#but i also understand being in the position of not enjoying a particular interpretation of those characters | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ponett · 1 year ago

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with the fallout of bandai namco's idiotic "it's up to interpretation" bs, do you think that it's possible to enjoy queer media made in a corporate environment in addition to independent works? is it even worthwhile to attempt making queer media in a corporate environment? i find it special how well the g-witch production team managed to tell the story they wanted even with the challenges and pressures they faced, but i have to admit that independent works like slarpg are always going to more completely tell queer stories. as someone who has resonated with both slarpg and g-witch, i was curious to know your perspective.

i'm probably less cynical about this than a lot of my peers are - not that i can blame anyone for feeling cynical about queer rep from corporate-owned media. (we've been through so many First Ever Gay Disney Characters at this point, and lord knows blizzard loves to tease that another overwatch character might be gay every year or so as a PR move.) unfortunately it's just extremely hard to get something like a full season of an animated series funded and produced independently, so the artists looking to enter these fields and pour their hearts and souls into meaningful queer stories as a full-time job don't have many options

going indie gives you theoretically endless creative freedom to tell your stories without corporate censorship, but it's also a massive gamble. only an extreme minority of indie creatives in any medium are actually able to make a living. the fact that i came out the other side of slarpg's development with enough money that i can keep being a full-time indie instead of being in massive debt makes me one of the lucky ones. and even with my modest success, i sure as hell don't have the money to hire a whole team, which limits the scope of what i can make. so i can't turn my nose up at the queer people writing disney channel cartoons where they can't say the word "gay" out loud. they have health insurance, i don't. for most people, what i do is simply not an option

with the corporate-produced Queer Stories i enjoy, i'm often able to squint and see what the creatives were trying to do, wishing that they could have done more while understanding that they probably had to fight tooth and nail for what's there

in the realm of children's animation in particular, i'm thankful that the people working at these studios ARE fighting for more, because it means that kids today have so many more positive queer stories to relate with. i didn't have a single gay character i felt i could relate to until i read scott pilgrim at age 16 and saw wallace wells. before that, i felt so alone in the world. i denied who i was for years because it felt like there would be no place for me. i didn't know anyone openly gay in real life, growing up in the south, and in fiction gay people either existed as the butt of a joke or not at all. the fact that queer kids are now able to see people like themselves in so many shows means something, even if we still have a long way to go and the big studios continue to be a major obstacle

on the subject of g-witch, i'm honestly unfazed by the statement from bandai-namco. i guess i wish they could've let suletta and miorine kiss, but like... the text of the show is extremely blunt about them being a couple by the end. it's not up for debate. and it's not like a gundam series having a meaningful story in spite of the wishes of the toy-producing overlords is anything new, this is just our latest example

all that being said, i do think people should branch out more and explore more weird indie shit if they want more wholeheartedly, openly queer stories. people gotta suck it up and embrace more outsider art instead of only valuing things with studio-level production values. start looking at ren'py visual novels, rpg maker games, obscure webcomics, zines drawn in sharpie, artists on bandcamp who aren't signed to a label, all that jazz. maybe part of the reason why i'm not more fazed by the state of affairs with corporate-funded fiction is that i'm constantly surrounded by furry artists who are telling their own little gay stories

#tamamayfox #ask

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amerricanartwork · 8 months ago

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Quetzalli on Trafficlights and Birds

Well @toxictoxicities, it has been done! You gave me the chance for me to give my own interpretation on this matter, and I can’t resist chances to add some narrative significance! I decided to make a separate post on it because what I came up with ended up being long (as always with me), and in case anyone else would enjoy these thoughts.

However before I go in with this essay I've put together I have to give a very important note: These thoughts are gonna be primarily based around my personal interpretations and headcanons for Seven Red Suns and No Significant Harassment. I’m generally a person who needs to know exactly what I’m working with to do something well, and as such my ideas about metaphors, symbolism, and greater narrative significance typically depend a lot on me understanding the characters and ship not just in their general dynamic, but various other deeper elements — what their core desires/fears are, what their backstories/histories are, each of their main character traits and why they are that way, then from there what they see in each other and why their relationship benefits each other in-universe, and what other effect(s) the relationship has or could have on the characters in-universe as well as the greater narrative out-of-universe, with the additional optional knowledge of what the main plot of the story they come from is to possibly tie in important moments. Seeing as you probably aren’t going to explain your Trafficlights interpretation completely to this intense of a degree anytime soon (though I’d absolutely enjoy hearing it whenever it comes!), if I’m going to make some metaphors I think the best option is to just use my current character interpretations so I have this background familiarity, especially since I’ve actually been developing these things a whole lot for my own iterator off-the-string happy ending AU!

Also, I want to say to that if some of these idea sound familiar, it’s because I realized I can actually project some of my previous Lilypad ideas onto this Trafficlights portrayal as well. I feel my Suns and Moon are similar enough in their personality traits that many of the same dynamics and significance could reasonably apply. In fact Tox, I’m gonna admit I actually did take some inspiration for my Lilypad portrayal from seeing your particular Trafficlights and drawing my own conclusions about how that dynamic worked, and overall my depiction of Seven Red Suns is largely inspired by your own take on that character, which I found quite unique compared to the rest of the fandom for being the first one I saw to show Suns as being far less imposing and confident internally than they seem in public. So I guess I am once again coming full circle now!

I think this is already more than enough words, but I just felt the need to give those prefaces as context for all of these ideas. With that being said, I hope you like at least some of these!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Option 1: Birds as Freedom

From what I’ve read, a common symbolism for birds is freedom, which to me is easy to see because of their signature flight ability. Flight can be considered the mode of travel with the greatest freedom because it’s not restricted by landmasses (or even planets, if you include space travel), and because flying is literally defying, or “freeing oneself” from gravity, one can easily associate it with weightlessness and thus being carefree and without worries or negativity.

With any off-the-string iterator story, it’s easy to give going off-the-string a positive significance because it’s literally the puppet “freeing itself” from the limited confines of their chamber, and by extent the limits imposed upon them by the Ancients. This is further supported by how some iterators in canon do appear to perceive their cans as a limitation or cage, as evidenced by the broadcast dialogue. In fact, I've heard No Significant Harassment is one of these very iterators, so I imagine he’d absolutely want to go off-the-string so long as he has a good incentive to.

To relate this back to birds, you could very much use a caged songbird as a metaphor for the iterators; beautiful, brightly-colored creatures “raised” in captivity and trapped in boxes to serve other people, once “singing” out their ideas from within to those people, but now just giving those “songs” to each other. Thus, going off-the-string (perhaps to the Emergence facility in your AU) could be seen as these “birds” finally flying free to be with one another “in the wild”, finally able to fly and live their lives more fully as they were denied for so long. So regardless of any other symbolism, Trafficlights — and any other off-the-string iterator ship by extent — leaving their cans could be seen as them “flying free” together from the restraints forced upon them.

However, I’ve also recently realized another freedom symbolism besides freedom from the Ancients’ restrictions, and that’s freedom from their own. This is something more impactful to my Seven Red Suns, who like Moon, is also someone who hides a lot of his true personality for a more polite, proper, and dignified public persona, shoulders a lot of weight he isn’t always able to handle alone, and puts lots of limits on himself and what he’s “allowed” or “supposed” to do, albeit for entirely different reasons. Now contrast that with Sig, who although he also hides a lot of his true feelings and knows when to dial it down, is someone who is a master at breaking rules and going against convention. In fact, I like to imagine it’s literally in his nature (er, programming) to think outside the box, generating all sorts of different ideas to solve problems that don’t always totally follow outside rules or what’s “typical” for using a certain item.

When you bring these two together, I imagine Sig could absolutely be the one to encourage Suns to let loose more, letting down his proper and and uptight persona to show more of his emotional side and explore things he didn’t allow himself to before (like I said, this is one of the ideas that works with Trafficlights as well as Lilypad)! It’s as if Suns is a bird too used to living in the cage and afraid to truly fly again, and Sig has to coax him out into embracing that freedom. You could even take this with the idea of iterators not being used to romance, a restriction Suns absolutely puts on himself and even others because he believes a “proper” iterator isn’t supposed to have such deep attachments, of which romantic love could be considered the worst because it’s both breaking Karma 3 of Companionship and can directly lead to Karma 2 of Sexual Intercourse, so it’s essentially a double-risk. But again, Sig is willing to explore these new feelings, and now that they’re off the string and can love each other more physically and directly than ever, what better time could there be for Suns to “spread his wings” and fly alongside him?

Option 2: Birds as Passion/Romance

To me, the second biggest symbolism that birds can have is that of passion and general romantic ideas. Technically all birds could have this association because feathers and wings in general are pretty showy, so spreading one’s wings could just as easily be a gesture of great emotion and expression as it could be preparing to be free. In addition though, whereas the previous point was more related to songbirds, this seems to correlate more with birds of paradise especially, who have the most colorful and varied plumage of the bird kingdom, thus making it easy to say they’re “showing their true colors” without fear. Some birds of paradise, particularly parrots/parakeets/macaws/etc. are very social creatures by nature, so it’s even easier to draw the connection between their vibrant plumage and social behavior with being expressive and outgoing.

As for the romance element, to me it seems birds are commonly used as such symbols already; there’s doves and swans being symbols of love often included in some way at weddings, words like “lovebirds” referring to lovers as well as one of my favorite words, “twitterpated”, which means to be very smitten and infatuated and also has a clear bird-based association and maybe even origin. But then there’s the idea of songbirds singing to each other, which I think is a particularly romantic idea which plays into one of my favorite shipping tropes I call, “answering the call”. So far, I like to describe it as when someone is looking for companionship and romance for a while, either openly or as a subconscious desire, but is eventually found and “answered” by someone willing to love with them. It’s such a romantic idea to me because it often includes so much loneliness and sometimes even tragedy before, making that moment where they finally find someone all the more sweet!

Okay, now to bring this back to Trafficlights. Starting with the first idea, I think it’s easy to associate Sig with these kinds of birds, especially macaws and such, seeing as I imagine he can be just as “colorful” both literally and personality-wise, and cares deeply about his relationships in a similar manner. But even then, like I mentioned before Sig can sometimes feel like he needs to hide those feelings because others don’t fully understand him and he doesn’t want to risk creating tension (although hiding his feelings like that kinda does anyway).

