#anyway to go back to the original point of the post

[tumblingxelian]

Just woke up, but I am going to throw my hat into the ring on this one and address the claims of one @rwbyuser24

I will start saying, well, isn't what the Wiki presents of her, truth? "Even then, his flaws are folded in to his (alleged) positive traits; he is not afraid, extremely loyal, and has genuinely good intentions, despite the fact that the show has now proven that Ironwood’s flaws greatly outweigh these."

Truth is a rather loaded term in this context, @faunusrights was highlighting that the framing of every trait and action Robyn has or takes is steeped in negative, hostile or inflammatory language. While in contrast, all of Ironwood's negative traits, which far and away are worse than anything Robyn displayed are downplayed to the point of nonexistence.

Hence opening the post by highlighting bias.

Let's consider that Ironwood have been for most of the part of show a hero. I guess that can influence. That and, isn't it truth what the wiki says about Ironwood? And even when his flaws end up outweighing his good traits, that was at the end of his life.

Robyn Hill was also a heroic figure from the moment of her introduction, this does not stop the steep bias against her.

I would also contest how much of a hero he was. Certainly he fought at the Fall of Beacon and that was heroic.

But he also used back-door politics to have Ozpin dismissed from his position. He was an ally to the already well established as villainous SDC. He then pulled out of Vale as soon as possible and when getting word of potential attacks on his allies (Mistral) withdrew all of his military support. & that's before we get into his blatant neglect and oppression, and exploitation of Mantle. All of which was on full display within the first episode of volume 7.

All compounded by the fact that Ironwood was a dictator the entire time.

"These writers love Robyn, and have explored and extrapolated on her character to marvellous degree. Yet, at no singular point have any of these flaws ever been written quite as strongly as the wiki implies they are, nor have I seen much evidence of them myself in the show." Well, I can think some works of fiction where Robyn shows negative traits. There was a rewrite by The-tired-bisexual-agenda who seems to be queer too. Anyway, the point is that since are fans, they probably are biased too. And about not seeing evidence of those traits in the show... Well, let's see about it!

You do a lot to remove the original post from its initial context, which makes hunting for what context surrounded these little snippets vexing. But to put it buntly, Faunusrights highlighted that the majority of creators in RWBY FNDM are women, or queer, or trans, and that she is by and large extremely popular in these circles.

Which is all true. One outlier doesn't actually amount to anything as a response and given "Rewrites" are easily the most creatively bereft, lifeless spittle of the HTDM, such a thing means even less.

As fuanusrights initially highlighted, there is a neutral voice that could be utilized to at least not blatantly misrepresent Robyn Hull while codding the dictator Ironwood, but they chose not to use it.

Now let's address the meat and potatoes of your post:

"Her brashness is blamed for the outcome, but in reality, this outcome could have been avoided together if Clover had not chosen to follow his orders and bring in an innocent man. " Well, Clover didn't initiate the fight. Clover said peacefully to Qrow that he was under arrest. And even Qrow said that they should wait till they arrive to Atlas to talk with Ironwood. Robyn initiated a fight in the manta. The problem isn't initiate the fight, the problem is the place. Is a closed space flying in the air. What if something end up happening and the ship falls? And even when it wasn't her fault, the fight end up resulting in the liberation of Tyrian. Again, she should have assumed that bad things were a risk. She could have wait till arriving to Atlas to talk to Ironwood or initiate the fight there instead of do that in a dangerous place.

You are blatantly and perhaps intentionally missing the point here that Clover is the most responsible for the fight by following a blatantly illegal and or immoral to arrest an innocent man.

Frankly, regardless of who "Started" the fight physically, by choosing to enact state violence on Qrow, Clover was 100% the person responsible for making things a fight.

He didn't need to obey a blatantly unreasonable or immoral order, he chose to, making a fight inevitable. & Qrow being willing to go along with it does not actually change that because, even if we ignore the fact letting someone walk themselves to the gallows on the assumption the judge will see reason is dumb.

The fact of the matter is Ironwood had just abandoned Robyn's city to die and was now arresting all opposition to his tyrannical and immoral reign. & Robyn is now trapped in an airship being flown to his fortress. This entire scenario is one of Ironwood and Clover's making, Robyn's not at fault for being stuck in a shit situation & trying to get out.

Talking to someone who just declared himself officially super dictator of Atlas, left her city to die, is arresting all opposition is an absurd stance. & beginning a fight on his island fortress surrounded by his military is somehow just as absurdly stupid.

I'm going to aside a little here with some insights from another essayist about this matter because there is something subtly sinister in your argument that you may not realize & I hope by outlining it, I will help:

How is arresting someone is somehow not a form of violence?

The answer is, it is a form of violence.

It’s merely considered an acceptable one because of the way it serves the state.

Whereas resisting arrest is considered an unacceptable form of violence, regardless of innocence.

In fact, overall, there is an acceptance in your post that state violence is natural and acceptable, regardless of circumstance or context.

That it is a neutral force, and not one enacted by choices.

I think this is the fundamental issue at play. It’s not necessarily about Robyn or Ironwood. It’s about whether the status quo is acceptable.

"Also, she didn’t crash the Manta! That was all Tyrian!" The article didn't say that she crashed the manta, it says that the fight initiated by her lead to that outcome.

Let's look at what the article said:

Her brashness led to Tyrian breaking free and crashing the Manta as well as her becoming unconscious.

Yeah no, I side with faunusrights here, this line treats Tyrian like some environmental factor, a force of nature, the culpability for the crash and its harm to Robyn is laid at her feet, despite her not being the one to crash the ship. Its rather like how left leaning people always get blamed for the actions of the right wing, evil is treated as a force of nature, rather than a personal choice these people make.

"Yet, the people who enjoy her and the Happy Huntresses often perceive those same flaws to a significantly lesser extent, or even see those flaws as actually being boons of her character; for instance, reading her alleged arrogance as passion." Again, also the fans are biased. About the arrogance, it's for celebrating her victory before time for example. She was so sure of her victory that she made a party, even Weiss and Ren point out how strange that was. There is also her saying: "Looks like he underestimated me. Again."

See, you acknowledge fan bias, but only in regards to Robyn while largely treating the far more baseless support for Ironwood's villainous actions as the reasonable stance across your essay.

Also you do know how elections work right? Like, literally, that is how they are always set up, all political parties in America and many other countries (My own included) do this. That's not arrogance, that's just how elections work. Add in that Jac had to cheat to win and she was right to be cocky.

... Ironwood chose to neglect Robyn in his arrest order, either forgetting her entirely, or assuming she'd obediently follow orders. So yes, he underestimated her.

