#Also more Bertie content

[dykehumanresources]

When we get a season 2 of ALOTO I hope they start close to where season 1 ended. I think it would be really great to see Max playing ball on her team with Esther and watching the peaches navigate life after the season ended. I want to see the aftermath of Charlie seeing Carson and Greta, I want to see Jess and Lupe in NYC together, and I really want to see Max living out her dream on the All-Stars. (Also I want more Clance content)

[tubborucho]

Epilogue:

Team Soulfire genuinely is first in forever platonic dynamic I got obsessed with. I love a lot of them, but Blue Team… They are so special to me, I can’t explain it properly.

I loved each of them. Fact: Blue (before Green being dissolved) is the only team that had every single one of the members to log in AT LEAST once. Which is crazy, considering all the logging in problems we had some days. But it was awesome. Better than I could ever imagine.

Everything that they built together makes me smile even from thinking about it. The Old Base that constantly has been in use throughout the whole time no matter what. The New Base… The New Base genuinely feels like home. It’s been so cosy and pretty and safe. Nobody has found it at the end! It held it purpose til the last moment.

Trousers. Coco. Caramel. Bertie. Rupert. Scoob. Luffy. All the Little Buddies that supported Blue throughout the Purgatory. I will love you forever.

The discovery of the potential that Tubbo and Bad hold as a duo. Prime, I am PRAYING that Bad and Dapper are okay. I love them to death AND i need Tubbo spend more time with Dapper, I think they would be hilarious as a duo. Plus I just enjoy Tubbo and Bad’s interactions. Throughout the years of being on same SMPs and in the same events it was the first time they got to properly play with each other, and it’s amazing.

TINA!!! Omg, q!Tina, you will always be a legend. Man, I think she might share her the place of my second favorite resident with Bad now (first is Tubbo, obviously). I will definitely try to keep up with her character and lore further. She is amazing.

I can honestly talk about each and one of the members. I maybe will at some point. Right now I am genuinely in tears from all the emotional roller coaster it was. I don’t know how to move on, honestly. I hope people will keep making content with Team Soulfire, even if it’s over. I know I will at least make some web weaves. and check the tag religiously.

On that note, oh my god, thank you SO MUCH to everyone for this journey. We had a lot of rough moments with the toxicity, but overall I will not remember that when I think of those days, I will remember how many amazing people I got to properly interact with on the base of our cubitos being stuck together under the blue flag.

Genuinely, especially it goes to BBH Mains. Guys, no matter what happens between our cubitos further, it was an honor to stand by your side, and I hope you know I adore your guy and you all. And it makes me so happy to see so many positive reactions and posts about Tubbo and his cubito!

This was draining emotionally, but this also was amazing. I think I am still somewhat riding the high of the Amazing Victory of Blue That One Day lmao.

We will see how it goes.

[rainbowstargazerlilies]

Mechs Ships Tournament: Resurrection Round Part 2!

Hi! The winner of this poll will proceed into the final poll to face off against the other Resurrection Round poll winner, Polymechs And Lyf, and the HNOC trio. This will only run for one day. Hope you all are ready!

Link to the other poll here

Propaganda under cut:

Tim/Bertie:

The entire “Tim Goes Mad” section of GTVTMK. Tim looses it because his best friend dies and goes on a murderous rampage. Also that one art that Reegis made of the younger version of the two of them. 

gay moon bitches fr

Gptvstmk

*blows up the moon for you*

#TimBertie are literally so stuckycoded ngl#ITS ABOUT THE DEVOTION ABOUT CHILDHOOD FRIENDS GONE TO WAR ITS ABOUT THE VIOLENCE OF TRAGIC LOSS#ITS ABOUT GRIEF AND THE WAY IT HURTS YOU SO YOU EXTERNALIZE THAT HURT TO THE ONES WHO TOOK YOUR LOVED ONE#HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT MOON KAISER IM PISSING ON THE MOON YOU IDIOT!!!#im normal about timbertie (tags via @watermelonselfship)

Carmilla/Odin:

Lesbiabs

Because. Unethical lesbians who should be in sickly sweet love is not appreciated enough.

FUCKED UP TOXIC MILF YURI!!!!!!!

kinda bonkers women

TOXIC MILF YURI!!!!

Violinspector:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37936555/chapters/94742191

violinspector (the stars claim them)

The Stars Claim 'Em 

yoyr fanfic idk i thought this was funny [Poll runner's note: I'm the author of The Stars Claim Them.]

it slaps. that’s all

no thoughts. only them.

Ashes/Jonny:

bc like... the vibes. i also like ashes as hades and jonny as cerberus. ashes is so cool, and jonny is so... jonny. 

their backstories both end with them murdering their father figure and then literally burning all of their ties to their former homes. its narratively satisfying. of course theyd be together.

#ASHES/JONNY MY EVERYTHING#good lord okay#they're best firneds. they were there for eachother since the beginning#jonny's a freak and ahses has to deal with jonny's bullshit & is also really the only one who knows how to put up with her bullshit#they're so awful but they really truly care so much about eachother#they're smoking buddies#ashes & jonny taking a moment and sitting together for a few minutes without saying a word#smoke break#they just Understand eachother do you feel me. they just Get eachother please (tags via @dropitdoeeyes)

Ivy/Raphaella

them <333 science vibe lesbians. Pedantic archivist and sciency scientist. Must I say more??? 

science saphics + ivy infodumping while raph does science™ is awesome

https://archiveofourown.org/works/41629023/chapters/104419359 :3

they could be called research paper which is based so vote them

no heart of gold, just flesh and blood - quantumducky - The Mechanisms (Band) [Archive of Our Own](Fic contains gore and some sexual content. It's about a vivisection :3) (via @mothocean)

#ivy raphaella sweep!!!#do it for the nerds! do it for the girls! do it for the nerdy girls!!#aa (tags via @jewishdainix)

Brian/Galahad:

i think they would kissies

Galahad sat on a murder chair because Brian said to. (via @bookworm-girl2002)

[lacunafiction]

Can't wait for Book 2. Will we see more of the peeps that gave us a ride out of fernweh when we were a kiddo? I really like Herb and the pickup truck guy (sorry I genuinely dont remember his name :( ) I don't know why but since I bought the book on the release day, I kinda just somehow have been thinking about them from time to time. I wonder how they're doing now, are they fine? Do we get more moments or flashbacks with them? That would be nice. Thanks for taking the time to write this book and the rest of the trilogy.

Hi Anon,

I hope you're doing well! 💚

First, I have some good news for you: TFS isn't a trilogy series. It's outlined to be at least five books. 😊 I'm already working on Book Two, which is tending to have longer, more varied chapters, and I've just begun teasing that alpha content will be available on TFS Patreon starting in May! Hopefully, this is heartening for you to hear.

The first book is about your return to Fernweh along with reconnecting and forming natural starts to the romances before you delve deeper now that you can't go anywhere you can spend more time with your RO(s). Both the romances and the mysteries will only deepen next book. You'll see this in what I plan to eventually release.

It's awesome that you've been thinking about the MC's ride out of town! Also, no worries about the names (Basil (you had the right spirit with 'Herb' 😁; I love it!) and Bertie is the other.) I've not seen too many theories about them, so I like that you're not only bringing them up but also wondering about how they are/their impact on the story.

I'm going to have to give a bit of a non-answer. (I'm sorry!)

But, I will say making them have distinct backgrounds and implied personalities (e.g. how Bertie would wrestle a bear for the MC versus Basil who is more fun-loving and made the MC top tier snacks) was more than just flavor text. 👀 We will have to see when they come up again.

Thank you for your kind words and support; both are very motivating as I continue to lose myself in Fernweh. 🌲😌

[cinamun]

we talk so much about how indya and dira are twins but dira & mercy are really two sides of the same coin and in this essay i will...no but forreal sorry for the essay.

so even though jackson was on his bullshit, mercy still really leaned into bishop's bullshit in part because at the end of the day, jackson's control of her was still oriented towards her best interest for the MOST part?? bishop didn't love her because he wasn't capable of that but it does seem like up until bertie snuck in on a drunk man and jackson was content to act like it didn't happen that like...he loved his wife and they were happy besides some typical oldhead bullshit? so when bishop started in on his bullshit and said it was love mercy was like "okay yeah makes sense love can be like this". part of why it took a long time for her to see bishop's shit for what it was bc she was used to being led by people who y'know actually cared if she died or was physically harmed.

but DIRA....iirc the first person to really speak up to her about love in a romantic sense was her culturally appropriative stalker. he showed up with a gun, caused physical harm that almost directly mirrored the harm just caused to her sister by someone dira thought loved her and her family and really made a statement that this was his expression of loving her and needing her. AND SO even though her sister and brunlaw and parents really love each other and are SHARING their lives, dira's immediate connection to knowing where each other are and knowing what the other is doing is to being stalked and tracked by rahul. she's the inverse of mercy, seeing everything through the lens of people having bad intentions bc that's the part that happened first.

You know, I didn't think you could pull the Mercy/Dira comparison off, but I think you did just a lil bit.

My only argument (not really an argument) is Rah wasn't the only one to show what could have been love, its just Ryker was showing it through food and shopping. Sounds familiar. Rah wanted to own and control her and convinced himself that he deserved her more because she came to his lil a/v club. That's Lil Bishop. Only reason he came at her the way he did was because of Ryker (I wonder what he's been up to). Part of me also just thinks Dira has had enough of men/boys and their fuckshit and is taking control in the way she wants to and she's enjoying it this way. Mercy never had that in her. In fact, it was Indya who was trying to teach her about non-toxic dick and how to obtain it. So yes, inverse.

The inverse of Mercy is quite the interesting connection!

