#TMS wasn't all that popular

[tngmpersonal]

An extremely dumb idea for a seasonal Fire Emblem Heroes banner would be that Summoner/Kiran caves in and finally shows Earth/The World of Steel to the Heroes. And the banner would have Sharena, one of the Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE characters, and a few others in modern idol clothing or something.

[anarkhebringer]

I woke up to this and am really thinking about this

[love-strikes-thrice]

[Image Description: screenshot of Tumblr tags on light mode.

Tags read:

Getting real suspicious about the conflation of fantasy with reality in fandom.

"You must only read good and pure things! Otherwise you're secretly evil (smiley face)" is the song of book burners and history revisionists.

The growing number of fans treating shipping as a sign of moral purity is troubling at best and terrifying at worst.

Never trust someone who tells you to police your thoughts.

Never trust someone who tells you that bad thoughts are the same as bad actions.

And most of all.

Never trust a purity spiral.

Fandom

ID End]

I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:

Fictional characters are objects.

They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.

[lastoneout]

Fr tho I would like to ALSO thank One Piece Fan Letter for finally giving me now what 10 year old me so desperately wanted. No one would have expected the central character in a fan focused short for one of the most popular shonen manga of ALL TIME to be a girl. The target demographic is boys. No one would have batted an eye if the short was about a little boy who was inspired by Luffy or Usopp or Zoro or Sanji. But it wasn't, it was about a young girl inspired by Nami. And tbh, knowing One Piece, I was genuinely shocked when that girl said she was almost 15 because SHE LOOKS IT and that's SO refreshing!! She looks like a kid!! And she acts like one, all rude and funny and flustered and stupid and brave and weird!! That right there is exactly what little me needed, what I've always said was my dream, a female character in shonen who is allowed to be a normal person just like the guys, instead of a Girl(tm) who is always played as opposed to everyone else's shenanigans and interests because girls don't like boy things, don't ya know(or at least looks like a normal person instead of a stick figure with boobs). I wanted a character like Nami's fan so bad as a kid. And she exists now!!

This episode really was special. This and Echoes of Wisdom is just so validating, like bit by bit we're making progress!! And while it's fucking long overdue I'm so thankful that I'm actually here to see it.

[lemon-russ]

A small inbetween due to popular demand- Cato needs to get The Talk (tm)

Poor Guillidad is at the end of his rope having to do this. But he's a better Dad than Emps so he grits his teeth and does it lol

taglist: @sleepyfan-blog @undeaddream @scriberye

Part 16.5/ ???

< previous || next >

Ao3 || Taglist request ||

Cato Sicarius x F!Reader

CW: Sex talks, just awkward father son time

Summary: Cato gets The Talk (tm)

word count: 1,171

Cato follows behind Guilliman while he does his rounds of checking in on the various machinations of the chapter. To keep him busy, the primarch told him. They walked through the hangar now, and Guilliman stopped by a gunship, giving it an admiring look over.

“These have improved.” He says with a nod to the stormhawk. “We didn't have these back in my time.”

Cato watches as Guilliman gets closer to inspect the craft, looking over it's interior admiringly.

Somethings been on his mind though, since he was spoken to in the primarchs office.

“My Lord, may I ask you a clarifying question…?” He asks, standing straight backed with his hands behind his back, trying not to look nervous.

Guilliman looks over his shoulder out the ship door from where he was inspecting the various control panels. “Of course, Sicarius.” He says, motioning for him to come in. The primarch sits himself at the pilots chair, and Cato reluctantly sits co-pilot.

The proximity would make this more difficult, but at least they weren't looking directly at each other.

“Earlier, when you said, well… the talk….” Cato starts, turning his attention to some controls to his side and flipping a switch back and forth.

Guilliman freezes, then slowly gives Cato a sidelong glance. “…You… require some guidance…?” He asks, clearing his throat.

Cato frowns, not looking his gene father in the eye. “Well- just a question- we are taught in our training and initiation that Astartes are… well, infertile.” He says nervously, fidgeting with some controls.

Guilliman's face grows pale. “They- they tell you that-” he makes a tired groan, rubbing his temple. “Oh, terra. That's… can I assume you've been… operating under this assumption…?” he asks in a strangled voice.

Cato grimaces, glancing up at Guilliman and giving a small nod. His primarch sighs a weary sound.

“Well, you're not. No astarte is.” He says as he bores holes in the controls with his stare. “This must be a… miscommunication. Astartes don't have families, because they're supposed to be celibate, and if they aren't, duty comes first. But that does not mean the inability to… well, create a family…” he attempts to sound like he's reading it from text, matter of factly.

Cato swallows hard. “Does… does that mean the Ambassador-”

Guilliman scrunches his face in disgust and holds a hand up to stop him. “No- no, not… necessarily.” He says in a pained voice. “How long ago…?”

Cato looks hard at the panel. “The first time was… about a week and a half ago…?”

Guilliman makes a noise, “First time? How- when did you get a chance- wait, weren't you on the run on a rebel planet-”

Cato slinks down in his seat as Guilliman's eyes grow wider in horror. “Sicarius, you did not!” the primarch gasps, “While you were being hunted by an army? What, in a dirty hidey hole somewhere?”

“I mean- it wasn't like… in the dirt….” Cato defends in a mumble, face growing hot. “I held her up and-”

Guilliman groans and holds his hand up again. “She could get infections, or who knows what else,” he says, rubbing his palms down his face. “Okay, it's fine, she seems fine- I'll need to institute a sex-ed class for the whole chapter, it's fine” He grumbles.

Cato frowns, swallowing a nervous lump in his throat. He didn't mean to make her sick. He was immune to almost all disease and infection, it never crossed his mind that a baseline human could get sick from something so trivial.

“Did you…” His gene Father shifts awkwardly in his seat. “Did you, you know… do the riskier things…?” He forces out, unable to look at him.

Cato turns a little so his back is more toward Guilliman, playing with more switches, shoulders tight and raised nervously. “Y-yes.” He admits. “Is she… you know…” he mumbles, voice thick with worry. He heard that baseline women die when they give birth sometimes. Or die from being pregnant. So many things apparently can just kill a little baseline, now even sex?

