#(and i do not think that is an indication that they are a Bad Person but that they are not in a good way and i can't be part of that)

[charlie-ver]

Hey, you, the trans man reading this - I love you. I know there's posts like this, but I got down a bad rabbit hole last night and I think there's not enough nice posts towards trans men (:

I don't care if you've finished you transition, on won't be ever able to reach the changes you would like. I don't care if you've been on T for years, or just started, or won't be for some years, or can't or don't want to be. I do not care how you dress. I don't care if you want to be pregnant and have children one day. I don't care if you want hysterectomy and don't even want to freeze your eggs (Hell knows I am not freezing anything). I do not care if you want bottom surgery or if you love what you were born with. Because it doesn't matter and doesn't take away from your identity.

Gay trans men? You aren't just confused straight girls. You are valid in your gender AND sexuality. Straight trans men? You aren't a betrayal the moment you are no longer misgendered. You're still welcome in lgbtqia+ spaces. Because you're a part of our community. One does not lose their place the moment they are perceived and cis or cishet.

Cis men have heard it before, but they won't admit it. All this "if you like x you must be a girl" really just feels like repackaged "if you like x you must be gay". Wanna hear a secret?

HOBBIES, JOBS AND FAVORITE THINGS DO NOT HAVE GENDER.

I like botanical gardens. I love plants. I like looking at clothing, room decor, fabric stores sometimes catch my eye. Because I am am artist, and I take inspiration from these and many more things. Plant care and gardening is not a "red flag" for a trans man in my humble and trans opinion, but it's a sign that you have love to give. And that's beautiful. Just like liking these things does not indicate that a man is gay, it does not mean that your internal identity is any different.

Do not let the world put rails on your patch to your own masculinity. And if you have to hide, that's okay. If you can only be yourself online, that's okay. Trans people will always be here. Trans men will always be here. The best thing you can do is to live as safely as you can. I know this can come off as condescending from a European who has nothing to fear personally, except violence for one month in the year, because my way of being trans isn't "obvious", but I try to take it that my safety means I can try to reassure the rest of you, while you can just focus on your own misery and don't have to be strong for anyone but yourself.

If you need a safe place to went, come to my asks. If you don't want me to post them and just read them, that's ok. You can be angry, you can vent, you can cry, do whatever you need, but, obviously, no transphobia or anything (: Special love goes out to trans men who are of the aroace spectrum, because honestly, the aroace discourse never seems to die, it's just dismissed. Reminds me of something. Hm (: I wonder.

Anyhow. Come to me to cry, for a virtual hug, for a distraction, if you'd like. Feel free to ask for art. Want me to draw your trans characters with flags? I can do that, for free, for you. Ask or dm is enough (: Art and listening is the best I can do, but I'll do my best to do it well.

I love you. You deserve to live, you deserve to be happy, and you also are wholly entitled to cry, to complain, to be sad, angry, loud, afraid. You are a human being with emotions, you deserve to feel them. Nobody can tell you what your internal identity, what your gender is. Because nobody else can know that. Only you can.

So let me repeat: It does not matter how you dress, whether you are on T, whether you want surgeries or love your body as is, whether you are skinny, fat, or muscular, what accessories and clothes you wear, how your voice sounds, how you act, how you carry yourself and what you like. The only thing that matters is how you feel. And while we're at it, yes, you may change your mind, but it still doesn't invalidate your identity in the moment. There was a time where I thought I was biromantic, but I dropped that because I wasn't, and nobody gave me shit for it. Because nobody should. Whatever you feel right now? Valid. Do you identify at a trans man but don't use he/him? Valid. Do you identify with more genders? Are you maybe a man only sometimes? Or are you more at the same time? All of that is valid, if you feel like a man in some aspect or on some part, you are one, if that's a label you want. If your gender makes more sense as a man, then yeah, you are one. Nothing else but how you feel matters.

I love you, and again, I'm here for you if you need that. I can only listen and draw a little something for you, but maybe that's enough for some. If it can help a bit, I can do it for you.

Anyone derailing this post will be blocked. I have no patience for derailers.

