#Like genre subversion. That’s the only time that works

[ciderjacks]

I made this bc I feel like I actually love horror more than most people it’s just that most horror movies think they need to kill characters off or it’s not scary, which ironically actually usually means the movie is way less scary

[linisiane]

The Self-Aware Player of Harry Du Bois

It's fascinating to me to think about how satire is used as the 'touch grass' or 'be fucking for real' genre. Oftentimes it's making fun of tropes/conventions by humorously contrasting them with reality, which is exactly what Disco Elysium is doing with the RPG!

It goes hand in hand with the idea of RPGs as escapist power fantasy. RPGs are often thought of as the ultimate self-insert fantasy by its detractors or worst players, ahem looking at all those DND horror stories about entitled mangsty murderhobos.

One of the most infamous criticisms of Disco Elysium is its lackluster combat.

ID A screenshot of a random forum discussion post by dungeon master Zed Duke of Banville. It reads: "Disco Elysium has neither combat nor exploration, and therefore is missing two of the three fundamental components (or sets of components) that define the RPG genre." End ID

The game has essentially bordered off your ability to make Harry into a power fantasy murderhobo because you just are physically unable to equip an longsword or cuisse to murder your average citizen on the street of Martinaise.

But even on a less mangsty level, it subverts a lot of the basic expectations of RPGs.

Like the encounter with the racist lorry driver! You never get the ability or quest to change his mind, you only choose how you react to him.

Where other RPGs might let you act as the white savior or the white knight of chivalric romance, no questions asked, you're changing the minds of everybody who's wrong so we can all get along, Disco Elysium really makes you confront your ability to whiteknight, makes you confront if whiteknighting is even helpful, and why you wanted to whiteknight in the first place.

It’s part of the fun/humor experience of Disco Elysium that you at first expect to solve the world’s problems with a couple quests and lines of ‘good’ dialogue and then get socked in the faced with the fact that yeah, you can’t do much, you’re one person, what did you expect, asshole? Cuno doesn't fucking care!

By subverting our RPG expectations, it forces us to become more aware that these expectations even exist and how they fall short of reality. Yet, despite this subversion, the world of Disco Elysium feels so much realer to us.

ID a screenshot of Disco Elysium dialogue YOU - "Don't call it a dump, you've made it nice and cosy here." NOVELTY DICEMAKER - "Yeah." She stares out of the window, not really hearing your words. "Or maybe it's the entire world that's cursed? It's such a precarious place. Nothing ever works out the way you wanted." "That's why people like role-playing games. You can be whoever you want to be. You can try again. Still, there's something inherently violent even about dice rolls." "It's like every time you cast a die, something disappears. Some alternative ending, or an entirely different world...." She picks up a pair of dice from the table and examines them under the light. End ID

Like, Neha is highlighting this little meta element of how you can stack your Harry in any RPG to pursue a certain ending or situation, but the actual outcome is still influenced by a dice roll out of your control.

A lot of the satirical humor in Disco Elysium comes from the absurdity that you can do everything right or everything wrong, and the dice can still fuck it up or save it for you—not just for things like high-fantasy attacks, but mundane things like remembering your name.

The dice are, at their core, about how RPGs aren't just for the control fantasy, of winning high-fantasy battles, but also can represent life as it is, mundane and uncontrollable.

Similarly, Harry is clearly written—complete with all the 'lore' that this would entail—to couch his RPG protagonist nature in the real.

If RPG characters are blank slates? Let's give ours amnesia! Need fast travel?! Kim teases the 41st Precinct for constantly running everywhere by calling it the Jamrock Shuffle. He needs to have deep and intimate conversations with everyone, even when they're strangers? Yeah, that's so weird we gave him the name 'Human Can-Opener,' and everybody remarks on his uncanny manipulation skills.

It's commenting on difference between controlling an RPG avatar and navigating in a human body.

As Kurvits said: “In reality we do not have control, or complete control, of our minds. Just like our body, it is something that we give-not even commands wishes to, and we hope it's gonna do it. We hope it's not gonna break down, we hope it's not gonna rebel against us.”

In one type of RPG fantasy, we don't even question our total control and even assume the joy is from the control.

But in Disco Elysium, we lack control and find joy in it anyway. That is the fun of the game making us, the players, 'self-aware' about its RPG elements, and it especially resonates with anybody not able-bodied, anybody neurodivergent.

[kiirotoao]

Stranger Things and The Princess Bride Headcanons

So I just randomly thought about The Princess Bride in the shower then went on a spiral about it and this happened (BTW if you’ve not seen this movie PLEASE DO! Captivating, subversive, funny, heartfelt, goofy in all the right places, this is one of the only movies I think I’d recommend anyone to watch no matter what genre you prefer)!

Dustin and Lucas become obsessed with this movie after they watch it at 16 (the movie was released 1987)

They manage to reference it in every campaign that they DM for

Dustin and Lucas reference “inconceivable” on the daily

They also fight over who gets to be Inigo whenever they reenact the big ending duel

They seriously bicker about it for minutes on end in the middle of campaigns sometimes and Mike is just moaning to Will like why do they both want to be called Indigo Montana or whatever his name is

Mike is last to see it and he refuses to watch it because Dustin and Lucas are so annoying about it until Will tells him it’s good and then he gives in

A year after its release Dustin and Lucas have seen it 15-20 times

They don’t tell each other when they watch it until the next day and so it becomes a competition who’s seen it the most and it almost causes them to fail big exams because they’re so invested in rewatching the film

Max denies that she enjoys the movie because the romance is cheesy (she loves it)

Will accidentally caught her watching it and they’ve kept it a secret and inside joke ever since

El loves the movie because of the romance

El gets so worried over Buttercup too and gets so happy when she gets her happy ending :,)

Erica genuinely doesn’t like the film at first but she was just distracted making important friendship bracelets the first time

She liked it after a proper rewatch but doesn’t dare to reference it lest she set off her obsessed older brother

But she makes him an Inigo Montoya figurine for his birthday the same year

Inigo is Lucas’ favorite character and he loves the great line “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.” (He annoys the life out of Erica repeating it to her when he wants to bother her)

Will is lowkey into Inigo and Mike is lowkey into Wesley (they deny their resemblances to each other)

Bob would’ve loved The Princess Bride :,((((

The Byers watch it together in his honor

On that note Joyce loves it too, especially the wholesome story of the grandfather and the grandson’s “as you wish”

Meanwhile The Party flirt with it like Wesley’s version all the time - Dustin to Suzie, Lucas to Max, and Mike to Will

Now Murray claims to not like the film, he doesn’t like how “the story goes all over the place”

But he does understand every reference and sometimes even accidentally speaks in them (he calls a demodog an R.O.U.S.)

Hopper thinks that Buttercup resembles his ex too much so he doesn’t ever watch the film fully

Steve and Robin watch it while working in Family Video and get pretty invested

Although Dustin talks about it nonstop to Steve after he sees it and Steve considers filing a cease and desist lmao

[ride-thedragon]

Nettles and Race.

