#bc i really dO have a temper and im fed up with bullshit and i can be agressive

[magnoliamyrrh]

okay enough of the rants im logging off last thing ill say is that identity politics is largely a disease 👍 its point with the extremism its been taken to in part due to cia postmodernism being to wreck class conciousness though the wokeificstion of fragmentory policies and identity👍 bipartisan politics also serve to divide the country (all countries) incresingly so that people cant come together👍 having the worlds most stupid useless fragmentory identity politics discussions doesnt help it keeps us from coming together and focusing on real shit 👍wars pit the resources and labour of the working class against each other for the benefit of the rich 👍"im iranian youre american, you and i have more in common with each other than our governments with us, and our governments are more similar etc etc."👍 if racism stopped and if sexism stopped and if classism between the working classes (which, everyone has forgotten what the term "working class" means, its not abt economic bracket, low, middle, and higher class can all b working class yes including the doctor whose making a lot of money bc it is the exhange of labour for wages) stopped the working class could stand united not divided aginst the system 👍differences in race, class, and sex have Always been used to pit the working classes against each other, and to give people a sense of "well at least were better than Those people" (opressed middle class disdain for lower class, opressed mens disdain for women (at least they have power over someone!), opressed peoples disdain for other opressed peoples)

i may bitch and complain about kinds of people on here bc its a way for me to get my frustrations out, but ultimately i do think it is vitally important to have hope and to try to bring unity between people. ultimately i think it is unity which is the only way this planet, species, and every other species on this planet may see a better futute. ultimately, more than anything, i think despite everything we, for everyones sake, have to understand the deep interconnected nature of everything, have to truly understand that one cannot be free without all, and have to try to build bridges.... it is very easy both as both members of the opressive and opressed class (and yes most ppl occupy both in some way) to fall into disdain, fear, and wants of separatism. ive done it plenty myself and at times i still do. trying to "be better" is absolutely exhausting. but. i do truly believe that we have to try. i do not believe hatred is forever. not classism not racism not sexism not abelism not anything. it is not a curse people are doomed to from birth. people can change, we all can. we at least have to try

[joulethieves]

on my interpretation of balbasch and balvaan and why i sometimes ship one and why i sometimes ship the other [and also because i am obsessed with balvaan and never really talked about why, so here i talk about why!]:

( again this is all my perssssonal interpretation and im not going to tag this post bc it’s not something i’m posting to be like, accepted amongst other shippers, just thought it’d be something to share. also secondly i definitely ship balvaan harder than balbasch so i will obviously have more to say about the former.)

for me whether or not i ship balbasch or balvaan depends 100% on what mood i’m in in terms of interpreting balthier’s character.

you can look at balthier and his persona and read it as a facade, because it is. it’s all pretense. all archadian despite his lack of fealty to any land. all garrulous and haughty and showy. but this isn’t news to you; if you’re reading this you know the balthier we all know.

so why do i balvaan so hard? 

because i love breaking those barriers. i love vaan’s rawness, total lack of restraint, total disregard for filters. i love balthier rattling on about freedom, no cages, no moors, and yet he shields himself in this facade, this facade as hard as an adamantoise shell which he sheds for no one but fran - and then there’s vaan, all street-grit savoir-faire, effortless, unabashedly himself. then yes, there’s vaan, vaan who dares to enter this shell of seclusion balthier locks himself in to pull up a damn chair and sit down and make himself fucking comfortable, and my balthier just lifts his head from his hands and glares, livid and flabbergasted, “how did you get in here? this door is locked, locked, locked” and vaan just smiling that gentle infectious boyish thief-smile and saying, simply, damnably simply, “oh no. a locked door. those are... sooooo hard for me to get into.” 

i love to balvaan because i love to see vaan dismantle all of those complicated gears that make up the locked gate balthier puts around himself, i love seeing this man as something all-show and no-tell until vaan burrows his way in with no one’s fucking permission and it’s infuriating to balthier but he can’t help it, vaan sees right through him. vaan challenges him throughout the entire game, despite the blind trust and admiration vaan has for him, he never shapes himself around the endgoal of i want balthier to like me, so i will act like X so he likes me. y’know--how when you like someone, and you want them to like you, you--you kind of act a certain way. my vaan doesn’t. he’s just vaan. take him or leave him. and balthier takes, it’s what he does, and then he’s like SHIT, DIDN’T MEAN TO TAKE THIS, IT WON’T LEAVE AND IT’S WARM AND GOOD AND SCARY aaaaaa

