#because in order to be problematic he has to cause problems

[ddesertmoon]

yeah im okay. thanks for asking. yeah it’s just that I’m part of a fandom that’s obsessed with the same character that I’m obsessed with. except every time they write about him they want to take away his autonomy.

so idk who they think they’re writing about because apparently This Guy has to have some other force controlling him when he makes bad decisions. you know. Just so that he can be perfect and completely blameless and a victim.

[byuno-o]

RETROGRADE PLANETS IN NATAL CHARTS.

NOTE: PERSONAL OBSERVATIONS. HENCE, MIGHT NOT BE APPLICABLE FOR EVERYONE. ONLY FOR ENTERTAINMENT. HENCE, DISCRETION IS ADVISED. DO PROVIDE FEEDBACKS, I LOVE IT. :)

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE

If you have mercury in retrograde in your natal chart, you might deal with aversion when it comes to verbal, direct communication. Putting your ideas and thoughts into clear sentences might not be your forte. However, I've read somewhere that people with Mercury Rx, have really good intuition. I can vouch for this since my brother has this in his 11th house, and boy has he saved himself from bad influences countless times purely because he could sense BS right away. People with Mercury Rx, however, possess a unique way of communicating their ideas and thoughts. They don't necessarily use art, but just different words and their brains are often configured differently. They might see logic in things that others can't, and somehow, everything works fine for them. These people also tend to be profound thinkers and internalize their life philosophies instead of using those philosophies for other, unlike forward mercuries. People with forward mercuries-even the ones with debilitated mercuries use their words and ideas in order to help others. while retrograde mercuries wants the betterment of self. Hence, seeing other perspectives can be difficult for them, and finding balance between conscious and callous communication can be hard. Retrograde mercuries have hard-hitting sense of humour which can be the result of unique communication style. Forward mercuries can choose their words carefully, but retrograde mercuries often cannot, for this is their lesson for their present life.

2) VENUS RETROGRADE

I see people with venus in retrograde having issues with their sense of self, which can be seen in their communication style and sense of humour. Overcompensating outwardly for lack of sensing lack of style and panache that forward Venus tend to possess, even the debilitated ones. yet they can't see their own unique flavour which goes against the conventions. A friend whose venus is in retrograde has the wildest love life in my group. Her standards are high, which stemmed from dealing with problematic, almost karmic relationships. There can be confusions regarding one's own opinion about self, likes, dislikes, and there can be a tendency to see oneself through other's judgements. Finance can be a hard to deal with, overspending can be a problem. Their lesson for their present life is to accept themselves the way they are, and love themselves before looking for love and validation elsewhere. The root cause of almost all of their problems is the lack of sense of strong self and self-validation which come first and foremost. That is the only one they can see their own uniqueness, and leverage it for their benefits.

3) MARS RETROGRADE

These people can deal with heavy procrastination, and lacks efforts when it comes to their dreams and goals. There can be a push and pull effect regarding their individuality. A cousin of mine has mars retrograde, and despite having his mars in Scorpio, he loathes adventures, and risks--and you can also add changes. while people with forward mars can be very courageous--even the debilitated ones, although they need immense pressure to make them feel agitated, people with mars retrograde rather suffer in silence than assert themselves. For them, action-orientation, and assertion can be the lessons for their present lives. However, I also think Mars in retrograde can make one very diplomatic and can make the person possess mercurial qualities. That same cousin have debilitated mercury, yet he sounds the most critical and logical among us when we have to fight for our food rights (jokes) against our grandparents. Rather than have a individualistic nature, these people can harness excellent group qualities. They can suffer through sex related traumas.

4) JUPITER RETROGRADE

People with Jupiter in retrograde may be raised with issues regarding self, religion and higher knowledge. Their viewpoints are very different, and may often come off as illogical. They care very cautious when it comes to voicing their opinions. However, they can possess a very twisted kind of luck. Since I have this, I can vouch for this. I may never get what I want, but what I need always finds me, Unlike people with forward Jupiter who may get what they want just like that. my brother has forward Jupiter in Cancer, and I have never seen a person as lucky as him. Brotha is protected by angels and our family. One order, and the whole family scrambles to obey him. While in my case, I just work hard and get the bare minimum, but the things I get always helps me at times. Getting higher knowledge is especially harder for people with Jupiter in Rx, and may deal with confusion regarding the validity of knowledge. People with jupiter in Rx also deal with lack of mentors and teachers needed to shape their personality and inner world, hence they become vagabonds when it comes to knowledge. It is only them they can rely on for a strong sense of self, hence they may go through hard time alone. It is not like they don't look for help, it's just help never comes, but rewards are worth the pain. There's always a tendency to question everything which may lead to paranoia and overthinking. Yet, they are overly self-righteous, causing relationships to falter. Their main lessons are to have faith in them, and build their unique perspectives.

5) SATURN RETROGRADE

People with saturn in retrograde tends to introspect a lot. The limitations they bear are often internalised. they tend to have problems with authority and authoritative figures, such as father and teachers and boss, yet there is a deep sense of responsibility and lack of discipline. I also have saturn retrograde in my natal chart and well, it is a blessing in disguise. to be honest. I do tend to disregard authority, but there were times when I was asked for help by some authoritative figures. Although I have a deep sense of responsibity, I lack the courage, the strategic mind and the general effort I need to fulfil my dreams, which is why this saturn retrograde is proving to be immensely helpful. There is a strong fear of failure, and the person's success is always delayed. Trust me, I know. While I work twice as hard as my friends, I am often the last person to taste any success. Same is happening with job hunt. I have read that this retrograde is strongly related to past life karma, and I think I might be deal with lessons regarding finance and material gain since I have Saturn in Taurus in 2nd house. These people often deal with loneliness, and the lack of communication from their side only add salt to injury.

6) URANUS RETROGRADE

While Uranus deals with rebellion and one's uniqueness, Retrograding Uranus may often lead to these aspects being internalised by the person. There may be a strong sense for rebellion and forging one's own path, but the person may lack the spine to do so--often relying on others to validate their uniqueness. Changes may come like tornados, ruining their very sense of being, and forcing them to refine everything again and again, until there no sense of old self is there. Unlike Pluto, Uranus retrograde often forces the person's outer world, and outer relationships to change. These people have heightened intuition which not only scares the outer world, but also force it to alienate the person. There is a strong need for rejecting tradition which might stop them from becoming the eccentric person they can be. Note, I am not using 'eccentric' in a negative way. I just think, people with Uranus Rx need to learn showcase their eccentric side to the world. so that innovation can be made. There's a huge between one accepting their eccentricity and showing the world who they actually are. If anything, I think Uranus in Rx is one of the best placements one can have for the sheer creativity it can bestow. These people must have been destined to become pioneers, but their fears of outer rejection had stopped them, hence they ended up with Uranus in retrograde in their present life. They are supposed to let go of the fear in order to fulfil their purpose.

7) NEPTUNE RETROGRADE

So, my other brother has mars, Uranus and Neptune in retrograde. And I kid you not, I have never seen someone so eccentric, so prideful yet so fearful, so disillusioned yet so full of himself till date.

For me, Neptune Retrograde is one of the worst placement one can have. This placement is not about the outer world, but breaking oneself to fill the world with happiness. people with Neptune Rx has to go through a whole journey of living in a illusionary world to become disillusioned and hate the real world, only to realise that there's more than pain and suffering in the world and it is not a utopia. these people have heightened intuition, only to never master it. They get fed with escapism illusion by the universe time and time again, for them to learn to exercise their intuition yet the fog in their mind becomes the biggest obstacle. For a long time, these people believe in, "my way or highway" and "all or nothing." Hence, when faced with failure and pain, they crumble and become disillusioned. Once they see the world as it is, they go through the spiritual quest of learning and unlearning the ways of the world. And acceptance of the worldy woes, and understanding that one can never change the ways of the world but the ways of human minds are the lessons these people have to learn. They have to make peace with the fact that there will pain and suffering, and this is what feels like to be humans. They have to learn to avoid escapism, and grab life by the balls and open their arms to the gifts of intuitions, detachment, art and healing.

8) PLUTO RETROGRADE

I see Pluto retrograde as an eagle which keeps gnawing onto one's guts while the person can do nothing but accept the eagle. The pain never goes aways. People with pluto Rx in their chart internalises every thought, every little or big change, causing them to go through intense overthinking and traumatic relationship changes. The world is never these people's friends. If you think having Pluto placements are tough, look at pluto Retrograde people. Another cousin of mine has this. And she is a control freak, with really great psychological insights. There's obssesion with every little thing, and fear of betrayal and others breaking their walls and trusts. These people live an intense karmic life. If they badmouth someone, they get tenfold of it. If they wish someone bad luck, they get ten fold of it. These people must have done something great or something very loathsome which needs heavy penance and great patience. These people are bound to become great. These people are supposed to learn the ways of the world and help change the world, but on a ground level. What I mean by that is, these people need to learn to accept their shadow side in order to help the ones who have lost their paths to attain goodness. I see people with Pluto retrograde as the ones who has to break a piece of themselves in order to fix others, since they constantly get their heart broken, and trust broken, and fears spitting on their faces until they overcome those fears, and they are constantly forced by the universe to bare themselves naked in order for the world to use their vulnerabilities. Yet, these people rise like phoenix, and continue the cycle until they realise that their higher purpose is to have faith in the ways of the universe and let it run its magic. Good things may take time, but are always worth the wait.

