#a lot of these issues can be complicated but honestly. they just don’t matter we don’t need to keep bringing them up over and over again

[paranormeow7]

“Hamas was hiding in those hospitals and schools” “Israel is only defending itself” “this issue is complicated” “Hamas started the conflict” “Israel still has a right to exist” “what about Jews and the Holocaust” “There are so many rumours going around” “Do you condemn Hamas”These are all arguments I have been given whenever I get upset over what is being done in Gaza, by my own family nonetheless. As a Jew, and especially from the perspective of a culture that has suffered this over and over, how fucking hard is it for you to understand that NONE OF THAT FUCKING MATTERS ANYMORE. NONE of these arguments matter because Israel refused to stop when it’s hostages were returned, it has used highly illegal weapons like white phosphorus bombs, it’s leaders have STATED how the Palestinians are “human animals” and how their aim is absolute destruction, the entire first world is funding this genocide, Palestine can’t even fight back, etc etc. even if any of their arguments were true, it just doesn’t matter in the face of this genocide. How can you debate the reasoning behind any of this when your response should be THEY HAVE KILLED OVER TEN THOUSAND MEN, WOMEN, AND CHILDREN, AND THE DESTRUCTION NEEDS TO STOP. None of these issues matter. THEY ARE DESTROYING EVERYTHING. As a Jew, it disgusts me how my own family can stand by and debate while watching another people go through what they went through. IT DOES NOT MATTER. STOP TALKING. START ACTING.

THE LATEST CASUALTY FIGURE IS 10,177. THE NUMBER IS GROWING AS WE SPEAK. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR DEBATE HERE.

feel free to reblog this with resources to help Palestinians and stop the bombings in Gaza.

[farshootergotme]

Can I just say thank you thank you. 👏👏👏

I grew up with the 2004 Batman cartoon and I have thought Dick and Bruce had a parental relationship whether it be father/son or Big brother/little brother it depends on the adaption.

I have just recently got back into Batman and into comics in general and I was honestly a bit shell shocked to see so much well adopted family incest which is just wow but I’m just numb to the internet at this point so nothing surprises me anymore.

What I can’t stand is liars, I swear these people who ship dick and Bruce together are just straight up in denial in some places just accept you’re shipping something taboo. Don’t lie to me about how much they hold a place in queer history which is greatly exaggerated given how it happen based on a lie by a quack and his horrible book note the beds were separate I checked the infamous comic panel it’s just draw really badly but given how tight the deadlines for comic back in the day were I will forgive that poor artist. Also another book they source from the 2000s book written about the queer coding of Batman and Robin seems to really like to leave out the fact that Dick is a child and is written as one. No matter what gen he was written as young lad with hobbies similar to that generation and time period mostly.

Like yes at the time it was done because homophobia but don’t pretend there wasn’t another issue aka it would be the grooming of a minor like for context homosexuality was see as connected to pedophilia. Like seriously when I was looking into this topic, it honestly felt like telephone because how much the original context of the panel was lost like seriously does no one check sources anymore.

Another thing they don’t bring up is how in the 1940s adopting was very uncommon and seen as weird to many it wasn’t as accepted back then which is why ward was used because that was more acceptable back then. It’s also the reason why Jason was adopted by Bruce because it was more acceptable when he was created. Also it was such a non issue to the writers at the time that even though technically Dick wasn’t adopted by Bruce on panel he still treated as one by the writers mostly before Marv Wolfman decided it make for interesting story to have Bruce not adopted Dick and have Dick have a whole hang up on it and is confused by why Bruce didn’t at that time.

Like literally I am tired of people claiming Dick doesn’t want to be adopted by Bruce or that he never wanted him to his father to him it’s simply just not true although it is complicated. Like Dick won’t call Bruce dad but in his eyes as he got older he saw Bruce as a father figure as well as his second dad and Bruce has always seen Dick as like a son and to his actual son blood or no blood for crying out loud he bloody raised him along with Alfred for over ten years like how could Dick not develop a parental bond with him and Alfred ahh. He may not be father of the year but he still cared and look after him all those years like no wonder Dick felt hurt in the original Marv wolfmen story when he wasn’t adopted.

Now, I will say in the early adaption of Batman and Robin and even the silver age to an extent. Did betray them as brothers because well the age gap was closer in 1966 version and late 70s cartoons of them so I can see why older fans can see it that way and the silver age mostly do a big brother little brother dynamic with them. While golden age seems to flip flop and if they were father/son or Big brother/little brother and the Bronze Age they went to father/son by the end because that was probably more interesting to write. Like a son repelling against his overly critical and overprotective father figure was probably relatable to lot of teens and young adults reading Dick stories at that time. Then the rest of eras after that just settled with them being Father/son duo mostly. We don’t talk about Devin weird ass takes in their relationship I swear she is just inserting herself in some characters just to be creepy towards Richard and well she nearly destroyed Oliver character by writing him being weird about Richard when he was Robin which was just yikes.

I also just find it so gross how she took a very reserved and very ace coded character like Dick Grayson and sexualised him, like making his exotic and making him overly sexual is just huge yikes to me and making him Romani because circus is such a huge stereotype and quite harmful. I have such mix feelings about Richard being romani because of how it was done and Tom Tyler has done a poor job in my opinion as well. Like originally Dick was just pure American then his mother became european notable french in one of them which makes more sense to me. I don’t know, I will eat my socks when it’s done well which would be wonderful but right now it’s just no to me. Also, why Richard like what just because he’s sexy Devin and he is romani because circus. Like my ass is as white as snow but even I know that is a weird ass take and honestly fetishy in nature I feel.

Which leads to me being so weary of people who do use it because like yes some people do it so well take notes writers at DC. But others well… I feel just sexualise him for the sake of it and I get very suspicious of people who make draw Dick overly feminine or straight up make him the wife in the relationship. It just makes my trans man heart nervous because usually they also ship Richard with older man (Bruce with him as well probably…) which in Canon he has called creeps and acts super uncomfortable around them. Like whatever ship your taboo ships just keep a safe distance from me okay. It just sadden how Richard is written as overly sexual and slutty like that is not my boy. 😭

I think the reason it also upset me so much is Bruce in a lot of ways is like my dad when he is written as a well meaning father figure. I relate to Dick being the eldest of many siblings and also my Dad is my stepdad but he has raised since I was nearly one. I know it’s not the same but to me he is my father and nothing will change that. It’s why I can’t stop people who act like Bruce and Dick aren’t father/son because well he’s not adopted by law so it’s doesn’t count but to Bruce already is and honestly I just wish in modern adaption just get adopted as a early teen at this point. Like even modern DC doesn’t hide or exclude Dick Grayson is Bruce Wayne eldest son and I’m so happy for that. (Even though he has been adopted by law but as an adult but I digress.)

I will shot myself mentally if I see another person claim it is DC heteronormative doing their relationship like shut up. You who says this bs you clearly don’t care about queer history or adoption history in general and it’s so harmful how people try to undermine adopted families like that. Like seriously ship what you like just don’t pretend it isn’t taboo as all hell. 😤 Also, anyone who claims this don’t you dare call young queers homophobia because they’re saying how it is. You don’t see people defending pedophilia and incest in Greek mythology do ya.

(Then I think in my head how strange it always the ace coded characters that get sexualised or made the secretly horny seductress/playboy type food for thought.) 🤔

Oh apologies for the kinda rant there but this honestly this has been bothering me about the bat fandom. I will say I’m still a noob when it comes to comic book history and I haven’t read most of Dick and Bruce books but I have done my best to do my homework on them and the rest of Batman history and it members. I have honestly only read modern books like world finest and short teen titans spin off book. I’m currently pre order Mark Waid latest book Batman and Robin year one which I am so excited for truly he is saving me given me some good Father/son moments with Dick and Bruce. Also maybe the new Nightwing which I hope will be good, I read TT run online free because I’m poor :p and it was so boring, Richard just feels so bland in that book. Like I will give TT credit their some good panels and moments but that’s just it. My inner Dick Grayson fanboy is showing ha ha. 😅

Anyway, sorry my rambling but honestly this fandom baffles me sometimes.

