#Yes I am gatekeeping what characters I'm talking about

[slimeybones]

Just thought about the most doomed ocxcanon

[isatartdump]

You draw them all so cool!!! And awesome!! But is that top surgery scars on loop 👀 (sorry I’m also curious were you thinking about anything specific when you drew them in casual clothes cause they all fit the characters So Well) sorry for bothering you I love your art

YES! I think Siffrin, Loop and Isa have top scars (CAN!! Do a stretch and say Odile has them too but I am not ready to think about it, I think she'll get more butch lesbian than she already is)… Lemme talk about them and hope I don't accidentally spoil the game HA

Loop's are more like how people usually draw top surgery scars? Mostly because I draw them by joining stars up, so it KINDA looks like stars blowing up!

I believe Isa left some really small scars just for the simbolism of finally being his authentic self or something… Since in vaugarde they transition (or honestly just find new ways to become themselves both physically and mentally) by using craft so I kinda headcanon it to be like… Treating your own body like it's made out of clay, people can just opt to have no scars whatsoever. Way easier than it is IRL, haha. I wish… Also I believe he'd put some tattoos on there to be stylish and handsome and pretty but I also don't know what kind of tattoo Isa would choose to get. If I do a modern AU I might think about it…

And Siffrin I'm. I'm working on it… I don't draw them shirtless often enough to think about it… But I see them as little lines that end on a small explosion at the end. Simple but gets a point across- More so a thing to remind him of how far they've gone rather than a thing that will be seen by other people but to fair isn't this what top scars are for us sometimes? Little reminders that things get better and how far we've come?

Now that the top scar ramble is over!!!!! Onto the thinking abotu something while drawing them casual... I was mostly thinking about clothes that would fit them in a sense of like. Fitting their body shape and just generally looked like they belong in their wardrobe. It's mostly about comfort and feeling like "Yeah they went to the store and bought that pair of pants". At least in my brain.

Making them look confident and comfortable in clothes that either fit their personality or what they usually wear kinda gets the overall feeling of "Yes of course Odile would wear that" methinks :) I'd say Loop is kinda the hardest one to dress in a way that... They would dress? Since they're. Nakey nakey the entire game but then you just work with what you think this sassy motherfucker (/aff) would wear. They have an absurd amount of personality that I think would be hard to not go into how they wear clothes

Loop my beloved. Was gonna gatekeep this last one but you guys can have it :) Also you don't bother! Thank you so much for liking my little thingies <3

[docholligay]

A relevant question was asked by @tallangrycockatiel about my love of Interview With the Vampire: "Um, why are you into something that is all about dudes, all the time? Is this us not being a bitch's bitch?" Only, she is English so she said it in a more polite, suggested sort of way.

A very fair question! It is extremely true that, by and large, a thing with men only is less interesting to me by far and it takes a lot more for me to get into it. But she was not put off by this, for she had developed a theory:

My two initial theories are that either it hit you early enough that that hadn't become such a strong preference, or that it has something to do with the fact that despite being 95% men the entire cast seems to be having what I can only describe as dyke drama the entire time.

She both knows me and is smart, so there we are. The answer is basically: YES.

I started reading the Vampire Chronicles when I was something around 13, and so I didn't really have an idea that it was kind of fucked up that men we treated as the only default interesting people on earth. I pretty much took it as an implicit truth, where I never would have SAID that, but, I was very much in what can only be described as a 'masculinity k-hole' where of course I wanted to be a 'tomboy' and the only way for a girl to be tough and cool was if she was 'just like a boy' and this whole idea that men and masculinity were superior vomit vomit vomit whatever I am perfectly capable of beating someone's ass in red lipstick but that line of thinking did not occur to me at the time.

So I had NO sensitivity to the idea that stories whose ENTIRE UNIVERSES centered around men might be even, annoying. Anne Rice straight up does not care about or like women, and it is absolutely reflected in the way she writes her female characters. I cannot IMAGINE someone reading these as a fully grown adult who thinks women are neat, actually, and not coming away going, "My god, what is happening in these books?" But when you grow up with something, it changes with you, and the ways you think of it aren't COMING from adult you, they are, at least in part, coming from YOUNG you. And, in much the same way A Song of Ice and Fire, which I read at a similar time, gave me what I wanted from fantasy and wasn't getting, this did as well. I did not know that it would have been what is now called urban fantasy, and I didn't know that was a thing I liked (I very much know that now) all I knew was, I liked it. It was batshit and felt dangerous and it was unhinged and very gothic, though, again, not a way I could have expressed it.

So I'm carrying all that --I'll say baggage even though that has a negative connotation--when I come to the work. I already pre-like it.

This can of course backfire, but it didn't, so, I'm not gonna get into that.

NUMBER TWO: The 'all dudes' thing is not insurmountable. It's a quality issue. I love Dan Simmons' work and his women are basically nonexistent. There are plenty of things I like that don't center women. But, the bar to entry is MUCH higher. I would never in my life willingly watch something like "sailor moon but boys though."

What Interview has, that I love, is a very rare thing: Well written, EXPLICITLY gay, and everyone is fucking terrible. It is an adult show for grown-ass adults where people fuck and murder and abuse each other. Armand is the physical manifestation of gaslight gatekeep girlboss. Louis rewrites an entire personal history to make himself look better and emotionally manipulates everyone he comes into contact with. Lestat is a hot tempered, vain dilettante who does shit without thinking and then has the audacity to go, "Oh no, the quencies!" Everyone sucks, everyone is abusive in one way or another, all the fucking exes overlap, and I LOVE IT. Anyone looking for a hero or victim is watching the wrong fucking show and I am SO HAPPY ABOUT IT.

I'll close with my response when we were talking about how fucking great Sarah Waters is, in relation to the above:

it took me forever to realize that I didn't actually want recommendations for lesbian fic, what I was actually asking is: So who is doing it like Sarah Waters? Which unfortunately is no one. The woman is my own personal oasis in the desert.

And God, it has taken me YEARS to convince people that I care so much less about whether or not something is gay than if it is GOOD. Does it say something TRUE, you know? Is it messy? Is it sometimes uncomfortable? I would fucking LOVE if it could be gay on top of these things, but I'll real here:

l'll read a good straight thing versus a bad and especially a fluffy gay thing

I LOVE that shit like REd, White and Royal Blue or coffee shop Aus or whatever exist for people who want them, but I am out for blood ahaha

I have a happy, boring, domestic gay life, i do not need to imagine what a life where your biggest argument is about the quantity and variety of fucking breakfast cereal (We have EIGHT. BOXES.)

[gemsofgreece]

What do you think of this video? It's good criticism i think but i'm asking beyond it's USA pov, what do you think specifically in regard to the "adaptations/americanizations of Greek Mythology" and these combative & arrogant attitudes & tactics towards not just their domestic audience disagreeing on some things from their USA perspective, but towards the people from whose civilization they stole, in order to "fix" it [insert clown face]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqO9Hp19_4

ANSWER

It is the exact same principle. Movie making these days is rarely done with passion and love for storytelling. Movies are mass produced to fan-bait audiences - especially late teens and 20somethings whom the movie industry is most dependent on right now. Just like superhero and fantasy movies have become pathetic in their majority, so has the Greek mythology-inspired content, which generally belongs to the same genre. It used to be portrayed more through sword-and-sandal films but not anymore. Now Norse and Greek gods are just some comical superheroes.

