#because imo that's what it boils down to in essence

[riacte]

Re: Dearly Beloved in-universe fandom, it struck me that I have somehow never mentioned in-universe superhero/villain/whatever fanart despite fanart being such a core (and more importantly visible) component of fandom. (While mentioning fanfiction, subreddits, touching on fancams and ASMR roleplays etc etc) And I guess it makes sense because this is text, I don't really know they look like, and it's hard to describe visuals given the format I've constrained myself to. But I also feel like this blind spot has to do with other fandom-related meta lol. (Self indulgent and long rambling)

1. Superheroes/villains are classified as "real people". In real life fandoms, while there's fanart of famous real people (actors in movies, singers, Kpop groups, athletes, F1 drivers, etc), there's less fanart compared to fanart of characters (anime, video games, books, etc). I assume this is because you need to have a certain level of skill to capture a real person's likeliness nicely. And real people may feel offended upon seeing "bad" fanart of themselves, whereas fictional people can't feel offended.

But superheroes/villains are masked and often wear helmets for safety. So you don't need the skill to draw their real life faces. Their suits are probably visually distinctive which makes it fun to draw (and cosplay!).

2. Superheroes/villains aren't just famous real people. There's a political connotation, in which it could be dangerous to support villains and people may not like heroes because they're like fantasy cops with powers. Especially in this context in which the government controls the heroes, there's whole system to raise heroes from children, there's censorship and conspiracies. Bringing to the third point:

3. Fanart is a very visual. (No shit, Sherlock.) Okay, in the sense people outside of the fandom are more likely to encounter fanart. It's also a publicly liked form of fandom, in comparison to fanfiction. I guess edits and cosplay are also liked and respected, but probably less common than fanart. (Insert something about my positionality as a fan of MCYT who writes fanfic, something about MCYT loving fanart and including it in their videos, commissioning artists, whereas fanfic (rightfully and thankfully imo) stays underground) So people who write hero RPF are already seen as "weirdos" and "the corner of the Internet you shouldn't see". It's not taken seriously. But if someone posted hero fanart on Twitter, normies would see this as liking / endorsement of said hero, whereas fanfiction would not get this kind of visibility. (And is shunned upon probably no matter what you write because fanfiction is generalised is "weird thing Wattpad teenage girls do when they want to bang a famous person".)

3.1. Back to the MCYT fandom thing. Heroes/villains can be compared to MCYT since they look different on and off camera (with and without their suits, like Minecraft skins and designs), they use different names for their different identities, and they put on a public persona. Similarly, I can imagine heroes finding fanart of their hero persona flattering and occasionally engaging with it on Twitter. (Whereas fanfiction stays underground.)

3.2. So I loveeee parodying the "cringe" Wattpad fics, not because I want to make fun of them, but because it's enjoyable to write without restraint. (And it's funny.) I think the general style is so unapologetically fun (and nostalgic). I have a lot of things to say about Wattpad (in defence of its users!), but it mostly boils down to young people being excited and earnest. I know a lot of people hate Wattpad, especially its RPF. I find it fascinating. Because someone (often tweens) had to be motivated to write that, someone had to have the passion to do it, and they'll do it badly (knowingly or not), because writing as a hobby is supposed to be fun! It's the essence of it! And it's the "bad" kind of fanfiction that I want to pay respect to. The kind that people look upon with disdain. The kind YouTubers make fun of. Because more often than not it's a thirteen year old being silly/stupid and it's mean to make fun of kids earnestly trying to make something.

Anyways in the universe, fanfiction sites become a place to store government censored conspiracies/theories because they fly under the radar compared to Reddit and Youtube.

4. I always felt I wanted to write the story instead of Tweetgen-ing it. Maybe it felt more "serious". And mimicing social media with text/HTML is easier than graphics. Now I feel like the utter lack of visuals in a social media fic (when social media is extremely visual, almost obnoxiously so) makes me focus on text itself— dialogue, transcripts, usernames, Tumblr tagging, YouTube comments, notices about subreddits being taken down, to-do lists, "confirm to delete" text boxes. In-universe fanfiction (both the Wattpad and Ao3 type) is taken seriously in the sense it helps with storytelling— it shows differing attitudes to events and public figures. It shows what type of perception is popular.

Anyways. I'm not sure this is interesting and I'm probably rambling inside my head. I guess I do love fanfiction as an art form. And I do admire and respect the earnest writers and readers on Wattpad. I still occasionally wake up to like 30 comments on a Wattpad fic from 4 years ago. I'm glad people still read it lmao.

[juminsswife]

my thoughts on Netflix's ATLA live action

As an adult who watched this show growing up and was there for the countdown to the comet (iykyk!!) I have thoughts!

Best: Zuko. angsty, teenage boy depression, father issues, determined to a self-destructive degree. The actor is great at capturing all these facets of Zuko's conflicting, complex character. Really great with the choreography/martial arts too. Its not easy to pull off Zuko's mostly shaven but with a ponytail haircut, but this actor manages it. And yes, the opening scene with him seeing the beam of light from the iceberg and saying, "Finally." did give me some chills. Honestly the actor just captures Zuko really well. Great casting.

Worst: Katara. has the personality of an elegant yet unassuming well watered house plant. Its more because of the writing than the actress… she's doing her best with this depressing egg whites version of Katara she's had thrusted upon her. It's not going to be convincing when Toph comes along next season and calls her sugar queen.

Aang: never has any fun. spends every episode staring into the distance being sorrowful and melancholic. *teardrop rolls down cheek* he is a depressed 40 year old in the body of a 12 year old. He has no fun side to him anymore- an important side for a 12 year old kid to have! Also spends the entirety of season one (you know, titled "water"!) and doesn't learn a lick of waterbending, not even from Katara, who spends a lot of it learning from the waterbending scroll!! Why??? However the actor is doing a great job and I think he captures Aang's essence really well. He is young and I think next season he will improve a lot.

Sokka: I almost forgot to write thoughts down for him, which I think says more than anything else. He's essentially been boiled down to the same old overprotective big brother, but now he comes complete with daddy issues. It's a little hilarious that Katara's worst memory is watching her mom get burned alive by a firebender soldier while Sokka's is hearing his dad say he's disappointed with him. Kind of ruins the moment tbh. They really took all the fun aspects of the main Gaang and dulled them down completely, its sad. At least he's cute though- and imo, the chemistry with Suki's actress was there.

The previous avatars: every single one meets Aang just to berate & yell at him and tell him he shouldn't have friends and where has he been for the past 100 years without giving him a second to speak. What?? Sadly it seems any dignity, grace, or wisdom the previous avatars had in the original, has been completely wiped out in this live action. Also, this idea of them telling Aang about things that are going to happen makes no sense. Did no previous avatar tell Roku his friend was going to betray him, let him die on the island, and start a 100 year long war? Also the idea of Aang being able to communicate ONLY if he's in one of their temples is stupid. What is the point of the avatar state, then? Will Roku be able to teach him anything at all?

Princess Yue: yes I wrote an entire paragraph about her lol. She is one of my favorite minor characters. I think they wanted her to look so accurate to her original counterpart that she just looks too much like a cosplayer, with such a stiff and lifeless looking wig. This is the one and only time I will concede I prefer M. Night's version of Yue as far as costuming goes, though both funnily enough forget her eyebrows shouldn't be dark. The actress was fine. But this version of Yue is quite a different person from og Yue, I can't really compare. Plus, it feels like we see her for a good 10 minutes before she dies for the moon spirit. I couldn't buy into her and Sokka having feelings for each other because it felt like they knew each other for a good 2 hours at most. Ideally, I think these two versions kind of fused together would be perfect.

Azula/Mai/Ty Lee: Grouping them together because. Azula is the most unconvincing out of the characters for me. I don't buy that this girl is supposed to be the princess Azula for a second. I'm neither intrigued nor intimidated, and that's pretty bad as Azula was one of my top favorite characters from the original. The costume is fine, the wig feels cheap, her dialogue is horrendous, the actress can't convince me. Azula isn't smart or cunning, sharp, or collected, and her "working with Zhao" just made her look dumb when the entire plan flopped. She is a whiny, petulant little girl stamping her feet in every other scene. It's not for me. Also, the way her relationship with Ozai is depicted here makes Ozai look like a loser, too. It's like they want us to not be afraid of either of them.

