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cosmicclownboy · 3 years

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hi- why don't you like Maria?

Oh lord.

Where do I even begin with Maria.

Season 1

Makes a joke about Alex's secret relationship being with Wyatt and finding it funny- (Wyatt who is an abusive racist dude who commits hate crimes and bear in mind she knows Alex was abused for being gay) IT'S GROSS.

Speaks about Alex's secret relationship guy being his home to Alex and literally feels his hopefulness because it is part of her alien ability and continues to pursue Michael in s2.

Maria (straight) outs Michael to Liz. That's not okay on any level.

When Liz tells Maria to speak to Alex before doing anything she ignores the advice and does what she wants.

She's really smug about Michael picking/pursuing her like she won.

Season 2

Pursues Michael at a funeral in front of Alex without talking to him.

Makes Michael's loved ones husband funeral about a relationship status

Slut shames a random woman who makes out with Michael when they were never exclusive

Enters a relationship with Michael where he has to be exclusive but she doesn't because she doesn't believe he could be faithful. That's reeks of harmful biphobia stereotypes.

Ignores Alex the whole time UNTIL she needs something.

When she appears at Alex's door she says they are even. AKA comparing Alex not telling her a secret that wasn't his to share to her pursuing the love of his life in front of him without any empathy and ignoring the whole time.

Bitches to Alex about Liz and wanting fuck all to do with her. Alex has to remind her Liz has a dead boyfriend and is struggling cause Maria only has Maria vision and lacks empathy for her 'best friends'.

Uses her mom's laptop to get the scope on Alex/Michael's relationship which reads 100% manipulative. She even says Michael is pushing you away and then proceeds to encourage the narrative where Michael pushes Alex away because she suddenly wants Michael. And of course Alex is supportive she recognises he lacks self worth and rolls over him.

Beginning of 2x06 she tries to set up Forlex to get Alex away from Michael. Once again manipulative.

Tries to make Alex feel guilty for being gay in 206 because when she was a kid she idealised being with him and had to come up with a whole new plan. He grew up in an abusive household you know that....It's not okay to say that. You know how much internalised homophobia he has.

When saying he's had good relationships provides only examples of relationships with women......................HE IS GAY.

Asks him if he would change being gay.......jfc.

Alex tearfully saying he dissociates with women because he clearly forced himself to out of internalised phobia, Maria takes it to mean she has a chance. She thinks she's the exception since a touch starved abuse victim liked to be touched by her in high school. That doesn't = consent.

When Alex, a whole ass Airforce Captain tells her it's unsafe to stay at the creepo's place she acts all I am feminist about it and this results in Alex being stabbed and Michael getting whacked on the head.

Earlier in the episode she whinges to Alex about Michael kissing another woman in front of her and how cruel it was and then proceeds to kiss Michael in front of Alex KNOWING how he feels for Michael.

In THAT scene it's clear she notices Michael's emotions towards Alex and is insecure about it. She uses Malex's feelings for each other to her advantage. She's chasing the fantasy of getting with Alex. These are two highly traumatised queer men who struggle to say no because they spent their lives in abusive environments.

Neither Michael or Alex were in a position to consent to sex that night Michael is concussed from a whack on the head . Alex has lost a lot of blood and is completely out of it. And neither would ever initiate that situation. Not to mention the assumption Michael would be down because he's bi is so harmful as a stereotype.

"I think she’s cool with her decision. She wanted some answers, so subconsciously there was an emotional comfort she needed. But she also had a little bit of an agenda. She needed some decisions made about the status of their relationships, so she thought, “Let’s throw everything against the wall and see where it lands.” I think she was just wondering if they made any progress on that front. She said it was OK for their feelings to be out in the open, but let’s just voice them for what they are. As we saw, Michael stepped up and was like, “No, I still love you and I’m with you.” Secretly, that’s what Maria was hoping for. By suggesting a threesome, she’s was basically telling Michael, “Make your choice… and I hope it’s me.” this is what Heather said about the scene. So not only was it coercive and such but she used her best friend like that with no care or empathy whatsoever. It's disgraceful.

The next day both Michael and Alex are confused by what the fuck happened. Alex due to his C-PTSD completely dissociates from the situation and Michael attempts to laugh it off despite him being hella confused. The only person who isn't confused is Maria who is listening to them from inside.

When Michael comes in she turns on the tears just in case he does want Alex afterwards. Bear in mind she is a psychic who can feel everything and she assumed Michael was going to go after Alex. Doesn't that say it all. SHE KNOWS MICHAEL IS IN LOVE WITH ALEX AND VICE VERSA. She does not care, because at the end of the day this is what she wants. She wants to win. She wants to treat Michael like this trophy that she can show off to people I got the great Michael Guerin not a relationship guy to date me.

When Michael wants to have emotional conversations she shuts it down for sex. The entirety of the relationship it has to be her way or the high way. She also recognises fairly on his abandonment issues and plays upon it, reads manipulative.

When Michael who has lost his mom and brother in the span of a few months asks Maria to be more careful about her abilities she doesn't listen. And ultimately breaks up with Michael when she can't get what she wants from him which is a yes man who will do what she says and isn't the idealised Michael she wants.

Season 3

Shits on Michael any chance she gets. She's so mean to him and he goes out of his way to look out for her.

Is dismissive of her own health despite the fact that everybody goes out of their way to help her. Liz is in California working on a way to help her. Kyle is risking his job.etc

Is fine with Liz, her best friend losing the love of her life to get a vision to prevent a murder. A vision she's only invested in because apparently in it she blames herself.

Is fine with Max or Kyle dealing with the guilt of her death had Michael not saved her.

Shoves Michael and belittles him because he's stronger then her. Infers he just sits on his ass and does nothing therefore does not care about anything....rude. There's also a weird superiority complex that her power is more important then Michaels or any of pod squad for that matter.

Creates a situation that is so bad that Kyle risks his doctors licence to give her adrenaline. Just take an ice bath or something there are a 1000 ways to give yourself adrenaline without risking your life and risking others.

Doesn't thank or acknowledge what Liz is doing for her honey has spent a FULL YEAR of her life trying to help and your just like yeah I'll let her soulmate die for my visions.

Emotionally guilts Isobel for not hanging out with her despite the fact she's hated her for two seasons and now has just randomly decided she wants to know......okay

This idea that Maria is suddenly lonely when she's the second of the main cast (first being Kyle) to have scenes with all the mains by Monday. Literally everyone is there at her beck and call but Maria is lonely??? IT DOESN'T ADD UP. Everyone's up her arse 9/10 how is she lonely everyone expresses concern and care for her ALL THE DAMN TIME. She's also narratively never had scenes that give the connotation that she is lonely. Michael has scenes that connotate he is lonely. Max and Alex do too. Maria has yet to have scenes that give the connotation of feeling lonely or depressed.

Maria comparing the alien siblings to her and feeling left out when she acts superior to them and they are literally siblings. Literally every character is somewhat left out with Pod Squad they've lived their lives assuming it's just them three against the world it's not a personal attack.

Maria is 1/8 alien at best so diluted genetically it doesn't show up and somehow she believes she has the capability of the aliens who are 100%. Say you have French DNA you don't expect to speak French suddenly.

This whole Maria never does wrong narrative and it's empowering that she's doing all of this just feels like a crock of shit tbh.

She reads like a 2000's movie mean girl.

All of my bullet points are why I don't like h Maria and it's not biased because I'm a so and so fan. Narratively she just wins up doing shitty things to Michael and Alex the most.

#anti maria deluca #rnm spoilers #tw 2x06 mention #tw coercion

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extreme-technicality · 3 years

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does talking to an anon help about ninjago help? cuz I'm down

DHDKCKGSC YES IT DOES THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR OFFERING YOUR SERVICES

Okay now that I know I won’t be clogging people’s dashes buckle the fuck in my dude and I should stress that I literally would not be talking about this as much as I will be if I didn’t genuinely enjoy the show. I’m gonna go season by season and just Rant

S1 has the serpentine as the bbeg and like, as far as villains go they’re p lit. They’re early enough that they haven’t been done to hell, things are fresh, the characters and dynamics are being fleshed out, and all in all s1 is a pretty solid season. There’s some fuckery that gets brought up re: how the FUCK aging works and what the actual timeline of Ninjago is and how Wu and Garmadon fit into that timeline, fuckery that LITERALLY NEVER GETS RESOLVED IN A SATISFYING WAY BC ITS REVEALED IN A LATER SEASON (s8, dw we’ll get there lmao) THAT THE ONLY REASON THE FIRST SPINJITSU MASTER, WU, AND GARMADON LIVED AS LONG AS THEY DID IS CUZ THEYRE BASICALLY DEMIGODS AND ITS IMPLIED THAT LLOYD WILL ALSO LIVE FOR A LONG ASS TIME WHICH MEANS ONE DAY HES GONNA OUTLIVE ALL HIS FRIENDS AND EVERYONE HE EVER LOVED WHICH IS A FUN THING TO THINK ABOUT AT NIGHT But anyway I digress, s1 also coincidentally introduces Lloyd (he wasn’t in the pilot episodes that set up the rest of the series) and the existence of Evil Dad Garmadon.

S2 is where Garmadon starts acting a lot more Evil and a lot less Dad. He’s the main antagonist for that season, and I actually read somewhere that the show was originally slated to end after s2 which high key explains the fuckery of literally every single season after this lmaooooo. Much like s1, I really can’t find much to complain about, the first two seasons are pretty decent as far as I can remember

Season. Fucking. Three. Where the fuck do I start??? I hate season three for entirely personal reasons revolving around the STUPID GODDAMN ROMANCE WRITING. okay lemme back up and explain a thing first so, Jay is dating Nya and they’re fine, they’re going steady, aND THEN????? THE BEGINNING OF THE SEASON INTRODUCES BULLSHIT LOVE TRIANGLE FUCKERY FOR ZERO GODDAMN REASON, BITCH I HATE LOVE TRIANGLES AND I HATE THEM EVEN MORE WHEN THEYRE DONE FOR NO GODDAMN REASON!!! AND THEN. AS IF THAT WERENT ENOUGH. THEY SHOEHORNED A ROBOT ROMANCE BETWEEN ZANE AND PIXAL AND I KNOW I RANTED ABOUT THIS A LITTLE BIT WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY WATCHING BUT I DIDNT GO INTO ENOUGH DETAIL!!!! THEY MADE THE OTHER NINJA OOC IN ORDER TO PROP UP THEIR SHIP!!!!!! AND AT ONE POINT ZANE GOES “its like we were…made for each other” AND I HAD TO FUCUCJDHVE I HAD TO SCREAM INTO A PILLOW BRO, IM SO TIRED!!!! NO THE FUCK YOU WERENT!!!!!! YOU WERE MADE FOR YOU AND PIXAL WAS MADE FOR PIXAL AND IF YALLS WANNA BANG BOLTS THATS FINE BUT DONT IMPLY THAT EITHER OF YOU WERE MADE INCOMPLETE!!!! THATS AN INSULT TO YOUR MAKERS AND YOURSELVES, MOVE ON, PLEASE AND THANK YOU. anyway that season also killed Zane (for the first time, but not the last) (spoiler alert lmao) and like, not to be an emotional little shit but I did cry a bit at his funeral.

S4 is honestly one of my favorites, even though the romance crimes continue (the love triangle bullshit is continuing and honestly I maintain that Cole, Nya, and Jay should all have gotten together and in my personal canon they DID, and also Kai has a forced romance) the VILLAIN makes up for it imo. He’s campy!! He’s funny!! He’s a clown!! He’s serious enough that if he says “I’m gonna kill you” HE MEANS IT and that’s so fucking refreshing!!!! S4 is honestly 8/10 just for the villain alone, don’t like that it retconned the SHIT out of the elemental masters and how many different elements there are TO master but eh, it’s ninjago, shit is stupid.

S5 was…interesting? OH WAIT I FORGOT TO MENTION THAT S3 INTRODUCED A GARMADON WHO WAS A LOT LESS EVIL AND A LOT MORE DAD, HONESTLY I THOUGHT IT TOOK A LOT OF THE FLAVOR OUT BUT THATS JUST ME LMAOOO. anyway s5 killed Garmadon, and I was a little sad cuz I like him okay??? I just think he’s NEAT, he’s got big dad energy, he was teaching Lloyd some shit that just got DROPPED and literally was never brought up again which is honestly a theme in Ninjago. Ninjago drinking game: take a shot every time they introduce a plot point or ability and drop it at or before the end of the season. WHICH THEY ALSO DID IN S5 WITH A DIFFERENT POWER ACTUALLY, so all the ninja are masters of Spinjitsu right, well s5 introduced the concept of Airjitsu which only Spinjitsu masters can learn and it lets them FLY and they used that for seasons 5 and 6 and then they nEVER BROUGHT IT UP AGAIN EVEN THOUGH IT WOULDVE COME IN HANDY FOR S E V E R A L DIFFERENT SITUATIONS ACROSS THE SEASONS, ONE OF THEM WOULD BE FALLING TO THEIR DOOM AND MY ASS WOULD BE YELLING “YOU CAN FLY, DUMBASS” - anyway, they do that again later lmao it’s fine. But what’s low key NOT fine is they made Nya the WATER NINJA!!! Like I’m not mad she has powers, except I kinda am, she was doing just fine as Samurai X and honestly the only reason she has super special ninja powers is for plot reasons. Also Cole got turned into a ghost, but by s7 he’s????? No longer a ghost????????? And that’s NEVER addressed or reasoned away, so like. Cool lmao

S6 didn’t happen. Like, canonically, s6 ends with wish fuckery that undoes the entire season and none of the characters remember anything that happened except Jay and Nya because S6 is the season where they get back together so they remember all those events for???? Feelings reasons?????? Unclear, moving on. The actual bbeg for S6 was a djinn with a vaguely Spanish accent, and to this DAY I don’t know why they made him have a SPANISH accent. Djinn are Arabic, not Spanish!! They’re not central or South American, either!!!! Your villain design makes no sense, do better

S7 had MORE time fuckery, and retconned what happened to Kai and Nya’s parents and hmmmhmhmhmhmhm that makes me Upsetti Spaghetti :3 not just the retconning, but the fact that they LITERALLY brought them back oNLY TO NEVER MENTION THEM AGAIN!!!!!! LITERALLY!!!!!!!! Okay so at the VERY very beginning, like pilot episodes beginning, Kai talks about their dad like he died/left fairly recently, BUT s7 contradicts that and claims that both of their parents were essentially abducted when Kai and Nya were little kids, which makes me question what in the fresh fuck two little kids were doing for all those years alone. SETTING THAT ASIDE FOR A HOT SECOND, their parents were also apparently good friends of Wu’s and old war buddies (from the Serpentine wars, which is YET ANOTHER bit of the timeline that doesn’t quite add up but honestly I could make a whole other post about that shit). But if they were such good fucking friends, why didn’t Wu check in every now and again??? What the fuck was Wu doing that was so fucking important that he couldn’t have been assed to visit his friends ONCE in like TEN MOTHERFUCKING YEARS and realize “oh shit, they’re not here and there are two tiny children running around unsupervised…My Kids Now : )” LIKE????? WU YOU LOW KEY SHOULDA LOOKED OUT FOR YOUR FRIENDS’ KIDS BETTER, THEY COULDA DIED BRO!!! Uhhhh the time fuckery also results in Wu getting yeeted ahead in time a bit and the ninja gotta find him

Season. Eight. I have…mixed feelings about this one. The beginning absolutely SLAUGHTERED me, and not in a “this is so fucking funny” way. No, the beginning made me feel like I was being flayed alive with just about every episode because Ninjago was back on its forced romance bullshit and this time it was Lloyd’s turn on the chopping block. That hurt my soul cuz like, look at that mans color scheme, he’s CLEARLY alloaro, why are you forcing romance on my aro man, why would you hurt me like that, BUT ALSO BECAUSE HE AND THE GIRL HE WAS BEING SET UP WITH HAD A LITTLE HEART TO HEART REALLY EARLY ON AND IT WAS THE MOST QUEER CODED SHIT!!!! IT DEADASS READ AS A CONVERSATION BETWEEN AN OUT AND PROUD QUEER AND A CLOSETED QUEER AND THEY MADE!!! IT!!!!! STRAIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that kept me watching at first was wanting to find Wu, and then I started enjoying myself once Cole found a plot-relevant baby and had fatherhood thrust upon him. Everything went from “ehhhhh” to “holy shit this FUCKS” once it was revealed that Rumi (Lloyd’s love interest) wAS PLAYING HIM THE WHOLE TIME AND WAS EVIL AND HAD AN EVIL GIRLFRIEND!!!!!! LITERALLY IMPROVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THE SEASON FOR ME, I COULD EVEN FORGIVE THE WHOLE “let’s resurrect Garmadon, but as evil as possible” BULLSHIT!!!!!!

