#but i have a whole thread about them on twitter lol

[yanderefan-kimi]

Curiosity

(I spent waaaaay too much time on this drawing of my ocs when I should really be working on some other art haha........)

[satorugojoswiife]

What do you think about gojo ships

I feel like I'm pretty indifferent to most of them. This is super cringe of me, but whenever I fall super in love with a character I don't often like shipping them romantically with anyone. 💀 (im delusional I know)

It doesn't help that for some reason the jjk fandom (especially twt) is weirdly aggressive about ships. I know it isn't all the shippers and it's mostly just the loud minority, but seeing so much of the discourse has kinda put me off and I don't really engage much with the ships in the fandom except for rarepairs and selfships bc alot of the time those communities are more wholesome and cozy (if that makes sense LOL)

[laikabu]

re: my thoughts on laios’s sexuality (long post ahead lol)

let me start this post with this. first, this contains a lot of references to the new adventurer’s bible world guide book released last february. i can read japanese, but i’m sure they’re translated somewhere. general spoiler warning in case. also… i am ESL, so sorry for any grammar errors

second, if you’re on the team that insists laios doesn’t care about humans enough to form relationships, either read the manga again or at the very least read this thread.

last, please don’t chime in with your acearo headcanons on this post. there’s already a majority of posts here that insist laios is acearo and that anything else is impossible. i don’t like it the same way i don’t like when someone declares they hc marcille as bisexual to a poster who reads her as lesbian. i already have enough people here who declare he’s ace on my own art. at least people on twitter of all places don’t do this sort of thing to me. nothing in this manga is canon, you can headcanon anything i won’t get mad if you hc him as bi or something. just. don’t be weird on my post.

okay. trust me, i love women, and i love the idea of making my favs women lovers but the idea of laios being gay really appeals to me because of his background. this isn’t fueled by yaoi since i don’t even ship the only m/m relationship i bring up here, i just think it adds a nice layer to his disconnect with his own humanity

i do think laios has a very abstract relationship with his sexuality for a multitude of reasons. he grew up in a very conservative backwater village. he has a hard time recognizing his own feelings towards others just as much as vice versa. i don’t really care for the “laios is a monsterfucker” agenda people are pushing but i do think he’d engage in sexual thoughts in his own weird way, i won’t deny his deviantart fetish shit

as an autistic person myself, i relate to how he’d prioritize his special interest over social interactions. after all, he was fixated on monster food so he’s distracted from dark thoughts. he’s not an actual glutton

he’s shy around women, but i don’t think it’s out of attraction. i just think it’s because he’s awkward and doesn’t want to be seen as a threat. there’s a couple of times when, out of armor, he deliberately tries to make himself look smaller and nonthreatening.

he didn’t show any interest towards ashivia (the hubby hunter girl marcille replaced) and just humored her because she wouldn’t leave him alone. his other party members thought he was giving her special treatment so he had to tell her he “doesnt want to give her special treatment anymore”(even though he never did), so she left

ashivia did her best to butter herself up to laios and he didn’t care, but laios thought shuro was his bestest friend in the whole world because he was too much of a pushover to reject him. ironically… what ashivia did to him parallels what he was doing to shuro

also… yeah sorry i keep bringing up that one comic of laios saying if he were falin he’d marry shuro and then begging him to take him back to his country, or that comic of laios wondering why he doesn’t like him(and then the first two questions he asks the magic mirror was what if he or shuro were women). i don’t even ship them! but it’s not a reach to assume that he likes men because of this, even if it’s kinda played like a joke(after all,a lot of people like chilshi even though their ‘shippy’ interaction was played as a joke)

of course, given the setting, i don’t think knows he’s gay, he wouldn’t have the vocabulary to label himself. i do want to dance around with the idea of him forcibly confronting his own sexuality after years of yaad pressuring him to produce heirs lol. laios might not be cishet but he’s a king so he rdgaf about that right now. i’m open to him having female consorts for political reasons, but i don’t think he’s into women, is all.

before anyone brings up his succubus… god forbid an author makes hetbait. a part of the plot twist was that not-marcille wasn’t the only succubus enticing laios, his other party members were copied too. she was the only one who approached him. also… succubi aren’t always inherently romantic. once it realized marcille didn’t work, it switched to appeal to his desire to be a monster.

[fasolabean]

warninggg this is a long one ,,,

(Okay so I started writing this uhhh vent before more posts on the n//fts appeared later so plz keep that in mind hah)

So I haven’t been too active on here for the past month – a bit personal start, but I’ve moved to a different country whooo!!!! (its terrifying) (my brains been involved in fandom stuff as usual but physically I wasn’t lmao).

But I wanted to talk ab the n//ft (censoring bc idk ab bots here) thing bc while some people on here provided some great context and threads, most of the talk has happened on twitter. So like. Since it was first confirmed what the raffle thing was I was veryyyy disappointed, especially bc K has made fun of this very thing on stage previously. And like yea, the nature of what hes doing is different than the n//ft crypt0 scams, since the cost of the paywalled content is set and not fluid and the raffle thing was free to enter, and I know there have been threads about the website not being the worst on twitter (link) (edit: now here on tumblr too). But still man. Both of these could’ve been done on either an independent website or through stuff like youtube members or patreon. Or hell, even just on the merch store? Like buy a promo code that buys you access to the material?

Also like I get that this was probably a contract that would be rly hard if not impossible to terminate. STILL though, I wish we just got an even short thing like “hi sorry I wasn’t aware this is gonna be a one time thing we’re not doing it again”. I don’t mind extra content being paywalled personally, I know some people do, but I just really wish it wasn’t don’t with that technology. And yes, I also now know it’s a safer way to handle shit like that but I just cant see this excuse being used for commercial use? Like maybe I can see why I could be made to use it for like idk an important document, but a raffle ticket? Nah

I also, ugh. Felt weird about mikke in the team since the winter. This whole thing seems to be – at least to a large extent – either done or influenced by him, judging by even the fact that the europass thingy webpage has oy photomikke marked (no im not buying it but i did look around curiosity was stronger). Also the previous thing that had made me go hmmm about käärijä as a brand was the bnb, which now seems to be ran entirely by mikke and his wife. Like stick to your photos man? That being said tho, Jere IS an adult and he IS the face of this brand. If he doesn’t think hes qualified to make business decisions all by himself (which I get, this shit is hard), nothing is stopping him really from getting a professional to help him with those things. And if there IS something stopping him then hey man I think you should go to the press with that lol. From any interviews ive seen or read, you can feel he feels this responsibility to keep his friends and family that initially helped him afloat. But I wish he understood that not letting people who in the end are not professional about business and PR and having them stick to their own thing does not have to mean cutting them off.

But now I just wanna share a thought that to some might seem like me defending him – which, in case you didn’t get I am very much not lmao. The thing is, im really glad the fandom is able to call him out on a shitty thing – like a bad baaad business decision. You can like somebody’s art, hell you can even like the public person they are, while not agreeing with everything what they do. What annoys me though, is that apart of the kä fandom, he is also often talked about (usually negatively) in the wider esc fandom. Over the past week I’ve seen multiple threads on twitter from people that rarely ever mention him about this. That would’ve been like, not that much of a deal (though sometimes it really got… engagement bait-y) but the amount of bodyshaming and shaming of his fans that comes up with every valid criticism is making me wanna pull my hair out.

