#all might has absolutely 0 experience with women

[hotpotatopotat]

All Might knows nothing about women but Deku asks him about a crush...

Way to bury the lead Izuku

[linka-from-captain-planet]

Rating BG3 Ladies Stroke Game

My brain won't let me write my fics so have this shit instead.

Ratings based on vibes and also facts opinions (controversial: not everyone can be a sex god)

all the main and supporting women + my background babes: Florrick, Talli, Alfira, Lakrissa, Araj, Nocturne, Skoona, Adrielle, Z'rell, (ETA:) Nine-Fingers, and special guest star Philomeen

*Anyone can be trans and straps are for everyone regardless, so take your pic on homegrown vs store-bought and/or magical strap*

*Also sex is like pizza, so average results are in fact still pretty good. Only 2, 1, and 0/10 are truly trash dick. So a 5 or 6 is still a compliment!*

Lae'zel: 10/10. She pulls hair, she spanks ass. She has the experience, the athleticism, the drive, the romantic heart. Also the greatest switch to ever live as a simultaneous 10/10 bottom.

Shadowheart: 5/10. Her experience is mostly hand/mouth activities due to lack of privacy/places to hide supplies or apparati in the cloister. She has better ways of making a lover fall apart, but her stroke game is perfectly serviceable.

Karlach: 6/10. LISTEN. I see the vision as a tongue god, but she needs some work to hone her stroke game (too eager = painful, and a possible classic Bigger Is Always Better fallacy waiting to happen), and like SH, she's also not very experienced. She can and will ascend the ranks, but give her a minute to get there!!

Minthara: 10/10. We all know this. She has like 200 years of experience as well as the drive, focus, precision, athleticism, and heart. She gets RESULTS, but also is surprisingly emotionally available, so she covers all the physical, emotional, and psychological bases.

Jaheira: 4/10. Not her favorite, or her forte. CAN she strap? Yes, and it's satisfying, but nothing to write home about. A queen of the accessibility strap (thigh/hand harness GOATed... iykyk) due to her knees/lumbar hurting.

Isobel: 5/10. Perfectly serviceable, likes to tease, knows the technique and executes it well. However, being 5'2" with lung issues holds her back when it comes to higher intensity activities. Also an accessibility harness queen.

Aylin: 12/10. Has been at it since before anyone else on this list was even born. Once she connects emotionally to her partner, there's no going back to anyone else. Perfect balance of brutality and gentleness; she knows how to use her weight, and her aftercare is literal god tier.

Mizora: 0/10. Would probably be pretty good if she deigned to do it, but let's be so for real, pup!

Orin: ??/10. Either a 0 or a 10, no inbetween. A freak bitch for the daring sort who are willing to gamble on what she meant when she said she wanted to 'get all up in your guts'.

Florrick: 3/10. A perfect example of how a dominant personality doesn't always translate to an ability to top. Will do it, but focuses too much on technique and zones out and starts thinking about work. Definitely would rather be on the bottom being ridden VS putting the stroke effort in herself.

Talli: 7/10. A humble, ego-free, service top for all who enjoy a gentler lover. Hesitant to get too rough or nasty with it; she's got that +3 STR and she knows how to use it, but she doesn't want to hurt or disrespect her sweetie!

Alfira: 1/10. Sweet Alfie has many good and sexy qualities but she is never taking anyone to pound town ever. She will do it, and it might be fun and playful, but never "good" by any objective measure. Absolute demon on a slower, more sensual grind, but anything approaching "stroke game"? You're barking up the wrong tree.

Lakrissa: 10/10. Technically an 8 but gets 2 bonus points for being a random girl off the streets and not an alien, centuries-old elf, or demigod. Great dick does walk among us mortals!! She's athletic, she's flirty, she's fun, she's a known giver. She will work extra shifts at her bitch ass job to buy you a house, she will smash you through the floor of said house, she will fix the floor. The total package!

Araj: 4/10. Wears some kind of weird strap regardless of her own equipment because she loves the flair and drama of it, but isn't particularly skilled. Gets distracted. Bad top etiquette. Never shuts up. Still, she gets the job done.

Nocturne: 6/10. Like Shadowheart, her experience is limited by the lack of opportunity in the cloister; but as quartermaster, she would have a greater ability to obtain and hide supplies/equipment, so potentially more experience. Also, maybe as an officer, she was involved in more prestigious orgies?

Skoona: 7/10. Would rather be on the bottom getting pampered, but is an above average top due to always being expected to top. Also a very tender lover (not necessarily "stroke game").

Adrielle: 8/10. She has no choice but to break backs because otherwise, the weight of expectations she places on her own shoulders would break hers. Meticulous. Thorough. Is she enjoying herself? She doesn't know the meaning of the word, but being of service makes her feel whole, and that's what matters, RIGHT?

Z'rell: You Can't Handle It/10. Don't worry about it, maggot. It's not for YOU.

Nine-Fingers: 10/10. Your fingers will quake such that you sign over the deed to your house in her name and you won't even be mad about it. She knows how to work People- what makes them tick. What makes them BOOM. An unforgettable experience.

Philomeen: 20/10. It's the toxicity, I fear. If she can and will blow you up, she can and will blow your back out. It's science. It doesn't matter if she's 1/3 your size, she is FUCKING. You WILL hate yourself after.

[incognita-soul]

hey, i saw in your bio that you work on tall ships and i was wondering if u had any advice.

i’ve been on 2 tall ship sailing trips before (+some dinghy sailing) and got my competent crew recently so i’m pretty inexperienced. on those sailing trips i’ve met young adults who were working on the boats as volunteers. i’d like to be able to volunteer on tall ships one day.

do you have any advice for the best way to gain experience and learn stuff? (if possible on a budget). i’m taking a gap year next year and i’d really like to take the chance to go sailing and get better at it. (i’m in the uk if that’s relevant.)

absolutely no pressure to answer and i’m sorry this is so vague and clueless! anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this. your blog is cool :))

Heya! Thank you, and I'd be happy to give you my two cents! All of my boat experience has been in the US so take my advice with a transatlantic grain of salt, but here goes!

Firstly, two trips and some dinghy sailing and a competent crew cert is actually quite a bit in comparison to your average person starting out in the world of boats, so don't worry about feeling too inexperienced! You're already on a good track. I've been working on tall ships in some capacity for over 10 years and I still don't have any specific certifications (I've got a lot of experience and sea time, I just haven't had time to take any of my courses and exams for actual licensing).

Facebook is (unfortunately) still the best place to network, especially for international opportunities. There are a variety of groups that you can join. I'm personally in Schooner Bums, Tall Ship Opportunities, Women Who Sail, Crew Finder, and a few other private groups specific to the organizations I've worked for. A lot of organizations will post to these groups with job opportunities with specific requirements, so it's fairly easy to get the info you need. I'm sure there are a few groups specific to sailing in the UK. In the US, we have Tall Ships America, which is an organization that provides networking, training, and job opportunities for mostly US based sailors and boats. I'm not sure if the UK has an equivalent organization, but I do recommend even though you are UK based you should peruse their website, especially the Billet Bank, which is where job links are posted:

You're in the UK, so there are a shit ton of boats there but as far as I know most of them are museum boats that don't do a lot of sailing. I will say from personal experience that museum boats with a good volunteer maintenance program are great places to start for establishing a strong set of foundational skills (knots, understanding and maintenance of the rig, carpentry, etc.). You might not get much actual sea time with a museum boat, but you will learn the things that will make you a better sailor. I got into tall ships by working as a historical interpreter and then as part of the sailing/maintenance crew here:

https://www.jyfmuseums.org/visit/jamestown-settlement/living-history/ships#ad-image-0

Most tall ship organizations are based around education, both for the public and for the crew, so it's easy to find a boat with some sort of introductory training program relatively near wherever you live. These range from expensive pay-to-play working vacation type experiences, to paying a fee to participate in a structured comprehensive training curriculum after which you can become long-term crew, to volunteering weekends sanding and oiling blocks in exchange for the opportunity to sail.

