#See. I like duo tags because they are not inherently romantic. but do you understand my predicament.

[fountainpenguin]

Added a tag on my blog for #flower exes in case you're a follower who wants to block analyses/commentary like this going forward. I'll try to make a list of other tags that might be useful for other relationships.

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ngl but I think this snippet from Scott's Real Life POV:

Scott: /kills Jimmy Jimmy staring as Scott hands him a flower: You know what happens if you give me this... [Marriage proposal] Scott, almost dismissively: Yeah, it worked last time Jimmy, after Scott hands him a flower: You are not forgiven Scott, having already walked away and not even looking at him: Thank you Jimmy for forgiving me!!

is just such a painfully accurate mirror of how I see their characters' roleplay in general. Like!!!! I just have to talk about it, sorry. I'm obsessed.

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This is about the Jimmy & Scott dynamic. Not using their duo name so it doesn't show up in tags.

This is about characters, not real people; my personal interpretation of their dynamic. I'm very aware IRL Jimmy lets people mock him for silly dynamics and that everyone is friends.

Disclaimer, I haven't watched their 3rd Life POVs start to end since late 2022, I think? I may have some details wrong.

---

To me, Character Scott exists in this void where he can do and say whatever he wants to Character Jimmy, including ripping him and his skills apart both in front of people and behind his back (Ex: Dogwarts banner burning / bringing up Jimmy's failure with their allies in front of Jimmy and mocking him).

Scott does this several times in 3rd Life. He calls Jimmy his husband, but doesn't seem to respect him... I really want to comb back through 3rd Life sometimes because I remember him calling Jimmy's house ugly and creating a wall so he doesn't have to look at it.

Anyway, he mocks Jimmy's skills and decision-making in regards to all 3 of his husband's deaths, I'm pretty sure (Stuff like "I told you not to step on it! Why would you step on it? I told you you have to shoot it!" and the lava game and the red desert battle).

Iirc, two of his mockeries happen while he's standing over Jimmy's Minecraft corpse, sdklfj. This is not a man who is in mourning. I saw a post once that said 3rd Life Scott is like a widow who exaggerates her emotional displays so she can wear pretty mourning clothes and honestly. yeah. [Paraphrasing]

Found the post

He can be controlling and demanding (i.e. not letting Jimmy make his own decisions about their cows and very publicly arguing / belittling him / interrupting him when Jimmy comes home, all while several other people watch... Sir. Sir, I want to pick you up and shake you.)

It is not for no reason this man's nickname is Gatekeep. And he wears it proudly. aaah.

And the thing is!!! Character Scott lives in a world where he can just say stuff to Jimmy and Jimmy's not going to do anything about it. Yeah, he'll steal Jimmy's goats. He'll ignore Jimmy's goat horn call for a laugh. He'll capitalize on Jimmy's ranch dreams and try to crush him out of existence, laughing at him for having no goats (because he stole the goats). He apologizes to Tango for not replying to the goat horn, but not to Jimmy. He has no shame in playing the bit. That is his friend and he's going to torment him. lol.

He straight-up gaslights (Hilariously, without lying) when he's accused of killing Jimmy's goats. His word choice is so careful when he says things like "I will say, the entire time I could have seen [Cleo and Martyn], they were standing outside the ranch" and not admitting he dug underground and smuggled the goats out.

Character Scott is so fey-coded to me... He is trying to play. He's like a puppy that hasn't learned to control bite strength because he just keeps biting Jimmy and Jimmy doesn't get upset, so Scott is just playing in his POV but. mm. the outside looking in (me) is just. mm.

I can't stop writing 'fics where Scott is oblivious to how harsh he is. In his mind, it's play and he doesn't realize how far it's going- he just keeps escalating. I could talk forever about how Scott's version of 3rd Life heaven was living with Jimmy, but everything was prettier, and Jimmy came up to greet him because he missed him. Scott........ Scott, I just wanna talk.......

And then he seems puzzled when Jimmy doesn't flock to him. I feel like the Limited Life scene is a well-known one in the community: Scott says "I love you" to Jimmy and tries to get Jimmy to "say it back."

Jimmy chooses not to, standing his ground and seemingly implies that he will not express kindness to Scott in exchange for reward (Life), even though Scott's teasing and trying to coax him to because "uwu, don't you love your adorable husband? You would never hurt me."

smh... Character Scott, did you forget that in Limited Life, you've given Jimmy no reason to fawn over you? Why would he say he loves you? You can't just walk up to him and expect that, you silly man.

Shepscapades drew a gorgeous comic about this exact thing. The oblivious, smiling look Scott gives with his tilted head is just. my everything

Like!!! Scott, I don't know how to tell you this, but your actions have consequences and Jimmy isn't coming back. Scott is a satellite who revolves around him, feeling positive feelings towards Jimmy and expecting that Jimmy returns them..... ah.

