#all very real examples

[heartless-aro]

People when a character is aromantic or aromantic coded: Wowie! They’re aroACE! Because they aren’t interested in romance! Look at how aroace they are!

People when a character is aroace or aroace coded: Isn’t it cool that this character is asexual? Asexual icon! They’re such great asexual representation :)

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

Beauties in 1986 chinese drama Journey to the West西游记

yutujing玉兔精 jade rabbit spirit

zhizhujing蜘蛛精 spider spirit

chang'e嫦娥 moon goddess

jin bi bai mao shu jing金鼻白毛鼠精 Golden nosed white haired mouse spirit

nv er guo guo wang女儿国国王 The Queen of Women's Kingdom 

[notebooks-and-laptops]

I am once again imploring people to stop claiming that the companions and factions needed to be sanded down compared to previous games because otherwise there would have been Discourse. I am imploring you to stop thinking that any world (real or fictional) needs to be smoothed down and made simple to make others comfortable. I am asking you to think about what that implies when the 'softening' relates to things like characters cultural heritage, systematic oppression they've experienced, their trauma or even their anger. Demand better from your stories; do NOT fall into the trap of thinking that fan Discourse and Bad Reactions should be avoided at all costs. This is Not something we want to be encouraging or a direction we want all our mainstream media to head in.

[proselles]

What I don't get is why news outlets and Netflix are trying to convince us that arcane was expensive to make. 250 million usd for both seasons they said, and obviously that's a lot of money, but they make the mistake of comparing it to big budget movies like Tangled. So you're telling me that I got an animated masterpiece that combines multiple different art styles fantastic voice acting and creative and passionate writing, that's 6-7 hours LONGER than major animated movies, and its the same fucking price?? And you're expecting me to agree with the corporations outlook, that it's too expensive? Yes, tangled is considered one of the most expensive animated movies, but arcane is like FOUR Tangleds. Many other 3D animated movies fall within the 160 million mark, but again, they're hours shorter than arcane was. I think the prices are comparable. I believe in saw someone (on reddit maybe?) divide the cost down to minutes of screen time for each show or movie and it becomes really obvious. I'm also pretty sure that many of these movie budgets do not include marketing in their overall expenses; arcane does.

This isnt even bringing live action tv shows into the equation; i dont think arcane even touches like the top thirty of those. And yet it's framed as such an expense!! Bitch its an incredibly successful tv show!! Ik Netflix is cheap as shit and has its own reputation to grapple with, but is the disdain for animation so much? Is it disdain for female lead action, for poc representation, for LGBT rep on screen? For the animation medium as a whole? I know the answer of course. But it's still very upsetting to acknowledge and think about.

Separately, arcane is absolutely crushing it. Ik act three is going to knock it out of the ballpark. Keep crushing corporate execs expectations please.

[blueskittlesart]

is detcon actually good

no <3 hope this helps

[902186]

"In the time we have traveled together, I have come to see how you are with one another. Closer than brothers. [...]" Minstrels, perhaps, see too clearly.

[bagels-and-cream-cheese333]

Fanon Leo gives off a certain Vibe and I don’t like it.

[sha-brytols]

i am literally not even halfway done with the book but so far i'm not super sure i actually agree with that fandom consensus that celene/briala belong in the "bioware writers are weird about gay women" category. so far the only thing celene has in common with marjolaine and branka is that she was a VERY BAD lover

[simptasia]

LOST: Season One

[greypistacchio]

Castiel, Angel of the Lord, is the autistic rep we deserve

DEAN.- The general vicinity? That's all you've got? CASTIEL.- Yes, which is why I need your help. It seems this is gonna involve talking to people (...). But it seems I lack a certain... DEAN.- Skill?

how wonderful that there's no self-deprecation in Castiel's voice as he acknowledges this, nor is there an ounce of shame! instead he sounds puzzled, like he can't put his finger on exactly what it is that he's getting wrong about human social interactions? he has been studying Social Skills 101 through TV shows, which will surely be enough to pass as A Human Man!

