#could we be any more stereotypically married even if we tried

[toxycodone]

PLEASE! TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS ABOUT DAISUKE AND A POSSIBLE RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM. I'm begging and crying, please

ship. daisuke x reader

content. sfw + romantic

an. i have not been reading any other content but I’ve seen the massive complaints of people babying him through the grapevine 💀 so well. hopefully my thoughts are good

We all know this but Daisuke is seriously such a cutie.

Just. He’s so outwardly kind and enthusiastic, so before you two are even dating he’s practically just glued to your hip.

I think before any romance is involved he makes a great friend. He’s inviting you to his house to play video games (his mom makes snacks which is lowkey embarrassing but also pretty cute).

Honestly I think his mom is trying to teach him to be an adult but also like. Cannot stop babying him. Like he’s such a good son could you resist spoiling him?

And it just spirals to you too bc like! You’re the guest! Going to his place is always nice bc it’s like yay! It’s like they practically adopted you. (It wears out tho his mom makes you start doing your own dishes or something and it’s like oh. You’re *really* apart of the family.)

ANYWAYS ENOUGH. but before you two get together. Daisuke’s crush on you is like. So obvious.

He tries so hard to keep it to himself bc he’s afraid to ruin whatever you have right now but. Geez.

He lights up when he sees you and is almost talking a mile a minute—he’s just so excited to be with you and be talking to you!! You’re his favorite person!!!

And he’s always trying to impress you…like, it’s always something so dumb too. Showing off his arcade skills or whatever. He’s silly.

I think he can’t resist blushing when you’re around too. Like. There’s always a nice mauve stain on his cheeks and it’s ADORABLE.

He doodles. He doodles you. The stereotypical initials in hearts. YEAH. When he’s in classes or taking notes he most definitely starts daydreaming and ends up with silly doodles and hearts and crap UGHHH

His sketchbook is where it really gets dumb and crappy and romantic. Which he tries SO HARD TO HIDE FROM YOU ITS CRAZY.

when he musters of the courage to tell you his feelings (there’s a lot of stuttering and crap) he’s fist pumping and going LETS GOOOOOOOOO (when you’re not around but you manage to catch it probably)

He’s such a good boyfriend oh my god. In my mind he really values family and stuff so you are EXTREMELY important to him (and by default his fam)

You have a good relationship w his mom off the bat she ADORES you for how happy you make her son oh my god

He does a lot of stupid romantic shit like…pulls a chair out for you at dates, gives you flowers, tries to write love notes 💞

DUMB THRIFTING DATES WHERE YOU PICK OUT OUTFITS FOR EACH OTHER. UGHHHH DONT TOUCH ME.

But dating you also makes him think more seriously about life. Because he gets waaaaay ahead of himself and is like “oh my goodness,,,I have to prepare and get a job so we can get married and have a giant wedding and buy a nice house and get a pet and” (he’s naming your kids in his mind btw.)

[androdetective]

As a poc, I have a complicated relationship to vbros. On one hand, the world is really immersive and the characters can be really great, on the other hand it is a very white show and has a racism problem. Many of the white characters have done racist things when characters have gotten punished or killed for less. There's also barely any side characters of color. And even then, many jokes get made at them regarding their races, because they're not seen as the norm. Also because it's an adult swim show made by white guys.

Off the top of my head, there are 4 side characters of color (Orpheus, Jefferson, Kano, and Dr Z). If we want to be generous, we could include Al. Maybe even Triana with her being biracial, albeit entirely passing as white. Even with those characters, Orpheus became whitewashed over the years.

However, ironically enough, he's the best written character of color. He's a very nice, multifaceted character. He's even become a fan favorite. He's also had no racist comments made towards him in the show. Which was a pleasant surprise. Especially since he lived on the compound with Rusty of all people. As happy as I am with that, it feels off because why did they spare only him but not others? I'm not sure if his race was ever figured out as the writers. It never got brought up, unlike other characters. I won't lie, that gives me a feeling they didn't write him as a brown man in mind. If they did write him with that in mind, he probably would've been written worse. It feels like they could only relate to him and made his character good by thinking he's white like them. Hell, they even projected their weird breakup feelings onto him.

With Jefferson, his character is a mixed bag. He's a cool character and very capable. He's a solid character, all things considered. It's just that he gets racist jokes thrown his way. And just, the show has one black side character, and they can't even act right. Why is racism, the hatred and otherness of one's entire existence, so funny. I noticed that each episode except one that he was in had at least one antiblack joke. That's an insane ratio. The worst joke was in the Halloween episode, where he was at the party. They specifically made his character open the door to a side character, red mantle, doing blackface. It was to make a shitty reference to some niche movie and just oh my god, can you stop being shitty white nerds for a second? People who think shit like this is funny makes me want to project years of racial trauma into their brains so that they could finally Get It. Again, this is the best black character they have, but they to make him go through cheap antiblack jokes.

