I think what people are missing when they say "The girls took all the powerful moments from the guys!!" or "Egwene would never have been able to stand up to Ishy for even a moment!" is that...the women are never standing alone when they do their incredible acts.

I think even book readers forget the massive buff being near other ta'veren gives the characters in the books and the power of working in a team.

In the season 1 finale, unlike Rand in the books, Egwene doesn't demolish a whole army of trollocs alone, nor does Nynaeve, nor do any of the other women there. Egwene and Nynaeve don't even cast any of the attack weaves at all. They are linked and Amalisa - a Tower trained individual - uses the collective power of all the women standing there to demolish the battlefield.

in the season 2 finale, they set it up all the way back in episode 1: "Standing alone, a shield only covers part of you, the rest is exposed. But standing together, our shields cover each other and nothing can touch us."

When Egwene stands up to Ishamael, she's not attacking him. She's making a shield. And she's not doing it alone. Mat and Rand are there too, two more powerful ta'veren converging in the Pattern with her, with two more on the way.

It's amazing how quickly book readers forget the plot convenience power of ta'veren Robert Jordan very purposely wrote into the story!

In the final confrontations of both seasons, Rand IS the one who strikes the final blow - he's the one who has to mentally 'defeat' Ishamael. It's Rand's decisions that determine the outcome in both - not Egwene's opinions on the matter, not Nynaeve's. The idea that a random mass attack is a more impactful character moment than overcoming the temptation of Ishy's promise of a perfect world for Rand to live in, that Rand declaring firmly and to Ishy's face that he will never join the shadow never stop fighting for the Light, is just ridiculous.

None of Rand's actually impactful, story-defining moments are given to 'the girls'. The show is not 'pushing Rand down so the women can be made more powerful'. If that's what you think, I'd take a look at what you think is 'powerful' and then take a look at the actual story Robert Jordan wrote and what he had to say about what wins the battle in the end. Was it sheer, raw power that won the conflict or was it strength of self (internally knowing who you are and not caving on your morals for power or influence or glory), community, and compassion?

Yeah, Rand is the character with the most raw power - but that's not why he wins battles and I think his big power moments will mean so much more in the show now that we've seen WHO HE IS and WHY he's using that power.

This isn't to say the explosions of power that Nynaeve and Egwene get aren't meaningful - I think the way the show has altered them to be about community support makes that act so much more powerful than a single character floating above the battlefield and demolishing it all on their own.

So in conclusion, I don't think the criticisms that "Rafe hates men and is giving all Rand's important stuff to the women!!" are accurate in the slightest.

a compilation of recent PLE:AD AU-related drawings. sorted by oldest to latest

i have a counter argument to the 'only one person can boop bill' thing, mabel. she's the type of person to slap stickers on people, she would definitely be the type to also boop others occasionally and bill would be no exception. she probably doesn't do it to annoy bill like dipper would, but maybe as a form of a friendly gesture, kind of like those people who will lightly punch friends in the arm when they hang out.

You know what? Good point. Mabel would get away with more than most, as a fun-loving lady! Bill understands those impulses, and being a touchy person! He indulges in similar ones himself.

Though when Bill's not in the mood to be playful and gets booped anyway? The 'sister-in-law' status grants her considerable grace.

It's crazy that people still uphold show!Sansa as a well-written character and pretend that liking her is the pinnacle of feminism when it would be infinitely more impactful to acknowledge her terrible and misogynistic writing. This is the same character who, while written by two men, was thankful for the abuse she suffered because it allowed her to grow. The same character who we had to be told was smart because the writers were too lazy to develop or show her intelligence. The same character who had to rely heavily on the men surrounding her and ended up accomplishing nothing on her own merit ( and no, thinking that she deserved to be Queen doesn't mean that she earned it). She is not well-written, she is not complex, and she is not a feminist character. Which is fine! If you enjoy her then good on you, but please stop pretending that she's something she isn't just because you feel the need to justify liking her character

So about yesterday. Do you remember everything? I wish I didn't.

Bonus: Chi Yeol’ reaction

...K this is going to sound completely out of the blue, but this has been haunting me today —

i am once again disappointed but not surprised at the COD fandom only caring about “sensitivity” when it’s convenient for them

the problem is I’m such a staunch believer in the slow buildup, the earnest enjoyment of meandering through terrible story decisions and weird nothing subplots to build up into a conclusion that explodes out from all that as fantastic storytelling and intrigue based on all that buildup, such that it makes it necessary to get through all that or you’re missing something essential, that I’m also a terrible person to talk to about what makes a story good. I can tell you plenty of what actually makes something tight and well-written and all that technical speak but how could anyone take my advice when I so so so love excruciatingly long unnecessarily complex fumbling and weird nonsense that spirals into, inexplicably, weird nonsense that makes you cry your lungs sore

wordgirl oc ^_^ her name is dr. splice and shes a menace

I just had the thought... How was Lister painting IN SPACE?

So I look again at the scene and it's clear he has a brush attached to a pack on his back. So it must be like a pressure washer but with paint instead of water. So the paint comes out directly from the brush, and the brush has direct contact with the surface so the paint adheres! Smart!

But not all of it sticks and drops must be floating around which is why he has splotches of red paint on his suit! Also smart!

WHY is there an episode where Fishlegs is stressed out because he found out his ancestors used to hunt dragons? Buddy boy you went to Dragon Killing School just 3 years ago. Who wrote this??? Hello?

