#and too many individuals to make too many absolute statements

[utilitycaster]

Watching the Mighty Nein conversations and seeing people post about Watch Machina I really am struck by how much like...generally well-meaning misunderstandings or accidentally insensitive statements or even just two valid but conflicting viewpoints come up in conversation from the very start, and how utterly vital this is to the characters feeling so real and having such clear motivations.

Molly accidentally says the worst things possible to Nott every time, because while he needs to believe he is not the person who was put in a grave and who Cree knew, just a different person who happens to share the same body (that he's endeavored to make his own), she needs to believe that despite being in a different body she is still able to be Veth Brenatto, a halfling woman from Felderwin. Fjord has designed his entire current persona about being someone who commands respect after a powerless childhood in which he was bullied and abused and an adulthood in which he was horribly, even lethally, betrayed, and so the others aren't wrong about his tusks (and, notably, he's even able to listen) but it's part of that precarious scaffolding, along with the accent; and people like Caleb and Yasha in turn (as many people have said in the notes) need to know that someone else can move forward from their past, even though they can't yet.

With the conversation about Kima, Vex - victim of racism over her mixed heritage and having experienced an early adulthood as a homeless wanderer who was undoubtedly treated with suspicion simply for being new in town too many times to count - needs Keyleth to have more than just "vibes"; Keyleth, on the other hand, is terrified she lacks leadership qualities not just of intuition ("vibes") but also expressing that to others. Much later on, Scanlan's outburst in A Bard's Lament is both very real - Scanlan feels (and might even be right) that if he'd never met Vox Machina, he'd be less powerful but he also wouldn't have died twice, and he wouldn't have to care so much about others and he might not even know about Kaylie - but in expressing that he blames the rest of Vox Machina for caring back and making that attempt to disconnect impossible.

These are all in my opinion either absolutely necessary groundwork for characters who develop satisfyingly over the course of a campaign, and remarkably efficient too: each of these serves to set up both the characters as individuals (even if we as the audience did not know the entire story at the time, which, in many of these cases, we didn't) and their relationships with each other.

And I think, and I would apologize for making so many posts about where Campaign 3 fails where the other two succeed but I find it personally helpful to do so and I'm not going to stop until it no longer is, that this is perhaps its greatest failure point: there was no space given, in the narrative or by much of the fandom, to work through well-intentioned insensitivity or disagreement. Especially with the examples of the Mighty Nein, this doesn't even need to rise to the level of outright conflict! Molly and Nott's conversation is at most prickly, and the conversation with Fjord is even supportive, and Vox Machina had, notably, much more time with each other than the Mighty Nein had had at the time of both those conversations and could go much harder without destroying a nascent social connection.

And, of course, the Mighty Nein were also not without more outright conflict - we've already seen Fjord (life ruined and nearly destroyed entirely by someone deviating from the plan in a high pressure situation and betraying the group) threaten Caleb (pretty much solely motivated by the pursuit of arcane knowledge and Nott at this point, history of extensive abuse) and Nott (family saved because she went off-book), and Bowlgate (Beau's value of personal freedom vs. Caleb's suspicion of strangers' intentions, both informed by their pasts) is coming up fast. And clearly, it is not uniquely a campaign 3 issue that the fandom decided that one person was right and one was wrong instead of understanding that these are people with two separate perspectives - that stretches back to Vox Machina (the initial source of much Keyleth hate was that conversation about Kima), and the cast is still joking about Bowlgate - but I am struck by how there was pretty much no one who both loves Bells Hells and embraces this sort of misunderstanding. I still recall the seething hatred towards Orym's mother Alma for an utterly innocent statement re: the Ashari avoiding any Ruidusborn children even though she is personally entirely unaware of Imogen's past and the end state of the world ends up being...no more Ruidusborn ever.

We've seen what happens when everyone takes those misunderstandings and instead of trying to dig into them with empathy for both sides (Vax re: the argument about Kima) or talking it over after the fact even in veiled terms (the team conversation with Nott immediately in episode 13, and the oblique conversation between Fjord and Caleb in 14 and several much later ones and more explicit ones re: Swordgate) tries to just skip past them and maintain an illusion of peace. Ironically, instead of having heroic assholes who can deal with the fallout of the problems they cause and who learn to take unintentional insensitivity in good faith, you simply end up with regular old assholes, who can't, and who as a result treat most outsiders with disdain.

[bromcommie]

(Look, I can’t even do the whole “list of sources” thing anymore. I’ve been livid for 10 hours now. I just need to vent.)

In addition to inciting fear and hiking up tensions in the past few weeks, organizing various paid goons to play at a counter-protest and to threaten students, blocking intercity and city public transport and rolling out special police forces and armored vehicles, last night in Belgrade the absolute cowards constituting the Serbian leadership apparently ordered the use of what seems to be a sound cannon on hundreds of thousands of people, in order to interrupt and break up an ENTIRELY SILENT, PEACEFUL 15-minute vigil. A vigil for victims of an “accident” that same leadership is still refusing to take any accountability for, systemically or individually, 4+ months later.

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No incidents preceded this, by the way. This wasn’t a riot. Not that it should matter, since these tactics are never implemented to protect anyone anyway, but I feel compelled to say that. There was zero “justifiable cause”. There weren’t even any uniformed police in that area that anyone could see.

People were rightfully terrified because a) this has never happened before so they legitimately didn’t know if there’s something crashing down on their heads (which is how we got here in the first fucking place, isn’t it) or a bomb going off or what, and b) there was absolutely ZERO reason to expect it to happen then, other than the government getting pissy and taking issue with 300,000+ (at the most rigid estimate) people coming to protest peacefully.

And to be perfectly clear, I don’t think using an LRAD in this way is EVER justifiable, considering it’s almost guaranteed to cause mass injury as a result of stampedes as well as hearing damage—but the sheer pathetic spinelessness of using it out of nowhere on a bunch of people, including the elderly and babies in fucking strollers, who are literally just standing still and silent for fifteen minutes to honor and grieve a deeply traumatic national tragedy is just…heinous.

As of right now I’m not sure how many people got hurt (in this incident as well as the subsequent physical attacks on the students from “random” hooligans and clashes with the cops) but I know it’s one too many, and there’s civil rights orgs offering free legal support to those who did.

And here’s the punchline: after all that, the fucking police had the gall to issue a statement saying “this wasn’t us, the use of sound cannons is illegal in Serbia.”

Oh, really? Who or what was it then, do you think? Maybe a particularly loud bicycle horn sent all those people ducking for cover? Somebody’s kid brother pulling out a portable speaker for shits and giggles? Or are you implying that somehow, some 19-yearold who’s studying film and works at the local coffeeshop or whatever is ordering American-grade sonic weapons off of Temu to use for the students’ nefarious government-toppling schemes?

“It wasn’t us, that’d be illegal 🥺” Give me a fucking break.

And maybe the question we should be asking is, “how in the world did we get to a point where the regime can afford to be so transparent? As if it’s normal for the police to even deny something like this. As if the alternative—which would be that we simply have rogue off-label weapons floating around, I guess, which are being used illegally on thousands of members of the public by some unknown force that the cops can supposedly neither predict nor control—even if it were true, is somehow fine and doesn’t make the govt look even more inept and culpable?”

I mean. I know how we got here. It’s painfully goddamn obvious how, and I know I shouldn’t be surprised, but Jesus Christ. Clown fucking state.

[ffg7]

Genuinely Insane Thoughts about Yunho

whatever that means

As a certified man-hater and, quite frankly, a worryingly big ATEEZ fan, I often find myself in a state of cognitive dissonance. Because I do enjoy their content—I really do—until they do things that remind me that they are, in fact, men. And then my feelings get complicated.

