#but also. i don't necessarily have a lot of faith in that working itself out. especially during summer when everyone is on holiday.

[racke7]

Saw today that the parking-lot where I park my car (right next to my apartment) had a new sign. Looked at the sign. It said that I had to pay money to park there.

... I'm contacting my landlord to see if they can fix this, but hoooly shit. If I can't even park my car without it costing me lots and lots of money? On top of the various taxes, and insurances, and-...?

Might be time to start thinking about selling my car? Just to not have to pay infinite fucking money for forever?

[nekropsii]

On the topic of Eridan Discourse (eridiscourse?) earlier, I typed up a very long ask this morning (brought to mind by the discussion) trying to pinpoint a specific thing about the way the fandom handles transfem Eridan headcanons that rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of sending it I spent the rest of the day pondering it. Because the thing that was nagging me wasnt "people do it in a mocking way" and certainly not "headcanoning characters as transfem is cringe" and I finally figured it out.

(it feels wrong to use he/him in this context/phrasing so she/her it is) I feel like a lot of transfem Eridan content treats her transitioning as a cure-all for her negative qualities (sometimes explicitly as a punchline to the joke! but a lot of the time more subtly too) in a way that doesn't even necessarily come across as transphobic so much as just plain old misogyny. And yes, if you want to explore something like "once she solves this problem for herself she's able to deal with resolving her harmful viewpoints" that's cool and I get it! I might be more onboard with the headcanon if I saw more content that took itself seriously!

But most of the time it comes across as a binary of "girl will not be as shitty as when she was a boy because that is how Girl and Boy genders work" in a similar way to some June characterizations that replace her character traits to make her fit a certain image of "Girl". Beyond that (even in tons of March Eridan doodles that aren't even straight up drawn in the mocking light of the original) I feel like that same issue comes up in a ton of transfem Eridan art--she's just so flattened and sanitized even by people who seem to be genuinely trying to portray her in good faith.

This also kinda brings to mind the occasional discussion I've seen of transfem Cronus which I believe you've commented on before. My guess for most content I've stumbled on of that (including stuff I've seen one of my good friends create!) is that it's a riff on the March Eridan stuff (which afaik is the reason transfem Eridan is popular in the first place) and not taking the implications/fulfilled stereotypes it brings up into account...which (once again) seems to usually be avoided by tidying up the character flaws and ignoring negative actions to create a Good And Proper girl character which. yeah, isn't much better.

Anyways WOOF that got long but hey I think it was somehow originally longer before it became actual analysis. idk, do you think this checks out? ( oh I added some formatting inspired by how you write posts in hopes it makes it easier to follow...)

Yeah, I don't tend to be a fan of transfem!Eridan works - and even some June works - because a lot of people handle it in ways I just find... Iffy. If it's not weirdly oversexualizing a 13 year old, then it's acting like Transition is a magical Cure-All for every single one of your issues as a person. I don't think it's valuable to pretend that realizing you're Queer automatically deletes any prior character flaws. It's harmful, even - plenty of people will discover their gender doesn't line up with what's been expected of them, or that their attractions aren't a part of the cisheterosexual norm, and... Believe themselves to have done all the legwork necessary to wash their hands clean of any other bigotries. Plenty of Queer people are bigots - be that lateral bigotries, or racism, or ableism, or what-have-you - it's more common than anyone wants to admit. There is a reason that the Progress flag exists, you know?

Eridan and June tend to get flattened down to very stereotypical ideas of the gender of "Girl". June's wildly out of character and portrayed more like fanon!Jade, than... Well, herself as she appears in the comic. Eridan's issues are sanded down to the point where all she is is an evocatively posed barely-teenage mannequin in a skimpy outfit. Both of them are regularly portrayed as having had their issues blip out of existence the second they realized they might not be guys. The transfem!Cronus headcanon will never make sense to me and never be morally okay to me. To say Cronus is Transfeminine is just outright violent Transmisogyny, no matter who it's coming from. That's not even a fucking conversation. It isn't a debate. That's not cute. Really? The guy who fakes minority statuses to try to sleep with people? The aggressive, hyper-bigoted sexual predator? The sex pest who isn't above repeatedly sexually targeting children, one of which he is related to? That? You saw that and thought "That's a trans woman"? Really? You're seriously saying that with zero ounce of shame in your body? Go to hell.

Back to June and Eridan - Part of the issue is Misogyny, yes, but I feel another issue coming to play is that a lot of Tumblr seems to view Queerness as inherently Virtuous, rather than a normal thing that people just happen to be sometimes. Tumblr's prone to very... Unwittingly Catholic mindsets, and Queerness being inherently Morally Cleansing is definitely one of them... And it goes... Extremely unchallenged, all of the time. It's pretty grating, honestly.

[decolonize-the-everything]

Tumblr socio-political observation time

Identifying with fandoms and movements and brands to validate yourself has led to a society where your interests define you and your character instead of your character defining you and your interests and I think as a whole that's why performative activism is so rampant

(and likewise it's probably why people are so protective of the things that bring them a sense of self and why it's so important those things remain politically neutral and separate from politics but that's another post)

I dont necessarily think it's a Bad as in something that makes you evil but it is bad in that we now have a lot of people doing things in good faith that some are doing in bad faith and all these people are being painted the same because as a whole we arent critically engaging with ideas anymore

As a millennial I know am very much responsible for creating that climate. I think a lot of us grew up thinking that we could shame people into being "good" the same way that we were shamed growing up anytime we had an opinion that differed from our bigoted genx & boomer parents.

It manifested in a lot of ways but one of the prominent examples that most of us will remember is doxxing. Now I want to be clear that I never did this myself but doxxing, call out posts, block lists, etc were everywhere from I wanna say about 2007 to 2017 when I'd say it's status as a common social behavior started to be frowned upon and ineffective.

We were trying to hold people accountable with those actions.

I think that very much backfired. Bigots just got better at hiding and they learned to co-opt our language and mental health terms to gaslight us when we did call them out until those words became meaningless to use. It's simple to not appear bigoted now. Just don't share anything from known bigoted brands or companies and don't follow anyone problematic. Easy.

Cuz those define you and your character, right? Isn't that why y'all still put "supports x" as reasons for your own call-out posts? That's what validates or voids your good person card. At least, thats what everyone made it seem like a decade ago.

The millennial failure was how superficial it all was. We weren't dismantling anything. We were shaming support of x, y, & z as a way of shaming bigots and racist comments and calling them out, but we weren't actually learning to recognize or dismantle racism itself and that's how 10+ years later most of us are watching our kids deal with the same shit we did except now they're also struggling with critical thinking skills inside and outside the classroom.

I think a lot of millennials mixed up righteous anger with doing what's right. Thinking that because we were angry about bigotry and taking it out on bigots that meant we couldn't be bigots. I mean everyone is a little bigoted but not like Bigots™ are bigots, you know?

And then we refused to put ourselves under that microscope or think about that any further. We stopped thinking about a lot of things, I think. We started accepting that we would be told what was okay to believe in or say and I think a LOT of millennials esp white millenials still wait for someone else, especially a Black person to speak on something so they can see the "right" side they're supposed to take.

Someone please learn something from this. This is still very much racist and avoiding the issue is still very much enabling white supremacy.

It will only go away if it's directly addressed.

•••

So I'd like to submit a formal request to bring back one good thing from back then. White responsibility for white supremacy.

Some of us may remember some posts that said if anyone should be responsible for engaging with white supremacists and helping them break down their beliefs it'd be white ppl ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ that its dangerous work for anyone else to do (for obvious reasons) and besides that white supremacists won't listen to anyone else. And allies did.

Bring that back.

The defensive white retaliation to this idea is seen on any mutual aid post in comments like "fuck your emotional labor, I don't owe you anything" or "idgaf if youre black/disabled/gay/whatever I don't owe you shit." So for the people getting ready to type something similar in my notes: This is a white supremacist defense mechanism that reinforces BIPOC isolation through individualism without seeming malicious on the surface. We all owe each other something tho; it's how a community operates and how humanity has survived for so long. Don't fall for this line of thinking and don't bring that nonsense to me.

White supremacy won't go away on its own and white supremacists sure as hell won't go away by letting them fester behind block lists until they're old enough to run for senator so if you can handle this task then respectfully, do it.

"but white supremacists are a waste of time to talk to" yeah for those of us who they'd rather see dead.

