#<- personal and anecdotal evidence not actual fact

[dilfsisko]

The urge IS dissipating.... perhaps i will simply exfoliate like a motherfucker instead.....

[letters-to-lgbt-kids]

My dear lgbt+ kids, 

When it comes to healthcare, you’ll occasionally encounter things presented as an opinion or as something up for debate - when there’s actually clear scientific facts on those topics. 

You can probably think of some general examples off the top of your head, like: 

Vaccines (They save lives. In fact, they are one of the most effective tools for reducing mortality rates worldwide) 

Pasteurized milk (Raw milk is not healthier than pasteurized milk, it’s actually unsafe. Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria which can cause severe illness) 

Fluoride (Water fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure) 

Climate change (It exists and directly impacts respiratory and cardiovascular health)

“Detox” (The liver and kidneys detox your body naturally; detox teas, juice cleanses etc. are unnecessary) 

Cancer (Cancer isn’t just one disease, it’s an umbrella term for many different diseases and that’s why it’s very, very difficult, if not impossible, to just find the one simple fix to end cancer forever) 

Sugar substitutes (They have been extensively studied and are safe for consumption within recommended limits) 

There’s a lot of misinformation out there and it often thrives because it plays on fears (such as the natural fear of illness, dangerous substances and life-threatening side effects). Nobody wants to willingly put themselves or their loved ones into danger - but this absolutely natural desire for protection can be exploited. 

Some common tactics for that are: 

relying on personal anecdotes (emotional stories often feel more reliable or trustworthy than cold, hard data, even though they aren’t) 

appealing to those who distrust authority (the suggestion that governments/scientists/corporations/“they” are conspiring against you feels trustworthy if it seemingly “confirms” fears you already had) 

misusing scientific terminology (Complex-sounding terms can make something appear credible and well-researched, even if these terms are used completely incorrectly) 

giving quick, easy answers or fixes to complex problems (health is a complicated, multifaceted topic and there’s oftentimes no easy-cut answer to why a certain person gets sick or if a now-healthy person will still be as healthy in 10 years. This unpredictability can feel scary, and oversimplified answers can offer comfort) 

While health myths impact anyone, they disproportionately affect marginalized groups - for example chronically ill or disabled people but also our community.  

That’s because health myths (or outright health lies) can perpetuate stigma and create barriers to accessing evidence-based care. 

Myths specifically targeting queer health often follow the same patterns we talked about above. Let's take a closer look at some common topics and break down the facts behind them: 

Pedophilia (There is no evidence linking sexual orientation or gender identity to pedophilia or predatory behavior. This myth is rooted in bigotry and perpetuates harmful stereotypes) 

HIV/AIDS (it’s not “the gay disease” or even a “punishment for being gay”. It’s a virus that can affect people of all genders and sexual orientations) 

Regret rates (Regret rates for gender-affirming care are very low, even lower than for getting a new hip or a tattoo.) 

Regret rates, 2.0 (“Regret” does not automatically translate to “they were wrong about being trans”. A trans person could regret medical decisions for a multitude of reasons (even external factors like a lack of social support or experience of harassment) and still continue to identify as trans) 

Mental illness (The higher rate of mental health issues in queer people is caused by external factors like discrimination and social exclusion, not by the identity itself. Being queer is not a mental illness.) 

Conversion therapy (It doesn’t work. It also causes severe psychological harm including an increased risk of depression, anxiety, and suicide) 

Treating these myths as not “only” homophobia and transphobia but also as health misinformation may feel nitpicky, but I think it’s important. If we don’t, it’s easy to dismiss them as merely a matter of “not accidentally saying something offensive” - but there’s more at stake than hurt feelings. Health misinformation can prevent people from getting the medical care they need and put their lives at risk. And that applies to “Trans people often regret their surgeries” as much as it does to “Covid vaccines are dangerous”. 

So, look out for those typical patterns and warning signs - not only in the general “health and wellness” area but also in discussions about queer issues. 

With all my love, 

Your Tumblr Dad 

[jeannereames]

Is there something about Alexander you just know in your bones but can’t academically prove beyond doubt yet?

Things I Can’t Prove but Believe about Alexander

The first thing is that he and Hephaistion were lovers.

I realize that may surprise some of you as I’ve written on it both informally and formally, arguing they were. But the plain fact is…we just don’t have conclusive evidence. I do think we have plenty of evidence that Alexander was queer. But for whether he and Hephaistion were lovers, all the evidence is either circumstantial or late. It IS perfectly possible to make a cogent argument they weren’t.

But, as the asker put it, I know in my bones they were.

That’s what fiction is for. Ha.

In fact, a lot of things I suspect but can’t prove I’ve thrown into the novels.

A couple other things:

Alexander was a neat-freak. He didn’t like mess or disorder. He was also a perfectionist.

He took criticism way too personally and internalized it. This is why only certain people were allowed to criticize him; it had to be someone he believed truly loved him.

He was not an alcoholic (in any modern sense), but as time went on, came to depend too much on alcohol to relax because he was an extremely high-strung person.

He was quite shrewd, but also highly emotional and visionary. These were sometimes at odds.

He loved his sisters and felt close to them, more than typical for men of his era.

He loved animals more than typical. (I think there’s good evidence for this, but I mean more than typical.)

He was left-handed. (Pure speculation, but it’s a sneaking suspicion.)

He could sing quite well, but nobody wanted to listen to him because his voice was rough. He’d have made a great blues singer. (Again, some evidence for this, but it’s largely anecdotal which is suspect by definition.) He was also a very good dancer, and loved to dance, related to…

He was an excellent fighter, physically extremely tough and strong. He didn’t really feel fear in the middle of combat. (While this is attested in the sources, I put it in the “can’t prove” column because it could also have been pure flattery by later sources.)

The “Sleep and sex remind me I’m mortal” line is a real quip. He was trying to be funny. People took him more seriously than he meant, and he was actually referencing sleep more than sex. (Along the lines of our, “I can sleep when I’m dead.”)

He really did believe he was favored by the gods and his birth was special/fated; it wasn’t purely political. This grew the more he beat incredible odds. He never believed he was divine beyond what a human could achieve.

[dancing-lex]

I was immediately struck by this panel in the manga in which Light is thinking about the effect of Kira's judgment on how average people across the globe interact with each other.

This is well known and well examined in the fandom but it really never ceases to amaze me how much of an influence Soichiro has on Light's values and thinking patterns. The modern police state rules with fear as the primary method of control. Light takes the enforcement of law-abiding behavior under threat of violence to the extreme by giving any criminal the death sentence. Being raised by a cop, he would be inclined to believe that this is the best or only way to attain peace.

I think this panel reveals something about Light's character; he thinks to himself that it's a GOOD thing that people are afraid, that the fear of getting killed by Kira will prevent them from doing bad things. Fear = good. Now that I think about it, I bet Light is of the opinion that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear, so he probably thinks that anyone who is afraid of Kira would be guilty (but that's another can of worms).

