#as if we're less than if we're not conventionally attractive

[bitterimp]

i know not all trans people have to be on t or e and get surgery to be considered trans, but man, being on testosterone would improve my quality of life drastically.

[felixbobeelix]

In Defense of The Emperor (or, Ansur Is Not A Victim)

GIF credit: @mittthrawnuruodo

The Emperor is, in my opinion, one of the most underappreciated and misunderstood characters in Baldur's Gate 3, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about reasons why that may be. I honestly think it's tragic because The Emperor is such a compellingly-written character, and I think a lot of that gets lost under the landslide of abject hatred people feel for it.

I have a lot of thoughts about this, so buckle up buttercups! Lots (and lots, and LOTS) more under the cut!

I was playing BG3 again the other day, as one does, and was working my way through Emp's reveal, its initial withholding of the details about its escape and the nature of its relationship with Stelmane, and all the Ansur stuff, and I got fired up about this again. I don't think I'll ever stop getting fired up about The Emperor, to be honest pffffff.

There are a few really common reasons I see for why people hate The Emperor. One is its manipulative behavior, lies by omission, and the fact that if you pressure it enough, its attitude toward Tav will change. Another is the fact that if you choose to free Orpheus it will willingly return to the Netherbrain. Then there's its enthrallment of Stelmane and the implication that it led to her illness and death. And, of course, there's the idea that The Emperor betrayed its longtime friend and implied former lover, Ansur.

I also think there's a secret fifth option that maybe happens unconsciously. The vast majority of people spent a lot of time crafting their Dream Guardians into gorgeous feasts for the eyes, which is something the devs intentionally encouraged players to do. So when the game hit them with the twist and their beautiful Dream Guardian was replaced by an (ostensibly) unappealing Illithid, their sense of betrayal was amplified; they were predisposed to greater anger and hatred for The Emperor than they may have felt if it had retained the pleasant visage of their Dream Guardian.

Emp's Manipulation:

I find the argument about Emp's lying and manipulative behavior a little strange, when, for example, so many people are willing to overlook Astarion's abject manipulation of their Tavs. Personally, I think the reasons here are twofold. One, Astarion enjoys the privilege of being conventionally attractive and Emp does not, plain and simple. Two, sticking it out through Astarion's lying and manipulation will eventually lead to satisfying gain: an endgame relationship with him. There's no such satisfying outcome with Emp, so players are less inclined to put up with behaviors they endure for Astarion's sake. It's actually arguably easier to get Emp to admit to its manipulation of Tav than it is to get Astarion to do the same thing, and yet Astarion is more readily forgiven.

There may also be some degree of people being skeeved out by Emp's mind reading and its apparent ability to enthrall. But even this is a little odd, since Tav and their companions are all telepathically joined and that doesn't scare the player. The Emperor also never actually makes an attempt to enthrall Tav even when they're being combative and resistant. My only conclusion is that player distaste in this context is a product of the negative narratives about Illithids throughout the game. Which, for the record, are narratives I think we're meant to challenge as players.

(As an interesting side note, those narratives seem to be easily overriden when an Illithid is seen as helpful, as in the case of Omeluum. Despite clear evidence that it has not entirely denounced Illithid culture, and despite its membership in a morally questionable organization, players have a largely positive opinion of Omeluum simply because it tries to help them. They seem to forget that it was experimenting on Tav, and its miscalculation could have seriously compromised them.)

I think it's also worth pointing out that an Illthid in hiding is going to find particular challenge in simply surviving and remaining undetected, and even moreso in avoiding being attacked and killed, especially if it does not have the benefit of allies. Even Omeluum (who has the benefit of allies in the Society of Brilliance) has to disguise itself when it moves about the city. If you visit Omeluum and Blurg in Baldur's Gate you can listen in to their conversation, and Omeluum admits it sometimes takes the form of Blurg when it goes around.

I staunchly maintain, for one thing, that Emp is a true neutral character. It will resort to nearly any means necessary to assure its survival and freedom - though, again, it does stop short of robbing Tav of their autonomy, which I think is significant. And really, all things considered, Emp's methods are some of the least insidious when compared with the behaviors of other notable characters in the game. Even its insistence that Orpheus must be kept imprisoned is driven more by fear and a lack of real alternatives than any kind of malice. And alignments aside, when you consider the attitudes people have about Illithids, it's suddenly not surprising that Emp resorts to things like lying to protect itself and convince others to ally with it.

This concept was something I had to explore in depth when I worked with a DM friend who helped me construct a playable Illithid character, and I was challenged to run with a party of adventurers without them discovering my true race. It is NOT EASY. Almost immediately, despite my best intentions, I realized I would likely need to resort to some questionable methods to maintain my character's secrecy. The Emperor is the same. I'll touch on this more when I get into Emp's dynamic with Stelmane.

Player Influence:

Maybe the most frustrating observation I've made is that The Emperor is one of the only characters players will typecast based on the worst potential dialogue outcomes. Tav's relationship with pretty much all of the characters can be either improved or totally soured by the dialogue options they select. In most cases players are able to make the distinction that their choices are what influence the attitudes of the characters they're interacting with. But in the case of The Emperor, players will refuse to believe that any positive interactions with it are genuine because there are dialogue paths that lead to negative outcomes. I have to wonder why this standard does not apply to companion characters who break up with Tav, treat Tav questionably, or leave the party altogether when the player selects negative dialogue options.

Because of the potential for the Emperor's attitude to sour and for it to turn away from the player, it is written off as an entirely disingenuous character. However, Emp repeatedly demonstrates a capacity for veracity and emotionality, and I believe that when you foster a positive relationship with it the feelings it shares are genuine, just like with any other character. I'm guessing it doesn't help that Emp can be very matter-of-fact and pragmatic even during positive interactions, where the companion characters are often downright poetic in their regard for Tav and willing to make sacrifices for Tav when their approval is high.

I can see how this would give the sense that Emp's feelings are lesser, because it brackets those feelings with discussions about things like whether Tav is embracing tadpole abilities. But 1) Emp stands to lose its freedom again if the conflict with the Elder Brain goes awry and is, I think very understandably, preoccupied with what it believes are the necessary steps to ensure victory, and it seems anxious to affirm that Tav is as dedicated to the best outcome as it is. And 2) if this kind of pragmatism is the barometer by which people are measuring their trust of a character's feelings about them, I'm honestly a little afraid to know how they feel about their interactions with very pragmatic people IRL. 👀

Some people just are less prone to emotional expressiveness, or will ease their discomfort around emotional expression by diverting conversation to more practical matters. That doesn't mean the feelings they express are not genuine. We see over and over that Tav has a way of awakening strong, unexpected feelings in the people they meet throughout the course of the game. There's every possibility that this is what happens with Emp, and that it is taken aback by its feelings and is steering the conversation back to the matter of the conflict with the Brain as a way of avoiding being caught up and losing the plot.

I think that because the game does such a good job of playing up the idea that Illithids are soulless and inherently manipulative and evil, players are overly willing to accept it as fact. However, the game does also give us opportunities to question that narrative, and I think we'd do well to seize those opportunities. Even in raw DnD Illithid lore has shifted toward the idea that Illithids are more than the vicious monsters they started as. I think it's far more compelling and creative to consider that Emp is being genuine when you pursue positive interactions with it.

