#'loser' women exist on their own for lots of reasons

[senior-management]

Okay but what if SSA women aren't men and being SSA isn't some kind of proof we have male tendencies and what if women can appreciate women who are vulnerable losers without being directly attracted to exploiting that vulnerability because, again, we're not men and don't think like men??

[ma1dita]

forever falling: luke castellan & his four great loves

a 'partners in crime' installment - luke castellan x dionysus!reader

words: 4.3k

summary: (post-TLT) The one where he falls from grace and still thinks of you. (the four great loves of Luke Castellan’s life and how it will end up killing him) (Luke Castellan x fem!Dionysus!reader)

a/n: i held myself hostage in my car outside the gym until i got this right this morning — listened to forwards, beckon, rebound by adrienne lenker while writing this, thank you for your patience and happy september!

edited, doing taglist when i get back from the gym lmao

—

Falling to his death is taking a lot longer than Luke Castellan thought it would.

For a man with a multitude of regrets, he finds that he can count his biggest ones off the four bloodied fingers that stain his peripherals with every bump and tumble down the jagged rocks of Mount Tamalpais.

What a waste of a life.

Everything he’s ever tried to accomplish has come to this final, humiliating moment of being at someone else’s mercy. Life is so unfair, he thinks, to give everything for love and have it kick you off the side of a fucking mountain that reeks of eucalyptus and regret. Sure, it was wrong to steal the master bolt, to turn his back on camp, poison Thalia’s tree, have his little sister hold up the sky, try to kill Percy Jackson every so often, and cause all this chaos… (I mean you know how this goes) but the pros outweigh the cons here! Promise.

Luke was so sure that they would all see reason—that he was doing this all out of love, no matter how convoluted and backwards his way is compared to theirs, even if he’d never admit that. Change is supposed to be uncomfortable and war was never meant to be pretty. It wasn’t supposed to end like this, really. The gods weren’t meant to win.

But at the end of it all, love must be his greatest weakness. It has to be.

The Fates should be slicing through the fibers of his lifespan by now, ripping through the embroidered memories in his mind. Nothing of his is his own anymore—not his life, nor his love.

Love, if he’s learned anything in the two wretched decades that Hermes himself has cursed his existence with— hurts like a motherfucker. That, or Thalia was definitely wearing steel-toed boots when she kicked his ass off the cliff. He’s given his life for love, dedicating himself to the greater good of protecting his loved ones, and no one, not even the gods could stand in the way of that. A method to his madness or his undeniable naivety, he still can’t tell, but it's gotten him falling deep into an abyss at the hands of a bunch of kids who continually undo his plans to change the world.

Maybe love is little deaths then, and maybe Luke Castellan loves too hard.

There has never been a single moment in his life where he hasn’t gone down fighting—he never lets anything go, holding what’s important to him so close to his chest that it suffocates. Luke believes that after everything he’s been through, he was never meant for mediocrity—not even when it comes to love. Maybe his death would mean something then— maybe that is his glory. To love someone to death, even if it was wrong— if this is his end, maybe his death will bring peace he knows his love never could.

Four names run through his mind like most things do, intense and fleeting. His final thoughts as he plunges toward the earth are his last act of prayer. If the gods have never listened before, well, these thoughts are all he has to comfort him; they feel heavy behind his lips the further he falls.

Could the Fates be wrong?

His fatal flaw manifests itself into the names of four women he knows he could never deserve in this lifetime, but he’d die trying. He is, dying. This fall from grace is proof enough that he was never meant to be a hero. Excessive wrath bleeds from his being until all that’s left is love, and he’s ashamed of it.

Gods, he’s such a fucking loser.

Luke’s neck cracks against stone at the bottom of the cliff, white hot pain crawling up his spine with only one remaining thought clanging around in his brain—he should’ve never fucking come back to San Francisco.

And while we’re talking about regrets—Luke recognizes that the one thing he’s never had control of is love.

So he lets go, feeling the weight of his body crumple against the downhill slope of Mount Tamalpais like a puppet cut from its strings without a single cry of pain because Luke Castellan finally comes to accept the loves and losses of his life. His landing feels softer now, rolling to a stop like the waves on Westport Beach. Then he sinks into the earth with a bated sigh and it feels like gentle hands of loves that once believed in him.

Luke closes his eyes before his world spirals into black—because if these few moments are all he has left, he’d like to take this time to remember them.

MAY CASTELLAN [storgē - στοργή]

Luke Castellan was born into this world half-mortal, half-god, but 100% May Castellan’s son. From the moment he came into this world, he was fully her own. Hermes was a factor, yes—but the manifestation of a demigod is wholly that of the mortal parent in every aspect visible to the naked eye. Blood runs alongside ichor in his veins, but Luke is all hers in every way that matters—from the slope of his nose, his dark velvet curls, and the honey-molten warmth of his eyes. And they were happy together, once upon a time, even if it was mostly just the two of them.

The gods make their half-mortal children in the likeness and image of their human love since their own forms are ever changing. There is nothing permanent about being immortal—leaving their partners with babies that look like them but are vulnerable to the Mist. And when you love a god, the only tangible reminder left behind is one that goes where you cannot follow. Things most can’t understand— speedy baby steps padding down the hall, tiny hands unlocking the pantry door, and a motor mouth able to transmit meaning through toddler gibberish.

But before Luke even knew what love was, his mother made sure he knew hers was stuck to his being—like peanut butter and jelly on the roof of his mouth from all the sandwiches she made. His clothes used to smell like chamomile from her morning brew and his fingers were often stained blue from Kool-Aid powder. May would always let him mix, even if she had to pretend to not see him sipping from the big spoon in the pitcher. Loving a trickster meant she knew how to raise one.

His mother’s love was sugar sweet. It was in the cookies she baked, the kisses she’d press against his broken skin, and in the confectionery words she’d whisper to him before bedtime. As the years passed by, May would end up repeating herself and the ‘i love yous’ were more for her instead of him—like a mantra she needed to remind herself of who she was. But Luke always understood. When her voice would fail and tears would replace it, Luke learned to wipe away what his father left behind for him to take care of.

His identical chocolate irises watched hers turn to emerald, and it was then he knew that too much sugar could make everything rot.

THALIA GRACE [eros-ἔρως]

There was always this intensity whenever he was with Thalia Grace, the daughter of Zeus. And she made sure he always knew it—a static spark igniting between the two of them as soon as their eyes met in the streets of Charleston. Like him, Thalia always made sure to get what she wanted, two north poles of a magnet bullheading through life to get what they’re owed. By that same evening, they were elbow-deep in the golden dust of a dragon that had come home to find two bushy-browed little freaks with arrogance quadruple their size.

Luke and Thalia were a match made in hell—one always trying to outdo the other to get the upper hand when it comes to control. And at 12 years old, it was the first time Luke had ever had anyone fight by his side. But they were both short fuses and she always set him alight—a glint of her father rushing through her glare so hot that it burned blue. He would do anything to keep her attention on him since grabbing devotion by force is all he’s ever known. Moving quickly and being in her face was the only way to remind his mother of her affection so he assumed the same would go with her. That, and he couldn’t help being extra fidgety— being a son of Hermes meant he couldn’t sit still for long.

Though with Thalia’s growing annoyance of Luke, it was established that their dependence on each other was one of necessity to survive the odds stacked against them. She was repelled by what made them so similar, hubris that blinded them from wanting to figure out the difference between surviving and living. There was a poison of hate in their love for one another. A shame in wanting a love that understood the attraction that linked them so early on in life, however innocent.

Both were too alike and were burned the same.

They burned each other. A type of selflessness and selfishness that battled each other for balance, so close but so far away.

There was always something about Thalia that blistered at his confidence. A forbidden part of her he couldn’t bear. It’s why he spit words of acid instead of encouragement once he realized the Furies wanted her the most when they were running for their lives, Luke was always the fastest runner anyway—dragging little Annabeth up Half-Blood Hill and by the time he realized he’d left her for dead she became a hero (he admits now that he could’ve run circles and saved her too; he just didn’t want to).

Thalia Grace gave everything for this love. But she sure as hell never trusted him to do the same for her.

The spark they shared was snuffed out that day. And Luke continued to burn without her.

ANNABETH CHASE [philia- ϕιλία]

Luke Castellan had never been chosen for anything before. Growing up in the mortal world, he was used to watching families eat together through restaurant windows and children playing in parks that he would pass by, taking slower turns around the block so he could imagine what it felt like to be wanted. Luke was never once beckoned to take part, but he accepted long ago that he didn’t really belong anywhere.

It was nice to think about though.

The daughter of Athena doesn’t remember it anymore, something so trivial in that big brain of much more important thoughts—but when she reached her hand out to him instead of Thalia (after almost breaking his skull in with a rusty hammer), it meant everything to him. The kid thought he was a monster at first sight, and she still chose him after everything.

Annabeth Chase grew up idolizing him and he thrived because of it.

Like ambrosia, Luke was strengthened by her faith and it made him feel powerful. Having the daughter of Athena in his life was like being awarded a gold medal. He loved Annabeth like she was his biggest prize, gleaming on a shelf for him to admire when he was feeling down about himself. Both him and Thalia raised her with pride; with little to no material possessions, they learned to make something out of nothing—and they made it golden. He chased that feeling and it made him greedy for her affection—she announced his place in this world of cruelty. The harsh hands of fate were gilded by Midas himself as long as he had Annabeth. And she put him on a pedestal too—an unattainable goal in her mind that the highest form of glory was to be like her older brother and best friend.