I have nothing to add—you said it all. Loved the rant and I agree with all of it! Thanks anon!

[allurilove]

Honestly I’m regretting saving cheating yan husband now…😭😭😭

If I knew he’d be an unfaithful lil slut I’d have voted to end his life in the poll!!!!!!🔥🔥🔥

“I was rooting for you, we were all rooting for you! How dare you?!” - Tyra Banks

Why you gotta do this to me author??????? I gotta find a new husband now!!!!!! And it sucks too cuz yan husband was fine as hell!!!!!! He got money and was great with kids!!!!!!!🥲🥲🥲

Let’s kill him!!!!!! He doesn’t deserve to be called a yandere if his eyes and dick are wanderin!!!!!!😈😈😈

i’m gonna clear a few things up about his character and other things lol!

the more I write about him, the more I think about all the shitty things he would probs do. I don’t have a single green flag character (maybe calm yandere, honestly i just love him). He just gets more complicated whenever I sit down and think for a hot minute. Because he’s not a character that’ll roll over onto his back and take it like a good boy. He’s a petty and revengeful man that doesn’t take shit from others. He’s going to get what he wants one way or another. And if it means hurting a couple people here and there, so be it. And that definitely applies to Lucas Skylar. If he were to steal the reader from him— he’s gonna enact revenge and take his wife too dammit. He’ll be like “I’m fucking your wife, and your kids call me ‘daddy’.” (oop) His hatred for that man literally blinds him from the bigger issue that reader left him.

ANNNND, I haven’t forgotten about that one anon that told me how much people would hate my yandere characters if I implemented some cheating here and there. (so thank you anon)

However, to be clear, yan!husband is going nowhere. As in, he’s not about to leave his wife for someone else. Like be so fr.

1. His ex, is he gonna go back to her?

-Hell no, and she doesn’t even want him back lol. She was his first true relationship, but it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. Yandere husband doesn’t happen to see it this way— still wearing rose colored glasses whenever he gets into a relationship— but she made him do things he wasn’t comfortable with. In his diary, it’s mentioned that whatever he felt about physical touch did not matter, and that whatever his ex says, goes. He had a lot of moments where he was unsure about even putting his hand on her thigh, and all he heard was that he needed to do more. More physical touch, more kissing, and more manhandling.

Now, regarding that diary entry… In a different post, I stated that yandere husband would not get back together with her, if they were to actually meet up again. He does write about what could’ve been and him reminiscing, because his diary is his only outlet where he can talk about his feelings comfortably. He has that entry in his diary cause he hasn’t had that talk with his ex yet, and never came to that realization that he’s better off with the reader.

Also, to add on to the whole thin about the reader being “rude,” it’s more like she’s packing up her shit and getting ready to leave. And yan!husband hasn’t picked up on that yet. So, the line that says something about the reader being occupied with stuff that’s not about yan!husband or Henry, was a lie. Because again, this man knows nothing about what’s going on. And most of the drabbles (i think??) are in his perspective.

2. Now what about his diary?

- He has that damn diary cause he doesn’t want to go to therapy. It’s not because he thinks that therapy doesn’t work or that it’s stupid— he just doesnt want people to know that he’s struggling and he’s a bad partner. Yandere husband is all for therapy, don’t get me wrong, and if his son would ever want a therapist, he’ll be happy to arrange that. It’s just that being seen as this perfect nuclear family is everything to him, and he’s a little jealous of the Skylar family. They represent what he’s been wanting, and craving, the moment he could finally leave his parent’s house and live on his own.

His diary ranges from talking about how annoying his co-workers are to talking about the unresolved issues he has with his dad. Don’t worry, it’s not all about his ex. Some… or most pages is about Henry messing with him, and stuff about his wife. He writes stuff in it when he’s upset and has no one to talk to. Most of his siblings are busy doing other stuff, and he’s not about to ask a toddler for advice either.

Why doesn’t he just talk to his wife?

It’s embarrassing for him. He wants to be seen as a provider, as this big strong man that can do whatever for his family, and admitting all the troubles he has is just straight up embarrassing for him.

3. His parents.

- I think I haven’t talked much about his mother, but that’s really cause his father had a more prevalent role in shaping who he is today. What more can I say about his father at this point? Bottomline he’s horrible. Physically and mentally abusive, controlling, always had a stick up his ass, and never encouraged any of yandere husbands dreams etc. He’s everything yan! husband is trying not to be, and wants to break the cycle of traumatizing his kids. Sadly, as time goes on with a bunch of stuff from part four and all that, he’s not able to. No matter how hard he tries to be different, he’s truly his father’s son. Yandere husband was never about to become a better man, and that would have been more clear if I had released part four like I damn said I would! 😭😭 Because he is… not doing so well in that fic.

4. His wife.

- Now, regarding his wife.

Who is such an absolute wonderful and normal human being, that happened to steal the heart of yan!husband without even trying. He’s more comfortable with his wife compared to his ex, since they don’t force anything on him. And he does love her, and can’t imagine a life without her and their kids. They’re in a tough spot for sure, with reader planning to leave him and being officially done with him. He does believe that they could work it out, so he’s acting like a pouty and dejected man whenever she seemed to be disinterested by his advances. It’s a complete 180 from his past relationship, and he’s not used to it.

[fallenrocket]

Because La Máquina marks the first time in over a decade that Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have teamed up onscreen in live-action, it’s understandable that a lot of the marketing, and fans’ excitement, have centered around seeing them act together, with pretty much every interview they’ve done for the show highlighting their friendship. We even got to see them taking on Bert and Ernie in a battle of the best friends! (Big, big thank you to whoever dreamed up that one!)

That lifelong friendship is felt onscreen through their interactions as Esteban and Andy, but not necessarily in the way you’d expect. Because really, Andy and Esteban probably spend about 80% of their scenes together arguing. And they come by it honestly–after a 20-year working relationship complicated by money and strained by addiction issues and lies, both are also dealing with a lot of personal stuff when a gigantic bomb is dropped into their laps. As the Otras Personas extort Esteban into throwing his final fight, Andy is genuinely regretful but also doesn’t want to be blamed too directly, and Esteban is thrown completely off-kilter by this stunning, devastating revelation. It’s a lot to put on a friendship, and theirs wasn’t on the most solid ground to begin with.

So they argue. They fight over why Andy made such a reckless deal in the first place and why he never told Esteban about it, they fight over the best way to handle their dilemma, and they fight over how to keep from further antagonizing the Otras Personas. Their friendship is at the breaking point, and people looking at them from the outside don’t know why they put up with each other. Nearly everyone tells Esteban he needs to fire Andy, and Andy’s mom is insistent that keeping Esteban as a client is holding Andy back.

But that’s where García Bernal and Luna’s real-life friendship comes in. Despite all the shouting and accusations, despite the moments when Esteban itches to get Andy in the ring so he can clock him, you’re still able to feel the love between them. Just like in Y tu mamá también and their other onscreen collaborations, their characters’ relationship is different than their own, but they lend that feeling of history. The sense that these two characters go as far back together as one can go. The sense that they’ve been through it all together, and no matter how much their lives change, on some level they’re still just those two boys from Jalisco.

Andy and Esteban’s arguments cut deeply, in large part because of how much they care for each other. Andy feels sick that his dumb decisions from ages ago are now endangering everyone he loves, even as he tries to wriggle away from direct accusations. Esteban is hurt and despondent, wondering how much of his career was a lie while also thinking how this could ruin his future legacy. When Andy first tells him the news, Esteban can’t bear the realization that Andy fixed fights for him in the past because he didn’t believe Esteban could win. When Esteban accuses Andy of taking a cut from the Otras Personas, Andy sounds so genuinely affronted that his friend would think so little of him, asking, “Don’t you know me, asshole?” When Irasema and Andy are arguing over Esteban’s relapse, she tosses out the line, “My ex is Mexico’s favorite junkie,” and Andy instantly snaps back, “Don’t call him that!”

Their fights don’t lessen their love for each other. They fight so hard and land such cutting blows because they love each other so much. Each knows the other better than they know themselves, recognizing one another’s messy parts while avoiding their own blind spots. They can break each other’s hearts, but when their backs are really up against the wall, each comes through for the other in a way that matters. That’s why Luna and García Bernal’s chemistry is invaluable to the show. Two actors without the history they have together would be hard-pressed to create a connection so electric.

