#I... don't have a perfect handle on her but she's complex and can be interpreted in a lot of ways

[starryeyed-seer]

Have been discussing the captivating princess and the royal family and red honey a lot lately with @toxick-e amd want to say: I now get why people are so wild for her. Wild for the fucked up tragic horror stuff, that is, though I respect the other reason are people go wild for her too.

[orionsangel86]

Are there anythings that you would have changed about The Sandman?

The show or the comic?

Plenty of things I'd change about the comic. As great as the story is, it is a product of its time and there are some underlying messages whether intentional or not that are inappropriate and fucked up and don't really belong such as:

The racism towards black women implied to be cursed to die violently when linked to Morpheus in some way following the Nada situation.

In fact the whole Nada story is pretty gross. When she thinks that by cutting her hymen she'll remove her virginity to put Dream off her, but then its stated that healing her hyman doesnt restore her lost virginity... like first of all. No. Second of all - shoving a rock up your vag does NOT remove your virginity lets not spread the message that it does.

The way Dream comes across a bit rapey in the Nada story overall and its not made clear how much influence Desire has in that.

The inherent misogyny which is typical of 80s/90s comics but in particular the violence towards women and overt sexualisation of women. Whether for shock value or not, its just not necessary.

The implied message that depressed and suicidal people should just kill themselves and everything will be better once they are gone.

The idea that a person who is depressed can be replaced by a better good version of themselves and even their family and friends will just treat that person as the new them. The implication that the depressed person isnt valued and must instead conform to the responsibilities and burdens of the system they are trapped in - rather than changing the system.

The concept that the moon is inherently transphobic and that witchcraft is transphobic just irks me as a pagan person- like yeah there are huuuuge problems in the community and the whole divine feminine and fucking womb magic bullshit is all over it but I really really hate how Sandman perpetuates that myth and indicates its the goddess that encourages that view and not asshole closed minded people. The moon isnt fucking transphobic FFS.

Everything about Gwen and Hobs relationship in Sunday Mourning. Its problematic AF and I hope I don't need to explain why.

Not a fan of the portrayal of Loki and Sigyn. Its too black and white for such a complex myth.

That fucking awful reaping joke in Collectors which I loathe with every fibre of my being.

Even with all these points I want to caveat this by saying that I love these comics. I KNOW that a lot of this is subjective and open to interpretation. These things have many shades of grey to them. I adore the comics in so many ways but that doesn't mean they dont have their issues. I know people are emotionally connected to these comics and this criticism isnt meant as an attack on them.

For the show, well tbh I think its practically perfect, but a couple of niggles:

That fucking awful reaping joke in Collectors - can't BELIEVE they kept that in. I mute my TV at that moment so I don't have to hear it every time.

Hob's slave trade ties - They needed clarity here and should have kept the regret in 1889 more obvious. I understand why they changed it but I think that topic should have been thought through better.

There were complaints I read about how black characters and black men in particular seem to disproportionately suffer violent deaths. I know this was unintentional and a simple matter of open casting for extras and minor characters which is a GOOD thing, but sometimes casting should be less blind, and more considered where minorities are concerned.

Some of the dialogue in Johanna Constantine's episode is clunky - but that only bothers me because I've watched it 284929294787 times and have it memorised.

Despair was handled poorly. It wasnt great rep for fat bodies (like me) and she comes across so weak and submissive to Desire. Which she just isn't at all in the comic. Thankfully it looks like they really did take that criticism to heart and made positive changes in Dead Boy Detectives. She was fabulous in her cameo in that.

Not enough gay sex. The 1 star homophobic reviews really overexaggerated on that and left me disappointed. There should have been at least 1 gay or lesbian sex scene in every episode. Do better season 2. Do better. (For legal reasons this one is a joke - Sandman is a goldmine of queer rep and should be on every queer fans watch list 100 times over)

There you go. No piece of media is perfect. There can always be changes and improvements, but the Sandman is a story that really does fit the description of masterpiece. I think my ideas of things that need to change are generally matters of framing. I dont think the comic story should be drastically changed in the show, I don't think it should be given a different ending. Its a tragedy after all, but tragedy can come in many forms and perhaps the story can be adjusted so the tragedy isnt so harsh. But anyway. This is all just my opinion and as with all things i'm sure there will be plenty of people who disagree with me.

[roadkillramble]

Darkstalker : Great potential, shit execution

Aka me rambling about our favorite genocidal theater kid.

-----

The opinion on Darkstalker in the fandom has a tendency to be very polarized : one side sees him as a redeemable character that is placed as a victim in the story, and the other as complete villain who is completely unjustified in his actions and should have died.

I think (and far from me to imply I'm the only one, I've seen a few other take note of it) that both are facets of the character, and not entirely true or false. Darkstalker is an extremely complex character that is both thematically rich, representing the madness of animus dragons and magic itself, and the feud between nightwings and icewings, that can be interpreted as somewhat dragon racism in general if widened a bit, as well as complex to portray due to his history of both being abuser and abused.

And, since Tui is both a child book writer, and quite frankly not very good at handling more deep themes in realistic ways (especially when her characters are grounded in real people), it was,, quite frankly botched.

A character I tend to compare him to is Bane, the albinos rat that is the main antagonist of Chronicles of the Underland. That book serie has a few things i could comment on, but overall, it handles a lot better a lot of darker themes, including a villain that is "destined to greatness" and abused. Both Darkstalker and Bane are born to a bad father that abuses them. Both are given an opportunity to do better, but continue to spiral out of control, with in Bane's case an extra layer of manipulation. Both end up as tyrannical leaders of a group that wants to commit genocide on another, although Bane goes further and the books are a lot more explicit about his acts. However, where Bane explicitly ends as a villain, and is killed, the fate of Darkstalker is to be reborn, "rebooted", which I personally found extremely unsatisfying.