Since you said you are taking a gap year, my advice is look for a short-term comprehensive live-aboard program that gets your foot in the door for staying on as regular crew, potentially even paid crew. Idk any specific ones in the UK, but here's the one that the last boat I worked on offers as an example of what i mean:

If you've got time before your gap year starts, try to find something local, like volunteering for a mueseum like I mentioned earlier, so that you get used to the vocabulary and foundational knowledge of boats. That way you can really get the most out of a more immersive program later on and you won't feel too much like an oversaturated sponge trying desperately to sop up more information even though your brain is leaking out of your ears.

I'm not sure if you're wanting to do tall ships longer term or just something one-off for the gap year, but if you're in it for the long haul just be prepared that it's a lot of hard work for not much financial return. I don't mean to discourage you, it's just good to know that upfront. On Lady Washington we have a saying that "we work on an 18th century boat for 18th century wages."

Unfortunately the tall ship industry is kind of hard budget wise. Most training programs cost quite a bit of money, most jobs are either volunteer or don't pay very well (industry standard deckhand pay in the US is about $1000/month), and most higher level positions require various levels of certifications (for which course and exam fees can run pretty high). You can do it on a budget, especially since most long term positions are live aboard so you don't have to pay for rent or groceries, but if you want to make a career out or it, it takes a lot of years of working for less money than you're worth before you start earning real money back.

Despite all that, working on tall ships is still an incredible and fulfilling experience that I recommend to anyone with a love of the sea and learning practical skills!

Sorry I couldn't give you more specific information, as I have yet to work on any UK boats. Good luck, and please tell me when you find a program that works for you!

[22degreehalo]

Okay I finished the movie. (Spoilers follow!)

I liked the parts about Barbie as an actual doll. I liked the ending! It was fun and creative and had some real emotion to it!

I didn't... enjoy the portrayal of gender.

The movie just really does not seem to want to face up to the idea that in the Barbie world, women are the privileged class. They hold all positions of power and property. Barbie doesn't even know where the men live?

Yes, it's all deliberately weird and surreal. But it's all just too weird and surreal to relate much to the real world. The climax relies on assuming that the barbies would essentially relate perfectly to a random real-world woman, which... even if it were true that all women IRL can relate to each other, their life experiences are just way too different.

(Yes, the patriarchy got introduced into Barbie land! But... how??? It's very hand-waved. Why would the privileged class suddenly completely turn the system 180 just because a guy came by with some books? It almost feels like a reverse-racism thing...?!)

And then, in the end, the kens still aren't treated equally. The movie jokes that 'someday' they'll have as much power as women IRL. But... we literally just spent the last hour exploring how shitty women have it. So now the kens have it even worse than that. And that's okay?

Again: it's meant to be dumb and silly. But we're also supposed to suspend our disbelief and live in this world for two hours. And the world just doesn't really jive with the tone. The more you think about it, the more you treat it as a real place, the less sense it makes. It only works if you laugh off the kens as just privileged white guys just because they resemble them.

Which, also! The movie in the end tries to be comforting to men and say that they don't need to be defined by their girlfriends or whatever! Which is actually a good message IRL: for too many men, being able to Date A Woman really is treated as the ultimate arbiter of human worth! (It... makes little sense in the world, where it seems like the kens really do need to rely on the barbies? But. see above.)

Except the entire way through, the idea of men having feelings is mocked and laughed off. Like I said, they imply that a gender non-conforming man would have absolutely 0 reason to fear violence at the hands of other men, which is... completely detached from reality?! Everything a stereotypical 'man' might care about is treated as being not really all that good, men's fears of abandonment or failure are eye-rollingly chalked up to 'egotism' (again, despite the status of the kens in this world), and when Ken cries at the end, it's presented as humiliating, as opposed to the dignified crying Barbie does on multiple occasions.

To be clear: I am not accusing the movie of misandry. I'm accusing the movie of being excessively cruel towards men who do not fit the stereotypical image of 'masculine', and then also being kind of pointlessly mean at those who do, as well.

Like, in the climax, one of the ultimate scenes of 'female empowerment' has the barbies pretend to listen while the kens play the guitar at them ('Push' by Matchbox 20, which is a good song IMO??? But it's treated as like. Objectively bad.), only to deliberately check their phone to show they don't care, then get up and talk to another man instead. And all of this is framed as, like 'playing on their petty egos and jealousies.' And not as like... them opening up? To someone they like? And trying to do something nice? And then being hurt when they don't feel the connection they wanted?

(Also men getting angry at other men, or staging a 'war', is treated as entirely petty and silly and kinda funny. Just an 'own goal', so to speak. Which, again, feels very insensitive when men... do in fact violently attack other men over reasons like jealousy.)

(Also also it's treated as super arrogant when a man tries to help out a woman who is literally saying aloud that she doesn't understand and wants help??? Because it's soooo offensive to think a woman can't do something she says she can't do??? even though the end of the movie is all about how women shouldn't have to be perfect and should be allowed to be just normal and not really good at anything???? I'm so confused.)

It's just... such a weird mix of a genuinely fun and creative campy setting, which then mixes in the most weirdly tone-deaf and old-fashioned gender essentialism possible. It tries to be progressive at the end, but the setting is already so stuck in those ideas (that inverting gender power dynamics would be really good actually since women are better in power, that men don't have any real legitimate reason to have emotions so it's weird and dumb if they do) that it doesn't track. It doesn't match the actual events of the movie.

It's not just an empty popcorn movie. Frankly, it'd be a lot better if it was!!!!!!! (At least for me, hahah.) It's best appreciated, honestly, if you do turn your brain off and just enjoy the pretty visuals and the nice moments at the end. Which is sad. Because it clearly does try to do so much more than that! But all those attempts just... make the movie more confused and weird and kind of mean?

Basically, the movie tries to do a whole 'haha what if we switched the power of the genders' but then still wants to treat all of the men like they're privileged white guys, even though there's 0 worldbuilding reason for that to be justified. (Plus also it has the typical 'wacky misandry' problems of being incredibly shitty to GNC and disabled men. but like I just expected that literally always nowadays.)

So yeah uhhh. unfortunately I gotta say that I don't really agree with those 'lollllll men hate this movie even though it literally just says that they're okay by themselves and don't need to base their worth on women!!!!!' like YEAH but it also implies some pretty. questionable stuff about oppression and mental health and how much we should respect men who have ~delicate fragile emotions~ too.

[strawbrygashez]

P1 Doe x P3 Dude HCs cuz they’ve been on my mind :3

•While P3 is a DOG when it comes to more revealing clothing on his partners, he thinks P1s Doe style is super cute. I imagine her clothes are very modest like lots of long skirts, baggy sweaters, cardigans, etc. The only odd thing she might hear about it from him is that he says the “librarian look really does it for him” 🤦‍♀️

Since she dresses modestly a lot of the time, it makes the times where she shows a bit more even better for p3 👍!!!! She’s usually embarrassed when she’s dressed in ‘less’ but he makes sure to tell her & show her she’s absolutely gorgeous.

