#I looked it up on Wikipedia 🤷‍♀️

[twnj]

*breathing out smoke*

"...All this I want to fulfill according to my honor... and my...conscience..."

*sigh*

Shikamaru practicing the Finnish Military Oath one last time before his national service ceremony. He's doing his Military (sm)Oa(ke)...

Headcanon madness inspired by the wonderful fic Grandmaster by @notquitejiraiya

[sophieinwonderland]

Now, why would you dare me to embarrass you and your pals like that?

I appreciate how you wanted my attention so bad you posted me to not one, but two subreddits.

Makes a girl feel special! 🤣

I have actually never seen Wikipedia cited as a source about endogenic plurality. Though I do see anti-endos all the time, when asked for sources, telling people to just Google things.

Anyway, here's @guardianssystem's document filled with academic papers about endogenic plurality:

I've compiled my own, but honestly, theirs is better organized than mine.

And in the interest of fairness, here are all the anti-endo papers debunking endogenic plurality:

Sorry, I forgot. Those don't exist. Oops. 🤷‍♀️

Echo chamber? LOL!

Weren't you the one spouting a bunch of lies on Tumblr, got totally debunked, posted the people who debunked you to r/systemscringe to have a hugbox where fakeclaimers could assure you how the people who contradicted you are all fakers, and then blocked everyone who disagreed with you?

Weren't you also the one who, when shown a quote from an expert in dissociative disorders who worked on the DSM-5 saying that a disorder isn't a disorder if it doesn't cause distress, argued that the people who defined what disorder are must be wrong about that definition?

You're a misinformation machine who can only find support when huddled in cringe subreddits. Don't try to talk about people in echo chambers.

Also, you know most of psychology is just... listening to people? That's how it's been as long as the field existed. DID (or MPD at the time) was a recognized disorder since long before the first brain scans were conducted on DID patients. It's saying something though when basically every single scientist who has ever researched endogenic plurality has said they believe it's a real thing, or that it could be. While absolutely zero academic papers have expressed that it's fake.

There is also an fMRI study into tulpa systems that's been in the works, but results have yet to be published.

Sure, if that's what you'd like me to call you, Crazy. 😊

Anyway, Crazy, you should know that just because you personally find something scary doesn't mean everyone will or that the thing is bad. Personal preferences are a thing.

In a study of tulpamancers though, most generally reported their lives becoming better after the practice.

78% reported improvements in their mental health, and 91% on overall life.

There are many out there who would jump at the chance to have someone there with them that knows them intimately, and to never have to be alone again.

If it's not for you, then so be it.

But it's certainly not something to be afraid of.

And maybe, for those who are willing to commit to the practice while America struggles with an epidemic of loneliness, it's something worth being open to.

This is actually pretty fair.

But that's now, and I'm looking at course of history and trends of plural acceptance.

300 years ago, any plural would be viewed as demon possessed and end up tortured or killed for their plurality.

70 years ago, all plurality was seen as a mental illness, and it was common to force plurals, as well as anyone else associated with mental illnesses, into asylums.

30 years ago, the first real plural communities were able to connect on the internet and form in small numbers.

8 years ago, the first studies into endogenic plurality started being conducted. 4 years ago, the ICD-11 acknowledged that you could have multiple distinct personality states without a disorder. 2023 marked the first, but certainly not the last, time a system used their system name as an author of an academic paper.

Recently, new plural resources have been designed and put into use. More servers than ever are using Pluralkit. And Simply Plural went from 100k users at the end of 2021 to 210k at the end of 2022.

Progress is happening far more rapidly than you realize. And you had best be ready for it.

BOO! 👻

Oh, hey, I just realized... this is literal pluralphobia!

Liberté!

Egalité!

Fraternité!

And yes, The Future is Plural! 😜

[helpimstuckposting]

Okay I saw someone else putting characters to the four elements, but that got me thinking about the actual statements that have been read out and I got a hunch. Below are my red string ramblings of a mad man

So I looked up the elements of alchemy and found the planetary metals and what they can represent

Lead, Saturn - Harvest, Crops, Husbandry

Tin, Jupiter - Internal Organization, External Relations

Iron, Mars - War and Bloodshed

Gold, Sun - Helios, Light and Sight

Copper, Venus - Love and Beauty

Mercury - Messages and Communication

Silver, Moon - Intuition and Subconscious, Hunters, Crossroads

Now, seeing them all makes me wonder if my hunch is correct or if I’m just seeing things as confirmation bias, but I went ahead and assigned each to the cases they reminded me of, and included the four elements as well. One of the planetary metals connects to communication and technically all of the cases are communication in some way, but I specifically only put it as a label on cases that were categorized with the communication type (chat boards, phone calls, email, etc)

