#and i don't think the girls should have either

[a-commas-a-pause]

Ok I'm absolutely on board with the fact that AI is useless from an educational perspective and also fraud but I'd like to gently push back on the idea that chugging an energy drink and writing a paper in 40 minutes that was meant to take days is actually valuable to the student at all. The only circumstance under which I'd (very hesitantly) recommend doing that is when the assessment is summative (i.e.: counts towards your grade - especially in the UK many of them don't!) AND you're depending on that grade to open the next door you need open AND you've already tried to get an extension on the deadline and the institution is not playing ball.

The very fact that students EVER end up in a position where this is necessary for them is less of a ''time-honoured tradition'' in my opinion and more of a horrifying exposure of the flaws of our current education system. Panic makes it almost impossible to actually learn and even if it didn't, putting students through this stuff instead of just letting them have an extension (and providing them some extra resources for mental health and/or time management skills if it's not an isolated incident) is inhumane. You should not have to pull an all-nighter to get your degree. You should not have to do that! It's not a necessary part of the process and it's insane that we've started to act like it is, out of some vague sense that suffering is noble.

I know this isn't the point of the post, and I agree with everything that's been said here about chatGPT! But as someone who got through a very stressful undergrad by learning to ask for extensions on important deadlines, and someone who is now part-time on the educator side of things, every time a student sends in work to me at 3am or later (almost every week, when I'm working) I want to cry a little bit. It's not even a summative assessment! You can skip this week and fully hand it in after the end of term if you like, and I will mark it in the break! Please get some sleep.

chatgpt is the coward's way out. if you have a paper due in 40 minutes you should be chugging six energy drinks, blasting frantic circus music so loud you shatter an eardrum, and typing the most dogshit essay mankind has ever seen with your own carpel tunnel laden hands

[laprasboat]

sometimes i read posts about dan and phil's relationship and all i can think about is how it feels like the person who wrote the post has 0 examples of loving, healthy relationships around them

don't get me wrong, certain aspects of their lives/relationship are special and unique

but often people point out stuff that should be normal in relationships, i don't mean this in a "their relationship is nothing special" kind of way, but it makes me sad to hear so many people say they don't think they'll ever have something like that in their lives

having a partner who loves you, cares about you and genuinely enjoys spending time with you, someone who looks at you like you're the greatest thing since sliced bread is not an unachievable feat, a privilege reserved only for the most special people

sure, you're probably not gonna meet them as a teenager and build a career together (and not everybody wants that either) but i don't think that dan and phil's relationship would be less meaningful or beautiful if they met when they were 30 or if they never made it on youtube

i think there are just so few examples of couples (especially queer couples) both online and in media in general, that have healthy relationships, not to mention that so many of us were never taught to communicate effectively (speaking about people in general, not a specific demographic of people)

and all of this just reminds me of the numerous dating coaches on the internet (this specific rant was triggered by one of them) especially the people who treat romantic relationships like a really complicated game

i saw a video one of those "dating and love coaches" made about how your partner should not be your friend and how you shouldn't feel comfortable enough to talk to them about anything and everything, that's what your "girl friends" are for

and maybe im a bit biased, growing up i watched my parents who were (and still are) very much in love with one another and absolutely are each others best friends, but i cannot imagine anything more sad than dating being nothing more than a transactional relationship

i know im just ranting at this point and can't even tell how coherent this is, but if you're still reading this, i need you to understand

and i cannot stress this enough

you absolutely can (if you want) have a relationship that makes you as happy as dan and phil's relationship makes them

no you cannot have a relationship just like theirs, because you aren't them, what they have works for them and you need to figure out what works for you, what makes you happy

but don't let anyone convince you that you're supposed to be unhappy and that you should just settle for the relationship that makes you the least miserable

[shadamypositivity]

Here are my thoughts on this (warning for long post and my opinions)

Amy was made to be Sonic's female protagonist in the way that Mickey has Minnie, Mario has Peach- but Sonic subverts this expectation because of the nature of his character. Too cool, too fast, too wild to be "tied down" by romance, a hero on a breakneck paced hero's journey- this was also reflective of the culture at the time, so not just some throwaway decision. Reversing this dynamic doesn't actually mean Amy's character will change much, because Amy's definitive character has not been "Sonic's girlfriend" for a long, long time. She's a fangirl, she's obsessive, she's temperamental, she's kind, she's compassionate, she's honest, she's tough, she's optimistic, none of that would or SHOULD change in the case of "Reverse Sonamy". If Sonic is the one swooning and chasing Amy Rose then it's him who has to give up some of his definitive characteristics.