[staynoonaz9290]

Temptation - Season 1

Where Maddie and Lila are the managers for the idol group Stray Kids with a twist - all eight members are sexy, dangerous Incubi

Group: Stray Kids

Pairing: Each SKZ Member/Fem! Reader

Rating: Mature/Explicit

Warnings: Explicit Sexual Content, Semi-Public Sex, Oral Sex (F-Given & M-Given), Supernatural Elements, AU - Incubi, Dirty Talk, Seduction, Light Angst, Language

Chapters: 20

Word Count: 64,765

Main Masterlist | Stray Kids Masterlist

COMPLETE

This is Season 1 of my ✨Temptation✨ series! Here are all the season links below:

Temptation - Season 1: You Are Here 📌

Temptation - Season 2: AO3 Link

Preview:

Bam leaned forward, resting his elbows on the desk as he folded his fingers together.

“Are either of you aware of what exactly your role as the group manager entails? How the guys being incubi comes into play?”

“I mean…” Maddie began hesitantly, glancing at her best friend for only a moment before answering. “We’re just managing the idol schedules, right? And I guess they’re uh- feeding , I’m sure we have to do that, too… making sure they’re like, safe and stuff?”

“I mean, yeah -” Bam looked amused by her answer, laughing a little. “But do you have any idea why we’re hiring young and single women this time… instead of the usual?”

Maddie had been wondering that, if she was being honest, but she hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking it over; she was honestly still shocked she was even there .

But Lila was different, adjusting in her seat as she smiled tentatively.

“So we can be there to help?” Lila guessed, although she had a feeling she was right.

Bam’s smile widened as he nodded.

“Yes; in case of emergency, we need you two as our back-up.”

Maddie’s mouth dropped open in shock.

"When you say back-up , are you saying-?"

"Yes," Bam grinned, nodding again. "In case of emergency, you'll be their sex partners if needed."

The man continued before either of them could speak.

“So, the thing is, we’ve been having a bit of an issue with the idols lately,” Bam began. “Schedules are tight, they’re traveling all the time, and when there’s an emergency and they need to feed… we don’t have back-up.”

He ran a hand through his hair quickly.

“Getting a feeding partner isn’t a quick business- I’ll give you guys all the details on that later-” he waved his hand dismissively. “And when the idols are in a pinch, it can get complicated pretty quickly.”

“What do you mean ‘ in a pinch ’?” Maddie interrupted.

“Incubi can’t survive without feeding for very long,” Bam explained. “The more energy they use- which the idols use a lot - the more they have to feed. They also have healing abilities, but they have to feed to trigger them, so if there’s an injury on stage, or if one of them has been working too hard and can’t get a partner due to time or something…”

The man shrugged.

“It’s kind of a problem.”

He moved the clipboard with their applications to the side, his forearms falling to the desk.

“It’s been an issue for like, ever ,” he told them. “But the government finally gave us permission to start hiring younger managers.”

Maddie tore her eyes from Bam, turning to Lila in surprise.

“You… knew ?”

Lila shrugged, feeling slightly guilty; she thought her best friend had figured it out already.

“I mean, why else would they ask if we’re young and single?” she replied honestly. “Why would that matter unless…?”

She trailed off and Maddie nodded, feeling kind of stupid.

“Right…”

“You two will be the first to do this,” Bam was grinning as he looked between them. “Kind of like our guinea pigs, if you know what I mean.”

They both chuckled somewhat nervously.

“I honestly think it’s going to be a good fit,” he told them nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair again. “But there is one more thing you’ve gotta do in order for me to hire you.”

Maddie and Lila looked at one another before turning back to the man, watching him smile somewhat playfully.

“We need to test your resistance to Incubus powers.”

If you liked this preview, you can read the whole novel here on my AO3 page 😊!

[skylarmoon71]

Castiel (Supernatural/Grimm) - Short Story - Chapter 2

“So you’re saying she’s from another universe and over there these ‘Wesen’ are like the monsters we hunt here but they’re inside of people.” 

You nod at Dean's analysis. 

“I know it sounds crazy but everything Castiel told you is true. I can’t believe she actually blasted us into another universe. When I get a hold of Diana I’m gonna kill her.” 

Dean grins. “It’s still sort of crazy the way you stood against Crowley.” 

“It’s like he couldn’t touch you.” Sam adds.

“It’s probably because my mom is a witch.” 

“Seriously!” You nod at Dean. 

“Wait, I thought Grimms hunted these Wesen. If your dad is a Grimm then how did he end up shagging a witch?” 

“Hexenbiest, by the way, thank you for that mental image. That’s exactly what I want in my head.” 

“Sorry.” Dean just shrugs.

You just let out another exasperated sigh. 

“My parents were in a complicated situation, but they love each other and that’s all that matters. Right now my family tree isn’t the biggest issue. My sister is missing. She should have ended up here with me but she’s not. If we’re in some different universe then I need to start looking for her. Even Diana is going to have some difficulty navigating through here. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it.” 

Sam nods. 

“Alright, maybe if you tell us exactly what spell she casted we can figure out what it did or where she is. What were you trying to do?” 

It’s a logical question, but going back over the entire conversation with your sister earlier that day, you feel a bit embarrassed. 

“Diana, I’m exhausted, what are you doing?” 

You’re laying on the couch in the trailer. The training had gone on a lot longer than you anticipated. You were still wearing some of your gear. Diana was hunched over a book missing something. 

“I told you I’m tired of you fighting me on this. You won’t listen to logic so I’ll just have to show you.” 

You groan. 

“Are you really going on about this whole love thing again? I told you I’m fine. Stop messing around. Dad told you to stop playing with those spells. Mom too. I’m not getting in trouble again. I’m too old to be getting scolded by my parents. I’ve got to be at the precinct bright and early tomorrow anyway so I don’t have time to run through some cleanse at Rosalee’s like the last time.” 

Diana laughs awkwardly. 

“That was a minor miscalculation, but this time I’ve perfected it.”

“Perfected what?” 

You finally lift your head just in time to see her drop something into the bowl. A fire sparks up and you gasp, but she just smiles. 

“D-Diana stop!!” 

“Too late, hold on!!”

Her excited yell was the last thing you remember before the room went white.

Lifting your gaze, you chance a look over at Castiel who already seems to be staring in your direction. He’s all the way across the room, standing awkwardly at attention. You shouldn’t feel a thing, but whenever you look at him it just..

“Hey, earth to Supergirl.” 

Dean’s snarky remark pulls your attention back. 

“The spell doesn’t matter, we just need to find her. We should start with any reports of weird occurrences in the area. If I landed here she can’t be far behind. I’m gonna grab something to eat.” You stand before they can speak, grabbing the change on the dresser. 

“Hey, that’s mine!!” Dean calls.

The door slams shut and Sam holds back a smile. 

“She’s like a version of you Dean. Even the machete.” 

“Shut up Sammy!” 

Castiel’s eyes are trained on the door. 

“She’s hiding something.” 

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock. What I want to know is how did her dad bang a witch.” 

“Really Dean, that’s your big question?” 

“It’s a pretty big one.” 

At this point they shouldn’t expect any different. 

Castiel is still standing a bit protectively at the door. 

“We shouldn’t let her wander off on her own.” 

“Relax, demons can’t touch her, honestly I’d feel sorry for any sad sap that tried anything.” Dean assures. 

“Still, she should not be alone.” 

Castiel’s words had Dean squinting. 

“What’s with you, you're acting like a guard dog.” 

Castiel shifted in place avoiding eye contact and slowly a smile began to form on Dean’s face. 

“No way, you like her don’t you Cas.” 

He didn’t respond, but they both saw the way his cheeks flushed at the insinuation. 

“If you want I can give you some tips lover boy.” Dean wiggled his eyebrows and Castiel disappeared. 

“Stop messing with him.” Sam scolds. 

“Come on, it’s cute, he’s got a crush.” 

Sam had a feeling Dean was only getting started. 

