#blatantly ignores the 'from different fandoms' part

[sleepingdeath-light]

how he acts when he has a crush hcs ; jax

requested by ; discardedcarcass (29/10/23)

fandom(s) ; the amazing digital circus

fandom masterlist(s) ; here

character(s) ; jax

outline ; “saw you did TADC requests and read the jax relationship hcs and thought of jax having a crush hc !!”

warning(s) ; canon-typical asshole behaviour from jax

if you don’t know jax well enough, it’s very difficult to tell the difference between how he acts around his crush compared to how he acts around someone he simply doesn’t hate — this is because simply ‘liking’ someone isn’t enough to get him to stop being an asshole

as a matter of fact, it actually makes him worse

he spends more time around you than the other members of the circus, but that also means that you’re his most frequent bullying victim — and you being his crush doesn’t mean he’s going to go light on you (all it actually means is that you’re going to be the first person he looks to after messing with another member of the circus, and whose positive reactions encourage him the most whenever he pulls off a particularly funny joke or amusing prank)

he pranks you relentlessly both at the circus and during adventures: putting you in the line of fire, tripping you up when you walk, purposefully detaching any parts of your digital form that separate from your body, breaking into your room and leaving ‘gifts’ for you to find or just outright stealing things to mess with you, dragging you into the middle of his schemes while mocking you endlessly, etc.

and his teasing doesn’t just start and end at physical pranks as he makes a point to verbally bully you in just about every conversation you have — granted, it’s never completely mean spirited and if you pay close enough attention to him it’s clear that he’s just vying for your attention, but it’s certainly not nice either

he also makes a point to put down, bully, and degrade any other humans or npcs you’re around when you seem to be getting along with them more than usual

when you two are on adventures together jax’s behaviour also becomes noticeably more extreme (and, for everyone else around him, all the more frustrating) as he tries to keep your attention on him and get reactions out of you — usually this translates to more extreme acts of violence, riskier behaviour with the other humans, becoming more insulting/antagonistic towards the npcs you’re around, and being even more demanding and forceful with everyone else as he tries to get them to do what he wants

between tasks, when you’re just hanging out at the circus or when you’ve decided against participating for this particular mission, jax tends to just follow you around like a weird kind of lost puppy — constantly joking around, still being his annoying self, refusing to tell you the real reason why he’s always close by and lying about you just having funnier reactions than anyone else in the circus, but also just always being there and always trying to get you to react

it’s all very annoying at first, if a little confusing, but if you manage to put the pieces of it all together then it’s pretty easy to flip the situation on its head by making a point of blatantly ignoring jax in favour of spending time with other humans or flirting with some npcs — watch him get all huffy and annoyed until he’s finally forced to admit to his feelings (this could last a while, he’s a pretty stubborn guy, but with if you ignore him for long enough you may just force his hand)

[pessimisticpigeonsworld]

Mad Queen Misogyny

All the mad queen Dany takes, from both D&D and the audience, are just plain misogyny. They are literally just repeats of common misogynistic ideas. D&D have given a few reasons for why they wrote the mad queen ending for Dany, and all of them are the same old misogynistic tropes of fantasy and mythology.

The Mad Queen:

I'm going to start this off by going into how the mad queen trope itself is rooted in misogyny. This is one of the oldest tropes in fantasy/fairytales. Whether it's Snow White's evil step mother or the Queen of Hearts, literature is riddled with mad queens.

The idea of the mad queen is informed by the desires of men to keep women out of power. Yes there are historical women who were horrible people and unstable when in power. However, those examples are not enough to justify the amount of times the trope occurs, especially since some of the examples occur after many stories have already been written (ie, Mary I and medieval fairytales). These fictional women were written as cautionary tales of what happens when a woman is placed in power.

By writing the mad queen Dany arc in GOT, D&D are perpetuating an old trope rather than "subverting" anything as they claim. The most powerful woman in the world turning out to be a war mongering and mass murdering tyrant isn't subversive in any way. The only reason it was surprising was because it came out of nowhere narratively.

ASOIAF fans who constantly try to justify this turn for Dany's book character are attempting to do the same thing D&D did. They want to employ an ancient trope to justify their dislike for her in name of being "subversive".

The Violent Woman:

A trope that stretches back all the way to the Ancient Greeks is that of the angry, homicidal woman in power. From Hera to Medea, the myths are full of women who commit atrocities simply because of anger. This trope isn't just about avenging a slight or retribution on the guilty; it's about a woman taking out her anger on innocent parties.

Daenerys has fallen into the role of the avenger many times throughout both the show and and book. She killed Mirri Maz Duur for the murder of her son and husband. She killed the Undying for attempting to trap/kill her. She kills Kraznys mo Nakloz and many other slavers for the atrocities they commit constantly on the people they enslaved.

In the show, she imprisoned Xaro Xhoan Daxos and Doreah in a vault for killing Irri and helping the warlocks steal her children. She killed the Khals who threatened to rape her. She kills the Tarleys for rebelling against the Tyrells, thus getting them killed, and refusing to bend the knee.

Every time Dany killed up until season eight, it was purely because those she killed harmed her or her allies/children. That is why none of her past kills justify her burning KL. The people of KL did nothing to her; it's not an established part of her character to harm innocents out of anger. She even outright condemns the killing of innocents in earlier seasons.

The inconsistencies show how D&D chose to blatantly ignore the complexities of Dany's character in favor of a sexist trope. They perpetuated the idea that a woman in power who is angered will ultimately commit injustice and atrocities.

Dany antis in the ASOIAF fandom are no different from D&D. A common argument used by Dany and Targaryen antis is that they are bound to be corrupt and tyrannical because they have dragons. Essentially saying that Dany was doomed to be the villain the moment she hatched her children.

They point to her dragons' existence and her conquest in Essos as reasons for her "villain arc", despite the fact that none of her actions reflect the things they claim. Dany is simply being condemned for being a woman with power; it's expected of her to be a tyrant for those reasons alone.

The Woman Scorned:

This reasoning given by D&D in a behind the episode interview is probably the excuse that I hate the most. They said that one of the reasons for Dany's descent into madness was because Jon Snow refused to kiss her back once he found out they were aunt and nephew. This is an insanely misogynistic trope.

Used time and again by writers (mostly male), this trope is about a woman who becomes an antagonist due to rejection, unrequited love, or betrayal from a lover. In the case of Dany and GOT, it's Jon refusing to continue their romantic relationship.

For some reason, this is seen as a breaking point for Dany. A woman who has endured poverty, homelessness, sexual slavery, a traumatic miscarriage and death of a spouse/protector, and the stresses of war was broken by a man refusing to kiss her. Doesn't that sound fucking stupid? Well that's because it is.

Dany has never felt entitled to people's love (with the exception of shitty writing from D&D) let alone someone's sexual/romantic reciprocation. It's out of character and flat out insulting to women to believe that is enough to make Dany into a mass murdering tyrant.

Once again, there are members of the fandom who espouse this reasoning into their own theories and metas. Jonsas especially are guilty of this; some claiming that Jon's rejection of Dany in favor of Sansa will be a catalyst for the "mad queen".

An offshoot of this thinking, is the idea that Dany went/will go mad because she was rejected by the realm.

In the show, the Northmen are dismissive or outright hostile to Dany when she arrives (even after she saves them). Due to this rejection by the Westerosi people, Dany decides "let it be fear" and chooses to burn KL to the ground.

Once again, this idea isn't grounded in her past actions at all. Dany has always known she needs to earn people's love and respect as a ruler, why should she change her mind the moment she steps onto Westerosi soil? The answer is simple: she's a woman, so she can't possibly be able to deal with rejection.

Fans theorize constantly that Dany is going to go mad and destroy KL and Westeros because the people will definitely reject her in favor of Young Griff/Jon Snow/any other king they can think of. This theory is simply clinging to misogynistic ideas about women and it's disgusting in every iteration (it also dismisses the fact that there are people in Westeros excited about the idea of Dany and her dragons in the books but that's a different post).