The labor and time it takes to make a white supremacist see you as a human who says words worth listening to so that you can then have a good faith conversation about politics is not WORTH the effort and risk to safety for the people who they hate. Especially not if we're doing it and getting death threats 9x out of 10 or they just wanted us to waste our time and exhaust us out of being effective

So if you are not included in the list of people that white supremacists want dead then it is worth your time and in fact is arguably one of the most productive ways to spend your time.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[flightfoot]

Fics with major Alya focus that Alya fans should read

So it's hard to find fics where Alya's a central character, where she has a character arc, focus, development of her own to a significant degree, so I figured I'd rec some fics that Alya fans might appreciate! She's not necessarily the main character in all of them, but if she isn't the MAIN main character, then she's still a major character (and almost certainly POV character) in her own right in the fic. I'm only reccing completed fics for this, btw. If anyone knows the tumblr name for any of the authors involved, let me know!

Also I have a blog dedicated to Alya at alyappreciation, so check that out if you're interested!

---

In Direct Opposition by @generalluxun

Alya Cesaire is a brand new student to Francis Dupont, to Paris even. The first student she meets is one Chloé Bourgeois, and Alya is determined to make a friend. Things advance Chaotically. Her new 'friend' is definitely a handful, and suddenly Paris has a supervillain and two brand new superheroes! Alya finds herself balancing a lot of things, trying to live up to her ideals and those of her icons. And then reality seems to contradict itself. As time progresses it seems to happen more often. Becoming a hero, battling villains, staying alive, working through friendships. Something is lurking, tweaking events at times, changing them, and no one seems aware. Alya will need all her wits to get to the bottom of this. Her investigative mind can only get her so far though, and then she needs to rely on her friends. This is not a foe you can beat head on.

---

Alya's Guide To Surviving A Magical Terrorist Which You Can't Remember by PumpkinPatchworkQuilt

In a world where the fight against Hawkmoth is kept secret from the public, one Alya Césaire sets out to bring the whole thing to light, (and possibly win a journalism award while she's at it)

---

Hold Me By Both Hands by @angelofthequeers

“I know he said never to take you back,” Plagg mutters. “But he’d change his tune if he knew.” He looks Adrien straight in the eye and, more serious than Adrien’s ever seen him before, says, “There’s someone you gotta meet. He’s been looking for that book for ages.” How differently might the events of season 2 have gone if Adrien had also known of Master Fu from the start?

---

Vantage Point by @ashes555

Most of the time, with more information, life get easier and things make more sense. But Alya discovers that sometimes, knowing everything is just plain complicated.

---

Trust by bi_skyes

They thought that because they believed Lila’s lies, they would not be trustworthy to Ladybug anymore. They thought wrong.

---

Closure by bi_skyes

After the events of “Trust”, Alya tries to find closure.

---

Lean In by Rachelea3

Marinette spills her secret, and Alya does the only thing she can do.

---

Alya Cesaire Should Be Allowed To Swear by @stripesandblossoms

Akuma attacks don't stop just because Alya is no longer a Hero, but that's fine, because she can still help clear civilians from the danger zone. Even celebrity-friends like Adrien Agreste.

---

Justifying the Means by @ashes555

When the worst happens, Alya finds that she may be willing to do the unthinkable. Is any sacrifice to big to make for her friends?

---

Accidents Are Also Miracles by @liiinerle

After some turbulent days that end with five people knowing her secret identity as Ladybug, Marinette loses faith in her ability to keep herself hidden. Wracked with doubts and insecurities, she pleads with Alya to take over as Scarabella, and tries to disconnect from heroing altogether. Along the way, she starts to date Kagami. Hard as she tries, though, she can't stop worrying - especially not once Monarch takes a particular, and personal, interest in her. At the same time, Alya tries to adjust to her new role while she works to uncover who Monarch really is, and makes some realisations about her own wishes. Kagami struggles against a controlling and abusive parent, and a girlfriend who seems bent on destroying herself - with or without Monarch's involvement. And in the meantime, Alix keeps popping her head back in with offers to help (because cool though time travel is, she misses hanging out in her own time). [Contains some spoilers for early s5 episodes, but otherwise diverges significantly from the plot of the season.]

---

Alya's Amended Guide For Internet Safety (The RPF Remix) by @redrikki

Alya hadn’t meant to fall down the Ladynoir fic rabbit hole. It just happened. She didn't mean to make Ladybug to read fic about herself either. That just kind of happened too.

---

You Are Just A Grin by Midnightdemonht

Oblivio was the only one to need a second separation, even after the butterfly was torn away.

---

the best laid plans (of bugs and bakers) by @mexicancat-girl

Paris is buzzing with the appearance of a new ladybug-themed hero, Scarabella. Alya decides to use her second hero identity to help her best friend Marinette. A bit of her flirting with Marinette is bound to make Marinette's crushes jealous and finally ask her out! Her plan is fool-proof…! Except when it's not. Not enough people are talking about Scarabella flirting with Marinette. How can Alya properly help her best friend if the news can't be bothered to cover Marinette's budding romance with Scarabella and only posts things about Marinette with Chat Noir?! So Alya puts her all into her plan, upping up her flirting each time she appears as the newbie hero Scarabella. This totally does not backfire in any way.

---

Radio Silence by @into-september

When an inexplicable change between Marinette and Adrien brings the two closer than ever, Alya is left on the outside of a secret too confounding to be about cheesemaking or puppy love. [No S4 AU]

---

Creative Lies and Destructive Truths by @azuriteartist

Alya and Lila are two sides of a never-ending fight. The fight between truth and lies, between honesty and deception, between justice and personal gain. And now they have the powers to elevate that fight to a city-wide level. Can Alya stop the deception before it destroys the city? And can Lila stop the truth before it destroys her?

---

The Investigation by @11jj11

Adrien and Marinette are finally dating-- which is what Alya has always wanted... but yet this sudden transformation in their relationship overnight? Things aren't adding up. They are suddenly so much closer than they ever have been before, Adrien is apparently a flirt, Marinette is no longer a stuttering mess, and not to mention the nicknames that came out of no where. Alya is happy for her friends, but she knows there's something more going on, and the reporter in her is going to get to the bottom of it.

---

Cat Naps by BookGirlFan

Chat Noir doesn't care if he dies temporarily. Alya's starting to think he doesn't care if he dies permanently. Marinette's way too stressed for this, so it's up to Alya to find out why Chat Noir's willing to let his cat naps turn into the long sleep.

---

Where were you the first time you were possessed? by @zanzquest

It should be an easy assignment: write about the first time a ghost took over your body to make varying degrees of mischief. There’s just one issue: Alya hasn’t been possessed yet.

---

Is it chill that you're in my head? by @bringthestorm

Alya stared at the picture plastered across the homepage of every single tabloid and news site, whispering every curse she could think of under her breath. SHOCKING SECRET ROMANCE BETWEEN LADYBLOGGER AND PARISIAN SUPERVILLAIN REVEALED!!! the headline announced, casually shouting the words she had been dreading for all of Paris to read. --- Alya had always assumed that someday Paris would discover that she had secretly been kissing their most wanted vigilante, but she had never thought it would happen so soon. As the domino effects of her relationship with Ladybug go spiraling through her life, Alya turns her sights towards the one responsible: the elusive superhero Hawkmoth. AKA Someone outs Alya and her girlfriend so she retaliates by deciding to take down Hawkmoth 

---

Lady and the Fox by @ck2k18

Marinette and Alya, known to their subscribers as “Ladybug” and “Rena Rouge,” have a popular cooking vlog using their parents’ kitchens. While moderating comments, Alya realizes that their viewers assume the two anonymous hosts are a couple, and it causes her to look at her relationship with Marinette in a new light.

(punch punch) fall in love by @mexicancat-girl

One day, Sabrina walks up to Alya. Alone. No Chloe in sight. Sabrina wants to learn self defense. Alya agrees to teach her. Alya ends up getting way more invested than she originally thought she'd be, because Sabrina is a quick learner and sometimes her smile makes Alya's insides go weak.

---

When I Grow Up by waltzofthewifi

-I want to be a superhero." The class stifled laughs. "But superheroes aren't real!" Someone called out. A look through Alya's life. One-shot.

---

disconnected by just_an_ordinary_fan

Lady Wifi believes she might be the only one who does not want to obey Hawkmoth's orders. When she sees another akuma hesitate in the battle, she finds she might not be entirely alone.

Walking that Mile by @nomolosk

Nino and Alya wake up in the wrong bodies. Several things result from this, including, but not limited to, identity reveals and a better understanding of what their respective best friends are going through.

---

(may we write it all down) in cursive light by @sunfoxfic

Since retiring as a journalist, Alya hasn't been involved in an interview in several years. But now that her identity is out, that's about to change.