"I have a suspicion it’s to do with her character at large; she’s a bold socialist politician who believes in equality and fairness for all, who refuses to stand for incompetence and obedience towards evil causes." Is she a socialist though? I mean, she believes in equality but I doubt she ever declared socialists ideals. I'm not sure either that the CRWBY is socialist, so I doubt that they wanted to present a socialist in such good focus.

Robyn Hills's exact political beliefs are admittedly not overtly stated. However she is very much presented as a counter culture, rebellious force against Atlas's hyper militaristic and capitalist system.

"Likely, I’d rephrase a lot of it to be less damaging to her character; she isn’t hostile, she holds people accountable." Except that she was willing to steal from the military truck even BEFORE losing the elections and Ironwood supposedly trying to kill her:

I like how you neglect the fact Ironwood was literally robbing Mantle. Those supplies were specifically for Mantle, as discussed by Robyn and confirmed by Clover in their discussion.

Robyn: Clover, I'm so glad you're here. Maybe you can help me understand why this truck that's supposed to be taking construction materials to fix Mantle's outer wall, is on its way to the middle of nowhere? Are you lost? Clover: (laughs) It's pretty easy to get turned around out here in the tundra, everything looks the same. Thanks for checking up on us though. We'll be on our way now.

If one wants to act like legality is the sum total of morality, then Robyn was actually in the right by trying to secure stolen goods and return them to their proper place, >:3c

"I think you've misjudged the situation. One way or another, these supplies are going to get where they're supposed to go - Mantle." And again, initiating a fight in the wrong place.

This is hardly the wrong place, the stolen supplies are right there and Mantle is in desperate need of them given Grimm are busting through the hole in the wall at all hours of the day and Ironwood has made it illegal for Mantle citizens to even own weapons to or defend themselves. As established in the opening of V7, even being an official Huntsmen does not allow one leniency in this.

"She isn’t quick to jump to conflict, she is familiar with how Atlas responds to anti-authority with violence. " That still doesn't mean that she isn't quick to jump to conflict. And how exactly was Atlas dealing to anti-authority with violence in the past? I mean, Atlas let opposition appear in both Atlas (Jacques) and Mantle (Robyn). All the people that were arrested were people responsible for crimes: Stealing a manta, throwing a brick to a military ship, initiating riots. It just now that Ironwood was arresting people who oppose him.

If Robyn were actually quick to jump to violence, then she'd have attacked despite Penny's presence, she'd have been outright hostile to Marrow, rather than mildly chiding, and she'd have started violent rebellion before the election even happened, which was something she explicitly discouraged her supporters from doing.

How is Atlas at responding to opposition? Oh right, makes it illegal for Mantle citizens to defend themselves, stomps all over democratic norms, steal private property and public goods, while leaving those same citizens out in the cold to be exposed to Grimm, while arresting them for defending themselves.

The Ace-Ops had zero idea RWBY and co stole the Manta because if they had actually known anything they'd have arrested Maria as well. They didn't it was just an excuse they came up with.

"She isn’t arrogant, she believes in the power of the people as being the right thing to fight for." Again, party and overestimating her capacities.

Again, that's how political parties & elections work, & Jac had to cheat to win. Its funny how you keep neglecting that second fact in particular. Almost like you believe it was a legitimate loss despite it being literally and canonically a stolen election.

"not a fan of Robyn not a fan of a new female character not a fan of a new female character in a position of power not a fan of a character with socialist/communist/antifa ideals all of the above and then some???" I guess that the first one. I mean, assume that someone doesn't like female characters due to the dislike to ONE female character... And again, when it was said that she is socialist/communist? And Antifa... maybe? I mean, Atlas was never fascist. Well, that would be all!

faunusrights was talking about the people who edit the wiki, the same people who slathered Ironwood's page in no end of debasing praise and re-framing of events to make them look good.

Their post was very specifically and explicitly talking about a blatant bias in the people who were in charge of the Wiki. People who had demonstrably been extremely biased against against Robyn, women, authority figures who were women that didn't genuflect to a male superior, and otherwise praised conservative and violent men like Ironwood.

So yeah, the opening line of faunusright's post remains apt:

what is going on with all the bias on robyn hill’s wiki page, anyway?

what is going on with all the bias on robyn hill’s wiki page, anyway? - an aside

As someone who uses the RWBY wiki with some degree of frequency - often because I’m looking for art references, or Semblance and weapon names - I’m used to… some amount of bias in the articles for different characters? Like, let’s be real, it’s not a perfect wiki! Community-maintained stuff isn’t easy to all keep on the same track! But, generally, it gives the facts well enough and doesn’t do too bad a job keeping all the balls in the air when it comes to new information from all four corners of this franchise.

Well, until you open the article for Robyn Hill, and realise it’s an absolute disaster. Like, really; the impartial voice just plain doesn’t exist for her, and almost all of her wiki is written in such a way that she reads as being an absolutely insufferable, hostile, hard-to-like character. Even if you aren’t a fan of Robyn personally, you have to admit that if you hadn’t seen the show yourself, you might very well come away from her article presuming she’s a major antagonist of Volumes 7 and 8.

Like, for instance, let’s take a look at the first paragraph of her Personality section:

Robyn has a direct and confident personality, having no trouble being confrontational with Atlas personnel, including the Ace Operatives. Robyn also seems to suffer from overconfidence and arrogance, shown in her encounters with Ruby and celebrating her election victory before it was verified. She is aggressive and hostile in nature, quickly jumping to conflict without thinking through consequences. However, she is also shown to be reasonable when the situation calls for it.

And, for good measure, here’s another paragraph from the same section:

In “With Friends Like These” Robyn displayed a rather impulsive side of her personality, when upon hearing that James Ironwood’s plan to abandon Mantle and arrest those against him, she started a fight between herself, Clover Ebi, and Qrow Branwen onboard a Manta with Tyrian Callows in custody. Despite the fact, there was no order or her arrest. Her brashness led to Tyrian breaking free and crashing the Manta as well as her becoming unconscious.

(Taken from Robyn’s RWBY Wiki page. Bolding is mine.)

Seguir leyendo

[arcanewhoosh]

The Weight (1/3)

3.3k words

Proofread? Y/N

Relevant Tags: Jinx x Reader, Post series finale, Canon compliantish, time skip, reader runs a port, alcohol consumption, original characters for interaction's sake, three shot hopefully

You were really hoping to have a chill day at work. Was your current predicament your own doing? Yes. Were you still going to complain about it anyway? Also yes. But while you were almost one hundred percent sure that you wouldn't have to run around putting out fires,--you prided yourself in fixing up how efficient the port was being run--an unexpected landing from a rogue airship ruins the peace and quiet you were hoping to have. You would've been pissed. On any other gods-given day, you would be incredibly pissed. But unfortunately for you, the pilot of the ship has you wrapped around her finger the second you lay eyes on her.

