#//so i posted a lot of resources considering my top tag is my resources tag?

[almostfini]

Ableism but make it leftist

Maybe I'll think of a catchier title later but rn I need to talk about this before I boil away with rage.

Context: someone in my local queer community FB group asked for volunteer opportunities. They expressed particular interest in working with the elderly or "people who need the most help". There were only a couple suggestions when I saw the post so I added mine, that there's several underserved young (younger than elderly anyway) queer people in our community who are severely disabled and housebound. I'm one of them though I didn't mention it but the Leftist Bully knows this.

Another disabled group member I've interacted with before thanked me for bringing this up and I felt good about it until a couple days later when I got a new notification. LB, as I'll call them, was smugly concerned that we (me and my Disabled Acquaintance) were taking resources from queer elders.

Point #1. We weren't using any resources, we were just expressing a community need to someone who asked who in the community has needs...

LB continued that there are "so many" resources we could be using instead which is news to me! They then made a point to tag both me and DA and tell us that "if we're so lonely why don't we just meet up with seniors". I considered going over point by point why they were being ignorant at best but I decided to save my energy and politely asked them not to speak so condescendingly about topics they aren't familiar with. Cue the laugh react. So we're not even pretending to care anymore, great.

They respond with a lengthy paragraph about how they are qualified to determine who gets resources or not because of all the organizing they do. They insisted again that there are other resources, and pay attention to this, "for young queers". Dude... There sure are resources for young queers but

Point #2. THAT'S NOT WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT YOU CHUCKLEFUCK. We were specifically talking about housebound queer people who aren't old enough for social security resources.

Point #3. You can't cry tone policing when you were the one who butted into a conversation to "correct" someone over what was allegedly a resource management dispute. I mean apparently you can and they did but it's pretty ridiculous

Re: citing their community organizing record and heavily implied that DA and I are not contributing to the same degree

Point #4a. DA and I are both very active in disability organizing. We both run pages/groups for raising awareness and connecting people to resources as well as one on one assisting people.

4b. We're both severely disabled and housebound, that kind of gets in the way of a lot of activism. I used to do a lot more when my health was better.

4c. Leftists like to talk big, "your productivity doesn't define your worth" until someone isn't able to do whatever type of labor that supposedly makes people respectable.

Point #5. Concern trolling. If they really cared they would have kindly directed me to some concrete resources instead of lecturing me to shut up

Point #6. They didn't have a problem with the person who brought up volunteering at the animal shelter.

Point #7. LB requests rides from the community on a weekly basis. The community rallied around them when they lost their home to a fire last year. They are absolutely in their right to do this! It's just telling how it's ok for them to ask for help. And to top it off I've been consistently signal boosting them and recommending their freelance services, expending my limited resources to help them. I thought we were becoming friends.

[cactusringed]

HELLO following today's extremely tasty chapter i came over here to ask about lore and i decided "hm ok i'll do the sensible thing and read the whole of the au tag so i don't ask something that's been asked before and i have more background" which was all good until i hit the relationship chart and now i will be worrying intensely abt "MURDERER" for however long it takes that to be explained oh god. what i came here to ask about though is primarily inspired by the talk of the coal mine in this newest chapter - can i request a lore blast on economics on the national and international levels?

HELLO first of all thank you for reading!!! :D

My original posts in the tag are a bit spoilery aren't they LOL it was from before I was sure that I was gonna have it all in published fic form, oops. I'll say that its still fine because it's not as late game as you might think + I see ftbrkr as a tragedy and, well, part of a tragedy is to know how it ends and still decide to read it (as if it might turn out this time. I learned that from a friend of mine.). Anyway

Things get very complex as soon as you bring economics in - because economics are basically tied into everything: food, diets, resources, technology, and international relations. So this will get a lil rambly lol. Also no numbers because my discalculia is terrible

Methysko is by far the richest due to an extreme unfair advantage they have on basically every other country. It's something om slowly building up to within the fic itself but I may have already spoiled in my earliest posts about the au LOL I can't recall off the top of my head. Anyway, the unfair advantage has landed them with a lot of extremely valuable resources, and their piles of money they've had for a very long time - basically ever since the country was founded - has also allowed them to build infrastructure to farm those resources. They're a big trading hub, especially being at the centre of the map, and I've been toying with Methyskan being the lingua franca of the world for this reason. They trade any farmable goods, as well as minerals, and freshwater fish from the springs.

The fact that they're freshwater is very important. No nation is allowed to fish or farm anything in the ocean, and they have to pay very very hefty taxes on ocean travel in general. This is especially significant since they're medieval societies, and back in the day where planes and trains weren't a thing, boats were like The big thing. They're still massively used in our modern society for trading lol. All those hefty taxes go to the ocean empire who makes the majority of their money through that. They're a very self sufficient empire considering they mostly live under water and have different needs to non-mer people. Im not sure how in depth I'm gonna get with that part of history in the fic, so very mild spoilers, but basically they own ALL the ocean as a result of a conflict that is not so long ago - actually it's within living memory. They basically had a huge conflict with every country that had access to the ocean, claiming the whole ocean as their own rather than agreeing that certain countries could claim ownership of a certain amount of the ocean like they do in real life. This makes trading (via sea) sooo expensive and also really limits the diets of certain countries who might struggle to source food, like Cadavía.

Methysko profits off various business ventures aided by their extremely unfair advantage, too, being able to seize valuable goods and resources before anyone else can. Meanwhile, more barren countries like Cadavía will mostly base their economies on mining precious stones, as well as things like fabrics and weaves. They do have vast amounts of land allowing them to farm animals, as long as those animals can handle hot temperatures. This leads to kind of ""unusual"" meats being manufactured and ofc traded. With so little arable land, they really put a lot of pressure on their farmers. Literally any inch of farmable soil is used, no matter how small or difficult it is to work with. Think of it as how the DPRK has to use literally every inch of farmable land they have because they have so little of it (because most of the country is covered in mountains). This ofc leads to them being prone to famine, which is why the meat industry is very important in cadavia. So important in fact that you might notice something... Fun in the next few chapters about their meat preferences lol.

Mezalea is gaining better ties with the ocean empire thanks to a certain throuple, which leads to reduced taxes upon Sea travel and trade as well as access to some of the ocean's resources. Thanks to innovative ancient farming techniques, in spite of its climate, Mezalea is actually pretty self sufficient regarding food and most resources, really. The country in general is on the wealthier side, might even be either second or third wealthiest after Methysko. They have a huge focus on the arts as well so really developped that, meaning artists will often move to Mezalea which helps boost their economy a little. In fact, Methysko and Mezalea profit a lot off tourism, too.

