#but like. the number of posts i've seen that GENUINELY seem to think this is even remotely a real possibility

[welcometogrouchland]

I'm going to be so real I do not understand tim & steph shippers who feel that Steph dating Tim again would save her character. You can make an argument that giving Tim a more compelling love interest would be beneficial for him! And you can at least make an argument that the fujo mischaracterization of Steph would stop. However she'd still, inevitably, be treated as a prop character/extension for someone more popular 😭 it also wouldn't make her appear in more books! Tim doesn't have many frequent appearances at the moment either! You can just say you like the couple and want them back together without acting like you have some kind of moral stance

[yes-no-maybe-soo]

(Trigger warning: allusions to non-con, mentions of overstepping/ignoring boundaries. Nothing explicit or detailed but I still want to put warnings just in case it's triggering to anyone. Putting it under a read more to be extra careful. I just needed to vent a bit because this has deeply upset and infuriated me)

Made the mistake of opening my Twitter tab (I try to stay away as much as possible b/c I am wary of Valleydream Bloom spoilers) and the first thing I saw was a screenrecording of a café interaction where Sylus explicitly says that he isn't into choking. Which doesn't surprise me personally since, you know... this exists

He very clearly does not play about this shit. And rightfully so. His boundary just got crossed, and he doesn't tolerate that even from the person that he has longed for in his dreams. Which, again, rightfully so. No one has the right to overstep a person's boundaries no matter who they are to that person.

I figured that Sylus not being into being choked was common knowledge. Like yes, Sylus has kinks. And he is into BDSM. But that doesn't mean that he likes everything under that umbrella nor that he doesn't have explicit boundaries or limits, which some (mostly Booktok) seems to believe is the case with anyone being into BDSM or being kinky in general when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Anyway, boy was I wrong in my assumption. The reaction this "revelation" has garnered from a number of people is both surprising and disturbing tbh. It's one thing to be surprised but to say shit like "He's lying" or "Maybe he doesn't like it right now but I can change his mind" is just wild and frankly disgusting. On a number of levels.

First off... calling Sylus a liar. You know, the same man who literally never lies. Not even once throughout his relationship with MC. One of his core traits with her is that he is always genuine with her. He may evade certain topics like telling her explicitly about their past but he doesn't lie about it. He doesn't pretend they don't have a past together or that MCs visions aren't real. He has never lied to her and I highly doubt he ever will. It's not in his character. Never has been. And no one who cares about or understands his character would claim differently.

But most of all it just baffles and upsets me how quick and eager some are to dismiss Sylus' boundaries – Sylus, who is fundamentally a character all about autonomy and agency and consent. Who is celebrated for respecting MC's. And yet when it comes to his own? A lot of people like to act like he doesn't have them or that they can be tweaked. And I'm not just talking about the comments on this specific post, but in general I've seen kind of a lot of people adamant about controlling Sylus, or that claim that he would do literally everything MC would want. Even if it makes him uncomfortable. Which would be OOC for both characters.

Another reason why this is so upsetting to me and that I've talked about before is that Sylus is a character who's agency was forcefully – brutally – stripped away from him at a young age and for literal millennia. He has spent a good portion of his existence sealed away or locked up. That's a major reason why having autonomy agency and control is so important to him, and why he sets such clear boundaries for himself. Which MC would never cross because she loves and respects him as much as he does her.

And actually, I think this part about being treated brutally in the past is a major reason why Sylus is very cautious about being touched in certain vulnerable areas (neck, chest, head). He is just so used to being attacked and treated in a violent manner. Which breaks my heart.

Anyway, vent over. I just needed to do make this post for my own sake.

[supremefloof]

episode 6 thoughts: DANG

Shang Chao is one of the characters of all time. spoilers below! this post is also very long.

THESE DANG ENERGY DRINKS ARE IMPORTANT! This shot is symbolic of something!

these could be "Electro Energy" brand drinks (the brand mentioned later to show how Yang Cheng E-soul is costing money for Mighty Glory).

Is that a "no. 8" or a "no. 0"? 8 would make sense but there's problems with that, those being -> 1. is E-soul still rank number eight here? and 2.:

the trailer shows that this drink belongs to X, with the character presumably meaning 1,0, or some really sadistic way of writing X. (secret, even more sadistic evil third thing is that that's like, a three or something and the timeline is fucked). the drink NEXT to it belongs to E-soul (maybe those are electro energy). So, maybe this drink means that E-soul is X in Year 36. ofc, we have no idea what time this trailer takes place.

it looks like this stupid extremely hard to read borderline secret code font (/hj) is going to be a frequent occurrence! hopefully somebody with more dedication than me can decode it fully at some point.

background ads continue to be very intriguing. where exactly does this take place? we got "langley & co booksellers", "malibu surf shop", alongside chinese signs. probably a lot are just easter eggs but very fun!

In the interrogation room, I really interpreted YC's animated flashback sequence as a panic attack.

he's stuck on two ends from "nothing" to "way too much". He doesn't feel he belongs on either, and yet he's self-internalized a bunch of stuff at the same time. he's like lin ling on trauma steroids.

I like Xia Qing (i think thats her name?) better than I thought I would. girl knows what she wants and drops hints! she's also the most normal well adjusted person I've seen in this entire show.

i really, genuinely for the love of god hope those criminals weren't telling the truth about YC hiring them. If time travel theory is real I'm flipping a table. I dislike time travel theory but I can't put my finger on why.

SHANG CHAO IS SO SUSPICIOUS. even including what happens to him he shows up at exactly the right time with exactly the right stuff. He's weirdly super invested. I don't think he's evil but I think we are going to see his motivations/backstory in the next episode (and yes. singular next e-soul episode). we still don't know why Pomelo/you zi was kidnapped!!

Some guesses are that he really wants to differentiate himself from his dad, which is why he jumps at the chance to market Yang Cheng.

or yk. he's gay. who knows

OG E-Soul. first of all, YEESH he just trains shirtless covered in scars and doesn't wear anything under the suit 😭interestingly, he wears a mask all the time but doesn't care about his agent/manager/General Business Blonde Guy seeing him train shirtless and armless.

blonde dude got some nerve talking to this guy like that when he's one-arming like 200 pounds in front of him 💀

he seems unconcerned with whether people trust New E-soul, because nobody could mistake the two. this really lines up with the idea that he's old as Dirt and did some insane feat.

However, Mighty Glory doesn't see it that way because it's about money. TBHX absolutely is providing commentary on capitalism and the commercialization of heroes. (ie. an old symbol of institution brought down by the new age and adapted into something else that matches the ideas of the time) The contrast of a living legend like E-soul and his relationship with Mighty Glory + the media made me feel like Mighty Glory built itself around him with dubious implications for his opinions on the matter.

E-Soul hasn't fought people in a while! so my theory that he's retired is right so far.

ENLIGHTER!!!!! this felt like a crossover cameo but logically the episodes are only a few years apart. Enlighter seems like a big deal here though! Did he used to be higher ranked a few years ago and fell off in Lin Ling's era? ...why did he snap. that's not going to be important is it. brainrot brainrot

TBHX is also for sure highlighting how the transition into the digital age is effecting the Trust System, saying how E-soul had to do so much more work than YC. I wonder how the nuances of the Trust system were different before the spread of the internet. TBHX is a modern show, set in modern times and made to be extremely relevant to current world issues!

our running ideas about Trust seem spot-on so far. YC is getting a fraction of E-souls power. meaning E-Soul is really, really powerful! even though he's not doing anything right now.

SURVIVORS GUILT, PT 2. the similarities between the traumatic events of Yang Cheng's childhood to now are insane. holy shit poor guy

is someone gonna get dramatically shot every episode????? why??? at least Moon is not unique in this regard. hide your side characters nobody is safe 😭

twenty tumblr notes on this shot being wayyy too significant for my emotional health

I DON'T TRUST THE TIMELINE. I DON'T TRUST THE TIMELINE. E-SOUL PV IS SO INSANELY STRANGE.

[dereks-unrelenting-heart]

SFTH Chaotic Highlights (OMG Is This A Joke)

Alright, I'm finally starting to make these for the longforms! These are gonna be quite a bit longer than the other two I've made, since these videos are (typically) longer and I have a lot of thoughts about them lol (edit while writing, less than halfway through the video - yeah, I have way more to say than I thought I would)

Before I even get into the video itself, I just love the bold move of having their first Youtube longform be one about nazis, let's people know the kind of humor they'll be getting from these guys lmao

Also shout out to the not insignificant number of people who fully didn't recognize AJ with hair

Luke's executive decision to grab a prop gun and just stand there like 🧍🏼

"If he was only a foot and a half taller, he would be a perfect nazi!" Still one of my favorite Luke short jokes, because if I was him I genuinely wouldn't know how to take that observation-

Not sure why Sam chose the puffy purple jacket for his villain character, but at least we get to call him Ze Blackberry now

I'd like to imagine as Sam was introducing himself, he looked over to Luke like 'oh shit right, he's still just fucking standing there, I should probably include him somehow' and to Sam that ofc meant flirting with him

Which btw is the strangest flirting attempt I've ever seen- "Beautiful little pocket-sized Aryan" and "Sexy little ferret" ?? Guys I've never flirted with anyone but I don't think he's doing it right

"Guten Abend" Luke/Hans isn't good at this flirting thing either, but at least they're both having fun

Two French brothers casually parachuting over Berlin during World War II, nothing weird about that

"Ja- yes- er, oui! I'm trilingual, I'm sorry" Idk if it's the language confusion or the fact he apologized to the nazi, but this was a great line

