#I seriously think it’s underlying prejudice

[wesleysniperking]

For some reason, I find this scene really cute. It’s right after Usopp absolutely decks Klahadore (Captain Kuro) for running his mouth about Yasopp and even questioning if he’s really Usopp’s dad. Usopp storms off, feeling like crap, sitting at the cliff overlooking the shore, tossing rocks into the water—when suddenly, Luffy pops up right in his space and goes, “Here you are!” because he’d been looking for him. Not just to find him, but because he knew Usopp needed validation. He knew Usopp was Yasopp’s son, and more importantly, he knew Usopp was his. Luffy could tell Usopp felt like sh*t, and in the most Luffy way possible, he sought him out—not with a big speech, not with some grand gesture, but just by showing up. Because sometimes, that’s all you need.

People love to downplay Usopp and act like he’s not one of Luffy’s closest friends, but moments like this prove otherwise. His arc really highlights just how selfless Luffy is when it comes to the people he truly cares about. In this scene, Usopp was already his, and Luffy had already claimed him—Usopp just hadn’t caught on yet. Luffy had basically said, "You're my friend. I like you. And I'm gonna help you." And Usopp, completely oblivious, just screams at Luffy for scaring him.

Honestly, isn’t that the sweetest thing? That’s why, when they argue and clash, it just hits different. Because they love each other—sometimes a little too much, to the point where they don’t always know how to give each other what they need. But that’s what makes them them.

People say Zoro and Luffy are in sync, that they’re soulmates in battle, but Usopp is the one who can hurt Luffy the most—yet also lift him up in ways no one else can. Yeah, Luffy’s the captain, and he’s supposed to be mature and responsible, but Usopp is the one who reminds him that he’s still just a 19-year-old. That sometimes, things aren’t that deep. But other times, they are, and Luffy needs someone to tell him that.

Usopp is the one who looks at the insanity of the Grand Line and says, “This sh*t isn’t normal.” And I think that’s what truly makes him Luffy’s in a way no one else is. Even if he can’t support him like his wings in battle, Usopp is the one who, in a moment like Marineford, could have told him, “What happened to you wasn’t normal. And you don’t have to pretend it is.

That’s why Usopp is his.

[whetstonefires]

okay see, i think it's very much projection, in the sense that if you write Cool Character Person as insecure--especially if you take whatever insecurities they really do have and blow them up huge and intense, so there's a lot of canon material to work with--then you can walk them through the deep pangs of the low self-esteem and also through various proofs of worth and experiences of being reassured and validated and valued.

or of gaining confidence and telling off the people who don't value them instead, if that's the place you're at.

because the aim is to thus vicariously go through that emotional arc yourself. (and offer this also to the readers.) which provides access to both catharsis and to practice letting go of negative self-thinking via your proxy.

it's in there with reparenting yourself, basically.

people project insecurity onto fanfiction characters because they want to process their own insecurities. that is what the fic in question is for. it is an artwork and it is a tool. it's doing what it's supposed to.

and i've noticed it's not just easier set-up but works much better for most people as a mental health deal to do this work in a fanfic context, especially with a character who has elements of low self-worth but doesn't wallow in them in the canon (established baseline of Cool Dude who can Handle This), than with an original character designed for the purpose, who will inevitably be defined by their function of having low self-esteem and by their connection to you. and thus be harder to commit to validating, and pull through to the sense of catharsis, and therefore less effective.

there totally is a thing where fanfiction versions of characters lose specificity and become generic, and one of the many things that drives it is that people are more willing to engage with simpler and more comfortable flaws.

but i don't think picking out self-projection of insecurity as a virtue-signalling problem is an especially accurate or useful framing of the phenomenon.

Projection is definitely part of why fanfiction authors write characters as deeply insecure (even and especially when they are not in canon), but I don't think it's the whole story.

I think it's also that insecurity is seen as a "virtuous" character flaw. Saying that your main character is "too humble" is the fiction equivalent of telling a potential employer that your greatest weakness is working too hard. It's safer and easier than approaching those ugly but more interesting character flaws like selfishness, wrath, prejudice. Ugly things that exist in all people, to some extent.

If it is projection, it's an idealized projection to only paint one's cleanest flaws into their story.

[lurkingshan]

Last Twilight Episode 10

Okay…okay. I have had some concerns about this show on a low simmer for weeks and unfortunately, the direction this episode took has brought them all roaring to the surface.

First let me just say there was a lot about this episode I really loved (anything to do with Night especially). But there are also a few things that did not work for me so well, so let’s take them one at a time.

Mhok’s Story

Mhok’s financial struggles, the prejudice he faces as a formerly incarcerated person, and his deep grief for his sister have been back-burnered for weeks while he and the story focused on Day. I chatted with @my-rose-tinted-glasses about this last week and said that I was reserving judgment and hoped this was an intentional part of the narrative that would come to the fore—Mhok was subsuming his own problems by making Day his entire life, and when he inevitably left the caretaker job he would have to face them again.

Welp, this episode was the moment for that to happen, if it was ever going to, and the show didn’t do it. Instead, they quickly glossed over Mhok’s struggles with two short scenes and a couple lines of dialogue, stuck him in a new job, and went right back to focusing on Day. Will I ever get a Thai bl that sets up class conflict and financial struggles and then actually takes it seriously?? Apparently not today.

This choice to gloss over Mhok’s money problems is also making the romance feel pretty imbalanced, and I’m really mourning the opportunity to see Day be a supportive partner to Mhok like he has been for him. I want Mhok to be a whole person, not an improbably perfect love interest. The lack of reciprocity in their dynamic is not great and it’s holding this romance back from reaching its full potential.

Day’s Mom

Let’s be very clear: Day’s mom’s behavior in this episode was abusive. She was within her rights to fire Mhok, which he knew and that’s why he resigned before she took action. But her choice to intentionally isolate Day and lock him up in his room with no access to the outside world was cruel and selfish. And it doesn’t seem like the show really gets that, given how they presented her and Day through the rest of the episode.

That family holiday scene was really missing the underlying edge it should have had given she was playing the loving mom while doing these things to Day, and other than one brief line from Night that got interrupted, we didn’t see any acknowledgement in the story of how wrong she was, or even get a good sense of how much she was harming Day.

I would have liked to see Day actually seem affected by his isolation rather than focusing on more cute date moments. Bad Buddy was really adept at delivering excellent couple moments while never letting you forget about the underlying trauma and melancholy of the story, but this show is not quite managing to do the same. Moonlight Chicken also has some glorious moments where bad and abusive parenting was called out very directly, so the lack of it here is really jarring. It all feels curiously light for the subject matter and I expected more from Aof.

Day’s Vision

Obviously after the end of the episode this will be the worry on everyone’s mind heading into next week. We know Aof previews can’t be trusted, but it seems clear the surgery is going to happen. Thematically, I do not think it makes any sense for the show to restore Day’s vision. I wish they weren’t going here with the eye donation surgery at all, but if they’re going to do it I hope its purpose is for the procedure to fail as a mechanism to force Day and his family to finally accept that his disability will not be fixed. But given the above noted poor execution on some of the story’s other themes, I am not currently feeling super confident that the show won’t do something very silly here. Fingers crossed!

[tonydaddingham]

LWA: That conspiracist "magic trick" document is...that's why I rarely interact with fandom spaces. S2 does indeed have a bunch of problems, a lot of which have to do with the material conditions of production and some of which are endemic to the source material. S1 was not a well-plotted or well-paced show, because the /novel/ is not well-plotted or well-paced. S2 didn't have enough material to justify six episodes, and only the Job minisode justified its length in terms of either character's characterization. Etc. Both seasons are flawed scripts saved by the leads.

The other problem here is that Gaiman has transformed a single season into a trilogy, and if there are going to be narrative payoffs we don't see them yet; it's as if PRIDE AND PREJUDICE ended with Lizzie Bennet rejecting Darcy's first proposal (which is, after all, what we got, except that Aziraphale and Crowley are both Darcy and Lizzie simultaneously). In an incomplete trilogy, there just isn't sufficient evidence to understand whether the author has missed a trick or if they're setting up a third-act resolution. For example, take Crowley's proposal, which insists that he and Aziraphale have spent their "existence" denying that they're a team. I know everyone got hung up on Tennant's intense delivery, which is great, but Crowley's narrative of their friendship in S1 ("How long have we been friends? Six thousand years!") doesn't track with anything dramatized for us on the screen, and neither does this. Is this another "Crowley is an unreliable narrator" problem, as Gaiman has confirmed he is about the Fall, retroactively constructing an emotional bond that neither character felt? OK, if so, what's the underlying narrative argument motivating this behavior? Or do Gaiman and Finnemore think that that's what the series is actually dramatizing?

Here's what I mean. In S1, there's nothing to indicate (in the script, the actors' performances, or even the score) that they have a genuine, mutual emotional connection until 1601, some centuries post-Arrangement, which is the first time that Aziraphale expresses concern for Crowley's safety and also the first time we see him successfully break out the puppy eyes. (Post S2, it's now "expresses concern for Crowley's safety as a demon.") Before that, they have unequal and fleeting moments of connection: Aziraphale is more interested in Crowley during Creation than vice-versa. Crowley is charmed by Aziraphale in Eden and pleased to see him again at the Flood, but he is guarded or hostile when they meet at the Crucifixion and again in Rome. S2 now adds that he isn't all that excited to see Aziraphale again during Job, either, although Aziraphale comes across as quite chipper about the run-in. Aziraphale is equally guarded at the Crucifixion, excited to see Crowley in Rome, and then mildly annoyed about running into him during the Arthurian period (and it's apparently still canon that the Arrangement won't begin until a few centuries later). In 1793, they've become attached enough that they've started the damsel-in-distress game, and in 1827 Crowley invites Aziraphale to Edinburgh for fun, suggesting that they are now actual friends and not just doing transactional job swaps. But in 1862 Aziraphale is cold again for reasons not explained by the 1827 minisode. (As an aside, S2 Aziraphale is just mirroring S1 Crowley in asking for big things--Crowley requests collaboration, a celestial nuke, treason, and child murder, all but one of which he gets, and the last not for lack of trying--and /Aziraphale/ is the only character making inappropriate requests for help?!) 1862 is the first time we see them seriously miscommunicating, as opposed to arguing--Crowley's approach to his request is bad and Aziraphale overreacts equally badly. And then we are shown that the emotional stakes of their relationship intensify after they reunite in 1941, when all the gazing and romantic music tell us that Aziraphale has fallen in love. Given that the script makes clear that Aziraphale and Crowley are having the same conversation in 1967 that they were in 1862, and Aziraphale still believes he's handing Crowley a suicide pill, Aziraphale's decision to yeet himself out of the car immediately when Crowley tries to ramp things up again is probably the /least/ codependent thing either character manages post-1941 in the first two seasons.

The fanon narrative in which they've been mutually pining for six millennia uncritically tracks Crowley's story, but it doesn't track the script. They /aren't/ a team or even especially attached until the Arrangement kicks in, and the first in-script signs of the codependency that will cause them to implode in S2 don't show up until the end of the eighteenth century. (In the novel, Aziraphale doesn't even understand that he genuinely /likes/ Crowley until they're thwarting Armageddon!) These are two characters who canonically get along just fine without seeing each other for years, decades, centuries, or millennia! But without the third part of the trilogy, there's no final evidence about how we should view Crowley's approach to relationship story-telling, let alone how we should judge whatever Gaiman (and Finnemore) are doing.

HI LWA✨!!!!!!

i mean first off, in general response to the entire thing:

i joke, but what you've said does really highlight, i think, a key detail that the fandom (including myself) get carried away with; that if we were to watch the show specifically with brand new eyes, without any influence of a surrounding fandom that has existed for the last six years (or 33, paying the book due consideration), the relationship between crowley and aziraphale would be regarded very differently.

but first re: Magic Trick Theory. i felt really bad for saying it at the time, but i was so full-body convinced that eps 1 and 2 were fake following the screening because they felt weird. i genuinely couldn't understand why people were saying what they were (obviously there were great moments, no questioning that), because all i could feel was a sense of unease. and that's not even because it didn't follow the tone of s1 (which i loved for its delicate balance of being the most ludicrous, dry-funny story with undertones of serious philosophy and subtle complexity), but because it felt like someone had taken a section of the story and stretched it out so forcefully across a frame that was too big for it.

i won't list off any particular issues i had for fear of causing offense, because my rather insignificant opinion is genuinely not intended as a means to shit on s2, but once i let go of the notion that this season was meant to do anything other than set up s3, have a couple of silly (but still potentially Important for s3) subplots, and just be a fun and wild ride in developing aziraphale and crowley as characters, i began to enjoy it. that was entirely to do with me and my expectations, because neil never really told us to expect otherwise. in any case, for me, this feeling kicked in around ten minutes into ep3; let go of expectations and just went along for the ride.

with the benefits of hindsight, i don't think that s2 was badly written; it was still subtly nuanced and clever, but just in a very different way to s1. it still asked questions. it still questioned the black, white, and in-between. it still had the undertones of a fairly cohesive plot. production quality, given the state the industry was in when filmed, was really commendable and honestly astounded me given the limitations that were in place at the time. david and michael's respective performances were amazing, there's no doubt, but i don't think they necessarily saved it, because in many respects i don't think it needed saving.

yes, there were flaws, but altogether it was a very enjoyable season. and whilst i realise that some people understandably watch shows for plot and thematic intricacy, artistic direction, particular acting set pieces, or anything that gives Depth (myself included on some shows), i just liked it simply because it entertained me. it made me laugh, cry, angry, bemused - whatever emotion you can think of, i can probably tell you a time during that fateful Friday morning (clutching my fourth coffee that night, having driven the m5 for a horrendously inappropriate amount of time, and in my 16-22nd hour of being awake - just setting the scene) where i felt it. i just enjoyed the ride.

