#REMEMBER WHO THE REAL ENEMY IS

[annes-andromeda]

“I hate Alicent!”

“I hate Aemond!”

HATE THE WRITERS!

Jesus Christ, the fact that so many people are falling for this weird narrative that the writers have spun of the greens hating each other 24/7 to the point where people are being criticized for still liking Aemond and Alicent even after episode 4.

Yes, I still like Alicent. Yes I still like Aemond. Because guess what? All of the greens are being fucked over, not just Aegon. All of them are being mistreated, ignored, and overly vilified to the point where it’s comedic. You won’t catch me acknowledging season 2’s existence besides shitting on it.

Like cmon guys, we’re better than this🫤

[here-am-i-sitting-in-a-tin-can]

”Remember who the real enemy is!”

you mean the real slim shady?

[radfemclub]

also do libfems realise it isn't TERFs who are hurting trans women? it's literally other men. and they wonder why we don't want MEN in our spaces??

[wyldfell]

i find it interesting that throughout this season TG fans have been saying that the writing is screwing them over (it is), but then, if you look at what the TB fans are saying, they also feel like the narrative is screwing them over (it is). both sides like pointing the finger at the other and saying "it's not fair! it's bias! the other side has it better!!!"

guys.... i'm here to tell you that if you both feel screwed, it's probably because the writing is Subpar™, not because one side is particularly favored over another

[insanelylala23-blog]

I love so many things about these books and movies. I love the fight, the rebellion, and this… the love.

[snowpawshaw]

So a long time ago, on Quora, someone asked: Why do some people have a problem with Black Entertainment television (BET) but not with Country Music television (CMT) or ESPN? Aren't they all just networks aimed at specific interest groups?

Unfortunately, when I gave my answer, I was completely ignored.... not a single upvote or comment. I can't say I'm surprised, it was an attempt to give a well thought out and nuanced explanation of cultural appropriation by corporations... But anyways, I really felt like I should explain. I can't remember where I was mentally that got me to seek out this question, but I remember feeling like I really should explain, so I did. I'm really proud of the answer I gave, and this being Tumblr, I'm hoping people will read it and tell me what they think. So here it is:

Being largely white, people who are represented by CMT have largely been able to tell their stories themselves since the dawn of our country. Black showrunners and filmmakers have not had that privelege for the longest time, not until about the 90s. The 70s and 80s do not count, what little was made by black creators was rewritten by and for a white audience.

Good Times, for example, was created by a black man that was fired and then his creation eroded by white writers who kept boiling those complex and honest characters written as actual people into a series of gross and stereotypical tropes.

People hate BET for playing even more into that exact thing: Obliterating the black voice of black art by turning black characters into more stacks of stereotypes that have been used to flatten underrepresented people for generations, a flattening down of hundreds of years of black experience and humanity and activism by corporatizing all of it. When black human beings were finally able to write their own stuff, it was assimilated into the American hodgepodge of easily digested commercial garbage that says absolutely nothing but “The system is good, buy some stuff, here's a funny catchphrase”.

Even religious things on BET turn Christianity into a Brand™ for Christmas movies. You see nothing about black jewish people because they're not common enough. You see nothing about muslim human beings because it doesn't feed into the narrative that muslim people are scary and want to hurt people.

And as far as the politics that the black community formed to fight for their own rights? They're not even mentioned, because it wouldn't serve the system that wants people to just work and buy and serve it in turn. If anything, it would cause people to ask some real questions. That's why they only talk about MLK, who was disposed of as soon as he was about to really rock the boat, and why they pretend that Rosa Parks was a lone wolf instead of one activist in a collective of people who pushed for change.

I would not be surprised if there are people who are country who feel that way about their way of life being corporatized by CMT. Nothing about the great artists of the past unless it's dressed up in five layers of gloss to sell grills and Home Depot products. The difference is, non-POC largely tend not to question it because their lives have been The Brand for far longer, so their voices are drowned out by people who are resigned to it. And they're doing the exact same thing to the LGBT+ community, which is why we try to keep corporations out of our pride parades.

As for NASCAR, nobody respects them, not even whitest guy in the world Jeff Dunham.

[not-that-syndrigast]

usually not a fan of these, but there's one type of story set in the Hunger games that I would like to see;

I would like it to be about district 2, because in the movies at least Haymitch says 'they train all their lives and then they'll volunteer and by that point they are pretty lethal' or something along these lines.

The point I am making is, I would love to see the side of a "career" kid, how they are brainwashed into believing the games are good and that being a victor is nice.

Just for the story to end at the interviews, fading into;

"welcome to the 65th hunger games interviews!"

And you just know, you've got to love this character because the career kids are not evil, they are just brainwashed and enslaved children.

