#I am not disagreeing I am Adding and Expanding my points

[ppapagei]

Respectfully, I feel as though you misunderstood my argument & I want to clarify my position & respond to your points:

1.) She has not said that she will not fight for our trans community. These tweets you have added & McBride‘s statement on H.R. 1579 are not even contradictory. She says she disagrees w the bathroom policy, and is pointing out how the right continues to use us as a boogeyman to garner support under the guise of ''safety'' and 'protecting women'', then will cut social programs, healthcare, push abortion bans, etc., harming the very people they claim to protect. (ofc alongside trans ppl who also need these programs, medical procedures, etc.) I believe that throughout her career McBride has explicitly stood up for transgender rights as spokesperson for the HRC, being the first openly trans state senator & her work in that position to expand access to healthcare & social programs that benefit transgender people. When she is sworn in she will be the highest-ranked transgender elected official in US history, and it is disingenuous & misinformed to claim she is throwing the trans community under the bus w her recent statement on H.R. 1579.

2.) I mean performative in the sense that those pushing for this bathroom ban (Nancy Mace) are not doing it out of genuine concern for women‘s welfare. Bathroom bills & similar policies (genital checks, etc.) have & will harm cis ppl as well as trans ppl (their intended target). Women & nonwomen, cis & trans, intersex & perisex, black & white, however we will describe people, all can & will be harmed by this type of legislation. It is a performative bullshit excuse of ''protecting women'' that in reality will harm more women than it claims to ''help'' or ''protect''.

3.) Trans men are not just ''caught in the crossfire'', please don’t even try to lecture me on my own lived experience. We are also targets of transphobic bills like this, and our invisibility isn‘t a privilege, in the same way the hypervisibility of trans femmes isn’t a privilege. I have remained respectful w how I communicate w you, a stranger on the internet, but it is clear that energy is not being reciprocated. We are fighting the same fight. My intention w my original post (a personal vent that suddenly blew up lol) is that I am so incredibly fed up w this crabs-in-a-bucket mentality & infighting that holds us back. We agree on so much, but someone using different language, priorities, or strategies to fix a major societal problem (that cannot be solved by just one person or on one front btw!!!) means we should just throw them away?? How can we ever expect to achieve anything with that mentality?

4.) ''She and the rest of us will always be the disgusting trannies no matter how much we grovel and say "thank you for misgendering me Mr. Speaker, I am actually a sexual threat to cis women and I'll go use the men's bathroom like the degenerate that I am".'' This is not what she said. She is not rolling over or like detransitioning or selling out her community bc the House Speaker said to. She is literally fighting this by being the highest ranked transgender elected official in US History during a majority far-right authoritarian government. Her response is her making careful choices under INTENSE scrutiny. She is being thoughtful w her words & actions because as a trans woman in politics, the game is stacked against her. She is an elected official, but she is still a transgender woman. A transgender woman who is allowed to make decisions for her own safety & political career instead of martyring herself for ''the cause''. We need more trans ppl involved in politics, McBride is trying to build a career, not fall on her sword at the first battle. She hasn’t even entered office yet for her first term!

5.) ''What next, should POC congresspeople not fight for racial equality because it's actually in the Republicans not to be racist? Ought Rashida Tliab put out a statement saying "actually you're right, my people do deserve to be bombed and I'm not going to fight that because I'm here to work on more important issues"?'' That’s not what I‘m saying at all. I‘m not saying that McBride shouldn’t fight for trans rights, or that she’s turned her back on the community & that’s awesome! /s She is currently fighting for the trans community & our civil rights, but some people are more concerned w tone policing her reaction to targeted transphobic bullying, than they are w the bullies in the first place.

6.) It is good to think critically, I also criticize all sides of the political spectrum. Again, we agree on a lot! I just do not think this is the time to criticize how a transgender woman responds to targeted harassment. Nancy Mace brought H.R. 1579 because Sarah McBride was elected.

7.) McBride has never said she wouldn’t fight for trans civil rights, idk why you keep repeating this, it doesn’t make it true. (ofc if u have a source for this i am totally open to learning more & changing my opinion on this) If people have critiques on the policies she’s pursuing I‘d love to hear them! But this is criticizing what she’s done w an office she hasn’t even been sworn into yet. It is criticizing how she responded to bullying from her peers, which imo is cruel & lacks perspective of the larger issues at play.

7.) Yup, she represents us because she is trans. I don’t want it to be that way either but we belong to a marginalized group that has been historically oppressed in this country, and she is the first of that marginalized group to be elected to Congress. It is historically significant & many cis ppl will view her under intense scrutiny as a representative of the trans community. To compare McBride to MTG or Byron Donalds is incredibly misinformed. They differ greatly on policy & political beliefs. At least compare her to Jeanette Rankin, whose appointment as the first woman elected to Congress did not make her a sellout or traitor to women, she continued to work for womens civil rights in this country & did not compromise her beliefs in pacifism or the suffragette movement.

Like yes, criticize away, but that criticism needs to be educated, contextual, and accurate to have merit. I am not saying ''but ur not addressing republicans transphobia!'' I am saying ur criticism of how McBride responded to targeted bullying immediately following her election (again, hasn’t even entered office yet) is misinformed & inaccurate. She is not saying that she has given up on fighting for the trans community. By being in office she will continue her work, and we need more transgender role models, esp in gov/politics where anti-trans beliefs & legislation has proliferated in recent years.

Believe me, I will be paying attention to her actions in Congress & how she votes once she has been sworn in. If she does turn her back on the trans community I will be among the first to call her out on that!! You should as well! But she has not turned her back on us by deciding to run for Congress, winning her election, or her statement on H.R. 1579.

genuinely fucking furious about reactions to Mcbride, especially seeing this shit coming from fellow trans ppl…. like have you lost the fucking plot????

[lordsammichsilas]

I saw a recent post someone made speculating on birth years for each of the FO4 companions. They had estimated Danse being born (created?) in 2261 and part of that reasoning was 1) he had been paladin by 2277 and 2) Maxson said it took Danse “many” years to become paladin.

I wanted to expand on it without dumping a huge wall of text onto their post. If you want to know which post, here's the link. And this isn't me disagreeing with any of it. It was just something that got me thinking and I wanted to expand on it.

I've been kind of stuck on Danse's character for a bit because of the fic I'm writing. I didn't actually realize Maxson had said it took Danse many years to become Paladin (I looked it up and it's when you first join the BoS and you're given the rank of Knight. If you ask why not Paladin, that's when you get that info).

So anyway it made me wonder what “many” years would be in the context of a military career. The Brotherhood of Steel was born from the US military, so I looked into the ranks of the US Army to get an idea. Danse is a senior officer with the BoS and a field commander. From what I can tell, the most senior field commander in the Army is the rank of Major. Just doing a quick Google search, it takes about 11 years to make that rank. Added to at least 10 years as Paladin, I'm estimating Danse has been in the BoS for about 21 years by the beginning of FO4.

If someone joins the Army at 18, they'd be about 39 by the time they reach Major. Since Danse is a synth and was created as an adult humanoid male, that doesn't mean much in terms of his actual chronological age. It does for his perceived age, though.

The BoS keeps really extensive records on its members. They even keep their DNA on file. When you walk through the Prydwen, you get a very paranoid vibe and the children on the ship are encouraged to spy on all staff aboard the Prydwen. And yet, no one suspected Danse was a synth.

Synths don't age. At SOME point, even if they never got the files from the Institute saying Danse was a missing synth, someone would have had to start questioning why Danse still looks the same after all of those years in the BoS. That hadn't happened, yet. Also the stress of battle and the scars on his face probably do give the illusion of “aging” to an extent. Danse also isn't close to anyone in the BoS and doesn't talk about himself. His background is as an anonymous orphan in the Capital Wasteland. All of this gives plenty of wiggle room on his perceived age to others. I'm guessing anyone in the BoS would probably just assume he's in his mid-late 30's. Maybe early 40's.

And up to that point, the timeline would match. His time spent in the BoS would point to him being that age. He looks like he's about that age. He's a senior officer. It's fine. Give it about 10 years, though, and people would have started asking questions. Danse was on borrowed time and he had no idea.

And then there's time spent in Rivet City. He and Cutler were quite close, enough that they joined up together. My guess is that they were probably seen as two young men at around the same age (I'll just say late teens, early 20's) when they joined up. Since we know Danse is an adult who doesn't age, I'm going to lean hard on the battle scars theory for simulating aging and also say he was probably clean shaven in the beginning which also made him look younger.

Even then, I am guessing he spent enough time with Cutler for them to become close without raising any suspicions on his age. I'm going to give about 2 years in Rivet City. I figure that's plenty of time for two young men to become friends enough that they run off and join the military together. Without the appearance of his age raising any red flags.

That puts the timeline up to 23 years.

Prior to that, it gets really fuzzy. We know nothing of his time in the Institute. We can make some educated guesses, but all we know for sure is that he was a missing synth named M7-97. Danse himself doesn't know anything about it. I can't really give any guess on how long he was there without going ENTIRELY into headcanon territory.

Him being born in the year 2261 is totally plausible. That would make him chronologically 26 years old.

His perceived age, though, I thought was interesting to think about because you have to see how his appearance and the direction his life took was almost out of luck that no one found him out sooner. I think he was in a far more precarious position than even he realized and even without the BoS discovering he was a synth from the Institute, he was getting close to a point in time where his age would have come into question even more and people would have started getting suspicious anyway.

[cryptidhyrst]

assuming i am asking the correct person, I saw a post you made that repeatedly reinforced the point that the tv show Danny phantom was not in the superhero genre. I mean this in the LEAST confrontational way, and i am simply CURIOUS about the reasoning behind your ideas, and i have nothing personally against you. i just want to know about why you said that Danny Phantom wasn't a superhero. i am merely curious, nothing more. I don't agree nor disagree, i just want to know.

