#READ MY FUCKING BIO

[thistles-whistle]

Trollstopia: PopTrolls X FunkTrolls Fusion

Creek PopTrolls In Trollstopia + FunkTrolls In Trollstopia Into Trolls Fusion

my guy does not take no for an answer

[itsawritblr]

Seeing new Followers with blogs full of nice fanart and cute animal videos, then discovering they're minors posting antisemitism.

I've Blocked 5 blogs this morning.

[skydaemon]

so we (and by we, i mean the very specific overlap of jews and nerds among whom i make my home) talk a lot about how tolkien's dwarves, in both the books and movies, were likely influenced by certain jewish stereotypes. obsessed with gold/wealth, secretive (especially about their language and religion), refugees from their ancestral home, portrayed with big, sometimes hooked, noses and interesting facial hair, and most specifically: the favourite little meow meows of one particular god, causing them to be shunned and persecuted by other races and creeds. this is likely unintentional, coming from the subconscious of tolkien in the same way orcs were "based on mongols" (ew colonialism) and activating subconscious biases/stereotypes in the people who designed the dwarves for the movies. it's subtext, albeit subtext that influenced the next eighty years of fantasy.

but what i don't see much discussion of is the fact that in terry pratchett's discworld, it's intentional. terry pratchett's dwarves are, more or less, jews.

carrot is a human adopted by dwarves, based on human standards. but within dwarf culture, he IS a dwarf. specifically, he has undergone specific rituals and memorised certain passages, making him LEGALLY a dwarf. this is basically how conversion works in judaism. indeed, as in judaism, it's considered rude to even mention that carrot is six feet tall and obviously wasn't born into the culture he has adopted.

the dwarves also have internal rifts - there are a group of 'orthodox' dwarves who consider the dwarves in ankh-morpork (who have adopted other customs and don't follow traditional roles) not to be dwarves at all, and don't recognise carrot as a dwarf for the same reason. they believe that the way to be a dwarf is to live in an all-dwarf community and follow their traditional rules, while other dwarves believe they need to change with the times and integrate (at least somewhat) with larger society. jewish as fuck.

there's also the interaction of dwarves with gender. when cherie comes out as female (which isn't a recognised gender by dwarvish society) she is ostracised for taking on the feminine roles common to other discworld races. however, she could never THINK of cutting off her beard, because she is still a dwarf. i see parallels with women in judaism taking on roles traditionally considered 'masculine' (e.g., as rabbis, wearing tallit and kippot) and the acceptance of queer people into jewish communities. there's lots of great discussion about cherie as a trans character on tumblr, btw.

finally, something that particularly strikes me is the line from carrot in tfe, where he says that the biggest dwarf city on the disc is ankh-morpork. obviously all diaspora communities can relate, but it's really something to know that new york is the city with the most jews in the world (960k to jerusalem's 570k. btw, 3rd is LA!).

i just love that, again, consciously or unconsciously, pratchett incorporated more positive elements of jewish culture into his portrayal of the dwarves.

[neopronouns]

me when i get a new follower and i check their blog and the first thing i see is ‘mspec lesbians and supporters dni’

[moshpitpuppyx]

[renarin-spren]

reading a Sanderson book is like. wow I can't wait to read the most fucked up insane sibling dynamic ever

[eyestrain-addict]

As much as I do not gaf about Lestat in a vacuum, if in s3 louis is still a major character, and we get to see louis being insane and unhinged in ways he was to embarrassed to describe in s1&2 and we see Lestats thought process of "my beautiful princess with a disorder", if all that happens, I WILL be seated

[saintofpride201]

Is it bad that I'm disappointed that Yuri and Girls Love gets very high praise but Yaoi and Boys Love is always being degraded as "Fetishistic" and "Disgusting"?

Don't get me wrong, Yuri & GL isn't an issue at all, in fact I'm glad it's widely accepted. I just hate that BL gets so much shit from everyone. Everyone's ok with wlw rep, but God forbid gay/bi men have anything in the way of representation.

[wolfsbaneandthistle]

Image ID: Humans- Two eyes, binocular vision. Red/blue/green color vision. Depth perception and selective focus. About 120-150 degrees of vision.