As for Mai and Ty Lee. Ty Lee is fine. She looks okay, the actress is fine for how little we see her. On Mai, the wig is just so bad I don't get what happened. It's like they're struggling on the line of being realistic with the styling, or leaning completely in cartoon-character-came-to-life. I don't think the actress for Mai here was a good choice.

Dialogue: the worst part of this show. When they're not completely quoting word for word from the original, it's.. just bad. Everything is always exposition and thats not good. The few moments that aren't are just... idk.

CGI: not bad. I was expecting worse. Fire, earth, and air all look great. Water feels a little slow, mostly when its just water and not ice but that can be improved I assume. Koh was pretty cool, as was Wan Shi Tong.

Settings: Beautiful!! Omashu looked great. South and North water tribes looked great. Ozai's throne room looked incredible and I was annoyed every time we see it, he is just standing around and not sitting on his throne. It just reminded me how amazing the buildup to Ozai and Azula's reveals were in og season 1.

Costume: Its either a hit or a miss. There's strangley not much in between. Aang, Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Iroh, June, Ozai, Jet, Suki, the Kyoshi warriors, all look pretty great. Then you have characters like Azula, Mai, or Yue, who just look like half decent cosplayers. It kind of takes you out of the moment when it looks like the person is a cartoon character, rather than just a normal person. For example, compare how Katara looks compared to Azula.

Music: of course it was fantastic. A lot of it (I think most) was from the original show, which has one of the greatest soundtracks an animated show has ever had imo.

Final thoughts: Ultimately, it was kind of what I was expecting. You can't condense 20+ episodes worth of development into 8 and expect it all to flow perfectly. However, there are also a lot of changes that really don't make sense to me. I am very curious to know how on earth they will do seasons 2 and 3, as season 1 is the slowest in pace compared to the next two seasons. The original's finale was split into four episodes! Unless they add more episodes for next season, it's going to be a big jumbled mess of lore being shoved into our faces. I am also concerned about Toph. The Gaang so far has been stripped of their fun/unique personality traits. Is Toph going to be the same?

[lurkinglurkerwholurks]

as a comic reader who has read/loved/ecstatically commented on at least one of your fics, i have to say i was surprised to find out you didn’t read batfam comics because i wouldn’t have ever guessed.

i think it’s entirely possible for someone to get a good handle on the essence of characters without them engaging with the source material- what it boils down to is what part of the fandom they get into.

because let’s be real, there isn’t anyone who is having their views of these characters be formed purely by canon, even if they never engage with fanfic. they’re informed by canon, how their personal experiences cause them to interpret canon, other people’s analysis of canon, even fan-made content like memes. comics-only fans disagree with each other about characterization all the time. it’s not like we’re all a united front. and simply reading a comic run won’t necessarily by default align you with the most popular interpretation of a character.

also, let’s not pretend that the sheer volume of comics content is the only barrier to entry. comics aren’t free to read, unless you pirate them, which one could be ethically conflicted about/uncomfortable with. sure dc infinite is “only” $7.99 a month, but not everyone can afford that and that doesn’t even include access to all comics- the more complete (but still not complete) collection is behind a $119.99 paywall. plus, it’s not even available in every region around the world. in short, it is a privilege to be able to read comics. we shouldn’t expect people to be capable of financial investment to be fans, when there’s so many free ways of stumbling across these characters and getting interested.

imo, the best move is to be kind and not assume ill intent. and past that, if you come across someone who you just fundamentally disagree with…scroll. or block. unless they’re asking for your opinion, they probably don’t want it. being fandom police is exhausting, spend your energy enjoying the characters how you like them instead of trying to force other to enjoy them the way you want them too.

which isn’t to say never engage in discourse/discussion, but like try and figure out if it’s worth engaging. the earth is round. flat earthers exist. they don’t make the earth flat.

anyways!! sorry this got kind of long and ramble-y! i’ve been enjoying the discussion, in addition to appreciating how respectfully and tactfully you’ve navigated it :)

Thanks! I'm certainly trying, at least. I think people who get all hot under the collar are allowed to feel however they want about it, but I do think 1) like you said, they're being less than honest about their own lenses, 2) are missing out on so much, and 3) are allowed to feel however they want within the confines of their own head or even their own blog, but once they step onto mine, they lose that right.

[takaraphoenix]

What is the difference between percico/nicercy? /gen /nf

Well, the glib/short answer would be that it's kinda like in anime/manga fandoms where name-order indicates top/bottom and top/bottom (still) indicates a lot about how the characters are portrait, because tops tend(ed) to be portrait as the ones who got their shit together and could even be cocky about their romantic attraction while the bottom is always the one who blushes a lot, etc.

Back in ye olden days, all the Nico and Percy content was... very exclusively top!Percy/bottom!Nico... and it reflected in the way they were written too.

Percy very often ended up this cock-sure flirt who just knew exactly what he wanted and got it, which... does not align with Percy "I am blushing and stammering as I am alone with my girlfriend at night" Jackson.

And Nico was this blushy "smol bean", which... just does not align with canon!Nico imo, but hey it's still a huge trope about Nico. For being such a badass Ghost King he gets uwufied a lot.

And! That's. Fine. I'm not saying these portrays shouldn't exist or that they're necessarily wrong - OoC behavior is fun too, I know I intentionally leaned too far into the other end in the past myself, and sometimes it's even fun to just go hog-wild off-script. Everyone gets their own headcanons and interpretations and preferences.

It's just not what I vibe with. I always found Percy's canonical cluelessness about romance - with Rachel and with Annabeth alike - as well as how easily flustered he always was - with Annabeth, Rachel and also with Nico, when Nico confessed to him, Percy was flustered. Like, that's one of his canonical behaviors that endeared me to him, so I'm not gonna seek fanon content out that deliberately ignores it.

Meanwhile, Nico had a distant brashness to him. He didn't blush and stammer around Percy, even when he canonically was in love with Percy, he was loud and angry and stubborn. Like, we canonically know how Nico acted around Percy while hiding a secret crush from Percy. Sure, he hid his feelings, but not in the blushy uwu kind of way?

So, that's what Nicercy became, to me, when I started writing it, and how it has been written/interpreted by the majority of writers who've taken to using the ship-name Nicercy and deliberately write Nicercy fics instead of Percico fics.

Top!Nico/bottom!Percy, if you wanna boil it down to its essence. Not just in sex, but also leaning into what those stereotypes usually represented - you'll see a more easily flustered, blushy, cute-acting Percy and not a flustered Nico. And, as I admitted above, I did like to deliberately lean more into the opposite, so a more self-assured Nico, which yeah sure that's not as in line with canon either, but, again, everyone gets their headcanons ;D

I, uh, hope this explained it well enough? ^^

[chaoticspacefam]

wonder if part of why the swtor jedi-sith conflict plays the way it does with “sith stans” and etc because the sith empire are functionally saturday morning cartoon villains - “murder and mayhem await!” compared to the more, i guess, believable evil of the republic/jedi following good ideals to bad conclusions and justifying war crimes

I'd certainly say it doesn't help things, you're right! I have...a lot of issues with the Jedi and their portrayal (especially in the Legends/SWTOR era), but I also recognise that a lot of that is very personal to me and that another fan might feel differently. Long, ranty post ahead so if that's not your deal, skip this one.

TL;DR: thinking critically about the behaviour of the Good Guys bad, I guess, since they're the good guys and you're obviously not allowed to use your own agency to decide something they do makes you deeply, viscerally uncomfortable.  And God help you if you disagree with anything they do and cite personal experience behind your (very justified) avoidance of that rhetoric/teaching, because Bad Things Justified If Good People Do Them and how dare you have different personal experiences and responses. If that's what you do, you're doing fandom wrong /s Also, bad writing choices of the writers themselves that perpetuate toxic, harmful viewpoints and/or stereotypes don't mean anything when said viewpoints/stereotypes are the Bad Guys because...Bad Guys Aren’t Supposed To Be People With Rights, Thoughts and Feelings Too, They’re Just Evil, (cringe)

Disagreeing with someone’s opinions is fine, but if you’re going to deliberately expose yourself to content you don’t like and then attack the person that is making the content because they made it and it upset you when you went looking for it....you are, in fact, the one at fault babes. No one is holding you hostage, you can block tags or unfollow a person (especially me. I really don’t care honest to god, if my posts are not your jam just leave. please.) if you hate what they post so much and are unable to just scroll past things you don’t like to stay for things you do. I’ve done it and will continue to do so, and my fandom experience is happier for it. Also, people are human and sometimes we’re tired and we make mistakes like we miss a trigger tag, and you are within your right to come to the person and point that out, but you are not within your right to threaten them because they made a mistake. Then you’re just a dick.

