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simplepotatofarmer · 1 year

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Hi! Sorry if this is a bit deep and ramble-y but it’s just something that’s been on my mind. Have you ever doubted defending dream?

Sometimes I feel like I’m wrong for feeling bad for him. I feel like I get where some ppl are coming from when they say why they hate him but then am horrified by what they do with that hatred.

I keep telling myself that it’s normal to feel empathy for someone that you could see was facing a lot of shit. I felt bad for him in April, but also felt bad for feeling bad because everyone was saying how he was a horrible person who deserved horrible things. Looking back, and reading some ppls reflections on it, it’s much more obvious how April specifically was just an obscene hate campaign, but even then I have moments of doubt just because of how universal the idea of dream always being in the wrong seems to be, especially in this community.

Even with the most recent incident, where I did step away for a while, I felt bad for him and his friends for the things their fans were doing. But then I also felt bad for feeling bad because so many ppl on here say that the extreme means are necessary.

Even though I am more of a causal fan, I don’t want to live in an echo chamber and I think the ppl in the fandom who I do follow (like you) are pretty rational about everything. I’ve tried following other ppl but there’s just this everpresent hatred of him that I don’t like seeing everyday on my dash. But I again feel wrong for feeling that way. It’s all just frustrating.

i was going to sleep but this is actually a really important ask, in my humble opinion.

the short answer is no.

the long answer is absolutely not, i've never regretted defending him over the things i have defended him over because even if he was a terrible person and not like, a dude none of us know personally who is not perfect and makes mistakes and is sometimes a fucking idiot, those would still be things i would defend him for.

defending someone against absolutely vile queerphobia is never something i'd regret because it's quite simply just the right thing to do. erasing someone's identity because you don't like them is wrong, point blank. blair white or caitlynn jenner are no less deserving of respect as trans women than any other woman.

defending dream against ableism is always gonna be the right thing because you don't have to be a good person to deserve not to be treated awfully due to your neurodivergence.

and like, there's been things i've defended dream on where i don't completely agree with him. i think he's been a little baby sometimes when it comes to mcc but when people were saying shit like he was '''manipulating''' us and noxcrew because he said he didn't want to play in mcc if he had to play buildmart, yeah i'm going to point out that's a batshit take. someone venting and being frustrated isn't manipulation, he was just throwing a tantrum. touch grass yada yada.

and when it comes to my belief that people can be racist in the past and change, that still applies! i still think dream actively tried to be better! he grew up in a bigoted environment, is open about his racist past (and fucking uses the word racist/bigoted, thank god) and is actively working to be better.

that's always going to be true and frankly, i think it's not only weird but extremely telling that a LOT of white people who had formerly defended him suddenly switched up. it just shows that it was never about the harm done and poc but whether or not you liked some white boy.

but i digress.

the thing is, anon, i get why you feel this way. this fandom and online culture as a whole lately is wrought with the belief that consumption of media is a reflection of your morals. that consuming the right media and being a fan of the right sort of person is akin to activism.

it's not. it doesn't fucking matter. there's no righteousness in hating dream. you can certainly be valid in hating him! there's a lot of reasons to dislike him or hate him or feel he shouldn't have a platform. i might not agree with it all but i can see it.

the problem is.... i see why you feel like this and that is genuinely so sad and messed up because how did we get to the point where queerphobia or ableism or body shaming is totally okay as long as it's a certain group and to where people doubt themselves when they think it's wrong! it is wrong but i completely understand why anyone would second guess themselves.

as it stands right now, i don't regret it because i feel it's right. i'm always going to feel it's right.

if something comes out tomorrow and it turns out that it really is more than some instagram dms and the questionable choice of giving out his private snapchat, then i won't be defending him.

but i still wouldn't regret any of my past defense because my defense isn't conditional, my belief that people can grow isn't conditional, and my opinion on things like fandom's queerphobia and misuse of terms like 'grooming' would still stand.

#loyal answers things #dreamwastaken #long post #anon if you feel anger in my words please know it's not directed at you #it's directed at everyone who has made you second guess yourself #anyway. i love you <3 <3 if you need anything else let me know

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lousirs · 6 months

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this is a dump about the uglydolls movie novel 💋💋💋

Alrighty I'm basically a regular here SO LETS GET TO IT

lodoeheie so I just got the movie novel of uglydolls because i need to fill my hunger for uglydolls content and THERE R SO MANY LITTLE DETAILS AND DIFFERENCES IN THE BOOK???!!???

ok so Lou's monologue in the pipes are completely different and they kind of point out details about Lou like his loafers being expensive and allat

BUT IM NOT TALING ABOTU TAGT

there's this one part in the book where they are about to reveal Ox after the all dolled up scene and instead of Ox, Nolan was behind Lou???? I think it was just supposed to show how awkward Nolan is idk 💀💀

ALSO for some reason I feel like EVERUTIME Nolan made an appearance they always described him as "the handsome doll" and I find that so so silly but I love it

oh YEYEHA it's implied in the book that the dolls wear their own clothes when they aren't doing training which was not the case in the movie (probably due to animation complications)

in the gauntlet scene, in the book, it was Mandy who kinda taunted Lou to participate in the gauntlet rather than him deciding to buy himself. Also it made me think why he even decided to join it in both medias when he knew he'd fail but my friend and I just established that at that point he was probably already batshit crazy and had nothing to lose

the whole Ox flashback part was longer and had more details to it. So both Lou and Ox went for the gauntlet together and completed it but it showed that they failed and everyone thought it was Ox that caused them to fail when it was really Lou (kind of sad that Lou probably knew it was himself and had to put the blame on Ox)

it was also mentioned that both Lou and Nolan have somewhat of a muscular build so time to make some new head cannons

IM SO SORRY THAT THESE POINTS WERE ALL OVER THE PLACE AND THERE'S TYPOS EVERYWHERE

I just found thrse so interesting I'm so sorry

the book is pretty good imo (probably biased) and there's more stuff than what I put here so DEFINITELY go read it for yourself

why hello, we meet again... time for more rambling xD STRAP IN EVERYONE!

yes!! i've known about the novel for a hot minute. i haven't bought or read it (...yet) but i remember seeing silentreadersmatter (i believe?) post about it on wattpad... so shoutout to them lol. anywho time to respond to each thing mentioned in order (just about)...

lou with loafers!!: i always assumed he wore some sort of fancy shoewear... so it's nifty that they added clarification i guess xD

awkward nolan: awkward nolan is the superior nolan (in my opinion. i'm sorry lads)... i see nolan be depicted as a 'uwu soft boy bottom" most of the time... but i always thought he was just a awkward doll. like, an anxious mess that is trying his best but fumbles constantly. he's a ball of anxiety, and i love him. ANYWAYS

buff nolan real??: GOSH, I AM SO GLAD SOMEONE NOTICED THE MUSCULAR NOLAN THING. i always imagined nolan to be taller than the other dolls (he isn't really in the film but i always headcanoned it so because his uniform is smaller as if he was too big for it) but once i saw him be called "handsome" and "tall" and "muscular" in the novel, i flipped. the little baby boy is actually a BIG BUFF BABY. i have a doodle of this from a few months ago heheh... (thank you for giving me an excuse to show it because it's been lingering in my files for a while LMAO)

^^^ lou is just trying to act evil and devious but he got this tall, handsome muscular doll getting in his way xD

ohhh but i can just imagine instead of the robot dog taking lou to the washer, nolan personally picks him up and drags him there. now THAT'S a moment i want to see.

