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scover-va · 2 years

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ok i havent been able to get the idea of an dnd-styled rpg inscryption/the hex au out of my head and it's physically paining me at this point (/j). So, I'm making you fuckers deal with my ramblings bc tumblr's just become a place for my to spit out ideas so they'll stop taking up space in my brain. So! Ramble under the cut since I'll be main tagging this bitch for organization purposes

So main character would be Inscryption's Challenger, and I'm thinking maybe the entire party of em is just. Different versions of the Challenger designs in Inscryption? Either that, or the Challenger is accompanied by Luke, Kaycee, and Lionel. Not Carla tho, I got villain plans with her. Tempted to go with the several Challenger designs idea, but then I'd need to come up with names, so. Y'know.

I dont know how im gonna have the world set up, but I'm thinkin the Scrybes now have land they rule over? Maybe not kingdoms for all of em, but yknow. Only issue with that is that I'd need to figure out how to fit the hex characters in, so what I'll probably do is just having them having authority in smaller areas. So like, taking inspo from Leshy's ties to Slavic mythology, he'd be king of the forest. Grimora might be an infamous necromancer, I havent fully figured these guys out yet.

But i DO have six other characters figured out so ohoHO buckle down, everyone.

Because I refuse to change Rocky's general appearance if I dont have to, Rocky was kidnapped from a young age and experimented on. By who? I'll figure that out eventually. Anyways, so in those few years, Rust was searching for him day and night, and eventually found the people that took Rocky. I have him planned to be a rogue in the rpg au, so yknow. Breaks in, kills some people, has a very heartfelt reunion with his kid, while also. Internally being very fucking angry that these assholes experimented so goddamn much on a child. He got Rocky out safe, and they're now travelling the lands for a place to call home, while Rust is. Also looking for the people who were running the operation, since they weren't there. I am. Considering making Reggie and Jeremiah full on villains for this. So. We'll see what happens. Other idea is Irving and the Gameworks/Gamefuna. I'll figure that out later. Rust and Rocky will aid the players in exchange for helping Rust find the people who hurt his kid. Rocky's completely unaware of how much his pops wants revenge, and really just wants to find somewhere safe to call home. Too bad years of separation affected Rust so poorly

Next up, ex-sorceress Chandrelle, who now claims to be a warlock. She's a lone traveller, and doesn't answer when asked what god she draws her power from. I'm still trying to work out how she got stuck with Vallamir, so that'll be a future ramble. But yeah, she's stuck with him. Her questline would probably have something to do with getting rid of Vallamir, but another idea would be her looking for Lazarus. I'll figure out the separation lore when I have the Vallamir lore figured out, but they got separated, and Chandrelle hasn't been able to find him. Actually I could probably make these work as one big questline tbh. We'll see. I'm thinking maybe Chandrelle got into a dangerous battle, and in order to ensure she'd be safe, made a deal with Vallamir for more power in exchange for being possessed and used at will? Anyways, yeah ok im running with this idea, big battle happens, but even tho Chandrelle's safe, Lazarus! Is not. He ends up getting taken, and now Chandrelle's just looking for closure, wanting to know what happened to him.

Next up, Lazarus! So yeah, he got taken, and I'm thinkin it's gonna be Gamefuna for this one (Gonna rename it tho so it doesnt have game in it. Name's a work in progress). Anyways, they forced him to train to be a ranger instead of a paladin, and im thinkin the organization thingy does have smth similar to guns? I'll work out the details for the weapon later. So, eventually, Lazarus manages to just barely escape, and is. Kinda on the run. Moving as far as he reasonably could from where he was, he finds an abandoned temple, and fixes it up a little, now teaching swordfighting to aspiring paladins, or just anyone who wants to use a sword.