•I’ve seen a couple things where ppl make P1 Doe more obsessed with god/religion more than I’ve seen with p1.. so it makes me think she’d probably ask P3 to come to church with her pretty often. P3 of course groans about it and whatnot but if he’s not busy, he’ll come with anyways. He doesn’t really listen to the preacher or whoever tho and just kinda man spreads next to her on the bench & just fiddles around with whatever he can or he just falls asleep 💀

P1 Doe would shove him awake if he did fall asleep & started snoring.. or if she could tell P3 fell asleep at all. (P3 is thankful for his sunglasses bc it makes it harder for her to tell if he’s dozing off or not)

I think eventually she’d go less and less because her paranoia about everything would get less extreme the longer she’s with P3 :0

•Usually P3 ended up with or chased after more confident, flirtatious women in the past so when he gets feelings for P1 Doe, he really has to actually work on getting close to her and changing his approach to flirting 💀 He might struggle a bit with not trying to come onto her too strong but he gets it eventually LOL he wants something really meaningful with her anyways :3

•I think like P1 Dude, P1 Doe wouldn’t have had many relationships in the past. Maybe a crush here and there and a attempt at dating once or twice but nothing ever really worked. She has no idea how to go about dating and flirting bc like P1 Dude, she’s awkward and just doesn’t understand people a lot of the time. So again, P3 is gonna have to take it slow with her & reassure her a bunch.

Part of me thinks she’d kinda feel worried and bad about ‘not being a good girlfriend’ and she’s confused why P3 even bothers with her when she’s ‘the way she is’.

•Kinda going along with prev point, since she doesn’t have a lot of dating experience, when p3 does start to get handsy, she’s SWEATING so bad. Her hearts going crazy, she’s not sure what to do. Not even if it’s like a 👀😳 moment but like just him wrapping a arm around her while they watch tv together has her dying (at least earlier on). She’d eventually get used to him touching her and her touching him but yea.. she just isn’t used to psychical touch at all LOL

•Going back to the clothes thing again somewhat, she tries to remember what P3 points out that he likes on her, so she can wear it around him more.

Like with all pdudes, I think when they get a s/o they really love, it helps them remember to take care of themselves more often. So like.. I think sometimes she’d start to remember to actually brush out her hair & maybe even do it up/try a new hair style in hopes he’d like it :,) NOT SAYING SHE’D DO IT ALL THE TIME.. she’s still p1 so she’s gonna have wild hair more often than not but I dunno I think she, like p1 dude would as well, would wanna try to put effort into ‘looking nice’ for their s/o.

•They are definitely a opposites attract kinda couple. I can see the other pdudes being kinda taken back when they find out they are together but also.. pdudes dont give much of a fuck about which Pdude is with who 💀

P3 won’t shut up about her around the others tho. Every other sentence out of his mouth is about his “beautiful, smart girlfriend”

The other Postal Doe’s all gave P1 Doe a look when they found out P1 Doe is with p3 of all pdudes like “really? Him?” But I think she might stand up for him a little bit even ���� and tell them he’s actually not that bad and a sweet guy when u get to know him. Now I dunno if they’d actually believe her or not tho 💀

[bohemian-nights]

Ryan Condal: "I made Velaryon black because there were too much white people on this show"

Ryan Condal too: "not giving even a hint of Nettles, the only canonical POC woman, most important dragonseed and essential figure on the war."

At this point,I'm coming at the conclusion Condal only made Velaryon black to pointing Weak Boys's bastardy at the same time he wanted brownie points. What do you think?

*Black woman, but yes. Seriously if you guys talk about Black people just call us what we are. No need for the POC/WOC/MOC stuff. Our experiences aren't the same just because we are all “minorities.”

Plus it reminds me of the pre-civil rights era when they used to call us “Colored” so I have no idea why any self respecting Black person (at least here in America) wants to call themselves that.

Rant aside, Honestly, the Weak Boys in the books are for sure bastards. People denying so are either absolute idiots(the boys are described as having brown hair and pug noses which isn't coming from Houses Arryn, Targaryen, Bartheon, or Velaryon).

So it wouldn't have mattered what they had done and who they had cast as long as Laenor’s actor had a hideous blonde wig and Harwin's actor had dark hair.

What I do think is that yeah Ryan and Co. wanted cheap diversity points.

The Velaryons are both a prominent house and get a pretty raw end deal out of the Dance so it makes sense to use them since they are highly visible and have shit stories(the Velaryons end up broke and taken out of the play by the end of Dance).

They might have also been trying to cut Nettles and replace her with Rhaena and I don't mean in the way Dumbnyra stans try to say about Daemon and Nettles being biological/surrogate father and daughter cause there is no way he could want to be with a Black woman.*

*Remember Laena is white in the books.

I mean in the way that Team Green tries to make Dettles perverted by saying that Daemon groomed* Nettles and used her as a cheap lay cause there is no way he could love a Black woman.

*Dettles is problematic, but every relationship in Fire & Blood is problematic in some way so singling them out is suspect at best.

Having Rhaena take her place as his lover would thus make him the ultimate villain of the Dance cause what’s worse than grooming your 14-year-old daughter?

Now if this was the case I think this was Miguel's dumb idea. He's the same moron who allegedly thought that it would be a good idea to change Rhaenys name that way people wouldn't be confused since she, Rhaena, and Rhaenyra all have similar sounding names.

(Talk about having 0 faith in your audience. None of these women look alike and they are all different ages so if someone was confused they’d have to be straight up blind).

It's obvious that Ryan has his issues, but I don't even think he is dumb enough to do that, especially since he claims to listen to GRRM(and there is no way that George would go that’s a great idea man 🤪).

I naively hope that Nettles pops up in the trailer and they were just saving her until then, but I do not like that they appear to be sidling her when she's the most important dragonseed.

[aromanticannibal]

Are going to talk about the fact that All Might has 0 experience with women... And they're calling him a bottom... I'M

he's absolutely a bottom and he's absolutely gay

[tetrisfinished]

pity party: attending - 1

declined - none

this can't be right. right? how come i'm always caught in my own pity parties. how come so many men are exactly the same trash replicated over and over again.

sometimes i GENUINELY wonder if the traditional men and women roles are the right way to go. maybe if i wasn't working - i wouldn't be as pissed off about all the shit i do at home.

queue: the waterworks (which, by the way i've been semi successful at holding back all day today, so just fuck off and let me have it, okay? okay).

at this point, i'm in my 8th year of marriage to this man. we've experienced long distance relationship, honeymoon stage, living together, owning together, vacation-ing together, and now parenting together. and i guess even a sort of separation together [read: he left for 2 months to go to pakistan sans wife and 3 yr old kid].

all of these "togethers" could have been rich life experiences. they could have been meaningful and loving and respectful.

but they weren't. i think the thing they were LEAST of all might actually have been together. how can that be? how do i turn my clock back to 0 hour at the time i started this marriage and start over.

or better yet, end it right away.

i don't know what mistake i'm continuing to pay for. but i guess that's not true. it's just a new mistake every single day when i engage him in conversation or when i task him with a chore or when i expect him to show up as a parent. if your partner is meant to "complete" you - then i feel that i am in a marriage where my partner actually manages to take away from me.

our household is toxic. our relationship is toxic. and the person who suffers the absolute fucking most is my kid.

my poor, little, innocent child who is 4 years old - he is so kind and fuck he's PATIENT. i'm 33 still trying to master this but my 4 year old kid has me beat. and maybe because of my own asshole behaviour he's had to become patient this early on in his young life.

i think back so much about all the times when i was asked "hey how could a western minded youth and an eastern minded youth get along and marry each other?" and i thought i had the best answer of all - he's not actually all that "conservative". but now i'm realizing that maybe while not conservative in the traditional and restrictive way - he actually is quite traditional. but also a smidge of modern.

