#Which I can't give an example since idk anything about it :P

[ricksoo]

It's kinda weird how I'm chilling here (a bit literally) when a lot of people are melting due to their temperature around their area :P

By the way, if I may ask a question towards artists...

How do you guys make limb proportions?

Cause er I'm not good at making em. I either make it too long or too short so I kinda need some tips here ;v;

[leffee]

More headcannons on your son?

My Vinnie son!! :D

his absolute least favourite season is winter, he hates it with a passion, it's not up to discussion. It has good sides, he can admit it, but the cons outweight the pros greatly in his opinion. With that vague "colder body temperature" disease I gave him, it's way too cold for him most of the time, while normally he gets sick rarely, during winter he gets sick bad approximately every other week and not for 2 days either; it's slippery outside which with his clumsiness is a terrible combinations, not to mention that all of that saps all the energy out of him. He wants to go out, especially with his friends, but honestly he'd much rather wait the winter out at home

besides his hair, his body part he looks after the most are his feet. However, while he cares about his hair completely willingly, he was forced to do the same with his feet. The story is this: he dances a lot, right? He might not be good at it but he does like it. And while dancing you work a lot on your feet and strain them. At one point, he realized that his feet were in a pretty bad state, but being himself he didn't want to do anything about it at first. Eventually though, it came to the point when they really started hurting him, felt tired and had blisters. Not willing to endure it anymore he bought some stuff and ever since then he's been taking good care of them. Damn, that's a lot of talk about Vinnie feet. Damn

it's not normally visible, but somewhere in his hair he has 6 bobby pins, and yes, they are supposed to represent his friends so he can "take" them anywhere. Each one he got from each of them. From some of them he already had had one before getting this idea that he borrowed and didn't give back because they didn't really care about getting it back cause it's just a bobby pin. From those he didn't have one when he came out with this, he simply asked if they could give him a bobby pin. And so they did, until he got one from each of them and started wearing them

he's hyper aware whenever going up or down the stairs because he fell down on them so many times he expects it to happen every time. He's not afraid of falling or getting hurt in general, but it simply happened so much that his consciousness "generously" granted him the habit of focusing only on stairs when on them. Don't talk to him when doing that, he's not going to register that anyway

he can turn both his feet almost 180 degrees so they face backwards (ok, it's actually more like 160 or so, but 180 sounds better and appeals more to the imagination). He can't walk like that but it's a cool party trick. Well, to some it's cool, others think it's gross but perhaps impressive most of the time. It's hard to find anything about this on internet so idk if it's due to lack of some joints or maybe some doubled cartilages but he has whatever that is

this might one of my more random headcanons, but he writes in cursive. Also while we're at it, have I ever said he's left-handed? I might have but I don't remember now. He is

remember when I said he likes Zoe's taste in music? He also likes her own songs a lot, and will, sometimes unconciously, hum or sing them to himself, especially when alone and doing something he doesn't need to focus on too much. The sort of taking a shower or brushing his hair, and he will sing "Not every star is in the sky" or "The Fire Hydrant Song" to himself absent-mindedly

him and Pepper give each other stupid gifts on Valentine's day, acting like they are madly in love with each other, but in such mocking and overdramatic way it's obvious they're just acting. For example, Pepper will kneel on one knee before Vinnie with a McDonald's box, open it, and there will be heart-shaped chicken nuggets inside, then say "I-it's not like I like you, baka! X( But I got you this gift uwu". Next, Vinnie will gasp dramatically and way louder than needed, clutch his shirt near his heart, and pretend to wipe tears "P-Pepper-chan, this is the best gift I ever got!".

whenever he wants to hang out with Sunil but for some reason Sunil can't but is still in his house, in a world where they live right next to each other (because I'm not too sure if I like them living right next to each other or not) Vinnie simply opens his window wide and will bend over it "miserably" and hang like that, and yes, Sunil can see that from one window in his house. Vinnie can stand like that for hours, it's genuinely not an attempt to make Sunil invite him over out of pity or anything, he gets that he might be busy, but that's just him showing his sadness over this. A bit overdramatic maybe. The first time Sunil saw that he just simply smiled sympathetically at first, but then got busy and once he finished 3 hours later, he walked next to the window overlooking Vinnie's house, not even thinking that Vinnie would be still there so he wasn't looking. However, from the corner of his eye he caught Vinnie doing just that and had to double-check to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was. At first he thought that maybe Vinnie took a break and at some point came back but nope, he was there the entire time

he's like the opposite of Minka in this one way at least, because while Minka's scared of small spaces, he personally really likes them, there's something comforting about being squeezed and/or surrounded from every side. Basically, he liked being squeezed, it's nicer when it's hugs and all, but tight spaces are really great too. Fun fact it that there was a period of time when I actually gave him claustrophobia, just way less severe than Minka's but nah, I'm over this headcanon, now he likes it. It's true in some other universe

Idk how to end it, so have a picrew image I made of my beloved

He looks absolutely silly

[daz4i]

well it went surprisingly well last time so here's another edition of me posting a short bit from smth i wrote and talking about it instead of posting the whole thing like a normal person. except it's way longer this time sorry

so this is my favorite of all the songs i wrote, called "other people's words"

i think i got down to it after getting a writing exercise from my teacher asking why i don't write about my feelings. it was like a week or two after i finished reading no longer human and feeling painfully Seen by it, and going through the quotes i collected from it i kept thinking "what is even the point of writing anything myself when he already wrote it better than i ever could" and well. yeah

the song also has references to other songs in it, specifically hurt by johnny cash (yeah i know it's a cover but. come on.) and arcade by duncan laurence. really good songs to listen to when Going Through It lol but also they've got 2 things that are. ig concrete and identifiable enough in their lyrics to reference, being empire of dirt and a losing game, which both appear in the chorus

speaking of, it's a different chorus each time bc i can't make things easy for myself ig. the topic of each line remains the same, and in addition to those references there is a talk of baring your soul

so i tried playing off of the baring part in the last chorus that the song ends with

