#at least I know from the german version of this show

[obscureother]

i will do one for every f/o i have time for and think of answers to -v-

starting with THIS ONE BECAUSE I HAD A DREAM OF HIM:

look at this goofy man i love himb. ok so there:

What do your f/o's hugs feel like? theyre very warm and soft. . but theyre firm so you know he's got you, cos once he's got you, he's keeping you forever :)) or until the colonel tells him to get back to work. . his coat makes them swallow you, but his sweater is also nice to bury in. He's not chonky or anything, but he is perfect between fit and still a little soft on his tum that he is very good for one to love on :0

What are your favorite dates to have with them? the ones where we find a nice spot to cuddle out below the dark nighttime, then we just talk for a while together of different things. . of those he worked with in the war, of his family. . or i get to tell him how he was my favorite soldier and i love himbb ~v~ <33 or get to give him kisses on the forest floor until he is a puddle of soft man for holding so then he just lets me hold him and mess with his hair while he lays there. . uvu

What are their favorite dates to have with you? He would like going to theatres i think. . little romantic things that arent overly elaborate or extravagant normally, something sweet or fun, but he does very much like to take s/i 1 to the big fancy places every once in a while that he used to show at in London just to get her excited cos she's not seen things like that before.

Do you have any songs that remind you of them? Do they have any songs that make them think of you? i have a couple. . ignoring the ones from the hogans heroes vinyl ive got, cos those would count of course, uhmm. . probably Roy Orbison version of "Oh, Pretty Woman." the vibe is very mutual between he and s/i 1 i think. . and s/i 1 makes her own version one time thats more like "Oh, Pretty Soldier" for them to listen to for the entertainment for the barracks one night. theres a whole thing for them getting her to open to them and give little songs for them. they dont force her, tho. oh pretty soldier is very much about newkirk. . the others know for a long time that she bonded to him, tho newkirk probably catches onto it cos she just looks at him with very big round eyes when she's singing on the table, but s/i 1 is very much hoping he doesnt know or doesnt go to find out. . cos too nervous to tell him those things.

What's the height difference between you and your f/o? Newkirk is 5'9". I'm 5'4" to 5'5" or so myself, but s/i stayed at 5'3" so there's not much of a difference either way. Only. . 6 inches give or take between them, though he is taller no matter what. hebefgj 🖤

On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being the least and 10 being the most, how much do they like PDA with you? 7.5/10 :0 he isnt exactly overly public about things, but he has no problem with getting kisses when he's going out!! he loves kisses too much to say no to them anywhere or anytime. -v-

What's your favorite feature about your f/o? rrrgghrjg. . his hamddss. . or his. . face. i love looking at him existing, but i also love to hold his hands :"0

What do you think they smell like? ignoring prison camp smell?? uhh- on a good day in the barracks where he's out of the shower, he just smells like clean laundry and whatever soap they can smuggle in with a faint, clean scent the other soldiers or germans wont notice to get suspicious of them. i would imagine he likes to wear good colognes. . i dont really know how to explain smells very well, but that would moreso be when he was at home or after the war when he can start dressing nice and keeping himself in better shape for his magic act he gets back into and things. he probably didnt get very heavy or deep scents, probably just light or vibrant things that caught one's attention in a nice way.

What is your f/os biggest love languages? They don't have to be one of the "five", it can be anything specific they use to show you love. he is very physical, he loves the hugs and cuddles and kisses, but he also does things for s/i 1 to entertain her. he likes to get her to laugh and smile, he knows her favorite tricks to do :0

Do you guys sleep in the same bed? If so, what's it like sleeping with them? s/i 1 and newkirk do sometimes sneak her into the barracks together and they sleep together. . they hide her in the blankets when schultz comes in to get the soldiers up (schultz doesnt know she's there- or he pretends he doesnt.)

What's your favorite headcanon about your f/o? that is hardd. . i like lots of things about him :0 one of my favorite things is actually canon and thats just that he used to work in the circus or be a magician before the war. i also think its very cute how much he likes kisses and will do just about anything for them uvu

What is the dynamic that you and your f/o have? this is where im not sure how to respond cos i usually think of uhh the. . spicy. . things. . but he like most of the f/os ive got tends to lead or take care of. Peter tho, is more like. . flexible. he sometimes gets very soft himself and s/i 1 or me will hold and comfort him a lot, or he just likes to be the one to be held and doted on instead for a while uvu who would not dote on him tho look at that man jkdf. . so he is normally soft, but he can be soft lead/care, or soft to hold and little boy-ish for love.

What does your f/o do for you when you're having a rough day? he does magic tricks and cuddles ofgjhdk 🖤 he's very comfort f/o for me. holds hands, murmurs to him cos his voice is very soothing on low volume, sometimes he pulls out props for me to fidget with cos sometimes i forget to bring my own ones. . he does accents for me sometimes or just mutters in his own. he lets me mess with his hair sometimes cos he's soft too. . his whole color palette is very comforting for me tho. .

Do you like to hold hands? If so, what's that like? THERE WERE DREAMS OF THIS TOO FDJSFKS- one time i dreamed he let me sit in his lap while he was talking to someone else, probably Hogan or the others, on one of the bottom bunks. he had me sitting back on him and his hands just. . open in front of me. he was letting me play with them. they were only a bit rough from work, but when you squish them, theyre soft like padded mattress toppers and they were very warm :"0 he let me bop them and hold his fingees and would hold my hands ofgdbk *s o b .* one of my favorite dreams to this day of himb.

Do they like to give you little kisses? If so, where is their favorite place to kiss? (Face, hands, etc) He gives all the kisses oml. He gives kisses wherever he can reach, but he gives them most on hands, shoulders, lips, or the top of head oo. .

Vice versa, do YOU like to give them little kisses? If so, where is YOUR favorite place to give them? i love to give him kisses rhbgrdfg i give him kisses on his cheeks, his nose, i love to shove my face into his hair and give him kisses there. i kiss his hambds. . sometimes i give kisses to his tum tum, ooOO-

What's your favorite silly leisure activity to do with your f/o? s/i 1 will get worms from the tunnels and sneak them into his pockets :)) but every once in a while he just lets her fiddle with his pockets of stuff while he shows her things or she's filling his pockets with dirt to make a worm town in his coat because he's already also dirty from tunneling with her. for me and f/o, he will just lay on or lean on me sometimes while i fiddle with him or we watch something :0 very cuddle buddy f/o.

What is your favorite compliment that your f/o gives you? What is your favorite nickname that they have for you, if they have one? oh jee. . im not good with compliments so i probably wont give one on most of these, but i do like the little pet names he gives. . cos his accent makes them extra go brr obfgfd. . he normally goes "love" or "darlin'," yknow. . common british things rbgjhdf <33 ive yet to come across any others he might use tho. he doesnt say many on the show given he doesnt get to talk to much of the girls nor do i know a whole lot of british ones he would take on.

What's your favorite compliment to give THEM? What is your favorite nickname to call them? ofbdghbkdf i love himbb. . i call him puppy face cos he's got this sort of look he does sometimes that looks like when a dog lays their head on your lap and looks up at you for love. he gets kind of soft from that whenever s/i 1 or me talks about it. he is lovely. . he does have nicknames tho, like pebey uvu love to call him pebey. or similar things. Betey, pebey webey, pebus. . etc. He finds them less of a tender thing but he does think its funny even though he has no idea how his name got reduced to those.

I want everyone to have the chance to ramble about their romantic f/os, so I'm gonna make a reblog game where yall can answer the plethora of questions I'm gonna toss down. Any of the questions you want to answer, as little or as much as you'd like!! I'll read them all. PR.O.SHIP DNI!!! AT ALL! GET OUT-

SO!! SELFSHIPPERS! RIDDLE ME THIS:

What do your f/o's hugs feel like?

What are your favorite dates to have with them?

What are their favorite dates to have with you?

Do you have any songs that remind you of them? Do they have any songs that make them think of you?

What's the height difference between you and your f/o?

On a 1-10 scale, with 1 being the least and 10 being the most, how much do they like PDA with you?

What's your favorite feature about your f/o?

What do you think they smell like?

What is your f/os biggest love languages? They don't have to be one of the "five", it can be anything specific they use to show you love.

Do you guys sleep in the same bed? If so, what's it like sleeping with them?

What's your favorite headcanon about your f/o?

What is the dynamic that you and your f/o have?

What does your f/o do for you when you're having a rough day?

Do you like to hold hands? If so, what's that like?

Do they like to give you little kisses? If so, where is their favorite place to kiss? (Face, hands, etc)

Vice versa, do YOU like to give them little kisses? If so, where is YOUR favorite place to give them?

What's your favorite silly leisure activity to do with your f/o?

What is your favorite compliment that your f/o gives you? What is your favorite nickname that they for you, if they have one?

What's your favorite compliment to give THEM? What is your favorite nickname to call them?

Okay I can't wait to see some answers!! Feel free to reblog as many times with as many f/os as you want. ANYONE CAN PARTICIPATE! SEEING THIS POST IS AN INVITATION FOR YOU!!