(and by the by, still personally think the screenings were a mistake - fun, exciting, and communal in spirit, but a mistake)

but this brings me to the Theory. im sure this comes to noones surprise, but i love speculating. it's fun, it's self-rewarding, and frankly just helps my head Quieten Down a little. a form of self-care, if you like. i like that it's possible to look at the same scene, episode, season, and interpret it differently. to think that a character does something for one reason, but also for another, or that the plot could go this way, or it could go that way. ive personally tried to stay away from speculating based on anything but what the story has shown to us so far. yes, sometimes i joke that "haha, neil would definitely bait and switch us" etc etc., but ultimately im not the authority on what he will and won't do, and i don't try to assume that i have spotted an ulterior motive other than what has been shown to us in the show/book.

so when it came to the Theory, i loved the parts that referenced the show itself; because the interpretation and presentation of such was really well speculated. it has references, clearly had a lot of knowledge and research behind it, was eloquent and well-reasoned (however inaccurate it may turn out to be), and honestly was intimidating - in a good, awe-inspiring, jealous-of-their-intelligence way - in the depth of dedication the author had to writing it. but as i remarked in an ask from someone (@swansdreaming shout out!✨) that asked for my thoughts on it, the only real reaction i could give as to how valid i found it was that it was "A Lot".

s2 ended narratively on a problem (well, a couple of them), so it's not bold to assume that they will be largely resolved in s3. what i think was bold however is to be embroiled in how odd s2 was that there has to be a higher purpose for it narratively. i think a season can be written perhaps a smidge weaker just because it was, with no lofty reason as to why. it's entirely possible - as i got over myself - to just sit back and enjoy it for what is put in front of you, and not think much more than that in terms of the technicality of the show... just relax and trust that the loopholes, or the armoury chock-full of chekhov's guns will be explained. speculate about the future of the plot in terms of the material itself put in front of you? yes, cool. but justify the plot by way of "there's no possible way that the script/writing could be flawed?" - whilst a commendable notion and likely rooted in admiration, i think that's potentially a little audacious and even a little bit of unnecessary glorification.

but let's talk about the relationship itself. again, controversial and brave, and yet so inescapably true. i definitely think there is Something There right from the beginning, but my god, it is not love. curiosity and fascination, absolutely (to varying degrees). attraction and tension (in any form), i daresay so. but it's not love, not even friendship - frankly it's barely even respect. we see flashes of potential friendship and respect:

crowley's reaction to aziraphale giving away his sword and aziraphale being grateful for his platitude on his choice to do so

aziraphale lying to the archangels in job, and aziraphale's reaction to crowley's constant attempts to show job and his family mercy

aziraphale offering crowley dinner in rome, and crowley's stunned/amused reaction to "let me tempt you"

their mutual bemoaning about their respective roles during arthurian albion, and agreement that the weather is pretty miserable (incidentally but irrelevant - my favourite funny line from s1 is michael's damp comment, gets me each time).

but even then, all of these are rooted in other things too, if not in actual fact; the main one that immediately springs to my mind is self-interest. the overall tones of these scenes are not very warm, barely even tepid; they are just two supernatural beings, alone in their experience of being so and being on earth amongst humans (who do many problematic things that seem to confound them slightly which - fair), and relating to each other as a result. but there's not much else to it, to their relationship, when you step back and look at it as the big picture. as i said, other than a couple of lines, there's little if any genuine connection beyond relatability - and even then that's questionable.

edit bc important: reexamining crowley's line in the coffee shop re: "you only ever call me for three reasons...", this indicates that he's aware that aziraphale only contacts him out of self-interest which... whilst i think is slightly derivative to suggest at this point, it is also true and aziraphale doesn't negate it. whether crowley says this as a reflection on himself for not being worth aziraphale's time, or as a reflection on aziraphale himself (both?) is almost immaterial - but he is able to admit to himself that their relationship might not be as rooted in love and partnership as he would otherwise like to think.

the one thing i do think is correct is that they have been in a six-millennia-long dance, circling each other and mirroring each other, a constant give and take.. and aside from its overt parallels to jane austen/regency aesthetic, that's why i particularly like that the dancing in s2 was the dance it was - a quadrille (?) instead of any 1-1 dancing in the time period like a waltz was such a great reflection of this... mirroring each other in their sways and swings, circling each other, drawing together and retreating, and the occasional brush with each other (hands)... it was just so symbolically appropriate to represent this symbiosis they have been cultivating for millennia, rather than them be represented as fully cohesive together in the form of a partnered ballroom dance... incredible. and completely - once again - set up the dilemma for the Feral Domestic in ep6.

i realised this earlier today (i don't want to admit what number rewatch im on but i feel like i could get s3 greenlit singlehandedly at this point), but when i ruminated what feels like eons ago on aziraphale's tendency to place crowley on a pedestal? yeah, once again the mirroring theme continues. these two have such idealistic images of each other built in their heads, and to me (without going off for the thousandth time in Detail) it's aziraphale that starts to re-examine that image in s1 and 2.

to me, he starts to consider that actually his image of crowley was not true to reality, but still found that he loved the Real Crowley even more. but crowley ends up destroying that image entirely by the end of ep6 with his 'i love you but not that part/s, and so fuck it, "no nightingales""... i don't know if that was the intention of the script/narrative, but it's certainly how it looked to me - that aziraphale was almost fully accepting of who crowley was (bearing in he doesn't have the facts - *sideeye*).

crowley's image of aziraphale however is so inaccurate and, as with just about everything that is crowley and his story, he doesn't like or want to hear or accept the truth if it doesn't suit him. run away together? aziraphale is practically the shaking-chihuahua antithesis of running away from things. reject heaven because they're toxic? yes, but it won't change unless they perhaps try to change it themselves. we could have been us? aziraphale was literally offering this to you, and a chance (as aziraphale genuinely believes at that time, naivety notwithstanding) to actually be free and safe in being so. whether crowley clings to this narrative out of loneliness, a hope of true redemption, stubborn pig-headedness, or a combination of these and others besides, he really set himself up for disaster.

aziraphale has his hand in the issue too, there's no doubt - he's pretty incompetent about seeing things truly outside of his own comfy little world (bookshop or in his head, either works), and doesn't make any overt measures to try to infer and understand the things that are left Unsaid. whilst crowley is keeping things from him and hiding behind a mask, aziraphale by all accounts is a smart guy, and even without the full facts you'd think he'd at least be able to surmise why crowley cannot say yes to restoration... or maybe he does, but by the point that he's caught up enough to understand, crowley already lit the touchpaper and aziraphale retreats in his own hurt and sense of rejection.

the fact of the matter is that these characters, for having known each other for so long (in varying degrees of intimacy, granted), just do not know the first thing about what their respective cores are. it's very easy to focus on the star-crossed lovers element of the story (including myself in that number) and hyper-romanticise that aspect, than actually recognise the constant, problematic miscommunication and subsequent misunderstanding that - the way it's currently going - is going to lead them straight to their demise.

[angelinthefire]

Irt your post about baseline prejudices the writers take as a joke, what's your approach to dealing with it when writing fics? I find myself sometimes struggling with this especially if im writing fix-its because it's quite literally impossible to address Everything, but at the same time I don't want to just leave the show as is. I mean, i feel this way about huge plot things like Gadreel too, but i think its a tiny bit easier to decide if those are necessary to adress to the specific fic rather than things that happen in a single episode or are brushed off as a joke. Like there are some things I just pretty much erase because to me at least there is no meaningful way I think I could interrogate it in a friggin destiel fic without essentially reproducing the shows prejudices like Busty Asian Beauties for example, but there are other things where I'm like...I should probably address this, right? But I just don't know what the line is. I know there will never be one definitive answer to this but i was just curious if you had any principles you follow in your writing.

That's a good question. Imo it's about prioritizing how important the issue is to the characterization, and how important it is to you as a writer.

Like to use the casual objectification of women as an example.

I'd say you can absolutely ignore Busty Asian Beauties. But I say that because it's a dumb gag that doesn't actually add anything to the characterization. I'd also ignore gags about pie, or "Agent Beyonce" or any other running gags that are silly and over-the-top.

But you can't just ignore the casual objectification of women. I've read fic where Dean is suddenly a bit too enlightened, or where he seems to clearly be used as a mouthpiece for the writer who's trying to retcon his change in attitude in a single paragraph. And that doesn't work, imo. Like if you want to totally revamp Dean's attitude towards women, go ahead, write what you want, but the characterization is going to feel off.

You could just write around it, just never have the characters in a situation where it comes up. Or you could have it be an explicit deliberate point in the plot or character development. (I've read a couple of fics that do this with Dean's alcoholism, deciding to take seriously something that is treated very casually on the show, and building a fic around it).

I thought about this when I was writing Life Skills and what I ended up doing was actually less about Dean's characterization and more about the narrative approach itself. Like on the show, especially in earlier seasons, there's a habit of treating sexual partners very superficially, like the narrative doesn't see them as real people, and very much just as a prop for the characters to have sex with. So I did my best to make the three main sexual partners seem like real people, with different quirks and behaviours and styles. So I didn't interrogate anything, and Dean was the same (maybe leaning more towards horny-but-respectful than towards outright objectifying, but still). I just didn't do what the show would have done. And I think it worked okay, and I didn't feel bad about it.

I may or may not get to actually writing it, but I've been trying to plot out a meanstiel fic based on the premise "what if the narrative treated honey!Cas with respect?" And I guess I'm taking a similar approach as to Life Skills in that I'm not addressing the show's ablism head-on (because that's the underlying problem of honey!Cas. That mental illness is just treated like a tragi-comic narrative tool and not, like, an actual thing. And like someone can just bootstrap themselves out of it. (Also this is making me remember "Sam Interrupted" and holy hell that was an awful episode)) and I'm just trying to reframe it instead. Instead of the narrative treating it like, "there's something wrong with Cas and that's funny/sad/a plot point", I'd treat it like, the way Cas experiences the world and communicates has changed, and there's new difficulties, but that doesn't make him less human. Like the characters aren't going to behave terribly differently (at least initially, anyways)(and except for my aversion to over-the-top silliness), they all still start with their same behaviours and attitudes, but my baseline assumption is different from that of the show, and that in itself shapes the narrative. If you know what I mean.

The initial post was more about things like Gadreel (or April, or Becky, etc.) Like I've read a bunch of fics that frame Cas' experience with April as traumatic for him. And I feel like you can do that in a fic that takes place immediately after that experience, based on the premise of "what if spn took consent seriously?" and treating it very deliberately. I don't feel like it works to have a fic that takes place years later, and is generally about something else, but at some point Cas' experience with April comes up and it's treated as traumatic. It feels like in that case, Cas' character development would have been set on a somewhat different path from April onwards, that the reader doesn't get to see, and it's a somewhat different version of Cas than the one we know from the show. If that makes sense? It's a ret-con.

I guess to sum it up, I would take the characters as they're presented on the show, and not ret-con in any additional angst or changes in attitude or anything like that. But I'd recontextualize them to whatever degree I feel is necessary.

[warrioreowynofrohan]

Seriously, there’s so much here. It makes me wonder what motivated it (I can’t doubt that it was intentional): was it a reaction to misreadings by fans, or by family? was it in reaction to criticism (by reviewers, or by family and friends), and and attempt to walk things back and add some caveats?

The social satire in Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice is centred around faults of personality - things that make people annoying or unpleasant to be around, like laziness, spiritlessness, vulgarity, stupidity, shallowness, ill temper (Okay, some of those are also faults of character.)

Mansfield Park is flipping the script to say: okay, what if you had two people who were charming, witty, engaging, gentlepersonlike, active, good-humoured - who lacked all of the flaws that have pervaded the supporting cast of the previous two novels - but who lacked basic principles? That, to my mind, is the narrative role of Mary and Henry Crawford; and also the reason why they’re popular, while Willoughby and Lucy Steele and Wickham and the like are not! In contrast to a whole host of Austen characters, they actually seem like they would be enjoyable to spend time with. Mary never seems to be cross with anyone - she says she is, sometimes, but she never gets cranky or out of temper like Maria and Julia sometimes do. (Neither does Henry.) And she’s sincere: she’s not playing a part, she speaks her mind and shows herself clearly (rather more than Edmund would like).