Especially cause he’s neither the first finnish esc-related artist to do that (Robin and Cyan Kicks are mentioned on the kollekt website) nor is he the first esc artist of his influence to do it either. Last year Loreen and Alessandra have released n//fts last year, and Loreen did a very similar raffle a couple months ago. Now I wanna be very clear: I don’t want this to be like. Cancelling these people, that would be so hypocritical of me. I also don’t want this to be like a fandom war like oh youre mad he did xyz?? Well THIS and THIS person did THAT!!1! I’m just merely annoyed that these people doing essentially the same thing went with no echo at all, but now I’ve seen us (the fandom) be literally called the r slur and the most vile things being said about jere and, for some reason, his appearance???

Idk man. I really try to  make it clear im not trying to excuse his decisions and I think being angry and/or disappointed at him is absolutely understandable. Im just angry that every single time he fucks up, every single time he makes a mistake, my timeline is filled with a wave of people rejoicing in it. I know he’s a controversial figure, he’s been one since day one, but I just wish he’s gotten the same amount of shit his peers do for the same actions? And this happens every time, and each time im like “well ig I can see why hes so bad when it comes to criticism”. Because imagine doing a thing that your peers have done with no/minimal criticism and then the moment you try it out you get people calling your fans slurs and commenting how stupid you are. Like ngl id also think any criticism was hate lmao.

Again I wanna be very VERY clear im very critical ab what he chose to do. I wish he took some responsibility – and hope he maybe does, at some point in the future. This year has been a whole lot of bad business decisions for the käärijä brand in my eyes, and I hope he can actually see where its gone wrong and do something about it, both for his and our sake. I am also happy to see fellow fans who are able to call out their fave. But man I am TIRED of him just getting all the shit (from people who very visibly fans are not)?? And now I have the proof that it is comparably more than other people and not just my bias towards him because wdym there’s been at least 4 esc artists, 2 of which more famous than him, and 2 umk artists doing exactly the same thing with almost no echo??

TLDR (thishasover1kwordsfuckshit); I wish he did better, simply. I kinda cling to some hope that maybe hey finally this time he will see that criticism can be constructive. I think this is still a level of fucking up that you can like, come back from. Pity it’s connected to the eurotour since kinda souring my excitement ab my first concert in a new country a bit :(

[tocomplainfriend]

VIV is constantly criticized by her own fault.

TW: Mention of: SA, Rape, Transphobia, fat phobia, Antiblackness.

(Hey, i'mma probably do a post eventually about episode 4. Btw, awfully shit, worse than I thought it could be... BIG TW OF R-PE AND SA IF YOU'RE GOING TO SEE IT. AND TW of the minimization of those topics too.)

(SORRY FOR BAD ENGLISH IN THIS POST TOO)

BUT I NEED TO CALL ATTENTION TO THIS! One of the reasons I criticize a lot of Viv specifically is because of how much she puts herself out there. She sees something she posts on Twitter about it a shit ton (even on "threads" lol). AND because of how lacking of improvement she has being. (I personally know people I have considered terrible when we were teens, but I have seen legit improvement from them in recent years. They seem like people who struggle, but got to grow up and made up for any problems (or pain caused to me or others). People have the ability to change and become better. Something that matters at pointing out issues or discussing-is the idea of creating change on others. It is better to get someone to change for the better than to cast them into the forever jail of nothingness (unless, IDK, they Sexually Assaulted someone, for example). Specially when they are young people. Doesn't mean YOU have to stick with other people that hurt you, no. Doesn't mean people get to do what ever and get away with it.

BUT All of this problem I have seen from Viv are from age 19-30. (you can change at anytime btw) And see constantly repeats herself and her actions. Seems to have never accepted criticism (said by herself too), and never able to see her own faults. The fact that is a continuous behavior is a problem, how she always responds is awful. My post of "Viv has being transphobic for 10 years", was to signal that. If she really had changed over those 10 years to a genuine thing- I could've taken that! But no, the shitty double standard against trans men... the weird treatment. THE MANY STORIES OF EMPLOYEES GETTING MISGENDERED HEAVILY, TOO.

(I know people who were transphobic [When they were teens mainly], that Genuinely improved and changed their beliefs. Now they treat trans people with respect and care! And still learning about gender-fluid people, too!)

It just seems to be further and further away from getting better! The fact that she only decides to take in account voices from SA victims that agree with her- it's painful as a victim, my self!

And yes, people who sent gore or dumbass shit to Viv (or the team) don't help. And go get help why you're looking and sending Gore to anyone. (Also, stuff like this does lead to people not listening to others people genuine callouts). The fact that I criticize something doesn't mean I agree with the people that go and do shit like the thing I just mention above.

AND ALSO A IMPORTANT THING HERE!

This drawing was created by DollCreep. BUT ALSO FUCKING REMEMBER this was done in response to the shit that Viv drew of him.

If you didn't know Viv drew a transphobic caricature of DollCreep using the name Jojo (his old nickname). This put together with a shitty anti-sjw meme video. DollCreep is a transman, Viv drew a character based on him. A furry wolf girl, If you can see in the image the main thing listed below the character name is the fucking "Sex=♀️". SO ON PURPOSE, CHRIST. Like... AND YES-is shitty from both to have drawn this (even if it was in respond) mainly immature in DC part. But that, or any toxicity coming from DC, doesn't delete the transphobia here. (imagine drawing a racist caricature of a poc person, because they are shitty to you). THE POST LINKED ABOVE SHOWS THE SITUATION, and in the end of the day. Viv says that DC is an abusive shitty person to her, but never realizing her own faults or anything she could'be possibly done wrong! (and again, any wrong done by DC in general can not be deleted by the fact of having being treated badly. If he did shitty stuff himself, that doesn't delete the wrong done in general to him or to others by viv)

Here about transphobia:

(this is like 8yrs old too)

Again, she never acknowledges anything that she might have done wrong. "She is a thoughtful person, that wants tor write queer and disabled characters! She wants to tell empowering stories of..." It doesn't even feel close to that when people bring up actual problems in her writing that are stereotyping or bad, and she just yells and cries. It all feels like empty sticks she is only interested in in the surface level, she doesn't want to actually deal with.

When she says "This characters is black guys ♡♡♡" and then the fucking 7th, a grayish character with zero black features. She can not actually try and draw a black person with a different hair texture, she'll faith is hair isn't straight and spiky (has done this so much too). She is all for positivity and diversity (can not draw more than 1 character that isn't a fucking stick with the same stupid face).

She can not write relationships in general. She cannot do gay couples, then don't lean on the stupid old uke uwu defenceless x big rough seme protector stuff. Again, all the interactions with Husk and Angel are sexual harassment. They are already a revealed future couple (and episode 4 is terrible for them, specially with that song). Stolitz is toxic, and predatory. That is not acknowledged, and all Stolas's predatory behavior and power dynamics are put in the background, cause- "look how sad Stolas is :(! HIS DAD IS SOOO MEAN, HIS WIFE IS A BITCH". All her gay characters are in pure surface: over-sexual twinks that are assholes, which also fit into the top/bottom as personality boxes.

Any other point includes sexual harassment as a joke. BUT KNOW SHE WANTS TO BE LIKE "GUYS SA STORIES MATTER, LOOK AT WHAT I WROTE" as if she didn't lean back into the problem of the diminishing of SA and r- (in general and done to men) with her jokes in HB. With all the sexual harassment that Angel Dust puts on Husk and others. (AND YES THERE IS NO WARNING IN EPISODE 4, FOR ITS HEAVY TOPICS! I do believe all series/movies with this need it. SPECIALLY IF IT'S SO GRAPHIC! "Sexual content" is not the same as a warning for SA or R-pe. An adult can see a movie with sex or sexual nutidy- when they see that- but it's different to get straight assault on screen. Victims can watch movies/series with sex in them all good, you cannot just group consensual sex in the same assault or R-pe...)