But I still wouldn't be the one going around (passive) aggressively attacking other fans for disagreeing with my opinions and again, this is based on personal experience, but I've seen a lot more of that stuff from "pro-Jedi" people who seem to be conveniently okay with shit like mass-genocide and cultural erasure because "the Jedi are the good guys and the (OT) Sith are fascists!"

I don't interact with the subsect of fans that do think "the (OT) Empire did nothing wrong hurr durr" unironically (and for good reason, I don't agree with that viewpoint either and the fact that half the time the "defence" of these other fans is "well you're pro-fascist then!!" lmao) but there's a very big gap between the OT Empire which is rightfully a mirror of fascism and dictatorial governments and I do, in fact, raise my eyebrows in heavy criticism and disdain at the writers of the TOR-era deliberately choosing to "justify" the ultimate end being said fascist Empire by making the Sith species (and as always I preface this by saying I am in fact white & therefore know I have priveledge and can only "relate" on a much shallower level as POC fans, but there are places where I do find them more relatable than the TOR-era Jedi which reek of conservative, pearl-clutching Christianity (which I spent way too much of my life having forced upon me by the bible-bashing Evangelists(tm) in my family) to me and I just don't have the fucks to give to spend time fixing something that's honestly traumatising for me to be reminded of):

-heavily Indigenous/POC-coded

-"tribal" and not in a properly-researched and respectfully portrayed sense but in a very deliberate "these people are savage and need to be colonised and "sophisticated" by the More Acceptible (Human) Dark Jedi" even though they had their own society, belief systems, and even had technology - just not in the "socially acceptible, conventional sense" I guess

-perpetuating this by adding slavery and all of that can of worms into the mix too, just to drive home the "evil and bad" prototype ig. I'm not even gonna speak more on this part because it just makes me angry.

-Deliberately giving them more "alien" or inhuman characteristics, which while by itself is not necessarily a bad thing, put it together with all the other things?? Big. Fucking. Oof.

-Were literally exterminated and the survivors selectively bred for ONLY the "bad and evil" traits for not agreeing with the Jedi's beliefs. Their own practises and beliefs were automatically "evil" and "wrong" just because they didn't want to "convert" (sniff sniff, Christianity, is that you?)

A direct quote for those who can't be bothered to click and read the link:

For nearly two thousand years, superstition, loyalty and sympathy were bred out as the two groups interbred, and qualities such as cunning, ambition and affinity to the Force were favored, which shaped Sith society over the centuries.[3][21][22] In the Sith Empire, as time progressed pure-blooded Sith were steadily bred out,[6] resulting in only a few pure-blooded Sith left in the Sith Empire by the time of the Great Hyperspace War.[13] Long after, the true species in the Empire were believed to have gone extinct due to the interbreeding process.

And conversely the Jedi:

-Deny young children contact with their parents, siblings and families from the moment their Force sensitivity shows (hmmmm. )

-Continually and actively support the condemnation and Exile of "imperfect" Jedi, hell, it's even pointed out on Wookieepedia, that any Force sensitive, even those who are not aligned to either faction, but that train with or follow teachings that are not Jedi Approved (tm) is labelled as a "Dark Jedi" by the Jedi Order

Although "Dark Jedi" originally referred to a Jedi who had fallen to the dark side, it could also refer to uninitiated Force-sensitives who received no Jedi training but began their careers under another Dark Jedi. Others were simply dark-side users who did not follow the teachings of the Sith or other dark side organizations.

because "oh noooo you do not follow the way of the Truth and the Light you horrible person how dare you defy The One True Correct Teaching, that makes you the Devil Incarnate no matter what" UGH.

-Continuously push the idea (very heavily) that Emotions Are Bad, which just creates a bunch of emotionally-stunted powderkegs unable to recognise, confront and deal with said emotions (and as I've said, I would know, I was one and maybe still am in some ways lmao) , then blames said powderkeg for exploding because they were never taught how to handle the emotions in the first place.

(Fuck "there is no emotion, there is peace", that's not how people work and never will be lmao)

I don't really know what else to say about this to be honest, because even though I've only been on tumblr about a year now, I'm already tired of this constant "I'm right, you're wrong" finger-pointing between those people in the fandom.

Cause to some of these "pro-Jedi" people it's an unthinkable crime to dare to have a different opinion to them and just want to be left alone, I guess. I've literally been attacked for saying "I don't like the Jedi and find dealing with their dogma too traumatising based on personal experience and trauma from my childhood so I'm going to avoid it but you do you"

I've had American Christians (tm) clap back to that with the ever-wonderful "LMAO bitch you don't have religious trauma, you didn't grow up in the bible-belt, stop trying to be edgy, shut up and go to therapy"

(all of this is sarcasm, for those who need me to spell it out for you. I'm still traumatised by the shit I went through and have to constantly check myself and my own feelings because of the toxic "habits" those teachings tried to push onto me as a child and I have zero tolerance and patience for your (not you, ssalmon, but the royal "you" as it were) victim-blaming abuse apologism "gotchas")

because 1) clearly American Christianity and the bible-belt are the only insidious and harmful subsect of Christianity and it's not like the concept of Evangelism as a whole is inherently toxic, harmful, and traumatising to those subjected to it right 2) Obviously there's a Stated Right Way To Be Traumatised and anyone who falls outside of that (Non-Existent) handbook is "faking it for attention" 3) bold of them to assume that curating my own fandom (and life) experience, and refusing to engage with things that trigger me, isn't something that I literally fucking learned in therapy lmao

Also, I find it funny how these are the people going around attacking people like me, who are literally minding our own motherfucking business, but then claim to preach “love and tolerism” and all this other bullshit. Karen, sweetie, only one of us is going around telling people they deserve to be murdered/stabbed for disagreeing with thier opinion about a videogame and pointing out that “hey, that’s...very yikes maybe don’t do that, step back and calm down” and it ain’t me (true story, this happened a couple of months ago and I don’t wanna dredge the post up because it’s very upsetting to think about) People are allowed to have opinions, and they don’t have to agree with your opinion just because that’s what you think, and the second that you sink to sending people death threats because they don’t share your opinion, you are, in fact, the asshole in that conversation.

It was even funnier because the person in question followed me first, I initially thought they were pretty cool so I followed back, then they threw a massive temper-tantrum and threw a bunch of very upsetting and triggering shit at me without my consent because I didn’t agree with them (I’d even put my opinions in tags on MY blog in an attempt to be courteous and not hijack their post with negativity, in hindsight perhaps I should have made my own post in the first place and I do acknowledge that BUT if that’s all they’d said I would have apologised and moved on, quite gladly, there was no need for them to explode the way they did at me for...making a mistake because I’m a stranger on the internet who didn’t know them & wasn’t a mind-reader and I happened to miss a trigger tag that I didn’t think of at the time lmao)

This post is getting awful long and rambly so I'm going to shut up now, but that's my take on it I guess, I hope that's what you were getting at and if it's not I apologise, I've been taking a huge step back and actively just avoiding any and all major posts related to this discourse as of a few months ago because it just infuriates and upsets me too much, it’s not worth the detriment to my mental health, I’m just here to make friends who are also hyperfixated on SWTOR and have fun vibing and talking about our characters, not get into one-sided morality debates with pearl-clutchers. 🤷

[willel]

Other than the doc, I felt like writing why I think and why I want Will to have powers and why I love the wonder twins theme but I was too tired.

In essence, I don't want El to be alone. The only one. The lonely savior.

You see, El has had conflict with every other psychic sibling she's met. All seemed well with Kali, but they had fundamental disagreements on how their powers should be used and what their life goals should be. I still believe someday El and Kali can reunite and all their differences can be laid to rest and they can start seeing each other again. Kali is still her one and only sister.

With Henry. Well. That's obvious. He's insane and a murderer. If her and Kali had a fundamental difference, she and Henry have a gargantuan ultra mega ultimate super differences in opinion, differences that can't be remedied unless Henry changes and even then it's not like they can be best buddies or friends. Or 'siblings'.