Relationship with Stelmane:

This begs the question, then, of whether the Emperor is truly upset about Stelmane's death. It certainly seems to be, but when you begin to suspect that it was enthralling her and forcing her to do its bidding you begin to doubt that it really cared about her.

Honestly? I'm not sure whether it did or not. Perhaps what it's truly upset about is the realization that it no longer has the option to return to its previous life as a major player in the Knights of the Shield. Maybe aside from the enthrallment, it actually did respect and even like Stelmane. Perhaps they had a rapport at some point prior to her enthrallment, and it is nostalgic about that. I think its feelings in that moment are real, it's simply unclear as to what those feelings are about.

In any case, I am openly and unabashedly here to disabuse anyone of the notion that Stelmane was a good person. A lot of what we hear about her we hear from Wyll, who (like pretty much every other character) is an unreliable narrator. The truth is unfortunately not as nice as Wyll would like to believe. With as little information about her as we have, this seems a bold claim for me to make, but I make it confidently, and here is why: her membership in the Knights of the Shield precludes her from being a good person.

The Knights of the Shield is an organization dealing in political manipulation, information brokering, and financial gain for its members. At the very least, Belynne Stelmane was concerned with underhanded political maneuvering and the accumulation of wealth, and at worst she was a willing servant of Gargauth, the god of betrayal and political corruption. It's unclear what level of seniority she held in the organization, though Emp's decision to have her as its avatar implies that she held significant influence. Either way, at no point was it possible for her to be involved with the Knights of the Shield and still be a good person.

And, yes, the same can be said of The Emperor. To be clear, I am not claiming that Emp is a "good" aligned character. However, its motivations are inherently different to Stelmane's and the other members of the Knights of the Shield. Rather than being strictly financially or politically motivated, Emp's involvement with the Knights was most likely born as much out of necessity as any desire for power. The Knights were a viable cover, a way for it to remain hidden and still secure a life of relative freedom for itself. To be sure, it could have attempted to ally itself with another organization, such as the Society of Brilliance. However, the Society is comparatively smaller, less powerful, and less profitable. Emp also does not appear to have any interest in the sorts of experimentation and data collection as members of the Society of Brilliance.

Based on Emp's characterization, it is not suited to a life of exploration and travel. It does not have the same innate arcane ability as Omeluum, who is able to exist and still maintain its autonomy in regions where the influence of an Elder Brain is relatively strong. It's more likely that The Emperor's ability to maintain its autonomy is linked to its proximity, or lack thereof, to an Elder Brain. Likely, it chose to secure a life for itself in a single location far enough away from the reach of an Elder Brain that it could escape enthrallment, and allied itself with the Knights of the Shield because they were the most proximally convenient and had the best capacity for security.

At any rate, I think it's entirely reasonable to assume that if Stelmane had not been enthralled, she would have ripped the rug out from under The Emperor the moment she stood to gain from doing so. Emp stood its best chance of success by enthralling her, and while that is certainly a morally questionable thing for it to do, be assured that it was not taking advantage of some wholesome paragon of goodness. Likely as not, if the roles had been reversed, Stelmane would have subjected Emp to a similarly morally questionable form of subjugation until the moment came for her to discard it entirely.

As an aside, the game works pretty hard to give the impression that Stelmane’s enthrallment led to her illness and eventual passing, but it's also entirely possible that she truly did simply have a stroke. Or, perhaps more compellingly, her condition had nothing at all to do with The Emperor and was potentially infernal in origin, given the way that she allegedly stared unwaveringly at Wyll the last time he saw her, which was shortly before he was targeted by Mizora. She was already well into her illness at that point, and didn't seem cognizant of anyone else at the time, but Wyll was of particular interest to her. Maybe it's nothing, or maybe the game intentionally misled players into believing The Emperor was responsible for Stelmane's decline, when it was never Emp's fault in the first place.

The Emperor's "Betrayal" of Ansur:

Here is where my opinion diverges most significantly from the opinions of other players. Put plainly, The Emperor did not betray Ansur. That is an idea that is given by Ansur, and by the following passage, which can be found during the challenges in the Wyrmway:

The note preceding the author's writing gives the distinct impression that the author is - yes - an unreliable narrator. They are not only giving a secondhand account of the events, but they are dramatizing that account.

Then, after defeating Ansur, the player finds the following letter on Ansur's body:

We also have additional story from The Emperor itself about the events that led to Ansur's death.

The reality is that Ansur, motivated by his love for Balduran, saved The Emperor from its enthrallment by the Elder Brain in the hopes of restoring the Balduran he knew and loved. Despite being asked over and over to stop, despite The Emperor's insistence that it was content with its new form, Ansur doggedly searched for a way to return The Emperor to its previous form as Balduran. Rather than accept that Balduran's new form was permanent, rather than accepting him as The Emperor, rather than being happy enough that his loved one was no longer a slave and that the memories of their time together were still intact, Ansur was not satisfied. He could not look past Emp's Illithidness, he could not let go of the narrative that Illithids are monsters. His refusal to adjust his paradigm, his unwillingness to accept The Emperor as a valid friend or ally or lover, was a failing on Ansur's part, and it was incredibly selfish.

Emp's letter to Ansur is incredibly heartfelt, and focuses entirely on Ansur and his happiness. Emp clearly still values Ansur and wants him to be contented. Even as Emp draws its boundaries, it keeps the focus on Ansur's well-being. It is a really good letter, and nothing about it implies that Emp held any ill will toward Ansur. It simply wanted Ansur to give up the pursuit of reclaiming Balduran as he was. But Ansur was unwilling to do that. So unwilling, in fact, that he felt it would be better to kill The Emperor rather than accept its new form.

Therein is the true betrayal: attempting to kill your friend while they're sleeping because you can't make them fit your ideal of them is, put simply, super fucked up.

The idea that it's a betrayal for The Emperor to have killed Ansur in self-defense, but Ansur attempting to murder Emp in its sleep is somehow not a monumental betrayal, is absolutely wild to me. Ansur was the one who betrayed The Emperor, and his rage is as misguided as the hate players have for Emp. I think players are blinded by the heroic narrative around Ansur, and the narrative that Illithids - and, by proxy, The Emperor - can't be trusted undermines the explanation that The Emperor gives. Players want to believe Ansur despite the evidence that his feelings of betrayal are unfounded, because they're naturally more inclined to trust a heroic figure than an Illithid. Again, I think this was a place in the game where players were challenged to question accepted narratives.

Of course, it's entirely possible that Ansur's attempt to kill The Emperor was driven by something entirely separate from the story we're offered in the game. Maybe Ansur took issue with The Emperor's movements with the Knights of the Shield; though that would beg the question of why he would be so determined to eliminate Emp and not any of the other members. Or, maybe Emp killed Ansur unprompted in a bout of pure Illithid malice, which would be a betrayal indeed - though that seems highly unlikely after reading its letter to Ansur. Ultimately, however, without any indication otherwise, we have to take the story we're given at face value. As far as we know, Ansur was motivated to kill The Emperor as part of his cognitive dissonance around its change from Balduran to The Emperor, and that selfish, misguided act constitutes a betrayal of Emp by Ansur, not the other way around.