Guilliman lets out a deep sigh. “Not necessarily.” He frowns and studies Cato, curled on himself anxiously. He squeezes his eyes closed and rubs his temples. “Alright, we're just going to cut straight to it.” He says, steeling himself and sitting up. “I'm going to explain all of this to you, answer your questions, and then I never want to talk about what you and the Ambassador do together ever again.”

A couple hours later, they leave the Hangar. Cato with a little more confidence in his step and smiling, Guilliman looking haggard, like he'd just returned from a months long campaign.

Cato now was an expert in the ways of sex, grilling his gene father for information for two hours straight. Now he understood everything- the Ambassador won't die, they have medical technology to handle things. He also learned he should not be taking her in dirty caves or in natural water like the hot springs- hearing what they did in natural hot springs and sand made Guilliman immediately order a full check up for the ambassador- but it's alright, he knows better now.

He smirks to himself. He can't wait to be allowed to go find her so he can use all his new knowledge on her, show her that he was a sex expert now. Of course he wouldn't flaunt that the information was new. He was Cato Sicarius. He was always the best at everything, of course.

There was one thing Guilliman told him that he was thinking he wasn't a huge fan of. How to not get her pregnant. He'd have to medicate her, or finish outside of her- not even a possibility in his mind- or use an annoying plastek like glove.

He smirks to himself. Now that he was an expert on all things reproduction, he is capable and qualified to make his own choices on the matter. And he thinks maybe the Ambassador would look cute all round. And she's good at handling things, doing her job with a child would hardly hold her back. Plus, He'll be forcing his way into a lot more of her body guarding roles, so if they had a child, he'd be there, and they'd both be totally safe.

Yes, he decides, working so hard to avoid it sounds like nonsense. It wasn't a guarantee anyways. So, might as well enjoy her fully. Sure, Guilliman would be annoyed with him, but he's been annoyed with him a lot recently, and things still were going great for him.

He'll just take the slap on the wrist if anything happens. Plus, He’s Cato Sicarius. He’s the best at everything. Everything includes fathering babies and caring for his little Ambassador, he assumes.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Anne Baxter (The Ten Commandments, All About Eve)—her soft, gentle voice in "all about eve", those gentle eyes with something odd behind them, the way she flips from Sweet Innocent to Viper on a dime......there was something Built Different about anne baxter, man, and it makes her so good for playing people who are Built Wrong. also one of my favorite batmen villains (her joint episode w vincent price is a delight) and of course I'm obsessed with her columbo episode where she bosses around edith head and does fabulous movie star things for no good reason. and i would be REMISS if i didn't mention her slink—oh the slink—in the ten commandments...................pardon me i must go think of sinning again

Edana Romney (Corridor of Mirrors)— Look. It is definitely a case for your discretion. Edana Romney had only one major film role and then foundered in a Britain/Hollywood that didn’t like her look. But the film she starred in was also one she CO-WROTE and co-founded a whole production company to make happen, and it is a lavish, imaginative gothic romance where she runs around in fanciful medieval gowns and has incredible eyelashes. She was also known in later years as a Hollywood hostess who had popular “twelfth night” parties, gayest of all Shakespeare plays to have a party about.

This is round 1 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Anne:

The prettiest murderer in that film. Just so beautifully evil as Nefertari.

Anne Baxter was part of my Bisexual Awakening. My family has a tradition that every Palm Sunday we watch The ten commandments on TV together... And starting from a very young age, I essentially developed a crushes on Anne Baxter's Nefertiri & Yul Brynner's Ramses. Dude, the woman was HOT! They both were! My crush definitely wasn't helped by the fact that Anne Baxter's costumes were a bit on the sheer side. She had a way of capturing you with her eyes, and I never understood why Charlton heston's Moses didn't just have a threesome with Nefertiri and Ramses. LOL

Her Nefertiri in The Ten Commandments was FORMATIVE TO ME. If not the hottest old movie lady, then she definitely played the hottest old movie character. if that makes sense.

Look. Listen. I only *just* discovered her on a post from the Have You Seen This Romcom poll blog. Saw she had the same last name as me and went OOH hi hello. Went to her IMdB and saw she was born in Indiana like moi. I am now even more intrigued. Been eagerly telling my partner this, and he was like "maybe you guys are distantly related?" And after 2 hrs of going down the tumblr tag + her imdb photos, I'm In Deep(tm) and I can't stop looking at her like 😍 When I go to my grandma's house, bet your ass I'm gonna check my grandpa's genealogy and see if we're somehow related. Sorry that's not really propaganda I just got real excited, esp when I saw that the submission deadline was extended (bless your soul). Narrowing down the movies where she's hottest in was Hell tyvm. I've only just discovered her, she looks gorgeous to me in every movie still I see of her gdi lol.

Edana:

[osokasstuff]

have you considered the idea that people who use "i'm autistic and don't understand" as an excuse for bigoted/offensive behavior and successfully escape responsibility for their behavior actually escape it not because of being autistic but because of being incredibly privileged? /non-aggressive

i'm kinda done with all this "your disability is not an excuse to be a bigot!" discourse. like. it's true. nothing is an excuse to be a bigot, and using a disability as a cover (if said person does it on purpose) is a shitty move. but. like. do you know that extremely privileged assholes are able to avoid accountability because of their extremely privileged position and not presumed disability? "they're autistic" is just a superficial excuse. if they weren't autistic, it would be "they were raised like that"/"they just don't know better"/"it's just a joke"/"we have a freedom of speech, after all"/"maybe you're exaggerating"/whatever popular excuse.

no one holds autistics (or other disabled people) to lower standards. moreso, even in cases of non-malicious mistakes that can easily be a result of the disability (or definitely are the result of the disability), people are ready to interpret it as a malicious act.

example: i often misspeak things. "often" means like one third of sentences contain misspoken parts. sometimes it's obvious, like wrong grammar or obviously wrong words. sometimes it's wrong words that aren't obvious (sentence sounds ok, but i meant to say something different). sometimes it's poor worded idea. sometimes it's poor worded to a degree when meaning changes drastically. anyways, it's very noticeable, especially for people who communicate with me daily for years.

and still sometimes we have accidents when i say something that sounds malicious/rude, it's worded poorly (in grammar sense), and people assume i meant what i said. people ask for clarification extremely rarely, and usually, when what i said was incomprehensible (in grammar/word meanings sense). in most cases, people assume malicious intentions and get offended. they know for sure that i'm autistic and have problems with words. they see the evidence of it every fucking day dozens of times. but they still almost never consider my words being misspoken before getting offended.

my known for sure communication disability never gives me a free pass. it drags me in shitty situations and leaves to explain myself under the stress and pressure. by my poor words. yes.