The Woman Bereft:

This argument is probably the least outright in its misogyny. The idea that a woman who has lost everything will lose her mind isn't a new one and it can be played in a non-sexist way. However, GOT played it completely in the sexist roots of the trope.

Throughout seasons seven and eight, Dany loses basically everything. All but one of her children, her closest advisor and best friend Missandei, Ser Jorah, a massive chunk of her army, her other advisors, most of her allies, and is rejected by Westeros and Jon. That's a lot of loss to endure.

However, Dany has endured severe loss before and never reacted by murdering a city full of innocents. Again, this decision and descent isn't backed up by anything else in her storyline.

The sexism of this idea, that loss produces mad women, is that it's rarely applied to men in the same situations. For example: Tyrion lost everything he cared about, yet he's never written by D&D to be in danger of becoming a mass murderer. He even outright says he wishes he'd poisoned the whole court, but is never portrayed as a mad man by D&D or fans.

Dany is expected to go insane after enduring loss because she's a woman. She's perceived as being fundamentally weaker, mentally as well as physically, so she must be more vulnerable to madness than the male characters.

The Foreign Seductress:

The idea of the foreign seductress is a xenophobic and racist stereotype. For Dany, her antis use the instances of her exercising sexual autonomy and her life in Essos as fodder for this disparaging trope.

In the books and the show, Dany pursues sexual and romantic relationships outside of marriage. This is something that doesn't fall in line with the medieval setting of the world. In Westeros and Essos, it's common for men to do that, but not women, due to systematic misogyny. Because of this, Dany's antis often feel free to argue that because she doesn't act "pure", she is wrong and evil. Dany's bound to become a villain because she isn't a chaste and "good" woman.

In the same way, Dany is painted as wrong for wanting to take her family's throne purely because she wasn't raised in Westeros. She's perceived as a foreign invader by both her antis and D&D.

D&D wrote many scenes of outright xenophobia from the Northmen, Sansa, and Arya towards Dany and her forces without ever condemning those ideas. In fact, they justify them by writing the mad queen ending. The fact that Dany isn't "one of them" is used as an excuse for her descent.

Dany antis also employ this rhetoric, especially when people compare Dany's conquest for the IT to the Starks' desire to retake Winterfell. It's good for the Starks to want to retake their throne because they were raised in Winterfell, but Dany has no right to her ancestral home because she wasn't raised in Westeros.

However, this idea is never applied to Young Griff, who was also not raised in Westeros. Despite this, people will talk about how excited they are for his story and how sad it is that he's totally going to be murdered by his evil aunt. Once again a double standard is applied to Dany.

All this is because Dany is a woman who refuses to conform to patriarchal standards and was raised in a foreign country.

Never Good Enough:

Dany antis and D&D thrive on applying a different set of standards to Dany than other characters. They do this an a way that's reminiscent of the double standards set for women even today.

No matter what Dany does, it's never good enough for them. She dealt with Viserys and his death in the wrong way. She didn't protect her people in the right way. She tried to abolish slavery in the wrong way. She saved the goddamn world wrong. Like nothing Dany does is right in their eyes.

In their minds, Dany should've died in AGOT being a perfectly passive woman. She refused to submit to those (men) around her, and for that they punish her.

She's wrong for fighting the slavers, she's wrong for trying to avenge murdered children, she's evil for killing to protect herself. D&D used each of her actions throughout the show that they seemed too aggressive as justification for what they wrote. Dany's antis do the exact same thing in their theories.

The mad queen Dany theory is rooted completely in misogyny. It has no true justification in the narrative and every argument conjured up is just as sexist as the trope they want to perpetuate.

[hlizr50]

I was shown a post this morning (I think it was from Tumblr, but I'm not 100% sure) where someone asked if maybe something was LOST IN TRANSLATION because so many Gwynriel shippers aren't native English speakers.

Now...

I'm going to give this person the benefit of the doubt and believe that they truly don't mean anything negative by the question, even though the implications are... harmful to say the least.

Here's the deal, guys.

There are Gwynriel shippers all around the world because there are ACOTAR readers all around the world. The ship is not localized to a region or a language.

When people read books, the words on the page send a message. Sometimes, if we're super casual readers, the messaging is limited or we don't read a ton into it. For other readers who choose to delve deep into how the author writes to try to understand what might come next, it is obviously a bigger investment.

But at the end of the day, we all read the SAME BOOK (and bonus content) and those words made us all feel different ways. Made us want or predict different things. And that's all well and good. The problem comes up when we try to explain why we feel the way that we do.

I'm an engineer. Even though I enjoy creative writing and art, my brain is practical. I like having evidence. I like being able to identify trends and make an educated prediction based on them. As someone who ships Gwynriel, I have never denied that there are canonical moments where Azriel and Elain have some level of... something. On page. It would be ignorant of me to say that those moments don't exist. However, for the most part FROM WHAT I'VE SEEN, when a Gwynriel shipper tries to use canonical evidence to support their ship -- WHICH EXISTS -- it's a constant barrage of 'that's not what that means' or 'how could you read that romantically?' or 'Gwyn is just a side character'. And then there are the blatant hypocrisies, like how Azriel saving Elain from Hybern is romantic but Azriel saving Gwyn at Sangravah should never be mentioned ever again.

I guess what this long-winded ramble is trying to say is that there's nothing lost in translation. We've read the same story, and we believe Gwynriel makes sense. We lean on canon and trends in the author's style to support the ship, and then we headcanon the hell out of it, because fandom is supposed to be fun like that. Some people read the story and believe that Elriel makes sense, and that's perfectly fine. But don't come at a Gwynriel shipper, attacking their textual evidence with your headcanon that Elain was barely existed in ACOSF bc she was apparently training to be a spy and she and Azriel were falling in love completely off-page with nothing to show for it.

And don't you dare make an implication so blatantly out of bounds like blaming it on some strange translation error that somehow miraculously makes Gwynriel makes sense, but only if it's not in English. Like... give me a break. And... think about what you're saying. For A SINGLE MOMENT.

[arceespinkgun]

What do you think it is about Earthspark that makes it the target of more criticism than other media? I've only watched one episode myself

This is an interesting question... but a tough one to answer. I've wondered about why this is a lot. I think it might be that it's a show that centers people who are marginalized. Of course, there are people who are bigots and don't want marginalized people represented in a show in a positive light (e.g. all the reactionaries who threw a fit because Nightshade is a heroic non-binary transformer).

Then there are marginalized people watching the show who have super strong feelings about how every little thing is being depicted because they want to see themselves in media. Unfortunately, I've often noticed that people in this situation can get super attached to exactly how they want something to go in media even if it wouldn't be as good of a story, or get super anxious and or disappointed about the smallest details, and sometimes seem to have super bad faith takes out of fear. I've also often noticed that sometimes people forget that even people within the same group can have and enjoy different types of stories.

And then... okay, I feel like this take may be upsetting to some people, but I think it's part of what's happening and you asked, so... I'll say it. I think some people like to act like they want representation like the kind Earthspark has, but actually aren't interested in things like it or even potentially have some internalized biases they need to work through. And I think sometimes they would rather try to frame a show like Earthspark as somehow bad than admit they're just not into it and would rather have something else that might be way more problematic. I used to take people's opinions in good faith far more, but seeing how popular blatantly racist and sexist themes are in fanon, plus how so many people adore this upcoming film where it looks like there are only two major women who are pitted against each other, the comedic relief, bad guy, and guy who gave the heroes powers are voiced by Black people while the male and female leads are voiced by white people, there was that clip released of Bumblebee hitting on Elita-1 while she is irritated and ignores him... it's made me kinda cynical, I guess. Sometimes I even think it would be easy for people on here to not even realize Earthspark has real, actual positive queer representation in it, for example, but that this movie absolutely will not and the trailers and everything make it very clear it does not. Earthspark is a show with a very gender-balanced cast that is racially diverse, and it has themes of prison abolition and anti-colonialism, and to see it's attracted so much hate in contrast to literally every other piece of TF media bothers me.

