#but THIS is like the equivalent of racing someone you used to argue about on reddit every day. you know what i'm saying

[batsplat]

By that time Marcos Hirsch, Jorge's physical trainer, had also become an important figure in the young racer's life and they built up a particularly strong professional and personal relationship. Together, Dani and Marcos formed Jorge's strongest pillars of support during the worst of the conflict, but there had been happier times in the gym for both Lorenzos with Marcos. In fact, one of Jorge's more amusing anecdotes comes from those days: 'My dad used to say that Rossi was a clown. He said he was a great rider but that he always had the best bike and that was why he won. So when Rossi moved to Yamaha he said, "Pah! He's not even going to finish in the top six. There are too many factory Hondas and the Yamaha is nowhere near as good." Marcos and I said that Rossi would win races. Not only that, but that he would finish in the top three in the championship. So we made a bet. My dad had just come back from Thailand and he'd bought this ridiculous Thai hat, with little balls dangling from it on strings. We said that if Valentino finished in the top three at the end of the season, he'd have to wear the hat for a whole week. Of course, Valentino won the title and my dad turned up at the gym wearing the hat. He looked so stupid that we felt sorry for him and after a couple of days we told him he could take it off.'

Riveras Tobia's Jorge Lorenzo: My Story So Far

[spell-cleaver]

One thing I've always wondered is how Vader didn't sense either Luke (or Leia's for that matter) force presence on the first death star. I guess he was super caught up in with the whole "I sense the old coot who cut off my limbs amd left me to burn" thing, but I like to think obi-wan was masking the pair by just being obnoxiously loud with the force (the force equivalent of him walking into a room with multiple air horns and a boom box blasting away)

Wow, I had THOUGHTS about this one.

Honestly? I'm not a fan of the assumption in a lot of fic and by fans that it's super easy to passively sense someone in the Force. I have used it myself, of course, but I say from experience it restricts writing a lot while... not actually having a ton of backing in the films? (I'm referring to the films here, not to any other media, just because when I want to analyse lore, I only take them as canon; when I'm just looking for cool worldbuilding for a fic, though, anything goes.)

It's not just Leia that Vader doesn't sense on the Death Star. He doesn't sense Luke either, even though Luke is right there screaming when Vader kills Obi-Wan. It's more of an issue with Leia ofc because he literally used the mind probe on her but only finds that "her resistance... is considerable". An easy answer is that I headcanon Leia is a naturally good shielder, which is why she was never found on the Death Star and also why all of the Jedi in ROTS were surprised there were two babies - Leia had been naturally shielding herself, so they just sensed Luke.

But if we go more in-depth into the films' representations of the Force, Vader only senses Luke when he's actively chasing him as a pilot; he comments that "The Force is strong with this one" only when Luke is using the Force to aim and fire his shot. For me, this implies that you can only sense other Force users powerfully or distinctly when they're actively using the Force. I know why fic prefers not to go that way - I for one have used the "Vader senses Luke immediately" plot to get Luke captured many a time - but it's a fun thing to consider. Also, the Force is a soft magic system. It does functionally whatever the story needs it to.* Which is why Vader can sense Luke approaching Endor in ROTJ when Palpatine couldn't, but he had to be told by an officer when Luke's ship was approaching Cloud City in ESB.** There are many examples where a Force user just didn't sense someone else. Luke not sensing Yoda in ESB, Obi-Wan not sensing Dooku's presence on Geonosis, the Jedi non sensing Maul in TPM, the Jedi not sensing Palpatine for the whole prequel trilogy.

You could argue that those examples are of trained Force wielders shielding themselves, but I would argue that Qui-Gon can't sense Anakin in TPM. He doesn't show interest in Anakin until after they've left Watto's shop and Anakin starts talking to him. Anakin is the literal son of the Force and the most powerful Force wielder ever, but Qui-Gon was talking to Watto for a while without batting an eyelash at the small supernova in his shop. He didn't start to suspect until he heard about his racing, his instincts, spoke to him to notice his insights. Then still he spoke to Shmi about him to confirm his suspicions that "he can see things before they happen", watched him while he flew, and took a midichlorian count. I think the Force might well have been nudging Qui-Gon to look at Anakin, to suspect something, but I don't think he sensed Anakin himself as Force sensitive - at least, not immediately. Which is how I think you can explain all the instances of people going "I felt his presence." They were either using the Force, or familiar as Force sensitives to the person sensing them, or the Force wielder in general had an instinct that there was something special about this person, I should pay attention...

This has been a long ramble, but the short answer is: I headcanon Leia as naturally good at shielding. I think it fills multiple Star Wars plot holes.***

But I think it's also worth interrogating the fact that fandom seems to approach and conceptualise of the Force as a hard magic system, with clearly defined rules, rather than the soft magic system it is.**** Anything goes in Star Wars! It can be annoying if the writing doesn't sell it well enough, but I really love that aspect of the worldbuilding. And considering that the Force is a big fat plot device as well as giving people magical instincts for things that are Plot Relevant and things that aren't, I think it's a lot more interesting to consider that the Force isn't a superpower that lets you sense everything. Vader didn't detect Leia simply because he didn't. Sometimes they fail to do that. And it allows you to show growth in character and situation when that fact changes. Vader doesn't sense Luke in ANH until he's Plot Relevant to Vader's personal story. He doesn't sense Luke until he's fighting him in ESB. But in ROTJ, once they're both invested in their relationship and fated to meet, they're drawn together like stars caught in a mutual orbit.

That's the explanation I prefer. Because although it's less consistent, it's not unbelievable. It leaves uncertainty, mysticism, the chance for exploration in the galaxy. And most importantly, it tells a damn good story. Which, while this may not be true of people who love collecting lore and figuring the galaxy out, is ultimately what I'm here for.

*This is why so many random new powers can get added and explored in later movies and such, and also why I don't really get het up about it when they do add them. It just depends how you incorporate that new power. Usually, if a villain suddenly has a new power no one knew about (like Palpatine's lightning in ROTJ) it just ups the stakes, while if a hero suddenly has a new power it can feel like it cheapens their victory, like they haven't earned it; a deus ex machina. So messing about with Force powers is fine, it just depends how you incorporate them in the story.

**Admittedly this can be explained by the bond being formed when Luke learned the truth, but you know what I mean.

***I was only talking about the movies here, but there's also that moment in the Kenobi series where she's captured by Inquisitors and still no one notices she's Force sensitive??? There's just a lot of moments like this littered all over Star Wars, so this headcanon covers a lot of them.

****I kept using the terms hard/soft magic system without really explaining it here, but here's some good videos to dig into it: Soft Magic Systems | Hard Magic Systems

[animentality]

It's weird how the Franc Peartree letter being altered has just caused some people to suddenly come out with the most godawful takes. I don't like that the letters were changed but it still feels like such a small change to have caused such a sudden divide in the gortash part of the fandom

Earlier I saw a post from one of the handful of people who were more supportive of the letter change(I think they may have even been one of the people you blocked) claim that default dark urge x gortash felt weird or wrong to them. They said it was because default dark urge is a dragonborn. And they compared dragonborn x human romances to beastiality. And it was a post replying to an ask that was from someone also arguing that, so there's at least two people who think that.

And I just had to stop for a moment after reading that because of how utterly confusing and insane that felt. Like, dragonborn are a humanoid race and are fully capable of communicating so it would definitely not be beastiality in any way

Sorry if I got a bit ranty there, especially since you're trying to distance yourself from bg3 discourse stuff for now. I just really felt the need to just at least mention it to someone because I'm just so dumbfounded by it and I guess just like, feel the need to check to see if this is just as much of a wtf kind of take to others as it is to me

you can tell they don't play DND.

people have been trying to fuck dragons and monsters since 1977.

where's that fucking Tumblr post about how if a creature is intelligent enough to consent, then it's not bestiality?

in a fantasy setting, yeah, as long as they're smart and talking and able to say yes or no and consent or not consent, and aren't being compromised by other forces, then no it's not bestiality in the way we understand it.

also there's no real world equivalent.

wanting to fuck a werewolf doesn't mean you're fucking chihuahuas in real life.

those people are just mad cuz they have bad taste and don't like durgetash.

nothing we can do about that, anon.

you're born with bad taste, you die with it too.

I was blessed with superior intellect and advanced taste, and since you clearly were too, I would advise neither of us be involved with that subspecies of Tumblr.

we have far more important things to discuss.

[orc-apologist]

if i have to read one more ounce of slur discourse i'm gonna fucking lose it.

they're WORDS not weapons, first of all. y'all ascribe WAY too much power to words. they're not the source of our oppression, banning them from language except for a minority won't solve our oppression.

not to mention that policing language has VERY EVIDENTLY not accomplished anything over the past couple decades. in fact, i would argue that language policing has been turned against us and used as a tool to oppress us. by that i mean that it is actively used to stir up ridiculous culture wars about "can't say anything anymore" in bourgeois media like Fox News

there is a reason queer people especially have historically always taken a different route, reclamation. that is to say GENERAL reclamation, instead of that weird mix of reclamation and language policing that is common nowadays.

that reason is that reclamation is much more effective at stripping a word of its power, especially of its power over you. banning it, shunning the use of it and all who do instead INCREASES the word's power because it tabooifies it. that taboo will make its impact more intense.

limited reclamation forces us to draw lines between us. it divides lesbians and gays (which is an especially dumb ones considering lesbians also get called faggots), cis queers and trans queers etc. it even very easily pits these groups of people against each other, just because someone has a different outlook on what word is appropriate to say.

what matters in the use of words is the linguistic field of pragmatics: how it used and to what effect. the semantic meaning of a word is often secondary to its pragmatic use. yes, at its core the word faggot is a word demeaning towards gay men and generally gnc people. however, amongst those it is used differently and therefore receives different meanings, such as a general term of affection.

for example, i let my cishet friends call me faggot (well the German equivalent Schwuchtel). they don't usually use that word but in certain fitting situations they do, often for humorous effect when i do or say something particularly faggy. of course, i let them know that while I'm fine with it, other gay people may not be so i don't want them going around using it. but what I'm trying to say is that them using that word for me, to describe me, to address me, is not degrading and oppressing me. quite the opposite, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable being outwardly gay around them. that is because they do not use it as a slur, even if that is the meaning of the word.

banning a word often has the opposite effect through a series of bourgeois-led culture wars. they are powerless against us taking their word and using it for ourselves. there is no culture war to be started based on that. banning the word gives it power, reclaiming the word takes that power away.

in the end, though, neither will solve oppression of any kind. new words can be created, that is a part of language. language itself, the words within it, are not the source of oppression (like our dear Judith Butler would say LOL), they are at most a means to enforce it by giving it shape. so long as oppression remains we can ban and reclaim all we like, new slurs will pop up regardless. oppression itself must be broken, which is only possible ending class society, by ending the rule of the few over the many through divide-and-conquer methods. the source of all oppression is the need of the ruling class to divide the ruled classes along lines such as religion, gender, sexuality, and race to pit them against each other. THAT is what must be fought and I'm frankly tired of wasting time on who can say what word.

[incarnateirony]

I am intensely unclear why someone thought it was a good idea to try to google fu argue with me, of all people, about Tyler Perry.

