#but not quite anti ~her~

[stromuprisahat]

I understand that we (you, me, the followers of your blog) are all Team Sasha. We can talk for weeks about how LB did him dirty. But I wish more Darkling fans realized...LB did Alina dirty, too. Alina is a victim of bad writing, and I wish Darkling fans (and Darklina fans especially!) would point cut her some slack. The poor thing was written to want nothing but to be Mrs. Oretsev, Mal's little farm wife, back in Keramzin. We get glimpses of what she could have been book 1 at the Little Palace, and I love exploring that in fanfic. I wish people would talk about that side of things more often. Having her side with a rapist king against the man who wants to save her people is just as absurd and fucked up as Aleksander mutilating Genya.

Alina's main problem is that she's not allowed to grow.

She cannot outgrow her bigotry, her codependency, her shame or blind trust in older female figures. She's not allowed to want anything for herself. Quiet life is Mal's dream. She doesn't learn or heal, because the author won't let her.

None of it will ever change, because once she got called out on her bullshit, LB kicked Alina away like a mangy dog. Kinda ironic- Darklina might not be the endgame, but they truly seem to be soulmates, both done dirty and hated by the very person, whose bills they're paying...

[bloomingdarkgarden]

It's great that SJM now has hired sensitivity readers for future books or w/e but that would have been nice to do before the whole defining women by their uterus capability plot idk just a wild thought.

tbh makes me worried about why her next novel requires sensitivity readers more than anything else.

scairt.

[sad-scarred-sassy]

The only reason I don’t like Rhysand, and I can’t move past his wrongdoings and abuse enough to appreciate him as a character, is because of the badly written justification and “explanations” for why he did everything he did. I won’t ever judge anyone for being able to do it, I simply can’t.

I hate feeling manipulated by the narrative in a way that I, as a reader, have to be told who to like in a piece of work, and worse, I have to watch the narrative turn over in itself to portray them as heroic, ROMANTIC even, while demonizing others for doing the same (or even milder things).

Look, I could like it if it included some type of commentary about actual abuse, about how men in positions of power can actually influence the way you view them completely even after doing the most heinous stuff, but this, and I cannot stress it enough, needs to be addressed in the narrative in SOME WAY. It isn’t.

Nevertheless, the topic is very interesting, and I think that by dissecting and actually talking about this bias we can draw the full circle the author never managed to.

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I just want to talk about how incredible the funeral skit is in the middle of the video, not just for being such a funny piece of satire but also for how it speaks to the commentary about Taylor's life AND maybe even her own rejection of it.

(jump ahead to 2:16 if you want... Sorry I couldn't get the timestamp to work in the embed.)

I know people have talked about the video as a whole and how it’s laying Taylor’s demons and struggles and insecurities bare in such a brutally honest way. And the “daughter-in-law kills me for the money” bit was so interesting, like a nod to thinking that she has this grand, over the top life and in the end she’s reduced to another body disposed of at the hands of greed.

But the daughter-in-law in the video makes me pause because when you think about it, "Kimber" kind of embodies all the things Taylor is satirizing in the video (and song), and all the things she’s been accused of and/or feels insecure about. The fake emotion and tears in front of the phone camera (your pain is manipulative). The unfathomable wealth and hoarding it for access and notoriety rather than philanthropy (greedy capitalist exploiting fans and ruining *insert thing here*). The image-obsessed princess belying a conniving schemer who will take anyone down (the ice queen crushing her competition). A woman being accused of taking down another woman (not a girl’s girl). Perpetually planting Easter eggs to convey REAL meaning (her life is a game devoid of true experience). Which, of course, I'm sure was by design.

It also feels like an example of what she later writes about in Clara Bow. Video-Taylor, particularly in the skit, is reduced to an idea, an avatar of everything people project onto her. Her imaginary daughter-in-law perpetuates this, using Taylor’s death as clout for whatever her scheme is. (Apparently, the beach house is lit.) She doesn't care about Taylor the Person, she cares about Taylor the Celebrity, Taylor the Billionaire, Taylor the Idea, Taylor the Billboard. Dead!Taylor's final wish is to turn the house into a cat sanctuary, and Kimber loses her shit because it doesn't benefit her. It's a joke, obviously, but it's also an example of her very own imaginary family seeing her as a caricature. She's there to bankroll their lifestyles and vanity projects, but they seem to have little regard for her own wishes. She's cast aside and forgotten as soon as she is no longer useful to them. (To the point where her own family member may have even offed her in the ultimate act of taking advantage of her. They've got edge, she never did.)