People I'd like to see answer this off the top of my head (but don't have to!!): @moxanji-real @one-winged-dreams @lovesickvalentines @graveluvr @clawingatmy-enclosure @starshakez @jpeg-indulgence @everynya @tropgothships @selfshipping-tboy @amelielovesamaris @pixel-comfort @fl0ralsxgar

[scarefox]

lol no, wtf ? 😅 what are BLITZERS doing at Britain's Got Talent??

(heads up I hate these kinds of talent shows)

The hosts / jury are cringe and ignorant as in every talent show, but Blitzers slay despite some little (later mentioned) technic issues in the first one (bet their ear things didn't work. imo still good live performance, for me as someone who often goes to live concerts of all kinds of bands 🤷‍♂️ haters gonna hate)

K-pop boyband BLITZERS (블리처스) cover Shawn Mendes hit | Auditions | BGT 2024

Of course they give them BTS Dynamite as outro song 😭 You know what? Good that Blitzers went there, so the west finally learns that there are more korean bands than BTS and Black Pink (no hate on them, westerners are just annoying about it).

Blitzers Full Performance | Britain's Got Talent 2024 Semi Finals Day 2

Haha, they burned that stage down. Definitely perfectly presented themselves as a group.

But the comment about all the kids liking them and they generally mainly just film the kids and teens in the audience 💀 ... yea because kpop is just kids/teeny music. God I hate the cliché framing in such shows (besides them being rigged to an extend) ...

[lilacpaperbird]

Hi,

I took from your other post that you are Chinese or at least able to read and write Chinese.

I'm really curious about something. (And please excuse my lack of knowledge on how Chinese writing works. I hope this question is not offending.)

Is there a Chinese sign for wincest? And for wincesties? If so, could you show us what it looks like?

Have a nice day! 🤗

hiii! I'm flattered you think I know Chinese, I wish !! I managed to translate that post using several online translators + the help of a chinese friend <3

I sent @cathybird0714 your question and she was so kind to explain it all to me. I'll tell you what I've learned:

There are several names they use for Wincest

1) 温骨 - /wen gu/

2) 温双 - /wen shuang/

3) 温温 - /wen wen/

Those three mean basically the same thing, Wincest. But I'm a linguistics nerd and I wanted to know more about them! So...

1) 温骨

温 literally means "warm", but the nickname comes from the first character in the translation of "Winchester" – 温彻斯特

骨 means incest, the nickname for incest is 骨科, which is an abbreviation that comes from "German orthopaedics" (德国骨科). And you may be wondering why the hell is that the case. Well, there's a popular rumour that says a father caught his son and daughter fucking, and the father beat the boy so bad he broke his legs and he ended up going to a German orthopaedic to get them fixed. Fascinating stuff

2) 温双

双 means pair/two, so 温双 means a pair of 温

3) 温温

Simply a cuter version of the name!

But that isn't all. Chinese wincesties care a lot about top/bottom dynamics, so they have two other names to refer to Wincest depending on that

- 爱死�� /ai si di/: also called "SD", means top!sam/bottom!dean. The Chinese literal meaning is "to love younger brother to death"

- 弟爱死 /di ai si/: also called "DS", means top!dean/bottom!sam. The Chinese literal meaning is "to love big brother to death"

(btw SD is by far the most popular version of the ship in the Chinese fandom)

Regarding the word Wincestie, in Chinese it is 骨姐 /gu jie/. 姐 means sister!

骨姐 is the neutral term, if you want to specify if it's SD or DS, you write that version of the term then add 姐 after

Thanks again to @cathybird0714 for her help and patience with me as I asked her a million questions!!! <3

[kchasm]

Ryu Number: Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was a German-born philosopher, theologian, and physician. His personal philosophy was based around the idea of "reverence for life": He believed that there was nothing of the objective world itself that evinced any innate meaning or ethical quality, and that the world was composed of life seeking to sustain itself, which occurred at the expense of other lives. Schweitzer proposed a system of ethics founded on a thoughtful and constant awareness of the reverence for life—all living things—from which should result the effort—through actions—to strengthen and develop it. In short: It was good to maintain and further life and it was bad to damage and destroy life, and one ought to commit to the former as much as possible while minimizing the latter as much as could be managed.

…Did I explain that all right? I don't feel like I got that all right, not really. I suspect I'm mangling the guy's principles here in some way, and I can't do a lot more than apologize. I might not have failed my philosophy classes in university, but I can't honestly say I aced them, either. Just sort of floated through while managing to keep my head above water,

Anyway, praxis manifested itself notably in his running of a hospital in French Equatorial Africa (later Gabon)—founded originally in 1913 before World War I broke out and, as a German citizen in French territory, he was removed. He returned to the hospital in 1924, and headed its operation until his death in 1965.

Yeah, all of that was really heavy, wasn't it? If you want to take a moment before crossing the readmore, I totally understand.

If you didn't already know, here's where you learn that both Ryu and Darth Vader show up as guest fighters in Brawlhalla. There's always someone who doesn't know about Brawlhalla, and I love letting them know that Brawlhalla exists. (Rayman is there too.)

Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga includes a trailer for the then-upcoming Lego Indiana Jones video game. Watch it, and you can buy Indiana Jones from the shop. And then play as him, of course.

Dude's a bit clean-shaven, but it's him. He's got the whip and everything.

The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles was a TV show based on, uh, well, the chronicles of young Indiana Jones. These semi-edutainment stories would usually see Indy getting tangentially involved with real-life historical events and meeting momentarily with real-life historical figures. The episodes were later edited and released across three DVD sets as The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, each the sets including a DVD-ROM that let you install a slightly more educational computer game version of one of the stories in the set.

Quality-wise, these games are a little, uh.

Also Indiana's really blond in these for some reason.

Still counts, though. Including the parts where questionably drawn Indiana gets to meet the various questionably drawn historical figures.

(Incidentally, for his work, Albert Schweitzer got the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952. This makes him one among a surprisingly large number of Nobel Peace Prize laureates with Ryu Numbers. Larger than you'd think, I'd mean. Or at least larger than you'd think if I asked you to guess how many Nobel Peace Prize laureates had Ryu Numbers and then told you you had only five seconds to answer.)

(It's more than ten, anyway.)

[waratah-vroom]

Good Vibes (ms47)

Liked by yourusername, schumiangel and 485,208 others f1: Haas will not be renewing their contract with Mick Schumacher for the 2023 season. There is currently no word on the German driver's future on the grid for next year.

yourusername: 😇😇😇 ↳ ms47fangirl: gurl what does this mean???

haassucks: Glad to see Schumacher leaving that toxic work environment. Hopefully he finds somewhere better.

guentherhater: FINALLY! He deserves so much more than fucking Steiner.

f1wags: aw I'm going to miss yourusername's petty stories hating on Guenther

mercedesamgf1 and mickschumacher

Liked by georgerussell63, f1 and 1,482,405 others mercedesamgf1: signed ✍️ We are happy to announce our 2023 reserve driver, mickschumacher!

yourusername: Looking good in black baby 🖤 ↳ mickschumacher: 💕

lewishamilton: Welcome to the team, mate!

jackdoohan: Congrats brother 💪

gina_schumacher: We're all so proud Mick

Tagged: mickschumacher Liked by estebanocon, schumiangel and 17,482 others yourusername: Well deserved break with my boy ❄️

jackdoohan: I can't believe you chose snow over coming to the beach with me 😠 ↳ yourusername: we land in Australia next week!

gina_schumacher: Did he manage to get off the lift without faceplanting? ↳ yourusername: 🤐 ↳ mickschumacher: Stop giving her ideas, Hase! That happened once gina_schumacher and I was 12.

“You seem happy.”

Mick sighed contently, his head resting on your lap as the two of you stretched out in front of the fire. Snow was falling outside the large windows, but you were nice and toasty wrapped up in a blanket with your furnace of a boyfriend in your arms.

“I am happy. I’m with you. Alone in the mountains with no one to bother us.”

“Yeah,” you nodded, but that wasn’t what you meant. “I meant in general. You seem happier than you were last month. More relaxed.”

He rolled over so his blue eyes met yours, his lower lip between his teeth. “You mean since Haas fired me.”

“Baby,” you fought off the eye roll. “If they hadn’t fired you, you would have quit.”

“I wouldn’t have-”

“You should have. They treated you like shit.”

“At least I was on the grid.”

“But was it worth it?” He was silent. You’d been having a version of this conversation since 2021. “Was it really worth being blamed for their failure just so you could drive?”

He leant back into your hand that was scratching his head, almost cat-like as his eyes fluttered closed. “I guess not.”

“And if you hadn’t left, you wouldn’t have been given the opportunity that you have now at Mercedes.”

“I know, I just hate when you’re right.”

“I’m right all the time.”

“Yeah and I hate it,” he opened one eye, a grin spreading across his face.

“Fine, if you hate it so much I won’t show you the new things I bought from Agent Provocateur.”