To resolve this, I’ve decided to use what I imagine Sig would appreciate and value in Suns that would evolve the relationship past friendship to romance, that being that Suns was one of the first people besides Moon who believed that Sig’s ideas and his dedication to his friends could be something more, something better and used for good. My Suns is defined largely by his perfectionism and endless drive to make things the “best” versions of themselves. In my timeline of events he already helped Sig in that way during a pretty important moment, not to mention it’s just really inspiring how much Suns cares about trying to bring about the “best” for everyone. On Sig’s end, this is how they at least developed a friendship, and in this alternative what would cause that appreciation to evolve to romance eventually. In fact, in my headcanon it was the combined efforts of Moon first understanding Sig’s feelings and Suns helping to perfect his role in his group, with both of them working really hard to help him find new belonging with the Local Group, that was what got Sig out of his “rough patch”. Thus, in a way, Suns directly helped Sig make new connections, “spread his wings”, and “find a new flock”, which can easily be the main reason why Sig would fall for Suns.

Now, what about Suns? Relating him to birds and passion also hinges largely on another pretty crucial headcanon about my Seven Red Suns, which is that he is secretly a huge romantic with a passion for the fine arts. In addition to striving for an “ideal” world at all times, he appreciates art and the deeper symbolism within. However, because of what I said earlier about Suns placing a lot of high standards on himself, he doesn’t actually make art of his own, believing it’s “not an iterator’s place” to do such a thing themselves because it’s not in their purpose. But even then, he can’t help himself from seeing things artistically and drawing his own conclusions about things.

That being said, I imagine Suns could have a strong appreciation for birds in particular; their beauty, combined with their flight, makes them seem as though they’ve already “ascended” on some level above other animals. On top of that, I think Suns would come to see Sig as sort of a bird himself! Maybe a big green macaw with the most beautiful plumes who’s also far more intelligent than others think. But even more so, when it comes to what Suns appreciates in Sig that causes him to fall in love, I imagine it’s how Sig is the only person who sees through his facade for who he really is. Everyone else around him seems to either put him on a pedestal, with their own high expectations to follow, or is intimidated by his grandeur into avoiding much direct contact. Again, however, Sig naturally thinks outside the box and challenging people’s ideas, so it’d be pretty easy for him to break down some of Suns’s diplomacy to show that more emotional side (another idea that I use in Lilypad as well). No Significant Harassment is the one person Suns feels like he can be himself around, helping him realize that even those parts of him he hides make him “perfect” by virtue of being his real and unique self. It’s like Suns is a great eagle, looked up to and feared by other birds as a large bird of prey and thus lonely and pressured to soar above all else, and only the surprisingly smart macaw is able to lower his guard, helping him see he’s just as beautiful and inspiring on the ground as he is soaring high in the clouds.

And then there’s the idea of “answering the call”. I’ve already seen your Trafficlights will probably play out as a slow burn, with Sig and Suns harboring growing feelings for each other for a while but only really acting on it once Emergence kicks in. In this case the dynamic would be mutual, with both of them longing for a deeper connection, but perhaps not realizing it until this timeline. I imagine Sig would be the one more conscious of this desire though, seeing as he openly seeks connection with others, so it’d be as if he’s a lonely songbird wanting to sing out but never getting an answer. And then of course, when Suns finally does respond it’s that much more poetic!

Trafficlights as Rio (spoilers, by the way)

OKAY HEAR ME OUT, I just have to include some words on this because this movie, this freaking movie is not only one of the two that kickstarted my love of birds but is what started this whole Trafficlights-as-birds-symbolism thing for me.

To give some context, if you don’t already know I am someone who not only loves making metaphors and symbolism with my ships, but loves finding associations between them and outside music or stories. I often look for connections to the old Disney animated fairytales, but I really end up doing it to all sorts of animated stories that I believe have pretty universal themes.

That being said, if there’s any association I’d make for Trafficlights as I currently see them, it’s to Blue Sky’s Rio and some of the scenes from that story. Firstly, Blu as a character already somewhat parallels my Suns in that he’s awkward and not the best at interacting with others. Not to mention his inability to fly, which came from him never getting a chance to embrace his emotions before being captured and taken from his home, could be paralleled to Suns’s bottling up his emotions, especially since flight in that film is directly related to feelings of happiness, love, and freedom, so Suns in a way is also “stunted” in his emotions. Meanwhile Sig on the other hand is more like Jewel, someone who at least understands his emotions a lot better and thus “knows how to fly”, and who resists others’ attempts to cage him and tries to get his partner to do the same. Like Blu Suns refuses at first, his logic and desire for a dignified self image getting the best of him being able to let loose in any environment where he isn’t surrounded by close friends.

Then there’s the freaking “Hot Wings” scene, which takes the most responsibility for this association of mine. Largely because the two side-characters, Nico and Pedro, also seem to carry a dynamic with their lyrics that just reminds me of Suns and Sig, respectively, a lot (honestly I just thought about it on a whim one day and I can’t unsee it now…). Not to mention the entire scene is about pretty birds dancing, which given you’ve also made a decent number of drawings of Trafficlights dancing together, I think is just super fitting. And then Jewel’s singing once again brings back this idea of freedom and showing one’s emotions and love, with the remaining question being whether or not Blu can eventually unlock this feeling inside him despite his fears and fly up with her. This is something I think could work with Trafficlights, at least how I see them, for even if Suns can be more emotional around Sig and maybe his friends, he still has trouble doing so in public, not always liking the pressure of being “perfect” but not wanting to risk looking like a fool around everyone who looks up to him.

It works even better with one of the later scenes in the film when Blu and Jewel finally manage to cut the chain keeping them together, which causes Jewel to immediately lift into the sky with the pure joy and euphoria of once again being free to fly as she pleases. However, Blu is left looking up at her as she flies with their friends, and you can tell he’s both realizing again just how beautiful she is and longing so much to join her in the sky, yet still unable to fly. Once again I can’t help seeing Suns in Blu’s place, looking at Sig having fun and being so carefree, loving the feeling of being off-the-string, and him thinking Sig so beautiful and wanting to join him too. And eventually, just like Blu does in a true “answering the call fashion”, he is able to “spread his wings” and they finally can fly away together!

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Okay, I think that’s all I have to say for now on this topic. This essay, excluding the preface at the beginning, is 2498 words! I think that might be a little bit more than my Lilypad essay! I really hope it delivered!

But even then, this was so fun to do! Even though Trafficlights isn’t my main ship and isn’t going to happen in my own AU, I’ve recently been looking to better figure out Sig and Suns’s relationship anyway to understand why they’re at least friends with each other. Of course there are some other factors in their relationship, some of which I’ve edited out for the sake of these ideas because it throws a bit of tension in the dynamic that could compromise its ability to work as a ship, but this was still an important aspect and I’m glad to have gotten a chance to develop it! And then of course, a reason to think about ships as well as shamelessly plug one of my favorite movies ever is also very nice!

This may all sound super silly and maybe none of it works with your Emergence Trafficlights, but regardless this was seriously such a fun opportunity, and I’m glad you gave me a reason to do this! I would love to hear your thoughts on or additions to all this, if you can!

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lemonhemlock · 3 months ago

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Hi Lemon! It's always a pleasure to read your thoughts on hotd so I just want to share mine and ask for your opinion :)

First of all, I completely agree with one of the recent anons about helaemond and how it would have made the story better and more logical, the characters involved more engaging and human and ofc, the motivations more clear. And yes, it's ridiculous how my fellow greenies have been screeching about it making the greens look bad and hypocritical when in reality it would have only endeared them more to the GA (if done right, of course). Aemond would have been a multi layered character, Helaena would have had more relevance and Aegon and Aemond's fallout would have been more convincing. Oh well, a missed opportunity, unfortunately. But the greens are the ones who were damaged.

Second of all, Helaena is such a mystery to me and not in a good way. She has the same gift as Daenys the dreamer and yet she won't do anything with it? Why? To make her a constantly doomed and tragic figure who can't avoid her destiny? Because that's not the best explanation and just seems lazy. She is completely detached from the narrative. I thought at first that she couldn't interpret her dreams and visions, but after the balcony scene with Aemond it's obvious she can. Also, the way she apathetically talked to Aemond abut him dying and (sort of ) no one caring rubbed me the wrong way and I actually felt bad for him in that scene, not her, even though it obviously wasn't the writers' intention (and I agree with you, %his request wasn't unreasonable at all).

Finally, them using Helaena in Daemon's vision made my blood boil. Apparently, she can be Bran like toward her own brother because he "deserves" it, but it's OK to use her to "light the way" for Daemon in his "redemption" arc. It's unbelievable and straight up offensive . What is actually the point of her character and her ability then? Anyway, I would love to read your thoughts on this. Thanks.

first of all, anon, hello & thank you & i hope you enjoy your stay on my blog! 💚

PREFACING this by saying that the full helaena-aemond scenes might offer a bit more context than we already have, but, basically, here are my takes, as of now, the friday before the season finale. subject to change!

i guess my thesis statement is that this whole season kind of destroys helaena's character, as well.

let's look at her relationship with aegon:

from what i understand, she says she was "happy" before the war. a helaegon win perhaps? if she was "happy", then she must have been content enough with her position as aegon's wife, no? that doesn't seem like a huge logical leap to make. so, whatever aegon did or didn't do, it must just not have bothered her that much to impinge on her "happiness", even if perhaps she wouldn't necessarily rate him very highly as a husband either.

but, then again, she never mentions him. he just suffered a traumatic injury and is in constant pain. helaena is not besieged by grief this season, she is not catatonic with her own trauma, she is very lucid and calm and acting normally, yet she doesn't once ask about him or visit him or offer SOME kind of condolences or feel any kind of way about him being a cripple. he is still her brother, though? and apparently she has no particular beef with him? she shares a daughter with him, yet never even considers how it will be difficult for jaehaera to see her father like that. she just doesn't give a shit. and, i have to say, this makes her look rather sociopathic.

now let's look at her relationship with aemond. she is apparently so dismissive and gives zero fucks about the concept of aemond's death. like with aegon, there is a version in which helaena could have real grievances with aemond that could lead her to act like this. does she, though?

she doesn't give a shit that aemond burned aegon

she doesn't give a shit that aemond instigated the blacks into assassinating her son

she doesn't give a shit that aemond dismissed alicent from the council

what other reason could there possibly be? does she disagree with his war strategy? does she care that he burned a village? is she a secret rhaenyra stan? did he step on her favourite cockroach when they were kids and now it's payback time?

