#I don't talk about it much on this blog but i am a huge star wars nerd with strong opinions

[queenlucythevaliant]

I'm watching Star Wars with my roommate, she hasn't seen any of it and she is completely unspoiled I am LIVING

[hotvintagepoll]

Trying to get more into old movies because of this blog (I only know about half of these people and feel like a poser) do you have good recommendations on where to start or is it just a situation where you watch stuff and find what you like as you go?

you are not a poser <3 i myself am just here for the hotties.

here is my quick and dirty list of fun films to start with if you're new to old movies. and of course if you like one of these, do try to find more stuff as you go! there's no bad way to try out old movies.

(this list is not official and is SUPER quick. i'm tagging for content warnings where I can, but if I forgot something let me know.)

"I want to watch something SILLY!"

The Court Jester (Danny Kaye, Angela Lansbury, Glynis Johns, Basil Rathbone)—everyone in this movie is hot. everyone is in fancy medieval dress, which makes them hotter. everyone here is very silly. You can stream this on Hoopla, last time i checked, so you might be able to stream it through your library!

Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang (Dick Van Dyke, Sally Ann Howes, Lionel Jeffries, Gert Frobe)—some people hate this movie and to them I say What Is Wrong With You. dick van dyke is a hot absent minded inventor who lives in a windmill with his two adorable children, his gorgeous sheepdog, and a grandfather who is categorically useless. it feels like the two films mary poppins (1964) and willy wonka (1971) had a baby and that baby was born on roller skates singing an old broadway showtune. this one has been showing up in some odd places lately—I think you can catch it on Tubi or Hoopla? It's definitely around.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Jane Powell, Julie Newmar, Howard Keel, Russ Tamblyn)—my problematic fave. everytime i watch this i change my mind whether it's a sexist pile of garbage or a feminist paean, and fellas, today we're on the feminist paean bandwagon!! jane powell's millie is truly the star of the movie, she is the hero she drives the plot the narrative is on her side, and besides all that there are seven very hot men dancing next to her and six beautiful ladies making me bisexual. (on Tubi last I checked.)

The Duke Is Tops (Lena Horne, Laurence Criner)—I get a huge kick out of watching Laurence Criner and Ralph Cooper swindle everybody while also trying to put on a show; there's just something silly and sincere here, plus you get a ~musical extravaganza~ at the end when all is right as rain again. Free on YouTube I think?

"I want to watch something DRAMATIC that may make me FEEL SOMETHING."

Witness for the Prosecution (Marlene Dietrich, Tyrone Power, Elsa Lanchester)—I love a campy twisty turny mystery, don't you? :) I'm not going to talk about this one much because it's better to go in blind, but if you like Agatha Christie stories you'll probably like this.

To Be Or Not To Be (Carole Lombard, Jack Benny)—always relevant, always makes me laugh, also makes me cry. this takes place in poland during wwii so big tw for nazi imagery and mentions. (don't worry. this movie fucking hates nazis.)

Seven Samurai (Toshiro Mifune)—this one is Great Cinema™™™™™™™™™™™ for a goddamned reason

"I want to watch some stuff with the scrungles in it!"

Mr. Washington Goes to Town (Mantan Moreland)—I've been checking out more of Mantan Moreland's stuff because every time I see him in something I think he's delightful, and I really enjoyed this silly-spooky comedy. Does this story have a brain cell? No. Are the special effects and goofy slapstick fun? Yes. This is a fun example of an all-Black cast in a film that was made for Black audiences, and is a striking counterpoint to the stereotypical representation Black actors were given in white-targeted films, showing the enormous amount of talent and artistry the racist studios missed out on by excluding these actors. This is not A Great Film™ but it's still A Fun Time,™ with a goofy Laurel and Hardy type vibe. (It's free on Youtube.)

The Red Shoes (Robert Helpmann, Leonide Massine, Marius Goring)—hey kid, you wanna watch something fucked up? This movie is so fucked up. It's about ballet, it's about art, it's about technicolor, it's about dance and toxic relationships and making theatre and nightmares and ambition and death. A lot of these recs tend on the silly side (because I tend on the silly side) but this one is actually Serious Film and will definitely help you chat up Martin Scorsese should you ever meet him. Big content warning if you can't handle dark themes right now—this movie's pretty dark, not in the gore way but in the Haunting Creepy Image way. (it's also free on Tubi and Kanopy most of the time.)

The Invisible Man (Claude Rains)—my favorite of the vintage horror flicks and a great introduction to Most Dunked On Hot Vintage Man of All Time, Claude Rains. (it helps that you barely ever see him!) Very very silly but the special effects are just plain fun. (I think this is on Internet Archive in full?)

"Can I just get more hot people please?"

Flower Drum Song (James Shigeta, Nancy Kwan, Miyoshi Umeki, Jack Soo)—there are so many unbelievably hot people in this movie which is somehow very good (thanks to its cast) and also incredibly, horrifically bad (thanks to its white team of writers, directors, and producers). on the one hand, it's a mostly Asian cast in a big budget, beautifully designed MGM style musical! there's dream sequences, lots of fun dancing, crooning Rogers & Hammerstein cabaret moments, and just charm galore. it is also freighted with so. many orientalist assumptions and stereotypes, absolutely ridiculous shit that the writers ABSOLUTELY should have known better about in the 60s and nonetheless carried into this. this is a hard one to recommend because I loved this cast, and I loved seeing them in a context beyond the usual stereotypical bit parts so many of them frequently were limited to—yet the movie itself perpetuates so many stereotypes on its own it can be a hard one to watch, and I totally understand if it does not work for most people. tl;dr watch for Shigeta, Kwan, Umeki, and the others, but content warnings galore for one (really bad) case of yellowface casting, orientalist tropes, extremely stereotypical character types, etc. (On Tubi/Kanopy last I checked.)

Charade (Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, James Coburn)—this movie feels like a Hitchcock movie except I had a ton of fun watching it, which I can't always say for a Hitch film. (I told you my taste was bad.) This one is free on YouTube and thank god because Audrey wears a lot of Givenchy, Cary Grant wears spectacles and keeps almost dying, it's very exciting and thrilling and funny and sexy. I don't think there are any content warnings but it's been a minute since I watched it. (I should go watch it right now.)

The Big Sleep (Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall)—they're so hot askjdljhjghladkghjksahkhgslkahgshskjhgsalhgsahgjh. i like this one a lot :)

[this is NOT A FULL LIST of all the hot vintage movies to start with but it might give you some starting places! i banged this out as quick as I could at 2 am, so apologies that it's sloppy and not perfect.]

[randomfotos]

Hello everyone, today I'm going to move away from the topic of my blog, to talk about something serious!

I've been on Tumblr since its inception, I've had several accounts, with different content and styles. I currently have two active accounts, both of which are very popular.

I gave this brief context, so that you understand that I have a basis for what I am going to say next.

For years I have noticed a certain discrepancy in the number of notes in certain posts. Over time it became increasingly obvious to understand why… The fact is that posts starring men of color (black, Asian, Latino, indigenous, people from the Middle East, in general, non-white men) receive much less, but much less likes and shares than those carried out by white men.

And look, this isn't about blog popularity and making a post go viral here. It's something bigger and very serious: racism and xenophobia.