Atiske- Two sets of compound eyes. Technically also binocular? Blue color vision. Depth perception but no selective focus. Also so. so nearsighted. Around 240-260 degrees of vision.

Corldaxian (common)- Four sets of compound eyes. Vision evil. Red/green color vision. Depth perception but no selective focus, and they're farsighted. Vision is 200 degrees at the front and about 140 at the back, with blind spots at the sides.

Zoronxie- Two eyes, binocular vision. Red/blue color vision. Depth perception, selective focus. BAD astigmatism. Eyes built like a goat and hoo boy is it bad. Vision wraps around for about 220 degrees.

Umblan- Two sets of. compound? eyes? Red/blue/green/ultraviolets. Left set (the eyes at the base of their stalk) has no depth perception but does have selective focus. Right set (the eyes at the top and back of their stalk) has depth perception but no focus. at all. and no color. Degrees of vision are about 50 and 200, respectively.

Tias- Four sets of compound eyes. Green/blue/ultraviolet color vision. Depth perception but no selective focus. A bit over 300 degrees of vision, with a blind spot at the front. End ID.

[wutheringmights]

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros is not a good book. I know that. You know that. It's almost not worth talking about the bad dialogue, the worse narration, and the abysmal world building. All of that is bad in a really normal, almost unremarkable way (though I did take an extremely high amount of glee in doing math with literally any number Yarros provided) (Yarros, please stop giving specific numbers at every opportunity).

None of that is nowhere near as interesting as the way in which Yarros-- who made sure to mention she is a second generation army brat who loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for 20 years--uses the novel to argue in favor of American military intervention overseas.

It's bad, and I almost admire the sheer audacity.

--

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

Rating: 2/5

[phillipbridgerton]

I stumbled across the most incredible Polin video ever made. Pls go show it some love because SABRINA AND POLIN?! INCREDIBLE.

[the person who made this video, if you have a tumblr pls tell me and I’ll link your blog.]

Appreciate fan videos everybody! We’re extremely lucky to have them :D

[cuntylittlesalmon]

I came across one of your posts criticising Delilah Green, and the radfem-esque rhetoric of Ashley Herring Blake's works. I agree, I completely despised her works. But every time one of my friends or I spoke about it, we were criticised on bookstagram and book twt. I was curious to know your thoughts on these books, if you are okay with it.

i am aaaaaaalways down to talk shit about bad books! i’ve felt completely isolated in the larger sapphic bookish spheres because i hated AHB’s work, i’m glad to have found another one of us 🫶

this’ll be under a cut because it’ll be incredibly long, as every instance of me criticizing these books has been

DGDC - delilah green doesn’t care

APDF - astrid parker doesn’t fail

AHB - ashley herring blake

SO!

these books suck. lmao. i don't think they're particularly interesting on the character-level, or the world-level, or the prose-level, or really anything at all. there are scenes here and there where i can see what AHB can do but she's too busy trying to seem like the funniest and the most progressive white cis woman out there--of course, without doing any of the actual work that comes with deconstructing the racist, transphobic, and homophobic ideology she grew up with as a person from the united states.

which leads me into my first complaint: everything to do with emery and their pronouns. every single thing in that scene felt like pandering, and the pronoun sharing aspect felt like word salad that needed to be edited down to a single sentence of "And then everyone else shared their pronouns". we're already deeply aware that every single person in this book sans emery is cis, i don't need that shoved into my face further with a cis woman expounding upon how she's terrified that she's going to fuck up somehow in sharing her own pronouns. unnecessary bullshit, since i'm guessing the point was to show that astrid is insecure, particularly around industry professionals, but with a slightly funny slant to it. this was not the place to show that, especially when there are so many other instances both before and after this part that show her anxieties better.