(spoiler alert, it doesn't, because you can have an amazing repertoire and still mess up by not knowing how to tell what is and isn't appropriate depending on the context and the people you're with)

the beautiful thing about Castiel's trouble adjusting to the human world is that he never beats himself up about how unexpectedly difficult it seems to be for him. he's aware that his "people skills" are "rusty", and what does he do about it? he asks for help without it becoming a big deal.

something in the very chill way he goes about this makes me super happy. unlike lots of other autistic-coded characters, Castiel doesn't feel dismayed whenever his lack of social skills gets in the way, and what's more! his friends never shame him for it! yes, Castiel often says things that are inadvertently funny to everyone else for reasons he can't figure out. yes, Castiel misreads social cues more often than not, and whenever he explains his thought process about them out loud it's clear that he has been trying to build himself a mental handbook about Human Interactions For Dummies. yes, Castiel tends to clarify figurative language for others despite it not being something he was asked for, and yes, he often takes sayings at face value and struggles to understand what they mean because he's going off of literal meaning.

and you know what's beautiful about all of this! the fact that neither Dean nor Sam give him hell about it!!

even though there is never any label assigned to Castiel per se, which on the other hand makes sense because when exactly would he find the time and motivation to go get diagnosed... the show makes it clear enough that he is, in fact, on the spectrum. the way he talks is described by alluding to Rain Man, which is about an autistic man played by Dustin Hoffman. Castiel's favourite Heaven is that of an autistic man who's happy to fly his kite in a beautiful meadow for eternity.

Castiel is as explicitly autistic as he can be, and he's never made to feel bad about the struggles that come with it. what's more, though! many of Castiel's most beautiful qualities and choices are directly related to autistic strengths.

for example, the strong sense of justice. Castiel has got a heart of gold that's in the right place, and he can't bear the idea of falling back into line if it means not doing what's right. but he isn't an arrogant assbutt about it. instead of trying to preach some holier-than-thou crap, he thinks out loud about what's right and what's wrong and the consequences that each option comes with. he is genuinely invested in doing what's right.

or the unwavering loyalty and devotion to those he cares for. Castiel loves the Winchester brothers deeply, and Dean in particular, because they listen to him and have actual conversations about the stuff Castiel asks himself questions about. they are the first people who treat Cas as an equal, as a friend, as family. and so Castiel does the same. he loves them enough that he'd rather swallow Purgatory whole to stop Raphael, who is planning on resuming the Apocalypse, than let his brother put Dean and Sam in the line of fire. he would rather protect the family he's found than comply with the Heavenly Plan.

or his extraordinary ability to notice the smallest things. as shown often enough whenever Castiel is taking his time to appreciate what's around him, he has an extraordinary eye for the subtlest details. even when he uses his powers, he is immediately able to figure out stuff in very precise detail.

or his boundless empathy. what enabled Castiel to rebel against Heaven in the first place was his inability to ignore how much Dean was hurting. nevermind how many times Uriel snapped at him for giving the mud monkeys too much credit, or how utterly racist most angels seemed to be towards human beings. Castiel was immediately struck by the pain that Dean felt, and in the end he stood up for what he figured was right because of his willingness to put himself in Dean's shoes to understand his point of view.

or his genuine authenticity. no matter how many times others screw him over and take advantage of how very sensitive he is, and how badly he wants to do what's right and will save people, Castiel still wears his big heart in his sleeve. in a world where most characters lie and deceive and betray and pretend their way through things, Castiel remains genuine in his quest to do the right thing. he keeps being open about his feelings and his motives and what he longs for, even though it is something that can and will be exploited to his detriment, because he doesn't know how to not be his true self.

or his complex and intense emotions. even though Castiel admittedly struggles to express his emotions in a typical way, and at first had trouble identifying and naming them too, there is never half a doubt that he feels them deeply. everything Castiel does is imbued with so much emotion, and if there's one character with a strong sense of transcendence it's him. if there's one character who created free will and stopped Fate dead in her tracks out of love, it's him. if there's one character whose fury was enough to decimate Heaven, it's him. if there's one character whose embarrassment was strong enough to keep him in Purgatory, it's him. there is an explicit acknowledgement, in fact, that Castiel has a larger-than-life heart that's always been a core part of who he is. no matter how many times it lands him in trouble or brings him great distress.

or his great tactic ability to analyse situations. as shown time and time again, Castiel is an extraordinary asset to have in one's team due to his sharp intellect regarding strategic planning. he is Team Free Will's brains, and every time he's involved in a case or an offensive he voices all the foreseeable concerns and possibilities so they can be ready for them. whenever someone is upset or conflicted, and by someone I mostly mean Dean, Castiel is able to analyse everything that has happened to figure out what Dean might be feeling and why. from the very first time they meet, Castiel is able to put together the many pieces of Dean Winchester at the speed of light, and when he himself makes mistakes he has an insane sense of introspection that enables him to realise what happened or didn't happen so he can improve moving forward.

and let's not forget his expressiveness. yes, Castiel's voice is often flat and monotonous. yes, he makes interesting word choices that don't quite land in many contexts. all of this is a clear result of his trouble with unspoken social cues regarding what is and isn't "appropriate" in a certain situation, or with certain people, but he nonetheless expresses so much all the time. in fact, I'd say that he's one of the most emotionally aware characters in this whole show, and he has a fucking ton of lines that are absolute bangers and capture really, really nuanced and complex thoughts and feelings beautifully.

all in all, Castiel is beautiful autistic rep, and I'm so very happy that he exists!!