"The plan is working perfectly, we're making them uncomfortable. Keep it up!" Luke, who has done very little in that regard except respond to Sam: "Okay!!" *just keeps standing there*

"Hard day being a nazi?" Considering you're currently giving him a backrub and are probably about to fuck him, I'd say he's having a pretty good day

Before Luke's BAFTA winning portrayals of grief in The Evil Make-A-Wish Kid and The Grape Depression, we had AJ's sobbing in OMGITAJ

So glad this play was set mainly in France so AJ could show off his French knowledge in the best ways (skipping across the stage and singing)

Sam characteristically entering briefly as an unspecified beast that for simplicity I'm going to call a ram

Genuinely one of my favorite and most underappreciated moments in the video is Katherine assigning Luke's character a feminine name, which he clearly didn't expect, and he just takes a moment to reevaluate life, while staring at the comedically placed banana in his hand. 10/10 fantastic bit

"My husband has been captured" "You know this for sure?" "Well he didn't come home and he's a French spy so" Fair logic that was 100% correct

"I already have a husband" "Well Xavier will have to wait until he's officially dead then" rip Jean-Luc man, at least Sarah seems to genuinely love him and be loyal though, good for them

Tag yourself, I'm AJ fangirling heavy over Xavier as he walks onstage

"I could have mimed it but I did not" has and forever will live in my brain rent free, bro had no reason to do that but took the fucking opportunity

Also Sarah's friend (did she ever get a name?) is simping for Xavier more than Sarah herself, they could've just fucked instead

"I don't know the French word for mice" "C'est une souris, une souris, une souris" French lessons with AJ

I've already made a whole post about my love for pre-reveal Xavier, but jesus, can you blame me? This character is the actual reason I started being attracted to Tom in the first place, why is he so SMOOTH-

Also the fact Luke didn't even flinch when Tom tilted his chair back and just nonchalantly crossed his legs- This whole scene is perfect istg

"I'm just going to take a few pictures-" That's so real of you girl

"I am a man" Gonna start saying this in front of the mirror as affirmations in the morning, same tone and everything

Tom launching himself across the stage before he even has the chance to rebutton his shirt lol

"Look out! It's the nazi-looking guy!" Saying this about the actual nazi is so funny

Not me being genuinely kinda sad about François getting killed

Katherine getting into Sam's carriage with a pumpkin (For some reason??) and Sam pausing not once, but twice, and eventually deciding to proceed as normal and not question it

Jean-Luc: *crying because trauma* Katherine: "Aw.. If you're thirsty you could drink it!" Katherine might've earned her place as my favorite 5th SFTH member they've had

Big Hans showing up with an entirely different vibe from the last time we saw him- Maybe because he's not busy being gay with Ze Blackberry

But really, why is this nazi boy so excited about the french language while he's taking over their country

"Les coqs :D" Sir what is this energy you're putting out, it's confusing me

I like that instead of just saying something like "It's a French horse, why do I care if I kicked it" he's just like "German horses wouldn't give a shit, your horses are just weak"

"Very hairy chickens you have here" A joke they couldn't have made now-

I'd just like to point out that Big Hans didn't get shot from what I could tell, so he could technically still be alive. Idk what to do with that information, I just wanted it out there

Tom pulling his classic sexy-character move: Foot dramatically placed on chair

The cleaner just being like "what a fucking mess, god I hate my job" as if Xavier and Sarah aren't currently having a whole plot-altering revelation in the same room

Oh yeah, and this is also the moment I was very relieved Sarah was a better person than me (/hj) and didn't sleep with Xavier

Also, mostly unrelated, but Katherine's voice specifically as the cleaner reminds me of DHMIS every single time and idk why

"Are you quite finished??" "... Honestly, no"

"But who would do that? Who would do- It was me" He tried to be mysterious but Xavier really wanted credit for what he did

Sam the Ram returns! Very cool that their first video had classics of all kinds: Sam being a chaotic animal, AJ getting to be French, Tom being a sexy German, and Luke being an equally-attractive-but-not-quite-as-played-up woman

"I was tortured by two men gettig with each other next to me" "They're always doing that, the nazis" If SFTH can make nazis gay af, they truly can do anything

Why does Ram-Sam look so offended on behalf of the French after Luke's "It's in my nature" line lmaoo

"Where did you get my dildo!?" Amazing line from Luke, but really what was that thing??

And ofc Xavier dies as he lived.. Shirtless. Sexy evil bastard-

[hms-no-fun]

you were on cohost? i guess too late now, how was it for you?

cohost had its fair share of problems and i could often find the community there a bit too tumblr-core fingerwaggy if you know what i mean. but the site's dead now so it's kind of a moot point. what i find myself reflecting on most these days are the positives.

first, no numbers. i think their no numbers policy was probably a bit over-aggressive, but it quelled some of the rat race popularity contest aspect of social media that often makes it so tedious. i liked their tag tracking system, their robust content warning options, and the absence of infinite scroll. what i miss most about cohost is that their text editor supported CSS, which led to people programming elaborate text effects and puzzles and games in-site that harkened back to the days of flash animations. there was something in this combination of elements that drew out a rebellious creativity in users.

cohost came at a time when social media was across the board feeling terrible (and it's only gotten worse hahaha), particularly as someone who makes shit that relies on you clicking links that take you away from the website or app. algorithms hate this and punish it. users also just seem kind of lazy and disinterested in using the internet so much as letting the internet happen to them passively. but when a post of mine went viral on cohost, people engaged with it. it wasn't just likes and shares, it was comments and additions. it felt like a place that (at its best) encouraged actual conversation and the development of new ideas among like-minded peers. when my posts did well and i included a donation link, people gave me money. it felt genuinely like a website that COULD support professional blog work in a way that was more customizable even than substack yet still RSS friendly, and the Following tab which let you easily see posts of specific users was a REVELATION, like a mini RSS reader within the website itself.

but the enterprise was unsustainable for various reasons (not all of them outside the dev crew's control) and the haters got what they wanted. now our big social media alternative is bluesky, a website that dares to ask the question "what if there was another twitter?" the answer is that it fucking sucks. i hate microblogs so much dude, why on EARTH are we still acting like these disambiguited 300-character-limit posts are the most preferable means of social communication online??? why would you set out to make a better twitter and then deliberately choose to replicate literally every aspect of the user experience that encouraged low-information high-drama conflict fabrication? WHY WOULD YOU MAKE A VERSION OF TWITTER WHERE YOU CAN EASILY LOOK UP THE ACCOUNT OF EVERYONE WHO HAS YOU BLOCKED AND IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE A FEATURE NOT A BUG???????? i just don't get it. i don't even get the optimism of the early adopters. i've seen people decry the post-election decay of the platform like "of course the cishets come in to ruin a community that was defined by trans & queer people" i'm sorry HELLO???????? from literally day zero bluesky was aiming to be a hands-off centrist IPO-friendly tech startup, there was never anything structurally embedded within the platform itself to keep this kind of decay from happening, you just happened to be on there when there were dramatically fewer users most of whom were curious tech enthusiasts. seriously, how have we not learned this lesson yet? you can't define a digital culture by the vibes of random user behavior! unless you have LAWS and GUIDELINES whereby you fucking BAN people for being shitheads, unless you enforce an actual code of conduct and punish bigoted speech and design a system that encourages constructive conversation, you are always always ALWAYS going to wind up at unhinged facebook boomer slop!

the death of cohost and the utterly predictable decay of bluesky are a big part of the reason why i've been posting so much more on tumblr. this is like the last bastion of anything even remotely resembling the old web, with its support of longposts and tagging and how easy it is to find random hobbyists doing cool shit you never knew existed before. like, yeah, you have to search that shit out and tailor your feed to not drive you crazy, but that's what i like about it!!! i am an adult with agency who understands that life is complicated and as such i expect to have to put some work into making my experience with a website positive! but in the hellworld of the iphone everything is walled garden apps for aggregating content where the content and its creators are structurally established as infinitely replaceable and uniquely worthless punching bags to be used and cast aside. everyone's given up on moderation and real jobs don't exist anymore especially if you happen to work in the "creative economy" IE are a writer or critic or artist or hobbyist of literally any kind. we've given up on expecting anything from the rich moneyboys who own and profit immensely off of the platforms whose value we literally create!!! especially now with the rise of "AI" grifters, whose work has ratcheted good old fashioned casual sexism and racism and homophobia up to levels not seen in such mainstream spaces since the early 2000s.

i like tumblr because i don't have to use a third party app to get & answer asks at length, and because it is a visual artist friendly platform where i won't be looked at funny for reblogging furry postmodernism or transgender homestuck OCs. it is a site that utterly lacks respectability and that's what makes it even remotely usuable. unfortunately it also sucks! partly it sucks because this place was ground zero for the rise of puritanical feminist-passing conservatism in leftist spaces, so it's like a hyperbolic time chamber for brain-melting life or death discourse about the most inconsequential bullshit you could ever imagine. but it also sucks because it's owned by a profit-motivated moneyboy who has consistently encouraged a culture of virulent transphobia and frequently bans trans women who call this out. so like, yeah, this place is cool compared to everywhere else, but it is exactly like everywhere else in that is also on a ticking clock to its own inevitable demise. the owners of this website will destroy everything that makes it interesting and will EAGERLY delete the nearly twenty years (!!!!!!) of posts it's accumulated the instant it will profit them to do so. this will be immensely unpopular and everyone will agree it's a tragedy and it won't matter. the culture and content of a social media platform is epiphenomenal to its rote economic valuation. i mean, obviously it isn't, zero of these massive tech companies would be what they are if so many people weren't so eager to give their time and labor away for free (and yes, writing a dumb dick joke on tumblr IS a form of labor in the same way that doing a captcha is labor, just because it's a miniscule contribution in an economy of scale doesn't mean you didn't contribute!), but once a tech company reaches a certain threshold its valuation ceases to be tethered to anything that actually exists in reality.

