#anyway!! romance is dead

[shkika]

my super amazeballs pirate stinker and edgy so cool dragon princess being touch starved <33

self-indulgent little break drawing, because i need more qprs in fiction

[resvarie]

inevitable anders dragon age qifrey wha cover redraw

[consultingfujoshi]

some thoughts wrt the two established "romances" in severance so far (burt/irving and helly/mark) inspired by @figmentof who pointed out how irving had to find out mark and helly kissed from the corporate video in s2 e1 and how he must have felt seeing his co-workers' love affair like portrayed like that, and how it ties into the queer narrative at play here which uses workplace dynamics and policies as very clear analogues for real-life prejudice against queer couples. I mean, just look at this:

it's not just documented, but celebrated. used as propaganda for how the conditions on the severance floor have improved. proof that the severed workers are happy. and how even though he is unaware of the sociopolitical meaning of all this, lumon is very not-subtly telling him that what he had with burt is inherently lower and less valuable than this.

irving doesn't even know homophobia exists and yet he is still affected by it, it still seeps into every corner of the way his and burt's romance progresses. burt is positioned as an unacceptable love interest from the jump. irv is actively discouraged at every turn from pursuing it. their friendship is viewed with disgust and apprehension from their coworkers. burt working in a different department that's hated by MDR. dylan himself not being homophobic in the sense he opposes their relationship because they're both men but his attempts to keep them apart still has a parallel sort of prejudice behind it and still ultimately has the same effect as if it WERE driven by homophobia. irving is made to feel perverse for wanting contact with burt. he's told this is for his own good.

and then, just as they manage to overcome that immediate resistance from their peers and escape to a place where they can explore this blossoming romance on their own terms, burt retires. for all it matters to irv, he's dead. and then irving is given the option to live the rest of his life with grief that will never heal, or kill himself too, because there is no reality where they get to be together. that's just the way things are. of course they wouldn't get to be together. he was unreasonable and childish for ever hoping that could happen. this is just the way it goes for innies. he's told to get ahold of himself and not make a scene.

but the thing is, the standards are not the same for all. a heterosexual romance gets upheld as the shining example of success and fulfilment for the severed employees, whilst a homosexual romance is ridiculed and invalidated, and written off as something that was simply never meant to be. and even more importantly to irving, a heterosexual romance is APPROVED OF by lumon, and by extension, by kier. irv held back from allowing himself to even call his and burt's relationship a romance, because his god had told him it was wrong, he followed the handbook, thinking this was what kier wanted, and then finding out after suffering the worst heartbreak imaginable because of it, that this WASN'T EVEN TRUE. it's simply just that someone like HIM doesn't get to have something like this. his love is not the kind of love god wants. he does not approve of irv's love. cynical and manipulative though that approval may be (even within the context of the corporate video, the helly/mark romance is only being celebrated to further the narrative that lumon care for their workers, but the point still remains that it was THEIR romance specifically used to suit this end), when your entire life has been in pursuit of that approval, it must be devastating to learn it was never on the cards for you.

he and burt even used the fact kier met and fell in love with his wife in the same circumstances as them to justify this to each other - and they were RIGHT, god does approve of falling in love with your coworkers - this simply just doesn't apply to them specifically. and if irving needed any more proof that he no longer has a place at lumon, that he's better off not existing at all than existing with this pain that cannot be remedied, pain that won't even be acknowledged for what it is, a symptom of a sickness which plagues the entire severance system, pain that he is simply expected to choke down and get over - this is that proof.

and that's the POINT. they're TELLING us that this is unjust, and there's a double standard. they're using the ways the innies experience romance and the difference in lumon's reaction (lumon being the collective of all the management we've seen, lumon as a singular entity) to burt/irving vs helly/mark to comment on how queer people are not afforded the same level of respect or validation IN REAL LIFE, for their attachments, their love, their pain, their suffering. it is NOT just incidental that irving's romance is with a man. it would not WORK if his love interest was a woman. the POINT is that they are both men and how that puts them at a disadvantage, even if they aren't aware of the prejudices of the outside world, even if they don't TECHNICALLY apply on the severance floor, there are very clear analogues which still end up oppressing them in equivalent ways that they would be suffering if this were a normal workplace in the outside world.

