#also being treated as a literal dog by an older woman

[parasitic-saint]

literally need to buy a full latex gimp suit and be someone's side table that holds a shitty lamp and i think that would fix everything wrong with me

[nat-20s]

Seen people describe The Doctor and Donna's relationship as a sibling dynamic but I think that's only true for some Doctors with Donna so here's a definitive list of which nuwhodoctordonna pairs are and aren't siblings:

NineDonna: No. They are randomly assigned roommates that become the most annoying best friends in the world. Literally the worst fucking people in existence to third wheel for, you're in a constant state of "what the FUCK are you two talking about???"

TenDonna: No. Something much weirder going on for them. I once saw someone describe them as "whatever dr doofensmirtz and perry have going on but platonic" and that's lived in my head rent free ever since. Yes Ten WOULD physically strap Donna to himself in order to confront his parents and then when it went poorly they would watch the sunset and he would tell her that she was his rock. Also very gay best friend and woman on another one of their little adventures/ a lesbian and her favorite himbo. Who's the gay best friend/woman/lesbian/himbo changes on a whim <3 Truly the icons of sticking two freak bi people with unfettered adhd together and seeing what happens

ElevenDonna: okay Yes. that is her little brother that's like 30 times older than her and she is treating him accordingly. (so so so mean but will also kick people in the shins for being nasty to him)

TwelveDonna: Sort of. Less your typical sibling dynamic and more like stepsiblings that only became stepsiblings well into their 30s and have decided to unionize. In another life they would've been a vaudeville duo that are also conmen.

ThirteenDonna: No. Not a single soul knows whatever the fuck those two have going on between them, least of all them. Probably like. The somewhat healthier mirror version of whatever the fuck The Doctor and Spymaster have going on. One time 13 sighs oh so sadly and is like "i wish i could be donna's lap dog" and when the master asks, "Like in a horny way, or???" Thirteen replies, "I don't know I just think if Donna could carry me around everywhere life would be significantly better and I could have an easier time seeing beauty in the universe again." and the master is like. "have you maybe considered prozac" and the doctor says "WELL I WOULDN'T NEED PROZAC IF I WAS DONNA'S LAP DOG NOW WOULD I??"

FourteenDonna: no. QUEER PLATONIC SPOUSES OF ALL FUCKING TIIIIMMMMEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FifteenDonna: Not quite. I think they more have the vibe of like cousins that go to family functions and always seek each other out bc they have a mutual case of "you're the only bitch in this room that I respect. You're the only motherfucker in this house that can handle me." Both of them volunteer to "chaperone" the kids table bc if Donna has to hear one more word from their uncle who won't shut up about how great brexit is she's shoving his face in the mashed potatoes and fifteen is just going to be like "you're doing amazing sweetie"

[chron0ph0bia]

im sorry the way ur talking about carini is just giving misogyny… she’s literally apologised for the way she acted, not shaking khelif‘s hand etc. she never said a single thing against khelif, she said she had to end the fight bc it was too much for her. but nothing against khelif & nothing abt her being trans/intersex. be mad abt the way khelif is being treated, but why r u calling carini a bitch and a crybaby for deciding to end a fight she felt unsafe in. she didn’t start the transphobic & misogynistic conversation around khelif.

I'm calling her a bitch cause she singlehandedly started a global witch hunt against a poc? I'm calling her a bitch cause she called the fascist pm who DID say all the transphobic misogynist things (and who RAN on them) her mother? I'm calling her a bitch cause she's a cop? I'm calling her a crybaby not because she got out of the fight which she has every right to do, but because the veiled comments she said and the way it was handled was fuel for the entire shit storm we saw. I'm calling her a bitch for acting in a way far right SALVINI would endorce.

She didn't even apologise for the entire shit storm she caused. She paid lip service, but an apology for the witch hunt you instigated? A personal apology to the actual person she hurt instead of stuff to the media? It isn't enough, she just covered her own ass. She should know better. She should've acted better. It doesn't take a genius to see what effects her actions would cause.

I called her a crybaby cause I was really fucking mad.

I'm calling her a crybaby for using her white woman tears to HURT a poc woman. I don't understand why you felt the need to come to her defense? I'm a nobody on the Internet, if I see her down the street I'll call her a bitch to her face but Italys a big country.

Also.. her safety? Bitch her safety? It's the Olympics, a televised event, a regulated sport. There's regulations, rules.. She got scared and quit, that's alright, but to act as if she was on the floor with a rabid dog (or a Dangerous Man, which is what the words you're using imply) is straight up false, and I want you to analyse your biases the same way you asked me to analyse mine. Why did you feel the need to rescue her, after all the support and media attention she got? Why were you so quick to excuse her, say "ohhh no she didn't mean it, she said sorry, seeee" when she didn't even "properly" apologise at all. Why were you so quick to take the responsibility off of a woman? It's giving infantilisation, when no, she's 25. She's older than me. She's in the public eye. She shakes hands with fascists publically and gives herself deniability by letting the others say the quiet part out loud.

Also I have the right to make fun of an athlete representing my country pulling out in the most pathetic way possible, causing a media shit storm and acting as if she's not a fucking BOXER. Who signed up to get beat up by the best punchers in the world. And. Most Importantly, WHO GOT A HUNDRED THOUSAND FUCKING DOLLARS FROM THE TRANSPHOBIC ORG AFTER THE FACT. She PROFITED. off of this. As if she'd won gold, if this isn't a spit in the face to female boxing I don't know what is.

I would love to have a conversation about internalised misogyny with you but I don't believe it applies here, I may not express myself 1000% coherently all the time on my own blog but I beg you to read the room. I don't have anything against you btw, this is all in good faith. I've done self analysis and I don't think what I've said was misogynistic at all, but a strongly worded answer to the veiled misogyny that was so frustrating to see. Anyway have a good one

[velvetvexations]

(anti-baeddel anon again) also yeah theyfab makes my fucking blood boil (i am afab nonbinary) the fact that someone tried to tell me it was coined 20 years ago by transfems? (and then blocked me so i couldnt ask follow up questions) like are you trying to tell me afab was being used in 2004???

The difference with bioessentialism and AFAB privilege stuff is that like, bioessentialism supposes something would be inherent to a person's biology no matter how they were raised, so for instance that men are always evil because they're born that way. The concept of AFAB privilege is more based in how AFAB people are treated by society with the idea that an AFAB trans person can get a trans woman in trouble by going "oh I'm just a helpless woman this male has harassed" or something like that. Which is ridiculous.

I think we cleared this up, but I'll still include this ask just in case there's anything else you want to add to your clarifications, other anon.

Hit dogs holler.

well, you see, [trails off into the most bizarrely racist appropriation of oppressive dynamics you've ever read in your life]

Many of them literally are minors, who I don't interact with as a hard rule but it does really make me worry for them getting sucked up into this shit where older transfems keep pushing that they'll never be safe with anyone but them other trans women. It's fucked and going to destroy their mental health just so the adults on top can get a few more likes on their posts.