(and literal misspeaking is only one part of it. there are the whole bunch of problems under the "social deficits" umbrella that can cause me saying something that wasn't intended as malicious but sounded not nice).

i'm not going to discuss nuances like "social deficits, cognitive symptoms, and other autistic stuff can make it difficult to understand why something is problematic and harm someone, and it's unfair to brush it off as "a lame excuse" and something that never can happen ever (tm)" and "why society are so happy to use any opportunity to hold vulnerable groups to the higher standards instead of raising standards for extremely privileged people," at least not today. let's just consider that extremely privileged bigots avoid taking accountability constantly, and their usage of autism / other disability as an excuse is just a shitty move and neither an actual responsibility of autistic/disabled community, nor a social trend.

(they have it easy because they're extremely privileged, not because someone are ready to get easy on autistic / otherwise disabled people).

[luckylunatix]

Halloween Horror Nights is starting up again and I feel like I should inform all y'all who love it of these sweet little bears:

These 3 are mascots of HHN in Japan and they are as fascinating in their lore as they are adorable

Hamikuma/ハミクマ (middle): Hamikuma has been a part of the event since about 2021, starting as a walk around character inhabiting the Scarezones until graduating to the official icon of the event in 2022, when he was given a stage show called Hamikuma Psycho Circus. His backstory states he was once a circus bear who was very popular with audiences because he was very cute and danced in a very unique way, but his fellow performers became jealous and also suspected he wasn't really a bear. They ended up murdering him and burning down the bigtop to destroy the evidence, but Hamikuma managed to survive when a demon known as the Death Bringer bore his way into Hamikuma's belly. Now he gets to live on and party when Halloween comes around, but unfortunately his gaping stomach wound is now basically a portal to Hell.

Hamikuma SOUL/ハミクマソウル (right): Hamikuma's soul incarnate, introduced last year as part of the Zombie de Dance stage show. They reside in a place called YOU ME LAND.

Hamikuma Punk/ハミクマパンク (left): The latest Hamikuma, who'll be introduced to this year's HHN. He represents the anger and resentment inside of Hamikuma (I'm assuming because being murdered and turned into a Hell portal would make anyone kinda pissed off). He'll be appearing alongside the other Hamikumas during the Shout it Out Party.

I feel like there's not enough discussion of Hamikuma and Japan's HHN here on Tumblr, despite how HHN seems to have a genuine fandom here, so here's hoping this might spark some interest in it.

"ハミクマ DEATH!"

Some sources (so you can read more and to prove I didn't pull all of this out of my butt):

(Some sources may need to be translated. The last source is also where I got the image above from. I'd also advise looking them up on YouTube to see them in action because they are VERY fun to watch dance around.)

[uboat53]

All right, the votes are now almost entirely in, so let's take a look at the most recent election, shall we? LONG RANT (TM) time.

THE MANDATE

As you may have already heard, Donald Trump won the election and is already claiming that it was an overwhelming victory which gives him a powerful mandate to govern as he wills.

As with most things he says, you should take all of that with a heaping spoonful of salt. Now that almost every vote is in (CA and WA still have about 3% of their votes left to count, but the rest is pretty much final) we can clearly see that, though he did get more of the popular vote than Kamala Harris, he still fell short of 50% for the third election in a row and he only led Harris by about 1.5%. Not only that, but with the full results we can see that more than 4.5 million fewer people voted in 2024 than voted in 2020, meaning that a good amount of the increase he saw from 2020 wasn't a result of more people favoring him.

(Fun fact, Kamala Harris may have gotten as many votes in 2024 as Donald Trump did in 2020 depending on the last few votes left to count.)

More to the point, Trump's electoral college victory, 312 to 226, is also far more fragile than he would have you believe. As in 2016, his margin of victory rested on the so-called "Blue Wall" states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. In those states, a total shift of 232,580 votes, or less than 1.5% of the total votes cast in those states, OR just over 0.15% of the total votes cast nation-wide, would have produced a Harris presidency instead of a Trump one.

(I would note that Biden's margin of victory in 2020 was similarly slim, 1.65% of the votes cast it the blue wall states and just over 0.16% of the nation-wide total. His popular vote victory, though, was significantly larger, he won 51.3% of the popular vote, just about 4.5% more than Trump. I'd say there's a fair case to be made that he didn't have a powerful mandate either, but he had a better claim to one that Trump does now.)

In other words, Trump won, but it's a razor thin victory by any standard. That seems to be par for the course for the last few elections, the last significant victory, one with a margin of greater than 5% in the key states AND where the winner won the national popular vote by more than 2% (admittedly somewhat arbitrary markers, but ones that put the outside the margins of error for recounts or other likelihoods), was when Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008 and the last one before that was Clinton's victory in 1996 or even Bush Sr.'s victory in 1988 if you are looking for one that wasn't confused by the presence of a significant third-party candidate.

THE CAUSES

So why did Trump win/Harris lose? Knowing the answer will allow us to determine both what the winner can/should do once in office and also what the losing candidate/party should adjust in order to do better next time.

One thing you have to know is that there's still not definitive answers on this from the last several dozen elections, so it's unlikely we'll get a quick answer this time around. There's good academic research to show that people respond to the specific messages of the candidates, but there's also good research showing that vote share can shift based on things as unrelated to the candidates as the number of shark attacks in a region in a given year.

A big caution I would give to anyone who is looking to argue that a specific issue, candidate statement, candidate quality, or policy proposal is responsible for the current result is that we've actually seen a very odd thing in elections around the world this year. For the first time in the last 120 years, every single incumbent party that faced election in the developed world lost vote share. In fact, of those incumbent parties facing election, the US Democrats actually had among the lowest decline. As to why, there are a few commonalities; every single developed country that held elections this year saw significant increases in both immigration and inflation in the past two years, for example, but it's hard to make conclusive statements without quite a bit more study.

