#and also the discourse (heartbreaking)

[ingravinoveritas]

I recently had this link shared with me by one of my lovely friends here in the fandom, and found it so compelling that I wanted to share it with all of you.

This is a recent article from Vanity Fair about Cary Grant and Randolph Scott, both iconic actors from the era we now call "Old Hollywood," and it details their extremely interesting--both by the standards of the era and today--relationship. It's a long read, but more than worth it.

For those who may not know, Cary Grant was an English-born American actor and iconic leading man, and Randolph Scott was an American actor most known for appearing in Westerns. Both men were married to women/had children at varying points in their lives, but by some accounts (and especially what is chronicled in this article), they were the loves of each other's lives, even though being openly queer was next to impossible at the time, and would've been looked at as a career-ending (and maybe even life-ending) move.

There also seem to be quite a few parallels between Cary and Randolph 90 years ago and Michael and David today. The two men actually lived together for a number of years, during which the press of the day chose to portray them as "just two fun-loving bachelors waiting to find the right gal," all while Grant in particular starred in films with queer-flavored undertones that were both bold and downright dangerous in the era of the Hays Code. They continued living together when Grant was first married to his first wife, Virginia Cherrill (and after they divorced), and fun fact: While Grant was married, Scott moved right next door...so they were, in fact, neighbors.

Here are a few other excerpts that very much reminded me of Michael and David, for your consideration. (FYI that "Archie Leach" was Cary Grant's birth name before he changed it to his stage name.) This first one calls to mind the Radio Times calling Michael and David a "handsome couple" on the night of the NTAs in 2021:

This next one of course made me think of Michael and David talking on David's podcast (skip to the 1:25 mark) in 2019 about hating photo shoots and how Michael flat-out refused to answer questions at one point and only got through it because of David:

And this last one features a quote from a close friend about Grant and Scott that nearly made my heart skip an entire beat. For reasons that will soon be very, very obvious:

(I mean...)

What is also remarkable about this article (though not necessarily in a good way) is the mention of how little has changed since Grant and Scott's time. How even today, any actor who comes out as any flavor of queer is immediately looked at differently, and how the fear of both professional and personal repercussions keeps people in the closet for so many reasons.

These were the parts of the article that stood out to me the most, but as always I would love to hear from my followers with your thoughts and takes on the parallels above or anything else that you find interesting...

[bellamysbooklover]

Y’all…..

As heartbreaking as Izzy’s death is. It is still a good death. Am I heartbroken that it happened after all of his character development this season? Yes. I’m so heartbroken that he didn’t get his chance to belong with a group of people for longer. To be loved.

However. That does not take away from the fact that it was a good death. Before it happened we had a speech from Izzy about how even when piracy is gone in its entirety. Even when every pirate is dead. Piracy in its most basic form, belonging, will live on. The legacy of outcasts finding their people, will live on. Will live so much longer than the British empire.

He said “you are not a pirate bc you do not understand the feeling of finally finding a place to just be.” And “you are not a pirate because we are and we have experienced and we have loved and you will never love”.

Izzy’s death is a horrible stroke of bad luck. Izzy was the one walking him up so izzy was the one that got shot.

Even after getting shot he runs so he can get home with his family. You can see in the scene that the second he was shot he knew that was it for him. He still ran.

And at the end, him and Ed finally made up completely. He finally recognized that Ed is so much happier as Ed than Blackbeard. We have a parallel of “there he is” for first the Blackbeard persona and now finally the man behind it. Izzy wanted to pull his friend Eddie out.

Izzy said “just sit with me” and he said “I’m ready”.

Earlier in the season Izzy tries to shoot himself and he MISSES and he gets his ass up and stops Ed. And by the end of the season he has accepted life without his leg and he wanted to live again. But when he was dying he was ready. He was ready because he was loved and surrounded by his family. He knew his family would be okay. That Ed and Fang and Frenchie and Jim and Archie and Lucius and Wee John and even Stede would be okay. So he was ready.

His death was fucking heartbreaking but it is above all else a story about being loved, becoming yourself and loving in turn and how dare you take away from that.

[tenrose]

When the whole world is watched, filed, indexed, numbered, the only way to disappear is to appear, hiding our true identities inside a seemingly ordinary life. You're not a free man anymore, Harold. You're just a number. We have to become these people now, and if we don't, they'll find us, and they'll kill us. I'm sorry, Harold. I know it's not enough. A lot of people are going to die. People who might have been able to help. Everything is changing. I don't know if it will ever get better… but it's going to get worse. But the machine asked me to tell you something before we part. You once told John the whole point of Pandora's Box is that once you've opened it, you can't close it again. She wanted me to remind you of how the story ends. When everything is over, and the worst has happened, there's still one thing left in Pandora's Box hope.

[taleswithoutend]

It’s becoming abundantly clear that nobody cares about jewish people. You’ll get mad on our behalf when it’s convenient for you, and you’ll spit slurs at us when it isn’t.