Nobody in the filmmaking industry can convince (or would even try to) that they do care about foreign cultures’ mythologies. It is just more content to exploit in order to excuse their lack of creativity and interest in making original characters. So they mass produce movies with well known characters who they don’t give a shit for. All they want is a field to apply all the qualities they need to check in the trending box, so that the "usual suspects" among young American fans will “clock in”.

That’s all there is to it really. Almost no moviemaker or retelling writer truly cares about the mythology or the culture. Not even to truly reshape it and manifest something through this - problematic as it may be - I doubt that even these excuses are any genuine. But this type of stuff sells somewhat (actually less than all these people are always confident it will though, as proven by the box office) and everyone wants a piece from the pie.

In short, entertainment industry nowadays is a few (ironically, often middle aged white) people sitting around a table and wondering: what is another field on which we can produce a dozen movies with no plot and originality and throw in the dog-whistles that will get us the viewers’ money with the minimum amount of effort needed? That is all it takes.

The combative attitude is what keeps them and their small groups of impassioned supporters going. When you hit them with accusations that are objectively true (ie inaccuracy, appropriation, bad plot, lack of talent, unsuitable cast), it’s hard for them to defend themselves against these so the combative attitude (oh you must be a racist, sexist, mythology gatekeeping nationalist etc) is their only way of reacting without admitting their shortcomings.

Having said that, I agree generally with the video and personally yes I didn’t like the remake of Ghostbusters and the new Star Wars but the thing is, at the risk of Bill Murray knocking down my door and humiliating me if he ever sees this, I don’t like the original Ghostbusters and the original Star Wars either. Unpopular I know! (I can still see the superior quality though.) Also I disagree about Black Panther, one of the last good superhero movies in my opinion. But I totally agree about the embarrassment the Rings of Power are and how much lack of self-respect you must have to produce this after Jackson’s Colossal Trilogy. All these are irrelevant to Greek matters but I felt like mentioning them since I watched the video after all.

I also totally agree about Mulan and I am going to talk about this a little here despite it being irrelevant to the blog’s theme. The live-action version of Mulan was supposed to be another addition to the feminist film pool. When I watched this movie, I felt offended. OFFENDED. They changed the plot in order to make Mulan have a “chi” gift by birth, or whatever it was called, which was making humans born with it have some superhuman abilities that were making them great warriors. The point those megamind film creators were obviously trying to make was “oh look a woman is born with the chi so women are equal to men yeah feminism uwu give us our woke money now”. I cannot explain how livid I was when I saw this. You see, in the real world women are not born with a chi and neither are men. Those shitheads tried to promote feminism by writing that at some point in a fantastical China a woman was born with a supernatural gift WHEN IN THE 90s ANIMATED “BACKWARDS” MOVIE Mulan was a regular everyday girl with no supernatural talents that managed to distinguish herself as the best soldier of China through insistence, perseverance, strenuous work, strategic intelligence and a sacrificial spirit for the sake of her family. Qualities that can actually be found and be further developed in real human beings. Do we all realise how regressive the live action movie is??? To me this was the opposite of feminist, despite knowing their intentions were the exact opposite and that is what often makes such movies so pathetic. This is why I often call such and other similar content counter-productive. The woke people being all aggressive and combative in supporting those movies or the modern retellings do not realise how horrible and dangerous they often unknowingly are to all these causes. And by changing gods and mythological characters and making the female ones girlbosses by default and the male ones convicted feloners or something, what exactly do they think they achieve in the long-term??? Will the world's poc's rights be respected or will the femicides decrease if, say, Circe is a wronged girlboss and Odysseus is written as an asshole? They will achieve exactly nothing, the consumers will eventually turn their backs on them anyway sooner or later. They are only earning more and more contempt from the people of these cultures they play with so carelessly. Well done, I guess????

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Austen Asks: 6, 12, 18, 24

6. Favorite movie adaptation

If we are including all movie and tv adaptations: I think Emma 2009 still reigns supreme in my heart. There's so many interesting interpretations of the text here that are plausible and yet not necessarily the ones one would think of first? It's a difficult balance of modern and faithful and I think it nails it really well.

If it is only movies... I'll pick a tv one and a cinema one (because I insist these are often separate categories enough).

Surprisingly, for the cinema one, I'm going for Love and Friendship? Epistolary novels are not easy to adapt? and it is an extra challenge to work with a main character like Lady Susan, and make her interesting to follow while not falling into girlboss-gaslight-gatekeep? And it's also not easy to shape Austen juvenilia into something workable this way' But they did and did really well?

I find I really like many of the tv movies XD ITV's Emma doesn't win because its Daviesisms bring it down, but otherwise, I really vibe with it. Northanger Abbey 2007 is much better than it has any right to be. The 1995 Persuasion is iconic for a reason. It's difficult to pick between those three.

12. Least favorite Austen heroine

This one is always a harsh question because I do truly love them all, and it makes it sound like I dislike one of them if I rate it less favorite. But I'll play along and say it is a tie between Fanny and Jane Fairfax, if she counts. It isn't really about finding them dull or boring or too uptight, but that I feel we wouldn't be friends. Sometimes they veer into Darcy's "my good opinion once lost is lost forever", and unlike Elinor, they tend to make little show of concealing it. Which, you know, it is justifiable in their circumstances, but would be exhausting to deal with (as I'd probably feel like I'm walking on eggshells around them. I often make blunders I regret soon enough, but I don't think they'd easily forgive or forget).

18. Moment that made you smile/happy while reading

So many, of course, but the first that comes to mind is Knightley's proposal. Yes, yes, we all talk about "if I loved you less I might be able to talk about it more" but what about "for dearest you will always be, whatever the event of this hour’s conversation, my dearest, most beloved Emma" and "you know what I am.—You hear nothing but truth from me." and "Yes, you see, you understand my feelings—and will return them if you can."? the whole thing is such an in-crescendo of joy and I clearly need to reread soon.

24. Already answered, but let's this time give a shoutout to Miss Bates, poor, hated miss Bates! She's doing the absolute best of a really trying and bleak life situation and she doesn't get enough credit for it, in this world of Mrs Bennet apologia and even Mr Collins apologia!!!

From this ask game.

[quillkiller]

for the hot takes thing:

idk if they are hot takes on this blog tbh because the tumblr fandom has messed up my perception of what is popular and what is not but anyway here they are

i do not give a fuck about dorlene. i cant see it. it very often seems like forced lesbian representation to me. like, oh, lets throw them in here so that people dont say maybe i should have some sapphic women in my art if im trying to write about the queer experience. i read only one fic in my entire life that made them interesting and fleshed out characters. usually they are incredibly boring and i dont like it

marauderstok makes me a gatekeeper. i hate gatekeeping but then i see someone on tiktok talking about bartylily or sunkiller or moonrose or peter x barty and i just cant deal with that. they dont get them!!!! i dont even like most of these ships that much but i have moots that do and im overly protective of their blorbos. those people on tiktok dont understand bartylily!!! they are just into it cause it seems weird and unusual!! they dont see the vision of the pure hatred between barty and james that turns into sexual tension! they dont understand why barty would fall in love with peter and they try to make all of these ships into sketches!!! they are not!! those are my children youre talking about!!!

