#but interesting nevertheless

[aftershocked]

…So you don’t want transparency in terms of how the CEO of Tumblr, views and approaches Tumblr (and its monetization and moderation)?

Obviously someone else could post a link to the Verge article themselves, but Tumblr boosting the link means more people are likely to see it and read it. You’re not the least bit curious about what’s going on in the head of the person in charge of the website you use?

[mountainshroom]

i know i’m like. two weeks late to the party BUT they meant everything to me this eurovision so :’)

[binpropagandist]

parkour civilization is so funny to me as a concept because it's social commentary disguised as battle manga a là the matrix but instead of wuxia battles it's HORSE.

[keymintt]

i’m sure this has been at least mentioned before but one of the things that’s so fucking funny to me abt kim is that, for all the shit he gives you (harry) when you try to get him to dance or wear the piss jacket, he actually wants to do those things to some extent

over the course of the game you can’t get him (or other characters for that matter) to do things he doesn’t want to do. disco elysium isn’t a power fantasy game like that. don’t get me wrong some things he needs to be convinced/challenged for, but he can and does outright Refuse things at times like when you suggest getting on the kineema and cutting the body down from there, not going into the tent with the ravers, or not climbing up the shitty feld building ladder, etc. and there are also definitely moments when he reluctantly puts up with harry/the player’s antics bc harry’s persistent and it’ll just put a quicker end to things to be like, “yeah sure fine i’ll eat the sandwich“ or, “i'll spare you another *20 hour mind-project*— yes, i am”

when you really badger him into dancing in the church and pass the authority check, he of course puts up some resistance but then goes, “now check *this* shit out!“ and starts busting it down! if he was reluctant to dance, he’d totally just do some stupid lil shimmy to appease harry with the same enthusiasm of, “oh god more cryptids” but no! he starts “heel kick[ing] the church floor with such intensity, it’s reasonable to fear he’ll kick a hole right through it“ he had those moves Locked And Loaded, but it’s not like he was gonna bust them out oh god no, then harry pulls his rank on him and he thinks “well everyone else here can see that the guy making a bigger fool of himself is ordering me to do it so i guess it’s okay for me to“

(thinking abt that, there’s prolly something to also say there abt music being a sort of outlet for kim. in my brain the anodic dance music and the shit speedfreaks fm plays have more in common than not, but kim also strikes me as somewhat of a music snob about that sort of stuff so. i dunno)

and then the pissfaggot jacket! when you’re trying to convince him to put it on he essentially says “you’re gonna keep bothering me about this no matter what“ but at the end of the interaction he still puts the jacket on and keeps it on! “the first chance i get, this thing’s coming off“ yeah right, the first chance he had was immediately after putting it on, harry clearly doesn’t give a shit if kim leaves him hanging fashion-wise, he’s the one who puts on the fuck the world jacket first! and once harry takes off the fuck jacket, the piss jacket is gone too, so it basically boils down to “as long as i’m following around this guy who’s making a bigger fool of himself, i can do this thing that i wanted to do got coerced into going along with“ 

kim’s also like “it really *does* look cool to have both of these jackets on right now“ once he puts it on like who are you kidding bro. your lame ass wanted this. sure he wanted to be a jackass and take the jackets but he also confiscated those hubcaps because they were cool and he was gonna eventually install them, was he not gonna steal the jacket to wear it?

he has his pristine little Image to uphold so he’ll only do things he wants to do if it looks like he’s being forced to and/or he won’t be the biggest fool in the room because god forbid he expresses himself. there’s plenty of deeper analysis here in conjunction with how he relishes in having control over his desires and how harry’s someone who can get him to break his rigid self-control and let loose a bit, but for me it just boils down to:

he’s so fucking lame and it’s so fucking funny

[randomfoggytiger]

Script Scully REALLY looked at Mulder and his magazines and logically thought... "This man must be a Christian. He lugged my cross around. My Catholic mother loves him. It must be fate. "

Or she was in her "I'm Christian so he has to be Christian too if this is gonna work" phase. (S7 Scully has a thing or two coming.)

The X-Files - “Die Hand Die Verletzt”

Written by Glen Morgan & James Wong

November 29, 1994 (WHITE)

Original line:

Cut lines: Scully assumes Mulder is a Christian?

