#(unlike the aroace thing I suspect)

[prince-liest]

Ok so I know you haven't officially trans anyone's gender in any of your Hazbin fics, but I lowkey get really trans vibes from Alastor in most of your fics?

Idk, it's a little hard go explain but what really tipped me off was his... distaste? Disfavor? Aversion? To his "male body" in one of the 666 fics. (I think the line was something akin to "the male body being what it is" in reference to Alastor getting hard fairly quickly).

There's honestly a lot of interesting things to speculate in relation to how Alastor views his body. Especially with his relationship with touch, and how he initiates touch and how he actively dislikes it (depending on the person).

Not to mention his feelings regarding his non-human features. How he doesn't inherently dislike them for being what they are, or rather, that they're "abnormal", but more so that they're not what they're "supposed to be", and not "what he was before" (though I do think that his dislike of his deer features is linked to his dislike of how he died, being viewed as something so easy to be put down - an animal).

Which also relates to how dressed Alastor constantly is. How he shields away his body using clothing, a customizable thing that he takes great pride in making sure is up to his standards (notice how when his coat is damaged he immediately goes to get it fixed, even though the ends of his coat is already damaged. He seems to have very complex opinions on how, exactly, his coat is supposed to be damaged)

I do think that Alastor's preference to being so dressed is linked to his dislike of vulnerability, but I also think it's a very trans(tm) move, lol.

(And I also do think that his dislike of vulnerability is tied to his transness, kinda in a weird "chicken and egg" scenario.)

I find it really interesting how Alastor's true feelings are revealed by his shadow, a being that can transform to look different, is mostly hidden, and is internally mysterious. Idk, it's just very trans(tm) to me!

I also think that Alastor's transness is linked to how he views masculinity, how he seems to automatically like woman, while automatically disliking man. How this is also tied to his parents. I've noticed in your fics (and could be completely wrong about) that Alastor seems to relate femininity (and his mother) with "safety" (how he compares the gentle touch in your last fic with feeling like his mother and his like of jambalaya).

I'm not sure if I would say that Alastor is a trans woman, but I also wouldn't say he isn't. Overall I think he has a very complex view of gender, but it's definitely something he doesn't put a lot into. Which relates to him not knowing what asexuality is.

I have a lot more Alastor trans thoughts, but this ask is already getting pretty long so I'm just gonna cut it off here. I hope I made sense, and that you're comfortable with me speculating on a character you've written about gender. (Totally valid if you're not though! If so, then please disregard this ask!)

I'll take "asks that made me realize I'm out here accidentally writing a character as nonbinary" for 300, please! Please prepare yourself for the mistake of letting me have a keyboard and talk about gender after 9pm, so sorry to literally everybody else.

You're gonna get a real fuckin' kick out of the first bit of the next 666 that I'm gonna post tomorrow. ;) It's definitely the point where I finally acknowledged to myself that I have a strong urge to inject some genderfuckery into Alastor in the form of him continuing to use his thing with Vox to explore his own relationship with, like, existing in his own body, and then also threw those feelings all over Angel Dust like a fistful of glitter while I was at it.

Like you said, I wouldn't say that I've ended up writing him as a trans woman, but I think I have seen him from the start as a character who is not exactly cis in a wibbly-wobbly way I have not previously defined but that I think I would perhaps characterize as "gender: monster condescending to play at humanity."

I don't think he eschews masculinity entirely, for what it's worth. He definitely strikes me as a person who aligns himself with the image of a smiling gentleman (if a hellish one) as the proper way for a person like him to be, and for whom that is an important, comfortable, and satisfying part of both his identity and how he relates to both his female friends and to men. However, he also strikes me as someone for whom that part of his identity is what he shows the world on purpose, presented as he would like it to be seen, rather than as something that reflects his bodily preferences. To put it another way, if he'd been AFAB, I think he would put just as much into his presentation, just in the direction of femininity, and it wouldn't make him any more or less comfortable with himself.

You're right in that I've definitely written him with a faint distaste for the mundane physical reality of his body, and a lot of this comes through in how he alternates between short moments of fascination with what new things his body is doing as he explores it and decides whether or not he likes it, and his much longer moments of utter disregard for the same thing. It also extends to the rest of his mundane humanity, though: his physical limits, his adrenaline-rush of fear, etc. He values the coat, the cane, the reality-bending static, the smile - but whatever he sees in the mirror when he gets undressed or whatever doesn't function to his purposes, he can take or leave.

I see Alastor as someone who defines himself first and foremost as the radio demon: not a person, but a monster and an enigma. A voice and a personality. Everything else is more or less incidental, and he would prefer to keep it set aside, thank you. The occasional dysphoria isn't just about his sex, it's about the humanity of his body as a whole.

[beevean]

Lilith has been missing for 7 years

Alastor had been missing for 7 years

Lilith and Lucifer are divorced, which weighs on Lucifer

Lucifer and Alastor don't like each other at all - Lucifer having the honor of being one of the only two demons capable of making Alastor swear

Alastor started to act like a doting father to Charlie, being unusually affectionate and even touchy (he hasn't been so contact-happy in the main show unlike in the pilot), culminating in a whole song between birth father and "step"father

Alastor seemed to have protected the Hazbin Hotel from the loan shark out of genuine reasons

Alastor flipped his entire shit out when Husk accused him of being on a leash

Bonus: Alastor has powers far beyond those of an average Overlord

real talk, I'd almost think Alastor and Lilith have been having some Thing behind everyone's backs lmao 👀 but eh, canon aroace and all

But in all seriousness, Alastor's behavior in ep 5 went beyond trolling Lucifer. I do suspect he has close ties with Lilith... and that is the reason he seems to be invested in the Hotel. Or Charlie.