so like. going from bare to barren. idk i liked this one lol maybe it works better in writing than in singing but ig only time will tell

this comes right after the bridge that's talking about emptiness and nothingness (a topic also mentioned in the second verse). this whole theme is, to me, the essence of it really. feeling empty -> nothing to give -> can't create -> relying on things created by others to define yourself by, since otherwise you essentially feel like you're nothing

after this final chorus, the song changes into. sounds, ig. not real words, just "ba-da-dum" sort of thing, and that's how it ends

i mentioned two songs and a novel already but it was inspired by a lot of other songs. the whole baring your soul while feeling like there's nothing there is from beneath the mask, for example. and I'm sure me from 2 months ago had other things in mind while writing that i unfortunately can't remember rn. rip. sorry

but yeah that's it! like i said it's not polished. there are some lines i really like but feel slightly awkward so i don't want to post them, and really a lot of it isn't quite ready but it's still my favorite. i think it's my most... idk, clever song? or maybe just most complex one at least. even tho it's not perfect yet, i am proud of it, or at least as proud as i can be of my own creation. yes i am aware of the irony here :P

[cannibalistic-vampirefag]

the tag ban situation is peak 2021, so here is a tear list:

8. girl/girls. I understand the intent behind it, a tag like this could lead to p*rn, but the concept of banning the tag "girls" just had me dead on the floor 💀. no more girls allowed on tumblr! only enbies and boys!

7. reblog/tagged/queue. this is just a plothole in the grand scheme of the universe, like????? why is apple banning things that are literally functions in the site/app???? another honorable mention here is "long post". poor little meow meow, you can't read long paragraphs? just like a true ADHDer! go, tumblr banned words, give us the useless ADHD representation we have been waiting for! /s

6. suicide prevention. I guess apple just wants us to die? idk. [the fact that tags like this (for example "anxiety", "stimming", "bipolar" etc) are banned is pretty problematic, but I'm not gonna address it here because this is a funny post]

5. mine. COMMUNISM! HELL YEA!

4. CW. I understand that they banned it because it stands for "content warning" (which, banning it?a whole issue within itself), but the idea that they could be banning CW as in the network that produces some popular shows, especially supernatural is so funny. apple officially decreased itself as an anti to the spn finale. finally!

3. hetero. tumblr has finally realised that this is a gay site! no more straight people allowed, ig!

2. cannibal. is apple singlehandedly trying to take down the hannibal fandom????? whoever sat down and decided to ban the tag must've really hated our little gay show.

1. alec lightwood. I feel like I don't need to say anything because the situation is already funny, but I am going to anyway. does apple have a personal feud with cassandra clare/Matthew daddario? maybe, but it wouldn't make sense since he is the only banned character from shadowhunters and the only banned character that daddario has played. so what, was he too gay for tumblr?was he too gay for the little gay site? Alec lightwood did NOT reach peak homosexuality just for apple to ban him as a tag on tumblr. who else are they gonna ban, Dean Winchester???

there are so many more I could talk about, like "tony the tiger", "racism", "stim toys", and more, but I think there's no need to. goodbye.

[sneakydraws]

hi!! if I'm not mistaken you can speak Polish (or you're Polish idk I don't want to assume I just remember you posted something about Krakow and...strajk kobiet (sorry idk how to say it in eng) I wanted to hear your opinion on polish voice actors in encanto!! I know a lot of folks doesn't like Mirabel's voice but imo it's okay, and yeah....just a silly question

No yeah ur right I am polish! i'm afraid i only watched the film in english though, sorry :P HOWEVER i DID obsessively listen to we dont talk about bruno in just about every language available, so as a humble substitute i can give you my thoughts on the polish version of the song

elephant in the room, this is like the only version that changes the word 'bruno' around to fit with the grammar... i can't really blame them, polish is HARD and 'no, no, no' would not have worked so they had to change it to 'nie, nie, nie' but still... sounds jarring as hell lmao

Pepa and felix's part is good, i like their voices! I feel like almost every language gets pepa right haha probably cuz she's so dramatic

Lecz przyszedł on z tym uśmieszkiem jak gnom

But he arrived, with that smirk like a gnome

HELLO? LMFAO was there REALLY no better way to phrase that !!!! jkrgef

On powiedział: "Będzie lać" / I mózg aż mi się zaczął grzać

He said "It's gonna rain" / And my brain started heating up

There isn't that direct correlation between rain and her brain that most versions have, but still, it works nicely. The image of pepa's brain overheating with smoke coming out of her ears is absolutely fitting lmao

Ej, hola, mam parasola

I don't even know how to translate this lol it's like "Hey, hey, I have an umbrella" but the grammar is all wrong. Ew

They did my girl dolores DIRTYYYY her voice sounds really strained and the singer is clearly struggling to say all the words. Can't really blame them tho, her verse is the hardest shit in the world to translate well :') English has so many one or two syllable words...

Bałam się go od małego i do dziś dlatego / Nie potrafię się uwolnić od bełkotu tego

I was scared of him since childhood and that's why to this day / I can't free myself from that blabber

Implication that dolores is scared of bruno himself, as opposed to the original where she seems to fear his visions (stuttering or stumbling - signs of stress/seeing something bad? that's how i interpret it at least) - bad :( i'll elaborate on this in a future comic but i actually think dolores would find it very easy to empathise with bruno.

Głos mu szeleścił, jak szeleści suchy piach

His voice rustled, like the rustling of dry sand

I couldn't think of a better translation for "szelest" but it's an onomatopoeia for things like fabric, dry leaves, sheets of paper... basically anything dry and textured, such as sand! This is actually a bomb translation, it sounds great, it fits the whispery tone, and as much as i like the more common route of implying that sand keeps falling out of bruno's clothes (the russian version is a personal favourite) or that dolores simply hears the sandfall in his room, the idea that his voice itself is like sand is VERY atmospheric and i love it.