In this draft, Scully surrenders when Mulder is held at gunpoint...

Trimmed lines and Latin chanting...

[skitter-queen]

fucked up thing is taylor's not even a bug girl, like she doesnt even LIKE them. her ass has NO interest in entomology!!! worm could have been about a weird bug nerd constantly fangirling about the new species of weevil she ate someones tongue with. but the real tragedy of worm is that she could only ever have gotten bug powers if bugs were something she disliked and found gross

[trappedinafantasy37]

Oathbreaker

[sleepnoises]

behold... mine mugs... 90% chance they will crack

[anghraine]

i just saw someone say that faramir is infuriating because he's self-aggrandizing in claiming that he won't act in any way that doesn't befit his status, and on one hand - i understand the root of it? he does have a courteous, almost formal style of talking. he does openly claim that he would not take this mysterious power (before he knew about the ring) if it was on the highway. he agrees to denethor's characterization that he wants to appear noble like a king of old.

but on the other hand i'm straining at the bit to defend my baby because - infuriating?? when he lives up to the words he is saying?? when the text shows over and over that he's loved by his people, that he genuinely tries to live by those standards (and seems to succeed) - him not killing even animals unnecessarily, him riding back for his men. even his proclaimed dream to see gondor's tree bloom and peace restored, is supported by him seemingly making that transition from steward to king as smooth as possible?

maybe it's because i instantly liked him so much. it just caught me so off guard because this particular criticism never ever crossed my mind. so funny how people will interpret the same thing differently. to some internet user out there, his words are self-aggrandizing. to me, his words are straightfoward and supported by actions - dreamboat central.

Hi, anon! I'm pretty much with you on this one. I've seen the occasional post like that, and I can understand finding his style grating (though I personally love it) or disliking the general baggage associated with Tolkien's handling of Númenóreanness (there's a considerable degree of classism and racism built in to the presentation of Elves and peredhil/Númenóreans in LOTR in particular, while later texts like "The Mariner's Wife" are relatively more nuanced).

But the idea that Faramir is essentially just performing the appearance of high virtue as a sort of imitation of Númenórean cultural values without actually possessing those values or the virtues of the best of them just seems a profound misinterpretation to me. He has flaws, but he's not a hypocrite and he does not fail to live up to his presentation of himself at any point.

He's exactly what he appears to be, a stern and intelligent young man out of step with the current trends of his culture, who still cares deeply about his people and their allies. He's potentially highly dangerous in the way of Denethor and Aragorn, and like them, his personality is hard and unbending when it comes down to it, but he's also gentler than either—the combination of his willingness to act on the threat he represents if necessary and ethically justifiable, with a deep compassion and sympathy for others (even animals), is distinct and really interesting.

I think there's a very important distinction between Faramir performing virtue and gentleness and putting on the persona of a great Númenórean lord in times of peace, and Faramir presenting himself as he truly is and then suiting actions to words, despite the fundamental antipathy between his temperamental inclinations and the circumstances he's been placed in.

[agentc0rn]

{Retrouvaille}

Thoughts below:

I wanted to go with Metanoia (spiritual conversion) for the title but Retrouvaille sounded thematically stronger and fitting. It means reunion between loved ones who were separated apart for a long time. :)

The flowers shown in one of the panels are:

Lady's thimble (harebell/bellflower) = grief, submission

Teasel (dipsacus) = misanthropy

Pheasant's eyes (adonis) = sorrowful memories, I cannot forget you

Morning bride (scabiosa) = I have lost all

If you also are able to catch the reference in the last page, I applaud you!! You get a cookie :)🍪

[notbecauseofvictories]

Hello, would you happen to have any book recs on arthurian retellings? I've read th white, malory, tolkien and steinbeck and was wondering if there's anymore around that leans into the more fantastical or weird. Either way, any recs would be appreciated please and thank you!

Retellings, no---unfortunately, once you move outside of Malory and de Troyes etc., you're largely in the world of literary classics (e.g., White) or YA novels (e.g., Gerald Morris, my beloved). There was a brief period of resurgence in the 70s with authors like Mary Stewart and Thomas Berger trying their hand at Arthuriana, and the 90s were lousy with juvenilia (I was there, I remember!) but few of them lean into the fantastical in the way you mean.