The thing is, sure, fear is a great motivator, but that also effects other parts of your life. Light mentions that people have begun to treat each other better (citation needed, anecdotal evidence?) but consider. If you're afraid of your neighbors snitching on you, you're less likely to want to interact with them. You don't know who you can trust; best not to have any close personal conversations. You might be overly (inauthentically) friendly just to make sure people don't plaster your face on the internet for Kira to judge. Otherwise, you might avoid interaction as much as possible. Lie if you have to, if it preserves your safety. Conform, appear normal, be a good person, try not to draw too much attention.

And this is what gets me the most, because isn't that how Light behaves? He's taking his own fear of people finding out the ugly parts of him and imposing that on everyone else. He essentially standardizes how all the people in the WORLD interact. Can you imagine the impact of Kira's rule on communities, friendships, relationships, families, not to mention diplomatic relationships and politics?? Light is singlehandedly breaking down the networks between people.

And the fact that HE is the one doing this is just so fascinating. I'm under the impression that Light believes he's actually doing something good for the world, but what he can't see is that he's actually vaporizing something so vital to society - the genuine connections we need to survive and lead fulfilling lives. And because that's not something he's really, honestly experienced, he doesn't even realize what he's doing. He wouldn't get it anyway.

[lady-raziel]

alright. i've made my acknowledgement of this situation being bad-- and it is. i think understanding that the narrative presented by today's events is the most important thing to recognize for what's coming next.

there is a concept called "priming" which plays heavily into the psychological process of why certain political narratives work. essentially, by building a conceptual association between certain ideas over time, and drip-feeding specific narratives slowly and repeatedly, it means that when a trigger event related to the ideological narrative occurs all those concepts get "activated." It can be thought of as a little like word-association: saying "cat" and having someone think "dog," or "sky" and "blue" for example. Priming is the process of creating mental pathways between ideas even for things that were not originally connected so that the same sort of thing happens-- making people think of another concept or a whole basket of concepts upon getting the mental trigger.

the most concrete reason why an attempt on donald trump's life creates a very bad situation is that all this time republicans have been priming their supporters with very specific narratives, regardless of the actual truth or evidence for such narratives. they have long been casting those on the left as violent, have blamed the left for social unrest, have blamed the left for attacking an "innocent" trump with criminal convictions, have said that trump is a victim just like jesus. the people who are saying that the right-wing was already making all the accusations they are going to make in masse in the next few days are right-- that is WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT.

it is because these are not new accusations and have been PRIMED into people's brains over and over that this is dangerous.

The right wing has been primed to see Trump= victim of untrustworthy political opponents prone to violence= Biden/democrats/left-wing responsible.

And because that association is already there, it is very, very hard to untangle regardless of any facts. Priming is very powerful at any point in the political process. But it can be weaponized very easily during campaigns, particularly against those who don't pay close attention to the political process.

Those people are the people at stake here. Those people are the ones vulnerable to picking up on democratic doubt about Biden and primed narratives about the supposed danger of the left-wing.

So here is my honest call to action for you, online person who may be very upset and scared about the state of things. I am too. It is important to understand that things are bad and sit with that for a little bit. But here is what I'd like you to try to do.

When you meet people out there in the world who might be susceptible to these malicious primed narratives, just talk to them. The greatest way to counteract priming is to give people personal experience of someone presenting other information. If you have a relative on Facebook who shares posts without considering the source, this is a good example. Just actively be the contrary evidence to the weaponized narratives and help them understand the larger picture.

Personal experiences can overtake primed information--so the best thing to do right now to help these people understand the reality and the stakes is to do the most grassroots form of activism and have the conversation with them that counteracts the priming. When they receive personal experience with an alternative viewpoint, it can start to at the very least cast doubt on the instant mental connections they might have made otherwise.

Here are three ideas of what to say:

Fact-check misinformation. If they're repeating something false, provide the truth as specifically as you can.

Highlight the policy aims of a second Trump administration-- and why these are the greatest threat.

Personal anecdotes that highlight how the narrative being told is false-- share with examples why the things the right-wing is saying isn't true based on your own experiences or those you know, as well as how a second Trump term might hurt you or those you know.

You already know to vote. I don't need to tell you that. But I think convincing other people you might know who could fall victim to the narratives of the larger situation and don't know what's really going on of the importance of using THEIR votes wisely is perhaps the truly important action right now.

[ihaveforgortoomany]

More thoughts on subtle nature of the Foundation exploiting its workforce and the people it saves

(Tw: Suicidal ideation mentioned here)

(I dont know to word this properly but looking at what Kakania chose at the end of anecdote marking the end of this particular arc of her character for now)

Im less looking at the nature of her therapy sessions (someone probably could look at that ans analyse the heck out of it) but the result and choice she makes after.

After leaving Isolde and reconiling the fact that right now, she cannot help Isolde and if anything distance between the two might be the best thing for the both of them. After all Kakania whether it was her intention or not contributed to Isolde's already worsening mental state and the only best solution right now is probably to leave her in this current blissful state/ dream.

As for Kakania? Already wrestling with the survivor's guilt of being the only recorded person to survive using the imperfect knot already weighs on her. Repeated panic attacks throughout the anecdote and the constant disassociation to the past as well. Sure she reconciles with the flaws in her methods and mindset, but what is the option given by the Foundation?

Join the expendable group of the History Guard (watchers I cant remember exactly) those jobs is to record everything happening in an era to keep field investigators informed at all times, and the way Greta described the job sounded like a high mortality rate.

Who would have even suggested Kakania the job? Certainly not Marcus, arriving at the end of her anecdote to invite Kakania to join Team TK, but Kakania initally choses to join the History Guard (its a situation where alot of Team TK members join branches in the Foundation, like Eagle with Lorenz and Edit its Windsong not Vila btw with the field investigators). Probably it was her psychiatrist who suggested the position. Which is worrying since Kakania clearly has suicidal ideations (the shard of the broken mirror and "being washed away is a just punishment for all my sins"). Why suggest a job that actively enables these ideations?

Ever notice that the colleagues of the psychiatrist she mentions also have continue working? Even if you are saved by the Foundation the immediate next step is to hire the individual, eventually even if they might fully recover from the shock of the Storm.

Its concerning that Kakania right now views her suffering as atonement for Vienna, now the Foundation hands her the job that could ensure it. The main method of the Foundation is control, over some perceived greater good in stopping the Storm, everything else falls to the wayside if it doesnt benefit the Foundation's goals.

Its not new to us for the Foundation to hire people saved from the Storm, but it is concerning that working for the Foundation is presented as the only option (why ofc you may say, they need more people to stop Manus and the Storm), but its the notion that this is the ONLY option. You cant really escape working for them, in that case you probably would be thrown to face the Storm and get reversed.