NOTE: I SEE RETROGRADES AS BLESSINGS IN DISGUISE. ALTHOUGH RETROGRADE PLANETS MAKE THINGS HARD, AND ALMOST UNATTAINABLE, HARD TIMES MAKE GREAT PEOPLE. THE TWISTS UNIVERSE PLAYS ON PEOPLE WITH NATAL RETROGRADE PLANETS ARE SUPPOSED TO PUSH THESE PEOPLE TO THEIR EDGES UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING THEY CAN BE FEARFUL OF. FOR GREAT CHANGES NEED GREATER HANDS.

ALRIGHT, DO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT THIS. AND I WELCOME CRITICISM AND HARD HITTING FEEDBACKS WITH OPEN ARMS. JUST MAKE SURE I DON'T HAVE TO SHOW MY FANGS, TOO. :) I LOVE GATHERING NEW INFORMATION, SO UNTIL THEN, MAY GOD BLESS YOU.

[jokin-around]

I made a Twitter thread about this, but I've been reading early issues of Batman lately and something I've noticed is how differently the contrast between Batman and "Bruce Wayne" is depicted

obviously, in many things today, "Bruce" (ESPECIALLY in fandom) is often depicted as a happy-go-lucky himbo in order to draw contrast with a grim and "tortured" batman

so how does this hold up when you look at older depictions? the answer: it doesn't. in fact it was almost the opposite.

way back in the very first issues of the official Batman title, Bruce Wayne, no matter WHAT he's doing, isn't the one who laughs and smiles, Batman is.

and these are comics that were published BEFORE the comics code authority caused a dramatic shift in tone

Bruce Wayne (or least the cardboard cutout refered to as Bruce Wayne) isn't nessecarily described as grim, but he isn't a very happy person either, he's still a rich airhead, but not so much a "himbo" or even a dedicated businessman, he's depicted as a BORED, uninterested, aristocrat:

this Bruce seems to spend of his time smoking a pipe at home or mingling with other upperclass individuals, that in-between we tend to see MUCH more often in modern comics doesn't seem to exist yet (in part because the batcave Is non-existent which I suspect has given him a bit more privacy as a character)

MEANWHILE Batman, who's investigates murders every other night almost seems to be having the time of his life:

the early comics seem to routinely depict the burgoise as cold, snobbish & bored, in contrast to batman who seems particularly expressive and joyful, for all we know Batman may partially exist as some millionaires weird passtime, but of course Bruce Wayne (the real guy, not the facade) is written as someone who genuinely seems to care due to his own past experiences:

but , with all of that layed out, one can conclude that when ppl say Batman is the "true persona" ect. originally, it wasn't (just) because of his coping or whatever it was because when he wasn't Batman he was forced to live life as a cold, "useless" millionaire:

"what if a rich a guy gave a fuck?" is still very much the base concept here, but what's surprising is how much BITE there is to it

the concept wasn't being proposed because it's like… a plausible thing to happen or attainable on a personal level, but because the rich reliably and consitently do not care

the rich ppl in this book, "Bruce Wayne" included, are not written to be envied as people. they're written to be insufferable. ppl with endless resources who are still somehow unsatisfied with life and choose to do nothing useful or direct with the amount wealth they've accumulated

but ofc it shouldn't be ALL THAT surprising, Batman debuted in Detective Comics in 1939…. ONE year after the great depression, Bob and Bill had more than a good reason to feel a bit bitter

but rolling back to the point of this analysis, whenever I say "let batman be happy" I mean "let Batman enjoy his job" despite the pain, despite the death, despite the murder, despite the hypocritical nature of it all and how problematic it may be because it's a life he also chooses, not just out of compulsion, but because it's hands on, direct & purposeful. it gives him something to do & it gives him a chance to punch a problem in the face (which may be good or bad depending on what that problem is, but still)

that kind of depiction is what set up the groundwork for nearly every deconstruction that's come since but it's so buried in time at this point that lines from characters claiming bruce "loves being batman" seem to ring completely hollow

tbh, I think the old way of depicting Batman can be ( and as been in some media) woven into the way he's depicted today, in the past Batman was an outlet for every emotion Bruce Wayne had to hide elsewhere, a symbol of empathy, fury and passion, for modern Batman, I imagine those three things still hold true, layered on top of an alter ego that allows a modern Bruce Wayne to be weird and damaged and dark.

so uh, ln conclusion, I think batman enjoying what he does to a certain extent is a crucial aspect of his character that's been lost and withered and forgotten about, let him a have a little fun, we can discuss the ramifications of all that when discussion seems necessary

[coffeeadict61]

Humans Are Weird: Auditory Processing Disorder

Report # 306

Topic: Auditory Processing Disorder

APD: disorder of the auditory (hearing) system that causes a disruption in the way that an individual's brain understands what they are hearing.

Four days ago I was doing my monthly meeting with the electrical department, receiving updates on our monthly usage, needed parts, and checking up on general morale. (The transcript of that meeting is already turned in.) After the meeting we had refreshments and I discovered Lucy (previously mentioned in report #286) pouting in a corner. I inquired what was bothering her. She said, "The ship's head medic just diagnosed me with APD but he wasn't trained to treat it." I asked for further information on the condition. She listed several of her personal symptoms. "It means I don't always catch what people say. It feels like my brain doesn't want to listen. In one ear and out the other making me look stupid to however I talk to. It's connected to my misophonia, and the fact I was born really premature."

I was unsure how to comfort her so I made no effort. This seemed to work for Lucy kept speaking.

"And what's worse is there's nothing I can do! We don't have a speech therapist aboard or even any research materials! Its starting to affect my work performance. On top of decoding, hypersensitivity, and prosodic problems, I have integration issues which mean its really hard for me to focus on what people are saying when I'm doing something. Which freaking sucks when you're part of a team!" I had no clue what she was really talking about but gave her a hug (human gesture of enveloping one in your arms as a sign of comfort or safety), and she apologized for "venting" to me.

She then spoke on how her crew mates just thought she was "slow" or wasn't good at her job. They questioned if she was capable because she would follow directions incorrectly and she was worried she'd be replaced with someone "less problematic". I tried to assure her that I would help anyway I could on her behalf. Never again will I doubt a human's sincerity.

After some of my own personal research I have made a list of the different types and their definitions for your education on the subject:

Hypersensitivity – Hypersensitivity to sound is often diagnosed as misophonia or hyperacusis. Misophonia is when people have adverse physical reactions to sounds, such as becoming nauseated by the sound of chewing or slurping. Hyperacusis, on the other hand, is characterized by a sensitivity to sounds. For some, this means that white noise can be deafening, even causing physical pain.

Decoding – Decoding difficulties involve a lack of figuring out words that are spoken. They hear the sounds, but their brains do not process them as words.

Integration – Integration applies to those who struggle to do multiple things while listening. Such multi-tasking may be writing notes and listening, or having conversations while typing an email.

Prosodic – Prosodic refers to people who have trouble with tone, inflection, and implied meaning. A question and exclamation are processed identically in their brains. Their speech is also often monotone.

Organizational – Finally, organizational, or output, is often characterized by not recalling information in a specific order or having difficulty with noisy situations.

Honestly, Humans are so diverse and unpredictable. To think that different "problems" or " abnormalities " within their mind or body can lead to even more similar issues astounds me. They are so intricate in a way my species has never been. Despite the struggles that their disorders, and conditions being, I think it's strangely beautiful. Maybe that's just me, but I have a new appreciation for them.

I am requesting the presence of a speech therapist, whether physically or digitally, to be readily available to our crew. We must also add APD onto our medics research requirements. It is not an overly complicated subject to be fluent in. I also request that Lucy's diagnoses be added to her list of wrongful termination along with her gender, age, and race. No one should feel their position is at risk because of a disorder or disability. I also request that a written copy of daily instruction be printed for her if necessary. She is one of our best electricians and I mean to keep her employed here as long as she wants.

Human Observer #5743

[flower-boi16]

Do you think this fandom can still improve despite everything? Is it Viv and Spindlehorse's fault that this fandom is problematic or there is deeper root cause? Despite the amount of negativity both hh and hb recieved, is it still possible to listen to fans who give constructive criticism and improve both shows? Many fans often say something like"The Spindlehorse's crew don't want to listen to critics because there are too many bad faith criticism and hate" or "Those critics don't have the vision of the creators so their advices are invalid." I think both sides of this fandom are overly aggressive to whatever happened. It must have something behind it.