fashion: oh, i didn't know about the clothes thing! DAMNIT i want to see them all in casual clothing, so i know what kind of styles they wear!! i mean, there's a concept art with lou in a white jumper with a golden 'L' on it... but that's all.

i have my headcanons for what they wear, but it would be cool to see... especially since most other dolls normally do have numerous outfits for the kids to dress them up in.

gauntlet: yeah, lou kinda lost the plot around that point. i would take a guess that he was probably unnerved by just basically killing two dolls, one that he knew (possibly for a while) and one that was close to his old friend, so when he saw mandy still alive he was like "well sh*t." and then came the downward spiral of him trying to sabotage the others, before inevitably sabotaging himself. ...but i think the book's version of mandy getting the crowds to peer pressure lou to joining the gauntlet made more sense (lou's reputation would be at stake and his reputation is basically all he has) than him joining anyways in the film. i guess they tried to make it make more sense with the whole "I don't even have to win. I just need to make sure you lose." but ehh... eh....

ox's tragic anime backstory: yes!! they should've done this version in the film honestly. perhaps they could've even shown lou's regret for lying to basically his only friend. ...oh wait, i forgot. lou's meant to be a 100% evil villain who kicks babies. anyways, again i feel that the novel made more sense than the canon we got in film. i guess in the film ox got recycled because he was causing others to fail by accident? but the novel's version is much more interesting.

if i remember correctly (and if i don't, count this as a rewritten version lol) the assistant robots took ox away after he 'failed' in the novel. i can imagine a scene where we are in ox's perspective, being forcefully dragged away to the pipes whilst lou looks at him, dread and sadness written across his face, yet he doesn't try to stop the robots. he just stands there, biting back his guilt. ohh... if only...

STRONG BOYS!!: heheheheh strong nolan and lou... would be funny if nolan didn't appear strong, but is actually stronger than lou. but then again, how can you tell if the doll is strong? they all look like same. lou says his arms are bumped or whatever in ugly truth but WHERE? WHERE'S THE BUMPED ARMS LOU??

anywho, thank you for the novella lore dump! for anyone who is interested, go check out the novel as well. it's pretty interesting if you are deep into doll purgatory. (also it's mentioned that ox used to wear a fedora from what i remember)(THAT IS TERRIBLE. I LOVE IT)

#uglydolls #ask #asks #not art #uglydolls lou #uglydolls nolan #uglydolls ox #uglydolls mandy

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sarah-yyy · 2 years

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What is clj and why are we watching it? (I ask even though I still haven't finished lltg😅)

ALRIGHT it's been awhile since the last proper rec post (and yes yes yes buddies i know i am late to the show i'm SORRY) so bear with me while i try to contain my yelling about cang lan jue (or, love between fairy and devil, which......as my sister put it, is about as low an english title as it can get 😂)

what: period cdrama // 36 eps, roughly 45 mins each where: netflix // iqiyi why: do you enjoy the soft sunshine gremlin/broody fight fight fight demon dynamic? this is the show for you 🥰

a brief overview!!!

this is my son dong fang qing cang, or, daqiang (affectionate), Moon Supreme™, mightiest in the three realms, who was unfortunately defeated in battle 30000 years ago and imprisoned for ~reasons

this sweet child xiao lanhua (lit. little orchid) is a low level immortal orchid spirit (fairy is ehhh, she's not exactly a 仙 but ehhh translations hmm) who accidentally (!!!) Frees The Monster™ from his prison while attempting to save this other boy she has been having a crush on

(the whole thing involves kissing - this is literally the first episode)

(this is not the only kissing we will get, dw)

the process triggers a spell and they??? switch bodies when they kiss??? which is hilarious because we get fun scenes with xiao lanhua in dfqc's body like

and

ANYWAY this is not the only side effect of their first encounter!! dfqc soon realises that he has been Cursed™ to a) feel any pain inflicted upon xiao lanhua physically, and b) share xiao lanhua's emotions!

him!!! an almighty being who has not felt one (1) single feeling since he had them literally ripped from his being (not by choice 😭) since he was a child!!! suddenly he's crying?? and feeling fear??? and getting hurt??? this is Not Okay!! he is the mightiest in all the realms!!! this is a weakness that he must rid himself off!!!

before he can figure out how to do this, the most prudent thing to do appears to be to have to protect xiao lanhua from all harm, and uh, doing whatever he can to ensure her emotional wellbeing and happiness??? dfcq goes from broody unfeeling demon lord to number one xiao lanhua stan (begrudgingly) the longer he stays around her

he literally went batshit to protect her and it was Amazing to watch!! god of war whomst??? can't hear you over me beating your ass to protect my girl

but it's not just that!! he's also going around reading through ancient scrolls to figure out how to best make an orchid plant grow/blossom well, and just. collecting dew water for her! making her (terrible) food!! taking to see the sunrise because it's good for her! daqiang contains multitudes!!!!

the entire time, because dfqc never really bothered with any explanation beyond "you belong to me", xiao lanhua is thinking: fuck, i accidentally freed a guy from prison and now he's in love with me?????

it's hilarious

ANYWAY that's the setup of the show!! obviously, there are some plotty things going on, and ofc it wouldn't be a good xianxia if they did not have go to the mortal realm to 渡劫 (i'm on this arc now and it's so funny too, i love it)! i'm only two thirds of the way through the show because tragically work is a thing that i have to do, but i have heard that there is Sads™ towards the end (although i'm told it ends well) and i'm looking forward to it!!

i personally am really enjoying this! things move along quickly in this show, and because they're pretty basic plotlines it doesn't take a lot of focus to watch! the sets/costumes are gorgeous, and dylan and esther are surprisingly good in this!! i've always been pretty meh about dylan outside of cvariety until now, but there have been scenes in this where he just blew me over. the pacing of the relationship is good as well, like i'm 2/3 of the way through and they haven't gotten together yet, but they're obviously fond of each other and slowly tipping across the line and it's just SO CUTE TO WATCH

please watch this so we can all suffer together, 11/10 would rec

#cang lan jue #clj #tv rec #cdrama #long post for ts #usual disclaimer: i don't watch cdramas with eng subs so idk the quality of the subs VENTURE IN AT YOUR OWN RISK

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acourtofantumbra · 4 months

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HOFAS Review (+ a stream of consciousness...)

With a full 24 hours to sit with finishing HOFAS I have some thoughts and will likely sit with all of it a while longer to make all that I'm thinking coherent...

TLDR: I didn't like this book. I thought it was an unprecedented miss from SJM. If that take might upset you, please, ignore me! I'm genuinely really, really happy if after two years folks felt like this was a huge win. Genuinely.

But the broad strokes are:

I was a CC girl. I saw a lot of folks had a hard time with CC2 and I think I was in the camp of "actually, mostly liked it, but def ballooned by the last 200 pages (which were fire)." I love CC1. CC in particular was the series to finally convince me to start recruiting my friends into the SJM world. Over two years me and my friends are closer than ever, reading all kinds of fantasy. It's my fave thing in the world. But, other than ACOTAR 1, this is probs the only book of hers I actively dislike. It's firmly slotted CC into my third place for all of her series when it used to rank 2nd.