Its good that at some point Kakania does join Team TK (as evident in Vertin greeting her at the end of her trailer), maybe there she could actually heal; because with the Foundation it is only going to continue enabling that self guilt until something happens.

Summary: the Foundation traps those its save into a loop, the only option is to work for them, even if people are given therapy it seems to also double as a means to employ them as well.

[summerlinenss]

I no longer believe the actor who claims abuse on the Time Bandits set. Please read this all. I did my best to explain my reasons. I apologize for any rambling.

Paramount has issues with safety on their sets. They have issues with their HR and resolution departments. That is proven fact and has happened more than once recently, even resulting in lawsuits. I don't deny they were injured as they have record of that and Paramount has stated they paid their worker's comp claim, but I would take everything else they claim with a Rock of Gibraltar sized grain of salt.

Especially since they're just now trotting out that damned letter Taika signed as "proof" he and the entire cast, crew, and production companies are all white supremacist, pro-genocide zionists.

"Taika who signed that Biden letter" is a direct quote from the actor in a comment. They shared a post from an Instagram called "Zionists in Film" that purports to "out" supposed celebrity zionists. That post is Taika with falsehoods about the letter he signed plastered all over it. I don't know about all the celebrities listed, but there are several I know are anything but zionists and are listed there for doing literally nothing wrong.

The actor said nothing about the set being packed full of zionists until six days ago, starting with a post about Apple firing pro-Palestinian workers (I don't know if that's true, but either way it's not about Apple TV). The post from Zionists in Film about Taika went up five days ago. Everything else about the incident had been up and untouched since May. There is no other "evidence" that I've seen, be it quotes from the actor or anecdotes from anyone on that set that points to anyone being a zionist. Obviously I don't know each actor and crew member's stance personally, but when all a person who was on set with them can say is that Taika signed a letter, it doesn't look very convincing.

Also, the biggest and most obvious strike against their claim that the place was chock full of zionists? They were only on set when filming began in 2022 and filming wrapped entirely in early 2023! I/P has been a conflict for decades, I know, but your average joe did not care about "zionists" or even the conflict as a whole (regretfully) until after Oct 7th. So why, after all these months and two years after they left the set, do they suddenly start claiming it was a den of genocidal zionists?

I also don't believe every single one of the hundreds of people on the TB set was out to get them specifically. The entire cast, crew, and all the production companies involved are made up of misogynistic white supremacist queerphobes who only hated them just because they're Asian and nonbinary? What about the black guys in the cast? Or the little people? Or the women? Or any of the countless other minorities working on the show in any capacity, such as the no doubt large Maori presence? It was somehow just them who was despised by everyone, including those other minorities?

So yes, the actor deserves proper compensation for their injury, assuming their claim that Paramount didn't pay enough to cover their bills is true. But every other thing they said? I don't believe a word of it anymore. I was listening and accepting until they started screaming zionist. Now they come across as nothing more than a person with a bone to pick because they didn't get all the money they wanted. They just shot their credibility in the foot.

(I'm sending this essay to you because while I don't have a twitter account and can't get one, I have still seen idiots using this actor's "proof" to hate Taika, his fans, and Time Bandits as a whole. I just needed to put some fact checking and discussion somewhere.)

i want to just start with a disclaimer that, as anon said, i’m aware of the actual claims that have been made and read through the statements both from the actor and the paramount reps and it’s clear that they experienced some form of physical/emotional distress on set. no one is denying that. so i’m in no way attempting to diminish or disregard their experience.

that being said, i’m going to be 100% honest and say this as carefully as i can, but i’ve had an extremely off feeling about this since i first read about it. not in the sense of “well they would never allow that to happen so you’re obviously lying,” but there’s just something i really can’t put my finger on about this actor’s intentions that genuinely feel rooted in something vindictive rather than actually seeking personal justice.

just for comparison for anyone who hasn’t read the statements, i’m going to leave a link and screenshots of those here:

at first i honestly tried to take everything they were saying in good faith, but it’s at the point where it feels like they’re just making accusations of every controversial thing possible and waiting to see what sticks so they can get a pay-out to keep them quiet. it was originally a costar physically/psychologically abusing them and no one on set caring or believing them. now it’s escalated to:

- alleging the set was full of open and vocal zionists spewing a “pro-genocide” agenda

- claiming in advance that paramount is going to use AI to dub over their scenes

- apparently being both mad that they were “forced to leave” the show and mad that they’re going to still be in the show at all

- claiming they were gaslit and threatened by producers to the point of becoming suicidal

- calling them all “colonizers” (which if they are referring to taika and jemaine i think that is highly inappropriate and tone deaf)

- claiming they were digitally erased from stills because the producers are too scared to show their character and address what happened

- claiming they were originally in all 10 episodes and had their part reduced out of spite

- sharing headlines alleging all little people roles were cut from the show (which they weren’t) and alleging the cast was full of only white men (from the trailer alone the majority of the cast is literally bipoc and afab people)

- implied they were specifically discriminated against for being queer/non-binary and asian (although they are seemingly nowhere near the only lgbtq+ or AAPI cast/crew member so i don’t even understand what they’re talking about)

i’d also like to point out that i noticed one of the cast members is a queer and disabled rights activist (who seems like a lovely person btw) who has expressed nothing but total positivity and gratitude towards the show and absolutely everyone involved. and yes, of course, everyone can have different experiences, but i sincerely doubt someone who dedicates their spare time to fighting discrimination would stand by and not speak up if a costar was being abused or mistreated.

like you mentioned, the zionist stuff is all pure bullshit. and people who cry “zionism” to win their own personal conflicts typically don’t have a grasp on what it actually means. i don’t know how many times i’ve said by now that taika has literally been openly opposing the israeli military’s occupation of palestine on social media for the past six years minimum. i’m gonna be blunt and say any arguments people are still trying to make that he’s secretly an evil zionist because he (or probably his publicist) signed a letter that he likely didn’t even read and just assumed said “hey let’s keep freeing hostages and stop the violence” are just rooted in antisemitism at this point. i’m not sure about everyone else, but i do know that many people working on the show have been openly and vocally pro-palestine and even signed ceasefire letters, including jemaine and rachel house (i believe madeleine sami may have a cameo as well). and as you mentioned, anon, most of the general public (including i might assume this actor in question) didn’t become aware of or actively start speaking out against the occupation of palestine until this past october, which in no way coincided with the show’s filming. so i don’t get what they’re trying to prove besides the fact that they know buzzwords, honestly.

i’m also aware that this isn’t the first time this individual has done this kind of thing. they literally have a whole subcategory of their wikipedia page dedicated to allegations and accusations of abuse and discrimination they’ve made against others. and granted, some of the claims they’ve made are valid and i hope they got some sort of retribution. but a lot are also pretty big reaches and feel much more like attempts to “cancel” people they don’t like or had a hard time working with (e.g. they went on a bit of a smear campaign calling seth rogen an abuse apologist because he’d been friends with and “enabled” james franco in the past and deserved to never work in the industry again).