[revenancy]

I can't tell you how badly I would like to peek over your shoulder at your SDP notes lol. Can I trouble you for an infodump? Any time I see a post about Ros and/or Nevi I started fluttering against the computer monitor like a moth. Thank u :>

oh my gosh YES. okay. so. tw for dubcon/noncon, cannibalism, physical, sexual, and emotional abuse, serious injury and death. all text screencaps will be described in alt text, and this post will probably get long.

but here we go:

Six Dead Princes started off as literally this block of text in a libreoffice doc (ignore the homestuck in me, please)

and it's obviously come pretty far since that initial toss-up of ideas a couple weeks ago, evolving into something that puts Ros more in a position of power than he was at first (this is not necessarily a good thing.)

important notes: Nevi has, technically, murdered Ros. more than once. but because his life is intrinsically bound to the life of the sorcerer's tower(-slash-ex-husband) he keeps waking up, time and again.

[continuing under the cut]

so Roslin -- Sehtriax Rosmaundel, or something along those lines, but he hasn't been that person since he was seven years old and gifted to the Sorcerer Wyse for her steadfast loyalty as the king's lover -- has lived in the tower for twenty years. the first ten years were relatively normal as he and Nevi would butt heads but, overall, the Sorcerer Wyse controlled the two of them well.

eight years ago, he was gifted to Nevi -- at her request upon reaching age of majority -- to be her pet.

Nevi taxidermies her pets.

she is the definition of a spoiled brat. anything Nevi wants, Nevi gets -- she's the sorcerer's only child, and while she has no magic of her own and no interest in learning it, she knows how to use her mother's magic. Roslin is under a charm that ensures his survival but also demands his obedience, something Nevi found out when she was very young and thus decided to use to her advantage.

she has had cats and dogs and snakes and one short-lived falcon, and now, she has a prince.

the last prince.

the old king had seven children: Anahtriax Salmene, his only daughter, and six sons. technically Anahtriax and Sehtriax, Ros's name, are titles and not proper names, but they're considered archaic and holy Gyre-names, meaning literally First Prince(ss) and Seventh Prince(ss), and yes the other five all had the same thing.

Salmene is ~10 years older than Roslin, so at the time of the plot she's 37 and has been locked away for nearly as long as he's been alive -- because in the trend of fantasy monarchies being strange and terrible people, the old king (currently unnamed) went through a string of lovers, each of them suffering some tragic end.

Roslin's birth mother -- a foreign ballerina named Corenthe -- was slaughtered and carved like a duck for dinner. the old king and his daughter consumed the woman in front of the Holy Mother, aka the queen of Cierclant, aka the king's wife and the symbolic (and chaste) mother of all of his children, and the king's brother, who ended up becoming his regent after using that instance to prove the man's instability.

this may also be why the Holy Mother was willing to let the sorcerer have Roslin: she wanted him as far from his father as propriety would allow, and the king would not part with his youngest son for anyone but the love of his life (in that moment, the Sorcerer Wyse).

but let's talk about the fun stuff:

Nevi. The way she treats Ros is basically as a living sex toy -- he exists to offer her pleasure and delight, and she very rarely suffers him to have desires of his own (except when she can frustrate him). When he is allowed some semblance of power and control, it's usually because she's bored and wants to see what he would do with it, and she snatches it back the moment he crosses a line.

and oh my god this man is a wreck. he is twenty-seven he has never been allowed to have sexual desires outside of Nevi. he has never been allowed to have curiosities, to explore his own attraction, and he has pretty much come to the conclusion that perhaps this is love: strapped to a table with her knife in his side waiting for her to come back up and let him free. perhaps this is hate: Nevi taking his body for herself, more or less riding him into submission, and he doesn't know better to want anything else.

and then the fifth prince dies.

his name is Selantin. he is betrothed to the priestess Esmeriht of the Holy Gyre (as was his brother Galant before him). and when his body has cooled, the Holy Mother picks herself up from her mourning and she sets off for the sorcerer's tower with Emra in tow to collect her last living son.

and Seventh Prince Roslin's first desire is a breathless, terrified glance at Nevi and I want her detained. and in her prison cell, he ties her hands to the rough iron bars and he relishes the thought of returning all that hurt onto her. a better man, he tells himself, would move on.

Roslin is not a better man.

he would rather have Nevi to himself, keep her as a pet like she kept him, than move past anything she did to him. he would rather fuck her in every way she hates -- violate her trust in him and prove that she was a fool to have any to begin with, once he's let loose from the obedience charm -- and turn that magic back on her.

and then you add Emra to the mix -- Esmeriht Cashilde Donsel of the Holy Gyre, a born daughter of the faith, pure and chaste and all things that good girls are supposed to be -- and it's like Roslin is dead set to prove to himself and everyone else that he needed to be controlled. that some part of him is just like his father, that some kinds of madness are hereditary, that maybe little pieces of himself have chipped off over the years and are sitting on the floor of Nevi's laboratory:

And if there's one thing he hates more than anything else, it's Emra's maintained innocence. It's her frowning on anything sexual or magical -- it's her acting like he's somehow been corrupted by Nevi's influence on his life -- it's her shying away from him when they're not in a public occasion, refusing to let him touch her, refusing to meet his eye. He feels goddamn slighted because the wife they've offered him is obviously defective somehow. (she's just an asexual celibate priest. and he's EXACTLY as abusive about that as you'd expect. this is NOT his trauma healing arc.)

and he is NOT going to realize any of this until he's forced to confront it. he's not going to look at himself in the mirror until the blade is held to his throat. until he has to face death -- true death -- and he thought that he wouldn't be afraid of it, after Nevi. after everything she did to him. every day he woke up dead.

but outside of the sorcerer's tower, out from the yoke of the spell that kept him physically whole, the seventh prince of Cierclant comes to the realization that injuries are lasting.

and death is permanent.

[brainyrot]

Stuff from the comics I like and if they were canon to the inky mystery I would explode from joy part 2

Bacon soup has Bendy's face on it, it's really funny really, just having the soup you like the most have your own face on it for no real reason.

Alice is seen float a lot, it's really fun.

Boris growls.

Alice halo becomes smaller and her horns gets longer whenever she gets mad, along with fire.

Bendy just doesn't dress up for Halloween because he's a demon, but if he has to scare Boris, he gets a ghost costume (implying that Boris is not scared of bendy. At all. Which is very cute.) < from the cartoons

Charley just hates bendy lmao

love how whenever something happens, it has to be Bendy's fault. he's just a troublemaker, but his friends are ready to forgive him anytime.

Boris says "good golly gosh" a lot, actually.

"we're the first people to land in the moon, and it's YOUR FAULT!" love this from Alice actually.

Also in the bendy universe apparently the moon's made of cheese and there are aliens living there. Or whatever those turkeys were.

Alice is never up Bendy's bullshit.

according to Alice, bendy needs to get better at his "people's skills"

Bendy just has lots of pranks things, like the little joy buzzer (the thing where you shake the hand of someone and the someone gets shocked n stuff)

Also bendy has a pet fish. (Love how when he turned bubbles into a monster fish bendy still called him bubbles, like. Hey guys check my giant pet monster!!! His name his bubbles!!!)

bendy is just..not evil, even when he has literally something that can give him everything he wants (the pitchfork, even though in the end it was a scam) he just says "I shouldn't keep this to myself, but have everyone else have it too!!!" And immediately goes to give his friends their wishes.

