#And you're not to be taken seriously

[transexualpirate]

every queer person got that one person who was never an actual relationship but it also wasn't not a relationship and thinking about them too long is like kneeling on broken glass

[pseudophan]

i enjoy sneaky short clips and pics of the show as much as anyone else but people saying they're gonna film and post the whole thing... look i understand wanting to share it with people who can't go but at a certain point you are just being disrespectful. not filming in a theatre is a very standard rule, it's not even dan and phil's own invention, like sorry you're not at a concert. everyone's been lucky so far that no clips have been copyright struck like ii and tatinof ones were but if people start posting long ass clips of it they Will start taking them down and then congratulations you've ruined the fun for everyone because you think you're above following basic instructions. not to mention if you do get caught it's disruptive and annoying for everyone around you. just. come on.

also, some venue security will be stricter than the one in antwerp for sure. people got away with a lot there but that's not to say everyone will. is it really worth risking getting thrown out

and again like i'm not trying to be the anti fun police i think some very short very sneaky clips here and there aren't a huge issue but there's a limit to what they're gonna let pass

[snekdood]

"if we make america worse and more of a dictatorship that will be even harder to unravel and make it the way we want the country to be, maybe then everyone will join our Glorious Revolution!" bb girl you cant even be in the same room with someone who thinks you should vote, how in tf do you think you're gonna unite people to fight in The Revolution with you? it's gonna be you and your 5 friends, i hate to break it to you.

[hegodamask]

"Gareth described Krennic to me as a guy who didn’t come up through the officer class, if you like; he was more of a guy from the outer colonies who had made his way up more by virtue of the way he’d conducted himself, and by his abilities. So, Krennic’s voice is not ever meant to be the pure officer-class voice that you associate with the Star Wars universe." - Ben Mendelsohn

"So when I spoke to Tony about what Dedra has come from, she didn’t come from much. She’s an outsider, and she’s looking for a way to be important and to be considered important. And just like Syril, she wants to find control and to be able to be in a position of power so that she can feel in control. And in this industry that she’s in, she looks around and sees a lot of men of privilege being able to just kind of wing it, and it’s not in Dedra’s nature to wing it." - Denise Gough

"He is not of the principled Coruscanti classes, able to verbally parry and weave in debates and politics. Krennic's temper is far more volatile, a fact that makes some, like Grand Moff Tarkin, uncomfortable." - Rogue One the Ultimate Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo

"A rising officer within the ISB, Dedra Meero transfers from the Enforcement desk to Investigations. Her relatively young age and aggressive approach upsets the dull dynamic of ISB Central Office briefings." - Dawn of Rebellion The Visual Guide by Pablo Hidalgo and Emily Shkoukani

“I like the idea that Ben’s character was much more working-class [and rose in the ranks] through sheer force of personality and ideas." That said, the director adds, Krennic “hits a brick wall in the hierarchy where they won’t let him in the club and it’s going to turn into a them-or-us situation: either Krennic or Tarkin and the others.” - Gareth Edwards

As we really built out Dedra in our little writers room, we were like, “Oh, my God, she’s a woman in this place and no one takes her seriously, and she’s working harder than anybody else does. And she’s not getting credit for it.” And then we got to where she turns. We were really like, “Oh, my God. Wow, we were rooting for her a minute ago.” - Tony Gilroy

[wylldebee]

Catching Fire AU where everything is the same except the moment Katniss' name is read, someone shouts, 'I volunteer as Tribute!' A figure in a worn hooded cloak walks through the crowd, features covered. They come on the stage, everyone's eyes on them from District 12 to the whole of Panem. The mysterious stranger brings their aged hands up to the clasp of their cloak and after a beat, they take it off with the trained flourish of an entertainer. There stands Lucy Gray Baird; she's old but she still looks like someone who knows how to have fun. She's wearing a ragged, faded, colourful dress made of rainbow ruffles. Lucy does a showman's bow, smirking with a twinkle of mischief in her eyes. "I volunteer as Tribute! My friends call me Lucy Gray — I hope you will, too!" In his home, the shock of seeing Lucy alive is too much for Snow's heart to take, and so the tyrant dies of a heart-attack while choking on his own blood from the sores.