But hey, I’m glad you’re willing to make excuses for blatant antisemitism when it’s used as a dunk against someone you don’t like. Maybe the next time Harry Potter discourse is in vogue, we’ll still be around to be convenient props for you.

[conanssummerchild]

i swear to god people are so fucking weird about autistic characters. chill your shit. quinni was showing darren why she masks becuase the real her isnt 'socially acceptable' yes, this is an autism thing, but lets step back from that for a second. in season two quinni is discovering how to be herself, and who she really is, like EVERYONE ELSE in the show because theyre literally SIXTEEN. shes learning to prioritise her own needs over other's needs, because shes been living for everyone else her whole life, this is not an autism thing, anyone can learn to listen to their needs, quinni's needs are just different to her nt friends, which is the thing that people dont get.

and my next point, if you want to say shes annoying, thats not ableism, you are legally allowed to dislike a character, do whatever the fuck you want. tbh everyone in the show is a little annoying at times. but if quinni is the only one you hate and its because of her unmasking then screw you tbh (also she is my princess queen and youre not allowed to hate her, says the law /not srs). anyway sorry if this comes off agressively its just that every fandom ive been in with an autistic character this shit comes up. shes not 'getting a pass' because shes autistic, it just contextualises her actions, youre not autiomatically ableist if you dislike quinni, do whatever you want im not your dad, unless you hate her for her autism and autistic traits, then fuck off

[ourdreamsareneon]

it's crazy the level of discourse there is about antis/pros and how teenagers just devolve into purity culture so quick. I'm sure I used to be like that, but somewhere between dating gang members and reading copious amounts of philosophy the world became a lot more gray to me when I entered my twenties and I've realised three things that I think are important for teenagers to know:

To quote my favourite childhood book series: "People aren't either wicked or noble. They're like chef's salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict." Sure, going to car meets, selling drugs, drunk driving, stealing cars, playing chicken with cops are all examples of bad things that you shouldn't do but am I going to sit in my lovers bed and tell him that this life he was born into that saw all his friends die in drive bys and that saw his own dad pull a gun on him when he was a kid makes him a shitty person? Even though I can see all of the good in him, and can tell he doesn't want to do this, I should ignore it and focus on the negatitives? We have all done bad things, we all do bad things, and we all will do bad things. It doesn't make you a bad person.

Purity culture hurts everyone. There's a great book about this called the History of Sexuality that delves into how purity culture and the censorship of sex is at its essence the capitalist authority controlling the means of reproduction. At large scale 'pray the gay away' and 'contraception is a sin' make it so that men and women couple up more (instead of same sex coupling) and have unprotected sex. On a smaller scale 'AO3 is evil because it has pedos' and 'watersports is the grossest thing ever' do the job of the capitalist authority on a more digestible level. Us vs Them no longer is 'alt right vs communism' they use your words to make it 'pure good hobest people vs pedos who like piss play.' you are making bullets for your enemy and handing them your own damn gun. I promised I wouldn't make this whole post this one point tee hee sorry if you want me to elaborate just ask lol

Fetish ≠ real world experience. I'll build my own pyre as an example: I love me some good CNC (consensual non-consent) in my fanfics but in real life sex I have a praise kink so bad I have cried during sex multiple times. I am into tooth rotting sweet stuff and the kindest people in the world in real life. The media you consume 1000% has an effect on you, I'm not arguing that. I am however arguing that if you have media literacy and know what media is and is not harmful to you, it shouldn't effect your real life drastically unless you have other shit going on. I know this is rich coming from the "I have dated people in gangs" guy because that may show what kinda guy I'm into but prommy that's not a sexual attraction thing, it's 100% a lifestyle thing that again I will elaborate on if you want. Point being, porn ≠ reality and what gets that blood flowing isn't necessarily a reflection of how good or bad you are (ofc there are kinds of porn that are bad but that's beside the point and a very complicated thing for me to type while I'm this sleepy)

thank you for coming to my ted talk. pls I am begging on my knees for people to stop having black and white world views but i also know that's just a product of being a teen so if you are a teen pls! go out there and! consume media from different cultures and people with different lives to you! the world is at its best when it is wide!!! and full of love <3

[batsplat]

On the one hand I definitely agree that Marc’s absence doesn’t take anything away from titles won but on the other I would absolutely understand if Joan and Fabio especially (Pecco less, I think… the bike… they all know about Honda beginning to fail, right? At some point ig you could say even a pre-Jerez Marc Marquez wouldn’t have ridden that to a championship and it is in Pecco’s best interest to put that point into 2022) would forever consider their titles borrowed off “luck” because I also think everyone ASSUMING if Jerez didn’t happen, Marc would have won 2020 and likely also 2021 isn’t exactly wrong. He won 3 whole races in 2021 (however he did that), that’s more than anyone else but Pecco and Fabio who finished second and first… as Max said, if is a stupid concept in sport, but the if in question is not a regular “if”, and the whole grid knows it. Hell, we are all aware that had Jerez been simply milder instead of the horror it became, Marc’s achievements would look different at this time… So that’s definitely very interesting to me, that any winning done in Marc’s continued absence from the top seems asterisked by the riders’ own attitudes. That him being on that Ducati this year helps, even a little, to alleviate a bitterness that seemed settled whenever he missed a race. It’s a true win only if you beat Marquez, because Marquez is the one to beat. I wonder if that’s what 2010 felt like to the then-grid, when Vale broke his leg… that winning didn’t even count properly, bc Valentino was not there to make it real.