all of which is why i remember cohost with a heavy heart. yeah, it was imperfect. it was also independently owned, made with the explicit goal of creating a form of social media that actually tries not to give you a lifelong anxiety disorder so it can sell you homeopathic anti-anxiety sawdust suppositories. for the brief window of time when it was extant, i was genuinely hopeful for the future of being a creative on the internet. part of why i spend so much time on godfeels, a fucking homestuck fanfiction with no hope of turning a profit or establishing mainstream legitimacy, is that my readers actually ENGAGE with the material. what brought me back to using this website consistently was precisely the glut of godfeels-related questions i got, and the exciting conversations that resulted from my answers. meanwhile i put so many hours into my videos and even when they do well numerically, i barely see any actual engagement with the material. and that is a deliberate design choice on the part of youtube! that is the platform functioning as intended!! it sucks!!!

what the memory of cohost has instilled in me is a neverending distaste for the lazy unambitious also-rans that define the modern internet. i remember the possibility space of the early web and long for the expressiveness that even the most minor of utilities offered. we sacrificed that freedom for a convenience which was always the pretense for eventually charging us rent. i am thinking a lot these days about what a publicly funded government administrated social media utility would look like. what federal open source standards could look in an environment where the kinds of activities a digital ecosystem can encourage are strictly regulated against exploitation, bigotry, scams, and literal gambling. what if there was a unionized federal workforce devoted to the administration of internet moderation, which every website above a certain user threshold must legally take advantage of? i like to imagine a world where youtube isn't just nationalized but balkanized, where you have nested networks of youtubes administrated for different purposes by different agencies and organizations that operate on different paradigms of privacy and algorithmic interaction. imagine that your state, county, and/or city has its own branch of youtube meant to specifically highlight local work, while also remaining connected to a broader national network (oops i just reinvented federation lmao). imagine a world where server capacity is a publicly owned utility apportioned according to need and developed in collaboration with the communities of their construction rather than as a deliberate exploitation of them. our horizons for these kinds of things are just so, so small, our ability to imagine completely captured by capitalist realism, our willingness to demand services from our government simply obliterated by decades of cynical pro-austerity propaganda. i imagine proposing some of this stuff and people reacting like "well that's unrealistic" "that'll never happen" "they'd just use it for evil" and i am just SO! FUCKING! TIRED!!!!

like wow you're soooooo cool for being effectively two steps left of reagan, i bet you think prison abolition and free public housing are an impossible pipedream too huh? and exactly what has that attitude gotten you? what've you gained by being such a down to earth realist whose demands are limited by the scope of what seems immediately possible? has anything gotten better? have any of the things you thought were good stayed good? is your career more stable, your political position more safe, your desire to live and thrive greatly expanded? or do you spend every day in a cascading panopticon of stress and collapse, overwhelmed to the point of paralysis by the sheer magnitude of what it's cost us to abandon the future? you HAVE to dream. you HAVE to make unrealistic demands. the fucking conservatives have been making unrealistic demands forever and look, they're getting everything they want even though EVERYONE hates them for it! please i'm begging you to see and understand that what's feasible, what's reasonable, what's realistic, are literally irrelevant. these things only feel impossible because we choose to believe The Adults (and if you're younger than like 45, trust me, to the ruling class you are a child) whose bank accounts reflect just how profitable it is to convince us that they're impossible. all those billions of dollars these fuckers have didn't come from nowhere, it was stolen from all of us. there is no reason that money can't and shouldn't be seized and recirculated back into the economy, no reason it can't be used to fund a society that is actually social, where technological development is driven not by what's most likely to drive up profits next quarter but by what people need from technology in their daily lives.

uh so yeah basically that's my opinion of cohost lmao

[pinkroseblooms]

Remmick is becoming super divisive in the fandom and I'm feeling bad for Ryan Coogler

As someone who isn't the biggest fan of Remmick (don't come for me, actor is cute, and I do think the character is funny and interestingly written and I've seen a few fics that are legitimately good) I don't get why people are saying the Sinners fandom is ignoring the PoC characters in favor of him and it's an insult to the film and it's themes.

For one, Ryan Coogler loves the character. He loves Irish culture. He says in BTS interviews he intended to write Remmick as someone who genuinely isn't racist and sees segregation as complete bullshit. Now, his actions and motivations are purposefully tied to themes of white assimilation and cultural appropriation and a lot of his character is still left to speculation; it's one of the reasons why I think people are churning out so much content of him, they find it easier to interpret Remmick as a character who's history and motivations aren't completely revealed. As a character, he can and at least partially is a reference to what white people have historically done to oppress other cultures/colonization, despite also being a victim of said oppression.

As for people shipping him with Sammie, I don't like the ship, but I saw it coming the first screening. People, especially tumblr fanfic girlies, love shipping villains and antagonists with the character who's the hero/protagonist/audience surrogate. Sammie is central to the plot, but he's also who the audience can step into the shoes of the most and as a result, people can project themselves onto him more. Also, tumblr girlies fucking love hyperfiaxting on the "I can change him" characters. Remmick is basically a tumblr sexyman. And it's not just white people writing reader inserts or focusing on him (side note, I haven't seen the plantation reader story and I hope to God I never do) there's a good number of black users and other users of various ethnicities I see posting content centered around Remmick. Everyone seems to thirst for this character and to be fair, Ryan Coogler meant for people to enjoy him as much as any of the other characters, even if he absolutely wants to centered black stories and culture in his work.

Still, it seems like once again a white character is becoming a fan favorite in a piece of media with a predominantly black cast, meant to be beloved by black people, albeit not exclusively. It fucking grating when you get representation and you want to interact with the fandom but it's seemingly overtaken by people focusing on the white guy.

While I don't think racial bias is the only reason Remmick is getting so much attention, I don't doubt for some fans thats exactly what it is (plantation reader insert, really? Fucking really?). But I'm not black so I'm not going to pretend I get it exactly. As a PoC, I can only empathize to an extent. There's valid reasons to be irritated and fed up so I'm not saying people who want to vent or post about their frustration shouldn't. That's not my place at all.

Mostly I just feel kind of bad for Ryan Coogler who actually put a lot of effort to write this enjoyable villain and Remmick's getting as much backlash as he is getting love from Sinners fans. And I don't think people making fan content for the character automatically means they're disregarding any of the black characters. People are also going feral over Bo and Grace and they love the Choctaw for the teeny amount of their screen time, but I don't see anyone claiming that fans of them are decentralizing the black characters in favor of them.

Also, on the subject of Sinners fan content, I want more Annie x Reader fics. But that's beside the point, she's just my personal favorite and I want to fantasize about her being in love with me because there's no way irl it would ever happen. 🥲

[anthurak]

"Ozpin isn't evil, he just keeps having REALLY BAD IDEAS"

THANK YOU!!!

You have no idea how tired I am of Ozpin demonization.

Like, if he wanted to rule over Remnant as its god emperor like a lot of people seem to think he does, he would NOT have abdicated the throne to establish democracy across the globe at the end of the Great War. Nor would he take SEVERAL steps to limit his own power (as much of a control freak as Ozpin can be, it's worth noting that he ALSO doesn't trust HIMSELF with absolute power either). I've seen a LOT of great RWBY analysis posts RUINED by a completely unnecessary dig at Ozpin's "god complex" which doesn't exist in canon at all.

Even the ONE story about him accidentally starting a cult has him repeatedly telling his followers to stop worshiping him, and blaming himself for everything that went wrong.

I feel like Ozpin represents an excellent case-study on how parts of a fandom that are fixated on black-and-white-morality simply CANNOT wrap their heads around a genuinely morally-gray character.

Like Ozpin is frankly an AMAZING example of how to write a character who has done a massive amount of truly TERRIBLE things that have impacted our heroines and the world at large, to the point where he could even be reasonably considered to be one of the main antagonists of the story, all WITHOUT being an actual villain or even just a bad guy.

Oz is, at his heart a good man driven by a desperate desire to help others and save the world, who is nonetheless HORRIBLY misguided as to how he might accomplish these things. Owing to a combination of thousands of years of built up trauma and guilt, as well as a fundamental misunderstanding of his enemy that he has yet to even consider even after all this time. Which has led to Oz making COUNTLESS terrible mistakes over and over again across the millennia causing no end of hardship to many.

RWBY has a number of these sorts of characters, and Oz is one of the best cases of a character who simply CANNOT fit into a binary black-and-white ‘good guy or bad guy?’ mold.

So when fans who are wholly fixated on this idea that a character can only be either a ‘good guy’ or ‘bad guy’ try to awkwardly and violently crowbar Oz into this mold, you get either one of two results:

It’s either the ‘Oz did nothing wrong’ claim that tries to ignore literally ALL of the terrible mistakes he’s made and all the people he’s hurt in the process, and generally ends up vilifying everyone around him.

Or it’s the ‘Oz is the Ultimate Nasty Evil Big Bad of Everything’ example you listed. Which tries to ignore the very motivations that have been at the core of Oz’s character from the beginning and often tries to just tack on generic villainous traits to him just to force the mold to fit.

RWBY is a complex and nuanced show with likewise complex and nuanced characters that very deliberately do not fit into simplistic and well-known tropes and archetypes. And a sizeable chunk of ‘fans’ who are either unable or more likely simply unwilling to recognize that.

[myfairstarlight]

An Ode to Friends to Lovers - Colin and Penelope's story

Fine, I give in.

