#and yet i just don't have any discernable opinion on the matter :)

[oozedninjas]

i will BEG YOU ON MY KNEES FOR LITERALLY ANYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY THINK OF FOR 2007 RAPH he just makes me so HAHWKAHAKEVBS

This time I came up with something simpler and softer, I hope it's okay :)

Summary: Raph is mustering the courage to confess his feelings, but nothing goes as he plans after your birthday party.

MDNI / Raph is 26, and so is reader/fluff/ post 2007! movie

----

"Get a room, you two." 

Donatello rolled his eyes, turning back to the computer. Raphael glared at him, on the brink of delivering a witty retort, yet he stopped upon sensing your hand on his shoulder. You shrugged it off before shooting him a wink.

"No, no, he's got a point. Let's move to your room," you delivered with a knowing look.

Raph grinned, letting out a mischievous chuckle. He thoroughly enjoyed it when you teamed up to playfully taunt his brothers.

"Yeah? I don't know, maybe we won't be able to keep it down if we go," he quipped, infusing a flirtatious tone to his words.

Donatello growled low at the cringe-inducing sensation creeping up his neck. This happened quite frequently. You and Raph would giggle while snuggling on the couch. Some times you were in his lap, some others he laid his head on your legs while you massaged his head or played with the red bandana.

You shared many things together: meals, phone calls, your apartment (especially when he and Leo fought—hell, he even allowed you to use his bike!), and when you weren't teasing each other, you were playfully flirting. Although, at times, it seemed too genuine to be lighthearted. At least in Donatello’s opinion. 

He did his best to ignore both of you and once you left, he and the others started blitzing Raph with numerous questions. Why do you always act like that? Raph, do you like them? Are you secretly dating or something? Raph, have you asked them out yet? 

“Relax, we’re just messing around,” he deflected. 

"You must be careful with your words, Raphael," Splinter said. "Sometimes we dismiss what we think could tear our hearts apart, but that doesn't mean it'll go away, and if you let it linger there for too long, one day you may come to regret it.”

That struck a chord in him.

"I'm old enough to discern my feelings, thank you," Raphael snapped.

Now, one would have thought that after such a sharp response, Raph would not have dwelled on the matter any further. Yet, much to his annoyance, those queries circled in his head all week—a week during which he continued hanging out with you as usual. The only difference was that now he couldn't shake this tingle from his chest.

Perhaps it's always been there, he thought. Maybe he just hadn't allowed himself to acknowledge it.

Do you like them?

You smiled at him at that very moment, and he knew. The realization hit him like a goddamn train at maximum speed. He had feelings for you. Real feelings. Romantic feelings.

Fuck.

Never in a million years would you feel the same about him; he knew it. And even if you did, he was a mutant living in the sewers. What could he possibly offer you? You know, besides always protecting you and taking care of you. Would you be okay just with that? Would it— would he be enough for you?

****

“I think they like you back,” Casey asserted, shooting a smile at Raph. “Just ask them out.”

They found themselves on the rooftop of Casey's shared apartment with April. It was their habitual pullout, a place to unwind for a couple of hours after their patrol shift, when the night was too bright to head home.

Casey swung his bat absentmindedly through the air, while Raph sat with his legs hanging from the building, watching the hasty lights of various cars speeding below.

“I don’t know. What if they don’t? I don’t wanna risk what we have.”

"Raph, trust me, they like you back. Besides, you both look like a married couple already! Like, that fight over the cookies the other day? Come on,” Casey chuckled at the memory.

Raphael scratched the back of his head, trying to tone down the heat creeping up his neck. Yeah, maybe you did look like a married couple.

****

After pondering it for a few weeks, Raphael made up his mind to speak from his heart. He gathered the courage to talk to you and confess his feelings. Not tonight, though. Tonight was your birthday, and you both agreed to hang out after your small party at the lair.

He made sure you had a pleasant evening and gifted you a pretty handmade bracelet. After the song and the cake that Mikey lovingly baked, you both headed to your apartment for a movie.

Now he found himself in your bed, right next to you, and God, you looked beautiful. Who could concentrate on the TV with such a sight beside it? Certainly not Raph. He stared for so long that it didn’t take much time for you to notice.

“Is something wrong, babe?” You asked.

Babe

You’ve never called him that before, not even during fake-flirting. His heart rate pitched inside his plastron. Warmth flushed his cheeks. Damn. He turned quickly, trying to swallow the butterflies in his stomach. 

“Nah, just watch the movie,” he mumbled. 

“I was, you were the one staring at me,” you noted. 

“No I wasn’t” 

“Hmm, I positively think you were.”

“Well, what if I was?” he retorted.

You grimaced at the sudden harsh, low-key annoyed tone. Something felt off, and judging by his behavior over the past week, you already knew what it was. Grinning, you asked:

“Do you think I’m pretty?”

Raphael turned back to you, his heart beating faster now, a tingling sensation in his hands. Your gaze was flirty, but not as playful this time.

“You know I do,” he said simply. 

Damn, this was much easier when he hadn’t realized he had a crush on you.

“I think you’re really good looking too.” 

“I know,” Raph smirked, trying his best to play it cool. 

You snorted, turning completely towards him. Stretching your hand out, you ran your fingertips over the bracelet.

“This was incredibly thoughtful, you know? I love it. But you know what would be an even greater birthday present?”

“What?” He prompted.

“If you said this was our first date.” 

All doubts, nervousness, and his plans of awkwardly confessing were thrown out the window with that single phrase. His smile this time was wide, his gaze radiant with satisfaction and confidence.

"It is," he placed his hand over yours, his hold impossibly tender. "At least to us. The whole crew is convinced we're already dating," he said casually, suddenly unable to stop smiling.

“Yeah, I know. The other day your father asked me some things…”

Raphael gasped, horrified. “What did he ask you?!”

You chortled at the expression he made. Man, this was about to become the best birthday night ever.

[windvexer]

I'm still looking for good astral projection techniques and readings. Doing it at night doesn't seem to work because I end up falling asleep and lucid dreaming. I can't even tell if I'm in the astral or in my imagination when I try it because all I see is darkness, yet I can kind of describe certain locations I often frequent in my mind. I've discerned two of them as inner temple spaces but some I'm not even sure if it's astral or just making up scenarios in my head. I think two of them are actual locations where I've met dragons but I'm having trouble with visions since all I see is darkness even though I can give a physical description, if that makes sense?

The rope technique doesn't work and counting backwards doesn't work. Unless I need more practice? Lucid dreaming I have down easy at least. Any recommended techniques or readings?

Howdy;

It's hard to say if you need more practice. Personally, some people pick it up very quickly, and others take a lot longer at it. Generally I find that most people I talk to about it are traveling, they just aren't sure if they are or not because they tend to have unrealistic expectations.

One of those expectations is vividness; obtaining a very high level of vivid immersion is IMO difficult, must more difficult than obtaining valid travel experiences in general.

Obtaining vivid immersion also isn't linear; I used to have very vivid experiences, but now I don't. I also have spent I suppose thousands of hours traveling, but after spiritual growth I lost the ability to travel at all for a while (a few years I think, but I haven't put thought into the timeline). After many years of practice and traveling, I still sometimes have "blackout" sessions where I can recount experiences, but I see nothing.

So although you haven't said as much, it's not something that you just unlock and then you get the skill forever; it's a living skill, like all magic (in my opinion).

Anyway, it's totally possible to need plenty of practice, but also possible to pick it up quickly. The question is how do you know when you've done it correctly, and IMO the best solution is to just try and do whatever it is you want to do in the astral and see if it works.

I mean, astral travel can be purely entertainment, in which case you never need to verify anything because it's like playing a video game; the experience is what matters. But if your goal is to do something, like say meet and commune with dragon spirits, then go ahead doing that and carry on as if you really have met them, and see what happens.

What's the end goal? To learn special names of dragons, and gain one as a familiar or a teacher? To learn how to do new kinds of magic? Set out to do those things and see where it gets you; see if you learn new kinds of magic you can do in dreams, or in the waking world. See if you learn how to call these spirits in and out of trance states.

See if what you do in these practice sessions is making your life better, or bringing you closer to goals - or not.

The benefit to this approach is that it can bring structure to practice; practice is no longer open-ended, but becomes, "how do I find this certain spirit?" and then "...next I'll explore his home" and "now I'm going to learn to make astral offerings to leave at the shrine," and so on. So it's less tedious, in my opinion.

Yes, try more techniques; have fun experimenting with a lot of them. Give them all an honest go. I recommend trying any particular technique a solid twenty times or so, just to gain the experience of it. Even attempts which do not appear to result in travel will bring experience and development.

I favor any technique which involves going downwards, especially through the trunk of a tree, or down through a well. As a relaxing method before sleep, I sometimes like to swim down through an endless ocean and look for a trap door, or a glowing crevice or something; then I go down through that. Or sometimes I don't.

If we can say that there's a pre-astral state, like existing in the space with the rope before you climb the rope, then that space in and of itself can be lovely and fun to play with, and you don't have to try to 'astral' at all.

Maybe you want to climb down through the trunk of a tree via a hollow; you can practice immersion skills by wandering around an imaginary forest, without actually trying to bridge the gap into the astral. And it's alright if it's just your imagination, because of course it is.

Another technique you may find to be very effective is to begin in a memory, especially a memory that positions you near to a convenient loci of travel (such as a favored childhood tree), and at first recall the memory with clarity, but then begin moving differently in it and seek out the astral doorway.

Also in general practicing trance is helpful.