It’s fascinating how Video-Taylor is an interloper in all this, peeking through the casket, an audience member in her own life. She’s watching the way others see her, even if these others are supposed to be family and of all people should recognize her humanity and not her celebrity. One of her own children is even recording this private moment to mine for content in the media and building a (flop?) empire of his own off her back. It's striking to me, particularly after the bts clip where she explains Anti-Hero where she says that she struggles with not feeling like a person sometimes and I think there's an easy connection to make between that kind of dissociation and her audience-member view of her life in the skit. She watches on in horror as her own family devolves into total anarchy, fighting over money and fame and selfishness, wreaking havoc and causing pandemonium in their wake, as though she were the root of all this chaos. To quote another Midnights song, that's a real fucking legacy to leave-- but is it actually the one she's leaving?

It’s also interesting to me that the skit cuts immediately to Taylor then sitting dejectedly on the roof of the house, lonely and frustrated and depressed at once again being on the periphery of life, when all of a sudden Party!Taylor (Evil!Taylor? PopStar!Taylor?) pops up. It’s like watching someone struggle with different sides of herself in real time: the “normal” girl who’s unhappy and alone, and the “fun” girl who wants to sparkle in her hot pants and party the night away. Is it that Sad!Taylor is sitting there, fathoming what her life is going to be like if she continues to follow the path she’s on, when Party!Taylor shows up to throw a wrench in those plans and pull her out in spite of herself? And then of course Giant!Taylor rocks up at the end, the monster on the hill who isn’t all that scary after all even if she takes up so much space. Ultimately, she just wants a friend, too.

(ETA: I realize in the context of the video, Party!Taylor may also be IntrusiveThoughts!Taylor, given the previous scenes with “everyone will betray you” and the scale and the binge drinking etc. Anyway I know it’s layered.)

It ends on an, if not happy or hopeful, then at least content note? Because Sad!Taylor and Party!Taylor aren't scared of Giant!Taylor. They're happy to see her! They invite her over for their rooftop hang! They all get each other and share their vices! It's like she's saying: these are all of me and I am them, and they're all what makes me me.

There's a lot to be said about the symbolism of the video at large and specifically the skit, and though this maybe isn't even all that fair, with the benefit of hindsight, it's such a fascinating look into where her mind might have been at the time. Why does she imagine her kids as vapid and shallow and money- and image-obsessed who don't particularly seem to care for her? Why does she imagine her actions being the ones to tear her family apart, as awful as its members are? Why does she imagine she's going to be viewed as spiteful? (And finally: it is curious to me that there's no husband/father in this skit. I know why-- it was a song about her and her career and she probably didn't want to wade into that discourse or invite discussion about her partner, real or imagined-- but it is interesting how everything in the video is Mom Mom Mom. Even if Dad is already dearly or long-since departed, he doesn't seem to be much of a factor in any of this.)

The answer to much of this I suppose is that in the end, this is all fictional, in that it's her imagination (whether from an actual nightmare or a scenario she creates in her writing), and as she says in the BTS clip, she feels that as a person she needs to come to terms with all the things she doesn't like about herself to be able to exist in the world, and these were the things she might have feared about herself. It's incredibly sad that these are even passing thoughts, though on the flip side it's very brave of her to not only voice them, but turn them into art that is supremely entertaining. And in the end, at least for Video-Taylor, she's able to reconcile all of this a little bit as part of, but not all of her. Because she's not condoning the vipers in her own family; the fact that she leaves them out of the will can be seen in a way as a rebuke of their selfishness (and the perception of her own). She leaves the scene when they cause a riot because she's sick of this shit. In the end, she just wants to be a person.

[theclownghoul]

So I know a lot of us have picked up on how Jinx doesn’t go out of her way to harm Ekko when they fight, either shooting under him, beside him or holding her shot. She goes easy on him compared to the rest of the firelights because she still has some attachment to him and doesn’t want to commit to killing him, he’s the exception.

But how does that look from Ekko’s perspective? She leaves him alive only to watch his teammates and friends fall by her hand. She may see it as a mercy but I seriously doubt he does. And he still holds back when he faces her until the bridge and even then…

[gayofthefae]

They could have had Mike say "it wasn't fate...", make it just a tiny bit more salvageable. Open it up for that subtext of "we weren't destined to meet originally, BUT-"

But no. "It's not fate". It's. It is not.

They could have had him say "It isn't fate that we met, I'm not special, anyone could have been so lucky, and one day she'll realize that" as was supported by the context (and the reason I misremember it). Instead, they had him say "It isn't fate that we're together now. It isn't destiny for us to be together. It's just dumb luck. Anyone can fulfill that role for her. And soon she'll realize that too", 'she's already started to' as is said in the original script.

His words are insults. No doubt about it. But they didn't have him insult the past, something he can reframe (to make it consistent with when he does in his speech to her later). They had him insult the present. That isn't about reframing and retrospect. That's what he feels now. He didn't call meeting her dumb. He called dating her dumb. They switched tenses in the MIDDLE to make sure of that.

Such a small change. They didn't make.