[imakemywings]

A+ Library Review: "Loveless" by Alice Oseman

This is not technically the first installment of this, but it is the first time I'm making it A Thing. A+ Library is my new segment where I review books with asexual and/or aromantic characters.

Previous review: The Circus Infinite by Khan Wong

The book description for Loveless is:

Georgia has never been in love, never kissed anyone, never even had a crush - but as a fanfic-obsessed romantic she's sure she'll find her person one day. As she starts university with her best friends, Pip and Jason, in a whole new town far from home, Georgia's ready to find romance, and with her outgoing roommate on her side and a place in the Shakespeare Society, her 'teenage dream' is in sight. But when her romance plan wreaks havoc amongst her friends, Georgia ends up in her own comedy of errors, and she starts to question why love seems so easy for other people but not for her.

The character: Georgia Warr, aro/ace

So let's get to it.

TL;DR: Thumbs up from me

Since Loveless centers entirely around the aroace experience, I will not be breaking the review into sections like last time.

Loveless is a coming-of-age story about Georgia's first year at college. It begins with her graduation party out of high school and ends with her establishing plans for her second year of college. It's very slice-of-life, with a focus pretty much exclusively on Georgia's interpersonal relationships and her personal growth.

Oof. Okay. Loveless was at times hard for me to read, and not because it's bad, but because it hit so close to so many of my own experiences at Georgia's age. There were so many times I felt myself going "Oh yeah, I remember that. Yep, there's that phase. Yep, I told myself that story too. Yep, yep, yep."

Just like Georgia, I considered myself someone with "high standards" who would inevitably break the romance and sex barrier when I got to college. This book hit on so many of my own insecurities from that phase, some of which I still struggle with at times, but I will try to be objective about this review nonetheless.

Loveless does a wonderful job of unfurling Georgia's journey, from the start where she considers herself "just like everyone else" but a bit slow on the romance front, to realizing she's Different, through the difficult process of starting to accept that difference as part of her.

Unlike my last review, Loveless earns its found family by showing how Georgia and her friends grow together and apart and back together--with additions. Everyone in Loveless is on their own journey--and at different stages of it. From Pip who's been out as lesbian since she was fifteen and eager for a first girlfriend, to Rooney who's long suspected she's not really straight, to Georgia who's only just grasping the words to describe her experience.

And sometimes they hurt each other! One of the complaints I had about One Last Stop was how all the relationships (protag's mom aside) are entirely fluffy feel-good. Loveless eschews that by showing how friends can hurt each other even when they don't mean to, and how people have competing needs, and how past struggles can impact your present. But in spite of that, it's clear how much all of the main cast grow to care for each other over the course of the book, such that the ending is truly heartwarming.

The prose suits Georgia's voice, which is to say it sounds like an 18/19 year old girl is speaking. That means it's not very eloquent, and it can be blunt and cringy, but in a very believable, realistic way to me.

Georgia's coming of age isn't limited to just her orientation. At the start of the book, she is painfully alien to herself. Georgia doesn't seem to know anything about herself, as if she's spent all her adolescence wrapped in a thick blanket glued to fanfic and refusing to interrogate any of her own feelings--which is probably what happened. It means that she has a very rough time when she enters college. Unlike many such stories, Georgia is not jumping at the bit to be on her own--in the moment when her parents dust off their hands and prepare to leave her with her boxes of stuff in her new dorm, Georgia contemplates begging them not to leave her.

Loveless really captures a sentiment I experienced with asexuality, which was the sense of being left behind by your peers, of feeling childish and immature. Desperate to shake the feeling, Georgia makes an admirable effort at "putting herself out there," doing all kinds of things she doesn't really think she'll like, but wants to give a try, just in case. In some cases, she bombs--but in others, like the Shakespeare Society, she really blossoms. I thought the book makes an excellent picture of a lost young person beginning their adult life with no real idea of who they are, and trying to solve that problem.

Perhaps most painful of all, Loveless captures Georgia's fear of not knowing what her future will look like now that whirlwind love affair-->marriage-->2.5 kids is off the table. It's particularly difficult for her because Georgia so desperately wants that romance--except that for her it's something of a mirage: as soon as it gets close--like when a boy tries to kiss her--all her interest is gone in a flash. Georgia wants to want romance and sex...but she doesn't, really. Even when she's accepted her orientation, she really struggles with what this means for the rest of her life, which also felt very relatable. Partnering up is seen as virtually inevitable, and as the book points out: life is scary! It's way less scary when you have a Person! Therefore, part of Georgia's insecurity and uncertainty focuses a lot on what her future is going to be, and it's not a question she's solved by the end of the book. But it is one she's becoming less afraid of.

There were a few things that struck me as odd, like Pip's claim she had never "fully connected" with friends who aren't Latina, a sentiment echoed by Sonil's refusal to accept his asexuality until he met other Indian people who also used the label...obviously there are certain things that friends who don't share your racial or cultural background may not fully understand, but the idea that you can't connect with anyone who doesn't share your same racial make-up is...uncomfortable, I think. But these remarks pass quickly.

Additionally, the way Rooney and Georgia berate themselves for "experimenting" comes off unnecessarily harsh to me...part of dating is learning whether you're compatible with that person. And yeah--sometimes that means figuring out if you are or are not attracted to them, or their gender more broadly. There's nothing inherently wrong with starting to date someone you're not sure you're into, and then realizing you aren't.