[greatqueenanna]

What are your thoughts on Kristoff’s role in Frozen 2? I have mixed feelings about it. I understand that Frozen will always be about Elsa and Anna and don’t expect Kristoff to get a huge role. But it felt like part of their goal was to revert Kristoff to just somebody pining for their lover while Anna becomes the hero. Women and men should be depicted as equals in media. In the first movie, Kristoff was heroic without overshadowing the two sisters. Men should be heroic while expressing emotion

It's definitely a tough subject because of how complicated the entire thing is. There is no easy answer here, to be honest.

I agree with the notion that Kristoff's role was minimized in the sequel to a more comedic side plot rather than anything too complex. It was necessary because like with the first film (and pretty much the reason why the sequel is complicated to begin with), the second film had a lot of plots intertangling with one another that caused the plot to feel overstuffed - forcing the writers to reduce plot points.

Also, as you said, Frozen is established as a story about two sisters, so it makes sense that Elsa and Anna's stories take center stage and need to be the priority of the writers. However, it's still a bit sad to see Kristoff completely in the background this time around and meant to be viewed as comedic with only a small narrative about men and their relationship with emotions. It's not a bad narrative of course, but again it's such a tiny aspect of the sequel that if you never showed it, the film wouldn't have really changed.

I do know that this was not the original intention of the writers because we are told many times that the story of Kristoff and Anna's relationship was so big at one point in the sequel, that it almost completely overshadowed the main plot - leading to them needing to refocus the story. Thus, this isn't really an issue of whether or not the writers knew what to do with Kristoff or didn't care about his character - it was a matter of them just trying to find the voice of the sequel and figuring out what they were trying to do.

On the subject of Kristoff can be both heroic and emotional, he actually still is. Honestly, here is where I disagree with you. Kristoff quite literally saved Anna three times in Frozen 2 - once during the fire, while she was running from the Earth Giants, and then again with Mattias when they pulled her up from falling off the dam. Kristoff is still ridiculously heroic, and Anna would not have pulled off destroying the Dam without Kristoff's help. If that's not equality between the sexes, then I don't know what is haha.

[mzminola]

Brentwood arc is giving me more thoughts on Steph & Bruce being similar to each other, specifically in their interpersonal relationships.

So I either misremembered or just plain old missed the first time around reading this section, but Stephanie does tell Tim she thinks he’s cheating on him: she calls him a “two-timing louse” to his face, and there’s not really any way for him to interpret that other than that she thinks he’s cheating on her.

What Steph doesn’t do is tell him WHY she doesn’t believe his denial.

Spoiler sees Robin worried about Star, he points out the problem is that there’s a weapons deal going down. She calls him a two-timing louse, he says Star “is just a friend”, and that the situation “is complicated...” and Steph cuts in with “I know. The ‘secret identity’ thing. Well, keep your secrets. In fact, keep your life to yourself.”

Which, honestly, reads as a break-up to me. It reads as Steph dumping Tim, which is reasonable if she can’t bring herself to believe him!

A recurring thread in Tim’s comics is that being Robin makes him a lousy boyfriend. Whether he’s dating a civilian or another cape, he can’t be open about the other parts of his life, he’s tired all the time so he falls asleep on dates (along with in class), and at the end of the day, he’s always* going to prioritize Robin.

[*Haven’t gotten there yet, but much later when he does try to prioritize a date with Zoanne, Batman literally crashes it. So. Uh. Bruce what the fuck.]

In this case, Tim has come back to Gotham but been moved to a boarding school, and won’t tell Steph that. Won’t explain why his Robin hours are limited, why he can’t drive anymore, how he knows the civilians he knows, etc, because of two reasons: One, he’s worried any information he gives her, no matter how vague, will lead to her learning his secret identity, which is tied to several other heroes as well. Two, for his own sanity, he’s trying to keep Robin and Tim as separate as he can, because recently they’ve been converging more and it’s freaking him out.

Tim is not always the best at interpreting meaning if it isn’t direct, at least when it comes to his own relationships rather than analyzing other people, so he keeps thinking of Steph as his girlfriend after the above conversation and trying to talk to her. She rebuffs the attempts, which is, again, reasonable if she’s dumped him.

The problem is that, it turns out, Steph hasn’t dumped Tim in her view, either. She decides she’s “waiting for him to come clean”, and later when she stops rejecting him, she doesn’t think of it as “getting back together”, just as things “working out”.

Before that, Steph decides to stalk Tim and Star in order to learn his civilian identity, an action which she describes (out loud! to Tito, when she thinks he’s Tim!) “Now I have something on you. How’s it feel?”

Stephanie knows Tim wants to keep the two parts of his life separate; it was literally a condition of them dating, and a few days or weeks before this all went down they had this dialogue exchange:

Tim: “There’s a lot of changes in my private life, Steph.”

Steph: “The part I can’t know about.”

Tim: “I’m sorry about that, too.”

Steph: “I told you I’m cool with that.”

And now, a handful of issues later, she isn’t cool with that. Which is also reasonable! People get to change their minds about comfort levels in a relationship! Except that she doesn’t have an honest conversation about it with him, because she’s already decided he’s a cheater. Nor does she decide “welp, the condition of dating was not knowing his identity, and I’m no longer okay with that, therefore we will no longer date.”

So similarities we see between Stephanie and Bruce in this arc...

Once they’ve reached a conclusion, they’re very hard to persuade otherwise, and extremely unwilling to take others at their word.

Relationships have to be on their terms; whether they follow the other person’s boundaries is based on their own whims, they don’t actually respect those boundaries.

They tend to shut down communication when angry or upset; that’s a common stress response for most people! But when paired with the ability to still make and carry out elaborate schemes, it comes across less as emotional-stress-induced-difficulty, and more either a punishment for the people they’re upset with, or an unreasonable expectation that the other person should be a mind reader.

They’re more comfortable when they have leverage over someone.

All the Bats have similarities to each other (if they didn’t, they’d be in some other comic), but it’s interesting to see how those similarities play out sometime.

[incorrectmlpstudentsixquotes]

Any headcanons for the student six during pride month? Not sure if equestria would have such a thing, as they seem a generally accepting sort, but seems fun to think about.

For the sake of this ask, I’m not gonna go into specifics as to what identities any of the students might have. I’ll leave that all up to your own headcanons.

Regardless of each students’ individual identity, it’s interesting to think about how their respective homelands might have regarded LGBTQ+.

I mean, I think we can all agree that dragons in general would probably not be the biggest supporters. From how they’re depicted in the show, dragons seem very conservative in how they portray themselves. This is how a dragon acts, if you don’t act this way, you’re a bad dragon. Not the best mindset for LGBTQ+.

So Smolder, once she sees just how open and accepting Equestria is about that kind of stuff���. Honestly, I don’t see the poor girl reacting great to it at first.

Smolder’s defining trial from the Tree of Harmony was addressing the seemingly conflicting aspects of her own self-image.

True, we only really got a surface level dive into that issue, coming to terms that she can be a rough and tough dragon while still enjoying traditionally feminine things and the contradictions between the two only exists in her mind, but that same mindset might get in the way of embracing her own identity after a lifetime of being told she has to be this one way.

It’s like Fluttershy learning to be assertive. It’s not a lesson you can learn just one time and suddenly change your entire thought-process.

So, once Smolder starts to realize she might be queer, I can see her having another crisis of self similar to the one from the Tree’s trial. That being said, just like the trial, I can see her coming to terms with it pretty quickly.

Smolder’s issues with self-image aside, she’s actually been shown as having a pretty good emotional maturity when it comes to reflecting on that image. It’s sort of why I consider her to be the Element of Acceptance in my whole headcanon about the students getting their own unique Elements.

The other species I can see not being all that great at accepting LGBTQ+ are the griffons. But unlike the dragons who actively suppress LGBTQ+ because they don’t fit the culturally accepted model with what a dragon should be, griffons are more just… painfully apathetic to the whole thing.

Like, they acknowledge that it’s a thing, they just don’t care to hear about it. I imagine griffon culture is very ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ about LGBTQ+ topics.

As far as Gallus is concerned, he probably didn’t realize he was queer until long after moving to Equestria. There was simply no-one to talk to about these sorts of things and he didn’t bother making enough of a connection with anygriff his age, boy or girl, to really have to address any actual feelings on the matter.