MAGP01 - Venus, Mercury (love for her husband, message boards) EARTH, FIRE

MAGP02 - Venus (beauty)

MAGP03 - Saturn (crops) EARTH

MAGP04 - Mars (bloodshed)

MAGP05 - Sun (sight) AIR

MAGP06 - Mars, Mercury (Needles, phone call)

MAGP07 - Jupiter, Mercury (response department, email) FIRE

MAGP08 - Moon (crossroads, liminal spaces) AIR

MAGP09 - Mars (bloodshed)

MAGP10 - Jupiter, Moon (external relations, intuition) WATER

MAGP11 - Venus, Mercury (beautiful tattoo, email) WATER

MAGP12 - Jupiter, Mars (external relations, bloodshed)

MAGP13 - Mars, Mercury (bloodshed, voicemail)

MAGP14 - Saturn (husbandry)

MAGP15 - Moon, Jupiter (hunt, external relations) WATER

MAGP16 - Venus (love, heart) EARTH

MAGP17 - Mars (anger, murder)

MAGP18 - Moon (subconscious? could also be sight if an archivist did this, but I’m not totally sure) AIR

MAGP19 - Jupiter, Moon (internal organization, Diana’s Tree) FIRE

This could absolutely just be confirmation bias, and none of this is accurate or real but it was fun to research anyway. Idk anything about alchemy so all of this information is just wiki-based and might be majorly incorrect

The AIR labels are mostly based on the Lonely, falling, and disappearing.

EARTH is labelled for cases that mention dirt or digging

WATER is labelled for cases involving the deep, drowning, or dampness

And FIRE are all the instances of what I assume is The Magnus Protocol (burn it all down)

If anyone got this far, thank you for listening to my red string conspiracy ranting! This is more a case of “throw 100 darts at a wall and maybe one of them will stick” rather than an actual comprehensive theory, and it’s probably wildly incorrect but I had fun anyway so 🤷‍♀️

This all mostly stemmed from the fact that Jupiter being linked to “external relations” was ODDLY SPECIFIC, and also the EXACT WORDS used by Wikipedia so I definitely spiraled from there

[myaaist]

So about Terence and Dion

tldr; these two are really, really similar to Patroclus and Achilles

So a couple weeks after the game was released I tweeted this.

Of course two months later while doing some research for a WIP teredio fic I develop a brainrot so strong about this very comparison

disclaimer: this is all purely speculation made out of 7 hours of brainrot. I am not in any way an expert in greek mythology and i cannot even afford a PS5. This is purely a fun write-up I made in hopes of my hyperfixation reaching other people who also adore this pairing. This is also VERY long and windy.

Right, firstly, I don't think it is a reach to make this comparison at all; if anything, I am more surprised by how few people have actually posted anything in the interwebs about this (I found like, one other tumblr post, but I am also not a part of the ship Discord server for this pairing so I might just be late to the party 🤷‍♀️).

FF16 is FULL of references to greek mythology and culture. Cid's last name Telamon is the name of one of the Argonauts, Charon is the name of the ferryman to the underworld who requires payment for passage to the underworld, Ambrosia is the food of the gods, and those are just the simple ones that I think most people can tell from modern pop culture references. Comparing Terence and Dion to Patroclus and Achilles, one of the most famous greek relationships between two adult men, is really not that far of a reach.

Actually, the thing that got me to tweet that teredio reminds me of patrochilles is the whole hero-and-squire relationship they got going on since the very beginning. Terence is technically Dion's second-in-command, but with that opening scene of Terence holding onto Dion's spear and then followed by the cutscene of him tending to Dion's arm in the camp which is also followed by thee kiss scene? Doesn't take a meta analysis to draw the line from one ship to another

(Also the hero with blonde hair and his lover with dark brown hair 👀 but this is more of a common trope rather than something specific to patrochilles)

And that is where I left my teredio-is-like-patrochilles thoughts for a good while. I spent the next two months RTing all the gorgeous teredio fanarts on twitter, read a few teredio fanfics, then onto other FF16 ships like a normal person.

(my personal favourite for the longest time is Cid x Clive; the longfics for this pairing are insanely good..)