it genuinely sickens me to my stomach that even in a world so divorced from reality and the sensibilities of regular society, a queer couple is still made to suffer and feel inferior in a way that perfectly mirrors their real-life counterparts. how they will never, EVER be allowed to exist in a world where their love could thrive freely and uninhibited - they never get to taste the joy our world has to offer people like them, but they are still somehow subjected to all the pain it has to offer them regardless. it's such horrifically devastating writing. it makes my skin crawl. I can't stop thinking about it

[each-uisge-enthusiast]

the modern villainisation of demeter will never cease to enrage me bc it wasn’t ENOUGH to just take a story of a girl being torn from her home from everyone who loved her and dragged away to be forced into marriage and twist and corrupt it until it was a romance story about female empowerment that wasn’t ENOUGH they HAD to take the original hero of the story the mother who went to every length to find her daughter again to bring her home and demonise her character until she was this horrific overbearing unloving mother. overprotective controlling without love. they turn the story of her grief at her YOUNG daughter being torn from her without her knowledge into the story of a misunderstood bad boy and a horrible cruel mother who won’t give him a chance and i really find it sickening. it’s ironic, that the ever misogynist age of hellenistic greece, has a better grasp of how disgusting and horrifying this situation was that a modern, self proclaimed ‘feminist’ era.

[ineedhjalp]

Edwin Payne canonically reads cheap romance novels with gay male characters and likes them. Just in case you didn’t know

[god-damnit-vinne]

the sheer amount of i've-got-bitches-itis shuichi has during drv3 extras is actually making my head spin like

okay you teal haired twink

[ladyriot]

It's really all the mini romance arcs in this damn show...

3x08 Cuts Like a Knife

3x12 Love The Way You Lie

The undercurrent of season 3 is Maura trying to get Jane to drink more wine for her health and every single moment of it feels like a romantic B-plot.

[banditblvd]

GHHHHHRR….GHGHHHOSTNKNIFIRE……..GHHHRGHOOOSTNKMIFE…

[lesbiancosmicowl]

been thinking a lot about how lisa swain essentially used her position as a detective to coerce an inmate into donating a kidney to her gf. like. i understand rob donovan is a criminal. he's dangerous, he's a liar, he's a murderer. he's also a human being. and it's just so deliciously fucked up to me that lisa took one look at him, skipped over the whole 'human' part, bypassed the 'carla's baby brother' thing, jumped over 'this is wrong' and landed squarely on 'disposable organ donor.' the woman is out there casually violating human rights to save the woman she's been dating for like. two (2) months. she's sick! she's a sicko! she's so fucked up! she's so stupidly deeply in love!! and she'd literally do Anything to avoid losing the woman she loves (again)!!!!!

[dark-elf-writes]

You should assign Scum Villian characters godly parents

I’ve never actually read it but from what I’ve seen, Shang Qinghua gives Apollo vibes, but exclusively Greek Apollo vibes

And Luo Binghe would be Zeus or Jupiter bc of his protag energy

And Shen Yuan is either the dumbest child of Athena ever or the son of some nature god

Hear me out hear me out

The funniest option for Shen Yuan is a child of Aphrodite and that’s where he gets the wifebeam from. Just a natural pull that makes nearly every man he meets fall in love with him. This has the double hilarity of everyone claiming Aphrodite kids can’t fight up to the exact moment Shen Yuan realizes the bane of his existence Airplane Shooting Towards The Sky is actually in camp with him and he proceeds to beat the ever living fuck out of him until they are separated.

