#but ofc they are gonna be on that list because it’s relevant

[bandzboy]

Sorry but bts are literally serving in the South Korean military they likely cannot speak about Palestine due to their commitment to the military rn. The virtue signaling has gone too far here how would blocking bts help the cause for Palestine in the slightest.

do you think that bisan knows that?? like people outside of the kpop sphere have no idea in the slightest and palestinian people are supporting this blockout movement so who i am to say is not helping the palestinian cause?? “gone too far”?? it’s been 7 months and 75 years but i am sorry their feelings are valid and palestinian fans also feel sorta bad that nobody has said anything and i understand that to an extent because if my fav group did not say absolutely nothing abt the genocide that my people are going through i would be disappointed

[dezmolad]

ES Starscream: What they took from him (last minute!)

I can't stop thinking about season 2 of Earthspark so I'm at it again. Overall I was mostly unbothered to the very last 10 minutes of the last episode, this last minutes made me so mad it's unbelievable. So what I'm gonna do now is list all the things that got screwed up in this short time, particulary how Starscream character got absolutely butchered.

Without further ado, that's the list: > Starscream lost any agenda. His agenda in this season wasn't good anyway ofc, but it was ANYTHING at the end of final episode he's just. gone. and that's it woohoo. > Starscream lost his respect among the Decepticons. It was interesting for me how we could see how obedient towards him they were, a bit in season 1 but mostly in season 2. Even Shockwave didn't dare to question him most of the time. I was waiting to discover why is that so. Maybe they knew he was capable of pulling a stunt like the one he did at the end of season 2 so far? But yea we will never know bc noone from Decepticons is going to stick around him now, and now Shockwave is the leader so gap has been filled. so fun. > He also lost his mission, his care for anything! cyberforming Earth was ment to serve the Decepticons, his fellow cybertronians. But first in the dialogue with Hashtag Starscream says he's doing it just for himself and then he just. Lost his mind i guess. > Speaking of Hashtag. Starscream in this dialogue with her twists his own words from "What Dwells Within" from season one. His words coming from genuine care we saw developing in that episode here are shown as somehow mischievious, as some stupid foreshadowing. Its completely insane how the show retrospectively is erasing everything that could make Starscream redeemable later on. Awful, absolutely awful. > Hashtag also says that his actions will make him worse than Megatron, and he accepts that. The intention of this specific line is super clear. It makes his relationship in simplistic reality of the cartoon somewhat less of a problem. Starscream is bad right, even worse than Megatron, so why bother. I fear that's the way this series closes the problem of Megatron's and Starscream's relationship, expecially with how earlier on in season 2 Megatron is framed as reasonable and the one trying to speak to him before the fight. I'm afraid we will never hear anything about them that makes sense in this show. And it's just so disappointing. > Starscream murdering two children (that's what Chaos Terrans are ok) which is. Oh my god. It's such a cheap move to make the character unredeemable. Not to mention how deaths of Aftermath and Spitfire were kiiiiiinda convenient for our protagonists. "uh oh how sad they are dead how could you Starscream :(((((( ok now lets get the Emberstone that is now complete thanks to them being dead :))))))" > About that scene. I hate it from different reason, too. Because the way Starscream treated Chaos Terrans, expecially Spitfire was a beacon of hope for me in this season. The way he was never violent towards them (even Breakdown kicked Aftermath! And Starscream never did anything like that, even when Twitch in Spitfire's body made a mess and ruined the equipment!). The way we could kinda see him getting closer with Spitfire, in the way that reminded me how kind he could be for Hashtag in season 1. And all of this absolutely ruined, none of this was relevant.

So that's all I've gathered, if you have something more feel free to add your observations! Starscream's character in season 1 is very dear to me, even if "What Dwells Within" isn't perfect I still loved it so I feel personally robbed by season 2.

[centrally-unplanned]

I saw this slightly-old post making the rounds recently by former alt-right memelord Walt Bismark, on how the alt-right "won" in the late 2010's - positing that as the cause of why it generally vanished. I agree overall with the vanishing part, its not gone-gone ofc but it waned as a cohesive movement. But I saw a lot of people (and generally not alt-right figures) agreeing with its conclusion and I am a bit more skeptical of those.

Its largely a personal essay so I wont address most of it, but it has a summary of five main points that outline essentially "the agenda of the Alt Right at the beginning" to evaluate success upon. Bismark thinks they won on all five, but overall I think this is playing a trick of inventing an enemy to claim you defeated. Anyway, the points:

1: Shift the “Overton Window” of acceptable public discourse to make it politically viable to openly discuss the interests of white people in mainstream politics, in the same way black people or Jewish people discuss their collective interests. 

This one I will grant a partial victory - there was a legitimate intensification of "white as identity" in politics, a making explicit what was implicit in the 2010's. Now ofc I consider this to be a classic horseshoe moment; the hard left at the time was also extremely interested in abandoning race neutrality and valorizing racial identity as an organizing principle, and did it in a very ham-fisted way that the right capitalized on, so it was an easy battle to win - but that is what it is, ofc the wider environment defined the goals & strategy. I mention it however because I do think this is only partial, and the gap between implicit and explicit isn't that relevant. He mentions as an example of this success:

Affirmative action was of course squashed by SCOTUS and the necessary legal infrastructure is being deployed to burn it down. Mainstream conservatives are mobilizing a lot of resources and energy to this end.

But conservatives have been fighting affirmative action for 20+ years, easily. Here is a 1999 article on precisely such a campaign, I literally just googled "conservatives affirmative action [year]" and I get results each time, 2003 had big cases (the Bollinger cases) on AA, etc. I remember "affirmative action bake sale" memes from like 2006 at my uni! What changed between Bollinger and 2023's Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard is that conservatives had just had enough time to stack courts, and wait for Supreme Court justices to die. That just...takes time to do! The strategy hadn't changed between 2003 and 2023. And meanwhile, did they win? They won that court case, sure. What do you...think the ethic makeup of the next Harvard class is gonna be? Wanna take some bets?

His other listed victories are things like:

"Vivek defended the Great Replacement Theory on national television and remained a major Trump surrogate. The SPLC would have marginalized him for that 10 years ago. Today because of polarization and MAGA closing ranks they can’t do shit."

And like, the Southern Poverty Law Center would have successfully marginalized a Republican politician in idk 2003 are you completely high right now? Strom Fucking Thurmond was an active Senator in 2003! This is the repeated tactic here, the imagined enemies - there was never a time where liberal institutions could consistently force conservative politicians to kowtow, so you can't claim it as a change.

This is why I mention the social justice horseshoe, because he has this point here:

These days you can complain about quotas etc. being unfair to you as a white man and it’s not inflammatory or low status among centrists and conservatives. Even non-woke liberals won’t really hate you for it, just quietly think you’re a bit of a chud. This was not the case in 2015. 

And this is partially correct, I agree there was some norm shift. But that is because in ~2010 there really weren't any quotas against white men, it wasn't a thing almost anywhere outside of university applications, so the complaint would make no sense. What happened was that starting in ~2012 a huge left cultural movement started that just openly supported active discrimination against whites, Asians and men. They were a small minority of course, and never had much power, but they got enough power in certain institutions like non-profits and universities that there was a string of just very obvious cases of clear racial discrimination against in particular whites & asians (both men and women, white women often got it very bad in this wave). And the large majority of people just saw that and went "uh yeah racism is still bad?" and so now you can say that because its actually relevant to say. From that lens, is this a successful cultural victory on the part of the alt-right? In some sense sure, but really its more a cultural failure of the hard left. The status quo just kept on chugging along.

Ugh that point went long, the others repeat so we will go through them quicker.

2: Elevate identity issues like anti-immigration and the promotion of traditional gender norms to the center of Republican politics. 