"that was a long time ago" was it, Hiccup? Really? 3 years? you were all scrambling over each other trying to prove your worth as dragon slayers what is happening

When did you get to be so wise?

— SMALLVILLE, “Obscura” (1.20)

i love pain and suffering and am very in favor of making things worse but the thing for me about the "au where jiang cheng is the one to do the sacrifice summon because jin ling was murdered" is that it inevitably leans on jin guangyao murdering jin ling and just.

I just find it mind-boggling that some people will reblog things like “Anakin didn’t care about Rex and his men, he wouldn’t listen to Fives just because he was friends with Palpatine” and then in the next post be gushing over Rexwalker/Rexanidala like???? so you agree. Anakin does care about Rex?

ok ive gotten in the loop. 4 new episodes, that's weirdly specific but still exciting!!! some people have pointed out that if there were two more batches like this later in the year it would add up to the 12 episode season we're used to. i guess it could also be 4 extended-length episodes like the 20 special.

or even just 4 regular length episodes and that's it. but i feel like setting up that whole "until next summer" thing, along with the new voice actors and merch and the big rooster teeth convention being themed around the show this year, just to release a 1/3 length season of 10 minute episodes would be a little weird?? not necessarily impossible, but i don't know why they would do that.

i'm not gonna get my hopes up because literally all we know is that 4 episodes are coming and we have no solid evidence that anything else will happen. still, i feel like all that setup indicates that they could possibly have bigger plans than they're letting on

Kazui is soo sneaky lol. How do you think Ichigo and Orihime discipline him? (Or if they do at all)

oh, i think about this a lot honestly, and i've always guessed orihime would be stricter than ichigo on some fronts. that's not to say he'll never step in when needed, but i do think about his own childhood and how, after his mother's death, he probably just....shut down and tried to make things easier for his father out of guilt that he "took" masaki away from isshin, yuzu and karin. i don't think ichigo allowed himself to be "parented" much after masaki died (whether that means being soothed, or being disciplined). the kid that cried easily disappeared really quickly and became someone who was Tough ("you don't need to focus on me; yuzu and karin are the babies!"). when you think about it, a lot of ichigo's personality even as a teenager was just. him wanting to do everything on his own and wanting no one to worry about him ever.

as a father, i don't think he'd ever want kazui to grow up too fast or swallow back his own emotions, especially since ichigo IN CANON believes this about parenting:

as a result of that, i think ichigo is a little indulgent with kazui, letting him linger in childhood longer than he allowed himself.

meanwhile, i don't think orihime is overbearing about it but i do think she has certain expectations that she wants kazui to meet (not big ones, but i did read somewhere that he uses proper honorifics and there's no way he learned that from ichigo lol). i feel like she's the type to hand out a couple of warnings, but if those aren't followed then there are definitely consequences. orihime is gentle and loving and fun for the most part but she was also raised by a single father/brother, so parenting feels a little do-or-die for her as a mother (a kind of "all he has is us!!!!" mentality), but ichigo balances her out with his calm practicality and reminders that they aren't the only ones in his life, he has lots of adults who care about him and things will be fine, most things we make big deals about aren't worth making big deals over. i also think he's left the financial decisions to her since he's got no head for it while she is pretty practical about budgeting (since she's done that her whole life and he's had isshin take care of that for him and isshin wasn't very smart at it either😅)

i think they're both the type to sit down and talk about feelings, especially if they feel like kazui being sneaky is him "acting out" but i don't think kazui is an act-outer just yet (from what we've seen so far). he's just got an innate sense of curiosity, which i do think ichigo and orihime try to encourage even though they're both very protective, i mean. it's really nice that kazui gets to explore town on his own while orihime watches him with her fairies – a nice mix of freedom and security that you could only get if your parents were some of the strongest people in this universe.

it's also nice that ichigo works from home and orihime works part-time. kazui probably sees them both a lot and they both probably see each other a lot, which is a happy and healthy dynamic for a family like them to have. i always say this, but there's no one right way to do family (whether it's dividing up the chores or deciding who works and who gets to stay home/the need-want dichotomy, where some parents work because they have to, financially, while others don't necessarily have this obstacle) -> it's all just a matter of what works for the individual families, and the freedom they get to make these choices within their families. the biggest barrier to family isn't about who is the housespouse – the husband or the wife – but about whether or not the individual partners are able to fulfill all their personal and professional goals and be happy. most socioeconomists will tell you that the right to work for all genders isn't enough, that there need to be adequate parental leaves and provisions, that men need to start pulling their weight around the house and help out, that parents need community to raise their children and expecting parents to be superheros is a pressure that causes more harm than good.

but, magically, ichigo and orihime don't seem to struggle with any of this, since they seem to be doing fine with their set-up so far. i know there's been a lot of conversation about their post-canon life, but despite kubo's sexism i genuinely think ichigo would be a good, ideal husband, so it's hard for me to see either of them having socioeconomic/cultural struggles that most people in contemporary society (esp those in het marriages) do 😅 their biggest problems are all probably shonen-esque, like what are we going to do about that garganta that opened up in our kitchen? and not, say – how do we make ends meet this month while also giving enough time for our kid?

is it idealistic and almost utopian? sure. but it's a shonen and intentionally or not, ichigo and orihime do have a lot of good things going for them, because kubo probably doesn't want to give them real life struggles — just universe-shattering ones.