Quick disclaimer: deep down, I know that not all men are horrible. There are way too many of them for all of them to be shit—it’s not statistically possible. I’m also of the opinion that the belief that having a Y chromosome somehow makes you a worse person than everyone else is nothing more than yassified gender essentialism. Having a penis is no more of a moral flaw than having a vagina.

If you’re asking me, the real disaster of the human experience is that we cannot reproduce monoparentally (is that a word? Who knows? Definitely not me) like an amoeba. I would love to give birth to my genetic clones. It’s the fact that your children are their own people that throws me off about reproduction.

However, I can count the men I’ve felt respected by on one hand. The men in my life—whether they were family, friends, or lovers—really dropped the ball with me. It sucks, but it’s something I’ll have to learn to deal with. Not because I feel bad for the random men I subconsciously treat like a threat to my livelihood, but because it is simply too hard to go about your life when half the world's population unconsciously gets registered as a threat.

Trying to have a genuine connection with a man is something I’m working on—not because I think that a woman’s life cannot be complete without a male presence, but because I think it might help me lose some of the existential dread that’s swallowing up my life.

That’s how I got into K-pop, and especially boy groups. It was, initially, a way to microdose male company. Of course, there were other reasons too, but in the context of this essay, they’re irrelevant.

Boy groups were built—and this can be generalized to apply to Western groups as well—to appeal to a majority female fanbase that often lives a majority of their lives being slighted by their male counterparts. Whether that manifests as being passed over for a promotion in favor of a male colleague, or falling out of favor with the family the moment you turn thirty and aren’t married with 2.5 kids, it doesn’t take long for a woman to realize that her gender really isn’t society’s preferred alternative.

And that sucks. Which is why most boy groups develop this sort of neutrality towards gender equality. They need to appeal to their female audience while keeping their own views on feminism and women vague enough not to fall out of favor with the still very patriarchal society we live in.

Yunho is pretty decent at keeping things vague—mostly because he treats his fans like an amorphous blob that he has trained to tell him the things he wants to hear. For all he cares, he goes on live to flirt with a mass of neon-green slime. He doesn’t necessarily want to connect with his fans, and when that connection does happen, it’s always in spite of his efforts.

The waterworks only come at concerts, when he has no choice but to come face-to-face with the fact that the amorphous blob is made up of individuals.

However, I’ll leave the full scope of my totally insane thoughts about Yunho for another time, because the point I’m trying to make is that—when he’s not non-consensually having a genuine connection with the audience—he really isn’t giving up anything about himself.

His views about the economic state of the world? Who knows. His thoughts on life? He wants to win it, but other than that, I wouldn’t know. Does he think women are people? I mean… I think so? But to my knowledge, he’s said nothing to prove or disprove that statement.

Another member who’s pretty good at giving up absolutely nothing about himself is Yeosang. Although his aloofness—unlike Yunho’s—is more of a natural-born trait than a concentrated effort, he still stands in stark contrast to the rest of the members, who will occasionally try to (with varying degrees of subtlety—yes, Seonghwa, I’m looking at you and your pride toothpaste) hint at their worldviews.

That makes them easy to digest, which I believe is a conscious choice to an extent. The less you give up about yourself, the more space you leave for others to fill in the gaps. This way, you can be whoever the other person wants you to be.

So if he’s giving up so little of himself, why is it that I feel this weird kinship with this strange man from a land far, far away? I see his frankly comical level of competitiveness about all things in life and the perfectionism he exerts over his work, and it’s like looking in the mirror.

I am too old to be experiencing this level of parasocial relationship. Especially with a man, of all things.

What have you done to me, Yunho? You interesting motherfucker.

[vindicated-truth]

What makes Lee Dongsik and Han Joowon stand head and shoulders above the fray of fictional partners in media for me is that they are truly equal.

In many other pop culture partnerships, albeit legendary in their own way, one person is very clearly the "star" of the show and the other is the "side kick". It's not a judgement of whether that makes it better or worse—it's simply a statement of fact, as their roles in the story.

One of the foremost examples I can think of is, of course, the one and only—Sherlock Holmes. He is the clear star of the story, and while John Watson is indispensable as his partner, it is also clear that he is the "second lead" or the "side kick".

The same can be said for all other equally beloved and legendary adaptations of the Holmes phenomenon, such as House M.D. (Gregory House and James Wilson) and Star Trek (James T. Kirk and S'chn T'gai Spock)—both of which are beloved series to me too, along with the original Sherlock Holmes' series.

In many ways it's partly why I was drawn to the dynamic between Dongsik and Joowon too, because there are shades of Holmes and Watson in them as well—Joowon as the cold and calculating but incredibly clever version of a Holmes character and Dongsik as the more personable and emotionally in touch version of a Watson character—but it's the way that they're written and portrayed in Beyond Evil that's different.

For a lot of Holmes adaptations, Watson (or whoever their counterpart is) is often one step behind of Holmes' genius, because that's how stories in general often are written, as a literary device: the side kick is the foil to make the star shine more. The Holmes character (whoever their counterpart in that universe is) is the clear captain driving the wheel even as their partner is their indispensable right hand man—and often their conscience and their touchstone to the rest of humanity (this is especially true in House's case).

With Dongsik and Joowon, they are toe to toe in everything. Wit matching wit, strength matching strength, heart matching heart. It's why even in their promotional posters, they are clearly shot as true partners: not with one man in the foreground and the other in the background, not with one man in the center and the other on the side, but together, back-to-back, clear in being each other's equal even when they couldn't even accept each other as partners just yet.

Because even when they were working separately, they were working together, each arc by each individual character indispensable to the overall narrative of the story and the overall development of their partnership.

And isn't that absolutely fascinating? That it's possible after all to write and portray true partners, without having to relegate someone to the role of an indispensable, beloved, but still clearly a side kick, and have both characters both be the heroes of a story—and have them both truly matter to each other equally?

[golden-wires]

I was annoying with the Metalocalypse Movie now let me get rant about much I loved this movie, if you haven’t seen it yet be warned of ⚠️Spoilers⚠️ moving forward! Ryan Coogler and Michael B Jordan you mother fuckers you got me hooked on this

I have to guilty admit when I first heard of the title about this movie I was quick to assume it was simply an action movie and that I’d see it eventually or some day. I assumed I wouldn’t be interested and shelved it in my mind- having actually seen the movie I would choke slam my past self for even THINKING to ignore this movie! It ABSOLUTELY deserved that 100% on Rotten Tomatoes

At the time of making this post it’s still in theaters and it’s a little hard right now to find quality images of scenes from this film on google so I’ll do my best here, I’ve seen this movie twice now and I ABSOLUTELY recommend watching it twice to appreciate some more moments

-Soundtrack 10/10

The fact the music wasn’t just background and SUPER IMPORTANT IN TELLING A STORY MULTIPLE TIMES WITHOUT SPELLING IT OUT FOR YOU AS THE AUDIENCE

Getting into it now from the perspective of someone who’s seen it twice!

This opening scene in my first watch through I took the flashing images as just jumpscares as he seems to be reliving the very recent traumatic events of what he just went through.

I can now in my Second Watchthrough appreciate that in this moment Sammie sees his father and his religion in a new lens! Especially since the movements his father makes with his body and arms/words remind Sammy of Remmick’s mocking and eye opening statements about this religion that was forced on him as well. This moment he’s now never able to look at his father’s teachings the same.