My point is simply this: before trumpeting this thing or that thing as the definitive answer for why Trump won/Harris lost, be sure that you're not actually just looking at something that's larger than our country or statistical noise. I know we like to ascribe outcomes to definitive and controllable circumstances, but complex events tend to have multiple interrelated causes that can interact in unpredictable ways and one of the lessons of history is that sometimes we're subject to powerful forces that are beyond the ability of one country or its leadership to dictate.

THE PUNDITRY

Of course, by now you're probably seeing dozens of articles and tons of episodes of news programs on TV and radio that are saying a lot more than I am. Just in the last few days I've seen dozens of them ranging from arguing that the election was decided by young men of Gen Z who have been radicalized by right-wing manfluencers, that Democrats didn't do enough to reach out to Latinos in Spanish, that RFK Jr. turned out key demographics for Trump, or that Republican laws and policies in key states depressed voter turnout.

I cannot say loudly enough that we do not have enough data to actually make any of these kinds of arguments. If we're fortunate, we'll start getting the first real results of voter intent studies sometime around next summer, but even then a binary choice like a presidential election based on thousands of shifting variables is far too complex to ever allow us to do anything than note large-scale trends. Detail may eventually be impossible to find an, in an election as close as the one we just had (see above), it's possible to say that just about any small factor may have been the critical one.

My advice is simple, if you don't know what to do or think now, take some time and consider it. Don't overreact and don't be swayed by whoever speaks the most passionately. If you do know what you want to do, start doing it. Don't wait for results that may never come; do your best to make what you want come about. The methods of activism should be shaped by data, but the goals must be set by your own conscience and, if you're already an activist, hopefully you've already figured that part out. Finally, if all of this is affecting your mental health, step away from it. The election is over and there is nothing more that you, as a voter, can do to change anything. There will be time for more voting and activism later.

As for the pundits on TV, radio, and in print; I'm planning to ignore them for the next few months. Yes, even me, who consumes way more political media than is probably good for a person, is going to step away. Over the last few months in particular I've become more and more convinced that quality political coverage has largely disappeared (or been removed) from the American media landscape. I'm going to take some time and figure out where I can still find it.

CONCLUSION

Look, I know the election was a wild ride for everyone and it likely settled nothing as far as the major issues that continue to roil American politics, but if you're looking for a reason why things turned out the way they did, I don't have anything definitive to provide. It was close, about as close as it's possible to get, and there's a hundred possible reasons why. Take care of yourself, figure out where you stand, what you believe, and what you want to/are willing to do and start planning for that.

This is the world now, probably for the foreseeable future. Your job isn't to fix every problem, your job is to do what you can for as long as you can and pass it down to the next generation in as good a shape as you can manage. That's the same job every generation has had, let's do our part.

[beddybites]

I feel like regression content is always treated so poorly. Especially when it comes to traumatized characters in a popular fandom. I'm really happy you make what you like and don't let anyone knock you down.

I deal with a lot of bs, and so I find a lot of comfort in drawing children. Both just for the simple joys felt in youth as well as a case study of the "what went wrong".

Your content is very wholesome and definitely falls into the first category for me. And honestly, I too, get really bad baby fever 😭 So I sometimes just like seeing my favs as kids or just drawing kids. They're so damn cute and I want them to be happy.

I hope no one gives you too much trouble. Keep doing what you're doing. Especially since you enjoy it.

oh goodness waking up to this in my inbox truly made my week! sorry for the late response, my internet was out all day D:

i wasn't always able to make the content i like; in fact, when i first began drawing de-aged/regression content, i used an alt to hide my identity because i was so scared of how people would respond to it-- since, to ur point, regression content is always treated horribly and there's a stigma around it (like how ppl looooove to sexualize agere stuff. exploding them with my mind). but i think its really endearing and healing! even now posting is really scary sometimes... it took me about a week to gain the confidence to post the tiny 21 trio art x-x so im really glad the feedback thus far has been positive!!!

i love drawing characters, particularly the ones with more trauma, as little kids-- they get a second chance at childhood and get to cope with the horrors^tm, and it's always a lot of fun to think about how their close ones would react and how they would take care of them and stuff... I've worked with children in the past, and im hoping to be an educator in the future, and it just makes me really happy when //they're// happy.

im so glad you think my work is wholesome and it provides some joy :( drawing is how i cope with the horrors^tm and I've found drawing happy sweet little things with my favorite characters really healing vs constant angst stuff. provides that comfort i don't really get anywhere else, and so i always really appreciate messages and comments like these

im also a really huge fan of your work and its always such a joy to see you post, so seeing you pop up to convey your support genuinely means the whole wide world to me :( thank you so so so much!

[kwop-kilawtley]

I GOT WAR FLASHBACKS FROM THE REDDIT MENTION OMG-!!

Fuck Twilight reddit tbh. Twilight tik tok is right up there too but I at least encounter some team Jacob accounts that are popular and clap right back in the comments so thats at least smth 😭

istg there's so much coping and bending over backwards to defend their favorite white cullenizers lmfao 🥴🥴

"he's frozen at 17!!!" yeah but he's been 17 for DECADES. if he had time to get medical degrees then you'd think he'd know better than engage in creep behavior. Also, Jacob is 16 and unlike Edwin, has only been 16 for an ACTUAL while. But sure, keep defending the 100+ year old "17 yr old" vampire who had all that time to learn is supposedly soooo "mature" vs the 16 yr old who's an actual teenager.

"he learned from his behavior/prejudices!!" bitch WHERE?? even after he claims to Bella he's "learned", he STILL calls Jacob dog, mutt and mongrel even at BD, does NOTHING to stick up for Jacob/the pack when the visiting vampires look down or insult them. FUCK the cullens for that. If they were smart they'd get together literally ANYWHERE else, and NOT anywhere near where the tribe who's people are forced to shift when vampires are around. "B-but Alice's vision says they'll gather there! 🥺" Change the meet up, then!! It's not like the Volturi will leave you alone if you don't show up! Dumbasses.