And that's a huge general outline. For example: if posts with older men don't receive as many likes, compared to those with young, sexy, muscular black men, they receive much less notification than posts with older white men.

Another example, posts by fat men, do not have much repercussion, but when compared to that of an Asian or indigenous person, the fat white man receives more visibility.

I mentioned these two specific aspects, because in a society developed according to an aesthetic standard, old gay men and fat gay men are routinely placed on the margins of the gay community, simply because they do not meet these aesthetic expectations, but even when a group meets these "aesthetic standards", are belittled, subdued, disrespected and discriminated against, solely because of their skin color and origin.

Racism and xenophobia around the world is something that is clearly present in everyday life. And many people think it is not prejudiced. But even though things are very open on a daily basis, racism and xenophobia act silently, in a very sneaky way.

So, if you stop liking a photo because you didn't find it beautiful or attractive in your eyes, it's ok! Now, if you want for a second, you think about "if it were a white man there, this photo would be more beautiful" or "if it were a white man, I would feel hot for this guy", I'm sorry to inform you that you have the racism and xenophobia rooted in you!

Once again, I repeat. It's not about popularity, number of likes or reblogs. It's something very serious!

It’s not enough to not be racist, you have to be anti-racist! This means that we must monitor ourselves so that we do not have veiled racist and xenophobic attitudes in our attitudes and speech!

P.S.: I'm Brazilian, and English is not my mother tongue. So I ask you to use interpretation to understand what was said in a mature and responsible way. If any word or phrase is wrong or out of context, please let me know!

[mrs-monaghan]

Hello Shaz

I would love to hear your opinion on 3D and all the talk around it

My thoughts on the talk around it is; "wow, well this is a load of garbage" (no offence to any friends I may have who don't like the song I just disagree that its a terrible song)

Alright. 3D. Let's talk. My thoughts. First, what's with the fucking homeless trousers??

I hate rich people 😭😭😭😭 if I wear this people will wonder why I didn't go back home to change after I fell in mud 😪

Anyhu, before i even say a thing. We should probably all try to remember that JK said this

(Thanks @chicknbunny13)

Yeah sure, even if he doesn't write a song, he may resonate with it. But not everything he does is a reflection of his actual life. This one, is for the Jikook antis btw. This is why my anons are still off. People, I dont have the energy for antis rn. JK sang 'girl' so what? This topic is super old and tired and consider it officially retired from this blog. I'm sooooo over it 🥱🥱🥱🥱

Now that we have that out of the way let's tackle the fact that our JK is a grown, grown adult. I don't need to bring back the live where he told people he's an adult and he is almost 30 and he will do what he wants to do. And if he wants to sing about this, that's exactly what he will sing about.

Oh my,

Even Jimin knows all about it

Tweet

BAHAHAAHAHAHA!!!

Let is be known i am choosing to take that sentence literally. I think JK just means him, the girl, with champagne and confetti. I really don't think it means anything else here. But, seeing as this is another sex song, I won't put it past him.

Anyone else notice a recurring theme here?

Okay then. 😳

Also shout out to this random kid with the horse

I can't be the only one who has no clue what his point was 😂😂😂

While we are on the champagne topic,

I mean....

Make no mistake, SEVEN and 3D are singing about the same thing. If SEVEN was in your face, 3D is subtle. But they are both just talking about sex here. Which is why it doesn't make sense to me why people are so upset??? As a person who likes Harlow and has heard his songs before, this did not shock me one bit. There is nothing wrong with this song. It is meaningless and shallow but guess what, thats the type of music the GP is listening to rn. I understand why Asians have an issue with this line

And I can respect that. I don't have to understand it, but if Asians say its offensive, then its offensive. In which case I think that's just ignorance on Harlow's part. The people behind the song and JK himself are not going to okay something degrading. So it is of my opinion that people are reading too much, way too much into something that aint even meant to be deep.

It's a song, about sex. The only thing deep about it, is the holes that will be getting penetrated.

This song doesn't require to be analysed. Okay, maybe when trying to decipher the analogies being used but that's it. JK has one agenda and one agenda only; release music that the general public will devour, get his name out there and be a huge pop star. And it is working.

Cue Boracity's new video about each member and who their target audience are for each solo project

JK did not write these songs. If he did I'm sure they would have more meaning. But that's not what he's aiming for rn. Right now the man just wants to put out something that he knows will sell. Wants to put out something that will be a hit. And 3D is exactly that. Just like SEVEN. Mans was asked for the meaning of the song and by his answer, I'm not sure even he knows.

What??

Did anyone understand that???? If you did, break it down for me coz I did NOT understand that 😂😂

This song has no meaning. Its shallow, catchy, easy to remember and move to. Enough with trying to complicate shit! It ain't that deep. Period.

JK cared more about the choreo.

While Jack is calling himself a whore for wanting 4 women, JK is busy dancing throughout. So I will listen to JK and enjoy the song and choreo. Because there is nothing in the lyrics and there was never intended to be.

Idk why y'all mad when we stan a consent king:

Personally I dont have time to be angry because 1) i see no reason to be, and 2) i am too busy admiring JK's body proportions 🤤🤤

Damn, Jimin's man is hot!!!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[grassbreads]

I’d love to know about Yulma and how important it is to representation in shounen manga

This has been sitting in my askbox for a couple months (because I am incapable of punctuality), but anon sent this to me back when I was talking about Yulma over on my vnc blog. For those unaware, Yulma refers to Yu Kanda and Alma Karma from the manga D.Gray-man.

So the thing is, to be honest, I don't know if you can say Yulma is/was important for representation. They don't tend to get brought up as an example of representation (except by diehard d.gray-man fans like me, lol) in shonen, and their whole thing is complicated enough that I feel like the queerness of it all flies over a lot of people's heads.

However! They're very important to me personally, and I do think it's kind of remarkable their story came out in like 2010. Because even though their queerness gets overlooked a lot, it's like. really there no matter how you interpret it.

The short version of their very complicated story is that Kanda and Alma are a couple who were resurrected into new bodies. Alma was a woman when they were originally together in their past lives, but is physically male in the present. Kanda is still very much in love with them by the end of their story, which, depending on the reading, makes Kanda very bi and/or Alma very trans.

This sound like something you want details on? If so, let's talk about how D.Gray-man's fan favorite edgy badass toughguy character briefly became the star of his very own heart-wrenching tragic queer romance.

Here's a brief crash course in Yu Kanda and Dgm for the uninitiated:

D.Gray-man is a manga about a group of exorcists (in the loosest and most anime sense of the term) in the 1890s fighting a holy war against mechanical demons powered by the souls of the dead. There are two things you need to understand about this plot for me to explain Yulma:

The Black Order, the secret branch of the church that exorcists work for, has a long history of committing horrific human experiments to further the war effort.

Due to complications of world building, only a tiny number of people can become exorcists, and tracking down new ones is extremely difficult.

Yu Kanda is one of the exorcists, and though not the actual main character (that's the lad in my icon), he's a very important secondary character. Arguably he's the most important secobdary character, since he's the main guy's biggest foil and the first character to play deuteragonist in a major story arc. He's also a huge fan favorite. The character popularity polls that Jump used to do always had him and the mc going back and forth over who won #1 most popular.