---

Strangely Familiar by @sunfoxfic

Alya Césaire’s life is perfect. Indeed, between the success of the Ladyblog, how well she’s doing in school, and the fact that she’s a superhero who has never bore the weight of a crisis of epic proportions, her life almost couldn’t be better. Almost. But Alya has always been a go-getter, and so she’ll chase after that perfect life if it kills her. Which is how she ends up rushing to move out of her father’s apartment and in with Marinette, Adrien, and a complete stranger: Nino Lahiffe. And in fact, her life does seem perfect — she and Nino are fast friends. They spend a lot of time together and get to know each other really well. But in the end, fortunate situations will bear unfortunate truths, and she learns things about herself that aren’t quite comfortable. Like I said, though: Alya has always been a go-getter, and she won’t let new feelings deter her from chasing after her perfect life.

---

Trust your instincts by @ultrakart

Alya has the instincts of a fox. Nino finds it hilarious.

---

Foxy Lady by WizardlyMagik

In which Nino finds himself unexpectedly attracted to Rena Rouge, tries and fails to tell his friends and get some advice, and desperately attempts to hide it from his girlfriend. (Who in fact, is planning to use it to her advantage)

---

No One Can See Us Here, Alone; or, The Behaviors of Binary Stars by artEngine

"Yeah, about that," Nino turns to fall in step with her out the door, "Hows about we take a small break from the quests? Chillax, enjoy our money and things?" "You say that now," Alya eyes him from the corner of her vision, "but would you still say that if I told you this special quest was to find a hidden genie for three free wishes?" "Dude. Yes." "Fine. Look, I promise to chill if we go on this quest. Okay?" Nino narrows his eyes down at her pleading expression. This dialogue is suspiciously familiar. Somehow, he gets the feeling that this time will be different. And for some reason, he listens to that feeling. "You're lucky I like you," he concedes. Alya hip-checks him with a winning smile. "That I am." : : A series of Alya and Nino's exploits as a part of the 10,000 gamers who found themselves trapped in Akihiko Kayaba's VRMMORPG game, Sword Art Online. For AU April with the Miraculous Fanworks Discord. (Knowledge of and/or interest in SAO or ALO is not required to enjoy this fic)

---

well somewhere along the way in our words i must've gotten lost by @noirshitsuji

Beelya where Queen Bee visits the Césaire house after Alya writes an article about her fighting Mr. Pigeon alone. Normally Chloé would like the publicity but Alya had titled it ‘The Birds and the Bees’. After that she ends up coming back to complain about her mother. And her father. And about the fact that her oldest friend seems uncomfortable around her. Her visits becomes weekly, then almost nightly. (Don’t forget to include Chloé redemption (and some “Bee Movie” jokes).) * Alya isn’t quite sure how she ended up here, in a place where she isn’t even surprised Chloé would seek her out to talk about her dad, where she wouldn’t even mind her doing so, where she would expect it, where she would– (–thud. She might be in trouble.)

---

Me, My Best Friend, and Her Cat by @ladyofthenoodle

Ladybugs aren't known for being particularly sneaky. Good thing this Ladybug has a fox in her corner, watching her back. (And giving Ladybug's love life a nudge along the way. Maybe more than a nudge. In Alya's defense, Ladybug can use all the help she could get.)

---

Best Laid Plans by @captorations

Alya Césaire had always known she was going to be a superhero one day. She even had a rather unique plan to protect her secret identity, and it worked like a charm. But tricksters have to be careful, lest they end up tricking themselves.

---

Outfoxed by @captorations

Lila Rossi is not a Miraculous wielder. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t have power. Alya was under her spell, along with so many others, until the day Lila unknowingly overstepped herself. Freed at last, the true Fox recognizes magic when she sees it, even if it doesn’t come from a source she understands. She is none too happy about this pretender abusing her natural gifts to make fools of Alya and those she loves. Alya Césaire might need an enchanted necklace and the aid of a tiny deity to cast illusions, but she swore to use her borrowed abilities for the greater good long ago. There is none better suited to facilitate the liar’s downfall. And maybe she’ll help her best friend sort out her increasingly complex love life along the way.

[gayleviticus]

I didn't really notice this before but it's interesting how in the dispute over whether Jesus is casting out demons because he himself is on the devils payroll in Matthew 12 - there's the famous bit about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit which lots of people get hung up on (and understandably so, esp if you struggle w scrupulousity and OCD - very inflammatory thing to put in the Bible @ God).

but Jesus then goes on to talk about good and bad fruits, and this line struck me: "Either make the tree out to be good and its fruit good, or make the tree out to be rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit."

you can kinda sense his frustration here. "make up your minds! either I'm doing something wrong or I'm not; can we not try to claim that I have some evil hidden ulterior motive that makes all the good things I'm doing secretly bad."

now sure, there are circumstances where people can do or support good things for bad reasons (nazis using anti Zionist sentiment as a dogwhistle; terfs making a song and dance about feminism - altho id argue neither of these groups are particularly 'doing' good things just hijacking them, but there are also just homophobic conservative churches that do run soup kitchens and food banks and yet that doesn't counterbalance the bad they do) or do bad things for what they perceive to be good reasons. but seems like what Jesus is talking about is again his old maxim of judge trees by their fruit; don't decide a priori that since X person is wrong therefore everything they do is tainted with wickedness.

blasphemy of the Holy Spirit happens when people see God at work doing good things and decide, in order to preserve their preconceived ideas about the way things are and what's good and bad, to call good evil.

and I think the reason that's an 'unforgivable' sin isn't necessarily because it's a particularly heinous one, but because it fundamentally warps your ability to interpret the actions of God. If you see God's goodness and mercy and grace at work in the world and decide well actually that's the Devil - how are you supposed to ever break out of that and truly recognise God? it's like when someone is hyped up on flat earth, creationism, anti vaxxer, protocols of the elders of Zion conspiracy theories; they've kinda destroyed their ability to even consider any alternative simply by loudly insisting any counterpoint is propaganda, any evidence to the contrary is fabricated, science itself is a hoax. blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the same; people have destroyed any external benchmark (such as the harm and suffering being created) for judging their interpretations of scripture and faith.

and I can't help but think a bit on queer christians (as usual; I need to start finding other topics to get on my soapbox about), bc when we offer the fact that gay relationships or gender transition cultivate love and joy and peace and kindness and goodness, we get very much the same answer as Jesus' critics gave. "Pff. It's the work of the Devil." People a priori reject the good and life giving things we find in queerness because they don't want to deal with the implications of that. and so we get people insisting that bad trees can bear good fruit.

now in fairness they often do try for consistency and insist that actually this good fruit is a hollow lie and truly LGBTQ people are suffering underneath from living against God's will. but I think this view is losing its power bit by bit bc people understand it's asserting ideology over reality. it's a hard sell and not an intellectually serious position. either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad

[trans-cuchulainn]

so i’ve been drawing ulster cycle/tain bo cuailnge characters for a while now and a problem that i have repeatedly run into is that i have no idea how these people dress. their clothes always end up looking wrong and i don’t know where to look to find good info about it or references to work from, and it can be difficult to differentiate the more faithful depictions from the stereotypical “ancient celtic warrior” stuff, especially since i’m not well versed in most of the texts they’re based on. do you have any advice/resources/tips/anything to help? thanks :)

i am not particularly an expert on historic clothing and i have to admit it's not an area i have a great deal of knowledge about in the context of the ulster cycle specifically but here are some thoughts!

a good starting point would be the descriptions of clothes within the texts themselves. so you can just go to the online edition of o'rahilly's translations (recension 1 / book of leinster) and search a word like "cloak" or "tunic" and get all the descriptions of cloaks and tunics that show up in the story itself. e.g:

this is a good starting point bc what you'll be representing is at least clothing as it's presented in these stories even if it doesn't necessarily 100% represent historical fact, because it's often stylised, idealised, uses colours for symbolic value rather than practicalities of dyeing etc

(here's a link to the index of translated texts on this part of the CELT site if you wanna have a browse for others)

but that can be tricky without visual references which is where you start needing other sources

and that's where it's worth noting that the ulster cycle texts are set a long time before they're written, but the material culture in the stories is generally neither a historically accurate representation of the distant past, or a totally contemporary and up-to-date depiction of what people were wearing at the time (bc there's a degree of archaising and trying to make stuff sound old and also drawing on earlier sources). so you end up with multiple options for what period you might be trying to represent -- ~1st cent BCE when they're set? ~8th cent when our earliest surviving stories show up? ~11th-12th cent when TBC was written in its surviving form?

