#<- find and replace american with usamerican

[toyourliking]

usamerican privilege is not having to know about another country’s politics

[tricornonthecob]

Okay, confession time - as a non-USAmerican I have never watched Liberty's Kids. What is the deal with James and Sarah? What is their story? Europeans need to know!

Hmmm... how to summarize the pain...

Ok so quick overview, Sarah is sassy British gentry and starts out a loyalist. She comes over from Britian (15 YEARS OLD AND UNCHAPERONED, but I digress) to find her dad, who fucked off years ago to the Ohio wilderness ostensibly to find land for their family to settle in because land is cheap (no, their financial situation isn't explained,) but he's an easily distractable man and seems to keep forgetting he has a family. She takes up residence in Benjamin Franklin's print shop, because him and her mother are Best Buds, and this is where James is an apprentice and also lives. (There are alot of historical inaccuracies here as the shop had zero living space and Ben Franklin had sold the Pennsylvania Gazette and retired from printing before the 1770s and was in no way involved.)

James is a poor orphan colonist who manages to get an apprenticeship at Benjamin Franklin's print shop, which is wild and amazing in its own right. He's a tad goofy, smart but dumb, and a firebrand patriot, although his enthusiasm for rebellion and violence cools over the series. The show frequently uses him to make commentary about not letting your enthusiasm take over your mind, and not letting yourself be swayed into violence because of mob mentality. (But of course its an American show about the American Revolution that got released in 2002, a year after 9/11, so even though it does make a real genuine effort to be Fair And Balanced about the whole thing, patriotism can't help but worm its way in.)

Anyway, both of these teens are smart-but-dumb, sassy, hotheaded, and stubborn. Not only that, they are set up to be on opposite sides of the Revolution. Its the perfect formula for enemies-to-frenemies-to-lovers pipeline, and also coworkers-to-lovers pipeline, with a dash of Idiots in Love and a little bit of Forbidden Love vibes, and what eleven-year-old can resist? And honestly? Its frequently written that way.

Ok so I said there was pain.

Sarah had a gold locket she was gifted by her father. Its precious to her and reminds her of her father, who's been absent for years. (Are you picking up all the Dysfunctional Family vibes yet? Stick with me.) In the first episode, she unwittingly gets caught up in the Boston Tea Party shenanigans and loses the locket in the harbor. Its a Huge Fucking Deal, losing her only tangible connection to her dad and her life back in Britain.

In the second fucking episode (this is important to the Pain,) we get some backstory for James. Him and Sarah get to talking when she opens up about her dad and about losing the locket. James opens up and we learn he was orphaned as an infant when his parents died in a house fire from a lightning strike. A neighbor saved him, but eventually he ended up wandering the streets of Philadelphia when still a child. The only thing he has left of his family - of any family - is his mother's wedding ring, which he wears. Although they come from different backgrounds, he actively empathizes with Sarah's situation and tells her he understands what it means to put alot of emotional weight on an item like a ring or a locket.

(The second episode was the first one I ever watched and I went fucking FERAL at this scene.)

Anyway, at the end of the, and I remind you, SECOND FUCKING EPISODE, James makes the decision to melt down his mother's ring to make a replacement for Sarah's locket.

Please just let that sink in.

Is it sunk in yet? Allow me to go feral for a defining moment in my first experience shipping.

James melts down the only thing of actual value in his possession, and the only remnant of his family, in order to give Sarah a replacement for the locket that her deadbeat dad absent father gave her. The scene is very sweet. Sarah is genuinely elated. James is thrilled she likes it. He fucking. Puts it on her. When she finds out where they got the gold, she calls it the greatest gift she's ever received.

The SYMBOLISM HERE IS NOT VERY SUBTLE, is it??? The Found Family. The Healing. The coming together to make things Right. The Sacrifice. The Radiant Joy of Love.

Now, there are other moments throughout the series hinting that the two of them have crushes on each other, some more obvious than others ("I'm so happy I could kiss you!!!") but here comes the fucking PAIN.

They don't fucking get together in canon. Despite it being obvious that the writers had set them up to be a thing. I don't know if it was just infighting with the writers and the studio, or if there was some executive who decided that romance was silly, or if someone thought that romance wouldn't resonate with their target audience (children ship ALL THE TIME wtffff) but a grievous sin was committed that day and I have been burning with Bad Feels ever since.

Anyway that's why I spend so many hours trying to correct this error with silly, sometimes horny lineart.

