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hotcupoteckla · 5 months ago

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Whoa friends, I think we should slow our roll a little.

1. These are 14 year olds who are trying to figure out who they are, and how they tick, and how the world ticks and how they fit in the world.

2. I remember my youthful self taking quiz upon quiz upon quiz of "Which mental illness are you?", "which character are you?", etc. To try an suss all that out along with being a voracious smut fanfic reader, and dealt with finding my own sense of yuck and yum and how to interact with those things in fiction as well as /how to deal with those things in real life/

3. I'm okay with a 14 YEAR OLD thinking a 4 year age gap (particularly in real life) is a big deal. For Them & their peers, it is. It's good for them to think of it that way with their perspective, which will likely change the older they get.

4. We should guide them to think that we shouldn't cut off social relationships over someone's taste in fiction. It's fiction, it's made up, and maybe they're dealing with an issue where they need to explore this idea with an age gap, or maybe the age gap doesn't matter to them. You should definitely read it first to see where they might be coming from. There is a significant difference with finding a fictional setup appealing and seeking it out for yourself. A mental exploration is not the same as acting it out.

5. If you're shocked and terrified that you find something appealing, thinking critically about why you found it appealing and whether the text intended it to be appealing and why they might want you to find it appealing so phrased it in those words, that tone, what are they trying to say big picture: all good stuff.

A 14 year old should do LOTS of this analysis stuff. That they're trying to incorporate DSM-V to their understanding of what each thing is and how it all breaks down, also good stuff.

They haven't yet likely made the discoveries about religion and shame yet, BUT WE HAVE BEEN THERE. It's okay. They'll find their way.

Just remind them: don't forget to ask Why to each authority you find.

6. I don't know about prevs, but I found stuff I wrote when younger before: all cringe, some ignorance that I've since learned better about, etc.

As long as we encourage them on how to interact with the world at large, most of them will stop the brimstone flavors pretty quick.

Is it concerning how severe their language about it is? Yes, but they're young and have been encouraged all their lives to see the world in black and white.

They are 14, and while it might be a sign of OCD, it might also be a sign of the internet being a safe space to not have to filter your language, so it comes off a bit amplified.

Teach them how to be polite and respectful of other adults tastes and opinions.

Remind them it's fiction, it's play-pretend. It's not their job to act out 1984, Fahrenheit 451, Minority Report, insert thought-crime fiction here.

Give them some recommendations on works that they can start to understand nuance, ask questions about why their lines are so hard, get them to focus on themes and why cannibalism might be a good stand in for sex in young adult fiction.

The kids will come around, they always do.

14 year olds shipping discourse is inbreeding with itself to make the discourse equivalent of a brachycephalic bulldog at this point. They're inventing new extremely vague moral purity categories at a rate nearly equivalent to the Mormon church

* For the record btw a paraphilia by definition is just any sexual desire classed as "unusual" by the dsm, which can include anything from apparently getting horny about imagining yourself as a vampire (?) to being attracted to fictional characters, to being attracted to trans people. It's not an issue unless it has the capacity to cause real harm to yourself or others, at which point it becomes a paraphilic disorder

#puriteens #purity culture #fiction #fan fiction #Did yall go into LiveJournal and read random blogs & read through random comments interactions & insert yourselves?#like calm down #i agree puriteen culture is bs #but they need the space we used to take for granted to figure it out #fighting them there is going to make them feel attacked #and cause them to fall further into the purity bs #address it when they come to you #make them the offensive ones

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poorly-drawn-mdzs · 3 months ago

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Have you seen my little lad?

[First] Prev <–-> Next

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #jin zixun #Everytime I have to write his name I feel like I'm running outside in a blood rain trying not to get wet. Misspelling it feels so inevitabl #But so far so good! He doesn't have too many more appearances before he gets Cheesed.#Dear god I love it when characters go on the war path for someone they care about.#And I love it even more when you have an ambiguity between personal debt and genuine act of selflessness.#WWX saving WN is purposefully messy! Like a lot of our real life reasons for how we act - there isn't a clear single cause or answer.#Sometimes we forget that we are a collection of experiences and learnt reactions.#Sometimes we forget that what we see on the surface is not the point to address. Everyone is more complex than we think. Even yourself.#And yet...it always comes back to love doesn't it? Attachment styles and self-esteem and bonds and relationships to others.#Everything comes back to love and our perceptions of it.#WWX is on a self-destructive war path and he will absorb as much damage as he can for those he feels obligated and attached to.#Does it make him feel needed? Does it give him purpose? Does it ease anxieties of the past? I do not think there is an answer.

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dykedvonte · 1 month ago

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You ever just see a Mouthwashing take that makes you want to bang your head into a wall? I literally just saw someone claim Curly couldn't have been emotionally abused by Jimmy before the crash because he was in a higher position of power than Jimmy.

-Shrimp Anon

The mouthwashing fandom has shown me that people genuinely do believe that certain types of abuse are not as detrimental as other types especially when they deem those immune/resistant, ergo, believing one is objectively worse no matter how it affects the person nor the intersections of power, history and dynamics at play.