I'd say Bane is a good character. Although his abuse is a massive part contributing to who he is, it is not an excuse, as there is a very clear limit after which you cannot excuse his actions, no matter how misguided. This limit is more grey in Wings of Fire, as actions tend to have a lot less consequences, and deaths tend to almost be meaningless.

I think his character is portrayed in the two ways the fandom sees him as in the books, hence the clashing. And i think sticking to one or the other narrative would have made a lot more sense.

I usually stick to the true antagonist route : the whole of arc two has an underlaying theme of using magic to transform other as being extremely bad (which makes Darkstalker's fate all the more puzzling), and he's the antagonist that is almost represented by this action, in the murder of arctic, and his manipulation of... Pretty much everyone.

His abuse can be present without his portrayal being insensitive toward abuse recovery : wings of fire is chokeful of abused kids, and one can very much be used as his reflection. In fact, it's interesting to see how the arc 2 character parallel the ones of Darkstalker's time. Moonwatcher is treated somewhat like Clearsight, Turtle is directly compared to Fathom, and both Qibli and Winter have parallels to Darkstalker (and none of the two became murderous like him, although you could argue it is because of the lack of animus power as an option to do so).

I'd have enjoyed this being explored further in the books : I'm not sure what good end Darkstalker could meet, but it at least would serve as a very good way to be directly confronted to his own choices. Especially winter, who is so similar to him while being the very tribe he despises.

He could realize that his choices were his own, and after a time not "forced" by any hand, or deny it. I think portraying all of his actions as things to be forgiven because he is hurt to be extremely dangerous : after all, he does transform a young dragon into his dead girlfriend, which is,,, gross, especially since it's a mind controlled version of her that basically obeys him, manipulates everyone into liking him (this one is *not* the worst, but adding up the rest is,,, ehhh), as well as provoke a genocidal plague upon a whole tribe. Even on a one on one level, he is manipulative toward Moonwatcher and Clearsight, and tries to get anemone, a child, to murder her whole family, which... You can't really justify by having a bad dad.

If he was to be redeemed, it should be before these actions in the modern WOF era, and with a heavy side of introspection on his actions toward Clearsight and Moonwatcher.

I enjoy the idea that didn't go through being that Clearsight would be revived. Her being the one to bring darkstalker down, to finish the job, feels right. She could have matured, with her life being spent with ppl who were not abusive toward her. She could have reflected on Darkstalker, offer him another chance, but take it back if he does not change. I don't like the fact it's basically tui's self insert from what I understood, and i don't have a vision of her as this perfect person, but being the one closest to Darkstalker, she also is the one with the most even field, especially if she is born again from his magic, which could have some implications of bypassing his other spell, mostly bullshit to justify how she could be able to harm him.

Hope, too, could have been the one to bring him down, in the way Yellowfang brings down her child, brokenstar (yet another exemple of this sort of character).

Finally, Moonwatcher, Winter and Qibli as a trio could be very good as the ones to take down Darkstalker, with the help of kinka and turtle. I like the idea of each being able to break at a part of him, with turtle being the one that handles the whole magic part.

That's it for now, disjointed ramble over.

[missmentelle]

I just watched the Netflix show You and it's been discussed but I don't really understand - in a relationship, how does one project their own views and fantasies onto another person? How can you tell if it's happening? Is there a certain point where it's normal or it can't be helped? It's happened a lot in the show but I'm having trouble identifying it. Also, I recommend watching You: it's a thoughtful take on how we view romantic relationships as a society and how that can be twisted

I absolutely love that show.  For those of you who haven’t seen the thriller show “You”, it’s about a charismatic but underachieving man named Joe who works as the manager at a bookstore in Manhattan. He meets a young grad student named Beck when she comes into his bookstore one afternoon, and is immediately infatuated with her; he is completely consumed by his desire for a relationship with her, and it becomes clear very quickly that he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to make it happen.  (Mild spoilers for Season One ahead) Joe is obsessed with Beck from the moment he lays eyes on her. But of course, he’s not really obsessed with her - he is obsessed with the person that he wants her to be. He decides - based only on her clothes, the book she buys and a three-minute conversation with her - that she’s a bookish “good girl” and an intellectual, a serious writer who values real literature and doesn’t crave men’s attention. And he’s very interested in that. She’s his Manic Pixie Dream Grad Student, whether she likes it or not. It’s clear from the very beginning that Joe thinks extremely highly of himself, and he feels entitled to a woman who is just as intelligent and sophisticated as he is - when he looks at Beck, he decides that she’s that perfect girl he’s been waiting for all along. Moreover, he decides that she’s equally interested in him - she pays for her book with a credit card, and Joe decides that she did that because she intentionally wanted Joe to learn her full name. And of course, as Joe learns more about Beck, he discovers that she’s not the artsy, aloof writer he had been envisioning in his head. She goes out drinking with friends that Joe dislikes, she has a trashy boyfriend, she posts selfies on Instagram, and doesn’t actually do any writing. But instead of deciding “oh wow, I was super wrong about this girl, I definitely got carried away”, Joe decides that the REAL Beck is the girl he fantasized about in the bookstore, and that she just needs his help to realize it. He decides that he knows what’s best for a woman who is a complete stranger to him, deliberately manipulating her life to turn her into more of the person he wants her to be, until... well, you know how it ends. 

When you first start watching You, it can be hard to understand how messed-up Joe actually is. He is the main character of the show, and the narrator. He is also capable of great kindness - he genuinely cares for the neglected child who lives in an abusive household next door - and it kinda feels like we’re supposed to root for him. After all, he just wants what’s best for Beck. He sees who she really is inside, and he knows that she deserves better than the life she has right now. He just wants her to reach her full potential and stop wasting time with people who don’t really care about her... what could be so bad about that?

