#and its a way more complex understanding

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

If you were after more details on the angel who transes your gender, @crazy-pages - there's three different stories where that happens (as a way to maintain the status quo of man + woman). I'm copy/pasting this from another post so the format's a little weird 😅

(also, sorry about the gendered language. Trying to balance between how medieval people understood things and how we do is hard without changing the meaning of the original texts too much AND without getting super wordy)

Yde et Olive (15th Cent) - to avoid being married to their own father, Yde disguises themselves as a man and becomes a knight. They end up in Rome, where the king marries them to their daughter, Olive. After a couple of weeks, Yde tells Olive about their "true gender", but the conversation is overheard. The King demands Yde bathe with him to prove they are a man. An angel intervenes and transforms Yde into a man.

Iphis and Ianthe (Greek/Roman myth, but also in Ovid's Metamorphois, which first came to England in the 15th Cent) - Telethusa is due to give birth, but her husband tells her that if the baby is a girl he'll have it killed. When she gives birth to a girl, she names them Iphis and disguises them as a boy. Eventually, Iphis is engaged to Ianthe. (Incidentally, this is also a really early example of same-sex romance, as Iphis struggles with their love for Ianthe "as a woman"). Before the wedding, Iphis and Telethusa pray at the temple of Isis, who transforms Iphis into a man.

Tristan de Nanteuil (11th/12th Cent) - from the Chanson de geste, after his alleged death, Tristan's wife, Blanchandin/e, disguises themself as a Knight. Clarinde, a sultan's daughter, falls in love with them. Blanchandin manages to hide their "true sex", but when Clarinde demands they bathe with her to prove they are a man they flee into the woods. There, they meet an angel who asks if they want to be transformed into a man. Blanchandin accepts and he is turned into a man for the rest of the poem. (Incidentally the angel gives him a giant cock. Yes, the text specifies this).

the great thing about medieval literature is that it returns us to a time when men were men and women were women, *insert gritty realism gif here*, featuring such important and eternal gendered characteristics such as

(M) Why Would I Learn To Think Critically When I Could Find a Random Damsel In The Woods To Tell Me What To Do

(F) Demands To Be Brought The Heads Of Her Enemies

(M, to F) Be Mean To Me, No, Meaner Than That

(F) Meticulous Maintenance Of Social Connections And Alliances Via Writing Letters

(M) Crying

(M) More Crying

(M) Even More Crying, While Being Held Tenderly By Brother In Arms

(F) Necromancy

(M) Meticulous Maintenance Of Social Connections And Alliances Via Mistaking Friend’s Identity, Attacking Him, Then Kissing And Making Up

(F) Expert Medical Practitioner

(M) Self-Care By Episodes Of Madness In The Woods

(F) Owner Of Haunted Castle

[valtsv]

an angle i enjoy in cosmic/eldritch horror is when, instead resorting to the old classic "the horrors being so incomprehensible that they break your brain and drive you mad" cliché, the premise is that in comprehending the horrors you are so changed by the experience that your new state is indistinguishable to an outside observer from madness. you comprehend the unknowable just fine, but actually communicating that to anyone else is impossible because they just don't have the mental framework required to understand it. the eldritch horrors don't drive you mad. what does is the ordinary everyday horror of finding yourself isolated, ridiculed and doubted at every turn, no matter how hard you try to make yourself heard and understood.

[gophergal]

Honestly one of my favorite ship dynamics that I never see folks talk about is where they're just... Orbiting each other like satellites. A deep closeness, but not quite something explicitly romantic. Everyone around them has conflicting opinions on their relationship, but they never label it. Heartfelt declarations of trust, love, and friendship are non negotiable

[florsial]

The Soldier and the Violinist: Overall 

Regulus is 6 and Rabastan is 16. Regulus is a child who is still very curious and pampered while Rabastan is an angsty teenager with his personality all over the place and a poorly built knight complex. There is definitely an immediate interest since I think Rabastan resembled what Regulus saw in Sirius. A fire under the skin and restlessness behind the eyes. While Rabastan sees Regulus as the youngest Black, and desires to save him from the madness of the Black Family. So he hangs around Regulus. But while Regulus likes him quite a bit, his loyalty to his family is more important.

It definitely develops and they become sort of friends. I think when Rabastan starts liking Regulus more, it’s more advantageous, and grows more and more personal. Regulus views him as savior, a Shepard, a guide, because Rabastan is this older figure telling him things and giving gifts and love, compliments and does whatever Regulus wants him to. A puppy crush definitely spouts. 

But it’s important to remember that Walburga and Sirius are both extremely possessive over Regulus. So while he had Rabastan, the hold of Sirius and Walburga is definitely stronger.

As Regulus grows older, a spoiled teenager who never got over the puppy crush, not that Rabastan bothered to. He liked the sole attention Regulus gave him. They became closer. Rabastan becomes more handsy and closer towards Regulus, who fully enjoys the attention and allows him.

When the War starts, they are still ever much closer.