When not even just myself but other people from the area are telling you, sit down, you don't understand the political climate, you don't understand the context these events happened in, or why they happened. And you don't understand the racial and systemic elements in play. You just don't keep talking over that shit about What You Think.

Like. Man. I'm just. I'm baffled. Just hours and hours of going in circles. Oh no how dare he [checks notes] agree to try to work with the WGA despite anti-union state laws to the point the NAACP got involved in negotiations only for the people kicking up dust to not join WGA and not actually be interested. And how dare he [checks notes] continue his playwriting tours that nobody protected him on before with a union when he self-funded, self-acted, self-wrote, self-directed, and self-sold-the-concessions but he screwed up and tripped in the wrong tour circuit and then AE banned SAG members from working on his stuff. How dare he not [checks notes] roll over and die by using local talent instead then.

One person shouldn't have that much influence! What, like, tv networks and adjacent partner studios? Isn't that like, every white producer ever? Well how did he make so much money ITS SUSPICIOUS? Well that indie series he did ground up himself earned him 300Million in profits to start and most of that went into his assets. To make the other stuff. That made the other big money. LIKE THE HOUSES--no like the giant studios that also help drive the local economy. And all those jobs. Paying the rates the unions want. But can't work at. If he wants the jobs to be available to local citizens. And not just LA imports. Wait until I tell you where The Walking Dead filmed.

Oh but he's rich he must be exploiting people. [checks his payrates at company] that's weird he's already paying about the amount the unions are asking for despite being in a much lower cost of living area and that's about equivalent with inflation to the rates I cited getting paid. Oh right, you forget, the only reason I got a chance to almost make it at all is because of him when I didn't have exorbitant startup money to pay a 2.5K entry bar. But he has a few houses! Man, aren't you a fan of an actor that has like. 12 houses? "You can't compare them!" ... white man act little show have 12 houses is ok, black man revolutionize city economy and generate thousands of jobs have 3 houses bad? Wot. "Not this again!" Yeah man I can't believe you don't hear yourself.

But he could take it away!! ...But he hasn't for 18 years. But he COULD. Yeah, and I COULD win the lotto tomorrow, but I won't. But he COULD!!!!!!!!! Him having that much money is SUSPICIOUS. ??? The money he publicly earned?? And invested??? To pay people fair wages voluntarily??? In a state that makes it impossible for a union to even use collective bargaining at all, and makes it illegal t force anyone to join a union for a job?

But he fired those people in 2008. You're saying the man is evil because he fired 4 people 15 years ago? Also overlapping a bunch of skeevy shit he was trying to root out of his company? Again, voluntarily? oh YEAH it wasn't THAT kind of skeevy shit it was ADJACENT SKEEVY SHIT HAHA UR SO OWNED. Bruh. Shut up don't even you'd hit anyone that justified that shit to you. Well he stopped hiring writers!...for his owns tuff, he still explicitly lets showrunners under his studios make whatever writing room they want. Well he can't possibly write that much alone! What? Why? Are you implying this black man is like forging shit? Stop making it about race! IDK man I don't see anyone complaining that Gaiman wrote Gomens TV alone. But ur mad at Gaiman! For scabbing. It's not the same thing. But aren't Perry's writers scabs? Well, if you want to call the entire state of Georgia scabs, sure. But that's real weird when it's a predominantly black entertainment industry forced to make their own way. He could hire ppl! ... of the 160 guild members in the whole state? Half brought in by his and colleagues business choices in the last few years? Half of the previous before that mostly retirees moving south, as retirees do? In like 2008 the what, 40 people in the whole state that even paid the union, you think they all fit his demographic? What's not clicking.

But union! Look man I'm pro union, I'm pro union all over my blog, but refusing to acknowledge that Georgia's laws are specifically union busting and that he's tried to work with the unions and basically been denied unless he, you know, illegally forces everyone to join the union in the city rather than tries to incentivize it, or that he's even been targeted by petty individuals with systemic oppression, sure is a weird series of things to not include in this conversation. I'm not sure why you want so bad to villainize a successful black man that has a few houses, generates a local economy, voluntarily pays really well, gives back oodles specifically to his local community in millions in charity all the time, and is considered a staple in making black entertainment mainstream, just because you don't want to back off that you read a shitty deadline article about him 15 years ago and grew An Opinion. "What oppression, the UNION?" bro, what the fuck, no, it's white supremacy. "Are you calling me a--" [bashes head off the wall]

[transingthoseformers]

Hmm. So.

How the fuck did they manage to create the RotF sparklings without the Allspark shards?

So, let's think of our options. Sexual reproduction, (which Hasbro continuously denounces), cloning (oooh! I get to talk about the different kinds of cloning!), budding in a way, protoforms that were stashed away on the Fallen's ship in stasis, maybe a previously unknown form of asexual reproduction!

Now, logically speaking, we know that sexual interfacing is probably not canon. Probably, perhaps. Bayverse is the continuity that makes the second most amount of implicating jokes. The first being Jro's work naturally. Anyways. We're temporarily going to forget about Occam's razor. Yes, sadly in bayverse Cybertronians experiencing sexual attraction is canon thanks to you wheelie you little heterochromic shit. But little known fact sexual attraction doesn't mean sexual reproduction, as demonstrated by the lesbian lizards. For all we know, Wheelie could've been ah getting off purely on the psychological aspect alone.

So, there are multiple forms of cloning actually. There's the typical cloning you might be thinking of, which is essentially mitosis but complex lifeforms. Well, errors can occur which allows unicellular organisms to mutate a little bit as a treat and mutation means adapting and evolution. Perhaps the terms eggs and hatchlings is a bit of a misnomer in this case?

There's reproductive cloning, where the genetic material of one creature's somatic cells (body cells) are put into the egg cell of another creature, that zygote is transplanted into a surrogate animal where it's gestated like average, and bing bam boom when it's born there's an almost perfect copy of the original! And, this method means the resulting clone technically has three parents! Though, some catches do occur here. All three individuals involved kinda have to be female, it needs cells, and well gametes have to be involved which are a major part of sexual reproduction. That's why you'll see it in species that used to reproduce sexually, or species that use asexual and sexual reproduction.

There's genetic cloning, which we have precedent for in canon considering Shockwave's predacons,, bayverse's introduction of Galvatron, the majority of the protoform stuff, and tbh tbh the scanning of altmodes in a way. The most popular example of such would be you guessed it Jurassic park, which as someone who plans to major in biology is Highly inaccurate to how cloning, DNA, and dinosaurs work. Less well known. This is how viruses work. The problems we run into is our favorite paradox, which came first the chicken or the egg. "Where did the first set of genes come from???" Exactly. You could argue that Cybertronians are technically derived from an altered genome of a species that sexually reproduced that Quintessa found, artificially creating a biologically asexual race. The catches? It's damn hard to do this kind of reproduction without a container for said genetic material. We see this with the human scientists using Megayron's CNA as a building guideline, and with the protoforms. Iicr, in bayverse we see that the autobots were essentially visually the same before scanning altmodes. This may very well be are most canonically compliant answer right here actually. But... again, this does not explain them being called eggs and doesn't explain where protoforms come from at all. You could say "But Riot, the protoforms are made of Senti Metallico (however you spell that lol) " and my answer is what technically is that and where does that come from? The movies also refer to it as Cybertronium which??? Is considered an element but it's clearly somewhat alive but anyways we get no answers.

Unknown form of asexual reproduction is goddamn unknown, making this category purely speculative. Perhaps as I've mentioned the terms eggs and hatchlings, and are glyphs that didn't have an Earth equivalent so the translators chose the next best options. Maybe cyberforming material is on its own self replicating, which raises questions of its own. Mayve it's extradimensional supernatural bullshit which i don't like this answer as it's equivalent to "suspend your disbelief' wHich I don't like i like answers.

[unidentifiedfuckingthing]

recent discussions of zionism have been making me think a lot about the way your worldview is influenced by the information youre given. like, obvious. but i think it would be fair to say that most people who hold heinous views do because they think it's a moral necessity. like, the average white racist is participating in a hundreds-of-years self-sustaining dialogue of heavily doctored or completely falsified knowledge out of which beliefs about a lack of humanity or a fundamental danger of other races is a rational and morally important belief. the average sexual conservative does believe gender deviancy and sexual freedom pose a danger to their children. theyre told this and given believable examples. i think the majority genuinely do believe this and aren't just using it as an excuse when challenged. likewise the average liberal zionist isn't just mindlessly bloodthirsty, there's a narrative of both facts and doctored information that informs their understanding of events, and within that narrative they're behaving completely rationally. the problem with trying to bridge the gap between less-true narratives and more-true narratives is that a major challenge to a person's fundamental worldview is invariably going to be rejected especially concerning one's own safety or the safety of the vulnerable. if you were trying to argue with someone and said, like, "joe biden literally was never president of the united states." "the sky was red last week." it would be completely reasonable for them to be like, wow you're a nut who is so divorced from reality theres no point in ever talking to you. or i guess a more equivalent statement would be, like, "actually people love to be raped." like, that's the exact same level of real & rational.

& as far as i can see the cure to this is materialism, right? for anyone whose beliefs are based in any kind of internal logic the bridge is naturally to prove the value of whether things have been proven to be true, by who, how reliably. i think most people have an approximate instinct to this effect, tempered by an understanding of systemic bias, and thats why people will categorically believe something said on fox news but not by a dancing young adult on tiktok, or vice versa. people need to understand the relationship between provable facts and things that happen, and how to keep confidence scores on different narratives and what biases might inform different narratives. all of those were things i "was taught" in school, but being told to trust the facts from conservative or liberal authorities who are evidently also selective in their narratives comes across more as gaslighting than the natural pursuit of truth; i feel confident saying this is probably true for anyone with any kind of view whatsoever,0 which is the main reason i don't feel at all confident in the idea of like "reeducation camp" type politic. i think in terms of highly selective narratives trying to split the difference between trusted authorities (trusted to fundamentally understand the same truths as you) and someone who is able & interested in introducing a radically new narrative would be really fucking difficult and necessarily really individualized, so barring that i don't really think it's a possible pursuit using institutional power. i think organic & large scale interest in a nuanced & true narrative, an interest in & education on how to convince other people to come to nuanced conclusions, and a system in which the rational thing is to be kind, is the only realistic way to make people in aggregate want to stop holding shitty views. like, you can make it more costly to be shitty, and that way it doesnt matter what they actually want, and historically that has worked. but also like, past a pretty modest threshold, just makes people even more resistant to changing their minds.

anyway i feel like any discussion about, like, "what to do with all the racists and misogynists and rapists after the revolution" or "whether someone being racist is bad or fine if its only when theyre in psychosis" or whatever that comes to any conclusion other than this either just sucks or is kicking the can down the road

[faustocosgrove]

naruto blogger reads another book about ninjas, more at 11

it should come as no surprize to y’all that I, someone who still reblogs naruto posts in the year 2023, picked up John Man’s Ninja: 1000 years of the shadow warrior.

and of course, as a naruto fan i was also comparing the actual history of ninjas in Japan to the naruto series. for example, the real Sarutobi Sasuke versus the characters Sasuke and Sarutobi Hiruzen, the historical Hanzo Hitori and the Hanzo and Danzo in the series. the political formation of the naruto ninja villages versus the historical pressures that made ninjas. and the more i read the more i lost what little respect i had left for the naruto series.