[gatheringbones]

anon:

I’ll be real, your quest to discover if you’re really a good or a bad person is doomed to failure. It’s going to be an endless gauntlet of torture that can only ever hurt you as badly or worse as you’re hurting now. Everything you latch onto as an indication of you being a good person will only become a weapon against you later. I likewise think it’s useful to put down the issue of queer pride, which is also a weapon being used against you at this moment. “Pride” has never been the most accurate word for the purposes of the festivals we put on every summer and I think that’s part of what’s confusing you.

What’s happening in the US is a theatrical production staged for the exact effect it’s having on you right now. The disgust we trigger is political currency that can be exchanged for money and control. The rich and the powerful have paid attention and now we see the results of that worldwide.

I don’t know if you realize the treasure you have in your hands right now.

You have such resistance to the small scraps of information that have been presented to you at this early stage in your life. This resistance is highly emotional and tied to personal painful and character-forming events that shaped your awareness of who you are as a person. This resistance is the source of considerable shame and guilt and threaten the image of you as a good person: an image which is very important to you.

You will be able to explain this resistance to others in the future. You will sit with it for so long and supplement it with so much more education that it will make sense to you from every angle. When you have face-to-face person-to-person interactions in your community about these same issues, you’ll be able to speak in a language that touches these people where they truly live. Your sincerity will do your political work for you.

I believe in you!

[haru-dipthong]

Fansub release + translation notes for Utena Ep 21

For those keeping track, this is the second episode where I’ve changed the episode title from the established translation. I try not to mess with the titles since it can make the episodes hard to google or otherwise reference, but in some cases the title is a direct reference to a line spoken in the episode which I have translated differently. The first case was The Cowbell/Almglocken of Happiness. This time, I’ve changed Troublesome Insects to Nasty Pests.

The original title is 悪い虫 which, translated literally, means “bad/evil insects”. However, the way this phrase is used by the characters in the episode changes how one should interpret it:

Nanami: お兄様にたかる虫は一匹たりとも許せない。

Nanami: I won't tolerate even a single pest buzzing around him.

This is the first instance of the word 虫 (insect/bug) being used to describe a person. Nanami is comparing people hanging around Touga to insects swarming around something (たかる), like ants around a sugar cube, or flies around rotting food. I could have used the word “insect” at this point, but the translation I chose for 虫 needed to match throughout the epsode, and the word “pest” fit much better for the next line:

Nanami: 迂闊だったわ。本当の悪い虫は自分の足元にいた。

Nanami: I should have known. The nastiest pest was at my feet this whole time.

This is the second time it’s used, and the first time the complete phrase appears (悪い虫). The problem with using “insect” in this context is that “insect” as an insult emphasises how little a person matters, and suggests that problems they cause are annoyances at worst. “Pest” suggests that the problems they cause can lead to actual harm. Nanami wouldn’t be so upset with Keiko if she didn’t think she was causing real problems, so it makes more sense to use “pest”.

Keiko: 本当の悪い虫はななみだ。なんだあの女は悪い虫だったんだ。

Keiko: The nastiest pest… was Nanami. She was the real pest all along.

In this case, translating 虫 as “insect” sounds really weird. I like the reversal where Keiko realises that Nanami was actually the one leeching off her and her friends, and “pest” is a much better word for that.

なのにどうしてあんな女に遠慮しなくちゃならないの？

So why should I have to put up with that bitch?

While Japanese doesn’t have many swear words in the sense we do in English, it does use certain dismissive phrasings to indicate extreme distaste. English swear words serve a similar semantic purpose in my opinion, so the dismissive あんな女 or even just 女 can be translated as “bitch” in the right circumstances.

In fact, when I realised this during the translation of this episode, I remembered the Wakaba episode and immediately regretted not using “bitch” instead of “that girl” when Wakaba is talking about Anthy (she also uses あの女 and 女). I think it would make the scene hit a lot harder and get across more of the anger.

C-ko Mantis: 悪い虫はいねえがぁ？悪い虫はいねえがぁ？ C-ko Butterfly: あー！なまはげよ！

C-ko Mantis: Fee-fi-fo-fug, I smell the blood of a nasty bug! C-ko Butterfly: Ahh! A giant!

These shadow plays reference a lot more traditional Japanese folklore than I remember! The phrase 悪い虫はいねえがぁ？ echoes the classic stock phrase spoken by Namahage oni characters: 悪い子はいねえがぁ？(the difference being 子 - child instead of 虫 - insect). Literally translated it means “Any naughty kids around?” in a sort of regional or archaic affect.

