#anyway idk if this post was interesting or meaningful at all

[stephantom]

I’d need to watch it again to confirm this, but I’m pretty sure that Thomas Becket is the only character who independently initiates touch with Henry?

There are plenty of people whom Henry touches, and it’s almost always possessive or threatening: the villager woman in the first flashback scene, the Saxon peasant girl (and possibly the old man? I think he prods at both of them with his riding crop), Gwendolen (holding her shoulders/neck), the French prostitute (kissing, leaning over, sitting on, slapping her butt), his sons (pushing and kicking them), the bishop (strangling), his barons (clutching onto one, tapping one’s head to indicate his vapidness), and Thomas too—(clasping his shoulders when he realizes Thomas is hurt, holding his hand to put on the chancellor ring).

Interestingly, I don’t think we ever see Henry touch or be touched by his mother or his wife. There’s the moment when he grabs/kicks their needlework, and later on he knocks all the plates off the table, possibly vaguely in their direction—so there are two physical interactions which are violent but still sort of… distant? And still the direction is just Henry to them (in terms of physicality, anyway—verbally, they do initiate conversations/fights with him).

Does anyone touch Henry? There are the monks who whip him in the end, but Henry has ordered them to do it. Likewise, there’s the servant/valet/page who begins to wipe him dry in the bath scene, but again, that’s someone performing a duty. Thomas Becket though, cuts in and takes over the drying, and the dialogue tells us explicitly that he’s not expected to do this, and doesn’t have to (“You’re a nobleman—why do you play at being my valet?”) but Becket seemingly wants to do it, and he knows Henry likes how he does it: enthusiastically, confidently, warmly, and freely (“No one does it like you, Thomas”). He towels Henry’s head, helps Henry put on his boots, and then casually uses Henry’s legs to push himself up to stand.

There’s the scene in Henry’s tent, after the French prostitute has left and the two of them are sitting on the bed: Becket sort of leans in and briefly clasps Henry’s arm where it’s lying in his lap, casually and warmly.

There’s also the getaway horse ride, where Becket is holding onto Henry, arms wrapped around him, and they’re both laughing and smiling. Henry’s shirt actually falls open a little and Becket’s hand winds up on his bare torso.

And then there are the thwarted attempts at touch, after the split: the two scenes where Henry accuses Becket of not loving him. Both times, Becket moves toward Henry and reaches out to touch him, and both times, Henry moves away and tells him to keep his distance.

They’re quick little things, but if they are actually the only instances of anyone touching Henry affectionately (or even of their own volition) that we see over the course of the movie, it does support an impression of Henry as fundamentally isolated—maybe there is truth to his claim that Becket is the only person who’s ever loved him.

What’s tragic is that 1) Henry doesn’t really know how to express love himself (see: Henry expressing nothing but violence and entitlement to everyone else around him, and even to Becket for the most part), and 2) Becket’s love, albeit huge in Henry’s world, is conflicted and unfulfilling—for both of them.

Becket might be the only person who’s dared to reach out to Henry and meet him on something close to a human level, and Henry loves him for it, but why does Becket do it? Part of it may just be an instinct of Becket’s to fulfill a need where he sees one, if he can, and if it benefits him. I think it’s so interesting that Henry seems obsessed with the question of whether Thomas really loves him, when it seems the truth might be that Thomas actually doesn’t know; maybe it’s an unanswerable, even nonsensical question to him. Like, what else could he do? I don’t know. “Insofar as I was capable of love, yes I did [love you].” But the fact that his last words, unwitnessed and private, are, “Poor Henry.” Fuck me up.

Ok, that last paragraph got away from me and now I can’t stop. Tempted to draw comparisons to “Beauty and the Beast” (this is a sad version where no magical transformation happens… unless you take a particular Catholic stance and consider that both of them maybe took real solace and meaning in Thomas being made a saint and that Henry maybe found real absolution through his penance).

I also want to compare all of this to “The Lion in Winter”, where it feels like, rather than a story about one lonely monster in a castle full of people he sees as objects, it’s a whole microcosm of traumatized and power-hungry people, reaching out for power and security and love and stabbing each other in the back, over and over. (Like, of course his mother and wife and kids have complex feelings for him—some of which involve love!) I think that depiction is better and less myopic, more true to life and probably a more accurate portrait of the historical figures involved (even when it comes to Henry and Becket—Becket was of that world too, after all), but I think I’ve rambled enough about all of this, so I’m going to end this post now. I’ll just say that there’s something nevertheless appealing about the boiled-down fairytale melodrama of “no one else ever loved me but you!”

[todayisafridaynight]

would it be okay if u told me why u like aoki😭/gen😭😭😭😭BEEN TRYNA LIKE HIM FOR SO LONG I JUST CANTT but i love ur art so much so i still consume it otherwise lol

i liked tohru adachi in high school and tbh i think that alone is enough of an explanation for why i ended up liking aoki

[sealeneee]

actually i really don't fucking get the whole ''anders was better in awakening" circlejerk. "sealene you have posted about this several times already isn't it enough" NO IT IS NOT

anders in awakening is a cliche funnyman guy whose motivations aren't particularly interesting or compelling. oh he likes cats and doesn't like templars and wants a pretty girl. truly revolutionized writing. it doesn't help, of course, that awakening is only like 15 hours long if you do all the side content, and really none of the companions are that fleshed out.

idk man i don't have any screenshots or long professional essays about character analysis i'm not that kind of blogger. i'm just some guy who finds the da2 version of anders much, much more interesting and compelling as a character. "oh they ruined him in da2" it's called fucking character development?????????????

anders in dragon age II is far from being a flawless person. some might even say he is a bad person, and while i don't really agree to that, i do see where those people are coming from. but he is an interesting character, one that provokes heated discussion even 13 years after the game's release. how often is there any meaningful discussion regarding awakening anders that isn't just "hur dur he was better back then"?

i don't even dislike awakening anders he's a fun little guy wish he wasn't voiced by fucking greg ellis tho but come on man would this man really be an interesting companion in something longer than a 15 hours long dlc with very little companion interactions

edit: i have a feeling this post might breach containment so in case it does -- i wrote this while being kinda sleep deprived and without thinking too deep, i was just pissed at dragon age reddit being stuck in 2016. i could have articulated my point better and with less generalization towards daa anders but i won't bother rewriting the post now because most people likely won't see the new version anyway

[darkcircles4lyfe]

Life after NDE

Before reading, please see this post. It’s where I first explored the possibility that what we think we know about One for All is unreliable. It also ends with my own guesses about how Katsuki plays into it all. Now, with chapter 404, I can continue where it left off.

There are a lot of different tangents floating around here that I need to bring together for you, so let’s start with what came to light in this newest chapter. There’s a clear emphasis on Toshinori’s vestige form:

but did you catch the slight of hand?

How about now?

As soon as I saw the panels where Shigaraki talks about how the vestige is taking full form, I was practically shouting “OBJECTION” Ace Attorney-style, because they were a complete contradiction to how we were made to understand vestiges in chapter 304 (oh hey look, exactly 100 chapters ago!). Back then, it was suggested to us that Toshinori was special because of his quirklessness, that it allowed him to imprint upon OFA in a way that none of the other previous users could. In contrast, Shigaraki makes it seem like Toshi is no different from the rest. Like oh yeah, this is just how it works, they aren’t fully formed until they die, right? Hello?? No? I thought we were assuming the vestiges didn't have to do with actual souls, apart from Toshi? Given Shigaraki’s own brand of unreliability in his immature frame of mind, I found myself wondering: is he making an assumption, or is he letting slip a secret bit of information about OFA? Idk man, OFA wasn’t even doing this whole vestige thing until like a few months ago, so.

Either way, we can observe the change. As Toshinori’s lifeforce fades, he appears in OFA. I’m left with the simple observation that if he were truly different from the other vestiges because of his quirklessness, it would not have happened this way, since OFA doesn’t have Toshi’s own unique quirk factor to work with, but rather the other way around. You would have expected his vestige to stay the same, or possibly disappear altogether, since it was ostensibly exclusively based on the influence of a living consciousness.

That exception to the rule described in 304 never sat right with me anyway, and I’m not convinced that OFA contains mere memories of its previous users via their quirks just like AFO does. Sure, it’s nice and edgy to imagine that OFA/AFO are more similar than they are different, deep down. But poetic opposites are more interesting to me: AFO isolates by taking, while OFA connects by giving. Previous OFA users give themselves to their successors. One for All was “truly born” not when All for One tossed Yoichi a stolen consolation, but when 2nd extended his hand. There is something distinctly emotional and personal about that. Nana was right—it is kinda romantic.