“Wait, don’t they make lingerie?” You didn’t respond, picking your phone up from next to you and opening instagram. “Hase? They make lingerie, right?” You could see the desperation on his face from the corner of your eyes and couldn’t help the small smile edging its way on your lips. “Baby, I’m sorry, you know I was joking. Come on, you have to show me what you bought. Please? I’ll do anything.”

That piqued your interest. He rarely needed to beg you as you usually gave in straight away, so this was a nice change. “Anything?”

“Anything.”

Liked by ms47fangirl, schumiangel and 340,274 others mercedesamgf1: Mick's first visit to Brackley as our official reserve driver!

micklover: can't wait to see him do a test drive!

yourusername: I know I shouldn't be thirsting over my boyfriend in his workplace's insta comments but 🥵 ARMS ↳ f1wags: where's the lie tho

yourusername: p.s I'm so happy to have my smiley boy back 🥰 Liked by mercedesamgf1

Liked by gina_schumacher, carmenmmundt and 20,382 others yourusername: It's race week so here's your regularly scheduled wag content ✨ Also thanks Mercedes - this was the first race in a long time I didn't get heartburn!

mercedesamgf1: Glad we could give you a stress free weekend 👍 Liked by yourusername & mickschumacher

mickschumacher: 🐰 Liked by yourusername

schumiangel: it's giving merc girlie ↳ yourusername: nah I'm a mick girlie 💕 ↳ micklover: shut the fuck up that is the cutest answer

read more of my writing here.

Made to order for @alilstressyandlotdepressy for my perfume collection xx

ﾟ｡ ⋆ mags' radio: this one was short and sweet bc i didn't have much inspiration. I was originally intending for this to be a steiner hate piece but i've seen so many of those around that i couldn't think of anything that hadn't already been said. I have plans for a Mick x Wolff!reader miniseries and a Vettel!reader miniseries, as well as a cute little smutty prequel to Green Thumb. If you're interested in my future stuff join my taglist! ⋆｡ ﾟ☁︎｡ ⋆｡ ﾟ☾ ﾟ｡

taglist: @fulla02reads @flowerchild-96 @camillalarke @cool-ultra-nerd @azxulaa @booksobsess @formulakay3 @moonvr @chonkybonky @peachiicherries @toalltheboyswhowastedmytime @lilacsimps @love4lando @lunnnix @cinderellawithashoe @ferrariloverr @chasing-liberosis @mickslover @noncannonships

[leviaana]

Miraculous Movie Review (Rating: 4/10)

I watched the preview of the Awakening movie yesterday and really want to share my honest review. There’s going to be several things that I’ll criticize. So be warned!

Also: Spoilers!! DON’T read it if you haven’t seen it yet. This is my personal opinion. So please stay excited for it!! 🐞🪄

First of all, my overall rating for this movie is a 4/10. Just yesterday I was ready to give it a 5/10, but quickly noticed it had much more things that upset me than I initially realized when walking out of the movie.

I know it’s a pretty low rating coming from such a huge fan like myself, but that’s probably the main issue. I’m a big fan of the show, so changes in lore and characterization will be more apparent to me. For better or for worse, in this case, mostly for worse.

On the first glimpse the movie seems like a retelling - a soft reboot, if you will - of show’s origin story. The plot goes much further than that however, as it also provides a conclusion in form of a final battle with Hawkmoth as well as an identity reveal of our two main heroes.

In order to ensure the entire premise fits into a 90 minute movie, a lot of things regarding the shows lore were simplified. I say that as a neutral statement seeing as a simplification can be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your opinion of the source material.

Personally, it left me rather unsatisfied but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with the good things!

One of the things I really enjoyed was the animation! Seeing miraculous with such a high production value certainly felt like a cool summer breeze. While I do prefer the original character models style wise, it was still just nice to see them in this cutesie pretty style! The locals were gagging!

Ladybug and Cat Noir were especially gorgeous!

I also really enjoyed the singing. I watched the German dub and it was very neat!

Sad to say that was pretty much how long my enjoyment lasted. Everything apart from what I’ve mentioned above was… interestingly handled… to say the least. Let me elaborate.

1. The dialogue was awful!

Truly not the biggest fan of musicals but I couldn’t wait for them to start singing just in order for them to STOP TALKING 😩!

The dialogue was so awkward and stiff. All of the characters were interacting very weirdly with each other. At times it would sound like several lines of dialogue were cut from the final version, as the characters barely acknowledged each other verbally. They didn’t talk with each other, but past each other.

Moreover, every second phrase was a very cheesy one liner. “Believe in yourself.”, “Listen to your heart.”, “stronger together”. Super overdone.

The movie wanted to be inspirational so bad, it forgot to be genuine.

Some examples that I recall from memory:

“Mom, I don’t have any friends and I’m scared to go I school.”

“Just believe in yourself, Marinette.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Or.

“Tikki, I’m in love with Adrien.”

“Listen to your heart, Marinette.”

“My heart……Adrien.”

2. How did they manage to make Ladynoir banter … weird and uncomfortable to watch?

Don’t let these pretty movie shots fool you because Movie!ladynoir spent their time in a constant roasting competition that they were somehow both losing!

Not once did they manage to establish that flirty and charming atmosphere around them. No, they were draaaagging each other through filth. And maybe it could have been somewhat fun, god knows I love couples that can roast each other. If only the dialogue was better and didn’t reek of “we have no idea how young people interact”.

In a desperate attempt to make jokes, they let Chat call LB a sidekick or watermelon in every. single. scene. To say that it got annoying when the jokes didn’t land the first 10 times they were made is an understatement. No Milady, no Bugginette, no little wink or a kiss on the hand. Only watermelon and sidekick. Them talking in weird cut off phrases. With careless whisper playing in the background.

Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful moments. But their beauty can only ever do so much when met with weird pacing, dialogue and characterization. I’ll talk about that last part in a minute.

3. Everything was so on-the-nose.

The characters would constantly say how they feel and what they think aloud. Jeremy didn’t trust us with even an ounce of media literacy. Classic case of always telling, never showing. Not to mention the constant inspirational quoting in a desperate attempt to convey some deep message. Is this a movie script or my moms facebook page? I guess we‘ll never know.

4. Characterization: Marinette

Having Marinette be somewhat scatterbrained but overall still respected by her peers is not inspirational enough! Make her your average teenage outcast and a total loser. Dad, you’re embarrassing me in front of the cool kids!

If you enjoy that kind of characterization that’s okay! Personally, I thought it was very cliche. It just.. didn’t do anything for her as a character. Having her start off at a much „lower” point in life, with almost no support system, only makes her coming of age journey to eventually become a self accepting confident heroine take longer. Seeing as the movie is only 90 minutes, the moment we see her “shine” is when it’s all almost over.

5. Ladybug …?

Did I mention Ladybug doesn’t use her lucky charm? Not. once. No crazy plans to show that she’s smart and creative. Just a pretty girl swinging around.

6. Adrien

I have a bit more to criticize about the characterization of Movie!Adrien.

The longer I think about it, the more it becomes apparent that they really didn’t know how to write Adrien. His personality appears inconsistent, almost like they were trying to fit him in too many roles at once. He is either extremely closed off and mysterious (even towards his friends), a comic relief character, bathing in self pity or just outright cocky. Those hoping to see his politeness and selflessness will be disappointed. This character only is ever shown to be self centered. A perfect example is how he *didn’t do anything* to be called worthy of the Black Cat Miraculous. He was just one of the „chosen ones“. When the Adrien from the series sacrificed his own freedom to help Master Fu.

Another example is how this Adrien doesn’t really see anything in Marinette. He called her strange in their first interaction and never really lost a single thought on her throughout the rest of the series. No common praises, no support, just awkwardness and not the wholesome kind. In fact, I would argue Marinette and Adrien aren’t even friends in the movie, the only interaction to suggest otherwise was slammed as a 5 second scene in a 2 minute montage.

Even if you were to suggest their bond was formed off screen. We don’t really see it ever take root. He even turned down her gift and invitation to go to the ball with her. Yes, you guessed correctly. It was because he was busy bathing in self pity over being rejected by Ladybug. Yikes.

To sum it up, this Adrien really doesn’t care about anyone but himself. Ever. They massacred my boy.

7. Chat Noir

His charming smugness as Chat Noir crossed the fine line that turned to arrogance.

Considering how Adrien was characterized, that comes as no surprise.

As mentioned in my criticism towards the dialogue and the Ladynoir dynamic, this Cat is often seen discrediting LB with unfunny jokes. The moment you see him actually appreciate Ladybug, open up to her and Woo her, it’s all overshadowed by his entitlement to her affection.

Some may argue that we see traces of such attitude in the show as well. However, in a series, Chat Noir has many redeeming qualities as well as time to grow, change and move past these flaws. And boy, move past these flaws he did. In the movie, it’s all you get. Take it or leave it.

In one scene, he even lets her think he was hurt by an Akuma in order to catch her worrying about him. It was just a short scene and most people would look past it, but I think it’s these small details that really show how these movie characters tick in comparison to the series.