the good news is that you can probably learn a lot from reenactors and experimental archaeologists and living history types -- from vikings in ireland through to normans in ireland is pretty well covered in that regard, but there's some earlier bronze-iron age stuff as well, and that should give you some visual references to draw on. i'm sure some more reenactment and living history minded followers of mine will have specific recs for resources there, but you could try looking at the UCD experimental arch folks, craggaunowen living history centre in the west of ireland (they have a video on weaving and clothing), the dublinia museum for viking-age stuff, etc

and the big advantage of the texts not being "historically accurate" themselves is that you don't have to stick too closely to a specific century or whatever if you don't want to! not that the basic design of a tunic would change a huge amount but if you wanna mix and match the vibes somewhat, nobody could really call you out on it

the HARDEST part is probably representing armour, which shows up fairly rarely, but you've got things like cu chulainn's 27 'waxed shirts' and i've seen various theories about what that's supposed to entail but i don't think there's a definite answer. having said that, most of the time he's not wearing that so you can just... ignore it, if you want to and don't want to conform to any specific theory about it lol

finally you can't go wrong with tunics. just layers of tunics. long tunics under short tunics. tunics with cloaks. fancy tunics. simple tunics. people loved a tunic

[antianakin]

In response to your previous post, why do you think people still love Anakin despite all the selfish and violent things he has done?

Just for archival sake, this is the post I assume you're responding to.

I love when you guys force me to drop the bitter old hag act and be more legitimately analytical about characters I dislike lol.

The somewhat less analytical response to this post is that people like him due to protagonist bias, Hayden Christensen being considered attractive, and Darth Vader having a lot of nostalgia from the OT.

However, while I think those things are always a major aspect in why people like the character, the more analytical version is that Anakin is a character created to be relatable. He's got flaws that most of us can look at and recognize in ourselves and even though he does become a monster because of them, he is also capable of saving himself in the end and doing something heroic despite that, he is allowed to get better and stand next to confirmed good guys like Yoda and Obi-Wan as what seems to be equals, he is capable of being loved by someone as kind and good as Luke Skywalker DESPITE his many flaws and heinous choices. And like... that's an impressively compelling character journey, to see someone become the worst version of themselves it is possible to be and still be loved enough to make the choice to be better.

And it's not like I haven't enjoyed my fair share of selfish characters who do heinous things in my day, even within Star Wars itself. Some of my favorite characters include people like Saw Gerrera and Luthen Rael and Cassian Andor and Reva Sevander, ALL of whom made some pretty nasty choices or acted selfishly at some point or another. Reva is literally built to be a parallel and then foil FOR ANAKIN.

So it's not like I don't necessarily see the appeal of Anakin as this massively flawed character with sympathetic motivations for his immensely awful choices, someone who wanted to be good and, for a little while, WAS good, but who was led towards a dark path that he knew he shouldn't take but took anyway because he let his fears control him. Anakin making the mistakes he does is literally a cautionary tale, you're SUPPOSED to relate to him and see yourself in him, the story kind-of doesn't work if you don't in some ways.

So I think a lot of people who like him probably just see a lot of themselves in him, both good and bad. They project onto Anakin and sympathize with his motives and his struggles and, even though they know he's a screw-up, they root for him. They want him to get better because if someone like Anakin can get better, then so can they, so can we all. Anakin is a cautionary tale saying that even those of us with the best of intentions can lead ourselves down a road of selfishness if we aren't careful about our motives, but he's also a hopeful tale saying that even the WORST of us can lead ourselves back to a road of selflessness if we're willing to put in the effort. So you can feel sympathy for the first half and take strength from the second half of his story, depending on where you are in your life.

This is obviously all sort-of said in like the best faith interpretation of why people might like Anakin. There's plenty of people who like him as a power fantasy, people who see Anakin as this impressive strong character who takes down his abusers and takes control of his narrative by defying the prophecy and killing the Jedi. And, you know, everyone gets to take what they want out of stories of course, but boy do these people and I take VERY different things out of Star Wars. I curate my internet experience so I never have to have anything to do with these people, but they absolutely exist.

And at the end of the day, all of that is wrapped up in a character who, in one trilogy, is played by a very classically attractive actor who gets to kiss Natalie Portman and is occasionally funny, and in the other trilogy, is represented as this cool-looking villain in an imposing black costume with a skull helmet and cape and some memorable quotes. So while the deeper reasons for people's enjoyment of his character definitely exist, the surface-level ones are still there and can enhance that enjoyment a lot.

And I'm sure there's any number of other, smaller things that impacted people's reactions to Anakin. He was introduced as a child in TPM and so people who were expecting this young adult character already in the throes of darkness might've ended up seeing him very differently and relating to him on a whole different level. People might've ended up rooting for him because the representation of the Jedi was so far away from what they THOUGHT Jedi would be that they ended up liking Anakin simply because he's pitted against the Jedi they didn't like. Maybe some people didn't like him until TCW and they really appreciate THAT version of Anakin quite a lot, maybe especially his relationship with Ahsoka. Maybe some people just really fell for the doomed romance plotline with Padme. Maybe some people like him because Obi-Wan and Luke like him and those dynamics are intriguing to them.

But for me, Anakin has just never felt all that compelling. I was introduced to the Prequels first as a kid and I was far more invested in Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon (who were way funnier than Anakin ever was) and Padme (who had really pretty costumes). I didn't HATE Anakin by any means, but he wasn't all that funny, he didn't have the cooler action scenes for the first two films, and the romance plotline didn't hook me. I didn't mind Anakin as an accessory to Obi-Wan, but that was about as far as I went.

As I got older and more into the fandom, though, I started learning a lot more about the Jedi and why they WEREN'T the true villains of the Prequels the way everyone said they were and what Lucas's messages had actually been intended to be, and the romance with Padme just kept aging like milk, and my investment in the Jedi often meant defending them AGAINST people who saw them as no more than Anakin's abusers at worst, or a repressive society that unintentionally led Anakin to darkness at best. Arguing FOR the Jedi usually meant arguing AGAINST Anakin and pointing out all of the places HE was wrong and selfish and why the Jedi were RIGHT not to trust him. And the more passionate I got about defending the Jedi, the less and less I ended up liking Anakin. I wasn't overly invested in him in the first place, so it wasn't hard to take me from neutral to decidedly negative. Had I enjoyed him more as a kid, either in the Prequels or the Original Trilogy, maybe I would've landed in a different place with him, but I didn't. It didn't feel like any great loss to decide I didn't like him that much anymore. By comparison, I liked Padme a lot more as a kid and so even though I often find her just as selfish as Anakin, I like her a lot more usually.

So I get why people find him compelling, I really do, but he just doesn't speak to me. I highly doubt he ever will anymore.

[verifiedaccount]

As I was getting wheeled in to be put under for a GI procedure today, overheard the docs and technicians talking about the election. The GI doc was a "I'm not saying I love Trump, I just think he's a good man that does good things, and his only mistake is having twitter. If he did something wrong, the impeachments would've been successful or the federal courts would've convicted him." The mixed-race group of anesthesiologists and techs seemed open to this, and to the GI doc's contention that Biden, who initially seemed reasonable, had let the far left take him over, was going further than Obama, and, "now I don't know enough about this to say anything one way or the other for sure, but I've seen people say that Obama is pulling the strings." He mentioned that he gets his news from sites that have it "unfiltered."

This in itself wasn't shocking, really. Having grown up with doctor parents, spent time around them and their colleagues, and worked in a hospital for a few years making in the supply department making rounds and catching convos, I don't have a great estimation of the intelligence or reasoning of doctors on any subjects non-medical. Not that a medical education is easy, but it's also not as much based around great reasoning skills or critical thinking. The tough parts have more to do with memorization and grueling hours; they learn to read and interpret symptoms and signs to narrow things down the right diagnosis, often by process of elimination (as this GI procedure was for, primarily ruling stuff out), and then they consult texts or specialists for the set of steps to take based on the diagnosis. A surgeon has to be able to remember exactly what to do, have the hand-eye coordination and nerves to do it properly, and the ability to think quickly the times when something unexpected happens, which again, is a specific skill not necessarily correlated to general learning. It is a trade more similar to being a mechanic or tech support person than not, just with higher stakes and a more complicated and variable system to work to interpret, all of which take a kind of focus and intelligence that doesn't necessarily translate to other subjects. Combine that with long hours that don't leave a lot of time, energy, or motivation to keep up with non-work related stuff, and you have what can be a pretty ill-informed group of people who nevertheless believe they're really smart, in part because other people tend to assume they're smart.