i am not a james fan tbh. probably because of how long ive hated him for. when i was a child and read hp for the first time the scenes with snape made me despise the guy. i spent years trying to explain to people that yes maybe he changed but he was still a terrible bully and nothing can ever excuse that. it got so bad my mom banned me from talking about james potter in our house because ive just said the same things over and over. 9yearold me was very determined. i know that all the marauders were involved but somehow it only affects my relationship with james. i know it unlogical but i just dont like him

on the topic of marauders and sev. i HATE the way fandom acts about it. acknowledge that your favorite characters were flawed! they weren't good people! what the fuck do you mean "i'm proud of james for bullying snape! someone had to do it. snape was just so bullyable"?? snape was a 11year old kid who was incredibly abused at home!!

again on the topic of severus. if i see one more joke made about his hair i'm going to go insane. are you guys aware that sometimes children are neglected so bad that their parents don't teach them things that are obvious to most of us, like how to wash your hair? have you heard about this concept of people not caring about their child and not buying them hygiene products? have your heard about poverty? have you heard about not having enough money to provide your child with all the things they need, including shampoo?

sorry for all that about sev. i am just very passionate about the way he's treated in this fandom. on the topic of characters being treated poorly by the fandom - dumbledore. some people truly believe that it's all his fault which is just so weird to me. he's obviously a deeply flawed man who made a lot of mistakes and i don't necesserily like him but i think we can all acknowledge that he's not the one who killed lily and james? like. he should've fought harder for sirius, obviously, but he didn't murder dorcas. he's not the ultimate villain that people make him out to be

i realise this is more about the fandom than the characters itself and i apologize it's just what's currently on my mind

whew lets get into it……

agreed. they often feel like the token lesbians that are just. already there. so might aswell just throw them into the story lmao and they wont have to flesh them out. i like my own version of dorlene, but yeah :/ people just aren’t interested in lesbians but what else is new

PEOPLE ON TIKTOK ARE TALKING ABOUT BARTLILY ????? jesus…………..

honestly i respect this so much... your mom banning you from talking about james made me laugh out loud…… Mad Respect

honestly. im very grey in this area. i like making fun of his hair unfortunately, but in other contexts i also think sevs greasy hair has a swaggy seductive lesbian flair. depends on how he’s being characterized. i saw a post today that was like ’cant help but laugh at people being angry about people objectifying fictional characters when they’re fundamentally dependant on being objects’ which i fully agree with. it’s part of litterature and film making that the (im gonna talk in film terms bc im a film student) that the mise-en-scene is an active choice, meaning that the way characters are dressed and presented is meant to, on purpose, reveal things about said characters. and often its driven by stereotypes that the audience has. severus is meant to look like a loser because he’s portrayed like a loser / and as someone who will be the victim of bullying. its simply the way his characters is canonically written and portrayed, and writers and viewers pick up on that. also im unfortunately one of the people who think bullying fictional characters is funny. it’s fictional and fandom, and never once have i stumbled upon a person who can’t balance the made-up fandom rules regarding fictional characters and their actuail real life morals. not saying these people don’t exist, but i certainly don’t kiki with them. fandom just doesnt affect real life issues in way some people sometimes seem to think. im personally a severus Lover and his biggest hater depending on the setting/hc’s/etc

i love albus, but i love him because i genuinely think he’s despicable. im not interested in his supposed reedming qualities and i personally dont think he has any….. he allowed teenagers to fight his wars and canonically didnt deny that he doesnt care for harry / and that he raised him like a pig for slaughter. its what makes him interesting. his childhood and early adult years make him one of the most fascinating characters in the fandom.. like i have so many feelings about him. he breaks my heart, he’s awful, he believes he’s good because he has good intentions, he yearns after grindelwald all his life and it was a 2 month summer romance, he killed his sister, his brother barely speaks to him. he’s a tragedy, but still despicable…… but i respect your opinion so much king thank you for sharing

MWAH loved these, thank you…. 🤍🤍

[hadeon]

Ooc: another announcement/boundaries

I come back here after noticing a weird phenomenon in the fandom. Yes I did leave, even blocking tags and unfollowing a lot of people, and this is coming especially from some friends who realised it as well, since I totally cut everything with the fandom and I don't really know what's going on lately.

What "phenomenom" I'm talking about? The blantantly copying, of course.

What I mean by that is that some of us realised that some people in the fandom, instead of coming up with original ideas, decide to shamelessly copy our concepts and make it their own. And it's not only with others who deoncelerized, no, sometimes it's even with ocs who are still -lers.

Now don't get me wrong, I think gatekeeping especially in the art community is disgusting, I cannot stand people who are like "you're not allowed to use the same poses or colors as I do." Because it's absolutely stupid, you cannot copyright things such as colors or poses.

But when it's about characters... It's a little more delicate. Especially in such a small fandom, where it's impossible that it is a "coincidence" if your character happens to have the same gimmick or color palette as another.

Maybe for some of you, it's alright if someone gets inspired by your oc to make their own, and it's your choice. But listen: if you really want to use the same gimmick as another oc, maybe ask first? Instead of blantantly taking the concept and claiming it your own, making people believe it's your original idea when it's pretty obvious you just ctrl c ctrl v someone else's oc. And what's the most hurtful is to see that these "bootlegs" are often more popular that the originals.

So I'm coming here to put a quick boundary:

Please, even if I left the fandom, do not shamelessly copy Ranler's concept. If you really want some kind of radioactive oc, please be original. Come up with your own concept and idea, and do not, under any circumstances, copy anything I did, I'm just not ok with that. I've been here since early 2021, been working on my oc for so long, and I would be really upset if someone copy paste his whole concept and design and claim it at their own.

Along these lines, I am also not ok if you "impersonate" Ranler. What I mean by that is, I'm not ok if you roleplay as him, or create a blog acting as him (example: I left the fandom but you still want a Ranler onceler blog, so you make one yourself). It makes me really uncomfortable. I don't really think anyone would be THAT attached to him, since I got lot of hate when I first made him, but tbh I'm just writing all that as a "I warned you" if I see anyone copy my stuff and use it as their own. Don't cry if I DM you saying you copied me. Like I said, this fandom is so tiny you CAN'T pretend it's a coincidence, it's simply impossible, and it makes me really uncomfortable to see some of my friends' concepts are being shamelessly ripped off and they somehow get more popular [isnt it funny how the 2021/2022 wave felt excluded and our concepts disliked but now so many people copy them? Crazy]

Anyway, that was just me writing down my boundaries. If you read this, I really hope you understand. And if you're reading this and copied someone's oc, I really hope you reconsider what you are doing, and maybe ask the original owner if they are ok with it, and do not be upset if they tell you to stop, you should respect people's boundaries, and you'll always be at fault for shamelessly copying an idea someone spent months or more writing.

-grem

[rainbowtvz]

simp is aave. stop misusing aave. (literally just look up "what is aave carrd" and figure it out.)

doubles is a kinnie term. as a kin myself, yes i am gatekeeping that word. people who share your f/os are not doubles because it inherently implies that you AND the sharer are somehow the same person whether that's both BEING your f/o or you have the same s/i. you are not using it correctly. it's annoying and confusing. doubles is a derogatory term anyway for people who share your kins that you do not like. (kintwins would be for people you do like.)

^ i've been on kinblr and numerous other otherkin AND fictionkin spaces i know what i'm talking about.

minority coding is important. if your f/o is coded as being a minority and you do not acknowledge that then you need to re-examine that. yes this is about trans headcanons too.

