#also acknowledging i'm not above any of the things i criticize

[viago-vamps]

studying for finals and slowly realizing that many of the ways in which we view forests and ecosystems are highly influenced by the ways in which society functions.

why am i only learning from white male scholars who have eady access to get their work published? white male scholars whose worldview greatly impacts their work. and why can't we disuss how this worldview influences how they see nature?

like why do we call plants taking hold in 'unclaimed' areas colonization? why is every plant searching for life a colonist. not to be a liberal who is stuck up on verbage but come on man

i know competition for resources is a large part of what plants get to suceed but so is resource sharing. why is that less emphasized when we learn about these subjects? without large trees shade tolerant species would not be able to thrive. without shade tolerant species we would have no understory and therefore less habitat. everything wroks together even whilst competing for resource like sunlight. why is this shit not emphasized?

humans are capable of coexisting in our environments too. why do we act like we are outside of the environment when it is convinient to do so? why are we only a part of the environment when we do good and not when we are actively doing harm?

[creatingblackcharacters]

"Calling Out Racists? Help!"

(shout out to the situation sender who's chosen to remain anonymous!)

NOTE: People of color, if you feel that your efforts would be in vain or cause more pain than it's worth, I fully respect not doing it. I've been there, and tbh I usually don't. But white netizens, I expect boots on the ground. Racism festers when no one does anything about it.

So, it's finally happened! You've come face to face with antiblackness in your fandom space. You never thought it could be this bad! Naturally YOU don't condone this behavior, so you take steps to remove yourself from this person.

However! Your friends and other fans are still happily sharing from someone that you KNOW is capable of this. Would they still be comfortable knowing they're yapping amongst racists? And then you wonder- should I tell everyone about them? I mean, surely everyone should know?

Thus we've come to the decision:

The Callout

In my honest opinion, callouts are morally neutral. When used to reveal consistent harmful beliefs, intentions, and behaviors to other people, usually of marginalized identities, I think they're critical. Our safety and humanity matters far more than someone's internet fame. If I can't stop someone from being a racist, I at least don't want their vitriol on my dash, and I ALSO don't want people thinking I agree! Racism shouldn't be tolerated at all, but unfortunately, many an antiblack racist has a popular following and will not be removed. Anything less overt than a slur like the example above is more often than not, not a dealbreaker for many.

On the other hand, when it is maliciously weaponized to drag someone down on nothing but hearsay and rumor, it can be devastating. It has often been used as retaliation against those very same marginalized peoples to shut down discussions of racism and other forms of bigotry. In my opinion, you should not do these sorts of things when you don't have any solid proof or an actual education on what you're talking about. Period.

I say that all to say, be intentional. Use your discernment and some critical thinking.

How Ice Deals With It

Let's say you see something that concerns you. First, you need to pay attention to if other Black fans have noted this person's behavior. Has it been previously noticed, have they seen dogwhistles you've completely missed? Keep in mind as well, antiblackness does not have to come from a white person. Don't let "I'm brown" fool you.

If you're confident: confront the person on the particular issue you've noticed.

‼️‼️‼️ For the maintenance of your mental health, you CANNOT go into this expecting to change someone's mind and behavior. If you do, 9/10 you will face demoralization. You cannot walk into these thinking they care. Most people don't, and will deny the harm of their behavior. It sucks, but it's the truth. Change your perspective. The only goal you need to have is pointing out the harm done, so that this person loses the excuse to be racist out of "ignorance". Once you've spoken up, ball's now in their court.

Confrontation doesn't have to be negative! It can be as simple as "hey, what you said was not okay, here's why, and I hope that you can learn from this to do better for yourself and for your fans." Simple, to the point.

‼️Keep in mind, from Fans of Color: the private confrontation is a sign that we're trying to give you a chance to do right. Everyone's not going to receive that grace, nor do I expect every fan of color to offer it. It might just be up with you and your racism that day. 🤷🏾‍♀️ I would take the chance if offered.‼️

We're going to go two routes here.

1) It works

If it works, then what should come next is 1) a full acknowledgment of the violence and harm, 2) visible steps to ameliorate that harm, and 3) an apology to those harmed.

It doesn't have to be a complex apology (unless the situation itself was that large). But it has to be genuine and the change needs to be seen.

Very often you'll see apologies for antiblackness... To white fans. You cannot apologize for your actions to people who were not harmed by them, because they are not the ones with the right to accept the apology!!!! It's not a real apology. They've just covered for being exposed, is all. Be willing to hold each other accountable!

2) It doesn't work

This might still happen after the "it works", btw! Some people genuinely just want the appearance of progressiveness.

Here's where it gets gritty and you'll experience the most discomfort, I'm just being honest:

They might fucking suck!

They might suck, they might make it a point to share with their followers that you suck, and those same followers might also suck! You know how they sound? Like those people who fought for rapist Brock Turner because "he had a good future and this shouldn't ruin it". Yeah.

Recognize that this backlash you may experience from strangers is not coming just from their need to be entertained, but from a realization that if their fave is antiblack and they agree, then THEY are being antiblack too.

That acute pain you're feeling from this effort- you're now feeling a part of the chronic pain that is being a Black fan! And if you're white, you just temporarily sacrificed your whiteness to defend what was right, and now you are seeing a piece what that whiteness shields you from. Idk how else to put it.

Now what?

Well first, this shouldn't make you go "oh well there's no point in fighting racism bc they're so mean." Why do you want to identify with the people who just acted like that lmao. Antiracism is hard, but the right thing isn't always easy. Stand up and dust yourself off, soldier.

Take the steps to protect yourself. That might be a break from socials to decompress. Block people as necessary, use the tag blocker thing.

Recognize that you are not in the wrong for wanting this harm to be accounted for. If this person didn't want to be seen as a willful racist, they should have chosen to do better. They didn't want to, they chose to triple down on their racism, which they are now aware of doing! They just don't care. And that's not within your control. They wanna be a racist, let them be treated like one!

"Curate your space" as they say, and recognize that antiblackness is going to have you potentially removing folks you thought were cool left and right. You might see some people close to you show their true colors. It's time to make some tough personal decisions. I can't walk you through that. But I don't want to be around people who treat antiblackness with apathy, because birds of a feather... 👀

I obviously didn't cover every single scenario here. And this is only *my* way of dealing with these things (if I do at all, anymore). Some folks may go about it differently. But yeah, in summary, go in to point the racism out, and don't let the response determine your self value. 👍🏾

[subbyfoxelf]

today is an extremely bad day for the magic the gathering community.

if you don't play mtg, here's what you need to know: the most popular format by far is actually a fan-created format originally known as elder dragon highlander (edh), and later becoming enshrined as an official format under the name commander. despite its official recognition by wizards of the coast, the commander format was governed by an independent panel known as the rules committee. if my use of the term "was" sounds foreboding... it should.

on september 23rd, this independent rules committee announced the addition of four cards to the format's banned & restricted list. regardless of how you feel about these changes, they were aimed to do the one thing the rules committee cares about: keep the format fun & fair for all players. again, i must stress that this is their only motivation. that's something i'd like everyone to keep in mind before we move on to where we are today.

the rules committee was expecting the backlash to their decisions to be vitriolic. the cards they banned were popular among... a certain segment of players. and more importantly, they were cashcows for joyless collectors and the secondary market. the kinds of people who unironically refer to these little pieces of cardboard as "investments." and yeah, i'm being a little unfair here. i will acknowledge that. but i think it's pretty warranted considering what happened next.

what happened next were death threats. lots & lots of death threats. lots & lots of death threats, a disproportionate number of which were directed at the rules committee's only female member. yeah, shocking. ironically it turned out that she literally voted against the most unpopular changes to the banned & restricted list, not that she needs to have to make this entire thing reprehensible. but it's just... frustrating. all of it is very frustrating.