Also, practicing calming and relaxation techniques before trying to travel.

Alright, I think that's enough novel. Also, I'm not sure what you mean by astral readings, but I hope the above is helpful.

[ancientgoddessofegypt]

Lilith in the 12th House

The house of dreams, the subconscious, and the infinite are all met with the depths of a lilithian philosophy that is harder to tie down.

In this life, the individual must relax the brain, even when the psych is out of control. It is in this life they must learn the true evils of society, and how their minds have been perplexed with souls fire being kept in the dark.

They are a one of one, after all.

Lilith in the 12th brings an individual to learn how to accept their differences with society but also with themselves. It seems as if they are in a bondage with an outdated belief and have no idea with how to get out of it.

They are always having to challenge themselves in order to have some type of control over their own inner nature.

When it comes to knowing who they are, they have to accept that they just know things about people that they typically don't try to find out on their own. It is because lilithian energy sees through the source, and finds it way to the top and makes amends with this sort of knowing. It is a gift after all. I would consider this placement as a placement for seers. These people can have random dreams about certain events that haven't happened yet. They are also able to decipher whether something is truly what it is and this can sort of bother people a little.

They have the gift of discernment.

They won't hurt themselves with learning this, either.

Because manipulative tactics and gaslighting is something they know all to well. It is why they have turned the gift up a notch to bother others. They can see through you but you can't see thru them so to speak.

Another thing I've come to notice is that sexuality can be a big debate with how they utilize it. They can be the temptress, the whore, or the saint. It doesn't matter. There is some sort of mystique around it because they don't typically open up for just any one... but what do we know?

They tend to have a large grip on this area because the feeling of being perceived can be very uncomfortable for them. They should try focusing more on how they want to feel and not allow anyone elses opinion on their self expression here dictate them.

Another thing I would like to point out is that lilith in the 12th house can be a beacon of change due to their intellectual minds having some rebellious ideas.

In another post, I mentioned that they have a tendency to have nightmares or dreams that are a little odd, even disturbing. Because the subconscious is trying to break free from whatever bonds that is holding their consciousness from fully expanding itself. Want to know more? Take a trip into the shadow, where you will learn what haunts them. The shadow can be a scary place at first, but after a while it will give you the answers that you seek.

For lilith to truly claim their power here, they must go into the deepest parts of their minds to see what makes them act the way that they do. And once they find out the missing key, they will utilize this strength and over time figure out the weakness in others. It's a deadly game.

To be continued.

[dayurno]

cousin dayurno…. thots on tsc. i remember you mentioning before it came out that you weren’t super excited about it/might not read it for a while. im curious now if you think it’s worth getting into sooner rather than later! as someone who keeps forgetting to start it i must know the opinion of the council

cousin dayurno............... hi! well okay so. going into tsc i didn't have many expectations besides maybe seeing kevin at some point, and getting told an interesting story. i was not disappointed in the kevin front nor whenever the foxes were concerned: i think nora sakavic's grasp on them is as strong as ever and the few that showed up (kevin, renee, neil) were capable of carrying any story no matter what. jean spends a good chunk of the book in palmetto and you can tell it's nora's strongest suit as a writer; it's the most interesting part of the book and the character work is, as expected, very well thought out. i couldn't stop reading for the entire period of jean's stay with the foxes.

i will say the book kind of fell flat for me after jean left palmetto. half of it is because jean sucks the life out of basically any of the trojans character-wise; the foxes were able to compete with him because they are well established characters with complex backstories who already feel real to the reader, whereas the trojans (bar lucas, who is a highlight if there was ever one), while lovely, aren't really much of characters at all. i think nora sakavic likes to write a very specific kind of story, and in that niche she is fabulous, but she stumbles when she has to make simpler stories interesting. she is a high-stakes writer writing a very low-stakes story, and in tsc you can tell.

jeremy was supposed to be the main character along with jean, but in his very few chapters, not much about him is learned; from the moment he is in a room with jean, jeremy's whole character starts to revolve around him. yes, you can say this is jeremy repressing even in his own mind, and maybe that's true where it concerns his backstory, but that's not all there is to a character. even if jeremy's backstory wasn't going to be discussed, there's effectively nothing else about him: we know that he's rich, that he's gay, and that's it. no particular quirks nor non-trojan related interests. the only discernable character trait i can put out about jeremy is that he is very pushy, and i don't think that's what nora intended for him. he was a breath of fresh air in his first chapters, but what little personality he shows is immediately mowed down by being on 'taking care of jean' mode 24/7. i thought he could use more personality, and overall more scenes away from jean (and even laila and cat) to establish himself as a character

you have not yet read it so i will not spoil you the reason, but i felt that neil's appearance later down the line was the highlight of the book because it made the story feel interesting again. neil steals the show because he's neil, and he's more interesting than all of the trojans combined. he also makes them all look worse by comparison: we see personality and chemistry and history and that is something that the trojans just don't have. they're lovely, but that's all there is to it. jeremy and the trojans feel more like tools to achieve jean's happiness than actual characters, and that's a bit of the upperclassmen curse in aftg, but in a book that's so specifically centered around jean's inner world and his healing trajectory, they feel flat and out of place by contrast. they can't win. they can't even compete. but if they could, catalina and laila would get the closest to being real characters

this got away from me so tl;dr: tsc is fine! it's not tfc, and i think the contrast might feel surprising and hard to adjust to, especially when it comes to character work. it has all of nora's trademark writing with none of the groundwork there was for tfc, and it would have benefitted a lot from staying in the drafts for a little longer. it's an ok book! it didn't change my life nor did it save anyone, but it was there, and it did what it said it was going to do. if i saw it on ao3 i probably wouldn't read it, but i wouldn't hate on it either

[jeannereames]

Should we (not) read old history books?

And by old I mean academic works from maybe the 1960s onwards. Of course I understand what you always say about dated opinions, advances on historiography & archeology. And I don't dispute in any way, shape or form that we should always read the most recent work.

But is the old academic work really that disposable? Don't we have anything to learn with history books from the 80s, 90s, 2000s? Thanks for your attention.

The problem isn’t so much that they’re old, but that—if you’re entering an area of history about which you might not know much—older books can have pitfalls that newer ones don’t. This is hardly to say, just because something is recent, it’s good. Far from it. But my caution on older books was specifically in response to the query about reading pop history, and how to know what to trust.

So that’s the caveat. In that same post, I mentioned that I still regularly recommend Brian Bosworth’s Conquest and Empire from 1988. It’s a great fast summary and he tackles several important themes in part II. I also often recommend Gene Borza’s In the Shadow of Olympus (1991). Until Sabine published her book on Perdikkas, his chapter on Perdikkas there was the best thing in print (and still is in English).

Of course, to me, the 80s aren’t old books. Ha. When I think “old” books, I’m thinking 1950s and earlier. Part of that owes to the fact some very important ideological changes happened in history as a discipline in the 1960s and 1970s.

Yet one issue with older books—even good ones—involves new evidence. The asker alludes to that. Unfortunately, one must already know something about a field to discern what information in an older book is outdated. So, let’s take Gene’s In the Shadow as an example. Two very important changes in evidence have happened since that book came out. First, the matter of language (and thus ethnicity) of the ancient Macedonians. Gene argues that we don’t know what language the ancient Macedonians spoke, in large part because we just don’t have enough of it to judge. He suggests it might not be Greek (which was how he leaned at the time). That was all true…in 1990. But we do now have enough epigraphical evidence to say the ancient Macedonians spoke a form of Doric Greek (and Attic for court business). That means they were Greeks, however “backwards” politically/culturally, to the Greek mind.*

Similarly, none of us knew then what was about to come out of the ground at Archontiko in the early 2000s. Even what we’d seen at Aigai and Sindos didn’t make it clear how astonishing the Archaic Age was, up there. All these recent discoveries have changed what we think we know about Argead Macedonia before Philip and Alexander. Gene hinted at some of it in his assertion that, from Archelaos to Philip, Macedon went through a slump, and Philip brought it back. It didn’t just emerge from the swamps with Philip (as Demosthenes and other ancient writers would have one believe). So, Gene was already on the leading curve, but in 1990, none of us had seen enough yet. I remember sending him pictures from Archontiko near the end of his life, and he was very excited, commenting how it would change our ideas about Archaic Era Macedon.

So, if you read his book (and I hope you do), a lot of what’s in there is still solid material, 30 years later. But a few things are dated. And now you know two things that are…because I told you.

But if you didn’t have me to tell you, how would you know?

Ergo my caution. If you’re entering a field that’s new to you, start with later articles and work your way backwards. Ironically, that’s how I got into Macedonian history…reading arguments in the footnotes of articles, especially between the “Three Bs” (Badian, Borza, and Bosworth), plus Green, Heckel, Carney, Anson, Adams, and Greenwalt. Before I ever knew those guys, I was reading their citations of—and commentary about—each other. From that, I was able to render my own ideas of what I trusted, and didn’t trust, about Alexander, Philip, and Macedonia.

