#I'm bothered by some aspects of the show itself

[lemotmo]

I am clapping

Q. A Tommy heavy episode and you have answered and posted several opinions trying to sound unbiased but your very loud Eddie/Buddie bias is showing.

A. I have spent most of the day stating very clearly that the show has established Tommy as a perfectly fine guy. A perfectly suitable choice for Buck. I have said that in multiple posts and answers today. But perfectly fine doesn't mean right, and I'm going to keep saying that because that's also clearly being established by the show. And if you genuinely watched last night's episode, or any episode that has featured Tommy, and came away with any other opinion then you didn't actually watch the episodes. But that's fitting for your pattern over these past months. None of you are actually bothering to watch the show. You're watching only his scenes, and not even pretending to pay attention to the actual point of any of his scenes. You're watching in order to fan girl over him on Twitter in the hopes that he will acknowledge you. End of story. This next part is going to piss you off, anon. I'm going to give you the business reasons why Tommy is not viable long term, and then I'm going to give you the storyline reasons why he's not viable long term. With today's media most viewers watch the episodes on some sort of streaming service after the live episode airs because the Netflix generation has no idea how to consume traditional weekly serials. They want the ability to skip commercials and other aspects of the show that they may not be particularly interested in. That's just the way it works nowadays. With that came an entirely different way of marketing. Shows depend on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and other social media platforms to promote their product. There is a reason why Buck/Eddie/Buddie is used for promotion by 911 more than any other aspect of their show. Without question and without hesitation their fanbase is by far the leading force behind their social media presence. And it's not particularly close. The cast overall is very popular with their audience. The main cast are all liked by the viewers, which is a rare feat for a television show. Everyone likes the couples on the show as well. But the Buddie fanbase are the viewers who actively engage in the marketing the most. And everyone involved in the show, Tim. Oliver and Ryan included, knows this. The show cannot afford to alienate or lose that fanbase. It's an undeniable fact. They make up too much of the viewership. Right or wrong, fair or not, that's the way media works nowadays. Clicks and likes equals money. It's the entire reason why you all tried to pretend you were thousands and thousands of people instead of the roughly few thousand people you actually turned out to be. And that's a generous number now. You're aware of how it works. You just don't have the numbers to actually compete. Everyone figured that out relatively easily. It's why you all turned to threats and bullying.

On paper Tommy is the love interest who they should have been able to make work. And had he been introduced in seasons 3 or 4 as a love interest he might have had a chance, but it's too late now. That's the real root of the problem the show finds itself in. It's too late to introduce other options for either Buck or Eddie that the audience will care about at all. No one else can compete with what they create together. It's that simple. And last night's episode was the perfect example. Talk to any viewer, any consistent viewer, that doesn't classify themselves as a shipper, and they're on Twitter just like everyone else, then read all the reviews, not just from the Buddie jurnos, and the overwhelming opinion of his scenes was that he wasn't necessary. He felt out of place, which the show intended by the way. Anything Tommy is there to do most of the audience believes Eddie can do better. And that opinion would go for Buck as well if we were talking about an Eddie love interest. It's too late, anon. And I think the show knows that as well. Any chance they had at not doing it is long gone. And not doing it at this point is going to cost them. But I think the plan is to pair them together. I don't know if they will have Eddie label himself as gay (though I'm a demi Eddie truther) because they doubled down on his Shannon love too long to try and undo that now, and I don't think they should undo it anyway. I think as far as the show goes he'll have been in love with Shannon and now he'll be in love with Buck. I think that's partly why they've compared Buck and Shannon when the opportunities have presented themselves to do so. Ryan did it several times in interviews during the off-season as well. I don't know how they plan to get them together story wise, but I do believe they're going to do it. And I don't really care how they do it. It's the right way to go. It's the best way forward story wise for both characters. And it really is their only option. The show is 3 for 3 on their endgame pairings and Buck and Eddie are too beloved to be stuck with endgames less than that of their peers. I'm sorry mine and other's media literacy have made us biased, anon. It's the burden of actually understanding what we're watching.

Thank you Nonny! Much appreciated, as usual!

As to this post? YES, YES and YEEEES! I completely agree with everything here. Everyone of us just keep repeating the same facts. It's nice to see all of these facts compiled and explained so nicely in one post.

I'm just posting this as it is. I've got nothing to add.

IMPORTANT! Please don't repost this ask and/or a link that leads straight to my Tumblr account on Twitter or any other social media. Thank you!

Heads up! For anyone who is giving me the shifty eyes for reposting Ali's updates instead of reblogging. Read this.

Remember, no hate in comments, reblogs or inboxes. Let's keep it civil and respectful. Thank you.

If you are interested in more of Ali’s posts, you can find all of her posts so far under the tag: anonymous blog I love.

[shadesoflsk]

Okay but imagine Leon having a hispanic/latino s/o? Like him being introduced to their family at parties and having to memorize all the cousins, him falling in love with all the aspects of their culture. Also i feel like he would love gustavo cerati???? Coming from a latina (boricua y dominicana) this has me kicking my feet and giggling!! Ly 💗!! - 🐚

Hi! This is the first time someone claimed an emoji! I feel so excited, hehe.

And I just noticed I often reply to these asks with just my thoughts not knowing if any of you want a whole fic 😭 If you want one let me know ‘cause I'm dense.

Regarding Gustavo Cerati… you're so real 🐚 anon. In fact, I'm preparing a post which is basically hispanic music I think Leon would like. And let me tell you, there are A LOT OF Cerati's songs. If you guys want to share your thoughts/suggest some artists or songs you're welcome to do so. 🙏🏻

Anyway, I could definitely see Leon being overjoyed dating someone hispanic/latino.

The term itself is really broad, so I'm going to leave the details of the culture as ambiguous as I can so everyone can imagine their own.

leon kennedy x gn reader (reader speaks spanish)

Leon himself isn't someone who actually got to spend his childhood and younger years next to a family, or at least a loving one. So, when he met you, he slowly discovered your upbringing and how beautiful your culture was.

It started with little things. When you first mentioned Leon where you come from, he'd search for one thing he really enjoys—music! He fully believes art is the door to a culture, so there's nothing better than getting to know your country by its artists and songs.

He'd need to translate them, though. He barely knows how to say hello in another language. But then again, he tries his best to actually engage in your culture and show genuine interest.

While he navigates through the songs, typical dances, and festivities, the next step is obvious. As your relationship gets more serious, you'd tell him that your family wants to meet him. He isn't scared, not all. He's actually really excited at the prospect of meeting your relatives and taking such a serious step with you.

However, he is nervous about something.You had previously told him that your family was big, and while it didn't bother him, he isn't confident about his ability to remember names.

Poor boy would be the target of your family's teasing. As soon as he enters your home, some of your relatives would give him a pat on his back, seeing how nervous he is. The whole experience would be overwhelming but in a good way.

You'd introduce him to every family member. He'd say his name as best as he could (He asked you to teach him a bit of Spanish, to at least impress some of your relatives).

Very basic and broken Spanish: “Hola yo me llamo Leon, ¿Cómo estás tú?” Baby is trying his best, and everyone could see how much respect he holds for their culture and language.

He's really respectful in every aspect you could think of. When the little mingling comes to an end and hunger starts to brim in each one of your relatives, Leon would be delighted to try everything.

As soon as he starts eating, there are two outcomes. A) He really likes the food. B) He doesn't like it. For the first scenario, he'd devour the plate. Having something prepared with so much seasoning and love was something foreign to him. He'd whisper and ask you to tell your mom if he could fetch himself another serving. He's too shy for his own good.

For the latter, he'd still remain as respectful as he could. It's okay not to like certain things, and while he tries to finish his plate your family would joke about how he couldn’t handle the spice (even if it wasn't spicy in the first place.)

His favorite activity to do with your family is to see your childhood photo album. They would pull out embarrassing photos of yourself, but he'd think you look lovely. In moments like these, he gets to bond with your family even more, feeling himself blending with them and being part of a family he always longed for.

Overall, Leon would find himself falling in love with you and your culture. No matter how different it's from his own upbringing, he'd be honored to share moments getting to know everything about your country.

[youling-the-ghost]

mornings with him – a ditch ficlet

Derek found comfort in his strange yet endearing morning routine. word count: 800

A ray of sunlight peeped through the curtains and cascaded itself onto Derek's bed, jolting him awake. The clock on the wall indicated that it was 6 AM. Derek groaned and dragged a hand down his face, cringing at the stubble that covered his chin—he felt like a teenager, all gangly limbs and awkward changes to his body that he hadn't quite grown accustomed to yet. It was comforting, in a way.

Derek sat up—or at least, tried to sit up. He almost succeeded before a pair of arms dragged him back into the bed, snuggling him into the pile of blankets and pillows. Derek let out a muffled cry of protest, but the arms didn't relent.

"Love," Derek said, the words buried in an airy laugh. "I need to make breakfast."

Titch groaned and leaned his body onto Derek's so that there was basically no space between their bodies, nestling his face into Derek's neck.

"Breakfast can wait..." he murmured. "I'm cold."

"It's August," Derek deadpanned. To be honest, he was overheating in Titch's arms and the blankets.

When Titch showed no signs of letting go, Derek sighed and resorted to his contingency plan; he grabbed the arms that held him hostage and pried them open, which proved to be quite a difficult task—despite what his stature might suggest, Titch was incredibly strong.