Był ten ciężki dar źródłem zmartwień jego / Miała go rodzina cała za wyklętego

This heavy gift was the source of his worries / The whole family thought him to be cursed/cast out

I never understand why they went with "wyklęty", which generally means "cast out, banished" rather than "przeklęty" which means "cursed"? These lines sound terrible, especially the way she drags out "za-a" but like i said, i can't blame the translators, it's a tall order...

(side note, i should shout out the grammatical wizardry the translators have to resort to in order to make these syllables/rhymes work... polish is a very flexible language in that regard (FUCK YOU FRENCH) so they can get away with moving the words around a lot! for example, if i were to translate word for word, this verse would read more like "Was this heavy gift the source of worries his / Thought him the family whole banished". in english this sounds like yoda speak, but in polish it's totally correct, if a little artsy!)

Camilo sounds a little too dramatic, could have used a bit more subtlety... But it's not bad I suppose.

Wysoki jak dąb, śliskim szczurom brat

Tall as an oak, brother to slippery rats

As an ex-rat owner and rat lover i object to this slander, but other than that, solid translation! I like how seemingly no one except russia was willing to actually translate '7 feet' to meters ahaha

Jego głosu ton zaczerni ci świat

The tone of his voice will blacken your world

Terrible, it doesn't mean anything AND i always find it difficult to even hear the first three words. They could have looked for different concepts here, not every translation chose to directly reference the "fading to black" part!

Wywróżył mi mojej rybki nagły zgon!

He foretold me the sudden death of my fish!

I respect any translation that doesn't keep the weird structure of the original, with the final word being an entire sentence. Aside from that, I find myself appreciating the choice of the word "wywróżyć", which has a very cool, magical vibe!

Wywróżył mi wielki brzuch i jestem jak słoń!

He foretold me a gigantic belly and I am like an elephant

No comment

Wywróżył mi, że wyłysieję, skąd to wiedział, no skąd?

He foretold me I'd go bald, how did he know it, I ask you, how?

Loose translation of that final sentence, but I think it gets across the vibe of it - I really like how it sells both the priest's desperation and the fear and confusion the townspeople feel toward bruno's visions. Like, he should KNOW how bruno knew he'd go bald, it's his gift to see the future, duh, but despite that knowledge he can't help but suspect that bruno somehow caused it. Speaking of which...

Ratunku nie ma, gdy coś przepowie on!

There is no rescue, once he foretells something!

This is actually deadass my favourite version of this lyric! Firstly, the grammatical subject is HE, bruno, not his prophecy or your fate - this shows how the villagers are pinning the blame on HIM and not just the concept of the future or even his gift. Secondly, this point is emphasised even further because the word "he" ("on") falls on the accented last syllable. Lastly, this is present to some extent in most languages, but it preserves that lovely ambiguity as to whether his prophecies simply SEE the future or somehow CAUSE it. side note, for a while, relying on my broken ass french, i thought the italian version went hard on that second interpretation... that would have been so cool rip

I really like isabela's voice! And since anon asked about mirabel (though i assume the singing voice is a different person than the speaking voice?) i did think it was very faithful with regards to the original!

On mi mówił, że moc, którą mam / Wzrośnie tak jak drzew rosną pnie

He told me the power I have / Would grow as tree trunks grow

I saw someone point out that the original line specifically avoids the mention of flowers, and I like that it's preserved here!

Mariano idzie, ciszej bądź

Mariano's coming, quiet down

Why is abuela telling them to shut the fuck up TT0TT it is kinda funny ngl

On mi mówił że z tym o kim śnię / Nie mam szans związać się, / Że weźmie go inna

He told me that with he whom I dream of / I have no chances of getting together / That another one will take him

This is one of the translations that for some reason explicitly have bruno's vision contradict reality? i mean you could argue that he only saw a glimpse (for example, mariano proposing to isabela) and misinterpreted it, but still. the original version is pretty careful to remain technically true, what with "betrothed to another"

Isabela, do ciebie ktoś

Isabela, someone's here to see you

AHAHA i love hearing this line in different versions, seeing the different flavours of camilo's sass. He's such a little shit here

Źle że wspomniałam o Brunie

It's bad I mentioned Bruno

And unfortunately we finish off really weakly with the last new line... rip. What a let down

[aks3raao1]

Ah, yes. My first Tumblr post. Idk why I felt the need to share all my pet peeves abt Tokyo Ghoul here since it's already on my wattpad in my Shitpost but ig a part of me wants to see how this works...

You can find me on wattpad if you search this username: Ax3lQu33n

Ok, let's get started. Don't attack me. Btw, I made this like a rlly long time ago fyi

My Opinion on Tokyo Ghoul Even Though No One Asked

I just finished Tokyo Ghoul and I gotta say...good anime. I liked the ending a lot. But I understand why people don't like it... I understand that a lot. And I feel like ranting about it because many of these points are my pet peeves when it comes to stories. Oh, and I never read the manga. This is strictly about the anime.

This may seem offensive to anyone who likes Tokyo Ghoul so just beware. Also, SPOILER ALERT! Btw, I had a really hard time not dropping this.

1. Too many characters

Tokyo Ghoul had WAY too many characters that they didn't know what to do with. It's like Pokemon. Eventually, they added so many Pokemon that they didn't know what to do with them so in the end, they were just...there.

An example of this would be in Tokyo Ghoul: Re (don't remember which 1 tho), there was a girl with blonde hair over her face like a mop bc she didn't like her freckles. They literally just used that scene to explain a character death but it was really...irrelevant. At that point, they literally just killed off a character bc they could. And we barely knew that character too so...it made no sense.

And a bunch of characters didn't have any relevance to the main plot and were mostly just seen fighting. That really peeved me off bc...you just don't do that if you want a good story. Plus, too many of the characters were only introduced way later. Always get the character introductions out the way before you carry on with ANYTHING else.

Tip for writing: Don't use too many characters. Give yourself a minimum and a maximum or else everything will get confusing/seem like it has no relevance. And ALWAYS introduce the majority that will have major plot relevance first.