In my mind he revolves around Pearl in a similar way (Ex: throwing her out without giving her a chance to explain herself when she came back in Double Life- I'm not judging whether it was the right or wrong choice because live your dreams, block dude, but... he really just made his own decisions about how that roleplay was gonna go down, disregarding their past nice times. One false step and Pearl hit the chopping block with no prior communication <3)

And he will just not let go of them. He is my clingy allay hybrid and I think he's fun. Augh. They are so toxic in my mind /positive; boy, that guy sure has multiple facets and a three-dimensional characterization

It's one of the reasons he vibes so well with Cleo... It's a relationship built on gaslighting and gatekeeping. They do not take each other too seriously. And he's considerably less snippy with her, especially in Double Life where he plays the role of fawning over her, and just. man.

Allay hybrid who finds someone to circle, but also can't let go of anyone. He will swap around with no ill intent or sadness, interchanging, picking up where he left off... (To me)

Anyway, this is why in Dog's Life, Jimmy cut ties with all his romantic relationships and is spending time by himself- He's quietly working through all the things Scott and others have said to him while he's vulnerable in a relationship, but he'd never tell him or anyone else this unless he had to. He puts those feelings aside so he can do co-worker things... but he needs time alone.

Even in his POVs, he doesn't explain that to the reader. It's not the reader's business. He's taking time for himself and he's not going to talk about it. He will not demonize his friends... He struggles to even say anything negative about his friends. He doesn't want to look like he's upset even on accident.

There's an upcoming scene where Scott's very overwhelmed and has basically come crashing down, practically begging Jimmy to explain why he dumped him (in this 'fic universe). Jimmy caves and explains a little about why he didn't feel they work, but doesn't go into detail. Even with the simplified explanation, Scott is just... mind-boggled and offended. He was just playing!!

Scott. You NEED to grow as a person. Aaaaaaaah. I want them to have their arc where Jimmy has handled everything as quietly, privately, and gracefully as he could and meanwhile Scott is unraveling everything he knows about himself and starting to look at himself from outside eyes.

All this to say... I liked that moment in Scott's Real Life POV. Jimmy hesitating. Scott being like "Well, last time you excused/forgave all my behavior.

Jimmy digging in his heels... "You are not forgiven."

Scott, walking off... "Thank you for forgiving me!!!"

Aaaugh. I'm gonna be sick about them. It's such a cycle of Jimmy pulling away and Scott oblivious... It is so important to me... and yes I did spend like 2 hours on this post just thinking about this 3-second exchange in the April Fools episode and now it is so late at night... do u understand, though? Them <3

Closing Disclaimers - This is a personal observation about their characterizations because I draw on these moments a lot in my fanfics.

Please don't reblog this post out of anger- I am aware they are a popular ship and that my view is not a popular interpretation, but I like them this way. I like dropping the characters in situations where they need to face who they are. I get excited when I see crumbs connected to my interpretation show up in the canon and I wanted to talk about how something I saw fit my interpretation.

I have absolutely 0 problem with others liking this ship. Heck, I've read some awesome fics of them! I did my best to tag and warn appropriately (and not use their ship name so it won't be in tags). I don't normally talk about them, but I'll use the #flower exes tag in the future when it comes up.

Please don't leave mean comments in the replies, send Anon hate, etc. You don't have to agree, so just block and move on if you're uncomfortable. It's never my intention to bash- I just want to convey the joy I feel when I see a portrayal I like. Thanks! <3

[ultimaid]

As The Kirumi Blog, I think you're the right person to send an ask about this. How do you think Korekiyo and Kirumi would fare together as friends? What would they think is remarkable or strange about each other? What sort of stuff would they have conversations about and bond over? What things would they enjoy doing together? Stuff like that

I personally think there's a huge potential in something like that, so I thought it would be cool to see what the resident Kirumi understander would have to say on the matter

hmhmhm! you have come to the right place, my friend. 🖤 i adore the korekiyo & kirumi friendship dynamic, i turn it around in my head frequently.

kirumi’s a naturally good listener, and that immediately draws korekiyo to her. he likes to talk about his studies and think out loud in ways that other people find creepy and off-putting, but kirumi is very hard to faze. he appreciates feeling listened to.

likewise, kirumi enjoys learning about other cultures and things like that. every small piece of information about, say, meal customs is valuable to her. she admires his expertise and dedication.

they have tea together sometimes and talk about the history of the specific blend they’re drinking.

korekiyo is also fascinated by kirumi as an individual—her devotion to her work, her poised and quiet nature. he’s naturally curious, after all. he cannot help but want to learn more about what’s going on in her head. she doesn’t like the prying—finds it uncomfortable when people try to peek below the surface, she has horrible trust issues—so they learn over time to strike a balance where he’s not quite so invasive and she’s not quite so guarded. because, well, when he’s not squeezing her like a snake for information, his company is quite enjoyable.