The problem, of course, is that Joe doesn’t know jack shit about Beck, and he has no right to decide what is and isn’t good for her. She is a grown-ass woman, and he is a stranger she met at a bookstore. Joe claims to have good intentions, but his intentions aren’t the point here - nobody has the right to meddle in someone else’s life behind their back, no matter how much they love and care about them. When you truly care about someone, you respect their choices - Joe has absolutely no respect for the decisions Beck makes, and sees no issues with isolating, stalking and terrorizing her if it gets him what he wants. Joe claims that Beck is miserable, but we don’t know actually know that - he filters everything he sees through a very thick lens of his own self-interest. He doesn’t allow her basic autonomy to choose what matters to her. Beck is not actually a real person to Joe - she is a prize that he wants to win.

Think about the show from Beck’s perspective - you’re an adult, with your own whole, complete life. You have friends, dreams, a boyfriend, guilty pleasures. You make bad choices sometimes, sure, but they are YOUR choices, and you have the freedom to make them. And then you walk into a shop one day and the man behind the counter suddenly decides that you’re his soulmate and it’s now his job to make decisions for you. You barely know this guy, but he thinks he has the right to control your life - he wants to control who you date, who you talk to, and how you spend your time. Imagine doing something as ordinary as paying for a book with your credit card, and having the person behind the counter interpret this as evidence that you want them to Google you and come to your house. The very idea of it is terrifying. 

The plot of You is obviously a huge dramatization, but the same dynamic does appear in real-life abusive relationships. Abusers often have very specific ideas about what their ideal partner should be like, and they believe - consciously or unconsciously - that they are “owed” this person. When they meet someone, they tend to decide extremely quickly that THIS is finally the person they’ve been waiting for all along. They don’t really feel the need to get to know the person as an individual - they assume that they already know everything they need to know about the person, and that the relationship will be effortless. When that inevitably doesn’t pan out because their partner is a real person with needs and flaws, they get angry and the abuse starts to come out - they try harder and harder to control their partner and force them back into being the perfect person they’d envisioned, and they lash out angrily when that doesn’t work. 

Although it’s nowhere near as extreme as what happened in You, I’ve had my own experiences with dating someone who was projecting their fantasies on me. My long-term college boyfriend was several years older than me, and already finished with grad school while I was still an undergrad. As the relationship went on, it became very clear that he was looking for a meek, nerdy girl who would appreciate his geek interests but never try to overshadow him. He strongly encouraged me to do the nerdy thing he approved of - cosplaying, attending conventions, playing D&D - but didn’t want me wearing makeup (I wear winged liner every day of my life), dyeing my hair strange colours (which I used to do quite often as a student) or even wearing my contact lenses instead of glasses (I got contacts the moment I was old enough and haven’t been seen in my glasses since). He was hugely threatened by the fact that I took my academics seriously, and he freaked out when I was accepted to an Ivy League grad school because “it would be so humiliating to have a girlfriend who went to a better school than I did”. He had a very specific vision of the kind of girlfriend he wanted to have, and he was prepared to try to stamp out the parts of me that didn’t align with what he wanted.  It’s okay to have standards and expectations for the kind of partner you want to have. That’s normal. I’d argue that it’s necessary. Speaking from personal experience, life is a lot easier when you expect your partners to have mastered basic communication and coping skills. And sometimes you will need to look for a partner who has very specific traits - if your dream is to have 12 children and live on a goat farm, you need to find a partner who is on board with that goal. It’s also fine to have preferences in terms of aesthetics, interests and lifestyles - we’re always going to have certain things that we find appealing, and it’s okay to be into that. What’s not okay is to have such rigid expectations about how our future partner will look, dress and behave that we can’t cope with not getting our exact fantasy. It’s fine to think that dating a quirky art major with a nose ring would be awesome. It’s not fine to think that dating a quirky art major with a nose ring is the answer to all your problems. And it’s definitely not fine to latch on to the first quirky art major with a nose ring that you can find, and then punish them when they turn out to be a complex human with real issues and not just a living doll. Whenever you’re dating, it’s important to remember that you are dating a real, live human, and not a cartoon character. They are going to grow and change, and they are going to have flaws, off-days and traits that don’t match up with your fantasies. Your punky goth girlfriend is going to have days where she just wants to lounge around the house in her pajamas and watch Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Your tough, manly lumberjack boyfriend might have a super sensitive gag reflex and spend an awful lot of time on the phone with his mom. We’re all weird, and each of us needs to have the freedom to be our own kind of weird in a relationship - if you find that your desire to be with someone is extremely dependent on their appearance, dress, weight, hobbies, friends, job, etc, and you can’t handle not having control over those things, you aren’t ready to date.  The other big red flag to look for here is how fast someone rushes the relationship. If you’re projecting your fantasies on someone, you don’t really feel much need to get to know them - like Joe, you’re pretty sure that you know everything that you need to know about them soon after meeting. You are fully expecting this person to be the fantasy partner you desire, and so there’s no point waiting to see how the relationship goes - within weeks, you’re ready to move in together, adopt a pet together, and even get engaged. If you’re convinced that a person you met three weeks ago is your soulmate, it’s time to stop and take a hard look at things - you don’t know a person you meet three weeks ago, and you have no idea if they’re your soulmate or not. You are trying to date a fantasy and not a real person.  Hope this answers your question! MM

[apenapaperandadoofus]

it's no news that i don't like how mysme treated saeran's mental problems, but i do like how the showed yoosung's depression! it's not him crying everyday, but it's a mix of anger, the way he fixates on LOLOL, he stops caring about studies and stuff. i thought it was pretty accurate.