The book also beats Georgia's fanfic reading to death a little, in my view. It gets mentioned way more than it needs to, and citing specific ships and tropes a) is going to date the book like hell; and b) is irritatingly obtuse to anyone who doesn't know what "Stucky" or "flower shop AU" is.

If you're deep into the ace/aro online community, this book may come off as retreading a lot of well-trod ground for you. There's nothing especially ground-breaking in it. But if you're not so connected, or you're new to the aro/ace community, or you just want a book that still-coming-out you needed, I think this is a great pick.

Next review: The Bruising of Qilwa (TBP)

[aroace-ventplace]

Hey, so I've been on tumblr for years but I only started identifying as aroace much later/used to only really associate with fandom sections of the website so I think I missed a lot of the really cruel aphobic shit (which I'm glad for tbh). Reading your posts though I remembered I had reblogged that asexual Nicki Minaj moodboard thinking it was just something funny another ace had made. What was the real intention behind that??? What was OP trying to do with it?

you're definitely not the only one who came across posts like "asexual nicki minaj" devoid of all their acecourse context; i kind of envy you lol

@cheeseanonioncrisps wrote a very good summary of the nicki minaj post's relation to 2016-era tumblr aphobia, which i'll quote below:

Okay… for people who are genuinely confused, here's some context: Essentially back when this post was made it was a popular trolling tactic on Tumblr to post deliberately inflammatory (and typically homophobic) things while identifying themselves as ace people, as like a parody of what All Ace People were supposed to be like. These posts then got reblogged ironically by other aphobic people who were in on the joke, and then frequently spread to people who weren't in on the joke and assumed the posts were genuine and reflected mainstream beliefs in the ace community. (To be fair, you did get some ace people unironically reblogging these as well. Every community has its Loud Minority Of Utter Weirdos and the aspec community is and was no exception.) Part of this trend was people making 'ace moodboards' of people who were seen as obviously not being ace. Some of which were very openly mean-spirited. 'Donald Trump Ace Moodboard' and ‘Margaret Thatcher Ace Moodboard' are two I remember getting a lot of notes. The 'joke' there of course being that a) there's no evidence that either person is/was ace, and b) Thatcher especially was pretty infamous for her homophobic politics, and the common narrative around asexuality at the time was that it was motivated purely by homophobia. Moodboards like the one above are obviously less dickish in nature, but it's essentially a guilt by association thing for being part of an aphobic trend. The sheer level of vitriol directed at the ace community at the time made some part of the community (then and now) pretty hypersensitive about this stuff, which is why the reactions seem so over the top. (Yeah it's unlikely that anybody's going to be killing themselves over the ace-Niki Minaj moodboard, but also the kind of people reblogging shit like this were frequently also the ones posting suicide-bait in the ace positivity tags. So I suspect that's where the accusation is coming from. It's just misdirected.) For the record, I have no idea what OP thinks about ace people, but this post specifically does tend to show up on a lot of blogs run by people who are openly aphobic, which is another reason people don't like it. I'll admit that I'm personally not that into it (although the "I never fucked" thing is pretty funny, ngl) but it's kind of cool to see so many young ace people in the notes actually kinda vibing with it and being confused as to why anyone could find it aphobic, in a 'nature is healing' kinda way.

[variousqueerthings]

Coming back to this laaaate, but @brilliantfantasticgeronimo hope it's okay I pull this onto a post, because it's easier for me to focus on than in replies!

this idea that the Doctor lands someplace and ruins everyone's day by being so Badass and Awestriking isn't really a Thing in Nu!Who "is also contrasted with the theme of the doctor inspiring *others* to do things (v Explicit theme in s1 but it's present in all those other CoDs you mention)... re:2, i think the one exception would be 7 but i think with 7 the chess-god-manipulator thing works bc we see the consequences of it thru ace. we also see it w/ amy and river but (cont) but i feel we never quite grapple w/ it emotionally (they adore the doctor anyway in the end) (except for a handful legit, hard-hitting eps like the girl who waited or town called mercy). .. and altho in both classic who and rtd who the companions function as a very important role *in the text*, u can still find fandom completely ignoring that and treating doc's 1-10 as power fantasies as well. so it's smth always there but that moffat rlly made literal also i've really liked your posts on asexuality on dw and idk if you've written this but just in case, i think it's also relevant to the very specific way some het guys are so protective of the doc's asexuality/aromancy(+the show's): "asexuality" as it functions in dw is celebrated by those guys ( i suspect) bc it gives the fantasy power over the "womanly wiles" - it's a proof of how the doc is so "enlightened" and "above" the temptress or seduction trope. (cont) (csdkjf sorry for going ott on replies rip) and it's also why i think in moffat's who the doc's sexuality is kind of tied to the idea of it like... """humbling"" or ""humanizing"" the character (as problematic as those ideas are,,, i think there's a basis to deduct that they come from before in canon)

OKAY SOOOO HI!

I just watched The God Complex right after The Girl Woman Who Waited so I'm riding that high of Consequences! Emotional Follow-through! Mmmm good plots!