Hey, was anyone in the Steven Universe fandom? Spoilers for that series below because I feel like how people reacted to that cartoon is so incredibly similar to how people reacted to Earthspark that I can't not mention it:

I saw all of SU as it came out but wasn't very aware of what fans thought of it. Eventually, though, I learned about how it had been relentlessly scrutinized in this exact same way and for I think similar reasons? A great example of how SU was treated by fans was that a huge number of them were infuriated when main character Steven didn't kill the authoritarian big bad villain White Diamond, but instead embarrassed her and convinced her to start to change her ways instead. Fans took this as him "forgiving" her and felt like the fact he hadn't just killed her was teaching kids imperialism is good... somehow. This became such a firestorm that the showrunner was asked about Steven forgiving her in interviews and had to literally say he had not, in fact, forgiven her... which was already obvious from the show!

Then the sequel series set after a timeskip came out. There, Steven reacts to all the trauma White Diamond had put him through by trying to murder her. He's horrified by this impulse in him and is full of self-hatred and feels like he's lost the innocence and goodness of his younger days for this and many other reasons, but eventually he gets help from his friends and family and starts working through his trauma. ...But this pissed off fans all over again because then they accused the show of saying "traumatized teenagers become murderers!" So they both wanted him to kill her... but also didn't want him to try and kill her?! And all I can think is that they wanted the villain to be killed by the hero, but in a way that was portrayed as an unequivocal moral good and not borne of trauma... even though part of what makes a villain is that they traumatize people. They just wanted punitive justice and hated seeing any alternative. It was so stupid and the show could never win. That's how people treat everything Earthspark does, too: "I think the show is too soft on Decepticons, no now it's not soft enough." "I wish there were Decepticon-aligned Terrans who actually fight their siblings, no, not like that." "This show taking a pro-immigration stance using Terrans as an example is somehow actually racist and anti-immigration."

[akookminsupporter]

Hey Rosie, so i did a thing a decided to visit some taekook blogs to just read some of their theories to see if i could understand where they are coming from because no matter how hard i think about things, i just can’t for the life of me understand why someone will honestly still ship taekook in 2024 and even after watching everything Jikook have done for and to each other in years and when i tell you i lost braincells, believe me i did.

I’m one person who believes that people should be free to believe in what they want to as long as they are not being dismissive of other members bonds but i realized that, that is literally the only way taekookers cope. They are blatantly dismissive of Jk’s bond with Jimin and only acknowledge it when it comes to moments they cannot argue and then the want to play the “they are bestfriends so it’s normal” card even though just right before that, they were claiming how Jk arrived Yoongi’s concert and ignored Jimin. How can u say this and then when someone brings something which obviously shows how Jk cares about Jimin you are back to claiming that they are bestfriends even though you think Jk will arrive a concert and ignore his bestfriend just because he wants to cling to his “boyfriend”? Make it make sense.

I know that in the last years, jikook spaces have gotten really toxic and some jikookers are becoming as delulu as tkkrs but i will always thank God for the handful of sane jikookers we still have because trust me when i tell you that there is not a SINGLE sane taekooker in this world. All of them have either been brainwashed or are plain stupid. For the most part, most jikookers pay attention to facts to try to make sense of jikook. Yes we do have our theories but you don’t see Jikookers sticking to their theories as proof of the damn ship but this is the opposite for taekookers. They actually don’t care about the facts. They don’t care about what the boys have to say or what has actually happened all these years. They only care about their own interpretation of the boys actions and words.

You wouldn’t hear them bringing up tangible reasons as to why they think their ship is real. They will bring up reasons like the fact that taekook wore the same shirt on the same day and same time even though they were in different continents💀. They will bring up things like hearing taekook’s voices in each other’s Lives and the only proof they have for this are the voices in their heads.

I am one of those who believes that Jikook sometimes hide in each other’s Lives but i don’t believe this just because i see them look to a certain direction for 3 seconds or because i hear a random sound. My belief is backed up by the fact that we literally have evidence which has been consistent for over a decade which points to the fact that Jimin and Jk are the two who spend the most of their nigts together. I didn’t come to this conclusion by imagining that they do, i came to this conclusion because they have literally told us this so many damn times. So if i hear a voice or feel like someone else is in Jimin or Jk’s room at some odd hour, i am more inclined to think it is Jimin or Jk rather than anyone else because those two have a history of being in each other’s rooms the most, you get? It is the same as, if someone has a reputation of being a theif, if something gets missing everyone will most likely look to them first before anyone else.

Another thing that is really weird to me about taekookers is how they blatantly ignore everything we have witnessed Jikook do for years and then they hype up taekook doing some of those things for a 6 months period. This entire fandom has seen Jikook arrive and leave so many places together for years with or without tae present. We know that Jk has hung out with Jimin and his friends for years. Infact we saw Jk with Jm’s friends way b4 anyone ever dreamed of Jk hanging out with Tae’s wooga but when Jk did all these things with Jimin, it didn’t matter and it meant nothing but now, some of them consider it irrefutable proof that taekook is real because Taekook arrived and left a concert together ONCE in 10 years and because for the first time in a decade, Jk was seen hanging out with Tae and his friends for a period of time. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE.

Do you remember those days when taekookers used to swear that Jikook hanging out alot outside of work was proof that they weren’t real because according to them, no closeted couple in a homophobic country will expose themselves so much? Remember when JM and Jk sharing cars was fanservice? Remember how they downplayed Jk’s lives about JM in chapter two because it was “official content” but were praying Jk did the same for tae and when that didn’t happen, they switched their narrative to “Jk was forced” or “Jm needed promotion while tae didn’t”. I honestly don’t understand how they even make sense to themselves. Ask them why they think Jk and tae are a couple when there is literally evidence Jk spending birthdays and couple holidays with Jimin and not seeing Tae some times at all and they tell you, Jk and tae have to protect themselves by lying that they don’t. So you mean to tell me that Jk and Tae don’t feel the need to “protect” themselves when they are attending premiers or when tae is namedropping Jk 1783787 times or when Tae is coming to announce that Jk sings him a song but they only feel the need to “protect” themselves when it comes to admitting that they go to greet each other on birthdays?

You see that their entire premise of belief in their ship is making other people the villains in taekook’s lives. The big bad company who constantly separates the boys in camera, constantly forces Jk to do fanservice with Jimin, constantly cuts their moments, Jimin who constantly forces himself on Jk, who doesn’t respect his friends relationships, Jk who is lilly livered and cannot stand up and say no to the money hungry company, Jk who sometimes hurts tae by playing along with the “fanservice” and poor tae tae who has to sit there and take all of this. Poor tae tae who has a terrible soulmate and a boyfriend who cannot fight for him. He is the real victim in all of this. I honestly don’t know how they don’t see how incredibly stupid they sound.

Sorry for the rant.

Anon, thanks for the TED TALK.

Honestly, there is not much I can add. Thanks for taking one for the team and read what las vecinas are saying, you are a stronger person than me because I have never been able to do that. I think two of the key things for that group to stay afloat for so long are:

Not seeing original content.

Living in denial.

And that's why they will always be around, no matter what.

[ilex-opacus]

This is it this is the day I go crazy and talk about Akagi Ritsuko for way longer than anyone in 2024 should.

The way I have seen her miscaracterised is so.. so heartbreaking to me. Granted the Eva fandom is huge and I haven't been a part of it for a suuuper long time (I mean, the original fanbase from 30yrs ago is reduced to little more than a bunch of ghost accounts on dead forums by now) but the most common interpretation I see of her is something like this: A cold woman who has buried almost all her feelings for the sake of doing anything Gendo tells her because she's in love with him, who knows what she's doing is wrong, but who doesn't seem to care. A woman who has learned to care so little for the pilots, in particular Rei, who many people even say she hates, who only takes a stand on the "good side" once Gendo has personally scorned Ritsuko's love for him by having her put in solitary isolation.

