#anyway good essay

[caliburn-not-calculator]

I’m not really sure how unpopular of an opinion this is in the fandom since it’s honestly not discussed a lot, but since it’s mentioned rather often on the pod I’ll go ahead a say it. I don’t like Dani/Davion. It feels remarkably forced. 

Before I get any further, I really don’t want this to come off as shading any one who does like this ship. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, and there are even a few circumstances where I can see the appeal. Everyone’s allowed to like whatever they want to like. Personally, it’s not my cup of tea, which I’m about to explain why, but if it’s yours, go nuts and have fun. That’s what fandom is for. 

Anyways, I don’t like Dani/ Davion as a couple. It feels very hetero/amatonnormative to me. Oh a guy and a girl are bickering, that must mean they like each other and are secretly pining inside. I’m quite bored of this. Obviously this is a popular troupe for a reason, and I can…*understand* the appeal. I’m just… tired of it. 

What I *can* say is I do like Dani & Davion. As like, frenemies would be the word I guess. They’re very funny. I like that they bring out sides of each other that we don’t really see otherwise. Bad sides, they’re catty bitches and it’s great. I think the dynamic of having two people who constantly, *genuinely!!!* what to rip out the other’s throat, but also, to one degree or another, trust each other is very compelling and entertaining. I genuinely liked the moment in 5.6 when Dani asked Davion to defend Brass because she couldn’t be there. As much as she rags on him, deep down she does actually trust him. 

What I don’t like is when this dynamic is turned fully, cleanly romantic. It feels like it just flattens it down a lot. Perhaps this really is just an issue I’m having because of my particular experience being aroacespec. I find a lot of character dynamics far less interesting when they get cleanly slotted into the “romantic” category instead of all the messy facets and feelings that can exist in nebulous platonic/queerplatonic spaces getting to be explored (This is true of any gender parting btw). 

Rolling with difficulty is a show I enjoy so much largely because of the vast variety of relationships in it. There are so many different relationship smoothies with different amounts of platonic or familial or alterous love blended in. Each of them have distinct tastes even if they have similar ingredients to another paring. None of the platonic bonds are treated as less valuable than the romantic ones, none are treated like they need to turn romantic in order to deepen or obtain true value. (Shoutout to aromantic Kyana and her bestie Ione, I loved their convo in 5.6 too.) 

None of them, I feel… except for Dani & Davion. 

I know really all the Davani teases have been out of character by the players, but I actually think that’s why it bothers me. It’s literally out of character. It’s forced. Organically, without outside forces like players’ out of character preferences (which of course have a place in ttrpg settings, I’m speaking solely from an in universe perspective/preference) I really don’t think either Dani or Davion would ever see the other as a romantic partner. It just doesn’t fit. I could see them growing very close, continuing with the dynamic they currently have— tearing into each other like wild dogs anytime they meet, but under the surface, the trust growing and maybe after a while even respect too. And that’s the dynamic I like. 

I think the TL;DR here is something adjacent to: I’m not a fan of romantic relationships being treated as a better version of platonic ones, and, although in general RWD is very good about not falling into that hole, I feel like to a certain degree Davani (as a romantic relationship) does.

So sorry for the essay, but I’ve kind of been stewing on this for a while and it feels kinda good to get it all out in words. (Reiterating no shade if you like this ship, this is just my personal opinion! :D)

Oh this is very fair, I have to say I agree with you. It was kinda funny but yeah it never felt compelling to me, more like a joke than anything.

You put this incredibly well so I’m not sure I can say much that builds upon other than, yes, I get that.