2. Too much and yet, not enough character backstory

They gave almost every character a good backstory and only discussed it briefly. Instead of hooking the audience and making them wanting more, they just carried on to the next character which made it seem...boring. And the characters they made us want more of, they never even discussed them. It was like everything was left in subtext/watcher's interpretation which is a huge pet peeve that I have... If you're gonna do that, do it right.

Ayato Kirishima was e p i c. You can't change my mind. But...we barely knew anything about his past. We just knew he was Toka's brother and that he was mad at his dead dad. We still didn't know for WHAT. He was an interesting character that showed up at the right time in the right ways and was important to the story as well as certain characters but

We. Didn't. Even. Get. A. Full. Back. Story.

They give us a backstory on the dude with the white hair that was like their body guard or smth rather briefly and even tho it was linked to them and their parents, it still didn't explain why Ayato hated his dad so much or why Toka was dead set on defending him and then later called him an idiot... ONLY IN TG: RE DID WE HEAR THAT THEIR DAD HAD BEEN KILLING BC OF BLOODLUST

Bro...that was srsly too fucking late...

3. HEAVY plot armour and not sticking to the basis

Did y'all notice that in TG: Re, Kaneki and everyone else ate...human food? As sustenance and nutrition?? Not to lessen suspicion??? When in season 1, Kaneki couldn't even stomach down a sandwich? What happened here-

And in the first season as well, they said that ghouls can't have their skin penetrated by things such as knives and etc. Only if your strength is comparable to that of a ghoul's will you be able to deal such a blow. Or if you were using your kagune. That's the reason they invented those weapons using ghoul's kagunes, right?

So...why did they drop that at a point? Juzo (bless his soul, I love him) used literal knives, normal knives to fight off ghouls when the scythe was impractical. Now...where does that make sense? It definetly wasn't a quinque-

Not only that, but somewhere in TG: Re, someone uses a golden sword thingy that's mainly used as a prop in a household. It has a thin blade and is for speedy attacks. It wouldn't work against a ghoul. Yet, he pierced one with it. Then there's me wondering why it didn't break... Forget the guy not being strong enough to deal such a blow, WHY DIDN'T IT FUCKING BREAK?!

And the plot armour part: the things you're supposed to die from just...don't kill you? Heads were still fucking talking after they've been decapitated and people got slashed to PIECES but THEY DIDN'T DIE. Only if it was to continue on with some 💖drama💖 in the plot, did they die by smth trivial. And most characters just got cut off for no apparent reason...

It's like a clear message to us that the world is unfair.

Tip for writing: Don't just kill off characters to advance toward a certain point in the plot, there are other ways. And REMEMBER THE BASIS THAT YOU LAID DOWN!

4. Characters not shown enough

Certain characters were taken out of the story for literal seasons and then only revealed again after the entire thing was finished. I LIKED HIDE, WHY DID HE HAVE TO BE SHOWN DYING AND THEN ONLY COME BACK AT THE LAST 3 EPISODES OF TG SBEJWJIWI2I2

H E D E S E R V E S J U S T I C E

I have seen that most animes do this... Like in BSD, Chuuya is gone for literal seasons and in the BNHA manga (no, I don't read the manga, @travalerray just enjoys telling me stuffs about it), Katsuki and Aizawa (and I think Shoto?) Are gone for a really long time as well. Like-

Please stop this... It's torture and makes no sense.

5. Too many plots all at once

There wasn't just one plot. THERE WERE LIKE 50- It became really hard to keep up and legit so confusing because each one was somewhat different... They shoulda just made a separate anime for everyone's journey bc, suddenly, EVERYONE was the main character but still IN THEIR OWN STORY.

Tip for writing: If you write a story, stick to 1 plot, stick to 1 or 2 main characters and the rest can be an entirely different book. If you put them all in 1 book with each one telling their own story, it's gonna get way too confusing and become an absolute flop. Trust me. Backstories are still fine but not each a different journey...

6. Repeating tropes

This is 1 of my worst pet peeves. Each ghoul character went through smth known as insanity and displayed a whole damn lot of it for no apparent reason other than, "I am a ghoul". They were PERFECTLY normal in human form but then all of a sudden, it's cackling and saying weird shit to sound creepy just bc their eyes changed😐

Mutsuki has a pass, they went clinically insane by normal circumstances (more or less) but...really, man? They...didn't matter to the main plot at all and they were being...pretty dang stupid. I can't...

And Kaneki just kept turning emo. It became so frustrating that I just...really wanted to slap him outta the window. The first time was cool but then I started to hate him. A lot. Like-

I really really really hate this trope.

8. Bad animation

I have only watched the anime so I will say this: the animation could have been better. After the 1st season, the fights seemed sloppy and the movement was stiff... It made me sigh. I can't do better but I feel like the animators could have after seeing season 1.

9. Basically, general knowledge flew out the window

Kagunes changed, ghouls had tattoos, everyone turned insane, emo was apparently a trend the main character picked up, noonethoughttoexplainTokaandTheGourmet'srelationship?

In all honesty...Tokyo Ghoul was bearable with a good plot at first but... It became too much with way too many things.

Ok, that's all from me. And can I just mention that ik the main theme was smth like despairing bc things will never change or etc. (Don't quote me on this) but having to repeat the same thing, same ending (for Kaneki specifically) over and over is not good writing. As compelling as the concept is, that's just sloppy and it gets boring. And the plot was rushed beyond like- dude, we need a breather

Ok, enough of me roasting Tokyo Ghoul. Many people most likely made a post on this already but w h a t e v a h. I had fun when I wrote this. I am sorry (not)

Also...WHY IS MAKING A SIMPLE POST SO DIFFICULT- Or is it just my phone...

[elizabethrobertajones]

You know, I desperately want Destiel to be end game as much as anybody, but somedays I think I would just be content if the show just textually acknowledged that Dean's bi. Something as simple as a dude at a bar asking Dean to come home w/ him while they're on a case and Dean saying something like "any other day I'd take you up on that but I can't tonight." IDK the subtext that Dean is bi is strong enough that I can't say the GA would be shocked by it and it would just be a nice textual nugget.