[mint-ty]

something something about how Bojan has shared only few photos he's taken of Jere but in every one of those Jere is full on g l o w i n g. The set standard of how Jere looks when he wants a photo taken and when his consent is absolutely understood and respected ;-;

[aardvaark]

me: wow, tiktok, a platform that has millions of creators and has prided itself on its #EduTok educational video campaign. i wonder what i can find about psychology on here!

video 1: i did one unit of psychology in college, 8 years ago, so let me give you an expert’s opinion on this therapeutic technique. follow for more!

video 2: this is why having a personality disorder makes someone a terrible irredeemable person :) (PS armchair diagnosing is VALID)

video 3: omgg guys, TIL that liking vanilla milkshakes?!…. means you have adhd, autism, bpd, depression, anxiety & maladaptive daydreaming?? woww!!

video 4: adhd is for himbo boys, autism is for quiet girls <3

video 5: how to spot (and exorcise) evil psychotic people with schizophrenia and those other psychotic spectrum disorders idk the name of

video 6: [hypnotic spiral in background] your mom is a narcissist your mom is a narcissist your mom is a narcissist your m

video 7: hi everyone, today i’m dividing all the mental illnesses into the categories of "uwu quirky child" disorder, "evil scary abusive" disorder, and "idk what that is" disorder. these categories should be added to the DSM btw

video 8: i’m an actual psychologist and i just openly hate people with cluster b PDs

video 9: i’m an actual psychologist and im fucking begging you, leave this place while you can, yes i’m talking to you aardvaark, RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN R-

video 10: i made a new youtube tutorial on how to purposely develop this complex, chronic, debhilitating disorder :3 check out my acc!!

[rohirric-hunter]

Anyway. I'm gonna start using, "None of These Words are in the Silmarillion," as a catch-all phrase to describe that phenomenon in the Silm fandom where some concept appears from nowhere, based on nothing, makes no sense, and is treated as irrefutable canon for 3-12 business years.

[wackywatchdotcom]

something i genuinely adore about tadc is how painfully flawed everyone in the circus is. and not in a small way

everyone does SOMETHING that negatively impacts the others. but it makes the fact that you are supposed to sympathize with and really connect with them all the more potent. because its easy to want to put a bunch of characters in a bad situation together and to just have them all be nice to each other and everyone and never make mistakes because theres no reason to hurt each other, and most of them dont TRY to, but the way they cope is so, so realistic for each of their personalities, and it doesnt always mesh with the others, and sometimes it exceeds self destructive and Just Hurts Others, Too

they still generally care about each other and the mistakes they make and the ways they end up hurting each other dont lose their weight but like. it doesnt take away from their humanity and the fact that they are all trying so hard to manage in an awful situation

and the characters seem to have sooome sort of understanding of this too. not fully, because the characters dont tend to be 100% communicative, but when they hurt each other, it often makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. because these are the only people they have. these are their friends. and theyre all coping. but it doesnt change how much it affects them (best illustrated by ragathas lines at the start of ep 2 or gangles 'i love her, but after a while it gets kinda hard to tell how genuine shes actually being'). its not all like this, theres a good amnt of variety, but characters knowing this but not really knowing what to do about it is very painful in an effective way

(i think a subtle example of this is how zooble handles gangles situation in ep 4- they were so genuinely trying to help her because they care. but could tell as the day went on that oh, this is not working at all and its making things worse, and they leave gangle alone- something that very genuinely couldve been the moment she abstracted, because of the mask zooble gave her- and we dont get to have a super blatant explanation of zoobles thoughts on it, but they reach a fairly healthy conclusion about it that helps both of them, and i like that a lot, because on paper zooble could be placed at fault but the narrative doesnt dwell on it excessively, because thats not the point. i dont know if that tangent makes sense but i think about it sometimes. i think zooble wasnt 'to blame' but it was still a mistake, which is a hard balance to strike, and having them help at the end feels extremely effective at rounding it off!!!)