The thing where Mammon (the only fat character that isn’t from the fucking background.) is like FIZZ YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. AS IF SHE COULD EVEN DRAW ANY DIFFERENT BODY SHAPE WITHOUT DYING. Like there is only Mimzy (hasn't appeared yet, not given any importance. In the female lead show). Mammon the piece of shit (does the same as Blitz, but he is actually fully bad.) His design is done with 80 fucking layers on top. Like all the test of the skinny character's clothes suck up to their body except for Mammon. His body is hidden in layers upon layers of clothing (that's all you got?). All you main guys need to fill "the skinny have nothing men" and "skinny woman with big hips and legs, but no fucking stomach"?

AND YES! VIV DOES DO THE FUCKING, "FAT = FOOD LMAOOO". You know the thing HH fans and hater where like the "Bee needs to fat thing is bad, cause of fat = food (only food) is reductive and shitty"

(Can I refer to how the show Bojack H, make Diane gain weight cause of anti depressants- and it wasn't a joke! And she was happier too?)

(mine, from post right below)

... like is a bundle of issues. And Viv will never accept that she might be /or is wrong. That's why it hits the fan with stuff. -And again I liked many of the little concepts and stuff in HB and the original pilot of Hazbin. Shit- I still like Sir Pentious and Nifty. I do like Mammon as much as he is a pack of problems to call out, I fucking love the piece of shit Australian jester- The artist work hard on it, and I'm happy it's an openly queer! (as limited as it gets, too....). I liked Huni-cast, I loved the original voice cast! -and that happens! I could be writing this about other stuff too, not only Hazbin... if I created this blog earlier- IT WOULD ALL BE ABOUT RWBY, DANGANRONPA, even svtfoe...Ladybug... or Agretsuko's ending too. So yeah, sorry for the long post (as if all my post weren't)

[thedarkdisgrace]

Thread analysis from my twitter about soukoku & Dazai specific stuff in this DA art since people were interested in my thoughts on it lol reminder it’s my personal interpretations on it.

This is part 2 essentially of the original post. This focuses just on Dazai and Chuuya.

Alright, so I’ll just start by readdressing a point from my other post just for convenience for people who didn’t see the other post. You can reread this or skip down to my newer points. Red thread typically symbolizes those who are destined to be together.

Dazai has the red thread of fate wrapped around his neck. Chuuya has one end & it's wrapped around his wrist, that seems to symbolize he's holding Dazai's life in his hands. It’s also wrapped around the wrist where Chuuya has his childhood scar, the one proving he’s human.

An obvious link to their shared humanity to me, despite they, themselves, not believing in their own. But it’s no surprise Chuuya holds one side of Dazai’s life, we all know they're inexplicably linked & fated. Chuuya is always there to save Dazai & Asagiri said he's the only one who understands Dazai always.

But it's interesting the other half of Dazai's string is first wrapped around his own wrist before continuing to Aku. This essentially saying Dazai holds his own life in his hands. Which obviously seems super accurate since we know his biggest enemy is often his own mind & the hole inside his chest that he has a hard time filling. It's where his suicidal tendencies come from. But essentially, Dazai's life is held only by Chuuya & then himself and I love that detail.

Moving on. Another thing I found interesting about Dazai in this art (& in DA in general) is that he is wearing an all white suit with a black inner shirt. While Chuuya is in his typical black outer coat & white inner shirt.

I believe this choice serves to emphasize the “yin/yang” of their relationship. The red thread bounds them together while their individual natures complement/complete each other, making them whole. Dazai seems to often see himself/his soul as truly dark by nature even as he lives in the light now, so it seems fitting.

He utilizes his darker nature to *protect* the light now, as he understands the darkness (the villains) that come for those in the light. I touched on that above as well.

Chuuya is the opposite but also similar. Chuuya having a “lighter” soul/heart by nature despite being shrouded in darkness. This is showcased in his fierce protective nature of those he cares for as well as the city he protects. His intense, unyielding belief that, despite all he has been through, people are *worth* suffering for, they’re *worth* protecting.

This in contrast to Dazai when they first met who believed “nothing he could pursue is worth the cost of prolonging this life”.

Chuuya believes people are worth it even while still living in the darkness (which it’s important to note dark doesn’t equal evil, everyone is grey and everyone has a role to play).

But even while living in it, *despite* it, he still holds onto his light. His humanity. Humanity is a consistent theme between Dazai & Chuuya.

They both end up making the other feel human, feel alive. Even their abilities are almost named *for* each other.

Chuuya’s ‘no longer human’ when corruption takes over, until Dazai brings him back to it. (Just to be clear, Chuuya is human. That was confirmed).

Dazai is ‘the tainted sorrow’ that Chuuya is able to awaken from that sorrow with his very nature, his vibrant showcase of humanity. I believe it’s his relationship he was able to form with Chuuya that not only kept him alive (“Chuuya convinced me not to die yet”) but also opened Dazai to the possibility that there *are* people worth it out there. It’s why he was open enough to form his relationships with Oda and Ango.

But despite their struggles, despite their methods even, they both are trying to protect what they can. Both have the capability of acting in the light & dark in equal measure.

Essentially, they’re both made up of different light & darknesses but they end up completing each other.

It’s also interesting they put Chuuya on Dazai’s “good” side. The side Dazai’s see the light with. Kinda shows you how Dazai views Chuuya.

—

Something else about Dazai’s clothes, he seems to be wearing a yellow ribbon on his “darker” side. Which I find very interesting given the yellow wrapped ribbon normally represents suicide *prevention*.

Yellow in Japanese culture also tends to represent courage, which is also fitting, it even used to represent role models.

(This next part I’m definitely reading too much into it but I still found it fun and interesting!)

But moving to the next interesting pieces, Dazai is holding an apple in his hand on his “darker” side. Given Dazai talks about apple suicide (+ being called dead apple) it seems these 2 pieces are at odds with each other.

The apple in this context representing death/suicide while the ribbon represents life/prevention.

But Dazai is holding an apple in his hand on his “darker” side. Given Dazai talks about apple suicide (+ being called dead apple) it seems these 2 pieces are at odds with each other.

The apple in this context representing death/suicide while the ribbon represents life/prevention.

So in this art, is the idea of apple suicide representing a dark irony? Dazai seeing death as good fortune? Or is the apple only representing the more surface level contrast of death with the ribbon being life? I think that’s up to interpretation.

Small side note, Chuuya’s hat being placed over his heart is definitely deliberate. The hat that helps protect his humanity, the hat that helps offer Chuuya some control, sitting atop of & covering his heart makes sense. It’s almost as armor, protecting his “light” as it were.

Now to talk about Dazai being the only one “awake” as it were & the specific eye that’s uncovered.

The fact it's the eye that used to be covered in the PM is an important choice. Especially given the eye that was open with the PM is closed.

Dazai seems to be seeing more of the good now, maybe even is starting to see the true value in light.

However, it's only because of his dark past he's been able to survive & help save the ada multiple times. I believe that's why it's *that* wrist, the wrist helping covering that eye that was open while in the mafia, that is bound by the red thread of fate.

That wrist being wrapped up symbolizing how he partly holds his own life in his hands (along side Chuuya holding the other part). His fate is bound by *both* his sides, the light & dark in equal measure.

Dazai holds one side for his own life because not only is he his own worse enemy but he ironically (sadly) can't live completely without that dark side of him.

It's the part that wants him to end his life but it's also thanks to that side & what he went through that he can survive so well now & help others. It’s allowed him to understand the villains they face. Of course his past is a tragedy, but what we go through makes us who we are. At least he can use it to save people now.