And to me, that reading if her is just... Well not *wrong*, there aren't any *wrong* interpretations in media... What it is instead is willfully ignorant of so much if her character that proves almost all of that to be untrue.

Like yes, Ritsuko is cold. She's calculating and logical, but that's really about as far as the popular interpretation of her goes. She explains that being overly idealistic isn't something she scorns ("it's a nice way of thinking" directed at Maya and "your outlook is also important" directed at Misato) but something she knows she can't indulge in, otherwise the entirety of NERV's operating force would be hinged too much on personal feelings. Also, it's something she doesn't really know *how* to do. Look at Ritsuko's history -- a girl who practically grew up at NERV HQ, during the Second Impact, living under the constant shadow of a mother who didn't even give her the time of day. They write letters to each other in keigo instead of talking face to face. This is clearly a girl who's been isolated at least since high school, probably longer, who has probably lost so many people due to growing up during a damn extinction event. Someone who admits to being so poor at human connection that she supplements any hope for a family by raising cats, and even then! Even then she has to hand them off to relatives when her work gets too much for her. It's not that Ritsuko is cold and unfeeling because she enjoys it or scorns closeness, it's because she has never had the means or freedom to learn and foster those skills. It's her who introduces the concept of the Hedgehog Dilemma, she knows better than most how much you'll struggle to form bonds if you don't consistently try.

And Misato isn't some beacon of pilot safety either. The idea that she's the nice, sweet, helpful one and Ritsuko is the evil wench driving the pilots to their death is just blatantly incorrect. There are MULTIPLE instances of Misato being the one to endanger pilot safety, and Ritsuko being on the other end discouraging that. Take episode (I think 7 or 8?) where Ritsuko confronts Gendo about using children as pilots. She laments placing all of the burden on them, and spearheads the Dummy Plug system in the hopes it will alleviate that strain. Whereas Misato has made multiple allusions to molesting Shinji, has kissed him fully on the mouth, and seemed completely unaffected by the idea of sinking Asuka to unsafe depths in their fight against the 8th angel. The only difference in how they treat the pilots as child soldiers is that Misato is more vocal about how upset it makes her, whereas Ritsuko, not one to be talkative when it comes to her own feelings, as Misato points out, is not.

More examples of Ritsuko being nice to the pilots include: Teaching Rei and Asuka how to cook at Rei's request so that they can have a dinner together with Gendo and Shinji. Ritsuko sees this child, this child raised inside NERV in near total social isolation, begging for a chance at social contact, and she takes time out of her schedule so busy to the point she doesn't have time to wash her own clothes, to teach Rei how to cook. That brings me onto the next thing, actually, the way she's constantly characterised as despising Rei (specifically because she's "a competitor for Gendo's attention"). I can think of, at most, 2 canon instances where Ritsuko is actually mean to Rei in any specific, targeted, or substantial way. One is when she destroys the Dummy Plug system because, quote "these are just empty vessels, they have no soul. I'm going to destroy them, because I hate them." Which is bonkers to me! Bonkers! Because my IMMEDIATE thought when I first saw that scene was "Oh, of course Ritsuko hates the Dummy Plug system, it's science taken too far, it's a disgrace against life to create soulless husks, of course Ritsuko sees it as science used for too evil a purpose to justify. She hates them because they're inhumane." But somehow everyone took that as "Wow Rei I hate you so much I'm going to kill a bunch of your clones"?? I'm sorry, but since when has Ritsuko been characterised as being so *petty*? I mean, this is a 14 year old girl she's supposedly beefing with here.

The only other instance is when she says "(Unit 00) was definitely trying to kill me" after it goes AWOL during the 11th angel attack, implying Rei (who's soul is inside Unit 00) hates her, presumably because of something shes done. But OF COURSE she thinks that. Of course the head of this operation, who has overseen all of these horrible things, signed off on so many inhumane fights, thinks her soldiers want her dead. I don't think for one second Ritsuko thinks she's a good person. She literally says "you'll learn (that being idealistic is impractical) the first time you feel dirty." She feels guilt over what she does just like I said before, just like Misato does forging forward with this whole operation, she's just more quiet about it.

So why? Why does she do this? You can put Misato's involvement with NERV down to a genuine desire to help, the genuine illusion she's doing humanity good by protecting it. Throw in her half a revenge plot, and you can say she's doing these horrible things for ostensibly just reasons. But Ritsuko knows infinitely more about the inner workings of NERV, to the point it's implied (?) she killed Kaji, one of her only friends, to keep the information safe. People always put it down to just "she loved Gendo, that's why" and yes, frankly, that's a terrible reason. It also, doesn't make sense!

Take Ritsuko, a woman with little to no social fluency, a woman who can bouy herself only on her scientific merit, because remember, she lived in her mother's shadow for most of her life. The only way to ascertain her worth, especially underneath someone as unfeeling as Gendo, was to prove her commitment as a scientist. She didn't *have* anything else, she couldn't have anything else, no matter how much she wants to. A woman that has fought so hard for the approval of Gendo, and imagine you're her. Imagine your own mother won't even speak to you. You don't have any father around and you never mention him, but there is a man your mother seems to love. Odd, considering she doesn't seem to love you in any way that really counts. You'd want his approval too, no? You'd want approval from the man your mother, your overshadowing scientific monolith of a mother, melted back into humanity for. You'd want to prove you were as good as her, that you could enrapture the man she managed to ensnare. Because all you want is for people to see you, recognise you, that's like - THE key theme in evangelion across so many different characters. And remember Ritsuko was a highschooler when she met Gendo, when she found out her mother was having a fling. Imagine you're orphaned soon after, and all you have left is impossibly large boots to fill and this man, this man who is important, talented, and special enough to make your mother look at him, and he's asking you to help him. Of course you would. Of course you would. Because all you want is some human affection, no matter how clinical and predatory it manifests itself.

The line about Ritsuko and Gendo is literally "I wish you'd use my body again, like you did back then." Because Japanese lacks plurals, it can also be read "I wish you'd use my body again, like you did that other time." (In fact, I'm actually more inclined to that one because I see 時 used for singular occurance more than multiple ones, in which case 頃 feels a little more common?) I'm sorry, but you'll never convince me this wasn't grooming. Just look at the situation I described and try and convince me this is shorthand for "she was in love with Gendo." Idolised him, sure. Desperately craved his approval on an intimate and academic level? Yeah. Bit *loved* him? No. And there's certainly no way Gendo felt anything back other than some weird, predatory affection (I mean seriously, Gendo. You knew this woman when she was a high schooler and you were old enough to be banging her mom. There's a lot wrong with you already but now I'm adding perv to the list.)

And the plan he's making you execute, wouldn't you find it captivating too, if you were her? A world where all those emotional roadblocks you've built for yourself finally disappear, a world where you can open your heart and see your mother again, perhaps connect with her for the first time. A world where you don't have to prove your worth as a individual because you'll be part of so much more. A hivemind filled with love, clarity, and pure acceptance. Sure, she's not some virtuous saviour of humanity, but neither is Misato, really. No one who works at NERV can do so with a clear conscience or for an entirely noble cause. What I'm saying is that Ritsuko isn't as shallow as to do all that for Gendo's dick. She has complex, self-rationalised reasoning there like everyone else.

And that just brings me back around to her relationship with Rei. Maybe she does hate Rei, a little bit. Not because she's vying with her for Gendo's attention, because that's stupid. Ritsuko is a piller of calm rationale, of impersonality and reticence. In what world would she possibly be that possessive of anyone, even the man she idolises on a personal and academic level? She isn't even remotely cold or aggressive towards Kaji when he steals away Ritsuko's only friend or actively goes digging for NERV intel, she's KIND to him, welcomes him as much as she's able to with how closed off she's become. She isn't desperate for attention in the outward way someone like Asuka is. She wants Gendo to approve of her, but never exclusively. Id say the only person she's ever in competition with on that front is her own mother.