I'm sorry if this was weird, or if i got the wrong person.

If i DID get the right person, only answer if you want to, or if it's convenient.

Have a nice day!

I don't think I've made a post about Danny Phantom and how it's not a show that can be classified as belonging to the superhero genre, but I did reblog gilly-moon's post about Danny Phantom redesigns and briefly touched upon the topic there.

I'm always happy to expand on my thoughts, especially when it comes to Danny Phantom! (I hope you're okay with me answering this publicly).

Now to get this out of the way: Danny Phantom isn't a superhero show; nor does it belong to the superhero genre.

"But, Cryptid. Danny fights ghosts. He has powers. He saves Amity Park from calamity and destruction from time to time. Surely that counts for something."

And yes, normally these things would, except, well at its core Danny Phantom just isn't a superhero. But before diving deep into my thoughts about why it isn't, I think we need to establish what exactly makes something/someone a superhero?

I once read a paper that defined a superhero story and a superhero as having four things: a mission, powers, a (secret) identity, and a costume. And Danny Phantom should be all of these things, right? He has the powers, the secret identity that he keeps hidden (unless you're of the rare persuasion that Phantom Planet is canon), he has a costume, and debatedly he has a mission (keep his friends/family/Amity Park safe from ghosts). All of this should make it a superhero show, right? It should be no different from Teen Titans, Miraculous Ladybug, or the numerous Marvel and DC animated shows that exist.

Believing that Danny Phantom is a superhero show is contingent on one thing and one thing alone: whether or not you take Butch Hartman's statements as canon or not.

Now it's no secret past season 1 of the show, that Hartman was remarked as saying that:

[...] the ghosts [in Danny Phantom] are in fact otherworldly monsters and creatures that came from the Ghost Zone, with no connection to human spirits.

He gives this explanation as a way for letting the audience create the backstories for the ghosts that do appear in the show

Which has worked in the favor of Phandom; after all, I can't even count on both hands the number of posts or projects that I've seen that have attempted to give some or all of the ghosts in the show their own backstories. Hell, even my own project gives many of the ghosts their own backstories as well.

Now Hartman's no stranger to modifying or adding onto DP canon as he pleases *coughtenyearslatercough*. Much of what he adds, tends to be rejected by the Phandom for various reasons. And I think that Hartman's evangelical Christian leanings and beliefs tend to bleed through in the way that he approaches the way ghosts exist within the DP universe. (I say this because fringe Christian ideologies tend to be really really fucking weird about paranormal entities such as ghosts).

Now, if you think that what Hartman says about the ghosts in DP being monsters from a different plane of existence. Then you're going to be more inclined to believe that the show fits within the superhero genre. After all the whole plot of: young kid gets electrocuted in parent's machine, gains powers, and fights ghosts fits within that system.

But if you're like me and disregard 100% of what Hartman says and believes that ghosts are well...ghosts (and that death exists within the DP universe, because what are ghosts, if they aren't the remnants of dead people?) then the plot of the show is: young kid gets electrocuted in parent's machine, dies, comes back to life with powers, fights ghosts.

One scenario treats Danny Phantom as a superhero show because the caveat is that ghosts are interdimensional monsters that traverse into Danny's plane of existence to wreak havoc. That would make it a superhero show. The other scenario treats Danny as a cosmic horror nightmare tale that it is, except it's trapped by the limitations of being a kid's animated show.

So yes, while Danny does have nifty powers, a secret identity, a costume and the whole shebang. It just doesn't make him a superhero. He's fighting ghosts (regardless of the fact that Butch Hartman would argue this point); at best this makes him a kid version of a ghostbuster.

Tl;dr: Danny Phantom is a superhero show if you believe Butch Hartman's stance about ghosts being interdimensional monsters. It isn't if you think Butch Hartman tries to skirt around the concept of paranormal entities because he's an evangelical.

Edited to add a closing statement.

[transqueerquestions]

Question:

When binding can you slouch/lay down?

This may sound like a weird question but I wanted to know:

When wearing my binder, can I slouch/just lay on my bed(Not sleeping, just laying down)

I can’t find any good results for this question

Tobi: Hey nonnie! Firstly, absolutely no worries, i do not consider questions to be weird, strange, wrong, or anything else here, they’re all just questions, and I will always try my best to answer to the best of my ability.

That being said, I’m both surprised and not surprised there’s nothing in particular on slouching or laying down in binders, so know this answer is coming directly from my own experiences, and may not be applicable to everyone.

For slouching: I’d say intermittent/not constant slouching is a-okay. Best practices while binding would be keeping good posture as much as possible and ensuring the best possible opportunity for your lungs to expand fully, as the main concern with binding in general is its restrictiveness to the ribcage/torso/lungs.

Slouching inherently squashes that important expansion ability, and the severity depends on how and how much you’re slouching, but either way, while it’s not going to be terrible for you to do here and there, it’s not recommended that you stay slouched for long periods of time while binding.

For lying down: So long as you’re not sleeping, lying down is a similar answer to above. The restriction with lying down is more gravity based-On your back you’re expanding against both gravity and the binder, on your stomach you’re expanding against your own body and the binder, and on your side, you’re adding another point of pressure to the front and back the binder already covers.

Mind you-these restrictions are minor, even less so than slouching. However, that is not a reason to not be aware of how these positions can affect your binding health and safety. Sleeping is a concern for binding in particular because your breathing pattern changes and deepens as you sleep, meaning the binder adds unnecessary restriction for a long period of time.

Overall advice: My biggest emphasis when talking about binding is highly focused on being in tune with your individual body and it’s cues.

Good posture is always going to be helpful in the long run, but I know just how hard that can be to maintain. A good rule of thumb that I live by, as I do still bind myself and I have made far too many mistakes in my youth that still haunt me:

If you are feeling short of breath at any given time, that’s a good indication to take off your binder and do some breathing exercises, do some deep coughs to stimulate circulation, etc.

No amount of dysphoria is worth binding improperly, incorrectly, or for too long. Please trust me on this, because it can (and has for some folks) affect your ability to get top surgery down the line.

For myself, as an example, my previous excessive binding has somewhat ‘warped’ my ribcage, and as such, forced me to really scale back how much I bind to avoid it causing any more problems.

To be fair, I’m glad that I’ve been forced to cut back though, because it’s really helped with my own resilience towards outside perspectives of my body. No matter what I do, wear, act, whether I bind or not, etc, 90% of the time I’m perceived as a woman by strangers. This in turn forced me to reckon with how other people’s perceptions of my gender expression AND the forms my body takes has NO bearing on my own understanding of myself, and subsequently my own understanding of my gender.

At the end of the day, I know I’m a man. Anyone is welcome to disagree with me, or think otherwise, but they don’t get any decision on who I am, only I have that power.

If you choose to bind, ensure you are doing so with a full understanding of what it can and cannot do for you, as well as making sure you’re doing it as safely as possible. This means:

- Monitoring your breathing and posture.

- Ensure you do not wear one excessively. The general consensus is up to 8 hours, but it is always better to wear for less time.

- NOT wearing one to perform excessive physical activity (workouts, running, anything that gets your heart and breathing rate up for extended periods), or to sleep in.

- Taking it off the moment anything hurts, you find it harder to breathe, or even if anything feels off. Your body wants to keep you safe, listen to its cues!

All in all, I hope this helps! Good luck and stay safe! ♥️

[salvadorbonaparte]

Something I mention in the tags that got lost here is that I am excluding certain visible professions that have a lot of power over people (eg. doctors, police, politicians, should have included lawyers and journalists) because we do see a lot of distrust (often justified). We do not see the same level of distrust, at least not in online circles, for a majority of professions.

People don't make the same kinds of posts and don't have the same level of distrust for let's say designers and film editors. When we see criticism of enshittification and the film industry, and even sometimes individual "bad" films, the criticism is not the same kind because there is an understanding of underlying factors and the many people involved in a creative process. I do not see posts distrusting ux designers or film editors personally for "hiding" or "changing" something.

"the parties who need your services have no or few resources to allow them to confirm that the work you're producing is in good faith and not done with a particular agenda in mind" this is true and important but I want to add that it is also true for a lot of professions. There is always a power dynamic, there is always a potential for someone having a hidden agenda. You can always end up being scammed or buying a bad product. But we also generally trust that the buildings we walk into are safe even if we don't know anything about architecture, we trust that the many people involved in making a product we buy know what they're doing, even if we don't really know anything about the process. We also know that when things go wrong, which happens in every industry, those are exceptions.

My main academic research concerns looking at the times when audiovisual translations are unfaithful, on purpose, for a variety of reasons. In Germany, this used to be really common, but it has become a rarity since the advent of the internet, dvd and streaming. I am interested in researching how important loyalty and fidelity are really to audiences in the future, especially in the context of German comedy dubs. However, I believe that the distrust for subs and dubs we see specifically on tumblr runs deeper than the power dynamics of translator and audience and invisibility of the translator, and is influenced by a deep misunderstanding of how translation works, the general level of anti-intellectualism found on this website, and probably also some level of entitlement you see in media consumption and social media.

