#Maybe I'll make a big nuanced post about it at some point

[circular-bircular]

how could someone, who is endogenic/mixed origins… be neutral on their own existence? like, when it comes down to it, pro/anti endo does often mean "do you believe systemhood that endogenic systems are experiencing is true systemhood".

whether or not they're experiencing "something" doesn't matter in the "do you believe endo systems are systems" debate, and many anti endos say stuff like "oh endos are experiencing something, but its not true systemhood/plurality like did/osdd is, and should NEVER be seen as similar" which... is something i firmly disagree with. how could endogenic systems look at that and go 'yeah im neutral on this topic'?

not saying that they don't, or no one that's called themselves endogenic has been neutral or even anti-endo themselves, i'm just quite confused at what you mean by you've met these endos. what are they like. what is "neutrality" in their/your eyes? what do you define as pro/anti? how different are we defining these words?

We are defining these words absolutely different, and that's been the shit of this syscourse for sooo long.

Anti-endo so rarely means not believing in endogenic plurality anymore, pro-endo so rarely means believing in endogenic plurality now, and neutrality is an entire spectrum. Like, let me describe to you a syscourse stance I'm seeing more and more lately:

"I believe in endogenic systems, though I'm not sure about the usage of the term system -- I'm still researching that. I disagree with using the term tulpa, but willogenics are awesome!"

Is this a CDD system or an endogenic system speaking?

Neither -- it's a hypothetical lol -- but the only difference between a neutral CDD system and a neutral Endo system nowadays is if they say "I believe in endo systems" or say "I am an endo system."

Neutrality has always encompassed many ideas under its umbrella, usually with only one force uniting all who use it: they don't feel they fit into the anti/pro binary. I started using unaligned because I wasn't anti enough to be anti-endo, but wasn't pro enough to be pro-endo.

The endogenic systems I've known who are neutral/unaligned typically are neutral about how the community treats others. They don't want to be associated with the pro-endo community, because so much of the pro-endo community (in their personal experiences) is vocally anti-CDD and spreads horrific misinformation.

So, to summarize: neutral endos aren't going "yeah im neutral on the topic of if I exist." They're usually going "God can they PLEASE stop saying that CDDs aren't trauma based?!"

[verdantwyrm]

In Defense of Curly.

I'm going to start off with the biggest thing that this post could ever mention. Obviously this thread is not at all claiming he is innocent, at all, but some of you need to learn what an unkowning bystander is before you all go and jump Curly and make him out to be just as bad as Jimmy, if not worse for his "Inaction" and i'm going to explain in this thread that accounting bystanders to be apart of the crime is not fair, and how the situation with Anya, Jimmy and Curly is actually very realistic on how real life rape situations go, and the spiraling that occours afterwards.

This is going to be a long thread involving the topics of rape and other mental health junk, so strap in!

Anya's rape.

I'm going to immediately preface this section with a very big important thing. I am a victim, so do not think I am talking out of my ass here when I am talking about Anya, kay we cool now? kay.

So, we as the player know what happens. We know that there was a situation between Anya and Jimmy which either lead to rape, or it was enforced upon her, the actual content of the situation we don't know anything about, all we know that it was not consensual. But how it started and the exact details, we know nothing about.

When Anya tells Curly that she is pregnant, she expresses its something bad, but never tells Curly HOW it happened. And Curly's immediete action is to be concerned for her, he is worried for her, and even though he shouldn't, he LETS HER keep the gun as well!

But WE KNOW exactly what happened, as the player, but Curly wasn't told. He was only told that a pregnancy occurred between her and Jimmy, but the actual details of the event- what we know, is not something that Curly knows. We're able to pick up all the signs and see the language and imagery used, but to Curly, it just sounds like they had a hook up and it ended up in a pregnancy.

And that is a totally fair assumption to make, and it is also a completely fair assumption that your best friend wouldn't do such a thing. (I'll touch on this a bit later) So why would his first assumption be rape? Being unhappy about the pregnancy doesn't exactly scream anything in particular, in Curly's mind, she could be unhappy for multiple reasons. That it happened with Jimmy (of all people), that she is stuck on a ship in outer space for what seems like the remainder of her pregnancy, which is an already unsafe environment to be pregnant in and carry a baby to term. So it is a totally understandable and fine thing to not automatically assume rape when there are already plenty of other things at play that could make her and Jimmy unhappy with the outcome.

And plus, when Anya asks what Curly would have done, people seem to be ignoring (or just plain outright not even noticing) the language used. She's asking him what he would have done. The event is already over, it happened, she is asking what he would have done if he had been there, or if he knew earlier; or maybe if he knew at all.

For safety, for whatever reason the cockpit has locks, whatever reason the Meday has a lock, but not any of the bedrooms. Curly acknowledges the absurdity behind the decision, but he doesn't quite understand or grasp why Anya could be asking such a thing beyond simple curiosity because of course someone like Anya would be pointing out something like this, she spends the most time in the med bay, and Curly likewise with the Cockpit.

There are a ton of nuances that go into play when trying to realistically picture what could have or what should have happened on the Tulpar with Jimmy, and I really wish more people were willing to understand that it's not just as black and white, and not people that end up enabling said abusers are not always a willing and knowing crowd. And start maybe thinking about the fact that maybe

Curly really did not know the depth of the situation.

Jimmy's Spiral

The other thing I see tons and tons and tons of people talk about is "why didn't Curly do more about Jimmy!" "Why didn't he see this coming!"

Because, proven by my point of him not noticing Anya's rape, he would not have noticed Jimmy to do such a thing as murder-suicide. They have been friends for a "long time" according to Curly, but what if this was truly the first time he's ever seen Jimmy get this mad? When Anya tells Curly she told Jimmy, his first immediate response is to panic, he knows that Jimmy is an angry man, possibly a violent one as well.

He expected there to be yelling, or worse, physical violence, but Jimmy just.. walked away. And that's what scared him the most, the fact that he didn't react terrified Curly. So he ran to go and check on Jimmy and try to calm him down, which he thought worked, until it didn't. Curly would not have ever expected Jimmy to do this, how could he?This is probably the very first time that he's seen Jimmy spiral so hard, so intensely and in such a short time. He's seen him get mad, get angry, get violent, but those have all been in different situations, which have not as dire consequences as being the co-pilot of a ship with everyone on board. How the hell was he supposed to assume that he would ever do something like this? And that's even further proved by Curly's shock when Jimmy does divert the ship to crash it.

He is in genuine shock that Jimmy would even do this, and it seems like even Jimmy is as well. Despite having made multiple conscious decisions, turning the steering wheel right, getting out of his chair, grabbing the override key, disabling auto pilot and then steering again into the asteroid, he is still in shock that he actually went through with this. He wasn't actually expecting to do it, and then he did, and now he's grasping the consequences of his actions way too late.

And Curly is also just as shocked.

"I didn't- I should have..." is an immediate blame towards himself for not thinking that Jimmy would do something like this, but again, how do you plan for something like this? If Curly knew Jimmy was capable of such collateral destruction, he would not have him as his co-pilot, so it only makes sense that this was the first real and dangerous time he ever saw Jimmy truly spiral into madness. There were all the warning signs, all the red flags, but nothing could have prepared him for this. Why would Curly's first reaction to anything be the worst outcome, you don't do that when you trust someone. And again, this could be seriously the first time he's ever seen Jimmy react like this.

All we know is that Jimmy has had it rough back on earth, that he was jobless for a long time. Nothing else, nothing about him being a criminal, nothing about him being in trouble with the police, just that he has had it hard which can really mean anything.

It was the wrong time, the wrong person, the wrong break with all the wrong tools.

In conclusion, Curly is not entirely innocent. But I think it is extremely fair and very realistic to not automatically assume the worst of someone you thought you could trust. And he genuinely thought he could trust Jimmy, and he reacted pretty realistically and fairly given the circumstances. He absolutely cared about Anya and the rest, and would have done much much more if he had the time or the ability to do so.

Of course he didn't notice the smaller details, he's used to looking at the bigger picture.

[stitchposts]

Heyo! Had two questions - one a little less relevant to your blog but I thought I'd shoot my shot :D

First off, do you have any experience with visible mending using embroidery techniques? Both my denim jacket and favorite sweater are getting worn out after years of constant wear, and I'm unsure how do deal with some of the holes. My main issue is that the very ends of the sleeves are simply... splitting open? Like the fabric got so thin from whatever stress I apparently put it under, it fecking disintegrated. It seems simple enough, straight line on an edge, but I'm worried about messing it up anyway.

And, speaking of my jacket, with it falling apart a little and me seeing more about battle vests and the like, I've been wondering about trying to embroider it, maybe make some patches... I have a bunch of cotton embroidery floss that was gifted to me years ago, but not only have I not embroidered much since learning it in school more than 15 years ago, this is also literally my only (wearable) jacket. The other two are a 10 year old fake leather coat that is peeling itself and also doesn't fit right, and a windbreaker in terrible colors that, if I remember correctly, is too badly damaged for me to know how to easily fix it. Meaning just going ham on it is a big risk. Do I try to find my first new jacket since 2019 and hope to stumble upon one satisfactory in both price and fit? Do I just pray and start fixing up my denim jacket? What else do I need anyway? I got thread and sewing needles big enough to fit it, but nothing else.

Help.

Thanks! <3

This post got kinda long even for me, sorry. First off, this is all embroidery related imo, this is still about stitching on fabric. A square is always a rectangle but a rectangle is not always a square. There's nuance under the umbrella of 'embroidery' here and this counts.