^ two examples: chihiro from dangan ronpa being a poorly written but widely accepted transfem character. and danny phantom having a common headcanon as being transmasc. the first one if you discard chihiro being a transfem and make her a guy, cis or trans, it's erasing her identity. this is transmisogyny at worst and ignorant as fuck at best. the second one if you discard this headcanon or make it so danny is transfem instead, it has no greater impact or implication of prejudice or bigotry. vice versa, their headcanons about danny's gender has literally 0 impact on your interpretation of his character and his gender. you do not have to subscribe to those headcanons and can go with your own or go with canon, but you need to re-examine why exactly you very specifically do not like those headcanons.

^ people projecting transness onto characters they like is often to find representation in them, or for coping, or both, to deny them of that because you simply disagree is.. odd and speaks volumes. cis selfshippers please think critically about that. i feel a lot of you are detached from overall fandom ettiquette and common ways for queer people to engage with media outside of the hyperspecific bubble that is selfshipping. we're all gonna annoy each other (selfshippers and nonselfshippers) at some point but painting yourself as being transphobic because you view your f/o as cis Only is only going to cause you grief. let people enjoy things. you don't have to look at it, just like they don't have to look at your stuff. this is okay.

plaese for the love of god please stop putting your vents in the community tags. (i've blocked or have been blocked by a majority of the people who do this but its making it feel dreary here.)

if u harass others for doing/saying something you don't like or agree with or for someone having an opinion about something you care about or about you in particular (that they aren't even being public about) then you suck and maybe u should at least take a break if not just leave entirely. (sideeyes some people)

blocking is a tool to affirm boundaries. people are allowed to block whoever they want, whenever they want, for whatever reason they want. and it's okay for you to do the same. it's okay for people to not like each other. not everybody IS going to like you and that's okay too.

callouts are for people doing active harm, or people who HAVE done active harm who have not grown and changed as a person since they did it. nobody care if they vagued u bc u share an f/o. practice utilizing the blocking tool. ^ this is not about wishing harm on others or stalking this is about petty shit that does not fall under that lol

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

pro/com/etc shippers please smash your computer into dust no one likes you or wants you here

[m4rs-ex3]

ok i dont mean to get political on main but am i the only one who sees august as more than, idk, hitler? like i find him a very compelling character. and in zero ways whatsoever am i justifying a lot of his actions.

ok yes i will say i despised him for all of season 1. he was irritating, possessive, manipulative, bitchy, and i think we all know what topped it off. i mean it is worth noting that he was sorry. you could see it on his face the second he found out wille wasn't just trying to hurt him (which is what he had just done to him.) that being said he couldn't've possibly done worse with this regret, but... still.

obviously season 2 is where it gets good. the regret that he surpressed has clearly gotten to him, and of course wille is just having the time of his fucking life (as he should.) this is where i am choosing to insert my analysis of his relationship with sara.

so. um. iii. i. i like them. I FUCKING SAID IT. i mean i do not understand how on earth sara fell for him but i'm not mad that she did. seeing august--who has previously never really developed a relationship without an ulterior motive--get tripped by her. in a way she tought him to actually talk to people. and seeing him in love with her, like IN. LOVE., def started to turn me. and i'm sorry but we can talk about the scene where he's getting ready for her to come over before the ball bc idc that shit has me a puddle on the floor its precious.

aaaaannnnnddd that's where he slips again. but him ratting out wille to alexander just proves that everything he does it fulled by impulse, envy, and fear.

but him buying rosseau was another thing that made me like "AWWWW omg he does have feelings! my guy rlly out here experiencing empathy. ok mr loverman i see u" too bad he pulled the rug out from under me when he presented this information to sara while she was ACTIVELY running away after very clearly expressing he was dead to her. thought that counts ig

still he almost fully reverts in ep 6 by plotting, lying, blackmailing, conniving, gaslighting, gatekeeping, and in the end he couldn't even girlboss. lemme play you a sad song on the world's smallest violin.

in conclusion he's a stupid whore but he's a stupid whore with issues and i do not think he deserves b*n h*pe treatment. he doesn't deserve too much better tho.

[whenyoulosesmallmind]

I fratelli Karamazov 1969 [EP1] - Fëdor Pavlovič's birthday and the arranging of a meeting

More than a month since the first installment, I bring you... another five minutes of Karamazovian drama.

part one | part two (you are here!) | part three

Some sparse notes before the translated transcripts start under the cut: 1. usual disclaimer that I'm not a professional, just an amateur, and am doing this out of pure insanity -- if you want to discuss translation related things or have some corrections, my inbox is open and your thoughts are welcomed <3; 2. I actually wanted to get to Smerdjakov and Ivan's scene with this bunch, but I belathedly realised that it was too much of a bulk for me to undertake at once, so I decided it would have to go with the next bulk of scenes -- it makes sense, Ivan's preparing fot Katya's soiree and next there will be Katya's soiree; 3. I've decided that, bar future requests and/or my change of mind, I'll proceed with the translation in the chronological order of scenes and when I'll be done with a whole episode I'd like to see if I can manage to submit this stuff to some of the people who've uploaded the episodes on youtube, so that non italian speaker peeps can enjoy them subbed -- or I might just upload them myself, I'll see, it's just an idea for now; 4. did I say I love the drama sets? because I do. Look how cluttered and lived in they look! 5. You might not spot him on a first watch, but Smerdjakov is present during the birthday scene! He keeps to the side in the first shot and you can only see him from the back, but he is there -- and yes, he has a bowlcut; 6. I've kept some speaking quirks in the transcripts -- the ehs, ehms, mmhs, and hics -- because I feel they help get a feeling of the character just as the bare stage directions do. Plus, in the case of Fëdor Pavlovič -- Karamazov sr. in the transcript -- really do drive home how he's trying to gaslight gatekeep girlboss his own sons; 7. the more I rewatch the more I want to bite Umberto Orsini.

A propos of actors, here are: Salvo Randone as Fëdor Pavlovič, Mark Hamill Carlo Simoni as Alëša Karamazov, Corrado Pani as Dmitrij Karamazov, Umberto Orsini as Ivan Karamazov and Antonio Salines as Smerdjakov.

Original script by Diego Fabbri, directed by Sandro Bolchi.

You can follow watch the drama here on YT or here on RaiPlay -- I suggest the latter, it's free and it's the original source, but youtube's still there if you prefer.

[INT. – AT THE KARAMAZOV’S/DINING ROOM] min. 5:54

(sounds of applause; the family is reunited around the dining table)

Karamazov sr.: Ah…! Grigorij, put it here.

(Grigorij leaves the birthday cake in front of Karamazov sr.)

Alëša: (is talking about the candles on the cake) This tallest one is the half century and these other six are the years: fifty-six!

Karamazov sr.: Fifty-six, eh? That’s right, and you think they’re too many, eh? – but you’ll see how I prove myself, look: I’ll blow them out in a single breath. (blows on the candles)

(more applause; Karamazov sr. laughs)

Karamazov sr.: (cont.) And now… I’ll have to cut this beautiful cake. Eh… it really is beautiful; and the biggest slice – and the most beautiful too, I’d say, look at this red candied fruit – the biggest slice I want to offer to my eldest son Dmitrij! Not because he’s the firstborn, no, I don’t care about these things, but to show him proof that I really don’t have anything against him… Dmitrij, I don’t have anything. I want to tell you today in the presence of your brothers; It’s so rare being together like this: one is always at the monastery, another is always traveling, already about to leave for Moscow – but I say, what is so entertaining in Moscow (laughs) that you don’t have here beside your loved ones… eh?