In the book, the author has one hilarious paragraph mentioning the naruto series. here it is:

“No account of modern ninja literature can omit Naruto, the multivolume manga series by Masashi Kishimoto. This is pure fantasy, with no pretense of any historical roots, and phenomenally successful, easily the best-selling manga of all time, with almost 60 volumes -113 million copies- sold in Japan. The anime versions (220 episodes in Japan, 209 in English) and video games and novels and card games and on and on and on have all had equivalent success.”

that’s it. it’s got nothing to do with historical ninjas and is very popular.

and on one hand i kinda wonder how much of naruto the author read, but on the other it’s pretty funny that a manga that spends 700 chapters butchering the interesting parts of the history of ninjas while trying to make random characters look cool by giving them names and other references to the historical ninjas got called “no pretense of any historical roots” to actual ninja history.

what’s even funnier is that Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles got 3 paragraphs with a plot summary pointing out where the plot was drawing from actual ninja history. Naruto didn’t get a plot summary because there’s nothing in the plot that reflects actual ninja history. The discrepancy that sticks out the most to me is the very brief history we got in Naruto of the change from there being no ninjas to there being ninjas. in naruto, the change is a magic alien man god who bestowed upon the human race his DNA (don’t argue with me about kaguya, she had two kids and one populated earth and the other the moon.)

But the real actual historical ninjas formed from when feudal lords were waging war against each other and the peasants whose land they were fucking up with their war and the samurai employed by the two lords all got together and said this nonsense has to stop. and then they worked together to stop it, usually by assasinating one of the feudal lords. let that sink in. marinade in your brain. soldiers from both sides of a war put their differences aside and worked together to kill one of their commanders because that would stop the war the fastest.

that is just so fucking cool. and kishi replaced it with an alien and his magic sperm. i hate that so much that i want to vomit. he didn’t have to do that. he could have written that chakra was a thing already that samurai used and animals! because animals use chakra in the naruto universe. so alien god daddy must also have used his sperm to bless cats and dogs and snakes and toads and slugs and fuck if i can remember all the species of animals that can also do ninjutsu off the top of my head. like he could of just had the same actual history of ninjas but do it with chakra. like let normal people be able to use chakra too but only ninjas are able to do cool shit with it because they’ve been trained by their super secret ninja village. like boom there you go. problem solved. like you don’t even have to get rid of the magic space aliens so long as the thing that gives ninjas value isn’t how much sperm they got from the magic alien god daddy.

mild tangent warning.

like years ago i remember reading an article about Harry Potter and how a parents group criticized the books for the whole magic is a thing you’re either born with or not instead of magic is a thing anyone can use so long as you study it and work hard. because one narrative encourages children to apply themselves and the other teaches that some people are naturally superior to others because of their DNA and how that sounds a lot like something hitler would have given two big ole thumbs up to.

but i digress. anyway the whole DNA superiority thing is almost interesting in one regard in naruto because literally everyone is obsessed with sasuke or the uchiha clan in general. because of the sharingan which requires magic uchiha DNA to exist. and it’s been noted by smarter naruto fans than me that naruto and sasuke are stand ins for kishi and his twin brother. so he wrote a character based on his twin brother and made him genetically superior to his own stand in. when they’re literally twins. light googling, identical twins. they have the same DNA. like what can possibly be going on in ones mind when they feel inferior to their identical twin sibling and express this inferiority complex through art that results in genetic superiority. this is the whole reason i’m still into naruto. i enjoy studying kishi. he’s a weird guy.

…this is turning into more of a naruto critique than a book review. oopsies.

anyway, this book took a really interesting turn by arguing that the Nanako Spy School that was operating in Japan during the second world war was a ninja school. and then i learned a whole bunch of things about Japanese world war two history that’s actually cool as fuck. it talks about Onoda Hiroo, the guy who lived in the jungle in the Philippines for 30 years, who was a student of the Nanako Spy School. like everything about the Nanako Spy School is just so fucking cool. the central japanese government fucked up everything they achieved, but considering japan was allied with germany we can all thank god that they did fuck up as bad as they did.

warning: whiplash inducing tone shift ahead

it’s also worth noting that i checked this book out in *checks notes* May????? and i literally finished it today. i was having such a good time reading this book that when i felt the action ramping down i put it down and just never picked it back up because i didn’t want the fun to end. turns out i had exactly 2 pages and 5 lines left to read. what i thought was more to read was the bibliography. i am such an idiot.

[jerseydeanne]

SARAH VINE: Are you really telling me burly swimmer Lia Thomas who set a new record for the 200-yard freestyle race is playing fair?

On Friday night, Lia Thomas, a transgender woman athlete, set a record for the 200-yard freestyle race in the Ivy League university swimming championships in the US, beating her closest opponent by half a pool length.

Her win was widely praised as a victory for women’s sport as Thomas, who until 2019 was competing – with notably less success – in the male category, took to the podium to claim her prize.

Alongside her, somewhat dwarfed by her broad shoulders and imposing stature, her defeated opponents smiled and applauded in the approved manner, as though the entire thing were completely normal.

No mention of the fact that they had just been bested by someone with an inherent set of physical advantages: muscle mass, speed, size.

No acknowledgement of the fact that, in reality, they never stood a chance against someone such as Thomas.

Just smile and nod and take it on the chin, girls, and don’t you dare complain. And frankly, who can blame them?

In the current climate of terror created by extreme trans activism, what choice do they have? What choice, for that matter, does any of us have?

It seems we have finally passed through the looking glass.

Forget believing six impossible things before breakfast, as the White Queen said to Alice; nowadays we must believe whatever nonsense the woke supremacists want us to believe, no matter how scientifically inaccurate or, for that matter, unfair it may be. Or else suffer the consequences.

In the context of trans ideology, this means total and complete acceptance of anyone who self-defines as female, regardless of the impact upon other females around them. Biological sex doesn’t exist, and anyone who dares to question the wisdom of, say, placing vulnerable women in hospitals or prisons alongside individuals who were born males, risks obliteration.

Doesn’t matter how calmly or rationally they argue their case (JK Rowling being the most obvious, but there are countless more), it’s sentence first, verdict after, off with their heads, and so on.

To be branded a transphobe is the equivalent of being called a Communist in McCarthy-era America: the end of everything. Unless we all agree that two plus two equals five, we risk being cast into the outer darkness.

And the truth is, it’s working. Like those girls standing next to Thomas on the podium, people are starting to accept this new reality for the simple fact that they haven’t the strength or the fight to challenge it.

They’re scared, and rightly so. They just want to protect their jobs and their reputations, and they don’t want to have the black mark of the TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminist) placed upon them.

It’s how radical ideology has always worked. Frighten people out of their wits, threaten their livelihoods and their reputations, and eventually they will agree to anything. Even the impossible.

But I am not easily bullied, and I refuse to parrot the lie.

The truth in this case is that Lia Thomas, while emotionally and psychologically a woman, still retains much of the physical attributes she acquired as a man. And as such, she should not be competing against other women who do not possess her inherent advantages.

It’s the equivalent of pitting an eight-year-old against a fully grown adult. It’s not a question of transphobia. Absolutely no one in their right mind, certainly not me, cares about that. It’s about honesty, fairness and maintaining a level playing field.

That is why, in all sporting disciplines, there are such hard and fast rules around doping. Performance-enhancing substances give competitors an unfair advantage, from increasing concentration to optimising anaerobic respiration.

And there are few more powerful performance-enhancing hormones in nature than testosterone. A substance that males possess in abundance; and that women, on the whole, do not.

To my mind, it’s as simple as that. If we allow trans women who have gone through male puberty equivalence in women’s sport, we are effectively condoning doping – and making a mockery not only of women’s sport, but of the fundamental principles of fair play.

This was a week where we saw a 15-year-old girl – Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva – crushed and humiliated in the eyes of the world after being accused of taking a banned substance.

Perhaps we will never know whether the heart drug found in her system was ingested intentionally or, as her family claim, by accident (although either way she can’t really be to blame, since she is a minor). But the opprobrium heaped upon her slender young shoulders was certainly real enough, and I would surmise very hard to bear for one so young.

And yet were she a strapping 22-year-old biological male identifying as female, no one would bat an eyelid. Or, for that matter, dare to challenge her.

That, I’m afraid, is the reality of the world we live in now. And I for one don’t think it’s right or fair.

source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10531313/SARAH-VINE-really-telling-burly-swimmer-Lia-Thomas-playing-fair.html

[cacodaemonia]

okay but. when the vast majority of the "antis" are poc asking you to take a moment to consider the often racist tendencies behind your actions, have you considered that you /might/ be in the wrong here?

if you're doubling down on this stance because you feel you've been harassed, there are some really helpful and well worded posts i can send you if you're interested that explain some of the issues facing the tcw fandom at large! as a white person, they've been very helpful showing me some of the harmful aspects of fan engagement that i didn't have the words for

Ah yes, another anon with concrete proof of their claims.

Anyway, this is a good example of a whataboutism, where anon is trying to take my stance that sending death threats to real people over fictional ships is shitty, and turn it into me being racist.

It's a super common tactic in political arguments, and is often successful at burying the original point in layers of other, usually unrelated topics or accusations.

As I've said before, I'm not going to argue or try to change people's minds, because that's an exercise in futility.

The rest of this post, under the cut, is not directed at the fandom police (who, by not just blocking me, show how devoted they are to being angry over harmless internet content), but to others who might be at risk of being manipulated by their gaslighting.

So first, I apparently need to point out that shipping doesn't inherently have anything to do with race or racism. It can, for certain individuals, and there are obviously a plethora of nasty aspects of fandom that are racist and awful. But antis muddy the waters by crying wolf about others enjoying fictional space people who do not in any way represent a real world group and have no equivalent because they're millions of literal clones.

When they make such a fuss about something that is not harming anyone, they drown out the voices of those addressing actual problems. I know of several poc who have been driven out of fandom because they disagreed with the antis and were then shouted down and harassed for not caving to the arbitrary demands (much like religious extremists, who harm others if they don't conform to their religious creed).

As someone who has been heavily involved in political activism (not keyboard activism) for anti-racist causes and various other progressive issues for many years, it's easy to see through the attempts by antis to hide their obsession with policing fandom experiences of others behind the claim of 'speaking for poc.' Elevating the voices of those who have been historically marginalized is extremely important, but when they simply use that as an excuse to be hateful, they're not doing anyone any good.

Ask yourself: by harassing individuals (about whom they truly know nothing) online, how are the antis helping marginalized or disenfranchised groups? If they really wanted to create positive change, they could put their excessive energy toward fighting systemic racism and inequity by holding mass media and lawmakers accountable, rather than bullying fans who have no power and just happen to have slightly different views on fictional characters.

It's a way to get attention and feel powerful, plain and simple. They drag others down in order to feel superior—or whatever motivates people who enjoy harming others, idk.

I'm glad that the internet preserves this stuff, because maybe some antis will look back in a few years, after they've had enough life experience to understand that real world issues aren't black and white and can't be solved by screaming on the internet. Maybe some of them will realize how needlessly cruel they've been, and how much harm they've caused to real people who just want to share something they like with others.