Like, even if he calls Boris "his servant" he just treats him way too good.

also "bubbles you destroyed the whole town! Good work of course, but that's where I live!!" Awesome.

Despite bendy being a demon (demons are often described as filthy and greedy) he enjoys being clean.

Best description of bendy I saw "mischievous selfish bitch who steals pies from old ladies" (because in the comics he does steal pies. From one specific lady too.)

The first thing bendy does when the pitchfork turns out to be a curse casting pitchfork is say "oh no! Alice and Boris!" He truly cares man.

"think bendy! Put your devilshness to good use!!"

Alice openly says to bendy "bendy I will beat your ass once this is over", icon.

"there's only one devil who can menace alice and Boris and that's me!" Like when the older sibling says "only I can bully my younger sibling" beautiful. I want this canon in inky mystery.

Alice dosen't even question why bendy pet fish is now a giant flying monster, meaning he pulls out shit like this everyday.

"to think that dosen't recognize all the good naps we had together!" Boris has a favorite spot to sleep and it's that specific tree. (The dancing evil tree.)

BENDY SAVING BUBBLES WHEN HE FALLS😭🙏

bendy: "i've learned my lesson!!" Does the same mistake again.

Alice is really just a good independent woman, I love her. She's smart and she got charm.

I love how Alice can fool bendy and Boris pretty easily, she's the smart one of the group.

All of the stories with bendy, Boris and Alice being like characters like in devil's treasure, yukon bendy and such it makes me think they dress up and play pretend.

Bendy saying "I love that guy" to Charley like😭🙏 this man has no enemies !!!

"we've been here for fifteen minutes!! Time to go home." Boris is still a mood. (He's talking about working, btw.)

Bendy is casually a conductor. (Even more reasons why he loves trains, AND HE PLAYS WITH A TOY TRAIN IN THE GAME.)

Bendy does not like potato corn.

Boris gets offended if he gets called a dog, he will specifically tell you he is a WOLF, not a dog!

"boo bendy!! We love you Alice!!!" LMAOO

"see people of new York!" Either he went to New York to perform, or sillyvision is around there.

Also apparently bendy can lift things and make 'em float. He lifted Alice in the air and let her float around for a magic trick (or it was Alice floating for him but I doubt, since later he spins her and she doesn't like that.)

"whoops! That was my good tomato" 😭🙏 I LOVE THE BACKGROUND CHARACTERS

Let me appreciate the pizza guy saying "another, signore?" Which translate to "another, sir?"

Bendy can cook! Or at least, he can make chili.

Bendy does his bath with his rubber duck!!

Boris and Alice casually fishing where it says "no fishing"

They also just, casually look at bendy sleeping in his washtub being pulled away by the water.

Edgar is such a cutie patooie. He even asks politely "just don't tell the gang I saved you btw, thanks."

[starcrossed591]

KDrama Year in Review 2023

While I watched more KDramas this year than CDramas, none of them consumed my heart and soul quite like this year's crop of CDramas did (CDrama review post here). And I dropped KDramas more readily than I have in years past, in part because there were so many more things to watch than I had time for (also I had to finish my dissertation and graduate, etc etc). Still, there were definitely some that I really, really enjoyed, so here's this year's KDrama round up:

16. My Lovely Liar: Started strong, got boring real quick. Dropped for homophobic murder plot. Still, glad to see that Hwang Min Hyn can actually act (although full disclosure, I did still enjoy him in Alchemy of Souls, wooden as that performance may be). Hoping Kim So Hyun can catch a break and get a role in a drama more worthy of her in the near future.

15. Crash Course in Romance: Excellent performances and chemistry by the ML and FL. Romance between two middle aged people instead of youths is also a treat. Dropped around ep 12 because of the unnecessary, homophobic murder plot. Pass.

14. A Good Day to Be a Dog: Surprisingly stronger than the goofy premise suggests, largely on the basis of Park Gyu-Young's performance as the FL who turns into a dog upon being kissed. Pacing problems in the third act around the origins of the whole dog curse thing. Can't say I recommend unless you're really in the mood for some shenanigans, but largely inoffensive if a little silly. (Also it turns out Cha Eun Woo *really* leveled up his kiss game for this one!)

13. Love to Hate You: Perfectly serviceable rom com. Nothing too special, but a nice weekend binge if you're in the mood for that. Also a good way to see Kim Ji-Hoon's v handsome face and that *hair* without having to deal with everything involved with his rather murderous run in Flower of Evil.

12. Joseon Attorney: A Morality: Perfectly serviceable law procedural/Joseon historical. If you don't like either of those genres your mileage may vary, but I had missed having Bona on my screen, so it worked well enough for me.

11. Welcome to Samdal-ri: I seem to like this one more than literally everyone else I know, and I fully admit that my enjoyment of this drama is more vibes-based than plot-based. I guess I have a soft spot for Shin Hye Sun yelling at people at Ji Chang Wook going a bit unhinged over a woman who ran away from him (see also: Lovestruck in the City).

10. My Demon: Very much enjoying Song Kang as a cranky demon falling in love with a human. Very tropey in the best way, and feels like a return to form for the supernatural romance genre. Remains to be seen if they'll land the ending as of this writing, but enjoying as it goes.

9. Doctor Cha: A contribution to the slate of divorce comedies I watched this year (see also: Strangers Again (KDrama) and Let's Get Divorced (JDrama)), a surprisingly touching story about growing older when you've devoted your life to someone who has not done the same for you.

8. Alchemy of Souls: Light and Shadow (Part 2): While Ko Joon-Yung never quite managed to replace Jung So-Min as the FL for me, I definitely still enjoyed the closer to this fun fantasy series. Special shout out to Shin Seung-Ho as Prince Go Won and his pet turtle

7. Strangers Again: I didn't see a ton about this one on tumblr as it was airing, but I found this rom com? melodrama? divorce procedural? makjang? story about relationships and why they end unexpectedly profound. I tuned in expecting mindless makjang hot mess, and instead got a thoughtful meditation on divorce. Left me feeling unexpectedly melancholy at the end, but glad I watched it.

6. The Secret Romantic Guesthouse: Very fun sageuk! Probably won't knock your socks off, but it does what it does very well. Bonus points for a B couple as compelling as the A couple. I've also been a big Kang Hoon fan since Little Women, and there are a couple of other actors in here that I'm always glad to see working.

5. Perfect Marriage Revenge: Tour de force makjang. Came out of nowhere and blew me away. Hits all the right beats, and unexpectedly fun (and was a nice break from the heaviness of My Dearest for me). This was a good year for jaded and slightly unhinged transmigrated FL's back for their #revenge (see also: Story of Kunning Palace in CDrama land), and I was here for it. Also features one of the spiciest make-out scenes of the year, 10/10 recommend

4. See You in My 19th Life: Absolutely loved this haunting, melancholy, and sometimes unexpectedly goofy reincarnation drama. I loved the webtoon and had high expectations, and this drama largely met them! The continuing relationship between sisters Ji-Eum (Shin Hye Sun) and Cho-Won (Ha Yoon Kyung) was a special highlight for me, and while Shin Hye Sun is already a never-miss for me, I'm especially looking forward to whatever Ha Yoon Kyung does next. I prefer the ending of the Webtoon to the KDrama, but I'm still delighted this drama exists and am glad I watched it.