There does reach a point when clothing can't really be repaired anymore, and after that point, historically became rags, or the patches used to repair other clothing. You'll eventually need a new jacket, but if your choice is to immediately find one now or to repair your jacket and buy time to be able to locate one, it seems a bit obvious to me what the option to follow here is, especially if you like the look of visible mending.

This is the part where I wanted to add a cut, but tumblr is glitching out and refusing to add one. So I guess everyone is just subjected to this now. Sorry, and I'll try to have an actual pretty embroidery picture up for everyone to see this week since my furnace is no longer trying to blow up. So: visible mending is at the core applying mending techniques to clothing, and instead of trying to make them invisible repairs, using the stitches or extra material that reinforces the repair to creative visual interest and turn it into a design feature. The stitching itself is done to reinforce the fragile parts of your garment. Sometimes it can be darning, other times it's adhering new fabric to back/cover the fragile parts. It depends on the repair which to use, or even which method the mender prefers. It's not always clearcut and even then, sometimes we prefer doing the thing we know better more than a brand new technique and we bruteforce it to work. So, dealer's choice on darning or patching here, but I'll get to both of them. My opinion of your situation is that you have nothing to lose with trying to repair your jacket that fits you. It's already falling apart, and it's better to stabilize it before it gets worse before there are giant gaps in the fabric. Clean it gently by hand by letting it soak in a bucket or a tub with some ph neutral detergent - do a couple rinses of letting it soak, until the water runs clear and stops smelling foul. Then lay it flat to try on a towel, don't hang it up to dry as that will put more stress on the fabric, I find the shoulders are usually one of the first places to give out on my stuff but I am very broad shouldered. In my opinion, gaps in the fabric at high stress spots like the cuffs should have new backing fabric added to the weak spots, and then the visible mending can adhere that in place. If you were to make new embroidered cuffs you could just sew them on, and protect the integrity of the base fabric, the same way patches do. But you may prefer other options. For darning there's a few ways to go about it. Darning itself is using new threads to weave through the holes in fabric, and stabilizing it past the delicate thin edges of the base fabric. A dear friend of mine lives and dies by her Speedweve loom these days, and I've seen her work with it. She is one of the top 5 trusted fiber artists in my life so I vouch for these looms being cool as fuck and very functional without having used it myself. I also got her this particular book called Darned Easy, by Sally Simon, that I find interesting that has a lot of patterns in it for darning - I grabbed it at a used book store at some point. I messaged her before I made this point because she follows this blog and would know this part is about her. Hi bud. She's the only one who gets to see the rest of the interior of the book, because it was published in 1981 and I'd rather not use this blog to host scans of books that are that recently published.

You don't need a loom for darning if you know what patterns to follow to darn using your needle, and there are a lot of ways to make darning decorative in the manner you want for visible mending, just use your contrasting threads to stand out on the ground fabric. There's also other books available, a HUGE amount of them because darning's existed for millenia, but this is the resource I physically had on hand that I wanted to use as my example so it's the one you get pics of.

On the other end of repairs, you can applique on patches or reinforcing material, then quilt the material into place, with the quilting being the surface embroidery you are pushing through the layers of fabric in order to adhere them into place. Before anyone replies to this op telling them to fucking look up sashiko, please get off my post. I take umbrage with a lot of embroidery designs being referred to as 'sashiko.' This type of repair on existing clothing genuinely is one of the origins of sashiko as a necessity of life - it was that a pattern was laid down on the clothing or items that needed to be repaired or pieced together, and then quilted into place with running stitches that formed the design, which reinforced the clothing and allowed the fibers to be usable for longer. I really despise the words 'sashiko' 'wabisabi' and 'kintsugi' tossed around casually out of historical context by every fucking art blogger under the sun. Fabric was fucking expensive pre industrial revolution, so preserving clothing mattered a lot. Many different cultures have preferred methods (very often extremely regional even within a country) for mending in a manner that is similar to what we know of as quilting or applique today, but there's a certain obsession with anything Japanese in particular that bloggers love to describe as mysterious and wholesome when it's just a visually distinctive fucking way to repair a hole in a garment and quilt things together to make it warm and functional.

Anyway. My first vest I made, it did eventually disintegrate. I knew it would happen because fucking entropy of the universe and so I managed to find a new vest I could afford at the time when I happened across it, and kept it in a back closet till I was ready to transform it into my dragon vest. I repaired that first vest until almost every seam was paper thin and shredding. I loved it a lot. I wore it daily for years and years. I'm still sad I can't wear it anymore, even though I kept my back patch from it, and I still don't know what the fuck I am going to do with that patch. Eventually fabric is destroyed, after many many years of service and wear. Things die. You can't put resin on your embroidery and make it live forever. But when things finally do perish, you can use the base fabric that is still good to make new patches. You get to design and plan a new battle vest or projects you want to start. If you're not sure yet about how badly you'll be hit emotionally by seeing something you put hundreds of hours into disintegrate into nothingness, then hold off on making this particular jacket your battle jacket holding a lot of purchased patches and such, instead of as a test springboard for learning repairs. This is not me being facetious or jokey. It hits people pretty hard to lose, especially the first time this happens. We're humans that hold bonds with things we like, especially things with that much personal hand investment on it. It won't be a failure on your part if you decide to learn repair and extend the life of this jacket, when this jacket does finally bite the dust. It will happen. The accomplishment here is how much service and use you get out of the jacket past when you thought you'd have to throw it away far earlier than if you had learned to repair it.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

I want you to know I respect your opinion and at the end of the day you can do whatever you want on your own page, which I love all the art you do. Your White Diamond AU is so remarkable I've added it to my own headcanon idea of Steven meeting his alternate selves.

With that said, why are you responding to posts or asks that talk about blatant shattering of other gems? Real SU fans don't immediately go "death to the enemy." Real SU fans understand that SU is about love, acceptance, second chances, and pacifism. I'll admit, there have been more idiots in the fandom since the show's end, but in my humble opinion, it's best to not give any of them attention, even if they are annoying.

Sorry if I sound rude, I just didn't get responding to that one ANONYMOUS comment.

It's not rude at all! And it's a great question! One I understand the reasoning of.

But I have my own reasoning for doing the things I do.

Mainly, I think that while ignoring SOME behaviors is definitely good.... talking about OTHER behaviors actively is the fastest and healthiest way to immunize the greater community against them.

Let me explain.

I've been in this fandom a long time now, and I agree with you - there's a solid possibility, a real chance that whoever sent that message is just a passing non-fan who decided to be weirdly edgy in my inbox. No big deal. It happens.

But in my experience, the SU fandom is.... wide and varied. There are people of all ages, and many opinions. It would be easier, of course, if the only 'true fans' were those who perfectly understood the show's themes. But to me, that veers dangerously close to a No True Scotsman type of thinking. The reality is that many different people watch SU. And while many of them do inherently agree with the message and understand the nuance, many more just watch the show because... they like the surface level graphics and cool fights and interesting worldbuilding. In fact, many of the show's fans are edgy teens (sorry edgy teens) who are in a life-stage where violence and being strong and cool and decisive in a morally black and white manner is the only way they can possibly imagine solving any problem. And... that's kinda the opposite of what SU teaches! But that's also the point. SU teaches those things on purpose.

And yeah, I can absolutely just ignore this part of the population. But ignoring a behavior does not actually make it go away 100% of the time. If a child in a supermarket comes up to you and starts smacking you with a wooden spoon from Aisle 4, then... sure... you can ignore them and see if their parent comes to get them, or they go away, especially if it's a very small child and they're not hurting you a lot.

But that's not the only option. You can ALSO opt to teach them - and any other spoon-wielding children watching - what COULD happen if they are crude or cruel to a stranger in public. Namely, you can snap 'stop it' and at the very least glare at that child. This is a lesson that will arguably teach them more about the interaction than a complete lack of reaction would.

Now, I'm not saying people who send me asks are all children and I'm doling out some moral lessons here. This is just a metaphor.

I'm simply a person in a social space (tumblr) who is driving my own blog. And while I DO ignore a very large part of cruel/rude asks I get (trust me, I do ignore many!) I sometimes also just post a reply to show what ELSE could happen if you say a borderline silly and arguably tonally inappropriate ask to a person. You could get replied to! In a sarcastic or snappy manner!

And maybe - just maybe - the other people reading my blog can learn something from the experience, and think 'ah, so doing it like THAT will maybe make people kinda annoyed, now I know and will not do that'.

I cannot deny that overall I agree with you, though. I don't think that these types of messages deserve attention on the regular. But I'd hope that my replies to these things are not really... regular. I ignore probably... 80% of these sort of things? I guess maybe it just feels like a lot less, since, well. The public ones are 100% of the ones you get to see!

[sentfromwolves]

◈—⌈ SENTFROMWOLVES ⌋ writeblr introduction ²⁰²⁴

Hi everyone, and welcome to my writeblr 2024 introduction. My name is Eran (they/he & freshly thirty) and I've been on writeblr for awhile, so you might've seen me around. ( •̀ ω •́ ) This is my yearly post to introduce the projects I'll be working on this year, what I write, and who I am. I'll be keeping it short and sweet.

I'd love to meet more writers this year, so if you write any of the following, or just like these genres, or even just wanna shout about ocs together, come holler and I'll give you a follow!