And lastly for those I have figured out, Pike! An ex-cleric, Pike served under the wizard Magnificus, having been one of his pupils. Not sure if I'm keeping the torture trials or not, but Mags still treated his students like shit, and Pike's interest in magic started dying down when she saw some knights in passing. Deciding she wanted to be a swordfighter instead, she ran away from Mag's lands, and started training to be a swordfighter, residing in a somewhat nearby village. And one day, while picking up some food from the market, Lazarus saw her training in a nearby field. And. Well. She was doing horribly. He had walked over and gave some pointers, and it eventually just led to her being one of his students at the temple. Pike having Lazarus as a mentor is completely self indulgent on my part bc I think it's cool and funky. Go funky sword people go!!

So, jotting down some ideas for Sado and Carla, im thinking Carla's an artificer, and one of her experiments eventually led to creating Sado (censoring it bc tumblr's a bitch and i aint typing dark clown you-know-who every time). Dunno the specifics, but she does have a huge fucking grudge against Lionel for smth, and just kinda. Wants him fucking dead, whether she kills him or Sado does. So yeah, she created Sado, basically making a chaos incarnate. Sado's a mix of a rogue and a wizard, running purely on magic, so she's able to bend reality quite a bit. While Carla spends most of her time in her workshop, Sado is constantly causing issues. So yeah, those two are, like, the big bads.

I'll make more posts with more ideas later, and add in any doodles I make, but thats what I got rn

Edit: Sado's safe to mention, just cant tag her, so i fixed every mention of her <3

#inscryption #the hex #the hex game #inscryption/the hex rpg au #scov.txt

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plumsaffron · 1 year

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mangasstuffcomics and few of their cult of rebloggers are Overly Sensitive Crybaby Dweebs. Y'all pathetic excuses now wanna be incapable of handling joke(s) and looking beyond the cover.

Talk about nearly confirming. Shall I say the same for you? But youwasbored, not me LOL.

Since you or other zoebody wish to call him a like a wanker for chloe and lila.

Allow me to talk about imagining how horny Lila was or the lore of Tomoe and Gabriel's breeding times because iwasbored.

777 and your deluded friend(s) at certain times chat berserk whenever an episode arrives. Maybe you two and friends like role playing. IDK. Though really seem to have a shipping of thirst for Lila and Chloe or more likely a fetish of Tomoe and Gabriel breeding sessions at the expense of Natalie or his wife. Well I guess the least bizarre one is the canon ship. What now? you think Lila is possibly older than she claims?

Nearly 5000 people are likely amused at that Barbie Marinette Post cause it was a J O K E. If they don't get it or care ordecide to think like y'all, that's their problem or desired take.

Something you do, that your homeslices enjoy of you but now ya want to suck at it but now you SEETHE despite that the waifu thing is a joke

Congrats tho

Malding much lol?

Oh no, he's a defender of chloe and lila (in their heads) that means you should assume he'll go watch nsfw of either or wants lila to have a onlyfans and do things imaginatively.

Hmm do y'all feel y'all selves with your lovelustsquare or ships or things y'all try defending too according to that logic?

Now you say he has a love hate relationship towards Lila. Now you think he's responsible for Ms Bustier being pregnant. YOU ATE MARINETTE'S HAIR? That might be why you're so confusing and unconfusing.

Do you realize OnlyFans is not a nsfw only thing. Kind of like ya know TWITTER, REDDIT, or Formally Tumblr aka the other site besides YouTube you use.

GGs ya Marinette emulation.

Aye this is like when deluded beings thinks others are deluded and should be targeted.

Another of you though however, said you weren't gonna take him serious. Now you wanna or think what you said is true now faust?

*Shrugs* So quick to switch up lanes eh?

Aw filthy rat wanna gag and claim he's the worse. WA WA WA.

Poor horn-headed filly, why you mad again? She's not the only one on the hit list. It's just Marinette exists in I think every single episode. It's like asking to be thrown darts at when she has been doing a lot of crap. Yeah things are I guess dying down in S4-5 but that's like saying Lila is the ultimate evil when Hawk Moth done torment for 5 seasons. Would this change if this was the science teacher or both andres being on the main hit list instead?