Another point, (this more of a stretch) the overall theme here seems to be fate, since the thread of fate is predominately featured.

Dazai being the only one with his eye open, the only one awake, could also mean he knows something about their fates that no one else does.

Maybe since his “light” eye is open it’s a good thing. But it could possibly even be linked to the book, either that he knows more about the book & what it contains more than everyone else or (& this is a much bigger stretch) that he may even have read/seen briefly a piece of the book

Maybe whatever the reason is part of the real reason he picked up both Atsushi & Akutagawa & formed shin soukoku. Because for all his & Chuuya’s might, they need something *specific* for what’s coming. Something only shin soukoku has & we already know Atsushi is connected to the book.

Plus the thread of fate is linking them *all* together here. Some more connected to each other obviously, soukoku together & then sskk + kyoka. But again, this last part is very much a stretch but it’s just something fun to think about.

I hope all this made sense. Like i said, this is all just my interpretations so take it as you will. Everyone is free to have their own interpretations & opinions. I definitely went a little overboard & went deeper than just the art itself but oh well lol

If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed my interpretations! Again some are deeper than originally intended & some are much more a stretch but thanks for coming to my ted talk lol

[hockeygossipdaily]

Idk if you’ve seen the thread but it’s this whole thing like since they both grew up in Toronto playing in the gthl hockey is huge but the hockey community is tight knit everyone knows each other In Toronto if u play hockey anyways Jack was best friends with brandt’s older brother and so he and Luke hung out all the time and they were friends they commented and liked each others posts and hung out and then the Hughes’ moved to Michigan and there’s an interview somewhere where brandt is complimenting them and stuff but closer to his and Luke’s draft something kinda changes and it seems like Clarke is kinda annoyed Luke and the Hughes’ left him and that whole Toronto friend group behind and felt slighted so he threw in a couple digs and then before the world juniors game they played against each other in 2023 brandt said something about USA not really being a physical team but they have a lot of skilled guys that can go off anytime and Luke’s asked about it and he gets like really annoyed and sassy like were physical so idk why he said that like not his usual tone with the media which kinda indicates there’s beef and then brandt scores on him and goes on to win gold lol anyways skip to now him and Quinn going at it and in the box ppl think Clarke was mentioning the Hughes family something like you’re whole family are jokes you’re a fucking joke and something else and Quinn says something like it’s a 3-1 game you’re nothing or whatever anyways point is I think there’s more beef behind it than a regular hockey brawl and I love Quinn but ppl on twitter just dick riding him are jumping up saying Clarke is nothing Quinn won the Norris like ya Quinn is better he’s like 6 years older but Clarke is having like one of the best starts for a defensemen in like decades so I guess ppl should just chill when just going for either player cu. there’s more to the backstory

Sounds like he’s just salty. Quinn’s gradually gotten better each year and truly is a good defensemen so I don’t think it’s dick riding i think it’s people genuinely starting to see he’s a good captain who led his team to playoffs in his first year as captain and was number one in the division twice while also being a Norris winner so he deserves his flowers.

(I don’t watch kings hockey and literally didn’t know who this guy was so I can’t really compare the two)

Also being “left behind” what does that even entail? Luke going to umich? Getting drafted by Jersey???

[chattegeorgiana]

｡✴ 🎀 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝓌 𝐻𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃 & 𝐸𝒶𝓇𝓉𝒽: 𝒜 𝒮𝒶𝓈𝓊𝒦𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒶𝓁𝓎𝓈𝒾𝓈 🎀 ✴｡

⛓️#SasuKarinMonth2024

⛓️Day 1: Soulmates

I posted this initially on Twitter, but since some people couldn’t access it from my Insta story or they don’t have a Twitter account, I was asked to post it on Tumblr too, so here I am.

Copy paste from Twitter cuz I’m too lazy to write again, lol.

Since the SasuKarin month is upon us (back then we held it in July Sasuke’s birthday month), I thought about writing a short analysis where I talk shortly about the symbolism of SasuKarin.

I wanna turn this into a more full fledged analysis sometime, but I think for now it’ll do this way.

I know on Twitter people usually like to discredit Karin due to her tsundere character & the SasuKarin bond due to it being a direct competition to the SS one.

However given how the dices have been thrown, and the ending was set, I think it does no harm to talk about them & shed some light over the mischaracterisation of the two, because boy people love to do it on all sides and weaponise it in their argumentation, instead of objectively looking at it.

To those of you who badmouth Karin and say you like Sasuke, please note at how Sasuke reacts when Suigetsu badmouths her.

Maybe that should make you think twice about it, just sayin🤷‍♀️

Anyway, let’s move to the analysis.

Why I chose to talk about the symbolism of “Heaven & Earth” on Day 1: Soulmates?

Well, because Kishimoto himself decided to do so himself.

Back when editorial meddling due to biased fandom perception wasn’t a thing & Kishimoto was slowly & surely building the story he wanted, we could be witness of the slow burn symbolic development he was building in the story. And that included SasuKarin, the “new Heaven & Earth” like its mentioned in the last page of chapter 347, as he prepares to introduce Karin in the next chapter.

As we know from part 1, that is the symbolism that is represented by NaruSaku, in the very beginning of the series, and while in the beginning this is only used to reference a shinobi’s qualities or lack thereof, later on in the story, Kishimoto doubles its symbolism & slowly sweeps it into the romantic subplot as well.

Remember this highly charged with romantic subtone scene? Well from a symbolical point of view, this scene happens in a very important place charged with a very specific symbolism.

Let’s take a look, shall we?

The whole action happens at the “Heaven & Earth” bridge. So, as we can see, the symbolism as of now has far surpassed its initial stage of being a reference to just a shinobi’s condition. It’s now meant to symbolise the bond & feelings that entertwine the two ppl of that bond.

So when Kishimoto described Sasuke & Karin as the new Heaven & Earth, he delivered that exposition through and through.

Like I showed earlier, Sasuke is very protective of Karin in his own way & doesn’t like when someone badmouths her (which oftentimes is Suigetsu) and Karin does the same, I don’t think it’s necessary for this thread to show once again what we already know, since it’s a very well established character trait.

So yeah, as you can see, the Heaven & Earth symbolism is very prevalent in the story and it just so happens that it’s so with 3 of his most important bonds, which not only fit the Heaven & Earth (or another way to say Yin & Yang) symbolism & thematic, but also others like “when you have someone important to protect, that’s when you become the strongest”: NaruSasu, NaruSaku & SasuKarin.

Kishimoto not only expressed this via the themes & symbolism but also the visual side, as well, since ya know, we’re talking about a visual medium.

Naruto & Sasuke are a foil of each other, the same way Sakura & Karin are & the way NaruSaku is to SasuKarin. Basically these four are each other’s soulmates (I’d argue actually twin flames, but that’s for another time), but since today we’re referencing SasuKarin, I’ll stick to them.

However, it’s impossible to make a reference to one without the other (like Kishi was saying, himself at some point about the story’s development - he can’t write about Naruto without Sasuke or viceversa), given how deeply ingrained into the structural narrative of the story from a thematical & symbolical pov these 4 are.

Just because SasuKarin had a layer of comedy over it due to Karin’s tsundere Tendencies which were also super exaggerated by SP, it doesn’t make the SasuKarin bond ANY LESS special than the other bonds in the series.

I’d argue that in SK’s context (although usually in literature it is about quantity bc that’s how you build development), it’s a great case of QUALITY over quantity. Because yes, quantitively speaking, it has less amount of screentime compared to others.