◈ — sci-fi and fantasy of any kind! cozy fantasy, romantasy, epic fantasy, space opera? this is my bread and butter, and I love shouting about it from the rooftops with others! ◈ — found families, ot3s, complicated soulmates. I am almost always writing about soulmates who have either killed each other at least once in the past or are planning some sort of murder. Complicated relationships, especially found families that aren't all rainbows and butterflies, are right up my alley. ◈ — queer and trans protagonists, large queer casts! all of my wips feature trans/nonbinary leads, and I'm always looking for more queer writer friends to connect with! ◈ — hope at the end of the tunnel, but hell to get to. I write stories with hopeful endings, with the sun on the horizon, with the promise that something better might now at long last be on the way. I love seeing characters get put through hell, but I love it even more when they make it to the other side. (if you write tragedy though, please know I will still cry on your doorstep if you'll have me) ◈ — corruption arcs, redemption arcs, sometimes both! Deeply nuanced characters with messy attitudes, and even messier actions. I'm just as equally obsessed with cool worldbuilding as I am with character-driven things, and I will yell about ocs all day, and maybe draw them too >:3 ◈ — big, epic, and sweeping worldbuilding! I am a huge fan of delving into the worldbuilding aspect of my wips. I love building magic systems, cultures, geographies, and more. One of my 2024 projects is doing a worldbuilding experiment blog at some point. I am always down to clown over worldbuilding, whether to sound board or just holler together!

There's a lot more I could say here, but this post can only get so long! Σ(っ °Д °;)っ my dms are always open, and I will follow back most of the time! But just to get all of the basics outta the way:

◈—« here's a quick and dirty rundown of how I work! »��◈

➺ I interact and follow from @calamityeden, so if you see that username, it's just me.✌️I am most active on discord, and if we become friends, you're more than welcome to ask to add me there. ➺ I am open to being tagged in writeblr games! Just know that I am not online all the time, and might be slow to respond to them. 🐌 ➺ My ask box and DMs are open, just please be respectful. I love meeting new writers and talking about projects! I am happy to chat and make new friends. You're always welcome! 💌 ➺ This is a strictly 18+ writeblr. Please DNI with me if you are a minor and respect my boundaries.

🪄You can find my core tags here under my writing and my graphics, as well as writer reminders, game train and catharsis. (❁´◡`❁) And now onto the fun part! My 2024 main project line up!

I have my main four listed here that you'll probably hear me yelling about pretty consistently, but I've also got a lot of other projects rattling around in my brain. So if you're ever curious about a project that's not here, feel free to yell at me about it! >:3

Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Standalone.

Status: First Draft Complete (117k)—Revising for beta round one.

There's a clock tattooed on Nemesis's wrist, and when it reaches midnight on his 21st birthday, it will kill him. It doesn't help that his mom is the one that cursed him, and the demon currently possessing his car ate her before Nemesis could convince her to break the damned thing. Thankfully, Judge came prepared with an alternative: help him break into a mythical living city and steal its heart, and in return, he'll shatter Nemesis's curse for free. Accompanied by a three-headed hellhound, a haunted holy sword, and an excommunicated exorcist, Judge and Nemesis set their sights on an impossible heist. But the closer Nemesis gets to the heart, the more he begins to realize that he isn't the only one under a curse. And if he doesn't find a way to break Judge's soon, his own life will be forfeit as well.

Genre: Space Opera

Status: 2024 zero drafting from scratch

Two hundred years ago, humanity expanded to the stars only to find a cosmos filled with graves. But then their children began displaying the strange ability to commune with the alien ruins scattered across the planets, waking ancient, extrasolar mecha from their sleep, and turned the struggling colonies of space explorers into the fledgling galactic nation of Sol Galatea.  Now, Wren Akane is on the run from the whole galaxy, wanted for the strange alien powers throbbing through his veins. His luck runs out when he accidentally awakens an ancient Relic in the desert of his planet, only to be embedded with the memories of its last pilot and the revelation that the war that littered the cosmos with graves is far from over. But no one believes Wren when he tells them that continuing to wake the Relics will bring the hostile alien empire that destroyed them back to Sol Galatea’s doorstep. Only Wren’s rival pilot, Marek Khalid, seems interested in a word Wren has to say. But Marek doesn’t want to save Sol Galatea. He has big plans for what to do when the aliens arrive, a rebellion to lead, and if Wren isn’t on his side, he’s in his way. With time running out, Wren must soon decide how far he’s willing to go to save the people that never tried to save him—or if Marek is right, and he should let the stars burn instead.

Genre: Adult Romantasy

Status: First Draft (1k/100k)

Once a year, Celestials from all across the Lumina Kingdom gather together for Eventide, the season of courtship, hoping to win the hand of the most eligible star at court. Sirius knows the game they play all too well: by day, he is the forgettable, miserable daughter of the Lumina Family, least of his seven siblings and wanted only for the royal blood running through his veins.  By night, however, Sirius is the Starweaver—the mysterious dressmaker taking the kingdom by storm. Everyone wants to know the identity of the one responsible for elaborate outfits that turn even the quietest Celestial in the room into the star of the show, outshining even Sirius’s luminous sibling, Diana. When the infamous King Beyond Midnight arrives with the intent to wed Diana, Sirius finds his secret in jeopardy when the condition for their hand in marriage is a simple challenge: reveal the Starweaver's true identity. There’s no outsmarting Octavian for long, and soon, Sirius will have to make a choice: give up on his passion and stay hidden forever, or risk everything to stay true to who he really is.

Genre: Second World Urban Fantasy

Status: Outlining

Something changes the day that Nakano Touya returns to the crumbling city of Soma Lux. It starts with voices in the radio static, blurry figures caught on camera, always out of focus. When a monster crawls out of Touya's television screen and eats him, the last thing he expects is to find a strange, shadowy otherworld lurking on the other side. But his biggest problem isn't the monsters of the otherworld that want to eat him, or the talking cat that saved him, now living in his apartment without a care in sight. Soma Lux is experiencing a strange new epidemic—one that Touya is completely unaffected by. But when his half-sister falls comatose, Touya knows he has to get to the bottom of it all to save her—and find out why he's the only one immune. Accompanied by his jaded ex-boyfriend, Touya’s nosy classmates, a part-time fortune teller, and a cantankerous old hag, Touya dives into the murky underbelly of Soma Lux, where the realities have begun to bleed together between his world and the next. 

That's all for now! >:3 Here's to an amazing 2024! (also my actual blog is a mess right now please do not mind it ksjndfskfn)

[starlight-bread-blog]

Why Lokius Should Have Been Canon

This is a sort of combo of two metas that didn't quite get point my across. Some parts will be copied directly, but there's a lot of original content. I will discuss the ship between Loki and Mobius, their place in the show, and the MCU at large. My focus for this meta won't be parallels or motifs, because these things border on well-written friendships. But there will be some of that.

Romance in the MCU

There are a lot of straight couples in the MCU. (Almost) Every main hero is in some heterosexual relationship, Loki included.

(That's not all, not remotely).

But in the LGBTQ+ department... uh.. I think it was mentioned that Valkyrie had a girlfriend... uh... America Chavez had a pride pin... and Loki:

One line. Queer experiences are never a focal point of a show/movie the same way heterosexual experiences are. And that needs to change.

Romance In the Show

Wrong, toxic, or unsuccessfu romantic love is a recurring theme in the show.

Sylki

Sylki was an icky relationship right off the bat. They are the same person. I can't find the post at the moment, but someone has pointed out in their post that them being the same person is referenced in every episode in season 1 (edit: here it is), which is when the romance took place. This made their romance uncomfortable for many viewers.

(Some consider Sylki a toxic relationship, but for this post, the topic is too large to handle with the nuance I'd like to handle it with).

When he's drunk, Loki compares love to a dagger, stating that it hurts you, but when you try to find strength in it, it's not real.

Which is exactly what happens. Sylvie pushes Loki into a portal and they never get back together.

The Love Triangle

In 02×03, Ravonna Renslayer is infatuated with Victor Timely, but he leaves her behind and betrays her when Miss Minutes told him to. One episode later, we discover that they were indeed an item, and established the TVA together. He Who Remains deleted her memories and they never rekindle their love.

Later in the episode, is the best example of "wrong" romance in the show. Miss Minutes, the AI clock, confesses her love to Viktor Timely. He, obviously, freaks out and shuts her off. Nothing ever comes of this.

Brad and Dox

This one is small, but a big indication to romance being a theme. In 02×01, we're shown this:

The gap in the age of the actors is uncomfortable, and a character in universe has this reaction to it. It is never mentioned again.

So what does all of this leave us with? Not much. None of this properly ties to the finale, or anything really. If I were to write the show I would cut a lot of this out, since it serves no purpose. But it does make you keep romance and its shortcomings in mind. The writers want it to be there, in the back of your head.

Loki and Mobius

Finally! I got to talk about them. The two people in question. First things first, who are they, together? They became really supportive, close friends.

Fans even drew parallels to Chaos & Order, which is a very important theme in Loki. But I'm not here to unpack them. These things don't necessarily make them in love. So what does make them in love? I'll present you my evidence, and you ask yourself,

Would it be valid to suggest romantic implications if a man and a women are:

1) Extremely thouchy with each other.

2) Riding on a tandem bike together.

3) Willing to suffer a fate worst than death for another.

4) Falling on each other after that^

5) Literally the Interrupted Declaration of Love trope. (Ex)

6) Being framed in a circle.