Because Toshinori kept living, because Izuku has meaningful relationships, that chain of giving linked down through OFA was finally brought to light, like a circuit that’s being closed. At least, that’s how I see it. That’s pretty much what I talked about in my previous post.

Back then I also suggested that this theory of personal connection in some way explains Katsuki apparently having a vestige. Since chapter 403, where Toshinori describes his legacy as being embodied in both Izuku AND Katsuki, I was reminded of how Toshinori was gradually shown this over the course of the manga, as he came to understand Katsuki and his relationship to Izuku, how they are inseparable.

When Toshinori was inspired to pass OFA on to Izuku as he witnessed him trying to save Katsuki, he had no idea the two boys even knew each other. What he saw as a random act of selflessness was in reality a desperate manifestation of a connection that extended beyond memory, of osananajimi. With the eyes of traditional heroism, one could choose to see this as Toshinori’s fatal mistake, that he accidentally chose a successor with a “weakness” of personal attachment, but we all know that heroic isolation isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. No, I think Toshinori made precisely the right choice.

This is going to seem like it’s coming out of nowhere, but bear with me: you know how we still haven’t been told how the first OFA transfer happened? I feel almost silly admitting this, but I think it absolutely had to have been done instinctually, because it’s just too damn specific. As in, they didn’t know what they were doing or what it would accomplish, but they did it anyway. As in. They moved. Without thinking.

Toshinori didn’t fully consciously understand what he was seeing when Izuku ran to Katsuki, but deep within OFA, perhaps he recognized something familiar.

What if, somehow, without knowing it, Toshinori gave One for All to two people? His conviction and intent to give it was inspired by Izuku’s connection to Katuski. Yes, the transfer is inherently physical, but it also relies on mental assertion. Plus, how we think the transfer works may also be an assumption (again, the first time it happened was probably on instinct). Let me break it down even more: Toshi probably thought, as he passed OFA on, “I’m giving it to a successor who has my same balance of heroism—save to win, win to save.” But, in reality, Izuku relies on Katsuki for that balance, as his image of victory. Therefore I think I can argue that their relationship is irrevocably bound within the pact of the OFA transfer. Maybe because Katsuki’s part of OFA is based on emotional connection, once that connection is reciprocated…

…the full extent of that dual transfer is awakened.

I understand I’m making a lot of logical leaps here, but there has to be some sort of explanation for the Katsuki we see at the point of his death, talking to Toshinori’s vestige. I used to think it meant Katsuki had a vestige too. But then why are Katsuki and Toshinori alone, and without Izuku knowing? Moreover, why didn’t Katsuki materialize from the metaphysical mist around Izuku when he died, just as Toshinori did here?

Here comes the other thing I realized in 404. The simplest explanation may be that Katsuki isn’t a vestige at all, but rather he was visiting the OFA interior just as Izuku has done in his sleep or in a coma. Because he’s not a previous user, he’s a current user. The sequence of Toshinori’s NDE (near death experience) in 404, the way it manifested externally around Izuku as something Izuku was aware of, rather than internally within OFA from Toshinori’s point of view, shows me that what happened to Katsuki was different.

A lot of us have been speculating that Katsuki “has access to” OFA in some form or another for quite some time now, but I think the way the idea is suggested in 403/404 is an important distinction because it specifies the mode of connection. To me, it matters that they have two halves of a whole given to each of them, as opposed to, “the chosen one + his sidekick with a little extra OFA boost.” This puts them on equal ground, and it implies that the closer they become, the stronger One for All will be against All for One. It promises that these two idiots who have been toeing around each other and leaving things unspoken for so long will have to really face the facts of their relationship.

One last thing: you might be wondering why the other vestiges apparently haven’t picked up on what’s going on and told Izuku. Well, Yoichi may have felt it? (Where has he been?) But also, Toshinori is the only one directly involved, the only one who realizes his legacy is carried by two. Up until this point his connection to his vestige self has been limited, sort of one-way. For example, he could tell the other vestiges about his research into OFA, but in return he could only faintly pick up on things, and only while Izuku was unconscious.

The time Toshinori spent as a full vestige was brief, but I’m sure it was enough to learn some things about where the shade of himself has been. Even if I’m wrong about everything else, I bet he can give us the answers now.

[cherphadetseuk]

so I don't know if it's just me, or if FirstKhao are just that good at acting with such chemistry that even the script doesn't work how it should but... Ray went out there comparing this

with this

and he thought HE was second-stringing? I mean, it's pretty obvious from his reaction to the SandBoeing kiss that he lost right then and there BEFORE he even got to kiss Sand. I mean, yes I get it. First of all, he doesn't see his kiss with Sand from an outside perspective and he's already low on self-esteem (which I can relate to, not gonna lie so again, I get it)

Interesting enough. Boeing had the same expression.

HOWEVER idk if it's just me, but everyone and their mother can see that the SandRay kiss was so much more than the SandBoeing kiss. The way they already go for it is so different to the hands on the neck to the change of positions and just everything. So why on earth did Ray think he was second-stringing and losing this "competition". I mean yes, Sand didn't answer the question when Ray asked him if he still loved Boeing but I guess if I was in Sand's shoes I'd be feeling all sorts of things if my ex is suddenly appearing out of nowhere. Ray told him to kiss Boeing to find out if he still loves him and he also got a kiss in return for the same reason so again, everyone and their mother can tell that Sand kissing Ray was a million times more meaningful than the one he had with Boeing. The angry kiss between Ray and Boeing had more chemistry.

THIS had more chemistry! (I know off-topic but I don't care)

(not gonna lie, the way Sand manhandled Top here was kinda hot)

(now I wanna see him do this with Ray) But anyway, I'm getting off-topic but I just thought it was interesting that Ray is really that low on self-esteem to think right away that he's second-stringing. I get why Sand was angry and I also get why Ray was angry and they had the fight. Ray is just scared. I get it. He finally found ONE person on this entire planet who is good to him (which is already sad in its own way) and now even that is going to shambles in his thought process. Well, at least Sand went to him to talk it out and apologise because let's be real, without throwing shade (I am throwing shade), Sand is the only one who goes to apologise right after he did or said something he feels like apologising for. He also did it in the cutest way possible. I am biased, I'm not gonna deny that but yeah. Just my 2 cents here. This post serves no purpose in the end I guess. I got side-tracked lol. I'm still processing that last episode and the fact that it's over. Edit: I would like to add that I'm aware of Ray's insecurities and I'm in no way posting this as a negative thing. I just thought it was interesting given my reaction I had when he said that. I wanted to crawl into my computer and slap some sense into him and tell him to not lose the best thing that has happened to him.

[hexacasts]

Crosscode dlc spoilers obviously. i PROMISE i think about other characters too ok? but not this time

i talked about this much more coherently in a draft that i tragically accidentally deleted but like, even though the story is really intentional about asking the question of "are evotars the same person as whoever they're based on" and purposefully Not Answering (or, well, answering in like 4 different ways that all contradict each other), i think its pretty clear that toby and sidwell Can't be the same person in any meaningful way? like, sidwell as a person/his role in the narrative is defined by the power he leverages over other people & the various cruel and terrible choices he makes to further that power. C'tron on the other hand is brought into existence having little to no power over pretty much anything & has only one real choice he can make: continue playing along at the expense of his friends, or get tortured and die. and he chooses the latter! i think thatanswers the question of who he is pretty decisively!

idk where i was going with this post. anyway, hes just the character ever. Hes a very well practiced liar and im sure hed like people to think hes unknowable but despite going to great lengths to conceal himself, every choice he makes kind of shows his hand & he really isnt that hard to read in the end. hes a little hater who loves to complain and nitpick. He physically cant shut up about his interests (which have to be genuine bc theres no strategic advantage for him to talk about biology as much as he does). Hes terrified of the person who created him, to the point of panic (but also insists on identifying with that person). hes overwhelmed w guilt and likes feeling useful and most importantly he likes his friends. Hes so awesome and i want to put him in a blender

[asherlockstudy]

bit of a weird ask but connected to one you answered earlier about rhett's fear of link coming out.

your metas about wonderhole seem to revolve around the idea that wonderhole is a means of r&l testing the waters for coming out - or at least, trying to indicate to *some parts* of their audience that something's going on. how does this tie in with rhett not wanting link to come out? like is it that he (rhett) is trying to come out, but only in a really cautious and planned out way? which is why he came up with that side of wonderhole (i say 'he' because he's usually the more creative one but idk!!!).

thank you for all your metas btw they're so interesting and you notice so much!! 🫶

Okaaayyyy sorry for the late answer! This is probably 3+ weeks overdue! This is by the way the cynical post I promised a few days ago. These weeks have been horrible and it's still not much better but I finally had the opportunity to complete this. My answer unfortunately is not a pleasant one. This answer will be a little sensitive, even for my standards. Be warned and steer clear if this is not your cup of tea or idk pretend this is my headcanon and I believe none of what I am saying.