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

secrets of farming (1863) - john w. large

"yeowch augh taking damage ough eurgh"

[setaflow]

Gay pride happens in June and gay wrath happens whenever hbomberguy drops a 3+ hour video essay about a specific topic

[a-chaotic-dumbass]

i hate the idea of sansa ending up as this cold ice queen when through out the books one of her defining characteristics has been kindness. kindness to dontos when joffrey wanted him executed, kindness to the woman with the baby during the riot, kindness to an injured lancel despite cersei's words, kindness through warning margaery of the type of person joffrey is, kindness to sandor clegane and sweetrobin in the vale. sansa even says that once she was queen, she'd wish to rule with kindness when cersei encourages her to rule with fear during the battle of the blackwater. i cant imagine a world where grrm would genuinely go with the idea that only once you refuse love and warmth can you rule

[kbsd]

when a lovely flame dies, smoke gets in your eyes

OR: what were we supposed to take away from episode 4 if not ‘bucky is a war widow’

[trauma-bot]

sin eater

[peak-dumbass]

I know I just got done with ranting about tfp/rid2015 starscream’s character but, if you couldn’t tell by my other rid2015 posts, I’m obsessed with rid2015 bumblebee and when I tell you I love this scene of bumblebee making fun of starscream I’m not exaggerating it’s so cathartic to me

“But bumblebee is a good/hero character, why is he being so mean—” did you forget how much starscream hurt bumblebee in tfp?

He killed cliffjumper who, while probably not as close to bee as he was to arcee, was still close friends with bee

He stole the omega keys from the autobots’ base and handed them over to megatron, practically dooming Cybertron at the time to be remade in megatron’s image — of course the autobots get them back last minute, but that doesn’t change how much that loss effected all of them (evidence: optimus shouting in anger for the first and to my memory only time in the series) — including bumblebee

And his greatest offense towards bumblebee in my opinion—

DESTROYING BUMBLEBEE’S T-COG

“But it was silas and M.E.C.H. that took it in the first place—” HE DIDN’T NEED TO HELP SILAS USE IT AFTERWARDS “but Ratchet was able to fix it—” THAT DOESN’T GET RID OF THE TRAUMA THAT WHOLE EXPERIENCE CAUSED HIM

It’s also incredibly fucked once you think about it more because the t-cog is literally a cybertronian organ — while silas is at least mostly detached from how screwed this is since it’s more like taking parts from a robot than surgery to humans, starscream shouldn’t be since he’s also a cybertronian

Instead of being freaked out and recognizing how messed up silas’ actions are like any rational bot would, he helps silas make his fake-bot-that’s-using-another-bot’s-stolen-organ work by providing him with energon (the [at the time] incredibly scarce resource that helps all bots survive) and — after that plan falls through because of bumblebee finding them — he destroys the bot’s organ for no reason other than he wanted to escape and thought that was a good way to distract him

I just—I’m sorry?? I feel like bumblebee is incredibly justified for clowning on this cringefailure of a bot for what he’s done to him

And this isn’t even mentioning what he’s done against the autobots as a whole (both on and off screen) that has probably hurt bumblebee by proxy

I feel like it’d be justified if bee also killed starscream — he already got to kill the bot that destroyed his voice box, I think bee deserves another murder as a treat <3

/joking but also what if—*gets shot by tfp/rid2015 starscream fans*

[deoidesign]

Thinking about vampires, death, life, and the space they occupy in between

[helimir]

Some top tier Caduceus quotes I've been thinking about in these Downfall times. Something about how so much of Ludinus' position seems to rest on revenge. Showing Bells Hells the squabbling of the gods as they debate what to do about Aeor, and asking 'You can just watch bad people get away with it?'

It doesn't matter if the gods were wrong for their choices. Killing them won't bring back Aeor and it won't stop the violence that Ludinus and the Ruby Vanguard have visited on the world. I just don't see what it's for.

[hwanwooyoung]

HUENING KAI 💖 241109 MUSIC CORE INTERVIEW

[reallybadblackoutpoems]

protect your family from lead in your home (2020) - united states environmental protection agency

"im so full of lead paint yum"

[recent-rose]

yknowwww there is something... deeply uncomfortable about the way mel never speaks directly to viktor in the 'build hextech weapons' scene. she really only speaks to jayce. plenty of people have pointed this out already but like the one scene they actually share a meaningful interaction and she treats him like he's beneath her. all this after jayce has emphasized how important viktor is, that hextech is theirs, together. she unequivocally ices him out, there's no other way to interpret this scene. the way it's shot too - from viktor's perspective, looking up at her, as though to reinforce the same belief in him. like he doesn't even bother expecting respect from her - or anyone from the upper echelon of piltover. he's fully accustomed to being dehumanized by everyone around him at this point. sometimes even by jayce, despite the trust they clearly have in each other.

then of course after this scene is viktor experimenting on himself. it's pretty clear that he has internalized his own dehumanization. crazy.