Luke Castellan was finally good at something, and he had the proof to show for it in the shape of a small girl with inquisitive eyes. With her, all of his answers were right. To choose each other and be reciprocated with equal fervor helped him idealize what it felt like to win in life.

However Annabeth was not just his best student, but a prodigy that learned to outplay the trickster. An intellect like hers was never meant to corrode in a dusty, dark corner.

YOU [agape- ἀγάπη]

Plato wrote that humans were once created whole— with four arms, four legs, and two faces fused back-to-back for the entirety of their mortal existence. They were at peace, and how could you not be?

With your soulmate at your side, you could face anything, even the gods. And eventually Zeus felt threatened by their power, in knowing that humans could be invincible against any pain, suffering, and doubt as long as their soul was physically and intimately tied with their other half. So he separated humans from their soulmates in a snap of a finger. It was just another thing that jealousy would take away from humankind by immortal beings that would never understand what it means to live with an ending.

There’s a misconception that love is being together in our original state until the gods took it away. But in fact, it was written to be that love is the desire to become whole with someone else, in addition to yourself. Love is the choice to spend your life trying to find your other half—as we are destined to roam until we have someone to share the rest of our time. Humans have long accepted that we don’t know when the end will come—but the act of searching for our person to share it with, that is love.

Love is the ultimate sacrifice to meet your partner wherever they’re at, to make a home out of the rubble of your past and still choose it anyway knowing that the both of you will go hand in hand into the future. It isn’t glory like he’d convinced himself in the past; it’s not accomplishing some heroic feat worth the recognition of the gods—he knows by now that he couldn’t give a single shit about them. The answer had always been right in front of him, unwavering against the test of time with fluttering amethyst eyes and laughter that renders him senseless.

Why go through all that trouble? one might ask. But that is also his answer.

Fate had never cut him loose— tumbling down Mount Tamalpais was one of the many proofs of that, and with nothing else to do, Luke comes to the conclusion that loving you is a lifelong commitment he made to make more time with you.

Shitty deal, he thinks, trying to beat Kronos at his own domain without anyone’s help must have been a waste for it all to end so pathetically.

But loving you was a choice he made every day, even in your absence. It’s his reminder and solemn vow that loving you could never be a waste. Luke laments not being able to take you to meet his mother, or giving you the white house with the big bay windows, but by giving up his life, honor, and whatever glory is still attached to the name Luke Castellan— it must be worth it as long as you’re living the life you deserve.

Even if it means he’s not part of it, he hopes you’re still searching for him too.

—

In the end, even as he falls to his death, he finds himself calling out to his father for the last time. His plea reaches deaf ears of course—but he isn’t begging anymore. Luke Castellan thanks his father for the first and last time in his life and embraces his losses if it meant that he mattered. If not to the gods, then to his mother. To Annabeth. Thalia, even for a short moment, and you.

Especially to you.

Unwavering and without question, to live to the fullest is to have been by your side walking through the woods of Camp Half-Blood and hearing the sound of your cackles through the air, sending animals scattering from something he said.

Because to be loved despite everything he has done, everything he will do— Luke thinks he must be the luckiest man to have ever lived.

Death blankets the weary traveler, and time is an unflinching hand pulling him through a rip in reality. He’s gone in the blink of an eye, falling in reverse to where he needs to be next.

Somewhere, Atropos raises her scissors away from the indelible strand of his life force as she takes a breath and sits back, her sisters unable to do anything else but watch. This boy was becoming more trouble than what even the gods knew he was worth.

Luke Castellan must be lucky, indeed.

—-

Ding.

450, 451, 452, 453…

A wet cough from a satyr next to you disrupts the silence in the elevator up to Olympus; you give him a sideways glance that makes him shift closer to the door with what you hope is a blush and not a fever. It’s warm and stuffy in this 3x4 crystalline box that shoots towards the heavens, and a bit crowded for a weeknight—though you suppose it is the Winter Solstice.

You haven’t been back here since your ex-boyfriend stole the master bolt.

There’s a moment where you wonder if the Fates have ever found your predicament funny, but then the satyr sneezes with a boom.

537, 538, 539, 540…

It’s almost dusk now as clouds roll through the night sky and into the distance. Frost lines the metal frame of the elevator shaft and if you’re flying at the speed of light, it doesn’t seem to be a problem. But this trip is taking much longer than you thought it would for a decision you made on a whim.

You still have a final to take in the morning, and Annabeth wasn’t answering your calls—then her location on Find My iPhone sprung from San Francisco to the middle of Manhattan from the span of your trip on the Long Island Railroad.

Something was up. The sense of something important trickled down your spine like second nature. Can’t this thing go any faster?

It was second nature for you by now to know when something was up, especially with the trio. You’d always make the time for them. Besides, your life has been a little too quiet lately. Being an adult demigod does that; there’s no monsters that bump in the night anymore, just the ones in your head and the ones that make you take finals three days before Christmas.

…600.

Ding.

Weaving through what seems to be a celebration fit for the gods, your glove-clad hands push through the sea of minor godlings, heroes, and Olympians. Aphrodite sends you a wink that makes you feel hot to the touch before you realize Hestia’s eyes are also on you, the both of them clearly whispering about your treacherous love life. You shove your gloves and scarf into your jacket pocket. Bowing your head lightly in greeting, you keep walking further into the grand hall.

It seemed you were always a hot topic up here on Olympus. Great.

The music is so loud you can feel it in your chest, thumping away to the accelerated beat of your heart and by the time you grab a glass of ambrosia-spiked champagne to help with the lump in your throat, you hear the sound of your name in the midst of all the chaos.

A gentle hand grasps your shoulder then, and it’s Percy Jackson adorning a cup of punch and brand new wispy white tendrils that hang across his face. There’s a story that should follow, but he gapes at you like a fish out of water. Looking up at him (this boy grows like a weed!), both of your confused faces mirror each other as you sidle out words he’s still able to hear over the music, “What’s the celebration for? And why have none of you been answering my calls?”

The son of Poseidon swallows hard, until the smell of salt and sea foam surrounds you and you find yourself staring at the god of the sea himself, standing alongside him. With a smile soft like rippling water, he gently says, “I’ll leave you two to it. And I’ll call your father and stepmother over. Good to see you,” Poseidon says your name as he takes his exit. You hoped it was a good thing then, that he knew you.

Percy wondered why he was always left to make the difficult decisions.

He almost sounds like his father when he speaks, calling for your attention again as he clears his throat.

“Listen, I need to tell you something, and I think we should…”

Shaking your head, your eyes are scanning across the room, meeting Annabeth’s as she drops the hand of the minor god she’s dancing with and makes her way over to you. From the other side of the room, Poseidon pushes your father in your direction as he juggles two golden goblets in each hand, led by his wife as they almost float towards you.

“Whatever it is, spit it out Perce. Your audience is growing by the minute.”

“Hey princess, whatcha doing here? Don’t you have a test tomorrow?” You dad grins, nudging your shoulder and handing you one of the goblets. Ariadne presses a kiss against your temple and you smile, taking a sip before hearing Annabeth’s converse squeak to a stop next to you.

“Someone better tell me what’s going on right now,” your eye twitches and then you see Annabeth’s new strands of silver that frame her face as she grabs your arm and nestles against it.

“I…um…” the sandy-haired boy begins, and then your dad groans and you elbow him hard, wine spilling from his lips as his wife giggles like the sound of tinkling bells and you’re about to strangle the teenager on the marble tile he’s planted on.

“Luke’s…”

“Dead.”

Percy’s worried voice intermingles with a new one you haven’t heard before, like a crackling sound that leaves a metallic taste in your mouth, and then a girl shows her face—black eyeliner and silver jewelry clinking against each other as she looks into your eyes and blue meets purple.

So you start laughing. Cackling even, as your head nods slightly, and after they’ve given you a moment to compose yourself you take a big gulp of the drink in your right hand to then chase it with the one on your left.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me. He’s not dead,” you insist, and everyone looks at you like you’re insane, even your father, the god of insanity himself. Ariadne’s hand caresses the nape of your neck as she whispers, “Maybe we should take a seat outside, darling…”

“No…No! I mean it,” you say almost incredulously, a hiccup slipping past your lips when you take in too much air. “That motherfucker doesn’t have the audacity to die and if he did, I would know.”

“This is how we’re letting you know,” Annie murmurs, before Percy sighs and his shoulders fall heavy with what seems to be the weight of the world, “She’s right. He’s not dead.”

A myriad of responses blur in the space around you, all going hazy as you blink and stay focused on Percy.

“It’d be too easy…” you murmur, nodding again like you’re convincing yourself of the fact. Annabeth rubs circles into your forearm and you realize you haven’t breathed since the daughter of Zeus made her entrance, “I’d know if he was dead.”

Thalia Grace looks you up and down thoughtfully, “So you’re the collateral damage.”

“Thalia!”

Annabeth exclaims, her hand tightening around yours and you know deep down she’s rejoicing at the news of Luke’s survival. But for yourself, you were unsure if you felt the same, almost chuckling at the irony of almost all of Luke’s favorite people in the same room as the gods he swore to overthrow, “That’s me. You were a tree the last time I saw you.”