Other than that, El has no one like her around. Every single plan, every single outcome, every single season, she ends up being the one to carry all the weight and responsibility. Her friends and family do their best, but when it all boils down to power against power, El has nobody to back up her.

That doesn't mean she's weak or that she can't do it. She obviously can. But it's lonely. With or without her powers, she felt like a freak. Abnormal. Sure, her friends can relate to her with normal things (being bullied, bad grades, fashion choices, etc), but not all the things that TRULY bother her deep down inside.

This is why I've always always always loved Will and El's connection and all the parallels drawn between them since the very first season.

Will can relate to her so much, not just with the normal sucky stuff with being a teenager, but also some of the supernatural stuff too.

He can't relate to being trapped in a lab for most of her life and then being a fish out of water and chased by government thugs who want to drag her back. He can relate to being trapped somewhere completely foreign and inhospitable and being chased down by evil monsters who want to drag him back.

He can't relate to having active powers (telekinesis) and how helpful or dangerous that can be.

He can relate to seeing, hearing, and feelings things normal humans can't.

It's not just as simple as being a freak, some people have a choice and don't have to be freaks. Will and El don't, they'll be freaks for life whether they want it or not.

Some people think the "Wonder Twins" theory is just a way to take away El's main character status (in a show that's supposed to be an ensemble cast). I even saw someone say it was sexist to draw connections between Will and El because it's just copying El's traits onto a boy.

That's the silliest thing I've ever heard, and the entire point of the "Wonder Twins" theory has flown over your head, or you're ignoring it on purpose.

The point is, like I said, to give El a unique shoulder to lean on.

At this point, Will having powers is as obvious as Will being gay imo. I may be jumping the shark, but it's what makes sense. I also don't believe Will and El share powers at all. There doesn't appear to be any overlap in their abilities.

I don't think Will has telekinesis. I don't think Will has remote viewing (probably). I don't think Will has any of El's major powers, especially the ones she uses to fight. Does that sound like copying to you?

As "wonder twins", their powers should compliment each other, not be exact duplicates. Will will clearly excel in sensory abilities. Maybe his ability to sense Vecna's presence, thoughts, and condition can be expanded to be able to sense more people, as an example.

That'd be very useful for someone like El who requires more hints and clues to pinpoint her targets when remote viewing.

Maybe Will really did retain True Sight and he can learn to willingly peek into the Upside Down from the right side up and vice versa. He'd be a super useful communicator between teams if they have to go into the Upside Down again. He can pass messages along instead of it just going one way.

My real thought process has been honing in on how Will with powers would help El during the final battle. We know at this point that Will and Vecna are strangely tied together. It seems similar to what happened to Max, but that seems to mostly go in one direction. Will and Vecna who were almost one mind and body (ew) may have a two way connection you see.

This means Will could very well fit into his "super spy" moniker again, just like El's "superhero" nickname. The Superhero and the Super Spy.

Will could assist El and the team by breaking into Vecna's mind and discovering his true plans and intentions (which may be very dangerous but I'm sure he'd want to try even if he's scared shitless)

If we push this even further, maybe Will could free all the souls trapped there (Vecna did say they're all in his head with him), weakening Vecna enough for El to defeat him.

Don't you see the vision? Of these two characters working in tandem with their wonder twin powers to take down the big bad? Of El having an actual partner who can stand at her back, who shares the responsibility of saving the world (or failing to), etc etc?

I don't know why people immediately get defensive and believe Will and El being wonder twin or Will having powers automatically means El isn't a main character anymore (in an ensemble show), but it really doesn't.

[angualupin]

I don't want to put all of my tags from the previous post into a reply to that post because I almost 100% agree with OP and don't want to derail what is a truly excellent post. But. I do want to derail here because it's my blog and I can derail if I want to

So: I really fundamentally disagree that The Clone Wars is an example of wasted time. I think that interpreting TCW as such shows a misunderstanding of the type of storytelling TCW was engaged in.

Hollywood, especially in the post-Save The Cat era, has trained us to expect very tightly written plots with standard story beats. Formulas, in essence. (For those of you who don't know what Save the Cat is, it's a book published in [checks wikipedia] jesus fucking christ 2005 that lays out, beat by beat, the formula for a successful movie.) Almost everything Hollywood produces nowadays follows those formulas. This can produce something clever (Zootopia) or something completely vapid (almost every MCU movie). A huge component of the post-StC formula is an extension of Chekov's Gun far beyond what Chekov meant: in a modern movie, it's likely that everything that is mentioned at any point in the movie will be brought up again at the end. There are no wasted lines in a post-StC movie, let alone wasted scenes.

But the StC formulas are not the only way to tell a story, and IMO, the slavish adherence to the StC formula that Hollywood has embraced has been only to the detriment of storytelling. StC is primarily plot driven; character development and themes are relevant to the story only insofar as the plot must be boiled down to The Hero's Journey (NOT what Campbell would have agreed with, for the record) and therefore the character development of the Hero is intertwined with the plot. The post-StC method of storytelling leaves little room for storytelling that is primarily character-driven and/or primarily thematic, and Hollywood's profit-driven devotion to StC formulas means that we have gotten to the point that we consider character-driven and/or thematic storytelling to be bad storytelling.

Thus, a complaint that TCW is filled with wasted time is a fundamental misunderstanding of what TCW is trying to do. It is not a story that is primarily plot-driven; if you go into it expecting StC-type story beats you will leave (probably long before the seventh season) with a sense of bafflement and possibly anger. In essence, the plot to TCW can be summed us as: 'Get from Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith'. There is a plot in there, because honestly the prequels were light on such things and there's a big black box between AotC and RotS that needs to be filled with, like, things happening that make sense (never an accusation that can be leveled at the prequels). But the plot of TCW is not the POINT of TCW. We all know how the story ends. We've all seen RotS. The point of TCW is not how we get there. The point of TCW is what happens along the way.

It is, therefore, better to think about TCW not as 'plot' but as 'story'. The plot is 'Palpatine uses an endless war to orchestrate the downfall of the Republic'; the story is 'how do you turn Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader'. Those are very different! Very very different! Because the point of the story is primarily 'how do you take a lost, frightened, very powerful child and turn him into a Sith', the way you tell the story is not so much plot point as themes. Those themes allow you to explore other, related stories as well (how do you turn the Republic into the Empire? what does it mean to fight a war with disposable soldiers? what were the flaws of the late Republic Jedi Order that led to them sowing the seeds of their own destruction? what does moral responsibility mean in a universe where people are randomly gifted immense personal power and limited institutional power? what effect does endless war have on a society that is largely insulated from the downsides of that war? what are the ethics of sending children into battle? what if you tell yourself they're not children? what are the effects, both practical and moral, of making compromise after compromise after compromise for the sake of expediency, until you've forgotten the moral stance you were taking at the start of it all?) because ultimately the story IS the themes. It's not a plot. It's not trying to be a plot. We went in knowing what the plot is; we don't need it explained. What we need explained is why and why is fundamentally a thematic question.

This is, incidentally, why TCW is almost unwatchable if you try to watch it in chronological order rather than in the order in which it was released. Yes, there are lists out there that put all the episodes in chronological order. I've actually watched it all the way through that way. It's virtually incomprehensible, and I say that as someone who had watched all of it (six seasons at the time) all the way through twice before. It's incomprehensible precisely because by watching it in chronological order, you are inherently watching it for a plot. You are watching it for the expected story beats of an action film, and it doesn't have those! It doesn't make sense! Things just happen one after another and they don't have any overarching plot to tie them together and that's because you're doing it wrong. TCW is tied together if you watch it in the order in which it was intended to be watched because the story beats are thematic.

(I will note that the OP on the original post does call out 'thematic resolution' as well as plot resolution, but doesn't really seem to address that, because, as described above, pretty much all of TCW has a definite thematic narrative.)

So, to circle back to the reason I started this rant, I completely disagree that TCW is a good example of wasted time. Sure, if what you want is a tight plot (and to be fair, mostly people should be writing tight plots, especially beginning writers), then yeah, it's an example of what not to do. But in that case, it's an example of what not to do from the ground up, because it is, intentionally, structured to not have a tight plot. That isn't the type of storytelling it is engaged in. And, frankly, I think that's wonderful. I love stories with tight plots. But I hate the idea that those should be the only type of storytelling we engage in. Not every hero needs to have a moment 2/3 of the way through the movie where they save the cat. We are Pan narrans, the storytelling ape. We can tell all sorts of different kinds of stories and enjoy, and have need of, all of them.