Joke turns y'alls thoughts obsessive. Ah that sounds familiar to a character we watch. Look, your projectium.

Why does he think? It was a joke. Why don't you think?

People do that. And too far for the most part is relative. Certain ones just wanna claim the line was crossed of a sudden. Make a line then later you make a line at a lower point when still inside the previous line and then whine at them because you changed without their knowledge. Entertained that you say someone's has broccoli diarrhea feet but then you say they smell like SPAM and it's too much.

You could also ignore.

Not all jokes are funny to everyone or one day may be viewed as stale.

I'll just end it with this.

Spoiler he actually doesn't like Lila at all and thinks she's garbage like Marinette and irrelevant. Disappointing hype. I don't agree but hey, you can say a lot of things regarding Lila that even I won't be able to defend or respond against or towards. Hands at characters but mostly master (FUhq) o Zoe Su Lee or NINO are E for Everyone I've been seeing from his videos. He says frozen 2 is Garbage I don't think so. People think Elsa of both movies is garbage, I think considering everything that goes on, she is not. People think Angry Birds 2 Movie is better than 1. I think Angry Birds Movie 2 is lame unlike 1.

Can people change on what they like or dislike in time?

SPUNK YES

Oh yeah he pulled a Lila on you people but be disbelievers like Marinette with Lila in the Sphinx Game. I might take a clip to confirm he was bsing with y'all.

If you are undeterred after viewing the truth or still think that's who he truly is what ya or others claim,

Oh well.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE

Conclusion jumping has devastating effects. Memes and context ignoring, makes a fandom turn against a character or mark them for mockery forever. Diego Armando, Uchiha Clan (mostly Sasuke outside of Boruto or any that aren't for the malicious state (will of fire)), Princess Elise, Wallflower Blush, Shadow 2005 or The Legendary Super Saiyan in a nutshell and more.

Wait a minute, y'all some complain about Alya Cesaire's failure in the Lila Marinette situation for so long but y'all apparently not seeking too. You say Marinette or Alya should do this but look at you. Even Kagami managed to view both sides. Fictional beings ahead of you :)

Talk about what you wish character to do but viewers of the show can't step forward and find the truth themselves and avoid it or take what one says or sees at face value? You're not suppose to be badly written in this world as you claim ML Characters Are.

Guess what he's right Caline Bustier is a delicious

SEEEEEEEEEEEE

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eisforeidolon · 2 years

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Imo maybe theJs are fine and they are still friends and they moved on past the drama as they say,but what happened last summer tore their fans apart,so maybe Jensen leaning fans should stop paying attention to what Jared stans say?like always have been a lot of Jensen stans who hated on Jared,now there are a bunch of Jared stans who hate on Jensen,the former J2 fandom is over,because some fans who say they love both equally only care about Jared when he praise Jensen,but the rest of the time is all Jensen and his new friends and no mention of Jared,so they are Jensen fans who tolarated Jared just bc he was Jensen’s buddy and now they are all for Karl for example.The fandom is broken beyond repair,former J2 Jensen leaning should move on from it and stop worrying bc not everybody loves Jensen now,just my two cents.

I admit I sat on this a while because the whole "the former J2 fandom is over" made my trolldar tingle a fair bit. I'm going to answer it earnestly anyway, though.

It seems to me that you're making a similar mistake as hellers do when they claim to speak for the entire fandom because of their personal circle, when they don't even speak for all D/C shippers. To be fair, it can be hard to see beyond your own personal circle of interaction, especially if you've heavily curated it. However, mine? Still has some people posting about Jared's projects and Jensen's and whenever they do anything together - just as they always have. And I have a pretty damn small circle compared to the entire breadth of the fandom when you consider tumblr, twitter, con attendees, facebook groups, Ao3 users, etc. So declaring that there are only J or J stans and no J2 fans anymore strikes me as pretty obviously fallacious.