i’m not gonna be that person and say “well i know them and they’re good people and would never do these things,” because frankly, we don’t know anyone and incidents do happen. however i find it extremely questionable that this is literally the first time in about a decade of following their work that i have ever heard a single person have a remotely negative experience working with taika and/or jemaine, especially when all anyone else has ever said is specifically how safe and inviting and comfortable they make their sets for everyone. it also seems really bizarre and downright out-of-character to me that either one of them would not only refuse to help a cast member in distress, but that they’d go out of their way to mock and threaten them, all for the sake of protecting some B/C-list actor on an apple tv series of all things. i know for a fact taika has fired and recast abusers/people with allegations before for bigger projects, i don’t see why he wouldn’t do it again if necessary. and as the “insider source” in that article mentioned, i understand why they said they waited so long, but it still seems awfully convenient that they didn’t make any of this public until nearly a year and a half post-filming (and just a couple of months before the show was set to be released), despite apparently being in such life-altering turmoil.

i seriously do feel awful saying it, because again i don’t doubt there was an injury and emotional distress/discomfort being on set (or that HR was probably a goddamn pain to deal with), but it truly just doesn’t feel sincere or like they actually want to find a resolution. it really feels to me like either paramount didn’t fulfill their obligations of required support/compensation (which yes is obviously fucked up) or the actor in question didn’t get what they thought they deserved in support/compensation, and now they have a vendetta against everyone involved in the production and are determined to establish martyrdom to get them all “cancelled.”

[plurapony]

Can Autism Cause Dissociative Identity Disorder?

First. Let's take a look at the structural dissociation model. We as humans have three natural states when we sense danger - Fight, Flight, or Freeze. In a traumatized child where they sense their life is in immediate danger there is a fourth: Dissociate.

For an example of when this fourth state is required I'll be giving anecdotal evidence from our childhood: At ages 3-5 we suffered from severe asthma and would wake up in the night unable to breathe. Our parents were neglectful and it was our responsibility as a very small child to be an adult and wake them up to take us to a hospital so we would not die.

It's important to remember a life or death situation to a child is extremely relative and to remember that children cannot comprehend the same things we as adults comprehend. This is an extreme example but it doesn't have to be an actual life or death situation for the danger alarm in a child to go off.

Due to this dissociation these parts now hold things such as traumatic memories, conflicting needs, responses to trauma etc that make them unable to merge into one consistent personality.

So how does autism fit into this? Well let's say you purposely angered someone and then they came up to you and insulted you. Then let's take that situation and change it, someone you don't know comes up to you and insults you. Now which scenario would be worse to deal with?

We as humans want to understand everything that happens to us. We want to figure out the exact steps that lead up to it so that we are able to cope with it easier. An autistic child often lacks in their understanding of the world, and unless it is explained to them in a descriptive way, they will continue not knowing why things happen until they eventually figure it out on their own.

And this absolutely plays a part in childhood trauma, as the autistic child has no understanding of why the things that are happening are happening to them. They don't understand what they did wrong, they don't understand what they're experiencing is abuse, they just are suffering and they don't know why. And this can be said for any child experiencing abuse too! Many children assume the abuse they go through is normal as that's all they've ever known, but being autistic is just adding another layer of not knowing.

We too as an autistic child had a lack of understanding. We were heavily bullied in Primary School but had no idea and invited our bullies to our birthday party, which they came to (to make fun of us - which we also had no idea of).

So to answer my question - No, autism cannot directly cause Dissociative Identity Disorder BUT it can absolutely be a factor due to lack of comprehension to the world and the fact autistic children need more care than the average child, and some parents just aren't willing to go the extra mile.

[IMAGE ID: ponyville is a (pro) endo free zone break dni and get blocked loser! END ID]

[shelaghdette]

headcanon with evidence: shelagh turner is autistic/neurodivergent!

intense interests: shelagh's special interest is obviously the science of midwifery. she's only 30 years old at the beginning of the series, but already her expertise is virtually on par with the older nuns. her deep knowledge is very well respected by her patients and colleagues. she also LOVES to talk about it, you can see her face light up every time she has a chance.

hyperfocus: when shelagh is completely absorbed in a task, she struggles to notice anything else around her. for example, in the very first episode, she doesn't even notice jenny is in the room when she comes to inform sister julienne about her latest delivery. when sister julienne introduces her to jenny, she only very briefly acknowledges her, and then goes back to talking about work, which ties into -

struggling with social cues: in scenes with lots of shelagh dialogue, notice how she struggles to make prolonged eye contact. a notable exception is sister julienne and, later, patrick, but this makes sense. a lot of autistic people struggle to make eye contact generally, but have a few "safe people" with whom it's a lot easier. shelagh also struggles with boundaries, indicated by her lack of ability to ask for help when she needs it or say no when she's asked to do something. she can also be very blunt and forthright about her opinions, such as when she tells jenny to "please stop wittering on about vegetables, i could not care less." she wasn't trying to be rude, she was just indicating her disinterest in the subject in a very to-the-point way. also, when she was infodumping about the bri-nylon nightie, and CLEARLY misunderstanding cues that patrick thought she was extremely sexy in that little get-up 😳😏

stimming: shelagh is CONSTANTLY stimming. most notable are her hand movements, she fidgets with her hands a lot, and when she sits at a table, she often keeps her hands below the surface. i believe this is so she can subtly stim without attracting attention. oh, and you know the autistic stereotype of velociraptor arms? well, i give you...

masking: she's a social chameleon. her speech mannerisms were much more formal and clipped while she was still in the religious life, because she was holding herself to a certain standard, even though it's not necessarily required (look at sister evangelina). i think she was trying to model her behaviour and mannerisms on sister julienne, which is SO COMMON for autistic women to copy the behaviour of someone they admire in order to blend. she also "mirrors" body language, seen here. (both have their hands in their pockets, their legs are the same width apart. also peep my babygirl not making eye contact AGAIN while he's directly looking at her face!)

exaggerated facial expressions and emotive tone of voice: it's a common misconception that autistic people always have monotonous voices and flat facial affect. some do, but just as many are the complete opposite and actually have really varied expressions and tones. ctm fans who don't like shelagh tend to point this fact out about her, but to me it just makes her relatable, because i'm a really emotive autistic person too!

also, this is just anecdotal, but all of my autistic friends who watch ctm agree with me that shelagh is most likely autistic. and we're really good at identifying autistic traits in others.

these are just my observations from watching the show, as an autistic person. if you don't share these views, that's fine! but please be mindful of what you say if you aren't neurodivergent ♡

[evidence-based-activism]

https://www.tumblr.com/gay-little-treat-wizard/764074821329059840/i-feel-like-getting-upset-that-the-most-common?source=share

Okay, so I'm guessing you want me to respond to the final part of this exchange?