A fake enemy here - anti-immigration was already a huge issue for Republicans in the 2000's. It had a huge wave under Obama actually, it goes in cycles like that. And it responds to material conditions; it's a big issue again right now because the immigration numbers spiked massively under Biden, its just way worse of a problem now (primarily due to the booming economy of course). Again a partial victory for the first part, I agree its more salient due to Trump platforming it, but I'm skeptical that it is a big shift - people are memory-holing the Tea Party movement really badly here for example.

And the second point is just obviously false, Republicans always cared about that, and they care about it less now, giving up the ghost on gay marriage for example. The Alt-Right coincided with a decline of the influence of the Religious Right, and it shows on this issue, 0 points.

3: Make it socially acceptable to discuss HBD and the resulting moral implications for leveling mechanisms like affirmative action. 

Peak "log off" moment, it was always acceptable to discuss this outside of liberal/professional circles and there it still isn't acceptable to discuss it. Charles Murray wrote the Bell Curve in 1994 and his been an American Enterprise Institute Scholar for this entire span of time. This is confusing churn for change - the mid-2010's had a bunch of big, mainly online fights about HBD, and then everyone just sort of moved on with the status quo pretty much unchanged. Nothing like education policy, even in Republican circles, has shifted over this.

4: Convince conservatives to stop ceding moral authority to liberals and allowing them to determine who on the Right is verboten or beyond the pale. Make it unacceptable among conservatives to “punch Right” or purge people for wrongthink. 

Sigh, again when have Republicans ever ceded moral authority to liberals? Harvard University could not condemn Newt Gingrich in ~2009 and make him change his mind about anything. And "Republicans don't self-criticize while Liberals eat themselves alive" has been a complaint for literally decades, you would hear that as far back as say Clinton and things like the 1999 WTO protests. Its both true and exaggerated - the Tea Party primaried Republican candidates for wrongthink in 2010, and Trump did the same thing! With disastrous results for the Republicans in 2022. I really, really don't think you can look at Trump's Republican party and say they solved the Wrongthink problem.

5: Expose and dismantle the hypocritical attitude that allows neocons to militantly support Israeli ethnonationalism while brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically.

This one is just a lolwut moment, "brutally repressing any white identity politics domestically", like what does that even mean? Name the concrete policy proposals George Bush implemented in 2007 than Donald Trump didn't in 2018 around this topic. Again a fake enemy, they were never repressed by the right, and ofc are still hated by liberal institutions like universities.

Moving on from any specific point, I think its very telling that very little about free trade vs protectionism or isolationism/support of autocracy abroad enters this list. Because beyond immigration those are the big shifts the Trump movement (which is the mechanism the alt-right has to claim for making its impact) has ushered into the party. They didn't change its stance on sexual politics or "race & IQ" or anything, those haven't changed, but meanwhile the party has completely flipped on things like tariffs or opposition to Russian military expansion. But of course those don't align neatly at all with the issues the Alt-Right fought about in 2015.

The reality the Alt-Right can't escape is that they used Trump as their mechanism for change, and Trump never really cared about any of their goals beyond immigration. He used them and then pursued either bog-standard Republican policy or his own mercurial, autocratic whims, eventually channeling all of this energy into election denialism. I really don't think if you pulled aside frikkin Ryan Faulk in 2014, asked him to put down his graphs about Raven's Progressive Matrices of black Caribbean students, and said "Hey 10 years from now all of this energy is being channeled into pretending that a failed real estate mogul didn't lose the 2020 presidential election", that he would look at that outcome and think Mission Accomplished.

I don't want to fully oversell, there are for example wins Bismark doesn't mention (School choice comes to mind, the biggest conservative win of the past decade besides the protectionist swing). The Alt Right was an influential movement, it earned its place in history. But I do not think it is an example of being a "victim of its own success". I think instead it should be understood as part of the "radical froth" of the 2010's, that bubbled over and then evaporated like its more intense leftwing peers did. It made some mark and then got left in the dust.

Net ranking of the 5 points: 0.5 for Point 1, 0.25 for Point 2, 0 for the rest, 1.25/5.

[worth-this-and-more]

my speculations on how bree's purple power would be like: which majorly stems from when i was wondering how bree's power smells like and half the post is just that

[spoilers for legendborn and bloodmarked, read at your own caution ;)]

so there are a few...things related to magic in the legendborn series; it's abilities, specialties, weaknesses, aftereffects, smells, color, common form etc etc so i wanted to make some headcanons which may or may not be true but yeah these are my thoughts;

so now that we are here, let us begin;

her power is purple as everybody and their mamas know but just let's get into this?? purple has been like a symbol of yk rarity and royalty in literature since ages before, which goes perfectly with the fact that bree is our king. now since it is so rare her powers will have the usual and added benefits, which i have headcanoned before but i just wanted to put them in one place.

firstly, aether was usually used to cast hard constructs, harder than diamond if needed, but selwyn has proved that aether could be forged into practically anything you wish to as long as you're capable and willing. so bree's power can surely be used like an all-encompassing building block to forge everything from weapons to mundane things like i said here. so this is aspect one.

secondly, rootcrafting is mainly for healing and perseverance. so bree could now possibly have the ability to heal herself, and because she is seen to have at least some knowledge of medical field or can like basically guess which part is hurting and which one is not, i mean isn't it possible now she has her own unlimited (debatable since she collapsed after jessie healed alice but i have a point for that too??) healing powers?? surely she will be able to heal herself pretty fine, yk like a quick break between things because rootcraftng doesn't allow use of much power because it is borrowed but like now she has her own furnace so yeah.

about the collapsing part, it is possible that because in legendborn she hadn't completely unlocked and accepted her powers yet, she was running on a limited-time root that was supposed to be an "emergency" supply. and also that it was used by someone else through her, she did not willingly give it like she did in bloodmarked (she wouldn't have refused to, just that she didn't realize quick enough what jessie meant when she said you'll have todo from your side so like kind of different from when she gave her root to selwyn) and in bloodmarked she also had like yk 70% set unlocked ig.

thirdly, because these powers are now merged, it would be so badass if she is able to actively defend herself and heal herself at the same time, after mastering her control over powers now that arthur is no longer manipulating her with his "too much aether, too fast" strategy.

along with this, we saw that bree's healing gave alice like permanent immunity from mesmer, either triggered by pain or just not able to stick properly in the head, but either ways mesmers don't work now. so after they all reunite, one task in her to-do list could be to have sel or anyone mesmer everyone and then to reverse the mesmer so that everybody now has immunity from mesmer. yk for future reference or relevance to the plot perhaps. and ofc you can't forget anna (nick's mom) i strongly believe her mesmer is gonna be broken by bree.

also, THE DAGONNN. so the question is about her fuel and sustenance, so like if she's in her dragon form can she eat what dragons eat (obviously meat i don't think vegetarian dragons exist?? and also does bree eat meat is this ever mentioned?? if not then i hope she eats meat she gonna need that protein to fly) will it affect her?? like in her human form ofc she wouldn't want to eat uncooked meat but like become a dragon breathe fire and you have your medium rare steak ready. is this possible. same question for selwyn btw, can he eat worms in his owl form or does he like throw up after turning human or have food poisoning like is this a thing guys.

anyways, back to topic, so these are like her abilities, but what about the physical descriptions?? now her rootcraft was mage flames, and aether was the solid armor construct. so her new powers could either be something in between or a combination that she can wield in whichever way she needs. technically it should be a combination, harder constructs for weapons and armor, flames for large defense and flowy to make her own wards (i mean she would need them sometime?? ig?? after they reunite and shit so yeah)

and the smell, her new power should have different smells and purple is the rare royal color and hella nostalgic vibes there don't ask me why so here are my guesses;

petrichor; the smell of earth after the first rain. not exactly rare, but it is kind of a nostalgic smell that has been on earth hundreds of years even before humanity. like it ties with the fact that bree's power was more from the shadow king so the smell is also like yk ancient af.