A new form of imprisonment and assimilation/colonization all the same but with a new name in the guise of “freedom”

The music of generations scene had my jaw dropped as I started piecing together what was unfolding as the scene carried on and we see ancestors and future generations begin flooding in!

Not just for African Americans but also Asian Americans and it was really nice to see the small mixing pot of history that juke joint cultivated because of Sammie’s gift! You’ll hear me say over and over how much I love the soundtrack in this post

Pearline’s number along with the building tension of the movie as we see Sammie go back and forth between the two rooms to lead us into the next act of the film is never gonna lose its magic in the energy and cinematography. Watching this for the first time in theaters closer to the screen felt as if the ground was shaking from actual stomping of feet on the ground from a crowd-

I don’t think I see too many people talking about the music that plays during Annie and Smoke’s reunion and love scene because it’s REAL GOOD, really nice moment for them I just don’t see too many people talking about it is all. And of course this moment also comes with some info about Smoke and Stacks business back from Chicago (hope I’m remembering that right)

Onto the secondary antagonist of the film Remmick, I am eating the writing of this Remmick character and who he was. I gotta state I don’t agree with him but can love his writing and how in manifests.

First of all seeing them all circling in the distance DASHED those hopes that only some got attacked- they got EVERYONEEEE

This man has been through the thick of it and facing his own problems being Irish in the Deep South and now far separated from his own self and ancestors.

But he’s now lived long enough to now put this same conformity and loss of individuality onto another oppressed group, he just can’t see it that way. By trying to make a new group of love and community with HIS hive mind he’s now stripped them of letting them connect with their own ancestors in death.

And what better way to show and display it than by the river dance scene, he wants to connect back with his culture and ancestors he’s willing to steal Sammie and his choice to get that back by any means necessary. Trapping all of them to partake in almost a bastardized version of Sammie’s connecting of generations scene, he wants the same connection with the past and future. It just simply can’t happen because he’s trapped innocents into their own bodies and putting his own actions and his memories onto them for this when their real connection to shared culture was back inside the warm lit barn.

Ngl a banger song accompanied with a beautiful and haunting narrative of people from Mississippi who are in this hive mind with this Irish Vampire, there’s a lot of layers going on in the scene on without him directly spelling it out. By far one of the best written scenes

And also I just love anything vampires/zombies/cowboys/ and bonus points on if the vampires and cowboy media is a period piece so seeing vampires in this setting somewhere not Eurocentric is really a breath of fresh air in writing.

Also using vampirism in the way this movie did on its themes of colonization was EVEN BETTER

Nothing but appreciation for Grace, she knew the real threat of this reaching back the town and just sometimes you can’t come out unscathed in what you do to protect others or when you think you’re doing the right thing, when she screamed the audience just all had the same reaction of “aw fuck”

The baptism scene where some would think “oh the prayer will stop him” HEARING HIM REPEAT IT BACK! ALONG WITH THE CROWD! Listen I grew up religious but no longer am myself- this scene was really everything and of course spells out more for the movies themes of colonization and power over another on religion now taking stage and just another form of it here- to have one of the antagonist having once used it as comfort as well and telling his truth of experience with it- GREAT

I feel like I’m not making a lot of sense here just it was a really good scene especially when it’s the lasting message Sammie took from Remmick and will then see that same image and message when looking at his father later when he returns. To be fair Sammie also made it known at the juke joint he didn’t have much intention to keep to the church when talking to Smoke but I have to think that night really solidified that in Sammie’s head

Buddy Guy in this post credit scene- man.

I can’t find a screenshot online for it but when he plays and it starts showing the best day of his life play out- AUGH this movie from start to finish has you interested and appreciating everything they put into here

Rude it wouldn’t let me add more photos since I realized I forgot about the Choctaw group until after I posted this, the group didn’t have the most screen time but boy they really have the most joke and meme posts of “not my problem anymore”.

Listen they tried to warn them, but with that sun going down I’d also not stick to die with idiots and racists

A sequel isn’t happening, but man I’d love a movie with them in this universe with vampires

And please oh please tell me what any of you thought of this movie

[xesnox]

I feel like nobody has talked about this in the Minecraft fandom so I’d like to.

(Rant, kinda?)

Something I really really hate about certain theorists is their pretentiousness. Every theory deserves to be heard out. If you have a basis to stand on, and an amount of evidence large enough to make your point believable, then you are completely valid! No matter how outlandish it is, this community is about having fun with hypotheticals, I think people forget that.

On that note also- no topic is “too hypothetical” again, if you have a basis to stand on you’re valid, especially if it works well with the rest of our interpretation with tying things together and whatnot. This entire idea is made off of hypotheticals; I’m serious, we’re usually just in some kind of echo chamber. Pull the average Minecraft player aside and tell them about the nether war, you’ll look like a crazy person, so why not go all out and treat it like an actual world to explore rather than leaving out entire subjects because you feel it’s too specific or far removed from the source? Isn’t that supposed to be the fun part?

Minecraft lore, although heavily implied, is very much up to interpretation for each individual person that gets into it. You have no right to tell people they’re stupid for believing something. You just need to be able to explain it so it doesn’t look like you’re just saying things for the sake of making up the most niche concept.

Because that is another issue, people get so caught up with having the most “unique interpretation” or a “fresh take” that they spew nonsense and get angry when anybody asks them for an explanation, because they never have one. It’s about one-upping everybody else for these people, and it’s so annoying. They’re always incredibly rude about it and pretend like they’re the know-it-all whilst oftentimes not being in the know of basic things stated in actual Minecraft.net articles or even the wikipedias trivia page at that point.

It’s just upsetting. We’re all in the same community, it is an extremely small space and there is absolutely no need to shit on people! Some of my theorist friends literally don’t wanna share their ideas on the internet because of individuals like this.

Be better. There is no one true canon of Minecraft lore, you can say “hey! What you says goes against (something)”, that isn’t arguing nor an attack, that’s just adding onto somebody else’s theory and looking for a conversation, but don’t say “it’s so stupid people genuinely believe this, it’s obviously not true. (Insert take that is never explained in a passive aggressive manner).”

Ofcourse I most commonly see this happen with big interpretations like that of The Game Theorists YouTube channel or RGNs ideas, but it goes to a point where like I said before people will just claim things because they want to one up everyone else in uniqueness. There is no passion nor interest, it isn’t a theory, it’s just a statement made with the objective to shit on people for being “too mainstream.”.

Ofcourse this comes naturally with any lore focused fandom, but c’mon man we’re like 100-200 active people max, there’s no reason to start stupid drama for no fucking reason other than to feed your own ego over something as silly as Minecraft lore. It’s ridiculous.

Ofcourse this usually happens on platforms like discord or reddit but I’ve seen my fare share of YouTube takes outside of the comments you’d expect to find here and there too. It’s just sad. Clicking on a post seeing that all the replies or comments are just bashing other people for not having unique enough takes is just sad. How about we let people have fun, my god.

If somebody tells me about something they’re passionate about because they’re looking for a community of some kind I’m not going to go “no you’re wrong and also what you’re really passionate about is dumb and bad and mine is better because it’s less popular”. But appearently many people on here don’t get that.

TLDR: just don’t be rude? I think that sums it up pretty well.