S9 is a continuation of s8, Garmadon is back and 1000% Evil, 10% Dad, but none of the Dad energies is directed at Lloyd - it’s all directed at Rumi, and honestly I could write a whole ass post on just RUMI cuz that’s honestly my DAUGHTER and I LOVE HER and I’m MAD SHE DIES AT THE END OF THIS SEASON!!!! SHE DESERVED THERAPY AND TO LIVE WITH HER GF AND MAYBE SOME CRIME. AS A TREAT. RUMI DESERVED BETTER AND LOW KEY IM GONNA WRITE A FIC ABOUT IT, BUT ANYWAY WHERE WAS I

Ah right, so s9 has the four major Ninja stuck in the original dimension with no way home, while Lloyd has no powers (cuz he almost died last season) and has to somehow lead a resistance against Garmadon (who has taken control of Ninjago City and is working on the rest of Ninjago). Actually, s9 is pretty cool. Like, the end of s8 and into s9 are low key my favorite episodes, and I kinda wanna rewatch them now -

S10 is a FUN one. Garmadon got got last season, but he didn’t DIE, so he’s in cold storage and now there’s Another Threat and he’s the only one who knows wtf they’re up against so they let him out and he works with them. The funny part is, he is still Very Much Evil and doesn’t quite Get emotions like he did when he was, uh, human lmao, sO HE WOKE UP EVERY DAY DURING THAT SEASON AND DECIDED TO CAUSE PROBLEMS ON PURPOSE. IT WAS THE FUNNIEST FUCKING SHIT. 1000000/10 MY FAVORITE GARMADON, he ended that season by literally fucking off into Ninjago and they never decided to track him down 😭😭😭😭😭and I’m so SAD about it dude

S11 has another Serpentine as the bbeg, though in the setup to that they retconned how the fucking Serpentine tribes and history work??? I think???? Also Wu was a good 150% angrier and generally Done with the ninja’s shit, which was honestly refreshing tho I’m not quite sure I liked what the refreshed view was, but whatever lmao. S11 also had the ninja get yeeted to the dimension farthest from Ninjago, and honestly - okay, so they didn’t all go at the same TIME, Zane left about a week or two before the others did but there was time dilation fuckery afoot which I’m not too mad about cuz low key it makes sense. What I AM mad about is that they didn’t play the angst up to its full POTENTIAL!!!!!! Zane was EVIL in the other dimension!!!! Okay so I’m Ninjago he was only gone for maybe a week or two, but DECADES had passed in the other one, and all that time Zane was alone and disconnected from everyone he knew and loved, with a staff that boosted his power while slowly corrupting him and Turning Him Evil to help him, and like???? The thought of Zane trying to find a way home, trying to get SOME sort of message back, while he has to use the staff more and more to help him survive the long, lonely decades, so that by the time his family DOES show up its too late??? BRO. B R O. THAT JUST HITS DIFFERENT, BUT NINJAGO DIDNT DO THAT!!! THEY MADE HIM EVIL DUE TO MEMORY WIPE!!!!!! MEMORY WIPE IS BABY SHIT COMPARED TO A LONG, SLOW CORRUPTION!!!!!!

S12 was alright. It went into Cole’s mom, touched on some of the adventures she had had, threatened another forced romance (this time on poor Cole, just leave my mans ALONE) but thankfully didn’t follow through this time, introduced cool new powers that honestly hasn’t been elaborated on since that’s the most recent season I think lmao

Anyway thanks for reading and letting me rant!!!! I have,,So Much More I could talk about, PLEASE ask me about Rumi, some of my headcanons re: Garmadon and Wu’s dynamic, the Serpentine, my top five times they butchered Kai’s character for Plot Reasons, or anything else I brought up here that you want me to elaborate on!!!

#technical talks #ninja hoe #ask dadzawa #nonnie #this was honestly therapeutic tysm #and it let me kill time before I play Mario kart so bonus points!!#I definitely forgot to mention A Lot (like all the times one or all of the ninja lost their powers)#so like!!! feel free to bug me for more shit!!!!

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itsclydebitches · 5 years

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It Chapter Two: Aged-Up Protagonists and the Umbridge Effect

Writing reviews, metas, and the like is a lot about timing. If you don’t craft your writing in the immediate aftermath of your source’s release, someone else will beat you to it and, chances are, your audience will be less enthused about reading the same arguments weeks later. (Admittedly, that’s up for debate. I for one am happy to read about the same shit for years on end.) Thus, when I didn’t have the time or the mental energy to write about It: Chapter Two immediately after seeing it in theaters, I knew within a few days that I’d lost a lot of ground. Fans and critics alike have already spoken about the film’s major draws, namely the update on Richie’s sexuality and the canonizing of a beloved, thirty-year-old ship. We’ve also covered the issues that arose out of those positives. In 2019, is it necessary to show a hate crime in such violent detail? By giving us queer characters, have Muschietti and King unintentionally fallen into the trap of treating them badly? One is dead and the other mourns while the straight couple passionately kiss beneath the lake. Faithful adaptation vs. modern activism is a tricky balance to strike. I could rehash all those arguments here, but why bother? They’ve been articulated better by others already. Besides, falling behind means that I now have the space to discuss something just as important to me.

The Losers’ ages.

Now, I’m not sure if you all have noticed, but fantasy adventures aren’t really geared towards adults. That is to say, stories often contain adult content, but that’s not the same thing as putting adults at the center of the narrative. I’ve experienced a niggling sense of displeasure that’s grown stronger with each passing year and it took until my mid-twenties to figure out what it was: I am no longer the hero of many of my favorite stories. Because I’ve grown up. Harry Potter is concerned primarily with the trials and tribulations of characters between the ages of eleven and eighteen. If we return to that world---such as through a certain cursed play---the focus must shift to the new, shiny generation. Anyone who falls through a wardrobe is bound to be a child and if they dare grow up? They’re no longer allowed access to such a fantastic place. Kids are the ones who find the Hundred Acre Woods, or fall down rabbit holes, get daemons, battle Other Mothers when the world gets flipped, or head off onto all sorts of elementary and high school adventures. Sometimes, even those who are adults mistakenly get caught up in this trend. Frodo might be in his fifties, but as a small, kindly hobbit he comes across as younger than the rest of the Fellowship. Since the release of Jackson’s trilogy I’ve corrected more than one new fan who assumed (somewhat logically) that he is in his early twenties, max. It’s an easy mistake to make when we’ve grown accustomed to children and young adults taking center stage in so many fantastic, high-profile adventures.

Of course, there are plenty of counters to this feeling. Just look at Game of Thrones. Though we see much of the story through younger perspectives---such as the Stark siblings---the vast majority of the cast is made up of adults, playing just as pivotal a role as the up-and-comers. Fantasy, Science Fiction, and other speculative story-lines are by no means solely in the hands of minors, yet I think it’s also worth acknowledging that a good majority of those stories do shape our media landscape. Or, if they’re not strictly minors, they’re characters who embody a sort of static young adulthood, the Winchesters and the Shadowhunters and all the television superheroes who might gesture towards markers of adulthood---we have long term relationships, hold down jobs, can impersonate FBI agents without anyone batting an eye---yet are still able to maintain a nebulous form of youth. They all (try to) look and act as if they’re right out of college. The standards of film and television demand that actors appear twenty-years-old even when they’re pushing forty, and the standards of much literature insists that twenty is simply too old for an adventure, period. I can still clearly recall two moments of shock (later agreed upon by my friends) when I encountered unexpectedly older protagonists in genre fiction: the realization that Sophie actually spends the majority of Howl’s Moving Castle as a very old woman and that The Magicians takes place in graduate school. “Wow,” I remember thinking. “When’s the last time that happened?”

What does all this have to do with It: Chapter Two? I don’t have any big twist for you here. It was just really refreshing to see such a fantastical story where our cast is all forty or older. Seriously, can we take a moment to appreciate exactly how much King undermined expectations there? The first half of the novel is structured precisely how we assume it ‘should’ be. There’s a mysterious threat, there are children caught up in the middle of it, and ultimately only they are capable of saving the day. We know this story. We even have the characterization of the town itself to reinforce this structure, a place so warped by evil that only the very young with their open-mindedness and imagination are capable of seeing Derry for what it truly is, illustrated beautifully in the film by Mr. Marsh straight up not noticing a whole room full of blood.

Though they’re It’s prey, children are also the only ones who have any potential power over him. You have to be able to acknowledge a problem in order to fix it and King could have easily ended his story at the first chapter alone, with the group somehow managing to defeat Pennywise for good the first time they set foot in the sewers. A part of me is still shocked he didn’t, if only because the young savior as an archetype was embedded within Western culture far earlier than It’s 1986 publication. From Carrie to The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Pet Sematary to Firestarter, King is no stranger to putting children at the center of fantastic tales. Yet he’s also given us numerous adult protagonists, managing to find an enjoyable balance between the two, both within individual novels and his entire corpus. It represents that balance, not just imagining a story where seven (yes, I’m counting Stan) middle-age adults manage to finally save their town, but actually setting up a twenty-seven year jump to allow for that. It's the best of both worlds, exploring the difficulties inherent in both childhood and adulthood, arguing that we need each---that imagination and that experience---if we hope to come out alive.

While watching It: Chapter Two I took note of how many people laughed throughout the film, and not just at the moments set up to be funny (looking at you, Richie). Rather, the film that two years ago had scared the pants off of movie-goers now entertained them in a much more relaxed manner. No one was hiding behind their popcorn; there were no shrieks of fright. I’ve seen more than one reviewer express displeasure at this change. What the hell happened? Isn’t an It film supposed to be scary? Well, yes and no. I think what a lot of people miss is how providing us with an adult cast inherently changes the way fear manifests, both literally in the case of Pennywise’s illusions and thematically in regards to the film itself. This sloppy bitch, as established, preys on children. His tricks have the illogical, fantastical veneer that reflect how children see the world: you’re scared of women with horrifically elongated faces, zombie-like lepers, and hungry mummies. They’re literal monsters emerging out from under the bed. Of course, as adults watching the story we’re easily able to see how these monsters represent much deeper, intangible fears: growing up and disappointing your father, falling ill like your mother always claims you will (to say nothing of contracting AIDS in connection with a budding queer identity), and the danger that comes with being alone and ostracized. Sometimes It: Chapter One gestures more firmly towards those underlying fears---such as the burnt hands reaching for Mike when we know his family died in a fire---but only once does it make the real horror overt, when Pennywise takes Mr. Marsh’s face and asks Bev if she's still his little girl.

Outside of pedophilia and sexual abuse, Chapter One’s real horror is mostly coded, symbolic, left up to (admittedly rather obvious at times) interpretation. It’s just under the surface and we’re meant to be distracted by the fact that, allegorical or not, there’s still a very creepy thing hunting our protagonists from the shadows. For two hours we take on a child’s perspective, biting our nails at all the things we once imagined hid inside our closets. We’re scared because they’re scared.

That mindset irrevocably changes once your group grows up. Forty-year-olds simply don’t freak out in the same way a bunch of thirteen-year-olds would, especially now that they know precisely what’s happening and have the mental fortitude to combat it. At least to an extent. Chapter Two isn’t as traditionally scary for the simple reason that the film now acknowledges what all adults eventually must: there’s nothing in the closet, there’s nothing hiding under your bed. Or if there is, it’s something tangible that can be handled with a calm(ish) demeanor and a well-placed ax. An adult might scream when something jumps out at them, but they’re not as inclined to cower. Adults might still be scared, but they’re better able to push that fear aside in order to take action. The group first reached that point in the sewers--- “Welcome to the Losers’ club, asshole!”---and now fully embodies that mindset with nearly three decades of growth and experience to draw on. This is why Ben investigating the library as a teen reads as teeth-chatteringly scary, but Ben and Bill as adults investigating the skateboard produces only a comment about how they're getting used to this nonsense. They know, and we as the audience know, what the real threat is and whether or not we need to shield our eyes when something starts clunking its way down the stairs.

All of which isn’t to say that Chapter Two isn’t scary. It’s simply scary in a much more realistic manner, killer clowns and Native American rituals aside. The fears have been aged-up along with the cast, stripping away the child-like fantasies that made us wet our pants in Chapter One. What’s the scariest moment outside of the jump scares? When two men and a kid beat a gay man and then chuck him in the river to drown. You’ll note that, unlike in the first film, Pennywise doesn’t actually have to do much work here. Seasoning people up with fear? The rest of the world is doing that for him. That first scene detailing a truly horrific hate crime (which, by the way, is based off of true events) results in a meal delivered straight to Pennywise’s arms. It’s people who targeted that couple, beat one of them within an inch of his life, and then tossed him over a bridge, bleeding and shrieking for help. All Pennywise had to do was scoop him from the water and take that first bite. He’s incidental to the film’s most cringe-worthy scene. We can argue all we want about how it’s Pennywise’s influence that “makes” the town this way, but any queer viewer knows that's simply not the case. In 2019 we're still living this horror, no Pennywise required.

Likewise, the two children we see murdered are much more overtly grappling with fears that have nothing to do with fantastical monsters. Dean, the little boy Bill tries to save in lieu of Georgie, is rightly petrified because a seemingly crazy adult is now stalking him. We as the audience know that Bill is just trying to help----that he’s not the real danger here----but that’s not the perspective this kid has, nor is it the issue the film is grappling with. We first see him approaching an idol of his, Richie, and instead of an enjoyable experience he winds up getting yelled at. The It films are only tangentially interested in the status of fans and their relationship with celebrities, but we know it’s a common theme for King’s work overall. Look at Misery and look at this cameo: a disenchanted fan of the 21st century, criticizing a writer’s novel and leveraging him for money. “You can afford it,” he tells Bill, swindling him simply because he can. The context of this little boy as a fan and Richie as the older, bigger, larger-than-life comedian adds another layer to the interaction. It’s not just an adult verbally attacking a child, it’s an adult this kid worshiped enough to recognize and quote his material from memory. Who easily walks away from that?

This little boy then finds Bill shrieking at a sewer opening, is manhandled by him, and told in the scariest way possible, born of Bill’s own fear, that he has to get out of dodge, fast. There are scary things out there, Dean freely admits that he’s heard kids’ voices coming from the tub drain, but right now the scariest thing is how badly the adults in his life are failing him: parents (from what little we can gather) are distant, his comedic idol is mean, and now this stranger is traumatizing him in the middle of the street. Once again, it’s easy to see how Pennywise isn’t needed to sow fear or even enact cruelty; he’s not a requirement for horrible things in the world, he’s merely their reflection. We see the same setup with the little girl under the bleachers. That scene demonstrates precisely how not scary Pennywise is. Here’s this child putting aside her discomfort over his looks and agreeing to be his friend. What’s worse than a clown with a creepy expression? The knowledge that all the other kids have already rejected you because of a birthmark on your face. Bullying is the far greater threat and one we’re 100% more likely to deal with in our lives than a killer clown, so the second film re-frames Pennywise to better acknowledge this. He’s scary because things like bullying and neglect exist to give him an easy in. He’s even scary because in this moment, hiding under the bleachers, manipulating this little girl, he’s fully embodying a child predator. Chapter One was a primal, “There’s a monster hiding in the shadows” kind of fear. Chapter Two is a, “We’re all going to die from climate change” kind of fear. Logical and largely inescapable. Characters like Richie don't need Pennywise to take some fantastic form to scare him. Homophobia has already done all the work.

Ultimately, I think of this as the Umbridge Effect. Who’s the most hated character in the Harry Potter franchise? I’ll give you a hint, it’s not the Dark Lord responsible for two wars, attempted genocide, and the death of our title character.