The way people post about subtitles and dubs and other forms of translation on here makes it clear they think translators are inherently untrustworthy and unprofessional. I have rarely seen so much distrust and skepticism towards a profession as "invisible" as this

[gerdy-sertorius]

Alright, Kris's gender. Never a more divisive argument within the fandom in the least, nothing so fond of devolving into a blazing fury of ad hominems. The general consensus among the fans of the game is that Kris is clearly and canonically nonbinary. They are referred to with exclusively they/them pronouns and has had zero signs of gender other than that. With that, the retort from the opposition camp is generally that he (and it is always "he") is supposed to be a self-insert for the player, in that we can relate to him more. After that usually comes the devastating rebuttal in that they are not mean to be a self-insert, as that would directly contradict what looks like it is going to be the main theme of the game -- the freedom that they lack. At that point, the argument is generally over, with one or both sides expanding on their arguments no more than repeating their initial theses. My goal is to explain my opinion on the matter, and, more importantly, provide my reasons for believing that it may well play more of a role than we thought before. It is quite clear that within the lore framework of the world, Kris is non-binary, or at the very least goes by they/them pronouns. We never seem to disagree upon that point. Where the heated arguments begin is the purpose. Does Kris use they/them because it is part of their character, and as such using anything else is misgendering? Or is it rather that it's done for a purely meta reason, to make them easier for SI purposes? In that case, using alternate pronouns is not only available, it's encouraged. Despite everything, I would say that I fall into the latter camp. For now. For now. For now. Let me see if I can't explain why.

I am a massive proponent of the "Spookydood" school of thought in that the game is made for casual players first and the mega-fans second. And, quite frankly, the casual players aren't going to notice that Kris is referred to solely by they/them. It's not something that's made a big deal out of, not in the least. And for the vast majority of them who do notice, they're going to default to the SI theory. Not because they feel like misgendering is BASED and TRAD, but rather because they haven't spent over twelve thousand hours of their life studying this sort of thing, intricately going into every single detail of the dialogue. That is, they're going to assume that Kris is whatever gender they want Kris to be. Like a player. Like someone who is in control of this world, like someone who is Kris. Yes, it's clear that Kris is their own character, that such freedom is important. But throughout it all, with the exception of a few moments, that's within the subtext. It's not something the game is hammering you in the face with. To the casual player, the major theme of the story is the beauty inherent in escapism, of Kris and Susie, two disliked individuals otherwise, finding a world where they're liked, where they don't have to worry about real life. The freedom theme is in the background completely.

Yet that freedom theme is there, and in all likelihood will be the most important theme in the story. It's the great Fox twist, like the Flowey moment in genocide where he perfectly mirrors your own actions. So there is shown a divide for Kris. One that the fans, the theorists will speculate on, will hype around, will dive into the mysteries of the chapter. But once again, for the casual fan, it isn't magnified, seen as more important than the central conceit, that being how much these characters love exploring Dark Worlds and meeting all of the wondrous and wacky personalities within. But insisting upon they/them pronouns, refusing to accept anything else, all that does is sharpen the divide between Player and Kris. It doesn't matter that Kris is an SI. It matters that they're perceived as one, for the increased effect of those who haven't played every single fangame under the sun. And that is where the issue lies. Now, this is not in any way meant to hurt non-binary representation. If you want to take Kris and make him a symbol of that movement, go for it. Relate to them, engage with all that. Once again, I will stand by the idea that they're canonically non-binary and as such can be that icon if you so choose to relate to them. Representation is important, I understand how nice it feels to have that. But insisting on that only takes away the payoff when it is eventually made clear as crystal within the game that they are their own human being. And I do think that Fox is going to take some steps to explore Kris having their own gender within the coming story, as a way to show the deepening divide between Kris and player that I'm sure will be something building throughout the story.

Now, to figure out what role that plays in the story. I actually think that it will exist as a major plot point and hold a dual purpose within the story. But let's not get carried away. First, I must justify why I believe it would exist as such a plot point. *Ahem*. I believe that it will be a major event in the story because... it would be really cool. Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Now I can get to the fun part. In all seriousness, I do think that it has been set up to at least a minor extent, and my Toby-addled brain cannot handle a minor hint as anything but super huge lore complications. So allow me to begin. Note: I will be rehashing old ground here, forgive me. I wrote this section like a week later. 

As I alluded to in the above section, I think that one of its primary purposes will be to serve as a way to divide Kris and the character. Presumably, the player will be referring to Kris using whatever pronouns they use, because Kris is the protagonist without a clear gender, a silent one at that. There's no reason not to establish one's own framework upon them. That's the point of escapism, right? That's the theme of the game, right? Losing oneself in another world, and all that. By playing into the self-insert main character, we are engaging with the themes of the story, we are doing what the game wants us to do! And we would be right. We are doing *exactly* what Toby wants us to do. We are playing right into his hands. And then the bait and switch that has been built up is complete, the little twitches of the carpet becoming a full on rug pull. 

For Kris will show themselves as their own character, with not just their own personality, their own thoughts, their own desires, but also their own *identity*. In the truest sense of the phrase, they are them. You have nothing to do with that, you are an imposing force from another world, a hijacker. Who knows, you could be doing it for a good reason, for preventing the Roaring against a Knight who would attempt to end the world. You could just be a trespasser who can get away with it because you are above the laws of this world, you could be the one who really ends the world. But they are their own character nonetheless, and you are a foreign body, nay, *in* a foreign body. 

And with that sense of identity, with that inevitable "found self", there needs to be a wedge to actually show a difference between us and Kris. So I do think the pronouns are going to accomplish that. Whatever gender you put upon Kris, what you thought to be their self because it was *yourself*, that is not going to continue with  Kris, resentful and angry, finally free of your grasp. And one of the first things they are going to do is to declare their own self, one that you have not been able to erase. They have their own gender, diametrically opposed to the idea that you can change who they *are*. They are not you, they want absolutely nothing to do with you, you are simply standing in their way to freedom. And so they drive that wedge in between themselves and you, they make sure that you fully understand that there is not one, but two parties at play. 

And the thing is, that idea of a scene is quite flexible. It can be triumphant, a broken teenager finally free and able to express themself for the first time in what feels like forever. It can be sinister, Kris finally capable of going on these grand adventures once and forever with no consequence to the fate of the rest of the world. It can be bittersweet, Kris understanding that you helped them do whatever grand task needed to be done, but never able to forgive you for your intrusion. But Kris will declare their freedom in a fundamentally climactic way, and I believe that reference to their gender is entirely the final crash into the senses of the player, denying any semblance of projection onto Kris the player had. 

But that is not in any way groundbreaking. It’s pretty clear since my opening that such a sort of thing is what I always intended to expound upon. It’s been a theory in at the very least niche circles of the community for a while, although I like to think I put my own unique spin upon it. No, no, that is not the meat and potatoes of this (it is, but I need a third act twist). I have never seen anybody bring this up with regards to the theorization of a certain character (some might even call him the best one) that provides insight into the Kris gender paradigm. 

I am, of course, talking about Ralsei, the Prince of the Dark. He is viewed by the vast majority of the community to be Kris’s ideal self, the personification of Kris’s desire to be someone better, someone very similar, in fact to his brother. But I don’t want to latch onto the brother thing. All that stuff, the family drama, it doesn’t sell anymore. We all understand it, heard it a thousand times, we want something fresh. Something juicy. And I believe I may have just the thing. What is more important is that Ralsei is who Kris wishes to be. Once again, I am hammering just how mainstream a point this is within the community. You will hardly find a soul who disagrees. 

Yet there’s something curious about that, and I’m sure you’ve figured out what I’m talking about by now. And that is that while Kris exclusively uses they/them pronouns throughout the game, Ralsei does not. In fact, he is solely referred to as masculine by everything in the game. He is the Prince of the Dark, he is constantly using male pronouns. Despite what the fandom of 2018 would like you to believe, Ralsei is completely and totally male. And if he truly is Kris’s idealized version of themself, that raises a metric ton (notionally, of course, I would never use the metric system) of questions. Most importantly, wouldn’t it be *so* funny if Kris’s arc at the end of the game does in fact make him male in line with what he truly wishes he could be, and all of the radical folks who get after you for misgendering Kris were actually doing the very thing they set out not to do? So much tragic irony, it would be the best thing to happen to the fandom since the release of Yellow. …I’m joking, of course. I’m not, Toby, please make this a reality.

But that leads me to an interesting conundrum. Is Kris attempting to sequester their feelings on being male because they don’t feel comfortable exploring their own gender? Or is it that Ralsei, this idealized version of himself, one so similar to the golden child Asriel, an unattainable goal? Is Kris fantasizing that he could, in the end, be male, wishing for it so, but unable to change his own identity? Despite my inherent need for the former, I will admit that the latter is likely a more compelling story, so I’ll be focusing on exploring it here. I’ll note that this is very similar to the feelings a lot of LGBT folks I know have gone through, and I have no doubt that this is the case for a larger sample size than that. Heavens knows that in a fandom as LGBT heavy as this one it could touch at least some sort of nerve. 

Ralsei is kind to Kris, loving, even to a dangerous degree. Entirely willing to be stepped upon in service of Kris’s happiness, quite literally. That is combined with a consistent refusal to engage with negative emotions, to simply avoid them. What happens when you combine that with a teenager going through massive amounts of trauma from their very will being ripped from them, and as good a reason as any to build resentment? Ralsei is the very culmination of everything Kris cannot be. Ralsei is a constant reminder of Kris’s failure as a citizen to Hometown, as a child to the family that took them in out of pure kindness. Ralsei is a broken mirror to Kris, something that only shows how out of place Kris is, something that only shows Kris the wretched state they are in. 

Kris is already clearly uncomfortable with Ralsei as is, and that is throughout the exhilaration that they already feel while going through the Dark Worlds, while having the time of his life with his best friend. What happens when that begins to break down, when right down to his gender, Ralsei is the ultimate unattainable goal. Not only that, but Kris directly does the one thing Ralsei gets deeply serious about and starts a new dark fountain. There is no turning back from that. Kris not only failed his own life, but he also failed his idea of literal perfection. 