and frankly, in sharing this part with a friend, they thought it was astrid being insecure about getting emery's pronouns correct which....if your cute lil romcom protag can be see as an annoying and borderline transphobic cissie when they come face to face with a nonbinary person for the first time because your prose just sucks ass......maybe you shouldn't include that lol

and i think that leans in a lot to the "humor" of these books. at one point in ADPF, delilah makes a joke about fighting someone "like a lesbian", which in her eyes (and somewhat therefore AHB's eyes) means gazing disapprovingly at someone and making her mouth "look like a butthole" (paraphrasing, but not the butthole part. she really says butthole). i'm assuming this was supposed to be funny, but it fell so fucking flat with me. like, these books are supposed to be romcoms. romantic fucking comedies. but most of the humor is so deeply steeped in white millennialisms that it's actually unfunny unless you're like my gen x mother who spends 90% of her time on facebook.

which, i suppose that's my biggest gripe with the books, and with AHB herself. it's a lot of self-serving nonsense, with little to no introspection about why certain things are included versus not. i mean, i can say that about a lot of popular romance novels, but thats beside the point. there is no reckoning with institutions, despite all of the call backs to how rich people suck, or how white people suck, or how men suck. it's all so very wink-wink-nudge-nudge, "im in the know, can't you tell?", correct terminology wrong ideology kinda of stuff. ok yeah, white people as the institution suck. i think we all know that. but also, ashley, every single important character, every single side character (save a couple), and every single background character (save a couple), are all white. you are actively participating in the "white is default" ideology that you seemingly dislike and make fun of in your book. so which is it?

this disconnect between AHB's story choices (all white main cast, etc) and the prose-level choices is so fucking obvious throughout the entire body of both books:

the lesbian main characters cannot call themselves lesbians, but one will call themself dyke without a second thought.

the trans-positive lesbian main characters will talk about dating/being attracted to nonbinary people, but do not have any nonbinary friends, do not talk to any nonbinary people, and the one nonbinary character included thus far speaks one (maybe twice) just to give their pronouns.

the lesbian main characters call themselves butch (or are called so by other wlw (but not lesbian) characters) and yet are still conventionally feminine in their presentations.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet josh (an ex of claire from DGDC) is consistently trying to atone for his past harm, and within the story we're given, is like, an actually alright guy.

men are the worst people in the world, and yet the worst actions taken against iris was not by her ex-boyfriend, but by her butch girlfriend (which. i have a lot of thoughts on this).

the books say they believe one thing, but are never backed up with actually evidence that this is the case.

and so, when i say the books have some radfem-y bullshit in them, this is largely what im talking about. i have no clue if AHB herself is a radfem, or exactly what she believes in. im not combing through her twitter account because she as a person annoys me, and anyone promoting her work annoys me. but she is participating in some fucked up shit, and the fact that they are so beloved just makes my ass itch and i feel like i need to speak on it more than i already do now 💀

anyway. the radfem-y stuff.

the books use some pretty covert gender essentialism when it comes to the lesbian characters vs the bisexual woman characters. every single lesbian is said to be masculine (specifically butch) while every single bisexual woman (and every single ostensibly straight woman) is, while not called out as feminine, exclusively present femininely. which....is weird. i don't think i have to say why saving masculinity for lesbians (and men) is stereotypical, and kind of gross, especially coming from someone who isn't a lesbian.

but wait! its worse! masculinity (regardless of how prescriptive vs. descriptive it is) in these books are very much associated with emotionally unavailability and callousness toward the feminine (emotional) counterpart. and really, its even worse when you compare difference within the lesbian characters (delilah, jordan, and iris' girlfriend).

delilah and jordan, when you actually examine them, are feminine presenting. they both wear red lipstick, eyeliner "sharp enough to kill a man", and in delilah's case, heels. the most masculine aspects about them is that they don't wear skirts or dresses. literally. whereas, iris's girlfriend in APDF, who only wears suits, has short cropped hair, never wears makeup, and has a stereotypically masculine job. jordan and delilah are love interests. they're allowed to grow into emotionally available people by their love for their feminine partners. the butch girlfriend, however, is a cheating piece of shit who's entire point is to set up iris' storyline for the third book in the series (a role that could've been done just as well by her ex boyfriend, who she dated in DGDC, instead of what feels like a very pointed and spiteful subplot).