However Masashi “I forgot to draw this or that” Kishimoto, made a CONSCIOUS effort as to go back to part 1 & find a spot where he could inject Karin into the story, so much so that it doesn’t ruin the structural narrative & neither retcons the story. It just adds a new layer to it.

That speaks VOLUMES of the importance of that move & the overall authorial intent he had for this story in terms of Karin’s character & SasuKarin’s bond.

Credit for the NaruSaku/SasuKarin edit @tsunadesenjuuchiha

[sol-consort]

Do you think in reverse, any of the alien races also tried those tips on befriending humans? Aliens bragging online how they totally rizzedd up a human with ridiculous advice, humans are just like "lol silly little guys" and humor it happily.

Are we bringing the "loser high elf with a human obsession" trend in here from my other blog? Because I am fully down to making a loser friendgroup of aliens who are creeps towards humans as much as they are endlessly curious.

And yes, oh definitely yes they are bragging online about tottally rizzing up this new shiny species who stumbled their way into the stars.

A turian posting on his twitter about how he's been assigned with a human in C-SEC, how he has been studying a lot of human rituals by watching Hollywood movies and reading mammal herd behaviours, not realising humans are categorised as predetors.

It's a long thread of him describing his "successful" attempts and encounters with the human.

He followed the human to lunch and made sure to eat next to them since the extranet articles talked about the importance of eating together in human culture.

Except the human was a messy eater and the turian's food ended up getting contaminated, resulting in the turian having a coughing fit, throwing up, passing out and waking up in the emergency care.

-

A salarian saw this thread and left a very long comment mansplaining human behaviour and how the turian was absolutely wrong and an idiot. The two of them argued back and forth in the comments during the turian's stay in the hospital.

Resulting in the salarian claiming he could befriend a human much faster and easier than the turian's pathetic attempt. Leading the turian to daring him to post it.

So he read any books he could find about human evolution and history. Confident that he could apply them on the next human tour group coming to Sur'kesh.

Human primitives loved climbing trees, correct? And Sur'kesh has lots of trees! Their closest relatives are in apes huh? The salarian knows just what to do with this information.

Imagine with me, you're a human tourist in an alien planet, following the polite salarian guide in the front and taking pictures of the lovely view. You're having a wonderful time.

Then out of nowhere, comes another salarian who stops in front of the whole tour group. The tour guide seems confused and you wonder if this was preplanned or not.

This random salarian begins speaking to the entire group very slowly as he states the fact that there are a lot of trees around here. Asking if anyone would like to join him in climbing one as a mutual show of trust and friendship.

You raise your camera as you watch this salarian who's worked in a bio lab all his life, struggling to climb one tree and very slowly making progress. When he reaches the top, he is reminded of the fact oh, heights and gravity exist, this is so much more terrifying than he thought it would be.

Now he's stuck on the tree, and the salarian tour guide is dialing up security to both come and get him down but also kick him out before he causes a human diplomatic incident.

The salarian's terrified at the top like a scared kitten. You climbed a lot of trees as a kid, and this one isn't even that tall, so you climb up there and offer to carry the salarian down, which he enthusiastically accepts.

Everyone is taking pictures and smiling, the tour guide is relieved that an incident was avoided.

Then the salarian in your arms, reaches into his pocket says he has just the thing to thank you with, kind human.

He takes out. A banana. Offering it to you.

The pictures and videos of him doing that end up on the galactic news the next day, you get word that the human ambassador Udina wants use this incident to demand compensation and sanctions on the salarians offensive gesture to a human tourist. The salarian government is very apologetic and panicking, ready to throw credits at the problem to solve it.

But you post a video on your social media laughing it off and saying it's fine. Putting an end to the incident before it escalates.

-

An asari sits in her office as she looks over the latest galactic news, the salarian's pathetic attempt at befriending a human that resulted in a diplomatic incident.

She sips on her coffee, a human delicacy, as she finally decides where she wants to spend her once-a-year break.

Booking the nearest ticket to Earth, she thinks, befriending humans cannot be that hard, right?

She has seen many humans in Thessia. She even talked to one once when they asked her for directions! Sure, she never really befriended any before, but they can't be that different from all the other species. After all, an asari can get anyone wrapped around their finger if she tries hard enough.

Landing on Earth, she realises just why it was called the blue planet. The sky is very blue, almost aggressively so and the sun here hurts to look at, unlike the gentle one in Thessia.

There are so many humans around, not a sign of a single alien in sight. All of them walking with a purpose, some taking their animals to a stroll and oh wow that dog is bigger than any varren she has ever seen, how did that human tame it?

Some give her a pacing glance, and others are indifferent to her. She keeps trying to strike up a conversation but everyone just declines and say they're busy or in a hurry.

Strange, the humans on the citadel are much more friendly. An asari could walk up to a group and demand their attention just like that, why are the ones here so different?

Eventually she spots an older woman, ah yes a human Matriarch! Just perfect. She goes to the elder woman sitting on a bench while feeding the pigeons.

The woman smiles, wrinkles in her face from a life full of happiness, greeting the blue lady. The two of them sit together and have a talk, the old woman is very patient and understanding with the asari as she explains that this is just how humans are, how the ones on the citadel are a very select view who are enthusiastic about aliens.

The asair is stunned to learn that this woman is merely 78 years old, yet she holds so much wisdom and charm. They spend the entire day talking and watch the sunset together.

By the end, the old woman apologises for having to leave, saying her grandkids are visiting tonight and she must go back home. But she will be here tomorrow if the asair wants to continue the chat.

Day after day, week after week. The asair keeps meeting up with her snd talking, about nothing and everything, life and its meaning, the sky and its colours, love and its sisters.

The asari asks if the old woman has her spouse in her life still, the old woman smiles, full of melancholy as she shakes her head no.

Reading on human mating rituals, the asari starts bringing the old woman flowers, red in colour and varied in shapes. A box of sweets that the old woman kindly declines because of her blood sugar, yet the asari doesn't give up and comes the next day with a box of dark chocolate.

By the end of the month, the asari brings her final gift to the old woman. A small red box that fits perfectly into her balm. The old woman has to put her glasses back on as the asari opens the box to be able to see what's inside.

Getting on one knee, the asari opens the box to present a shiny ring inside, she asks cautiously if she'd like to come back with her to Thessia to live the rest of their lives together.

The old woman smiles, the asari grew found of her smiles, so gentle and warm. Reaching with her shakey hands, she takes the box and admires the beautiful ring inside. She chuckles with delight at the flattering implication as she puts the ring back in the box and hands it to the asari.

Patting her head, the 78 human woman tells the 600 asari woman to go find a young girl her age to marry. How she basically sees her as a granddaughter.

The asari comes back home with a newfound hatred for Earth, attempting to cope with having her heartbroken by a single human who hasn't passed their first century yet.

[keepmycandleburning]

And then the second thing I was going to post about last night was the idea of a writer 'punishing' their characters. You've seen it surely. Like the idea that Umbridge being attacked by centaurs was her punishment for being too girly (and furthermore that this is a statement from Rowling that unlikable women deserve to be raped and the reader is supposed to sympathize) (many examples this is common). This idea about HP is most typically about the author 'treating' women who don't properly conform to her standards a certain way: like Lavender Brown was attacked by Greyback as narrative punishment for being too feminine (This whole Twitter thread is a gold mine for unimaginable takes. I don't understand how SO many people believe that characters' actions are an expression of the writer's beliefs. It really makes me wonder if I am somehow wrong).