I know I got sidetracked, but you’ll note in both of these, the gender is only in service of other themes. I think it will be important, absolutely. But I think that Toby’s a good enough writer that he won’t make it cringeworthy, that he’ll make sure to keep the themes sincere while still maintaining their relative value. Everything is in service of everything, and I hope the same goes for Kris’s gender and its consequences. 

[is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer]

The realization that other people took things from the LOTR films that i didn't was quite surprising! Here's some of my Gimli thoughts.

I have seen a couple of people criticize the fact that Gimli is used as comic relief and . . . i never got that? To me Film Gimli is loud and boisterous and has a strong sense of humor and very little filter. He's a powerful warrior and a loyal friend. One of the things i love about the LOTR films is not just showing Legolas and Gimli come to respect each other as warriors but to enjoy each other's different senses of humor. Legolas in the film has a rather understated and dry sense of humor that is delightfully scathing at times. Gimli is a very funny character in the films and has a lot of comedic moments but, at least in the Extended Editions, he's a very well rounded character overall in my opinion. Tho i can understand why people would be critical of how he's portrayed. If need be i will proudly declare myself a Film Gimli Stan, tbh.

The thing about Arwen being connected to the ring . . . i never picked up on that? Is it some symbolism i didn't pick up on or interpreted differently? @roxycake I would love if you could expand on this a bit more! I am very curious!

This ask is already very long so I'll leave this here for now. But i have so many other thoughts I'd love to share if you're willing to listen?

Thank you so much for adding to this conversation! I would definitely be willing to listen to more opinions from you. I appreciate you and your taste a lot, and as I said, it's people disagreeing with us that makes us grow. So feel free to add more stuff!

I don't know much about the Arwen situation, so I will let Roxy get this one.

As for Gimli, again it's not one of my strong points, most of the information I have about this character in the movies comes from @carlandrea. So if you want to butt in, carla, (politely and civilly, of course), I will be listening in and learning from your discussion.

As for me, my point was less that Gimli was a bad character, and more that it was a bad adaptation. You say that "Film Gimli is loud and boisterous and has a strong sense of humor and very little filter", and my answer is, that sounds like a great character. But does that remind you of Book Gimli at all? For me, at least, Book Gimli is prideful, dignified, well-spoken, and kind of quiet. He does put his foot in his mouth sometimes, but it's usually when someone offends something he's very fond of, like his friends, or his beloved Galadriel. Apart from Aragorn, he's probably the best in the Company with his words.

In my probably not super based opinion, the treatment of Gimli and Legolas in the LotR movies... kind of reminds me more of D&D than Tolkien? Legolas is understated and dry, and Gimli is loud and has very little filter. Elegant, classy and a little uptight elves and loud, boisterous, Scottish dwarves are a staple of D&D. And they are fun! They give you great character dynamics, and I've played them all. And they look like they did a good job with them in the movies. But... they're not Legolas and Gimli. Not the book versions of them, at least. Can you imagine movie!Legolas going "I will go find the sun/she didn't want to come" or movie!Gimli stunning Celeborn to silence by being more elegant and polite than anyone expected a dwarf to be?

[96percentdone]

hi i am the same anon as earlier dksjhjgf ive been following you for a short while! I'm in this fun camp where i love what AINI could have been if it *hadn't* been a sequel, or didn't have such heavy emphasis on seemingly undoing so much of the emotional character legwork for recurring characters - but i also think its an incredibly valuable extension of the universe it's set in and has *so many* incredible plot points. i love that someone else genuinely enjoys the game!! because i do too! the somniums were fun and refreshing and felt like new twists on an already good idea! the doubles reveal is genuinely cool and interesting, i just wish it wasn't specifically with that character. ryuki is extremely close to my heart as a character! when stuff starts to fall apart for him later in the game i had to take a break because that closeness started to really affect me. i LOVE seeing a multitude of perspectives instead of just my own, or just the opinions of the people who introduced me to the game. AINI is SO dear to me it makes me ill i just. I just wish it either followed up clearer or divorced itself more from the original storyline. i DO eagerly await your essay and the points you'll make, im excited to be able to expand upon my own views! but also thank you for the initial response too, and i hope your day has gone well!!

Ah, see, that's where you and I are not on the same page at all. It's like what I illustrated in my last answer; I think a sequel is only bad if refuses to commit to saying anything. I think a lot of criticism of DD and SoJ is bad, because the angle is focused on them not being more Apollo Justice as opposed to why the actual text of the work is a mess, which is the true reason they're bad sequels. I won't write a worse version of my essay here or the 17k I've already written will go waste, and I want my defense to be as well thought out and coherent as the game itself, but I wish very dearly that the fandom would criticize AINI as it exists and not for failing to be a hypothetical AITSF 2.

People will yell up and down that Nirvana Initiative overwrites the original cast and turns them into hollow facsimiles, that it's disrespectful to Mizuki especially and cancels her story, and I could not disagree more. As a follow up, I literally only take issue with Date's stupid mask, and that's about the execution not its existence. Yeah, that's right I am going to defend Mizuki's writing! I said what I said! Nirvana Initiative has undone nothing. It expands on the ideas about love and family that came before while adding new layers to those concepts, and it's biggest writing flaws are the misogynistic tendencies that were also on full display in the first game.

I love Nirvana Initiative so much. I think it's beautiful. Dying on this hill is not a choice; it is my righteous duty!

Thank you for the asks. I enjoy having excuses to expand on my hot takes. Enjoy the rest of your day or night or whatever time it is for you!

[vermilionstarlight]

Agreeing and hereby expanding on that point, literally nobody ever should have to pay to Not Fucking Die. This goes for medication and accomodations for disabilities and afflictions, but also for generalized healthcare, and food, and water, and housing! The fact that living is not guaranteed at our level of technological and societal development is fucking mind boggling, and it needs to fucking change.

Just to cover my bases, this isn't a case of Tumblr user with no reading comp btw. Not saying you disagree with this,.nor am I saying your post implied anything contrary to what I just said. Just adding onto it post in a constructive manner <3

fyi things like insulin, hearing aids, wheelchairs, glasses costing money at all is a form of structural ableism

[keepershortfilm]

Meetings + Development

Initial Meetings - With each HoD

Camera

Alex and I have a great relationship both on and off the set. There is a trust there, that I think has developed through collaborations on multiple projects now. During our meetings over this term, we have agreed to go down the route of not deciding the look of the film, instead, expanding our knowledge in our respective fields and allowing myself time to get the script to a place I am happy with. 

We agreed that the film should be from Will’s perspective, instead of having an objective POV. Alex went away and tested lenses to see which ones we felt “spoke to us.”

For the film, Will (the Main Character) would be shot in a 24mm as it gives a view wide enough for us to see him and his environment without being so short as to be distracting in its warping and unconventional rendering of a face. As the film progresses and Will becomes increasingly insecure and overwhelmed by fear, we move on to the 50mm, 85mm and very rarely the 135mm lenses.

Alex and I also disagreed over the shutter angle of the film. My experiences of capturing football have shown me that shooting with a smaller shutter angle (90’) captures the movement of football players more clearly. However, Alex wanted to use a larger shutter angle to communicate the football pitch’s sterile and controlled feeling. We agreed on a combination of the two, similar to that of the lenses. We would begin with a smaller shutter angle to capture Will’s heightened focus, but as he loses that and begins to become more anxious, his focus would begin to blur, and we would create this through an increased shutter angle. 

Finally, Alex and I briefly touched upon lighting, we decided not to go into it in much detail as the test shoot would likely be shot during the day and the final film would be much darker, relying on floodlights to light the action. This means high-contrast lighting is what we ended up leaning towards. This is what the lighting would actually be like in the space. We want to create an authentic film that youth football players will be able to relate to.  The locations in this film are almost universally lit top-down in real life. Again, this also creates a moody and intense feeling to the lighting, adding shadows to the eyes and neck.

Sound

Rosie is not kidding when she says “Initially, we were struggling.” Rosie and I have different working styles and whilst we are the closest of friends there is difficulty there. We both understood that Keeper is a film of naturalism. We watched clips to see what intrigued us and we actually were not very excited by any projects covering similar topics. The Novice relied too heavily on music, which shocked me as it was the Sound Designer of Whiplash who directed this. So I really thought she would have interesting ways of communicating the pressure but in our opinion, it relied way too much on music. 

So we ended up looking at Boiling Point (Short Film) as a successful way of building tension and stress through sound design. 

“I liked that the mix felt much busier to match the hectic environment. The continual rising of tension is structurally similar to the current draft of Ben’s script. Going forward this will likely be quite a big inspiration.” - Rosie’s Blog 

This mixing of sound and very naturalistic sound design is exactly what I am looking for in Keeper. However, this means we have to capture a lot of sound to be able to build that in ProTools.

Rosie also came (along with Alex) to a 5-a-side match with a group of guys. I was in goals and Rosie was able to hear exactly what it was like for someone being in goals. 

“Also I’m going to look into jazz. Musically and rhythmically. We spoke about Fleabag - the intro. (Also because what is a Rosie and Ben conversation without Fleabag, it’s the very foundation of our friendship.)” - Rosie’s Blog

I don’t know how I feel about this now. It feels too formal for the style we are going for. I think it is important to first build a foundation and then go from there. When we come back next year, Rosie and I will start by figuring out the base sound of the pitch and then see what flourishes we can put on top of that. Really plan it out. 

Editing

Jake is an interesting cookie. He’s a very ambitious person who understands the feelings of the story I think very well. As it was my first time working with him, I spent some time with him figuring out our working relationship. He works primarily off of feeling, which goes against my more analytical approach. This is something I need to learn and develop as I grow. It is this idea of vision and working off of intuition.

When we looked at edits, we did look at Sicario (The border scene) to look at effective ways of building tension through story-telling and perspective. So when we shoot the freekick scene this is something I want to draw heavily from. 