8. Akumas/Hawkmoth

Just a small detail that kind of ended up taking away the enjoyment of all action scenes is how the Akumas in the movie do not have a motive. There’s just some random people that you don’t care about before their akumatization and that you won’t care about after.

Hawkmoth doesn’t make a deal with them, ask for ladybug and chat noirs miraculous in exchange for his powers, none of that.

He just makes them evil and they do evil things for shits and giggles. The movies premise doesn’t even suggest he needs the miraculous. He just needs to get close enough to Ladybug and Chat Noir to steal Tikki and Plagg.

9. The Ending

I just wanted to dip into that ending real quick. In the movie, Gabriel is redeemed when he finds out about Chat Noir being Adrien. He apologizes to him and they make up. The scene surely will make people emotional, but from my perspective it was all rather predictable.

Whether or not Gabe was worthy of a redemption in the movie is a topic to discuss on its own. Personally, I was okay with it.

What I found more interesting however was…

10. The reveal

This is the moment most people have been waiting and yearning for. And I may sound a bit smug when I say that the movie served a good purpose to show us that a fast reveal would have never ever been satisfying!

It was super underwhelming because - of course it was!

Marinette and Adrien barely had a connection! For all we know they could have been total strangers and their reaction to each other’s identity wouldn’t have been any different than what we saw in the movie.

We never saw Marichat or Ladrien interact either. So that certainly lead to a less explored dynamics. Cue unsatisfying reveal.

They really tried to make it this big emotional final moment, but really? We just saw Ladybug and Chat Noir lean in for a kiss without their masks. Like in a new fit. Nothing really groundbreaking came out of it.

Any fake reveal in the show was better than that and I mean it with every fiber of my being.

And don’t even get me started on how Adrien only ever noticed Marinette when she revealed to be Ladybug. It’s just not it.

Final thoughts.

There’s sooo many more things that I could elaborate on but I think for now I’ve said enough to support my rather poor rating of the movie.

In my opinion, the movie relies too much on people enjoying the source material while trying to be its own thing. It risks leaving everyone unsatisfied.

Those who watch the movie as a stand-alone are met with weird dialogue as well as plot, characters and dynamics that aren’t at all fleshed out.

Meanwhile those who watch the movie because they like the show will be inevitably comparing the movie to its far superior source material.

[hikaruchen]

Reading this blog and procrastinating what I should’ve been doing at the moment, but it’s super helpful if you want to know more about the Anglo-Saxon and Viking material culture but don’t want to be bored to hell. All articles are done by an archaeologist specializing in mortuary archaeology, and he has already written several ones about burials and pagan practices during that time through the lens of The Last Kingdom. I’ve linked one of his posts before on ao3 when discussing about the historical accuracy of Alfred’s tomb effigy in the show under the pic Prayer from the Pagan, but didn’t really had the time to check others out. I just did it and find his other articles are actually super interesting to read as well.

For instance, back when I post this pic in January I said the colour palette was inspired by the Alfred jewel, but I completely forgot that it actually appeared in the show (2x04) where Alfred handed it to Æthelwold and said “Take this. It is a symbol of my kingship. Bear it with authority.”, which might be partially true but is hilarious if you give it another thought.

Because, why, in God’s name, would Alfred hand an ARTEFACT version of the piece he commissioned himself to his nephew? As Prof. Williams already stated (in this post), the Alfred jewel has long been assumed to be the handle part of a pointer stick for following words when reading a book, and if you look at the artefact itself it is quite clear that there’s a part that’s been missing as well. The reason why scholars think it has something to do with Alfred is because:

1) It’s written. The text on the frame literally says that “ÆLFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN”, which means “Alfred ordered me made”. The more detailed explanation below (with the help of beloved wikitionary since I don’t understand Old English at all)

ÆLFRED (subject) Alfred, obviously MEC (object) me; accusative of iċ (I), but in the West Saxon dialect it’s actually an uncommon version of iċ’s accusative and is more often seen in the Anglian dialect. The frequently-used version for West Saxons is mē HEHT (verb) ordered; third-singular past tense for hātan (to call; to order etc.), often followed with infinitive verbs, cognate with heißen in German GEWYRCAN (verb) to make; I honestly don’t know if “to make” and “to be made” is just the same word in OE help And since the word order in OE is random as hell thanks to the case system (much like German which I eventually gave up learning because I don’t have a brain big enough for that. IT MAKES NO SENSE TO A NATIVE MANDARIN SPEAKER THANK YOU), it is eventually translated into “Alfred ordered me to be made”.

2) It was discovered in Somerset and has been dated to the late 9th century, and we all know what Somerset meant to Alfred

3) Alfred did say he would send a copy of his translation of Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Care to every episcopal see in his kingdom in the preface to it, with the book accompanied “an æstel of 50 mancuses”. Mancus was a term to denote a gold coin or a unit for coins worth about a month’s wage for a skilled worker, such as a craftsman or a soldier. Whatever that æstel is it must be worth hell LOTS of money

But honestly while I do think this interpretation sounds very much plausible I’m thinking about other possibilities as well - how many Alfreds exactly existed during his time? We know that Æthel in OE means noble, so people bearing this prefix in their names were usually royal members or at least aristocrats, but what about Alfred? Was Alfred a popular name? Or was it unique enough that he could just go by this name without mentioning his title at all? Imagine if it were an Æthelred who made this, who the hell would know which one of these it was referring to, Æthelred the King, Æthelred the Ealdorman, Æthelred Ealhswith’s father, or even Æthelred the fucking Archbishop??? And yeah, I know Alfred was the king ™ here and there isn’t really much space left on the frame after all, but surely it wouldn’t cost a bone to add a cyning behind his name, right?

Sadly, as it was in the pre-Domesday-Book era, I can’t find the statistics of Anglo-Saxon names at that time (but keep in mind that there were at least 19 Alfreds worthy enough to be mentioned in Domesday Book even after the conquest. I don’t know if this says anything at all but I do want to mention it) What I’m trying to say is while it is highly highly highly likely (and I do believe and want to believe in this theory!), we cannot be one hundred percent certain that this jewel was really from the Alfred we’re talking about. And even if it was, it apparently wouldn’t be carried around by Alfred like THAT. Because that would be like, “Bear this with authority! Even though the symbol of my kingship is broken!”, said Alfred to a king wannabe. Lol.

The other thing I want to mention is this post about the show’s use of Fuller brooch, the one Alfred wore in S2 when he was in his war gear.

First of all, it is indeed dated to late 9th century and is assumed by scholars to be made by metalworkers of Alfred’s court. Everything is fine except I don’t think you would want to wear jewelry that luxurious to war…but then there’s this thing:

MEET GIANT FULLERS!

Well, can’t blame them since I am basically doing the same thing with my drawings (i.e. using patterns on jewelry and illustrations from manuscripts for embroidery design). But it’s worth noting that designs that are suitable for one art form doesn’t mean they can be applied to another well, and that’s why I claim my art is inspired by Anglo-Saxon art but NOT historical accurate for the Anglo-Saxon period. The reason I still do this and think it is understandable for TLK crew to do so is because we simply don’t have that many resources to reference from when it comes to this time period, and fabrics and wooden buildings are just extremely hard to preserve by nature. Instead of screwing up the design on your own, it just has more fun to add real historical elements into your work. Look at those easter eggs!

Ok, that’s it. I hope you enjoy my long rant and have a good read from Prof. Williams’s works!

[hyperions-light]

Good riddance to that mess: Thank the Dread Wolf we’re done with the Mage-Templar conflict

(because magic in Thedas is more interesting this way)

Okay the people who love conflict have won and I am going to talk about this now lol

I've decided to stick within the framework of the world/story for this particular post, because I think you could talk about the issues with the mages/templars in connection with how they relate to real-life groups for an entire essay AT LEAST, and I want to focus on magic here, so I don't think it's that germane to the discussion. If you all want to talk about that later, I can put it on the pile.

It turns out that Jenny Nicholson was 100% right about the efficacy of numbered lists on the internet, so this essay will be hybridized into a list. Here are the reasons I'm glad the mage-templar conflict is gone and hope it never returns:

It limits storytelling avenues I understand how they arrived at this dichotomy as the logical extrapolation of a minority of people in Thedas being born with magic BUT it's very boring and it doesn't facilitate interesting stories. If you have this strict system and hierarchy that means that every mage has to live in the tower or they're a) a criminal or b) Dalish, that seriously limits the kind of characters you can make who are mages, which is dull as both a player and a writer.

Trying to make it nuanced is difficult Attempting to show that everyone has a point in a situation is difficult when one group has absolute power over the other and can kill them whenever they feel like it. Also, with the abuses the Templars regularly perpetuate against the mages established in DAO and DA2 any attempted justification reads as the story sanctioning an oppressive force. If they try to demonstrate the danger of magic, they end up with the 10,000 blood mage problem from DA2. It's a hard thing to do within the framework they set up, but they also haven't been particularly successful with it, imo, so abandoning it is a better choice.