I'm not adverse to reverse sonamy because I don't think Sonic likes Amy -- if I can digress, I actually do think Sonic does have feelings for Amy, but I think Sonic has feelings for a lot of characters, but would never pursue romance for all the reasons I stated with Amy -- I'm adverse because I'm scared for what that means for Amy's character in the movie.

I don't want them to 'tame' Amy or Corporate Girlbossify her. I don't want her rolling her eyes at Sonic's attention or being the Only Smart One, or the straight man in a group of boys. I want Amy to be silly and tough and temperamental and sweet. Like the video's op stated, when people say they want reverse Sonamy I fear what they actually mean is that they want Amy to be toned down.

I saw a tweet not too long ago that slightly relates to this - that hypersexual women are one of the most oppressed people - I'm not classifying Amy has hypersexual BUT she is hyperromantic haha and I feel like relates to the gist of that theory. Is it really a crime that Amy does prioritize romance and love over heroism and adventure at times? Is it actually so terrible that she does have a crush on Sonic and follows him because of how much she admires him? As a girl, I related so much to Amy, not because I specifically crushed on Sonic (I was always a Shadow girl haha) but because I felt a lot how she acted. I was repressed myself, but admired Amy for how open and honest she was about her feelings and how confident she was when it came to Sonic returning her feelings. But she was also super tough and caring, but wore pink and loved girly things, but she also got angry and carried a huge weapon, but she also cooked and baked -- as a little girl who loved video games and action figures and super heros (mind you, this was well in the early 2000s when binary toys and interests were still very much a thing, I was ridiculed and denied in a lot of spaces) but also loved fairies and makeup and pink, Amy was the first girl character that wasn't either just cute and sweet (i.e Peach (who i adore DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND)) or tough and no nonsense but felt like how I felt. Amy had so many different layers to her character, I loved that she was girly and silly and in love but also super tough and strong and didn't seem to have to sacrifice one side for the other.

I ended up waxing poetic about Amy Rose for more than I meant haha, but I wanted to put my feelings out there. Irregardless of what reverse Sonamy means to people, or what anyone ships, I just want them to be true to Amy's character. I don't want them compromising who she's always been just because people find her annoying. JUSTICE FOR ANNOYING GIRLS!!!

[lover-of-mine]

yours and alli's tommy meta post is so perfect!!

also, he gets invited to the bachelor party and the wedding but instead of calling out and getting sb to cover his shift for him/ making sure he's not on call, he just doesn't. because his job is important and it's one hell of a second (third? can he count the coffee apology meeting as a date?) date if it spans 48ish hours, and it's nice to have the ready-made excuse if he needs to bail that nobody can fault him for. if he gets called out, fine, if he doesn't, he can pretend when his social battery gives out and he wants to leave. it's still too early and too casual to make that kind of commitment and sacrifice coveted pto for, and buck never asked him to either so.

and if he shows up to the wedding at the hospital with soot all over his face still in his turnouts (which, who doesn't love a man in uniform), then maybe that's not the first impression he had intended to make, but he still gets kissed for it and gets to feel like he's part of a big family for a significant life event so he's definitely not complaining.

@buckgettingstruck

No because that's so real, he has a built-in excuse to leave if he wants too, which considering the disaster of their first date no sane person would blame him for wanting, and Buck is not at all bothered by him showing up still in his turnouts, if anything Buck seems a bit too excited he's there at all. It could very much be a point where he starts to believe that once the relationship has run its course and Buck breaks up with him or they reach the mutual conclusion it's not working out and they should just be friends, then he would get to keep everyone else.

I truly believe he didn't want to break up with Buck, especially because I think he wanted the family Buck has more than he wanted Buck, and being the one to break things off, would permanently take the chance to keep that away from him. And he got to experience how intense the firefam can be first hand, who wouldn't want in on that?