I think the reason why the fandom reacts so poorly to criticism is a mix of several factors:

These shows are fairly popular, the more popular something is the bigger the fanbase will be. And, likewise, some fans would be very defensive when it comes to criticism.

The batshit insane twitter users and fake outrage being confused with the actual critiques people have of the shows. I'll admit, early critical videos were...not great to say the least (cough cough Pkrussel cough cough), and many of Viv's past controversies are admittedly dumb. However, there are real issues people have with these shows and Vivziepop, however, because of all the past controversies with Viv being over-blown, fans lump these real and valid critiques in with the fake Twitter outrage, causing this confusing mess.

Vivziepop's reaction to critiscm. She directly dismisses critiques people have of her shows and pretty clearly spends a bit too much time on online discourse about her shows. Viv IS aware of the critiques people have of her shows but she has this very immature response to criticism just looking at her twitter, and, this does translate to the fandom as well.

Drama channels such as AyyLmao and Iox constantly defending Viv and her shows. AyyLmao is a fairly big channel and a lot of his videos are about controversies surrounding Viv. Pretty much all of these tend to be heavily biased as AyyLmao instantly takes Viv's side, as in several of his videos he deliberately chooses to lump in the actual critiques of the shows with the deranged Twitter users online, which contributes to the second problem I mentioned above. This can be seen with his hatedom video where he says that most of the criticism at least on Twitter isn't "real criticism" and "just hate disguised on such". Notice how he says that at least on Twitter the criticism is just hate. He's deliberately making it look like the critical community is just a bunch of deranged Twitter users who just hate Viv cuz they are jealous or something, when looking at sites such as Reddit, Youtube, Tumblr, etc you'll see people with ACTUAL PROBLEMS with the shows, by AyyLmao's ignoring that in order paint the critical community as a toxic hell-hole. He pretends to be neutral in the video but he clearly is biased with how he paints the critics here, as he only focuses on this one site just to make it look like the critical community is just an annoying vocal minority on Twitter. and because of that, the fandom views the critical community as just that; just an annoying vocal minority of Twitter users who shouldn't be taken seriously.

The fandom just refusing to engage with people's critiques because they can't handle criticism of their favorite shows. That's pretty obvious.

I don't think the fandom will get better any time soon given these factors I just mentioned. Until Viv learns to accept criticism, until Viv drama channels stop defending her bullshit, and until the fandom actually engages with people's critiques rather than sending death threats...ya no this fandom is still going to be awful.

[gryficowa]

Something pisses me off that people in the fandom reduce all the criticism of the episode with Marinette's trauma to the fact that people in the fandom are stupid or love Chloe too much and hate Marinette

No, people don't like this episode because it has no respect for the viewer and it has many problems that are revealed later in the same season, on top of that, I question whether Adrien's trauma was addressed at all in a respectful way, or whether they justified everything by that he is a senti monster? Exactly

By the way, defenders of this episode, I hope you were going after Felix like you were going after Chloe? Oh no, wait, he was a victim of domestic violence and he was rich, so like Chloe, but he was a boy, so his trauma is more important

But coming back, this episode with Marinette's trauma is problematic on many levels, mainly because it fucks with the logic even more than in the first season when in the episode "Origins" when they rescued Chloe, and then in "Lady Wi-Fi", the chat noir suspects that Chloe it's a ladybug and don't ask about logic, because there is none

Not only does Kim and Chloe make so much sense that Chat Noir from the episode "Lady Wi-Fi" could give a high five on this topic, but calling it "Feature Sharpening" is an understatement, it's more like Thomas had too much to drink before writing the entire script for the episode, and like a typical kid, he created the episode like one of the "Scooby-Doo" movies, where Scrappy-Doo was an out-of-character character in order to be antagonized (Because the fandom didn't like him, so it's better to kill off the whole character this way)

What's the best way to end the story of a father who abuses his child? Give him a statue, the fandom will 100% love it

Seriously, Thomas, we all know you didn't write this episode for traumatized people, but just to go the way people did to kill Scrappy-Doo, which was to kill Chloe herself so that the fandom would hate her and Kim in the process suffered, because why not?

And by the way, to explain your imaginary daughter with your ex…

The standards of this series also contributed to the reception of this episode, and I would also like to remind you that Zag wanted redemption for Chloe, but Thomas himself did not want it, so when Zag left to create the film, Thomas went to destroy the whole Chloe, because like a child he cannot reconcile with this, that a fictional character can have any development and tried his hardest to kill Chloe like a Scappy-Doo movie, seriously Thomas, I understand a lot, but as a creator you should use it to your advantage and not kill her off because you hate your character so much (Like a child what creates illustrations of cartoon characters dying because he hates them)

Seriously, this show has 00's to 2010 vibes, but today? Such productions are more annoying than entertaining (And I say this as a 01-year-old)

This writing by Chloe and Kim seriously has Scrappy-Doo movie vibes to me

So the episode with Marinette's trauma is even more irritating, because anyone sensitive will notice what Thomas did here and it is a seriously conscious murder of his characters.

The context of this episode makes you feel offended rather than understood by the creator, because it's not about empathy towards people with trauma like Marinette, but about killing off the characters of Chloe and Kim

No matter how much I love the trope of the main character who, over time, turns out to have a trauma that the viewer doesn't know about, this show fucked it up and resulted in a not-so-good taste

It's just the context of this episode that causes it, I'm seriously sensitive to this way of writing and it has irritated me since I was a child, I was hoping that the newer the cartoons, the more it would disappear, but then Thomas appeared and did my hated trope, but turned it up to the max

Sometimes I wonder why many great creators get as few seasons as possible, while Thomas gets more

Because no matter how much I liked this show, after Chloe's arc fell apart and the writing fell apart because killing Chloe is more important than everything else in this show, it made me fed up

And because of creators like Thomas, many people consider animations as worthless and only entertainment for small children, because Thomas' writing style is effortless (And even productions for preschoolers can handle it, yes, I'm talking about "Bluey"), just as little as possible, and the fact that the fandom swallows everything has a simple task in this topic

Thomas had a good idea, but Miracolous's greatest enemy was Thomas himself

Damn, it's hard for me to come back to the series, but "Ladybug PV" is awesome, so Thomas himself has gone backwards in the development of his work, literally.

Ok, Felix was still problematic (It was chat noir back then, for those who don't know the history of the miracolous creation process)

But if Thomas could develop the character… Oh no, wait, he can't, that's why Felix became Adrien

By the way, Mr. Pigeon and the mime from the first season appeared in this version, just an interesting fact

I also have the impression that the characters had a better design than in the current series

There was another 3D version, which also looked amazing, so the version we got is the worst and this thought kills me, because this series could have been something more, but Thomas himself killed it, i.e. the creator killed his creation before showing it in its entirety to the world (Congratulations, Thomas)

Yes, I had to let go of all my frustration with the show and the fandom, because it's fucked up that when you criticize the bad writing of Marinette's trauma, people come up with their theories on why you do it, not why you do it and why you don't like it

[paddysnuffles]

Why was Oceangate visiting the Titanic an issue but visiting other disaster sites isn't?: Thoughts from a Titanic nerd

Alright, as someone who’s had a special interest on the Titanic for well over 20 years, here’s my take on the Oceangate incident.

Part of why it took me so long to say something was that I felt the need to think about why the idea of the “expedition” enraged me so much. It’s not like we don’t visit disaster sites as tourists regularly. Take Pompeii and Herculaneum, for instance – as disastrous as it gets, yet no one would argue that it’s tasteless to visit those sites. So could it be just a matter of how much time has passed?

That may be an aspect of it, but there are plenty of modern disasters that we visit, such as the Frank Slide site not too far from where I live. Half a town was buried alive in 1903, with most of the victims still being under the rubble to this day. But there’s a visitor’s centre where you can see the slide site from the windows and learn about the event. 

So what gives? Why was the Oceangate trip so enraging?

And here’s the conclusion I’ve come to:

In the case of Pompeii and Herculaneum, we visit the sites of disasters that affected everyone – rich and poor, slave and master, animals and humans. And we do so to learn about the past, to see what life was like over 1,000 years ago. Because, like it or not, those sites are pristine windows into the past.

In the case of Frank Slide, we visit to learn from the mistakes of the past (the local Indigenous folk had vehemently warned white people to not build so close to Turtle Mountain, as it had a history of “moving” and white people said they were just being superstitious) as well as to remember the stories of the people who died (most of which were poor working families of miners).

Then there’s the Titanic.

Proper expeditions for study and retrieval fit into the same categories as the disasters mentioned above. When a disaster site is being disturbed in order to learn about what happened and to uncover more about the stories of the people lost in the event, disturbing the site is acceptable. It’s necessary and done with a sobering level of respect; that this isn’t about gawking at a gravesite. Note that the descendants of Titanic victims don’t typically have a problem with exploration of the site done for educational purposes, but they did have an issue with turning the site into a tourist travel spot.