i don't know the name but the smell of salt on the beach, waves rolling in and the sprayed misty scent. correspondence to, again, it has been here since ages and is one of the smells that has a different type of nostalgia. anybody who has ever been to a beach or water body will know but it just smells different.

now this one a kind of hard to explain but yk when you go to your grandparent's house, maternal grandparents, and it has like this distinct smell that is different for every family?? the smell of generations of mothers growing up in the same house, like their childhood, puberty, old age everything in one place. (yes i thought of this while i was at my own grandma's house and i wondered what it would be like if bree also had the chance to be in a house which had all the memories and elements of her line of mothers lives). it will be a difficult smell to explain because i do not have the proper vocabulary to say it but it is a guess of mine and probably possible.

yk that very powdery smell of silk?? the one that doesn't go away even after washing the cloth many many times, its very hard to explain but silk has been a major symbol of royalty in history (yk the silk road?? yeahhh) so it could also be one of the scents, depending on which type of royalty you mean.

i ran out of scents but you get the point now.

now, weaknesses. i am hoping she doesnt have to like yk collapse after every fight, at least not until the adrenaline wears off. i hope her powerhouse can heal her and replenish her energy levels. at least for short term, like yk coffee makes you forget you're tired. not exactly good but will be good while she's on the run. may or may not happen but hey I'm just making theories.

this is all ig?? could make a pt.2 or add something here but yeah this is all i guess.

[devondespresso]

WIP Wednes-eekend: Summer Challenge Edition 

tagged by @stobinesque​ 💕💖💞 Im not sure if the summer challege edition is like. specific to your fics or not so oopsies if it is

The Rules

Post the file names of up to 5 of your WIPs for people to send you asks

Post a snippet of one of those WIPs

When people send you an ask with the name of one of your WIPs, write 3 lines of that WIP.

(Optional) Post the lines you wrote.

You can send multiple requests especially since this is going on through the weekend!

Also feel free to send as many as you want, im gonna devote my free time to this anyway so your just directing the adhd energy to a specific section

WIPs

Since I’m planning on just going wild on my Steve Henderson AU for the foreseeable future and I’m doing a lot of jumping around in it, I figured i’d list different chapters I’m working on as the wips (I also just really wanted to share chapter titles early because i put a lot of effort into making these meme references relevant and i think theyre funny) So in no particular order but definitely chronological because this is just chapters 3-6.5:

1. Get yo fucking dog, bitch (It don’t bite) (YES IT DO)

2. What the fuck kinda dog is that? (Bitch an interdimensional dog)

3. “Lab Work Ahead?” Uh, yeah, I sure hope it does

4. There’s one thing worse than a demodog (Boom) A Billy Hargrove (Actually yes)

5. ✨Bonus Chapter (Dustin pov): Can we go to the tunnels (*slamming*) Can we please go to the tunnels

Snippet

this ones from chapter 3 aka Get Yo Fucking Dog, Bitch

They pulled up to Steve’s again, this time into Steve’s garage connected to the front of the house. Steve hopped out, running over to unlock the door and crack it open. Dustin was still in his seat, looking around the room. Impressed with the house: a reaction that King Steve usually found validating but now made Just Steve uneasy.

Steve went over and knocked on his window before crossing back to the other side and opening the backseat door. Dustin turned around.

“You have your own garage?”

He nodded, putting two bags in one arm and grabbing a third.

“C’mon, are we in a rush or not?” he joked. Dustin climbed out, still distracted.

Steve pushed through the door, catching it with his foot before it could bump into the wall and waited for Dustin who was balancing three bags of his own.

They turned the corner and he set the bags on the kitchen island, Dustin still absently taking everything in. It took a few trips, but eventually they got all the meat on the counter, leaving the pasta and dry groceries in the car to save time.

“Alright, you start unloading stuff and I’ll find us some buckets or something.” he said, setting the last bag down and heading back to his garage, “And do not touch the knives until I’m back.”

“Dude, I’m twelve, I can hold a knife.”

“Just don't start without me, okay?"

"Five minutes and then I'm raiding your knife block."

Tags

hiding the tags down here because i definitely rambled too much up top so (no pressure ofc) @blushweddinggowns @spicysix @wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart @lets-try-to-be-normal-otakus @eriquin @marvel-ous-m 💃🪩🕺

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

tagged by @howdydowdy <3 thankss!! i also don't watch a tonne of shows but i do watch a lot of films so i'm gonna do a combo of the two lol

8 shows/films to get to know me

borstal boy (2000(?) film) - watching this as a teen Changed me tbh... it also definitely gave me one of my first glimpses of a bisexual character on screen... also danny dyer plays a gay sailor in this i mean??? what more could you want lol (also feel like this film is equal parts depressing and hopeful which is my ideal kinda film lol)

the simpsons - i watched this religiously as a kid (every night at 6pm on channel 4 lol) so much so that my family makes jokes that everything i know i know from the simpsons lol...

would i lie to you? (uk panel show) - i feel like this show really explains a lot of my style of humour (i've literally nearly pissed myself whilst watching this show at times lol), plus i've had a crush on david mitchell for years which like no that isn't relevant to this list but i'm including it anyway... one of my fav clips is 'lee mack's keys' (give it a search on youtube it's hilar lol)

watership down (1970s animated film, i also love the book too btw) - the animation style of the very first part of this film has literally never left me, it's like ingrained onto my brain as the most incredible thing ever! the rest of the film is also amazing, albeit brutal at times which definitely fucked me up as a kid... esp that evil rabbit (wormwort?), pretty sure i was terrified of him lol

hook (1990s film (yes i know i could look up the exact date but i'm not gonna cos i'm lazy)) - this is one of the films that i know so many quotes from & me and my family use them to each other all the time lol (you're doing it peter! RUFIO RUFIO RU FI OHHHHH you're. afraid. you're. going. to. get. sucked. out. stop acting like a child!! i am a child!? RUN HOME JACK RUN HOME JACK wait...HOME RUN JACK HOME RUN JACK don't stop me smee don't stop me stop me smee stop me ... you get the picture lol) robin william's films just have a special place in my heart and this is one of the best imo

gayle (youtube comedy series) - it's embarrassing how much i think about this series & i literally rewatch it at least once every year so... i feel like that says a lot about me... idk WHAT exactly it says but it is.. it's a lot lol

i'm a cyborg but that's ok (2008(??) film) - if you asked me what my favourite park chanwook film is, you'd probs guess i'd pick the handmaiden, but you'd be so so so wrong, because THIS film is an absolute masterpiece that hasn't left me since my sister showed it to me like 10 years ago lol... it's about mental illness and stigma and grief and love and also rain (the singer) yodels in it whilst flying through the air it's great

labyrinth (1986 film (hey i actually remembered the date lol!) - i'm been thinking for ages what final thing to include and realised it had been staring me in the face: labyrinth, literally my favourite film of all time lol! it's equal amounts comedic, creepy, emotional, plus david bowie is there in ALL his glory (some may say too much glory but i'd tell them to shut their goddamn mouths lol)! the songs are amazing, the ballroom scene literally shaped who i am now.. it's a film about adolescence, siblings, it's about friendship and found family, it's about growing up but also keeping your childhood close at heart, should you need it... it's also about david bowie's bul- *gunshot*

that's all folks! i did try and not just include stuff that i'm nostalgic about, but unfortunately nostalgia is my middle name so most of these are things i've connected to for a very long time...

tagging (no pressure to actually do it ofc, the original prompt is 8 shows i think but you can essentially change it to 8 anything in my book lol): @dollopheadsandclotpoles @wovesaxe @micamicster @platypusplayhere @sylvasa @asoftspotforangels @zelvuska