Get ready cause this is a yap session:

Cause like it's heavily implied that Curly and Jimmy's friendship was toxic and abusive, pointedly in the direction of how Jimmy uses Curly's belief/comfort in him. Curly wasn't forced to enable Jimmy but he was emotional and mentally on edge around him in almost every scene in some way. Mental and emotional abuse are not contingent on what positions you have at work. Yeah, he's Jimmy's boss but he was Jimmy's friend first and it's like getting into Psych discussion to talk about how social power tends to overshadow any perceived organizational power in the human mind. People are concerned about their jobs ofc but they tend to hang onto and put more value/investment into their personal relationships, hence why there tends to be laws and restrictions around mixing the two.

I always see the sentiments that "Curly is a grown ass man", "Curly is bigger than Jimmy", "Curly is Jimmy's boss", "He just needed a backbone" as criticisms of Curly and while I do agree that on the surface level all of these to be true and viable ways Curly could've taken more control of the situation, I often look at the parallels of Anya and Curly as victims of Jimmy pre/post crash.

The way Jimmy talks to Anya post crash is how he talked to Curly in the pre-crash segments. It's hard to pin-point mainly because we know he hates and wants nothing to do with Anya compared to his contrary but similarly handled obsessions with Curly. It's a weird sort of "honey-moon" effect of abuse Jimmy does in terms of emotional and mental victimization. He is always horrid to Anya, always talking down or questioning her abilities and thoughts in a situation, this of course includes the harassment and assault. However, he has a moment of attempted gentleness/conditioning when he question her about the mouthwash when she's contemplating drinking it at the table. The key difference is he has no personal investment in Jimmy outside wanting nothing to do with him, meaning there is no sort of romanticized version of him that he can condition her off of. He knows this, hence, why he always reverts to trying to make her to scared to oppose him.

This sort of give and take of "kindness" doesn't work on her because she knows he is just doing it to take more from her than whatever he could possibly give but it reflects even the "softer" scenes between him and Curly where he always rewords or rephrases Curly's sentiments and concerns to sound more shallow. He is feigning a deeper understanding by reworking Curly's emotions into something bad and needing to be hidden. Everything is laced with envy and resentment, an outburst just around the corner, I mean he even slams the table in the birthday party scene, a tactic in emotional manipulation to set the victim on edge and cloud their ability to respond. Even if Curly knows Jimmy won't get physical in that moment, the physical actions is intended to make him back down in the confrontation in case it does. This is something that is just not person specific. It ingrains itself into how you interact with the world and life and it shows in major and minor ways with Curly.

Post-crash, the abusive nature is more in tandem to the physical victimization Anya went through and the stripping of voice and autonomy we see take place. Like the parasite in HFIM, Jimmy speaks for Curly most of the time and puts words in his mouth, similarly to how he takes Anya's plans as his own. He very commonly, with the both of them mind you, supplements the worst aspects of himself into them; pettiness, selfishness, lack of understanding... And tries to cover himself with their best qualities; kindness, planning, initiative, etc...

These parallel are just to say that positional power has little to do with if a person can be abused and how it can even be flipped to further the abuse. There is no doubt that Curly could've picked up on Jimmy's envy of his position hence another reason he never confronted him as a Captain but as a friend as doing so would immediately put Jimmy in a space to be confrontational/combative.

I think the disdain some people have when they talk about the heavily implied if not implicitly stated emotional/mental abuse Curly experienced being Jimmy's friend is when treating it as an excuse to why he didn't do more. I can understand that completely because it is not an excuse to why he didn't do more but is a very real reason people in his position in these scenarios can experience whether in the context of a work or social environment. However, I also think the way people talk about it really does demonstrate a bigger problem when talking about abuse when somehow who is/was abused is either part of the issue or enabled it.

Harkening back to the sentiments about Curly's inaction regarding Jimmy, I think the exact phrases I used/have seen show how there is an inherent belief that it is easier to overpower the effects of emotional/mental abuse that go in tandem with the perception of Curly as someone who should be able to. There is not an age you suddenly stop being susceptible to abuse nor a set point or low where you realize how it has affected you. You don't suddenly know to stand up or put a face on to face your abuser nor admit that you inadvertently enabled them to subjugate someone else to the same treatment. Maybe it's my psych brain but their is this growing belief that direct action is somehow easy or always the best method with the game shows you instances where it is not always the case. In real life that rings true too. He should have done more, but it's not impossible to see why he struggled to find a way or didn't even if it makes us mad.

It's not easy to suddenly gain a "back-bone". You don't immediately want to resort to aggression, especially if it mirrors the type you were a victim to. You don't want to believe you allowed yourself to be treated this bad, let it get that bad or allowed something bad to happen to someone else. It is easy to be in denial, to retreat to your thoughts or make excuses to avoid the painful truth. It's frustrating but in a way we know is relatable. It why we both hate and love Curly for it. We know we'd be better, we think we'd be better, we like to think we wouldn't falter in the same ways but it's always easier to say that from the outside looking in. It's easy to see what he was doing wrong because we are seeing it, not him, but the game really does make you picture what you would do if this was your raw reality and it's why this debate about Curly seems so never ending/contradictory. We can all say what we'd do but bottom line is that's much different when you're in the moment with all the emotions and human feelings attached.