yeah, listen, if marc had been uninjured in 2020, he would have won the title. I'm not arguing that bit, I'm saying it doesn't matter. marc's injury wasn't some kind of freak accident... it was unfortunate, but it was also unsurprising, and his comeback going wrong even more so. this is what you have to remember about sports but especially motorcycle racing: you are placing heavy demands on your body, and sometimes the excess demands are directly correlated to your success. in this post, there's some quotes from 2019 about how 'lucky' marc is... because he was crashing so so much outside of races to find the limit of the bike - and yet it didn't hurt his results (obviously he was still injured a lot, yearly off-season surgeries and all that). this was part of his approach and it was obviously a very successful one. and in some ways it is also one that was necessitated by the characteristics of that honda, which at this stage only he could tame... but it is true that if a lot of other riders crashed at that rate, they would've been considerably worse off, and it was a part of the process that allowed him to be so successful. and it did already make a lot of people very uneasy at the time, because it felt like eventually it just... had to go wrong. it's also worth noting that... yes, marc's achievements would look different if the injury hadn't been that bad. but the initial injury wasn't 'that bad' relatively speaking - it was his decision to come back that really fucked him over. I strongly believe he shouldn't have been allowed to race, but it was still his decision, and it was part of a tradition of ridiculously fast injury comebacks that had also helped make him so successful in past years (though fwiw this one immediately felt like a bad idea, zero hindsight needed I promise you). so let's put it like this: if you keep putting your body under incredible strain even by motogp standards to reach the level of success you do, and eventually your luck runs out, eventually you land badly on the wrong side of the risk/reward calculation... then how is it fair to say your competitors should be handed asterisks in your absence?

in 2018-19 everybody (including valentino) expected that marc would surpass valentino's titles. few expected him to last at the top of the sport for as long as valentino did. valentino during his prime crashed far far more rarely than marc did and was battering his body considerably less... for marc, there was always the question of how long this could last. he was punishing his body for his particular brand of brilliance, but this always had to be a trade-off. it wouldn't have been surprising if his career had ended through injury, though of course how 2020 played out still ended up being a shock. but!! at the end of the day, even without marc's particularly risky style of racing, you wouldn't need an asterisk. the comparison to 2010 is an interesting one, because you can tell that jorge was at times extremely eager and determined to stress that he wasn't just benefiting from valentino's absence. in the dorna-produced docu for his title, he emphasises that he was already leading the points when valentino broke his leg at the fourth race of the season... which is true, but a) valentino also wasn't leading the championship in the early stages of the two previous years either, and b) valentino was already managing injury. the eruption of that icelandic volcano meant motegi had to be rescheduled, which gave valentino the opportunity to go and get his shoulder injured in a motocross accident (again, for the question of training risk/reward see the post I linked to above). it was this injury that quite probably caused the next one... and troubled him more in late 2010 and early 2011 than the leg did. it also set off the chain of events that allowed jorge to gain ascendancy internally in yamaha, which is part of the reason why valentino decided to go to ducati and essentially took himself out of title contention for... well, two ducati years, and another year where he still wasn't quite up to speed on the yamaha. stop the volcano from erupting and motogp quite plausibly looks very different for the next few years

the question of whether valentino wins the 2010 title without injury is far more open than whether marc would've won 2020, but at worst you have to call it about 50/50 - and even with the troublesome shoulder valentino was getting the better of their actual wheel-to-wheel fights in late 2010. so that title fight too was severely influenced by one rider's bad luck, one that you can't even trace back to a particularly risky riding style... but on the other hand, eventually everyone's luck runs out, and valentino had been relatively lucky for a long time. he was also getting older, which in itself will affect recovery time. this is how athletes' competitive life cycles go, right - yes, you might lose your physical edge, yes, you might struggle to find the same fire, but you have also demanded a lot from your body for a very long time and eventually you pay the price. eventually, every athlete's era has to end... and unfortunately in grand prix motorcycle racing, a lot of the time that era ends with injury. schwantz and rainey were long-time rivals, with rainey winning three consecutive titles at the start of the nineties. in 1993, they were again locked in a title fight - until rainey crashed and was left in a wheelchair, his career ended and the title handed to schwantz. that was schwantz's only title, but he's still considered one of the greats of the sport. doohan and criville were teammates when doohan was dominant, and it took doohan's career-ending injury during the third race of the 1999 season for crivi to finally win the title. kenny roberts jr won the title in the following season in what was a chaotic year not dissimilar to 2020... from the young star who wasn't quite ready to put together a title charge to the underdogs at suzuki eventually claiming the big prize. this is how it goes... what a champion needs on their side as much as anything else is luck. jorge wasn't crashing as much as marc was in 2013, and yet somehow he ended up with the broken collarbone at assen that severely damaged his title chances - because sometimes, it only takes one crash for it all to go wrong. does that mean marc is an undeserving title winner in 2013? of course it doesn't!