"jacob assaulted bella and kept forcing himself to her when she wasn't interested!!!" this one makes me laugh the most tbh. They ALWAYS use the Eclipse KissTM as a gotcha every time someone even says they're Team Jacob or defends him. Also, so many of them revise history to where they act like it was Jacob who kept pursuing Bella in New Moon when really it was BELLA who went to him FIRST (with the intention of using him for the bikes to feed her Edward delulus), and it was BELLA who kept leading him on (btw, twilight reddit also copes about how she "didn't" 🙄) and didnt set firm boundaries. Then again, most Team Edweirdos skip New Moon and only read the "vampire parts" so it's not our fault they conflate Eclipse (where Jacob actually disrespects boundaries in some parts) and New Moon (where he's being an honest friend). Maybe don't make up events against Jacob if yall dont know what your talking about!! 🥴🥴

sdkjhkjrwiu sorry for the longish rant it's just,,,The mention of Twilight reddit opened the flood gates for me lolll

also, it's funny how a lot of hardcore Team Edward weirdos bend over backwards to defend Bella's bland ass characterization and Smeyer's writing. 🤓

CULLENIZERS!!!!! HOW HAVE I NEVER USED THIS TERM OMFG ckskdksk. Yeah it���s legit everywhere… on Instagram I commented on a Jake x Bella post saying something like “god I love them.” And just by saying that someone replies being like EWWWW WHAT??? BUT WHAT ABOUT ECLIPSE KISS TM

lmfsofksk I’m like so jaded by now idgaf

im so goddamn tired of Jacob being the only one in the saga who gets ripped on to this extent.

Everything you’re saying I’m just nodding along like yes, yes, yes TELL EM ANON!!

luckily I blocked so much out of BD cause to me my BD rewrite fic is actual canon so I forget so much of it. But When I’m reminded I’m like just disgusted… like the fact there’s like a million new 13 year old wolves or some shit bc of all the new vamps that came to visit??? Fuck off actually oh my god CAN YALL FUCK OFFFFF. Someone asked me why I don’t have Brady and Colin or whatever their names are in my fic im like cuz LET THEM BE CHILDREN I’m not entertaining this idc idc. The pack has gone through enough smh.

The cullens and bella actually have learned nothing throughout the story and nothing changed whatsoever. The only thing that changed was Bella became a vamp and Jake imprinted. Things that are both horrible tragedies imo. So it forces them to change who they are but it’s not like a natural character arc nor is it a development. It’s plot convenience that strips Jacob and Bella’s character completely.

completely agree lmfao legit they just hate Jacob cause he gets in the way. A lot of them admit to skipping new moon entirely or Jacob parts. And that’s fine they can do that but like don’t make weird ass shit like talking about BELLA NEVER LOVE JACOB LIKE THAT SHE LOVED HIM LIKE A BROTHER. Ummmm okay! You need to go back and reread some parts otherwise you’re lookin kinda weird cuz that was NOT no brother sister relationship lmao. Bella and Jacob are literally dating without the label starting New Moon. Be fucking serious like… they almost kiss, they’re always cuddling holding hands. She sees a future with him with kids and explicitly they both say they are IN LOVE with each other. Now listen yall gotta take it up with smeyer why the fuck she wrote them like that all for Bells to be his godmother 💀💀💀💀💀 why did she make Jake a love interest for Bella if she knew she was gonna do that the whole time.

Well, here’s what actually happened and why team Jacob even exists in the first place. There’s a clear split as to what this series is. There’s Twilight and Forever Dawn and then there’s New Moon and Eclipse. She wrote Jake cuz her publisher needed more and she ended up naturally writing the better love interest for Bella, became attached to his character and couldn’t stop writing him. But then she changed Nothing about forever Dawn… so that’s what BD is and why it doesn’t at all match up with the last two books. This is why it’s so easy for me to discard BD like it’s a rotten ass fruit…..

Like I love Jacob cause he’s flawed, nuanced and the only one with common sense in this damn series. He starts as a sweetie sun boy in new moon and then he turns into a dick and an asshole sometimes. I think this is an unpopular decision but I actually like this about Jacob lol. Could you imagine he was sunny boy Jake throughout the shit he’s put through? For what? For him to get even MORE walked on? Nah fuck that. He should be angry. It IS shitty that smeyer made it so that the wolves cant control their anger and are supposed to be hostile though cause this contributes to even more problematic shit. But I certainly understand Jake being an angsty dick when he is. Now, this makes him flawed. He is not perfect and I know that and that’s what I like about him.

He’s actually a fuckin idiot especially with the eclipse kiss and he shouldn’t have done that. I get called an assault apologist solely for being team Jake or whatever like it just makes me roll my eyes in the back of my head. Everyone seems to think that Jacob is just “trying to get some” with Bella. He’s not a fuckin rapist like they make him out to be idgaf. He did not force himself on Bella in new moon. They almost kissed but he didn’t force the kiss. He’s a stupid teenager that doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing, let’s be real. The eclipse kiss happened not because he was “trying to get some” but because he was trying to make Bella see she did have feelings for him. This is dumb but this was his thinking. Essentially trying to wake her up from the vampire thrall she’s under and maybe make her see she doesn’t have to die and stay human. I don’t believe he would’ve kissed her like this if Edward hadn’t come back in the picture and she tells him she’s going to die or WORSE become his enemy that he may have to KILL in only a few weeks. Jacob even says it didn’t matter she chose someone else over him, it wasn’t about that. It was because she was GOING TO DIE. This is just his perspective and it wasn’t RIGHT. He shouldn’t have done it. Smeyer also tried to make Edwin look better too and tried to make him look like the “mature” one and Jake to be the out of control one. Which again, problematic.

But yeah I’m just tired of the eclipse kiss being the only thing brought up lol. But the confederate and his shitty control freak wife are angels<333 they’re the good guys! Edward’s obsessive stalking a week into knowing Bella I feel is horrible and violating but ok go off! He legit watches her from the bushes at her house, snoops through her things, watches her in her sleep. She doesn’t consent to any of this. But this is “fine” because Bella had no reaction to it? Uh yeah cause she is a teenager who hates herself and is obsessed with edwin. and throughout the books he’s just overall manipulative, pretentious, condescending and controlling. But no, he’s the good guy okay lol. Like I’d prefer if they were just honest about it. Like can’t we agree they’re both morally grey… it just annoys me that they make it seem like Edward is a perfect angel?