Mary feels like a thought experiment of: who would Elizabeth Bennet be, if she did not have a solid foundation of principles and character underlying her liveliness and wit? Henry is another sort of thought experiement for the Darcy plot: what if a man who lacked underlying principles tried to change his approach and manner to appeal to a woman he was in love with? how would that be different from what Darcy does? Both of them reach the same conclusion: that principle and character are indispensible even if every other desirable quality is present.

(This is more speculative, but there may also be an element of responding to a question of ‘Is there, really, any plausible reason any woman would reject a man with ten thousand pounds a year, other than outright vice to the point of danger? Rushworth and his twelve thousand pounds is a big statement saying: yes, there is, and yes, she should.)

(Digression: I can actually imagine an AU where Rushworth at least picks up during the play that Maria’s being disdainful to him, Fanny’s being kind and patient, and he’s already ‘up’ enough that he has no need to marry up, and drops Maria and proposes to Fanny. I think she’d reject him out of the principle of not marrying someone she doesn’t respect, but I’m not 100% sure; she doesn’t doubt his character she does Crawford’s, and her future prospects are not great. Either way, it would certainly give Aunt Nortis a heart attack.)

There’s one more contrast with P&P, and that’s how the two people who run off together are treated. Lydia is not previously married; her marriage to Wickham is treated as a lesser evil than him just abandoning her. She is also accepted back at her family home. Maria is married and having an affair; the idea of her marrying Henry after the affair is considered as actively morally worse than not doing so, and she us sent off to a remote area to be alone. It feels like Austen’s trying to defend herself, perhaps, against perceptions of being too light on ‘loose’ behaviour, by saying that adultery is another order of magnitude worse than Lydia’s running off with Wickham. (Maria is also mid-20s to Lydia’s 15.)

Oddly, while I don’t actually think Darcy would take to Mary Crawford (he’s a person of very strong principles and takes pride in them), I do think Henry Crawford could be dangerous to Elizabeth Bennet if he met her before she started liking Darcy. Elizabeth found Wickham charming, after all, and Henry has more charm and wit and intelligence than Wickham (also probably more charm and wit than Darcy, for that matter) and could actually match her in banter. I don’t think he’d actually propose, though, and it takes a lot for Elizabeth to fall hard for a guy, so he’d probably be a disappointment that she’d get over in time after he left.

Sometimes I feel like Mansfield Park is a direct response to Pride & Prejudice. Did Jane Austen get some fan mail where someone expressed that she'd "reformed a rake with the love of a good woman"? Was she tearing her hair out because that's NOT what Darcy/Elizabeth is AT ALL.

Did she pull out her pen and scream, "I'll show you a real rake and the heroine is going to flat out REFUSE to reform him! And then he's going to fuck her married cousin just in case I haven't made my point CLEARLY ENOUGH."

All for her own sister to regret that Henry Crawford didn't end up with Fanny...

[shihalyfie]

Happy August 1! You should watch Appmon.

If you’re following me (a very Adventure and 02-centric blog), you’ve probably already seen Adventure and 02, but you might not have seen Appmon, and since it’s such a lovely and important day today, I thought I should take the moment to try and rectify that as much as possible (especially since it’s streaming on Crunchyroll in several countries, too).

Why Appmon in particular? Well, thinking about it and my own position as an Adventure/02 blog, I personally believe that Appmon is one of the Digimon entries that most captures the spirit of what attracted people to classic Digimon (Adventure through Frontier) without actually being an outright rehash. I think Appmon’s critical acclaim has become well-known among members of this fanbase, but there aren’t a lot of things that thoroughly unpack why Appmon gets all of that critical acclaim and is so well-liked by classic Digimon fans. So I decided to write one!

One of the biggest things that works against recommending Appmon to others is how it looks very “immature”, or in other words, the bright sparkly colors and extensive use of catchphrases makes it come off as a kids’ show with an low-aged target audience and existing primarily to be goofy more than anything else. Personally, I’m still not fond of the idea that “dark” and “mature” should be considered synonymous (as someone who has a lot of prejudice against media that tries to be dark and edgy but actually has no substance), but nevertheless, Appmon is probably the single most deceptive series in this franchise. If you’re familiar with kids’ shows, you’re probably aware that it’s quite common for them to start off lighthearted and escalate as they get further in, but I cannot emphasize enough that Appmon is probably one of the most extreme about this, and heavily urge everyone reading this to not judge a book by its cover.

The following will be a spoiler-free breakdown of why I heavily recommend this series to anyone who hasn’t seen it already.

Ridiculous amount of depth, yet easy to understand

Appmon doesn’t really come off as a subtle series, with all the catchphrases flying everywhere and things being in-your-face, so it’s very easy to mistake it for a very unsubtle series that doesn’t have a lot of depth -- but in actuality, it has an incredible amount of attention to detail and a lot of underlying things that aren’t immediately obvious, and it’s perhaps impressive that it manages to juggle having both an in-your-face narrative that can be enjoyed at face value and underlying things in its narrative that can get you thinking for a really long time if you so choose.

The theme of “apps” isn’t just the writers trying to pick a common modern tech topic to look fashionable and hip! The series actually does a lot to seriously discuss real-life issues and topics going on in modern AI and technology development, and, more importantly, discusses this in the context of how this is currently relevant even to the average person right now, and how we may have to start seriously thinking about these issues in relation to our daily life. Some of the topics it brings up prominently within the series:

Technological singularity

Internet of things (IoT)

Clarke’s third law

Algorithmic bias and its impact on popularity

Corporate data mining and surveillance disguised as fun social activities

Volatility and competition in the modern app market

The tendency for high-level tech engineers to avoid “smart” technology and go old-school because they’re freaked out by the aforementioned surveillance and IoT

Social media bandwagoning

The Chinese room problem/the Turing test

...and more! And it explains all of this in ways more intuitive and fun than your average university textbook. Who would’ve thought.

This is, of course, a kids’ show, but I would seriously even recommend this series with no restraint to adults who are interested in a crash course on modern tech industry issues and what we’re going to have to consider in the coming years. I mean, how many kids’ shows are capable of making a narrative that so scathingly calls out the prevalence of modern corporate surveillance and yet delivers it in a format that’s also ridiculously fun? The series is indeed easy to understand, and that’s actually quite the accomplishment given that these are some topics known for being infamously obtuse! In fact, I personally think it’s very important to appreciate its concept of “fun” and being playful with its audience (good humor is hard to write, too!), and I find the fact it pulls this duality off to be even more phenomenal.

The take on the topic is also surprisingly nuanced, too -- instead of portraying technology as the source of all evil that’ll be responsible for our doom, it instead discusses the pros and cons of its impact on life, how it’s currently so deeply entwined with our lives that it’s not something you can just deny or chuck out the window, and how there are many ways it enriches our lives. It’s a take on it that’s close to reality and our modern world: if this is the way things are going to go, what should we consider, what’s the best way to approach this, and what should we anticipate going forward?

And if you think that being “easy to understand” and having a lot of goofy catchphrases means that the narrative never escalates that much nor gets all that tense or dramatic, boy, you have absolutely no idea. Again, not to say that I personally equate “dark” with “good”, but, well...without spoiling too much, if you’re still thinking that this is too much of a “goofy lighthearted series” to ever get serious, guess what happens with one of the party members in the finale!

Good character writing

Character writing is a standby in Digimon, but when we say “good character writing”, what do we mean by good character writing? This blog itself has already gone into detail about how even Adventure and 02 have different approaches to character writing, based on Adventure’s “self-awareness” approach versus 02′s “interpersonal relationships” approach, and how neither series actually quantifies “character development” by “how much each character changed”. Still, regardless of what your personal bar for character development is, Appmon inherits the classic Digimon approach of going in-depth into its characters’ mentalities, poking closely into their motivations, fears, insecurities, goals, and feelings.

Appmon’s approach to characters strikes a balance between the Adventure and 02 models in that it has a strong group dynamic of characters playing off each other, but also still devotes time to “character focus” episodes that allow you to understand each character deeply on an individual level (and has a surprisingly close to even amount of coverage of said characters). Moreover, even in a different form, the “partner” relationship between the Appli Drivers and their Buddy Appmon remains the same as the traditional relationship between a human and their Digimon partner, with all the bantering and mutual heart-to-hearts that come with it. The partnership relationship portrayed lies somewhere between Adventure and 02′s “literally part of your psyche” and Tamers having them be separate entities entirely; they’re not portrayed as mentally linked per se, but each Buddy Appmon has a certain “purpose” that pairs alongside each Appli Driver’s strongest desire or goal -- for instance, Haru is a thoughtful type who tries his best to understand others, and Gatchmon’s specialty function is research.

Beyond the individual characters having depth and the group having a strong dynamic, a lot of attention is paid to fleshing the world they live in; through the use of recurring characters and locations, the series gives you a strong sense of what Haru and his friends’ lives are like in Fujimizaka and the surrounding area, and what it is exactly they’re working to protect. It also helps bring the story close to home, because of how the hard sci-fi story integrates with what’s familiar in reality.

Strong use of themes in narrative

It would be one thing if the series touching on some pretty deep topics made it into a sort of “heavily cerebral” narrative that asks a lot of so-called tough questions, but were so focused on being smart and pulling one over you that it doesn’t have any take-home messages or anything meaningful to say. (Because there are definitely a lot of those stories that are so busy trying to say “life is harder than it seems” that there’s not much actual message to be had in it.) But that’s not the case with Appmon, and on top of having more pragmatic things to discuss about the world right now, there’s also a lot of heart in it, too.

There’s actually a lot you can get from it, but the most prominent theme of the series is “the importance of making choices out of kindness”. “Kindness” in this case doesn’t just mean playing nice with everyone, but rather “kindness” and actively choosing to consider the importance of feelings, the human heart, and the ability to make those choices in the first place in the midst of a world that is actively trying to get rid of those things. In a world that’s becoming progressively more intertwined with efficiency, organization, and reducing people to pawns and statistics, what does it mean to still have kindness towards others? (And, as you can guess, this is why the choice to have Haru be an unconventional protagonist who acts out of kindness instead of impulsiveness ends up being very important to this narrative.)

Despite the series being the closest to a true “hard sci-fi” narrative among all of the Digimon anime series released to date, this is still a very humanistic narrative that goes deeply into emotions and relationships, and it is very much one that invites you to think harder about these topics. In fact, true to its creed about kindness, the series itself comes off as very kind in its delivery -- even despite all the very high-level topics it covers, it never comes off as pretentious or needlessly edgy.

Generally good pacing and execution

In general, I personally weigh all of the above factors over the question of whether a narrative has execution issues like pacing or whatnot, but, incredibly, on top of all of the above, Appmon is extremely well-paced, well-executed, and is very tightly packed as a narrative -- other than a recap episode at episode 26 made to accommodate a real-life timeslot change (which is now completely skippable since the series is complete and available for marathon), there is no part of the narrative that can be considered to be stalling or not plot/character-important in some way, and in fact you could say the narrative keeps accelerating and doesn’t stop (no major pacing issues!).

I am obviously not going to claim that this series is perfect (as I say very often, there’s no such thing as a perfect series), and I’m sure there are many out there who have different personal tastes from mine to the extent that they didn’t end up as interested in this series as I do, but even when I try to remove a lot of my personal sentiments from the equation, Appmon is an incredibly “well-rounded” series, which is pretty remarkable in a franchise where a lot of its entries have infamously been “biased” in one way or another, and it’s hard to say there’s too many factors you would call a glaring miss or a slip-up. This is a series that covers a pretty ridiculous amount of ground in its 52-episode runtime.

It’s also obvious that the narrative was properly planned out in advance, because on top of the core narrative and subplots being very well organized and properly resolved, the amount of foreshadowing and the delicate plays of red herrings and just-enough-to-make-you-suspicious-but-not-enough-to-make-you-sure are handled extremely well (plus, if you decide to watch it a second time, you’ll notice tons of things that you wouldn’t have noticed in a first watch). It’s the kind of story organization that feels very “satisfying” in that sense -- and for even that alone, it becomes very well worth your time.

[batteryrose]

im late but ASK GAME TIME!! 1, 9, 21, 28, 36

Hey Mo I love you!! And that's a lot of numbers!!! Fine I'll answer them

Which of your fics would you keep the basic plot of but rewrite completely?

Wouldn't mind rewriting and bettering Tragedy Farce if only I have THE GODDAMN TIME

You also have to kill the perfectionist in you sometimes. I'd rather move on and make some other funky stuff

Thoughts on cliffhangers.

What about cliffhangers. I can be tricked into thinking bad stories are good if they have a good cliffhangers in every chapter or something....... So I'd say they're pretty important. You gotta make people keep reading somehow! I'm pretty bad at it myself though.

Can you accurately predict how long your fics are going to be? If you can, what's your secret?

I can't really. There is some intuition in shorter ones though. Usually those one shots with only one scene that I like writing will end up around 2k words. Somehow that's just how long all of them would be without me even checking the word count. And it would be enough, too. Crazy

As for my longer fics, they always end up double the amount of what I predicted lol

Any writing advice that works for you and you feel like sharing?

I think to write often you have to be amongst writers. Have some writer friends like this, who tags you in.. Asks games.