Which doesn't even get into how some of the dispersion is not even necessarily because of the prequelgate fiasco. Yeah, some of it undoubtedly is, but they are doing entirely different projects now. I'd be surprised if there aren't any J2 fans out there now posting exclusively about Walker because they haven't been interested in any of Jensen's projects. Likewise, Jared's only project (so far) has been Walker, so if you aren't into that? Well you're inherently gonna be a bit lacking in Jared content to talk about that doesn't involve Jensen.

I'm not going to tell anyone they can't be frustrated, any more than I tell anyone they can't be frustrated with any other subgroup of this fandom. I also think it's obviously a more complicated situation for people who have found themselves on opposite sides from long term mutuals/friends. That said, however? I do agree that it's a good idea for everyone to try and better manage their expectations according to how those around them may have changed. Personally, I've put the Jared stans I sometimes agree with about other things in the same mental box as the Jensen stans I sometimes agree with about other things. I only check in when I'm pretty sure I'll find any wankery about thatother!J I come across funny (or at least only eyeroll-worthy) and bail if I actually start to feel legitimately annoyed.

#anti actor stans #askboxery #anonymous

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wolf-stark · 3 years

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You ask I deliver — both tfatws asks in one!

tfatws weekly ask 1

i finally saw ep1!! i wont be able to see ep2 until thursday at the earliest but i already have some Thots on this ep. here are the ones I remember

first is, and i'm so sorry for this, a grammar lesson. an appositive is when you stick an additional phrase in between commas, dashes, or the like. i actually just used one! the "and i'm so sorry for this" in the first sentence of this paragraph is an appositive. thing is, most english speakers don't normally use them when they speak, only in writing. so i'm always on high alert whenever i hear somebody in tv or movies use one. (it's generally a marker of bad screenwriting). anyway there was one right in the beginning of the episode. the white army guy yelling at sam wilson said "first lieutenant Torres, our intel officer, will be helping on the ground." yeah so. the writing of this series started out on the wrong foot for me. but the rest of the episode was obviously tons and tons better (every interview i see with malcolm spellman makes me love him more and more)

the contrast between the opening minutes (falcon action sequence) and the rest of the ep.... i would 100000/10 rather watch a series with just sam and bucky dealing with life. i dont give a single crap about the flag-smashers or any of that. i just want sam, sarah & fam getting their boating business back on the ground & yeeting racist dickwads, bucky going through therapy and making amends, sam and joaquin being bros, sambucky homoerotic tension, etc.

the cinnamontography! wandavision mostly used cinematography to signify era n stuff. tfatws doesn't have wv's premise to go off of, so here's some tricks i noticed:

with sam there's obviously all sorts of shots with the captain america iconography next to his face, but he hasn't totally claimed it. there's the mural of steve rogers in the background; there's sam staring into the shield like it's a spectre of steve's face; there's sam looking into the exhibit, the shield and sam separated by glass and a layer of camera focus. steve is a constant spectre, always there, an idea, a symbol himself. sam's relationship with this iconography is distanced. he is separated by glass exhibit walls. by painting canvases. he doesn't yet feel worthy to take on that iconography. this whole thing was pulled off quite well but also a bit on-the-nose if only in quantity. there's just sooooo much fancy iconography stuff

speaking of the exhibit, there's something that i get real pissy about. it's when like, there's an action going on you're supposed to be paying attention to but the cinematographer is like,,,, hey! check out this location! or this headline! or something! there was a lot of that in the exhibit. the camera was like, you could focus on sam and rhodey's convo (which was fine but could have been so much better with an extra like 10 minutes of deep character study talk) but noooo you want me to look at the symbol for the united nations and read all the text about bucky who hasn't even showed up yet. shut up i know the lore and ill watch the shot-by-shot breakdown yt vids you don't have to make the shot this long jkdsalcjklasejf