I personally think Mouthwashing tackles the themes of rape culture, enabling, toxic masculinity, types of abuse and patriarchy in ways that are meant to deconstruct the typical straightforward views we mostly have of these concepts and how little subtilities of them are just as, if not more, detrimental than the overt/obvious parts. The game deals with the idea of little details and bigger picture in a way to show that sometimes the bigger picture is not the issue but the little details that make it up. It's why I have a personal dislike of depictions of Jimmy as the typical horrible person who would of course do something like this because the game is about noticing the little warning signs, the foreshadowing and foresight.

It's why I dislike the typical discussion of "bro code" and "boys will be boys" for the game because the game makes a point to avoid the standard depictions of such. It is about the type of men who still enable despite not condoning, agreeing or even perpetuating harmful beliefs because they can't see the little details or the ways it seeps into their everyday. The severity is not obvious to them as it was not obvious to Curly, Swansea or even Daisuke the way it was to a woman like Anya. There are little details about Jimmy that should ring alarms but if you are too naive like Daisuke, too distant like Swansea or too conditioned like Curly, they are just off markers.

There is 100% more constructive/concise ways to say "Curly was a victim of Jimmy's abuse on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario" while also critiquing on the side of "Curly still had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain that he failed to do due to biases and stigma's he failed to surpass" without the weird condemnation people give him about should've knowing better than to let himself be manipulated by a person he considered a close, if not family/best-friend and had his own reasons to trust initially. Also stop being weird about victims of abuse in general with this fandom, like sorry not everyone has a like social epiphany the moment someone's nasty to them. People are treating it like you immediately know when you are in a toxic relationship immediately or comprehend when a person is actively dangerous and either it's your fault for not knowing how to leave/cut them off or you deserve it. Like the hypocrisy of people believing how certain fans treat the story reflect their irl views but not their own is crazy.

End statement is: I honestly don't even know man, I've been writing this too long and just like no man on that ship was perfect or really helped Anya when it mattered and I feel like pitting them against each other in discussion on who did the least or most or how it was justified sucks cause in the end Anya always did the most and best thing for herself.

#i also think it is because mouthwashing is first and foremost a game about rape culture and the patriarchy especially in work spaces #regarding women and centering conversation around Curly a man rubs people wrong because it does overshadow that commentary #but it still mixes other topics into its initial theming and message on how abuse conditions you to accept certain things that are harmful #and how getting used to a culture/enviornment does not mean you are happy healthy or most importantly safe in it. I personally like to #explore those aspects where it mixes all the themes so we can discuss the ways you have to watch out for things because there is a differen #in the idea Curly enabled Jimmy just because they were bros and because he was an example of another man afraid to step out from what #is a still oppressive system that does try to punish those who act against it even if they fall in the category of those who would benefit #from it as Jimmy and PE 100% represent that sort of misogynistic system where men that would be “good” are altered until they follow line #in a way both on the personal and professional level as PE is the corporate lock out and Jimmy represents the social and its just the issue #that the discussion of it sounds like “in defense of men” when I am more so trying to discuss how it is much deeper than men being scared t #upset other men but complacency is rewarded by not becoming another person subjugated hence as all the moments Curly does try to do #something we can tie it back to how Jimmy reacts and a possible penality from PE where we now need to address the ways to combat those #two concepts so we dont get cases like Curly or Daisuke or Swansea where male avoidance of the issue is considered neutral or even good.#i think most of this boils down the perfect victim mentality to where if someone who underwent or is being abused is not a perfect example #or accpetible type than their abuse can not be considered a valid or substantial reason for effects on their behavior compounded with the #fact that Anya's abuse at the hands of Jimmy is a systematic issue that Curly is a part of even if unwillingly and was more physically #violating and topical cause sometimes i have to remind myself that all media is still critiqued through the lens of the culture it came out #in cause i do think about what if this game came out inlike 2014 like the conversations would be sooooooo different could you imagine it?#but back the before statement Curly isn't perfect but I feel like boiling it down if hes a good person or man is not the point of the game #but more so good people can still be part of the problem and the idea of condemning a person for one act creates a false sense of #rightouesness and justice that does not aid the victim and in fact aids the abusers in escaping blame for their mulitple behaviors as we se #how the men on the ship tend to blame Jimmy for just one act against them including himself while there is a plethora of things Anya is #concerned about with Jimmy #and its not that Curly just made one mistake with Jimmy but more so we consider his actions more damning because he didn't stop Jimmy #instead of focusing on the fact Jimmy did what he did regardless of Curly and the consequence because we already know he's bad n maladjuste #which is problem in the conversation where the individuals are blamed but the system and perputrator are overlooked in a sense of acceptiab #complacency as we know how they are and the lack of tangibility to personally affect them on a larger scale like I should just make a post #on like cutting out the face when it comes it confronting systems of oppression rather than tag talking but just ask me to clarify if #you want that like im jus trying to say we avoid talking about Jimmy and PE so much cause it is obvious what they do wrong that we make #the initial and inherent problem out to be one aspect someone in this case Curly does and the the constraints they use to force actions