George is great at both analysing and subverting genre tropes. We see this with his portrayal of the Targaryens as bad white blonde powerful elf like people. Or his understanding consistently in his works that beauty doesn't equal morality. This is surface level, and he does have his shortcomings (how he portrays the Dothraki in a lot of aspects, etc) but I find it really interesting the amount of tropes and conventions he addresses and subverts with Nettles specifically in such a short span of the book. George uses specific racial imagery with Nettles that we don't see often from him, in short. Here's a list:

Implementation and Subversion

1. The most unlikely is, the most unlikely:

Oftentimes, in fantasy stories, the least likely is a white disenfranchised person. The majority of the time, it's because they are poor or treated poorly. Nettles is a black girl who is poor, orphaned, and marked for thieving, and none of that hinders her own feat of claiming a dragon or the accepting initially that she does. She's unlikely, extremely unlikely, the most unlikely choice.

2. Black girls are allowed to feel:

Nettles cries and grieves. Of all the dragonseeds, she's the only one positioned to feel remorse and loss after the Battle of Driftmark. She is foul-mouthed (though not written into the narrative) and fearless. Often times their is a need for black women to be strong (not have access to their emotions) or angry (the only emotion they're allowed because they're "loud"). Nettles is crass and sensitive. She's multifaceted.

3. White people don't center black narratives:

Typically, black characters in fantasy are centred around white protagonists. Nettles distinctly isn't when you focus on her. This is different from being impacted. To be impacted means you're a part of the plot. To have someone be centred in your narrative would be for your existence in the narrative to entirely depend on your relationship with them. You don't exist outside of them. Nettles does. She has an entire life up until she claims Sheepstealer without any intervention from the Targs, and after she leaves the main narrative of Fire and Blood, she has a life. This is even in a Targaryen history book.

4. Black girls deserve to be protected and loved:

Nettles is protected by the men around her in the narrative. Oftentimes, this is something not afforded to black characters, far less for black women in fantasy narratives, but she is protected. Not just by Daemon, who is someone who has extreme emotional stakes with her but by the men of Maidenpool and Lord Corlys. All of whom are white in the books. Nettles is protected by men unquestioningly. They may decide how to do it or have a bigger motive, but protecting her is never a question.

5. Promiscuity questioned:

Nettles is never shown to be a promiscuous character through an unbiased lens. Every time a person brings up Nettles' sex, it's through the lens of necessity or heavily implied to be a dramatic assumption. The two biggest cases, "her raising her skirts for sheep" by Septon Eustace is counteracted by the fact that she's marked as a thief and claims a dragon called Sheepstealer who she's likened to in the narrative and by Rhaenyra who is disproven from her "she seduced the prince with spells" theory by both the men of Maidenpool who don't believe her and Daemon who let's Nettles go. Anytime her promiscuity is presented, it's immediately questioned by who we are told she is.

6. White women tears:

Historically and in fiction, the tears of a white woman are enough to derail any existence of a black character permanently or are at least meant to. Black people, fictional or real, are consistently tormented with the notion of white woman tears or emotional outbursts. Their actions cause a major consequence with white women. With Rhaenyra, this would be Nettle slowing her head for her suspicions. Nettles does not and gets away from. The narrative. This is unheard of. In fantasy doesn't occur because most times, the black woman would be punished, but in fandom, this idea is also reflected in the call for Nettles to be replaced.

7. Relationship with the lead man:

Daemon, for better or worse, is the lead man of the dance. Nettles finds herself attached to him in a relationship that seems, for lack of a better word loving. They seem comfortable, happy, and he's doting towards her. They spend all their time together, and it's paralleled with his other 'living' relationships as well. She's portrayed as his last great love and in the universe, the singers say as much. Issues aside, this is rare. (Martha Jones, I'm sorry I wasn't your writer)

8. Power and Worship:

Nettles is worshipped and seems to become a Goddess in her own right at the end of her narrative departure. Nettles is viewed as a deity because of the power she claimed by herself. Revolutionary. Also it isn't some blink and you can avoid it thing. It ties into the main story of Game of Thrones and her clan, the Burned men helping Tyrion Lannister.

9. Mammy, Sapphire Jezabel ext:

Mammy: Maternal black woman. Lives to serve white people and nothing else.

Sapphire: Rude, loud, stubborn, malicious, 'dumb' black women, nothing else.

Jezabel: raw, sexual, can barely restrain their sexuality and live to tempt (white) men. Nothing else.

Not once does Nettles tie into any of these tropes without it being questioned in the narrative or simply ignored in her story. So many representations of black women, especially in fantasy, fall into the first two or friend not lover trope, help mate trope, etc. anything that justifies their existence by tying them to white characters with no other outlook. Nettles subverts this.

10. Season of the Witch:

Black witches and their history save me. Black witches and their history save. This aligns itself with African spiritually and the otherness assigned to enslaved women who practised both 'witchcraft' and medicinal herbology for lack of a better word.

Witchcraft is also often tied to the imagery of the irresistible black woman as it's almost inhuman to be that attracted to black women when white women are available.

So when it's said that Nettles is a witch, imagery similar to the justifications of white women during slavery are being invoked but not followed through because no one believes her.

11. Disposable Black Love interest

This is also a big issue across genres with black chapters. It happens with Laena in the show as well. When the plot calls for it (or in a lot of cases fans) you dispose of the black love interest in place of a white one. Nettles removal from the narrative immediately calls for both Daemon's and Aemond's removal from the narrative. She isn't disposable. She's a linchpin. Also, Daemon does not go back to Rhaenyra after Nettles leaves. He just dies.

12. Nothing Special:

Magical black negros that helps the protagonist, welcome to your tape.

The magical black negros trope is this convention within fantasy where a black character will appear only to be an aid to a white character by their use of magic. They don't exist or have a life outside this purpose. Nettles could've fallen into this trap.

The idea that she isn't Valyrian could have easily been tied with the spells angle outside Rhaenyra’s bias. Instead of that, however, we get the idea that Nettles is just smart and interesting. She's allowed to be smart and interesting. The narrative defends her being smart and interesting.

She might not be Valyrian. She might not be a witch or seductress. She might be just a really clever girl who defies the odds and conventions.

Conclusion

I think Nettles was both an active effort on George's part to defy conventions and subevert stereotypes and tropes as well as a way to question his reader's bias. Nettles is often reduced to trivial, replaceable, and minor when she's not. You just have to want to pay attention to her.

[bengiyo]

We Must All Get Louder and Gayer About La Pluie Immediately

I understand that this show only airs on iQIYI and that most of us canceled that after KinnPorsche and/or Love in the Air, but I’m gonna need y’all to re-up those subscriptions and get on this train right now. This and Step By Step have been some of the most intriguing romance explorations we’ve had in the realm of Thai BL in a long time, and you are missing out on this incredibly breakdown of the soulmate and fast romance tropes that I’ve ever experienced.

I’ve seen some consternation about whether this show is honoring or defying conventions within romance and BL, and I don’t think that’s the most enjoyable way to engage with a piece of media in a mature genre. I think it’s more useful to ask questions like:

How is this show using those conventions?

What do these conventions fit?

What new things have we learned about ourselves or the genre as a result?

We’ve been unpacking the soulmate idea from the very beginning (@lurkingshan). The show upended our expectations about that from the opening scenes by showing us a romantic man who doubts in his own romantic destiny because his parents divorced. The show has then gone on to state quite plainly that it believes that the hearing loss connection is entirely coincidental, and that what people do in their relationships with other people is what matters the most.