"BREAK. BREAK. PAPA MIKE THIS IS TRAFFIC CONTROL. DO YOU COPY?"

You groan, rubbing your temple as you reluctantly reach for your radio. You were praying for a slow day, your hangover from the previous night still glaringly in full swing, but alas, today just had to be the day an army of ships were going through the bay. You curse the ray of sunlight that hits you square in the face when you sit up in your chair, letting out a huff before pushing the call button.

"Ten-four. Traffic control this is Papa Mike. What's the situation? Over." The radio beeps as you let go of the call button, before it crackles back to life.

"PAPA MIKE WE HAVE AN UNAUTHORIZED AIRSHIP ON DOCK EIGHT. OVER." You pick up a copy of the manifest, eyeing schedules for the aforementioned dock. A red ink pen was used to overwrite Available on the manifest to Maintenance. Sighing, you stand up and head closer to the window to get a view of the dock. The radio beeps again.

"PAPA MIKE. STATUS?" You reach for the radio on the table, its coiled cable stretching out as you yank it with you towards the window. Yup, there's an airship there alright. Looks like it came from Piltover based on the design.

"Copy that Traffic Control. Affirmative on the unauthorized airship. Dock eight's supposed to be under maintenance. Over."

"COPY THAT, PAPA MIKE. WE'RE GONNA NEED YOU TO GO UP THERE AND CHECK THE SHIP. NEGATIVE RESPONSE ON SHIP'S RADIO. OVER."

"Huh?" You mutter to yourself, before pressing the call button again.

"Traffic Control why do I need to go up there? Over."

"PAPA MIKE WE HAVE NO AVAILABLE HANDS. THERE'S TOO MANY SHIPS COMING IN TO THE PORT TO CHECK ROGUE AIRSHIPS. OVER." Great, just great.

There had been a recent influx of visitors coming from all over. It had started with whispers of a war between Piltover and a Noxian fleet, and people were scrambling to get as far away from the city as possible. Something about Hex Gates being fought over, which was expected at some point, really. How could anyone just watch as Piltover create the scientific equivalent of teleportation, and not want a piece of that pie? You had your money on Piltover eventually falling, since there was no way a merchant city would have a chance again a Noxian army. Imagine your surprise when they did manage to win.

Then there were travelers headed towards Piltover. With the sudden decline in population, especially for workers, the city-state welcomed people with the promise of work and opportunity. You heard from somewhere that they were willing to give stipends depending on the work you'd be able to contribute. You were briefly tempted yourself, until you realized that Noxus might retaliate and cause more trouble.

Though regular ships were expected to show up at your docks, the influx of airships were a surprise. But you figured that Piltover airships were riding the coast instead of staying on land so they could avoid having to travel on Noxus territory entirely. From where you were standing, several stories high, you could see a long line of passenger and private vessels lining up to dock; looking a bit to your side, airships were also moored, rendering the port to near full capacity. Routine maintenance became frequent, just to make sure none of the sea and air docks would suddenly have stability issues.

All of the airships were lined up in a neat pile on their moors, except for that one rogue airship on dock eight. You frown as you shoot a glare its way.

On one hand, you could do your job, go up there and check out which Piltie decided to moor their airship there; this definitely wasn't the first time this has happened. On the other, just leave the ship be and ignore traffic control. You much prefer the second option, really. But that would get you fired, and you're not really looking forward to being fired. So you let out another groan as you lightly bang your forehead on the window. Of all the days I'd have to walk outside in the bright ass sun. You think yourself as you hit the call button.

"Ten-four traffic control. Wilco. Over and out." You toss the manifest onto your desk and hook the radio back up as you hear Traffic Control acknowledge you. You put on your sunglasses and put on your work jacket and cap, then down a cup of coffee before heading out the door.

------------------------------------

"Take the job at the port, they said. They'll just make you haul stuff, they said."

Your face scrunches up in disdain as you walk along the air docks. The sun was especially bright today, and on any other day, you'd actually enjoy it. But today, with your head throbbing, and your stomach reminding you of your poor choices the previous night, you absolutely loathed that incessant ball of fire.

Dock eight was near the end of the platform, which meant a longer walk. The wind decided it was a good time to pick up and was whipping against your face; you hold on to your hat to stop it from flying off. You made a silent promise to punch whoever was the captain of the rogue ship. As you round the corner--a sign with the number eight painted on it and Under Maintenance right underneath it--you spot a cloaked figure trying to tie down the sides of their ship onto the platform.

"Hey, pal. You're not allowed to dock here." You pick up the pace--not by much due to your queasy stomach--as you approach the ship and grab one of the lines and tying it down. The ship's pilot--whose shoulders seemingly sag in relief once you're able to secure the vessel--is still turned away from you, trying to secure another line. You raise your voice to try and beat the loud whipping of the wind.

"Hey, did you hear me?!" The figure stands up straight and turns to you, her hood being blown off.

You see the most beautiful eyes you've ever seen in your life.

"What?!" She shouts back.

You try to say something, but end up stammering and unable to get any words out. Thankfully, the wind calms down, and you're able to think in relative peace even though your mind was still fogged by your hangover.

"Uhm, you can't dock here. This one's under maintenance." You point towards the sign behind you. She cranes her neck a bit to get a look behind you, her blue hair flowing effortlessly off her shoulder. She clocks the sign, then turns her eye back to you.

"Sorry, who are you?" She asks, an annoyed look crossing her face.

You're not usually snippy, but you're hungover, and this girl

had the audacity to ask who you were when she's the one illegally docking her ship on your port.

"Oh, silly me!" Feigning surprise, you have one hand on your chest, one taking off your hat in an exaggerated and flowy motion. "How incredibly rude of me--" your talk in a higher pitch than you usually do, committing to the bit you're pulling. "It looks like this says--" Your face drops, and you mirror the annoyed look this beautiful, audacious girl is sending you. "--Port Master." The tone of your voice is icier than you would have wanted it to be, and she winces at you. Wow, now you feel like a jerk.

"Look, I'm sorry." She puts her hands up, as show of peace. "I had to do an emergency landing. There's been something wrong with the engine--"

"You could've answered the radio transmission."

"Yeah, no. That's busted."