[meldingintheunderdark]

Halsin, Drow and submission

Halsin has a complicated history with Lolth-Sworn drow to say the least. Three years of his youth have been stolen to satiate the selfish, dehumanizing pleasure of an influent matron and her man. Let’s not disregard Minthara who threatens the Emerald Grove alongside Priestess Gut and Dror Ragzlin in Act I. Although Minthara now serves the Absolute, she is a member of the ancient and powerful House Baenre of Menzoberranzan, thus first and foremost a Lolth-Sworn drow. Furthermore, drow cultists also obey her (e.g. the corpse outside of Waukeen's Rest, Narvass in the Shattered Sanctum and the man who attacked Nettie and him). Consequently, we know with certainty that, canonically, Halsin is exposed twice to the infamous cruelty of Lolth-Sworn drow through his captors, then Minthara and her minions.

Halsin also states that he has returned to the Underdark many times. I assume that he did so before his unfortunate capture, but also after his daring escape from Menzoberranzan. It isn’t too far-fetched to think he might have encountered more drow showing their typical Lolth-approved brand of malice. Despite his “misadventure”, as Halsin says himself, he couldn’t stay away from the Underdark’s arguably hottest residents. Why so?

Halsin: Astarion, I am astonished. To relish in intimacy again after such hardship is a wound many never recover from. Astarion: Are you charging for this sage advice, or is sticking your nose into my business just a hobby? Halsin: Jest all you will. I believe now in your honest heart.

This is a sweet albeit clumsy banter. Halsin seems to relate to Astarion’s traumas, however his gauche attempt to empathize and bond is not well received by the spawn. Although Halsin says “many”, he may be speaking from experience. After all, he is not one to be the center of attention, unless it is in a self-sacrificing way, thus I can hardly imagine him using I, especially with such a personal topic.

As aforementioned, Halsin has never left the Underdark once and for all. I suspect that he may have had difficulties to be intimate again after three uninterrupted years of torment and abuse at the hands of the drow couple. His frequent returns to the Underdark may have been a way to claim back what was stolen: his ability to express agency and exercise bodily autonomy, among other things. He is desired by drow because he is an exotic surface dweller, one of a kind. He can handle them now. They cannot hurt him anymore. He knows better. Yet, at the same time, he is objectified. He exposes himself regularly to lovers who are likely to share the same beliefs and ruthlessness as his captors. In order to deal with his traumas, he sought out drow, perhaps to his own detriment. He became a legend. Halsin coped as best he could. From my point of view, this banter isn't solely about one shared experience among survivors, it’s also about Halsin sympathizing with Astarion because he too had to go through a similar recovery process.

I would like to preface this paragraph with the following statement: I do not judge players who refuse to be exposed to the foursome and the dialogue the encounter unlocks. We all have our boundaries and our sensibilities. This being said, Halsin’s traumas are often met with horror and compassion, sometimes too much if it makes any sense. His past experiences are discussed in such a way that they become sacrosanct. Too holy to be used and abused with his consent. Meanwhile, because Halsin is a bear of a man and a deeply caring individual, he tends to be the top/dom in the relationship. His traumas are sanctified, yet simultaneously they’re overshadowed by his nurturing disposition and his glorious hairy body. As if he can solely be a top/dom. As if DU/Tav must only show empathy, kindness and care as a bottom/sub. Yet care is multifaceted.

This is the crux of this post and one of my main gripes with the fandom: Halsin shouldn't be a strict top/dom. In fact, I am persuaded submitting would help him a lot.

Halsin: To give oneself wholly, and to have a lover totally in your thrall…? A harmless game, until it becomes real.

While I believe Halsin would relish any flavor of dom, I am also inclined to think he would request scenes that happened with his captors. In other words, his partner can hardly be a gentle dom only. He would willingly explore his traumas in a risk-aware and consensual environment, with the person he has come to love, trust and rely on the most.

Oftentimes, when survivors enjoy anything remotely close to their trauma(s), such as a kink, when they ask for it and like it, when the exploration and the re-enactment of their trauma(s) are positive, then the public opinion is either worried or downright judgmental. There is not a singular way to cope and heal. BDSM is too often pathologized. It can be curative. Consensual slavery to serve a harsh master, especially a drow DU/Tav, could be healing for Halsin. He hurts himself with the twins (my post), as he oft does, however it may be completely different if he submits to his lover the very same way he has submitted to his captors. This time, his consent will be supreme.

By the way, I don’t aim to enforce a specific hierarchy, however I do believe a Bhaal-made drow/drow Tav would play a unique role. Halsin is traumatized by Lolth-sworn drow.

Sszazar: You are aware you're asking me to kill a drow? Halsin: You drow relish turning on your own, if there's something to be gained. Don't pretend otherwise.

Sometimes, because of traumas, unfair expectations are placed on certain individuals because they are associated with said traumas. It isn't rational, it just happens. So, a relationship with a drow could be more intricate than with any other race while Halsin is finally taking care of himself. Thus, curative BDSM (as in re-enacting traumatizing scenes) may be even more intense with a drow partner.

Sszazar: The mighty bear is an escaped pet, then. I wonder if there is a reward for your return.

It would be a delightful line. To be honest, the [Drow] options available during the dialogue about his past demonstrate the deeper involvement of a drow DU/Tav. This intricacy is also highly visible thanks to Halsin's lack of rage or sadness when the previous option is selected. drow DU/Tav look like his captors. He's still trauma-bound to them.

Lastly, it’s okay to favor dom Halsin over sub Halsin. It’s difficult to write about topics we know nothing about or that we simply don’t like. Nevertheless, it’s unfortunate Halsin isn't more written as a sub, let alone as a sub re-enacting voluntarily past traumas to heal and to enjoy himself. I wonder if Halsin would be more often depicted as a sub and/or bottom if he looked like the average wood elf, less manly and huge.

Bears love to be dominated too.

[algerian-lady]

Listen, his clothing style is completely random and tacky, but he makes it work somehow, maybe because he's excessively handsome? Jk, I think his style reflects who he is as a character, he can dress formally too ofc, when the occasion is offered, but otherwise he's just not interested in that, and his huge coats and oversized clothes as well as his large built and height, make him appear as this huge friendly bear, intimidating as a mafia should be, but also super warm and cozy when you get to see his smile and super soft personality.

I really love Dio's character in Khr, I love so many characters so it's difficult to pick favorites, but I'd have wanted to see him more (like not as a side character, but see his work, life, powers etc as an individual and the Cavallone family in general) that's why I wanna write smth for me abt him (prob gonna share it with my sis). And while I was looking back on his appearance and fashion choice, did I really start analyzing it, like ofc all khr is like this, it reminds me in a sense of bleach with how random the fits were, it's nostalgic to the 2000's style and I love it ofc, I love homey comfy clothes, they just put you in a different mood.

But since Dino is from the few characters who aren't attending school, and he doesn't give a shit abt official wear, that's why we get to see some of that clothing style ppl were wearing at the time. I'm saying it's the fashion sense of that period yes, but the author still gives their character their individuality, like Gokudera has a very edgy punk fashion statement, despite being in school he's always popping up with a new killer outfit and it's so interesting to see. (like I'm acknowledging here that they don't only wear their school uniforms, it's just what they wear the most, but he's still outstanding outside of that contrary to the others who made made forget they wore other stuff)

This is just a rumble and if I start talking about everyone and comparing, it'll be a mess, so let's just focus on Dino. The guy is at the head of one of the biggest mafia families of his time and at such a young age, all of his men are in uniforms to give their family a decent representation as a serious gangsta mafia unite, but their leader doesn't, he just dresses up like a hipster. The thing is he can clearly afford to dress up more richly, but he doesn't.