[safelynte]

Coordinated sneak attack go! Tasha, Sting, Spelbook :)

Damn, you got me. All answers are gonna be PF1e system because ofc. Tasha - Favourite spell? I've read a ton of spells at this point. And wrote a bunch, too. There are lots of weird and wacky spells in the system. Speaking sentimentally, though, Heightened Awareness is a special one. I got it first as a scroll, then enjoyed it enough to get a Page of Spell Knowledge. Both the Knowledge/Perception buff and the Initiative bonus are solid. But the kicker is its role to play as part of Contingency. The condition is "When I gain a bonus to initiative from Heightened Awareness." Allowing me to pick which combat to spend my Contingency on. Vomit Swarm is a runner-up because it's pretty hilarious for a 2nd level spell, scales decently, can be used on a (stupidly expensive) scroll/wand due to having no save, and combos with nauseate. Sadly, I've never used it at play, and it's on highly exclusive lists. Sting - Favourite weapon? If I could pick a non-magical item instead of a weapon, it'd be the Spring-Loaded Wrist Sheath. I'm not super attached to any weapons. And I'd rather play a switch-hitter if I'm ever a martial (thanks, Alina). If I had to really pick one, it'd be the humble yet practical, long spear. My magnificent sorcerer has only ever used one weapon (and on an ally, no less) is the spiked gauntlet, a convenient one for all casters. But she carries a crossbow and dagger as well.

Spellbook - A character concept that you haven't gotten to play yet? There is a religious teacher character I'd like to try. The current leaning is to be Jinyiwei Investigator with either Bonded archetype for a familiar relevant to the faith or Cryptid Scholar archetype, and Sensei dip to lean into the teacher part more. This or some scroll addict is my most likely next play.

[waitmyturtles]

HAPPY 2023! Back to the old grind. But first -- I would like to manage a quick year-end post for 2022 if it’s still relevant. First, a little gush about finding this place, and then a quick hit list of shows that moved me. 

I only joined Tumblr in July 2022, after watching Old Fashion Cupcake (on the recommendation posts of @isaksbestpillow​, who I’ve followed for years in my passionate pursuit of everything Kinou Nani Tabeta-related). I was so moved by OFC that I literally felt like I needed an OUTLET to gush out my feelings about what I had just watched. And so, my first post went up. 

I legit had no idea what I was getting into with Tumblr, but at least I felt like I had a space where I could really nerd out about shows I loved in incredibly minute detail, which my real-life human mutuals (partners, sibs) wouldn’t be able to appreciate. 

After that first OFC post, I felt like a pressure valve had been released, and I really had no idea how much I NEEDED TO TALK about these dramas I’ve loved watching so much over the years. So I just want to say that I’m so appreciative of all the feedback and engagement I’ve gotten on my posts in these short six-ish months -- it really makes me emotional and full that I get to do some real writing that I truly love doing, talking about subjects that I LOVE talking about (dramas, food, etc.)

Also -- this outlet here on Tumblr. I’m a crazy, overworked mom, trying to fit everything in -- kids, partner, work, school, childcare, making meals, working out, the whole freaking bit. I can’t tell you all what a RELIEF it is to be able to prioritize time to sit here and write about things I love. It is truly a mentally welcome release. 

Okay, quick thoughts on my dramas of 2022. I’m not going to do any kind of numbered list, just a fast and emotional meditation on what moved me. 

I think the dramas that I wrote the most about this year were:

Extraordinary Attorney Woo Cherry Magic (so. many. Cherry. Magic. posts.) Kabe Koji

And I hold these very close to my heart, especially Cherry Magic, but I’m just reviewing my pinned post drama list, and thinking of what twists me when I even see the title. 

I think Eternal Yesterday earns a spot. Certainly the Cherry Magic movie -- now that I’ve seen Akaso Eiji and Machida Keita in so many other works, I truly think that us CM fans were ridiculously spoiled by their acting in the CM franchise. And I think Extraordinary Attorney Woo, while not a BL, was likely the best Korean drama that I’ve watched in years (but I’m gonna hold up on that, because I’m watching Semantic Error right now, ha).

In any case, if Old Fashion Cupcake was so good to move me to literally join another social media network, then -- that says something.

Every time I think about this drama -- every time I think about the music that plays whenever Nozue is alone and thinking about Togawa -- I feel a gut punch.

What the HELL was with this drama that made it so great? The pacing, definitely. Togawa’s insistence, for sure. His grind, his determination. That one shot scene in episode 4.

But like I wrote in my very first post -- I think what GOT me about OFC was Nozue, and his responsible, thoughtful engagement with lives other than his own, until the end of the series, when he turned his compassionate light on himself. He opened himself up to the gentleness that he gave unto others. And he shared that gentleness in Togawa with love in the end.

As compared to the many OGs on Tumblr who have been watching and posting about BLs for years, I’m just far behind on understanding BL canon -- I’m diligently catching up on a lot. And Kinou Nani Tabeta in 2019/2020 was definitely my gateway to the genre, but I was also busy having kids and nursing, so -- that kinda interrupted the work for a while.

That all being said, having watched BL and cishet dramas for years, there is a kind of crushing emotionality, a connection to what one is REALLY feeling, in Old Fashion Cupcake that is depicted in such an honestly authentic way, that -- like Eternal Yesterday -- makes me crumble inside. It’s just pure, honest engagement and chemistry. I haven’t seen THAT LEVEL in much else over my years of watching Asian shows.

While I have enough content to go through Akaso Eiji and Machida Keita rabbitholes for months, I just don’t have enough for Kimura Tatsunari and Takeda Kouhei, and I so wish I did, because these guys probably had the best chemistry for me in dramas this year -- maybe save for First and Khao in The Eclipse. I’m looking forward to watching a lot more in 2023, but the standard set by Old Fashion Cupcake this year in regards to how to get my insides to twist with angst -- that standard is pretty high, and I hope a drama/dorama can come close in this near year.

Once again -- thanks for all the engagement and feedback on the posts, and I’m here to serve in the new year! More drama posts this week, and a meditation on the Japanese concept of ma coming real soon! <3

[butchpeabody]

in lieu of drawing a ref (hard) (boring) im gonna list some stuff abt my funne tome oc radrabzz...yippie!

white hat hacker obviously. due to the period accurate Rona Virus shes stuck doing coding classes at home and takes the insane pay to fund hrt and her tuition. she does other small coding jobs on the side, maybe working on a game of her own

has a roommate irl! havent thought much of what to do with it but she miight become relevant in my brain world

she was going into tome literally so hard trying to be like okay just gotta do my job and not talk to anyone. and then alpha showed up and her being utterly interaction starved due to the once again aforementioned rona shes like oh ok we r best friends now. dandy alliance having her is really fun for her

she REALLY likes nylocke. in a platonic way ofc (she is a lesbian) but thats her emotional support funny dude

i do think the nature of tome characters especially in the rpg is like. to have a Rival. i was joking abt it earlier but thats like 100% rockoon in my head. theyre both silly dudes but she is genuinely kind of angry at him for cheating at the game with so much cash on the line and getting her so close to like...just straight up being kicked out of her new friendgroup it seems?? ill have to see more of rpg rocky before i decide how this develops but i have THINGS cooking in my brain

as a side effect of the last one she does not use her Hacking Abilities in battle against anyone who isnt actively cheating themselves. game is weird to navigate sometimes because of it (the way she set up her skill class is weird reflective of mine ((i shouldve gone brawler HELP))) so shes not really. strong at first and struggles a LOT

a lot of the struggles in the PREVIOUS point however are solved when she gets the bomb rush spell. that wasnt even an intentional rockoon parallel, when i got it ingame it just did a BUNCH of damage when i needed it. but now i'm rolling with it

second gen immigrant to the us from jamaica! im still working out the family tree (her mom n dad are already concepted characters in her main story but i gotta expand) but she has family back there she visits as well. was raised in florida and moved to socal for school (ended up staying there after the rona happened bcus she already had an apartment)

her irl name is raeni, she still doesnt give it out ingame but either goes by hatty or rab online

[m1ckeyb3rry]

HAHA shidou the only one whose fanon is basically canon…people who live on wattpad don’t know how to appreciate true art….definitely just feeding into whatever cliche drama trends and tropes exist etc….