First, I think it's fairly obvious that @womenarehuman is pointing out how sexualizing cannibalism is indicative of a problem – most likely linked to pornography use – to the average person. She's not suggesting that non-sexual cannibalism is okay, the fact that the other users appear to have missed this completely is actually anecdotal support for her assertion.

---

For the rest of the thread:

The last user says "You're mad at capitalism and misogyny not porn.", as if pornography is not one of the pinnacle intersections of misogyny and capitalism.

More specifically, the sex industry (which includes pornography) is inherently exploitative. It is incompatible with even basic labor rights and safety regulations. (Violence and harm are endemic to the industry.)

Moreover, you cannot "avoid" exploitative pornography by paying for it or looking for "ethical porn". You can never know if a video, from start-to-finish is completely consensual and free of coercion. (This post addresses "home made" videos specifically but the same principles apply to all pornography.) We also have evidence that "performers" are forced to lie in those "exit interviews" pro-porn advocates like so much, and you need only consider the material situation of those involved to know that consent cannot be revoked in pornography (and is, therefore, not freely given).

Beyond that, consider the fact that a simple age-verification law, has caused PornHub to pull out of multiple states, rather than comply. This is the barest minimum of regulation of this industry (equivalent to requiring photo ID to buy alcohol and cigarettes) and they cannot, or will not, comply. This indicates widespread resistance to adoption of "ethical porn" principles, which will prevent even the appearance of targeting exploitation.

Further, the conclusion of their post, that things might be bad now but would be worse if porn were illegal, relies on the same either-or fallacy I've addressed about prostitution. Namely, that there is third option here: the Nordic model, where buying/producing is criminalized but selling is legal. (This model was, of course, created for prostitution, and needs to be adapted to fully fit pornography.) We have solid evidence that conditions for "sex workers" (and larger society) are improved under the Nordic model and suffer under both full legalization and full criminalization.

[yoursonlucifer]

my favorite (sarcasm) thing about fandom media analysis is when someone presents a fact of the piece of media that is relatively clearly presented but assume that because they've removed it from the context of the media that it acts as analysis

example: jinx and silco have a close relationship because of how she felt abandoned by vander and vi [uses evidence from the show to prove this]

and it's like yeah. that's kind of central to... the whole thing; you don't need to prove it. you're right because the show already told us that and can't exist without that truth. there's never actually an arguable claim involved.

I was going to add to the example, "and he fills a gap in her relationship patterns that has to be filled by a parentified figure" which is true, but one can argue that he didn't actually fill that gap or that it doesn't have to be filled by a parentified figure, because the problems jinx had persisted in spite of the relationship. instead, one could argue that only isha could fill that gap by giving jinx a chance to show someone the love she needed--so there can be actionable analysis there. but it kind of only functions as actionable analysis because I pointed out that one could argue that it's not the case and opened up a different point of view to demonstrate why I'm not just sharing facts and explaining them without ever making a claim.

I developed this example off the top of my head, so you will also see that as I analyze this statement, I poke holes in it and change my claim.

please always keep in mind the ever important "which means..." part of the claim. it cannot just be "[this] and [this] happened, which demonstrates [thing central to the media]." it also has to include your own extrapolation, which obviously needs to be supported by the media in any sound analysis, but cannot be presenting something basically innately true. even the thing that I presented as an example of analysis can fall flat, but I can strengthen it by emphasizing that jinx's love for isha also represents a love for her younger self, giving outside evidence or personal anecdotes to strengthen my claim along with what the show says.

by this definition, "silco and jinx's relationship is strong because silco was a parental figure to jinx" is just facts

"silco and jinx's relationship is strong because of the abandonment jinx felt from vi and vander, leaving silco to occupy a parental space" is better but still really just presenting facts

"silco and jinx's relationship was strong but built on a sense of abandonment and unfilfilled parental relationships. in order for jinx to have a stronger and more healed relationship, she needed someone like isha to exist." I could go further by saying "the show could not have had a resolved ending without a character like isha." with that, I've said something that is actually a claim instead of a fact and said something defensible, which allows me to actually create analysis rather than just listing facts.

the last line of my argument is especially subjective because I could mean lots of different things by "resolved." therein lies a word choice that actually allows me to create a defensible claim

TLDR; analysis is only fruitful when it provides an alternative perspective to emphasize its strengths and must avoid being a compilation of facts. a good way to think about it can be: [event] and [event] came together to demonstrate [fact], which led to [theory].

[leohtttbriar]

Someone brought an overhated character poll to my dash about Kai Winn and im literally so sad about the responses. I knew there were people who hated her but it's really baffling to me how maybe 10 people tops acknowledge her past and the reasonings behind her choices, they just see a space Karen.

oh dude, i'm sorry that sucks. and "sad" really is a simple but fairly complete word when it comes to the character of winn adami, huh.

like. i think a lot about how she's the most normal-looking woman on the show. she is also, simply, normal. she is faithful and political and appears and acts in ways far more familiar to us than most characters. even the fact of her alien-faith hardly serves to alienate, given that she is faithful in the way we might be--without true expectation of ever meeting the divine in this life. while kira can seem more like a fictional character when she speaks of the prophets, due to her proximity to them, winn sounds like the person accosting you on a street corner to talk about the rapture.

that's the thing, though, isn't it. about the "karen" phenomenon in general. there is nothing uniquely bad about middle-aged white women--nothing that makes them uniquely ungovernable in social spheres in ways men aren't. in ways everyone isn't, in some way. (merely anecdotal evidence, but my own experience in the service industry made me far more wary of men in their 30s wearing patagonia vests over dress-shirts). winn adami is a normal sort of frustration to people. one they encounter in the day-to-day. the political conservative who stands outside of planned parenthood and tells girls not to throw away their everlasting souls. the pentecostal women speaking gibberish in church, gesturing to the heavens with their out-of-fashion french manicures, who brought a tater-tot hot dish with extra kraft cheese to the pot luck. the women with cross-walls. with like. so many crosses. the women with leathery tans on the aging skin of their arms and neck. the women who quietly walk into voting booths around the world and choose "safety" over anything else, whether or not that "safety" is real.

at least. that's who people think winn is. setting aside the fact that most people don't truly know the kinds of women listed above, that it's unlikely they've spared a single ounce of pity for women like that ever in their entire lives, winn is not exactly pitiable in this way. she is awash in power. she is intelligent. she thinks. she would stand in a voting booth and choose "safety" (whether or not it's real) but she's not the lady wearing a t-shirt that says trump could grab her pussy if he wanted. she's not one of the many blonde women on fox news. she's not even sandra day o'connor or any other female conservative intellectual. because she's a metaphor.