“That’s me. I kicked him off a cliff, thought it would’ve done the job, but he’s always been too stubborn.”

A smile spreads across both your faces. You think about Luke interrupting your date last month by barging into your apartment and how that was tough enough to explain to your roommate, much less if you tried to tell your parents and best friends in the middle of a Christmas party.

You make the choice to keep Luke’s visits a secret. It doesn’t come as difficult as you thought it would.

Hermes bumps into your little group, eyes focused on his caduceus as it pings with different messages. The rest of you go quiet, mirth dimming despite the smile on the messenger god’s face and the kids take that as their cue to exit.

“What’s happening? A group like this, and with you making an appearance,” he nods in your direction, “Must be something special.” He nudges your dad, and you’ve forgotten that they’ve been best friends for millenia.

“Your kid’s not dead. You’d know that if you were nosy in the right places,” Dionysus says through a gulp of wine, turning and walking away nonchalantly, making you smile. Hermes looks at you with his face a mix of shock and appreciation, though you’ve done nothing to earn it. He follows your father with a gust of wind billowing behind his traveling feet.

Those two are more trouble than you and Luke were.

Biting your cheek, you turn to Ariadne and scoff, “So…. Do you think I should tell my dad that the other campers snuck into the party half an hour ago?”

Your stepmother laughs, her eyes following her love across the ballroom, choosing to let everyone enjoy the Winter Solstice for once.

—

“When does a war end? When can I say your name and have it mean only your name and not what you left behind?” - Ocean Vuong

[presidenthades]

I've lost all my faith in this season, my favorite characters seem to have been written as an afterthought or are just standing there without doing much (or worse, they were completely eliminated) Aegon is not my favorite (he's not my least favorite character either, Aemond and Alicent exist for a reason) but tgc makes that loser really endearing and seeing him call his mom at his most vulnerable moment made me feel things...

I was thinking of an au where everything stays the same as the show but Jace is a girl, maybe she could bond with Rhaenys like she did in the Golds universe (dark-haired Targaryen women, heirs to the throne but with a male relative who puts her right at risk) Rhaenys could take Jace with her to Kings Landing as her ward and when everything goes to hell Rhaenys flees without being able to take her granddaughter with her. How do you think the greens would deal with Jace among them? Do you think this Aegon would become obsessed with having his niece in his power now he's king? Maybe Jace would play her cards well and take advantage of Aegon's need for approval and love for her and her mother's benefit...

Imagine the scene of Aegon crying after Jaehaerys' death and after Alicent leaves without comforting her son, Jace enters the room to do exactly that or when he inevitably complains because Otto rejected his idea of returning the sheep to the farmer and Jace comforts him by telling that it was a good idea and even offering to help him prepare to talk to the Council. I know that if Aegon had a Jace by his side (even when she has her own agenda) many of the disasters to come would have been avoided and Aemond would have no chance of naming himself regent because she can work with her drunken uncle but will never allow her brother's killer to sit on the throne

I’ve been thinking about this prompt a lot. I know we’re trying to keep things as close to show canon as possible, but there are some questions that must be asked.

Between Jace (who is Laenor’s bio daughter) and Luke (who is presumably Harwin’s bio son), who is Rhaenyra’s heir and who is Driftmark’s heir? I established in The Golds that, based on what Rhaenyra said to Rhaenys in S1E8, Rhaenyra might make a son her heir over her daughter. But show!Corlys is very “history remembers names,” so would he also prefer a male heir? Or does his granddaughter being biologically Laenor’s change things?

Either way, Rhaenys definitely shows favoritism to Jace, even more than in the Goldsverse. This would add to tension between Jace and her siblings. Jace feels like Luke is the favorite for being the eldest boy, while Luke feels like Jace is the favorite for being legitimate. There’s even more tension if Rhaenys takes Jace as a ward in Driftmark for a few years. In this AU, Jace might not be very close to her siblings, though she would still love them.

The Last Supper might go differently since Jace wouldn’t retaliate to Aemond’s Strong toast. Maybe Luke tries to take on Aemond by himself. 😂 But even if Rhaenyra takes her other kids back to Dragonstone, one could argue that Jace stays with Rhaenys as her ward. So that’s how Jace ends up stuck in KL when everything happens.

This is one of the best case scenarios for the Greens. Even if Jace isn’t as close to her mother and siblings in this AU, she’s still a very valuable hostage. Honestly, if Rhaenyra’s daughter is trapped in KL, I have a hard time imagining Rhaenyra doing much of anything out of fear something happens to Jace. But Daemon in this AU doesn’t care much about Jace, so maybe we can do what the show does and blame all the bad TB decisions on him. 🤷🏻‍♀️

On the Green side, Otto wants to make doubly sure they’re keeping Jace, who is a dragonrider and whom Greens would argue is the only legitimate heir to Driftmark. It would be kinda funny if Otto suggested marrying her to Aemond. 😅 Aegon would, of course, lose his shit and do his best to stop it from happening. He probably starts writing to the High Septon about whether they can bring back polygamy.

Let’s say Storm’s End still happens, because even if Rhaenyra is afraid for Jace, she reasons it’s still OK to send out messengers. When Jace hears about what happened, she DEFINITELY doesn’t want to marry Aemond. She has a decent survival instinct, and I imagine she and Aegon were still close as kids, so she may intentionally latch onto Aegon to improve her odds. Aegon is happy to be latched onto.

If Jace is there to give Aegon all the love and validation he wants, stuff like Rook’s Rest probably doesn’t even happen because he isn’t pushed over the edge/Jace talks him out of it.

[9w1ft]

Being a gaylor/kaylor is hard. You speak the closest to truth and then Taylor proves you wrong by doing something opposite to please the hetties. Then you are called losers and liars. One thing for sure that Taylor doesn't care about Gaylors/Kaylors at all. She CONDONES the homophobia and bully towards us. Always has been. After the 1989 prologue, Travlor stunt, always in the past. And will do in future. Sometimes I feel like she hates us so bad and always throws us under the bus. I wonder why we are still here. There is nothing positive about being a gaylor. If she wants to stay extremely closeted and parade her bf as the straightest women alive, then what is the purpose of flagging just to prove us fool on a larger scale. Does our existence bother her?? It doesn't seem that she like us. I just wanted to know from someone experienced.

hm, i dunno. i’ve felt very loved by taylor and karlie!

i think so much of how one might feel is based upon self-imposed rules. if you change the way you expect taylor to act, or how you vocalize how you expect her to act, maybe 75% of the frustration one might have is resolved.

i think condone is a pretty strong word to impress upon taylor. i think people have all gone through enough cycles to see what taylor does and doesn’t do in reaction to fandom behavior but i think a lot of people refuse to ask themselves why she always acts the way that she does, and people also refuse to change the way they comport themselves, but still act the same way while expecting a change to come from taylor.

even in the way you wrote your anon, you’re making a lot of assumptions about why taylor does things, and i don’t mean it as a criticism of you personally. i understand why you write it out like that because i think it’s a popular way of thinking. but i think you’re setting yourself up here. for example, you describe a dynamic of taylor flagging and then taylor bearding. maybe she’s not queer flagging for us, maybe she’s just being herself! and bearding to compensate for that, because for some reason she doesn’t want to be out right now. i think a lot of people say taylor doing gay things is flagging because they’re trying to prove that she’s gay (umbrella term) or that she’s trying to tell everyone that she’s gay. that’s voluntarily setting a test up for people who have hate in their hearts to knock down.

i’m not talking in ideals here. in a vacuum, in an ideal scenario, there are things that would be more “right” or “just” or “fair” for taylor to do — i am just not so sure if it’s wise for people to keep trying the same things and expect different results. especially after songs like anti hero and dear reader were put out in the world. so i dunno, maybe try different things, or change the conditions of your own environment, etc. you have the power to tinker with your own experience of what is going on.

i don’t think this is kind advice for a perfect world and im sorry if i sound cold or heartless. sometimes it pains me to see people set themselves up to be angry so i’m just trying to be a little more practical with my response. i still think there are ways to make this all work for you or anyone personally, but i think it requires you the individual and not taylor to make changes. that’s a choice that’s ultimately up to you the individual to make.

i hope everyone can find a balance that works for them, or a pastime that is a better net positive for their life!

[alexissara]

Gwitch and Minimum Viable Queerness

Trusting companies to make queer art is always asking for heart break even when it really and deeply seems like they made some queer art. However, despite my love for Gundam: The Witch From Mercury it must be said there is plenty of issues with the show that pointed towards the direction they have gone now that we've entered the post release era.

In the magazine Gundam Ace they edited our a writer stating that Sulleta and Mio were married. They apologized for that statement ever making it in to begin with on Twitter the X gonna give to you dot bomb with this.

This obviously lead to tons of angry fans and queer folks but it wasn't like this came out of nowhere. Despite some people saying it's just "western brained losers" or something that thought there was queer bait in the Witch From Mercury there is something that queer people forget which is that most straight cis people literally have no brain cells. They espically have an inability to see sapphic relationships as real or valid.