I have not actually seen 7 yet outside of cute clips with Ace and ofc when he died due to the American healthcare system + gang warfare if I'm remembering correctly? and became our beautiful bouncing boy Eight, so iiiinteresting that this is a Thing, I didn't know that 👀👀👀👀👀

again, God Complex + Girl Who Waited feel like the most this era has explored Eleven's kinda... vibes around in terms of being some big Machinator who ruins peoples lives by dragging them into his shit, because he cannot Not: "I stole your childhood and now I’ve led you by your hand to your death. But the worst thing is I knew. I knew this would happen, this is what always happens. Forget your faith in me. I took you with me because I was vain. Because I wanted to be adored. Look at you. You’re glorious, Pond, the girl who waited for me. I’m not a hero. I really am just a mad man in a box. And it’s time we saw each other as we really are." Mmmm good stuff

we'll see how the next episodes do/season 7, but I've heard good things about Town Called Mercy which is an episode that I was not taking in at allll last time, because I was kind of... annoyed... by then.... and not really taking in good stuff (unlike this time)

ASEXUALITY ON DW IS LIKE! LOOK I'M WRITING OUT A SCRIPT FOR A YOUTUBE VIDEO BECAUSE IT'S SO FASCINATING RIGHT??? BOTH IN TERMS OF HOW THE CHARACTER EMBODIES AN AROACE IDENTITY AS ALIEN AND AS OTHERED WITHIN THEIR OWN SOCIETY AND AS A PERSON WHO JUST HAPPENS TO BE THESE THINGS --- AND IN HOW FANDOM THINKS ABOUT THE WORD "ASEXUALITY"

(will I ever actually put together a youtube video, who knows, but I could, I edit professionally for parts of my job, and I have the Receipts!) (but the energy of it all youknow)

I am so pleased you spelled out the "womanly wiles" trope, because yes, I hadn't quite seen that, but had been circling around like... the Enlightened Asexual (or the Celibate Monk as I believe M*ffat once called it with reference to Sherlock) (and then someone like Irene Adler is the epitome of that Temptress in his version of the story...)

and what you're saying about "humbling" and "humanising" is so fascinating, because ofc to a bunch of us aces and aros and aroaces the part where the Doctor struggles to form normative relationships is one of the the most humanising factors, and ofc M*ffat especially likes the "Godlike" Doctor quite a bit but it comes back to these ideas of allosexuality and alloromanticism

but then also rejects a lot of those ideas, from memory, for being too simplistic after all, because people struggle to write the Doctor as simply alloromantic and allosexual (I've heard because the Doctor is alien, because the Doctor is more compelling when lonely, because the narrative couldn't sustain it, etcetcetc, but in the end it all comes back to "the Doctor as Character cannot get into these relationships for... reasons...." and that becomes compelling character)

(also Gomez!Master is like "we're so beyond this, we're the best thing ever, we're nemeses, we're besties, my homeboy, my rotten soldier, my silly rabbit," etcetcetc... paraphrased. but that's in M*ffat era)

(the more the show flirts with allosexuality and alloromanticism the more nuanced the Doctor becomes to me as an aroace character! because no longer is it an Enlightened Mightier Than Thou Cannot Be Touched Celibacy type Concept, it's someone who's being affected by deep relationships and very often unable to equate them using simple terms!!!! arghhh it's sooooo!!!! SOOOOOO!!!!!!!)

[madd-mer]

List of MaDD Things I do

I feel like I'm constantly invalidating me and my MaDD. It feels like my experience with daydreaming inherently differentiates from the experiences of other maladaptive daydreamers. I hate that I'm doubting myself so much so in order to fix that I will write about specific things regarding my MaDD that I haven't really seen anywhere else here on Tumblr or other social media platforms.

First of all, I do suspect that I might be neurodivergent. I currently have no way of getting a diagnosis but I have done a lot of research which lead me to the conclusion that it is highly possible I have ADHD. I felt the need to say this because I think some things I'll mention will correspond to my neurodivergent tendencies.

Here's my list of unusual things I do in order to daydream/while daydreaming:

I can't focus enough to properly daydream in my everyday life because of noises or people talking in the background

because of that I prefer to daydream right before sleeping

the room or space that I'm daydreaming in has to either be completely silent or play music without lyrics (preferably classical music)

I lie completely still most of the time to be able to fully concentrate on my scenario or paracosm

since I practically cannot daydream throughout the day I often distract myself with literally anything

that is mostly tiktok, tumblr, youtube, netflix, homework, or any type of media/activity I can indulge in to forget my need to daydream

I get quite a lot of intrusive daydreams where a possible outcome of the situation or event I'm currently in just starts sort of manifesting in my head and I have to stop myself from continuing that daydream (these scenarios are often very unlike to actually happen and mostly consist of me getting hurt, accidents or other unpleasant stuff)

I have exactly one (1) distinct memory of me daydreaming similarly to maladaptive daydreaming as a child leading me to believe that it had just recently started developing (probably during the pandemic)

I'm aroace and had a lot of difficulties coming to terms with me being aromantic, so most of my daydreams/scenarios/paracoms include a lot romance with f.e. a parame to cope with that

All in all Maladaptive Daydreaming is my biggest comfort and NO.1 coping mechanism •°. *࿐

[jamicha]

(I'll make a video of this later, but I need to say this now)

In 2012, the Lorax movie came out and the Onceler became the first "Tumblr Sexyman." The concept was still new and the internet was not quite ready for such a thing. There were horrible self-cest fan artworks and things so terrifying it scared Ed Helms himself. But we progressed.

2 (-ish I'm rounding) years later, Gravity Falls. Everyone had a huge crush on Bill Cipher, the megalomaniacal triangular antagonist of the show. All of this made him into the second sexyman. Again, loads of fan art. Some good, some bad, and some very, very ugly. But Bill Cipher made his way into the sexymen club.

