#SORRY FOR THE LONG OFF TOPIC RAMBLE BUT

[dogcollarpunk]

actually extremely sad coming back to neopets its like a shell of its former self

[faithtrickedhope]

hi! do you have any thoughts on athena's dynamics with telemachus and odysseus? because i have We'll Be Fine playing on loop in my head. and i think the differences and similarities between those two friendships are really interesting, so i'd love to hear any thoughts you have on them! :)

bee hii !! thank you for the ask !!

i definitely agree - athena’s dynamics with odysseus and telemachus are super interesting, especially in the ways that they parallel and contrast each other - i’ll try my best to unpack all my feelings coherently.   

so, okay, looking at athena-odysseus first. odysseus clearly looks up to athena. i mean, he’s a mortal man and she’s a goddess. that’s a pretty big deal. but right forn the start we see that odysseus is very causal around gods? i mean, he tricks athena into revealing herself to him, he’s obviously comfortable with mingling with the gods - or at least he’s comfortable with her.

(we see this reflected in telemachus, who almost immediately refers to athena as his friend when they meet, but i’ll get to that more later. already a similarity, though).   

to add to to this, we can see odysseus relatively relaxed and causal nature around athena best encapsulated when he says: 

Sounds like a plan Goddess and man Bestest of friends

this furthers the idea that he is very comfortable around her, while also showing that he doesacknowledge the divide between god and mortal, but seems to see it as something to bridge, rather than fear. odysseus has a very positive outlook about their relationship going forwards, and is quick to follow along with athena’s teachings, as signified in the musical by him joining in with her on the second chorus. 

athena, though, she doesn’t share this same view of their dynamic. before odysseus’ above line she says:

If you're looking for a mentor, I'll make sure your time's well spent

this is a mentor-protege dynamic to her, much more than it is a friendship. she also remakes how they’ll “see how it ends” when he suggests them becoming friends. friendship is not a priority for her, not a too priority at least. but, i don’t think that means she doesn’t care about odysseus. quite the contrary, honestly. being his mentor is very important to her. she wants to “change the world” with him. that’s something. that’s not a thing you do with just anyone. 

(putting the rest under the cut because, oops, this got quite long).

i think she did care about odysseus, right from when they met. it’s just that her way of expressing that was a sort of “tough love” approach, which doesn’t always bode well for friendships. but with the release of god games and the revelation of what athena’s relationship with zeus, her father, is like, i think it becomes more apparent why she holds the opinion that a healthy dynamic between two people (be it god and god, or god and mortal) revolves around pride and strength. she wants to shape odysseus into a great warrior, because she saw potential within him when he fought the bore. she wants to reach into his soul and pull out all the parts that make him a great man. all the parts that will keep him alive. 

if the god games are zeus’ attempt to set his daughter on the “right” path, athena’s goodbye to odysseus is her attempt at doing that with him. and, okay, it’s hard not to look at my goodbye when talking about these two. so, odysseus says—

I’ll remind you, I saw you as a friend

where athena laments that—

You’re not looking for a mentor I’m not looking for a friend 

and this sort of encapsulates the whole dynamics that i’ve being trying to capture. odysseus saw this as a friendship, athena saw it as mentorship. and the thing is, the fact that they did get on so well up until this point - the fact they managed to build such a tight bond as a goddess and a mortal- it shows their separate detentions of what their relationship is are kind of the same. i mean, okay, not literally, friendship and mentorship aren’t the same thing. but they clearly both wanted something from the other, and wanted to give something to the other, and they were achieving that. they had a bond. they cared. 

it’s just, athena is a goddess. and just as she warned, they couldn’t be “the bestest of friends”. because, as stated, her definition of what should come out of a meaningful relationship with someone (relationship in the platonic sense here) is heavily swayed by her father and the other gods. she is trying to make odysseus strong, she sees him leaving the cyclops alive (and then revealing his name) as a show of weakness. she cannot help him, then, because he has just damned himself, and in a way has just turned his back on her by ignoring her advice. gods are prideful, after all. it is a deep blow for someone to go against their will (cough cough. see zeus in god games.  cough). 

so they go their separate ways, they end things on pretty sour terms. and then a lot of years go by and a lot of things change. i’m going to leave these two for now, because i think a big aspect of their dynamic post-cyclops saga is best described in reference to athena and telemachus. 

speaking of which! let’s look at athena and telemachus. okay, so, like i mentioned before, a big similarly between their dynamic and athena-odysseus’ right off the bat is how comfortable telemachus is which athena almost immediately. you mentioned we’ll be fine, and i think that has the perfect example of this. because telemachus says:

You're my friend, I couldn't ask for more

there has been no verbal agreement between the two before this that their is any sort of friendship between them; but telemachus clearly believe strongly enough that they are friends, and - more pressingly - athena does not correct him. this shows then that while telemachus is so much like his father, athena has changed since meeting (and then leaving) odysseus. personally, i think part of this is because of odysseus. some of his last words to her were a staunch reminder that she is “alone”, and i think that hit her hard. i think that made her realise that they had been friends, she just hasn’t realised. and then she let that friendship crumble 