so, to be so indifferent and apathetic and downright heartless towards her brothers for no reason, again, paints her like a sociopath. what does she even care about? just her bugs? what in the seven hells? i'm not even sure that was the writers' intention anyway, they just truly have no idea what to do with her character. she is there so her interlocutor might exhibit some of their own character traits, but it's like talking to an android.

there are also ways in which one could show helaena's reluctance regarding flying dreamfyre to war, not just "lol i don't want to be bothered" when her family's lives are at stake. at the very least show her terrified of dying or squeamish about violence or something.

and her assisting daemon's redemption arc is downright nauseating. she gives zero fucks about her brothers, but DAEMON is the one she elects to help??

from a watsonian POV, she is not likeable or understandable at all, they are basically turning her into a selfish coward infantilising herself and not bothering to take the slightest initiative to change or influence the things she disagrees with, who just wants to sit on her arse all day waiting to die. but can she truly be analysed through a watsonian POV? was this the intention of the writers? (death of the author and all - what other in-universe characterisation could you give her based on her inaction on all fronts?)

like with alicent, i, for one, cannot apply watsonian analysis to helaena, because that's not how a human person would believably act in those situations. that's not how neuro-divergent people act! they cannot keep using this as an excuse. i don't want to hear the "everyone grieves in different ways" pretext. controversial opinion, but it's downright offensive to neuro-divergent people to claim they are so soulless and don't care about anything other than their hyper-fixations and would not blink if their family were in mortal danger or lift a finger to help in any kind of way

#ask #anon #helaena stans don't come for me this is just how they are writing her. book!helaena would never #hotd s2 #hotd critical [characterisation]#hotd leaks #house of the dragon leaks #hotd spoilers #house of the dragon spoilers

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stardustdiiving · 11 months ago

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I would love to hear more about your thoughts regarding Wanderer being trans whenever you find the time to write about it more!

(follow up to this post)

AWESOME. okay. So. This got super long and I keep nitpicking if it clearly says every single thought that goes through my head or not so I’m just going to post it

There’s many interpretations about this headcanon I enjoy, but one particular angle I would find interesting to explore that I’ll pitch here is basically centered on a characterization where Wanderer’s internal relationship with his own transness is very tied with his non-humanness, maybe even more so than his gender.

The appeal of this angle for me is essentially having a character’s queerness tie into genshin’s overarching themes about identity & personhood, especially in regards to the relationship between divinity & humanity—themes that obviously apply to Scaramouche (and also basically every other not human genshin character I can think of that people generally agree are engaging characters)

Scaramouche (which name I use for him is intentional & reflects what era of his life I’m talking about) to me is someone who basically enforces a sense of apathy over his own emotions, especially ones relating to his sense of identity—he seeks godhood in hopes of being able to purge himself clean of experiencing (human) emotions, and therefore the vulnerability & trauma he associates with having them.

Intuitively I can see him feeling a similar conscious apathy about his gender: I see him as viewing gender identity as a “too human” trait and therefore something he’s above, basically—which is really a deeper deflection of his own insecurities with his personhood/identity.

So to Scaramouche, internally, anything about his transition or transness is less about gender and actually far more about his desire to obtain godhood, and this is a mental narrative he really sticks to because it fits in comfortably with his hatred of humans and desire for a purpose/identity for his existence as a non human entity “without a heart”.

If this were a fic I were writing, Scaramouche would undergo a lot of physical/medical transitioning during his time as a Harbringer and he would essentially be narrating & viewing anything gender affirming thing he does as him becoming closer to godhood and further from being human. This would contrast how I’d portray Kabukimono earlier on in his arc—where I imagine Kabukimono took on a lot of social transitions based on observing humans and building a sense for what human things he liked to participate in or mimic.

Kabukimono, in a manner similar to Scaramouche, might sometimes categorize some of his transness as relating to being more of a puppet/nonhuman origin thing than a gender thing, (ie getting gender dysphoria from having long hair but rationalizing it has more to do with not wanting to look like Ei), Kabukimono was more in a position of building towards his transness being a positive thing that affirmed him his sense of personhood & sense of belonging with others. By the time Scaramouche reaches the point of resenting humans, and in turn resenting his own sense of humanity in his arc, he needs to establish all parts of his identity as the farthest thing from human as possible

The irony, however, that I’d highlight in the hypothetical fic of this, is that Scaramouche’s experiences with his transness are narrated as being things no one could ever understand because of how inhuman he is—while in practice you see a lot of his trans experiences are actually pretty common ones many trans people would understand.

So like, Dottore does his canon typical physical experiments/modifications on Scaramouche, and the entire time Scara is undergoing but also gloating the entire time how he’s able to endure this because he’s not as weak as humans are—and this continues when, at Scara’s request, Dottore gives him Evil Mad Scientist Top Surgery, and he’s having this snide internal monologue about how godlike he is because of all the inhuman ways he can physically modify and mold his body to be to his liking, and then suddenly he looks in a mirror and sees himself with a flat chest for the first time and just has… like, a moment of very genuine happiness with feeling more like himself for the first time, and processing all the ways he can exist more comfortably in his body without having to work around dysphoria constantly. He imagines himself existing among humans in these brief thoughts without even realizing it, and the idea is this is written in a way that makes him sound very human—and how he seems happier when he lets himself be.

Meanwhile Dottore in the background is just, very nonchalant about this and makes some bored comment about they ought to not delay more important procedures any further if he wants to ascend to godhood anytime soon. Scaramouche kind of snaps out of it & back into his usual sort of headspace/mindset and kind of sneers at him how this was a far more significant step in ascending to godhood than Dottore could ever understand.

And after he says this he mentally pauses, because he really hadn’t been thinking of it like that before—and then wonders if it was true, because it wasn’t an experiment that made him feel more powerful like the other ones had. What he feels now is something other than more powerful—but there’s not really any other explanation for this reaction. More godly, maybe. It makes him feel not more powerful, but closer to what he wants—which is a god.

So from there my idea is Scaramouche kind of…attributes the joy associated with his top surgery, and other similar major landmarks in his transition, with his pursuit of godhood. It spurs him on to want to be a god even more, because it's solidified in his mind as the one thing he really needs to be himself/truly happy

And then he does finally reach godhood—and is plugged into the Everlasting Lord of Arcane Wisdom’s body, he’s just finds himself feeling disappointed.

He has this minor mental crisis about it where he’s not unsatisfied—he’s more exhilarated than he has ever felt in his entire life, because he feels unspeakably powerful in the way he should be. It /is/ everything he wanted, and he savors the sheer triumph and power of the movement, but it’s just not the same. It’s not enough to make him regret what it took to get here but he’s really frustrated, because he doesn’t feel happy. Which is not an emotion Scaramouche really cares about, but even one thing he wants being somewhat out of his reach when he had hoped to suppress all the unpleasantness of having emotions is deeply unpleasant for him.

I think the next time Scaramouche really feels something close to what he’d been missing is post Inversion of Genesis, after he becomes the Wanderer.

In this narrative I think it would be an extra kick in the face that Dottore had helped him with part of his transition while Scaramouche watches Dottore kill Niwa, where Dottore basically affirms Scara’s dehumanization while Niwa insists on affirming his humanity with his dying breath. There’s the obvious violation violation of realizing someone basically sabotaged your support systems to isolate/alienate you from the world, then manipulated and groomed you into joining the fatui so they could experiment on you for their own satisfaction and intrigue, but he also finds himself grappling with recontextualizing alot of his interactions with Dottore, and coming to this conclusion that Dottore was only ever vaguely interested in Scaramouche’s potential for godhood, and doesn’t care about…this other part of why that was important to Scaramouche as a person. (Which is his transness, basically)

It’s not that he ever believed Dottore cared about him or wasn’t pursuing his own interests, but I think recontextualizing how dehumanizing Dottore’s treatment + view of him is, forces him to really pick apart his transness vs desire for godhood, and realize there’s sort of a distinction between the two he hadn’t been making.

Post IoG I think this line of thinking, along with learning Niwa hadn’t betrayed him making him hate humans much less, lets Wanderer start developing a much healthier relationship with his transness, and also just his entire identity in general. He can reconcile with his own humanity, which lets him reflect on himself more, and I think eventually he can come to an answer on why becoming god wasn’t what he needed to be happy with himself + his gender.

So essentially I’d write present day Wanderer as being more comfortable with his gender than Scaramouche would be. If I were to apply our contemporary English labels/language to his gender I think he’d more or less jsut view himself as a trans guy, but I guess by technicality has a sort of “non binary” gender bc he just doesn’t view himself in terms of human binaries due to being a puppet?? That’s just my own characterization tho. All in all I bend characterizations of characters’ queerness in line with what whatever sort of transformative work I feel like doing so this isn’t even the only way I’d write trans Wanderer. Just usually the one I go off the most when portraying him as a character

#additional thing. in my og post I mentioned I kind of default view Wanderer as trans whenever I portray him in my fan works right #u can absolutely do a trans reading of the fic I wrote based off this concept of Wanderer/Makoto resemblance #I have thoughts on a more active trans reading of it that I did actually consider while writing it #even tho there wasn’t rlly a way for me to like mention wanderer’s transness naturally in the text #scaramouche #wanderer #Genshin #fandomferns #gender impact #asks #fern.txt

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backjustforberena · 2 months ago

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Do you have any thoughts on GRRM’s blog post about season two that he’s since deleted ?

Yes, I do. From what I've seen, my thoughts and feelings on it are a lot less violent than quite a whole host of people on social media, but of course, I have feelings about it. I'll try and articulate them here.

I sympathise with both sides: it's a hard needle to thread, in adapting this book. The major change, early on, was the one to change the ages of the protagonists and condense 30 years of history into roughly 20 years. That has a knock-on effect. That has, as GRRM would say, butterflies. A lot of the changes have butterflies and the job of the adaptor is to control the amount of butterflies or the impact of such butterflies, and that's where we come into conflict.

But, no doubt, Ryan will have been faced with things beyond his control. There may have been real intention to include Maelor in the second season, for example, and so he was being 100% honest with George when first discussing it, but then things came up that made sacrificing that inclusion the viable choice. Whether that's coming from the studio in terms of changing from 10 episodes to 8, or it's just a safeguard due to a looming writer's strike or it is just one of many choices concerning budget, I don't know. It's similar to discussions regarding Deleted Scenes. I don't like to assume and I definitely don't like to prescribe intent.