The Emperor's Return to the Netherbrain:

I saved this for last, because it's actually very simple. When you choose to free Orpheus, The Emperor declares its intention to return to the Brain, and true to its word it does exactly that, and fights against you during the final battle. Why, after fighting so hard to avoid the Brain, would Emp so willingly return to it?

Put simply, because it has no choice. Or, it has no choice in the context of the game as-is. What reason does Emp have to believe that Orpheus, an avid enemy of Illithids, having been subjugated by this Illithid, would be willing to extend his protection to it?

Emp knows that the moment Orpheus is free to give or take his psionic protection, he will refuse to protect it. The jig is up. The game is over. In its pragmatic way, The Emperor concedes defeat. Its anger is palpable, you have forfeit its hard-won freedom. But the cards are on the table, and it knows that without Orpheus' protection it is going to be enthralled whether it wants to be or not. So it goes willingly. At least it can make one more choice before it loses its autonomy.

Final Thoughts:

There is so much more to say about The Emperor and its feelings and motivations. Again, in no way is it a good-aligned character, and even with the best outcomes it's still clear that Emp is at least somewhat driven by a desire for greatness, whatever form that greatness takes. That was true even when it was Balduran. But I do think it's worth remembering that when you foster a positive connection with it and side with it for the endgame, it regards your parting with some sentimentality, and then just...leaves. It's all fairly benign. The player's choices go a long way in influencing how malicious The Emperor is, and I think that's important to remember.

I could go on for hours about this, it is absolutely one of my hills to die on, but I think this is enough for now lol. I just wish The Emperor were respected more as a complex, compelling character. I wish it were at least afforded the same defiant love some of the villains are given. I genuinely hate to see Emp flattened and written off when it's such an amazing character!

[gor3sigil]

I wish body positivity was a thing for literally everyone, with the same energy people put for cis white women.

Don't get me wrong, I know we're still far away, collectively, from the end of fatphobia and that most of people treat these women like shit on the daily and/or fetishize them disgustingly.

But it seems like being a shithead to people and insulting their bodies is ok, especially when it comes to men in their 40s or 50s. As a transmasc person who is likely to have a receding hairline and a dad belly, because genetics, I really wish that it was not a trend to make fun of that because you don't know who reads and hears you. In the same way I had trans brothers say that they were afraid to call themselves men, I had some who were terrified of growing old as men because they were scared of having the appearance of a grown man.

I can't tell you the amount of times I heard transfems say “thank god for HRT, imagine balding and having a beer belly ? Ewww” and everyone be like “yas queen” (most of the times these situations didn't happen in a little group of

people behind closed doors, to be clear, it was during trans meetings at our local LGBTQIA center where transmascs and men were there too).

Well, obviously you didn't want that for yourself and I'm glad you won't live that but please, keep that for when you're with your friends not when there's people

who will, maybe, grow to be like you described in horrendous words who can

HEAR YOU.

I'd rather be old and wrinkly with a beer belly and balding, but alive.

And believe me when I say I'm terrified of growing old. But if I have the chance to do so I will take it.

I'd rather grow into a skin that's not conventionally attractive than not grow at all.

And even then, fuck it, bald people are hot, bellies are hot, gray/white hairs are hot. If I ever become a gray bearded dude with tattoos and piercings I'm gonna look cool as fuck.

I'm sorry but I'm sick of hearing “we need more older queer people representions!!!!!” and then I see how you talk about older people in general like ??? It doesn't seem like you want older queers to be seen apart from the types you deem as attractive.

Maybe you're one of the reasons why older queers don't put themselves out there.

You can be as old as you want, it doesn't become less hurtful to see fuckers find your body disgusting, no matter their age.

Don't be a dick.

[tangibletechnomancy]

Neural Nets, Walled Gardens, and Positive Vibes Only

the crystal spire at the center of the techno-utopian walled garden

Anyone who knows or even just follows me knows that as much as I love neural nets, I'm far from being a fan of AI as a corporate fad. Despite this, I am willing to use big-name fad-chasing tools...sometimes, particularly on a free basis. My reasons for this are twofold:

Many people don't realize this, but these tools are more expensive for the companies to operate than they earn from increased interest in the technology. Using many of these free tools can, in fact, be the opposite of "support" at this time. Corporate AI is dying, use it to kill it faster!

You can't give a full, educated critique of something's flaws and failings without engaging with it yourself, and I fully intend to rip Dall-E 3, or more accurately the companies behind it, a whole new asshole - so I want it to be a fair, nuanced, and most importantly personally informed new asshole.

Now, much has already been said about the biases inherent to current AI models. This isn't a problem exclusive to closed-source corporate models; any model is only as good as its dataset, and it turns out that people across the whole wide internet are...pretty biased. Most major models right now, trained primarily on the English-language internet, present a very western point of view - treating young conventionally attractive white people as a default at best, and presenting blatantly misinformative stereotypes at worst. While awareness of the issue can turn it into a valuable tool to study those biases and how they intertwine, the marketing and hype around AI combined with the popular idea that computers can't possibly be biased tends to make it so they're likely to perpetuate them instead.

This problem only gets magnified when introduced to my mortal enemy-

If I never see this FUCKING dog again it will be too soon-

Content filters.

Theoretically, content filters exist to prevent some of the worst-faith uses of AI - deepfakes, true plagiarism and forgery, sexual exploitation, and more. In practice, many of them block anything that can be remotely construed as potentially sexual, violent, or even negative in any way. Frequently banned subjects include artistic nudity or even partial nudity, fight scenes, anything even remotely adjacent to horror, and still more.

The problems with this expand fractally.

While the belief that AI is capable of supplanting all other art forms, let alone should do so, is...far less widespread among its users than the more reactionary subset of its critics seem to believe (and in fact arguably less common among AI users than non-users in the first place; see again: you cannot give a full, educated critique of something's failings without engaging with it yourself), it's not nonexistent - and the business majors who have rarely if ever engaged with other forms of art, who make up a good percentage of the executives of these companies, often do fall on that side, or at least claim to in order to make more sales (but let's keep the lid on that can of worms for now).

When this ties to existing online censorship issues, such as a billionaire manchild taking over Twitter to "help humanity" (read: boost US far-right voices and promote and/or redefine hate speech), or arcane algorithms on TikTok determining what to boost and deboost leading to proliferation of neologisms to soften and obfuscate "sensitive" subjects (of which "unalive" is frequently considered emblematic), including such horrible, traumatizing things as...the existence of fat people, disabled people, and queer people (where the censorship is claimed to be for their benefit, no less!), the potential impact is apparent: while the end goal is impossible, in part because AI is not, in fact, capable of supplanting all other forms of art, what we're seeing is yet another part of a continuing, ever more aggressive push for sanitizing what kinds of ideas people can express at all, with the law looking to only make it worse rather than better through bills such as KOSA (which you can sign a petition against here).