The part that threw me off is I thought that even Trump supporters, outside of the hardcore cultists who see him as a literal savior, weren't under the illusion that he was a good guy, they just believed he'd be effective at accomplishing what they wanted. He'd get things done, however he got them done (no need to look closely or ask questions as long as things are taken care of), and they'd get a piece of the action. I mean, he's a guy that has bragged repeatedly, on the record, about doing crimes and having mafia connections, he's openly and proudly crooked, he's personally unpleasant and bad at pretending to give a shit about anyone that can't do something for him right this second. And, christ, a guy in his 50s with that kind of straightforward faith in the court system and judges. It's funny, though, I was arguing with my dad that Biden's overtures to Republicans were a stupid wasted because he's against a party with a sizeable number of people who think he and his party literally sacrifice children for their glands, and the ones that don't actually believe it are willing to indulge the ones that do, so he should have ignored them and just focused on things people like, because his opponents would never concede anything to him, they're even accusing him of not being in the tank enough for Israel, for chrissakes. So it was validating in a sense to hear that someone considering themself a Trump-curious moderate considers Biden irredeemably corrupted by the loony left, although based on the fact that he goes places for "unfiltered" news that paints a positive portrait of Trump as an honorable, sensible, moderate Republican and Biden as an extreme leftist, I doubt the GI doc is as moderate as he presents himself. Or he thinks the Epoch Times is non-partisan.

I was reminded of working in a hospital in 2016, after the "pussy tape" came out, and overhearing one of the docs in the ICU, a blonde woman in her 30s, fully buying into and defending the "locker room talk" excuse to the puzzled male docs, who'd figured this would be the end of her support for him. That was jarring, but did fit more with the "he's no choirboy, but I think he'll get things done" mindset that I assumed to be the default position of people who vote/voted for Trump without fully buying into the Trump loyalist ethos.

Well, at least my GI issues are on the way to getting treated.

[decepti-thots]

re: writing fandom meta and why there might be less of it recently - the fandom spaces I started out in ~15 years ago didn't have any meta, at least not in the way they have now, so the whole thing is comparably new to me. and then the meta I see always posts that seem to take SO MUCH of canon/background knowledge into account, so many things that I haven't even heard of. and there's so many posts criticizing (parts of) fanon and common fannish opinions, which I often understand, but which also feel a bit elitist and doesn't make me wanna try putting my thoughts on a piece of media into words just to get criticized. finally, I also don't know how to - last time I analyzed media was in school, and I was never good at it.

Thank you for this ask anon, first off! All of this is really interesting to hear, and a lot of it lines up with things people said in shorter responses directly on the post, so it looks like there's definitely some overlap in terms of common pain points in terms of this stuff. (And not just "pain" points, to be clear- folks also basically said that they preferred expressing their ideas through fiction, which is fair, and not really a thing that exists as something causing friction, per se, as much as an active enjoyment of fanfic as a way to express ideas.)

I hope you don't mind if I use this response as a launching point to give a few of my personal thoughts on this, because you so happened to bring some stuff up I kind of wanted to give a perspective on anyway. Not necessarily as a direct response in all regards, but it seems as good a place as any to touch on my own feelings? (Under a cut, feel free to skip this, if you do then thanks again for responding!)

The point you make about how meta wasn't much a thing in fandom spaces you were in 15 years ago is interesting, because one of the things I always think when I see the argument there's universally "less meta" now than there used to be is: does at least some of this stem from the folks saying(/bemoaning) this come from them being in different fannish spaces that the ones they're in now and not realising? It's a similar thing to when people confidently assert "people comment less on fics than they used to", where I can't help but wonder how much of that is just that the fandoms they are in today have different ways of engaging with fanwork, or different expectations, or that the fandom spaces they used to be in commented a lot relatively speaking. 15 years ago, I was in fandoms mostly based around LiveJournal communities, which were often assumed to be the obvious "centre" of fandom activity by folks in said communities. (Incorrectly; LJ only looked like the "main hub" of all online fannishness if it was where you and your fandoms mostly clustered, IME.) A lot of those were media fandoms (though not all) and those tended to have a lot of meta, I would argue at least in part because LJ as a "format" encouraged the posting of long, pre-mediated posts that lent itself well to folks wanting to write meta. But some other fandoms (a lot of anglophone animanga fandoms come to mind) tended to not have nearly as much because people were mostly engaging with them in places and communities where those things didn't line up in a way that encouraged it. The move to Tumblr and even Twitter as big fannish platforms where things work differently is then probably also of note, idk!

(Sidenote: the AO3 meta wars when it launched are probably worth mentioning, since the push to allow fannish nonfiction on AO3 was in part a result of Tumblr seeming like a very bad replacement for LJ when it came to posting essays!)

Anyway, a really common thing that seems to be cropping up is the "if I post an opinion as meta, it opens me up to [potentially virulent, potentially bad-faith] criticism, and that sounds unfun" fear. Which on the one hand is not necessarily untrue because I think even now fannish norms around meta are just a little different than other forms of fanworks, yes. Meta is usually seen as, on some level, an invitation to discussion in a way that e.g. fanfic often isn't. What I do think is interesting to think about here is it seems like there's not a lot of faith that there could be productive, even fun disagreement on specifics and readings. I'm not saying that wariness is necessarily wrong, to be clear. (I have been on the receiving end of plenty of virulent, bad faith "criticism" in my fannish life, haha. Or just... like... bad criticism that is tiring and unproductive and unnecessary, lol.) I mention it more because it seems worth explicitly saying that the assumption that being contradicted, corrected and/or argued with is an inherently unpleasant or even disciplinary way to experience fandom is one that seems to be pretty deep-rooted in fandom right now, and it seems worth pointing that underlying principle out.

To bring that back a little to the "platform shapes the fandom engagement" thing, I do think the way Tumblr works contributes to that. Reblogging to add additions has a very different impact that replying to someone else's static blogpost, and reblogging is (as people do keep pointing out on viral posts, haha) the primary encouraged form of interaction on this site. It's different in multiple ways; a person reblogging something often feels like they are talking about your ideas in the abstract and not by talking to you as a person which can encourage a very different tone and approach on their part and make their addition read very differently. And it also means that your post may not just be contradicted, but the contradiction may wind up being exposed to huge numbers of people as the default way of seeing your post and opinions. That makes the idea of being subject to that disagreement higher stakes, I feel, and also the idea of productive back-and-forth functionally impossible a lot of the time. (It also means having a full conversation often requires constantly spamming your followers, let alone multiple convos.)

So I fully get it. But I do also think it's a shame that it can be really hard to imagine fannish communities where disagreeing back and forth on different ideas about a canon or text is... fun? I guess? I sometimes find that stuff fun, is the thing! When done in a good faith way and an environment it works in. You wind up with all these interesting perspectives that may run very contrary to your own but still have interesting ideas in them, and sometimes you wind up with opportunities to expand on ideas you had but hadn't yet found a way to articulate them. I don't think that's going to be fun for EVERYONE but I think it's a shame that it seems so universally... terrifying, for a lot of people? Fandom is a very good place, if nothing else, to practice getting comfortable with low-stakes intellectual disagreement. (Because for most things, it really is low-stakes as hell.)

I do want to touch on the elitism comment though. I find that... a strange perspective tbh? It's true that doing analysis generally holds a baseline expectation of familiarity with the canon, but I can't really see how that can reasonably be called "elitist". Similarly I think there's a sense where someone will sometimes see people strongly dislike a thing they enjoy and feel the need to argue why that person is "wrong", such as when folks defend their fave fanon against folks who find it tiring/uninspired/etc. I think this post really sums my thoughts on that up, tbh. Sometimes what can kneejerk feel like a person passing judgement on you is actually them being a bit bitchy in their own space knowing full well they're talking about their own taste and nothing more. IDK.

[iturbide]

What would the Elyusians' religion even be??? Like, we get so little info on them and what they believe, that when we see Sombron and he's clearly doing evil things, it's like. How did this guy get a religion??? Like, from only seeing what the game shows us, it's hard to imagine a religion based on Sombron that would have any good to it. I mean, that's clearly what the game was going for, just pure cartoonish evil, but c'mon... do better.

Yeah, unfortunately the whole impression of any potential Elusian religion is tainted by seeing how Sombron is in person. He is wretched. There is nothing good about him.

But also...religion is a funny thing. It's not so much about the deity, but about the stories and what they mean to the people that embrace them. Sombron can be an absolute piece of shit (and he is) without that necessarily reflecting in any way on the faith itself that adopted him as a central figure.