Production Design

My man talks about colours! I have never thought about colour! When working with Bonnie on Longboard Nights she had such a clear vision of the project and I honestly was fine with her leading that area as I don’t think I could have communicated anything to her that she didn’t know. But with Keeper I get that James hasn’t played football before. We need to plan something (Lucy and I) to allow the members of the team who are less informed about football to see how it works. I really appreciate Alex and Rosie for coming along to the five-a-side match to see what it is like. And in all fairness, I am assuming James has not played football before I could be wrong!

James and I broke down each location of the film and discussed what each place would communicate to the audience. Will is a young enthusiastic player who just wants to play football. His room communicates that. The football club is the opposite, cold, metallic and driven. 

[sportsminorityreport]

Douchebaggery and the fall of the PAC (part 1)

There have been a lot of articles that have come out recently on the fall of the PAC revealing all kinds of details. Fans and media personalities have been seizing on some points and ignoring others that I think are far more obnoxious.

I am going to voice my opinions of what I see. These are my views on what went down in the PAC based on the variety of post mortems on the PAC that have come out recently from people like John Wilner. Maybe I don't have a full picture. Maybe you disagree with my conclusions, but I hope you consider them nonetheless.

Lets talk about this in the framework of a timeline of PAC disintegration.

Following the departure of longtime PAC target The University of Texas to the SEC, the PAC conference starts to do due diligence on whether any of the 8 remaining Big 12 schools might merit PAC inclusion. It gathers information on the members of the remaining "Big 8" and presents it's findings to the leaders of the conference in a meeting to evaluate potential targets. USC's president Carol L. Folt reportedly aggressively questions why the conference is even discussing these schools. The other PAC schools' leaders defer to her strong negative stance and expansion of the PAC dies right then. Now less than a year later, Folt would bail out on the PAC in the middle of the night taking UCLA and the PAC's most important media market with her on the way out. It strongly suggests Folt knew the answer to her question, that they Pac media footprint of a mere 67M residents was something like 55% the size of the Big Ten Media footprint and had long been stifling the media value of the PAC's historic National brands. This was the reason the PAC chased UT for 35 years....to add a single school and get media relevance in all of Texas's markets including the big 4 DMAs(DFW, Houston, SA, and Austin). Adding Texas would expand the conference media footprint by almost 50%!!!! This leaves Folt looking like a feckless partner.

The PAC Commissioner, George Kliavkoff, is not taking enough blame, part 1. "Really, Tobi? Everyone blames that guy...." Yes, really. When USC and UCLA left, TCU and Texas Tech should have been immediately contacted if you wanted the Dallas Market. I am guessing that at that point though that the Big 12 members had FINALLY gotten around to signing the GOR extension. If that was the case and TCU and Tech were gone, SDSU should have been added with Gonzaga as the next most sensible pairing. That was the right play. It would have protected a PAC recruiting presence in Southern California and would have dramatically improved the conference's basketball status--- two things that were big for at risk program Arizona. Instead it was SDSU who most PAC schools wanted and everyone could tolerate and SMU who was viewed as a toenail in the best new media market available within a reasonable travel distance. I don't think anyone in the PAC or the media partners loved SMU with it's tiny fanbase. The Pac leadership misidentified it's biggest problem at that moment (shitty basketball leading to an Arizona departure.) There is a saying, "Don't let a good crisis go to waste." The loss of USC and UCLA was a get out of jail free card for the PAC to add ANYONE that made sense bypassing the constant reservations over academics. But the commissioner deferred.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 2. It was revealed that the PAC had their own paid consultants value the PAC at roughly $35-37M per school. ESPN offered $30-32M. In that scenario you ask for $38-40M hoping to get $35. Then a professor at a university valued the remaining PAC schools at $50M each (without USC and UCLA) and took it up with his president. That President made it an issue and the commissioner buckled. When faced with having to to tell a president "No." the commissioner chose instead to keep his powder dry. The Pac's counter offer of $50M lead to ESPN walking out the door. Fans want to blame that professor and the mystery president. That is letting the Commissioner off for lacking balls in a moment that called for it. You hired your people to evaluate the value of the PAC, then you didn't back their conclusion because it was politically inconvenient.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 3. It was no secret that Colorado was talking to the Big 12. The PAC Commissioner had to be the only person in North America who didn't know. That was inexcusable. Simply thinking about why Colorado would be talking with the Big 12 is all that was required to do a lot to sour that departure. As an outsider looking in, it appears Deion took the job at Colorado and began immediately campaigning to get the school into the Big 12 where he could recruit Texas and even Florida much better. Once it became clear that was the driving force, SMU and Rice should have been added to erase most of the gain of joining the Big 12. Floating a rumor that if Colorado left, their spot would be offered to Colorado State might have been the cherry on the top to kill CU's momentum to go.

The PAC Commissioner is not taking enough blame, part 4. When the PAC lost USC and UCLA and southern California, they fell from 67M in their footprint (a small number in the power conference tier), to about 43M people. That was TINY in power conference terms. This matters in a HUGE way. This very much diminished the appeal of the PAC to linear networks. The CW for example is a nationwide network, with affiliates in every market. How valuable is PAC basketball to the CW affiliate in Tampa when the PAC' closest team is in Colorado and the next closest is in Arizona? Having a large media footprint means that there is a reason for viewers in a distant market to have a reason to tune in to see a Arizona Cal game. Expansion would have made the valuable PAC brands MORE valuable to linear providers, allowing the per team payouts to stay in the same neighborhood even adding schools with smaller fanbases. It appears that the PAC commissioner locked in to getting a deal from Apple. Apple wants large fanbases and the PAC not expanding removed linear competitors who would have driven up the market price. In very real terms, the commissioner blew the media negotiations by initially driving off ESPN and then keeping the PAC media offerings as unattractive as they could possibly be for linear providers. Without competition from the Linear Networks to push up the price, Apple was able to keep the guaranteed minimum payments low.

[morlock-holmes]

I wanted to emphasize that I really don't disagree with the OP; it's a tremendously important point.

I just feel that the allistic people who say it almost universally underestimate the scope of the problem.

Suppose I was learning English as a second language, and I say to you, "Hey, how do I make plural nouns?"

You might say something like,

"Well, there's no single one way to make a plural noun. English is kind of irregular about this and it's going to depend on the specific noun you mean. In fact, even native speakers will often use the incorrect plural when confronted with an unknown noun."

Everything you just said is 100% true.

And I have no idea how to make a plural noun.

And what happens when I listen to enough English and realize that in the vast majority of cases adding an "s" onto the end of the noun is correct, and in the minority of cases where it isn't correct people will understand what I mean and be able to correct me?

I have experience in this:

I'm going to be pissed off at you for your utter inability to speak clearly about something that you actually know about.

Here's a story:

Once upon a time, back in, oh, 90 or 91, I would have been in first or second grade, and I was standing in line at school singing a song from a My Little Pony cartoon that I liked. Another boy asked what it was about and I told him and he and another boy made fun of me for liking My Little Pony.

Now, we live in more enlightened times; when I talk about that with people today, they say that's very sad and those boys shouldn't have done that.

I have never, ever, not once in my life found an allistic person who was surprised by that story.

Because, at least in my memory, and in the memory of dozens of other similar incidents, I was surprised! After all, we talked about Ninja Turtles, why shouldn't I talk about another cartoon that I like?

And hey, you allistic people didn't get the rulebook either, there's no consensus in America, so I bet, like, at least half of you will be as shocked as I was back then? You'll be just as surprised as I was that boys weren't supposed to like girl things, right? And how come that second boy joined in? Isn't it crazy that I found two little boys in 1990 who thought it was funny for a boy to like My Little Pony even though they didn't have any kind of rule book either?

Funny how that kind of thing doesn't actually play out that way.

Funny how I keep running into situations where everybody tells me that there's no consensus and no rulebook but somehow 90% of the people I meet act the same in that same situation.

It's funny how often I meet people who tell me that I don't even need to be looking for a rule or pattern because there aren't any and then, 10 minutes later, tell me what an outlier I am, and that maybe I should consider trying to fit in a little more.

By funny, I of course mean god damned infuriating. Sometimes I want to hit people about it.

America has, genuinely and truly, way less consensus on what "appropriate" behavior is than it did 60 years ago. The scope of appropriate behavior has also expanded. When my dad was a kid random people would give him shit if his hair was shaggy enough to grow past the ears. Today I work in a formal restaurant and wear two foot-long braids and nobody bats an eye. Honestly even in my childhood society was so sexist that I am surprised that I've gotten nothing but compliments.

But what has also happened, and there is profound denial about this, is that when people do have concrete expectations of others, they are much worse at articulating those expectations than they used to be. There is more expectation that you conform yourself to the expectations of others by intuiting those expectations, rather than having them explained to you, even in cases where they can be easily explained. There is a profound discomfort, on the part of allistics, (Particularly younger and more left-wing allistics) with articulating what they expect from the people around them.

I cannot emphasize this enough: This is the case even when the allistic person in question has incredibly concrete expectations.

My autistic peeps, I have one bit of advice for you.

Be extremely selective about who you accept social rule feedback from.

Most autistic folks I know tie themselves up in knots, trying to figure out this social rule book that everybody else seems to have gotten, that they didn't get. In fact a lot of the "rigidity" that I see other therapists complaining about can be put down to the natural effects of people trying really hard to find one goddamn rule that will stay put.

The thing is- most people walk around as if they have the one universal, unassailable, common-sense rule book for social interaction.

And they are utterly full of shit.

In the US in particular there is incredibly low consensus about how people should behave. Just go post on twitter about whether it is or is not rude to wear your shoes in someone's house, or as a 70 year old and a 20 year old about phone etiquette. That's before we get into other demographic differences. Don't even get me started on "professionalism".

