#but other men this has applied

[sad-gay-cowboy]

What you don't understand is he's really pretty

[uncanny-tranny]

The absolute biggest thing I've learned as a trans guy: there is nothing more masculine and manly than not caring about looking or acting masculine or manly. Growing your masculinity or manhood takes time and care - you have no obligation to let the world water your garden when you can do that just fine (and you can, even if it doesn't feel like you can!)

[miyaagis]

at that point in life where i know i deserve a ripped, tall, dark-haired, and handsome dude to fold me in half

[blueskittlesart]

any thoughts on how once again zelda was robbed of her agency because her "father figure" didn't listen to her? even if rauru was kinder to her than her father. and that she had sonia who was patient and loving for a little while before she died (just like her mother). i know rauru apologizes for his hubris but still, i wish we saw zelda be upset about it. and even if zelda was such a big part of the quest she still literally sacrificed her humanity once again because of someone else's mistake- because rauru literally didn't listen to the girl from the future that warned you that shit was going to go down. o know nintendo just loves putting zelda inside crystals and stones but i wish we got something better. even if it was her decision to become a dragon... did she have any other choice? it really just feels like they robbed her of agency again just like botw and the games before

i've been trying to figure out how to answer this one. because there are two ways i could analyze this plot point, either from a writer's perspective or an in-story perspective, but neither of those lead to me fully agreeing with your interpretation? I think there's definitely something to be said about zelda consistently being pushed aside in these games, but. well. ok let's get into it ig

from a writer's perspective, I do honestly have quite a bit of sympathy for the zelda devs as they attempt to navigate the modern political landscape with these games. The cyclical lore, though canonized relatively recently, holds them to a standard of consistency in their games in terms of certain key elements. one of those key elements is that there has to be a princess, and that princess must somehow be the main macguffin of the game. The player must chase her, and the end goal of the game must be to reunite the player and the princess. In 1986 this was an incredibly easy sell. women didn't need to be characters. players were content with saving a 2-dimensional princess whose only purpose was to tell them "good job!" at the end. but as society advances, that princess becomes a much more difficult character to write while adhering to the established overarching canon. (as a side note: i don't necessarily believe that the writers SHOULD be held to the standards of that canon. I think deviating from it in certain areas would be a good change of pace. but i also recognize that deviations from the formula are widely hated by the loz playerbase and that they're trying to make money off these games, so we're working under the established rule that the formula must be at least loosely adhered to.) Modern fans want a princess who is a person, who has agency and makes decisions and struggles in the same way the hero does. but modern fans ALSO want a game that follows the established rules of the canon. so we need a princess who is a real character but who can ALSO serve as a macguffin within the narrative, something that is inherently somewhat objectifying.

the two games that i think do the best job writing a princess with agency are skyward sword and botw (based on your ask, our opinions differ there lol. hear me out) in both games, we have a framing event which seperates zelda and link, but in both games, that separation was ZELDA'S CHOICE. skyward sword zelda runs away from link out of fear of hurting him. botw zelda chooses to return to the castle alone to allow link the time he needs to heal. sksw kinda fumbled later on by having ghirahim kidnap her anyway, but. i said BEST not PERFECT. botw zelda I think is the better example because, with the context of the memories, she's arguably MORE of a character than link is. we see her struggles, her breakdowns, her imperfection, specifically we see her struggle with her lack of agency within the context of the game itself. when she steps in front of link in the final memory, and when she chooses to return to the castle, those are some of the first choices we see her make almost completely free of outside influence; a RECLAMATION of her agency (within the narrative) after years of having it stripped from her. from an objective viewer's standpoint, this writing decision still means she is absent from 90% of the game and that she has little control over her actions for the duration of the player's journey. however I think this is just about the best they could have done to create a princess with agency and a real character arc while still keeping the macguffin formula intact--you're not really SAVING zelda in botw. SHE is the one that is saving YOU; when you wake up on the plateau with no memories, too weak to fight bokoblins, let alone calamity ganon. the reason you are allowed to train and heal in early-game botw is because SHE is in the castle holding ganon back, protecting YOU. When you enter the final fight, you're not rescuing zelda, you're relieving her of her duty. taking over the work she's been doing for the past hundred years. in the final hour, you both work in tandem to defeat ganon. while this isn't a PERFECT example of a female character with agency and narrative weight, i think it's a pretty good one, especially in the context of save-the-princess games like loz.

