#and therefore what they're capable of doing for the other or together

[hyperlexichypatia]

Okay, here's my criticism of this post I keep seeing -- and no, it's not what you think. I know, my longtime followers who know the kinds of things I post about a lot are probably thinking, "Oh, I know what their objection is going to be. It's going to be that 18-19 year olds are adults who can date older partners if they choose to." But no, that's not it this time! Yes, I do believe it's fine for young adults to date older adults if they choose to (and am accordingly rolling my eyes at all the "This should go up to 25!" comments in the notes), but. That's not my issue here. In fact, precisely because I believe that young adults dating older adults is morally neutral, I'm not at all concerned about the efficacy of the messaging against it. My concern is that underage minors being in sexual/romantic relationships with adults is actually harmful and dangerous, and therefore young people actually should be warned against it, and this is not an effective warning.

Fellow old people, do y'all remember being 14? At all? Would you have found this warning effective and compelling at that age?

I for sure would not! I did not! Quite the opposite!

Put yourself in the young person's position here. You have no rights. You're treated as someone with no agency. Your parents, teachers, government, and society as a whole treats you as some combination of "nuisance," "ticking time bomb," and "unthinking blob." Developmentally, you're at a phase of life when you should be transitioning to a more adult role, but everyone around you demonizes you for that desire. All your thoughts, feelings, and opinions are dismissed as the inconsequential ravings of Just A Dumb Kid Who Doesn't Know Any Better. You meet someone who treats you with basic human politeness, tells you that he likes you and that you're mature, actually treats you like you have two brain cells to rub together. Of course you're going to be drawn to him. And then when other adults warn you that obviously of course he doesn't really like you, that's impossible, of course you're not really mature, no one could possibly see you that way; actually you're naive and incapable of making your own decisions, and the way your parents/teachers/society treat you is completely justified. Are you going to heed those warnings?

Why are adults absolutely constitutionally incapable of giving good, necessary advice to teenagers without fucking insulting them in the process? Of course teenagers don't listen to it! Why would anyone??

"Oh, well, of course teenagers don't listen, because they're stubborn, and immature, and biologically determined to make bad decisions, which is all the more reason they need to be controlled," say adults, completely oblivious to the actual problem.

When I was a teenager, the big moral panic at the time was teen pregnancy, and we were all inundated with the least effective cautionary tales in the world: "If you get pregnant as a teen, you'll have to leave your parents' care and function as an adult!" Which left every girl who'd intentionally gotten pregnant for the explicit purpose of escaping her abusive parents saying "Yeah, that was the goal." And every girl who was looking for a way of escaping her abusive parents to think "What a great idea!" Today the big moral panic is older partners, but if the appeal of an older partner is that he treats you like someone capable of making your own decisions, why would you be persuaded by a counterargument of "Don't listen to him, of course you're not capable of making your own decisions!"?

Again. I'm saying this because I agree that adults dating minors is a bad thing and that minors should be warned against it. EFFECTIVELY.

That said, this is my advice to any 17-or-younger person being pursued by an 18+-year-old partner: Listen. You deserve so much better than the way society treats you. You deserve to be taken seriously. You deserve to make your own decisions in life. You have a mind of your own, and people should recognize that instead of treating your pesky "free will" as a personal affront or an inconvenient glitch. You can and should think for yourself. You deserve, and I hope you have, relationships with older people who validate those truths about you. However. You are still legally and materially powerless. I don't have to tell you that. You live it every day. Someone older than you -- and therefore, inherently, legally, more powerful than you -- should not be trying to extract things from you. Money, sex, unpaid labor, anything of value. Someone more powerful than you who truly values you, values your friendship, values you as a person, will be mindful of your status and not try to extract anything from you. Cross-age friendships are good. Older people can and should genuinely like and appreciate you, and you can and should genuinely like and appreciate them. But if they try to extract anything from you, run away.

[youremyheaven]

Jupiter Dominant Women & Daddy Issues

TW: mentions of rape, abuse, suicide etc

Over the years of my studies, I have noticed that its Jupiter dominant women who tend to have daddy issues more than any other planetary dominance. Solar women (Uttarashada, Uttaraphalguni & Krittika) tend to benefit from positive male influence in their early life, so they have healthy Yang qualities (they're driven, self-motivated, critical thinking) whereas women who haven't had a healthy male influence in their early lives, either develop a heightened but fragile femininity (understood in a very traditional way, this means being passive and excessively reliant on others to get by, I know this is misogynistic but i am talking strictly about a traditional notion of femininity) or they cultivate inner masculinity.

Jupiter is a masculine planet and across the naks of Punarvasu, Vishaka and Purvabhadrapada, women tend to have a very unguarded, open, almost masculine presence. I mean this in terms of what they talk about or how self-assured they seem, traditionally women were expected to be more withdrawn or to talk little. I don't mean to say Jupiterian women are brash or aggressive, they're very poised, and elegant and put across their point eloquently. They're 9/10 times very well-spoken. When one lacks the security of a male figure early in life, one tends to cultivate inner masculinity because it's understood that you cannot rely on any man.

Caroline Polachek, Punarvasu Moon, has spoken about her difficult relationship with her father on numerous occasions. Here's a link to a post where she talks about it. Her lack of a father figure in her own words caused her to be "self-sufficient". Notice how in the post, she speaks about making amends with him later in life and even ended the post with "love you dad". This is the kind of generosity that you don't see from most other nakshatra types. To forgive someone who was never there for you/abused you/hurt you/caused you immense pain, requires a great deal of strength and maturity and not everybody has it. Punarvasu's innate nature is to absorb everything into its orbit and always be the bigger person. Due to the vast, abundant nature of Jupiter, they are ABLE to, accept these people for all their contradictions and see them as flawed, which makes it easier to forgive them. Most people let their traumas define their identity (im not saying traumas don't shape you, only about the kind of perception most people have about their own traumas) and spend their whole lives blaming others for who they've become or what they've done to them. To live a peaceful life, one has to take the high road, look beyond everything and see it as a part of life. It sounds very callous when I say it like that but that's what I mean. Not everyone is capable of being the bigger person or taking the high road.

Jupiter is the guru or teacher and how would one describe an ideal teacher? Someone who forgives the mistakes of their students as having risen out of immaturity and forgives them for not knowing better or being better. A teacher is forced to operate on a higher moral plane than others simply because chaos would descend if the teacher came down to the level of others. They are figures of wisdom, knowledge and higher learning, therefore their behaviour has to reflect the same. Jupiter natives are harshly punished for behaving in ways that are not fit for a "guru" because subconsciously society/those around them subject them to a different standard. Others can do the same exact thing and not suffer any consequences but when a Jupiter native behaves that way, they're ostracized. People kind of expect them to have it all together or be better. Any lapse on their part is judged harshly.

One of the biggest mysteries is how Jupiter natives emerge from often brutally abusive and neglectful childhoods into relatively well-adjusted adults. In the case of famous parent-child situations, there is public proof of their wrongdoing but in numerous other instances many do not believe Jupiter natives to have suffered the way they have or to the extent they have simply because on the outside they seem to have it all/seem so put together. This is yet another manifestation of Jupiter's duality and this not being believed/seen for who they are/how they've lived can be a source of pain/grief for some of these natives whilst others like to pretend it never happened and present a very positive view of their life. They don't hold grudges and often simply overlook the horrible nature of their loved ones, especially their parents and try to make amends with them.

Drew Barrymore, Punarvasu Moon, comes from a very famous family of actors but her father John Barrymore was a violent alcoholic and a drug addict who abandoned her & her mother when she was a child. She did not have any relationship with him and seldom spoke to him until he was diagnosed with cancer. She took care of him and even paid his medical bills until he passed away in 2004. Here's an IG post where she talks about her dad. It's so touching to see the compassion with which Punarvasu natives talk about people who've hurt them so much (in her memoir, Drew recalls how one time her father picked her up as a three-year-old and threw her against the wall). Truly, I don't see this level of kindness in any other nakshatra if I'm being honest. This is a photograph of her with Steven Spielberg who directed her in E.T when she was 7 years old, he's kind of a godfather figure to her and she apparently asked him to be her dad when she was a kid 🥺🥺

I also think Jupiter natives have a complicated relationship with their mothers as well, sometimes they're extremely close but other times, I think Jupiter natives feel the need to be their mother's saviour because they know how much she's gone through in her life. This manifests itself in a very complicated relationship. There is love but there is also a lot of bitterness.

Drew Barrymore has a very complicated relationship with her mother, who used to date the men Drew dated, pushed her into acting and exploited her as a child and admitted her to a psych ward when she was 12 among other things. Drew still takes care of her financially and has mentioned that her mother has even tried to steal money from her.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Punarvasu Moon is the daughter of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. Her parents separated when she was a child and she lived with her father. In 1984, she did a duet with her father and starred in the music video for a song called Lemon Incest which describes an incestuous relationship between father & daughter. She was 12 years old at the time.

The music video is creepy, to say the least and features both of them half-naked in bed together. In 1986 when she was 14, she starred with her father in a movie called Charlotte For Ever which is about an alcoholic man whose only link to life is his daughter (Serge was an alcoholic). She has spoken about how difficult the filming experience was for her as he would push her to her extremes.

Here's a very uncomfortable clip of him kissing her on the mouth when she wins a Cesar. She is 16 years old.

Jane Birkin commented on the song saying "It never came as a shock or a surprise or even a worry [to her], knowing Serge's great love for Charlotte". Many believe that Birkin enabled Serge's abuse of their daughter since she left him due to his alcoholism and violence but left Charlotte in his care. She has also stated that her mother would always dress her up as a little boy when she was a child and that this complicated her relationship with her femininity.