We despise Umbridge because she’s real. She’s relatable. She’s grounded in a way that Voldemort could never hope to be. We have no fear that an all-powerful sorcerer is suddenly going to come out of the woodwork and attempt to enslave and/or eradicate everyone without magic. That’s just not on our list of things to worry about. A corrupt politician, however? An instructor who uses her power to emotionally and physically torture students, getting away with it because of a cutesy, hyper-feminine persona? We’ve seen stuff like that. We’ve lived it. Umbridge represents all the real wrongs in the world when it comes to bigotry and privilege. Therefore we hate her---we fear her---in a way we could never hate or fear Voldemort. Now, in It: Chapter Two, Pennywise is the new Voldemort. Is an alien clown with an unhinged jaw and three rows of teeth technically scary? Sure, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the real problems that plague the cast: abuse, anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, the fear that someone will hurt or outright kill you over some part of your identity. These are things we continue to fear long after the credits roll and the lights come up, and they’re now barely coded in the story:

It occurred to me halfway through my viewing that the people laughing at the characters’ new plights were the same ones who didn’t flinch when a gay man’s head cracked into the pavement. I had both hands over my mouth during that scene and I wasn’t snickering whenever Eddie had a panic attack, or Ben’s self-confidence took a hit. Because those moments, like our opening, hit pretty close to home for me; I didn’t find them embarrassingly humorous in the way much of my theater did. So many reviews in the last two months have insisted that Chapter Two isn't scary, but I think that depends entirely on whether or not you're struggling with these now explicit threats. We're not dealing with mummies and creepy portraits anymore. Instead, tell me how you feel about holding your partner's hand in public. Do certain memories make you vomit? Or freeze? Consider heading upstairs to the bath? The horror is dependent on how the audience views Bill's stutter coming back, or the bruises on Bev's arms.

The cast grew up. It’s a fantastic twist. It also means that the horror needed to grow up with them, resulting in a film that could no longer function as a simple, scary clown movie. Our ending reminds us of that. When did people laugh the loudest? When the Losers’ club was bullying Pennywise into something vulnerable. And yeah, I get it. It’s a cheesy moment that we feel the need to laugh at because it’s just so unexpected. Awkward, even. Since when are badass horror monsters defeated with a bit of backyard peer pressure straight out of middle school? If this were any other story, Pennywise would have been defeated by Eddie’s poker. The most scared member of the group finally finds his courage! He has faith that this simple object can kill monsters! He throws it in a perfect arc, splitting the deadlights in two! That’s a heroic ending. Something epic and fantastical, relying on the idea that the Good Guys will win simply because they believe in themselves... but that’s not how the real world works. That ending is a child’s fantasy. Sometimes you do the heroic thing and end up dying anyway. Which isn’t to say that the heroic thing is useless. It saves Richie’s life. It’s just that a single act can’t cure all our ills in the way that storybooks often claim they can.

How then does an adult deal with huge, intangible problems like bigotry and mental illness---the things Pennywise now fully represents? By saying “Fuck you” to those things again and again with all the support you can possibly wrangle up at your side. You refuse to let those issues control you; you drag those child-like representations into the light and remind yourself just how small they really are. We don’t get to beat something like depression by spearing it with a fire poker in some overblown finale. If we did, we’d all be having a much better time. All you can do is band together with friends and scream that you’re not going to let your fears define you anymore. Pennywise is a symptom of all the true horrors in the world. Sadly, you can’t beat those with a baseball bat. But you can acknowledge the heart of the issue, literally in the case of five friends squeezing until that one symptom, at least, is gone.

Image Credit

#1:https://www.screengeek.net/2018/07/10/it-chapter-2-character-mashups/

#2:https://earlybirdbooks.com/the-re-read-the-lion-the-witch-and-the-wardrobe

#3:https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/7/4/19413771/stranger-things-season-3-review-recap-hopper-elevenrussians

#4:https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/08/08/harry-potter-movies-review-10-years-late-snape-dumbledore-franchise/

#5:https://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/netflix/277257/give-the-dragon-prince-a-chance

#6:https://www.forbes.com/sites/lindamaleh/2019/04/23/she-ra-and-the-princesses-of-power-season-2-review/#ec7022c42953

#7:https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/avatar-the-last-airbender

#8:https://www.newsweek.com/buffy-vampire-slayer-turns-20-charisma-carpenter-shows-enduring-legacy-and-566123

#9:http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/alice-in-wonderland-the-movie/

#10:https://www.hindustantimes.com/tv/game-of-thrones-this-edited-out-scene-between-bran-and-sansa-reveals-so-much-about-finale/story-qFDHflH2dO6Kcki1wgsEyM.html

#11:https://www.cinemablend.com/new/Why-Ender-Game-Best-Possible-Adaptation-Book-40110.html

#12:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/supernatural-end-season-15-cw-1196579

#13:https://www.slashfilm.com/it-chapter-two-scene/

#14:https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/9/12/16286316/it-cleaning-up-blood-scene-feminism

#15:http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-208633/photos/detail/?cmediafile=21647122

#16:https://stanleyyuris.tumblr.com/post/188300897715/chaotic-losers

#17:https://whatculture.com/film/it-chapter-2-every-character-ranked-worst-to-best?page=3

#18:https://www.reddit.com/r/harrypotter/comments/7uhrkz/the_most_hated_character/

#19:https://9gag.com/gag/am2X2Z4?ref=pn.mw

#20:https://screenrant.com/harry-potter-hated-characters-unpopular-worst-ranked/quickview/17

GIFs1-5:https://the-pretty-poisons.tumblr.com/post/188344826978/why-is-everyone-looking-at-me-\like-this

#It #It Chapter 2 #It Chapter Two #It Chapter Two Spoilers #reddie #mymetas

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punkscowardschampions · 4 years