I've seen a lot of folks frame it as: you're disappointed because it wasn't ACOTAR, this was a book for the theorists, you spent two years overhyping what this could be, etc. I suppose I accept the last point to some extent. I came into this book a bigger fan of CC than of the whole of ACOTAR... I genuinely wanted Crescent City, not ACOTAR. And, if this account is any evidence, I am a big theory girlie. This was a hastily written, chaotically paced, surface level mess that kept itself afloat with gratuitously long infodumps. My love of theories did me no favors (I got a lot of things right) and I realized that because there was no emotional connection in this book the "wins" felt completely lackluster. For a book that deals in quite a bit of soul talk... it felt soulless.

This book misses what SJM really excels at as an author - incredible characterization. She might have a cast of 10 people, but we know all of them, love all of them. The absolutely batshit plots that have been layered over 15 books are always grounded, bolstered, and absorbed through symbiosis via her characters. The way I can, 24 hours later, barely remember plot points is completely attributed their lack of emotional connection to the characters themselves.

For ex, the entire resolution of the Avallen plot and the Flynn siblings earth magic freak out would have had so much more emotional impact if we a) knew Tristan's sister better b) cared about this location that yes we've theorized about but had only just arrived at (and mostly experienced via cave). So it was really written as this moment of catharsis - after some of the most overt, unrelenting info plot dumps for pages on end - that felt unearned.

Essentially, this was almost 900 pages of exclusively plot. And I'm actually so sad that this is effectively goodbye to the leads of this story because, despite spending 900 pages with them, I feel like I barely saw them. It's part of the reason why my fave part of CC3 are the bonus chapters. They're just moments to actually spend with our characters, be reminded of their personalities, their connections, and what they'd do in moments of stillness, weirdness, or kind of perfect mundanity. That atmospheric joy was always one of my favorite parts of falling for the CC crew.

Anyway, for the folks who are like sorry this is for the theorists... I hope this is the last time we get a book like this then. As someone who loves this - not just for SJM books but for all the fantasy series I read - world building without a strong foundation of character is not actually good writing. And this was bad writing - plain and simple. This felt like a checklist. And the glaring quality differences of each of the book's three parts, along with SJM's admission that this version of CC3 was a 5 week rewrite, leads me to believe a lot of this book was like SJM writing herself out of a corner. A means to an end. Also, I've never caught typos in an SJM work and... I caught a lot. Also why did we switch POVs like we were being held at gun point (I wont even get into the Tharion and Ithan of it all).

After that huge reveal in CC2, this book was always gonna be a massive thing to live up to. It needed to lay down so much groundwork for all the worlds, all the future books, to be able to play with. And that mission became of primary importance over the people and the world itself. There were too many plots, far too many characters, and we spent the entire time in what felt like "the future possibility" instead of taking a look around and sending off this main plotline and hanging out for a bit.

At one point I texted my SJM groupchat, all of whom are equally dismayed, like this book is essentially 4 infodump coversations and then every character going and telling 4 more characters that conversations and so on. And inexplicably we had to be present for every instance.

I celebrate the Lidia plotline from this book - the most emotional and satisfying (I still think it could have been done even better). Of course there were sprinklings of other things that were great fun. I read it fast in true SJM fashion. I think I'm only harsh because I only grade the queen against herself... and there were just countless times where I thought, "Sarah you're so much better than this... what am I even reading?"

Anyway, I guess I'm glad to put this chapter to rest. I'm excited for the future of ACOTAR and can only hope she employs the lessons she learned while writing ACOSF (a book with a ton of heart). Also, obviously delighted by the really strong focus on TOG easter eggs for whatever future that might entail (give me Manorian... please Sarah).

I think I'll just need to be in mourning for another second. And tbh, it may be light's out on the desire to ever write a brainstorm theory post ever again. Sad! But also not a big deal in the slightest.

#HOFAS spoilers #HOFAS review #sjm multiverse #crescent city 3 #house of flame and shadow

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bugtransport · 11 months

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Kamen Rider Stronger finished April 20, 2023

i forgot i finished this on 4/20. LONG POST WARNING!!

Okay, before I start this one, holy shit I’ve done so much since the last time I wrote one of these. Let me get back into the groove here. Stronger is in a weird spot where I feel like I have to recap a lot to talk about what I want to talk about so there’s going to be a lot of that. This one builds. Let me convince you that General Shadow is an interesting character.

AS ALWAYS: I’ll be dropping spoilers willy-nilly for like every series leading up to this + all of Stronger but there's an extra warning before the show ending spoilers. Thank you.

YIPPEE!

I know I've already owned up to it but at this point let's make it official... Showa Rider might be made for me? Every single time I try to think back about what I just watched to write about it I'm hit with the exact same thought: holy shit, that was SO fun. It is, it really is and always is. I had a blast, thanks. This is also the first time I've really felt like the way that I'm watching this (by starting at the very beginning and just blasting through season by season) has actually paid off! The past couple seasons have gotten interestingly experimental but Stronger feels like they were attempting to return to form while still using the knowledge they learned along the way. It's kind of adjacent to how V3 felt like '71 Rider refined; Jo Shigeru came in like "we are SO fucking back."

The comparison between V3 and Stronger extends to the main characters too; I think that Kazami and Shigeru are more alike than not. We've been rotating protags (sans Hayato, sorry babe but you’re special in my eyes) in a pattern I've described as "sensory issues -> batshit -> wet" where for as much as I compared Hongo and Amazon to each other in the "the world is so loud and scary and I can't trust myself to not lash out and that scares me more" department I have to do the same for Kazami and Shigeru in the "hey boss, I'm gonna go fucking, I don't know, dig this bullet out of my shoulder with a knife I cleaned by spitting on it and then electrocute myself for funsies" department. Like okay, take a look at this list I whipped up here:

Both Kazami and Shigeru wanted to become borgs to avenge people who were dear to them and killed by the organizations in their respective series; Kazami for his family and Shigeru for his friend. Though Shigeru went straight to the source while Kazami tried to convince Hongo and Hayato to borg him first to no avail, you can’t tell me that Kazami didn’t jump into that beam and save the two of them and not think that might win him brownie points that he could then later use to convince the two of them that yes, this is the right thing to do and he would be a great addition to the team.

Both of them have another Rider with them (I count Tackle!) who aren’t really… fully borged? Yuki isn’t for sure, he’s just got the arm; I’m not sure exactly whether or not Yuriko is a full borg because I don’t believe they straight up address that in the show but they sure didn’t address her like one and I’ve heard some things (...we’ll get into this later) that would lead me to believe that she was meant to be only partially there originally and get to full borgification by the end of the show. Both of them fought with the respective riders they were paired with. Also, both of their mouths are out in their suits! Very cute!

Speaking of suits, both of them have very silly little suits that I don’t think anyone else in the series could pull off wearing. Imagine if Keisuke transformed into V3 or something. I think I’d cry looking at that. Hayato as Stronger? Man, he doesn’t have the sheer balls for that one. Sorry king…

Which of course leads me to: they’ve both got huge egos. I really don’t need to elaborate on this one, look at the shit the two of them pull… Kazami a little more in the physical department with the stunts he does and Shigeru socially with his cockiness, but you can see the comparison, right?

And before we go on I think I need to clarify something: Shigeru jumping himself with his bike is very very real. That is actually a scene that happens. Anyway! I adore the way that the show started off and Shigeru and Yuriko had already been through their borg procedures and that the first time we meet them they're already fighting. It's a nice break from tradition! It feels fresh and new! I also think that it's one of the only ways that you could possibly sell how they borged Shigeru in a way that would make sense in a children's show. They gave him electric hands? Like, metal hands that he has to wear gloves over lest he fucking electrocute everyone? There had to have been an adjustment period there but by the time we meet him he's fine with things. I think this was probably the right call; while I love myself some good borg angst and it's interesting to see them adapt to their new lives and Ishinomori back me up here I think you would agree that exploring this idea is fun... for the way that Shigeru is borged specifically I think there's a little too much room for things to go south way too fast. Those two concepts can coexist in my mind. Can you imagine what it would have been like if he had tried to go swimming or something?