In manga and animes, I usually make a wild guess that authors may not know if what the person is wearing is considered fashionable,( like I'm an artist and have absolutely no idea how my characters will be perceived, I could think 'this character needs to appear fashionable' but ppl online will call them tacky and messy, especially generations later, across continents ) I have also a feeling that bcz it was so old the perception of fashion was different (as I have pointed many times) and lastly, bcz the Mangaka (s) is/are prob Japanese, they could have a certain image (right or wrong) over foreign fashion, esp from a country as fashionable as Italy, so that'd explain why they wanna give an impression with characters that came from there, like Gokudera his sister Bianchi and Dino, saying like look these ppl are youngsters from Italy, they wear like 2000's magazines. All of these are speculations, to say that those could be some reasons those characters wear this specific way.

If we put these aside, and consider that the Manga artist know exactly what they are doing and it's 100% what you think it is, in this case, Dio's décontracté objectively messy style compared to his men, has a clear message, he's saying" I'm your homie clumsy big bro, fuck étiquette, i'm the boss hanging out with my fam, let me live my age, I'm tired of this mafia stuff so I don't have time to dress up so I put on this mop I found on the trash bin." or whatever. But that appearance could also be 100% intentional, maybe he wanna look approachable to Tsuna sensing he'll become the head of the Vangolla and wanting to maintain a good alliance with them so he needs tsuna to like him, he also us aware he's staying around kids and don't wanna intimidate them with formal wear again because those kids are future mafia allies and he's counting a lot on their family in general. Or he just genuinely want to give a good impression because of he's a genuine guy and his family despite being mafia, have a pretty good reputation.

In conclusion. Dino can wear suits, we saw him in them, yet his appearance is mostly casual( but still gangsta, more like street gangsta, your local drug dealer not huge corporation like) , he still looks intimidating from a first glance until you get on his good side and discover he's a good guy. He could prefer this style over the other because it's cozier and more like him or because he wanna appear cozier and thinks that's the way to do it (altho he'd have made his men dress up to if that was the case). Whatever is the case, I just think it represents his personality a lot and his character in the series (as underrated as I feel it was) as well as the time era.

[centrally-unplanned]

Serious question: How much do you think exowombs would actually improve fertility rates? I think they would help at the margins, but I suspect that disinclination to carry (more) children to term only makes up a moderate portion of the decline in fertility and all the other factors driving that change would continue unabated.

This depends on what you mean, right? The "conservative" assumption is you invent exowomb technology and it is just IVF+, a new way for individual parents to have families (but not too conservative, in real life people would have moral issues around the tech, we are gonna ignore those here). I think this would make a more than marginal difference! It has some very direct benefits; people absolutely do not have kids because of issues like:

Unwillingness to take the full time off work because it impacts careers

Health risks for pregnancy, particularly later in life

Actual infertility issues, again particularly as one ages

"Going through it again" once you have had 1-2 kids

That exowomb tech directly addresses. Some of these are huge parts of the fertility decline! I would bet fully safe/mature exowomb technology boosting the median "ready to have kids" family unit by half a kid, and it could be more.

There are deeper issues around this, for example. So I have done direct conversations with "adult, stable & childless" people, and something I hear a ton are statements like "the medical risk to me is too high", despite ofc pregnancy being the safest it has ever been. That doesn't mean that is wrong! Just that pregnancy isn't getting safer - people's risk profiles have just changed. Other statements include things like "pregnancy literally sounds like body torture, it would alienate me from my physical sense of self" (some hip amoung you might say body dysphoria). Conceptions of self-identity have changed, people value stability and self-image more, and tbh anxiety levels are higher so we are less risk-happy. These deeper culture shifts *could* also be addressed by exowomb tech; though it is far more vague how that would all play out.

And ofc surrogacy is currently a thing! Lots of people currently pay for exowombs - it is just very expensive ($100k+) and very "invasive". When costs go down, demand goes up, simple as right? And even in the most basic case, lots of single men want kids and don't have a partner.

Now there are many things that aren't addressed by exowomb tech - the high-demand parenting styles of modernity, rising minimum *expectations* around the cost of raising a kid, focuses on careers, etc. You won't get people back to wanting 10 children family. So the shift could be notable, but it won't be huge.

With the *conservative* assumptions we just gave. So let's loosen those - most people don't want 10 kids. But some people do! That is just quite hard to do right now, most women don't wanna do that and most men can't afford a harem of mother-wives or 18 surrogates. But with radically lower costs those barriers vanish. I think you would get a far larger "tail" of fertility - you would be surprised how many people would have the dream of that kind of family if it was on the table for them.

And then institutions enter the picture - organizations promoting families, or the state actively pursuing it. Which to be clear is already happening - fertility decline is real and a serious problem, states are getting very interested in reversing it. Once you open the door to "state orphanages hitting TFR targets" than any discussion of "margins" is asinine. Your fertility is what you will it.

Which might sound dsytopian! And it could be - my stance tends to be living is good and orphans that are well provided for are actually perfectly happy (turns out parents aren't that necessary!). But I admit to the other side of the case here - my point is that you aren't going to have a choice. I am betting the answer without such tech isn't going to be pretty

[blackbird-brewster]

Blanket personal statement to address the fandom rumours/theories about Will in CME S18:

I would be livid if they kill off Will. I don't even like him as a character, but who I do love is Jennifer Jareau. And she has been through Enough fucking trauma. I do not want her to suffer that kind of loss again. She already survived losing her sister, plus a miscarriage. I do not want the boys to know that loss either.

Beyond that, from the meta standpoint it'd just be absolutely rubbish writing. This series has already seen the deaths of so many partners/spouses (Off the top of my head: Hayley, Krystall, Maeve, Strauss) of the BAU members. Do the writers just have ZERO other ideas??????

Regarding the inevitable rise of people who think killing Will would be a gateway to making Jemily canon, it will never be that. There's a massive difference in fanfic authors choosing to kill Will as a plot device (in this argument, to create a Jemily story) and the show canonically killing him.

These two things are not the same.

I have shipped Jemily for nearly 20 damn years now. And I don't believe it's possible to truly love a ship without first loving the individual characters. JJ losing her husband would cause irrevocable damage to her as a person/character and I love her far too much to wish that upon her.

[sunglassesbot]

This review more or less sums up my thoughts on the music made by Sabaton:

Text: No. - 0% Napalm_Satan, July 9th, 2021 There exists a certain kind of terrible album. Not just albums that are bad or annoying, but albums whose core concepts and ideas are so fundamentally idiotic and broken that they were always going to fail. Albums that are so thin on anything worth engaging with on any level that they aren't even worth deep, genuine consideration in the way most albums, no matter how bad they may be, are. The Great War is one such album; not only is it terrible, but it is a flat out non-starter. Just spelling out what it is at its core perfectly sums up why this is the case - it's a bombastic, cheesy, formulaic pop/power metal concept album about the horrors of the First World War. There is no possible way a concept like that could ever have been executed right, it is that bad of an idea right out of the gate, an idea so bad that any attempt at will not only sound mindblowingly stupid and self-defeating, but also genuinely repugnant and difficult to listen to. Of course, this is nothing new for Sabaton, with much of their back catalogue focusing on the topic of war (with their last few albums being concept albums) and their music as of late tending towards the safer side of power metal, but it's really with this album that their schtick finally rubbed me the wrong way enough to talk about it.