At least with Kano and Dr Z their skin tones stopped being yellow. The other times we see characters of color are when they're background characters. They're either there to make a scene feel full or they're labor workers. The worst is when they were what I'd describe as background antagonists. One-off antagonists that aren't really villain villains. Moreso regular criminals. These tend to be depicted as black and latino. This was more common in early seasons and stopped happening over time. Which obviously great albeit bare fucking minimum, still doesn't change that it happened.

For a world that critiques the old mentalities from previous generations and even specifically denounces generational toxic masculinity. They don't say shit about the blatant racism of the Johnny Quest times they parody. And the times they try to, it's just showing racism and doing nothing about it. Princess Tinyfeet is the worst example of this. She's a blatant racial stereotype. Who for whatever reason, used to be married to Sgt Hatred, an American soldier. And Sgt Hatred is a whole can of worms.

With Dr Z who was apart of the Quest era, at least they tried to give him a character. The thing I will say is that he's voiced by a white guy (Publick) doing a stereotypical vaguely Eastern Asian accent. Something I wished when watching the show was for Dr Z to mention the old racist era he lived through, and maybe even how the present is still rough. The toxic masculinity of the era got mentioned, so why not that too. It would've been so obvious too.

I won't lie, a part of me is glad they didn't try to handle the racism because it would've been a horrible train wreck. I can get why they didn't delve too into it, they're white after all. I just wish there were more poc in the team and sensitivity writers because they were desperately needed. But for a show that can't even handle white women, I'm not surprised they can't handle people of color. For a show whose best thing they were able to tackle was toxic masculinity, I find it ironic how misogynistic they still were. Like quick, why were the side effects of misogyny that affect you 🫵 handled the best.

The thing is, if they did try to critique the racism, they'd alienate the audience, and it'd also be strangely hypocritical of them. Venture Bros'/Adult Swim's main audience is white cishet men. The ones least affected by bigotry. They're able to laugh at bigoted jokes, and they're the most marketable people. White guys will appeal to other white guys. In the early 2000s, white creators were able to get away with much more. Not because it was alright but because it was easier for them to shut down minorities calling them out. Despite how "normal" it was, that doesn't change how that fed into a very toxic, bigoted culture. Despite today still being hellish for minorities, it was even worse just a couple of years ago.

Venture Bros obviously did not invent racism/bigotry. The show is very much a product of their time and environment. And whenever I think about that, it feels draining. Especially having had to live through the 2000s. The show can be amazing when it wants to be. There's so much potential and a lot of charm and character. I really enjoy it, and that's why I'm so critical of it. Not only because I want it to be better but because I want something better for fans of color. We barely get anything, and the least we should get are characters that look like us and are respected. Just like their white counterparts. It's like, how am I supposed to feel when Sgt Hatred gets redeemed and made a main character before we got a character of color that didn't face racist jokes/got whitewashed. Or even before we got a female character whose existence didn't hinge on their relationship to a man. Obviously, the show doesn't hate people of color. They've tried to better over time, which again great. But it barely felt like they respected poc enough.

With the movie, despite its own problems (not helped by Adult Swim screwing them over), you could tell they were trying. And it was really appreciated. Jefferson had a big spotlight, and there weren't jokes against him. We even got to know a bit more about him. It was genuinely his best. Ignoring Orpheus still looking like he's in a perpetual state of winter, that aspect of the movie was alright.

I'm very glad to see fans who are critical of these aspects. It makes me more happy seeing them vouch for poc. However, there's still a large majority that ignores or even excuses the racism. Unsurprisingly, these tend to be the white dude bro fans. But I've seen even the more liberal fans excuse/ignore stuff. The fanbase is very white, just like a lot of other fanbases. I can get why a supportive white person feels they wouldn't be best to call out the show's shit. I just wish they'd mention it more with a simple "oh there's xyz in this episode and it wasn't alright." Something as simple as that carries a lot of power in very white environments. Also, of course, uplift other fans of color, especially when they talk about or face racism. Things as simple as that make me breathe sighs of relief. It personally encourages me to interact with communities more.

I'm unsure of how to close this off. This feels like a topic you could talk about all day. All I wish is for things to be better, you know? Hopefully this all makes sense. I just wrote shit off the top of my head. I'd love to hear thoughts expanding or adding on to stuff. Really hope this reaches the right people

[rootspiral]

hi, hello!! i absolutely adore your deep dive series into the aaa episodes, and i was wondering if you could/would feel like expanding further into agatha’s guilt towards wanda and all the emotion she shows in the first episode, when she sees wanda’s corpse? the way agnes seems to value human life is especially interesting to me, considering how much agatha has killed (and i understand agnes is a character in what’s supposed to be a very stereotypical detective series, but i remember how you said agnes is in some ways agatha at her most transparent). anyways, i thought i’d try to pick your brain a little more on the subject, because your takes are very interesting to me!

Hi hello to you, thank you for stopping by! And also thank you for your interesting question, consider my brain officially picked. I'm gonna ramble QUITE a bit because I want to talk about Agatha and misogyny first (as requested by @leoleolovesdc ) but hold in there, I'll get to wanda too.