Charlotte has only ever said good things about both her parents and denied any abuse.

She's also starred in multiple films directed by Lars Von Trier where she plays gruesome sexually depraved characters and Lars is well known for being difficult to work with. She has said that she sought fatherly approval from him ._. and again has only said good things about him.

Kali Uchis, Punarvasu Sun, Vishaka Moon & Rising has spoken about being abused as a child and that she no longer maintains contact with her family. She was kicked out of the house when she was 17 and slept in her car and worked at a supermarket for years to support herself.

Halsey, Punarvasu Moon. She grew up poor and has spoken about her difficult childhood, both she & her mother suffer from bipolar disorder and in her song Whispers she sings “Why do you need love so badly?/ Bet it's bеcause of her daddy." In the Armchair Expert podcast, she said that she has both "mommy and daddy issues".

Mariah Carey, Punarvasu Moon, has published a very revealing memoir about her life where she chronicles the abuse she experienced from her family. She had a moderately good relationship with her dad but was estranged from him as an adult. Her mother however continually exploited her for money.

Miley Cyrus, Vishaka Moon has a complicated relationship with both her parents. Currently, she's not on speaking terms with her father after he married a woman around Miley's age.

Beyonce, Vishaka Moon has been performing since she was a child and was in a girl group Destiny's Child which was managed by her father. She dropped him as her manager in 2011 and in the same year, his divorce from her mother was also finalized. He had apparently fathered a love child with another woman in 2009 and this was the reason for their divorce. Some speculate that they are now estranged but in typical Jupiter fashion, she has never bad-mouthed him in public. Jupiter natives do not air their dirty laundry in public ever. Their grace and dignity even in the face of extreme humiliation/shame/pressure is commendable.

Jennie, Vishaka Moon is very close to her mother but she's never mentioned her father in the 8 years since her debut. In the Blackpink documentary, she said that growing up it was just her and her mom. In this interview she spoke about living with her mother and how she never got a chance to spend much time at home as she was sent to boarding school at 8 years old. She remarks that she and her mom are like sisters but she's never said anything about her relationship with her dad, ever. I am not going to assume that they have a bad relationship but I thought it would be interesting to mention.

Demi Moore, Vishaka Sun

Moore was born to a 19-year-old mother and her biological father left before she was born. The actress' mom remarried a man who worsened her problems with alcohol, which led to violence and instability. The family moved many times throughout Moore's childhood and when she was 17, her stepfather committed suicide. In the early '80s, she embarked on her acting career and helped her mother stay in rehab throughout the years. In 1997, her mother was diagnosed with brain cancer and she reunited with her in the final months before her death.

Lily Collins, Purvabhadrapada Sun

Lily had a strained relationship with her dad growing up“Because my dad was often gone, I never wanted to do anything that would make him stay away even longer,” she wrote. “I became extra careful about what I said and how I said it, afraid he'd think I was angry or didn't love him"

She penned an open letter that said: "I forgive you for not being the dad I expected. But it's not too late”.

Alia Bhatt, Purvabhadrapada Sun has said that growing up she saw very little of her filmmaker father Mahesh Bhatt who is known in the media for being a very problematic figure. He once posed for a magazine cover in the 90s with his daughter Pooja Bhatt where they're kissing on the lips (Pooja is Alia's half-sister) and said that he would have married her if she weren't his daughter 🤮🤮Mahesh is known for being a very temperamental man (you'll be hard pressed to find a video of him not screaming) and it's quite well known that he and Alia's mother had a pretty rocky marriage that her mother could not leave as she was financially dependent on him. Her sister, Shaheen Bhatt has talked about struggling with depression and suicidal tendencies since she was a child.

Rekha, Purvabhadrapada Moon is the illegitimate child of actors Gemini Ganesan and Pushpavalli. Her father was already married to another woman when she was born. He refused to accept the paternity of Rekha and her sister Radha and she grew up in the same city that her father and his "legitimate" family lived in and attended the same school as her half-siblings where she occasionally saw glimpses of him dropping his other kids to school. She has stated that growing up she was called a "bastard" and that the only male figure in her life was "God". She made her debut as an actress when she was 13 against her wishes because her family had fallen on bad times and she had to work to support her 6 siblings and ill mother.

This interview of hers offers a glimpse into her early life. Regardless of what she's been through, Rekha has always been stoic and conducted herself with immense grace and dignity even when she received an award from her father who was never a part of her life. She said this in response:

“Why should I grieve for him when he’s so much part of me? Why should I grieve when I’m so grateful for his genes, his teachings, his rich life and his sheer existence? Grieve for what??!! I’m happy I didn’t have to share unpleasant moments with him. He existed for me in my imagination. And that’s so much more beautiful than reality. Everything I love is unqualified by worldly time constraints. I’m just a small link in the larger scheme of things. I’m not the first one to go through death, nor am I the first one to receive an award. I’m enjoying everything that comes my way…good bad or ugly. I try to make good use of what life’s experiences offer. I think I’ve done a good job of my life, whatever others may think.” 

The Jupiterean ability to always look at the bright side and forgive people who don't deserve your forgiveness is heart-breaking but enlightening at the same time.

Rita Hayworth, Purvabhadrapada Moon confided in her husband Orson Welles that she was sexually abused by her father as a child and had been repeatedly raped by him.

Elexus Jionde aka Intelexual Media, Punarvasu Moon has mentioned that she's estranged from her father.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, Punarvasu Rising & stellium has spoken about being emotionally and physically abused by his parents especially his father who would beat him up. They also abused him because they thought he was gay due to his preoccupation with the male physique (he wanted to be a bodybuilder and would later become Mr World).

Keanu Reeves, Punarvasu Moon has been estranged from his father for the majority of his life. Charles Reeves abandoned the family when Keanu was 3 yrs old.

Kaia Gerber, Purvabhadrapada Moon has like most other Jupiter natives kept a low profile and seldom spoken about her personal life and has only ever said nice things about her parents. Her father Rande Gerber has been accused of sexual harassment by multiple women and there have been blind items about Cindy putting Kaia on a calorie deficit diet since she was a child to prepare her for a modelling career (this is awfully common among celebrities so I don't even think this is a stretch). When Kaia was 7 years old, her parents were threatened with a picture of her, barely clothed being gagged and bound. It was said that the picture was taken by a female babysitter during a game of cops and robbers because she wanted to prank the Gerbers by pretending to kidnap Kaia (sincerely, wtf) but there have been conspiracy theories that perhaps Kaia was abused by her parents and this picture was leaked from their collection. Anyway the matter has been settled and it feels wrong for me to speculate too much but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Asia Argento, Purvabhadrapa Moon, is the daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento and has said that she never saw her father as a child and had no kind of relationship with him until she started acting in his movies when she was 16. She said "I never acted out of ambition; I acted to gain my father's attention. It took a long time for him to notice me. … And he only became my father when he was my director."

Her characters in his movies were undressed, raped and generally psychologically traumatised on screen. She once said:

"But I always had this feeling of never being a part of anything, not even of my family. My parents forgot about me. I did everything I could to get their attention."

Chyler Leigh, Vishaka Moon. Her parents divorced when she was 12, following which she was estranged from her father for many years. Her mother moved her to LA when she was a teenager so that she could pursue an acting career. At 15 years old she starred in a movie called Kickboxing Academy as her biological brother's love interest (he was 19). She is said to have been manipulated into doing so by her mother. She has said in a recent interview that she's been estranged from her mother for over 20 years and that like her mother, she too suffers from bipolar disorder. She said, "Because I was put in a position to support my mother, I didn't get the opportunity to speak about my own feelings when I was in my teens." She moved out of her mother's house to live with her then-boyfriend and now husband Nathan West.

Han So Hee, Vishaka Sun was in the news when her mother using her name to borrow bank loans and her debt became public news. Its very rare to hear about the private life of a celebrity in Korea but Sohee came forward to clear things and said her parents divorced when she was 5 following which she was raised by her maternal grandmother with whom she lived until she was in highschool. She's estranged from both her parents and only realized that her mother had been in debt after she turned 18. She found out that her mother had been borrowing money under her name illegally ever since she was a minor. She paid off this debt and apologized to everybody concerned.

IU, Purvabhadrapada Moon grew up in poverty. Her family fell into debt and she was raised by her grandmother who could barely take care of her and her brother. She saw little of her parents growing up. Its unclear how close they are now.

I realize just how many of them are nepo babies lol but I'm kinda glad because it means so much of their life is on public record. Its really unfortunate to see that so many of these natives had absent fathers or fathers who were present in their lives and very abusive.

[flowersdiceandlove]

Some more on my Nan Feng and Fu Yao were actually fengqing's kids all along au (first part here):

@happypeachsludgeflower @sleepyburito yes!! You get it!

When Xie Lian finally learns who they are, he turns to fengqing apologetically and says seriously, “Feng Xin, Mu Qing, I’m so sorry. I thought they were you. If I’d known they were just kids I would have focused on protecting them and making sure they were safe more.”

Nan Feng and Fu Yao are in the background, outraged and offended that Xie Lian thinks they need to be protected by him. It does not matter how old these two are, Xie Lian will forever see them as kids to be protected. Fengqing are actually kinda touched bc 1) XL thought the kids were them and therefore not in need of protecting, trusting their skills. And 2) Xie Lian likes their kids and wants them safe, feeling protective of them.