In the sliver of time that he bought himself, Derek lunged forward and dove out of the bed, landing on the wooden floor with a soft thud.

Titch mumbled some nonsense, incoherent and jumbled by a half-conscious brain, in protest. Derek planted an apologetic kiss on Titch's cheek and ruffled his blonde hair, which had a golden sheen from the sunlight that peeked through the curtains.

Derek snuck one last glance at his lover, whose face smoothed into a tranquil expression as he presumably returned to dreamland, and found himself smiling. He had come a long way, both of them had. It felt like just yesterday when Titch was lighting candle after candle, refusing to sleep until the first crack of dawn peeked through the night.

Derek grimaced at his reflection; his hair was sticking up in every direction, and he was in desperate need of a shave. He patted his hair in a vain attempt to school it, but the pile of curls immediately stuck back out again. Derek sighed in defeat and decided that he'd bother with his rebellious hair some other time, instead shifting his attention to everything else that needed fixing.

Shaving was something that caused Derek intense annoyance and euphoria in the strangest of oxymorons. The act itself was tedious, and if he had the option to, Derek would absolutely choose to never have to pick up a razor again.

But in a way, the razor in his hand and the shaving cream on his face represented progress that he never thought would be possible. It was a symbol of his growth, his comfort in his own body, which was beautiful despite all the tediousness.

Derek flinched as an improperly-angled movement caused a shallow gash across his cheek. He could do without all the blood that he had drawn in the process of learning this strange aspect of manhood, though.

The shaving cream washed off his face with a splash of water and Derek dragged a hand across his now-smooth skin. It felt like velvet between his fingers. Derek smiled. He was proud of himself.

The pink apron was an essential part of the cooking process, and this was only partially a joke.

Strangely enough, all of Derek's best and fluffiest flapjacks were made while he donned the frilly baby pink apron that James got Titch as a joke for Christmas one year. It was a strange phenomenon that was difficult to explain every time someone asked why he was working in the fields while wearing something that looked like it belonged to a Barbie playset.

Lost in thought about aprons, Derek barely noticed the arms that snaked around his waist.

Derek chuckled. "Good morning, love," he said without turning around. "So you finally woke up, huh?"

"Mornin'," Titch mumbled into Derek's shirt.

Sometimes it was hard to believe that the Titch currently clinging onto him like a koala on a eucalyptus tree was the same standoffish, emotionally closed-off Titch that he was first introduced to years ago.

Derek didn't bother shrugging Titch off. He didn't mind the physical contact; he quite enjoyed it, actually. The two stayed like that in silence, with the only noise in the room being the ambient sizzling of the pan and whirring of the range hood.

"I love you," Derek said as he placed a finished flapjack onto a plate.

"Yeah."

Derek knew that it was Titch's way of saying, "I love you too."

[super-paper]

I know you were pretty checked out already by this point, but what were your thoughts on Deku’s conclusion in the last chapter?

Some good ideas, but even the good aspects of his conclusion sadly feel bogged down by poor execution/characterization + literally everything that led up to the final chapter.

I do think Izuku becoming a teacher was probably the most fitting ending for his character as a whole, but tbh, I would have taken it a step further and had him become an elementary school/middle school teacher rather than a teacher at UA.

That is to say: Izuku working at UA-- a highly exclusive school that only accepts "the best of the best" and children who are already on track to becoming heroes-- sadly makes him inaccessible to the type of students who need him most, I feel? His chance meeting with Dai only reinforces that tbh. If that child hadn't tripped or if Izuku hadn't happened to be right there, Dai would would still be feeling miserable and discouraged because no one in his class bothered to stand up for him-- Not even his own teacher. Like I understand the purpose of the scene (to parallel Toshi's first meeting with Izuku and show that Izuku is now inspiring others to be heroes in the same way) but that doesn't stop it from feeling more manipulative than truly heartfelt imho, bc Dai's existence only highlights the issues still deeply ingrained in hero society rather than inspiring any sort of hope for its future lmfao.

Anyway! Back to teacher Izuku-- I do love the idea of Izuku becoming someone who would have helped his child self! (and who could've possibly stepped in to help children like Tenko, Himiko, and Touya) (Honestly, kindergarten teacher Izuku is also a possibility that makes me go 👀👀👀). But again, him teaching at UA specifically kind of undermines the idea of him becoming hero for children like himself (or tenko/himiko/touya/etc). I think that the scene with Dai could have worked a lot better (or at least felt more emotionally genuine) with Izuku as his actual teacher, maybe?

I also think Izuku as a kindergarten/elementary school/middle school teacher (or any sort of educator outside of a hero course, really truly #beatingthatdeadhorse) would have eased the sting from how deeply and terribly the finale fumbled his dynamic with Tenko, too— Izuku actually reflecting on how AFO completely abused his position as Tenko's "teacher," and then resolving to become the sort of teacher that Tenko needed.... Izuku using what he learned from Tenko’s past to better identify abused children and using his new position/power in society to advocate for them/get them out of those situations early.... framing it this way would have really sold the “I’ll never forget him” promise, bc as it stands now, that promise ultimately just comes across as more hollow lip service from Izuku. ☠️

As for Iron Deku... if I'm being honest, it just doesn’t hit the same way for me as Iron Might did? Like I've gone into detail on why Iron Might works for me before both here and on twitter:

Iron Might worked for me because it was ultimately used as a vehicle to tell/complete Toshi's story and helped tie together the underlying themes that connected him to Tenko and AFO's arcs. Like it might not have been perfectly implemented bc Hori decided to make it an 11th hour surprise for the sake of building hype/suspense in the readers, but this combination of factors still made Iron Might work for me. Iron Might itself was not the answer to "can someone w/o a quirk be a hero like you?," Toshi's willingness to act when no one else was able to was the answer. He retains his heroic shading even after the armor is stripped away and after he's left entirely at AFO's mercy.

At the same time/Conversely.... I feel like "Iron Deku" just muddies the overall message of the series in the end:

Again, Toshinori's answer to "Can someone without a quirk be a hero like you" wasn't Iron Might-- It was "Yes, because you always work hard and never give up on your dreams/because you're someone who could never let his dream die."

......... only for Izuku to more or less let said dream die after losing his quirk. Like????? (like, another big problem with heroaca's tone is that it keeps trying to prop Izuku up as "someone who never gives up" when he does, in fact, end up giving up in some fairly big ways with some fairly big consequences-- Like, even though the series tries to skirt around saying it outright, Izuku did ultimately give up on saving Tenko and chose to treat him as collateral to AFO. Like... it's okay to have your protagonist get discouraged/give up, but in cases like this, I expect the narrative to actually acknowledge it as such instead of trying to convince the reader otherwise. Attempting to gloss over Izuku's failure with sugary-sweet platitudes after the series spent 400+ chapters deriding platitudes and defining actual true saving as "saving their their hearts and their lives" is the type of shit that results in a complete breakdown of trust between the author/reader.)

At any rate, yeah. Izuku's conclusion had a few good ideas that were sadly weighed down by poor/rushed execution and mixed/unclear messaging-- and sadly, the epilogue/final chapter did nothing to fix the huge problems with his character writing throughout the entirety of Act 3. It's a shame bc Act 1 & 2 (and even early Act 3) Izuku really was one of my favorite characters, but at some point his writing took a complete nose dive that Hori sadly wasn't able to pull out of. :/

[habunshu]

Hello! Sorry to bother you.

I noticed you are in JTTW fandom and wanted to ask if you know where can I find more info on Sun Wukong's make up and stage performance? I tried to find stuff on my own but quickly realised that I'm just one small weak goblin. I saw some blogs about chinese opera behind the scenes with SW images and couple of videos but that's about it... and since you look like you are way more knowledgeable I came here to beg a favour.

Do you know any videos, documentaries or blogs on this topic?

Thank you for your time ♥♥♥

Hi!

TLDR: Bold text are writings/videos linked to Peking Opera Culture and specifics surrounding Monkey King performances. Post has a mid-length summary of key aspects of his Peking appearances and core thematics. This mainly goes along visual design analysis, as I don’t focus in performance art as much! Read more divide for courtesy

(Also taking a moment to highly praise @/bonesmarinated ‘s Peking opera Wukong pieces!)

The Monkey King/Sun Wukong is a very well covered and well performed character in Peking Opera, I’ll give a short(ish) summary of the key aspect of his design across various performances based on work I can recall from my Undergrad as well as my own experience- and i’ll link any documents/websites/images I have on hand

Wukong’s Lian Pu falls under what is known the Jing role (complex hero) with similar facial decoration also being delegated to the Chou roles in Opera as well.

The dominant school of art in depicting him either on live performers or maskwear, have a fairly universal foundation for his appearance.

The oldest forms of Peking opera stick to Wuseguan (Five Colour Theory) with his Lian Pu sticking to a core 3 of White (Cunning), Red (Bravery), and Black (Loyalty). Even with Modernisation of the Peking Opera and developments in the science behind art and makeup, Lianpu is specific in its purpose of portraying the nature of a character beyond body language and aiding in accessibility for people at the far end of the audience.

The Monkey King’s Lian Pu is reflective of his mischievous and bold nature, combining it with the shape of an Old World Monkey’s furless face shape so that even those “uneducated” in Peking Opera culture can at least see /what/ Wukong is before they see /who/ he is. The White and red placement are linked to yin-yang dynamics relating to the stone he was born from and the energy it cultivated) as well as general themes beyond the tale itself.