[satogumis]

how do i explain im writing an oc for pjo … for luke …

[heavensbeehall]

"To hate the boy from District 1, who also appears so vulnerable in death, seems inadequate. It’s the Capitol I hate, for doing this to all of us." -- Chapter 18, "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins

"Remember who the real enemy is."

One thing I think the Capitol--much like the Elites of our world--is very successful at is pitting people against each other. They rearrange the world into "districts" and isolate them from each other. They probably start to have different cultures and religions. And that can be used to further divide them.

Maybe they say those "outlying districts" are "lazy" and are trying to come for District 1 and 2's wealth land or something. But there seems to be a lot of land and not that many people.

Snow seems to think "the whole world is an arena" and that there is only one victor. But that is arbitrary. I don't know exactly how much life our world (let alone Panem's world) can support but I am willing to bet my life it's more than one.

[bluegoblinfox]

My son's motability car was nicked last night. Off the drive. I executive dysfunctioned and left the keys in the front door. I would say like an idiot but it's more like a stressed out autistic ADHD dyslexic person with chronic illnesses. So I won't say like an idiot.

No one's hurt. It's just stuff but I am shaken up as my house keys are also missing and my landlord won't pay for out of hours lock smith to come out in between Christmas and New year.

I've secured the door but I am still sleeping downstairs for my sanity tonight.

I'm not angry at the kids who did it and I'm very sure it is just kids. They do it often around here. Steal a car. Joy ride and abandon it or burn it out.

It just makes me sad. They steal cars to joy ride and don't think about the potential consequences of them hurting themselves or others. It makes me sad because they don't think anything "bad" will happen to them.

If they get caught that's a blight on their record and a step further down a dodgy path. If they don't get caught they will properly ruin their lives and others in an accident. It's awful that they are in that place where stealing cars is acceptable to them.

I can't blame their sense of disillusionment, frustration, anger, envy or greed. When the rich get richer and the poor like them and I, are left to get more and more broke. With fewer and fewer services available to help and support, to guide or mentor.

Young people with hard lives, few opportunities who make dumb choices. I've made dumb choices too. I was entitled, privileged and didn't know it and still made dumb choices as a teen. I drank, stole and broke the law. Consequences were something that was barely even an after thought.

I hope the forensics on the car yield something that helps to catch them. Not because I want justice or revenge but because it is better to catch them and save them from their own stupidity and dumb ass choices than it is for them to end up dead or killing someone in an accident.

It makes me sad the state of things and I know as the gap between the haves and have nots grow that crime to will grow. Feeding the hate and further dividing us. Which in turn serves those in power. As when you are busy fighting each other, you become blind to the fact that we are all on our knees. You become blind to the fact that those who stoke the fires of division and hate also have their boots on all our necks. You become blind to who the real enemy is.

Like in the hunger games we all need to remember who the real enemy is. It is not the kids joy riding or the immigrants, it isn't the woke or trans folk. Its the 1% with 99% of the resources, hiding in their version of the capitol and pitting us all against each other. They need to remember there are more of us than them. We need to take back the power.

Ty, River, Echo Rose, Ling

[iamdarthbader]

[marysblo0d]

Guys why can’t yuri enjoyers just hold hands so we can defeat the real enemy here:

[sspextkr]

thinking about coryo who's lowkey a nerd about floriography (the language of flowers). the boy has a secret love of all things floral, and takes a class at the academy for designing arrangements (for the art credit, he says).

thinking about coryo, who in the early stages of your relationship, would give you every arrangement he made in the class, and give a brief explanation about the flowers and greenery he used, as long as the methods that went into it.

thinking about coryo, who wanted to be a florist when he was younger- a dream he'd never admit to anyone, not even tigris.

thinking about coryo and flowers <3

[hauntingsofhouses]

BRB thinking thoughts about Taigen's character, the TaiMizu ship, and a big chunk of fandom's perceptions regarding both those things.

(Inspired by @farintonorth's post related to this topic that just got my brain going brrrrr)

OK so let me just... start off by saying that I think that reducing stories to their tropes is seriously detrimental to the way some people are interacting with fiction, and while that honestly warrants its own post about the subject, I wanna talk specifically about how this affects the way some people in the fandom talk about Taigen and TaiMizu.

Because yeah, tropes are useful shorthand to refer to certain dynamics or archetypes etc, and they are indeed the building blocks to any story. But in a well-written story, characters and their relationships, actions, and motivations, are much more complex than just tropes. Because in a story that has characters who are more than just cardboard cutouts, their behaviours, backgrounds, motivations and all of that, are inseparable from the context of the overall story they exist in.

So like, sure, you can say Mizu and Taigen have an enemies-to-lovers or rivals-to-lovers dynamic. I also use those terms because it's easier. But I also think this is where things start to get a bit twisted, especially from an intertextual sense. Because "enemies-to-lovers" is also commonly used to refer to other ships in other media, whereby it tends to be rooted in an imbalanced power dynamic, such as oppressor-oppressed and bully-victim.