As a side note, if you want an example of wasted time, I'll give you a few episodes of Rebels: 'The Wynkahthu Job' and 'Warhead' in S3 advance neither plot (which Rebels actually has) nor themes nor character development. S3 of Rebels remains my favorite, but S2 is far more tightly written.

[hotpinkstaples]

I often wonder if the Kensei, Mashiro, Rose and Shinji went back to Soul society as way to protect the Kurosaki kids and the rest of the Vizards that stayed in Karakura or any future Vizards that may pop up. The four went back willingly to fix the mess the traitor trio did to their own squads and ended up making bonds with Momo, Izuru and Shuhei. We really needed a Vizard focused arc before TYBW arc.

I've often wondered this too! Personally, I came to the conclusion that for the Vizards, the act of going back to Soul Society wasn't so much a way to reignite bonds with the other Shinigami, but to establish a clear path for assimilation for those that are considered "bad blood." For Yamamoto and the Central 46, just the very EXISTENCE of the hollowfied shinigami is an abomination against their values/creed/etc., but WE as the audience know that the actual god of Bleachverse, the Soul King, doth not perceive differences between those of pure Shinigami essence and those that mix between the different "races." I would go as far as to say that in the eyes of the Soul King, all beings are equally undesirable, and that he wouldn't hesitate to kill off EVERYONE if he ever got the chance to reform.

But because Soul Society was strictly 'pure-blood politics' first, the act of many of the Vizards returning was a direct challenge of Seireitei's pure blood policy, and a complete rejection of their ideals because for Shinji SPECIFICALLY, I believe it's his way of claiming that they're all equal before their god (the Soul King), and that the question of mixed blood won't matter should the Big Man ever decide to fully reanimate and destroy the fabric of the universe. I always saw Shinji as the perfect embodiment of the Soldier, not in the context of being a cop bastard, but a soldier in protection of the PEOPLE and not of ideals. He is, IMO, the most morally sound person in the Gotei 13, because he understands EXACTLY how important the DUTY of a shinigami is, and that's what it boils down to for him - it's his duty as a man granted god-like powers to protect souls and protect PEOPLE, and it's a duty he knows that's bankrupt amongst most of the Gotei 13, but doesn't mean it's bankrupt inside of him.

And that theme of duty in service of the PEOPLE over duty in service of the captain commander/king extends to the other Vizards because we gotta remember, Kensei and Mashiro specifically were vanguard soldiers. They were the ones called in to handle the threat from the start, and essentially lost their 'lives' on the line of duty. Now, you could say the others really didn't have as much reason to return like Shinji, Kensei, and Mashi, but I think after they were fully hollowfied, many of them likely realized that the protection of souls and people far surpassed whatever beef they had with Soul Society. In fact, I would say they were pretty much ready to die during the Winter War. I don't think they had any delusions of grandeur, of some great fanfare and return to Soul Society. I think they all went into the Winter War accepting that they were gonna die and that it would be a fine death, because they were dying protecting people (and specifically, the children of Karakura Town).

Rambling aside, I totally agree that the Vizards needed more panel time. I personally think that out of all the "sets" of characters, they alongside the Karakura Town natives are the most important in exploring the human condition through the death narrative.

[jiminslight]

You don’t even have to publish this ask (sorry to be on anon), I just wanted to say you’re not alone with your feelings that you expressed in the tags. Dynamite came at the right time and gave them more exposure and I’m happy about that. But I love their own music more and I wish people would remember who bts really is first and foremost, they are Korean and write music in Korean and that deserves even more respect than Dynamite imo. And I think RM told it pretty clearly in his interview.

i’m glad i’m not the only one who felt this way! it had been bothering me for some time now, but joon’s interview was the precipice for me. i don’t know if i’m being too harsh on dynamite either; i like the song because it’s catchy and it’s still a bts song, most of my issues come with everything tied to it. i’m glad it made it big and i’m happy (on the behalf of bts) that it got them nominated for a grammy (a performance category, but still). i just don’t like how it automatically overshadows the rest of their discography now just because it’s their only english song and it’s more comfortable for the west to consume. screw the american music industry, screw the xenophobia, and screw ethnocentrism. yes, it was easier for me to memorize the lyrics for dynamite, yes it was fun, pleasant to listen to, and yes i enjoyed it when it came out. i still jam to it when it comes on shuffle. but is it the best bts song ever? is it the song that represents bts’ message and lyricism? is it the song with their essence infused into it? no. not even close. it’s completely in english—i mean, interviewers from the states have been pestering them about when one would come out—therefore it’s a success. bts have always had it in them; their talent speaks for itself, but suddenly people pay more attention when their song adheres to the mainstream (the mainstream being the american market bc the west has some freakish, dominating presence in pop culture). in my namjoon-weverse-interview-highlights-post someone rbed it with this as one of the tags: “the inherent privilege of english in the global music industry.” this sums up what i’m trying to say bothers me about dynamite and it’s ever-looming presence. i get why spring day is always coming back, it’s such a meaningful song, but dynamite somehow taking precedence over life goes on to people who are working on streaming? i understand liking one song over the other, like maybe someone prefers the sound of dynamite; that’s cool, everyone has different tastes. but to boil bts down to dynamite and not give their korean songs the same appreciation? the fact that joon even said “it [life goes on] might even come off as bland compared to dynamite” makes me really sad. he already knows, he’s probably experienced it first hand. (side note: i still remember that other weverse article where they called out some racism they experienced.)

[masterthespianduchovny]

Why I Don’t Read Scully/Other to RST/MSR fics Anymore

When it boils down to it, fics are all about interpretation and if your readers agree with how you view the characters. Your added insight could make or break a story. Does this line up with what we know of the character? Does it enhance them? What does your reflections potentially expose about them?

Even when stories have parts that readers are unsure about or dislike, a solid interpretation and great execution can catapult a story into fandom success. It can open peoples minds and get them to read things they never considered before.

For me, “No Regrets” by Mystphile had the opposite effect. It was the story that made me stop reading S/O to RST/MSR fics.

(Warning, they’ll be spoilers for the No Regrets and Iolokus.)

Don’t get me wrong, No Regrets isn’t a bad story. It’s not poorly written or anything, however it feels misleading. 

When an author labels something as S/O, I know what I’m getting into. I understand and accept it. This is also why I don’t read S/O standalone fics. But, when an author labels a story S/O and MSR it has a totally different meaning. This sets an expectation the reader expects to be met.

I read this story around 2008 and skimmed it today. How I felt then is the same way: dissatisfied.

I invested hours into this story. Reading Scully find herself as she embarks on a relationship with Det. John Kresge and has great sex. She looks forward to seeing him. My poor shipper heart, but good for her. At the same time, I can’t wait for Scully to realize her feelings for Mulder or for her to embrace them and be ready to take that step with him.

Back then, as I read the story and got closer and closer to the end, I kept wondering “where’s the MSR?”

The thing is: it doesn’t exist.

The last 3% of the fic, Scully’s lips graze against Mulder’s cheek and he gives her a peck outside of a bar.

Be still my shipper heart!

A friend of mine pointed out that this may have been a lot whenever the story was released, which was 2000 I believe, so during the original run. If I had read this during the original run, I know I would’ve been pissed. It was labeled MSR and there wasn’t any romance.

I read Scully having mind-blowing sex, how she loved this dude, blah blah blah, and all I get is a cheek graze and peck at the end?

It should’ve just been S/O OR “MSR if you squint.” Maybe she labeled that to give noromos a heads up. But, I don’t feel this story is for shippers or shipper friendly if I’m being honest.

And I’m willing to bet some shippers love this story, which is fine, I’m not saying others can’t. Except, for me, this story was just another story in the long list of stories that are S/O to MSR fics that really should be S/O. It gets to the point in a story where I’m like, “I don’t want her and Mulder to get together. Why even bother?” It isn’t that the S/O is so compelling, it’s that they have such a dim view of MSR and Mulder, it feels like this Scully wouldn’t even want Mulder.