....that said, there's an unexpected wealth of novels that aren't straight adaptations, but do play with the mythos in interesting ways.

My actual reason for reblogging that post was that I just finished Perilous Times, by Thomas D. Lee. It's set in a future world when the UK is being swallowed by rising seas, half the country has been sold to private corporations, and the other half has devolved into factionalist infighting---oh, and this is about when Sir Kay is roused from his eternal slumber, and told to go kill a dragon. (Slowly, you discover that eternal slumber isn't really "eternal"; he and his fellow knights have been called up a dozen times, each worse, bloodier, and more morally implicating than the last.)

It is a weird as hell set up, and it doesn't get any less weird once you throw in the fay, Welsh independents, refugee camps, and explosions. Nevertheless, I enjoyed myself immensely.

I think that's my takeaway---if you've already read the greats, you can branch out into those authors using Arthuriana as a tool rather than an end in itself. For example, I just started Donald Barthelme's The King, which is the Arthurian cycle transliterated to WWII. I've only read the first bit, but this exchange had me in hysterics:

In the end, I've already read Malory, etc. I'd love a truly mystical Arthurian retelling, that takes advantage of how wide, deep, and unexplained, inexplicable, the world was around the Round Table. However, barring that, I like it when an author does something with all the paper dolls left behind---even if it involves Merlin licking mushrooms, or Lancelot's bloody mace being stolen from the pub washroom.

[archersgoon]

how much of tesadora's personal history is filtered through perri. like from memory it feels like a lot (or most...) of it

[ctl-yuejie]

I very much understand why Nick is always so receptive to Boston cajoling him with sex.

They are super compatible in bed and Boston particularly is a very passionate and attentive lover. Compare him fucking Top and Gap to his sex with Nick: I would say that the sex he has with Nick is intimate to say the least.

And Nick craves to be loved by Boston, even if he's understood that he can never get it, what he IS getting is true affection so it's no wonder to me why he "gives in" every time.

[onewingedsparrow]

Oh the joys of watching TF: One with a group (being the only Transformers Nerd in the group) and being able to explain to them in passionate, exuberant detail why this film is so much better than the Bayverse (which was criminally their only exposure to Transformers)

[chiropteracupola]

sometimes!! when you are doing academical stuff it opens your brain in directions and then you get THOUGHTS ‼️

[anjumstar]

Why Katsuki reads as queer coded.

Long before I shipped bkdk, Katsuki read as a queer character to me. Not meaning that Hori was assigning a sexual orientation to him but that he has qualities that parallel or make sense within the common narrative of the (western, I'm reading this through a western lens) queer experience. Here's why:

Disclaimer that this isn't to say that these traits make someone queer or that Katsuki is being intentionally written as queer, it's just reading Katsuki through a queer theory lens 👍

1. Perfectionism

Katsuki, if nothing else, is an incredibly hard worker. It's clear that in middle school, he worked to be at the top of his class. While he's a naturally intelligent and talented guy--as we see with his early skills in both sports and kanji in flashbacks--it's implied that he works for it. He doesn't have to work as hard as Izuku does, but it seems as though he works harder than, say, Todoroki does. I interpret this due to the way he berates his friends for underachieving in class. He knows that he's inherently smart, but he also knows that he achieves what he does via hard work, and so--as with Izuku in the flashbacks--he doesn't understand why his peers don't achieve the same.

Perfectionism is a classic queer-coded trait because it's a shield. If I'm otherwise perfect, no one can hate me for the thing that makes me different. It's a queer impulse to try and disguise "negative" traits with armor in the form of positive traits. You see this in people who are bullied becoming the class clown, for example, using comedy as their armor. If a queer person is afraid of not being loved for who they are, there's an impulse to be valued for what they can offer. This can manifest in overachieving and overcompensating so that they are never looked at with scrutiny, so that they can never be found out.

Katsuki makes himself scrupulous. He has an interest in maxing out every merit-based skill that he can so that he is no longer able to be scrutinized. He even takes advantage of popularity despite not liking people, as it's social capital and makes him more untouchable. He doesn't ever want anyone to look deeper than the skills that he offers. And when this strategy is interrupted, we see--

2. Anger

Anger comes from fear of vulnerability. In the context of the queer experience, this can easily be a reflex to keep people at a distance, as the perfectionism does, and a manifestation of repression. For Katsuki, it's both.