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lotstradamus · 11 days ago

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have you read any books as good as captive prince in terms of plot :/ im desperate!!!

the only series I've read that really evoke that Captive Princeish countries-on-the-brink-of-war, shifting alliances, spies, WHAT IS HAAPPEENNINGING vibe are The Masquerade by Seth Dickinson (The Traitor Baru Cormorant is book #1) and The Queen's Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (The Thief is book #1).

both of those series deliver a Prince's Gambit Patran Soldiers Arriving On The Field At Hellay jaw-dropper and are so SO satisfying. they will also make you cry LIKE a little bitch lmao

OH MY GOD ALSO??? HELLO???? C. S. PACAT'S NEW YA* FANTASY SERIES DARK RISE??????????? (Dark Rise book #1!!!) we're only on book 2 of 3 but I trust her enough to say: you absolutely have to read it now immediately. on the surface the plot seems SOOOO simple and straightforward (it's VERY pastoral English 20th century children's fantasy vibes, but it's C. S. Pacat so...) but thematically it's very similar to Captive Prince: dead brother angst, hidden identities, sexually fraught gold collars, hot blond bitches and WAR. and sis THEE twists. THEE levels. I spent 85% of the first book like yeah okay I guess I'm into this and the last 15% with my mouth open in shock. I read book two in one sitting the day it came out and transformed from a woman into a sentient scream. 10/10.

*I have to laugh... ok girl ! filth !

#all of these series have their own Laurent of Vere #Baru Cormorant... Eugenides... James St Clair... hot !#books #answered #Captive Prince #Dark Rise #she's just so good at UST #Captive Prince they were both like You Are The Last Person In The World I Want To Fuck And In Fact I Hate You Completely which is delicious #and in Dark Rise they're both like I Would Fuck You Right Here Right Now But Alas... We Cannot ! which is JUST AS DELICIOUS #I AM SOOOO ABNORMAL ABOUT DARK RISE AND DARK HEIR LMAO #WHAT AM I GOING TO DOOOOOOO WHEN BOOK 3 COMES OUT #GIVE ME YOUR ADDRESS SO I CAN VISIT YOU AND EXPLAIN MY PASSIONS

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dapg-otmebytheballs · 6 months ago

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The thing with the "why are you making them look bad" "why are you finding reasons to hate" kinda responses when someone brings up racist remarks and microagressions both from back in the "fetus" era and all the way till WAD etc, it reveals the way too many people view bigotry as something that happens Elsewhere. Something that is done by Other People and not us you me the people around us the people we love the people we idolise. But everyone is capable of harm, and it's quite revealing with defensive attitudes like that that people assume we're calling to boycott or asking you to stop feeling anything positive towards them or whatever else it's built up to me.

Guys. Even we haven't stopped feeling positively about them (at least for the most part, and those who have, fair play to them we all have our own personal threshold for how much we tolerate). Like that's the whole reason we're around, you kidding? Nothing I watch is free from the problematic stuff. I watch comedians who make off-colour jokes but I still feel fondly towards those comedians without feeling the need to erase the fact that they make problematic jokes and need to do better. I watch shows with bigoted themes without feeling the need to scrap them completely but I also don't hold back on my criticisms just because I like the show. And if anyone else who enjoys these things mocks those criticisms or expects me to shut up about them I see it rightfully as the insult that it is.

These social issues are bigger than us, and the thing is they really do change at a snail's pace. But putting another hurdle in front of the snail by saying "this is just spreading hate, you just hate them, go watch something else then" isn't really helping that pace. It's just showing that because an issue isn't personally affecting you, you're seeing it as not worthy of receiving criticism.

I watch youtubers far more "problematic" than DnP actually. And I love them! And I see them grow over time, I see it reflected in how they talk in videos from years ago vs now and it gives me a lot of hope. But people change because they are given a reason to change. And trying to get those affected and hurt to not even express disappointment is not gonna get you anywhere except making it clear to us who is a safe person looking to make the space welcoming in a material sense and who is just keeping up appearances and waiting for us to tire ourselves out and leave.

#dnp #dan and phil #phandom #like seriously y'all are acting like we don't also enjoy and love their stuff and deserve a seat at the table come on #if they make problematic jokes about a queer identity that you identify with tomorrow wouldn't you also want it addressed?#wouldn't you also feel left out if people attacked you for bringing it up when you do?#it's the same principle here

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turtleblogatlast · 6 months ago

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Shockingly underrated thing about Leo is that he’s legitimately charming when he wants to be?

He’s the Faceman! He’s persuasive! That’s not just some random title he gave himself with no backing to it. People will listen to him. Even if they think he’s being annoying or if they’re upset at him, people listen to him anyway! There’s a reason his bros push him out front to talk to people, and when this happens, that talking nearly always works.