To get to the point directly, I think that Agatha's actions are steeped in internalized misogyny, and I think it's something she inherited from her mother and the salemites. It's actually pretty common for marginalized communities or individuals to turn against their own and replicate the patterns of the oppressor, looking to ease their self-hatred or for outside acceptance or a sense of control. Think for example about super conservative wives voting against their best interests, think about all the homophobia and biphobia and transphobia and acephobia (etcetera etcetera ad infinitum) in the queer community.

The persecution of witches was essentially a war on a kind of womanhood that went against imposed gender norms. Witches (in the marvel universe and in real life) were more often than not women who lived independently, who knew herbs, who didn't marry, who worked as midwives etc. And talking about the salemites specifically and the way they treated Agatha: they did to Agatha what the external world did to them, they replicated a pattern. They targeted the odd one out, the woman in their group who was the most different, and called her evil and essentially tried to burn her at the stake.

We don't know a thing about evanora, but I would BET that a lot of her hatred stems from her own internalized misogyny / agatha being born female, and I honestly wonder if Agatha would have found it harder to love a daughter the same way she does Nicky or Billy, without any of her internalized bias kicking in. Since she was a kid Agatha had been hurt and persecuted by other witches, she's pretty much wired to mistrust and hate them. And it gets even more muddled and complicated because she hates witches but loves witchcraft, she hates women but is sexually and romantically attracted to them. She yearns to belong, but she ends up torturing and killing her own community. She allies with people like that disgusting prick who violated Jen.

Enter Wanda, who is essentially Agatha 2.0: she was born doomed by the narrative or, to say it like evanora, she was born evil. Evanora would have had a FIELD DAY with Wanda. The Scarlet Witch? The destroyer of universes? She would have tried to kill her on the spot. There is A LOT Agatha instinctively hates in Wanda, she's a woman, she's a witch, she's dangerous. Agatha does what the salemites did to her and what men did to witches: she replicates a pattern. She punishes Wanda for being too alone and too different and complicated and scary. And yes Agatha is doing it to get her hands on chaos magic and all that comes with that, but this is all the baggage she brings in.

There's the other side of the coin: Agatha hates women and witches, Agatha loves women and witches, and Agatha hates and loves Wanda. She's been essentially killing and running away for the past two centuries, refusing to dwell on the consequences of her actions, but we know that she is no unfeeling psychopath, that's just a role she plays. We know all her actions weigh on her. With Wanda that sense of guilt is even stronger because Wanda is not a random witch she kills and abandons in the woods, she has to live with her and witness all of Wanda's pain up close, how lonely she is, how scared she is, the grief of losing Pietro and Vision, it's all there to torment Agatha. She cannot be a child about it, she can't close her eyes and cover her ears and go lalala until it's over, she has to take it all in order to get what she wants. And what's worse, Wanda is so similar to her that Agatha can picture exactly what she's feeling down to her bones, that's empathy to the max. And she goes through with her plan and does horrible things to Wanda anyway.

Knowing Agatha like we know her now, I'm convinced that her guilt about Wanda is especially hard to deal with, but Agatha has always refused to deal with any of her inner struggles, so Wanda just goes on the pile together with all the painful and complicated feelings she's pointedly ignoring, and which are not haunting her at all, thank you very much!

Except when she's Agnes, because all the feeling are still there but she doesn't know where they come from. I'd say that more than transparent Agnes is unfiltered, she doesn't know she should censor her struggles like Agatha does. Based on Agnes, we can plainly see what the biggest issues on her Inner Pile of Shit and Sorrow are: grief over Nicky's loss, anger and yearning for Rio, extreme loneliness, and guilt over those she hurt, with a particular emphasis on Wanda.

[wishful-thinking64]

Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss Rewrite Ideas #02

Hello! Hello! I've come to bring rewrite ideas for both shows once again! People seemed to like the first one and I like coming up with story ideas with and for practically everyone so here are seven more rewrite ideas for Hazbin Hotel & Helluva Boss! ______

#01.) Have Alastor's magic sigils be radio symbols over Vodou symbols as it not only makes way more sense with Alastor being the Radio Demon but to not play into a harmful stereotype about a real life religion.

#02.) On the topic of religion, don't be afraid to add a few more religious figures from the Bible or the Torah! As long as you're being mindful about the material you're pulling from, I really don't see this as much of an issue. People make their own spin on angels, demons, Jesus, and God all the time! But for once, this is where Viv gets cold feet even though she already has Adam & Eve there but not their two main children? Or the reason behind why their parents and everything else exists?? Seriously Viv??? #03.) In any case, if you do add the first two siblings then I suggest having Cain possibly work at the Hotel as some kind of repentance considering he's both the first real Sinner and for the fact that he feels guilt over killing his little brother. #04.) Alright, now for some ideas for Helluva Boss! I feel like we've all grown tired of seeing the, "Two people arranged in a loveless marriage," trope with how often it's been appearing and HB is no stranger to this trope and tries to use it as a way to rectify Stolas' affair with Blitzo.