of course she isn't the only one who received these threats. the rest of the rules committee also received similar harassment, as did plenty of people who weren't even involved with this decision. it's just a very ugly moment for the community.

if you have ever considered sending someone actual, literal death threats over PIECES OF CARDBOARD, please reevaluate your entire life immediately.

and look, there are some extremely reasonable criticisms of the decision and how it was announced. i'm not denying that. and i will fully admit that i had a fairly positive view of the bans compared to the people who were angry. but regardless of how you feel about them, one thing is undeniable: they were made by people whose entire motivation is making the format more fun & fair. that was literally their only motivation. they were not beholden to shareholders or executives or any of the other machinery that makes Line Go Up. they just wanted the game to be as fun as possible.

today, wizards of the coast announced that the commander rules committee is officially handing over management of the format to wizards of the coast. a company who, ever since its aquisition by hasbro, has been nakedly motivated by profit above all else. a company who, even when it was more independent, would have ultimately had that motivation simply by virtue of being, you know, a company.

so tl;dr (too late), good job mtg community. you showed your entire ass to the world by harrassing people off of the internet over fucking pieces of cardboard, and now hasbro fully owns the game's most popular format. i hope you're fucking happy.

[barrenclan]

I don't want to overly challenge the anon who criticized the decision to blind Ranger and damage Hacksaws wing, but I think reading it has me wondering: What would the alternatives be?

Before I go super into this, I want to acknowledge that while I am disabled, my disabilities aren't connected to visual impairment or losing a limb, so I want to make it clear that I'm not trying to speak on behalf of that experience. That's not really my place, yeah?

But I think something about Warrior Cats, especially when extended to something like this, is also a story about exploring pain. Death and disability are as synonymous with this story as they are with most warrior cats fiction, for the better or worse, because the themes of the story revolve around what it means to suffer. The main distinction between the living and dead of this story is that the living get to see another day, as physically or emotionally damaged as they are. Barrenclan and the Defiance are ruled by this concept, even though the defiance perverts the idea into something grander than it actually is. Hacksaw and Rangers fate is kind of just an inevitably of the lives of all defiance members: They fight, and they either die or live to suffer another day. I don't really see it as a moral to their lives so much as just a consequence. The defiance can hurt and kill and maim, but it can't escape the fact these things can and will happen to them. The defiance is just a way for characters to trick themselves into thinking they're above that fate.

As for a writing perspective... If you have things you want to do with the characters after this, then yeah, I understand the decision. Otherwise they kinda have to die, since they wouldn't leave Barrenclan alone. It's always good to keep in mind things to avoid for the future, but it's also okay to tell complicated stories that leave messages that are hard to digest. Art isn't going to resonate with people all the time, and it shouldn't. I respect that you've responded to the criticism with humility and openness though!

I'm not gonna post any more about this after now, but I wanted to share this ask both because it's very well written and I think it does bring up some big themes in the story that I didn't mention but think are important!

And a general thank you to everyone for keeping a Warriors fancomic about incredibly intense topics on Tumblr so vastly chill and normal. My inbox and my brain appreciates it.

[toxictoad]

An Amateur and Very Biased Explanation of Stanford Pines as a Man and a Character

The Pines household is dysfunctional, there's no doubt about that. Stan is the Scapegoat and Ford is the Golden Child. The way their father treats them puts them at direct odds to each other. Except that the twins are so close that the division that most often happens in these cases isn't really there. They both more or less accept the roles that they've been given in their toxic family system. Stanley accepts the idea that he is stupid and unremarkable, and Stanford accepts the idea that he is special, and important, and everything relies on him. Ford is both bullied relentlessly by his peers and praised almost universally by authority figures. His ego is inflated constantly, and I'd bet he is very bad at taking criticism of any kind after he's used to it for so long. But that praise is solely for his intelligence. He is only worth anything if he is smart. It is the only thing that matters about him. And see how Stanley plays into this; He's the scapegoat, but he's also Ford's protector. Stan sticks by his brother in every circumstance, and uplifts his accomplishments. Stan is the only person who really acknowledges Ford for things other than his intelligence. Which enforces their already existing co-dependence. But Ford is a genius, he's special, he's the key to his family's future, etc. He has ambitions outside of adventuring, or his family, or the things that his brother wants. He is encouraged to go out and make something of himself by everyone except Stanley.

So he becomes enamored by the idea of college, and science, and money. And he doesn't give much of a thought to his brother, which is a blind spot that's probably been there for years. He's indignant and accusatory about the science project because the thing about it is that his intelligence is supposed to work for him. He's special, and things are supposed to go right for him. But Stan messed things up, and Ford is angry because the way he sees it his brother, someone he probably trusts above anyone else, messed up his life and did it on purpose. This is wrong, of course, but Ford is reacting in the moment to a perceived major betrayal. And then their father kicks his brother out. Now, I try to engage in good faith with most criticisms of Ford, but there is not a lot of credence to the idea that he was capable of standing up for Stan in this moment. He's a seventeen-year-old in an abusive household, and he's just been through an emotionally devastating experience.

I think that the perceived betrayal of Stan sabotaging his science project is an incredibly pivotal moment, because it kickstarts the beginning of Ford's trust issues

He stews in the bitterness of it, but has some connections during university that mostly keep him tethered to the world. However, when he gets to Gravity Falls it's a different story. He isolates himself in the woods with a single-minded purpose to progress his research, and probably becomes a little paranoid even anything started with the portal.

But then of course he summons Bill.

I'm not about to turn this into an essay about the Billford parallels here, but I could, okay?

Bill plays on every insecurity and weakness that Stanford has. He builds up his ego and downplays his flaws. He presents himself as a muse that only appears to special people. To people destined to make a difference- and that is exactly what Ford believes himself to be.

And of course this goes awry. Ford ultimately trusts Bill over Fiddleford, and on a larger scale chooses to see himself as special and above others instead of making human connections.

At this point the paranoia has embedded itself deep into Stanford's brain. He cannot trust anybody but Bill, and then Bill reveals his true intentions and he can't trust anyone but himself (Or, possibly, he can't even trust himself).

This is what is absolutely gut-wrenching about his decision to reach out to Stanley, of all people. Despite calling him untrustworthy- Despite still thinking that Stan sabotaged his future on purpose- Ford still reaches out to his brother. Which is both a testament to their bond, and adds yet another layer of tragedy to what happens next.

I'm ending this here, because I don't think I have anything to say about Ford after this that hasn't been said better by somebody else. In any case: Have some goddamn nuance about Ford already.

[messymindofmine]

I find it interesting that the people who keep saying that both Hughie and Annie have a right to be angry seem to be ignoring the fact that not only do we not see Hughie get angry at all, he actually apologizes. Sure Annie has a right to be angry at the situation they are in. She has the right to feel hurt and to express it. But that doesn't mean that lashing out at her boyfriend who had also been hurt is justified. And the thing is, her lashing out would still have been ok if she'd recognized that Hughie did not deserve to be the target of her anger and apologized to him. I would have even taken Hughie and Annie lashing out at each other and then apologizing and talking things out. But no, what we got was Annie lashing out at Hughie for something that was not his fault. You can't just pin this on misogyny and say that people just don't think Annie should be allowed to have feelings and the audience just doesn't like that she's lashing out at their male fave. That's just disingenuous. Especially since Annie is the only one who was allowed to express any hurt or anger in the show itself and got to be portrayed as being in the right.