After the first episode we do get a flashback in the second to exactly how Shigeru got borged which was basically:

Shigeru: [walks into Black Satan] hey I want to be on your side I love facism

Scientists: ok what borgification u want

Shigeru: just fuck me up and make me stronger

Scientist: okay [electric hands]

Shigeru, Stronger: haha fuckin idiot I’m actually here for revenge! you killed my friend and I hate nazis. taste the powers you gave me [explodes them]

And then he escapes, taking Yuriko (Tackle) with him. From the start he’s really cocky! My remark as I was watching the show was that he really feels like he can do anything because he just doesn’t give a shit about the social implications of anything that he does. Take him just walking into a lighthouse, getting stopped by the guard who works there, patting the guy down and being like “alright, well, you’re not a monster I guess,” and leaving. He’s silly and kind of rude to Tachibana (when he shows up) and has a “Who are you?” “What? Don’t you know who I am?” exchange with all the monsters he meets. He has a whole damn speech he does every time he transforms. It’s so good!

^ HE GOES :D

While this might have set Yuriko up to be the Female Straight Man (which she kind of is for him a little) she’ll rib Tachibana or the two of them will team up and slander a monster together. I love the way they interact… I think it helps them remain on pretty equal footing even though Shigeru is absolutely the primary fighter. He still leaves things to her and trusts her to do them. I don’t think she’s fully borged - she’s never referred to as such and instead gets the term… what’s it in English, electrowave human? So she can do special attacks and such. It kind of feels like a Taki type role but stronger? Not exactly; a lot of Taki’s importance in ‘71 Rider comes from the fact that he is fully human and able to keep up with them to contrast Hongo and Hayato, but Shigeru doesn’t have the same need to connect with his humanity as they do (being borged was his choice, after all) and as such I think Yuriko fits with him much better. If we let Tackle and Taki 1v1 I think Tackle would sweep.

You see what I mean about Stronger seemingly learning from and refining the previous series? There’s not a way that I can talk about it without contrasting it – I think this is the point where I would stop and say that if you’re thinking about taking on the Grand Prix for yourself in full or in part and would like Stronger to be one of the series you watch to watch whichever of the series come chronologically before this that you are also interested in partaking before starting Stronger. I personally believe that there can be a lot of value in experiencing things in reverse order [<- guy who played the Layton series backwards and loved it] but also… I think that seeing things build up to Stronger as opposed to experiencing Stronger and then going behind the scenes to take a look at the building blocks is the way to go. Nowhere is that more apparently in my opinion than with:

Hey man, what if the Generals fucked?

^ he's calling the cops on me for that one

Maybe this was the part of the series I was most excited to talk about. Don’t worry about it. So far I’ve pitched Stronger like a continuation of ‘71 Rider to V3 which I’d say the main cast falls into; there’s not really a lot of the others in Shigeru… but if we’re talking villain generals? We’re talking X, baby. I think that meeting Apollo Geist first is absolutely essential if X is something you’re planning on watching (don’t watch X but like, watch X) so that you can see the fields from which Titan was grown. I have it on anecdotal evidence that doing things non-chrono and going back to watch X and therefore meeting Apollo Geist post Stronger feels a little underwhelming, but meeting Apollo Geist fresh off the heels of V3 feels correct and the ramp up in Stronger comes naturally. All of that to say: we’re back with the sexual tension, but it’s even more nuts this time.

There’s one scene in X where civvie Apollo Geist shows up at Tachibana’s coffee shop and sits down at the counter to order. He asks where Keisuke is; Tachibana tells him that he’s out, and inquires as to how this man (who has not introduced himself) knows Keisuke. An old friend, perhaps? Apollo Geist shrugs – something like that. It feels like Titan took that scene and decided to build his entire goddamn character around it.

^ man what the hell was this pick up line

Remember earlier when I mentioned that none of the monsters seem to know who Stronger is? That’s very much true, but Titan absolutely knows. He follows him around and smokes his stupid little cigarettes from his stupid little cigarette holder and just watches him. Titan’s obsessed with this man but whereas with Apollo Geist all the monsters were like “oh fuck yeah, let’s tie up X and drag him back, I’m sure that would make Apollo Geist happy,” it almost seems like Titan wants to keep Stronger for himself and just… doesn’t tell anyone about him. He’s possessive. He’s really intense about it. He is also using X-era techniques which didn’t even end up working against Keisuke to try and get Shigeru, of all people. It’s a fascinating strategy. The two of them follow each other to a concert and just stare at each other across the hall. Titan doesn’t really get his ass kicked, but he knows he’s not strong enough yet for Stronger. He upgrades himself. He fucking goes for it. And Titan… dies.

Well, let’s put a pin in that for a second. In any case, we need a new general, because that’s how these things go. Despite looking like a cross between an anatomical model, an astronaut, and the fucking Joker, Shadow is oddly compelling as a character to me in a way I have absolutely no idea how to describe or talk about? He’s not actually a part of Black Satan – he just kind of heard that Black Satan was fighting Stronger and was like “well shit, I want a piece of that, let me in,” and is just kind of here now. He proclaims so to Shigeru upon meeting him. Shadow really likes to play whatever game he thinks is going on by his own rules and he seems to have a blast doing so. He’s enigmatic, he’s fresh, he’s unlike any general that we’ve had before. His weird secretive nature almost makes him seem more like the leader type than the general type. Shigeru seems to understand that Shadow’s much more of a sinister threat than Titan, but doesn’t really seem to know what to do about it.

Let me quickly detour you another time just to finish setting up this stage here: throughout my time watching Stronger I was also working on over easy, you know, that Donbros comic I made! Still really like that thing. I know I and others have joked about Tarou being Showa-coded and honestly if you were to pick him up and place him down in a 70’s Rider series I think he’d be right at home; I mentioned up top that Shigeru doesn’t seem to give a shit about societal expectations and while I think that Tarou gives a little more of a shit about the consequences (seems to have less of a grasp on how the implications actually work though) I’m fine putting them in a similar category. Did you know Inoue’s dad worked on Stronger? That’s a fun little fact for you.

Okay, time to get back to the show.

Titan gets one funeral (which Shigeru gets invited to in the funniest way, by just Being in a field while this was announced to him somehow) but it was kind of a flop and nobody showed up and they didn’t even manage to use it to capture Stronger, so they decide that he needs another one. It’s at this second funeral that Shigeru finds Titan laying in a casket on a bed of roses (yes, just like Shigeru has all over his outfit) and manages to prick his electric hand on one of them, bleeding like a human, directly onto Titan’s lips, who then revives, licks it, and becomes Hundred-Eyes Titan. Buildup’s over, this is where the mad yaoi really starts.

You might now be understanding why I brought up Donbrothers earlier; yes, this scene shares really striking similarities with the time that Tarou got the juice sucked out of him at Sonoi’s funeral but even more homoerotic, because it’s actual blood?