(athena also outright refers to odysseus as her friend when she’s lamenting about his to telemachus, which furthers the notion that she has had a change of heart and realises now - albeit too late - that they were friends. more on this in a bit). 

although athena is more accepting of her friendship with telemachus, she hasn’t fully lost her desire to be a mentor. little wolf is her helping telemachus to find his strength, helping him to fight. like odysseus with the boar, she sees his potential and she wants him to realise it. and like odysseus, telemachus takes this as a sign they they are (or could be, in odysseus case) friends. one difference here though is that the boar fight was orchestrated so athena could find a warrior worth her time. her helping telemachus is just that - she’s helping him. he asked for a sign and she showed up to show him his true strength. she wanted to help, rather than evaluate, i suppose. 

also, athena is generally very open with telemachus, and he responds with kindness. i imagine that she may had been a lot more reserved with odysseus, and maybe now has realised the detriments of that. it is also much more akin to a friendship dynamic that she is being so open, rather than sticking with the formalities of a strictly mentor-protege dynamic.  

but, okay, now we need to look at what athena tells telemachus about odysseus. this verse is especially telling:

Maybe if I'd made a different call Maybe if I hadn't missed it all Maybe he'd be fine Maybe we'd unwind Maybe if I help another soul Maybe if I helped you reach your goal Life could be that bright I could sleep at night

there is so much to say about this, but this post is already ridiculously long (sorry) so to sum it up - athena has had seven years to reflect on her time with odysseus, to reflect on their partings words to one another. we can see hear she’s clearly haunted by how things went, clearly wonders if it could have gone differently if she’d only treated him differently. and i think, her interaction with telemachus almost confirms that things could have gone better? because he’s so much like odysseus when she first met him, and it just reminds her how that relationship had started. comparing that to how things ended - how it haunts her now - as she laments to telemachus, it’s just a stark revelation that things could have, should have been handled better. i also believe that her whole interaction with telemachus and how he responds to it after as a sort of switch in her mind that she can still try to repair her relationship with odysseus. or, at the very least, she should see where he is

i think the line that sticks out to me most in relation to both dynamics is when athena tells telemachus:

You’re a good kid 

she does definitely mean it, but also i think in this moment this is something she’s saying to his son what she wishes she had told odysseus. he was her protege, her champion, but at his core he was just a kid. and he was a good kid, and a good friend would have let him know that. this is the biggest difference, then, between odysseus-athena and telemachus-athena - athena is letting telemachus know from the start that she appreciates him as more than just her student. 

athena’s arc in terms of her shifting mindset about friendship is best shown in god games. as mentioned before, the god games are like zeus way of testing his daughter and trying to force her back into the “right” (his) path. if athena was still the athena we see at the start of the musical, who values strength and pride over love, she would have been convinced by the other gods and given up. but she isn’t that same person anymore. 

she has been haunted by odysseus and changed by telemachus and now she is ready to fight for odysseus, not as a mentor but as a friend. she tells her father she is here for the sake of a friend, for the sake of a friendship. and even when the god king himself smites her, even when he tries to use brute force to get her to stand down, she still fights for odysseus.  

because he is her friend. 

i don’t know how well i actually answered this in regards to the similarities and differences - i sort of just went off on a ramble about the general dynamics between them - but i hope this at least answered your question somewhat! i love athena (shocker) and i think having her character progression shown through her friendships with a father and his son is so, so interesting. the three of them mean a lot to me 

[the-bi-space-ace]

There’s been some discussion recently about the subplot of bullying in The Bad Batch and I had some thoughts so I decided to write them out to discuss them.

I wanted to bring up some things that maybe can put together this disconnect we seem to see between the show The Bad Batch and the show The Clone Wars and maybe explains a bit about this whole bullied versus bully concept.

To me The Clone Wars paints a very different picture than The Bad Batch in a way that only serves to make the lines blurry and make the viewer think (perhaps not their intention but I think maybe they fell into this more on accident). The Clone Wars batch rolls in with a reputation that’s already not too great. Jesse even says it: it’s not that they win. It’s how they win. The batch is known for dangerous stunts that put other people at risk. They don’t always think through their decisions outside of themselves. Then we get this scene of them walking off of the ship and they are very arrogant. They show off, they talk big, they don’t exactly give off ‘approachable’.

We get into the mission and Jesse, in particular, is not a fan but it isn’t very aggressive yet. Crosshair is being confrontational - staring Jesse down, making snippy comments, and being an overall ass (I love Crosshair, don’t get me wrong, I’m just talking about what I observe in this introduction). I think it’s because he senses Jesse’s dislike of them and wants to poke at it.

We’re not off to a good start.

Where I think the batch fails in this episode is letting Crosshair insult Rex and further goad Jesse. Crosshair shouldn’t have said half the stuff he did and Jesse (and later, Rex) are justified in hitting back at him.

They’re soldiers. They’re going to get in each other’s faces if someone starts talking shit.

When Jesse scolds Crosshair - I think Kix is somewhere standing in the background but not directly involved- Wrecker steps in and turns things violent.