Ohhh that’s interesting!

For me I think the way they portrayed Saeran’s depression in the SE were pretty accurate, and they actually made me have a sort of a friggen breakdown because how close it hit to home xd

I think in the Another Story is where they kinda fucked up a bit. While the whole Saeran route is AMAZING and I love it, I do know that the way they may have handled the MPD ( I think) was not exactly the best. Obviously they over dramatized it and romanticized too, which I think it’s actually not good, but I feel like we should take it with a grain of salt, it’s not the best interpretation but I’m sure they didn’t mean for it to be bad!

As for Yoosung I 100% agree, his portrayal is perfect! I love his character honestly, it’s actually as deep as Saeyoungs, Jumin’s and other characters that aren’t in the common route! Zen and Jaehee are complex too, don’t get me wrong,but Yoosung is on the other character’s level! I love what they did with Yoosung and how they handled his depression, I could 100% relate, I sometimes don’t do school work or other things because I’m just feeling really unmotivated :(

The way they showed that depression is not just not feeling...sad, but that it’s a whole rollecoaster going up and down, and the feeling that there’s like a hole in your chest and like nothing matters, that everything is sort of gray... it’s perfect! Which is why I also liked the way of SE Saeran’s depression thing, when we see his POV. He is more aggressive, but you can totally see it happening, you can feel that it’s actually accurate!

That’s some of the things I like about Cheritz! They may have sort of maybe screwed up with the MPD of Saeran, but I feel like the rest of things they do are portrayed super well!

Especially Rika,they obviously dramatized it, but it’s still something that you can see has been building up, that she can’t control anymore and needs to let out, especially if other people have been enabling it for a long time (squints at V). It’s just *chefs kiss* I love Rika and I love analyzing her character she’s super well written

[gayregis]

(1) I think the issue is that few fans treat Geralt and Jaskier as perfect beings who can do no wrong and anyone who disagrees is clearly a stupid misogynist (plus many ppl have only seen the games and/or the Netflix show). People are more reactive about not liking Yennefer because a lot of fans act like she's a perfect Overly Competent #girlboss who never does anything wrong, is smarter than everyone else, and if u don't like her then u hate all complex women. Is she a good character? Yes. But the point of complexity is that she can be wrong, and way too many artists and writers just make her a snarky goddess with zero flaws, or any actual flaws are treated as fun quirks or virtues. That's my take anyway, and part of the reason I don't read many fics where she's got a starring role

(2) Disclaimer female power fantasy is fine, people are allowed to hype up a character if they want, and I understand why people like Yen who is for the most part a powerful, unapologetic survivor. It just gets very irritating when that fanon gets treated as canon, and rather than a person, you just get a snarky magic creator's pet who is rarely if ever held accountable for her bullshit. You can't even block her name bc she's a main character and appears in a bunch of posts and tags even ones that aren't even about her.

i disagree with the first part about how the fans treat geralt and jaskier (i have seen a lot of that kind of treatment for jaskier for example, and geralt’s wrongness never extends to hurting others besides jaskier (for example, ciri, literally the most important person in his life) in the fanon mindset i’ve seen).

but i do agree with second part about yennefer, but also like this isn’t her fault as a character, it’s the fandom’s fault for erasing her complexity (not saying you are saying that, just to point it out). i also don’t rush to see fancontent with her, because a lot of fans just boil her down to being a kind of snarky woman that geralt sometimes gets along with and who’s sometimes mean to him, essentially imo they erase her humanity by making her so boring. she’s not the only character who suffers from this (i dont rush to see content with geralt or dandelion either, because they boil them down to one-dimensional “mean guy” and “funny guy”). fanon yennefer literally sucks, as does fanon jaskier and geralt. they erase what makes them compelling, their flaws and their best qualities (yennefer’s motherhood to ciri is erased, her ability to be wrong is erased. geralt’s self-deprication and self-loathing and indecision is erased, as well as his fatherhood to ciri IN TERMS OF sacrifice and suffering. dandelion’s arrogance is erased (outside of being funny, i mean his arrogance as it affects geralt for better and for worse), his adulthood is erased, and his ability to handle serious matters, especially serious emotional matters is also erased).

honestly. okay i blame it on shipping. because if you focus only on shipping, it’s easier if you have characters that are more one-dimensional... when someone actually gives a shit about yennefer being a mom to ciri, it totally comes out in how they interpret her character. that’s what i want to see, characters treated as their whole beings, while ALSO acknowledging the biases of the author putting things in there that are detriments to the character.

[tamamonomaes]

Clearing Up Misconceptions on How Gendered Language Works in Japanese

In specifically relation to Fate, how this effects how the characters present, and why these misconceptions could be interpreted as disrespectful to the Japanese trans community.

(DISCLAIMER: I am NOT cis like people seem to think! I realise you may assume that looking at me, but it's because of medical reasons. Corrections and input from native Japanese speakers welcome and encouraged!

1 The "I pronoun" is not indicative of gender as there is no such thing as a "personal pronoun. " The "I pronoun" is not primarily focused in gender, but rather, whether they are formal or informal, who you are talking to, sometimes your age, and what mood and tone you are trying to convey. "Ore" isn't a suitable option for a "personal pronoun" in the first place as it is informal and comes off extremely rude in some situations, like a job interview, so it is likely that the ore user is going to be switching to something more polite. For example, Astolfo's pronoun of boku is not indicative of them being male as its primary focus is to represent humbleness; yes it is "primarily" used for boys, however it is also considered "cute" for young girls; basically what Astolfo's use of boku can tell us about Astolfo is that Astolfo wants to be perceived as humble, and has an element of childishness to them.