And just like the other forms of censorship before and alongside it, AI content filtering targets the most vulnerable in society far more readily than it targets those looking to harm them. The filters have no idea what makes something an expression of a marginalized identity vs. what makes it a derogatory statement against that group, or an attempt at creating superficially safe-for-work fetish art - so, they frequently err on the side of removing anything uncertain. Boys in skirts and dresses are frequently blocked, presumably because they're taken for fetish art. Results of prompts about sadness or loneliness are frequently blocked, presumably because they may promote self harm, somehow. In my (admittedly limited) experiment, attempts at generating dark-skinned characters were blocked more frequently than attempts at generating light-skinned ones, presumably because the filter decided that it was racist to [checks notes] ...acknowledge that a character has a different skin tone than the default white characters it wanted to give me. Facial and limb differences are often either erased from results, or blocked presumably on suspicion of "violent content".

But note that I say "presumably" - the error message doesn't say on what grounds the detected images are "unsafe". Users are left only to speculate on what grounds we're being warned.

But what makes censorship of AI generated work even more alarming, in the context of the executive belief that it can render all other art forms obsolete, is that other forms of censorship only target where a person can say such earth-shaking, controversial things as "I am disabled and I like existing" or "I am happy being queer" or "mental health is important" or "I survived a violent crime" - you can be prevented from posting it on TikTok, but not from saying it to a friend next to you, let alone your therapist. AI content filtering, on the other hand, aims to prevent you from expressing it at all.

This becomes particularly alarming when you recall one of the most valuable use cases for AI generation: enabling disabled people to express themselves more clearly, or in new forms. Most people can find other workarounds in the form of more conventional, manual modes of expression, sure, but no amount of desperation can reverse hand paralysis that prevents a person from holding a pen, nor a traumatic brain injury or mental disability that blocks them from speaking or writing in a way that's easy to understand. And who is one of the most frequently censored groups? Disabled people.

So, my question to Bing and OpenAI is this: in what FUCKING universe is banning me from expressing my very existence "protecting" me?

Bad dog! Stop breaking my shit and get the FUCK out of my way!

Generated as a gift for a friend who was even more frustrated with that FUCKING dog than I was

All images - except the FUCKING dog - generated with Dall-E 3 via Bing Image Creator, under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

[roxy-writes]

the comment i'm replying to: please consider a cool college au dabi who hates his dad but still spends his old mans money. he's a good boyfriend, very low key and yet he manages to garner plenty of female attention, mostly superficially but abundant none the less. reader has to deals with glances, whispers and jabs about shade regarding being partners with dabi. a non conventionally attractive reader (I'm chubby but this could be anything you want) once he finds out some intense body worship 🥺🥺

FIRST OF ALL OMG I LOVE THIS. i haven't written anything with chubby!reader in a while so i'm very excited. i hope you like this!

warnings: chubby!reader, ppl making negative comments about reader's body, body worship, facesitting, not proofread

you were always aware of the attention that dabi attracted. you know he's good looking, and so does everyone else. this could be...disheartening for you at times. attending the same college as him made you ever more conscious of just what kind of attention followed him. the kind that made you feel sort of sick to your stomach at the thought of how much prettier the people that attempted flirting with him were than you. you try not to let the whispers and scowls thrown your way get to you.

dabi also always made his attraction towards you clear. whether it be a hand set on your waist or lower back when you're out, or, in more private settings, eagerly groping at your chest and ass. this was sometimes inconvenient. it only seemed to make people stare at you harder whenever he'd attempt the slightest bit of PDA. he notices how your behavior seems to change when people see you in public, and he immediately assumes the worst. that you didn't like him, or want to be with him.

so he tries to fix it. using his father's credit card of course, he'd take you out shopping to buy whatever you like, take you out on fancy dates, whatever. when this doesn't work, he begins seeing the problem for what it really was. he finally started noticing how people behaved towards you, acting like you weren't even there, coming up and flirting with him like you were nothing.

he confronted you about it in his room one night. asking why you didn't tell him how you felt, begging you for answers. you don't know why, you say, you didn't know if he would understand.

"fuck, why the hell would you think that?"

"'cause y'know, there are all these people that make comments about me when we're seen together. it's never you they're talking about."

he closes the distance between you to wrap his arms around you.

"i'm sorry. i'll tell all of them to fuck off. you don't deserve anyone's shit," although vulgar, dabi's words are comforting, and you wrap your arms around him as well. you bury your face in his neck and he pulls you closer in response. but after a few seconds he pulls back and presses his lips to yours the same way he always did. gentle but rough at the same time.

you almost feel bad for being kinda horny during a sweet moment like this. not like you can help it. and based on the slight bulge you feel pressing against your thigh, neither can he. "heh, sorry babe. i think i've got a big problem," he whispers sultrily in your ear.

"i can help you fix it, if you want," you say, and he couldn't have been more eager. your clothes were pulled off of you as he lowers you onto his bed.

"pretty," he mumbled softly as his eyes rake over your body. and in that moment, you felt pretty. he makes you feel pretty. his hands settle on your shoulders, slip down your chest and stomach until they're right where you need him.

his thumb presses your clit and rubs the bundle of nerves, causing you to jump slightly. he looks so turned on right then, you can see it in his face. and he can see the arousal in your face when he pulls you up towards him as he lays on the bed. all he seems to want is for you to ride his face as hard as you can, and why not give the boy what he wants?

"just, tap my thigh if you can't breathe." you tell him.

he plants both his hands on either one of your thighs and shoves his face into your pussy. you squeak at the sudden stimulation and unconsciously grind on his face. he moans and his eyes flit up and down your body, gaze landing on your chest. he watches it bounce as you squirm, his nose swiping your clit messily. you can feel his hot, wispy breath on your skin.

he's pressing you harder into him, getting his tongue deeper in you, his hips bucking into nothing. you start to get a little wobbly from the pleasure, so his hands lock onto you and his fingers dig into the fat of your hips that you hated until you realized how much he loved it.

you cum with a cry as he buries his face into your aching pussy. he lets you hump his face to drain every last bit of pleasure from your orgasm. you wait till the aftershocks wear off before lifting off him. "want me to return the favor?" you ask, but he shakes his head no. you're still sensitive and twitchy from cumming, and he gently massages your thighs to relax you.

one hand wraps around his cock to line himself up with your hole, and the other slithers up to your face to tilt your chin so you look directly at his face. "jus' focus on my face baby," he whispers, trying to distract you from the pain of the stretch when his tip breaches your entrance.

he fucks you like the world is ending tomorrow. fucks you like you're the only girl in the universe. he can't even think about himself when he's got you moaning on his dick and you look so good. his cock rubs against your g-spot and you see stars.

you cum before he does, and you swear he's pulling an even more lewd face than you are. he's so close, so fucking close, and what finally pushes him over the edge is the cry of his name you let out once the pleasure gets to be too much. he cums so hard he whimpers a little bit.

you think it's so cute the way he can't help but curl into himself at how good the couple seconds of pleasure feel. you both wish the feeling didn't end so quickly. he slowly pulls out. you bask in the afterglow for a while, dabi's body cuddled up next to you. you feel so much better. you know he'd never cheat on you, know he'd never hurt you or your feelings, know he's good for you. all it really took was realizing you were the hottest girl ever in his eyes.