3. The Interest of Love: Look, I loved this drama. Even though it seemed on the surface like nothing but *mess* in the interpersonal lives of these characters working at a bank on the border between a rich and poor neighborhood in Seoul, it nonetheless had some of the most searing class commentary of the year for me. I also love an FL who will (spoiler) pack up her things and disappear at the drop of a hat, even if no one else will understand her decision to do so, because she just cannot deal anymore (see also: the FL in Lovestruck in the City, whom I also love but everyone else hated). This drama kept me gleefully coming back every week in a year where not a lot of others did.

2. Call It Love: A revenge slice of life melodrama that I found unexpectedly touching in its deep melancholy. Loved not only the main couple, but the relationship between the siblings and their pharmacist bestie. A lovely character study. (Also I somehow ended up watching this at the same time as Till the End of the Moon and Li Susu as Ye Xiwu's hidden identity/revenge plot, which was unexpectedly stressful! Had a very "it's the same picture" moment despite two dramas in two genres that could not be further apart.) If you missed this one (and since it aired on Disney+, you might have--Disney+'s effects on the KDrama streaming ecosystem will be the death of me), it's worth seeking out!

1. My Dearest (Parts 1 and 2): Kind of feels like everyone has said everything there is to say about sageuk of truly epic proportions, but it blew me away as well. Epic romance? Check. Twisty political machinations? Check. Heartwarming friendships between women? Check. Strong ensemble cast? And my top FL of the year, Lady Gil-Chae, played to perfection by Ahn Eun-Jin. I've adored her since Hospital Playlist, and am delighted that she's getting the attention and the roles she deserves. Namkoong Min also a top contender for ML of the year as Lee Jang-Hyun. Part 2 dragged for me a bit in places after a nearly perfect Part 1, but such a great drama overall.

Favorite Drama of the Year: My Dearest. See above.

Favorite Female Character: I mean, it's gotta be Gil Chae from My Dearest, right? She starts out as such a spiteful, spoiled noblewoman, and then turns out to have a core of pure steel. Turns out all her conniving and strategizing, which went towards causing mischief in the village, really just needed a proper outlet. While I would never want to be in the circumstances in which she found herself, if I did, she's exactly who I would want on my side.

Favorite Male Character: Everything's coming up My Dearest this year, because this one is Lee Jang-Hyun in My Dearest as well. Checks the box for my competence kink, and has a knack for showing up just when Gil-Chae needs him, even at great personal cost. Also a smart-ass, which I probably like a bit too much in a man.

Favorite Secondary Female Character: Cho-Won from See You in My 19th Life. Her relationship with her reincarnated older sister was almost more compelling to me than the main romance sometimes, and really helped develop how the ties that bind us are not just romantic ones. Also she was just super cute

Favorite Secondary Male Character: Could have picked anyone from Team Himbo in Alchemy of Souls, but gonna have to give this one to Go Won, himbo prince of my heart

Favorite Ship: Again, it's gotta be Gil-Chae and Lee Jang-Hyun in My Dearest. Sometimes, there are drama couples that nearly cause me pain when they are apart, and these two quickly became one of them. Though their relationships is hardly functional for much of it, through all that push and pull, they ultimately learn how to show up for each other. Also, their *chemistry* is insane!

Favorite Secondary Ship: I loved Hye-Seong and Sung Joon, the B couple in Call it Love. Seeing the SFL grow more comfortable with herself after a truly shitty ending to her previous relationship was a nice respite from the hidden identity stress of the A couple in this one. I'm also a sucker for a good romance where you start to see someone you've long taken for granted differently. (Close Runner Up: Cho Won and Do-Yun in See You in My 19th Life)

Favorite Platonic Relationship: Gil-Chae, Eun-Ae, and their maids, Jong Jong and Bong Doo, in My Dearest. I loved loved loved the relationship between these women in this drama, and part of the reason the second half of the drama suffered a bit for me is because of how far it moved away from this core relationship. They were ride or die for each other more than the majority of the men in their lives, and I loved that for them.

Trope that Needs to Die: While I find murder plots in rom coms tedious at the best of times, homophobic murder plots are really not it. Quit it, y'all. It's not cute.

Dramas I Missed: Moon in the Day, The Story of Park's Marriage Contract, and Tell Me That You Love Me (grrr Disney+ on this one) are on the list for next year. I'm probably missing others.

Non-2023 Drama Spotlight: Finally went back and watched Do You Like Brahms? for a hit of Park Eun-Bin. A lovely, if also melancholy, slice of life romance that's just as much about what to do when a (career related) dream that you've worked really, really hard for just isn't going to come through as it is about the main romance. Also made me fall in love with Kim Min-Jae and his lovely deep voice, enough so that I also then went back and finally watched Dali and the Cocky Prince, which was also a treat. Recommend both.

Most Looking Forward To: I continue to yearn for a Yumi's Cells 3, and who's to say if that one will ever come through, but I'm putting it out into the universe anyway. More realistically, I'm looking forward to the surprisingly stacked line-up of sageuks coming up, including Captivating the King and Love Song for Illusion.

[eldritch-spouse]

I miss sexy shark lady😭. So I'm going to ask some questions?

How tall is she?

Was coming to the surface hard for her to adjust to physical since goblin sharks tend to be deep sea dwelling creatures?

Were hot dogs here first surface food ?

Finally, How would she react if I offer her to hold my boobs instead and I still go get her a hot dog after she plays with mine for a bit?

How tall is she?

Ivani is, give or take 5'7". Sounds fine, right?

Well, here's the thing, she's a deep sea mer, meaning she's going to keep growing with age. Growing quite a bit. She's a young adult at this stage, so if you catch her eye, chances are you'll see her body go through quite a couple of changes as she grows into her age. She'll never be quite as huge as Magus, but there will come a time when your goblin shark bully towers over you.

Was coming to the surface hard to adjust to?

Naturally.

Ivani went against her shiver's wishes when she made repeated attempts to enter the land. But that's something she can deal with just fine, she'd never been the most social being anyway. The surface held all the wonders she'd like to be a part of first-hand, and nothing was going to stop her.

Not even having to learn the human language (as if there's only one). Walking was... Weird. But she made sure to practice, and, of course- She got herself a pair of rocking tits thanks to the advice of older mers who told her aaaall about how to make it on land and bag herself some human cuties (trust me brah). The light certainly bothers her, that's why Ivani tends to keep her bangs in front of her eyes at all times.

Were hot dogs her first land food?

Nope. She ate a lot of trash, sometimes literally, before being offered one from a bystander who just felt really bad watching a grown ass monster woman go dumpster diving.

It clicked in her brain though. Hot dogs are the food ever. They're humanity's best invention of all time.

Reaction to you offering her your boobs before a got dog:

That's... Her brain freezes a bit.