7) Waiting & giving permission to attack.

8) Fixing themselvs before seeing the other.

Of course yes. Maybe you think some of these are a strech, but ultimately, people would point out romantic connotations across the board. And I'm here, pointing them out right now. Some scenes between Loki and Mobius have romantic implications.

Conclusion

Loki is a queer protagonist in the MCU, a universe that lacks representation of queer experiences. His show constantlty reminded us of romance, sometimes for seemigly no reason. In the second season, they wrote him and his best friend with romantic implications. And then, nothing. It should not have been nothing. Lokius should have been canon.

[bluegekk0]

Does the rest of the family know that grimm is essentially a killer for hire for lurien?

To add on to that question, how “criminal” are the people that lurien asks grimm to kill? are they actually murderers and genuine shitty people, or a are they just petty thieves that were unfortunate enough to get lurien’s attention or maybe some political opponents that lurien has marked for death?

I think they are aware, yeah. Vyrm most certainly is, and it wouldn't take Hornet long to find out either. So I do think this is something that isn't really kept a secret in the family.

Generally, I think something like this wouldn't be as big of a deal in their society as it would for us - they're noticeably more animal-like than us. Murder is, of course, frowned upon, mainly because it causes chaos within communities. Someone innocent being murdered is a big deal, it means that the community is not safe. In contrast, those who deal punishment for those crimes are seen more as protectors rather than murderers. It's definitely not a flawless mindset, if you start delving into the logic you'd probably find some holes. But it works for them more often than not.

And to the second part, I don't see Lurien sending Grimm after petty criminals. I think he'd only reserve that for those who cause actual serious problems to the city. Leaders of the criminal underground, murderers and those who committed other deplorable actions, and so on. Generally, if there's enough to warrant a "wanted: dead or alive" poster or anything of that sort, this is what Lurien considers a criminal worthy of a "more effective method". Is it a perfect logic? Far from it, there's definitely more nuance to it. But considering the post-infection state of the city, and all the shady types it attracted in its lawless state, he has more important things to worry about. His goal is to protect the city at all costs, and to drag it out of the criminal infested hole it was stuck in for the entire time it took him to gain power (which I imagine was at least a few years, he didn't become the head of the city until about 3-4 years before the current point in the timeline).

Now, would it include political targets? I think it's an interesting idea, perhaps in the future. As of now, there aren't many threats to his position, he's universally seen as a good leader in the districts where he's in power. His biggest worry is the safety in the city, the criminals still hold a lot of power over some districts of the city, and as the city's population rises, the problem remains difficult to solve. Weakening the criminal underground is his best bet for now, and Grimm does it far more effectively and discreetly than his guard.

There is definitely more to this idea that I want to explore so apologies if it's a bit nonsensical at this point. I think exploring the concept of a criminal underground holding power over parts of the city would help with making it more believable, and would explain why Lurien was desperate enough to ask Grimm for help. And on Grimm's side, it would also add another layer to his part of the agreement - aside from getting blood, he can also help make the city safer for his family, if they ever need to visit it.

Since I have more time now, I'll most likely give more attention to this in the worldbuilding section of my AU info page. I'm definitely open to feedback and suggestions about this. For now, I hope the answer was satisfying enough.

[balanceoflightanddark]

I saw your earlier post about live action Azula and a few thoughts came to mind.

I know a lot of people are (rightfully)worried about the live action. I understand that they have cause to be wary.

As for me, I’m just hoping we get to see Azula kick the Zuko’s + the Gaangs (including Aang and Katara) collective asses! She got jipped quite a few times in the Og show regarding PIS and her mental breakdown.

And who knows? Maybe Netflix will make big changes and we’ll get to see an Azula redemption.

They also have an opportunity for epic trolling by having either Azulaang become canon (in the netverse anyway) Or having Katara fall for Zuko’s little sister instead of him. If nothing else, it would be good for a laugh.

I doubt any of these things will happen. But a person can dream, no?

In a similar vein to myself, do you have anything you wish to see in regards to Azula’s character?

How do you think Azula will be handled on Netflix?

Thank you for the ask anon.

I think one of my biggest fears is that they're going to play up her insanity and her breakdown. Unfortunately, her entire character has been colored by that breakdown both by the fandom and the franchise. Almost all of her post-canon work focuses on her mental instability to the point she's portrayed as a rabid animal in that awful Legacy of Fire book. Sure, we've had some more nuanced portrayals of her in recent years (Azula in the Spirit Temple comes to mind), but that's over a decade of her being portrayed at her worst moment.

And that's not even getting into how she's been demoted into little more than a glorified punching bag for Zuko and the Gaang in the Yang Comics.

So, yeah. I'm right with you about being apprehensive about Netflix's portrayal. If the creators can't get what made her character special, I don't exactly have confidence in a company who's had a pretty spotty track record when it comes to live-action adaptations (One Piece being the exception from what I've heard).

The other thing I'm a bit concerned about is...well, I don't think they're going for a redemption. With how modern media is like, I doubt they're going to stray too far away from the original series. Especially with Azula since her breakdown is iconic for all the wrong reasons. I mean, I'd like to hope for a redemption, but considering how Bryke and almost all the creative team keeps shying away from the possibility, I sincerely doubt Netflix is going to do better. Kind of frustrating when they've been leaving us up in the air for years at this point.

Now for what I'm hoping...I want Azula to get more sympathy. Basically, bust as many bad faith interpretations as possible. Don't tie in her story so closely to Zuko. Let her be a badass. And maybe leave her story on a positive note unlike the series. She seems to be getting a bit more focus, so I'm hopeful this might be true. Though it's all up to the writing team at this point.

I'll be honest, it's going to take a lot to convince me they have a handle on Azula's character. I mean, all respect for her actress and I'll be rooting for her. It's just...well, like I said in my previous post, over a decade of toxicity towards Azula and wishing the worst for her with creators that keep feeding that attitude has left me a little estranged. A part of me is hopeful, but until I see otherwise, I'm going to be skeptical.

Feel free to leave your thoughts.

[mouseratz]

tbh I'll say it. I don't think fat fetishes are a big deal on their own. however. it is still a Sex Thing & should be treated as such, and when like, boundaries are broken & fetish stuff runs into completely unrelated fat stuff it Sucks Really Bad. you ARE being weird with that.

& I also think a lot of people run into confusion where they're like "okay so all appreciation or attraction to fat people is a Specific Sex Thing, so we should stay away from it?" nope! buzzer sound. being attracted to fat people IS normal, broadly, but some people still also have specific related kinks/fetishes. both kind of exist simultaneously despite being a little different.

"but how can you tell the difference?" if you can't, it doesn't really matter, tbh. if you can, though, and it's inappropriate and creepy (especially towards other fat ppl who DO NOT want anything to do with that) that is wrong and super fucked up. unfortunately, this requires respect and nuance and thought, and most internet users have not heard of such things, especially regarding sexual comments.

it's like, listen.....if somebody's interacting with regular fat artwork or posts or whatever with their kink blog or saying weird shit, it's no different to me than a creepy guy approaching a lady at the store and asking her to take her shoes off so he can see her "beautiful feet" (sorry foot fetishists for using you to make my point, but it's something I've seen happen irl- and the point is, it's the behavior that's fucked, not necessarily what it's about specifically if that makes sense).

I also do believe it's such a big topic because anything surrounding fatness is taboo rn, sexual or not, god knows the hate mail I get for saying things as controversial as "maybe being fat is ok actually?" (Which recently I've given some glimpses into....) so it makes sense opinion is pretty divided here, since this is kind of a tricky subject.....

from what I've seen, my opinion tends to be "the fetish itself is just a fetish but it can be used to (sexually) harass fat people".

[mikuni14]

I don't really know where Jin's recent "popularity" came from, he suddenly became the most talked about character 😄 Despite everything (I'll write later what "everything" is), I still like Jin and PheeJin is my ship. I decided to join the discussion by showing the life cycle of a PheeJin fan using my example: liking PheeJin at the beginning, because they are an interesting couple -> flashback and first surprise: Jin liked Non and was a member of the group that bullied him, although he was not involved in it -> Phee appears as NON'S BOYFRIEND -> this makes me like PheeJin even more, as an interesting and compelling couple -> A BIG HORRIBLE SCENE WITH NON that Phee and Jin couldn't handle -> this makes me even more interested in PheeJin because omg -> AN EVEN BIGGER HORRIBLE SCENE WITH NON WHO IS HAVING A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN, Jin is lying to the police, I'm shocked, I'm apalled, I'm heartbroken-> it makes PheeJin is even more interesting to me because jfc omfg-> I'm writing a post referring to this episode, in which I clearly point out that all the shades and nuances are no longer interesting to me because I can't force myself to forgive them that they are all safe and sound with their families and successful AND NON IS NOT HERE -> this makes me even more interested in PheeJin because how will the series get around this???