Hey, sorry it took so long to answer this, I’ve not been at my best for ages… Been thinking about this all week though :P 

I think it feels to me like the general audience can discard or mentally discredit an AWFUL lot of implication and direct hints - there have been comments and moments in many bits of media which imply directly or with heavy innuendo that a character may be interested in a non-hetero way to someone - especially things like teasy moments… 

Thinking of things like in HIMYM there’s an ongoing joke about Lily having a crush on Robin, but since she’s with Marshall the entire show, it doesn’t really go anywhere, and when they do kiss the dynamic swaps and Robin is left with kind of a crush on her and Lily’s over it and it’s all a joke, and even though they kissed it was a lol girls kissing is hot joke for the whole show, and it never turned into a discussion of sexuality, even if they would both happily stay married in their heterosexual marriages. (And… Uh. Robin stays married okay, I’m pretty sure that was the alternate ending in the DVD unless I hallucinated it out of sheer frustration >.>) Anyway to me it seems pretty natural to read both of them a little queer to full on bi, and if it had gone even a little bit differently Lily especially could be good representation for a bi woman in a relationship with a man who just happens to have ended up falling in love with him and that’s normal and doesn’t invalidate her sexuality? But yeah. No such nuance, so this whole thing barely registers for people and in general people would think it’s all a joke. 

I mean, even Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, which is where that Getting Bi song comes from, has an episode where the main character has a huge rival-crush on the girlfriend of the guy she’s into, and gets so into her she even kisses her, but there’s no exploration of what that means to her and when her boss comes out as bi with that number, no exploration of if she might be as well, even if all these characters eventually might feel more comfortable defining themselves as straight it’s just weird to me there’s all these jokes about it which can go as far as kisses, use overly romantic language or a long-running joke of Lily heavily coming onto Robin or something, and yet unless you’re like a magpie collecting all this stuff it’s all still just noise. 

I bet a ton of people would not even have considered the characters were not-straight, even when directly pointing their eyes at this moment, consider it all as a joke or that it’s just something straight people do sometimes because of the cultural massive repression of bisexuality and the indications in more liberal times and places that when polled people will be majority queer to straight with at least some bi leanings… There’s all these headlines about gen Z being the gayest generation yet, but it’s not something in the water, it’s that previous generations have never dared be as open or consider that they’re non-straight, especially if they are easily attracted to people heterosexually… 

I think the Aaron scene was 90% of the way to what you are describing, minus Dean giving him a raincheck overtly, and Aaron admits it was a ruse before any further tension can follow. I think, having snooped a lot of blog archives in my time, that really was a turning point that got a lot of people convinced of the textual possibilities, especially with the director/writer commentary basically confirming it. And obviously it didn’t work to make EVERYONE see it, although fandom swelled that season and it was a very dramatic moment in the history of bi!Dean and Destiel within fandom. 

To give another example from outside the show, I’ve been watching Black Sails with my friend, who is very straight in mindset, and - major spoilers for that show ahead - the main character is confirmed to be overtly queer in the  middle of the second season. I think I know exactly the point I would have picked up this was a queer narrative in the first season, and what would have made me suspicious about the mysteriously un-revealed backstory. The build up to the reveal was amazing in the second season and I think if you didn’t get it you really need to do a rewatch, because my friend was utterly blindsided by the revelation, only catching on a scene before it happened (she does like guessing and is smart at TV if she knows all the cues to start with). But she’s - sorry - at sea with the character’s motivations and reasons, and understands his earlier actions almost completely backwards to me as she took him on face value for far too long without suspecting there was more than treasure and restoring his name on order, and not understanding his motives to be so political or to want to burn the entire system down or his utter alienation from the system; even after the reveal she didn’t understand the degree to which things were on the line or the forces pressuring him one way or the other. 

(I find it really interesting and I’m not really disagreeing with her, I’m curious how the surface layer all reads tbh :P) 

In any case, I don’t really have much confidence in a wider general audience taking throwaway moments to be full canon, and generally would need declarations and inescapable discussion or plot arcs for it. I think in some ways the trail is being blazed now - when Rosa came out as bi in b99 it had a sort of special episode educating you on it as much as being very sympathetic for bi people to watch and see literally a bulletpoint list of their issues and weird things people say about it acted out on screen. The subplot is basically the masterclass in addressing it. 

(So is the Getting Bi song :P although it covers less of the issues overall, it does make it fun and normalises the idea into a dance routine and deals with someone discovering the label for themselves and being thrilled it makes their life make sense.) 

I don’t think spn should do anything quite so specific or hilarious, but I love @bluestar86‘s concept of an episode which uses flashbacks to reveal Dean’s bisexuality - basically like with Robin in 9x07, but I think even just showing it was a childhood crush and he never figured it all out at the time but meeting the guy later in life makes things make a lot of sense or something… And we already have a template for that without going all the way into it with his reaction to meeting Gunnar Lawless, a childhood celebrity crush. So there’s paths to take which could do it.

But ultimately I think the issue is so messed up and tangled into the main arc that it would be next to impossible to confirm Dean is bi without having an utter drama about why not Destiel, as the two concepts are not, at this point, really separate or that you could have one without the other, though it would be easier to not address Dean’s sexuality in any way of assigning labels or having more than the immediately necessary self-reflection to deal with feelings for Cas without exploring deeper… (Not that I like that idea, it’s just, they could, you know? Not even in a “i don’t like labels” way but just something like Dean going “huh” and then getting together with Cas and literally no one ever makes a fuss or starts up a dialogue about why they’re now holding hands :P) 

But it’s been such a ridiculous, epic, drawn out relationship on screen that making Dean bi independent of Cas would seem bizarre and off-balance without addressing his relationship to Cas. Just because they have such an intense relationship, and within the text of the show are many many references to their relationship on many different levels, from snide comments to enormous declarations. None of this happens in isolation to other storylines or character depth. With the momentum and depth it has in the story, making Dean bi would be seen as a precursor to Destiel, and at this point cruel and strange not to address it and would beg the question of why they ever confirmed him bi in the first place, if not to leave the ship unresolved to the end but to be open for us to imagine it might happen one day when the story is over - or not, if we don’t ship it, and it’s the way to thread a needle to try and keep everyone happy. Which I’m not sure would work except for the people who very specifically would advocate for bi Dean but don’t think a ship is necessary. I mean, I know that’s a chunk of the Dean fandom, and it’s a valid way to read the text, and of course a lot of Destiel shippers are fully aware Dean is bi without any special interference from Cas about that :P 