Kanda was also a classic edgy toughguy character. His first two scenes are him almost murdering the main guy because he thinks he's an intruder, then complaining about people grieving for their friend too loudly. He never smiles. He argues with the righteous mc about wasting time/energy protecting civilians. He threatens (and delivers) violence on anyone that annoys him. He looks like this:

TLDR; Kanda was an adored-by-fans mean badass archetype in a 2000s shonen manga. Not generally the guy you peg for starring in a piece of queer romantic storytelling.

And for the entirety of the original anime adaptation's 103 episode run, for the first 188ish chapters of the manga, you do not learn a single thing about his early life. You learn he joined the Black Order very young, and you meet the mentor that took him in at that point, but although there are little hints, a couple cryptic mentions of him searching for a certain person, his early origins remain a complete black box.

Then came the Alma Karma arc.

This is the point where I start getting into spoilers.

To make a very long story short, the Alma Karma arc reveals that Kanda is one of the Black Order's human experiments. The Order ran a secret project 9ish years before the start of the series in which they essentially tried to re-use dying exorcists (since finding new ones is so hard). They took the bodies of dying or recently deceased exorcists and harvested their brains, implanting those brains into new magically grown child bodies.

Key to this project—the second exorcist project—is that these newly grown second exorcists were not supposed to remember anything from their previous lives. Kanda, however, recovered a few hazy memories from his past self. Most importantly, he can recall an unclear image of the woman that his past self was in love with. This memory gradually becomes Kanda's reason to live. He wants desperately to find and meet that person.

Now, aside from Kanda, there was one other successfully revived second exorcist. This was a boy named Alma Karma.

Over the course of their brief shared childhood, Kanda and Alma become extremely close. However, due to a series of horrible events that I'll spare you the details of, Alma is eventually driven to murder-suicide. He wants himself and Kanda to die together to spite the Order, and Kanda almost lets him do it.

The one thing that keeps Kanda from letting Alma kill him, the thing that drives him instead to kill Alma, his most beloved and only friend, is that he can't bear to die without finding that woman again.

Have you figured out the twist yet?

9 years later, in the present, Kanda discovers that he didn't actually quite kill Alma. The Order kept Alma secretly half-alive in order to do more dubious experiments. And, more importantly, when they meet again, Kanda discovers the truth. The woman that he's been searching for his whole life, the woman he's in love with, the woman he tried to kill Alma in order to find, was also killed and made into a second exorcist. And her brain was placed into the body of Alma Karma.

After quite a lot more violence and tragedy, Kanda and Alma end their story arc by running away together on their deathbeds. Alma dies, for real this time, in Kanda's arms, and his last words are to tell Kanda he loves him. These words are presented as something Kanda hears from both the boy and woman versions of Alma's soul.

So! At the end of a very long and complicated story, one thing holds true: Kanda and Alma are in love. As passed down from their past selves, they are specifically in romantic love. They were a couple. And to speak as a fan, the sheer absolute devotion to how Kanda's love for Alma is presented is seriously intense and moving.

Now, given the absolute hell that is Alma's life, gender identity is frankly the last thing they have time to worry about, so it's hard to say how the whole "literally a woman's brain in a male body" thing might have settled for them if given time to think about it. But that is inherently a pretty trans narrative. And given the whole Alma gender situation, there's simply no reading of their whole situation where neither of them is queer.

If you take present day Alma as a guy, which is more or less how he's presented in canon (though again, who knows how he would've felt about that male body in different circumstances), then congratulations! You've got mlm in your shonen manga. They were straight in a different life, but now one of them's a dude, and they are still deeply in love with each other. They've even got not one but two "let's forget it all and run away together" scenes, just as every mlm couple seems to have.

On the other hand, if you go with the angle that Alma's still a woman based on her mind/soul, even in her new body, then Kanda may not be canonically queer, but Alma is inarguably trans. Again, literally a woman's brain in a male body. It may not be how most people end up trans, but that doesn't change the facts of her situation.

You see what I mean about how they're undeniably queer, but also kind of easy to miss? There's so much other insane shit going on in their story that Alma's whole gender situation can get passed over. Plus, you can look online to this day and find people arguing that Kanda's not "technically" explicitly in love with the present day male version of Alma, since he doesn't 100% unambiguously say as much. I love reading comprehension.

Also! As a possible extra reason for why people don't talk about them much, the official English translation of the manga translated Alma's final "I love you" very differently. There's always a lot of nuance and argument when it comes to translating "大好き" into English, but given the full context of their relationship and the scene it's in, Viz's handling really sets off the censorship bells in my head.

Here's the different versions (Japanese then fan then official), if you want to compare:

Nothing more classically queer than censorship by way of questionable translation 🙃.

At the end of the day, Kanda and Alma are in kind of a strange middle ground. They're each in love with the other one, but the whole second exorcist brain transfer situation makes it complicated enough that people argue their feelings aren't explicitly romantic (and thus not gay) in the present. Alma is literally a woman's brain implanted in a male body, but we don't have time to dwell on the gender complications of all that because of the hell that is the rest of their life. They're canon but not canon—queer people whose stories don't have space for them to be queer.

However, given that all this messy, tragic ambiguity was published in a fairly popular shonen manga back in 2010, it still feels kind of remarkable to me. Alma is somewhat an antagonist (it's complicated), and he dies at the end of his arc, but once again, Kanda was/is the fan favorite! And when he re-enters the main story after Alma's death, he's more important than he's ever been, and his history with Alma continues to be a huge part of his character.

Katsura Hoshino took the much-beloved edgy toughguy character from her long-running shonen series and, after keeping his origins secret for such a long time, confirmed that his whole life has revolved around love this entire time. Almost every facet of his character can be traced back to his love for his lost best friend or his yearning for his past life's missing partner. And then she reveals that the best friend and the partner are one and the same.

You can go back and forth about the degree to which they work as representation, but in any case, I think their story is something people ought to know about. It's romantic and it's heart-wrenching and it's fucking wild, especially given the context in which it was published (a Shonen Jump spinoff in 2010). I never see anyone besides the few remaining hardcore dgm fans talk about them, and I think that's a shame.

So anyway, that's tale of one of the most insanity-inducing romances I've ever seen put to paper. I love queer people.

Here's some choice pages if you want to cry with me (the last two are a sequence):

[starbornsoulrider]

Intro Post (finally)

hiya! I'm Wren. he/they, nonbinary, pansexual star stable player who got sucked into this silly horse game by accident. I am the self proclaimed no. 1 Darko hater (/silly) and also huge lover of the Soul Riders they're one of the big reasons I stuck w/ the game (and as of late I've been hyperfixating on the Dark Riders just as much tbh)

my main server (as of rn) is Watermelon Beach but I'll hop from time to time. I'm a pretty socially anxious person so if u meet me in game don't expect me to talk very much pls, i'll say hi to you tho

in game my name rn is Blake Crazyfrog but when and if the name change update drops i'll probably be changing that to Haley Starborn. speaking of which, lemme introduce you to my main SSO OC: Halo! quick summary of their backstory: one day, they washed up on the shores of Moorland with little to no memory of who they were, just an inner longing to return to the stars and a mysterious connection to one of the horses at the nearby stables. thus begins their journey to adapting to life on earth, navigating their way around Jorvik's mysteries, and growing into the role as the fifth Soul Rider.