That's how it is 😁😘

Out of the group, I like Jin the most, because he was the only one who actively chose good, actively tried, actively did something kind for Non. I know that we are talking about Top, Tee, Por and Fluke, that they are nuanced, that e.g. Tee has a sick father, that Por has demanding parents, that they are kids, but we must remember one thing, all four of them ALWAYS choose evil when it comes to o Non. ALWAYS. And this isn't some stupid little evil, some stupid joke. Everything they do to Non is super serious and criminal, it's about money, it's the mafia, it's accusing of destroying expensive property, big lies, it's a serious sex scandal, it's police interrogations, it's also a never ending verbal and physical abuse. And ultimately - it is Non's disappearance. Jin had been trying really hard up to this point, although he failed several times. But I admit that mentally I can't get around how easily he lied to the police, how he then stands with all of them accepting praises for a work that wasn't his own, how he keeps in contact with all of them. I still can't wrap my mind around the fact that they are all safe and happy and yes, Jin is there too, although he lets everyone know that he is unhappy, but he is still there. While Non is gone and his family doesn't know what happened to him and maybe they are still looking for him and these boys are the only ones with the clues. Maybe one day it won't bother me anymore 🙂 Maybe the next episodes will explain it more, or maybe I'll just get over it. But at this point, this is something I just can't forgive them for.

I admit that I chose the method of denial and waiting it out lmao. I still like Jin, or rather, I want to like him and I need to understand why he lied. I'm waiting to see why they all agreed to lie about Non. I miss the scene of reconciling the testimonies, because I don't believe that they, each of them, individually decided to lie. And out of morbid curiosity, I'm waiting for the episode with them after Non's disappearance, as they convince themselves that he really ran away with Keng... The power of delulu must be strong with them..

DFF is a truly brilliant series so far because it's able to create characters such as Jin that can make the fandom red hot.

[lunatic-fandom-space]

Oh god, Im five minutes into the Shanghai Special and I definitely remember reading salt posts about this at some point, but I completely forgot that the inciting incident of Marinette wanting to go there was to follow Adrien and that she basically used going to visit her uncle as the excuse which is bad, especially considering Adrien is the whitest boy alive and the show does this weird thing where he knows chinese culture better than Marinette and knows how to speak the language better than Marinette and his family has more personal connections to the chinese miracle box than Marinette's, like, it looks really bad

But the reason Im making this post is actually because I wanted to talk a little about the way they handle Marinette being part of a, idk if this is the best way to phrase this, non-dominant culture. Im phrasing it like that because Im white and the child of two immigrants from the same country, so Im not getting into the additional nuances of being biracial or even of belonging to two different cultures here

First off, I think its fine that Marinette isnt super in-touch with the chinese side of things because she doesnt like, live there and her parents dont seem to be encouraging her to get in touch with it. Im in pretty much the same situation and I actually find it pretty relatable that she doesnt interact too much with her culture outside of like, food mostly. It is a shame because we couldve had something interesting with her initially not being interested in learning more about chinese culture and only researching it and ancient china to find out more about the Miraculous, but then a genuine desire to reconnect with that part of herself starts to grow from that, but I dont think its the biggest deal in the world

The thing that bothers me the most is that they not only basically had Adrien 'be better' at her own culture than Marinette, she doesnt react to it all beyond maybe being like "oh hes so talented" and its like. Im having a lot of trouble putting this into words, but I'll try anyway

When youre the child of immigrants especially and youre not very in-touch with your/your parents' culture, dont really speak the language, dont participate in any traditions and then you meet other immigrant-kids from the same country/culture and they do speak the language and are overall way more in-touch with it than you are, theres this incredible sense of embarassment that I could never explain to people who are, idk, unicultural ? is that a word I should use here? And like, with other people from a similar background theres atleast this sense of solidarity yknow, but with people who are not from there and who are maybe just good at the language and know the culture bc culture lessions are a pretty big part of most language learning lessions.... its a bit different I would imagine. I say 'I would imagine' bc my parents are from a russian-speaking country and we live in germany and, while a lot of schools here will offer some kind of voluntary russian lessions (atleast in my area) most of those are attended by immigrant-kids trying to learn or relearn their language and Ive never met someone who was born here without a russian or post-soviet background who knew russian beyond a few words and who was well versed in russian culture and the cultures of ex-soviet countriws.

However, if I did meet a person like that, I would probably be pissed. Thats obviously not the case for all immigrants and I think the reason why the thought of people not from 'my' culture being "better" at it than I am honestly relates to some deep personal baggage I have because I started crying when I wrote that previous section. And like, its good to learn other languages and to learn about other cultures, please dont let this post discourage you in any way, this is just because of some personal stuff that I dont want to share here.

My point here is, there are intense and complex emotions attached to your family's culture, even if you dont participate in it yourself for whatever reasons you may have. I dont like that its just being swept under the rug for Marinette because the writers would rather have her drool over an intensely bland guy than even begin to address how awful it feels to not be able to communicate with or understand a memeber of your own family due to cultural differences and because you just didnt keep in touch.

Thats it, if you're biracial or you were raised in a multi-cultured home and you have thoughts about this, please share them because I'd love to hear them!

[motheatenscarf]

I beat the base-game story for FF14! Yaaay! \o/

I have... SO many thoughts, I just kinda powered through the last bit after the Scions got got, most of my thoughts are relatively positive, but also I have some very mean, very stupid opinions about some of the writing choices happening here.

I'll probably make a few posts in greater detail later, but for now my strongest opinions can be summed up as follows;

Holy fuck, I hate Minfilia, the literal child was a better leader than her. She's weak and indecisive and written as a terrible leader without the narrative addressing that fact at all. So it's not just irresponsible misogynistic writing, it's just lazy and laughably incompetent writing.

I wound up liking the villain quartet more than I thought I would, namely the big dude you have to kill first. His devotion to his men and belief in the empire due to his ability to rise to his station really stood out. That was probably the most nuanced this game has been so far, I was impressed, I genuinely felt bad I had to kill him. He was written from a perspective of empathy with the full breadth of emotion, like a real human being.

I had not come to expect that from this game!

Namely because all of our villains until this point were cartoons who wanted to blow up the moon and all of our heroes were made of unflappable cardboard. That's not to say they don't have their charms, I love a good "Mua ha ha!" as much as the next person, but y'know, largely forgettable. The worst example of this comes from Cid and Thancred. Like. Hey, Cid, these are your childhood friends we're slaughtering. You really gonna no thoughts, head empty your way through this?

Yeah?

Okay... cool...

god forbid someone have an interesting reaction.

The WORST example of that, however, is Thancred. I really thought we'd get something out of Thancred being possessed by Lahabrea. Like, even if he didn't make a choice or a deal to get possessed and had no agency in that, he would at least have a reaction to knowing he'd gotten his people killed or tortured. That's going to at the very least cause reflection in a character and an interesting change in his perspective if not outright trauma he's going to have to work through, and that's a good emotional hook to have someone your character needs to look out for. Real vulnerability, maybe, if we're lucky.

Haha,

NOPE!

Like. I've played Kingdom Hearts. I'm getting big Organization XIII vibes from the Ascians, and I'm looking at Thancred like, oh, okay, you're just... older Riku. Sure. I can work with that, that's a good source of angst, at least someone's feeling SOMETHING in the narrative at that point.

But fucking lol, no, he's just like "Thanks for saving me, I've been a real inconvenience, I should take some time off to recover so nobody has to help me again."

ANd like...

Buddy, that is the reaction you have when you're hangry and you get kinda snippy before somebody hands you a candybar and tells you to calm down. You're REALLY not gonna talk about this?! I have a whole subsequent sidequest to help Minfilia find her MOMMY so she can grow the moral fortitude to refuse bribes, but Thancred spends months being possessed by THE bad guy and gets the Scions nearly wiped out and he's FINE and we're MOVING ON!

REALLY?!

I know I JUST compared it to Kingdom Hearts, but it's not even that! Kingdom Hearts, for being TERRIBLE, at least understood that the way to get people invested in a narrative was to give them characters who CARE about things and react accordingly! Oh my god, Kingdom Hearts was more competent than this! OH MY GOD, it's so bad, I'm so ANGRY! It was starting to show promise, how did it turn around and do itself this dirty, who was responsible for this?!

GOD.

That said, the things I like are, like, everything else about this game so far. My god was I frustrated the entire time I was sitting through some of this shit storywise, but the gameplay was very fun. The game is otherwise the single most functional, deep, and FUN mmo I've ever played gamewise. I'm ASSURED the story gets better, and like, frankly, it wouldn't take much effort for that to be true, but if they can also make the story GOOD, I will be pleasantly surprised because right now we're in "so incompetent I burst out laughing" territory.

And then after all that they called it the 7th Astral Era like, job's done, go home team, ignore the multiple other looming threats! We're admitting Lahabrea isn't dead even in-text among the Scions and there's still countless Primals being summoned and I'm pretty sure somebody needs to talk about these giant talking crystals, but NOPE, 7th Astral Era here we go!

I give it ten months.

Anyway, I'm gonna go read up on how to kill the Moogle King so I can progress this narrative, but I'm in like, humorously SHOCKED disbelief at how bad this was. Like, the FUNNY kind of angry, not legit angry, the "Oh, here's a new rant I could go on about for ten minutes EASY" kind of angry, it was so bad.

[amazing-spiderling]

for the fandom ask game: 5 6 11 16 23 24

something you see in fics a lot and love

I really love seeing Foggy sort of leap-frogging over his panic and anger and confusion in moments of crisis to get right to the part where he works on being helpful. That, "We are going to fight about this later, but right now I need to stop that bleeding" sort of thing. Foggy is absolutely allowed to have emotions and fall apart in a crisis, but he has a good head on his shoulders and certainly after a certain point he's had to learn to compartmentalize just to survive being in Matt's life. I think it's comforting to imagine having a friend or partner like that- I guess it speaks to the idea of there always being an undercurrent of love. No matter what else is going on in the moment, no matter how furious or scared or worried the events taking place right now make them, they do not supplant the love that is at the basis of the relationship. I just think that's neat.

something you see in art a lot and love

When artists really have fun with the clothing, paying attention to details and making things really specific. When someone really pays attention to drawing a certain kind of shoe- I'm just... yeah, that's the good stuff. :)

if you’re a writer or artist, what fic or piece of art are you proud of making?