Like, just as an example. We know that Sombron had a lot of kids with a lot of different dragons. We also know that Hyacinth himself had both a wife and at least one concubine, with each one bearing a daughter. While Sombron himself is a vile piece of work who used his children to further his goals and disposed of them for the most minor of infractions, Ivy and Hortensia both agree that, before coming under Sombron's thrall, Hyacinth was a loving father -- so it doesn't seem unreasonable to speculate that the Elusian faith prizes family, using a muddled record of Sombron's own situation as the basis for it. It's also clear that Ivy and Hortensia love each other dearly, which could similarly play into that concept of valuing family -- especially if Sombron's own children have any minor standing in the faith.

We know that Hortensia's mother was looked down upon for being a concubine, but we don't know what the underlying source of that disdain was: it might have been a matter of class difference between queen and concubine, with the queen coming from high nobility and the concubine coming from either a family of lower standing or even a commoner -- but we also know that Hortensia's mother eventually won over the queen herself with her smiling perseverance. Given the trials that Sombron put his children through to test their mettle, it's not impossible for me to imagine that, a thousand years down the line, the Elusian faith has enshrined such perseverance in its scriptures as a virtue.

And this is just from what very little I know from the interactions in the main game and the few supports I've managed to get with Ivy and Hortensia. There's potential for a lot more -- but it's on fans to make it all up, because the game went out of its way to imply that Elusia is as evil as the divine at the core of its faith.

[l-e-morgan-author]

Love in Hands Made For Gentleness

One of the themes in this book are the different forms of love, and - like many others - I think about the Greek words to ensure I explore it the way I want to. It's an interesting thing to think about, how each form of love is manifested, and is something I hold very close to my heart, because after all 'these three abide, but the greatest of these is love'. Given that both faith and hope are also crucial elements (hope gets more of a talking-about, but that's inextricably tied into faith as it is for me), it's important that I don't forget about their greater counterpart, love. I wanted to break it down and discuss a bit about how the different forms of love are displayed.

This necessarily involves spoilers, so if you want to scroll right past and remain unspoiled, feel free to! (And yes, I do indeed overanalyse my own works, what of it?) Also note: trigger warnings consistent with the book itself, since some of the topics discussed may be distressing (if you find discussion of topics like suicide distressing, a) please take care of yourself, and b) this probably won't be the book for you).

So in no particular order:

Philia

Philia is the love of friends, platonic love. This is really where Vaniah and Anneka start out, in a way - very good friends, very affectionate, and entirely platonic. Before we get into the more complicated feelings as they grow closer after their marriage, one of my aims with this book is to emphasise the importance of platonic love, as well as its depth, and that it absolutely doesn't need to romantic to be very close and extremely important to the people in it. For Vaniah, Anneka is the most important person in his life, even before their marriage.

Eros

Eros is the interesting one here to me - the passionate romantic or sexual love. It's definitely important to this story and these characters; Vaniah has some trauma around all of this to work through, but ultimately, they're married, they're going to be doing married people shenanigans. (Not on page, don't worry. There'll be discussions around that topic, as necessary, but since it's not a topic I really want to touch for personal reasons I doubt it'll have a great deal of page time.) It's important, but most of the hints around it will probably be accidental; I know I've shared excerpts that are just them playing around and being silly, and certain people look at them and see sexual undertones I never intended. Ah well.

Agape

Agape is the most important love here, I think - the self-sacrificing, selfless love. It's unconditional, and very much represents the bond between Vaniah and Anneka as it heals. Both are willing to do whatever it takes for the other to grow better and closer to God, at least in theory, and over time that translates to wanting their own healing in order to stop grieving the other person (more relevant for Vaniah than Anneka). At a certain point with a lot of mental problems, I feel like one stops caring about healing, and it's a struggle sometimes to remember why you would try, because it's easier to just exist and not try to improve. Over time, though, Vaniah and Anneka help one another to heal from their respective problems. They won't go away completely, of course, but whatever they can do to help, they do, and I love them for it. Anneka, for instance, is very willing to hear about dark, graphic thoughts and see some very graphic things, if it will help Vaniah (like when she helps him to care for self-inflicted wounds, which understandably deeply upsets her). Despite how it may make her feel, she's determined to continue to love him no matter what, and that's something she emphasises, especially when he gets existential and at one point even suggests she should divorce him and let him die by his own hand. (She refuses, reminds him of her love and God's love, and pulls out verses to support her point.)

Storge

Storge is the familiar love, love of family. This is one most represented by Anneka's bond with her brother, Ben. While Vaniah has two siblings, one is already dead by the start of the story, and the other, Susan, doesn't get a great deal of page time. Because the story is told from Anneka's point of view, the two most important male characters are Vaniah and Ben. Her relationship with Ben mimics my own bond with my siblings. I wanted him to be her protector, to some extent, until that role is handed more to Vaniah. Though she can stand for herself, Anneka still needs the love and support of her family and friends, just like we all do. For Vaniah and Anneka, the support and protection goes both ways.

Mania

Mania is another interesting one, and not one I'd really considered specifically until writing this post. As part of his mental health journey, Vaniah sometimes veers close to obsession, or stumbles into it completely. He is at times violent, but never towards Anneka, only himself. There's a spice of codependency as well, as they both know he would have committed suicide years earlier if it hadn't been for her, and at times, at his lowest, he resents her for it. There are a lot of toxic emotions tied up into this relationship, but together (and with the help of others from their church) they work through it and out the other side.

Ludus

This is another form of love I hadn't considered until writing this post, but I'm glad I did. It's an integral part of Vaniah and Anneka's relationship, and serves to lighten the admittedly heavy tone of this book. They have a lot of fun together, even despite the terrible darkness that sometimes assails one or both of them, and it's important to remember. It's also tied into the banter between Anneka and Ben, which can sometimes be pretty similar to the way Vaniah and Anneka interact. But they absolutely can't be sad or depressed all the time, because that would be a terrible book to read. I need to work more on putting this in, and the balance between light and dark, so that it doesn't feel jarring or confusing, or different to the tone of the rest of the book.

Pragma

Pragma is an enduring love, and it's extremely important to their relationship. Both Vaniah and Anneka have to make compromises to make things work, and as they mature and heal from their traumas and disorders, they learn to work together better, and the codependency they previously experienced is transformed into a strong, healthy and abiding bond in Christ.

Philautia

Oh look, another one I hadn't expressly thought about before this post! Philautia is the love of self. This one is interesting because it ties into my opinion that both 'self love' and 'self hatred' are expressions of self obsession, which isn't really a very good thing, obviously. At the start of the story, Vaniah absolutely can't get past his feelings about himself, his guilt over what he was forced to do or chose to do, and the way he perceives himself at that point. However, as it progresses, he learns to forgive himself (there's one scene in which Anneka argues that God has forgiven him if he has repented, and he bitterly retorts that all he needs to do is forgive himself, for he has repented a thousand times), and finally to move on after years of feeling stuck in one place. This is only really possible after he hits the lowest point and attempts suicide, and finally makes the decision that he will never end his own life, no matter what. He eventually reaches a point at which he is less self-obsessed (tying it in to the development of agape love as well), and is able to look more outwards without obsessing over his own behaviour; he doesn't love himself, but he has learned to accept himself and to largely stop punishing himself for his own existence, which is what is tied into his significant habit of self-harm. (Which he does eventually manage to stop completely; I'm not sure that's entirely possible for some or even most people, at least given how established it is as a coping mechanism for him, but there might be a little bit of wishful thinking helping this one along, and that's okay.)

So those are the different forms of love as expressed in this story! I could probably talk a lot more about them if I sat down and thought about it for even longer, but I really shouldn't. I have an exam to study for. God be with you.

In a slightly edited form, this post will also be available on my website, lemorganauthor.wordpress.com, shortly. (Edit: the post is now available at this link which I hope works because I've never done a hyperlink on tumblr before.)

[rosalind-hawkins]

Ryo for the meme?

So sorry for the delay on this one! I kept having issues with my draft not saving and needing to start over.