Zheng’s “Evolution, Symbolism, and Artistry: A Study on the Colors of Peking Opera Facial Makeup” Discusses this in more detail. ( DOI: 10.23977/artpl.2023.041207) (ISSN 2523-5877)

(General Mask colours in Peking Opera, separate from Lian Pu: The Cultural Connotation and Symbolic Meaning of Chinese Opera Mask Color - Hanbing Tu)

In more modern designs, the key foundation of Wukong’s face doesn’t change much, however some variations do add colour to Wukong’s eyelids- mainly pink or yellow/gold. Both of these relate physically to the ‘whites’ of Old World Monkey’s eyes, with the yellow face paint being representative of “barbarism” or “savagery”. Gold is used on the faces of various immortal creatures from all backgrounds as Silver is.

(Left: Chu Luhao as Monkey King, stedling divine peaches and wine in celestial realm, Kaohsiung ) (Right: Monkey King Wukong in Beijing Opera Journey to the West at Liyuan Theater)

As with Taiwans branch off in culture, This Lian Pu on the left shows the eyebrows as the top of the eyelid makeup, contrast to Chinese style and other Sino-influenced regions. This works in Chu Luhao’s production as it plays towards the character Wukong is before he’s sealed under the mountain and begun the journey- hence more “wide eyed”.

Mentioning Yellow within the Wuseguan, this is why most of his earlier outfits have such a heavy bias towards yellow cloth, barbarism being represented across his whole body (his form, as a monkey over his soul that achieves enlightenment) with costumes later down his hero’s journey adding more black, blue (simplicity).

(Left: Performer playing Monkey in Journey to the West, Chinese Opera performance in Singapore) (Middle: Chu Luhao’s production, Sun Wukong arrives at the Dragon Palace of the East Sea) (Right: CANTON, CHINA – CIRCA JULY 2019: Beijing Opera performance of “Monkey King Making Havoc in Heaven”)

Key Read -> The Artistic Symbolism of the Painted Faces in Chinese Opera: An Introduction, David Ming-Yüeh Liang. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43560653

Book -> Chinese opera: Images and stories, Peter Lovrick, Wang-Ngai Siu

Book -> Drama kings: Players and publics in the re-creation of Peking opera, 1870-1937, Joshua Goldstein. https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=XT_1fZ9Jp18C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=info:49R3XREYwVoJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=3OF1F4SILK&sig=gQyW7bGJzgnxG62Y2TxU01ZPazQ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

This analytical paper on Monkey King: Hero is Back showcases modern animated links to Peking Monkey King designs - https://fslmjournals.taylors.edu.my/wp-content/uploads/SEARCH/SEARCH-2024-16-1/SEARCH-2024-P5-16-1.pdf

A blog site I found interesting was an interview with Yao Yudong, the successor to colourful Peking Opera masks, where he discusses creating the mask designs (with a Wukong mask as a recorded example) and a more in-depth written post. He expresses the key two styles of Wukong’s red markings known as “Upside down Gourd” style, and the less complex “Upside down Peach” style attributed to a different art school. In which his mask is directly attributed to items that come into contact with his face.

Jiao Feng, Peking Opera Facial Makeup: The Art of Face Painting: http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/ctenglish/2018/ich/202001/t20200117_800190202.html

Connected is a video of an Opera performer who does his own Lian Pu, which depending on the time period could take up to two hours. Although this design is significantly more contemporary in the use of gold on white sections as markings like black paint. https://x.com/chinadaily/status/1365730927133958144?s=46&t=06bYiE12l6qVJUxPCBuvvQ

In regards to Wukong’s combat performances, he falls into the role of a Wusheng (武生), which is the strand of stage costume used in representation of his staple armour.

(Monkey King in Journey to the West Performance, Beijing Opera)

In this costume, Wukong’s Phoenix feather cap is mirrored by Lingzi (翎子) or Zhilling (雉翎), which likely play back and forth with influencing eachother as time progresses, due to Wukong’s theatrical personality being heightened by the Pheasant tails and their movements as actors play their roles. In his Wusheng roles, he is more likely to be adorned with gold eyelids to highlight his layered immortality and connect to the golden armour he wears. The trait of biting the pheasant tails as a theatrical act of frustration is seen across adaptations, most recently in Black Myth: Wukong’s Chapter 6 Animation.

This animation’s design seems to relay the Lingzi strongly due to the way the studio details the lowest connection points to the crown ornament.

As stated in Bond’s writings “BEIJING OPERA COSTUMES: THE VISUAL COMMUNICATION OF CHARACTER AND CULTURE”, Wukong’s in-game Suozi Set and various adaptations Dragon Palace armours split similarly to the Kao (Armour) on Peking stages, with the falling of the frantic drastically increasing the size of the actor and his silhouette.

Qing-era flags on the costumes of Wusheng were used to express social standing, gender, nature, and ranking. The image above showcasing them has them match the Kao pattern of the clothing, other flags often held zodiac patterns- with the monkey showcasing vain, egotistical, inventive and tricky individuals; and the peach included in a flag hinting towards immortality.

(Ching Dynasty Year of the Monkey Flag used in the Peking Opera) Zaricore Flag Collection: https://www.flagcollection.com/itemdetails.php?CollectionItem_ID=943

Due to the History of Lian Pu, and Wuseguan, despite modernisation of Opera arts vastly widening the colours and complexity of costumes; Wukong sticks to a key 5 colour scheme, with a emphasis on the original trio of red-white-black, and gold being reserved for Wusheng/Wuxiaosheng to showcase immortality and strength. The prevalence of Opera alongside fictional theatre means that the two constantly play off of eachother in mannerisms and influence, both at the time of JTTW’s writing to the 21st century. But as Opera is a physical performance, all aspects of Peking costume design is meant to make the emotional and psychological aspects of characters physical, to a large audience space needing to see facial expressions heightened and clarified by Lian Pu.

Read -> Cultural-based visual expression: emotional analysis of human face via Peking Opera Painted Faces (POPF)

[mahoutoons]

the women of death note deserve better

so i just finished death note. i have Thoughts about the show. some good, some bad. its not the type of show i'd usually watch but there was something in it that kept me watching. but there was one aspect of the show that bothered me to no end, one that made me consider dropping the show more than once. and that's its treatment of its female characters.

now i know shonen isn't exactly known for writing women well. this isn't to say ALL shonen is like that, but the more popular ones definitely have this problem. the women are either sidelined, reduced to love interests, or aren't allowed to reach their full potential, and this can really be seen in the women of death note. for a show that prides itself on having complex, layered characters with depths that keep people talking two decades later, it sure does drop the ball when it comes to writing women. so here i'm gonna go through all the women of death note and how they were done dirty. keep in mind this is all referring to the anime, i haven't read the manga.

naomi misora

starting off with the one that pissed me off the most. naomi had me intrigued from the moment she first appeared on screen. she was a former fbi agent who left her job because her asshole fiance convinced her it was too dangerous, and then blew off her suggestions (which ultimately lead to his death which. el oh fucking el). she was able to piece together that kira could control how his victims die. she could add a lot to the story given that she previously worked with L. she could've been a part of the task force and would help them piece together clues that would pin down kira. does she do all that? LOL NOPE. the writers decided she was too powerful and killed her off within two episodes of her introduction. now i know this is death note and a lot of characters die. but naomi's death pissed me off the most. here was a woman who had so much potential and could solve the case within two episodes and she's killed off. oh but at least she stars in a spinoff novel half the fandom won't read! isn't that just GREAT? look how much we love women guys!

yeah all this time later and i'm still pissed off about how they did her. naomi bby you deserve so much better.

misa amane

OH BOY GET READY FOR A BIG ONE. so misa was actually the reason i wanted to watch death note because she's fucking gorgeous. i didn't have many expectations about how she'd be written considering this is a popular shonen, but even then i was disappointed. misa is the main female character of death note. she's presented as the second kira who has shinigami eyes, which gives her the power to see a person's name and lifespan by looking at their face. she was saved by a shinigami who was in love with her and got his notebook, and her current shinigami rem (more on her next) also has feelings for her. she worships kira because he killed her parents' murderer. she finds out light is kira because her shinigami eyes don't allow her to see the lifespan of a death note owner and as such asks him to make her his girlfriend.

misa misa misa. my gorgeous goth girl. you deserved to be written so much better. a second kira who has shinigami eyes? she could've been so cool. but the writers made 90% of her personality revolve around light and treated her as this dumb, impulsive girl who worships the ground light walks on. and light doesn't even treat her that well. he just uses her and takes his frustrations out on her. oh, and don't get me started on this bullshit

look, i get that misa is a killer and had to be restrained. but WAS THIS FETISHY CRAP NECESSARY?? WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE FUCKING CROTCH STRAP?? when light was imprisoned he wasn't tied up like THIS. this is just another case of shonen authors being fucking weirdos with their female characters.

and in the end she kills herself because light dies. instead of letting her heal and live her life the author decides "welp, the man we based 90% of misa's character on is dead, time to kill her off too". just absolute bullshit. she deserved so SO much better.