Seriously though, it seems to work best. Reading all your friends works and throwing your own out there to be read. It's a rhythmic cycle. There's nothing else more motivating. As for writing longer fics, I have a habit of not talking/sharing wips about it to anyone until it's finished. I probably should! You probably should. You can probably get better ideas from other people. You might also catch mistakes early. Either way, Use People.

What else... Mmmmmoh I usually continue reading a book first before I start writing because then the words flows out easier. But that might just be because I'm not a native english speaker. Get the english brain going. I think it'll work for everyone though.

When I'm so lazy and stubborn to write anything, I'll use an alarm to do those 25 min writing sprints. This I rarely do. It's only for my long fics that I procrastinate on horribly. It sort of works tho and after some days I'd start writing on my own without needing the alarm.

One other thing too maybe: draft on phone and edit on computer! Especially porn!! Cannot for the love of me ever do that on computer

How do you come up with fic titles? What's the one you're most proud of?

I like to reference things in titles basically. I'm not creative. If I'm stumped then I'll just steal some other people's titles. The Tragedy Farce one, for example, is a title of a philosophy book written by Slavoj Zizek, which is also referencing Marx's quote about Napoleon that says: "history repeats, first as tragedy then as Farce" or something like that (I think he was specifically talking about Napoleon III). 'Less than Nothing' is also a zizek book title, while also being something Leon himself said once. It's great.

Some other titles that reference things:

Sleipnir is a horse in nordic mythology who is ridden by Odin, who has eight legs, like the,,, eight princes of Rhodolite. So "Sleipnir's Second Limb" just means Chevalier. Through the pov character's view, he is seen as some sort of a God.

I know Nothing about norse mythology. I believe I was searching for just about any horse god out there to reference. I think this one is perfect.

"If the mountain won't come to Mochammad," and "God Between Us and All Harm" are both people sayings that I found by googling. I'm most proud of the Muhammad one. It fits PERFECTLY with Adam's dumb predicament there. As for the second one, it just sounds visceral with the content of the fic.

'Symptoms of Rosette Disease' is just some words. Honestly thinking of changing it. Rosette disease itself is a fascinating plant disease, that's why I used it. And it's supposed to mean the underlying prejudice and inequality that exists in Rhodolite, the kingdom of roses, or something. I'm Trying to be profound here

'The Skies Have Been Empty' is also a good one... It's just Wellington noticing that over the centuries the stars have been less visible (because of light pollution babyyyyyyyyyyyy) and since stars was how people find their way in the past, he now has lost his way in life, Something Something

That's all I have to say about titles. I just woke up.

[eternally-drifting]

Eclipsed (Jungkook FF) - Ch.1

Discovering the kings biggest secret leads you into understanding the way he is, and how perhaps you have been just a bit too prejudice. After all, who are you to judge anyone.

pairing: Jungkook x Reader

genre: fantasy, fluff, inspired by the anime Inuyasha, slight e2l, the f2l, and some angst cuz why not, future smut.

warnings: TW - description / mentions of blood loss

word count: 1779

parts: 1 / next>?

a/n: I tried to get this out by Halloween last year but it was 2020 and life got in the way. A lot of stuff happened in my personal life so I just needed to cope with that first before I did anything. Also, since this is inspired somewhat by the anime Inuyasha, I wanted to give a moment and respect the passing of Kirby Morrow who is the english voice actor of Mirkou in the series as well as many other great characters. It felt like a piece of my childhood just left and while I know we can all still see and hear his work, it definitely did leave an impact on me as well as many other. Rest well Kirby. Aug. 28, 1973 - Nov. 18, 2020

Without further notice, hope you enjoy this.

“Come now darling, we need to hurry and head home before the sun sets.” A woman gently tugged on her child’s hand as she finished putting the last bit of herbs in her basket. The child’s eyes gleaming at every trinket that glistened in the rays of the setting sun. A certain fascination was held in the child’s eyes. Though, upon hearing what her mother said, she quickly drew her attention from the trinkets. Looking at her mother now as she was pulled through the crowd, a question laid heavy on her tongue.

“Mama, why do we always need to hurry home before the sun sets?” With a furrow of her brow the little girl couldn’t hide her disappointment. Despite being only eight, the little girl knew that it was an odd thing. Never really understanding the reasoning as to why one could not stay out past the sunset. “___ sweetheart, it’s a law that the king has set in place.” This answer did not seem to quell her curiosity.

“But why?” Her mother chuckles as she halts all her movements. She looks at her daughter before kneeling to her height and lifting her up. She scans around to ensure no one is paying attention before whispering in her daughters’ ear. “It’s to keep everyone safe.” You blink at her, owlishly so, that she lets a small giggle leave her lips. Squishing your cheek next to her, she places a kiss on it. “Safe? But doesn’t the king-”

Your mother simply smiles, “don’t believe everything people say ___.” Whispering ever so gently, she places you back onto the ground before taking your hand and leading you home. Where later into the night you lay up and think over your mother’s words.

Later that evening – once you are tucked into bed and in a deep sleep. Your mother looks out the window of the cabin, watching the glow of the barrier surround the entire kingdom. Just beyond that, she gazes up at the moon as it turns a striking blood red. It brings back a distant memory.

Entering the castle, she takes note at how dark it is inside, the curtains have been drawn and there are barely any candles lighting the corridors up. ‘Strange, the moon is full and bright tonight’ She isn’t allowed to think much of it any longer

“Your highness.” The man that sought her out for weeks – one of the kings’ advisors he informed – leads her into one of the many rooms in the enormous castle. She turns her gaze back to the front, where a man stood with his back faced towards them. There has been a demonic energy present since she passed the forest into the capital. And despite the darkness within the castle, she was able to distinct the horns that protruded through his head as he slightly turned it. ‘No doubt, he’s where all this demonic energy is coming from.’

“We have brought the priestess just as requested.” Surprisingly, his voice was soft, tone gentle. “You may leave us.” He remained facing the large window.

Nothing was said as they stayed in their spots. She didn’t know what to say or do, but by heavens is this a deafening silence. Just as she was gathering up all the courage to finally speak, he beat her to it.

“You were the high priestess of Faemma, were you not?” The mention of her past stuns her so much, that it takes her a full moment to compose herself. “Yes, your majesty.” She holds her head high, never allowing the blight to hinder her dignity. Another bout of silence engulfs them. A sudden shift in the air sends chills down her spine. Glancing at the king she is stunned in silence, lilac eyes shining in the dark room as they stare her down.

“If the rumors that proceed you are to be true, then I need you, to achieve something for me. In return, I will grant you asylum in Aurelia.” As though it never existed, his demonic aura disappeared along with the glow of his eyes.

That was over nine years ago. Just as the king promised, she was granted asylum and lived her life as much as she could. Starting her family of two in peace, no matter the consequences. One final look at the barrier, and she heads to bed.

‘I’ve done my part, the rest is up to you, my darling ___.’

 “You will regret ever crossing paths with us priestess!” Another attack was thrown your way, all too quickly that you barely managed to escape it – the ray of lighting hitting your arm. Blood seeped out from the open gash at an alarmingly rapid pace. The effects after the blow caused shock waves through your entire body.

‘If I don’t get away soon, I’ll surely be killed. If not by them, then certainly by all the blood that I’m losing.’ Casting a look over the horizon you see that the sun is nearly set. ‘The sunset!’

If you lead them close enough to the village - the sun should have set by then, activating the barrier! They won’t be able to penetrate through! With your plan set, you act and try to run without tumbling over everything in your way. Holding on tightly to your arm, hand over the wound, you feel blood pour out as your heart raced and pumped the blood through your veins. Your hand and arm completely drenched that it dripped down and caused a trail on the foliage.

“Running is futile! We can hear your heart beating, smell the very life pouring out of you!” One of the demons growled out at you as you looked back. Eye narrowing as you could see that your blood has lured other demons out. You hasten your pace as you see the last ray of light go out.

‘Yes! Just a little further!’ You ran desperately, that you had closed your eyes thinking that it would somehow aid you in running faster – only this led you into running and tripping on an uprooted tree root.

“Die priestess!” Just as the demons lunged at your fallen body, you felt a shift in the air – a pulse – almost. Within a moment, the barrier had activated. The light flashing across the sky as it shielded the entire kingdom. Looking back, you see as the demons are stopped, those touching the barrier bursting into flames.

‘I made it in time… but barely.’ You watch as the demons retreat into the forest, but not without sending a vicious glare your way before leaving. Once there were none left in sight, you let a sigh out and lay back down against the grass, eyes closed as you regained your breath. Thoughts consuming you.

‘They’ll be back after tonight, and with more demons seeking revenge. I miscalculated, didn’t take the threat seriously and ended up with more than I could handle…’ You grab hold of your arm again and feel where the blood had started to dry and crust, but also how wet it continues to be. ‘I’ve lost so much blood… I’m surprised I haven’t – no, I won’t think about that, not now.’

Deciding it best, you let your mind go blank for the remainder of the time. Still, you lay there in the grass as the cool breeze sways around you. Carrying the scent of the river down (along with your blood, no doubt). However, there is another sudden shift in the air, another ‘pulse’ is felt. It’s the same strong pulse you feel every other time the barrier goes up. On instinct you sit up as best at you can with your injured arm and look up.

Blood.

The once silver moon, is now a vibrant blood red. How befitting, your blanched sleeve has also become vibrant with the shade of blood.

‘Wait, there was a second ‘pulse’.’ Staring intently at the moon as though it would give you the answers. In some way it did.

The barrier had formed before the blood moon emerged… could it be due to your injury? Did the rapid beating of your heart force the barrier to appear before it should have? Are you starting to lose control of that too now?

‘Great, if his majesty noticed, then he’s sure to send his advisor to interrogate me again.’ It’d be the fifth time this month alone if he does. Certain things have gotten out of your control, and his majesty has been a thorn in your side. You shudder at the mere thought of the royal advisor to come and question you.

“My, my, that certainly is a gruesome wound you’ve acquired yourself this time.” On second thought, perhaps you prefer the royal advisor as appose to the current pest.

Merely side glancing, you can see the fiend look of concern on his face. How he irritates you with his underlying derisive attitude.

“Oh now, don’t look at me like that. If someone were to see they might think I’m nothing but a nuisance to you.” His tone is patronizing, and to hide the smirk gracing his lips, he spreads the fan out and brings it close to him.

“Then they’d think right.” Your brow twitches with annoyance as you brace yourself to stand. It’s a tough feat, but you manage it. “Why are you here?” Though it was grumbled you know he heard you. He however, doesn’t answer right away. You give it a moment but when he still hasn’t answered you, you decide to not waste anymore time on him and leave.

Until he does speak, and with such conviction, that it leads you to shudder for a moment. “You are using too much power. At a rather hasty pace at that. Tonight’s incident is one of many within the past few weeks where you have lost your abilities within moments of engaging battle.” His usual carefree aura is replaced with sternness you only witnessed once.

The breeze gently flows around you two, trapping you in tense silence. “___,”

You don’t look at him, instead you opt to look at the moon and take in how red it is. “You are losing control.” He’s figured it out, chances are, he knew before even you.

Inhaling the cool air, you whisper, letting the wind carry your voice over to him. “I don’t know… but I’m frightened.” With no more energy left in you, you make way to your cabin, walking past him without so much as even sharing a glance at one another.

‘Seokjin, I know my mother asked you to help me, but I’m afraid that even this maybe out of your control…’

[lunaris-laments]

bakugou with an s/o who gets misgendered (gn)

reader uses they/them pronouns! their specific sex/wrong pronouns are not mentioned as well as their identity (they’re generally genderqueer) to make this as inclusive as possible

wrote this as someone who frequently gets misgendered and this is very self indulgent

reader also works in the service/retail industry

pairing - bakugou x genderqueer reader, sfw

tw - slight themes of transphobia (?) or gender dysphoria

bakugou can tell something has been bothering you for a while

every time you come home from work you look a little more broken and a little less self assured. he asks you about it, a fleeting “you okay?”, and you always shrugged it off with something along the lines of “it was a long day”, or “shitty customers”, with a small, awkward smile

he can sense something else is wrong, though. one night, after he returned from his pro hero duties and you got in from work, you had settled onto the couch together and were watching a movie. bakugou wouldn’t have said anything that night specifically - you had once again come home defeated and both mentally and physically exhausted - but the quiet clicks of your teeth biting into your nails had him distracted

despite being brash, and blunt, and rough around the edges, bakugou tries his hardest, puts his all into everything - he loves fiercely and only wants the best for you. has the biggest heart of anyone you’ve ever met - it rivals midoriya. he’s attentive, knows your schedule and habits like the back of his hand - notices the little things. like right now, how you only start biting away at your nails when you’re anxious about something and will only open up about it when seriously prodded

so, he prods

bakugou pauses the movie, and you look over to him. you raise an inquisitive brow, wondering what the problem was, and he turns to face you fully. “y/n,” he says, worriedly with underlying tenderness, and a determination to get to the bottom of it. “what’s really goin’ on with you? with work, i mean. and don’t give me that ‘i’m just tired’ bullshit. you’re fine until you go to work and come back home lookin’ like someone just shot a puppy.”