I sincerely think Ryou was my first favorite character from Yugioh, even before Kaiba, if you can believe it.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

When I was first introduced to Yugioh, what struck me about him and made me latch onto him was the obvious emotional pain. At the time I was just starting to figure out my own depression and anxiety that my family was oblivious to, and I think I just related to that lack of support. I guess this is the answer for Question 25.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

How excited her gets about food, actually. He and Joey are probably almost equally enthusiastic about it, and it's adorable.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

How they changed his dad in DSOD. I preferred it when the dad was an oblivious nerd just trying to give his son a cool gift instead of being a power-hungry weirdo.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

This probably sounds silly, but I want him living his best life in a Pokemon game with a team that he's bonded to, getting to live an RPG adventure just like Monster World, but a little bit safer. I want him taking a nap leaning on his Altaria with an Absol curled up at his feet, looking like it's asleep but keep watching. And don't forget his floaty little Shuppets hovering about.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Friend of Foe by t.A.T.u. because I watched so many AMVs at the time that I was introduced to Yugioh. The song captures his poignant and desperate confusion with his own life and identity.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Honestly, aside from Question 1, nothing specific comes to mind aside from general nerdiness. I used to have a bad sweet tooth, like I imagine he does, but not so much anymore.

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Making him a sweet spooky boi with 27 tarot card decks at home that dresses like he's going to bible study. Also, a big one is giving him visible scars from all the stuff Y B has put him through: the arm, the left hand, the chest.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I wouldn't say despise. Not sure I'd say I dislike anything the fandom does with him too much

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

I imagine he's a night owl, so as long as he keeps things quiet at night, we wouldn't have a problem.

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Definitely! We could probably introvert in the room together, doing our own things, or chat about art.

11. Would you date this character?

Again, I'm married, but if I had the chance and Y B was gone for good, absolutely.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I've actually always headcanoned that Ryou had a Catholic mom and she tried to pass on her faith to him, but it didn't fully stick, necessarily. This isn't from nowhere, I swear. In the church scene in season five, in the English dub, Ryou goes into the church saying "I should be safe in here" after running from a disembodied voice. I think that means that he must have some small level of faith if he thinks the church itself will ward off the evil.

13. What's an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

🥰👀🙏🤷‍♀️🤔

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Galaxy Goth - Give him star earrings and glittery platform boots. Give him galaxy print leggings and an illusion neckline shirt with sheer/lacy sleeves. 👌👌👌👌👌✨✨✨✨✨✨ Hell, make it femboy too, he could rock that so hard. Make it pastel galaxy goth, it works just as well. Dress this boy up.

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

You know I can't ever just pick one ship. I'm a multishipper. It's never just one.

Euroshipping, Minorshipping, and Puffshipping are my top three.

Mumbleshipping, Rollshipping, and Teaseshipping are my top poly ships for him.

Honorable mention to Graceshipping, cause I think he and Ishizu could be so damn sweet together, and that's my #1 straight ship for him.

16. What's your least favorite ship for this character?

Tendershipping, actually. I don't hate on it or people who like it, and I have a soft spot for some of his ships, but I just can't see Yami Bakura the way a lot of the fandom sees him, and that's where it comes from. I don't wanna get into it because this isn't a Y B post. I'll just leave it at that. No hate here, just a different perspective.

17. What's a ship for this character you don't hate but it's not your favorite that you're fine with?

Deathshipping. I can appreciate some of the art and some of the sillier conceptions of this ship, but I'm not personally into it.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

I haven't read the manga, but I've seen enough moments from it of Ryou and Joey together (included what looked like stealing a camel together), and their bond in DSOD was too adorable. It made me so happy to finally see somebody standing up for Ryou.

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don't like?

Obviously I wish he didn't get so roughed up by Y B.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

Normally I'd leave ship characters out of it, but I can't help it: Ishizu, Joey, and Duke are my top picks here.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I play around with different versions of what's Ryou's mentality can be like after Bakura is gone and what the lasting impact is. There's a lot of options there, which is why I don't write just one version of Ryou.

22. If you're a fic reader, what's something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don't like?

There's a lot of things that people do with him. I love when people flesh out his relationship with his family and

23. Favorite picture of this character?

EVERY PICTURE HE IS PRECIOUS

But him with the banana.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Okay, gonna try to stick to canon personality with this.

From Touken Ranbu, Nikkari Aoe. He seems sweet and normal on the surface, and then he'll suddenly say the weirdest occult crap to you with the most normal smile and you just want to back away slowly. And then you realize, oh dear this man's a weirdo. An absolute weirdo. (He's the one that can see ghosts after all, there's a real connection over that.) (He gets two gifs because you need to understand what a weirdo he is.)

From UtaPri, we've got Shion from Heavens. He's a quiet shy boy on the surface with soulful eyes, but still waters run deep. I feel like they're both easy to underestimate.

And from Nanbaka, I can't really explain why, I always associated him with Seitarou Tanabata. Maybe because they share the spiky Christmas tree hair, idk. Maybe I just think they'd be good friends.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

See Question 1.

26. FREEBIE QUESTION!!

This boy is helpless in the kitchen. He's gonna have to count on his partner to either cook for him or teach him how to cookl

[pearwaldorf]

(jumping off Kate's post here)

People talk about stories where it's obvious it's fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, but nobody ever discusses the ones where they're obviously OCs with blorbo names*.

I read a modern AU Good Omens story once. This particular Aziraphale had absolutely no doubts about his faith and trusted in a heavenly plan that everything would work out. Crowley was wrong too, but I can't remember how. I also can't fathom an Anathema who has no anxieties about predestination and living up to lofty expectations.

idk about you, but an author would have to do a lot of fucking work to convince me these are remotely the same characters I'm familiar with in canon. I'm not saying it's impossible, but you gotta show your work.

As a piece of original romance fiction it was great! I would have been happier reading it as origfic! Would I have done so? Most likely not, but I think it would have been much fairer to me as a reader knowing these characters were nothing like how I understand them.

And then there's something like Slow Show or this tired world could change. They're obviously AUs but are rich enough on their own you could enjoy them without any knowledge of the canon**.

One of these is obviously more successful than the other, in terms of working as a piece of fanfiction, but I don't think something that can stand alone is necessarily better or worse as a fanfic. To me, the thing that makes it a piece of transformative work is the way it engages in conversation with the source work itself. It can be as subtle as a minor divergence from canon or as large as displacing the characters in space and time, but it has to consider the source work in some way for it to count.

--

* I can see why people accuse OFMD of being this, but then again there are also people who can't separate reality from fiction and think the people who have the same names as our blorbos are totally fine. (Spoiler: they are not. They are really really not.)

** A particular thing I love is when AUs stand alone but have excellent throwbacks to the canon. The book rescue scene in Slow Show nearly broke my brain the first time I read it. Would it be affecting if you didn't know the reference? Yes. But if you did? Ohhhh myyyyy godddd.

[blazehedgehog]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been a meteoric success, which is significant because animated films typically don't do as well as live action ones, doubly so as a video game adaptation film. In this vein, do you hope that when Sonic one day have an animated feature film (obviously not the next one since it's a live-action sequel), it would have a similar success like the Mario movie? Not necessarily a billion-dollar one, but maybe more successful than the live-action ones?

That would be nice, yeah. In the back of my mind I wonder if they're watching how well Mario does being so pure and faithful to the source material. Because when you think about it, there isn't actually a lot in the Sonic movies that's actually directly from the games.

There's a lot of inspiration, sure. You'll catch something like Agent Stone working at a coffee shop called "The Mean Bean", but that's a small background thing. Or Sonic will grab a piece of trash and go snowboarding with it, stuff like that. But it's not like he's IN THE ACTUAL ICECAP ZONE, with the ICECAP ZONE MUSIC PLAYING while he does it, you know? Which Mario has. Cranky Kong tells Mario to "pick his kart" and he plops down in front of the interface from the game while a riff on the Mario Kart 8 selection music plays. And then, when they get out driving down Rainbow Road, you hear a brief, soaring orchestral version of the SNES Rainbow Road music.

And that's really nice, you know?* It's not making excuses for itself. For all the work they did redesigning Sonic to not be so creepy looking in those Paramount movies, Mario did the one thing that makes the Sonic movies look like they're still embarrassed of the video games. Sonic winks to people who know the games, whereas Mario makes it the whole subtext. Lumas and Koopa Troopas and Kongs all over the place.

Though, to be clear: the Mario movie also does go out of its way to make a "new version" of the Mario Universe specific to the movies. We get a lot of characters in this movie that have never ever been seen in the games. We get to see Mario's whole family, they suggest Peach might have a mysterious origin story, little elements like that which the movie "owns."

But regardless, it's more pure, you know? The Mario movie feels more like Mario than the Sonic movies feel like Sonic, or at least, I think so.

So I imagine, as pre-production of the third Sonic movie continues, they're looking closely at what Mario's doing right and discussing what lessons they would be willing to apply going forward. Though, certainly, if they're adapting Sonic Adventure 2 now, that lends itself more than anything else to Sonic being in a world of humans.