[borrelia]

that thing abt the vindication it feels to dislike someone for petty reasons and then to finally find a legitimate reason. anyway tumblr user pachacamac still pisses me off for the petty reason that they* kept getting on my and other usamericans asses for not using proper british slang for stc fan content. like how tf am i supposed to KNOW i need to replace this phrase/word with other regional slang, do i need to google every word to check if british people use it? theres no easy way to check this yk. and they were such a dick about it! this post sponsored by me trying to make more exit fancomic stuff and fruitlessly googling every phrase i plan on using to see if theres a special slang version for british people. fuck it, theyee all american now. yippee-ki-yay etc

[waitineedaname]

idk if you still want uk tips, but here they are if you do:

people will be weird and/or excited about your accent, especially people who live near you

brits love a budget german supermarket, lidl and aldi have a lot of fans in the cost of living crisis

gp visits are a nightmare, and if you're moving from another country there will be LOADS of paperwork, but you should get signed up with a surgery ASAP - also, you can go to the pharmacy for a lot of stuff

queue culture - we love standing in lines

if you don't like tea, don't bother (lots of us don't) but it's a pretty big cultural thing so give it a go (we're such a nation of tea drinkers that the national grid [electricity] has to compensate for the number of kettles we use daily

wear whatever you like - nobody really cares

if you drive, you'll need to retake the test for UK roads

greggs is the iconic lunchtime place for mid tier pastries (sweet and savoury) and lunches

also, pie in the UK is typically savoury, filled with meat and/or veg and gravy

meal deals - a sandwich, crisps/chocolate/another snack, and a drink - are absolutely everywhere and an incredibly common lunch

we love double carbs - chip butty anyone?

fish fingers are such a good food that i don't think americans have? baked beans are nice but you can add spices/flavourings to them

you don't have to like marmite - if you try it, ONLY HAVE A SMALL AMOUNT. any american who puts a full spoon of marmite in their mouth is basically unknowingly undertaking the british cinnamon challenge

basically everywhere has a chippy (fish and chip shop), at least one curry place (thanks, colonisation(!)), and a chinese. curry's almost always good, chippies can vary, and be VERY careful with the chinese, because they're iconic for food poisoning (although absolutely delicious as well)

all restaurants have a food hygiene rating on the front door - 3 or less is questionable

find out if you qualify for any travelcards and get familiar with your local public transport - buses are often late, coaches are typically on time, trains often don't come at all

seriously. don't take the train if you can POSSIBLY help it - it's BONKERS expensive and often cancelled and replaced with a coach

know a bit about uk geography, if poss - lots of usamericans don't seem to know what wales is, or how north and republic of ireland are different

main tv networks are channel 4, itv, sky, and the bbc. c4 & itv are free with ads, sky requires a subscription, and the bbc is free but can only be watched by households with a tv licence (if using iplayer, the bbc's website, you can just lie about this, but there's a whole debate about whether they can/will catch you - look up tv detector vans)

british people end their texts with 'x'. it is NOT FLIRTING, we literally do it to everyone and often you'll get two or three - it's basically a punctuation mark. don't look into it

york specifically is like the north ? with emphasis on the question mark. england has a lot of perceived cultural differences between the north and the south, with the south stereotypically richer, ruder, entitled, busy, unfriendly, and the north stereotypically more rural, insular, prejudiced, and working class. it's not always true, and afaik york's a pretty afluent area, but it's something to be aware of

ahhhhh you are so kind, thank you for sending me all this! unfortunately, I am no longer moving to the uk because I was tragically fucked over by the university, so I'm moving to canada now. but if I ever end up moving to the uk after getting my master's (which is not out of the question!) this advice is incredibly useful, thank you so much for going into such detail, I really appreciate :')

[andsheoverthinks]

how many fucking people on this website make posts about misandry being a non issue and sexism being really bad and women's opinions about it being suppressed and then proceed to make the same arguments they pretend to hate so much about Black people and racism.

for example:

'women are still oppressed for being women even if they're white, usamerican, heterosexual, rich, bigoted, etc... stop throwing around 'female privilege' arguments to obfuscate the existence of misogyny!'

and five posts down (exaggerated for amusement purposes):

'uh ackshually african americans might be black but they're american so they're realllyyyy privileged also some black people are men so yeah. did you know some black ppl r str8? plus the little mermaid was blackwashed. check ur privilege black people!'

girl. this is the female privilege argument (copy-and-paste, find-and-replace) idk what to say to you. at this point we're going to get heterophobia and gay privilege galaxy brain takes by 2025.