“katsuki…” you start, and gulp down the lump in your throat, avoiding eye contact. he’s right, of course he’s right, and he’s reaching out in his own way and he wants you to tell him what’s wrong and he’s looking at you so lovingly that it all comes back to you so suddenly, and before you know it, there are tears falling down your cheeks and you find yourself smothered in a warm embrace, burying your face in a sturdy chest

bakugou’s hugs, much like other physical acts, are a reflection and extension of himself - what he can’t express through speech. they’re for when he can’t find words to tell you how much he loves you, or that he’s sorry, or that he’s there for you. the hug is always different depending on what he wants to show, as in,

“i love you so much i feel like i’m about to combust, and i want you to understand, but i don’t know how to make you understand with shitty words i can’t seem to get right” - his arms would slip around your waist slowly as he pushes you up against him, he wants to feel you as close as possible, and it always comes as a shock how warm he is and how pleasant it is to melt into him despite all his hard muscle. he keeps his chin on your head or lips by your temple, eyes fluttering shut and breaths deep in total relaxation - you relax him. sometimes he mumbles sweet nothings and the rest of the world falls away; he hope’s it’s enough to reciprocate all you do for him for now.

and right now you know he’s doing his best to comfort you, when words fail him. they always do when you start crying. he pulls you into his chest - he knows you’re hurting, and that you need to let it out before anything he says can get through to you

so, bakugou lets you cry in his arms for a while. tears stain his shirt fabric but he doesn’t mind - does all he can, rubbing your back softly, squeezing you just a bit tighter when your sobs get louder, holding back tears of his own, because your pain is his pain.

when you’re done, you pull back and wipe your remaining tears. he stays close, hand resting on your bicep, all the while resisting the urge to kiss away your tears in place of your shaking hands

“s’not even that big a deal,” you speak again, voice hoarse and head spinning a little from all the crying, and bakugou mutters a quick one sec - kisses your forehead before getting up and returning with a glass of water for you

you continue after a minute of drinking with intervals of deep breaths, trying to steady your racing heartbeat and staggered breathing.

“it’s… s'just that,” you gulp down some more water, giving yourself time to think how best to word it, so he’ll understand. “at work… they don’t use the right pronouns for me and it's… annoying.” you’ve put it lightly, but got the gist out.

bakugou urges you to talk more. throughout all the years he’s known you, your gender has given you trouble - you’re proud, and comfortable now, but have dealt with much dysphoria, discomfort, and prejudice. pronouns are an important part in validating your identity and, no matter how confident you are, there’s a part of you that relies on the work of others too. although he can never completely understand, bakugou has always worked hard to see things from your side, and he’s learned a lot in the process. he wanted you to feel as safe and loved as possible in his presence.

“s'just really frustrating and disheartening. it makes me feel like m'not doing enough to… to earn it? like i don’t look genderqueer enough? and it's distressing when they just assume what i am, and assign me a gender, and because of where i work, i have to smile at them n' act like nothing’s wrong.” you gnaw at your lip and stare up at him.

for a moment he doesn’t say anything to your confession, and the room is almost silent. then for a second time that evening, he bundles you up in his arms and holds you close. “m’sorry. i’ll beat those shits into the next century for ya.” you smile against his neck at his statement; it’s so him. “always makes me so confused when people do that. assume when they know fuck-all about you. promise they mean nothing… i promise their uneducated asses aren’t important at all.”

it’s short and he struggled to string together the sentences with minimal cursing, but you can hear his emotions in his wavering voice: anger at those who hurt you even unintentionally, regret that he didn’t ask you about this sooner, and sadness - he’s so upset that he can’t do more, can’t personally be there to stare them down or correct them if you wanted him to

he knows that all he can do is be there to pick you up and make you feel better at the end of the day. and if that’s his only role, he’s going to be better than anyone at it

you huff a laugh and kiss his neck softly, mumbling a thank you and i love you, which he responds to by pulling back and pecking your lips - once, twice, three times, more, moving to different areas of your face until he’s satisfied, “love you too. m’always gonna be here, whatever you need.”

[redantsunderneath]

On Analysis Part 1 - Hermeneutics and Configurative reading (the “what” part)

“Without turning, the pharmacist answered that he liked books like The Metamorphosis, Bartleby, A Simple Heart, A Christmas Carol. And then he said that he was reading Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Leaving aside the fact that A Simple Heart and A Christmas Carol were stories, not books, there was something revelatory about the taste of this bookish young pharmacist, who ... clearly and inarguably preferred minor works to major ones. He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pecouchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish pharmacists are afraid to take on the great, imperfect, torrential works, books that blaze a path into the unknown. They choose the perfect exercises of the great masters. Or what amounts to the same thing: they want to watch the great masters spar, but they have no interest in real combat, when the great masters struggle against that something, that something that terrifies us all, that something that cows us and spurs us on, amid blood and mortal wounds and stench.” ― Roberto Bolano, 2666

Much of the background for this post in particular comes from Paul Fry’s Yale lecture course about the theory of literature.  This is a great starting course for interpretation and textual analysis and, yes, film and TV shows are text.

In futzing around with this stuff, what am I doing?  Less charitably, what do I think I’m even trying to do, here? Many feel that applying theory to art and entertainment is as pretentious as the kind of art or entertainment that encourages it. It’s understandable.  Many examples of analysis are garbage and even people capable of good work get going in the wrong direction due to fixations or prejudices they aren’t even aware of and get swept away by the mudslide of enthusiasm into the pit of overreach. That’s part of the process. But this stuff has an actual philosophical grounding, so let’s start by looking at the stories history of trying to figure out “texts.”

Ideas about the purpose of art, what it means to be an author, and how it is best to create go back to the beginning of philosophy but (outside of some notable examples) there is precious little consideration of the reception of art and certainly not a feeling that it was a legitimate field of study until more recently. The Greeks figured the mind would just know how to grok it because what it was getting at was automatically universal and understanding was effortless to the tune mind. But the idea that textual analysis should be taken seriously began with the literal texts of the Torah (Rabbinical scholarship) and then the Bible, but mostly in closed circles.

Hermeneutics as we know it began as a discipline with the Protestant Reformation since the Bible was now available to be read.  Sooooo, have you read it? It’s not the most obvious or coherent text.  Reading it makes several things clear about it: 1. It is messy and self contradictory; 2. A literal reading is not possible for an honest mind and isn’t advisable in any event; 3. It is extremely powerful and mysterious in a way that makes you want to understand, your reach exceeding your grasp. This is like what I wrote about Inland Empire - it captures something in a messy, unresolvable package that probably can’t be contained in something clear and smooth. This interpretive science spread to law and philosophy for reasons similar to it’s roots in text based religion - there was an imperative to understand what was meant by words.

Hans-Georg Gadamer is the first to explicitly bring to bear a theory of how we approach works.  He was a student of Martin Heidegger, who saw the engagement with “the thing itself” as a cyclic process that was constructive of meaning, where we strive to learn from encounters and use that to inform our next encounter.  Gadamer applied this specifically to how we read a text (for him, this means philosophical text) and process it.  Specifically he strove to, by virtue of repeated reading and rumination which is informed by prior readings (on large and small scales, even going back and forth in a sentence), “align the horizons” of the author and the reader.  The goal of this process is to arrive at (external to the text) truth, which was for him the goal of the enterprise of writing and reading to begin with.  This is necessary because the author and reader both carry different preconceptions to the enterprise (really all material and cultural influences on thinking) that must be resolved.

ED Hirsch had a lifelong feud with Gadamer over this, whipping out Emanuel Kant to deny that his method was ethically sound.  He believed that to engage in this activity otherizes and instrumentalizes the author and robs them of them being a person saying something that has their meaning, whether it is true or false.  We need to get what they are laying down so we can judge the ideas as to whether they are correct or not.  It may be this is because he wasn’t that sympathetic a reader - he’s kind of a piece of work - and maybe his thheory was an excuse to act like John McLaughlin.  He goes on to have a hell of a career fucking up the US school system

But it’s Wolfgang Iser that comes in with the one neat trick which removes (or at least makes irrelevant) the knowability problem, circumvents the otherizing problem, and makes everything applicable to any text (e.g. art, literature) by bringing in phenomenology, specifically Edmund Husserl’s “constitution” of the world by consciousness. It makes perfect sense to bring phenomenology into interpretive theory as phenomenology had a head start as a field and is concerned with something homologous - we only have access to our experience of <the world/the text> and need to grapple with how we derive <reality/meaning> from it.  Husserl said we constitute reality from the world using our sensory/cognitive apparatus, influenced by many contingencies (experiential, cultural, sensorial, etc) but that’s what reality is and It doesn’t exist to us unbracketed. Iser said we configure meaning from the text using our sensory/cognitive apparatus, influenced by many contingencies (experiential, cultural, sensorial, etc) but that’s what meaning is and It doesn’t exist to us unbracketed.  Reality and meaning are constructed on these contingencies, and intersubjective agreement is not assured.

To Iser, we create a virtual space (his phrase) where we operate processes on the text to generate a model what the text is saying, and this process has many inputs based on our dataset external to the text (not all of which is good data) as well as built in filters and mapping legends based on our deeper preconceptions (which may be misconceptions or “good enough” approximations).  Most if this goes on without any effort whatsoever, like the identification of a dog on the street.  But some of it is a learned process - watch an adult who has never read comics try to read one.  These inputs, filters, and routers can animate an idea of the author in the construct, informing our understanding based on all sorts of data we happen to know and assumptions about how certain things work.

This is reader response theory, that meaning is generated in the mind by interaction with the text and not by the text, though Stanley Fish didn’t accent the “in the mind part” and name the phenomenon until years later. Note that Gadamer is largely prescriptive and Hirsch is entirely prescriptive while Iser is predominantly descriptive.  He’s saying “this is how you were doing it all along,” but by being aware of the process, we can gain function.

For those keeping score:   1. Gadamer, after Heidegger’s cyclic process at constructing an understanding of the thing itself, centers on a point between the author and reader and prioritizes universal truth. 2. Hirsch, after Kant’s ethical stand on non instrumentalization, centers on hearing what the author is saying and prioritizes the judging the ideas. 3. Iser, after Husserl’s constituted reality, centers on configuring a multi-input sense of the text within a virtual (mental) space and prioritizes meaning.

Everything after basically comes out of Iser and is mostly restatement with focusing/excluding of elements.  The 20th century mindset, from the logical positivists to Bohr’s view that looking for reality underlying the wave form was pointless, had a serious case of God (real meaning, ground reality) is dead.  W.K. Wimsatt and M. C. Beardsley’s intentional fallacy, an attempt to caution interpreters to steer clear of considering what the god-author meant, begat death of the author which attempted to take the author entirely out of the equation - it was less likely you’d ever understand the if you focused on that!  To me, this is corrective to trends at the time and not good praxis -  it excludes natural patterns of reading in which the author is configured, rejects potentially pertinent data, and limits some things one can get out of the text.

Meanwhile formalism/new criticism (these will be discussed later in a how section) focused on just what was going on in the text with as few inputs as possible, psychoanalytics and historicism looked to interrogate the inputs/filters to the sense making process, postmodernism/deconstruction attacked those inputs/filters making process questioning whether meaning was not just contingent but a complete illusion, and critical studies became obsessed with specific strands of oppression and hegemony as foundational filters that screw up the inputs.   But the general Iser model seems to be the grandfather of everything after.  

Reader intersubjectivity is an area of concern.  In the best world, the creation of art is in part an attempt to find the universal within the specific, something that resonates and speaks to people.  A very formative series of David Milch lectures (to me at least) proffer that if you find a scene, idea, whatever, that is very compelling to you, your job is to figure out what in it is “fanciful” (an association specific to you) and how to find and bring out the universal elements. But people’s experiences are different and there be many ideas of what a piece of art means without there being a dominant one. So the building of models within each mind leaves a lot to consider as the final filtered input is never quite the same. There is a lot of hair on this dog (genres engender text expectations that an author can subvert by confusing the filter, conflicting input can serve a purpose, the form of a guided experience can be a kind of meaning, on and on ad nauseum)

The ultimate question, you might ask, is why we need to do this at all.  I mean, I understood Snow White perfectly fine as a kid.  There’s no “gap” that needs to be leaped.  The meaning of the movie is evident enough on some level without vivisecting it.  The Long answer to what we gain from looking under Snow’s skirt is the next episode.  The short is: 1. You are doing it anyway.  That Snow White thing, you were doing thhat to Snow White you just weren’t conscious of the process.

2. It’s fun. The process only puts a tool of enjoyment in your arsenal.  You don’t have to use it all the time.

3. You’ll see stuff you like in new ways.  The way Star Wars works is really interesting!

4. It may give dimensions to movies that are flawed or bad, and you might wind up liking them.  Again, more to love.

5. It is sometimes necessary to get to a full (or any) appreciation of some complicated works as the most frustrating and resistant stuff to engage with is sometimes the most incredible. 

6. It reinforces your involvement in something you like.  It makes you more connected and more hungry, like any good exercise.

7. You can become more aware of what those preconceptions and biases are, which might give you insights in other areas of your life.