[antiyourwokehomophobia2]

Man, this pisses me off so bad. If you're a woman who relates more to males than other women, it's because you've decided to focus more on how you're different from other women rather than how you're like them. You will literally never have more in common with males, and males do not feel the same way about you. These cute little posts that you write about how you love males more than your fellow women? They do not write the same thing about you. They hate and mock you constantly. Anyone remember "Cis women need to shut up"

"As a cis woman, I agree"

"You need to shut up, specifically"

?

Yea, that's how they feel about you and your solidarity.

The difference between lesbians and trans women in female spaces is the fact that lesbians do not have high rates of violence. There is no group of women that outclass men in terms of violent tendencies. Trans women retain the rates of male violence that regular men do. I'm not saying you have to treat trans women like they're all violent beasts, but if you can't see why female people would be uncomfortable with male people in their spaces, you're either naive or genuinely unsympathetic towards the very real fear that women have of being subjected to male violence. You can't say trans women and lesbians are similar because, unlike males, there is no statistical evidence that lesbians are highly likely to take advantage of a woman. If it turned out that 98% of rapes were committed by lesbians, I would 1000% understand why straight women don't fucking want to be around me. Have some fucking empathy, holy fucking shit. Even if you are completely on board with trans women being in female spaces, at LEAST acknowledge that it makes sense for women to be concerned about who is allowed in their spaces. It's crazy how I could tell someone I have a fear of dogs because one bit me when I was a kid, and they'd put their sweet pooch up, but God forbid a woman be cautious around a demographic who commit 90% of all violent crime. Oh no. That woman is suddenly a terf bitch.

I have nothing in common with trans women. I don't care how much pain they have experienced. We are not the same. When I was twelve, I cried and I cried as I put my palms together to pray to a God I hoped would be able to take away my homosexuality. I didn't even grow up in a particularly homophobic family. Both of my parents were accepting of me, but I still sat in the dark of my room, tears streaming down my face, as I prayed to have my sexuality changed.

Two years later, one of my friends made a joke about me dressing to impress my crush. She said my crushes name---a feminine name. A girl sitting in earshot heard her, turned to me, and asked me with disgust if I was gay. I said no without even thinking about it. It absolutely did not help that we were in a locker room with other girls. I was aware of my sexuality by that point, but I was 14 and unable to hold my own against a girl looking at me like THAT. For a few weeks after that, that girl made comments about how she was "watching me".

I know pain, I know discomfort, I know what it's like to feel predatory. Seeing feminine women, especially if they're white, makes me feel like an alien. I look at them and think "how are we so different? I see none of myself in you."

Sometimes I'm right. Sometimes we're not similar at all. But guess what? That doesn't mean I'm similar to a straight male. Fucking hell, sometimes I'm not similar to other lesbians. That's completely normal. I think OP needs to read better work by cishet women. If you think that there is not a single piece of cishet female writing that can move you more than something written by a male, you're not looking in the right places at all. I don't understand why some LB women seem to think that the very act of someone being a straight woman makes them incapable of relatability. Of course it makes sense for you to be cautious. Lesbians deal with a lot of alienation and predatory feelings, but if the very ACT of a woman being cis and straight makes you feel like she has absolutely nothing in common with you...? The issue lies with you. YOU are the one othering THEM. Not the other way around. You're the one who has decided that a few cis straight women othering you means that they ALL will so you'd better beat them to the punch. You're the one who has decided that your relationship to womanhood is so astronomically different from straight women that nothing they say speaks to you. That's INSANE. Do you realize how much you have to alienate yourself from womanhood to feel more relatability with a male person than a female one? Idk how to tell you this, but it is highly probable that the most cis, most het woman you have ever met has had a period. It's highly likely she's been harassed by a man. It's highly likely she's been made to feel inferior by way of being born female. No, they can't relate to the experience of being a lesbian who is made to feel predatory for no reason, but to say that nothing a cis het woman says/experiences can move you at all? Nothing they say can make you feel like your experience with womanhood and hers are similar? Do you realize how you sound? "Trans women have been harassed by men and made to feel inferior, too!!" Okay! So you should be able to relate to cis women in the way you do trans women, right?

I told my discord server that I was nervous about my future roommates. I showed them photos and someone said "all this tells me is that they're feminine and white" and I literally think about that all of the time. I was projecting. I was so scared that these white, feminine, probably straight women were going to judge me for being a black lesbian that I didn't even realize that I was the one violently judging them based off of nothing but their skin color and their femininity. I knew nothing about them. I STILL know nothing about them. I've barely spoken to them. But already I had labeled them as unrelatable judgemental women because of how they looked. Hold on. Wasn't I the one afraid of them judging ME? How could I be so afraid of them judging me for being a black lesbian when I was the one judging them already? What sense does that make?