so, it becomes very clear to me that masculinity is the worst thing you can have in these books. none of the men are given grace either, and i touched on it a bit earlier talking about josh. he was flaky as hell with claire and their daughter before the events of DGDC, and so claire (and by extension, her friends iris and astrid) are wary of him when he comes back into her and her daughter's lives. but, for all of that, josh isn't flaky in the book. like he very much steps up to be a good dad to his daughter. is the best? no, obviously. i dont think AHB is capable of writing a "good" character. but he literally doesn't abandon anyone, despite us being constantly told that thats what he does, to the point that when he ends up being unreachable for a couple of days, every single character freaks out and treats him like a monster. iris fucking punches him for this, even though he actually had a good reason. and im not one to defend men like 💀 i am very much a manhater, but like. cmon. it feels entirely unearned. and its that disconnect again. AHB wants you to believe that josh deserves this because he's a man, so of course he's going to be terrible, its what men do, despite him, like, not being terrible.

(and its even worse in APDF, where astrid is literally disgusted to be in his presence point blank, period, even though hes been like. consistently a decent guy.)

and my last piece in this, is natasha rojas. the otherworldly sexy and gorgeous latina host of the reality show in APDF, who literally wears a clitoris necklace. like not only is it leaning on racist stereotyping, but she's the ultimate feminine who wears a literal piece of the vagina. yonic imagery is cool and everything (genuinely, there should be more!) but this is not only extremely heavy handed in a brick-to-the-face kind of way, but also as the Ultimate Feminine, she's this deeply warm and caring and nurturing person, who is never posited as a antagonist or anything despite her positioning as a literal corporate player for HGTV (the hallmark of home renovation. every fucking person on that network is some flavor of conservative). she very much could've been a stand in for the capitalist homogenization of the housing market that HGTV absolutely caters toward, especially when you take into consideration astrid original plan for the house that she's renovating (taking it from very classically victorian to white and grey contemporary), but instead she's positioned as a mouthpiece for the glory of the clit and female sexuality only. which is fucking frustrating. and so fucking weird.

but yeah. AHB has a very white millennial liberal queer view of gender and presentation and sexuality, which in and of itself is very essentialist. but she tries to play out of her biases as a white and cis woman by making in-narrative jokes about it, but they fall completely flat because she has no idea what she's doing, and thus perpetuates the exact same shit she's trying to make fun of. she's got a lot of unchecked bigotry rattling around in that empty brain of hers, which when you're trying to write a feminist book, leans itself to radfem & white feminist ideology (which. lbr. are the fucking same but whatever).

ik this was long as hell but ty everyone who made it to the end for reading 😤🙏💓

[jasontoddiefor]

all those Dads who adopt the FL guys always look like they’re somewhere in their twenties. What do you mean your son is already thirteen. You look 28 at most.

[vivanightcity]

Yash Vala a.k.a 'V'

[prismatoxic]

perpetually torn between "'antis' is such a vague and useless term that means nothing to people outside of fandom discourse" and "people WITHIN fandom discourse know exactly what it means so it's the easiest way to get the idea across"

fancop, fanpol, fandom conservative, fandom puritan, etc--all great and descriptive terms that fit the bill perfectly and also are, like, a lot longer than "anti" and far less typical as a descriptor because everyone uses a different one and also since they're less established they're actually more likely to get people asking what they mean exactly

fancop remains my fave of the bunch but ough. fandom terminology

[honkowo]

MORE MEAT CARSSSS (AND HOTROD!!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3<3<3)

from top 2 bottom: some bigass meat car models, HOT ROD<3, & examples/sketches of possible modded meat cars heehee

so the 2 other factory models r the mole, a meat car used for underground travel & excavation for permanent settlements, & the walking city, a meat car built for carrying many angels( about 40-50 on average) and/or their stuff across long distances.moles are one of the only factory models with a base that ISNT of angel origin for once; its a subterranean mole instead :). the mole can also come in a fair few sizes, with the one in the picture being the biggest.

I FINALLY GET TO SHOW U GUYS HOTROD TOO YIPPEE!! hotrod is clink's only custom meat car & is his pride and joy lmao. hes entirely a speed-based custom, being capable of 200mph max & an even faster diving speed, & hes quite agile too :). unlike ur average meat car, hotrod has a more prominent personality; often getting himself into trouble because of how nosy he can be. hes otherwise pretty well behaved.

like usual, gif stills r under the cut :)