I mentioned this in my third One Hell of an Unpopular Opinion series but if you want to stick loosely to HB's canon then you'd probably be better off with making Stella a surrogate mother as we still haven't seen her interact with Octavia and there was no real point in having Stolas marry Stella if all he needed to do was secure an heir. Besides I'm pretty sure that's what Paimon did in order to get Stolas as we see no signs that he had a mom growing up with how he was raised by a butler. On the contrary, should you wish to keep Stella as Stolas' wife, I'd recommend going the path not taken. By which I mean, have Stella and Stolas marry because, at one point, they did genuinely love each other but over the years that love dwindled and eventually faded out. Even though they'd be better off parting ways they choose to stay together as Great Horned Owls (the owl that the actual Stolas from the actual Ars Goetia seems to be based off of) and Snow Geese (I refuse to believe she's a swan especially since her brother has ice powers and lives in an ice castle) typically mate for life. From here, I'd have Octavia not be born out of the "necessity" of an heir but rather as a last ditch effort to see if their relationship can be rekindled as many couples in real life think that having a child or children will "fix" their relationship. #05.) Sorry for getting somewhat depressing with that last bit. To make up for it, write a fun chapter about I.M.P. having fun by rewriting Episode #05 of Season #01, The Harvest Moon Festival! A lot of people like The Harvest Moon Festival as it is though the majority agrees that it should've been a Millie centric episode. So have her be the reason they go to the Harvest Moon Festival over Stolas, show her competing in the Pain Games, and have her stand up for her husband due to having enough of her family constantly shit talking him. Overall, have Millie excel at being the bad ass girlboss that HB makes her out to be! #06.) Give Octavia some type of found family or friend group. Have her attend a prestigious private school (I doubt Stella will have her daughter attend a regular public high school) and have her become friends with the school's outcasts. The reason this group could be outcasts is because they actually earned their right to be there by getting good grades while most of the students are probably the offspring of Hell's high ranking officials. But seriously, this girl needs (and deserves) a support system STAT! #07.) Properly explain what it takes to get a soul into Heaven. I don't care if you explain this via The Ten Commandments, trusting that Jesus died for humanity's sins, or by using another set of rules from a different religion that isn't Christianity just be certain that your explanation is clear and concise and makes sense for what you have already pre-established for your rewrite. Don't do what the HH series did by saying, "Yeah, we don't know," because that is genuinely how you lose an audience. You can't have the ENTIRE premise of the show being about wanting Sinners to get into Heaven when HEAVEN doesn't even know what gets a soul there in the first place! ______ Well, those are all of the ideas I've got for now! See ya guys!

[jeannereames]

Forgive me if this is a very elementary question (inspired after watching your TikToks!!) but… I’ve always been curious: what exactly was the role of a secretary in the Macedonian court such that Eumenes could wield so much power and influence, especially during the Successor Wars? Like, to the point that the Chilliarch, the second-in-command to the king himself, would have beef with him? I guess when I think of a secretary, I envision the more stereotypical modern version of them, which is like an executive assistant, or the front desk receptionist, or a customer service agent, which obviously seems to be anachronistic. But I’m just struggling to comprehend what would have made Eumenes, or the role he occupied, such a controversial figure.

First, let me point to an important book by my colleague, Ed(ward M.) Anson, Eumenes of Cardia: a Greek among Macedonians (2nd ed., 2015). It’s a quite excellent discussion of Eumenes’s career, and was actually Ed’s dissertation topic. I reckon, like me, he waited a long while before turning the dissertation into a monograph (even the 1st edition). Alas, it’s expensive. Even I don’t own a copy, as I have access to the university library’s. But I do recommend that folks interested request it via Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Even smaller public libraries offer that service, although you might have to pay a (relatively) small shipping fee.

So, Eumenes is an interesting character in many ways. As you suggest, “secretary” gives the wrong impression. The word in Greek is grammateus, and it can mean any sort of scribe, clerk, records keeper…or the official in charge of the whole royal office: official correspondence, what letters the king actually saw, the keeping of the Royal Journal and other state records, etc., etc. A hugely influential position, his might be closer to what we’d call, in the US, the Chief of Staff.

In my opinion, that was the heart of Eumenes’s dislike of Hephaistion. I said it in my dissertation and still think it’s true. When Hephaistion was made Chiliarch, that put him above Eumenes in administration around Alexander. The Chief of Staff got demoted…and didn’t like it. It’s from Susa onward that the two men seem to clash—at least twice that we know about. (I differ with Ed on this; he thinks it was about personalities while I think it was more political- and status-driven.)