And while that's a whole can of worms that I won't be getting into because it can quickly derail into a whole separate sort of fandom discourse, I'd just like to make it clear that Mizu and Taigen, in particular, do not have an imbalanced power dynamic. They are not bully-victim or oppressor-oppressed. The only understandable reason why someone might actually think their relationship is imbalanced is if

A) they only watched the first episode, or

B) they cannot grasp the slightest bit of nuance in a character, or

C) they're being obtuse on purpose simply because the Mizu/Taigen relationship, or Taigen's character in general, just doesn't suit their tastes.

While yes, Taigen, along with his whole gang, had bullied Mizu when they were children, that dynamic does not exist between them whatsoever in adulthood. Whatever imbalanced bully-victim power dynamic that had once existed between them was decisively ripped apart the moment Mizu beat him in that duel in the dojo, and then completely obliterated by the end of the season.

Mizu is not a defenseless victim at Taigen's mercy. Mizu can beat Taigen's ass any time she wants (and she DOES, repeatedly in fact), and could even kill him if she felt like it. She taunts him openly and without fear ("I like your hair"; "I can beat you with any weapon you choose") and all he does is bark back, because that's pretty much all Taigen ever does. Time and time again, he yaps about how much he wants to kill her, but time and time again, his actions prove that all of it is just an empty threat. Because though his words say "I hate you", his actions demonstrate the complete opposite. He's shown how protective he is of Mizu, how unhesitatingly he sacrifices himself up for her, how loyal he is in enduring days-long torture to not give up information about her, how even when near-death and in pain, he's still willing to keep standing back up so he can fight by her side and help her win against her enemies.

And Mizu is not an idiot! She sees that too. She does not see him as a threat, an enemy, or even a bully. Especially not by the end of Episode 3, and definitely not by the end of the season. When she finds him in the dungeon in Episode 6, she smiles from relief, and doesn't think twice to take him with her. Mizu finds him, at best, an annoyance, or at worst, an infuriating hindrance on her quest for vengeance. Which is why, when Taigen is about to say, "It's a shame our duel's set for tomorrow; I have to kill you before you get your revenge," Mizu whacks him on the head without a second thought before he can even finish his sentence, and leaves him lying unconscious, face-down, in the snow.

And this further emphasises how he does not hold any power over her. There is no abusive power dynamic between them. She is more powerful than him, he knows this, and all he's ever done after they've met up again in adulthood is get his ass whooped by her, get mad about it and pester her and follow her around, get his ass whooped by her some more, and put his life on the line to protect her.

"OOoooOOoooH b-but he called her a demon at the end of Episode 7 and threatened to kill her again!!!" Oh my god. He called her that because he's calling her out on her selfishness to stay silent about her knowledge of Fowler's plans to attack Edo. Because to him, loyalty and honour as a samurai is more important than anything. So in his own brash-and-immature Taigen way, he felt betrayed that Mizu did not hold the same principles. That's why he got angry. He wasn't even that mad about letting Akemi get dragged off by the Tokunobu guards. It was about saving the Shogun and the Shogunate as a whole. That's why the first thing he does in Edo is not find Akemi, but try to warn the Shogun about Fowler's attack.

Look, I'm not defending his stupid ass, of course. Because calling her a demon especially after their cute little wrestling time was obviously rude and inappropriate, especially since words like "demon", "monster" and "Onryo" have had such a deep effect on Mizu throughout her life, and continue to contribute to her self-hatred. But like? That's the fun of realistic and flawed characters, and realistic and flawed relationships. They're not perfect, and it's why we as an audience root for them, wanting to see them work through their shit and find a way to prevail despite it all.

Also, him saying that was in the heat of the moment. He was angry, he felt like his initial belief of who Mizu was—a strong and loyal samurai, just like him—was shattered, and so he lashed out. Was it rude? Definitely. Was it immature of him? Yes, incredibly. But it's also very much in line with his character, because even though he's grown a lot over the course of the season, the show isn't over yet, so obviously his character arc is just beginning, as that is also the case for the other three main characters: Mizu is beginning to accept herself, Akemi is beginning to grow into her position of power, Ringo beginning to train under Master Eiji, while Taigen is beginning to simply be a better person.

On that note, when speaking of Taigen's immaturity, I think that's also one of the main things that people tend to gloss over when it comes to his character. Because when you boil everything down to its bare essentials, Taigen is, essentially, a boy. I've talked about this before, but to reiterate, Taigen very much behaves like an unhealed child. Even as an adult, he is insecure, prone to throwing tantrums, and is desperate to latch onto some material goal in hopes that it will make him feel better—initially he was chasing status/glory/greatness, and then when Mizu tells him that "Nothing comes from being a samurai but death," he immediately decides he wants to run away with Akemi in hopes that he will be happy.