Then I decided to write a oneshot for teredio about their servant-and-master relationship (at least, that's how they worded it in the game).

I wanted to find a better way to describe their relationship in my fic; still sticking to the term master and servant as it is canon in the english script, but not neccessarily implying an irreconcilable difference in social standing or power imbalance. My searches somehow led me to biblical fanfiction, in which I find some very interesting takes on David and Jonathan, which then leads me to a wikipedia page about David and Jonathan --

and then back to where I began, Patroclus and Achilles.

except when I first made that comparison, it was just a tweet off the top of my head. I read Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller in 2016, and I do not remember everything that happens in that book. All I remember is roughly the overall feel of the relationship and that these two greek characters died tragically and that their ashes are buried together.

So imagine my surprise when I see this image on the wikipedia page for Patroclus and Achilles.

The caption says: Achilles bandaging the arm of Patroclus.

I do not have 4k screencaps the exact scene so have this image i copied off GamesRadar off a lousy google search

Great, so they both share an arm-bandaging scene. Doesn't make them any more similar, you'd say. Also, didn't I just draw similarities from Achilles to Dion and Patroclus to Terence in the beginning? This one is completely swapped!

Well give me a moment to recover from the shock of seeing what looks very similar to a ship i like on a real-life greek pottery painting, and let's get to actually comparing details.

Quick note, I will be using in-game canon, the information from the newly released FF16 ultimania, descriptions from homeric traditions, and also the book Song of Achilles (SoA). You can argue that using Song of Achilles as a reference is a stretch because it is a romance book that treats patrochilles as a canon homosexual relationship, but honestly Madeline Miller took 10 years to write that book and I don't think I can compete with her amount of research in 7 hours.

What's similar:

Terence is the son of a minor noble family in Sanbreque (from the Ultimania), and Patroclus is the son of Menoetius, one of the Argonauts. They are both from 'lesser' lineages in comparison to their partners, but is still technically born into nobility.

Terence and Dion grew up together after meeting each other in school at age 7 (from the Ultimania), and Patroclus and Achilles grew up together in Phthia after Patroclus was exiled. Both are childhood friends who grew into adulthood together.

Terence is instated as Dion's squire at age 12 (from the Ultimania), and Patroclus is given to Achilles by Achilles' father Peleus as his henchman (from the Illiad, though translations differ) or his trusted brother-in-arms (from SoA). Both are bound by duty to their partners from a young age.

Terence is Dion's second-in-command during the events of the game, and Patroclus is Achilles' right-hand-man during the events of the Trojan War (from the Illiad and SoA). Both are confidants to their partners during war times.

Dion is the dominant of Bahamut and the prince of Sanbreque, Achilles is the son of the Nereid Thetis and a mortal king Peleus. Both are born into nobility and are famous for their inhuman battle prowess.

Dion's main weapon of choice is a lance, and Achilles was given the legendary Pelian Spear by Chiron the Centaur before he participated in the Trojan War (from the Illiad). Both notably use spears/lances/pokey sticks.

I think those are the main similarities that I can in good faith say are pretty obvious. Next are the things that I personally think might be slightly delusional depending on the angle you approach the premise from.

What can be a bit of a reach:

The arm bandaging scenes. Assuming it is to relief the pain from the Crystal's Curse, Dion is not the only dominant to start petrifying from his arm. Cid also has similar marks on his arms and Clive's hand eventually petrifies. However, it is also the first scene where we explicitly see the extent of Dion and Terence's relationship.

There is no mention about Terence's relationship with his family, while Patroclus is notably exiled from his father's lands -- that's how he gets to Phthia and meets Achilles. Instead, we know that Dion's family did not love him (from the Ultimania)

Dion is the son born of a courtesan, and his father had her killed after buying him from her (from the Ultimania). Achilles is born of Peleus basically binding and coercing Thetis after she is gifted to Peleus by Zeus and Poseidon. Both tales frame the image of both men's fathers being not exactly good people, and their marriages and the births of their sons would be important to mark the start of upcoming events (the Judgement of Paris took place at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus, Dion's birth and awakening backs Sylvestre's claim to the throne). I call this sort of a reach because this doesn't exactly play into the relationships' dynamics per se, just a reminder that their fathers are horrible people 🤷‍♀️

There is an element of fate in Achilles' death, where the god Apollo is said to have guided the arrow Paris shot to Achilles' heel. The dominants in the game have on multiple occasions been mentioned to be slaves to their own fates, and the main theme of the game has much to do with defying fate decided by gods, even if it means die trying. Dion 'dies' defying the fate Ultima has decided for humanity, so I guess there is a similarity?