The butterfly cries “Ahh! A namahage!” which is a fairy tale monster that most Japanese kids would know about. So I needed to find a translation that referenced a fairy tale that my audience would be familiar with! The fug-bug rhyme was Anya’s idea :P

Thanks to my wonderful editor @dontbe-lasanya for their help as always!

Follow the blog if you'd like to stay updated with releases! You can find all episodes released so far here:

Rose divider taken from this post.

[atxthexritz]

okay imma...

I haven't read ASOIAF, and i only watched a couple seasons of GOT because my partner at the time wanted to watch the last season together. BUT, GRRM is very public in his opinion on how good his farts smell, which is truly the most nauseating trait any creative can have. I don't love GOT, i absorbed enough of it to know I don't like it. Which is a thing you are allowed to do as a person. You are not obligated to keep consuming art you don't enjoy just so your opinion is valid to people who have made their permanent personality a single media franchise. I abhor sexual violence being used as flippantly as GRRM uses it in plots. I don't like worlds with no actual heroes, only opposing shades of dark grey. The ecology of Westeros and Essos is fucked. The mishmash of technology is fucked, as is the pretty broadly estimated european, mediterranian and nomadic cultures that have been amalgamated. That's all FINE, if the author's intent is "Fuck it, its fantasy, it makes sense because it makes sense. Don't think about it it doesn't matter" But it does matter, its stated like, episode 2 that the turning of time matters. Winter is Coming and its going to FUCK Westeros. and thats BEFORE considering the Other's, thats just, WINTER sucks. but we aren't shown, we are told. The effect winter has on the world is given to us by people going winter is bad. Maybe in the text GRRM explains more, but a lot of people with a lot of receipts seem to indicate he does not. If you have some evidence to the contrary and would like to intelligently engage in defense of something you like please do. But i will say if tumblr user johnsnowdaddy1120 reblogs me and says "No theses books are bible and GRRM is god." as a whole thought I'm not gonna be swayed. You can like ASOIAF. They can also be flawed, and GRRM can be full of shit sometimes. The thing you love doesn't have to be perfect. If people are misrepresenting it, speak up, but don't just say "No." I'd love to see some people finding all the passages that show we're wrong. I'd love to have a discussion. I'd love to calmly disagree. I understand that a lot of people like brutal political realism. I don't, but that doesn't make the people that can healthily engage with things that make me uncomfortable are bad people.

I don't like realism. I love escapism and so ASOIAF has little for me. if its your bag, cool, if you have some evidence that shows how GRRM has taken care in some of the books or novellas or whatever to ground the speculative parts of his world in a way that supports his stance of realism, I would love to see that. I love learning. with the information if have ASOIAF/GOT is good, brutalist fantasy. I do not think it stands as a good example of realism because the dark realism is at opposition of the speculative and fantastical elements of the setting. that's my opinion based on a good hundred hours of watch time and of cultural osmosis.

Someone over on Discord asked, "I'm morbidly curious: How BAD is A Song of Ice and Fire in terms of the authenticity George claims it to be?"

My reply was straightforward:

The long and the short of it is that ASOIAF is basically a vehicle for GRRM to present both his rape fetish and his Hobbesian view on human nature and has less historical accuracy than Frozen or most other Disney movies.

That's actually a good way to think of it, now that I've said it--he's Family Unfriendly, they're Family Friendly, but both have the same relationship with History: just Pure Aesthetic with no consideration for how the worldbuilding would work.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

I am tired of seeing the same storyline for 11 and her raising her hand to fend of the so called enemy and now she's gone "missing" again

Don't the Duffers know that there are other characters that are severly underwritten and fan favourites?

This is not how you build the hype for the final season

Let's be honest here, the Duffers don't really need to do much to build hype. We're all hanging on for any little morsel we can get. People are going to watch the final season. The Duffers could come out and release a trailer that was nothing but a middle finger to the audience with "November 2025" tattooed on it, and people would still watch when it releases.

As for what it appears El's particular storyline may be, we have to wait and see what it all ends up being. Personally, I think El being "missing" is more her being in hiding, similarly to her situation in season 2. The question for me is who knows where she really is? Is Mike back to radioing for her every day for a year? Is Hopper responsible for it? Is he hiding that from everyone else?