and then, of course, later down the line, when they’ve actually gotten to know each other quite well, the similarities come out.

they both define themselves almost entirely based upon how they relate to others (or, in korekiyo’s case, one other person) and struggle to see themselves outside of this framework. they also both have very interesting ideas about the self and selfishness—the inherently selfish motivations behind selflessness—which, after a lotttt of personal work, i think they could learn more about from each other.

it’s a quiet friendship. it’s marked by long conversations in which neither ever really says exactly what they mean, and that’s okay. they’re both extremely perceptive.

korekiyo also doesn’t have any objections to kirumi Serving him, which she finds relieving, but he does still encourage her to sit and talk with him rather than being on her feet all the time. it’s a different approach than what some of her other friends take to try and get her to relax, but it works most of the time.

anyways, yes. i think they could make good friends. funny, even-voiced goth duo with pretty eyeliner and straight spines.

(this is not a romantic kirukiyo post, please do not tag as ship.)

[normal-thoughts-official]

Izzy and magnus brotp headcanons if u have any bls

i do! i dont think ive ever been asked about them before so yay!

mandatory disclaimer that this post is about the show, not the books, and idc what happens in the books and wont be taking it into consideration here

okay so i think my brotp tag for them ("crazy scientists but make it glam") pretty much sums it up. i love the concept of crazy scientists magnus and izzy. like... if magnus and alec lose braincells when theyre together, magnus and izzy gain braincells, but lose Common Sense

because they are both so into similar things like physics and biochem and technology and magic, so if the subject comes up they will start excitedly talking about idk the possibilities for time travel or something, and alec of course has no interest in those things so hes like "k imma get a drink" and when he comes back magnus and izzy are Actually Seriously Planning On Launching Themselves To Mars and he has to be like "or maybe we could discuss this here on earth???" and alec is really not used to being the voice of reason when it comes to magnus but alas

and i just love magnus and izzy as that duo who can like spend hours talking in depth about the mechanisms of time travel or cures for magical diseases or whichever subject theyre focusing on at the moment and who make a mean team when working together but who can also get Too Excited and lose it a little

other than that the other thing i like about magnus and izzy is that they can relate to each other on that sense of being reduced to The Hot Fashionista, you know? like magnus is called a lothario and izzy is always treated like her one personality trait is Sexy™ and i think both of them kind of use that perception as an armor for themselves. i have talked about that in relation to magnus several times so i dont think it bears repeating because he himself compared his eyeliner to tiger stripes and magicked makeup on when he was feeling bad and alec was coming, so. but anyway my point is that izzy is no different and that was addressed in the sh that is good and lives in my head instead of her just being reduced to eye candy the whole show

like it's obvious that izzy's whole thing with being Sexy™ is something that she uses as part of her rebel act. like, her mom is gonna reduce her to a stupid slut anyway, so why not act the part? case in point: twi!izzy. in the world where the lightwoods weren't making her and alec's life hell, she allowed herself to be a lot more casual. also the way she is always talking about how she can do everything they do in heels, how she always uses her body to be "the distraction" and/or to gather information, to lure in demons even tho thats unnecessary, etc. like i think a part of izzy feels like sex is all she's good at and so she lays that in as thick as possible. she even kind of said so when she said that one of the reasons why she liked raphael is because she knew that sex wasn't a part of the equation for him

disclaimer! dressing in revealing clothes and/or sleeping around is not bad and doesnt inherently mean that the person has Unresolved Issues that end up manifesting like that, or whatever. i think izzy also dresses as she does because she likes it and good for her! she also clearly likes sex and good for her!!!! and it definitely doesn't mean her relationships are shallow because we saw how fiercely loyal she is to those he loves, platonically or romantically. i just think that the way she built her identity around that is partially because it is a good armor - if she presents herself as shallow and concerned only with instant pleasure and looking pretty, people won't get too close. and when they treat her as such, it doesn't hurt as much because she IS laying it on thick and she IS sexy and she can use it to her advantage, even to manipulate people, so whos laughing now?

for example, in s1 in particular izzy was always acting like she cared about nothing but having fun and going to parties, yet it was obvious that izzy actually cared way more about saving the downworld and helping those she loves, particularly alec. like she presents herself as shallow and unconcerned with anything but her own pleasure but it's clear that she's willing to throw all of that away - even give herself up to get married to whoever her parents choose, her own worst nightmare - for what actually matters and drives her: her loved ones and what she thinks is right. she was okay with getting deruned for what she believed in, thats not a shallow person. so obviously that whole thing was an act, and well, why put up an act like that when it borders on annoying honestly? i think it's to protect herself, for the reasons listed above

plus, it makes her mom mad, and a part of her is obviously defining herself in opposition to her mom. if her mom wants something out of her, she does the opposite, and that applies to her clothing too