(to Dmitrij, sitting on his left) Here it is�� (serves him the cake) here it is, and let there be peace between us, mh? Do you want to?

Dmitrij: Of course I want to – but let’s not talk about what’s dividing us, we might ruin the party and I… don’t want to. I hope you’re not thinking all will be quiet because of a slice of cake. 

Karamazov sr.: (snorts) See! (slams a hand on the table) You heard him too, eh? You tell me, you all say if it’s me who doesn’t want peace… you say it.

Dmitrij: (gets up) I beg your pardon. (exits scene)

[INT. – AT THE KARAMAZOV’S/LIVING ROOM] min. 8:23

(Karamazov sr. is sitting in an armchair with Alëša on a couch by his side, Ivan is standing not too far from them. Smerdjakov is standing by a table near Karamazov sr., downs a glass of liquor – unseen by the others? – and leaves the scene)

Karamazov sr.: Now, I guarantee you – and I could show you legal papers, valuation of assets… everything, in short – that before the law I don’t owe a ruble more to your brother Dmitrij. What I owed him for his mother’s heritage was given to him, it’s on him if he dilapidated it. Hic!

Ivan: Let’s say that you’re right before the law and that no one could force you to give anything to Dmitrij… now I ask you if you really believe that you’ve given him everything in accord with the fair value of things: Dmitrij argues that you’ve robbed him like the worst of strangers, he argues that with the twenty-eight thousand rubles of the heritage you’ve gained, dealing with them, at least one hundred thousand.

Karamazov sr.: (grumbles) That was thanks to me, what does it matter? Eh! The net of the heritage was recognised as twenty-eight thousand roubles and I gave to your brother Dmitrij twenty-eight thousand roubles – not one less! My position is then clean.

Alëša: But do you think it right, father mine, to keep all the earnings made with his money?

Karamazov sr.: The law is on my side!

Alëša: Let the law be, Mitja knows too that on that side he won’t make one ruble more, and in fact he didn’t bring you before the tribunals – but it’s from the conscience, in this case, that you must let yourself be guided: Dmitrij is your son and you have to behave with him like a father… good and rightful. 

Karamazov sr.: Here it is, here it is, the voice of the monastery! And I don’t want to shut my ears when my little seminarist is talking: come on, let’s hear it, what is that you have to propose. 

Alëša: I don’t know, but it’s important that you don’t refuse Dmitrij’s requests as you have done until now; discuss them together and surely you will find a solution.

Karamazov sr.: Na-h! I’m telling you, my child, that the two of us – me and Dmitrij, I mean – won’t ever find any solution, because we’re cut from the same cloth, after all… we’re Karamazovs and we don’t want one to win over the other (he smiles slyly) that’s why… I forward a proposal that will surprise you.

Ivan: Let’s hear the proposal.

Karamazov sr.: I’m willing to put this matter in the hands of a righteous man that won’t be either on mine, nor on his side.

Ivan: And who would this man be, (with a harsh tone) does he exist?

Karamazov sr.: You’re wrong, Ivan, to speak like you do (gets up to get some liquor from a nearby table) – and with that tone! You’re wrong to not believe in a man’s justice anymore.

(to Alëša) What would you say, Alëša, if I’d propose as “other”, judge without appeal, your teacher?

Alëša: Father Zosima?!

Karamazov sr.: You said it. Let him decide – they say he’s righteous, no? They even say he’s a saint. Me, I don’t know, but you, my child, know him surely better than I do – me that, without being a miscreant, am still a great sinner. And so, would you like it? Father Zosima? Beh, what he’ll decide, after hearing our reasoning, will be done. I pledge to follow his verdict even if it’ll be entirely against me, I promise. Rather, do you think that your brother will accept?

Alëša: I hope so!

(to Ivan) What do you say, Ivan?

Ivan: It’s an idea…

(to Karamazov sr.) I see that you don’t lack imagination when you want to, not even generosity.

Karamazov sr.: (laughs) You’re surprised, eh? It's because you don’t know him, your old father! And you don't respect him – but I’ll show you, if we go up with Mitja to the sanctuary, I’ll show you!

Alëša: I’ll think about arranging the meeting!

Karamazov sr.: Good! You all come, eh, all of you, all of you, I want everybody to be there, you will only give me time and date and I’ll be ready like… like a humble pilgrim climbing to the sanctuary to receive grace.

(to Ivan) And you mustn’t miss it! Even if you lack faith. Eh… I know, I know that you don’t believe in God anymore… a father understands everything; but you have to be there too, as… as a witness, eh? Would you like to? Be a witness?

Ivan: I’ll be there, don’t doubt it. (exits scene)

Karamazov sr.: (to Smerdjakov, who came near him bringing a lit candle, with a complaining air) Why did you want to break this atmosphere… it was so good in the dim light, you couldn’t see the faces – and it was better – now, instead…

Smerdjakov: I lit them up because it was time, Master–

Karamazov sr.: (angry) It has to be me to say it, when it’s time! Remember it, another time.

[multitrackdrifting]

A long write-up on AI Art

I do actually go out of my way to read pro-ai art takes, and hell I will be the first to say that something like the infinite seinfeld twitch channel is funny (of course, when they're not running a backup bot that gets cancelled for making insensitive jokes)

but at the end of the day I will never really budge on my dislike for AI-Art, because ultimately pro-ai art and anti-ai art stances often are talking about two entirely different things. as someone that criticises AI art quite regularly, I am firmly commited to the idea that consqeuences matter the most, whereas most of the people who are pro-ai art treat AI simply as a tool and its people that are abusing it as well as the economic structure that incentivises its use. there is merit to both stances, but the thing i will never advocate for is putting aside the feelings of artists as if it is not a morally relevant factor, and i don't mean their fears, i mean their belief that all of a sudden tonnes and tonnes of people are experts on anti-art gatekeeping and democratizing access to art creation but it's like, nobody is really concerned with those ethically trained self-programmed joints that use public domain works, because those aren't the ones being sold to people - the ones that make pixiv, deviant art and other sites completely fucking unusable unless you opt out of seeing them manually. that flood the tags of an obscure character you like, that condition people to think that your art is worth less because they can parameter punch and produce something that is more "detailed" on a technical level and how that affects how art consumption is treated psychologically

if you can press a button and get anything you want, i have sen people say that this sounds good as shit and why would you hate it - and the answer is pretty fucking simple:

because it ignores what you pay to get it, and i wish pro ai-art people would not just toss that to the side when measuring up the weight of people's feelings about even an infinitismally small percentage of their art being used to train an ai to produce something and they will say some shit like oh, well, would you want to give Mr. MIckey Mouse himself the ability to copyright forms of expression and stop influence from happening, and its like brother, influence is like me growing up being inspired by the power rangers, a machine aggregating datasets to understand a "thing" is borrowing the works of tonnes of people without their consent to produec a new original thing that is "fair use" even though you the individual did not apply any of your own craftsmanship to transform the works that inspired you. references, inspiration and all this other shit, they are all permissible ways of producing art that isn't plagiarism, but we're in a realm where people are unironically arguing that these machines are not committing any wrongdoing because it might be legal for them to do so but i thought we fucking understood at this big old age that laws are not inherently a metric of what is right or what is just?