It's the most reductive version of the conflict Reducing the entire discussion to whether magic is good or evil, whether mages should be free or confined is really boring. It's a false dichotomy that promotes extremism in characters on either side of the conflict who never interact with one another. "Is magic bad?" is a useless and uninteresting question. Who cares? What does it do?; Where did it come from?; What different ways can you use it? are all better questions.

Makes it difficult for the audience to learn more about magic If the only characters the audience ever meets are people who come from the Circle, Dalish mages, and apostates, the amount they're going to learn about different perspectives on magic and its various uses is limited. Part of the reason Jaws of Hakkon was such an interesting DLC for DAI is because the Avvar have a completely different philosophy about magic and spirits. It was refreshing after several games of having the same ideas about magic shoved down our throats to hear someone give a different perspective and ACTUALLY NEW information. Everything I needed to know about the mage-templar conflict, I already knew by the end of DAO, but I had to sit through two more entire games while people discussed it at length.

Magic in the North is fascinating Now that we're finally rid of that conflict, look how many different kinds of magic we get to see in DATV! We get to meet a Rivaini Seer, a Mortalitasi (who can use magic to TALK TO REAL DEAD PEOPLE!!!), a non-Altus mage from the Tevinter Imperium; we get to see magic as it was utilized by the ancient elves and how it interfaces with technology. We got DWARF MAGIC!! Finally, an answer to what Sandal was doing! We found out you can use it to turn yourself into a LICH!!! All of that stuff is so cool, and we had never encountered it before this game! It brings up so many new questions about the nature of the Fade, the source of magic itself, the strength of magic in Thedas relative to other places in the world. And NONE of it could be discussed in the South because they are too busy arguing about fucking towers!!!

tl;dr: The mage-templar conflict was a boring and reductive lens through which to view magic in the DA universe, I'm glad it's gone, I hope they continue what they started in DATV and explore different ways magic can be used in the future.

[ukfrislandembassy]

I think that conlangs are a very useful way of seeing how the biases of linguistic theory manifest when applied by amateurs (and occasionally professionals). When linguists are promoting their theories they often like to make the claim that they can account for all phenomena, even if there's some clear foci for their actual attention. So the outputs of conlanging as a hobby make an interesting case study of the application of these theories, because the theories bias the kinds of structures conlangers actually end up including in their languages.

Specifically, it seems clear to me that internet-based conlangers especially show the clear effects of the assumptions made by what Jim Blevins terms the 'Post-Bloomfieldian Structuralism' that has been the default mode of linguistic analysis and theorising for decades now.

In phonology this manifests with the focus on phonemes and phoneme inventories, partly at the expense of phonotactics but especially phonetics. The result of this is a flattening of phonological structure; each of these phonemes ends up being tret as a unit of equal status within the system, with any kinds of distributional asymmetries between phones only included as an afterthought by means of some phonological rules.

It's why you get channels like Conlang Critic on Youtube pronouncing each of the individual phonemes of a conlang like that tells you what you need to know about the actual sound of a language. I rarely see any kind of restricted distribution or positional neutralisation of the kind seen in e.g. the Mandarin Chinese palatal series.

Morphology is where this kind of fixation most strongly manifests, because morphemes are an even worse fit for the morphological phenomena of natural languages than phonemes are for phonological phenomena. In effect what this leads to is the same kind of atomisation that we see with phonology; all 'morphemes' are tret as having equal status in the system, so you end up with a morphological system that just comes off as a phonologically more bound version of the syntax (but with more lists).

For instance, when was the last time you saw a conlang that made use of the concept of 'stem'? Or which showed syncretism between cells in paradigms? Have you ever seen a conlang that made use of a morphological pattern that could be considered 'morphomic'? I could go on.

None of these are somehow 'strange' or 'exotic' phenomena; they're found to some extent in pretty much all Romance languages, perhaps most elaborately in French, and much of this also crops up all over Germanic too.

I think there might be some of this tendency in the lexicon too; homophony and polysemy seem oddly infrequent in conlangs, even though they're ubiquitous in natlangs (English I/eye and you/ewe are particularly neat for showing that not even pronouns are safe from this). I've not got as much to say on this as I don't tend to pay so much attention to conlang lexicons, so I could be wrong on this one.

The actual relationship of conlangs to linguistic theory is messy, and I'm acutely aware that this is largely anecdotal. Indeed, plenty of experienced conlangers make a point of highlighting at least some of these issues, and there's definitely conlangs that avoid many of these issues (Siwa/Siųa is a good one for this, you'll have to dig through the thread to get to the actual grammar). My intent here is mainly to get some discussions going, because the real question is actually 'how do we get the conlang community to understand these phenomena and make use of them at the kinds of rates that we actually find in natural languages (which is pretty much any language with morphology, with maybe a couple of exceptions)?'

[violetvenom]

Okay, here comes a post I wanted to do for a long long while and I summon all the fellow Walter enjoyers for this.

In the last 2 years I've rewatched and reread Hellsing several times and I have to admit I love to analyse stuff. So naturally a lot of questions popped into my mind regarding my fav character.

But one question stood out in particular: What the fuck is Walter? Yes, you've read this right..what..not who!

Yes, there is a theory in the fandom I think not many people know of or even care for, which actually makes a lot of sense. It's clear he his human (except at the end of the main story) but I think I speak for us all that his abilities are way over the top for a mere human. Some peple will probably know where this is going..but before I start explaining, I just want to clarify I will cite and take references and informations from several fan translations, fansubs and the official German translation of the manga. I just started to collect the new edition of the English one, so I can't properly refer to them but please feel free to fill me in with the old English version if there are drastic differences in context.

With this said..let's go trough what we know about Walter step by step:

We will start chronological with his youngest persona we saw: Young Walter or how the Japanese like to call him; Sholter.

So in The Dawn we get a throwback to a 14-year old Walter, who get's send on the mission to fight the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944. At the round table he gets praised by Arthur as the "strongest human of their existing militants".

So this clears Walter is in fact human and not something else, and also Hellsing's top figther. Alucard doesn't count here since he is a vampire and the secret special weapon.

We learn from Alucard that he officially must have met Walter when he was just mere 9 years old. Citing Girlycard here:

Hellsing's main story plays in 1999 and Walter is 69 at this point...that's simple math.

And this actually makes sense. When Girlycard and Walter get sent to Warsaw you can tell they already know each other. I won't dive deep into their dynamic here because I plan to do a seperate post for this, but I think the most notable moment to make that point clear is when Walter insults and questions "Bastard. Where's your shape?".

Or how it got translated in one fansub:

While Walter asks this, Alucard is already manifesting as Girlycard, stating "the form I take means nothing to me". So it's pretty safe to say Walter knows about the usual red coat man form and the vampire's ability to transform. Overall The Dawn gives vibes that they both already have fought alongside for a while.

I think this is enough to estabilish they met when Walter was 9 years old. Meaning they probably worked together for 5 years to this point...or at least Walter dealing with Alucard's shenanigans.🤭

This rises the question...how the hell does a 9-year-old end up in such an organization?

We don't know where Walter comes from..where he is born..who his parents are..Nothing!

It's a big mysterium, which I find rather odd since he is one of the most important characters in the main story and even the main character next to Girlycard in The Dawn.

But this actually fuels the fire of curiosity in me.

So let's take a turn here and talk about his abilities: We don't know how his wires work or what they actually are, but I will mention my idea with the final conclusion later on. So for now we ignore this part and just look at some examples of his bodily capabilities.

He is stronger than the average human:

Walter drags Alucard's coffin with one hand like it's an empty cardboard box.

Since Alucard canonically can weight basically nothing and rests in no particular shape in there (that's why he later emerged as black wobbling mass which first has to manifest into Girlycard), I just can point to the weight of a coffin for an adult.

This is the first data which shows up if you google it:

Also Alucard is canonically 6'6" (198cm) tall. Abraham staked him while he was more or less laying in the coffin...

...so it's not impossible the coffin even is oversized and weights more. I mean:

It's quite big, but not the most relatable source since Hirano fucks up with details a lot of times. lol

Walter then even kicks the coffin out of the plane with a simple kick.

Speaking of kicking; we also saw Walter kicking a knife.

You not only need a good control over your body to kick a knife from the table up and forwards, but look at the force he does this with. Animated it looked even more easy peasy for him to do so and the full force gets more clear if you see how fast the knife maneuvered to the Major. There is also quite the distance between them and the Captain catches the knife when it got pretty close to it's intended target.

Then he breaks the table in two parts with just one mere kick.

And even with 69 he still got a force in his legs which is astounding.

We saw how he kicked Jan against the wall for a brief second. And again animated it's even more impressive, when you can see and hear how Jan smashes against the wall.

And not to forget he could lift out the Harkonnen I for Seras like no biggie.

Just to paint the picture more clearly: The Jackal for Alucard alone weigthed 16kg and he handled it with it's case like it was nothing.