in the case of 2020, when it became increasingly clear marc would not be winning this title, it's not like everyone's minds immediately went to mir. the favourites were dovi, fabio, vinales... the thing is, right, it was an absolute mess of a season (that was also of course seriously impacted by the pandemic), but someone had to be the one to take advantage. the suzuki was a well-settled package and mir after a strong rookie season was the one to put in the consistent results to claim the title. he was already highly rated going into motogp, and he was absolutely seen as a potential star of the future. for his sake and his reputation within the sport, of course it would've been preferable to win a more emphatic title... and in some ways, his 2021 on a lagging suzuki is more impressive than the 2020 title. it's an incredible shame how his career has gone since then, mostly not through his own fault, and you still want to hope he'll have the opportunity to dispel a few more doubts - both from the fans and quite possibly himself. then again, hayden won two races in 2006, kenny roberts jr three in 2000... at the end of the day, the main thing new fans know now is that they were champions, and so it will one day be for mir too. moving on to 2021, it's worth remembering that by then the honda was already a bad bike. yes, marc would undoubtedly have been the title favourite - but two of his three wins that year were at his specialist circuits that also still suited the honda, basically the places where he could win with his eyes closed. at the very least, you have to believe 2021 would have had a proper title fight and wouldn't just have been a stroll in the park for marc - yes, quite probably he would have prevailed anyway, but it's really not so cut and dry

THAT BEING SAID. I do agree with much of this ask! it is interesting that it's asterisked in the riders' minds! but it shouldn't be - that's the devil talking, you need to stand up for yourself and ignore all the doubters and get on with it. jorge had enough self confidence and stubborn belief in his own ability that this discourse in 2010 did nothing but piss him off. in 2007, casey was incredibly sick of people talking down his title because of how good the ducati was that year and the tyre difference between him and valentino. yes, casey was on the better package that year, and valentino did clearly benefit from switching tyres in 2008. does that in any way detract from casey's title? no! it doesn't!! he was right to be annoyed - imbalances are part of the game, and casey was very good that year. he deserved that title! valentino also faced the bike merchant allegations in spades of course, but young champions are particularly vulnerable to this kind of discourse. they're less established in the sport, more likely to attract detractors who are determined to prove they can't live up to the legends of the past... after 2006, everybody more or less agreed that it was a bit of a lucky title, but hayden was so popular and people were so pleased for him that it was just treated as a feel-good story - which it wasn't in the same way with surly young casey. no matter! who cares what people think! if your opponent has a bad day, you need to take the opportunity presented to you and press home the advantage. if your opponent has a bad year, even better. no sitting around worrying whether history is going to take your accomplishments seriously... it's like hayden said at assen 2006 when valentino broke his right hand and left ankle. from the oxley reference book: '[valentino] finished the race in eighth, which put him 46 points behind hayden. "when that rossi guy is down, you gotta jump on him!" he grinned'. brutal, but that's the game

also, I'll say it: I reckon both joan and fabio have probably had their fair share of bad luck to compensate by now. enough

[mossfeathers]

hey guys! idk why but all of a sudden im feelin not epic (shocking i know) so i think im gonna take a little social media break for a few weeks to become epic again. i have art im posting tomorrow and im gonna put it in my queue for a bit so please give that some love!! uh ok thanks bye yall👍

[bisexualnamjoonie]

twitter and tiktok lgbts seriously need to learn to shut their fucking mouth and get educated on shit before they open it I am dead serious queer theory is not a fucking toy you can pull out as you please everytime something doesn't agree with you personally godddddd

[ranboolivesaysstuff]