Another aspect to why the Oceangate tourism trip was problematic and that breaks from the categories listed above is that the trip involved obscenely rich people going to gawk at what is primarily the resting place of thousands of poor people. Most of the Titanic survivors were rich, because the poor were kept locked in their areas while the rich were escorted to safety in half-full boats when there already weren’t enough boats to go around (more on that in a minute). If the “expedition” were for everyday people to view the site then maaaaybe it’d be acceptable. But it wasn’t. 

It was a trip for the obscenely rich to gawk at the gravesite of poor people whose deaths were largely caused by rich people repeatedly ignoring safety precautions. From the fact that the Titanic didn’t have enough lifeboats as it was (largely because the company thought they messed with the ship’s aesthetic and made the deck look cluttered) to the lookouts not having enough binoculars because they lost one of them and no one thought to bring extra or ask a passenger to borrow theirs, to ignoring iceberg warnings and still going fast despite knowing it wasn’t safe to do so, and more.

So while I feel bad for the 19-year-old who didn’t want to go in the first place, I don’t feel sorry for the others. Not even the Titanic expert. Because by being a part of this trip he was condoning both the disrespect of the dead as well as condoning the behaviour of the CEO who mocked safety regulations. And as a Titanic expert, he should have been aware that lack of safety precautions were not only the primary reason the ship sank, but also the primary reason why naval safety regulations (such as ships being required to have at least enough lifeboats for everyone on board but ideally a couple extra as a buffer) were first set in place.

[hiso03]

Fanfic ideas that I had finished, but that I lost because they were in the notes of my old cell phone and I have no way to recover them (even though I have tried).

1-Potion failed.

The idea was simple, but clear, although perhaps a little problematic.

Hal is the captain of the personal guard of His Highness the King of the Central Kingdom; However, the whole conflict arises because Hal is fed up with most of the maidens rejecting him with the possibility of being married by Barry, so Guy makes a joke about going to the sorceress of the cursed forest and asking her for help, Hal takes the idea (despite it being a joke) and escapes one night, he finds Zatanna in an old house and asks her for help, she does not accept at first, but after several minutes of pleading she ends up helping him.

He gives him a kind of potion, but the indication is simple, he must prepare a sweet meal with that position, but it is important that for it to work he adds honey, not sugar. Hal returns home and does what Zatanna asked him except he made a mistake, he doesn't use honey, but use sugar.

He gives Barry the food he made and the king does not distrust his guard and closest friend.

Hal thinks everything went well, except that from the next day Barry starts acting too strange towards him. John, who immediately deduces that Hal did what he did, scolds him and tells him to go to Zatanna to solve what he himself caused. When he arrives with the girl, she scolds him and tells him that by mixing sugar instead of honey, he altered the function of the position and that now turned it into one of love… The problem is that they cannot reverse it in any way and they have to wait several months until Barry returns to normal.

That teaches Hal the lesson of not playing with magic he doesn't understand.

2-Friend zone.

This is more comedy and I wrote it to make fun of Hal.

Hal has an infallible plan to start dating Barry, however, no one believes that he will really achieve it and even his friends bet with him, that if at the end of his plan Hal has not managed to make Barry understand his intentions, he will invite Guy, John, Kyle and Oliver to eat wherever they want and they can bring a companion. Hal, sure of his success, accepts and in each attempt he fails miserably while Barry thanks him for his help and always tells him that he is a great best friend.

Hal begins to dwell on his impending defeat until the girls help him without him realizing it.

In the end everything works out, but since they discover that the girls helped Hal, he has to pay half of the bill.

3- Robots

Hal is a human with robotic parts, he along with other subjects have one of the most important jobs in their city, they are like a kind of last resort police for the government. The green lanterns.

Hal was the first Green Lantern prototype despite not remembering it, however, he does not really remember anything before his conversion, he only knows that he was an army pilot and that he had an accident in a plane that destroyed several organs and parts of his body. (they are the ones that were replaced with machines). Hal does not meet his creator until one day he is taken to meet a blonde man a couple of years older than him who is locked in a glass box with a dangerous legend.

From the first time they meet, Hal feels a strange connection with Barry and can sense that he also feels the same although he denies it.

In a tense and strange way, he discovers that Barry is one of the few "original" metahumans and that he has caused great chaos in the past, which is why he is locked up, and he also ends up discovering from his other friends that Barry was the one who created his prosthetics. and that in fact, she met him before his mysterious accident and they have more history together than Barry is willing to reveal.

(This story was very long, I wrote only 5 chapters out of order so that it made sense and until recently I remembered many details. I remember that it was partly inspired by the best Hispanic fans I have read about the couple.. Too bad this fic was left unfinished, and so was this one.)

I only publish this so as not to forget the ideas and not lose them (again), I don't think I will do them or at least not in the short term, since all these ideas came to me and were written (along with others), in a very dark and difficult time for me, Therefore, most of the ideas are very disorganized and even in my memories, I was aware that the writing was strange and more superficial.

Maybe at some point I will be encouraged to return to them, when I have more time and can give it more planning.

[badmoonriiising]

Regulus likes taking care of Sirius and Remus' kids.

Ever since he left his taunted old house, looked for his brother all over the country, and discovered he still had a family, things have been great.

He's the cool uncle. The one who takes the kids to the cinema every time there's a superhero movie premiere, spoils them with candies, and doesn't overthink about following rules. Perhaps his lack of firmness is the cause of his wallet being taken, his three nephews running away at the mall, and his desire to throw up.

He should've known better not to trust a teenage girl obsessed with fighting his parents over problematic boys and party permissions. Be aware of emo boys whose songs are capable of sending Walburga Black to the grave if she ever listens to one of them. And keep his eyes on the twelve-year-old kid who claims is a gamer and plays League of Legends of all things.

How is Regulus going to tell Sirius he has no idea where all his children are when he's supposed to be the one in charge?

"Are you okay?" someone asks when he's sure he's about to have a panic attack.

He's handsome, Regulus thinks. Then proceeds to mentally slap himself because that's the less important thing right now.

Is a man who appears to be around his age. Taller than Regulus, with a muscular build and a light tan. He wears a pair of square glasses shielding curious hazel eyes, and his full-toothed smile should be the star of a toothpaste commercial.

"Never been better," he lies, not liking people meddling in his business.

Regulus believes that's it. The stranger will keep going, ignoring Regulus' problems. He'll get to the bottom of this. He'll find his brother's children without having to tell Sirius and Remus what happened.

"Are you sure?" he continues. "You look white like a paper. Last time I got that pale I had serious stomach problems."

He has to bite his tongue in order to not snap at him in such a precarious situation.

However, the moment his eyes meet his there's something stopping him. Regulus is unable to target exactly what it is. Maybe it's because he sees real concern in his gaze. Or that the simple fact of not feeling alone in a moment of alarm is enough to keep his nerves at bay and reorder his priorities.

"Actually", he sighs. "You haven't seen any kids around, have you?"

Unfortunately, it turns out he hasn't. But he'll be more than happy to help.

Meeting James Potter at this moment, on the other hand, will end up giving him an unexpected as well as positive turn in his life.

[hyperfixingfr]

may I ask who the non problematic 1/362 shipper is and if they have content? I love the ship but am ashamed to admit it because you are so right with everything you said. People making straight ships not be creeps challenge imposible, apparently.

that aside, how would you describe Rachel’s relationship with your sector V? but maybe more in depth with Hoagie. I feel those two interacting isn’t shown a lot

fluffernuttermushroom is the user and I'm not sure there's currently any content on the page.

Rachel's relationship can get a bit complex with them because of the authority differences between sector operatives and the leader of the whole earth organization. It's slightly changed in authority gap with Nigel, but the power over still remains.

Nigel and Rachel are how they're implied in the show. Rachel admires Nigel's dedication and efforts, but can get a little pissed off with how much extra he makes her work because of his desires to disregard orders if he has a gut feeling they're not the best action. He can act very independently, and it causes the workload for Rachel to go up if he fucks up. Nigel has a lot of respect and admiration for Rachel, and thinks she's a great replacement for Chad. It's not like Chad let him do the crap he did either. He wants to get to know her more and hang out with her because he always loves speaking to people who are dedicated to the KND... But she's too busy for that.

Hoagie and Rachel are unique. Hoagie is naturally aversive and fearful of Rachel because of her status as an authority figure, given his trauma with authority figures. Although she's the age of his peers, she has the power of an authority figure, and that scares him shitless. It's nothing personal. He's traumatized, and Rachel tries to keep her tone leveled but assertive when he's involved in a scolding. Over time, he does eventually become less tense around her. That fear still remains even if only sometimes, as his home life still remains the same. He'll have nice conversations with her if she speaks to him first. This has only happened a few times, usually when he's apart of those events that specifically put priority on the 2x4 tech officers. Otherwise, she has no reason to speak to him independently. They haven't a single common interest.