we don't know her real-world politics because she's a fictional character in a fictional universe leading a fictional world. we know she's a conservative because fights very very hard to maintain the status quo regarding her bajoran religion and its teachings. but we don't know how any of that can be truly allegorized to conservative policies in the real-world. the main tension being: conservatives in the real-world base a lot of truly evil policy on a made-up divine figure interpreted through thousands of made-up hermeneutics and it is materially all Not Real. in ds9, the prophets are actual beings who affect reality. winn's said and done things on the show that sound like something an annoying woman with a turquoise-cross around her neck would say at a utah city council meeting about creationism and "inappropriate books." she also says things that a woman would say at a protest against the racist and paternalistic policies of the british museum. all we know of her as a political figure is that she is conservative. and like, power-hungry and desperate, but those aren't essentially related. she wants to conserve. and that encompasses more than one thing.

which means that people, when they see her, simply aren't thinking. they react to a woman who looks as she does. who speaks like a politician. who makes decisions that are unfair. but, exactly as you said, the show grounds her. they give her a past. they richly flesh out so much about her. they have her acting too rationally sometimes for someone of her professed faith. they have her acting completely irrational as her gods reject her again and again. all while she clings to them with a faith that endured actual torture at the hands of violent imperialists who yet attack her planet and yet attack her and yet she has to speak with as the leader of bajor.

and it's hard to see (beyond the obvious) why this character receives so much vitriol when you have characters like garak and dukat and kira who all are considered charming and beloved in some way or another, while still being as complex as they are. (and i don't even think dukat is all that complex.) even sisko has some moments that, if i lived in his world, i would be somewhat repulsed by--like when jake begs him to let the prophets go and sisko embraces the cosmic over the request of his son. (again: the prophets are real though, so my "repulsion" is more a reaction against people i see as priests, who i find in the real world, as a rule, awful.)

so. it's definitely sad. because the level and kind of hate bestowed upon this character really does seem to be a symptom of a much larger issue: of course, misogyny.

also that people don't tend to think.

[spiritstein]

spirit albarn has histrionic personality disorder, change my mind

i often see people ask what the hell is wrong with spirit, which is a great question. that guy's got issues. here's my take on explaining some of them!

notes: i have HPD myself so some of the evidence/examples i'll give will have personal anecdotes (although i've avoided projecting to the best of my ability for this post.) this is based mostly off the anime, as i have not finished the manga.

full post under the cut as it's ended up both very long and image heavy

one of the major traits of HPD is dramatic and exaggerated behavior/expression of emotion, which spirit displays nearly every time he's on screen. (typically in regards to either maka or his past and potential future romantic pursuits, we'll get to that later.)

this is typically played for comedy, but i don't think that discounts it as evidence at all-- kid's OCD is often used for jokes but that doesn't mean he doesn't have it.

these outbursts often involve very sudden shifts in his demeanor, and almost feel like an internal switch is being flipped on or off. this can make how he acts seem shallow at times, which is also characteristic of HPD. (emphasis on seem-- i do believe he's expressing his true emotions to the extent he feels them. the exaggerated self-expression of individuals with HPD is often tied to feeling those emotions far more intensely than the average person, at least for me.)

note how quickly he returns to a "resting" or "default" expression in the second gif here. he's kind of got a resting bitch face, honestly.

another defining trait of HPD is excessive flirtatious and sexual behavior, regardless of the person's attraction to whoever they're making advances on. i'll be using manga screenshots here since dialogue is important, but this is the symptom spirit shows most obviously by a long shot.

(not pictured: many, many more examples of this...)

he tends to flirt or otherwise get involved with women regardless of if the situation calls for it, and often to the detriment of his relationship with others.

the most blatant example of this detriment is his divorce with maka's mother and maka's subsequent dislike of him. no images provided since i presume you're familiar with that if you've gotten this far.

notably, he appears to feel guilty about this trait, yet does not or cannot curb it. one could easily read this as spirit needing the attention and approval from these women. excessive desire for these things (along with a more general need to feel liked or loved) is a major driving force behind other HPD-influenced behaviors and is a symptom in and of itself. while there is no concrete evidence behind this explanation for his provocative behavior, there is one person we know he desperately seeks approval from-- maka.

while nearly any parent would want for their child to love them, spirit wants for maka to merely pay any attention to him to a degree far beyond average.

in all of these examples, he's upset by her not even acknowledging him (or the thought of it) as opposed to hating him. the thought of her loving or admiring him appears to be a far-off fantasy to spirit, to the point of barely being able to handle it when she interacts with him positively:

...to the point of vomiting after this, which i won't show because that's gross.

maka is by far the person spirit's most shown to value the attention and approval of, but he still likely seeks it from others in more subtle ways. inversely, he reacts very strongly to both perceived and actual rejection, which is another HPD symptom. he assumes the worst when lord death calls for a meeting of all the death scythes, and is shocked when he finds out he assumed wrong.

people with HPD also tend to be gullible and easily influenced, which is most obvious in spirit's interactions with stein. he allegedly didn't catch on to the fact that stein was experimenting on him until his ex-wife pointed it out, as well many examples of stein just sort of fucking with him over the course of the series.

this could also just be that spirit's a dumbass, so take this part with a grain of salt.

that's everything that i can directly tie to HPD symptoms, but i'd also like to note that alcoholism is common in histrionics and they're at higher risk of divorce. as well as these manga screenshots of spirit being Just Like Me Fr as someone with HPD that i couldn't find anywhere else to put.

i hope this wasn't too clunky of a read and possibly gave the 5 spirit fans something to consider in their characterization of him! thank you for your time ^_^

[utilitycaster]

What ACOC fanon are people getting so upset over?

Come traveler. Let me tell you a tale. For I, too, was unaware of it until they went absolutely bugfuck all over Twitter. But if you don't want the whole long-winded epic: people shipped Belizabeth Brassica and Saint Citrina and while there has been no evidence indicating this will or not be confirmed or even mentioned they FREAKED OUT about how Matt would OBVIOUSLY destroy the "widespread" fanon (it is not widespread), specifically implying he'd do so in a bigoted way. Then some D20 guests noticed because the people saying this are not like, unknown fanartists (in fact one implied they had been asked to create art for the season but forgot to check their DMs) and were like "this is entitled and stupid and needlessly cruel to Matt, who is like, a guy we personally know and generally like." The people then, rather than saying "my B" and taking this to the DMs like a normal person who wants to talk shit, repeatedly doubled down. As of a few hours ago they were accusing Jasmine Bhullar of subtweeting them when she was in fact merely promoting an entirely unrelated show, it's sparked both a heartfelt discussion about how Matt's discussion of body dysmorphia has helped people and a conversation about how there's toxicity in all fandoms but the D20 community refuses to even acknowledge it; and also I think they've burned their chances of ever doing fan art for an actual play of any size in LA, Chicago, New York, London, or the centroid that represents an equidistant point from all the McElroys which is, I believe, hilariously for Amnesty fans, in the Monongahela National Forest.