We are sitting in the audience, and so we know that this is a romance. We fully understand that Tai and Patts will more than likely be together at the end of this story. What that knowledge and expectation allows the show to poke at the development of relationships in dramas. The characters are in a slow burn romance, but everyone in their lives doesn’t think they should be! That’s been incredibly fascinating because we so often see BL characters rushed into a relationship with each other that we are always surprised when they aren’t (Bad Buddy, My School President, Bed Friend). It’s been incredibly enjoyable for me to see a romance refuse to rush their characters into commitment with each other.

My good friend @lurkingshan wrote about this subversion of tropes and expectations this morning as they pertain to Lomfon. She makes the point that we expected Lomfon to be a bigger factor going into episode 7 than he was, and that’s also I think part of the point. He’s not a threat to the core romance, but he does have a role to play in this story. For me, I think he’s here to reinforce that skepticism and doubt are critical to making any sort of relationship or belief system function. Your ability to handle new challenges and things that confuse you are critical to being able to maintain a commitment. It doesn’t work if it’s forced.

As for misunderstandings, this show also continues to be intentional about this. As far back as episode 4, Dream chided Patts for not making things clear with Nara. Patts listened but hoped that his non-answer would be enough for Nara. Likewise, Bow has warned Tai twice about Lomfon’s clear desire for him, and how by not making things clear Tai may also face difficulties.

This comes to a head this week with Nara. I agree with @ginnymoonbeam that Nara’s return lets the narrative blow up Tai’s uncertainties he’s left bubbling since the beginning. I personally love Nara’s reintroduction here because Tai is romantic and because he genuinely seemed to like Nara. He liked that she still knew how to take care of her ex. He liked the determination she showed to travel all the way to Chiang Mai to pursue him. He was rooting for her! Even if he misunderstands the kiss, it’s not really about the kiss. It’s about the fact that someone he admires cares for Patts, and he likely worries that he’s the reason they didn’t work out. He’s also still questioning if the mutual attraction between himself and Patts can be trusted.

Moving on to the intimacy, I wrote last week about the way this show has made it clear that these are two men interested in each other. Following up on that this week, we entered an incredible liminal space in their relationship. Patts signaled earlier in the episode when they first got to their room that he is hoping to pick up where they left off with their last intimate moment. Both went into this bed fully aware of the sexual tension between them.

Tai is the one who opens the door this time by first offering the massage and then initiating the kiss. Things heat up between them, with Tai again on top to remain in control of the situation, something @shouldiusemyname points out here. Tai once again asks Patts to stop when he moves to escalate the encounter, but Tai shows Patts that he is interested in him. He offers to help him out by performing the act that Patts was most certainly going to do last week. This is incredibly fascinating for me, because I have always asserted that bottoms are the ones in most control of an encounter. I do not read Tai choosing to take care of Patts as him giving up control in any way. In fact, it’s a way for him to further maintain it. He reassures Patts that he is happy to be here and lets them release the tension of the moment.

Also, I just absolutely lose it over the lip flick.

gif by @pharawee​

Once again, I cannot overstate how radical it is for me to see a show saying that the one performing the act is the one in control of the encounter, and has the character who’s feeling unsure use that as a way to explore their own feelings. Tai needed to know that he likes making Patts happy. Please list the other BLs that have done this with sex in the notes. It’s not very often we get this!

Also, look at this man. This is not the face of a man who is being coerced. This is the afterglow of two people navigating their intimate relationship (@ginnymoonbeam).

He’s literally rubbing his hand because as they spoon because he’s so relieved.

I also just absolutely love Patts. I love that he keeps leaving notes for Saengtai to make sure he knows where they are.

Look at him walking around the next morning. He seems pleased...like a man can seem pleased.

We just never get this kind of stuff in genre. This is a classic romance of the Nora Roberts variety that’s allowing us to show two men navigating their romance and intimacy on their terms while also showing that even fated mates must be good partners to each other. This is a story that loves romance and loves the conventions of the drama. It is approaching each thread with clear-eyed conviction, and we as queer viewers deserve this.

So, I’m going to need you all to get louder, weirder, and gayer about this show. We gotta get more people on this one. We can’t let this show be forgotten because it’s not on YouTube.

Once again, thank you for coming to my post.

tagging @wen-kexing-apologist​ and @kyr-kun-chan​ for all the conversation we’ve had about this show.

[overlymetaromantic]

do you have any tips for starting a webcomic?

Ooh, I can try! I'm actually genuinely really passionate about webcomics as a genre so sorry if this gets a bit rambly lol:

There's no wrong way to make a comic! Webcomics in particular I feel are basically always passion projects, and you should make it in a way that makes you happy. The only way to do art "wrong" is to create in a way that actively hurts you (i.e. stretch properly, don't pin your emotional stability on strangers online, etc. lolol).

You yourself should be your #1 priority in who you are making your comic for. Your friend of choice should be #2 priority. Write what makes you laugh, put in all your favorite tropes (or your favorite subversions of those tropes), create the kind of ships you enjoy shipping in other media! Have fun! Your joy will shine through, and it's always better to let readers who resonate with your passion find you rather than attempting vice versa, aka trying to write what you think an imaginary audience might be passionate about.

When it comes to the actual process, I'd personally recommend trying to choose a story that you love but that you also feel okay giving like 75% effort to, especially if it's a first time experience. Your love will carry you through a LOT, but it has to be a project you can say, "This is good enough" to if you ever want to get anything done lmao.

Understand your personal workflow, like how long it takes you to finish a panel or a page, what parts of the process you enjoy, what parts you dislike, and what personally satisfies you as a final product. The more you understand how you work, the better you can tailor your comic in a way that supports your preferred workflow.

Webcomics by their nature take a LONG time to complete. Be prepared for that! This is one of the biggest reasons why people recommend starting small, and I'll echo that here.

I honestly don't feel qualified to speak towards how to get your comic seen because I got STUPID lucky in having others share it for me in a way that resulted in it taking off, but similar to above: Being seen takes a LONG time. Patience pays off, and your audience will find you, however big they are!

If nothing else, you being your own biggest fan means that the mere act of creation can satisfy that desire to be seen. Make the comic YOU want to read, and find joy in being able to read it because YOU made it! Like, you did it!! The fact that you made a thing that wouldn't have existed if you didn't make it is incredible!!!

With all that said, there do seem to be some ways to at least increase your chances of gaming the system of being seen. Regular updates, satisfying end points for your pages, readable panels, and an easily pitch-able concept all make you easier for people to engage with. The first comic I made got updated whenever I finished a chapter, which meant there were months in between updates; by some miracle, it still found readers, but odds are I could have snagged a few more if I'd chosen to do more frequent updates at the cost of less complete-feeling chapters. I chose to prioritize the former because I care more about having chapters that have a good plot flow, but part of why my current comic is structured the way it is, is to have more frequent, regularly scheduled updates. It can also be worth studying the platform you want to post on to see what ways they promote comics, or how readers can find new comics on their site or app!

Good luck!! Have fun!!! Webcomics are frequently solo projects, so I'll reiterate again: make what you want, for you, in whatever way that works best for you. It's all you anyway!

[queenvhagar]

The whole point of Fire and Blood is white supremacy. Viserys didn’t want Argon as king because his blood was not pure enough, he was of “Alicent blood”. So why, if they wanted a black and white moralistic show, they are on the side of white supremacy.