Celestios is also pretty good and has the best farmable land. It trades it's produce for cheaper than Methysko so as to rival their trading power, but it can be difficult to compete with them because of the place Methysko has built for itself in the international market. Celestios also relies heavily on coal mining and in fact the biggest employer are mines. Mining makes more money than farming for the actual workers who do the hard work, so people will often move from the countryside into mining hubs. There's a line in one of the chapters about bdubs' advisors being worried about farmers leaving the countryside to come to the capital if bdubs funds the arts, and that's because Celestios is in that difficult position where the mining industry is booming to the detriment of the farming industry and thats. Well. Bad lol

Oblivion and the Nether are very special cases, because they both have very... Hostile lands. The sculk eats anything that lives, and plants are living beings. It's hard to grow anything in Oblivion, including farm animals. The Nether itself is very very prone to famine, getting the majority of it's food from trades. Oblivion remains strong because its business is in spies and assassins, and everyone is scared shitless of them. It always had good relationships with Celestios, and in history have always protected their prophets to some degree. It's worth noting that the population of Oblivion is very small and the vast majority of people are part of the spies/assassins clans. It guarantees them a better life, basically. So their money maker is very much making contracts with wealthy foreign officials. The Nether, meanwhile, leads in technology. And is also the biggest provider of gold to the point their currency is gold rather than diamond. It's worth noting tho that because they have so much fucking gold and also a rather weak economy, one diamond = lotsa gold - you know like when you spend dollars in a country whose money has much less purchasing power.

The Nether sells their redstone technology at a very very very high price, because it is extremely advanced compared to the native technology of each nation. It's basically how they keep afloat, that and alternative diets. The Nether is very rough to live with and it reflects in their culture which I'm hoping I'll get to explore in the fic :3

I hope this answers the question LOL if u have any specifics you wanted to know more about feel free to ask ^_^

[spell-bloom]

What is considered both a reasonable and maximum polycount for custom content hair and other types of custom content in The Sims 2 and does it depend on gaming specs? Also your work is great!

Thank you for taking the time to read it.

I, personally, use hair that is under 25K polys unless it's unique and cute. Anything over that is overboard and should get decimated. Any furniture or clothing over 10K is extreme for me.

As for specs, I'm inclined to believe that it's a game limitation, how powerful your computer specs are, and a secret third and fourth thing, your OS, and if you're a laptop user.

This OS talk is a side tangent, so bear with me:

Big disclaimer that this is all my opinion, not a factual piece. Don't take this as gospel and I'm far from an expert on operating softwares, computers, and CC for that matter. I went a little bit insane with the OS talk because you mentioned specs and this has been on my mind for a while 🥴

Every single time I've heard that someone installed TS2 on Linux, they are able to play on maximum settings with a BUNCH of CC for a long time and experience no pink soup or pink soup related crashing. I want to do my own research and play the same heavily detailed lot for the same amount of time on Windows and Linux and compare the differences as well as compare how they use resources differently. If I already did not have an attachment to Photoshop CC 2017, I would have made the switch by now.

Okay so Windows... I've played TS2 on my Asus laptop from 2020 and on my new desktop. Here's the spec difference

Laptop: Intel Core i7-9750H 6 Core Processor, 8 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (Windows 10)

Desktop: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X Six-Core Processor, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Windows 11)

My laptop was really good for it's time (I bought it in March 2020), but it was pink soup galore for any cluttered CC lot, even with all of the fixes and GRM edits. My current setup is a mish mosh of my bf's and ex's computer parts and it runs perfectly fine, but I do not play long enough to encounter pink soup. (I have a job and I mainly play to get CC previews these days.) If you noticed, both my CPU and GPU were made before my laptop was sold, and yet it still performs way better. Laptops with top of the line hardware will never be more powerful than PCs with even mid to high level hardware from 5 years ago. Don't forget that laptops will throttle performance to protect itself from overheating and causing damage.

There is also no difference between installing and playing the game on Windows 10 and Windows 11, except that you should absolutely uninstall OneDrive if you haven't already. There might be some issue if you install with discs, but I don't own the discs.

And as for Mac, I truly believe that Mac is the worst way to experience Sims 2. Between the Super Collection crap, not being able to use third party tools (SimPE, Hair Binner, any other .exe files made to run for Windows), and the file limit that really hits you hard if you download a bunch of CC that you can't merge anyway because CCMerger can't run on Mac. I should say I have never played Sims 2 on a Mac, but this is my opinion after reading about the struggles of other MacOS users online.

The point of this OS tangent? None, really. I'm not trying to persuade you to use Linux or stop using Mac, this is simply what I've noticed and my opinions on the matter. There's millions of variables I did not cover such as DXVK, texture sizes, difference in specs between each OS and user and many other things I am forgetting.

Feel free to correct, add on, extrapolate or whatever. If you have any thoughts, please comment, add it in reblogs, or tag me in your post. I'm very interested in the current topics about high polys, pink soup and big textures for this game.

[pinkkop]

2024 Tumblr Top 10

I felt left out of the tag game so here I am, standing in front of my fellow tumblr peeps, asking them to love me to listen to me ruminate about my top 10 posts from 2024 😊

1. Day 27: Top 3 15 BL Kisses?  570 notes - Nov 14 2024

I’d like to send a formal apology to @slonekaru​ for disrespecting their prompt!

This was day 27 of the 15 Day BL Challenge (don’t worry about the numbers in that sentence 😅) and the prompt actually asked for your 3 favourite BL kisses but I just kept thinking of more great kisses and in the end I settled on sharing 15, which was good because you’re only allowed 30 GIFs in a tumblr post and that is exactly how many GIFs the post has 🤯😅

I’m glad so many people enjoyed this compilation and agreed with me on these kisses being some good ones 😊

2. Dr. Kan is sitting on a Y Chair in a series Y 128 notes - Dec 15 2024

This was the most random little post but apparently people enjoyed learning this little tidbit of knowledge I had rattling around my brain. I will do my best to supply you with more random knowledge in 2025. 

I am still waiting for my experience as someone who studied Civil Engineering to come in handy with all the BL boys studying engineering 😅

3. An Ode to the The Sign NC scene 106 notes - Jan 9 2024

This one straight up got me sent to horny jail but I persevered and found a way to bring this masterpiece of an NC scene to the masses with my running commentary. Another thing I aspire to be more often: Horny on Main™

4. Trash-watches and what do you do with your negative opinions? 93 notes - Jun 10 2024

This was sparked because of my frustration with people hate-watching shows. It frustrates me to no end when people are engaging with a piece of media entirely in bad faith and with the intent of criticizing it to hell and back with not much nice to say. It resulted in some interesting conversation about what is the best way to use tumblr when you have something negative to say or criticism of a piece of media. 

I think my conclusion about this is that if you’re engaging with a piece of media in good faith and aren’t doing it just to hate on the show you should probably be fine but it’s always good to consider how the fans of the piece of media will feel when they come across your post or comment. And if in doubt maybe leave you’re negative opinions behind a cut and make sure people are warned about your approach, then people themselves can decide whether they want to see it or engage with it. I don’t think not tagging the posts is a good way to solve this but then again I’m also a big fan of tagging things properly.

At the end of the day just be kind and mindful of other people, and then just do what you feel is best.

5. Why do more people watch BL than GL? 39 notes - Mar 9 2024

Want a full essay on theories of why people watch more BL than GL?

Look no further!!!

It’s been 10 months since I wrote this and I’ve become more and more sure of my theories since then. Whenever I see someone talk about why they don’t get into GL much it always falls into one or more of these categories. 

If I had all the time and resources in the world and was still in university I would legit make a research project out of this because I find it so fascinating.

6. What trope do you enjoy and wish to see more of? 37 notes - Nov 11 2024

This is day 24 of the 15 Days BL Challenge. 

I’m just a sucker for some form of “hurt/traumatized character with low self-esteem who thinks they’re unlovable or damaged goods and then they’re proved wrong by their romantic interest".

One of these days I need to check how many of my favourite BLs fit into this category because I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s most of them.