Gundam The Witch From Mercury was explicit, more explicit than a lot of media but they intentionally excluded the three universal signifiers of romantic or sexual love from the show despite it being centered for all 24 episodes around the Sulmio engagement. These three signifiers are an "I love you" "I Love You too", a kiss, or fucking. Gundam is a toy commercial for kids so while sex is probably not on the table it isn't actually even off the table for Gundam given the series history has had off scene sex and bad stuff too like adult women trying to seduce like a 10 year old boy. So like these shows aren't afraid to do some shit. Many say that Gundam doesn't do kisses that is a lie, Z, 00, Seed, and Iron Blooded Orphans's all have done kisses. I love yous also happen across the series, the end of G Gundam has a special love attack that blows up the last boss.

This is all to say Gundam: The Witch From Mercury activated a strategy corporate media called minimum viable queerness. In order to get the gay dollar, to seem progressive, whatever it may be a company will do as little gay as they can get away with to get the gays actively invested in their art. Ultimately, their aim is to have it be blaringly obvious to queer folks but invisible to the hets. The show also did the minimum viable amount of women making sure the men had utterly meaningless fights near the end just for women to be on screen less. These fights involve men who are not either of the main two girls getting mad at each other for some kind of connection or action towards one of the girls. These take up a significant amount of the second seasons run time not to mention one of these men got a full episode devoted to him. Meanwhile the main couple of the show was away from each other for the vast majority of episodes, almost never in the same room and almost exclusively on somewhat bad terms.

In the show Sulleta is the main character but in season one she is mostly piloting against men with one fight against a pair of girls near the end. Chuchu is given sidekick pilot status and lives to the end but she doesn't get her own highlighted battle ever unlike a side side character in Guel's brother who gets a major fight against his brother weighted against the fate of quite zero and Sulleta and Ariel fighting. Which comes after Guel fought Shadiq for no reason which came after Guel fighting Sulleta again for Ariel which came after Guel trying to survive in a mech when he was stuck on earth earlier. Guel was in a mech 1 more time than Sulleta was in season 2. The two other witch girls die in their first and second time respectively of being in a gundam in season 2 and the second of the pair gets maybe a word in with our main character her whole existence and never talks to our secondary main character at all. The action is still in large part being given to men even in the woman centric series.

And in this "queer centered" story we see very explicit delectations of feelings from Guel, Shadiq, Petra and Lauda which are all heterosexual ontop of all the adult characters being hetero, implied hetero E5 with Nora dying for considering being with a man and E5 sexually harassing Sulleta. The series overwhelming overcompensates for it's queerness by aggressively pushing straightness and in particular having other main characters want our lesbians heterosexually.

This does not mean that the writers or animations didn't want to be more explicit or that they did a bad job. they did a great job but we cannot know what is Namco Bandai and what is Sunrise. We just can't but it seems given recent statements that likely Bandai was very hands on in controlling the show. Not to mention giving it's first woman lead series a much shorter run time than most other Gundam series got and intentionally closing it off from an easy sequel series despite it being the most profitable series ever for them.

It appears to me as if Namco Bandai's intention was to convert a bunch of lesbians into gundam fan and throw mild gay bait at us to keep us coming now that we converted, far less explicit than Sulleta and Mio but attempting to ride it out in good faith and have us enjoy the men shows that appealed to boys to not break their delusion that they are making a boys toy for boys. Feeding us right into more Gundam Seed is like trying to choke out any potential life and I think we're gonna see a decline in Gundam sales following Gwitch representing the betrayal of these sapphic fans but more so simply the lack of interest in the bar being lowered.

As fans of Gwitch we need to demand better, it does work, we've seen companies fix statements about Sailor Uranus and Neptune before and other similar instances. We can also make them see if they want to reach the high highs again we need the great shit we get in Gwitch but then even more that the minimum we'll let them get away with is far more than the last time.

If you enjoyed this post consider throwing me some money on Patreon to help me make actually queer art without corporations controlling my voice. I'm hoping to write a bit more about minimum viable queerness in the future but I wanted to really just talk about this while I was mad about it and get it up there. Anyway, back to the writing mines with me, hope you have a great day and go out there and be gay.

[chastitycuck801]

NOTE TO MYSELF (and possibly others like me): Just in case you were wondering (or got the stupid idea that you may one day get to enjoy pussy or any sex with a girl whatsoever), here is a good sample set of ALL the beautiful ASS and PUSSY and TITTIES that you are now, and always will be, missing out on. You're in chastity. You've lost the 'sexual battle' for attention from women to other, stronger, hotter, and better MEN; all of whom get to freely enjoy the bodies of these women while you can't even play with your own dick. Women in general have collectively forbidden you from even the pleasure of masturbation and much prefer you to always be locked in chastity. You don't deserve to cum - so don't. Unless you are given explicit permission FROM A FEMALE to indulge in sexual pleasure and experience the enjoyment of having an orgasm - DON'T!

You should be using your mouth to make other guys cum, so that's exactly what you should do. Let the chastity sexualize your inadequacy and start offering blowjobs to guys. Always swallow every drop of cum they shoot into your mouth and don't you dare spit anything out. You are to fully swallow every single load that you're given. Just think, if you give just 3 or 4 blowjobs per week, you'll be a professional cock sucker in no time! Remember to use LOTS and LOTS of spit and don't drag your teeth! Trust in the advice that millions of women have offered on giving head - they know what they're talking about. And if you do what they say, you'll do a wonderful job making other men cum harder than ever with that mouth and tongue of your's.

Always remember - you're much better off locked in chastity - not only for women, but also for yourself. Rid yourself of the ludicrous concept that you 'deserve' an orgasm, that it's your 'right' to have sex, that it's 'only fair and natural' to get pussy and cum inside of a woman. None of that is true. You're a loser that has NEVER made a woman cum because you are plagued with a tiny, useless dick that deserves to be locked in chastity for the rest of your life. You're naturally a horny, chronic masturbator that can't keep his hands off his little 'idiot stick', so as a result, it should be locked up. All penises as small as your's belong in chastity. Strict, tight, and punitive chastity. The kind of chastity that makes your brain turn to mush when faced with a woman's commands. But you know that. You know chastity cages where made with simps like you in mind. There's a reason chastity cages are made only in smaller sizes - so they can accommodate the little penises they're meant to confine and keep out of the way of the real, big ones! I mean, let's be honest. You know you've never seen any chastity cages marketed for "Big Dicks" of "BBC Cock Cages" now have you? No, you haven't. And that's because men with big dicks don't belong in chastity. Only losers do, losers just like YOU. As a general rule, if your penis is small enough to fit inside a chastity device, then your penis belongs in one. And, unfortunately for you, you fall perfectly into that category. And even beyond that, you know that as you are sitting here typing this, your dick is so small that you needed to order a NANO-SIZED chastity cage (literally the 2nd smallest one that Holy Trainer makes); just so you could get the right fit for the remainder of your loser existence. And remember - YOU are the one that paid extra for your chastity cage to be hot pink with pink sparkles… could you get any more pathetic than that? Well, yes you could and you know you probably will after a lot more chastity - but don't fight it. STAY LOCKED. STAY HORNY AND STUPID. FIGHT THE URGE TO SELFISHLY UNLOCK YOUR PENIS TO MASTURBATE AND CUM. INSTEAD, LET YOUR AROUSAL MAGNIFY EXPONENTIALLY AND CHANNEL YOUR HORNINESS INTO THE ONLY THING YOU'RE WORTHY OF - SERVING, SPOILING, AND SIMPING FOR WOMEN.

Chastity has me DOWN BAD. And I LOVE IT. I'm a horny, horny, horny little chastity boy right now.

[tamelee]

Hey!

I love your analysis so much! You are the most impartial and nice person I met here so far ❤️❤️❤️

What do you think about the theory that Naruto invented harem jutsu because he wanted to get some men attention? It’s a little messed up since he was a kid, but I mean… Little girls have crushes on grown up men, boys probably have the same (Not saying he was doing it because he crushed on everyone in the village!) but there were times that he didn’t do it to gain something or anything. I’m confused. And I know that probably most of it was just for the fan service, but… I guess I like to have everything to make sense. I would love to hear you opinion on that!

Hi Nonee, thankyou so much ;-; 🧡🫶!! What a sweet thing to say! Hm' I don't think that's the right approach to the topic.. at all. In fact, I think that's very wrong tbh..

..we're talking about a neglected child here. Naruto created the Jutsu because he knows men think a certain way and thinks they're idiots for it. In the beginning he calls the villagers morons and he's quite full of himself (saving face) despite failing in class. Naruto is painfully aware of his own flaws though and so.. has an alternative for shits and giggles because he knows the reaction it'll draw out of men and laughs in their faces.

He gets scolded for it but remember, negative attention is still attention to a deprived and neglected mind of a child.

And yes, attention towards his existence, but it has nothing to do with sexual attention from Naruto's perspective. (wth.) For Naruto that's not why he's doing it and I think it's really weird to (whomever did to) suggest that. Big difference there because for Naruto it is a way to cause trouble as he knows he's already hated (at this point didn't know why) and it is a way to pay them back because they're (as grown men and 'elite Shinobi') humiliated for their severe reactions towards his Jutsu regardless of how negatively they think about him.

Let's see some examples.