[themeraldee]

Hi! I love reading your notes so much. I remember more your opinion that Homelander doesn't care about the appearance and body of the woman who will love him. It's so nice, really, but I'm afraid it wouldn't be like that… Using the example of A-Train, we know that Homelander does not like fat people. What kind of women did he deal with? Queen Maeve, Starlight, Madelyn Stillwell… They are ALL slim and attractive. Homelander, as Antony Starr himself said, has the mindset of a teenager. Therefore, I highly doubt that our cutie boy will not pay attention to appearance, figure, breast size/shape and much more. It's sad, but I think it's a fact…

Hi hon! I'm glad you're enjoying perusing my blog!!!

I'll start off with your A-Train example. I had to go rewatch the scene to jog my memory. But to me the scene was less about Homelander caring about A-Train gaining weight and more just losing control of it all. He used to be the sole leader of the Seven (this scene comes straight after being co-captained with Starlight), had everything under control. Now his ego is bruised, he's no longer considered #1 and the other members of the Seven (like A-Train here) don't care to keep up their manicured image while he's doing his best to still be as perfect as everyone expects him to be. On top of that Ryan's gone, Stormfront is bedridden, clearly not doing well, so his head is all over the place. So I feel like A-Train was just an easy target for his frustration.

It's not that I think that he will be immediately attracted to a larger size. He most certainly will throw all sorts of jabs and sarcastic remarks. Until he catches feelings for whatever reason that is. It's especially then when he starts not only not caring about what his SO should look like but I can see him get very hostile and defensive if anyone did try to insultcomment on his SO's unconventional body type.

Sure, it's easier to be attracted to a conventionally attractive person but that doesn't mean they will be able to fulfil what he seeks. Like Firecracker whom he couldn't care less about.

@hom3landr's tags on the post you're referencing sum it up really well. (hope you don't mind me pulling them up, I feel that they explain it better than my entire post does lol)

All in all I'm still gonna smush Homelander and reader together like Barbie dolls no matter what they look like because at the end of the day we're here to have fun and not shame each other for whether a certain character would actually be into us or not! So really, he doesn't get a choice from my POV 😂

[darkfictionjude]

I definitely think there's sexism at play with Nia (although not quite as overt it was with Carmen), people are less forgiving towards female characters across all types of media. Especially ones who aren't humble/modest, morally good, supportive of or even subordinate to male characters (especially if the protagonist is male), conventionally attractive (I know Nia is, but just making the point generally), etc.

But in this specific instance, I think it's also because Nia is the only one with a prior positive relationship with the MC. I could see the MC feeling more strongly about Nia's actions than Lorcan's (who they never had a positive relationship with) and Imre (who they didn't even interact with or care about lol). With Nia, the MC has actually lost something, one of the few positive relationships they had. Maybe the only one if you consider Sally's to be “positive” but unhealthy.

Generally readers tend to feel protective over MCs against characters who hurt them. Sometimes to the extent that isn't viewing the situation fairly/logically, or giving the same grace to other characters as you do for the MC. I've seen authors receive hate over that for characters that are gender selectable too (e.g. Infamous). And this MC is an unreliable narrator and we haven't gotten an explanation from Nia yet or seen what she's seen firsthand, we didn't get a full conversation with her until recently. I think these factors make it harder to judge the situation and easier to view Nia negatively, because as the reader we're missing important pieces of the puzzle right now.

It also could be that what Nia did (distancing herself, ending their friendship, not seeming to care about them anymore (before the end of this chapter)) is something that's more relatable to real life and might even be something people have personally experienced. I see people hate bully characters more than outright murdering villains, because the latter doesn't feel real to most people, whereas there are a lot of people online who have experienced bullying at school. And whilst I understand that Nia doesn't actually like or respect any of that popular group apart from Imre, she's still willingly associating herself with people who are bullying Crown, someone they were friends with for most of their lives.

(I'm saying all this as someone who's looking forward to my MC and Nia rekindling their friendship. But I can understand why some people feel sour towards her, even if her actions are understandable and justified from her perspective. I would probably do the same thing as her tbh, probably even earlier on when she first witnessed a violent outburst. But even if you're being reasonable, your actions/words can still hurt someone else, and I don't think it's unreasonable for that person to feel negatively towards you as a result.)

Like I’ve said many times before I understand the anger over the abandonment, I think it’s extremely valid. My issue is with how the boys are given more grace in everything they do. It just seems hypocritical to be angry at Nia but then coddle the boys as if they’re little babies who don’t understand right and wrong

Imre is friends with those people too, he’s the king of the bully group and even though he doesn’t partake he associates himself with them willingly. Like I really appreciate you writing this all down, and I agree with it it’s just any form of media I’ve always hated how women are held to higher standards than men who are sanctified when all three of them aren’t that great. You want to say “fuck you” to Nia? Good. Deserved from the POV of Crowny. But like there’s no point in twisting the narrative to make it seem that anyone of them is worse than the others when all of them have issues and have not treated Crowny the best

[moongothic]

Seen at least one (1) person complain about Crocodile losing his "unique faceshape" (now having the same facial structure that 90% of OP men have) after episode 1086 came out and like

To be fair, yes, the shape of his head HAS changed since his first appearance in The Year 2000. The thing is, Toei's latest Crocodile Offering is frankly more in-line with how Oda drew Crocodile during Impel Down and Marineford than ever before. Like yeah he looks different, but this change isn't new

But that comment really did make me think about how FUNNY it is just how different Croc really looks from his first appearance, like. The evolution in how Oda draws the bastard is so facinating to me

These are from chapters 155, 160 and 205 respectively.

No massive changes happening here in the middle of the arc, but you can kinda tell that Oda was definitely still figuring out how this asshole was supposed to look as he got further into the Alabasta (which is perfectly normal), which just makes That First Appearance look even funnier with time because. Who the fuck is that lmaooo

But then we get to see him briefly during Miss Goldenweek's cover story, this being from the cover of chapter 413! All things considdered, bastard hasn't changed that much, still looks pretty much the same as in Alabasta. His head is maybe a little less elongated than before but still, chin is quite pointy still

And now we're in Impel Down at chapter 540. Again, dude looks about the same as he did before...

But it really doesn't take long for Oda to start reshaping this bastard's entire head at this point

Chapters 544, 546, 578, and cover of chapter 584

The chin is easily the most obvious part, but you can tell Oda kind of defaulted to giving him that same ol' evenly square-ish head most his conventionally attractive characters have during these story arcs (instead of the elongated shape he originally had).

And then we have the latest appearances, from 1082 and 1100

I do feel like comparing these to what's come before would be a little unfair considdering his health and eyesight and how those affect the artwork itself, but. They're there, for comparison's sake

But the point is still there. Crocodile's face shape has changed since his first appearance, but it's not like Toei was behind that, the change was (mostly) gradual and from Oda himself. And it mostly happened in 2008, so it's not new by any means either

So really, all Toei did was just update his character model because ⬆️ is more accurate than ⬇️ for One Piece right now

Regardless. The sheer difference between the two is hysterical to me

[thekimspoblog]

Observations from rewatching "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" (1996) yesterday:

Esmerelda has huge balls. No wonder I always liked her.