Well, I'm a little bit of both- but I guess a fic sprang to mind first so I'll answer for that. (tw for fictional CSA mention btw) So, as I've not-so-casually mentioned, one of my first big/long term fandoms was Metal Gear Solid. And I know that some of the memes from that series have escaped containment, and to the outsiders it might look like "Call of Duty but with the occasional zany moment" but it does have a lot of story (too much, some might say XD) and intricate character relationships and lore and, ugh it's just SUCH fertile ground for art and fic and all the things that make fandom great. But, it *does* also very much appeal to gamer dudes of the usual type. And normally this is fine, the transformative fans and the archival fans largely keep to their own fandom spaces- but sometimes there is crossover that rubs one group or the other the wrong way.

One such case is that there is a character who has an "affair" with his step-mother, but I put that in quotes because when the dust settles, it turns out this happened when the character in question was 16. There is TERRIBLE fallout from the event (family trauma, suicide, estrangement) and the game plays it all straight- this is something that broke the already fragile family to pieces. BUT for a long time, the joke was "haha character banged his stepmom". Which. Ew.

Anyways, I always really wanted to write a story that sort of expanded on those events, not the actual relationship/abuse/fallout, but more the events that precluded it, mostly what made the character an easy target. (Isolation, otherness, a lack of confidence in who they were as an individual). Basically, I wanted to really tell a story that treated the matter with the needed level of seriousness, if only to say, "hey, this isn't a punchline, this is a traumatic experience".

I ended up watching, "The Graduate" a few times as sort of... research? Partially for tone, partially because the themes and characterization in that movie matched the vibe I was trying to go for in my own story. (I can't help but think that Kojima, known for referencing movies in his games- might have had it in mind due to some shared imagery.) This was maybe the first time I did something like that, watching a movie to pick it apart for nuance in tone, as opposed to looking at it for canon events, timelines etc.

So that story ended up being, "Surface Tension", which first appeared in the "Metal Gear Solid: Lost Years" zine, and then eventually got posted to AO3. It's not my best reviewed fic by a long shot (understandably, it's a difficult subject material and not shippy or anything), but it's one that I can say I am proud of.

a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

Wow, this one is tricky for me- I feel like a lot of fans are way more detail oriented than I am when it comes to canon. I'm always the one in awe when people are like, "Oh in episode seven, this one song is playing in a car as it drives by, and that's significant because it came out in 2013 and that was the year that..." and i'm just like "you guys know the names of songs?"

I guess to that end- I always liked the line in, I think it's season 1 where Matt says it's a "90's Top 40" kind of guy. I think it's really funny because people characterize him as having... well, let's just say "better" musical taste, but like, no. That dude would bop his head if you played the Spin Doctors.

the fandom you’re curious about because of a mutual

I have no idea what's going on in the Trolls fandom, and at this point I'm afraid to ask. But they all look like they're having a great time.

how has fandom positively impacted your life?

I've made so many friends, and as someone who doesn't get out as much as I'd like (especially as an immunocompromised person in the middle of a pandemic), my fandom friends are so, so important to me. I love the feeling of having a group of people who love the thing I love and being able to waltz into a space and say, "Hey, who wants to do this crazy thing with me?" and have even a few people say "Yeah, let's fucking GOOOO". ^^

I also think I wouldn't write nearly as much if it wasn't for fandom, and writing has certainly gone a long way towards helping me become better at unraveling the balls of yarn in my brain and making them into sweaters and scarves, as it were. I think a lot of the time when you write, you're practicing empathy- because you're forcing yourself to see the world from someone else's perspective. Maybe the character you're writing about had something in common with you, maybe that's what drew you to them in the first place, but identifying that also helps you understand more about yourself *and* how you relate to others. So I like to think that writing has helped me relate better to other people, even the ones I disagree with, and made me more able to slow down and ask, "well, why does this person feel/think that way?" Storytelling is so important for a lot of reasons, but that's a big one for me.

[politicallyinvolvedpandabear]

Asking for advice from radblr! (tldr at the end)

Hello. I haven't posted something of my own in a long time (I've mostly used this blog to reblog/spread/archive posts that I really agree with) but since I really respect radblr's opinions (for heavily shaping who I am today in a good way), I'd like to hear from you and perhaps get your thoughts on something I have on my mind right now. (Big life change.)

This is in regards to career/job advice. Could any radfems (especially from the USA but non-USA is welcome too) tell me how they're getting by job-wise, like if you have a stable job, you're financially secure, how you got that job, etc. etc.? You don't have to tell me your life story or any identifying info of course-- I just feel I gain a lot from hearing other people's stories, and hearing how women like me are surviving in this current economy/dystopia of a world/etc. is really helpful.

For some extra context about me, I'm in my mid-20s now and I've been nervous about things falling apart for me for a while now, even though I'm being supported by my family. My current job situation isn't ideal or stable, and I've been thinking a lot about how I want to move forward, especially now that Trump has been elected.

Last night, I thought that I want to go to community college for nursing or something and maybe try to become a doctor (best case scenario even if it's really hard), and there are a number of reasons why I picked that. I'll put them under the cut so I don't put an extremely long post in the feed, but I'd really love thoughts or advice from fellow radfems because you gyns are partially the reason why I'm considering it.

(Skip to the end for my tldr if you prefer not reading my reasons)

I don't want to give out too much identifying information because I want to separate my online activities from real life (right now I try to spread radfem ideas to normal people by not sharing the too extreme ideas even though I secretly agree with them), and I think that's working out. Even though I don't agree with every single thing radblr says and I question it critically like anything, I still really respect radblr for opening my eyes to the horrors of this world and helping me understand why it's so bad.

Anyway, my name is Panda or Bear, whichever one you want. I first learned about radical feminism in like 2020 or 2022 I think, and I've loved it ever since because it's one of the few movements that doesn't cave to men and actively identifies them as a problem in this man-adoring world. I really care about women, and even though I know not every woman is an angel, I still wouldn't leave a woman I hate with a creepy man because I would side with a woman over her own oppressor any day. Discussions of all the nuances and ways women harm women aside, I'm horrified whenever I see horrible things on the news or in real life, and I strongly want to do something to help make the world a better place.

I don't want to make this too long in case it puts off people who might weigh in, so I'll cut to the chase. I've been horrified by the genocide in Palestine and watching it for a whole year now, and although I wanted to do something and did donate some money, I was largely depressed and frustrated with myself for being unable to do anything about it, especially because I wasn't in a great position to be giving a bunch of money or anything (fears of homelessness, tragedy striking, etc. etc.).

Yesterday I saw a video of a homeless woman in Portland talking about how she's been treated and how nobody cares or helps her (she was gangraped, she's safer outside the tent, etc.), and it was like the snapping/turning point for me. I want to be able to help women because I know it's thanks to them that I'm able to live relatively well today (compared to people in third world countries, etc.), so I always thought that in order to affect change, I need to take control of capital.

I need to make money to support myself AND the causes I care about, and if I'm more financially stable, then I can better address the things I'm worried about like climate change, helping the homeless, etc. etc. Kind of like how rich people lobby governments for things in their favor: I was thinking that if I went back to school and became a nurse or a doctor and made an okay amount of money, I'd be able to donate my money to causes and try to volunteer/establish support systems, etc etc.

I firmly believe that the world is better because women are in certain job positions and help, so even if I know it won't be easy at all, I'm willing to work really hard (now that I have a clear goal in mind) and try to pull both myself and others up. I'm not underestimating how hard the journey is at all (medical school, etc.) and since I only came up with this last night, I just want to put this out there for opinions, but I'll be doing additional research of course.

Since Trump is in office now and I think he said he would abolish the Department of Education, I don't know if it'll make college and higher education more inaccessible than ever, but I was thinking that's why I'll go to community college (cheaper and more flexible) so when a possible bird flu pandemic does hit, I won't be scrambling to finish a 4-year course of study. Or 8 years-- again, I need to look into it.

I'm unsure what type of doctor I want to be (I really hate gore so I'd rather be a family health doctor or something, but I know it's not that easy to pick and choose), and I'd be willing to work past my misgivings (dislike of needles, etc.) if I can actually help people. (Female-only preferred but idk if I can be picky rn.)

I chose a doctor or a nurse because I think I can become a nurse faster than a doctor, and I heard about how horrible doctors are (mistreating patients, misdiagnosing, etc.) so even if it's thankless work, I want to be someone who can try to help/reassure my patients instead of another asshole indirectly causing people's deaths. I know it can be thankless work and nurses' workloads are crazy, but I really hate the service industry, and even if this is somewhat similar, at least I'd be paid a little bit more and it's a bit more stable, I hope? There are so many sick people because lots of people don't take sickness seriously, so I think I'd always be able to find something, hopefully.

Again, I know it's not as easy as declaring I want to be a doctor and it happening easily, but the idea came to me because I strongly want to help women, and I'm thinking I might want to seriously pursue this idea. At the very least, I'll look into my options and volunteer for EMT and look around for any other jobs to help me.