IMPORTANT POST PLEASE READ

Im gonna be honest and open for a sec, and please do not take this as "oh I HATE my community or I dont like the people who watch me" but honestly as of late (and I did highlight this during the mcc bit), ive felt like I havent been able to really be in my own community simply because of the constant way that "discourse" is handled. Making vague posts and not really tackling issues in a good way, all that is going to do is just show people a big "THIS COMMUNITY BAD" sign and not actually help anything within the community, all its going to do is have the good and potentially good people leave or not join in the first place. The way that discourse is treated that ive seen has been the main reason why I have started to try to distance myself, which has been the most heartbreaking thing I have had to do. I want problems to be solved in a mature, civil way, with either a dm or a reply, not an entire vague thing that only says "bad things are happening" and doesnt elaborate on anything or barely elaboratesa and only gives people on both the inside and outside a bad sign of what the community is. Making posts whenever something happens being like "here we go again" is only going to highlight the wrong things, and actually DOESNT help the issue at all! The problems should be discussed directly with the people who are doing said problems FIRST! Bring attention to behaviors and things that arent good DIRECTLY! And also, YOU DO NOT HAVE TO!!! It is not your duty as a viewer or fan of me to be involved in any of this if you do not want to! Just enjoy the content and make silly posts! As someone who constantly tried to fix and get into every problem as it was happening, it took a huge toll on my mental health, and I want you guys to just be able to enjoy the content without having to worry about what you say about it! Be constructive! Dont make posts again just being like "wow this community is so bad" because that doesnt solve literally anything! If you have enough passion to make the posts saying "wow this community is bad" then only post about that, you are only spreading that negative message, and not uplifting anything of actual value! And if the person you are trying to help is not willing or not listening, BLOCK! MUTE! DONT BRING MORE ATTENTION TO THE PERSON IF THEY ARE NOT BEING A GOOD PART OF THE COMMUNITY!!!! I know I say that if I see problems I will call them out, but I shouldnt have to babysit every single time a thing happens within the community as that just isnt a healthy way for a creator or a community to be handled. This does not mean that I do not care about the issues or dont want them fixed, rather it shouldnt take me having to make some grand statement every single time something happens it should take only your own self reflection and self awareness. And to add onto this, make sure that every once in a while no matter who you are you think and have that self reflection, you should be open to being willing to learn and grow as a person! And again, I do NOT want anyone taking this as "Wow this community is terrible" but rather that we just have things that need to be fixed and changed and THAT IS OKAY! I do not hate the community, I care so much about it that I want it to be a silly place for my content again! I want it to be the reason why people get into what I do because of it again! And I want to be able to just have fun and relax without having to worry about how every single thing that I may say could have someone stirring things up that simply dont help or solve anything! Take care of yourselves. And this isnt coming from a place of "I hate the community as a whole" but rather again I want to be able to exist and make content that we can all enjoy without having to worry about walking on eggshells around me or around eachother! At the end of the day im just a fella that wants to make silly videos for you all, and you are people who enjoy said videos. Nothing more. Nothing less.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

There's something really interesting (and annoying) that keeps popping up whenever OFMD gets dragged into discourse, and it's this pervasive idea that, somehow, OFMD counts as "less" of a queer show precisely because the story explicitly centers around a canonically gay couple who wind up together in the end.

You can think whatever you want about stories where the queerness always remains subtextual, unrequited or more focused on the pining than actually getting together. I don't find them satisfying, personally, and that's just my taste. I don't like that I can so easily name dozens of stories off the top of my head where the queerness is either all subtext, relegated entirely to unrequited or unresolved pining, or one character confesses feelings to another only to automatically die. I don't like that this seems like the default for queer stories.

It's okay to like those stories, it's okay to like the unresolved tension. But OFMD isn't somehow "less queer" than those stories because it's a romcom where the main characters get together. It's not less queer because it's a story that loves being explicit about how queer it is. Would you also turn on any Hallmark romance and get annoyed with how much "fanservice" it had for the straight couple to get together? At its core, OFMD is a queer romcom, and you can't get talk down to it for being what it is and expect to be taken seriously.

I just don't like the implication that there's something more queer about our pain than our love and success. I don't like the implication that the "truly" queer stories are the ones that don't get satisfying conclusions, that queerness is at its most pure when it's relegated to subtext or heartbreak.

In conclusion: if I see one more take about how OFMD is "hetero-coded" or whatever nonsense because it ends with the main couple happy, together, and in love, I'm going to start biting

[randomness-is-my-order]

thinking about the “single-plank bridge” and how wei wuxian’s circumstance becomes all the more heartbreaking when we contexualise the kind of person he is. wei wuxian is never shown to be an isolated entity from the very start of his story. even when he lived on the streets, he had a way of connecting with those around him and wheedling shopkeepers into maintaining his daily sustenance. quickly after he came to lotus pier, he formed bonds with jc and yanli. wei wuxian was genuinely interested in people and forging friendships with those he liked. his junior disciples loved him. he was canonically one of the most popular young guys in the cultivation society. he frequently interacted with the common folk in yunmeng or anywhere else he happened to visit. at the guest lectures in the lan sect, wei wuxian was able to inspire multiple disciples (not just nie huaisang) into following his shenanigans. he is also able to befriend some of the wens, prime among them are ofc wen qing and wen ning. for a story as heavy in interpersonal conflicts as mdzs is, it is a given that people and their relationships will be centre stage and wei wuxian isn’t in the least lacking in these relationships. we see this even after his reincarnation that wei wuxian, even when he tries to stay disconnected, forms new bonds with ease. the juniors that are first wary of him soon come to deeply admire him and wei wuxian in turn becomes protective over them.

in short, wei wuxian is defined by his relationships as much as he is by his actions and convictions and thoughts. never once are we made to believe that wei wuxian’s ideal choice would be the “single plank bridge”, that he would be completely at ease with his isolation, that he would ever want to pick that option as a preference. in fact, the single plank bridge ideology has never been one that wei wuxian is shown to inherently gravitate towards or recommend/preach to other people. but that ideology is a last resort.