You guys are so busy writing off cis straight women as unrelatable bigots that you've failed to see that you're the one who is extremely prejudiced against them. And I absolutely fucking know someone is gonna read this and say "well, you can't say that all trans women have male violence patterns and dahdahdahdah" and it's like. But YOU can say that cis straight women are so unbelievably different from lesbian women that you'd rather say you're more similar to a straight up fucking male???

I'm not saying it's not a little jarring to see women who are so different from me. I'm not saying I haven't been burned before and there's no reason for me (or other lesbians) to be cautious. But I will literally ALWAYS have more in common with cishet women than I ever will a man pretending to be a woman.

One time I had a professor. She was on the older side (I'd say 40's) and white. Not the type of person I'd think I'd click well with. She was straight and married with children. One day we talked after class, and the only thing that ended our conversation was the fact she had an event she had to go to. We would've talked longer if not for that. She emailed me a little while later to tell me that she enjoyed our chat. After that, she actually hugged me on two occasions. You wouldn't think we'd have common ground. An older, straight, married white mother and a young black lesbian. Both of us are "cis" but I can tell you I relate to her much better than I ever could someone born male.

I once had a personal trainer who was a feminine woman. She had acrylic nails and everything. One time she said that she couldn't hug her male friends anymore because she had a boyfriend (he wasn't the one enforcing that rule. That was something she personally felt). Also not someone I thought I'd click well with. But we did. One time we had a really productive discussion that was actually derived from the conversation with my professor. I felt very close to her in that moment. Our conversation came to a close because she had another client, but I still think about that convo.

There have been so many fucking times where I thought "this woman is not like me. Look at her." But what I realized was that I was the judgmental one. I was the one deciding we were different, not her. I was the one writing her off. I was the one convinced we had nothing in common.

I am BEGGING you not to alienate your fellow women. There are no inherent traits that make you unable to relate to other women. No amount of whiteness or cisness or straightness can make a woman completely unreachable. I am NOT talking about political parties or views so don't fucking try me with that shit. Obviously that puts a wedge between people, but someone simply being born cis and het does not make them alien from you. For God's sake, look at the fucking MeToo movement. Women from all fucking backgrounds who share an experience that an unfortunate amount of women go through. Women from all different races, sexualities, etc. who came together to talk about how they've been subjected to sexual violence. Ellen degeneres was one of them. How does that fit into your "lesbians and cishet women cannot relate to each other" spiel?

OP's post has 130k notes and it makes me fucking sick. Holy crap y'all, we need more solidarity than this. Other women are not your enemy. I'm begging you to reconsider your approach to women who are different than you. You are missing out on people who can love and support you in a way that literally no male can. You are depriving yourself. Just because a few cishet women in the past alienated you, does not mean that you have to continue their legacy. Let it go. Everyone on earth can see you embracing your hatred of women, and you wonder why your fellow women never hug you? They fucking can't! Put your hatred down and make space for the love that comes with realizing that you absolutely are like other girls!

[enthyrea]

"well, look what we have here. welcome aboard, princess."

a macheresin pirate x prince au that has completely taken over my life. (@salemfrogtrials i blame you)

jake's the captain of the hidden dagger, one of the kingdom's most prolific pirate crews. he's cocky and arrogant and doesn't let anyone get close to him. javy is the crown prince, sheltered from birth and knowing nothing about the world. he runs away one day and gets kidnapped by jake's crew, who are ecstatic to have the prince as ransom. except, they quickly realize that using the prince as a bargaining chip won't work, and javy actually wants to stay.

jake decides to let the prince stay. and of course, they fall in love.

javy learns what it's like to be loved for who you are, not who you're expected to be; jake learns what it's like to be loved despite who you and others think you are.