I think that GRRM is very valid in his feelings of frustration and worry. I think he has a right to his opinions on how he might have preferred things to go or if he likes an event better in the book than in the show - we know he's expressed the opposite opinion on things as well, where he's enjoyed changes from the book to the show. He's not been without praise for the series, even if he speaks out about particulars now.

But I also think this is the tip of the iceberg and even this blog post is not the whole story, even in the specific examples cited. GRRM says he doesn't know what/if Ryan has planned but he's also not gone to the writer's room in recent times. There are multiple interpretations there. I don't think we can fully understand the situation and I don't think it's up to us to necessarily try because that's a fool's errand. We're lightyears away from being in a suitable position to try and understand or grasp it. It's a journey that's been going on for years now and, at the end of the day, all we have is a lot of conjecture and opinion and perspectives.

You know, we talk about butterflies and a lot of people say that X was sacrificed for Y or that they got rid of X just so Y could look better or to prop up a Z plot or whatever, and the fact is we just don't know with any sort of certainty. It could easily be that Z was decided and so a natural consequence of that would be changes to X and Y. Or a choice about X was made but it's only until they come to telling Y that a problem rears its head. And so on and so forth.

And some times it is just a case of the practicalities of storytelling rather than outright hostility towards the source material.

A case in point is that we have The Heir's Tournament in Episode 01. It's a big set piece, it's great for introducing the majority of characters or having little moments with them, and showing the court in its splendour as well as framing the theme of violence and contrasting a certain masculine violence with the horror that is Aemma on the birthing bed.

And because of the inclusion of this tourney, they changed the story so that Joffrey doesn't die at a tourney in Episode 05. Instead, we get the wedding feast and the mob and the beating. To have another tourney would be too repetitive on screen, probably too big a cost, and it'd be a lot harder to include certain story beats (like the various entrances, changing allegiances and conversations). This has butterflies which garnered some criticism, especially in regard to Criston keeping his job, but it's an example of a change that was done because this is a TV series. It's motivated from a practical perspective rather than an emotional one. And it largely works, as a change, in my opinion.

Something I have an opinion on is that whilst I don't necessarily agree with the way the Dragonpit sequence actually told it's story and it has flaws in the way it's scripted (but also, we know, it was scripted and storyboarded differently and faced quite a few changes, I believe) - it is an event that symbolically had to happen. By which I mean, you can't end it on a Green victory. You can't end that episode with the Greens thinking that they've won and it's all hunky dory. You need a throughline into the next episode and you need all of those characters aware of the conflict they're inciting. They need to be left (because this is the last time we see most of them) fearing something or readying themselves for something. They have to end on a loss, just as the Blacks, in the next episode, will end on a loss. Then you have parity. It's just that for the Blacks, their loss or their "Dragonpit", if you like, is losing Luke. It's Aemond's actions. They think it's all great, they've crowned Rhaenyra, they've got a plan, they've got Velaryon support. And then the table is upended.

So all the storytelling reasons for having Rhaenys make a defiant escape or stand and be the one to go and tell Rhaenyra make sense, to me. However, that comes with sacrificing Aegon's flight. Now, there's nothing to say Aegon didn't HAVE a flight, but we just don't see it. Just as we don't see a lot of things.

I, too, fear the butterflies. I've expressed it on this blog before. I have frustrations about the handling of changes: specifically when a change has been made and seemingly nothing is done to cement the alternative choice (prime example being the Hull boys's parentage and Corlys's affair) and we're left with a lack of answers that should really be there in order for us to be grounded in the series and in character motivation, especially if you're dealing with time jumps.

From my perspective, if you make a choice, you need to have a plan on how you are going to see it through and you need to have that from the time you make it, as much as you can. Again, whether Ryan has those sorts of plans, I don't know. I've yet to be given confidence. But, overall, I think it's a shame that GRRM has to post this.

I think it was, if not unprofessional, then it was rash because, from the language, I would say he broke an NDA. And I think there are ways he could have gone about it without having done so. I'm curious what he wanted to achieve and if he does manage to achieve it, but that's not really for me to know and I'm not in a position to ever know it so... yeah. It is what it is.

#house of the dragon

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antianakin · 8 months ago

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@theneutralmime

I think there's probably NUMEROUS reasons fans have for disliking the Jedi.

I think some people might dislike them because before the Prequels came out there was this alternate perception of what the Jedi were/had been that was primarily dictated by Legends which seemingly based them far more on European Knights than anything else, something which clearly appealed to a lot of people and was familiar and fun as an archetype. People became, ironically, attached to this version of the Jedi that they'd grown up with and so when the Prequels came out and they were NOT in fact European Knights with laser swords and magic powers but Buddhist Monks with laser swords and magic powers, it was jarring. So I hear, at least. I had no concept of Legends and I saw the Prequels first anyway, but I'm told this was apparently jarring for people. So it's just a lot of "Well these aren't MY Jedi from my childhood" going on.

And adding to that, I think some people just disliked the Prequels as a whole and so one way to sort-of reinterpret the Prequels in such a way that they felt they could enjoy them more was to decide that their dislike of the Jedi was the intended reading of the film. It's not that they were misinterpreting it or that Lucas had somehow done it wrong, but that the Jedi being unlikable was the whole point. And this is the ONLY way they can see the Prequel films as enjoyable or worthwhile, so they're not going to accept any other explanation. Either the Jedi are supposed to be the bad guys and the films did exactly what they were meant to do, or the Jedi are supposed to be the good guys and the films failed because they didn't get that across TO THESE FANS.

And when you dislike something that much, it's VERY VERY DIFFICULT to turn that opinion around, even after you see other people make arguments on its behalf. As someone who has pretty strong negative opinions about things, I can speak to that from experience. I know people liked the Ahsoka show and even thought it was genuinely well-written and well-acted, I've seen some of their arguments for why they believe that. But none of those arguments are ever going to mean anything to me because my experience of it was so negative that I don't particularly WANT to like it or have my opinion changed. To me, it's just bad. I can't just force myself to understand it differently than I do at this point, even though I recognize other people don't share my opinion.

So some of those people who just had really negative experiences of the Prequel films and the way they depicted the Jedi might just be in a similar position. No amount of knowing other people interpreted it differently, no amount of arguments in defense of the Prequels and the Jedi, no amount of quotes by George Lucas, is every going to take away from the fact that these fans had a really negative experience with these films that will likely always color their opinions of them.

Some other arguments I've seen about why they dislike the Jedi in particular seem to stem primarily from their feelings about Anakin and the way his relationship with the Jedi was depicted in the films. Some of it might come from people having the hots for Anakin and so they just... don't care about anybody BUT him, but some seems to come more from how young Anakin is in TPM and the way it really changed their perspective on this character who had only ever been a villain prior to that film.

I think people saw the Council scene with this fairly small child in the middle of a room full of adults whose job it is to decide his future and really related to his fear and nervousness and defensiveness far more than they related to the Council being put into a difficult position and trying their best to be objective but not unkind. And while you are SUPPOSED to relate to Anakin here to some extent, you're also supposed to be able to recognize that just because Anakin's fears are valid doesn't mean the Council are wrong to see that he's not prepared for this life and that being a Jedi is likely not going to be the right path for him. That second part seems to elude a lot of people because all they see is a scared little boy and so they insist in the same breath that the Jedi stole Anakin away from his loving mother AND that they should've just let him join the Order no matter what. And so when Anakin starts making bad decisions and killing people and being arrogant, they don't blame Anakin for it, they don't trace it back to Anakin's mistrust and dishonesty, they just decide it was the Council's fault for not giving him everything he wanted immediately and causing him irreparable trauma as a result.

People also I think ended up relating a lot more to ADULT Anakin than they do to the Jedi because Anakin is INTENDED to be relatable, he's got all of the character flaws that are causing the entire story to happen, while the Jedi are primarily side characters who have completed their own character journeys and are now there just to guide others. They're the moral compass of the films, delivering many of their themes and messages, but they're not the HEART of the story the way Anakin is. I think this led to a lot of protagonist bias in some ways where they like Anakin and so they just proceeded to come up with every excuse under the sun for why he was right instead of understanding that even though Anakin was the main character and the heart of the story doesn't mean he's not also a cautionary tale of what NOT to do. That's truly it. It's a very long, very complicated fable for children about the consequences of selfishness and greed.

But people these days OFTEN feel like if they enjoy a character then they cannot also be problematic or do problematic things, so if they enjoy Anakin, despite all of the objectively horrific things that he does, then Anakin just cannot be the one at fault for it. It MUST be someone else's fault. And of course the opposite also ends up true where if someone dislikes a character, then they must come up with a reason for why they're problematic to explain it. And thus we also get the Jedi then becoming the scapegoat for Anakin's choices. They didn't like the Jedi, but they liked Anakin, so of course then Anakin was right and the Jedi wrong all along.

And more and more people who see the Prequels this way are the ones creating new Star Wars content, so we keep seeing more stories that emphasize this idea that the Jedi were wrong and Anakin was right. It's obviously in the Ahsoka show, it's in Rebels, it's in Tales of the Jedi, it's in the Cal Kestis video games, it's in the High Republic novels, it's definitely come up in several of the other Star Wars novels, it was (to some degree) in the Sequel Trilogy, and we know it's going to be in The Acolyte. And of course it's just VERY popular in the Star Wars fandom in general. Most fans aren't going to be looking up George Lucas quotes or watching his audio commentaries and researching what he meant by attachment, so they're just going to consume the content that's available and that content at this point is pretty consistently sending the message that the Jedi were wrong and Anakin was right. It's almost entirely inescapable these days. So I don't necessarily even blame most fans for being Jedi critical, I just personally can't stand it anymore.

#star wars #jedi #pro jedi #anakin critical #anti anakin critical

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tossawary · 2 years ago

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Between the “pretending to read a book so he doesn’t have to talk to Shang Qinghua or Liu Qingge but accidentally holding it upside down” incident and the “being forced to learn to read by Qiu Jianluo” aspect of things, I’ve been thinking about an interpretation of Shen Jiu who just actively dislikes reading.