7. Spare Me Your Mercy: Good but could’ve been amazing 34 notes - Dec 26 2024

I really liked this show and had so much fun watching it but I also had a lot of thoughts on what it could have done better if it had a longer runtime.

I honestly think I understated how much I liked the show in this post. I wish I’d spent more time talking about all the things I really like about this show but I still agree with the majority of the points I make in the post.

8. World of BL shout-out 31 notes - Dec 11 2024

This post is so short but is a very important PSA so let me just leave it here as well.

For anyone who’s struggling to figure out on which sites a BL is airing and whether it’s geolocked in certain regions:

World of BL usually has really good intel

9. What’s a hill you’re willing to die on when it comes to BL? 28 notes - Dec 16 2024

This was day 59 of the 15 Days BL Challenge (the numbers make less and less sense the higher you go).

My hill is a pretty simple one:

Actors don’t owe their fans anything!

10.  What dramatic scene really stuck with you? 28 notes - Nov 30 2024

My final post is day 44 of the 15 Days BL Challenge and it’s about the scene where Sky's getting assaulted by his ex and Prapai comes to his rescue. It’s a really hard scene to watch but at least Gun gets beaten up at the end. Yay!

Created by TumblrTop10

Wish I could check if any of my mutuals haven’t been tagged in this yet because I definitely saw a lot of people do this tag game right around the new year. If we’re mutuals and you haven’t been tagged in this consider yourself tagged!!!

[saviourkingslut]

Hi! I saw that you mentionned scrivener in your latest post and I've been meaning to try it. Is it good? I'm a one-doc-per-chapter kind of person so I wonder if it would work for me.

hi, sorry for the somewhat late reply, i wanted to include some screenshots to make my explanation a little clearer but didn't have the energy to sit down for it properly before now. if you're a one-doc-per-chapter writer i definitely think you should consider it! scrivener's most important feature, i think, is that it gives you:

the opportunity to split up your writing any way you want, whether per chapter, per scene, or even per paragraph...

...but all your writing is always within immediate reach, and you can restructure it whichever way you want.

to make that a little clearer, i've included a picture from my own work. scrivener is mostly geared towards creative writing, but i use it for my dissertation and that works very well too. this is the general interface, where you can see i've been writing an introduction:

scrivener's most important feature, to me, is its 'binder', which is this bit:

at the top, you'll see 'draft' - this is the entirety of the project you're working on. in this case, that's my dissertation. underneath, you see a little book, called 'introduction' - that's a main part of the draft. and underneath that, you can see a couple of folders and documents. that's all the different parts of my introduction. you can create as many folders and put as many different documents in those folders as you want. what i find incredible about this, is that i have an overview of all my topics, and that i can switch between all my different topics without having to open different documents OR put all my shit in one big document, which always makes me lose my way completely. and if i feel like restructuring my text? well, i can go to the binder, and drag the texts to another spot there.

since you like to work by chapter, you could just structure your binder like that in a way that works for you, but you'd still have access to all your other work if there's ever a moment when you need to refer back to it. or if you're working on multiple chapters at the same time, you can just switch between them.

something else that has helped me a lot is the 'research' part of the binder:

the 'research' part is meant for you as a writer to put down all your resources - your pdfs, your images, whatever you're using as reference while you're writing. now, because im writing an academic text and need more references than the average (fan)fiction writer, im using zotero as a reference manager. instead, im using the reserach folder to store my writing plans so i can reference and update them there. you see that 'reorganisation' folder there: it's also where i store my texts when i notice that the current structure is not working at all and i need to start over - but in such cases i don't need to write all the text itself from scratch again. this way i can keep everything within easy reach and copy-paste in the same document (you can split your screen within the program, and work in two documents at once).

what's also great are the tools. in programs like word or google docs you'll find some of these, but not all. as you can see, the first symbol leads to a sidebar where you can put a synopsis for the specific text you're working on, and it lets you add notes. the second one lets you add bookmarks to your text, like texts or references you want within reach immediately. the third one lets you add specific metadata or tags. the fourth lets you make snapshots; scrivener saves all your work immediately, but if you're about to make a big change, you can create a snapshot and roll back to that if it's not working out after all. finally, there's the comments, which speak for itself. all the way down the bar you'll also see that you can label texts ('no label' here, there's a colour system) and note what part of the writing progress this part of the text is at.

what i personally like very much is the bar at the top that now says 'opening 2.0'. you can see a light blue bar at the bottom of it: that indicates my writing progress. you can set a writing goal in number of words for your project. for my entire 'introduction', that's 8000 words, and as you can see im nearly there. if you hover over the 'opening 2.0' bar, it'll shift to show you the number of words you've written AND the number of words you've written in that specific writing session like so: 7300/8000 | 345. what i like is that it counts the actual words written - if i've deleted a sentence, my count goes down again. that's useful for me because i tend to think 'oh i've written so much today' while all i've been doing is tiny edits for 2 hours, but not actually put down more words.

there's MUCH more that scrivener offers, but i can't explain it all here. they offer a free trial for 30 days, and it comes with a practice document that explains all the features to you by making you work in the program. id recommend giving that a try if you're interested! the program is expensive (it cost me 70 euros) but it's absolutely been worth it for me. i used to have long-ass documents with half-finished paragraphs and snippets of thoughts and sentences all over, and this has helped me structure my texts more easily while also not cluttering my workspace with loose thoughts and ideas because i have more places to put them now.

[tavyliasin]

April Fools NSFW BG3 FanFic Event!

I've posted before, but I'm sharing it again as there's still 3 weeks to work on the best/worst smut you can think of!

The rules are simple! Long, short, whatever you like - write some BG3 smut using at least one terrible term for bodies or sex acts. 18+ only, of course, but you can enter as many pieces as you like! Hot or hilarious, have fun with it! Tag #BG3AprilFoolishness and feel free to share~

As with all things I run, you're free to use whatever pairings and content you like as long as you clearly tag your content with any appropriate CWs. I can provide example lists of these on request~

Below the cut are some resources and examples of slang terms you might want to use, which are all of course NSFW but you should know that by now~ Links courtesy of the delightful darling @charizardamn - thank you so much for these, love, I cannot wait to use the worst possible samples in my own piece (or pieces, I've yet to decide...)

Disclaimer - apologies for any cisnormative language or terms used in any of these articles. Please also be aware there might be terms that have different cultural connotations to them, and I am absolutely too paper-white and English to be qualified to comment on what is or is not appropriation of BIPOC terms or AAVE. So consider this also a very open invitation to mention things in the comments that should be avoided!

For the Rear, Butt Stuff, the Lower Cleavage:

Penis and Fellatio, Dick, Cock, the Trouser-Sheathed Meat-Weapon:

Vagina, Vulva, and Dining Out, Pussy, Vag, the NetherHole:

Breasts, Boobs, Tits, Mammaries, HalsinHonkers: (A lot of cishet type language at the top so warning there too)

If you have any other links, silly words, or fun ideas, please do drop them in the comments!

The collection will remain open to add items until 2nd April, but try to get submissions in by 31st March and I'll make all entries visible on April Fools Day (1st April) for a little fandom fun~

[bunnybananasims]

Get to Know You: Sims Style

Thank you so much for the tag @polygonbeach!!! This is a very long one, so I'm gonna cut this text post. Just sit back, relax, and happy reading!

What’s your favorite Sims death?