2 Within the fandom, there seems to be this urge to binarise pronouns to support certain arguments that certain characters are cis and that certain characters are trans, when in actuality, the Japanese language is already far more diverse and expresses far more freedom in it's way of expressing pronouns and gender. The absolute biggest misunderstanding comes with the use of "ore" and "atashi." Basically, people believe that anyone who uses these pronouns wants to be perceived as either hyper feminine or hyper masculine, and if someone uses one of these pronouns, they want to be perceived as either female or male. However, this is simply not what these pronouns indicate at all. While atashi is traditionally considered feminine, gay men have adopted the pronoun as a means of talking casually without presenting; the same goes for ore. While it is true it is tradionally masculine, these days, it has evolved more to present the image of being casual, as well as youth wanting to sound tough. While a woman may not usually use ore irl, it is also true that anime characters don't actually talk like real Japanese people, and female characters in anime using ore is an actual thing.

You will often see this double standard that people will say they support pronouns not being idictitive of gender in English, ie, a he/him lesbian, but then binarise the Japanese language in the sense that atashi means you present female, and ore means you present male, like NB and trans Japanese don't exist. If you were told only women use atashi and. Men ore no shade, I'm just letting you know it's more complex than that. You see this particularly with ore as it creates a "tough" image, and people believe women don't want to, or even can't, be seen as tough. If you believe someone can use he/him and be female, for the sake of respect to the Japanese language and the nb community, I ask you to do the same for men who atashi and women who use ore.

3. Grammatically, Japanese doesn't actually require the use of she/him when reffering to others. This is why you don't see characters reacting to being misgendered because, quite often they just aren't there in the original. Since they are in English, this results in the translators own perception of the character affecting how they identify in the story. There are so many instances of transphobia in fate, however, because the series is handled by so many different writers and it's hard to track down who is responsible for what, I really shouldn't have to explain to you why it is disrespectful for you to put the Japanese writers at fault for getting angry because a character is being misgendered when you're literally reading a fan translation and the pronouns just aren't there in the first place. Please stop calling out "transphobia" on the writers part because you saw Astolfo being called a he in a fan translation, or even in NA where different translators with different views have to add pronouns in. There's bigger issues of transphobia you can be focusing on rather than non-existent pronouns. The only real way you can be sure if a character is being misgendered is to check the original Japanese. But reminder certain characters using the wrong pronouns, ie, Ophelia using she/her for Caenis does not necessarily reflect the views of the writers.

Contrary to what people think, Fate does actually have a way of acknowledging certain characters as GNC. This method isn't perfect and has problems, but Astolfo, Enkidu, D'eon and Avenger Nobunaga are all canonically considered GNC with the genderless attributes in Fgo. To me this includes trans as historically D'eon is a trans woman and Nobu a trans man, but nonbinary readings of these characters are still absolutely fair, so some may disagree. If you don't consider Nobu a trans man and instead nb, you could argue that the reason Mordred isn't included because the series may have a predudice to trans men considering they want waifus and have made historical men women instead.

[icharchivist]

Kind of a weird curiosity. But I remembers years ago when there was talk over what it'd be like if Allen had been a girl instead (I even read a girl!Allen fic about her time with Cross. It was surprisngly good. Probably because it had no shipping =p). For some reason I just start thinking about that topic again and I wonder how Allen and Lavi's dynamic would be? For the most part I don't see most of Allen's dynamics changing at all (except more (more) fanboys. Lol). But then I remembered Lavi -

2 and I think it's been pointed out Lavi treats females a bit differently. He doesn't seem to prank or tease them as much as the males (not that he's the perfect gentleman either. Komui Talks makes me wonder how innocent he actually is XD). Nor give them nicknames. With this is mind I wonder if Lavi would still act the exact same (chaotic prankster. Touchy feely physically. Retaliating over rough housing) or if he'd tone some things down but do other things more (maybe try to be more like a -

3 big brother initially if he kinda of bases off from Lenalee and Komui, w/o the complex, to get closer to a female Allen?). Lol, Idk. This is kind of more of a Lavi meta question since it's been stated Allen's relationship is utterly crucial to Lavi's character. Again, I'd be curious if a dynamic w/girl Allen would be slightly different or the exact same (in a you're an exception. And people bop him more because 'stop picking on a sweet girl' while Allen cackles menacingly from behind).

Oh my this is... interesting to think about.

I think it’s fair to start with... the fact that Allen was originally a girl. Or more- when Hoshino pinched the idea to Shounen Jump she made a one shot with a main character called Robin. Here you can find it. And Robin... was an akuma. A girl in a boy’s body. Long story short, you can read the one shot if you hadn’t yet - but ye that was originally the character we were going with.It’s to argue that it would make a point for Robin planned as a transwoman in those instances.

According to the Gray Arc however, when the series became serialized, her editors were against the idea, because “No one would care if a girl would be crying”. That’s litterally word for word the reasoning. So Hoshino had to scrap it.

and she mentions quickly that it was one of the reasons she had no idea what to do with Allen to start with. He kinda started with him being a revamp of her character. (What I admire a lot with Hoshino is how much Her Vision can be affected by little things? Like how Lenalee became an entiere different person in her head the moment her editors forced her to have her with long hair.)

There’s also the elephant in the room that considering the timeperiod it was originally written. DGM was originally published with some big name shounen, Shounen Jump had some control over some choices, would react to fan backlashes (Lenalee being forced to have her hair long again is among those btw) ect... I mean like I think people may take for granted that for instance, the Alma arc was a complete anomaly when it came out in 2009/2010. That it had like. Major effects on fanbases. I’ve seen so much dudebros yell at this arc while i was thriving my friend. And tbh before the Alma arc DGM was often lurped in the “basic Shounen” category. A lot of people argued about the tropes it had to follow or not, and if this sort of things had any impact on the writting of the manga earlier? I can see how things wouldn’t go smoothly.(The Alma arc rooted out all the bad dudebros i’ve known of though. I don’t even care what people’s reaction nowadays are to it, to me back then, from the experience i got from fandom, it was revolutionary when it came out.)