rem

rem, my gorgeous butch shinigami. she became my favourite character when she was introduced. i was actually surprised by how direct they were about her feelings for misa. i'd seen bits and pieces of remisa before and i thought it'd be one of those ships the writers dance around but they explicitly had her say she has feelings for misa. i was so surprised and happy at that. but of course, this is a popular shonen so i shouldn't have had high expectations. my problem with how they treated rem comes in her death. she dies after killing watari and L to extend misa's lifespan. if a shinigami extends a human's lifespan they die. now, i'm not gonna say her death is an example of bury your gays because gelus, the male shinigami who saved misa before, met the same fate. however, i will say its very Interesting that the only canonically lesbian character who explicitly declares her feelings for another woman dies BECAUSE of those feelings. and then she isn't even acknowledged by misa which is so weird considering how much rem helped her. there's no scene of misa even mentioning rem or mourning her death. she dies without anyone knowing. i do enjoy the doomed yuri aspect of remisa but i really do wish they'd have misa at least acknowledge rem's death.

wedy

wedy, aka merrie kenwood, is a spy who joins the task force in the yotsuba arc. she's an expert at getting through security and is crucial in helping pin down higuchi as kira as she's the one who installs the bugs in yotsuba's meeting room and higuchi's cars. another cool female character with a lot of potential. you know what that means. TIME TO KILL HER OFF! wedy doesn't get much screentime and then dies within eight episodes of her introduction. which is slightly better than naomi. but still. i won't say this is also a case of misogynistic writing as aiber also dies. however, there is a pattern of having a female character with potential, not giving her enough spotlight, and killing her off shortly after her debut.

sayu yagami

sayu, my poor bbygirl sayu. she's introduced as light's bubbly little sister. in the timeskip she goes to college. her most significant role is getting kidnapped so her father could give up the death note to mello's men, making her the classic damsel in distress. and the poor girl is so traumatized that she's in a catatonic state and has to be wheelchair bound and taken care of by her mother. oh, and there's also that weird comment matsuda makes about her which... really dude? sayu isn't AS badly done as she doesn't play much of a role beyond her kidnapping. but still, she also deserves so much better.

kiyomi takada

i didn't think i'd be as pissed off about how they did a female character as i did about naomi and misa but BOY they proved me wrong. takada was light's girlfriend in college but she doesn't play a major role until the timeskip where she becomes kira's spokesperson. like misa, she worships kira. she's happy when she finds out light is kira and would do anything for him. so another woman who worships the ground light walks on. how original. she's supposed to be smart but they never demonstrate it. and need i mention that rivalry between her and misa? making two women catty to each other over a man who isn't even all that, how very typical. but what pissed me off the most was her kidnapping. that scene where mello asks her to take off all her clothes, and then she's left with nothing but a blanket? so fucking weird, i don't care if she's kira's spokesperson. this show has a history of treating its women weirdly and i'm not gonna believe this was anything but the author being weird once again. because what even was the point of that? and then she's killed by light to destroy all evidence. i'm saying this a lot at this point but takada also deserves better. she deserved to live up to her potential.

halle linder

out of everyone, halle is treated the best and that's not saying much. she's a double agent serving as takada's bodyguard and a spy for the spk. she's also the only woman besides sayu and sachiko who survived till the end and wasn't killed off. which i just realised. out of all the women in this show, only THREE survive till the end. isn't that something? i think my only issue with halle is the lack of spotlight. which is a theme with these women.

i thought of adding sachiko but she isn't much of a character. but there you have it. i'm not sure how bad it is in other popular shonen. but death note is full of women who had potential but the author squandered it for the sole reason that they're women. and its so jarring because people can write essays on light, L, near, mello, etc. even MATSUDA had more care put into him than any of these women. which is a damn shame. these women deserve to be in a show that actually cared about them, where they can actually live up to their potential.

i don't dislike death note. it definitely has its strong points. but the treatment of its women is something i take issue with, very strongly. if the author wasn't a weirdo and a nasty misogynist i feel like these women would've been the complex characters they deserved to be.

[pyr0lagnia]

don't know how to put into words how exciting it is to see this blog!! willing to write dark tf2 stuff?!? thank you thank you thank you 🛐

ahhhh and ur art is beautiful!!

sorry if im bothering u at all and i don't wanna bombard u. since demoman is ur fav, would u be willing to write some yandere headcanons for him perhaps? 👉👈

AHHH !! NONNIE U DONT KNOW HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE IT !!! ur not bothering me in the slightest dw abt it at all!!!! since i joined the fandom about a month ago i QUICKLY noticed the lack of dark stuff, it made me so so sad cuz these guys all have such potential sigh </3 ALSO THANK YOU FOR REQUESTING MY WIFE FOR MY FIRST EVER RQ!!! ✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩

tw for : unhealthy behavior, intoxicated/noncon groping and stuff. i dont go too in depth in this.

𖦹 out of most, he is probably one of your safest bets if he gains a fixation on you.

𖦹 he tries to worm himself into any aspect of your life as he can, he tends to be more annoying than anything at first. if you're compliant or reciprocating, most red flags don't tend to pop up!

𖦹 basically this only works if things go his way. a few plot twists he can handle! he keeps himself in check for the most part, he loves your quirks and doesn't mind a few diversions!

𖦹 but things still need to end with you starting to like him just as much as he likes you.

𖦹 he's a bad enabler, he will especially encourage an alcohol dependence if you show interest. he'll be your bombastic cheerleader as you destroy your own liver.

𖦹 you're so much more pliant when you're drunk! unfortunately he's not a master manipulator when he is drunk too. so, he just uses the pliancy to get touchy feely.

𖦹 you are just there enough to process the discomfort as he loudly kisses your neck and grips your hips like you're a toy.

𖦹 understandably the first time he gets like that you would put a distance between yourself and him because of the deep feeling of embarrassment and shame

𖦹 really bad fucking idea!

𖦹 despite the headstrong persona, he is deeply insecure. until the sudden cut off, he was sure things would be going his way. he'd let you off the hook in a weird hope you were just flustered, for about a week.

𖦹 after so long he WOULD come to you and be like. the fuck are you up to? in a drunken haze, he would loom at the entrance to your doorway and not move much from there.

𖦹 it'd probably be about 4 am, you'd blink the sleep out of your eyes and be like. the fuck are YOU up to?

𖦹 silence, weird and unlike him. just for a moment.

𖦹 "eh… I wanted tae make sure there wasn't any ill blood atween us. I dinnae wanna lose ye. " he spoke, reeking of drunkenness.

𖦹 before you could reply, opening your dry mouth- " we're good teammates, right? i'm aye sticking out fur ye, lassie! there'll be a bottle o' scrumpy I will leave out fur ye fur whenever yer feelin' better. aye? aye. nighty night! "

𖦹 door slam. okay, well, right!

𖦹 you'll ignore the uncanny, fervent tone he had. it was like he was warning you, but was unsure of how truthful he wanted to be about it.

𖦹 you were too tired for this shit.

𖦹 he decides the next day, nothing happened. he keeps close to you.

𖦹 whenever you decide you want to be around someone other than him, now, his heartbeat thrums visibly on his pulse point.

𖦹 while sober, he doesn't talk to anyone else first now. he makes sure to emphasize how much he appreciates your presence, how much he wants to be around you, how fucking cool you looked on the battlefield earlier.

𖦹 kind of weird, you already noted you didn't see him on the battlefield.

𖦹 when he's drunk, he is NOTICEABLY full of praise for you. turning on the waterworks does wonders sometimes. he reasons to himself its perfectly fucking fiiiine because he's just being honest!

𖦹 in truth, this is his indirect way of trying to get you on his level. he is tearing himself apart trying to make himself someone you want to be around.

𖦹 that kindness wears itself down the more you interact with others.

𖦹 he grits his fists, and snarl-grins at the distraction. he could SWEAR he was developing the ability to get hungover again with how his head throbbed painfully when you grin and cackle at someones joke.

𖦹 he starts taking every bit of laughter you spend on someone else as a personal offense.

𖦹 he's kind of torn between himself. in feeling more aggressive, its almost like he becomes partially subdued. this could come off as depression to others, so maybe his claims of you being like his thread to sanity were true?

𖦹 he leans into this HARD. he hates seeing you so concerned but hey, that meant there was something in your heart for him right?

𖦹 all in all he becomes this big sad cuddlebug in front of you meanwhile becoming increasingly violent with anyone who glances at you on the field.

𖦹 im not sure if he'd be honest with his intentions ever. he also doesn't entirely lie to you, he just... heavily dramatizes things. i think he's a bit too lucid, funnily enough, too let himself completely let himself express this.

𖦹 one thing is for certain, he is waiting for you. only cause for concern- the longer you make him wait the less he will be lying to you, and the more you are going to be late-night visited.

[ forgive this for being soo uneventful, this blog is partly a way to force myself to re-practice writing <3 these are also my first times writing most of these assholes.]

[jayietheriverwarrior]

I've been picking at this one for a while between working on other things, and I'm honestly really happy with how it turned out. :D It's so different from my usual style, I never draw people or horses, and the sort of animated style of it and more stylized shading is so removed from what I usually do, but I think it turned out really good. :D

I bought the new Zelda game Echoes of Wisdom the day it came out, and while I hadn't been wild about the chibi style and top-down camera view going in, I was still excited about getting to play as Zelda, and I ended up enjoying the game despite those initial hesitations far more than I expected. :D The story was engaging, the flexibility of echoes and various ways to use them was a ton of fun, and even with the chibi style the game had some truly gorgeous moments.