Maybe being forced to learn to read by Qiu Jianluo has given him trauma-related hangups over reading! Maybe during his time with Wu Yanzi, Shen Jiu’s only reading materials were stolen, possibly from the cultivators who were murdered by Wu Yanzi, giving him even more trauma-related hangups. Maybe Yue Qingyuan’s recommendation getting him onto Qing Jing Peak gave him resentment surrounding the idea that Yue Qingyuan wanted to forcefully “improve” him. Maybe ruthlessly playing catch-up to his peers (who may well have disliked him for his sudden appearance and strange background) in the arts practiced by Qing Jing Peak made reading a grueling task necessary for advancement, killing off any joy in reading for fun or curiosity.

Or maybe Shen Jiu has dyslexia or needs reading glasses! (I know this potentially means SY would experience these issues and he doesn’t appear to have these problems in canon, but we already handwave away how brains work regarding both SY’s transmigration and his plant body, so whatever!) Maybe Shen Jiu is just not fond of sitting still and would prefer audiobooks if they were an option, so he could do something else at the same time. Maybe he just doesn’t enjoy reading for no particular reason.

I like this interpretation particularly because I think that Shen Yuan would be a little horrified by it. Like, yes, he understands logically that a person can be well-educated and intelligent without enjoying reading, sure! But reading is kind of Shen Yuan’s whole thing. This is the guy who had [Expert] after his username in the comments section part of the Airplane Extras. He at one point claims that he’s been reading stories like PIDW for 10 years and he appears to have made being an “expert” reader a huge part of his personal identity. I don’t think that Shen Yuan could fully wrap his mind around the idea of anyone actively loathing reading, even if he was trying to be respectful and reasonable about it. He would totally squirm judgmentally at first. Doesn’t compute.

And, of course, Shen Jiu would then turn around and judge Shen Yuan for too much reading. Equally if not even more judgmental “go touch grass” opinions. I enjoy fics where Shen Jiu and Shen Yuan interact, and I enjoy it when those interactions are positive, but I also enjoy when they’re a little incompatible. Totally different people even if they are getting along.

#tossawary svsss #tossawary rereads svsss #shen jiu #shen yuan #shen qingqiu #fic ideas

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sunfyredarchive · 4 months ago

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i really wasn't gonna do this but i just started typing and couldn't stop myself. pretty sure so many things left unsaid but needed it to get it off my chest somehow.

let me start with saying that as a sunfyre && aegon enjoyer, the actual reason of my discomfort is NOT the way they ended up. i am sad about it ofc, but i knew that was one of the few canon outcomes they wouldn’t alter much ( && must have reaaaallly enjoyed depicting for reasons 🤡 ) so what left me so shaken was not the sight of sunfyre— a creature i’ve been stanning and really wanting to see for literally a decade— and aegon’s canon fate but the way it was delivered, obviously. as i’ve been discussing with some of my close mutuals and friends on here, personally i’m no longer enjoying the endless and, at this point, quite out of control woobification of aegon in particular. please don’t get me wrong, i wasn’t expecting him to be depicted in a controversially positive / heroic light all of a sudden especially with their unquestionably pro-rhaenyra ( not pro-black in general ) and anti-aegon ( not anti-green in general ) agenda, which did not bother me this much until this season. at first it seemed creative and tragically engrossing, to depict aegon so unwilling and pitiful and so not ready to rule. it added him way more nuance and promised a compelling character development. something that honestly made me find him way more interesting because i seldom care for stereotypical && morally flawless / less flawed leaders in fiction. but i was expecting / hoping for jaehaerys to be a bit of a turning point for aegon’s character, and i know i’m not alone in that so i also can’t be the only one who’s so sick and tired of aegon still being a clumsy comic relief with how cartoonishly pathetic they’re so adamant on depicting him until the very end ?? stuff like his own council leaving him on read and now his terrible high valyrian ( i don’t wanna start yapping about this either but lemme say i like the idea of aegon being not as fluent and eloquent as aemond, it fits his overall personality. can be interpreted as him being lazy / easily bored / having adhd / rebelling his targaryen upbringing like cutting his hair short also indicated etc etc I LIKE THAT !! makes sense. but they didn’t need to go so overboard with it like they did with every other logically negative aspect of him. the high valyrian scene would be so much better with aegon simply getting irritated and backing down from the conversation due to his current lack of military prowess rather than him downright being unable to form a single coherent sentence lol ), like .. please. so are we really going to take only the most outrageous, downgrading theories from an already unreliable narration because anything that is mildly admirable about him must be green propaganda ?? he just has to be so laughably bad at everything and anything because he’s “evil” ?? i didn’t know this was supposed to be a morality play.

now back to rook’s rest. i understand there aren’t enough details about the dragon conflict here so of course the anti-aegonism pioneers felt justified to run with the idea that’d paint him in the worst light by ridiculing him as blatantly as possible ( aka taking away one of his few redeemable qualities, which is trying to be an active player by commanding his own armies instead of remaining out of harm’s way by choice ) and make his most prominent attempt at leading look like a scorned child’s petty, impulsive, barely-conscious decision which only proved everyone who believed him to be a failure; right. whereas all the other prominent characters on team black are made to look utterly brave && heroic for merely suggesting to do the same... cute. now they can because they ain’t aegon uwu. you know, someone who actually did fight until he was left almost unrecognizable. now look me in the eye and tell me that isn’t a too under the nose way to manipulate “canon” info to serve a biased agenda.

what’s more disappointing for me personally is how sunfyre could not escape the anti-aegonism’s wrath either, who’s always been more special to me than aegon himself. here we see aegon and aemond as joined forces, against the common foe, appearing at the very same time so nothing justifies aegon showing up unannounced and almost ruining a whole ass plan nobody bothered to fill him in on— another illogically biased addition to further ridicule aegon. mind you, since there isn’t enough to decipher aemond’s true intentions during this battle, i really wouldn’t mind him ending up causing more damage to aegon/sunfyre than even rhaenys/meleys, but the choice to make him so blatantly attack his brother/king and one of the very few fighting dragons they had when they chose to make this very same guy be a lot more distraught over killing lucerys is just .. cartoonish. imagine society if we were allowed to watch two brothers managing to set aside their personal grudges despite all the clumsy attempts at paving the way for a bigger enmity ( the brothel scene can’t sit with us ). i also wouldn’t mind seeing aemond visibly being tempted to hurt aegon for a split second during the intense eye contact only to attack in a more ambiguous way rather than downright aiming at aegon, it’d be closer to his actions in book too but the disney villanism won because, again, they simply cannot be allowed to appear like a semi-caring family. something i will also omit in my own portrayal because i’ve always believed the eye incident being a turning point for aemond/aegon’s relationship.

gonna end my angry rambling by going back to woobified sunfyre. notice how it is worded as “against vhagar alone she might have had some chance, but against vhagar and sunfyre…” not the other way around. not pointing out the more obvious fact that meleys would be able to take down sunfyre if it wasn’t for vhagar. which means we can safely accept the fact sunfyre was an important and necessary player for this whole “trap”. him and aegon didn’t just randomly show up on a whim to rain on aemond’s parade out of jealousy. they were always meant to be a part of this because apparently not even vhagar could defeat meleys alone and remain unscathed, she needed a distraction. and before anyone claims the attached part might also be pro-green propaganda ( just like the whole sunfyre’s beauty && loyalty were exaggerated allegations because apparently anything that’s mildly praise-worthy is immediately shot down as a propaganda but !! only if it’s about a green 😉 ) — i strongly disagree, mostly because of that iconic line about princess rhaenys’ courage. because guess what ?? you actually can praise AND accuse both parties in a well-balanced manner instead of butchering a perfectly tragic && intentionally ambiguous story by bending the “facts” to your will. shocking to some i presume.

#【✧swords and quills】: meta #【✧crown off】: ooc #exasperated sigh #w: hotd critical

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ryuichirou · 2 years ago

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Hello! I was wondering if you had any NSFW AzuJami headcannons? Btw I love your art

Hi Anon! Thank you for loving my art, I really appreciate it!

And thank you for asking for some more AzuJami. Always happy to think about these two, their mind games and their attempts to keep distance from each other while still being drawn to each other (well, at least Azul is drawn to Jamil, who has his head full of other…problems…)

Here are some headcanons, I hope you enjoy reading them.

Their sexual relationship is a mutually-beneficial-nothing-personal type of deal. Jamil knows better than to make any type of a deal with Azul, so he does feel like it’s going to bite him in the ass one time. But everything’s been rather smooth so far, with no violation of their agreements from either of the two parties. Jamil just doesn’t want Azul to get the wrong idea about who they are to each other, so this agreement works quite well.

The main condition of the agreement is that both Jamil and Azul must reach orgasm; the means of achieving that goal are up to interpretation at any particular occasion. Sometimes it’s sex, sometimes it’s handjobs and other stuff.

Blowjobs are surprisingly rare with these two. For some reason it’s much easier for Jamil to give a head than to receive it: he isn’t used to getting served in any way and he doesn’t trust Azul enough (as if he would bite it off, come on, Jamil-san…). But at the same time, Jamil feels like Azul gets way too smug after getting his dick sucked, so he doesn’t want to give him the satisfaction too often. He is very good at it though.

In general, Azul tries to stay as composed and calculated as he can, just so they can keep playing an intellectual game of cat-and-mouse while pleasuring each other and having sex, but more often than not he becomes too aroused to think straight rather quickly. Azul adores Jamil, he is very needy and eager to touch him everywhere, and Jamil is very aware of that. He could’ve used it to his advantage easily, but has no reason to do it just yet.

Azul likes dropping hints about his and Jamil’s pastime whenever they talk to someone. Especially when this third person is Kalim, who is oblivious enough for Azul to be almost direct with his hints, with Kalim not really understanding what he’s talking about. Jamil hates it when Azul does that, especially when he’s looking at him while doing so.

Their go-to time for a quickie is during a lunch break; sometimes they do it in-between classes, sometimes after PE. Both of them are busy after classes, so this is their only option. Sometimes Azul laments about it, because he would like not to be in such a rush all the time, but they’re not lovers, so that’s out of the question.

Azul figured out that Jamil is more passionate when he is stressed and really pissed off. Sometimes he either pisses Jamil off on purpose or just waits for a perfect moment to appear when Jamil is at his lowest and visibly angry. For some reason, when he’s fucking Jamil while he’s angry, Azul gets away with more things. Like grabbing his hair or his neck or even smacking his ass when he gets way too brave…

Azul’s hands feel much nicer than Jamil has anticipated. Jamil is also quite surprised that Azul is stronger than he expected him to be, and his body is less soft that he expected it to be. Sometimes Azul squeezes Jamil’s body so tightly and rubs against his back so strongly that Jamil can’t help but feel some masochistic itch he has deep inside him getting pleasantly scratched.

