abandoned both of the theories he presents there wrt origin of the dynasty).
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
after 5 long months ive logged onto this account. ive cleaned it up of any cluttering posts. i feel a lot of regret for how ive handled certain things and for how harshly ive always treated myself. i had tried to be optimistic on this blog, you can see it, but deep down i was miserable. this isnt a sob story post, it is more of an update and analyzing myself too. because to analyze me back then and me now is to see growth as a person.
tbh i was struggling with a lot of things months ago and even relapsed in things i wouldn’t have imagined i would have. this isnt for validation at all, i like writing things publicly like this, like a note for myself? idk.
i know i would make comments about my mental state back then “how it got better” but that was never the case. it was temporary.
to be quite honest, i will get into the real real gist of it. i had moved out of my parents place like in october of 2022. living with my family has always been stressful, i wont go into that though. my roommate was an incredibly selfish and two-faced person. there were red flags but i either hadnt noticed or ignored them. she was a complete pos, imo, and even reveled in being one. she was even gross and her sister who also lived with us was also gross. i feel bad for her cat bc she wouldnt clean the litter box that much until she wasnt so “depressed”. i am honestly not sure, i put quotation marks bc honestly i feel that she was just lazy as fuck. she was one of those girls who followed trends and went out clubbing a lot and had lots of hook ups. i dont know man, maybe i seem like an asshole but ive struggled with depression since i was a kid and still find energy to clean my cats litter box. granted, i have better coping mechanisms and thought processes and am just in general in a better place mentally but idk i love my cats to death and feel like a dickwad when i even go a couple of hours over with cleaning their litter box. she also didnt try to help with her cat becoming obese basically and stuff, so yea. sorry for the long tangent, my roommate was a dickwad.
after moving out of that hell hole (i wasnt apart of the lease so it was p easy), i think i moved out beginning of february? well, situations happen and i move out of parents place with my bf at the end of february. place ends up being fucking infested with bed bugs and the landlord lady was a bitch and so yea. i moved in and out like 4 times in the span of november 2022-march 2023 i think? tbh, that was all pretty stressful. but i think the good thing out of it was my cats are indoor cats now and i love taking care of them.
while cleaning my posts of clutter, i had a wave of nostalgia both good and bad. it wasnt that long ago but it feels like it. i loved rping hu tao and i think a lot of the reason as to why i could never rp with a lot of ppl was because i was harsh to myself and held myself back. i felt like i didnt properly convey hu tao’s portrayal and compared myself to other hu taos. it is easy to compare because it isnt your writing or portrayal. i could look at myself, be a harsh critique about my looks, but at the end of the day there could always be someone out there that sees things differently. in a more positive and less judgemental light, ig. i also had and still struggle with social anxiety. it has gotten better and perhaps it has helped that ive learned to be more understanding of myself like i am with others.
i love hu tao as a character and always will. and id love to come back to her! but tbh i have fallen out of the game and havent been playing it. i havent played the event including hu tao. i am not sure yet if i am going to make such a commitment to rping again but looking back at the posts made me feel a bit happy. i kinda like how i wrote her, i liked interacting and being goofy.
so, there is that, i guess.
8 notes
·
View notes
Text
Okay, so....I did not watch Ahsoka, and I'm kind of glad I didn't?
I like...watched it through tumblr reactions and gifs and some instagram things plus a handful of youtube clips
Now, granted, I might've liked it better if I watched the whole thing and knew context and whatnot, but from what I've gathered, here are the things I like vs...didn't like...(please remember I did NOT watch the show so if you point something out it probably means I just...didn't know about it lol)
Good things:
-Getting Ezra back! I missed my boy! And he's back! And he's just as silly as ever!
-Sabine and Ezra reunion and hug, such a good hug, it makes me happy!
-Decent casting, I agree that Ezra was cast so well! And played the role well! And from what I saw of Sabine and Hera, I think they did a good job too. And of course Chopper is just Chopper lol
-Jacen! It's so fun to see the little boy! I think they cast him well too, he's just a cutie!
Eh things:
-Jedi Sabine...I...I hate this...like so much...for so many reasons...First, if she really was force sensitive, at least Kanan if not Ezra wouldn't known in Rebels (and if there is some like "oh it's activated now for some reason" that...is just stupid to me too tbh). Second, it makes it seem like Sabine wasn't like...enough to just be a cool Mandalorian, she has to have the Force too? Which she doesn't. I loved the whole thing about her knowing how to use a lightsaber from Kanan, only because she had to (or thought she had to). SOMEONE DOESN'T HAVE TO HAVE THE FORCE TO USE A LIGHTSABER OKAY! Not every lightsaber user has to be a Jedi! I just...I hate it so much okay? Let Sabine just be Sabine, don't throw some Force crap on her to make her "cooler" or whatever they were trying to do *rolls eyes*
-"You're like a sister to me." Now I get that like, Sabine lost her family I think? (which, honestly I don't like either now that I think about it) So they wanted to play into that I guess? But it literally is just....fuel for the Sabezra haters to rub in the face of those who ship it. Like, I didn't expect them to become canon (though part of me hoped) but it seems kind of...spitting in the face of some hardcore fans? To me at least. Like, when I watched Rebels, mainly in season 3-4, I always saw them as best friends (with the potential to be more, especially considering some of the looks they gave each other...I mean maybe some siblings look at each other like that but...I'm close with my siblings and I never give looks like that lol) And honestly "You're my best friend" has an emotional weight to it as well, and it seems more in line with Rebels imo. That's really a nitpick for me, but is still something that rubs me the wrong way. Seriously, Star Wars loves just...not letting any healthy relationships be canon or alive...so maybe they are just following that trend (and don't get me wrong, I love found family too and platonic relationships! It just seems like with Rebels that there really was great potential for there to be more with Sabine and Ezra, especially because we know Ezra did have a crush on her. Maybe his feelings changed but like...it was there at one point, you know?)
-Apparently....Sabine and Ahsoka are...now kind of stranded too??? Which...is....so stupid??? Like...Sabine was trying to find Ezra this whole time...because he's her friend and she loves him (you can't argue that she doesn't love him platonically) and she missed him. But now....they are separated again...and maybe it's cause they want to make another season but like...it just...annoys me (and maybe I'm wrong and that's not how it ended, but...I know Ezra saw Hera and it was JUST him so...I think that is how it ended ugh)
-NO HERA AND EZRA HUG! Do I even need to go into this? It literally would've added like five seconds to the show, why would you not show that?!? Hera got such the short end of the stick when it came to hugging her kiddos in Rebels and like....it just...it's a wasted opportunity
-No Ezra and Jacen meeting?!?! This is literally a thing that the fans have been looking forward to for YEARS! On level with Sabine and Ezra reuniting! And....nothing! Once again, I guess they could be saving it for another season? But having it at the end of a season seems way more fitting? And I don't know where Jacen is at the end of the episode, but like...you could always just add one extra scene in? Just...disappointment
I might be forgetting some things and like I said, there might be things I don't know the context for that would make me not as annoyed, but yeah...those are my thoughts...from my watching the show through tumblr lol
#it's possible there are other things that I'd like if i watched it#and other things i'd dislike too#but.....these are the things I heard or saw that made me....feel things lol#aceo rambles#ahsoka spoilers
4 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
themedicinal-cannabisdispensary
BUY MARIJUANA ONLINE WITH WORLDWIDE SHIPPING
snvas
Ensaios
wearerag
Rag.
juliethodel-blog
Untitled