He thinks their relationship is dumb but for reasons he is desperate to hide. He thinks it's dumb but that's grounds for him to keep it, not end it. It'd be grounds for her to end it. She loves him, but he's not irreplaceable. He's praying she doesn't notice because to him, she is. A boyfriend who will love her is easy to find and as soon as she realizes that she'll stop settling for one who can't and leave him, looking around or waiting for someone who can. But a girlfriend who shields him from questionings like "You called a couple of times. It's been a year, Mike. Meanwhile El has like a book of letters from you" is dangerous to disappear for even a second.

Just like how he knew he loved her before he let it slip out in front of people in an emotional moment of fearing losing her, he already knew he thought their relationship was stupid and over too. He just knew if anyone ever heard him say it, they'd hold him to it, because those are the kinds of words a better person considers actionable.

tldr: he doesn't think meeting El was stupid, he thinks being with her is. He's not scared she'll realize it could have been anyone and wish it had been, he's scared she'll realize it could be anyone and replace him. Because if she ever thought their relationship was stupid, it would mean that they weren't right together and she'd end it. If he does, it means he's not right and he has to stay with her at all costs to hide that fact.

[thedisdainfullysilentvisitor]

That moment of hesitation before everyone starts moving, like 'Oh yeah, we're supposed to care that the engaged feather fainted.'

[mueritos]

posted link hole on my $8 tier for my patreon ^-^ havent played totk yet but i am in love with the frostbite shirt 🫣 will be drawing more sidlink soon….

[ofbreathandflame-archive]

Elain stans have such a weird relationship with Nuala and Cerridwen and I genuinely can't tell if they just choose not to look at the optics of that dynamic or what...

[elvensorceress]

It’s almost Christmas so shout out to that time where

Buck: hmm idk what to get my girlfriend for Christmas 🫤

Bobby: you know what I got my girlfriend who I’d been with about as long as you have been with yours for our first Christmas? An engagement ring. We’re married. She’s my wife 🥰

Buck (who desperately wants to be loved and kept and married and probably pregnant like yesterday): Eww! Not doing that ever! Thanks for nothing! 😖🤨 Ewwwww

[night-triumphantt]

I don’t Care about the ships WHERE IS JINX

[atopvisenyashill]

how many times do i have to see “you’re a slavery apologist for disliking dany” before someone actually gives a good answer to “so why is dany allowed to profit from slavery & keep slaves herself”

the answer is “i will be waiting until i am dead and buried.”

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Love how the idea of Marvel's What If...? is infinite possibilities, but the MCU just keeps fucking focusing on Captain Carter in the show.

[retshirou]

i wanna go more into how pamby’s origins work exactly being the only female pixie in pixie world.. especially cuz i don’t think they ever went over how pixies procreate

my headcanon is they’re mainly made in a factory rather than biologically, so that they’d always be completely uniform and think the same. pamby was the result of a miscalculation in the DNA room, and is technically labeled as a “defect” in her birth records. as a result, when she became an adult she was assigned to be an underpaid intern for HP both cuz she’s kind of living unique accessory, and also as to keep her in line cuz she’s heavily looked down upon by pixie society for being a defect. shes tried as hard as she can to conform, keeping her growing unique interests a secret and always staying out of the way, but it hasn’t really worked out as her boss and coworkers still go out of their way to make her life an overworked hell.

this is why she’s so gloomy and quiet, but also harboring intense rage at her situation that doesn’t get its walls broken down until irep shows up. i thought it’d be fun to make a duo of a guy who wanted to be the most unique of his kind and was robbed of that and someone who’s uniqueness feels like a curse she can’t shed. they’ll slowly help each other to feel more appreciated and cared for.

i got the idea bcus pixie society always felt the most fucked up to me, even more than anti-fairy world, just in concept and in their goals. anti-fairies at least commit petty cartoon evils, while pixies are just The Unfeeling Claws of Capitalism as a species. pamby is in an even worse hell. at the very least, irep can bring the love of breaking the rules into pamby’s life and help her break out of her cage (and he’ll finally feel like he accomplished something great).

[stromuprisahat]

Six of Crows- Chapter 20 (Leigh Bardugo)

*laughs in KoS*

[ovenproofowl]

a lot of people have said it, but I’m throwing in my two cents just to get it off my chest.

Picard season 3 was . Bad . For a LOT of reasons . It felt like - as many before me have expressed - a self-insert fanfic with the dullest self-insert in history.

Jack Crusher wasn’t much of a character but he could have had some promise if they hadn’t spent an aggravating amount of time having him decree how different he always felt, you guys. Did you get that part? He’d always felt different. That sort of dialogue might have flown if we were dealing with Picard’s adolescent son, but instead we’re dealing with a 24 year old played by a 35 year old who looks every bit his age. (It was a hard 24 years, we must assume.)