While the blame obviously goes to the writers for this, let's not pretend that Annie as a character doesn't deserve criticism for her behavior. And this isn't the first time either. Back in s3 when Hughie was doing Temp V, Annie was right to be upset about and was portrayed that way. But Hughie's actual reason for taking the V in the first place (which was the trauma he'd been experiencing nonstop and the feeling of helplessness in the face of supes who could kill him without lifting a finger) was reduced to him just being a toxic male. And then too, we got him apologizing to Annie and Annie saying "I told you so" with no acknowledgement that Hughie's feelings were valid even if he went about it the wrong way. So yeah, while I lay the blame for how Hughie has been treated at the feet of the writers, I'm not going to be mad at people who are upset with Annie and accuse them of being misogynists or call them freaks, idiots etc to which I have seen too many people doing. I love Annie as a character but I'm not going to pretend that she is above criticism.

[aihoshiino]

chapter 157 thoughts

Chapters Since The 143 Kiss Happened And Went Entirely Unacknowledged And Unaddressed Count: 14… IN THIS CHAPTER OF ALL CHAPTERS…????

Aqua Hoshigan Status: White

Congrats to 157 for taking 144's crown as the Oshi no Ko chapter that has vexed and confused me the most. Taken entirely in isolation, it's a sweet, lowkey, calm before the storm moment… but it's entirely because it stands in such stark isolation from the events surrounding it that it feels so baffling. It's like an amped up version of the issues with 156 - when viewed in isolation, you can't strictly say there's anything wrong with it, but as a part of the sequential storytelling of Oshi no Ko it just feels off. I'm reminded of the weird, off-kilter pacing of the Movie Arc, where story beats fell at weird places as if the story was falling out of tempo with itself. Because of that, this chapter review is probably going to be a bit disjointed but tbh besties i am fighting for my life on this one

I will say at the top of things though that it's darkly funny to me that we're fastforwarding through so much of the B-Komachi tour lol. Offscreen no Ko strikes again!

Honestly, this chapter in general kind of defies any attempt at a beat by beat analysis though that does seem to largely be by design. As the chapter title suggests, this is simply some pagetime spent on letting us stew in what a calm, ordinary day looks like for the twins and for what it is, it's sweet and chill. Taken on its own there isn't really a ton to pick apart, other than just pointing at what moments I found cute which was like 90% of them. I want a 5 chapter mini arc of AQRB goofing around at the grocery store and squabbling over the cooking together.

I also really like that Aqua is the one to suggest doing something nice for Miyako and that he joins Ruby in waiting up for her to get home and see it. It feels like a sweet and warm acknowledgement of the subtle shift in their relationship after 155, with the two of them properly stepping into their roles as parent and child.

As nice as this chapter is though, it does kind of feel like too little too late. One of the major complaints across the series (that I do largely agree with) is that Aqua and Ruby's day-to-day dynamic is for the most part underbaked and that the two of them don't really feel like people who grew up in the same household for 16+ years. I think a few more moments like this properly threaded through the manga would have helped but… well, considering OnK's pacing, do I really want to encourage much more downtime…

Moving on from the things I liked, as cute as this chapter was it's also just kind of weird that so much of it feels like the framing device is a recap episode lol. I guess it isn't the worst idea in the world to have one as we're heading into the final stretch of the story but… well, again, see my point above about weird pacing.

It's also just baffling as fuck to see Ruby frame these events in a way that distinctly did not happen lol. Like, sure, she was definitely having fun doing idol stuff for a lot of it but seeing her so warmly gas up stuff like Tokyo Blade when the anime airing right now is reminding us that Aqua was going through the SpongeBob horror hallway the entire time is so jarring - especially when Aqua (and thus, implicitly, the narrative) agrees with her. I mean, fuck, even putting Aqua aside it's WILD to see Ruby framing "Dig Deep" as having been fun for her when her major contribution to the show was manipulative drama stirring for the purposes of chasing clout that she herself said was having an impact on her mental health. I've criticized the story for the ways Ruby's black hoshigan arc amounted to nothing but there's a special kind of infuriating in seeing it specifically call back to that arc and still fail to actually acknowledge any wrongdoing on Ruby's part.

This is part of a much bigger trend in OnK right now of Ruby being super coddled by the narrative and coming off in some really unpleasant ways as a result. I didn't mention it last chapter but something that's been percolating in my brain since after I wrote my review is just how fucking bonkers Ruby's total non-respose to Mem's situation is. "Oh, you're getting stalked by the press? Sucks to be you, thank god I'm Miyako's special little favourite tho 🙏". Not only is this just kind of a shitty response to begin with but it feels insane coming from a person like Ruby who, you know, saw her mother's life blighted and then ended by this kind of treatment. No concern for Mem, tho!

Idk. I don't want to dislike Ruby but man. A lot of the ways Akasaka has been playing favourites with her lately has the effect of Ruby coming off, in universe, like a deeply self centered and callous person in ways I don't think narrative intends or even realizes and thus fails to interrogate in a satisfying way. But that's a rant for another day. And I'm pretty sure you guys already know what today's rant is gonna be. Which is to say, uh…

HEY. AKASAKA. ARE THEY GONNA TALK ABOUT… ANY OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MOVIE ARC?? ANYTHING AT ALL????

This is what I meant when I said this chapter utterly fucking bamboozled me. The way the story has contorted itself into knots to avoid letting Aqua and Ruby have a conversation even when they're literally in the same room is already insane, but giving us an entire chapter of them alone together with ample opportunity to have any sort of meaningful discussion as to the gigantic elephant in the room looming over their relationship and……. literally nothing happens???

This is made even more insanity inducing by the fact that this is, as stated above, more or less a recap chapter and not only does Ruby talk about the movie specifically but we even SEE a flashback to the HikAi kiss…. but not the one Ruby jumpscared him with at the end of 143!!!

What the fuck is even going on anymore? Was it retconned? Resolved offscreen?? Did we collectively hallucinate it??? Is Akasaka gaslighting us????

If nothing else, this chapter has proved to me once and for all that whatever goes on with Aqua and Ruby, that resolution is going to come entirely at the speed of plot, as and when Akasaka decides to do it and not when it would be natural and organic for development to occur. This is an issue that has plagued Aqua and Ruby's r/s from the start, where Akasaka simply refuses to let them communicate, seemingly for the purposes of drawing out the drama rather than because of any narrative justification. So I'm giving on predicting what direction their relationship is going in and what the outcome is going to be. The inner machinations of Aka Akasaka's mind are a mystery to me.

To pre-pick some nits before I leave off… I've seen some people calling this a 'Tanabata chapter' and insisting this is intentional/foreshadowing aquruby end/etc and uh… sorry to be that guy but no it's not lol. Even accounting for the differences in calendars that scatters Tanabata celebrations across July and August, August's Tanabata falls on the 10th this year - and even in the anime world, celebrations across Japan took place on the 'official' date of 7/7. And while there is a Tanabata festival being held in Sendai today… that's just in Sendai, which is all the way up in northern Japan, nowhere near Tokyo where the series is set (and which itself had its Tanabata celebrations on the weekends surrounding 7/7 as per usual.)

There's also just the fact that this chapter… has nothing to do with Tanabata? There's no imagery or iconography and it takes place in the middle of December lol. I simply don't think it was intentional at all on Akasaka's part. It's a cute coincidence, sure, but still just a coincidence.

break next week. i love biweekly manga, oshi no ko.