That's not... How it works? Clearly, she's supposed to flash you her titties and then you get the hot dog, she doesn't have any hot dogs for you! It's also a bit hard for her to think clearly with your breasts on her hands. They're soft... Softer than hers. You're soft all over, if she bit you you'd just bleed out like a pathetic minnow.

She's uncharacteristically quiet and blushy while she rolls your mounds around and circles your nipples, distracted by her own playing and having completely forgotten about food. She's about to wrap her snout around your left tit before you nudge the hot dog her way.

Ivani has never eaten so silently before, too confused and horny to properly enjoy her treat.

Hopefully, you're prepared for her to honk your bazoongas in gratitude whenever you get Ivani something nice. Clearly, you've shown her this is how land-dwellers express their thanks.

[thebardisabird]

I have my reasons for asking this but

The boys as sugar babies. How would they feel about it/their reaction be?

I just wanna see what your input on this would be...for science...👀💦

I think I got something for you, Aryll darling. 🤔 (I made this more sfw than not tho sorry lol - if you'd like an update, I can swing something!)

Some headcanons for the sextuplets being sugar babies, under the cut:

Osomatsu

He gets money whenever he wants and can DO whatever he wants and all he has to do is throw around some dick?! Sign him UP!

Literally doesn't make a change to his lifestyle whatsoever, he's very simple with what he wants: to not have to do jack shit and still have everything he needs.

So to know that he can do exactly that AND get laid? Yeah, he's 100% down to be a sugar baby.

Karamatsu

He gives it much thought, especially when Osomatsu tells him about how much fun he's having doing whatever he wants. Would it be so bad to not have to worry about his finances?

When he does find someone to support that lifestyle, he actually finds loves it! He's able to afford all sorts of musical instruments and travels across the world whenever he likes. The sex is also nothing to sneeze at as well, but...

He realizes after a long while that this type of life isn't meant for him. While he loves what he can afford - the hopeless romantic in him wants genuine connection. Sex without strings and love without a price tag.

Choromatsu

Ever the straightman, he finds that lifestyle something he could never imagine himself being a part of.

Yet when the offer comes to him - Choromatsu realizes he doesn't want to say no. There's too many benefits on his end, too much good that could come out of having his hobbies and NEET lifestyle funded for him.

He prefers to keep whether there are physical relations or not on the low. Very much treats it transactional outside of him and his sugar parent.

Ichimatsu

Doesn't entertain the concept in the slightest...until...

He miraculously ends up in a more escort-ish kind of situation. A much, much older, wealthy woman who honestly just wants company. She has a few cats and an old dog, which Ichimatsu helps her take care of. Perhaps even take walks around the park with her or go grocery shopping. And in return - she pays him handsomely for his time. No sex involved, just honest companionship.

He ends up treating it completely normal, has no problem telling her he loves her even, because deep down, he does. They end up bonding tremendously in a non-romantic way.

Jyushimatsu

He honestly thinks he's being propositioned to join a baseball team at first lol so he asks about his contract, how many seasons, etc.

His sugarparent actually finds this charming and offers him a generous allowance for just to kind of be around. Jyushimatsu enjoys physical connection - but he'd truly have to trust and feel emotions toward someone to want sex, and that may not be the case with this relationship in particular.

With that said, much like Karamatsu, Jyushimatsu may end up wanting a genuine partner rather than meaningless sex that ends up with money in his hands. Now if he was getting money just for someone to watch him swing his bat around all day...🤔

Todomatsu

He's living his best fucking life! Much like Osomatsu he is very down to be a sugarbaby. Who wouldn't want to be given money to do whatever they wanted all the time?!

Totty however is a little smarter - he takes a page out of the Rental Girlfriend Service's book and uses his cutesy attitude to get the upperhand on everything. He doesn't mind there being any physical aspects on the table either as long as his sugar-parent is good at it.

The most successful of the sugar babies. Loves to call his brothers from Dubai or Belize whenever he can to rub it in their faces

[ariel-seagull-wings]

@stickypersonaearthquake @shiv-multifandom-mess @themousefromfantasyland @the-blue-fairie @thealmightyemprex @piterelizabethdevries

"So when the chance comes up to create new characters, it’s good to see a diverse lineup. You can see this goes all the way back to All-New X-Men which replaced the all-white group with a much more diverse cast. And a lot of those lasted. So it’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it does place them in a precarious position if they’re not popular. Because we’re not really going to kill off, say, Cyclops. But maybe you, Thunderbird, can stay dead.

(...)

Storm was the first black superhero I ever saw. Claremont treated her with respect. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized he also played to the “exotic woman” trope that tends to go with women of color–Ororo’s white hair and her blue eyes with cat pupils (which seem to have been sort of retconned now).

I was overjoyed to see Brazilian Roberto DaCosta, Vietnamese Xian Coy Manh, and Native American Dani Moonstar in New Mutants when it first came out. I am pained to see that DaCosta has been colored progressively lighter and lighter over the years from his original rich, dark complexion. Dani, thankfully, has not completely disappeared from the pages. Xian is in Astonishing at the moment, and Dani is supposed to turn up in Fearless Defenders.

I loved the Generation X kids, but of them? Everett died. Julio died. Jubilee was already an established character. Monet’s backstory was twisted into something unrecognizable, and now she’s been whitewashed (again, colored lighter and lighter) and is in X-Factor, a book with almost no connection to the X-Universe in general.

I was also pleased to see Idie Okonkwo and Arana turn up along with the new Sprite (Japanese) in Wolverine and the X-Men. But the problem is, as it always is, increasing diversity makes people uncomfortable. If it’s white people in a story, it’s perceived to be for everybody. If it’s got more than a couple People of Color, the perception changes that it’s not for everybody, but it’s an ethnic story, and thus people shy away from reading or buying it. And the fact is, the writing is often really eggshell-stepping aware of the ethnic issues at first, but then eventually just ignores it. Like they have Idie being this self-loathing person who thinks that all mutants are monsters because of her upbringing, and she is clinging to that steadfastly, even after living first on Utopia and now on the campus of the Jean Grey school. Her worldview should be expanding, but it’s not. They have her having showed respect to Broo (sort of–she “named” him Broo by asking what to call him) for his intelligence and his respectful attraction to her, only to have her treat him literally like a dog after his recovery from being shot regressed him to a primitive state.

And Runaways–I opened that book full of hope, and gave up on it in despair when the black kid, the genius, turned out to be The Mole.

There’s also the fact that Marvel hasn’t been really good–nor DC, for that matter–with hiring diverse writers. So you get writers who aren’t really comfortable writing characters of color as people, but who awkwardly think of them as ‘the black mutant” or “the Asian” mutant."