he wants a working wife. but he also wants to not give up any of his own life to raise a fucking family.

and here i'm expected to make decision after decision. sacrifice after sacrifice, even consider the thought of expanding my family (khair ultimately that's in Allah swt's hands of course) all with the thought of how comletely unsupported i'll feel.

more and more i look around and people find themselves not having a lot of friends at my age. don't get me wrong. everyone has friends - but it's a tight group of maybe 2-4 CORE people. and no more. everyone else sort of filters out in the "acquaintance" column. so when i look at my significantly larger group of actual TIGHT friends - multiple groups including my actual family (mama/javaria) - i am so incredibly grateful. but maybe it was because Allah swt was preparing me for an actual life without a present partner. without a partner willing to show interest in our lives. in our families. in our home. in our child.

and again - don't get me wrong. i'm sure he loves us - or at least esa.

but feeling that love and then not showing up in any way with care or consideration or responsibility is so.....so cheap. you know?

and fuck me, i'm still trying to explain this to him. why? i don't know honestly.

in the middle it got better. but of course things have slowly regressed right back to the norm and here i am again. bitching and moaning and fucking frankly irritated that i can't just TAKE THE STEP to leave.

so. that's that.

that's the end of this rant.

the one thing i'll say that's a positive of it all is - every time i'm so triggered and emotional and upset about this stuff - i write. i guess when i'm happy i'm not as.....inspired? morbid, amiriteeee?

so someday, when i discover the audience that absolutely adores the anti self-help read - the bitching and moaning and complaining reads. that day i can compile all my blog posts and become famous.

but until then, here i am. another night of another day of another week of another month of another year - all different then before, but all alarmingly the same.

-k

[kbookblurbs]

Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind

TW/CW for rape, SA

0/5 - I'd give this negative stars if I could. Poorly written, weirdly rape-y for the ENTIRE book, misogynistic, derivative, unimaginative magic system, 15-20 pages dedicated to BDSM sexual assault? Save yourself the time, energy, and brain cells.

Where to start? Ah, I know! Let's start with the fact that this book is a blatant rip-off of the Wheel of Time (I just read Eye of the World, so I can confirm). Even if it weren't following the plot beat-by-beat, its unimaginative at best. Everything you read here has been done better by someone else. The parts that aren't lifted from Eye of the World are poor copies of Tolkien's work (which WoT is also guilty of ... but that's for a later post).

Goodkind's writing style seems to consist mostly of just narrating. There is minimal dialogue. There is technically action. But mostly, there's the author telling you exactly how the characters are feeling and why they might make the decisions they'll make with no evidence to WHY that might be true. You don't get to experience any of this for yourself. Richard and Kahlan allegedly fall in love within 24 hours of meeting each other, but without the author telling you this every other page, you'd never know based on how they act with each other. I saw them as colleagues at best, despite the professions of love at the end. Personally, I'm convinced Goodkind has never been friends with a woman.

Beyond this, Kahlan spends ALL of her time bemoaning the fact that she can't be in love with a man properly without forcing him to fall in orgasmic love with her. I'm being 100% serious here, that's the beginning, middle, and end of her magical powers. She rarely talks about having friends or family, and when she does, that singular friend is the main character of an anecdote about sexual assault. Lovely.

Richard, on the other hand, doesn't ever seem to BE thinking. Goodkind tells you that he is the most special boy to ever live and that also, twist! he's the product of rape. His power is *waves hand* Truth and no, that is never explained.

This is all without even TOUCHING the BDSM plotline which, frankly, does a disservice to anyone who has ever engaged in kink. It's all hot women in leather who are torturing our protagonist to feel pain and the men (yes, it's always men) usually die from the experience. But Richard, being the most special boy to ever live, is different. He has this experiences, sleeps with his mistress under dubiously consesual circumstances, and defeats her with the power of falling in love with her, because she was actually just a nice girl with issues this whole time. Oh, also a key point of these women is that they're tortured into becoming torturers. The whole plotline is absolutely miserable and that still leaves about 30% of the book left. I almost quit right then.

One of the few joys of this book was Zedd, but honestly, if you've read one whimsical wizard, you've met him already. He doesn't hold a candle to Gandalf or Yoda or any other quirky magical mentor.

To conclude! I hated this book, will never read another one of Goodkind's book, and I hope and pray that none of you will ever be subjected to his writing.

[uncle-fruity]

Also just wanna throw in here that suffering is suffering, oppression is oppression. Arguing about who has it "worse" or who has it "better" is always going to be reductive of someone's experiences. Besides, how do you measure this stuff? Are all trans experiences universal? Do all trans men suffer the same amount as each other? Are all trans women suffering the same amount as each other? Is it not possible that these things are highly dependent on other factors, such as where someone lives, what kind of community support they have, how well they "pass" (if they even try to), how much money the individual has, what their race is, how much bodily autonomy the individual has (like how many disabled folks are forced to depend on other ppl & are often disempowered bc of it)? Like, there are so many variables to consider that saying straight up and down that all trans women have it "worse" than all trans men is just...foolish and shortsighted.

And it's dangerous because you get folks dismissing trans men out of hand with absolutely 0 context of that man's situation. You get people who refuse to listen to or validate trans men's issues because they think we don't have it that bad. You get people who don't realize that transmasc HRT is a *controlled substance* which absolutely affects us when it comes to antitrans legislation -- and so they can ignore this and continue to think that antitrans legislation simply doesn't affect trans men enough for our experiences to count!

I once made a personal post on my personal blog about how I was worried about being at an in between stage in my HRT and how it was hard for me to choose which bathroom I should use in public to best avoid potentially getting hate crimed. And the ONLY person who responded told me to basically "suck it up, buttercup, trans men don't face oppression & you'll never be as oppressed as trans women, so stop crying about it" (paraphrasing here, but that was the sentiment I took away). This is a person who's never even seen a picture of me; how do they even begin to make a judgement about how safe I should feel in public?

Now, I've been through enough therapy & I've had enough life experience to let it more or less roll off my shoulders, but like!! If I wasn't so resilient, that could have really pushed me into a deep depression. (Ever look up the suicide rates of trans folks? Like, I ain't suicidal, but randos don't know that about me.) I've had people all my life telling me in so many ways that my pain doesn't matter, that my feelings need to be tabled to make way for other people's feelings/comfort, and that I need to be supportive of the people around me without ever expecting that support to be reciprocated. And that is cruel. To expect someone to listen to & care about your pain & suffering while simultaneously demanding they ignore their own and keep it to themselves. Even worse, when someone is expressing fear or distress, to come onto their post and diminish them with absolutely no idea of the workings of their life. Being dismissive on the technicality that a different group somewhere out there might have it worse than you isn't gonna help in any material way. It isn't going to help the person who's hurting directly in front of you, and it's not going to help the people who allegedly have it worse. It's just gonna put the community at each other's throats over a stupid oppression pissing contest. It's just gonna silence another trans voice.

So, I guess, my question is: what is the end goal of comparing the pain of highly targeted groups of people? Why does it matter and how does it quantifiably help the communities you're trying to protect?

honestly i feel nothing but dread whenever i see popular video essayists tackle masculinity & manhood, because like, the track record is so bad. i wish ppl would stop propogating the notion of transmasculine privilege (or at the very least, 'lesser suffering' bullshit) to their large and cis audiences. it's exhausting.

[patriciavetinari]

Long personal post about sex, please scroll accordingly if not interested.