it is a choice made when his hand is forced, when no other comfortable option is allowed to him, when every door is shut in his face and isolating himself from the people he has known is the only avenue left with him. the single plank bridge is about sticking to his beliefs and not giving up, about doing the right thing no matter what because someone needs to take that stand and wei wuxian has never not been that someone.

i think that it is so crucial that the single plank bridge wasn’t so much a choice that wei wuxian made than a choice that was made for him simply because he refused to give up on the wens.

he was denied alternatives. he was denied help. sometimes, the anti-culture discourse overcorrects itself into painting every heroic act that happens to be sacrificial as a default ‘hero complex’ and self-sacrifical tendencies, ignoring the build-up of those difficult decisions and how, in this story, in mdzs, wei wuxian wasn’t foregoing the crowded broad road but that the crowd on the broad road had foregone him.

[yandere-daydreams]

pretty personal, but wanted to thank you for helping me (quite some years ago) come to terms with my s.a. experience. the way that you write unhealthy power dynamics, rape and dubcon is very authentic (in sense if not in form) and seeing it clearly expressed by you that those shifty, difficult to prove as s.a. encounters ARE coercion was very helpful. dubcon writing gets a terrible rep, but imo it's ironically very informative when done with intent (as in without excusing the actions as normal because they are between partners. or because you didn't excplicitly say no. and other many things that muddy the waters).

like. getting to read something that clearly acknowledges s.a. as s.a. and then also reframes it felt almost like reclaiming it.

i was reading geiman's allegations transcript and it brought up shitty traumatic memories, which in turn reminded me of how you were the writer that made the horrible lonely shameful experience (because surely if you let it happen to you it's partly your responsibility. surely you could have been more explicit in your no. surely you being dependent on the person for your survival had nothing to do with why you had to convince yourself your s.a. was totally consensual sex) feel less lonely. so. thank you.

anon this is such a heartbreaking and reflective and beautiful ask to receive but you MUST understand that it's currently sandwiched between about twenty-five monsterfucking discourse asks on either side. there are benefits and downfalls to using this platform and one of them is the lack of delineation between serious asks and. well. the rest of them.

no but seriously, i do feel like horror is a genre that gets discredited pretty often despite being one of, if not the most helpful types of fiction in terms of working through traumatic subject matter. i love romance, but it kind of has a habit of glorifying unhealthy behavior or justifying dynamics that shouldn't end happily with the ultimate goal of preserving veneer of positivity that is simply,,, detached from the events being depicted. in horror, there's a little more room to acknowledge horrific things as horrific because they're supposed to horrific, and the complicated feelings and catharsis you receive from that acknowledgement is, like, the entire point. it feels obvious that a spade should be a spade and that bad things are bad, and yet, here we are.

that explanation kind of sucked and my thoughts on the subject are very abstract, but thank you for sending this in <3 i'm glad my silly little blog could help in any way you needed it to.

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Halbrand vs. Sauron from Galadriel POV

There’s a lot of discourse about Galadriel feelings for Halbrand vs. Sauron. Especially after executive producer and director of “Rings of Power” Charlotte Brändström revealed that Galadriel was very much in love with Halbrand, because he really seduced her back in Season 1.

Many fellow fans say Galadriel loves Halbrand but hates Sauron, and some argue she will get over him after Season 2 finale, and found resolution, because these are two different beings, Sauron was deceiving Galadriel all along, among similar takes.

Personally, I disagree with all of these takes. And I don’t think this is what “Rings of Power” is going for, at all.

Galadriel knows Halbrand is Sauron

There is no “Halbrand vs. Sauron”. Halbrand is Sauron. There’s no debate here. And as I’ve talked about in this post, Sauron is a immortal spirit from the Unseen world (spiritual world) who gets to chose his physical form on the Seen world (material world). And he’s always the same immortal spirit; his physical form is of no consequence to who he is. And Galadriel knows this, because she belongs to this world and legendarium; she’s not the audience.

“Rings of Power” had her react like this in 2x08 to reveal to the audience that she’s in love with Sauron (because this wasn't confirmed until this point). And “Halbrand” is Sauron’s physical form that she’s familiar with: because Galadriel belongs to the Seen world.

Galadriel’s heartbreak in Season 2 wasn’t about Halbrand being lie. She knows Halbrand was real, because he’s Sauron. She knows Halbrand is (one of) Sauron’s “fair form(s)” She tells so herself in 2x01:

And if this wasn’t clear enough, “Rings of Power” had her talking about Sauron in romantic undertones. She’s very much aware that the “Halbrand” she fell in love with is Sauron.

Galadriel believed Sauron deceived her and their connection was a lie

The “deception” Galadriel talks about isn’t just about him hiding his true identity, and the whole “King of the Southlands” plot. It’s, also, about her believing the connection they shared in Season 1, when she believed him to be “just Halbrand” was one of his illusions.