It’s not a moment I’m most proud of them. It’s actually one of the moments I’m least proud of them. Crosshair and Kix get into it when Crosshair shoves him for trying to help Jesse and Rex is attempting to get Wrecker to let Jesse go. This escalated quickly and I’m not sure I can say that this was justified. It seems like a big jump to me (but maybe someone disagrees, feel free to, I’d like to know someone else’s thoughts).

In this episode we’re really led down one path that says the batch and other clones don’t get along and from this limited perspective in this episode it seems like the batch are instigators. They roll in, avoid consequences for themselves, and roll out without giving anyone else a second thought.

The Bad Batch tv show paints an entirely different picture and it is definitely to make them more likable and relatable to a young audience. Every kids show has the character that’s an underdog, it’s who we want to root for. It makes the people in The Bad Batch’s age range connect with them more and I can’t exactly blame them for writing it this way - although after seeing the batch in the clone wars it does make me sigh a bit, I won’t lie.

I was bullied as a child. Quite severely, actually, so I find myself justifying the disconnect with a few things. Perhaps the batch puts up a front so they push other clones away before it can happen to them. I’ve done this. I put on a really abrasive attitude to keep people away when I was in high school and I regret it. However, I got over myself as I got older and worked through my own issues rather than blaming other people. Because you have to. It’s not alright to continue to hurt other people because you were hurt and I remind myself of that every single day. It’s the only way to move forward. I never have to forgive people who have hurt me but I can’t start using it as an excuse.

I mention this only to say that maybe their behavior in The Clone Wars was a mask built from past hurt and that could make sense to me. You build up walls when you’ve been hurt and you create behaviors based on experience. However, I still don’t think their behavior should be excused. I still think they escalated that situation far before anyone else did. In the same way I think Jesse made a lot of snap judgements about the batch and just kept finding ways to reinforce that judgement based on what he’d heard about them prior. And this snap judgment isn’t the best way to go about working with new people. It’s not an excuse, just an explanation.

I even think the batch’s behavior in episode 1 of their own show kind of contradicts some of their behavior in TCW. Particularly Crosshair. Crosshair doesn’t engage in the cafeteria until he absolutely has to while in TCW he is the primary instigator. We can try to explain this by saying it’s because his chip activated and his personality shifted. I just think it’s something worth pointing out.

I’d also like to add that of course the batch are the primary instigators in The Clone Wars because the clones we knew and loved in that show are technically the heroes of the episode. Of course they’re portrayed in a better light. It’s the same as the batch in episode one of their own show. Of course they’re portrayed as the ‘good guys’. It’s their show. To me it’s less of a character moment and more of a way to get the viewers of the show to root for somebody, whoever they want us to root for in the moment. The Bad Batch is told from their perspective so they are going to be the underdogs while The Clone Wars brings the batch in as outsiders to the group and gives them a more aggressive interaction to further our already beloved character’s narratives.

This was a very long way to say, I’ve always been kinda meh about the whole ‘the batch is bullied’ subplot and I tend to avoid writing it in my own fics because I think there is inconsistency with the writing between the clone wars and the bad batch and this can possibly be boiled down to a few things like different writers on the creative teams, an uncertain future, and wanting to paint certain characters in certain lights because of the show they are on. Rather than actually being a truly defining character arc it is a tool, as most writing is, it’s just not a tool I particularly care for in this story. And while I do think there are inconsistencies I can piece together some things to explain it if I really want to. I don’t think one side is right and one side is wrong. I think there are a million explanations for hurt on both sides and we decide it for ourselves because neither show truly made it clear enough for me to draw any lines in the sand. (And if you’ve been reading my stories at all you know I love a good grey area so I probably wouldn’t draw lines at all.)

I always try to be fair to everyone when I write stuff like this so I hope I’ve covered all of my points well enough. There are plenty of things to say about this topic and it has been talked about a few times recently in other posts that you can read. Tagging 1 by @laughhardrunfastbekindsblog and 2 by @gars-technician because these two posts inspired me to write this.

I’d definitely encourage open discussion here if anyone wants to chime in 😊 while I know we might all have different opinions I’m certainly willing to hear them as long as everyone is respectful.

[violetsandshrikes]

how do you help so many different kinds of people? i have noticed you know about lots of different things and meet lots of different people. i want to do that but i cant figure out how? /gen

A little bit of background is probably needed:

I have had people ask me this before, and honestly I had a little bit of a cheat code. While my life has been filled with a lot of trauma and bad shit, I was raised by a mother from an incredibly leftie family who walked the talk when it came to values and doing the work.

She had a lot of ideas imparted on us from a young age: social and community responsibility, ideas of collectivism, eduction. Even as a poor, trapped young mother, she was believed that many people behaved badly based on ignorance outside their very limited bubble, and that when life became difficult economically or socially, people would immediately point fingers at groups they knew little about or saw as distinctively different in order to have a blameable target.