For these reasons I will keep my answer under a cut:

Toxicity & misalignment between Rhett and Link (Rhink edition)

First of all, I confirm that this is the general idea behind my metas. However, I have also said in various occasions that Rhett and Link do not seem to be on the same page at all. Based on everything I see, Rhett actually does not want to come out. He only “agrees” to it because he is cornered into an agreement since Link wants it very much. It wasn’t even hard at all to see it in the “who’s the worst husband” GMMore but I have been having thoughts about Link’s marriage… ever since I started watching GMM in 2016 basically. Moreover it seems both a divorce and a coming out are desired in his case. But the problem is that also little of this is half meaningful to him if he does not do it in order to be with Rhett.

Except Rhett does not want to do it. At the same time, Rhett can’t really stop another human being, let alone his best friend and business partner from doing something so pivotal for his wellbeing and his very life. The problem is that these two share a heavy private past and present. If Rhett completely rejects the idea and downright refuses the prospect to ever be part of this and openly be with Link, this can be received as betrayal, rejection and separation from Link and it can cause huge resentment that might ruin their relationship, their friendship and their business. As in, this can literally make them part ways both as friends and as business partners, which would not only be most likely costly to Rhett’s personal happiness but it would also be 100% the doom of their career and income. Additionally, the level of heartbreak and resentment a betrayal or separation between the two would risk producing could cause very unpredictable and volatile responses from Link, as we know he is capable of. Who can guarantee to Rhett that Link won’t out him alongside his own outing out of vengeance? And if this happens, then Rhett will lose everything he would fear he would lose if he came out on his own terms anyway: family, career, money plus in this case he will also lose Link because if they reach that point when Link outs him out of vengeance, I think their relationship is probably beyond a salvation point.

But even if Link breaks up and comes out on his own and somehow retains the level-headedness and magnanimity to not reveal Rhett’s contribution to his sexual awakening, it’s still not a good situation for Rhett or their partnership. First of all, even just Link coming out will be a risk for the stability of their viewership and the fan support. Second, do you think Link could come out on his own in his forties and 99% of their loved ones and fans would not be able to make a guess about what the trigger of this awakening was? Link would be like “oh I was walking down the street and suddenly after 40 years of life I saw this cool bloke and everything changed for me no it has nothing to do with the guy I have attached to my hip since I was six years old and I always act obsessed over I swear we only Plato besties” Yeah...no. Eventually fans will understand but more than anyone else friends and family will also understand. Once this happens, even if Rhett does not follow, he will be subjected to 10 times more scrutiny and suspicion than whatever he was getting so far. Family and friends will wonder how much he knew about his best friend, Link. People who suspected both and were eventually proven right for one half (Link) will become sure they were right about the other half too. For example, Rhett’s father who did not approve much of Rhett’s too tight friendship with Link, he suddenly finds out that indeed Link was in the closet all along, he will only feel vindicated and he will almost certainly be convinced that his own son just hides. They will all think like that because almost all of them were suspecting that for both of them, so when they get confirmation for one part, they will take it for granted that the other half confirmation is pending. Rhett will be scrutinised and monitored by everyone. In the end, it will be like he did come out too. Rhett and Link’s lives and choices are so intertwined that a single coming out will simply be no much difference. What one does also affects the other. Even if Link comes out on his own, Rhett is going to confront pretty much the same problems.

Rhett did not expect all this between them would go that far, he did not expect Link would find the guts to pursue such a huge identity change publicly. Rhett allowed himself to be swept away by the affair, because he rested in his miscalculation that their motives and goals would always align. He thought Link felt and saw things the way he did and that he would compromise for a secret affair forever, easily covered by their very close friendship and committed 24/7 business partnership. It was the perfect hideout, beard if you will, for an affair that nobody would be able to prove since they had always been extremely close anyway.

Except Link has an allergy to lies and he spent the largest part of his life tormenting himself by lying. I suspect the by far biggest reason he lived with lies (including religion and his romantic life) was his fear of losing Rhett as a friend. Furthermore, Rhett was Link’s point of reference for most things so besides lying to him, everyone else and to himself, Link genuinely tried to imitate Rhett - his role model - very hard. He did everything in his means to be a great business partner to him whether it was in religion or entertainment, he tried as best as he could to be “effective” as a straight husband and he struggled super hard to be a proper devout Christian - so to have all the package Rhett wanted. But when Rhett abandoned the faith and after they started the affair Link now had what he wanted the most all this time and he didn’t care nearly as much for anything else or going back to another lifetime of lies. You must have seen how he has developed a pretty fierce hatred for lies and for not being “true to oneself”. Link started wanting it all out, the truth, the ability to live their love.

Link was greatly disillusioned by Rhett’s hesitation to share his aspirations. Rhett probably initially did not want at all but the strain it caused made him comply for all the reasons I mentioned above; the more determined Link becomes, the less Rhett can do but follow.

The only thing Rhett could do to control this out of hand situation was to warn Link that he agrees to it but only if he takes care of how and when exactly it will happen, with the argument that he tries to prevent as much collateral damage as possible. Link agreed even though all this delay torments him because he too knows that acting way too impulsively and independently from what Rhett wants is risking to lose him forever. This is Rhett’s only weapon that Link fears: “You can come out on your own or out me without my will if you want, but just so you know, if this happens it’s over between us”. Link on the other hand is like “If I get convinced you are lying to me and don’t truly intend to do this with me, then it might as well mean we are essentially finished anyway, so I will come forth and do it myself and hell mend us because I have nothing to lose and just so you get the message I will show you again and again I can do it at any moment”. This is how they still keep each other at check. And if you think this is a toxic as hell situation, well you are right. Their relationship is toxic. Given its circumstances, it is statistically near impossible to not be toxic. The unique problem with them and their relationship is that if they stopped it and broke up, with everything that ensued, things would perhaps become even worse for them emotionally and even pragmatically. So they are literally trapped in every single way.

Whoever thinks things slip out of Link unconsciously like so many people believe needs to reconsider. All these small non-coming out coming out jokes and comments he makes are his intentional constant reminder and warning to Rhett, who is equally tormented by it just as Link is from the delays and Rhett’s hot and cold behaviour. If all this is real and if we are being realists, all these and several other aspects I can’t even bring up because this will become a monster post are causing very significant strains to their relationship which they both try to ignore, fight and reconcile over constantly but it is not always that easy. They have big fights. They did recently. They did in spring 2023. And in between, I am sure. And it is usually close to the making of their “coming out” scripted content.

I have said so much already. I will say this too. Link is not in a good place. Despite starting 2023 by saying he is living his best life again and again, this is not reflected anywhere. (Perhaps at the time he believed this because he expected the scripted videos to come would produce much more desirable results.) Link even makes some slightly concerning statements; including how he sleeps to avoid remembering his problems or that he makes plans of going away (that tend to NOT involve his loved ones, not even Rhett) and that waiting for the next plan is what he lives for. Link is heartbroken by Rhett’s hesitations and constant postponements. He can’t help but compare Rhett to himself, who’s ready to drop it all (ALL, even family and career) at a moment’s notice and lands again and again to the conclusion that Rhett does not love him as much as he does or even that he does not truly love him. This hurts him deeply and causes most of the resentment you see bursting out of him against Rhett or in general sometimes and it seems so out of place.

The fact that Link doubts Rhett’s true feelings can be observed several times throughout their content. Around 2017-2019 Link would implore Rhett publicly to open up about his feelings and thoughts, causing discomfort to Rhett. But the most important evidence came with the invaluable EB episodes of spring 2023 which were very charged. At some point in spring 2013, Rhett and Link took different weeks off for vacation and as a result they both did one single-hosted EB each. In Link’s episode, Jenna was asking him questions by the fans. One was “what virtues he values the most”. This is what Link replied:

I think sincerity... I’m sure that’s not the only one. There’s got to be at least three other ones that tie with that but that’s what I am going with today. You know. Don’t give me lip service. Mean it. Want it. Put your heart into it.

This is clearly Link talking about something way more specific than just general sincerity as a trait in people. He visibly has a particular situation in mind, he wants “someone” to mean what they have said to him, to “want it”, to “put their heart into it”. The implication is that Link expects them and wants them to want and put their heart into that certain something as much as he does. Don’t tell me it doesn’t fit… perfectly, right? Link therefore has great doubts about whether Rhett truly wants to set their plan in motion and blames him for doing too much empty lip service to keep him "sedated".