As stated, on a musical level this is not a significant departure for the band, which is a very big problem when The Last Stand was one of the most formulaic, sterile and tepid metal albums of 2016. In fact, this album sounds nigh indistinguishable from their last album, not just in style but in the individual ideas used, and thus the flaws of that album carry over too. The guitarwork, a seemingly endless series of the chord progressions we've heard before with not much punch or weight to them with not many riffs in sight, is one of many problems that plagued their last album and it's just as big of a problem here. The marching, mid-paced drum beats across the album are a similar story; they all sound incredibly similar and get tiresome very quickly. The synths too like last time, are just layered and layered and largely bury the guitars in a wall of generic, uninteresting and flat-out annoying bombast. The production is of course incredibly glossy and sands whatever edge was left from the instrumentation, giving it a level of sheen reserved for a pop album, one that would doubtless be 400x better than anything on display here. All the songs follow the same predictable verse-chorus structure, and there are basically no twists or turns to be found in the performances or the writing. Pretty much the only saving grace are the vocals, which are gruff but can still carry a good melody; not something you hear very often, and it is appreciated here.

Of course, all of this by itself would make for an album that is pretty terrible, but not absolutely useless and loathsome. The problem is that this entire musical foundation has been built up to serve this idiotic concept; not just the specific WWI theme going on with this album, but the general approach to music Sabaton has had for years now, where they write this bland, sugary music to set lyrics about real life conflict to. Any positive statements one could make about the music - a catchy hook or melody here and there, the vocals, the general competence of the entire arrangement - are rendered entirely moot as it is nigh impossible to derive any enjoyment from them when put into the context of the album. And of course, the flaws become far more annoying when viewed through this lens, as how safe and boring and dolled up the music really is just feels so out of place. This highlights the ultimate issue with the album really - Sabaton do not and have never had the tact or investment to give the topics they cover the respect and proper context they deserve; their music for quite a while now has sounded like pure glorification of the conflicts they cover. Setting lyrics about real people in real conflicts that ended and ruined real lives, lyrics that try to convey the horrors of war but just end up glorifying battle and 'our heroes' to this Disney metal is… disgusting. And this is not me saying that every album about war has to be this grim, pulverising extreme metal opus; there are many straightforward trad metal bands that have covered war successfully, but their music has actual bite, tact, substance and grit to it, be it in the performances, the song and lyric writing, the production, the atmosphere etc. - all of which Sabaton's music entirely lacks.

And then one has to consider not just Sabaton's general schtick, but how it manifests on this album, where they chose to write about the First World War. One of the most grim, dark, bloody conflicts in all of human history. A conflict that until recently had people that survived to recount it. A conflict started by imperialist powers that did not like one another and were willing to forcibly sacrifice millions of their own men (and many more men from societies they colonised and brutalised) to settle their differences. A conflict that ancestors of myself (as British subjects in India) and my friends would have fought in and/or lived through; I'm sure many reading can say the same. It is a conflict that for these reasons strikes a real chord with me emotionally (I found 1917 to be a tearjerker.) This is the conflict Sabaton decided to focus in on, and due to their tactlessness and detachment when making music on this matter they end up glorifying it all. And despite how detached these songs and the band members themselves may seem from the conflicts they write about, their entire schtick is anything but apolitical, as intentional or not, whitewashed, uncritical stuff like this basically entirely feeds into the glorification of the military and war that is so prevalent across many societies and a lot of history. I cannot assess the personal character of the band here; they certainly seem interested in war and well-read, but no matter how they feel about the topic the songs they end up writing just turn into these jolly singalongs that glorify some of the darkest points in human history, with seemingly no self-awareness. There is no grit or fire or ugliness to the presentation of it all, rendering this entire package to be the equivalent of casting Will Ferrell as the lead in 1917 and scoring it with that cutesy ukulele stock music we've all heard a billion times; it's an absurd album that is revolting in how disrespectful it is. It is truly detestable and without question the worst metal album of the previous decade.

Lest We Forget.

@butterflies-and-bumble-bees

[faeruy]

Agatha All Along Tarot Time! Episode 4 - If I Can't Reach You, Let My Song Teach You

Okay so we got a new one; appropriately enough the Three of Swords, triggered while they were all dealing with Teen's injury/near death. I say appropriately, because traditionally Swords is the suit associated with fire, so it makes sense that it shows up as a result of The Protection Witch/Fire's Trial on the Witch's Road. (EDIT; SO MANY LIES. Wands is fire, Swords is air. Sorry folks, don't write posts at 3am without editting)

Now onto the specifics. As with my last tarot post, I'm mostly in it as a hobby, so my interpretations may not be perfect.

Sword cards are usually pretty intense, and the Three of Swords is no exception. It centers around grief, heartbreak, sorrow, emotional pain; all things Agatha is feeling as a result of almost losing Teen, who she all but says she thinks is her son (is he? absolutely not, but I love that she thinks he could be). It tends to refer to sudden grief - and given how fast Teen went down, their sorrow would feel very unexpected and sudden indeed. Three of Swords suggests that the thing needed is a good cry (or a hug from ex-girlfriend who's the embodiment of Death), but that one shouldn't get lost in it or wallow for too long when there's more going on (like the rest of the road). First glance, it's easy to keep the association simple; Teen's dying, and they (mostly Agatha) are sad about it.

But there's a reason it's done here, and not during, say... Sharon's death. And that has to do with the Reverse meaning, which is complicating things for Agatha. Heartbreak is still a large component of Three of Swords Reversed, but instead of current, immediate pain, it talks about older hurts; the end of a relationship (like Agatha and Rio), a loss that hasn't been gotten over (like Agatha with her son). Because Agatha at this point thinks Teen is likely her lost son, seeing him dying triggered ALL the pain both old and new, and it's like the Three of Swords smacked her in the face.

The Reversed Three of Swords is ultimately hopeful though - it suggests a path of healing, forgiveness, and a release of pain tied to those old hurts. I kind of hope that that's foreshadowing for what we'll see with Agatha and the rest of the coven. The Road giving them the chance to heal, maybe.

We're already seeing that a little with Alice, who definitely has strong ties to the card because of the trauma caused by her mother's death. By the end of the episode, she's started to come to terms with what happened and the curse that haunted her family for so long. Honestly Three of Swords could just be the thesis statement of the entire episode; the only reason I focus more on how it ties to Agatha is because Teen's predicament (and Agatha's reaction to it) was the clear trigger.

That's all I got for this one, hope you enjoyed it, and If you're new to this post, I've done analysis on other Episodes, starting with the first 3, and then individually after that.

Episode 1-3 Episode 5 Episode 6 Episode 7 part 1 Episode 7 part 2

[ladyjayde]

Okay, I have some things to say about the first season of The Magnus Protocol... This might be a long one but I don't care ✨

SPOILERS OBVS IF YOU'RE NOT UP TO DATE

I'd like to mention beforehand that I absolutely ADORED TMA, and I'm a big fan of Jonny and Alex's work. Maybe this is just me having too high expectations for this series, but I have spoken to some of my friends who also listen to this podcast and have listened to Magnus Archives and pretty much everyone agrees. So here we go

I'm not feeling it. I didn't enjoy this season at all in all honesty. The only moments that excited me was the lore we had for the TMA characters to which, as far as we know, have nothing to do with this story. It was all filler to please the fans which is appreciated, but every statement in this season felt unimportant. Sure, we had Mr. Bonzo and a couple others that we saw again as part of Gwen's work, but they never truly felt like a threat to me. If anything, most interactions they got felt coincidental more than anything.

Which leads to my second point, there was no action in the season and it made it political and boring to me :/ I understand that's this is how TMA kinda started as well, with a lot of build up and set up for the world. BUT, at least we got SOMETHING by the end of the season. There was real danger and survival instinct activated for the characters. TMAGP has none of that... They jump in, no questions asked and no questions answered. There's no thrill, there's barely any suspense. It feels empty.