He is very swift, flexible and quick in reacting:

When Jan jumped over him and tried to run, he didn't take long to react to that despite being baffled by the enemies actions.

Or before that scene when he and Seras crawled trough the vents to get to the round table, where it seems that there is difference between OVA and manga.

In the manga it seems Walter crawls out with the legs first and landing gracefully on his feet (and luckily not on Seras):

Seras on the other hand....we still love you, silly police girl. In the OVA Walter emerges face first from the vent and catches his weight with his hands...

...just to push himself in the air again to regain his stance.

I can't stress enough that he is 69 here! So when he is capable to quickly move and react in such an age, it's no wonder young Walter did stunts like jumping out of a plane without a parachute and crashing through a window.

He is incredibly sturdy:

The most unflattering panel of Walter ever shows us with what force the Captain was punching the teen.

Like holy shit...that must have hurt. I can imagine this blow is the reason for his monocle later on.

Then he took a blow to the guts....

...and one in the back.

Ignoring that every anime/manga character has at least 100 litres of blood...those hits from a werewolf are sure something. No way a normal person would have survived this.

And yet Walter manages to quickly react and headbutt the doggo.

Also with an incredible force.

It's surprising as the Captain starts to strangle him, his neck isn't snapping like a twig.

We just saw how the werewolf just crushed a knife with a bare hand.

Looking at all those facts, you can't tell me he isn't the true one hell of a butler he is a mere human.

I'm convinced Walter is like Anderson an enhanced human. Which is also the theory circling around in the fandom and answers the question what he is.

But I never saw an explanation why this theory exists in the first place. So the gears in my head started spinning and tried to solve the puzzle.

We know the Vatican experimented on Anderson and thus creating his regeneration powers.

I can't remember if it ever got explained how, but it doesn't even truly matter in the end. Which matters is the fact that Walter was able to create a weapon for figthing Anderson. So my best guess is they experimented with biotechnology, which also plays a huge part in creating freak vampires.

BUT

Hellsing got their own ways and the prime example is Alucard.

It often seems to get forgotten who Abraham Van Helsing was, and what he was knowledgeable about.

And since Bram Stoker's Dracula is kinda canon to Hellsing, it's a fair use to cite Wikipedia here. ✌️

Integra even said that Alucard is the culmination of "generations of Hellsing's occult knowledge". This means nothing other than Alucard got experimented on, which makes sense since all the usual vampire weaknesses don't apply to him anymore.

But how do you experiment on a vampire? Well, if the word occult has not made it clear enough; let's have a look at a part in the manga where Richard chases smol Integra and provides some insights what Hellsing manor contains on rooms:

I think one is clearly sticking out a bit: Wizardry Analysis Room.

Combined with the fact Alucard's seals on the back of his gloves are pentragams with runes speaks a lot about what kind of experiments Abraham did.

This makes alchemy and sorcery to something which is canon and existing in Hellsing!

Since we know literally nothing about Walter, I think it's no wild guess to assume he is like Alucard an experiment of the Hellsing organisation.

I wouldn't go so far and say he is an homunculus since Arthur clearly said he is human as he fills in the round table about freak vampires, ghouls and Walter's existence. I see no reason why he should hide the fact they themselves created a homunculus at this point.

But what stood out to me was this sentence tho:

The majority of translations seem to go with born, but there are also some who are more like this:

Since I'm not able to find raw scans of The Dawn to maybe translate that part myself and to confirm, and I don't understand Japanese well enough to maybe listen and understand what Arthur exactly uses for words in the animation; take the following with a grain of salt.

If we go ahead with the born sentence...what actually would that mean?

Walter would have been indeed be born into the role of a vampire hunter. Which could also overlap with his role as being Hellsing's butler.

I'm no historian and very far off so but as far as I could research, this was something which was a thing:

Which makes the whole thing even more interesting. We don't know if Walter even has parents in the traditional sense. Is he some sort of lab-grown baby? If he got parents, were they also employed at Hellsing? What happened to them?

Questions which can't get answered here but can inspire to create nice headcanons.

To bring this long post finally to an end; My conclusion is that Walter is indeed an enhanced human, created by Hellsing themselves probably through alchemy. Which could wonderfully connect to his wires, because they could also be a product of alchemy or wizardry of some sort, since there is no logically explanation for this. 👀

Let me know if I've had missed something.

[littlewomenpodcast]

About Snow White, The Prince And The Trauma (And Greta Gerwig Stuck In A Mirror)

Well friends, it has officially started. I have received requests to roast the new Live Action Snow White, the moment it appears and I don't even want to see it hahah. I have been working on a new video essay about the glorification of male abuse in Gerwig's movies, and I hope to release it before Christmas.

Here are my thoughts about the original animated Snow White from the 1930s and the fairy tale and the meaning of the prince. When I post this I have not seen Gerwig’s live-action Snow White and I don’t know if I have the stomach to watch another movie where she tries to shovel white feminism down my throat. According to the leading actress and the director, there is not going to be a prince in the movie, dwarfs are idiots and Snow White is a girl boss.

To be honest I don’t think Greta Gerwig cares at all about feminism or any of the original sources of her movies. I think she only cares about fame and money. The reason why I dislike white feminism or pop feminism, however, you like to call it, is because it is never about equality. It always tends to be more about misogyny. It is not about equality to all genders, body types, or races, it is all about ”I am superior to you”. When I heard that she was going to direct the live-action Snow White, my first thought was ” That is very ironic”, because at its core Snow White is a story about the destruction of narcissism, but when it comes to this live-action, all I see is Snow White messaging ”I am not the fairest of them all, am superior to you all”.

But what if I don’t want Snow White to be a girl boss? What if I like her just the way she is? with all those Beth March vibes and all.

The prince is not very present in the 1937 animation, which I think is a bit of a shame, he seems like a good guy. I would have given him more screen time. There is a German story called Richilde, which is an early retelling of Snow White and it is believed to have inspired the Brothers Grimm to write their own version. In Richilde after the prince saves Snow White, they actually start plotting together against the evil queen. It is quite nice that there is at least one version, where the prince is more active and I always support a couple getting to know each other before the wedding.

I always thought that the evil queen killed Snow White’s parents. We know that she wants power. Maybe she killed the first queen and tricked the king to marry herself and I guess she left Snow White alive, because killing her might cause suspicions and perhaps she wanted a free slave to herself.

When I think about the prince, I think he is a crucial part of Snow White’s recovery. Specifically recovery from trauma. Let’s imagine she is five years old when the queen murders her parents. Queen forces her to be a slave at her own home. She needs to do the laundry, cook her meals, and wash the stairs. Together with all that labour, she very likely experiences physical abuse and emotional abuse. You can not show this directly in a Disney film, but I’d say the scene where the old witch brings her the apple, is a very good example of emotional manipulation.

If you grow up in this kind of environment, where someone is a narcissist, there is always gas lighting. We know that Snow White likes to think the best of people, she might have thought something in these lines ”oh the queen didn’t think I was productive enough today, so she only gave me dry bread to eat, at least she remembered me”.

Small gestures of caring, might appear bigger in the mind of the victim, than they are in reality. She eats the apple because she feels sorry for the old woman, but also because the witch is pressuring her to eat the apple, and Snow White is conditioned from a very young age, to believe that abuse is normal.

Another 13 year old girl in the middle ages, might not have done the same, not if they recognized that it was manipulation. Narcissistic people play mind games, so much that they twist your views on reality.

It is possible that when Snow White lives in the palace, other servants were told not to be friends with her, otherwise the queen would punish them, which would also explain why we only see her having animal friends at the palace.

She has a kind heart, which is why the dwarfs like her and the prince falls in love with her, but if we think about her trauma,

this 13-year-old girl has faced years and years of emotional and physical abuse from the queen.

The queen killed her parents and made her to be her slave,

Snow White was forced to escape to the woods at night, which can be a scary experience even for an adult,

queen tried to kill her friends,

the queen tried to kill her more than once

the queen put her into a coma.

That's a lot of trauma. She is 13 years old. It’s child abuse.

The way I see it, the prince represents the possibility for Snow White to heal from the trauma. Sometimes you hear stories of people who have been abused as kids, and there are those who thrive, and those who are prisoners of their trauma, The people who thrive, are the ones who have at least one person in their life who helped them through the traumatic experience. It can be a spouse, a friend or a good therapist.

It would be very difficult for Snow White to find a trauma therapist from Middle Age Germany, but with the Prince, there is a promise of a better future, and him being stable person and someone who unconditionally loves Snow White, she can recover from these traumatic experiences and get that emotional support from him and truly live happily ever after.

P.S. Since the live action is a Gerwig film, bet your life, any form of male abuse is normalized and there is going to be a big speech from a leading lady, how the world is against her, because she is a woman. If instead of pop feminism, she would focus on trying to fix the unequal system that she is always complaining about, maybe her characters wouldn't have these problems..

but then she could not be the center of attention, could she?