Ok yeah Jason Alexander is REALLY out of place as the comedic relief, especially when other characters are saying dialogue which is actually witty and he's just interrupting. "A Guy Like You" isn't as bad as everyone says it is (I actually think the message of "you're not conventionally attractive but that gives you personality and women appreciate that" is really cute and important), but it goes on too long and this time around I noticed how lazy the animation gets for that sequence. There are like... nooo backgrounds in that scene.

Frollo got obsessed with Esmerelda specifically because she challenged his authority. This was the most powerful, brutal, humorless authority figure in the city, and she decided to sit in his lap and flirt with him just to mess with him. Again, huge balls. And the only way Frollo's brain could handle this was to conclude that either she secretly wanted him OR she was a literal demon sent from hell to test him. Watching "Hell Fire" over again, it reads less like the hooded figures are a representation of his repressed lust, and more like if Frollo admits he could be wrong about her and his absolute power, that would open the door to being wrong about everything else, and then he'd have to face the reality of his sins. He doesn't feel judged and tormented because he's hot for her; he feels judged and tormented for literally everything else but has been able to ignore the guilt up until now.

Nobody ever talks about how awesome "Court of Miracles" is. It's only a minute long but that has always secretly been my favorite. I'll be washing dishes and realize I'm humming "Where the lame can walk, and the blind can see, but the dead don't talk..." to myself.

This is one of the few kid's movies where the fake-out death feels earned. That's because even if you've seen this movie before and you know Esmerelda is going to be alright, the scene still has stakes: Quasimodo briefly was upset because he realized she only liked him as a friend, and this is the moment he realizes he'd give anything just to have his friend survive.

A lot of Renaissance-era movies rely on the plot device of an easily-led mob, but I just don't think it works as well here as it did in Beauty and the Beast. Like ok Frollo definitely ordered that guard to hurl the tomato, but the crowd still went from cheering for Quasi to lashing him down with ropes in less than 10 seconds.

If I had to rank my favorites (and we're talking the canon of Disney movies PROPER, not just any of the millions of flicks the studio has produced/acquired) I think Hunchback would be first, then Frozen, then Sword in the Stone. Although I feel like I'm forgetting something.

[playingwiththetennisgrownups]

Do you honestly think Sinner and Alcaraz (or any tennis players) are madly in love or fucking like bunnies? That's weird, their just kids!

Wow. WOW. But hey, I did say anything on anon so sure, that's your prerogative.

OK so honestly no, no I don't. I fell in love with both of their tennis playing this year (I've been watching tennis since the mid-80s), and then somewhere around Wimbledon the ADHD went 'oooh new hyperfixation' (there's another long post brewing actually about it might be a lifelong suppressed special interest) I felt like I was being super annoying to my partner and all my friends and went 'oh huh I wonder if there's a tennis fandom on Tumblr', and lo, there was a tennis fandom

There were people loving Sinner and Alcaraz and Federer and Nadal and Shelton and being excited and geeking out over the games. And there were slashers. Now, I'm a slasher. I have been writing fanfiction since I was a pre-teen, I have been writing slash fanfiction since my teens, and I have been posting said fanfiction online since my late teens. We're talking the 90s here people. (proud owner of an Anne Rice C&D dontcha know?) I've also been in as many, if not more, RPS fandoms than FPS ones. It's a hobby, I enjoy it. (There's only been maybe 2 RPS fandoms in all that time I actually believed in. Sincaraz is not one of them (although the more time I spend in fandom, the less sure I am about not believing the Fedal!) - but seriously, allow me to talk about how I do believe the Jack/Daniel and McShep or the Hardison/Parker/Eliot)

And so I was curious and I went onto AO3. I was... legit quite shocked by the amount of fic. I wasn't expecting it. I started reading. It was a lot of fun. My muse, Bob!, he is a fickle creature and he likes the pretty. He's decided Jannik and Carlos are his current pretty he wants to play with. I've written and posted more fic in the last two weeks than I have in months and THAT feels fantastic.

Although, having said that, I'm not actually physically/sexually attracted to either of them. You know why? Because they are literally over half my age. I think Jannik is cute as fuck and I'm currently at 'would kill to protect', I think Carlos has a... conventionally attractive physique and I do appreciate good strong shoulders/upper arms. I legit feel kinda dirty at times. But it's nothing more than 'aesthetically attractive', there's no... anything else. If nothing else, I'm queer so there's that! (There's a whole 'nother long post planned about being demi/ace, levels of aesthetically pleasing/pretty/attractiveness and what they mean).

TL;DR no, I don't think they're fucking, I adore them both as tennis players and people, I am loving the fandom around them, slash fanfic is fun. *gives all the love to the tennisblr, jannikblr and sincaraz peeps who've graciously welcomed me to the party over the last couple of weeks*

[gauntletqueen]

If androids are valid I submit A2. And 2B I guess.

The Robot Body Scale ranges from 1 to 10 and reflects how happy I, Zoey Gauntletqueen, would be for a robot body to be my body. 5 is the base, being the same as my current human body. It does not reflect my opinion on the design as a whole.

I'll rate them together since they're more or less the same.

Like some robots I've rated before, I'm not much of a fan of their appearance, being just humans with some lines on their skin to hint at the much more interesting machinery inside. The clothing worn by these two also doesn't factor in, as that isn't part of their bodies. Neither is their hair, which somehow grows naturally like a human's and thus I could simply cut it or grow it out as I'd like. What we're left with is a purely human conventionally attractive female appearance. Could be a lot worse! But damn could it be better. YoRHa units are capable of doing human things like consuming food and drink, but don't need to. That's actually good, I'd ideally like for that to be an option. They're obviously physically much stronger and more dexterous than a human, can double jump, and have some kind of matter manipulation ability that lets them move weapons and objects around as if by telekinesis. That's very useful and cool! They can also self-destruct but I'd prefer not to.

5.8

[loki-zen]

re: hair loss, at what point as a man should you just shave it? I have/had long wavy Matthew McConaugh-hair, and I’m decently emotionally invested in the compliments I used to get. Outside of wanting to look good to women I don’t super care though, that and that my dad always wanted to grow his hair long but it didn’t work out for him, so I’m kinda doing it for both of us.

anyway, I’m on the road to approaching the “woody harrelson at the beginning of Natural Born Killers” hairline, and it’s a struggle. Been on finasteride for like 8 months, and I’m pretty sure it’s making me depressed, plus it does weird stuff to your cum, which is both gross and frightening in its implications. I had good results with rogaine, should probably start that again, regardless of what I do.

At what point does a man become sexier with the buzz cut a la Jason Statham, every Russian guy, etc?

it’s also frustrating because there’s so many memes out there about “creepy balding guys”, like it’s just this shorthand for being a coomer or a serial sexual harasser or what have you. I could live with “ugly balding guys”, there have been times in my life when I was hot and times I was ugly, I’m able to cope with that. But creepy just really sucks. I had a lot of female friends in college, and some women I’m very close to were victims of sexual violence, and so I’m probably hyper-sensitive and afraid of being perceived as predatory in any way. It’s good that I’m aware of the problems, but sometimes I wish I was more ignorant, it’d make it a lot less scary to strike up conversations with new people if I wasn’t crushingly aware of how often women are uncomfortable with men they’ve never met.