And that brings me to my final point. YES, reading earlier articles and books is very important when you really get into a field, precisely for the HISTORIOGRAPHY. In this case, not ancient, but modern. How did a field develop over time? To grok where Alexander studies are today, one must know a bit about where they began, with the heroizing of Droysen, Tarn, et al. in the late 1800s and pre-war era, down to Badian blowing it all up post-war in the late 1950s and the revolution of the ‘60s and ‘70s with Badian, Green, Bosworth, and Schachermeyer and their revisionist view of ATG. About the same time, we get the rise of Macedonian Studies apart from Alexander and Philip, under Edson, Dell, Hammond, and their students. And it all peaked really with the discovery of the Royal Tombs at Vergina when Macedonian archaeology both married and divorced (at the same time) Macedonian history. It’s really hard to express how radically ATG and Macedonian studies changed in the 1980s and ‘90s. Then is changed again in the early 2000s when everybody got tired of debating Who’s Buried in Philip’s Tomb and Macedonian ethnicty. Archaeology turned up new treasures but passed mostly into Greek hands (and was written in modern Greek) while historians started looking more closely at literary trends and Romanization overlay. More recently yet, (some) archaeology is coming back into English, and a wider awareness, welding to new literary approaches to ATG and Macedonian history. And don’t forget the important publication of Brill’s New Jacoby, making a huge contribution to source criticism! Where are we headed next? Time will tell!

So yes, reading older texts helps one situate where we are now relative to where we were then, and back then, and even before back then.

That said, if you’re brand new to reading about Alexander the Great, PLEASE please don’t pick up either Droysen or Tarn’s history of Alexander and think it’s anything close to accurate.

We’ve come a long way, baby.

———————-

* If you’ve read my Dancing with the Lion, you know that I tried to flip that, looking at Greece from the north and giving the Macedonian view of Greeks. So I want to emphasize that each side viewed the other was “lesser.” I’m not advocating, above, the Greek view as correct.

[mantra4ia]

I didn't think it was possible for an adaptation to break my fandom heart, however

I just finished season 3 of the Witcher on Netflix

and I cannot yet put into words how disheartened I feel about it except to say 1) bigger in scale doesn't always mean better in quality and 2) I feel like 90% of the commentary in "the making of season 3" is hype.

In my opinion, a majority of the dialogue in this season is painful no matter how hard the actors try to deliver them sincerely and the people who are trying to upsell how faithful it is to the books are clearly omitting much context of the books. I do not feel like reliving the dialogue to site a litany of grievance, but "you'd be dead already" was beaten to death, as was "never lost, always found." The scripting pen was a lot more clever in the days of death and destiny circa season 1. Not just clever, but cutting, sassy even in the midst of purposeful crudeness, artful, and complex. It didn't need to spell things out for you and could let you stumble into unraveling meaning whereas this season clocked you over the head. And it wasn't just the actual lines on the page, but the timing of their delivery — for example the monologues in combat — that makes a bad situation go from rough to rags. Cahir ("my life is yours" speech) and Vilgefortz ("the hardest part was holding back") have some of the worst offending instances. That, and when they threw in a "he's having a heart attack" medical drama one liner in the midst of battle on the Isle of Thanedd, I wanted to 🤦 smack a skull.

The set dressing, when it's not overwhelming —the outlandishness of Redania, back to back with the bombastic excesses of mages on the Isle hardly gives you a moment to discern the differences, it seems homogeneously over the top — makes be sad (footnote: random bowls of apples in hallways of an academy where people can conjure magical meals at will is just sort of silly in a very 90s movie, castle interior stereotype way). I don't think that one set or scenic shot caught my eye in a memorable way, and considering we saw Shaerrawedd this season that's a shame. Yarpen's tiny house is one of my few exceptions of well designed spaces. We also could have used more contrast in design by seeing life/ stylistic choices within the empire — given that the story from here on goes into the war trenches —and so it is disappointing that the few shots we get of Nilfgaard center around an underwhelming Emyhr as opposed to culture, mentality, and actual sense of the opposition and the scale of them.

Also, there were a few props that made me want to shut off my television in terms of quality on camera. Example: the first time we see Milva draw her bow. That poor, ridiculous bow that is neither a good example from text or a nod to any archers.

The fights do not all have their own distinct style as the commentary suggests, and the ones that do have distinguishable flare are filled with artful camera work for the sake of itself; as opposed to adding to the fight it was often distracting. There were also excessive cuts at various camera angles that were superfluous, as evidenced in the walk up leading to Geralt vs Vilgefortz. Two fight sequences were a joy to watch: the Rats escape and one of the opening sequences where Geralt confronts the bounty hunters and we see him walk away through the eyes of the man that he just beheaded as the skull hits the ground. It was an interesting stylistic choice with memorable impact. Nothing that hits like Blaviken combat, but a highlight.

The monster design (the flesh monster and others) makes me miserable, the rendering of which take me out of the fights built around them. Gone are the days of the Stryga and the Bruxa.

Not concluding the the first or the second act of season 3 with the siege of Aretuza and the destruction of Tor Lara was a mistake of timing. Following the battle, the subsequent desert scenes (and Brokilon to some extent) dragged on. Even weird, trippy cameos couldn't save them. Freya/Ciri has some decent beats of progressive desperation descending into madness leading up to finding "little horse" and confronting the demons of her psyche, but the cutting and the placement of the desert sequence does it no favors.

Speaking further on Aretuza, the battle of mages and scoia'tal missed a lot of moments. If we were going to spend precious screen time dividing the familial core four (Yen/Jaskier/Geralt/Ciri) so that Yen can go back for Tissaia— knowing that very soon in the plot it will be divided again when Ciri is portalled and someone is captured by Vilgefortz — then the battle better be worth it. It wasn't entirely. The conflict opened with a very "for the stage" kind of choreography with the assembly of mages. The conflict ramped up with dimeritium arrows (kinda predictable) and elven guts, and then ended on a strange note with Alzur's Thunder, an interesting nod to game play with 50/50 execution on screen. Given that this season likes narrative voiceovers, there was a lot they could have done with Alzur's Thunder in terms of sound, flashbacks, interior cuts of Tor Lara, narration, or even spell work of Yennefer being able to enter Tissaia's mind, to nicely harken back to the themes of control and deepest fears, when Tissaia's spell casting and loss of control parallels Yennefer's early years (lightning in a bottle), and each character comes full circle in pulling chaos back from the edge. But those themes are overshadowed by flash and bang. The opportunity for a contrasting small / personal moment with Yennefer and Tissaia amidst the larger battle is lost.

I'm sorry, but when LSH says this season is very character driven, I don't know what final cut she's watching. It feels like we're racing through plot points A-Z while nearly none of the character relationships get time to breath and impart their emotional beats. Spoiler alert: I should feel devastated when Vilgefortz beats Geralt, literally breaks him, but I don't. I should feel bad when Tissaia dies, I don't. They're trying to rush feelings between Triss and Istredd, Fringilla and Francesa, that I really can't be bothered about because there are so many characters given side quests that no one really gets their due. Least among them in the supporting cast Phillipa, which has animosity with Tissaia that doesn't land, a relationship with Dijkstra that doesn't land, a sidepiece that doesn't land, and is (apart from some interesting wardrobe, hair and makeup choices) reduced to a presence that provides forewarning about Lydia and Vilgefortz. And least among the main cast Geralt, who spends a whole lot of screen time in passive action exuding quiet contempt for other characters. Which is a shame, because if this truly is the last time we see Henry as Geralt, they should have given this man free reign to burn the barn down.

One shining note: I truly appreciate that we bookend this season with narration from Yennefer and, to a lesser extent, Geralt. It is a nice, if slightly less eloquent, homage to the corresponding letters in the novels (pieced together from multiple books). I would have loved far more for each episode to make some use of narration, as a kind of through-thread for this season, in order to get equal turns from Ciri and Jaskier. Ciri has some great internal dialogue of things that she wishes she could say to Yennefer but doesn't before their family splits apart (unspoken moments of respect, adoration, and love that get quickly summarized by ice skating montages). Ans Jaskier is quite often the "unreliable" narrator in sections of the novels, which flashes backwards and forwards from his slightly mythologized autobiography as a world famous bard. Both of them really needed their turn in this season to be an overarching voice.

This season hurts. I'm glad if you are a Witcher / Sapkowski fan and you enjoyed yourself in season 3. But it really let me down, the creative direction and didn't seem to come together into a cohesive tone (it couldn't strike the balance between humor and gravitas), vision, or unfolding of the story.

I don't know if I can bring myself to rewatch this season a second time with fresh eyes and hope for the best. But I will miss Henry Cavill, and have much respect for cast and crew.

[technicallyblakebelladonna]

Anything you want from ilia that’s isn’t related to Blake or yang? Personally I want to see a little of ilia finding herself not in relation to Blake or Adam. And my personal hope is that we see anything to suggest she isn’t just following in ghira’s footsteps, I’ve been dissapointed by the white fang plotline and that’s really all I can hope for at this point

im trying to discern whether or not this is a subtle passive-aggressive dig at the fact that when i rambled about ilia earlier, basically all i did was talk about her and her relationship with blake and future interactions with yang.

but i'll do my best to answer in sincerity in the case that it's not.

so just to quickly state, i'm of the stance that i'm not someone who should be speaking about the white fang/faunus arc and how it's been handled previously since i am white (and the faunus arc has been most widely discussed as a metaphor/narrative vehicle for real world racism) -- and also i don't believe that my opinion should matter for that very reason. far better people than me have had better things to say about all of it, and usually i try to avoid getting too much into rwby fandom discourse in general bc it just turns into a hot mess extremely quickly no matter where you end up in the fandom. so i'm just going to avoid all that and say it's not my place.

