#bitter? who's bitter?? not me

[see-arcane]

After reading the story I went to read an analysis to better understand it, and it claims that the text heavily implies that Gilroy felt sexual attraction for her despite his words and she latched onto that

I would almost buy into that reading, but for two points.

First, that Gilroy writes in his personal diary on numerous and extremely callous occasions how he looks down on Penclosa's physical appearance. She is over 40, she is crippled, she is plain, she is the last of all women who would ever be picked in his opinion. Intentionally or not, Doyle produced an unhappily believable product of the Victorian fixation on physical attributes as indicators of character. Physiognomy was at its height in that era, and it couples easily with the story's premise (she is the villain of the piece, after all) and Gilroy's very blunt ageism and ableism with regard to Penclosa.

Yes, he does note how lively and young she appears when exercising or discussing her power--but that's as far as it goes. Attraction is never brought up except in the context of her artificially spurring those reactions in him when she beckons him to her side. While Gilroy mentions later that any words of love he spouted 'came from her,' he's at least half-right. Penclosa prompts inorganic feelings in him, only ever when she forces him into her presence, but doesn't make him explicitly walk and talk to an exact script except when she starts making him blackout so she can puppeteer him directly.

Which brings me to the second point:

This really boils down to "Jonathan Harker wanted the vampires to prey on him!" in new clothes. Particularly the reading that 'oh~ he was just too repressed~ he was both turned on and scared of the icky powerful sexy vampires~ but he would have laid there and taken it otherwise ;)~ as long as we ignore him fleeing in terror and disgust from them at every opportunity and even risking his own life to scale a cliff and brave Transylvanian wilderness rather than join them~.'

I don't think I would like Austin Gilroy as a person if I ever met him. I really don't. But tilting the story's main frightening selling point to sexify and lessen the effect of a supernaturally endowed predator trying to groom a victim into becoming their lover and then entering a campaign of psychological warfare by maneuvering said victim to ruin their career, attack a friend, and almost disfigure and/or potentially kill their fiancée out of spite is...not a great way to read it, in my opinion.

Unpleasant as Gilroy is on many points, he is still a victim and Penclosa violated his person and free will in a way that would never be so downplayed if their sexes were reversed. But maybe even that is wishful thinking, considering how many times lit critics have bent over backwards to insist Lucy and Mina were secretly soooo into Dracula's sultry forbidden assaults and explicit conscripting into servitude as undead side pieces attentions.

Maybe this is me going overboard. Maybe the writer of the analysis genuinely believes that Gilroy had some attraction and was ashamed and was more easily manipulated with that. But I've seen too many takes in stories like this, especially from earlier writings from Repressed+ eras, that seem far too eager to inject a sexual (and low-key complicit 'the victim kind of wanted it though, wink-wink') undertones because. You know. Sexual repression is very definitely always everywhere in everything written before the 1970s. Sexily. Hashtag hot hot sexual liberation, amirite fellas?

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

craving pathetic wet old women characters. where is the feminism

[magical-girl-coral]

I wonder how many people on tumblr who are sharing posts about never killing yourself and suicide hotlines are also the same ones who told Jews to go die in Poland because we asked them not to promote fascist beliefs.

[croudjay]

It makes him so mad

[egophiliac]

I DID IT I GOT MY PINK HAYATE now I am never doing that again!

(at least until they give me, like, a frilly unicorn Kamui or something)

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

What can I even say here to redeem myself

[nyctophorum]

I love the film version of nimona but I do find it very funny how they’re like ‘ambrosius cut off ballister’s arm but he didn’t mean to 😢😢😢 he was just traumatised and reacting to a dangerous situation 😢😢😢’ whereas in the comic it’s like ‘ambrosius shot ballister with a laser canon that took off his whole fucking arm just because he couldn’t bear to lose lol. Lmao, even’

[paperglader]

they really put alicent in bridgerton blue on the reunion and genuinely expected me to think that she didn’t in fact march all the way to dragonstone to get wifed up? bfr

[dukeofthomas]

Can't believe Bruce canonically picked up a random 12yo homeless child who had no intent to become a vigilante and suddenly thrust Robin onto him without asking if that's what he wanted because he missed Dick (whom he fired because being Robin was too dangerous) and people still act like any take that's not "all the Batkids became vigilantes on their own completely independent of Bruce (who tried so hard to stop them but sadly just couldn't do it)" is a complete idiotic bad-faith take and that you're crazy if you disagree with people saying that Bruce has never ever absolutely NEVER picked up a kid for the purpose of making them into a vigilante.

[stoat-party]

How Much Territory Are the Fallout Player Characters Actually Micromanaging: An Analysis

I did some amateur research to figure out which of the Fallout protagonists (specifically 3, NV, and 4) have a reasonable area of land to constantly traverse. I used Apple Maps to find the straightest possible walking path from a point on either end of the game map, then multiplied the north-south and east-west figures to get an approximate square mileage. Since none of the walking paths were completely straight, these numbers will all be a little higher than actual. BUT the game maps also don’t completely correlate to the real-life locations, so consider these numbers to be estimates.

The Commonwealth: Around 600 square miles. This is honestly pretty manageable, especially if you’re teleporting or helicoptering all over the place. It would be exhausting, but you could theoretically get across the map in a day with time to spare for questing.

The Capital Wasteland: Around 800 square miles. Fairfax is the halfway point; very few locations on the western half of the map actually correspond to anything in real life. The exception is the cavern Little Lamplight is based on, which would make the game map 100 miles long. The map definitely doesn’t extend that far into Virginia.

New Vegas: Kind of hard to calculate at this scale, but we’re looking at a little under 3000 square miles! Through. the Mojave. Desert. The Courier is really going to have to commit to a course of action before traveling, because they won’t be coming back for about a week.

If you’re a fanfic writer, remember that you don’t owe realism to anyone. BUT, if realism is something you care about for your writing, keep these distances in mind!

(Sequel: distance from game maps to DLCs)

[lotus-pear]

what are ur thoughts on akechi and sumire? 🤨

i think they're the besties ever i loved their interactions sm ‼️‼️ (ignore the fact that akechi was constantly threatening her to not fuck over the team bc of her inexperience during third sem 💀💀)

i have some sketches of them i did recently so i'll share w the class

[antlershade]

you have to love people for real. and that means loving them as people who have flaws, and will annoy you or get on your nerves some times. treating them like a toy or product you can throw away when you get bored or upset is not acceptable. it's what we've been conditioned to do, but it makes the world worse.

[scylla-apologist]

my wings of fire oc, Bitterling! he's a rain/sea hybrid and a tattoo artist. he uses his shifting scales to help clients see what a tattoo will look like on their own wings.

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

Lilia reading freshly thirteen year old, completely innocent and oblivious William Kaplan’s future and being like:

Okayyyyy lemme just un-know that real quick so it doesn’t haunt me forever🥲

I can’t properly express how much I love her

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

i’m obsessed with the idea of cult leader!geto pining for a reader who just fucking hates him ….... maybe it’s someone from his past that he left behind when he defected, maybe they’re bitter and spiteful and all they do is hiss and bite but he’s so smitten. you can do no wrong in his eyes. he deserves the curses and anger, he knows, and he receives them with a smile and eyes full of hearts. he gets giddy when you scowl at him. he just thinks you’re love personified. he’s so gentle and patient that it’s infuriating because nothing you do or say will get him to bite back — it’s like you’re a kitten gnawing at his fist but he does nothing but coo at you even when you draw blood

[fisheito]

before mirage of scales: I NEED YAKUYA EVENT

after mirage of scales: ah. um. i . i don't need yakuya event so much, anymo.re... hah..a...