(I’m not morlock-Holmes, but I think we have some of the same dating issues)

So first off, it is obviously wrong and bigoted to make assumptions about someone's behaviour or intentions based on what they look like unless we're talking about something very specific and intentional like 'they have nazi tattoos'. If it helps any (I'm not sure it does) I don't think that these people necessarily see a balding guy and think that's a sexual predator so much as they are doing that very schoolyard thing of "we don't like this kind of people (sexual predators) and so we're going to stereotype them as being something we think is unattractive" (you see similar things with fatness and 'neckbeards').

If it is the women you actually know who say these sorts of things (that wasn't clear), it literally might not occur to them that they're making you feel this way because it's just a general-purpose insult to them that's become detached from the actual notion of a person they might know and like who happens to be male and balding.

This sort of talk is actually, if anything, dangerous to potential victims of sexual violence, because the idea that you can somehow spot Creepy Guys and they definitely look different to anyone else will tend to help conventionally attractive guys get away with it!

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules about the hair thing. Lots of guys do look cute with a buzzcut, and it is common (but not universal) in the dominant Anglosphere culture for people to find this more attractive than even very nice hair when that hair has visible male-pattern balding going on. I confess I do have this reaction myself sometimes, but I also find that the more I get to know people the more I see the nicer hair and the less I see the "but it's balding" part, but there are levels that will always look a bit odd to me (eg the shakespeare cut). Which, yknow, isn't actually a reason why people should change their hair, though I imagine you're asking because being attractive to other people is important to you.

Your female irl friends are perhaps best-placed to approximate the sort of views that predominate among the sort of women you're likely to be trying to date, and there are now decent AI tools to give you an idea of what you might look with different hairstyles - maybe try one out, see what you think and ask their advice.

Oh, also, in my personal opinion if your hair is fairly voluminous and past shoulder length you can get away with a receding hairline a lot longer - same with certain careful short but long on top looks, although they can be more fiddly.

[zalrb]

Saw Twisters (2024) - Spoilers Ahead

Much like my review of Hocus Pocus, this has sort of become a 90s Movies vs Current Movies post.

So, Twister (1996) is a comfort movie of mine, which is odd to say, but I've had a soft spot for it since I was a kid. So, one thing I did enjoy about Twisters is the callback to Jo in the tornado scene after the rodeo because for a split second, Daisy Edgar-Jones did look like Helen Hunt and I got a little thrill from that homage

Anyway, Twister is certainly not a perfect movie. I could even understand it if someone were to say it's not a particularly good movie (some of the dialogue especially in the beginning hurts me). Critics said it lacked nuanced characters and was more concerned with the visuals and the spectacle rather than interpersonal dynamics, and while I agree that there are definitely some gaps and as a viewer, you have to suspend your disbelief with some of the relationships, and choices characters make (looking at you, Melissa because girl, why are you even here in the first place)

(but I still love her because that metaphor line is hilarious)

ANYWAY, the point is, I find it to be a very character-based disaster movie, which is part of why I love it so much.

The movie drops you into a particular world with particular characters to showcase what kind of people would be storm chasers, what does it look like to be a storm chaser, and everyone in Jo's unit has distinctive personalities and quirks that define who they are in the team and they achieve that through dialogue and action

and I also found Jo and Bill to be more realistic or the way the movie approaches them to be more grounded. Bill and Kate are both supposed to have this innate talent, they're supposed to be the tornado whisperer, but Kate is framed as The Answer, Javi specifically seeks her out because Nobody Can Do What She Does, whereas Bill is framed as having a role on a team and he needs them as much as they need him, Bill can't do his thing without Rabbit, for instance

and Tyler is as brilliant, as capable, as giving, as caring as Kate and sure he has his team but they're treated as inconsequential and only really there to show how actually-brilliant Tyler is but Jo who is The Leader and whose team acts on her determination and grit and instincts and intelligence also isn't framed as the Only One Who Can Do This. Basically, I find Bill and Jo to be characters and Tyler and Kate are tropes.

Obviously, Twisters is going to set out to distinguish itself from the 1996 version but I found it chose to do that in very uninteresting ways that just made the movie formulaic and derivative.

So, sure, with Glen's Tyler, we get kind of the original Twister storm chasers, they're "tornado wranglers", they're cowboys, they're basically another iteration of "The Extreme",

they're flashy and they're loud but oh my god, there's more than meets the eye to the not-love interest love interest played by a conventionally attractive white man because we haven't seen that before. He actually cares about the people and the devastation that tornadoes leave behind. Our FP was wrong about him in this not-enemies-to-lovers-but-also-very-much-enemies-to-lovers movie.

That would come across as less hollow and less predictable if the movie actually committed to what is supposed to be the emotional heart of the script, which is that people's lives are affected by tornadoes and Kate wants to save the world (and Tyler wants to help! She's everything, he's just Ken). Like, if the various townspeople weren't simply nameless masses there to be rescued and then forgotten and the movie approached the story through the perspective of a town about to be devastated that would be the fresh take. Or, if they wanted to do the opposite of Twister where, in that movie, we're aligned with the underdogs, who had all of the passion, all of the instinct and none of the money

and in Twisters, Kate, who somehow did absolutely no research prior to getting on a plane, is on a team with all of the money but who are working for an evil, predatory vulture, it would've been more interesting to have Kate be Javi and we see her go down the slippery slope Javi is, like, halfway down at the beginning of the movie in an effort to ultimately do the right thing (the road to hell and all that). But instead, we just follow Kate and Tyler (and Javi) follow tornadoes and the movie throws in a couple of lines about Riggs' predatory practices that the movie actually ends up being as empty, indifferent and callous as its villains. Watching this setup of Tyler - Kate - Javi and watching Javi's predictable redemption arc, I was just like are we not going to explore that Javi, a person of colour, partnered with Riggs, particularly when there are racial disparities for disaster recovery and it wouldn't be a stretch to say that people of colour would be disproportionately impacted by Riggs' practices?

And that empty, indifferent feel goes for the overall feel of the movie as well.

Why have quirky slightly unhinged characters sing Oklahoma on a storm chase

when you can just have an expository song about not being able to take the home out of Oklahoma while your protagonist is in her childhood home? Why paint the picture of these people and this environment in ways that are rooted in character, when we can just be lazy?

Part of the reason why Melissa is in the movie is that she's meant to be the viewer, she's meant to be the average person in this situation so that when Jo and the others are not freaking out about tornadoes, not freaking out about injuries, it doesn't seem like a convenient way to just move the plot along, it's just that none of them are the average person

but Tyler and Kate see multiple people die and they move on like it didn't happen and sure, this might seem nitpicky because in disaster movies, you have to suspend your disbelief because the movie can't spend too much time on the trauma and the coping mechanisms, but my point is that the original Twister thought of these things and it's because the movie is actually based in character and in dynamics.