Their go-to position is from behind, against the wall. Both of them considered doing it in a cowgirl position, but Jamil decided against it: in theory, it would give Jamil some power in the situation, but in practice it would only make Azul even more smug; and Jamil doesn’t really want to look at Azul smiling like a pervy old man looking at his mistress pleasuring him.

They don’t kiss often, but when they do, they subconsciously try to avoid their kiss being too gentle or sweet. Like they really have to try to bite each other’s faces off for it not to feel romantic. Not that Azul would mind gentle kisses from Jamil, it’s Jamil who doesn’t want to forget that they are not making love, they are providing sexual services to each other, and that’s it. Or is it…

#replies #headcanons #azujami

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mejomonster · 6 months ago

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Finished sherlock holmes chapter one. In some ways its got the same appeal Drakengard 3, specifically Zero's emotional character journey did. At heart its about Sherlock trying to protect and love himself (and that itself parallels what Mycroft did in a way), hating himself and blaming himself, terrified of caring about anyone again and unsure how to care in a way he's not scared would somehow hurt them. Its a character study of one particular What If version of what makes the man John Watson first met that day looking for a flat. What would that man be like before, perhaps why, and how did that interpretation of a young sherlock grow enough to risk opening up to others to the extent he eventually will. Its all about trauma, childhood, growing up, accepting yourself and fighting to love yourself when your experiences have made you want to abandon yourself, trust, fear. The story's about sherlock holmes the character. Like one big character study of who he might have been, could become, does become, and the emotions and internals driving it.

The way Jon is creative, brave, supportive. Loves the supernatural, stories, mysteries. The escapism, the joy fighting to exist in a scared life, the emotional support ever present (sherlock giving to himself basically) because hes too scared to let anyone else real in. Theres tons to be said about Jon the character, and also his existence for what it says about sherlock's own personality and needs. Thats for more articulate people than me. The main of it is: Frogwares games, if theyre mostly going to be of this writing quality, can handle the characters both faithfully and in adding new ways to view them which was a joy. A heartbreaking joy. I really enjoyed the story.

And the scene at the very end, watson and holmes first meeting. A scene in many adaptations, of course in the original. I loved that sherlocks actor added a raw emotional reaction to the sound of his voice, something thats easy to pretend might always have been able to be there its just from Watsons pov maybe he never would have noticed. And since sherlock holmes chapter one is sherlocks game about his internal emotions, it lets it end with a raw show of emotion we'd notice after seeing everything hes gone through inside. We'd also see it as a potential positive. In that he'd ever open up enough to share even that small part of FEELING with another person, in the presence of another person and trust that its okay to feel it. And the way the game plays with the meaning of art in its interpretation, the world maybe being more mysterious than humans can ever understand (with all the use of supernatural love from Jon, and Matista at the end and her own magic practice in a way paralleling Sherlocks creating of Jon), the game ends with a game model of John Watson with similar eyes to Jon, with John Watson introducing himself and Sherlock comparing the name to Jon. Recognizing the coincidence. Maybe some small part, the part of sherlock that IS Jon and made him and drew comfort from him, seeing the magic in hearing such a meaningful name in a meaningful coincidence of meeting od a real social partner that will end his isolation significantly by living with him. It makes the ending feel almost magical, as mundane as it is, and as much as Watson is not Jon (because Jon was in many ways just Sherlocks own self comforting himself). Its this conclusion of a whole game of realizing its the interpretation that matters at least As Much as the truth (which the game enforces both with cases with multiple possible answers and making You sherlock pick the consequences then seeing the city always reacting mixed to such outcomes). A whole game of seeing sherlock belittle emotions (especially his own), unable to open up to anyone except himself occasionally with the help of Jon (and that easy open emotional expression Jon has), and finally Sherlock is facing his own feelings a bit. Has integrated some of who Jon was, has let himself feel his own feelings, is more self aware and brave, still hurting but also more able to not reject himself. And its just feels so lovely to see played. Its a simple moment, the same scene I expect, but it has emotional payoff from the chapter one story fully realized in seeing sherlocks changes when he finally gets to the moment of meeting watson. Payoff of chapter ones whole character growth of one from childhood to adulthood.

#sherlock holmes chapter one #shco #frogwares sherlock #lb #in my own posts i gotta figure out how to tag these games

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golbrocklovely · 9 months ago

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i did this reading back in early january and had plans to post it but never got around to it.

this reading was on snc's love lives. i know, apparently it's the only topic i can talk about lol

i'm kidding… but hey, i'm just here to give the ppl what they want.

this particular post is colby's love life. if you want to read sam's, it's here.

now this is not based on their relationship with the girls. this is just a general six month reading on what their love lives are going to look like. if that includes the girls or not, that's not up for me or the cards to decide.

disclaimer: i'm not a professional tarot reader. i'm doing this for fun and it's not to be taken as literal or serious. if you don't like the reading i give, understandable. but i'm just telling you what cards i got and what they mean. this isn't to be taken as fact, this is all for funsies so enjoy it… or don't, ig lol

colby's reading was a bit complicated. but when has anything ever came easy with him lol

first card: knight of cups. just like sam. again, it's about having love and romance in your life, but reminding you to be realistic about your love life and what you currently have, and not falling in love with the idea of love.

second card: five of cups. this is usually the sign that you are grieving a break up, or there being tension in your current relationship. and emotional loss of some sort has happened, but this card can also signal to look on the positive and find things to look forward to.

third card: ten of cups. this card is a sign for commitment or taking the next step in a relationship. it could also just mean that long term stability or a long lasting relationship is headed your way soon.

fourth card: four of wands. this card is great for a love reading. it shows weddings, engagements, or just generally a celebration of love within a group of ppl happening. a public show of love, so to speak.

fifth card: nine of swords. sam also got this card. this card is showing there being some anxiety and fears showing up. it usually shows a lack of trust in your partner, along with remorse or guilt or just general insecurity. this can also show that past relationships are effecting you in the present, thus causing you to feel regret or remorse.

sixth card: queen of swords. this is an interesting sign. this can be someone coming into colby's life - a woman who's a bit of a loner and likes her independence outside of her relationship. or it could also be a call to be picky about your lovers, to look for both independence and self-sufficiency alongside your relationship.

i then asked for a explanation card, or just an overall vibe for this time, for colby.

final card: three of swords. this usually means a breakup, or just general sadness in the form of a separation. it could also be a sign of a third person coming into play and muddying up your relationship.

i'll be honest, like i mentioned above, i was a bit confused as to what some of these cards meant for colby. so i asked for even more cards. two more to be exact.

extra card #1: two of cups. this is the beginning of a relationship, building each other up. a mutually beneficial relationship where communication is good.

extra card #2: queen of pentacles reverse. this is the sign of a relationship for all the wrong reasons. a selfish partner who can be shallow and jealous. however, i would also like to directly quote the website i use to help me better understand these cards - "If you’re single ... can signal that you may need to take some time on developing your own confidence and healing any insecurities you have before entering a relationship with another person. Avoid getting into relationships for the wrong reasons; whether it’s for status, money or simply because you don’t want to be alone."

now… what the hell does all of this mean? like i said, this reading is messy. his love life is anything but simple lol

i'm gonna interpret the cards the way i think, so if they don't exactly line up with the definition/description i gave, that's why.

i think whatever colby has currently happening in his love life is gonna end. and i think this might be the year he starts to FINALLY unpack some of the trauma and heartache he went thru all those years ago when he had his last real relationship. hence the overall vibe being the three of swords aka heartache. i think he's starting to realize that this continuous pattern he's been on of just having hook ups or relationships that don't go anywhere bc he won't open up isn't making him happy in the long run. sure, he's safe and not getting his heart broken, but he's not happy. it's not what he really wants. he wants to heal and move on and love again. and i think this year will be the year he does that. it's just gonna take a lot of time.

and that doesn't mean he won't fall back into old habits. i think he will, but that's when he'll pull back and need time to be by himself and not in a relationship. he'll still have his fun, i suspect, but it won't be anything serious. the four of wands card, to me, reads as him being celebrated by fans for something too, and that might help him heal some as well. or just in general he's gonna be feeling a lot of love during that time period.

and i think the extra cards are a warning to him: one, don't fall for someone that benefits off of you (or that you know is with you for that soul reason) and two, don't just get into a relationship bc you're lonely. especially as you're going thru this time period in your life of trying to heal. having someone that's using you is not gonna help, even if you "don't care" that they are using you bc you're using them too.

do i think him and his current boo thang are gonna be together by june/july? no. i'd be surprised, based on these cards, if they even make it to march. however, that's not what i'm wishing. i'd love for them to stay together, solely bc it pisses off so many fans lol

and like i said in sam's reading: DON'T TAKE MY WORD AS LAW. things changes, nothing is permanent. these cards are merely a suggestion of what's to come, not what is currently happening. so, please don't take this as proof of things going bad for him and m. let the man have his fun, and just read this as entertainment. okie dokie? cool.

#snc tarot #colby brock #cb ll #personal #text

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apenvs3000w24 · 10 months ago

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01: Finding Myself in Nature: The Evolution of Our Special Relationship

I have not always had a strong connection to nature. I grew up in an indoor-loving Italian household in Hamilton, Ontario. We enjoyed watching movies, going shopping, and planning dinner dates with friends and family. Nature was something “out there” to my cohort. It was “disgusting” and “dangerous” and not a part of our world.

When I started doing more travelling in high school, I quickly learned that I enjoyed hiking more than the city activities I had grown up doing. I had gone on two one-week camping trips with my school and became obsessed. I started forcing my childhood friends to go on hikes with me and together we made chasing waterfalls our favourite summer activity. I recognized the joy I derived from nature and put myself in more positions where I could explore it.

One particular experience stands out as one that helped build my current relationship with nature. Two years ago I went tree planting in Northern Ontario. For two months I backcountry camped, planting seedlings in harsh conditions for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week (the insect abundance was unreal — I was swarmed by black flies constantly). I experienced the unkind parts of nature and was often frustrated with my living conditions. Despite this, I have never been more at peace than I was during those two months. I could disconnect from my busy online world and connect with myself on a deeper level. I think about this experience often and believe this self-connection is why I enjoy being in nature so much today.