The appeal of vampires in general is that they’re toxic and morally grey. I love a toxic vampire. It’s all about how a story is written tho. the issue is that the cullens pretend that they aren’t? This is what is annoying as fuck about them to me. They are made out to be perfect and innocent, especially in Bella’s pov. This is why I don’t like them. Bc they ARE toxic mostly in the non-hot ways (colonizers, racist, billionaires who treat bella like some doll) but try to mask this and it’s seen as good? This is also what makes Edwards stalking not hot.. he just seems like a fuckin pathetic creep LMFAO. Sitting outside her house thinking about meteors hitting it and shit 🙄🙄 like it’s all under the guise of protection. No. Just be a vampire freak. Be honest!!!! It’s not about protecting Bella lol you’re just goddamn obsessed. Edward pursued her cause her scent and he can’t read her mind. It really is that simple but I’m supposed to believe it’s love? And Bella fall for him because literally ANY human would fall for a vampire. It’s like in their design. Like just be honestttt. And then the edwinos wants to talk about shitty things Jacob does but thinks the stalking and shit is fine? Like it doesn’t make sense to me lmao. Just admit that Edward is a toxic freak and that’s why you love him. That is perfectly fine. But no… they see him as he can do no wrong. I prefer the volturi and nomads. Give me an evil little vampire who is honest about their intentions.

Also never apologize for screaming into the void that’s my inbox. It’s a safe space here <33333

[linnaearosie]

So this post is a little rant because I tried to read Crescent City 2 and it is so messy and shallow. In fact all sjm books are shallow even Tog that I like

Let me say first:

-if you are fan of sjm please do not sand hate to me ( if you want to type actual response you are welcome) if you don't want to see this block me or tags anti sjm, sjm critical anti cc, anti tog, tog critical,

-when I recognize that sjm is not responsible for quality of other people work she definitely started trend,

- sjm is probably normal but a little bit ignorant and privileged person and so if you don't like her please don't call her slurs in my comments as I think her mistakes are often result of publisher negligence or cuddles ( her growth as author regressed bc they wanted more money),

- there's political massage in every creation. We humans are social animals and politic is element of our lives. Creating something apolitical is political statement on its own. And sjm's books aren't apolitical to begin.

So here my rant (multiple mini rants):

I hate how sjm's books are just aesthetic tm and how they revert fantasy to early 00s. Her worldbuilding is atrocious. She picks and chooses elements of different cultures and she doesn't mash them well but smack them together. Just like fantasy authors did in the past. Early 00s cartoons from Disney had more respect and understanding of cultures. Her biggest crime in my opinion is creating this female predator trope (Maeve, Amaranth) just to explain bad behaviour of her male characters, bc her morally grey male fea was "forced to" act this way towards his true mate but if female character act half as bad she is crucified. Never mind, her true crime is normalizing usage of male/ female/ mating. It wasn't popular before and if you think it is normal I'm sorry but this literally men's trying to explain why they behave predatory towards women narrative "baby i need to act this way it's my instinct" (its giving Jacob from twilight toward baby).

Recently, I tried rereading some scenes from tog and Bi Aedion comparing his bisexuality to lysandra experience as slave is just sad. I legit expected him to say that he was raped by aderlan's soldiers after battle and not him coming out to her. The only logical explanation is that sjm can't understand what she is writing. Bc Aedion seems like decent guy at this point of story and this was framed as important moment in their relationship. This and whole making babies that look like aelin, so lysandra's cover as aelin is not blown are the reasons why I can't ship aedion/lysandra. This is also a prime example of sjm inability to write good lgbt characters or presenting them as equal to others in narrative. Hasar ( tod charcter) is described as ugly with long nose. She is also only semi positive, cunning, but good lesbian character that is in our main characters age bracket. Only gay couple in tog are your typical gay dads, but also one of them was too weak to become immortal so they are now living in fantasy border camp and aren't motioned after hof. There is also Manon's grandmother who is basically salling other witches to be breading stocks for demons and oh she is lesbian. So great selection. again i will stick to good luck Charlie lesbian moms from that one episode. Before anyone say that she couldn't possibly have same sex couple in main cast cassandra clare had in early 10s, rick riordan's nico had on page coming out in 2014. the answer is simply she didn't want one.

Nehemia was my favourite character in first books and I refused to believe in this bs that she chose to die. No it was retcon to make aelin poor little mow mow, that suffer so much. Nehemia literally promised to dorian that she will teach him magic (top 10 ships that never sailed), why would she made sacrifice before aelin or dorian tapped into their potential?

Elide is so confusing character bc she should be witch but isn't. But there's still some witch in her. Sjm's established that witch only needs witch mother to be full witch. But I guess it's something skip generation. Also, why sjm needs to make pregnancy to every species difficult and then make them have several babies. Witches and fea are the main offenders of this. And several times it is only to advance men (rowan fake mate being pregnant ). Sjm stop creating worlds where women have it worse than men and then have them risking their lives simply bc men want son.

Several people were praising sjm bc her characters had past relationships and didn't end up with first boyfriend they were in series. But her characters don't break up in normal way in later books. Chaol was blamed for nehemia death and his rational fears were presented as this stupid takes. Rowan previous lover was turned into this fake decoy. after mating bond is established between rowan and aelin, they are completely disregarding past experience. Everything is better, more right and simply as it should be. Aelin, who didn't start relationship with dorian bc of rationality can't wait to make out with 500 yo dude. I wonder what if rowan's child had survived? They would be older then fenrys. Why isn't aelin thinking about it? Why isn't she thinking that her husband is her uncle's age? He calls fenrys boyo. Fenrys calls aedion boyo. Yet aelin's only thinking how she and rowan will have multiple world conquerin babies and how if something happens to her rowan would be great king. She knows him not even year

It is long post, and frankly, I'm exhausted after long day. If you read it all I'm sorry for my emotional rumbling. Don't be afraid to interact and please be mindful of rules that I made at the beginning.

[pokepollsters]

Lumi Plays Pokémon: White 2 Bug Monotype Run- Part 13

Since the last part, I've done a little training, just to keep the team on par with the trainers we'll be fighting, and this is where we were at before playing today!

Level 35 all round, with some very exciting things coming up in a level for multiple teammates...

So, after finally finishing on Driftveil, Route 6, and having surfed around the world, it was time for Chargestone Cave! Bianca was there to greet us, and we set off into the electrifying depths.

With so many trainers about, it wasn't long before Lemondrop hit the field for the first time!

