#blows if i thought about it

[baambastic]

I see your “Apollo agreed so easily because he doesn’t care about Odysseus” and raise you “the god of prophecy knows that Odysseus is going to make it home, so he’s not going to make much of an effort to stop him.”

[benevolenterrancy]

("Always. Continuously. With increasing apprehension, and decreasing hope. I will love you if I never see you again, and I will love you if I see you every Tuesday. I will love you as a corpse loves the beak of the vulture. I will love you no matter what happens to you, and no matter how I discover what happens to you, and no matter what happens to me as I discover this." -- paraphrased from The Beatrice Letters, Lemony Snicket)

[hopefulsapphic]

i'm an early seasons steve harrington apologist. sorry. he was not a bad person he was not a bad boyfriend he was literally just 17

[mugwot]

travel troubles

[hamable]

AGSKFJDBDH LMAO Katsuki physically being leashed to his IV drip, held by his mother, so he’s forced to stand in the doorway and not launch himself across the room

[anghraine]

It's always been intriguing to me that, even when Elizabeth hates Darcy and thinks he's genuinely a monstrous, predatory human being, she does not ever perceive him as sexually predatory. In fact, literally no one in the novel suggests or believes he is sexually dangerous at any point. There's not the slightest hint of that as a factor in the rumors surrounding him, even though eighteenth-century fiction writers very often linked masculine villainy to a possibility of sexual predation in the subtext or just text*. Austen herself does this over and over when it comes to the true villains of her novels.

Even as a supposed villain, though, Darcy is broadly understood to be predatory and callous towards men who are weaker than him in status, power, and personality—with no real hint of sexual threat about it at all (certainly none towards women). Darcy's "villainy" is overwhelmingly about abusing his socioeconomic power over other men, like Wickham and Bingley. This can have secondhand effects on women's lives, but as collateral damage. Nobody thinks he's targeting women.

In addition, Elizabeth's interpretations of Darcy in the first half of the book tend to involve associating him with relatively prestigious women by contrast to the men in his life (he's seen as extremely dissimilar from his male friends and, as a villain, from his father). So Elizabeth understands Darcy-as-villain not in terms of the popular, often very sexualized images of masculine villainy at the time, but in terms of rich women she personally despises like Caroline Bingley and Lady Catherine de Bourgh (and even Georgiana Darcy; Elizabeth assumes a lot about Georgiana in service of her hatred of Darcy before ever meeting her).

The only people in Elizabeth's own community who side with Darcy at this time are, interestingly, both women, and likely the highest-status unmarried women in her community: Charlotte Lucas and Jane Bennet. Both have some temperamental affinities with Darcy, and while it's not clear if he recognizes this, he quietly approves of them without even knowing they've been sticking up for him behind the scenes.

This concept of Darcy-as-villain is not just Elizabeth's, either. Darcy is never seen by anyone as a sexual threat no matter how "bad" he's supposed to be. No one is concerned about any danger he might pose to their daughters or sisters. Kitty is afraid of him, but because she's easily intimidated rather than any sense of actual peril. Even another man, Mr Bennet, seems genuinely surprised to discover late in the novel that Darcy experiences attraction to anything other than his own ego.

I was thinking about this because of how often the concept of Darcy as an anti-hero before Elizabeth "fixes him" seems caught up in a hypermasculine, sexually dangerous, bad boy image of him that even people who actively hate him in the novel never subscribe to or remotely imply. Wickham doesn't suggest anything of the kind, Elizabeth doesn't, the various gossips of Meryton don't, Mr Bennet and the Gardiners don't, nobody does. If anything, he's perceived as cold and sexless.

Wickham in particular defines Darcy's villainy in opposition to the patriarchal ideal his father represented. Wickham's version of their history works to link Darcy to Lady Anne, Lady Catherine (primarily), and Georgiana rather than any kind of masculine sexuality. This version of Darcy is a villain who colludes with unsympathetic high-status women to harm men of less power than themselves, but villain!Darcy poses no direct threat to women of any kind.

It's always seemed to me that there's a very strong tendency among fans and academics to frame Darcy as this ultra-gendered figure with some kind of sexual menace going on, textually or subtextually. He's so often understood entirely in terms of masculinity and sexual desire, with his flaws closely tied to both (whether those flaws are his real ones, exaggerated, or entirely manufactured). Yet that doesn't seem to be his vibe to other characters in the story. There's a level at which he does not register to other characters as highly masculine in his affiliations, highly sexual, or in general as at all unsafe** to be around, even when they think he's a monster. And I kind of feel like this makes the revelations of his actual decency all along and his full-on heroism later easier to accept in the end.