I won't be responding to any other similar asks. I'm on Tumblr to have fun with fandom stuff, not to engage in the dumpster fire that is the real world or listen to poorly constructed arguments for why everything is 'problematic.'

[radfemblack]

I’m critical of “both sides” when it comes to the pandemic and the vaccines. On one hand. The reaction of governments has been very suspect. And the increasingly draconian measures being taken to enforce lockdown and get people vaccinated is scary. It begs the question, does something that is truly for our own good warrant all of these lies, all of this fearmongering, manipulation, and coercion? How anyone who raises any questions about the way things are going is immediately jumped upon and demonized raises big red flags. Do we really believe that the pandemic has been handled 100% perfectly? And that’s not even to get into how race intersects with healthcare. Black and indigenous people have a long history of being used as test monkeys in experimental procedures, which creates a lot of distrust in the medical establishment — this is something that’s not being addressed enough.

Full disclosure, I am double vaccinated. I initially didn’t want to take the vaccine because of all of the side effects I heard about, but I had to in order to go to school. Apart from some very watery diarrhea after the first dose, I have had no adverse reactions (yet). Now that I have it I’m glad to have taken the vaccine, I feel safer now. For a while I continued to worry a fair bit, but someone unexpectedly convinced me of this vax right now: Donald Trump. Donald Trump going against Candace Owens on vaccines is a pretty solid indication that they’re good. Trump could have taken the easy opportunity to stir up partisan politics but he didn’t. So this isn’t some “liberal elite” agenda, outside of some far-fetched scenario this must be serious.

Now, as for the “antivaxxers” and “antimaskers”. I think they have some points, as I said before, but I think most of them are just driven by partisan contrarianism. And the absolute fucking victim mentality a lot of them have! I can’t fucking stand these mfs with their goofy and lame ass comparisons to segregation and the Holocaust. Stop. Just fucking stop. It’s like when trans activists try to piggyback on white supremacy to advance their bullshit. None of you better open your mouths to compare yourselves with the poor set upon negroes when you don’t give a shit about us outside of our utility as your rhetorical prop. If you want to argue that it’s unethical for the government to coercively impose medical procedures on people, that’s one thing. But this is a false equivalency. Your vaccination status is something you can change, my skin color is not. If your argument really is solid then it can stand on its own.

[galadhremmin]

We have derived Caranthir liking the Dwarves (and vice versa) because apparently, Finrod succeeds in every field Caranthir fails, and at this point it's clear this derives from the in-universe writer of the Silm and his own biases. Think about it: "Dark Finwë" , a grumpy, prejudiced lordling, and "Hair Champion", most handsome, noble king, have met with the same people!! Yet the king of the first secret kingdom is everyone's friend, but the prince that trades with them regularly is not... seems sus.

Hence, Caranthir is friends with the Dwarves. (But that is just an interpretation, so you're free to think what you wish, I just have several opinions on in-universe prejudice and the almighty narrative.)

I think that 'we' might actually have been Dawn Felagund years ago. Maybe this reading existed even before that, but I doubt that-- she's been very influential in silm fandom and was long before tumblr was much of a thing. https://dawnfelagund.com/caranthir-the-slandered

I wouldn't say it's 'clear' that what amounts to Caranthir's entire documented personality derives from the bias of the in-universe narrator, though as you can see from Dawn's writing it's a reading you can argue for. There are a number of different approaches you can take to the Silm and its biases anyway. One of the few times when it's absolutely clear the text isn't telling the entire story is when it talks about the Easterlings. I've posted about this before but the recorded names are, uhh.... the ones to betray the elves are unlikely to actually have been named things like 'ugly lord' and 'ugly beard.' 'Dark Finwe' on the other hand is a documented reference to his haircolour being dark like Finwe's own; hardly a negative judgement!

I personally think Caranthir can be exactly as ill-tempered and prejudiced as the Silm paints him without becoming an unsympathetic character. If a writer cannot make a moody, deeply prejudiced man an interesting character that is a failure as a writer; there are after all enough books who manage exactly that. That is not to say choosing not to write him that way is a failure (obviously not), but it's not necessary in order to make a reader feel for him at all.

Just going by the text, I think it actually might make for a more interesting narrative to explore in fic to me. Because he does change his mind about something, and at a very specific moment; when he meets the Haladin. That is much less dramatic if he secretly been as nice and popular as Finrod, and got along with everyone all the time already. He's been raised by Fëanor, who said things like 'No other race shall oust us!' and rallied the Noldor not motivated enough by vengeance for Finwë alone by playing on their deep-seated fear of being replaced by the Secondborn. Very unlikely that had no impact. At best it has made him uninterested in humans in his area (while they're not much of a threat to ruling instead of the elves anyway). The text says they paid them no heed.

And yet! Caranthir sees how brave Haleth and her people are. He 'does her great honour.' He changes his mind and offers them lands. His tragedy to me is not that of a slandered figure, but of this deeply, deeply prejudiced person raised to distrust the motivations of human beings -- who overcomes those beliefs, offers friendship, is rejected! then extends that same trust to the Easterlings anyway... and it's those specific Easterlings, not the ones who ally with his brothers-- who betray them all. And cause the disastrous ending of the Nirnaeth. It's the 'to evil end shall all things turn that they begin well' part of the curse hitting him in the least fair way possible. Someone finally changes for the better, and the outcome is treason and destruction.

That is a very good character arc to me, actually. His aesthetics-based scorn for the Dwarves is reprehensible but strikes me as deeply Elvish, and part of his prejudices. Naugrim is too unflattering a name for them for it not to be common. His temper-- well why can't he have one? Sure there's only one recorded instance -- but that's imo because there are hardly any conversations in the Silm! Anyway I like some people with tempers well enough. Personally I think people are missing out on opiniated grouches.

Obviously the biased anti-Feanorian Pengolodh reading is a nice one, and I have enjoyed a lot of stories written based it. But it's not at all a reading that is necessary for me to read Caranthir as a flawed but sympathetic character. He can have serious faults and still, ultimately, be someone I feel for.

What I was asking though was if I overlooked any canon evidence of Caranthir being particularly, personally fond of the Dwarves; and it seems I did not. Also; there is room for Caranthir growing to like the Dwarves over centuries without an anti-Feanorian bias reading this strong, there is simply no evidence for friendship in the rather barebones narrative (I'm not interested atm because it's wildly overdone to me & I like variety).

That said, in my opinion making Caranthir the hidden, slandered Feanorian Finrod equivalent with a dash of Curufin's Dwarf affection is not as enjoyable as simply working with what little canon character is actually there. Because there is one (and it's not the greedy tax collector of some fanon depictions either imo)

1. To start with, wrt Caranthir as the anti-Finrod, I don't think it works that well. Sure sure dark/light, open/prejudiced, repressed/shouty, but different motivations, different locations, plus they meet very different peoples even if both are Edain-- besides, Caranthir's own older brothers do successfully ally with the Easterlings without betrayal, while Curufin (much more so than Finrod! no Khuzdul for Finrod!) is the Dwarves' Friend(tm). Also, a flawed Finrod already exists. That's just the regular edition. He has his own faults and (very different) tragic arc.

If Finrod never seems to have strong prejudices to overcome, and if he's not confrontational (which... look he's a diplomat. Make of that what you will. Pretty awkward there in Doriath, buddy!) he does have trouble facing his own complicity (he wanted to sail those ships despite the murders) until Sauron beats him to death with it. He leaves Valinor with the idea of ruling but he has to give up the crown. He's ambitious, he seems emotionally repressed, he's.. possibly paying the greater Dwarves to drive the Petty Dwarves out of their ancestral home to build a city? Oops. Depending on the version you go with in that case, of course; there's also ones where he's free of the blame of that one. Not of wanting to sail those ships and being uneasy with the guilt wrt wanting to do so despite their being stolen and murdered for though. No he doesn't kill; but he wants to use the result of it anyway, and to make it worse he is actually half Telerin.

There's also (to be fair, only for sure after the disaster of the Sudden Flame because that's the recorded instance) his guards killing random innocent trespassers to keep his kingdom hidden -- yes, that's right there in Silm, yes he's still King at the time. Beren has to wave that ring. People just seem to miss that he'd be killed without it somehow.

I think it's just too easy to reduce him to the golden perfect opposite of Caranthir. Yes he's described more positively; he's also just mentioned more because unlike Caranthir he rules an actual kingdom, the greatest and richest in Beleriand in fact; and does things that have a lot of very longterm effects, like helping B&L steal a Silmaril. They don't 'meet the same people' anyway -- the Haladin have a different culture from the Beorians which contributes to their reaction to Caranthir (and iirc their later fate).

Sidenote: Dawn's essay attributes the Green Elves helping the Feanorians at Amon Ereb to Caranthir's diplomatic skills; but why not to those of Amras or Amrod? This is the quote; 'Caranthir fled and joined the remnant of his people to the scattered folk of the hunters, Amrod and Amras, and they retreated and passed Ramdal in the south. Upon Amon Ereb they maintained a watch and some strength of war, and they had aid of the Green-elves' -- nothing here indicates it was Caranthir who got them that aid. In fact A&A are the hunters, i.e. more likely to have roamed in various forests where they would have encountered Green Elves, imo.

There's also the very desperate times to consider in which this aid takes place. This is just post Sudden Flame, and even if the Green Elves didn't like Caranthir they probably liked him better than Morgoth. Also, speaking of cosmopolitans, Maedhros allies with, yes, Dwarves (Azaghal), Grey elves, Easterlings (and you might say: Fingolfinians); even part of the remaining people of Dorthonion rally to Himring post sudden flame (that means Edain and Arafinwean followers in Himring, at least for a time), and he manages to be friendly with Felagund despite calling him a badger. ;)

Finrod is not the only other leader to forge diverse alliances, and though B&L ends happily his people mostly do not. Caranthir's not much like Finrod in any way. Not in motivations, temperament, tragic arc. That's fine. No hidden kingdom for a dragon to eat either. Finrod could probably do with being a little less like Finrod sometimes, though he's well-intentioned and likable. Caranthir loves to shout and isn't sneaky. Good for him.

2. Curufin also already exists. His love for Dwarves is one of his defining and redeeming characteristics and boy does he need them. He's daddy's favourite, a sneaky overambitious bitchy bastard who is also a talented smith and linguist, and truly considered a Dwarf friend, which is apparently exceptional. He's quite flawed; tries to help Celegorm force a political marriage, laughs with a bruised mouth, seeming to lose his mind while attempting and failing murder after first losing his own stronghold and then the city he tried to take from his cousin. He's just... a personality. Mostly a bad one! You can feel for him though, because he seems like an utter mess. Many 'i would love to study you' feelings on my part. Would hate for him to be real but also I'd pay to be his therapist.

3. And then finally there's Canon Caranthir. A difficult, prejudiced person who despite that (which doesn't at all have to mean there is no despite, the despite is what makes it juicy)

- seems to be responsible for re-establishing (large scale?) trade with the Dwarves, whatever he might think of them (and they of him) to their mutual benefit. I don't think he's greedy either. It seems like a mutually profitable situation. Access to Dwarvish goods seems pretty vital to Beleriand, and facilitating trade is a real service.