Naruto got manipulated into stealing a super forbidden and dangerous scroll and somehow was easily able to do so by using this Jutsu on the Hokage and walked away with it without a problem for hours thanks to it... Apparently it was more effective than whatever Mizuki had in store because he needed a kid to get to the scroll. Obviously Naruto at this point is just toying with all these people and it makes sense that despite him glorifying the name 'Hokage' he doesn't think very highly of Hiruzen or men who fall for it. That's not to say he doesn't respect them in other regards, because he loved Iruka and Jiraiya. But still. "The nose-bleeder":

Ebisu earned his closet-pervert-name for a reason and Naruto wasn't happy with getting training from him instead of Kakashi.

He called Naruto trash at first, thought so lowly of him and told Konohamaru that if he decided to hang out with him longer he'd become stupid (like Naruto).

Naruto used his KBnJ and Ebisu got cocky about it... until..

Because Naruto knows it works. As in "who's stupid now? You fall and get defeated by my Jutsu despite me being all these things you say I am. You loser/pervert."

So later, Naruto even said that Ebisu was 'weaker than him' because he fell for the Jutsu and I think that says a lot about Naruto's perspective on the matter. Especially because he says it so.. passionately and he reeeaallyyy didn't want any training from him.

When he meets Jiraiya for the first time he severely disliked the man. Naruto screams and scolds him for the nasty book, peeping at the women in the bath, being a pervert and committing a crime, he calls Jiraiya a liar and flips him the bird..

It's genuinely wild. Naruto is wild I'll tell ya.

But then it gets more interesting.. because for some weird reason Kishimoto thinks he should let Jiraiya say during their argument that "he doesn't like men!!!".

Which is strange imo because Naruto is a child and not a man and it has nothing to do with his request for training. So what would that do to Naruto?? He's basically saying: "I won't train you because I don't like you the way you are, thus you have to transform into the thing I do like for me to change my mind because that's the only thing stopping me from training you." And what information has Naruto at this point? He knows shallow minded men fall for his Sexy no Jutsu easily, he knows and scolded Jiraiya just a minute ago for his book, peeping and being a pervert.. Naruto is actually so much smarter than people give him credit for (throughout the entire story actually)- put two and two together and he's forced to:

.. exactly.

Naruto even tried to compliment the "nasty book" first even though he obviously didn't mean it before resorting to this Jutsu knowing and even having said before that such behavior is distasteful doing so to humiliate and manipulate Jiraiya to get what he wants (because again, he thinks they're all idiots for this specific reason only). Naruto is very aware about the situation. He doesn't do it for attention, he does it to get trained and Jiraiya quite literally said "I don't like you, you're a rude brat, why would I train you anyway? I don't like men." So what's the alternative? Become a woman (in this case desirable to Jiraiya) and manipulate this fool into getting to train him.

Naruto is extremely uncomfortable and the second Jiraiya suggests he stays that way throughout the training he undoes the Jutsu immediately and gets angry. He throws more insults towards Jiraiya like "pervert" "nasty Sannin" and calls him "totally crazy". He doesn't enjoy to get perved on, he enjoys humiliating them for being fooled so easily because their first impressions of them weren't great to say the least. Iruka always scolded him, Ebisu called him literally trash and Jiraiya was literally the worst at first. Notice how he didn't try using it during the Bell Test on Kakashi for example. He wasn't nice but it wasn't personal towards Naruto.

[ozymoron]

tell me a bit about sophia (i mean if u want) im interested

gladly. i love talking about her

shes a 20 something year old german trans woman living in nz. shes 5'10" (somewhere around like 177.80cm) and a lesbian. she uses she/her pronouns but is fine with being called a guy or people using he/him for her as long as she know they believe her when she says shes a woman (like they dont mean it in a transphobic way). she has a deep voice and a german accent i havent really got much of the worldbuilding down yet but i do have most of her personality down. also her story takes place in some vague year between 2000 and now

shes kinda a huge loser like in the sense that she spends most of her time just sorta sitting around at home drinking beer and smoking while listening to industrial and hardcore and metal and shit (shes almost definitely depressed but im yet to explore that side of her lmao). she drinks and drives, shes incredibly wreckless. she kinda doesnt care that much about others but more in a way where shes just kinda always in her own head only thinking about herself and what she wants but when it comes to the people close to her shes incredibly protective like a guard dog. she acts like kinda a silly idiot around her loved ones but as soon as someone even looks at any of them wrong, shes fully ready to kill them. she clings onto her friends and stuff like theyre the last thing she has left. less in a desperate kinda codependent way and more in a "i could not live without you i will protect you with all i have trust me please stick around and keep me in your life i will make my existence worth your while" kind of way

shes a wannabe badass but also just is a badass. like she acts all cold and stoic but laid back, i guess in a way trying to seem all mysterious and cool but mostly just comes off like a bit of a jackass (cause she kinda is a bit of a jackass but she means well. sometimes.) i havent got to this part of the worldbuilding so i dont have an explanation for why she is this way but im planning that theres something she has to fight against or something like that. i have a bit of a vague idea of what i want but no specifics but she has a side to her where like shes actually kinda badass. she wears a wolf mask and carries around this baseball bat which the tip is like covered in nails and shit. im planning she gets covered in blood often because women covered in blood is awesome. im planning a theme with the group of characters she hangs out with where they all wear some kind of animal mask and each have their own weapon which like reflects their personality and whatnot

she works in a fast food restaurant which i feel like explains a lot about her

she mostly wears the mask to hide her identity but also to just hide her face in general. shes not insecure about how she looks but more just worried about what other people think of her. shes on hrt but she wants to keep her body hair cause she likes her body hair which includes her facial hair though she does regularly shave it cause she knows it gets her misgendered. she also wears a spiked collar and sometimes a leash (if shes not wearing a leash shes wearing some kind of bondage harness thing) both to continue the whole wolf dog thing shes got going on and also for sexual reasons of course

she has a romance thing going on with another oc of mine called blair (the name is a placeholder im so bad at picking names). blairs tiger/big cat coded shes more of the happy-go-lucky chaotic type. sophia goes incredibly soft for her like the whole trying to be a stoic badass thing completely drops around her she would sacrifice herself in a heartbeat if it meant blair was kept alive and safe which worries the fuck out of blair cause half the time she does not need to sacrifice herself but she puts herself in danger for blair often times for no reason cause she believes its what she needs to do to keep her safe. like her life is meaningless without blair so she'd rather be the one to die than live without blair. which like yeah theres a flaw in her logic cause like if she dies shes still without blair and now blairs sad but yknow. maybe she'll figure that out someday not sure tho shes a little stupid

idk what else to write so ill just add little tiny things i added to her for fun her favourite movie is evil dead 2 (this is me projecting onto her), she moans when she pees, she would give everything to be a werewolf, she had her drivers license taken from her she still drives tho. she shouldnt but she does, she hates beer but drinks it anyways. i think she doesnt know theres other kinds of alcohol. no idea how she doesnt know maybe she just hates herself and wants to drink shit that tastes bad for fun,

shes all i have left im going crazy

i also have a playlist for her if anyone besides me cares i care so fucking deeply. also my tag for her i feel also illustrates her personality well

[miscellanyofmusings]

Rifftrax Sentence Starters

“______, didn’t I dispatch you to hell earlier?”

“ ______, shut up forever.” 

"Alright. That does it. I officially have no idea what we're looking at, why we're here, or even who I am anymore."

“And I pray that I never have to emote any more than I just did. I'm exhausted.”

“And if you're ready, _____, may I offer you a wide-awake nightmare?

“Aw man, I thought we could trust the slimy loser.”

“Being a creepy evil creep is a reward in and of itself.”

“Bland? I mean, honey? Can I make you some bland milk? I mean, warm bland? I mean, warm milk?”

“Careful, they might miss at you.”

“Die! Die in a fire! Live again and then die!”

“Did you guys just see that or has my brain fully melted?”

“Do you think you can do me the teensiest favor and just kill me now?”

“Feels like an NPR audio essay is about to break out.”

“Forgive me, Father. I killed like eight guys today.”

“Fuck you. Pay me."

“Having knowledge about things is not really my specialty.”

“He died as he lived: looking dumb as Hell.”

“He has all the fighting skills of a sock monkey."

“Hell is other people and stuff.”

“I’m condescending for no reason, got it?” 

“I've tried nothing—And it's not working!"

“I can’t answer your question because that would acknowledge you exist.”

“I can’t live with myself knowing there’s something out there I haven’t murdered.”

“I don’t want to oversell it, but it will fill you with sadness.” 

"I find words difficult because I can't punch them."

“I have a two part question. One, will I ever feel joy again? Two, what did I do to deserve this?”

“I hope you like really tough burnt meat and shitty scotch.”

"I love it when a plan sort of slowly congeals together."

“I thrive on your ignorance.” 

“I tripped and fell up five flights of stairs and landed here.”

“Is your torture basement even up to code?”

“It’s not what you said; it’s that you exist.”

“It irritates me too that I can defy logic, time, and physics."

"It is pleasant to be happy because it increases our amount of gladness."

“Let's carpe diem and mumble and mope like we've never mumbled and moped before!”

“Mind if I dial up the gay?”

"Never have I cared so little about so few for so long."

“Nothing calms a kid more than a poster of a deranged clown.”

“My philosophy is to see how many Pop-Tarts I can eat in two minutes.” 

“No, don’t, ____, please! Seriously! I will kill all your enemies! Please!”

"No good story ever starts with ‘so there I was, pouring gasoline all over the dead girl’s body.’”

"Oh good. Something else for the Gallery of Things That Should Not Be."