"How convenient." She takes a very deep breath at your deadpan responses. Even closing her eyes before exhaling--Holy shit she's gorgeous--and maintains her calm demeanor as she tries to explain herself.

"I'm really sorry. But I wouldn't just randomly dock if it wasn't an actual emergency." She points towards the engine at the back, and sure enough, a small plume of white smoke is emitting out of one of the propellers. Your brows furrow as you try to take a closer look at the engine. The smell of something burnt fills your nostrils, and the pain from the headache you're been trying to ignore increases.

"Go moor the ship and turn off the engine." You nod towards the mooring mast as you rub your temple. She shoots a curious look your way.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, just moor the ship." You wave her off as you head to the radio box, opening the panel with a click, and flipping the switch to turn it on. The previously hollowed light turns green, and a low hum signals that it's functioning. You grab the microphone and push a button.

"Traffic Control, this is Papa Mike on dock eight. Do you copy? Over." The radio starts to cackle before a response. "TEN-FOUR PAPA MIKE. ANY NEWS ON THE STRAY DOCKING? OVER."

"Qualified emergency landing. We got engine trouble. Ten-seventy-eight, tug ship for hangar transport. Over."

"COPY THAT PAPA MIKE. TEN-TWENTY-THREE ETA FIFTEEN MINUTES. OVER."

"Ten-four. Over and out." You put down the microphone and let out a sigh.

"What'd they say?" You jump from the sudden voice coming from behind you, and you hit your hand on the panel door. You yelp as you try to shake out the pain from your hand.

"Fucking hell, when did you get there." She crosses her arms and shrugs.

"Literally while you were talking to your traffic control." You nod as you double over, the pain in your hand teaming up with your headache for an optimal terrible time. You don't notice her approach and lightly put her hand on your shoulder. "Hey, totally none of my business, are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," You say quickly, straightening up and holding onto your still aching hand. "Just, super hungover." You wince as a few clouds part and the sun hits your face. "Fuck, anyway. We'll send a tug ship down to get you into the hangar. We can do an engine check there."

There's a surprised, confused look on her face. "I can't kick you out with a busted engine." You offer before she can ask. She still looks a bit confused and uneasy by the offer, but nevertheless mutters a Thanks before turning around and walking to her ship, you tentatively follow from behind. "You should get your valuables and some clothes. We can let you into the hangar to fix the engine, but you can't sleep there. There's a good selection of places to stay down at the town, in the meantime." You stay behind as she disappears into her ship.

She pops back out a few minutes later, having doffed her coat. Your eyes immediately catch the tattoos peeking out from her sleeve. She raises an eyebrow at you, a smirk playing on her lips, before tossing you a vial.

"What's this?" You ask, popping the cork, and mistakenly taking a whiff of its contents. You cough from the smell.

"Hangover cure." She says as she walks past you, checking over her lines on the cleats of the dock. You debate whether or not you should drink something this total stranger just handed you. Unfortunately, pretty privilege is a thing that exists, and you're only human. So you down the contents of the vial, and you stop yourself from gagging from the oily feel of the liquid.

"Woah, hey! You're supposed to rub it on your forehead!"

"I was supposed to what?" She grabs the vial from your and checks how much is left, before looking at your horrified expression. She looks at you with concern, then back at the vial, then back at you, before snorting.

"I'm sorry, I'm kidding, I'm kidding. You're supposed to drink it."  She tips the vial over and spills what's left of it into her mouth. You try not to pay too much attention to her sharp jaw or the way the muscles on her neck move when she swallows. "See. It tastes like ass, but it works."

"What's even in it?" You ask as you hand her the cork. She shrugs.

"You're better off not knowing."

"Great."

You're about to ask her how she ended up in your port, but the tug ship comes into view, and the radio box starts to ring. You excuse yourself to walk back to answer.

"DOCK EIGHT THIS IS TANGO-SIERRA-ONE RECEIVED TEN-TWENTY-THREE REQUEST. CONFIRMATION FOR ASSISTANCE? OVER."

"Tango-Sierra-One this is dock eight. Ten-four on the assist. We need to get this ship to the hangar for an engine check. Over."

"COPY THAT. CLEAR IMMEDIATE AREA FOR LINE DEPLOYMENT. OVER." The tug ship starts to hover above the Piltover ship. It's much larger propellers kicking up a wind and dust.

"Hey! Get over here. They're gonna deploy lines." You beckon the girl over, and push the call button on the radio. "All clear!"

You hear a ten-four come from the ship, as lines come down from its side, lowering down to the side of the smaller ship.

"LINES DEPLOYED. TANGO-SIERRA-ONE TEN-TWENTY-THREE FOR ATTACHMENT. OVER."

"Ten-four. Over." The blue haired girl is on her tip toes trying to look over your shoulders.

"That means they're standing by while we attach the lines, right?" She asks. You mutter an affirmative before the both of you move to attach lines to the sides of the ship. You start untying the lines on the cleats, and instruct her to unmoor.

"I'll have to hitch a ride with you to the hangar." You say as you wrap her ship lines and put them away.

"Aye aye, Port Master." She gives you a mock salute as she heads to the mooring mast, and you head over to the radio box.

"Tango-Sierra-One radio on ship is ten-seven. Lift off at T-minus five minutes. Over and out." You wait for the tug ship's confirmation before switching off the radio and closing the panel, signaling for your companion to board the ship. "We got five minutes before they start lifting the ship." She nods and gestures for you to head inside.

---------------------------------------------

"Right," You start, taking off your hat and jacket. "The hangar we don't usually rent out, but in cases of emergencies like this, you can use it but you still have to pay the port fees. It's usually double, but I'll waive it since that hangover cure is actually working."

"Covered dock where I can repair my ship and I pay the same fee as the schmucks outside? Sounds like a steal to me." She says as she takes your things and sets them down a chair. "You give discounts to all the girls with engine trouble?" The desk on the side of the ship creaks as she leans on it. She's got a mischievous glint in her eye, and with your hangover gone, you're more willing to bite.

"Only the one's that give me their name." You say as you walk over. You're momentarily distracted when you see a map on the wall, a chartered course written over it. She looks behind her to see what's suddenly got your attention. You tap the part where Piltover and Zaun are located. "You're a long way from home."

"Who says I'm from Piltover?" She crosses her arms, giving you a challenging look. Those goddamn eyes.

"Your ship screams Piltover."

"Really?"

"It's obvious you made a few modifications, but yeah, it's pretty obvious." You chuckle as you point at the interior of the ship, clearly made for aesthetic more than utility. "Even the inside." She lets out a huff, and starts a rant about changing the interior when she gets the chance.