That Eumenes was loyal to Alexander—and the Argead family—isn’t in question. But it wasn’t just Hephaistion he had trouble with. We know he also didn’t like Antipatros—one reason he sided with Perdikkas, even when (his friend) Krateros joined Antipatros. He also had a long-standing family beef with Hekataios of Kardia, and later hated Kassandros (as the son of Antipatros). But he seems to have got on with Olympias and Kleopatra—who he tried to get Perdikkas to marry. Perdikkas took his advice and divorced Antipatros’s daughter Nikaia, which eventually led to his downfall. One can’t escape the sense that Eumenes was touchy. Then again, as I’ve said before, they all were. And he had to put up with being constantly looked down on both as a “mere secretary” and as a Greek among Macedonians. He advanced on Alexander’s favor…which probably made others jealous of him. In fact, I think that’s one reason he took Hephaistion’s promotion hard. He’d worked hard for Chief of Staff, and didn’t like Hephaistion butting in. And if Hephaistion was also of Greek descent (as I’ve argued), both may have had a sense that there was room only for one. Or at least Eumenes may have thought so.

Men in his position weren’t normally entrusted with military commands, but he proved to be surprisingly good and, according to Ed, probably had more army assignments during Alexander’s lifetime than he’s credited with. (He was allied with Ptolemy’s enemy, Perdikkas, remember and Ptolemy was Arrian’s chief military source.) When Perdikkas was elevated to Hephaistion’s position, Eumenes took Perdikkas’s old command, and later, was himself Chilliarch. The infantry seems to have liked/trusted him, and later, he was quite successful at securing Cappadocia. In fact, during the early Diadochi wars, it was his stratagem that defeated Krateros’ army and got him killed (perhaps to his own regret, although I think Plutarch exaggerated that account). He also fought—one-on-one—against Neoptolemos … another of Alexander’s officers he couldn’t stand. And beat him. Neoptolemos was a demonstrated military commander.

So he seems to have defied the usual expectation of what a grammateus could do—and become. He was the highest ranking Greek in Alexander’s army, the only one to really rub shoulders with the Macedonian inner circle.

EDIT: I realized I forgot Nearchos. So Eumenes AND Nearchos were the two top-ranked Greeks at Alexander's court at his death. But if anything, Eumenes had edged Nearchos in place.

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

Now that we have come to the end of the drama... Drama vs. Webtoon time!

I'm going to do this one a little differently, head to head, did the drama or the webtoon do it better in Marry My Husband?

Drama did it better! ML's Original Death

So in the webtoon, Ji-hyuk goes to Ji-won's funeral and then just offs himself by walking into the sea. It's not super clear why, like he barely knew Ji-won, and it felt really pathetic. I preferred the car accident.

Webtoon did it better! Su-min killing Min-hwan's mom

This didn't even come close to happening in the drama, but Su-min comes home to find the MIL from Hell having a stroke and then just turns around and leaves her on the floor. When it looks like she might recover, Su-min injects air into her veins and she dies. Su-min goes to prison for this as she doesn't kill her husband. Anyway, the drama showed us MIL very sad after her son's death, but I preferred this ending since she spent so long abusing Ji-won in the original timeline.

Drama did it better! Not So Much Love Triangle

Poor Eun-ho spent a lot more time pining after Ji-won in the webtoon. Happy that he got resolution there. Also, never felt like Eun-ho had a chance in the drama which I preferred.

Webtoon did it better! Eun-ho & Hui-yeon

I couldn't believe how little screen time these cuties got! Give me Hui-yeon proposing (at least she confessed first), give me them being in love! Why was Eun-ho not in the time-jump scene at the end?

Toss-up: Mr. Lee & Mrs. Yang

I liked the character of Mr. Lee better in the drama, but I liked Mrs. Yang's story better in the webtoon. Mr. Lee is way too nice in the webtoon, I liked his supportive and yet kind of rude persona in the drama. However, I wanted more of their story, in the webtoon Mrs. Yang's ex tries to kidnap their daughter as leverage, which is stopped, and then Mr. Lee has a very cute relationship with Mrs. Yang's daughter, who asks her mom if she'll marry Mr. Lee. We didn't really get any confirmation that they would end up together in the drama!

Drama did it better! Min-hwan's ending

Was it so satisfying to see him get the same ending he gave to Ji-won? Yes it was. In the webtoon, he sabotages his own car hoping that Su-min will die and he'll get the inheritance money. But then he drives his car to see his mom (after her stroke) and drives off a bridge. I liked this ending better.

Drama did it better! Mains as Parents

I felt like the webtoon went a little too far in making Ji-hyuk the only providing parent. I'm all for women working, but it just seemed unrealistic to me. I liked seeing both of them exhausted on the couch with their twins.

Toss-up: Plots that I Didn't Love

I really disliked Yu-ra in the drama, who I guess had to be included so she could take Ji-hyuk's fate. I think the webtoon was smart to cut her and I found her really annoying and over the top. However, I also didn't love the plot in the webtoon where Ji-won catfishes both Su-min and Min-hwan so that she can reproduce the betrayed by a friend thing. So I guess they both struggled with the third act.