I don't give a shit about copyright laws, I just want people to stop brazenly shitting on the crafts of artists, and I'm not gatekeeping when I say that, I never said you had a barrier to entry to be one - why is it so easy for people to say "I should be allowed and even encouraged to press the button because I can", it's not really democratizing art because you have a idea materialisation button at your disposal

I'm not fascinated with the debate of "real art" or whatever the fuck, a lot of you are stuck on really really asinine debates to derail the conversation about the practical outcomes of AI art and machine-learning being as dangerous as it is

AI art can be used to wholesale plagiarise someone's art style, you can literally stipulate that it does that for you because of the nature of parameter refinement, and yes even if it breaks TOS there are ways to jailbreak inputs on ChatGPT so I don't even delude myself into thinking it's not possible with Stable Diffusion/Midjourney.

Machine-Learning/AI is also used to develop pornography of famous figures without their consent

Netflix funded an animated short where a human drew the reference base for backgrounds that were then AI-generated, then cleaned up, but credited the fucking artist as AI (+Human) without naming the uhman. A creator who works on Netflix cartoons even chimed in and look at this fucking fucking cooked interaction

AI Art was famously used to produce works trained on the style of Kim Jung Gi not even a day after he had passed away.

And, I feel the need to mention it - Linkin Park's new video, instead of producing a style reminiscent of Production IG's Breaking The Habit MV they input footage, alongside "reference images" drawn over the band members to produce an AI Art MV - the precise details of how those generators work are not super clear to me, but we still got the six fingers and all that.

I'm literally so puzzled as to why people are stuck on the following ideas:

Well we shouldn't do anything about it because that would entail copyright laws strengthening.

People can plagiarise by hand

Vocaloid is ok but AI voice isn't (an especially stupid argument)

AI is just a tool so there's no need to get mad at it

i) We don't need copyright laws to strengthen when you literally see every 2nd mfing artist on twitter saying how they don't consent to their works being used to train AI - there's a lack of regulation between art platforms that offer up your works for training as an opt-out instead of an opt-in. People were mad as fuck with Adobe (who loosely worded their policy) and CSP for this

ii) So because plagiarism exists without the assistance of AI we should shrug then when it happens at the press of a button when someone types in (parameters x, ... z) (your best friend's artstyle) (some fucked up concoction of fetishes) then right? Of fucking course not

iii) People who say vocaloid is a supporting argument for AI/voice synthesising using AI are just plain stupid. Vocaloid is more like an instrument but some people mistakenly believe it's like TTS and just pops off by itself. The tuning and more technical details of producing with it are so fucking demanding that usually the person doing the tuning isn't the only person working on the damn song lmao

iv) AI IS JUST A TOOL, but we all live under capitalism and yes it entices people to do exploitative things because art is a labour market and not merely a medium and people have to do it to live but its exactly because we are explicitly aware of this that we can realistically foresee how smaller artists who do live off commission work, off prints, going to cons and setting up tables to make money and shit are going to be affected. It's already cropping up at cons just as plagiarised art was already a problem, but you know what happens now - it's even easier to sell something you did not even make for money, and do not argue to me that people should be allowed to do that. I've seen how brutal tabling at cons can be even with the extensive exposure, people will literally tell you to your face that your prints aren't worth it or that they're too expensive and walk over to Plagiarism Booth 57 and buy unauthorised prints

Lets not wax on about this topic as some ideological plaything that only has meaningful discussion when we look at it in a vacuum

Shit like this is novel in a vacuum, but it's fucking harmful in the context of our world that you literally cannot separate yourself from

In a world literally built around content consumption and algorithmic training, how would you feel when the novelties of parameter entry completely drown you underneath the torrent of irrelevance because your heartfelt pieces get 1000 likes as opposed to an AI generated picture of Joan of Arc with some gigantic breasts (and before you say this argument is irrelevant, recommendations is literally the forefront of content consumption in the modern internet. On twitter it is topics, on YouTube it is the home page. Even if the two styles of art don't correlate, do the artists drawing pinups and other shit not deserve to have a living or st?). You might think that's funny to say, but image/art sites have already been plagued by AI art - no reason YouTube and Twitter are not steadily going down the same road.

Maybe it's not the most eloquent analogy, but we're literally saying that packet ramen is just as valuable as making it from scratch, art is difficult to define, but I won't accept that AI Art shoudl be welcomed with open arms just as the numerous artists on twitter will

The most toxic rhetoric borne out of this whole "tech fetishism" people have with AI art on tumblr right now is that to make your idea more palatable, you have to belittle hand-made art and resent artists who practice their skill as if they're the same gatekeepers like wacom and shit who make digital art equipment too expensive, or the pc manufacturers that priced lower budget pcs out of viability. There's a number of issues that are worth discussing, but nothing makes my blood boil more than people belittling the actual time and effort people put into becoming artists. That shit is not talent, it is literally a skill that those people trained for YEARS and YEARS and people are unironically arguing that society is better off if they can get it at the press of a button. NO it's not comparable to "if I had to suffer, then you do too", and no it's not like people who paid for college nad other people going for free. stop fucking saying that. That is a false equivalence that is completely tossing out an argument for the wrong reasons. Nobody is saying you have to suffer to be an artist, and I wish this stopped being used as a cudgel in this discussion. We are legit talking about practical consequences for artists both amateur (as in non-industry), and professional and how that might ruin the labour market, cause yes, WE DO HAVE TO THINK ABOUT THAT IN A PRACTICAL SENSE

I'm not saying AI Art cannot make some interesting and valuable results in every single context, just that people have to disregard the feelings of artists to actually conceive of the idea that it's not a fucking good thing when you can flood the algorithm-driven web out with generated images.

I'm not fascinated in arguing that people don't care because they are not real artists, that shit isn't productive, but nothing is more hollow than pretending you care about the virtues of art and art consumtpion then unironically shrugging at the ethical problems that exist with all the most prolific art generators and saying "but it lets me get the image I want". Do you even know how personal an artstyle that people create and the artworks they make in it can be to people? People are allowed to define their boundaries why the fuck do you think you're entitled to their discomfort as a necessary cost of the cool new thing you want to play with?

It was funny when we just did shit like Imposter in Skyrim or something with DALL-E, but now it's just spun out of control. Under the systems we live in, the corruption will invariably ruin a beautiful thing and I'm just so tired of how unserious this conversation is

[athousandbyeol]

true that nitpicking everything everything forcebook does as 'romantic' is kind of absurd from my pov also coz there are times when i see romanticised fanedits of FB (not their characters) and be like *scrunched up confused face* isn't that just normal between best friends and yes as you said "everyone is open to ship or support their favourite artists. but there must be boundaries set. after all, we're all humans." THERE MUST BE BOUNDARIES SET. and ive said this before (replied to one of the tweets) that even though i am happy and love the fact that my babies are getting the love support recognition they deserve (COZ THEY FREAKING DESERVE IT WAS SO LONG OVERDUE) i also wanna gatekeep them knowing how toxic and invasive the growing fandom would get further down the line (ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY GAIN MORE RECOGNITION including exposure to fans from other fandoms FROM P'JOJO'S ONLY FRIENDS coz let's be real its the most awaited series of 2023) and we have plenty of evidences for the same and i don't want that for them they are precious babies (yes they are grown men and my age I WILL BABY THEM) they don't deserve this kind of shit

thank you for listening to my rant again and thank you for your time and your reply and your tag (ive never been called cute on the internet by a stranger - i mean it in a good way) I am just too chicken to talk non-anonymously my social interaction skills are other negative scale i either talk too much and make things awkward or talk nothing and make things awkard anyways thank you again

my tag for you #thankyouforyourtime #youarecutetoo #iwillfollowyoursuggestedblogprofiles

agreed, op. honestly. honestly. i do understand if they nitpick every interaction forcebook shares and idealise it as 'romantic'. i guess many are still not familiar with skinship among many actors/actresses in gmmtv (and generally in thai/k-pop entertainment industry). i think it's quite common in thai/k-pop society for men to be touchy with each other. maybe some find this new and they can't help but think "two guys can't just be friends," when in fact they can. shipping is fun and sometimes i like to indulge in these delusions too but that's just that and i have to know when to stop. because whatever it is in our heads isn't what they are in reality. we don't know everything about them so it's best not to assume and accept them as they are. that's more than enough.