Probably Old Age because I love it when my Sims have fully lived their lives before passing away :) The other one I like is Electrocution because the Sims look so funny 😂

Alpha CC or Maxis Match?

Maxis Match all the way.

Do you cheat your Sims' weight?

I don't. I only make them work out if they roll a want to work out or increase their athletic skill, and/or if they receive an athletic-related opportunity.

Do you move objects?

Yes, sometimes.

Favorite Mod?

I have many faves, it's hard to choose 😅 probably the More Entry Points, Business as Unusual Bistro by Ani and almost all mods from @simsi45. I also love the custom weather presets from @pudding-parade and lighting mods from @brntwaffles

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack?

The Sims 3: World Adventures

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing?

aLIVE.

Who’s your favorite sim that you’ve made?

Juliet Capulet (yes I know, very original name haha but not really based on the famous character. I was in my huge R&J phase when I created her & her parents)

Have you made a Simself?

Just once, because I'm not good with CAS and it's my least favorite play style haha

Which is your favorite EA hair color?

Black, Brunette, Ginger, Blonde

Favorite EA hair?

The one Juliet has, from The Sims 3: Supernatural and the female hairs from Roaring Heights

Favorite life stage?

Young Adults / Adults

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay?

Gameplay, but I also build sometimes if my save needs it 😂

Are you a CC creator?

No

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad?

Yes, and they're all amazing and so creative

Do you have any Sims merch?

Official? None. I have a mug that I won from a Twitter giveaway, though 😁

Do you have a YouTube for Sims?

None

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing?

Sims style, meaning CAS style, the Sims themselves? I'm not really sure what to say 🤣🤣🤣 My style has always been a mixture of retro and modern, and largely based on the Sims' personalities themselves. If they're premades, I have always based their outfits/makeovers on their original look, just enhance it and put my twist on them, still considering their personalities. I also look for real-life inspiration online. I guess what I can say has really changed is that I became more adventurous with using colors and patterns on their outfits, and doing more mix-and-matching. In terms of portrait presentation, it has changed, from a minimalist wall to a more appropriate, lively, colorful background.

Who’s your favorite CC creator?

I have a lot of faves (see my resources page 😂) Just on top of my head:

@nectar-cellar

@faerielandsims

@agnelid

@ninaaposts

@joojconverts

@poisonfireleafs

@rollo-rolls

@madraynesims

@xiasimla

@sweetdevil-sims

@wanderingsimsfinds

@enable--llamas

@carversims

@pandelabs

How long have you had Simblr?

Since December 2019

How do you edit your pictures?

In Photoshop, I increase brightness and vibrance of my photos, then use Topaz Clean to smoothen the edges 😁

What expansion / game pack is your favorite?

This is a hard one. I love almost all of TS3 EPs. For the first place, it's a tie between Ambitions, Late Night and University Life for me.

I tag @fishcemetery, @arielovessims, @treason-and-plot, @getboolpropped, @nonrevsims, @plumbob95, @tsims, @nectar-cellar, @happy-lemon, @mystic-hysteria, @mystery-pixels, @madraynesims and anyone who wants to do this!

[amalthea-13]

Addressing Reblogs/Comments

Recently this post of mines went semi-viral??? I don't know how to describe it, but I had some reblogs and comments I wanted to address or add onto. I will be tagging each individual.

Addition #1: Cheating is perceived as worse than Domestic Violence (By:@@autismjester)

I hope I am pulling from the correct comment. At the moment I am a tad off so I am trying to be sure I credit everyone in this post. When it comes to the conversation of "cheating" I am a prickly ass motherfucker.

I have watched people in my life be cheated on and therefore I do take it very seriously. However, my big issue with Stolas Antis is their demonization of Stolas for "cheating" when even the show acknowledges that Stolas did not in fact cheat.

Stolas: Andrealphus, cheating implies there was a betrayal. This woman never gave two shits about me or our very much arranged marriage. As far as I'm concerned, this divorce is far overdue.

However, people are more worried about the fact Stolas cheated, rather than the fact he is very much being physically abused.

"Amalthea you can't prove it! There is no proof!"

That's laughable and all it takes is one GIF from The Circus to prove my point.

In this scene, Stella backhands Stolas and it is implied it was meant to make impact. Stolas manages to catch the hit because he is so used to being abused.

We also have to keep in mind Stolas is incredibly isolated from most people due to Stella's bad mouthing and on top of that she consistently demeans him to keep him from seeking anyone better than her.

Stolas is physically abused, but no one cares because to them "cheating is worse" when in my opinion as a kid I rather my parent cheat than abuse my other parent. Cheating leaves damage, sure, but I can learn to trust again and grow, but abuse leaves lasting scars that may never heal.

Addition#2: Stolas didn't have to leave, Stella wouldn't leave. (By:@kitty-meow-meow-83)

Kitty here raised a great point about this entire debacle and- Stolas couldn't really leave. Hear me out, the castle, everything belongs to him and Stella just utterly refused to leave.

While we're talking purely physical things, but everything Stolas owned and cared about was in that home. Why the FUCK should he have to give that up to his fucking abuser? Like genuinely I don't see why people want him to "leave" when it clearly is his damn house. He shouldn't have to leave, but Stella made it extra hard to get rid of her.

Addition #3: Stella likes to Torture Stolas (By: @autismjester)

Stella: I like tormenting you. I want to keep reminding you of what you did.

Jester here raised my favorite point and it's that Stella enjoys reminding Stolas of how "horrible he is". She enjoys and takes pleasure in his pain. She enjoys watching him struggle and cry and hurt.

There is a reason she calls him "terrible in bed" or "fucking embarrassment" or "scrawny twig ass" or "pathetic fucking man". All things she said about him to her friends while Stolas was only a few feet away.

The entire point is making Stolas feel inadequate to make herself feel good. Stella's favorite activity is tormenting Stolas with how awful he is purely because she find amusement in his suffering.

This is something that is casually glossed over so often, but is so important to understanding Stolas and Stella's dynamic.

Addition #4: Stolas couldn't leave. He couldn't fight back. (By: @caldella)

Caldella piggybacked off my point about the fact Stolas does not have any resources nor anyone to really turn to if he really did leave.

Stolas has nothing and no support system. Not even Blitz functions as a solid support system atp.

However, Caldella's words really struck a chord with me when they pointed this out;

"Like the whole Mastermind episode had a lot of metaphors for not only how LGBT+ parents are considered lesser in court cases etc. but also how determinedly abusive people build up a narrative against the victim and prevent them getting help."

A whole narrative and idea was built up against Blitz to get to Stolas and sadly Stolas had to play into the narrative to clear Blitz's name. Stolas utilized his privilege to protect him and anyone that discredits that will get a damn foot up their FUCKING ass.

Stolas had no way of defending himself. There was nothing left to do but play the part that the cornered him into. Sadly, there was nothing that could save him. He had no time to think or fight back.

Conclusion

I do not have very much to add. I just thought these people deserved a proper response. I know @cute-little-fly made a great response to me "The Stella Dilemma" post, but I really didn't know how to puzzle piece it into here, but please know I did read it and found it rather compelling! It just didn't fit into the list of things I wanted to discuss, plus talking to much about Stella is nauseating for me.

I do hope all included in this post like the responses/me building off them. I try my best to get back to you guys, but I do not know if i can repeat this in the future due to how hard it was this time around. If you want me to elaborate on anything please use the ask box.