Webtoon did it better! ML Doesn't Inherit

In the webtoon, Ji-hyuk decides to run his own security company and Ji-won continues at the original company. I guess the drama preferred a super rich power couple, but the webtoon was better in that way for me. I didn't love Ji-won becoming a stereotypical rich wife with a charity...

Webtoon did it better! MORE CAT

Pang (mold) the cat has a whole chapter from his POV in the webtoon. It was so cute!

Drama did it better! The Family Dinner

Honestly, I didn't think anything could top the webtoon's family dinner where Ji-won shows up in her revenge get-up, but I just loved Ji-won flipping Min-hwan so much!

Lastly, the drama really made Min-hwan and Su-min great characters. All the awards for Su-min's actress especially. Those two really came alive in a way that the webtoon just didn't do.

(and yes, I know the drama was based on the original webnovel but I'm not reading that, I like webtoons, and both are adaptations so fair comparison).

[clementine-kesh]

when you start digging into tom paris as a character it’s really like, that guy has so much weird shit going on around masculinity. there’s so much material between his father and his relationship with b’elanna that it’s hard not to read him as trying to compensate for something. in threshold he states that he spent most of his teenage years crying alone in his room and that his father thinks of crying as a weakness. which, as an aside, is truly the quintessential queer kid with unaccepting parents experience. tom’s father had standards that he failed to live up to, and that includes standards of what it means to be a man. tough, serious, stoic. a very heteronormative point of view. tom is none of those things and yet what he wants more than anything is to feel normal by living up to those standards. standards which are explicitly about being a heroic starfleet officer, but implicitly are also about fitting a certain image of masculinity.

so, enter b’elanna. for someone like tom who is both one of the more racist characters on the show and desperate to validate his masculinity, a half-klingon who everyone labels as tough and fierce and angry (despite any and all evidence to the contrary) is a perfect target. finally, you can prove you’re a real man by taming this scary angry woman! it doesn’t matter what she’s actually like, she’s just a trophy for you to win. and since she’s just as much of an outcast as you are you barely need to put any effort in to keep her around. it’s notable that the only time we ever see tom express any kind of investment in b’elanna’s interests is when they’re stereotypical klingon things like bat’leth fighting. and even then it’s not really her interests as much as it’s the interests that tom thinks that she, as someone who is part-klingon, should have, no matter if she’s actually interested in them or not. then whenever she tries to get involved with his interests he rebuffs her, as if she’s not actually interesting to him if she’s not being “klingon” enough. even after they’re married, his lines in lineage and prophecy indicate that he still doesn’t get that she could possibly ever be anything BUT a stereotypical klingon.

of course this setup is ideal for tom because it means he’s got everything he could possibly want. he’s locked down a relationship which, in his mind, needs minimal emotional investment, lets him fit into that heteronormative mold, and makes him seem like a big tough manly man without him actually needing to do anything to prove it. let’s see your dad tell his buddies that you’re a bit gay now that you’ve got a kid with your hot klingon wife!

[angelkitty54]

Thoughts I had on Sally Acorn and her role as "Princess".

Look, there's a lot more active and unconscious sexism in mainstream media then we like to admit and let's face it, Princesses are rarely portrayed as possessing any form of power or authority despite their rank. Neither are Queens for that matter; always considered below the King in that regard. The Patriarchy at work.

And Princess Sally Acorn is unfortunately a victim of such misogynistic tropes.

The problem is, the Archie comic writers were determined to make her into another stereotypical powerless princess, but unfortunately for them, she was fundamentally not designed that way! Sally Acorn was created as the sole remaining heir to the throne; one not only fighting, but leading the fight to take back her kingdom! She was meant to rule, her character being designed to do so in fact. Which is a very large part of why she was so inconsistently written: when she was portrayed as a Princess she was meek and subservient, but as a Freedom Fighter she was fierce, decisive and a proactive leader!

When you really look into her character, Sally was not raised a princess, she was raised as the last remaining heir to the throne, meaning she was effectively raised to be King. And it shows! Sally, even as a child was leading the Freedom Fighters, was a regarded as being in a position of authority by those living in Knothole, she lead negotiations and forged alliances! She was already doing all the things a true Ruler is supposed to do!

Yet the moment her father came back she was effectively demoted to being a hapless little girl. To be fair, it does make some sense to an extent. Sally does not know how to be a princess, at least not by her very traditional father's standards. She's been searching for him for all this time and finally has him back, of course she'd want him to be proud of her. So, naturally, she'd try her best to conform to his desires, but she was always meant for greater things.

That whole thing she had with the "Source of All" and Sword of Acorns just further cements Sally's true place in the royal hierarchy. A literal cosmic or god-like force (whatever was going on there) wanted Sally to be Queen, and add an enchanted sword called out to her, wanting her to wield it? Anyone else getting the Sword in the Stone vibes here? Of course the writers forced her to not want it and give it all up, because reasons I guess, despite going out of their way to show us all how in universe Sally was the One True King of the Acorn Kingdom.