The ship suddenly lurches, and you're both thrown off balance as the tug ship begins its ascent. You recover first, steadying yourself on the desk then grabbing her by the waist and pulling her over to the desk as well. One of her hands grabs onto your shoulder when you reach for her, and the other onto the desk so she can steady herself. When the ship rocks to the side, she ends up pulling you along with her, and you end up unintentionally pinning her to the desk. Your faces suddenly a few inches apart. Mercifully--or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it--the tug ship is able to do a successful ascent, and the ship stops moving. You lock eyes, and you see panic, then surprise, then amusement come across her face.

"Definitely don't get this from other ports." Her eyes flit to your lips for a moment before they meet your eyes again. You proactively take a step back, trying to salvage some ounce of professionalism. Playful banter was one thing, pinning someone to their desk was something else entirely.

"Sorry," You manage. "I definitely don't do… that with other pilots here, trust me." You dust yourself off and start picking up stuff that had fallen off the desk. She seems to take the hint and fixes up the desk.

"So where are you headed after port?" You try your best to not sound nosy as you gather a few fallen pencils and stack them back into a cup, with neon drawings on it.

"Haven't really thought about it, I usually go wherever I feel like it." She points towards the map again, and the scattered course is enough to confirm her statement. You ask her about the places she's been to, mostly coastal cities, save from Piltover itself. Following the same patterns most Piltover ships use that avoid Noxian ports. Better safe than sorry, you guess.

Eventually, you start to see the hangar come into view, and you tell her to brace herself for the landing. You grab her arm when she loses her balance again, making sure to keep a respectable distance. Once a crew member comes into view of the window and throws an okay signal, the both of you exit the ship. You set off for the engine, and she follows with a tool box in tow.

"I have a guess on what could be wrong." She says as she opens up the back panel of the ship. "I'm pretty sure I have a blown gasket."

"I was thinking a cracked engine block." She gives you a look and you shrug. "Just a guess."

She grins at your response. "Wanna make a bet." She turns to the engine and starts unscrewing the outer parts.

"Sure. Always in the mood to be right." You can hear the snort coming from inside the engine.

"Loser buys the winner drinks. Anywhere they want."

"Deal."

"Get ready to lose money later then, I guess." You move to help her remove parts of the engine, which were thankfully cool enough to handle. Then, once you've both gotten most of the attachments unclasped or unscrewed, you roll an engine hoist over to remove the entire engine from the ship. "Ready to be disappointed?" She asks. You send her a cheeky smile.

"Wait." She stops short of lifting one of the covers.

"What, cold feet?"

You scoff. "No, you never told me your name."

She blinks, clearly not expecting the question. She looks off to the side, seemingly debating whether or not she should tell you. Not that she needs to, really, since you have to make her sign a manifest anyway. But you'd prefer if she told you herself.

"Powder." She starts. "My name is Powder." You crack a smile and introduce yourself.

"Powder." You test the name on your lips. It suits her. An unusual name, sure, but you've heard stranger ones.

"Nice to meet you, Powder. Ready to lose?"

"Not on your best day."

[velvetvexations]

incredible, i just saw a reblog of that "transfem headcanons are always better and sometimes transmasc headcanons actively make the text worse and more hateful" by someone i followed. funny to see discussions arguing against the post before seeing the post itself, otherwise i would have unthinkingly internalized it and felt like shit without knowing why. anyway, i unfollowed that person now. to make it worse, op tore into someone for claiming that chihiro from danganronpa is an exception and better read as transmasc... the irony is insane. yet another example besides miquella that would make the story more boring and maybe worse if transfem.

it's so disgustingly petty lmao

a lot of transfem headcanons are reaches, often "this is literally a man magically trapped in the body of a woman and he hates it and desperately keeps trying to go back to being a man" and it's FINE to headcanon characters however you want but since some people can't conceptualize being a woman as anything other than something they wish would happen to them they take characters like that and hiss if you go near them

i get the sense that there's a very specific, narrow demographic of transfems who used to buy into that reddit guy "being a hot 22-year-old girl must be like having 10 billion dollars" attitude and never really let it go. thus the fixation on "AFAB privilege". isee a similar mix of resentment and attraction from lesbian TERFs, though it comes from a different origin. and it's an attitude that can slide easily into TERFism even for cis men--just look at tatsuya ishida!

If anything the idealization of femininity a small minority of transfems exhibit when they complain endlessly about how good trans people AFAB have it would come more from dysphoria and the grass being greener on the other side. "An AFAB trans person will immediately revert to being an innocent little girl to hurl sexual assault accusations at trans women," however, is really concerning!

Regarding whether "binary privilege" exists, i am once again on my hands and knees begging people to actually look at the statistics. The US Transgender Survey and Cohnting Ourselves (from Aotearoa) are right there. And they both show that all trans people are about as badly off as each other regardless of their specific gender. Yes, there are some ways in which being nonbinary is particularly hard, such as not having a social role to fit into, I'm not denying any of that, but if you're going to call being binary a "privilege" then there needs to be a visible whole-group effect for binary people compared to nonbinary people. And there isn't one when you look at the numbers.

It's not really about non-binary people having it flat worse, more just situational complexities.

The thing about even discussing privilege (binary privilege in this case) is that so many people talk as if to have privilege means to inherently have privilege Over someone else. Like is it an advantage for me to be vaguely binary alligned enough sometimes to have a legal gender marker that is moderately less dysphoria inducing when some people are equally harmed by either? (Tbf I live in a state where x is an option, I simply do not feel safe with that 😵‍💫 (tho that does not help when nothing else other than state id accepts it)) like yeah it's a privilege but it's not privilege Over someone. It does not make me an oppressor or mean I am causing harm, which is a thing many people seem to believe, about various forms of privilege

That's a very good point, anon.

I suppose this isn’t how others I’ve seen think about it but. I’ve always just understood that you can be oppressed for being trans without your gender being affirmed. Like. The bigots understand you’re trans but that doesn’t make them think of you as your gender it makes them think of you as trans. Misgendering is such a huge part of what transphobes do and I’ve never once assumed they were like. Lying about seeing trans people that way. I don’t get acting like transphobes can see our, as you put it, soul gender.

It makes people feel better.

[thesorrowoflizards]

SORRY this is so fucking funny. van is like oh, my crush likes another guy. that really fucking sucks because i kinda thought she liked me? god. and then she invites him over and tackles him onto her couch.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Rubs eyes and the wrinkle in my forehead.