Until now, he'd been holding on to the Exp Share, but after catching up with everyone else, he was able to hold his own. His Electric typing makes him great against the Flying Types that so many of the other bugs struggle with, and that zippy speed will be excellent at finishing off threats before they can attack.

More trainers and items abound, we end up crossing a bridge, hearing... Someone? How mysterious...

But at this point, Lemondrop was on a roll! After assisting Candy and Gumball in a triple battle, he got his well deserved level up!

...and evolution! Lemondrop evolves, the final evolution in the party, making the team fully complete! I'm such a proud bug catcher.

The battles continue, and Teabag finally learns Leaf Blade! An over 50% power increase over Razor Leaf, I think Teabag is going to be really hitting hard. With the raised crit rate of Leaf Blade, I switch the Scope Lens from Lemondrop, giving him the Magnet instead. Teabag's Shell Bell goes to Candy.

Whilst underground, we run into our first Rotation Battle!

The combo of Lava Cake and Drumstick here proves to be all powerful. Between the two of them, I think we're going to have a very formidable duo! They cover each others' blind spots well, and between them are the biggest Attack and Special Attack stats on the squad. I can imagine they get along very well as a result too.

Towards the end of the cave, we reunite with Bianca, who still seems engrossed in her research.

But speaking of Professor Juniper- who's waiting on the other side of the cave? It's the Professor herself!

She and the excellent music of the area welcome us to Mistralton City! Home of our 6th gym battle- though not quite yet.

We're also introduced to the local gym leader, Skyla, another popular Unova lady! Juniper is heading off to Celestial Tower, where we'll join her soon to do some training. Skyla goes back to the gym while she waits for the Professor. She'll have to wait for us too!

I take a look around the city, getting some more items, including multiple vitamins that I immediately use. Also for sale are some weather TMs! Normally I don't use those kinds of moves often, but I decided to buy Sunny Day. With Lava Cake's Fire moves and Teabag's Chlorophyll ability, I wonder if there's some good synergy there? Hopefully I get the chance to pull something off!

But that's all for now, next up is Route 7 and Celestial Tower, followed by a gym battle that, for a Bug Type trainer, should be rather tough. We'll see about that!

[wajjs]

What do you think about the current stories written by DC? You can be as vague or incredibly specific about this

I think DC Comics is hitting Absolute Stagnation 2: It gets worse!

I thought they were stagnant before, but honestly, that wasn't stagnant. That was moving an inch after 2 business days from the previous moving an inch. But now? Now it's like that Austin Power's scene where his car is stuck between two walls and he can't move either forward or backwards.

I think the main issue is that they refuse to let new writers in AND they stick to using the same writers who do not know how to a) tell a fun and dynamic story b) tell a story without destroying the characters c) all of the above.

Tom Taylor and Tom King are, together, a big reason DC Comics stories feel underwhelming. Like a whole bunch of nothing. With the key difference being that Tom Taylor is absolutely BORING to read, nothing ever happens (like in his Nightwing run), and when something happens it doesn't matter because there are no stakes no sacrifices no repercussions or consequences. There's nothing. You cut out Taylor's run from the characters' publication history and nothing at all is missing. He's THAT inconsequential.

With King, he's not boring, sure, but my god he is UPSETTING. He thinks his shit doesn't stink and makes himself to be a really profound writer, when in reality he does not understand the characters he's writing about and even less so the genres he's trying to pay homage to. He tries to be subtle and his subtlety is the same one of a brick being thrown and smashing a window.

He breaks already well established characters to make them fit into tiny little boxes just so he can tell a story that is praised in huge part for the good art it's presented with. He would not be as popular if he didn't have excellent artists paired with him.

Not to mention what he did to Catwoman/Selina. He stripped her of her agency and gave her no say over HER OWN BODY when he wrote her to be pregnant with Bruce’s baby. She repeatedly constantly explicitly says she DOESN'T want it, she DOESN'T want to be a mom, but we are made complicit of Bruce smirking and acting like he knows best and coercing Selina into having that baby. For what? Literally. For what?

(WITHOUT MENTIONING HOW HE BUTCHERED BOTH GUY AND HAL IN INSULTING WAYS AND NO ONE SAYS ANYTHING ABOUT IT)

Anyway.

The main issue is that DC Comics keeps giving opportunities and praises to mediocre white cishet men when they do less than the bare minimum (tell an entertaining story). When there's someone of color writing, they actively sabotage it.

With the most current stories, like the GL ones, it just goes to show how they keep going for the most mediocre writers they can find. Jeremy Adams does not know how to write adults, women, and romantic relationships. I'm sorry but I'm not going to take as romance something that's built off of stalking, harassing, and punching down on decades of character history just to reduce the woman into a hormonal emotional insecure mess that all she wants to do is glue herself to Her Man(tm) and call it a day.

The recent events are also both entirely unnecessary and they will have little to no long lasting repercussions. All they do is clog the current on going comics and force the already mediocre writers into tight corners that only expose the mediocrity even more.

[theguardianace]

Can I politely ask you to elaborate on the Aroace Nene fic you talked about some time ago? Or just simply how you see her in your brain after finding out she's aroace? If it's not much to ask, of course

OMG YES YES YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! absolutely. i will ramble about aroace literally anybody on the drop of a dime this is one of the best anons to get actually

nene's story is actually the one i have the least about, to be perfectly honest. i have a plot for both emu and tsukasa's stories, but haven't quite figured out one for nene. honestly, i think nene's the type of aroace to not really... care about it that much. she'd never cared about love or romance to begin with, so when she realized it was because she was aroace, it was mostly like "hm. cool. im gonna go play animal crossing now".

as for finding out... i think it would have happened in middle school, back when she was Online Gamer Nene TM full time. with how much she loves games and storytelling, it really only makes sense she'd want to engage with fandom content like fics. however, just... seeing the way people sexualize her favorite characters, or only write/draw shipping content... she didn't care for it. she didn't want to engage with that. not that there was anything wrong with it! people can do whatever they want with fictional game characters. she just. didnt care about it herself. which led to her feeling even more isolated even within her favorite hobbies. i think this would sort of lead her to playing a variety of games so she doesn't have to worry about getting absorbed in fandoms she doesn't care to be a part of. she still checks, every once in a while. for games that she really likes. i think its through this that she eventually stumbles across a popular aroace headcannon, goes "what", googles it, and is like "wow. thats me. sick". and then moves on

but like. even when she's moved on. it's still really nice to know, yknow? it explains why she felt like the odd one out not wanting to ship stuff, or even care to entertain it. there's people out there just like her. it makes her less anxious, a little more sure of herself.