And, I mean, in the same way, Cas’s story isn’t ALL about Dean and he has a lot of personal growth that doesn’t have to do with him or happens in spite of him in some cases. But it’s still inextricable from Cas’s character how much he loves Dean and how much Dean has meant to him, and they crossed the line of Cas loving Dean, unrequited or not, a long time ago, and Cas has been existing in a subtextual agony of being in love with Dean but seemingly unrequited for a very long time now, as that line was crossed before several season renewals made it  a painful wait for him. This doesn’t exist in a void to Dean’s sexuality either. 

So, I mean, I don’t know. I disagree with you about the general audience thing entirely, and I think this exchange you imagine could easily be absorbed by the GA to not really credit it as a full part of Dean’s character, laugh it off as a joke from him no matter how seriously he delivers it, and generally not remember him as a bisexual character. Because to straight viewers, they aren’t seeking out sexuality hints and confirmations, and such things don’t really affect their view of a character unless it becomes a textual romance. It has all the meaning sucked from it by their lack of interest and inability to sympathetically mould the character’s inner life based on their own experiences that match. If they’re not making a study of the character, these things can be dismissed as white noise, and in a few years time, a Buzzfeed article of “10 Pop Culture Characters You Never Knew Were Gay!” or something.

And it’s like, yes. We knew. We knew all along. We knew before it happened. But that doesn’t affect how people think of it.

So it feels to me like the only way if they wanted to make a real point of Dean being bi is to have the frank discussion, and devote a proper subplot amount of time to Dean’s sexuality, enough that it is clear and inescapably affecting him, or to confirm it via a relationship which would in this case conveniently by answered by the angel he’s been subtextually pining for for years, and who has his own arc of being pretty overtly in love with Dean to answer… should the show decide to go with addressing Dean’s sexuality, they have put a LOT of work into having this relationship ready and waiting, I’m just saying :P And if they only had an Aaron but x10 scene, it would STILL not really affect anything except layers below GA  - there’ll be more queer viewers who see it for the first time, and within these four walls it will obviously never be forgotten and will be a huge part of how Dean is celebrated by fandom, but I just can’t see it making an impact unless it’s more than a passing moment, because those get swallowed by a heteronormative void…

[nyardynn]

Alright, @ikkinthekitsune , I really don't know what else to tell you because I think you don't even want to hear it. I just told you that the core game of FF15 absolutely CAN be trusted - all the examples I have mentioned have been there from the start. Idk why this is suddenly about Ardyn again, but fine: Ignis tells you in the core game that Ardyn, the healer, he has found in old records has been executed under charges he finds absolutely dubious. We've had art of people cheering for Ardyn on his black chocobo. Ardyn himself tells you he was to be the first king of Lucis, but was then demonized by his own brother and betrayed which is literally the entire reason why the plot of FF15 exists because he wants revenge for that on Noctis and the crystal which does not have a will of its own as we know as he is Bahamut's tool. We have been told by Tabata himself prior to any new DLCs that Ardyn has no interest in any way for the throne or any material possessions. And yet you honestly say you can't see how Ardyn has been a good guy once who was unjustly robbed of his entire life and badmouthed as 'usurper' by even Bahamut in the core game of FF15?

Bahamut was an asshole who uses people and who let Luna and Noctis die because he doesn't give a fuck and please don't you make this an Ardyn argument now because it isn't and I honestly don't care to spark up a battle of extremists again who either think Ardyn's somehow the devil and has always been and another front who thinks he has never done anything wrong ever and idk, him murdering Luna was a mercy killing probably, what do I know the newest fad is, lol.

Well, this is all I've got to say. Bahamut is a shitlord and we - that means a good portion of people that have looked at each other bewildered ever since the dotf haters started the discussion - have suspected this from the very start and in fact thought it was rather obvious. *shrug*

This is not meant to be demeaning, but I think you're late to the facts here. I'm sure you can argue against this again and I actually don't want to convince you of whatever, so please spare me with further accusations because I do too. :P

nyardynn‌:

ikkinthekitsune‌:

nyardynn‌:

You know what’s really weird to me? Some people insisting on a ‘True Ending TM’ for FF15 - or any media for that matter. Does it really matter? Both is canon as it was made by the original development team, does it really matter which one is ‘more true’?

How do you even decide which one that is? If it’s the one that came first to you, then it’s the game release ending. If it’s the most recent one that won the popularity vote and fills most of the plotholes, then it’s Dawn Of The Future.

I mean we are given a treat here, two paths this story can go and we basically can choose which we want to use in our fanfic and drawings - to me none is the ‘true ending’ because both are canon and i’m thankful we got a happier ending as well where we see Bahamut being kicked in the shin.

Allow me to take this opportunity to argue that, yes, it really does matter which ending is the “True Ending TM” due the the nature of canon itself.

On an etymological level, the concept of “canon” in fiction derives from the idea of Biblical canon.  The purpose of Biblical canon was to distinguish between religious texts which all of the faithful must hold to be true and religious texts which do not hold such a status.  Fictional canon, analogically, is meant to distinguish between texts which all readers must hold to be true within the context of the fictional universe and texts which do not hold such a status. 

It’s interesting to note that it is, in fact, possible to have a canon based on reader/player choice, though the set of facts that must be held to be true in such a case are rather different.  Usually, canons of these sorts rely on a mix of core facts about the characters/scenarios and “counterfactual facts” which provide a consistent system according to which different reader/player choices provide different insights into other characters and the way events tie together.  The reason why multiple playthroughs of games like Mass Effect are valuable (and the reason why fans of that game were so angry when it ended in basically the same way regardless of what they chose) is because multiple playthroughs provide different counterfactual facts that allow players to understand the same characters and situations from multiple angles.