Kuki and Rachel are pretty well connected for such a huge gap in power. Rachel is admittedly aware of how Kuki's trauma response of acting oblivious is affecting mission outcomes and is trying to work on her with that. She knows Kuki is powerful and very, very intelligent. She simply locks up and automatically shifts into this act of stupidity as a defense mechanism, though. They all have their own unique problems with how they were raised or how peers impacted their learning. She feels Kuki is unfairly untrustworthy, and is determined to help her fix this issue so she can show her power to everyone. Aside from that, Kuki is willing to help Rachel keep people away from her while she works when Kuki herself doesn't have anything to do by creating distractions so intriguing that the operatives that see it have just gotta check it out. It keeps them away from Rachel, makes them forget about what they needed from her, and Kuki has some fun being creative.

Wally and Rachel's connection is also a bit complex. It's mostly a connection that Rachel has to Wally, while Wally remains oblivious to it. Just like it's nothing personal with how Hoagie is fearful of Rachel, it's nothing personal with how Wally is defiant of Rachel. Unlike most people in the KND, Rachel actually seems to understand WHY he is. She recognized very early on that this was a kid who was just so pissed off that not one authority figure could understand him that he just began defying them all. This includes Rachel, who holds the status of authority figure even though she's around his age. She wants to do the same thing he does to people sometimes because she is treated very similarly by people at school. However, she's not an impulsive person. Wally is. That prevents her from acting out, while Wally can't control it. She tries her best to figure out what exactly is the thing that's so different about him so that she can show that he's understood by at least one person... And maybe give him some relief to the pain of not knowing what his problem is. Wally never wants to talk to her for long enough for her to get stuff outta him, so she just goes through numerous files of battles or reports that include him to get an idea of what's going on with him. He happens to have a lot of reports made on him from school that get filed in by hidden KND operatives and cameras throughout the school due to him getting in trouble one way or another. Although his defiance is annoying and can make things difficult, she tries not to hold it against him. It's a lot easier to handle if Hoagie is there, because those two are the one thing keeping the other at bay. Their traumas show way less when they have the company of one another. That one always baffled Rachel, because she thought Hoagie was gonna get mauled to death by Wally less than a week into him being assigned at Sector V. She doesn't complain, because they both needed someone who cares for each other. Society deems them both unlovable in different ways, and she knows how that feels.

Abby and Rachel are pretty similar to Kuki and Rachel. Abby respects Rachel, and doesn't defy her a single time because Abby can understand where she's coming from far more than anyone else. Rachel appreciates this a LOT. Less defiance is good. Abby is also able to speak whatever idiotic language the other four do, while Rachel isn't. She's like the translator of their idiocy when Rachel can't understand it. Rachel feels bad giving them group scoldings because Abby always seems upset, even when she wasn't doing anything wrong. Rachel also seems to recognize Abby's odd attachment to Hoagie, which has gone unnoticed by everyone... Including themselves. She'd look like an idiot to them if she pointed it out, so she watches from afar hoping they'll figure their shit out eventually. She finds it humorous to see a side of Abby she never thought existed around the kid who cries over the microwave being too loud. Chill, level headed kid becoming a mess around a kid who is ALWAYS a mess? It's like the mess is spreading.

[swordsandarms]

As I addressed obnoxious bullshitty fandom cans of worms already, how about we all be frank about the pointless going in circles discourse in this fandom that is "Lyanna's age problem" also.

There's the "meant to be just aaaaasa child!" camp and the "it was just normal back then!" camp when it comes to whether it's fine to ship her with a man in his early 20s within the morals of this story specifically (a story romanticising relationships with other 'problematic in the real world' concepts like incest, or other age gaps that kiiiiind of get a pass cause the 18 - or even 16 - years old threshold already, mind you). Both of those camps' arguments are inaccurate (one to the story, the other to the real world) the funny thing is if you take a step back, BOTH sides stand where they do - though opposite to eachother - because they are both (as it's normal so no one here is the bad person) uncomfortable with the concept in (modern and) real world and find their own way to deny its potency of wrongness.

And I decided to do this by coming across a post having to acknowledge the sexualisation of Arya, at an even younger age, and "ways to cope" and dance around the simple fact that the author just does this - writing young girls or teenagers as (obviously unnecessarily) sexualised and mature, that it's part of the story (part of the LORE if you will) and you just have to accept it and move on with the show in order to interact with this story.

*wringing hands* "Maybe because there was supposed to be a 5 years gap! We will just imagine the 5 years gap! Oh, no, it's still bad if there is a 5 years gap!"

Same as with the equally weak rationalisations such as "It's intentional for the age of Lyanna to be problematic! It has to be!" or the opposite "He is writing what was actually normal at some point even if it's not now *cue a list of actually bad historical cases*!"

My eyes may never come back from the back of my head if I have to keep seeing BOTH and EITHER of these. Especially when you have people acknowledging the "original plan" in which Arya would be "just a little sister" when Jon leaves for the NW when she's only 9 BUT he's meant to have a WOWSYY moment when she shows up later at FOURTEEN and he's nearly 20. And, oh, a guy in his LATE 20s is also into her - such romantic drama! By the way, 13 years old Bran would have had a "feud" with the 19-20 years old.

So, no, this isn't only a problem because there is no time jump anymore. The writer is writing something in a way he shouldn't have, and there is nothing deep or meaningful about it for you to read and recognise and judge others if they don't.

Sansa says men in their 20s are "too old" when she's 11, but at 13 now (parading as a 14 years old) she flirts with a man of about 20 and the narrative doesn't raises red flags either on his side or the society witnessing them. He's not trying to make it bad, not for that one reason. Then you get to Arya who's also ogled at by older men by pretending to be slightly older (in spite of some reservations because she is actually 11 as Sansa was before, here, and looks it, so at least the author is consistent about this magical womanhood that appears in between 11 and 13-14 because they "flowered").

So, yes, he never meant to write it the way we would have to judge it if they were real people. No, not even back then when he wrote Lyanna so and was planning a "time jump" for these other teenage girls that wouldn't even have meant not sexualising teenage girls actually because the jump still doesn't make Arya not a teenager. He writes Robert also being in love with and attracted Lyanna back then as well FFS, and he was also a "grown man". Daenerys at 15 is written as having a 'liberating' and autonomous relationship with a man of about 30. No, it's not meant to be bad because it 'should' be. Reading it like that is a bad, distorting reading of the story and her arc. Yes, when she was 13 and forced into marriage it is in the least written as "only on the line of acceptable" and characters note it within the story (so again at least he is consistent since Sansa is also bumping her age over that line).

So geez, feel free to say "I hate that he does this" or "I am not shipping these due to this reason, sorry" or "I am accepting it is not real in order to interact frankly with the text" or "I don't ship these because of other problematic or dislikeable reasons about the characters/relationships" but again, get moving with the "oh no no, it is/was normal somehow!" or "it is meant to be bad, because the author couldn't possibly write something bad!".

People have places to be and things to do, let's get going.

[heidi891]

Autistic Characters in HP

(FYI: I’m autistic myself and I have autistic children.)

There are two characters in HP I consider autistic (I think they have enough autistic traits that it isn’t just a headcanon) and two other who are often believed to be autistic but I don’t necessarily agree.

Severus Snape

I made a whole post about it.

I also suspect that his mother could be autistic, but we know so little about her that it’s just a headcanon.

Luna Lovegood

She’s very lonely until she becomes a member of the DA.

Her reaction to having friends is peculiar—she makes a mural with their faces and repeated word "friends".

She’s weird and awkward. She doesn’t care about (or isn’t fully aware of) social conventions.

She’s bullied at school.

She’s blunt, almost rude.

She stares too much.

She’s a bit dispassionate and has limited facial expressions.

She has a special interest—(nonexistent?) magical creatures.

Her weird Quibbler glasses may be a form o visual stimming.

Her parents might be autistic too. At least Xenofilius is equally weird.

Neville Longbottom

I don’t think Neville is autistic. I think he’s traumatised. We only have glimpses of his home, but what we know is very problematic.

His parents were tortured so much that they lost their minds. He visits them at the hospital. It must be very difficult for him.

His grandmother is very strict. During the lesson about boggarts Neville considers her a candidate to be his boggart. (I’d argue that Snape is actually a safer candidate to fear or hate—because he’s just a disliked teacher—than his grandmother or MacGonagall—his Head of House who plays a similar role at school as his grandmother at home.)

He feels pressure from his family, especially his grandmother. He gets his father’s wand (even though his family has money to buy him his own), he’s pressured to continue Potions on advanced level in order to become an Auror like his father.

His great uncle Algie made many attempts to squeeze some magic out of him, including throwing him out of the window. Neville understands it that it’s better to be dead than to be a Squib. Neville for years considers himself almost a Squib and that’s why Snape seems so scary to him: he’s a teacher who critisises his performance and Neville understands it as Snape pointing out his lack of magic.