I do really like Shang Qinghua as a child of Apollo because you know Apollo would be the most cringe over supportive dad about his son’s terrible porn novel. He also fits in with my interpretation of Greek Apollo of playing the idiot but actually being incredibly intelligent what with the whole spy thing.

Binghe is definitely a big three kid I just don’t know which big three to assign him to. Torn between Zeus and Hades tbh mostly because demon translates very well to Hades’ power but Zeus is like the ultimate Stallion Protagonist (derogatory). Probably Zeus but he shows his dad exactly zero respect. All Binghe cares about is the pretty Aphrodite boy that helps with training and catches him when he throws himself into Shen Yuan’s arms trips over his own feet because he just can’t figure out the footwork.

Liu Qingge is a child of Ares but his younger sister Mingyan (who comes to camp later like right before the giant war along with the rest of the younger generation) is another child of Aphrodite blessed with a gift of beauty so strong she chose to wear the veil. Both of them choose to ignore what this says about their mortal parents. Shen Yuan saved Liu Qingge in the first war with the titans and won his eternal gratitude/one of several wifebeam victims ever since.

Shen Jiu I really want as another child of Aphrodite but I think him and Shen Yuan are once more siblings that got the Liu treatment of two different godly parent. Besides Child of Athena Shen Jiu is terrifying and I love him. He would have found a way to become one of Artemis’ few male hunters if he didn’t have to look out for his younger brother who he would rather gnaw an arm of than abandon. He refuses to claim any male children of Athena as his siblings, though he will claim sisters.

Yue Qingyuan I’m not sure on. Something that would help with diplomacy or his general OP power levels. Definitely Roman though which adds into the whole Shen Jiu mess because he met up with the Shen brothers after they had to run from their home due to a monster attack that injured Shen Yuan. Yue Qingyuan ran for help and ended up in the Roman camp. Shen Jiu waited as long as he could before he needed to get Shen Yuan help and had never forgiven Yue Qingyuan since so the meeting after the giant war is T E N S E to say the least

Wei Qingwei is a child of Hephaestus who, after Luke’s betrayal, literally foraged a full magical sword on his own that could detect possession among other things. He is upset when it doesn’t react to Luke. He is more upset once it finally does.

Ming Fan and Ning Yingying are definitely around CHB I just don’t know where exactly to put them. Both younger Athena Campers that see Shen Jiu as the coolest person ever and imprinted on him maybe?

I’m unsure where to stick the other demons but they are definitely around. Though it would be funnier if Demons still were just demons making Binghe double OP but I’m not fully sold on that idea yet.

[bananasofthorns]

can we get some Karen Page without romantic tension with [insert male character here]. can we PLEASE get some Karen Page without romantic tension with [insert male character here]

[ghost-in-fools-garments]

[thenerdofthegroup]

Tiny photo from multiple teasers we will see next episode so if you don’t want to be spoiled don’t look!

This scene is going to shatter my heart I just know it

Agatha as a mum is a storyline I so desperately wanted and am so happy we are getting, seeing every part of it, so I know I will be crying more than her in this scene. Given her reaction to this and everything in the first two episodes she absolutely adored him and it’s going to be heartbreaking. YESSS TRAUMA BABY!!!!

[bietrofastimoff23]

"I can′t believe that it's finally me and you, and you and me, just us...

- and your BIG EGO."

i came across the reels "when you date a narcissist" in inst, and i realized that i need to draw it with gwaynston.

[g3n3s1s-l0v3]

Can we pretend to leave and then // We'll meet again // When both our cars collide

(decided to repost with only the waist-up part cuz I like this more....)

[jonathanbyersphd]

AND THE THING IS there was enough drama in Nancy and Jonathan's relationship without throwing [REDACTED] in the mix.

If YOU don't know how to write a compelling story about a long distance relationship where they're both supposed to be going off to college but one comes a vastly different homelife/tax bracket AND the horrors of the week are keeping them apart just SAY that. No need to beat a dead horse.