An important thing to recognize, that the writers and fans fail to see, is the fact that GRRM wrote the ASOIAF series as a subversion of common fantasy tropes. Good and just royals, chivalrous and honorable knights who protect the innocent, prophecies as a force for good, enlightened and benevolent magic race of beings, fairytale love stories and happily ever agrees, clear black and white stories of good vs evil... all of these things GRRM wrote to subvert in his books. Royals play their game of thrones and are concerned with their own power most of all, knights are not always good people or honorable and in fact are tools of an oppressive system, no race is inherently superior and believing this drives violence and destruction of those very people, people marry for duty and duty is the death of love, and there are no clear cut black and white conflicts in the real world, just complex and nuanced situations where both sides think they're right and do what it takes to reach their goals for their own reasons. This subversion of fantasy tropes and elements in favor of a realistic exploration of what the sociopolitics of those worlds would be is something that defines the ASOIAF series and sets it apart from the rest. The faithful adaptation of these books and maintenance of those subversions and the integrity of the underlying themes of the works is what made the early seasons of Game of Thrones such outstanding and praiseworthy television.

The writers of House of the Dragon do not see the truth of this. Instead, they have co-opted symbols of fantasy and other surface level elements present in the ASOIAF series and used them to construct a story more in-line with traditional fantasy stories. In their hands, the conflict is a black and white morality tale of good vs evil that presents a magical race of people as superior to others and presents prophecy as an uncritical force for good and justification for a devastating war. Sprinkled in are characteristic yet surface level shock value factors - like incest and extreme violence - that were present in Game of Thrones. Ironically, their writing is antithetical to the ASOIAF series and what GRRM set out to write with his stories. This is the fundamental issue with House of the Dragon and the ultimate failure of its adaptation.

Because the writers and fans have bought into an unsubverted fantasy story, they choose to support a race of people who believe themselves superior to all others and the violence they use to keep control of their subjects. The critical view of fantasy as a genre and stories set in medieval feudalism are entirely lost on them, beyond a surface level, modern viewpoint focusing on one isolated element of oppression that existed in those times. Because the story only focuses solely on the dimension of misogyny as a system of oppression and fails to acknowledge its intersection with other systems of oppression present - racism, classism, and ableism, namely, among others - it fails to fully explore the dimensions of power present in this society and therefore its politics feel limited and messages feel shallow. It's the focus on misogyny and setting aside of all other dimensions of oppression that firmly centers this show on a white feminist perspective, to its detriment.

All of this said, to the first part of your ask: I don't think that was really a reason for Viserys' decision to not make Aegon is heir. Even though it certainly is an instance of him othering his children by Alicent and viewing them as separate from Rhaenyra, he supports Rhaenyra as heir because she is his favorite child and the child of his first wife. The context of the line concerns when Alicent proposes a union between Aegon and Rhaenyra and Viserys dismisses the idea because he thinks her sole motivation is that she wants her own bloodline on the throne, which to be fair to Alicent is what anyone would want in her situation. It's not necessarily of him not having "pure" blood per se. If something like that was really an issue to him, he would have wed a Valyrian, and he did have the option to do just that; instead he married Alicent and has multiple children with her.

Aside from Viserys' wishes, Targaryen supremacy is absolutely linked to white supremacy. And so many choose not to see it in lieu of uncritically seeing Targaryens as actually belonging to a magical, exceptional, and superior race of humans. Their buy-in to this fantasy trope is in opposite to the actual intentions and goals of the original author.

[sarandipitywrites]

Writeblr Intro

(i should probably make one of these, shouldn't i?)

about me:

hi! i'm saran (they/them). i spend 99% of my free time writing, thinking about writing, making playlists for my writing, rotating my other obsessions in my head (currently jak & daxter; voiceplay; and motionless in white), and sometimes spewing those on my blog as well. this is my primary blog (i can barely keep up with this one, so a sideblog is not likely in the near future), so be aware that you'll see everything that spills out of my head/crosses my blog that i feel like sharing. if you're just here for the writing, that's cool, too! all of my original writing is tagged #my writing, and all longform works and snippets are tagged with their titles. i'm open to tag games, asks, and dms for anything and everything, even if you just need to talk 💜

about the writing:

i both read and write most genres, but fantasy and speculative fiction are my favorite (with a heavy dose of monsters and the paranormal, whether the genre otherwise calls for it or not). i write both original fiction and fanfiction. my main characters tend to be queer, neurodiverse, disabled, or all of the above. i write with an adult audience in mind (my writing has a tendency to delve into heavy topics, including mental health issues and societal commentary, and several of my stories contain graphic violence), so while minors are welcome to follow, i would encourage you to self-curate your experience. i try to tag anything potentially triggering, but i am human and sometimes miss things; if you notice anything that you think needs a tag, please do let me know!

general taglist (ask to be added or removed): @innocentlymacabre

find all the links and tags for my work under the cut:

the WIPs:

Spark Signature (wip intro, tag)

Ten years after their best friend's disappearance, Vy'd almost given up on seeing Jules again. But now that he's come back, and with a plan to steal the Foundation for Magitechnical Advancement's most sinister assets, Vy knows they can't let him pursue his vendetta alone. But the interference of Vy's nosy RPG group-slash-found family forces Vy to choose; will they do what they know is right and help Jules infiltrate the Foundation, or will they keep their head down and try to keep their family safe from the inevitable fallout? (high fantasy sci fi; LGBT+; cyberpunk; heist; thriller; original fiction) Taglist (ask to be added or removed): @leah-yasmin-writes, @unrepentantcheeseaddict, @ceph-the-ghost-writer, @mundanemoongirl

The Art of Empty Space (wip intro, tag)

Lienzo's search for a cure for his parent's condition entangles him in a years-old curse with an arcane beast at its heart. As he works to break the curse and free the city of Rookport, he finds an unexpected ally in the beast — and, perhaps, something more. (subversive fairytale; paranormal romance; original fiction)

Taglist (ask to be added or removed): @notwritinganyflufftoday

Dead Roots, Dark Water (wip intro, tag, Ao3)

After two years of genetic experiments at the hands of Haven City's Minister of Science leave him almost unrecognizable, Jak isn't as eager to go home as Daxter would have hoped. Daxter's rescue mission becomes a quest to undo the damage the dark eco experiments inflicted upon Jak's body and psyche — and the only one who can help them is Haven's most beloved public figure, who also happens to be Minister Acheron's twin sister. (adventure; dark fantasy; dystopian; fanfiction - Jak & Daxter)

Taglist (ask to be added or removed): @sam-glade, @televisionjester, @surroundedbypearls, @rivenantiqnerd

the Short Stories:

A Haunted Home

A haunted house gets its latest in a long string of owners. Is it possible to have a QPR with a house? You're about to find out. cw: implied past domestic abuse

Bodies

The Belltown Butcher takes a trophy from each of their victims. Ness survived, but not before the Butcher took their prize. cw: referenced kidnapping, trauma, eye trauma

Loreley

A cartographical ship picks up a distress signal in the unexplored Groombridge 1618 system. Instead of the lost Kasandra, they find a seemingly-habitable planet.

I Am Alive

A group of friends breaks into the local haunted house for an All Hallow's Eve séance. It doesn't go as planned.