having said that, i genuinely believe that i don't think it's a bad thing for ilia to work with ghira and kali to reestablish a better white fang. it feels like a natural continuation of ilia's arc to have her further split from adam and his influences. blake even directly compares ilia and adam, but follows that comparison up by stating "i don't think ilia is like adam - not yet at least" so it really makes sense that ilia would continue to strive for a goal that she once had -- working towards the betterment of the faunus -- but through a lens that is no longer twisted by spite and rage and a overzealous desire for power, as adam's goal for the white fang was. actually, adam never used the white fang for what they were actually meant for in the first place, he just was doing whatever he could to have as much power as possible (but most specifically, as much power as he could over blake -- and he sought to do anything and everything he could to gain control over here).

so for ilia to continue her journey, unfettered by misguided leadership, to step into her own leadership role in regard to the white fang, i personally feel like that's a good continuation for her character. for her to completely abandon the white fang and just leave it for ghira and kali feels like a weird characterization for her, in my opinion. plus, on top of that, really what else would her character do? with her character redemption arc resolved and now that she's on the side of good, why would she just stop there? that doesn't make any sense to me, personally. like, canonically, that makes sense to me from both her character stand point and giving her an in-story reason to continue on with her journey, rather than just having her drop off the map entirely bc all of the sudden now her redemption is complete and we have no need for her. she's a tertiary character for sure, but i dont think even miles and kerry and the other writers are that lazy to just simply drop an entire character. not when they went decided to include her in the montage shots during ruby's v8 monologue. they plan to keep her around, and clearly they plan to keep her around through her connection with ghira and kali - likely meaning, the white fang.

now for something that i would LOVE to see them do with ilia that "isn't related to blake or yang", but will likely not happen, is for ilia to become a maiden in some way, shape or form. i've seen, specifically, that ilia will become the summer maiden somehow as a theory that's gained some popularity. specifically because the maidens (other than cinder, who is basically ruby's main antagonist) are tied to our protagonists in some way -- winter is weiss' sister, and raven is yang's mom. so it feels like a fairly short leap to assume that the next revealed maiden could end up being tied to blake in some regards.

there are a couple other posts that completely sold me on this (as if i needed much convincing in the first place bc i love ilia so much and having her be a maiden would just be dope as fuck) that you can read HERE and HERE if you so desire to, but basically they boil down to how thematically ilia could fit in as the summer maiden and how it would make sense, actually. one point is that the maidens themselves have interesting relationships/connections between themselves, so it stands to reason that the next maiden-maiden connection would have something similar. and it would be a connection that winter would have with another maiden. and winter and ilia have interesting established narrative parallels already that could be more deeply explored in ilia becoming a maiden.

the other post talks about how team rwby would become guides to the maidens, rather than becoming maidens themselves. this is already showing up with yang and raven, with ruby and cinder (to a degree), and certainly with weiss and winter. blake currently does not have a guide position to fill -- except that she already has guided one character along their path back to redemption. so, again, not a massive leap to see the possibility of blake further guiding ilia in that journey. again, the posts say far more and say it much more eloquently than i did, so feel free to read those instead.

there's certainly a lot the writers could do with ilia's story that isn't related to her interactions with blake or yang, and a lot that i'm excited for if they choose to bring her back, but in the meantime, i'm just gonna keep hoping we see her again, somehow.

[moa-broke-me]

ok I'm sorry but.

This warrants an essay I think. Because in just 11 words, this dedication has sparked such primal rage within me that I have to sort through my feelings via tumblr textpost before I straight up bite something.

First of all, the use of 'neurodivergent' is already pissing me off because I can fucking guarantee you, they don't actually mean the whole neurodivergent community. Or at least, weren't thinking of them when they wrote the book.

Neurodivergency is a term coined by activists who wanted a way to include everyone whose brain differs from most people's. Autism and ADHD is included in that, yes, but so is down's syndrome, dyslexia, personality disorders like NPD and BPD, mood disorders like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, eating disorders, PTSD, retrograde and anterograde amnesia, synesthesia, aphantasia, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, DID and other forms of plurality, tinnitus and tourettes and epilepsy, fetal alcohol syndrome, survivors of strokes and physical brain trauma who have to learn how to function all over again, and SO much more that I haven't even thought to cover.

And yet, once it entered the mainstream lexicon, the neurotypical hegemony did what it does best, and redefined it, paring it down to a handful of specific experiences that it deems acceptable to talk about through a euphemism. Because that's what 'neurodivergent' has become to most people now. A euphemism. A way to say 'autistic or adhd (because whats the difference anyway)' without actually saying either.

And I'm not gonna speculate on the author's possible neurodivergence here, that's not my place, and I can't possibly discern it from the little information we have in the pictures. But it doesn't matter anyway, because either way, they're perpetuating this very problem, and in such a flippant, empty, marketing-firm-esque way.

Now that I've said my piece about the first... what, 3 words of this dedication? Let's move onto 'girlies'.

Listen. I'm not typically a literature snob. I'm not someone who harps on about professionalism most of the time either. But this... Is going too far. The use of 'girlies' (and honestly the entire dedication) reek of relatability pandering, and it's not a word any author should use in their book, like, ever, in my opinion. The only way it's acceptable is if it's in dialogue, and only then, if the word... Fits the character's mouth, so to speak. I guess inner monologue would be an acceptable place too, but even then, only in VERY specific circumstances, and even then, you should use it VERY sparingly. Because it's fucking grating.

Also, just outright assuming all your readers are women. That's nice. That's definitely hip and progressive, and doesn't at all make me question how you act around trans people.

Moving onto the rest of it, and at this point, I feel nothing. The whole thing about 'getting railed' is kinda gross and makes me wonder if the author thinks 'railed' is a more polite way of saying 'fucked' because like. It's not. If anything it's more graphic. Or maybe it's just the tiktok panopticon slang making its way into the real world, in which case, like... I hate it, obviously, but it also kinda makes me think.

In conjunction from the use of 'spice' as a euphemism for sex, the dedication is even more confusing and awful than it once was. Like, clearly, what they really mean by 'neurodivergent' is 'autistic', specifically the kind of low-support-needs sheldon-cooper type of autistic. But even then, two of the first things you hear when learning how to talk to autistic people (by a competent advocate at least) is not to talk down to us, and to use plain, easy to understand language, not euphemism or figures of speech. And this fucking author does both, in 14 seconds and 11 words.

Your book isn't for 'neurodivergent' people. You may think it is, but it's not.

i've never wanted to read a book less

[diskaywrites]

Whumptober 2024

𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 #𝟏𝟐: 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦 𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐂𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐱 𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐂𝐮𝐞𝐭𝐨 (𝐨𝐜) 𝐌𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐎𝐟: 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐮𝐬, 𝐍𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐖𝐚𝐲𝐧𝐞 𝐕𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞: 𝐀𝐩𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐩𝐬𝐞 𝐓𝐖: 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐦, 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝, 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐞𝐱𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤, 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐬𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞

.✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽✦✽..✽✦✽.◦.✽

There were tricks to surviving The Capital just like there were tricks to surviving The Wasteland, they just differed in the way things had to be approached. The Wasteland was straightforward. If one knew how to scavenge, how to shoot, how to fight, then one was prepared. There were no fake smiles and extended hands while stabbing each other in the back. Out there if people didn't like one another, they didn't have to pretend to. Sometimes Lillie Cueto wished she was out there instead of being forced to hide her intentions and plans behind a smile she never truly meant.

Since she was young, Lillie Cueto had been taught what her job in The Capital was. A well-placed hand on a man's arm, a soft chuckle and demure smile, those were the weapons she had been taught to wield as expertly as any outlander in the Wasteland. She collected information for her father to use to get the things he wanted, no matter who her father set in her path. It was the only reason she was standing in the strapless black dress she wore now, pressed closely into the side of the newest object of her fathers curiosity: Christian Cage.

Even amongst the worst circles of The Capital, Christian Cage was known as an outlier. So far, Lillie hadn't been able to discern why. He seemed a little smug, sure, but in her opinion most men were. For all she could see, he was a wealthy elitest who did his best to keep his iron grasp on the small group of friends he led. Could they truly be called friends? Her deep brown eyes drifted to where the two men sat at the table. The younger, the man Christian affectionately called his son, was a former Wastelander named Nick Wayne. He was young and wiling to learn what he had to in order to blend in with the rest of The Capital as he adjusted to life inside the walls of the city. The other, a well-educated but silent brute named Judas, had one been well-loved inside The Capital as someone who fought for those who struggled to fight for themselves. Something inside of Judas had snapped and now he sat closed off to most.

It was a broken little group, but Christian seemed quite fond of the way they hung on his every word.

Christian's hand held out his fork, offering a bite of the food that the other two men were currently scarfing down. Lillie had yet to see Christian take a bite, but he had a keen interest in feeding her. "Open," he ordered, his voice as sharp as a knife, "it's rude to refuse food, isn't it?"

Lillie opened her red painted mouth, savoring the sweet and soft meat that he fed to her. It was something she had never savored before, though it was close to the wild pigs that her father managed to cultivate. Meat was hard to come by, be it inside The Capital or out, so any new form of it was something Lillie found herself interested in. "You raise your own animals?" Lillie questioned around a mouthful of food.

Christian watched her with a satisfied smirk, before sipping from his wine glass, "I know your father sent you for a reason. Does he think I'm an easy target?"

Lillie reached for her own glass, giving a small sniff of the red liquid that had been poured for her. This wasn't any vintage of wine she was used to, even with her training. It was thicker and...a shiver ran down her spine as she realized what had actually been offered to her. Her mouth was dry as she asked, "What's to say he-"

"Don't insult my intelligence," the blonde scoffed with a shake of his head. He stabbed the prongs of his fork through a larger piece of meat, almost studying it in the dim light. "The last person to insult my intelligence paid the price for his own idiocy. I know you better, Lillie. I know you're bright."