I believe I just realized a part of why I'm so frustrated about romance, including sexual relationships. Not just that I've always been interested, and I think part of the reason might be limited attention in my childhood? Me believeing I should be loved and supported and taken care of more than I did? Busy single mother, combined with absolute assholes for classmates who were treating me horribly, teachers ignoring the situation, no help from anyone? Family not being the safe haven I was always told it is?.. Being disappointed with family love, having never experienced comraderie and friends' love it seems like all of it accumulated into strong desire for romantic love and partnership built on romantic connection. I'm just speculating though, no time for a therapist.

But then as a marginalized person you grow up without proper socialization (I've never had a birthday party in my life), and romantic socialization and flirting being part of that, so you become an adult completely lacking social skill. Add on to it general unpleasantness fat people and fat women experience.

And it's not for a lack of trying that I'm single. I've done years and years of research, I've watched and read about being charming and making friends and finding partners, from reasonable coaches to absolutely insane stuff, and I've been dutiful and trying those methods – I have found none that have worked. I've been on dating apps, I've been forcing myself out of comfort zone, going out every day off, I've been dressing like a hoe, like a en elegant lady, like a big titty goth gf – none of this has worked. The only thing I haven't tried is speed dating, but I have a few of those bookmarked.

And yes, I've made the first step, multiple times, I've asked people out myself rather than expect them to approach. I've been told no or been stood up, I've literally had 0% success rate and revived my confidence from the pits of despair every time.

And at the same time, still, the person I want to be is the one that turns heads and has a string of competing lovers and people having duels over my attention and affections. Last one I'm willing to live without, but to have people find me desirable in a romantic way is still a strong desire of my own and even though I don't have that and I have to be able to go on alone... Idk, I still yearn. Badly. At the very least I want to try and reach that lifestyle and then figure out on my own that it's not for me. I think it goes back to feeling invisible and overshadowed and forgotten and unwanted, so now I really wish to experience the opposite. And yeah, if I can rake in some material benefits – even better. If I could be having sugar daddies and mommies, or have an onlyfans, I would do it.

I mean... When I say if I could – I can, probably, but that's the thing, the technical part is easy. Start an account, point a camera at yourself, click, but the next step is where I get stuck. Like, what do I do? How do I act sexy? What is the type of sexyness that fits me, that I can confortably perform, that doesn't feel like the most generic porn parody? What is it about me that turns people on? How should I act to maximise that?

And I once again come back to having no experience of feeling sexy, desired, beautiful to another person. I... Don't think it's exactly seeking validation. Because I'm generally fine with myself and I go out without makeup no problem, I value my comfort etc, and I know in my skull that I'm pretty. But I do want to be beautiful to other people. I do want the experience of being wanted and I've never had that. Not in a way that is acceptable, so a dudebro posting an eggplant emoji under my selfie is not what I'm looking for. I'm probably seeking attention but that is also respectful I guess? I'm aware my standards are high, but low standards brought me terrible experiences in the past.

Doesn't help that the 2 very poor sex experiences that I've had happened when I was anorexic, so much thinner, and both of those people were very bad at sex, not bothering with foreplay or making me feel desired, even though they clearly wanted to fuck. Like, as wild as it sounds, I felt like one of them is not really interested in my, and the other wanted to fuck me but did't fee the need for me to feel good. Both of them were really not nice to me. I'm not even talking about orgasms. One of them blatantly told me that me not orgasming or not much enjoying the shitty sex meant that I'm not 'built' to enjoy sex which fucking had me fuming for obvious reasons. I've been fascinated by sex since very early age and still am and that's the reason I don't think I'm ace (?). I've entertained a thought, but at the moment I genuinely don't know if it's me not experiencing sexual desire towards people or just not letting myself entertain the idea that a real person could want me because that has literally never happened (in my current body size, I honestly view my brief period of thinness almost as another person, I have nothing in common with her). So I don't let myself fantasize or desire someone or even have a crush because it's always painful and just seems unrealistic.

I think I had a crush at my old job, and mustered the courage to ask the person out twice and that's how I got stoop up and then found out they started dating someone else, and I literally cried, feeling like a high schooler (derogatory). So I don't let myself have crushes because what's the point. I try to find enjoyment if friendly hanging out nowadays.

And coming back to sex, without having experienced any genuine interaction, any expression of desire towards me as a person or even to my current body – again, in a way that is more human than eggplant emoji or like 'i wana fuck your bobs' – without any of it I don't know what is it that people find sexy about me, IF they find me desirable, which aspects of my look or attitude turn people on, what should I be highligting. I want to learn, I want to play into my strengths, but I don't know what they are. Yeah I do want to hear that someone is crazy about me, loves talking to me and wants to pleasure me and loves my mind as well as my body just the way it is. You know, the Gomez Addams approach.

My main problem is that my empirical evidence of being alive as a human shows me that I either don't provoke any desire or I provoke primitive disrespectful fetishization. That the only people willing to show their attraction to me or act up on it are very unpleasant predatory types. And all of them online too, no real life person has shown any interest or effort in trying to spend time with me for anythibg long term or even just get into my bed which I would be totally ok with.

Of cource it's disheartening and discourageing and concerning.

I'm always trying to find out what is people do that makes them have a partner after partner, or a string of fun sex encounters, or just adventurous personal life (of course I don't realky care what thin people have to say on the topic, they literally live in the world of their own especially when it comes to relationships). I want that. I want to learn, I'm willing to try stuff and muster courage, I wouldn't mind having an onlyfans, but I think my own research is not helping me enough in learning about my own sexuality, find the right ways to be sexy because I've bever made feel like I am sexy to anyone, I've never been told that (again, in human ways not in scum ways). I feel silly most of the time when attemting to flirt, and the old protective mechanism of being the clown, compensating fatness with being funny to ve accepted still looms its ugly head.

I don't know what to do. I want to have people ask for my phone number all the time, and compete for my attention, having 4849385 invites to do something after work or on the weekend, having my pick of people to spend time and have sex with as much as my heart desires. And yeah, being pampered and taken care of and showered with words and gifts and gestures as well. Years of loneliness have made me gluttonous for all that, and the sick irony of desiring all that while in a fat body in a world that hates fat people and makes sure we know we absolutely should 't be expecting any of that.

I don't know if I'll ever grow out of that. Or if I'll ever be touched by another human being. Seems quite hopeless at the moment.

[thefloatingstone]

shipping is a major issue, yes but it tends to be only an issue mostly with women. look at male-dominated star wars fandom vs female dominated parts of it for an example and see who were the ones yelling about shipping and reylo and who about plot, whether you agree with them or not. it's not a coincidence that most female centred media is about romance, women tend to fall for amatonormativity more often (not going to speculate why, it's possibly self-reinforcing as women are rewarded for being obsessed with romance while men are seen as weak)

Gonna be honest with you, anon.

None of what you just said and whatever my opinions on how right or wrong you are matter. Because this has 0 to do with any of that.

The problem that I stated was that "Shipping CULTURE has ruined so many good stories". Not "People who have ships".

There are a group of people who put value into who is making out with who above what the story is and who the characters are. They might as well bang barbie dolls together and they'd get the same exact satisfaction. it's not about the individuality of characters. It's about who is borking who.

This is not "people who ship". Like regular normal fans who like a dynamic between specific characters and enjoy playing their psychologies and experiences against each other. That content is not only "fine", it's often times GREAT. Often times understanding character psychologies better than the canon writers do. But this is "Shipping CULTURE". As in the mentality around it and how certain people approach it. In that "I just think these two people are cool together and if you don't then you're [insert accusation here]". But it also doesn't ONLY mean fandom. And that's what I was more specifically referring to in this case.