I’ve stired away sorry, but Lenalee also works better, bc I know Hoshino fought for the Alma’s arc and that her editors didn’t agree with the direction she was taking. But if you read some of the interviews of the Grey Arc specifically, you see that Hoshino was constantly told how to rewrite Lenalee to fit a male audience sort of. Her editor pushed her to have long hair bc “that’s the kind of idol he found cute”, there was a complete backlash when Hoshino managed to cut her hair, the fans supported the editors, Hoshino talks all about it with such a bummer because “her Lenalee” had short hair. (also during that specific interview her editor calls her a moron. Later on she got called very annoying for sassing her editors after they called her dumb when she had a writter block writting the 14th song, and she sassed them asking for help going “since you’re far more intelligent than me-”. And the editor failled hard, Hoshino didn’t even use his writting, and the editor insulted her for being bossy. Needless to say I’ve since then been filled with anger with how the early days of DGM must have been hard on Hoshino).

I’m forced to make this preface because I truly think it would have affected Allen’s writting had he been a woman. 

If i’m optimistic i would like to think that nothing much would change because Allen’s writting kinda transend genders. But If i’m realistic i know it wouldn’t have happened.

As for Lavi specifically (wouh 7 paragraphs in and i’m finally touching the point of this post) the thing is that he also has a soft spot for women. (I mean i personally would argue he describes Dug as “cute” far too much in his novel to be 100% straight but he at least show his attraction to women more easily in the manga). 

And ye he does tend to treat the women differently but he also doesn’t... have a lot of women to be around to. I mean Lenalee whom he respects (and can be worried Komui will kill him if he tries anything), Miranda that he kinda met at the wrong time? He was always so overly serious around her because he was griefing and we didn’t see him with her at all since he got better. Aside then from his occasional crushes, that he does let himself feel, he didn’t really have an opportunity to spend more time with those women.

My point is just that the women he had met don’t help us set up a patern about how he treats them more casually: in term of pranks for exemple. Like in the day-by-day, we only have Lenalee and Miranda, and pranking Lenalee would be really putting a target on him to be murdered by Komui, while I would argue that Miranda’s anxiety (and the circumstances in which Lavi met her) would make him go softer on her. It doesn’t mean we know for sure he wouldn’t tease a woman in his peer surrounding in others circumstances.

I would love to think he would make an exception for Allen if only because of the timing: He was still handling Dug’s recent death and I think even if Allen was a woman the parallelisms would be there for him to be bitter. 

I want to think that because of that Lavi would still have teased Allen normally like he teases guys. But it’s not impossible that he would have treated Allen differently.

I think eventually like... If Lavi recognizes his soft spot for women (that it is with his strikes and whatever) he might actually be more ready to keep a guard up around them? Like I personally think he has a major soft spot for Lenalee but it took eventually Allen shaking everything up for him to acknowledge this soft spot. That he would have otherwise just protected himself against.

That, the reason our Allen was so effective was that Lavi really, really didn’t expect anything like that. and I think expectations would have been his doom, and I am inclined to think if allen had been a woman, he would have had some expecations.

Regardless: The major plot points that changed Lavi’s mind on Allen were emotionally driven and would still have had the same impact had Allen be a girl, i’m convinced of that. 

So it’s only on how he would treat that Allen more casually. And tbh... considering how vicious Allen can be, I feel like if Lavi treated her “more softly”, Allen’s reactions would probably have ended up with Lavi going “nevermind she’s a prick” and tease her just like he teases our Allen. I mean just taking the Vampire’s arc, with a whole joke about when Allen got bitten and that Lavi was lowkey scared because of that that Allen would turn into a vampire- in the term of, Allen being a danger to him. And Allen therefore sassing him because Lavi was being a moron. I don’t see how the gender would have changed anything, and if Lavi did treat Allen softly “as a girl”, I think this sort of things would have stopped him dead in his track as in “ye no she’s a PRINK where is my sharpy i’m gonna draw on her face.”

But that’s wishful thinking. I honestly don’t know and I think a lot of this post is more how i’m tryng to reason it. 

I’m sure more people would be more able to pinpoint exactly the characters and how it would work. I think i can’t ignore what went down backstage in term of the women’s writtings  so i cannot help but let it affect how I would see the manga as written by Hoshino be affected by it. But also perhaps if Hoshino had managed to keep her female main character, she could have gone more “fuck you” to her editors and manage to flesh her out to a point where half of what i’m worrying about wouldn’t even matter. 

If we divorce the story from the backstage stuff, perhaps there would be a complete different take to have - and it’s cool if people get to explore it. I am just... not the one placed for that.

I used to be good at transformative media, like headcanons and fics, and let those a little take over, but I got kinda insecure of my interpretations so i started to rely on canon a lot more. I already get insecure when I push my interpretations of canon too far. So something that really get me out of my comfort zone is not where you’d find the best answers about that, i’m sorry. 

But hey i hope this ask made sense? If not for the second half, at least for the half where I mention the backstages issues.

Take care!

[euphoricfilter]

I'M SO ANNOYED AT THIS ANON. HOW DID THEY MAKE SUCH A TRASH TAKE ON THE BEST FIC EVER WTF??! DID THEY READ PROPERLY WTF?? OR UNDERSTAND HOW LOVE, JEALOUSY, AND OTHER EMOTIONS WORK?? They sound so pathetic omg. Why did they "read" this fic and then say the worst things omg? Hollyhomburg is so much nicer than me for calmly explaining it so well in their reply.