Post-canon, Xie Lian kinda becomes Nan Feng and Fu Yao’s kooky grandpa who has weird and slightly horrifying stories that no one really wants to listen to. When getting ready for visits to Xie Lian, there’s a lot of “do we have to?” by the kids and Mu Qing replying with a clipped “yes.” They argue the entire way down to the mortal realm or wherever they’re meeting until they immediately shut up when they spot Xie Lian. This family cannot communicate normally. All their conversations are arguing.

Also, fengqing sent the kids down independently. Neither knew the other was doing it, nor decided to inform the other. They only found out about it when the kids got back from the mission, at which point fengqing went to each other like "you sent Nan Feng/Fu Yao to help His Highness? What, do you not trust His Highness' capabilities or something!?" and the other is all "Bitch, you did the same thing!" They then fight about it. Of course.

And, because of this little non communication, Nan Feng and Fu Yao didn't know the other would be there too. The reason this matters is because the two of them end up being sent on a lot of missions together (they were trained together in their youth and fengqing knew they would have each other's backs in dangerous situations and that they knew each other's moves as well as their own), and were getting sick of it, so when their dad told them to do this, they did so with the impression that the other wouldn't be there. This is why Nan Feng and Fu Yao keep telling Xie Lian to send the other away. They do not want to do another mission with their stupid twin. (They still always drag each other into trouble together. They're ride or die, but will complain the entire time. just like their parents)

As I was thinking about fengqing's relationship and their kids in regards to the other Heavenly Officials, this is what I got: Not a lot of Heaven actually knows about it.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing are known to always be fighting and arguing, so if they hear rumors that the two are together, they laugh it off and go "yeah, right" with a roll of their eyes. It's simply unbelievable. There are also a lot of Middle Court Officials, and the gods can't be concerned to remember every single one of them. And Junior Officials also switch which palace they work for sometimes, so Fu Yao and Nan Feng switching between the Palace of Nan Yang and the Palace of Xuan Zhen isn't that odd especially since fengqing fight so much, they might also fight over Junior Officials. The most that line of questioning goes is "Wait, I thought you were with the Palace of Xuan Zhen?" "No, I'm with the Palace of Nan Yang." or vice versa. Of course fengqing's Junior Officials know the truth, but the two Palaces will always have a friendly rivalry with each other. If that "friendly rivalry" looks like death matches, that's not their problem, that's just how their palaces do it with each other. Like an extended family that is very competitive and ends up with everyone in the hospital at the end of the family reunion.

Of those in Heaven that do know that Nan Feng and Fu Yao really are fengqing's kids, most don't know that fengqing are still together. They know that at some point in the past fengqing were together and had two kids, but think they're now a divorced couple in a nasty fight over custody. After all, Nan Feng and Fu Yao both have rooms in both the Palace of Nan Yang and the Palace of Xuan Zhen and are being constantly passed between the two palaces in cycles and Mu Qing and Feng Xin are always fighting. Looking at it in that regard, it makes perfect sense to them. Of course the two generals have such a nasty relationship and can't get along for the life of them, they're exes!

Those that know the whole truth, that Nan Feng and Yu Yao are fengqing's kids and that fengqing are still very much together and in love, are very few. Ling Wen knows simply because she knows everything and she also had to go through the paperwork of the constantly changing palaces of the kids. Eventually they work out a system for them so that they don't have to file official reports of switching palaces all the time. (She would have killed them if they didn't (they knew this and so were quick to figure out a solution)) Pei Ming also knows. He's laughing about. He doesn't really understand how their relationship works and how they haven't killed each other yet, but is like "🤷‍♂️ whatever works for them." Shi Wudu knows because of the Three Tumors, but honestly doesn't care and spares it no thought. I think Shi Qingxuan would also know. He would also think it's common knowledge and therefore not gossip worthy or worth a mention. I also think he would get along with the twins.

[homunculus-argument]

If you're on the autistic spectrum, you probably have at some point been a part of a group conversation discussing some subject, and you notice that some large key element of the subject has not even been mentioned. So you decide to be the one to bring it up, in case the other people present were not aware of this big important component at play. And when you do, the neurotypical people present start scoffing and roll their eyes, tell you that everyone already knew that, and act insulted and get sarcastic at you, and you have no idea what the hell that was about.

Anyway, if that's ever happened to you, I might be able to break this down. I have no idea if that's of any help, but here I go nonetheless:

Neurotypical people tend to assume that the things that they consider to be obvious are also obvious to everyone else. As their thought processes tend to consistently follow very similar patterns, this assumption is correct enough - in a room full of neurotypicals, everyone assumes that everyone else has noticed the same things, and assumes that they don't need to be clearly and specifically pointed out at all.

This kind of "obviously obvious" things form the invisible bottom layer of the way neurotypicals talk to each other. The top layer is what they explicitly say with words, and the second layer is an underlying message that they consider to be too obvious to say directly. For example, asking someone if they need help with something comes with the implied statement "I don't think you are capable of doing this on your own", and if the person being asked is clearly capable of doing the task on their own, it means "I think that you are so helpless in general that you might as well not even know how to do this, either", which is considered massively insulting.

A third layer comes from where and when something is said. Offering to help someone with something that you thought they should be able to do on their own is insulting enough in private, but doing it in public means that you aren't just telling one person "I don't respect you", you are making it clear to everyone who witnesses it that you want everyone to know that you don't respect this person, or that you don't think they're capable of any kind of a meaningful retribution for being insulted like that.

So, wrapping this all back together, sometimes when neurotypical people don't openly aknowledge something that's very important when discussing a subject, there's a chance that they're not oblivious to the importance of that specific component, but have simply all silently agreed that one would need to be an idiot to not be aware of it, and therefore it does not need to be brought up at all. So even when you are trying to genuinely make sure that you are all on the same page, you have offered to help them understand the subject - which they take as your way of letting them know that you don't think they're smart enough to do that on their own.

So they hear this as you saying "I think everyone in this room is a fucking idiot, and I don't respect any of you enough to pretend otherwise, nor do I care who knows it." And that's why they get mad for no reason.

[markantonys]

3x01 cold open!!!!! between rafe and everyone hyping up this scene for a long time now and people from the brazil con reporting descriptions of it, we knew how it was going to go down, so no huge surprises for me, but so exciting to watch it for myself! it definitely lives up to the hype!

a few quick thoughts

what do liandrin, sharon gilham, lorne balfe, and the vfx team have in common? they're all slaying in this opening sequence! i'm not someone who's at all knowledgeable about or sensitive to production value, but even i can tell they've stepped it up yet another notch this season. it looks decadent! epic! i can see why everyone involved has been boasting about this sequence so much! what a way to start the season.

it's also fantastic setup for all the tensions and weak points within the tower, because we see our inter-ajah mistrust, we see doubt in siuan's leadership, and of course we see the black ajah. that faceoff outside the hall between red sisters and others was really great - it shows that not all reds are like liandrin and some of them are light-serving, that non-reds can be black ajah, and that light-serving enemy ajahs will have to figure out how to trust each other and work together if they want to be strong enough to fight the shadow. this sequence does a good job establishing that the tower isn't split into just good guys vs. darkfriends, but that the good guys themselves are fractured and opposing each other.

i'd thrown out a wild speculation of diem camille as a surprise tuon since nothing was known about what character she might be playing, but we see her here as a light-serving red sister! i was wishing for the x-ray feature of the normal episodes here to see if any of the new aes sedai have names we might recognize, or if they're just randoms.

i'd have to rewatch closely to take a tally, but we seem to have representation from just about every ajah in liandrin's group: liandrin for red, nyomi for brown (sob!), joiya for gray, the green sister who was glad her warders died, the yellow sister who healed liandrin, and i think i saw a blue sister as well. there might have been a couple others besides these ones too!

in s2 we had a few scraps between channelers, but i think this is the first extended multi-person channeling battle we've seen. it's so exciting!! and awesome to see the gloves come off for our usually-composed and regal siuan, and see what she's capable of. we also see her doing a tricksy evasion of liandrin's accusations about what happened in cairhien, since everything liandrin said is true and siuan can't deny it, so siuan is definitely set up to be in some hot water.

leane also killed it! loved that moment of her beating someone up with her staff - a good visual demonstration of the oaths placing no restriction on non-channeling violence (though i'm sure this would've counted as "the last defense of her life/the life of another sister" anyway). wild theory i'm by no means subscribing to without rewatching to check for it, but just throwing it out there: could leane have been stilled during the battle and that's why she's doing physical fighting here? just thinking about the CV leak that named lelaine as the keeper of the chronicles; that could make sense if leane was stilled here and needs to be replaced. but it's also entirely possible that CV leak was inaccurate or that lelaine is slated to become future keeper in salidar but not yet in s3, and there wasn't any moment calling attention to leane being stilled or anything like that, so probably not.

we got a time-check as well: it's been 1 month since the cairhien events of 2x07, and therefore since falme too since i think that battle takes place basically the next day. that feels like a reasonable timeskip to me. enough time for the gang to gather their wits and come up with the best way to handle the truth bomb of liandrin being a darkfriend (and for rand to grow out his hair a little haha) but not so long that it feels like they've been sitting on their asses when there's stuff to get done.

correct me if i missed her, but i don't think we saw ryma in this sequence, but she is reported to be in s3. so, either we'll see her in the tower later on, or she's still with the seanchan and maybe we'll see her in tanchico (at which time hopefully our gang will free her!). i would most expect her to be relevant to the story via nynaeve again this season, whether that be a tanchico encounter where nynaeve frees her or early-season lessons in the tower if she's already free (we see a reminder of nynaeve's block during the battle, with our poor girl once again failing to channel when she really needs to).