"What are we eating?"

A cruel smirk crossed Christian's face as he watched Judas take a big bite from his own plate, the blood of the undercooked meat straining down his chin, before his cold blue eyes focused intently on her, "We both know the answer, Lillie. We both know you know what will happen if you cross me, yeah?"

Lillie's lower lip quivered and she felt as if she was going to be sick, watching as Nick chewed a small piece of meat. There was a sadness in his eyes as she met his gaze briefly, before glancing away. "Y...yes sir..."

Christian's placed a hand on the top of hers, squeezing with a small chuckle, "Then we both know you won't report anything to your father. In fact, you work for me now."

[livingobserver]

I'm seeing a lot more AI generated, false imaging, or Artificial Imaging if that term makes you feel better. They are pretty obvious in that they lack fine textures and details which the AI (any AI, seems to have issues with). Maybe too much detail is yet, too difficult. Too confusing. Which is why I suspect that Microsoft Windows images in their initial presentation (the first few minutes) are often abused with Gamma Lighting. Gamma is an effective way to reduce detail thus textures that might confuse a censorship aspect of any given AI. It is often abused by photographers and image editors for whatever reasons they have. Too often in my opinion as an Artist. Making every subject appear as if smeared in oil. More over, when Contrast is abused as well. Does this mean I don't appreciate the time and work (if any), that goes into these images? Of course I do. Many are pretty outstanding in the "Dynamic Sublime" which is the theme of my Blog here on Tumblr. I'm just saying that I'm not so easily fooled. But the images are becoming disturbingly good. Won't be long now when even the most experienced Internet denizen, is fooled. (Except to maybe right click and then select "Inspect", if you have that option). Why do I use the term "disturbingly"? Because a lie in the wrong hands is a dangerous thing.

But..., I will continue to share anything I can find the Dynamic sublime in. No matter the source. When I deem it worthy of your attention. But you must be the one to level up in discerning what is real and what is not. Good luck with that.

[hotgirllectorium]

you know what i would love? some x6-88 and chase interaction. i remember asking x6-88 incessantly for his thoughts when around chase and my dude had no thoughts, head empty

[buttercupbuck]

hey Alicia

so, were in the middle of fandom drama again, and I'm just so sad but also thankful to you for being so nice about things

firstly because I'm not trying to instigate more confusion here, so I'm trying to stay out of it and mostly because I kinda see what point both sides are pressing but I also can't ignore some things

I love Aisha, and Corinne and Angela, but I also love jlh - not because she's white, but because I think she's great and it's hard to see people comparing things and trying to create a mess when there's no need to be one

I'm not white - I'm latina - but I'm also "white passing" so this kinda of thing already make me uncomfortable because I heard my entire life that I have it easy and yes, I really think I do, all things considered, but that doesn't mean I'm not entitled to an opinion

because yes, poc people have it harder but you can't just go full 8 or 80 like it justifies everything - people success are not simply based on that and it's fucked up to assume so, mostly because we don't what they've been through

pain is relative, and you can't measure it in certain terms

I've heard my entire life that I wasn't white enough or latina enough and I'm so done with hearing that I don't get to say things because people have it harder than me - of course they do, there's always going to be someone that does

and I'm honestly fucking tired of hearing that I can't like someone I like, a character that makes me happy, because me liking her it's just because she's a "white woman doing the bare minimum"

I'm not a child, I have the discernment to look at something and think about it and just because I like a white woman doesn't mean I'm dumb or that I can't think for myself, just like liking characters of color doesn't make someone above acting entitled and taking conclusions about things

and the fact that it became a big thing? I hate it, because it's in moments like this that people start chosing sides, as if what I like defines me as a person

this is fucking internet, you don't know other people, no matter how much you like to think you do

sorry for the big rant, I just needed to get it out of my chest

yeah idk where people got it into their heads that the most racist thing a person can do is appreciate a white woman on tv but they clearly haven't gone outside in a while so it's not surprising

but i mean don't worry about having an opinion on all of this because all these people apparently doing the heavy antiracist work of bashing jlh are white as far as i know. they somehow made themselves out to be the authority on racism in fandom (when weirdly i've never seen them say shit about actual occurrences of racism in fandom) so like. don't worry about them is all im saying - you're defo allowed to feel some sort of way about all this bc it's fucking ridiculous

but yes like it's so frustrating. maddie isn't even my favorite character but the fact that people (and in particular, one WHITE woman) are so dismissive of any other reason why people might like her other than the fact that she's white is so insane. i don't like plenty of characters and yet i can understand that there are things about them that people DO like!

and like you said, liking characters of color doesn't make you antiracist, and making SUCH a point about how much you love them and hate white characters is just,,a little weird to me tbh!! especially when a lot of these people are white and brag about how they only care about characters of color...tis a little fishy to me

[narutoblogcallouts]

I'd like to put forth that I'm sending this as an Anon for the sole reason that I do not want you to tag me in the post as I've actually already received quite a bit of anonymous hate, some comments having been posted directly on my fic and targeting my fanart.

As you can tell, it's fairly obvious that I'm one of the Tumblr users who was recently "called out" by your blog. If you sift through your previous posts, you'll realise how easy it is to discern 'who' as well.

I was very tempted to go all out and reply with a great deal of vehemence, but it would be entirely counter-productive. So here I am, writing a Ted-Talk of an anonymous ask.

The reason why I'm sending this is because I want to share my opinion on the matter in the most diplomatic fashion I'm capable of and hopefully things will end there ( not just for me, but others as well).

While I'm fairly sure that nothing I have to say will deter you from continuing with this project of yours, I do however harbor hope that other bloggers who are tempted to submit anonymous hate will reflect, even if it's just a teensy bit, before they hit the send button.

I don't want to beat around the bush any further — You may be under the impression that your actions do not constitute direct harassment, but the entire concept behind this blog is very much a form of harassment in itself because it inherently propagates malicious behavior through the guise of "anon asks" and justifies it with a shoddily short tw stating it's a toxic blog.

It's obvious that you're a willing participant in propagating further hate and you are just as responsible as the anons themselves — just because they sent the call-out doesn't make you an impartial spectator.

You wouldn't in fact find the word "toxic" juxtaposed to the antonym of "harassment": it's either a toxic blog that harasses people or it's a neutral blog that avoids pestering others by taking the necessary measures to not publicly draw unwarranted attention to them, especially where it’s entirely out of context and undue.

What's more is that this account you're running doesn't really even constitute an actual call-out blog, there is no impartial fact-checking for example. Neutrality is breached since you freely accept anon posts regardless of how nasty they are, yet do nothing to censor the Tumblr account's handle, even going as far as to tag the mentioned user so that others, your followers for example, have quicker access to them - And those who get called out have no way of defending themselves, even though they find their accounts publicly broadcast for all to see. You've even underlined yourselves that if you, the admins, personally find a user to be annoying, they will be exposed - I can't see any fairness to this, the entire setting is clearly skewed in favor of the accuser's anonymity, i.e the anons who just want stir things up and spew their hate on this platform and on others.

It all boils down to the following and you actually state so yourselves: the entire point of the blog is simply to "be ahead of the loop" and cater to people who "just want to call out a blog". There's little else to it, I'm afraid.

So yes, you are responsible for the harassment that ensues.

And it's unpleasant to say the least.

Look, I'll admit it was unwise of me to interact with your call-out in the first place and I'll agree on the fact that 'unnecessary drama creates platform' (and yes, I'm aware of the fact that my way of commenting was bound to elicit a reaction of some kind) But this ask I'm sending isn't really even for myself (I know full well the anon only "exposed" me because they dislike my content, I've never written anything problematic nor hateful, it's only a matter of diverging opinions and in any case I'm perfectly capable of sorting things out on my own) - the fact is, if I do hold any coherence with the moral stand I've taken, then I have to at least attempt at reaching out and inviting you, the admins, to reflect on how detrimental an effect your blog can have on other people.

While I myself will brush it off, because I essentially know how to deal with this kind of thing, other people don't. Younger users don't. Fragile users don't. Users with low self-esteem don't. And it causes them unnecessary distress and hurt. It causes them to self-isolate.

These public call-out posts you write provoke the worst kind of behavioral traits in those who think it's okay to bully others because they feel they are legitimated to do so since you give them that very opportunity and agency (mainly because of the anon option - realistically speaking, hardly anyone would submit anything if it meant their identity would be compromised).

Come on, let's be candid, Tumblr is home to a lot of people who suffer from things like depression and anxiety and they use this space to talk about the things they love because, and this should be obvious, they can't do that elsewhere — there's already enough hate and strife and overall unpleasantness in life, both in real-world and online, why create something that would act as a sounding board for all those things?

It should be just commonplace knowledge that dodgy call-outs shouldn't even exist, they're just nasty and useful to no one.

So my question to you is this: why would you want to involve yourself with this kind of thing in the first place?

Since I don't expect an actual though-out response, all I can say is this: it would be better if you limited your call-out content to something that doesn't directly target accounts and individual people.

By all means, allow your followers to vent about ships, characters, dynamics, sub-fandoms, headcanons, questionable metas, and so on and so forth, however toxic they may be, but please avoid exposing individually selected accounts to online hate because it's just sucking the joy out of online fandom as a whole, pointlessly hurting people and rendering the atmosphere even more vile than what it already is.

*steps off of the soapbox and leaves*

- we don't know who you are anon but we do have time to read this.

so by all means we will still allow people to do whatever in our blog.