[je-lurk]

I am trying to learn french on my own. Do you know any good tv shows or movies in French? (with subtitles or without) I like comedies :)

So, uh. I went maybe a little bit overboard. I just spent an hour on these recs. But the good news is the french films I watched are almost exclusively comedies, so you’ll only get that. (I’ll add here that if you want to chat with someone either in French or about any of these recs (or both) my DMs are wide open)

Films (exclusively French classics):

Louis de Funès : La Soupe aux Choux (personal favorite, I’ve watched it so many times), L’Aile ou la Cuisse, Rabbi Jacob, Le Grand Restaurant… (they’re all very good, I recommend you see the others, they’re mostly classics)

Les Nuls/Alain Chabat : La Cité de la Peur, Asterix et Obélix Mission Cleopatre (2002)… (these two are the most iconic)

Jean Dujardin : The Artist, OSS 117 (Le Caire, Nid d’espion (1) Rio ne répond plus (2). Apparently the 3rd one is a little less good)

Other : La Chèvre, Le Grand Blond avec une chaussure noire, le Père Noël est une ordure, le Dîner de Cons (and truly so many others)

Series:

Kaamelott (never saw it but I know it’s good)

Webseries, if you’re into this:

La Flander’s Company : follows the employees of a company leasing supervillains. 5 seasons, the first one doesn’t seem to add much but it’s important world building. And fun. About 10h total? Automatic subtitles and translation seem to be accurate

Noob : follows the Noob guild in the MMORPG Horizon. It’s exactly what you think it is, it’s gorgeous. 11 seasons, 22h. The progression in production is phenomenal

Le visiteur du futur : self explanatory. A good summary would be: « Regarde ces vidéos ! Sinon, voilà ce qui va se passer ! » 4 seasons, 1 film. I have not seen the film but I heard it’s good. Also much shorter than the others. And it has subtitles!

Questions cône : 2 seasons (should be under 10 hours), +1 that comes out haphazardly. I suggest you only watch the first 2 seasons. Not because the 3rd isn’t good but because it’s a completely new narrative arc and it’s far from being done.

I’ll explain this one a little because I just binged it (again) and I think it can be easy to abandon it because of a certain character (I love him but he begins with 0 redeeming quality) and the humor that can get at times super fucking weird and/or immature (but this what happens when you make videos in the 2010’s).

Anyway, now that I’ve talked about the cons, this series begins as filmmaking tutorials, basically. The story gets weaved into it, in part as an example for the concepts we learn. Let’s keep it spoiler free and just say that the concepts explored are super interesting, and the worldbuilding is imo done extremely well, as it works as a subversion of the "tutorial" genre (and generally of the 2010’s french youtube).

I think you should at least reach ep 13 before deciding whether to drop the series.

Tldr: I love it and I need people to talk about it with because I am going mad, but no pressure. If it’s not for you it’s not for you and it’s fully understandable.

Also, there are some videos in this playlist that do not strictly belong to the series (and even some that have 0 link, except the apparitions of some of the characters). You don’t have to watch them to fully appreciate whatever is going on, but it’s additional character interaction in a framework different from the series.

[mswyrr]

"The Terminator" (1984)

Now that it's 2024, this film is 40 years old (!!!). I thought I'd finally sit down and give it a proper viewing (instead of the bits and pieces I've caught of it over the years) and it holds up very well.

Assorted thoughts:

-It's way more of a Horror movie than I'd expected. I knew Sarah Connor as a kid in her T2 Badass form (and from "Sarah Connor Chronicles"). It's neat to see her begin her journey as a Final Girl

-The deliberate pacing was also unexpected - but rewarding. Cameron does a great job building tension and weaving the deepening understanding of what's going on into that. Starting off a police detective plot only to have the detectives die like punks within minutes of coming up against the Terminator? Great subversion of genre tropes that were popular at the time and very effective in raising the stakes.

-THE ROMANCE. oh. delightful. it unfolds in such a way that you see an entirely new side of Reese - first, learning his first name is Kyle and then his deeper truth, who he is as a person that feels rather than a soldier who exists to kill machines.

-huge kudos to the actor playing kyle as he exposes his vulnerability - "i love you. i always have." and you can see the shifts between the hardened soldier he's had to be and what he's kept of his softness and how much she means to that side of him. the chemistry works v well.

-him being a virgin sort of -- consecrated by fate to love her? carrying her photograph with him. (the photograph where he noticed and felt connected to her 'sadness' - not realizing that, in the moment it will be taken, she is sad over his loss). choosing to go back. makes her side of the 'fated to have a kid together' thing less uneven?? kyle is fate's bitch even more than she is. i thought i'd be bothered by how she's destined to be the mom of an important man. but the way kyle is handled makes it work for me. he carries the tragedy deep in his heart and dies gladly for her and their child, not even knowing the truth about john. gorgeous!

i can see why people point to the sex scene here as an example of one that is beautifully in character and specific and INCREDIBLY PLOT RELEVANT lol like, it's absurd that people say sex shouldn't be in movies because it's "not relevant to the plot" but this is the single most plot relevant sex scene ever loll

i really liked:

-repeated shots of their hands gripping tightly -the way kyle is just drinking her in, in awe of her and this moment -linda hamilton's earthy/sincere performance of female desire and sarah working toward orgasm -the final time their hands grip each other tightly - and then the slow release of their fingers and the way the editor chose to have their hands letting go be a fade to black…. poignant, given what's going to happen 😭

"in the few hours that we had together, we loved a lifetime's worth" - love that quote and everything coming together in the end, as you see how the photograph was taken. lovely tragic romance!

[statementlou]

I genuinely don't know how to describe the bizarre and sublime experience of being in snobby underground indie music scenes and actively working in anarchist social justice movements my entire adult life but then first discovering I fucking loved a pop boy band beyond all reason and most especially Louis Tomlinson and his songwriting/ music (and the musical subversion he brought into the pop genre entirely but also just his personal self yes) IN 2017 when his discography was like... Back To You ft Bebe Rexha, you know? and being like okay but like I am completely on board I will love whatever the fuck he wants to give me... and then spending the next 6 years dying while he one thing at a time was like oh the thing that would most cater to your personal tastes? HAVE THAT- only better because it's LOUIS VERSION- and anyway my boy just got an anarcho tattoo I am dying of both laughing and cheering

[sciderman]

i think deadpool 2 is funnier cuz we’ve seen it less repeatedly, yk? like deadpool 1, the best jokes were in the trailer that i saw constantly, then the movie came OUT and i watched it constantly, random repeating the jokes in fanfic, gifs etc or whatever. deadpool 2 is funnier cuz it feels more fresh (as in the i have seen repeats of the jokes less) , but i think deadpool 1 is the better movie tbh. feels less like a cluster fuck , when in deadpool 2 is a cluster fuck in a… bad way. but that’s just my experience. i can literally recite about 70% of the deadpool 1 jokes from memory

deadpool 2 is SUCH a cluster fuck. the editing, the plot - it's all so. so messy. it's a sloppy, messy bitch. it falls apart once you poke it.

literally why does nate only have two charges. one to get him there. one to take him back. they say it in the movie. lazy writing.