Rei is just like her. A girl with limited social contact who's only link to some greater sense of being and humanness is through Gendo, of all people. She needs him, depends on him, sticks to him and adores him despite knowing he's mistreating her ("I don't get special treatment. Believe me, I'd know.") She's also been groomed to be Gendo's obedient, grateful puppet, grateful because if not for him, she'd have somehow less. Maybe Ritsuko does resent her. Maybe it's like looking into a mirror at your old self and wishing you could slap sense into the person you used to be. Or maybe it's like looking at the person who made your mother commit suicide in guilt, perhaps. Everyone seems to forget that little detail.

Maybe the Dummy Plug system being destroyed wasn't Ritsuko's personal act of scientific disgust, maybe she hated those lifeless clones because she cares about Rei so much she knows a fate of reanimation into indentured military servitude is worse than death. Maybe a life spent captive under Gendo's grooming is worse than death fighting the angels. Maybe she can't stand the thought of Gendo using a person so many times over, never learning his lesson. Maybe she wanted to take away one of his strategic devices and punish him. But "she just hates Rei that much" seems like too shallow and excuse.

When Ritsuko turns on Gendo, everyone assumes it's because she's finally been personally scorned by him, and has realised he doesn't love her, or that she's angry he's thrown away all the scientific research she's poured into project E and wants to spite him. And okay, maybe those contain a grain of truth, but combined with her destruction of the Dummy Plug system and her asking him as early as episode 7 if using child soldiers is really something they can justify, Ritsuko's betrayal reads to me as a woman who has finally been given a wake up call surrounding the man who has used her for most of her life. Ritsuko is a woman who is closed off by necessity, of course it takes her personally being wronged by him in a massive, obvious way, to realise just how irredeemable he is. It's not "once you hurt me, that's it for you." its "once you hurt me, I can't overlook you hurting everyone else anymore because of how much I idolised you." That's a selfish road to take, sure, but Ritsuko hasn't the social fluency to be less so. Further proof her rebellion isn't just some scorned lover's hissyfit as so many people paint it is that she *continues* to actively work against him, dedicating all her time and skill, for 14 years during the Rebuild movies. She is so dedicated to stopping him that she works with WILLE for 14 damn years. If that's not a woman thoroughly convinced this man needs to be brought down for his crimes, I don't know what is.

Anyway. I have thoughts about Agaki Ritsuko. My beautiful blonde morally grey but still complex and emotionally wounded babe.

[taylorswiftstylequestions]

I think Taylor points to these references purposefully so who knows if any of this bothers her but I have just noticed such an intense turn around from swifties previously needing to defend that Taylor’s music is about so much more than men to now hypothetical, but ultra specific moments in her relationships being the topic of like, almost all song discussion. It’s not coming from an intentionally sexist place anymore, but still feels…odd.

I've been seeing much of this today and unsurprisingly I have some opinions on this. And it is okay if your opinions are different and it's also okay to acknowledge there's 23948723894732 shades of nuance when it comes to the emotional intent that we bring to the table when we talk about Taylor's music (or anyone's really, but obviously we're in the TS fandom here and talking about a very clearly personal and detail-oriented body of work).

Imo - Taylor writes songs to understand herself. And she then puts that work out into the world to have other people understand her and to have a tangible artifact of her experiences as a permanent record to validate that what she feels and what she has gone through is real and to have people perceive that and gain an understanding of her life. And then we as consumers of said art get to take those songs and feel less alone in the world because we see ourselves in those songs and can feel the gentle, ghostlike presence of a person we do not know affirming to us across the ether through this beautiful thing they've created that they've gone through something similar. And that bonds us and that's part of what makes Taylor's work so vivid and so personal for a lot of us. And then we also have the added gift of being able to take songs written about her experiences and shape and mould them to fit the contours of the lives we have lived that have nothing to do with the song's original intent.

"Tied Together With A Smile" is about Taylor's friend in high school experiencing an eating disorder and it's about my lifelong body issues and disordered relationship with food.

"tolerate it" is about a relationship that Taylor experienced with a partner who never fully appreciated her or saw her and it's about coming out to my parents and then never talking about it ever again and blatantly ignoring a part of my identity I wanted to share with them.

"Better Man" is about a relationship that Taylor experienced at the hands of someone who did horrible things to her that made it impossible for her to trust him and love him and it's about my mom and how I will always yearn to have a closer relationship with her but I know it will always be just out of our grasp.

I see my best friend's ex-boyfriend in "peace". I see the guy who stood me up on my 20th birthday in "The Moment I Knew." I see my ex-girlfriend in "The Way I Loved You".

I can layer all of my personal experiences on top of the topography that her discography has given me and they can feel 100x more nostalgic and sentimental because I'm able to understand the complexity, nuance, and humanity of Taylor's world as she writes it because I care about her! I want to know those things about her! I want to know what she's gone through! I want to feel her feelings! I feel connected to her and to her art and to myself through her music! I can feel all those tender things about my life and the smell of the air and what I was wearing and what address I was living at the first time I listened to these songs BECAUSE IT'S ALL OF THE ABOVE. IT'S ALL OF THE ABOVE.

[misrepresentedmorallygrey]

PROPAGANDA

Dimitri Alexendre Blaiddyd

PLEASE NOTE: THE MOD OF THIS TOURNAMENT HATES THIS PROPAGANDA! THEY BELIEVE THAT IT'S ACTIVELY LYING ABOUT THE CHARACTER AND COMING FROM A PLACE OF HATE FOR SAID CHARACTER INSTEAD OF THE FANDOM CULTURE SURROUNDING HIM. You have been warned

Why is this man so woobified. The literal whole point of him is that he's meant to be a bait and switch for the typical perfect fire emblem lord hero. He's a sadistic killer without a hint of mercy for a huge part of the story, he works with the dictator church without considering whether or not there's something wrong with it, and his route ends in him being just as much of an imperialist as the others (taking over the whole continent and being crowned its ruler), just by a different name. He's SO interesting and SO conflicted and yet it feels like 99% of the fandom can't look past "uwu emo sad boy :((( so damaged :((((" and completely disregards that he's just as brutal as the other main characters from any other route's perspective, that's the whole point of the game!

Yuno Kashiki

Yuno Kashiki is an 18 year old rental girlfriend and sexworker in Japan. She was incarcerated in Milgram for murder at the start of the series in 2020. Since then she has been repeatedly dehumanized by the fandom. Having her agency and statements on her own life overwhelmingly ignored in order to give her a sob story she has consistently rebuked at every turn. Stating from the beginning even if she had to beg for forgiveness like her life depended on it she would. However, it's simply been handed to her as the audience continually goes she was too young and stupid to actually be held accountable for her actions. The same audience that later tries to vote a 12 year old child abuse victim guilty because she has to learn her lesson and she knew what she was doing. Yes the fandom interprets the eighteen year old who chose to work in the profession they did simply because they wanted to something they have no qualms admitting as having less agency than the twelve year old. They treat her like a stupid baby who's only error was not knowing how a condom worked as a sexworker. They say her only crime is an abortion despite her overtly getting upset at other individuals alluded to be clients throughout her songs. Having the literal lyrics of her second song go, ""Poor naive little girl"? So off the mark, what's it to you? It's absurd. Like really who do you think you are? Don't weigh me meassure me against your morality. Just shut it, will you? You know it all." And "Carrssing me with your "good girl". Who needs your self-righteous pardon?" They're so committed to the abortion equating to the murder she's in here for idea that fans got mad at the writer for even writing it that way when at least several other very not fetuses are alluded to throughout her songs and at points literally shown. Her first song even highlighting her clients belongings throughout it with inverted coloring. But instead of thinking she may have just killed a client who was bothering her they've convinced themselves that she's just a silly little outlier who's not meant to be here because abortion isn't murder her body her choice which fair if it wasn't for the fact the only people putting it on the table to compare to murder is the audience themselves. Despite everyone else in here very literally killing actual people with lives, professions, etc as they frame her case as a feminism issue and say if you vote her guilty you just hate women or are anti-abortion. In response to the framing of her situation as she can hear the audiences thoughts on her she's only gotten more depressed and closed off as tge series has progressed blatantly stating to hurry all this up so she can go home. Because it doesn't matter what she says about her situation the audience and the guard by proxy will just end up creating whatever story they want about her so it doesn't matter she's over it. Which in all honesty fucking fair- Wouldn't anyone be after getting treated like that for going on four years.