[transjoyblog]

6 Personal Values That Will Hurt Your Business

Photo by Ava Sol on Unsplash

Everyone has their own set of personal values by which they live their life. These can be consciously chosen, or be created by default. Usually, everyone has some combination of chosen, and default values and beliefs, but no matter how you came to them, every single one of your values should be examined and judged as to how it supports your goals, or wellbeing. Anyone who has adopted this practice of active self-reflection has found some values to be incongruous with living well. The same is true for building a business. There are simply some values that will get in the way of building a lasting, stable business, that works for both you and your employees. That is not to say that one cannot make money if you have any of these values. In fact, capitalism can bring some of the following values out in even the best of us, which is why you should be aware of these values and how to avoid relying on them.

1. You put yourself first. Either the customer or your employees or (ideally) both must come first when seeking to get value out of a business i.e. paying yourself for the time and effort you put into the business. I mean this in both the abstract and very real legal sense of the word. When a business is having cash flow issues, you are still legally obligated to pay your employees on time. If you do not you are in violation of federal law, and probably whatever state law governs your business practices. This is the basic order of operations to use when thinking about how your business provides value. You are always last. Even when filing Chapter 7 liquidation, secured debt (debt backed by collateral) is given the highest priority when paying back creditors, followed closely by pay owed to employees.

How to Avoid This:

Make a list of values that you would like your business to embody. Refer to this when you need some clarity on a big, values driven decision i.e. What is the business' family leave policy?

Keep your eye on the ball - why are you doing business? The answer should be to provide something of value to others, and making money should be side effect of a great product or service.

2. You shirk responsibility in the face of tough decisions. You may feel that you are happy to accept a leadership position, and would gladly take on everything that comes with that. But have you ever had to make the decision to fire someone? And I don't mean someone who is incompetent or otherwise underperforming. Have you ever had to fire a loyal, high performing person with whom you have worked very closely to build something in which you both believe? This is a situation in which you may find yourself, and you would do well to prepare for this possibility. I suggest reading The Hard Thing About Hard Things by Ben Horowitz to learn more about the tough spots in which you could find yourself should the business grow beyond just yourself.

How to Avoid This:

Consciously start choosing to cultivate decisiveness. If someone asks what you would like for dinner, provide a real answer, instead of a middling, "I'm good with whatever anyone else wants". When asked your opinion, give it, thoughtfully, and only when asked. There are a ton of other ways to improve your decision making skills, most of which are probably just a Google search away.

3. You tend to be suspicious in the face of ambiguity, you rarely give the benefit of the doubt or worse, you tend to fall for the logical fallacy called argument from ignorance. This is a false dichotomy fallacy that asserts that a proposition is true because it has not yet been proven false or a proposition is false because it has not yet been proven true. For example, I once had a boss think that our dishwasher was lying about having to leave early from work. He claimed that he had to get a court mandated drug test at a facility just down the road from our work. My boss supposed that because he could be lying, and she did not have positive proof that he was being honest, he must be trying to get off early, at least sometimes. Please don't do this. This guy was being completely honest. I had to pass the route he took to this facility in order to make my way home, and I almost always saw him on his way to where he said he was going.

How to Avoid This:

Educate yourself on the principals of logical fallacy, and proper argumentative techniques. One of the best books I have ever read on this subject was actually a textbook in my college speech class. It was Thank You for Arguing by Jay Heinrichs. I also recommend you educate yourself on proper research techniques, and how to discern a reliable source of information, from an unreliable one. Training yourself on generally accepted information sourcing techniques is invaluable and can help you with everything from politics to your personal relationships.

4. You believe learning is finite and time bound. I once heard someone proudly announce that they didn't read books anymore because they had received their Master's degree, and therefore had done all the reading they needed to do. This may be an extreme example, but a lot of people do not truly value learning as much as they value credentialing, or "education". Businesses must learn to survive. Actively learn. Meaning, leaders need to propose hypotheses, run experiments, collect data, and analyze this data to reach a conclusion on the hypothesis. That is the only way a business can continue to grow and thrive in the current business climate.

How to Avoid This:

You can read The Lean Startup by Eric Reis for more information on the role that learning plays in the success of a business. Study the theories proposed in this book, and use them to inform your own company culture.

You can make learning a priority in your life. Not just as another thing to check off your to-do list. Keep up on your reading, even if you only like reading so-called "trashy" fiction. Reading is reading, and there have been some studies that support the idea that reading fiction can help us improve our ability to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes".

5. You're racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory or prejudiced. This includes things like having a preference for hiring a certain type of person for specific roles in the organization. You may catch yourself or others saying things like "I agree that she may be a good fit, but she is so young," or, "He should be applying for something in the back, we can't have men running the register." The latter was a common refrain in certain parts of the food service industry for a long time.

Also be sure to look out for the ways in which you judge others' appearances. I recently listened to episode 433 of the Smart Passive Income Podcast, entitled "Black Entrepreneurs Speak Out, Volume 2". In this episode we hear from James Shannon, who tells us about a time that he was told not to wear a hoodie to work because he "looked like a thug." This is explicitly racist behavior. It is the kind of behavior that is so hard to call out when you are on the receiving end, because it is so easy to argue against, especially when the person committing this offense is in a position of authority over you and your livelihood. Get the full story by listening to the podcast, it is definitely worth your time.

How to Avoid This:

We all have an obligation to educate ourselves on the reality of others. By this I mean, each and every one of us have a societal obligation to "walk a mile" in as many types of shoes as we can. While you may (hypothetically) be a cisgender, heterosexual, Hispanic man, plenty of people are not. And understanding the struggles, traditions, problems, and joys of people who are not similar to you will help you develop an understanding of how you, and your decisions fit within "the larger picture" of society. This understanding can help you connect with anyone better, as people will respond to those who make a genuine effort to understand and respect their experience. If you're working on your reading habit, be sure to read books by people who encourage critical thinking, respect for others, and offer new perspectives on large issues, such as How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi, or Histories of the Transgender Child by Jules Gill-Peterson.

6. You lie. Whether it is a simple habit of hyperbolic gossip, or outright deception there is no place for dishonesty at work. The tendency to lie is a human one, and I do believe that there is some place for small lies that have become a part of polite American small talk i.e. answering "I'm just fine." when someone asks how you're doing because you don't feel like explaining that you had a terrible fight with your wife that morning and you, in fact, feel like a dumpster fire. What I mean by lying is any form of knowing misrepresentation, deception, or fraud. This is not only damaging to your reputation, this habit can get you into serious legal trouble. Fraud is a serious charge that could land you in federal prison depending on the nature of your lies.

How To Avoid This:

Value honesty and plainness of speech. I try to refrain from using technical language as best I can, so as to retain the utmost clarity when making a point. You may feel like everyone is inflating themselves, and you have to do the same to compete. Do not do this. Openness and honesty will open more doors than it will close, and the doors it does close may very well be worth closing.

Wrapping it all up

If you find that you have given into any of these default values, you're not alone. I have been guilty of all of these to some degree, but the important thing is to identify these influences, and work to understand the pressure they exert over your decisions. You can change the things that you value for the better, and improve your business as a consequence of your pursuit.

There is also so much more you can do to actually affect change within society as a whole. Even if you are like myself, and can't even attend a protest, let alone help organize one, there are still ways in which you can help. I am looking into opportunities to lend some data entry assistance to my County's COVID-19 vaccine administration sites. We can all step up, and do what we can, with what we have, where we are!

What are some other values and beliefs that hinder businesses and their owners' success? I am always interested in expanding my perspective, so let me know in the comments!

[littlemagiclights]

we've done this all before (don't you remember)

A Ghost Quartet / Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 crossover

Princess Mary fits Natasha's description exactly. She's plain, wears a cross around her neck and dresses like an old woman. Then again, Sonya is plain herself, and shouldn't be one to judge.

"You look familiar," Sonya says, even though she can't recall where she's seen a face like that before. She drops the bags she holds,  plasters a smile on her face and offers her hand. "No," Mary said, her voice breathy and light, "I don't believe we've met. Princess Mary Bolkonskaya." She takes Sonya's hand and holds it in her fingertips for a second before realeasing. "I'm Sonya. Uh, just Sonya." she introduces herself. Maybe she just resembles Andrei, who she saw around the Rostov house while her was courting Natasha. "Ah. Natasha's cousin." And Nikolai's, she thinks, but it wouldn't be prudent to speak of that now. Not when the girl her fiance is leaving her for stands in front of her with a slight smile. "Yes." Neither of them speak after that. Princess Mary refuses to meet her eyes. They are lucky that Natasha and Nikolai come stumbling through the door, laughing and bumping each other. (Maybe not lucky for Sonya, because her heart still leaps at  Nikolai's ruffled hair and rosy cheeks.) The siblings look between the two girls, and exchange glances that carry a conversation. Natasha runs to her then, pressing her cheek to her cousin's. "Hey, Sonya," she squeals, even though they had seen each other minutes before. She smells of flowers and perfume. Sonya wraps her arms around her closest friend and tries not to watch as Nikolai picks Mary up and spins her around, his laugh booming. Mary was probably breathing in the scent of gunfire and victory carried on his coat from the war, soaking in the warmth that Nikolai seemed to emanate in the coldest of times, and, oh, Sonya has never learned to hide her envy. Natasha quickly ushers her away to the room they'll be staying in. Sonya carries Natasha's extra bags and allows herself one look back at her could have been husband. Nikolai looks at her with something that could be regret. Curiously enough, Princess Mary wears the same expression.