@selkiesstories @heather-field @princesssarisa @fandomsarefamily1966 @thatscarletflycatcher @mysoftboybensolo @librarydame @rainbowmilk1996

[praetoravila]

SPILL YOUR GUTS MAGAZINE'S DANICA LANE GETS THE EXCLUSIVE FROM SINGER MACIE BEFORE HER 6TH ALBUM RELEASE: - More to follow under the cut.

{ TW for mentions of abuse and an attempted sexual assault. If you feel uncomfortable with these topics, feel free to skip this article and look at one of our beauty guides! }

taglist: @myloveforhergoeson @ceruleanmusings @raging-violets @bibaybe @rose-of-oz @ithinkyouhealedmyheart @nolanhollogay @happinessismagicc @kendelias @selangkir

At just 20-years-old, Macie formerly known by her legal name, Macie Smittens-Garcia, is the new “pop punk princess” on the scene.

Born in Savannah Georgia, but raised in Wilmington Island, the Georgian native has always been a musician - since she was a baby.

“My first words were me asking my older sister Maeve to put on Bills Bills Bills by Destiny’s Child.” Macie said, laughing as she remembered.

“Only I couldn’t pronounce my B’s yet, so it sounded like I was saying Dills Dills Dills.”

Music has always been a big part of Macie’s life, from her roots in beauty pageants to getting signed by Rocque Records at age 13. Since then, she’s released 5 albums, with another on the way.

“Twinkle Lights, is truly an album about self discovery. About knowing who I am. I mean it’s the first album I sing in Spanish on. Which was a big deal for me. I’m proud to be Boricua. It’s part of my heritage. The same way, being Scottish and German are.”

“Culture is important to me. I’m a punk girl, yes, but before that I am Afro-Latina. And that’s a big deal in this genre.” Macie explained, before elaborating.

“Pierce The Veil were some of the only Latinos in the rock genre that I knew of initially. And so, I’m very conscious that I am playing a similar part for young Latina girls.”

“For the longest time, I was scared to be my authentic self in this industry.” Macie said, as she elaborated. “And that put me into a lot of uncomfortable, unsafe situations. Twinkle Lights, is me getting to be authentic, and talk about some of my struggles, and why I am the way I am.”

Macie talked candidly about the sexual assault attempt that she mentions in the title track of the album.

Twinkle Lights, the title track opens with the lyrics of, At 14 years old I finally had to say No, and at 14 years old I finally had to let go. Prior to this song, and the album as a whole, Macie had never spoken about this incident.

“I didn’t have the words at the time to explain what had happened to me. And I struggled with that for a really long time, because I had the words to explain my mom’s behaviour.” she said, referring to her mother Amber Smittens, who is publically known for being Macie’s abuser from age 3 to age 7.

“I knew what CPTSD or childhood post traumatic stress disorder was. I didn’t know what this was.”

“But I didn’t have those words for the situation I went through at 14, or what I went through as a 19-year-old.”

“But with this album, I get to. And that’s a big accomplishment. In, Innocent Party, track two, I have a lyric that goes, The road to recovery was a long one, in case you wanna know, which was honestly mostly a line I came up with after seeing stuff people were saying online about me.”

“I was in such a bad place mentally, and knowing people were saying such shit about me made me so mad. They kept referring to me as an innocent party, as if they pitied me, and well... I got a song out of it at least!” Macie explained, a laugh forming.

The Puerto Rican-American girl continued on to talk about how fame messed with her self perception.

“It’s hard when everyone has an idea of who you are. Just because they listened to your music, or because they follow you on ScuttleButter. Which I have a very calculated version of myself out there for a reason. So when I’m able to be just Macie, it can be quite jarring.”

The interview which was done in Reseda, at Macie's first LA apartment, showed a different side to the singer than fans have seen. A softer, more vulnerable side. A side, that anyone who listens to Twinkle Lights, which is scheduled to come out on Macie's birthday in a few days, will see.

[timtamtomme]

GUESS IM STILL ON THET TF2 GRIND--- Ever since I resketched them all in my new style, I have been thinking about ACTALLY designing my merc ocs!! SO I FINALLY DID!! Plus they all share colors, proper, so they look so nice together!! I kina miss their story, so I'll see about exploring that more too.

Of course, to show off their scars and features, I also made a bare version! This will likely double as dress up dolls for future outfits I may make LMAO

Though a couple share names with cannon TF2 mercenaries, their lore and personalities have long since branched off from their canonical counterparts. If you're interested in some details about them, here's a quick mini-bio for each one!! I'm also open to answering any questions about them, because they have at least 6 years of history behind them, haha!

BLU MEDIC ~ Hannes Augesburt

German ~ He/Him ~ Demiromantic Bisexual Hannes is the closest you can get to the 'villain' of the story without looking beyond the mercenaries themselves. He's an egotistical sadist who wants nothing but complete and utter control of his team. He will do anything to win, even willingly replace his perfectly working arm for a far more powerful alternative.

BLU ENGINEER ~ Dallas "Dell" Conagher

American (Texas) ~ He/Him ~ Homosexual Dallas is a nepobaby for sure, only working for BLU because of his father and fathers father's loyalty to the Administrator. Graduating college for the first time at age 15, Dallas is an incredibly intelligent man, but all of that goes out the door when it comes to Hannes. He is extremely permissive and rarely has the guts to talk back or otherwise disobey the Medic's orders.

BLU SNIPER ~ Bernard {>REDACTED<}

French ~ He/Him ~ Homosexual No one really knows who he is or what he's about. Bernard spends most of his time alone doing god knows what; half the time he isnt even in the BLU Base when they're off work. The closest thing he has to a friend is the pyro, who has done what she can to include him in group activities to get him out of his room. The most personal thing she's discovered that he has a knack for knitting and crochet.

BLU PYRO ~ Ana Maria Garcia-Lopez

Mexican-American (Kansas) ~ She/Her ~ Pansexual Ana is a passionate and confident woman. She does what she can to inspire confidence in her team and lend them a hand whenever she can. The glue who keeps everyone together, she is often the first to rebuttal the Medic's commands if she perceives him going too far, though she's gotten a lot more quiet since the introduction of his new robotic arm. She fears what he's capable of.

RED HEAVY ~ Mikhail "Misha" Medved

Russian ~ He/Him ~ Heterosexual The often quiet muscle of the Red team, Misha spends most of his free time reading in the public spaces of the RED Base. He enjoys listening to others ramble and replies infrequently. However, when he feels like he has something to say, he is a loud and boisterous personality who has no shame or fear in his own opinions and humor.

RED SPY ~ Jourdain "Dain" {>REDACTED<}

French ~ He/Him ~ Bisexual An almost complete recluse, Jourdain takes no joy or comfort in interacting with his team; at least, that's what he lets on. Jourdain is a man who's so deeply fearful of getting hurt, that he refuses to let anyone get close enough to have the opportunity, and thus, he only spends time with his team during work hours. He does his job well and doesn't even slack on it, even though he believes it to be below him compared to his old jobs.

RED SCOUT ~ Nora Peterson

French-American (Massachusetts) ~ She/Her (Transfem) ~ Sapphic Bisexual Nora is a loud and proud Bostonian girl who has a love of sports and art. After she dropped out of art college, she needed to make up for the wasted tuition and pay back her mother, so she got a job fast. The first one she could find and paid the most was a mercenary job, though she didn't know what it actually was at the time. Since arriving here, she has settled in well, and soon settled into herself with her transition. Being a mercenary is terrifying at times, but she's felt freer then she has ever felt before.

[spanishskulduggery]

There's a certain grammatical construction I remember learning about, but I'm having a hard time yielding any results when I look it up. If I recall correctly, it went something like "el [x] de [y]" wherein [y] is a person and [x] is...a noun/adj that describes them? Potentially disparagingly.

The specific phrase that's stuck in my head is "el burro de [y]" but looking that up just gives me pages about actual donkeys. I guess my question is: is this a real construction, and if so, does it change according to the gender of the person being described? (e.g. la burra de teresa en vez de el burro de teresa)

Muchas gracias por tu ayuda :) Espero que estes bien y que haga buen tiempo donde estas

Yes, there is an expression like this. I don't quite know what it's called [anyone with Latin experience please help], but I know what you're talking about. The most common example in Spanish I think would be pobre de mí "poor me" or "woe is me"

...or pobre de ti "poor you", or pobre de + alguien which is like "woe betide (someone)"... it can be used almost threateningly like "May God have mercy on you" or "you'll rue the day" that sort of vibe; but same general idea of adjective + object/possessive

...