[sailorspica]

giving reijean complete birth charts

i make fun of yams for making frankly the majority of the 104th and the warrior unit aries and leo suns, including Jean and Reiner (would just say "fire signs," but he doesn't seem to gravitate toward sagittarius birthdays). but just because this cast is lousy with the same sun sign doesn't mean they're identical to their comrades! the differences (and friction of similarity) come from everyone's rising sign, which contextualizes the sun for the individual.

table of contents

methodology

their charts without birth times

the charts

🪐 methodology

this project requires three bold executive decisions: (1) birth times, (2) birth years as proxy for 832-35, and (3) birth location as proxy for liberio and paradis.

birth times, to give us their rising signs. this makes up the majority of this post. besides the above reason, sun + ascendant also tells us if the person was born in the day or night since the ascendant is the sign on the eastern horizon at time of birth. someone born at/around sunrise has the same sun and rising sign, for example.

851 in AoT = 1853 in our world. what about every other planet? astrology is not like MBTI; we don't plug in values willy nilly (my killjoy pet peeve? ppl hc'ing moon signs that are physically, astronomically impossible; moon phases and thus moon signs describe sun-moon aspects). i have to pick a real-world ephemeris range in order to limit my freedom of choice to just rising signs. to advance my own indulgent new historicist reading, i'm looking at ephemerides from the 1830s to fill in the rest of these charts, matching the survey corps repo'ing the marleyan scouting ship to the arrival of the perry expedition in the ryukyu islands.

kinda crazy decision here, but liberio = macau, the walls = osaka. the world of AoT is ours upside-down, sure, but the opposite latitude of madagascar is like, saudi arabia, which i don't think this matches because of climate, and iseyama pretty clearly conceives of paradis with more than two northern hemisphere seasons (the leaves on the tree on the hill). these city choices betray my own research interests, but the antagonism between paradis and marley across a narrow sea feels more like japan vs like all of east asia (including russia) throughout history, but especially the late 19th and early 20th centuries. physically, paradis' northeastern position next to marley (longitude) matters a lot. it's why the birth charts of ppl from northern europe are so weird if you use quadrant house systems.

right away, the 1830s give us the outer/generational planets, where Reiner's 2-3 years seniority does make difference for uranus, the fastest-moving outer: they share pluto in aries and neptune in capricorn, but Reiner's uranus is in aquarius and Jean's is in pisces. i don't rly use these unless they make close contact w inner planets though

specific to reijean / what is fanon at this point

Jean's birth year is pretty unambiguous to me with him and Eren as foils: 835, or 1837.

i assume the cadet corps disbands and assembles each spring. winter happens between the reclamation of wall maria and the SC reaching the sea, which puts the events of seasons 1-2 and s3p1 around april or may, and the return to shiganshina arc in august or september. meaning, Jean and Eren just turned 15.

if Reiner is 17 when the 104th disbanded, he's actually two years and four months older than Jean and Eren; for most of the year (august through march), he seems three years older!! that means he spends his 18th birthday w fellow bday boy Zeke, plus Pieck on aug. 4 :) granted they probably spent that time planning to kill the whole SC, but i like to think Bertie threw them a party :)

birth time / rising sign considerations

do they have a day or night vibe? deadass. briefly, each light "leads" a sect of planets that are strengthened if their leader is in charge. sun = jupiter and saturn and moon = venus and mars; mercury has no allegiance, can go either way (because of mythology; mercury/hermes has to traverse every realm as a messenger). this mitigates "bad" placements or sabotages "good" ones.

also vibe-based: each of the seven classical planets (inner sailor senshi + saturn) traditionally rules two signs, while the moon rules cancer and the sun rules leo. this is often used phrenologically (for racism), but seeing as these men are lines and iseyama speaks about designing them, i think it is okay.

where is person A's sun in person B's chart? and vice versa, and same applies for rising signs and their rulers. for relationships, astrologers sometimes use this to indicate where/how/when partners meet each other.

✨ without birth times

reiner (1834/08/01)

first glance

from midnight to midnight, the moon is always in gemini; last quarter moon (waning).

both benefics (nice planets that "bring good fortune") are undignified, or in signs that do not serve them; the signs are enemy territory. could you say that's a grand metaphor for RBA on paradis, or liberio on marley? perhaps. for Reiner, jupiter is in gemini (detrimented, and conjoined with mars) and venus is in virgo (fallen). both of these are mercury-ruled signs; aka that flighty little bitch of a planet with questionable loyalties. hmmmmm!!!

but saturn is pretty happy (exalted) in libra.

rising sign impulses

right away, he's one of the most diurnal 🌞 men i've ever seen. yams said in some guidebook that he drew him to look like someone "destined for great things," or something to that effect... and probably like, mere months later, he published chapter 97. so yams is a sicko who loves irony. Reiner is a golden, heroic figure until he isn't, like fuckin HELOS i guess, or apollo...

day birth limits our range to leo through capricorn, with some wiggle room in the first few degrees of aquarius; his chart ruler can be literally any option but the moon

because of his unfortunate benefics and the burden of identity, my favorites are: taurus, libra, sag, or leo rising, so he's ruled by either venus, jupiter, or the sun.

houses that feel reiner

6th house: physical labor, the body in service to someone else's interests

8th house: death, enemies (lol), inheritance (i mean come On); wealth gained through other's deaths—take it as eating the previous Armored, or his survivor's guilt re: Marcel and Bertie...

9th house: long-distance travel, leaving home, higher education

12th house: my favorite house, i am biased, but it's a house of like, sickness, loss, isolation, "self-undoing"; shit Jean has no tolerance for. suicidal blockhead behavior.

jean (1837/04/07)

first glance

the moon is always in taurus; crescent moon (waxing).

he has an aries stellium (a cluster of planets all in the same sign), which Eren doesn't—he's actually more aries than Eren, who is "secretly" very piscean. Jean's sun (exalted), mercury, venus (detriment), and pluto are all here.

for Jean, the sun is conjoined pluto within 2 degrees (makes us twinsies; i have a sun-pluto square).

he has a fixed sign t-square: taurus moon, leo mars, and aquarius neptune.

impulses

he could go either way, day or night, but my dumb ass wants them to complement each other for no damn reason

for a night chart 🌚, he can be anywhere from scorpio to aries; his ascendant ruler can be mars, jupiter, or saturn.

yams said he drew him to "look" deceitful; in the anime subs armin says Jean and eren both have "villainous" eyes, which makes me favor cap or aquarius rising.

houses that feel jean

2nd house: creature comforts, valuing security

4th house: home, both his dream of having a home in the interior and the formative significance of seeing trost attacked

6th and 8th houses for similar reasons to Reiner. re: 8th house, i think about Connie's "who'da thunk we'd be the new Levi Squad!" thnx Annie!!

11th house: humanitarianism?? like, a good sense of the big picture, very much values life

💕 synastry without birth times so far

Jean's venus is opposite Reiner's saturn: rich and dramatic, arguably negative, but i think it can be good for them because of their different conditions in each chart. Jean's venus hates being in aries, and looks across the way to libra, where it wants to be, where Reiner's saturn is. it's like Reiner can pull out Jean's ooey gooey feelings that are usually obscured by aries, or come out as just carnal aggression. saturn can be patient with all of that, and i think Reiner finds it cute. venus in aries is very fwb/didn't-know-we-were-dating; saturn in libra is more quiet and reliable, to a point—he will get so frustrated!

they both have jupiter-mars conjunctions that are sextile to one another; they're hot separately and together???? i seriously led with japanese history for picking their fake birth years, i didn't know the sky would say they are hot and have great sex. more than that, a sextile is actually... pretty chill and comfortable? they just click, it's more about being in sync, physically (mars) and philosophically (jupiter).

Jean's jupiter-mars conjunction is conjunct Reiner's sun: more cute shit, they just get each other, also Jean's mars just finds leos hot af, so you can apply to this to Jean + all the warrior leos... actually jupiter and mars are quite slow so like, most of the 104th has this, which may be why they trust Reiner so much

the charts!

i'll only talk about their rising signs and the planets that rule them because otherwise we're here all day:

💛 reiner: ~10:00 ☉, 832/08/01 in liberio, marley

Libra rising ⚖️, Leo sun 🦁, Gemini moon 👯

chart ruler is: Venus ♀ in Virgo/12th house

i like Venus because it feels softer and smaller than jupiter 🥺 e.g., between the two benefics, Venus is a "personal" planet and Jupiter is "social." Jupiter has to be too many things; everyone expects everything from it, the warrior candidates and younger members of the 104th look up to Reiner, he's "Marley's shield," karina burdens him with "uniting their family" (her marleyan citizenship); but he actually isn't all that and isn't suited to it... and I think only people who really really know him, e.g. have strong bullshit meters, know that. imo gabi is getting there early on, since she tells him she can tell he's lying about something, and she and jean are both later decan aries suns...!

i clearly like giving Reiner cottagecore dreams, a small and warm life; as a boy he wanted a nuclear family, and even in the dregs of his mental health, he clung on for the warrior kids. his actual ambitions are just caring and maybe, even more ambitiously, being cared for, and I think that is true to him, not just his Marcel persona.

the 12th house is miserable!! love it there. my more nuanced explanation is it's kind of floating above it all, seeing the relativity of everything, which can feel like disillusionment or liberation or both: Paradis seriously upset his understanding of the world.

Venus doesn't like Virgo/Virgo doesn't care for Venus because there is something quite detached, sterile about Virgo. Virgo is, for Reiner, years of propaganda, habit, "warrior" versus "soldier," all watchwords and reminders at catastrophic odds with his feelings of warmth and acceptance in the 104th—those syrupy, hard-to-name Venus matters that Virgo cannot tolerate.

in Reiner's chart, Taurus, Venus' other domain, is his 8th house: another "dark" house, death and inheritance, guilt, enemies. it also.... is where Jean's moon is.

his Venus squares his Moon, which is a pretty double edged sword. there's something very needy and insecure about these two soft planets making a harsh angle, which, imo, leads Reiner to deeply unhealthy choices to win affection, approval, security—from his parents, from the nation of Marley, from Bertolt and Annie after Marcel's death, etc.

🪐 jean: ~02:00 ☽, 835/04/07 in trost, paradis

Capricorn rising 🐐, Aries sun 🐏, Taurus moon 🐂; this zodiac doesn't have any horses but his big three is all hoofed

chart ruler: Saturn ♄ in Scorpio/11th house

this seems very leader-ly to me; the 11th house is about community, the good of the whole, a humanitarian concern. also very Levi, imo.