Thanks to shipping culture, we had to sit through TEN YEARS of F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Ross and Rachel being the absolute worst people to each other just because they weren't allowed to get together permanently until literally the last episode because that shipping culture of "oooooh is your otp ship gonna become canon??? Stay tuned for the next episode and maybe you'll find out!! Oh you DON'T ship Ross with Rachel? Well maybe they get NEW relationships next episode and maybe one of them is your otp! Stay tuned next episode to find out!"

FOR TEN. FUCKING. YEARS.

Because shipping culture told show writers that THAT is what will keep people watching a show which is is actually GOOD. No no it has nothing to do with the good writing, it's about whether Ross and Rachel are gonna decide to stay together permanently.

I just watched Quinton Reviews talk about iCarly. A show I have never watched in my life, and in it he says how the show writers had 0 interest in shipping anyone in the show and openly said they didn't want to write shipping content. But the online fans were SO RABID about who should fucking kiss who that Nickelodeon made entire event days and commercials and adverts teasing relationship bullshit that never even happens in the show just to get people to watch.

The post I reblogged was from Thanks-Ken-Penders and is about the atrocious writing in the late 90s and early 2000s of the Sonic comic and there is SO MUCH OF THIS BULLSHIT in it.

Mina the Mongoose literally only exists because the editor wanted "a threat to Sally". Sally breaks up with Sonic to "keep the relationship spicy". Online fans at the time were frothing at the mouth and RAGING at each other on "who was the better couple" and "who Sonic should end up with" and all of this just kept going and going and going and none of it ever resolved and instead of seeing these characters go on adventures it's an endless hellish loop of editor-mandated petty relationship drama on who should end up in a heteronormative relationship with who and OH MY GOD I DON'T CARE WHY ISN'T SONIC PUNCHING MORE ROBOTS?????

THAT is what I mean with "shipping culture has ruined so many good stories"

Are you right about what you said in your ask? Are you wrong? Are you assigning stereotypical binary gender roles? Are you stating what decades of toy marketing culture has learned?

IT LITERALLY DOESN'T MATTER.

I am so sick of studios and distributors and editors kneecapping what could be good or at least passable stories with fucking bullshit just to wank off the audience who don't care about anything else.

Go write for Days of Our lives or whatever soap operas still exist if you want to write an endless 30 year long "will the won't they" relationship that never goes anywhere with interchangeable characters where nobody has depth outside of who looks hot standing next to who.

[tomwambsmilk]

before i stumbled upon your blog just now, i had seen zero (0) imagery of succession.

i did not care about succession. i thought it seemed like not my type of show, boring even (i apologize, my mistake).

i still have no idea what it's about.

i know not anything about your scrimblos more than the first 5 mins of looking at your blog has told me.

but you've intrigued me. I still won't probably see this show (no offense - i haven't even watched through good omens and i Loved that show and follow fanfics of it)

but damn it if i won't follow this blog.

keep up the good fight. milk your men. you keep a high supply of fresh juicy content; and i am a patron of the arts.

You have NO idea how absolutely delightful this ask was to get. We here at Tommy Milk Inc ALWAYS welcome additional patrons, regardless of existing knowledge of succession, affection for Tom, or position on the undefined but definitely very real Succession Political Compass. And I am personally deeply flattered by your enjoyment of my fresh juicy content, which I work so hard (with the help of my compatriots) to keep flowing from the tits of a certain Thomas Wambsgans day and night.

In fact, your ask has inspired me to attempt a bit of a Tommy milk renaissance (or milkaissance, if you will), so if milkposting is a topic which interests you, I'll be reblogging some key posts in the history of this phenomenon in short order.

All that said, while I don't think you need any prior knowledge of succession to appreciate the magical milk flowing from his substantial tits, I thought it might be helpful, for the sake of better enjoying the content, to get a Crash Course in the various Scrimblos of Succession:

Logan Roy - literally the worst. Rolling with lgbt but also deeply homophobic, but also might be falling in love with his son-in-law (source: asked for his help peeing). Obsessed with milk and piss. Got a UTI and almost destroyed his own company over it. Once made several of his execs wrestle each other for sausages on a corporate retreat. Will hopefully die in season 4

Kendall Roy - defender of women. Wants to be Oedipus but is bad at it. Used to do coke off his kids iPads but is now interested in becoming a meth-head (character growth!). Clinically depressed, probably. Technically killed a guy once. Wants to be Jesus sooo bad he almost strapped himself to a cross at his birthday party while performing Billy Joel's "Honesty". Definitely invested in crypto off-screen

Roman Roy - meow meow supreme. Big proponent of sexual harassment. "Scared of pussy" but does like ejaculating onto windows. Thinks "fascism is cool, but also, not really". Tried to send a picture of his dick to the company's general legal counsel and sent it to his father instead. Major daddy's boy but does not know how much milk costs (sad!). Only person on this entire show who's ever been to management training

Shiv Fucking Roy - 1/2 of the show's resident failmarriage. Used to work for Bernie Sanders (succession edition). Asked for an open marriage on her wedding night. Tries to be a #girlboss but is ultimately more of cringefail loser (affectionate). Called her husband manipulative because he tried to talk about his feelings. Representation for women who are their father's daughters (derogatory). Was almost suspiciously excited about the prospect of having sex with another woman in a threesome before Tom had to go and ruin it. Will likely murder him in season 4 (for unrelated reasons)

Connor Roy - running for president and polling VERY close to 1%. Sugar daddy, patron of the arts, and big Napoleon fan. Man of the people (the people who work on his ranch). Occupations: "safeguarding" thousands of acres of New Mexico wilderness, and being on the verge of setting up a podcast about Napoleonic history with significant investment interest. A lack of real-world experience has sometimes been levelled at him. Owns Napoleon's penis. Everyone else keeps forgetting he exists

Tom Wambsgans - babygirl!!!! Other half of the resident failmarriage. Lactates (they haven't addressed this in canon but that doesn't mean it isn't true). Has a Nero kink. Spends a lot of time saying suspiciously sexual things about his father-in-law. Sent his wife's cousin Greg 67 emails with the subject line "You can't make a Tomlette without breaking some Greggs" on the first night of his honeymoon. White collar criminal but bad at it. Once started secretly tracking his wife's menstrual cycle so he could pretend to be horny when she was ovulating in the hopes this would convince her to have a baby. Official boar on the floor loser (Karl stole his sausage). Pushed Shiv down the stairs and castrated and married Cousin Greg in the season 3 finale. Has a dick the size of a red sequoia and fucks like a bullet train

Cousin Greg - slick little fuck (affectionate). Tom's executive assistant and corporate sugar baby. Also a white collar criminal but even worse at it. Suing Greenpeace for his inheritance. Has a gay homewrecking dad. Absolutely should go to HR about Tom but won't. Not here for a long time, but also not really having a good time. Generally doesn't know what's going on. Probably entering his villain era in Season 4 (what is he going to do with a soul anyways??). Once asked Tom to prove that he has a dick the size of a red sequoia and fucks like a bullet train

[rimouskis]

okay so barbie anons (and my thinky thoughts) below:

this is a long post btw Ye Be Warned

I've absolutely seen a lot of mothers I know (and women who want to be mothers) responding similarly. as someone void of motherly instinct I can't relate but I can understand! I'm really glad you left with a sense of community and of Being Seen!