as for totk, you put a lot of emphasis on rauru not believing zelda and taking action immediately, which, again, from an objective standpoint, i understand. but even when we're writing characters with social implications in mind, those character's actions still need to... make sense. Rauru was a king ruling over what he believed to be a perfectly peaceful kingdom. zelda literally fell out of the sky, landed in front of him, claimed to be his long-lost granddaughter, and then told him that some random ruler of a fringe faction in the desert was going to murder him and he had to get the jump on it by killing him first. the ruler which this girl is trying to convince rauru to wage an unprompted war on has the power to disguise himself as other people. no one in their right mind would immediately take the girl at her word. war is not something any leader should jump into without proper research and consideration, and to rauru's credit, he DIDN'T ever outright dismiss zelda. he believed her when she said she was from the future, he allowed her to work with him and he took her warnings as seriously as he could without any further proof. but he could not wage an unprompted war on ganondorf. that's just genuinely not practical, especially for a king who values peace among his people as much as rauru seems to. as soon as ganondorf DID attack, giving rauru confirmation that zelda's accounts of the future were real, he began making preparations to confront him. remember that zelda didn't KNOW that rauru and sonia were going to be casualties of the war--she didn't make the connection between rauru's arm in the future and rauru the king until AFTER sonia's death, when rauru made the decision to attack ganondorf directly. I think the imprisoning war and the casualties of it were less an issue of zelda being denied agency and more an issue of no one, including zelda, having full context for the events as they were unfolding. if zelda had KNOWN that sonia and rauru were going to die from the beginning and was still unable to prevent it that would be a different issue, but she didn't. none of them did.

I think another thing worth pointing out with rauru and his death irt zelda is that rauru is clearly written specifically as a foil to rhoam. this is evident in how he treats both zelda and link, with a constant kindness and understanding which is clearly opposite to rhoam's dismissiveness and disappointment. consider rhoam's death and the circumstances surrounding it. He died because, in zelda's eyes, she was unable to do her duty; the one thing he constantly berated her for. Rhoam's death solidified zelda's belief that she was a failure, a belief which she KNEW rhoam held as well. his death was doubly traumatic to her because she knew he died believing it was her fault. Now contrast that to the circumstances surrounding rauru's death. Rauru CHOSE to die despite zelda's warnings, because he wanted zelda and his kingdom to live. rauru's death was not agency-stripping for zelda; in fact, it functioned almost as an admission that he believed her capable of continuing to live in his place. With him gone, the fate of the kingdom fell to her and the sages. he KNEW that he would die and still went into that battle confidently, trusting zelda to make the right decisions once he was gone. where rhoam believed zelda incapable of doing ANYTHING without link, rauru trusted zelda COMPLETELY with the fate of his kingdom. several details in totk confirm that when rauru died there was no plan for zelda to draconify, that all happened after rauru was gone. it was HER plan, the plan which rauru trusted her to come up with once he was gone. and I think it's also worth noting that zelda's sacrifice with the draconification parallels rauru's!! Rauru gives up his life trusting the sages and his people to be able to continue his work in his place. Zelda gives up her physical form trusting link and the sages in the future to be able to figure out what to do and find her. these games in general have this recurring theme but totk specifically is all about love and trust and reliance on others. zelda relies on link, link relies on zelda, they both rely on the champions and the sages and rauru and sonia and they all rely each other. reliance on others isn't lack of agency, it's a constant choice they make, and that choice is the thing which allows them to triumph.