(natasha is javy's knight who is leading the charge to rescue him. reuben and mickey are part of her crew. the rest of the daggers are a part of jake's crew.)

if you want to hear about the choices behind my designs ↓

jake: long hair and a beard because pirate lol, he's got fancy belts and necklaces and earrings and keeps a sword on him. he's got green on him bc he deviates slightly from your typical pirate color scheme, reflecting how despite his appearance, he is, in fact, a green flag. lol.

javy: his main color is purple because it reflects royalty. on his prince outfit, the orange represents rebellion as its his favorite color and a part of his individuality. he doesn't have his piercings or eyebrow slit before he runs away, but after he joins jake he does (probably a swordfight for the eyebrow). also. he's wearing jake's little belt tassel (the green one) after he becomes a proper pirate and jake gives it to him. he gets jewelry BUT he keeps the purple on his design because he's still a royal after all.

javy’s got white pants and jake has dark pants, and javy’s got a dark top while jake’s is white. it's a representation of their experiences being essentially opposites. HOWEVER they do share the same gold-orange color throughout their design- both on the bottom of their shoes, both on the jewel they wear (javy’s under his collar and jake’s on his belt). jake’s green sashes are closer to yellow on the color wheel which makes it more complementary to javy’s purple. over time, javy slowly gains bits and pieces of jake’s design and vice versa- specifically javy gets jake’s green and jake gets javy’s orange. javy wears dark pants like jake while jake starts wearing dark tops. essentially over time their color choices begin to match each other but they still keep individuality.

okay sorry ramble over. i will be returning to this. please enjoy!

[enemywasp]

ARE YOU TELLING ME AFTER 5 HOURS OF GAMEPLAY I LEARN ANYTHING EXPLICITLY INSESTUOUS WAS BASICALLY OPTIONAL???!!

Y'ALL WERE MAD OVER A TINY FRACTION OF THE GAME???

[seventeendeer]

finished rewatching ATLA so here's my obligatory hot take on the age-old discourse of "should Aang have put on his big boy pants and killed that guy or what"

my perspective is that either choice would have ended the show in a bad place. no, Aang should not have killed that guy; a child being forced to give up his own individuality to become a tool for violence has terrible implications in a story about war that is intended to have a happy ending, and so does the notion that if you just kill the right people the world will be saved. yes, Aaang should have killed that guy; ATLA as a whole has an uncomfortably centrist perspective on the concept of war, and by giving the protagonist an easy way out of having to do anything "too drastic" to save the day, it cements its status as a fundamentally flawed narrative that pussed out of every opportunity to say something meaningful.

in order for ATLA to stick the landing, Ozai would have had to be dead and alive at the same time. there was no way out of this story that wouldn't give the kids watching the wrong idea about the very concepts the writers were trying to introduce them to.

in my opinion, the problems with the ending are not a question of "kill that guy/don't kill that guy", but rather the fact that the writers clearly designed this narrative to make "don't kill that guy" the only reasonable option. the writers chose to have a vulnerable, bright-eyed child protagonist; they chose to have him descend from a group of monks who valued non-confrontation and peace; they chose to center his character around themes like "joy and hope perservering against all odds" and "choosing your own destiny"; they chose to make the central conflict of his character about wishing to resist a destiny that was incompatible with his personal values; they chose to make the goal of his journey "stop a guy who won't stop until he's dead in the ground" - and then render in loving detail how Aang finds a way to avoid putting him in the ground after all.

from my perspective, ATLA is at its core an exercise in bending over backwards to make kids believe violence isn't the answer. it's a centrist's dream. fuck all of those scary people who had to punch a guy or fire a gun or drop a bomb as a last resort to try to save innocent lives - surely they simply weren't trying hard enough to find a morally stainless way to defend themselves and their loved ones from harm ..!

this is why, even though it has some fun elements, I have a bitter disrespect for this show and for bryke. these writers wanted to preach about the virtues of keeping your own hands clean in the face of injustice, and they found some cool "exotic" Asian philosophies to cherry pick ideas from to make their perspective seem deeper and more insightful than it is, slapped all of that together in a blender alongside some "chosen one" power fantasies for little kids who want to be cops, and with some nice art and some elbow grease, they managed to make it into one of the most influential cartoons of all time.

ATLA was always going to pull punches until the bitter end, because as far as bryke is concerned, refusing to punch anything at all is the point of the show.

[nartml]

Saw a comment describe killugon as 'born to be brothers, forced to be best friends'.

And I just have to say that, out of all the things that have never happened, that has never happened the most.

[jellazticious]

Can we please include amab enbies more? pretty please? make an oc? headcanon characters like that? with the cherry on top? please??