Thank you all for your support.

Toodles! Amalthea Out!

Tag List:

@larryisnotagirl

Want to be in my tag list? Send in an ask!

i understand that stolas was in an awful situation but when people criticise the cheating aspect in helluvaboss its not because they want men to stay with their abusers its because they think stolas should have left. stolas sleeps with blitz in his anniversary dinner and when blitz jumps out a window and his cheating is discovered he immediately asks for a divorce. the issue isnt "men need to be loyal regardless of how awful their partner is" the issue is the original situation in s1 was complex but it seems to get brushed under the rug because stella sucks.

stolas was in an awful situation. he truly felt trapped with no where to go and it didn't even seem like he even had anyone to confide in but the way the reveal happens makes it seem like "cheating is wrong but stella is a bitch so its ok" bc stella sucks but she doesnt put out a hit on stolas until after he very publicly humiliates her.

Reading shit like this makes me physically ill. My stomach literally churned at this shit.

The cheating doesn't FUCKING matter when you're being BEAT BY YOUR FUCKING WIFE.

THE MORAL PURITY RHETORIC YOU ARE SPOUTING WILL GET A VICTIM OF ABUSE KILLED, IF NOT WORSE.

Cheating is OBVIOUSLY fucking wrong. Do you REALLY need an adult show to fucking tell you to not cheat on your spouse? Do you really need your fucking hand held that bad? Are you all, as a fucking audience, that fucking dense?! Are you genuinely UNABLE to engage with a piece of media beyond the surface level and have complex moral conversations!?

The thing you all seem to miss is Stolas did not love himself enough to leave. That's the problem.

That man did not love himself enough to leave, but he loved Octavia enough to stay.

Stolas is willing to be made a fucking laughing stock, to be publicly humiliated to keep Stella's wrath at bay and ya'll are more concerned with the fact Blitz fell out a FUCKING WINDOW!?

I- This cannot be the hill you are willing to die on. This cannot be the bullshit ya'll spout.

Stolas was in an impossible situation. He has no friends. He has no family. HE HAS NO ONE. Stella SOCIALLY OSTRACIZED THE MAN and you're saying he shoulda just left?

Blitz gave him the PUSH to leave. Stolas would have killed himself before he left what are ya'll talking about!?

Sure, Stella may not fucking call a hit on Stolas till AFTER the cheating, but she still PUBLICLY makes fun of how he is in BED while the man IS A FEW FEET AWAY. Again DO YA'LL WATCH THE DAMN SHOW!? Do ya'll engage CRITICALLY or STUPIDLY!?

I usually don't have to fucking insult peoples intelligence to prove a fucking point, but you gotta be as sharp as a fuckin marble to boil the entire situation down to "cheating is wrong but stella is a bitch so its ok".

Stolas didn't fucking cheat. Sure, by legal and vow standards he did, but cheating implies a BETRAYAL. Stella never loved that man. She actively makes fun of him, it is implied she hits him, and on top of that she calls him a "twig" and a "fucking embarrassment" and yet ya'll're stuck on the fucking cheating still?

As a kid who watched ACTUAL fucking cheating happen in my own FUCKING home, what Stolas did was not fucking cheating. That woman never loved him. She treated him like SHIT and ya'll are so hell bent on the fucking cheating because what? Stolas chose himself?

"oh but poor Via" As a former fucking Via, the girl will FUCKING live. Stolas had to get the FUCK away from that bitch.

Because yknow what, Stella isn't just a "bitch" she's an ABUSER. A FUCKING ABUSER.

WHAT PART OF ABUSE DO YOU PEOPLE NOT GET!?

IN THIS FUCKING SCENE, STOLAS IS SO FUCKING USED TO BEING BACK HANDED BY THE BITCH, HE CAUGHT HER HAND WHEN SHE WENT TO FUCKING HIT HIM, FUCKING REWATCH THE CIRCUS.

DOES A VICTIM NEED TO DIE BEFORE THEIR DESPERATE SITUATION IS RECOGNIZED AS A DANGEROUS SITUATION!?

...

But that's what you all want. You want him to be your tragic lil victim. You want him to be some tragic, sad tale... and because he isn't... he is not a "victim".

He is anything but a person to you all...

Any victim of abuse like Stolas is apparently not sympathetic enough for you all to actually care about victims.

Gods I'm gonna be sick.

[nataliealynlind]

I posted 237 times in 2021

186 posts created (78%)

51 posts reblogged (22%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 0.3 posts.

I added 516 tags in 2021

#** - 132 posts

#gif pack - 66 posts

#gif hunt - 65 posts

#rp icons - 58 posts

#base icons - 54 posts

#icons - 52 posts

#gmcentral - 34 posts

#fc masterpost. - 23 posts

#admin - 21 posts

#sadie stanley - 11 posts

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Olivia Holt / Kate Wallis Pride Icons (Lesbian Flag)

please like and/or reblog if using, do not claim as your own.

38 notes • Posted 2021-06-07 20:20:24 GMT

#4

below the cut are 46 (245x168px) gifs of meg donnelly in her role as taylor in american housewife s5e4. she would’ve been 20 at the time. you can do pretty much whatever with these, just please don’t use them for smut, or to rp as meg donnelly herself. i made these gifs from scratch, so please like or reblog the post if you use them. 

38 notes • Posted 2021-02-08 19:52:47 GMT

#3

in the source link you’ll find 293 (245x168) gifs of sabrina carpenter in the short history of the long road. the short history of the long road is set in the present day and she was 19 years old in the project. do not use my gifs for smut, or to rp as any real person including sabrina herself. since i make my gifs from scratch, please give this a like or reblog if you’re using these.

43 notes • Posted 2021-04-12 18:59:59 GMT

#2

below the cut are 40 (245x168px) gifs of anya taylor-joy in hozier’s dinner & diatribes mv. she would’ve been 22 at the time. you can do pretty much whatever with these, just please don’t use them for smut, or to rp as anya taylor-joy herself. i made these gifs from scratch, so please like or reblog the post if you use them. 

53 notes • Posted 2021-01-05 20:23:28 GMT

#1

under the cut you’ll find 75 (245x168) gifs of natalie alyn lind in big sky season 1 episode 1. big sky is set in the present day and she was 20 years old in the project. do not use my gifs for smut, or to rp as any real person including natalie herself. since i make my gifs from scratch, please give this a like or reblog if you’re using these. note: if you plan to watch it, big sky can be very triggering, but this gif pack has all relevant imagery removed. also, the lighting sucks so coloring varies.

56 notes • Posted 2021-03-20 18:04:31 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[irelandseyeonmythology]

Dia duit! Do you happen to know of any other blogs about Irish culture and language that aren't racist about it?

Dia is Muire Duit! 

Embarrassingly, I don’t interact with all that many other people who do this sort of thing, mainly for 3 reasons: 

(1) Professional distancing -- Small field, everyone knows each other, which means that if I find anyone or anyone finds me, there’s a not-small chance that we know one another IRL. There’s a reason my palms get a little sweaty when I think about new people coming into Tumblr, and a solid portion of that’s that I don’t want....too much attention on what I do here and, especially, not on my main. (Which I know is the equivalent of holding up a meat stick to a bunch of dogs and going “DO YOU WANT THE MEAT STICK?”) I can’t really vent about my department on main anymore simply because, even though names aren’t attached to things, it’s ridiculously easy to narrow me down if you know what to do. I don’t think I’m doing anything wrong, but there’s a difference between Me On Here VS Me in a Professional Context, and it’s been difficult to try to make that sort of...shift from being a shitposting teenager to suddenly being an Academic™. (But also, I don’t want people to think I’m unapproachable, either -- rule of thumb is “Mutually Assured Destruction.” You know I’m on Tumblr, I know you’re on Tumblr, and we both never mention it.)