Nevermind the actual Showa-era “how human are cyborgs, really” conversation that’s to be had both in the borg angst sense but also about the fact that he can bleed from his what-I’ve-been-presuming-to-be-metal hands. Again, calling back to X, it’s almost like that point after Apollo Geist got resurrected and was going to die unless he took one of X’s parts and put it in his heart, but this actually happened and wasn’t just theoretical. We’re going past where Apollo Geist got to. If first base is fighting the Rider and home base is actually killing them, I think Titan’s made it to second. Uh, but he’s got a problem getting to third. They’ve already brought in his replacement. There’s only one way to fix this one.

Titan and Shadow Get Divorced

Titan was kind of a flop in his first life. He’s been powered up a little more with Shigeru’s blood, but Shadow’s also been given Titan’s position pretty recently, and it would be a dick move to fire him. Look, usually the generals don’t come back unless the people they’re working for are the ones bringing them back, and they sure as shit weren’t doing that for Titan. Might as well just make them work it out together? For some reason the Black Satan leader seems to think this will work; really all it does is just instantly sets the two of them at each other's throats, and they begin to fight over Stronger.

They get exceptionally petty about it. Titan shows up, with a rose again, leading Stronger into a minefield, also strewn with roses, just to really rub in the whole “haha, your blood revived me” thing. Shadow at a couple points ends up straight up giving information to Shigeru so that he can get the upper hand on Titan. Shadow (who has a playing card theme, by the way, that’s his whole deal) shows Titan one of the cards that he just did a fortune reading with, and who else appears but Jo Shigeru, dripping wet, in the outline of the spade (cropped with the tail not showing) like he’s being framed in a heart.

^ the way he looks at that card just takes me the fuck out every time

I feel like I’m losing my mind every time I think about the two of them. Titan staggers up a dune into the good ol’ Toku Desert, dragging himself to Shadow before Shadow kills Stronger so that he can have the pleasure of at least torturing him a little bit before he goes. Shadow pokes fun at Titan for being like “I’ll be the one to kill Stronger!” with a “are you sure you actually can?” and Titan, hand to my heart, blushes.

Titan staggers up a dune into the good ol’ Toku Desert, dragging himself to Shadow before Shadow kills Stronger so that he can have the pleasure of at least torturing him a little bit before he goes. What the fuck?!

^ DIVORCED BITCHES REALLLLLL

Titan has his own hell! Titan has made his own hell and takes Shadow there to show off his accomplishments in a scene that I can only call “two socialites who desperately need a divorce” in which Titan plays the tired husband who’s got eyes for his secretary (Shigeru) but has to bring his bitch of a wife Shadow with him to work to show off just how much he does for this family while his bitch wife Shadow looks on, unimpressed, and thinks about also fucking his husband’s secretary (still Shigeru) or maybe killing his husband and taking the life insurance money, because there’s no way this plan of his will do anything but collapse down around him, which it does, and Titan once again dies as Stronger throws him back down the crevasse to this pit he’s quite literally dug himself.

Watching the two of them interact is absolutely fascinating. Titan’s passion for Shigeru seems renewed and completely focused now that he has a rival, Shadow’s ignited something in him, and Shadow seems like he’s having fun playing around messing with Titan while enacting his own plans. Shadow turns out to be superstitious, and bases most of his decisions off readings that he does with his deck of cards, which adds an even more fun element to his character. This is the part of the show where he seems the most… I don’t want to say happy, but how about “in his element.” These are all some really good episodes of television and they’re a blast to watch.

Black Satan leader susses out that Shadow’s up to some shit (don’t know how that could have happened, it’s not like he’s been telling everyone he meets or anything) and decides to try and bring in another General instead of letting Shadow lead. Shigeru gets captured, defeats the leader, and Shigeru and Yuriko are the FIRST RIDERS IN HISTORY TO CRACK OPEN A COLD ONE WITH TACHIBANA!!

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL! THE END!

LET’S GO TO DEMON WORLD! [SHOW END SPOILERS START HERE]

No, things aren’t actually over. This is where you can tell that things got rushed in production as (from what I’ve heard) ratings kind of tanked. Shadow brings in his friends from Demon World (where he lived before?) and decides to start a new army with them called the Delza Army, which he kind of leads. This is what he’s spent his time fighting with Titan and Shigeru and Black Satan secretly working towards - taking over the facilities that Black Satan already had and using them for his own new purpose. And sure, to do this, they need to kill Stronger, yeah.

In much the same way that Titan and Shadow fought with each other, giving Stronger an edge, the Delza Army part of the show is mostly about these characters showing off their weaknesses through their bickering with each other, but there’s a whole fucking throng of them this time around. They each brought their own themed goons with them, and on multiple occasions the goons even begin fighting with each other while Stronger just kind of looks on in confusion and gets a clean path to the monster he’s actually looking to fight. This being backed by scenes of Shadow (somehow) drinking wine listening to one of his compatriots drone on and on makes it seem like he really misses being on the front lines?

^ look all i'm saying is that it looks like it's 2:55 and he's got another meeting with the guy this dude is bitching about at 3 to hear the other side of this story and he hasn't had lunch yet

The thing about the Delza Army is that it’s absolutely a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation. Shadow’s brought in a bunch of people with conflicting views and outrageous personalities and different fighting styles who spend half the time using him as HR to work out their interpersonal issues and he just seems… tired. He doesn’t seem like a guy who was cut out for management! This is not a new character type by any means, I could name so many characters who get into a position in their job and realize like “nah, actually, I was way happier where I was,” fucking Jim from The Office does it, but it’s a completely new role for any General and like also, this was what he was working for from the beginning. To finally get here and realize that actually, he doesn’t want this, is kind of weirdly fucked and not at all what I was expecting from this show. All of the characters around him have so much personality and character that they’re completely forgettable because of the oversaturation . They went an oddly adult angle with his character and I can’t tell if it’s at all intentional or if it just happened to turn out this way. I don’t personally think that this part of the show is as good as the part with Titan and Shadow fighting, but I feel like that decrease even more helps support the change in Shadow’s character, so it ends up wrapping around to working.

This is also the part where Yuriko dies.

There’s not really much that I can say about that one other than the fact that I’ve heard she was supposed to be brought back later as a full rider this time but, because the show had to be cut, isn’t. I have a story in my mind where the rest of the guys – because they all come back at the end, they have to put on one last big show, and they’ve got a lot of science guys there – manage to jump her back to life in much the same way Shigeru did himself and transform her into a full cyborg, like I said earlier, and that she’d fully join the ranks. I know that there was talk of possibly making Taki V3 or even Riderman, which is another reason I compared the two up top. They could have done that without all of the additional angst that it would have caused the '71 cast to borg Taki since Yuriko's already been modified. It would have been so good... I’ll mention this again I’m sure come Skyrider post, but I really liked his little spotted scarf, mostly because it reminds me of Tackle’s suit. It’s like she did get to be with us in a way!

From there on you get your usual show beats: as mentioned previously, all the previous riders show up which is very fun, they defeat Shadow (who kind of seems relieved to be going out, to be honest) and the rest of the Delza army, and then it’s time to fight the Leader.

^ Tachibana's really silly in this one and but it's the sweetest thing seeing his boys come back to him

The leader this time around is like, I think the quarry come to life? No, but for real: some kind of rock monster that has been pulling the strings of all the different groups that all the different riders have fought. It’s all the same guy behind the scenes. I’ll say it, I kind of appreciated that one as a “no matter what name you put to it, facism is facism” type thing? I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to interpret it that way. It feels kind of appropriate. The specifics of what they’re fighting change but the root cause and their aim is always the same; though there might be infighting between the groups, Kamen Rider is a show about punching Nazis at its core.

^ and they all love Tachibana so much!