sooooo that’s why i love to balvaan, bc i love vaan having that sort of way with people. they just. open to him. and balthier needs that, i think, in a way that feels safe with fran -- but fran is no hume, she does not know mortality the way humes do, does not know death and grieving the way humes do, does not have a hume heart or hume life or hume roots. and balthier is himself around her, but with vaan he can be himself around another hume, which he has vowed against doing forever. and it’s warmer, because it’s love, though he’d never say it. and it’s warmer, because it’s vaan, who is terrifyingly accepting of any ugly day balthier has. and it’s warmer, because vaan doesn’t play his games, doesn’t understand them and doesn’t like them, and calls him out on his bullshit, where i think fran spoils balthier and plays along because she loves him in a different way, an unchallenging sort of way. and it’s warmer, because it’s safe. safer, at least. my balthier, like anyone’s, is a flighty fellow.

balbasch is a different game and i’ve certainly read my share, and with balbasch i take balthier and i interpret (cuz i don’t write them) playing UP that facade, as many authors who do it well also do. balbasch is basch seeing balthier with all this pretense, and respecting it, understanding it in a way young vaan can’t. it’s saying, i know why these walls are up, it is not my place to bring them down; i will know the you that you wish for me to know and be grateful enough for that. balbasch is basch playing balthier’s game because he doesn’t want to risk challenging balthier’s performance in case he might truly lose him. balbasch is less challenging for balthier, less infuriating, more (if not solely) on balthier’s watch than basch’s. pirate and judge? bird and cage? angsty and cute, sure. and basch deserves to be spoiled from time to time by a handsome pirate breaking into his chambers for a good snugglefuck and a laugh because balthier is funny and basch deserves to smile. BASICALLY let me just--i don’t write them, so let me just copypasta an excerpt from someone who nailed it on the head what balbasch is to me (and them , and many others judging from their writing):

"Piracy, Captain," he says [...] [...] [...] "Is about doing what you want."

"And what about our shared situation implies I am in any way resistant?" Basch asks, tempering the damage done with care - for all of his conviction of freedom and callous, care-free nature, Balthier was difficult to pin with even the most cunning trap. There were rules with the pirate, rules within rules at times. Basch remembers some, but he had not learned them all when last they kept company - and perhaps he never would.

(you can read this here! it’s really sexy and well-written. this ship has such good writers bc you have to be a super strong one to pick apart these men like this)

^ this non-dialogue bit really nails balbasch on the head for me. it’s so deliciously, beautifully, almost heartbreakingly complicated. it’s a messy tangle of basch, having been used to bending to the wills of people, bending to balthier’s odd shapes he gnarls himself into on any given day. it’s--it’s walking on eggshells and it’s kind of, honestly, a little unpleasant to me. it’s playing up balthier. it’s pandering to his love of performance, it’s adding even more layers to an already complicated man who is only complicated because he makes himself so. quite frankly, balbasch is a lot of work, and it’s exhausting despite the really hot smut that’s there as a given. it’s just - if you love the balthier the game gives you, and not the man beneath it, and you want to play up that complex multifaceted shifty-flightly young man, then balbasch is great. 

for me, it’s all the more rewarding long-term to grind the bones of balthier’s resolve to dust with vaan- vaan, who is nothing more than himself, who challenges silly pretense and bores into the person balthier is underneath. for me, balvaan helps balthier remember that he is human, a person, not a glorified self-assigned role at which everyone smiles and nods. vaan musses the pages of his script about and makes paper airplanes with them and it’s annoying but it helps balthier grow. however, in terms of getting more balthier meta and insight and motive-questioning, and gilding his already garish grandeur further, balbasch is a fun way to do so - a fun vehicle to ask why at balthier but in a different way.

balbasch is challenging in a way that makes balthier even more hard to understand. which can be fun, but sometimes i dislike it because i see balbasch as less of a challenge for balthier. i see less room for growth and more room for just being fed validation for his ridiculousness, and lord is he such a child.

personally i see a man like balthier with all his pretense and roll my eyes. “what’s that all about, anyway?” i ask myself, and so does my vaan-muse, and we work at picking all those locks and then vaan snuggles what he finds.

anyway! no flack to balbasch at all, i hope it didn’t come across that way! i love a balthier spoiling basch and i love basch respecting balthier’s facade and caring for him despite the fact he’s protecting himself. cages cages blah blah. balthier isn’t as free as he says he is. basch isn’t at all. so that can be cute.

end rant, i guess u can reblog if u want, but i didn’t write this to influence anyone! just some thoughts i had after reading that one excerpt i pasted in here that made me go this!! this is balbasch to me and why i do and don’t ship it sometimes.