I.... feel you very much. I often find that things (usually pieces of media) lauded as being So Impactful For Women don't hit very well with me because I do not move through the world as a straight woman, and the experiences I have with men and with patriarchy are certainly related and sometimes similar, but often times they are really different! I've also had the luck(?) of working in woman-dominated workplaces, and I frankly deal with men very little in life. they aren't a part of my life, largely. like... there's my dad, and that's kind of it.

whenever (often straight) women talk about "decentering" men, I feel like I already live life like that; men don't give me the time of day, lol. they don't like me very much! they never have, honestly! it's a good thing I'm gay, because I've never been approached by or hit on by a man. which is fine by me, it's not like I want their attention, necessarily, but as someone who's never gotten that experience with men, it often means I relate to patriarchy/sexism in ways that are a bit different from straight women, and that carries over into media as well.

tl;dr: I wholly agree with you that my experience of womanhood doesn't align with the experience shown in the movie (which isn't a bad thing! it just means it's different)

I actually have seen a lot of middle-aged people have pretty big reactions to it, too! like, one of my favorite high school teachers (who's at LEAST in her mid40s if not early 50s, and also kind of a goth lol so seeing her in pink was a TRIP) saw it and was quoting it online later. and... she's SUPER aware of feminism, as far as I know. she's a brilliant woman who absolutely has faced sexism in many ways. and something about the movie struck her! she's also a mother to a young daughter, so that might be an element of the resonance, too!

I feel you on it not being emotionally revelatory to you—I personally thought it treated both patriarchy and feminism with irreverence. like, everything was played for jokes, which was fun! I liked that. I just don't relate to having a strong positive emotional reaction to this specific portrayal of feminism.

this is what I've settled on too, I think.

as someone who has never been able to attain Conventional Femininity, I don't relate to the portrayal of feminism or femininity seen in the movie (like.... everyone in that film is a beautiful person, lol. even ~weird barbie~ [who I really enjoyed!!!!] is played by Kate MCKINNON, a beautiful, striking woman!) sure, they had a fat barbie, sure, they had a trans barbie, sure, they had barbies of all shapes and colors and roles, but I did not feel particularly ~represented~ by any of the people on the screen.

I don't super mind that, honestly! I don't feel a burning need to be Seen by the barbie movie. but the subjugation the barbies felt at the hands of the kens is..... not the sexism I experience. when men don't think you're fuckable, they don't play songs to you, they don't mansplain films to you, and they really don't want you to serve them beer lol.

and I think that's why I didn't relate... because the movie only really showed two breeds of sexism: the sexism of a man who wants a woman (but can't have her unless he forces her), and the sexism of a condescending corporate overlord. as someone who's had 0 experience with either of those, I was amused but not struck by it.

I agree the politics of the movie were pretty shallow and I found the emotional throughlines to be hammed up—everything was effectively satirized, and I wish they had kept that energy! like, the little girl calls barbie a fascist, for fuck's sake! clearly the politics of the movie are INTENTIONALLY silly.

I definitely don't judge anyone for seeing themselves and their experiences in the film. so many women I love and respect deeply resonated with it. also I found ken to be absolutely hilarious and I found his humorous villainy to be the shining star of the movie—gosling was so good ahahaha

....hello so would someone who found the barbie movie to be very moving/emotionally impactful please anon me why you felt that way. I need it for science*

[bronanlynch]

a million years later I’m done with aa3 and once again ranking lawyers by how much I would want to be their file clerk. there are so many lawyers in this one holy shit

phoenix: his office manager is a nineteen year old with very little management experience which is kind of a red flag. on the other hand at least he has an office manager so I wouldn’t be dealing with his nonsense alone. and he does clean the toilet without having to be nagged abt it which is the kind of thing I look for in any man that I’m going to be sharing any kind of space with for any extended length of time. 8/10, loses points because of his light caseload

mia (flashback era): I’d prob be technically working for the whole firm, not just her specifically, which means I’d at least be at an established business who knows how to set up health insurance for their employees. and she seems like she would be nice to her assistants even when she’s horrifically stressed so, and would properly appreciate how nice and neat her files are. 9/10, loses a point bc she had that big gap between cases and I’d have to deal w her coworkers

goldberg: again, love to work at a nice stable firm. he seems a bit obnoxious to deal with all the time but mostly wouldn’t speak to me except to ask me to mail letters or tell me awkward stories if we were in the kitchen at the same time which is like. tolerably annoying boss behavior. also he has a receptionist, and I love to gossip with receptionists. 7/10, talk to me abt your PTO policy and we’ll see

diego armando: I do not care for the way he talks to women and if I had to work directly with him I would request for that not to be the case pretty much immediately. no I don’t care that he and mia were dating, don’t condescendingly call your much younger female coworker “kitten.” 5/10, still might put up with him for the stable income (see above)

payne: again, I’m allergic to older men condescending to me. I mean, I’m allergic to all men condescending to me but there’s a specific flavor of rage that fills me when he calls mia “little girl” in court and I’m not working for men who would talk to me like that thank you very much. 2/10, maybe if I were really desperate

godot: being dead didn’t improve the misogyny and also my entire job would consist of getting him more coffee. I think I would snap and poison him myself. 0/10, he barely takes cases so what would even be the point

edgeworth (flashback era): god he was such a little shit (affectionate) and I would not want to be anywhere near him. absolutely the kind of smug bastard who tries to tell me I made a formatting error on the document I typed up for him and won’t listen when I try to explain that both ways are actually correct and it’s entirely a matter of taste. 3/10, no thank you

edgeworth (defense attorney era): actively having several different crises over phoenix being in the hospital and briefly following in his father’s footsteps and also probably jetlagged as hell which would not make him a great boss and probably would snap at me more than I would prefer however I would love to have a front row seat to his gay drama and honestly, being competent and fairly organized and not actively cruel or sexist goes a long way imo. unfortunately a very short term temp gig so no benefits or long-term job security. 8/10, for once I don’t have to deduct points for him being a prosecutor

franziska: has maybe chilled out a little tiny bit and grown as a person since last game. however. would still prefer not to be in danger of getting hit with a whip by my boss, and don’t love the concept of working for someone with such unforgiving standards of perfectionism. I already expect that from myself, I don’t need my boss reinforcing it. on the other hand, if she paid my travel expenses I might consider it. 5/10, still losing points for being a prosecutor and also a teenager

(aa1 | aa2)

[asmallnerd]

Autistic Shoto Todoroki

The analysis

First off, I would like to say that this is purely a passion project. I am not a professional, I am an autistic teenager and I’m just very interested in this character because I heavily relate to him. I’ve collected some scenes from the manga and two specific things from the third light novel.

If you could boost this (if you’re interested that’d be great because while I really enjoy doing this it does take a lot of time! With that being said let’s dive into this and I hope you find this interesting!

Could Shoto Todoroki be autistic? Here is why I think he absolutely could.

Emotional perception

Let’s start with one of the most obvious things about his character. The emotional factor.

Shoto doesn’t emote in the way his peers do. Now, of course this also plays into the brooding mysterious guy archetype, but that’s not what we’re talking about.

Shoto’s face is typically relatively neutral, this is apparent from the moment we first meet him and while he does tend to express his emotions more clearly later in the story, it doesn’t ever really change. Something that immediately comes to mind is how in chapter 202 Iida asks if Shoto is alright because Iida noticed his expression change (because he knows him very well by this point). Ojiro points out that he did not notice this, since Shoto’s face barely changes at all.

We see Shoto in a lot of situations where his peers show excitement while his expression remans completely flat. This lack of emoting is something extremely common in people with autism. It’s not that they don’t have emotions or don’t express them at all, they just do it in a way that is hard to understand for people outside the spectrum or those who don’t know the autistic individual very well. They often struggle to understand what emotion they’re feeling in the first place and of course it’s hard to express feelings if you don’t know what you’re feeling.