(2) Wanting to distance myself a little from what I do Every Day -- Posting on here and interacting with people who are willing to seek me out on here is fine, I like that, I enjoy doing it, I enjoy everyone who follows me, but it’s much more on my terms here. (Hence the inconsistent posting schedule.) When I was younger, before this was my job, I could be around it constantly, and it was a lot of fun, but now it’s like....it’s a Lot, now that it’s my actual life. I check in on the Irish Mythology tag every once in a while, but I can’t really follow it like I used to just because it’s this constant state of *engagement* for me, in a way that, say, French musicals that three people in the world like don’t have. 

Brain tired, brain needs nappy. 

(3) I’ve seen some people on here, when I’ve looked into blogs to follow be....well. Bitches. Especially re: Americans taking this on and, as an American myself who is very serious about my line of work, it does. Rather sting. (I have a lot of complex opinions on the whole business that I won’t get into now, but the tldr is that I get why people can be hesitant, especially with the borderline fetishization of Ireland in the States but, at the same time, the effect is often scaring people who have a genuine interest in this sort of thing away and, when it comes to an endangered language....the more people we have taking the time to learn it, the better.) (But also, if you imply that my degree, which I got from an *Irish* uni is worthless, the claws will come out. I made a lot of sacrifices for that....glorious....piece of poster board in Latin.)

BUT. BUT. 

I do have a few. I want to emphasize that these aren’t all the Good People who do Irish Things on Tumblr, these are just the ones, off the top of my head, I can think of. 

@trans-cuchulainn Excellent resource on the Ulster Cycle, A+ shitposts

@finnlongman Another Ulster Cycle specialist 

@ad-ciu A former colleague and friend of mine, one of the only human beings in the world I trust with Mythological Cycle content. Not on as much these days because they’re doing things like “schoolwork” and “having a life” and “getting a PhD”, but genuinely a wonderful person to follow so you can catch when they do post. 

@amylouioc Wonderful artwork inspired by medieval Irish lit, explicitly anti-racist, multicultural Tuatha Dé, Nuada is a snacc. 

@forfeda-project Another A+ art blog, am considering getting their pub shirt for Fled Bricrenn to wear at conferences. 

@bloctg4 Shitposts in the Irish language, brought to you by Ireland’s own Irish-speaking TV station (or, rather, an intern at said TV station.)

Just want to emphasize -- I definitely don’t believe these are the only non-racist Irish themed blogs on Tumblr, these are just the ones that came to mind, especially since these days I’m the social media equivalent of a hag hanging out in a little cave, sometimes poking my head out to drop a shitpost before returning, shaking my head and muttering. 

[cashandprizes]

you... are trying to get my ass in trouble. I'm into it. Thanks for sending the ask <3

Link to the choose violence post here!

1. the character everyone gets wrong

It's probably going to be Alexis. I support women's rights and wrongs, but I think she was in a damned if you damned if you don't situation. Is she just gonna let Sam bleed out? He lived and found his soulmate, or whatever, and seems pretty damn happy all things considered. I want to die as much as the next person but... idk. Doesn't seem like there were any good choices.

2. a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

This discourse doesn't really apply to me because I'm a 100% switch on the bdsm test (yes, this is documented) and so I always love switching. And since my fave is either Guy on a good day or Regulus on a bad day, there is only the switch variant. I was never that kind of shipper, even back in my hardcore anime days.

3. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

This will sooooo get me in trouble. But between the "I want to break Alexis's ribcage" and the "people who don't hate [redacted] ship are [long list of words calling people evil and abusive]" and the "if you write dark content or support Erik writing darker content you don't care about people who have experienced xyz" they're all pretty bad. I will not be screenshotting even though I think there's mutual blocking going on, but just know that I'm pretty sure the only reason I didn't also get death threats a month ago was because I had already blocked that person over something else.

Oh also? I hate the idea that the fandom needs to be welcoming to minors as a whole. I love when youths are into a fandom and make friends online, because that's what I did when I got on Tumblr pretty much a decade ago! I'd just like them to do it in their space for minors while I do things in my space for adults. I'm gonna be a whore and I don't need somebody's mama scrolling through their Tumblr and trying to be mad at me when I clearly say minors DNI. I don't understand why I have to make myself kid friendly when I tag my shit and make my stance clear. Literally what it says on the tin.

4. what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?

I did at one point go through the Alexis tag and just block... so many fucking people for bad Alexis takes. I block A LOT of people without ages in their bio. I tend to block liberally, actually. Um, something that really annoyed me was realizing people couldn't understand don't like don't read. Instant block.

9. worst part of canon

This is a joke but I want more worldbuilding lore of how society functions. I love the lore for like the sky gods and all the old magic but I JUST WANT TO KNOW PRACTICAL SHIT. What happens when vampires go in the sun and does it change with age? How alive are vampires? Why don't my wolf shifters have knots, this is a real problem for me. How big are magical cities? How big is Shaw security? How big are most packs? Do all shifters form some sort of pack/collective group? How do empowered people get access to empowered resources or the internet or radio or tv? Do vampires piss?

I need answers.

Also. When will Erik finally write me the Avior BA using Calico's fic?

More realistically, I wasn't super satisfied with the Quinn ending which isn't a big deal, but I definitely felt like Darlin got wubified by Sam and David at the end. I'm sure some people liked them taking control, but that's the last thing I'd want. Just personality differences and also not the worst thing.

10. worst part of fanon

Why is everyone white?

I've never not been black so I'm used to this in fandom spaces at this point, but goddamn. Racism really is everywhere. Minority solidarity is more mythical than fucking unicorns.

[a-dragons-journal]

hi! i'm that kff project anon (??) from some tine ago, wanted to pop in to say it's officially been a month since i started working on it (september 23)! i would like to ask some things too. would it be alright if you gave examples on psychological/non-spiritual kin or explained it a bit (or link a post, i don't mind!)? also, you mentioned linking experience essays, buut im not sure where to find them ^^;

Absolutely!

Some examples of what "psychological 'kin" can include, off the top of my head:

- Unconscious imprinting: taking on the nonhuman/fictional identity of something that was very important to you during your formative years and influenced your sense of self a lot - for instance, someone who was raised with a lot of dogs in the house and who connected more easily to the dogs than to other humans might consider that part of why they're a dog therian now.

- Involuntary/unconscious coping mechanism: Exactly what it says on the tin; a nonhuman/fictional identity picked up as a way to cope with some major problem in your life, typically not intentionally. For instance, someone might unintentionally take on a draconic identity because it helps them feel stronger and more able to confront their fears.

- Dissociation: 'kinity that's related to or due to a dissociative disorder. Shifting may be experienced as dissociation from higher thought processes and emotion, the “human side”.

- Links to neurodivergency: someone who feels their 'kinity is connected to the fact that they're neurodivergent - either because that makes them feel disconnected from humanity in general, or because some of the things caused by their neurodivergency also line up with a specific species that they connect to.