Pierre begins visiting Natasha after that. He knocks at the door with hat in hand, and Natasha jumps up and runs to answer it. Whenever they look at each other, they blush and grin like children. Mary casts a knowing glance at Nikolai, but he's not paying attention (Sonya has yet to break the habit of watching him). The princess's gaze wanders over to Sonya. She jerks her chin over to Natasha and Pierre. Do you see this? Her eyes say. Sonya nods back, and Mary's face blooms into a wide grin. She can't help but grin back. The two men discuss politics and emperors, their voices raised in debate. Nikolai carries more passion and war experience, but Pierre recites passages from books he's read from memory and ties them together into an impenetrable argument. Pierre's eyes are turned skyward as he thinks. Sonya swears she's seen that expression before. Nikolai leans on the back of Mary's chair. Mary nods as he speaks, glaring at Pierre and daring him to rebut his arguments. Natasha sits almost in Pierre's lap and gives the same look to Nikolai. For a moment it is all too clear that she is alone at the table. Pierre begins quoting a political pamphlet, and Nikolai's face sours with each word. He and Mary exchange looks. Natasha glows with pride and Pierre wears a satisfied smile. For a second, his eyes meet Sonya's and she soaks in the triumph. The moment is gone soon afterwards, but the joy remains in her chest.

Natasha insists on throwing a small party, for just the five of them. ( "Sonya, you can bring someone if you'd like," she says, but both of them are aware of the improbability.) They are outside in the snow, and Sonya isn't dressed for the weather. The night air goes down to her bones, and she tries to stay close to the fire. "Let's tell ghost stories," Natasha says. Nikolai and Pierre gravitate to her. With her impressions and dramatisms, Natasha is an expert storyteller. But Sonya has never been one for ghost stories. She moves across the circle to the other side of the fire and tries not to inhale smoke. Princess Mary takes a seat beside her. She wears Nikolai's coat, but still shakes from the cold. "Natasha's an impressive storyteller. You ought to listen," Sonya says. "Oh, I get scared too easily to listen to those kinds of stories," Mary replies. Across the circle Natasha wails as if she were a lost spirit. "Do you believe in ghosts?" Sonya asks. The wind picks up for a second, howling through the clearing and turning the fire on its side. Then everything is calm again. "Not Natasha's type of ghost." There's a groan from Nikolai as he acts out the death of the poor traveller in the story. "Then what type?" Mary shrugs. "Andrei used to tell me stories. He said they lived in the shadows of the sky." "Hm." She scoots closer to Mary in order to hear her better. "And sometimes, you know, I see Lisa in little Nikolai. And sometimes I see Andrei." Sonya's heard whispers of Andrei's first wife and his young son, but never has spoken to Mary of them. What Mary speaks of aren't ghosts, however, and she shares that opinion with her. "Maybe, maybe not. No matter." There is silence. Sonya looks across the circle to see that Natasha, Nikolai, and Pierre have vanished. Behind them there is a growl. Mary yelps as Nikolai leaps up to cover her eyes. He wears Natasha's fur cloak over his head and shoulders. "And the bear leaped upon the soldier, gouging her eyes out and eating her flesh, leaving nothing but her bones glistening in the moonlight!" Natasha says. She barely gets the sentence out before doubling over in laughter. Nikolai removes his hands from Mary's eyes. "You okay?" He asks.

Mary is frozen, with her mouth open and eyes wide. She looks at Sonya as if gazing through her. "You scared her." Natasha hits Nikolai on the shoulder. Nikolai whispers in Mary's ear, and she softens. Her face retains the same expression. It's not the face of someone who has been scared by a bear. It's the face of someone who has seen a ghost.

She's playing cards by herself, of all things, because Natasha had disappeared somewhere upon Pierre's arrival. There's a knock at the door, and Sonya scatters the cards across the table and rushes to open it. She's grown to realize the look of panic on Princess Mary's face is how it normally rests. Still, she is surprised by everything else about her. "I hope I'm not bothering you," Mary says. "No, not at all," Sonya replies, and ushers Mary in. Mary looks at the cards on the table, and Sonya feels the weight of her judgement. She shifts and readjusts her dress. Then Mary sighs.

"Would you mind watching little Nikolai for me? I need to go out, and you're the only one here today. He's great at cards." Sonya nods almost automatically and has to stop her head's movement. "Yeah. Uh. No problem." "Thanks, Sonya," Mary says, and reaches out to take her hand. There's a shock, and Sonya jumps back, hand still out. "Sorry," Mary says even though it isn't her fault. Her brow furrows and she stares at Sonya's hand. "Just send little Nikolai to me, and we'll play," Sonya says. But Mary seems to have forgotten the topic. She looks Sonya in the eye and asks, "Do you remember?" "Remember what?" There's a peculiar feeling that she should know what Mary talks about, but she can't coax it out of the back of her mind. "Nothing." Mary marches to the door. "Uh, if you ever need to talk to me, you know where to find me." The door clicks closed. Sonya returns to the table and straightens her cards, piling them up and letting them fall together. The cards thrum as they intermingle and hit the table. It's a comforting sound. It's easier than trying to figure out what's going on with Mary.

Pierre is talking to someone in the other room. If it were Nikolai she would be able to discern their conversation easily. If it were Natasha she wouldn't hear talking.

She decides to ignore it until she hears her own name whispered through the walls. Sonya knocks at the door, and Pierre's voice tells her to come in.

She opens it to find Pierre and Mary sitting with no room between them, their sides pressed together.

It could be some romantic affair, but they both look as put together as always(at least Mary does, because Pierre always looks like a rumpled mess.) Pierre, who usually would stand aside while Natasha jumped at her, rises and holds his arms open. "Rose." He says, and takes her in his arms. There's a muffled hiss of "She doesn't remember!" from Mary, and Pierre lessens his grip. "Remember what, exactly?" Sonya says. It's similar to the question Mary asked her at Natasha's party, except this time Pierre's involved somehow. "Nothing." "It doesn't matter." Pierre and Mary speak simultaneously, and then go quiet. "It does matter, in fact. I'm sick of people hiding stuff from me. You want me to tell Natasha that you're sneaking around with her brother's fiancee behind their backs? She'll tear you both apart. And I'll sit here and watch gladly, all because you think I'm too stupid to understand any of what you're doing," she says. Or at least the words come from her. The rage carried in them is unfamiliar. All she sees in Pierre and Mary's eyes are recognition. Pierre stands.

"My treehouse. Sigma Orionis AB. Stardust. Any of that sound familiar?" The words are familiar but Sonya does not remember them. She reaches for the memories that go with them, but there is nothing. Nothing except for a story. "There's a soldier and a bear," she says. "And they're all connected somehow, but I'm not quite sure."

Mary gets up and takes her hand.

"Rose Red," she says. "It's me. Pearl."

The burst of anger that wells up in her stomach turns her vision red. Mary cries out. She had squeezed Mary's hand violently.

"Sorry," Sonya says, letting go and clutching the side of her dress. "But I still don't remember."

"Is Nikolai the soldier?" She asks Mary while the princess cleans the dining room. Mary makes a choking noise and drops the rag she's holding.

"No. I don't think so." She picks up the rag and sets it on a nearby table.

"Then who is he?" Sonya presses further. "I remember him."

"You remember him?" Mary thinks to herself for a moment, tapping her finger on her chin. "That would mean he has to be the bear."

"No, he can't be the bear," Sonya says. After all, they fought over Nikolai the same way they fought over the astronomer. But Pierre was the astronomer, and so Nikolai couldn't be.

"I think he's the bear," Mary repeats, and her jaw is set and gaze harsh.

"Oh. Well, what about Natasha? Do you remember her?"

"Do you?" Mary's turning the questions back on her instead of answering them. But her question is valid. As much as she searches, Natasha is never as familiar as the other three.

"No." She continues asking Mary questions. Some of them she answers in great detail, but most she deflects. Everything she says is accompanied by an intense feeling of familiarity, of having words on the tip of her tongue and experiencing new things that feel as if she had done them before.

Once Mary clams up and only allows one more question, she asks the one that itches the most. "If Nikolai's not the soldier, then who is?"

Mary pauses, and searches the room before looking Sonya in the eye. "I am." She turns on her heel and exits right after.

She sits in the dressing room with Mary and Pierre and talks. It's all coming to her in bits and pieces, in small bursts of emotion that seem connected.

Nikolai has finally joined their little circle. He sits hugging his knees on the chair, face incredulous.

"You mean to tell me that we're all ghosts."

"I prefer souls. Not that I'm saying Natasha doesn't have a soul, of course. Just that our souls are living out all versions of our lives, and we kind of remember them," Pierre says.

"Great. So we remember things that haven't happened yet."

(In another memory, Nikolai stands screaming about the end of humanity. A roar echoes down a long tunnel. There is a train on its way.)

"Well, what do you remember?" Sonya asks Nikolai. Maybe he'll remember her.

He looks at Pierre. "I think you're my father."

Mary laughs then, a full hearted, teary eyed laugh that makes her shake. "Sorry. Bad timing."

"And you..." Nikolai turns to his fiancee, his eyebrows drawn together. "I had you killed."

Mary frowns. "I don't recall that."

Nikolai shrugs, then turns to Sonya. "You were there too, but I don't know who you were."

"Oh." It was just one of the peculiarities of the universe; for her, Mary was the only one who was fuzzy in her mind. But Nikolai she could see in clear focus.

"Not yet, anyway," he says, and her heart soars in her chest.

The conversation turns to an exchange of questions, along with drinks for Nikolai and Pierre (Mary and Sonya decline). One of the four asks, "do you remember?" And the others reply with their recollection.