^ one of my bingles of all time ft. their starter and soul horse, Babyboy, who is also typically my main horse in game. don't ask me how many horses I have I lost count a long time ago but its at least over 100 by now. not all of them are canonically owned by Halo but I haven't fully decided which ones are yet.

typical dni rules, just don't a bigot or asshole and we're cool. also if you're like. an avid hater of the soul riders or something please like. avoid this blog that's partly for my own comfort and also you probably wouldn't enjoy it here anyway.

i mostly post screenshots but i also post art! sometimes. when I feel like struggling through the pain of drawing horses. art posts will b tagged with #my art

you can find more info about Halo here!

home stable: Valedale

lvl: 24

[brineffxiv]

Hi!

Er.. So. Dawntrail is imminent. I have been meaning to make this post for some time? But I procrastinated. I sort-of hoped that I would be able to catch up to my huge backlog of posts? Ah, but I suppose I should confess, I finished the game!

I loved it. It was awesome. Incredible. I cried so much.

Yeah. Kind of a poor excuse for a "liveblog" at this point, eh? So, when we last spoke... I got to the end of Elpis, and then that biiig cutscene happened. And I couldn't manage to articulate how I felt about it. Like. The first time I saw it, I was so upset and cried through the whole thing. I loved it. I hated it. I was so very angry with Venat. But I couldn't put it into words why. In the end, I was very glad I'd taken screenshots of it, and could go back through it and see it slowly, because my initial impression of what happened, turned out to not be what actually happened when I looked at it again?

I am still angry with Venat. But not necessarily for what she did in the moment, more, a collection of her actions and her overwhelming need to be in control at all times. Her mistakes were made long before the sundering, and I think at the time she did the best she reasonably could. Unfortunately, her best wasn't good enough.

BUT! These are all conclusions I should save for that post.

Which I still would like to write.

That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. See, like I said, I finished the game. But. I kept taking screenshots all the while, expecting to write posts. I had just hoped to have caught up before this point. Because as I understand it, Dawntrail will bring with it a significant graphical upgrade. And then it's not really possible to pretend that this is still a "live" blog, yeah?

And I mean, regardless, pretending it's all still "live" wouldn't be fair to you all. That'd be telling lies. And that's bad.

So how do you feel about this? When I get to writing posts I will still call them a liveblog, and I will try to write them in the mindset I was in when I first played through them. But we all know that it's not truly live.

The other option is I can just... not write the posts and quit the liveblog.

I don't know. Up to you to decide, I suppose. Do you even want to see the rest of it?

Anyway. So what happened was, I stalled out on writing that post, but I really wanted to keep playing. So I thought I'd play just a little... And, well, you know what happens with "just a little" - before I knew it I was in Ultima Thule facing down the Endsinger. And I still couldn't finish that damn post.

I did a lot of fun stuff after finishing the game!

I did all of Eureka! I cleared the Baldesion Arsenal enough times to complete 4 sets of gear and 4 Relic Weapons! I even did calls and led some of the runs through BA! It was a lot of fun! (I did it through the ABBA discord, which, while there are some lovely people there, upper management are assholes and I would not recommend sticking around long term. Use them and lose them is what I'm saying)

Then I went and did Bozja! I ran Delubrum Reginae Savage (with the Lego Steppers discord. Very well managed run. Full stars) and got my Cerberus mount. I hate Bozja! I'm not going back there! You can't make me!

I joined a raiding static and cleared EX6 when it was current! Then we cleared EX7! Then last Monday we cleared P9S! Such fun!

I joined a second raiding static! I was asked to leave the second raiding static! Because I am not very good at raiding!

Hmm... what else did I do? I maxxed out my Island Sanctuary. I got all my Blue Mage spells and completed the Masked Carnivale. I even got my umbrella! And I completed all my Splendorous Tools! I have 25 fish left to catch in the game!

I won a Medium house and decorated it. If you want to come see it some time, it's on Marilith, Mist, Ward 17 Plot 29. I filled it with secrets. And a little shrine to my favorite character (It's Emet-Selch, of course it is).

I even built a personal FC with my alt and am experimenting with subs and airships!

Speaking of alts. I may have made too many.

I did the raids (and cried), I did the tribal quests (and cried). I did a lot of crying! But it was good. It was worth it! I love this game!

I am so looking forward to Dawntrail (and I hope you are too!).

[mcrinmyhead]

INTRODUCTION

Hiya, my name's Dee or you can call me Dead! instead, cuz that's what my name is in Tumblr. I'm sixteen. I'm an Indian, racists better fck off. I like to draw, sing and write songs and poems. I mainly post my art here and I have two side blogs too, which are @mcrinmyheart (idk what I post there :D) and @shesacomplicatedpoet where... Er, you know it. And when I say "art" I usually draw My Chem, Fall Out Boy, Linkin Park, Bring Me The Horizon and a few other bands, but you can always leave a picture in the "Ask me?" box if you really want me to draw something that you like :). Just make sure it isn't something s!utty, cuz my parents like seeing my sketchbook sometimes, haha.

About me...

Name: Dead! / Dee

Age: 16

Pronouns: she/her

Likes: listening to music, art, singing, music bands, food, sleeping (I'm a very eepy person), travelling, reading, etc.

What kind of art do I do? Fanarts mainly.

Dislikes: peanuts (yea I don't like 'em, so if you know me irl and try to feed me peanuts, I'm gonna fcking stab you, you little shit), pedos, homophobic fcks, MSI apologists, basic DNIs, etc.

Am I single? Yes, and that's because I don't want to date anyone. Nvm, I'm taken :]

Music bands/artists I like:

+ twenty one pilots, p!atd, Bring Me The Horizon, Glass Animals, Bad Omens, Sleep Token, etc. I also liked The 1975, The Nbhd, Joji, Driver The Era, Arctic Monkeys and Chase Atlantic before, so I really don't mind if you wanna talk about them too. I'm basically a music addict who has listened to a whole lotta music genres throughout my life. But I'm currently into rock music rn. Yeah, I can't stop talking about music if I start.

My favourites:

Books: Agatha Christie's books, Heartstopper, Five Feet Apart, The Fault in our Stars, Crime/Horror/Mystery books (there are many but I can't remember them), etc.

Movies: anything horror, mystery, crime, sci-fi, Marvel, DC, Star Wars, from the 2000s and 90s, etc. (How do people actually choose a favourite movie??)

Shows: Loki, Heartstopper, Young Royals, Marvel shows, etc. (I literally like all the shows I watch)

Albums: My top 10 rn (June 2024) are like- Three cheers for sweet revenge (my chem), POST HUMAN: NexGen (BMTH), XO (LeATHERMØUTH), The Black Parade (my chem), I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love (my chem), Clancy (Tøp), A Thousand Suns (Linkin Park), Danger Days (my chem), Folie a Deux (FOB), and Pretty. Odd. (P!ATD).

Colours: (Bury me in) Black, Blood Red and Lavender.

Where else can you find me?

At home, in my room 95% of the time. Nah, just kidding.

Links:

Pinterest

Spotify

Discord: mcrinmyhead

Tags I use:

My art: #art

Asks: #asks #asks <3

Scroll down for more facts about me...

Or don't. I really don't care.