But even though I didn't end up minding the chibi style while playing the game nearly as much as I thought I would, I still just wanted to see what Zelda's design, outfit, and horse would look like in the more anime-ish style of BOTW/TP/SS/TOTK, so I decided to try my hand at drawing it, despite the fact that I haven't drawn humans or horses in literal years. XD I think it turned out pretty good in view of that. I liked aspects of Zelda's main adventuring outfit in the game, especially the ponytail, but something about the cut of the skirt (or were those pants?) was bothering me, so I spent most of the game in the blue dress you can get from a Zelda amiibo, and that's the dress I most wanted to see in this style, so that's what I drew her in despite it being a super side option in the game itself. :P Ah well. It's pretty, and I regret nothing.

I used that promo shot of BOTW Zelda standing all dramatic as a reference. I used her chibi design from EOW as a base, then for the details the chibi didn't show (like eye color/detailed face shape/etc.) I kind of mixed and matched from various games. She's got a narrower face and eyes than her BOTW design, but not as narrow as her TP design, it's kind of a mix of those two looks, with some SS Zelda thrown in for flavor. She's got the bright yellow golden hair from the EOW chibi, with the blue eyes of most of the Zelda designs (minus BOTW which is more teal-ish?). I think it works well for a Zelda design overall without looking like a carbon copy of any one Zelda design, if that makes sense.

Overall, I'm really proud of how this turned out. :D

[liaragaming]

Cole & Compassion as more-Human

I know my mutuals prefer the more spirit route. And I do want to iterate that neither path is wrong or right. Cole is happy whatever you choose. But I want to explain why I prefer the human path.

Forgetting Trauma

I made Cole more spirit in my first few playthroughs. I like Cole, and I like Solas, and Solas is the spirit expert. So when he says, the spirit route is the way to go, then that should be correct right? Varric's statements that Cole "came here to be a person" is wrong. Cole came here to help. He's a spirit of Compassion, and that's what he should be. And with those aspects in mind, the more human path seems incorrect.

But Cole making the Templar forget what he did never quite sat right with me. I'm sure we all have trauma we'd like to erase, but that's not healing. That's just erasure. Cole says the Templar remembers that something bad happened and that he had to leave the order because of it - he just doesn't remember the hand he personally played. And that's a nice sentiment. I'm just not sure that it's right.

Blackwall's Journey You know who carries a lot of trauma in the game? Blackwall. He doesn't get to forget it. But he heals from it, especially if you choose the Thom Rainier route. He doesn't get to run to the Wardens as a cover for his actions. He has to figure out how to live as he is. And it's hard, but he does it. He travels Thedas, finding others like him and offering them hope.

Thom Rainier was shown mercy when none was deserved, and set on a path of redemption. This gift, so compassionately given, needed to be shared. Freed from his obligations to the Inquisition, Rainier travelled Thedas, giving hope to the condemned and the forgotten. In the deepest prisons and pits of Thedas, he found, if not goodness itself, its potential. By showing faith in those who had none, Rainier lifted them up and made them into something better than they were.

This path of redemption that is shared with others and touches so many people could never happen if Cole went to Thom and made him forget. Trauma sucks, but people can learn and grow and something good and wonderful can come from it. And I think this potential for healing and transformation is lost in the act of forgetting.

Forgetting Cole

The other thing about making Cole more spirit that rubbed me the wrong way is how Cole makes himself forget the real Cole - the boy whom he came through the Fade to comfort. And I get why this has to happen. Cole can't learn or grown from it - that would change him. He has to forget to keep himself, but...

Solas says that making Cole more human alters the essence of what he is. But the more I played the spirit path, the more I felt that was the path that altered him.

Cole reached through the Fade to help a small boy. That was Compassion - an incredible, extraordinary example of it. And it doesn't sit right with me that making Cole more spirit and supposedly more himself erases the most compassionate thing he's ever done.

Cole Learns How to Help More

I vehemently disagree with Varric's words that Cole came to this world to be human. That isn't true. I don't like the Inquisitor's words, insisting that Cole needs to learn to be more human. I don't want Cole to be human. I want him to be Compassion. I want him to heal his own hurt and help people as he's always done. And it turns out, at least in my opinion, that the more human route is the one that allows him to do that most because he learns how it do it more effectively.

Everyone remembers me now. But I'm real. More real, anyway. And I understand more than I did. I sometimes see why something I said would bother Cullen. Maybe I'll do it less.

Making people forget sometimes isn't the answer, and Cole understands that now. He also understands now why some of his actions might hurt when he doesn't intend them to. He learns what works and what doesn't whereas, as more spirit, he'll just do what he thinks is right (even if maybe it's not).

[spoiler alert for Asunder in this paragraph] If you've never read Asunder, Cole kills mages. He recognizes that they are stuck in the Circle and in pain, and as Compassion he believes that the only way to help them, to relieve that pain, is to take their life so they don't feel it anymore. He has to learn and grow and realize that's the wrong answer. And I see the human path in Inquisition as doing the same thing.

Cole learns how to help people more effectively. He can't make people forget him anymore. So, he can't start over if he does something wrong. But it helps him learn how to heal through better methods.

I wanted to help people, but I only knew enough to do it in the simplest way. [...] Making people forget me was a defense against people attacking me and having what they saw in me stick. Because I'm real, everything sticks. What they think or feel about me stays. [In banter with Blackwall, he elaborates] I can't wash it away, but it helps me learn.

To me, this is Compassion. This is how Cole helps. This is how he keeps himself and his purpose as a spirit in a way that, in my opinion, is more effective than the spirit route.

Cole is Sadder, yes, but...

I know this tweet has made the rounds. But I don't think Weekes is necessarily saying the human route is wrong.

It hurts. Everything hurts. Everyone remembers me now.

Does Cole being more human make him sadder? Yes. He carries trauma with him. And trauma hurts. It sucks. He's "sadder," but that doesn't mean he's not happy:

Being this, being me...it's harder. But better. I like me.

A lot of us carry trauma. I carry my own. But I learned from it. I am more empathetic and understanding of certain things because of it. I'm not the same person I was before. And yes it hurts. Yes, I'm "sadder" than I would be without it. But I wouldn't erase it. I like who I am. And going back to the person I was, the person who saw the world differently than I do now, who didn't know the things I know now... I wouldn't want that. And with Cole as more human, there are things he comes to understand that as more spirit he never could.

Varric's wrong. Cole didn't come to this world to be human. He crossed the Veil to help, to show compassion. The human path lets him do that. The spirit path, in my opinion, sends him back. The human path, propels him forward.

Cole's Fears

If you make Cole more spirit, he thanks you for not making him change. But if you make him more human, he admits that he was scared of change. He lost his only friend, Rhys, when he "grew" - when he realized what he was and and learned and became something more. He was worried changing and becoming more human would make him lose his friends all over again - that being seen and letting people see him as he is (without the power to make them forget) would scare everyone and they would push him away. As more human, he realizes he was wrong. He says it's liberating. He calls it "wonderful."

Conclusion

I'm not saying one path is wrong or right. I see the reasons for going more spirit with Cole. And the fact that a more spirit Cole recognizes Solas' pain and steps into the Fade to join him and help him remember who he is kills me. The fact human Cole ends up with Maryden and not Krem also kills me.

I still question if more-human is the right choice. But when I ask myself what makes Cole more himself - what allows him to embody Compassion the way that he wants to - I just personally see the more human path as the best at achieving that.

[slickricklj]

I keep seeing some misinformation being spread about something Koshi Nakanishi (the director of RE7) brought up years ago, after RE7 was revealed (in regards to Chris and Jill). Since some people keep buying into/spreading misinformation, I'm gonna address it on here.

I've seen this screen shot (and others) showing partial text of something I posted some years ago, being spread on here and even on twitter. Notice how this individual cut off what I said in MY POST?

Here is what was said:

Not sure what the reason was some individual felt the need to cut out the context from my post. Even just looking at what he said itself, the context is STILL present though. HE said SPECIFICALLY THEY received MANY OPINIONS and REQUESTS. This is why it's in its own quotation marks. Comprehension is key. What Nakanishi is saying here, is that FANS have told them things such as, "It's about time to get Chris and Jill married." It's a quote WITHIN his response to what was asked. He's saying THAT'S a REQUEST/OPINION, it's not his own statement. He's mentioning what was requested for the "story of the latest game," which is why the man said he can't say anything about the story of RE7 afterward.

Ask yourself, does it make ANY sense, for him to just randomly say it's about time for them to marry Chris and Jill, when the question and his baseline comments were about the story of RE7 itself, and clearly Chris/Jill (as a duo) were irrelevant to the plot (with Jill only just recently getting a NEW story released -set in 2015- in 2023)? If it was of such urgency, wouldn't it have been established after all these years, let alone back then?