Can you 'punish' your fictional character? Is making something bad happen to an unlikable character punishing them? What if the POV character is glad the bad thing happened? What if the POV character is imperfect, or even straight up wrong? Can you treat a fictional character improperly? As with my post last night, the answer is technically yes, there can be problems with writing, but I just don't see it in these particular situations or in this type of fiction. For example some conservative Christian could write about a woman having premarital sex and then her life falls apart but then she saves herself by finding God and it's clearly meant to be a pretty straightforward message, and it lines up with the writer's irl beliefs, and they use to it to push their irl narrative, etc, and I'd say sure that character is being punished. Or conversely a writer can definitely punish an abusive character. So yeah you CAN punish a character. But how do you know when this is what's happening, and why do so many people apply this way more liberally than I do? What if someone were to think I was punishing one of my characters, and what if they thought it was for an immoral reason? What if I were to make a bad thing happen to one character, and someone thought I was saying 'I think this bad thing should happen to every real person who resembles this character'? Or on the other hand, must a writer punish their immoral characters?

This is extremely niche, but what about the criticisms of Rita Skeeter's appearance being masculine? Is this communicating that Rowling thinks masculine women are evil? If so, how do you know? Can you only queer-code 'good characters'? Surely not. So how would one avoid being interpreted that way? Making multiple varied characters w whatever trait definitely helps, but do you have to? How much do you have to proactively plan for people to misunderstand?

Does Harry having a certain thought mean that's Rowling's thought (Is Harry making fun of SPEW Rowling expressing her real belief? How do you know?)? Does Harry having a thought mean that's 'meant to be' the readers' thought? Are plot elements all Rowling's morals, and what she thinks is good and right? What about world-building elements, like how people will say that Rowling made all the women housewives (+ married young) because she's sexist? Why would an author simply designing their fictional world in a certain way mean they think it's good? Are they then obligated to have their narrative condemn the negative aspects of their world, or can the reader decide that for themselves upon observing it?

Overall I think most of these questions of mine come down to that 1. I think a story's narrative typically comes from its POV character, while other people seem to think a story's narrative comes from its writer's beliefs, and 2. that I think the reader can think for themselves and typically draw the intended conclusion, while other people criticize when the message isn't spelled out on the page (look at this lol. SURELY Azkaban was a commentary on the justice system. Why does the fact that Harry doesn't really sit there and ponder it that much mean the message can't come through clearly to the reader—surely it does!)

Feel free to actually answer these questions, not because I will follow any of the rules, I won't necessarily, but you know just to discuss the reasons why something is going to get interpreted in these ways

[rosewood-multifandom-writer]

Wow, so the way Lady and Trish were treated in DMC5 circles back to DMC4, where one of the people behind DMC4 were initially gonna throw in a character who is just eye candy like Gloria while Lady and Trish would be absent except for the beginning of DMC4.

I have a whole Twitter thread that has evidence (shocking I know, somebody on Twitter providing actual evidence): https://x.com/Neromeows/status/1796575211174932739

And the super creepy way of how this dude described Kyrie was just… well I’ll let you read the thread, because it’s on the same level of weirdness as DMC4 Nero being sexualized in fanart and fanfics. It’s so weird how he described Kyrie here. Tell me, and look my profile pic right in the eyes after reading that thread I provided and say that the way this person described Kyrie isn’t just this person’s thinly veiled fetishes.

It explains why DMC5 portrayed Lady and Trish in a pathetic light. They’ve been itching to sideline these two.

So great, not only were the devs behind DMC Reboot sexist about their female characters, so were DMC4’s devs. DMC Reboot had Lilith as their misogynistic caricature and DMC4 would’ve had one if none of the other dev guys thankfully said, “nah.”

In fact, Capcom just does not do a good job portraying most of their female characters, with the exception of Street Fighter 6 (because it’s my second Street Fighter game and I plan to play the other games), but even then, that’s still not enough. RE’s women get screwed unless they are the eye candy sometimes, especially in the movies and of course, I’m skeptical of DMC6 happening because of the whole microtransaction thing, Capcom could possibly ruin DMC’s original storyline, and of course, Lady and Trish will be screwed over worse, while doing the bare minimum with their designs just covering them up and that’s about it.

I get that Devil May Cry is about the Sparda Men as a whole, but what Capcom did is the equivalent of Chun-Li and Cammy being sidelined despite those two being seasoned veteran fighters who fought M. Bison, and making it all about the Ryu and Ken show.

Honestly I can’t say for sure if DMC4 is good because I have not finished it yet. What I will say about DMC5 is, the game was close to being a great game, but it was ruined with how Lady and Trish were thrown to the side like trash even though they’ve been established. Especially Trish, who was there since the very first game. I don’t know if it will get better for the DMC ladies.

Until Capcom comes up with a good way to make up for the bad female representation in DMC5 when they eventually make DMC6, and not pull an RE6 as much I like that game and ruin the storyline, I will remain skeptical of Netflix Devil May Cry and DMC6.

One last edited note I forgot to mention, I’m convinced this Bingo guy missed his calling to be a Hentai game developer. Just saying. I have no problems with people throwing in attractive characters because they find them super hot. It would be hypocritical of ME to say that Bingo is thinking with his “smaller head,” because I have made attractive characters because I wanted to make attractive characters. Plus, I female gaze the Sparda men a lot, so I got no room to talk here, lol. I just think that when creating characters unless it’s a fanservice fest game or a Rule 34 game, they have to be more than eye candy.

[skkflower]

Trans Chuuya thoughts I posted on twitter. It got super long so I’m posting it under the cut…

Chuuya realizes he feels “wrong”after post explosion birth and after being socialized by the Sheep…he brushes it off as proof of not being human…as he learns more about society he decides to present himself as a boy because his enemies take him seriously that way (in my head the Sheep were orphans from Suribachi and runaways so there’s probably a pretty big queer community there)…totally ignoring the fact that being called a boy makes him happier.

Basically his logic up until he joins the mafia is “I’m probably a boy, but I have bigger problems” and his dysphoria over being human is stronger than anything really…but I think when he meets the flags (and Kouyou I have a whole section for her), he starts to think more he starts to think more about presentation vs identity (ie learns that women don’t have to dress as men to be taken seriously, gnc Lippmann, insert other flags hcs I have)…Chuuya realizes he is trans…Doc offers to get him HRT and surgery but Chuuya’s really in his “I don’t trust anyone in the Mafia” phase and doesn’t want to really stake his transition on an unstable source/ hates depending on people…so he’s fine with rocking with the masc leaning androgyny…his dysphoria lessens a bit because he now realizes his gender confusion isn’t what makes him not human…

BUT THEN BAM STORMBRINGER JUMPSCARE (the only way to really think about sb actually)… Verlaine is also trans *insert the singularity metaphor thread here* and Chuuya literally watches his past self die in his arms (trauma and trans metaphor two in one combo)…although Chuuya is king of repression…he probably channels all his sb trauma into a complete gender crisis…cuts his hair and starts binding with transtape…wants to start HRT but is still uneasy about doctors and all. But after weaponizing Corruption as Soukoku…he starts getting really bad dysphoria/dysmorphia about his sense of humanity again…which translate over to gender dysphoria and he goes through a bad mental state for a bit, so he ultimately decides staring HRT will be best.

(Kouyou is transfem in my head and she sits him down and is like “you’re clearly suffering right now and we can help you” and they decide to send him abroad to a hormone specialist because he’s a labrat kid lol)

Yes my explanation for why Chuuya is not in dark era is transgenderism…Dazai defects…he gets promoted to Executive…finds out he’s definitely human and starts HRT…gets more confident in his gender identity and starts presenting more gnc again…it was mostly about control for him and having stability in his place in the mafia helped him feel more confident. A lot of his confidence is a mask (autistic chuuya), but he is secure. TransChuuya is so real to me!!!