anyway all of that is to say that magnus and izzy have a similar relationship with 1- their "lothario"/"slut" personas, and 2- the way they understand fashion and clothing. it's about expressing something to others, something that protects their vulnerabilities, for the both of them. and while i don't think they (particularly izzy) are exactly dying to go deep into that subject and their armors, there is that understanding between them, you know? and under the right amount of alcohol and in a safe enough environment when its just the two of them they might even talk about it and its nice to have someone who completely understands it, you know, that pretty specific defense mechanism and being reduced to sexualized stereotypes (especially since both of them are bi. id mention both of them being brown too but izzy's racial belonging in the show is uhhhhh weird to say the least so i wont get into that)

and also just the silly things! going to parties together, going shopping together, remember when magnus and izzy were both wearing the exact same color scheme and pattern? obsessed with the idea of them color coordinating just for like, the challenge of creating outfits that dont look the same or even like theyre supposed to match but that have similars colors and textures and patterns, you know?

also they are fantastic at gifting each other and somehow always know Exactly What The Other Has Their Eyes Own. like izzy will give magnus some eyeliner and he'll be like "how did you know ive been meaning to buy that?" and she'll go "i didnt" and wink at him, and the opposite is also true. or alternatively izzy will get him a book on astronomy and he'll be like "how did you know i was hyperfixating on black holes??" and she'll be like "i didn't" and the other way around as well. alec asks for their help buying gifts for the other more often than not, but izzy realized a long time ago that magnus likes alec's gifts better than hers, because even tho they aren't always a perfect fit, they are always so thoughtful and blow him away even tho that was in no way alec's intention (see: the omamori)

also izzy is fiercely protective of alec, magnus, and their relationship as a whole, which sometimes really warms magnus' heart when she just. jumps in to their defense when someone is being bitchy, you know? it's nice that she has their back

and i think thats all i have for now but aaa i love them

[midnight-in-town]

You think we will see Haru and Juno do some beastars work¿ I can’t imagine Haru kick ass, but she can make a great spy.

Hello! Hmhmhm, what an interesting question!

Honestly, I’d say no though, because the story clearly emphasizes on this role as we know it being, at first, up to either Louis or Legosi, even if Legosi recently convinced Louis that he would rather it be up to both of them…

…so I don’t really see this role befalling Haru or Juno, even if they will obviously be a part of these guys’ fight.

That being said, the story also calls for a society made of herbivores and carnivores to ultimately stop needing what the Beastar currently represents, because clearly upholding peace for them means having to sacrifice everything else: Yahya is the example of that, using extreme methods & being envious of Gosha choosing his family over working with him.

And that’s precisely why the rag tag duo of Legosi & Louis shouldn’t become Beastar but Beastars, which implies for the current position to inherently change, because they’re not ready to give up on everything in their life to save society.

For Legosi, it’s easy enough to see: he used to be a big loner, but now he makes it clear that he intends to marry Haru and have a family with her. And him chasing Melon around is both because, if he stops him then Yahya will erase his criminal record + as wolf/reptile hybrid & being in love with a rabbit, he’s drawn to Melon’s ill-being as an hybrid.

For Louis, it’s harder to see but he’s involved with the Shishigumi (a carnivore mafia group lmao), he just inherited his father’s position (leading a herbivore conglomerate), he’s supposed to marry a fellow red deer but he’s unsettled by Juno who’s a wolf… He even tried to distance himself from everything when he was the Shishigumi’s leader but it totally failed; in other words he’s drawn to all the parts of society that he came to meet & understand and he can’t let go.

So, as far as Haru and Juno go (and especially since Haru and Legosi love each other + Juno and Louis aren’t far from that), I think they’re very relevant to Louis and Legosi wanting to create a better society, namely one in which interspecies romance (as complicated as it is) won’t be frowned upon and won’t create people like Melon (special mention to Lenoa too, who killed herself because she didn’t want to be judged by society for her hybrid condition). 

Will these girls get directly involved into the guys’ fight though, now that is the question. 

First, I think Haru will be significant when it comes to stopping Melon because…

…she’s as drawn to him as Legosi is because of her feelings for Legosi, and Melon is drawn to her because she lives freely in a society he sees as condemnatory + because she didn’t seem horrified by him being a hybrid. 

Otherwise, I think Haru is like an anchor keeping Legosi on firm ground. She’s the selfish part of him who’s focused on fulfilling their overcomplex romantic interspecies relationship, while the rest of him is trying to make society accept relationships like theirs. Haru living her life, worrying about her and Legosi, is already enough in acting as wake up calls whenever Legosi needs it. 

As for Juno, she was first introduced as a rival to Louis being expected to be the next Ultime Beastar, at a moment in the story when they were both only having their “side”’s interests in mind.