Anyway POV we're around a campfire, I'm drinking something lightly alcoholic, and you wish to hear of The Drama At Length:

Do you remember Belizabeth Brassica, aka Broccoli Pope loosely based in appearance on Queen Elizabeth I (technically renaissance rather than high medieval but like...people constantly mix those up in D&D so it's fine)?

Great. Now do you remember the Rocks Sisters? Not the twins played by Siobhan and Emily; Amethar's four older sisters who died in the Ravening War, before the story started: Rococoa, Lazuli, Citrina, and Sapphria. Rococoa was a general; Lazuli an archmage (and Caramelinda's wife before she died; Caramelinda then married Amethar because while Lazuli had been a love match, this was a beneficial marriage for political purposes); Citrina a devotee of The Bulb; and Sapphria a spy and diplomat. They get talked about a lot, for sure, but their presence in the story is to be absent and to haunt the narrative.

Anyway the fanon is that Citrina and Belizabeth were in a relationship. In canon, I believe all we know is that both were devotees of the bulb; that Citrina held positions that might be considered heretical by some (she was a passionate believer in love matches and supported Amethar's marriage to a commoner in the Dairy Isles) and that Belizabeth ordered that she be killed.

Here's where this gets fun. So ACOC aired pretty much exactly three years ago, and while I think it's considered by many to be a high point in D20's oeuvre, a lot of fans have, you know, kept up with D20 on the whole and not dwelt on it in depth. But a small group of people have been consistently focused on this ship between an NPC who is vitally important to the narrative but shows up in fewer than a third of the total episodes; and a character dead before the story ever started. Which, I need to stress, is fine; the joy of headcanons is playing in the empty spaces.

Flash forward to 2023: a creative director who was generally opposed to revisiting past campaign settings and preferred standalone has just amicably parted ways. Neverafter has gotten mixed reviews (I have to see the last 8 episodes; this is anecdotal but some of the editing choices, plus the both dense yet meandering plot, brought the momentum of a truly fantastic TPK and resolution early on to a shuddering halt), and really nothing but A Court of Fey and Flowers has truly stuck for some time. The fandom has been clamoring for Fantasy High Junior Year for quite some time to no avail. The switch to 10-episode sidequests from 6 episode sidequests has met lukewarm reception. In short: D20 could use something flashy to revitalize their next sidequest. Enter: Matt Mercer as DM.

Now, a lot of D20 fans who are not part of the (significant) overlap with CR fans hate Matt Mercer. This is in part because a lot of people who got Big Mad about ships in Campaign 2 went to D20 and proceeded to badmouth Critical Role, a show they happily watched and made art for until roughly episode 107-ish of Campaign 2, proclaiming it homophobic (wrong two women kissed); racist (one of the women who kissed is a dark-skinned woman played by a white woman, which would have still been true if she kissed the other woman but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯); and probably problematic in other ways. To be clear I am not saying Critical Role is above criticism, and it has made its missteps, but like, the fact that these complaints showed up conveniently only when a ship didn't happen and mostly from like, white teenagers who proceeded to simultaneously call the cast transphobic and deliberately get their names wrong means this is not the criticism that is valid and worth considering, as is the fact that technically Matt had nothing to do with the ship not happening, but they've realized being an asshole to Marisha about her character's romantic choices will rightfully get you flayed alive. Also some D20 fans just hate Critical Role in the way that if you live in Boston you're supposed to hate New York and vice versa but if you say "why? what if I just want the baseball boys to have a good time together?" no one can answer.

Anyway here's a diagram to illustrate the group I'm talking about; they're the green dot:

So: a couple of them decided a smart thing to do on Twitter in front of God and everybody was to say that they were worried Matt would contradict this "widely established" fanlore because he is not plugged into the ACOC fandom. They then proceeded to specifically (jokingly, but like, in a shitty way, still where everyone could see it) say that Matt would probably introduce Belizabeth as being married to her husband because she is 100% straight.

Now there's a bunch of problems here, and people pointed them out. Namely:

This is a weird thing to assume Matt would do, ie, automatically make an arbitrary NPC definitely straight, even if you're joking about it; like, he has a pretty decent track record for making NPCs of varying genders and sexualities, especially by C2 and C3.

This is not even widely established fanlore; this is a tiny group of fans of ACOC. See below for more on that.

Even if it were widely established fanlore, it's unlikely Brennan would know either.

Even if it were widely established fanlore and Matt or Brennan were aware of it, they are under no obligation to adhere to fanlore, because it's fanlore, not the established canon of A Crown of Candy. This does not make fanlore bad! It just means that creators are allowed to ignore it in the same way that fan creators are allowed to ignore canon; this is a two-way street.

Therefore, because this is fanlore, even if Matt did say "here is Belizabeth and her husband, and she has only ever been involved with men" this would not be homophobic because the character's sexuality has never been established and straight is one of the possible sexualities she could have. Obviously if he went super hard on her straightness that could get weird but that's a fucking bonkers stretch.

When people pointed it out, this group and a few other people who just fucking hate Matt kept dismissing them as CR fans. Then it caught the attention of various D20 guest cast members or people in the broader TTRPG scene, who have pointed out that like...the actual play and TTRPG industry is a place where basically everyone in a particular region knows everyone else and they are all good friends and this is shitty. The D20 fans mad that Matt is DM-ing The Ravening War kept doubling down and started making outright ad-hominem attacks on Matt (notably his appearance and dress which is like, shitty and irrelevant to this fanon thing anyway even before you consider the body dysmorphia) and whining that because they've made some charity fanzines, a thing people have been doing since the dawn of Star Trek TOS, they deserve...something. People rightfully called them out as 1. entitled brats and 2. needlessly cruel. They keep whining that CR fans are dogpiling them when in fact like, the entire TTRPG community including, as far as I can tell, the D20 community who overlaps with CR fandom and even the D20 community that does not but is neutral on CR, is like "you suck, you started it, this fandom is not exempted from typical fandom toxicity, and you will look back on this in 5 years and vomit from embarrassment."

Anyway this is all kind of tiresome, but also pretty funny because literally I'm expecting a bunch of fanartists who are immensely high on their own farts to be 100% blacklisted from ever receiving a commission from like, any Actual Play of note and also a lot of fans; there's an outpouring of support for Matt that far outstrips what there would have been without a handful of idiots starting shit; and also the season is fully filmed anyway so if this ship was confirmed noncanon, it happened a few months ago anyway and there's nothing anyone can do.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, pretty much all these losers are still 100% going to watch The Ravening War anyway so like, this has all amounted to a net positive for everyone but them.