But hey, fingers crossed for Live & Learn over the final battle, right?

And maybe, just maybe, we'll get a Sonic movie some day that's all animation. As I left the theater, I was definitely wondering what a Sonic movie would look like if it was like that. Probably sort of like Night of the Werehog, but updated with more expensive rendering techniques, right? It would be pretty nice.

*To the person who complained to me months ago that the Sonic movies needed to include more game music, and I tried to find an excuse for that: I'm sorry for everything I said.

[caparrucia]

i don't think people truly care about morality in fiction. people use "morality" as an start drama and discourse and harassment campaigns because they're so bored with their lives they have nothing to do. by using the morality excuse, they shift all blame to the people they're trying to other and not them. because these same people who scream about morality in fiction are also the people who also drawn-up long-ass excuses about why they support a something (totally not financially of course!) made by actual known bigots who spew hateful shit about real groups of people and actively try to harm real life society. they'll whine about how a piece of media is toxic and disgusting, but when presented with a piece of media that isn't so, they find reasons to make it problematic (even something as stupid as an author liking a tweet made by some guy who got cancelled 7 years ago for making shitty mario porn) so that way they feel good about hating it.

nobody cares about having a discussion about morality in fiction and how it reflects or affects or real world. people just want an excuse to be horrible people for the sake of it.

So, I don't think you're wrong, necessarily, in so far as yeah, none of these conversations about morality in media are being had in good faith, because a lot of people don't even know what a good faith conversation about morality in media even looks like.

Spoilers: it's not about "this thing shouldn't exist and we should make it so people do not create things like this, by force if necessary." It's more along the lines of "what kind of commentary and reception will encourage better ethics in media production" and "is there anything worthwhile to discuss about any given work, is the transgresiveness of the morality within meant to say something, or is it really just not that deep, bro."

Notice the distinct lack of "THIS SHOULDN'T EXIST" and "YOUR MEDIA CREATION/CONSUMPTION DEFINES YOUR MORAL CHARACTER" and trying to litigate the concept of "GOOD PERSON." Because all of those are dog whistles for anti-intellectualism and pro-censorship tendencies that are prime to be radicalized into something... well. Radical.

My thing is, genuinely, dipping into the ad hominem is cathartic but not particularly useful. And yeah, accusing them of doing what they're doing out of boredom is, in fact, ad hominem. Because that automatically changes the discussion back to the whole "NO, I AM NOT A BAD PERSON, I AM IN FACT A GOOD PERSON, THEREFORE EVERYTHING I DO IS GOOD BY DEFAULT" track of circular argument that ultimately devolves into thought crime.

It doesn't matter why they're doing it. What they're doing is wrong and harmful, and the way to put a hard stop on it, is to not engage with it. Because engaging on their level, engaging on theorizing about "why" is inadvertently affirming the validity of their viewpoint. It's tacitly acknowledging that if there's a good reason for it, the tactics themselves can be used. I think that's incorrect. The tactics are deplorable, regardless of what objective one argues they're working towards.

I've had conversations about this with a friend, where they educated me on a lot of the nuance about depictions of torture in fiction. And how the concept of "torture bad" is inherently diminished when your fiction also portrays "torture works" unironically right next to it, because it legitimizes torture as a thing that gets results, even though it is scientifically proven that it doesn't. But in the attempt to characterize the bad guys as bad and immoral, many writers use torture as synecdoche, where torture ends up being bad because it's used by the bad guys, not because torture itself is pointless cruelty weaponized stupidly.

And I feel the same way about the playbook of derailment and plain old bad faith engagement with media and morality. It doesn't matter why people are engaging in it, I don't think. Maybe individual cases, when you know someone who's falling into the funnel and you're trying to reach out and try to get them away from that edge. But in general? It doesn't matter. You're causing harm, and from a harm reduction perspective, what matters is figuring out an effective way to stop them.

This is also how I engage with other radicalized, discourse poisoned bigotry champions, like T*RFs. There's nothing inherently valuable in their ideology or their methodology, so the best thing you can do is de-platform it, as aggressively as possible. Because even just spreading it in order to dunk on it is just causing splash damage on people around you. And it might sound dramatic, but given how much of the rhetoric on faux media criticism revolves around horrific abuse being commodified for internet discourse points, and given the fact abuse is generally under reported and abuse victims are often around us, keeping their status to themselves for their own safety... yeah, it is harmful to spread even for the fun snarking.

I'm big on harm reduction. I look at problems and conflicts and I try to go for whichever option, at the time, I believe is going to cause the least harm possible. I also really don't believe in giving power to structures that are known to abuse it, because I belong to quite a few groups that have been historically the first ones to get shat on as soon as those shiny new powers are abused. And they will always be abused. I understand that is a frustrating POV for a lot of people, because I'm always of the naysayers that keeps trying to figure out how rules made in good faith will be abused in bad faith, but I've been on the internet for 25 years and I've done moderation work often enough, both IRL and online, that I consider that to be just basic politics.

Don't give the dude who wants to shiv you a knife, no matter how much he promises he's not going to use it on you.

[jurakan]

Can you elaborate more on the beginning of genesis? I always took it literally because I assumed it was a sin not to, and now I’m wondering what the other school of thought is. Thank you

As with any issue of the Bible, the answer is "There are a lot of answers that everyone disagrees on," but I'm going to try to explain my point of view as best as I can, and I appreciate that you came to my inbox in good faith to ask.

[I'm going to put a disclaimer/label here that I am Catholic and my answers reflect that mindset of theology; I don't know your denomination so I can't speak to what they say about it. Also I am not a theologist! So don't take this as Gospel.]

But basically... no, it's not a sin. If it is, it's certainly not mortal, as Saint Augustine of Hippo (who is a Doctor of the Church) argued against a literal interpretation of the Creation account in Genesis, if for the logical reason of "How does one measure days before God invented daylight?" Plenty of Church Fathers worked under the assumption that they were not six literal days of Creation, so it's not precisely a new point of view. (That's a link to Catholic Answers, which can be hit or miss sometimes, but I've taken a look at that article, which has actual quotes from Church Fathers so I'll go with it, and others I link to here.)

Let's start with this: the Bible is not a book.

[someone in the back raising a Bible in protest]

Okay, yes, the form you generally see it in is a physical book, but the Bible itself is not a book. It's a collection of books, all included in the canon because we believe they're divinely inspired (and the Church Fathers who worked out the canon had divine guidance to work that out). They don't all have the same format, author, or genre. That's kind of a 'duh', I get it--we don't read Psalms the way we read Kings or Matthew or Revelation. But it's important to remember when looking at Genesis.

The beginning Genesis is a Creation myth, passed through oral tradition until someone wrote it down.

[I don't say 'myth' to say something isn't true! C.S. Lewis referred to the Christ story as a myth!]

And this myth tells us quite a lot! Unlike the Enuma Elish, roughly a contemporary Creation story, I think, in Genesis the world wasn't founded by a group of gods, formed from the body of a defeated chaos monster. No, an uncontested King of the Universe declared that something should be, and it was. Right away we're told that God is all-powerful, without equal or context, and made everything out of nothing.

That's pretty incredible! Especially in comparison to many of the religions surrounding the Israelite people of the time!!

Were Adam and Eve real people? Uh... more complicated. Catholicism leans towards 'yes', though as pointed out in yet another Catholic Answers article, citing Pope Pius XII and the Catechism, we believe in Adam and Eve. But the article itself notes that while it should be taken with a lot of weight and not tossed aside lightly, Pius XII's statement is not taken as infallible.

In short, I think I mostly come down on the 'broad strokes' side of things. Re-reminder that I am not a theologist, but my thoughts come down like this: that somewhere in the deep past, we had predecessors that correspond to Adam and Eve (whether or not they were actually named that), who messed up and disobeyed God. Said disobedience was an explicit choice, made with the desire to be like God, after being tempted by the Devil (who himself was motivated by envy, as Wisdom 2:24 tells us). This caused the Fall, and Original Sin. It is because of humanity's own failings that we live in an imperfect world.

The message we should get from Genesis is not necessarily "Here is a literal accounting of events," but instead "Here is the gist of what happened, hitting the important points, told in a way that reveals deeper truths: God's role in the cosmos, how sin entered the world, our relationship with the Devil, and what is to come from it."

Again, Catholic Answers can go either way (one day I'll explain why I think that), but this article is mostly a good summary of the idea. Taking Genesis's first few chapters literally seems to me an unwise idea, especially considering.... well, everything we know in modern science about the history of life and the age of the planet Earth.