Shoto doesn’t only show difficulty expressing his emotions but also recognizing those of other people. One of the best examples of this is the final exam arc, where he gets paired up with Yaoyorozu. In chapter 63 specifically, he doesn’t realize that Yaoyorozu is upset about something even though to someone else it’d probably have been obvious. Only when Aizawa points out that he should listen to her does he notice that he’s been doing something wrong. Shoto didn’t notice she was upset, and he didn’t notice he was being rude.

Emotions and emotional responses are continuously shown to be difficult for Shoto to handle. What he has absolutely no issues with, on the other hand, are academics. Of course, we can naturally assume that he’s been drilled to study hard from a very young age, but he is also extremely intelligent outside of the classroom. During the sports festival he is the first person shown to figure out that the obstacle course poses a lot more disadvantages to the people in the lead, during the practical exam, he is able to come up with a solid strategy very quickly.

During the training camp arc, him and Deku are the ones to come up with a strategy to protect Bakugo on the spot. He also doesn’t seem to consider his intelligence anything special. A lot of autistic people tend to assume that other people’s experiences align with their own. This can be seen when he seems surprised about Denki worrying that he’ll fail the written final exam. He asks how he could possibly fail if he’s been attending class, like the concept is entirely foreign to him (also there’s about a 0% chance this was a joke because this is Shoto we’re talking about.) He is very good at logical problem solving but emotional issues seem to stump him.

Literacy and verbal filters

Moving on, another big factor that Shoto seems to struggle with is his tendency to be overly literal and very blunt. There are several instances where he says things that we as readers as well as other characters perceive as insensitive. Once again, his interaction with Denki about the final exams (chapter 60) can be an example. He didn’t seem to think it was inappropriate and because this is Shoto, he didn’t ask to tease him either. Denki even points out that this was insensitive to say. A more subtle example is his conversation with Izuku in chapter 73, when they talk about Kota. His overall phrasing is fine, but he remains very blunt and direct and essentially ends up telling Izuku that his tendency to cut to people’s hearts with his words is annoying.

My personal favorite for an example can be found in chapter 83, in the hospital after the training camp, when the class visits Izuku, Shoto points out that “Of course Bakugo isn’t here.” Needless to say, he couldn’t possibly have timed this statement any worse. It wasn’t necessary in the first place, but he didn’t register it as something inappropriate to say.

One example of not him being unintentionally rude but just showing a different approach to telling the truth is seen in the third light novel. The fifth chapter revolves around the class preparing a birthday party for Iida. At one point, Sato asks if Iida has food allergies out of nowhere. Iida naturally asks why he needs to know this, Shoto is immediately ready to answer the question honestly, which would have spoiled the surprise, had Izuku not stepped in.

Autistic people often have trouble seeing whether something is or isn’t appropriate to say. Neurotypical people’s brains have a filtering process, it helps them be aware of possible responses to a statement. This filtering process is not functional or only limited in autistic people.

Shoto is also overly literal. In chapter 57, he gets upset over his friends continuously getting their hands hurt and refers to himself as “the hand crusher”. He is very serious about this and does not understand how Iida and Izuku could possibly think he was joking.

In chapter 164, he answers Gang Orca’s metaphoric question entirely seriously. During the interview training in chapter 241 he first seems confused by the made-up mission in the first place. He then proceeds to ask Mt Lady if she has a heart condition when she uses the phrase “My heart would burst out of my chest”. Finally, he appears genuinely horrified when she calls him a “lady killer” (“My smile will kill women..?!”)

In chapter 257, when Mineta claims school talk will “ruin the taste of the food”, Shoto simply says it tastes the same to him, to which Mineta proceeds to call him out for being overly literal.

Autistic people typically struggle to understand jokes and sarcasm, in fact, it’s often one of the main characteristics in people with an ASD diagnosis.

Overfamiliarity and Oversharing

Shoto’s tendency to overshare is another thing that is very typical foe ASD.

He doesn’t seem to understand that telling his life story to a classmate he’s barely interacted with prior is not exactly an appropriate thing to do. He repeats this later with All Might and, most notably, in chapter 165, when talking to the preschoolers during his provisional licensing course.

He also seems to have a slightly different perception of what makes someone friends than his classmates. As shown in chapter 241, to him, spending time with Bakugo during the licensing course is enough to deem them friends. Even when Bakugo points out that there is no correlation between the time spent together and friendship, he still doesn’t seem to understand.

Autistic people tend to become overly familiar and are easily attached to people if they perceive just one of their interactions as positive.

Attachment to inanimate things

This is something not really shown in the manga, but noteworthy, nonetheless. We know that Shoto, upon moving into the dorm building, remodeled his entire room from a modern, more western style room, into a traditional Japanese style one. The second chapter of the third novels goes into depth about why he did this. Shoto was entirely dumbstruck and thrown off by how different the room is from what he was used to. He knew the traditional Japanese rooms from home and his brain assumed that the dorms would be the same. He felt like the different style was wrong. He doesn’t like the unfamiliar flooring and even a small thing like the positioning of the light switch bother him.

He’s not comfortable in the unfamiliar environment, so he decides to change it.

Autistic people often struggle to adjust to changes. In environment and routine. They feel most comfortable in a well established and familiar routine, that includes the feel of their living space. A change of environment this drastic would be extremely stressful for someone on the spectrum.

Another thing that isn’t particularly obvious but does make sense when considered is that Shoto seems to have a comfort food (cold soba). While he’s never shown or stated to be a picky eater he does seem to opt for the same food whenever he gets the chance. Autistic people often have a very restricted diet due to sensory processing issues that apply to food textures, smells and taste.

Additional points

Shoto seems to be a little face blind. He doesn’t know who Kota is when Izuku mentions him, which seems to genuinely surprise Izuku. He also didn’t remember Inasa at all despite them having been at the same entrance exam.

In chapter 202 he’s shown completely zoning out. Of course, this can happen to anyone, I just found it interesting because it was shown so clearly, making it obvious that it was something we should pay attention to.

In the novel chapter in which he remodels his room it is also mentioned that the feeling of synthetic floor against his feet upsets him.

Shoto also seems relatively indifferent to temperature. Of course, that would correlate to his quirk as well, but it is also common for autistic people to struggle with temperature perception as well as other things that neurotypical people don’t struggle to recognize like hunger or thirst. This specifically applies to situations where you would typically end up in pain like, for example, frostbite. Shoto would obviously be used tot his but him showing no reaction at all to his body halfway freezing over was a little unnerving.

He also is shown to be relatively uninterested in certain social events like for example the room competition after the class moves into the dorms. He doesn’t want to be there; he’d rather go to sleep. In the beginning he also shows clear disinterest in making friends with his classmates. Both very typical things for people on the spectrum.

In chapter 244, Hawks asks Shoto a question in a way that seems to confuse him so much he can’t even form a coherent response. [Hawks: “Seemed like you were in trouble, Endeavor.” Endeavor: “Me? Not a chance.” Hawks: “But it seemed that way, didn’t it, Shoto?” Shoto: “Um..I…uh…”]

He probably didn’t register if Hawks actually wanted him to answer or not.

In chapter 64 he mistakes Yaoyorozu crying for her feeling sick, horribly misreading her expressions.

This last point is more personal than the rest, watching his reactions to Endeavor’s fight with the Nomu in chapter 190 made me think of the stress progression that often causes autistic shutdowns. Shoto was clearly becoming more and more stressed as he was watching and once it was over simply seemed to shut down. That is a very typical response to emotional distress or overstimulation in autistic people.

Final disclaimer

This is purely for my own entertainment; it is not meant to be offensive to anyone and I am not saying that this is absolutely what is going on. I’m simply elaborating on a theory/headcanon that I have. That being said, if you have questions feel free to drop them in the ask box, I’d be thrilled!