Once he does start to piece it together, I imagine he’d be a lot more chill about it than Smolder. Like, he’d be more embarrassed to be feeling things at all than who he was feeling things towards.

It helps that Gallus is already so disillusioned with griffons in general that, once he realized he was queer, he probably wouldn’t care about how griffons back home felt about it, it wasn’t any of their damn business anyway.

That said, I do like to think that if anygriff back home did give Gallus shit over it, Gilda and Greta would be pretty quick to put the fear of god in them. Not because they care about the little brat, they just have no patience for assholes.

As for the rest of the species, I can see being pretty positive in their treatment of LGBTQ+.

Yaks care about strength more than anything, but the concept of strength is notably a gender-neutral factor to them. You have to be strong to be a Yak, but who you’re dating or what your pronouns are have nothing to do with how strong you are, so go nuts.

Changelings already have a more complicated relationship between self and image than any other creature by the simple fact that they can make themselves look like however they want. In all honesty, terms such as cis or trans might not even apply to changelings. They just are whatever they want to be.

Leaving hippogriffs and ponies as the idyllic best-case-scenario, where everyone is accepting and understanding of the multi-colored tapestry that makes up individuality and your identity is not only accepted, but celebrated.

A little too optimistic? Maybe, but it’s a fantasy world. We can allow it.

Bonus: You would think Thracians would be like dragons and griffons, but they’re surprisingly pretty chill about that sort of thing. They may not celebrate the individuality like Equestria, but there’s no social punishment or stigma attached to it either. Hell, some of the great Thracian poets completely revolved their work around the subject.

Thracian kings like Diomedes took a kind of Roman approach to these sorts of things when it came to their subjects. You can live your life however you please… Just remember who your life belongs to.

[stormyoceans]

monica! i need your best slow burn pining recommendations, i feel like you're the right person to ask <3

TURNS OUT THIS WAS ACTUALLY A WAY HARDER QUESTION TO ANSWER THAN I EXPECTED AND IT SENT ME INTO A DEEP EXISTENTIAL CRISIS ;;;;;;;;;

the thing is. i feel like 'slow burn' is an extremely subjective concept. for example, the only criteria a lot of people take into consideration to define a story as slow burn is when the characters enter an official romantic relationship, but to me it's also a matter of the characters' awareness when it comes to their own feelings: i personally have a hard time labeling a story as slow burn if the characters are attracted to each other from the first episode, or if one of them is already in love with the other at the beginning of the show, even if it may take them the rest of it to officially get together. and on the other hand, just because the characters aren't attracted to each other right away that doesn't automatically make it a slow burn to me

if i went with my idea of slow burn, tho, this list would be REALLY SHORT (like.. probably only 3 series would fit that ;;;;;;;), so first and foremost i’ve tried to pick shows that i think are the closest to my personal view of what a slow burn is and that have a good balance between pining, awareness and official romantic status, but after that im also gonna give you some different options just to cover a bit more ground, so here we go!!!!!

CLOSEST TO MY IDEA OF SLOW BURN

a tale of thousand stars. what could i even say about this show that hasn’t already been said. it simply has everything: great story, great characters, great chemistry, great slow burn and tension and pining that will make you scream at your screen.

enchanté. this show isn’t half as bad as most people say it is and this is a hill im willing to die on. features one of the best childhood friends to lovers romances with levels of tension and pining that are honestly out of this world and that made me want to punch through a wall in multiple occasions, which is why im willing to put it in the slow burn section even if it’s obvious that both akk and theo are aware of their own feelings for the other since the beginning.

i told sunset about you. it’s hard for me to call a show with only 5 episodes a slow burn, and yet it still very much feels like one. i don’t talk much about itsay because it speaks to the queer experience in a way that hits a bit too close to home for me, but the chemistry and the tension are truly unparalleled (in this house we do not talk about i promised you the moon tho).

my ride. kind overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in one of the softest, sweetest, most underrated slow burn romances ever put on screen. i don’t really know what else to say except that this is one of my comfort show and that it never fails to make me feel all warm and fuzzy.

SOTUS. look.. im fully aware this show has its issues. aside from the hazing (which personally doesn’t bother me, but i know it can be triggering for other people), it belongs to a generation of BL where the concept of any other sexuality aside from straight and gay did not exist, so you will have to bear with now thankfully outdated tropes like ‘gay for you’ and a certain amount of sex negativity. despite all this, it still does many things right, including giving us an enemies to lovers slow burn romance that to this day no other BL can compare to.

triage. TIME LOOP + MEDICAL MURDER MYSTERY + SLOW BURN = A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN. i know this show isn’t for everyone – for some it’s too slow and complicated, for others there’s not enough romance – but it is made for me specifically and i will never stop recommending it.

the untamed. okay so.. i guess technically we can’t call this a BL because the show has been edulcorated by chinese censorship, but even if there are no kiss and no actual declaration of love in the series, this is still very much a romance, and it’s also the perfect example of what slow burn is to me: excruciating and with the power to reduce you to a rabies-ridded violent little gremlin.

vice versa. IM THE MOST PREDICTABLE WOMAN ON EARTH IM SORRY. and alright, this may be a little bit of a stretch because if i put vice versa here then it’s fair to argue i should put other shows as well, BUT IN MY DEFENSE. episode 6 and episode 7 caused me irreparable damage with how much i was screaming at my screen for puen and talay to just kiss and get together already. these two idiots also confirmed their status only in the last part of the very last episode, and just for that they deserve a spot here. ABSOLUTE BUFFOONERY.

other shows that fit this and that are not my cup of tea but maybe they’re yours:

stay with me [cw: sad ending]

SHOWS THAT I THINK COULD BE CONSIDERED SLOW BURN (maybe. possibly. perhaps? ;;;;;)

dear doctor i’m coming for soul

i will knock you (is this show good? no. did i watch it until the very end laughing my ass off and having the time of my life? yes. it is EXTREMELY cringey and pretty low quality tho, so be aware of that ;;;;;;)

ingredients

light on me

my tooth your love

our dining table

unintentional love story

other shows that fit this and that are not my cup of tea but maybe they’re yours:

minato shouji’s coin laundry

step by step

MORE OF A NICE SIMMER TO A ROILING BOIL BUT THE PINING IS DELICIOUS

2gether

my school president

old fashion cupcake

we best love: nr. 1 for you

other shows that fit this and that are not my cup of tea but maybe they’re yours:

plus and minus

NOT SLOW BURN TO ME BUT THE RELATIONSHIP IS DEVELOPED NICELY AND/OR THERE IS SOME GOOD PINING

bad buddy

blueming

the eighth sense

history 3: trapped

laws of attraction

love tractor

not me

semantic error

[tadpolesonalgae]

it's actually scary how little agency reader actually has. eris said don't and she was fully ready to not do it just because he said so? also she doesn't even know what she likes, she doesn't even believe she is worthy of having things she likes or expectations from life or people around her. honestly it's not even just the ic but how did her sister's never notice this because it's clearly not a new thing, she had to have always been like this and "they were busy" or "they had a lot on their plate" sure but how do you miss that about your own sister for 20 years? like i get why people dog pile on azriel in this fic but she was literally just his friend's (and crush's) sister at that point even if he was an asshole but her actual family failed her bad

Reader does have the ability to go out wherever she wants. She could buy things in Velaris since Rhys has a dragon’s hoard worth of wealth but doesn’t want to, she could go outside and into the city since she can winnow out but again chooses not to, she could visit her family and the IC but she just has no interest in it? I guess what I’m saying is that it’s her lack of desire to do things that’s worrying rather than her not doing them? She has the tools and equipment but no reason to take advantage of them.

‘eris said don't and she was fully ready to not do it just because he said so?’

Well, she also understood the point of what was happening? It wasn’t as simple as Eris said ‘don’t eat that’ and she didn’t, but she could see that if she was given an incentive and became desperate that might help her access her magic?