they could have literally saved wade's life by just fuckgi. taking the collar off. nate did NOT need to do thE TIME slide and get stuck in the past to save wade. unless.

like everything with nate and wade there is no heterosexual explanation for it. but also it's lazy writing to justify a sequel where nate sticks around which we might not even GET because marvel is going to ruin everything

i think everything is kind of dumb. vanessa's death being wade's motivator is. horrible. i don't think he needs that motivation to save a kid. i really just think they didn't know what to do with her, so they just... turned her into a source of man pain. that's all she ever gets to be. and it sucks.

i feel like all the issues i have with the deadpool movies would be solved with a script doctor of deadpool 1 where vanessa doesn't wind up with wade at the end. it would be a genuine subversion of the genre! "hero" doesn't get the girl. actually, he has some work to do. she walks away. you get to write vanessa out, without killing her. AND she gets agency beyond being a damsel in distress and eventually getting fridged. love that. simple fix. her walking away from wade, she gets to be a character with agency AND a source of man pain. sexy. love it. so! simple! and it already happened in the comics. you have the blueprint right there.

if only the deadpool movies were actually clever and actually wanted to subvert the genre

[mask131]

The myth of Dionysos (6)

And we reach the last part of the second article about Dionysos! If you haven't caught up, the first part of the second article is here ; and if you want to go even further back check the first part of the first article here.

III) Modern approaches to Dionysos: Theater and drunkenness

Nietzsche: The Birth of Tragedy

We evoked before how during the Lenaia , Dionysos assisted to the preparation of the wine in the shape of a mask. When it comes to theater, it is by the magic of the god that the mask “comes to life”. The Greek theater was born of the invocations of Dionysos: it was to him that the chorists of the dithyrambic contests addressed their salutations ; it was him who was supposed to inspire the poets of the dramatic contests, during the rustic Dionysia (December-January), the Lenaia, ad especially during the Great Dionysia (March-April). On the benches of the theater, just like in the thiasis, the genders and the social classes were mixed together (at least, in theory) ; and on the stage, madness ruled as the imagination triumphed over the reality. But the genre that truly held the Dionysian spirit, more than the comedy or the satirical drama, was the tragedy.

In his The Birth of Tragedy (1872), Nietzsche highlights the analogies between the tragic genre of Ancient Greece and the cult of the god. At the core of each dramatical representation, there is a metamorphosis, a form of “enchantment” that reminds one of the Dionysian possession. The tragic chorus, spectators and actors of the play at the same time, symbolize “the crowd possessed by Dionysos” ; and the tragedy brings the same forgetfulness of the past, the same deliverance and the same catharsis as the Bacchic intoxication. Taking back the idea according to which “tragedy” comes from “tragos”, the goat, the sacred animal of Dionysos supposedly sacrificed to the god during the dramatic contests, Nietzsche proposes an hypothesis according to which the “passion/suffering” of Dionysos was the first subject of tragedies – or the first tragedy lot. Nietzsche was certain that the cruelty inherent to the tragic genre was the same that the god encouraged the Bacchants to practice: madness, murder, destruction, ripping apart, are all told or symbolized on the tragic stage as much as within Dionysos’ own myth.

Nietzsche concluded by announcing a renewal of the tragedy, that Aristotle’s influenced had suddenly made “gone astray” from its Dionysian role. It is this same renewal of the theater that Artaud demanded in his manifest The Theater and its Double (1938). While he does not name Dionysos, he insists that tragedy should be given back its original inspiration: cruelty. Free from its psychological deviations, once again metaphysical, the theater had to bring, just like a plague, a liberating catharsis. According to Artaud “theater is a plague because it is the supreme balance that is only acquired with destruction. It invites the spirit to a delirium that causes the exaltation of the energies.” This last sentence recalls the Bacchic “mania”, but if Artaud disdains Dionysos and prefers to reference the Balinese theater, it is because he sees in the Dionysian madness a force of anarchy rather than something planned. But still, for Artaud the theater stays a political force of subversion, that “reveals to the collectivities their dark power, their hidden side”. For him the action of the theater is a Dionysian one, a nocturnal, dark, dangerous power, just like a bacchanal.

Bacchic madness and contemporary poetry

The entire work of Nietzsche is placed under the invocation of Dionysos. In Thus spoke Zarathustra (1885), he glorifies a “Dionysian demon”. Beyond his numerous references to the attributes of the god in his poems (honey, wine, donkey, lion, snake), his writings glorify the two side of the Dionysism, the dance and the drunkenness, both tied by laughter. Nietzsche, however, prefers insisting on the abolition of the frontier between human and divine, allowing for the existence of “superior men”, rather than on the abolition of the frontiers between humans, despite the latter being essential to the Dionysian spirit.

Before Nietzsche, Rimbaud gave a very different description of the “saintly intoxication” in his Matinée d’ivresse (Morning of drunkenness, in his 1872-73 Illuminations). There, he recreates the ambivalence of the Bacchic madness by having pleasure meet pain. Suffering becomes the promise of a consecration, and while Dionysos is never named, it seems that the theme of a painful intoxication leading to salvation was inspired by him. “Oh, us, now worth of those tortures! Let us gather faithfully this superhuman promise […] this promise! This madness!”. The “superhuman promise” can be the one of the enthusiasm, literally the identification to the god. Just like within a bacchanal, children, slaves and maidens gather for a nocturnal ritual, for an “eve” ; as for the “madness” and the “violence” regularly announced, they can be linked to the bloodthirsty cruelty of the Bacchants by the last words  “Here comes the time of the Assassins”.

Claudel will renew the ancient image of the Maenad in the middle of a mystical delirium, by adapting her convulsive dance to the syncope-rhythm of his verse, in the first of his Five great odes (1908) “The Muses”: “A drunkenness like the one of the red wine and a pile of roses! Grapes under the feet that squirt, great flowers all sticky with honey! / The Maenad distraught by the drum! At the piercing scream of the fife, the Bacchant stiffens within the thundering god. / All burning, all dying, all languishing!” We can notice that the ecstasy of the Bacchant is described like the deadly one Semele knew before Zeus (the “thundering god”), and the last verse translates the mix of the loving desire and of death. The interpretation of Claudel reminds us that it was said that Semele, when pregnant, had been overtaken by a strong desire to dance: Claudel sees in her the first of the Maenads, a victim of Dionysos before he was even born. But for Claudel the Bacchic madness, in its musical aspect, is also a symbol of poetic inspiration: “Ah, I am drunk! I am offered to the god! I hear a voice in me, and the rhythm goes faster…” The poet and his text are both invaded by, possessed by the divine force.

Finally, Saint-John Perse, in Winds (1946), gives to this possession a larger scope, at the size of “the entire world of things”, and thus he sees in her and in those hosting it one of “those great forces” of subversion that are erasing the wearing-out of the century: “Unpredictable Men, Men harassed by the god, Men fed with a new wine and who seem pierced with lightning / Our salvation is with us, in the wisdom and in the intemperance.” Just like with Claudel, the mania is associated with thunder, and finds back the ambiguity of the union of the opposites. “Wisdom” and “intemperance” are one and the same. It is the Dionysism, destruction and balance all in one: it is can lead to anarchy, it is not in itself anarchic (unlike what Artaud believed), rather it is a “method”, as Rimbaud said, that corresponds to the three steps of the “orgia”. But balance does not mean stability, nor serenity. Not at all: Dionysism is a balance, for it is the counterweight, the counterpower needed to oppose the Apollonian order, and to make the “normal” world more moderate.