And it's a big step, acknowledging that he doesn't truly want greatness, but had always just assumed it was his only path to a good life. But it's clear he still hasn't really figured it out. Because if he did run off with Akemi to get married and live in the countryside, he still wouldn't be happy. Because he still doesn't know who he really is, or what it is he really wants. Marriage at this moment is the last thing he needs, and as he is now, he would be a pretty awful husband. A simple life would be good for him, but would he be good at a simple life, when he still has so much he needs to work through?

So anyway, what I'm getting at here, is that he's trying and he is learning and growing. So yeah, he is flawed, but honestly? So is Mizu. And the funny thing is that they're flawed in very similar ways.

Because Mizu is also an unhealed child. That's why she's so angry all the time. That's why she pushes people away. That's why she, just like Taigen, is so happy when given the chance to playfully wrestle in the forge, laughing and rolling around like children without shame or pretense.

Again, this shows there is no imbalance between them. They had grown up together as peers from the same town. And while Taigen had had the upper hand back then, because he'd had a gang of other kids with him, that is definitely not the case anymore. Today, they are equally flawed, equally strong, equally skilled swordsmen, and equally bull-headed.

However, yes, Mizu is definitely leagues more mature than Taigen. But she still holds a lot of childhood wounds that mirror Taigen's own. And we see this especially in relation to her mother. Similar to Taigen who had an abusive and alcoholic father, Mizu's Mama was an opium addict and had hit her, berated her, had shaved her head without her consent as a child, and as an adult, had constantly emotionally manipulated and guilt-tripped her. Mizu's love for her Mama was what had driven her to a path of vengeance in the very beginning. And when she'd found out Mama was still alive, she had wanted nothing more than her Mama's love, and it was this alone that pushed her to agree to the marriage with Mikio in the first place. And now, knowing from Fowler that her birth mother is someone else entirely, is what makes her agree to keep him alive and haul his ass to London to seek answers.

Thus, integral to Mizu's self-hatred is also Mizu's intense longing for love and family. Just like Taigen, whose pompousness comes from his insecurity about being the son of a poor fisherman, Mizu's goals are also shaped by who her parents are. Remember, her vengeance is not against just anyone who's corrupt or evil, but specifically against the men who she believes had assaulted her mother, the men she believes had made her a monster, the men she believes had abandoned her to die and continue to try to kill her. Her vengeance is against a father, on behalf of a mother. In The Tale of the Ronin and the Bride, Mizu is not merely the Ronin, the Bride, or the Onryo, but also the Child.

This is also why Ringo is so good, not only for Mizu, but for Taigen as well. Ringo is wise and caring and considerate, but above all, he is in tune with his inner child in ways that Mizu and Taigen are not. He is always earnest and positive, he sees the world with childlike wonder, but is not naive or blind to its ugliness. His whole life has been a battle. Ringo brings out the best in Mizu, consistently acting as her moral compass and conscience, and Mizu's choice to save Akemi in the final episode is only because she promised Ringo that she would. Because it's the right thing to do. Ringo inspires her to be a better person, and to think outside of her narrow-minded goal of revenge. At the same time, Ringo also brings out the best in Taigen. While at first Taigen had looked down on both Mizu and Ringo ("Half-limb to a half-wit"), by the end of the season, he's proud to have Ringo as a friend and ally, he listens to Ringo's advice ("What would Master do?"), and asserts to the fucking Shogun that Ringo is a worthy warrior to have by his side.

Okay, I've gone on a bit of a tangent here, but my main point is that Mizu and Taigen are incredibly similar. They are equals. They are both flawed, unhealed children who are chasing some impossible outlandish goal in hopes that it will fill the void in their hearts. They also both have a long way to go in terms of character development if they were to ever build a healthy romantic relationship (either with each other, or even with anyone else). So while I believe things will be rocky (because duh, it's a story, we all live for the drama, etc), I think with Ringo's help, they'll get there eventually.

[hella1975]

i cannot stand the aot fandom this is not a new take at all they are universally intolerable but oh my dayssss u are FORBIDDEN from making ANY take about the show it's actually insane to watch. 'aot is perfect' no show is perfect. 'tell me you didnt get the show 😂🫵' people have different opinions/interpretations about things. 'eren is a good guy they could never make me hate him' i think there's actually 4 seasons and two movies explicitely using him as a tool to show that no one is 'good' or 'evil' they are only trying to survive. hello. the fandom r all so far up aot's ass that they actually discredit its writing in the process and it would be laughable if it wasn't so frustrating

[ninelivesastrology]

I know we're in a recession because everyone wants to be an astrologer and nobody wants to pay astrologers as I've come to hear and last time I checked on the "intuitive reader" girlies, they're just parroting the same bullshit from two years ago and copying each other, it's vicious out here