Ooh this ask gets so long. Sorry lol. I love bily so much omg. Tempted to send this or shorter (and prob nicer lol) version of this to hollyhomburg but they haven't replied to my ask on agreeing about the "manipulative" mc thing so idk hm. (They do seem to be answering more asks recently though wow)

Thoughts on this ask and the stuff I say further down?

Tbf I misunderstood Jimin with his last secret. Update: I think I don't dislike him anymore after getting to understand how he handles self-hatred. It's so sad TT I stil think Jimin and mc need to talk about it more for Jimin's sake and have some 1-on-1 bonding to fully resolve this issue for me though. They've felt awkward and distant since Tae's secret came out imo. We get Yoongi and Tae in the next ch though yay!! Sad that not every relationship is happy and romantic rn. But it's realistic that some relationships are slower to develop than others. And hollyhomburg would prob struggle to write a bunch of relationship developments at the same time. People (including me lol) need to be patient. and trust in the love and care the pack has for each other.

And the mc being "manipulative" part is instinctual to her according to hollyhomburg. It's understandable that people feel confused or interpreted it wrongly. But mc is a precious lil baby. I don't think it's bad that she is "manipulative" by acting cute and appealing to the alpha's instincts. Both sides are happy when she's being cute and lovely. (Did I interept this right??) And she doesn't have any ulterior motives at any point of the fic imo. Hollyhomburg also said this and that most of it is just how Jimin sees it. Jimin is just a paranoid boy :/

And Yoongi is a sweet boy. And Yoongi and mc went through some TRAUMA. (the trauma and how it affects them was written so well. how can you not understand and love these 2 omg) YOONGI HAS BEEN WORKING FOR MONTHS (AND STILL IS WORKING) ON MAKING A PERFECT CUSTOM COMFY HOUSE FOR ALL OF THEM! ACTS OF SERVICE KING. And there is so much explained in the fic about these two compared to Jimin and the other boys. I will only agree that Yoongi seems distant to the other boys and it's kinda sad. But I believe that they all love and care for each other. And the relationship between Yoongi and the boys will slowly develop into a happy, loving relationship again.

Was I too harsh on this anon? (I may have gotten too emotional idk. I am very protective over irl and bily Yoongi as well as bily mc so yeah lol. Hollyhomburg wrote all of bily pack to be so precious but I love these two even more) This anon seems so dumb to totally not understand how mc and Yoongi think...Only excuse I'll give is if they don't understand abo, mating mark, polyamory, and love in fics omg... Also please don't tag this under bily and my anon tag. Feels wrong to have negativity under these tags even if this anon is totally wrong omg.

-🖤

i think maybe they don’t understand the complexity of emotions?? i really don’t get it 🥲 and to sit there and write an ask about it as well AND sending it in 😭

holly is an angel i would have just laughed

i think that maybe they haven’t grasped the fact that like real people, the characters holly has written are more than just surface level, black and white emotions like a lot of stories show— they’ve taken time to delicately craft each of their characters in BILY

i think that holly has done well with the pacing of all the relationships, and it’s come off very realistic of what a poly relationship would look like from my understanding. not everyone is gonna fall head-first into love, it’s not always going to linear and i think that this series has shown that everyone falls in love in different ways and for different reasons. that emotions are complicated, the selfishness that comes with thinking about people you love while giving so much without maybe their understanding

from what i get, the m/c being manipulative comes from survival instinct, that maybe even she isn’t aware that she’s doing it, it’s something that kind of just happened, a habit that she can’t break. old habits die hard and i don’t think her initial intent is malicious in any way i think she’s honestly just scared and from what’s happened to her in the past i think she’s just trying to protect herself. i think for jimin, he knows where she was before the pack, he knows the people she was associated with and it’s only fair that he’s paranoid when they’re both very very good at masking emotions and turning a blind eye to things that maybe shouldn’t be brushed over. i’d assume that jimin is also aware that if she really did want to harm any of the pack for whatever reason she probably would have done so by now (i think it’s just his love for tae that has his skepticism spiked)

in the reply to that ask holly worded yoongi’s thought process and actions very well. maybe the person that sent in the ask hasn’t experienced any sort of past trauma themselves and therefore glazed over the complexity of emotions after such a traumatic event? idk the original ask came off a little tone death like they hadn’t considered each of the characters and their individual perspectives and past trauma

in yoongi’s defense he lost contact with the rest of the pack to protect them from his family, and i think naturally, even if you love someone a lot, a loss of contact for months is gonna put a standstill in the relationship, like the m/c, yoongi has been through so so much and like holly explains there’s always been slight favoritism, it was always, and will always be tae and jimin, just like jin and namjoon. sure the m/c and yoongi were thrusted into a relationship with doom hanging over them but there was love, and as much as yoongi loved the pack he’d learnt to love another even if their situation hadn’t been the most ideal. and as much as the m/c was reserved at the start, meeting the pack i think yoongi is slowly learning to love all of them again even if he already knows how, i think it’s about him finding comfort in a place where everything could still be somewhat uncertain

i don’t think he’s wrong either for the slight jealousy he feels, he probably felt like a hero, a pretty shitty one but having just the two of them survive for so long as suddenly your soulmate is being bombarded with 6 times the love than he was giving must be hard for him. and as holly explained it’s jealousy in the sense he’s scared he won’t be useful anymore and just :( poor yoongs, i’m glad they’re spending more time together now i love yoongi x m/c content

i think maybe that the anon had only surface level view of the story, maybe hadn’t thought about it from a new perspective, either the author’s, or the characters in the book, or read other people’s thoughts and feelings and similar experiences to those in the story or they themselves haven’t experienced anything that could help them sympathize with these characters, having a very black and white perspective of complex characters and emotions