This is the last time (besides the little special) that we get to have Tachibana on the show. There’s a break between this one and Skyrider and you can absolutely feel it looming in the horizon as everyone rides off again. Despite that, Stronger’s a blast of a show! I think this is one where there are absolutely different ways you could watch it and I just managed to take the path where I ended up probably the most satisfied I could have been during the Delza part since I was just watching the degradation of a man in bureaucracy. Which is always, always fun.

TO RECAP:

YES fuck yes I recommend Stronger, with the caveat I gave at the beginning that you should probably watch whichever shows chronologically come before this one that you’re interested in watching before you Tackle Stronger.

Bu dum tss…

#rider roundup #kamen rider stronger #PLEASE DON'T REPLY TO THIS POST AS ALWAYS and i do not edit. this is stream of consciousness writing baby

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arcplaysgames · 1 year

Text

I don't remember this at all so I don't even know if its part of The Lotus Tree or not, lmao, sorry Kasumi you are so boring up until, uuuuuuuuuuh about 40 minutes from now actually

So Reverie wakes up, happy new year, time to head downstairs to

no no no no no non on onojnkofidflasjk NO

NOOOOO

no!

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

inhales

okay.

I, in real life, staring at my Odin, literally out loud said, "Oh fuck ALL the way off."

Anyway, we meet up at the shrine by luck, hahhaaha what a crazy random happenstance.

Also: HARU! MY GOD! WHAT A KNOCKOUT! I feel like her kimono might cost more than my fucking car.

But there is already a very weird tension in the air when the group gets together. They all meet up at a shrine that has no visitors because it seems like no one in the world is wishing for anything because their lives are so perfect, so the crew is like "well! this was nice. uh see ya!" and the vibes are so bad. Immediately everything feels like a world encased in glass, like a pinned insect that just got a shot of euthanasia and is starting to lock into place.

It is fucking EERIE as shit.

oh my god I'm gonna sharpen an axe and cut down your Lotus Tree, Maruki, I swear to god

"Would you join the Phantom Thieves" as an indicator that all is perfect and no one needs to do anything is sure Something.

Somehow, just watch me, I will find a way to blame this all on Mishima again. I'm already trying to calculate the trajectory.

SPITTAKE

I FUCKIGN HOLLARED OH MY GOD

I don't want to sound like the average Atlus developer right now, Morgana, but I think you may have gained some weight.

Also, sidebar: COWARDS for changing Morgana's voice actor for this. COWARDS!!!!! Cassandra Lee Morris has been doing fucking WORK with this character, I literally would rather her continue voicing him with a pitch modulation effect than swapping the VA, /HISSES ANGRILY

Anyway. Reverie and I are both in complete unity at the moment because all of this is Fucked.

Again, me, IRL, shouting "NO" at my Odin.

oh i feel ill from this, this is horrendous. Maruki, you got a fucking storm coming, and i have a fusioned Izanagi-no-Okami with your name on it.

LOOK AT REVERIE HERE. So like I've ranted about how the P4MC was such a non-character while Reverie is so so much more. I can feel how freaked out he is even while he's still a mostly silent protagonist. The fear he feels as he tries to make sense of this situation and starts to wonder how far it spreads is fucking radiating from his posture and how he's watching everyone from over his popped collar and event he way he hasn't turned the chair around to face them, he is cheated away from everyone.

God, it's amazing. I have a lot of issues with P5R but the protagonist is a triumph.

Oh, immediately before he said a single fucking thing. He knows. He knows. He walks in and takes one look around and he knows.

Which in of itself is fascinating and I wanna sink my teeth into what that means.

Everyone in this world is getting their desires. No! No that's incorrect. What they are getting is their pain taken away. I remember Maruki's absolutely batshit closing speech as he left the school in November.

Everyone is getting a life where the biggest traumatic moments did not happen. Futaba never lost her mother and thus Sojiro never lost his best friend. Morgana gets to be human because he admires humans so much. Ryuji was never kicked off the track team. Haru never had the falling out that lead to her father's death.

But Reverie? I don't know what he gets. Before the switch flipped on the Lotus Tree, Sae revealed that the woman who was involved in Reverie's false assault accusation might testify, so his record might even be overturned.

So we have Reverie, and we have Akechi. The two Wild Cards who were puppets of a bored god (who, uh, since Philemon isn't actually involved in this I don't really know anymore what Yaldabaoth's whole deal was but whatever, lean with it rock with it).

I don't know if you can undo the trauma of being Goro Akechi.

... I'm thinking about Reverie, and about the constant drumbeat of his connection to Akechi. Wanting to keep a promise.

I just had a really horrible thought but also it's so gay that I dunno if Atlus would Go There. We'll see.

I know I have never been happier to see you. Been a while, Beige Boy. Love the outfit, actually, you look great in actual colors.

/points directly at this

Did Akechi survive or did Maruki being him back because Reverie had unfinished business with him.

That is my question.

Don't answer it, anyone, but what I am thinking is either Akechi will reveal how he survived the Palace (unlikely) or it turns out he fucking didn't and this was the start of the Lotus Tree.

Anyway, Akechi reveals that he was being questioned for the Shido stuff and then they just.... let him go. No charges. He's free. Which is impossible, obviously. And now Wakaba Isshiki is walking around alive.

that lil pose is so gay. i wonder if Akechi is meant to be Actually Gay. serious question. like, we got Actually Queer characters in P4 so we know the people at Atlus know gay people exist, but this game has been scrubbed clear of any queerness.

except Akechi has such intense gay vibes and, sure I'll say it, mannerisms that I wonder if he is subtextually meant to be gay. especially since to my recollection, every male character in this game has been mentioned to be attracted to women except him. like, I did notice that, thank you.

((ALSO, SIDEBAR: YOU KNOW WHAT I MISS FROM P3 AND P4? THE GIRLS HAVING CRUSHES ON EACH OTHER. I miss the casual flirtation and interest all the girls had together. That's also been stripped out of P5 and it sucks.))

anyway what the fuck was I saying. Akechi gay, he and Reverie need to investigate.

And then Kasumi calls to be like "heeeeeeeeeeey so sorry to bother you buuuuuut that palace we ran into at the stadium is back????? is that okay?"

Okay another thing, sorry that this post is like All About Akechi but

lmao Akechi without his mask is a delight. this man is a bitch and he does not give a fuck and nothing in this world or the next impresses him. it is for real so fun how his cadence and register have subtly changed, he doesn't soften his syllables as much anymore, and he is direct as a gunshot.

Between him and Maruki, this whole segment of the game is like Freaks Only, Normies GTFO and I am thrilled. I am a freak, it's me. This is for me.

#p5 #persona liveblog

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kiseiakhun · 1 year

Note

you’re so right but jason todd is so woman coded. and i could go into heavy detail

Listen, Jason Todd can be woman coded because you want him to be woman coded. You know it in your heart. You don't have to provide Irrefutable Canon Proof to prove your point, unless you find that kind of activity fun and rewarding, in which case provide away because I love batshit theories about canon and I am all ears. It just drives me crazy because like, listen. What people say are "women coding" are like, normal tropes that have been applied more to MALE characters than female characters because like... even when women were allowed to be people, their main point in the narrative was to be a prop to a man's story. Even when they were well developed, fully realized characters within their own right, their significance within the narrative was to support a man's journey. Like, I've heard criticisms about fridging that say Alexandra DeWitt was a tragic character from the start, that she had all the hallmarks of being a victim right from her introduction, and it doesn't matter! The point was that she was part of a long line of women who died for the man's story to move forward. It doesn't matter if she was doomed from the start. It doesn't matter if she was a dynamic, complex character who did get focus within the story. It doesn't change the fact that her inclusion in the story was to only serve Kyle's narrative.