Bonus Thoughts:

Soukoku was definitely making out/hooking up post SB, but Dazai respecting Chuuya’s boundaries increased their mutual trust and made them such a strong duo…knowing each other inside and out and also respecting (they were never safe enough to say love yet) each other…

Dazai is deffo gender apathetic nonbinary…he also probably has more of a humanity dysphoria there…their gender crisis starts during the 2 year isolation…to quote my partner who hasn’t watched bsd, “dazai to me is those pretransition trans women who look so miserable (dark era) and then when she transitions you can see the light in her eyes and a spring in her step”

Chuuya has not gotten top surgery because of medicinal trauma and also because I said so…

TRANS PEOPLE DO DON’T TRANSITION OR PRESENT OUTWARDLY IN A WAY DEEMED “SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE” ARE SO VALID!!!

Anyway please take this stupid skit of bungo stray woke:

*soukoku arguing during reunion*

Chuuya: you weren’t there for me!!

Dazai: of course not, I left the mafia!!

Chuuya: no I was talking about me starting HRT…

Dazai: oh…WELL YOU WEREN’T THERE WHEN I REALIZED IM NONBINARY

Chuuya: oh congrats

Dazai: yea I use any pronouns now

Chuuya: coolio

Dazai: you look better…more chuuya now…

Chuuya: thanks

*awkard pause*

Chuuya: okay im going back to kicking your ass

Dazai: yea fair enough

[schweety]

i've been bitching about the ending non-stop so i sat down and thought about how i would've ended it, so here are my thoughts (unhinged)

first and foremost: hiyori's death

how i would have done it: she had an unique status as an half-ayakashi. a few chaps back, when she was almost sucked into that hole, i wholly believed adachitoka was planning for her to go to the underworld to meet izanami. i'd have loved to see her meet the goddess of death, somehow get the info on how to break the koto no ha (as izanami is surely still mad at father), making a promise to her to bring father to her and then return to the near shore (as she's half-human) to kill father without having to die for the melodrama of it all.

and to make her return to her body, yato'd have had to cut their ties once and for all, making her forget about him (this would have been just as emotional and dramatic as her death!)

second: the whole heaven arc

i would've shown at least SOMETHING about heaven (like a covenant) officially pardoning bishamon and co. and amaterasu announcing that heaven had to change their ways in order to never let anything like this happen again. amaterasu saw first-hand what corruption could lead to and an insight into her mind, her thoughts and learnings all brought to her by yato would've resolved at least some of the loose threads from the heaven arc.

third: god's greatest secret

this wasn't resolved at all by adachitoka. kazuma and yukine have been touched by GGS and lived! nice, but what about the secret as a whole? honestly, all gods should be deadly afraid of them bc of this and not allow their shinkis to hang with them at all lol.

the whole point of GGS was that the painful, regretful death of their past lives would corrupt a shinki. the solution to this whole thing, in my eyes? break the taboo as a whole. not sure how exactly i'd have handled this, but if all shinkis knew their past lives, they could start healing each other together, playing back into the famous quote that ,,only humans can help humans'', which shinki are. ofc, this would need like a whole arc of itself so the ending in the manga is fine, i guess. they just don't rly talk about it lol.

fourth: father

OOOH what wasted potential! he was so complex and then they went ''haha, bad guy go blubblub'' which i honestly don't even mind at all. but i'd have added at least one scene of him meeting izanami back in the underworld, with her wearing kaya's face once again. he'd hear kaya's words ''to let it go'' one last time before he accepts his death and failure, embracing izanami and meeting his end therem eternal limbo. it'd have been a deserved death, bc he was (comically) evil and did terrible things but with some more context and depth to his character (which he always had!).

fifth, yato's lifeline (the most important one)

the literal plotpoint of the manga was yato being recognized as a god by the people. the whole twitter debacle was funny, yeah, but oh so cheap.

i personally would've loved for him to realize, after saving hiyori, that he actually wasn't disappearing at all, making him realize that there were people believing in him (like masaomi). they could've cut back to the little boy with his cat, who still thought about yato as his saviour, or to the girl he saved in chapter 1, who remembered a god that had brought her happiness. he'd have realized that, while bringing calamity, he had also been a god of fortune to them all the time. would've been such a nice, full circle and such a good pointe to this whole lifeline thematic and another realization that father had been lying to him all along. BUT NO. TWITTER SAVED HIM. hsuiahfsdufhudzshf

and lastly, the timeskip:

honestly? i liked this about the chap. showing hiyori as a doctor, her thriving, i was so happy! i would've kept that. also i like the fact that yato hid her diary from her, in order to let her live her life after cutting their ties, peak drama, mwah!

of course, she remembers him, i loved how his name formed on her lips and boom, there he was, on the tree

i would've added a convo, something, anything!!! they haven't talked in yrs (real-time!) so they should've exchanged words, a hug, WHATEVER, accepting their love for each other, accepting that she has to live on on the near shore, as much as it dooms their relationship. some frigging acknowledgment of their feelings for each other, come on!

also, yatorine reunion, before we cut to the end page where hiyori writes in her diary about yato.

the rest? i was fine with. take has a good end, bishamon has a good end, nora especially won! i liked these points but like… everything else i pointed out? too sad we're left with these threads hanging loose, i guess :(

[coherentcats]

crossposted from cohost: transcript of james somerton thread (12/11/2023)

I did a twitter thread about james somerton (and nick herrgott) but twitter is blocking all the URLs for some reason. so here's a transcript of the whole thing (while correcting a couple typos) with the links, except for the tweets in the middle that are about how the links don't show up on twitter lol.

Edit: I have now created a transcript of the entire video, that also includes some fact-checking, including the fact-checking I originally did in the thread

Edit from 9/30/24: transcript of the video on github

I wasn't sure if I should say anything about james somerton since it's been over a week since the controversy broke and most everything in a general sense has been said. however, I haven't seen anyone bring this up so I figured I would.

it was live-streamed and archived on youtube and is probably the only publicly available video of james talking at length left. youtube link

first, I wanted to go over some of the strange things they said that I think are either made up or lies?

james claims that denis villeneuve wanted arrival (2016) to "take place in ontario" and "make it through the canadian system so that he could employ canadians" (13:29) but that the federal government turned him down, so it had to become an american-funded movie set in the usa?

I can't find anything supporting this and in fact, while the movie is set in montana, it's filmed in quebec and employed a lot of canadians. villeneuve is very proud of this.

"Denis Villeneuve says Arrival's Oscar nods recognize Quebec film scene" article link

he also claims james cameron wanted to get funding for titanic and avatar ("both avatar movies") from the canadian government (12:05).

also it just doesn't add up to me. why would he go to canada to fund avatar, which was extremely expensive at the time and required multiple investors, including his own money?

"A Movie’s Budget Pops From the Screen (Published 2009)" article link

somerton also talk about some scottish guy who immigrated to ontario during the 18th/19th century and had a "twinkie boyfriend" who was a werewolf who killed cops? and that the library of toronto was research this but the socttish government made them stop?

(sorry, timestamp for that is 19:21). I couldn't find anything and have no idea if this is just obscure or bullshit. feels like it would at least pull up some unsourced tumblr post if it was at all true.

there are other things he says that are true (such as canada decriminalizing homosexuality in the 1960s while it took the usa until the 2000s to do the same) and other ones I can't sort out clearly (such as margaret atwood having trouble getting published in canada initially).

anyway this video has less than 1000 views (it was under 500 when my partner first showed it to me). but I think it's worth flagging that he (and his co-writer) was not above just saying whatever outside of youtube.