The link again (so people can actually read it/go translate it for themselves)

original text:

――なるほど（笑）。とはいえ本作はナンバリングタイトルですので、ストーリー面に期待されているユーザーさんも多いと思うのですが、その辺りはどうでしょうか。

中西：最新作でのストーリー面へのご意見、ご要望も沢山いただいています。「そろそろクリスとジルを結婚させろ」とかね（笑）。ただ、本作のストーリーについて今言えることはありません……。

some various translations:

Google-

See how it's a QOUTE within his response? *also note how this translation actually points out he LAUGHS after referring to the REQUEST*

yandex-

bing-

Like I made VERY clear, it was FANS being acknowledged for a request to see progression in Jill and Chris's relationship. Just like I was talking about what Takeuchi said when asked about them, and Kobayashi with his RE6 interview, when asked about specific romantically-angled pairings. Guess I may as well address his interview as well.

Hiroyuki Kobayashi (based on several translations people can do themselves with the scanned images), was saying RE was never planned to be a "work" about romance. NOT ONCE does he DENY romance existing anywhere (hell he talks about Leon and Ada having some development). He NEVER said Chris/Jill was STRICTLY a partnership for instance (as some have claimed over the years). What he actually said was in line with Takeuchi's claim about there being sort of a rule (for the scenario writers), on romances in the series--though they OBVIOUSLY still exist. There's a difference between someone saying "we don't focus on romance" and "there is no romance at all."

Kobayashi NEVER even denied there being a romantic aspect to their relationship, if people actually bothered to read the ACTUAL interview (even some messy online translations of the interview scans can give you the gist of it still clearly). He said it's more accurate to call them partners (meaning in the official sense) rather than to call them lovers, because they are not "together" officially. I actually thought it was interesting Death Island, never even referred to them as partners once, and it was just a given they were close and working together again once Jill got back on the field, even with Chris still serving as a captain (shown in the film and stated directly in his bio for the film).

A user (valenfieldc) on gamefaqs gave a translation I saw years ago, that lines up closely with what I got from online translations in recent years-

what producer says are actually these:

Q: About Leon and Ada's relationship in this game, will they finally have a breakthrough or they want to remain this ambiguous, unclear relationship fighting BOWs for another 10 years

A: they will have new development, "change" is the theme of RE6. Leon changed due to the mutated president, Ada changed due to some event, one of the interesting part about this game is how do changed Leon and Ada interact with each other. they also have secrets. anyway, you can look forward to it.

Q:there are some lover-like pairings in this series, eg, ChrisXJill, LeonXAda, which one do you prefer?

A: We never intend to make any romantic relationship in this series, so Chris and Jill are partners more precisely, in RE:R is also this way. If you really have to find a romantic relationship in this series, Claire and Steve in CV 's relationship are more subtle. Players can look forward to Jake and Sherry in RE6.

^He even name dropped Jake/Sherry as the NEW pairing with "romance."

Yandex-

Google-

^All errors aside, you can see the GIST of what he said is very clear either way.

Anyway, the point is, this claim being made about Nakanishi's interview was NOT something anyone at Capcom said THEY needed to do themselves, or confirmation they would be. Love interests can exist as "canon" storytelling, without ever even having them become an "official" item. Things could change someday, who knows, but even married couples in this franchise haven't actually been allowed to be "romantic" either.

Always check sources when available, and be careful with what is being presented as a "fact."

[aduckwithears]

Let's Talk Laudanum - a GO meta

Hey all - I'm gonna preface this one with a tw/cw for opioids, death, suicide, and substance abuse ok? It shouldn't be too heavy (just canon typical), but I don't want anyone surprised.

Ok! I've been watching some of the Good Omens s2 behind the scenes specials, and in the "Grave Danger" clip it mentions that Laudanum is "...a very intense kind of alcohol, or like ethanol, that would kill somebody…" which is not actually true. In the show itself we see the bottle:

Which confirms that laudanum is a combo of Opium (45 and 1/2 grains per ounce) and Alcohol (40%).

It also says Poison and CMOT Dibbler... The poison angle (is it poison? well yes... if you take enough) has been covered in another post by @queerfables who talked about the make up of laudanum as well. CMOT Dibbler is a great nod to Sir Terry of course :)

What do I want to add? That yes, laudanum is in fact an opioid, and was actually an incredibly popular and over-used drug in the 18th and 19th centuries, both in real life and maybe more importantly in novels of the time. Proceed under the cut!

In my non-duck life I work in a field with some familiarity with opioids, so I also want to add that while yes, opioids can make you loopy, they are ultimately a soporific (meaning a sleep aid, a downer, a relaxant), a pain reducer, cough suppressant, and a respiratory depressant. That last bit is why they can be deadly in the case of an overdose.

So let's get back to laudanum. Yes, it was used post-surgically, but quite often would also be prescribed to (predominantly) women with various aches or pains that their doctors couldn't (or wouldn't bother) investigating. Subsequently women would become addicted to the opioid, needing more and more to achieve the desired effect, leading to eventual death or any of the other mental, emotional, or socioeconomic ills of addition.

Given the above and the era's fascination with the "sexiness" of wasting diseases such as consumption (hmmm, cough plus pain, perfect for treatment with laudanum!) laudanum was also a little bit of a romantic drug. It was also popular in novels of the era such as those in the Gothic Romance genre. (A quick peek at Wikipedia turns up lots of examples... though I'm sure a literature expert of the era would have lots more to add.)

All of which to say! The Resurrectionists as a minisode is channeling some pure Gothic Romance (think Mary Shelley's Frankenstein - pub 1818, etc) so laudanum is the PERFECT poison for Elspeth to pick. It dulls pain and at sufficient doses suppresses the respiratory system to the point of death. Without the modern miracle of Narcan or naloxone, death is all but assured. Of course, then, enter Crowley.

You know what laudanum doesn't do? Give you an Alice in Wonderland experience and make you specifically shouty about people not killing themselves. Now, this could be how opioids affect demons (it's possible), or the more entertaining option is that Crowley has no clue what laudanum is or isn't supposed to do, saw the poison and alcohol label, and decided to have a bit of fun while doing some deniable (the laudanum made me do it! honest!) good. It's also handy that he doesn't need to do mundane human things like breathing. So he gets to sing about Scotland, save the human, and get hugged by Aziraphale - pretty good day... until he gets Lightning Sanded to Hell.

I'll just add here that the laudanum plot line works well if we are taking the minisodes at face value... OR if we are reading them as Aziraphale's version of events of the past, especially with the literary aspect.

Bonus: If you've made it this far, maybe you'll come along with me on a little cross-fandom jaunt.

I'm also a massive fan of the Aubrey/Maturin series - Patrick O'Brian's books set in the early 1800s and starring Captain Jack Aubrey and Doctor Stephen Maturin. If you've read the series or even watched the Master and Commander movie you may know... those two characters have their own odd couple thing going on and quite a collection on AO3 :) . Anyhow. In the books Stephen is hooked on laudanum for a good while, mostly to dull the pain of a love that cannot be acted on. That's actually what got me started thinking about this post since there are certainly some parallels there.

Thanks for sticking with me on this ramble!

[antianakin]

Had a thought, I think what's bothering a lot of people about recent Force stuff is that Filoni/new shows are treating the Force like a "soft magic" system. As in it's flexible to whatever the plot is and the few rules can change. Vs the more solid "hard magic" system the original stuff operates on. Only certain people have it, there's established things it can do, and it's main point of flexibility is that if you don't think you can do a thing with the Force, you can't.

Like movies/clone wars/even Rebels establishes that having the Force is an innate thing and while non Force users can "hear" the Force (various other practices we see like Chirrut) they can't utilize it. That there's certain abilities are things everyone has and more rare abilities exist but don't seem to be learned (at least not easily). I'm even willing to say Force Healing works in the og system set up in that it's a rare ability and it takes energy. You can't bring someone back from the brink of death without killing yourself or someone else.

But things like Sabine suddenly able to use the Force or Ahsoka able to use abilities out of nowhere and established to be innate and rare basically throws the hard rules out and gives it a confusing inconsistency that just makes it unenjoyable.

I think the problem is, in part, that canon itself treats the Force as both soft AND hard, depending on what aspect you're talking about, because Star Wars runs on Rule of Cool sort-of above and beyond anything else sometimes. For example, the Force Ghosts. Even within the original trilogy, the implications about how the Ghosts work seems to change from ANH to ROTJ, and then you get into the prequels and TCW and the sequels and now the Mandoverse and the Ghosts are just... wackier and wackier every time. There are NO RULES for the Force Ghosts beyond that the person ghosting should be definitively dead, not a Sith when they died, and they should look bluish. Like that's... really it. Beyond that, everyone seems to do whatever the fuck they want with it and they always have, even Lucas himself.

And then you have other things that seem to have remained fairly static this entire time even if they went unsaid, like who is capable of wielding the Force and who isn't, whether it's something you're born with or just something some people can learn easier than others. Up until the Ahsoka show, everybody seemed to agree on this one, so even though it's never been outright stated in canon that you HAVE to be born with the ability to wield the Force or you'll never be able to, it's just a generally accepted part of the worldbuilding and one that a LOT of the character narratives sort-of rely on. BUT, because it's never been outright stated and OTHER elements of the Force and how it's used can be pretty "soft magic", I suppose it's not shocking that eventually someone would try to switch this one up. It's infuriating and it's bad writing just because what little we DO know about it is so important to how these storylines go, but it's not shocking.

It's not like I hate "soft magic" systems in general, but in a lot of those stories, how the magic WORKS isn't actually important to the story being told most of the time. Like in Lord of the Rings, how Gandalf can do magic is completely irrelevant to the themes and messages sent through the story of Frodo and the Ring and the Fellowship. It doesn't MATTER.