Or is it more like other people are kinda getting at? Is El stuck in the Upside Down, much like Will in season 1? Does Will have to try to help find her like she did for him?

We do know that the Duffers have indicated that season 5 will evoke the earlier seasons a bit. A little bit of a repeating story is to be expected. However, I don't simply want a copy-paste with older characters.

To add the Byler element to it, because that's what I know my audience is, could this feed into Will's insecurities? Will Mike be so obsessed with finding El that it reinforces Will's feelings that El has taken his place in Mike's life? Will he wonder if Mike tried that hard to find him (because what does he really know about the search for him)? Could Henry use this to try to entice Will over to someone who "appreciates him"?

I feel you when it comes to everything always revolving around El, but I don't really think it's as bad as it seems. They definitely do focus heavily on her in marketing, given her popularity, and I agree it can be frustrating, but I think the show itself does a good job in sharing the spotlight. At least, until the end.

What would worry me is that the ending becomes a repeat of how things always seem to go down: El shows up at the end to save the day after a season of her struggling. I know it didn't go down as successfully as usual last season, but that's still what happened. They take steps to show her as not being a superhero by showing her limitations, but she always overcomes them at the 11th hour. It's counterproductive, and, as you mentioned, takes away opportunities for other characters to shine.

[uncanny-tranny]

I recently had to do a project in one of my psych classes, and man, I knew that CBT was used for every little thing, but seeing over and over, "do CBT! CBT is the best for every mental illness!" was so jarring. I'm absolutely biased because of my own experiences, but I just don't think it's as universal a treatment model as it's touted.

If you didn't benefit from CBT, it's not because you're lazy or didn't try hard enough or lacked intelligence or foresight into your own needs. Frankly, it's a therapy model that (I think) shouldn't be the only readily-accessible model and among the only therapy models covered by insurance. Some of us should not be treated in a CBT model and that's okay. It's not a sign of poor character or unreasonable demands, and if you don't think it's a model that works for you, then it's your right to express that!

[an-obligatory-blog]

Is.

Is this a safe space for me to say that I don't like the trope of "Infinite thought his squad was killed by Shadow but in actuality it's a deception by Eggman"?

[kanansdume]

You started these tags with "oof" and I went back to re-read the second part of this post and... yeah, oof is about how I feel, too. Oh how hopeful I was for something good to come out of that show, BOTH shows actually since I was looking at Mandalorian season 3 as well it seems.

This post is already a little long, so I'll put the rest under a cut, but tl;dr is that I think you're giving the people writing in the Mandoverse SO MUCH more credit than they deserve and they'll likely never do anything good or creative with these characters again.

I don't think that making Sabine a Jedi had anything to do with Sabine at all. A lot of people have pointed out that Sabine is acting like a bratty teenager despite being literally 30 years old and that she feels a lot like an ANAKIN stand-in so that Ahsoka can figure out her feelings about Anakin through her relationship to Sabine. We know that the Rebels Search for Ezra storyline got combined with Ahsoka's show and that they weren't originally intended to be the same story. So it makes sense that Ahsoka likely HAD a padawan-figure originally who was probably a new character and that they just replaced that character with Sabine when things got combined, regardless of what that would mean for Sabine's character.

Sabine doesn't even grow or learn anything by the end of the show. I've see people try to argue that when she left Ezra behind in order to save Ahsoka that it showed she'd grown from when she abandoned everything to save Ezra, except... she's literally just making the same choice for a different person. Thrawn is LEAVING and the whole point of jumping onto his ship is to try to STOP HIM or something, and instead of doing that and helping Ezra, she runs back because one person's life is at stake and now Ezra is alone on that ship and Sabine never has to face the consequences of her own actions. Personally, that doesn't feel like any actual growth to me or like she's learned from the mistake she made by going to get Ezra. The narrative itself doesn't even seem to think that it WAS a mistake she needs to learn from, which leaves her character with literally nowhere to go.

If they were going to bring her back to Mandalore as a leader, they probaby would've been EMPHASIZING her connection to Mandalore rather than basically erasing it. It would've made more sense to leave her family ALIVE, even just ONE of them, to give her more of a connection to that cause. But no, aside from her wearing the armor, there's absolutely no indication she gives a flying shit about Mandalore or its people anymore.