I also think it's worth pointing out how an event hosted by a public institution like this can build social capital and an air of legitimacy for his self-appointed queer historian reputation.

it feels like at a minimum, they took a spot during a pride event that could've gone to someone else who has like. integrity and decency.

also there's a (very short) negative dig at forrest gump (!!) from nick lol? (1:15:30)

finally maybe my view is tainted, but doing a talk titled "canadian queer identity" and spending 70% of the time talking about the american cultural hegemony and how hard it is to get movies made in canada seems. odd!

neither of them bring up much historical or current canadian lgbtq+ media besides a mention of gingersnaps and "elliot page going around and doing his documentary" (edit here to add that that paraphrased quote is from the time stamp 32:15)

like this letterboxd list seems to do a better job of highlighting canadian queer identity

"LGBT Canada" letterboxd list link

I won't say the talk itself is bad (besides the stuff that is 100% not true) but it doesn't feel especially relevant to what it should be about. and it feels strange in retrospect when somerton himself never specifically focused on canadian queer media on his channel

even after gaining more subscribers and fames. (wow I wonder if he was just mining topics people made discourse about on twitter 🤔🤔🤔)

anyway kind of hope more people, especially canadians, see this video so they can better fact check it than me.

wait I forgot to add (edit: to this QRT of a thread tweet link) that the closest thing I could find about this was some merchant involved in a sodomy accusation sex scandal. wikipedia page for "alexander wood (merchant)"

I might come back and comb through more of the video for parts I missed (such as a lot of the canada-specific legal stuff) but if anyone else spots any weirdness, let me know.

wait, I also want to add this video by jessie gender. it's a good analysis of how somerton didn't really care about and exploited the lgbtq+ community and other marginalized people "James Somerton & Community Solidarity" youtube link

I think it contextualizes how slimy his presence at a local pride event is. he wanted to posture himself as an authority and trustworthy figure while doing all of that.

(I don't blame the library for this, I have no idea what their logistics were at the time and they obviously didn't know. I feel bad that they were associated with him.)

wait he just took that from a horror novel??? from a gay canadian writer??? QRT of a reply link

I checked out the ebook for "red x" from the library and this is definitely it. I don't have the knowledge or access to resources to say if this historical exposition is accurate (google turns up nothing), but weird that neither of them just don't mention this book at all!

I realized I could check this easily by just looking up her bibliography and verifying the publishing companies of her early books. which were all canadian (primarily mcclelland and stewart). this includes the handmaid's tale. QRT of a reply link

update: somerton did not do any intensive historical research and plagiarized the plot of red x and passed it off as obscure canadian folklore?

QRT of a previous tweet in the thread

it's both more devastating and predictable that he didn't just make some bullshit up, but just stole other people's writing. for the nth time.

[valenschmidt]

I have a question about 911 fandom if you’re still answering them!

I used to be a casual watcher of the show since literally season 1 and have not been super involved with fandom until very very recently (the fandom journey has been WILD, btw, from being a casual viewer for so long to now a buddie truther LOL).

I vaguely remember either ostark or ryan “arguing” with someone on twitter a long long time ago, so long ago now that when I do a quick Google search to try to find details, all that comes up is the drama around oliver leaving twitter. I think the context was around someone arguing with a buddie fan and they were saying that people posting about buddie were making the actors uncomfortable and then either oliver/ryan had responded with something about how it wasn’t making him uncomfortable and that the whole thread was dumb. But I can’t find this anywhere. I feel like I vaguely remember reading an article about this too? Maybe? I think this was around season 3? Does any of this sound familiar? Or did I dream this??

Honestly if you're talking about Twitter it's definitely Oliver but I'm not sure if he actually had an argument with anyone... that I remember

He was mad that everything he said was taken as buddie confirmation and he had a hard time with the whole queerbating situation so him disappearing (from the public eye of twitter) had something to do with that. I think he got "mad" at someone here but I'm not 100% sure... I'm gonna try to find those tweets though

Thank you for asking!

[journen]

Okay!! Because I'm not a huge fan of the format of long twitter threads, and this whole thing got kinda long 😅 I figured it could be best to post these story idea ramblings to Tumblr! So lol, prepare for some ramblings sabout my Ghost and Soap AU that's post MW2 campaign where Simon leaves the army to raise his nephew after his fam are killed.

This is all based off the au from this fic I wrote 🙈 if you want more context, you can find some here!

I just have a lot of ideas for this au and wanted to share some that I'll probably never be able to write, but yeah. Lmk if you guys have any thoughts! 😊

I guess TW too for: mentioned child injury, mentioned murder, references to Ghost's past from the comics. There's nothing graphic tho!

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

Price swears to Simon, in that hospital room a few days after the attack on Simon's fam, where Jo is lying injured and unconscious, but stable, that he will track down Roba and his men to get justice. He makes it a vow.

Theres not much development on the case for years tho. Maybe, after it initially happened, there was a brief investigation into it, but they ran into a lot of issues getting jurisdiction to operate in Mexico so the case went dry.

So, Simon has to learn to live with the fact that the people who did this to his family, and who tortured him, are still alive out there somewhere. But his nephew is his first priority, and he's accepted that too. He's not going to carelessly risk his life so he can't be there to raise his orphaned nephew in the name of revenge.

I don't think Simon, at this stage of his life, would be a violent revenge seeker? Perhaps if he is pushed too far, but let's not go there yet hahhaha.

Also, he's with Soap too, who helps ground him and keep him level headed.

Anyways, years later, Price calls Simon up, telling him of their update on the case. Maybe Roba has been located, and they only have a few day window to act. 

Price shows him the layout of the compound. Simon recognizes it. It's where he was kept captive for months all those years ago. Price offers that, if he wants, there's a spot on the squad for him. His Intel could be valuable. And he's cleared it with a lot of the other high ups to bring Simon along, or just didn't give them a choice, lol. (I have no idea if this would actually be possible irl, to have an SAS soldier who left the ranks, rejoin for a covert mission, but bare with me. Price can make it happen in this AU 🤣)

Simon has been out of active service for 5/6 years at this point though. And Price is asking him if he wants back in for one final op. Joseph is now around 10 years old maybe. He and Soap have been in a steady relationship for 5, Soap still serving in the military.

Anyways, cue big moment of Ghost picking up his old skull mask again. One he hasn't worn in 6 years. Holding the fabric brings back a lot of old memories for him. It feels heavy in his hands. He had changed so much since when he was the man who wore this mask...

but he still had it in him. He knew he did, deep down.

But did he want to *go* there, was he ready? Was it appropriate?

Would he be letting down Joseph though, if he agreed to this op?

What would Soap's feelings on the matter be?

But ultimately, Ghost agrees to it. I think he would need to take some time to consider it though. Maybe talk it through with the bf, Soap. But I think Simon would come to the conclusion that the team would be safest with him on the squad because of his existing knowledge of the compound. And he'd maybe feel safer being there himself, there to try to help the others if they run into trouble fighting his demons.

He does tell Price he has one condition about the op though, is that nobody dies. And he doesn't plan on dying either. He has to live for Joseph, and for Soap, too.

Jo is maybe 9 or 10 at this point. When Simon and Soap go away, I don't think Simon would tell Jo the real nature of his mission. He wouldn't lie to him, but the truth is a lot for a 10 year old to take in right? Maybe he says the mission is going to be scary, but that he's going to do his best to make sure they all make it back okay.

Maybe Joseph stays with one of Soap's sisters.

Ghost feels terrible to do this to Jo but he has to stop Roba from doing this again.

And blabkabla stuff happens and Simon makes it back okay tho yayyyyy 🤣