But in Star Wars, the way the Force works is baked into the themes and messages of the whole ass story. What darkness is, where it comes from, what balance means and how it can be achieved, all of this is VITAL to the story being told throughout the first six films. And so a lot of the little stuff that gets added to the overall "how the Force works" stuff (psychometry, midichlorians, etc) should all sort-of work within those overall themes already set up. Midichlorians are important because Anakin is DEMONSTRABLY super powerful, more than anybody else in history, and it DOESN'T MATTER. He's literally MEASURABLY more powerful than anybody else and he still fails to do anything he actually wants to do. His power makes it so that his choices change the fate of an entire galaxy, but they're also completely useless in any way that actually matters to him. The fact that they can measure his power helps that message get across. Psychometry takes a lot of the stuff about how the Force allows you to dial into the emotions of other people and just takes it up an extra notch to really hammer home some of those themes about control over your own power and being connected to the world around you.

So Star Wars, in many ways, DOES have a "soft" magic system, it always has, but the things that are changed or added to it SHOULD generally still fit within the overall themes and messages that Star Wars has set up prior to this. Sabine being Force sensitive randomly very explicitly goes AGAINST all of these themes and messages and that's why it sucks. Changing the system so that literally ANYBODY could have the Force if they just worked hard enough at it (and having Sabine gain her ability to wield it only when she FEELS the most emotions as opposed to when she CONTROLS her emotions the best) completely fucks up a lot of the narratives for other characters. What makes Luke so special if literally ANYBODY could have just learned to do what he did, but apparently they just weren't trying hard enough? If Ahsoka felt this way this entire time why wasn't she training up TONS of people in the Rebellion to utilize the Force, why was she HOBBLING the Rebellion by keeping this from them? It's just... SO so stupid in so many ways. Why does Filoni seem to think that fans want the space wizards to be LESS special? It's ridiculous and it's insulting.

I think that at this point we're also just VERY tired of Filoni's blatant favoritism for his own characters and the ways he very intentionally will bash other characters in order to lift up his own faves, and quite honestly THAT'S what pisses me off the most about the Ahsoka show. Sabine and Ahsoka can't be special on their own, they HAVE to call the prequels Jedi failures because they were elitist in order to make Sabine and Ahsoka seem like they're so much better and more enlightened than those OTHER Jedi. And that honestly just stinks of a lack of imagination on Filoni's part. If he can't figure out how to make these characters feel special without tearing down other characters in this franchise to do it, then maybe he's just not that good of a fucking writer to begin with.

So while I'm not PERSONALLY a fan of the way the Force is often very "soft" in the way it's written, that doesn't make it bad in and of itself, but Filoni (and the Mandoverse in general, but mostly Filoni) feels like he's actively flipping the bird at prior accepted assumptions about the worldbuilding and the way those things really helped build the NARRATIVE just because he wants to insist that HIS characters are NOT IRRELEVANT and are in fact more important and cooler than everybody else. When I consume a Star Wars story, I'm EXPECTING something about how it's better to accept and acknowledge your own darkness so you can let it go and control it rather than letting it control you. I'm EXPECTING something about being selfless and compassionate over being selfish and greedy. I'm EXPECTING something about how destiny exists but it isn't everything and your choices still MATTER (both good and bad). And that's just... not what Filoni gave me. The things he changed DON'T suit the narrative of Star Wars, regardless of whether the Force is a soft magic system or not.

[20001541]

One harsh argument I agree with is that AFO had the chance to kill many more heroes.

Not saying I want them dead but don’t you think after all the hype they gave AFO as being this untouchable horrific monster that destroyed cities and islands in seconds, you’d expected more casualties. I just don’t believe it’s within his nature to just let them be, and this happens throughout the series where every time he has an obvious chance to kill someone, he doesn’t. During the war arc those who were killed weren’t even by him and most of the people he murdered happens offscreen or is said in passing. There isn’t a significant one that stands out, say for Bakugo who literally survived. He couldn’t even kill Nagant or Aoyama for betraying him. It’s kinda underwhelming and makes it seem like his whole aura is overhyped when he can’t manage to get rid of a few characters.

I guess the vestiges count but that was years before the main story - I wish we could have seen that psychopathic murderous side of him, because the way he kills people is only cuz they are in his way and useless, not because he does it for the sake of enjoying it.

Yeah, it feels weird especially when in the last war arc we see AFO go all out with these powerful quirks and somehow no one died. This isn't just an AFO problem, but one with the villains as a whole haha. The only kills AFO was able to get were Stain and Machia. Even then the narrative brushes over their deaths after AFO makes the killing blow and we never see them or hear about them again.

I'm fine with him not killing tons of major characters as I don't think Hori would ever go the route of having a lot of his hero characters die. Yet you would think he would've killed a lot of background characters with all the destruction he caused in the last war, but no. I think more heroes died in the last war than one. I don't even think Tomura himself got a kill so its not just an AFO problem.

I like AFO's role as a character in the story, but there are times where I feel Hori tells us more about how influential and dangerous and vicious he was than he actually shows us. But idk I'm just glad he had a good conclusion in the end so this aspect doesn't bother me too much. Mainly annoying to discuss when you encounter the people who say he's a lame villain.

"because the way he kills people is only cuz they are in his way and useless, not because he does it for the sake of enjoying it" - also strongly agree with this, there's a tendency for some people to characterize him as someone who kills just for the heck of it, but that's not case with him. He just wants to eliminate obstacles he doesn't take pleasure from the act of killing itself.

[saurongorthaur9]

I just wanted to say thank you for keeping your discourse and opinions about "the kiss" respectable and reasoned. It never bothered me and I've come around to even interpreting it in a way that I like (and I'm a die hard Saurondriel shipper), but I still like reading your posts because you break down rational arguments and haven't written anything that felt like an attack on those who disagree. And you still have positivity for other aspects of the show. I was also disappointed (and felt betrayed) by some scenes this season but this is what I love about fandom: sharing ideas and reactions and ships without ever making it some contest. Anyway, thank you for being a bright spot on my dash, even when breaking down some critical opinions on the show. I devour all of it.

Aw thanks, I really appreciate it <3 I've felt bad for focusing on the negative, when this is a show that already gets so much hate from so many different directions, so I'm glad my posts on the topic came across as respectful to other fans with differing opinions and that my own arguments for how I felt were coherent. I really truly love the show, or the vast majority of it anyway, which is part of why I get so passionate about it. I don't want to see the show shoot itself in the foot when it's already fighting an uphill battle against all the haters.

I will admit that I've cooled down a bit over the kiss. I still haven't re-watched that particular scene, but I've read some very thoughtful analyses from a variety of fans over the last several days. And while I still don't like the scene, I still think it was unnecessary in the larger scale, and I still think the music, lighting, and general framing of the moment were very questionable with a supposedly "platonic" moment, I'm willing to see that some fans did get meaning from it beyond shock value.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the finale Thursday, but even if it falls flatter than I hope, this season has given us some breathtaking scenes, moments, acting, music, and everything else that I know I'll treasure forever.

I'd also appreciate hearing your interpretation of the kiss that is working for you, if you care to share it.

[stoopid-turtle]

made-up thoughts about dd's thoughts

Hi there! I warned y'all that I might post more and I've been watching SDC so I wanted to compile my massive load of DD thoughts. Apparently, I think about dd a lot.

I've struggle with how to organize these thoughts because they're so scattered and there are just a whole bunch of them. So I decided to center them around moments I think about a lot. Not necessarily fun dd moments, though some of them are fun. But just...moments that I feel tell me a lot about dd.

As a disclaimer, I'm making up a bunch of nonsense about dd as a person, but I don't actually know him and you shouldn't take anything I say seriously. I'm very likely to be wrong about most of it. In fact, if dd somehow managed to read this humble post, he would probably roll his eyes. And you know what? It would be an honor for him to have done so.

There'll be a few posts. There are three others in drafts right now, though I may combine two of them. We'll see. But I'm starting out with this one just because it was done first.

I'm at around ep 8 of SDC4, and I think the only way to watch subtitled versions of SDC5 are by downloading an app that Google won't let me download because of region restrictions (and then paying a subscription fee). Needless to say, I probably won't be able to watch SDC5 anytime soon. :(

(those episodes are sooooo looonnngggg)

There's an episode in SDC4 when the captains have picked 4 leaders to start off their teams. They put together a rehearsal battle to show the other contestants the captain's style and help make decisions during the next recruitment segment.

DD picks 4 top dancers as his leaders. These are fantastic dancers, specifically battle dancers. And they do horribly in the rehearsal battle because they're not used to dancing routine, there are no choreographers so while their performance was highly technical, it wasn't really entertaining or meaningful, and the team itself just didn't cohere because these are all people who specialize in battling alone.

DD has a little meltdown while his team loses, and it's kinda uncomfortable to watch. He says in a debrief with his team afterward that he's one of those people that likes winning (which, yeah, duh, DD).

I think a lot about DD's initial strategy. It seems straightforward. Get the best dancers. Have the best team. Work hard. Win.

DD's not a deep thinker. I don't mean he's stupid, because he's actually pretty smart and quick to pick up on things. But he just doesn't see the need to introspect or dwell on things. He strikes me as the type of person who might go through some difficult event and come out the other side wanting to just move on because, "It's in the past. Why bother thinking about it?"