(Women Write About Comics)

[plutoasteroids]

Hello, I'm C, she/her, interested in men, he/him. If your free readings are open, may i ask for one please? I'm a bit old and I've been single for over a decade or two due to circumstances. However I do want to have a forever partner and get married to him, and have a life together. I'm also child free i.e. never had any children by choice. And even though I was very broody for just a couple of years, last year I came to the conclusion that I don't want any children and this decision has made me feel very liberated! And I'm glad that i didn't go through any kind of process in the previous years to get a child. I love babies, but that's quite literally the only stage that I love of having a kid, nothing beyond that, lol. So I wanted to know, whether in future will I have a husband for me and will he be happily childfree / childless as well? I don't want to be a step-parent btw, whether of younger or older kids, nor do I want to adopt. I just want me and my husband and a dog or two, and our happy, cozy retired life (maybe babysitting our friends' kids once a while, lol). Thanks a lot for this opportunity!

Assumptions about you - I think you might come across as intimidating at first. I think you like the color black, or else you're into dark aesthetics.

Your assumptions are correct too!

First thing I am seeing is your husband is a little older and he feels like he's too old to start a family from scratch anyways so you don't have to worry about him wanting kids.

He may have a motorcycle. I want to say that your future spouse may have a child most likely a son, but he is older like college first year or second year older and he won't really treat you as a mom more like a friend.

Either you or your future spouse went through a period of being abandoned/ feeling abandoned and disappointed by a past lover, but I see it being mostly you and the tarot card depicts a woman's back turned away from the cups which tells me you had kind of turned your back away from love for some time and it's obviously what you told me but it comes out again in tarot.

Okay there's a small chance you knew your future spouse in childhood, or you'll meet in your hometown but if not, this person will feel like home to you 'I feel like I have known you for lifetimes'. There is also emphasis on healing the inner child together and letting your inner child express themself openly without fear of judgement.

You and your future spouse might be the type to prefer to stay home and relax and be cute and cozy together away from the stress and anxiety of the outside world.

You two may also start a business together or a project. Maybe you'll buy a plot of land and build your dream home from scratch. But on top of that I do see your future spouse being super smart so some of your conversations are going to be very intellectually stimulating. He's a hard worker, dedicated and diligent you won't have o tell him twice to do something. If you tell him the faucet is leaking, he'll have it fixed by the end of the day or before you even notice it was leaking to begin with.

You may be faced with options on who to marry and I want you to know that you shouldn't feel pressured to pick one man over the other. Use your intuition trust yourself and don't make a choice because you feel rushed, or you may just end up making the wrong choice but if you don't know who to pick the cards say pick the man who puts in the most effort to be with you that's your future spouse.

I hope this resonates and any feedback is appreciated!

[sillylilpixie]

Favorite Little Intro: Cruella

Why Do I Headcanon Them as a Little: Many Reasons. But, the biggest reason is the way she acts in Evil Thing which is a book that does a wonderful job filling in some plot holes in the original movie like how does Cruella know Perdita being pregnant and Anita and her relationship and stuff! The Book is so good and makes the movie even better!!!!!

Source: The original animated movie, 101 Dalmatians 1961 and Evil Thing by Serena Valentino (Villains Book 7) and a tidbit from 102 Dalmatians 200 (the live action sequel)

Their Little Age Range: Cruella age range is wide, sometimes shes a tiny baby, sometimes shes a bratty toddler, even when not little she tends to be more on par to a teenage girl then a 25 year old woman.

Do They Have a CG?: Yes! Cruella's main CG would be her governess in Evil Thing Miss Pricket and technically Mrs. Web, the Spider (also from Evil Thing) but that woman would be a bad CG. Anita would be a babysitter though when she gets better.

3 Important Items to Them When Little: 🖤 Her fur coat turned security blanket 🤍 Her stuffed dalmatian 🖤 Her fairy tale book from her father

Any Cute Little Nicknames?: Nicknames for Cruella 🤍 Little Lady (Miss Pricket) 🖤 Little Miss (Miss Pricket) 🤍 Pup / Puppy (Miss Pricket) 🖤 Ella (Anita)

Nicknames used by Cruella 🤍 Sis (Anita and Miss Pricket when shes feeling older) 🖤 Sissy (Anita) 🤍 Mommy (Miss Pricket when Cruella is on the younger side) 🖤 Mere / Mere Mere (Miss Pricket when Cruella is extra little, french for mother, in Evil Thing Miss Picket teaches Cruella French) ❤️ Cruella NEVER refers to Miss Pricket as Mama because this is what she called her bio mother.

Some of Their Little Triggers: Cruella regresses due to trauma and mental health issues. Most the time Cruella is on pair to a teenager at the oldest. Depending on how shes mentally doing she tends to act younger. Miss Pricket is good at treating her whatever age she is acting. Being around Miss Picket tends to make her act younger. Miss Picket treating her like a child almost always makes her fall hard, which is used when she is struggling with bad thoughts. 3 Little Quirks: Cute quirks they have when little 🤍 Cruella is a big thumb sucker, she has a big oral fixation and when shes older she tends to eat a lot of lollipops. She has a habit of putting anything and everything in her mouth. 🖤 She is big on different textures, specially fabric textures. All stuffed animals have to have embroidered eyes because bead eyes bother her. Can be fussy with bad textures. 🤍 Little Cruella is obsessed with dogs, specially dalmatians. Likes to play pretend where she gets to be Miss Pricket's puppy. She makes lots of puppy sounds, literally growls at Mrs Web or whines. Her favorite show is Bluey, though sometimes Miss Pricket will play cartoons in French (which Miss Pricket gave her lessons, and she took French Classes in finishing school, but she struggled with) 3 of My Favorite Headcanons: What is my favorite headcanons about this character?

🖤 Miss Pricket would help Cruella overcome her obsession to make a dog coat for her mother, but she'd still end up being obsessed with dogs when little. Since she had always wanted a Dalmatian growing up, but her mother wouldn't let her have any pets. Miss Pricket would be a firm but kind CG, she help make Cruella see how she was a very bad girl for what she had done, and help her apologize to Anita.

🤍 She spent almost a year in a mental hospital where she is given harsh traumatic treatments by Dr Pavlov before being released on parole under the custody of her mother (Who sent her away to stay in Hell Hall under the watchful eye of Mrs. Web) - This is a headnod to 102 Dalmatian Movie Because I pick and choose what parts of movies I wanna use XD

🖤 Cruella still struggles wanting her dear mother to love her and admires her, but also knows her mother isn't a good woman. This causes her to struggle heavily with her flip floppy thoughts. Sometimes she has a backslide and has bad thoughts about kidnapping dalmatians to make the coat that would make her mother proud of her. But, Miss Pricket helps her through the episode reminding her that that wouldn't make her mother happy and how fake fur feels just as nice, redirecting her to how lovely her stuffed Dalmatian is.

Cruella is currently my super duper favorite little. Feel free to ask me any questions about Little Cruella!!!!!!

[graendoll]

Proof that I am socially inept, or a dick or something:

Once upon a time like a year ago or so, I dunno the exact timeframe, a cat showed up at my house. He was young and LOVED my older tabby. They play and groom eachother and generally have a fabulous time on their play dates.

Anyway, this new cat is a local neighborhood cat - had a collar and my direct neighbors recognized him as belonging to a family up the street. At one point he lost the collar, but like...I knew his family of people were nearby.