This is the biggest reach of all lol. So remember that I mentioned Telamon, Cid's last name, is also the name of one of the Argonauts? Telamon is also the older brother of Peleus, Achilles' father. Now, I do not think that this is the only explanation as to why the writers chose the name Telamon out of all the other greek names. The writers managed to shove in 3 different thunder gods into Cid's character, and I refuse to believe that they chose the name just because Telamon is somewhat related to Achilles. Telamon is also the father to Ajax the Great who is a notable hero, but Ajax is like, second to Achilles in fame and I don't really see a FF16 character that can be somewhat related to Ajax..

Okay, so what does this all mean?

Honestly I don't know lol

Terence x Dion, unlike many other ships I've liked, is an actually canon ship at some point in the game's story. Even without the comparison, the ship still stands as confirmed to be canon. Drawing lines from two greek mythology characters to them does not make the ship any more canon than it already is.

But the game's story also doesn't shed much light on the ship itself, not in the base game at least. Fair enough, it is Clive's story and not Dion's story, so Terence, who doesn't play a part in Clive's story, doesn't get to be in the spotlight for long. Dion's conflict with his own father is also given more weight to Dion's character development. We're given so little information about Terence that when the Ultimania came out I was just happy I get more crumbs of lore to work with.

I don't think the devs took direct inspiration from the tale of Achilles and Patroclus either. We've learned that FF16 is just a melting pot of all the storytelling and worldbuilding elements we loved from FFXIV, FF12, GoT, greek mythology, classic FF and media tropes, and so much more. The most I can think of is that the writers wanted to write a canon gay love story that people will love, and in doing so they picked out the romance tropes and stories that have been widely accepted and loved for a long time. Childhood friends to lovers, unrequited first loves that eventually became mutual in the threat of separation, the second-in-command who is loyal in both duty and matters of the heart.

If the tale of Achilles and Patroclus happens to fall under that category, needless to say I am very happy with the writers' decision. If not, well consider this just a very very long headcanon post

If you've never read anything related to patrochilles and is interested, I highly recommend reading the Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller! Prepare about half the amount of tissue you've used for FF16 and you're all set for a heartbreaking love story 🥰

Also I hope these two don't die as tragically as Achilles and Patroclus.

[ghoulphile]

hi! um, a couple random questions if you've got the time and do not mind.

1. thoughts on Gob & Raul, my most beloved ghouls? not looking for anything specific, just curious, i'm new around this blog i guess, haha.

2. i'm also becoming deeply afflicted with the Walton Goggins BrainRot™ and am going to be binge watching some of his movies, do you have a favorite?

3. also also have you seen his Wikipedia photo? dear god that man truly has a 100,000 watt smile, it feels like i've just stared into the sun, 10/10 do recommend.

have a pleasant day, and thanks for your time! be well! 👍

hello and welcome~ i’m more than happy to answer random questions, i love them 🥰

1. thoughts on Gob & Raul, my most beloved ghouls?

i love them both! this is an all ghouls lover blog lol. gob is my baby — i will murder anyone who harms him, and raul is my sassy sarcastic lil guy.

2. i'm also becoming deeply afflicted with the Walton Goggins BrainRot™ and am going to be binge watching some of his movies, do you have a favorite?

so funny thing is… i’m working my way through his filmography myself 😅 i had no clue who he was before fallout even though he’s been in several of my fave movies like? what??

that said, i’ve watched vice principals, the unicorn, and the righteous gemstones for his tv shows so far. i adored vice principals so i’d definitely recommend that one. i also really liked the unicorn (still finishing season one), it’s got a cute story and he looks too good in every episode 😮‍💨

the righteous gemstones — he’s not in very much though i just finished season 1 so idk, plus he’s a 70 year old man in it so it’s not really a thirst watch for me. i’m ambivalent about it atm if i’m being honest. idk if it’s the premise (televangelist family with scandals and secrets… and i didn’t grow up with religion/church so some things kinda made me go ???) or what but it’s not my favorite thus far. the acting is great and there are a lot of people from vice principals in it, and other shows i like but 🤷‍♀️ we’ll see lol.

for movies, i love the maze runner series and recently rewatched it — though he’s in the death cure for all of 3 minutes? maybe? idk but he doesn’t have a nose again lol. there’s also the 2018 reboot of tomb raider and the ant-man movie but i have no clue of his involvement as i watched them before i knew who he was.