I don't think I need to put much explanation into how anger distances Katsuki from others. People's first impression is to fear him and then either avoid him or follow behind him. This collapses somewhat at UA, where people don't fear him, but it keeps him from forming bonds with people on any other basis than mutual respect. There's not a lot of intimacy like we see in, say, the early Todoroki + Iida + Izuku dynamics.

There's an argument to be made that Katsuki's explosive personality is a nature/nurture mix from his mother. That he's mirroring her behavior and that's basically it. No repression or fear involved. But we don't see enough of his parents/childhood to really spell that out. What we do get a good view of is his early desires from Izuku.

In those aforementioned flashback scenes, we see Katsuki not simply being confused when Izuku is unable to juggle a soccer ball, skip stones, or read kanji--Katsuki is upset by it. He's having strong feelings that he doesn't understand (not necessarily romantic! They're young!) and he covers them with anger. This continues through to middle school, when Katsuki is angry that Izuku is applying to UA, angry when they're paired against each other in the first partner exercise and Izuku has some success, when they're paired together for the final exam. These are BIG feelings and what for?

At first, Katsuki wanted Izuku to be on his same level, in the flashback scenes, and he was let down when Izuku wasn't. Then, after the river scene, Katsuki switches, and wants Izuku to be pushed down, to prove his own superiority in the face of Izuku's inherent goodness. This pairs his need to be perfect with an inability to face his admiration for Izuku. When he begins to see enviable qualities in Izuku, he represses those positive impressions. Whether or not you're reading bnha through a bkdk lens, there is repression here. Katsuki doesn't want to feel that there is something desirable about Izuku, that there's something he could be given by Izuku. That feels unsafe to his sense of self, and hence: anger. Anger, which is a trait also found in--

3. Masculinity

Masculinity is different culture to culture, and I'm not cultured enough to unpack the differences between western and JP representations of masculinity, so we're just gonna cast a wide net here.

Katsuki's parents are fashion designers, yet Katsuki pursues the absolute most violent career path that exists. And yes, this is because being a hero is the best (meaning very public to a young child with the trappings of fame and valor), and because his quirk is compatible with it, but that's not where the story ends.

All Might is Katsuki's role model. And yet, the persona Katsuki takes up is nothing like All Might's. As stated earlier, Katsuki is smart. He's smart enough to recognize that All Might is kind, friendly, generous, and likeable and that those are inextricable parts of his brand. And yet, Katsuki goes out of his way to instead be cold, mean, and unapproachable.

Again, wide net, but these are masculine traits. They keep a person closed off and inaccessible. They make it impossible to get close enough to really see a person. This is the same kind of shield that the perfectionism provides: armor against intimacy and scrutiny.

And, of course, the thing that a man can never be is weak. Weak is feminine. For a man, weakness is queer.

Katsuki's greatest fear seems to be being found out as weak. We begin to see him unpacking this, as he begins to admit to himself that Izuku is stronger than him, but, of course, we also see just how much work goes into him unpacking it. It only comes from honest self-reflection about himself, his bad defense mechanisms, and his relationship with Izuku. With introspection, he fears weakness less.

In conclusion

Queer theory is about heteronormativity and what it means when a person deviates from the norm into queerness. Katsuki's story in bnha is very much one of a character having many layers of armor to make him free from scrutiny, and slowly peeling those off to reveal his imperfections. This is the queer arc of a character being closeted, to a character coming out. Again, it's not to say that Katsuki is literally in the coming out process, it's to say that his narrative arc is a very queer arc, and it always felt that way to me. And, of course, as a bkdk, I see both those original closeting moments and the coming out moments as pretty much all being linked to fundamental interactions with Izuku.

Tbh, this theory is still a little half-baked. I don't know enough about queer theory, and I'm lacking a bit of cultural knowledge to give Katsuki the full breakdown. But before I had a single bnha ship, it was my impression that Katsuki was gay coded, and I've had these thoughts rattling around in my brain for over three years and I finally wanted to get them out (after a previous attempt that tumblr ate, rip). Maybe later on I'll do an analysis about who I think that Deku's experience is all about compulsory heterosexuality, hehe. Thanks for reading!