The draconification itself is something i view similarly to zelda's sacrifice in botw--a choice she makes which, symbolically & within the confines of the narrative, is a demonstration of her reclaimed agency and places her at the center of the narrative, but which ALSO removes her from much of the player's experience and robs her of any overt presence or decisionmaking within the gameplay. again, I think this is a solution to the macguffin-with-agency dilemma, and it's probably one of the better solutions they could have come up with. Would I have liked to see a game where zelda is more present within the actual gameplay? yes, but I also understand that at this point the writers aren't quite willing to deviate that much from their formula. the alternative within the confines of this story would be to let zelda DIE in the past, removing her from gameplay ENTIRELY, which is an infinitely worse option in my opinion. draconification allowed her to be present, centered the narrative around her, and allowed the writers to reiterate the game's theme of trust and teamwork when she assists the player in the final battle, which i think was a REALLY great choice, narratively speaking.

In any case, I don't think it's right to say that zelda was completely robbed of her agency in botw and totk. Agency doesn't always mean that she's unburdened and constantly present, it means she's given the freedom to make her own choices and that her choices are realistically written with HER in mind, not just the male characters around her, and I think botw/totk do a pretty good job of writing her and her choices realistically and with nuance.

[adhderall]

well as you can see besides being ugly as all fuck I'm also extremely bitter so that doesn't help at all in making me appealing. but it also comes with the territory you see, being treated as a hideous freak of nature for your whole life kind of does things to your psyche.

also going into shit in the tags as an extreeeemely jaded individual who's been on every side of the discourse and KNOWS it all VERY PERSONALLY so I know many people will find all sorts of different reasons to hate me (if they want ig) because I'm ~politically homeless~ at this point because I'm sick and tired of everything but whatever

(also fuck I ran out of space in the tags so another post maybe idk. )

[verflares]

hard work at the "objectify that blonde man" factory today

[countess-of-edessa]

the thing about taking advice from anyone on tiktok or instagram including catholic and christian type influencers, parenting advice, relationship advice, etc, or internalizing any stories of horrible relationships and betrayal people tell on those platforms, or reading about all the ways interpersonal relationships can end horribly and be cycled through extremely quickly on those platforms is that you are necessarily then consuming the thoughts and experiences of someone who is willing to put their face and name on a public social media platform to talk at you. and like 1% of those people have a good reason for doing so and the other 99% are completely unhinged. so everything you’re consuming has first gone through the filter of "is this person weird and insane enough to make Instagram reels of themselves crying?" and if the answer is yes maybe their advice doesn’t apply to your life because you’re a normal person who would not do that.

[howfishismade]

the day ppl stop treating karl heisenberg as some silly boy who didn't mean it is the day i stop saying eveline did nothing wrong

[breadedsinner]

My extremely cold take is that, while the option to play a woman is very cool and the sole reason I got into Mass Effect, and while her performance is considered by many to be superior, Femshep herself is not a Strong Female Character. When people include her in various Favorite Female Characters lists and such, I have to wonder if they’re mainly talking about the character that exists in their head.

At the very least, when discussing the fleshed out female characters of the series, to dismiss the other human women, including the sole Latina, to prop up the usually white readhead Jane. It’s not a very Girl’s Girl attitude.

[teecupangel]

Hey Tee! I did an ask about this for The Witcher fandom a while ago now it popped in my head for AC and-

Studio Ghibli AUs. All the Studio Ghibli AUs!!! Which pairing do you think fits best with each movie?

I was wondering if you meant Desmond pairings or if you meant like… non-Desmond pairings but, fuck it, my default setting is that you meant Desmond pairing so here’s some Desmond pairings for you XD

(I will try to add a spin to it or something, we’ll see)

AltDes: Spirited Away

In this setup, we’ll change the parents to Shaun and Rebecca and the idea is Desmond and the two of them are on their way to their next mission. This one will not have any Animus BS in it but they’re still all Assassins.

The same setup as the beginning of Spirited Away but I kinda wanna make them into turkeys instead of pigs so we can have a reference to the Assassin Turkey XD

Anyway, Al Mualim would be the owner of the bathhouse that Desmond works with and Altaïr would be the mysterious employee whose name nobody knows. 

One of the main themes of this movie is losing one’s identity so we’ll have Desmond only be called 17. Every employee is only called by number and Altaïr would be called 1. The other main characters would take the other numbers (2 for Ezio, 3 for Ratonhnhaké:ton, etc) with Clay being 16 because he’s 16. 