- Neurological: the idea that 'kinity is caused by a neurological "quirk," hard-wired into one's brain to some degree.

- Psychological "quirk": the idea that 'kinity is just a psychological thing that happens sometimes for no particular reason, as a normal variant.

Unfortunately, there's no one specific place where experience essays can be easily found - my "kin resources" tag should have some useful websites in it, and my "community talk" tag should have some essays that have been posted here on tumblr alongside discussions, which hopefully will get you started. Remember whenever you find a website to search through its resources/other links page - a lot of otherkin websites link to each other, so finding one should lead you to a bunch more.

Hopefully that helps! (Anyone who has links or other explanations I missed please add on in the notes!)

[winterlinksandotherlinks]

Ravio Marchand — local merchant, family man, and husband of the Hero of Legend! Also featuring an obligatory Sheerow

I love LiWiAU Ravio so much, y'all have no idea I’ll yell some more about it in the tags dw

Thoughts and bonus doodle under the cut, and a shout-out to @astrolabe-blade for lending an ear in the character development process ❤

Ravio is one of those characters that I first encountered in fan content, and I've never really been able to stray all that far from that. As a result, I really don't know how much remains of the original character, beyond the name, the occupation, and the general appearance. Still, I care a lot about him, and I hope you'll all also enjoy him

originally from Lorule — his mother was a herbalist, his father made wicker-baskets, and their garden was frequently visited by birds;

this was the garden Sheerow, a blue-and-white sparrow-like bird hatched in one autumn, and Ravio’s mother took great care in nurturing Sheerow through the winter — Ravio loved playing with Sheerow, and always claimed to be able to speak telepathically with him;

for reasons currently unknown, Ravio and Sheerow do, in fact, speak telepathically with each other;

when Ravio was six, his parents died, and he ended up on the streets — he made a friend who introduced him to Mamie, and older lady who Ravio views as a grandmotherly figure (Mamie’s also Mitchi’s biological great-grandma);

when Ravio started working for Hilda, he used his income to buy Mamie and red-and-purple woollen shawl that, later, was passed back to him (see the illustration above);

trans (ftm) — found appropriate resources to transition once he moved to Hyrule (has only had top surgery), but is on bad days still insecure about his waist, hips, and thighs;

enjoys being the care-taker in the household, but worries that it’ll make him appear less masculine in other people’s eyes;

knows more or less everything about Legend’s adventures, and helped Legend through the rocky period post-Koholint (I’ve fiddled around with the order of Legend’s adventures, but I’ll talk more about that in the post about Legend) — heard about Marin before he knew anything about Koholint, and was secretly furious with her for the state Legend was in (these days he’s accepted that some part of Legend always will love Marin, and come to enjoy hearing Legend’s anecdotes about Koholint);

works as a merchant at ‘Link’s Orchard and Ravio’s Magic Items’ (a small shop-expansion to Legend’s cottage), and crafts enchanted items for sale and renting — so far, he’s created a magic boiler for bath water, and he’s considering inventing a magic washer and a magic broom (essentially the equivalent of a washing machine and a vacuum cleaner);

travels for a few weeks every summer, together with Legend, to trade all over Hyrule and Lorule;

when I write Ravio, I tend to imagine a softer less-dramatic version of Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle, with some added flavour;

to distinguish between Hyrulean and Lorulean, I’ve decided to use French as a place-holder for Lorulean (French!Ravio was an idea that occurred when I saw @guardedchild​ ’s wonderful colouring of this RavioLink illustration);

Ravio calls Legend ‘mon lapin’ (trans.: ‘sweetheart’, ‘[my] bunny’) — beyond three months of French in high school, I’m not as familiar with the language as I’d like to, so this is purely what I’ve learned from Reverso and some deep-dives in dictionaries (if any French-speaking person thinks I got it wrong, please let me know);

Ravio and Legend’s interactions, under normal circumstances, are definitely that flavour of flirting that’s thinly veiled as almost-scathing banter;

Ravio firmly believes there’s a tea for any situation; 

his favourite dish is Mamie’s cassoulet (a savoury bean stew);

bought matching mugs for himself and Legend once (one’s pink, the other’s purple, and they both have bunnies painted on them);

half his clothes have apple blossom embroideries thanks to Legend (whenever Legend takes his shirts/tunics, it’s always a tossup between “Legend just sort of forgets to return them and wears them casually around the cottage” and “Legend returns them covered in embroideries” — either way, Ravio doesn’t mind);

Ravio knew very early on that he liked Legend, but kept it to himself because of Marin — at first just because he didn’t know who she was to Legend, and then because he assumed Legend was still grieving her;

Ravio and Legend got married the day they started dating (it’s a rollercoaster, and the entire 16,000-and-some words of Ch. 2 of Out of Time is about this);

Ravio marks all the items he sells with a watermark/trademark/y’know what I mean (I can’t remember the actual word for this in any of the languages I know rn, but see the doodle below);

knows Warriors from the War of Eras, and is essentially best friends with Linkle (she knows everything about Ravio, Legend, Mitchi, and Fable, and Ravio knows everything about Linkle, Warriors, and their Zelda) — Malon’s later included in this little group, and the three of them are inseparable; 

Ravio’s very proficient with his hammer (which he may or may not have placed some enchantments on) — Legend doesn’t know this yet, but he’ll find it very attractive when he does, and might have a minor existential crisis over it;

Ravio has copied the bracelet he gave Legend, so both of them can travel between Hyrule and Lorule

I probably have more thoughts about him (and his interactions with the others! especially Hyrule!), but this post is already long and detailed, so I’ll leave it here for now

Bonus doodle of Ravio's branding/trademark/thing (the line below the bunny hood is supposed to be some kind of writing, probably saying something along the lines of, “Made by Ravio Marchand, Hyrulean merchant and enchanter”):

[indecisive-behaviors]

Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.

[ziseviolet]

Hello! So before I ask, I just want to say that you have an incredible tumblr and I want to thank you for answering questions about Hanfu, it helps a lot! Anyway, I have two doubts about Hanfu. The first one may be silly, but I wonder if in some dynasty fashion women wore earrings. The second question is whether clothing during the Qing Dynasty can be considered Hanfu. Sorry for my bad english!

Hi, thanks for the questions! (image via)

For your first question, please see my post on earrings here. 

As to whether clothing during the Qing dynasty that lasted almost three centuries (1644-1912) can be considered hanfu: the simple answer - no. The more nuanced answer - it depends. 

First of all, some types of hanfu & hanfu accessories were worn from the Ming dynasty into, and throughout, the Qing dynasty without changing their basic forms. Some examples include: religious clothing like Daoist robes, Chinese opera costumes, children’s clothing like Baijiayi (One Hundred Households Robe) and animal hats & shoes (e.g. Tiger hats), yunjian (cloud collars), and mandarin squares & rank badges. These items were commonly worn during the Qing dynasty, and are considered part of hanfu.

What did change was men and women’s everyday clothing. When the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty took power, they imposed their fashions on Han civilians. Wikipedia has this to say (x):

“For a period of time, under the dynastic laws after 1636, all Han Chinese were forced under penalty of death to adopt the Manchu male hairstyle, the queue, and dress in Manchu [clothing] instead of traditional [hanfu]. However, the order for ordinary…Han civilians to wear Manchu clothing was lifted, and only those Han who served as officials or scholars were required to wear them…By the late Qing…a great many commoner Han men wore Manchu male attire. For women, Manchu and Han systems of clothing coexisted.”