Fun facts about me ^^:

I'm a really joyful, chaotic, kind, funny and a sweet person! :D (according to my frens)

Until and unless you get me on my nerves. Trust me, That's when I go insane.

If you know me irl, hi... Uh, I know I don't talk much in person but I'm sorry. That's just who I am. But if you want to be my friend, you can start by texting me lol.

I'm a music addict who likes to annoy people by talking about music bands 24/7.

I have an unhealthy obsession over My Chem.

I'm a huge nerd (according to every person in my class) and I like Math and Science (but I don't really talk about it unless you are someone who is into math and science as much as me).

I'm also a sarcastic and sassy person. So if my words ever offend you, I'm so sorry bbg. Deal with it.

I'm a vampire (I have fangs and I will bite you to suck that blood your body holds, RAHHH).

Other than drawing and singing, my hobbies are fangirling, sleeping, reading books, travelling and sometimes even cooking.

I might be surrounded by many people who I call my "friends," but in the end it's just four people who are actually my friends.

I'm mostly an introvert, but I'm an extrovert when I'm with my friend.

I suck at socializing btw.

Yikes, this list is still going on!

But I like to annoy people at the same time.

Wait, does Tumblr have a word limit on a post?

SHALL I TRY REACHING THE WORD LIMIT???

Ah, yeah, I forgot to mention this but I'm a really curious person. I like trying out or experimenting on stuff. It's fun, okay?

I can be smart and an idiot at the same time B)

I write poems but I don't like showing them to others cuz I feel like they're stupid. Any tips on poetry from the poets of Tumblr?

I love cats. Cats or get tf out.

Am I annoying rn?

Idk.

This was fun.

Alright, that's enough fckery for today. Farewell my little kittens <333

So long and good night!

[sanctissimx]

get to know the mun ! repost, don’t reblog.

——— BASICS ! ♡

NICKNAME : Saint !

PRONOUNS : they/them !

ZODIAC SIGN : Cancer sun, Aquarius Moon, Gemini rising

TAKEN OR SINGLE : single parent to a sweet himbo cat, adopted parent to Hawk's shitty cat son and adorable booger princess daughter

ANYTHING ELSE? : uppity Southeast Asian danger queer who talks too much shit for someone wearing pastels, except I can fight. And bake.

——— THREE SERIOUS FACTS ! ♡

Quality of writing is all I really care about, so if I followed you, it's because I want your writing on my dash !

I am not here to be normal about ur muse. I want to know everything about them, I need to know them profoundly so I can love them in the waythey deserve !

I don't require constant activity of my partners in terms of replies. Sometimes life is too much to be able to get in a writing headspace, and that's totally fine! I love talking about our muses even when we can't write, and I have no problem writing drabbles or fics whenever I can for my partners, just so we can have content !

——— THREE RANDOM FACTS ! ♡

I can sing in like ... 20 languages?

I am obsessed with stars and moons, and got stars tattoed on my hands for my birthday IT SUCKED

I once picked up a huge dirt disc that looked like it had constellation patterns in it and held it up for my classmates to see. My chem teacher said, "that's a cow pie," and I got so flustered i dropped it on my foot and it shattered

——— EXPERIENCE ! ♡

I got into RP because my best friend wanted a dedicated RP partner on tumblr, and I decided to do it with zero writing experience. I've been stuck here ever since.

I'm really blessed to have writing partners I've been mutuals with for years (momo is the longest at 8 at this point). I'm pretty loyal to writing partners, so if we connect once, we connect like through time and space and beyond the confines of mortal comprehension, so I'm never forgetting you, sorry

Plotting is a must on this blog, unfortunately. I struggle to just wing it, and do need some basis of understanding about your muse's personality and motivations in order to feel comfy about writing something successful for you.

Please also do not feel shy about plotting ! I like to think I'm good at leading the plotting if you're not comfortable with it. I'll always ask clarifying questions about your muse, and offer suggestions for a plot/verse,etc. I just need you to be open to communicating answers !

I've had extremely possessive RP partners in the past who have been emotionally abusive to me on personal levels, and I can be quick to nope out if I feel like people are getting weird, even just postig on dash

I have no issue approaching first for interaction, but if there's no reciprocation, I'll probably never approach again LKSJDHFLJSDF my anxiety will just assume you're not interested

——— MUSE PREFERENCE ! ♡

My muse type is typically "chaotic bisexual who loves their wife of any gender" and that's really the only fact anyone needs to know about me

I also generally love writing emotionally intelligent characters, and conversely the worst people you've ever met?? The psychological aspect of writing is arguably one of the reasons I love writing, so I'm ready to yap about any of these muses

Like 85% of my muse lists end up being male muses, but I really love writing female muses and especially wlw !

I write top-leaning switches and am rabid about writing with other switches. Share the love, you know? Battle for dominance with ur mouths and whatnot ... throw each other around ....

I do tend to take up characters for friends, so that's also the reason for the stupid range of idiots I take up

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT ! ♡

FLUFF : I love fluff! But there has to be a balance, as with anything. Fluff is great because it's usually vulnerability between two people who trust each other enough to be soft ! But building up to that trust is important ( and challenging that trust ...)

ANGST : I adore angst but I need to build up to it— set the stage, watch it crash, pick up the pieces, then aftercare. For the muses. And me lskdjhflksjhdljsf I'M SENSITIVE

SMUT : I fucking love smut in the sense that it's an expression of muse chemistry and history, but I don't do it often only because it requires way too much brain power and life's got me fatigued. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a sloot when I get comfortable enough to smut, so I probably go a little overboard, and you're not allowed to look at me or perceive me when I do lkjsdhflksjhdljshf

PLOT / MEMES : PLOTTING, PLEASE! I like to get comfortable with my knowledge of your muse, but more importantly, I want to lose my mind over them. As for memes, I tend to go overboard with memes, and everyone's free to continue them or not. I'll say I write my best memes with at least a little discussion beforehand. I generally don't send memes in unless I have a decent idea of who you'd want to interact with because I'm weirdly anxious about it

TAGGED BY : idr, it's been in my drafts for a hot minute ... TAGGING : (my mains and newest mutuals) @telndas ! @infernaelis! @tearenola ! @tragedicn ! @xianqu ! @morrias ! @bearratic ! @kaerinio ! @yishuns ! @sil3nth1lls !

[shiroselia]

Guess who completely missed I've been posting on Ao3 for over a year now, so to celebrate that almost two weeks later, behold! Self-promo!

I know, I know, but I suppose since I've been going for a year(???) now I might as well give a little Summary on what the hell I've been doing over on the Ao3, and also have a bit of fun with it in the process.

So, who the hell am I? I'm Manda Shiroselia EquestrianEquivalent, and apparently I'm an Ao3 publisher now. Sentence I never thought I'd say, but here we are!

What do I write? Well, primarily I write for Fire Emblem, Honkai Star Rail, and Star Stable Online. More precisely, I'm a character dynamics connossieur, which means I'm mostly writing character interaction and/or ship-focused fics because that's what I find the most fun! I generally average about 3-5k on my oneshots, but there are shorter (and longer) ones, so if length is something you're particularly picky about, you'll have variety in there, promise.

My personal favourite choices of the Fire Emblem variety are, coincidentally, my two most recent Fire Emblem fics! Soft Pegasus Feathers, and Dream of Me.

Good stuff, fun times, huge self-reccs of mine.