Of course, we can't forget the release of Undertale, bringing about the creation of Sans and his AUs. They all brought what you'd expect from a sexyman, usually incredibly good art with bad intentions or ships behind it. Nothing surprising. All part of the pattern of sexymen as Undertale released 2-ish years after Gravity Falls.

Alastor of Hazbin Hotel (2019. Late as far as the pattern goes, since that's about 3 years after Undertale/Sans becoming a sexyman). No surprise. Bringing us back to our roots of tall, slender, and possibly (but absolutely canonically in Alastor's case) aroace dudes. Alastor is closer to the conventionally attractive male form, similar to the Onceler, but very unlike Bill and Sans as they are both short and not hardly human shaped.

So with all of this information presented, what conclusion am I trying to lead you to?

Ladies, gentlemen, and everything in between and outside of, based on past patterns, I concluded months ago that we in 2021 would be receiving a new sexyman. But who it is may surprise you.

People have said it's Raymond from Animal Crossing or Espresso Cookie from Cookie Run Kingdom, but I suspect it is none other than Spamton G. Spamton of Deltarune chapter 2.

Allow me to explain.

Every Tumblr sexyman has had at least one song. The Onceler had "How Bad Can I Be?" Bill Cipher had "It's Gonna Get Weird," (albeit the song never made it into the show) Sans has "sans." "Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans," and of course "Megalovania." Alastor does have a song too, but I couldn't find the actual name of it since he gets cut off by Sir Pentious and his fighting in the terf wars. Spamton also has recognizable songs like "Spamton," "NOW'S YOURE CHANCE TO BE A ," "BIG SHOT," and more.

All of the magical sexymen (Sans, Bill, Alastor) have pretty mysterious backstories with limited information given about them. The same goes for Spamton. The information given is limited and his backstory is left up for speculation.

(i can't find it at the moment, but there's a piece of spamton fanart i came across that looked very similar to onceler fanart. these pictures will have to do)

If you look at these two pictures, they have some parallels. Both have themes of money, fitting as both characters are salesmen. Both have toothy smiles, fitting for Spamton, as he's a puppet and can't do much else. Both have lots of green going along with the money theme.

So Tumblr, I ask you to look upon this post with favor. As Spamton G. Spamton slowly rises in popularity and establishes himself as the fifth Tumblr sexyman, it is my wish that we can continue to make good fanart that doesn't promote illegal or morally wrong activities.

Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

And remember not to take anything seriously

[lilyaquarius]

I posted 1,023 times in 2022

16 posts created (2%)

1,007 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@xiranjayzhao

@aconstantstateofbladerunner

@lake-shark

@poorshadowspaintedqueens

@notbecauseofvictories

I tagged 127 of my posts in 2022

#rottmnt - 10 posts

#hellcheer - 6 posts

#fairy tales - 4 posts

#asexual - 4 posts

#ace tag - 4 posts

#writing tag - 4 posts

#gochi - 4 posts

#witchcore - 4 posts

#history - 4 posts

#dbz - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#like he made it plainly clear how little he cared about his kids and when lydia gets married to wickham he has no one but himself to blame

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Jaiden Animations coming out as AroAce makes me feel so valid.

https://youtu.be/qF1DTK4U1AM

11 notes - Posted March 20, 2022

#4

OK, look, there are a lot of issues to be had with Becoming Elizabeth but honestly, the problems I've seen were ones I fully expected. The thing with Thomas Seymour, saw it coming a million miles away. I was not shocked, I was disappointed, but I suspected they were going to handle it badly anyway. But the (other) thing that gave me this angry, visceral rage was the Kett's Rebellion subplot. Because the show wants you to think that it was about a poor, illiterate, mindless violent mob of catholic's rebelling against an (imperfect but not "bad") Anglican government, committing atrocities because they were poor, illiterate, violent, stupid peasants who are also Catholics.

The reality is the rebellion was the peasantry rising up in righteous indignation at the abuse of power from landowners cutting off the land from the common people. People couldn't let their animals graze in fields, and families were literally kicked out of their homes. All so rich landowners could close off land to do with what they wanted. With inflation and unemployment on the rise, some landowners also rose the rents of their tenants and wages also dropped. You can't afford to pay my increased rent with your decreased wages? Too bad, get out or I kill you. Everything benefited the rich landowners and they knowingly, intentionally fucked over the poor. Not unlike today!

The government's response to it was swift, violent, and brutal. Maybe 3,000 rebels total were killed to say nothing of the civilian casualties. To add further insult to grievous injury, after the rebellion was quelled it was decreed there would be a national holiday celebrating the rebellion's defeat and lectures were given on the sins of rebelling against your king and government.

I know why they didn't go with this subplot. Because no rich person with power wants the regular, ordinary person to see a rebellion that they can sympathize with and get it in their heads that they can too. Rebellions scare the rich because they know the "poor" outnumber them a million to one. We also live in a modern society where we can think, act, and band together to fight injustice. Why do you think the conservative right wing is so determined to remove as many rights as humanely possible from anyone who isn't exactly like them?

How they chose to portray Kett's rebellion to be as unsympathetic and as inaccurate as possible then turn it around to show how Lord Dudley is a prick while his son Robert can only look dumbfounded when he doesn't show mercy...it doesn't have any impact narratively speaking. We already don't like Lord Dudley. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Tudor history knows he dies. I feel like, a better team of writers could have portrayed the rebellion as sympathetic and Dudley killing the leaders and anyone else tied to it having a stronger emotional impact. There's plenty of material to use to show the divide between Catholics and Protestants.