Wait I never thought about that LMAO that’s true how does no one know about Ego even though he played alongside Noel Noa???? Looks like there’s still a lot of lore to be unraveled it’d be funny if they made an Ego light novel LMAO
NO FR its fate but also yeah that tag was also quite dry…I remember lurking that tag along with some others like megumi too during my jjk phase and ofc it was dry too….after PI im gonna go back and look through your masterlist for jjk again because i have a feeling I might’ve read your other works too LMAOO

Their dynamic is just so >>>>> no because I LOVE how they care so much for each other without being romantically involved with each other?? Just goes back to our convo of how deep and meaningful platonic love and relationships can exist too!!

Ok I see what you mean because I forgot yeah age wise he’s just kinda like an oops early child kinda thing but either way I love that sort of older guardian (??) type of vibe looking out for everyone honestly chaotic (very)big brother fits LMAO uncle gojo…that’s good too, goofy young uncle LOL (also I read pi as like, calculus pi at first then it hit me that it’s an abbreviation)

Ok wait commentary continued this is basically my thought compilation up through XII:

I laughed at this part

“Wait,” you said, cutting her off, “For the sake of the visual, is this guy Noritoshi or not?”“No? I said super handsome,” she said. Your jaw dropped, but she ignored it.

LMAOOOO and then the hypothetical situation “Nuta” LMAOOOO I also love stupid oblivious y/n

Ok so I definitely think I read through the sister school exchange but not beyond, I know this is supposed to be Yuta focused but I love the friendship dynamic with Noritoshi…also LMAO The chapter content warning about Naoya is so funny and honestly so real LOLL

I love the way yuta and y/n’s relationship develops like there’s so many complexities in terms of things that are holding them back from being able to be together like a normal couple that just kinda reinforces their relationship?? Kinda in a way that like even without a formal label their relationship is even more solidified in a way

SELFIE WITH NAOYA I’m crying like “we need proof that we actually did this together so we HAVE to take a selfie” ah yes raging misogynist Naoya not him using his foot to poke y/n HSHSHS very in character though…

THE KITCHEN PHRASE good bye it’s sometimes comical how misogynistic he is but also what baffles me is how HIGH he ranks on popularity polls like 1st of all we don’t see THAT much of him 2nd like are we ignoring his whole personality or

Anyways omg my girl Tullia>>> truly inspiring y/n and also the blood chugging??? She really took one for the team (y/n) I love the way we can feel Yuta’s desperation through the screen like we can feel the trauma LMAO I like how it shows his character development too…like in jjk0 throughout it all there’s definitely that feeling like Yuta is very meek and whatnot (understandably) but I like how this kinda almost shows his shift/blooming development towards his current self? Where he has a stronger conviction and is a lot surer of things

-Karasu anon

shidou fanon if anything is tamer than his canon counterpart 😭 and LMAOO i’m sure there are gems hidden away on wattpad they’re just harder to find due to the algorithm being so odd!!

an ego light nov would go crazy tbh!! and HAHA my jjk works list is v random…one of them is for kashimo of all characters LMAOO he’s barely even relevant to the actual manga but you know me and my random characters HAHA

w pi (abbreviation not calculus 😜) i rlly tried to show how important platonic and familial relationships are!! like y/n + tullia, y/n + gojo, y/n + her mother, etc etc i think you can tell how much i enjoy writing non-romantic relationships in it DHSKJS

LMAOOO oblivious y/n my beloved 😩 she picks up on other people’s relationships and problems so quickly but as for her own…it’s def rough at first 😭 but tbf she spent most of her childhood without many friends so she’s learning!!

naoya is my actual enemy i fear…like not even in the joking way that otoya and kaiser were HAHA he genuinely is just a character i hate and who should not have been given as much manga screentime as he was

y/n and yuta’s relationship development my beloved 😩 and yes yuta def changes a lot between vol0 and the main show so i tried to show that happening in the story as well!! although ofc a lot of his development does take place while he’s in africa unfortunately 😩💔 OMG TULLIAAA she’s the best hahaha one of my fav characters fr…her and elakshi are the ones who have gotten hate (especially elakshi in this fic) and i’m like…well the plot couldn’t happen without tullia and elakshi is just a fun way to add drama without messing too much with canon so idk what you want me to do…

[extrapackxofastora]

People out there saying video games aren't art. I read as much as an dyslexic swine and am capable of delivering analysis deeper than anyone else in my class.

And I'm not talking about just books and stuff, I can do just about everything. Paintings, movies, plays (need a lotta work on this one), and video games ofc.

This post isn't here to brag. It's a call to act. Plz, all of you game owners try and do a literary analysis of the story, here, have a list of why you should do it.

1) Has all the benefits of any analysis. Improving skills, critical thinking, language...

2) If your community isn't cancer they'll all be impressed and that always makes a human feel good.

3) You'll get to learn more about the things you like! You may even meet people trying to ask for arguments.

4) Will get you to open more about analysis of other works.

5) Makes you smart. And cultured, too. Listen it's good for you.

And you don't even have to do it all in one, just don't forget to write ideas down before ending your sessions. It's fun all around! Really, give it a try. Also, some tips (which you can apply to any analysis really) I'll share if you're scared!

- Start by taking your main idea and see its relevance throughout the work.

- You want to focus on the how and why. The what is only the main idea as a concept, how and why are about the means of the idea. ('Art is about the how and why not what' (I said that and it helps me, not saying it's true))

- Every medium has their "figures of speech" and "syntax". That's what you want, that's the how and why.

- Dig too deep. I've always been afraid of 'digging too deep', to find meaning there's clearly none. You want to do that because a) it's very unlikely you've dug too deep and b) if it provokes an idea and you can appropriately back it up, it's basically all good.

- Stick to your main idea and explore every nook and cranny of it. You want to milk this lactose-filled thought provoking concept dry, going off the beaten path once will invite you to do it more.

- To find examples to back up your MI start by recalling everywhere you thought about this idea and to explore why you thought about it and how the game made you think about it (see the how and why). Then search somewhere else.

- Don't overthink this! You're doing it for you first, and if not then I'll personally make sure that actually yes. If it's bad, don't worry try next time.