I really like academia so I'd also love to research more about women's health (I know it's sorely lacking which is why I want to help lessen that gap if I can), and although I'm not really interested in gynecology (as an antinatalist, I can explain why I am if asked but essentially I didn't ask to be born and I wouldn't give birth to kids in this fucked up world even if I didn't need a man's genes to do it), I would take up gynecology if it meant creepy rapist men don't do the job instead.

My path isn't clear right now at all but I listed my reasons for wanting to possibly do it, and I'll continue to look into what I can do. Right now my parents are supporting me, so I think this is the best time to do it (I'm always afraid of something happening to them so I want to be financially stable asap and consistently), and I'm smart and hardworking, so I know I can do it if I had a good reason to. My reason is because I hate being unable to help women and girls who are suffering and being afraid when it's my turn next, so I want to make money and also directly help people while I'm at it. I've seen how badly adults and institutions fail people (especially kids, who are preyed on by creepy men), so I want to be a role model for them and to prevent someone awful from getting to them instead. Even if it all sounds idealistic, I really want to try.

tldr; I really want to help women and girls and make the world a better place with my existence, so I want to become a doctor (for now a nurse) so I can make money, have enough income to volunteer/establish better systems of support (especially for the homeless), and have income I can donate to causes I care about (like global warming). If I have more money, I have more power and influence, so even if it's hard or I don't make as much as I want, I'm at least doing more than I am now. I'm thinking of going to community college first before committing fully.

I really hate having debt btw so I'm wary of that (the best case scenario is getting scholarships, if those will even exist by the time Trump takes office), but I'm definitely willing to work really hard on it. I graduated college and high school and the degree I earned has nothing to do with nursing/medicine/etc. at all, and I really want to return to academia because I value knowledge a lot.

I wrote a lot here but if even one person has any thoughts or input, I'll be considering it! I won't be deleting this post so reblogs for awareness are appreciated and I might self-reblog this if this gets buried. I'll be doing my research, but I'd really appreciate it if people could weigh in, especially people who are more experienced in this area. Even if you're not, I'm wondering what your thoughts are and if it'll be a good idea or not. (Again, I'm in the USA. And I'll be researching it too, so I'm not looking for validation-- I'm looking for the wide range of options and experiences.)

Thank you so much for reading and I appreciate it, especially if you respond to me!

[northwest-cryptid]

is it cool if I just say "all of the above" for the poll? would directly say in note but going by fae rules, just.

I know you as the manager, I see and understand your boycotts, and I read your excessive (affectionate) ramblings like the morning news.

it's impossible to define just one box.

That's fair, I anticipated this sort of result honestly; so feel free.

I find it funny because the reason behind that poll is sort of a two fold thing. I was talking to one of my audience member who doesn't use social media; and essentially was explaining how I'm a bit of a nuisance in that if I ever see a post talking about how games are bad about gender customization or weight customization or gender equality; I'll always without fail be the first to jump in like "THEN PLAY MABI!"

I sort of jokingly made a point of mentioning how like, if you go on tumblr, go into the mabi tag, and ask anyone there who knows me who "the mabi guy is" or "who's the idiot who shaved the goddess" they'd likely point you to me without any problem. This isn't a case where I think I'm super popular or anything, there are tons of extremely skilled, genuinely entertaining, and interesting people in that tag. I just happen to be the one who often stands out for being a bit deranged when it comes to the way I engage with the game. With examples of that being how I talk about the frog event, mentioning there's literally no frogs in Erinn, bringing up the idea that if we're really raising a bunch of frogs it's essentially ecoterrorism. Or posting about 3D printing adventures and the mishaps that come with it such as accidentally shaving the goddess and being turned into a meme for it. So it's not that I think I'm some outstanding popular individual who's super cool and everyone knows. It's more so if you walk into the Mabi tag and go "hey where's that fucking idiot who has the weird opinions about frogs" enough people or at least the people who know me will likely point you in my direction like "oh yea that's Velvet/Cryptid."

However I got to thinking about how much I'm likely known for, how I have followers, mutuals, and friends; who I've made from many backgrounds and interests. Some people literally know me as a fellow trans individual, some people know me as a vtuber, some people know me from my obsession with ProjMoon; some people literally only know me because I'm outspoken about Native issues and I boycott popular games loudly.

It made me wonder what people mostly saw me as, or what they knew me for. It also made me wonder if anyone would look at the list and go "what the fuck is half of this?! You did what?! You're who!?" Which admittedly would be really funny to me.

But long answer short, as I said at the start; go for it. Honestly I almost included an "all of the above" option but I thought it would sort of make all the other options null and void. Why bother having all the other options if I just gave people the option of saying "yea you're all of this" but I also understand that for a lot of my mutuals, or people who have known me for a good while now; I AM all of those things. Because the people who know me well or who follow my blog and actually read the things I have to say; much like you're saying here, have a very real understanding of me as a nuanced individual to which all of that applies.

At the end of the day it's not like I can really stop you, nor should I. If I really didn't want people to pick such an option, I'd have simply not included it. My though process behind including "Other" specifically was that it's possible someone follows me for entirely different reasons, maybe someone knows me for entirely different reasons; I didn't want to simply lock them into needing to pick something I personally think I'm known for, when that might not be the case.

I'm not big on numbers, it's why I like Tumblr; no one needs to know how many followers I have and such, but I have quite a number and I realize that it's pretty presumptuous of me to assume I know why each and every one of them followed me. I figured leaving Other in the list wouldn't just allow for individuals to list their own reasons but also to include something more specific like "I know you for 2 of these things" or "I know you for ALL of these things."

[purpleheartskies]

For a long while, I was including a note in all of my posts asking people not reblog or comment on my posts with dismissive comments about the writing or writers. I really wanted to continue discussions about the nuance, character writing, storytelling, themes explored, etc. in the story. In my past few posts, I didn't include the note, but today this reblog reminded me that maybe I should keep including that note.

This claim that the writers don't care about their history isn't true. The writers interweaved numerous references to Robby's story from s1 to s4 throughout s5 in a very interesting way.

One example is in s5e1. The writers had Robby remind Johnny, and hence the audience, that Robby had lived in the van at one point. After this, Johnny proceeded with his whole scene of gaslighting and guilting Robby to make his own case for lying to Robby and to get his help to find Miguel.

My original post that was reblogged talks about Robby's living situations, so I'm calling out this specific example to show that the claim in the reblog is simply wrong. This detail from s3 is mentioned as a factual statement by Robby himself in s5. The original post itself is an analysis of how Robby's living situation has changed, sometimes even more than once, in each season since s1 including in s5. s5 didn't contradict what we've seen throughout the series wrt to this. s5 just added to it.

In terms of Johnny and Robby's history not being explored yet, I'll say the following.

Later, in s5e4, Robby told Tory that he and Johnny still have some issues that are too big to solve. Robby looked at Miguel because the whole Mexico trip had just happened, and Robby and Tory were talking about it. But, Robby was not yet introduced to the baby plot device, which happened after the apartment fight. This plot device, or more so Johnny's behavior wrt to this plot device, is yet another "too big to solve" issue that was introduced into their relationship. And it can't be stressed enough that Johnny had revealed that the whole reason he was forcing Robby to get along with Miguel and forced the fight between them was because this plot device was introduced.

From the start, people have wanted Johnny to build a blended family with Robby and the Diazs. But, the writers have been purposely written a story that has Johnny building a life with the Diazs at Robby's expense. Johnny has a lot of trauma and has poor mental health. Johnny can't build any healthy relationships at all right now. He has yet to start addressing his core issues, like Robby said there are issues that are "too big to solve". All the proof is there in the story, consistently for 5 seasons.

If the writers had had Johnny building healthy relationships with the Diazs while keeping Johnny an alcoholic, an asshole, a deadbeat, and a shitty father to Robby, that would actually be bad writing for sure. It would be disingenuous to Johnny's characterization from him to build any healthy relationships without him having had any real growth. People want complicated characters, but when they get that, they're unhappy. Johnny and Robby each have a lot of trauma and poor mental health that has been worsening, especially in Robby's case, due to their experiences throughout the story. They have been acting and reacting to each other and to situations based on their individual characterizations. The whole point of their story is to explore generational trauma. This means that a major aspect of Robby's story is how Johnny's behavior gives Robby trauma and affects Robby's mental health.

Johnny is a shitty person, the Diazs' aren't perfect either and aren't a godsend to Johnny, and this blended "family" is purposely built to be dysfunctional. Robby is a kid who has been abandoned, neglected and abused his whole life and who no longer wants to be abandoned by his dad. He reacted to his mentally unhealthy father in an very unhealthy way (fawning/people-pleasing) because of how his father behaved after the new plot device was introduced, on top of the other "too big to solve" issues already present in their relationship. Not to mention, Robby was stuck with Johnny for the summer after Johnny selfishly highjacked Robby's summer. Again, s5 didn't contradict what we've seen throughout the story. s5 just added to it.

To be clear, no one who roots for Robby and who wants to see Johnny grow is happy with the story, not even me. But it's silly that we can't even talk about the story without people dismissing details in the story in order to complain about it.

"On the section about home life. Just check off stable. They don't care. They never come to check."

Of all the kids, Robby has had the most unstable home life throughout the show.