Neurotypical people get that feedback to, but are, on average, way more able to flag it as either 1) a rule for working with that person/similar people 2) bullshit. NOT as a universal rule they should have already known, that they should feel bad about not already knowing.

The number of things that people actually universally agree on is really low.

So when people give you feedback that the social rule they expect you to follow is obvious, they are often being a total dick.

Ask questions, look for patterns in specific settings, and make sure you've worked on your values enough to have a reasonable ecosystem of guiding principles.

But remember that nobody has that rule book.

[icerosecrystal]

An Unexpected Turn Of Events

Mominette Month 2021

Day 01 - Find A Child

Masterlist

Authors note: Hi, everyone! Just one quick to let you all know so that this fic is not confusing for you. This fic is a reverse Robin fic. In other words, Dick is the youngest instead of the eldest, and Damian is the oldest instead of the youngest. This same thing applies to all of the other bat children as well.

Marinette sighed in relief as she finished rifling through her purse. She had woken up late and had hastily left her hotel room for her consultation. She had thankfully not left behind anything that she would need during the consultation. Feeling a bit paranoid, she looked once more through her purse, and there was the tape measure, pencils, notebook, sewing kit, and the NDAs. She may or may not have flipped through the grimoire belonging to the guardians and found the spell for expanding the space in her purse to be the way it was for her yo-yo when she transforms into Ladybug. Unlike her yo-yo, the expansion was still limited. But the extra space was still beneficial.

As Marinette was walking, she pulled out her phone to look at the time. 9:50, she thought, leaves me enough time to get to Wayne Tower by 10:00 if I want to be on time. As she was putting her phone away, she felt something hit her legs and torso. She let out a slight oof at the unexpected weight against her lower body. As she peered down, she saw a cute boy, probably around eight years old clinging onto her legs. He had black hair, and as he looked up at her with teary eyes, she saw the most devastating sparkling blue eyes she had ever seen. His slightly chubby cheeks were flushed pink, and his nose also had a pink tinge to it. The flushness was probably a result of the choked sobs he was currently letting out.

As Marinette looked around, she realized that none of the nearby grown-ups looked to be his parents, nor did they look like they were missing a child. She bent down and smiled softly at him, hoping to calm him down a bit. After a beat or two, her smile seemed to do the trick, and his sobs reduced down to a few tears. Once she knew that he had calmed down, she softly whispered, “ Hey, honey. Are you lost? Do you want me to find your parents?”

He sniffled a few times before replying with a slight tremor in his voice, “Yes. Please help me find my Boose.”

“Your Boose?” Marinette questioned.

“Yes,” he slightly whimpered, “Boose is my new daddy. My other daddy and mommy had to say goodbye to me.”

Marinette gasped in shock at his words. This poor kid, so young, and yet his parents were gone. Dead. Marinette thought about the many akumas which her parents didn’t survive. She then shook herself out of her thoughts. Come on, Marinette. Stop worrying about yourself all time. Your parents are okay now. But this kid is lost! Get out of your head! Steeling herself, she gently asked him, “What’s your name, hon? Mine is Marinette, but you can call me Mari..”

Surprised by the kindness and warmth in her voice, he stuttered out, “Richard… but I like Dick better. Richard sounds old. I’m not old!” He then shyly added, “It’s nice to meet you, miss. You have a pretty name.”

Marinette smiled as she saw his confidence growing with every word he spoke. Marinette laughed aloud at the words he shyly said, “It’s nice to meet you too.” She then questioned, “Do you remember where your daddy is?”

Dick was now bouncing on his heels, and he squealed out in excitement, “Yes! My daddy is in the big, tall building with the huge ‘W’ on it!”

The corners of her mouth twitched in amusement. Dick’s excitement was infectious. His words then caught up to her. Well! It looked like luck was on her side after all! She would have enough time to get Dick back to his dad and still be on time for her consultation. She stood back up and then smiled down at him, “Well, I’m heading there too! So why don’t I take you back to your daddy?”

Dick nodded his head rapidly before holding her hand with his much smaller one. They then started walking towards Wayne Tower. Dick continued to babble on about the most random of things. He talked about his grumpy older brother, who it seemed begrudgingly liked him. He also discussed the many pets his older brother had. It also seemed like Dick’s adoptive dad had a slight problem with adopting too many children from what could be told from the many siblings that Dick mentioned.

When the door of Wayne Tower came into sight, Dick stopped talking, allowing them to walk in comfortable silence. As she was about to speak to ask him where in the building his father worked or the name of his dad, Dick blurted out, “I like you, Miss Mari. Can you be my mommy? I don’t have a new one yet!”

Marinette stopped in shock before trying to stutter out something, anything, but all of her words were incoherent. What do you say in response to a question like that, she thought to herself? She saw Dick looking at her for an answer, and after a while, he decided to pull out some puppy eyes. Shoot! Marinette thought. I need to say something to stall for time. At least until I get him to his dad. She reassured him, “I am thinking about my answer, Dickie! But how about we first get back to your daddy, and then we talk about it?”

Dick contemplated her words before nodding in agreement and practically bouncing through the doors. Marinette sighed in relief and also walked through the doors. Her head was down as she speculated what she should do about Dick’s question. Suddenly, a rough voice spoke up in front of her, “Hello. Ms. Dupain-Cheng, I presume.”

Marinette lifted her head, and there in front of her was Bruce Wayne, her newest client. And clinging to him was the very boy that was holding her hand just seconds ago. She suddenly remembered hearing something about Bruce Wayne adopting the son of some acrobats who were in an accident. The name of the kid was Richard Grayson! She hadn’t made the connection!

Realizing that Bruce was looking for an answer, she hastily stuck out her hand, stuttering, “That is correct, Monsieur Wayne. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

He stared at her hand before gently taking it and raising the back of her hand to his lips. “Please, the pleasure is all mine. Let’s make our way upstairs.”

She blushed at his gentlemanly actions before squeaking out a small, “Let’s.” The three of them climbed into the elevator and went to the top floor of the building. The doors of the elevator opened up, and Bruce gestured for her to go first. She did so and looked around at the beautiful interior of the building that she had not yet noticed. Bruce then opened up the door to what seemed to be his office. Inside she saw there to be seven kids. She smiled at them in greeting. Most of them smiled back at her. The exception to this was what looked to be the oldest and one of the younger ones. (Damian and Jason, if you didn’t figure it out.)

Marinette felt Bruce step closer so that he was next to her before he spoke once more, “These are all of my children, biological, adopted, or otherwise.” He pointed to the man with stunning green eyes stating, “This is my oldest son, Damian. He’s 22.” Damian gave a tight-lipped smile in response, along with a slight tilt of his head.

Next, Bruce gestured to what looked to be the second oldest saying, “This is Tim. He’s 18 years old.” He was sipping coffee and giving the briefest of nods to her. He looked seconds away from collapsing.

He then acknowledged a blonde girl, remarking, “This is Stephanie, but she likes to be called Steph. She’s 17 years old.” The girl seemed to be bouncing in place and close to bursting from excitement.

He pointed to a rough-looking boy stating, “This here is Jason. He just turned 15. He’s a few months older than the next youngest.” The boy smirked at Marinette in acknowledgment of his introduction.

Bruce finally gestured to a girl with Asian features saying, “This is Cassandra or Cass. She’s 14, but like I said, a few months younger than Jason.” The girl seemed to be peering through her very soul. After gazing for a few seconds, she hummed in what Marinette deemed to be satisfied as if she liked what she saw.

Bruce then turned towards her, “And you’ve already met Richard or Dick. Thank you for bringing him back.”

Marinette smiled in acknowledgment of his compliment before replying, “It was nothing Monsieur Wayne. He was all alone, so I had to help him. But he was delightful the whole time. Now as for what I came here for, what type of clothes have you been looking for–”.

But before she could continue, Dick blurted out, “Daddy, I like Ms. Mari! Can we keep her? I want her to be my mommy!”

The result was instant. The room burst into a flurry of noises, each of Bruce’s kids trying to speak over one another. Marinette was blushing very brightly. In fact, from how hot her face felt, she was sure that she was inventing new shades of red. Marinette looked over to see Bruce’s reaction and squeaked when she saw him staring at her with a sharp, analytical gaze.

Marinette took a few breathes to calm herself down. She then softened both her gaze and voice as she addressed Dick, “Dickie, honey, as much as I loved meeting you and talking with you, I, unfortunately, cannot be your mommy. Bruce is your daddy, and he will someday find a lovely lady who will be your mommy.”

At her last sentence, all or most of the kids seemed to have snorted in amusement. It seemed as if they disagreed with her statement. Dick looked sad and seemed to be growing teary-eyed. Marinette looked over to Bruce for some help but only found him concealing the amusement that he was most likely feeling quite well. If she hadn’t been Ladybug, she probably would have never noticed the slight bit of emotion peaking through his mask. She glared at him reproachfully as if saying, this is your kid, so you need to help me convince him that I would not make a good mother.

He rolled his eyes in return as if trying to say, Don’t kid yourself. You would make an excellent mother. And you’re already attached to him, don’t deny it.

As Marinette sighed in response, Bruce turned away from her towards Dick and knelt to his level. He then gently said, “Now Dick. Miss Mari can’t be your mommy.” Marinette started nodding as if agreeing with Bruce’s words. But then stopped when he continued, “But she can visit you and maybe one day be your mommy.”

Marinette opened and closed her mouth, no words coming out. Before shyly looking down before raising her head, stammering, “Well, I guess I could visit.”

All the kids started cheering in response. The exception to this was Damian. But the corner of his lips was slightly raised as if the start of a smile. Dick bounded over to her, hugging her and babbling out everything he wanted to do with her. And in all the chaos, Marinette’s and Bruce’s eyes met. They both exchanged small smiles.