From about 4-5, outside typical schoolwork, my mother also taught us about the world. This included different conflicts and genocides (which may sound horrific to some people, but basic information and explanation was given, and then it got more in depth with age), different countries and cultures (often she would randomly select a country from a world map, and we would spend a set amount of time learning everything we could about the place, culture, people, etc), different religions (I attended many different types of religious institutes at least once, and my mother often found people willing to talk about their belief system with us), volunteering, etc.

I have definitely had a head start and a lot more guidance than many people, which I am incredibly grateful for. It can also make it difficult to advise though.

Realistically:

Honestly, the two best things you can do if you don’t know where to start are: listen and learn. Find any local group, start participating and volunteering. Listen to the stories of people there. Ask questions. Expose yourself to all sorts of different ideas and opinions.

In the last year, I’ve started doing a little throwback to my childhood. I have a schoolbook, and I choose random topics, and spend a few hours every week learning basic things about it. Choose a country, choose a place, a time in history, a religion, a culture, a people. You don’t have to be a scholar. You just have to expand your horizons.

As you get involved with more things, you will begin to narrow down your core values. This is good: you can’t do everything at once. I would say roughly 2-3 core issues or topics you care about is good (this doesn’t mean that you don’t care about things happening outside it - it just means you don’t spread yourself thin). There’s different things people make their focus: LGBTQ+ issues, BIPOC issues, environmental issues, homelessness, disability, refugee issues, etc. Your core focus will be the ones you feel most passionate about, which is good, because it means you will put in genuine work and care, and you will lower the risk of burning out fast and being of help to no one, including yourself.

You also have to get comfortable with the fact you will never be perfect. You will never be up to date with every idea and practice. There is always something you will need to learn or unlearn. Becoming rigid about being correct all the time will make you more of a menace than a help to any reputable movement or group. You might feel uncomfortable when you realise the gap or misunderstanding you had - that’s normal. Be open to learning and expanding your understanding of things vs burying your head in the stand stubbornly. I say things and then months later I realise that actually, I don’t agree with that anymore, or my understanding has deepened, or changed, or pivoted. This tends to make people feel very bad or uncomfortable, but you have to get to the stage where again, you acknowledge that that’s normal.

[darnellthefirestarter]

It's a little hard having friends who don't understand this kind of thing

[baeshijima]

sometimes i find it so funny when ppl dont properly tag their works for the reason of “oh, but then others won’t be able to see my work!” or “but if i tag it then it will spoil the twist!” (usually a darker or more… questionable twist, for a lack of better words) and so on. but that… that is literally the whole purpose of tagging? so that the ppl who have the tag(s) filtered because they dont want to see it just. wont.

like dw, ur work will reach ur audience one way or another bc theyre either following u, see it rbed on their dash, or they dont have it filtered; tho that will also have ppl who dont want to see it exposed to it so, for the love of god and the sake of our sanities, pls just list the warnings beforehand like it really isnt such a difficult concept to grasp ???

and bold it, especially if it is in the small text. the whole purpose is for it to be easily visible for the very reason that it can be avoided by readers who dont want to read it. idc if it ruins the aesthetic bc the lack of proper tagging ruins my already declining sanity :]

[burning-academia-if]

Different anon than genetics anon

But I’m actually pretty sure two people with blue eyes can have a child with brown eyes because they determined that eye color was actually determined by polygenic inheritance rather than the more Mendelian dominant and recessive pattern. Means multiple genes determine the phenotype of eye color, rather than just one.

Also, I wouldn’t be too concerned about following the basics of genetics 1 to 1 simply because the basics of genetics doesn’t account for a lot of things (linked genes, chimerism, genetic disorders that affect appearance, mutations, or even how sometimes a genotype and a phenotype don’t match in the way you expect because the sometimes the body makes mistakes following instructions so to speak (we see this in some intersex people who have a functioning y chromosome who for some reason never go through androgenization process [two times, this occurs, in utero and also later male puberty] and sometimes don’t find out they’re intersex until way later). Also hormones have a real stake in how you look, which is why it isn’t uncommon for pregnant women to experience things like hair texture or color changes, or even eye color shifts if I’m recalling correctly. In fact, even head trauma can change your eye color.

But I’d put whatever you’d want down for reasons and then *sparkly fingers* magic and not get too lost in minutiae of it all unless it’s something you enjoy. But also take what I’ve said with a grain of salt, things change and I could be outdated (I’m not afraid to say it’s been a minute since uni)

I love I brought out the science people with this lol brings me back to my biopsych research days of college (which is obviously Different from biology).

But yeah! That's what I meant in the last ask when I said "multiple traits affect it like eye color" (polygentic inheritance). I also didn't want to go full blown scienctic terms since I'm not sure how much of complicated biology is common knowledge aksksks so I tried to scale it back to like high school I guess

But also this is obviously pseudo science LMAO it's like trying to explain the biology of a mermaid and how they work in water (even though pop culture mermaids would not survive in water). You take bits of reality for the basis and then make up the rest of it so that it Works(tm)

[stunie]

oh em gee! what kind of piercing did u get?? i bet it’s so cute ૮ › ༝ ‹ ྀིა

HIIII HI HI!!!! OMG i got a lil belly button piercing > < it has a cute lil flower gem at the top !!