And now the characters themselves. Well, except from the very charged introduction to all of them at once that lead many fans to be confused and have difficulty identifying each of them in the first few episodes, they are pretty mundane. None of their stories truly engage with me. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but they feel a bit boring and all too similar to each other. They get lost in the plot and don't feel like individuals. It's like they're forgetting who they are in order to feed into the plot.

Now, with all of that being said, here's what I think could've helped make this a better series.

1. Make it a longer series. As of now, there's only one episode left which, yes, is supposed to be double length, but nothing has happened yet for me to want a second season. Even if it has taken an extra year or two, I would've rather waited. So, unless something very intense happens next Thursday, I don't think S2 will be in my "Need to listen" list. Too much setup, not enough fear. Like, I'm not even worried that Sam or Celia will die in the next episode. They have so much plot armor I'm certain they'll survive.

2. Make the statements have an effect on the characters. Only Sam seems to take interest in them. But with the others just setting them aside and ignoring the stories, it makes us feel like they're unimportant as well. And it sucks, cause TMA's statements had an effect on the characters and changed their ways of thinking. Now, they're just there to be there and not much is coming out of them.

So yeah, this is MY PERSONAL OPINION and I still want to support Rusty Quill for all the beautiful podcasts they create for us, but TMAGP was not it for me. I love this fandom, I love the lore and the writing itself, but the story didn't hook me in as much as I would've liked it to.

I might regret all of this by next week when the last episode comes out, but for now, these are my thoughts.

I'll get back to you all next week to share my overall thoughts on the S1 of The Magnus Protocol.

Feel free to comment or repost with your own thoughts! I'd love to hear if I'm alone in this or if people agree

Love you all <3

[whoistrash]

Why change matters and how Amphibia did it better than The Owl House.

"Watching and Dreaming" made me cry a lot during its premiere. I was amazed and, I'd say, dazed by it. Then I forgot about it for a while. Now I finished re-watching Amphibia for the first time since TOH ended. My hype died down, and I have some thoughts. A lot, actually.

Amphibia's ending was incredibly painful and made me sob like a baby for two whole weeks the first time I watched it. That's because it was not only beautiful and heartbreaking, but truly GOOD. Brilliant, actually. I absolutely agree with a statement that any other ending would literally be a contradiction to the whole main plot, especially Anne's arc. The girls had to learn to let go in order to grow as individuals - the thing they had the biggest problem with. Saying goodbye was the only logical option, plot-wise. It still hurt like hell, though. Separating the multidimensional, against-all-odds relationships (especially my beloved spranne. Ouch, ouch, ouch). The Owl House does no such thing - everybody stays together. They live happily ever after.

Paradoxically, I think that it's the main reason why I'd choose "The Hardest Thing" over "Watching and Dreaming" every single time. I know we shouldn't really compare them in EVERY aspect, since TOH had way more things to deal with in the final episode, but the fact that Luz got to not only stay, but to freely travel between worlds as she pleases really took the whole "growing up and finding your true self no matter what the other people do/say about you" thing out the door. Luz from season one, episode one, and Luz from the finale are not really that different. Well, she certainly became more traumatised and depressed than before, but in terms of personal growth? Nope. Luz - from the very beginning - was cheerful, open, caring and very selfless, willing to literally help every stranger she met no matter how it would affect her. She had little to no boundaries, but, well, you can't argue that she was A GOOD, SELFLESS PERSON. Now, we could say that her arc here would be learning that sometimes you should put yourself before others, that you can't save everyone, that you can't trust every person you meet. And she learns it! She fucking does! She helps Philip not knowing who he will become, and then suffers from the consequences, because she helped the wrong person. And then it's all erased, when she saves Collector's life and meets Papa Titan (or whatever we call them).

I have so much to say about this. All of TOH's "villains" (Amity, Lilith, Hunter, The Collector) that were given a redemption arc literally get turned into lifeless, edgy trauma dumpsters, that suddenly loose all of their previous character, quirks and sass (well, maybe except for Lilith, she just started to express them differently, I think, but still, it was WAY too big of a change). I won't dwell on it (since many, many fans called it out already - as they should), and will focus on something different. The only one marked as irredeemable is Belos. Good. Okay. He's irredeemable, because he's a white, christian puritan who won't listen to anyone but himself. Also a genocidal maniac. That's the lesson for Luz here. "You can't save everyone. Some people are just straight up evil". And it's very, very true. But.

From all of the "villains" I mentioned before, Belos is the one that had the most reasons to, let's say, take a dark turn. Those reasons are what makes him irredeemable - he's just too convinced he's right, because, in his mind, he has evidence to prove it. But how do we learn about this? Maybe by seeing his part of the story? Maybe by learning about his brother and Evelyn, about their relationship? It couldn't be straight up awful, since Philip literally brought his brother back to life over and over again, he wanted his brother, or at least the picture of Caleb that satisfied him the most. There was more to it than only "you betrayed me and now I will hate you forever". Do we get to see any of that? No. Instead we get an all-knowing, all-doing being that literally choose Luz as "the one" for being kind and trusting, that convinces her that Belos is, indeed, a lost cause. Do you see where I'm going with this?

Luz, the person that on the literal episode two was told that there is no such thing as a "chosen one" and that she can't always hop into action to save everybody, because, it's, well, not always possible, DOES EXACTLY THAT in the finale by taking a bullet for The Collector, the, you know, very freshly redeemed and suddenly cute and funky villain, whom Luz trusts immediately. AND SHE IS REWARDED FOR IT BY BEING MADE THE CHOSEN ONE. BY A GOD-LIKE BEING THAT CLAIMS TO BE ALL-KNOWING AND CAN DECIDE WHO IS RIGHT AND WHO IS WRONG, BECAUSE OF PERSONAL (King) REASONS. Just like, you know... Belos? The irredeemable villain? And then Luz lets go of the moral dilemmas that's been keeping her up at night for the past months, makes up her mind, defeats the bad guy, learns nothing, and gets to stay in the Boiling Isles and on Earth. With her beautifully redeemed girlfriend and friends whom she kept secrets from and lied to out of fear of being ostracised (you see the pattern here, right?) for, again, months.

I love Amphibia. I love The Owl House. But Amphibia handles it's "villains", generally wronged characters and the whole change/no change thing way better. Well, maybe besides the Core - they got a bit wasted in my opinion. But still. Sasha. Grime. Marcy. Andrias. Anne herself. They learn and change. And more importantly, they face consequences and come to understand and accept them. There's no "chosen one" here. Anne gets the proposition because she's the first one to use the music box for good in literal millenia. A fact, plain and simple (not an opinion based on personal motivations), that makes sense plot-wise, and adds so, so much to Anne's arc. Because Anne from season one, episode one wouldn't care. The one from the finale cares very damn much. And that's the biggest difference.

Saying goodbye makes the message way stronger. The more I think about it, however, the more I'm starting to be afraid that there's no The Message in The Owl House to begin with. Luz learns very little, yet ends up with everything she ever wanted. There's no power behind it. The "find the right people and choose to trust them, not everyone will be your friend" and "some things are out of your control, some people are just bad" aspect is even weaker, as proven by basically the whole season 3. I will end it by my favorite quote from Amphibia, that I think about on daily basis. Have a good day, y'all.

"Change can be difficult, but it's how we grow. It can be the hardest thing to realize you can't hold on to something forever. Sometimes, you have to let it go; but, of the things you let go, you'd be surprised what makes its way back to you."