Really, if you don't like someone's critical post? Maybe roll your eyes and move on? Basic social media manners there.

Girlstandstill, perhaps you should've stuck to your 'you usually don't'. You probably bit off more than you can chew with me. I'm in pain, and I'm not in the mood to allow someone to call something I wrote for me and like minded people, from my broken heart, be called a bad take.

Chibichibisa, thank you for your measured response.

Epler is on record as saying he disliked Solas and wanted to punch him. I'm not pulling it out of my ass. Frankly, at this point, after the interviews, the AMAs and the probable lies, I'm not minded to believe a word he says. Judging anyone's mood based on a social media post is... a choice. Fool me once, shame on me and all. Harassment is never okay. I've also unfollowed all the devs for behavior unbecoming a creative professional on social media.

You're right, it didn’t go anywhere 'til Corinne came on board. I wish she hadn't. Because now she's doing interviews claiming it's 'identity politics' and 'culture wars' making the game tank rather than just owning that the team fucked up and shipped a game that just isn’t good on so many levels I honestly probably couldn't list them all. She also claimed somewhere they were going back to the roots of DA. That's bloody laughable at this point.

I would much rather this game had remained in developmental hell than ever have been released as it is. Or never even made at all. I'm really tired of people defending the devs like they're some poor coal miners working for company scrip. They. Are. Not.

These are supposed to be seasoned professionals with the skills to make a game that fits with the other games in the series. Someone made decisions every step of the way. Someone had a creative vision that did not work in the DA world. And they went with it, anyway. No matter how many things they had to twist out of shape to make it happen. Am I unfair in blaming the Creative Director for that? Isn't that his actual job?

And I highly doubt EA was going over the script with a magnifying glass and saying 'here, make the writing worse here'. Why? EA likes to make money. They would've wanted a successful game. DAV is not a successful game. Every single clue points at it sinking so badly. And Corinne's most recent interview read more like a resume.

I was more in my feelings with my original post, (on my wall, tagged appropriately with the critical tags) but I write from the perspective of a professional creative, working in a similarly brutal industry who makes a product for people to buy.

I'm not just a fan who knows very little. I've worked in creative industries for fifteen or more years. I know of what I speak.

If my product sucks, I expect to be scolded at best for it. I expect to own anything I fucked up because that is how a professional creative acts. The devs act like they had nothing at all to do with how bad it came out.

They've misled us from the start, they blamed the marketing team for 'misrepresenting the game' in the gameplay reveals when the marketing team actually did a pretty good job at showing the game for what it is.

The devs were the ones we all depended on to make it at least decent. Which, on a number of levels, they did not. That is their responsibility, as the creators of the game, to own. Just like it's my responsibility if my product sucks. Is it hard? Yup. It's hard in every single creative industry on the planet.

It's not right, but that is the world we live in.

Does late stage capitalism suck? Yup. Do I want capitalism to die? Unregulated capitalism, absolutely. Are most of, if not all AAA studios struggling? The ones I know of are. And they're going to keep on struggling while they keep working the way they do.

Personally, I've developed a greater interest in indie games since playing DAV. My money won't be going to AAA/corporate owned studios anymore, no matter how much I love pretty graphics.

BioWare has always been very clear that they have a lot of control over the games they make. So either they're lying about that, and EA really is the big, evil monster. Or people are blaming EA unfairly, and it really is BioWare's fault. In all fairness, it's very possibly a bit of both. (To be clear, I hate EA. I hate late stage capitalism. It should not be this way.) But unless someone spills the beans, we will never know who is truly responsible for the poor product they released.

It's all guessing.

All we can honestly know is that they released a poor product. One that is under fair critique by reasonable people (I'm ignoring the existence of the arsewipes because this isn’t about them.) It's about regular gamers who are disappointed in a product they purchased and are fairly communicating their disappointment with it.

I suspect for a number of reasons that the decision makers knew it was bad and gamers wouldn't like it, too.

What we do know? They paid tons of money to big game magazines for positive reviews (because that's how magazines like that work) while denying game keys to honest reviewers.

We know the game doesn't follow established Lore.

We know 80% of the writing is poor, at best.

By the time they laid off the writers, the game was being test played. So it's an unlikely reason for it to suck.

Most of us had to work through covid. I wouldn’t expect people to give me any leeway on a bad product because of it.

As far as insulting to the devs? Since when is it insulting to say, 'hey, this product you made isn't good'. That's the basic right of people who paid money (that a lot of gamers often don't have a lot of) for a product, and were disappointed in the product.

Devs see this kind of stuff? Yeah, you know, that's called professional development. It sucks. Every creative deals with it on some level. And it's not as if I tagged them, or posted that anywhere but properly tagged with the critical tags on my wall.

One of the first things they try to teach newer creative folks regardless of industry is to not go looking for reviews. If they do that and find my honest reactions to their game, that's on them. Not me for writing about my feelings on my blog.

I followed the devs closely for years. I never once got the impression they were struggling with EA all that much.

Romance in these games sells. And, again, EA wants to make money.

When exactly did Corinne say that? I've already seen her lie, in print, about this game. And easily provable lies, too. Was it after people complained about the objectively poor romances?

I didn't say anything about the marketing team in my original post. Though I have had a few things to say about their treatment elsewhere. (Spidey senses activating.)

The dev team cared, huh?

They cared enough to get the lore right? (They did not.)

They cared enough to decently edit the text? (Nope)

They cared enough to make a balanced game where a rogue player can enjoy it as much as a tank player? (Again, nope.)

Am I willing to believe whoever came up with Joplin wanted to make a good game that most gamers would enjoy? Absolutely.

But there's a thing called creative exhaustion. At some point, every creative can reach a point of 'fuck it, I don't give a shit about this product anymore, I never want to see it again.' Am I inclined to believe that's what we're dealing with regarding DAV? Yup.

Did they love it? Maybe. You can't really tell that from most of the game itself, and media critique, editing, and writing is my actual job. One I'm pretty decent at.

I can tell when someone loved the thing they made. I believe Sylvia truly loved Emmerich and his story. Because it shows. I believe the arts department loved their work, because it shows. It always does.

You seem to be writing under the delusion that I haven't thought about the devs' experiences and feelings. That I haven't followed them, talked to them, watched closely, hoping for a decent game that did the story justice. You seem to be writing from the concept that I don't work in a similarly brutal field. Those are incorrect assumptions.