people have pointed out that that shot of joiya sitting on the floor in the trailer looks like it might be the angreal storeroom, so the theory is that she gets captured and taken prisoner in this battle. that would track with the books, where the wondergirls take her prisoner and eventually get out of her that tanchico is the place to go for their hunt.

speaking of the storeroom, people have spotted what looks like a redstone doorway in it!! i've brightened it up to see better:

this is VERY intriguing, as my current theory had been that mat would find it in tanchico towards the end of the season. but i do stand by that his neck doesn't look injured in the tanchico still from ep6, nor is he wearing a medallion (which we can feel pretty confident is coming this season since he has it on the poster), so it could be that this white tower doorway is only an easter egg and the ones that people actually go through are located elsewhere, or it could be that mat does take two trips after all and he gets his answers in the white tower doorway in the early season (perhaps his motivation for going to tanchico instead of joining rand or perrin?) and his items & hanging in a tanchico doorway at the end of the season. but there would also have to be one in rhuidean for moiraine and lanfear to go through, right? so could there be 3 doorways in showverse? tar valon, tanchico, and rhuidean? i don't think there would be any problem with that.

okay, i think that's all the thoughts i had off the top of my head! this is a sequence that happens offscreen in the books, and bringing it onscreen was such a smart choice. it makes great use of our established aes sedai players, sets up the huge tensions brewing in the tower just in time for elaida coming on the scene, and really drives home for the audience that ANYONE can be black ajah/a darkfriend, so we'll be feeling that paranoia and mistrust right alongside the aes sedai.

and this is only the first scene of the season! i can't wait to see everything else that's to come!!

[mentallyunstablethembo]

Reverse trasmigration au, where the peak lords (SJ + og!SQH included) transmigrate into stuffed toys.

So my first thought was that Shen Yuan is, of course, already an adult in this au, but then I thought; "but what if they transmigrate to a time when Shen Yuan is still a child?"

Sooo yea

There's more under this but I wanted to shorten it so it isn't that long on ppl's pages, and it's easier to scroll by :D (also because I wanted to try out the 'read more' feature-)

After all of the peak lords die (MQF also either got killed or did it himself due to the amount of guilt and grief, ig?), they all wake up as stuffed plushies. Now, they can leave these bodies at will (it took them a bit to learn and get used to it), but that's only at night or when they're home alone.

Now, imagine them waking up and they see Shen Yuan, a child that just looks a lot like Shen Jiu, just somehow softer and kinder. Also paler and more sickly.

The peak lords very soon come to the realization that SY is terminally ill, he has many issues to the point where it's a miracle that he's still alive, yet he's doing it but the future looks grim for him.

The doctors think that he won't live long, his family is worried and his siblings try to keep him company, but despite all of that, the kid is still lonely, so he talks to and hangs out with all the plushes that are actually the peak lords

Sy takes these toys to the hospital while he cuddles with them at home and treats them like as if they were real people (which they are, but he doesn't know that

Sy grows up with the peak lords by his side, his condition is stable and he's trying to pursue a career in teaching literature (he loves teaching and kids), but his condition suddenly takes a dive for the worse, rendering him unable to teach anymore

I say that he loves kids and teaching, but is sadly unable to do so anymore, and so he spends his time at home and then finds pidw, where he reads the story and critiques it just like in canon

This time however, the peak lords are present and read the story with him, some more horrified than others at the prospect of the story (they also definitively have an existential crisis or few because of it)

In this au however, Airplane also releases all of the drafts with the backstories and what pidw was essentially supposed to be, before it turned into the cash grab it was

Due to this, SY becomes enraged at this to the point where his heart gives out and he passes, making the peak lords freak out until suddenly they're back in their og world, before all of this happened and they all were disciples

I imagine that each of them get their memories from sy's world back once they join Cang Qiong, so they get their memories back a day or a week after joining

Many of them will be wary of SQQ or will be trying to prepare for his arrival, since they now also know what he's been through (many of them don't know how to feel about that yet)

Time skip to when they become peak lords, sqq one day flies off on xiu ya, much to the surprise and worry of all the other peak lords

LQG follows after him, since he's the strongest and therefore can bring sqq back easily, or so he thinks

Sqq has sped off at a speed that none of them knew he was capable of, almost like a man possessed

Cut to a few days later, the two return to cang qiong, however sqq is carrying a child wrapped up in a coat that is, much to their alarm, bleeding and injured

And wouldn't you know it? It's Shen Yuan! :D

As it turns out, sqq somehow managed to link his and sy's souls together, so that sqq could find him if they were both in the same world ever again

So sqq flying off so quickly was due to him sensing sy's soul, so he went to retrieve the now small toddler

Sy is still weak and fragile, but much to the horror of everyone else, he was already branded as a slave as well (hence all the blood)

I think that the peak lords all decide to care for the kid, while sy mainly stays on qing jing peak with sqq (sqq reffered to him as his 'little brother', so that all the other sects would stop asking and snooping around due to the child, but also due to the obvious resemblence)

Sy, of course, remembers everything from his past life, so yay to chaos? He does however decide that screw it, he's gonna do everything he can to prevent the fates of all of these people

The thing is with this au that I cannot decide the setting properly

I did mention sy joining the sect a little after the peak lords become, well, peak lords, but I also really want Luo Binghe to be older than him? Like, lbh meets this cute sickly child in the sect that everyone seems to dote on, and the child is super kind to him and stuff?

Now since the peak lords know about pidw, they all try to stop all of the bs from happening, including sqq who is still strict, but he's also just a much better teacher? He's still strict, but also a bit kinder and stuff? I like to think that he was unaware of all of the bullying lbh has been through because of his disciples, so maybe he stops it this time because he's aware of it?

Idk

This idea has been sitting in my drafts for a bit and I really wanted to finish it because I liked it so much

[cogentranting]

Let's talk about Heather's reaction.

A couple points of interest:

In the actual fight, Heather does not need to kill Muse.

Knowing Matt and what he's capable of and knowing how his previous fight with Muse went, it's pretty clear that by the time Heather gets to the gun, the fight is essentially over. Muse has lost. There's some possibility of him getting away again and therefore still some risk to Heather, but he already had a cable through his shoulder and had Matt hitting him in the face repeatedly. Most likely, he was about to be out for the count and at the time that the shots were fired he was a. not fighting offensively at all and b. not near either a weapon or Heather.

Now, I'm not saying I blame Heather. She still felt like her life was in imminent danger--she's not watching the fight objectively from a safe distance; she's afraid for her life, in pain, and losing blood. I don't really think it's much different from Karen shooting Wesley. But it is interesting to note, given her later comments.

"I saved me"

Objectively, no you didn't. Because, again, she didn't need to shoot Muse, he was already beaten. And even if she HAD needed to, it wouldn't negate the fact that she certainly would have died if Daredevil hadn't shown up. So why does she say it?

I think it's a need to pull back some control after a traumatic event. She was attacked by her own patient, in her own office, and she very nearly died and for the most part was helpless to stop it. So her options are to focus on that helplessness, or to grasp on to the moment when she wasn't helpless, when she grabbed the gun and acted to defend herself. She needs that to reassure herself that she is capable of protecting herself so that she can keep herself going. She maybe also needs to view it that way to deal with the idea that she killed someone (someone she knew, her own patient)(again, not blaming her for that but that's going to be something she will struggle to reconcile emotionally).

She claims that Daredevil and Muse fit in the same category.

This feels like an echo of Karen and Matt's conversation about whether or not Daredevil and Punisher are the same. However, that claim felt a lot more justified because both of those two have the same expressed purpose: vigilante justice, stopping bad guys. The difference lies in their methods, and even there, its a difference more of degree than kind. But Daredevil and Muse are very clearly different. One is a serial killer, one is saving people. In particular, since coming back after being gone a year, Daredevil has literally only done two things- stop a young girl from being murdered by Muse, and save Heather herself from being murdered by Muse. So again we come to, why does she say this?

Inherently, it's either illogical or extremely reductionist to just lump Muse and Daredevil together and say they're the same. Even if you want to psychoanalyze Daredevil and come to the conclusion that deep down he's just trying to justify his own violent nature, the fact that he does that by channeling it towards protecting others (protecting Heather herself) does matter (even if you still ultimately take the position that it is wrong for Matt to be Daredevil) because of course the difference between Matt channeling his violence into protecting people and Muse killing random people to use their blood as paint matters. Obviously they are not the same.

But Heather for all she tries to dress it up in psychoanalytic language, is not thinking logically. She's thinking emotionally. And because of the work she was doing for her book she has created a schema of "masks" in her mind. So she was thinking all this time of Daredevil as one of these masks and trying to process the reason for the mask, and then suddenly got treated to Muse going off about his mask and what it does for him. So Muse gets added to the mask category, redefining it, but she doesn't have space to critically evaluate that because she's fighting for her life. And when Daredevil shows up she's terrified, in pain, losing blood, and all she can see him as is more of that same category, someone masked, someone violent, someone frightening. In that traumatic moment and in the aftermath that's the view that becomes fixed for her.

While in one sense Heather's reaction isn't "reasonable", I think emotionally it tracks. All of it is a response to the trauma and she's trying to deal with it by psychoanalyzing and reclaiming her agency and probably does not even fully realize the extent to which her fear is driving (or even distorting) her version of events.