------------

*The incompetently awful villain(?) in Sanditon, for instance, imagines himself another Lovelace (a reference to the famous rapist-villain of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa). Evelina's sheltered education and lack of protectors makes her vulnerable to sexual exploitation in Frances Burney's Evelina, though she ultimately manages to avoid it. There's frequently an element of sexual predation in Gothic novels even of very different kinds (e.g. Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho and Matthew Lewis's The Monk both lean into this, in their wildly dissimilar styles). William Godwin's novel Caleb Williams, a book mostly about the destructive evils of class hierarchies and landowning classes specifically, depicts the mutual obsession of the genteel villain Falkland and working class hero Caleb in notoriously homoerotic terms (Godwin himself added a preface in 1832 saying, "Falkland was my Bluebeard, who had perpetrated atrocious crimes ... Caleb Williams was the wife"). This list could go on for a very long time.

**Darcy is also not usually perceived by other characters as a particularly sexual, highly masculine person in a safe way, either, even once his true character is known. Elizabeth emphasizes the resilience of Darcy's love for her more than the passionate intensity they both evidently feel; in the later book, she does sometimes makes assumptions about his true feelings or intentions based on his gender, but these assumptions are pretty much invariably shown to be wrong. In general the cast is completely oblivious to the attraction he does feel; even Charlotte, who wonders about something in that quarter, ends up doubting her own suspicions and wonders if he's just very absent-minded.

The novel emphasizes that he is physically attractive, but it goes to pains to distinguish this from Wickham's sex appeal or the charisma of a Bingley or Fitzwilliam. Mr Bennet (as mentioned above) seems to have assumed Darcy is functionally asexual, insofar as he has a concept of that. Most of the fandom-beloved moments in which Darcy is framed as highly sexual, or where he himself is sexualized for the audience, are very significantly changed in adaptation or just invented altogether for the adaptations they appear in. Darcy watching Elizabeth after his bath in the 1995 is invented for that version, him snapping at Elizabeth in their debates out of UST is a persistent change from his smiling banter with her in the book, the fencing to purge his feelings is invented, the pond swim/wet shirt is invented. In the 2005 P&P, the instant reaction to Elizabeth is invented, the hand flex of repressed passion is invented, the Netherfield Ball dance as anything but an exercise in mutual frustration is invented, the near-kiss after the proposal in invented, etc. And in those as well, he's never presented as sexually predatory, not even as a "villain."

[shalom-iamcominghome]

Person with no whimsy: Why are you trying to trick g-d with loopholes? 🙄🙄🙄🙄

[noecoded]

hey asmo fans

[t-hirstreview]

[kaynineacademy]

*inhales* YOU WERE THE BEST BUT YOU WERE THE WORST, AS SICK AS IT SOUNDS, I LOVED YOU FIRST, I WAS A DICK IT IS WHAT IT IS, A HABIT TO KICK, THE AGE-OLD CURSE, I TEND TO LAUGH WHENEVER IM SAD, I STARE AT THE CRASH IT ACTUALLY WORKS, MAKING AMENDS THIS SHIT NEVER ENDS. IM WRONG AGAIN, WRONG AGAIN. *exhales*

[feroluce]

So I've already seen this one pointed out, but in the new CG, Boothill's older human form doesn't really match what people thought it should. Of course it could just be neglect on Hoyo's part like I've seen speculated, but personally? With the other lore we got from this patch, combined with some of the stuff we already had, I'd love to think there is a possibility that is way, WAY more fun.

(fun for me and all the other whump enjoyers, anyway, RIP Boothill fjkasjkdj)

In Boothill's lc, we see him in the middle of his surgery where he threw away his flesh and bone body for steel and cybernetics. We know it was The Big Surgery and not just like some sort of tune up or modification because of the description attached to the lc:

Which is where a lot of the dissonance comes in, because in this lc, Boothill's hair is much, much longer than in the cg.

And as someone who also has super long hair, I can tell you that it would take like. Multiple years to grow it out to this length.

There's also the fact that these cybernetic arms don't even match, the lc is the one that looks like our Boothill does now. And there's no reason for Boothill's shirt to be ripped up and in tatters like that; it even states he takes off his clothes before the lc surgery. If it were a matter of Hoyo needing to censor nudity, there were plenty of other methods they could have used that would make more sense, like a hospital gown, a blanket, surgical partition, etc

When will I get to see Boothill with all his scars, Hoyo, when, quit cockblocking me!!! OTL

But there was also another piece of new lore this patch that hit me like a fuckin' brick- the fact that Boothill was tortured by the IPC.

He just drops this out of nowhere! Just says it and then moves right along!! BABY, PLEASE. I WANNA KNOW MORE SO GODDAMN BAD.

But anyway as Hydrachea pointed out to me, this means the torture definitely had to happen before the lc surgery, because being whipped with a belt soaked in saltwater (fucking OUCH) wouldn't work on someone with metal skin.