It's important to note that I don't have an education towards art analysis and critiques. All of this I learned from myself and indirect external sources. I'm just a passionate boy like the hundreds of thousands present here.

tl;dr: try doing literary analysis of what you like

[book-lover85]

and now I'm back to elaborate on my point buckle up cause this is long and kinda badly organized sorry I didn't cite my sources because I don't have the books rn if someone asks me to I'll edit them in later

first things first vocab cause I'm not explaining these things over and over

talentless elves: an elf that does not have an ability, they are still capable of using skills, are still smarter than humans by a large margin, and live forever. talentless are barred from being part of the nobility and must get working class jobs

working class: anybody with a job not in the nobility these are not necessarily less respected jobs (i.e. jurek working in the sanctuary) but they're not nobility jobs and are not as “important” in the sense that they aren't classified and don't have any relation with the council Mysterium is where many working class shops like Slurps and Burps are set up

matchmaking list: a list given to them with 100 elves that they can choose from, elves can get a new one every month until they have 5 lists with 500 options total

matchmaking: a system used by the elves to ensure they 1. don't marry a relative since all elves live forever and 2. have the most genetically perfect children matchmaking does not allow talentless elves and elves with talents to be on each other's matchmaking list and therefore married without being labeled a bad match

bad match: elves that were not on each other's matchmaking list either because one elf has a talent and one doesn't or they just didn't have the luck to be on each other's list and got married anyway bad matches are uncommon and bring scorn and shame upon the couple and their children (and possibly the rest of their family)

siblings: the elves think that the more children a couple has the less likely it is to have an ability because their genes become “diluted” after the first child, they feel that this is even worse when the couple has twins or triplets etc

unmatchable: a status as of now only given yo Sophie Foster due to the fact she doesn't know who her parents are and therefore her genetic lineage and so she can't be properly matched with anyone, this means that any and every relationship she gets in will be a bad match

now obviously it isn't perfect so first I'm gonna address some problems

1. Shannon emphasizes constantly that the lost cities has no discrimination of any kind in the way the humans do and while the point of this is to emphasize how much better they think they are, it's not actually shown in practice, all of Sophie's closest friends and family as well as most adults she interacts with are white up until book 4 and it doesn't improve all that much afterwards (and there are literally no canonically queer characters + Shannon has added a lot of misogyny into the characters and world building)

2. I worry that she won't resolve the problems in a way that is realistic or even good and will undermine the great build up she's had throughout the books by slapping some “oh everything is perfect and fine now because Sophie said so” bandaid at the end

3. there are definitely more and I just can't think of them

now onto what she did well

so first I want to establish what the systemic problems are, they almost exclusively revolve around abilities: who has an ability, what your ability is, how compatible it is with other abilities (this is more relevant to matchmaking), and ofc in the case of pyrokinetics it's not even an ability that can be used anymore so you're labeled talentless

so issues like matchmaking, bad matches, disrespect towards shades, the banning of pyrokinetics and making them talentless, the labeling and bigotry towards talentless is all related to this

the reason Shannon does this is because all these issues are very other to the reader

it sounds super stupid and dumb to most if not all readers to think that an elf not having a talent makes them lesser because we fundamentally can't understand (or at the very least justify) this logic humans don't have abilities (or skills and immortality which all elves have) and we function perfectly fine and good without them so why should it matter if an elf is talentless they're still crazy smart and can lift whole buildings if they tried with just their mind so to us it seems like why would abilities matter so much that you'd isolate your own people in this way

so essentially Shannon does this because it is an easily understandable problem that most readers know is bad if she made the problems something that humans also struggle with then the readers would struggle with message more (ofc many stories can and do get across this message even while using issues that we have in our society)

my second point is I think Shannon is really good at subtly (and unsubtly) showing how this affects people

Dex is obviously bullied, mocked, and isolated from his peers at Foxfire because his parents are a bad match it is shown from book one how this affects his world view and personality

Sophie being unmatchable is literally one of the worst thing that could happen to her and she's incredibly upset because it's another thing that isolate is her from elves

Marella being a pyrokinetic makes many people scared of her and puts her under heavy supervision from the council

Tam as a shade is seen as untrustworthy purely because of an ability

Linh's ability is so strong (because it's elemental) that people are all scared of her and keep their distance and it even got her banished

and related to that many elves who have incredibly strong abilities (elemental is more common but this can be true for any ability) will be banished when their ability gets out of hand and they're deemed “unfit” for society and banished even as children these elves are essentially left to die because their abilities are too strong abilities that are supposed to garner them respect have been used against them when they needed help (we'll get back to this)

Ruy joined the Neverseen after he was banished for unknown reasons but it can be assumed that the banishment was related

Rayni’s parents being banished because her dad tweaked the matchmaking system (we'll get back to this) leads to her literally joining the murderous insane rebellion group with her desperation for change

onto to my third point Shannon is very good at showing how some people will struggle to grapple with and change their views despite understanding they're bad because it's been ingrained in them since birth; it's the norm

Sophie is very clear that she doesn't agree with the elves or their views on abilities as a whole and doesn't even want to apply to the match for months a knowing she can and that it exists

contrary to this most of Sophie's other friends are incredibly oblivious to these problems and have trouble coming to terms with its issues

Biana shows excitement towards getting her match lists in book 5 along with many other characters Tam and Linh don't seem to swing either way Keefe had never thought about it until Sophie and Dex became his friends and Fitz still has trouble grappling with it

in Legacy and Stellarlune Shannon makes a point to show Fitz’s internal conflict (at least from a distance) he has much higher expectations as not only a Vacker child but as the one that has the most expectations to succeed and so it's hard for him to cope with the fact that Sophie is unmatchable

if he makes the decision to continue dating her and possibly eventually marrying her he will live with the label of bad match forever or at least until they know her parents this is why he's so desperate to find out her biological parents and puts emphasis on it every time her unmatchable status is brought up even when it very clearly upsets Sophie

because to him her being unmatchable possibly forever is a big deal that will follow him forever and as the Vacker that is always looked up to that's hard to grapple with

even if people may agree that it makes no sense and there's a very good chance they would've been each other's #1 match the fact is they're not and they won't be until she finds out who her parents are and tells the matchmakers

so when she tells him no he freaks out and makes it about him (which was absolutely selfish and rude don't get me wrong) but it's understandable why

then in Stellarlune when doing the third step of the cognate inquisition Fitz tells Sophie that he knows that matchmaking is bad and hurts people but some part of him can't just let go of this thing he's been told all his life by everybody is incredibly important and will determine his whole and he hasn't gotten to point where he can just “oh yeah that's fine” to Sophie being unmatchable forever

ON THAT TOPIC

Sophie is not only shown how the discrimination towards talentless elves and certain abilities hurts people through her friends and family (like Dex, Marella, Tam, Jolie and Brant, Grady, and even Linh) she then becomes directly affected by it when she's given the unmatchable status

this gives her a personal connection to the problems (not that anyone should need one to see the issues and work against them) and helps her empathize a lot more people in bad matches

onto my fourth point I think Shannon shows how easily and causally this is held up by not only people in power (mainly the council but also high ranking nobility members) as well as the people that participate in the society

in book one Marella gossips about anything and everything without much awareness to who she may hurt (because she is unaware of how hurtful and discriminatory many of the things she's talking about are and this improves greatly as the series goes on) she talks about Grady's ability and acts as if he's incredibly scary for an ability he has no control over, gossips and bad mouths bad matches right in front of Dex’s face and flaunts Stina’s father being talentless to her like it's something that's obviously bad

Marella is not the only example of course but she's an obvious one especially in book one and throughout the series many offhand comments like this are thrown around like all of Stina’s insults to Dex in books 1-9 (I am including 8 and 9 since while I think that Stina has marginally improved since book 1 [and I want her to have even more improvement so she can be friends ish with team V and others] I think there are still several moments when she insults Dex and his family and other characters) Cassius in general, many people that gawked at Sophie and her friends at multiple points in the series

the council is shown to support matchmaking system and it's essentially a government entity similar to Foxfire they back up anything the matchmakers say and when the rules are broken the council heavily punishes the perpetrators the councilors were the ones that banned pyrokinetics and every person who's banished is banished by them the council does a lot of the work to keep the shitty discriminatory systems in place

at my fifth point matchmaking and the discrimination towards abilities affects everyone in the lost cities

while it obviously is much worse for Dex who's parents are a bad match and not in the nobility even Noble families and people with power aren't helped by a system that has flaws built into it the way the treat talentless elves and the way the matchmaking system works hurts any and everyone

councilors aren't allowed to be married or have children because they'd be biased (which is an obviously flawed law since literally all elves have living family members) and it's shown how much this hurts Oralie and Kenric when they can't be with each other but can't leave their position as councilors without causing lots of tension in the lost cities at the loss of 2 councilors (that are both beloved)