Another time, in a GMM Rhett read in a not so serious context that “For Link passion is the most important thing”. Link replied seriously; “It is. For you it is not” and he looked at Rhett with a complaint on his face. Rhett’s expression fell but he ignored his comment. Here's a link with screenshots.

Link really does not say things randomly anywhere near as much as people think. The following recent example must have been interpreted by most as a typical nonsensical Link segway for a podcast topic, except it was not nonsensical at all. It was the truth, at least in the way Link perceives it, and maybe the truth in general as well:

Link makes the segway to a fan's question personal by claiming Rhett would like to be the third person in Link's relationship with Christy (as in, remain the secret affair). Link himself changes the subject promptly in this case and Rhett does not comment at all, while normally he is amused and inquisitive about Link's nonsensical statements. Notice Rhett's standard by now approach to not react at all and let the situation diffuse... he was talking lately about how good of a diffuser he is.

However, the most significant moment for me, a moment that felt like great vindication, a moment that made me think “Damn how wrong can I be in what I think after this???”. What happened is that I predicted what Link would say in a personality / deeper thought question and then minutes later Link went ahead and said exactly that! They were talking about the power of being invisible in an EB in 2023 again and they were asked what they would use this power for. I immediately thought : “Link wants to be able to go to Rhett while Rhett is not aware of his presence and find out whether Rhett's feelings for him are true and how Rhett truly interacts with Jessie when they are all alone".

And here's what Link said a few moments later and made me lose my mind:

Link: Gain access to. Information. And, um, I decided to invest the limited time I have in - as an invisible - to learn what people think about me. Really. Like, I wanna put myself in positions where people - Rhett: Give me an example. Link: Like, every relationship that I have, I’m talking work relationships, friend relationships… I mean, it was a quick answer but- (…) Link (after some non-significant joke part initiated by Rhett ): I feel like I know what Christy thinks about me. I don’t feel like it would be fair to spy on my wife. Rhett: But I feel like maybe you can predict what all these people say about you without you being there… Link: Yeah… maybe there’s not much to learn and maybe it’s only… maybe I don’t want to learn it.

So Link said. exactly. that. He wants to know what people close to him truly think. He says "work relationships, friend relationships" (Rhett checks both boxes) and only excludes Christy (with a reasoning that is also intriguing). He does not exclude Rhett. Rhett acts clueless but his remark makes me suspect his cluelessness is not 100% genuine. Link ends this by reconsidering his choice, mostly because it made him vulnerable in Rhett's presence, and realises he probably does not want to know the truth after all, which again hints to a specific charged situation that bothers him instead of a generic tactic used on all his acquaintances. Read my original post for a detailed analysis of this moment. It's relevant to what is being discussed here.

Long story short: despite the reassurances he privately gives Link, Rhett is not quite ready to come out and it is obvious to Link, who is heartbroken, drenched in his doubts and fears and trapped indefinitely in a situation he wants to break free from, a situation that leads to the deterioration of his emotional and psychological well-being and to outbursts of aggression or anger that in return further strain his relationship with Rhett.

Rhett takes a lot of it stoically but he also reaches his limits often. He thinks Link wrongs him or misunderstands him more than his behaviour justifies. He is seriously worn out by Link's menacing playing with fire. Sometimes Link's outbursts hurt him and then he responds by also hitting Link to his weak points. He has severe anxiety too, which Link exacerbates.

A juvenile example of how this ongoing chronic toxicity makes them hurt each other is in the latest EB and it might seem insignificant because it's founded on silly banter; as Rhett recounts his experience as a novice archer Link says that maybe he is parts elf. Rhett plays along, saying his ears are pointy anyway. Link quickly reconsiders this odd compliment (elves are aethereal and natural archers), as he often loathes to stroke Rhett's ego (which he considers the big culprit of the problems in their relationship - Link spent much of his life deifying Rhett and Rhett took advantage of that and then took Link too much for granted) so he turned it to the unnecessarily cruel reconsideration that maybe he is parts orc actually. This remark hit Rhett under the belt; an insecurity, his appearance. While obviously Rhett ages like fine wine and Link visibly agrees, it doesn't change the fact that Rhett cares too much about the impression he makes to other people or that for a long time he didn't look his best or, also, that objectively he is the less beautiful half of the duo. It isn't very clear but Rhett is hurt by this and he always is hurt by it when Link makes fun of his appearance - it is honestly such a bad thing to make fun of when you are the public figure companion, let alone most likely the lover. You can tell Rhett is hurt by the way he retaliates in milliseconds: "Well I've told my wife to call me Legolas". So, immediately he snaps back by reminding Link that he is desirable to somebody else and that he has sex with that somebody, thus hitting Link on his own insecurity. They know each other's weaknesses and anxieties and unfortunately they make use of that a lot.

When I say Rhett does not want to come out, it's not that what he feels for Link is a lie, I don't think so. We have several examples of Rhett demonstrating jealousy or neediness for Link, even genuine moments that slip out of him. However, he mostly keeps himself at check and is not very expressive about his feelings to Link, hoping to restrict him a bit in this way. Maybe Rhett is just hyper aware and terrified of all the things that can go wrong. It's also true that apart from the wives, the rest of Rhett's family environment is going to be way less tolerant to such a revelation than Link's family. Rhett fears his parents might cut the communication with him, even disown him, and his brother is a pastor. You might say, who cares, he is an adult, he does not need their approval! Of course he doesn't but we can't just expect from people to not care what will become of their relationships in their family. Also, from all the kids, Locke seems to be the most conservative and has a close relationship with his grandfather. Maybe Locke's reaction is what Rhett fears the most, let alone their relationship was never very easy to begin with. I think Shepherd is going to be fine. Link's kids, I think Lily is bi herself so she will maybe understand and Lincoln and Lando are mild young people, unlikely to have way too strong reactions. Sue is a sweet understanding woman and Charles would definitely be a problem once but he has mellowed with age. So Rhett feels there's more at stake for him than for Link.

Then it's all the other risks, how the viewers will respond, how many viewers will turn their back to them. This is not just about being anti-LGBT. A lot of viewers - even allies - will feel they were taken in for years or will disapprove of the affair being a secret from everyone for years. Most people watch Rhett and Link to enjoy these two friends and family men do silly and inconsequential stuff, to lay off their everyday worries and burdens. Such a reveal will be a huge nasty shock for many, no matter how pro-LGBTQ+ they are. A fall in viewership or subscriptions will endanger their Mythical corporation. A hundred people are paid by them. It's truly not easy at all, which is why Rhett tortures himself by overcurating their strategy and Link by overbearingly monitoring him.

Link saying how Rhett will hit him in the legs under the desk often to control what he's saying is another Link joke that is totally the truth.

Then again another reason Rhett is hesitating so much more than Link is that - let's be honest - Rhett is sincere when he says he is really attracted to women. Rhett likes women and he enjoys being intimate with his wife. If they are pursuing a fully committed relationship, which I think they do as they both want to commit to the one they love, it is a lot harder for Rhett to make the move of no return because it means giving up on women probably forever. I think in theory Rhett considers himself ready to do it but in actuality it is harder for him because he probably ends up losing more than Link does. More conservative family at stake, sacrificing his love for women. It is just a lot and I don't blame Rhett for having so many thoughts about it. They are edging their 50s, that's the time a person wants safety and stability, not to embark on a huge odyssey of a journey. Plus, maybe Rhett suspects (and he won't be wrong if he does) that this will not prove all that easier for Link when shit hits the fan, it's just that Link is so impulsive and wants to escape his marriage badly enough that he does not consider much all the adversities and everything that might go wrong. Rhett is painfully aware of all the dangers, maybe even to the point of somatizing anxiety. He fears so much that he curates and curates and curates their scripted videos strategy and he finds obstacle to every negative hint to the point that Link thinks he is disingenuous. It's almost certain to me that Rhett wished they could keep being secretly in love forever because they had the ideal cover-up; best friends and business partners. They would remain lovers and friends and partners forever anyway, all while keeping fans and relatives happy as well. Rhett also seems to be worried that Link is getting more unpredictable and a little "difficult" as he ages ; it's cynical but maybe he is also concerned what he gets himself into in the future.

But again I don't think it is that Rhett doesn't love Link enough or that he doesn't wish deep inside he were more carefree and braver too... He's just very scared and stressed and his concerns are logical. And in the end, he still is trying to do it. It’s just that he has to fight and defeat himself in order to achieve it.

[dakaneeee]

Alr you know what Im gonna ask for. You mentioned her in the srpska post so, Herze hcs?