Anyway, fast forward a year and this cat spends a fair amount of time at our house. He sleeps in our solarium and gets along with our feral barn cat who lives outside, and generally we have accepted him into our cat family. But at no point did I consider that we'd stolen the cat? Because he is an outdoor cat and like...I don't know the neighbors he belongs to, so I assumed he was splitting time between us. I have had this happen with my cats in the past. It's a consequence of the cat distribution algorithm and I just roll with it.

This weekend, however, I noticed the cat had a tail injury - I was worried it was broken and he was in a lot of pain. To repeat, I don't know his other family at all. So I called some vets because at one point the woman who he belongs to told me he had a vet (she saw him in our yard one day and picked him up and took him home...he was back the next morning - literally the only interaction I've had with her was her coming by, saying "thats my cat, hes had all his shots" and picking him up). ANYWAY, I was hoping if I could find his vet, we could take him in because a LOT of vets here dont see new patients. So I mentioned when I called the only weekend vet that was open that he wasn't mine and was told they wouldn't treat him without his owners permission.

This is long. Sorry.

Anyway, I asked our direct neighbors for the contact information for the cat's other family in the hopes I could get him to the vet. So I texted the cats other humans and explained he'd been injured and asked if he had a vet.....and that is where I apparently lost the ability to predict human behavior.

See, I assumed the other family was like...on the same page about the status of the cat. That he was theirs but also hung with us like half the time. Like split custody, if you will.

I was mistaken. Because this guy shows up at my house at like 8:30pm, demands the cat, invites himself in, picks up the injured cat, who is hissing at him, and says "if you want the cat just keep it". I'm like...completely speechless and awkwardly try to explain it was never my intent to steal the cat. He says "then don't feed him" and I try to explain we leave food out for ferals, but he cuts me off and says "this is the only cat we've ever had who ditched us" and then proceeds to leave with said cat and drive away.

I mean...I realize I'm not blameless here. Did I feed the cat? Yes. Did I let him in my house? Yes. Did I actively attempt to steal their cat? No? I don't even know what cat theft would look like? They're cats. They're not like dogs. They are aloof and sometimes pick new owners and occaisionally come back after being gone for six months.

But I WAS trying to get him looked at by a vet. I wasn't trying to get out of paying for his care or being like "welp, we've fed and housed him four days out of seven for a year but he's technically yours so you should pay for his vet care." I just wanted to help the cat and since I was overly honest with the vets about not being his owner this seemed like a good path forward....

Anyway, these strangers who I have never before met except through cat drama have the cat in their possession. I offered to pay for vet bills, but got no response. And now I'm worried they'll like...hold the cat hostage or something? I dunno.

I cannot begin to explain how many times I have had cats elect to move without informing me. I mean if I don't want to abide by cat distribution rules, I don't let my cat outside.

This probably makes me look like a class A dick, but that's all part of my inability to person. 🤷‍♀️. /rant off

[starlight-edith]

Yes deceptive editing is illegal. That's why Adam Waldman was kicked off of the case. He also refused to testify about any of his illegal behavior citing attorney client privilege.

People care because of the larger social implications, right. Some people like you view it as so obviously that she's a lying abusive gold digger you would have to be deranged about thinking men can't be abused. Some people think it's one of the most well documented public cases of abuse and are highly disturbed about the way Depp was able to spin the case, use abusive litigation to keep pushing her into court, even after being legally declared a wife beater in his UK case, all because he did illegally leak edited information before the trial to prejudice public opinion and then the judge made the horrific decision to live broadcast rape testimony.

Obviously the reason we all care not because it's someone's favorite rich celebrity (especially Amber Heard was a B list celebrity AT BEST - no one who takes her side is really doing it as a stan). For me, because I have read hundreds of pages of court documents, it's also about how we (and he) treat bisexual women. He admitted to defacing paintings from her ex wife and was jealous of how much they interacted. There's witness testimony of the way he acted when she was around other women. Constant slut shaming and even calling her slurs in text (he justified this in court by saying homophobia wasn't bad in 2014).

You seem like you don't have an in-depth grasp of the facts of the case, which is fine, and you don't have to, but if that's the case you shouldn't judge other people for thinking she's the real abuse victim. You can't assume someone is an unsafe person if you don't know much about what happened. Again I'm fine with coming off anon and sending you links or answering questions if you do care, but it's completely fine if you'd rather not waste your time on rich celebrity drama - just don't lose good mutuals over it if you've decided not to look further into it

Hi again nonny! I have two related things to talk about so I’m splitting this into sections. Thanks for being so civil and I apologize if anything I say comes off as attacking or anything like that in the personal section, I just have a lot of feelings if that makes sense.

Explaining my position:

I’ll just show you the screenshot

The reason this makes me wary is because of how demeaning it is.

It turns “I believe this man is a victim of abuse by a woman and I want to show my support because I know how fucking hard it is for abused men to be believed or get any type of support whatsoever” into “uwu captain Jack sparrow is blameless :)”

I’m taking this the way I am because it perfectly mirrors my experience. For reference, I am a trans man. I was taken SO much more seriously when I was viewed as a battered woman. As soon as I transitioned it turned into “you wanted it” and “women can’t hurt men because men always have the power” I was thirteen and entirely oblivious to sex, she was 16 and I trusted her even when she made me commit literal crimes because SHE had the power in that scenario.

With AH/JD it’s different obviously because he’s older and has more connections.

My problem is not with either of them, nor either side’s supporters, it’s the fact that the people on heard’s side 9 times out of 10 are echoing the sentiment that pushed me into fucking hiding, forced me to pretend I wasn’t hurt, and convinced me it was all my fault because I wanted it.

It’s not the cause they’re supporting, as a survivor I support my peers to the best of my ability, loudly and proudly when appropriate, it’s the WAY they’re doing it.

You cannot claim to support victims whilst also making fun of them — this applies to both sides!!! I HATED all the memes about “my dog stepped on a bee” and the way people laughed at AHs description of violent rape by Depp. I also hate it when AH supporters say things like the post above or claim that AH is incapable of being at fault because Depp has more power.

Depp’s struggle with addiction was also cited as if that automatically makes him abusive. My entire family are addicts and I PROMISE YOU that had nothing to do with the horrible shit they did to me. Most addicts are struggling with underlying conditions, but being a drug addict or being mentally ill does NOT make someone an abuser. Can drugs make abuse worse? Absolutely! But the way many of Heard’s supporters just stopped at “he’s a drug addict so he’s an abuser” just doesn’t sit right with me.

As for my knowledge of the case, I watched Observe’s series on it — he’s the pseudo science behavior guy that was later proven to be abusive as FUCK which is why as soon as I learned that I re-examined the opinions I took on from him — but not much else.

To reiterate again, I’m not on either side, my problem isn’t that the person is supporting amber heard, it’s the way in which they’re doing it. Sort of like how it’s perfectly normal to like pepperoni pizza but it’s weird to say that pepperoni is better because big pineapple is a liar.

TL;DR, my problem isn’t with neither heard nor depp, it’s with the way the people that still talk about it (cannot stress this enough: on both sides!!!) approach abuse.