Dynamic:

Basically, they mimic/mock the traditional nuclear family. Provider/the provided. But it doesn’t work because they don't understand the family part. Love makes it a family but Reg and Rab are both selfish and possessive individuals over each other, to an extent, they view each other a part of THEIR respective life, dehumanizing part of each other for their own benefit. There is fondness, but love is something different for them.

Regulus is naive and can be easily influence and Rabastan does take advantage of that when he can. But also he’s completely weak in the sense that he will do anything to keep Regulus by his side. Regulus is naive and gullible sometimes more often than not, spoiled. Rabastan can’t view Regulus as mature as he is because he’s clinging onto the childish crush to keep Regulus close, the childish crush that kept Regulus to him through naivety. <-- it's creepy ik, please understand that just because there seem to be "justifications" (Rabastan doing whatever Regulus wants), it doesn't mean much.

I love the fact that they act out such a traditional role while fully aware of the power each other hold over the other. Rabastan knows Regulus has emotional control over him and it’s the one thing he isn’t a big fan of. He knows he’s at the mercy of the younger. And I definitely think Regulus extends it in small ways when he really wants to even if he doesn’t realize it.

OUTSIDE POV:

Their love story is very normal. But only on the basic surface. They both cater (soldier that fights for and a violinist that performs) to the another (us, their society).

The biggest thing with shipping them is remembering the age/maturity imbalance. Rabastan groomed a child and Regulus didn’t have anyone telling him otherwise. They are discomforting because the outsider is picking at what is wrong but no one says anything.

They are actively trying to contort themselves into something they are not and it’s a creepy sight. Seeing their height difference, the roundness of Regulus face, the aged, tired look in Rabastan’s eyes. All while they act like a married couple.

Minor Stuff: I think the importance of their age difference should be highlighted differently compared to other things. They knew each other when Regulus was basically a baby. Their relationship is more horror than anything.

[braintapes]

evil drawing advice your brushstrokes should be COWARDLY and WHIMPERING and snivelliing pathetically when you draw them. and so you should make as many short, shaky, shivering lines as you possibly can

[gwynndolin]

I need you guys to understand that unequivocally I believe that the original cutscenes in silent hill 2 do not even barely hold a candle to the emotional depth and understanding that the new team had with the remake. And this is coming from someone who's obsessed over the original game and held it in the highest possible regard for the entire 15 or so years that I've known the game.

Don't get me wrong, I understand completely the limitations that the original Team Silent had while working on SH2, and know that they could never achieve the level of subtlety that the remake does purely through the game engine or rendering techniques that we can now, but seeing so many people saying that they prefer the original scenes to the remake's... It's an unfathomable level of obstinance— one I barely even find believable

[iguessitsjustme]

*takes you by the hand as gently as I can*

You can dislike Maya without turning her into a one dimensional villain that serves no purpose to the story.

You can dislike Maya without disparaging the story and message the show is trying to convey.

You can hate Maya without moralizing your hatred. You can just hate her. It’s okay.

[daily-hanamura]

[cherry-treelane]

I find it so ironically funny when hardcore Debbie defenders use the defense that she was just a victimised teenage girl (agreed) and then proceed to slander Fiona and express their hatred for her character and lack of sympathy

as if being an adult magically absolves an individual of the horrifying trauma that precedes them and screws up their mentality and actions

funnily enough these people get mad at others for "expecting Debbie to be an innocent angel and hating on her for acting out as a result of trauma" (also agreed, debbie does deserve more sympathy, she can't be expected to grow up to be a perfect saint when she's been through so much) yet seem to hold Fiona to the same unattainable standards and put her on a pedestal as if she wasnt a child that was forced to intensely grow up while never actually being raised

like lets put this into perspective and remember that fiona grew up surrounded by corrupt morals and insanely screwed up behaviour yet still emerged as messed up, yes, but surprisingly good considering the situation she was in??? she had to navigate basic things such as morals and being a good, responsible person on her own. imagine how difficult it must be to lead a bunch of kids, including yourself, with no previous role model or good example of your own to follow. most of the time, she always tried to do what she thought was best and would have the most desirable outcome

[wickmitz]

lightly touching upon this post in particular, but i feel like people tend to forget that rocky really is someone who does make his own choices more often than not. yes, his circumstances are tragic, and personally i can’t fully blame him for being so desperate to keep his newfound home to the point of taking up violent crime to maintain it … but these are still choices he makes of his own volition, over and over again. same as every other character in the narrative. rocky is the one who decides to go after the pig farmers for revenge and doesn’t tell mitzi or viktor about it, which winds up costing the lackadaisy devestating consequences! he’s the one who ( rather gleefully ) decides to try and kill fish and wes, and was maybe considering this plan from the moment he saw them adorning the marigold flower on their lapels. he threatens and scares wick. he convinces freckle to join the lackadaisy crew due to his own fear of losing his job. etc etc! rocky also shows a streak of hiding his pain / bad situation to others, due to not wanting to be seen as a burden, and wanting to bounce back all on his own to prove his worth. again, this is all very sympathetic! but i do wish more people acknowledged that rocky isn’t some puppet on everyone else’s strings and that he’s, in fact, someone who can and has made his own choices multiple times within the story itself.