Hell, go the extra mile and have it narratively tie in with Elizabeth being the victim of a powerful rich man taking advantage of someone who has no support or power of their own. Have her rebel against his attempts to cajole her into a relationship and marriage. My God, the Seymour's ousted her mother and her family from power! She shouldn't want to have anything to do with them!

But no, I guess have it be stupid peasants rebelling as an excuse to murder and steal because poor people are dumb and evil obviously and all non-evangelical Protestant religion makes you evil, and yeah, portray your groomer and abuser as sympathetically as possible.

I guess!

17 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

#3

So, I don't normally do this but after watching the first twenty something minutes of Netflix's Blonde all I can say is....

What The Fuck??

What did I just watch? Why was this movie made? How could anyone have possible derived any sort of pleasure in what was seen?

I mean...it was bad guys, it was really bad. Bad as in it turned my stomach watching it, kind of bad. Feeling gross, horrified and uncomfortable the whole time, level of bad. I couldn't even finish watching the movie, I just went "screw this" and fast forwarded to the end.

This movie revels in the violence the character of Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean endures. It takes sadistic joy in making her suffer. Fully expecting the audience to also revel in her suffering. Hateful is the perfect word for it, its just pain p*rn from start to finish. You can tell this was written and directed by some really fucked up men.

It is also boring as hell. It is badly written in how horrific it treats Monroe's character to just how badly written the script in general is. There is nothing engaging about the story, nothing that makes me think its worth sitting down and watching all the way through for the next hour and a half. The dialogue is stunted, the cinematography is weird, the acting isn't memorable or great and I STG, every other scene is just to provoke shock value.

The weird choice to go back and forth between black and white to color also makes no sense. Because everything is so disjointed and confusing. To say nothing of the freakish obsession the movie has with Marilyn's fixation on her, ugghhh...."Daddy". Which, if I'm being honest, I think is the writers fetish shining through.

Don't bother watching it, your life will be a happier one if you don't.

37 notes - Posted September 29, 2022

#2

HTTYD Nine Realms (potential fanfic fuel)

Dragons: The Nine Realms does have some genuine potential but if I may, here's a few changes I'd make from what I've seen.

1.) Have Dr. Kullerson be an archeologist/historian who specializes in Viking history.

It makes far more sense to me story wise. The previous movies and franchise dealt with Vikings and their culture. That wasn't a tiny period in history, that lasted from roughly 790's-1060's CE. There is a lot of ground to cover and Tom's mother could be someone who specializes in Berkian Viking history. Having her be the historian gives writers someone who can give a useful exposition to people new to the franchise while also helping to expand world building.

She'd ask questions like: How did the Viking's go from hating Dragons for over several generations to (what looks like) effectively worshipping them in the span of a single generation? Why did they move from old Berk to new Berk? Where are there ships? Was Hiccup Haddock real or was he a mythical figure like King Arthur? Etc. Etc.

The potential is fascinating because we learn more about what Hiccup, Astrid and the other dragon riders did later in their lives. A big episode could be finding their tomb and all the maps, journals and wellspring of information he wrote down that were spared for future generations.

2.) The Nine Realms are different hidden worlds that the team goes to find.

Hiccup was a Viking, they sailed around the world. Its not impossible to believe that he and Astrid traveled across the globe and learned of other hidden worlds. Hence the series title, Nine Realms. He made a map so that future dragon riders, i.e. Zephyr and Nuffink, can continue protecting the dragons. Which could lead to a whole wealth of storylines that can have Tom traveling the world and meeting other kids like him who learned about the dragons and are protecting them.

3.) The story doesn't need an overarching villain, but there are plenty of potential antagonists

HTTYD and its TV Series had it easy in that regard, since they could use antagonists from the books or just create dragon hunters as enemies. Here, Nine Realms doesn't necessarily need a Viggo, Johann or Bludvist. You can have someone who just hates dragons for the sake of it or for profit but the show shouldn't just do something boring like "Evil Dragon Hunting Group tm". It could be interesting to see the kids fighting against government officials, companies who would try to steal or exploit the dragons, Zoo's and theme parks, and even have antagonists that aren't against dragons per se, but rather concerned about reintroducing a species that hasn't been seen for serval hundred years and how that could negatively impact the current ecosystem.

These wouldn't be easy antagonists with easy solutions, or one dimensional villains. The kids would have to think hard and work together to defeat them, the way Hiccup and the riders did with their enemies.

4.) Dragons have been existing in the world as we know it, we just don't know because they are good at hiding.

One serious complaint I've found from fans point out how it could be even possible that after 1300 years the dragons could survive after living in the hidden realm for so long. My answer, they've been leaving the hidden world on and off, they've just been good at hiding. Believe it or not, there are plenty of unexplored places in the world that humans haven't been to or rarely venture to. Forrests, lakes, jungles, underwater caverns, the ocean. It's not impossible to believe.

Those are just a few ideas, I may add more later. What are other peoples thoughts on this? What would you add, change or recommend?

37 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about Iron Widow was Wu Zetian's anger. Her absolute rage at the injustice of her situation. The second hand catharsis I felt reading about someone who is so sick of everyone's bullshit and just lashing out, no fucks given felt weirdly liberating. As someone whose been taught to suppress her anger her whole life and has a stupid amount of difficult time trying to express that anger, (and everyone telling you oh just get angry and let the anger loose, like no you dumb fuck it isn't that easy unlearning a toxic habit that's been ingrained in me for the last thirty years of my entire fucking life!) seeing her rage, felt good.

Anyways, more YA novels where the female lead is not only allowed to get mad and stay mad but isn't punished for it. Please.