These stories are framed as if Scully’s too good for Mulder (I know people joke about it and it’s occasionally funny, but some truly feel that way and I don’t) and he doesn’t deserve her (” “).

No Regrets doesn’t necessarily behave this way, but the essence of it feels similar.

In stories like these Scully is given the keys to improve her life, but Mulder doesn’t get the same care. Sometimes he’s stagnant, sometimes he realizes his folly. I know he isn’t the focus, but why would someone who made tremendous strides in their personal life settle on him, which is essentially this version of Scully is doing, right?

She improves her life due to how Mulder has mistreated her, took her for granted, his quest robbing her of various things, etc, yet when she takes control of her life she decides to be with the person who she sees as the root of her issues???

Again, by no means was No Regrets bad, I just felt it as I wasted my time because my expectations weren’t met due to an inappropriate tag.

I didn’t need Mulder and Scully to have their own sex scene, but can I at least get a passionate kiss? Them being entranced by each other? Something that indicates they’re about to have he romance of a lifetime? Give me something to justify the MSR label.

Maybe I missed something.

I don’t know.

People who write S/O tend to be Scullyist who believe Scully deserved better. I don’t fault them for their feelings. I get their feelings, but if you’re going to include MSR and barely write MSR, at least gives readers a warning.

That’s why I appreciate writers who didn’t label their shit at all. If I read their fics, I knew it could literally be anything and I’d have to deal with that. S/O, M/O, UST, RST, MSR, case file--who knew, but that was the chance you took. Yet, when you label things and don’t follow through on it appropriately, that’s misleading.

Of course people are entitled to write whatever the fuck they want, however, I’ve always been of the mind that if writers want to explore those traumatic sides of Scully, the fics should be dark. I know some have issues with Iolokus and, ironically enough, the treatment of Mulder. They believe he was a push over a times. Although I see their point, I LOVE Iolokus.

It doesn’t position Mulder or Scully being better than the other or that the other is lucky they were chosen.

Mulder and Scully are both traumatized and unable to properly deal with the fucked up shit they’ve endured. Mulder was baptized by fire much earlier than Scully, so when Scully’s trauma overwhelms her after Mulder leaves her, it devastates her. She falls into depression, she isn’t taking care of herself, she doesn’t know how to ask for help--she doesn’t want to. She’s in a dark place. It’s not necessarily because Mulder left her, but because he completely shut her out of his life. She was his everything at one point, and then he moved on and left her behind. For a while, he was her rock and normalcy, and then he wasn’t there anymore.

I know not everyone wants or enjoy enjoys dark stories, which Iolokus definitely is. Personally, when I look at stories that want to explore all of the shit Scully went through and have her empower herself, imo, these stories are inherently dark. Stories that want to explore Scully’s trauma allow her to feel, be tragic, and occasionally lost in ways that feels unfamiliar, yet authentic. I suppose that’s why S/O that tries to tackle these issues aren’t my cup of tea. They want to explore the tragedies and ignore the inherent darkness that comes with it.

Like, if you’re going to keep it light and have Scully fucking another man for most of the story and falling in love with him (maybe), at least give me the MSR you dangled. If not, I’m just going to read the stories that will devastate me and give me the romance it promised. 

No offense to S/O and their writers, but it’s been a hard pass for those stories ever since 2008. For the most part, I haven’t been wrong in my assessment. When I have read these stories, very rare, it’s been heavily vetted

[spaceorphan18]

What would you say to people who believe Blaine manipulated Kurt into getting engaged? In the season 6 breakup's deleted script, Kurt said that Blaine did that and that he felt forced to say yes. Of course, it's a deleted scene, and there's no true canonical evidence that Kurt feels that way, but I've always been torn on the subject. Kurt's face throughout the proposal was also a little confusing, he looks very overwhelmed, though I can't tell if it's in a good or bad way.

What would you say to people who believe Blaine manipulated Kurt into getting engaged?

Nonny, I think you’ve been reading too much Kurt meta done by people who don’t like Blaine.  ;)

God, this is a total flashback to 2014 when the Better Boyfriend Olympics were alive and well, lol.  Oh, Nonny <3 

Alright, let’s pull up a chair and have a discussion.  

In the season 6 breakup's deleted script, Kurt said that Blaine did that and that he felt forced to say yes. Of course, it's a deleted scene, and there's no true canonical evidence that Kurt feels that way, but I've always been torn on the subject.

Okay, first, let’s talk about this thought.  I’ve bolded the part in this comment that matters -- you’ve hit the nail on the head, Nonny.  

Talking as a writer, I need to say something about scripts, deleted scenes, and other things not done in canon -- a lot of times, in drafts, people write things that may not work or fit -- that’s why they’re drafts.  There’s a reason the scripted break up wasn’t the episode -- because it wasn’t the best way to tell the story they wanted to tell. 

In addition, a lot of that speech in the script reeks of the writers listening to what Blaine-hating Kurt fans had to say about the whole thing.  Glee had a tendency to over do it when breaking the fourth way to address commentary and criticism.  They did this with Brittana fans when Brittany and Sam get together, basically telling the lesbian bloggers to shut up and deal with it.  Doing so in the episode went too far (imo) -- and leaving Kurt’s comments in would have felt out of character and too much meta-ish commentary.  

That said -- totally wasn’t in the episode, and as you’ve said, there’s not true canonical evidence that Kurt feels that way. 

***

Addressing a few more things -- 

1. Blaine being manipulative.  

He’s not.  He does like to be in control of things, but that’s not the same thing as manipulation (and there’s a firm argument about how Kurt has far more manipulative tendencies -- see season 1).  Putting this particular incident more in context... first of all, keep in mind that from the break up to hooking up in I Do is only six months, most of which, Kurt and Blaine I wouldn’t call fully, 100% broken up -- more so just broken.  Then, he’s part of a school shooting, and while it wasn’t a real school shooting, it still has an effect -- he wants to feel security from the love he and Kurt share.  

As for the proposal itself -- Blaine knows exactly how Kurt wants his proposal to be -- and is going a bit overboard on the romanticism.  It’s not motivated by manipulation though.  It’s motivated by the fact that he wants to prove to Kurt that he can meet all of Kurt’s fantasies and demands.  (Which he does btw.)  Blaine does not have a secret agenda -- his heart is most firmly on his sleeve a majority of the time.  

2. The idea that Kurt doesn’t want to be proposed to, married, etc, etc.  

This is a little more complex of an issue to get into in a single ask, but let’s see if I can boil this down to its essence: 

Kurt has stated multiple times to Finn and Rachel that he doesn’t believe in young marriages -- this belief is already embedded in his psyche before he and Blaine get engaged, and part of that stubborn belief (whether it be right or wrong) seeps into his later issues in his own relationship. 

Kurt got very, very hurt by Blaine cheating on him -- and by the time they got back together, Kurt was dipping his toe in the pool while Blaine had already gone into the deep end.  Kurt needed some time to work his way back out to the deep end of the pool, and Blaine pulling Kurt out to the deep end before he was ready didn’t mean that he didn’t want to go swimming there, just that he was going faster than he had expected, and wasn’t given enough time to adjust. 

A lot of time in media, the proposal/marriage is the end of the story.  Here - it’s the middle of the story, and plays a different role in said story.  Kurt has doubts - but not doubts about loving Blaine, or wanting to be with Blaine the rest of his life.  As said in point 2, he got very hurt, and he isn’t ready yet - that combined with his belief that people shouldn’t get married so young (along with a few other issues) is what leads to the second break up.  

That doesn’t mean that Kurt doesn’t love his proposal.  Kurt is very romantic minded -- and the proposal was everything he could have ever dreamed of.  He’s emotionally overwhelmed during the scene, because it’s more than he could have ever dreamed of.  And I’d like to reiterate that this isn’t out of nowhere -- not only have the idea that Kurt and Blaine previously talked about marriage and long term plans for their relationship, but it’s also been set up that Kurt loves surprise proposals, weddings, romantic gestures (see All or Nothing, the episode previous, for high examples.) 

The thing that always gets me about the manipulation argument though... Do people really think that Kurt would ever, ever be manipulated into something he didn’t want to do?  Kurt’s a very strong-minded character, and is not so easily swayed into (or out of) something.  If Kurt didn’t want to get married... if he didn’t want to be proposed to... if he didn’t want the thing, he wouldn’t have let it happen.  