Neville ends up becoming a soft version of an Obscurial. He’s actually a powerful wizard with accidental outbursts of magic. He somehow turns his potions into highly corrosive substances (he melts a couldron during his first lesson and then six couldrons in the fourth year), during Transmutation he accidentally turns his ears into cactuses (GoF) and vanishes one of the legs of his desk (CoS). Contrary to Neville’s belief, Snape doesn’t question his magical talent, he’s frustrated that someone so gifted has such poor academic results. As Snape says, "Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We’ll be sending what’s left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox." (CoS) If Neville was almost a Squib, he wouldn’t be able to do all of that. His spells and potions simply wouldn’t work. Justin wouldn’t be in any danger from a Squib.

Neville is very interested in Herbology, but I don’t think it’s an autistic special interest, just a normal passion. Herbology is a subject that doesn’t require wand (and his father’s wand always reminds him of the family pressure to become an Auror), that doesn’t require so much focus and precision like Potions and also that is taught by a very nice teacher. Herbology becomes the only subject where Neville feels safe and in response he begins to like it very much.

Neville is anxious and has problems with his short-term memory—signs associated with stress and trauma.

Neville is shy, but he’s generally liked, he isn’t weird and socially awkward (other than things listed above). He goes with Ginny to the Yule Ball without issues, he becomes a leader of the students rebellion in DH.

His traits might be interpreted as autistic, but I personally think they are explained well by his imperfect family situation and trauma.

Additionally, in the films Neville was portayed as more awkward than in the books. In the books he wasn’t actually awkward but anxious, clumsy and shy.

Percy Weasley

Percy is believed to be autistic by some people, but I also don’t think that’s the case.

We don’t see him with his peers, but we see him repeating the school rumours about Snape during the first feast in PS (so he’s probably been gossiping with other students), he has a girlfriend, he gambles. At the Ministry he’s liked enough to be promoted and have a successful career. He’s considered popular enough to be made a prefect and a Head Boy. It isn’t enough to be just a good student who doesn’t cause trouble, other students must respect you at least to some degree. (I.e. Snape was a good student without detentions, but he was definitely not a good candidate to be a prefect.)

He generally seems normal. He has a normal eye contact, facial expressions and reactions. He seems a little awkward mostly when talking to his brothers who are a bit arrogant and who tend to disrespect him. When he’s famously talking about the couldron bottoms, he’s doing it because Harry’s asked him about his job.

He doesn’t have a special interest, he doesn’t stim, he doesn’t have sensory issues.

Of course, we know so little about Percy that with his personality it’s easy to headcanon him as autistic, but it’s still just a headcanon while Snape and Luna have canonical evidence that they’re actually autistic.

[catkin-morgs-kookaburralover]

John and Helene?

ohoho!! so! they are a couple who I genuinely don't remember when I first conceived of them. I wasn't super old but nor was I super young.

the first concept of them had ... a lot of dodgy/problematic stuff, mostly pertaining to undertones and implications I was completely unaware of. oh, and they were originally inspired by Robert Heinlein's Citizen of the Galaxy (the first Heinlein book I ever read, no idea what age I was tho). Anyway, to skip over the worst of it, John is a high ranking ??? in a society, sees slaves up for sale and decides to buy them all, which includes Helene. They fall in love, blah blah, etc. As you can see, that has a lot of nasty undertones. Anyway I love their characters and their romance as it's very gentle and sweet.

moooooving right along from that, we came to the next major iteration, in which there's a law (?) that a particular class of slaves are bought specifically for marriage. This leads to some icky stuff, of course, in implication, but anyway, John sees that particular class being auctioned off one time, sees a Nasty Old Man (antagonist) bidding for an unusually young woman (a child, really), and invokes the privilege of the Duke's son to shut down the bidding and buy her for himself. this causes some fascinating cultural clashes I did enjoy fleshing out. Ultimately, they court for several years until both are well of age before actually marrying.

The next major development came in the form of something which I had a name for at the time but have forgotten now. It was something, anyway, like the elixir of courage. This one I can pinpoint to developing during covid, no earlier than that. It's a highly addictive substance, bright blue, and John has trauma around it because somebody taking it gave them the courage to murder his father, the previous Duke. He hence has utterly banned it. Similar to previous versions, he then acquires Helene, only this time he is much more explicit about the fact that he doesn't want to marry her. He bought her to save her, and he'll marry her but in name only, unless they both end up wanting to be really married. Her mental problems, which existed in previous versions already, are dialed up/focused on more in this version, manifesting in severe anxiety. One of the other servants suggests a nice bright blue potion, which Helene does not realise is the elixir of courage. She becomes dependent on it, which does help her anxiety. John becomes aware that it is being used among his staff, and interviews them all to find out who and how. He discovers Helene under the influence of it, and in a fit of rage orders her to be whipped. Almost immediately he regrets it, but according to the laws of the Medes and Persians, &c. Here is where a character who was minor in previous version appears - Mason, John's friend. He supports Helene through all the ensuing troubles, and enables her to flee to his protection. When forced to choose whether she returns to John or not, Helene stays with Mason, breaks off her engagement with John and he turns into the antagonist, though he does end up with a redemption arc. In this version, all three characters remain single and there is no pairing - the ending involves them becoming friends again, Helene growing into herself (and out of the elixir), and a general sense of safety being established. Also John gets help for his anger issues (which exist in previous versions but not to the same extent. Also I yoinked this character trait for Tom lol).

Those are the major three versions I have apart from the one that excerpt is from. Despite passing similarities in those stories, they're not so much developments of one story, as different stories with similar themes/plot points.

The one this excerpt is from is yet another one, in which John has previously been married (his wife died), with kids. He's looking for a replacement mother for the children. Helene comes along out of ??? bad circumstances, agrees to marry him, and then during that excerpt backs out of marriage because she feels she'll taint the children, et cetera. Shamelessly borrowed from a book i read as a kid. This one's the most Only Vibes of all of them.

There are so many other versions and possibilities and vibes but I love this couple. I love their dynamic, which has the potential to be bad, but in this case is good and sweet and wholesome.

character summary of John: - entitled (is always upperclass or that sort of thing) - ignorant of real world issues/sheltered - potential for anger issues when he discovers the truth about things - smooth and polished in society but doesn't know how to deal with lower classes like Helene - honest to a fault - very in earnest but blundering - does his best to grow and learn tho

character summary of Helene: - shy and skittish - does not consider herself worth anything but also very pliable - loves deeply - very quiet about everything and needs kindness to open up - anxiety and fear bc of past - trauma

A fun lil fact about this *gestures* thing as a whole: I would estimate I have less than a thousand words of actual story of any of these iterations written down, but I have plans and I have very specific plot outlines and character sketches. And yet there's hardly any of it actually existing other than in my brain.

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

POTENTIALLY HOT AND BAD TAKE ABOUT NUANCE AND SJM WRITING INCOMING -

Tbh people bring this up as a knock against Rowan's character - "He PUNCHED Aelin!!" - but like the reasons I disliked Rowan had literally nothing to do with that because Aelin absolutely deserved it when he punched her in the face.

The context of that scene is that Rowan is not a human. He's not presented human, he doesn't act human, and the narrative doesn't treat him as Aelin's equal in any conceivable way. It is established very quickly that Aelin is a punk ass nineteen year old (who is depressed and dealing with it by being abrasive and cruel and pushing everyone away from her) and Rowan is an extremely powerful, dangerous immortal creature who has been fighting and killing in wars for centuries, and doesn't conform to human sensibility. He doesn't like Aelin and resents the fact that he's been ordered by his boss to put up with her.

And then Aelin looks Rowan dead in the face and tells him that his people deserved genocide.

The Fae in ToG were massacred. They're rare - Rowan is a member of an endangered species. And now this obsentially human kid who he is being forced to deal with is telling him that he, and many of his friends, loved ones, and other kin deserved to be hunted down and slaughtered for No Reason.

So, yeah Rowan punched Aelin in the face. And she deserved it. That's a downright horrific thing to say to ANYONE let alone someone who is canonically a genocide survivor anyway. She also said it on purpose because it was the worst thing she could think of to provoke him - which, again? Not great, considering that she's nineteen and depressed and he's meant to be her teacher in this scenario. But Rowan didn't randomly decide to attack Aelin. And once the pair of them decide to mutually stop antagonizing one another in Heir of Fire they actually do manage to form a strong platonic bond.

There are a ton of reasons to dislike Rowan mainly because he's ultimately boring and after HoF ends, any of the nuanced or interesting parts of his character are removed and it turns out that his only personality traits are being obssessed with Aelin and wanting to bang her - but idk, the punching thing is fine as a plotpoint. It's problematic because it's meant to be. It feels like an organic character interaction, and the relationship develops from there - literally, from rock bottom. And as it stands, that's actually fine! I don't hate this kind of writing.

The problem I have with ACOTAR is that a similar situation occurs.