So even if they DID start pushing Sabine in the direction of being a leader again, I wouldn't like it. THIS Sabine should never lead anybody ever. THIS Sabine is a selfish piece of shit who is willing to unleash Thrawn upon the galaxy just to get what she wants. REBELS era Sabine was awesome, and had the makings of a great ruler. REBELS era Sabine had learned mercy and patience and selflessness by the end of the show, while THIS fucking Sabine is impatient, impetuous, irresponsible, and selfish. Nobody should EVER allow the Ahsoka show version of Sabine anywhere NEAR a leadership position, and if they try to do it, it'll just be unbelievably bad writing. Perhaps hilariously bad writing, it could be amusing to see them attempt to make that claim, but it'd still be bad.

And, as you mentioned, they've already put Bo-Katan in as the leader of Mandalore for the THIRD TIME and, ostensibly, destroyed the Dark Saber. There doesn't seem to be any real planning around who gets put in as the leader of Mandalore, to be honest, it just kind-of flip flops and goes to whoever they deem most convenient in the moment. Sabine was being set up for it for a minute until they decided it would be problematic with what they wanted to do with her later in Rebels, so they threw it at Bo-Katan with no good reason. Then they took it away from Bo-Katan in The Mandalorian so that they could set Din up to take on leadership of Mandalore except that then they decided they didn't really like that so they abandoned all of that set-up and tossed it back at Bo-Katan because, hell, she's already there isn't she, might as well just give it back to her because THAT'S satisfying to see! So, sure, MAYBE they'll give it back to Sabine and take it away from Bo-Katan AGAIN later on, maybe Bo-Katan will die fighting Thrawn and so Sabine gets put back in as an option, but I don't have a single ounce of belief that it'll make any sense or feel in any way satisfying.

For all that the Mandoverse is focused on Mandalorians in the extreme, I don't feel like they're writing them all that well or care all that much about giving these characters good strong narratives. Sabine is just the latest in a string of terrible writing choices for their Mando characters.

Sabine Wren is not just the true wielder of the Darksaber, but the only one who should’ve been chosen to rule Mandalore and I will die on that hill.

The entire point of Sabine’s whole arc through the show is that she is learning JEDI VALUES, that she’s learning that the Mandalorian way has its place, but it also has so many flaws and that it’s what has led Mandalore to fight itself into dust. She’s impatient and distrustful and learns to listen with Hera about Fulcrum. She’s more inclined to kill someone out of anger until she learns the value of mercy and second chances from Kanan with Fenn Rau. She tries to pretend her problems don’t exist and won’t truly face them until she learns to wield the Darksaber with Kanan and then goes to make amends with her family. The entire episode with her familiy shows how Sabine brings together everything she’s learned: she waits and listens to her family’s grievances, understanding exactly how her actions impacted them, and then she shows mercy to Gar Saxon rather than killing him after her win like a true Mandalorian would.

Having Bo-Katan claim that the Mandalorian way is a way of MERCY, when we’re intentionally told and shown that Sabine’s willingness to show mercy explicitly goes against her Mandalorian upbringing and teachings and was something she learned from Hera, and from Kanan and his Jedi teachings, is really insulting. The Mandalorian way, as shown through Rebels, is NOT one of mercy, that’s the entire point. Sabine recognizes that, recognizes that that’s what’s caused them so much misery, caused them to turn on each other so much that their planet hasn’t ever had the chance to heal and regrow.

Bo-Katan even says IN THIS EPISODE that Sabine represents the best of what they have been in the past as well as the best of what they could someday become. That Sabine is a true leader.

To have Sabine turn around and say that the Darksaber came to her, after she EARNED IT, for the FIRST time since Tarre Viszla she truly EARNED the Darksaber, just so she could pass it on to Bo-Katan, someone who once gleefully helped set a village on fire after the people she was helping subjugate tried to resist?

I’m sorry, but no.

Sabine Wren is Tarre Viszla’s true successor. Not just as the wielder of the Darksaber, but as Mandalore’s uniter, as its truest ruler. Sabine Wren has the patience and mercy and wisdom of a Jedi with the passion and mettle of a Mandalorian warrior. She has learned to listen as well as she fights, and she has learned how to appreciate different points of view and how to bring them together to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts.