We can see that sometimes she does do stuff by herself, like how she continued writing to him despite basically everyone in her life telling her not to and that he was cruel and manipulative, so she does sometimes act of her own accord, just that because it’s fairly rare she wants anything she doesn’t practice reaching or asking for whatever it is since it’s much easier to just not do anything :)

‘also she doesn't even know what she likes, she doesn't even believe she is worthy of having things she likes or expectations from life or people around her.’

I honestly don’t think that’s a bad thing (not knowing what she likes, not the not-feeling-worthy-of-having-things-she-likes)? She knows she likes reading but most importantly she enjoys learning. Yes she could in theory buy clothes or books or jewellery in Verlaris but when it doesn’t interest her she doesn’t see the point of it?

As for the not feeling deserving of having things she likes, that is a problem she’ll have to figure out 😬

‘honestly it's not even just the ic but how did her sister's never notice this because it's clearly not a new thing, she had to have always been like this and "they were busy" or "they had a lot on their plate" sure but how do you miss that about your own sister for 20 years?’

Problems with someone’s mental space aren’t always easy to spot, and that’s definitely made more difficult without our knowledge of various issues that can arise and what their tells are. Even with modern day understanding of mental health, so many problems have similar symptoms while also so many present themselves differently depending on who the person is. If it can take years in our world to get a diagnosis from a professional, or even to discover something on your own, I don’t think it’s unreasonable that it might take years in theirs, too. And I get that just because they might not have the proper medical terms for the things going on inside people’s heads doesn’t mean they won’t be able to tell if something’s wrong, I just that I think it’s a complicated matter and there are different angles to take into account. The IC all have their own lives, their own history, and their own problems they need to handle on top of everything that’s happening in the background. Maybe it was obvious that something was wrong when the sisters were in the hut, maybe it wasn’t, but I wouldn’t be surprised if each of them was just trying to make it through one day at a time.

‘like i get why people dog pile on azriel in this fic but she was literally just his friend's (and crush's) sister at that point even if he was an asshole but her actual family failed her bad’

Yeah, Az was wrong to say the stuff he did, and everything got pretty messy because of what happened in those initial chapters, but there wouldn’t be more story if they all did the right thing and were perfect! I’m hoping it’ll be nice getting to see things being fixed, but it won’t happen in a couple of chapters (unless there are a whole bunch of time skips) :)

It might also get to be nice to watch things take their time to develop on their own, and what happens when reader is given the chance to explore things away from her family and the IC 🧡💛

[vampstel]

I forgot I was gonna talk about this oops but here we are. Let’s go!! The Gender Talk™️ below the cut so be warned!!

I have a very complicated relationship with gender and it’s something I’ve always wanted to discuss to other people but never get the chance to. I tell people I’m trans and leave it there but I’m more than just that. To be more specific, I partially identify as a male. I don’t feel a full connection to manhood and it’s always left me feeling confused about my identity because I’m still in that toxic mindset that I *need* to be completely in the binary or completely out of it to be a “real trans person”

It’s a ridiculous notion I’ve had ever since I was young and its damaged my perception of my identity. My perception only gets worse when you consider I’m neurodivergent… societal norms and gender roles are not a thing I understand and I won’t pretend I do. I’ve always felt like an outcast and had little to no feeling about who I am until I turned 14. Even then, at 17 I still struggle.

But only recently have I come to terms that I’m not completely in the binary or out of it. I’ve adopted the label “demiboy” because of this.

The best way I can describe my gender is that I’m masculine. I’m a boy, but not entirely. My gender’s almost fluid, in a way. Some days I feel more masculine, other days I simply have no gender. You could argue it’s counterintuitive of me to feel connected to one gender yet feel like I lack gender but that’s simply how I am and I’m slowly growing to accept it.

I’m guessing you can tell where this is going. I’ve been dealing with internalized transphobia again. My dysphoria often manifests as apathy and dissociation which leads me to doubting my identity. It’s stupid and I hate it. Then with that doubt comes with scary thoughts of detransitioning (which is funny in hindsight because… if I’m scared of detransitioning cause I don’t want to be a cis woman, isn’t that solid proof I’m trans?)

So, as a way to cope, I’m trying to remind myself that detransitioning (that happening to me is unlikely but still) is perfectly fine. That should be making me feel reassured instead of scared. If I was wrong about my identity then shucks. That’s part of the journey and that’s okay??

Two things for sure though: I hate my voice and I hate my chest. Not only do they make me dysphoric, my chest gives me a lot of issues and leaves me overstimulated. Love being neurodivergent lol. Can’t wait to get top surgery someday.

On a different tangent: While I still feel doubt about my identity, I honestly don’t get affected by transphobia and it’s very odd to me? But thank goodness. I get transphobic comments a lot even as a small content creator and I’ve laughed at all of them without fail. I dunno,, it’s funny when strangers think I give a shit whether or not they think my identity is valid. I know who I am and that’s what matters. I don’t need validation from anyone but myself.

Anyway that’s all I have to share bye bye ^^ I’m still sick jsjsjs

[the1975attheirverybest]

in response to the independence point - we had an independence referendum in 2014 where 55% of scottish people voted to remain in the uk, who we do still answer to on reserved matters like economy and national security as you said (transport and education, among other things, are devolved matters that the scottish government can control). said 55% were majority older people who were (and this is fair enough) worried as to how scotland would fare as an independent country and economy, because we haven't been one for quite honestly hundreds of years (we actually only got our own parliament in the late 1990s). the feeling is that we put a lot into the union with the rest of the uk for very little benefit - subsidising england/westminster with a lot of money (made through an actually very sustainable/substantial economy), only to be shafted and disregarded when it comes to policy-making in westminster and, culturally, taken the piss of a bit by the english (mostly those in the south - historically, scotland and northern england were all fucked by thatcherism, so there's less animosity there i think. and as matty said, he's from the north and wants independence - westminster cares about southern england and that's it, really). post-brexit, more people expressed a want for scottish independence - we voted overwhelmingly to stay in the eu, but we're being dragged out anyway - and the constant failures of a ruling conservative party we didn't even vote for (most scottish votes went to the scottish national party) have continued to increase our want to just get the fuck out (because we're smaller geographically, we've less say in uk-wide elections, so we end up drawing the short straw fairly often). there's also a lot of socio-religious-political problems in scotland that kinda complicate ideas of identity and the overall want to be independent, but i won't get into those now because we'll be here for AGES lmao

politically, matty saying that scotland should be independent on the bbc - who are MEANT to be impartial but are basically government lapdogs in disguise - is quite brave of him, especially for someone who has no real connection to scotland other than liking being there and working there lmao (like it would probably be less dramatic politically if ross, who's of scottish heritage to some degree, had said it). i hope this makes sort-of sense - it's hard to explain concisely because it's so rooted in history AND current politics lol

Wow. That’s such a complex, mired issue. Thanks for taking the time to educate us! So, at the risk of being reductive, let me see if I understood you: basically, Scotland doesn’t get too much of a say in who’s in charge but has to follow along with the conservatives rule (who aren’t even populist/ popular but they’re in charge, unfortunately - don’t we in the US know what that’s like, smh) and contributes significantly to the economy with very little reward? So it would be in its best interest to be independent at this point, especially after Brexit means they don’t get to be part of the EU cuz the UK isn’t anymore (not that y’all have had much of say in that choice either since, as we just said, Scotland’s votes end up not having enough weight)?

Is that more or less it, or have I misunderstood?

If so, then bro Matty’s chaotic energy is finally paying off haha. Love that he doesn’t give a fuck and said it into the BBC camera lens. Though I’m sure we’ll wake up to a weird tabloid headline tomorrow.

And, yeah, idk. Obviously, as an American I’m not qualified to speak on this but the brexit thing alone/ not being allowed into the EU would piss me off if I were a voting person in Scotland. Gosh. Feels like social and political choices are crumbling across the globe. Excuse me while I go replay Love It If We Made It.

[chaifootsteps]

I relate to Bridget in a trans way, but like, in the opposite direction. Please forgive me for the amount of oversharing I am about to do, I apologize for the wall of text.