IV) Conclusions

In The Bacchants, Pnetheus says “Wise Tiresias, do not believe the illusion of your sick mind to be wisdom.” But it is Pentheus who has an illusionary wisdom, for he refuses to accept madness. “He who lives without madness is not as wise as he believes,” La Rochefoucauld once wrote. The paradox of the wise-madness should not let us believe that the delirium is limited to a few holidays and a few moments of disruptions. True wisdom is knowing when madness and when cruelty cannot be escaped. As for the real madness, it would be if someone tried to make this out-of-boundaries god an institution, if someone tried to make a system out of the consecration of his possessed followers – those that Nietzsche called “super-humans”. It would be a dictatorship, it would be the negation of the very Bacchic freedom, it would be the death of Dionysos.

[beeffilledshark]

Had shower thoughts about IBO in a hotel bathroom so I need to have a quick rant about all the dipshits who hate season 2 because they think Orga “just got stupid” or whatever the fuck.

So I decided to make a compilation of all the adults that tried to deceive/use/betray Tekkadan throughout the show

(Note: i didn’t include Nobliss Gordon because I forgot and the app only lets you include 10 images. Also including McGillis because he’s an adult even tho I consider him an Iron Blooded Orphan (but that’s a rant for another time))

Like, is it REALLY that much of a surprise for an orphan child soldier who gets involved with the mob at 16 to want to financially set his family for life by taking the shortest avenue possible? Growing up, he never met a single adult who didn’t view him as sub-human trash or a literal tool, other than Nadi (the mechanic). His first actual role model was a fucking mobster that commanded a ship full of wives. It’s an absolute wonder he lasted as long as he did as an interplanetary political figure.

In his experience, adults will always try to take advantage of him and his family because that’s just how the world works. It’s only a matter of time before the next adult that works with them will try to screw them over and get them killed. He wants to protect those he loves, and to an orphaned child soldier, the only way people won’t fuck with you is if you’re the literal King of Mars.

This poor kid had the weight of an entire family resting on his shoulders and the pressure to give Mika a place he belongs. AT THE AGE OF SIXTEEN. WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU DOING AT SIXTEEN BECAUSE MY BIGGEST CONCERNS WERE OVERWATCH COSMETICS AND AO3 FICS (I know he’s 18 in season 2 but that mfer did not have the chance to mature between the rapidly expanding Tekkadan responsibilities and the Half-metal trade moving to Teiwaz and, by extension, them).

Also, it’s made painfully obvious that Biscuit fulfills a crucial part in Tekkadan’s decision making. He’s the voice in Orga’s head that tells him he’s going too far or he’s forgetting the rest of the family. It makes his death and the inertia they build towards the fatal endgame all the more tragic.

I’m sure there’s other reasons people dislike season 2, but this is, by far, the point I’ve seen stressed the most when people sight their preference of season 1. I, personally, LOVE season 2 BECAUSE of Orga’s failures. He and Mika easily take the spot of my favorite shonen protagonists because it’s so easy to be swept up in the genre of being the scrappy underdogs that always come out on top by sheer force of will and a LOT of luck. But this is the first Shonen I’ve seen that ends with the protagonists getting utterly fucked because of their inability to not push on and move forward. In a way, it feels like a subversion of the genre and it makes it so much more gripping.

But that’s just my two cents. I’m not denying that Orga is an imbecile, by the way. Look, he says it right here.

[cheemscakecat]

Oh… OH.

Guys hear me out… BLU Spy is a film buff who likes the Film Noir genre.

If you haven’t heard of/watched film noir, it’s 40s-50s era detective movies. If you’ve watched Who Framed Roger Rabbit, you basically get the gist of what the genre is like. Jessica Rabbit is a subversion of the fem fatale trope of a shrexy lady who works for the bad guys or is the main bad guy of the movie. Judge Doom is the crooked cop/official, R.K. Maroon is another corrupt party that allied with Doom. And Eddie Valiant is our cynical and jaded detective protagonist.

Now think about movies for a minute. How many times does the protagonist do something impossible because it looks cool? Be honest, John Wick is doing some maneuvers that make zero sense to real martial artists and government agents. Now think about how BLU Spy acts in Em Blue and Meet the Spy.

How many times does a detective/cop/agent protagonist go fight a dangerous person alone, and win? Usually there’s a struggle, but they still win. Spy didn’t though. Imagine he’s having a nightmare where one of the aspects is literally “You’re not that guy pal. Trust me, you’re not that guy.”

This is not the time to make demands, this is the time to shoot the guy with a bigger, faster gun before he can get you. But the good guy usually manages to shoot first or dodge, so he can have the confidence to do something this risky. Except it doesn’t work for Spy.

I can’t help but wonder if one of the reasons is that Soldier is an actual war veteran and not crazy like RED; remember how I mentioned real experts before? What if Solly’s fighter logic is cancelling out Hollywood logic in the scenes where he and Spy are together? Of course, that’s not the only reason why Spy can’t do the cool things he’s trying; it’s insecurity.

What happens in Meet the Spy?

So BLU Spy decided to do the dramatic thing and monologue to his teammates about the RED Spy in base, knowing darn well that one of them is probably said Spy. Carrying literal dead weight with the RED’s weapon lodged in it. With full confidence.

Some people think he knew “Scout” was RED Spy, but I actually think he fell for it. Why else would he say “nothing. Nothing like the man currently inside this building!” and then give said abnormally skilled and dangerous Spy his knife back? And that’s not the only reason he didn’t know, either.

This folder of dirty pictures is BLU Spy’s trump card. Yeah, showing it to RED to humiliate him would be funny… but not the most satisfying outcome. Giving it to the Admin for enemy team blackmail? More satisfying. Giving it to one of RED Spy’s enemies so they can kidnap BLU Ma or study the layout of that room? Devilishly satisfying. But that’s still not his end goal.

Scout is the youngest member of the team with the most to learn. You’re telling me that the same Administrator who hired a Director to get dirt on RED team, and doesn’t even care much for Pauling, doesn’t have two-faced Spies on both sides? BLU and RED teammates willing to sell their team’s secrets for bonuses or their own protection? Oh they exist.

This BLU Spy is not one of these double crossers IRL; but he does look for dirt on RED team. He was probably taking the dirtier pictures to get shot of RED without his mask, but he left it on. But he found out BLU Ma is consorting with an enemy teammate, and that’s very important. He wasn't showing this to Scout just to assert dominance as an older teammate, he was saying “Look, your mama can’t be trusted. Don’t give her your information.”

“PATTY CAKE? PATTY CAKE?! I don’t believe it! [cries]”

“Believe it sister, she played Patty Cake.”

It’s the same thing but more disrespectful, he’s trying to wise the real BLU Scout up about mercenary work.

And before anyone asks, no, BLU Spy is not BLU Scout’s daddy. No sane parent would show those pictures to their child, even if he’s an adult and his mama cheated. Besides that, Spy shows literally zero interest in romance during Em Blue, even when he’s telling Archibald what promotions he wants. That’s… not a normal occurrence in Film Noirs.