And she goes through every stage of grief with this revelation. And she’s angry, and so enraged she wants to kill the bastard herself:

Everyone who “got played” understands Galadriel reaction. Not only Sauron is her archenemy, the villain she has been hunting for centuries, the responsible for her dearest brother’s death (at the hands of his werewolves), but he “made” her fall in love with him. This is a betrayal of massive proportions, and she wants revenge, because her pride can’t digest something like this happening to her. And, honestly, “same, girl”.

Sauron used me. And under his hand, I was played like a harp to a melody not of my choosing.

She’s angry and heartbroken because she believes the connection they shared in Season 1 is a lie, and one of Sauron’s deceptions. This was confirmed by the show itself in 2x08:

And Galadriel had made peace with this fact, until Sauron spinned it on its head, in 2x08. Because their connection wasn’t a lie, and his offer in 1x08 was honest. And he’s in love with her, too.

And this is something “Rings of Power” has yet to reveal to the audience, alongside with the Galadriel dealing with the fact that Halbrand was Repentant Mairon (the audience already knows this). And this will probably have something to do with the reveal it was Sauron, and not Elrond in that “tent scene” with Adar, in 2x07.

This is 5 season show, we are only in Season 2, and quoting Charlie Vickers, the fandom needs to relax and enjoy the ride. The show has plenty of time to reveal and wrap up plot holes. Season 2 was about “Galadriel is in love with Sauron”; the confirmation of “Sauron is in love with Galadriel” will come later. And don't take any interviews at face value, because:

But Galadriel already knows this. And she was about to join him, in 2x08, until she snapped out of it (via Nenya). “Free will” is one of the major themes in Tolkien legendarium; no character can compel/force another to do anything. Meaning, Sauron can’t force Galadriel into joining him, and she can’t deceive him, either. There is no “enslavement of wills” on Tolkien lore; characters chose evil, out of their own free-will. And Galadriel was, indeed, choosing Sauron.

And when he binds them together using Morgoth’s crown, this self-deceiving evil diva believes this is a good thing. He wants to harvest Galadriel’s light for himself, and keep Morgoth’s bounds on him at bay. This has been his goal ever since Season 1, after all:

The Darkness Within Galadriel

Of course this “blood binding” was never going to work (as we’ll see in future seasons because Sauron doesn’t have a redemption arc, and he’ll only go deeper into evil), because Galadriel’s “light” it’s merely aesthetic. Her “light” is the light of the Two Trees of Valinor, which shines on her hair and eyes, as it does on every other Elf that was born during the “Years of the Trees” in Valinor, before the Two Trees were destroyed by Morgoth and Ungoliant.

But on Galadriel this light is more perceptible, because her golden hair, shot with silver, is the stuff of the legends, and strikingly beautiful. Fëanor himself was inspired by how the light caught her hair to create the Silmarils. And is, indeed, Galadriel’s beauty that blinds Sauron, the Maia who loves beautiful things, and to whom Galadriel is the physical form, the materialization, of everything he was created to love, by Eru himself, at the beginning of time. And this has been hinted by the show, already:

I already discussed this theme (the Darkness within Galadriel), on my post about her character in S1 and S2. And this was, most likely, the reason why she was attracted to “Halbrand” in the first place. She unconsciously recognized Sauron in him, which explains why she agreed with Celebrimbor in 2x07.

It’s not only about wanting to accept Sauron’s offer, but “blinding herself to what he was”. On a unconscious level, Galadriel knew Halbrand was Sauron, all along. She’s been hunting him for thousands of years, and she could sense his presence in Forodwaith (1x01). She’s not blind, nor a idiot; quite the opposite. Because Tolkien tells us she’s brilliant in mind, and a prodigy, filled with talent and spirit.

And this explains why she wanted to keep her distance on the raft, in 1x02. She did recognize Sauron, but blinded herself to that fact.

And she did out of pride. And then, she needed him to be “King of the Southlands” at all costs (ignoring him saying he found the pouch on a dead man). In her mind, "Halbrand" couldn't possibly be Sauron, because he saved her on the raft, and she felt attracted to him. And, like Elrond said in 2x02, it was entirely of her choosing, she self-deceived herself.

And when Sauron binds them together in 2x08, he’s not only binding her to him, but to Morgoth (darkness), too. “Darkness takes root” in Galadriel like Season 2 marketing campaigns told us. And this is the “fall of Galadriel” into darkness, which will come into play in Season 3.

Sauron and Power

To those familiar with Tolkien lore, it’s obvious that Sauron, in “Rings of Power”, is taking up the plot of Galadriel’s aspirations of power and dominion. In the legendarium, not only she refuses the Valar pardon to return to Valinor because she wanted a kingdom of her own, to rule as she saw fit, and that’s why she remained on Middle-earth, and goes on to create Lothlórien, but that’s one of the reasons she left Valinor in the first place. She wanted her own kingdom.

In "Rings of Power", she refuses the Valar pardon because she wants to continue her hunt for Sauron, and destroy him. This set the tone for the rest of the show. And her creating Lothlórien will have something to do with him as well, probably her safe haven to escape him (because we know Sauron will continue to group her mind for thousands of years into the future, and we haven’t seen this in the show, yet).