Moreover, Leo knows people. He looks at them and takes into account how they act and what they’re like as he makes his way through the conversations. It’s easy to forget this aspect of Leo’s character because he only brings it out when he really needs (read: wants) to, but it really is a notable part of him that always love to see.

And I say charm in particular because he has a knack for not only getting people to pay attention, but for getting people to stay and listen to what he has to say.

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt leo #rise leo #I feel like people equate Leo to a lot of loud gross boy behavior instead of looking at his actual accomplishments #which fair enough #he IS a loud gross boy a lot of the time #but his charisma really deserves a mention for how much it comes in clutch #that one cut animatic of the other people in the resistance wanting Leo to join them for karaoke like #and yes those inspiring speeches he gives his fam are also an example of charm #bro has! charisma! he can have his loser moments and at the same time show off how to manipulate through words #Leo knows people and if he really wants to he can talk them up #but yeah like - I see people calling him the face man a lot but not so much taking into account what that entails #he’s got a pretty face! and he’ll do the talking a lot! but that’s not all a face man is #another thing that is SHOCKINGLY underrated in fandom is Raph loving fighting???#I have no idea why but I feel like I don’t see this mentioned enough #he adores wrestling and roughhousing and training and just FIGHTING in general plz let my boy punch something #I have more I wanna say but it’ll have to wait until later it is very late haaa #anyway my main point behind this post is that Leo knows people and in turn knows what they WANT #it is this same perception that makes him REALLY GOOD at getting under people’s skin too #people skills and adaptability really make sense when you take into account the fact that he’s a red eared slider #it really is cool to see how much this part of Leo is addressed throughout the series #nearly always in very lowkey ways

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wavesoutbeingtossed · 12 days ago

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anyone else obsessed with the recurring theme in TTPD about how in each instance with the three notable muses referenced, they each made a show in their own way of stepping up to Be Someone for her, only to completely cut and run (whether physically or emotionally or both).

The first love who laid on the charm offensive, "I'm not an organ donor but I'd give you my heart if you needed it," sweeping her up in this great big first serious adult love, inspiring all of the dreams that go with it, making her feel like This Is It and the actions undertaken as a result. But then bailing at the first sign of inconvenience, leaving her distrusting of her own feelings and instincts.

The longtime partner with whom she built a foundation against all odds, the one with whom (or perhaps rather for whom) she meticulously placed those stars on the ceiling. The one who at one point painted dreamscapes on the wall and sparked her darkest nights, the one who chose her mess and said there was nothing that could stop them, the one she believed in so completely she crafted a whole life around, but then accused her of abandoning the ship when he had long since metaphorically and physically left the house on the Heath.

And then of course the final boss level, the infatuation from hell who saw all this and said "I can be the one that none of the others were" and insinuated himself into her life and her consciousness until it felt real, only to vanish after the ploy did its damage.

(Of course, it's all contrasted by a fourth party with whom the trust and dreams come freely and solidly.)

It's just a fascinating study in how patterns keep repeating themselves, not only in a person's choice of partners but in people's behaviours in general. And how so much of the album is not just about specific situations but also globally about the pitfalls of relationships and dynamics and how we choose to believe. TTPD album that you are.

#it's the 'you said i needed a brave man then proceeded to play him until i believed it too'#because it may be about one person -- whoever -- but the reality is that shades of it have happened every time #i was listening to the black dog the other day and like... whoever it's about #i was like 'you know that has shades of Jake because of the strong come ons'#'and even john because again that is prime gaslighting: saying you need someone mature who will Get You only to drop you #when that very thing is why things don't work out the way they want'#it's just like about the way in which men treat women in society even in the most 'evolved' contexts idk #it's some sociological shit don't mind me #the tortured poets department #writing letters addressed to the fire

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theweirdgoodbyes · 7 months ago

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we all know ron “sticky fingers mcgee” speirs loves to steal and I desperately need a modern au or something of him actively trying to steal lip from another man. like downright disrespectfully flirting, putting his arm over lips shoulders, telling him how handsome he is, inviting him out, IN FRONT OF this man’s bf and lip despite his horror is…absolutely charmed by this insane man’s confidence

#‘what are you doing tomorrow?’ ‘Brian and I are having date night’ ‘well when you’re done with that come over’#‘I’m right here’ ‘yeah hi Brian. anyway my address is-‘#hbo war #band of brothers #speirton #Ronald speirs #carwood Lipton

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momentofmemory · 2 months ago

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— you're somebody else, flora cash

↳ @sceosource day 3

#scottmccalledit #theoraekenedit #sceoedit #teenwolfedit #twedit #sceoweekend2024 #scottmccallweek24 #dailyreblogs #useroptional #chewieblog #fantasysource #filmtv #tvedit #scott mccall #theo raeken #sceo #teen wolf #mygifs #adding spike's thoughts from our dms because i liked them:#i love love love the way this set addresses how scott and theo change after the murder #in some ways theo's changes only really start when he comes back from the dreamscape and sees that scott isn't cowed to silence by him anym #it's finally sinking in how much he lost when he destroyed his relationship with scott--the best part of his beating heart #and he realizes how he genuinely wants to help scott #theo would also know better than anyone what's underneath scott's surface #he looks and talks like a confident even optimistic leader but underneath he's despairingly resigned to his own death #which theo once exacerbated--'this is what you do'--a conviction scott seems to have internalized #but now theo wants scott to know he's not alone--that he doesn't deserve to die #and one day #when he's older #scott will finally see that

