#I'm just ranting like fr

[waylouder]

ranting about real world things for just the hottest second cux this blog is the only place my friends aren't

one of my friends gets so randomly passionate about things that don't make sense and it makes her angry if u don't agree and it just makes NO SENSE to me

example 1: one of our mutual friends was saying she felt like her year was a waste because she didn't go to college like she wanted to. she felt stagnant. this friends response was "how could you say that when you have children that's so disrespectful". I tried to explain that our mutual friend would never say that to her kid and that she was in a safe space to express her dissapointment in her personal achievements but my friends argument was, and I quote, "also like you decided to get married this year, and to word it as a "wasted year" idk i feel like would kinda sting" like hey babe... she's saying this away from her kids and away from her wife AND ITS NOT ABOUT EITHER OF THOSE TOPICS ITS ABOUT SCHOOLING like am I crazy for thinking u can be dissapointed in urself for one aspect of ur life but good about another??? crazy to call her "disrespectful" for venting in the venting channel of a discord

example 2: she saw an ad for a chest freezer that was converted to be an ice bath. she sent it to us like "this is insane" and I was like "oh haha ppl love ice baths look at this girl on tiktok who does them and even made a safe version for her kid" and her response was, and I quote, "idc if ppl are taking ice baths, that's some dumb shit. There’s a reason it was a thing to teach kids NOT to climb into a freezer" like okay?? this isn't child neglect. she's not putting her kid in an actual ice bath. WHAT. like her thing is that it's fucking stupid of that woman to show herself getting into an ice bath with a lid to her kid cuz the kid is gonna climb in and die. babe there's probably a MILLION safety precautions this woman takes to make sure her kid can't do that she's not inherently dumb for not paying a premium for a specially made ice bath when she can just convert a freezer.

like idk I love this friend but she gets so passionate about calling people out for being dumb or mean or whatever and sometimes I feel like she goes too far but will NEVER admit she's done so. it's annoying.

[writterings]

me with my 18 year old students that i teach at a college

[tenshi-agerasia]

new enstars characters (nice + 4piece) as tbh/autism creatures ◕_◕ also i color picked them and recolored some pride flags because i can

fuyume -> bigender

ibuki -> nonbinary

esu -> transmasc

raika -> aroace

kanna -> agender

[lilchaoswitch]

I wish dating Sim games/otome games or whatever were gender neutral or you got the ability to choose your pronouns like in The Arcana :( I know gay guys who play dating sims is a small demographic but please please pleasepleaseplease just let me pick my pronouns so I can immerse myself in the Anime Men Romance Simulator without feeling dysphoric 🥲

[doodle17]

I love how Lili is characterized man... So much

She's not girly, and she's not just a stereotypical tom-boy either

She's aloof, sassy and tough but still feminine and sweet like istg she was MADE for me I've never related to a girl more

[tifa-simp]

I don't take anyone who says Tifa only likes Cloud when he does hero badass thing seriously, as if she isn't the first one to rush to him everytime he acts unhinged or has an episode. Like y'all, c'mon now, I don't care who you ship Cloud with, but open your eyes and play the damn game! Ever since Remake, she's always noticed when he has headache and in Rebirth she basically spends the whole game looking after him, especially in the Temple when he's on a killing spree. This girl cares about him so much, she always encourages him to do things he enjoys and steps in when he goes overboard. Saying Tifa only cares about Cloud doing badass shit is just laughable in everyway. Why do they make it sound like Tifa is some cheerleader on the side while in fact most of the time, she's right next to him doing bad ass hero thing too.

If Tifa really just sees Cloud that way, she wouldn't have to the first to stop him from killing the Turks mercilessly, or the only one carries him out in Shinra mansion, or later stays with him when he's in comatose while the world is ending. Why risking her life and attention and time for a Soldier who can't stand straight? Think!

You don't even have to read Trace of two pasts in which blatantly states that Tifa likes Cloud for being a normal boy, you just have to play the game with open eyes. Maybe don't act like you have no idea about the lore and ppl won't call you so.

Does this look like a girl who only cares when her crush does "bad ass SOLDIER things"???

[lameotello]

I hate that we've gone from "don't like, don't read" and not caring about what fucked up shit is depicted in fan media as a standard to hypervigilance and having to mind your every word so the group you've found yourself in doesn't know you ship the Not HOA Approved Ship

[gracecarstairss]

thinking about how Mayesh is the mirror for the Ashkar people - being human in the eyes of House Aurelian means that they think all Ashkar are human. He protects them all in this way, ensuring that the Sault will be safe and that what happened in Malgasi (murdering all Ashkar) will not happen in Castellane.

this also applies to Kel, in a way. Kel is the person Conor loves/cares for above all others, yet he is a common citizen of Castellane - technically, the lowest possible class, since Kel is an orphan without a significant name, and family names are the most important source of power in Castellane. therefore, Kel is the mirror for the common people of Castellane - although he is considered an object/property in the eyes of nearly all of House Aurelian, being human in the eyes of Conor, the person who will one day be King, shows the future ruler that the people he rules are actual PEOPLE, not just subjects to use and manipulate to the ruler's liking. in this way, Kel protects the commoners of Castellane, which is so interesting. we see him do this multiple times in Sword Catcher when he is trying to instill empathy in Conor for others, including Lin (when Kel talks sense into Conor and and says "do you want her to be afraid of you?" which really hits Conor hard because he doesn't realize the full scope of his power and the fact that he uses it carelessly).

and what makes this more insane is the way that Mayesh doesn't even see Kel as a human, just an object, even though they serve similar important purposes for their respective classes. on my third read of Sword Catcher, I really honed in on the way that Mayesh treats Kel, and he really does not treat him as a damn human being!!! it's so awful. the hypocrisy of Mayesh is so wild, he is such an interesting character because of all his contradictions. anyways i'm so unwell about this!!!