When I was a kid, I was the only daughter amongst my siblings. So my mom, ever since I was young, wanted me to be sort of a miniature version of her. Tried to get me to like makeup, dresses, Barbies, the kind of music she liked, you get the idea. Hell, for my first three Halloweens, I was a cheerleader. But my grandmother gave me plastic dinosaurs and my dad gave me his old rock CDs, and I took to playing in the mud and bugs instead of hanging out with other girls, and suddenly it became apparent, even from a young age, that I wasn’t going to turn out to be like her.

And honestly? I think she still resents me for it. She always bought dolls instead of dinosaur toys, and even until college she controlled my entire wardrobe. I couldn’t buy anything without sending her a picture first. She controlled everything I ate because she didn’t want me to get fat, and for a period of time made me weigh myself before I could eat dinner. Entire sections of the pantry were off-limits to me, and only me. She’d force me into makeup and girly clothes whenever we went out, and if I refused, would threaten to cut my long hair because “I obviously didn’t want to look like a girl”. I wasn’t even allowed to be what I wanted for Halloween (a werewolf or anything scary) because she would always break the costume if she didn’t like it.

Even today, there’s a point of contention between us. She loathes the fact that I was able to get myself a suit, loathes the fact that I wear a binder. Says I’ll be mutilating myself if I ever get top surgery, and that I was so, so lucky to be born pretty, that I’m an idiot for wanting to throw that all away. Tells me that, if I do “think I’m a man” that I should tell her now so she can “start to grieve”. Says no one will ever see me as a dude regardless if I don’t cut my hair, and that “people like me” will never get a good job, and that I’ll just end up some “creepy boss’s whore”.

I can relate to that in Bridget, in being forced into something since you were small because your parents thought that would be best for one reason or another. Wanted something else out of you that was never in you in the first place. My relationship with gender is a weird one— I don’t call myself “trans”, just “androgynous”— but in those old lines where he said that he was a boy, I fucking got it. I got repeatedly telling others that it didn’t matter what you looked like, it didn’t matter if your hair was too long or your favorite color was too girly or whatever. It didn’t matter if I didn’t want to change my presentation too much, because I knew who I was inside and I knew how I wanted to be perceived by others, and dammit even if no one else saw it in me, I’d make sure to tell them anyways.

So like, seeing him be forced to be trans by the writers, and hearing that his abusive parents were “always right” in a sense? That maybe he’d figured out he was trans, but “wanted to explore that in his own way”, even if it was entirely fucked up that he was basically pressured into being like that since he was small? Hearing everyone celebrate that because being a girl is somehow “better” than being a guy?

It feels really fucking bad.

First of all, thank you for sharing this, Anon. The way your mom treated you was supremely fucked up; your life was your own, not a vehicle for whatever issues she has. I hope you're doing better now.

You hit the nail on the head. Bridget was never trans, but instead represented something more complicated that applied, like tofu soaking up the surrounding flavors in a pan, to different people all across the spectrum of gender nonconforming things. Like a lot of characters that have ended up in the same boat as Bridget, Bridget represented the feeling of being forced to present as something you weren't, of how ridiculous society could be. He wasn't exactly angsty about it, but the fact that he'd been forced to grow up presenting as a girl (or be in danger) when he didn't see himself as one had undeniably fucked him up a little, to the point where he wore a handcuff representing it, which comes off in the Jam endings. But he always knew exactly what he was, and he was loudly, boldly, unapologetically who he was, which was a guy. For a lot of us, he was our first taste of all of this.

There's this extremely cruel narrative that only "porn sick femboys" are upset about the Bridget retcon, but for a lot of those guys, Bridget was the first one to ever tell them that wearing a skirt didn't make you less of a man. Androgynous people like you related to Bridget. Trans guys like me related to Bridget.

To be told (by a good chunk of people who never touched Guilty Gear before Strive no less) that it's fine if a little kid grows up the way Bridget does, that it was good for it to happen? To be told he was never ours in the first place?

That's so, so fucking shitty.

[totaldramafan-lauri]

Unhappy Campers

Hoo boy.....for such a simple, back-to-basics VOTW episode, my thoughts on this one are.....complicated. I had to watch it three times in a row to get everything straightened out. There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’ll do my best to explain myself for those interested.

First of all......yeah. On my first viewing at least, there was an element of disappointment that held me back. It ties back to what I said in my post talking about last episode- I REALLY wanted an immediate follow-up to what happened with Stolas. I....I got my hopes up. I didn’t want this to be like Seeing Stars again. I’m not saying that I want Stolas in every single episode, cuz I know he shouldn’t be. Other characters should get enough time to shine so this doesn’t just become The Stolitz Show. I know that, but.....i-in this case, the ending of last episode was SO impactful to me that I just.....didn’t wanna ignore it right away. So, when I saw that this episode wasn’t what I wanted it to be, I felt a bit let down.....

However, I’m not holding that against this episode. I KNOW we’ll get back to him, so I shouldn’t worry. That’s why I gave this episode multiple watches...to wipe that feeling away, and enjoy it for what it is. ^^

So....this episode is....like I said, complicated.

First off, my biggest issue.

I have a very.....hard time with cringe comedy. I have that hyper-empathy problem that a lot of autistic people have. I HATE HATE HATE HATE watching people, even fictional characters, embarrass themselves. And Helluva doesn’t usually do this, so I was very unprepared for this much of it. Heck, that’s MOST of the comedy in this episode! It REALLY wants you to laugh at Moxxie and find him pathetic, like the writers are putting him up on stage and giving him a wedgie. I’ll get to Moxxie himself later, but my point is.....it doesn’t matter what character is in that position. I don’t find it funny. Even if it’s a random nobody, I still won’t find it funny. Cringe comedy is the best way to make me wanna mute my headphones.

As a result....I’m sorry to say this, but this is the least funny episode of Helluva Boss to date for me. It’s the only time I didn’t laugh ONCE. I did like the episode for other reasons, but the comedy is not one of them. I’m glad that they’re trying to still throw in lighthearted and comedic episodes, rather than ignoring that part of the show, but I really hope they don’t do this particular style of humor anymore. At least....not going this hard on it.

But....again, this is just a personal taste thing, so I’m not holding it against the episode. I know those jokes do have fans, or else....they wouldn’t be a thing. XD So, yeah, literally just a me problem. If you find this episode funny, you’re valid. I wish I was like you.

So, on to my favorite part of the episode, then.....Millie development! WOOOOOO! I was able to get over my Stolas disappointment easier than I would’ve normally, cuz....well.....sure, we didn’t get to see him, but hey, we got an episode about MILLIE! We get to learn more about her outside of her adorable relationship with Moxxie! We learn that she wants to feel important! She’s from a very large family, AND she’s probably feared by most people she knows, TBH, so I totally buy this. XD And honestly? Same. Sometimes I worry that I don’t matter. I found her very adorable this whole episode. She didn’t let it get to her head, she didn’t grow an ego or anything.....she still supported Moxxie the whole time while finally being able to live her best life as....well, a “regular joe”. These people don’t know her, they don’t know she’s an assassin with a berserker-level temper, and....they love her! No doubt, she loves her job, but taking time away in a place where her reputation doesn’t follow her everywhere she goes......I can see why she’d love it.

She feels important. She feels like she’s more than her fighting skills. She feels.....like she’s capable of more than she expected. And she feels GOOD about herself.

I hope I don’t seem like a jerk when I say this, but I LOVED seeing Millie the more vulnerable one for once, when she’s talking to Moxxie. She’s always seemed like such an...invincible character. The only one without trauma to deal with, and the only one who seemed to have her crap together. She’s amazing at her job, she has a great personality, she’s sweet, kind, supportive, strong....but seeing that she has these insecurities makes me appreciate her even more.

This episode....REALLY made me adore Millie as her own character more, and I already liked her beforehand. Heck, I was one of the people who didn’t agree with the “flat character” criticisms! I loved her attitude! She had so many memorable quotes, and she’s adorable! But yeah, I was still waiting for her to get a focus episode, and this episode.....while not perfect in other aspects, flipping NAILED Millie. So, good job to the team.