As you can see, while Han men’s fashion changed quite abruptly, Han women’s fashion evolved more gradually, taking on more Manchu influences as time passed. Let’s take a look at this timeline (source) of the evolution of Han women’s clothing during the Qing dynasty, from the late Ming dynasty to the beginning of the Republican era. 

Rows 1-3: Han women’s clothing during the early Qing dynasty (rows 2-3) was a relatively unchanged continuation of late Ming dynasty hanfu (row 1). Note the hanfu styles of changshan, pifeng, and bijia:

Rows 4-6: As time time passed, more Manchu elements were incorporated. Note the changing shape of the collar & sleeves, and the use of wide decorative borders (rows 5-6):

Rows 7-9: Women’s clothing of the late Qing is markedly different from that of the early Qing. The collars, sleeves, silhouettes, and decorative borders have taken on the distinct forms that most people today associate with Qing dynasty fashion:

Therefore, the modern hanfu revival movement considers Han women’s clothing of the early Qing dynasty to be hanfu, as it overlaps with that of the late Ming dynasty (1, 2):

However, Han women’s clothing of the mid-to-late Qing dynasty is not considered hanfu, due to the many changes it underwent. Rather, it is in the separate category of “Qing Han Nv Zhuang/清汉女装” - “Han women’s clothing of the Qing dynasty”. The image below shows the similarities and differences between Han women’s clothing of the late Qing dynasty (left), and Manchu women’s clothing of the Qing dynasty (right). The main difference is that Han women maintained the two-piece top & skirt style from the Ming dynasty, while Manchu women wore long, one-piece robes. The other elements, however, are quite similar. Note: Manchu clothing is called Qizhuang/旗装. The “qi/旗”in qizhuang is the same “qi” in qipao, and means “banner”. It refers to the Eight Banners system of the Qing dynasty, and is shorthand for the Manchu people (1, 2):

For more detail on the differences between Ming dynasty hanfu and Qing dynasty clothing, @guzhuangheaven has a great post here. 

Here are additional resources on hanfu & its relation to Qing dynasty fashion:

My “Qing dynasty” & “Qizhuang” tags

The “Notes on Qing dynasty costumes” series by @guzhuangheaven

“The Brief History of Qing Dynasty Clothing” article by Newhanfu  

Please note that I am no expert on Qing dynasty fashion, and welcome any corrections/feedback ^^

Hope this helps!

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

“We Are Closed”

Thank you Biden. I’m so glad that you find the need to smother small businesses in favor of multinational corporations. I’m so glad you think that just printing money (Much like all democrat politicians seem to) is the answer to every problem. I’m so thankful that you getting elected has resulted in our economy crumbling around us, where gas prices will reach $6-15$ a gallon. Where Milk will cost $8 for a half gallon. Where bread will cost $6 for the off brand. 

Now for those still reading let me make something clear. Biden was to worst case scenario to be elected. Trump contrary to popular belief was not a fascist. Fascists don’t get “voted out”. Fascist also rule with absolute authority. And the media lied about him and smeared him relentlessly. Does that mean I liked him? No it doesn’t. But the economy boomed under him. Now all that’s going on is us waiting for hyper inflation. 

So to the TITLE of this post. “We Are Closed” is trending 3 in the US on Twitter. And most of the tag is a bunch of entitled Americans, whom think everything should be a right for them. Our parents and grandparents often times had to work 2-3 jobs just to make it. And did that suck for them? Yes it did. But here is what you need to understand. Small town jobs exist. Small city chains exist. Mom and Pop shops exist. And a lot of you are out there saying they should not be allowed to exist. And let me explain why you are a moron. 

Small Business Running Expenses etc:

Rent for Building (The better the location the more the rent)

Property Taxes

Cost for Resources (Groceries, Silverware, Raw Material for products your business makes, cleaning supplies etc)

Cost for licenses to operate (Several in some cases)

Cost for any and all Inspections needed to open and continue running

Cost for any repairs and renovations

Insurance on your business and anything it possesses and sales

Costs for Security Measures

Salaries to your employees 

Costs for Advertising

Things they don’t tell you about running a small business

You still have all of your own bills to pay (Rent, property tax, food, health insurance, family, car Insurance, gas, city/state/federal tax, etc)

You will probably need a loan to even open a business

You will likely be paying off that loan for years and will be in debt most of if not the entire time

If you are competing with fast food chains or multinational store chains you will either fail in the first 2 years or you will barely keep your head above the water. 

In short, I get miffed when entitled little shits complain that they should not work because unemployment is paying them more. YEAH BECAUSE BIDEN IS A MORON. He is the one extending the unemployment bonus. And do you know why I hate everyone saying, “Well if your business can’t afford to pay living wage then you have a shit business model and shouldn’t be running a business anyways.” BECAUSE IT’S STUPID. So basically what you are advocating for is for Walmart, Target, and Amazon to get much MUCH bigger than they already did during lockdowns. Meaning their top brass line their pockets a LOT MORE. Meanwhile we devolve down to a system to only allows multinational businesses to exist, creating monopolies. “Hur dur you can always start a new business you just have to pay your employees $50 an hr hurdur”. You. Are. A. MORON! Do you think Walmart went global in a day? A month? A year? NO. It took years to decades for them to become what they are today. 

Also let’s go over the myth of “Minimum living wage” as a broad standard.  How much are the taxes where you live? City, State, Federal? Ok how much is the house you live in? The apartment? The condo? The colonial mansion? Notice a trend there? No two people at the same job are gonna have the exact same bills. Maybe I’m a single male, no kids, living in a condo. I don’t get sick often and I eat very little. What do my bills look like? OK, now I’m a Single mother of 2 living in a 2 bedroom apartment, my family eats a lot, the kids are constantly sick, they go through clothing very quickly and add school to that. 

Do you see what I’m getting at? Businesses can’t just PAY what ever the highest possible denominator is because they would go bankrupt. Minimum living wage as a broad scale is a fallacy. Each person has a minimum living wage but they can’t just pay each person that either because people will grip when they are getting paid less than other people. And it’s discriminatory, and it also incentivizes the workers to live in the most extravagant places possible. So consider this for a second. When businesses have to raise minimum wage they often cut hrs or layoff workers/cut down their work force. To that end the decision you meet is this: A: Pay 20 people $10-$12 and hr or B: Pay 5 people $15-$16 an hr (and layoff 15 people)

Because that IS the option. 20 people with money even if it’s not the most they could have. Or 5 getting paid “living wage” and 15 with no money and no jobs. *And before the commies or socialists come in talking mad shit, NO, your systems don’t work. They can not ever work outside of 50 people or less, with near iron fisted rule. So kindly screw off.*

Oh and another fun fact you don’t seem to realize. Walmart actually will force retirement on to people after 15-20 years because they don’t want to pay out the amount of money those individuals make. I’ve personally seen it happen. Meanwhile the top 20% of the business and it’s shareholders are getting more and more rich because of entitled little shits who just don’t want to work. Then you all have the nerve to shit on businesses that are likely to DO their best to take care of their employees, mostly because it’s still small scale and you get the best out of your workers when you take care of them. (Not to say it will always happen but more often than not it does)