Given that canon is concerned with truth by its very nature, however, it’s impossible to hold that two contradictory sets of core facts are canon even if reader/player choice is in play.  Either FFXV (along with the core facts that follow from it) is canon or Dawn of the Future (along with the core facts that follow from it) is canon, but the two cannot possibly hold the same canonical status simultaneously, because the two don’t hold even a counterfactual relation to each other.  FFXV devolves into thematic incoherence if Bahamut is even counterfactually capable of the behavior he demonstrates in Dawn of the Future.

That, more than anything, is why I think that it’s important to take the devs at their word when they said, “Of course, we’re not trying to overwrite the original ending.  The ending to FFXV is the ending to FFXV” and compared Dawn of the Future to the obviously non-canon alternate ending to Episode Ignis.  Dawn of the Future is perfectly capable of sitting comfortably as a non-canon AU; FFXV is seriously degraded by the inclusion of some of the DotF revelations into canon proper.

And avoiding the degradation of FFXV’s original thematic resonance is important.  FFXV is a modern work that’s brave enough to cut against the grain and suggest that true maturity is accepting reality as it is and laying down our lives in self-sacrificial love.  For a series that tends towards wish fulfillment, that matters, and undercutting it for the sake of yet more wish fulfillment is counterproductive.

None of that is to say, of course, that DotF isn’t a proper basis for fanart and fanfic.  Of course it is… but so is fanfic itself, once it reaches a certain critical mass.  To go back to the Biblical analogy, absolutely no one thinks that Dante’s Divine Comedy (Inferno, etc.) is Biblical canon, but that didn’t stop it from serving as inspiration for incredible visual and literary art.

So, sure.  Focus on DotF if that’s what appeals to you.  There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy an AU that you find preferable to canon.  But arguing that DotF and the main game have the same canonical status damages the main game so badly that it really ought to be avoided. =/

I’m sure this is a well thought-through post and a valid opinion, however I keep to mine: we are talking about leisure storytelling for the sake of passing time; this is a videogame with no legislative or juridicative function at all - it does not even have a noteworthy cultural impact that would remain for longer than maybe 10 years. This is not a religious script kept under bullet proof glass in the vatican and I tell you it is absolutely, utterly unimportant which storyline you, or anyone else, consider more valid. It makes me cringe hearing there are people who even go by a concept such as what people are allowed to consider the true tale as if it were a religious law. ‘Canon’ is just a word and i ensure you when it entered creative stoytelling and videogames people thought of religion just as less as they associate ‘holy shit’ with it.

Oh, I certainly didn’t mean to imply that the stakes of fictional canon were anywhere close to the stakes of religious canon (though I do think, given the longevity of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, that you’re underselling FFXV’s relevance by suggesting that it won’t be important in 10 years – KH is almost 20 and FFVII is 22).  The reason I chose to use that illustration rather than reference the etymological shift from Biblical canon to canon law to literary canon and finally to fanom’s use of the term was that some of the transitional states could have triggered entirely unnecessary arguments (what does fiction have to do with legal rulings? Does anyone have the authority to create a literary canon?).

My point is that canon is a word that’s used analogically, and the analogy being used is to something that involves an authoritative declaration of truth.  If the analogy doesn’t hold, the word literally has no reason to exist (like the expletive you mention, which could be expunged from the world with no loss whatsoever).

As for the opinion dotf would compromise the main game, i don’t see that at all actually. Dotf is simply what would have happened if Ardyn chose to not submit to the fate Bahamut had chosen for him; it does not clash, it merely shines a light on the story from a different angle revealing facts we previously did not know. I suspect there is a difference here for English speaking folks since your translation strays from canon quite a bit at parts.

I can only speak for myself that i see not a single reason why only one version of events is allowed to be objectively ‘true’ other than that this assessment obviously isn’t objective. It seems to me you merely subjectively like one version better than the other.

You’re allowed that, of course, but this is what this is ultimately about: everyone can like what they want, both is canon.

Full disclosure: I didn’t have a proper summary of Episodes Luna and Noct to work from when I made my initial post, so I could only argue on a thematic level.

Knowing what I do now, I have an even more solid factual basis than I initially assumed.

See, I had assumed that Episodes Luna and Noct would hinge on choices made by Luna and Noct.  They don’t.  In fact, they don’t even hinge on a choice made by Ardyn (though his choice is used as an excuse to daemonify Luna).  The entirety of the AU hinges on a choice made by Bahamut over two thousand years prior to canon – the choice to annihilate humanity – which is utterly inconsistent with the canon ending.

Canon Bahamut gets what he wants, and humanity survives.  That alone is sufficient to prove that DotF serves to answer the question “What if Bahamut were evil?” rather than “What if Noct and Luna made different choices?”  And that is why it makes no sense to consider DotF canon.

[elizabethrobertajones]

I'm not saying you agree with that TLJ article since you tagged it 'mh', but I'm very worried but this latest trend 'Your opinion is wrong because of internalized ___'. Some movies just suck? Like, I hated Ghostbusters 2 because it was bad. I was perfectly okay with having four women as main characters, but that can't be your whole idea for a movie.

I do think that article is interesting, and trying to describe what is basically a wider cultural phenomenon. I’m sure on case by case basis you could rarely boil it down to just a few specific factors and “diagnose” someone except for really obvious lifelong character types who would be in the most obvious demographic. 

Star Wars *already* got a bunch of sexist and racist backlash before TFA, so it’s already in the bracket of movies which got thrown together as the collection of SJWs are ruining our childhood movies like Mad Max, Ghostbusters, etc, so it’s also definitely not like this is a wild stab in the dark that it has pre-existing tension, although in this case the reaction is still really split. But I can see why it’s easy to examine it this way and analyse where it might make people uncomfortable, and wonder to what degree people are prepared to let go of Leading White Man formula for mega blockbusters. 