As someone pointed out in the replies, the Silm does mention Dwarvish companies travelling east to Nan Elmoth and menegroth various times, but quote wrt Caranthir says 'Caranthir’s people came upon the Dwarves, who after the onslaught of Morgoth and the coming of the Noldor had ceased their traffic into Beleriand' and 'when the Dwarves began again to journey into Beleriand.'

They stopped at some point and Caranthir's people made it happen again.

- which means he's practical. He seems like he's good at organising, and setting his own feelings aside if necessary despite his prejudice and temper (which is an achievement it wouldn't be without his, hm, everything). Also he and his people as well as the Dwarves work together well because ''either people loved skill and were eager to learn,' despite their (initial?) mutual dislike. Those aren't bad characteristics; seems like it was an exchange of skill as well as goods and possibly providing safe travel opportunities.

I don't like the 'greedy Caranthir' fanon and don't think it is even that easy support entirely with canon. 'They had of it great profit,' the text says-- both Caranthir and the Dwarves. They exchanged skills and knowledge and Caranthir seems to have helped them start trading in Beleriand again. That's hardly Scrooge Mcduck.

- Another thing we can say about canonthir (lol) is that he apparently attaches a lot of value to aesthetics (was he a visual artist? is a he a sculptor like Nerdanel? WORSE: AN ART CRITIC?! Feanorian art critic is truly nightmare fuel) and that's why he dislikes Dwarves (of all things...). Either way points to 'aesthetics' as something apparently important to Caranthir. Which makes sense given who his parents are. What is interesting to me is that this apparently DOESN'T matter to Curufin, who is a lot like Feanor in most things. That's interesting!

I've never, never seen this but I think it would be very funny to attribute his aesthetic prejudices to Nerdanel. I love her; but why should her opinions be perfect? I know she wasn't considered beautiful herself, but she's an artist. She's got to have had some strong opinions on aesthetics anyway. I doubt it's the beards; Mahtan had one as well. And 'stunted'...at least some of this comes down to the Elvish obsession with height yet again. Hm.

- eventually Caranthir overcomes what have to be some very deeply held beliefs about human beings and their place in the world, and offers what for all intents and purposes looks like real friendship, not the ruling over Men Feanor seems to have had in mind at best. He's capable of real change!

Anyway his character works just fine to me from canon, and what he achieves and the ways in which he fails are more interesting that way rather-- neither slandered Feanorian Finrod 2.0 nor Curufin 'Dwarf Fan' Feanorion without the sneakiness and murder attempts pack the same punch as a stupidly prejudiced grouchy man doing his best anyway for centuries in this stupid ugly cursed land, eventually changing for the better, opening up-- and being brutally punished for it by the Doom.

Dammit. I hope there's therapy in the Everlasting Darkness.

hm a bit long but that's what I get for trying to gather my thoughts wrt why after considering it a bit transferring Curufin's love for Dwarves to Caranthir is a bit boring to me personally. Though there are still stories that still do it very well.

[duskcowboy]

Let’s talk about the lightsinger theory…

[If this theory isn’t your cup of tea, I recommend you keep scrolling. You’ve been warned.]

Per my last post, I recently dug deep into the Lightsinger Theory tag which can be dangerous territory. I suppose for many Gw*nriel shippers, this theory feels equivalent to how many Elriel shippers feel about the Evil Elain Theory. So I get it, it’s not fun or easy to hear theories that somewhat paint a character you like in a bad light (especially when the people doing so use said theory as reasoning for why your desired ship won’t happen). However, after reading many “debunking” posts about the Lightsinger Theory, I want to address something:

Many anti posts use the “definition” of a lightsinger provided in acosf to prove the theory wrong because it doesn’t outright provide details used in the LS theory such as “glowing” or “singing”. Let’s review what was said in acosf…

Now, idk about you, but this isn’t really a “definition”; it sounds to me more like a story—some may say even a myth, or a legend. It basically sounds like something you’d tell your kids to discourage them from going near the deep end (a “boogeyman” of sorts). And the thing with myths and legends is that they are based on truth, but they evolve and change over time through the process of word of mouth.

Take these excerpts from the article, “How Great Myths and Legends Were Created”:

“It began with a real or imagined incident…It was passed along by word of mouth from person to person and from generation to generation until it had been told and retold millions of times and existed in a hundred different versions around the world.”

“There is also a tendency to exaggerate or minimize, to glorify or ennoble, to idealize or vilify. Beyond that, there’s a natural, unconscious tendency to analyze things, to take them apart and put them back together in different combinations and a natural tendency to simplify or edit.”

Therefore, what Cassian provided as information on a lightsinger could potentially not be wholly correct. So, we have to decipher what we anticipate to be truth and what could be embellishments added over time (or what’s been left out). This is why I believe that Gwyn possibly being a lightsinger doesn’t necessarily imply that she’s evil or manipulating anyone on purpose. The story of what a lightsinger is can very easily be based on a truth that has transformed into a “mythical creature”, and has a high chance of not being entirely accurate anymore. Additionally, the absence of seemingly “key words” such as “singing” or “visions” could have easily been lost in the process of retellings.

But if you disagree that what Cass said is a myth or legend, I’ll reel it back a bit and continue calling it the description of a lightsinger. Now, with descriptions, they typically highlight characteristics to create a basic overview. With this, you are not going to get every last detail. For example, a suspect’s description usually entails the following:

Gender, race, age/height/weight (estimated), and maybe some other vague descriptions of eye & hair color, clothing, etc.

So if a suspect description says, “white male, mid 30’s, average height, sandy blonde hair, and wearing black overalls,” and I see someone matching that exact description (down to the color of his overalls) driving a red car, NO ONE would argue I can’t call it in “because the description never said he was driving a red car”.

My point being that: the absence of certain details does not automatically mean they are a falsehood.

“It doesn’t say lightsingers sing”

True. But let’s draw an educated guess from surrounding evidence: “singer” is in the literal title, just like “shadowsinger”; the only shadowsinger we know of confirmed he sings.

“It never says lightsingers glow”

Again, educated guess. Power is consistently described as “glowing”. When Gwyn sings, she glows. It’s not a large leap in thinking to conclude she may be using some sort of power. If it’s not as a lightsinger, what is it?

“It doesn’t say they can induce visions”

It does say that “they appear as friendly faces” when in fact, they’re not. That seems to me like a manipulation of sight. Not a far leap to guess they could maybe induce other manipulations of sight such as visions.

An easy answer to all of these is also, “it also doesn’t say they don’t” but I suspect that’s not a good enough response. All I know is that this argument is teetering on argumentum ad ingorantiam…the “appeal to ignorance” fallacy of “it can’t be true because it doesn’t explicitly say it’s true”.

Just because the description didn’t lay out every detail, doesn’t mean it can’t be true. If SJM literally wrote “lightsingers are ethereal beings who lure you by enchanting songs” wouldn’t it have been too obvious? She might as well have just said “Gwyn is a lightsinger”. What we’re doing with this theory is piecing a puzzle together using legitimate excerpts from the text, and in this process, we acknowledge that we could potentially be wrong.

The description of a lightsinger may not explicitly say a lot to outright link Gwyn, but you know what it does say? That they lure people. And what does it say in acosf?

That Gwyn’s grandmother “seduced” an autumn male. What’s a synonym for “seduce”? LURE.

That Gwyn’s singing “beckons” and “draws Nesta in”. What’re synonyms for “beckon” and to “draw in someone/something”? LURE.

I think you get my point.

Look, I’ll acknowledge that all these “conclusions” and theories are unconfirmed. We’re well aware of that. But to insinuate that our logic is implausible when we use text from the book to build it is what’s nonsensical.

Whew! Two long posts in one day 🥴 sorry about that haha as always, lmk what you think!

[all credit to @silverlinedeyes for the OG lightsinger theory! Check them out for more detailed evidence!]

[citrina-posts]

Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

[joonie-beanie]

Game Night

Pairing: Leviathan x Reader

Word Count: 5,826

Preview: You and Levi have a game night once a week, in which the two of you get a...little too competitive.

So, when you decide block Levi's line of sight in a desperate bid to win the game, well. You get what's coming to you.

** Please note that this is a cross-posting **

This chapter was originally posted on 5/29/20 as a part of my “Devil Doms” series on AO3.

It’s kind of become tradition—that once a week, you and Levi have a game night.

At first, it’d simply been you helping him with dungeons or runs for supplies in a game you really had no idea how to play. When you’d complained to him about it, saying you wanted to challenge him in some way—to show him that you were actually good at some games—he’d dug out the Devildom’s equivalent to games like Super Smash Bros, and Mario Kart.

He hadn’t really considered the idea of you being able to best him before then. Leviathan was used to you struggling with the controls—being a good distraction for enemies as he snuck past to get whatever rare item was held in that level.

Now, when your kart zooms over the finish line just seconds before him time and time again…he starts to go a little crazy.

Your game nights quickly go from semi-calm dungeon runs, to Leviathan jumping to his feet—cursing at you, the game, and himself as he attempts to get his anger under control before his demon form claws its way to the surface.

Before, you may have been scared to see the otaku so full of frustration, with his horns and tail threatening to sprout from his body, but now? Now, you feel giddy at the sight—full of pride each time you manage to beat him.

You know that you have a bit of a…sadistic, bratty side to you. It’s fun to watch Levi get so frustrated over losing to a “normie human” at a video game that shouldn’t be hard for him to win.

To be fair, you had warned him before playing that you had lots of experience in games like this, but he hadn’t believed you. So, it’s his own fault for getting beat by you, and you’re sure to tell him that—laughing at the way he angrily pouts when hearing so.

It’s been a few weeks since your switch in games, and tonight—like every other night—Leviathan is determined to win. He’s already got the title screen of the game loaded by the time you knock on his door and step into his room.

His eyes immediately flit to you—gaze raking you from head to toe. Beneath the pile of snacks and drinks in your arms, he can see that you’ve once again decided to arrive in your pj’s, and deep within his brain, a part of him feels like screaming.

It’s not like your pajamas are unseemly—an oversized t-shirt and a pair of black shorts is hardly an outfit to feel scandalized over. And yet, Levi finds himself inexplicably attracted to the outfit—relishing each peek of the tight, ass-hugging shorts when your shirt rides up ever so slightly.

Seriously, game nights are both his favorite, and most frustrating part of the week.

“Ready to get your ass kicked?” you ask, dumping the snacks in your arms onto the side of his desk. Rather than look at you, he busies himself with picking a snack and drink to start the night off right.

“I wouldn’t sound so cocky, if I were you,” he finally mumbles when he hears you dragging his old gaming chair over (he’d pulled it out for you a while ago, and tends to shove it in the corner until game night rolls around again). “I’ve been practicing.”

“Is…that something you should really be admitting?” you ask with a laugh, your eyes shining with amusement as you lean forward to peek at his face. “You basically just acknowledged that I’ve been kicking your ass so bad that you need to practice in your spare time.”

“T-That’s--!” he’s immediately flushing red, wishing oh-so-badly that he could shut you up as you openly laugh at him. Despite your teasing, however, your bright smile is genuinely happy. You enjoy spending this time with him, and the realization makes him feel warm, but in a different way.

“Just…s-shut up, normie…”

He reaches forward and grabs your controller, shoving it into your lap, and you giggle quietly—flashing him another smile that has his heart doing a tiny flip.