Saturn is the diurnal malefic, so its good qualities are delayed or dampened by being in a night chart; Trost activates him.

Jean's growth from a "selfish bastard who only thinks of himself" is, astrologically, a broadening of what community/11th house matters mean to him. first, it is just himself: getting into the MPs at all costs, Saturn confused in a night chart. but then in trost, in the field, he leads for the first time: being selfish for the sake of people who trust him, using the deaths of others for his and his squad's survival. we see this again in the 57th expedition: he clearly sees his, Reiner, and Armin's role as giving up their own lives for the success of the Survey Corps. and his scope of concern gets bigger and bigger: the future of "humanity" in the walls in the uprising arc, and finally all of humanity.

also in the uprising arc, especially in the manga, I see his hesitation to kill as an 11th house morality, sure, part of humanity's charter, but I also deeply DEEPLY love the slow burn trust between Levi and his new squad: Jean kind of deputizes himself between springles and scary Levi himself. this also reminds me of Jean yapping at Armin about mutinying Erwin during the 57th expedition. it's pragmatism man!!! the will and trust of the collective is a better vote of confidence than chain of command

Saturn and Scorpio are pretty neutral to each other, but Scorpio itself is a wonderfully intense, more mature version of Mars; sorry, but it's manga Rei Hino versus 90s anime Rei Hino, with strong environmental and personal intuition. I've been a Jearmin shipper sometimes, and this is where those two boys are simpatico, imo.

Saturn opposes Jean's Aries stellium, but more exactly his Sun-Pluto conjunction. I'll just quote the astrologer Sue Tompkins here: "The Sun-Saturn type is usually a serious person, tending to take themselves very seriously and to take all that happens around them rather personally." bb

the other Saturn-ruled house in Jean's chart is Aquarius/2nd: that's that fine whiskey in the interior, baby

💞 synastry with birth times

Saturn conjoins Reiner's ascendant: even though he's ruled by a pretty miserable Venus, his 1st house is somewhat lifted by Saturn, a morning star/the daytime malefic made nicer by the sun; e.g., he sees Jean's positive Saturninan qualities before anyone else.

Reiner's moon and Jupiter-Mars conjunction are in his 9th house: the happiest parts of his life happen abroad. also, jupiter rules sag and pisces, respectively his 3rd (siblings, everyday routines) and 6th houses (embodiment, physical work and health): "playing soldier," as annie says, or playing marcel, in porco's judgment.

Jean's Jupiter-Mars conjunction is in his 8th house: enemies to lovers hell yah! see my earlier note about Jean and Leos generally (JeanPikku).

Aries (where most of Jean's chart happens) is Reiner's 7th house, aka the spouse house. Again, Jean's April DOB sets him apart from every other damn Aries in this world/their age group, meaning Annie and Eren. the other mars sign is scorpio, reiner's 2nd house; i try to say it my fic Husbandry, but RBA have their material needs met, see Paradis as a real paradise compared to Liberio'a urban lack.

Capricorn (Jean's 1H) is Reiner's 4H: home.

Jean's 7H is Cancer, ruled by the moon; his moon in Taurus trines that sexy Jupiter-Mars conjunction, e.g. looks directly into Leo.

a jeankasa note

Aquarius and Leo are opposite each other, so a lot of Jean's angles to Reiner's Leo-ness are mirrored/also apply to his feelings toward Mikasa; he really has a type, and it's fixed Suns (...armin?? porco??), the opposition that makes his t-square. but the funnier thing is Mikasa and Reiner are kind of natural enemies, mostly bc of mercury oppositions, which would probably be true with any arbitrary birth years bc mercury is rarely far from the sun. just cannot picture those two having a conversation one on one ever, their only significant interaction is mikasa throwing him onto eren

why tf did i do this

i think for my 57th expedition AU they're gonna bicker about using constellations for navigation. that's it

this was long as fuck mostly bc i felt i had to explain interpretation methods but i am happy to do more characters!! if i do anyone next it's probably them jaeger boys, zeke is sag or pisces rising to me (derogatory/affectionate)

[deepdeanvsweston]

Valentine's Day headcannons but one day late

Lavinia x Daisy (romantic)

- not only do they not care about Valentine's Day they actively loathe it

- it makes them uncomfortable, both for different reasons

- Daisy says every year 'i hate heternormativty! They should call it HATErnomativity'

- everyone is sick of this joke bar Lavinia who finds it comedy gold every time

- (Daisy is actually completely sick of this joke herself but she loves to hear Lavinia laugh)

- they just carry on with the same routine they do every other day

- but when they do anything traditionally romantic likes kiss or hold hands, they immediately go 'just gal pals!' out of spite for valentine's day

Daisy x Hazel (queerplatonic)

- yes Daisy hates Valentine's Day but Hazel does not. Daisy goes all out for her

- we're talking heart shaped pancakes in the morning (someone is always on standby with a saucepan full of water), favourite restaurant booked for the evening, her favourite flowers by Hazel's bedside when she wakes up

- Daisy loves spoiling Hazel and Hazel deserves it

- for their first valentine's day after they were actively like 'ok yeah we like the label queerplatonic relationship' Daisy got Hazel a ring with Detective Society engraved inside of it, and it was made out of a branch of hazel tree and a daisy flower

- Hazel just kisses Daisy a lot because she knows she's not keen on valentine's day

- Daisy is of course perfectly fine with this

George x Aleksandr (they don't know what the fuck is going on and they're are content with this)

-Aleks doesn't even remember it's Valentine's Day

- the only reason he knew it was because he encounters George's parents saying it to each other

- he's completely neutral on it, except when it prompts his family to ask him about a girlfriend, and marriage, and then he despises valentine's day for the duration of the conversation

- George HATES the commercialisation of valentine's day (me too George)

- but he is a romantic and enjoys the original stories about it

- make Aleks a little paper card, and in fact used to send one anonymously at Weston to him every year

- they both don't really do anything different

Harold x Bertie (romantic)

- they love valentine's day

- they love any occasion to spoil each other

- Bertie essentially gets a 2 day celebration considering his birthday's the day before

- DIY to the MAX

- Bertie writes Harold some godawful romantic poetry every year

- Harold cherishes every single one

- first year they celebrated, they both tried to cook each other a meal at the same time

- imagine lots of "why won't he leave the fucking kitchen"

- they soon realised and now just cook dinner together and find it's much more fun

- they also go and buy flowers for each other together

- Bertie is learning how to say 'i love you' in Hindi

[uozlulu]

Finished "The Aunt and the Sluggard" via Letters Regarding Jeeves

spoilers below

I think this one is one of the funniest ones so far and part of what made it that was how deep into the scheme Bertie ended up getting

I know Bertie didn't mean he was literally laying on the floor of the hotel room contemplating his life and choices but the mental image is there in my mind and lol lol lol Poor Bertie

I love the idea of this little powerhouse from Illinois getting seduced by the bright lights only to fall prey to probably the prohibition movement

Loved how both Jeeves and Bertie were like "Oh no" when they realized they had to split up and both tried to figure out how to make the situation stop

Rest in pieces to Bertie's waistcoats

I like that this story did split Jeeves and Bertie up for a while. It was a fascinating predicament even if they could still manage to catch each other for a few minutes here and there

It's also interesting how Isabel and Rocky both went to New York City, spent some time there, and went, "Off to the countryside with me." It makes me think that if Rocky had been truthful with Isabel sooner, he might not have been able to live separately from her since she might have enjoyed his cottage in the future suburbs more instead.

Also, lol at Jeeves being like "You know what this lady needs? Some religion," and then finding basically the old timey equivalent of a TV evangelist.

I really like how at the end of the story both Jeeves and Bertie are content at being back together again.

[strawberrykisses128]

Introduction :D

Hi!!! my name is june! I am an artist, I am a bisexual demigirl, and I like drawing my own oc's. though, i also like to also draw fanart every once in a while

my interests are nature, animals, fairies and mythical beings, puppets and dolls, animation and storytelling, and more

my dni includes bigots of any kind, which includes racists, ableists, homophobes, transphobes, anything of that nature. proshippers/comshippers are also not welcome to my page either, and i will be blocking any who interact with my page

I will be posting mostly oc content and doodles, and i won't exactly have a set schedule with posting

shows/media i like are adventure time, my little pony, parappa the rapper + um jammer lammy, muppets, lalaloopsy, tuca and bertie, home movies, and more!

enjoy your time here :D

[quiveringdeer]

been having massive bert brainrot this past week…….please spare me ur modern au bert x reader headcanons…..

okay lemme see -cracks knuckles-

Bertie is an acts of service and quality time typa person

Even if you're both doing your own separate things he likes to be in the same space with you

He also has such calming energy that I feel like most things you all do together--if they're his planning--tend to be really lowkey

Like staying in and putting a big puzzle together with eachother while listening to a podcast you're both interested in. Or even new music albums of different artists you like, since I hc Bertie being a musician, even just as a hobby. And he appreciates all types of music! Plus, something like this leaves a lot of opportunity for you two to talk and learn more about eachother!

I can see him being lowkey silly at random moments with his partner. Like for some reason I just got the image of you all showering together in the morning, no hanky panky antics this go around, you've got your eyes closed rinsening your hair and when you open your eyes he's used the shampoo lather in his own hair to swoop it into some silly style and is regarding you with a ridiculous expression and makes you instantly burst out into giggle fits.

Or, being out at a coffee shop and getting a drink with lots of foam so it leaves a lil milk mustach on his face after he takes a sip, just cause he knows it'll make you smile and laugh.

Anytime Bertie sees you wearing something of his, his heart starts to race and he can't help but smile. Like, every single time. No matter how long you've been together, it makes him giddy to see you in his things. Especially if it's one of his big comfy sweaters. Makes him want to stop whatever he was in the process of doing and hold you close.