And I do think he liked Buck well enough, he just didn't allow himself to fall for the guy because he existed in Eddie's shadow and was fully aware of it and didn't want to risk it. Because he watches Buck and Eddie with the knowledge that Buck is into guys, so in the back of his head there's always the "what if he wakes up someday and realizes he's in love with Eddie? What happens to me then?" and he was protecting himself, and something that is consistent with Tommy is that he will go to lengths to protect himself. It's kinda like being the girlfriend of the guy with a girl best friend. The doubt is always there even if you don't want to admit it or face it head on.

[pain-is-too-tired]

Yeah, the implications on both ends when it comes to her past guest on her island versus Leo isn't great

Because if she is still in mind of a teenager and enough to be considered one in god terms due to that(despite being older than Leo's own father-) then that means the gods were sending her fully grown often middle ages men to her island(Odysseus was at least in his 30s, and Drake likely would've been in his 40s, and Elizabeth mentioned was his second wife who was already 20 years younger then him)

Then the only time a teen shows up on her island is because he likely was meant to be trapped there? Iirc it was just him being thrown in a way he accidentally ended up there, Khione send him on purpose likely assuming Calypso wouldn't fall for him. Compared to other situations where gods sent heros they knew couldn't stay and that she likely be able to fall for.

So either the gods sent a teen minded girl grown men expecting she'd fall for them,outside of Percy,who i can't remember outside being blown away by the exploding mountain/volcano how he was sent there,as Rick wrote the island lot different then than in HOO from what I remember. If I just miss remembering something and a god sent him there. If so that means she went from a guy in his 30s, to guy in his 40s, to a 13 year old boy to a 15-16 year old boy, only one there with the expectation of her not falling for him like the others.

That's insane. Especially if she's supposed to be seen as teen like. And even then there's still a power dynamic. Even without her powers/immortality she's still a centuries old goddess, if she's shown to remember time before the island.

She calls Leo Leonidas which is never confirmed to be his actual name despite it being used by the fandom as such,I mean it could be, but it's also an old Greek name,One Calypso might be familiar with. Either she calls him a name she knows that's close to his name(Either assuming Leo was just short for it the whole time and just didn't stop even after being told it wasn't or just because) or she calls him that simply cause she more familiar with it to give her some familiarity even though Leo makes it clear not to call him that. Or it is his name and she still uses it despite him being uncomfortable with it(again, possible cause lot of demigods have names familiar in greek mythology and history) , but find it hard to believe that it wasn't used earlier(outside of course just it would be a retcon considering Rick's stated Leo to not be short for anything before). Gaea(who'd probably know his full name) not using it,but Calypso doing so even when asked to stop would be just wierd.

Also,yeah I really think Calypso should have became a hunter instead of Reyna. A plot where her and Leo both realize they cared more of eachother as friends then as partners would be good way to take it. That neither of them needed a partner as much as they needed someone who understood and a place to belong. Calypso finding place in the hunters(many who probably still remember her sister) and Leo finding home with camp,the waystation, and with Jason and Piper. Calypso being able to explore the world as a hunter and Leo finally having a places to call home after years of being on the run.

Would've been much better way to close thier arcs imo especially since I honestly don't know if we'll see them again unless they pop up in tsats 2 or some other series/one off. If not,having the last time we see them be them still having huge relationship problems isn't great 😭

Sorry for the ramble,just many thoughts on the topic 😅

I kinda hate what Rick did with Calypso character:/ it's understandable that she gets annoyed easily but we know Rick only made it that way because of the trope "mean gf" instead of actually caring for her trauma. Rick don't give a fuck about it guys, let's be real here, you give him too much credit

I think it's also relevant to remember that she had a thing with Odysseus and another man. And if we're playing by the logic that she has the mind of a teenager, it's just... Weird. Specially because it is never developed

I also find it strange that she calls Leo Leonidas even when he asks her not to, doesn't seem.... to match her personality. I don't know how to explain it, but I think that because she is always forgotten, she must values the act of being recognized a lot, so if she called Leo a name he didn't recognize, it was to hurt him. Which would also be kind of random (?)