As someone who considers themself more of a casual viewer (as in, I've never engaged in the fandom before), I went into this new season with mild interest. And then I fell down the rabbit hole. I should have suspected it though, Friends to Lovers is a trope I affectionate particularly when it comes to romance, unfortunately one I very rarely think is done well. So I was still skeptical going in.

But by God, did they deliver on that front and I need to break it down and talk about it. So I guess this is my review of Bridgerton s3, part 1.

Under the cut though, because this is gonna be a long one (seriously, this is a warning).

I don't particularly think Bridgerton is a complex show, and one can argue all day about whether it is even good (in my eyes, as long as it's entertaining, I don't care if a show is "good"), however, the number of takes I've seen online not understanding basic story-telling worries me a bit.

Don't get me wrong, I agree this first half has pacing issues but I do not think Penelope's and Colin's love story suffered that much, it did not feel rushed to me since we already knew these characters for two whole seasons (and I maintain Colin has always had more depths than what people pretend he does, it seems like, just like the ton, viewers like to overlook him and just characterise him as naive).

And I guess this long ass post was born in the process. So:

Part One: Penelope's glow up

Yes I'm starting by looking at them individually first. I think this post on reddit sums it up so perfectly. I get we're all joking about how unrealistic it is that no man was ever interested in Penelope despite how she looks like an absolute goddess (and I maintain she was the cutest in both previous seasons as well!) - unfortunately it is realistic. That's the reality of bullying, it doesn't get solved by a glow up. Even her association with the Bridgertons through Eloise and Colin did not lessen the bullying, so without them? Even the prettiest dresses would not have changed the ton's perception of her, and she's still the awkward, anxious girl she's always been, and unfortunately, most of these men are not attracted to that. It's not satisfying, she doesn't get her triumphant revenge on a society that always ostracised her - and I think it's important that she does not. That she accepts it. She should not have to change for a ton that will not change for the better either. And it's a lesson she learns quickly - someone will love her for who she is, pretending will only lead to misery. And, it is when she's being herself that she successfully gets the interest of some gentlemen (shout out to Lord Remington! I was so hoping we would be seeing more of him on top of Debling. He's such a Whistledown fan I thought that even after the whole lesson reveal scandal he would have stuck to call on Penelope the next day to gossip together, it would have been cute but I guess he too wanted to avoid being written about) (also I'm just saying in fics he should be the one considered as a proper other suitor for Pen since they seemed to have a genuine connection, meanwhile Debling was really searching for practicality).

The thing I wanna add to that post is this: despite all that, she decided to change her looks for herself. When I first learned of the plot of this season, Colin helping her find a husband, I was scared it would mean Colin would be the one to tell her to have a makeover. It doesn't happen. Sure, Penelope subconsciously requests for a more Parisian style for her new dresses because it is the last place Colin went to, but by that point she has already given up on him. She wants something new, and to feel good in herself. That's how she blooms, by finding a style that she feels comfortable in, finally free from her mother's horrendous tastes. That's what allows her to be more confident as well, the new looks and her motivation to move on from her "unrequited fantasy". As for Colin? He never comments on her change, he compliments her dress (and mind you, that is when he's trying to play up the charm because he knows she's upset with him and he gets humbled, hard) but he never says it looks better on her than what she wore before, he never has a "I never realised how beautiful you were" moment we see a bit too often in friends to lovers stories, because to him she's still his Pen, new dresses, new hairstyles, but the same Pen he's always loved, even if he didn't realise to what extent yet.

But Penelope's confidence... is not quite there yet. Difficult to be, when she's grown up in a loveless home, with horrible sisters, a father who barely cared and a mother who constantly puts her down. Whenever she gets a compliment, her first reaction is "ah, it must be a joke" - that isn't even exclusive to Colin, in the brief interaction between Edwina and Penelope, when Edwina compliments her dress, Penelope also dismisses it. And then, there's Colin, who is always oh so honest with her and does not shy away from praising her. But I'll touch more on that later.

Part Two: Colin's new self.

And then we have the opposite: Colin showing up with a new attitude, and succeeding at it (well, on the surface). Something I haven't seen people bring up a lot though is that he's already tried a new look in s2, and he got mocked for it. The only one who didn't? Penelope. Why didn't he try to emulate being a rake back then? Because Penelope's letters grounded him, he admits it himself. It's seeing himself through Penelope's letters that gave him confidence. But that kind of confidence was not enough in the ton's eyes, and on top of that, between s2 and s3, this time Penelope doesn't write back, and neither do his family. He grows insecure, he's lost the one person who kept him grounded, he thinks his family is annoyed with him, and he still is in search of a purpose, so what does he do? He clings to Anthony's words in s1 after the disaster that was his engagement with Marina: he's too green, time to "fix" that and be more like his big brothers. They got it together, they know their purpose (well, Benedict lost his again but that's a story for another day), so surely, if he acts more like them, and not like the sensitive and naive boy he was, then surely everything will be alright! Right? Note that as opposed to s2, where he kept talking about his travels and it annoyed everyone, in s3 he doesn't go into details about them anymore, even when he's asked. They're only interested in the company he kept during the travels rather than the sights he saw. And honestly, it was heartbreaking to see right away how much of himself he was holding back, even with his own family. Penelope, however, gets the details without even asking because he already knows she likes hearing him talk about them and she makes him comfortable, and he's fully aware of that when he apologises in s3e1.

(I also want to note that, even if this new persona is fake, his new style genuinely fits him better. Just like Penelope, this season Colin found the style that makes him feel good and confident.)

And here's where I need to praise Luke's acting for a bit, because he absolutely nailed the subtle way Colin behaves differently with Penelope vs everyone else. His voice is softer, he is effortlessly charming (I was kicking my feet when he recalled how they met), his smile is bigger, even his whole face looks more relaxed whenever Penelope is around, meanwhile he always appears stiff and like he's calculating his every move when around his "friends". In fact, it is in the carriage scene we finally truly see s1&2's Colin back. When he has that look on his face, as he decides right there and then he's gonna marry her, and then a second later when he asks the question, his face. By God, his eyes are sparkling, he's so happy, and he looks as youthful and carefree as he did in previous seasons, far are the thoughts of trying to fit in a society that he hates.

Because above all, these two know and understand each other in a way no one else in their lives does. And that is a fact that remains despite the outward changes. So yes, I liked that their dynamic did not shift to romance because of their "glow ups", but because they are spending even more time together now. Speaking of which:

Part Three: Authenticity and Vulnerability

One big theme this season is being true to oneself. It's no coincidence mirrors are such a big part of it (even outside of the yet to be seen spicy scene), because looking at a mirror means looking at oneself, and be vulnerable. If s2 was about duty vs heart, eldest siblings trying to do right by their family to the point of self-sabotage, s3 is a battle between the head and the heart. It is not even exclusive to Polin - Eloise is learning and growing by trying to take genuine part in society but struggling to fit in. Cressida wants to become a better person, torn between the pressure put on her shoulders by her parents and this new friendship with Eloise. Benedict is looking for his purpose after learning Anthony paid his way to art school, and feeling like a fraud as an artist. Anthony and Kate are unashamedly in love, as they deserve to be after the struggles they went through last season. Francesca has no care for the suitors the Queen and her mother parade in front of her as the "sparkler" of the season (sidenote but I hated that, stupid name, should have stuck to diamond or select another gem) as her heart seeks out the handsome and quiet John Sterling instead. And this will continue in part 2, as Penelope will have to be honest about Lady Whistledown (because she's always her most authentic self around Colin, there is still this big secret she is so determined to keep to herself, when she should not).

The beauty about friends to lovers stories to me is the small declarations of love sprinkled throughout the relationship. It's about the trust already built in with no expectations and the vulnerability we'd never allow anyone but our closest friends to see, something even our family can be ignorant to. I mentioned earlier that Colin never shies away from praising Penelope, way before their dynamic shifts to lovers. He tells her she's good, constant, loyal, special, warm. All of these are declarations of love, even if not with romantic intent, it's about showing his appreciation for her, for the role she holds in his life. And Penelope responds in kind as well. That is why I believe people who think the romance was rushed in s3 either did not watch the past two seasons or see friendship and romantic love as two distinct things rather than a cohesive continuation of each other. In s1, people focus so much on the Marina stuff, as if that cancels out Colin's friendship with Penelope. We still do see Colin actively seek out Penelope at balls, and defending her against Cressida, he compliments her and tells her she's the one who inspired him to travel. Then s2 rolls in, and they're exchanging letters, which will become the cataclysm for their dynamic changing later on. And then there's one of my favourite scenes with them: them talking about their purpose. They both open up here, Colin about his insecurity, Penelope about her dream, it is so intimate. And then, there's of course Colin protecting the Featheringtons from ruins. I'm mostly emphasising Colin's actions, because Penelope's crush on him was always in your face, and while Colin may not have realised it yet, he's always cared about Penelope in a special way, as manifested by his actions and how vulnerable he allows himself to be around her, when even his own family has no idea about what's going on inside his head.

There's a misconception that Colin calling her his friend was him rejecting her, and yet we see in s3 he had no idea whatsoever that she has a crush on him, so he could not lead her on (unlike his book counterpart, who was aware of Penelope's infatuation and was careful never to toe the line until he realised his feelings. Show Colin though? Completely oblivious. And it makes sense, he's still young.) He asks Violet "how do you know it was reciprocated" and not "how do you know you're in love with your best friend". As of right now at the end of part 1, he genuinely thinks he's the one who fell in love first, or at least realised it first. His "You're Pen, you do not count, you're my friend" in s2, was not a rejection in his eyes, but a declaration of love; he's forsaken love and women but not his Penelope, never her, she's his exception And it's not like Penelope resented him for that friendship he so readily gave her, yes she had a crush, but she was proud to call him her friend! He was, with Eloise, her solace away from her family. At the end of the day, this is a friends to lovers story, it is silly to get upset that they considered themselves friends first before there is a click as they realise they are now on the same page to shift their relationship.