Text

Amelia & Jac

Amelia: [okay so I'll put here what we said, for Jac's 18th Savannah sent her some flowers and Amelia binned them, obviously a big fight ensued and they haven't interacted from then in September to now which is nearly Christmas until Amelia sends her a christmas gift of the gay book with a portrait of Jac inside that'll just fall out when she picks it up and a chanel lipstick of some cute shade or other] Jac: [my vibe was if it was left on the step, leaving the book out there and taking the lipstick to send a message 'cos assumedly we'll walk past at some point as we live central] Amelia: [love that] Jac: If you were gonna take it upon yourself to decide I didn't want Savannah's gift, you should have also realised the same rule would apply to yourself Amelia: maybe Jac: No, you should have Jac: you wasted your money and time Amelia: I've got nothing else to do with either, so it hardly matters Jac: I'm not your distraction Jac: leave me alone Amelia: no, you're way more than that Amelia: but okay Jac: I don't have the energy for this Amelia: I didn't do this to force a conversation with you Jac: right Amelia: you're right, I shouldn't have got you anything Jac: you really shouldn't Jac: I don't want anything from you Amelia: alright, message received Jac: for fuck's sake Amelia: What do you want me to say? Amelia: it's been months, I miss you, I hate this Jac: You're about a lifetime too late for any of this Jac: things change Amelia: just go then Jac: Don't tell me what to do Jac: you haven't even apologized Amelia: because you're the only one who can tell me what I should or shouldn't do, okay then Jac: I declined your gift because I don't fucking want it Jac: that's my decision Jac: you can't force it on me Amelia: like it was my decision to get you one, even if you don't fucking want it Amelia: like it's my decision not to apologise when I'm not sorry Jac: it wasn't your decision to make Amelia: I know that Jac: She reached out to me Jac: and you ruined it Amelia: she didn't reach out, it was a cop out Jac: she remembered Jac: she didn't have to do anything Amelia: she didn't do anything Amelia: not even sign her name Amelia: fuck's sake, and you're mad at ME for my lack of apology Jac: Yes she did, she sent my favourite flowers Jac: and yes I'm fucking mad at you, you don't even know what you started Amelia: at least hold her to the same standard Jac: No, because you aren't the same Jac: and this gift meant something to me, the gesture did Jac: and you couldn't stand that so you took it away Amelia: the false hope meant something to you Amelia: of course I can't stand that Jac: there's nothing false about it Jac: she was never here for my birthday before, not as my friend, she had no reason to remember, I'm blocked on anything that would tell her Amelia: because it's so hard to get around being blocked Jac: so, that would just prove she cared enough to look Jac: either way, that meant something Amelia: it doesn't mean she's coming back Amelia: or dumping her boyfriend Jac: it still means more to me than anything you could ever give or do Jac: so you deal with that Amelia: I can't Jac: You'll find my sympathy running a bit low Amelia: that's how I always find it Jac: I don't have the space in my head or my life to care about you Jac: alright, and I've never said different Amelia: yeah you have Jac: when? Jac: a million years ago when we were kids Jac: life's moved on from then Amelia: this year, things have happened that mean something, you've made space for me and cared about me Amelia: I don't need words, you lie whenever you speak anyway Amelia: and yeah, that's how long it's been, that's she's been gone and I've been here for you Amelia: you can't deal with that any better than you're telling me I have to Jac: I've only cared about myself Jac: that's facts Jac: you've been of some use and that's about as deep as it gets Jac: ask anyone, Amelia Amelia: No Jac: Yes Amelia: you love to make me look and feel crazy but I'm actually not Jac: because normal people throw other people's presents away Amelia: you know why I did Jac: and normal people let themselves be treated like this Jac: yeah, you're so right Amelia: there's a massive gap between normal and the levels of delusional you're trying to make me out to be right now Jac: I'm not trying to make you out to be anything Jac: I'm trying to get you to leave me alone, at best Amelia: and I've said I will Jac: then go Amelia: [does] Amelia: [gonna take this moment to tell you what the book is, We Are Okay by Nina LaCour it's obvs gay and YA again but we've lost the optimism of the previous Christmas because this one is about grief and loss and loneliness, basically this girl leaves her life behind without saying a word (again to go to college lol) after her grandad dies but then her friend who she's in love with and who I think is straight comes to visit her there so she gotta start dealing with all her shit, very apt Amelia well done. I think it does have a happy ending for said main character based on the title but not a fluffy one and she isn't getting with that friend I'm p sure] Amelia: [In clearer terms, this is a book about Marin, a girl who has lost her grandfather, and in doing so, pushed away her former best friend, Mabel. So when Mabel comes to town, Marin does not know what to do with the memories. Marin at once does not want Mabel here, regrets her being here, but also desperately wants Mabel to love her. She has walls up and she wants them down, but she is too terrified for them to ever come down. Marin has lost everything, including Mabel, her best friend and her maybe-something-more. But it’s not a romance between Marin and Mabel. That is what is perhaps the saddest part. I once saw Nina LaCour talk live about this book, and she said something that perfectly sums up what is so arresting about this book: being queer and in love with your best friend is different than being straight and in love with your best friend. One is an experience in first love, and one is also that, but with an added experience of fear – not of rejection but of disgust. We do not want to hurt our best friends by loving them. We have learned to be ashamed of love and we carry that with us, through thick and through thin. BYE] Jac: [well, v on the nose, soz we won't be reading that hun and we didn't read the last one, so rude] Amelia: [maybe years from now bitch you will and you'll see what we were trying to give you] Jac: [perhaps but clearly not this one as it has essentially washed away lmao] Amelia: [something v poetic about a book about grief and loss and loneliness getting left on the step to disintegrate, when this is a film or netflix show I'll be v smug] Jac: [truly, the drama of it all] Jac: [setting it on fire is so last year, anyway, my thought is Amelia sees Jac and Jesse out somewhere but not out out like somewhere boring and every day which is confusing as it was to the fam 'cos she knows she's not talking or hanging out with them so she's like hmm] Amelia: [good idea but I don't know how I'm gonna be like oi what are you doing when it's none of your business hen LOL] Jac: [Jesse could talk to her 'cos we've established doesn't take a hint and it's like the most awkward] Amelia: [yeah because they are gonna be lowkey friends off and on even though she said they weren't after the vday thing last year so and maybe she asks about his gig he's meant to be doing or whatever cos he would've had to announce he ain't doing it on socials and everything like] Jac: [Jac just casually snapping at her like mind yo business Amelia] Amelia: [I'll pick the convo up after that fun little interaction then] Jac: [when you shoulda said nothing but it came out henny] Amelia: Don't talk to me like that Jac: Don't talk to my brother how's that Amelia: redundant Amelia: because I'll talk to him whenever I like as long as he's not the one upset about it Jac: Yeah, you've established you're a liar before now Amelia: No, we've established I have nothing to gain by keeping any promises to you Jac: and I give a fuck about what you wanna take from me Jac: you need to disappear, I don't want you in my life now, not even peripherally Amelia: I don't wanna take anything from you and I'm not Amelia: but disappearing isn't an option for a bit Jac: Contradict yourself immediately, it's really not a waste of my time Amelia: You're wasting your own time by continuing to have a go at me Amelia: when school's over we'll both be leaving, until then we're both stuck Jac: It wouldn't be a waste of time if you actually listened Amelia: likewise Jac: to what? Amelia: me obviously Jac: you have nothing I've ever wanted to hear Jac: and you're continuing to talk more bullshit now Jac: literally, mind your own business, it should not be hard Amelia: neither should getting your head around the concept that me talking to Jess isn't about you Jac: he isn't your friend Jac: he's my brother, I trump any kind of connection you had or wanna have for whatever sad reason Jac: so yeah, fuck off Amelia: if you want to make him choose, give him your bullshit ultimatum, I won't be Jac: No, you leave us alone Jac: it's like having a fucking stalker Jac: I am sick of the sight of you Amelia: I have left you alone like you asked Amelia: he's asked me to do no such thing Jac: You're pathetic Jac: get some friends of your own and you wouldn't have to cling on to someone being civil towards you Amelia: I've heard it all before Jac: then take the hint Jac: I'm so fed up of you and your moping Amelia: then take the 'advice' you're trying to give me and fuck off Jac: you see me coming, you should turn the other way Jac: I did not need to see you today, fuck's sake Amelia: yeah, I'll turn my desk around too, get back into detention, it has been a while Amelia: I wasn't looking for you, I don't want to see you either Jac: then it's in your best interest to run when you see Jesse coming then Jac: so glad you reached the logical conclusion, try to do it at the time next time, tah Amelia: bye then Jac: you're unbelievable Jac: you don't even feel remotely bad for what you've done Amelia: of course I fucking do Jac: bullshit Amelia: No it's not Amelia: but I'm not going to sit here and type out how and why I feel like shit when it means nothing Jac: you aren't sorry, you said, and you've not made any kind of attempt to actually make amends, not that you can now, it's too late Jac: it's all about how you feel and that you miss me and whatever else Jac: you don't care what I've been through Amelia: I'm not sorry for 🗑💐 but I'm sorry for hurting you Amelia: and that this means I'm not there now for whatever is happening Amelia: like you said, it's too late now Amelia: and like you also said, even if I was there, it's not good enough anyway so Jac: because this isn't some soppy book you read Jac: you aren't gonna save me and it'll all be happily ever afters Jac: this is real life and it's so much bigger than all this Jac: shit that you care about Amelia: yeah, it's my real life too Jac: none of this is real Jac: you're putting off getting one by kidding yourself that this will ever happen Amelia: it is to me Jac: just wait Jac: you'll find out soon enough Jac: this is nothing, all of it Amelia: maybe to you Jac: no fucking maybe Jac: you're a child, your problems are childish Jac: that's factual and I can't pretend to entertain it now Amelia: then don't Amelia: my problems aren't the same as yours because I'm not you any more than I could be Savannah fucking Moore, but guess what, it's not a competition Jac: they're non-existent Amelia: No, they exist, same as I do Amelia: but you don't have to bother about them or me Jac: Get over yourself, Amelia Jac: people have real shit going on, real stuff to deal with Jac: and you want anyone to care about your self-inflicted, whiney, entitled bullshit Jac: for what? 'cos you're an AMAZING friend, yeah, you don't use everything to your advantage or make it all about you Amelia: not really, I want you get away from me like you keep saying you want Jac: I didn't send you a present, loser Amelia: I didn't start a conversation about it Amelia: or keep this one going Jac: because you should feel fucking bad about what you did and you don't Jac: not even an eighth of what I do Amelia: I do feel bad, what do you want me to do to prove it, kill myself? For fuck's sake Jac: yeah good idea Amelia: nothing is good enough for you Amelia: you'd even twist that into something it isn't Jac: fucking try it Jac: I don't want you around Amelia: okay Jac: my life is ruined Jac: you don't get to be okay, you don't get to care about your pathetic crush Amelia: you don't get to tell me what to do or how to feel because your life is ruined Jac: Yes I do Amelia: No you don't Jac: really 'cos you've been pretty easy to manipulate this far Jac: don't act as if you've had say in anything Jac: that's about the only use you have had Amelia: well it's over, all of it Jac: call it like it hasn't been for months on my say so Jac: what is the point of you being alive, actually Amelia: I don't know Amelia: my parents, I guess Jac: good luck with getting that to last then Amelia: 🤞🍀🌠 Jac: give you 'til your late 20s before that stops being enough Amelia: it already isn't Jac: like I said, find some real trauma like the rest of us Jac: gives you something to cling to Amelia: or more to collapse under the weight of Jac: you don't even want to survive Amelia: and what? Jac: and that's the fundamental reason Savannah is better than you Jac: and I am too Jac: all I have is the shit behind me to drive me forwards Jac: and your ideal is to wallow in it Amelia: you've got a million reasons why, I don't care how they're numbered, to be honest Jac: you deserve the nothing you're left with and the nothingness that's coming Amelia: that's worked out perfectly then Jac: I swear to God you're lucky he was there Jac: any other day Amelia: yeah Amelia: you know what lessons to find me in Jac: I'm taking time off Jac: so you can have them Amelia: I really am lucky Amelia: maybe it'll make me care about 20 years in the future, like you do, or 5 or 1 Amelia: drive me forwards too Jac: unlikely Amelia: right now it is Amelia: I'm just trying to get through this conversation Jac: Jesus Amelia: my 🤔💭 exactly Jac: you clueless bitch Amelia: what am I supposed to be clued into? Amelia: we haven't spoken for ages Jac: and that's hardly a mystery Amelia: slag me off as much as you like, I don't know what's going on Jac: didn't inherit that off your mum then Amelia: clearly not Jac: yeah well when she finds out somehow you can hear all about it Amelia: finds out what? Jac: now you're gonna ask how I am Amelia: if you were in the hospital again or something that's more important than any of this bullshit Amelia: please just tell me Jac: no, because you did a grand gesture I didn't ask for so now I'm really all good Amelia: a Christmas present isn't a grand gesture Amelia: or what matters Jac: yeah, no shit it isn't Amelia: can you just Jac: what, tell you what's wrong with me? Jac: will that make you feel better Amelia: No Jac: yeah, that makes it almost seem worth it Amelia: forget it Amelia: I'll find out when everyone else does or I won't Jac: yeah Jac: your fake concern for 2 seconds was really comforting Amelia: nothing about this is fake for me Amelia: I don't know how many more times or ways I can make that fucking obvious Jac: you're all talk Jac: I expect nothing more or less from you at this point Amelia: because talking is all I can do Amelia: you won't take a 🎁 I'm not risking an actual gesture Jac: yeah, I heard Jac: nothing in it for you Amelia: okay, tell me I'm wrong Amelia: tell me there is Jac: no Amelia: say something Amelia: give me literally anything Jac: how many times can you be told it's not about you before you get it Jac: it's not about caring because I throw you false hope Jac: we were friends, once Amelia: which is exactly why I want you to tell me what it's really about Amelia: I care about you, I fucking love you Amelia: and something bad has happened Jac: depends on your point of view Amelia: put all of this bullshit between us aside and talk to me Amelia: you said it, we were friends Jac: I don't know if I actually want to hurt you this bad Jac: call me stupid Amelia: it's not about me, remember? Jac: still Jac: it's Amelia: you aren't going to talk to anyone else Jac: Jesse knows Jac: and my parents Amelia: that doesn't mean they know how you feel, just what's happened Jac: you won't be able to know either Jac: it isn't gay Amelia: this can still be one of those times where you say things to me that you don't to anyone else, if you want Amelia: if it'll help you Jac: Nothing will help me Jac: but I don't care Jac: I've got a baby Amelia: what? Jac: a dead one now Amelia: oh Jac: yep Amelia: when? Jac: it's why Jesse cancelled his gig Amelia: of course Amelia: that makes sense Jac: so now you know Amelia: yeah Jac: so yeah, there's nothing to be said or done and that's seriously it Amelia: okay, well I'm here if that ever changes Amelia: my mum's never gotten over it but I know talking helped her Jac: talking isn't going to assuage the guilt of creating and destroying life Jac: maybe I'll go pray but I doubt that does either Amelia: I don't know Amelia: there must be a reason therapy is so popular, you're the wannabe psychologist Jac: hope Jac: I'm not interested Amelia: alright, no talking Amelia: do you want to go out? Jac: and bleed over the four pairs of tights I'd have to wear to stop it running straight down my legs? Amelia: a no would be a perfectly acceptable answer Jac: yeah, it's perfectly acceptable to bother a therapist about it so you never mention it to anyone else Amelia: you're not going to mention it anyway, you've said as much Jac: that has nothing to do with your sensibilities Jac: if I wanted to, I could go into horrific detail Amelia: yeah, you could Amelia: you could also bleed all over my car if you wanted to Jac: Yeah right Jac: your entire street is curtain twitchers Amelia: we won't be hanging out on my street Jac: there's nowhere I could go that'll make me forget either Amelia: you've been stuck inside for days with your family, it's hardly a grand gesture to suggest taking you literally anywhere else Amelia: but okay Jac: Jess won't let me go anyway Jac: last time I said I'd hang out with you and he believed it I fucked your girlfriend so Amelia: you kissed her Jac: oh yeah Jac: same difference Amelia: no Amelia: there's quite a big difference Jac: maybe I told him I did then Jac: I don't remember Amelia: probably Jac: the outcome was the same is the point Amelia: the point is, Jess won't let you go Amelia: I got that Jac: I had to have someone come with Amelia: yeah Jac: not about to ask the poor sod who did it Amelia: have you told him though? Jac: yeah Jac: fucking embarrassing Amelia: I assume you're less likely to accidentally run into him than you are me Jac: I think I got points for dealing with it and being cool anyway Jac: go me Amelia: great Jac: it don't matter Jac: only would have if he'd kicked up a fuss Jac: but he didn't seem the sort and that's one less thing for me to feel guilty about so fuck it Amelia: does Darla know? Jac: I told her false alarm Jac: had to ask her about him so Amelia: then why do you think everyone's going to find out? Jac: people somehow always do Jac: I don't care anymore, not now Amelia: if my mum hasn't heard, it's unlikely Amelia: she knew about your alcohol poisoning immediately Jac: beneath her to have connections with an abortion clinic Amelia: she's not god squad Jac: close enough Amelia: my aunt had one after having Olivia, there was something wrong with the baby apparently Amelia: my mum wasn't protesting outside Jac: that's different then Jac: you have a reason, people can repeat that to themselves until they forget about it Amelia: you had a reason too Amelia: everyone does Jac: no, I had an excuse Amelia: you had a reason Jac: no, I didn't Amelia: yeah, you did Amelia: and if anyone else did it for the same reason you wouldn't call it an excuse Jac: Yes I would Amelia: you hate yourself, before this, after this and because of this Amelia: stop Jac: I didn't need to get pregnant, I did and then I killed it Jac: anyone who did that, I'd think exactly the same Amelia: you didn't mean to Amelia: and if you're going to punish yourself this hard for every mistake you ever make then you're going to last even less time than you think I will Jac: You don't act like that not not mean to Jac: all I need to do is live this year then I'll be doing what I actually want Amelia: and that's enough of a reason, don't you get that Jac: enough of a reason for what Amelia: you can't just have a baby you don't want Amelia: it's not like fucking lads you don't care about Jac: no one made me do any of it Jac: so it's not a reason Jac: it's stepping away from any responsibility Amelia: you made you Amelia: and you'd be a shit mum Jac: no, that's bullshit Jac: you tell yourself what you like about it but I know what I did Amelia: tell me you enjoyed it, any of the times Jac: it's sex Jac: that's one of but not the only point Amelia: say it then Amelia: what your point is Jac: Why am I repeating myself? Jac: I know what I did Jac: you aren't going to convince me otherwise Amelia: Why are you doing it? Jac: Well I can't anymore, actually Jac: 2 weeks minimum Amelia: but why have you ever? Jac: because I want to Amelia: you want Savannah Amelia: it hasn't helped you forget that, it won't Jac: neither do you but you didn't tell me not to do that Jac: I can still want to fuck guys Jac: end of Amelia: fine, I'll say it now Jac: yeah Amelia: I can't do this any more Jac: we aren't Amelia: we've said that before, it has to be different this time Jac: whatever Jac: you expect me to make promises to you? Jac: I don't fucking care, Amelia Jac: you deal with it, it's not my problem Amelia: okay Jac: Christ sake Amelia: What? Jac: Never mind, right, off you go Amelia: I'm not going Jac: 🙄 Amelia: you don't care, I heard you before Jac: you want it to be different this time Jac: do something about it Amelia: I'm not having sex with you, that's what I'm doing differently Jac: what's the point in that Jac: doing all the other shit, there's barely any difference Amelia: because I shouldn't have ever but I can't take any of it back Jac: we don't need to be friends either Amelia: we're not Jac: then leave Jac: why half-arse it, that's my point Amelia: I can't leave Jac: just the situation Jac: you don't actually need to kill yourself Amelia: no, I can't leave you Jac: don't be daft Amelia: I'm not repeating myself either Jac: please yourself Amelia: fuck you Jac: you'll be a long time waiting for a thank you Jac: I didn't ask for this Amelia: neither did I Jac: you have a choice Amelia: yeah, and I've made it Jac: and what? Jac: what would you like me to say? Amelia: don't say anything Amelia: I'd honestly love that Jac: yeah, I bet Amelia: the back and forth between utter lies and bullshit and brutal fucking honesty is worse than just the gaslighting Jac: then go away Jac: you're doing this to you Jac: I don't want you here Amelia: you're doing it to me Jac: no, I'm not Amelia: you are Jac: I'm literally telling you to go Amelia: you're always telling me to go Amelia: it's been over a year Jac: your lack of resolve is not my fault Amelia: if you really don't want me here, do something about it Jac: No, because I'm not crying about it Jac: if you feel so gaslit, fuck off Jac: don't reply, don't engage Jac: I don't owe you anything Amelia: you're literally complaining about it Jac: because you're crying wolf Jac: I can and will do what I want, that's how it's always been Amelia: It's no different for me, I've always done what I want too Jac: no, you're being horribly manipulated and used Jac: poor little Amelia Amelia: you fucking said it as a brag earlier Amelia: how easy it is Jac: so why are you repeating it back to me, like I don't know? Jac: you're waiting for me to deny it, or apologize and say it's not true and I care SO much Jac: get real Amelia: I'm waiting for you to stop Amelia: actually do anything you say you're going to Jac: why? Jac: why are you expecting me to act like I'm fine when I'm not Jac: keep making the same wrong call and act surprised when I do what feels right Jac: for fuck's sake, Amelia Amelia: I don't know Amelia: maybe because I'm not fine either but I don't treat you like this Jac: maybe 'cos you've got no willpower Jac: maybe 'cos struggling is a competition and I'm winning Amelia: maybe Jac: 🤔💭 on that Amelia: obviously Jac: fun never stops Jac: enjoy, like Amelia: 🎢 🎠🎪 Jac: 'tis the season Amelia: Merry Christmas 🎄🎅⛄ Jac: great Amelia: yeah Jac: make you feel better that? Amelia: 1. you literally don't care 2. neither do I Jac: I'm literally still bleeding from having my baby chemically expelled and you don't get any joy out of wishing me a Merry Christmas? Jac: what is the fucking point, if you're gonna be a cunt, commit to it Amelia: there's no point to any of this, we both get that Jac: nah, it actually makes me feel better to make you feel worse Jac: that's the point Jac: I have loads of them Jac: it's you who has zero idea what the fuck she's doing Jac: as per Amelia: oh well in that case, carry on Jac: if you hadn't worked that out by now, there is no hope for you Amelia: there's no hope for me anyway, as you've said repeatedly Jac: you seem pretty resigned to this whole victim thing you've got going on Jac: it's a fair observation Amelia: I'm sure it is Jac: yep, that's right, curl up into a ball 'til it's over Jac: fuck this Amelia: until what's over? Jac: the attack, whatever you wanna call it Amelia: I don't want to call it anything, I don't want to do this Amelia: you're the one who's getting something out of it, unless that's another lie Jac: then don't Jac: why the fuck are you still here? Amelia: because I can't fucking leave when you're in the middle of an abortion Amelia: for fuck's sake Jac: the good friend points are not being counted any more Amelia: I don't care Amelia: if this is all I can do, over nothing, then so be it Jac: you're gonna let yourself be a punching bag Jac: seriously Amelia: why not? Amelia: it's not like it's the first time, or that I haven't for things that matter less Amelia: and it's too late to change any of that Jac: because I want you to stop Jac: to fight back Jac: to not do this shit anymore Amelia: I'm not fighting you right now, even if I had the strength to ever Jac: it's like Jac: you don't understand how dangerous it is Jac: what if this was someone else Jac: do you wanna end up like that, getting knocked about and taken advantage of Amelia: I don't give a fuck about the future, remember? Jac: well stop it Amelia: no Jac: stop Amelia: no Jac: fine Jac: I'll go Amelia: okay, go

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backofthebookshelf · 5 years

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Book Recs for Magnus Archives Fans

I was just rambling in tags the other day about how my avatarsona was "the Archivist, but a public librarian: Oh, you like dirt?? Let me tell you all the dirt stories I have!!!!" so, uh, here I am I guess.

I'm gonna spare you all the M.R. James and Algernon Blackwood and House of Leaves and Blindsight; you know all that already. These are my horror backlist recs.

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette Y'all. Y'ALL. Kyle Murchison Booth was absolutely the Archivist before Gertrude. He was poached from the Parrington by the Usher Foundation and the Eye glommed onto him at once, because the Eye loves disaster queers who can't people right (and also Gertrude). This I believe to be true, and so will you.

Kyle Murchison Booth is an archivist at the Parrington Museum, which is somewhere in New England, sometime in the early twentieth century. He also has a lifelong entanglement with the supernatural which is almost entirely not his fault, and he would very much like it to stop, but he also feels responsible and he can't just let evil mirrors and cursed necklaces and possessed dressing gowns randomly eat people who have no idea what's happening. Even if it means he's going to suffer for it.

(This collection doesn't contain all of the Booth stories, so here I am going to link to "White Charles", which happens to be my very favorite Booth story.)

For you if your favorite part is: honestly everything about MAG, from the modern sensibilities about early twentieth-century-horror, truly eerie ghost stories, to suffering eldritch librarians (thanks to whoever tagged my most recent fic with that you're so valid), monsterfucking and soft gay pining. No happy endings here, sorry.

Bedfellow by Jeremy C. Shipp You may or may not have heard that Macmillan-Tor is launching a horror imprint, and I don't know how long it's been since a major publishing house has had a horror imprint, but I am EXCITE. This book is part of the trend that's the reason why: Tor.com has been publishing these kickass novellas for a couple years now, and their horror books are top notch.

One night a stranger knocks on a family's living room window and asks to be invited in. They ask him to stay the night. He's an old friend, after all, he needs a place to stay. You can't kick out your twin brother when he's just gotten divorced, no matter how much Gatorade he spills on your two-year-old hardwood floors.

For you if your favorite part is: the Stranger, this is all Stranger, it's terrifying and good.

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll A graphic novel, some of these were originally posted as webcomics (have you seen His Face All Red, and if not, why not???) and the only disadvantage to having them in book form is they can't blink at you. Probably. Very folktale-ish, with all the death and violence that implies, and also the slightly eerie feeling that you know this story already, and then it turns around and slaps you.

For you if your favorite part is: looking over your shoulder when the foley gets good; Once Upon a Time in Space (I know that's not technically part of the Magnus Archives but shush)

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle I am not usually a fan of artists who jump media. Just because you can write songs doesn't mean you can write novels. Apparently writing good songs doesn't mean you can't write good novels, though, because John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats (pretty sure that's his full name at this point) wrote Universal Harvester and I love him for it.

Jeremy works at a video rental place in Nevada, Iowa (it's pronounced Nah-vey-da, and yes it’s real, I've been there, and yes, it's probably haunted). It's the 1990s, and someone's been returning their VHS tapes with something on them that isn't just the movie. Footage that includes a barn that he recognizes, just outside of town.

Fair warning: this is not the kind of mystery that gets tied up in a nice bow at the end.

For you if your favorite part is: Jon losing it with paranoia in S2, The People's Church of the Divine Host, the Lonely

The Good House by Tananarive Due If this author's name is unfamiliar to you, RUN, do not walk, to your nearest internet bookseller and purchase every single one of her books immediately, you will not regret it. She also just came out with a documentary on black horror, Horror Noire, on the Shudder streaming service. They've got a free month if you aren't a horror movie person, it'd be worth your while. This book summary sounds like it's full of tropes. It is, but Due has the cred to write them well.

Angela Toussaint hopes to salvage her suffering marriage and her troubled relationship with her teenage son with a trip to her grandmother's house, a home so beloved the locals in small-town Washington state call it "The Good House," but tragedy strikes instead. Two years later she returns and finds that the tragedy isn't over, and it's not going to stop on its own.

For you if your favorite part is: the very practical statement-givers who know what's happening to them and Will Not Put Up With This Shit, the Desolation, the Hill Top Road statements

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins Is this horror disguised as fantasy? Found family disguised as horror? Grown-up Neil Gaiman? Less grimdark George R.R. Martin? Honestly I have no fucking idea, but it's amazing. Fair warning, unlike Magnus Archives, this deserves all kinds of trigger warnings, including but not necessarily limited to: sexual assault, torture, mental manipulation, dysfunctional families, incest(?)