op, i feel like almost all foxmochis want to gatekeep forcebook from toxicity because like you said, we know how ugly it can be once these people lay their hands on forcebook :( although it's good for them to be recognised and loved (i think only friends will be one of their many breakthrough roles because it's so different from their previous projects), we can't help but feel anxious... just because... these two are wonderful people and we can't bear seeing them as victims of unhealthy shipping shenanigans and baseless rumours. i hope that won't happen. it may look impossible, but i hope it won't.

no problem :) i'm open to listening to anyone's thoughts, especially when it comes to the actors i like. you can hit my inbox anytime (if talking to me privately makes you feel queasy. i totally understand that!) because i like knowing what goes on in every pretty head out there. and of course, you are cute. :)

yeah, feel free to follow them. i hope we can have fun together, especially when only friends start airing. until then, take care, op. :)

[transmansplainer]

Yeah, so, PhD in English Literature chiming in here.

I wrote my dissertation on Victorian literature and the birth of science fiction. I have a pedigree, credentials, 24 conferences, and over 20 classes taught under my belt.

So when I tell you that fanfic is real art and absolutely fucking based, I know exactly what the fuck I am talking about.

First, fanfic is old... like, stupid old. We can talk about derivative literature, or get into all the stories which are just reframing mythological narratives. We could talk about how Frankenstein is Paradise Lost but better, or how much "art" is derived from popular narrative. But pretty much as long as we've been telling stories, we've been listening to them and thinking, "huh... I wonder what would happen if...?" And boom! Fanworks.

Second, if you wanna be a real asshole, we could get into what "art" is and how it isn't real at all but is rather a concept that we share among us like a kind of collective fever dream, and that it is, therefore, a constantly moving signifier for which there is no signified... but I would also like to keep this thing short so I'll just say that my bibliography is bigger than yours and leave it at that.

Third, and most importantly, ALL ART IS REAL ART and fanfic, fanart, and adaptation have been around since AT LEAST the birth of the novel.

What makes fanwork unique (and I'll limit myself here to fic bc it's what I know best) is that it an inherently communal and anticapitalist form of creation, which bars it from more traditional markers of legitimacy. It cannot be credited to a single person, so cannot contribute to the cult of the "author" or buy into our dumb creationist mythology of how all great things must derive from a single mind. It also cannot be sold, and therefore lacks both the "aura"* of more traditional forms and the acrural of capital that we use as benchmarks of "success".**

This doesn't mean it isn't "real art"-- only that it openly and purposefully defies the markers of that category. It is an exploration of a shared imaginative space which allows individuals to dream as a collective. It is rhizomatic, with new tropes and head-canons emerging organically among a disjointed, non-hierarchical, polythestic community. It is an inherently blasphemous space which can only be so by both taking the source material very seriously while denying the authority of the Author-God and daring to rewrite it.***

How many times do fic writers take a source text so much more seriously that the showrunners or networks, or actors? How much more do we know about these characters as characters than the people who own them?

This is serious work. It is real art. Even when it is bad, or silly, or stupid, or yes-- racist and bigoted and gross. It is still art.

Unpublished writing is art. Scribbles on paper are art. A drawing o lr a digital sketch or a poem are art.

Because what makes art real isn't some external validation of value and existence by the Other, it is an experience which we go through in its creation, and it is the experience which we have when we encounter it.****

In short-- gatekeeping is fucking stupid, and it sucks hard-core when it comes to the subject of art. How many of us have killed our own dreams because they weren't "good enough"? How many of us have thrown aside our paints because we're not "real artists"?

And how many of us have had to fight our way back to a place of healing where we can be brave and write the damn thing? Or paint the damn thing? Or just put the fear of God into some oil pastels?

So yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. If you want good theory, hmu, otherwise, it is late and god speed and good luck.

*see Benjamin, "A work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction"

**yes, I know that fanfic has been repackaged and sold, but this Tumblr and not my dissertation defense so you get what you get.

***there is a ton of theory behind all this, but Jenkins and whoever wrote "Cyborg Manifesto" are probably the most blatantly ripped off.

****I'm gesturing vaguely to Foucault here from History of Sexuality, Part 1-- specifically in how in a post-Freudian world the subject must "confess" to the Other and have their confession heard and validated to have access to subjectivity and exist under the Law, but christ it is late and I am not pulling quotes.

I am aware I have died on this hill before but people who really strenuously argue that fanfic isn't "real writing" drive me insane. what do you meeeaaaaannn. besides the fact that any attempt to define "real art" vs "fake art" is inherently reactionary, it just doesn't make any sense. it's Writing. people Write it. what the fuck are you talking about.

[ethirbein]

N, O, U?

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

-Going for fandom of choice on that one because I really want to see more Final Fantasy Tactics (the first one)... anything, really! It's an old niche game, so there's so little anywhere that I know of. -Going to Destiny, more dirtying of characters in the "main roster". Dirtying as in less making characters likable and fans of the player. Drifter and Mara Sov are the two main ones I'm thinking of but there are others too on the writing shelf (hello Spider, you're still an antagonist and would like to see more of you). -Still in Destiny, more consequences of things we do. Yeah we help the random team from each season, and then things happen kind of indirectly to that to conclude the season, and quite often it's just "Oh everything worked out". I get why for storytelling purposes but it ties into the whole "everybody likes us" I was talking about at point two, but I don't really remember a thing we as players did that had a negative outcome because we did it? Give me a "We're working on something for a while and later on we realize it was a bad idea but it's too late to turn back" kind of deal. O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

Using full random for this: Va-t'en pas, from Richard Desjardins, really fits the whole Drifter/Orin dynamic. It's about someone pleading in vain to someone not to go live a different life where they'll be less happy, and how it changes his perception of the world ("Outside there are silences filled with upside-down buses/Outside I saw a sky so hard the birds fell"). Give it a try! U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

-Destiny: Savathûn. Cunning, sure of herself, tall and powerful died anyway. Won anyway. Her voice actor does an AMAZING job.

-The Locked Tomb: Camilla Hect.Incredibly logical and an analyst, but at the same time very very much so driven by attachment and hope that things will be alright in the end. Goes loud despite her haircut, and a nice mix of badass and caring.