3. The idea that relationships need to be perfect

The whole thing about the Better Boyfriend Olympics was the fact that each side of it felt the other wasn’t good enough for their favorite.  And it stems from this weird idea that in order to be good enough to be a romantic partner for said favorite -- the romantic partner must bow down at the alter of favorite and not ever do anything wrong.  The relationship, to maybe over simplify, must be perfect.  When it wasn’t -- people liked to point fingers and blame the other side.  And come up with anything they could to help prove their point that their favorite was the better one and/or deserved better. 

Man, it was the most annoying thing. 

The thing that I always liked, and appreciated about Klaine was the idea that we have two very flawed characters working through their issues.  Sometimes they sucked at it. Sometimes one of them wasn’t the greatest.�� But that made them feel more fleshed out and well rounded as characters.  Relationships can be problematic, that doesn’t mean they’re wholly bad.  They have issues.  People aren’t perfect, and shouldn’t be held to such ridiculous standards.  

Look, Nonny, if you don’t feel the scene, you don’t feel it, and I don’t think anything I say or do can change your mind if it doesn’t. And that’s totally fair and fine.  But -- all I can say is keep in mind where your biases may lie and/or what kind of filters are overlaying your interpretation of the scene.  

If you’d like more reading on Love Love Love, I’d suggest my meta: Finding Kurt Hummel - Love, Love, Love

If you like podcasts, I know we go deeper into the subject on various TDB Podcasts: TDB Podcast List 

Tl;dr version - Blaine is not manipulative, the script should not be taken as canonical evidence of anything, and Kurt was emotionally overwhelmed and deeply touched by a very grand romantic gesture that was presented to him.  

[hidetothink]

Can someone seriously explain this gay what is gender identity? What is the details of this inner feeling or "fundamental essence"? Im so frustrated bc nobody i ask actually explains it elaborated and so far at best sounds like a persistent wishful thinking ('i really really want to be X badly') or an alternative term for personality and then people get angry at me for not getting it or "validating" it. My god i just want an actual reasoning in depth, have you gotten an answer on this matter?

I've never been given a good answer as to what "gender" actually is

It's always one of the following:

1). A socially constructed gender role instituted by society (I am a woman because I am feminine, passive, nurturing. I am a man because I am assertive, aggressive, and logical)

2). A circular definition that boils down to nothing (I am a man, this means I identify as a man, and with manhood. A man is anyone who identifies as a man which is anyone who identifies as a man which is anyone who....etc. Repeat into infinity)

3). A personality (I do NOT fit the gender roles forced on me, therefore I must be OUTSIDE these roles and neither man nor woman. In reality I am just a complex, full human being who cannot fit boxes not meant to contain real, living humans)

4). Combo Meal (Any combination of the previous elements. For me, my "gender identity" was a mix of feeling isolated from "manhood", preferring things traditionally labeled "womanly" and failing to recognize my circular reasoning)

I think "man" and "woman" should only mean "adult human male" and "adult human female." Anything which a man experiences (liking dresses, camo, ballet, trucks, bugs, gemstones, other men, hunting, shopping) IS manhood. Same with anything experienced by any woman.

There is no real, true "manhood" or "womanhood" to identify with outside that which is imposed by society and which, imo, should not be reinforced but broadened and rejected

[chamerionwrites]

@permian-tropos replied to your post:

I ran into some “sad endings are bad” discourse and even as someone who probably prefers happy endings I got pissy too (particularly since what people were classifying as something sad was like… anything that didn’t make you feel powerful. anything that grappled with certain real ideas that never make you feel powerful)

also I think some people pick sides on this based on what particular happy/sad ending they want for one story yeah I’m going to say it I think it’s often shallow like if Thing People Want was established to be irrefutably dark and edgy the same people would argue that dark stories are good

That captures the essence of what bothers me, honestly. I don’t think power fantasies are bad. I don’t even think they lack depth (some of them do, but so do plenty of tragedies; that’s an issue of writing quality, not anything inherent in either genre). And I think it’s more than worthwhile to point out who has traditionally gotten to play protagonist in those kinds of stories, and write many more that center the sorts of characters who have often been relegated to the margins of the narrative.

But I find it deeply, deeply unsettling when people suggest that stories which don’t function as power fantasies are worthless if not outright harmful. That’s a fundamentally political statement and imo a fundamentally dangerous one, because learning is often inextricably tied to discomfort. Compassion is often inextricably tied to discomfort. Unlearning harmful ideas, apologizing to people you’ve wronged, caring for people in pain, grappling with complicated moral dilemmas - all of those things often involve at least a moment or two of feeling like absolute shit. So when people dismiss the value of stories that Make Them Feel Bad - especially in nominally left-leaning spaces like Tumblr - it always seems to me that they talk a good game about open-mindedness and empathy while devaluing what those things actually look like in practice, because both demand a certain amount of willingness to be made uncomfortable without lashing out at whatever brought you discomfort. 

Which is NOT to say that anyone is obligated to like sad stories. To the contrary, I think some of the value of fiction lies in the fact that it lets us process things slightly differently than we might IRL. I think soft, triumphant, hopeful stories with happy endings are often moving and thought-provoking and beautiful, and it’s perfectly valid for folks to gravitate to those kinds of narratives and avoid tragedies. Where I draw the line is when they claim that only one of those things can possibly be valuable, and shit all over anybody whose tastes differ while they’re at it.

Also...I very much appreciate you adding your perspective, and I want to assure you in advance that I’m not trying to be a pedant and that any frustration here isn’t directed at you, but to be brutally clear about the original post: Sad Endings Are Bad discourse doesn’t just make me pissy. I don’t find it merely irritating. I find it aggressively upsetting, for a variety of reasons that I’m not super hyped about discussing at length on the internet but which broadly boil down to a lot of the thoughts expressed in this post: “Because that particular ‘shh, shh, shh, if we pretend utopia is already here, it soon will be’ lie has hurt me EVERY TIME I’ve heard it.” It doesn’t make me pissy. On a bad day it kicks my brain straight into fight-or-flight mode, and the trouble is that there is no goddamn way to avoid it because the same people up on their moral high horse about how sad or dark fiction is Bad Because It Makes Them Feel Bad lack ANY SELF-AWARENESS WHATSOEVER about the richness and variety of badfeels their Positive Uplifting Stories Only rhetoric might evoke in...say...people who have faced backlash for reporting abuse, because so many human beings in this world would rather get angry at anyone who makes them uncomfortable by drawing their attention to ugliness than be forced to confront the ugliness itself.

And you know what? I fully recognize that just as I have compelling personal reasons for wanting to flee for the hills when I encounter that rhetoric, many people have compelling personal reasons for finding certain sad story elements distressing. The difference is that I’m not running around making ridiculous blanket statements about how their personal literary taste makes them shitty boring people, and I’m more than willing to throw down and tell anybody who does make such statements that they’re behaving like a pretentious asshole.

So maybe it’s harsh but frankly, every time I encounter this nonsense I just want to scream at people to look three centimeters past their noses and cultivate some empathy for people who don’t experience the world exactly the same way they do. That’s part of what fiction is for. 

[twopoppies]

a different anon but I’ve followed you for a while now and I’m not a parent or anything but opefully one day! I don’t know the ages of your kid(s)? But what would you say is the hardest age to get through as a parent? Or maybe that’s still yet to come? I don’t mean the terrible twos although I can imagine that’s not fun. But just in the way of raising them, teaching them the basic things in life? Like mannerisms, moral and etiquette and whatnot? I’m so sorry for all of these questions

Oy. That’s super hard to answer because IMO it depends on so many variables. I happen to have twins, so that’s going to make things complicated in many ways from the outset. I’m also an only child myself and so affected a great deal by chaos and noise (add in being an introvert and highly anxious....and you’ve got a lovely combo). LOL! AND....add in that both of my kids are not neurotypical and you’ve got good times ahead!

I’ll put the rest under the cut because most of my followers won’t care about this.

Having said all of that, I think each stage has it’s joys and difficulties. And, IMO, so much of that boils down to what is easy/difficult for you to personally deal with. And if you’re parenting with a partner, how each of you deals with those stressors and is able to communicate about it also factors in.