"Do you remember when we talked before I went to New York?" Nikolai asks Pierre.

Pierre nods solemnly and takes a swig of his drink.

"Do you remember when we sang together in the woods underneath the stars?" He asks, and Mary and Sonya nod. Sonya can't remember the astronomer's face, but recalls the roughness of his voice and the brush of his fingertips and the pinpricks of light in the night sky.

Mary laughs again. Sonya could've sworn she snorted. "Remember when we had the family meeting, and Roxie – Sonya– yelled at everyone?"

Nikolai and Pierre raise their glasses. "I just wanted to see the damned falconer," Nikolai says.

"Oh, so you remember me now. Well, you all deserved that." Sonya laughs. "Pierre, pass me your glass."

He obliges. The alcohol burns as it goes down her throat, but for the first time she savors it.

"What about you? What do you remember?" Mary says, her eyes shining.

She directs her query towards Nikolai. "Do you remember when you made me go on that long adventure all because you wanted honey?" There is more venom in her voice than she planned to put into it.

The room darkens. Pierre and Mary exchange glances, but Sonya's attention is focused on Nikolai. He scratches his neck. "Kind of. It's like deja Vu, you know?"

There's a shift in the fabric of the chair beneath her and Mary removes the drink from her hand.

Pierre stands up. "Natasha will be waiting. I must take my leave."

Nikolai jumps up and accompanies him to the door. Mary leaves soon too, muttering about dishes and dinner.

They leave Sonya alone. As always.

The loneliness begins to gnaw at something inside of her. It's ridiculous that in every lifetime, she has been abandoned and alone.

She voices her concern to Mary, who has noticed that she stays in her room often and raises her voice at the slightest irritation. The princess sits on the edge of her bed, weaving her hair into a tight braid.

"Perhaps the universe believes I'm meant to be alone." She finishes, and Mary gives her a sad smile.

"That's not true," Mary says.

"Yes it is."

(In another timeline, the astronomer looks at Pearl with stars in his eyes.)

"Don't you remember?" Mary asks.

(The astronomer leaves as soon as she tells him that she carries his child. He leaves her a letter saying he'll return but leaves Roxie waiting at the door.)

"I can't." Can't or won't, she thinks but pushes the thought away.

"There's one timeline where you weren't alone."

"Tell me," she begs Mary.

Mary reaches out her hand and pulls Sonya to her feet. She feels Mary's hand at her waist and is guided in spins and turns and footsteps. And suddenly her mind is clear.

"The soldier and the bear," Sonya says. Mary stops moving and lets her go.

"No, wait, the bear's not in this timeline." Sonya thinks. After she had stopped dancing, the image had been lost.

"Nope. Just you and me. No one else."

Sonya forces Mary's hand into hers, and even though Mary is technically the one leading, Sonya drags her through the steps. The timing is off, and her palms sweat, but soon she has burned the memory into her brain.

"I killed you." She had, multiple times. But in this lifetime she had pulled the trigger herself.

"I loved you." Mary replies, and takes over the dance again. She hums a tune that they fall into step with.

"I didn't love you." Sonya is spun around until she's dizzy. She leans into Mary to steady herself. "I just wanted your honey."

"But you weren't alone, Sonya. You weren't alone then, and you're not alone now." Mary holds her until the room rights itself again.

"What do you mean?" she asks.

Mary starts stroking her hair. It's an odd gesture, but Sonya doesn't stop her.

"I want you to stay with me and Nikolai," she says. Her voice rumbles in her throat against Sonya's forehead.

"I was supposed to go with Natasha to Pierre's place," she protests.

"In every timeline, I've been killed by someone I loved. Now all of you are here together and alive and hopefully not after my head. I can't make Pierre stay, but I can ask you to."

Sonya nods. It makes sense. And she'll belong with someone, for once in her life. Warmth blooms in her chest at the idea.

"Sounds great." Sonya pulls back and holds Mary's hands in hers. "Will Nikolai be okay with it?"

Mary laughs. "At this point, I think he's okay with anything as long as we're not killing each other."

"We're all pretty messed up, aren't we?" Sonya says. Not only now, but in every lifetime.

"Yeah. But you know. The planet keeps turning. The stars still shine."

Mary pulls her to the door. "I'll show you to your new room."

"Oh, this one's fine--"

"We don't put family in the guest room. Come on."

Sonya thinks of telescopes and stardust and photographs. She remembers the comet blazing through the winter night, the open mouthed stares of those around her, the screams of revelation and the world's end. But it seems to get the world has only begun to rotate, and she has woken up for the first time.

She lets Mary lead her through the halls and into her new life.

[psycho-alchemist]

why are you anti-yoi? (you can keep this private if you like!! i don't want to start any drama! im just genuinely curious because i don't know anything about the anime myself)

No problem, I don’t mind explaining! I expect some questions when I put it in my description. :) I’ll also include a tl;dr at the bottom if you don’t want to read this whole thing. :)

Whenever people see “anti y0i,” they assume it’s because I’m some homophobic asshole who is anti-V!ctuuri. And while I am an asshole and I do think that V//ic isn’t as nice and nurturing as the fandom makes him out to be, the ships are not my biggest issue with the show. I was as hyped as most people when y0i started airing. Ice skating is such a beautiful sport, so getting an anime for it was a pretty big deal! I was looking forward to learning about ice skating techniques and seeing some really fluid, gorgeous animation. Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.

My biggest issue with y0i is the fact that it sold itself as a sports anime, but really it was just a drama anime about ice skaters. That is, ice skating was not the focus of the show; it was on the back burner. We didn’t get to learn about the technicalities or difficulties of the sport; we didn’t even learn what all of those crazy jumps are called. We barely even see K//atsuki training, and the only times we do see him training are used to push him and V//ic together, not to show K//atsuki’s progress as an ice skater.

The real focus of the anime was the probably-gay-but-we’re-not-really-sure-since-it’s-not-fucking-canon relationship between V//ic and K//atsuki. I’m not going to get into the whole power dynamic thing right now–and the fact that the fandom loves to leave out the part where V//ic literally calls K//atsuki a fat pig–because again, my biggest issue (not my only issue, but definitely the biggest one) is that this anime was marketed and sold as a sports anime. I don’t care if they’re gay; that doesn’t matter to me. 

y0i has lots of ice skating scenes to appeal to real-life ice skaters, but those scenes lack continuity and are pretty poorly animated. (Which is ironic since the baiting scenes were clearly animated with a lot of care.) They’re also extremely repetitive. We see K//atsuki perform the same routine at least three or four times, but because the anime skips all the in-between training sessions for bait scenes, we can’t really discern how K//atsuki has improved. The commentators tell us how he’s supposedly improved, but the anime doesn’t actually show us how he gets there.

Then there’s the end of the show. (This paragraph contains spoilers!) Now, I dropped y0i after ep 7 or 8 when it became abundantly clear that this was not an ice skating anime, so everything I know about the end of the show is hearsay. However, the basic gist is that K//atsuki (spoiler) wins 2nd place with an unbelievably high score, and the show (and fandom) would have you believe that he deserves it. But the problem is, based on what I saw for the first 67% of the show, K//atsuki isn’t the best (or 2nd best) skater in the competition. He’s good, sure, and he’s definitely improved a lot, but he is not the best. His routine is so successful at first because of shock value, but his routine lacks the personality that other skaters’ routines have, and skaters like JJ were doing better than him all along. 

I heard that JJ had a mental breakdown sometime before his final performance and that’s why he did poorly, and while that is something that could happen, it was a reallllly convenient way to get him out of the way, since he was K//atsuki’s main competitor (aside from P//lisetsky, who ended up winning). tl;dr I don’t believe K//atsuki deserved to win 2nd place. He improved a lot, and I’m not refuting that, but he shouldn’t have won. And he wouldn’t have, if not for that fortunate coincidence. Most long-running sports anime/manga that care about the athletes’ development don’t let them win the big competition, because it stunts their growth. Obviously the staff didn’t really care about the ice skating though.

Aside from all of that, it bothers me a lot that the fandom tries to paint V//ic, K//atsuki and P//lisetsky as this happy family, like two dads and a son. V//ic is incredibly dismissive and unsupportive of P//lisetsky for most of the show, but cheering him on once promotes V//ic to dad status? He blatantly disregards P//lisetsky’s mistakes and doesn’t give P//lisetsky proper feedback on his performance–to the point where even P//lisetsky feels shunned–yet he’s a “father figure”? No thanks.

tl;dr: 

very little technical detail about ice skating

very poorly animated ice skating scenes

repetitive routines (and reused frames) without any training scenes in between

no clear confirmation or delineation of the main ships

lots of bait with no clear confirmation or delineation

asspull ending that K//atsuki didn’t deserve

little character development in general

V//ic is worshipped by the fandom even though he has less personality than a leaf of lettuce

V//ic is also worshipped for being a super “supportive boyfriend and father figure” even though he literally calls K//atsuki a “pig” and doesn’t care about P//lisetsky’s growth as an ice skater

a pretty invasive and immature fandom (for the most part). In a perfect world, a show’s fandom shouldn’t affect someone’s opinion of the show–and usually it doesn’t–but unfortunately, it does in this case.

This turned into a kinda long thing, but hopefully it helps a little! If you still want to try it, that’s totally fine. It’s your decision. Even if you like it, it’s up to you! But this is my opinion on the show. I do feel pretty strongly about it, which is why I include “anti y0i” in my description. But I also include it because I always lose followers when I post anti y0i content, so it would probably be better for new followers to know ahead of time.