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d8tl55c · 4 months ago

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hey wait a minute

so it's the start of AvA part 7 and Chosen and Dark are talking, right? and the former has this vision of terrible things happening if they don't stop the latter, right here and now.

they see the ViraBots descending on the last remnants of stick kind with Dark as their leader (or Lord if you will. ha ha) and i, trusting viewer, took their assessment as reliable*. we JUST saw Dark getting uncomfortably violent in earlier scenes after all

but

however

notwithstanding

unless Chosen has demonstrable prophetic powers (like how Orange has** in the past seen things currently happening (horizontally-prophetic let's call it: seeing faraway in the current time) (there's probably a better word for this but let's move on)), how did they know this was definitely what Dark was leading up to?

** ⬆ examples of Orange horizontally-prophesizing in AvM episode 11, SkyBlock (unconfirmed but referenced as, "uh? well maybe??? maybe i didn't think about it yet-" (abridged quote from AvG react video)) (op will die /j /extremely pos if this is used again in AvA 11 (HAH they'd both be episode 11 (op just giggled maniacally)))

Dark doesn't even have his control bracelets on.

because Chosen didn't know about them yet.

because this is not a prophetic vision.

Chosen is just that... reactive. what was it. @compressedrage (hi o/ ) had a good wording let me find it. yeah i guess it was reactionary

the ONLY time we've seen them stop to think things through is actually just a terrified anxiety breakdown while they stand there, frozen, imagining the worst, until they snap out of it JUST in time to impact their reality.

but with no time left for debate. reasoning. they assumed Dark was beyond reasoning from the moment he showed off what his device could do............. because they were beyond reasoning out of fear.

#okay im not sure about that final phrase after the dots but it sounded epic so i kept it in #*im trying to call up the phrase “unreliable narrator” here #that chosen's instincts weren't accurate. obviously Dark's weapons CAN harm stick figures deeply...#...and when push comes to shove they do (a self-fulfilling prophecy if you will?)...#...but let's look at the ViraBot gun and the portals. one direct-connects (hehe) to IP addresses.#keep in mind Dark didn't know about Alan's new buddies chilling on his PC #the others go to YouTube; Twitter; Reddit; Google; Twitch; Wikipedia; Discord.#these aren't places where stick figures live at all. in some corners of them but not primarily. there's a city RIGHT THERE-!#-but he doesn't care about it. im saying obv it's still not awesome of him to target human-centric websites either-#-did he change tho? if chosen listened long enough to hear him out? was his plan to go back to when cho was having fun too?#i can't know for sure but i sure am having fun thinking about it #alan becker #animator vs animation #ava the chosen one #ava the dark lord #ava orange #ava the second coming #subpixels

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shitpostingkats · 28 days ago

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Wandering my hallways and pacing around my home thinking about Final Fantasy XV and its myriad examples of the core cast casually dehumanizing themselves for the sake of what they believe to be something greater. Ignis has perfectly fine vision but wears glasses to correct to 20/20. "When you can't focus, I focus for you." All of Episode Prompto. Ravus seeing his sister's death as a tragedy, not just because she's dead, but because she's dead and she doesn't even get to rest. The repeated imagery of getting closer and closer to Noct's destined goal is literally him trying to hold very still and not flinch as he lets a sword hit him. The goddamn ending. The game is not in conversation with this theme. These are things that are true to the characters and they cannot imagine a world where they are not. I'm climbing on the walls.

#sometimes I start thinking too hard about how Ignis started looking after noct when he was six and I have to go stare at a wall #or the fact that he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt his eyesight wasn't coming back and he still tried to downplay it #all of gladio's. everything honestly.#Born to die for you made to take hits for you molded to carry you #and he can't fathom it when Noct buckles under the pressure because to him he's never had any choice but to just shoulder it #and facing the fact that he's spent his whole life building himself to serve one person but if he doesnt have that one person he has NOTHIN #and then youre like oh both these guys are super fucked up from this lifetime of servitude but at least prompto had a normal life!#and then episode prompto hits #and on TOP of that theres prompto recurring story beats of changing himself to be 'good' enough. physically fit and chipper and cheery.#and his belief that being himself will actually just drag everyone down with him #AND LIKE! none of this is ADDRESSED #it doesnt get better they were all always slaves to something greater there is no other way this could have ended.#I have to go eat drywall #final fantasy #final fantasy xv #final fantasy 15 #ff15 #ffxv #ff 15 #ff xv #chocobros #noctis lucis caelum #ignis scientia #gladiolus amicitia #prompto argentum #lunafreya nox fleuret #ravus nox fleuret