52 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

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[outer-space-aro-ace]

Hey uh, when/how did you know you were asexual and what age did you realize it at? I’m curious bc I think I might be aroace

Okay, I think I’ve touched on this before but I have no problem going over it again, because I might think of more stuff. Also obviously this is my personal story and other asexual people will have had completely different experiences.

So for me, sex repulsion played a part for me in discovering I was ace. When we first had sex ed in year six most of us thought it was kinda gross. The difference with me was that I got to high school and still thought that. “Why would you wanna touch dick?” I thought. “People pee from there!”. But because I’d always been one of those ‘young for my age’ kids with quite a childish personality, I just thought I was behind and I’d eventually become interested like everyone else. 

I also suspected other people were exaggerating when they expressed interest in sex, or talked about how hot other people were. Of course nobody was really that into the idea - we were still just kids after all - and of course nobody was actually doing it yet. I think I’d internalised the idea that since the age of consent in my country is 16, that was (roughly) the age when people would start to be interested in sex, and anyone claiming to be interested before then just wanted to seem cool and grown up.

So, by the time I was 16 I’d learnt the word asexual - either from DeviantART, or from a friend of mine who had more experience with the online LGBT community - but had yet to apply it to myself. True, I’d passed the arbitrary point I’d decided was the time people started to have genuine interest in sex. But as usual, I chalked it up to me being ‘behind’. Yes, I ‘you’re just a late bloomer’d myself. 

But after that it didn’t take me much longer to realise that attraction was a different thing from actually having sex or even wanting to have sex, and that other people had been experiencing sexual attraction for years by that point. (I think the slightly bigger friend group I had in year 12 and 13 helped - I remember hearing one friend mention she’d lost her virginity at 14 and being slightly shocked). And realising that, and combining it with the fact that I had never been sexually attracted to anyone, was what led me to adopt the ‘asexual’ label. I accepted the fact that if I hadn’t experienced sexual attraction by that point, it was unlikely I was going to. And with that came a great sense of closure and relief, because I could stop waiting for it to happen (and I hadn’t been looking forward to it either).

And here I am, 22 years old, still asexual and still happy to be this way. I hope there’s something useful within all this personal ramble.

[lilyaquarius]

I posted 1,023 times in 2022

16 posts created (2%)

1,007 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@xiranjayzhao

@aconstantstateofbladerunner

@lake-shark

@poorshadowspaintedqueens

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I tagged 127 of my posts in 2022

#rottmnt - 10 posts

#hellcheer - 6 posts

#fairy tales - 4 posts

#asexual - 4 posts

#ace tag - 4 posts

#writing tag - 4 posts

#gochi - 4 posts

#witchcore - 4 posts

#history - 4 posts

#dbz - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#like he made it plainly clear how little he cared about his kids and when lydia gets married to wickham he has no one but himself to blame

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Jaiden Animations coming out as AroAce makes me feel so valid.

https://youtu.be/qF1DTK4U1AM

11 notes - Posted March 20, 2022

#4

OK, look, there are a lot of issues to be had with Becoming Elizabeth but honestly, the problems I've seen were ones I fully expected. The thing with Thomas Seymour, saw it coming a million miles away. I was not shocked, I was disappointed, but I suspected they were going to handle it badly anyway. But the (other) thing that gave me this angry, visceral rage was the Kett's Rebellion subplot. Because the show wants you to think that it was about a poor, illiterate, mindless violent mob of catholic's rebelling against an (imperfect but not "bad") Anglican government, committing atrocities because they were poor, illiterate, violent, stupid peasants who are also Catholics.

The reality is the rebellion was the peasantry rising up in righteous indignation at the abuse of power from landowners cutting off the land from the common people. People couldn't let their animals graze in fields, and families were literally kicked out of their homes. All so rich landowners could close off land to do with what they wanted. With inflation and unemployment on the rise, some landowners also rose the rents of their tenants and wages also dropped. You can't afford to pay my increased rent with your decreased wages? Too bad, get out or I kill you. Everything benefited the rich landowners and they knowingly, intentionally fucked over the poor. Not unlike today!

The government's response to it was swift, violent, and brutal. Maybe 3,000 rebels total were killed to say nothing of the civilian casualties. To add further insult to grievous injury, after the rebellion was quelled it was decreed there would be a national holiday celebrating the rebellion's defeat and lectures were given on the sins of rebelling against your king and government.

I know why they didn't go with this subplot. Because no rich person with power wants the regular, ordinary person to see a rebellion that they can sympathize with and get it in their heads that they can too. Rebellions scare the rich because they know the "poor" outnumber them a million to one. We also live in a modern society where we can think, act, and band together to fight injustice. Why do you think the conservative right wing is so determined to remove as many rights as humanely possible from anyone who isn't exactly like them?

How they chose to portray Kett's rebellion to be as unsympathetic and as inaccurate as possible then turn it around to show how Lord Dudley is a prick while his son Robert can only look dumbfounded when he doesn't show mercy...it doesn't have any impact narratively speaking. We already don't like Lord Dudley. Anyone with a basic knowledge of Tudor history knows he dies. I feel like, a better team of writers could have portrayed the rebellion as sympathetic and Dudley killing the leaders and anyone else tied to it having a stronger emotional impact. There's plenty of material to use to show the divide between Catholics and Protestants.

Hell, go the extra mile and have it narratively tie in with Elizabeth being the victim of a powerful rich man taking advantage of someone who has no support or power of their own. Have her rebel against his attempts to cajole her into a relationship and marriage. My God, the Seymour's ousted her mother and her family from power! She shouldn't want to have anything to do with them!