[we-future-first]

Ai in songs

At this point in human history, we are at the dawn of a new technological age. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is considered by many to be the next step in the advancement of humanity’s technology. The idea of AI possibly taking over certain areas of the job market has already spawned fierce discussion over the potential consequences of introducing such a impactful entity. I question, however, the possibility of AI finding a place in the instrumental music industry. AI could not replace a musician in an orchestra, band, or any music ensemble because it would not be doing the music or the composers justice. This instrumental music was composed so that it could be performed by humans. After all, the goal of music is that it is supposed to have an effect on the human listener. This is the only reason why we have created, and will keep on making, music. It is not just there for the sake of it, rather, it is there to play with the human emotion. The main reason why I believe no AI can be a competent musician stems from what it takes to be a good musician. To be a musician, one must be able to fuse their creativity and emotion into the music while at the same time respect the type of style of the music. An example of this is in the opera “Don Pasquale”. There is a trumpet solo which tries to resemble the troubled fate of an old man, Ernesto. After he witnesses his bride-to-be’s true likeness, which is full of greed and jealousy, he expresses his sorrows out to the audience. The trumpet solo is full of contrasting emotions like sadness, hope, anger, and longing which at the same time has a sense of vulnerability. No AI could ever fuse this much emotion into one phrase and at the the same time play along with other musicians. Just like not having the ability to have complex emotions, AI also has another limit in it’s programming. Musicians have to adjust their playing all the time in order for their sound to match the sound of the ensemble. These adjustments may seem insignificant but in the professional world, they are mandatory. A musician can adjust their pitch if they need to play in tune with the ensemble. Something that most people don't know is that your first priority is playing with the ensemble; if the ensemble is out of tune slightly, you must match them in their “wrong” pitch. If not, you sound out of tune. A musician must also be able to react to a conductors interpretation of the music, which varies from conductor to conductor. In both of these instances, an AI musician could not react appropriately because it does not have human reason. AI would be programmed to be perfect all the time; a musician like that could never work with other musicians because the AI could never compromise, which is an integral part of playing. Hypothetically, if a musician were to be playing in an orchestra and the group sped up a bit, any human would come to the logical conclusion that he/she needs to follow the group. AI would be steadfast on playing at the right tempo because they would be programmed to be perfect. The audience would hear one player playing slightly off beat, leading to the conclusion that someone is playing incorrectly. Instruments are very vulnerable and high maintenance which means a musician must treat his/her instrument with the utmost care. Maintaining instruments to the highest degree is an art form that, if done improperly, can lead to a betrayal in a performance. For valve instruments like a trumpet or a tuba, this means oiling your valves, greasing slides, and polishing necessary areas. String musicians have it much harder. They must replace worn strings, apply rosin to their bows, and must tighten the hair on the bow when needed. Anything less can lead to missed notes or even worse, damaging an instrument. If an instrument needed maintenance, AI could not troubleshoot the problematic instrument like a normal object. Some of these instruments are irreplaceable. As well as maintenance, instruments must also be handled properly. An example of this possible damage can be seen with a 1772 violin made by Giovanni Guadagnini, the apprentice of Antonio Stradivari. Currently, it is speculated that Stradivari built around 1600 instruments himself by hand; 900 of those instruments are still around today. After being being transported on a plane in it’s case, this violin sustained damages that included a large crack that ran through the whole back of the violin. While there could be human error involved in this instance, it still shows how delicate instruments can be. AI could not be trusted to the same degree as a trained musician. In the eyes of musicians, these instruments are more than just pieces of equipment that you can replace. Because musicians are in contact with their instruments virtually all the time, a bond forms between them. When violinist Philippe Quint was traveling to New York, he was stepping out of his cab while traveling with his Stradivarius Violin. Before Philippe could get his violin, the cab sped off with his $4 million instrument. He was quoted saying in a Vox interview “It’s like losing apart of yourself, you know its like someone cutting off your hand.” After the antagonizing ordeal, the violin was recovered and he named the violin “Ruby”. If you have ever listened to music live, you know how different it sounds compared to a recording. Live music has that certain wash-over effect on the listener that lets him/her feel like they were in that time period. When an orchestra plays Shostakovich, the intensity of the music and the nervousness of the notes played by the strings can cause goose-bumps. If played appropriately, this work can make you feel that you are in the middle of the Stalin’s reign of terror in Soviet Union. If a robot were to play the instruments, how could it possibly do the composer justice? This piece of music was composed in defiance of the Soviet government and was the embodiment of the struggle of the people under a Communist dictator. How could a robot relate to that? Granted, AI will have the ability to make music using instruments but, the pushback from the music community will be harsh and firm. Musicians in instrumental sectors of music have a hard enough time supporting themselves in a super competitive job market. There is a long running joke in the music community that people who go into music are so addicted to making music that they don’t realize the pay gap. A teacher of mine once told me that “You need to be in the situation where you cannot imagine yourself not playing your instrument. If that does not directly apply to your mindset, you will not be in a good place 10 years from now.” People do not need AI musicians to crowd the business even more. Musicians are not in this business to make money. They are musicians because they love playing music. It is why they started playing their instruments before they could do simple arithmetic; it is why they are willing to practice for about 4-6 hours a day; it is why they try to master their craft and try to improve their playing; it is why they are willing to have other side jobs to support themselves and their families. Even if AI could reasonably play an instrument, they could never match a human musician in talent, dedication, and passion. Music is not being played in our lives just to be there. It is humanity’s way of expressing itself.

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