She's far more morally grey than folks want to admit. She's not evil, not by a long shot, but she's not exactly innocent either. She's innocent of her (perceived) crime in her media, but in terms of her attitude and outlook on life, I feel people downplay her incredibly grey actions. She uses / used compensated dating as a way to feel "warm" without forming emotional attachments. She hasn't killed anyone, nor has she manipulated anyone into killing for her, but that's why she's a good representative of a more everyday morally grey person. Her actions aren't outlandish or extreme, and if anything she can fade into the background with relative ease, yet I still firmly believe she's morally grey. tldr; Yuno has far more depth than the (general) fandom sees her as having. She gets misrepresented and her voice as a character is often unheard.

[nautilus-null]

In my opinion, I think it’s important to consider WHY people DON’T want more dark/brown skinned characters in Genshin. (This goes for many types of media with the same issue, but I am speaking about Genshin because I am in the fandom)

People are capable of being undiscriminatory/generally not racist in their day to day life and still holding discriminatory and harmful views. Whether it be unintentional bias or just plain ignorance, it’s still very much possible. In my opinion, this is directly linked to the idea of NOT wanting more diversity in Genshin. I don’t accuse these people who don’t have issues with the lack of representation of being racist, I accuse them of being scared to see different people being represented.

I am personally not suffering from the lack of representation. I am not part of the cultures that are being blatantly disrespected. But it also does not affect or harm me in any way to see more groups being shown correctly.

I think that many people who don’t want more diversity are incorrectly thinking that more representation will negatively impact them. Or, perhaps, that because they aren’t part of the group being disrespected, the issue doesn’t affect or concern them at all. Neither of these are the case. Respecting every culture is important, whether you’re part of said group or not, and doing so doesn’t harm anyone.

Once again, I’m not actively accusing people of racism. But if you think that the problems in Genshin don’t concern you, or you’d rather not have them solved, please do consider why. It may be because you’re scared of more diversity, which is a harmful view to hold.

[puhpandas]

This might come off as controversial, but Steel Wool is not immune to criticism. I don’t like how Steel Wool is treating Gregory for numerous reasons, but them setting him up to be a bad person feels wrong when no other child character is treated this way. They don’t want to acknowledge him as a victim and like okay, we get it, we hardly see his trauma, but hello? Is he not still a child? How is he any different from other kid protagonists that wanted to live in this franchise?

There’s a higher standard for the games sure, but it’s weird to me that background book characters get treated way better. They don’t want him to be exactly like Cassie, which understandable, but we’ve already seen few Cassie characteristics from him? To ignore that is ignoring a big part of his character. Why would he do anything in the story then if he was just as bad and destructive as they portray him as? He still needs motives, even if they want to strip him of any characterization so we never feel bad for him. They’re actively refusing giving him positive attributes because they’d hate it if he started challenging other characters/fans favs, but that’s what makes a good story compelling. It feels like they’re taking their anger out on him through their writing if that makes sense?

I’m a little concerned he’s gonna be the one who dropped the elevator because it feels true, otherwise why would RUIN be so full of blatant Gregory hate? They want us to hate him, that’s quite all there is to it.

them never showing us him as a character on a normal day and only when hes in a life or death situation making a split second decision that could decide the fate of himself and everyone he loves definitely has something to do with it. they only show his 'blunt' decisions to do something bad for a good reason, and not what he would be making that decision for. we never get to see him just be a normal kid, we never get to see him after sb deserving to have that happy ending, we only see the bad

but I dont feel like this is just. we hate this 12yo character and like the other one better so we're making him evil and shitting on him. they probably do want people to see the bad things he did for a reason that we dont know yet.

them framing Gregory as cutting the elevator whether he did it or not was very blatant in that decision. it feels like they want to give him a 'redemption arc' in the eyes of the fandom in come kind of way since people have disliked him from the very beginning. like they want us to see him do these bad things, and then maybe theyll actually show us that he didnt want to do these things later, and maybe things will be different.

like, I cant be the only one who feels like Gregory and the elevator is a setup for something. obviously to trap cassie down below, but in that case they didnt have to make Gregory be the one do drop it, just blatantly the mimic. they want us to believe this for a reason, and that would be to show us at the very least a reasoning later. I dont believe that reason is just "we fucking hate this child character and want everyone else to as well" that's just. crazy to me.

they wouldnt make Gregory do many kind things for other characters if they hated him. they wouldnt have had him comfort cassie on her birthday and make them canonically close friends if they wanted to make him genuinely heartless.

keep in mind that with SBs nuked characterization and no focus on Gregory since then, we havent even gotten to see his pov in a long time. just Cassies so far, and Cassies story is pretty much built off of perspective. the MIMIC is literally a tool to make characters perspectives about eachother change or distort because it would frame a character as doing something they didn't

mimic is literally going to be used to cause confusion and distrust within characters and it literally did that and accomplished that in ruin. cassie is going to believe Gregory cut the elevator whether he did it or not. and that's why I genuinely believe he didnt. why on earth would they introduce a character that's main purpose would be to do bad things to characters in another characters name to cause drama and then just. have the character have actually have done it lmao.

TLDR: I dont believe steel wool would steep as low as to make a 12yo kid trying to survive actually evil or even just hate him as the creators, and I also think the story of cassie and ruin and beyond is designed off of making Gregory look bad (the mimics purpose as a villain being causing uproar and doing bad things in another characters name to cause distrust from another) from Cassies perspective so he can appear later and disprove those beliefs as a sort of 'redemption arc' to cassie and the fans

[creative-minds01]

“ You’re Mine” (part 2)

Obey me boys and their jealousy

Warnings: slight violence

READER: gender neutral

Satan

Satan is the avatar of wrath I don’t think too many people will blatantly anger him by flirting with you in front of him

If he sees that a demon is flirting with you from a distance he’ll watch and make sure that they aren’t going too far and making you uncomfortable

He’ll then walk over to you and put an arm around your waist kissing the top of your head to show he was there and to let the demon know you were taken while giving them a look letting them know they need to back off

If the demon continues to flirt with you he’ll start getting angry but won’t do anything about it however if the demon starts getting touchy that’s a different story

Satan will look at the demon touching you and will slowly get angry since the demon has blatantly ignored he’s there if this continues he’ll eventually get violent with them

He’ll grab the demon by their shirt and threaten them to stay away from you or else there will be problems

After this you’ll have to calm him down by spending time with him reading or going to a cat cafe

Asmodeous

I personally don’t think Asmo goes over board when he’s jealous

If he sees a demon flirting with you he’ll walk over to you and stand next to you while you talk

If the demon keeps flirting with you he might get whiny for your attention but won’t go overboard and annoy you too much

He’ll get a bit upset if the demon keeps touching you but won’t do anything about it however he’ll watch to make sure you aren’t uncomfortable with the demon touching you

If you look uncomfortable to him he’ll find a way to move you away from the demon and stop them from touching you

Afterwards he’ll take you to do whatever he wanted to do with you such as makeovers or shopping

Beelzebub

Just like Asmo I don’t believe that Beel would get jealous often

If he sees a demon flirting with you from a distance he’ll just walk over to you and eat a snack while he waits for you to be done talking not really thinking too much about the demon in front of him

He might start to feel slightly uneasy of the demon starts to touch you a lot but will check to see if you’re feeling uncomfortable before doing something

If you seem uncomfortable with the demon and want to get away he’ll grab you by the hand dismissing the demon arguing against it and take you somewhere else

If the demon tries to get violent he’ll make sure you’re safe somewhere before handling the situation

As a thank you you can eat snacks and talk about your day together

Belphegor

Belphie is the avatar of sloth which means he likes taking naps especially with you so someone imposing on his time with you would make him jealous and irritated

If he was looking for you to take a nap with him and sees a demon flirting with you he’ll start to feel upset and walk over to you while you’re talking and slightly tug the end of your shirt to hurry your conversation

He’ll get irritated if the demon continues to flirt with you in front of him especially if they start to get too touchy with you

If he notices that you are getting uncomfortable he’ll drag you away from the situation so that you can take a nap with him but if the demon tries to start any issues he’ll remind them that he’s still one of the 7 most powerful demons there and that if they continue there will be consequences

If you cuddle and take a nap with him afterwards he’ll appreciate it and it’ll calm his irritated mood

A/N: Thank you for the patience on part 2 of the headcannons. Please comment or go to my ask box if you have any suggestions on other headcannons I write for multiple fandoms as well.