Herze Head cannons time

Again 2 points:

1. Yes i do know when Tix made her she was probably referring to Herceg Bosna, and not Hercegovina as a whole. I am breaking that rule cause I am biased

2. Once again, I am from Hercegovina myself, and since Hercegovina has no important figure i can’t make the same Milorad Dodik joke in the last post

ANYWAY

1. Design wise nothing too interesting, I do imagine she has a lot of Sunspots tho

2. Also thick ass arms. Idk every woman from Herzegovina is always jacked

3. 166 cm for Herzegovina with Tijana Bošković existing is a spit to the face, she should be 180 cm at least

4. Thick brown hair, possibly wavy, though we barely see her hair down

5. Her “pre-conversion” name was Danica

6. She never converted actually, she remained Christian the entire Ottoman period

7. She read the bible to Ilija every night

8. Probably cut most of her hair off and pretended to be a male poturica (a serbian convert), where she went by the name Idriz

9. She wore mostly Turk-like clothing, probably stolen from a few Poturica-s she’s killed

10. Though she still wore the Herzegovinian hat, so it sent subliminal messaging of who she really was so Ilija and Montenegro didn’t have a hard time recognizing her in disguise

11. Once the Ottomans figured out her gimmick they degradingly called her Idriza, which is where her current name originates from

12. Was forcefully married to Enis afterwards

13. She refused to take his last name, the only reason people think she took it is from superficial assumption

14. I don’t imagine her being related to Croatia, she was nicknamed “Serbian Sparta” after all

15. However I di imagine Herzegovina going to Croatia for help, only for him to take off the Herzegovinian hat off of her. Symbolically representing Croats trying to strip away Herzegovinians of their culture as they came to Dalmatia for help.

16. He also tried to convert her, didn’t work at first but it took a toll on her

17. Best Bonding time with Ilija was the Herzegovinian uprising

18. She will feel the same way later in 1993 when the serbs and croats collaborated against the Muslims one more time

19. Sadly, they probably drifted apart as he grew up and became his own thing

20. Also a tarp carrier, once again easy weapon holding but it’s her holding onto her past

21. Had a meaningful connection with Zeta (Montenegro) at the time of the serbian empire, which is where their strong historical bond started

22. “Hladno krvna” as in cold blooded in serbian. Could actually be about her being very cold, but also about her getting physically cold easily

23. Ambiguously calls herself “Christian” and doesn’t specify if she’s Catholic or Orthodox

24. Celebrates Orthodox Christmas with Srpska, Monte and Serbia every time lmfao

25. Serbian new years with Srpska only though

26. I imagine the house of BiH (as in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Srpska) is somewhere outside of Sarajevo, though she probably has a smaller house in Gacko or Trebinje where she goes to so she can feel reconnected to her rural identity

27. Very specifically she has a house with a chimney, weird preference but ok

28. She kept a relationship with Montenegro for the most time during the Ottoman period, the two kind of depending on each other most of the time.

29. Turkish coffee 4 times a day, she isn’t addicted to caffeine she’s just a mom from the area

30. Goran Bregović fan, probably cause she’s also half Croatian and half Serbian

31. Despite not liking the cold, she’d rather be in a freezing river than a warm sea

32. Probably won the cross on Bogojavljenje at least once

33. Also has a very obnoxious Herzegovinian accent, except she throws in Croatian words and it sounds even worse than whatever alien language Ilija is speaking

34. Knows the whole Gorski Vijenac book by memory

35. She told Enis their marriage reminds her of the Hasanaginica story and he crossed his arms and looked at her disapprovingly for the rest of the evening

36. She has a Red Brojanica, the silver cross on the red rope is kind of a nudge to Zahumlje / Duchy of st. Sava in the past

Anyways Herze doodle to get the idea

[its-all-papaya]

💅 do my nails & potential landoscar rivalry following hungary and now monza

it's silly goofy how well these asks work for me... my brain is so interesting... anyway, nails are tan now in case anybody cares !

↠ please make me do my chores

idk if this is a hot take, but my opinion on landoscar rn is that i feel like a rivalry and more, worse tension is inevitable at this point. hungary was one thing, but it clearly wasn’t a one-time ocurrance and the car is obviously fast, so they’re probably going to continue to be 1-2 or thereabouts in qualifying for the rest of the season. and that’s going to just keep pumping out situations like monza lap one. they both want to win and they're both going to be frustrated when they don't, especially if it's at the expense of the other.

that being said, there are levels. is landoscar going to be brocedes? no. nobody ever will be. will they continue to be as friendly and goofy as they were first half of this season though? i kind of doubt it at this point. they could! people have! but it feels like we’re kind of at a turning point (for this year at least).

because i’ve worked in sports myself for years now, i have a few thoughts on rivalries/teammate relationships to ramble about. i’ll try not to go on too much:

By and large, fans see rivalries from an extremely different lens than athletes do. F1 is pretty different from teams I’ve personally worked with because the teammate+competitor thing is kind of unique to motorsport, but on basically every team I’ve worked for, the athletes don’t feel it as intensely as people watching do. Rivalries are usually much more emotionally involved (for lack of a better word) from the outside. Again, it's probably really different when it’s one-to-one and you’re facing the same people over and over every weekend, but I think as a general rule, fans focus on the narratives much more than teams do internally.

Feelings are also situational a lot of the time. I’ve watched athletes speak in a pregame meeting about how they need to "destroy" their opponent “for the good of the sport,” then turn around and post pictures with people from that same opponent while training with a national team together literally weeks later. The emotions in and around the actual competition spaces are usually really different from outside. ESPECIALLY in smaller/niche sports where most athletes have shared history and friendships that existed before they reached the pinnacle of competition. The thing is, we see a TON of the HIGHEST emotion moments (during races and right after) and much less of the mundane, casual moments between drivers. We're witnessing like 1% of these people's relationships with each other and it's a weird 1% to boot. How we perceive their relationships is definitely not how they view them themselves most of the time. They're reacting to one another out of adrenaline and in the heat of competition, they're going to say and think things about one another that they do not, generally, think about each other in day-to-day life.

It is LATE in the season. F1 is a LOT of forced proximity. Sports in general is that way, and there is not one single person I’ve ever worked with that I have completely loved all the time or completely despised all the time. My coworkers are like my siblings, and I imagine it might be similar in F1? But multiplied by 1000? You can't really take meaningful time away from people you work really closely with. My current job is SO much jockeying for the same limited resources against people also doing my job in a similar way and there are times I want to rip people’s throats out because they’re getting things I want for my own projects and think my own people deserve more. However, those coworkers are also literally my best friends. I hang out with them routinely and go out with them and talk about my problems with them. It's a lot of compartmentalizing because we’re all around each other 6-7 days a week, we’re all tired 24/7 from working long-ass days one after the other, and the average age is like 24.5, so we’re simultaneously trying to manage insane stressful competitive situations and ALSO form our brains and learn how to manage ourselves as people. See? Lando and Oscar are within like a year or two of me and Lando’s been in his job almost exactly the same amount of time I’ve been in sports. I can confirm that even after like 400 events or whatever I’ve worked in that span, I personally still do things in the heat of stress that I regret later and say things I don’t mean, etc, and I'm not even the one pumped full of brain chemicals after competing. Sports is just intense sometimes.

I see and talk to a LOT of people shortly after they lose games, and it’s crazy to judge anyone based on how they act in those minutes. Basing our perceptions of relationships on what we see in the cooldown room and podiums when we largely don’t see anything else is... incomplete. “Lewis is amicable after” yeah, he’s 40. He has 20 years of practice handling these things. The majority of the people we’re judging reactions from are like six months into having fully formed prefrontal cortexes. Also, people manage emotions in different ways in general, and if Lando doesn’t want to talk in the cooldown room, that’s probably because he thinks it’s better than what would come out of his mouth if he did speak. It doesn’t mean he hates Oscar. You can be mad at someone and petty about them outperforming you THIRTY MINUTES AFTER IT HAPPENED without judging them for it as a person. It's nearly impossible to have perspective on a situation THAT close after a loss.

In summary: yes, I think landoscar has the potential to implode and dissolve and ruin whatever friendship exists. ESPECIALLY if McLaren continues to mismanage situations between them (again: been there. when nobody above you is making the calls, you’re making them among yourselves in the moment and it feels INSANELY more personal and inflammatory when you get fucked over). That being said, rivalry on track does not automatically mean horrible relationship off. I think they respect each other a lot and a part of this is just that I don’t think either driver or the team really expected to run into this problem this season specifically, so they weren't prepared for it until they're all in the middle and exhausted and feeling the pressure. Which... is another convo.

I hope landoscar are fine! I don't think they hate each other! I also think race weekends for the rest of the season are going to be a lot closer vibes-wise to Monza than anything pre-Hungary, though. I don't think Lando is going to be celebrating any of Oscar's wins with him this season in the moment. And I don't blame him and I don't think it means he despises Oscar and their friendship is ruined, he's just focussed on his own championship because that has always been the logical conclusion of his job.

thank you for the ask, i hope this was at all coherent!! everyone feel free to follow up!!

