#baffle ted talks

[hardcorephilza]

been really into art history and poetry as of late, specifically that existential shit, and god. the relationship between an artist that died 10 years ago and the historian archiving and analyzing their work cannot be overstated.

[catboygirljoker]

Dealer's Choice Ask - share one or more fact headcanon or similar about a character that you want to share but no one's asked the question for!

i often see people talk about xigbar [of course im talking about xigbar] like he's a bitter misanthrope, someone who's angry all the time and doesn't like people, and i've never really understood that. obviously there are times in the series when he gets angry, and he says mean things when he is angry, but the vast majority of the time he delivers all his lines with the same unshakeable smug grin.

i realized, though, that im pretty sure people think he's an angry misanthrope because hes an asshole. and folks don't really consider that people can be assholes without personally disliking the people they're assholes to!

like...larxene, for example, [who to be 100% clear i love and support,] strikes me as someone who's an asshole because she personally dislikes everyone around her and is constantly irritated because of it. she treats roxas like shit because she's offended to be burdened with babysitting duty. she's hotheaded, snaps at people, insults them.

even so—she's horribly mean to sora in CoM, and i dont get the vibe at all that she personally dislikes him. i think shes mean to him because, she can be? because she has no heart, no conscience to tell her to treat him any differently, and because she gets personal enjoyment out of being mean to him.

i think thats similar to why xigbar is an asshole. xigbar doesn't hate the people he teases and prods and provokes and says wacky mysterious shit to. in my mind, xigbar's been alive a really long time, seen a lot of shit, is pretty jaded, doesn't really care whether people like him or not. in most situations, he holds all the information and has the upper hand, and enjoys lording that over people and watching them squirm. it's less about his personal feelings towards individuals and more about getting to feel in control and above other people.

he ribs roxas a lot in Days, but thats really what it reads to me as: ribbing. teasing, poking fun. xigbar doesnt dislike roxas—in fact i think he likes roxas (whether or not he actually cares for or wants what's best for roxas is a different discussion)—xigbar's just. a dick! he's mean not in a hateful angry way, but in an over-familiar way, like your second-least-favorite uncle who's never forgotten that time you tripped and fell flat on your face when you were six. [fuck you, uncle mark.] [salem blake may or may not have an uncle mark.]

being over-familiar, reveling in knowing more than everyone else, wanting to feel like he's in control and above others—to me, all of that maps perfectly onto someone who has seen a lot of death and lost a lot of people, all in pursuit of a goal he doesn't entirely understand, and who is no longer willing to try connecting sincerely with people. or no longer capable of it.

[gottagobackintime]

I've seen some people say: “Trent shouldn’t have been gay, he should have just supported Colin anyway.” And it's such a weird (and bad) take.

Had Trent been straight we wouldn’t have gotten the scenes we did. Colin could have opened up and told Trent how he felt, but Trent wouldn’t have understood, he could have been supportive. But he wouldn’t understand where Colin is coming from. But because Trent is also gay he knows what it’s like being in the closet, living with fear and dread. Living with thoughts like “if I tell the people I love about my sexuality, will they hate me?”. You can’t get that from a straight ally, no matter how supportive and well meaning they are. Because they don't know what it's like. We need straight allies, we need all the straight allies we can get. But what Colin needs RIGHT NOW is someone who, while not a professional athlete, is involved in the world of football. Knows about homophobic fans, knows that there are a culture of toxic masculinity and homophobia in the clubs. That is why it’s important that Trent himself is gay.

Colin almost got runover by a cyclist in his desperate attempt to run away from Trent at the gay bar. But the relief when he understands what Trent is saying "I must have a good reason for that, mustn't I?" is so clear. Trent is also queer, Trent is safe, I can let Trent in.

And I think some people might read that line as "I haven't outed you because I'm gay too, but if I had been straight I would have" which isn't what Trent means, Trent is using that phrase to be subtle, to let Colin come to his own conclusion, because Colin is stressed out, he's scared. By letting Colin think for himself it gives Colin an opportunity to calm down (which is also why Trent holds his hands out as if calming a frightened animal, he also makes himself slightly smaller by bending his knees and leaning forward slightly). And he does, he realises what Trent is saying and he calms down. It's also an added layer of security it's not just, "I haven't outed you" it's "I haven't outed you because I am also queer". A straight person saying that they haven't outed you doesn't hold as much weight as a queer person saying it. Because you know that the queer person knows how important it is to be safe and to come out on your own terms wheras a straight person, especially an eager well meaning ally might try and encourage you to come out because "hey, it's gonna be fine", even when that's not the support you need at the moment (there are ofc exceptions, both when it comes to straight people and queer people).

But because Trent is also gay, Colin now has someone in his corner at work, who knows him, knows his secret. Who also carried that secret himself once. We’ll most likely get straight allies in the other players and the leaders at Richmond.

So no, Trent shouldn’t have been straight. Because that is not the support Colin needed at that moment. He needed queer solidarity.