my fav trick was with bucky and the therapist. i had seen a clip of the scene with bucky and the therapist beforehand and i thought the cinnamontography was super obnoxious, but then i was like, oh duh. the shots frequently change the distance between the camera and its subject. sometimes it's uncomfortably close and sometimes it's really far. a clear allegory for the duality of therapy, esp for bucky! therapy is an invasive process wherein he is ruthlessly examined, picked apart, and berated for his trauma (this therapist is crap in every way btw, "mean therapist" works for greg house and greg house only). so the camera goes close. it makes the viewer claustrophobic like bucky. but when he's like "no i haven't had any nightmares" the camera suddenly goes really far. we see bucky as this tiny head in the center of the bottom of the frame. we are distanced from him. he has pushed us away. we cannot see him. he lies because he is vulnerable. so yeah, amazing work there. the therapy scene was hard to watch on purpose!

did bucky slip a note to yori inside the dollar bill? bucky stop making me emooooo. the suuper awkward fake smile has me 😭 (veteran trying to adjust!)

mark my worrrrds when sam asks someone y the govt picked john “white bread” walker they’re gonna say “we needed somebody everyone can get behind....someone uncontroversial, someone everyone can see themselves in” like that exact racist dog whistle

tfatws weekly ask 2

just saw ep2 so im taking advantage of the 2 seconds i can be on tumblr without worrying about tfatws spoilers before new episode drops

when isaiah said "your people put me in prison for being a hero" and bucky thought "your people" means hydra. 🤦‍♂️

speaking of racism, the interplay between sam being Black (anti-Black racism) and sam being the Falcon (negrophilia, "can i take a selfie w you as i deny you a loan?") and the intersection between the two (j*hn lichrally called sam "steve's wingman"! he takes the crypto out of crypto-racist in like 2 seconds!) !!!!!!!! a Black celebrity's Black experience, the separation of man and identity!!!! (thinking about vanessa bayer in snl in that skit "beyonce is black" telling her black friend "you're not black, you're...my girl!")

after sam gets racially profiled by cops we see j*hn standing in front of cop cars cinematic parallels turns out j*hn is racist who knew

this therapist sucks major ass but she got bucky and sam together in the same room and ready to collaborate...that's something ig. it was lichrally couple's therapy she said she used her miracle exercise with couples sambucky antis get blended

bucky says "he was wrong about you so maybe he was wrong about me"...that's not how people talk. when therapist asks bucky, the guy who doesn't talk at all about himself, "y do you hate sam", the last thing bucky's gonna do is actually connect his hatred of sam to his own self-worth issues. bucky generally refuses to talk about himself, so why would he talk about himself in the one context that nobody ever links back to their own neuroses: hatred of other people? one thing human beings hate most is admitting we're wrong. admitting you hate someone because of your own issues? that's a major therapeutic step. bucky would absolutely have to be prompted to do that. even like one or two lines of dialogue more would have set up that line better. but in terms of the actual thought? an amazing way to take the sam/bucky relationship. bucky bases his self-worth on steve believing in him, and if steve is wrong bucky has no self-worth, so 1) he has to develop self-worth disassociated from steve's assessment of him and 2) he has to love himself before he can love sam, and 3) he has to realize that sam giving up the shield is a sign of sam's humility not his unworthiness.

conversely, we don't get into why sam hates bucky? yeah sam has the right to hate a guy that has tried to kill him (albeit while brainwashed) multiple times, and now shows up in his life just to bash him but. everything happens so fast i cant follow their relationship

in fact i dont feel like i understood much of anything. like y did bucky and sam go on that mission together? how connected are sam/bucky/joaquin with the government? doesn't bucky just want to retire now? literally what is everyone doing/feeling and why???