[necrotic-nephilim]

For the ask game

How do you think the batclan and the league of assasins would react to a consensual rastim au where because of this tim becomes the heir therefore the next demon's head

for the ask game!

heir of Ra's!Tim my BELOVED. i don't care how realistic it is it's real in my heart. i love when they're consensually fucked up together.

i think it's fun if it's sort of a slow descent, for Tim. like he goes into this completely confident he's going to backstab Ra's and come out with clean hands, but he's falling deeper and deeper. Ra's is a far more complex man than everyone has told him, and the longer Tim is entrenched in the League, the more he's drinking the kool-aid. it doesn't help he's already in a grief spiral full of self-isolation and Ra's is showing him all kinds of attention. Tim can't say when it went from "i'm going to stop him in the back" to "huh Ra's' bedroom has more of my stuff than his" bc it was so slow and gradual. maybe the search for Bruce takes longer, maybe Tim finds Bruce but sticks with Ra's for a totally rational reason with a plan he definitely plans to follow through on, eventually. but he gets closer and closer to Ra's and his lack of identity without Robin makes it easy for him to latch onto all the ideas of grandeur Ra's gives him about building a better world. Tim isn't *completely* sold, but he's able to meet Ra's in the middle for most of it

on the side of the League, i think there are a lot of divided opinions. Tim is a hit with younger League members like Prudence, but the more senior members who've been with Ra's for decades are a tad incensed at getting so quickly outranked by a teenager who doesn't even believe in murder. a lot of what Tim believes goes against the very nature of the League but. at its core, the League is loyal to Ra's. any of them would die for him or his cause and they have wholehearted faith in his judgment. because he has a point, the kid is smart, a brilliant strategist, and with some more work, won't be too half-bad in a fight. when Ra's names Tim as his heir, everyone knows it's a very distant future thing (Ra's still has a few more centuries in him and he makes sure they know it) so there's still time to work out the kinks in Tim Drake. Ra's has gone so far as to share the Lazarus Pit with Tim, so *clearly* this isn't some ploy and Ra's is dedicated to him. there's pushback, and i do think there would be some schisms in the League, smaller groups fracturing off and attempting a few coups of the League. even if Tim goes over relatively smoothly, there will be some fights that break out. and Ra's leaves it to Tim to handle, proving a point. making it clear Tim is an equal leader to the League and is more than capable of handling conflict with brutal efficiency. that wins over the last bits of support for Tim, some through genuine respect, some through fear. either way, Ra's is quite proud his choice of partner and heir has proven himself.

the Batfamily on the other hand is a complete shitshow. i think the most positive reaction would be Jason, not necessarily because he approves, but because i think he'd find the ironic joy in watching Tim finally get out from Bruce's thumb and cause absolute chaos. in a way, Bruce really has no place to talk with his history with Talia, so it's not like Tim's completely ex-communicated. they're all constantly trying to get Tim back, trying to convince him how bad of an idea this is and how terrible of a person Ra's is. i think Tim would keep close to the Batfam, partly because he *does* still care about them. Dick, Helena, Cass, Bruce, are all still some kind of family, for Tim. but there would be a clear rift. obviously it'd be the worst for Cass, who has the strongest opinions on morals and was so close to Tim and has to deal with feeling deeply betrayed. i'd have a lot of long conversations between them, where Tim talks about how he's trying his best not to compromise his morals and he's really doing this for the greater good he believes in, while Cass tries to understand his point of view and cope with the betrayal. Steph would also feel pretty betrayed, even when they break up there's a deep love between Tim and Steph and this change for Tim feels out of nowhere. they're all constantly reaching out to Tim, sometimes for serious conversation but sometimes just inviting him to hang out, hoping to get through to him slowly. they still care about each other, but the trust is what's gone. especially from Damian, who never trusted or liked Tim in the first place and would be the most furious he's replaced as an heir by Tim of all people. it's messy, but it's complicated.

for the rest of Tim's social circle, the Titans and whatnot, it's a similar reaction. the more distant of Tim's hero friends have no issue cutting him out, but people like Cassie and Bart and Kon would try to talk to Tim about it because it feels so uncharacteristic of him. they've known Tim a while, sometimes in more personal ways than the Batfam, so this switch up is sudden. i think he'd feel the most guilty about hurting them, just because they're genuinely his oldest friends in the superhero world. but he sticks to his guns and makes it clear he's happy with Ra's, and he's doing this whole League thing, like it or not. they'd still come to Tim's aide if Tim needed it, and god help anyone who hurt Tim's friends bc he'll raise hell for them, but emotionally they're distant from him. it's hard for someone like Kon to reconcile a person willingly working with Ra's given Kon's own parentage. there's still love, but it's messy and complicated. i do think slowly though, Tim would try to get them on his side. it starts with innocuous side comments made about the state of the Justice League/Titans, him not holding them back from going too far in a fight the way he usually would, as sensible team leader. it'd take a slow, long while, but i do think Tim could slowly get at least a couple Titans to be his allies, even if they're not full League members.

all in all, Tim rlly does get to have his cake and eat it too. sure, trust is lost and people aren't as close as they used to be, but Tim loses very few people he genuinely cares about. either they love him too much to abandon him, or he slowly talks them into agreeing with his new moral code. because he's still anti-murder at the end of the day, and it's clear with him at the helm, the League is slightly shifting. even Ra's seems more agreeable these days, far more open to working with heroes without instantly stabbing them in the back like he usually would. Tim can't change who Ra's is and he honestly doesn't want to, but that's the fun of it. the way they're always so opposed and arguing half the time, yet still managing to make it work because they love the chase.

[clockwise-works]

BotW AU idea

So standard "Champions and Zelda fail, Link put in Shrine of Resurrection" setup, but this time each race has their own resurrection shrine. While they were united under the cause of defeating Calamity Ganon, none of the other races felt 100% secure fully backing the royal family of Hyrule, so when they each discovered their respective shrine, they kept it quiet, thinking they had the one and only resurrection shrine. 100 years pass, and they each begin to awaken, yet only Link has a voice in his head, Zelda unaware the other's were also put to rest.

While Link's journey remains fairly similar at the beginning, the other four embark upon their own adventures, too weak initially to jump right back into their Divine Beasts to reclaim them. Hell, it wouldnt matter given none have a Sheikah Slate to acess the beasts in the first place. Instead, upon convincing their respective people that they must defeat Calamity Ganon, determine that they must seek out shrines to increase their strength, find the lost Sheikah Slate to access their beasts, and perhaps reclaim memories from their time traveling Hyrule 100 years ago.

So you essentially end up with 5 amnesiac heroes traveling across the land, fully believing they're the one and only surviving Champion, completely unaware the other's are alive, let alone exist.

Mipha, the one with the closest connections in her homeland and therefore the hardest case to argue, ended up acquiring Gaddison as a companion. Sidon himself petitioned to travel with Mipha, but Dorephan could not get behind sending both of his children out into the world.

Urbosa, actually able to at the very least reclaim the Thunder Helm, convinces Riju to stay behind and lead their people. At first determined to travel alone, Urbosa crosses paths with a lone Goron (whatever that is, she thinks) named Reagah, who plans on heading to Zora's Domain. Hey, that's a place of interest to Urbosa, and maybe she'll find some shrines along the way. So the two embark, Reagah serving as a guide.

Daruk and Revali are unfortunately the two I've yet to figure out who they travel with or where they end up, but that's open to being fleshed out later. Essentially, each Champion leaves their home in the hopes of finding the Slate and acquiring more strength, eventually ending up at someone else's homeland, Link himself appearing at the same time.

For example, while Link took a slight detour after the Plateau, he eventually ends up at Zora's Domain, and guess what there's some Gerudo woman there as well. Urbosa's clever, and practically figures out Link is in possession of the Slate, but can't determine if he's an ally or not. She DID just encounter the Yiga, a group capable of disguising themselves, and who she's fully aware are hunting her (and the others apparently), so she's leary. Regardless, the two end up working together, low and behold Mipha herself isn't even there to free her own beast. Instead, she happens to be making her way to an entirely different beast.

Oh and for the Miphlink angle because fuck you I'm that bitch, it's always my angle. In this timeline given the Zora know that Mipha didn't perish in her beast, they never constructed her statue. So when Link is inevitably gifted the Zora Armor, since it takes both that AND the statue in BotW to get the memory, he doesn't remember her in that moment. Instead, he's got an armor that FEELS important to him, a couple pointed questions from some Zora wondering how much he remembers, and that's all.

Mipha doesn't remember him much at all either, but for her I think it'd be fun if she ends up in Hateno, Link's supposed childhood home. I think she even does the whole rebuilding the home memory, and upon finishing it finds a long forgotten necklace or something under a floorboard. It's got the same emblem of the Zora, how strange...

Basically each one is walking around with a gift the other made for them, fully unaware. Now the question is do they cross paths sooner in the AU and get a fun story of them slowly remembering them, or build up to the reunion towards the end? Decisions decisions...

[goddessofroyalty]

If the AUs where Sefikura have many children, or to be more specific, if the Military AU were also set in an Omegaverse, would Cloud be subjected to criticism and constantly scrutinized by the public for not being an "traditional Omega"? An Omega who doesn't live entirely and only for his children, his home, and his husband, and who is in fact a fairly relaxed parent, has a job, and is completely independent, living a life outside of his couple, as well as not hesitating to express what bothers him about Sephiroth, telling him to back off when his twisted affection becomes too much. And well, their favorite activity as a couple is fighting. That would be a scandal and a horror for the society and SHINRA, who have basically promoted Sephiroth as the most perfect patriarchal ideal that exists, and people have taken it hook, line, and sinker, so a worthy Omega must be an equal in rectitude and perfection, and that is a completely invisible wife who has no opinion and is only tasked with providing sufficient offspring for his Alpha (the only thing he actually does, yikes). What do you mean this Omega can't cook?