It's Tamlin at the High Lord meeting. Is what he said to Feyre objectively bad? Yeah, sure, objectively but also? Feyre just ruined his Court and directly caused the slaughter of his people. (Hybern repeatedly thanks her for removing Tamlin as an obstacle to their conquest.) Tamlin is now dealing with an invasion and a refugee crisis because he tried to help someone he loved. He believed that he had rescued Feyre from a dangerous situation (ACOWAR contains a really bizarre passage where Feyre admits to lying about being raped, and then gets mad at Tamlin and Lucien for believing her). Feyre went behind his back to ruin all his work as a spy because she randomly decided that the best time to revenge herself upon him was during an active war situation. And if I were in his shoes - looking at the person I once loved who has now betrayed me in every conceivable way, dressed head to toe in actual diamonds and married to the man who had sexually assaulted her in front of me, because he was jealous of me - I wouldn't be handing over the classified intel i painstakingly gained as a spy, while trading pointed barbed insults about my ex-girlfriend's sex life. I would be literally biting heads off of necks. So, I say, fair enough. Tamlin gets a free pass here to say whatever he wants - in fact, for a guy whose supposed to be infamous for his horrible temper, I find him to be remarkably restrained! Notably, when violence breaks out - its the Inner Circle who are responsible for it.

Of course, they're immediately absolved. Zero consequences. In fact, their violence was helpful and makes people trust them! God damn it.

Anyway SJM IS capable of nuance - except that in ACOTAR, she doesn't do anything actually interesting with it and seems keen to remove nuance from her books as soon as possible whenever she does stumble across it.

[friendfromdsmp]

Okaaaaaaaaay….

Recreation

Let’s get into my first thoughts, gang

So first thing’s first, I did check the leaks and knew roughly what to expect; Marinette would be fighting Gabriel alone, with Plagg’s help to unify the two main Miraculous and become Bug Noire, but loses, leaving Gabriel free to use his wish to sacrifice himself and be remembered as a hero, with Emile’s state of living being ambiguous but vaguely implied. Adrien never faces his father or learns the truth about his own identity either

So let’s pick apart these points one by one, starting with:

Bug Noire

Won’t lie, I don’t mind her design. Mari always looks cute in a long braid and I like how it linked back to her Lady Noire design while also acting as a cat tail. Not overly sure about the additional smaller braids but I guess they were aiming for referencing her usual pigtails? Idk I feel like one of the other could’ve worked just fine but both of them together does seem a bit much. Fortunately the little two were easy to ignore. I also kept getting distracted by the eye dots, I don’t know if I love them or hate them tbh, they just kept catching my attention

But the design isn’t the problem with Bug Noire; the problem is what her existence in a fight like this means. Yes, it’s super cool to see someone unify the two main Miraculous, but not when it sidelines Adrien, aka the person they’re both claiming to be fighting for, as well as Gabriel’s main victim. If anything, Adrien should have been given an immunity from the nightmares via son-of-the-villain privileges and then Gabriel should have gone to him and revealed his plans, meanwhile Marinette is horribly out-of-commission from the nightmares and asks Tikki to take the earrings to Chat Noir

Because, at the end of the day, this is more Adrien’s fight than Marinette’s. And I’m not saying that I want one of them out of the fight in order to merge the Miraculous. I’m just saying that if they had to do the merge, they should’ve let Adrien be the one to do it. Why not have them both fighting together, Ladybug gets incapacitated and hands over the earrings while saying “I trust you, kitty cat, it’s all on you” and then he unifies and they go nuts with all the “I’m doing this for you!” “No, you’re doing it for the illusion of me you created and marketed to the world!” and all that? There are plenty of ways to do it without literally hypnotising Adrien while he’s stuck in a padded cell

However, I will concede one point; this was maybe the fifth time off the top of my head that Chat has attempted to give up his Miraculous, and this one was the only satisfying/acceptable one. Usually when it happens it’s so he can avoid taking responsibility or because he isn’t the sole focus of Ladybug’s attention. But this time, he accepted that he was not in a suitable mental state to be fighting anyone, he explained his logic calmly to Plagg, he acknowledged that his identity would be at risk if he transformed here and now despite him having the ability to pull off an escape, and he even ensured that the ring was in good, safe hands before parting with Plagg. He did everything right in this situation, so props for that

Adrien Suffers More Than Gabriel

This is the thing most people are pointing out here; Adrien being removed from the whole situation, and then lied to afterwards, is not only incredibly problematic, but causes Adrien to suffer more than Gabriel did. Because where Gabriel knew all season long that he wasn’t going to survive, giving him time to come to accept the sacrifice he’d already made for his wish as early on as Destruction, Adrien didn’t have that time. To Adrien, Gabriel’s death was swift, sudden and unexpected. Out of nowhere, he just lost his father, right when things were finally looking up in some way in their relationship

Adrien never got closure. He never won the battle he was fighting since episode 1; the battle to be his own person and stand up to his father once and for all. He never got to confront Gabriel for the manipulation, for the lies, for the abuse. He never got to free himself from Gabriel looming over him and controlling him, even in death he’s still living inside the world Gabriel chose for him, playing his part in Gabriel’s conjured narrative. By not allowing Adrien to be part of the final fight in any way, they removed all opportunities for Adrien to fight for their relationship to be healthy if he so chose, to cut Gabriel out of his life if he so chose, to do anything at all on his own terms and not Gabriel’s. Gabriel never got comeuppance for years of abuse to Adrien, and Adrien never got his closure as a victim of such abuse - due to the wish, he’s arguably back to square one, once again completely oblivious to being a pawn in his father’s game after their last interaction featured Adrien finally realising just how little his father had his best interests at heart

And to make matters worse, Adrien isn’t even told the truth. He believes his abuser died a hero. Not only that, but the hero that Adrien was supposed to be, but couldn’t be due to circumstance. Surely Adrien feels some survivor’s guilt because of that, right? It was his duty to fight by Ladybug’s side and defeat Monarch, and physically speaking there was nothing stopping him. If he’d been willing to sacrifice his identity, he would have been there when his father needed him the most, and Gabriel would still be alive

Adrien wouldn’t feel that way if he were told the truth about Gabriel being Monarch. Or at least he’d be able to say logically that his father wasn’t a victim, but the cause of his own demise. He’d never be able to confront Gabriel, but at least he’d be able to have his own emotions and opinions of him rather than being told repeatedly that his abuser is a hero and having no way to argue. Adrien deserves the truth, and until he learns it, Gabriel died doing what he does best; lying to and manipulating his son in order to excuse or cover up his own horrific actions

And then the icing on the cake is that he also never learns that he’s a sentimonster. Marinette knows, and she gave him back his freedom in the final scene by sliding the rings onto his finger and outright telling him that his choices are his own. But Adrien never found out the truth about his own existence. Adrien never discovered why he struggles to stand his ground, why he found it physically impossible to go against Gabriel’s orders, and in the event of an emergency he doesn’t even know that his life is tied to the rings; Felix discovered his life was tied to his father’s ring when it got damaged and it seemed to hurt Felix in the process. If Adrien loses the rings, anyone could control him. If Adrien lets a friend have a look and they unintentionally discover they can control Adrien with the rings, he’s screwed. If Adrien accidentally breaks the rings, he could get seriously hurt or even cease to exist altogether. And what if an akuma enters the ring? Ladybug would have to break it to purify the akuma. Thank god she now knows not to purify the feather that would also appear, but would her Miraculous Ladybugs be capable of returning him to life?

Adrien is left in the dark about so many things that he has right and reason to know and it not only does him dirty, but it actively harms him and causes him to suffer more than Gabriel did

Gabriel’s ‘Comeuppance’

Except that’s a given, considering Gabriel didn’t end up suffering. Like I said before, Gabriel had time to process and accept his inevitable death. He’d already made his peace, gotten his affairs in order, ensured that Adrien was in a safe location and under watch from Tomoe after trying to create some final positive memories between father and son. The whole entire season was Gabriel preparing for this. The man was not only ready, but willing to die, and the first time he truly expected not to die regardless was mere moments before he won

So to have Gabriel willingly, happily, dying for Emile, after he already been dying for Emile’s sake this entire season? It doesn’t really feel like much of a sacrifice at all. And considering how it was willing, voluntary and prepared for over the course of an entire season, it doesn’t feel like comeuppance, either. If anything, all he did was put an end to his own pain. He gave himself mercy, not justice. The only difference is that he died right then and there rather than in a few hours. He did himself a favour, and that’s supposed to be our catharsis?