Side note but I've never liked the term "friendzoned" because it makes it sound like being friends is a bad thing. I've had unrequited feelings before but I've always felt grateful that being friends with them allowed me to stay close to them even if I knew nothing else could happen. I was still very much happy and content. But maybe I'm projecting on Penelope and that's another debate.

See, what I ended up loving about the lesson plot, which I was so wary of at first, is that Colin barely teaches Penelope anything. At first, he goes for the "do what society expects women to do" (since it worked for him) but then she acts awkwardly, she can't fake it, and it surprises him for a moment. That's when it clicks for him, she just needs to be comfortable because with him, she's always smart, witty and charming, she's herself. He's always seen her that way, and he did not quite realise he had that privilege in the first place. And I love how we see him slowly realise it is no longer a privilege thanks to his help. We see it in e2. When she talks to the guy with the dead horse (forgot his name, oops), Penelope forces the flirt and Colin is amused by it. Fast forward Penelope approaching Lord Remington by herself, without Colin's initiative, and she's being more authentic, and suddenly Jealous by Nick Jonas plays in the background and Colin doesn't look proud, but apprehensive, or dare I say jealous. The shift in Colin's head happens long before Debling is in the picture. I'd argue it already shifted earlier in that episode, in his study, which he flashbacks to in e4.

His journals detail how unfulfilled he feels when he lays with random women in his travels. He longs for emotional intimacy. And guess with who he finally finds that, when a certain red-head asks the one question that allows them to break the physical barrier they had to keep between them for the sake of propriety?

Ah yes, that first kiss. To Colin, everything has been building up to this, this is his true Oh moment. A favour turned into a revelation. For Penelope, this is quite literally the end of her fantasies. This is Penelope's most vulnerable moment. She bares her heart, she's sad, she's desperate. And some people have been calling that moment pathetic, interpreting it as her being weak and giving in to her crush again, saying that she should not have to beg for that man's affection. I concur that she is brave, and bold. I also concur that some of you all are a bit too attached to the girlboss archetype forgetting that allowing oneself to be vulnerable is also a strength. She's never had to beg for Colin's attention anyway because he readily gives it to her, but in this one instance, for once in her life, she is truly being honest. In her head, she has nothing else to lose, and she wants to experience the one thing she thinks she can never have so of course she's gonna turn to the one person she's always trusted and feels the most comfortable with, because before her crush, Colin is her friend. She's asking a favour from a friend. And then she can move on, whatever "moving on" will turn out to be. In this instance, she has the power in her hands.

And it is her bravery that is the true cataclysm for things to change properly. Of course, things have already started to change the moment she stopped replying to the letters, but that moment really expedited their relationship.

Part Four: Lovers, but in a best friends way

The thing with Bridgerton, in the books or in the show, is that each couple has their trope. This is not news to anyone, I think. We've had fake dating, and enemies to lovers, and one characteristic that these two tropes share is a growing tension between the characters before it snaps. There is a reason the early marketing for s3 focused on Penelope being cold towards Colin, tension and conflict are more appealing on the surface. And then the first half of the season comes out and that conflict between our main couple? Solved after one episode because they did one thing that is severely missing in most romance dramas: communicated healthily. Penelope laid out why she was upset (although she does not stay to let Colin explain and then vents out her feelings in Whistledown... she still has some learning to do), Colin immediately went to apologise and make up for it. All of this by talking. And yet I'd argue friends to lovers still has its own tension, just not to the same intensity as the other two, and more difficult to market. The tension comes from the brewing feelings, the way you start seeing every touch, every interaction, in a whole new light, and wondering if it's only in your head or if it's reciprocated. But now combine that with Colin who's always been so earnest about his feelings with Penelope? And Penelope who's always quietly wanted their relationship to evolve that way? Of course they figured it out quickly and got together in half a season. And I'm delighted that we will see them handle the whole Whistledown mess as a couple, as two people aware they love each other deeply, which gives a whole new meaning to the conflict compared to the book where I felt like it was brushed over a bit too quickly (because they got distracted in that carriage). It is the last secret between them, their last obstacle.

I also do not like the "Colin should have grovelled and pined more" argument, when he is the one who insisted on the lessons to help her find a husband in the first place, and then has to face the fact that actually, he doesn't like the idea of another man taking Penelope away, and oh, isn't that the consequences of his own actions? He is grovelling, you just don't see Penelope holding it over his head, because that's not the person she is, this is not a revenge fantasy story, in fact she does not realise the power she has on him because she is used to Colin seeking her out. I like that he didn't stew on his feelings and decided to act on them right away. I also don't like how this whole grovelling thing makes it sound like love is a competition, that just because Penelope has known she's been in love for longer and "suffered" longer, that means Colin needs to do the same to even the planes. Because in my eyes love isn't exactly something to be earned — it is given. Now, are you worthy to keep it? To nurture it and make it bloom and last? That is the real question.

Admittedly, since this is only the first half of the season, we do not see them in a romantic setting a lot. That first half is focused on them rekindling their friendship lost during the summer when Penelope stopped responding to the letters, and Colin having the realisation he cannot live without his best friend, not just because she is his best friend, but also because he loves her. But we do have two important, and obvious instances.

So let's talk about that first kiss again. It is, in my opinion, one of the most gentle and romantic moments in the show so far and also showcased their friendship really well. Colin trying to joke to lighten the mood as Penelope spirals down (peak best friend behaviour actually), the gentle, swelling music, the light of the moon, Colin's deep exhale of realisation as he holds her face when he goes back in for the second kiss, with the furrowed brows of a man on a mission. This is Penelope's most vulnerable moment and Colin's big realisation. And I felt like I was intruding.

And same goes for that carriage scene, but even before they go at it; now this is Colin's most vulnerable moment, and Penelope's realisation that they can be more. He chases the carriage by foot, then goes on his knees to confess his feelings to his best friend in the softest and most determined voice we've ever heard him use this whole season, eyes wide, tears threatening to fall as it is his turn to bare his heart and ask for a chance. Meanwhile Penelope takes it all in, running her hand through his hair because she can finally touch him, melting under him. Things get steamy. And then... and then... The carriage stops, they get startled, Colin jokes that the driver should have kept on driving and then... they laugh. They just made out, and went to second base together, and yet here they are now, laughing. It is such a genuine and lovely moment. And it's then that Colin has that look in his eyes, that "I'm gonna marry her" look. That is when he realises he cannot live his life without her. That his purpose is now right in front of him: making Penelope Featherington, soon to be Bridgerton, laugh until the end of their lives.

Conclusion

There's no conclusion, I just love them so dearly. Yes, there still is the whole Whistledown mess to deal with and sure, the argument with Eloise may make you think great angst is ahead but if there is one big difference between Colin and Eloise, it is this: Colin has always listened to Penelope, and this is not a diss on Eloise. Eloise, bless her heart, can be pretty self-centred, she's loud and a bit immature, something she is growing from in s3, and you cannot ignore that she did not really listen to Penelope (she has no idea Penelope wishes to marry when Penelope tells her she does in s1, we can blame the writing, but I do think it fits with Eloise's journey to realising how privileged and dismissive she is. Penelope was too polite to call her out until their falling out. Meanwhile Cressida is exactly the type of honesty she needs for a wake up call). Colin, on the other hand, is very sensitive and a good listener. Furthermore, this season, Penelope is learning to be more confident, to voice what she wants, and I like to think it is leading to her finding her own voice and not needing Whistledown to hide behind anymore. If there's someone with whom she has no filters, it is Colin, so I have faith that when the reveal happens and an argument breaks out, this new Penelope will not back down and will lay out all her reasons and all her regrets, and Colin may be stubborn, but he loves that woman and he always listens.

A part of me also wishes they keep the jealousy he felt about her writing in the book, and that they don't focus just on the whole "you lied to me" aspect (we've already had that with Eloise). How he, himself, is insecure about his writing, and here Penelope is, less fortunate than he is, and yet who did have the courage to get her writing out there, even if publishing under another name. Because that is also a reality in relationships, when your partner is at a different stage in their career, and how they can communicate to support one another.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now (as if that isn't what I've been doing this whole time). I like them. A little. Just a bit. I'm very normal about them <3

[nozhdyved]

we think we know you - p.z.

contains: 1234 words LOL, patrick zweig timeline, mentions of suicide, artashi being massive patrick haters, slurs, so much patrick slander it's crazy, odd formatting uhh, patrick zweig NEGLECT, he deserved better

notes: i've been thinking abt writing this for a while... i feel like this song just suits his life really well. the formatting on this gmfu but i genuinely had so much fun making it that way. uhh enjoy and plz cherish your patrick zweigs while u still can

taglist: @girliism, @imperishablereverie, @faiztsheap, @musingsofheaven, @yardofbrunettes, @forgetmenotnympho, @sweetheartfaist, @sweetestfaiszts, @hangels . click here to be added !

listen while you read

[The following voice messages are the last ones left on P. ZWEIG’s phone as of today’s date. They have been played through. Sent from unknown numbers. Keep secure for evidence.]