“Sooo~,” you speak, relaxing back into your chair as Leviathan grabs his own controller. He clicks out of the title screen and onto the main menu. “Best of five, like usual?”

He nods, and you watch the screen as he picks which courses he wants to race. (You’d told him before that you’d let him choose the tracks, since you’d beat him either way. He hates the advantage, but nonetheless uses it.)

After picking the tracks, the character selection screen pops up. You go to your regular—a black and purple character named “Shroom” (the first time you’d see the off-brand Mario characters, you’d gotten a good laugh), and decide to stick with the basic kart (which secretly drives Levi insane, because how the hell do you manage to beat him without picking a kart with the best functions?!)

Levi, unsurprisingly, goes for the princess, “Cherry”. He takes time building his kart—choosing only the superior parts—and finally, once he’s ready, the race begins.

He hunches forward in his chair—his forearms resting against his knees as he dials in on the computer screen. You glance at the demon, lips tugging at the corners fondly at the sight of him.

It’s cute how much he wants to win.

On screen, you hear the countdown begin, and quickly turn your attention away from him. As much as you want to watch his every reaction as he desperately tries to best you, you can’t. Right now, you have to win.

Tightly gripping your controller, you turn your eyes to the computer screen. The race starts.

Slowly, with each passing level, the game begins to descend into chaos. When Levi wins the first level, it’s impossible to keep a smug grin from coming to his face. However, at the sight, you’re quick to reassure him not to get too cocky, and—sure enough—you kick his ass on the following track. He ends up coming in 6th after you hit him with two consecutive red shells, and when the race ends, you can see the veins in his hands beginning to bulge from how hard he’s gripping the controller.

“Want to take a break?” you ask, half serious, half teasing. His response is to start the next level, so you take that as a “no”.

The conclusion of the third race is much closer—only a .8 second difference in your finishing time, but you still come out on top. The near tie has Levi quietly cursing up a storm—remarks about “stupid normies” and their “stupid games” filling the space around him.

You decide to keep your mouth shut this time—figuring it’d be best to not push him for once—and simply smile to yourself as the next race begins. The fourth track is perhaps one of the most difficult, but you manage to traverse it well. At least, until Levi trips you up on a borderless curve with a banana.

As you go tumbling off the course, Levi jumps happily in his seat—grin breaking out on his face. A little too competitive for your own good, you kick your leg out and hit him on the side of his calf. He yelps, but it’s already too late. His kart rolls over the finish line, and he’s immediately turning to glare at you.

“Hey! No kicking!”

“I mean~,” you hum innocently, finally finishing the race. “We never exactly established a rule that says we’re not allowed to physically interfere with each other.”

“It’s basic gaming courtesy!” he argues, squeaking in surprise when he hears the countdown on screen. You’d started the final race without warning him!

“Y/N!”

“Whoops~,” you feign innocence, tongue poking out of your lips determinedly as your kart revs to life. The two of you fall into silence, eyes locked on the computer as you desperately attempt to best each other.

When you finish the first lap, you’re ahead. The second lap, however, Leviathan finishes two places ahead of you. Frowning unhappily, your leg begins to bounce nervously beneath you.

You hate that Leviathan actually manages to make you so damn competitive. You’re never like this with anyone else, and usually you wouldn’t be feeling so frantic to win, but tonight is different. A burning desire to come out on top takes over your brain, and as the final stretch of the last lap appears on screen, you find yourself pressing to your feet.

Levi, immersed in his own desperation to win, doesn’t realize you’ve moved until your body appears in front of him. It’s a seriously petty move—standing in front of someone to block their view—and almost immediately Levi’s anger gets the best of him.

The frustration that had been building beneath the surface lurches forward, and within a split second, his demon form materializes.

You squeal in surprise as his tail wraps tightly around your waist—dragging you back into his lap. Your controller clatters to the floor, and your kart rolls to a stop just short of the finish line. Levi—who had already been in the lead—finishes in first.

The room goes quiet save the sound of NPC’s overtaking you and finishing the race, and your heartbeat drumming loudly in your ears. Levi is scarily still beneath you—the edge of his controller pressed against the center of your back. You can feel him puff out a heavy breath—the hot air fanning against your neck and shoulder.

“L…Levi?” you question when you manage to find your voice. He doesn’t speak, but instead you feel him shift. His hands move, the sound of his controller being carefully set on the edge of his desk reaching your ears. Then, his tail loosens around your waist, and for a brief second, you think he has finally calmed down. That notion, however, is quickly thrown out the window.

Rather than releasing you, the appendage snakes upward—curling around your neck. Your breath hitches—both nervous, and somewhat aroused—as his tail grips tightly at your throat. The pressure is enough to let you know he’s pissed, but not enough to choke you.

“Do you have any idea,” he starts quietly, his voice carefully measured as he speaks for the first time in what feels like minutes. “How hard this is for me?”

One of his hands falls against your lap, his fingers curling into the soft flesh of your inner thigh and giving it a squeeze. His touch is rough, yet holds a hint of nervousness. He’s always been flustered by physical contact, and has never gone out of his way to touch you.

Yet, now you’re sitting in his lap, with one of his hands one your inner thigh, and the other lifting to hover over your clothed breast. His fingers twitch—as if he’s holding himself back from touching you in all the ways he wants—and you swallow the lump in your throat, your tongue peeking out to wet your dry lips.

“How hard what is?” you question, biting your lower lip as you watch his hand slowly lower onto your chest. His fingers splay across the mound of flesh, giving it an experimental squeeze, and you inhale shakily.

“This,” he says, his tone almost a whine. His nose presses into your hair, getting a good whiff of your sweet scent, and for the first time you notice something stiff pressing at your ass.

Levi is getting hard.

The realization has you turning all sorts of shades of red.

“You come to my room, wearing your stupid little shorts, and looking at me with your stupid little smiles that make my heart feel like it may burst right out of my chest.”

The hand on your thigh begins stroking softly over the skin there—inching closer and closer towards your womanhood, and your breath catches.

“I…,” his breathing stutters, his voice becoming softer with embarrassment. “It makes me want you. Makes me…c-crave those cute little blushes, and makes me want to taste your pink lips and…c-claim them as my own.”

His tail marginally loosens around your neck, and you take a deep breath, completely aware of the way your heart is racing within your chest. You’ve always felt something beyond the line of friendship for the Avatar of Envy, but you’d never known he’d been struggling with those same feelings.

“Levi--,” you open your mouth to speak, but he silences you as his tail tightens around your throat—even tighter than before. You gasp, a whine building in your chest as his touches suddenly turn rough again—his nails digging into the sensitive flesh of your breast and thigh.

“But then,” he continues, his voice darkening with anger, as if he’s just remembered why exactly you’re in his lap in the first place. “You tease me to no end. Rile me up just because you can…”

His tail winds tighter around your neck, his other hand falling to grip your thigh as he grinds you against his crotch, and you struggle to breathe. He’s rock hard—his cock pressed flush against your ass.

“You try to sabotage my win,” there’s a growl in his voice, and suddenly you’re reminded of the time he nearly killed you over TSL.

“L-Levi,” you gasp, voice pitched high as your brain begins to fog over from lack of blood flow “I…I’m sorry. B-But you still won.”

“I did, didn’t I?” You can hear the sudden smile in his voice, like he’s just realized that despite your interference, he still won the game. “Then what do I win?”

Emboldened by the victory, he grinds you back against his cock one more time—letting you know what he wants as his prize.

“You…you can have me,” you tell him, voice quiet. He breathes a shuddering breath against your hair, as if he doesn’t believe what you’ve said.

His fingers dig into your thighs, like he’s trying to ground himself.

“Are you sure?” his voice is no more than a whisper, and yet you can hear his internal struggle. On one hand, he wants to tear your clothes off your body, bend you over, and stick his dick into your hot, wet pussy without any type of warning. But…on the other hand, he knows he’s not totally himself right now. He’s riled up thanks to the competition, and your efforts to make him lose, and he doesn’t want you agreeing to let him have you just because you feel you have to.

Luckily, you don’t leave him worrying for long. Your hands drop into your lap—fingers slotting atop Levi’s where his hands rest on your inner legs. You give his digits a gentle squeeze, freely rocking your hips back against his hard-on—and a needy moan bubbles in his throat.

“You won, Levi. Claim your prize. I want you to.”

“Fuck.”

His breath hitches, and suddenly his tail has unfurled from around your throat. You’re quick to suck in a mouthful of air, your hands instinctively rooting in the fabric of Levi’s shirt as he scoops you into his arms.

Within seconds, your back is dropped onto the pillows lining the inside of his bathtub-turned-bed, and Leviathan cages you in—his hands resting on either side of your head as he kneels above you. For a moment, he can only stare—still a little disbelieving that you’re allowing him to have his way with you.

Your cheeks flush under his intense gaze, and you lift your palm to cup his cheek.

“You don’t have to hold back, you know…,” you mumble, eyes shying away from him. “As the winner, you can have whatever you want.”

“Please stop trying to kill me,” he retorts with a tiny whine, capturing your lips in a kiss. He’s a little sloppy, and a little forceful, but you don’t mind at all. You’re quick to wrap your arms around him—angling your head so your mouths slot together.

Levi moans against you, his hips unconsciously beginning to grind against your own in a desperate bid for friction. As you nip at his bottom lip, one of your hands moves downward and sneaks between your bodies. You cup Levi’s bulge with your palm, his body instinctively rocking into your hand, and another pained sound leaves his lips.

“F-Fuck, Y/N--,” his voice is breathless, and needy. As he grinds into your hand—your palm sternly pressing his cock against his own hip—you feel something slick and heavy begin to curl up your leg.

Immediately you shiver, your gasp lost against Levi’s tongue as he steals your breath away. Before tonight, you had never considered all the things the Avatar of Envy’s tail could be used for, but apparently, its versatility is not lost on Levi.

Within seconds, the appendage has scaled your legs, and managed to hook beneath the waistband of your sleeping shorts. Levi groans against your lips as you squeak in embarrassment—your pelvises bumping together as you gingerly lift your hips in order to help the demon out.

Soon, you’re naked from the waist down—only covered by your oversized sleeping shirt, which Levi seems desperate to get out of the way.

With a red face, you watch him as he softly slides a hand beneath your shirt—his hot palm resting against your stomach. His pupils—which you note are now narrowed like the eyes of a snake—shake as he slowly hikes his hand higher—his fingers coasting against your skin. Your breathing hitches as he does so, but you find your gaze trained on his face—monitoring his reactions.

You’ve never seen someone so embarrassed, yet distressed by his own arousal. To you, it seems like Levi is constantly torn between running away, and giving into the deep, dark, perverted feelings he’s always kept to himself.

You bite your lip as his fingers finally skim up the valley of your chest. The cotton fabric of your shirt pools above your breasts as the sensitive mounds are finally revealed to Levi’s hungry gaze. His amber eyes start at the top, and drag their way down.

He reaches his hands out as he surveys you with his full attention—his fingers curling around your ribs, and his thumbs just barely brushing up against the underside of your breasts. Licking his lips, he slowly begins trailing his fingers down your sides. Levi takes note of every dip and curve, relishing the feel of you. And when his hands finally find your hips—his eyes falling to space between your legs—he visibly swallows.