[satanfemme]

Nahyoure right mushrooms are fun and great for ur mental health if ur a chronically depressed person

it's actually kinda insane (I mean neurodivergent) how good mushrooms can be for your mental health. cause I've seen all the anecdotal evidence and studies and stuff before, but idk if I really believed it until I experienced it for myself. I fully went into the experience with my only goal to be experimenting with it, seeing what it's like, and trying to have a good time; I wasn't trying to force any serious psychiatric benefits or anything.

but for the past week my executive dysfunction has literally been SO much better. it's not perfect, but it's unarguably better in a way I've never experienced before. like I keep doing the dishes. do you know what a big deal that is for me? I Can Not do dishes, this is a basic fact about my lifestyle. it's why I rely 100% on disposable bowls and utensils. when I do have dirty dishes, they will sit in the sink for 2 weeks minimum, many many months maximum, before I'm able to clean them. it's not just frustrating but a genuine health hazard to be this way. I frequently need to throw things out because sitting in the sink that long ruins them. but somehow I have done the dishes every single day since my trip last saturday.

first it took me 2-3 days to catch up on what was already in my sink, but now I'm just using dishes On Purpose, and then cleaning them right after. not just within the same day (already an impossible feat) but Right After I'm Done with them. this was unthinkable for me two weeks ago. I have no idea how permanent this effect is going to be but just this one week of increased functionality alone will have been enough for me to be forever thankful. fucking adderall didn't help me this much. anyway, yeah the general boost in mood has been great too. can't wait to trip again sometime.

[crystal-cliffs]

Why Tartacchino is my OTP

A semi-long commentary on my favorite genshin impact ship because I want to talk about them so badly. Also this isn’t me pulling up evidence, this is 99% anecdote on why this ship is a huge comfort for me despite a lot of knee jerk reactions I’ve gotten when trying to explain it. So I’ve collected it all into a post that is 100% an excuse to ramble. Don’t expect coherency that ship sailed a long time ago and I’m only serious for about a minute or too.

If I had to give a song with their vibe it would be Tongues & Teeth by The Crane Wives so everyone should check it out if you’re already reading this.

This isn’t me trying to convince anyone to ship it either, though if I did I’d be surprised tbh. Just want something on the forefront that serves as a “this is what you’re getting into” vibe yk?

Why?

Because it’s fun… I like exploring ships that seem complicated and maybe wouldn’t even work out long term because it makes me think about the nature of human relationships. Whilst I have other arlecchino ships, thinking x Furina, x Xianyun, x Signora etc etc, I don’t… think about them the same way. Like they’re mostly fluffy to me and sweet and uncomplicated despite the fact that the reoccurring character that is Arlecchino would seemingly make it more interesting.

And yet it doesn’t for me, because I assume by default Arlecchino would treat these ladies like royalty and thus it’s settled.

With Tartaglia I don’t immediately assume that simply because the first question I ask myself is… why would Arlecchino even date a man? But when I stopped viewing these characters under such a strict guideline based on fandom interpretations of their sexual orientations, I came away with a different question. What would it take for these two to view each other in a light beyond mildly friendly?

And then I spiraled from there.

Sometimes I feel like shipping culture is so rigid that I fall victim to that, and don’t allow myself the ability to explore potential dynamics that usually wouldn’t be given a second glance. Tartacchino being one of them. The concept of them dating seems so impossible at times and to other people but I think that’s why it’s fun.

Alright Ramble Time but Serious-ish

I think sometimes we as humans forget the complexity of human relationships and we seperate them into these categories that simply don’t encompass the entirety of the human experience.

One common occurrence I’ve realized is how people look at relationships. You see two people who are dating and you personally believe that they aren’t good together and hey, they’ll probably break up in the next couple months. (This isn’t about toxic or abusive relationships, let’s not make it about those)

When the truth is, you only know half of the story. You don’t know what the two of these hypothetical people are like when they’re alone with each other and you probably never will because your presence directly affects these people’s behavior.

Tying this into Tartacchino, that’s the vibe the relationships always given me. Two people who seem incompatible to everyone around them, people who probably wouldn’t make it past a couple months before realizing the whole relationship was a mistake.

But they make it work.

I like exploring the complexity of human relationships and this ship allows me to do so somewhat. Imagining how they navigate an experience that even they themselves aren’t sure makes sense to them for whatever reasons I can conjure up. Sometimes it’s sexuality, sometimes it’s beliefs, personalities clashing, trauma and the inability to let yourself get too close, whatever.

Ramble time part 2: But not so serious

Actually, on the note of sexuality, the existence of a fandom consensus on a characters sexuality doesn’t make it canon. I’ve had multiple experiences where people have gotten upset at the prospect of me shipping a character that is headcanoned as a lesbian with a guy, some to the point of calling me lesbophobic which is ironic since I am a lesbian, that’s why I do this. As a lesbian I’m actually allowed to do whatever I want❗️/lh

…

So like… the post didn’t save when I wrote this part so now I gotta be even less coherent than I probably was.

Their relationship is very not heterosexual. They break the gender roles and stereotypes by being alive, their queerness happened the second they started living on the same plane of existence.

I just like to make all of the harbingers gender and sexuality fucked though, they experience gender fuckery and sexuality fuckery and who am I to interfere.

Like Tartaglia is a girl, a boy girl, a girlboy, I dunno it’s beyond our capabilities as humans without inter-dimensional parasites leaching off our life force.

Arlecchino is… let’s not get into that, he’s whatever you think he is frankly. She likes the speculation be so fr, she would.

Inherently queer, idk what else you want from me lol. Uhh they don’t kiss I feel like I should specify that, that’s to soft for them frankly. If they did kiss properly it would be bloody and painful and full of emotions neither of them would be willing to say out loud because they’re probably hateful lol I dunno. But they also do kiss each other, just not properly because for some reason that’s too intimate.

Their intimacy is sparring violently and then patching each other up because the passion is shown through how much blood is shed yk? Idk Tartaglia’s love language is violence so… why not❗️

Damn idk what I’m talking about tbh… I got less serious and realized I really don’t know how to explain my love and reasoning for this ship since there is no actual concrete reason, get bamboozled or something. I just like seeing girlboys and boygirl’s bloody, that’s all, it’s not a crime. That’s what the horror genre is for after all. Uhhh

They are not husband and wife nor girlfriend and boyfriend, they are that secret third thing. (Tho if they were we both know who the husband is and who the wife is)

We could get even more basic, golden retriever with rabies x wolf dog that knows basic human commands. They are not Goldie and black cat that’s wrong because arlecchino has wolf energy, dog energy, they both do, it’s just one is a little more intimidating than the other.

Just realized they’re hydro x pyro

Yeah there’s no argument, love Fire and Water, both equally dangerous in their own right, and they both live in a perpetual cycle of being capable of destroying each other and being used to destroy each other. There’s no point to this i just like Fire and Water.

Hoyoverse make them talk again they were so silly.

I think that’s it…

Yeah❗️

If you don’t like this ship idc, just don’t make it my business. Talk to me about one of the other 500 arlecchino or tartaglia ships instead or something, I still like a lot of those this is just my favorite.

And just to top it all off

We all saw wife right?

Right.