3. also also have you seen his Wikipedia photo? dear god that man truly has a 100,000 watt smile, it feels like i've just stared into the sun, 10/10 do recommend.

oh 🥹 you’re so right he’s such a cute dork i cant—

i hope you have a great day ❤️!

[byrcca]

I ❤️ WORDS

“This is Admiral Paris.”

“Hello, Sir.”

“How are your people holding up?”

“Very well. They’re an exemplary crew, your son included.”

“Tell him…Tell him I miss him. And I’m proud of him.”

“He heard you, Admiral.”

I really do love words. I love how we can play with them, how they can evoke emotion in the way we pair them, and how they can surprise me with their meanings. And every once in a while the universe (all of them?) is kind and presents me with a … gift.

I have a persistent fic idea that will likely never be written but every once in a while pushes its way back into my brain and stays a while. And I can’t help but bask in the glow of what-if…? Sometimes I even find myself doing a little—a wee bit ‘o—research. And as the idea orbits my brain synchronicity magically appears from the depths of the aforementioned brain (unlike words in a fic I’m writing) and I find a few lines of delight on my computer screen. This happened today when I got it in my head to look up the meaning of Owen Paris’ name.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Owen is usually an anglicised variant of the Welsh personal name Owain. Originally a patronymic, Owen became a fixed surname in Wales beginning with the reign of Henry VIII.[1] Etymologists consider it to originate from Eugene meaning 'noble-born'.[2] According to T. J. Morgan and Prys Morgan in Welsh Surnames: "the name is a derivation of the Latin Eugenis > OW Ou[u]ein, Eug[u]ein ... <snip>

Now most (some?) of us know that the show runners named Thomas Eugene Paris after Gene Roddenberry, the legendary creator of Star Trek. But how absolutely wonderful is it that Eugene = Owen, Tom’s dad’s name!?

😃

The creators of Voyager inadvertently (unless they looked it up 🤷‍♀️) gave Tom his father’s name for his middle name.

Seriously, I love words! ❤️

[patricia-von-arundel]

CONTENT WARNING: transphobia, other prejudices, suicide/murder, violence, family and religious trauma

I am going to tag with "transphobia" for now, but please let me know if there is another tag you need, especially considering how curious the human mind gets. Anon is on if that's your preference.

And for the record, I am not trans.

Irony being that she blocked me yesterday (TDOV) for saying there are reasons to include pronouns in your info besides being trans after this:

Well, lady, I'm long past silence, period, with people who refuse to realize that they are perpetuating the same sorts of dehumanizing behaviors they would likely call horrendous when safely viewed through being decades removed from it. It's theoretically no longer acceptable (wantonly and unapologetically - you have to at least pretend there was some other reason... like being trans/gay) to murder, ostracize, belittle, etc., people for their religion, or skin color, or ethnicity, or political orientation, or or or...

I know it happens everyday. I'm a lot of things, but stupidly naive isn't one of them. Not my point here -

And that point is, that openly making fun of, demeaning, or verbally abusing a particular group of people generally only happens when the person doing it knows they will have at least some community support. This is true in people from the moment they can toddle around with enough balance to hit the kid who has the toy truck they want. The 2-year-old gets upset not because of empathy with the other, but because they got caught and in trouble.

Empathy develops to some extent for most. But not all. 🤷‍♀️ And many adults never seem to escape the desperate need to be part of an in-group, and potentially dehumanize or disenfranchise an out-group to be given that part.

While being "normal" gay/lesbian (aka, "stop complicating things and get in the box we've assigned you!") has slooooowly begun to swing closer to being mainstream acceptable or at least somewhat tolerated (and I would dearly love to take a stick to "love the sinner, hate the sin" bullshit), those who do not fall neatly into such categories are still stuck fleeing the field of open season.

I do have a question, though, for those who mock gender identities, pronouns, etc. -

My grandmother died 13 years ago. She grew up in the rural Southeastern US, born in the 1920s. She supported the Civil Rights movement.

But she would not let POC use the bathroom in her house.

My question is: do you think this acceptable? Do you think it is okay to use a particular time, place, and social norms to justify continuing to support and perpetuate microaggressions that were seen only 60-odd years ago as normal?

If you would find it demeaning and horrifying that there are white people who continue to refuse to let black people pee in their toilet, answer me honestly:

How is it not just as demeaning and horrifying to refuse someone's preference for what you call them, in names, or pronouns, or both?