Father is missing, and his twelve children (though extremely talented in their own ways, and not strictly speaking children any more) are at a loss without him. But also, without him, things are starting to seem different. He might be God? They might not be human? (They were probably human once.) He might not be God but maybe one of them might be next? If any of them survive.

For you if your favorite part is: slowly turning into a monster, the relationships between entities and avatars, monsters hot (not kidding about the trigger warnings)

The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley I have to keep reminding myself that Magnus Archives isn't really folk horror, there are two separate (if related) strains of British horror here and folk horror is not the one we're on, but at the same time I really want a good creepy rural pagan cult to show up in the series, you know? Anyway.

When he was a child, our narrator used to go with his family on an Easter pilgrimage to shrine on a bleak stretch of Lancaster coastline locals called The Loney. His Catholic mother was searching for a cure for his older brother, and she was convinced if they kept going long enough she would be granted her wish. The locals, however, are not huge fans of her annual visits, and even less so when the boys become involved with the goings-on of a pair of glamorous tourists.

For you if your favorite part is: the Lukases, I didn't realize until I was writing this up that I'm picturing Moreland House in the exact place described by this book

Eutopia by David Nickle One thing I love about the historical statements in Magnus Archives is just how truly historical they are. There's almost nothing in "The Piper" that isn't historically accurate - yes, Wilfrid Owen spent several days in a trench underneath the shredded bodies of his fellow soldiers. Like. You can't make up horror worse than that. But then you add monsters and it gets good. And I'm a sucker for early-twentieth-century history, it's such a bonkers time.

It's 1911 and the new Eugenics Record Office is sending agents out to catalog the disabled, infirm, and otherwise undesirable members of society so they can figure out what to do about them. In the utopian town of Eliada, Idaho, Dr. Andrew Waggoner runs from the racism of American society and straight into the influence of Mister Juke, the most troubling patient in his new practice. (Trigger warnings for, obviously, a whole lot of ableism. Treated like the monstrousness it is, but there's a lot of it.)

For you if your favorite part is: learning history through horror, the Flesh

A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay I hate male writers writing about teenage girls, so you are going to have to trust me when I say that I had to check, several times while reading this book, to make sure that Paul Tremblay is actually a dude. He's very good. This book was kind of his breakout, so if you follow horror you've read it already, but if you don't necessarily then please do not miss it. His newer ones, Disappearance at Devil's Rock (Stranger, Spiral) and The Cabin at the End of the World (Slaughter, Extinction), are also good but not as good as this, I think.

Fourteen-year-old Marjorie is having a rough time - outbursts, hallucinations, paranoia. Treatment is difficult (and expensive) and her family ambivalent; they turn to a local Catholic priest, who recommends an exorcism and, to help manage those medical bills, a production company who's interested in filming a reality TV show about the process. Fifteen years later, Marjorie's sister deconstructs the now-famous show and wrestles with her own memories of childhood. Trigger warnings for ableism on the part of many of the characters, but not the narrative.

For you if your favorite part is: the Spiral, metafictional analysis of horror tropes

#the magnus archives #book recs #there's a lot of other things i could tag this as #but i wrote it for this fandom #is this a transparent excuse to get more people to read booth stories??#it is #it really is

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lunafeather · 5 years

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Top 5 ships that should have happened and Top 5 ships that should NEVER have happened

Anon, this is fucking hard and that’s why it’s taken me a week to answer. It was also a really good one. You’re gonna get descriptions for everything!

Top 5 Ships That Should Have Happened

1. Wynonna x Dolls (Wynonna Earp). For fuck’s sake, it was a perfect slow burn between two messed up, truly good people. They had chemistry, they had humor, they had each other’s backs. They are seriously one of my OTP’s of OTP’s. Xavier Dolls is one of if not my absolute favorite character of all time, and he still deserves better than what he got. He deserved to fall in love with Wynonna, he deserved to know she loved him, they deserved to find happiness with each other and their found family. I’M STILL MAD ABOUT IT.

2. Jack x Elizabeth (Pirates of the Caribbean). STILL MAD ABOUT ELIZABETH SWANN’S ENDING, GONNA DIE MAD ABOUT IT PROBS. Look, Will is nice enough and whatever, but Jack saw who she really was and stoked that fire. She’s a fucking pirate, not a little mom who sits on an island with her kids waiting for Daddy to come back from sea every 7 fucking years. Jack and Elizabeth had chemistry out the wazoo, they would have OWNED the 7 seas. Please pretend Jack isn’t played by Johnny Depp but still looks like he does.

3. Jane x Maura (Rizzoli and Isles). I was so done with this show’s shit that I almost buried all my memories of it lmao listen. LISTEN. Maybe Sasha made it gay on purpose. Maybe they had no idea what they had on their hands. I don’t know. All I know is that there is so much chemistry between Sasha Alexander and Angie Harmon that you could power the United States for 10 years. THE LOOKS. THE TOUCHES. THE FLIRTING BANTER. This show was painful to watch. This show is also one of the absolute best examples of actual queer baiting. It pains me to think about the “bound for life” promo poster. IT PHYSICALLY HURTS. These two are god damn soul mates and you can’t change my mind. Fuck JTam. They did their level best to not let it be gay, and yet they somehow failed.

4. Jackson x April (Grey’s Anatomy). Lord have mercy, I know this ship technically DID happen, but it should have fucking KEPT HAPPENING instead of all the god damn bullshit that happened instead. Slow burn, friends to lovers, perfect for each other. Ugh, I stopped watching the show because of the crap they kept putting these two through. THEY WERE SOULMATES. At least they didn’t kill April off I guess???

5. Katniss x Gale (The Hunger Games, books). I am still so god damn mad that this series ended with Katniss marrying Peeta and having his babies and settling down like a little farmer girl (this is apparently a trend in media). Katniss and Gale were best friends and should have ended up together. He understood her. I just… I really hated the second half of Mockingjay. I think the author just stopped getting her own characters?? Gale’s narrative made no fucking sense! It wasn’t who he was! She turned him into this violence, for-the-greater-good asshole just to make it easier for Katniss to end up with Peeta and I’m always gonna be mad about it.

Honorable Mentions:

Clint x Natasha (Marvel Cinematic Universe). Why have Nat wear a fucking arrow necklace? Why throw away that chemistry? Why randomly create and insert a family for Clint?? It makes no sense, Joss Whedon can go fuck a cactus.

Elliot x Olivia (Law and Order: SVU). We could have had it alllllll. And we almost did. At the end of Season 8, I really thought they were gonna do it. They didn’t. I stopped watching.

Mulan x Aurora (Once Upon a Time). STILL MAD ABOUT THIS.

Top 5 Ships That Should NEVER Have Happened

1. Lorelai x Christopher (Gilmore Girls). I literally stopped watching the show because Lorelai slept with Chris at the end of Season 6. I mean, Season 6 was just not written well AT ALL to start with, everyone was super out of character. But for Lorelai to run to Chris when Chris was such a huge sore spot between her and Luke? When her parents had been pushing Chris on her their entire relationship? When she had repeatedly hidden her conversations with Chris from him? When he (rightfully) was worried about her connection to Chris? Like, yes Luke sucked for hiding April and for delaying their wedding indefinitely, but jesus. Cheating on him with your ex and the father of your kid? Fucking low. I still can’t watch Season 7. Some people say she needed to be sure that her and Chris would never work – I say that how deeply she loved Luke should have shown her that.

2. Wynonna x Doc (Wynonna Earp). Ohhhh boy. Look, I would have been cool with them just hooking up a couple times, but the second this shit turned romantic – nah. They are too alike to EVER work as a romantic couple. He literally knew and was likely romantically and sexually involved with her great great grandfather. Doc should have been written as the father figure Wynonna so desperately needed. Barring all that, when she got pregnant, they could have gone the progressive route and been like, alright, we obviously aren’t good as partners but we can definitely coparent this baby since you are obviously in love with Dolls. BUT NO. We have to have a fucking love triangle (oh I’m sorry, a not love triangle that is oddly shaped like a fucking triangle). Ugh.

3. Rose x Finn (Star Wars). Nope, no. Uh-uh. Nopers. No chemistry, no time, no lead up. Rose hero worshipped Finn and came crashing down and suddenly loves him??? After like 2 days??????? Finn who showed no interest in her because he is clearly in love with Rey???? God, fuck this. Fuck The Last Jedi. Give Rose Tico the substance she deserves.

4. Jane x Casey (Rizzoli and Isles). If you’re gonna force Jane to be straight, at least pair her with a decent dude??? I kind of shipped her with the police guy in season 1 (can’t remember his name, Donnie Whalberg played him) because he took her sass in stride and was attracted to all her tomboyish BS. I thought they would have been good if she just HAD TO BE WITH A DUDE. But instead we’re gonna pair her with this manipulative, gross, christian-values-but-only-so-we-can-say-christian-values veteran dude? Who treated Jane like an accessory and not the badass boss detective she was??? Fuck that. It still pisses me off.

5. Rachel x Joey (Friends). Look. I shipped Ross and Rachel when this show aired. I still kind of do even though the ship is so problematic it hurts (their chemistry is insane, y’all.). But for serious? You’re gonna put JOEY and Rachel together?? Really?? I checked out during seasons 9 and 10 because of this. I mean, first of all, how gross for Joey to just go with the whole proposal snafu despite knowing how Ross felt. How fucking selfish. Second of all, Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc have literally no sexual or romantic chemistry of any kind. It was so forced, it was so awkward, I still can’t watch reruns of this time in the show because it is so painful.

Honorable Mention:

Ted x Robin (How I Met Your Mother). WHAT KIND OF MISOGYNISTIC HETERO BULLSHIT VOMITED ONTO THIS SHOW, I DON’T EVEN GO HERE AND I KNOW THIS IS WRONG. Straight white whiney Nice Guy™ Ted should have ended up alone.

Put “Top 5″ anything in my ask and I’ll answer!

#anon #ask meme #ask meme answers #THANK YOU ANON #THIS WAS A GOOD ONE #Anonymous

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wakraya · 6 years

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Alright, let me put a few points of stuff I’ve seen on the tags to rest here.

1) Jades Are A Rare Caste.

They are implied to be less plentiful than other castes, yeah, I believe Seadwellers are also rare? But here’s the thing- We have six Jades. When someone says “There’s twice as many Jades as we have Rusts or Bronzes”, it sounds like, shit, yeah weren’t they supposed to be less abundant? Except. They’re still, in total, just Six. Alternia is a planet. Lore-wise, they may be a less plentiful Caste, but they’re not even... In the double digits. This is not even the population of a neighborhood, Xefros’ suburban area likely had more Trolls in total than there are Trolls in this Troll Call, and besides it’s likely all Jades are in the same place for some reason- Jadeblood School is the biggest headcanon right now, for example, so... Why wouldn’t you have a bunch of Jades there?

2) Jades Are All Female.

This is a straight-up misconception, yeah they’re mostly girls, but canon still leaves room for Jadeblood boys. So Male Jadeblood? Yeah, can happen, and there’s nothing going against the canon here.

3) Trolls Have No Concept Of Gender.

This one is honestly baffling to me because I haven’t heard about this until the discourse today. I am assuming this comes from the fact Troll Reproduction doesn’t care who provides the genetic material? Their reproduction is not tied to gender, which has made people assume Troll junk is the same for both guys and gals. Except... That’s about it. Even though it’s silly because they’re bugs and implied to be hermaphroditic, they still show sexual dimorphism. And even if they didn’t, they still have a concept of Gender, merely based on the fact there’s Troll Boys and Troll Girls? He/She divide? With Hiveswap expanding on it and showing us there are, indeed, NB Trolls that prefer They/Them. This Gender Divide is actually talked about by Porrim, who also implies that while Fuchsia-down Alternia seemed a Matriarchy, Purple-down it was actually a Patriarchy, informing us that not ONLY is there sexual dimorphism, but also, a cultural divide. By saying that Lanque can’t be Trans because Trolls have no concept of Gender, you’re either mistaking headcanons for actual canon... Or being transphobic by equating genitalia to gender. In which case, fuck off.

4) Trolls Don’t Care About Fashion.

This is something Karkat says, and I believe Kanaya also implies she cares about it more than it’s usual? But Fashion in Troll Culture, seems to be exactly like Mail. Karkat mentions there’s no Mail they do not get a Mailbox with a Flag, yet we see Xefros get mail! Except it’s not Mail. It’s parachuted delivery straight from a website. There’s no standarized Mail system on Alternia, but that doesn’t mean companies can’t deliver things themselves, directly to their Hives. Similarly, Trolls have no concept of Fashion- They don’t care about things such as trends, variety, being dressed properly. And... Hiveswap doesn’t break this. They have more colorful clothes, and some look pretty good! But. Look at Cirava. They’re an absolute fashion disaster. Diemen is just dressed like a hot dog. The Jades all seem to wear uniforms of some sort. Fozzer and Marsti, Skylla, they are more akin to work clothes. The Soleil Twins and Marvus are more flashy, because they’re likely part of a spectacle. Most of them are either a sort of uniform or outfit that’ll fit whatever they’re doing, or a basic color with their symbol somewhere. And you can go from Bright Pink Bathrobe Stelsa, to Pirate-Clad Remele, and back to Punk Denim Elwurd. Not being Fashionable can be about trends, they may simply dress however they want, because of their interests, or their jobs.

But let’s think about this another way. Let’s say that, yeah, they did retcon Troll Fashion- Would... Would you really be mad if they retconned Troll Fashion. Like... Would you be happier if every Troll shown was wearing a plain black shirt with their Symbol, and pants or a skirt, with slight variations of a jacket or a tank top. I don’t think there’s a single Hiveswap design I dislike, and they’re all visibly varied and easily recognizable, and tell a lot about the character, which is like. Character Design 101? So I honestly don’t know what the complaint here is exactly, except Canon Purity.

5) Hiveswap Ruined Fantroll Variety

How. First of all, the entire previous point. Just, expanding upon basic Troll Clothes, showing us the extent of how Trolls dress. But also like... What did they limit exactly? We’re going to learn more about Trolls and Troll Culture and Biology, of course headcanons are going to clash with canon, but so far, what have they limited? I’ve heard about Horns, but like... These horns have all been so varied, and sure there’s stuff like hooks with Ceruleans and Jades, and Four Horns with Golds but... This pattern is also broken, with Azdaja having three, for example. We’ve seen new Psionic colors, we’ve seen stuff like Horn Piercing, we’ve seen Troll Twins, we have seen horns where the orange part starts at different heights than you’d expect and even some of the parts jutting out having their own red-orange-yellow coloration separate of the main shaft of the horn. If anything, until now, there’s always been headcanons for Horns, like, “Oh this is their symbol so it’ll be like this”, or “this is their caste, so, they’ll have big horns”, but no, we have Purples with small horns, we have Bronzes with curly horns downwards, we have a cerulean with super uneven horns, we have a gold with three horns, we have a teal with flat horns, we have rounded horns, we have hotdog horns. I’ve heard people wonder about some Horn Shapes in the prior weeks, about how they didn’t match their restrictive headcanons, and NOW you tell me they’re restrictive? There’s also been complaints about caste roles and stereotypes, and I feel people really forget that Alternia is a Tyranny that forces the inhabitants in roles they are most likely not happy with, specially for the lower castes. Like... Rusts are disposable, and likely to be bound to a life of servitude. Because they’re the lowest of the low, society treats them as such, and there’s stereotypes like Indigos being strong, but that’s not any more restrictive than Psionics being a Gold-only thing, and much like we see Zebede not having Psionics or Elwurd and Mallek having normal eyes to every other cerulean’s messed-up ones... There’s exceptions to the rule everywhere. There have always been.

I’ve also seen complaints about no mutant bloods or things like Albinism and such? And like... The fact they didn’t include it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We actually got Freckles with Zebede, so it already implies skin conditions are a thing, so Albinism could happen, if anything we have more PROOF that it may be a thing! Complaining about a lack of Limebloods and Violets, too, is just nitpicking, we know there will be Violets eventually, but either we haven’t been shown right now, or they’re just. In the sea. And we’re in the land. And Limes are likely to be a plot point, I’m expecting at least ONE Lime (Fiamet), if not more to show up at some point, and if there’s NO Limebloods I’m sure there will be at least talk OF Limebloods and their whole, you know, extermination, which is a canon thing that happened.