His movement is hesitant, but he lowers his hands between your bodies and presses his thumbs at the folds of your pussy. You turn bright red beneath him—because even though Levi is obviously embarrassed as well—you’ve never had any person just spread you open before, and yet Levi does.

He peels you open, and you know you’re already wet. You don’t want to admit it, but him choking you had been a huge turn on, along with pretty much everything else.

Face burning, you lift your arm and partially shield your face. Levi is slow to notice. It seems like he’s in a trance.

Still keeping you spread with one hand, he shifts the other and curves two fingers between your walls—making you gasp.

Finally, his eyes flit up to you—taking in your cute blush, and the quick rise and fall of your chest. The swell of your tits, and your nipples that are hardened from arousal…

And here he is, knelt between your legs with two of his fingers in your pussy.

Which is wet.

For him.

In that moment, any of Levi’s reserves are stripped away.

You can sense the shift in him—see it as he jolts into action. He moves quickly—perhaps a little overly excited about what is happening.

Finally, he seems to have realized that yes, this is all real—and yes, he has consent to fuck you.

“L-Levi--!” you squeal as his tail suddenly curls around your ankle, tugging you closer to him as he hurriedly shoves his pants any underwear down his thighs. His cock springs free—longer than he is thick, but the veins along his shaft are prominent, and his length visibly twitches as Levi settles himself between your legs.

The head of his cock is already wet with his pre-cum, and you get the feeling he’s not far from coming. His breathing is shaky as he presses himself against your entrance—the first few inches of his length sinking in without much protest—and you groan happily.

“F-Fuck,” he bites, his voice pitched high as he pulls his hips back and then grinds in again—this time fully sheathing himself within your heat. His entire body visibly shudders—his face red, and eyes clouded with lust.

You suddenly feel somewhat shy beneath him—your thighs spread, and his cock stretching you out so deliciously.

“Kiss me,” you tell him, voice quiet, and Levi blinks. The next moment his lips are on yours. You quietly moan into him—accidentally breaking the kiss when he thrusts inside of you.

“O-Oh my god,” he groans, his hands finding your waist as he sits back and begins fucking into you with vigor. You raise an arm to shyly cover your face once more—your breasts bouncing at each intense thrust of his length inside of you—but Levi won’t have it.

His tail snakes up your body, wrapping around your wrist and tugging it away from your face. You startle, unable to do anything as the appendage searches out your other wrist and successfully drags it above your head. Within seconds, your wrists are pinned away from your face—and you can no longer hide your reactions from the demon above you.

“Make more sounds,” Levi speaks—somewhere between a beg and a command. You open your mouth to retort, and he purposefully fucks into you hard, effectively ripping a cry from your throat. Immediately your face flushes red in embarrassment, but the sight has a smile tugging at the corner of Levi’s lips

His dick throbs inside of you.

“Nnn--!” The Avatar of Envy continues thrusting into you. His motions are quick, and damning. Each thrust as you gasping and whining—pleasure thrumming in your gut. However, as your impending orgasm begins to build, Levi’s hips stutter, and his cock suddenly leaves you. Your gaze flits to him in surprise, watching as his dick visibly jumps. Then, he’s spurting his cum against your lower stomach—painting the soft skin streak after streak.

His breathing is harsh as he begins to come down from his high—his cock starting to soften, and honestly, you’re not mad. Sure, it would have been nice to cum along with him, but more than anything you’re happy that Levi had gotten what he needed. After all, he had won the ga—

You’re knocked out of your thoughts as the tail around your wrists suddenly tugs you upwards. It lifts you higher and higher—until you’re left on your knees, with your hands held high above your head.

“Levi?” you question, gaze falling on the male as his eyes shine.

“Huhuhu~ I’ve always wanted to do this,” he says, sounding far too giddy as he sinks into the tub and settles on his back. You’re about to ask him again what the hell he’s planning when his tail yanks you forward. Within seconds, you’ve been repositioned atop Levi, with your thighs caging either side of his head.

You feel your entire body heat up as you realize his intention—his hands lifting to grip your hips.

“Le-vi!” your voice hitches as he drags you down onto his face—his tongue lapping heartily between your soaking folds. He groans at the taste of you, his nails sinking into your skin as he keeps your womanhood thoroughly trapped against his mouth.

You feel him lick against your clit—the demon flicking the head of his tongue against the sensitive bud, and you take a sharp inhale. Your wrists strain against his tail, but you find yourself completely at Levi’s mercy as he begins eating you out like you’re his favorite food.

“Mmm~,” he moans happily, enjoying the way your body wriggles in his hold—wanton little cries falling from your lips. Applying a bit of pressure, begins rocking your hips back and forth against his face.

“Fuck,” you pant, feeling hot all over. Despite being embarrassed at your current position, the pleasure in your gut is rapidly building thanks to the demon’s bafflingly good oral. He spends most of his time on your clit—lapping, kissing, and sucking the bundle of nerves. But every so often he presses his tongue into your pussy, making you groan, and causing you to buck against him.

 Quicker than expected, you find yourself on the brink of an orgasm—your pussy writhing against Levi’s mouth.

“I—I’m gonna--,” you attempt to warn him, and he hears the hidden plea within your breathy words. Don’t stop. And he doesn’t—his tongue flicking quickly against your clit. You cry out, pussy throbbing and muscles tightening. Your body momentarily stills, a stifled moan caught in your throat as your orgasm finally arrives—a brief moment of peace before you find yourself tumbling into your pleasure. And Levi draws out your bliss as long as he can—his lips wrapping around clit and sucking. You gasp, floundering in his hold as the pleasure borders on oversensitivity, but Levi refuses to release you—not yet.

It’s another minute before he lets up—convinced by your tiny, desperate pleas that you can cum no more—your clit twitching with aftershocks against his tongue.

His hands release your hips, and you suck in a deep breath of air—your chest heaving as you struggle to regain your coherency. Your mind is hazy—body slumping forward tiredly (because god, that was one hell of an orgasm).

You whine quietly when Levi’s tail pulls at your arms—lifting you up so that Levi has just enough room to scoot out from beneath you. You can hear the cushions and blankets of the tub shifting behind you as the demon moves around.

“Mm,” you make a small sound as his tail finally loosens a bit—allowing your arms to drop forward. Your fingers grip against the edge of the tub—thighs shaky as you support your own weight for the first time in minutes. However, when a few seconds pass and his tail is still wrapped around your wrists, you pause.

“Levi?”

His response is to saddle up behind you—his now-hard cock settling against your ass. You freeze in surprise.

You…hadn’t expected him to get so aroused just from eating you out. He’s back at full mast.

“Levi,” you whine as his hands find your ass cheeks—squeezing them together around his cock.

“Y-You said I could have—ah—whatever I want,” he reminds you breathlessly.

“But—”

“Just…o-one more time,” he begs, and you gasp when he moves his hips—his cock finding its way between your wet folds. When the head of his length brushes up against your clit, your entire body shakes. You’re still extremely sensitive from your orgasm, and your body feels like a bag of bones, but nonetheless you find yourself nodding your head.

He did win, and you want to fulfill his desires best you can.

At your submission, Levi is quick to act. He shoves his cock inside of you without warning, and you gasp—your fingers tightening around the edge of the tub. The demon moans—hands firm on your hips as he begins thrusting into you. In the same beat, he drags your body back onto his cock.

Lewd, wet sounds fill the space between your bodies—your arousal slicking Levi’s cock as he fucks you—and he groans.

His pace is less frantic than before. His motions are smoother—his hips rolling against your ass. The motions manage to draw a moan from your lips, and you start to become lost in the feeling of his cock stretching your walls open.

In fact, you’re so focused on how good it feels to be full again—the head of his length finding that sweet spot within you and pressing against it with each thrust—that you don’t notice when his tail unfurls from around your wrists.

You do realize it, however, when the tip of his tail presses at your lips. Your previously closed eyes shoot open—a gasp of surprise muffled by the scaled appendage as it snakes its way into your mouth.

“Mmph--!” your whine of protest is lost. His tail fills your mouth—moving out of sync with his thrusts—and your eyes roll back when he ventures too deep and causes you to gag. The gag, however, also causes your pussy to clamp around his dick, and Levi moans.

“Oh my god.”

His tail begins to fuck into your mouth with a bit more fervor—pressing into your throat and causing you to gag every few seconds. Each time, you hear Levi’s breathing stutter, and you know he’s drawing closer and closer to his orgasm.

Despite how fucked out you feel already—spit sloppy against your chin, with your body slumping tiredly against the edge of the tub—you begin to feel your arousal building as well. As tired as you are, your body is somehow ramping up to another orgasm.

Honestly, you wouldn’t mind not cumming, though, you think to yourself as tears threaten to spill over your bottom lashes. You can sense that your clit is still overly sensitive, and you feel like you may actually fade out of existence if another orgasm rips through you.

So, you quietly decide that if you don’t cum, it will be fine. Levi, however, has different ideas.

The base of his tail curves—resting against your clit as the appendage continues to fuck into your mouth. You immediately cry out—body writhing—because with each thrust of his tail between your lips, he’s now also rubbing against your clit.

“Nnn!” your arms give out beneath you, broken sobs wracking your chest. Levi grunts, and you feel him shift forward—his chest pressing flush against your back as he readjusts his position.

“So good. You f-feel so good,” he pants. His breath is warm against your neck, and his arms wrap around your chest. He holds you tightly against him—his arm circled just beneath your breasts—and you gasp as he begins fucking into you once more.

His tail, which had also stilled, resumes its motions. The brief moment of rest is over, and you’re once again left crying around the scaled appendage. You reach your breaking point within a few seconds—tears finally streaking down your cheeks as the demon forces you to choke around his tail once more. Your pussy clenches around Levi’s dick—and with a few more rubs of his tail against your clit, you’re cumming.

Any remaining strength in your body disappears, your body going limp in Levi’s hold as you shudder—your orgasm tearing through you.

Knowing that you need to breathe, Levi removes his tail from your mouth, but doesn’t let you go. He keeps you trapped against him, his cock working inside of you with a few desperate thrusts, and then, finally, he cums as well.

The Avatar of Envy empties inside of you with a spent, but satisfied groan—listening to your quick, shuddering breaths as you attempt to recover from a lack of oxygen.

“Thank you. Mmm, t-thank you so much. That…I…that…mmm,” he’s left mumbling against the skin of your neck, his hips still pressed to your ass. You feel him going soft inside of you—his cum beginning to leak down your thighs—but you can’t find it in yourself to care.

The only thing keeping you from passing out right then and there is the purple haired demon, and his quiet, thankful praises.

“I’m glad you got what you wanted,” you eventually whisper, your hand lifting to pet against his head. He nods against your neck, shuddering when he finally slips from inside of you.

With a grunt of effort, he sits back onto his knees, and then grabs your waist. Soon, you’re both laying tiredly beside one another in the basin of the tub, and you glance over at the Avatar of Envy. At some point, he had removed his hot clothing, so now he lays completely bare beside you—his pale skin flushed, and sweaty.

You can’t help but smile at the sight of him, and when he notices you’re staring, he blushes.

“What?” he mumbles, rolling onto his side to face you. You giggle tiredly, your palm reaching out to cup his cheek, and your tender gaze makes him melt.

“Nothing. I’m just…happy. You’re cute.”