“Oh, thoughtless sociopath, you’re my best friend.”

“Okay, so I’ll take that ominous cryptic answer as a firm yes.”

“Our hero— again, fighting like a sociopathic four year-old.”

"Please don't ruin this moment by surviving!"

“Rush in blindly! A plan can only hinder us!"

"Screaming? Laughter? At this point, what's the difference?"

“So where do you think you’re gonna dump my body?” 

"So…You give up here often?" 

“Society as we know it would disintegrate if people knew the truth about whatnot.”

“Thank you, most boring sounding person in the world.”

“That’s a very friendly murder threat.”

“That sounded a lot more menacing and less gay in my head.” 

“This is my bullshit lecture!” 

“Wait a minute, I thought you said ‘pass the time,’ not ‘destroy all hope in the universe.’” 

"We are reconciled now through the cleansing power of violence."

“Well, that was neither fun nor interesting, but at least it gave us no new information.” 

“Well, time to pretend I know stuff.”

"Well, whoopty-shit."

"Welp... Forgone conclusion ain't gonna forgone conclude itself."

“Who can resist an asshole?”

“Women, right? Always like, ‘This seems fatally stupid!’ Blah, blah, blah.’”

“Yeah, I do feel my own mind drifting through thoughts of Socrates—in that I want to drink hemlock and die.”

"You're a lying liar who lies! You lie!"

“You're not allergic to severe acid burns, are you?”

“You taste like libertarianism and cigars.”

“Your evil is reassuring.” 

“Your violent, misogynistic criminal vibe lets me know I can trust you.” 

[animebw]

The Graveyard of Dropped Shows

So the thought occurs to me that I’ve dropped quite a few anime this season. Turns out, when you don’t pressure yourself to keep up with every show you start out of an obsessive need for cataloguing, it’s a lot easier to say goodbye to shows you don’t like. Who’d have thought? And at this point, I’m far enough into the shows I’m still watching that I’m mostly confident sticking with them to the end. Unless things really take a turn for the worse, but hey, we’ll burn that bridge when we cross to it. For now, I thought I’d just give a quick rundown of all the spring 2023 anime I started watching but gave up on for whatever reason. Cool? Cool. Welcome to the first installment of my graveyard of dropped shows!

Hell’s Paradise: Dropped at 4 episodes

This is probably the most unfair drop on my list. Hell’s Paradise is fine, I guess; as much as I hate the overly bloomed-out lighting Mappa decided to go with, the action’s pretty fun and I’m a sucker for a good Garden of Nightmares setting. It’s a perfectly adequate Shonen Thing that’ll scratch a lot of people’s itches. But man, the older I get, the less patience I have for what I’ve come to call Shonen Gender Bullshit, or SGB for short. And sweet buttery crumpets, this show is full of it. It takes all of one episode for Sagiri to transform from a competent executioner deuteragonist to an inexperienced damsel who exists mainly to be outclassed and taught lessons by the men around her while she stares on in reactive awe. The only other female characters besides her are either evil seductresses who flaunt their bodies for the audience at the first possible opportunity or saintly, far-off idealized wives who exist as goals for Gabimaru to strive for. And in a post-Jujutsu Kaisen world, there is no more excuse for your ridiculous shonen beat-em-up to not treat its ladies with respect.

Konosuba Megumin: Dropped at 2 episodes

Was there a time when I actually liked Konosuba? I’m sure there was, but every new installment in this series just makes it harder and harder to remember why any of us thought this show was anything more than passably amusing at best. And this is a spinoff centered on its best character! If anyone from this cast of losers and misfits had the strength to carry a side story of their own, it was the crimson witch Megumin herself. But absent the incredibly expressive, body-contorting animation that made Konosuba’s comedy work as well as it did, all you’re left with is a boring supporting cast, stupid fanservice, and jokes about guys being creepy perverts who want to molest women. Riveting.

Magical Destroyers: Dropped at 3 episodes

It’s almost impressive how lame Magical Destroyers manages to be. It’s got some of the most unhinged, creative animation this side of mid-2000s Gainax, all the angular momentum and unhinged editing of a lost Hiroyuki Imaishi show. You can tell the series creator started as a graphic designer, because he sure designed the fuck out of these graphics. Unfortunately, you can also tell he’s a graphic designer from the script. Because all that insanely creative animation is paired with some of the dullest, stuffiest, most conservative writing imaginable. If you were hoping for some clever subversion of the “otaku are the most oppressed minority” setup, prepare to be disappointed. This is just brainless wish fulfillment for insecure manchildren who want to feel like badass revolutionaries surrounded by super-sexy, super-powerful warrior women who nevertheless happily submit to some hapless dudebro’s orders. Every single artist involved in this slog deserved to put their talents to better use.

The Marginal Service: Dropped at 1 episode

How do you take a premise like “sexy firefighter super sentai heroes fighting aliens” and make it boring? Well, by slathering it in five layers of faux tryhard grit and grime, making every character the dullest possible archetype version of themself, and drowing the whole affair in a level of xenophobia so uncomfortable I barely made it through a single episode. Cygames just knocked it out of the park with Akiba Maid War, how did they go from that masterpiece to this?

Mashle: Dropped at 2 episodes

This show feels like someone watched One Punch Man and Mob Psycho 100 and thought “Wow, I should make a show like that!” without fully understanding what makes them so great. Everything is such a surface-level approximation of ONE’s writing talents, from the tired “Wow, this guy is so overpowered!” gags to the reheated “Despite my powers, I just want to live a normal life” motivation. Not to mention its own struggles with the dreaded Shonen Gender Bullshit. But what really killed Mashle for me is very simple: it’s primarily comedy, and it doesn’t make me laugh. Or at least, it doesn’t make me laugh consistently enough to justify sitting through the lackluster animation and cardboard characters. I’ll just watch Mob Psycho again, thank you very much.

My Clueless First Friend: Dropped at 1 episode

Okay, I lied: this is the most unfair drop on my list. As a simple story about a clueless elementary school boy unknowingly helping his classmate deal with bullies, there’s really nothing wrong here. But we have no absence of fantastic rom-coms to keep up busy these days. Just this season alone, My Love Story with Yamada-kun, The Dangers in my Heart, and especially Skip and Loafer have more than enough charm and wholesomeness to fill those needs. And unless you’re really fond of shrill vocal performances (seriously, whoever’s voicing the male lead makes him so irritating to listen to), there’s nothing here you can’t get much better in countless other places. Just Fine, sadly, no longer cuts it in the competitive world of anime rom-coms.

[golbrocklovely]

I honestly think it would be better if either Colby or Malia would get us more of Malia than just her boobs or ass. The hate M and C receive won’t calm down if esp Colby will make it look like he is there for her boobs and looks. And sorry to say it but for now it kinda looks like this . We can say that he is there for personality, but how they expect their fans to judge it this way , if we don’t see his gf in any other light than just her nice figure? If they are anyway open about their relationship and posting eo without any other worry, then honestly i cannot understand what is stopping f.e Colby from posting some more natural videos of them just interacting, where we can see more of real Malia. I believe that if she would be seen more of who she is , rather what does she looks like, then she would have been accepted by more of the people. But C posting only her hot photos, her boobs and ass , just throws her kinda more under the bus. She looks beautiful and hot, but for goddamn Man, if you see that your girl has been already called multiple names such as “whore” then why are you adding to the potion , by feeding her haters and letting them continue their scenerio of you being with her for just her body. It doesn’t picture you or your gf in good light, but we all know that at the end of the day, it’s M who receives much more hate, cause they will still thirsty for C.

i don't agree with your argument whatsoever.

bc here's the thing, what you're basically saying is one, anyone that shows off their body a lot has no personality and thus has to prove there is something more there, and two, it's malia's own fault for the hate she gets. and colby isn't helping and is instead stoking the flames by merely posting his own gf.

my issue here is that when has colby ever shown anything that would allude that he only cares about her body and that's it?? i've seen everything he's done with her, and none of it has ever been straight up "oh look at my hot sexy gf's tits and ass". the closest thing he ever came to maybe, and i'm saying the strongest maybe, is the cherry emoji he used for her now red hair (which again could be referring to her hair and not her boobs). other than that, it's not like this man is commenting peach and eggplant emojis every time she posts something. his comments are usually very basic and non-sexual/body related.

bc let's be forreal here for a moment, colby has had multiple flings over the years. all of these women have had nice bodies. if he was truly in this relationship for just the sex or just her body, why the hell would he hard launch her? why would he tell anyone about her? if it was just a fuck buddies friends with benefits situation, why would he share it with us now? if anything it would make more sense to say nothing and pretend she doesn't exist but keep the situationship going.

so this just shows that clearly there is something more going on, aka he's into her bc not only is she hot, she's also a full fledge human being with depth. a surprise that should come to literally no one. hot ppl can also have personalities. it's not that crazy of a concept.

and why should malia show off her personality? all it would do is cause the ppl that hate her to use it as ammunition later down the line to hurt her. i mean, her haters already use her body against her every chance they get, what's to stop them from picking her personality apart bit by bit? not only that, she has nothing to prove to us. she is not here for us. she's here for colby. that's who she is dating, that is who she has to make happy at the end of the day. genuinely, if i was her, i wouldn't talk to any of us. bc as a collective, we all fucking suck and are assholes for no reason other than bc we're judgmental losers who's parasocial relationship has rotted our brains out, thinking we somehow have a say in everything snc do with their lives. including who they date.

i know at the end of the day i'm not that way with snc, but as a whole that's probably how a lot of us come across regardless of our intentions.

also genuinely who's logging on to insta and saying "lemme see your personality". like… it's an aesthetics competition of a site. it's a place to post only the good and right angles of your life. bffr. i mean prime example is amber. we know she is amazing and super sweet, but her insta is just her mostly naked body and showing off how rich she is. her insta alone, if i was to think like how malia's haters do, would tell me she's a slut who has multiple sugar daddies and that she only cares about materialistic things. but that is not who she is, right? even if i never watched a single video of hers, her personality would still be there. so it's safe to say that malia's is also there, and just bc we don't get to see it doesn't mean it's nonexistent.

and even if she showed off her personality and somehow was a saint and an angel sent from heaven above, ppl that hate her would find something to complain about. she could wear a turtleneck and be covered from head to toe and still be called a whore. that's how misogyny works. it always counts against us regardless. a game with constant changing rules.