6) The Game’s Representation Is Bad Representation

Listen... Listen. I have friends ecstatic that there’s at LEAST three non-cis characters in Hiveswap (One trans boy, two NBs), without counting the possibility of other characters being Trans (Pretty much anyone could be), or NB (Like, I think about half of the characters don’t have pronouns on their bullet points?), not to mention, further acts with new characters. Hell, even Xefros or Dammek or Joey could be Trans. We. Literally know nothing about these characters, our information is so limited, and yet there’s already people cheering about it and super happy to see representation and I’ve seen one person in the tag encouraged to come out because Lanque is Trans. There’s also at least two Jewish Trolls, plus the possibility of Kanaya being Jewish as well, either her, Rose, or both. And yet, even though they have simply said this, in good faith, respectfully, and trying to add diversity to their roster, and even though we literally know NOTHING of how it’ll be handled yet, you... Bash them for it?

Like, okay. Lanque. The big topic today. He’s not particularly masculine, but as has surely been repeated over and over and over again, not all trans men are masculine, and not all trans people suffer dysphoria. And yeah, it’s true! It would be nice if there was a more masculine trans man! It would be great if there were trans girls! It would be great if there were more diversely coded NB characters! And there may be?? There’s going to be more characters, if not in this Act, in future Acts, and of the ones we’ve seen, many of them could still be NB or Trans. Like... Again. We’ve got three bullet points from each character. Like, I’m sorry you didn’t get a trans character that you could identify better with yet? But that doesn’t mean you have to bash the one we got? When there are people genuinely happy and encouraged about it? You’re not being progressive. You’re being an elitist asshole, if you only accept 100% perfect representation suited to your tastes, and everything else is garbage, or god help me, ‘fetishization’ or ‘disgusting’ (I have heard both on the Tags), like seriously. You’re being the oppressive one. You’re the one making representation harder than it should be.

Oh and if you’re on the OPPOSITE side of the spectrum and simply being Transphobic or saying how all of this is ‘pandering’ to the audience, really I have nothing to say, if you cannot have basic empathy for a group of people finding representation in a game which source material is extremely queer, and have to resort to bashing it down, screw you.

7) WhatPumpkin Are Doing A Bad Job

This is your subjective opinion, and I’d dare to say, a wrong opinion, but let’s not go there for now. WP has suffered a lot of hate for some reason? There have been lies and slander and bashing for absolutely no reason. People hate Cohen for some reason, and have demonized him, when so far what I’ve seen about him is that he’s a pretty chill dude. The writing of Hiveswap wasn’t like, a masterpiece? But it was fun and it got a good bunch of chuckles out of me and made me care for the characters, and even got me a bit scared and sad at some points during the game! It has that Homestuck Spark, and if you say ‘it’s not like Homestuck’, you’re... I’m sorry, you’re just an elitist, or simply don’t like the style anymore? But it carries a very similar charm.

I’ve heard complaints about Hussie not being involved in the project- Which is false, he did write the entire story FIRST THING, and is overseeing the whole project with the rest of the team. There’s also been criticism towards WP ‘failing’ at representation (Before actually seeing the representation apparently, again, we know NOTHING about the game and how it’ll handle stuff so far), and also accusing WP and Cohen specifically of adding representation because of Woke Points and like... WP are Queer as Heck? I don’t know all of them, I don’t even know how many people are working at WP. But they’re not all straight 100% for sure, and I believe they’re not all cis- And even if they ARE all cis, I also doubt a group working on such a Queer game would NOT hear out from Trans friends. What I’m trying to say, is that they haven’t shown at any point disrespect of ignorance regarding the diversity they want to tackle, they’re not doing things out of bad faith, and we haven’t seen how they handle it yet. Even if they didn’t handle it ideally! Does it need to be absolutely perfect, there can be missteps on the way there, god dammit if someone’s trying to better themselves but not quite getting it right you don’t insult them and tear them down! You show them what to do better next time or where they are mistaken, by pessimistically ignoring what they’re trying to do out of spite you’re discouraging good will and being an asshole! Which leads me to my last point for now.

8) They Could Have Told Us We Were Misgendering Lanque

This one is... Really, a bit ridiculous. Okay, let me explain. If someone is Trans and you misgender them accidentally, they’ll tell you quickly and you’ll, hopefully, correct yourself. Obviously. When the Trolls leaked, everyone latched onto Lanque as ‘Butch Lesbian’, and clung to that hope, and now that they were proven wrong, there was salt, at first, and THEN came the talk about Misgendering Lanque. And let me tell you, I think this is very selfish of everyone saying it.

What WP likely thought would happen is that they’d reveal Lanque to be a Trans boy, and people would be like “Oh! Nice, Trans Rep!”. Sure they could’ve told us back then but... Why? Lanque is not. A real person. He’s a fictional character, he’s not going to be offended because you thought he was a butch woman for a few months, in fact the SILHOUETTE alone ALREADY had people clinging to him as a butch woman. If he were a real person? Of course there’d be a quick correction. But he’s. A character. He’s just a god damn character. Who is Trans, out of good faith by a very Queer company, showing us a Trans man, who is a character, and expecting that, like NORMAL PEOPLE, we would not do something like THIS.

When you criticize WP for not telling us Lanque was a Trans Man, all I’m seeing is a shift of blame, not wanting to simply admit you were wrong and jumped to conclusions, and like- Even if there was Fanart or Fanfic of Lanque calling him a woman briefly, shipping him around mistakenly, who cares? You just. Go. “Okay, I’ll change it” or “Whoops haha this was from when we didn’t know he was a Trans boy!” Why the militant hatred? Why the absolute disgust shown today? I can’t understand, I simply cannot understand why your first reaction to “Trans boy Jadeblood” is “WELL I THOUGHT HE WAS A BUTCH LESBIAN!! I WASN’T WRONG BY ASSUMING THIS, WHATPUMPKIN WERE FOR TRYING TO MAKE THEIR GAME MORE DIVERSE”. It’s like... You just. Correct it? You just correct yourself? And yeah you can want more masculine Trans boys, that’s fair! But dismissing what we got, entirely, and insulting it, and getting like THIS, and blaming the team, it just seems.

Narcissistic. It seems narcissistic and extremely self-centered, and perfectionist to the extreme of not wanting anything other than a complete and absolute ideal, that may fit you but may also not fit others.

In conclusion?

People are happy about representation. This isn’t destroying diversity or representation, this is not reducing customization of Fantrolls, this is only building MORE on the already expansive system, and giving us representation and hope for MORE representation in the future, and if you cannot be happy for a genuine, good natured, and honestly, perfectly fine attempt, if you cannot feel empathy for the people who did feel for this representation, if you can only want to find reasons to bash something down and demonize something good and point out how BAD and NOT GOOD things are and how MUCH BETTER they could be, then honestly, you’re a deeply unpleasant person.

Give things time. Give people with good intentions chances. Learn to backpedal and learn from mistakes and simply correct yourself when you’re wrong instead of going down a hateful spiral. Learn to separate fiction and reality. Just like... Think, for a moment, when you’re writing something down- Is it a jaded opinion, or an objective fact? Will it hurt and discourage people who’re genuinely happy or trying to make others happy? Why do more harm than good when there are good intentions paving the way?

I just simply cannot understand the basic lack of critical thought and empathy of some people I have seen today, and hopefully with this I can make my opinion on the whole absurd Discourse that transpired today clear.

#Hiveswap #Homestuck #Lanque #WhatPumpkin #Discourse #Long Post #Longpost

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bewitchthequeen · 7 years

Text

Our Problems With Teen Wolf

Note: My friend, @knightedtime, and I made this a while back and I decided to release it because the world should know our feelings XD Or something meaningful like that. So here we go.

I have nothing against the actors. I have nothing against the writers. This are just my complaints. Any hostility will be exploited.

Feel free to add your own if you’d like! Just include a line break.

Jackson Whittemore. He came off as a huge asshole even when they tried to make him sympathetic and I was indifferent to him “dying” temporarily.

No reasons for Lydia acting shallow, vapid and pretending to be dumb while she was with Jackson. It was never addressed. Never talked about why she did that and everyone just acts like it didn’t happen. Okay.

Lydia doesn’t seem to have friends. You can claim the Pack are her friends but ??? They don’t hang out much. Like hang out like normal people their age. So I think Danny was her only real friend because he showed concern and shit and talked to her outside of mystery problem stuff.

Theo Raeken being a Peter Hale rip off. Cause that’s what he is. And trusting him about anything is bullshit. He fucked that up. Maybe had he been developed more I’d be more understanding. Nothing against Cody Christian but Theo is just another evil dude with pretty face. At least Peter had some sort of depth.

Stydia last season

Most Stydia fans

Stydia in general

Stydia being shoved down my throat.

Season 5 in general

Kira’s “ending”. It was bullshit. There was some open ended shit so her story being over was bullshit. BULLSHIT. BULLLLSHIT. and I hope Arden Cho is doing great things after that utter bullshittery.

The loss and lack of Danny. I fucking loved him and he was just gone. Another actor mistreated on this asshole show. Well, I hope Keahu Kahuanui is doing greater things than this.

Last season is about Stiles. At least 6a. I’m sorry but in NO way should the last season of the show being about the sidekick. I don’t give a shit what or who he is. STILES SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE MAIN GOAL OF 6A. I don’t give a shit about what Stiles fans and Stydia fans have to say about it.

Scott and Stiles’ friendship is continuously on a downward spiral. Stiles has always been the dominating personality in the relationship. Check out all of season one if you don’t believe me. Scott just recently started coming into his own with being an alpha, a leader. I feel like Stiles doesn’t like that. Aside from this, I also feel like Stiles expects certain privileges with being Scott’s “best friend” but their relationship has corroded and they can’t really be “best friends” if Scott no longer trusts Stiles. And I don’t believe he does, regardless of what Jeff says.

The unrealistic relationships. Stydia. Stalia. Mainly. Because it’s kind of relationships that they just kind of pulled out of their asses and were like “meh”. Adelaide and Gage left and Stiles just needed someone.

No explanation for what happened to Derek. Literally. I know that Tyler H. said he wasn’t coming back but the show never explained where Derek went. Yet another character that we’re suppose to just forget about.

Scott’s development from season 3 to season 5. Where is it? I mean, yes, he was kind of an asshole in season 2 when it came to Derek making more werewolves. Then it went stagnant.

The fandom/fanbase. The most vocal (I don’t want to say majority) are the Stydia people. The most vocal of the Stydia people seem to be bullying the actors and I AIN’T ABOUT THAT. Listen up, you little parasites, your show is ending due to you bitching all the time. Had it not been for that, might have gotten some more.

The shipping wars

Layden. Another rushed relationship that I don’t have the capacity to care about. Plus the “homage” to Scallison is just -.- exhausting.

Theo Raeken comes back for season 6, erasing the last thing Kira did on the show. Thanks.

Rehashing old relationship. Same as 19, but it really urked me so let’s put it up here twice.

Theo Raeken in general

Lydia and Jackson ever being a thing. It was a toxic relationship. They were both kind of hateable. Some people are just too toxic to be together. Maybe had Colton Hayes stayed the could have worked on that, but Colton deserves better so he can go ahead and do what he’s doing.

Stydia in General because it’s really cliche if you look at it. That whole popular girl gets won over by the nerd/geek is so worn out. Usually, I’m all for an underdog story, but Stiles isn’t an underdog. He’s kind of an asshole. He kind of treats everyone like garbage (even Lydia in some instances) and the two of them are usually at odds. Honestly, Stydia happening (to me) isn’t out of love, but out of Lydia paying homage to her dead best friend because Allison was the one who told Lydia to give him a chance. Make of that what you will.

Scott moving too quick. I mean… His relationships go from like 5 to 100 in a matter of episodes. It’s a bit concerning even though he’s a sweet boy. It makes me concerned for him.

WTF HAPPENED TO LAHEY (I know he’s with Chris but wtf? No updates on him). Not even mentioned again. He doesn’t exist.

The last season being focused on Stiles when they knew beforehand that Dylan O’ Brien was going to be busy and it really should be focusing on the Titular Character given that it’s last season. (On here twice cause it’s BULLSHIT).

The way that Jeff Davis treats his actors. I’m looking at Danny’s actor and Kira’s.

Peter Hale never got a redemption arc until season 6, but Theo basically got his immediately. Theo’s redemption is bullshit at that. Using fear as a redemption tool is never successful. Scared Straight doesn’t work for murderers. If it doesn’t work for sex offenders, it’s not going to work for Theo. Sorry, not sorry.

The fact Peter is probably going to get screwed over again. Wouldn’t surprise me.

The fact that Brett and Liam would have been more believable than Layden and Brett and Liam borderline hating each other. Maybe it’s chemistry, maybe it’s the fact that Layden was so rushed. The world may never know.

There’s not any main queer relationships. I dare you to name your top three in season 6 without repeating any characters. I fucking dare you.

They bring in a Bi character and he’s not used much. *cough*BrettTalbot*cough*

I can’t be excited for season 6 because of the past seasons (mainly 5) being at least somewhat disappointing

The fact that they claimed there wasn’t room for Kira and yet they casted a bunch of people for season 6 who were new.

Not that I ship it, but They baited Sterek a lot outside of the show for views.

Scott trusts Theo more than he trusts Stiles. So much for best friends, am I right?

Stiles kinda being an ass to Scott after Scott died and expecting Scott to be everywhere at once, resulting in that one gif where Stiles attacked Scott very fucking violently. Scott is a werewolf, not a superhero.

The show focuses more on Stiles’ Trauma more than anyone else’s. Scott and Lydia dealing with the loss of Allison, a part of an episode of them crying and the occasional mention. Why did Lydia act dumb? What went on with Scott since he didn’t have a dad? How has them being what they are affected them mentally? What about Malia’s trauma? These things are merely touched upon everyone once in a while. Stiles’ trauma is probably enough to write a thesis paper on.

Having no real reason other than Allison’s death for Isaac leaving (even that relationship was WAY too fast and wasn’t love based, like, at all)

Allison and Isaac’s relationship to begin with. There’s so much with this relationship that just grates me.

Allison tried to justify torturing people who had nothing to do with her mom’s death. Like I understand, but that also made it seem like they were going to set her up as a villain in later seasons, which for her not to go that route made it pretty damn disappointing and pissed me off. (Especially when she seemingly expected Derek to be cool with her. Fun Fact: Once you start disliking someone with a passion, everything that person does pisses you off so I can’t fault Derek here).

Gerard being alive. Just… That bitch.

The fact Scott is barely ever “single” and thus making him pretty fucking unrelateable. In highschool, I only date two people, some of my friends never dated, and some of my friends dated their s.o. freshman year or earlier to senior year. Plus, we never really seen him mourn Allison much so that could be a reason.

Kira’s story arc season 5 because that was weak to the point I barely remember wtf she was doing. Basically, made her character less memorable other being “that one girl Scott dated that wasn’t Allison”

The fact that Allison died at all, when really, they could have just let her actress leave and It’s like if you look at most people who are written off the show, the majority of Females who do DIE.

Stalia vs. Stydia. Stiles should work on his personality a bit before he should be in a relationship but whatever

Wtf happened to Lydia’s dad?

Wtf happened to Scott’s dad?

The show just gets more unrealistic and unrelatable. These kids basically have no breaks in between problems .-. In continuation to this, I’m adding the fact that this shit always happens to these kids and while it’s a tv show and everything, it’s rly unrealistic that everything happens to them.

There’s a rumor that Scott’s going to kick the bucket for the last season and I don’t like it.

Malia getting hate for dating Stiles.

Lydia’s sudden feelings for Stiles (Fandom would claim differently, but She looks really annoyed when he talks and their “humor” sounds somewhere between “I fucking hate you” and demeaning).

Void!Stiles not being addressed much (or the results of that rather).

Just now delving into more of Lydia’s abilities :l and they’re still pretty fucking shoddy.

Stydia getting so much fanservice. For example, the whole Stiles holding Lydia’s hand when it reasonably should have been Scott, considering they’re closer as “friends” and he can take away pain.

The Wendigo thing. Just… What the fuck man. Don’t introduce new creatures if you aren’t going to delve. Seriously.

How everything always happens in Beacon Hills (I understand the whole Nemeton drawing people there but still :l minus when they went to Mexico which can barely be counted :l)

The fact that the show treated Kira’s departure like a joke with the hashtag, but when it comes to Stiles’ Jeep, they take it seriously. You value you a character over a car. Congrats, assholes.

There’s no actual way that Stydia would work out considering the who “Try being less scared” line Stiles told Lydia while working on his Jeep (which is just one instance. This is NOT banter. This is NOT an old married couple).

Stiles is becoming more of an asshole with the more paranoid he gets which is why he shouldn’t be involved with this shit in the first place.