I think I mentioned it in another hc post but I have this idea that for his birthday--even if you both go visit with his family or have other plans too--that its a day were he likes to learn a new recipe alongside you, that you both make together. I dunno, for some reason lots of my hc of Bertito and Sasha revolve around food lol

Bertholdt is generally very quiet, which makes him a wonderful listener and great observer. While he's open to sharing about his day and experiences, he's much more content to listen to you talk about yours.

[2004joker]

Tuca and Bertie an Analysis = The Fig tree theory

CONTENT WARNING: Anyone mentioned in the show Tuca and Bertie are FICTIONAL CHARACTERS and is used for Analyzation purposes ONLY.

Anyways heres an appreciation post for our boy Figgy:

What do Fig trees symbolize:

"The fig tree is an ancient symbol of fertility, wisdom, and strength. The fig fruit was considered a sacred food by many cultures, including the Egyptians, who believed that it was the Goddess Isis herself who taught humans how to grow and enjoy figs."

I kind of wished in the show that they elaborated more on Figgy's backstory on well he is someone that sees sexual harassment as an issue that must be addressed, but no one else besides Tuca comes to the classroom to learn more about it, either because it's a "taboo" topic to address in person, or it's not taken seriously. (I prefer the ladder response.) We also see Tuca's response to this which shows her making her moves on Figgy, (season 3 leveling up) which Figgy is kind of reluctant to reciprocate, before finalizing the decision of Tuca's advancements towards him:

Time stamp: 4:53 - 5:27

After the flashback Tuca claims that she "had learned nothing" which Bertie describes as "Hot" This gives the audience the first impression that if you are a man, you are expected to reciprocate an action when a woman makes a sexual advance towards you. However, the episode the new bird season 2 episode 8 which you also find on YouTube:

Dakota (on the left) discovers who Pastry Pete really is and Bertie (on the right) "defends" him which Dakota points out, Time stamp: 0:50 - 1:92.

Considering how much younger Dakota is both mentally and psychologically, in contrast to Bertie who is much older than she is. It's a sad parallel to see that Bertie is used to mistreatment while Dakota is not. and all of this ties back to Figgy and her reaction to Tuca "learning nothing" about the sexual harassment course that Figgy was trying to teach to an almost empty classroom or the affects it can have on someone's mental state.

Time Stamp: 0:00 - 0:51

Season 3: the one where Bertie gets eaten by a snake.

The one rule that Figgy implements to Tuca is for Tuca to not stop him from drinking.

Timestamp: 19:58 - 21:29

Quote: "I don't want to lie to you and say that I am ok with this, I know nothing that I say is going to change you, but I can't care about you and know that you are hurting yourself. I just can't...I'm sorry." - Tuca from Tuca Bertie Season 3: the one where Bertie gets eaten by a snake.

Conclusion: Dakota, Bertie, Figgy, Tuca and Speckle. Are all sides of the same Dice mechanics when playing DND. Because even though they are different in severity of issues that they face, they are still important to how each of their story unfolds. And how each mechanic influences the way that the “game” operates.

[mermaidsirennikita]

2023 Weekly Book Recs: 11/3-11/10

The Master by Kresley Cole

Lothaire but make it mafia! I am a hUGE fan of the "crazy powerful man kidnaps woman and then realizes she's a nightmare" thing, and this... really DOES that. Maksim and Cat's interplay is so sharp, so hot. Yet (and this is again something I would say Kresley perfected first in Lothaire) the inherent darkness and sexuality of their dynamic is softened by like... goofy snark and little snaps of soft affection. There's a warmth between them at points that I just LOVED; and then there's a chastity belt to keep it from getting too warm. Also: features a "local romance novel hero stands in rain like bedraggled rat" moment. Which I always love. (I will note: I did not love how Kresley used random Spanish with Cat, who is Cuban. It was cringe at best, if very of its time in contemporary romance. I did love the book otherwise, but I would be remiss if I didn't mention that.)

The Player by Kresley Cole

It's so good when a series gets progressively better with each book-and the Game Maker trilogy does just that. It's the least mafia of the series, yet somehow the darkest, in large part thanks to our traumatized hero (content warning for discussions of childhood sexual abuse). But there's also like. All the things you want from this series. Ridiculous money, heroine running a long con, iNSANE sex (one of my favorite sex scenes... ever... is in this book), and absolutely bonkers moments (when he punches the car door... be still my heart). There's a real beating heart here, however, and somehow, through all his batshit behavior... Dmitri became baby? Like, I think this man is baby.

Rules for a Proper Governess by Jennifer Ashley

The Nanny But Make It Victorian. He's a hot, stern, scolding (dare I say... daddy?) single father whose lawyerly skills have earned him the nickname of The Scottish Machine (yeah he is). She's a snarky, defiant pickpocket/street urchin who accidentally ends up being his children's governess. All the workplace violations in this book were GLORIOUS. He has an oral fixation; she stalks him; there are two kids who actually aren't annoying because Jennifer Ashley knows how to use romance novel children sparingly. I was frankly gone for this book as soon as I realized that Bertie was basically going to mindfuck Sinclair into being in love with her. I mean, what more can you ask for in a governess romance?

[popculturebuffet]

Top 20 Animated Episodes of 2022 Part 1: 20-11

Happy new year all you happy people! It's that time of the year again for my top 20 episodes of the year list!

For those new, which is likely a lot of you as these things tend to blow up, every year I take 5 episodes max from every show I watched, as given both this blog's busy schedule and my habit of putting things off I don't get to everything i'd like to (Personal apologizes to Dead End Paranormal Park, The Cuphead Show, Transformers Earthspark, Mike Judge's Beavis and Butthead apart from one episode, and Primal), and pick the best. As for why not just do a top 10 , or as I tend to do 12, there's a few simple reasons.

1) Since this blog started with just single episode reviews of shows and it continues to be the blogs backbone, it honors what I do, and is a nice way to really single out the episodes that really hit the high points for a season.

2) Even when i'm hitting a LOT of shows in a year, I still don't usually reach 20, and even if I did it wouldn't feel like enough to make a proper list and 5 seems too few.

3) It's something few other people do , especially for animation, so it stands out more while still allowing me to reflect on the year in animation

Now that's settled, before we get to the list under the cut let's talk about 2022.. but first just let me.. mentally prepare myself

Okay now ii'm mildly prepared 2022..

On the one hand we got a lot of good content. In addition to those fine, critically raved about shows I mentiond I didn't get to I got to PLENTY of good animation this year: While Owl House got screwed over last year, it started going down swinging with it's best run of episodes followed by a special that's just shy of breaking 5 million views on youtube and made disney realize they fucked up real good. So with a new regime hopefully it won't bow forever next year. Amphibia did bow out with an utterly heartstopping finale, The Great North has reached it's peak, while they sadly bowed out Tuca and Bertie and Close Enough still had great seasons to close out on as they left us wanting more, and we got two utterly record smashing debuts; Smiling Friends which is still a sensation even now and is easily one of the best adult comedies in recent times, which is not the easy feat it once was, and Legend of Vox Machina not only continued Amazon Prime's hot streak, but proved to be a hilarious yet deeply integlent and compelling fantasy.. that still had a song about tugging a gnome's motherfucking beads, a goliath nakedly diving into acid, and one or four heroes going through a tragic arc that included an accidental pact with a vengeance demon complaning that his love intrest just yah'd him like a horse while running away from demons. There was a lot of fantastic stuff. And that's not even getting into the films I haven't got to or the one I have with PUss in Boots.

Behind the scenes though?

Yeah, let's start with the appitizers first; Disney continued it's slow march towards death, putting Turning Red on Disney+… depsite the fact that unlike the previous two straight to D+ orders, which were undrestandable.. they simply coudl've delayed it by a few weeks or delayed lightyear.. which in contrast bombed HORRIBLY in theaters. It also came out Disney gladly funded various florida senate members who ended up passing the contriversal don't say gay bill, which is beyond standard disney fuckups into a level of vile. Thankfully Old New Boss bob iger stepped in at the end of the year, so their might be hope.

Netflix also seems in flux: on the one hand they still put out lots of critcally aclaimed animation.. and on the other they keep canceling things, not knowing what their doing, so their fine.

Ironically though what caused me the most stress this year to the point I spiraled into depression in anxiety wondering if anything I did mattered.. was Warner Bros Discovery. After champinoing Cartoon Network and HBO MAx as a safe haven for animatoin, a great place, and generally great.. the celeing cave in, the floor gave out and what was left got set on fire, covered in spiders and some sort of hobgoblin who hates animation , diversity and sometimes it feels me specifically took hold.

That hobgoblin.. was Dave Zaslav, head of discovery, new head of warner brothers and absolute human nightmare. In the span of just a few months he canned two full movies, Batgirl and Scoob 2 and made it so they can never be finished or released, and that… just something so disrepectful to it's crew, moneywasting and pr headachey that it still lingers to this day (Mostly batgirl but even not carring about Scoob 2 what the fuck).. was him JUST GETTING STARTED. Over several months he took a fucking chainsaw to hbo max, cutting content left and right and leaving many shows that were either streaming only like Close Enough or hadn't got a dvd release like Victor and Valentino, Mao Mao and FAR TOO DAMN MANY to list, effectively homeless, the most galling to me being completely digitally delisting final space, TAKING AWAY PEOPLE'S ALRAEDY BOUGHT DIGITAL COPIES, and generally destroying the franchise… to make 5 bucks. I know he likely got more than that but come the fuck on. It is not an exageration nor slandar to say David Zaslav cares less about the company functioning.. and more about making money to the point he's just.. liscneding shows they had the rights to to other streamers. Which is good as at least htey wont be cast into the void, but it's galling to have someone so greedy even something as simple and to some actors VITAL as residuals makes him wince. He has done exactly ONE THING right in making James Gunn head of the DCEU and I still don't trust him not to step in and fuck tha tup for James, the viewing public and good taste because his track record is if it costs money

I wasn't REMOTELY joking about that anxiety attack. When someone disrespects your medium THIS BADLY , it makes you quefstion everything your doing. I came around realizing I can keep these things alive and keep him acountable, but it still hasn't been easy constantly wondering what he's going to do next to fuck things up, to fuck up possible retrospectivges or just generally make animation worse. He has been a waking nightamre and has single handeledly made the year harder. It was hard enough with Elon Musk's takeover of twitter (Which i'm on more now, you can find me HERE), republican garbage still rising up and making LBGTQ+ peoples lives hell, JK ROwling somehow getting even worse and way too many gutpunch celebrity deaths… but this year will be SO MUCH EASIER if Zaslav finally goes down. Please… WB get rid of him before he eats you from the inside. And you reading please.. dont' harass him. It won't help. You can call for his resignation, but please do so respectfully. We do not want to be ignorant yowling jackasses. Just be good people.