[sepublic]

The reveal of what Amity's parents are like does put more emphasis on the question of what the Lilith - Amity dynamic is like. Because - yeah. On one hand Lilith is the Clawthorne that swallowed the Emperor's Coven Scam hook line and sinker, on the other I've been told that historically apprenticeships were essentially getting a third parent. Interestingly I wonder what the Blights think of Lilith. Covention had Lilith's "humble beginnings" and Eda mention "blue bloods" in reference to Lilith's

students. So there is grounds to wonder if Lilith and Eda are essentially in the Willow type background (except with parents not focused on picking a coven) and given the behavior we know the Blights exhibit I can see them seeing Lilith as someone to schmooze and ingratiate or an upstart that has gotten too far to obviously insult - or plain upstart.

-

           As you pointed out, I think it’s safe to say that Lilith started off as ‘common folk’, as the Blights and other higher-class Witches may put it. But regardless, Mr. and Mrs. Blight definitely hold Lilith in high esteem; Given their emphasis on Amity only associating with the strongest of Witches, it makes sense that they’d take the choice of their daughter’s personal mentor VERY seriously. After all, Lilith is the head of the Emperor’s Coven; That makes her of higher social status than the Blight family! And you don’t get into that kind of position just by luck or anything… You really do have to be the best of the best, if Emperor Belos himself chooses to make you his own reigning champion and enforcer!

           So it’s safe to say that, at least prior to the Covention incident, the Blight Parents regard Lilith as not only ‘one of them’, but also somebody to actively look up to and get in good favor with! To look down on Lilith would basically mean to disagree with Emperor Belos’ choice for her, and while I can’t say for sure HOW devoted the Blight parents are to the Emperor… Given their focus on getting good with anyone of notable social status, they’d probably ‘trust’ his judgment. At the very least, withdrawing your daughter from lessons with Lilith wouldn’t look good on Mr. and Mrs. Blight; They’d be openly rejecting Belos’ handpicked enforcer.

           There is the possibility that Mr. and Mrs. Blight secretly see Lilith as an upstart… But more than likely, she’s one of the ‘civilized’ commoners, the ‘noble’ ones that rose above their lowly beginnings and all that. After all, every line of nobles had to start off with an original progenitor, and THEY had to come from somewhere…! To the Blights, Lilith likely ‘earned’ her position by being strong enough to be trusted by Belos to lead his own personal force! Even after Covention, Lilith still retains her position, so I can see the Blight parents keeping things going as usual. After all, Amity is doing incredibly well in school, was chosen to represent the Abomination Track at Hexside, and is considered to be Lilith’s best student; So Lilith obviously isn’t a bad teacher by any means!

           As for Lilith and Amity’s relationship, I can’t say for sure. I can see it being colder and more distant than Eda and Luz’s, more ‘professional’… As you said, Lilith DOES believe in the Coven System, and she’s Belos’ enforcer. She definitely has her ideas about how people should be like, and her own elitist biases and prejudices. I can see Lilith putting a lot of pressure on Amity to do well, and be the best… But at the same time, I think Lilith would also value Amity’s personal wellbeing as well?

           After all, Lilith respects Eda’s autonomy, enough that while she DOES look down on Eda’s position in society, she’s willing to give her sister the chance to do what she wants. Amity may not be blood by any means, but Lilith is nevertheless inclined towards respecting others’ decisions (even if it IS in the hopes that they’ll change their mind). Unlike Mr. and Mrs. Blight, I can see Lilith actually… Praising Amity, being kind to her, and occasionally looking out for her apprentice from time to time. Maybe giving her some praise, and some reassurance. After all, Lilith DID come from ‘humble beginnings’ and she stresses this to an entire audience. I doubt she’s THAT elitist, and if her getting her lunch money stolen is any indication in the past, Lilith could be sympathetic to those who may feel low self-esteem.

           Again- Lilith may not be the BEST influence for Amity, if only because she fully buys into the Coven System and is thus liable to passing on some toxic ideas and mentality. But she’d definitely be a lot more self-aware about the impact she has on Amity, and show concern for the girl’s emotional and mental health as well. I guess it all boils down to whether or not Lilith notices if anything is ‘wrong’ with Amity, or if she genuinely believes that Amity’s front as the cool-headed, calculated star of Hexside is real. I can see Lilith initially dismissing any small issues or ‘symptoms’ of an underlying issue, but in face of ACTUAL abuse...

          If Lilith feels like something is off one day, I can see her being level with Amity, stopping the lesson for a bit to see what’s wrong; While also balancing between being ‘professional’ as the head of the Emperor’s Coven. And if Lilith were to suspect actual abuse… Again, I can see her trying to help Amity in her own subtle, subdued manner. Acting under the knowledge that if she confronts Amity’s parents openly, Amity herself may be caught in the crossfire; And likewise, Lilith could have reservations about ‘intruding’ into another family, as well as still being mature and proper about things.

           Alternatively, Lilith may insist on Amity focusing on being the best in her studies; Given how this paid off for Lilith, I can see her thinking this could ultimately help Amity. For all we know, she may even be the type of person to be cold towards her students, expecting the best of them under the genuine belief that such a form of mentorship is ideal; But still showing a one-time exception for her beloved sister. Again, we can’t really say for sure, and can only guess. It IS worth noting that when Amity runs off and is humiliated, Lilith is more concerned about her beef with Eda than comforting Amity... But then again, nothing says she DIDN’T apologize to Amity afterwards, and Eda IS her sister and thus a higher-priority to Lilith regardless.

[itsnothingofinterest]

PLF Advisor Headcanons (’cause why not)

So I’ve been thinking a lot about the PLF advisors, probably more than I should be about characters we barely have faces of. All of this stuff’s probably gonna get flushed down the drain sooner rather than later, and I have been meaning to start actually posting stuff on this site. Might as well share, am I right?

I’m sure I shouldn’t need to tell anyone this at present, but just to be safe, or in case of future readers: the latest chapter was 276 & we know next to nothing about any of these guys except Slidin’ Go, so most of is baseless conjecture. Most of it mine, but I’ll source where I’ve borrowed some ideas. The closest thing to a basis for any of these is “this is probably the kind of quirk I could see someone in this position having” & “these motives and backgrounds sound like what Horikoshi would give to a long-term ally of Shigaraki”. We clear? Everybody got their proper expectations in place? Cool, now let’s get to the fun bits.

Black (Tactics)

Twice Advisor #3 (PLF Granny)

I won’t lie, I’m organizing this list this way to talk about her first.

Contrary to her appearance, PLF Granny actually used to be a super dangerous criminal and wanted hero killer, before disappearing off the face of the country (see Spinner Advisor #3 for more on that).

Now she’s the PLF’s resident mother/grandmother figure (depending on how old you are).

(She’s secretly not that old though.)

Always willing to help a fellow PLF soldier out of a problem no matter how minor, but would also lecture them for the smallest misbehavior.

Greatly appreciated because not a lot of high ranking PLF members have the greatest motherly figures in their lives rn.

Her quirk is something like Overhaul’s, but a bit weaker and a bit more gruesome. She can fully manipulate any human body she’s touching besides her own; allowing her to close up wounds, lock up muscles, contort limbs, or even just blow you up.

Illegally experimenting with her quirk caused her to accidentally kill someone in her youth, and she’s been on the run ever since.

She’s working with the PLF to improve quirk counseling, believing a society more accepting of quirks would allow kids with dangerous quirks to understand them better & know how to use them safely, so none of them will end up like herself.

Twice Advisor # 2 (Scary Canadian)

“Scary Canadian” really sums up his personality. He’s actually quite nice and polite to hid friends & allies, or otherwise in his downtime. But also you really don’t want to mess with him. Or else.

Needless to say, he and Twice got a long real quick once the underlying tension of their 2 groups going to war had (mostly) passed.

His quirk (along with a funky entire-upper-torso) allows him to energize himself with stored up energy, making him a bit strong, faster, and tougher.

He can also use a lot of energy at once for laser eyes. A useful skill, but it usually puts him out of the fight afterwords.

The energy stores up during sleep, which means he sleeps for an extra few hours each night and leaves him uncharacteristically grumpy in the morning.

He can also build up energy while awake, but it leaves him lethargic so he doesn’t do it while he has paper work to do.

He never wanted to be a hero as a kid, but as he grew older he found that meant people didn't like him using his quirk so much.

He joined the MLA for the simple reason of his experiences making him feel quirks should just be treated as a normal part of a person, instead of an aspect only heroes should be allowed to use/acknowledge.

Twice Advisor # 1 (King Bradly looking guy)

You remember in chapter 258, they mentioned a guy named Sanctum; oldest member in the MLA and believing all the League members are just in puppet positions? This is him.

He doesn’t really mean to come across as that unapproachable & rude, but he finds making sure everyone takes their jobs seriously is more important than being friendly.

As a result, while he & Twice come at odds quite often, they actually work quite well together. He keeps Twice on track and Twice appreciates that.

Much like Yotsubashi, his family has been in the Liberation Army for generations. Their cause is all he’s even known, but he has no regrets, especially now that Shigaraki’s livened the cause up.

I used to headcanon this guy’s quirk as making portals, but that might be someone else’s quirk no so...Earthbending, his quirk is earthbending.

He’s pretty good with it to, what with training with it since he was a little kid. The amount he can move is between that of Pixie-Bob & Gigantomachia, but he outshines them both in control.

He could make a perfectly square, finely-detailed hall a foot underground and no one above it would even feel the earth shifting.

Violet (Guerrilla Warfare)

Dabi Advisor # 3 (Ana)

So most of this is borrowed from @possessedfuzzybear

To catch everyone up: he’s named Ana (which means ‘hole’), he’s Dabi’s emo friend, and his hair is neon green.

See their blog for more info, but be warned: Fuzzy is horny AF. 18+ only, understand children?

His quirk has already been shown: It’s either making holes in stuff, or possibly making portals.

Needless to say, he and Dabi combo well together.

When he was a kid, one of his parents were arrested by heroes and he ended up running away from home before he got put in the system. He ended up meeting PLF Granny and some other runaways, and when she joined the MLA, he followed along.

He wasn’t originally a very active member, but when he saw the perks PLF Granny was getting for her hard work, and more importantly that she was spending those perks on himself and the other runaways; he started going above and beyond to earn his room & board.

Dabi Advisor # 2 (Tube Face)

Another emo of the PLF, which is probably why he’s with Dabi. That said, he’s less close to Dabi because he’s the exact same kind of loner as Dabi was before he got put in charge of stuff. So they resonate with each other, but they don’t exactly talk.

This guy’s quirk is that he has a snake for a tongue; full-sized and it talks in place of his normal mouth.

That’s actually what the tube is for, it’s snake armor.

(2nd guess, and this probably more likely if I’m honest, is some kind of gas quirk. if that’s true though, he’s related to Mustard.)

His story is a typical one; ostracized for having a particularly freaky mutant quirk that, while impressive, went unappreciated outside of heroics. Perhaps he even tried to become a hero, but dropped out, and the Japanese school system is yet another harsh mistress of society.

Either way, he then joined the biggest game in town that’s trying to make quirks more accepted, so he and kids like him can be appreciated instead of ridiculed.

Dabi Advisor # 1 (Happy with his piercings)

This guy’s something like Muscular without quite so many murders; generally just happy to be here doing whatever we’re doing as long as he gets to use his quirk to do it.

Dabi puts on airs of hating him, but really he...mostly doesn’t.

His quirk is actually super speed, which he combos with his impressive muscles to be quite the lightning bruiser.

That said, he’s not that fast. Like, he is to the flash, what Sato Rikido is to All Might. Probably somewhere between Iida before and after Recipro Burst.

His motivations are, as stated, pretty similar to why Muscular joined the League, except this guy looked into a slightly more legitimate organization because we was looking to legalize the freedom he was after, rather than simply ignoring legality in general.

He’s not exactly opposed to Shigaraki’s methods though.

Geten Advisor #3 (Pointy Head)

My first though looking at this guy is “His color is Blue”.

Generally, the suit and mouth armor make me think he either has or had ties to big business or heroics. Let’s go with the latter.

He was a humble but fairly accomplished hero, or maybe even just a sidekick, when he took down some socially powerful villain the HC didn't exactly want him taking down.

He and his entire Agency were indirectly ruined, and so joined the MLA in hopes of continuing to help people in their own way. Happily for him, that turned out to be fighting against the HC.

His quirk is a simple one: enhanced sight, hearing, and basically all his senses, as well as the ability to process it all very quickly.

To combos this with his swordsmanship to deadly effect.

Having the title of “advisor”, he tends to give lots of advise to Geten (regardless of if it’s wanted), looks out for him, and generally ignores that fact that Geten is his superior, not subordinate.

Geten Advisor # 2 (Sweater Lady)

The PLF Wine Aunt. And she introduces herself like that to people too.

She’s brash but wise, tends to look out for everyone in the PLF when she can, but also shares just a few of Geten’s more worrying views on quirks.

So guys like Dabi & Spinner think there might be hope for her if they can get her to knock that prejudice stuff out, and actually have good reason to think they can, but generally steer clear of her when possible.