[ringsofpowerconfessions]

Following Anon's Confession here: https://www.tumblr.com/ringsofpowerconfessions/776688192276529152/some-people-in-the-fandom-are-far-too-keen-to?source=share

"Some people in the fandom are far too keen to lump fans of certain characters or ships into one group."YOU GUYS said this! YOU GUYS want Galadriel to have Sauron's babies! YOU GUYS are bullying people!"Please learn that there are MANY haladriel shippers and writers in this fandom and they don't all like the same headcanons.And if a haladriel is bullying you then take it up with them and block them, it has nothing to do with the rest of us."

It’s interesting how easy it is for some people to make broad, sweeping statements as anons and then immediately turn around and say, “Take it up with the individuals doing it, not all of us.”

Because that’s exactly the contradiction happening here.

People have repeatedly asked Haladriel shippers to acknowledge that a vocal, toxic portion of their fandom is responsible for a disproportionate amount of harassment, bullying, and ship-related discourse. And yes, there have been Haladriel shippers who spoke up against it, some even defended other ships.

So if that’s the case, what exactly is this anon upset about? If some Haladriel fans recognize the problem, then why is acknowledging that problem suddenly an attack on the entire fandom or shipping community?

You don’t get to have it both ways. If you want to argue that “not all of us do this,, then the logical next step is to acknowledge that some people within your fandom/shipping community do, not dismiss it as if it doesn’t exist.

Instead, we see the same cycle playing out over and over again:

People point out harassment, name-calling, and toxicity, much of which stems from the Haladriel fandom’s most vocal side.

Instead of addressing it, certain Haladriel fans deflect with “It’s not all of us.”

But when people specifically call out the individuals responsible, suddenly it’s “Why are you attacking us?”

I have to ask but at what point does accountability actually enter the conversation?

And let’s be clear: this is not just a headcanon disagreement. The anon’s phrasing (“There are many Haladriel writers with different headcanons”) makes it sound like this is just fandom infighting over differing interpretations.

It is not. It’s about actual harassment, racism, sexism, misogyny, threats, and an ongoing pattern of aggressive behavior. To reduce it to a simple “we don’t all like the same things” argument is dismissive of the real issue, and, frankly, part of the problem.

This isn’t a case of people unfairly targeting Haladriel fans for no reason. The reality is that the loudest, most toxic voices in this fandom, the ones who send hate, make threats, and actively harass others, are overwhelmingly Haladriel shippers.

That’s not an opinion or bias. It’s a pattern that has played out time and time again.

And before someone tries to dismiss this as coming from a “rival shipper”, I’m not even in the main popular ships (Adariel, Elrondriel etc). I’m a Silvergifting shipper, and I’ve seen firsthand the absolutely horrible things sent towards shippers of other pairings.

No one is saying every Haladriel shipper is responsible. But when the majority of the hate in this fandom has stemmed from one specific faction, it’s not unreasonable to ask that the community acknowledge it instead of deflecting every time the conversation comes up.

So, Anon, if you truly believe that people should “take it up with the individuals responsible”, then the next step is ensuring those individuals are actually held accountable instead of pretending the problem doesn’t exist and reducing it to mere “headcanon disagreements”.

You can’t insist that people address individual bad behaviors while simultaneously dismissing the very real, well-documented issues they’ve caused. That’s hypocrisy.

[seriousbrat]

Do you think Lily’s patronus makes sense as a Doe? Because when I think of Does I think docile, timid, fragile, sensitive and fearful and Lily doesn’t quite match that description. I know patronuses aren’t always 1:1 with the wizard’s personality but usually there is some overlap (Sirius is loyal and protective, James encapsulates the positive and negative qualities of a stag with his leadership and strength but also the toxic masculinity, Remus is needing of a pack and is also clever etc.). So do you think there is some part of a doe or what they symbolizes that fits with Lily’s character OR do you think her patronus changed to match James who’s already was a stag?

If you’ll allow me to ramble about my own theories here for a minute than I would like to say that I actually believe that her’s changed. I think this mostly due to JKR saying this in a interview awhile ago when someone asked if it was a coincidence that jily had matching patronuses: “No, the Patronus often mutates to take the image of the love of one's life (because they so often become the 'happy thought' that generates a Patronus).” Her statement implies (or more outright states) that there was a change of patronus for atleast one of jily, And since James was already a stag animagus at 15 we can assume that his patronus was always one (further evidence is that McGonagall’s patronus and animagus is both a cat).

I personally believe that patronuses are a manifestation of hope, the desire to go on, and the idea of what to continue living/fighting for (“The Patronus is a kind of positive force, a projection of the very things that the Dementor feeds upon — hope, happiness, the desire to survive” from Lupin, and then Luna says this while helping Harry conjure one in DH “"We're all still here," she whispered, "we're still fighting. Come on, now...”). So I think given this it makes a lot of sense for Lily’s patronus to change to reflect an image of James. She is a targeted individual in her new small society that is at war and there isn’t much hope to be found anywhere, but she finds hope in James because he represents the life she wants to have that’s not connected to the war, a normal happy family. Her “happy thought” in the midst of death and destruction is family and love (also meaning this is what she wants to preserve and fight for, and it is ultimately what she dies for.)

It’s also interesting that her patrounus takes a female form, we know it’s possible for characters to have a patrounus that differ from their gender but that isn’t the case here. And while I know the doylist answer has to do with JKR’s views on femininity and gender in general, from the watsonisan perspective this could mean a couple things:

She is a doe because her hope lies within her being James’ wife and partner (like the family thing I said above. It’s not about the title or status of being a “wife” but about the normalcy, safety, intimacy and love that it represents)

She is a doe because her identity is separate enough from James where she wouldn’t mirror him but instead be her own version (possible, but less symbolically satisfying to me lol).

Or is it just something else entirely?

anyways sorry I didn’t mean for that to be that long lolll, but If you vibe with my “Lily patronus changed theory” what do you think it was before?

Also I consider you a lily expert so if you think this theory is trash or missing something lmk lmao

omg wait this is very interesting and absolutely NOT trash!! to be honest with you, I've thought about this a little myself before and never come up with a wholly conclusive answer. But personally I think it's very possible that Lily's patronus might have changed. I skirted around this issue in my fic by not having Lily produce a corporeal patronus until she was already with James lol.

Re: the doe, obviously in real life many prey animals are skittish, shy, and fearful because that's how they survive. This includes male deer too, because they will also startle easily. But I think that Lily could definitely be said to have qualities that are doe-like in a more symbolic way: grace, beauty, a gentle and caring nature, devotion to her young. I think it is an animal that fits Lily in many ways, and I think the symbolic/mythological meaning associated the animal is maybe more relevant than how the real animal behaves in the wild.

But even though I think Lily has doe-like qualities I don't think this precludes her patronus having become a doe because of James. It's more about the person she grew into, alongside James, than her identity totally changing because of her relationship. I think it still represents her, she IS the doe but she just grew into that person over time.

If Lily's patronus did change to mirror James, I REALLY like your idea that it reflects what she most cares about, that James (and what he represents to her) becomes her happiest thought and what she's fighting to survive for. Not just James, but later also Harry- whose Patronus is also eventually a stag.

As for what it might have been before (or had she never met James) it's a difficult question! I recently assigned patronuses to all the order members for ease of writing and lowkey I feel like I've run out of animals lol. I could see her as some kind of bird perhaps (I always feel like I default to giving people birds though lol) maybe a dove... or a seabird of some sort. I've always really liked the storm petrel, which is thought of as intrepid and brave and is known to fly through terrible weather, it cares for its single young, and has apparently been used as a revolutionary symbol. There's something really beautiful and dignified about them to me, they're lonely but resistant which could fit Lily's position as a Muggleborn amidst the war, if she hadn't fallen for James and joined the Order with him. So that's my first thought-- I'd be open to ideas though!