At least her brother and her boyfriend recognised pretty much right from the start who she truly was. Sonic had always campaigned for Sally to return to lead the Freedom Fighters. And Elias tried his best to support her, knowing she was a much better leader than him.

Not to say Elias wouldn't make a good King. He had his ups and downs, but the his character really shone in the Secret Freedom Fighter story arcs. You could really see him coming into his own then. With Elias taking on the role of heir, it frees up Sally to go back to leading the Freedom Fighters. Her authority was always recognised there at least; her own little kingdom as it were.

It's very easy to imagine the Freedom Fighters traveling the world as a kind of superhero team, lead by the power couple that is Sally and Sonic. :)

But if she were to take the throne, it definitely would be nothing like how they represented Queen Sally in the 25/30 Years Later arc. Not just because they completely nerfed her character entirely, also because Sonic never would have become King to start with. Marrying a princess does not automatically make you a king!! You have to already be a prince in your own right, or literally everyone else in line for succession, including your spouse, has to die for you to gain that title! Even then you'd have to have had some sort of claim to the throne to start with!

The highest rank Sonic could have feasibly achieved would be "Prince Consort", but logically his title would have been "The Queen's Husband" given he was a commoner. And let's face it, Sonic would happily be Sally's trophy husband.

But anyways, this has gotten long, so in conclusion:

Sally Acorn is the rightful ruler and One True King of Mobius. She would have made a damn great Princess and Queen if not for poor writing coloured by sexist views. But she is also just as much a Queen while leading the Freedom Fighters!

(And she totally should have kept Excalibur the Sword of Acorns! Tho her energy swords are cool too!)

[seriousbrat]

Do you think Lily (or atleast your lily) is “not like other girls-ing” it. Meaning do you think she looks down on the hyper feminine or atleast holds her self as being better (consciously or unconsciously) for not being that?

Given the time period she grew up in it would be a bit of an anomaly for her to not have these deep seated ideas of femininity (which is why I don’t give hermione too hard of a time here), but if you think she didn’t adopt that thinking what caused that? And if she did (to any capacity) what does that look like in her day to day life?

Oooh, honestly a very interesting question! My most honest answer is that.... probably a little bit. The thing is that we've only begun to question the whole "not like other girls" thing very recently, so we have to consider that this was absolutely not a thing during the 70s. I do think Lily would consider herself "not like a lot of other girls" in the sense that maybe intellectual, political, philosophical things are more important to her than stereotypically feminine concerns like makeup, boys, fashion etc. That being said, I think she would in general be what we now call a "girl's girl."

I don't think she can be blamed for this; again the way we now see the whole "not like other girls" thing is very recent. Personally I don't believe that any women or girls who have felt excluded from the roles traditionally ascribed to women are at fault for feeling that way. Especially in the past, I understand why women would have felt like they weren't meeting certain standards that were expected of them and would take that as proof that they weren't like the majority of women-- the truth is that NO women are meeting 100% of the standards expected of them, but all of this is a pretty recent idea.

Lily would have likely compared herself to the model of Petunia, who is in many ways very stereotypically hyperfeminine-- her main life goal was to get married, be a housewife, and have a kid. While Lily did get married and have a kid, I don't see her as being content with just being a housewife, and I don't think that was her only life goal at all. If it weren't for the war (which is already something Lily was dedicating herself to beyond a sterotypically feminine role) she likely would have had aspirations beyond being a mother and a wife. So I do think she compared herself to Petunia in that sense, but you have to consider that in the 70s and 80s women were still fighting for many rights and considerations that today we consider basic.

I imagine that for Lily, Petunia represented something actively anti-feminist-- she married a chauvinist, conservative, middle class man who expected Petunia to cook his meals and clean his house-- and that was all that Petunia aspired to. I think that, in a sense, Lily did look down on Petunia for choosing this lifestyle, simply because she would never be content with that herself. We also have to take into account the fact that, for all the faults that the wizarding world has, gender is not really as big of a factor as it is in the Muggle world---although misogyny definitely exists in canon, a witch could potentially be much more powerful or talented than any given wizard, and it seems as though witches are very capable of reaching the same positions as wizards in the Ministry.

So, basically, I do think Lily would have judged Petunia especially in some sense for making choices that Lily considered to be anti-feminist. Does that make her an "I'm not like other girls" girl? I don't think so, personally I see her as being a stalwart feminist and very supportive of her female friends. Her judgment of Petunia likely came from the disparaging attitude that Petunia and Vernon had towards Lily and James-- I see Lily as being prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, and really making an effort to support her sister and maintain their relationship even if she didn't fully agree with Petunia's choices. But as we know, Petunia didn't let her. Lily tried to understand, and that does show a lot of empathy. I think that in this situation he problem was Petunia.