So this year was highs, lows and not so creamy middles.. but what shows rose to the top? What shows were the best? Or at least almost the best but not quite? Find out bellow as I count down The first 10, Numbers 20-11, of my top 20 animated episodes of 2022!:

20. X-Mas with the Skanks Adventure (The Great North)

"It isn't a Lone Moose White Elephant without someone running off into the night to cast something in the lake"

The Great North is as show I liked a lot last year and that has only improved with age, to the point I really wish more people talked about this wonderfully charming, bonkers little show. It has great characters, even greater voice acting and some of the most hilariously weird plots i've seen in a sitcom while still being grounded in the characters themselves. And season 3 is the show hitting it's stride, as while season 2 was pretty good (and we'll see an episode form that later) Season 3 has been the show's consitently best season, with such plots as the tobins minus beef getting addicted to an outback stakehouse style restraunt Beef dosen't want them to go to, a disaster drill that's dinosaur themed, beef inviting all his love intrests to a dance and all of them being fine with it once the misunderstanding is cleared up, the town deciding to have a man who carves wives for sailors cave a really , really handsome man to win a local yachting compettion, having to cart the local millionare to an island while the kids all go overboard on being rich for a change, and the tobins all turning on each other over beef's obession with the movie Enough Said. It's all great stuff, though what ultimately won was a premise smaller in scope but no less dumb, and just in time for christmas.

While the show's last Christmas episode was great, X-Mas takes it to a new level with a very simple, realistic but still hilarous idea: It's the annual Lone Moose White Elephant, which while bringing in tons of the towns great character from the easily impresssed Santiago Carpachio, the aptly titled Drama John, deadpan death lover and my adopted daughter Bethany, and the calm soft spoken Mayor Peepers, it also opens old wounds: As the Tobin kids tell Honeybee, several christmases ago the kids got one of those singing anamatronic dealies, you know your singing fish, bears, etc, the kind that annoy the heck out of parents if overused and the kind i'm sure most children have had at a least one point. I had a singing fish and thus deeply related to the episode of Big City Greens where Cricket bonded with his while trying to resolve his repeated attempted murders.

Skanky is no exception, a very weird x-mas tree that sings a christmas version of Mambo #5, shakes it's various balls that are supposed to be sex oragans mut make no sense as such and delighting the kids.. and slowly driving beef mad to the point he finally got rid of it last year. And given the Tobins turns had all passed, they coudln't get him back and due to a recall coudln't find one online. Granted i've never seen that stop someone from selling something online but still point is they were skankless.

Part of what makes this so funny is that normally the Tobins aren't at each other's throats: their one of the most loving supportive families you can see. As Honeybee evne points out this episode Beef would normally give his kids the shirt off his back "I've seen you do it multiple times when Wolf forgot to get dressed. " So seeing him both so throughly against something that makes the kids happy, while seeing them all so against their dad is a nice contrast, and is also nicely petty. I do love the close knit family we have here but sometimes i'ts fun to see the stupdiest things turn them against one another while still being plausable.

You can probably see where this is going as Londra, their boat neighbor friend and happily married lesbian, has returned Skanky from whence he came, as he's started to haunt her and with her partner gone, she had a chance. This leads to a bloodthristy game of chess as the Tobins try to out manuver beef, as well as various townsfolk who want Skanky, not helped by Honeybee understandably switching sides as Skanky is awful. Hilarous but I woudln't want him in my house. We also get a neat subplot about Moon and a pregnant reindeer that bonds him with his new friend and love intrest introduced this season so dat's nice. But the main draw is this hilariously stupid conflict. And while it does get a nice emotinal tie, Beef also ties Skanky to the fact he was all he could afford and ashame of him, it never looses the core with beef being ready to cast it into a lake at one point, and being quitely infurated as the kids get a twerking snowman as a replacement. This episode scraped onto the list barely beeting out vampire keanu reeves but it's townwide fun and the sheer werid specificity of this feud while still somehow being relatable got me.

19. Charlie Dies and Dosen't Come Back (Smiling Friends)

"Grandma what are you doing here?" "Oh I cursed and said DAMN in 1958 when your grandpa was shot by that ROTTEN burgalar!" "… well that seems unresonable I don't think you should be in hell for that."

Smiling Friends had one heck of a pilot last year, a hilariously dark tale of two colorful cartoon characters trying convince a man not to kill himself.. while said man has a gun casually pointed at his head the whole time. It shoudl not have worked as well as it did, but man it did helped by the bizzare quest of Alan to get his cheese back from some rodents.. and also find out why some guy is living in his wall but cheese first.

It's no shock then that when Adult Swim dropped the first season all at once early last year, it blew the internet in half, became a huge sensation and is easily one of the best comedies in Adult Swim's storied history. It can be weird as hell but unlike some adult sitcoms dosen't just throw weird shit at you, but uses it to craft jokes, to create contrast in general just to be great. And this episode is a great showcase as to why while also being a shocking bit of character development in a show that mostly sticks to just living episode by episode.

In this one, yet ANOTHER christmas episode (likely because the show was originally scheduled for late 2021), the smiling friends head out to get a tree and Charlie's lack of enthusastim for getting his job or damn near everything finally grates on Pim, who meekly but firmly approaches it. Charlie, being kind of an ass, explodes on him over this, makes a scene.. and then dies for his hubris.

He arrives in hell with his hellish bed, hellish tv and jeremy his helish source of entertainment, aka one of the best running gags in human history.

Just.. the animation there as the wind goes out of him… beautiful. Getting help from his grandma whose in hell for, as detailed in the quote, not the fairest reasons, and watching her deepthroat a lollypop whiel laughing manically, Charlie journey's through hell and finds Satan. This gag.. is fine. Like Satan being mad over a doordash is hilaroius, I won't lie but him just being an introverted gamer on his computer is thek ind of gag tha'ts just been done neough. You can do more with the devil being funny, just look at the Cuphead show this year or Futurama in the past. That said him deciding to just.. not help charlie after he makes him smile and jeremy getting his revenge helps.. as does the literally deus ex machina that saves him GOD VOICED BY GILBERT GODFREY, which is not only just.. brilliant casting but took on a LOT of extra meaning after his untimely passing not long after. He got to go out of his long, distinguished voice acting career playing god. You coudln't ask for a better sendoff.. nor a better ending as Charlie ends up on earth a bit less cynical and a lot less naked. He probably won't change, this isn't that kind of show.. but what this show is is deeply hilarious, creative and weird and i'm happy to get at least one more season of it.

18. Grandma Smugglers (Craig of the Creek)

"Your dad is an utter smokeshow and I say that with the utmost respect" One of my greatest regrets on this list was not putting Capture the Flag on here last year. It's why I took off the regulation that I had to watch every or almost every episode of a show to qualify. The special was a grand finale to the shows longest arc that also tapped into it's continuity so deeply it made me want to see what the nods I didn't recognize were about and got me to catch up.

That was well worth it as Season 4 may be Craig of the Creek's best yet. With the kingdom disolved, there's now more to explore, omar is now around full time and the show continues to be a nice comforting bit of greatness to dig into every few months when Cartoon Network releases a batch of episodes.

This episode in paticular takes advantage of things now that the other side is free by focusing on Raj, one half of the honesuckle rangers aka the show just casually having a gay couple that starts out as bumbling antagonists subserviant to a cruel dictator then quickly has them become some of our heroes most steadfast alllies.. who were weirdly absent from the final battle but hey the capture the flag game had a LOT of moving parts.

This time we see Raj's home life and it's honestly nice. He has a loving dad who JP can't help but comment is a total smokeshow (with all respect). Which..

He's also voiced by Danny Pudi who i'm delighted to see post-ducktales and I was happy to find out has a major role in earthspark.

Raj also has a grandma, a kind woman who moved here when there was no one to take care of her in her native india, and whose son is overprotective of her. He clearly loves her and the warmth between them just.. melts my heart and reminds me of my own grandmas. What's unique though is tackling the immigrant experince, growing older and generally a lot of things you don't see in a kids cartoon but Craig of the Creek does it's best to be represenative as hell, often showing off unique part sof the various kids cultures.

The core of this episode is also heartwarming as Raj wants to sneak his grandma out, hence the title.. but to see a waterfall in the creek that's similar to one she grew up with. It's a simple goal with Kelsey, JP and Mortimor filling in for her.. and failing badly turning it into a race to get there.. and allowing Raj's father to see that maybe he needs to ease up on his mom, still take good care of her, but let her enjoy her life. It's a simple, sweet story, the kind Craig of the Creek really excels at and in a list full of hard choices, this one was well… simple

.

17. The Core and the King (Amphibia)

"Don't you think it's time to say goodbye to those childhood friends of yours, son?"

Amphibia Season 3b.. was a mixed bag. On the one hand it was necessary to set up the finale, helped further Sasha's character growth and the post apocalyptic amphibi was kinda neat… but mostly it just felt like the series spinning it's wheels and ocasionally doing something to help set up the final conflict.. then making all of this near pointless by having the gathered army just.. give up in the third to last episode. As you can probably tell as much as I love the show.. it's one of it's weaker periods. So there weren't a ton of episodes from this that made the list but the two (technically four, and just with that you can probably guess which one made it to the next part of the list), that made it are some of the series best.