[pynkhues]

curious as to your thoughts on the may december discourse (some spoilers i guess) - vili has come out and essentially said that he felt the film contributed to his victimization and hurt him. and the response from a lot of film twitter seems to be to yell ITS NOT A BIOPIC and to say he doesnt understand the film (gross). i feel like i dont really care if its a biopic or not, when the film literally quoted vili/mary kay, recreated the mary kay in prison photo exactly, and both charles melton and julianne moore studied vili/mary kay for their performances. to hand wave that all as "not a biopic" feels like a way of writing off any discomfort. i feel like the film should not have made those specific choices, but having done so they had a duty of care to vili. i dont think the film that ended up getting made is worth the continued trauma to vili even if it is art. there were other ways they could have told the story to minimize the harm and they chose not to - and i dont think that choice is a great commentary on tabloids or whatever, its just a ghoulish thing to do

I did see that, anon, and I do have thoughts on it as it's a real grey area in terms of creative license, art and storytelling, and it's a grey area that's been around really since storytelling existed, but before I get into that I just want to quickly clarify what Vili said, because I do think it's important.

Vili didn't say that the film contributed to his victimisation and hurt him, he said the film offended him because it was a ripoff:

“I’m still alive and well,” says Fualaau, now 40 and still living in the Seattle area, where the scandal unfolded. “If they had reached out to me, we could have worked together on a masterpiece. Instead, they chose to do a ripoff of my original story. “I’m offended by the entire project and the lack of respect given to me — who lived through a real story and is still living it,” he adds.

“I love movies — good movies,” he says. “And I admire ones that capture the essence and complications of real-life events. You know, movies that allow you to see or realize something new every time you watch them. “Those kinds of writers and directors — someone who can do that — would be perfect to work with, because my story is not nearly as simple as this movie [portrays],” Fualaau adds.

The reason I think this distinction is an important one to make is because in interviews since Mary Kay Letourneau passing, it's pretty clear that Vili - while absolutely being a victim-survivor - doesn't see himself that way, and even says pretty specifically in his Doctor Oz interview from 2020 that he doesn't see her as a predator or himself as having been preyed on ('there was no perversion...she was my wife and my best friend' are his exact words), and he's pretty clearly open to the idea of a film being made about his story.

I'm not saying this to diminish his feelings about May December at all (I strongly believe that Vili is entitled to feel any and every which way about the film) or to patronise his own understanding of what he experienced - I can't even begin to imagine the complexity of trying to unpack the life he shared with her - but I think it's important to reflect his feelings accurately and to provide a little context to those feelings.

With that said, do I think the creative team should've reached out to Vili before making the film?

Honestly, I don't know.

I think it's one of those questions in art where there's not really a right answer. If Vili's feelings towards Mary Kay are still lost in the silver linings of her grooming, any film that has his direct approval or involvement is going to run the risk of tacit endorsement. It also hamstrings the creative team and opens them up in terms of liability (I actually was a writers assistant on a TV show a million years ago that was sort of a bio pic and I can tell you for a fact that it was a disaster once the person it was based on got involved), and, of course, it runs the risk of shifting the focus of the story the writer is wanting to tell.

And that's the thing about art, right? By design, art is supposed to reflect us back to ourselves in ways that we might not always be comfortable with. Of course, that usually happens less literally than in how Todd Haynes has used Vili and Mary Kay's stories, but not always. Todd Haynes is certainly no stranger to the technique given Velvet Goldmine is pretty transparently inspired by David Bowie and I'm Not There is often confused as a Bob Dylan bio pic despite the fact that it's actually not.

Hell, everyone loves that Succession points a pretty clear finger to the Murdoch's, and while, of course, the Murdoch's - and Bowie and Dylan for that matter - have social, political and economic power that Vili doesn't which does impact the ethics of the decision, it's still made under the same creative ideology that aspects of a real story can render an artwork, a story, a film more emotionally authentic, can create greater resonance, can offer a sharper reflection of the world we live in and offer, perhaps, a message or a question that lingers.

All of this has actually kind of been funny timing as I just finished reading Sarah Weinman's The Real Lolita the other day which is a really excellent blend of true crime, literary history and critical commentary on this exact topic. The book explores the real life case of Sally Horner who was kidnapped by a pedophile in 1948 when she was 11 years old and was forced to roadtrip with him around America for two years. It's actually mentioned in passing in Nabokov's Lolita, but once you go a little deeper it's pretty clear how much of Horner and her story Nabokov used to create Dolores Haze / Lolita.

In the book, Weinnman asks the question as to why Lolita gets to be remembered when Sally's been left to obscurity, and of course, the answer is that there are other Sally's in the news cycle, but only one Lolita in art, and that hopefully in her writing Sally Horner's story she can write her back into bookshelves and place her back into this artwork but who knows if that's what Sally would've wanted (Sarah does, at least, talk to Sally's lone surviving family member, and makes a measure to show that it's very unlikely Nabokov ever did the same).