"But I never actually hurt anyone!"

Yeah - neither did my grandmother.

"Look, it's funny. Sorry. But it is. What the fuck is a Ze/Zir? Sounds like some crazy lesbian sci-fi move. 🤣"

Verbal aggression is still aggression.

And here is what I said that got me blocked:

Human history is full of people who shrug and accept the status quo, people who look the other way, and people using the former behaviors to justify their own. Mocking and demeaning seem "harmless" - until they aren't.

"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?!" asked Henry II, frustrated that his new Archbishop of Canterbury was being difficult. After all, Thomas had been picked specifically so that he would side with the king and nobilty over the pope and church! And now he wasn't cooperating. At all.

And maybe the quote above isn't quite how it went. The Zapruder manuscript has yet to be found. 🤷‍♀️ But he said something while grumpy and sulking.

And by the end of 1170, Thomas Becket's brains were splattered all over the altar at Canterbury Cathedral.

I'm not saying one obscure author mocking pronouns is going to end up with anyone murdered. Almost certainly, it will not. But such microaggressions can snowball. If more and more people find more and more dehumanizing behavior acceptable... where does it stop?

With heads smashed open before a church altar? With the wanton murder of thousands through Crusade? With civil war and invasion? With slavery and genocide? With forced marriages, chemical castration, jail, banishment?

All have happened.

But whatever your personal stance on pronouns... even just mocking, arguing that the trend of choosing gender and pronouns is "absurd," may leave you one day wondering if anything will be capable of scrubbing away the stains it may leave on your hands.

Ask yourself what your grandchildren might think of your behavior, one day.

And for anyone reading while dealing with your own trauma and self-harm, please reach out, if at all possible, to people who can help you. You deserve to be safe, and respected, and loved.

You deserve to live. And I hope we can keep working together to make that a life you'll love to live. 💖🏳️‍⚧️

[unicornsaures]

Okay so usually I dont involve myself in this kind of post because its an inevitable thing people will think about if theyre not involved in any history-related fandoms but ive personally seen a rise of this kind of post on my dash. So the reason people make things up and headcanon real, historical figures(musical or not), is because it is simply how every community functions. Theres no going around it.

Its just people having fun and considering the major gaps and contradictions in history, it makes for a wonderful place to express some creativity if we acknowledge the fact that technically speaking, a full timeline does. not. exist.

History is not fully documented. Saying 'just look at wikipedia' does nothing other than give basic information on each person or event. Headcanoning is just inevitable in a community and despite the moral conflict that may be seen in history-based fandoms, we just run as any other community would.🤷‍♀️

when will people stop making shit up abt hamilton (the musical) it’s literally based on real history why on earth would u make up headcanons canon is literally available to read on wikipedia just search up american war of independence

[jimgandolfini]

me, watching a lot of penn & teller videos lately: hmm teller is kinda cute

[occidentaltourist]

I saw that the top Amazon reviews for Strange New Worlds are 1-star complaining about it being all women (and Montana having windmills 🤷‍♀️), so I looked up the main cast on Wikipedia and it's 5 women and 4 men. And I was like ??????

Hahaha for real?? I guess some things about these juggernaut fandoms never change, even like half a century later. ;)

I wonder what the 'right' number of women characters would be? Is any number higher than 1 - and that (young and conventionally attractive) one better be seen and not heard! - too many?

I love that the Star Trek universe continues to expand with new stories and/or new takes on old ones, with characters that probably wouldn't have made it onscreen a few decades ago. The grumpy fans can die mad about it, I guess. :D

[king-maven-calore]

ayo as a poc, Mare’s poc status seems very iffy in my eyes idk 😭😭

To me it feels like Victoria rlly said “yk what I feel like avoiding some controversy” *vigorously tries to call Mare a poc without giving her any ethnic features or even mentioning it at all in the 1st book*

I had to read the RQ for school so no, I didn’t miss it, I took heavy annotations on it. Mare is honestly my least favorite character because of how WHITE she’s written from a poc standpoint.

It’s this very common thing with yt writers where they darken a characters skin tone and think that’s all it means to be a person of color. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect Victoria to make insightful commentary as she IS a white woman, and since it’s fantasy and our ideas of race in this world aren’t supposed to exist. But representation isn’t just “wow she also has dark skin” it’s more the features. Mare is consistently described as having Eurocentric features.