Core and the King gives us Andrias' hinted at backstory, why he talks about friends so much that even not knowing it.. both Anne and Marcy figured something was up seperatley in Marcy's Journal.

What could've been a simple tale of Andrias being evil and his friends having to turn on him.. we see it wasn't that simple. Turns out while Andrias people were indeed conquerers it was widely accepted. That was a shock to me, if not a suprising one: if you grow up your whole life thinking ransacking entire worlds, leaving them lifeless and hollow and keeping some of the surivviors just to study and make new advancments to conquer the next place is fine just fine, it'd be hard to question until something pushes it. Both Steven Universe and She Ra have detailed the deprogramming that'd take.

Andrias was indeed happy and had two friends, Leif and Barrel. Yes the same guy what made that neat hammer grime uses. Also Leif is very clearly a plantar, to the point Anne also called that along with us, and the finale confirms it. Not the most vital takeaway here but they were not subtle.

Things are fine though Andrias' abusive dad Aldrich, played phenominally by William Houston who apparnetly played a similar character in dark souls, encourages him to drop his friends. As it turns out being absorbed into the core was a tradition.

Things take their turn, and thankfully save the world from early ruin, when Leif holds the calamity box.. and gets a vision of the world ending. When she can't swaw Aldrich because fuck if he cares he'll just find another world to ravage and start over, she's forced to take drastic measures. And this is what makes the betrayal suprisingly layered and what makes this work so much for me: while we know Leif did the right thing, she still had to steal from her best friend, plunged the kingdom into darkness, and forced Barrel to make the hard decision to let her go. She did the hard thing.. but it didn't come without consequences, lost her everything and everyone she knew, forced her into hiding, and ruined her life for a while. She did recover eventually.. but as we saw in the finale it took a LONG time for that to happen. It's a soul crushing decission as no one wins and we knew no one would… we just didn't know it'd be this sad or not nearly as straightfoward. Sure Andrias is doing the wrong thing.. but he's a kid abused into beliving this is all okay, with no real choice to pivot from what his dad once who then had said dad and every other horrible ancestor he has scremaing in his head for the rest of his life. While it dosen't make what Andrais did REMOTELY okay, it makes him far more sympathetic than I thought possible, someone who really had no chice but ot become the monster he did and how simply not backing his friend up, for the understandable reason of not seeing her dreams, screwed him up badly. It's a truly harrowing well built episode that nicely sets up the finale.. I really wish there were more like it leading up to it but i'll take what I got.

16. Say It Again, Ham, Adventure (The Great North)

"I didn't want Drama. I guess I just kept coming out because I wanted one single perfect moment"

So back to the GREATTTTT NORRTTTTH and like the above episode, i've covered this one. See back in June Kev pitched me "Queer as a Fox".. which I sometimes put as gay as a fox because my brain is very tired. Point is it was a look at Fox's animated queer content over the years… with Simpsons mostly getting it right, Family Guy having either gay sterotypes or a transphobic diatribe that will likely be the worst thing i've reviewed for the rest of my career, and American Dad just being sorta

But for the finale I picked out the Great North, both to give us an even four and because it was the first one of these Fox Sitcoms to just come out, pun intended, and have a queer character in the main cast from day one and not have them be a sterotype or it be their whole personality. It's just there. Hence Ham, a loveable odd ball with a flair for baking whose always a moment behind everyone else and who comes out in the first episode.. for what's clearly the 80th time. While the crew could've just left the joke at that… they later decided in the back half of season 2 to explore this; Why HAD Ham come out so much?

So while watching a movie with his monotone but loving and kind if also frequently slow on the uptake boyfriend Crispin, about a racecar driver having to come out as gay, and also in a way that nicely lampoons various queer media that's just about screaming

Over and over. Ham assumes this kind of coming out isn't usual and while Crispin's wasn't that bad and his parents, while taking a second accepted they did light fireworks and have to pay massive damages over said fireworks. It then , while also giving us LOTS Of Fun ham coming outs (From using it as a suggestion during one of Judy's improv gigs, to Mayor Peepers annual silly wig party which has Ham in a sailor moon wig, to white water rafting), reframes it as Ham wanting more from his coming out. His family was simply kind, loving and supportive and while he liked that for such an important moment in his life.. he wanted a tad of gravitas.

And being a nice, supportive loving family (Even if Beef was going through some stuff in the pilot he still told him "And we love you just the way you are dammit!"), the Tobins gladly agree to help Moon stage a second more dramatic coming out by having come out to Beef's Cousin Danica. Danica.. is the worst in the most hilarious way possible, having not heard from the tobins since she Moon was a baby and she wrote on the back of his birth announcment "Please stop". She also has an entirley beige house and upon meeting her for this plan, which Beef while going along with is ready to pull his son out of if she's too hurt, tells Judy she looks like a floozy (Something Judy finds entertaingly insulting. )

Things quickly esclate though as it turns out Danica was hiding some thefts and holds the tobins hostage, minus Wolf and Honeybee who are trying to do a true crime podcast, and soon have to contend with Danica's basement, trying to escape, and the fact danica only has tvoed episodes of fraiser with commentary on them.

We also get two hilarious Chief's, Chief's Edna and Elba (one voiced by the wonderful kat dennigs) who are delightful as they are enept, and barely manage to actually pull off arresting her. Ham also has the revelation he dosen't need a dramatic coming out and it's a good thing his family is like this.. not everyone GETS to have a safe, sedate coming out and it's nice of the show to acknowledge that not every coming out has to be dramatic or traumatic for the person doing so and it'd be a nicer world if we had more soft acceptance like the tobins give. but also gets to have one safely with his family acting it out. It's a truly sweet moment with a very nice hug at the end. Overall an excellent episode

15. Clouds on the Horizon/ King's Tide (The Owl House)

"Watcha Playin?"

I originally had just kings tide but I realized these two.. are basically a two parter, similar to the end of the previous season. While the final quarter of season 2 is just one long narrative roller coaster it's these that bring it to it's end.. and prepare us to board the NEXT ONE for season 3, and overlap, even if both have diffrnet goals.

Our first half sets up Eda and the CATS plan to sabotage the day of unity, while Luz's , while first just seeming to be a sidequest to rescue her sweetie with her nerdy best friends who used to alwasy be beside her but had thigns to adress elsewhere but are now back beside her.. ends up being important.

On a character level after a season of putting up with Odalia's shit, her entire family rebels against her: THe twins actively try to help Amity sabotage her, and Alador is revealed to be badly domestically abused, working because Odalia threatned the kids otherwise, and stands up to his soon to be ex wife. We get the aawesome battle sequence you'd expect from that, as well as Kiki slipping further.. and slipping that the emperoror has a spy in the CATS and thus knows about the plan, leading to luz ducking away. It's an intense, fun episode with one big heartwarming moment, the second most cathartic divorce of 2022, and a hell of a cliffhanger.. to be resovled righ tnow.

I combined the epis because raelly they flow right into one another, being one big climax to the season and EVERYTHING it's built up, the first half finishing Amity's subplot, and tying in Kiki's slow fall.. and the next one containing every damn thing else paying off.

The first horrifying thing is that despite our heroes best efforts and another neat fight scene… Belos WINS. At least for a few minutes: Even as the rest of our heroes airship their way to be big damn heroes, Luz deals with Belos personally as with his genocide already on autopilot, and Terra and the other collabeerators thinking their getting paradise much like odalia finishign the job for him only to realize he lied and they'll die, he tosses the Collector into the bottom of his super villian lair and prepares to go off ot earth dellusional that it'll all be great.

The episode has a nice air of hopelessness as Luz DEAPERATELY tries to stave things off by sigil stamping belos, a clever big of using his own racisim and ego against him by playing up his need for a guide.. then has to fight a blob monster. It's an episode where, much like for most of the season.. our heroes are loosing. Their doing their best and without sigils aside from hunter (Who being basically human can fight it off easier I guess), and we get a great fight.. and a truly sad moment when Belos gaslights hunter again, but it's ultimately a loosing one: our heroes are good and we get to see just how far they've come across the series and season, with Luz using a truly awesome looking pheonix-esque x made of fire to kick thigns off.. but ti also shows how outmatched they always were: they keep growing, evolving getting better as people and as witches.. but their up against someone whose been getting worse as a person but even better as a witch for a century and who even without his magic has freakys hapeshifting powers and hulk strength.

The desperation makes King's decision to free the collector.. make sense: there was no other option: his mom was dying (even if rahne manages to cut eda's arm off before she completely dies), his friends and sister were dying.. this was his only option. And it shows that just because i'ts not belos.. dosen't mean the Collector isn't any more dangeorus showing that he's still a child in mind and body.. and using that to be twilight zone level's of terrifying.

The simple image of a child in wha'ts basically pajamas, holding belos attack with one finger and simply asking "whatcha playin".. is as aweosme.. as it is terrifying. This is a being who just had our heroes all but beat and has been behind everything.. and he gets swatted away with just two fingers like it was NOTHING and makes the collector approaching our heroes right after that much more terrifying.. as is their escape with our heroes BARELY regrouping ot earth.. and king once again making a massive sacrifice. While the collector stopped the spell.. the isles are at his mercy and our heroes are even more lost than before… with the very foe they just lost.. not as gone as they think. It's a tense thrill ride of a two parter that somehow manages to fliip the table again just in time for it to all come crashing down and I coudln't wait ot see how it goes.. and still can't wait to see how it all ends… still wish we had ore episodes what the fuck disney. But what we got.. holy shit will it stay with me for years to come.