[thesherrinfordfacility]

Honestly? The most striking thing about the sideburns and other continuity errors isn't even how bizarre they are, how numerous or how they mostly seem like easily fixable things. It's Neil's non-answers! Except for the missing fifteen minutes in the Final Fifteen I don't believe he's outright called any of them continuity errors even when that's surely the simplest option. Of course, even odds he's doing it just to wind the fandom up, but that still leaves a fifty percent chance there might be a Reason. Or, if it is specifically to wind us up and make us chase our own tails, you could argue that makes it a red herring. In which case, what Clues are the continuity errors meant to distract us from?

hey anon!!!✨ okay so here's where im just basically going to talk about good omens in general, both seasons, because honestly? im completely with you, and i think that rationale is bang on the money. its the whole reason why i try to look at outside, sometimes blatantly in a different direction, to what the show (ignoring the book for a hot minute) is telling us.

s2 in particular, but i'll include s1 slightly, feels like it really leans into misdirection as a narrative technique - the red herring. as you rightly pointed out, we have the baby swap/three card monte in s1. we have three cowrie shells in s2. we have the goats hidden as crows, where (by my count) you see two, possibly three, flying off in the background behind crowley. we have the three children hidden as lizards (lots of threes which is interesting but not my Point rn). the bullet catch. aziraphale distracting furfur with the envelope whilst he hides the photograph up his sleeve. probably others that ive forgotten.

so, suffice to say, it's a fairly major part of the story, and this is where i come to my point; in my opinion, tricks are being played on us as the audience, and we ourselves are being led by misdirection. now, im sure some of these may turn out to be true, but the below are a couple of examples of things from s2 specifically that have been spoonfed to us, and therefore - i think - are not 100%, if at all, true:

crowley was a high-ranking angel/archangel

maggie is a demon because she misspelt 'urgency'

the book of life is a book, and has the ability to erase existence

the 25-lazarii miracle was successful in hiding gabriel, or was as powerful as it was because aziraphale and crowley did it together simultaneously.

i've talked about all of them in various tags, so i won't go over them, but i think we need to consider that what we've been taking as read needs further evaluation. that's not to say that one or multiple could in fact be the truth - there is, after all, the actual money card in three card monte - but im hesitant to put a guess on which one is the case.

but this does kinda come back to the batshit time travel theory - does the magic trick extend that far? or, at the very least, what is the trick being played by the varying hair length/sideburns/glasses change, if we accept that they're not factors external to the narrative? if they're deliberate, in-story choices, what is it telling us? there's the speculation that the flashbacks in s2 are skewed because they're all told from aziraphale's perspective - is possibly the case for the entire season? does that explain the colour grading?

personally, i think we're seeing more red herrings than we realise!!!✨

[swiftfootedachilles]

Omg please spill the tea because I have the same strife !! Which mischaracterizations ?! 👀

girl i literally cant to that publicly i would get blackballed by the popular blogs. the fics and posts ive made have already flopped HARD and im rejection sensitive i actually dont know what i would do if popular blogs stopped interacting with me entirely 😭 im being so fr right now some of my opinions would have me sent to fandom prison 😭

but i will say that a lot of it is people like..... blatantly ignoring things that are canon. and if you know me you know i dont think canon is perfect! like i actively ignore the fact that writers made gallavich verse, i am not saying we have to conform to canon! but there are things we see characters say and do multiple times across many seasons, and a huge part of the fandom has just.... collectively decided to ignore it

i guess ill give one hot take as an example: "ian fell first but mickey fell harder" im sorry but i do believe this quote to be accurate because mickey had much more to lose by coming out. "fell harder" doesnt refer to him being more in love with ian, it refers to how much the realization of being in love effected his life. he nearly died, was brutally sexually assaulted, forced into an arranged marriage with his rapist (i use that term loosely when referring to svetlana, because it was moreso terry raping mickey by proxy), forced to raise a child and be reminded every second of every day that he was assaulted, had the shit beat out of him in public, just overall treated so inhumanely by terry. ian simply did not experience such homophobic abuse his from family. and - whether we like it or not - we cant ignore the vile shit ian said in mickeys absence in s6 onward. he laughed about mickey being raped. yes i think the writers completely missed the mark by doing that, but im not someone who can just ignore that he bad talked mickey several times. i think its a shame to ignore that this happened, because it does add so much complexity to his character. like i could write a whole essay on ian in the middle seasons and how his canon treatment of mickey (both when mickey was in prison and in s7e11+12) makes him more complex than the fandom wants to believe..... plus the whole 87% thing. like i love ian but he canonically does and says very bad and mean things, and thats part of WHY i love him. i love characters who are bad people. being a bad character and being a bad person are two completely different things and people dont wanna believe that bc they see ian as ~perfectly imperfect~

on a similar note...the way people mischaracterize debbie as evil is so fucking stupid - and i truly believe its ableism because they demonize her (imo) bpd symptoms

[underlust-but-like-acearo]

Yeah, I don't want to make it a big thing but like.. Aside from the obvious things that were wrong with Underlust, as someone on the acearo spectrum and a nonbinary indivual, I do wanna point out the sort of general queerphobia that's attached to Underlust? Obviously there's more nuance to be had, but here's just some things I've been sitting on for a while.

The biggest thing in my mind was definitely the issue of how morality and sexuality were handled, because this has just always been something so glaringly obvious to me. All the quote on quote "good" characters are less sexual or not sexual at all, and the "bad" characters are overly sexual. Blah blah blah it's not up to the author to tell you what is good and what is bad, be critical... But it has always been very disconcerting to me how the character we're guided to sympathise with, Mettaton, blatantly calls the characters who are more sexual (and also portrayed as kinda unlikeable), "gross". There's a general vibe that sexuality is bad, sexuality is gross, and also that it's not the most real or goodest form of love. It's up to the asexual character to go to through the Underground and snap these goddamn heathens out of their lustful trance! And like wow?? What can I say but yikes.

Also, the issue of libido. Libido being heavily conflated with a lack of restraint and also being presented as something that makes you attracted to everyone all the time? It's not a very flattering image of sexuality, and it's also sorta misinformed. To put it shortly, libido (sexual arousal), sex acts (e.g sex), and sexual attraction (if and who you're attracted to) are different things. All the monsters in Underlust have high libidos, have a lot of sex, and wanna have it with everyone. And the asexual character we got, Frisk, probably was gonna have low or no libido, never have sex, and be sexually attracted to nobody. You had all three or you didn't, which is very reductive to say the least. It's good that asexuals were acknowledged and I love ace Frisk with all my heart.. But this is a very narrow, misguided and unfortunately common way people understand sexuality. High libido and bisexuality aren't intrinsically attached to one another. High libido and allosexuality aren't intrinsically attached to one another. High libido and sexual acts aren't intrinsically attached to one another <- being aroused doesn't make you a jerk that crosses people's boundaries, and being aroused is not always expressed openly by said person. Again, it's all just a very reductionist way to look at sexuality.