So it drives me a little insane to see people argue that this male character is woman coded because he has an emotional arc focused on how other people have wronged him and we see him at his lowest point having a mental breakdown and experiencing irrational emotions because "that's a woman's story". No? It's not? Like historically it's NOT. Men are allowed to feel the full spectrum of human emotion. Men are allowed to buckle under the weight of all the burdens they carry and scream their sorrows out to the world. That's. That's not a woman's story. Achilles wept in the Iliad. Macbeth was flawed and poignant and allowed to be a fully developed person while Lady Macbeth was a scheming schemer from the start. Emotional arcs, through antiquity into the modern day, have been given to men! Men's stories are full of how they've been hurt, how they've been disenfranchised. Underdog stories are an entire genre within themselves. Emotional arcs have been written for men from the dawn of literature.

Like I keep seeing the same argument about how male protagonists have to be stoic and manly men and show no emotions and be hyper successful providers and I want to tear my hair out. No! No they don't!! You are describing a hyper specific genre of action heroes and like, one type of video game protagonist that was popular in AAA titles from the late 2010s. Oh my god. Please read more books. Please watch more movies. I'm losing my mind. Male protags are not like this as a rule BECAUSE IT'S BORING. BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT TO WATCH THE STORY OF A SUCCESSFUL MAN BECOMING EVEN MORE SUCCESSFUL. THAT'S A SPECIFIC TYPE OF POWER FANTASY THAT NOT EVERYONE ASCRIBES TO ASIDJDHDH READ MORE BOOKS.

I'm fine. I'm fine.

Anyway. Sorry anon I didn't mean to dump all this in your ask. I have just been thinking about this since yesterday and it's been driving me bonkers and also I'm a bit tipsy right now. Tell me about why Jason is female coded. I'll find my post about why Kyle is a girl YA protagonist and reblog it in solidarity.

#asks #anon #SORRY #Kyle is female coded because that's what my heart and my dick says <3 i need no further reason

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josies-not-suicidal-now · 4 months

Note

can i ask what circumgender is? i tried to look it up, but i'm not sure whether the results are accurate. (also not sure if your post was sarcastic or not, haha, sorry)

I agree that the tone of my post wasn't especially precise, I made it quickly and emotionally

circumgender is a word used by like 5 twinks on this webbed site and we all disagree with each other, but if I was gonna describe it I would say it's the gender of a person who has pursued transition and in their pursuit ended up with the gender that corresponds to their birth sex, the idea being that instead of this journey being a straight line away from their gender assigned at birth, and then a straight line back, it's a spiral, a circle, they've walked the entire circumference of gender, and even on returning to familiarity they see things a new way

in my case I started E about 5 years ago, and the longer I've been on estrogen the more comfortable I've felt identifying openly as a man. Like of course I continue to be plural and multigender, and in that my relationship to manhood isn't cis, it's circumgender

I posted about circumgender people, because right now, with good reason, a lot of trans women are very angry about how comfortable people are ignoring or outright denying the existence of transmisogyny, and in their desire to weed out transmisogynists they're attacking the idea of "afab trans women" because they see not experiencing transmisogyny while identifying with transfemininity as a mockery of the real experiences they've experienced.

you'll notice that an afab trans woman fits pretty comfortably into the definition of circumgender. Now I wanna say very clearly, anybody out there who denies the existence of transmisogyny, or thinks they can take some T and throw on a dress and understand what transmisogyny feels like, as far as I am concerned they're just transmisogynists like any other run of the mill sexist and transphobe, and I want them to own up to their bullshit. At the end of the day though, I am in community with these people, and if your argument is "you haven't suffered the way I have, therefor you don't have the right to identify with my label" I feel like you're defining transfemininity around suffering, which I don't think should be core to any identity, and you're making a stolen valor argument. Like I think we need to understand that there is a difference between claiming you have some experiences in common with trans women, which I think is an entirely reasonable reason to identify with any label, vs. claiming you are tma when you're not, which I think is batshit insane, but I also haven't seen anyone doing.

I hereby unequivocally condemn any perisex afab person who claims to be tma.

Now take a step back and notice what a tiny unimportant group of people we are haggling about here, what a big ruckus made for a group of people I know maybe three of, none of which claim to be tma, and I live on "tiny queer community" tumblr

And what I'm really afraid of, what my post was actually about what I notice time and time again, is that the same people who want to attack these completely insignificant, politically nonexistent microlabels in the name of liberating trans women from transmisognyny, it's those people who are the fastest to call me tme

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allamericansbitch · 1 year

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'but i do think she's just in a moment of "what if i make all the worst choices humanly imaginable"'

I'm sorry, but I gotta laugh at some of these takes here lmao. Even if that WAS the case (which would be absolutely batshit of her), are we then just supposed to forget about it and move on?

Matty healy is racist, antisemitic, homophobic and sexist and probably some other shit as well. So how are the fans who one or more of these labels apply to supposed to feel? Because this shit affects us. It's not just 'tehe making some bad choices, in my dgaf era ✌️' This is hurting people, and we shouldn't just let it slide considering what times we live in and what's happening to these groups of people everywhere. I've especially seen lots of poc fans who are really upset by this.

Like, I'm aware we can't dictate who she dates, but we also don't owe her blind support and worship. I've been with her for 15 years, I've defended her when she got undeserved criticism while also acknowledging when she fucked up. I was disappointed by her silence regarding anything politically important the past three years, but that's a lot easier to swallow than her actively associating and dating a trash human being like matty.

This goes against everything she used to claim she was (and against the 'activism' she liked to use to promote stuff...), and as fans we should not just be okay with this because idk, she's going through something and wants to make some bad choices??? When I go through it, I eat a bunch of trash food and smoke a pack of cigarettes and cut my own hair, I don't go dating a bigoted piece of human garbage.

Yes!! This is so well said and exactly what I was trying to say. Literally I have nothing left to say, this is perfect, no notes.

#answered #anonymous

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velkyr · 4 months

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DUSK QUESTIONS MOMENT. 1, 10, 40, 52!! 👀

ON IT BOSS!!!! o7 (tysmmmm for letting me ramble mwah. I wrote more than I expected as per usual 💖)

(original ask game post here)

I've read more'd this because oops it got so long sorry orz

Why did you pick the race you did for your Tav?

the short answer is always just going to be I love tieflings, I am weak for tieflings, this is a universal unchangeable fact amen 🙏 I think 3 of the... 6(? I might be forgetting some other oneshot-only characters idk) characters I've played at a table have been tiefs or homebrew variants of them! they're very gender to me, I felt that way before I even really knew jackshit about my own gender. absolutely batshit that I still thought I was cis when I started playing d&d lmfao. also horns tails fangs and claws need I say more. I shan't, I don't have to

but yeah specifically for Dusk, I wanted to base them off of my first d&d character in particular, who was a tiefling homebrew to represent an au ra from ffxiv in our homebrew campaign based around the game. so it was important to me they were also a tiefling draconic sorcerer to match!

a lot has changed about them while I've reworked them, but many of the fundamentals have remained the same. gender, motivations, reasoning and general force of personality have been altered towards things that I find more compelling or more fitting, 6 years down the line - but race and class, the idea of them being nobility who left their home(land) and has a bunch of hangups around it, that's all as it was back then.