Ain’t Got No Satisfaction

Gabriel’s death wasn’t a real sacrifice. Gabriel didn’t really face any major comeuppance. Adrien wasn’t involved in the final fight. Adrien never got to confront Gabriel for his abuse and never got closure. Adrien and Gabriel never got to learn each others’ identities and deal with the consequences of those reveals. Adrien never learned he’s a sentimonster. Adrien never learned the truth about his father’s death and was lead to believe that his abuser was a hero that deserves to be praised by the whole city - a man Adrien worried he would never be able to live up to by the end. The heroes lost. The villain won, and is considered the true hero of Paris. The Butterfly Miraculous was never recovered. It’s not even clear whether or not Gabriel succeeded in reviving Emile or if Amelie is there with Nathalie and Felix

Thank god for the fact that the show isn’t over, because this is not a satisfying conclusion to an eight-year-long story. There’s little to no pay-off for all the plot lines that have been set into motion. There are no satisfactory conclusions to series-long arcs. The villain won, with their greatest wish coming to fruition. Only one person knows the truth, and now she’s living in a universe that forces her to remain silent on the fact that the world is worshipping a false idol, their hero was the villain they were fighting against all along. Marinette has been dealing with trauma about her love ending the world for several seasons now, and it happened once again

But hey, at least we got one of those without a retcon this time, right? Right?

Honourable Mentions

Kagami throwing her shoe at the TV was brilliant honestly

The Perfect Alliance plan was great, but I just wanna know how they did a mass hypnosis through it. Did they use Gift, since all the Miraculous powers were poured into the plan regardless? That’s the option that makes sense to me, especially since they showed it working on Adrien exceptionally quickly on a biological level. It looks like simple ASMR or very basic simple stuff yet the characters were all talking weird about it like it was genuinely hypnotising them, to the point where Mylene even announced that they were all hypnotised. But I can overlook this considering there is a genuine logical answer to it in the form of Gift, which is already primed to be used

Interesting how the transformation into the Miraculizers (was that what they were called?) happened with the same transformation sequence that akumas get, yet the Butterfly Miraculous was the only one Monarch had that wasn’t shared with the public

Okay I get that she wasn’t in the right headspace to to do hero work especially with her nightmare specifically involving her failing the heroes but we were still robbed of Black Cat!Alya

Lol why did Alya keep calling Mari on her regular ass phone girl you know she’ll be busy XD

We were robbed of an opportunity for the hero duo to call themselves the perfect alliance as a counter to the fake perfectionism Gabriel and Tomoe strive for from their kids. I know the fake hologram versions of Ladybug and Chat Noir kinda did this but it would still be good to have it. But y’know we can’t have Ladybug and Chat Noir fight Monarch apparently

Man Chat really only got like one opportunity to play about with his new unlimited Cataclysms

Lol Argos at the end posing with all the other heroes like wtf are those lot thinking is happening? Last they knew this guy stole all the Miraculous, handed them over to ShadowMoth and snapped them all out of existence, now he’s suddenly with them? Even Chat Noir should be confused af lol how much PR did Ryuko have to do to get everyone on his side?

Honestly the best outcome of this ending is that at least the fandom can go fucking wild with fics and one-shots to patch the holes in this barbed-wire fence of an end cover

[matan4il]

Apparently the actor who plays Eddie was posting antisemitic stuff (comparing the US mask mandates to Nazi Germany). He never apologized I think. I was wondering if you had any thoughts on that. I’m mad that an actor I like has such awful views on these things but i’m separating him from Eddie in my mind so he doesn’t ruin that

Hi Nonnie! As the Holocaust is a very serious subject, I’m putting my reply under a cut.

Let me start by pointing out that yes, it is VERY problematic to compare the Holocaust to... basically any other event in human history. At most you can compare it to other cases of genocide in order to better understand the different reasons why the Holocaust is considered by the overwhelming majority of reputable historians to be the most extreme genocide ever committed (and please make this comparison for that purpose and ONLY that purpose, not to minimize or dismiss ANY case of genocide. The only reason why we make this comparison is in order to learn from it, so we can PREVENT the repetition of the elements that made the Holocaust so extreme).

The problem is that when people have debates that they wanna make sure they win, basically by shutting down any room for argument, they compare something or label something / someone as the worst thing that these people can think of. If that’s racism, then these people will shout that the thing / person is racist, if it’s pedophilia then that would be the accusation (and this relates to fandom history, there used to be groups of “concerned parents” - and I’m sure some of those people were NOT parents - trying to have gay fan fic removed using pedophilia allegations), and in a lot of political debates, it strikes people like the worst thing that they can compare stuff to is the Nazis / Holocaust.

Which means that there is an ALARMINGLY growing number of things that are way too often compared to the Holocaust. And now I’ll try to explain why this is such an issue.

So imagine an alien arriving on Earth and coming across people discussing this unknown human word, “murder.” Unless the people are very specific about the details (which people don’t tend to be when discussing something as terrible as a murder), the alien is likely to get the impression that murder is a thing that is Very Bad, but not exactly what makes it so bad. As this alien continues to explore the planet, let’s say they come across an incident of theft. They know theft is Very Bad, but because they have no real understanding of whether it’s As Bad as murder, yet they know they wanna raise the alarm on this Very Bad thing they saw happening, they will try to get people riled up by telling them a “murder” has taken place. Notice, this isn’t even a case where the alien has bad intentions! And yet, what does this cause? It makes the theft seem much worse than it actually is, because people think that it’s murder. So when the thief is caught? They might be punished as severely as a murderer would be, not as a thief would. At the same time, it means that fellow aliens who might be there, and learning from their friend’s experience, who don’t have a proper idea of “murder” either, will believe it’s As Bad as theft.

Okay, weird metaphor, but I hope it works, because the point is most people ARE a bit like aliens when it comes to the Holocaust (or the subject of genocide in general). Most of us don’t spend our lives studying the extreme nature of what the Nazis and their collaborators did. We generally get that millions of people were murdered, that it was Very Bad, but we don’t FULLY understand all the ways in which the Holocaust was this abominable. And I say this as a tour guide at a Holocaust museum. I have seen with my own eyes the reactions of people who thought they understood the Holocaust and came to realize it was so much worse than their notion of it as I talked to them about the processes, the different stages of the Holocaust, and the details.

Now, when someone compares incorrectly to the Holocaust they do two things. They make the other thing, the one they’re comparing to the Holocaust, seem worse than it is, basically they get a theft to be treated as if it were murder. That’s why so many are willing to make these unworthy comparisons to the Holocaust, because they want THAT effect. At the same time, there are many people who are simply ignorant, like the alien in our metaphor. They don’t properly comprehend the Holocaust, they have no other point of proper comparison, so they use that one, believing they’re making a worthy comparison and not understanding in what ways it isn’t. And then there are the fellow aliens, the people exposed to this discourse, who don’t fully understand the nature of the Holocaust either, but when they hear such comparisons, their understanding of it is actually being actively harmed, because they start to understand “murder” a little closer to theft. Even if they reject the idea that it is exactly like theft, the issue is that we tend to understand differences between abstract notions in relative terms, so even if we get that there is a big gap between “murder” and “theft,” the very fact that we discuss these notions together makes our perception of the gap shrink a little, as the very fact we’re discussing them together forces us to bring them into the same frame, partly closing the distance between them. In other words, it causes a MINIMIZATION of the Holocaust. Which is something we refer as one of the ways the Holocaust can be distorted. And this is the part that, if done intentionally, is antisemitic.

The comparison in the post that Ryan saw and shared is a horrible one, with real and awful consequences. Posts like that NEED to be discouraged, without reservation! From anyone!

That said, I can’t tell you for sure that what he did was intentional. Sadly, making this comparisons is incredibly common, and has been repeated by countless people (including ignorant Jews), some of it done with malicious intent, some out of ignorance. So there is no possibility to look at a post like that and right away know if it was intended to distort the Holocaust and harm Jews. In fact, Holocaust comparisons are not the only form of antisemitic content that is not perceived as such, and therefore you’re very likely to see it being spread by people who don’t necessarily mean any harm to Jews. I can tell you Oliver has shared such a post as well on one of his social media accounts, too. I can tell you I’ve stopped looking at celebs’ social media in general, because I was far too often unpleasantly surprised. In other words, I haven’t looked at anything posted by others in the 911 cast, but I suspect I’d find content harmful to Jews there as well. This is just as true for other celebs, outside the 911 fandom as well. Your fave, in at least one fandom, has probably posted antisemitic content, maybe without even realizing that this is what they were sharing. In the 911 fandom too, I can’t tell you how many posts like that I’ve come across. People who are not necessarily antisemitic, but they don’t understand the content they come across, so they reblog without full comprehension posts that are harmful to Jews.

I think this is a failure of our education systems across the globe. So my issue is not with Ryan or Oliver, who IDEK if they fully understand the harm of their posts. My issue is on a much higher level. We can and absolutely should point it out whenever we come across antisemitic content! We should not, however, automatically assume antisemitic intent. And I wanna hope that if we do that, if we give people the benefit of the doubt, they might be more open to hearing us out, being educated and changing their ways. IDK if anyone has approached Ryan and had such a conversation with him. I know at the time, I was in a bad place personally and did not have the resources to even attempt that. I hope someone, at some point, did explain it to him, and I’m very grateful that we haven’t seen anything like it from him since. But if you ask me what needs to be done, it has to be something so much bigger, on a societal level.

Have a good day, Nonnie! As always, here’s my ask tag.