Altaïr will be one of the employees helping Desmond but he’s the most distant of them. Maybe that would be the reason why Desmond would notice him because he can feel a familiar loneliness clinging onto Altaïr and he’d be ‘curious’ about it. Their budding closeness would be the reason why Altaïr would be the one to go ‘fuck all of this’ and leave his ‘post’ to help Desmond and Desmond would realize who Altaïr is because of the small details he could remember (and how Desmond had learned about the Assassins of old)

Anyway, it ends in a similar way as Spirited Away with Desmond realizing that all of the employees were Assassins and the bathhouse is meant to be a stop point between living and afterlife. Al Mualim used a POE he found using the Apple that was one of the failed solutions to the Solar Flare to create that pocket dimension and he’s been hoarding these Assassins as a way to have his own army (with defective memories that would make them easier to control) and the pocket dimension would pierce reality and revive them into the current timeline.

Everyone had been helping Desmond because they believe Desmond could still leave if he remembers he’s Desmond, not knowing that only meant that Desmond would pass to the afterlife and not actually return to his old life.

Desmond being Desmond fucked that up because his very existence and his belief that all of these people (employees + Al Mualim and the guests which are actually just passing ghosts that Al Muliam didn’t take) are real jumpstart the reality bending power of the POE but that also meant Desmond has become the singularity, not Al Mualim.

Then the twist would be the reason why the three got into the pocket dimension is because the car they used exploded thanks to a bomb that Lucy placed (orders from Vidic) and their mission had been to investigate Clay’s death.

So… either go for the afterlife peaceful life ending or the ending where the reality bending POE does success thanks to Desmond. 

EziDes: Honestly, I was thinking either Howl’s Moving Castle or Castle in the Sky but I decided to go with Howl’s Moving Castle instead

In this one, Desmond would be Howl so we can have AC Revelations!Ezio hahahaha

No, seriously.

Anyway, the witch is Juno (of course), Calcifer is Clay and Turnip Head would be Suleiman who does fall in love with Ezio but… yyeeaaahhh.

So, Desmond is cursed to not have a heart by Juno (and it’s shaped like the Apple of Eden and is Juno’s main ‘weapon’) and he can transform into a similar bird creature but this one is bathed in white and have gold lines all over (Ezio would realize the gold lines are very similar to the gold lines of the Apple) and he does transform to keep the two warring side in check even if it’s taking a toll on his body. The more toll it takes, the more golden lines appear on his body, all originating from the scar where his heart had been taken.

Clay tells Ezio he can free him from his curse but he wants to be freed first. This is all a big gamble because Clay knows the only way to free him from the life connection he has with Desmond is if Desmond regains his heart before Clay’s fire is completely snuffed out.

The ending is similar to Howl’s Moving Castle but Ezio would steal Juno’s Apple because he knows it’s connected to Desmond but don’t know how while Juno is punished by the king she ‘sided’ with. (Lorenzo, maybe?)

ConDes: Princess Mononoke

I’m going to be completely honest here, Princess Mononoke is my favorite Studio Ghibli film and I was tempted to make this the AltDes one but ConDes just fits soooo much more so, yeah, let’s start this.

Ratonhnhaké:ton would be our Ashitaka and he’d be ‘banished’ from his village because he was cursed after killing a demon before it could reach his village. His grandmother (the clan mother as well) tells him to go west where the demon (which they had realized was a corrupted boar god) had hailed from.

Along the way, he meets George Washington who suggests that maybe the Great Forest Spirit could cure him… if he was to find it anyway.

So Ratonhnhaké:ton reached Iron Town that is under the control of the Templar Order with Haytham Kenway as the leader (up to you if we’re keeping their familial relationship or not)

He also sees the town be attacked by wolves and a man in a hood and a mask that rides one of the wolves and attacks the townspeople as well. 

Okay, for this one, Desmond is obviously the San of this AU and his wolf brethren would be Altaïr and Ezio. 

Can we keep Gillian Anderson as Moro? No? Fine. Maria Auditore or Minerva gets the role of mama!wolf god. Take your pick.