That's ridiculous because Cloud and Sephiroth are the perfect pair. You don't meet every day two people who have such strong power capable of destroying the world. Clearly, people are out of their minds. Cloud is hated by everyone, but at the same time (and secretlyyy) pretty admired.

Seeing that Sephiroth also sees himself as a traditional patriarchal figure and acts that way most of the time, I think he bothers Cloud, but not in a way that wants to recriminate him or wants him to change. He loves Cloud just the way he is, and although part of him wishes he would submit from time to time, he knows that wouldn't be Cloud. So he just uses it to provoke and annoy him and start a fight that will probably end with the two of them sleeping together. And for him, that's already a win.

I would like the record to note Cloud does know how to cook. He just doesn't enjoy it so basically never does it and the entire household works by "feed yourself when hungry" logic. Claudia did teach him how to cook, he does know.

Honestly I don't think a lot of people know much about Cloud. Both he and Sephiroth are very introverted people and because Cloud split from Shinra (also the fact he's not very personable to the rich and affluant so can become an issue at events without even meaning to) he can even more get away from attending any events Shinra might be putting on. The kids get dragged to them here and there so people do know that Sephiroth and his mate have produced a tribe but other than a handful of appearances they generally don't see Cloud.

Add to it the fact that when people do ask Sephiroth about his mate in conversation to find out about it only gets them the most maddenly unhelpful answers means that there's probably a lot of gossip around what Cloud is like. And what Sephiroth is like behind closed doors because he's so difficult to read as well. Are they super affectionate and that's why they have so many kids? Is Sephiroth a demanding spouse? Is Cloud a perfect home-runner or just letting the kids run wild? People don't know and that's part of the reason they're so obsessed with the relationship.

Those that do actually know Cloud are either those close to the two of them and therefore aware of how perfect Cloud and Sephiroth are in their messy ways or are the like higher ups of Shinra who have decided that not knowing how that relationship works is probably best for their mental health. Oh, and Reno who thinks it's the relationship is the funniest thing ever.

I do think Sephiroth's patriarchal tendancies does annoy Cloud at times. Which is part of the reason I think they do a bit fall into the trope of military spouses where Cloud is sometimes happy to see Sephiroth go when he has to leave again (even if he is then happy when he returns - they need their space). And, yeah, he doesn't really take it so will snap back if he's fed up with it (and, yeah, Sephiroth does enjoy it because often it ends with them sparring and then fucking).

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Idia Shroud - Platinum Jacket Vignette

"Happy 100th Anniversary"

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Idia: Look at all these dynamic brushstrokes that can only truly be appreciated because they're from a real painting… Fheehee! This is the real thrill of seeing one live!

Idia: ―Ah! Th-Th-Th-This is…! A PAINTING OF THE LORD OF THE UNDERWORLD ON HIS CHARIOT!!!

Idia: It hits so hard～ In order to rescue a captured comrade, the king himself rushes to the front lines… Oooowee～ Doesn't that just get your heart pumpin'?

???: Indeed… However, is it appropriate for a dutiful commander to leave his base and head to the front lines?

Idia: Eeek!!! Silver-shi!? D-Don't just cut in when I'm talking to myself like that. This is why I can't deal with extroverts…

Silver: My apologies for startling you. I found your comment to be interesting, so I could not help but chime in.

Idia: E-Even if you think it's interesting, don't you think your impression of him was pretty shallow just from this one anecdote...?

Silver: Meaning?

Idia: I-If he was just a minister or something, he coulda just split after setting up the strategy, leaving it to his subordinates to execute everything.

Idia: But he still went to such a dangerous place to stir up morale, because that mission would be the linchpin of the whole battle. So, basically…

Idia: That means his responsibility meter is through the roof!! Wheeew, he's a totally different breed than any naïve and useless politician who just hoists their title around.

Silver: So you're saying that he himself went out there because it was a crucial situation. I would say that he does have an overwhelming sense of responsibility, indeed.

Silver: Hearing your opinion on the matter has allowed me to delve deeper into understanding this painting and its story. You are quite wise.

Idia: S-Sure, yeah～! You should follow my example and study up on things a little better, Silver-shi!

Silver: I will do just that. …However, it feels as though what you said about how other leaders may act had some weight behind it.

Silver: I had heard that you took up the title of Housewarden after being recommended by the previous Housewarden...

Silver: Was that because you had had previous experience as a leader, and were thus therefore chosen for the position?

Idia: Huh!? N-No, nuh-uh, wut are you even talking about? No way, no way… 'Sides, I'm more of a solo player even in my online games, y'know?

Idia: I mean, sometimes I've taken the lead of a party when I absolutely had to for a raid, or something…

Silver: As I expected, you do have experience in leadership.

Idia: It's not that big a deal… I mean, I got a reliable battle buddy who tanks and usually takes the lead.

Idia: Generally, I go for healing or DPS roles. Or more like, I just stack as many buffs as I can to increase firepower.

Idia: But it's not like our schedules always line up, so whenever he's not around, I take the lead… Because I have to!

Idia: It's usually the high-level players with great skills that take on the leader role. And in that case, I've basically maxed out all my stats in every position, so…

Idia: And I can grasp what the scenarios call for, see? And I can also play the tank roles to take charge on the front lines, right???

Idia: "Thanks to you, I was able to clear this high-level quest! I'm so thankful to have joined this party!"

Idia: …THEY SAY, ELECTING ME MVP OVER AND OVER AGAIN!

Idia: And I was just taking on the leader role because I had to. I'm just way too good…

Silver: So, those who fought alongside you showered you with gratitude. That just proves even further your leadership capabilities.

Idia: I-I wouldn't go that far― …Or maybe, just a little bit further? H-Hee Fheeheeheehee!

Idia: But also, I don't want to deal with failing a quest because some loser was placed in charge, so.

Idia: So I guess next time I have to put together a party, if my friend isn't available, I'll just have to lead them all again!

Idia: Wheeew, it's hard being so awesome～!

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Silver: This is a painting of a lion, warthog, and a meerkat, I see. The three of them are singing a song and seem to get along well.

Idia: Ain't they waaay too upbeat, to be able to sing while walking like that? Like, this painting shows the lion crown prince that was forced to leave his own country…

Idia: It's showing him singing along with some friends he ended up making, while he tries to ignore that pain, right?

Idia: Lucky him, that they chose to glorify his hiatus from his royal duties like this. Tch!

Silver: I've heard that singing can raise one's spirits. Perhaps they all wanted to brighten their own moods.

Idia: Speaking of singing to take your mind off stuff, there was this one time when I was a kid when my little brother was too scared to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night…

Idia: So we would go there while singing the theme song of our favorite anime together.

Idia: Eh, anyway, whatever their reason for singing, having that moon in the background composition like that's super moving. Kinda like what you'd see in an MV.

Silver: Em-vee…?

Idia: Eh… Y-You don't know what a music video is? It's a video recording that goes along with music and lyrics…

Silver: Ah, so you call those MVs. I understand.

Idia: I-If you feel like checking out some MVs sometime, I'd recommend the idol group "Precipice Moirai."

Idia: Premo's MVs are so awesome that you could watch them 100 times and never tire of them…!

Silver: 100 times… That's quite a lot. Is that generally something you'd watch so often?

Idia: A true fan would absolutely! More like, it's way too insolent to think that you could truly appreciate their MV with only one watch!

Idia: The first watch is all about enjoying the song and video in its entirety. The next three times the focus is shifted to checking out each of the three members' dance moves and expressions one by one.

Idia: Next, there's the actual composition of the MV, and digging deep into the actual message of the video… At a minimum, it should be watched ten times.

Idia: On top of all that, Premo's super casual MVs can put even a film director to shame!

Idia: There's no way to fully comprehend their art with only a couple viewings. That's why it needs to be viewed hundreds of times.

Silver: I had no idea their work was that deep… It may prove useful in training me better in emotional expressions, and perhaps could even be incorporated into the academy's music courses.

Idia: N-No, I mean, you don't gotta go that far… But it's great that you know just how awesome they are.

Idia: Even between us Premo fans, there's always those who still don't understand their art at all…

Idia: Every time a new MV comes out, there's always people saying stuff like, "She got the most screen time," or "She's definitely the manager's favorite," and the like…

Idia: But does that have anything to do with the quality of their work? It doesn't, right? They don't care about understanding the heart or essence of the songs.

Silver: I see… I feel as though I have learned a lot from you, Idia-senpai.

Silver: When we return to campus, I will look into, hm… Premo? Yes, Premo's music videos.

Idia: Eh, no way!? S-S-Seriously!? They have all their latest MVs on their official Magicam account!

Idia: P-PLEASE WATCH THEM! YOU WON'T REGRET IT!

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Idia: Ooh, here's the Sea Witch floating in the darkness… She's got a nice, bewitching smile going, too.

Silver: This is a painting depicting the scene of when the Sea Witch drew up a contract.

Silver: If I recall, it was said that the contract was so unbreakable that even a powerful spear couldn't rip through it.

Idia: I mean, you'd think that just having a contract that doesn't tear apart or bleed ink in water is strong enough...

Silver: Perhaps the contents of the contract was dire enough she did not wish it broken.

Idia: Who cares about the contents, the material of the contract is way more interesting. How high of a defense stat did it even have to not get ripped up by a spear?

Idia: But I totally get it, everyone wants to make invincible things every so often.

Silver: I cannot say I understand, but… What sort of thing would you make, Idia-senpai?

Idia: Like a "game console power cord that can never be taken away," or something like that… A-Actually, I tried to make something like that when I was a kid.