she doesn't ever tell anyone. not even rui. (i mean, they hadn't talked in ages. how is she supposed to? "hi, we havent had a genuine conversation in years, how are you? by the way i discovered im aroace and you probably don't know what that means and honestly i dont really care about it myself. have a good day".) (and once they do start talking again, it just... never came up. she never felt the need to, and he never felt the need to ask.) until my epilouge chapter where they all end up coming out like WHAT WERE ALL AROACE THATS SO SILLY anyways

in casual life, i think nene would have been the type for adults to go "oooh, you have a crush on him, don't you? look at you, all red and shy just thinking about him" when shes simply Just Like That. it was really annoying. she knew she didn't like them like that and that was that. but shes too scared to say that so she just took it. definitely didn't help the "nene needs to learn how to make friends" department. honestly, her only relief from it was with rui- both her parents and the kamishiro parents recognized that the two really did care about each other, but it wasn't like that. also no way in hell they're ruining the one friendship their kids have.

later with emu, i don't think there was any point where people even considered a romance, at least not at first glance. it wasn't like people at school even knew about emu (minus when she snuck in, but why would this hyperactive pink thing be looking for that shy second year?). and people walking the streets didn't really assume they liked each other like that since they were two girls. nene's mom was a little curious if they were dating since emu comes over so often and is so physically affectionate, but she never really pressed. she was mostly just happy nene has friends over that aren't just rui. (also, emu's aroace too, so nothing in her demeanor even made nene consider it could have been romantic. shes just Emu.)

for tsukasa, it's a similar thing. by the time people have realized the two are friends, nene's confident in herself and her feelings enough to shut down the people who would even dare assume she likes a buffoon like that star in that way. there's those people that go "oh but you're mean to him and girls are mean to boys when they have a crush on them" but she's tough enough to go "ew" and move on. (she did complain about it a little to rui on a walk home once. if he ended up in her classroom the next day to "grab her for lunch" and weaponize his dangerous reputation to intimidate them when she wasn't looking, it was sheer coincidence.)

also, i think out of the four, nene falls most on the loveless scale. tsukasa, emu, and rui are all beings made of love despite the fact they don't fall in it. nene's a bit different. she cares about her friends, and she's super good at making them (despite what she thinks), but she doesn't really... love them. not in the ways people usually want to describe love. she would kill a man for them in a heartbeat, don't get me wrong. she just experiences those sorts of feelings differently. it's care, and determination, and hope, and happiness, but not... love. not completely.

anyways aroace gamer nene so real fic will happen once i figure out how to tie these ideas to a plot 👍

[primatechnosynthpop]

I literally never shut up about the headlines that scroll past at the bottom during the news report scene in Ryan's Christmas Wish SO here's my official ranking of how much each headline makes me think about the implications

"Paul McCartney 'Simply having'...": all this indicates is the existence of Paul McCartney. Could've guessed that one on my own

"Unidentified flying sled reported by hundreds": I guess this means Santa is real in nkotr but big deal. Santa is real in most christmas media

"Kidnapping and attempted homicide blamed on Bigfoot": it doesn't say who was kidnapped, and the wording implies this claim may not be true, so it doesn't even confirm the existence of bigfoot in nkotr. It does make me think it would be fun to connect the nkotr universe to the skit "Bigfoot Begins" though

"Sleigh ride ends tragically in tar pit": does this mean there's a tar pit in Plymouth county? Maybe, but it could also be international news

"Presidential pajama party cancelled": if the president throwing this party was the same one from the money tree, this sheds some light on his fun side. Perhaps the party had to be canceled because there were bigger Responsibilities(tm) to attend to

"Meteorologists predicting enchanted snowfall later": literally did not think about this one at all until I was typing up this post but it does have some interesting implications if taken literally. If magic is an established thing that scientists acknowledge, that makes Neil's belief in ghosts gel more with being a man of science and also makes Kevin's skepticism sillier

"Local man saves christmas, scared stupid": the implied existence of Ernest in the nkotr verse is huge for me as a certified Ernest girlie. And he's a local, too! However, I feel like not everyone cares about this as much as I do, so I'm putting it lower than I'm inclined to

"'Misery Mountain' declared historic landmark": ok so this means the world at large is aware of Misery Mountain-- it's not hidden away somewhere that only Frosty could find. Are people similarly aware of its inhabitant, or has the Misery Meister only taken up residence there recently? (The name being put in quotes makes me wonder if the mountain previously had a different name...) And if not because of the Meister, what else about the mountain may have made it historically significant?

"Local family celebrates Hanukkah": this made me look up when Hanukkah fell in 2008 and as such work out a more concrete timeline for the story's events. FTR this news report would have been happening on the evening of the 22nd at the earliest, so Rocky was already missing for a couple weeks before they got on the news

"Humans remains discovered in chamber beneath Plymouth Rock": if those were John Smith's remains, why/how did he die after remaining alive for so long down there? Were the new kids' actions in episode 1 an indirect cause somehow? Or was it someone else's remains-- perhaps someone John Smith killed with his sword?

"Shoppers Riot as 'New Kids' action figures make record sales": the fact that the new kids were that popular in-universe tracks with grandpa Kevin's line at the start implying the Studio is still going strong in the future, and it really makes you wonder what happened to land them in poverty a few years later. I also wonder how fast their rise to popularity was-- Wendy hasn't heard of them in episode 2, but by episode 3 a random kid knows of them. Is the kid particularly dialed in, or is Wendy out of the loop?

"Search for missing Plymouth man Max Pacheco continues into sixth month": for one thing it's weird that Max the character has the same last name as his actor because unlike the main three he wasn't really playing an exaggerated version of himself. But mainly WHY HAS MAX BEEN MISSING THAT LONG?? I thought maybe the uploads of nkotr on youtube were from a bit later than they originally came out, but I looked through their facebook and the series premiered in September. This means Max had already been declared missing some months before getting blown up. Incredible