Was Nabokov wrong for not seeking out Sally's family for Lolita? Honestly, I doubt it even would've occured to him to do so, and the fact that we do now ask questions like this about the ethics of inspiration is, I think, a good thing. We should be critical of how stories are told and who is, and isn't, involved in the telling of them, but again, I don't actually think there are right or wrong answers here.

Fiction is always inspired by real people, real events, real life, it's a part of creation, it's a part of capturing a moment in time, it's about reflection and authenticity, but of course that's been rendered more complex in recent years by the fact that we live in a world that's ever shrinking and the people or the events that inspire new stories are inevitably brought into the public narrative in a way they just weren't back in 1955 when Lolita was first published.

So what does that mean for creativity and inspiration? I don't know, but personally I guess my thoughts would be that Vili is absolutely in his rights to be offended by the film, but I also don't think the filmmakers were wrong necessarily to not reach out. It's not the most ethical choice, but I also don't think it was an inherently bad one either. This isn't a Blonde situation where they write fiction and present it as fact, the creatives have been clear about it being inspried by what happened between Mary Kay and Vili, but they're also not saying Vili and Mary Kay are Joe and Gracie.

I appreciate you feeling like it's much of a muchness though given how they've apparently lifted entire scenes of dialogue. It's a murky question after all, and it's certainly one that's more complex when it comes to people like Vili and Sally than it is with the Murdoch's or even David Bowie, but yes, I'm not sure I see it as something inherently wrong, and I don't personally think it was ghoulish. I just think the specifics of this particular case just kind of shows how the sausage is made when it comes to storytelling.

[adorawasright]

Catra’s redemption arc isn’t so much of a redemption arc so much as it is a forgiveness arc (And it failed at that too)

Yeah, it's like I said, forgiveness can be a very hard choice, especially considering all the horrible things Catra did. And she doesn't even have to do the hard work of earning that forgiveness, she either says vague apologies or no apologies at all, and everyone is cool with her.

And if there was a character that didn't forgive her after all, they would certainly be demonized.

[schrodingers-romy]

Ok but WHO would share their food with u?????? WHO would annoy you/you annoy but you put up with each other anyway???????

Melk!! (Imma answer this for jjk)

I think the serial Snack Sharers would definitely be Yu haibara, yuuji, and shoko :). Haibara and yuuji are just those types of kind extroverts and shoko bc I used to hang around her a lot when I had a teeny bit of a crush on her 😔 (which faded to just platonic feelings after a bit).

Gojo and I used to annoy each other a lot sksjsjsjs.

Suguru and I were never close but I think he was a bit of a teasing older brother figure to the younger classes, so he did annoy me a bit, but we had a decent relationship until. Yknow.

I did annoy shoko a bit bc of my obvious thing for her but we did end up becoming good friends!

I scared the shit out of ijichi once accidentally and now he runs from me even when I was trying to be nice and talk to him

Kusakabe has beef with me and I don't know why. I think my presence annoys him. We work okay together though.

In canon I do not like mei mei i just put up with her but she likes me she would carry me around like a purse dog if possible.

I would set fire to naobitos mustache in a heartbeat.

[m3llowm1sh]

cw for flashing lights tw for (slight?) ab*se mentions in the lyrics!

ok so ever since i saw this post (specifically the last pic) i could not stop thinking about how the first glass beach album is kind of cocole coded which led to me thinking about it for like almost a week which led me to start progress on this custom level of glass beach by. glass beach which. is far. VERY far from finished (7 FUCKING MINUTES ARE YOU KIDDING ME) but i wanted to share what i have of it it anyways bcuz. i need ppl to see my vision.

this post got longer than i thought it would so. More ramblings under the cut

ik the song is supposed to be about a girl’s parents being shitty and the guy wanting his lover to run away from them and stuff, but i have a plot in mind about how instead of parents its nicoles smoking addiction which keeps on hurting her and how cole is tired of it. i think its nice to explore their journey of cutting away from their addiction (even though its mostly talked about in the game… idk i still think its interesting) and how everyone else in the hospital helps them idk. also including some pining because that's always wonderful

theres also this little mini comic i drew w the first couple of lyrics of classic j dies and goes to hell part 1, theres not really a story its just random moments but i still think its decently alright? i am. not a storyteller. IDK

but anyways i just want people to get that they are so. glass beach coded and i could NOT get them off of my mind for the life of me. i hope i can muster up the motivation to finish the level because i really really want to and i think itd be cool idk RAMBLE OVER

[doodlboy]

wanted to make sure i told you again! it is literally basic fandom etiquette not to use the main tags for vent/anti/hate about a character! people use those tags because they LIKE solomon, not because they want to see some idiot calling him "basically a rapist" for something >>NOT EVEN ASMODEUS<< interpreted that way. fix your fucking tags! go fuck yourself!

Hi there, If your initial reaction to seeing someone talk about negative [yet still canon] things related to your favorite character is to come into that person's ask box and tell them to go fuck themselves, you need to get up, turn of your computer, and go outside for a while.

Whatever post you're mad about was made months ago, using tags that are meant to be used when discussing a character regardless of how much the op likes said character.