[rainofthetwilight]

BIG DAY FOR THE PEOPLE WHO THEORIZED MORRO WOULD COME BACK EVER SINCE DRS1

[callixton]

really obsessed w the mind of this person in the dropout comments section who claims that not only is brennan For Sure in a poly relationship w erika, they can't watch content with them and izzy bc they feel sympathetic pain for izzy after being in poly relationships before realizing they're actually mono. genuinely WHAT is going on with this person. at first i thought it was parasocial truthing of like the. positive-reaction shipping kind but no apparently they fucking hate the idea of them being poly and also cannot be convinced that this Isn't the case

[lunar-years]

there used to be a fairly popular ot3 trope in the s2 hiatus (I think, or maybe it was literally just one fic I really liked so I'm misremembering, lol) where Jamie would get sick/injured and end up in hospital but he still had Keeley down as her emergency contact, so her (with an angry Roy in tow) would show up at the hospital and become his (on Roy's part, reluctant) caregivers until they all fell in love. I think the idea sort of went by the wayside because it relied on roy/keeley already being together and Jamie eventually joining their relationship, which is no longer the standard route to ot3. But! I think we should consider bringing it back.

[i3utterflyeffect]

imagine one of the color gang is excited about earrings before finding out that they're allergic to the metal and can't wear em :( fun introduction to the concept of Being Allergic To Things...

^ brought to you by my mom being allergic to most earrings

I WAS THINKING ABT THAT WHEN SOMEONE MENTIONED CLAIRES IN THE TAGS. because a lot of people are allergic to shittily-plated earrings. i think the metal most people are allergic to is nickel?

anyway i think it'd be most ironic for Yellow to have a metal allergy i think. poor Yellow just wants fun earrings :(

[geneslovee]

can someone who is good at media analysis explain to me why ted lasso writers spent a bunch of time establishing a special connection between ted and rebecca and seemed like they were gonna lead to a romance for them to not end up spending really any time together in the final season and completely veering off romance altogether like im not even a tedbecca warrior i just genuinely don’t get it 😭 one episode left and why did they spend all that time with them in s1 and s2

[lelengerine]

ohhh this is sick wdym my new jeno fic doesnt want to appear in tags but anything else i post will 😭😭😭

[pineappical]

so that finale huh.

[luminouslotuses]

when will we finally start being normal about asian people

[hardcorephilza]

I was watching hbomberguy's new video and during the part talking about angryvideogamenerd and monster madness, he mentioned he used to watch the show when he was hungover during college. which as someone who is currently in college absolutely floored me.

I've heard stuff like "when I was in college this was popular" all the time but for some reason this particularly struck me and I'm not sure why. I was just immediately sent into a spiral of "I'm in college now! I want to make videos like this! Oh my god, will I be referencing things I watch now like this in the future? In a decade, when I am 28, will I be talking about how I watched dnd podcasts and minecraft streamers? Will I still be watching those shows then, will they still exist? Did people in college a decade ago have this same feeling? One day today will be the past. I am so young I am so old I am constantly changing."

And maybe this is me being dramatic but I got the same emotions from hearing hbomberguy say that as I do as an artist seeing old cave paintings. This isnt me making some snide joke "oh haha guy old" this is me trying to say I felt like despite everything being different, things are also the same. I use my computer to write research papers now, scholars used scrolls. I doodle on my homework, Onfim did too in the 13th century. But to have this feeling, the original work doesn't need to be from hundreds or thousands of years ago.

Hearing someone talk about their college experience so closely paralleling mine IS the same effect. Maybe he watched different shows, maybe media was so vastly different and I was barely even conscious as a living thing, but we do the same. College students then are echos of college students now, we are all just sleep deprived nerds listening to our little videos on our little devices and I think thats kind of beautiful.

I wonder if in the future, a college student my age now will find this post and feel the same. If so, hello!! Remember to turn in your final exam and drink water!! I'm going to go work on my research paper :-]

[thebusylilbee]

Ted Lasso is a Nice watch but it's not a Great watch imo, frankly season 3 is fun but all over the place which is weird because it's the last one and I got no idea what ending they're walking towards

[iamthescalesofjustice]

an eclectic group of wardens trying to figure out why they arent being swayed by the calling all the other wardens are getting and figuring out they were all joined either with the substitute archdemon blood from soldiers peak or by this one specific guy who apparently may not even be a warden. and then once anders meets up with them he hears this and gets visibly five times more exhausted and then he opens his mouth to finally start laying out the surana deep lore he has pieced together and well, its good news and bad news.

[callixton]

i will never understand people who hardcore hate any character tbh Esp if it’s bc they find them personally unlikable. idk i just feel like there is something interesting to be explored narratively regardless & if there isn’t i would just ignore that character not make it an active thought

[lucifermagneswife]

Ok hear me out. I know Gojo is pretty popular in-fandom, but... Geto was canonically more popular with the girls, so why do I see so many people writing him as an insecure guy?

I love me some cocky Geto, manipulative Geto, charming Geto who knows how to make you fall for him oh so easily!!! Just more Suguru Geto

Pleaseandthankyou