if battlestar becomes a knowing commentary on the black best friend stereotype i'm gonna party, but i dont expect much of that

the interplay between man and symbol. captain america is obviously a symbol. the shield is obviously a symbol. but steve rogers? the. man behind the cowl? he too seems to become a symbol. a paragon of a good guy, so good he's unreachable. steve was just a guy stop idolizing him the last thing steve would want is to be idolized

as the resident musician/music nerd on mcublr, 1) that captain america rally music slaps, but 2) re: the song at the end of the ep, if you're just gonna rip off mozart's lacrymosa then at least play mozart's lacrymosa. we wont blame you the lacrymosa slaps (if you dont know what im talking about go on yt and search it up youll recognize it fo sho

look i love enfys nest as much as the next guy but if tfatws is gonna get erin kellyman to play another innocent little gurl blackmailed into the fakeout-villain position (her text seemed to suggest as such) then 😡 like why can't women just....be evil? young, freckly, innocent-looking women? girls are not untouchable pure objects but full of rage and resentment just as much as anyone can be

bonus ep1 comment: bucky says about that senator whose car he hijacked, "she continued to abuse the power i gave her." fictionaldarling on yt say that he says "i" because he can't disassociate himself from his winter soldier persona which begets endless and senseless guilt. like dude. can i not be emo for like 1 second.

OKay. First off, as much I enjoy your sending it to me, what made you decide to send me these??

TFATWS WA #1

Don't worry about getting this to me as early as possible. I usually don't watch the episode right away.

1. Cool writing lesson.

2. Everyone wants a comedy show [like Friends] about the MCU superheroes.

3. Cinematography is always a beautiful thing.

4. Sam definitely has to carve his own Captain America status for himself, outside of Steve's ya know everything.

5. They have to do that for people who was just now tuning in because they're in love with Sam Wilson or Sharon Carter.

6. I think the therapist was taking a 'tough love' approach for Bucky, because she likely has some very strong opinions about the literal assassin she's been assigned to give therapy too. She did not choose to talk to him, she was assigned that make that clear in the second episode.

And, Bucky isn't lying when he said it wasn't a nightmare. It wasn't a nightmare, it was a resurfaced memory. So, technically he wasn't lying - and yes, the camera does move away because while he's saying he didn't have a nightmare, he's not expanding on what actually happened - so, he's still pushing the therapist/us away.

7. Bucky, and Steve, have/had a TON to adjust to.

8. Yeah, I agree that will be the bullshit line they give. If they ever actually talk about it.

TFATW WA #2

Yeah, always got to take advantage of avoiding those spoilers lmfaoo.

1. Honestly, that line was double meaning. Both about White people and Hydra [which is made up of mostly white supremacists/nazis] So, the line is gesturing to both White People in general and Hydra assholes together. I think the terminology is “double edge sword”??

2. This whole paragraph structure confused me, ngl - so I'm going to answer it the best I can. I do like that they're not ignoring the fact that Sam being Black is 1000% the reason he's not the Official Captain America - because the gov't is racist as hell.

I also like the little lines about how they point out little things about Sam's Falcon persona, like that kid calling him 'Black Falcon' specifically and Sam's response show the split between Sam and Falcon itself.

John is a dick for calling Sam the wingman of Steve Rogers. Sam was a hero all on his own before Steve asked him to join up again. [Side note, it's lichrally??]

3. Exactly, the parallel of Sam being profiled and surrounded while just on the street and John being surrounded by fans and being able to spring Bucky with apparently only a few sentences shows a Loooooot

4. Honestly, at this point I wonder if she's not actually a therapist and is just an agent assigned to assess Bucky outside of an Official Building. I do know, however, that her 'look at each other and speak' exercise is actually a real therapy practice. It's just a little slower.

5. Actually, I think he would've blurted that out. That whole line. I don't think Bucky hates Sam. I think they could've done the scene better, but I think that had Sam prodded him/the therapist been more annoying Bucky would've lost control of his emotions and blurted out the whole "If he was wrong about you, he was wrong about me" but I feel like the writing for this show is just... not there. Sometimes you blurt shit when you get overemotional and I think that was what Bucky was supposed to be like.