So, we know that the IPC did, at some point, capture Boothill. And this is reaching further back to previous patches, but we also know from the Luminary Wardance event in 2.5 that the IPC also dabbles in cybernetic arms, because of the one they foisted on Luka.

The model there is a new one they're debuting, but we see in a flashback sequence that the IPC has been part of the cybernetics game for at least 700-800 years, because they also manipulated Igor into getting one too, and this could have only happened before the Eternal Freeze on Jarilo-VI.

It's never stated just how old Boothill is, or how long ago the genocide on Aeragan-Epharshel took place.

But I doubt it was more than 700-800 years ago.

I really don't think Boothill is that old, or has been doing this for that long. So he definitely would have been captured at a point that the IPC was manufacturing cybernetic arms, and had a known history of amputating perfectly healthy patients to use them.

I wonder if all their test subjects were willing.

(This part is entirely unnecessary for the new cg showing Boothill being a forced lab rat as part of the IPC torturing him. But it is a fun, delightful, bloodily gruesome twist of the knife nonetheless.

Boothill was also betrayed by his own brothers-in-arms on Aeragan-Epharshel. For the IPC. Just saying.)

[jel-jel-jel]

please enjoy these scraps

[doug-meat]

the manhattan family is so interesting to me Especislly from a johnny manhattan perspective. like this boy

had never been hugged before paula took over his dad’s body

calls cosmo chase “uncle cosmo” which implies that his dad’s partner was a very strong part of the manhattan family’s life

became a masked thief just to get attention from his dad And was so confident that his dad would not recognize his voice that he would not disclose his full name/unmask until his last name was guessed correctly

has been in the middle of his parents getting a divorce for like an entire year because his father wouldn’t sign the papers

after god knows how many years has finally started to build a connection with his dad Who isn’t even really his dad it’s a 58 year old woman from orange county

idk There’s prob more but . just having a lot of johnny manhattan thoughts as of late

[buttercupshands]

Mha sketch dump!

feat. LoV sleeping and other things

So there's that World Hero vote going now, BUT there's also basically a personal Top 5 thing too

I thought about my top 5 for a bit and ended up with this

But as it was I didn't like that we don't exactly have a way to make multiple characters have same place like that character sorter. But my top 3 would've shared 1st place

And also it gave me some inspiration so I sketched Izuku and later Tomura. And here started the sketch wave, bc choosing AFOmura for the Tomura pic is... A choice and so there are two Tomura's on the sketch, with AFOmura getting the 2nd amd Tomura 1st

I got a bit frustrated with how I drew them so I decided to try to redraw some stuff while keeping with mha style as close as I could

I was a bit... Surprised? To see my own progress as the last time I did a thing like this it wasn't that good

Trying to simplify the style instead bc I was getting sleepy didn't help

[mattzerella-sticks]

Okay Okay OKAY.

I knew Dave had to be there. I KNEW - he was in the shop when the tape started, of course he'd be inside the action world. But as what I couldn't guess. I was going to let myself enjoy the ride.

But now...

Given what we know, about the Shadow Falcon protocol, the Archimedes Files...

I think Dave will do either of these two things

Rob the world and remain inside as the President for all time but also the emperor of reality given the abilities we've seen in the preview

Rob the world and LEAVE with all that world's money

I think number 2 might be more plausible than number 1 given how St. Jude had the belief that there was a new world waiting for him even after his 'death'. However, is it likely Dave lied to all the members of the Shadow Falcon protocol that he could take them with them, just so he can use them to further his own schemes? Possibly.

We also have to ask if Dave was ALSO aware of the power of 'Never Stop Blowing Up'. Because - think about it - how was Dave able to gather together the resources for a criminal conspiracy if he had only been in the world for the same amount of time as the others from Elsinore?

In fact... how has Dave been able to maintain a video rental store in the town of Elsinore for so long?

What if this wasn't the first time he's run this scheme? And the only reason the video rental store has survived for so long is because he's been robbing 'Never Stop Blowing Up's' inhabitants blind every time he enters the world? It would explain why he keeps Usha around, whose reticence for technology would mean an easier and less traceable way to funnel stolen funds into his pocket.

But because of Barsimian holding onto the tape for so long, he wasn't able to plunder the world for cash in time to pay the rent and has been FORCED to close the store.

It would also explain why he was so insistent on getting the tape back, despite it not making a difference because - why put so much effort into one tape when you're going to be dumping all your inventory anyway?

And if Dave and Barsimian were using the tape at different times, of course Barsimian was never aware of the Shadowfalcon protocol. He was enjoying the world, never questioning why - never wondering who was behind the drugs and the capers. It was all Dave.

And I wonder if there's going to be a connection between Dave and Wolfman Anne?

All things to ponder and I hope are explained in the coming episode.

[random2908]

Looks like there’s about to be drama in the nuclear fusion world again.