Their initial rivalry became an entirely different relationship, and in a way I think that’s also part of why they’re so drawn to each other, since both their initial rather radical view on society did a 180° to become more neutral and respectful of carnivores and herbivores. 

Now they’re finding other flaws in that society that they want to confront, but since Juno is the most in the background amongst the main characters, I can’t guess precisely how she will weight into what Legosi and Louis are trying to do.

Out of the four of them, Louis remains the one who has the most shackles to get rid of in my opinion, because he’s got his father’s expectations that he can’t fully dismiss, despite all that he wants to do. So I could see Juno at least helping with that, since she already admitted that she wants to be with him despite how complicated and frowned upon interspecies romance is.

Anyway, if I had to make one tiny criticism about Beastars as a story, it would be that I definitely need to see more of both Haru and Juno. Haru because I love her and she’s got a very peculiar view about society, which needs to be taken into account when it comes to what Louis and Legosi are fighting for; Juno because she’s just too in the background in the current arc for my taste.

TL;DR the Beastar position as Yahya does it is not meant to be working out (that’s why he even reached out for Legosi to help with Melon and why the 400 year old whale said herbivores and carnivores still had to cohabit better).

What Legosi and Louis are fighting for implies for society to change and accept what it used to frown upon, like interspecies relationships such as Legosi/Haru and Louis/Juno. As such, all four of them have a role to play, towards each other and towards society. 

Just my take on it, sorry if it’s badly explained, I have a bad case of writer’s block, haha. Have a nice weekend Anon!

[ineffablefool]

I got an ask which I have decided to respond to anonymoosely, because I can.

I just read your post about Fat Aziraphale and how it made you feel better - I'm trying to use Aziraphale to convince my wife (also fat) that really, she's wonderfully friend- and wife-shaped and people find her pleasant to look at.

Oof.  This kind of situation is such a hard one to be in, for all parties concerned, because we’re all stewing in nigh-constant fatphobic garbage, and almost no fat person, no matter how good their self-esteem, can ignore that garbage 100% of the time.  So the person feels bad because they don’t look the way someone else decided they should look, and the people who care about them feel bad because, well, they care.  Just yuck all around.

I have Thoughts on this, and I figured I’d put ‘em on the blog.  They are not specific to asker, especially since asker didn’t ask for advice.  Asker can totally ignore me if they like, that’s fine.  But now the Thoughts will Live on the Blog.  Oh -- and I use “fat” as a neutral descriptor throughout all this.  Not “plus-sized” or “larger” or the o word which I hate with the blue-hot screaming fire of an oxyacetylene torch of rage.  Fat.  Simple term to contrast with thin in the same way tall contrasts with short.  I like simple.

(this gets exceptionally long without being the least bit organized)

Disclaimer, I am not an expert in anything except being me.  But that means I’m an expert in being a fat human, and one who ID’d as female for over 30 years and still gets read as female 99.44% of the time (women get hit harder with this crap), and one who has done a lot of thinking about this whole mess.  So maybe that will be useful to someone.

And I don’t know if this is ever a “convince” sort of thing.  I think it’s more a “come to realize, slowly, over time, with a lot of work and hopefully support”.  (Asks aren’t the best place to craft the very finest of language, so I know there’s a lot of wiggle room in the meaning of “convince” in the ask that spurred this post, but again, I’m taking this more general.  )  It’s very hard to show a fat person your inner understanding of them as a whole and wonderful and important human being. This is because we get so many little reinforcements, day in and day out, that being fat is inherently bad, and that we are inherently bad if we are fat.  It creates a narrative which hits us from almost every conceivable angle, and it can feel very, very convincing.  (Read this 2010 post by Ragen Chastain if you want to be sad.  I’m not saying her results are typical, because her work involves dealing with fatphobia, but I am saying that if any of us sat down to do this math, we are not likely to be happy about whatever result we do get.)

So it’s a bunch of little things needed to turn things around, and it’s over a period of potentially years, and it’s the fat person in question having both the willingness and the energy to put in a bunch of boring yucky work.

Positive representation is a huge part of it, though.  It builds a new narrative.  It gives examples of fat people accomplishing things, creating things, living and having fun and just actually being people.  Of fat people being loveable, and loved, although that’s not the most important part.  I focus on it in the Good Omens hyperfixation part of my life, because my hyperfixation is completely around a romantic Aziraphale/Crowley relationship, but being a valid romantic partner is not nearly as important as all that other stuff (hi my aro and ace people you are not forgotten).  And I’ve seen a bunch of posts by people talking about how Sheen’s Aziraphale, and the fandom response to the character, have helped with their own self-esteem -- because it’s the new narrative.  It’s not “this character is (barely, if you squint, but we’ll let it ride for a sec) fat, and therefore bad or the butt of a joke or less than the thinner characters”.  It’s “this character is fat and important and loved”.  Type of love is up for all of us to decide per Mr. Gaiman, but you don’t get to argue the love.  Aziraphale’s appearance has nothing to do with his value as a human-like entity.  He’s literally tied with Crowley for most important character, given that the show has been reframed from the book to both begin and end with our ineffable duo (plus the emphasis given by the Hard Times cold open).