Solomon is fine, I don't really care for him, but what I'm most likely referring to in the post you're talking about is the hypocrisy of the obey me fandom when it comes to Solomon's behavior.

When Solomon attempted to give Lucifer a drink that was enchanted to make him want a pact with Solomon, it was fairly well agreed across the fandom that what Solomon did was pretty fucked up and not okay. However, when talking about how Solomon got his pact with Asmodeus by taking advantage of the fact he was heartbroken and drunk to tie him into a forever binding pact against his will, somehow people are making excuses as to why it was necessary and why what Solomon did is fine actually and not a problem at all. This is where my issue with Solomon and his fans lies, with the hypocrisy. I couldn't give 2 shits whether he's your favorite character or not, good for you if he is! But what we're NOT going to do is scream bloody murder when Solomon attempts to do shady shit to Lucifer, but overly demonize Asmodeus, say he deserved it, say his charming power is non consensual regardless of the fact nowhere in canon says he has ever used it to have non consensual sex and has only used it to get himself and his family out of danger, or say that he is a beast that needs to be controlled when we don't talk that way about the other 6 brothers, when Solomon succeeds in taking advantage of his inebriated state to tie them together so he can use Asmodeus' power for his own gain.

And one more thing we aren't going to do; call me an idiot and accuse me of calling your blorbo a rapist when *you* cannot tell the difference between someone saying "a character was taken advantage of while under the influence" and "this character is a rapist." Solomon did not sexually assault anyone, however the framing of that scene is open to interpretation and to my interpretation, it was heavy handed in showing Solomon doing something that is extremely not okay and laughing it off like it was completely fine. Because to him, it IS fine to treat demons like that. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my interpretation of the scene, and I will continue to use characters' main tags when talking about them because the tags are used for discussion.

[ruporas]

wait. wait. wait. ive been staring at ur latest comic for awhile now and i think i've noticed something about the colors? which are amazing, first of all- just gotta get that out there cuz i adore that soft pink and deep green combo

but i just realized that throughout most of the comic u use both in equal parts it seems. to separate bg + fg and such, to highlight characters/objects, etc.

but then when vash gets back to their room, all the walls are that dark green. and, bit by bit, the pink totally falls off. by the end, it's nothing but constant dark green as vash starts to cry

but then wolfwood slams in and he's backed by that soft pink. and suddenly the comic is nothing BUT pink. soft lines and whites and gentle pink tones EVERYWHERE to just. SO tastefully highlight the little details.

LIKE. WAS THIS INTENTIONAL?! i almost wanna guess that it wasn't since all those green panels w vash crying are all closeups focused on his expression so it makes sense to just put the simple green behind it and all attention on him so the pink just isn't Needed

BUT AT THE SAME TIME THE EFFECT IS SO MASTERFUL THAT I WANNA BELIEVE IT WAS ABSOLUTELY INTENTIONAL

HEHE..... first of all, thank you for looking at my comic so closely, THAT'S LIKE... REALLY SWEET and a huge compliment to hear, thank u thank u

and yes, it was intentional, especially more towards the end!!! in general, the colors are meant to serve as a mood indicator, so a balance of them in a scene would just mean a neutral "okay-ness" and have a functional serve to separate background / foreground / subject matter... deep green signifies introspection or incoming sadness (especially on pg5 when vash cries), and pink signifies wolfwood, which, not an emotion but he is happiness, someone that helps vash lose his doubts in a matter of seconds -- which is why those last few pages are just pink white and lines, and the panels are gone for the majority of it. i wanted to show their unity and togetherness!

while vash still has his issues of just Not saying anything about his loneliness, his feelings are alleviated temporarily with wolfwood's presence and he's just grateful that his paranoia didn't become true, and that wolfwood is genuine, true to his word, when he means he'll be following vash/staying with him. even though it's mission-bound, vash would probably still feel guiltily comforted by that fact.

I'M GLAD IT WAS PARTICULARLY EFFECTIVE IN THIS COMIC because i definitely could've pushed it more... i figured it was a minor thing that not a lot of ppl would care for, but more ppl enjoyed it and noticed the colors than i thought, so i'm glad it worked out!!!

[tariah23]

Yeah! The biggest threat to goiji is gojo himself. Not just because of his status and hang ups about being the strongest but because his powers make him so above it all he can't begin to comprehend where ijichi is coming from and he's so mean to him for it 😭😭 he starts out nicer in opposites attract because from the onset he already wants to interact and hang out with ijichi on purpose. otherwise in pretty much any other scenario he's just not considering him. It could even be backhanded if gojo extended literally any thought to him at all 😭😭😭

Exactly!!! I’ve talked sm about their whole THING for months and MONTH now with friends/ mutuals privately 😭…….. for Gojo, he’s just TOO stuck in his ways; absolutely stubborn. He’s also been sheltered to hell and has been raised to believe that he isn’t really a person ever since he was a child and so, it was probably always hard for him to actually BELIEVE that he could ever connect with anyone on a human level because he doesn’t see himself as one. He’s too far above them and feels that it’s useless to actually connect and build bridges with other people because they already don’t SEE, nor do they understand him, at least from his perspective.