[teruthecreator]

(tw for racism, pedophilia, transphobia, child impregnation mention)

yeah idk why y'all read this

i was originally going to just post this and have some tags with my reasonings, but i realized that opens me up to too much bullshit from people who may think i'm being unnecessarily mean or whatever. so i'm going to explain exactly why the screenshots above are something i hold issue with.

firstly, and i just want to get this out of the way, this post is not intended to be a hit piece against the creator. i've seen how she reacts to any mild-mannered or slightly joking criticism, so i know this post is probably going to not land well. but it isn't my intention to make her mad or anything--she's writing a piece of content for the internet, which means she is just as open to criticism as any other poster. and what i intend to go into in this post is criticism. i'm allowed to do this, as that is the nature of the internet. people are allowed to critique whatever they please, and if you don't want critique then you shouldn't post. simple as!

i am also making no attempts to posit myself as better than the creator. i'm not doing this for clout or moral superiority or any of that dumb shit. i simply want to discuss something that's been bothering me for a bit, while simultaneously warning people who haven't read this yet (who may be sensitive to the issues above) to steer clear. if things like casual racism or transphobia aren't properly tagged, then readers who are affected by such things run a risk reading this! same goes with people who are triggered by lewd content involving minors. i wanna make sure people are getting a more critical scope of this work than what has been hoisted up by others.

okay, now that i've gotten that out of the way, i'm going to get into my points.

firstly, the subtle and not-so-subtle racism throughout this fic, especially in relation to serizawa. i'm white, so there is only so much i can speak on without trampling over the words of other fans of color, but some of this feels so blatant it's odd it hasn't been noted earlier. it's important to note before i go into it that serizawa is specifically written as half-black half-japanese for this fic, in case the screenshots don't make it abundantly clear. but there are just too many moments of casual racism in this fic. i'm not talking about the plot point of serizawa being bullied as a kid for being mixed; i'm not mixed, so i can't speak on the accuracy there but it is well-known that black people face a lot of racism in japan. i'm talking about how it seems everyone else has these racist moments that aren't acknowledged by serizawa or the narration as being bad.

reigen hypothesizing over serizawa's exact ethnic background is just strange. yes he's a fairly observant guy (he has to be, with his job), but there is no canonical evidence to suggest he would immediately jump to theorizing whether serizawa is american or not. and the way it's posed in that first quote--"he has darker skin and the kind of hair texture that would likely indicate African ancestry"--is not great. that's an extremely inappropriate way to bring up someone's race. i don't think most people would stare at someone and be like "hmmm well your nose shape and hair texture would suggest you're of this race". it's racial essentialization that is only slightly covered up by the excuse of "oh he tweets in english". there are some other smaller moments of questionable wording, like calling serizawa's afro "sloppy" when it isnt (which btw there's another issue with the creator only referring to an afro as a "fro". it's a hairstyle; you're allowed to use the actual name of it). even if reigen cuts his hair in canon, he never states it's because serizawa's afro looks sloppy. (also there's something to be said about the casual racism baked into making your employee cut his natural hairstyle for a job, as that is a very real issue many black people face when wearing their natural hair or even protective styles in the workplace.)

i'm especially bothered by toichiro's very casual racist remarks. toichiro in this fic is a general bother of mine (most of which can be boiled down to "he would not fucking say that"), but the way she chooses to characterize him in relation to serizawa feels gross. calling a black man a slave should be a very obvious red flag, but also saying serizawa (again, as a black man) has a "brutal masculine appeal" is also extremely stereotypical and racist. and really there is just no need for it; toichiro's actions in canon prove how shitty of a guy he is without the need for him to be racist (along with other things i'll get to in a bit). as my girlfriend put it: he doesn't need to be a member of the fucking kkk to show he's a bad guy.

there's also, again, the very casual racist remark of calling serizawa a "dog". i don't care if that isn't the intent; when you are writing a character of color you need to be aware of your wording, even in insults (unless she intended to make tsuchiya racist, which i don't think she did).

secondly, the eugenics/child pregnancy bit. it is surreal to even have to write this, but i seriously do not understand the purpose of either of these bits in the story. they are so minor yet so jarring you can't help but wonder why they're there. once again, i do not think you need to have toichiro doing esper eugenics just to prove he is an evil guy. he has nuance, and by making him casually reference child pregnancy (like that isn't an INSANE thing to say) reduces that nuance to nothing. that's the only reason i could see why that bit was included: to make toichiro look worse. but, even still, the author is running the risk of potentially triggering victims of csa or people who don't want to see that by not properly tagging the mention of it (or, at the very least, warning readers in the intro notes). the only other explanation for it would maybe be shock factor??? but that's a pretty shitty thing to use for shock factor, if i'm honest. also the fact that the esper eugenics was referenced again in a more recent chapter just has me very disturbed and confused. there isn't a canonical explanation for why we see less espers who are women than espers who are men, but that doesn't mean we need to jump to fucking Eugenics. it's weird!

thirdly (and this is probably one of my biggest problems and the main reason i wanted to make this post), the weirdly lewd/sexual language shou uses constantly, along with referring to reigen as a pedo or a creep at several points. frankly, i think it's pretty fucking gross for someone in their near-40's to be writing a 12-year-old talking so casually about sex like that's normal. which, i'm sorry, but it's not. yes, teens know about sex and like to joke about lewd shit. but a 12-year-old is not about to make references to a grown man's virginity. 12-year-olds draw dicks on their desk bc they think it's funny. 12-year-olds say the word "buttfuck" because it has the words "butt" and "fuck" in it, and those are the two funniest words on earth to a kid that age. i literally do not understand the purpose of having shou be so lewd all the time. for one, it doesn't make sense for his character. shou is shown time and time again to be extremely mature for his age, but that maturity extends to shit like assembling a counter-terrorism unit and extending a hand to his father to allow him to try again. and even then he's still just as naive as any other kid his age! the omake where he's telling his guys to go to the "far right corner" based on ritsu’s advice proves that he still has plenty of blindspots that are indicative of his age. leaning into this raunchy, lewd version of shou is just weird. and, again, i think it is made a bit weirder given the author's age!!! not ageshaming or whatever--i'm 23 and i write fanfic, clearly i cannot judge there--but it is just extremely inappropriate in my opinion. also having shou be more versed in sextalk than serizawa is odd too and speaks to a larger issue of serizawa's infantilzation throughout this fic, but that's something i can get into in another post if people want an explanation.

also, the way she constantly calls reigen a creep and even has him being accused of being a pedophile during the twitter cancellation is extremely inappropriate when, again, there is NO CANONICAL BASIS FOR THIS! everyone just calls him a fraud and a scammer during separation arc; there is never a reference to reigen being seen as a pedophile in that arc. and, yes, while there are versions of mob psycho where reigen is very clearly written as a creep (looking very specifically at the netflix adaptation), that doesn't mean it's good. honestly, the creep mentions all just feel like really poor jokes that do not land in the slightest.

finally, the transphobia (aka WHY IS SHIMAZAKI A CHASER). i literally do not know what else to say other than: why? why is this a thing? why is he a chaser? what is the purpose of this? is it a joke? i feel like it's supposed to be, but seeing as the author is cis i don't think that's a joke she should really be making. it not only comes out of left field, but it's just kind of a weird thing to ascribe to a character for no reason. not to mention, it's uncomfortable! trans women deal with enough creepy antics from cis men in real life--why must they be accosted by this guy too? it's just weird and uncomfortable.

i wanna round out this post by saying, once again, that i'm not trying to attack anyone with this post. but i do hope people come away from this with a new perspective on this work, and maybe think twice before recommending it uncritically to someone. to the author specifically, i hope you can read my post without rage or indignance blinding you. i might be a little blunt or rude in parts, but it's only because i'm passionate and i don't mince my words when it comes to things i'm passionate about. to the readers, understand i am not judging you for reading this fic without noticing these things. your own life experiences will give you certain blindspots and there's nothing wrong with that. i have plenty of blindspots of my own! it's what makes us human.

there is more i could say, but this post is long enough. i ask that if you come to me in my inbox or in dms about this that you treat me with respect, as i will do that for you. writing something like this took a lot out of me, as i'm usually not so open about my opinion on shit like this.

have a good day :-)

[luna-rainbow]

I'm sorry if this is an odd question. I'm new to the Steve/Bucky fandom and only recently started reading fics relating to them. How come most fics tend to favor Peggy and write her to be a sympathetic character? Most of the fandom that I've interacted with agree that Peggy isn't a good person (SHIELD and Hydra as well as her behavior with Steve in CFA) and wouldn't be a good match for Steve. I've loved all the fics for the love b/w Steve/Bucky but the sympathetic writing of Peggy has irked me

Thanks for the ask!