And yeah, I stand by my point that caleo isn't exactly health. Calypso purposely moves away from him, you can't tell me there's nothing going on there.

I would love to see Calypso join the Huntresses in the future, I think what she wants is a bond of love, and that doesn't have to be romantic. And that would solve the problems she has about being mortal, and now she would have the choice of whether or not she wanted to stop being mortal or not. Because even though leaving the island was her choice, she was still tied to the fact that she would lose her powers and mortality.. Which seems pretty scary to me, she was locked on this island and when she can get out, she loses everything, she was not only physically trapped, but also mentally

[scoriarose]

She came up with a new activity

[adustoflove]

I always think well if I dated a man, I wouldn't feel as insane. I wouldn't feel so awful or jealous. And then I remember why I came to the conclusion that I'm a lesbian. I just wouldn't care if it were a man. I just can't bring myself to care about men like that 😔😩😭

[butterfly-ribbon]

been thinking of ppl saying that mizuena should've been in a yuri or josei manga that isn't popular which is a sentiment i understand bc yes a hypothetical mizuki akiyama that exists in a yuri or josei manga would probably have her transness made explicit i guess (absolutely not guaranteed tho imo considering the amount of transfem manga i've read that quickly veer into third sexing u_u) but even if i accept this premise at face value i'm not fully onboard with it bc i feel like her character exists best in something like prsk bc she exists as a response to trans girls being into things like love live, revue starlight, bandori, etc. it's in her metanarrative…

not saying gacha game writing is always good … a lot of ppl often say it's frustrating how much it expects you to fill in the gaps (bc that's part of audience engagement) and ena5 was arguably gachapilled abt it but i think it makes sense. gacha thrives on implied queerness bc even when the writers are passionate about what they're writing abt they can't risk alienating executives and wider audiences bc writing queerness in something 'mainstream' is often complicated? so it's not always the writers' choice? i think mizuki is pretty Explicitly transfem though. the only "issue" with her writing to me is that they don't let her say this, which i also only consider a problem /at all/ bc when she's outed it's pretty explicit? gacha often has very character driven writing … the queerness is often also an Audience Draw. i wish they would at minimum call mizuki a girl. textually. i want ena to call her a cute girl … though considering how many ppl go "ano ko", she's getting called a cute girl all the time lol.

with that being said, i think the picnic event is one of my main examples of things that make me go,,, mizuki's character works best in the context of something like prsk as a response to things like bandori bc it's about a tgirl vs cgirl idols. that mixed events inherently highlight mizuki's circumstances as "othered" by society around her and the inherent complications of her own life vs others. ppl compare mafuyu and toya sometimes also but it's so bare bones by comparison bc mafuyu is literally in a dissociative cPTSD fugue at all times. it's about so much more than being forced into a life goal she doesn't want. everything about how her mother has raised her has warped her as a person. made her unable to see healthy or more objective realities. mizuki and mafuyu both have wanted desperately to die and disappear. mizuki even now … struggles so much with that and being around "normal" ppl is hard for her bc of it bc no matter how she tries, she can't be a normal girl. an average girl. so she has to be abnormal or exceptional. no in between. how she exists in contrast to bandori is so genuine in that engagement with gender and i specify bandori bc it's colopales other game.

going back to the picnic event i love the moment when they're eating the food airi prepared and talking about how airi and shizuku are "idols who are capable of bringing others hope", but then mizuki quickly goes from admiration to somberness, wishing she could be the same as them ... and even when the others bring up the music she makes with her circle it doesn't do much to cheer her up? it reads so much to me as a trans girl struggling with an inherent sense of inferiority amidst cis girls who have never had their own girlhood questioned in the way she has and can thus take so much for granted! ena might be really ruthless and mean in a way that is atypical of femininity and airi may have struggled with not being traditionally feminine and was bullied for failing to act out "proper" girlhood, but she still has a very different experience from mizuki and neither can compare to the constant transmisogyny and degendering that mizuki constantly has to go through every day and having her identity denied so vehemently on a systemic level.