14. Enchanted Forest (Smiling Friends)

"Which hand of the Witch hand will it be? Gahahahahaha!" "This is the most obnoxious thing i've seen in my life. "

Look sometimes the things that make it on these lists are terrifying showdowns with abusive genocidal assholes or god children. And sometimes i'ts an optimist and a lazy pesimist wondering through a fantasy forest that just happens to be in their town for some reason while acompanied by a rotoscopped hobit who wants them to deliver an IED to his Stalking Victim. Sometimes I just want goblins and refrences to my childhood. I'm a simple man. Okay that's a lie i'm a man who has about 80 intrests that fight for my head, an obession with keith david and who constantly refrences a comic strip more people need to hear of

But I do love this episode which takes a simple stock plot, Charlie dosen't want to do something (Something being quest in the fantasy forest their in), Pim wants to, Charlie ends up being better at it… and somehow weaves in comic gold like the hand witch (and her excellent chopping skills), goblins (one of my faviorite things and I do like how this paticular goblin shows up a decent amount. ) , and of course Mip, a direct rotoscoped parody of the Bakshi versions of Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. Do I love seeing this refrenced in modern day? Absolutely. Do I love that Mip has weird sexual tension with charlie, dosen't raelly break character and turns out to be an elaborate homage to Bjork's stalker?… yes and no respectively. Mip is really what makes the episode, though having charlie save some aliens and the suddenly grim ending dosne't hurt either. Not the most complex episode.. but sometimes an episode just needs to be funny and the fact they went to the trouble of rotoscoping a character just to get the refrence right shows Smiling Friend's craft: the animatoin is simple but can speed up in complexity, change styles or what have you just ot sell the joke or moment better. That and goblins. Always goblins.

13. Fate's Journey (The Legend of Vox Machina

"Faster Percy Yah Yah!" "I'm going as fast as I can, this carriage isn't built for speed and did you just Yah me?!"

Legend of Vox Machina was one of the nicest suprises i've ever had in animation. I had no real idea the adaptation of Critical Roll's first campagin was coming, and was only vaugely aware critical roll existed because Your Turn To Roll showed up in my spotify recomendations (And it slaps). So finding out that in the wake of invincible Amazonw as rolling out ANOTHER animated adult action show that looked like if James Gunn did a fantasy show.. I was intrigued. And after the first three episodes, as Amazon releases the show in batches of three, I was HOOKED. While it took me far too long to get to actually watching Critical Roll itself I fell in love with this show and while only having heard of two of it's voice actors before this (Ashley Johnson and Sam Rigel, Tulip/Lake and Donetello respectively), I became a huge fan of all of them after. Vox Machina takes a dungeon and dragons campaign and condensed it into 12 joyous episodes that still have the spirit of chaos of a campaign, while also telling a deeply compelling story of revenge, friendship, and scanlan's crotch. The series deftly ballances the tragic vengeful story of Percy as he edges closer to literallya nd figuratevely selling his soul for revenge with great character moments for all involved, and PLENTY of hyjinks from team bard Scalan pulling a distractoin by singing a song on tugging on his motherfucking beads while wearing a sparkly codpiece (One DIRECTLY MODELED on one of VA Sam Rigel's own costumes)

A planning scene where brusier Grog's plan is kill everyone including the guy their rescuing while Scalans is "Down a bunch of mystery poitions and hope I live, and Scalan's attempt to translate a book they got from their enemies devolvling into him and Vax giving each other two handed middle fingers. And of course the majestic game of ball tag, which starts at the breakfast table and escalates to Vax elbowing Grog in front of an offical for a 3 pointer. The series is a nice ballance of hilarious , heartfelt and generally horrifying, and it is awesome.

And while it's a bit of a thrill ride, having to pack over 50 hours of campagin into 10 episodes (the first two based on a pre-stream adventure that ends up being VITAL to the plot Season 2 adaps), it dosen't mean our team dosen't take time to stop and breathe and it's why Fate's Journey has stuck with me so much.

After a disasterous first encounger with the Briarwoods, the vampire and necromancer power coupled that slaughtered Percy's family and took over his hometown of whitestone and succesfuly enthraled the soverign of the land, our heroes are on the run out of town, minus their Cleric Pike (Whose reaffring her connection to her patron the everlight) and on the way to Whitestone to settle things. As a result we get a lot of nice character moments. Scanlan , despite normally being the extra horny extra hammy comic relief, tries to translate a book they stole from them, Grog, who sees pike as a sister, is morose over her being gone and convides in Vax and Vex, Vax's sister, tries to get Percy to open up and stop having a resting bitchface. We see both who our heroes are for a second, and see them truly bonding as more than just the only people who will loosely put up with one another.

We also get one of the seasons funniest scenes as during a relaxing campfire, the party recounts their weirdest kills: We get some badass ones with Vex casually killing Hotis which toally won't come back to bite him, Grog ripping a monsters jaw in half.. and some hilarious ones as Keyleth pushes an ogre into lava.. and then pushes him down while telling him to go to sleep panicked because he's not dead yet while everyone else looks on and horror and of course Scalan's.. is having a sex partner turn into a monster.. and still finishing.

That.. image aside, we also get a thrilling chase with Scalan getting kidnapped and sucking on a monster tentacle because of course, Grog being certain he wont survivie but heartwarmingly sad about it, and of course the greatst and funniest bit of ship tease in human history as Vex yahs percy as a horse and he undrestndably dosen't take it well. It's a relaxed episode that turns thrilling and leaves our heroes without any of their weapons.

The ending is also masterful.. in the most horrifying way possible. Earlier we see the briarwoods meet with some pesants seemingly doing some pr for their evil overlordship.. and at the end we find out WHY they, including a CHILD were invited…. as we see their bodies all hung on the sun tree in center of town dressed as Vox Machina. It's truly chilling, horrifying and I did not see it coming but man does it cut the bone even thinking of it now. I.. really don't have anything to follow that, fantastic episode.. next?

12. Any Sport In A Storm (The Owl House)

"Then there won't be any delay in branding you with Coven sigils and taking you away from your friends and family forever! Hooray!"

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME HUNTLOWWWWWW?

Yeah look I haven't hidden I ship this. I"m not a subtle person. It's why this guy is one of my spirit animals

So it's not a huge shock this one got on here, but it didn't just because a ship I started shipping before this went from "Maybe canon" to

In the span of one episode. This episode is a great character piece and thankfully spotlights both halfs of Huntlow well. After Willow spent most of season 2a gone, likely because Tati Gabrille is far busier than I could've possibly imagined, she gets one heck of a spotlight here that moves both her and Hunter's arcs forward, moves them together, and gives us a subplot with some Lumity that's.. fine. It's a nice little riff on fan theorizing and the azura thing, and it's ncie to see the two get a moment together that dosen't come with a lot of crap attached first. Just the two hanging out and being dorks.

But their not the dorks we're here for, nor why this episode is on this list. No it's the green and the gold for this one as Willow brings up a hithero unknown intrest in flyer derby.. basically a broom flying sport where you try to steal flags and beat the crap out of each other. You know for kids, and is forming her own team. At the same time in order to get the respect of an adult who hates him for something that isn't his fault because Hunter's life is a constant stream of abuse, brainwashing and doing sick flips, Hunter inflitrates the school.. and it goes how you'd expect

So when Hunter finds Willow, he finds a powerful prospect for the coven.. and someone who has the confidence, freedom and affablility he lacks, while she just.. straight up kidnaps her future boyfriend because she needs him for the team and while getting better at socializing still hasn't grapsed kidnapping isn't okay. Unless it is on the boiling isles but given Amity's reaction to being kidnapped and spit out by a giant owl, i'm wagering it isn't.

Either way we get adorable chemistry, a new power team/couple in viney and skara, and puddles the griffin.

We also get Hunter.. not understanding he was horribly abused and nearly consinging his friends to a horrible fate, standing up for them finally earning said adults respect… which like.. Darius man you really need to apologize for a.. .lot of things, and some good hunter blushing. All in all a good day for all. Horay!

11. Hellspital (Close Enough)

"It's a known fact doctors have killed more people than Genghis Khan and Chaka Kahn combined!"

Sadly this is Close Enoughs final time on this list as it was one of MANY casulaties of "David Zaslav wanted 8 more dollars", though it's for now thankfully avaliable to buy on youtube if nothing else. Why JG Quintel wasn't absolutely devistated I don't know, but it went out on a high with season 3 being fairly good. It also, while keeping a mixed ballance, fixed the one issue I had with season 2: there wasn't enough Alex. And Even then I got they simply needed to spread things out more evenly, so I wans't mad but boy oh boy did my boy get a great season, ending with getting Bridgette back but involving having his soul stolen by George RR MArtin, dating an alien tentacle monster instructor and of course going to hell.

The road to hell is paved with Childhood Trauma as Alex , after a golf course injury and on an all chili diet because of course he is, refuses to see a doctor after his dad went to the hosptial and got a terrible diagoniss when alex was a teen. Our heroes do everything in their power to not let his dumb ass die, but he ends up running away and bonking his head, but not before tons of jokes including him being tricked into their trap of a viking timelord marathoon (the season does manage his sudden obession with vikings that cropped up in season 2 after one joke about him writing a viking novel ins eason 1 work a LOT better without dominating his character this go round), despite having alerts for such an event, and nothing about it making sense only figuring out midway. Which is still good fo rhim

After hitting his head he end sup in a HELLSPITAL…. which is nightmarish as you'd expect, and well done at that, but gets heartwarming when Alex's dad decesnds from heaven, played by Henry Motherfucking Winkler who thanks to being in the upcoming season of Vox Machina has a VERY good chance of making this list two years in a row, and we get Alex having some heartwarming father son bonding with axes.. as well as the reveal his dad was sick a long time but simply didn't want to know he was.. and by the time he did it was too late. It teaches alex a hard lesson: that ignoring a medical problem because of bad news.. won't make it go away and the people who love you need you. it does so with time axes, demons and jabs at our awful healthcare system, but also with love. And gas which is what alex has. Chilli and all that

[whoistorii]

Batfam and what adult cartoons I they would watch-

Dick- def related to Moral Oral. A little boy with a verbaly abusive father???? a family falling apart???? Unpacking trauma and kids living up to, and past their parents?? a whole town of people with their own problems acting like they're perfect and never do anything wrong?? Dick probably ate that shit up! He probably thought everyone related to it so heavily until Donna tricked him into talking about his problems out loud and he realized he was in fact not normal.