I’m not saying getting tricked by RED Spy and loosing those pictures before the real Scout could see them is the reason BLU Spy doubts his own abilities. But it’s at least a factor in the bigger reason.

[joys-of-everyday]

SVSSS’s women and MXTX’s commentary on sexism

Every time someone starts with ‘MXTX is great but her women…’, I feel conflicted. I think the way she writes women is secretly brilliant, but that was a conclusion I came to after a long hard think about SVSSS (which was the third series I got into). I absolutely went through the 'MXTX is great but her women...' phase.

So thoughts for my fellow travelers on this journey of enlightenment or whatever. I’m focusing on SVSSS here, because otherwise the post would be more than three times as long. I'm also not... idk how to phrase it... 'starting at the basics' since I think there's plenty already out there on MXTX's strong/not strong presence of female characters. (There’s this for advertisement. Then a somewhat more involved post on Su Xiyan which is brilliant btw. defo recommend.) This is more like... side notes, of things I have yet to see discussed. (maybe someone has discussed them and I've yet to find it.)

1. Ning Yingying, Institutionalised Sexism, and Growth

There were also some incredible female cultivators, but on the whole, these girls’ strength and mental fortitude was lacking, and they often required help… they spent their time playing around instead of actually working. Basically they looked quite hopeless.

What I really have to appreciate about SVSSS is that it slaps you around the face with a giant cucumber so you really can't miss it. This was the passage that made me put down the book and think. Why is this here? What is the point? Idk it just stuck out to me.

So there's a lot to say here about SY's stunning narration, what that says about his internalised beliefs, as well as the portrayal of women in certain genres and how frustrating it can be as a reader/viewer (looking at you, shonen), but I wanted to divest for a second to mention implicit sexism (for no other reason than I happen to care).

In SVSSS, there isn’t much explicit sexism aimed at female characters in world. By this, I mean there is no point at which a character in the world of SVSSS says sexist things to a female character, nor are there moments were female characters are specifically barred from doing anything because of their gender. Of course, it could in part be due to SQQ’s blindness to such issues, but there’s also another facet to this – the abundance of implicit sexism.

The Little Palace Mistress was the Old Palace Master’s beloved daughter. Her martial skills were the product of his hands-on teaching… Meanwhile, Ning Yingying was the beloved youngest shimei who was pampered by the entirety of Qing Jing Peak; she very rarely encountered danger and had virtually no real battle experience.

Ning Yingying is never pushed. She’s loved and cared for, but not expected to excel. The thing with implicit/institutionalised anything is that it’s hard to point to any specific case and go ‘that’s sexist’ or whatever. The effect is only clear when taken over a larger group. Returning to the Immortal Alliance Conference, what do our female participants look like? We have LMY doing her thing, ofc. But QWY? QWR? Their immediate reaction to danger is to cling to the nearest strong person and rely on them for protection. It feels like they’ve never learnt to stand for themselves.

MXTX’s later works often get the ‘there aren’t enough female characters in positions of power’ or ‘all the female characters die’ kind of remarks, but I think there’s something deeper to be said about the kind of commentary it's making on society. Anyway, I won't go deeper here, but the subversion of NYY’s stereotypical role (and so arguably the whole point of her character thematically) is that she doesn’t continue to be the loli icon with IQ 40. When NYY is forced to fend for herself and given the space to grow, she does grow. And isn’t that a nice message?

2. LMY, the Daoist Nuns, and Sex Positivity

Because her face was excessively beautiful, capable of stealing souls, she had to hide it behind a veil all year round, rendering her like unto a flower on a high cliff, unattainable and out of reach.

The women of SVSSS are all about subversions of troupes, and the subversion of LMY’s troupe is twofold. At first, she is introduced as the ‘pure’ one, in contrast to SHL’s ‘sexy’ (commentary on the ‘two types of women: frigid and slut’ narrative). Then she’s the ‘not like other girls’. She’s beautiful but doesn’t care for her looks. She doesn’t care for men but they fall at her feet. She’s stoic and competent, the ideal of a ‘strong independent woman’. And then, right at the end, we learn that she writes very kinky gay porn.

I think there's a lot of disappointment around for LMY's potential not being fulfilled, and while I agree SVSSS on the whole wrapped things up very quickly, honestly? I think this is the funniest twist ever.

LMY a fanfic writer, a shipper, a BL enthusiast. The kind of woman whose literature has always been regarded with something between confusion, denial, and disgust: from the rise of shonen ai and Yaoi of the 60s-80s, or slash fiction in 70s, to the popularity of danmei in China. The CP fan, in all its bravery and ugliness. She's not a hero, she doesn't particularly do anything, other than pursue her hobbies. She's neither ‘pure’ nor ‘strong’, but touchingly realistic.

And even better, she’s not alone. There’s the Daoist nuns, who (hilariously) are nuns who in an apparently life-or-death situations suggest dual cultivation??? (Now celibacy was necessary in some Daoist schools but not all, but since Shen Jiu mentions specifically that there’s nothing strictly wrong with him sleeping with prostitutes because they’re not a Daoist sect, it feels like there’s a subversion lurking there.) (idk they have Catholic girl school vibes.)

ngl, I just love LMY. She's very sexy.

3. LPM, QWY, and Breaking Down the Mean Girl

If LMY is ‘not like other girls’ then the LPM is the ‘mean girl’. Also, the ‘girl who tries to break up the MLs’ of a BL. The two troupes are in the same ballpark. Rich, pretty, privileged. Also petty, stupid, and unnecessarily cruel. More generally, the Huan Hua trio - LPM, QWY, QWR all take different elements of the 'unlikable girl'.

I don’t have many deep thoughts about this, other than their abject failure to make a dent on LBH’s devotion to SQQ being really funny (and an excellent post on QWY which breaks down her character and her relationship to og!LBH), but something that snagged with me is the comparison between these extracts.

Why did he act like one of those bitter courtyard complex concubines with too much time on their hands?

This is about Shen Jiu. Ya know, Shen abuses children Jiu.

He very much did not enjoy the sight of a sixty-year-old coot and a young girl in her teens cooing at each other right in front of him.

This is one of two (?) times that svsss mentions a young girl being married to an old coot (the second being SJ's mysterious jiejie). If you didn't know, the situation of women in much of Chinese history is... not great.

The Little Palace Mistress: Bitter, locked-up woman. She herself says that Luo Binghe treats her like a kept pig.

Also, the existence of Wang Lingjiao in MDZS, servant turned lover, who everyone hates (she’s the one stuck to Wen Chao if you’re like me and forgot her name most the time).

There’s condemnation there (none of these characters are portrayed in a sympathetic light) but there’s a hint of pity there too. LPM has lost a father. QWY a sister. And in MDZS, WLJ is plagued by the anxiety of an unfaithful lover who she relies on entirely for her power.

(Someone (irl!) mentioned Beauvoir to me in a (not svsss!) conversation (lol the brain rot is real but not 100% yet) and now I feel like maybe I should go back to the Second Sex for svsss reasons (so maybe the brain rot is real 🤔). Beauvoir writes a lot about 'bad women'.)

Anyway, this is not particularly organised and doesn't really have a point. I might expand some more on something at some point, but that requires me having coherent thoughts, which probably requires me having actual conversations to get a few things straight, so no guarantees. Whatever. Have a great day :)