The whole ‘Some of us are human’ line. Like sorry, asshole. I like you most of the time, but still.

Tbh the way Stiles used to treat Lahey. Like, motherfucker he was abused and Stiles doesn’t acknowledge that and tells him he “milking” that. Lahey has trauma, you have mommy issues. Stop valuing your trauma over everyone else’s. Your trauma is pathetic compared to most other people’s.

The way that the fandom treats Parrish when it comes to Lydia. She’s 18 guys and not even supposed to be in high school anymore, considering she could graduate early if she wanted. When you’re 18 you can date anyone older than you without people blinking an eye.

Kate ending up being a werejaguar where she was scratched by werewolf Peter Hale. Just the whole “the bite effects how you feel” or whatever. No. You get bit my a werewolf, you should become a werewolf. Whatever, man. I’m tired of applying logic to this show…

JD disregards his actors feelings

Fandom being Hypocrites when it comes to Posey doing something wrong, when Dylan O’Brien’s done some bad shit too. LEAVE POSEY ALONE.

We didn’t get a funeral for Allison. (But we got one for Crazy Kate -.-)

The show is more about ships than anything else. What is a story line?

The fact Allison’s mom was a bitch and Allison’s “hallucinations” show her as a bitch but she went off the deep end because of her bitchy mom was dead.

They promote Stiles so much that most people think he’s the lead main character. Before I started watching this show, I seriously thought Stiles was the main character. Imagine my surprise when Scott was the werewolf.

All their female characters are kind of shit :l or in the process of going to shit… Or they’re dead... Or gone. My feelings for Malia fluctuate, they reduced Lydia to a crying, moping mess who was willing to risk Scott’s life for Stiles Stfuckboylinski, Erica is dead, Cora is/was female Derek, Allison is dead, Kira will be remembered as “Kitsune girl who dated Scott” because their lack of using her, Hayden… wait… who is Hayden again?, Let’s not touch Krazy Kate, who’s Braedan again? Wait, where did Marin go? Oh, fuck!

Can’t say much for their male characters either at this point.

The fact that they kinda ended Kira’s story with a cliffhanger.

How Lydia was cool with Peter and went to him for help after the whole possession and “you” thing that happened. “Yeah, I know that you were like haunting me or whatever and literally made me feel like I was losing my mind which you never really tried to make up for, but I totally and completely trust you”

Why the fuck was it necessary to kill Erica? Is that the only way this show knows how to get rid of characters?

The fact that they probably brought theo back to make Matheo a thing. He fucking shot her. If I was Malia, I’d sooner rip his head off.

People defending Stydia with “It’s only fanservice if you don’t agree with it”. No, it’s fanservice because you bitched for it and the writers want to pacify you and hope you shut up. “The Stydia moments every season is only a thing if you ship it”. Nope, it’s fanservice. Holland Roden even admitted that season 6a was fanservice. (I say all of 6a because it was Stiles centered and seemed more like fan fiction than an actual tv show).

For how old everyone was, I’m kind of shocked that Allison and Lydia were still friends after Lydia made out with Scott… Unless she never found out about that? I don’t know man.

Allison neglecting her and Lydia’s friendship and only paying attention to get help from her resulting in what happened with Peter, but no one addresses that. Which, to me, makes Allison not the best bestie.

People sending Malia and Parrish’s actors death threats over Stydia. Are you guys serious? This is why the show is garbage and this is why it’s ending and views are dropping. Kudos to Shelley Hennig and Ryan Kelley for putting up with that shit.

The fact that none of the female cast have storylines that are front and center. They all seem to be in the background more than anything. The women of this show are more like props (excluding Allison and Melissa).

Stydia fanbase freaking out over anything bad that happens to Dylan or Holland. I’m pretty sure that whole freak out of her getting pushed is enough to explain my feelings towards this.

Then antiStydia people making hashtags telling Holland to kill herself :l That’s not fair guys. It’s not Holland’s fault there’s a bunch of oversized babies shoving their ship down your throat.

The actors getting any kind of threats over a FUCKING FICTITIOUS TV SHOW! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! YOU’RE DOING THIS TO A REAL PERSON OVER A FAKE FUCKING TV SHOW. YOU PEOPLE NEED TO BE ON SO MANY FUCKING DRUGS TO THINK THAT’S AT ALL ACCEPTABLE. A FAKE RELATIONSHIP SHOULDN’T BE THE CENTER OF YOUR LIVES. JESUS FUCKING CHRIST LEAVE THIS POOR PEOPLE ALONE YOU DEMENTED ASSHOLES. GO TO YOU FUCKING FAN FICTION AND JUST FUCKING STOP. JUST FUCKING STOP PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD STOP.

JD giving the stydia fandom what they want when they don’t deserve it and they’re just a bunch of a brats.

The fandom shipping the actors together when they are real people with lives. This is just a general pet peeve of mind. Stop shipping living, breathing functional people unless you’re shipping them with their significant other. Don’t get caught up in other people’s life and start living yours.

The fact that apparently JD hinted Stiles was Bi and never did anything with it? :l He’s the straightest person ever. Seriously, I have never seen anyone straighter than Stiles Stilinski.

The Panic Attack kiss .-. I don’t wanna say it was OOC but it was a lot less Lydia like than everything else and the begin of Lydia acting less like herself like people do when they’re in an abusive relationship! (That was also the kind of panic attack that requires space too.)(Yeah -.- but oooo stydia)

The fact that the fandom was anti Malia (partially because she punched him once) but was totally cool shipping Sterek despite the fact that Derek p much assaults Stiles whenever Stiles steps out of line

Stiles also kinda treats Derek badly and Really? I don’t see why anyone would consider them to be ‘Friends’.

Lacrosse is somehow popular. Don’t know how, but Beacon Hills seems about the same size as Fresno is and really? I don’t know how lacrosse got so popular when beacon hills has a football team and that’s the so called american sport.

Fandom is woo girl power one minute, then bitching about Malia and Kira (Lydia less than those two) as individual parts.

The fact that everyone’s character development is all over the place, basically all the time

Basically all the female characters getting slut shamed

People thinking that Stiles deserves Lydia, like she’s some sort of prize to be won. Lydia is a fucking person. Fucking chauvinists.

Tbh the people who get the least amount of hate are more abusive? (examples?)(Jackson, Derek (though Derek’s “hate” is more the fandom sexualizing him?)) (I’ve seen them call Scott abusive and I’m like okay HOW.)

Ima just say this now, which prob ties to a lot of the actor stuff earlier, but the way the fandom treats Tyler Posey specifically like… I really just… :l (It’s frankly disgusting how they treat him.)(It really is :c) So much love in my heart for that boy. I just want to fucking hug him and make him feel better.

The fact that they’re putting Parrish in a Freezer during season 6 when he could help.

Ik that Lydia wouldn’t do this because Lydia and Allison were “best friends” but tbh Lydia has more romantic and even more friendship chemistry with Scott than she does with Stiles (Yeah. I noticed that.)

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arielmagicesi · 7 years

Note

Hi, sorry. So I am new to the st/efvater world, and I've only read one of her books (raven boys), and like I see you posting stuff about her a lot, but only like little bits and pieces, and I feel like I'm missing something and don't understand what's going on cause I'm not really in the fandom; I've just read one book, and don't really know anything about her. I'm sorry, this is rambling mess, but if you could enlighten me a little bit I would appreciate it.

OK I took a while to respond and I’m gonna try to be objective and polite but there isn’t a whole lot of objective politeness in this soul of mine, but I will try.

Maggie St/efvater (I only spell it that way so it doesn’t show up in her tag and annoy people, I’ll just call her Maggie for the rest of this post) is this fairly popular YA author, and she wrote the Wolves of Mercy Falls series, the Scorpio Races, and the Raven Cycle. Her writing is very good (I have some bones to pick about it as a writer but mostly it’s pretty good) and the Raven Cycle in particular has gained a big fandom because it’s an excellent series. I guess you would know cause you’ve read TRB- the concept is unique, it has cool magic stuff, there’s fascinating character concepts, and the teenagers do a lot of realistic teenager stuff like being annoying and cursing and either doing their homework or not, etc. And if I haven’t made it abundantly clear with my posts, a lot of us in the fandom fell in love with the main characters for many reasons, but especially because they represent parts of ourselves that aren’t often represented. Abuse victims who don’t react in a Good Abuse Victim way, poor teenagers who scrape and claw to get out of their shitty towns, mentally ill kids who have ugly unpleasant symptoms, girls who are feminists but whose feminism is a little messy because they grow up in a terrible small town, etc.

Unfortunately, the development of the Raven Cycle fandom online, like the development of ANY goddamn fandom on the accursed Internet, led to some gross pockets of fandom. In the second book, an abusive character called Ka/vinsky shows up, and some heavy subtext suggests that he’s gay and into one of the main characters, Ronan. He’s absolutely awful and monstrous to Ronan and the others, but you know how fandom is, they started shipping it and being like “Ka/vinsky’s just a misunderstood cinnamon roll uwu” and generally being the worst about it. Additionally, some parts of fandom started hating on the two lower-class characters, Adam and Blue, for not always being sweet and nice about the class privilege of all their wealthy friends, and for reacting "badly” to literal abuse and sexism. so the fandom is a mess, yeah

In the second and third books, also, (spoiler alert I guess? I mean if you follow my blog you can’t avoid knowing this haha) it’s suggested and then made all but direct canon, that Ronan is gay and has a crush on Adam. So, like, everyone shipped it because they’re a great ship and it was pretty obvious it was gonna be made canon in book four.

But Maggie interacts a lot with the fandom online, and obviously the clashing of fandom issues like this with any author would lead to some mess, but the way she treated it was....... terrible. She would make jokes about Ronan being Gansey’s “dog” and things like that. She milked the whole “writing a gay character” thing for all it was worth, and would never really say “hey, Adam and Ronan are a romantic thing” but would hint at it constantly, which, if you don’t know, is agonizing to watch when you’re desperate for any representation of your identity. She eventually said “I realize you guys are used to being baited, so don’t worry, the ‘other kiss’ will be between the people you hope it’ll be between” or something like that. And she would talk about Ronan being gay, but never address whether Adam was bi, and god forbid those words were used in the books. In the fourth book, although they do actually kiss and presumably get together, they don’t talk about it, and they never use the words “gay” or “bisexual.” Her excuse was that she’s writing for a world without labels. Leaving aside that that’s bullshit and a straight* woman doesn’t get to say that when we are out here in a homophobic world and saying our labels out loud is a sign of pride, she actually didn’t write a world without labels. The aforementioned Ka/vinsky is constantly using homophobic slurs to describe Ronan, boys at the private school make homophobic jokes, Adam’s dad makes lowkey homophobic remarks, etc. So labels are OK if they’re nasty and negative and used against you, but you’re never allowed to say who you are out loud.

When she gets called out on this whole mess- or a number of other things**- her response is to block people, tell people “if you are hostile one more time you’ll be blocked,” to reply to private posts by teenagers, to sic her army of clueless fans on young LGBT mentally ill readers, to claim that she’s being bullied and attacked, to make vague posts talking about “callout culture” and how it’s mature to avoid “discourse,” etc. I talked a while back about how I’ve made several fully thought-out posts critiquing her, but when I sent her a polite ask about her next book, she replied linking me to one of my own joke posts about “hating” her, making it clear that she apparently has me down on some sort of list of haters or something. And at least she responded privately, so that her other fans didn’t attack me, which has happened to other younger fans before.

She claims to be an ally, but she only really wants the ally points. She’ll talk your ear off about how brave she is for “writing an on-page queer relationship” as a straight woman, but when actual queer teenagers critique her for the way she writes it, she throws a fit and absolutely refuses to listen. She doesn’t want to do the work.

Additionally, she is writing a follow-up series called “the dreamer trilogy” which she drops constant hints about on her social media. It will center on Ronan (naturally, because she’s admitted Ronan is her self-insert and has butchered his character development for the sake of giving him a life identical to hers and fulfilling her fantasies of driving fast cars 24/7 and being an asshole with no consequences) and she’s making it increasingly obvious that none of the other characters we all fell in love with will feature at all. And basically any plotllines we enjoyed, she scraps (often out of spite?), and any plotlines we hate, she makes sure to write tons about (I’m talking about the magical artifact community. No one cares. We started reading for the house of psychics and Glendower and Gwenllian, not the fucking Greenmantles and their haunted doll babies or whatever).

The fandom obviously responded with like “ooh! more Pynch!” because like, fandoms like ships, but ALSO BECAUSE some of us are goddamn LGBT teenagers who are starving for representation and we want to see that “on page queer relationship” she brags about. And yet, at every opportunity, she makes remarks like, “This won’t be a romance. It won’t be the cuddle trilogy. It won’t have relationship drama, that doesn’t interest me. It won’t be fanservice. It won’t be lovey dovey, it won’t be cute, etc.” No, I don’t want fanservice or drama or the cuddle trilogy. But given her history, when Maggie says shit like that, I get worried, as someone who’s been baited a thousand times before. Doesn’t anyone see how awful it is to dangle representation like this? To say “ooh, look, someone who has the same identity as you? Juuuust kidding I’m not writing about it?” She can’t just say what we want to hear, which is “Adam will be there. I’ll say the word gay. I’ll say the word bisexual. Their relationship will be treated as real as Blue and Gansey’s or as any other relationship I write. Not the main focus of the plot, but THERE.” Because she’s not GOING to do any of those things, because writing actual gay relationships makes her uncomfortable. But she can’t say that or she’ll lose her sales.

And when she says all this bullshit about “I won’t write a romance” she gets so much FUCKING praise from her straight readers who think she’s the sun and fucking stars because their shit brand of feminism thinks all romances are equal and romance is insipid drivel and that a feminist book, apparently, is one token white girl who has a pink switchblade being sort-of in the background of a bunch of rich boys fucking around. I’m not saying I didn’t like that very book and that I don’t love that girl and her switchblade, but Maggie has to actually LEARN and IMPROVE and not go backwards. If she wants all this credit for gay representation, she has to actually write gay representation. And if not, I’m not congratulating her for “not writing relationship drama!!!!” because all that says to me is “yuck, I’m not writing gay stuff.” She says “relationship drama doesn’t interest me” and yet she wrote pages upon pages of Blue’s mother making out with a hit man. Relationship drama sure does seem to interest her. This isn’t her taking a Stand against romance, it’s her finding a way to make homophobia seem cool and progressive.

So yeah. That’s why she pisses me off.

*I know I know, “she’s never said her sexuality! How can you call her straight?” On the off chance she’s bisexual (she’s married to a man with kids), that doesn’t excuse her homophobic bullshit. She’s acting like an asshole straight person so yeah I’m gonna call her straight.

**Here are some other problems she’s been called out for and her bullshit reactions:

-Blue is basically the only female character and has no female friends or anything. Maggie says “well none of them had friends!” OK so why isn’t there another girl in the group? Why is her family the only other women who have page time besides villains and other relatives of main characters?

-Gansey gives Adam a lot of grief for not being fond of Gansey’s wealth, but Adam never makes Gansey apologize for blaming Adam for the abuse he endured? Maggie doesn’t have a comment on this, I don’t think.

-In book four, Ronan and Adam make racist jokes at the expense of the One (1) character of color, Henry Cheng. Maggie didn’t address this outright because “spoilers” but made a post about it saying that it wasn’t meant to be a racist joke, it was a throwback to some random joke from book one, and any good reader would know that.

-Blue isn’t a very intersectional feminist, which is fine, but it’s never really addressed, apparently because “all the characters are damn fools!” Who never get any character development except for Adam whose development essentially consists of “I stopped being prejudiced against the rich!” (and lots of other personal things but still)

Yeah, that’s about all I can think of. This didn’t end up being very neutral but I have class in 10 minutes and yeah this is hella long I just wanted to get it all out. I hope I don’t get shit for this, but you know what, anons? Go ahead, send me stuff saying I’m a nasty bitch and should stay away from fandom for criticizing poor Maggie. I don’t even care.

OH AND THEBROKENBREAKINGSEAS: THANK YOU FOR YOUR QUESTION. I know I answered in a horrifically mean tone but that ISN’T directed towards you, you were just asking! Don’t take my words at face value, I’m super biased. If you’re interested, you can go read Maggie’s blog and Twitter account, or other fans’ essays on this, etc. I’m glad you asked! And thanks for still following me after all this stuff haha. I’m normally... nicer? I think? Thanks again.