I came into fandom pretty late so I missed a lot of that, but I’m told Peggy has always been pretty popular in the Stucky fandom.

I think her popularity comes from a number of reasons — 1) lack of other female characters at the time, 2) easy to project onto, 3) a reluctance to tackle her negative traits.

At the time when Stucky’s popularity exploded, there weren’t a lot of female characters in the MCU. There were Pepper and Jane, both of whom were passive watchers and “civilian counterparts” to the main character's heroic enterprise. Peggy was a rare Phase 1 love interest that seemed to be present and at least somewhat handy with a gun. People were more forgiving of unfavourable character moments — and just coming from the movies alone, you could bend the narrative to ignore most of those unfavourable moments.

Which leads me to the second point, which I think is the most important one. The vagueness with which Peggy is written makes her an incredibly useful “blank” character to project onto. Firstly, her mannerisms are forceful and assertive, and the superhero genre target audience is one who likes to watch things being resolved by fights. As I said above, at the time there really isn't any other female character (apart from Nat) for the female audience who likes action heroes. Secondly, Peggy and Nat form the madonna-whore dichotomy (especially with Whedon’s characterisation), and a lot of people would prefer to project onto the fandom madonna than the whore. Thirdly, she has very little character traits within the movies apart from “strong-willed” and maybe “ambitious”, which gives a lot of flexibility to how writers can play with her character. Fourth, the fact that her appearances in the movies only ever occur in Steve’s company (except the later cameos) gives a misattribution of narrative proximity, with a lot of fans believing (especially if they haven’t revisited the source in years) that she was a more important narrative force than she actually was. But that same narrative proximity is appealing if you want to project onto a female character who can participate in Steve’s adventures and you don’t like Nat or Sharon or an OC.

And the third point I think is the trickiest part. Does fandom misogyny exist? Of course it does, especially in the MCU. But misogyny is also flung around as an accusation against fans who make genuine critiques of a character or want to write a nuanced female character that acknowledges her negative traits. Someone once dumped a 1500 word rant in my comments because I omitted Peggy from a Stucky meta, so you can imagine how much her rabid fans would arc up if you are actually critical.

Besides, writing a nuanced character takes effort and planning and a lot of hard work. I know for myself unless I plan to tackle Peggy as a fully-fledged character, I'd either omit her from the story or give her a very minor role that is not overtly critical, because it's just not worth the effort of the argument in the notes.

[theheightofdishonor]

ok so final thoughts on high school frenemy, going backwards from the ending to the beginning. I think the ending was significantly weaker and also i'm just a negative person who has to get stuff I dislike off my chest before I can discuss the positive aspects so- I swear I didn't hate this show but

the Jan plot at the end annoyed the fuck out of me, I won't lie. While Jan's trying her best and she's a sympathetic character, she did in fact choose to go along with the principal's ideas and select Peeta instead of Eve and thus, act as another cog in the machine that's always going to give preferential treatment to kids who have wealth and power at their disposal. Her actions have a direct impact, they have consequences, and her inability to acknowledge the violence that SHE had part in perpetuating irritated me so much. It does in fact look like she's giving preferential treatment, like she's spinelessly bowing down to what the administration and parents' association wants- and the kids ask her, their initial response even is to understand that forces above her probably forced her hand and Jan's the one who insists on taking responsibility for the decision and seriously, how can she blame them for not trusting her afterwards. And then the girls having to apologize to HER instead of her at any point apologizing to them for betraying their tentative trust?

also like 3 different groups of people had to come to her house to get her back, I was so sick of this nonsense

the dragon fang(?) ending fight was so lame. I expected Saint with his steel body and reputation to have gotten some more fighting done. Sung singlehandedly beating the entire gang felt soooo teacher ex-machina, like yes his backstory involves him being part of a gang back in the day but idk, I don't think he had the credibility to pull this off even though I did expect some involvement from him

I also wanted the whole thing about Jung's brother to be brought back in that jung-sung confrontation, like I was anticipating some kind of devastating emotional attack from sung yk and was sorely disappointed

ken's final arc, the saving him from the gang or whatever was fairly good, I liked how resistant Ken was, Kay did some fantastic acting in that section.

the whole 'oh we're all friends now' shtick didn't really work for me

i think this is one of those shows where i'd be ok or even encourage them to have ambivalent or slightly hopeful endings instead of 'happy ever after'

andl I got fatigue from all the dramatic resolutions happening back to back for like 3-4 episodes straight

especially because the plot distribution up to this point was like 85% shinsaint 15% everyone else and then tipping that so much so suddenly made the unevenness stand out more? if that makes sense?

let's talk about the girls now because man- first of all, who told these writers that girls can't throw a punch and instead solely fight through pulling each other's hair? Let's please stop this

secondly- i've never said this about view but I didn't like her character. She's pulled characters that are very reminiscent of this before- 23.5, I think trainee from the little i've seen of it, my precious to an extent, home school I think, but in this genre and setting, it felt so fake and unrealistic. No one acts like that. (this was so painful to me because view's my favorite actress at gmmtv and I have never once criticized her)

viewjune as a whole felt like echoes of their 23.5 dynamic but like not in a way I can describe, rather just the vibes

i also felt that the focus on them as a 'ship' meant that they had like 0 interactions with anyone else except peeta

we see eve and saint be friends at the beginning and earn's character also be friends with them as a little trio and never see that again

they could've also leaned into the love triangle aspect with peeta/eve/airey? more

overall I think the way they depicted the school ecosystem and all of its players and how they interact w/ each other was fairly decent until the last act

i liked in the beginning how Jan was trying to do good and it wasn't working or it wouldn't turn out how she wanted

i liked how Jung and Jan played off of each other

like it touches on the systemic and cyclic nature of what happens at the school even if lightly and similar to every other school-based drama out there, I still liked it (initially)

ooh Took! I love Took, I think she needs a gl, like a slice of life where she's a single mom and idk falls in love with her kids teacher or someone at the convenience store next door etc. Tons of possibilities. I thought it was hilarious whenever she slapped Saint and also very understandable. I wish we just got more of her in general?

also- that scene where shin and saint basically come out ab their relationship or whatever reminded me soooo much of in something in my room where her son also comes out about about his relationship

the way that shin was like "I know he broke my leg and destroyed my dreams and left me traumatized and depressed but I LOVE him mom" = phat in simr saying "I know he's literally dead but I LOVE him mom". Took's always having to deal with shit like this I swear

ok now for Shin and Saint

I think Shin's by far the more likable and sympathetic one? Is that just me?

like even in the beginning when saint's doggedly following him around with dejected puppy eyes, it's so clear on shin's face how affected he is by saint's presence and how the fear of getting left behind and hurt by saint still haunts him

even when you don't know exactly what happened you can't help but chafe a bit against saint just barging past any boundaries shin tries to set (which in hindsight was one of the few things saint did right but still)

Shin in general is just sooo precious

He absolutely cannot hide anything on his face

I just love characters where they're super snarky and sharp on the outside when they care deeply on the inside

It's just such a vibe. So I LOVE shin

I love saint possibly more but it's because I find him to be such a flawed annoying little thing