Stina’s family is gossiped about constantly and believed to be a faked good match since Timkin is talentless and can't marry someone with a talent like Vika without being a bad match

this relates back to the obvious problem of the matchmaking system and how it's not only very flawed and causes more harm than good but ALSO how easily it can be tweaked one question was changed for Rayni's parents and boom good match one matchmaker was likely bribed by Vika and bam impossible good match if the system was fair and non discriminatory like it should be then it wouldn't be this easy to trick it

coming back to the banishing of literal children, the system works against even the people it's supposed to protect which is an AMAZING thing to address when talking about these problems Sophie has abilities and her boyfriend does too but they'll eventually be deemed a bad match ruy, linh, and Tam were all banished as children despite having abilities because they got too strong and the council wouldn't put in the effort to support them

bonus this is somewhat unrelated but I think it's kinda crazy how the elves see themselves as this advanced society while believing essentially bs superstition about genetics that forkle literally said had no standing in science when he researched it let me emphasize the elves entire society is built upon a set of beliefs that is scientifically wrong that's actually insane

anyways thanks for asking for my thoughts id love to see what other people think or if I missed something I'll add it this took forever to write so

Tag List: @readingismypurpose

and what if I said that kotlc actually handles systemic problems that are perpetuated by society and people in power and hurt everyone participating in that society really well

[rudystree]

If rudy gets into the marvel universe the fans are gonna tear elaine apart just because she is his gf. I’ve been in that fandom for a while and i saw how hated the girlfriends of the male actors are. And believe me the hate elaine got is like 1% in comparison to what those girls went through. And this situation is kind of differend because elaine did some of the things that she is accused of and it would be so bad for her if the fans would find out.

And also tbh even if it would be amazing for rudy to get casted for marvel i don’t think he is ready (it is just my personal opinion) because even though i am a really big fan i know how toxic the fandom can be and i know how much his life is gonna change. He will not have free time at all because he will have tons of press conference and interviews to attend that he can’t just ditch and go into the woods, will have no privacy and people will follow him around like everywhere i’m not even kidding. And i know he is not used to this kind of stuff and it would be sad to see him miserable because of it.

That is very, very true. ☹️

Thank you for sending this. And- yikes! I’ve never really paid attention to the Marvel fandom but it sounds pretty terrible (why are people like this?) and I definitely don’t wish that energy on Rudy and Elaine.

I’ve always said I want Rudy in the MCU for purely selfish reasons. OBX was his break out but I want his career to really take off now because that means way more content for me. I mean, Uncharted was a blessing and he was only in it for 10 minutes. If he actually got cast as Johnny (unlikely, ofc), he would immediately be an A list actor and get booked for a shit ton of other amazing roles. All the fame and money comes with a price, but Rudy has said many times that he’s a big Marvel fan, has always dreamed of doing something like this, and I 100% believe that he’s capable and ready for the challenge. It might sound bad, but objectively he’s in his prime right now. He’s still young, extremely handsome and the internet’s boyfriend - in a few years that hype might die down and he’ll have lost a lot of opportunities. I want him to get into the big scene now, while he’s still somewhat relevant. I’m sure, once he gets to a certain level, he’ll just be handing off his social media to an assistant anyway. As long as Rudy and E don’t let that shit get to them, and stay mostly offline, the talk is just talk.

[insomniac-ships]

Hihi! I’ve seen you around and I get a really safe vibe from you so I’d like to tell you this. A bit ago I reblogged a post I agreed with from someone who I later found out had proshippers on their DNI list. I deleted when I saw it bc ofc I did. Just recently I saw the post again from a blog I adore and decided to reblog it again bc this blog was this blog and not OP so I wasn’t breaking any rules. I put in my tags just as much, that I deleted once cuz OP but I’m reblogging again cuz fuck it. Immediately I get an anon asking what’s wrong with OP, and I foolishly didn’t think it was OP who sent the anon, so I answered that listing proshippers alongside terfs, racists, etc was terminally online because what ships I like affects no one but me. I’m not allowed to reblog something I think is cool because OP doesn’t like the fact I like things? And it’s not like I was reblogging from the source this time, so it’s fair game, right?

Not ten minutes after posting, I get another ask like “so you’re a proshipper then?” and I didn’t know how to answer. Because I don’t know. But apparently it doesn’t matter because OP blocked me. I asked them why does it matter what I like? That’s like getting mad at someone for eating pizza when you only like tacos—you’re not the one eating it so why does it affect you?

They had no reading comprehension and said that they never wanted to dictate what I can/cannot consume but if I choose to consume that content to not interact bc that’s the point of a DNI list.

Except that is kind of dictating what I can/cannot consume? And anyway, that wasn’t the point of my ask—my question was why does my stance on shipping matter because they don’t know me, and I’m not following them, I’m just reblogging something from someone else. Most people will not check the source of the things they reblog (I only did so because the blog name was relevant to my interests, which doesn’t make this situation any better). They see a post they like, they reblog. They get them from people, who get them from other people, who get them from other people. I am not important. I am not important to OP, and they are not important to me. We do not know each other. So why does the possibility of this random stranger liking fictional pairs matter that much to them? I’m just minding my own business reblogging stuff.

Anyway, they regarded the proship stuff as “anon hate” and deleted it. I think they just didn’t want to admit they couldn’t come up with a legit answer because there is none. Because it requires them to admit to being dumb. And then they said if you want to have a conversation, to come off anon. Which is very funny considering they came into my inbox on anon. And then they blocked me. Before I even answered! They just decided for me so I guess I’m officially a proshipper now—where’s the sign-in sheet? /j (Don’t know how to feel about being the blockee, tbh. I’m usually the one doing the blocking so I’m kinda mad they got to it first. Before I knew it was OP. I had a whole thing written out too!) I feel confident in labeling them an anti, but I’m still trying to figure it out for sure.

Thanks for listening; hope you have a good day!

Hello lovely anon! This was absolutely not what I expected to find in my inbox first thing in the morning, but I'm happy you felt I was a safe person to talk to! I'm gonna have to answer this in chunks so my brain doesn't explode, so bear with me! ♡

Yeah, DNI boundaries do indeed extend to reblogs of reblogs of reblogs etc., which can get a little ridiculous when a post gets big enough. It's just the way of Tumblr. Once a post is in circulation outside of your immediate friend group, there's no real way to control who does and doesn't interact with it. And trying to police every single individual interaction on every single post you make is just a recipe for mental exhaustion. The best thing OP could've done is just block and carry on with their day. (Though most anti types are entirely unwilling to do that.)

Oof. I'm gonna be honest, I have a personal issue with people that try to stir up drama about themselves by coming into a person's inbox on anon and pretending to be someone else. Starting shit under the guise of curiosity is childish at best and manipulative at worst. For the most part, all anyone has to do is send an ask off anon and (at least somewhat nicely,) ask for the reblog of their post to be deleted. Proshippers that are genuinely decent people will usually just apologize and delete the post without causing a scene. (However, if you come screaming into someone's inbox throwing a shitfit, calling people names, threatening them, and making baseless accusations toward them, they probably won't respond so kindly.)

Yeah... the "I'm not trying to dictate what content you can like, but if you like content I'm personally grossed out by, you're horrible, awful, subhuman scum and I hate you forever" take is... well, it sure is an opinion. Just say you're a control freak and go.

(And like, there's nothing wrong with not liking certain ships or dynamics. That's totally fine! To each their own! It's the harassment part that's fucked up. You can curate your online experience and maintain your boundaries without being a nasty little gremlin to compete strangers.)