[hauntingofhouses]

Seeing fan discussions about Blue Eye Samurai and especially Mizu's identity is so annoying sometimes. So let me just talk about it real quick.

First off, I have to emphasise that different interpretations of the text are always important when discussing fiction. That's how the whole branch of literary studies came to be, and what literary criticism and analysis is all about: people would each have their own interpretation of what the text is saying, each person applying a different lens or theory through which to approach the text (ie. queer theory, feminist theory, reader response theory, postcolonial theory, etc) when analysing it. And while yes, you can just take everything the authors say as gospel, strictly doing so would leave little room for further analysis and subjective interpretation, and both of these are absolutely necessary when having any meaningful discussion about a piece of media.

With that being said, when discussing Blue Eye Samurai, and Mizu's character in particular, I always see people only ever interpret her through a queer lens. Because when discussing themes of identity, yes, a queer reading can definitely apply, and in Mizu's story, queer themes are definitely present. Mizu has to hide her body and do her best to pass in a cisheteronormative society; she presents as a man 99% of the time and is shown to be more comfortable in men's spaces (sword-fighting) than in female spaces (homemaking). Thus, there's nothing wrong with a queer reading at all. Hell, some queer theorists interpret Jo March from Little Women as transmasc and that's totally valid, because like all analyses, they are subjective and argumentative; you have the choice to agree with an interpretation or you can oppose it and form your own.

To that end, I know many are equally adamant that Mizu is strictly a woman, and that's also also a completely valid reading of the text, and aligns with the canon "Word of God", as the creators' intention was to make her a woman. And certainly, feminist themes in the show are undeniably present and greatly colour the narrative, and Episode 4 & 5 are the clearest demonstrations of this: Mizu's protectiveness of Madame Kaji and her girls, Mizu's trauma after killing Kinuyo, her line to Akemi about how little options women have in life, and the way her husband had scorned her for being more capable than him in battle.

I myself personally fall into the camp of Mizu leaning towards womanhood, so i tend to prefer to use she/her pronouns for her, though I don't think she's strictly a cis woman, so I do still interpret her under the non-binary umbrella. But that's besides my point.

My gripe here, and the thing that spurred me to write this post, is that rarely does this fandom even touch upon the more predominant themes of colonialism and postcolonial identities within the story. So it definitely irks me when people say that the show presenting Mizu being cishet is "boring." While it's completely fine to have your opinion and to want queer rep, a statement like that just feels dismissive of the rest of the representation that the show has to offer. And it's frustrating because I know why this is a prevalent sentiment; because fandom culture is usually very white, so of course a majority of the fandom places greater value on a queer narrative (that aligns only with Western ideas of queerness) over a postcolonial, non-Western narrative.

And that relates to how, I feel, people tend to forget, or perhaps just downplay, that the crux of Mizu's internal conflict and her struggle to survive is due to her being mixed-race.

Because while she can blend in rather seamlessly into male society by binding and dressing in men's clothing and lowering her voice and being the best goddamn swordsman there is, she cannot hide her blue eyes. Even with her glasses, you can still see the colour of her eyes from her side profile, and her glasses are constantly thrown off her face in battle. Her blue eyes are the central point to her marginalisation and Otherness within a hegemonic society. It's why everyone calls her ugly or a monster or a demon or deformed; just because she looks different. She is both white and Japanese but accepted in neither societies. Her deepest hatred of herself stems primarily from this hybridised and alienated identity. It's the whole reason why she's so intent on revenge and started learning the way of the sword in the first place; not to fit in better as a man, but to kill the white men who made her this way. These things are intrinsic to her character and to her arc.

Thus, to refuse to engage with these themes and dismiss the importance of how the representation of her racial Otherness speaks to themes of colonialism and racial oppression just feels tone-deaf to the show's message. Because even if Mizu is a cishet woman in canon, that doesn't make her story any less important, because while you as a white queer person living in the West may feel unrepresented, it is still giving a voice to the stories of people of colour, mixed-race folks, and the myriad of marginalised racial/ethnic/cultural groups in non-Western societies.

[phatkochi]

That is not Steven Rudboys/neg

[lightofjedi]

I wish people understood that a female character being written by a dude who objectify and sexualize her is not her fault but the writter's, and that going on about the importance of not sexualizing female characters while simultaneously using said sexualization as a reason to sprout misogynistic remarks about and dehumanising sexualized female characters just shows your hypocrisy and how little you actually care about women.

[triglycercule]

guys i've decided that i'm gonna be the one to translate the canon dusttale fics. it's a responsibility that has long been overdue and as the mtt's strongest warrior i will be the one to take up this responsibility. since i need to read the dusttale fics to see what his REAL CANON personality is like so i can finish my horror character analysis i decided to just translate the fic myself anyways. i dont know a lick of korean but i'm sure some research and context clues can fix any errors that pop up and i think i'm well versed in dustlore enough to fill in any gaps from translating

[just-about-nothing]

spike you loser. you absolute nutjob loser. also once again spike charming all of buffy's family is wild behavior and i fully support him in it

[harmoniouseclipse]

Me and my freaking ship charts for my freaky mind

[batfossil-fr]

it’s been a while since I’ve done much art. here’s a fun little headshot for creosote on FR of their dragon Viatryx!

[laugtherhyena]

Continuing the rant-iness of last post's notes onto this one i think (I appreciate if they're read, i think I'm too self-conscious to have them in the post itself)