“…you can’t just say that,” he whines, but nonetheless presses into your touch. You laugh again, but choose not to comment. You don’t want to suddenly have him feeling all self-conscious after all of…that.

“We should do that more often,” you comment, hoping to reassure him that you enjoyed yourself. You roll onto your side, spent, and snuggle into the pillow beneath your head. You know you’re filthy and in need of a shower, but right now, you seriously can’t move.

After a few seconds, an arm hesitantly wraps around your waist, and you feel Levi’s chest press against your back.

“D…do you really want to?”

His voice is quiet, but full of hope. You nod, snuggling back against him.

“Yeah. It would certainly make game night more exciting for the both of us.”

At that, he finally giggles. Levi’s arms wrap tightly around you, giving you a squeeze, and he makes a sound of contentment.

Within a minute, you’re asleep in his arms, and the Avatar of Envy is quick to follow you into dreamland, but not before pressing a kiss to your hair.

“You’re cuter,” he mumbles, barely audible, and then he’s gone as well.

The week following your ecstasy filled game night is…amusing. Well, at least for you.

Anytime Levi sees you, he turns bright red, and—more times than not—pops a boner.

He’s left running around, trying to preserve his modesty, while his brothers wonder if he’s okay. You tell them that he’s just…disgruntled…when thinking about your last game night, and—knowing how competitive Leviathan can be—they buy it.

Each time it happens, however, you’re left giggling to yourself—wondering exactly how a boy who fucked you silly can be so damn embarrassed by his own dirty thoughts.

It’s honestly adorable.

And you can’t wait for next time.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 17 second part

(Masterpost) (Previous Post) (Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!!

Breaking Good

Wen Qing comes to visit Wen Ning in their backyard meth lab, and tells him that he fucked up a recipe, merely by taking a whiff of the concoction. She uses the approved "wave fumes toward self" way of smelling that you learn in high school science if you live in a country that believes in teaching science, which OP does not.

Wen Ning wants to know if they are going to have a feud, and she tells him there already is one. She tells explains to him that they're good Wens, not evil Wens, and that Jiang Cheng is fucked, and they should send the Jiangs away in the morning before Wen Chao comes around. 

Wen Ning whines at her about all of this, shifting into little-brother persona and acting like he didn't just take down 40 of Wen Chao's soldiers in a single night. He does this same persona shifting in his later unlife, with Wei Wuxian. When there is trouble, he's extremely effective, and can even tail WWX and Lan Wangji without getting caught, but then he is hopeless when dealing with turnips or children. 

Here, it seems like a version of Wei Wuxian's own little-brother persona, in which he pretends to be helpless so that his sister can take care of him.

#studyblr

Wei Wuxian comes into Wen Qing's head shop to ask her for medical books. He loves his brother so much he's volunteering for a research project. We've seen him be clever before; we've seen circumstantial evidence that he's a good student, but now we're going to see him actually buckling down and doing intellectual work.

Wen Qing thinks its hopeless and wants Wei Wuxian to get some rest. But he gives her puppydog eyes, so she sets him up in her library.

Wei Wuxian reads a huge pile of medical books and learns interesting things about the human body.   

(more after the cut)

Hopefully he does not splotch ink all over them while he holds this wet brush directly over the page. Why does he even have a brush in his hand? Is he taking notes in the margin? 

Wen Qing eventually tells him to take a break and go see Jiang Yanli.

Segmentation fault (core dumped)

Jiang Yanli is tending to Jiang Cheng, gently telling him to suck it up by citing their father, which is probably not the greatest idea. 

Yanli's wearing dark blue with white and looks awesome.  It's not Gusu Lan blue, but the blue and white is an interesting choice for the excruciating heart to heart they're about to have.  

Wei Wuxian shows up looking terrible, or the Xiao Zhan version of terrible, i.e. handsome and a little scruffy. But also worn out, unhappy, and fragile.

Jiang Yanli wants him to rest, but he wants to find a way to repair Jiang Cheng's core, and his mind races, trying to think of where he can get books and who can help him. His thoughts instantly go to Cloud Recesses and Lan Wangji. His face lights up at the thought that Lan Wangji will help him, and he hops up, ready to dash off and find him.

The first time I watched this I was like, dude yes you’re in love, but you can’t just dash off to find Lan Wangji, not when there’s a war on.  This time I was like, actually wow things would turn out a whole lot better if you got Lan Wangji to help you, instead of coming up with your own plan.

Mother Mother Can You Tell Me

Jiang Yanli tells him to slow his roll.  He's pushing himself too hard and she's afraid he will collapse. Then Wei Wuxian comes out and says what's driving him: maybe all these disasters are his fault.

It's telling, I think, that he cites Madame Yu, not Jiang Cheng, in this moment, even though Jiang Cheng has blamed him much more thoroughly and consistently. He's talking about one mother figure, to another mother figure, and looking for absolution.

He super does not get what he's looking for.

Jiang Yanli slowly lets go of him and goes the fuck off. She asks, rhetorically, what he's to blame for, and then lists off all of the shit that's happened.  She finishes up by saying, look at our situation; blaming won't help anything. 

It's unclear, because language/translation, if her answer is "it doesn't matter who's to blame" I.E. "yes, it's your fault, but I'm letting it go" or if she is saying "how does blaming yourself help anything?" I.E. "it's not your fault, stop being a drama llama."

Her body language, though, seems pretty blameful - she lets go of him, yells at him, sits down and turns away from him.  And his reaction is not one of shared grief, or of someone who is trying to get over himself; he's totally crushed, and he literally never unburdens himself to her again.  Even when he asks her, much later, about love, he immediately backs out of the conversation. 

There is no violence in this moment and her reaction is understandable, but this is kind of similar to that one time when his brother choked him in a beautiful field of grass, in order to make himself feel better. 

Then she kind of relents and takes his hand, telling him that she needs him and reminding him that he promised that they will go back to Lotus Pier. I don't remember him promising this, but okay. 

He puts his head on her lap and he cries, she cries, comatose Jiang Cheng cries; FUCK this episode.  

Jiang Cheng manages to cry only one tear and does it on the side of his face that his siblings can't see because he's not going to give them the satisfaction of sharing this moment with him, I guess.

When Wei Wuxian puts his head on Jiang Yanli's lap, it's part of a ritual for them, that they both are comforted by; he does it again much later, after they return to Lotus Pier. But this ritual does not actually do anything to relieve his burdens. As a male adult, and the only Jiang Clan disciple with any abilities, it falls to him to save the clan, whatever it takes, and he is heavily aware of it.

Wen Qing comes along and sees the sweet part of this complicated Shijie-Shidi dynamic, and decides to help with Wei Wuxian's research project. When the trio had just lost their parents, gotten sick, been pursued by enemies, & had one of Yanli's little brothers horribly wounded, Wen Qing was like, eh, I'll do the doctor stuff but that's it. But lap-crying is another level. 

Wen Qing: Nooo don't put your head on her knees I failed my saving throw

Group Project

Wen Qing goes and cleans up the mess in the library, putting everything in order and settling in to read systematically. Wen Qing probably has the prettiest bullet journal. (OP looks proudly at the 100 loose slips of paper and piles of random stuff on her own desk)

Wei Wuxian has shaved and rested and comes in with a tray of food for Wen Qing, and then goes to his table in the back to start working. He claims he made "porridge" for her and that she has to eat to gain strength, and she gives him an intrigued expression.  This moment is just blatant het baiting.  

In fact the food he brings her is clearly not porridge, which might just be a translation error, but also he totally can't cook, so it's not clear if he's joking and Yanli or Wen Ning made the food, or if this is just inedible.

The Things We Do For Love

Yanli is working in the meth lab and coughing a lot. Yanli's chronic illness is a sign of what's to come for Wei Wuxian, because strong cultivators don't get sick. Yet Yanli, as a physically vulnerable person, who has either a weak golden core, or none, is still intrinsically valuable.  Her presence in this scene is a reminder that Jiang Cheng's life is not, actually, over; he just feels like it is.

While Yanli cooks the meth, Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing have a study montage that is the equivalent of a training montage, except without "Eye of the Tiger" on the soundtrack.

Jiang Cheng remains unconscious. Apparently if you stick nails in the top of someone's head, you make them sleep, and in the back of their head, you turn them into part of your zombie army. Fortunately Wen Qing's aim is good. Jiang Cheng is looking devastatingly handsome as usual the TV version of unwell, and has grown a perfect Dorito-chip of stubble on his chin to go with his new 'stache.

Eventually Wei Wuxian changes back into his non-vampire robe and he finds the answer in an old scroll book. The Ikea instruction picture shows arrows going from the guy on the left to the guy on the right.  Clearly it's not a great procedure for the guy on the left.

Wei Wuxian's face shows us exactly how not great. 

Like walking in the rain and the snow and there’s no place to go and you’re feeling like a part of you is dying

He goes outside and gazes up at the trees and the sky as he contemplates the sacrifice that circumstance is forcing on him. He's not even making a choice at this point; his choice was made the moment he found the procedure. But it's going to be a tremendous loss for him. He values sword cultivation at least as much as Jiang Cheng does; he even fell in love with a boy over crossed swords. So he sits and just kind of comes to terms with this new understanding of his future. (Big gifs here)

Wen Qing finds him sitting, stunned, on the porch. She doesn't know what's up so she just sits quietly with him until he's ready to tell her.

She doesn't love the plan.  

Thunder, Th-th-thunder

Wen Ning is bringing food up when he sees them arguing, and he is startled by situationally appropriate thunder and lightning. Having recently watched The Lost Tomb Reboot I've come to expect thunder and lighting to appear on cue in any possible situation, so the fact that this mini-storm clears right up again doesn't bother me.

What About You?

Wen Ning dashes inside to see what Mom and Dad are fighting about. They're having a polite shouting match because Wen Qing refuses to yank out Wei Wuxian's core. 

Wen Qing: I hate the idea of harming you Wei Wuxian: I don’t even understand that sentence

Wei Wuxian doesn’t, of course, feel that he is important in any way, and ignores her concerned and appalled expressions in favor of telling her to just do it anyway. Amazingly, this does not convince her. 

OP’s 177cm-tall son keeps telling her this

Then Wei Wuxian plays the "you know Jiang Cheng" card, which...I guess she does? Maybe he was chatting her up more than we saw in Cloud Recesses? He hasn't given her the comb or anything yet. Wei Wuxian explains that Jiang Cheng cares about gain and loss, and cultivation is his life. If he can only be ordinary the rest of his life will be ruined.

Wen Qing asks the question that nobody ever asks him: What about you? 

Wei Wuxian has literally nothing to say to that, possibly because the question is so new to him. 

Wen Ning doesn't know what's going on but comes squarely in on team Wei, of course, and begs his sister to Do The Thing.  How fucking horrified is Wen Ning going to be when he learns what The Thing is? What he is personally going to help do to his beloved friend? Yikes.   

Wen Qing caves, warning them that the chance of success is only 50 percent. Wei Wuxian is happy to take those odds.

Lan Wangji, projecting his voice from Episode 46: fifty percent, are you fucking kidding me?

Soundtrack: 1. Mother Mother by Tracy Bonham 2. The Things We Do For Love by 10cc 3. Thunder by Imagine Dragons