6. I don't think Sam hates Bucky, I think he doesn't trust him though. I do wish they'd talked about that though. The whole 'talk to each other' scene should've been a LOT longer and a LOT slower.

7. Sam and Bucky's relationship is being fast tracked because they don't really know how to work the relationship out, writers-room-wise. Bucky is technically retired, but I feel like he's trying to live up to Steve's expectations and doing what Steve would've done and we all know that if Steve was there, Steve would've jumped on that plane with Sam. It looks like Sam/Bucky/Joaquin are a side-team based from Military services but as Sam says they're all free agents so...?

8. Sadly, They seem to just be propping up to be another stereotype.

9. Captain America is a symbol. Steve Rogers is a man. But now Steve Rogers is an idol because of all the shit he's been through and honestly, it's not a bad thing he's become an idol for people - it's using Steve as a reason to make White Bread Walker the next Captain that makes Steve's idolization so fucked.

10. I don't know anything about music so I have no opinion here, sorry.

11. Enfys?? Also, I think they did the whole Innocent Girl Thing as side commentary for Bucky lowering his guard about seeing a young girl rather than a guy.

12. Bucky is the Winter Solider. The Winter Solider is Bucky. That is how Bucky will always see it because although he was brainwashed, it was still him and he remembers all of it. When you have constant memories of something 'someone else' did, you tend to not be able to pull the two personas out of each other. I want Bucky to take up the title, White Wolf instead of Winter Soldier. Honest.

This is all my opinion, I’m honestly a little disappointed with the writing of TFATWS so far so... I’m not really optimistic about this.

#Asks

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arisefairsun · 7 years

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i'm the only one in my friend group who really loves romeo and juliet and doesn't think they're just "dumb teenagers" and i just want to thank you for your blog and your rants and all that good stuff. i really love reading all of it and we interpret the play so similarly!! it really keeps me sane whenever someone puts down r+j after i tell them it's my favorite shakespeare play. i love sensitive romeo and intelligent, capable juliet and yeah i just wanted to thank you for loving them too!!

Thank you so much! I’m happy to hear that you like my blog!

People react the same way when I mention that I am a Romeo and Juliet enthusiast. They roll their eyes as if they were saying, “pfft, she likes that stupid play about dumb teenagers!”. But oh man, I find the whole culture of Romeo and Juliet being “dumb kids” really disrespectful because (1) it dismisses their emotions simply because they are young and therefore cannot be thought of in earnest because oh, young people are too ignorant to know what they want and feel, and (2) it refuses to acknowledge their attempt to free themselves from the toxic environment they were raised in.

Romeo and Juliet covers a lot of issues that are still relevant today: violence, prejudice, hate, the atrocities that people are willing to commit solely to prove their superiority over others, murder, misogyny, toxic masculinity, gender roles, isolation, people’s unwillingness to forgive and to listen to others, resentment, pride, rage, abusive families, the reluctantly to value young people’s ideas, the tendency to overlook their problems and feelings, etc. I could go on. It’s a play about social oppression, about how a society that thwarts people’s freedom and imposes highly toxic ideals on them will irrevocably destroy itself.

Both Romeo and Juliet are bound to being what their parents want them to be. Their world forces them to give up their real aspirations, their real selves, in order to preserve those toxic ideals. Romeo is Montague’s heir, and he must behave as such. The feud is a great opportunity for men to show off their bravado and their masculine egos (the thumb-biting dialogue that Tumblr loves so much is a good example of this). And Romeo is expected to perpetuate such behavior. Look at Mercutio’s words:

Alas poor Romeo! He is already dead; stabbed with a white wench’s black eye; shot through the ear with a love-song; the very pin of his heart cleft with the blind bow-boy’s butt-shaft: and is he a man to encounter Tybalt?