Beep. “Patrick, Oh my God! Um, heyyy, you remember me, right? Oh my God, it’s been, like, forever! I can’t believe you’re all, like… famous and stuff now. You were a scrawny kid at Rebellato, remember? Haha! Um, how are you? I feel like I’ve been, like, so lacking in our friendship. I mean… we never, uh talked, but, I feel like that was what made our friendship so special, right? Anyway, you should totes come to this party I’m throwing with my college friends, total rager, it’s gonna be off the chain-hook! Um, I’ve been telling all my friends about how good of friends we were, ya know? Like, besties! I mean, besides you and Art, or whatever. He’s married now. Isn’t that crazy? Are you married? Gah, I’m getting too ahead of myself, haha! God, I just… I’m so excited to catch up with you! I haven’t seen you in fooooreverrrr, I’ve really missed you! Anyway, I’ll send you the deets for the party, make sure you pull up ready to sign some boobs, hah! Um, okay, byeee! Text me!”

[Caller identified as HAILEE JOHNSON. Fellow student in 2006 at MARK REBELLATO’S TENNIS ACADEMY. Witness from school states that JOHNSON did not interact with P. ZWEIG. Follow up at her location before the week ends.]

Beep. “Mister Zweig, how you doin’? Good? Ah, I’m a coach, big time, coached, uh, Courier, Lendl, uhh… big names, big names… Federer? Anyway, I’d love to sign up to be on your team– you’re very powerful, very passionate, I could represent you well. Somethin’ we gotta work on, though, is that serve, my man. It’s just… I mean, uh, it’s not workin’ for you. It doesn’t match the rest of your plays, and we just… gotta fix it before it gets too bad, ha! Just kiddin’. For real, though, watch that serve. It’s gonna mess you up, people don’t respond to it well. Oh, and another thing– up your social media presence. Trust me, I’m doing you a favor. You’ve got great playing, and, uh… really great stats for the season. But it doesn’t matter, you know? You could be playing bottom of the barrel, but the Patrick Zweig brand will still be alive if you post a meme every once in a while. That’s what it’s all about, yeah? Your brand. You cool? Um, you can call me back at this number. Alright, think about it!”

[Caller identified as CHRISTOPHER HARRISON. Coaches primarily in Florida and Georgia. As far as records show, he has not coached for Courier, Lendl, and definitely not Federer. This message was left two months ago, and it seems like P. ZWEIG did not hire him or reach out again. Follow up in under a week.]

Beep. “Hey fag! Haha. Ha… Man. How you doing, bro? You’ve changed, man. You’ve changed a lot. I mean, I never knew you, but, uh, my sister’s friend’s brother-in-law went to that faggy tennis school with you. He said that, like, you became a total fuckin’ asshole once all this tennis stuff started workin’ out for you. What’s your problem, man? You think you’re better than everyone because you can hit a ball with a racket? Hah. My frat bro, Kenny, he hits his balls with rackets every day. Does that mean we gotta give him trophies and shit too? Nah, we call him a dumbass. And you’re a dumbass too, bro. I mean, like, whoa, this fuckin’ guy can play tennis, oooh! Shut the fuck up, fag, fuckin’ elementary schoolers play tennis better than you, prolly. Don’t get all depressed and weird when you hear this, I’m just bein’ honest, man. You need someone to give you a reality check. You’re a loser who can’t do shit right, which is why you’re an athlete. Hah. I bet I could outbench you, fag. Anyway, call me back if you wanna buy some weed!”

[Caller identified as MATT SMITH. He did not have any personal connections with P. ZWEIG and we are unsure as to how he got the number. Should be top priority for following up on.]

Beep. “Bro. I heard that you, like, totally homewrecked your friend’s marriage. That’s fuuucked up, man. Bro. Bro. Not cool, even if that Tashi chick is smokin’ hot. Crazy how she looks so good after pushin’ a baby out. You can’t just cockblock another man like that. Hah, or maybe you were pussyblockin’ her, since I bet your faggot ass wanted that dick, ayyy! Haha. Anyway, just wanted to let you know that now I know you’re an asshole. We think you’ve changed, bro. Man. Fucked up.”

[Caller identified as previous caller M. SMITH. Sent a few hours after paparazzi pictures of P. ZWEIG and T. DONALDSON (NÉE DUNCAN) were released to the media.]

Beep. “Hey hey, Zweigster! Haha, a branding idea for when we start working together. You, uh, still haven’t reached out about that yet, but I’m sure you’re busy, so I’m just leaving this message for ya. I know you may have some doubts, but I promise you that we know best. We being, you know, the coaches. Um, of the world. Call me back, Zweig!”

[Caller identified as previous caller C. HARRISON. Sent one week after previous message.]

Beep. “Hey, asshole! Thanks a lot for showing up! God, you made me look like such an idiot in front of all my friends– You’re such a dick, Patrick! You know, I always thought that you were too good for Tashi, but obvi I wasn’t gonna say that to her face. I’m fine sayin’ it to you, though! Fuck you, man! I’m, like, actually so pissed right now. Ugh! You suck! I need a fuckin’ smoke.”

[Caller identified as previous caller H. JOHNSON. Sent three days after the previous message.]

[On today’s date, P. ZWEIG’s body is still unable to be located. P. ZWEIG left little belongings to his name– his car, his rackets, and this phone with the password written on a paper next to it. He entitled ownership of his belongings to A. DONALDSON and T. DONALDSON (NÉE DUNCAN), who have not responded to our inquiries. Please follow up with them if they do not reply in the next week.]

[P. ZWEIG was last seen in the parking lot of his motel, walking towards the beach and smoking. Please review CCTV footage to see cars that pass by him so we can find more witnesses.]

[Please reach out to P. ZWEIG’s publicity team for a statement on his death and/or suicide. Something of substance must be released soon to the public. (CONFLICT: P. ZWEIG DOES NOT HAVE A PUBLICITY TEAM.)]

[On today’s date, P. ZWEIG’s body has been found along the banks of HUDSON BEACH. He has been taken to the morgue and a statement is preparing to be released about his suicide. A. DONALDSON and T. DONALDSON (NÉE DUNCAN) still have not replied to our messages. Please follow up in person so they may retrieve P. ZWEIG’s belongings.]

[Case closed. A. DONALDSON and T. DONALDSON (NÉE DUNCAN) never responded. We are granting P. ZWEIG’s belongings to his parents. Funeral held in two weeks time. As of today’s date, PZ2022 is officially closed.]

[kalinara]

(X-Men #14, Fall of the House of X #1, X-Men #1 - 2024)

So one of the things that I've been wanting to blog about since I went back to my origins to be a full on Cyclops-centered comics blog again, is how delightful (and maybe a bit delightfully dysfunctional) I find the modern Jean Grey and Scott Summers relationship.

You probably have an idea of where this is going already, given the number of top/bottom jokes I've made about the two. (Technically they're probably domme/sub jokes, but it's funnier to use the other terms. Also, I'm pretty sure they engage in telekinetic pegging.)

So I'm putting it behind a cut, because it's long and rambly, and with additional scans. But nothing in it should be a surprise.

Anyway it really is genuinely fascinating to me.

First of all, I'm very happy with the modern, and I think ORIGINAL, interpretation of the Jean Grey - Phoenix relationship, where the Phoenix is, always has been, and always will be, a part of Jean Grey herself. I always thought the possession/replacement story was unnecessary, and it's far more interesting to look at it as Jean all along.

But more importantly, given my focus, is that I'm delighted at how this has shaken out into this absolutely fascinating Goddess-Mortal dynamic between these two characters.

I chose the panels that I did for this post, because I feel like they really illustrate Scott's side of their relationship dynamic. You have poor Jean, who fears her power and what she might do, and constantly tries to atone for the damage she'd done in the past when she'd lost control of herself* (and I want to get back to the Dark Phoenix Saga, in a bit). And then you have Scott, whose reaction to the fact that his wife is maybe the most powerful being in the universe appears to be "my wife can beat up the entire universe, and it is fucking awesome!"

I mean look at these panels. The first one is from Judgment Day, a story that could prompt so much meta in its own right. We've seen how the Progenitor works at this point - he judges the vast majority of people and finds them wanting. A lot of times the root of his judgment seems to be based either on the character's own guilt and sense of failure (see e.g. Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock), or their complete apathy and disinterest in improvement (see: Charles Xavier). Scott seems like a sitting duck for the first kind of judgment: he IS prone to self-hatred and is haunted by his bad decisions and mistakes.

But he does something unexpected: he denies that the Progenitor has any right to judge him at al. He's willingly given that authority to only one person. And she's not here right now. And he PASSES.

Sadly, the Progenitor does end up throwing this back onto Jean during HER test:

(A.X.E. - X-Men #1)

Sadly, Scott's dead right now and not really able to clarify. But we as readers can go back and look at that top panel. That is not a man who is petrified of his wife. He may well sleep in the lair of the red dragon, but he LIKES it that way.

Basically, Scott Summers passed his Judgment Day test for being a massive submissive. And I love that.

And we see the "only my wife can judge me/would you like to meet her" thing again when Scott's on trial in Fall of the House of X.

And it's fascinating in context, because only a few issues before, he and Jean were on the outs, and she basically DOES judge him:

(It's probably wrong how hot I find it when she holds back his powers like that. It's like power-bondage or something.)

Anyway, this is from X-Men #23. In two issues, he'll be captured. She'll be DEAD. And everything goes straight to Hell. And yeah, they've implicitly resolved their issues before hand (since he's agreeing to leave the X-Men with her in Hellfire Gala), but it's still very sudden.

But in that panel, up there, he has no doubts at all. They were on the outs. She's dead. He's been tortured. And still, facing a kangaroo court, he's completely unwavering in his faith in her.

It's lovely.