In terms of HSR, well, I've written. a lot of those, but I'm particularly, well, well-known might be a stretch, but those of you who subscribe to JingFu might recognize me for my most popular fic, Better Luck Next Time, or for my newest piece of insanity, KONTORSRENOVERING.

Better Luck Next Time is probably the best introduction to my writing style you will ever find, especially since it's kind of responsible for me finding my style, and it's also incredibly funny, if I do say so myself.

KONTORSRENOVERING is a great introduction to my particular niche, which I like to describe as "It could've been a fanart, but I'm glad it's a fic." If you read it you'll know exactly what i mean by that! Both of them are fics I hold very near and dear, so obviously I recommend each of them in particular.

And as for what I write for SSO? Well. I don't know if you have ever sorted that tag by word count, but if you have, you might have come across a certain little fic called A Quintessential Jorvegian Summer Vacation.

Which is, well, a lot of things. It's the entire reason I started publishing on Ao3 to begin with, my life's work pretty much, arguably my magnum opus really, and the entire reason my friends both discovered and has since never let me live down how fucking nuts I am.

It is the most taxing out of all my works, since, you know, check that chapter count:word count and you'll understand. I'm currently in the middle of reposting the last 4 chapters, because yes I've rewritten every single one of the first 24 chapters and counting, and once that is done, I'm going to rewrite the entire fic. Which is really just a first draft into a second draft, but considering how much I've changed as a writer throughout the 10 months I wrote this behemoth of a fic (first draft clocked in at 280k words so you can imagine how much effort this fucker took), it needs some maintainance.

With that being said, even if you don't know what the fuck a Star Stable Online is, I genuinely suggest you check this out anyways, because I legitimately think it works really well as just a standalone horse adventure magic fantasy. And a tragedy. Apparently. Supposedly. According to my friends who know too much about this fic.

It's going to take a fuck ass while to publish this entire thing, and I talk about it all the time on this blog, but there is so much love put into this fic, and I'm not abandoning it ever, it will be published, mark my word.

So that's essentially a "quick" summary of what the fuck I'm doing over there at the Ao3s. This mentioned like half of the roster, so there are a few more things over there if you're curious. And there's more to come, like a lot more to come.

For example, I'm currently working on two longer HSR fics, one starring Himeko and Pom-Pom, and the other starring Jiaoqiu featuring Bailu and Lingsha. I've also gotten way too into Zenless Zone Zero, and I'm definitely going to write a few fics for that, so far every one of them featuring Nicole. Other than that I have a lot of silly Fire Emblem ideas lying about (most of them related to Awakening, which means more Chromia in particular), and I'm no stranger to just throwing out a fic for the hell of it, so you might even be surprised!

And with that, Manda out, and happy late Ao3 anniversary to me <3

[rainbowsky]

Hello! I am a huge huge fan of your blog, you are always so informational, also objective, yet so, so warm and nice.

I would like to ask, you have mentioned in the past, that xz and wyb have taken down other CP supertopics and suppressed hot searches. I think that is very cool behaviour of theirs. Do you know any examples of these CP?

Thank you! Keep being cool! I hope the days you live are fulfilling and great.

Hi Anon! Thanks so much for your kind words, I'm glad you're enjoying my blog! I hope your days are fulfilling and great too! 😊

I have posted what I'm willing to talk about on my blog. It sounds like you've already seen some of that. Beyond that, I'm not really willing to discuss. I generally try to avoid talking about other CP on here, and I don't think these things deserve any more attention than they already get. Sorry!

Having said that, I also feel the need to add that going down the path of trying to 'prove' anything about GGDD based on how they act toward other supertopics/CP is a bit of a fool's errand. We don't have anything to prove, we certainly have nothing to be insecure about, and anyway it's far better if we can focus on turtles and on GGDD rather than on other stars or other CP. It's the best way to avoid toxicity and fan wars.

The truth is, GG and DD are shipped with many people, and there are other CP supertopics featuring GG or DD in other CP that still exist to this day. Even CP that have been very problematic and which have been tools for antis. They don't get a lot of attention, they're not fed, and they certainly don't come anywhere near the numbers of GGDD supertopics. Not even the smaller ones like ZSWW (1.4 million) and LSFY (1 million).

Just for example, a GG CP supertopic with YZ only has 15k members, and a DD one with CX only has 55k (and no, I'm not going to link them here - I'm glad that they're relatively difficult to find, and we should be staying in our own lane). While the members are active, they are few.

I don't think fans quite understand how INSANE it is that a 5 year old CP supertopic between GG and DD has reached 4 million, that it has the visibility that it does, that it keeps growing rather than shrinking, and that CP topics keep trending on Weibo hotsearch without being shut down. Since BJYX hit 4 million on the 3rd of this month, 32k new turtles have been added. That's in just a couple weeks. It's still growing every day.

There's a reason solos hate us so much. We're the elephant in the room for self-insert girlfriend fans. 😅

Anyway, like I said, we are better off focusing on turtle topics and on GGDD rather than other people or other CP. Live and let live.

Related posts:

GGDD supertopics and shutting down CP rumors

Other CP supertopics

The GG WZC supertopic

[destinyc1020]

What a truly weird comment from that Robert Daniels guy (and he is someone who hasn't even seen the show to decide for himself). To say that Tom's only 'life experience(s)' have happened in show business. That is a really callous, to act like he hasn't lived like a human in love and loss and disappointments and achievements outside of his work, like we ALL do. To dismiss him as just some one dimensional product of the industry with no life is just gross to me? And the same critic replied with laughing emojis to someone who said it was generous to even call him an actor. Just a huge, huge yikes. I am really getting just a nasty, nasty vibe from some of these critics. Even IF Tom was someone who acted as poorly as someone on a soap opera (which he certainly doesn't, he has turned in some truly fantastic performances in his career and thats just a fact), no one deserves to be spoken about like that from people who are supposedly professionals. People seem to take a really disrespectful kind of joy in insulting him, I know that people can be absolutely vicious to anyone in the public eye, but this just seems truly WAY too much.

The positive reviews from actual publications outweigh the negative. Someone did a review roundup where the count was 17 that had 4-5 stars, 5 with 3 stars, and 3 with 1-2 stars. The narrative I'm seeing on twitter just does not reflect the reality of the reception - it was received WELL. Anyways, sorry for the rant Destiny, but I expect this kind of behavior from trolls, but from professionals living their Twitter mean girl fantasy it gives me a big ick. I'm just glad the audience reception and the majority of critics have appreciated him and Fran's performance and Jamie's production, and I'd just like to see more clickbait about THAT instead of this strange negativity that's cropped up.

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

Also, am thinking about you and sending you lots of love and condolences, I hope that fandom can be a positive distraction for you in a tough time. Thank you for your discussions on this blog, and I hope you take care of yourself first and foremost

First of all, thank you so much for this.🙏🏾 I really appreciate it 🥰❤️

Re: Robert Daniels....

I assume you must be referring to this comment he made on Twitter?

Yea girl, I felt like his critique of Tom was just kinda cruel?? 🥴 Like, it's one thing to critique someone's acting, but when you start making all kinds of ASSUMPTIONS about someone and what kind of life they've had, etc, I'm sorry, but that's hitting below the belt imo. 🤨

And I usually don't resort to going in on people's looks and outward appearance when I'm trying to do a rebuttal to smthg I didn't like that someone said, but whew chiiiiilllle..... 👀

Talk about a face only a mother could love lol

Anyway....