Idia: Whenever I'd play video games all day and into night, my mother would end up hiding all my cords.

Idia: If all she did was hide them, I could just make myself a new one, but she'd hide the cord materials as well. Totally overboard!

Idia: So I had a thought. I had to do something so she couldn't hide it!

Silver: I can only imagine your mother was concerned for your health… Did you never consider quitting your games?

Idia: Why would I? Ahh, but I really did burn the midnight oil like a little worker bee back then.

Idia: Like, I'd put a motion sensor on it, so that the cord could automatically run away from whoever was holding it...

Idia: Or I'd make the cord transparent so it couldn’t be found, or attach a homing function to it so it'd come back on its own…

Idia: And finally, after many failed attempts… I finally did it…!

Idia: I MADE A TRANSPARENT POWER CORD THAT ONLY RECOGNIZES THE AUTHORIZED USER!!

Silver: I do not really comprehend what that is, but… It is amazing that you invented something with your own two hands.

Idia: Nope, not at all.

Idia: My family also has a real stubborn genius, and every time I came up with some tech, it'd quickly get shot down by some kind of countermeasure...

Idia: And it took me a few months of that game of cat and mouse before I realized I should just convert my game console to wireless.

Idia: Hmph… But the peace and quiet that came from switching to wireless didn't last long at all...

Idia: Soon after, the Final Boss appeared: a device capable of disabling all wireless tech within a 10-meter radius!

Idia: Well, all the experience I got developing the motion sensing and automatic functions helped when I was putting Ortho together…

Idia: So I guess all that trial and error wasn't for nothing.

Silver: Even if you can picture your ideal outcome, it is rather difficult to actually put into action.

Silver: However, you have made real many of your thoughts. I can respect that.

Idia: Wai― What're you trying to say all a sudden? Getting complimented to my face randomly like that is a little scary… W-Wait, is this all a plot to beguile me!?

Silver: A plot? ...Hm, I see it has gotten late. I have kept you for some time. My apologies.

Silver: I am grateful to have heard such wonderful stories from you. Well then, I shall be on my way.

Idia: Whew… I'm exhausted having to actually talk to people for the first time in a while… Ah, this is…

Idia: It's the hero from that one myth. Look at his sparkling expression… He looks like he totally believes the future ahead of his is bright.

Idia: Life doesn't always go as swimmingly as you hope, though… Hope he doesn't get too excited that he gets carried away by the river of the underworld!

Requested by Anonymous.

[buggyhuman]

I realized I never explained my thoughts on KaiCon like I wanted to, and I don't know how well of a job I can do right now since I've been migraine-y and foggy since yesterday, but here goes:

Part 1: "He looks/his body is that of a child!"

To start, I don't mind KaiCon because Conan is Shinichi, and therefor (for all intents and purposes here) an adult. Kaito knows that Conan is Shinichi.

It's not exactly clear whether Conan's body is shrunken or deaged, but that doesn't actually matter. What's important is what we as viewers are always reminded of:

He has the mind of his teenage self.

Shinichi is even slightly older than Kaito. Shinichi is able to consent. Therefor Conan is, too. That's all there is to it. His body is just smaller currently. But I ask you, and that's actually the question my beta reader posed: Wouldn't it be awful if someone didn't love you because of how your body looks? Temporary or permanent.

Whether you think he looks like a child or not, fact is: He's still the same mentally, still fully capable of consenting to whatever he would be able to as his teenage self, his body is just smaller.

Would you say someone kissing a little person is a p-word? Or someone who just looks very young for most of their life?

My cousin's wife is petite and looks very young, up until her 40s you would think at first, second, and maybe third glance that she couldn't be older than 15. My cousin on the other hand looks like a normal office guy pushing 50. Is he a p-word? Of course not. Because she's an adult woman.

So, tl;dr:

To me, Conan can fully consent and is just shorter currently.

Part 2: Why KaiCon specifically?

This plays into the first part:

Kaito has always (somehow) known that Conan is Shinichi. Even at their first meeting, when he couldn't have yet known, he treated Conan like an equal, because he realized he was no ordinary child.

Kaito now knows who Conan really is, and has always treated him like the adult he actually is (including tasering him, stupid idiot)

Kaito has always SEEN Conan for who he is and never treated him as lesser.

Yes, Conan has other who know his secret. Agasa? Is his neighbor and more of an uncle, he respects Shinichi but likely will always see him as a child. Like his parents. Because that's what parents do.

Heiji is pretty good, but he can be a dick and sometimes does mock him a little or treats him like a child

But Kaito? He's an equal, his DESTINED RIVAL (canon), his opposite, the moon to his sun.

Shinichi has been stuck as Conan for a long time now, even canonically it's been close to a year. He has to go to elementary school, where he's bored out of his skull. To his childhood love interest he's only a little brother, small enough to bathe together. Everyone sees him as an annoying brat or smart kid.

But Kaito, he sees him for who he is. He sees through the masks and the lies and through Conan, and he sees Shinichi for who he really is. He's been shown to be able to gauge his mood and his needs.

I don't really know how to explain it well, but

There's something about being seen for who you truly are, being LOVED for who you are, and not for what others see you as. Something about someone seeing the real you.

He never pretends with Kaito. He can be completely himself around Kaito. They just understand each other.

Even with Heiji, Shinichi sometimes has to pretend to be a horny teenager or whatever. Which just isn't him at all.

But with Kaito, with Kid, he's just himself. They're bouncing ideas off each other and work amazingly well together.

But I digress. I'm rambling now.

Tl;dr:

KaiCon for me is about being seen, accepted, and loved for who you truly are, not for what others might see in you. Not for the mask you wear. It's about to be wanted even though the whole world (and maybe you yourself) has deemed you undesirable

As a neurodivergent fat queer, that just speaks to me

[canonizzyhours]

The thing that really upsets me about the canyon is - look, they're always claiming their opponents are committing the sin of Character Hate, right? Character Hate is supposedly always bad faith and always wrong. But the only takes on Izzy that they'll accept as not qualifying as "hate" are ones that require incredibly bad faith uncharitable interpretations of other characters.

Season 1 left a lot of stuff about Izzy open to interpretation. But one thing was clear: what Izzy said to Ed in the "namby-pamby" scene was not just cruel in the usual way it's cruel to tell someone who's heartbroken to just man up because he'd be better off dead than acting like this (which would be bad enough honestly), it was the absolute most hurtful thing Ed Teach specifically could hear at that moment because it was stabbing him directly in the core trauma he'd carried for his entire life. Ed's absolute worst fear in the whole world is that the violence he's capable of, as exemplified by having killed his dad, proves he is a monster instead of an actual human person capable of love or friendship. So Izzy tells him he's just embarrassing himself trying to reach out to others, says his real self is a violent monster, then goads him till he does something violent and says see, this is the real you. That's insanely targeted. If you sat down and tried to think of the single most most incredibly harmful and triggering thing you could say or do to Ed you couldn't have done any better.

So that means the viewer has two options for how to interpret Izzy:

1) Izzy does not really know Ed very well at all when you get down to it, despite how long they've worked together. He doesn't get what Ed's trauma is all about or how it affects him and the fact that what he said is Ed's absolute deepest fear is just a coincidence. So he truly does not understand just how hurtful he's being and would never have said that stuff if he'd known.

or

2) Izzy does understand Ed pretty accurately and therefore he is being incredibly viciously cruel on purpose by deliberately reinforcing his most painful and unhealthy beliefs about himself, knowing how it's going to affect him.

Those are the only two possibilities! You could have an Izzy whose relationship with Ed was close enough to deeply understand him, or you could have an Izzy who actually cared about Ed and didn't want to hurt him. But you could not have both. The closer you assumed Ed and Izzy were, and the more actual trust and intimacy and understanding you thought existed between them, then the crueler you had to assume Izzy was being.

But the canyon didn't want to accept that! They want to insist that Ed and Izzy had a really close relationship involving trust and intimacy and understanding AND that Izzy cares deeply about Ed's well-being and only ever wants to act in his best interests. So they found a third option, which was to just throw out Ed's entire character arc.

If you refused to believe Ed's arc was what it very obviously was, then you could deny that Izzy was actually being all that hurtful. You just deny that Ed's arc is about fearing the exact things Izzy told him were true about himself. Instead they said...well, a lot of them just didn't seem to really care that they didn't have a clear sense of what Ed's arc was at all, but those who did seem to care about Ed settled on: Ed's problem is that he actually DOES have something deeply wrong with him that makes him uncontrollably violent and he's simply trying to run away from that, which is unhealthy, so Izzy is looking out for him by trying to force him to confront these hard truths, which he needs to do before he can grow. But unfortunately Ed completely overreacted to Izzy's harsh truth-telling.

Now I mean think about the narrative this implies. This means OFMD is a romcom centered around the idea that the indigenous lead's deep seated belief that he's an uncontrollably violent monster is ACTUALLY TRUE and the white man who tells him so is just trying to help him. That would be a narrative that was (a) incredibly mean-spirited, (b) intensely racist, and (c) made no sense at all as a love story centered on this character. Which is how you should be able to tell it's an absurd read! And it's supposed to be the people who say "no, Ed's arc is what it looks like, which means Izzy either isn't especially close to him or is emotionally abusing him on purpose" who are spreading character hate.

This is why we're always pointing out that you have to understand Ed is a lead character and Izzy is a supporting one. I know the canyon thinks that's some sort of pedantry but it matters here, because if an interpretation you like because of what it does for a supporting character's arc comes at the cost of making the lead character's arc totally nonsensical, that's a pretty basic way you can tell it's reading against the text!