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dayurno · 11 months ago

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this is somewhat of a vent post & something i said i would not do again but has been plaguing me enough that i think getting it out might feel better. so. has anydoggy else been. Baffled and upset by nora sakavic’s refusal to speak on how terribly aftg has treated its characters of color? with the author of the series coming back with a new book and starting up on her online activity again, and questions of what she’d change about aftg bubbling up, it’s particularly glaring to me that we are all playing this very long game of pretend where we ignore how badly the non-white cast has been treated & her lack of thoughts on it

and i understand not wanting to bring up nicky and thea because people pick on her for it. i’m not trying to discredit nora sakavic’s terrible history of getting harrassed online by aftg fans. but i think it is very cynical, and it is very juvenile, and most of all very cruel, that she gets to ignore the very real ways the books have set up these characters to be hated. i think it’s obvious why the characters who get the most hate are the only canonical characters of color, and i think we do not get to treat this like a deliberate decision on the fandom’s part when the books have put these same characters in degrading and embarrassing and terrible positions in the first place. aftg is not a story about nice characters with clean pasts, but there is a very specific nastiness to the only characters of color being a brown man who sexually harasses and later assaults the main character, a black woman whose only scene is her lashing out at her love interest after being ignored for the first two books, and the japanese villain who gets maybe two lines of complexity before he goes back to being a terrible person. the white cast, in comparison, while not at all free from flaws, are never shown to commit mindless evil; all of their actions are ultimately justified. the book goes out of its way to give them concession after concession. we know exactly who to side with, because aftg tells us who these people are. does nicky’s assault ever get addressed in the books? does riko’s reasoning to be the way that he is ever gets more than briefly aluded to? is thea reserved even a shred of humanity or grace in her one scene?

anyway. it’s been years of talking about this and the fandom has been constantly hostile to criticism in this regard, and more recently any criticism at all, and it’s Grating to be on the other side of this discussion. it’s exhausting to know that in ten years we do not get even an acknowledgment besides the author saying she will not answer questions about nicky and thea anymore. it’s upsetting and it’s ugly and i wish no one had to talk about this again, but we do because what i thought was common sense has been washed away by a sudden influx of no-nuance adoration for the trilogy. basically i hope we all explode

#this has been so upsetting to notice but 🥹whatever #there is a different kind of bitterness to thinking about how ten years have passed #and we are getting new content that changes and maybe even rectifies many of the ways we see and interact w aftg #and none of it not a bit of it addresses the racism #how it’s been ten years and the only thing we really get to show it is a book about a ship between two white men the fandom came up with #after seeing them be Suggested to interact in canon #i understand not wanting to hurt nora sakavics feelings by asking her about this #but imagine how tired we are. Imagine how tired we are #do you know how bad it feels to read through nicky’s worst moments in aftg #and know that he was written this way because he looks like me?#do you understand how exhausting it all is. can you imagine?#the fandom has been so quick to undo the criticism fans of colors have been making since day one #and for what. for what! my doves. for what?#have we come out of it any greater? have we done anything but lie to ourselves?#and anyway this is not some mindless pessimism #this is not me telling you that aftg is bad and you cant love it; cant have it mean anything to you #this is me saying that when we acknowledge these things it makes us better readers and better people #nora sakavic if you are reading this from whatever hellhole america you find yourself in #grabs you by the shoulders. This is not the end #this is not something to sit back and feel bad about #you have opened the floodgates of hell with tsc. kick the door in and release a revised version of aftg #there is a real material way for you to make this better. it is possible and it will not kill you #i would read a revised aftg. my mutuals would. many many many many fans would #making mistakes is not just a human right its a human inevitability #but we do not have to let ourselves get defined by them. We can do hard things #lets go of nora sakavics shoulders. anyway. where were we #aftg #txt #tsc

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dukeofthomas · 6 months ago

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So in fancontent (idk how based it is in canon) you often see robin!jason era bruce&dick constantly arguing and getting into screaming matches, or rh!jason commenting on how they always used to do that.

So I really wish there wss more actual exploration on the effect that would have on him. It's always just quick throwaway lines or jokes, but never does anything really explore how it fucks up your relationships to always be expectinf another fight, to always be a bystander, to try and get along with each person independently and yet being scared to be around them bc you know at some point the yelling will come back. And the worst is when it's about you. It's not fun or comforting to know something you did or said caused an argument like that.

I just. More acknowledgment on the ways this could fuck up Jason's homelife and sense of safety please.

#my dc posting #jason todd #bruce wayne #dick grayson #jaybin #can you tell i heavily relate to jason here. can you #its not fucking fun to be a bystander! its not fucking fun to try n drown out the screaming w ur headphones!#he'd always be tense. he'd hate when dick comes to visit bc it means arguments and fear and being unsafe.#quick switch from happy fun times to gotta hide in my room to lets ignore that happened n never address it again #anyway. yeah. many thoughts #ur brother is here which means ur gonna idk. play some games n talk n its great :D #just ignore the foreboding knowledge thats shit is gonna go down when night comes and the cycle will always keep repeating : )

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statementlou · 6 months ago

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https://www.tumblr.com/louisupdates/754934426217152513/goodbye-faith-in-the-future-world-tour-272024?source=share

did he or did he not lose fans then?