Her quirk is something powerful, but disfiguring to her face. My current favorite idea being breathing out a gaseous neurotoxin or something to that effect that makes her mouth look weird. 

Her sweater actually hides a series of soft but sturdy tubes that expel the neurotoxin from her arms, because she can aim her arms better than her head.

Her reasons for being in the MLA are basically that with a lack of social changes in the advent of quirks, standards of beauty are as BS as ever for women, even as women like her get weird mutations to their bodies, and especially to the head.

She believes a society more accepting of quirks would be more willing to accept mutations as beautiful, although this has eventually developed into a complex about powerful quirks being beautiful in order to convince herself of her own worth.

Hence everyone’s belief that maybe they can fix that complex of hers once they build a more accepting society. (That and, y’know, they have to work with her anyway.)

Geten Advisor # 1 (Stressed Baldy)

Probably one of the most welcoming advisors to the League because due to this quirk, this man generally ties to say cheerful at all times.

You see: his quirk is tied to his emotions. All of his emotions. Only by not feeling anything in particular, like in the picture above, does it not activate.

That’s actually why he’s in the PLF, he finds in unreasonable that those with hair trigger quirks like himself be forced to not use those quirks in public or face criminal charges.

Well actually, he’s also from an MLA family like Yotsubashi, but his ancestor joined for the same reason; so he’s probably the person born into the MLA with the best reason for still being there.

Ah, but I didn’t explain the quirk itself, what he does depends on what emotions he’s currently feeling.

When Happy, or otherwise feeling positively towards himself: a barrier forms around him right above his skin & clothing. While in this barrier, hits to him are diminished, and his own hits hit harder.

When sad, fearful, or other such emotions: that barrier disappears from around him and instead forms around his allies.

When angry, or otherwise directing negative emotions outward: the barriers appear around his enemies, and then lock in place so they cannot move. They also can’t be hurt in this state, but he can work around that.

Carmine (Intelligence)

Toga Advisor # 3 (Muscular tank top guy)

The reason he’s in the Intelligence regiment has little to do with his quirk, and a lot to do with his charismatic and friendly personalty. He get’s a lot done just going out and talking to people, and he teaches his subordinates how to do the same.

His quirk is simple x-ray vision. Nothing all that special, but he has learned to use it well in a fight, seeing how the opponent moves like a certain Jojo stand from part 6.

He was also a part of PLF Granny’s group of runaways who joined the MLA when she did. No particularly dramatic reason why, he was just broke & unlucky and she was just nice.

Before they joined the MLA, he did stuff like convince bakeries to give their left over product to the kids at the end of the day.

They ended up joining shortly before the MLA really started making it’s resurgence, so he made a name for himself helping out the new guys. And since everyone was already looking up to him, the higher-ups gave him a good position to keep doing that.

That’s his job with Toga too, introducing her to the ins and outs of the PLF. They also tend to talk romance and cute things (like I said above, he’s good at talking to people), so they get along pretty well despite underlying tension.

He finds her crushes on multiple enemies worrisome though, for multiple reasons, and is trying to build up the nerve to talk to her about that.

Toga Advisor # 2 (R2D2 Expy)

Little can we tell from the above picture, that’s just his head (and extremely long neck). He has a torso and such below.

His quirk is actually being a cyborg, and most of his body is augmentable.

He has multiple weapons he can attach and detach from himself and automatically control like any other limb.

It wares on him to attach to much to himself though, so he won’t be augmenting himself with any large equipment.

The R2D2 head is a disguise he wears to PLF meetings, and he intends for it to be his official villain outfit once he hits the field.

It’s not his only look though. He has numerous faces and various identities to go with them. It’s how he joined the Intelligence division.

He’s a Star Was fan (obvs).

Toga doesn’t talk to him much, what with him not being very cute. He mostly takes care of managerial tasks with his underlings, and organizes reports for her.

He also works at Feel Good Inc., & only really joined the MLA because he was invited by his boss, Skeptic. He got a promotion out of it and still feels like he’s on the winning side though, so he’s not complaining.

Toga Advisor # 1 (Beautiful Woman)

The advisor Toga most depends on, this woman tends to do all the work Toga’s less than qualified to handle as a 17-year old.

Frankly, Toga kind of looks up to her as a powerful feminine figure in her life, especially since she’s largely not quirkiest (like Sweater Lady), and her past is pretty similar to Toga’s but she managed to bounce back into a powerful position.

Her quirk is the ability to read minds in short snippets by making eye contact with people, usually whatever they’re thinking of in that moment..

It’s not perfect because people can sort of feel ‘something’ when she reads their minds, so people who know what she’s doing can just look away. It’s pretty easy to not look someone in the eye.

Giran caught on pretty quick when he was being held hostage.

She pretended to be quirkless to her friends and repressed it well into adulthood, until her quirk was discovered. At that point, not only did people stop trusting her, she was accused of illegal quirk usage and pursued by the police. This was when she found and joined the MLA.

Skeptic Advisor # 3 (Toad Man)

This guy radiates the best and worst of redneck culture, kinda gross, more than a bit judgy; but also inventive, Integrous, and always willing to throw down with corrupt authority figures.

(That said, he’s toned down the prejudice stuff working with so many different people and also Toga threatening him with knives.)

He’s also good at talking to the marginalized and those out in the boonies, which essentially means he’s got an underworld information network all his own, which is half of how he got his position in the Intelligence regiment. In fact, for better or worse, he’s the one who found Giran.

The other half is his quirk; which is, along with general toad-like characteristics, the ability to temporarily eat anything he can fit in that big ol’ gullet of his and analyze it down the the barest physical detail. (”physical” meaning he could find a finger print on a gun and draw it out, but couldn’t read the data on a memory stick.)

His reasons for being in the PLF are simple: like I said, he’s just always willing to throw down with authority figures. He doesn’t care that his quirk isn’t for fighting, he’ll just punch every HC member in the face.

Actually, he’s even more invested now that Shigaraki’s in charge. He wasn’t really feeling the MLA before, but now he’s gung ho about the cause like few others.

Skeptic Advisor # 2 (Ugh...Slidin’ Go)

Being a well known character, there’s not that much to say.

Hmm...

His reasoning for joining the MLA is surprisingly simple: he feels society’s view on quirks is too simple; praising flashy quirks while also forbidding non-heroes from using them where possible, all for the convenience of heroes and the hero industry.

Being so attached to his quirk, he entered into heroics in order to get a quirk licence, but still felt this thought process was backwards and joined the MLA to turn it around.

He’s responsible for a lot of the heroes in the MLA, having found a lot of like minded people in his industry and got them into the Army. A lot of them were actually old classmates of his.

Skeptic Advisor # 1 (Beautiful Man)

The half-brother of Beautiful Woman, he joined because she invited him and he wanted to help her. Not only because she was family, but because he was responsible for her quirk being discovered & he feels he needs to make up for accidentally making her a wanted woman.

He’s not a wanted criminal, so he got a job at Feel Good Inc. and works closely with Skeptic as a sort of secretary that reminds him of his personal affairs.

(In reality though, he manages contact with the MLA/PLF while Skeptic is running his company.)

He gets along with Skeptic as well as anyone can with that personality. Way better than Slidin’ Go anyway.

This quirk is a form of telepathy like Mandalay. There are 3 differences though. 1) he or a part of him must be touching the person to communicate, which he gets around by making bracelets & other accessories with strands of his hair that can be pressed against the wearer’s skin. On the other hand, 2) it’s got no range limit and 3) allows for 2 way communication. 

And on one last note: he can always tell who he’s talking too, as well as who might be trying (& failing) to listen in.

Essentially, he’s a hack-proof human communications network, able to pass along information from key PLF members to each other and Skeptic, who can relay the information to other members through more mundane means. 

It’s a good back-up for if heroes try jamming or otherwise interfering with those mundane communication methods.

Brown (Support)

Mr. Compress Advisor # 3 (Compress Cosplayer)

The mask is actually new, and actually kind of is Compress cosplay. when he met Compress they just kind of resonated with each other, and Compress decided to make him his apprentice.

It’s only been a few months, but he took to showmanship quite well. And now everyone else around him hates him. Dude just can’t win.

His quirk is basically being living hammer space; he can store things in his body like Momo in reverse & pull them out like Momo in forward.

The catch is that his whole body looks something like an astral CGI monstrosity; his skin is this gelatinous looking goop patterned like space that caused him to be bullied growing up.

Though his past is similar to Sweater lady, his motives are actually more like Spinner’s: living a lonely life, he kind of just joined the first cause that resonated with him in the hope of finding meaning.

He has yet to really find that yet, but at least he found a hobby & a good number of good friends.

Mr. Compress Advisor # 2 (Natsuo’s happier doppelganger)

A popular base commander, this guy has made a name for himself in the PLF for his managerial skills. He takes care of his people, completes his jobs promptly, and is generally pretty intelligent when it comes to resource management.

His job as an advisor is less stellar though. Except for reports, he tends to leave Compress to himself and/or his other advisors. Compress has tried to talk to him but he made fun of the magician act once and now they keep their distance.

He probably has one of the peatiest reasons for being in the PLF among the advisors & lieutenants.

You see, his quirk is that he’s able to make or dismiss a kind of wooden golem to do what he wants, and he often had it do menial labor for him.

That said, while it’s legal for him to do that in private settings, it’s actually illegal in public, and people have gotten on his case about that since he was a kid. What’s more, the reprimands got worse & worse the older he got, so eventually he got sick of it and joined the MLA.

Yeah, he’s part of a terrorist group because it’s illegal to use his quirk to carry his groceries for him.

Mr. Compress Advisor # 1 (Electric Scar Face)

Another descendant of a mainstay family in the MLA, he was actually a friend of Yotsubashi growing up. They’ve drifted a bit in adulthood since he isn’t exactly the business type, but they still work closely enough and keep in touch.

That’s actually most of the reason he’s not exactly on board with Shigaraki being in charge now. He only really heard 2nd hand about what happened in Daika, and he’s pretty biased in favor of the old boss.

All that said, he & Compress probably have one of the most stable lieutenant/advisor relationships; agreeable enough, healthy but minimal disagreements, actually pretty similar humor & they’ve both got good heads on their shoulders with just more than a hint of eccentricity.

We already know his quirk, absorbing and discharging Electricity.

Spinner Advisor # 3 (Cementos’ long lost cousin)

While not actually related to Cementos (probably), I’ve actually grown attached to the idea that he went to UA himself, so here’ the continuation of PLF Granny’s story I promised.

So one day, while working on his internship, he ended up pursuing a wanted hero killer, who he found out was just an old lady who lost control of her quirk and has been panicking ever since. He realized she needed help, but for her crimes she’d surely be sent to Tartarus for life (which is a redundant statement), so he decided to leave professional heroism behind to help her disappear, as well as help her in general.

In the process, they came across a good number of other runaways, and when the MLA agreed to shelter them in exchange for labor and generally joining the cause, they agreed.

As an advisor, he has a good professional relationship with Spinner, and they often discuss what they believe heroes should really be like and the failings of their current iterations. As such, he’s ended up growing to the idea of Shigaraki as presented to him by Spinner.

His quirk is the ability to turn into a large whale like creature that’s able to move large numbers of forces in it’s mouth through the water. I think it’d be cool if it could move through the ground too, but that might overlap with Machia.

He’s also able to produce and shoot spikes from his skin in either form to defend himself. 

He’d probably get along with/relate to Kurogiri if he’s ended up getting some of Shirakumo’s memories by the time he escapes.

Spinner Advisor # 2 (Edgy Spider Guy)

(Just a reminder for those who only remember this guy from the above picture, he was shown to have spider legs in a later chapter.)

Spinner’s gamer buddy among the advisors, as well as the main supporter for his crusade of eliminating mutation prejudice.

Having a spider quirk, no surprise he was bullied in school only to be harassed and marginalized in adulthood. He eventually got a job at Detnarat, and was personally invited into the MLA by Yotsubashi himself.

Along with the extra spider limbs, he can also produce especially strong spider silk, which he can then telekinetically control while close to it. He does’t produce it at a very quick rate, but he’s been able to sew it into his cloak to move it, letting him increase his speed and pull off a few other neat tricks.

The main downside though is a particularly freaky face, which he’s developed a complex about. Thus why he hides his face. He’s got friends working with him about it though.

That said, he’ll probably still keep the cloak after he overcomes this complex because it’s cool.

Spinner Advisor # 1 (Cute Bug Girl)

The last of PLF Granny’s old runaway gang among the advisors.

(there are still others, but they have much smaller rolls, if any.) 

She joined after losing her parents to an altercation with the CRC. (Y’know, the Klan looking freaks.)

Her personality is something like a transitioning point between a high school alpha bitch and a wine aunt. Mainly because she looks to sweater lady from Geten’s group as something of a roll model (unfortunately).

Her relationship with her boss, Spinner, is rather tense as a result. She looks down on him for his quirk (though she’s tactful enough to not mention this), but relates to his hardships as a Mutant. As a result, she looks out for him more than she looks down on him, but she’s still kind of waiting for him to prove himself.

Her quirk is the ability to create & control tiny insects about the size of fairy flies (<3mm in length) in vast swarms.