It’s like he most likely unconsciously prejudges everyone around him, even his friends and students, because he’s already set himself up to never be truly part of their world on a personal level that’ll leave him vulnerable. He just exists in it and he won’t ever go any further than a silly joke, teasing them like hell to the point of bullying (Ijichi……), and hugs (because Gojo really does love to throw himself onto other people. Physical contact is fun for him and he’s already an extremely affectionate individual as is so it comes naturally for him. He also seems to do this on purpose because he’s tall as hell, annoying af, and ugly!!! He is aware of the fact that he gets on everyones nerves but when he does this, it really does show that he enjoys the company of those who he cares about even if his way of thinking might come off as backwards skkssksks.)

As for Ijichi, yeahssshs. In “Opposites Attract,” Gojo is the one who makes the first step but tbh, the story/characters themselves seem to be very much in character imo!!! I can see all of what’s happened in the story, especially between them, legit go down in canon IF JJK were a different story and that the themes revolving around Gojo’s trauma were more zeroed in on and I’m so serious.

The writer handles his feeling of loneliness and isolation so well and you can literally see how hard he tries to push back on Ijichi from getting closer to him in the story until it had gotten to a point where the both of them just became legit friends who were 100% comfortable around each other. They had built up a comfortable routine… they had their disagreements and confrontations and Gojo never apologizes for the awful things he said to Ijichi in the story but you can always tell that he’s at least sorry and that he will do better with dealing with Ijichi next time. I love seeing just how used to Gojo’s personality Ijichi becomes over the course of the story lol. That’s what close proximity and overexposure does to a mf!!! The development from Ijichi feeling awkward and uncomfortable around Gojo to Gojo swinging him around at the airport bro…… (that chapter was so fun whajajajl. Ijichi was going THROUGH it while Gojo, his new FRIEND who used to be bully his ass back in HS, was gone away on a mission and he missed him sm lol. Then I think that was the same chapter where he went out drinking with fellow auxiliary managers and how he had to defend Gojo from being badmouthed by one of them 😭… and Gojo heard about it and teased Ijichi by calling him his hero or so 😭… falling to me knees…….. )

It’s so well written and the way that the writer had dragged their relationship along for so long… It’s literally insane that they haven’t kissed or even so much as held hands yet lmfao. They’re probably still not even dating even after 100K words lmfaoooo. I’m behind on the last 5 chapters so idk if anything has happened YET but uhhh. Gojo FEELS like Gojo in the fic for sure!!! Same with Ijichi! I love how character driven the narrative has been! Gojo does have the tendency to surprise others, especially Ijichi, when he wants to. Like, he’s kind of shitty towards him and he doesn’t usually realize that he’s being dismissive and mean at all but he’s aware of the fact that Ijichi is a sensitive person who’s always nervous and wanting to do his best and please others as well and so he takes advantage of that people pleaser side of poor Ijichi lmfao.

I think the story handles their dynamic incredibly well and the progression from Ijichi being annoyed with Gojo being around to falling head over heels for him makes sm sense 😭!!! Gojo has the capacity to treat other people with respect and he’s not the monster he thinks he is. People actually DO care about him, not just because he’s strong 😭! I just love how Normal Ijichi is… and it has been brought up multiple times throughout the story as well. Of COURSE he’d feel insecure around someone like Gojo but Gojo, even in canon, doesn’t really give “shallow,” at all to me at least. He’s kind of ableist though and again, super dismissive of those who he views as weak, but it’s because of the way that he’d been raised and conditioned to view himself as a something not human. His views don’t steam from a place of malice at all. Also, because it’s his job to “protect,” the weak. That’s always been part of his whole mindset. Gojo is also a weirdo lakakakakl. Given a little time and patience, Even outside of all of the bullshit that comes with dealing with him because of his personality, I think that It’ll definitely come down to Gojo allowing himself to be vulnerable with others in order for something to shake. My guy is literally a thorny rose 😭!!! I hate him for that!!!

[chex-nix]

Hi besties about the ask that apparently so many people missed the point on; i know there are ways to watch the show for free, i have links and i even have every episode downloaded on one of my computers.

I still bought the episodes regardless of already having them, and im as poor as they come (I’m unemployed and can barely afford food for myself every week with commission money)

Why would i “waste money” if i already had the episodes for free? Sitting in my computer available for watching? Because its not a waste of money. Buying the episodes directly supports the show and tells CN there are people who care about it. We dont have season 2 because they believe theres no demand for it. If you purchase the episodes (or even just one episode at a time) it will tell them there are people out there who want more.

Pirating the show HURTS the show. Yes i have it downloaded and i have links but even before it was taken off streaming i would still watch it on hulu. Just liking the show isn’t enough, you have to show them you want more. Harassing Parker on twitter and pirating the show that he and his crew worked so hard on with love isn’t going to get us season 2.

I said it in the tags but ill add it here: its okay to watch an episode or a few for free to decide if u like it or not before buying it. I ask u to purchase episodes though if u Do like it and want more