And then white people always try to talk over us like “oh well it doesn’t matter she’s just written that-“ like shush omfg. People calling Mare Latina is hella disrespectful 💀 like what the actual fuck Latin countries don’t even exist in their world. Her last name is fucking Barrow. Her middle name is Molly. That’s so European I had a seizure. Just randomly saying “yuh girlie this character is Latina” seems fucked up.

Not directed @ you but just in general this shit sucks because it gets us further and further away from actual helpful representation in media.

I get you're upset about this. Maybe you've read too much of this type of character and you're fed up with it. I feel you. I agree Mare's skin color being barely described in canon (it got better as the books went by, but it was too little too late🎵) when the Calore boys' skin color was mentioned every two sentences was not great. I don't think Mare was described as having Eurocentric features tho... she simply wasn't described all that much 🤷‍♀️

My personal take on white writers making characters random ethnicities in fantasy/sci-fi and that not having any relevance whatsoever on the plot is that I freaking love it. I find it refreshing, a good step toward diversity in fiction as long as they don't bring up real-life stereotypes into the page 🤡. Why does the character having X skin color have to affect their journey if the plot has nothing to do with it? It's like the issue with the S&B adaptation: in their effort to be more "woke" and shoving fictional anti-Asian racism into the show, they alienated Asian viewers. I'm a brown, indigenous Latina. I like reading stories where people who I can imagine looking like me are getting the magical stone and their skin color doesn't matter. When I want to read stories where racial/gender/sexual orientation issues are central topics, I'll simply go read authors who have an actual say in the matter bc of their lived experience.

About Mare having a European name. I say this with all the love in my heart: please stop thinking of us Latines as brown-skinned, brown-eyed people with the last name Torres or Rodriguez. That's not what our demographic looks like (I do look like that tho). There have been so many immigration movements all through history, there are black ppl with European last names, there are blond-whiter-that-mayo ppl with Torres last name. We mixed around these places. I kindly invite you to watch a video on the topic (reading statistics on Wikipedia is no fun).

And finally, you won't catch me defending a white writer lady in my house, but VA only said Mare would be of latine descent after being asked about it by fans. Her reply and explanation made sense with the RQ world-building. Now it became of relevance bc of fancasts and for me personally bc I write modern AUs where Latin America is very much still around geographically speaking 🥴.

That's my personal stance on the matter, but I respect your frustration and the points you brought up about the lack of description of Mare's physical appearance.

[lady-of-disdain]

No but I’m pissed at the fact that they demanded that anti to change their tags. They did it last time when they had their other derange friend with them. When I used to visit the inuyasha tag I would see a bunch of think [redacted] shit and it freakin bothered me but I’m not going to comment on someone post and tell them to change their tag. Block them and the anti tag. It’s not that hard. I have so many shippers blocked and I’m living happily. At this point they are asking to get attacked. And they are probably going to play the victim. I can’t stand these shippers.

Yup, I went through my block purge a while ago, and let me tell you, my life is so much more stress free. I almost never even get rude anons anymore (except for that one Wikipedia troll which was pretty hilarious).

The two users who were harassing the op on their post were legitimately just looking for an excuse to kick up shit, there is nothing in this world forcing them to interact with us if they don't like our opinions.

I want to be very clear though, that even though they were being assholes, I would really hope that no one sends them anonymous hate. Anon hate is one of my biggest pet peeves, because it's spineless and shitty. If you want to debate or disagree with someone do it off anon. I guess that's the only point I can give those two morons is that they at least displayed their idiotic opinions off anon for the world to see. 🤷‍♀️

[mondayborn]

About mountains: I googled quickly and Wikipedia told me "About one third of Finland lies below 100 m, and about two thirds lies under 200 m", so yep, not much of mountains in Finland 🤷‍♀️

Thank you dear anon I was too tired to look it up yesterday. I found National Geographic kids was pretty informative actually. Now I know Finland is mostly flat and has hella lakes. Also it's been an independent country since 1917 🤯

[silver-wield]

Another scene I see C/A bring to show the supposed crush on Aerith is when he said "Learn to talk to her" while being with her. I don't remember too much this scene or the context (is it optional?) So could you explain it to me? Also the cover art for intergrade, they say it's canon now because Arith and Cloud are standing next to each other...They put Clerith is canon a movie written by Nomura...He isn't even the writer?? Idk how I ended up in the C/A side of twitter but I regret it lol

This is Cloud's face during that line.