[frazzledsoul]

A short list of wild takes I have heard on the Gilmore Girls subreddit:

- Luke is an abusive wrestler who knocked up Anna when they were teenagers, therefore he should not be allowed to maintain custody of his child

- Anna kept April away from Luke because she was afraid of him

- Jess made up all that stuff about Liz being a neglectful addict because he wanted people to feel sorry for him (never mind that he never really talked about her)

- It's actually Luke and his father's fault that she abused drugs, because they were not comfortable with their emotions and weren't "sensitive enough" around her (is she responsible for any of her behavior at all)

- Rory was never attracted to Jess after S6 because they don't want her to be

- Jess forced the kiss on Rory in S6 because she had never given any indication she was attracted to him again and it is preposterous to think she would be

- Jess has no right to advise Rory on her choices in S6. Only Logan can do that as he's the one who really knows her (okay, but they discussed it a handful of times and it didn't go anywhere, so maybe not)

- Jess isn't really mature in 2006 because he still lives at his place of work, and therefore he is a loser who does not know how to be financially responsible (never mind that both Luke and Lorelai did this for years and Rory and Logan are currently living in a company-owned apartment provided by Logan's job)

- Jess has never settled down to a lifestyle, job, or steady existence by the AYITL era, and Rory cannot trust him because he is so nomadic

- Rory "always goes back to Logan" therefore she loves him the best and they should be together (okay, but they break up frequently, too, so maybe not the strongest argument)

- Rory should be with Logan because she loves living an upper-class lifestyle and spending money and would be perfectly happy as Mrs. Huntzberger Heir

- The worst mistake Rory ever made was not accepting Logan's proposal, as she ended up living a debased version of what he offered her

- There is no proof that Jess is ever capable of being a good romantic partner.

- Jess has not had a serious relationship since high school (facts not in evidence, ma'am)

- There's some stuff said about Lane featuring a hot-button topic I don't care to discuss. That said, it's frequently assumed that Lane has the exact same lifestyle and personal moral beliefs as Rory, and based on her choices from 2004 - 2006 I don't believe this is the case.

- Alexis was not capable of consenting to a relationship with Milo when she was 21 and he was 25.

- Milo used to follow a lot of models on Instagram, therefore he will always be irredeemable and his marriage is doomed.

- Scott is the worst person alive, for reasons detailed on the weekly podcast thread.

- It's awesome to see Lorelai cheat on Luke, because it's always awesome when women act selfishly and you don't have a right to criticize it, because of the sisterhood or whatever.

- We don't have the right to judge Lorelai for banging her daughter's father while he still had a girlfriend and then parading him around town. If Lorelai felt like doing it, it had to be right.

- Christopher is a jerk for not leaving his pregnant girlfriend for Lorelai because he can always "co parent" and that always works out splendidly.

- Lorelai should have dumped Luke the minute he agreed to postpone the wedding. Nothing is ever more important than the bride's special moment.

- You deserve to be scorned and despised (this said to me personally) for suggesting that Lorelai antagonizes her parents far more than is necessary or appropriate.

- You are a disgusting troll (again said to me personally) because you said you didn't see the merit in having Lorelai and Rory run around with menstrual blood all over their clothes.

- You are the most misogynistic person to ever exist on this subreddit (said to me personally again. I think this was in response to me saying that Lorelai didn't act like a person who could be trusted to remain faithful).

So yeah. They a hot mess over there.

[asksoldieron]

SO-23: Meet Marc!

If there's a lot of engagement on this, this post is liable to get real long, beware before you expand.

No art, but I am working on it and I will add it retroactively. The eyes are letting me draw, just real slow.

Welcome to the Engagement Lounge, for Picture Book (252|23) an instalment! Short comments can go in the replies, but there's a 475 character limit. Longer ones will need a reblog. Remember to @asksoldieron if you're reblogging someone else's reblog, so I can see it too!

I'm excited for everyone to meet Marc, and appalled at his situation, and still very aware that everything I do to this broke-ass website is built on sand. Mixed emotions!

Welcome to the wonderful world of trying to fix social issues with eugenics! We still do this! We're a bit more subtle about it, but we do it! I was naturally disposed to be "one of the smart ones," so I got thrown in a class with more people like me, and we got more resources and higher expectations! Then, later, I was naturally disposed to be one of the loser, burn-outs, and I got thrown in a class with more people like me, and we got fewer resources - but lots more supervision! - and lower expectations! Except then they decided I was smart again, and then dumb again, and now Capitalism and I don't have much to say to each other. I need money to eat, but I'm not worth any. All things considered, I haven't earned a place here. I'm a burden! Some people would like to be rid of me!

And sometimes those people have really fun ideas about how to be rid of me. Sometimes allowing me to exist at the edges, as long as I figure some way to get by, just isn't enough, ya know? There's a little bit of that folded into this as, if you'll recall, immies are as many of us at once as possible. We do try to train the children to be a little more convenient when their way of being is inconvenient - not just the autistic ones, but it's still considered a legit "treatment" for them, and a few others. And psychosurgery is not that far in the past!

It's not fixing the social issues in my story any better than it works IRL, of course. They've just created entirely new ways of being divergent that are no easier to control. ...Except maybe that last guy on the sheet, the smoke, but we'll deal with that later.

Marc will return too! As you can tell from the tags at the site.

I needed something happy to mitigate the horror, so I got to write a tiny short story for the NDA to find. It's hard to keep pushing to heal from damage someone inflicted on you, sometimes it's hard to even figure out what "healing" means, but it helps to keep trying. You do pick up a few wonderful things when you keep trying.

I want to write what really happened to him, for continuity reasons, but I'm still murky on the circumstances of the reveal. I'm pretty sure I know who'll help out, but not exactly how. Broken is just the beginning!

(Man, I dodged several bullets with David, by putting off writing his past for so long. I managed to connect all the dots! Even if you'll probably never get the whole truth out of him. I could tell you if I had to. For now, only the spouse knows!)

Marc would not be happy with the NDA taking Erik home, but he also wouldn't be happy with how Erik ended up helping the RA. He'll have to reconcile on his own time, but I think he'll manage. For now, at least he gets to register an objection, even if he may issue a partial retraction later. I think he's justified. I'm still gonna send Erik home, but Marc's not wrong.

I prrrobaby should've made Marc a girl, just for gender diversity in pathetic, lovable characters, but I like my men pitiful and damaged and my women competent but conflicted. (You can tell!) I can only self-correct so much. And, in this case, Erik's not into boys, so that prevents things from getting to complex on my end. The romantic entanglements are gonna be bad enough as it is!

And now, I need to leave off with minimal proof-reading, and just post this early to get it out of the way, because Windows 11 installed an AI on my computer without my permission, and I need to kill it if I can. Thanks, Microsoft! I didn't have enough to do today! I NEED TO BUY COFFEE, YOU ASS!!

...This inst. is gonna go live without me finalizing and formatting the song lyrics, isn't it? *headdesk* Sorry, Readers.

[Back to Site?]

[ooc-themis-cattails]

After reading what you wrote here, I think I can put my finger on why these kinds of dudes made Elmo a target.

The clarifying sentence:

And when you say your shitty little toxic and cruel thing, when you reduce the whole thing to a puppet and a joke, you're doing to us what the adults around us did when we were kids.

Reduce the whole thing to a puppet and a joke-- that's what they like to see. The video comments snarkily that Elmo is actually "someone's hand." This stance isn't something they adopt to dismiss their behaviour. It's the REASON FOR their behaviour.

This sort of dude (I have met women like this, but they have always turned out to work in a hyper-masculine environment such as tech or construction, where they likely have to assimilate such an attitude to get along) has a really big problem with engaging in collective social fiction, in part because they haven't gotten over feeling like they need to prove to their peers that they aren't a gullilble child who believes in Santa Claus. Their personal walls of self defense are spun around the sort of materialistic realism that also diminishes the importance of invisible, immaterial effects such as feelings. Which, of course, is what Elmo is all about.

These guys are raging that something invisible, immeasurable and unprovable-- feelings-- is being given an important place in media, and worse yet, the spokesperson for it is the most whimsical possible kind of fiction. This goes against a lot of what they've developed their mindsets around-- that only tangible assets are worth anything, that immaterial truths can be faked or dispensed with.