Yeah, George Washington’s gonna steal that head. XD

Alright, so those are the main three done and here are some more Studio Ghibli AU ideas that I’m just throwing out there:

Fuck it. I want a Castle in the Sky one so here: Arno x Desmond with Laputa Castle in the Sky with Desmond being the mysterious man everyone wants to abduct and Arno helping him try to escape and also looking for the mythical Laputa that his father had been searching until his untimely demise.

My Neighbors the Yamada with the Kenway family. Either this is a sweet AU where nothing bad happened to them OR this is like the exact opposite of My Neighbors the Yamada and is just pure Kenway Family Drama all the way. Either way, the fic would be set in Desmond’s POV who is neighbors with the Kenways and it’s up to you if this is gonna be EdDes, HayDes or ConDes (or even JenDes)

Kiki Delivery Service with Desmond being Kiki, Clay as Jiji and Leonardo being that kid that is absolutely enraptured by how Desmond could use a broom to fly. The bakery is absolutely owned by the Auditores with Maria Auditore pregnant with Petruccio. (this can either be EziDes or LeoDes)

Only Yesterday AU where Jacob returns to his childhood rural town after a very bad breakup and tries to ‘repair’ his relationship with his sister that shattered after their father’s death. She’s married and has a child and her husband’s cousin, Desmond, is also a distant childhood friend. 

The Cat Returns would be so fun for Desmond and I kinda want it to be Eivor x Desmond with the Cat King being Odin. I don’t know why, it sorta kinda fits? Baron could even be Basim and Toto would be Hytham, why not?

I kinda wanna make a joke and say Graves of the Fireflies with the Frye twins but just remembering Graves of the Fireflies makes me wanna cry so no, we are not using Graves of the Firefly in this one unless the AU has Desmond save the kids. 

I gotta end it there because if I don’t, I’ll be stuck here thinking of AU ideas for every Studio Ghibli film I’ve watched and I’m pretty sure I watched almost all of them. God, I wanted to make a Nausicaa Valley of the Winds AU but all I can think of are the Templars using ancient weapons to control the world and Desmond being Nausicaa. That’s as far as I got.

[pynkhues]

"I honestly think both in terms of fic for the show itself and for RPF, it's about race"

Ah, I wasn't expecting this, which as a brown woman is incredibly naive of me.

There's currently discourse on X about Louis being the most "boring" character which is also, undoubtedly, driven by racism.

(x)

Oh, I'm really sorry, anon, and you shouldn't feel naive. I mean, for starters, I could be wrong, and I'm being pretty speculative, but even if I'm right, the onerous of that isn't, or at least shouldn't be, on you. I think there's a lot of really great progressive things that happen in fandom, but at the same time fandom is created by People Living in Societies, and unfortunately biases and discrimination, at least in my experience, can and do seep through in ways that are both toxic and just flat out negligent.

The idea of Louis being boring is absolutely an insane and racist rhetoric too. He is so wildly interesting as a character, with so many layers of storytelling and nuance and contradiction, which I adore in him, and it makes me wonder if the people who find him boring are the same ones who want to make him the audience insert (insane given Daniel is literally right there) or to project all this 'battered housewife' narrative onto him, which - - look.

I've tried to shrug this off, but I literally just spent the entire day at a symposium on how the Australian government child support system is weaponised by abusive men against women post-divorce, so I'm a bit of a raw nerve about this topic, but it's made me even more pissed off at the Louis-Housewife arguments than normal.

Not only is it diminishing and completely at odds with his character, but what a way to show you've never, ever engaged with real survivors of, or conversations with, patriarchal oppression.

[2024skin]

It's fucked up that the sober population straight up ignores how a huge portion of addicts have chronic illnesses

[aphantimes]

the word "warrior" has skyrocketed to my most hated word in like the past 3 months i am in pain

[galwithalibrarycard]

Developing an allergy to any mention of the Doc as being monosexual in any direction tbqh. They have literally always been 100% bisexual please I’m so tired

[sunfoxfic]

I wish the phrase "Bechdel Test" had never fallen into common vernacular and I'm not kidding.

[starlooove]

And I’m standing ten toes down behind Eloise