To him, Romeo cannot be a real man so long as he prefers poems over swords. Friar Lawrence tells him that he is an “unseemly woman in a seeming man” because his tears “are womanish”; the Nurse states that if he were a man, he would “stand up”. In 2.4, Mercutio believes that Romeo is only truly Romeo when he is jesting with his male friends: “Now art thou Romeo; now art thou what thou art, by art as well as by nature.” (Little does he know that the reason Romeo is being so positive is because he spent the previous night talking to Capulet’s daughter about the insignificance of names.)

This mortifies Romeo. Look at his words in 3.3, right before attempting to kill himself:

O, tell me, friar, tell me,In what vile part of this anatomyDoth my name lodge? Tell me, that I may sackThe hateful mansion.[Drawing his sword]

This is heartbreaking. His social identity instills so much anxiety in him that this boy even craves death if that will permit him to extirpate such oppression from himself.

Juliet also struggles with the dynamics of her society. Nobody listens to her. Her parents harass her, Paris doesn’t care about her feelings, and even the Nurse turns her back on her at the end. But Romeo absolutely, wholeheartedly loves listening to her (“How is’t, my soul? Let’s talk; it is not day”), and entreats her to express herself continuously (“Ah, Juliet. If the measure of thy joy / Be heaped like mine, and that thy skill be more / To blazon it, then sweeten with thy breath / This neighbour air.) Basically, he treats her like a human being. This is why Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is so important. They help each other. They save each other. The way he talks about her denotes such transgression, such liberation from the limits of the world: “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.” She is a light forcing its way through the obstacles imposed by Capulet’s house. She is literally the sun growing forcefully and killing the shadows. Juliet realizes there is something infinite inside her—she is as boudless as the sea, and she assures her screams could “tear the cave where Echo lies.”

Living in a society where names are everything, Juliet rejects all of that and builds a whole new identity for Romeo—one that is independent from the feud. I know the “wherefore art thou” speech is overused, but it makes so much sense that it is the most well-known part of the play, because it’s so revolutionary. “What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, / Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part / Belonging to a man.” It’s like she is saying “fight me, try to tell me that his whole existence must depend on a mere word.”

They are just so, so good to each other. They are friends, as Juliet puts it. They are children living in a scary world full of hate and violence, but they can fearlessly let out their real selves when they are together, notwithstanding the chaos that is Verona. I can understand why some 19th-century guy decided to read the play as a cautionary tale against youth and love, but right now? In 2017? While people want to build walls between countries out of prejudice? While violence is so present in our daily lives? I can’t tolerate that reading, because I can’t ignore the hate that was promoted by Romeo and Juliet’s society, and I can’t ignore the fact that the lovers cling to each other in a really desperate attempt not to become what their parents want them to be. I can’t ignore the fact that they were so weary of their world that they conceived suicide as a way to escape. It’s selfish to ignore what they’ve gone through and claim that they killed themselves out of stupidity.

Their story is certainly not meaningless. It’s the tale of two young people who decide to break the rules and defend their actual, real identities, and thus try to get rid of the labels and chains their society tries to force on them. It’s a story that warns you about the dangers of any kind of oppression. It’s a story that tells you that your opinions, your dreams, your voice deserve to be heard, and that you should fight for yourself. And if Capulet and Montague were able to apologize and thus recognize Romeo and Juliet’s effort, then I think someone teaching this play in 2017 should stand up for those who were so terribly oppressed by their society. (Because the decontextualization of the story I blame mostly on how poorly teachers explain the play.) If someone mocks you for liking Romeo and Juliet, let them know that referring to them as two horny teenagers who got themselves killed is a very disrespectful way of ignoring the effects that violence, abuse, prejudice, and oppression have on their victims.

P.S. Thank you again for this sweet message!

#iuliet #thoughts #answered #Romeo and Juliet #Shakespeare #I'm sorry for such a long answer omg I just have so many feelings about this and your message really moved me!#<3 #I'm so happy to hear that you also like sensitive Romeo and capable Juliet!!!#you know my ask box is always open for you to message me!!#lovely messages

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