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scadaz · 7 years

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Harry Potter for the changes post

ONLY 5??? okay nah i got this

okay i dont actually got this this is too long so im putting it under a cut

1) first and foremost make the inexplicit explicit. make dumbledore explicitly gay. make hermione explicitly black. at the very least the things that she has confirmed or alluded to in the aftermath of releasing the books and at the most like…everything. maybe explore the way that race plays into the worldbuilding of the wizarding world rather than just make an allegory for it. explore how harry being biracial places him in the world and how the different sides of his life (dursleys vs the wizards) view him and his heritage. put more young queer romances in there. maybe the reason ron is so jealous isn’t just because he likes hermione but ALSO because he ALSO likes krum and is really confused about his feelings?? replace the whole lavender romance with a dude and let lavender and parvati run off together like they were always meant to. let trans kids exist in hogwarts!!! you know what would have made ginny’s whole “arc” a lot more bearable?? if she’d been a trans girl learning to overcome her shyness and gain confidence in herself as she puts herself out there into the hogwarts-sphere. just generally opening up the worldbuilding and characters to more accurately reflect the world in comparison to well...what it was......also maybe like don’t rely on real world stereotypes l i k e..........

2) make the characters who are supposed to be likable actually likable. like....i know the marauders have a huge fanbase and everyone loves them but there isn’t really much to love in the canon??? imho. they’re super huge dicks when they were younger and we hardly get to see any transition from them learning how to be better people or having regret in the way that they acted before. we’re only supposed to believe it because they’re good to each other (ie learning how to be animagi to support their bud lupin) and we’re just told they’re good when they’re older and that’s the end of that. so how i would change it is including more scenes of james, sirius, and lupin growing older and acting like better people. since its from harry’s perspective this can be done through sirius and lupin sharing stories or again having some more regretful reflection on their younger years. also give wormtail more nuance?? is he at all regretful for turning on his friends, does he have second thoughts, maybe he tries to make things right in the end?? i know the “he was only in gryffindor because he valued bravery and everything gryffindor was despite not being it himself” but like it would be cool if there was something more....idk wormtail couldve been a more nuanced character......

3) speaking of possible redemption arcs tho how about some actual redemption arcs?? first we have draco, who despite having multiple hints of having a sweeping redemption arc the whole thing just sort of....falls flat. idk i dont really pay much attention to dracos character and there are people who could speak to this way better than i could go look at their meta.but then snape. SNAPE!!!! undoubtedly the worst character in the series and the bane of my existence. the worst part is he really COULD have been the ‘villain-but-not-really-he-was-good-all-along’ character jkr wanted to be if we just changed some pretty fucking major things his character in his character. first like....don’t....make him a child abuser??? its really that simple!!! don’t abuse children!!!!! like he could have just been a stern and surly teacher who yeah is maybe too strict and is maybe an asshole but also doesn’t like. fucking abuse children because of his own vendettas. IT’S NOT HARD like children/teens always think teachers are out to get them when their teachers are just kind of dicks it could have easily been just that without snape doing a ton of the awful shit he did. like remember when they saw snape muttering when harry’s broom was going nuts so they just assumed he was evil and doing it himself when really he was just trying to be a good guy??? more of that. like the whole thing.second like make his love for lily a legit and motivating thing rather than the creepy stalkerish thing it became. maybe instead of snape being the one to tell voldemort the prophecy so that he can kill james and harry (wtf????????!!!!!!!!!) he overhears someone else tell voldemort the prophecy and begs voldemort to spare them (yeah ALL of them!!!! because even tho hes a salty salamander he still wouldn’t wish death upon those who makes lily happy because that’s!!!! what love is!!!!!) . and when he doesn’t that’s when he realized he fucked up and joined the wrong side. and then actually looks out for harry growing up. like maybe he can’t bring himself to be a full fatherly figure because he’s still an asshole but he doesn’t actively go out of his way to be a huge dick to harry just because he’s bitter that lily had a child with someone else. and in the end when he gives his memories it shows all the moments where harry thought snape was being a dick but actually behind the scenes he was doing all he could to protect and push harry along on his journey because he loved lily and hates himself for the way he treated her and he also loves harry and you know stuff that could play into the whole love thing without being a creepy vindictive abusive stalker!!!!i hate canon snape not just because he’s the worst but because he could’ve been written to be the actually good character he’s framed to be.

4) a better approach to houses!!!! like i get its told from harrys perspective so of course Gryffindor Is The Best but like. it is soooo easy to make the houses more nuanced and balanced look at every piece of fanfic and rp ever (okay thats obviously hyperbole but still. point is it aint hard). maybe add more characters to each house!! i get its easier to just have the golden trio all be gryffindor but how interesting would it have been to have them scattered across the houses but still manage to become friends. and yeah maybe some slytherins can be jerks but also maybe thats just how harry sees it because the first slytherin he met was a piece of shit!!! but there are tons of good slytherins and maybe some join dumbledore’s army or hell at least come back for the battle of hogwarts!!!! and then there can be plenty of death eaters who come from all across the house spectrum. hufflepuffs who are undyingly loyal to voldemort. ravenclaws who love learning about the dark arts. gryffindors who would absolutely sacrifice themselves for their dark cause. like. its so easy. its soooooo easy. and then there would be equal merch of all the houses across the spectrum and people would be able to be proud of their houses without having to justify “yeah well not all slytherins are evil!!! hufflepuffs can be cool look at cedric!!!!! ravenclaws care about more than just getting good grades!!!!!”it’s so easy. im so mad.

5) STOP!!!!!! just. stop the fucking series. of course rewrite the epilogue to show not everyone being Straight Married With Children but how the war affected them. maybe it be a couple months or a couple years after everything and yeah maybe you can make some couples canon if you really want but thats not what i would do personally. show that they’re struggling but they’re surviving. they’re there for each other. use it to drive home a few of the main themes.and then just STOP!!!!!!!! NO MORE!!!!!!! like yeah maybe pottermore could be used to post some cute little quips that expand background characters and fill in plot holes that couldn’t be explained in the books. we learn more about professor’s histories, maybe some cool worldbuilding about stuff that was sort of mentioned but just!!!! no cursed child!!!!! no fantastic beasts!!!!! no making up shit for countries and cultures that you barely know about and don’t feel like researching or being actually respectful towards!!!!!!!!! let the fans do all of that for you stop putting your foot in your mouth and milking the cash cow!!!!!! just!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

anyway that was a horrible ramble that isn’t actually all that well thought out nor did i reread it but take it anyway my lovely followers

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faeuniblog · 7 years

Text

Bi-Zine - Script

(Page 2)

My name is Fae-Jinni and I will be your guide through this Zine about the Bisexual community.

So, what is Bisexuality?

Bisexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction toward both males and females. It’s one of the three main classification of sexual orientation along with heterosexuality and homosexuality.

(Cute little drawing of Bi-person, Homo-person and Hete-person with their flag coloured over them)

The term bisexuality, hetero- and homosexuality, were all coined in the 19th century.

(Page 3)

While it’s true that being bisexual, meaning you're attracted to both sexes, these attractions are not always equal to each other.

To help explain this, below I have put the Kinsey Scale and the Purple-Red Scale of Attraction.

The Kinsey scale, also called the Heterosexual–Homosexual Rating Scale, is used to describe a person’s sexual orientation. It was created by the sexologist Alfred Kinsey in 1948. (Picture of Kinsey)

It is a scale that goes from 0, meaning exclusively heterosexual, to 6, meaning exclusively homosexual. (Picture of Kinsey Scale)

In 2016, Langdon Parks created a new scale after learning that he was asexual but still attracted to women. This new scale allows the user to label how they experience that attraction on a scale of A to F. A represents asexuality, while F represents hypersexuality. (Drawing or picture of Langdon Parks) (Picture of Purple and Red Scale)

(Page 4)

The point I’m trying to make is that everyone has a different experiences of being bi as there are different levels of being bi. I myself am a 2 on the Kinsey scale and a D2 on the Red and Purple Scale as I personally seem to fancy men more but I have always found women attractive.

(Page 5)

You know, at this point I was going to give examples of animals that have shown bisexual behaviour in nature however when I typed into Google ‘bisexually animals’ this is what came up… (screenshot)

A few links about the definition of 'bisexually'. Animals that have both sex organs and animals that reproduce bisexually. But nothing about animals showing bisexual behaviour.

And this isn't because it doesn't exist! When I typed in ‘homosexual animals’, google can't seem it get enough of it. (screenshot)

If there are animals that have shown they're gay by fucking the same gender, then there are going to be animals who have fucked both genders. (draw a animal or something)

Which means! = Bisexual! (Draw funny picture of a lion or something fucking both sexes and it = bi)

So, this segues nicely into my next topic, bi-erasure.

(Page 6)

There is this lovely little thing called ‘bisexual erasure’ or ‘bisexual invisibility’. At best, it’s the tendency for people, media or shows to ignore, remove or just not acknowledge bisexuality. At worst, it’s blatant biphobia.

· It's just a Phase.

· You'll choose a side

· Your sexuality isn't real

· You're just confused

· So you’re straight

· You’re invading queer space

· So you’re gay then

· Want to have a threesome with me and my boyfriend/girlfriend/friend

· You're greedy

· Promiscuous

· But I thought you were gay/straight!

· Are you gay or straight?

· How do you know you're bi if you've never been with someone of the same sex?

· You're not bi enough

· You're not a real bisexual

· You're half gay and half straight!

· You have straight passing privilege!

· I can't date you because you've been with guys.

· You won't stay faithful and hop onto the next straight man you see.

· You're just doing it for the attention

(Page 7)

For some examples, let’s look at some TV shows!

Friends!

Prior to the start of the series, Ross’s wife Carol came out as lesbian after being married to him for several years and then married Susan their lover. This isn’t particularly unusual in the not so gay-friendly early ‘90s context. However, it’s made clear that she and Ross still enjoyed a sexual relationship together still even after she got involved with Susan. Ross even brings up how they had "some good times before she became a lesbian...and a few afterwards, as well," and Ross’ and Carol’s son was even conceived at three months after she admitted to seeing Susan. Carol however, is only ever referred exclusively as gay, bisexuality is never brought up.

(Page 8)

Glee!

In the TV show Glee, there are two female high school students that appeared to be bisexual, Brittany and Santana. Santana is referred to as a lesbian character despite previously having two ex-boyfriends while Britany identified herself as ‘fluid’ and ‘bi-curiou’.

Blaine is a gay exchange student who becomes confused with is orientation in one episode and is convinced he's bisexual. His friend Kurt dismissed his confused saying that gay teenagers called themselves bi "when they want to hold hands with [the opposite sex] and feel normal for a change" Blaine calls it out as a double-standard. Despite all this, Blaine turns out 100% gay at the end of the episode. Ryan Murphy, one of the show’s creators of the show, defended his decision by saying that the ‘kids need to know he’s one of them’.

Apparently, us bi kids out there don’t need that kind of support!

How about we look at how the media treats celebrities that are bisexual

(Page 9)

Examples from real life aren’t much better.

Freddie Mercury is considered one of the most famous gay icons. Did you know he was Bi? Freddie was openly bisexual, had relationships with both men and women and never formally came out as gay.

Bisexual erasure at its finest my friends.

(Page 10)

Then we get people like Boy George, someone from ‘our’ own community going on a biphobic twitter rant.

His response to his fans who felt hurt and upset “that you’d reduce my valid sexuality to a lie or joke,” was (Example/sceenshots)

(Page 11)

I think some words from dedicated bi leader, Faith Cheltenham and Ph.D., Contributor, Activist and writer, Beth Sherouse would be a nice closes to this zine.

Until bisexuals stop being the unmentionables of the LGBTQIA community we will continue to be the punching bags of both gay and straight, with respite nowhere to be found.

- Faith Cheltenham

Lesbians and gay men, this angry bisexual is tired of being your afterthought.

- Beth Sherouse

(Highly recommend reading Sherouse’s article on growing up bi and the treatment she got from it.)

Do a small personal conclusions talking about 50% 50%, personal expressents of myself and others.

No, I am not 50% gay, 50% straight. No, I’m not saying it for attention and No, I’m not scetatly gay.

I’m bi, and I deserve to be acknowledge and seen for what I am.

Extra shit and notes that I didn’t use

Change title, ‘The Bisexually community’ to ‘Bisexual Culture’

Intro

These are the topic’s all be covering in this zine:

· What is bisexuality, and to be Bisexual?

· Queer Theory and Identity

· LGBT Community & Treatment of bisexuals

· How the media and celebrities treats bisexuals

I’m going to be talking about

Intro into Bisexuality Specially

Biphobia and the LGBT+ Community

“Being Bi is only something I’ve really come to except recently in my life, self-acceptance is the first hurdle when it come being part of the LGBT+. But, just because I’ve accept this doesn’t mean “

You’d think that being bi would be great, you’ve basically doubled your dating options and if you’re family doesn’t like it, just pretend to be straight right?

Wrong!

Being bi is normal, animals and shit. Give a history lesson, talk about famous people who are bi for something.

There’s a nifty little scale created by Alfred Kinsey around 1948 called Kinsey scale.

(Picture of Kinsey Scale)

Which was later expanded upon by a Southern California dude named Langdon Parks (improvised drawing of Park dude as I don’t know what he looks like) who created the Purple and Red Scale of Attractions!

(Picture of Purple and Red Scale)

It was weird for me growing up as I always thought that everyone was also attracted to everyone else.

One women I spoke to said that because she was in a relationship with a women at the moment, she finds women more attractive and that when she’s dating men, she more attracted to men.

I’ve spoken to some bisexual who say they are more attracted to the sex there current partner is.

A nice metaphor for this is liking both tea and coffee. Coffee is men, Tea is women. Some people prefer Tea but coffee is also fine. Some people like coffee and tea equally. Some people’s prefers can change temporarily and others permanently.

It’s like someone liking both Coffee and Tea (I happen to be a hot chocolate person myself but that’s beside the point).

That’s a simple version of it but being bisexual is a little more complicated.

To help demonstrate what I’m talking about, I present that Kinsey Scale and Purple-Red Scale of Attraction.

It’s really not as simple as that. If you’re a girl coming out as bi, you’re just doing it for attention.

If you’re a boy, you’re secretly gay and are just afraid to ‘come out’ fully.

Bisexuals are called greedy, promiscuous and carrier STDs. They’re untrustworthy and traitors but they’re good for threesomes.

It doesn’t help that on top of that, the treatment we get from that Gay and Lesbian community is just as bad as well.

Some people describe bisexuals as being half-straight and half-gay, this is wrong and thinking this ways leads to segregation from both the straight and gay community. Being bisexual is being 100% bisexual, not half anything.

Okay, I think I’ve hit the required page minimum for this project now so it’s time for some closing words from dedicated bi leader, Faith Cheltenham and Ph.D., Contributor, Activist and writer, Beth Sherouse.

References

(1) http://www.bisexualindex.org.uk/index.php/bisexuality (Page 1, what is Bi)

(2) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexuality (Page 1, what is Bi)

(3) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heterosexual%E2%80%93homosexual_continuum

(4) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_bisexuality

(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsey_scale

(6) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Kinsey

(7) https://mic.com/articles/126346/what-s-your-true-sexual-orientation-the-purple-red-scale-is-here-to-help-you-find-out#.FsriffCag (Purple and Red)

(8) http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NoBisexuals (TV Tropes) (Friends) (Glee)

(9) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bisexual_erasure

(10) https://www.advocate.com/news/daily-news/2011/09/23/ending-bi-erasure-tv-and-our-lgbt-worlds

(11) https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/418060777886957446/ (Insults)

(12) https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/564005553310394660/ (insults)

(13) https://www.theodysseyonline.com/15-annoying-phrases-bisexuals-are-tired-of-hearing (Insults)

(14) http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Ross_Geller

(15) http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Carol_Willick

(16) http://friends.wikia.com/wiki/Susan_Bunch

(17) http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Santana_Lopez

(18) http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Brittany_Pierce

(19) http://glee.wikia.com/wiki/Blaine_Anderson

(20) http://www.youthareawesome.com/freddie-mercury-bisexual-erasure/ (Freddie Mer)

(21) http://www.vulture.com/2017/01/boy-george-accused-of-biphobia.html (Boy George)

(22) http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/01/03/boy-george-posts-erratic-series-of-tweets-after-criticism-for-biphobia/ (Boy George)

(23) http://binetusa.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/finding-the-good-in-goodbi.html (Faith Quote)

(24) https://medium.com/defiant/dear-lesbians-and-gays-im-bisexual-and-you-treated-me-like-crap-1dee4deeaeb8 (Last Page Beth Sher)

https://us.ditchthelabel.org/i-am-a-bisexual-man/

https://www.xojane.com/sex/what-being-bisexual-really-means

#Zine #Bi-Zine #Comics and Identity Politics #Research

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