Saints just so frustrating that it makes him interesting

Like I'm just as annoyed as shin when he tries to goad saint into fighting for him, into being possessive and resolute, and then saint starts the 'oh I'm not good enough to stay by your side but I still want to' shtick and I'm sighing in tandem with shin (which btw, that whole little routine is so funny because by the 10th time, shins so fucking annoyed and it bleeds through the screen)

Saint just keeps shying away from his own decisions and being wishy washy and it's so funny the way that it's in total misalignment from whatever shin wants and is feeling at any given time.Like these two have dogshit timing and I love that for them

Unrelated but it's hilarious whenever they keep getting sucked into their own little world and people have to remind them that other people exist too

Overall, I think the show was fairly solid if a bit repetitive and even it's weak third act wasn't unforgivable compared to some of the horrid third acts gmmtvs given us this year

And I def enjoyed the toxic codependent nonsense that shinsaint had going on

[nutzgunray-lvt]

How Horikoshi Fails To Portray The Underdog Narrative

(All of this is just my opinion, don't take it at face value as I'm obviously not a writer)

I read an interesting article today, and it made me think of our green haired boi and some of the problems that's been noticed in his characterization:

Izuku is supposed to be the classic underdog that we see rise above all odds and become the number one hero, and I'm not saying that the road there is supposed to be perfect and conflict free. I don't want Izuku to be a Gary Stu that gets a good life handed to him on a silver platter (there's already one in the story).

The problem actually comes from two places; the first one being that Horikoshi has gone on record admitting to liking other characters (the abformentioned Gary Stu) more than Izuku, his MAIN CHARACTER. The second one, I believe comes from a beautiful ask that @theloganator101 submitted to @doodlegirl1998 that said something along the lines of: "I have never seen an author portray their main character as such a loser as Izuku is portrayed in the narrative."

There's a difference between giving your character natural conflict to overcome (i.e. an ACTUAL underdog narrative) and making him a flatout buttmonkey and slapping the 'underdog' label on it. Other animes have done a much better job at this; such as Naruto gradually winning over Konoha with his perseverance and Luffy going from someone on a little row boat to captain of one of the most notorious pirate crews in the world.

The article says that there's seven steps to making an underdog narrative, and I will say that Horikoshi did do a good job at step one: make a character the audience will root for. Izuku is incredibly kind and selfless and also happened to be born Quirkless. He faced relentless bullying for +10 years due to this and wants to become a hero so no one else will suffer like he did growing up.

Step two: portraying the disempowerment, is where things fall apart.

I actually don't mind that Izuku was given One For All by All Might, but I do mind how his past Quirklessness is never properly addressed after this. We don't see him wondering if his new friends would actually be his friends if he were still Quirkless. We don't see him aknowledging that despite receiving a Quirk, the bullying he's gone through hasn't stopped. We don't even see him wondering if he still would have been bullied had he always had a Quirk. We don't see his low self-esteem and imposter syndrome properly addressed. We don't see him noticing that even the teachers at UA are letting him be bullied despite having a Quirk now.

This also leads into the opposite problem: we see TOO MUCH disempowerment.

Izuku is struggling to properly use One For All, as it maims him every time he tries to use it. Instead of receiving any proper help for him, he gets criticized for hurting himself, is singled out and has expulsion hanging over his head on the first day of school, and even has the threat of being barred from medical treatment unless he learns how to master One For All without hurting himself. Not once do ANY of these people try giving him any advice or comfort (the only one who does is criticized in narrative for this), but it takes him being on a week long internship to finally learn how to do it.

Does he get any form of acknowledgment for this by those who criticized him and supposedly have his best interests at heart? No. Do they continue to criticize him ever time he slips up? Yes.

The third step: showing the underlying strength of the character, is another one that Horikoshi does a good job at. It's a joke that Izuku's determination should be a Quirk in and itself, and he repeatedly goes the extra mile to make sure that those around him are safe. He tries saving Bakugou from the Sludge Villain. He saves Kota's life from Muscular, helps Ida and Todoroki protect Native from Stain, and makes sure that Eri has a memorable and fun experience at the School Festival.

However, this leads into the problem with how step two is portrayed: this effort is seldom ever praised and only criticized. The Pro-Heroes berate him for trying to save Bakugou (despite them sitting back and doing nothing). He gets in trouble with Hosu's police, despite the fact that Native and Ida would have died had he and Todoroki not intervened. He's threatened with explusion and called a problem child for going to save Bakugou despite the fact that a) the mission was a success and they didn't engage in combat, and b) the mission wasn't even Izuku's idea to begin with. He gets in trouble for fighting Gentle Criminal and La Brava, and his classmates criticize him for "causing trouble" when he abruptly runs off to get candy apple ingredients for Eri (the fourth light novel). No one ever properly sits him down and tells him "you don't have to go the extra mile at your expense. Your kindness is enough." In fact, the only character who praises him for this level of kindness is criticized in and out of universe for it. Any time this red-flag is brought up in universe, it's either ignored, played for laughs, or the blame is unfairly shoved onto someone (usually, the one person in Izuku's corner).

There really is no step four: design a series of challenges and try/fail cycles, because even when Izuku has a 'win', he still gets some sort of set back in order to keep him "humble". There's those I mentioned above, but there's also his Provisional Hero License exam. He passes, but gets suspended from school the VERY SAME DAY because of his fight with Bakugou.

I guess step five: the turning point, would be Izuku learning Full Cowling and Shoot Style, and it does lead him to pass his Provisional License Exam (as well as his attitude). Mastering Black Whip would also be another one.

Step six is the worst one of the bunch in my opinion: show the darkest moment. Izuku leaving UA to protect his classmates and loved ones from All For One and Shigaraki had the potential to be an amazing arc... but it all falls incredibly flat. It tries and fails to properly address Izuku's deteriorating mental and physical state as these Pro-Heroes let him try and draw out All For One and Shigaraki, only to go all Surprised Pikachu Face when he starts pushing himself too hard (All Might at least tried keeping him regularly fed and tried intervening when Izuku struck out away from them).

Class 1A vs Izuku is where this darkest moment makes no sense for me.

Izuku tells them that All For One and Shigaraki are targeting him due to his Quirk. He doesn't want to leave, but he has to for their own protection. All For One now has Ragdoll's Quirk, meaning that he has eyes on Izuku 24/7 now. What's their solution to this? Sending some other teacher or Pro-Hero to try and talk him down? Send his closest friends to try and convince him to come back?

Nope, the entire class rallies behind his bully and literally beats him into submission. They sit by as his bully accuses him of arrogantly trying to be an 'All Might wannabe' (that same bully also tries shoving the blame for Izuku's self sacrificing tendancies onto ALL MIGHT), try guilting him into coming back, and don't once take his point of view into consideration (Ida does have a nice moment with him). On top of all of this, Izuku is later proven RIGHT that they can't keep up with him in this fight. Bakugou's dead, Uraraka is seriously wounded, Tokoyami is seriously wounded, and Jirou has one of her ears cut off. Then everything is solved by an incredibly manipulative "apology" from his bully and a bath! For that matter, the "apology" doesn't even stick!

There's also many minor incidents as well that I couldn't really fit anywhere else: his Quirk Analysis notebooks and mumbling are seen as "creepy" in universe (Endeavor's the only one who takes it seriously), not having any sort of talent or other hobbies outside of being an All Might fanboy.

The story isn't finished, so step seven has yet to be seen, but TL;DR is that Izuku is way more of a punching bag than an underdog, and many of his fans are fed up. Izuku deserves so much more than what he's been given.

[thevampiricnihal]

The Origins of Nigar in the 1960 novel Hürrem Sultan

“Nazniyaz Kalfa, who was famous in the harem for her toughness as well as her beauty, always showed a smiling face and gave sherbet according to the young girl's pulse.