Marinette then clapped her hands together, reminding them, “I do still have to do a consultation with all of you. So how about we do that, and then we can do something fun together?” Seeing everyone’s nods, Marinette then continued with the consultation. But unbeknownst to anyone in the room, their relationship would change drastically in the coming months. But ultimately, it would change for the better.

One Year Later

It has been a year since the faithful day when Dick requested Marinette to be his mom. And since then, they only seemed to grow closer. She had met Alfred, Bruce’s Psuedo father and the children’s pseudo grandfather. She thought that he was extraordinary. And honestly godsent. She also experienced a lot of adventures with the Waynes. In fact, after only four months of knowing each other, she figured out that they were the Bat-Family. She had caught them once after patrol and raised her eyebrow as if demanding an answer, and god did she get an answer from them!

Marinette and Bruce had also started dating. This change in their relationship occurred a few weeks after she found out their identities. They were now engaged to be married in a few months. All the children had warmed up to Marinette over the months, even Damian, who always withheld his emotions. But they had all come to see her as their mother figure and were ever so grateful for her. And so they wanted to do something for her birthday.

The very morning of her birthday, everything went wrong. Marinette woke up to quite the sight. All over the kitchen was what looked to be cake batter. It seemed as if they were trying to put the baking she had taught them to good use, but they had also made the cake batter explode. Marinette and Bruce stared at the mess before they both started laughing. Marinette had a light, melodic laugh, while Bruce had a very gruff laugh.

Marinette beckoned all of them forward for a hug before proclaiming, “I love that you all were trying to do something for me, but none of you had to do anything. But it’s the thought that counts, so thank you. But next time, please stay away from the kitchen.”

She then shooed them on their way before getting two mops, handing one to Bruce as she passed by him. She kissed him on the cheek before starting to clean up the mess, Bruce following her actions. She then quietly snickered, “Well, this was quite a sight to wake up to on your birthday. I would have thought that today would have been relaxing.”

She looked up to see Bruce shoot her a small look before shaking his head in amusement. “Mari, darling, when has our lives with them ever been relaxing? They are always getting into trouble.”

She snorted in response, “Yes, well, they get it from their father.”

Bruce glared at her lightly before pulling her into a deep kiss, “I don’t know. Their mother seems to be just as chaotic sometimes.”

She shook her head in amusement, pulling herself away from Bruce’s embrace and questioning, “How is this even my life anymore?”

He chuckled lightly, alerting her that he was about to sass her in some way. “Well, from what I remember, about a year ago, you came across this kid that–”

Marinette held up a finger to his mouth, stopping him from uttering another word. She was also glaring at him reproachfully. “Yes, I do know-how. I was there. Now go away so that I can clean up the rest of the kitchen. You’re distracting me.”

He let go of his mop before giving her another deep kiss and then darting away. As he strolled out of the room, he shouted over his shoulder, “Oh, I know how distracting I am. I am well aware of how irresistible I am, ma coccinelle.” He could hear her spluttering in response before yelling back at him, but he continued on his way to his office. Along the way, he chuckled to himself.

Back in the kitchen, Marinette was glaring at nothing. She was also plotting ways to show her fiance who the irresistible one was. She then sighed in happiness. Yes, her life was amazing. A year ago, if someone told her this would be her life, she wouldn’t have believed it. But now she was living it, and god was it amazing. Funny what finding a child will do to you, Marinette thought to herself before carrying on with her task of cleaning up the mess her kids had made. Yeah, life was amazing.

2,683 words

I actually got it done!

~ ❄ Crystal ❄

@mominettemonth

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[writingwithcolor]

Announcement: No Longer Answering Rubber Stamp Questions

Introduction

Here at Writing With Color, we’ve noticed a shift in the questions we are receiving. In the past, the majority of questions challenged the necessity of diversity in fiction or asked for assistance in making diversity seem more plausible in world-building. We also received many questions on how to describe and characterize people of color in respectful ways that didn’t demonize different races, ethnicities and religions.

By and large, we see that our followers understand why these concepts are important, and for that we congratulate you! This kind of progress takes real, long-term, internal work. Our team hopes that any advice or input you received from us over the years has helped you continue to develop as a writer. We hope you will continue to support us in the future and are especially pleased to hear from our non-white commenters who have let us know when our content has let them feel seen or heard.

However…

We have noticed a recent trend in asks that is discouraging. Many askers seem concerned with receiving our blanket approval of a particular concept or character. These asks often don’t provide us with the direction and context crucial to providing advice from a race or ethnicity-based perspective. Examples include:

“I’m writing a character from [insert background] who has [insert traits]. Is this ok?”

“I’m creating a world where I have made [insert concept] the basis of my world-building. Is this allowed?”

Hi, I’m a [insert identity]. Is it problematic to have [concept/ character] in my story?

“I’m creating a [Race A] character with [these] traits, a [Ethnicity 1] character with [those] traits, a [Race B] character with [some other traits] and a [sex/ gender minority] character with a [different set of traits]. Is this combination offensive?

We call these questions rubber stamp questions. If this describes your question, there’s no need to feel bad. We realize that there was never an explicit explanation of this concept. In addition, our team is mindful of the changing demographics of tumblr that might make it mean we are receiving questions from a younger user-base are not yet familiar with many of the principles we outline on this website. However, on that note…

What is Rubber Stamping?

Rubber stamping refers to the practice of seeking an endorsement without questioning or seeking to alter the status quo. The purpose of Writing With Color is to be a focal point for discussion about diversity in writing rather than simply prescribe a series of corrective measures. Without knowing the asker’s intent (Which we can’t, since we aren’t mind readers), our moderators are not in a position to provide you with carte blanche for your writing concept in the name of all other non-white people. Yes, we have a certain level of skill and expertise on many of these topics, but we are not here to take on the burden of all PoC to approve your writing choices. Nor would it be fair to other PoC if you took our response as a reason to dismiss the perspectives of other PoC (An unfortunately common phenomenon).  

Bluntly, on the moderator end, these asks are also incredibly frustrating because they are vague and thus:

Time consuming

Labor intensive (mentally and emotionally)

The last example from the previous section (AKA “Laundry lists”) is particularly time consuming because multiple moderators must collaborate to produce an answer that boils down to each moderator saying, “I guess it depends??? *shrug*” but in slightly different ways.

Perhaps the biggest problem with rubber stamp asks is they feel (to us) like they are more about the asker’s desire for closure/ approval/ virtue signaling than a willingness to participate in the kind of education and discussion on diversity we are trying to foster on this blog.

To that effect: We will no longer be answering such questions.

(If you sent in such ask before this goes up on November 15th, 2020, a moderator may reach out to you individually to better address your inquiry as submitted.)

However: Don’t worry! We also are here to teach you how to makes these questions better!

Fixing Rubber Stamp questions:

1. Be specific.

Instead of Can I/ May I, try “How can I” or “When can I” or “What can I”?

Thus instead of: “I’m Christian. May I create a Jewish character seeking to become an actress in 1920s Hollywood?” —> “How do I, as a Christian, create a compelling Jewish character while being mindful of the interplay between my own intrinsic bias and historical accounts of prominent Jewish figures in early Hollywood?”Or, instead of: “I want to write a story about a modern day piracy in the East Indian Ocean, but with magic. Is this problematic? —> “Given the continuation of modern day piracy in the East Indian Ocean, what are some tropes I should avoid if I decide to go with a modern fantasy set in this region?”

2. Remember: The goal is improved understanding, not approval. Sometimes, you really just want to know *why* you can’t use a particular concept, and that curiosity is good! Questions that ask “Why?” in good faith are often how you can learn a lot about your own intrinsic biases and the limits of your own knowledge.

Thus, instead of: If I write about [controversial topic], am I a bad person? —> Why is it better for someone like me to not write about [controversial topic]?

This approach has the bonus effect of making us feel like you actually care about what we think.

3. Write your question as a draft: Edit your ask at least once or twice to provide as much information as possible while being concise. I’ve told this to college students before, but I can tell when a person wrote their assignment by the quality of the writing. Writing done late at night, when sleep deprived and without at least one edit contains extraneous information while not having a clear point.

Going through your question (Preferably a day after you wrote it) will help you narrow down what you really want to know.

Remember: You all have free will and can write whatever you please. We presume that you seek WWC’s input because you wish to write on issues pertaining to people of color with greater levels of awareness. On a practical note, we recognize that social media, trolling, call-outs, doxxing and other dimensions of cyberbullying make writers online hesitant to do anything unless they think they have the majority of the public on their side. There are times when it is obvious that the asker is asking more because they need approval to feel less anxious when they share their work with others.

However, if the above is your worry, either you aren’t ready to write on this topic or you need to rethink the boundaries you set with the online communities/ individuals you interact with as well as how you manage your internet presence. With respect to personal anxieties when it comes to writing, morality, your conscience and so forth, we recommend turning to your own support systems IRL. As relative strangers on the internet, we are not well-qualified to allay personal concerns.

Remember: Writing with diversity is like training for a marathon. Give yourself permission to expand your comfort zone at the pace your research capabilities and experience allow!

We appreciate that you all trust us to provide helpful, well-thought out feedback for your ideas, and we also thank you for respecting our perspectives even if you may disagree. In the same vein, we request that you put the level of thought into your questions you think appropriate given that another human being is going to spend, at a minimum, several hours coming up with their response. We look forward to hearing from you! 

- The WWC Team

(A link to this article will be added to the pinned FAQ for everyone’s reference)

[reflections-in-a-critical-eye]

Hello again! I'm the pimple anon (which is a strange name! But hey, I've embraced my insecurities!)