But no, I guess have it be stupid peasants rebelling as an excuse to murder and steal because poor people are dumb and evil obviously and all non-evangelical Protestant religion makes you evil, and yeah, portray your groomer and abuser as sympathetically as possible.

I guess!

17 notes - Posted July 18, 2022

#3

So, I don't normally do this but after watching the first twenty something minutes of Netflix's Blonde all I can say is....

What The Fuck??

What did I just watch? Why was this movie made? How could anyone have possible derived any sort of pleasure in what was seen?

I mean...it was bad guys, it was really bad. Bad as in it turned my stomach watching it, kind of bad. Feeling gross, horrified and uncomfortable the whole time, level of bad. I couldn't even finish watching the movie, I just went "screw this" and fast forwarded to the end.

This movie revels in the violence the character of Marilyn Monroe/Norma Jean endures. It takes sadistic joy in making her suffer. Fully expecting the audience to also revel in her suffering. Hateful is the perfect word for it, its just pain p*rn from start to finish. You can tell this was written and directed by some really fucked up men.

It is also boring as hell. It is badly written in how horrific it treats Monroe's character to just how badly written the script in general is. There is nothing engaging about the story, nothing that makes me think its worth sitting down and watching all the way through for the next hour and a half. The dialogue is stunted, the cinematography is weird, the acting isn't memorable or great and I STG, every other scene is just to provoke shock value.

The weird choice to go back and forth between black and white to color also makes no sense. Because everything is so disjointed and confusing. To say nothing of the freakish obsession the movie has with Marilyn's fixation on her, ugghhh...."Daddy". Which, if I'm being honest, I think is the writers fetish shining through.

Don't bother watching it, your life will be a happier one if you don't.

37 notes - Posted September 29, 2022

#2

HTTYD Nine Realms (potential fanfic fuel)

Dragons: The Nine Realms does have some genuine potential but if I may, here's a few changes I'd make from what I've seen.

1.) Have Dr. Kullerson be an archeologist/historian who specializes in Viking history.

It makes far more sense to me story wise. The previous movies and franchise dealt with Vikings and their culture. That wasn't a tiny period in history, that lasted from roughly 790's-1060's CE. There is a lot of ground to cover and Tom's mother could be someone who specializes in Berkian Viking history. Having her be the historian gives writers someone who can give a useful exposition to people new to the franchise while also helping to expand world building.

She'd ask questions like: How did the Viking's go from hating Dragons for over several generations to (what looks like) effectively worshipping them in the span of a single generation? Why did they move from old Berk to new Berk? Where are there ships? Was Hiccup Haddock real or was he a mythical figure like King Arthur? Etc. Etc.

The potential is fascinating because we learn more about what Hiccup, Astrid and the other dragon riders did later in their lives. A big episode could be finding their tomb and all the maps, journals and wellspring of information he wrote down that were spared for future generations.

2.) The Nine Realms are different hidden worlds that the team goes to find.

Hiccup was a Viking, they sailed around the world. Its not impossible to believe that he and Astrid traveled across the globe and learned of other hidden worlds. Hence the series title, Nine Realms. He made a map so that future dragon riders, i.e. Zephyr and Nuffink, can continue protecting the dragons. Which could lead to a whole wealth of storylines that can have Tom traveling the world and meeting other kids like him who learned about the dragons and are protecting them.

3.) The story doesn't need an overarching villain, but there are plenty of potential antagonists

HTTYD and its TV Series had it easy in that regard, since they could use antagonists from the books or just create dragon hunters as enemies. Here, Nine Realms doesn't necessarily need a Viggo, Johann or Bludvist. You can have someone who just hates dragons for the sake of it or for profit but the show shouldn't just do something boring like "Evil Dragon Hunting Group tm". It could be interesting to see the kids fighting against government officials, companies who would try to steal or exploit the dragons, Zoo's and theme parks, and even have antagonists that aren't against dragons per se, but rather concerned about reintroducing a species that hasn't been seen for serval hundred years and how that could negatively impact the current ecosystem.

These wouldn't be easy antagonists with easy solutions, or one dimensional villains. The kids would have to think hard and work together to defeat them, the way Hiccup and the riders did with their enemies.

4.) Dragons have been existing in the world as we know it, we just don't know because they are good at hiding.

One serious complaint I've found from fans point out how it could be even possible that after 1300 years the dragons could survive after living in the hidden realm for so long. My answer, they've been leaving the hidden world on and off, they've just been good at hiding. Believe it or not, there are plenty of unexplored places in the world that humans haven't been to or rarely venture to. Forrests, lakes, jungles, underwater caverns, the ocean. It's not impossible to believe.

Those are just a few ideas, I may add more later. What are other peoples thoughts on this? What would you add, change or recommend?

37 notes - Posted February 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

One of the things that I enjoyed the most about Iron Widow was Wu Zetian's anger. Her absolute rage at the injustice of her situation. The second hand catharsis I felt reading about someone who is so sick of everyone's bullshit and just lashing out, no fucks given felt weirdly liberating. As someone whose been taught to suppress her anger her whole life and has a stupid amount of difficult time trying to express that anger, (and everyone telling you oh just get angry and let the anger loose, like no you dumb fuck it isn't that easy unlearning a toxic habit that's been ingrained in me for the last thirty years of my entire fucking life!) seeing her rage, felt good.

Anyways, more YA novels where the female lead is not only allowed to get mad and stay mad but isn't punished for it. Please.

52 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

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