These bugs move pretty silently, so they can act as a fog, fly into people’s mouths and attack them there, or fly into wounds to either stitch them closed or make them worse.

While she doesn’t have an actual PHD, she was trained by several doctors hired by the MLA for many years to make the best of her quirk, and is now the director of the PLF’s medical units, except for small, personal medial units in the other regiments.

General stuff

Just to be clear, though I describe most of these guys & gals relatively nicely, most all of these guys probably have more confirmed kills under their belt than Twice.

(Granted, that’s partially because Twice doesn’t really confirm his kills. We only know of 2, including the guy he murdered after he was himself murdered. But that still means everyone here has killed several people.)

Each of these guys have their own base to watch over, you’ll remember, and part of their responsibilities is either recruiting or eliminating people who learn too much.

Each of them has the job of easing their subordinates into going along with the new leadership, especially the people who weren’t there for Daika. This is kind of tricky because they were also not there for Daika, so they’ve been required to talk with the League members a lot.

It’s helped encourage them to get to know the new management relatively well.

Side note: I’m also willing to bet Trumpet & Redestro have their own regiment; probably an undercover or public relations regiment, and probably have 6 advisors for themselves too. I’m excited to meet them.

And despite how much work I put into all this, I’m also excited to see just how much of it is wrong as we meet these guys for real.

[rockandrollfool]

Stay Beautiful

When one considers representation and inclusion within the arts then it seems there is a huge omission in relation to people with a learning disability. Goddard (2014) argues that people have very little or indeed no say in the in the development of the inclusion agenda when considering the professional arts from a UK perspective. The lack of any real and meaningful engagement with the arts would undermine any notion of being taken seriously as a starting point. The field is highly competitive and success is often based on existing relationships. Menger (2006) asserts that any work or opportunity is generally 'piecemeal' this then links to reputation or standing within the immediate community or group. Accordingly this then serves to magnify the power of differences in talent and work opportunity to increase inequality.

When considering people with a learning disability as a "professional artist" then one could argue that identity and the ability to grow and understand self are the prerequisite within "creative learning" but if as Menger offers the field is limited then how are people going to access the chance to perform on their own terms and equally develop a sense of self value as an artist? Fundamentally if access is the issue then where are the spaces where people can access the arts and contribute on equitable terms? 

I was introduced to the “Nice n Sleazy” festival four years ago and it has been overwhelming watch it grow and develop. The festival is named after The Stranglers hit song from 1978 and has been part of the live music scene for fifteen years. I initially I thought it was a 'punk' festival though defining that term is virtually impossible. Tait Coles (2014) refers to punk as a state of mind" and attitudinal. Danny Baker writing in 1977 in the D.I.Y magazine 'Sniffing Glue' argued it is "something new" and furthermore that confusion is all part of the underlying philosophy of the movement and therefore "f*ck it, you go and figure it out" Baker (2104)

With this in mind then what has been created by the organisers is a music festival. The difference here however is that it is evident that the team have adopted an approach to support equality, diversity and inclusion through their own understanding and definition of punk. If ‘actions speak louder than words’ then one can see the huge push to creating a space that is safe for all. It equally provides opportunities for employment and performance and then sets the scene for four days of music and entertainment.

In 2019 the festival was awarded ‘Disability Confident’ status. The tangible reality of this is that people with learning disabilities both perform and work on site For the full duration of the event. The Disability Confident scheme claims to support employers "to make the most of the talents disabled people can bring to the workplace" (on-line 2020) Moreover the scheme is seen as a way of addressing how employers engage with people with a disability.

According to the web-site there are 8.1 million people in the UK that have some form of disability. Defining disability can be problematic however Shakespeare and Watson (2001) perceive the term as complex and assert that one cannot reduce a definition to just biological circumstances. Equally important are psychological and socio-political factors”. This seems to capture the idea that a disability could be a social construct, Hiranandani (2005) and here in is the overriding philosophy of the Festival. 

When viewed through this prism 'disability confident' argues that by adopting more inclusive strategies for support then an organisation can change behaviour and cultures within "businesses, networks and communities “on line (2020) The reach is measured way beyond the immediate employer. By embracing inclusivity and by people having a visible and valued presence the potency of the message is magnified. 

Running parallel with this is the notion that whilst exploring and having access to arts people with learning disability have a very real chance to "express themselves through different creative opportunities and media.  According to idonline.org (2020), people can "gain confidence" in terms of self-development. More importantly though is the idea of the person being seen and valued as an artist or performer in their own right. Creating our own selves through the arts reflects Stuart Hall’s concept of identity being understood as identification, that is an evolving process rather than a fixed identity that is often ascribed to us by society and particularly for people with a learning disability (Hall, 1990).

Whilst trying to steer clear of labels, Becker (1963) and being mindful of respecting how people may want to self-define it is noticeable that "Sleazy" has given a platform and equal standing to the following bands 

The Ec-Tix  https://en-gb.facebook.com/ECTIX/

The Positives  https://en-gb.facebook.com/pg/ThePositives3/about/

 The Dead Rejects  https://www.facebook.com/deadrejects/

Clan Of Anarchy  https://en-gb.facebook.com/officialclanofanarchy

It is easy to see why the bands sit well within the festival due to their own punk ethos. Aligned with this therefore one could argue that "Sleazy" is a world away from how other festivals organise and promote what they do. There is no fuss and no huge banner proclaiming and asserting inclusivity.This reflects Beresford and Croft’s ‘democratic / citizenship’ approach to inclusion that emphasises people’s rights as citizens (as artists) to create and set their own agenda and identities, rather than as ‘consumers’ or ‘service users’ to be consulted in an often reactive manner to ‘tick the box of inclusivity’ (Beresford & Croft, 2003).

This philosophy is captured perfectly by Pauline Murray lead singer of Penetration who when asked what is it like being a woman in rock offered she never considered her gender an issue. Murray explains "I just thought I was part of the band" in retrospect however "it seems quite revolutionary, the way women were behaving. Females in bands were breaking down stereotypes" PR Intern (2017) Could the same be said of the bands appearing at Sleazy?

If pushed it is doubtful the bands above would describe themselves as having a learning disability. The idea that a group of musicians would want to be categorised in this way seems wholly at odds with my understanding of the rock persona. Joe Strummer of The Clash in defining 'self-awareness suggested it has something to do with 'an ability to trust your own judgement' and more importantly "an ability think for yourself" as cited in Coles (2014)  The chances are the respective bands just want to be musicians, performers and artists and consequently this is how they see themselves.. Doubtless that is exactly how the promoters at "Sleazy" make sense of it all. One is left to ask therefore, is there any other way to see it? 

I wanted to do a piece here about inclusivity within the arts and I have focused on this festival as the yard stick by which others could measure their impact. In considering Sleazy I haven’t spoken about the broad range of opportunities it presents for people (with a learning disability) to work as sound engineers, stage managers, lighting technicians, stage runners and the wealth of talent it embraces to do this. 

I haven’t discussed how the festival supports and promotes the White Ribbon Campaign which was founded in 2005 and is "part of a global movement concerned with ending male violence against women. “Much of the work we do is concerned with engaging men and boys regarding attitudes and behaviours, raising awareness, influencing change and providing resources to make change happen in relation to domestic violence and abuse of women and girls" White Ribbon.org.uk (2020) 

I also would have wanted to raise the work that Sleazy have been doing since 2016 in promoting The Sophie Lancaster Foundation. As part of their developing agenda regarding equality and diversity the organisers have been instrumental in challenging ‘hate crime’. This has allowed a further opportunity to increase and raise awareness and address discrimination and prejudice on an individual basis. Sophie Lancaster was a young woman that was murdered and her death was treated as a Hate Crime by Judge Russell who sentenced the murderers accordingly. Under the current UK Hate Crime Legislation (Section 146), as the motivation behind the murder was hateful, he was able to use his discretion to class it as a "Hate Crime". The work the foundation does focuses on creating respect for and understanding of subcultures in our communities. Where better to do that than at a punk festival?

It is probably worth mentioning that the team also support Morecambe food bank. There is a donation point in the foyer at the festival where food can be left and once the weekend is over the donations are then transported to the charity. Again this evidences how “Nice n Sleazy” has an alternative perspective when considering how to promote and host a music festival.

The tangible reality of this is not only do people with learning disabilities perform and work on site during the weekend, there is a massive emphasis on inclusion, diversity and equality.  This is a world away from how other festivals organise and promote what they do, so in conclusion one could say “Nice and Sleazy does it every time” The Stranglers (1978)

The Rock And Roll Fool

[rosetower]

Literally it’s so important to be able to critically engage with media at any time and to be able to listen to other’s criticism of media because even when we have things that we watch or engage with that we “turn our brains off” to enjoy there are still underlying prejudices being pushed by the authors and creators that may fly under your radar. Even in children’s shows. Even in shows where nothing happens and it’s slice of life. Even in shows where it’s just  meant to be funny constantly. I mean look at the fucking Simpsons. I’m a Simpsons fan and I love watching it but I would be literally having worse brain damage than I do now if I didn’t acknowledge on some level this show perpetuated harmful stereotypes (i.e. Apu and his Indian family, which to me as a person who was adopted into an Indian family is very like 😬 at times) and other harmful societal attitudes even in contrast with its relative progressive or lampooning existence. Media is just like this! You can watch it and laugh at it and etc. etc. but you have to understand WHY you are in a position to watch and laugh at it. If the media you’re engaging in repeatedly makes snake people and global elite jokes then it’s likely the authors are trying to get you to embrace a form of antisemitism. If the media you engage with refuses to depict black people in a respectful way without overexaggerated features reminiscient of the ways black people are depicted in propaganda and other demeaning media, it’s likely antiblack and outright racist. If the media you engage with constantly jokes about rape and nonconsensual sex it’s likely the authors don’t take those topics seriously. What is the media you’re engaging with trying to get you to bypass when you think about it in your day-to-day life? Remember that your brain is constantly learning and observing. If engaging with media without critically thinking about it you will just build those pathways in your brain to automatically bypass these issues right off the bat. That’s not helpful to you or others! It dumbs you down and makes you even easier to brainwash as well. Media is entertainment, and should be treated as such, yes, but you should recognize when media is trying to hurt you and get you to hurt others, as well. 100%. 

[marshmallowgoop]

Been a while.

Yeah, so. I haven’t really social media’d lately.

Looking at the timestamps, on May 12th, I posted my latest original Tumblr post. On May 18th, I Tweeted my latest Tweet. And after May 19th, I kind of disappeared from the ‘net.

So, about a month by now, I guess.

Unlike other dramatic hiatuses I’ve taken, this one was unplanned. Quarantine mixed with the constant reminder of last year’s mistakes every time I opened my mouth online made me just kinda wanna run from the place—and run I did.

But this is all excessive blah-blah. The point is, I chose maybe one of the worst times to disappear. 

Because the world has changed since May 12th or May 18th or May 19th. I think it’s changing in a lot of wonderful ways. I’m glad to see issues of systemic racism and anti-blackness finally being really, seriously addressed. But I’m also sad it’s taken so long. That there have had to be so many brutal murders to get to this point.

And, to get right to it: I’m sad at how performative so much of the support for the Black Lives Matter movement seems. I’m sad at how performative I seem writing this whole thing out now. Sure, I love to talk fictional problems and fictional prejudice, but the real, lived stuff is hardly spoken of on this blog.

Which is wrong. While I would never deny the power of fiction and its ability to provide hope and comfort with fantasy representations of our cruel reality, even within the confines of my geeky fandom blog, that cruel reality very much exists. Anti-blackness most certainly affects what content gets made. Anti-blackness most certainly affects fan groups and fan creators. And with how #real I can get here, I haven’t devoted nearly enough to the issue.

But my guilt does nothing for anyone, and this is getting unwieldy. So, I think it’s time to bring back an old news segment investigating anti-blackness in St. Louis:

Yes, the video is from 1991, but I question how much has changed since then. From the state of things, it doesn’t seem like very much at all. The injustices depicted here have been the reality for far too long. 

And yes, protesting and donating and educating yourself are invaluable—please continue doing so! But a lot of what’s revealed in this report? It’s not gonna be stopped through protests and donations and reading. It’s gonna be stopped by making active changes in day-to-day behavior. 

And even here, as a geeky fandom blog, I can do that. Because I can call out the anti-blackness I see more. I can answer those asks whose underlying racism I ranted about in private but never publicly addressed. It’s not enough to simply slap “BLM” on my header and retweet some Tweets here and there. These issues are ever relevant, everywhere.

By now, there have been a flood of similar sentiments to all this. There have also been a flood of apologies for past behavior. But—and I say this regarding me—I don’t think it’s expressed enough that it’s okay to not forgive. These statements and reflections shouldn’t be about winning anyone’s approval. They’re about making changes for the better.

And that’s what I want to do. Even if it’s uncomfortable. I am so sorry to have not done much more before.

Black lives matter. And each of us do have power. One sharp, hard-hitting video from Singkirbysing detailing Aunt Jemima’s racist past has led to a(n announced) rebranding of the line—and others. That’s only one example, and it indisputably proves to me that there is so much we’re capable of doing.