Jason- Tuca and Bertie, it's a more real and mostly feel good show, with a underling feminist meaning. He probably really likes Tuca thinking she's really cool and a outstanding character with great development. He definitely made Roy watch it before patrols. Roy probably cares less about the show and cares more about watching something with Jason. (Roy probably likes Aqua team hunger force and Southpark mans is a hillbilly in and out) Jay def quotes the show almost religiously.

Tim- probably loves Family Guy, he's the kinda guy to explain every joke and act as if it's modern day art and noone knows if he's being ironic or not. His fav character is Meg. When he gets mad at Kon (or just to fuck with him) he explains episodes of the show in morbid detail and Kon probably crys. He tried doing it with Cassie and instead of cowering like Kon she started explaining how the show was modern philosophy, and in that moment he had to rethink if he was in love with another one of his best friends.

Stephanie- She likes Southpark but she only likes it for the characters, her favorites gags being the ones in earlier seasons where the kids misunderstand things cuz yk there kids. Her favorites usually be Wendy or Butters. She thinks it's really good satire 75% of the time but her favorite episodes are probably more character driven ones, or any with Butters as a lead.

Cass- Happy Tree Friends, she didn't know much English when she came to the manor so slap stick humor with cute little animals, she loved it!! Everyone else thought it would have a negative effect on her, but she thought it was just cute and wholesome because the characters never stayed dead and always came back. And that feeling of missing object permanence, and actions always being undone and going back to the status quo made her feel better. She now knows it's really dark and very controversial, but the layout of every episode being almost the same makes her feel in control and she still goes back and rewatches her favorite episodes after a bad day. Also she enjoys the looks she gets when she states it as her favorite show.

Damian- thinks that all the shows above are very stupid and childish and he will only watches animes, thought I would imagine most of them do get pretty dark. He never lets anyone know this ofc, only Dick and maybe Steph knew the truth. He talks a big game about hating animated content but it's all bs. He watches Rom with Steph, and the heavy gore shit with Dick (tho in all honesty he wishes Dami would find something else to watch, he just goes along with it to hang out with the kid.) Damian probably also watched like terribly bad animes with Stephanie.

Bruce- BoJack Horsemen is a story about a middle aged man who knows he needs to change but never dose, He had a tragic backstory and continues hurting everyone around him, Being stuck in a self cycle of hurting himself and loved ones. Bruce probably sobbed multiple times while watching the show. And probably called Dick like nine times telling dick how great it was. (Probably taking awhile to see why Dick suggested it to him.) Eventually I imagine the show helps him realize he needs a more healthy relationship with himself and the people around him. Probably quoting the show for helping him realize his self toxic traits.

[paepaerest]

hello! pae in the houseeee

you can still find me on twt: @kittyamazing4p1 (most active on) and instagram: @paepaers (currently inactive)

I'm a proud girlfriend admirer and I'm lucky to have her, she is a lesbian butchay who goes by Mirphy <3 @mirkyjerky same as on twt

im fine with all pronouns but he/him

My yap and 2nd art blawg: @taupae <- Here I will rblog my art from this blog and may eventually stick to that blog for posting doodles and art as of now :)

I'm a multifandom artist whose interests are at the moment (in bold are current special interests):

dickfigures, o'grady, stardew valley, Superjail!, OC's, 1970-1990s fashion/aesthetics, AU's, Venture Bros, super science friends, tdi, mlp, niche horror franchises, Hey Good Lookin' (1982), Always Sunny in Philadelphia, TROLLHUNTERS (TOA: ROTT, 3BELOW, WIZARDS), Private Dick/Family Man, brba, Tuca & Bertie, dreamworks films...

Every day I am still discovering new things...

I'm also a shameless multishipper... I'm really fond with Petebilly as of currently, I'm so normal about them :)

read!!!:

I may reblog/like content with mild blood but never to the extreme gore. Along with suggestive context (satire explicit jokes, etc) and artistic nudity.

This account is 16+!!

DO NOT be weird about my art, I will block you. I will also block you if you actively spread discourse about a character/ship/media that I like. Also if you are just comfortable with being really problematic, leave my blog and block me.

I LOVE SHIP POSTING!!!! AND FLUFF! you'll see a lot of it here :D

Do expect that I often show strong emotion by using caps even when unneccessary among with emojis and a dramatic amount of periods, and i am ANNOYING. if u a selfshippah i fw that too

I'm a human behind the screen so please, have some human decency and treat me like one too.

I'm mostly self preserved or a recluse most of the time, lurking and talking about my interests with my close mutuals/friends/one and only partner...

I often go on & off and i can't keep a promise to stay consistent with my timing of posts and all that stuff. I'm sorry!!!

I leave treats once in a while though!

This art blog consists of reblogs of my personal interests, exclusively of whatever i am now into, and some of my art! my art tag is #paepaerest art or/and #my art

+ I'm open/all ears for more ship suggestions! & headcannons. & for asks if you just want to ask me anything totally out of topic, you can! I won't bite ^^

[girderednerve]

well i'm upset about book bans & i work in a library & can't shut up y'all're welcome

book bans & challenges (which is the technical term for when someone asks us to pull a book; it doesn't mean that the book is removed) have been an issue in american libraries for basically as long as there have been libraries, although there was a massive spike starting in ~2021 as the far-right seized on libraries as a new front for the culture wars. as a result there are some very established ways of handling & talking about book bans in the library field

these include the 'right to read'/'intellectual freedom' as articulated in the library bill of rights, which was first adopted by the american library association in 1939. it basically says that libraries believe that all patrons have the right to access information that interests them, irrespective of its content. the thinking at the time was that libraries should take a neutral course and not police the content they provide to patrons; as far as i know, this point at the time was more directed at fiction than nonfiction. (one of the other things that has been happening more, at least at my library, is that we're accused of having an unbalanced collection & suppressing conservative viewpoints if we decline to buy, e.g., anti-vaxxer screeds that contain rank misinformation; i don't think that was as much of an issue back in the day but i may be completely wrong.) in practice, this approach means that we make no comment whatsoever on what content is banned or why; if you look at a banned books week display, it will often include books like huckleberry finn ("challenged" when one parent of color asked to have it replaced with another book on their child's required reading list; not a literal example) alongside gender queer (target of a nationwide transphobic astroturfing campaign; literal example). things may be different elsewhere, but that's my experience of how libraries traditionally respond to book bans, i.e., they neglect the content, character, & effectiveness of 'bans' in order to talk more neutrally (&, in my view, ineffectually) about censorship as a negative social pattern devoid of any context. frustrating! we also never include prison book bans, although these are absolutely fucking dire.

the other major way we talk about book bans is via a set of talking points which were established by the late 90s, and possibly earlier. most challenges center on materials for children and young adults. the recommended language in reaction to a parent who objects to a book is to say something like "the library provides a wide range of materials for all different kinds of families, as we try to serve our whole community. we leave it to parents to decide which items their children should check out. parents have the ultimate responsibility for what their children read, and we support their right to make those decisions." you're also supposed to apologize for their negative experience, etc., and try to let them vent to you without agreeing or promising them anything. if they're really mad, at this point you refer them to whatever your library's reconsideration process is, usually some kind of offical-looking form where the patron has to write in their name, contact information, the title of the book, and the reason they object to it; most of them also ask the patron whether they've actually reviewed the whole thing in full. many people drop the matter at this point (fewer now that they've been handed canned scripts by m*ms for l/berty!). not entirely sure how it works at school libraries, but probably similar.

my problems with this general approach are that a) obviously it isn't going to appease someone whose objections are grounded in the belief that LGBTQ people shouldn't exist or whatever and b) i actually do not believe at all that parents should get to decide what books their kids check out of the library. sorry! i get it when your kid is really little and needs help finding & reading books in the first place, but by the time they're old enough to visit the library by themselves (so, for us, say 10 or so) they're old enough to have their own interests & information needs irrespective of their parents' opinions. i imagine that this is very uncomfortable for parents & i am capable of experiencing sympathy but also, i have met plenty of kids who are in weirdo homeschool groups & do not know anything about their own fucking bodies, much less what a happy gay life might look like. i get that this rhetoric is meant primarily to be placatory, but i think it matters what we say & what we believe beyond the customer service script. maybe other libraries have more robust discussions about ethics in youth services (my library system seems bent on ignoring that youth services requires anything other than storytime & the occasional cute craft for the under-10s).

anyway i keep making myself absolutely fucking miserable thinking about all the kids in the world (many!!!!) whose entire idea of what sexuality & romantic relationships look like are built on what their parents & the people who go to their church do, & how vulnerable that leaves them, how hopeless it must feel. i knew about gay people but i didn't feel like i knew myself, that i could live as myself, until i found out i was gay. i hate to think that a child is toiling away under the crushing weight that i used to feel, thinking that they have to grow up & marry a man who drinks too much & makes them afraid, or a woman who will never understand them, or otherwise live totally alienated from who they are, & are kept from even the glimmer of another life. it feels so openly abusive, so obviously intended to control & victimize. 'you can't choose another life because i won't even let you see the idea of one.' and what, i'm supposed to tell that patron that i believe they're right, their children belong to them? i can't do it, man. can't do it. kids can read whatever they want & if something makes them uncomfortable they can stop reading & talk to their peers or a trusted adult about it. a library book is plausibly the safest way to come across content that makes you uncomfortable as a kid. the risks are so fucking low & the benefits (in terms of understanding yourself & the world, having a safe, recreational retreat, getting to practice intellectual agency, etc.) are so, so high. i'd rather pitch my tent there than try to make some kind of mealy-mouthed compromise

the other part of this, obviously, is that the freaky fash aren't actually arguing about library books so much as they're making a loud argument about public space. libraries' physical collections provide vital access to lower-income people & children, but more people than ever have smartphones & are perfectly capable of reading whatever they want on the internet. there's no reason whatsoever for us to insist on taking all of these challenges at face value, it's a losing game.

anyway i'm upset & spinning my wheels about it. if you got down to this end of this please tell me a fond memory of using the library as a kid if you feel so inclined <3