[coffeesleep-ooc]

Kachina’s name is funny

Its 2 am and i cant stop thinking about this and i need to get it out bc every single time i look at her name i think of this and can’t even enjoy the storyline aaaaaa lmao

So! We’ve seen that genshin has a history of making up the most bizarre names ever, like idek what happened after inazuma or if sumeru’s names are this funny (idk much about the region it’s inspired in so forgive me for being uneducated), BUT, i do know this: there’s a poor npc in fontaine literally called Book, just Book, wtf genshin, there’s a lot of npcs and pplcalled weird things, and with Natlan that’s wven more obvious that while genshin team does great stuff for plotlines and inspiration for each region, they just say WHATEVER WHEEEEE for names. Bc, who calls themselves/their children Boba? Like wtf?! I’m not even mad about it just why??

I play the game in spanish btw, and Boba is like calling yourself silly or stupid, a friend told me that the English equivalent was also something along those lines so we know this is on purpose? Again wtf lmao

Then there’s the npc called Umi, isn’t that ocean in japanese? And said npc is from the ocean tribe dont get me wrong, if we want to make an accurate “inspiration” from America (America is a continent, ill throttle the person that says its a country thanks) it makes sense to have lots of names that come from different places bc we do have a mix of cultures that resulted in today’s life, but it doesn’t make any sense in Natlan’s whole description, bc these ppl are described as ppl that don’t go out of their country at all? They do receive visitors and i imagine one or two would probably want to stay but it’s still strange, noted, Umi is not the only strange name i’ve seen but i dont keep a notebook with all of genshin’s lore/plot/naming/etc holes bc i would have to make it a full time job. So far a couple things make no sense to me, BUT ALSO! Natlan is culturally rich and filled with stuff i approve, i mean, i like it so far, the legends, myths and way of interaction between characters is rivh and meaningful, i especially loved a quest about a shadow needles bc it felt like revisiting old myths from my memory!

the main quest relating to Kachina is also very interesting and despite it being complete fiction, the way the underworld is constructed is also reminiscent of myths and legends - ik its not called underworld, sorry, its 2am i forgot the name - that place felt to me like one of the scary tales ppl traditionally tell each other but with a very Teyvat element mixed in, and that’s good in my book

there’s also the apparent mix of maya, inca and aztecas in culture and storytelling? And its also true that America has more stories about wars and warriors known to ourselves and the rest of the world? I’d probably have much more to say about this if i had slept, but there are no towns named Fighting soul in my country for no reason, which i find funny and sad af bc wars are shitty excuses to steal and do awful awful things, but whatever. There’s also the way they captured the behavior of ppl in the coasts, kudos to them for that, obviously things irl are not always that good or pretty and some parts of America do have a lot of poverty bc corruption is also shit, but it is true that ppl (i’ve met) in the coast is much mote laidback than in the city, more prone to random music and parties and dancing, big big parties too, the surf part i have never seen in my country so no comments there

some stuff (like the food) is a bit so so for me (im still wondering where shrimp tacos were invented wtf, there’s also too much corn which i find hilarious), and im not even gonna talk about the saurian stuff bc his post is already long enough without talking about Kachina

anyways! in general i really liked it.

now, why is Kachina a weird name for me?

Bc my mother tongue is Spanish

the thing is, idk how many countries with spanish as their main language would have this two problems (or three…maybe)

nunber 3 and less important is the K, it’s overused in Natlan and i find it funny bc many ppl here use the c instead, the k it’s actually more rare in names unless your name is Katheryn or unusual (i once heard the name Ikza and I believe its cool, just not common)…just a thought but: Quinich sounds too much like Quiche so that’s why ill allow Kinich but the qu is way more vommon

number 2 the Ka is just fine, but the China. I just…China is a countey and I can’t help but think of it! Especially bc in spanish it aounds the exact same

number 1 and my biggest concern wity her name, and this is way more personal but I JUST CANT UNSEE IT! In my country we sometimes refer to young ppl as chino or china which is also the way to call ppl from China (probably not coincide but I haven’t researched why this happened to the slang in the first place) so maybe when someone is not listening to you or when they are being tricky or hot headed its bot rare flr someone else to say “¡Este chino/a!” Like saying “this little troublemaker!” Or smth like “¡esta china no hace caso!” Which means “this girl won’t listen/obey!” You could even say “la china de allá” which would mean you are pointing to a girl that is most definitely not chinese but it’s in your field of vision

its not used to denigrate anyonebut it is commonly used as slang by both adults and kids, sometimes even elderly will use it but in more informal situations…

this is why, it feels so damn weird to keep reading and hearing Kachina, sometimes i think im reading ‘pa aca china” kinda “come here kid” and other times im reading the equivalent of ka-girl

I obviously don’t blame the developers or genshin team for not knowing this (i do blame them for Poisson-Fish, Livre-Book, Boba-Silly, etc etc) but i just cant unsee it, even in serious situations its so weirdly funny and awkward

im re-baptizing her Kachi in my mind

someone save me from this misery 😂😂😂😂

[mecachrome]

loll thank u for confirming it to me re:kpoppie fan past!!! i think i remember it was you (?) who said aomething about landoscar coworkerisms and i was like EXACTLY! this is what makes them interesting to me. i get people who don’t really like 814 bc on the surface they are just teammates who have content together thus easier to ship but at the same time, that’s the beauty in them isn’t it <33 and lando’s comment about being contractually obligated to hang out together was Romance to me actually bc >coworkership.

alsooo once again i would just like 2 say i love your metas/analysis cause i think yours is such a fun pov to read from!! not sure if this is bcs of our commonality in fandom history but it’s truly like, a different perspective than if you were like on the 1d > f1 rpf pipeline or just a general sports rpf background. i’m not sure what makes kpop so unique in this ejduksdj maybe perhaps bcs we spend so much time dissecting idolsona and manufactured content or whatever 🙂 anyways! love your work and your gifs 💘💘💘 u are a godsend for the fandom!!

yesss anon coworkershipping is literally so important and real 2 me!!! ofc people are entitled to their own opinions and preferences and i will never force my silly little ships onto anyone but admittedly i am 100% the type of guy who thinks that sometimes Things that aren't romance are romance and sometimes Things that aren't sex are sex. so that's a me problem HKLSDFH

i think the ability to be self-aware about your coworkerisms and find humor in it or even show fondness for it is really sweet... like to me it's meaningful that oscar followed lando's career for so long and clearly rates him and just sincerely objectively LOVES being his teammate and is satisfied with that alone because again "i'll have you in whichever way you'll have me" is lesbianism to some. it's also interesting when they're regarded as a pr bait ship especially considering how much mclaren like... Don't bait them to us that much anymore and how simple and stripped bare the content they post nowadays is? i think there's just a general conflation of [shares hobbies off-track] + [likes each other as people] in that regard...

fandom history is definitely so interesting, i've been in 132402382834 fandoms so i reflect on this a lot !!! i got into hockey like 10 years ago so i think just wrt like, the sporting aspect of f1 then i view it through that lens primarily (and hockey is a sport that's a lot just like... less Sympathetic to individual athletes because it's very explicitly about systems which i think is why i'm less like. parasocially invested in flop careers halsdfh), but when it comes to the celebrity consumption and sheer global influence of f1 then there are genuinely a lot of parallels to k-pop, which adds an interesting dimension. the thing about many other sports/esports/etc. fandoms is that not all of them have the same tenuous 4th wall + measure of exclusivity that f1's genz marketability propels itself off, which i think is where this accusation of 1d/k-popification comes from because it's a less familiar space in quite a few sports. but there's a lot of nuance there of course...

so random but i actually had this discussion with someone earlier where i was like my "type" in k-pop is always pathetic gayboys with horrible personalities alsfdkhalksdfh but in sports i like really adjusted normie boring straightguys (my 2 favorite hockey players are also very much Polite Cats who have cute nicknames hehe :3c) so it's interesting how despite certain fandom similarities there are many cultural nuances that influence our investment.

also idk if you're familiar with bbb but i thought i'd share the hockey version my friend made of it :') it's all quite interesting to me because hockey is like, MUCH more accessible as a fandom product just because of how many players major sports leagues have and the fact that it's not as successful in north america as any other league save mls (lol) (actually idk if this is still true with messi we might fr be flops now), so you can spend $20 to go to a game in some markets and see your favorite player up close during warmups whereas that... is not possible in f1. there's just a lot of considerations for how personas are built up & managed and the space f1 occupies in that analysis !!!!!!!! but i don't want to talk your ear off too much aklsdfhldfh thank you so much for your kind words! 🥺💕

[butchtwelfthdoctor]

i got peer reviewed on this post by @pikechris (sorry for the tag hope you dont mind) but still had way more thoughts hehe anyways i was gonna leave tags but it got pretty long sooo those tags and the rest of my Thoughts under the cut cos damn this did get really really long

i looked in the replies of that post & people you're not getting it he didnt kiss rory with romantic feeling behind rory was just there and eleven got excited about something else and rory visibly looks weirded out afterwards. it was practically eleven kissing as stimming. like when he kissed jenny. it wasnt out of romantic feelings at all he knows madame vastra would kill him & he isnt interested he was just happy to be able to move after the crimson horror thingy. kissing rory was also played as a joke it was a funny haha yknow. i also dont remember eleven kissing the james corden character but like whatever i cant imagine that being meaningful in any way either.