In university In university, I began to learn more about global environmental change in my classes, closely followed environmental media, and made friends who cared about the natural world to the extent I did. My friends and I would discuss current events and encourage each other to live more sustainably (we went vegetarian and began to thrift all our clothes and household items). I chose to study international development, geography and ecology in university to understand how I/we can help mitigate global environmental change. Therefore, I also built on my connection to nature through my formal education, my friends and my media eco-chamber.

“A sense of place”, as described in our textbook, is recognizing a location as more than just another common environment. It is identifying and understanding the special characteristics and the bigger picture of a place. As previously mentioned, I believe that my teachers, friends and the media are important influences that have "interpreted nature" for me, helping me gain a sense of place with it. Due to these influences, I view nature as more than simply flora and fauna. To me, nature represents billions of years of evolution, complex and changing interactions, and a space where I can peacefully exist. I understand nature's history and culture due to my education and have built on our relationship due to close influences in my life.

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dm-clockwork-dragon · 2 years ago

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Another Unpopular Opinion

I was asked to delete my earlier reblog by the OP, so they didn’t get sucked into discourse, so I’m reposing this as it’s own thing Well, here I go publicly stating another opinion that will probably get me cancelled. To be entirely fair, I’m sort of beyond caring at this point?

I think people need to calm their fucking tits - homegrown, surgical, or happily removed - over not just this game, but about HP stuff in general.

I’m a recently hatched egg, but I’ve considered myself non-binary for almost 15 years, and been an ally for as long as I knew what an ally was. I also have no particular love for the franchise, despite enjoying it a lot when I was a kid. That’s not virtue signally, or an attempt to defend my position - just letting you all know a little context, and that I do actually have a horse in this race.

I get it, I really do. JK is a fucking terrible person, and should burn in a thousand multicolored hells for the bullshit she spews and the hate she engenders in others. On top of that, she’s a shitty writer, to the point where she accidentally created an entire wizarding world where the difference between the good guys and the bad guys is just what flavor of Nazi you want to choose. But there’s a couple reasons I think that people really need to try and separate her from the franchise that she started.

1. Death of the Author.

This is the one that everyone else gives. It’s possible to enjoy, appreciate, or interpret a creative work in absence of it’s author or their intent. We do it with music, we do it with painting. and Like OP here points out: if we were to burn every book written by a problematic author, we would leave glaring wholes not just in our understanding of our own history and society, but in our understanding of how to avoid the same injustices and suffering caused by those authors. Dead or alive, the author’s right and control over who others interpret their work the moment they share it with the outside world.

2. You guys don’t know how JK makes money, do you?

I see all kinds of arguments out there about how engaging with, or - dare I even mention - paying for HP content is somehow a crime against transfolk because it directly supports a raging TERF and her platform. It doesn’t. Aside from the argument that JK makes all her money through investments and stock market trades - just like any rich person - She also DOESN’T OWN THE FRANCHISE. She retains intellectual property rights: AKA, she can write new books or shit if she likes (we have seen how that goes for her), and she is still treated as the primary source, but the IP and all production rights are owned by Warner Bros. JK doesn’t make a dime off of game, movies, or anything else that WB license or produce based on THEIR franchise. She already made her money by selling the franchise to them years ago. Honestly, she probably got the raw end of the deal at this point. At most, she might get some meager royalties that are eaten up entirely by the cost of paying someone to process them. That’s how publishing contracts and movie deals work - they are a fucking racket. 3. HP isn’t just something some people can throw away.

Like I said above, I sorta grew out of my HP phase, long before any of the issue of JK being a TERF ever came up. And I know that a lot of people who considered themselves fans have also willingly distanced themselves from the franchise in light of her shitty views and actions. But not everyone has that ability. To give you a different example: I grew up reading the Dune books. I finished the core series for the first time when I was 8, and have re-read the entire extended series more than a dozen times since then. It’s more than just my favorite book series, it’s a formative part of who I am as a person. So much of my beliefs and identity as a person have been informed or inspired by those books that I would argue it is impossible to truly understand myself without them. Hell - I’d argue the entire reason I started explore my gender and sexuality in the first place is because of the emphasis those books placed on the “Quisach Haderach” as the perfect fusion of male and female. Even if I were to verbally disavow the series for some reason, those books still define who I am today, and It would be physically impossible for me to separate myself from them Harry Potter is the same way for a lot of people. I think some of us loose sight of just how meaningful those books are to a generation. Not all of us - even within that generation - had the same connection, but for a lot of people who grew up reading them from the time they could turn a page, those books are just as formative and intrinsic to who they are as Dune is to me. they couldn’t separate themselves, even if they wanted to. And pissing all over someone for something they can’t change about themselves is exactly the sort of thing we are supposed to be fighting against! Same can be said of the bible, the Torah, the Quran or any other work that was meaningful and formative to a persons cultural upbringing. Even within the trans community, there are countless Christians, Jews, and Islamic followers. They make the faith their own, because it is an intrinsic and immutable part of who they are. If you are going to condemn Trans or Allies who can’t separate themselves form HP, then you are also condemning any Ally or Transperson who still practices or believes in some form of the religion the grew up with. 4. If we can reclaim slurs, we can reclaim this! I see so many of the same people who rail against HP, also writing or relogging posts about how important it is to reclaim slurs and other labels that have been historically used against us, and I agree. But that shit goes a lot further than just the names we have been called. Reclaiming something from those who would hurt you with it is like picking up the rock that was thrown at you, and saying “neat, this is mine now, you cant have it back”, as opposed to just kicking it back to the abuser so they can hurl it at you again. JK is a terrible person. which is all the more reason that we have a responsibility to take this beloved franchise away from her. She doesn’t deserve it, and as long as it remains in her power, she can continue to use it as a platform to hurt people. And this isn’t without precedent: Look at Butch Hartman, or Joss Wheaton, or Notch, or Gary Gygax. We have a history and a present filled with examples of taking beloved content away from shitty people a deciding “this is ours now, you can’t have it back.” We take those things that were or are important to us, and reframe them, re-write them, or reimagine them into something positive and supportive. As an author myself, I know quite well how painful it can be to see your work taken away from you, and transformed by people who don’t share your vision. So lets hurt JK where it counts! Not in the wallet, not by railing against her on social media, but by taking away the one meaningful thing she has ever created in her miserable life. Because she doesn’t fucking deserve it.

#HP #harry potter #not dnd #jk rowling #unpopular opinion

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apolloslyrics · 7 months ago

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Hi, Sun! How's your April so far? I hope it's going great! Can I please request a reading about my spirit guides?

If possible, I'd like to know of these things, please:

> Who might they be

> How they view me

> Any important message/s they have for me

If any of these questions make you feel uncomfortable, please feel free to answer what you only want/can.

I greatly appreciate this opportunity! Blessings to you and have a wonderful day ahead.

- Maryel 🌼

Hey Maryel!!! It's lovely to meet you. My April has been okay! Ups and downs, but mostly ups :) I hope your April has gone well too!!!

I can try to answer your questions; the only thing I will say is that I can't necessarily put names to spirit guides. So, what I will do instead is describe their attributes and personalities! I'll try to identify a few for you.

The first thing I'm going to do is ask for your spirit guides to come into my space. To do this, I hold a pendulum and ask aloud for them to come forward. When I get a "yes", I start the reading.

For this reading, I'm going to do something similar to a deity identification tarot spread. Here is what I'll be using:

I made this spread! Anyone can use it any time :)

Anyway, onto the reading:

Spirit Guide #1

Card One: Six of Wands

The Six of Wands translates to success, public recognition, progress, and confident. A six in tarot usually represents growth, overcoming challenges, leaving things behind, and understanding yourself. This spirit guide in particular is a very outgoing, confident figure. They know who they are, and they're not afraid to show it. They've overcome a lot of problems and issues over their time here, but they've grown to understand the lessons.

Card Two: The Fool

The fool's meaning has to do with beginnings, innocence, spontaneity, and being a free spirit. This spirit guide, while confident and outgoing, can sometimes be a little bit too spontaneous. They might do things that are silly, but receive many consequences later on.

Card Three: Page of Wands (reversed)

The Page of Wands (reversed) includes newly formed ideas, redirecting energy, and spiritual paths. A Page in tarot often means new beginnings, new phases, and next steps. Because the imagery on the Page of Cups is of a young man, it's safe to assume that this spirit guide is a male.

Card Four: The Hermit

Card Four explains what the spirit guide likes to do for fun; the card they gave was The Hermit, which means introspection, being alone, soul-searching, and inner guidance. In this case, the spirit guide enjoys helping others, especially when it comes to relationships and conquering insecurities.

Card Five: Seven of Wands

The seven of wands represents challenge, competition, protection, and perseverance. This spirit guide is here mainly to protect you, as well as help you persevere through challenges in your life. They may also be sending small tests to check on your ability to get through tough times.

Card Six: The Magician

Card Six, representing what you can do to collaborate with this spirit guide, talks about power, skill, concentration, action, and resourcefulness. To connect with this guide, you might want to work on logical skills. Concentrate on focus and problem-solving. Any time you make a decision, study, or even look at a situation logically, know that this guide is with you and is there to help.

Interpretation: This guide sent primarily major arcana cards and the suit of wands! In tarot, the wands represent primal energy, spirituality, inspiration, determination, strength, creativity, original thought, and more. This spirit guide seems to be extremely creative and does well at problem-solving. They are there to help; they enjoy helping. They will always be there when you need them!

Spirit Guide #2:

Card One: Eight of Cups

The eight of cups represents withdrawal, escapism, and abandonment. While this card may seem negative, an eight in tarot talks about work, change, and getting where you need to go. So, a positive trait about this spirit guide is that they are able to guide you wherever your path should go. Their skill lies in letting go of past resentment and problems, and moving forward.

Card Two: Ten of Pentacles

The Ten of Pentacles, supposedly a negative trait, represents wealth, security, family, and contribution. A ten means final outcomes, the end of a cycle, rewards, and consequences. I'm really playing into the security and consequences part; it seems like this spirit guide holds their cards close to their chest, maybe a bit too much. They prefer not to be vulnerable; this may come from family issues, or it may come from their own resentment.