The Darksaber came to her because Sabine Wren always had the capacity to use it to fulfill Tarre Viszla’s vision, to unite Mandalore, to save it from itself, to make it more than it is. The Darksaber came to her specifically because Sabine has the greatest ability to lead Mandalore into a peaceful future.

[tacocat37]

.

[dykeredhood]

The perma-scowl is perma-scowling today

[cielosuerte]

something distinctly sad & frustrating internally about watching someone go through something chronically awful & similar on the face of it to your own horrors & wanting to reach out and talk to them about it to offer support & knowing that by nature of the similarity that is almost definitely the last thing they want/need & so you have to sort of watch from afar and psychically beam your words at them and hope it clicks soon

[liuisi]

i feel. like there is a balance to strike between distinguishing what is actually scrupulousity and what is genuinely you feeling guilty because God is convicting you of something. like yeah theres a point where you're just making yourself miserable over things that hold no consequence because you're terrified of doing something wrong. but. i think. that if you can find good (scripture-supported) arguments for why this God wouldn't want you to do this thing, to then dismiss that as scrupulousity is just deliberately closing your eyes to it.

[seraphasia]

the problem with self-diagnosis that most concerns me is the risk of people, teenagers especially, pathologizing normative behavior

[assmaster-8000]

why don't clothes fit me the way they do on a skinny cis guy (<- isn't a skinny cis guy)

[pepper-steam-milkshake]

i think what people tend to forget (seeing all these posts on my feed atm) is at the end of the day, YOU curate your own fandom experience. there is ALWAYS going to be someone who makes content you dont like. there is a very good chance that someone whose content you do like will make content you dont like for one reason or another.

things to keep in mind?

the content someone creates is not indicative of their nature. for fuck’s sake how many times have you seen someone who looks and acts absolutely sweet and then makes the most fucked up cursed shit youve ever seen— and vice versa. the content they make is not their personality. jfc, if someone writes a story about fairies, are you gonna go, “oh, they’re secretly a fairy”? NO. so it would be appropriate to apply that to other content that you as an individual may find inappropriate

if you see something you dont like, instead of taking the time and energy to give hate to it, just walk away and leave it alone. why do you want to continue engaging with it. is fueling those few minutes of anger truly worth being an asshole? PEOPLE make content. thats right— people with feelings, emotions, experiences, memories, and lives of their own. someone took the time to write something, and then to not only write that thing but then share it with the world in spite of whatever lingering feelings they may have to it. if youre gonna shit talk, do it in private. dont do it right where the artist can see.

with today’s day and age, it is nigh impossible to avoid minors, and the same goes for adults. everyone finds their way into a space somehow. we’re all enjoying the content, and we’re all enjoying it in different ways for different reason. occasionally it’ll match up, but you cannot expect someone to share your opinions and your own view of morality. if you think murder is bad and you hate that someone keeps making the characters in your show kill people, the solution isn’t to say “youre a bad person and you shouldnt be okay with murder”. thats not the statement theyre making. also just leave them alone???

if you dont like the content and want to see something different, instead of suggesting that they make it differently, make it yourself. “i cant draw”— PRACTICE. drawing is a pain in the ass for me. im not great at it but i still practice because i want to make the content i want to see. “i cant write”—PRACTICE. experiment and try new things. “but its going to be bad”— MAKE IT BAD. everyone starts somewhere, and the only way to make your version of better is to improve on your version of bad.

just some thoughts

[uncanny-tranny]

I'm going to be real, I think people (particularly neurotypical people) really fail when they see disordered eating as solely a behaviour when it isn't just that (and usually they assume the behaviour can only be restricted eating). Disordered eating is as much a frame of thinking as it is a "behaviour".

I say this is a failure because people are struggling, and they aren't receiving help they need because they're not seen as "eating disordered". The mindset that leads to somebody developing the behaviours associated with disordered eating is - in my experience - absolutely life-ruining and devastating. It genuinely feels like a huge part of your soul has shriveled up and vanished. When you see disordered eating as a behaviour, you are fundamentally not understanding what these issues tend to be, and how they arise.

This is so, so especially important for people who don't "look" the way society expects. For instance, the number of men I see absolutely destroyed by these thoughts, feelings, and compulsions is really almost astonishing. We need to do better for everybody - everybody deserves the help they want and need.