OH in the same way that nardole having a crush on twelve (canon btw nardole practically says as much is played as a joke. like with the post i mention above, like thats played as a joke because can you imagine the cool very beautiful twelfth doctor having romantic or sexual feelings towards nardole, who is literally, as missy puts it, comic relief? i dont think that its queer is a part of that but idk it might be.

but in any case. the doctor hasnt kissed or been kissed by a man with romantic intent onscreen since 2005. we COULD have had a thirteen and yaz kiss but we didnt which is i think why? people forget? about them? doctor was confimred queer she had lesbian attraction but nothing really. happened about it. so yeah. also apparently a lot of people didnt watch thirteen like cmonnnnnnnnnnn it really isnt as bad as people make it out to be.

twelve kissed missy who was probably the only person he would have kissed at that point. he's horrified when she kisses him before he knows who she is but then the very next episode he kisses her in a... if not exactly romantic a very emotionally charged way. and she knows that. we dont see them kiss again even as their relationship grows more and more romantically inclined (which i actually support any amount of canon thoschei conventional romance would probably be. bad and kill the appeal immediately) because like i said. she turns every dead body on earth into a cyberman then lies about where gallifrey is then fakes her own death then tries to get the doctor to kill clara then he leaves her on skaro iirc then he is supposed to kill her but doesnt and instead locks her in a vault for ~70 years but its okay cos they have takeaway food in there together sometimes. and then world enough and time / the doctor falls happens which i cant even start talking about or i'll never stop & thirteen was 1) aroace and 2) too emotionally repressed to even get close to kissing Anyone, let alone the master after all the timeless child stuff, even though she probably?? wanted to kiss yaz?? a bit??? at least?? yaz wanted to kiss her but there was too much emotional repression going on on both sides but mainly the doctor Which Brings Me To My Point.

Fifteen is the most, shall we say, flirty doctor we've had for a while, and Ncuti is also the first openly queer actor to play the doctor on tv, and while of course everyone on tumblr is Very familiar with all of the ways the doctor is queer (and neurodivergent) without any need for the show to specifically say so, it is really really great that a) the doctor is played by a gay actor b) there are more queer characters and c) we got an actual episode where The Doctor Is Gay With A Man. especially after the. somewhat odd. way yaz & thirteen's relationship was dealt with at the end of thirteen's run, which even though was a queer relationship was like....... not really. shown. they just talked about it. and had icecream. okayyy i guesssssssssss

BUt NOW fifteen gets an entire episode where his mutual attraction to another male character (assuming the doctor is actually a man, pretty sure i read somewhere Ncuti was he/they-ing the doctor but he might have meant the doctor in general, not just fifteen) is a Main Focus of the episode. its the main tension, the main drama, the main interest - you pretty much know from the 'okay we'll teleport the chuldur away' that thats whats going to happen, and i for one went 'oh my god rouge is going to get teleported' from the moment the doctor fixed it to carry six. the Main Focus is now their flirting, their dynamic, the way Those Two Interact, their almost kiss (which the doctor was so ready to duck out of as soon at the thing beeped, but you can tell by the look on rouge's face that he's for sure trying that again later). the doctor showing actual episode-arc spanning romantic interest in a character, let alone a specifically queer one... that doesnt happen a lot.

(the girl in the fireplace has a lot of superficial similarities, though you could also argue that madame de pompadour was far more romantically into ten than he was into her. thirteen's characteristically very awkward attempt at flirting towards yaz in the sea devils special didnt have nearly as much focus on it)

but really the point is the doctor was kissed! for the first time on tv in ten years!!!! and it was a queer kiss!! and that romance was The Major Part of the episode!! the doctor doctorwho was gay kissing a man on out television screens after a genuinely quite good build up!!!!!!!!!!! it would of of course be amazing if rouge makes another appearance (i think he will, most likely in a later season instead of the next 2 eps), and even better if we had a longer arc of that romance, but we got it!!! actual canonical queer romance for the doctor!! their first canon kiss in like at least a couple hundred years of their life, and while i am an aspec doctor who believer there are 100% time when he feels attraction and this was for sure one if them. and it was really beautiful & emotional & the flirting was fun & rouge was a good character & their dynamic was really good and yay!!!!

[bloodymarymorstan]

Ok so I just watched the latest episode of What If where Captain Carter (Peggy if she was Captain America) fights the Hydra Stomper (Steve if he was the Winter Soldier) because I KNEW they were once again gonna do the thing where they give all of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Peggy and Steve and say that this time they are romantic even though they definitely weren't when it was 2 very straight bros (lol) so. Let's get into it (spoilers for s2e5 of What If, obviously):

When Peggy finds out Steve is alive she goes to Nick Fury and he tells her there have been rumors of this for decades; Peggy's angry he and Natasha didn't tell her - this is interesting because in TWS Peggy was part of the organization that was hiding rumors about Bucky from Steve. Peggy is objecting to something she was part of in the actual MCU

Natasha says "the Steve Rogers that you loved died in 1953" - a similar sentiment to what people were saying to Steve about Bucky but more overtly romantic. They throw the word "love" around in the episode quite a few times, like they need to make it extra clear

Bucky (who's old and working for SHIELD) finds out Steve is alive and his reaction is pretty tame, like he's surprised and I guess happy but he doesn't really seem to care that much which is just ridiculous (especially bc in this timeline Steve and Bucky kept working together for several years after the war) - Bucky is also stated to have had a wife and kids and has clearly moved on from Steve in the way Peggy did in the original movies

The Hydra Stomper (Steve) is going to kill Bucky, Bucky stands in front of him to talk him down. He doesn't want to kill Steve which is obviously good and in character. The thing he says to try to get Steve to snap out of it is "let's get a drink" which cracked me up because is that the no homo version of "end of the line" for these writers?? Anyway, Steve does lower his gun but then he raises it again (we don't see if he would have actually killed Bucky because Peggy intervenes at this point)

There's a romantic scene where Peggy and Steve bond over their shared traumas which... shared life experience, anyone? (What If I threw myself off a cliff?) - it does turn out that Steve is secretly still brainwashed at this point and is trying to lure Peggy in so idk how seriously I should take this scene

In terms of dialogue, the final fight scene between Peggy and Steve is very similar to the one with Steve and Bucky in TWS. Eventually, Peggy drops her shield and tells Steve that she doesn't want to fight him, and is going to let him kill her. The line she says that gets him to stop is "I want to be with you. Even if this is the end. I want you." She also says "I can't lose you again." This is basically EXACTLY what "I'm with you til the end of the line means", but a bit less ambiguous (and also less poetic, the original line is obviously much better)

Steve doesn't kill Peggy, he flies off (but he also doesn't save her life like Bucky does for Steve in TWS so. Inferior)

At the end, Peggy is planning to go find Steve, even though nobody thinks she'll be able to save him (again, basically the exact same as TWS)

My concluding thoughts:

It's hard to say what Marvel's exact goal is with the phenomenon of giving so many of Steve and Bucky's interactions to Steve and Peggy in EU content, but it's definitely gotten pretty ridiculous and out of hand. There is an instinct to accuse them of homophobia and wanting to rewrite Steve and Bucky's story to make it straight/less significant, but I also wonder if the bigger factor is that the writers know that Steve and Peggy's canon ending makes no sense considering how underdeveloped their relationship was, and they want to trick viewers into thinking they had a better written romance by giving them more meaningful moments in What If (and also Rogers The Musical but that's for another post). That being said, if the best way to write a better romance you can think of is to use the exact same plotline the supposedly straight protagonist had with his male best friend (but that people have been interpreting as a romance for years and years) then maybe you should be reflecting on why that is. Ultimately though it's just lazy writing (have some originality!) and will never erase the fact that the real movies were gay as hell. I'll definitely be taking this as further proof that TWS was a romance all along.