So, while I found my kids’ early years exhausting because my son didn’t sleep well and I was a bit neurotic about “entertaining” them (which I wish I had understood at the time wasn’t really necessary), emotionally it was fairly easy because children that age are somewhat uncomplicated in that department. What was maybe most difficult was understanding myself and why I was so triggered by certain things (like not being listened to, for example). 

As they’ve gotten older (they’re 11 now), what’s hardest I suppose, is understanding their personalities, what is needed from me in each situation, and learning how to respond as opposed to react. Kids are unique individuals and their temperaments don’t necessarily gel with their parents’. Doing deep healing work on ourselves is one of the best ways to become a present and connected parent. And it’s constant work.

These are some books that I’ve found incredibly helpful in my parenting journey:

Your Two Year Old: Terrible or Tender (their series goes year by year...they’re all terrific, if a bit dated)

The Whole Brain Child  (and the accompanying workbook) 

Parenting From The Inside Out

The Explosive Child (this one made the most enormous difference for me at a point when I had completely given up)

Siblings Without Rivalry (they also wrote a great book called How To Talk So Kids Will Listen)

Elevating Childcare (and Janet Lansbury’s blog is chock full of wonderful advice)

Unconditional Parenting (Alfie Kohn is amazing...I particularly love what he writes about education)

Emotionally Healthy Twins (you know...if you have twins)

NurtureShock

Everyday Blessings: The Inner Work of Mindful Parenting

Becoming The Parent You Want to Be

I’m sure there are so many more, and most of these I read quite some time ago so perhaps there are more updated ones out now, but the essence of my parenting philosophy comes from those. I think my best advice for someone asking about teaching your child morals, etiquette, behavior, etc. is to model it yourself. Children are so observant and so wise. You cannot simply tell your children how to behave, you have to show them. And in turn, your children become your teacher as much as you are theirs. 

[landofsomethingsomething]

to be perfectly honest im not very fond of a lot of hs soulmate AU's because of the implication that the two that are soulbound are fated to have a romantic relationship when there are 2 whole other quadrants and moirailegiance often gets ignored when its just as important and valid as the concupiscent quadrants. i dont know, maybe im overreacting because im aromantic and get bugged in general when romantic relationships are put over platonic ones in general, but it really annoys me...

this is part of why I don’t really love applying the quadrant system to irl relationships -- a strict canon reading imo weights sex/physical attraction pretty heavily as a delimiter between what “kind” of relationship you’re in, which isnt really translatable to reality with all its permutations on attraction. but in reality I find most people who do this have their own personal definition of what each thing really is anyway and just use the labels as something convenient to get across the boiled down “essence” of their complicated situation to people in the know. I don’t see why someone couldn’t write a soulmate AU for other “quadrants” or even just a non/panquadranted soulmate au with ace characters or some such. (I do think it’s even stated somewhere that alternian trolls literally do believe they have one true soulmate for each quadrant or some such.) It’s true that I never see that, but I rarely see ace/aro stuff tackled in fanfiction in general so that’s no surprise. 

[starspatter]

Why did you drop Fullmetal Alchemist after that episode?

Spoiler rant ahead (for both the 2003 and 2009 series).

I’ll preface by saying I have seen the original animé series and enjoyed it - even up to and including the ending, which is a major reason why I held off on watching Brotherhood for so long since I was largely satisfied with the conclusion I got.

That being said, watching AMVs over the years did make me curious about the “alternate/official takes”, as it were - in particular the scene of crying Winry holding a gun and Ed comforting her since it was featured so often.  So it was one of the “big scenes” I was looking forward to when my friend finally convinced me to (re)watch the series with him (it being his second viewing).

Once it was revealed Scar was the one who killed Winry’s parents instead of Roy, I knew the above had to be a result of the inevitable confrontation over it, and was eagerly anticipating said meeting and the explanation as to why Scar killed them.  Surely, with everyone so vocally supportive of FMAB, their deaths must be even more intense and heartbreaking than the original!  …Right?

And so what was the reason for their deaths?

…

Because their eyes were blue.

That’s it.

If that’s not the dumbest, table-flipping excuse enough to kill someone, I don’t know what is.

But let me clarify by backing up a bit: It wasn’t Winry’s breakdown scene specifically that made me want to drop the series.  It was everything building up to it within the episode itself that just made me… so apathetic that I couldn’t even be bothered to care.

Maybe it’s just me, but I had a very visceral reaction to just how… cliché the presentation of the Ishvalan War was.  Of course the Amestrian soldiers were seen as blue-eyed devils who relished in massacring women and children!  Because look!  Racism and violence = bad!  No shit Sherlock.

Of course, I know these are still real-world issues that need to be addressed, but I’m just getting a little tired of relying on the trope in fiction to signal who the “bad guys” are, is all.  Perhaps it’s bc I saw Wonder Woman recently, which handled these subjects in a much more unbiased and mature manner (if not exactly perfect either).  There’s grace to be had in subtlety.

And that’s a problem I have with the presentation of the story in general.  A lot of its messages I feel I’m being beaten over the head with.  Perhaps the animators are partially at fault, I haven’t read the manga so I can’t compare how heavy-handed Scar’s backstory was there.  And yes, I’m now aware of the later twist that Envy was the one behind starting the war, but I can’t say I’m a big fan of that development either for the very fact he felt the need to monologue about it, complete with maniacal villain laughter.  To boil things down to even further “black and white” left a horribly bad taste in my mouth.  (Another reason I prefer the Homunculi of the original.)

The whole thing made me absolutely loathe Scar’s character in this version for how hypocritical he was being.  And I thought, maybe he’d redeem himself a bit by the end when Winry calls him out and he realizes the error of his ways - but no, he is entirely unrepentant.  Yes, I know they later have another heart-to-heart and sorta settle their differences and he eventually becomes their ally, but the fact he was so stubborn in the first place doesn’t endear me to him.  I know people’s minds don’t change so easily, but for God’s sakes those doctors saved your life.  Even if you slaughtered them in a fit of rage and confusion, shouldn’t you feel some remorse when their grief-stricken daughter is staring you right in the face?

And from Winry’s side, I vastly preferred her emotional conflict over finding out Roy was responsible for her parents’ deaths in the original and having to come to terms with that knowledge.  Roy’s reasons for killing them were much more complex and compelling IMO, to the point he was so tortured by guilt he was nearly driven to suicide by it.  Scar’s arc in Brotherhood just doesn’t compare.

The writing of that singular episode made me so mad I refused to watch any more episodes for a while, since it effectively killed any excitement I had up to that point.  I was also afraid that other future “spoilers” i had been looking forward to would similarly be disappointing after all the hype.  I only resumed after a month-long hiatus when I saw another friend was also rewatching the series and singing praises for it.  By that time my anger had died down and I could at least stomache to continue.

All that said, I am enjoying the series now, especially upon learning more of Hoenheim’s history.  (I’m really just here for Hoendorkdad interactions with his sons. *shot* Plus I’ve found a new motivation in making MCA comparison posts.)  Unlike the whole “Red Eyes good Blue Eyes bad” debacle, the revelation that Ed and Al were descendants of the ruined country Xerxes, as indicated by their golden hair and eyes, was a good example of clever storytelling and world-building.  It was a nicely slipped in detail that wasn’t hamfistedly called attention to; I hadn’t even noticed it until my friend pointed it out.  …Although it’s still later deliberately spelled out anyway.  But whatever.  Point still counts.

Still, it was hard getting there after Scar’s backstory ep, since suffice to say it left a permanent “scar” on my viewing experience no matter how good the rest of the show may be.  Anytime the Ishvalan War was brought up thereafter and the vices of “prejudice” stressed it reminded me of how I just wanted to gag myself with a spoon during that episode, and tried to speed past that part of the plot as quickly as possible lest it sour the overall score further.  I mean, when you spend half the entire episode bored/sick of it and just wishing for it to end, that’s a warning sign.

I may be looking at the original with rose-tinted glasses (it’s been a while since I saw it as well), but the thing is, I’m starting to recognize that FMA (both the original and Brotherhood) is, in essence, very much a baby’s first shounen/animé, constantly hammering its morals in for the kids at home.  And as far as introductory series to the genre go, it’s good!  Great even.  I just… kinda wish I hadn’t waited so long to see the universally lauded “sibling series” when regardless of whether I had seen the original first or not, I probably would’ve enjoyed Brotherhood a lot more had I watched it when I was younger and not after I’ve consumed a ton more media since then.