it's so pointed to me bc mizuki is an idol fan and has that genre awareness ... the way trans girls often connect with media like mahou shouio and idols but despite their love for it, still feel an inherent sense of alienation due to being an Other ... bc there's a separation between "liking these girls and these things" abstractly versus actually meeting them, and i think it's interesting that there's literally no way in the context of this game that any of these girls could be idols and trans, specifically bc mizuki is a trans girl who can't be one and this game predicates a major portion of its story around mizuki As A Trans Girl! if mizuki tried to be an idol, she'd be outed and harassed! that's a fear she already has to live with when she's making music with niigo even though it's safer due to its anonymity. transness and idols don't have to be disconnected of course, but her being a trans girl who's a fan of this stuff who's disallowed the opportunity to directly take part in them is So fucking important. her engagement with all of this.

this is an event about ena's relationships with other women but also how mizuki exists in the borderlines of girlhood ... how no one else is so prepared as she is for things going wrong and how much she has had to take on undue responsibility in the world at large just to "exist"... she's protected at home but everywhere otherwise, she always has to take responsibility for how others see her, how others project onto her, how others expect her to act, and the event ends with mizuki still declining ena's offer to join the group call with airi and shizuku bc it didn't resolve anything ... bc simply repressing her own insecurities and fears in the moment to rescue ena and airi bc it's more important to act didn't help in the grand scheme of things when this is something mizuki is always expected to do! ena did it out of kindness, but it's terrifying to be invited to a group trip with her childhood friend who is actually a cool and beautiful idol, and then for another beautiful idol to be there. and both of them are so pleasant and sweet and nice. how is mizuki supposed to interact around ppl like that, after all?

the mizuena in the picnic event is so fucking vital bc of ena trying to give mizuki comfort but making her more and more discomforted, which is good buildup to my footsteps, your destination. it's about how mizuki still exists on the fringes of girlhood even when someone is actively making effort to make her feel "included" and the invisible yet uncrossable barrier that exists between her as a trans girl who loves things like idols and idols themselves (who are predominantly cis girls). airi and shizuku are very sweet! but it's… kind of agonizing, bc airi was already ena's "friend" and mizuki feels like she has no place in the lives of others and wouldn't deserve to be ena's friend if ena found out about her transness, which is why she clings to the plausible deniability around her gender status. airi is someone who can bond with ena and be close to her much more easily bc of their shared experience with misogyny, but this is something mizuki has to struggle for much more even though the misogyny she struggles with is even more Amplified due to how the [trans]misogyny she experiences is often denied and erased even among other girls...

[theodysseyofhomer]

how he looks vs how she looks at him

[chemicalarospec]

you've heard of: aroacespec "is this person flirting with me" confusion, now get ready for: Does this person think I'm flirting with them (and also are they flirting "back" with me) because I accidentally bumped into them a lot?

[asklesbianonceler]

I have not posted any of my analysis to reddit yet and I think I might just post it and ghost it. I've already spent too much time looking at other people's threads on there to feel any way good about interacting with folks.

I already went in an added the "I know you're going to bring this up let me save you the time" section which is exclusively touching on the frequent topics of:

"well what about the fingerprint nostrum and finger mimics? He is clearly just a crackpot"

And

"it's definitely some weird elaborate sacrifice to Metyr thing"

[wonder-worker]

"[Alice Perrers] requested that she be buried in the parish church of Upminster, St Laurence, before the altar of the Virgin Mary. Alice seems to have had an affinity with Mary through her life; a seal of hers from c. 1374 shows an image of the Virgin Mary and child, her tabernacle seized in 1377 had an image of the Virgin Mary on it, and now she wished to be buried before Mary’s altar."

— Gemma Hollman, The Queen and the Mistress: The Women of Edward III

[robinmage]

no kind of relationship will ever be as impactful as the slightly toxic slightly homoromantic hyperdependent bestfriendship you had with someone when you were like 12

[mostofthingsmostofthetime]

Just finished the show a few days ago, so that's why I'm only just posting this now.

[caus34concern]

jeremy says shit, christine says crap

christine says fuck, jeremy says frick

[phantajam]

my hot take about descendants is that NONE of the core four were ready for a relationship until maybe like, the third movie (rant in tags)