Within 2 years, Robby has lived in 7 different places. No stability. No security. No adults he can truly rely on for consistency and unconditional support.

s1e1 to s2e2 - Apartment with Shannon. She seemed to be barely there and brought random men around often. A home with neglect and emotional neglect; abandonment by Johnny since birth and eventually by Shannon.

s2e3 to s2e10 - LaRusso's home. As a guest, walking on eggshells, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Was called family in s2e5. This was revoked in s2e10.

s2e10 - One good day with Johnny.

s2e10 to s3e2 - On the run. Living in a stolen van, near a homeless encampment. Terrified and alone. If the adults in his life had more compassion and provided more stability and security, he likely wouldn't have ran.

s3e3 to s3e8 - Juvie. Terrified and alone. Locked in a building with bullies and uncaring, verbally abusive adults. Highly traumatizing, unsafe environment. Constant hyper-vigilance.

s3e9 to s4e? - CK dojo. Temporary until Shannon got out of rehab.

s4e? to s5e4* - with Shannon. Probably in an apartment. No info on how present she is now. Watching Hot Ones is just hanging out, but is she being a parent? Given how she talks about his life as well as her absence from the avt, she's still not being a parent. She also continues to emotionally neglect him.

*s5e1 to s5e2 - Trip to Mexico with Johnny. Subjected to psychological and emotional abuse, threat of abandonment, and life endangerment.

s5e5 to s5e10 - Apartment with Johnny. Abusive home with emotional neglect. Trauma inducing and triggering environment. Adopted fawn/people-pleasing response to survive.

The only time someone came to check (s2e2).

That person also stopped caring at one point. In s3e8, when he was told to "let him go", he did let him go... even though he was with a psycho.

Robby and Johnny folding Robby's clothes in s2e7, s3e9, and s5e4, respectively. Each setting is or becomes a new living situation, just as uncertain and unstable as the last. Them putting his clothes away is a reminder of how much Robby moves around.

These shots of Robby and Johnny folding Robby's clothes are telling. No other kid has shots of their clothes being folded and put away in a bag (s3e9, s5e4). In s2, Robby's clothes were shown scattered on the bed both times his dojo room was shown (s2e7, s2e10). It's not just laundry, though. It's symbolic of how Robby's living situation is always uncertain, of how much Robby moves around. His belongings in a bag or on a bed, not in drawers or a closet. Whether he's with Shannon, the LaRussos, Johnny, or in another environment, he's not secure. He's not safe. He doesn't get to "live". He has to survive, not knowing how long he'll be there, what he'll have to endure, or what can destabilize his situation.

In s2e6, he was living with the LaRussos, in their home dojo, for the time being because Shannon had abandoned him. Of course, Johnny had abandoned him since birth. Although there was a bed in the room in s2, the bed is gone in s3e7/e10. Here, in s2e6, Sam came and "made a move", after getting Moon's help to pick out what to wear to get Robby's attention. They had almost kissed in s2e5, but Robby had shut that down, telling her that for the first time in a while his situation was improving and he didn't want to ruin things with her dad. Robby was right though, about how things would end. His situation with them was indeed temporary. The day that Shannon went to rehab, Robby messed up by not bringing Sam home after she got herself drunk at Moon's party. The next day, Daniel told Robby that it was all a mistake, and kicked Robby out. Then, the next day, Daniel told Sam that Robby has his own family and that Daniel himself needs to focus on his own. In s3e8, when Daniel offered Robby a home again, Daniel said that Robby would always have a home at Miyagi-Do. However, Daniel didn't offer up his home again.

In s3e8, Robby got out of juvie. Since the school fight, neither Johnny nor Daniel were truly in Robby's corner or had his back. They each showed up to get him after months of no contact or visits to support him. He came outside to find them arguing... again. After everything that had happened, they couldn't put their rivalry aside to support him. They were both so oblivious in that conversation. Johnny once again acted like he could just waltz in and Robby would be okay with him immediately, despite how their last conversation had gone. Daniel repeated what he'd said before in s3e2, but Daniel's "help" just traumatized Robby more. It wasn't the help he truly needed. Neither tried to understand his side of things, again. Daniel did offer him a home at Miyagi-Do, and Johnny immediately offered Robby a home with him. Both seemed to be trying to out do each other, more focused on one-upping the other than on truly being there for Robby, which had seemed to be their original intention when they each showed up. Later, while Robby was alone at the probation office, Tory told him to check off stable on his probation sheet because no one cares or comes to check. After this, Robby went to Miyagi-Do, seeming to take Daniel up on his offer. Of course, Robby saw Sam there with Miguel. After their confrontation, Robby went to Cobra Kai. s3e9 started with Johnny happily waking up in a bed with Carmen, not caring at all about Robby or where he was. A little later, Robby was shown rolling up his sleeping bag on the Cobra Kai dojo floor. Robby was still living there in s4e1. It seems he eventually moved in with Shannon after she got out of rehab.

In s5e4, Shannon stopped by Johnny's to pick up Robby's things. Robby had just endured the fake father-son Mexico trip, a ruse Johnny pulled on Robby to get his help to bring Miguel back home safe. At one point, Johnny was even going to ditch Robby alone in Mexico at a random bus stop because Robby had been upset that Johnny had lied to him. Johnny had also gaslit and guilted Robby to get him to stay and help, before he tried to ditch him at the bus stop. Robby ended up staying and kept having to save Johnny or both of them, while risking himself. Now, Robby was set to go on another trip for the summer. Johnny had the gall to ask Shannon if Robby would be okay on the trip, to which Shannon responded that Robby would have beaches, hiking, and three meals a day while at her parents' cabin on Bainsbridge Island. Shannon, who used to leave Robby starving for days, said that as if Robby has never had to worry about getting three meals a day. Granted, the question coming from Johnny was a farce, as he's the king of abandonment. Still, Shannon has her own past faults with Robby that she's accountable for. Johnny then started getting Robby's things together, and Shannon noticed the changes Johnny made to his place. Shannon also noted Johnny's odd behavior and realized that he'd gotten Carmen pregnant. Johnny's anxiety was noticably at an all time high. Sadly, for Robby, Johnny ended up highjacking Robby's summer plans. Neither Shannon nor Johnny actually cared to ask Robby what he wanted. It was pretty par for them to do. Shannon obviously didn't care to have Robby on the trip with her, and Johnny wanted him to stay so that he could feel better about himself. So, Johnny first lied to Robby about a fake father-son trip, and then claimed to want to want make some stories with him. Then, he didn't even ask Robby what he wanted when he later took over Robby's whole summer. Johnny had already stated his motive for the season:

"I'm out here trying to fix my mistakes so that I don't have to live with the regret of making them."

After s5e4, Johnny's question to Shannon sounded even more hypocritical. Yes, Robby would likely have been alright with Shannon on their planned trip. However, Robby was never going to be alright with Johnny. Johnny immediately set out to force Robby to become friends with Miguel, so that they could all be a "happy" "family" for Johnny. Robby tried to set his boundaries, even accepting Johnny's "father-son" relationship with Miguel, a type of relationship that Johnny has always deprived Robby of. Johnny basically cornered Robby with Miguel and gave Miguel the permission hurt Robby, like Miguel has wanted to since before the school fight and even before their first avt. Johnny at least allowed Robby to fight back, but Robby never wanted to be in the fight in the first place. After this fight and the baby news, Robby knew his place.

Robby's reaction to the baby news was not immediately "happy" like those who dismiss nuance and body language in acting claim. Robby was indeed not happy by the news and was shown quickly trying to process it, while Johnny and Miguel were getting excited by it. When Johnny said they should act excited, Robby did as he was told.

Robby watched Carmen carefully after asking her permission if he could, essentially, have dinner with his own father at her home. He shouldn't have had to ask permission. He is Johnny's son, after all, and her son had assaulted Robby more than once before he pushed Robby to his limit in the school fight. Instead of telling Robby that he didn't have to ask, she gave her permission, thus maintaining that control over his presence there.

Miguel and Carmen have all the power over Robby being allowed in this "family", as Johnny had made it clear by this point that Robby is his lowest priority. Robby had said in s4e1 that Johnny just wants to make up for lost time to feel better about himself. Sounds a lot like Johnny's statement about fixing his mistakes so that he didn't have to live with the regret of making them, as in to feel better about himself.

I've said it before, Robby knows Johnny well enough. Robby was also right when he told Miguel in s4e8 that Johnny doesn't care about him and uses him to feel better about himself. After returning from the abusive Mexico trip, Robby told Tory in s5e4 that he and his dad have some issues that are too big to solve. Robby said this with a pained voice, while looking in Miguel's direction. Those issues with Johnny got much much worse with the new plot device that was introduced in s5e3.

Going into s6, it's fair to say that Robby's living situation is still unstable and insecure. Johnny is still an abusive, neglectful mess. He's even more a danger to Robby than before because Johnny now believes that he has changed and is looking forward to having another kid that he deludely believes he won't screw up.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. It's fair to say that Robby's village has failed him his whole life, and especially these last 2 years. Since the school fight, only the "bad guys", Kreese and Silver, acknowledge Robby's unstable situation with his parents and with Daniel. They don't put the blame on Robby either. They rightfully put it on Johnny and Daniel:

"You had your opportunity with Robby. Now, he's with us."

"Prom is a special night. Did you even know he was going? Look, as long as Robby's with me, I'm going to take care of him."

"You could have been with your real son."

"At least you won't be around to screw up another kid."

Before the school fight, Daniel also acknowledged it.

"Somebody needs to be there for him."

In a franchise about underdogs, Robby is the underdog to have the most odds stacked against him before the conclusion of his story. These odds include not having a home or adult figures that are stable, consistent, and secure.