I even told Epler he needed decent developmental, content, and diversity editors after playing DAI. (No. I absolutely do not want to work for bloody BioWare, it had nothing to do with that, and everything to do with the issues I saw in DAI that I hoped would be addressed for DAV.) I asked Trick if there was any hope of a happy ending for Solavellan. They led me to believe there was. "There is a suggestion of a happy ending." I'm happy for people who liked that ending. It does not fit the industry requirements for a happy ending.

This entire game feels like a shitshow of the highest calibre. And the devs are at least partially responsible for that.

Pardon me if I hold professional creatives pulling probably decent paychecks with benefits responsible for the product they want people to buy.

And I will absolutely hold them professionally responsible for their behavior in the face of legitimate, fair critique.

Please just do us all a favour and let the post you shouldn't have responded to drop. I'm more likely to fry your face off next time. Given how your reblog has made me feel, (which, to be clear, is very bad) I've been remarkably polite, thus far.

Dragon Age, as a series, deserved so much better than Veilguard.

Spoilers for Veilguard and maybe other DA stuff.

Obligatory 'I'm not an asshole' disclaimer. Feel free to jump to the cut if you've read it.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I was on media blackout while I played DAV. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Though, every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

Note. None of my writing on DA, but especially DAV, is edited. This is just my off the cuff writing. I don't have the time, energy, or heart to edit them properly.

The Solavellan romance deserved a much better end than 'die and go to fade prison'. I agree that Inky would likely be happy to leave. She's as traumatized as Solas for having to lead when she didn't want to. But I needed more than a craptastic Romeo and Juliet ending.

I refuse to do the heavy lifting for the writers. If it wasn't shown in the game or in supplementary materials, it didn't happen. Showing us the story was the writers' and devs job, not mine.

I mourn what will never be, even as I work on a Solavellan fix it fic.

How could they betray the IP so badly?

How could they betray their fanbase so badly? The fanbase that kept hope for that game alive for 10 years. I've seen so many people saying they've lost their interest or passion for the entirety of Dragon age. That they're not even remotely interested in another game because absolutely none of the choices we made in previous games matters anymore. They've wiped everything clean... or blighted it anyway. (I have absolutely no interest in another DA game. Not with Epler/Busche/Weekes involved. And whoever designed that ridiculous fighting system.)

The only way I could possibly be interested in another game would be if they loudly decanonized DAV, gave us a DLC (they've already confirmed there will be no DLC) that showed us Solas and Inky happy and not in a horrible place. One that showed us that somehow, something changed for the elves.

But that's so unlikely it's laughable.

The elves deserved a better ending. Are the survivors still enslaved or living in alienages? What actually changed for the elves except the largest portion of the Dalish being dead from blight? (That’s a real elvish win, isn't it?)

I'm a stubborn person. I refuse to let Epler's 'hate-revenge on Solas fan fic' ruin something I've loved for years. I still have the first 3 games. I'll make an actual happy ending and a decent romance for Rook in my fic.

And by the fact they paid a fortune to big gaming magazines while denying game keys to bigger honest reviewers... they knew.

They knew gamers wouldn't like it and tried to blow so much smoke up our asses with the interviews and AMAs.

How do they even sleep at night?

I'm a creative too, I write, do graphic design, digital (learning) and traditional (good) art.

My stories are important to me. They deserve not only an ending, but an ending that respects the characters, lore, and world that I've created.

My readers deserve that, too.

I, as the creator of my stories, deserve a decent, respectful ending.

Dragon age deserved it, too. A good, well thought out, and well written ending to the story of the Dreadwolf storyline, which, if you're paying attention, is intertwined through all 3 games. It's not just in Inquisition. One that made sense to the collected Lore, his struggles and mistakes, his literary role as an anti-hero.

I would never be able to do what they've done to a beloved series. I could never knowingly mislead fans like they did.

It's just a really painful reminder that beloved stories can be utterly destroyed in the wrong hands. And a reminder that there's so much talent and skill in Fan fic.

Busche worked on the Sims. No wonder the companions often feel as interesting as wet cardboard. Most Sims NPCs do, too. (I actually enjoy the Sims, but the NPCs aren't why I like it.)

And she had the gall to blame 'culture wars' and 'identity politics' for why the game is tanking. Rather than take ownership of the incredibly bad calls made for DAV.

It's just gross. I wish I could stop thinking about it. But Dragon Age got me through some tough times. It means a lot to me.

And it just deserved better. So did we.

[brionysea]

for the record I'm keeping my #arcane and #arcane critical tags separate because 1) it's rude to go into a show's main tag to complain about it and 2) this way I can still go into the arcane tag on my own blog to enjoy season 1 stuff without being perpetually disappointed by season 2

[unordinaries]

presented without comment

(chapters 280 + 344)

[melrosing]

thank you for this addition! i think there are a few conversations you've pointed out here where, though they're not all coming from the same place, are cumulatively having the same alienating effect.

so for one thing I'm gonna take a stab in the dark and say there are a lot of people in fandom spaces who have at some point gone through the process of 'reclaiming their femininity', after some time in the 'not like other girls' mines as a kid/teen. i have also done a bit of this in my time, and i've seen more people talk about it in fandom spaces than I've seen anywhere.

so maybe this process felt in some way empowering for a lot of people here - that they discovered they could like things they thought they had to disdain, and that enjoying them gave them a flavour of in-group. I really believe the NLOG mentality primarily comes from girls who have been made outcasts by their female peers, and who in turn said 'well i don't want to be like you anyway'.

i think it's a very natural reaction, but as you get older you start to understand there's a lot of internalised misogyny that can fester in this mindset, and so now the NLOGs are made to look the bullies, and the feminine in-group their victims. which is... pretty unfair lmao, but if you can convince yourself you're now PART of that in-group, it's not so difficult to disdain that old NLOG mindset - that's not you anymore.

but as you say, i think the more harmful trend that carries over from this is this 'reclamation' of femininity, where it's made to fit anything you want it to just so you can feel like you do conform, just in more creative ways. which is.... weirdly contradictory, and also almost an extension of the NLOG mentality. so now in stark sister warfare you've got Sansa stans calling Arya an NLOG and you've got Arya fans saying Sansa exemplifies 'toxic femininity' and Arya some kind of more natural, organic femininity. and ftr i don't think anyone is winning here lol. but I think the issue in the middle is this odd possessiveness over 'femininity' as a trait.

to take this back to my original post, I guess my issue then is this idea that femininity is not a fundamentally neutral thing, that anyone can have in smaller or larger doses. going beyond just the stark sister warfare, there's this need to accommodate more and more traits within it that it becomes very gender essentialist - it's nurturing, it's romance, it's nature, it's the cosmos, it's fucking everything. the gnc character is not actually gnc, just a more fantastical kind of feminine.