[delicatecherrys]

is there a protocol on here to talk about “last reblog”?

i don’t wanna clog their post with my opposing view in their tags. i see their point, but i kinda disagree? i think it’s great to interpret media without caring about what the author meant, and we will always continue to do that even if the author comes outright and says they meant it the opposite way. (hell, is that not what we do with “canon divergent” fanfiction that explores characters reacting differently in a situation than they did when the author wrote them?)

but i don’t think it’s fair to dismiss authorial intent like that. art DOES become more (or less) meaningful if it was put together with thought & intent, rather than being the product of accident. i DO care if the author meant to portray love that was meant to read as queer, rather than accidentally (badly!) writing brotherly love. i’ll have my own interpretation, but i want to know what they were trying to say, if i can.

it sucks that we have to speculate. it sucks that heterosexuality is the default and we have to seek validation for our queer interpretations. but that IS reality.

and i do agree it takes away from art being subtle & dynamic, which is not a good thing, but i guess…i dunno. i don’t know what the solution is. but when we get continually harassed for our queer reading of a piece of media…

it’s not my business how other people interpret art, but the heteronormativity of the spaces we exist in means that being confident in my own reading of something is not enough. it means someone is gonna hold it over my head and laugh and be bigoted, because there isn’t “proof”. is it really so unbelievable that queer people are seeking that validation? or at the very least hoping not to see heteronormativity shoved into every work that can read as queer, giving ammo to every asshole out there to act like we’re delusional for reading queer subtext in a story?

idk what i’m saying, this has been bothering me given the increased harassment & homophobia i’ve personally experienced on twitter since 431 came out. i think it’s a bit dismissive to say “just be content with what you got and interpret it your way, why do you need proof/validation”.

(which we never did, at least i didn’t. all i was asking for was there to be a space left to interpret things in a queer way without an emphasis on your typical het ship. if there really was censorship involved & author’s hand was forced, i think 431 is the kindest way it could have happened for us queer folks. but it’s undeniable that it still fucking sucks.)

nobody follows me here so i don’t expect anyone to read/respond to this lol, just needed to rant. if you did read it, sorry, it probably didn’t make much sense.

if op of that post happens to see this (i really hope they don’t), this wasn’t an attack on you or your take, you make solid points, i just happen to disagree.

anyways. good job horikoshi on going from writing a flawed but nonetheless interesting trope subversion of your main female “love interest” type character, to burying your one explicitly queer character and having her love be used as a way to push a het ship & reducing your female lead’s arc to be all about love/all about the boy she loved, ALL in one chapter. himiko’s treatment in this manga is truly a slap on the face, and i’m not even a himiko stan. can’t imagine how her fans feel. and ochako doesn’t even make sense. even if this chapter was a product of censorship and forced by editors/publishers, there were many more tasteful ways to accomplish teasing the het romance than…whatever that was.

also apparently this volume is selling a tonne which could be for any number of reasons (bonus cards, promise of bonus content, final volume, vol 1 parallel nostalgia, etc) but given its success, it really does make me feel small in my discontent. at the end of the day, as loud as our corner of the internet may be, it’s not enough. 🥲

[dykeyuu]

i’m not gonna actually reblog it bc i don’t feel like getting dogpiled but this is the most allistic take i’ve seen in a hot fucking minute like first of all since when are the two options “mind numbing small talk” and “traumadumping your deepest darkest secrets” like there’s a middle ground… there is talking in a meaningful and connected non-small talk way that also isn’t therapy session-level sharing😭 and secondly i cannot fathom on any level how it would be enjoyable to engage in small talk with anyone. like im not “speedrunning” anything i am just having a conversation as a human being and as a human being i do not want to engage in some pre-constructed social ritual that i can barely navigate half the time, that drains me energetically and affords me no sense of connectedness (and usually feels like it alienates me even more). if having a human conversation with someone makes you uncomfortable that’s not my fucking problem. if you don’t understand how one might feel glimpses of connectedness from a conversation with a stranger that is also not my problem— obviously i’m not looking for emotional intimacy with the cashier at the grocery store or whatever but that doesn’t mean that there’s no human connection when we chat for a couple minutes about some life experience or something. connectedness isn’t a sigmoidal response you can find human connection in people you meet once in your whole life and in people that you see once in a while and in people that you’ll never actually be that close to. anyways i think what primarily pissed me off was the all or nothing framing of the issue because it’s a dire misrepresentation of the experiences of at least some of the people op is referring to, and also the phrasing of the post makes it evident that op is painfully allistic and probably unkind to the autistic people in her life.

idk like of course the post feels directed more towards people who are vocal about hating small talk and use it as a way to exit a conversation they don’t want to have but i honestly don’t see a problem with that beyond it being a bit of a social blunder— but i have no problem with people committing social blunders like that because i think that unspoken social rules are confusing and frustratingly difficult to follow 100% of the time. i view small talk as the thing i have to get through to have a normal conversation but there are definitely times when i don’t have the mental energy to deal with it. besides, people in the notes are saying the most vile shit where they’re obviously taking “i don’t like small talk mfs” as code for autistics

like fundamentally i actually agree with op that you can’t just jump right into a breakdown of every trauma you’ve ever endured and that it’s important to be able to engage in a conversation about something other than yourself (and that it’s pretty irritating to ask someone how their day was and have them reply “oh i don’t do small talk”) but i just think the way the argument is presented is really hostile to autistics and misrepresentative of a lot of people who struggle with allistic social rituals

i think this is also an important point to make: when i say small talk i mean “weather’s nice today” type stuff, not like surface level get-to-know-you type conversation or chatting about interests, and i think people tend to have a muddled definition of small talk where anything that isn’t trauma dumping is small talk. i won’t start talking about hyperpolarization/all or nothing thinking in society’s collective perception of the world but know im thinking about it <3

[youremyheaven]

girl your moon post was so accurate for me too! my father has rohini rising and is such a narcissist and a master at gaslighting. he resorted to manipulating ppl's perspective of me ig so they wouldn't believe me when i started calling him out after a liiiifetime of his crap. he is extremely two faced and a lot of ppl find him really sketchy, but those he manages to fool he fools really well. the only positives of this is that at least i can see these patterns in people easily. frankly, confronting a liar is so taxing bc even if you do manage to outsmart them they'll just make some excuse. like girl. i also know this hasta moon girl that is a pathological liar and every time i see her i just can't take anything she says seriously bc i just always feel like she's lying out of her ass ab the most menial stuff. her family has had issues w her bc she skipped school for months and no one knew ab it bc she would tell such bold lies like, "call my teacher. here, have the phone so you can talk to her ab my grades" and everyone was like, ig she's doing well in school otherwise she wouldn't offer to call? i genuinely worry thinking ab what if i have a kid and they have a moon nakshatra and express it negatively like this omg i'll go crazy. anyways thank you for your post it was so interesting to see such thoroughly explained examples 🤍 it reminded me of ariana grande as well who just seems so shamelessly manipulative to me too. like when she's like "for total transparency i'll say that..." i'm immediately like ok. so you're lying 😂

im glad 😭😭😭that my Moon post resonated with so many of you, it means so much to me

Im so sorry about your father. I agree with what you said about confronting liars, I confronted someone about something deeply hurtful that they said to me and they literally said "i don't remember" 😭😭 idk how these people sleep at night bro like do they not have a conscience??

I'm happy every time some shady person is exposed in the media, including Ariana who I've found sus for yearsss ,, it's so hard to be an intuitive bc u can't even explain why u feel the way u do so no one believes you when u say that somebody is not what they seem on the outside, u get torn apart for speaking the truth but sooner or later the truth will be seen and will be heard and I truly believe that.

I hope you remain protected from abuse of all kinds in the future and always surrounded by kindness and support. 💛💛

GIRLIEEE what u said about kids is sooo 😭😭I do think about that from time to time but i believe that kids are a manifestation of our karma so the more we focus on bettering ourselves and thereby bettering our actions, we can design our lives to be drama free. What kind of children we have depends on what kind of parents we're capable of being (and you are completely in control of how you behave/treat others) so don't feel too powerless about ur future kids!!! Focus on yourself and your healing and the rest will flow💛💛💛 also if you believe in manifestation 👀just believe that you'll manifest healthy and wonderful children

This blog is a hobby of mine but what makes all my research and writing meaningful is the fact that not only do I get to learn more about astrology, I get to reach people who perhaps might benefit from the things I share. I love to hear about your guys experiences related to the things I post bc sometimes I genuinely wonder like is anyone even reading my 5k words slander on a nakshatra lmfao

Thank you so much for taking the time to tell me about your experiences, I appreciate it so much 💛and i believe many others will also feel seen