Sharing that new narrative with the important fat person in one’s life can be one very small part of helping them unlearn the old narrative.  If it helps, I kinda not-officially-but-it-works-out-that-way curate fatter-versions-of-Aziraphale artwork in my fat positivity tag, along with all the other fat-positive stuff that runs through my blog.  (I don’t think there’s any fics in that tag besides mine, just commentary, but I can’t remember right now.)

Over on my other Tumblr account, I follow a bunch of fat-positive blogs, although I haven’t refreshed the list in a while (I just... don’t need it as much as I used to, which is fascinating, now that I think about it), and some of them have gone dormant.  But I can recommend, in no particular order, fuckyeahfatpositive, ok2befat, and fatqueerlove (assuming the person IDs as/is comfortable with the label “queer”) for the more affirmation side of things (though there’s some activism mixed in); and bigfatscience, the-exercist, and fatphobiabusters for the more activism side of things (debunking bad science and fatphobic myths; speaking out against fatphobia in medicine, legislation, reporting, and wherever else it shoves its ugly head out from its troll-cave). The Fat Nutritionist hasn’t updated in a year, but she still has lots of good stuff up. thisisthinprivilege is... hard to read, sometimes, and I think it’s better for after you’re energized and angry about the garbage you’ve been taught.

(If anyone gets through this ridiculously long post and knows of other good resources for that last paragraph, by the way, I’d love to hear about ‘em.)

But it takes the fat person actually seeking out the new narrative, and shoving fat-positive content and mindsets into their eyeballs and brainpan, for there to be a real change, I think.  And that’s the boring yucky work part.  A lot of people find that they can’t really pull their thoughts out of the old track and into the new one without getting some help from a therapist -- and therapists are great and there’s nothing wrong with going to therapy, I see a therapist every two weeks myself -- but therapy takes time and money and energy and a therapist you can actually work with.  Not everyone has all four of those things.

It’s also important to not draw any lines when trying to communicate to one’s important fat person that they are, in fact, important and worth whatever kind of love it is that one has for them.  No “you’re not actually that fat” (how will they feel if they gain more weight later?).  No “at least you’re healthy” (how will they feel if they become unhealthy?).  No “but you carry it well” or other variations on “at least you’re not one of the ugly ones” (how will they feel if their appearance changes later?).

If there’s a line, then your important fat person always has to be careful not to cross it.  Don’t imply to them that there is actually an appearance-related condition to your love for them, and they just luckily haven’t failed you yet.  If there actually is such a condition, maybe sit down and have a few deep thoughts with yourself.

Plus, speaking personally, I am “that fat”, and I’m not 100% healthy, and I carry it weird and am really-weird looking.  And I don’t appreciate being thrown under the bus so someone can tell someone else “at least you’re not one of those, you know, the fat people who aren’t valid and important human beings”.  So nobody ever do that.  Please.

Final words to my unhealthy, or really really fat, or weird-shaped or just plain ugly-by-current-common-standards fat people out there -- i got u fam.  You’re all valuable and important and I love you.  And you’re all doing, or going to do, amazing things, because doing amazing things has precisely jack to do with the amount or positioning of fat upon your very important and inherently worthy human self.

That’s all!  If you made it this far, then you get this link to a photo of a cute bearded dragon in a hat, if you’d like to click it.  I follow william-snekspeare on my other account and have commissioned him for artwork twice now and he is an absolute dear.

And I hope asker’s wife has a good body image day tomorrow.

[punionrings]

i saw wonder woman, here’s my review:

short review: 5/10, not bad, but not really original and extremely overhyped

much, much, longer review (with spoilers):

okay honestly I don’t like superhero movies to begin with. but my bf convinced me to go cuz he likes going to the movies and I.... do not. i hate going to the movie theater.

but we went. and the longer the movie went on the less impressed i was. i really did like the beginning on the amazon island, i thought was pretty cool. but slowly, i was realizing two things:

1. i was going to guess every plot device and twist of this movie very, very quickly

2. things were going to happen and not be explained at all.

as soon as it was brought up that the amazons are the protectors of the good of man, but they don’t bear children, it made me think... do the amazons age? how quickly does diana age? do we assume that between the time of the ancient greeks and world war i, diana ages MAYBE 25 years or so? there’s definitely amazons that die during the beach scene, but do they die of natural causes? if they don’t bear children, and they DO age, what happens if they all die off before ares does return??