Sentimentality aside, the key takeaway here is that he's not afraid of her. Even now, when she's fully integrated her power and is up in space re-igniting stars, he's not afraid of her. I'm actually not sure if he was even afraid of her in the Dark Phoenix Saga. Afraid FOR her, yes. And he certainly recognized when she lost it and tried to talk her down (and seemed to be succeeding, until Xavier interrupted!).

We do see, at one single point, Scott express any kind of feeling of inferiority to Jean. And that's in that truly delightful From the Ashes, Infinity storyline where, when she's freeing him from telepathic captivity, he shows her the hidden files in his mind - how he'd fantasized about them growing old together, and how he knows that won't happen now.

(I love the infinity comics, but it's so hard to blog with them, you know?)

But yeah, Scott's one point of vulnerability with regard to the inequality in their relationship has nothing to do with power. He just doesn't want to be forgotten.

So anyway, I included the last scan because, vulnerable issues aside, overall, he really does seem to enjoy the fact that his wife is the more powerful cavalry, who'll happily come to save and/or avenge him and is very happy to use that against anyone he wants.

It's cute and even a little childish in a fascinating way. "My dad can beat up your dad." Only it's wife, instead of dad.

(Look, I've already done the meta about Scott Summers dating people who parallel his many abusive father figures. The fact that both Emma Frost and Jack Winters have unbreakable diamond alternate forms ALONE...well...)

But we are talking about a man who hadn't really been a child since the day his parents' plane crashed, who bounced from abusive situation to abusive situation, without any hope of rescue (even from the father who was STILL ALIVE in space somewhere). It must be an incredibly heady feeling to be able to say, "YES, my wife is bigger than you and will ALWAYS come to save me."

It might be a bit of a gender subversion on the whole historical romance novel premise of the abused servant girl getting to run off with the warlord who would kill everyone who looked at her wrong.

(I also suspect there's an element of "Okay, fuck it. Everyone's blamed me for everything for so long, including me, that I'm just going to bend over and let HER punish me. And that's IT.")

As for what Jean gets out of the deal, well, she's got someone who will never be afraid of her, who admires every time she lets loose with her power, and thinks she's beautiful and amazing, and helps keep her connected with her past, her self and humanity, not by trying to rein her in, but by providing her with basic human comforts (like an unnecessary space ship), simply to make her happy.

Let's just hope that nothing ever happens to him. Because, well, as I've said before, the thing that most adaptations miss about the Dark Phoenix Saga, is that it's never been about a woman being too powerful for anyone's good. It's about a woman who gets repeatedly gaslit, manipulated, mentally fucked around with, who then watches the man she love get hurt and (apparently) die without being able to do anything about it.

...well, I'm a whump fan who likes seeing powerful ladies wreak havoc to rescue hurt and vulnerable men. So I know what I would like to see happen...

[shitposting-fox]

Seiko Ayase's Appearance

I've gotten a few people wanting an elaboration on this so I figured I'd compile a post of what we know so far + implications in the manga

MANGA SPOILERS AHEAD!

Unfortunately the dandadan and heros wiki aren't super helpful, so it took me a bit to gather everything.

Alright so already we know Seiko looks unnaturally young for her age. However, some people aren't realizing it's intentional. It's heavily implied, albeit not outright state yet, that the reason Seiko looks so young is due to her abilities, interactions, and position of spiritual power in her region. I recommend reading the second half of [this post] talking about the potential meaning of the word "dandadan" as it connects directly to this post too.

Tldr; the word dandadan is likely relating to the interactions between humans and spirits along with the resulting side-effects of it

One of the biggest tip-offs that Seiko's appearance isn't just for reader preference is the multiple references to her appearance by other characters

Unfortunately I don't think we've seen Kinta, Vamola, Rin, or Kouki actually around when Momo mentions directly that Seiko is her grandma.

Mostly it's only been mentioned in passing around the others, so it's likely none of them put together the pieces that "granny" is actually Seiko

In addition to this, Seiko makes a point to wear a mask when she goes on TV. Not only that, almost all of her visible skin is covered. Knowing that she doesn't appear to age, it's likely that this is done to reduce the chances of people catching on. With no visible face, giant cloaks, and even metal armor on her hand to reduce the visibility, it seems intentional so Seiko can hide her true age/appearance.

Another point is that Seiko does have supernatural abilities, even to some degree outside of her regional abilities. She's fast enough to evade the Evil Eye and even put a crater in the ground when she hits him with her bat.

We've seen Seiko produce a number of abilities, but the biggest note about her physicality is that it's outside her area of work. This means she's already significantly weakened but she still manages the strength to perform like this

All in all, it's heavily implied that this is all stemming from Seiko's abilities. Along with the phrase dandadan and how the entire series seems to be focusing on the religion-body relationship of the characters, it makes it even more likely that Seiko's appearance is a result of her spirituality.

Hopefully we get more elaboration in the manga, but this is what's known so far. With the current arc ending soon and the foreshadowing of even larger battles coming up, we'll hopefully get to see more of her in action plus an elaboration on how Seiko's abilities effect her physically.

While some of this may have been influenced by ageism and Japan's beauty standards, we can't know for sure unless Yukinobu Tatsu says it specifically. So far, though, there's been genuine hints of why Seiko looks this way so it seems to be more than just "not wanting her to look old"

[gveret-fic]

Your Elphaba soul post got me thinking about just how different bookverse Elphie is vs movieverse Elphie. I don't think movie!Elphie would ever say she doesn't have a soul! I think it would be utterly offensive to her. Maybe I'm just not in the right fandom circles, but it seems like no one talks about how, dare-i-say woobified movie!Elphie is. I would love to hear your take. I've seen Cynthia saying they wanted to give Elphaba some innocence to lose so that her character arc would mean something, but it also just kind of seems like the easy way out to me? I know the musical and the book are two very different animals, but I think even in the musical Elphaba is a lot more Daria-esque than movie!Elphie is.

Oh they're wildly wildly different. It's the first thing I noticed when I watched the movie, and at first it put me off Cynthia Erivo's performance. Her Elphie is sweet and quiet and gentle where book Elphie is abrasive and rude and loud; poised and dignified and intensely feminine vs off-putting and strange and gender non-conforming (and intersex); open and vulnerable and easily lovable vs provocative and difficult with defense mechanisms for miles. It's basically a completely different character who's unfortunately found herself in similar circumstances.

It took a second watch to let go of my expectations for the character and just let myself fall in love with this version of her on her own terms. Of course, she's much more easily digestible, with more broad audience appeal, and this inevitably removes some of her complexity. Woobified is a good term for it; she really is just the most huggable sweetie pie put through hell through no fault of her own. But Erivo really portrays her with so much pathos and genuine heart and charisma that you just can't not love her. I am not immune to big puppy dog eyes and a bright gap-toothed smile and a warm little chuckle at Galinda's antics lol.

I'd say the musical characterization is equally simplified/homogenized for broad appeal. Maybe she's a little more generally sarcastic and standoffish in the musical, but I kinda like this more genuine version, I think Erivo's Elphaba seems more heartfelt, especially in her relationship with Galinda. You can see this particularly in Popular; in both versions this is the comic relief song, but in the musical Elphie is generally long-suffering and uninterested while in the movie she's an active participant and genuinely seems to be having fun playing along, mimicking Galinda and giggling like a school girl. It's really cute.

Also there's the issue of race. In the musical there hasn't been a full-time Black Elphaba until now with Lencia Kebede, who was of course cast only after Erivo. I think it's easy to see why they'd choose to make the first major depiction of Elphaba by a Black actress more unimpeachably lovable. Of course they shouldn't have to, but that in itself is a commentary on its own.

Unrelated but a major improvement of the movie over the musical is the handling of Nessa and her disability, which was just atrocious in the musical. In the movie they make it a point that pushing a wheelchair without permission is a serious violation, and in general give Nessa a bit more personhood and genuine chemistry with Elphie.

It's never gonna be as interesting and complex and political as the book, but for what it is I think the movie did a fantastic job and had a lot of love and care obviously put into it. Bookverse Elphie is still my number 1 though.

[missgrom]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @reggiesfilthylittlesecret (thank you)! Snippet of a WIP of a Superbat fanfic that will eventually get posted in full on Ao3 (Working title "Kent saved by the Bat"):

Alfred needed to be patient while he waited for what felt like an eternity for Clark Kent to wake up from his surgery. Even if the former military had managed to remove the larger pieces of green kryptonite, Superman would have to take care of the remaining fragments himself. It was as if a bullet from a shotgun had splintered within him, thus making it impossible to surgically remove every trace of the lethal substance - at least with the equipment currently available in the Batcave. Alfred could only hope that his effort had been enough, yet he waited in distress as time went by with the Kryptonian unconscious and his future uncertain. 

Ultimately, he could exhale in relief as his patient woke up. What had felt like an excruciating amount of time, had considering every aspect of the injury really been a healing speed remarkably quick. Not of this world.

A soft groan escaped Superman as he started to look around, reaching with one hand for his chest which still felt a bit sore. "Wh-what happened..?" Still in a haze, he wasn't even quite sure where he was. But Alfred Pennyworth's face was a familiar ally. "Alfred..?" It didn't take long to put one and one together. "How did I get here? How could Bruce..?" Sitting up, he felt the strain on his body and grunted. Not a hundred percent fit for fight yet, but was the threat taken care of? Worry arose in the Kryptonian as he stood up on wobbly feet. 

"Mr Kent. I advise you to stay and gather your strengths for a minute or two. We almost lost you, sir."

"Please, you know you can just call me Clark. And I..." Looking around, taking a moment to gain balance, he took the scene in. Clean but indeed a place that had seen blood recently. His own blood. "You saved me. I'm grateful, Alfred."