but like. in general its complicated balancing making characters in a bad situation act flawed because it can run the risk of seeming like the story is scolding them or blaming them for the situation theyre in, or like youre expected to not sympathize with them despite it (though the inverse also has complications- if characters in a bad situation never mess up, it feels unrealistic and hard to relate to, and can imply that their innocence is why whats happening to them is bad at all), but the show handles it so well

even the characters who are genuinely trying all try in different ways- some of them have similar outlooks or attitudes towards these thing but theres vital differences for ALL of them- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. in fact some of the more painful mistakes characters have made in the show have come from them so genuinely trying (like the thing i mentioned w zooble, or basically Everything Ragatha Does, or pomnis first attempt at helping gangle, etc), which hits harder than if every mistake characters made had wholly selfish and cruel goals.

i mean, there is a selfishness to many of the characters' actions but imo not in a way thats not warranted. because all of them are in a horrible setting. its uncomfortable to watch characters be selfish. but it is a natural instinct to survive. its not the foundation of most of their actions, but when it is, its uncomfortable but hard to completely disparage them for in a way that makes you feel kinda conflicted

and like. it hurts to be doing your best and for that to make things worse, but its what happens often in the show. because no one in a bad situation is gonna handle it well. by the very nature of trying to survive something is gonna give, but it makes the themes of the show so much more powerful. that making sure the people around you dont feel unloved, cherishing them and finding meaning with others is no less important just because everyone is fucking up. it complicates things, for sure, but it doesnt make those characters exempt fromt this. theres a reason pomni tells gummigoo that she doesnt want "anyone" to feel like theyre nothing, and that kinger doesnt add ANY quallifiers to making sure people feel wanted and loved (not that i think either of them were thinking SUPER super hard, but it conveys smth from the perspective of the narrative

it gets complicated when you add in jax for sure, since i think on the surface he IS the exception to this concept- none of the characters like him, including pomni or kinger. but i think this is something thats gonna be examined further down the line, bc hes the main complicating factor in this reading of the show, but i feel like thats on purpose. hes universally disliked (and so is caine, in a different way) and his actions arent mistakes. they are him coping. the show has made it clear that he can be a complex person AND also a piece of shit. his actions dont detract from the fact that hes a person and the show reminds us of this. so it makes things so messy, but im genuinely super excited to see how the show examines that. where his character goes is, imo, going to be a massive piece of how this show fleshes out this concept

[lovesodeepandwideandwell]

Gaudy Night is such a weird little novel. Sets up a whole mystery on—what all the characters think is—the premise that the celibate life makes you insane because you're repressed, then it turns out actually valuing marital love over detached devotion to Truth is what makes you insane and celibacy is fine. And this frees up the main character to decide to throw over celibacy and get married, which she can do without going insane either cause she has detachment.

[torchickentacos]

Using planners in the past has always felt like a useless waste of time to me. My middle school would do agenda checks during homeroom and it was awful and I hated it, and I feel like I've carried that with me. I still viewed planners as, like, some weird form of punishment/expectation/forced cooperation, because that's the environment I was taught to use them in, so I haven't actually used them as an adult. It's just been alarms/notes app stuff/text notifications/hoping nothing falls through the cracks.

But I've tried using a planner again recently, over ten years later, and it turns out that when you actually pick your own planner with a specific format that you like, and when it's something you CHOSE to do and not something you're forced into and monitored with, and when you learn to tailor it to your specific needs... it's actually super helpful.

For example, I know that I will not do hourly planning. I won't do anything at a specific time; my brain does not work that way unless it absolutely has to, like when I had to wake up and go to lab or the studio or whatever. But like, I will not respond to emails at 3 PM every day just because I wrote it down. But I am better with 'get these things done by this specific day, whenever you want, as long as they get done'. And I can space it out to account for and diminish the whole 'do it all at the last minute' thing. And guess what? Now, I get to plan things that way instead of being forced into an hourly blocking kind of thing.

I don't know that I really have a cohesive point to this, but it's just interesting how much things you thought you hated and were bad at are sometimes only perceived that way because you weren't allowed to do them in a way that worked for you. Try customizing stuff more often. It sounds like such a basic and obvious thing to do, but it genuinely just doesn't occur when you've been taught to do it one specific way only. Try other ways! Nothing is stopping you!