Something like Wonder Woman, people know what they’re getting into when they see it in the sense that the franchise is completely built around there being a female character in the lead role. So that stands quite alone. And it’s not like there haven’t been action movies with female leads in the past either, but the re-casting in the case of Ghostbusters, or just development of interesting female characters who aren’t beholden to a cookie cutter template/romance arc within a supposedly male-dominated franchise (Furiosa, especially) and changing up old franchises to have more diverse cast (Star Wars) or just completely flip the “male is the default” idea like Ghostbusters and Oceans 8, are deliberately challenging and in some cases - the last 2 especially - are pretty much thumbing the nose to the idea of all-male casts being unremarkable and default. Whether the movies are *good* or not (I thought Ghostbusters was about on the level of, say, a Ghostbusters movie for quality and humour, so okay basically :P) they’re culturally significant at a time when it seems both bizarre and horrifically slow and backwards that we *still* don’t have *even just getting male and female representation right, never mind race and sexuality and disability representation* (I mean for that last point - in some ways these films are already going to be regressive by the time other progressive steps are made, for example Charlize Theron wearing a green screen glove to delete her arm, instead of just hiring an actress with half an arm which is the immediately less-expensive and fiddly route to get the aesthetic…)

But idk, it’s not even like Star Wars was either perfect or extremely progressive, it just managed *not* to have 2-3 white male leads + some other people in the background, and to allow the non white male people to have such a stake in the story they could mess up and make decisions that affected the fate of the galaxy - often negatively, as this is the ESB slot of the trilogy aka where everything is supposed to go in the toilet. There was a lot they could have done better and I’m still annoyed that Maz and Phasma both got pitifully tiny roles but were basically included despite the set up of the movie being extremely restrictive to much exploration and with probably the longest time limit they thought they could allow themselves and still sound like there were any tension in the chase… 

I think it’s definitely always worth exploring whether social issues are having an impact on the reception of a film, though, because it’s a way of addressing the issues in our society, which we *know* exist, and when a film is openly critical of our society, and then people are critical back at it, guessing there may be a nervous backlash from people it made uncomfortable for too-close-to-home reasons makes sense. The critique offered by Kylo Ren to edgy white masculinity is really interesting, and I think it’s probably not hard to imagine SOME people especially who fit the profile are reacting against him, or glorifying him anyway unironically while disliking large amounts of the rest of the movie. 

One of the points that article made as well was that other generic or bad films do much better with audience reaction - in fact some truly terrible films do really well as they’re marketed to a niche audience, and that audience gobbles them up and we get the inverse, of critically panned but audience ratings pretty high.

I mean, I’m assuming if you follow me you’re a Supernatural fan and so we’re all here to gobble up the melodramatic pretty boys :P

So, idk, I think in some ways the picking apart of the film and emphasising its flaws is happening in a strange social climate, where in some ways the discomfort about the film not catering with the most “easy” empathy of a white male main character & with flawed but interesting characters in the other roles particularly prone to being criticised in society for existing anyway and that the SW revival has already had one film threatened boycott over because of Finn being a black stormtrooper on his reveal, and I doubt that feeling has just magically gone away… There comes a point where I wonder how much is basically film review concern trolling when it comes to criticising his and Rose’s arc, or the film in general. 

And how much of the film’s real flaws, plotholes etc if they existed in an easier version of the film with all 4 Chrises in the major roles would take months or years to get properly dissected by the internet while it’s basically as soon as you go back online after the movie someone’s complaining about why Canto Bight even existed.

I mean my “Hm” was “this is interesting and I think it definitely could apply to the wider cultural reaction to the movies” while obviously on a personal level if people have certain standards for films (my dad hates basically *everything* so I don’t think his reaction to TFA was categorically racist or sexist, just that he would be inclined to think pretty much anything JJ Abrams makes is garbage and whoops I never should have naively made him watch the first episode of Fringe with me :P) then if any of these movies are things you can tell would have rubbed you up the wrong way anyway, e.g. you didn’t like the original Ghostbusters that much/have found it far cringey-er on adult rewatches etc then you are absolutely allowed to have a reaction to it on a personal level which is not a sign of the sickness of our society :P 

But I think even if you don’t like the new SW film, it’s worth putting aside your critiques of it for a moment to think about this article and the wider reaction - not to make you guilted into enjoying the film, but because it’s worth at least pondering the wider social issues the film’s already definitely caught up in since like, before TFA came out, so we can’t deny that there’s at least some portion of the audience, whether the loud but small group of assholes who utterly invisibly boycotted TFA, or the wider percentage of the population who’ll be consciously or unconsciously turned off by the cast and the power given to their characters in the story, and the possibly even wider percentage who may still struggle to empathise with female characters because Hollywood has so systematically underrepresented like, what can alternately be the literal largest demographic on the planet, and presented just plain old cis women as characters whose inner lives are valuable and decisions should be respected. 

I mean since I came out the movie I’ve been swinging back and forth on “should Holdo have just told Poe her plan or was the point that this man of a much lower station is getting all up in her business demanding to know and questioning her, and I assume that was intentional so I should agree with Holdo but would this have looked just as bad if a male admiral showed up doing the same thing and they accidentally undermine her by it being a bad decision in general, or is the point that if it had been a male admiral Poe would have shut up and not let an insurrection, but I mean it’s *Poe* and I love him and I totally understand and he was made out to be more sympathetic until *after* the twist so did they WANT us to be critical of Holdo or am I just falling into a trap of not giving female characters the same room to fuck up as male characters -” and that’s BEFORE I get onto the internet and read this debate for weeks, just my confusion about this arc and what it was saying and if it was meant to say one thing or the other or if it’s a bit of bad writing (but not something so bad it would ruin the film to the point of only 50% enthusiasm like Rotten Tomatoes is giving it - like, 93% or something :P) or if it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to by making my brain cogs go and making me feel I need to write like, a dozen female admiralty into things to allow Holdo a cultural sisterhood of good bad and ugly admirals to be her own person in instead of the only female admiral to ever stick in my head like this :P So idk. 

Hm. Basically.