"My beautiful, my dear," she called her (…) She wanted to secure her own position and future in case one day luck would come to this inexperienced Russian girl.

Rokselan liked Nazniyaz Kalfa, who was mature, experienced and more beautiful than many of the girls in the harem circle, and enjoyed her conversation. But she could not make any sense of the favoritism that was shown to her and what she was talking about. (…)

One day she asked Nazniyaz Kalfa: My dear Kalfa, they were saying everything bad to me just yesterday. Now they almost hold me in high esteem. Even Haşim Ağa has changed. Of course there is a reason for this. I'm going to burst with curiosity, I wonder why?

Treasurer Kalfa answered this question in a closed way:

- If you please His Majesty the Sultan, you will attain endless prestige and happiness.

-Me?

-Yes my flower.

-I'm not a beautiful girl, Kalfa. What will the sultan like about me? You are much more beautiful than me. God created you perfectly.

- These things are not clear. It is not known on whose head the crown of Iqbal will be placed. Maybe Gülbahar Sultan didn't know either.

The woman whom Nazniyaz Kalfa referred to as Gülbahar was the haseki of Sultan Süleyman and the mother of Prince Sultan Mustafa. The Sultan loved and respected her more than his other women. There was no one in the harem who didn't know this.

Hürrem did not find the answer of the treasurer Kalfa satisfactory: - Tell the truth my Kalfa, there is something under your tongue.

- Swear not to tell anyone.

- I swear I won't tell anyone.

- Listen, then, this respect and care shown to you is based on the command and desire of our master.

- I understand.

- What?

- His Majesty the Sultan saw that I was being oppressed and had mercy, didn't he?

- No, honey.

- And why?

Nazniyaz understood that they were about to get into a very dangerous subject and kept silent. The earth had ears. If Gülbahar Hatun heard what they were talking about, her position would be shaken and perhaps she would be expelled from the palace, never to return. There was also a recent example of this. One of the Kalfas who liked beautiful girls said to one of the Georgian beauties in the harem: "You are worthy of our sultan." She was almost taken out to the countryside because of that.

Fortunately, Valide Sultan intervened and resolved the issue.

Gülbahar was very meticulous and jealous in these matters. Nazniyaz could not resist Hürrem's requests and insistence. She leaned into her ear and spilled the beans:

- Ayol, I thought you were a smart girl, can't you understand yet? Our Lord has a tendency towards you.

Rokselan jumped up.

- Oh... Please, tell me a little!

- Nope, it's too much, honey. Don't ask anything anymore and don't tell anyone anything. Then things will get bad.”

(The quotes from the 1960 novel Hürrem Sultan)

The original Turkish pages:

This Hürrem is more naive and this Nigar is gayer (everyone is slightly gayer in this book, there is even a brief cameo from an actually acknowledged-to-be-gay Kalfa in the above quote), but this is still very much the origins of Nigar Kalfa.

@mc-critical @redxluna @zeldaxxi @ohhmichelettoohh @desmoonl

[inspector-montoya-fox]

this post was initially gonna be like a lazy rant about how the Klaww Gang's team dynamics suck ass but the more i wrote the more i realised there's so much to discuss. so today let's discuss how the Klaww Gang's team dynamics suck ass but not on like surface-level y'know?

i'm not even sure if the Klaww Gang qualifies as an actual gang because they barely even acknowledge each other? their interactions are very scarce. off the top of my head we get Rajan's party which they all attend apart from Dimitri (Dimitri attending Rajan's party would be so bizarre btw) and Jean Bison's phone call with Arpeggio. these are things friends do so maybe they should be the Klaww Friends ? i mean they have the sinister-looking conference room but we never see them hold a meeting there. moreover, they all act out of pure self-interest. they each got a Clockwerk part and just went on to do their own thing like counterfeit, drug production, etc. i mean what's even the point of forming a gang if their goal was to just split Clockwerk parts and then disband? did they have any other operations in the works? Arpeggio was planning on double-crossing the rest of the members anyway and he needed them to actually have the parts for his plan to come to fruition but still seems a bit pointless.

interesting question: how exactly did the Cairo Museum heist go down? was it like a group activity or pulled off by a single member? or did Arpeggio have Neyla break in and take them? because i can't imagine the Klaww Gang members coming together like an Ocean's movie to steal a bunch of robot owl parts? in fact, i can't imagine any of them stealing in the traditional like robber kinda way. with the exception of Bison and maybe Arpeggio, they're all shown to have some sort of prestige in their own part of the world: Dimitri was an established artist and nightclub owner and as shown in the comics hanged out with elitist socialites; the Contessa was a high-ranking Interpol officer; Rajan threw a lavish ball with hundreds of guests. like i wouldn't be surprised if the Klaww Gang members had institutional power. maybe they just bribed the museum to give them the parts?

and then there's the fact that they were a complete failure. i can't help but compare them to the Fiendish Five, who, let's admit it, won. they "won" in the sense that they achieved their goal. it's not like anyone stopped them. sure, Sly whooped their ass years later but they still killed ConnEr and split the Thievius Raccoonus. they went on with their lives until Sly grew up. like the first game is very much a revenge story. the Klaww Gang? not so much. the game takes place right after the Cairo Museum heist so all their scheming and plans could only take place for like maybe a couple of months max. and let's not forget they were also tricked by Neyla. flops.

i'm not sure why but i also think the Fiendish Five can evade the criticisms highlighted above even though they were also a bunch of strangers? Clockwerk was a much more menacing boss than Arpeggio (if Arpeggio can even be considered a boss. more like a final member), like i don't think anyone from the Fiendish Five would dare question his plan or motivations. but also, i think there was an underlining sense of camaraderie when each of them warned us about the next one post-bossfight, like at least some respect. i can't say the same for the Klaww Gang, like i can't even imagine the Contessa, Jean Bison and Dimitri interacting with each other (and now i suddenly can't think of anything i need more in my life). Clockwerk feels like the Fiendish Five's employer and he brought them together to pull off something kinda sacred like continuing the cycle of raccoon murders. basically they got together and did a thing and that was it like they just casually went on with their lives after that. Clockwerk was immortal, for all we know and as i have previously theorised there could have been previous iterations of the Fiendish Five throughout history. just baddies recruited by Clockwerk to help him take down the Coopers.

so yea. the Klaww Gang very much sucked ass but !!! i think it was for the better. even if i compared them to the Fiendish Five, i feel like SP wanted to set the expectations by making it seem like we were going to receive something similar just to then have things go down very differently. the Klaww Gang is different because its members (were under the illusion that they) were autonomous. they weren't let in on the big picture (What is this with clocks, bro? Have you no vision?) and they all thought they were the gang's top dog. this made for something very different, especially when you throw Neyla and outlawed Carmelita into the mix. but their team dynamics still sucked ass.

[gayamulet]

Art drawling

Its sort of wild how art came to a screeching halt as soon as I got a full time job. And yeah, there's a bunch of corresponding factors- a physically demanding full time job crammed into 4 days, that I'm older and so, working with less energy, sleeping a lot more (seriously wtf), and compartmentalizing time much more. Freestanding time & energy is less and has to be planned out and those times left open for the chance to 'do art' in whatever capacity I can do not equate to 100% output success rates like day job hours. I can go in with a 'fuck yeah, art night!' frame of mind and come out pretty unfulfilled (again, with the awareness that fulfillment is not the goal).

And of course recognizing that many more mundane tasks fulfill a bigger chunk of that makemakemake drive- meal prep, cleaning (ugh), plant care, yard care, mending work clothes, etc. And you know, the more annoying factor. A lot of that creative energy also gets fulfilled by mundane tasks at work- animal care, walking, cleaning (yes that includes complicated dogshit catastrophes), training, behavior data collection & entry. I come out of it of course physically tired because it is hard messy work, but it also just has me choosing/seeking artistic outlets less, and not feeling too bad about it introspectively. Its make-drive going someplace useful, through whatever framework my brain has established as useful, idk.