Note: Someone with experience with Latin might know the answer. I don't have a lot of Latin understanding but usually the expressions of de fall under genitive (possession) or ablative (separation); which for Spanish doesn't make much difference since it doesn't change conjugation or anything, but for looking up grammar helps narrow things down usually

However, in English something like "woe is me", which is considered dative; "woe is unto me", which is how it is in German - I don't know if it would count as dative in Spanish since that usually means indirect objects but it does use object pronouns like pobre de mí "woe is me"

In other words: yes it exists. No I don't know what it's called. Someone else might but in some cases it's a bit archaic and idiomatic so I would assume Latin has a version of it which would make it easier to look up if it were a specific subset of their case system

(though I think in Latin it's probably dative of some kind)

If you're on reddit you can ask something like "what would something like el idiota de mi marido be called grammatically? is it genitive? is it dative?" - you get lots of classics people and grammar people over on reddit that love to pick apart a mystery lol

-

As for what you actually asked - yes, it does exist and can be quite common, though the expression is in some places more idiomatic

An example - el idiota de mi jefe is like "my idiot boss", or more literally "the idiot that is my boss"

It usually comes up with object pronouns of some kind or a possessive. A really common example is pobre de mí or ay de mí which is like "poor me" or "woe is me"

It is often constructed as el/la + noun derived from an adjective + de + (alguien)

The noun would be gendered if gender applies... like idiota is unisex but el tonto de mi marido "my foolish husband" vs. la tonta de mi mujer "my foolish wife"

[when I googled it I got a children's song called La tonta de mi prima which is like "my silly/foolish cousin [f]"]

...

There's a very famous poem in Spanish (at least in Spain) called Ay de mi Alhama which is about the fall of Granada during the Reconquista - but it means something like "Woe unto Alhama" or "Alas Alhama", sometimes the poem is called "Ballad of the Loss of Alhama" - it's Medieval poetry, but same kind of construction

Unfortunately if you look up things on ay it usually just tells you it's an expression of grief or regret, not where the de comes in or what it means

-

The issue with something like burro is that it would come out as "donkey" a lot. I think you can use burro as an insult; I'm just saying that it's possible, it's just going to show you actual donkeys first

You might have better luck looking up something like el bruto or la bruta which is not necessarily "brute", it can mean something like "doofus" or "oaf" or just someone with low intelligence; again usually phrased with a possessive

You might see el bruto de mi marido "my dumb husband" or la bruta de mi mujer "my dumb wife" - if you were using burro/a it would be gendered

As opposed to el burro del granjero or el burro del granjera which is "the farmer's donkey" where el burro is a pure noun - and though you could technically say la burra for a "female donkey", it doesn't mean the same thing

........

The issue you will find here is that this construction is very similar in appearance to the regular genitive [possessive]

And so el burro de mi marido comes out as "my husband's donkey" most times

If you're doing regular possessive, the gender of the thing and the gender of the person it belongs to are completely distinct and do not change

El gato de mi amigo. = My friend's cat. La gata de mi amigo. = My friend's cat. [f] La silla del profesor. = The professor's chair. La silla de la profesora. = The professor's [f] chair.

You see this a lot with things like los amigos de mi amigo "my friend's friends" or las amigas de mi amigo which is more like "my friend's female friends"

In those cases the gender of the thing does not change, and the gender of the person does not change; this is a strict possessive

-

The above only works because it's technically an adjective that was made a noun [a substantive adjective; as an example rico/a "rich" and then el rico "the rich man"]

Words like idiota, bruto/a, pobre etc are technically adjectives but this construction only works because you can then turn it into a noun

Another fuller example:

desgraciado/a is like "unfortunate" but really extreme; it's often translated like "sorry bastard" but literally "someone who went through a catastrophe"

Thus it could be el desgraciado or la desgraciada

To use the above construction it would be: el desgraciado de mi amigo which is roughly something like "my dumbass/dipshit friend", something like that - it doesn't quite translate well... Female version would be la desgraciada de mi amiga - it's got a pitying quality that's also potentially mocking

[qsycomplainsalot]

Masters of the Air is great, if you've ever thought "wow Band of Brothers is nice but it's weird that the plot is moving from setpiece engagement to setpiece engagement with the same characters, I wish we'd see more of the boring stuff with characters we don't know" then this is the show for you. And don't get me wrong this isn't about turning WW2 into a glorious ballet of death, but when your eight hours long series about US army bomber pilots has maybe half an hour of aerial combat, already that's a problem. The only time Masters of the Air puts you in the thick of it it's to kill as many recognizable characters as possible so that you can lose interest in the cast faster, you don't get to experience the important turning points of the war as seen from their point of view. Because they're dead or in PoW camps, sure, but also because the series doesn't care to show us. Episode 8 somehow encompasses most of 1944 and exactly five seconds of D Day are shown. I was down to get an in depth look at what bombing missions contributed to the war effort, but they never get in depth about it. We never go through boot camp, we never get a strategic sense of things, every episode is just "go there blow shit up" and we never hear about it again. This is, if anything, yet another exemple of screenwriters inexplicably not understanding that scenes must be related in tone or narrative, have a set up and a pay off, all that crazy smart stuff moviemakers figured out in the 1890's. Like at this point when I watch some movies I feel like seeing the work of someone who knows putting letters in a row makes words but doesn't actually know what writing is. Like shit, okay, so I get that this is based on his memoirs but was there any point in showing us that Crosby's fling was a spy in France ? Did we need to have a grand total of five minutes of Tuskegee Airmen over the last two episodes ? Did we need to see Crosby get told to take a vacation then take it offscreen ? Or maybe, just maybe you could have cut all that shit out and wrought a compelling narrative about those two assholes Buck and Bucky who are in every episode, forge a friendship together, get shot down over enemy territory, get captured by the Germans, put into camp, get involved in the Great Escape, go on a death march and finally escape separately, getting back to their home base in the end, 90% OF THESE PLOT BEATS NOT BEING INCLUDED IN THE FUCKING SHOW. This series is an unfocused mess and the only emotions it got out of me were linked to me knowing what World War 2 was, not any kind of cinematic skills. If I want combat footage with no characters I'll just watch a documentary at least that'd be good in its own way. At this rate making a show out of it is bordering on feeling gross and exploitative. "Well we made a series about the Army and a series about the Marines, now we gotta make a series about the pre-Air Force I guess." like "whatever the fuck we do it will sell cause WW2 is so moving and shit, and it's pretty much our version of brand recognition". In conclusion I can honestly say that Masters of the Air isn't only the worse out of the three big WW2 series, but it's also just a flop in general. No action, no tension, no emotion, no nothing. An expensive slideshow to serve as a demo reel for an amazing prop and costume team.

[helpfulbug]

thank you to @all-seeing-ifer for tagging me in the 2024 movie ask game!!

I had a really hard time with this since I didn't really documented well what I watched last year....also didn't watch too many movies in general i fear so a bit of a weird list from me here:

It's a Summer Film! (2020)

a late 2024 watch but i had a BLAST!! such a love letter to amateur film making & the samurai film as a genre makes me want to watch lots of the classics in 2025!!

Vertigo (1958)

i havent really seen too many of hitchcocks movies or at least watched them and payed attention. my mom is a big fan of his but whenever she tried to show me one of his movies i got bored as a kid. catching up now and MAN yea no wonder ppl are still stealing this shit. REALLY GOOD

The Lure (2015)

only made it onto the movie night list for the title and we were BLOWN AWAY. grew up on the original version of the little mermaid and when i realized this was adapting this as a musical!!!!! WOOOHOOO - also everyone knows how i get about siblings so. yea

Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine (2023)

i dont really know if ppl are aware how deeply engrained this francise is in german culture. anyways yes ive seen all of the like 40 movies at least once. so i can admit that most of them arent really good but THIS ONE. actual storyline development? crazy goverment tech? underwater base? also saw it with my beloved @wehavecometoanend--maybe so it was a blast in every way!!

The Shadow of the West (1986)

FREE ON YOUTUBE BTW. a really emotional but important watch. edward said wrote this so i was planning to watch this after i finish orientalism but i have so little time to read these days. anyways. PLEASE WATCH IT ITS LIKE AN HOUR!!

Queen of the Damned (2002)

ive been meaning to watch this for years but post iwtv spiral i HAD to. good thing i did before reading any of the books bc this is not even close to the tvc but such a blast!!! we got numetal vampires and aaliyah bringing akasha to life despite it all!!! really enjoy the freshly post matrix -ism of this movie!! really they could only make this in 2002 and im so happy they did. why no sequels tho.....

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

just wanted to see this for camp reasons but it really stayed with me!! yes maybe not perfect for modern sensibilities on some of these topics but really emotionally poiniant also loved the storytelling in this!!! WE NEED MORE NON DIGETIC MOVIE MUSICALS!!!!!

House (1977)

also one i wanted to watch forever & movienights made it possible!!! really loved the effects in this one but also the cycle of abuse and desperation of it all! awesome stuff!! also lot more fun than i was expecting!!

Velvet Goldmine (1998)

can you tell i was in a camp musical mood this year yet. anyways REALLY good stuff!!! enjoyed the fashion and filmmaking in this one. WHY IS THE SOUNDTRACK NOT ON SPOTIFY?????

______

tagging @fruiteggsaladit (thank you for movie nights<33), @wehavecometoanend--maybe, @lostcryptids, @desperatelyfragile, @heyheymarrymearchie, @afraid-of-woodpeckers, @nxiht, @transjjester, @5bi5, @courierrsix & everyone else who wants to do it!!!