Can we respect and take them seriously as any other trans person? I just feel like a lot of people think that non binaries are a subgenre of trans man if not an underbaked trans woman

[aintgonnatakethis]

Last Line Tag/WIP Excerpt

Thank you to @wyked-ao3 for the tag! 😄

Am adding the excerpt tag in here because I feel like this needs to be read in one lump to do justice to itself. Content warning for trauma due to racism, homophobia, and child abuse. I love Telford but I am not kind to him.

"How long?!" Telford hisses. "How long have you been doing this to me?!" He sounds deranged, drops of spittle flying wildly from his mouth and landing on Everett's face, but it isn't anger driving him anymore. He can't put a name to the emotion, beyond comparing it to being a child and he had done something the details of he can't even recall now and bad things had happened and afterwards he remembers with startling clarity wishing he could go back to before he had misbehaved so he could make it work out differently because things were never going to be the same again because to a child every time something like that happens to you it's the end of the world all over again. "David…" Everett says, and they are no longer children, Telford knows, though it weighs on him like a heavy cloak he is carrying across his shoulders and he has been carrying it for so long he doesn't even try to escape its hold anymore. In this moment he is not First Lieutenant David Telford. He is five and he already knows why the white children treat him differently. He is eight and he shoots a gun for the first time and he feels it. He is twelve and terrified of this thing growing inside him. He is fourteen and standing humiliated and defiant as his mother finds his gay porn magazine and proudly presents it to his father. I always knew, she had said. There was always something wrong with him. With his type there always is. His father's reaction had been disinterest - as was his most common reaction to anything involving Telford - which had made it worse. If his father had been angry it would have meant he cared, if he had tried to dish out a beating Telford could have fought back; but what was he to do when his mother took a belt to him? It wasn't as if he could raise his hand to her. "David?" Everett's voice sounds very far away, even though Telford realises he is pressing his face into the man's shoulder. He is shaking. He is shaking because he is crying. He cannot remember the last time he cried. Everett's arms are around him and Telford wants to punch him. He can't let anyone see this in him. It's poison. If he lets it out it will consume until there's nothing left.

Tagging: @fortunatetragedy @the-golden-comet @lancedoncrimsonwings @finickyfelix @gioiaalbanoart + OPEN

[the-seelie-court-official]

It's so funny being told to kill myself by an anon. Honey you're scared of me And I've been on the Internet since the forum days. Your shitty low effort CAPS LOCK hate means nothing to me. Do better

[idolbound]

At a base level, Meredith holds a general dislike towards men, with few exceptions. These reasons are primarily related to sexuality, and her exceptions are given through familial relationships. While this dislike is not necessarily overt (as interacting with men is very much a part of her life), the way she engages with men socially vastly differs compared to women. The reasons below are derived from both canonical events and personal headcanons.

Familial & Interpersonal Relations

As a little girl, Meredith adored her dad. While her older sister Amelia was closest with their mother, Meredith was very attached to their father, spending almost as much time with him as she did with Amelia. While Meredith was very young (around 5 years old) when her beloved mage sister became victim to demon possession and killed their parents and neighbours, she was saved by Knight-Captain Wentworth Kell. In that moment, Meredith saw him as her hero and savior, and it instilled the faith and belief in herself that she too, would become a templar from that fateful day forward. As such, Meredith became an initiate in her early teens, serving as Ser Wentworth's page for a few years. In that time, she learned directly from him, but she also saw him akin to an adoptive father. Over the years, Ser Wentworth began experiencing early symptoms of lyrium-related dementia; prior to his retirement to the Chantry to live out the rest of his remaining days, he named Meredith as his successor to fill the position of Knight-Captain, and in his speech, he called her the "daughter he never deserved." This relationship was pivotal for young Meredith, and in some ways, more painful than losing her own family; she would visit him, watching him and his memories slowly fade away over a two-year period. By the end, he did not remember who she was, and the grief of losing another father is something she has carried with her ever since. In this sense, Meredith's father and adoptive father respected and loved her deeply, teaching her all they knew. She held both of them in high esteem, both as a child and teenager/very young adult. These familial relationships are very important to Meredith, and they are one of the only ways that she finds herself in close companionship to men whatsoever. In a way, she extends this type of relationship later on in her life to Cullen. Taking the older mentor role, Meredith had chosen Cullen to be her Knight-Captain because she felt a sort of kinship with him; like her, Cullen was quite young and deeply traumatized from a mage-related incident. She took advantage of this shared experience to shape and influence his ideology about mages and how to control them in the Circle using strict routines and regulations. In this way, she sought to mould him into her future successor, trusting that he would continue to lead Kirkwall's Templar Order in her footsteps, long after she is gone. In this sense, she has a somewhat maternal relationship with Cullen, seeing him as a pseudo-son; while she would never go quite as far as saying he is the child she "never deserved", she certainly places far more trust in Cullen than anyone else serving under her, and holds a certain fondness towards him.