So now we're post season 2. And season 2 not only unsurprisingly followed up on the character arc Ed actually did have in season 1, but it managed to go with the canyon worst case scenario of repeatedly reinforcing that Izzy really does not understand Ed very well in many ways AND ALSO AT THE SAME TIME specifying in his final scene that Izzy DID understand JUST enough to realize the whole time that he was being terrible to Ed and did it anyway on purpose for years. Super embarrassing for those guys. I guess the massive tantrums they threw about season 2 aren't really a surprise.

#406.

[ramyaknox]

So I've been thinking about how clever if I loved you is in showing all the ways Pete and steph have thought about each other and I thought I'd make a little list. These might be obvious but I notice them more with each listen.

For starters "I always knew my place always knew my lane" ie Pete thought about steph but thought she'd never like him back.

"I'd never fall for a geek who'd spend the prom in a stall". So steph, you thought about what Pete would be like at prom?

"how was this gonna work when you were out of state?" so Pete you thought about your future together as a couple?

"homecoming queen" Pete thought about homecoming and specifically about steph at homecoming

"sure I'm sapiosexual you're intellectual" you just admitted he's your type! Get together already!

I think the middle section is really interesting because it shows their fears which I think is why they don't confess their feelings for each other at this point

"you're using me just to move up"

"using your power to slyly get all that you want"

Stephs afraid Pete doesn't like the real her and just likes her because it allows him to be cool and Pete is afraid that steph is just pretending to like him so that he will help her get good grades. Of course the Lords in black can see their deepest desires and therefore show that this isn't true and they do genuinely care about each other (the Lords in black actually really helped lautski get together, which would be wholesome if they weren't trying to get them to kill each other).

Also

"loved you like I'm capable of" they've thought about how much they could love each other

And on a similar vein to what I said about the middle section "if I loved you, you would know it" maybe they're actually trying to convince themselves that if the other loved them they'd know? More of a "if you loved me, I would know it" but I don't think you do so I've got to protect myself.

Plus the general awkwardness of the "you first" interaction, this song is just amazing

I've got a bit carried away but maybe someone will appreciate this

[miguel-manbemel]

There's one thought that came to me today about Sanders Sides, and specifically the nature of the Sides. So many people have missed one important, crucial point about the Sides. They're not human, and I don't mean that they can shapeshift, appear and disappear and all that stuff. I mean that each of the Sides represents just one limited zone of c!Thomas' psyche, and therefore they're only confined to that zone of Thomas.

What does it mean to judge them as humans? It means many people demand of them the complexity of action humans have, the same capacity to grow and evolve as if they were a fully fledged human, and that, my friends, just cannot happen, because it's not in their nature. I'll try to explain my point. We've seen the Sides learn and grow from different situations they went through in the past, and I say "have we?"

Don't mean they didn't go through the situations, I mean, did they really get a long term growth? In some cases they did, in others, the growth was incomplete or null, because the Sides are only able to grow in their own area of action in Thomas' psyche, and will remain, not oblivious, but, like that student that simply doesn't get how to solve a problem at school, and tries and tries to solve it right, but it just doesn't stick in their head. They will only learn the part of the solution in their area of expertise, and the rest will simply not stick at all.

For instance, Virgil knows if he causes a panic attack, Thomas will suffer and that will help no one, but he just can't help it, it's in his nature to cause panic attacks if the conditions are met. Other example, Roman knows that too much fantasy can be harmful, it can disconnect you from reality and that can break Thomas' heart. He knows, he's been told, but he can't help it. He's literally Thomas' dreams. Same way, Patton cannot escape the morality he was created with during Thomas' growth, Janus can't help making Thomas deceitful, Remus will show his creative thoughts at all cost no matter how it makes Thomas suffer, and Logan will always have problems to put feelings in the equation when trying to find solutions to an issue.

Does that mean that the whole show is a lie and the Sides are hopeless beings that can't learn from their mistakes? Not entirely, because when they face issues, they all face them together as a team, they go through them together and find a global solution that can help Thomas grow.

Then why do they revert back after learning so much about Thomas in the past? As I said, any item the Sides are not capable to learn according to their nature will not fully stick and they'll be prone to repeat problematic attitudes, even if they try not to.

What can be done then? The solution comes from Thomas. The Sides are Thomas and Thomas is all of them, and most important, he knows, or is learning, how to combine the different aspects of himself. In another analogy, the Sides and Thomas are like an orchestra and the orchestra conductor. Each instrument has only access to their partiture and can only play their own sound, even if they know how they're all supposed to sound together, only Thomas has the full information of the song, and only he can tell any of the Sides when to play and when to stand back.

To be fair, Thomas still doesn't have the full partiture ready, he's still writing on the fly, that's why the song is incomplete and both the Sides and Thomas are still struggling, but as the series goes on, the song keeps writing itself, slowly but surely and when it's complete, Thomas will have the full song and will learn how to make their Sides sound perfect in harmony...

Well, most probably, the song will never be fully complete or perfect, but eventually it will reach a grade of completion enough to make Thomas and his Side harmonious enough to make good, melodious songs. That is, eventually, Thomas will know how to be the best of a person he can be, because no one is perfect, but he will learn how to feel good enough, and how to be happy with himself and get as best as he can be.

That means the Sides will learn how each can help the other Sides in the areas they lack expertise so they don't repeat the same mistakes from the past. But they must learn to work together to reach that goal, they can't do it each on their own. When they learn this ultimate lesson, everything will get better for Thomas and the Sides.

[acourtofthought]

Giving gifts to Gwyn while supposedly in love with Elain and also feeling a spark in his chest for Gwyn feels a lot like emotional cheating and that's triggering to me because I was cheated on by my first boyfriend.

Therefore I request no e/riel artwork during ElainWeek because of it especially not of her wearing said necklace.

See how that goes? It's very easy to play this game, using our past experiences as a way to police what others can share.

Also, Sarah doesn't need to like Tamlin for others to create Tamlain content, that's literally not how fandom works 😂

Sarah also clearly doesn't like the idea of e/riel either considering she had Rhys (someone she loves) hand Az his ass in the bonus, shutting that shit down like a Spirit Store in December yet that doesn't seem to stop Elain Week from turning into another e/riel week.

Sarah once made people believe in Tamlin and Feyre then later told us Tamlin's behavior wasn't appropriate. It seems clear some are still stuck on e/riel in exactly the way many of us thought Feyre and Tamlin were happy in book 1. They're missing how Sarah spoke of Tamlin being the bad guy after Feyre ended up leaving with Rhys, how she revealed the true issues with his behavior in the book which had Feyre's endgame romantic arc. Therefore trying to claim Az's actions towards Elain and Tamlin's towards Feyre's are different doesn't hold any weight because they're at a different point in their setup, Elain hasn't had her romantic arc book yet. The foundations are identical though. Now that we see the path Tamlin went down in book 2 it's really strange how some miss the similarities with what she's doing with the e/riel ship. Feyre and Tamlin had cute moments until she later showed us how toxic they were together. We didn't notice those issues in ACOTAR but she really delved into them in the book after.

Just because Az will not end up written to be a bad guy like Tamlin doesn't mean he wasn't starting to demonstrate the same behavior towards Elain, something he was in CANON called out for by Rhys and Amren. Sarah halted Az turning into Tamlin by pulling the plug on e/riel on Solstice. She halted Az turning into Tamlin by pulling the plug on Moriel. But we saw her write Az as getting into physical fights (or willing to) over these two females, not giving credit to these two females for what they're capable of, getting into fights with their friends over a female (just like the Tamlin and Lucien situation). Of course Az isn't as bad as Tamlin, but the key word to that is yet. Tamlin's rage caused him to explode a room. Rhys knocked Az from his rage before Az did something he regretted. He was on the exact same path that Tamlin was before his behavior escalated and that's why Sarah introduced a new possible love interest for Az. One we see him finally have a healthy and natural reaction too. One he's not overly fixated on being protective of (a major issue for Az just as it was for Tamlin).

Gwyn doesn't have to change Az, she hasn't even done anything but be herself. Az is just different around her all on his own.

Tamlin with Feyre:

Az, Az with Mor, and Az with Elain:

Az with Gwyn:

Just because Bloomsbury added a number for the Domestic Abuse Hotline it doesn't mean that domestic abuse is the only thing that triggers people while reading these books, we all have different experiences so we view the characters a certain way. (Bloomsbury is not a Board Certified Mental Health Professional, correct?). For some of us we do see Az acting a lot like Tamlin at times and time will tell if Sarah agrees, that she purposely wrote him as coming close to falling victim to the same issues but pulled him back just in time.

Therefore any group claiming their trigger is more valid than someone else's, claiming one trigger is more serious than another, is making themselves more important than the rest and is not an all inclusive group no matter what you're trying to convince yourselves of. To gaslight they'll say we're making light of domestic abuse while in reality they're the ones carelessly using abuse as a way to promote their fictional ship by tearing down others (i.e. Gwyn can't have a kinky sexual relationship because of her SA sending the message that SA survivors can't enjoy certain forms of sex).

Someone is always going to be triggered by something, even if it's something you personally enjoy so who is anyone to elevate themselves to judge and jury?

Shaming an actual person by saying they're gross for liking the idea of something in a make believe world, that they're not welcome because of their "disgusting" fantasy is you creating actual abuse to an actual person versus something that only happened to a make believe character of a make believe species in a make believe world.

And yes, horrible things happen to people in real life but Fantasy Books are not real life therefore your real life morals need not apply.

So basically a good tagging system / Master List would be a good way for all to enjoy without people having to be left out because of someone's trauma.