(I think he is getting more introspective as he gets older, as evidenced with his performance of Like the Sunshine. I think that's typical as one ages though)

I'm also struck by the feedback he gives as a captain. He usually makes pretty detailed comments about the technical aspects of the dance, and sometimes, with the more thematic pieces, he'll just outline the story of it. He's pretty literal and straightforward in his thinking.

In any case, dd stands out among the captains for his emphasis on winning. The captains of the other teams cultivate a family atmosphere and often make an effort to emphasize having fun over winning (dd emphasizes fun...as long as his team is winning). The other captains will break down in tears when they have to eliminate dancers, and they'll give nothing but praise to the dancers.

DD is the prototypical "not here to make friends" competitor (though he does actually make friends). One of the most common comments dd gets from dancers or judges is that he works really hard and is a perfectionist with his technical performance. (As a fangirl, I love hearing other people remark on how impressive dd is. I'm all like, "Damn right, that's my bb!"). Dd has high expectations of himself and of the dancers in his team, and he'll criticize the dancers if he feels they fell short.

It's not mean-spirited but it is blunt and is something that the other captains don't do. DD will point out mistakes and be outspoken when he's disappointed with a performance. He also doesn't cry when he has to eliminate someone. He obviously doesn't like doing it, and I do think his style of doing it quickly without the anxiety of drawing it out is kinder. But it also fits in with his decisive, direct way of doing things.

I think about this all in connection with the bts of gg saying he prefers men without makeup. DD gets incredibly defensive, misconstruing what gg's saying as a slight against idols. It's a funny bts, because gg's clearly trying to pay dd a compliment, but dd doesn't even realize this because he's so caught up in defensiveness.

But the defensiveness tells us that dd's felt belittled and looked down on for his idol background, I think especially in some of his hobbies and other activities. Professional dancing, motorcycling racing, skateboarding. His being an idol has made people not take him seriously (I think that's what happened at the beginning of SDC3 when dd got the fewest towels of all the captains from the start).

I think that can be frustrating because dd's initial interest as a teen boy was dancing. I don't know all the decision-making that went into him going off to get trained by Yuehua as an idol, but doing so ironically made it harder for him to get respect from the professional dancers that he admires.

That's why dd works so damn hard, often to the point of overwork. He's demanding of his team just as he's demanding of himself. This is a guy who puts himself into the hospital with how much he works (and then forgets about it afterward). He's wearing himself out in trying to prove himself, and I'm glad that he recently actually took a day off when he was sick. GG's a good influence.

This all takes us to another DD moment, one that is more fun to watch, and that is dd's whole thing with the waacker, Xiao Bao. During a battle, Xiao Bao touches the back of dd's head, and dd immediately stands up and grabs Xiao Bao, keeping a hold of him even as he tries to dance away. Then there's some minor waacking and, um, lip-licking from dd.

When asked at hotpot, dd explains that he was trying to get Xiao Bao to run out his time by keeping a hold of him so he couldn't dance. By touching him, Xiao Bao had challenged dd and dd responded according to street dance rules. DD seems confused by others' confusion because it's self-explanatory to him.

It is just...so very dd to be so single-minded about a thing that he doesn't even realize how incredibly gay it looked. Just, immensely fantastically gay. (I'll get back to this in another post, but I'm focusing elsewhere here)

Honestly, he's sometimes come across as being on the spectrum, though that may well be me overidentifying with some traits. But he has his special interests and while he may be generally quiet, he will start happily rambling if asked about motorbikes or legos or skateboarding (or if plopped down next to gg). He's incredibly fidgety and has a weird thing with stroking tassels.

I know people on the spectrum are more often associated with sensitivity to lights and noise, but there is variation in that. Some folks tend towards the opposite and end up being thrill-seekers.

Some of his mannerisms and social interactions ping me as spectrum-y. During the "JC's fake butt" bts conversation with the rest of the cast, gg characterizes dd as the type to bluntly go up to JC and ask him about the fake butt. He's probably not wrong.

In the bts, dd also has several moments of not being properly romantic by gg's standards or of being a little mean to gg and then apologizing later. This may be more of a young man thing than a spectrum thing, though. IME, guys that age are more prone to that sort of thoughtless behavior than guys who are older.

In any case, dd's reputation as aloof is surface-deep, as seen when he's comfortable with people. He's able to joke and play around with others once he warms up to them. I know gg is often seen as uniquely able to soften dd up, and I do think dd is distinctly more affectionate/playful with gg. But it's a difference in degrees. DD also seems comfortable with the other DDU hosts, with his UNIQ brothers, sometimes with the other SDC captains (though not as often), with certain dancers (like Bouboo and Yang Kai).

Heck, Yang Kai even lampshades this in SDC S4. The captains are recruiting their team members and they send gifts to the dancers to woo them. Even though Yang Kai is a definite joiner on dd's team, dd sends him a framed photo of the two of them from Yang Kai's win the previous season. He also gifts Yang Kai a charm for his newborn son. Yang Kai is touched and he comments that he wouldn't expect these gifts from dd because dd just doesn't express his emotions like this usually. (I wonder if dd had some help in choosing the gifts, because all his gifts are incredibly thoughtful in a very uncharacteristic way (sorry, dd))

So, yeah, I have so many thoughts about how dd shows him feelings. I'm not super-attached to the autism spectrum thing, so don't take it too seriously. Hell, don't take any of this seriously. I've never met the guy. I'm just wildly extrapolating from translated glimpses of him.

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: Puck and Prejudice by Lia Riley

3.75/5. Releases 11/12/24.

Vibes: Hallmark time travel but make it sexy, A Gentlemanly Himbo, oh no it's marriage of convenience but love

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

Pro hockey player Tuck Taylor is in a bit of a bind after he falls back in time to the Regency. He doesn't know what the hell to do—but fortunately, he can rely on Lizzy, a rather independent young woman of her age. Lizzy just wants to be as free as possible, which can only really happen if she's a widow. Solution: Lizzy will help Tuck get back to the 21st century, and he'll marry her beforehand. She'll be a widow without having to worry about the truly dead husband part. Problem solved! Except... the marriage of convenience thing is a lot harder when you're for real attracted to each other.

The Review:

Really, what a cute book. It knows the assignment. It does the things. It's a little goofy, but it's supposed to be. And it actually has both heat and heart. I'd describe it, as I did above, as a true "Hallmark but if they FUCKED" vibe. Which is what Hallmark should be, in my opinion.

One thing I found really smart about this is that Riley wastes no time on the "does Lizzy know he's a time traveler?" thing. She knows he's a time traveler, and she knows right away (which really added to the Hallmark aspect, for me). Tuck shows her his phone. She takes it all remarkably well. We're in business. I hate little more than bad pacing, and this pacing made sense to me. We get the time travel plot going quickly, but the actual romance is kind of like... Neither a fast or slow burn. Shit got down to business in a timely manner, but they didn't jump into bed together (or declare their love) immediately.

Lizzy and Tuck aren't super complex, but they kind of don't need to be. I will say that I liked Lizzy more—Tuck was a lovely guy. But he was a little TOO lovely to me. A lot of people are going to love that. For me, if a hero is a hockey player, I kinda prefer the "grr big man with a secret soft side" hockey hero, versus a "my gentlemanly and sensitive nature is on display from jump" hockey hero. Tuck is more of the latter, and truly, a lot of people will LOVE that. He's respectful and gentle, but he also knows how to turn it out.

There was one dialogue exchange that didn't really feel like... something a man would say... But I GOT IT. Tuck is sweet. Tuck is With Her, I think. And honestly, in these times especially, I totally get the appeal. Plus, it does make sense to make him on the up and up, considering the fact that Lizzy already lives in Misogyny Central.

One aspect of Tuck's history is that he's a cancer survivor. I found this really interesting, especially since it's something that he has a bit of PTSD over. He's really still adjusting to his new reality (and it does add a bit of pressure to the need for him to go back to his time—he really needs to keep track of his health and seek modern medicine if his cancer returns). There's a really great conversation that he and Lizzy have about one side effect of his treatment that I found so refreshing.

Also, it leads to her thinking that like... his dick just doesn't work. To which he is appalled, and trust and believe, IT WORKS.

Generally, this is a funny, light novel. I found the ending a bit too on the nose, but I can see why those choices were made. It's not the choice I would've made as a writer. But it's undoubtedly an HEA, and it does fit the overall tone of the story. This romance just doesn't take itself too seriously, and like—it shouldn't. Don't we want to have fun sometimes?

The Sex:

Ummm this was surprisingly hot. If you're a fan of "teach me" content".... You'll be happy here. There's some "finding myself in an inn" action, some "frantic jerking it because I'm too hot and bothered" content, a really good first time, tree mouth stuff (you'll see). It's good!

Also, there's a really great moment when one of Lizzy's friends who's been around the block tells her a thing or two about "riding the dragon". Not only was this funny—I just really love it when more experienced ladies tell their buddies what to expect in historicals. It's cute! It's sweet! More of it!

Anyway—yeah, if you want something completely serious, then this won't be for you. But like... why would you think it would be? This is about a time traveling hockey player romancing a Jane Austen fan. Just let it be. Have fun. Enjoy the sexy content. For the love of God. Enjoy yourself! Enjoy this! We need cheery fun sometimes!

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.