Card Three: Strength

Card Three, Strength, represents the gender of this spirit guide. The imagery of the strength card shows a woman and a lion, so it's safe to say that this spirit guide is a lady.

Card Four: Eight of Pentacles

This spirit guide sent the eight of pentacles, which talks about apprenticeship, tasks, mastery, and skill development. In their free time, they prefer to be practicing a skill, whether it be teaching themselves or other people. They enjoy the practical things in life, but they also like to have fun with it!

Card Five: Six of Pentacles

Six of Pentacles, which is meant to represent their purpose as a guide, talks about giving, receiving, generosity, and charity. A six represents growth, overcoming challenges, leaving things behind, and understanding yourself. This spirit guide is there to aid you in selflessness! It's important to remember that you are allowed to be selfish as well. They want you to have a balance between giving and receiving; not too much loss and not too much gain.

Card Six: Ace of Pentacles

The Ace of Pentacles talks about manifestation, new opportunities, and abundance. Aces typically talk about beginnings, initiative, drive, potential, and the early stages of an endeavor. Take the reigns! Start a new adventure. Whenever you are trying new things, manifesting, and standing up for yourself and others, that's when your guide is beside you. They are there to help you grow and change; they are there to help manifest who you are meant to be. So go ahead and move forward knowing they will be with you all the way!

Interpretation: this guide sent a lot of pentacles in your reading. The pentacles typically represent work, business, trade, material possessions, ego, self-esteem, and self-image. This spirit guide is work and play! They enjoy finding the balance in things, whether it be generosity, work-play, or communication. They love to see you grow and change, and they love to see you love yourself. Know that they are so excited to get to know you, and they are proud and happy for every achievement you've had thus far.

Spirit Guide #3:

Card One: Seven of Wands

The Seven of Wands talks about challenge, competition, protection, and perseverance. A seven in tarot usually represents confidence, truth, determination, and having faith. This spirit guide is very protective and determined. They are strong and independent.

Card Two: King of Cups (reversed)

The King of Cups (reversed) is meant to speak about self-compassion, inner feelings, moodiness, and manipulation. A King usually represents authority, power, and believing in yourself. While this spirit guide is protective and confident, they can sometimes be overbearing and easily angered. They might get self-absorbed sometimes.

Card Three: Temperance

In tarot, the Temperance card represents balance, moderation, patience, purpose, and meaning. The person depicted on Temperance is female, so it is safe to say that this spirit guide is a lady, as well.

Card Four: The Star

The Star represents hope, spirituality, renewal, inspiration, and serenity. This spirit guide engages in a lot of spiritual hobbies in their free time; they love to connect with nature, other spirits, deities, and energies.

Card Five: Nine of Pentacles (reversed)

The Five of Pentacles (reversed) is said to represent what this guide is here for. Recovery from financial loss and spiritual poverty are some key words for the Five of Pentacles (reversed). They are here to guide you on your general spiritual path; when you pray, when you connect with nature, when you give offerings, and when you meditate, know that they are there to keep you safe and protected. They do their best to have your space nice and peaceful, without any harm coming to you.

Card Six: Knight of Wands

The Knight of Wands represents energy, passion, inspired action, and adventure. Interact with your spiritual path more! Whether that be praying, doing spellwork, leaving offerings, or even simply lighting a candle, they would love to see more of your practice in your daily life.

Interpretation: This spirit guide didn't send any specific suits; they want you to decide what you think of them, and how you want to interact. They are there to help you in your spiritual path mainly, but know that they are also welcoming any general questions from you. They are hopeful that your spiritual journey will give you some insight as to what might happen in the future.

Your spirit guides were very kind and understanding during this reading! I do hope this resonates and that you find this to be helpful in your practice 🫶 as always, take care of yourselves!

#divination #hellenic pagan #paganism #eclectic pagan #pagan #pagan witch #deity work #gay pagan #pagan blog #pagan community #tarot witch #baby witch #witchcraft #witch #witches #spirituality #spirit guides #greek mythology #hellenic

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lord-squiggletits · 1 year ago

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hi!!

I do actually have a question about IDW1 Optimus Prime for you... it may be a weird one, but still. So. If you were an IDW writer, what would your OP be like? I mean, if you had that chance to make your vision, you know, officially canon? Would you change something, or create something new?

And thanks for all your works, those are amazing

Tbh that's a little bit of a tough question? Because the way I interpret your question, I think of it in a couple different ways like: If I were a writer at IDW during the IDW1 run, what would I have done? Or if I were just given an opportunity to add an OP-centric story? Or if I were completely starting/writing for a completely different continuity? It's truly not as simple as just me writing whatever my own vision is, because my understanding of IDW1 in particular is it was a very collaborative effort with writers and editors (iirc Barber wrote his own series as well as being the editor for JRO's stuff and possibly others, for example).

I guess if I were an IDW writer and got to write an Optimus-centric story, I would've preferred that his post-war story be more focused on Cybertron and Cybertronian politics. It's not that I don't like the Earth story (in fact, I think I'm one of the only people who cares about humans in the story and thought the Earth plot was fun), it's just that the plot is so contrived and full of mess/unrealized potential that I would probably scrap everything except a few bare bones things and start fresh. ANYWAYS.

TLDR: If I'd gotten to write for the IDW continuity, I'd have 1. focused more on Cybertronian politics and 2. set up a rivals-to-friends/foil relationship between Optimus and Pyra Magna

I would've liked to see an Optimus-centric story that focused on Cybertron's politics instead, especially with his efforts to create post-war peace and arbitrate issues between Autobots and Decepticons. I really enjoyed the Punishment story which showed the pitiful state of the Decepticons (mostly jobless, everyone sees them just as fighters and criminals, pushed to slums on the outside of the city) and how it was an Autobot who was going around murdering Decepticons based on his own sense of vigilante justice. I really liked that story because it showed how Optimus' ideals of post-war conciliation clashed so much against reality, the way that not everyone is as willing/able to move on as he is. I think more stories where Optimus specifically works to resolve Autobot-Decepticon differences while also trying to deal with Starscream's shitty behavior and getting involved in politics and Primacy shit with the colonists would've been great. Because I mean, Megatron isn't here to give a shit about his Decepticons being in slums, so if someone is going to help them it might as well be Optimus.

I also really enjoyed the parts of various stories like the Autocracy trilogy and Death of Optimus Prime that showed how neutral Cybertronians only saw his legacy with Zeta and/or the 4 million year war. Those are very real positions for members of their species to take: not trusting Optimus to be anything more than another corrupt Prime, or hating him because of his involvement in the war that painted their species as all bloodthirsty warriors and led to mechanical species being persecuted to some degree. I feel like a story focusing on the politics of Cybertron would've been a way better way to criticize Optimus than the weird crap that became canon (Optimus being equated to Megatron for the annexation of Earth which only happened because of tricky politics and to get more resources to avert another invasion, being framed as 'going too far' by killing Galvatron, and some other stuff I don't care to get into). And I feel like a story focused on Autobot-Decepticon social conflicts post-war, and the division between the war faction mechs and neutral non-combatant mechs, and the different cultures of all the colonies, would've fit in better with all the pre-war lore brought in by MTMTE/LL. MTMTE/LL would've given us a lot of pre-war lore that would've then given more context to how and why people see Optimus the way they do in the present on Cybertron. There would've also been more chances to show Decepticons as sympathetic characters suffering from a similar systemic discrimination as they did before the war. I mean, there ARE sympathetic Decepticons, but there's not as many as there could've been IMO.

I also would've set up Pyra Magna as a more fleshed out rival/foil to Optimus. Canon gave us fucking nothing, man. Pyra and Optimus met, Pyra (as Victorion) made Optimus admit that he doesn't believe in the Primacy and doesn't think there's anything good in that legacy, Pyra is like "you know nothing and you're a shit Prime, I can try to teach you something though".......... and then Pyra Magna and Optimus literally never talk about anything except tactics and Pyra is only there in the background to punch people, until OP when all the sudden she's bitching at Optimus for manipulating people and being "unteachable" when she never fuckin taught him anything??? Maybe Optimus wouldn't have been like that if Pyra had actually had character interactions like the story SET HER UP TO HAVE, but I guess Barber just really wanted to have another person scream at Optimus about how much he sucks.

I would've liked to see Pyra and Optimus butting heads over the issue of the Primacy and having a lot of cultural clashes because of the separate histories of their planets. Because clearly Pyra Magna is offended by Optimus viewing the Primacy as nothing more than a tool, but she came from a planet where Primes were venerated as gods so of course she's offended by Optimus' secular position. Optimus grew up on a planet where the legacy of the Primes was corruption and oppression and genocide/colonization of organics, so of course he's really jaded about the Primacy and thinks that it's nothing more than a corrupted mantle that he's trying to clean up by being as good of a leader/person as he can be.

It would've been nice for Optimus to have a genuinely spiritual person as his critic/advisor and eventual supporter/friend who could try to alleviate Optimus' cynicism about the Primacy and maybe teach him more about the history of the Primes and the spiritual importance of his job from her perspective. While simultaneously, Optimus could talk to her about the burden of leadership and how his position is tied so much in warfare and corrupt legacies, and Pyra Magna would come to see Optimus with more empathy as a person who's suffering under the burden of trying to be a good Prime and questioning whether it's even worth it. I really would've loved to see Pyra and Optimus having some sort of rivals-to-friends dynamic in that regard. Pyra could've been a little bit like Windblade, providing Optimus with advice on the culture and politics of Caminus (and other colonies) but with a firmer and more aggressive style that Windblade doesn't have (and Windblade would be busy doing politics, herself). Just UGH Pyra Magna was so fucking interesting the way she was first introduced in canon. Also she's so fucking sexyyyyyy why did Barber have to do her dirty by giving her basically 0 meaningful purpose in the story for all of exRID.

#squiggposting #idw op love #it's late and i'm tired so i rambled a bit and also may have overgeneralized or simplified #i've talked about this in depth with a friend in DMs so like. i think i used all my best words in those DMs lol sorry #but also like full disclaimer just bc i'm saying i didn't like canon and i would've done things differently #doesn't mean i think i could totally do as good a job or better at writing than everyone else at idw1 #they're professional writers and i'm not. i have no idea what the actual job duties entailed or what restrictions they were under #i talk big shit bc i'm a fan and i have the luxury to sit back and criticize lol #that being said. some of the things that were written were just stupid and wastes of time

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