I'm not surprised that someone would take valid, genuine questions that they apparently didn't have a good answer to as "hate mail". Honestly reminds me of hyper-religious folks who treat any doubt or questioning of the faith/church as some deeply personal attack so they don't have to think critically about things for more than 5 seconds or admit any fault. (I grew up Catholic and got in trouble for asking too many questions.)

Don't sweat being blocked, honestly. ♡ They're really not worth the emotional turmoil. Just block them right back and keep on doing you!

Official Proship Sign-Up Sheet coming soon! (/j)

[raviposting]

💜 + 911

So there are just. So many things I love about 911 tbh. It’s truly my favorite show ever and I think that - even though, ofc, I always have fear for currently-running shows - I tend to trust the writers on the storylines they do. I’m just gonna list out what I love because it’ll make it easier tbh: 

The characters. I think if I had to choose, I think about Chim & Maddie the most when 911 isn’t airing, but when I watch 911? My favorite character is whoever is onscreen. I really appreciate that this is truly an ensemble show and that I don’t ever feel like someone got all the screentime in a season over another main - and honestly? For a show with what, 12 mains, technically? I think they do a great job. There are obviously some mains that are more secondary characters lmaoo (like Chris and Harry) but I think they also show up and aren’t flat characters either, we’re still invested in and care about them. 

How they deal with trauma + character development. Though shows have gotten better about this, I still rarely see shows that actually remember the traumas that their characters go through. It feels like shows - esp procedurals - will dump trauma on characters and then forget about it after 2 episodes, or bring it up again 5 years later. This show doesn’t make the characters’ lives about trauma, but it is part of them and they don’t forget about it, but they also let our characters be happy. 

Relationships. The relationships are SO good. Whether I’m thinking about romantic ones or familial ones they’re so healthy and communicate well, and characters are allowed to be wrong and have conflicts without being toxic to one another. Plus, the characters have varying relationships with each other - we see Albert with the rest of the Buckley Han family but he’s not exactly friends with say, Hen or Eddie, or we adore Sue but when she’s hit by the car the firefam is only vaguely aware of her but we see just how much it affects the dispatch family. They do a great job with that and it makes the pairups we get fun because of how many characters there are and the world just feels all the more big and real. Plus! Sooo many found families. 

Representation. I think honestly, every character is representative in some way? Buck/Maddie with emotionally abusive parents, Maddie being an abuse survivor, all our characters of color (who also have a lot of queer characters!). There’s so much there but their storylines don’t relate to their identities - sometimes it does, if it’s relevant, but there are shows that have rep in order to try and prop up diversity points and this is not that show, and it again makes the show and the characters feel more real.

The writing: This is gonna be my final one because it’s an umbrella thing but honestly. It’s been a while since a show has done things where I see writing choices that I don’t love and/or wouldn’t have done but still respect. Even if I don’t like something or I theorized wrong I can still appreciate what the writers had in mind and can see how that happened in-show. I could write many many paragraphs more tbh but I’ll just leave it here. 911 isn’t a perfect show by any means but I have so much love for it and I think the writers have put so much effort into their characters and so much love for them, and it shines through a lot. 

Send me a  💜 + Topic and I’ll tell you what I like about it!

[modernsuperhero]

Hey you're not being rude at all! This is actually a topic I LOVE to infodump about, so I'd be happy to elaborate. First off I'd like to cite my credentials as having actually briefly BEEN a mid-level-popularity classpecting blog way back in... oh god, middle school. Now back then we ofc didn't have the official descriptions of aspects and classes and such and had to basically extrapolate everything ourselves.

If anyone reading this has no idea what the hell I'm talking about, let me explain a couple basics real quick: in homestuck most characters are given a title in the form [x] of [y], with [x] being their class and [y] being their aspect. Classes determine the relationship between the character and what the aspect entails - and also determines what superpowers they might get but that's not relevant here (yet, lol). Classpects (the shorthand term for the titles) are both set in stone predetermined by fate AND based on personality. The general idea is that in theory, it details the character's preset Hero's Journey - what challenges they need to overcome to achieve their fullest potential, and what that fullest potential looks like. There are fourteen classes and twelve aspects. I'm not gonna talk about classes right now because this is already gonna be pretty long.

More under the cut!

To those familiar with aspects, specifically when classpecting, they will know aspects come in pairs. Each aspect has an opposite. They parallel each other. And while a player's aspect shows their strengths and behaviors at their best, the INVERSE aspect shows them at their worst. They show what they will resort to and their distorted goals and behaviors.

A good canon example of this is Rose. She's a light player! Light represents luck/omens, information, importance, and perception/sight. If you've read the comic you know how this plays into her story. You'd also remember her Grimdark - and I'd reason you'd see that while she was grimdark, she was more tied to her inverse aspect of Void (secrets, emptiness, confusion, irrelevance, and mystery/the unknown) because she was psychologically at her worst.

So, when classpecting characters, if I struggle to decide between two aspects then sometimes I decide to reverse-engineer the process! Instead of thinking "what do they embody at their best" I look at them at their WORST, to figure out which inverse fits!

The list of inverse aspects goes as follows: Time | Space, Life | Doom, Hope | Rage, Light | Void, Breath | Blood, and Mind | Heart.

For Jimmy, I personally see him as a Mage of Life! At Jimmy's healthiest and most realized version of his potential, he has experienced the highest high and lowest lows of Life, and uses that knowledge and understanding to his own advantage. Life is the aspect of nature, healing/growth, recklessness/temptation, luxury, and rebellion. Its inverse is Doom, the aspect of fate, decay, caution/restraint, necessity, and control.

Classpects aren't just about personality, too. They're about destiny. The Canary Curse is, yes, tied to Doom! But that doesn't mean Jimmy has to be a Doom player - he could be Doom, or he could be Life. Think about it! Is the Canary Curse a GOOD thing for Jimmy? Does it help him fulfill himself or grow as a person? I'd argue that the pressure for Jimmy to succumb to the Canary Curse, to give up and accept his fate (part of the Doom aspect) IS Jimmy's Bad Ending. Jimmy's GOOD ending is defying that fate - a LIFE trait!

Jimmy, as a character, is VERY rebellious. Yes, sure, he's not that great at the things that help him survive, but that does NOT stop him. In fact, telling him he CAN'T do something is a surefire way to get him to TRY. If you want an example, look at the Bad Boys! The whole premise of the gang is that they break the rules! And Jimmy certainly is reckless - just look at his back-to-back first two deaths in Third Life. He willingly chose to play a death game IN a death game and died, and then in-universe DAYS later went and poked a bomb that he KNEW WAS A BOMB.

Jimmy is also super reckless and impulsive, and his naivety in life certainly leads to him experiencing the ups and downs of his aspect. This is the challenge presented with him to grow, even beyond outside forces like the Watchers.

When Jimmy is at his worst, when he is stressed and upset and panicking, he embodies his inverse: an Heir of Doom. Heirs "inherit" their aspect, and are the inverted form of Mages - it is presented to them by the universe, often against their will, and they are surrounded by it. Jimmy, at his worst, is drowning in decay. Jimmy, as only an omen fated to die, to beckon the beginning of the end, is his worst self. A happy healthy Jimmy loves little luxuries like flowers and hanging out and chilling, whereas an unhealthy and stressed Jimmy can only be obsessed with the bare necessities. His best self, as of yet unrealized but very much still possible, is the version of himself that overcomes these challenges and most importantly LEARNS from them.

Canary Time!!

Grian's Poll: Here

Lizzie's Poll: Here

Gem's Poll: Here

Cleo's Poll: Here

Pearl's Poll: Here

Scar's Poll: Here

Joel's Poll: Here

Jimmy's Poll: You're Already Here.

BigB's Poll: Here

Martyn's Poll: Here

Scott's Poll: Here

Etho's Poll: Here