It's not new to have nonfiction media play along with Muppets as if they were real. But unlike Miss Piggy the material girl, or Kermit the observer and reporter, Elmo is primarily associated with immaterial values like imagination and love. Elmo is here to talk about mental health. Elmo is an icon of all of the things that were not given an place in the public view of "wellbeing" until the past couple decades because they are not material assets, while these dudes were raised to specifically reject anything fuzzy, indistinct, personal, and immeasurable like feelings as being "worthless" compared to hard, objective data. Elmo represents the epitome of everything that some dudes were taught to mock and reject, and that they express their identity by spurning. And here it is on the Today Show being given a place as serious as their own.

I suppose the actor who attacked Elmo legit thought that his act was funny, at least to people who shared his sense of humour. These guys and their humour depends heavily on their own shared mutual agreement that anything they can't back up with a material W is a big L, so hitting Elmo in the face is a "hilarious" reminder that the puppet character isn't real, that no real material harm is being caused, and-- implicitly-- a big flex that dudes like them possess physical power and therefore can trample both Elmo's fictional existence, and anything Elmo is there to stand up for.

But a normal, well-adjusted person, who doesn't find it intrinsically funny to knock down the fourth wall with a display of inescapable material power, isn't going to "get the joke". At best they're just going to be like, wtf why did you do that, you're ruining the segment, you're wrecking the entertainment that the show planned. And, if you are at all sensitive to the idea of seeing an adult hit a child, you may take it as if it's supposed to be hitting Elmo in-character, at which point it just looks like the narrative is that he hit a child for no reason. Which is distinctly not funny, and can be very understandably distressing.

tl;dr these guys are threatened by the social request that we all play along with Muppets, because they never got over being told only losers play along with Santa. And they are especially threatened by Elmo because they might have to acknowledge that feelings matter, and they've spent their whole lifetime posturing in rejection of that.

“In a long essay about the televised incident, Wheaton makes a lot of salient, emotionally vulnerable points about his reaction to David’s stunt, tying it in to memories of parental abuse he suffered as a kid—pointing out, among other things, that, within the agreed-upon fiction that we all adhere to pretty fervently around all things Muppet or Muppet-related, Elmo is a child. Writing, Wheaton notes that “Elmo is an avatar for children all over the world. Children who are too small to understand Elmo is a puppet will know that a man attacked someone they love for no reason, and that will frighten and confuse them.””

—

Wil Wheaton condemns Larry David for his Elmo-based violence

This story is a week old, and has blown up today. The right wing smoothbrains are out in force, doing their usual thing, until they get distracted by the existence of a successful woman somewhere in the world and have to go rage against that.

I don’t know why this is happening today. I don’t know why right wing clout chasing incels have decided to make this their Thing today. It’s all very confusing, especially a week after the fact.

But I want to put something here that I added to my post on Facebook, that those dudes (it’s always dudes whose entire personality is “MONSTER ENERGY DRINKS!”) need to hear but won’t understand:

A lot of us who had the same visceral reaction to a grown man putting his hands on a child (Elmo is 4 years old) in anger, without consent, and then laughing about it all share an experience that you should be grateful you don’t share with us. And when you say your shitty little toxic and cruel thing, when you reduce the whole thing to a puppet and a joke, you’re doing to us what the adults around us did when we were kids. And it hurts all over again. Are you really someone who wants to hurt another person simply because you can? Maybe take the impulse to be a jerk and redirect it into being grateful you have no idea why this is so upsetting to so many of us.

Larry David put his hands on another performer, without consent, in a segment he was not part of. That, alone, is not okay. It is not EVER okay. The fact that so many people don’t get that, or are deliberately choosing NOT to get that, is telling.

But as I said, Elmo is a child, and he is a friend to children, so all the kids whose parents were watching the Today Show with them, because Elmo was on to talk about sharing big feelings and caring for your mental health, got to watch this man storm into a set, and angrily attack Elmo.

That’s indefensible behavior, and calling me names doesn’t change that.

[thatstormygeek]

This statement makes a lot of post-menopausal women feel a certain way. It also makes women who might one day be post-menopausal feel a certain way, and also people who might not be women but who maybe see women as full human beings in their own right. This is for good reason, and that reason isn't that many women, post-menopausal or otherwise, don't want to help raise a younger generation. Anyway, Vance's guardians and promoters are complaining that it's unfair to ascribe the words of the podcast host to his guest. Perhaps so. Vance after all only replied "yes," which is a word that can mean many things, and only all of those meanings involve positive affirmation. But even if he agreed, he didn't say it. So OK, maybe it's not fair. Poor oppressed JD Vance! It might be a bit hard for Vance to dodge the rap, though, since he's spent so much of his time in recent years agreeing with creeps who say creepy shit about women, and being a creep who says creepy shit about women in order to impress creeps who say creepy shit about women, and generally just acting like the kind of creepy little suck-up who calls women "females"--which is to say one of a whole passel of moist pallid online dudes who freebased Jordan Peterson throughout the 2010s and antisocialized themselves into treating relationships with women as a sort of transactional warfare between sexes, in which men are bold adventurers looking for sex and family, which are natural human connections they seem to view as video game achievements to be bestowed upon them if they enter the proper cheat code, in which women are hidden clay jars containing sex and family, to be discovered and then once found added to the inventories of adventuring men as acquisitions. A number of these creepy perverts got rich on tech or crypto or whatever, and they think their wealth makes them geniuses instead of just wealthy, and the ones who didn't get rich through tech or crypto or whatever seem to think the wealth of the others conveys genius upon themselves, so now they go around talking about themselves as Alpha Chad masters of the universe, and speak of other human beings like they're fodder for their whims, and generally sound do their very best to sound like eugenicist mad scientists in Victorian novels.

Either way, it strikes me that this is a decent microcosm of how these creepy dudes talk about women and children and other humans: as property to acquire if it has value, as a thing from which to grow that value for itself, extract value and then discard once the value is extracted, to sell off or ignore the losers, and to always always always take all the value for themselves. Women and children and other human beings and human structures have a whole point, to be defined and measured by them, while they and only they get to be the whole point of themselves. So this also strikes me as a decent way of looking at the way they think of society, as something that exists for them to acquire and own and use, instead of a natural occurrence that is made by all of us, that creates a generative, sustainable, inheritable value that ties us all together, to which we all owe a responsibility, not to fulfill by fitting a role defined by some master class, but simply by fully being ourselves. This is what's so noxious about Vance and his long line of creepy podcast hosts and thinkfluencers and the money that backs them both. We are all human. We don't have a point within society. We are society. This means that the whole point of society is us. It exists to sustain us, and while we bear the responsibility to be ourselves within it, it is a thing made by humanity and for humanity. It isn't a big box store to buy for billions and then sell off for parts.

[the-firebird69]

There are several other things that we got to know are going on today here in this area

-they are going after the individuals who are bad-mouthing them and that is the pseudo empire

-they're seeking out people who are giving them the bird or smack talking next to them anything like that right now the pseudo empire and the Eastern hemisphere has held their own thus far and it is night time they are holding the territory and they're taking territory back and they are decimating the warlock we don't think it'll turn and we think they'll continue to do so because the warlock's numbers have become greatly reduced those were the last don't have fighting ability or sick or women or children or elderly mostly the very old and they can't fix themselves quickly because they're actually old and it's going on throughout the entire eastern hemisphere that the pseudo empire is crushing them and they're doing it on purpose

-the entire force here in Charlotte it's not calling for reinforcements and it probably will all day and in the first ring they have decimated 300,000 people this morning and the 25th ring is about 200 million and they are stopping infiltrators at the borders and they have shut the airport down it's been shut down for quite a while but they shut all of them down

-there's a massive Force of pseudo empire heading up from Brazil yeah okay it's the morlock and I said that way because some people are saying pseudo empire and these idiots.

-these pseudo empire will intercept and they're going to use heavy and ships and it will be easily they say and they have to get ready for it they're going to repel a lot of these forces today from all around there's a huge flotilla getting ready to depart the Eastern shores giant numbers of them are hit all day long after time they will not exist they're losing the bunkers that they took yes and they're losing about half of them in the eastern hemisphere at this time they are being decimated and the pseudo empire beefed up and the continuing to they're grabbing tons of armament and nice ammo and big guns tons of food and they are taking things as well it's not much high tech stuff but they're using it when they take it all of it

-the warlock are being assaulted by other groups globally and yeah this guy Trump has to go he's such a loser it says stupid things like you used to as Joe Watts he doesn't respect her son at all and some doesn't care but he just keeps saying this dumb things he's got to go

-there's a couple of things happening here one of them is there sitting there making faces at the pseudo empire all the time telling them off and for some reason the pseudo empire has had it with them and it is actually just decimating them and according to make sure they don't get up. And the guys had been fed up with hearing they're all done when they start to attack them to try and defend himself so they decided to grab all their ammo and armaments and then go to town on them and the driving tons of it too they're taking off the ships before they leave half of the ships coming here and I have no big weapons and they're using it on the idiots trying to get to the ships and there's a lot of dead and they're going to take the ships and use them on the idiots we made it too it's a big war and the guys are better at it and they're getting people out there too if there's all of them practically are going to be hard today and they'll probably wipe out the morlok and we mean it globally being a wipe them out in the East and they're going to send a huge Force to the West and it's going on right now

Thor Freya

Olympus