so if you're a user who doesn't give a shit about femininity, and identifies more with the character's non-conformity, or their masculine traits, and yet all you see is this insistence on femininity, and this actual fury at the very idea that one might call XYZ gnc or masculine in some way, it's extremely alienating. it does just take away the language you have to describe your own relationship to gender, and replaces it with a universal 'femininity' that utterly insists upon itself.

and then ofc there's the other side of this, which I think is easier to boil down - like the reactions to butch Rhaenyra are just.... ppl hate butch women. they'll tolerate a kind of soft androgyny, but don't push it beyond that. and ESPECIALLY don't draw her with femme Alicent, because why does Alicent get all the femininity! that prized resource! why would you do THAT to Rhaenyra why don't you do THAT to Alicent! punish her she's so much more cold, and evil, and not nearly as motherly as Rhaenyra, and oh shit we've already struck like five different kinds of misogyny in this passage alone. i mean it doesn't even need explaining, these people do know deep down that they just think that drawing Rhaenyra in a butch way is degrading because to be butch is degrading, but they'll dress it up in progressive language because there's no way they're going to admit that. I've looked at their arguments and they don't hold up for two seconds, but doesn't mean they haven't done this dozens of times over.

anyway that isn't to say that I think femininity sucks or isn't interesting. I like that Brienne encompasses both masculinity AND femininity. I really enjoy how GRRM portrays theses as symbiotic sides of her, equal in worth. and I do think it's a shame that GOT turned Brienne into something so much flatter, who operates like a tin soldier 90% of the time. but we don't really need to overcompensate here by putting a 'feminine' spin on her masculine traits as well, or that old argument that she wouldn't have picked up a sword if she didn't have to she would've been happy just being Lady Brienne!!! (canonically, no. she would not)

and idk just.... femininity is not liquid gold we don't have to talk about it like this mystical nuance that every girl wears differently.

It’s not even just asoiaf fandom, it’s a pan fandom thing that showing women who are CANONICALLY GNC in gnc ways is considered misogynist. People were doing this about Vi from Arcane like a week ago

oh for sure. and you see people trying to expand the definition of femininity to fit all kinds of things, by in turn REDUCING masculinity by comparison to just a handful of undesirable, violent traits that you wouldn’t want associated with your fave. perhaps this is partially in response to how alienating femininity can be, and ppl trying to carve it into something more accepting that they can belong to. but I think there should be limits to that, bc the result is othering those who just don’t care for femininity, and embrace nonconformity. and this insistence that drawing out a character’s masculinity/non conformity in fanwork is insulting and degrading but capitalising their femininity is empowering - well that’s just so fucking transparent isn’t it lol.

btw though it’s worth adding that I think the dialogue is different where concerns women of colour, as there’s a very different history there as concerns a kind of…. othering through masculinising?? and I saw a dialogue taking place re. this in a different fandom today, concerning fanwork of a character portrayed by a black woman, and I was just like…. there are two very different conversations to be had about this. so would add that on the above, im talking about the discourse surrounding gnc white female characters.

[briefcasejuice]

unfortunately i have the kind of autism that makes people have to explain things to me/i have to bounce my ideas around with people who know things before thoughts become anything for me

[micahdotgov]

christ this is twojamie levels of unnecessary there is absolutely no need for them to be doing any of that

[purple8cat]

I THOUGHT THIS PART FROM VNC CHAPTER 62 LOOKED FAMILIAR

i mean they're not. the exact same but they are very similar to each other!!

Also this could just be me but I feel like that these two have a lot of parallels. Break's family are the Rainsworths, who are not his biological family. Johann's family is Dante and Riche, who also not his biological family.

When someone they care about dies/gets threaten their first instinct is murder. When the Sinclairs died Break killed 116 people to bring them back, and when he thought Reim had been permanently dead he killed Fang. When Vanitas had threaten to kill Dante, Johann told him that he'll kill him if he meddles with his family.

Another thing they have in common is that there both, how do I put this, angry in some way/some point in their life? Break had been bitter and depress after returning from the Abyss but then learned to smile again because of Shelly. Johann... Okay, I can't say much about Johann because not much has been revealed about him yet BUT he definitely is sketchy!! With how the Dhampirs are treated it wouldn't be far off to say he would be angry at the world/society. He also has been shown to not like Noé much. Johann has also been shown to be very protective of Dante and Riche, so it's possible that he could've been similar to how Break had acted in the past, and now has something to live for and would do ANYTHING to protect it.

Another thing I'm just now realizing and probably should've brought up first but they have similar vibes/atmospheres. Though Johann is more flirtatious and Break is more... Weird. I guess. Eccentric, if you want a fancy word. They're also have this whole... How do I explain it? They're good at observing/analyzing things is I guess the best way to explain it?

I think I'm gonna stop there, there was something else I kind of wanted to talk about but I think it was a little bit of a stench fkdjgfjdf. I could be wrong about some of these, I didn't mean to write this much so basically all of it I wrote on a whim. Whatever my brain thought of I wrote down which resulted in this (which reading over it might be noticeable considering this post is kinda a mess kgjkfjgjfj). There's also the fact that some of the Johann stuff was just speculation, which could 100% be wrong. But I do think some of it I'm right about!!

[crystalkitty1220]

Man I wonder where the leader of the fear realm could've gone, it's alMOST LIKE NEVIN HAS AN

[thefloatingwriter]

wiress with cats.

[themyscirah]

Reading shit comics kind of sucks but at least I get the satisfaction of proving my own point w this

[gothteddiesdotcom]

oh my god re: your recent post... the 'girl dinner' shit. omfg. idc if it's 'not that deep' you're still reinforcing terrible shit!!! and also the like 'boys when they see a stick/cool rock' and 'girls when they time travel vs boys when they time travel' wojaks. the gender-fication of barbie vs. oppenheimer. why the fuck is the recent internet zeitgeist hyper stereotypical cisnormativity. like. i thought we had collectively outgrown this.

exactly. And that’s all just some parts of it too. People pretend they’re so on top of things but it’s just because they don’t want to seem out of touch and offensive. It’s wild watching people barf out gender binaries with new terms and new ways to categorize trans people as not their gender and new ways to reinforce the same gender roles on ourselves but in “good” ways now. It’s just….really frustrating and pretty terrifying at the same time

[thatone-churro]

finished that conference with my professor about the poe paper. i don’t think i’ve ever had a professor that actually seemed almost impressed with a paper i wrote with virtually no guidance like this since like… my high school sophomore year ap research project. wow.