I would be saying exactly the same thing if they wrote that post but supporting Depp instead

——————————

Additional commentary:

On Depp’s side, I find it suspicious that he was regularly referred to as “Johnny” by his witnesses and supporting counsel. This is a common way to infantilise them. Kids are innocent, so by making depp sound like a kid you’re more likely to sympathize with him. Heard never had any of that.

As an autistic person looking back on the things that Observe put out about the case I can tell I was originally swayed by his rhetoric. He says that for autistic people he would establish a baseline and then the regular body language analysis would work on them. As an autistic person who has been accused of lying on numerous occasions simply for not making eye contact, or flinching at unrelated negative stimuli, that’s total bullshit.

You cannot tell whether someone is lying by the way they act alone.

We’ve seen time and time again that there are no consequences for the rich, those with money and connections, and it’s very possible that that’s what happened here.

I doubt that this case will ever truly come to justice regardless of who was the “actual” victim because that’s just how our society treats abuse. We turn it into tribalism. Team Johnny, team Amber. We will likely never sway the opinions of those who decided early on who was in the right.

I’m not trying to say I’m the pinochle of objectivity or anything here though please don’t take it like that 😭

The more I hear about this the more I reconsider my opinion. At the moment I don’t know who was “right.” But again, for the millionth time just to make sure I’m really driving this home:

It’s the wording, I would be having the same exact reaction if they made this post in favor of depp

[youngestrunningleek]

The Coming of the Rats

Content warning: the book I'm reviewing today has a lot of sexual content.

Today I am reviewing The Coming of the Rats, by George H. Smith, published in 1961. It's a science fiction novel about a man surviving nuclear apocalypse.

Image description: The book's cover. It has a skinny blonde woman with her clothes being ripped off by hordes of red-eyed rats. It is 50 cents.

Before I go further, I will say that this book has a lot of sexual violence in it. It is treated badly. That's all I'll say in this review. Also, I'll be spoiling the end, but it's a bad book so don't feel too bad.

So, when I picked the book up (just the title was enough to get me excited) I knew what I was getting into. It was really funny. If you like this sort of thing, then this is the sort of thing you will like. I could write a thousand words taking down this long-dead author's sexism, but I'm not going to waste anyone's time.

Something that surprised me was that it's a near-future book. It takes place in 1963, and was published in 1961. I think of near futures as being a modern trend. Today, technology feels like it's advancing by leaps and bounds. It's easy to set science fiction just a few years from now. But Smith was doing this in the sixties. Early on, his protagonist explains why the year has to be 1963. I can't vouch for the accuracy of his calculations about the Russians' nuclear arsenal, but he clearly put some thought into it.

I find it kind of reassuring to read accounts from the Cold War. (It feels funny to use that name since it wasn't cold at all, for so many people.) I don't think people were wrong to be worried about the end of humanity, back then. But the world didn't burn. We live in scary times now. It's nice to know people were afraid the world would end, and it didn't happen.

One piece of evidence the book cites is that 90% of humans will die if exposed to 400-600 roentgens, and only 50% of rats will die if exposed to 825 roentgens. Again, citation is needed. In the text, it quickly becomes "rats can survive twice as much radiation as humans and live".

In reality, most of the book is set before the bombs fall, and very little of it is about rats. The protagonist spends the first part preparing and trying to convince Bettirose, his coworker, to go with him to his cave in the mountains. Once the bombs do fall,  he has some incidents with other survivors and prepares for the rat invasion. He sees the occasional rat and worries about them, but there's no horde until the last chapter. The vast majority is not really about rats. I guess that's a hazard of an older book. I'm used to covers talking about the first 10-20% of a book. But in this one, the rats are less of the premise and more like the climax.

Speaking of the climax, it was just fine. I'm obsessed with rats, and I was happy they finally showed up... but it was an awfully long wait for an average action scene. Something I would have liked to see is more description of the cats, dogs, and weasels the protagonist stores. Throughout the book he collects as many of them as he can, and they're useful in the end because they kill rats. But, compared to the detail given to farming and other preparations, there's never any description of the animals. They say the animals are taking up food, but how much? Dozens of animals are a lot of mouths to feed. And he never mentions taking the dogs for walks, or waste disposal. I'm not talking about animal welfare, I'm talking about them literally being able to survive. If you're going to have tens upon tens of weasels, dogs, and cats, you need to spend most of your time maintaining them. And there's never any description of that. Are they plants?

Also, the very ending is especially bad. It's hard to end a post-nuclear apocalypse story, but this is not the way. After waves upon waves of rats, there's a king rat. The protagonist kills it, and the rest scatter. Eyeroll. Then, there's a few paragraphs, maybe a page and a half, of thinking about the future. He knows the rats will come again, but he'll breed dogs, and make more preparations. That's the end. "I'm confident we'll be ready". Very weak.

If I was hard on this book, well, it's because it's bad. The sexism was really funny, until it stopped being funny. You don't need to read this one. My personal rating: 2.5 / 5 My overall rating: 1.5 / 5

[doberbutts]

It's really bothering me that Taigen's VA sounds so much like Zuko when he does not, in fact, voice Zuko because he's barely older than me.

Also I have 5 more episodes to go and all but I'm sort of. Well it's interesting to me because I know Japanese gender rules and roles are very much not the same as USAmerican but at the same time. Mizu gets violently, murderously angry whenever called one of two things: a demon/dog, or a girl. All I knew about this going in is that people got really mad at trans guys for saying "oh hey one of us" but um. Same hat.

And before anyone says "wellllllllll but Mizu is trying to escape the misogyny that women in Japan at the time were doomed to" yeah sure except Mizu got REALLY MAD at Ringo for saying "girl" much like how Mizu gets really mad at "onryo" and "demon" and "dog". Ringo has proven himself to be safe when faced with a literal naked Mizu so if it was all an act to escape misogyny, it wouldn't be necessary in front of Ringo. Same with Eiji- Mizu was going to tell him and he went "nup you were a boy and now you're a man sorry I don't make the rules and don't want to hear it actually" despite the implication that he very much knew.

(also I would say that being from a poor fishing village and having been orphaned AND having clear markers for being very mixed race, Mizu's options are actually both wider and narrower than the typical Japanese woman, due to the way Japan has treated its mixed race population since before sakoku, but that's just me. Mizu's decent with a sword and there's a lot of good money to be made as an assassin or mercenary, esp in service to a lord, clearly there's no compunctions about killing or maiming people, and we saw a woman bandit attack Akemi so there's more than "wife or whore" available unlike what Akemi's been told)

Also I know that it's not translated anime but I keep trying to think in terms of how the dialogue would sound in Japanese. There are some portions of the script where I'm like "hmm idk if they'd say that in that way" but it's interesting that for the most part I can follow along in Japanese in my head. I think there's a lot of Japanese input (one of the producers is Japanese I think? And it's a fictional story inspired by their mixed race kid?) so it makes sense that it's pretty easy for me to translate the dialogue into how it'd sound if they were actually speaking the language.

Anyway. So far a really nice telling of the complexities of how being mixed race and non-gender-conforming affect one's life in both little and huge ways.

Finally watching blue eye samurai and a character calls her butt "round and firm like a pumpkin" and my first reaction was "how do you know what a pumpkin is, those originated in the Americas"