"Well, I can't take the full credit, Mist- Clark..." The butler bowed gently with his head to acknowledge the other's reminder of what to call him.

"Where is he?" A hint of worry grew within Clark as he already made up a thousand scenarios in his head, speculating about where the owner of this cave could be. Last thing he remembered was them being in the middle of a fight against a number of otherworldly enemies. They'd been trapped and isolated, not even J'onn had seemed to sense their location nor their dire situation.

"After a lot of nagging, I managed to send him off to his bedroom where he's at least supposed to be resting now. I patched him up after I was done with you, but he was stubborn as always, wanting to stay here until you would awake."

A subtle smile found its way to Clark's face.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad to not see him here then." If it meant Bruce had finally gone to have some well deserved sleep in order to recover from his own injuries.

"I assume you're just as stubborn when it comes to not taking it easy?"

Clark put a gentle hand on the other's shoulder, straightening his back as he was getting more stable by the second. "I'm okay, really. Thanks to you." A soft smile showed his genuine gratitude. 

"Yeah, I've heard that one before..." Alfred muttered, though still finding relief in Superman's relatively quick recovery.

"I'm sure you have," Clark admitted, thinking of how the Bat would always ignore his health in favour of working. "I'll go check up on him."

~ Since I'm a total noob on tumblr, I don't really have people to tag that didn't tag me or was already tagged with me for this. So leaving it open for anyone to take up the WIP Wednesday "challenge" and hoping I did this the right way!

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

Hey lovely I haven’t seen anything new from the blog pop up in awhile.

Have you hit a road block or just enjoying life? I’m asking from a genuine perspective (I don’t want to rush you into anything).

I’m going to be honest I’ve been enjoying life and everything that it has given me since January 1st good or bad. It comes in waves. I hope life has been treating you okay. I cannot wait to see what you’ve been working on.

Hi! Thanks for checking in hun! 😘 I appreciate it and nope, I know you're not rushing at all!

I've been doing my usual 1 fic a week lately. Although you are right, I haven't posted anything new in over 10 days which is the longest gap I've had since starting here. We'll get back to our usual Sunday fics again this weekend!

Part of why I don't post as much as I once did is life (work, having more of a balance with my other interests, etc.). I used to spend A LOT of my free time working on fic writing. Nowadays I still do that but I don't prioritize it over other things for the second reason...

The other part of it, and this is the brutally honest, not Michelle saying, "Everything's great over here!", answer is I really don't get excited to post anymore. When I say I'm excited to share something new, I'm talking to the small handful of people I know will actually read. I'm not even asking for feedback or interaction at this point. I'll take a like and be happy. Something that lets me know what people like to see.

I've had to separate writing from posting and that's hard to do because what happens is I'll have a really great idea, something I'm excited to work on, write maybe a few sentences and then think, why am I going to spend 7 hours of my free time writing this when no one will even want this story?

I am under the belief that you 100% do not have to read things you don't like and I don't expecting my followers to like everything I write. But I can't even get feedback on Dean x reader stuff anymore. A stupid meme post I spent 12 seconds writing about The Boys and SPN got more notes in a day than anything I've posted in months which was a tad disheartening.

When that happens, I lose all motivation and stop writing the better story in favor for something short because if people don't like it, hey at least that's only an hour I wasted versus that 7. That's the cycle I'm in right now and it sucks. I'm working on something right now that I know can be so good but I have to tell myself to write it as if I'll never post it because otherwise I'll start thinking about how shitty a reception it'll have and I'll never finish it.

Part of this is entirely on me. I know I put out stuff that's not up to par for the last six months. I know it shows in my work. I know I've tried some different ideas and pairings people don't like as much. I know I can do better but it's hard to put that effort into what I share when I know it's not welcomed.

This isn't a brag but I have a decent number of followers. Nearly 25K. I'm lucky to get 300 notes on something these days. That's 0.01% of followers. That tells me I'm doing something incredibly wrong and I don't know what that is. So I stick with the only things I can seem to find people want. Drabbles or imagines.

It's a cycle I've been trying to break out of because y'all have no idea how much I miss doing a proper series but it's why I don't post as much as I used to. Who knows, maybe someday I'll just start a new blog and not tell anybody to see if it'll be fun to post again.

This is not meant to make people feel bad (and I know ten of you at most will actually read this). It's just how tumblr is I guess and is my issue to deal with to make posting enjoyable again.

[contextfreepatentart]

Context-Full Patent Art

Every now and then I see people in the comments who seem to genuinely want a better idea of what one of the posted bits of art here was supposed to be patenting. Giving that context myself doesn't seem in the spirit of the blog, but I absolutely want to encourage people to do the legwork to go sniffing around for original sources.

It's something I have to do a lot in my day job, something I've learned to enjoy, and the thing that led me to start Context-Free Patent Art a dozen years ago in the first place.

Let's start with today's post, which is a perfect example of art that raises more questions than it answers.

Almost every post on this blog has a header detailing the date of the patent or application and the number, which you can find on the top right. In this case, this image is from Patent Application # 20020022516.

Longtime Context-Free Patent Art fans might remember this image from when it was first featured here over a decade ago. I figured that a lot of the people following the blog now haven't seen some of the gems from years ago, so I'm going to be doing re-runs of some of my favorites this week. There's a bunch more I think would be good to bring back, so I'll use the vintage cfpa hashtag in the future so you know when a duplicate post is intentional (as opposed to me just forgetting I've posted a thing before, which happens a fair bit).

Back to the matter at hand though, if you're ever curious, the US Patent and Trademark Office has a super-handy patent search function. It's pretty easy to find from their main site (uspto.gov), but you can also just bookmark this link to the basic search form:

Check out the search results, click on the link for the .pdf, and you'll get the complete patent/application to peruse at your enjoyment.

In this case, you'll find the patent being applied for covers a method of "Advertising inside electronic games" and you'll learn that:

In FIG. 1, girl 10 is climbing onto a hamburger 11 like one sold at a fast food restaurant. However, in the displayed image, hamburger 11 is as large as girl 10. The person playing the game will therefore perceive hamburger 11 as fantastically large. That unusual scale will help to burnish the image of hamburger 11 in the player's memory as well as draw his attention to it while he plays the game.

Not shown in FIG. 1 are other characteristics which electronic games could apply to hamburger 11 which cannot be shown in unanimated line-drawings. Hamburger 11 will compress as girl 10 steps or pushes on it. That action will be accompanied by squishing and slurping sounds...

Yeah, the explanations are weird too, sometimes.

Sorry for all the words, I just wanted to make it as clear as possible to people that if they're ever curious about stuff they see on Context-Free Patent Art, it's usually pretty easy to find out what the deal is.

[akkpipitphattana]

aw, man. i actually don't like conflict or negativity, and i hate that some ppl seem determined to pit the couples against each other in the first place, but i've seen/read two things in particular today that have got my hackles up (the poll being one) so i'm gonna say it: i don't think i've seen a single post that enthuses about kb at the expense of fs (maybe one anon but that's bout it), whereas the number of times scrolling through the tag i've seen ppl feel the need to crow about how much more invested they are in fs, how fs are carrying the show, etc. - yes, we all vibe with different characters/dynamics and that's fine - vibe away! nay, enthuse away! but, shocker, you can actually do that without invoking your lack of interest in kb (which, frankly, is your loss!). and, since i'm being blunt, there are, imo, two fairly obvious main reasons for the scale of the disparity (so beyond general variation in taste), and neither are particularly flattering for those in question, so i'm not gonna say them out loud! and that's because i recognise some things you can just keep to yourself, and that way everyone gets to have a good time! sorry to be bitchy, but when stuff like that is in the general tag it's hard to avoid, and even though i know i should just brush it off (cos everyone's entitled to their wrong opinions!), it gets me down nonetheless.

yeah, i'll never understand the need to pit them against each other for one reason or the other tbh. like you said, everyone has their own feelings and opinions and sometimes you're just gonna be drawn to one couple over the other, or one character over the other! i know i personally enjoy both fadelstyle and kantbison, and i adore all of our main four characters in their own ways. it's funny cause in the first few episodes, i was sort of flipping back and forth in terms of who i was more invested in, which was honestly a shock to me because while i have enjoyed joongdunk in the past, their shows and characters haven't compelled me in the same ways that firstkhao's have, so i went into thk figuring that they would be the ones to hold my attention the most. and while that did end up being the case, fadel and style have ALSO become beloved to me in their own ways and there was even a period in the beginning of the show where i was MORE invested in them! but kb have definitely captured my attention the most and again, it does just come down to personal taste - i find the layers of their story to be personally more compelling, and i find kant's character specifically to be incredibly fascinating because of the absolute lack of agency he really has in anything he does up until now.

but again, it's all a matter of personal taste. i recognize not everyone is going to view these characters the same way i do or have the same attachment, and that's okay! and it's very odd to me the way that a lot of people who prefer fs will choose to hate on kb or flaunt which one they prefer more. like if you post about the things you love, we'll get the message either way without you needing to bring down the other pair and make others feel bad for enjoying them. i don't think anyone before now has really questioned which couple i prefer, but the only time i ever actually acknowledged that (outside of this ask) was to say that i was SAD fs didn't interest me more because i do genuinely enjoy them as characters, but kb take up so much of my brain that i just can't focus on them as much.

and it's not to say if you wanna be a hater, you can't be a hater, like that's fine. but at the same time idk. people that DO like those things don't wanna see that when they're just trying to enjoy the tag of their fave show, yknow? but that's also why i at least prefer to keep to my dash instead of going into tags, cause i prefer keeping it to those i trust to keep it tasteful than those that will go into main tags and shout their hate for things from the rooftops sjdfsdkj