Also, this is just a teeny weeny thing, but aging up is a bit complicated of a topic for me. Having a character be of consenting age is important if they're going to be sexualised for obvious reasons, but the complete absence of children from any story featuring or discussing sex can be troublesome in its own right. Making sure kids are educated about sex from a young age and letting them be a part of discussions is important for protecting kids from sexual abuse and ensuring their sexual health. Removing children from the conversation makes them ignorant, it makes them feel ashamed, isolated, and puts them at greater risk of harm. Also, Underlust is just so obviously queer, and I'm sure I don't need to get into a conversation about how some people think that children can't be queer, or think exposing them to queerness is inappropriate. This is all wayyy beyond the scope of the original work, but I think it's important to think about.

And the last thing on my mind doesn't have to do with the au itself actually, but I'm looking towards people in the UTMV fandom. Some of y'all with your shipping are just.. Uhh.. Well. I've said it before and I'll say it again, but being overly sexual or flamboyant does NOT make you feminine. If you think being promiscuous is an inherently feminine trait, you are partaking in the sexism my guy. If you think that a gay ship NEEDS to have someone be assigned 'the guy' and someone be assigned 'the girl', you are partaking in homophobia my guy. And if you think that LUST should be the GIRL in a relationship when paired with someone else, double whammy, that is both sexism AND homophobia!! I'm bonking you on the head, cut that out. (If a gay man wants to call themselves the 'wife' in a relationship, that's their own business, but treating it like that's the standard is not okay.)

Maybe I didn't go over everything as thoroughly as I could have here, but I've been typing for a bit and I'm sure you guys get the picture. If you have commited any of the cardinal sins here (joke), that's okay. I honestly don't think the creator meant to portray this, and I don't think anyone in the fandom has bad intentions, but it's still important to examine our own prejudices and misunderstandings and learn to be better. Just because you did a bad thing or didnt know better before doesn't mean that you're a bad person. Peace and love on planet earth, let's make Underlust best au in the whole world, okay?

[gb-diesellok]

GANG TRAX AND MARSHALS APPRECIATION DAY!!

I dont have a drawing of the marshals/trax... but they were part of my company's fleet. Maybe I can ask my host to draw them...

In the sketchy drawing from left to right: is Tank, Gear, and Lube.

I loved each and one of them so much.. and I do miss them all a lot! They were so fun to be around.

The trax were so nimble, the humans loved seeing how acrobatic giant robots could be.. they were built specifically for events but their other jobs included rail maintenance.

The marshalls were site supervisors from nearby yards, our company wanted to show case a lot of different engines from their fleet for that year's world championship...after all. We were hosting the event and that's why so many of our rolling stock were present compared to other companies.

When i comes to the gang... Lube was my favorite of these three. I loved his hair and playing with it. I really liked his green eyes and just.. I sometimes lay down in bed and think how devastating it must have been for him to see me wrecked...

I know how I feel about losing so many people I loved from my past life when I woke up in this one. It's a feeling no one can really understand...unless you've suffered a huge loss too. It's hard to move on from... sometimes it comes down on me and I feel...so bad... I want them all in my arms again...

Ships? THE FORGOTTEN AND BLATANTLY IGNORED POLYCULE??? ME AND MY GANG? WHY THE HELL WOULD I GO FOR ANY OTHER ENGINE IF MY BELOVED GANG IS HERE? This is the FIRST group you all get introduced to and then you close your eyes and go "I do not see it" ridiculous! They all love me and unlike Electra's components... my gang isn't afraid of being fired because they're all with me on by their own will and love.

Unpopular opinion: They are all forgotten and ignored so much? I really wish there was more content of them by the fandom. There is so little of them when it comes to fan fics! It doesn't even have to be gear, tank, or lube. The gang had many members. You can easily make an oc gang member and it would be fine... its the perfect way to yume ship with GB or to ship your oc with him because it is natural and fits!! You don't need to do any mental gymnastics or turn things around to make it work!!

[princeescaluswords]

Idk if this is appropriate but you're like the most promiment blog calling out racist scott mccall hate I know of and I just need to talk to someone about how weird it is that certain parts of the fandom loves the idea of Derek speaking Spanish (often in conjunction with Stiles speaking Polish) but blatantly ignores or disregards the fact Scott is literally Latino

Also, is Derek speaking Spanish just a headcanon or have I forgotten part of the show?

Derek absolutely spoke Spanish in More Bad Than Good (3x14). He responded to Araya Calavera's interrogation in the language she used. She acknowledges that he speaks many languages. He does it again in 117 (4x02) with Rafael McCall.

One of the things that the production didn't shy away from in Teen Wolf is showing Derek Hale's privilege as a rich white man. Did you notice that? He purchases an entire building and he has his own accounts. He replaces the window on his car that Chris ordered smashed in Pack Mentality (1x03) by Heart Monitor (1x06) while the busted side-view mirror on the McCall family car remains that way throughout Season 1. He never has to work. He speaks many languages, can quote Shakespeare back at Gerard, and can recognize kitsune. His family has status and influence extending from California alphas to South American packs.

It's why I'm always a little bit annoyed and a little bit confused by the tag "Derek Deserves Nice Things." How many more nice things did they want him to have? He has all this privilege already, he survives his terrible decisions, he doesn't face any consequences for ruining Boyd's, Erica's, and Jackson's lives, he gets a smoking-hot bad-ass girlfriend, and he reclaims his mother's legacy of the full shift before he does a heroic walk-off in Smoke & Mirrors (4x12). He has a nice house, a business, a working relationship with the police department, and a charming son in the movie.

There is one thing he didn't get, of course, and that is the source of fandom's discontent: he wasn't the heroic lead protagonist. In different seasons, he was an antagonist, he was a villain, he was the lead protagonist's foil, the lead protagonist's mentor, and he was the lead protagonist's close friend. But Teen Wolf is a bildungsroman and that means it's a story of a child becoming an adult, and that child is Scott McCall.

It reminds me of this quote:

“With fandom the kind of racism that you most commonly see isn’t things like racial slurs and hate speech and white hoods. What you really see is a constant communal prioritization of white people and white characters, even when there are non-white characters in major roles. This is a trend across almost all fandoms.”

— Holly Quinn in Episode 22A of Fansplaining

And Teen Wolf is one of the most blatant examples of this. From an objective viewpoint, Scott McCall is the lead character. Scott is involved in every single plot line from Season 1 to Season 6 -- even when he gets almost completely turned into a plot device, as in 6A, he is involved in the resolution of both major stories. There is no Teen Wolf without Scott.

To the fandom, this cannot be borne. So this is why they dwell on Scott's mistakes like he's Heinrich Himmler. That's why he's stupid, immature, obsessive, stubborn, and a tyrant. That's why "Bad Friend Scott" stories are so damn popular, because the punishment he gets in those stories is the punishment for daring to be the focus of the show. Why the fandom can't seem to separate Scott McCall from his actor until it's convenient for them to do so.

Scott can't be smart even though he does smart things and outwits the villains. Scott irrationally hates Derek or Jackson -- even though Canon Scott hated Derek and Jackson far less than Stiles did -- because that undermines his primary heroic traits. That's why he's sexually obsessed with Allison, even though he repeatedly puts other things ahead of his relationship with Allison. (The fact that these are stereotypes of Latinos escapes their notice.) That's why, to them, the True Alpha story line is either ridiculous, came out of nowhere, or the sinister machinations of another character of color who didn't prioritize white male characters enough.

In Teen Wolf's case, though, the amount of evidence that the show is about Scott as a heroic protagonist is so insurmountable that even they have to be confronted with the racism inherent in their position. That's an uncomfortable position to be in, so they had only one recourse in the end. They turn Scott McCall white. They insist upon it. They'll go so far as to ignore real-world actions and the history of the United States in order to insist upon it. It's neither ignorance nor simple disregard -- it's defensiveness.