I really do hope that Tom just doesn't even pay any mind to the critics and just continues on to enjoy doing this play as simply a passion project for himself and himself only.

Idk what people's obsession is with hating on him on Twitter (I guess he's become Twitter's new "Whipping Boy".... it happens to MANY actors 🙄), but whenever I see ppl en masse hating on someone for seemingly NO GOOD reason, my spidey senses start tingling and I figure that this person must not be as "bad" as people claim, cuz if he were, you wouldn't need such a mass mud slinging and hate campaign against this person. Everyone would be able to see with their own eyes how awful this person is. Jmho 🤷🏾‍♀️

You don't need to convince people so hard when there's actually smthg to really hate about a person imo.

Tom's acting is fine. Don't worry, the stans came after that Robert guy lol 😆 😂

If he's a real, valid, professional critic, then he was kinda unprofessional imo.

But, then again, that's not uncommon for critics. Critics can sometimes go for the jugular if they don't like you, or don't like your work.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time a critic has been harsh about an actor. 😔

Thankfully, Tom has a HUGE fanbase (just look on IG!), so we don't have to worry about the people who don't like him or his work.

[margindoodles2407]

Greetings from the Margins

Sup? My name is MarginDoodles2407, but y'all can call me Margin :]

The most important thing to know about me? I am Roman Catholic, Pro-Life, and Anti-Pornography. By the way, my definition of pro-life is not just "anti-abortion", although that is a big part of it. I believe that to be truly pro-life, you must make a commitment to extend the respect and dignity we deserve as human beings to EVERYONE, regardless of age, health, status, physical characteristics, gender, political ideology, et cetera. And my Catholic faith is central to who I am as a person, so while I try not to get political on this blog- because we all need fun places to hang out without the stress of the real world- I will not hesitate to post about my Catholicism and Pro-Lifery. If that’s not your jam? Understandable. But please, be respectful to my Religion and values, as I will be to yours.

This blog started out as a Zelda blog and uh, it quickly became a Star Wars blog. From this sentence alone, you can probably guess my two biggest fandoms. My natural habitat is openly weeping about warrior space monks with laser swords and a fictional army of genetically identical South Pacific Islander men. Speaking of which, I am The Fives Guy. Do you wanna talk about Fives? Do you have Questions (tm) about Fives? Has this man crossed your mind at all? Well actually I am in the process of writing an Essay about him, which I will link to this post when I finish.

In terms of Zelda, my favorite character is the boy himself, my guy Link, and my favorite game is Ocarina of Time, and even though I am mainly a Star Wars blog now, I am ALWAYS down to talk about Zelda because these games were part of my formative years, I am still a huge nerd about them, and they are very near and dear to my heart. I cannot stress how much I still love Zelda.

I am an Artist and an Author, and requests for both are always open. Just keep it Safe for Work :) In case you’re interested, my AO3 is Margin_Doodles.

Alright let's talk about a few more things. Namely, the Tagging System, and what on earth it means.

Zelda Tags (main tag: #the legend of zelda or #tloz)

#hero's spirit: The blog, @tloz-heros-spirit, that I run with my EXCELLENT best friend and partner-in-crime, @whyoneartheven. A concept for a potential Zelda game that would be, canonically, the final game in the series and break the Curse of Demise. If you like lore-accurate storytelling, over-the-top character designs, and seafoam-green ghost fire, give it a check-out! Fair warning, though, I haven't updated this one in a while, but if you'd like to talk about it I'd love to!

#margin's links: My interpretations of the various Links, Zeldas, and NPCs of the Zelda series. Includes meaningful meta, silly art, memes, and various questions and answers.

#my beloved hyrule warriors: I talk about my second-favorite Zelda game, Hyrule Warriors, which I am mentally unwell about

#zelink my beloved: I am a Zelink shipper. It has me in a chokehold

Star Wars Tags (main tag: #star wars)

#hfsw: My precious baby, the High Fantasy Star Wars AU. Basically I take Star Wars, and make it a High Fantasy AU. I don't know how much more on-the-nose the title could be. This one also has its own blog, @high-fantasy-sw, although I'm not always great about cross-posting. Includes overly-intricate worldbuilding, SO MANY FREAKING MEMES, very flowery prose writing, even more silly art, and lightsabers but they're actually just swords on fire.

#wdap au: Commander Fox of the Coruscant Guard and Senator Riyo Chuchi of Pantora are madly in love. This saves the Galaxy. 50% whump and angst, 50% crack-treated-seriously absolute chaos nonsense. Another collab with @whyoneartheven, this started out as a personal canon-compliant slowburn tragedy but then took a 180 degree pivot and became our silly fix-it romance AU, featuring a begrudging-coworkers-to-reluctant-allies-to-mutual-respecters-to-genuine-friends-to-mutual-pining-to-lovers-to-totalitarian-government-topplers storyline, the What to Do About Palpatine Tea Club (from which the au derives its abbreviation), Padme "Been There Done That" Amidala planning a secret wedding, and Robot Hand Buddies Mace Windu and Anakin Skywalker, to name a few of the better jokes.

#newsies au: Blame the twisted mind of @luke-shywalker for this one; I was sick and decided to watch Newsies, and at her suggestion I liveblogged it. Then things got out of hand. Featuring Crutchie!Echo, Obi-Wan Kenobi In The Person Of Teddy Roosevelt, and "they have interplanetary travel but still read paper news?".

#baseball au: The Clone Wars, as a series of really high-stakes baseball games. I came up with this one on my birthday with one of my real-life friends. Featuring Political Baseball Intrigue.

#margin watches tcw: I watch The Clone Wars (2008), and provide commentary

#margin watches tbb: I watch The Bad Batch, and provide commentary

#rebels my beloved: the Star Wars Rebels tag

#master disaster himself: Anakin. The Anakin Tag.

#electric judgement: the Plo Koon tag

#look at my guys: the Clones tag. I need to get better at actually USING this tag, but it does exist.

#in this house we love and respect her grace duchess satine kryze of mandalore: the Satine tag

#maul is a drama queen: the Darth Maul tag

Personal Tags:

#margin doodles: my art

#margin writes: my writing

#margin rambles: my soliloquies

#you ask margin babbles: answers to asks

#memes by margin: my memes

#incorrect quotes: incorrect quotes, usually by me

#the vod'e: I talk about my siblings (i have a LOT of siblings)

#friend art: my friends' art! very cool, totally recommend

#catholicism: Catholicism :)

Fic Masterlist

Thanks for reading, thanks for checkin' out my blog, and May the Force Be With You!

[gladstones-corner]

Commentary on the Star Ruby

For those of you familiar with this blog, you'll likely know that I am a huge proponent of the Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and their myriad of non-appropriative variants.

Today I want to talk about one of these variants, written by none other than Aleister Crowley himself. Though Star Ruby isn't strictly a variant so much as it is a replacement, I still think there's a lot to be said for the structure and components of the ritual in comparison to the LRP.

I don't want to take up too much space talking about the technical performance of the ritual. Instead, I highly recommend reading through this annotated version by Sabazius and having it open while reading this post.