I will answer this because this anon actually brings a concrete question to the table rather than just "hurhur but you're a larrie??" (tell me you can't actually refute any of our points…). Anyway this post shows the decrease in Louis instagram followers between the screenshots taken directly after the release of Faith in the Future in Nov '22, when he changed his bio to promote that album and the tour tickets, and now, when he changed it again to mention the current release. But I'm putting that response under a cut because I'm tired of the actual POINT of all this nonsense getting lost in a sea of made up things people insist are important:

There is no rational argument you can make to say that Louis has less fans now than he did 2, 4, or 6 years ago. You don't need a spreadsheet of details you need to USE YOUR EYES! He has gone from filling theaters to filling arenas and stadiums. His second album made a higher chart position than his first album. His festival has doubled in size EVERY year of its existence. And for that matter: his insta post engagement numbers remain about the same (despite the fact that older posts should have way MORE likes due to having been there longer, even aside from follower counts.) SO WHO FUCKING CARES ABOUT HIS INSTA FOLLOWER NUMBER???? Serious question: what does the word "fans" mean if these things aren't what matters? ALL of this quibbling about what he should do to make things better and people can't even see that THINGS AREN'T BAD.

Anyway to address the specific question- (con't......)

NO- HE DID NOT LOSE FANS. HE LOST SOME INSTA FOLLOWERS. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME THING. As I said above, literally what does it mean to lose fans if that number change coincides with him having higher sales, more audience members, and higher engagement than ever before? Whatever he lost ISN'T FANS. I wouldn't be surprised if a significant factor was something like a bot purge, but also yes: I'm sure a lot of casuals followed him around the time of his big album release and later unfollowed him. That's extremely normal because that's how casual engagement works, and why the definition of fan really matters. Louis and his team understand this and have referenced it repeatedly, talking about how lucky he is to have *us* specifically, to have the kind of dedicated fanbase he has, to have the KIND of fans he does who will allow him to do what HE wants. @dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram named the issue of depth vs breadth with regard to fans a long time ago, and pointed out why having DEPTH is so much more important. It's like this- artists who are on top 40 radio have more numbers on things like insta follows, and for a time on sales and tickets. But those aren't FANS- they're people with a casual interest. And as soon as that person isn't being forced in their ears 10x a day, those people lose interest and stop supporting them, stop buying stuff and unfollow, and those artists end up doing the 'opener on the jingle ball' circuit rather than their own tours. One Direction as a whole, and Louis maybe most of all or near to at this point, have something MUCH MORE VALUABLE than that- DEPTH FANS. Louis has fans who will support him even if he takes years to release music, or stops parading around with a pretend girlfriend to stay in the headlines at least once a month, or completely changes his image and genre, and that is UNHEARD OF. It's ASTONISHING and worth SO MUCH MORE. And they get that! THAT is why he always bragging about us, why industry people he works with are always so agog about us, why he will do anything for US- not for randos. He is also growing his breadth- and it's OBVIOUSLY WORKING whatever his follower counts are, but that is always going to be secondary to doing things for THE FANDOM because that is his sustainable business model. That is what keeps him onstage and reaching number one. And not coincidentally, the things they do are also working to grow that- much more valuable- commodity. So the fact that that's exactly what these chuckleheads complain about- that he does things that are just fandom facing or serving rather than everything being aimed at recruiting casual fans- does nothing but betray how completely they, unlike Louis and his team, misunderstand the actual drivers of his (actual, existing, happening) success. Luckily for Louis, he and his team rely on their own data harvesting (they do a LOT of it) and growth metrics (they're off the charts) rather than the smug assumptions of random (mostly quite new to this) fans and the few bitter people leading the complaining about everything Louis does.

#louis promo #all this nonsense about this tag or that tag or this or that number is so getting lost in the trees #when the forest is RIGHT HERE: WHAT THEY ARE DOING IS WORKING #so for now #I'm pretty done with this discussion unless someone actually engages meaningfully with the content of anything I'm saying #rather than just repeating the same things- but he needs to tag more! or the even more boring-#but you're a larry! if you send me a bitchy response that doesnt actually address any points I've made #I will assume it is because I'm right and you have no rebuttal other than to act like a preschooler because deep down you know it #honestly the discourse around this makes me feel a little sad and scared about the state of literacy and reading comprehension #and just general analytical thinking #but I hope its just that no one over 15 spends their time sending hate anons about fandom #if I'm wrong please come engage in actual conversation! but otherwise... let's just... not #blah blah blah #anyway there's a reason Louis is always so afraid no one will be there for him and that he started out solo era playing those radio fests..#because we are IMPROBABLE we are UNBELIEVABLE we are NOT SOMETHING YOU CAN EXPECT OR COUNT ON #and making nurturing and maintaining that his number one priority ALWAYS is extremely correct and smart #actually #I was originally going to be like here are when there were bot purges here are other artists that have seen numbers go down etc #but then I was like WAIT WHO CARES. You're letting these people dictate the conversation... but the premise is stupid #it DOESNT MATTER #depth v breadth

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