[dragon-deez-ballz]

i love super art style because if you thought dbz artstyle was bad sometimes then super gets even worse. all the time

[yuri-for-businesswomen]

someone has never lived with a coke addict. lmao

no but for real i see these posts a lot and while the basic idea is 100 % correct (drug addiction and homelessness are not personal or moral failures and people affected deserve respect and dignity), they usually take a direction or have implications i dont agree with.

first off, drug addiction is not a class issue. people of all backgrounds are drug addicts. ceos too. so i dont know what this has to do with leftism? as someone who struggles with substance abuse and for that reason has lived with and been around addicts, there are good reasons for people to be biased against them. in active addiction, many people are erratic, unpredictable, and egoistic. being wary of active addicts is self-preservation, not „bourgeois“ or whatever the reference to leftism is supposed to imply. this is also partly a gendered issue because men tend to exhibit addiction, egoism, and aggression at higher rates than women.

secondly, especially at the intersection of homelessness and drug addiction - i see a lot of these posts taking the direction of „mind your business if a homeless man is next to you mumbling to himself“ etc - it seems these people also romanticise what drug addiction with nothing to lose can do to a person. a friend of mine was hit in the face by a homeless man walking by, someone else i know was stabbed by a homeless man after they took him in. just because someone is underprivileged you dont have to stop listening to your insticts and keeping your distance to erratic and intoxicated men who seem like they might do something unpredictable. this doesnt just mean homeless men by the way, i dont trust any men exhibiting this behavior, and yeah would possibly call the cops if someone like that hung around my home or work (never have though).

on the other hand, when a homeless woman was hanging out in the hallway i let her be. my neighbor wanted to call the cops but i told her not to. personally i dont even care if she shoots up there, but if i had kids i might not want her around either.

are homeless drug addicts vulnerable and more likely to be harmed than harm someone else? yeah. do cops and doctors treat homeless people like shit? yeah. these are important conversations to have, but i wish they would happen without romantisation.

talk to any woman who has worked with homeless men, myself included - marginalisation is not virtue. many still harrass and even assault women. and these posts never take a gendered perspective: how most homeless and drug addicted women land in prostitution, how they are not safe in homeless shelters because of the men, etc.

im not saying op here said all of this but from the tone (and the tags and reblogs) it struck me as one of those posts that shames people for being alert around drug addicts and alcoholics when there is ample reason to, especially if youre a woman and theyre a man. and they never take a gendered perspective which is really important in this context, as it usually is.

[ccbatman]

actually so evil how much of hal's internal world gets obliterated with the rewriting of his relationships with jessica and martin.

[milfbrainrot]

"claire's a bad mom" claire chose to have her kids claire tells her kids bedtime stories and claire pretends not to be in life threatening danger when she's terrified for her own and her kids' safety to help them stay calm and literally only wants to know if they're okay before prioritizing herself and keeping them far away from danger by rescuing herself i think ur just racist

[neanderthyall]

Living with ur mom as an adult is like.... being extorted constantly. I have a zoom interview. "You should use my headphones." No thanks im good. "They'll block out the other sounds." its okay, it'll be fine. "They'll think your unprofessional if you get interrupted by a loud noise." I dont want to use your headphones. Why are you raising your voice at me. Why wont you stop trying to make me do what you want. We have already had this conversation twice, it is not that serious. Why are you being short with me now. We cant keep having this conversation.

"Dont leave your lights on." Ok sorry i just forgot. "You left the lights on again" yeah because i was coming back to that room. "You just have to make sure you turn them off" i know. "Dont get cheeky with me" i! Am! Just! Existing! But! Now! I! Am! Being! Surveilled! Constantly!

[ladyalicentshightower]

I think people overestimate how feminist team black is. If someone brings up how Baela should be the heir to Driftmark, it's always "she would've been Queen if not for the Greens!", ignoring that 1, she would be Queen consort, not a Queen in her own right, and 2 she has a legitimate claim in her own right to Driftmark. Team Black's goal is to crown Rhaenyra, but Rhaenyra becoming Queen isn't a win for feminism because it does nothing to dismantle the rest of the patriarchal system that exists in Westeros. From what we've gotten so far, it reads that Rhaenyra wants to be the exception and not the rule. Rhaenyra has made a lot of bad political decisions, which means she can't acknowledge Baela's claim because it would weaken her own claim (blatantly admitting her eldest sons are illegitimate would not end well for her to say the least). So she betrothes Jace and Luke to Baela and Rhaena to kind of atone for that, like as a consolation prize Baela will be Queen and Rhaena will be lady of Driftmark, neither of them would hold either title in their own right. It's good matches because the kids like each other and will treat each other well, but it's not a feminist win or a feministic liberation. It's usurpation, usurpation that takes place because Rhaenyra has to do damage control after having illegitimate children and after a serious of bad political decisions (both hers and her fathers, Viserys is the arbiter of this entire mess). To me, Rhaenyra is very reminiscent of Mary Queen of Scots, I can see a lot of elements drawn from Mary's history in Rhaenyra's story and character, down to their sons eventually taking the crown they failed to claim/keep.