and diana is built up to be an intelligent, well-read young woman. so why can’t she figure out that she is not actually an amazon like everyone else is? her mom flat out tells her she isn’t before she leaves. why isn’t she demanding answers about why she is different then?? like she gets the “made from clay” thing but it becomes obvious VERY QUICKLY that something is amiss. as soon as her mom brings up the sword being the god-killer and she said “diana wasn’t meant to wield it,” i immediately thought “it’s because that sword isn’t the special tool, is it.....”

and why the secrecy? doesn’t the queen of the amazons, the leader of the race of women literally made to defeat the evil ares, WANT the actual god-killer (diana) to be well trained enough for the inevitable day that ares does come back? why would she defy zeus’s wishes by not training her to the best of her ability? and diana does that force-blast thing during the training scene. is that an amazon thing or just something diana can do? and she doesn’t even question it? WHY NOOOT?

also: the barrier around the island. is it supposed to be impenetrable? if so, how could steve/the germans get through out of nowhere? if not, how did NOTHING get through over the course of several millennia??

okay but the beach battle scene is cool. got that.

so steve shows up. there’s a dick joke. i roll my eyes and pray the rest of the movie doesn’t have the same “haha diana doesn’t understand relationships or males, haha THAT’S FUNNY!!!” humor. but i was sadly disappointed by the end of the movie. for being hyped as a female-positive movie, they really built up the “diana-is-a-silly-naive-girl” thing, and it got annoying very quickly.

so then diana’s ready to leave the island. she sneaks into the tower with the weapons and shit in them. but... she does that long jump thing to jump to the tower? how did she know she could do that? again, is that something all amazons can do or did she literally take a leap of faith after trying ONCE right before she tried??

okay, so... she leaves with steve. i thought the boat scene was nice. it sets steve up so that he isn’t inherently interested in wooing diana. in fact, it really builds it up that steve wants to respect her boundaries as she has lived a sheltered life and doesn’t really understand modern living or relationships. so this leads me to think, hey, maybe they can have a nice respectful platonic, comradeship-like relationship? where there’s no forced love interest and they can work together without having to be together??

nah.

anyways i wanna switch gears to the chemist lady. with all the hype and buildup through the whole movie, i honestly thought she was going to be the perfect foil to diana. but... the movie does nothing with her? her character goes LITERALLY NOWHERE. with the german general whose name i cannot even remember being built up as the Big Bad, i honestly thought SHE was going to be the actual villain toward the end of the movie? but you could replace her character with Background Scientist #3 and it would’ve had the same effect?

she’s the perfect foil to diana, being that she is a female in a position of power on the opposite side of the army, but doing the “bad” thing to diana’s “good” thing. she could have easily been ares in a new form and be using the general as a puppet to engineer her ideas and implement them in the war. and what was with the hulk-out gas shit? that would’ve made PERFECT sense if she was actually ares and she was using Big Bad General as her puppet, but that NEVER GETS EXPLAINED. if she was ares, she could’ve had a whole hulked-out army of germans snorting this weird gas for a climactic finish to the movie. but it just.... never gets explained. why did this gas exist?!?!?!

but... she’s not ares. she barely has a name. at the end of the movie, diana has the chance to kill her, and just has that realization that, hey, everyone chooses to be good or evil? so she just lets her go free?  then WHY BUILD HER TO BE SO BAD???

here’s what i would have rather happened with the doctor: she comes from a troubled life from some poor eastern european country, but works hard and rises above her station as a woman during this time and becomes a well-known and successful scientist. so she is put in a position of power by the german army, who respect her work instead of scorning her for being an intelligent woman. so she’s “evil” through the whole movie, but at the climax when diana realizes humanity can choose between doing good or doing evil, why not show the doctor doing something inherently good, like saving the german soldiers lives from the fire or something, to let diana see that even this wicked woman is trying to do something that she can consider good?

also, sidenote here: by not doing that, i felt like it actually made the germans more sympathetic? because here we have the british army not listening to anything diana tells them, even though she is obviously very intelligent and knows what she’s talking about. but then we have the Big Bad Germans, who have a woman in a high position of power building weapons for them, and not a single one degrades her because she is a woman. like..... what? that’s the OPPOSITE message you want to be sending, isn’t it???

also, her mask was cool but pointless. she could’ve earned the scars from like..... physical abuse, or as war injuries, but they are never explained and neither is the mask. it would’ve made a perfect symbol at the end of her shedding her “evil” mask, by doing something good and THEN the mask falls off?

anyways........

i don’t know where we are at this point in the movie so i’ll just continue with random thoughts. i thought steve’s companions were actually kind of cool and an interesting twist on the “rag-tag team of bumbling soldiers” trope, and i wish they developed their plights more. like with ptsd, leaving your dreams behind to fight in a war you don’t want to be in, being in a strange land after being kicked out of your homeland, etc. i feel like at the end of the movie their parts were kind of... neutered? like i wish we had some resolution to see what happened to them all? did charlie ever get help or find happiness? did sammy ever really become an actor? did chief ever go back to america? but instead they all kind of just stand around with diana at the end celebration scene, their interesting plots not being developed any further.