In addition, if you aren't versed in the LRP I suggest this abridged version on Thelemapedia. It's very short, but it's the only online source I found with mostly accurate information and no excess fluff. If you want a detailed version, please consult Donald Kraig's Modern Magick or the Ciceros' Essential Golden Dawn.

Alright. Let's set aside Crowley's writings on the subject for a moment. As amazing as they are, they're often too dense to effectively parse in a short blog post. Instead, I want to compare the material, somatic, and verbal components of these rituals.

Let's start with the material components. In the LRP, you traditionally use either your hand, a dagger, or a wand. In the Thelemic tradition, there is evidence for a rose-headed wand, but I'm not familiar enough to make a comment. So in either case, you can perform the ritual with no material components save for your bare hands.

Okay, with the material components out of the way let's move to the somatic ones. These movements are largely the same as the LRP in some respects, and not even close in others. Let's first take a look at the structure of Star Ruby:

The First Cross

The Pentagrams

The Call

The Final Cross

It looks exactly the same as the LRP. And the actual movements of the First and Final Crosses are exactly the same. The movements are also nearly identical during the Call. It's the Pentagrams that differ the most from the LRP.

Let's take a look at how they differ exactly:

The LRP uses blue pentagrams; Star Ruby uses red.

The LRP moves clockwise around the space; Star Ruby moves counterclockwise.

The LRP has the magician physically draw the pentagrams; Star Ruby has the magician imagine them on the forehead before pushing outward into its position.

The LRP does not have any bridging movements between the Pentagrams and the Call; Star Ruby uses the N.O.X. signs.

Okay, neat. The only things left to cover are the verbal components. So how do they stack up?

In fact, the verbal components are by far the greatest divergence from the LRP. In the LRP, Judeo-Christian names for God are used while drawing the pentagrams. In addition, Hebrew archangels are invoked at the elemental quarters.

This is very different from Star Ruby. Instead of using Judeo-Christian terminology, Crowley opted for Graeco-Egyptian, Neoplatonic, and Thelemic invocations instead. For example, Star Ruby invokes spirits from the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster in its elemental quarters.

Okay, great. So we've compared the two rituals. Now what? So what?

Setting aside the Kabbalistic symbolism that Crowley worked into Star Ruby (which I purposely did not cover), it's still a very solid ritual that appeals to non-Judeo-Christian magicians that wish to try out a daily magical ritual besides the LRP.

It's also a great basis to compare against other rituals, like the AODA's Sphere of Protection. As you compare the rituals yourself, you'll find common structures and themes that will help you develop your own daily practice. And really that's the goal--to create something uniquely yours.

As always, stay safe. Blessed be~

[lunar-serpentinite]

Introductory Post

Hello ~ I'm Cloud and welcome to my blog !

My pronouns are they/them ! I don't really have hard no's for gendered terms used to refer to me .

I'm a '02-liner (meaning i was born in 2002) and from Southeast Asia . I am currently in uni studying Geology and I use my spare time to think about my hyperfixations <3

I'm neurodivergent and I usually vibe on my own but I'm open to chats ! I'm bad at replying though so don't be afraid to bump up messages

I've been on Tumblr since 2012 but this is the first time I have ever tried to be more active instead of keeping in the background .

Fuck JKR !!

Free Palestine, Free Congo, Free Sudan, free everyone who has suffered and are currently suffering under a capitalistic, warmongering white supremacist society . Never stop talking about the genocides and human rights injustices currently happening around the world . Share, save, boycott, educate, donate when and if you can !

Current Fixations / Interests / Fandoms

Harry Potter (specifically the character himself, as well as Drarry)

MXTX Novels

Percy Jackson

ATEEZ

Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail

Disclaimer

(Especially for those who are particularly focused on Harry Potter canon and/or certain dynamics.)

In my headcanons and posts, I will stretch canon pretty thinly. I will rewrite and redo huge chunks of what we know as the Harry Potter canon. This includes huge changes in the history, the timeline, and the ethnicities of a lot of characters (read: majority of the characters we know in my AU are now BIPOC). Everything I am doing is purely for my own enjoyment and I just wanted to share the things I made with anyone who wanted to have a read.

I do not follow any Marauders fandom headcanons nor do I consider myself part of the fandom . This means my Lilys and Jameses will have vastly different friend groups than what you're used to if you're from the Marauders fandom .

If you're particular about dynamics, I am a fixed DMHP account . I don't post NSFW on this blog since I focus on worldbuilding and more SFW character building, but I'm just throwing this out there :3

Have a good day ! (My AUs under the cut)

Current AUs

Nandhini's Legacy - my main AU and the reason why I made this blog in the first place ! This is a Harry Potter AU where the Potter family are South Indian (specifically Tamil [James] and Telugu [Lily]) and the Black family are SWANA . New elements in the story include entirely new fancasts for the entire cast, the introduction of a Magical British Museum (the new primary antagonist besides Lord Voldemort), OC siblings for characters like Harry and Pansy, and several timeline changes .

Related Links : Families Masterlist, Fancast, Main Tag

pls ask me abt this au i have so much to say

Son of Hecate Harry AU - a PJO x HP crossover AU where Harry was born to Lily and James but with the additional blood from Hecate . In this AU he was taken away from the Dursleys by a satyr and raised in Camp Half-Blood . By the time he arrives at Hogwarts, Harry has already undergone one quest and is only at the institution because of another prophecy (not Trelawney's) . He is accompanied by fellow demigods and witches Yurika Haneda (Slytherin, Hermes) and Poppy Caxton (Hufflepuff, Athena)

My Mortal Companion - the AU in which post-War, Harry retains his title as Master of Death and believes his next destiny is to be the sole Unspeakable in the Death Room since he's the "only one who could do it" . Features Harry's relationships and dynamics with various psychopomps and death deities of diverse pantheons

Related Links : Main Tag

Favourite of the Fae Harry AU - an AU where Harry is highly favoured by the Fair Folk of Great Britain, but only in the way a human might highly favour what they deem a particularly cute pet . Includes tidbits of Harry being his mother's son because Lily was their previous favourite, and Harry having difficulties with socialising in the "proper" human way because he was used to the constant transactional socialising of the Fae

[nearestend]

☆ put this star into the inbox of your favorite blogs - it's time to spread positivity ! ( dilly you absolute gem of a human being. one of my favorite blogs for sure. your writing blows me away every time <3 giving you a hug buddy! )

spud..... my favourite potato..... do you know that i care for you very much and that it makes me really happy to see you post. i know i said this before, but immediately after i rebooted, i had to be like "i need to know where spud is at right now" and thankfully you popped up on my dash which was a huge relief. you're one of the people who i genuinely cannot have a completed dashboard without, regardless of who you are writing that day. (even some of your guys who i don't know as much about. i am kissing them anyways mwah mwah mwah.) i like seeing you talk about cheese and silly characters and any updates both ic and ooc that you have to share.

also just like... you inspire me very much. you're very passionate and unapologetic about that and i think we should all be loud about the things we like and care for. you're also very kind to people in a way that isn't even necessary, but is so very appreciated. (i think of any time you have checked in on me or said something nice and i tear up fr??? i get emotional.) thank you for doing all of that and more! and always indulging me in the silly things i have to say too.

leaving you a present under the cut

mwah