-Best for last, from Final Fantasy Tactics: Delita Hyral (Yes I know I also said Agrias, Meliadoul, Ovelia, and Reis are my favourites but hear me out there's a lot of good characters in FFT). An amazing character that is the poster child of the road to hell being paved with good intentions... except that it's not always good intentions. There's so much character growth! Not growth as in "That character becomes better" but as in "That character's motivations, methods and goals are on a steady path and boy do they walk fast". #gatekeep #gaslight #girlboss to the max. If he was known to tumblr in this day and age there would be so much discourse over him being a good person or a bad person (he's both and also neither, which is one of the main things of the game. That and class wars). I could go on for hours about him and he's just there in a few cutscenes cause he works mostly outside what the main character knows and sees! I would never be able to write him and be proud of what I wrote. I both am glad of how he feels in the post-credits scene with Ovelia (ha, get it!) and cry about it cause no one deserves that. Probably makes for an excellent monarch though.

[winterslibrary]

i think it's about time i introduce my dearest bg3 daughter, miss vien! an absolute beauty, my little lady i love her so much it's insane. she's a high elf, she's a bard, she has terrible taste in men and friends and is everyone's favorite gossip girl.

and might or not be on the run. kind of. but let's start from the beginning, shall we? <3

while creating her i was thinking of her as a character i can write for, just how i create any other oc rather than "my game character" so. if i took any creative liberties it's because i really created her with "ohh i'm gonna write a fic with her" mindset 😭 now that this is said.

vien isn't even her real name. it's a nickname she uses! she doesn't use her actual name for certain reasons and, well, she quite likes "vien". it's nice, it's pretty and for sure holds better memories than her real name. (and i am gatekeeping it hehe)

her alignment is neutral good! she's a good person in nature, but when in unpleasant situation... like having a parasite in your head... she's more than willing to put her own survival on top of others. generally she cares about her survival plenty, so vien might sometimes refuse to help someone for her own sake. or make a questionable decision if it benefits her more (or her companions). but she's overall a massive sweetheart!!

she was originally born in an elven village, daughter of the village chief and was living a very good life. i like to think that she was often out hunting for food and things– not that she wanted very much– and because of that she's actually really good at archery. hunting might not be her favorite thing to do, but archery? oh, this one she loves. and besides, look, if she can't knock someone out with her violin, then she will shot someone with a stolen from a corpse bow.

like i said, she has terrible taste in men and friends because not only she fell for astarion! out of all people, but she also befriended bhyer "let's kill mystra she's an asshole" aka my friend's durge. vien please get better friends. i beg you.

(vien agrees that mystra is an asshole. but she also thinks that the tadpoles are enough of a problem already. there is no need to annoy a goddess. maybe later!)

speaking of astarion, accidentally i made him and vien... to be foils. they both have similiar stories– one's life ruined by an asshole and held captive for years, in terrible conditions but the difference is that vien managed to free herself. she ran away after 25 years of complete mistreatment, wandered around for some more time before she was rescued by a human couple and given a new place to live. given home. given hope for a better tomorrow. she received help from people, and although it wasn't a lot of them, it still gave her enough hope to fight and not give up, not lose the kindness in her heart. astarion... well. he didn't, unfortunately.

astarion and vien actually share more similiarities, but to unlock vien's tragic backstory to have to gain her trust and that is harder than gaining astarion's trust. i'm not joking. the only people that know what happened are wyll, astarion and bhyer. and only because astarion, wyll and vien were ambushed by the very same man that kindnapped her because, oh wow, he just can't let her go, even after all those years! yes i plan on writing some masquerade scene with these three aand that's probably when the ambush happens. she has to tell at least on surface level what happened (she tells astarion more later though) and she begs them to not make her talk about it to the rest of companions.

and bhyer... they just know. bhyer and vien are soulmates, after all. they just know, vien just told them, these two come in a set do not separate thank you!!

vien is good good besties with wyll. they danced together at least once, as simple friends because vien loves to dance and the camp had a moment of peace around the fireplace. she loves talking with gale! put them in one room together and they probably won't stop talking for the nearest fifteen minutes. she shares her favorite gossips with shadowheart and always asks her to let her do her hair. such long hair gives so many possible hairstyles and, frankly, vien loves braiding hair. hers or someone's, doesn't matter.

vien is a perfomer first, always entertaining people with her music and singing, with her pretty words and herself. she's a lady, high maintenance, she won't let just anyone woo her, especially to bed! and, by gods, something seems... off about her. but it's so hard to name anything specific and she's so nice, liked by everyone and trying to keep them all well. maybe it's fine.

(astarion, though, just knows something is very off. he can't tell if she's scheming something, some hidden agenda or anything, but something is up. because even the best perfomer can act for only this long.)

whew. she's a little silly. i want to shake her and even though she is one of the sanest and most normal people in this silly little group of weirdos, she still needs therapy. wheewww. i have so much more thoughts about her... @leftdestiny-posts special tag for you <3

[findafight]

Steve's parents were absent when he was growing up yes we know this is true and so he imprinted on Hawkeye Pierce as the only stable and reliable male role model in his life (circa 1972-1983). THIS is why he doesn't realize his bisexuality is not the standard for everyone because, in my humble queer "grew up watching MASH thinking BJ and Hawkeye are married" opinion, Hawkeye is a fruity little guy. absolute icon of a bisexual. Like obviously so many characters are Queer Icons in Mash (Klinger is Very Obvious and yes I'm in love with him and yes he was an Important Experience for baby me what about it. But also. Henry Blake I see you. Margaret Houlihan you should kiss a woman about it.) BUT Hawkeye is 1) arguably the Main Character 2) openly flirts with men/indicates he is Down To Bone if they are so inclined/implies he is Babygirl Material (??? Legitimately catches me off guard rewatching he's so obvious. Sir! This is a hospital! You have your hands inside a person's guts!) 3) was definitely in love with both Trapper and BJ (I am not taking comments about this at any time) 4) very much Cool Uncle shaped and begging to be imprinted upon by baby gays.

And while YES obviously I believe Klinger was Steve's First Celeb Crush because man's got a Type, he ain't subtle, Hawkeye was the one that ingrained that it's Totally Normal And Straight To Want To Flirt With Men into baby Steve's brain. Like of course Hawkeye was in love with BJ you just don't talk about it for some reason. He doesn't know. Gay people are because they act a certain way? Because they're only attracted to their own gender? He isn't sure and he's not thinking too hard about it. And that's his role model!! Hawkeye is the best! Sure Colonel Potter is the most Horse girl Dad Man of anyone ever, but Hawkeye is So Shaped.

So when he comes out to Robin in a totally bizarre manner ("Robin. Was. Was Mash gay?" "Steve. Babe. what are you talking about." "Like, Hawkeye and BJ? They were kinda gay right? And Hawkeye definitely said stuff that implied he liked men. I am wondering if that's a gay thing." "Steve. Usually when a man likes other men it's a gay thing." "So Mash is gay" "I have no clue. I mean. Klinger was kinda fruity, right? So... Maybe?" "Hm. Huh. Okay so like. Hawkeye liked women right?" "Yes. I do recall he was certainly interested in women" "yeah and he had that girlfriend who didn't want to marry him. But he also liked men. Is that a thing? He had that lady-ex but was also in love with BJ. I thought everyone was like that." "W-why? Why would you think that?" "Because Hawkeye did! And so do I! You know I didn't have many positive male role models in my life so I just assumed that's how Being Straight was." "Steve I love you but being attracted to anyone but someone of the opposite gender is, to me, a decidedly Not Straight thing to do." " "That's what I'm saying, rob! Mash was kinda gay, and so am I!") He speeds past queer crisis directly into "I can't believe I could have been dating boys this whole time too why didn't anyone tell me this earlier." While Robin is bewildered as to how Steve gaslight gatekeep girlbossed his way into and immediately out of the closet.