i thought the no-mans land/village fight scene was also cool, with steve and the steve gang helping diana fight off the siege army. sidenote: i thought it would’ve been a perfect moment after the fight was over and she’s standing on the church, to throw in an eponymous moment, maybe with one of the villagers going “oh my gosh, she’s... a wonder of a woman! a wonder woman!” and they just keep calling her that. what a missed opportunity.

the village scene was cute up until steve and diana kiss, then i wanted to vomit because i knew they were not going to stick with the platonic-comrade relationship and switch it to a forced romantic one instead.  also, when they cut away from them kissing, t9o the outside of the inn with just their bedroom light on, was it subtly implying that they were banging afterwards? i wasn’t entirely sure, but either way, I REALLY HOPE NOT.

anyways....... the gala event was interesting, i guess? it let steve’s “spy” side kind of show through, and it actually made me jump from “i can’t believe they got troy from high school musical to play this role” to “wow zac efron is actually a pretty good actor.” and it had yet another scene where the chemist lady could be a good foil to diana’s character, what with the male-and-female duos being swapped for a moment, but hooray, missed opportunities everywhere.

okay so i’m just gonna jump to the film climax. it’s here that the movie went from “pretty good” to “mediocre” for me

okay so....... i wasn’t expecting the ares twist, but only because of how fucking stupid it was. casting david thewlis as ares is possibly the most ridiculous choice of casting i’ve ever seen. if ares and diana are the children of ZEUS, and diana is built up through the movie to be this beautiful, other-worldly looking woman, why not build ares to be the same? a thinner, taller, gaunt-er(?) actor would’ve been perfect.  someone like benedict cumberbatch would have been a good role, seeing as how he’s tall, thin, old enough to be playing the part of a general but not so “plain” looking to be silly looking overall? and also, an actor without a mustache. the mustache really threw me off for some reason, it just looked ridiculous. are greek gods literally ever portrayed with mustaches, or was that just the “form” he took? it was just.... Dumb. but we pretty much got the British Grandpa look for the big bad, and it was just really weird.

but when remus lupin reveals himself as ares, i was actually expecting the twist to be “ares raped diana’s mom so that’s why she has god powers,” which to me would’ve explained why diana’s mom was so hell-bent on protecting her from him. but... they didn’t. it wasn’t that big of a deal but the real reveal was extremely lackluster to me.

also, i just did not get ares’ motives. if he’s not the god of war, but the god of truth, then why didn’t the gods believe him when he told them that humans would eventually fuck up the earth? did zeus put the amazons in charge of keeping him in line because he wanted humans to fuck up the earth? and why did ares care so much to make the world better if he obviously was slighted by the rest of the gods and vindicated for his beliefs? what does he fucking care that the world is going to shit?? he’s a GOD. he can fuck off to whatever plane of existence he damn well pleases and just ignore humanity until the end of time.

oh and let’s not forget that steve did tell diana that he loves her. i fucking saw it coming a mile away. i knew as soon as they did the explosion deafness that that would happen. as soon as steve’s motive to sacrifice himself was apparent i fucking knew they were gonna really shove that love plot down our throats.

okay, also, on the topic of explosion deafness: thank fucking christ there’s a blockbuster movie that actually uses that accurately? but it NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN!! like why make it work in ONE scene but not the rest ????!?!?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

okay so.... end of the movie, it’s the present day. bruce wayne finds the film slide of diana + The Boys, somehow, because he’s the batman™ and whatever, he has the money to do that. but at the end of the movie, two questions really bug me:

1. WHY DOES DIANA WORK AT THE LOUVRE MUSEUM?? like, a history museum would make sense. she could be an expert on like, ancient greece? but why the louvre????

2. how “old” is diana at this point? does she use a secret identity when fighting crime, or do the people she work with just know like, “yeah that’s diana, she’s like hundreds of years old, she doesn’t age very quickly, and she has superpowers and fights crime in her spare time.” does she use diana prince as a “normal” persona and fights crime “in disguise”? it’s kind of ambiguous and i feel like will be really important later on in the justice league movie? but it’s just never brought up and it really bugged me.

anyways...... i thought it was alright. if you enjoyed this movie, that’s cool. but what i thought i was walking into was a great kick-ass girl power movie that broke the typical gender stereotypes in superhero movies, but what i got was genderswapped captain america. i thought gal gadot was a pretty good pick for the lead, but one reddit comment summed up her acting to me perfectly:

“Gal Gadot had two facial expressions as Diana Prince: Confused puppy-dog look, and “Confident Warrior” look.”

anyways if you like superhero movies you’ll probably like it. don’t let me stop you from enjoying it, but it definitely did not meet my (probably ridiculously) high expectations.