[bleue-flora]

What’s funny to me is that green is commonly known as a villain color, but while green can symbolize envy, jealousy, death, poison, toxicity, evil, greed, it is also often life, security, soothing, tranquility, peace, rebirth, renewal, hope, happiness, goodness and more. It is both goodness and evil, both life and death, and yet it is commonly the color of villains not heroes, who often wear red which is commonly the color of passion, emotion, anger, power, war, desire, aggression, warning, danger, hatred, courage, sacrifice, energy, romance, confidence, and dominance just to name some main ones. And isn’t that interesting that the color of villains represents peace vs the common color of the “good guy” can represent aggression and war, you’d think it’d be the other way around, and of course there are stories where that is true (Star Wars for example), but I do feel like it happens a lot that you have green as the “bad guy” color and red as the hero: Voldemort vs Harry Potter, Superman vs Lex Luther, Loki vs Thor, Maleficent vs the Prince, Spider-Man vs Green Goblin just to name a few big examples and of course Dream vs Tommy.

And I don’t know, after seeing this [post] and Wicked I was just thinking about green and thinking about how the Grinch, and the Wicked Witch really are easily labeled as evil and terrible and such because of the green, even when green can and is often symbolic of good things. And that even Dream, while not persecuted because he was green was called a snake by Wilbur and Lucifer, The Serpent, by Tommy [post about Dream & labels], creatures that are commonly associated with green. But isn’t that fitting. That these characters are good and can be good, that the propaganda is misleading.

Even further, when it comes to Dream specifically it’s interesting because Dream wanted peace when Tommy continued over and over to cause war. Their color associated with them is fitting, even if not in the way many see it, even if instead of an outward appearance of wickedness it is the reflection of goodness in them that people miss…

[havinganormalone]

Trying to contain myself and I just can't. I can't stop thinking about this scene and it has me in fucking shreds

The way he fishes for the word "wife,'' trying to translate what he was to this other alien into human language. Explaining that his wife's passing is what drove him to abandon his planet. And then the almost exuberant way he he says "It is now." This is probably the first time he has contextualized his grief this way, as mourning for someone he loved, and the first time he's processed how much his mate's death hurt him.

What's so interesting about this is that Harry clearly frame's his motivation for coming to Earth as a result of grief. However, he made that decision BEFORE assuming human form and allegedly gaining emotion for the first time. I think it's more likely that Harry- and his entire species- do feel emotion to at least some capacity. However, whether it is because of societal pressure to be stoic or because of a literal difference in brain structure, they are not as conscious of their emotions. It doesn't mean emotions don't factor into their decision making, but that they don't acknowledge its influence (much the same way patriarchal society frames men as being more rational and less emotional in their decision making, and a man will confidently assert this even as he throws the biggest tantrum).

And here Harry is, being able to finally process and realize how much emotion HAS influenced him. And the look on his face, on the verge of tears and yet also joyful, because accepting loss also means accepting that there was something to lose in the first place, it means feeling the shape of your heart for the first time only because there is a massive hole in it.

[riacte]

Anyone else feel like superpower/superhero AUs are both male dominated and WEIRDLY American centric. Or it is just me

[im-in-andromeda]

okay the scene in s1 ep1 when there is the flashback to the hargreeves waiting to say goodnight to reginald but he doesn’t acknowledge them and allison says ‘he’s always busy’ only to move onto the modern day scene where there are random noises and movements coming from the study?!?!

obviously it’s played for laughs and i know this wasn’t the original intention but the idea of going from the flashback to that scene really makes the study seem haunted for a few seconds, until you realise it’s klaus. the man who is haunted (literally) and plagued by ghosts. storytelling at its peak