The reason that Jack Crusher didn’t work for me personally, though, wasn’t because of how cliché his character was. I would have let that pass much easier if it wasn’t for the big ol’ elephant in the room. And that is simply that :

JACK CRUSHER WAS NEVER NECESSARY

Jack may have served a purpose to the storyline that was presented if only because he was the sole reason there was a Big Bad to be defeated in the first place. Everyone wanted to kidnap him, he brought the old gang back together just to protect him and then later save him from said Big Bad which was also actually .. him. Everything Was About Jack. But I’m not talking about the main plot. I Really Don’t Want to Talk About the Main Plot. Ever. What I want to talk about is what Jack represented that made him so unnecessary:

He was intended to represent Jean-Luc Picard’s only reason to start living.

Personally, that really, really offended me. Picard didn’t need to have a biological kid to have a purpose. In fact, it’s been established time and time again that he wasn’t ever really dad material. More of a... weirdly intense uncle. For a while, he wasn’t a fan of kids at all. Eventually, though, Picard is seen to warm to the idea of letting children within his general vicinity. This starts in TNG and continues on in season 1 of Picard. The Only Categorically Good Season of this whole. show.

In season 1, we see flashbacks of Jean-Luc’s relationship with a young Elnor, how he would read him stories and have sword fights with him. He was an absent father to an adopted child he hadn’t even realised he’d adopted and yet Elnor still fought for his hopeless cause. In much the same way, Picard meets Dahj and then later, Soji. He feels a kinship with these androids because of their connection to Data. He wants to protect Soji becase he couldn’t protect Dahj and Soji even canonically questions whether she should allow Picard to act as her father figure before she begins to remember where she came from. Both of these dynamics were infinitely more interesting and a lot deeper rooted. Soji and Elnor were both young twenty-somethings without parental guidance but found that guidance through Picard. Soji had her connection to Jurati, too, and Elnor had his with Seven and Raffi and that’s what made the whole group so intriguing to follow. They all had interesting connections to each other that had so many avenues to explore.

Unfortunately, the show decided to more or less write Soji and Elnor out of the story come season 2. Elnor was killed off for the majority of the season and only brought back by Q intervention in the last episode. Soji wasn’t even a part of the story at all. And do you know what’s sad about that? What’s really sad? Season 2 was trying to sell us the exact same message as season 3. That Picard needed a reason to live. But, like, not that reason. Not the reasons he’d already been given in the form of his found family with his Romulan and android adopted children, or even the rest of the La Sirena crew. No no no, we can’t have that, better get rid of them. This time, Laris is the focal point. Picard had been avoiding a romantic relationship with her because of a never before mentioned dark history surrounding his mother’s suicide. Because, sure, at this point, why not? While we’re at it, let’s also kill off Rios in the most slap-in-the-face out of character way possible and fling Jurati at the Borg for good measure just so she won’t be around for season 3. Her character development into the Borg Queen was pretty intriguing, but we’ll totally ignore that they even exist post her departure, just for funsies. Oh, and Soji and Elnor? Best not mention them at all come that third and final season. Otherwise, people might get the crazy notion that Picard already had a reason not to hunker down and die at the vinyard at the tender age of 104.

Season 3 picks up where season 2 leaves off in that Picard is now in that aforementioned romantic relationship with Laris. Except, no he isn’t because he immediately gets an emergency call from his ex and literally never sees or talks to Laris ever again. There wasn’t even a throw-away line or implied reference to her, but by now I’m sure you know the reason for that.

That’s right, folks. Because if we were allowed to remember Laris and what she meant to Picard, then we might just remember that other thing. Say it with me now!!

JACK CRUSHER WAS NEVER NECESSARY!!

In summary, there were so many brilliant options to give Picard for signficant found family dynamics, but the show just wasn’t interested in any of them. Season 3 wanted a Picard who had given it all up, who was ready to die because he’d never had a family to pass on his legacy. They wanted him at his lowest so that we’d all rejoice to see him return to the TNG crew. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a massive TNG fan and I could rave about the fan service and nostalgia porn for hours on end. If season 3 had stood alone as a singular unconnected event, it might even have been passable as a warm hug from old and beloved characters with some fun new spins to their stories along the way, juust so long as you didn’t squint too hard at the actual attempt at plot writing going on in the background.

But the fact of the matter is, Picard season 3 came far too late into the game. Season 1 held the building blocks to something new and interesting. By the end of season 2, it was becoming clear we were never going to see those blocks stand. By season 3, those blocks were just scattered headstones in a graveyard.

They teased us with the potential new show of Captain Seven and her Number One Raffi Musiker and that might have just been okay. . .

. . .If the La Sirena Crew had been allowed to be a part of that future.

In closing: Picard season 3? Too little, too late, mate. 👎🏻