Not only that...but I also enjoyed Moxxie here (other than the cringe comedy). I can totally see why some viewers might find him unlikable in this episode, don’t get me wrong. They’re clearly TRYING to make him in the wrong, and yes, he IS. But.....I’m sorry, I’ve always related to this man so hard and that doesn’t change here. He is still SUCH a mood to me. Being given a leading position for the first time ever, feeling super excited......but then getting wrapped up in myself, so focused in getting my first time exactly right, so much so that I start overthinking EVERYTHING and ignoring the obvious......hahahahaha I’m in this picture and I don’t like it. PLEASE don’t let me lead anything ever hahahaha.....I feel Moxxie SO badly here, which....makes the jokes even harder to sit through. Cuz he’s trying his best, maybe even TOO hard, and those kids are just- UUUUGGHHH! >__<

I will admit, tho, that even tho it was believable, I....REALLY didn’t like watching M&M fight. Especially the first time. It’s....pretty hard to watch. Say what you will about them being “boring” or whatever, but M&M are one of my favorite parts of the show, and one of the reasons is that they DON’T fight. That there ISN’T any drama. Their wholesomeness provides levity from the dysfunctional relationships everywhere else in the show. So.....yeah, even if it wasn’t forced, and made perfect sense for both of them, the fight still put me on edge. I don’t want that from my M&M. BUT, fortunately, Moxxie immediately realizes he messed up, and makes it up to her as soon as possible. Saving me my sanity. Thank god, or Satan. XD

My favorite moment in the whole episode is after Millie’s performance, when Moxxie tells her he’s proud of her. That, combined with the look on Millie’s face melted my heart. It’s such a simple, yet sweet moment. I love them.....so much.....Again, Millie’s always felt....untouchable before this episode, and it was Moxxie that always needed validation from her. So, seeing Millie so vulnerable when she doesn’t think her husband supports her really shows how in love they are. And that moment....just.....you can tell how much it meant to her to hear him say that. That, no matter what.....his approval means more to her than that of anyone else. Flipping perfect.

(Also, can we talk about how the climax involved Millie performing on stage, and Moxxie taking part in the big action scene? Talk about a cool role reversal, huh? XD)

So, overall, M&M were the best part of the episode (minus the cringe comedy surrounding Moxxie). But it was still pretty cool to finally meet Blitzo’s sister after so long, altho she isn’t the focus of the episode.....

And....that, sadly, brings me to my other....issue? I guess? Not really a complaint, but more of a missed opportunity....

I wish this episode had been split into two.

Now, I can see why they’d think that the camp story wouldn’t be enough to fill an episode, but.....why couldn’t they have come up with a different b-plot? Something....simpler, like Blitzo, I dunno.....betting on a hellhorse race, or something? Pffff, sorry, that was off the top of my head, but- Y-you get the idea!

I really feel like Bltizo finding his sister should’ve been its own episode. I mean, c’mon, we’ve known about Barbie Wire since the pilot, and she’s been mentioned multiple times since then. We were all waiting to see her...and here she is! And she seems really cool so far! But....she’s not the focus of the episode she’s finally introduced in? What was the thought process behind this? This is Blitzo’s SISTER! Her introduction should’ve had more fanfare! Was this literally just to get the audience guessing and wanting more? Cuz it worked-

I REALLY hope we’re not waiting too long.....What the heck is going on with Blitzo’s family? First something happened with his mom, and now we learn his sister hates his guts and UGH I WANNA KNOOOOOOWWWW- Blitzo, what did you DO? (altho, TBH, that kinda reveal sounds like “season finale” material, so-)

S-sorry this got so long, but....l-like I said, my feelings toward this episode are very mixed. Not a fan of the comedy, which is an issue, but I love the character development for Millie, Moxxie being relatable and learning from his mistakes, and Bltizo trying to reach out to his sister was great even tho I feel like that should’ve been its own episode.

Overall....this is NOT my least-favorite episode of season 2. It doesn’t have the tonal whiplash problems that Seeing Stars had. The tone of this episode is handled really well, which is another thing I’ll give it. It never felt like it jumped from one tone to another too quickly. Being a more simple story with not much serious stakes probably helped there. The best scenes in Seeing Stars were probably objectively better than this episode’s, but as an overall package, I like this one better. (And Millie stuff helped it out too)

However, it’s not nearly as good as Exes And Ohs, and I would also say it’s sliiiiightly worse than Western Energy too, so yeah, that’s where I stand with it. I enjoyed myself. It’s a grower. It’s just that the comedy dragged it down too much for me. But again, that’s just a me problem, and not a problem with the show itself! ^^

[thestobingirlie]

Hey! It’s revelation anon! How are you doing? I meant to send this in wayy earlier but things came up and I had no time for the tumblr. 

Anyways, my original revelation hinged on Steve’s flaw being self centrism, but I think I can spin it to be the one that the show/the Duffers/fandom wants us to focus on. Anyways, you got it in the tags. I was going to try and hinge it around Steve and Nancy’s flaws being the same, not in a Stancy way, but more in a “why does fandom see Steve’s self centrism as bad while ignoring Nancy���s.” Again, I’m going to try and hinge Steve’s thing about the flaw about what the Duffer’s want the audience to see but not 100% sure it’s going to work. I’ll figure it out.  Anyways, while I was off tumblr, I had a bunch of thoughts about Stranger Things that I decided to elaborate on. I'm not going to include all of them because then this ask would get too long. A lot of them were probably noticed before but I just noticed them/they just popped in my head. The first is just the timings in season 2. Like Barb was declared dead by the lab in November 1984. Why does it look it’s spring at her funeral? It’s December in Indiana, there should not be green leaves on the trees. And like Steve appears to go to the Wheeler’s in the afternoon and when he’s driving Dustin it’s night? One thing that kinda bugs me is why did Nancy dance with Dustin at the end of S2? Like Nancy isn’t really emphatic to characters around her in general. And she and Dustin don’t appear to have a good relationship in my opinion. She slams a door in his face. They don’t interact much in Season 2. She says Dustin is her favorite out of Mike's friends, but we really don’t see her act that way towards Dustin. Like why did she decide now was the time to be nice to him? Like she could be doing it out of the goodness of her heart, but that doesn’t really feel like Nancy to me. Just something that bugged me for a bit.

Also Ro/nance has issues that usually don't get explored in fandom and one of my favorite fics from another fandom did this type of complicated relationship perfectly. (Character A breaks up with Character B and they are devastated and then Character A dates person important to Character B) I was going to elaborate but then it started getting way too long.

Anyways, I hope I didn't annoy you too much with the length of this ask!!

i’ve made quite a few posts about nancy being a bit self-involved, or i usually say not great at empathy lol. but yeah, i could see an argument made that steve’s moments of being self involved, whether you see it as his fatal flaw or not, are always seen as bad things, whereas nancy’s are covered up. honestly, i think most of that just comes from the show refusing to acknowledge nancy’s flaws, and the fans have just kind of picked up on that, and so just kind of ignore any she does have!

okay. so, the duffer brothers are very bad at time management. like weirdly bad. it’s said that scoops troop was in the russian underground for a day, yet two days pass above ground.

i think i read someone say that they think the duffers just like for dramatic moments to happen at night, no matter whether that actually makes sense, and it just totally fucks with the timeline.

also! i cannot say much about barb’s funeral, because i have no idea what autumn/winter weather looks like in indiana, though i will take your word for it!

i honestly have not watched that scene in years because i cannot bear to watch dustin cry. but anyway, i think they just needed a way for dustin to not cry, and nancy was there! it is kind of weird that nancy hasn’t ever really spoken to him before that scene and doesn’t really again. the duffers kind of only care about relationships when they have to. and then just drop them. but to defend nancy a bit here, she does care about other people, and you would feel bad if you saw some little kid crying in the corner. (though i think all that shit about favourites was just her lying to make him feel better lol. i do not think she cares enough about her brothers friends to have favourites)

i have spoken about r//nance at length on this account, and many people have complained to me about it lol. so yeah, i think this fandom just doesn’t like writing complex relationships lol, so they just ignore all the shit that would get in the way of the actual relationship. also, in fics where r//nance is a background ship, the author wouldn’t want to dedicate loads of time to untangling all the drama. and in fics where r//nance is the focus, i just don’t think they care enough about steve and robin’s actual characterisation to make sure it makes sense.

also, i don’t mind long asks! though they do take me a bit longer to answer lol