So much romance idk how we'll ever get over it lmfao

That whole scene is optional if you do all of the sidequests in chapter 8 and get the language of flowers, where Aerith is basically talking to herself the entire time, Cloud is barely shown and remains at least 6ft away from her the entire time. They think him being a dork and handing off responsibility for Aerith's welfare to some flowers is romantic.

Cloud tells the flowers to talk to Aerith, but he wants Tifa to talk to him. "If you wanna talk, I'm listening."

No comparison really 🤷‍♀️

They don't know who the devs are. They can't tell the difference between Nomura, the creative director, and Nojima, the scenario writer.

As for this, lemme explain a little about compositional framing. Or, lemme steal a definition from Wikipedia lol

So, to put it simply the key interest points are found within the centre frame and along the guidelines or intersections.

You'll notice the main focus is set at the intersection of the guidelines in these examples, but the focus can also be within a square and draw the eyeline across the entire image using the horizontal line as a guide.

So, excuse the dodgy guidelines I've added to the key art

The sunset and horizon are a focal point on the left and draw the eye across the art from left to right. The golden trio take up the centre square, giving them the major focus of the piece with Tifa and Cloud bracketing the left and right vertical lines, with the secondary focus being Aerith and Red.

The fact the cult say this is proof when Cloud is positioned even further from Aerith than he was in the original Remake group art is hilarious. There's a whole ass bike between them 🤣

Of course they don't understand how composition works, same way they don't understand how scene framing and camera angles work. The only thing they see is their own bullshit. I'm a novice and I can see the intention is to frame the golden trio and the horizon as the key focus in this. The eye is drawn to the sunrise and Cloud, Tifa and Barret, then Aerith and Red.

I never look in their tag, it's just not worth it. I see a few screenshots from people I follow and that's more than enough stupidity to fill several pages worth of bs per month in my cult bs thread. I really don't want or need to see more of their gross shit.

[blackbackedjackal]

What are your favorite animals books? Stories, ecology, educational? I’m looking for good things to read! Also have you read watership down by any chance? Incident at hawks hill, wolf woman, and watership down have all been my faves since I was a child ❤️

I was a big Jack London and Jean Craighead George fan when I was a kid, but now I prefer to read animal encyclopedias, ecology books, and first hand studies of people documenting a specific animal or group of animals. I like animal fiction more in movies now than in books (years of being forced to read fiction books I didn't like in school made me not like reading fiction for fun anymore 😔).

I read Watership Down in 5th grade for class! My teachers had the brilliant idea of letting us watch the movie in class too lmao. I LOVED it but kinda forgot about it till high school and that's when I learned about The Plague Dogs as well which was even more up my alley (and I did end up reading the book later).

So yeah like, favorite fiction books would be Call of the Wild, White Fang, Julie of the Wolves, The Plague Dogs, and Where the Red Fern Grows! I've been recommended a ton of things to check out but I just struggle with reading fiction as an adult :(! I think the last fictional book series I actively read was Vampire Hunter D and that was back in college. Non-fiction is definitely the Smithsonian Animal Encyclopedia!! I've had a copy since 3rd grade and still read it for animal facts. That book was like pre-Wikipedia so it was how I learned so much about animals when I was little. I also had a dog book from scholastic when I was really little that had a section on Laika, and my granny got me a copy of Balto: The Bravest Dog Ever when I was like 4 or 5 which is Anti-Togo propaganda but hey at least I learned 🤷‍♀️

[sugarmountainspring]

Idk why Americans are big mad with your post. You didn't say citizens are responsible for not saving up you're literally talking about government aid. It's hard for them to admit but they just don't want other countries talking about them, explains why at their worst they even leave WHO and have repeatedly tried to leave the UN 🤷‍♀️ not to say they're not marginalized but being the super state of the world really has that effect

(Cont.) When you tell Americans they have privilege over other nations or have shitty government they'll talk about how it'll hurt the feelings of the marginalized (even though the opinions even mirror those of the us marginalized) but has no feelings spared for the minorities in the UK that they make fun of a lot, because they just don't care.

---------------------------------------------------

Yeah I'm still getting messages over that post 😅. It wasn't anything like a diss to the citizens of america, or bragging about how great being canadian is or anything like that. I'm sure I could have worded it better, I dont remember exactly what I said. I intended it to be against the government of America, nobody else. I was just looking at covid stats worldwide on wikipedia and I got mad at how clearly misappropriated the funds had been in america and how much corruption must be taking place. People misinterpreted it 🤷‍♂️