And then there's Kate who was just way too well-adjusted for my liking.

So, in terms of the script, the elements are there.

We see Kate's trauma early on, like we saw Jo's in the 1996 version. Unlike Jo, whose trauma fuelled her compulsive need to chase tornadoes, Kate's trauma compels her to run away to New York. Choosing to go the opposite way is fine, but it's a more passive choice and because of that, for me anyway, it takes more work to show the lingering impact of watching your boyfriend and best friends die and almost dying yourself than having one dream, ignoring one call, driving away from one tornado, and having an outburst about how those deaths are your fault? Especially considering that what happened made her leave home for five years and stop her research, her returning happens too easily and too quickly.

Because with Jo, due to the fact that she's actively chasing her trauma, we see how she responds to things and does things that even her unhinged team are like, maybe we shouldn't?

Like, I get it, we're supposed to see how panicked Kate is every time they chase a tornado but a) I didn't think Daisy played her with much emotional nuance tbh. Like, throughout Twister, Helen plays Jo's desperation to figure out how a tornado works because of what she went through as a child so that it informs everything, like yes, she is a stubborn, acerbic, hardass, kickass character and she snaps at Bill partly because of their unresolved sexual and romantic tension and partly because they're in literal life-and-death situations, but all of it is informed by this, like, sorrowful agitation mixed with genuine appreciation for the power of a tornado that when we do get this outburst,

it feels earned and organic whereas Kate's felt like a ticked check mark, like yep, we're right about the time the main character has their breakdown so we can move into the denouement/resolution. b) that isn't really enough. She's back in action quite quickly.

Anyway. Things I did like about Twisters were the visuals, they had some pretty cool shots, for the most part Glen and Daisy worked well together even if I found the sexual tension aspect of their dynamic to be narratively forced, the opening was strong

[jovianjournal]

March 2024

Today we're talking about comics i read in March. I mostly read manga, from series i've already talked about before or don't have anything to say about, so i'm going to skip some books.

The Quiet End of the Mundane Age -- Theo Stultz

Probably my favourite comic from last year's ShortBox Comic Fair (the 2024 edition is coming very soon!! can't wait to spend wayyyy too much money on comics). A short story about academics studying an ancient civilisation and looking to bring back magic into the world (if i remember correctly... i really want to reread this one actually). the vibes are: delicious. my only complain is that it was too short, and i wish it was a whole series.

*

Minsucule Folle Sauvage -- Pauline de Tarragon

Tiny Crazy Feral Woman. a journal comic about depression and ennui, with cute pastel art. made me want to draw little introspective zines and reread sylvia plath.

*

Genderless Danshi ni Aisareteimasu / Mon petit ami genderless -- TAMEKOU, Narihira Kojiro, French translation by Blanche Delaborde

A finished series about a manga editor and her fem boyfriend. This is a cute slice of life story with some funny gags, but it is way less queer than advertised (the genderless boyfriend is Very Gendered, Actually). I liked the tidbits about Japanese queer culture, the art is suuuper pretty, but there are a lot of talks about appearance and popularity and social media which im not a fan of. Overall it's a light hearted read about conventionally attractive people, a good time.

*

Kûtei Dragons / Drifting Dragons -- Kuwabara Taku

Another favourite of mine. The adventures of a team of dragon hunters in a fantasy world! This story manages to have a big cast where everyone feels like an actual person. Not vegan friendly.

[stop-spreading-this-poll]

Round 1 Poll 78: Relationship stuff

The Addams Family submission:

The idea that Gomez is ""Connecticut Clark"", ""just Ken"", or ""knows Morticia is out of his league"", or that his only purpose is to be Perfect Husband And Father to the point of talking about him as if he's not his own person. The Connecticut Clark meme is meant to refer to a character with no supernatural traits, no interesting backstory, and nothing special or unusual about him, married to a cool supernatural wife. I do not think ""nothing unusual about him"" applies to a master swordsman (at least in the films, the competence of other versions admittedly varies) who in the 60s show built a robot and a supercomputer in his home, is unharmed by leaping out of a plane without a parachute, has 6 toes on one foot and might have a tail, and regularly eats poison and is unaffected by it. He is an Addams. His mother is a witch. He is descended from a long line of pirates and outlaws. He IS a goofy dork but he is not JUST some random goofy dork. ""Just Ken"" similarly tends to refer to a character who doesn't do much or have many skills and is very much secondary to his wife or girlfriend... Gomez is not a supporting character in a story about Morticia, he is an equally major character to her in most versions of the series, and fights and defeats the villains of a story more than once. Surely if we're going to see them as couple goals, part of what makes their relationship so healthy IS that they are both their own people with their own interests, friends, and lives? A relationship where one is just the other's sidekick doesn't sound like goals to me. He also doesn't really seem to think of Morticia as out of his league--he adores her, obviously, but his high opinion of her is *not* usually accompanied by a low opinion of himself. He's actually pretty confident, and even a bit vain about his looks (even the less conventionally attractive versions), and has said at least once that he considers *her* fortunate to be married to *him*, as well as obviously considering himself lucky to be married to her. It's frustrating as a fan of his character when lots of people SAY they love him, but only really seem to love how much he loves Morticia, forget about the things he's canonically good at in favour of ""all he knows how to do is love his wife"", aren't interested in exploring his relationships with anyone other than Morticia and maybe Wednesday (I'm talking the rest of his family, but also his friends, and in most versions he did also have other romantic relationships before meeting Morticia), and don't really want to discuss him as a person (especially when it comes to...his actual flaws as a person that aren't just ""he's dumb, but it doesn't matter because he's so sweet"", or his canon mental health issues, or piecing together his backstory from the bits of info we get about it, or...really anything about what might actually be going on in his head rather than him just being a kind of satellite characters). Especially when people will analyse Morticia in such detail and with the Netflix show in particular are now doing the same for Wednesday.

Gravity Falls submission:

ford hating/not caring about/overlooking/belittling/underestimating mabel. this one goes out to you "Return to the Bunker"

[thisandthat-whatever]

I think there's a lot of misogyny involved in this R&J controversy because if we're honest Tom is also ugly for the “classically pretty” role like Romeo . But in our society men can be ugly or basic looking but women can't.

You happen to be wrong though. He is average looking, but not conventionally ugly. There is a difference. You may find him unattractive and unsexy but we are talking about objective looks here, not subjective. Look at the face below. That ain’t ugly by any objective standard. This man’s facial features are well-proportioned. :

Now, Z’s Challengers costars are conventionally way uglier than Tom. And Timothee is definitely conventionally less goodlooking than Tom (I already covered this in a past post) . As a personal interest, I studied bone structure obsessively for years , so I know what an objectively well-balanced face looks like. And partly why I often talk about balance in faces.

But needless to say, subjectively a face can be conventionally ugly but you can be wildly attracted to it but that is not the topic here. Tom has an average, conventionally good-looking face. And therefore was a great fit for the role lookswise.

Trust me, if someone like Jonah Hill when he was 25 years old with that face and that body was cast as Romeo, believe you me, people would mock that casting choice too . Let’s be real with the reality (as unfair as it is sometimes) which we happen to live in on this earth.