General Relations

In terms of men more broadly and in a general sense, Meredith has never felt a desire to befriend nor deeply engage with them, mainly for two reasons - both of which are related to sexuality: namely, Meredith's own sexuality as a lesbian, as well as Meredith being seen as someone conventionally attractive to heterosexual men. Combined, these interrelated factors have led to Meredith's general aversion and dislike of most men; she would prefer to have nothing to do with men at a personal level, but works in a male-dominated environment and lives in a heteronormative society, which makes avoiding men in that capacity difficult. In the very least, Meredith finds some salvation in practicing and following a religion that is matriarchal in its hierarchy, even if the rest of society isn't.

Meredith's Lesbianism & Being Conventionally Attractive

Meredith has always been considered a very conventionally attractive person. Even from a young age, she has always been good looking, tall, and strong. Growing up in the Templar Order, she had to live alongside her mostly male Templar brethren in the barracks, and as a result, many of them have tried to flirt with her or even go so far as to pursue a relationship with her over the years. As a young teenager around age 14 to 15, Meredith's interests were strictly on her training and her devotion to the Chantry, seeing herself as nothing but a pure, pious Andrastian, who would likely be upholding a vow of chastity (even if the practice was not mandatory for Templars), or in the very least, choosing to remain chaste until marriage, if there was ever an opportunity to do so. However, as noted in the canon, marriage for Templars requires special permission from Chantry leaders and requires that the non-templar partner must be able to financially support themselves in case the templar is relocated to another Circle.

As such, Meredith often cited her devotion to the Chantry and its doctrine as the main reason for rejecting these boys, but as she grew a little older, around age 16, she started to discover her preference towards the fairer sex. While there had been some... inclinations early on (by way of homoerotic friendships with other girls living under the care of the Chantry), it wasn't until she realized that her lack of sexual interest in boys was not because of her devotion to religious doctrine, but instead, was because of her genuine sexual attraction to other girls. It took time for her to realize that there was nothing about boys that attracted her to them; she lived amongst them, saw them in more personal ways than most other girls her age, and still wanted nothing to do with them at an intimate level. They were her templar brothers, nothing more (despite their efforts to be more than that). This early 'conflict' shaped her ideas about how boys treated her, but felt that she could not express her attraction or pursue relationships with girls without repercussions, and so, for the first few years of being a Knight-Templar, she kept things to herself and still used her devotion to the Order and the Chantry as a reason to reject suitors. As Meredith came to terms with her attraction to the same-sex in her late teens, she soon became quite confident in herself upon entering adulthood. As she inherited the position of Knight-Captain after Ser Wentworth's unfortunate passing in her very early 20s, she was described as having a steeled resolve and being far more charismatic than that of the old and greying Knight-Commander Guylian. This enabled her to bring about changes to the management of the Circle, implementing strict routines and harsh punishments for the mages, without question or doubt from her peers. Even years later, after the incident that led Viscount Perrin to send mercenaries to kill the Knight-Commander, Meredith rallied the templars into a retaliatory charge to the Viscount's Keep in order to arrest him for his crimes; in a similar fashion, not a single templar balked or questioned her orders, and this led her to being named Knight-Commander at the young age of 29. Those who work with Meredith see her as a powerful figure in leadership; between her physical looks and dominant personality, Meredith has established herself as both a competent leader in the Templar Order and an attractive one at that.