But the scene that “seals the deal” on this matter, is this one in 1x08:

Because for Tolkien Galadriel this wouldn’t be a “deal breaker”, at all. And so, it becomes clear that, in “Rings of Power��� Sauron is the personification of Galadriel’s “lust for power and dominion” from Tolkien legendarium. And he’s the character who introduces this plot to her character arc, too, because we haven’t seen any mention of Galadriel wanting her own kingdom to rule before Sauron offers to make her a queen, in 1x08.

Which is why the casuals are confused about this whole thing. Sauron sees the deepest desires on others, he’s a cursed wish-granter of sorts; with Adar it was children; with Celebrimbor it was crafting legendary objects to surpass Feänor and his Silmarils, and with Galadriel is her desire for power and dominion. Only RoP!Galadriel didn’t mention this, because Sauron’s character is taking up that plot. Her lust and desire for power and dominion and her lust and desire for Sauron in “Rings of Power” are one of the same.

And this won’t stop. Because Galadriel will always remain ambitious and power-hungry. In the legendarium, she thought about the One Ring and what she would do with it, for thousands of years. She desired it, and very much so. But she wanted the Valar pardon and to be able to return to Valinor. She knew she had to resist the One Ring temptation if it ever showed up at her doorstep. And it did, with Frodo. And that’s her last temptation and test. And she passes the test, at last, and can now return to Valinor (which only makes sense if she was, indeed, banished).

What all of this means is that Sauron and Galadriel plot is far from over in “Rings of Power”.

[lansangprincess]

HBH Bi Representation∘—✧₊

there's some discourse going around about the bi representation of Missy and Malakai being "pointless" since their current main partners (who they very well may end up with) are the opposite sex and I just want to voice out my opinion just so that it exists online that I heavily disagree.

Though sexuality is obviously about sexual attraction, queerness is an identity that exists outside of one's relationships and especially with Malakai and how he was exploring his sexuality at the beginning, I saw myself in all the uncertainty, in all the chaos, in all his overdramatic spiraling, to say the least.

They are more than their partners and I personally never felt like I was being misrepresented just because of who they were currently with.

But also, it's so useless for me to track how many hetero-presenting relationships there are on this show when the biggest representation win for me is that this actually feels like a queer community. The HBH characters feel more than a sum of their parts, compared to other shows/film where even if there are a few really good representations of queer people, the main group as a whole doesn't necessarily feel like that queer community my younger self was seeking all their life.

In truth, there are so many ways these characters could be romantically linked which would make for really interesting dynamics. And to me, every single one has a chance of becoming a plausible canon scenario which makes Heartbreak High such a groundbreaking show. I have my ships and my OTPs but I don't see how I could ever lose when the group as a whole truly feels like a super warm and safe and gay af found family regardless of who ends up with who.

[bugsonthemind]

Recently recalled my only memorable Worm dream. In it, I logged on to Discord to find a bunch of my friends freaking out because apparently Wildbow had reworked the entirety of Worm basically overnight. Logically, I went to read it. And what would you know, he did. The plot was mostly the same, with a few minor edits, up until the Alec interlude. After the Alec interlude, there was... more Alec interlude. The next chapter was also from his perspective. And the next chapter. And the one after that. In fact, the entirety of Worm except for the interludes up until Alec's death was from Alec's perspective while none of the plot details changed. A lot of it centered on his weird disconnectedness from even the people closest to him and society at large, and also the weird intensity of his relationship with Aisha. Towards the end in particular he started getting increasingly introspective and philosophical about it, to the point where a bit before the Behemoth fight it felt like he was on the edge of some kind of breakthrough as a person. This was bizarre, but also very well-written to the point that it almost felt like an even exchange if it weren't for the fact that we were losing so much Taylor content in the process. And the story just resumed as normal after the Behemoth fight.

Also there was a scene that opened with him and Aisha using Shatterbird like footrest. Like it was mentioned in the first paragraph that they were both using her as a footrest and then like, for the rest of the opening of that chapter they were just. Casually shooting the shit. While using her like a footrest. And then they realized they had to leave and go somewhere else. And they presumably just leave Shatterbird there alone. Still posed like a footrest. People were furiously debating the meaning of this in basically every corner of the fandom, primarily on the points of 1) whether this was Alec's fetish 2) why Aisha was going along with it and 3) whether it was Wildbow's fetish. Points in favor of it not being Alec's fetish were primarily his offhanded mentions of how Heartbreaker used women as props, and people pointed to that as seeing the whole footrest thing as a non-sexual replication of seeing the sexual abuse and humiliation of women on a regular basis as a child. Points against it being Wildbow's fetish were that after the initial mention in the scene, Shatterbird was essentially ignored - literally treated like set dressing. Points for were essentially that same point repeated with a more accusatory tone. Everything regarding Aisha was inconclusive. I woke up a bit after reading past the Behemoth interlude and catching up with the discourse.