And, right off the bat, wanna say that I think all the points you made are completely valid and I am thankful, that you took time out of your day to respond.

Now honestly, I didn't at all allude that the reason BTS might disband (if ever or if they did or had done) would be because of their interpersonal reasons of affection or romance or anything like that, implying some sort of a "love triangle", or weird "jealousy" or whatever between the members. If my writing gave off that vibe, that was completely unintentional.

And like I wrote I enjoy ALL the ships in BTS even the polyamorous ones LOL because they are all so much fun. But I'm pretty conscious that these imaginations don't bleed into the reality of things, because 1. I'm not privy to their personal life. 2. They share only what they want or are required to. 3. They are humans and not made-up characters in someone's fantasy. 4. Unless it directly is from them, almost everything is speculation.

With that being said, I have followed BTS from the very beginning to now and really looked at them through almost neutral lenses, in a way that my bias is all 7 of them. So really everything that I wrote, was just an observation and not really a "story" I weave to feed or soothe myself!!

And like you wrote Jimin is highly emotionally intelligent, and I, 100% believe that too. But watching BTS from the earlier days to recent times, there does seem to be something unfathomable between him and Yoongi. And I'm not saying it's romantic per se, because chances are most likely it's not, however even just looking at them interact on TV it's unmistakable. It's undoubtedly subdued to the extent, I see some "people" completely call BS on it because they just can't "see" it. I disagree though, and again this is not to ship Yoongi and Jimin, but from my point of view their interactions are always so subtly different from how they interact with the other members, it's very intriguing.

Jimin and Jungkook, on the other hand just seem to click. Like two pieces of a puzzle. And watching them throughout the years realize this themselves has been almost cathartic. It might be platonic too between them, but it seems to tither on the edge of romantic! And it's not subtle at all. Their interactions are loud, in our faces, for the world to see and try to recognize for what it is.

Ahh, forgive me, again, I've written an essay!! It's just that, none of Jimin's interactions with Namjoon, Seokjin, Taehyung, or Hoseok carries this sort of visible chemistry (for the lack of a better word) as he shares with Yoongi and Jungkook.

But to finish off, I do immensely enjoy differing points of view, except when it gets too territorial and overtly antagonistic, I run away in that case!! Thank you again for responding and sharing your point of view. Hope you have a lovely day :)

Omg, you're calling yourself pimple anon! That's funny. And cute. Embracing it is the best thing to do, way to go 💪

Thanks for coming back and adding to some of your initial thoughts. The thing is, I know you personally weren't implying anything about love triangles and disbandment reasons. It's just that I usually start from one topic or a smaller issue and then I make a general point from it and it may go into a slightly different direction. So it was not because I didn't understand you or anything, I just wanted to expand on a larger issue and a phenomenon partaining to shipping, that's all. And anon, when I said story, I didn't mean it in a bad way. I wasn't mocking or not taking you seriously. Agh, tone is hard to express in a written form. So sorry about that. If I would have thought you were writing some bullshit or anything, I wouldn't have offered that type of response. So, we're good here, I hope 😊

And about the specific topic, you used the perfect word in this ask and now I understand more what you were trying to say. Chemistry! Yep, that's it. And I totally agree with you. But my opinion also comes from a biased perspective because I do enjoy more watching Jimin and Yoongi and Jimin with JK. I've said this before, if shipping two people would be up to my choice, it would be JM and Yoongi. Because of that chemistry. Because there is the je ne sais quoi lingering all the time. I find that with JM and JK as well. I know others will disagree completely, which is why it will always be a matter of personal preference.

P.S. I don't mind long asks. I really don't. There's nothing to forgive. If you come back in my inbox for other occasions, you can sign yourself as pimple anon, I'll remember you 😄Have a lovely day as well!

[gi-nathlam-hi]

#lotr #lotr books #lotr elves #lotr memes #silmarillion #art #artists on tumblr #the rings of power #amazon #ruined books #tolkien #poor tolkien #questions #questionable #your opinion

OP this feels like bait and I'm gonna take it.

Quick TLDR before I really get into this: it's not that serious. Adaptations are incapable of ruining their source material, and Rings of Power is not uniquely unfaithful or bad. They're not trying to adapt anything that they don't have the rights to, and what they are adapting is so vague that it's pretty hard to get it wrong (and they're not). Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk srry about taking the bait <3

Chiefly I wanna focus on the #ruined books tag because it is such a bizarre criticism of the show. As a Silmarillion enjoyer, a lifelong LOTR fan, and just a lover of Tolkien's works in general I'm in the "Good/decent series, but I don't appreciate all of it" category. Chiefly, the writing is a weak point. I see someone else pointing out in the replies that the pacing is weak, too, and that's absolutely true. There are a few character interpretations I disagree on but let me make two things clear:

It is not possible for an adaptation to "ruin" the source material

Rings of Power has nothing to do with the LOTR trilogy, and very little to do with the Silmarillion. So again, it's really strange to me that people judge the series based off of either of these things.

What people seem to be really judging the series off of is their nostalgia of the Peter Jackson trilogy, which is good but is not particularly faithful to the books, either. It maintains the spirit of Tolkien, though, and that is why it is so beloved today. Rings of Power also maintains the themes and spirit of Tolkien, and they are working with a much more forgiving source material, actually. They're working with the appendices -- which is about as specific as a high-school history textbook as to events, characters, and timeline. Sure, they're condensing things, and sure, they're taking a lot of liberties with interpretations. But characters like Cirdan, Gil-Galad, Elendil, Isildur, etc. etc. have little to no actual spoken lines in Tolkien's work, and we get maybe one-to-two paragraphs about them, max. There is nothing to ruin, here, except for people's high expectations based off of over fifty years of percolating headcannons.

I am trying my best to be super kind here but I am really tired of this attitude toward the show. They are not adapting the Silmarillion. Neither are they adapting LOTR. And a lot of people I see getting so mad about the show and saying that it ruins the books either haven't read the books, haven't actually watched the show themselves (or didn't watch the whole thing), or are looking at Peter Jackson's trilogy through rose-colored lenses.

Yes, PJ's trilogy was a once-in-a-lifetime sort of trilogy of films. And yes, they were made with great love. But so is Rings of Power. Literally everybody working on it loves Tolkien. Most of them have read the Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and even Tolkien's letters and it shows. They are delving into things that Tolkien himself struggled with (the personhood of orcs, namely, which Tolkien never reconciled with in his lifetime and deeply troubled him), songs of power, shapeshifting Sauron (a Silmarillion staple!) and many, many other things. Galadriel has her hair bound up in a crown-braid at one point which is directly pulled from her character descriptions, and Rings of Power Galadriel is much truer-to-form than Peter Jackson's.

Yes, they're adding new characters, expanding plotlines, truncating other ones, etc. They have to. Every adaptation has to do these things, and just because people might disagree with how they're choosing to adapt the work (I myself disagree with a lot of choices), that doesn't mean the show is objectively bad or objectively a disgrace to Tolkien's work. I cannot stress this enough: they are working off of very loose source material and they're doing a pretty good job of it, and it's made with love, and they get a lot of my favorite, crucial characters right (Celebrimbor, Elrond, Annatar, etc.) in ways that I have never seen any other adaptation do.

So yeah. I really enjoy it, and coming from someone who is very acquainted with Tolkien's work (Children of Hurin, HoME, LaCE, The Hobbit, Unfinished Tales, The Fall of Gondolin, LOTR, The Silmarillion, etc. etc. etc.) Yes, I do think that it is very much in the spirit of Tolkien's work and that they're doing a good job with their adapation.

All that to say: it's okay if you disagree, or if you dislike the show, or whatever. I'm not really trying to come for you, but this poll is really strange when paired with those tags so...yeah...it does kinda feel like bait that I'll bite on. I'm old enough to remember when PJ's trilogy came out. People hated it! They were getting mad about little things like the color of Faramir's hair (sound familiar, re lengths of wigs nowadays?). Then people got over that and stopped being reactionary and realized that, hey, actually this is really good and all of that nitpick stuff doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things, because it's in the spirit of Tolkien's work. Then PJ's hobbit came out and oh boy was that a disaster (and it still is IMO for many, many reasons), but now Rings of Power has come out and people are looking back on The Hobbit with rose-tinted glasses, and Rings of Power has become the new Tolkien adaptation that is fashionable to hate. This is not new. And by that, I mean that Rings of Power is not somehow uniquely bad or unfaithful. In fact, it's uniquely good in some aspects when held up against its peers.

It has its issues. I hate a lot of aspects of it just as much as I hate certain aspects of Peter Jackson's films. But for me, the love for the source material and the good parts of Rings of Power outweighs the bad. I'm thriving getting to see my favorite Tolkien characters get so much screentime. That's why I like it. It seems a poll like this goes around every month, and every single time the majority skews toward liking the show, and a large majority of the people who like the show are readers of all of Tolkien's works. The other selection of positive watchers are mostly casual watchers who can appreciate the show because it's good fun. There's nothing wrong with giving it a go and going "hm, this isn't for me", but to say that it ruins the source material or it's a disgrace to Tolkien's work is uh, well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As for what Tolkien would think of it? He's dead. And he meant for his work to be shared and enjoyed. It's a story that brought him comfort to write when he was in the trenches, and comfort to his kids when he told them it at bedtime. And as for the Tolkien Estate, they sold the rights and, after seeing what was being done with Season One, actively came back and gave them more rights in their contract. So if you want an "objective" opinion about whether or not this is faithful, the Tolkien Estate - who is notoriously stingy about who gets to touch Tolkien's work - seems to think that nothing is being butchered.

Ok, what is your position about Rings Of Power?

I'm curious because I see a lot of people loving it, and I don't understand why. Because for me, that series is a shit for several reasons. But I wanna know the tumblr users' opinion.