Even early on in her career, it was clear to most people that Meredith's devotion to the Order and the Chantry was her utmost priority, but unlike her younger self, she attained more freedom through earning a higher rank, and so, as Knight-Captain at age 24, she began to explore her sexuality and pursue same-sex relations with other women. Mainly, she sought casual relationships with those she knew were like her within the walls of the Chantry itself (again, serving as the only place she can really go to freely outside of the Order). This allowed Meredith to fully find her confidence in tandem with her ascension in the Order, feeling far more comfortable with herself, even if that part of her had to remain hidden from the public, because of her duties as well as the potential for social stigma that could affect her career. Over time, in some ways, Meredith's lesbianism is a little more obvious to those who pay attention. In particular, the templars who have known her and served alongside her for all of their lives have noted her blatant disinterest in, and rejection of, men, and sometimes, likely, the way that she has disappeared after evening prayer and not returned across the harbour until later than most (though for years, when her brethren were still not afraid to ask, she always cited it as 'administrative business', and left it at that). In this time, her love for, and attraction to, women was cultivated, and it played a part in her confidence - which in turn, has played a part in how people perceive her, still, as a very attractive woman.

However, despite all of her hard work and ascension through the ranks of the Templar Order and some of the rumours about her sexuality, some men still believe they might have a chance in pursuing her. This has certainly lessened over the years to an extent as she has gained power and influence as Knight-Commander, and in some ways, because of aging (though that said, many see her as still rather attractive - for example, Jethann of the Blooming Rose referred to her as a "tall, handsome woman" in recent years), but after having to deal with men finding her extremely attractive for all of her life, despite her very obvious disinterest in the opposite sex, Meredith has grown to have a general dislike for most men.  While she generally trusts that the men who serve under her do so at a professional level, she cares little for their personal lives or interests, and only interacts as necessary. Overall, she has very few 'friends', given her position and devotion to the Order, but she holds even less desire to be friends with men. She has no reason to engage with men beyond a professional capacity. That said, though, she does seem to care a lot for Thrask, and is quite upset when she finds out he betrays her, so I like to believe that they were in the same cohort in their youth, training and serving the Order together for many years; in this way, that particular relationship almost embodies a familial relationship, and is most certainly an exception to the rule.

Conclusion

Overall, the social context of Thedas, and Kirkwall in particular, has shaped how Meredith has developed as a person and how her sexuality exists within the constraints of the society she lives in. While Meredith accepts close familial relationships that are based in mentorship, respect, and to some degree, love, she typically rejects general relationships with men outside of that context; as a lesbian woman, she has no romantic or sexual interests in men, but as someone who is considered conventionally attractive by society and ergo, heterosexual men, she has had the unfortunate experience of being romantically and sexually pursued by them. And, because it is not the norm in society, Meredith cannot be open with her lesbian sexuality (again, for fear of social stigma affecting her career), and therefore, cannot establish rejection on the basis of a lack of attraction, but rather, instead, must reject men on the basis of her devotion to her faith. This has led to Meredith's general dislike for men, and preference to avoid interaction if at all possible. Outside of this fictional context and going into real life, a lot of lesbians - myself included - find it more comfortable to decenter men in our lives. This is a process that helps women break free from a compulsory heterosexual society (from Adrienne Rich's (1980) theory that heterosexuality is innately assumed and enforced by a patriarchal and heteronormative society, particularly for women), by way of unlearning and subverting patriarchal norms, and changing gender relations, so that women's worth is not tied to the interests of, nor the relationships to men. Obviously, this process is arguably easier for lesbian women who already lack the romantic/sexual attraction to men and who love and support women. Obviously, for Meredith, this is not as easily attainable in the context of Kirkwall and wider society in Thedas. She spends almost all of her time surrounded by men in the Gallows who serve under her as Knight-Commander, though for the most part, they respect her as their leader. While she cannot necessarily decenter men in the same way as someone like me in a modern world, she finds her reprieve where she can by going to the Chantry for her daily evening prayer where she is surrounded by other women. This is why, if she has the opportunity to meet, work with, or even engage in potential relationships with, more women outside of the Order - as nobles or even otherwise - she will take it.

[wowitsverycool]

this may be a strange thing to say but ISAT is one of the only places i can accept cutesy found family type things because it just feels like its characters are Like That. its characters are given enough interiority that their twee behavior becomes a character quirk rather than a cliché in my mind. when they express the wide range of emotions and responses that they do, it convinces me that they are authentically representative of a sort-of-internet-poisoned-friendgroup because that's what they are (personality-wise), not because their author doesn't know how to write anything else. they make me almost nostalgic for small friend groups on forums and discord servers i used to have when i was younger. it's comforting, which lends perfectly to the initial atmosphere of acts 1-3, imo.