10. If your Tav didn’t become an adventurer, what else would they be doing?

this is an interesting one, I've been stewing on it a fair bit recently while I've been thinking about what they'd do post-bg3 shenanigans. the thing with Dusk is I've infused them with So Much raw adhd (to the point of it far surpassing my own, oops. this seems to be how I bestow love on my favourite OCs at this point), they Need enough outlets in their day-to-day life or they'll end up in an understimulated mess pretty quickly.

adventuring is obviously a solid option for that need! but without that on the table, I think it needs to be something that caters strongly to their interests and whims. I can see them working well in a profession involving enchantment and/or working with jewels and precious metals. enchanting things would be a good way to siphon off some of that raw sorcerer magic - if they don't use it often enough, there's a build up of sorts. with it being lightning based, it's a bit like having an unstable motor that runs way too fast, and it makes them incredibly irritable.

as for the crafting part of the equation, well, they're already fascinated by shiny things, they're pretty detail oriented and good with their hands, and it's the kind of skilled manual work that requires Just Enough focus to be stimulating. the only thing they'd probably end up hating about either of these would be dealing with noble clientele lmao, but I have no doubt they'd find a way to exploit that anyway. while they may not be the most book smart in the world, they're people smart by necessity. (something something insight proficiency)

and really, as an alternative or perhaps on the side, I don't think they'd be opposed to sex work if it were an environment they felt comfortable in, with a well-vetted set of clientele that they have full autonomy over.

40. What is the biggest mistake your Tav ever made?

welcome to 'pick a struggle' with Dusk, they have their fair share,,,

there's a couple of things that stick out, but I'll stick with one that's pretty fundamental to them. they deeply regret having lashed out at and pushed away the people that tried to help them when they were younger, still stuck living in elturel.

while they can't entirely be blamed for it - they were conditioned to think and feel a certain way, and those patterns were ingrained across a lifetime, all the hallmarks of the abuse they faced - at the end of the day, the friends they'd made after they started sneaking out at night were only trying to help them see how awful their living situation was.

by the time Dusk fled home, they'd burned all the bridges they'd tentatively built over the years. their best friend at the time was the one who made a sort of last ditch attempt to convince them, and it came at the right place, the right time to push them into leaving. but it was outright said that none of them wanted to see them again, after all of the vitriol.

with the distance of years and the gift of hindsight, they regret it all the more. they haven't really forgiven themselves for it.

52. What is your Tav’s worst fear?

oh you already know this one I'm sure 🤠 but I'll elaborate it into something a bit broader that pokes at the Theming more.

they fear being forced back into a gilded cage - whether that's being dragged back home to their family or pushed into a new one. they fear the loss of the autonomy they've carved out for themselves. they fear a loss of identity, and the concept of having it stripped from them, reducing them back into some (feminine) trophy to be given away for material gain.

at its core, it's a loathing of the idea of heteronormativity, really. that's what I always parallel it to, and it's pretty on the nose in that regard.

granted, it's kind of a paradoxical fear for them. they're so thoroughly weary after spending so long living with their guard up, molding themselves into someone who can take on the world alone, that in secret, there's a part of them that just doesn't want to fight anymore. that part would be tempted to give up - to let themselves be reshackled, so to speak - if the circumstances were dire, so long as there were the promise of them being safe and cared for at the end.

as a secondary but very much related thing, they've also come to fear and resent being alone, and the idea of being left behind by people they care about.

#me: oh I can be concise about this obviously #also me over an hour later: wait where did all of these words come from nobody could have predicted this wtf #local brainworm haver has brainworms over their favourite lizard more at 11 #tysm again <3 #dusk

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andypantsx3 · 7 months

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Hi Andie!

I've been on tumblr for a while now (though still a newbie compared to others) and I think you're the most logical, unyielding creator who isn't afraid to speak your mind and be yourself.

In this month alone, 3 of my favourite creators have talked about the discourse on their blogs (hate from other writers, drama, death threats even) and the prospect of archiving/deactivating, 2 of which have already done so. Many creators have also talked about how tumblr is different from before and from what I see, some people on this app can get really petty, hostile, insensitive and straight up delusional. I initially joined this app because of all the fics and thirsts, but knowing the nature of some people here makes me disappointed.

With all this negativity swirling around, I was just wondering, how do you handle any hate you receive?

p.s. can't wait for updates on sitw!

Hello my love! I'm sorry to hear you also feel like the vibes are off!! I think we've all sort of been feeling this way lately, and I know it's all made especially unmanageable by the dark cultural moment we're in. This is supposed to be a fun, safe, collaborative space, and instead many of the writers I know are being plagiarized left and right, receiving totally batshit anons, or going on hiatus because of burn out.

And I appreciate you saying that I speak my mind, because I do on occasion. But honestly barely a fraction of the things I feel make their way onto the dash because I try to keep the vibes fun here. I'm still sort of formulating my own ideas on how I think we as a community can collectively deal with the bad vibes on here, but I think it's a spicier take and I want to take the time to get it right before I say anything, if I say it at all. Because it might not be worth it in the end, and it might just be better to keep trying my best to add fun to the space instead!! But we will see!!

As for how to deal with individual hate, I really do think it's up to the individual what their comfort level is in addressing the things that come their way. For me, there are two types of mean messages I think you can get: people out to take their own issues out on you, and people who express themselves badly but have a genuine question or concern. And to me, I think possibly those messages are worth addressing in separate ways.

For the first type, my main m.o. is basically just to delete and block anything I get. For every anon you have seen me address, there's probably ten times that amount with far meaner messages that I've just blocked, deleted, and then bitched about in the group chat lol. In cases where they've made it obvious they are another writer or at least associated with another writer, I will also go block that writer. I think it's important to protect your individual space from people who don't mean you well, and it's honestly usually not worth giving them your energy. Because their end goal is just to upset you, not to express any sort of genuine concern, and any energy you direct into that is just feeding into what they want. So in my opinion the best way to stop this particular type of anon in their tracks is to just ignore them.

The anons I usually end up addressing publicly are those that I think have phrased things badly but might actually mean to ask a genuine question or express an authentic concern. Those to me are possibly worth the time spent digging into their concerns, although to be honest this can be exhausting as well because people can be extremely caught up in their own feelings and get incredibly nasty. I wish this wasn't such a common method of interaction these days, but it is what it is.

If you can stomach it, I think addressing these sorts of questions can help you learn about things you yourself have done badly (see: that time I utilized common smut phrases to try to clarify an ask and ended up sounding like I was making fun of smut writers :/) or help the anon understand where you are coming from if they feel you're on the opposite side of a particular issue. It doesn't always end positively but it has for me more than once, and I think it's worth it in the interest of fostering a patient and good-faith culture of interaction on your blog. I think it can also help prevent such interactions in the future if people come to understand you are trying to be open and trying your best.

Anyway that's what I think is best done on an individual level. Unfortunately, I think real, wide-spread change is going to have to come from a collective mindset shift but again I'm not ready to address that in full. I don't even know if it's possible because I think a lot of the issues we see in the community are direct results of hyper-competitive, materialistic, individualistic capitalist culture seeping down into the fandom. But I'll think on it more and maybe share my thoughts if I think they're worth it after some careful consideration.

In the meantime I am forcefully beaming you good vibes in hopes that they mitigate some of the crap we've seen on here recently!! I am manifesting a nice, calm, healing weekend for you and everyone who reads this!!!!! ❤️✨🌴

#ask andie

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