All this brings me to my actual point of frustration with art-making, that when I have time and there is a bit of planning involved (I have exactly one con art show and local tiny art market to work toward this summer) and I sit down and I casually think about what I'd like, for me, for these events with no pressure and, again, for me, that

I just don't want to make myself anything. That it already exists, that there are endless iterations of whatever visual landscape I'm riffing through at any given time, that it doesn't need physical manifestation, that it no longer serves me creatively, that I don't care. I can dangle a glittery new process (ink, linocut, etc) like a its-about-the-process carrot in front of me, but suddenly I don't like carrots. And it feels, less born of a dead creative drive, and more like...an extension of what I don't want from other people- junk. That I do not want to generate more junk for myself. Does this make sense? I think it sounds more heartless than I mean for it to. Like unless there is very defined intention, then I don't need it? I cannot think of a way to explain it that doesn't sound protestant as fuck. Maybe I've hit some critical mass of art intake overload thanks to the internet, maybe this is just what creativity looks like now. Tho, there's enough of a useful task involved that freelance artwork is still hopping along- much more slowly than before for all the regular reasons listed above- but otherwise its fine. I still get that pleasant little brain buzz.

I get these surges of frustration, that I've fallen off from working toward some ultra-personalized visual landscape goal like I used to, that once I do I'll be perceived as human again, or something. Like this is still some pinnacle of artistic merit, in some mythical corner of my brain. But those surges are much less frequent than they used to be, and fizzle out quickly. And idk. Art isn't going anywhere in my life, but where it comes from and how I'm making and shaping things is changing again. I guess?

*I DO, however, wanna make more cardboard masks. So bad.

**I know I kept this in a pretty strict work vs art vacuum, without acknowledging other uses of time, including other hobbies which of course also accounts for creative/emotional outlet but you know what I'm gonna stop here before you guys figure out I'm actually a robot

[roobylavender]

This whole thread is so....

https://twitter.com/orikkunn/status/1754831427903074488?t=WbVE9Fu585pxZFXPbr_JlQ&s=19

It's pissing me off actually and I search the word hijab on their account and in one of their tweets they said "I think hijab is a bad thing" ??? I need non-muslims who speak on Islam without any knowledge to stfu

i'm going to apologize beforehand if this is upsetting in any way bc i'm sure you were expecting a different response but while i feel like op's wording could have been better in this thread specifically—i like their wording in this thread more—i do generally agree with them. i definitely understand there's a gut reaction to any critique of islamic practices esp in the context of modern orientalism and islamophobic sentiment, but i also think that muslims (and people of any religious faith, really) can simultaneously acknowledge that some criticisms of faith, while driven by racism and/or xenophobia, are also validly driven by a worthwhile contention with women's material circumstances over the course of history. in the other thread i linked above i think op is very much correct in that it's not constructive nor useful to criticize individual people. many individuals do choose to dress more modestly of their own volition and are privileged enough to have that available to them as a choice and nothing more bc of the environment they grow up in and the familial interpretation of religious tenets they're taught. but i don't think people are wrong when they acknowledge the larger context within which women are advised to dress modestly and how those standards of modest dress compare with those imposed on men in comparison. there's an undeniable dichotomy there and at least in my islamic upbringing i've been taught that the way some of these things diverge along the lines of gender is preordained and not meant to be perceived as inherently oppressive towards one gender or the other. a thing is simply bc it is. but religion isn't really something you can view within a vacuum much as that would be ideal. it is connected to the material circumstances of women in the real world and i do allow myself to sit with that reality even if it's weird to process at times bc i still consider myself a muslim and have no plans on ex-communicating myself

personally i like to dress modestly in the sense that i don't wear very exposing clothing. i've grown up wearing pants for my entire life. my parents are lax enough that i'm allowed to wear t-shirts but i can't wear anything where my armpits are directly exposed so that means no sleeveless tops. i can't wear anything with a deep neckline either unless i have a higher positioned undershirt on underneath. and again, i'm not particularly bothered by any of that. i do toe the line on a few occasions but generally i'm ok with how i dress bc by now i'm used to it. that being said, i know the reason i've come to be okay with dressing this way is bc it's how i was taught to dress, and towards the specific end of maintaining modesty and emphasizing on the shape of my figure as minimally as is possible without having to outright wear a bag lol. that is at large a structural reality of muslim practice towards women, regardless of what individual women choose to do in their own homes where they have the liberty to choose. and as i mentioned above, i do think we have to sit with that reality even if we acknowledge it opens us up to abuse by other people who may not have the best intentions. this is why, for example, i've really come to frown upon the way ex-muslims (esp when they're women) are almost mocked by the extant muslim community for logically reacting to patriarchal oppression under the guise of religion. bc at the outset, materially, there is no choice presented to these people. and even if there is ideologically a choice within the tenets of the religion itself, with respect to women in particular, there is still a defined gender dichotomy and hierarchy that cannot be denied and that is quite regularly used to perpetuate the oppression that many of them try to escape

what's hard to do and what requires a knowledgeable, concerted effort on our part as muslims is trying to balance the nuance of the oppression we are accessory to against the nuance of our own oppression for who we are. it's certainly cruel that we have to do so much to parse all of this because racist, xenophobic imperialists are incorrigible people who will co-opt anything if it's beneficial to them. but all the same, we do have that responsibility at minimum. we have to learn to sit in the uncomfortable reality that while many of us as individuals may choose to practice the way we do, that choice may yet be colored by how we grew up within organized religion, and it obscures our ability to recognize that while we think it's a choice for us as individuals, it's certainly not a choice on a structural level, and that's something we should vehemently argue against maintaining the status quo of

[another-supernova-girl]

💙 Requisite "About Me" post 💙

This side blog is new, but I have been active on tumblr since 2017. My main blog is @a-supernova-girl , where all my previous fanfiction and an enormous amount of gifs sets and aesthetic reblogs reside. Any gifs (like the above) I use that are not from the gif search are of my own creation (I don't steal gifs, I hope you won't either).

I started this side blog because I made the mistake of going to see TRAP finally and have been sucked in, and I wanted to keep it separate and dedicated only to Josh Hartnett related posts. I have a bountiful # of followers on my main, but I am pretty much treated like I don't exist there, even by my mutuals, and it's not good for my mental health. I'm already experiencing a huge uptick in interactions and engagement on this side blog, and would love to have more. It would be nice to have a mutual who acknowledges me again.

I am actively writing fics for a few Hartnett characters : Cooper of Trap, and Wyatt of Ida Red. I am not taking requests and don't intend to. I just want to get these self-indulgent stories out of my system and onto the internet for people to engage with.

If you would like to be tagged in these fics as they are released (they will probably both be released in multiple chapters), please let me know, but please also understand that I share my writing because I want people to engage with it. I love reading comments (criticism is NOT welcome) on my stories and replying to them when my anxiety subsides. I love reading the unique, excited tags in reblogs. All fic writers know, however, that likes don't really mean much of anything. So if you know you aren't going to do anything but leave likes, maybe just give this blog a follow instead, so my writing will show up in your feed.

My fics will contain smut, including some dubious consent (let's be honest, that's kind of inherent when it comes to Cooper), but they will NOT included any Daddy Kink, Breeding Kink, or Degradation Kink. I am fully aware those themes are prominent in a lot of the Cooper fics especially, they just aren't my thing. I'm not the type to list out every type of sexual interaction in my author's notes, but anything that I feel actually warrants a warning, I will disclose at the top of the relevant post.

💙 Thank you for your time, and my ask box and messages are always open to talk! 💙