[babiebom]

Stardew Characters as Euphoria Chatacters

A/N: I have been sick for the last couple of days but I turn 24 tomorrow!! So here’s a lil something from me <3 also a disclaimer I have not watched this show outside of edits and crack compilations so it might not be accurate lmao. Also also it’s not everyone just who I can see in the main roles that I know?? Also also also I would like to write something like euphoria for stardew but I think I gotta get finished with when you fall first and I’m not even nearly done with that because idk how I want it to end yet.

Tw:cursing, mentions of cheating, fighting, betrayal, euphoria things I guess?

Bc: at least 2-4 for each hopefully?

Stardew Masterlist

Haley-Maddy Perez

The hot popular girl who everyone either likes or fears or wants to be. Like we all know that Haley is kinda a bitch when you first meet her but she’s actually super sweet when you get to know her. And what I know of Maddy is that she looks put together but I’m pretty sure she has problems and while she looks like a mean girl she’s actually kinda sweet and funny. She’s in a toxic relationship because that’s what she thinks she deserves and will end up with. That sweet, pure, long lasting love isn’t something that she thinks she’ll ever get, and is something that she acknowledges won’t be enough for her in the long run even if it’s what she secretly wants.

All she really cares about is her friends, her family, and it used to be her boyfriend because yeah he was her future but that’s done with now. So she tries to focus on what’s to come. And unlike a lot of others, she’s more chill about people’s wrongdoings, like yeah you kinda pissed her off but that happens(as long as it isn’t betrayal) like oh you relapsed? That’s okay it happens sometimes babe, you’re more than just a drug addict and don’t you forget that. Sure she’s gonna go off the deep end eventually, but you don’t deserve that so remember she’s here for you and get yourself together.

Like yeah shes pretty and walks around as if she owns the place but really shes going through something fucked up with her ex who does seem to actually want to let her go despite not actually behaving as if he loves her. And sure she loves him, but she decided to walk away from the relationship for a reason so why is she sleeping with him again? Is it because he uses sweet words? Is it because she believes this is all she’s ever going to get? Maybe it’s the way he makes promises of the future like getting married and having kids while hurting her that makes her want to get back with him. But nevertheless she’s trying hard to stay away from him, to move on and learn to actually love herself and grow. Him basically threatening her life was enough for her, she knows that she deserves toxicity(does she tho?) but there’s a line that you do not cross and hopefully she learns what it is before it’s too late.

Penny-Cassie Howard

While Penny is a wholesome girl, I do think there is an underlying potential in how passive aggressive and fake she could be. Like yes Haley is the stereotypical popular girl, but if we look closely Penny seems like the girl who isn’t actually a girls girl but is a pick me that pretends that she’s so nice and friendly. Like is Penny actually like that? No but we are strictly speaking in what could be and who has the potential for what.

Like i can see Penny in high school changing herself for whatever guy she has her eyes set on, and falling in love with literally any guy that gives her the time of day. And yeah she might go for guys that are slightly toxic but Penny has daddy issues and mommy issues so it’s not really surprising is it? I think Haley is who Penny wishes she could be. Pretty, has a bit of money, has a very attractive boyfriend that Penny has set her sights on.

Yeah Penny is being kinda self centered, but y’know it’s not her fault! She has this way of justifying her actions, no matter how stupid, or petty, or mean, or evil they may be. And no one would really expect that of her. Like she portrays herself as a sweet girls girl that could NEVER betray someone that she considers her best friend. Like even though her friend confided in her about how toxic her relationship was, and Penny goes after the boyfriend anyways she’s still not in the wrong there were other variables that had to do with her decision she promises!! She hides things and pretends and finds the thrill of trying to get his attention, acting as if nothing is going on, and still maintaining the friendships that she kinda has no value in other than wanting to seem likable by befriending these people.

Shes going to get what she wants. No matter what. AND she’s going to play the victim throughout. It’s going to take a lot for her to realize she messed up but what can you do? Like sad for her but sorta inevitable. She brought it upon herself.

Maru-Kat Hernandez

From what I’ve seen Kat gives off very insecure vibes. Like she could be smart(I honestly don’t know) she’s pretty, just just what people call “fat” and while being fat isn’t a bad thing I think it’s an insecurity for her especially because her friends are all skinny. And while Maru’s body is up for interpretation(I do think she’s a lil chubby bc it’s cute) I think she’d be insecure in terms of anything other than her intelligence. Like sure she’s not ugly but she doesn’t put effort into her appearance like her friends do. And that doesn’t really get her any attention, not the attention she wishes she got, and having a father like Demetrius doesn’t help anything.

I do think it would take something drastic to get Maru out of her shell similar to Kat, and I do also think she’d be a good friend, like NO do NOT fight her!! Let’s calm down!! Type of friend. I do see Maru having a glow up type thing and coming out of her shell, but the personality she comes into seems kinda fake and as if she’s trying to act like her friends instead of being her own thing.

Maru gives off very follower type vibes, and again I haven’t watched Euphoria, and Kat is very….follower-y like she’s always around Maddy and is trying to be confident like her but really she’s just insecure and fears rejection.

Abigail- Jules Vaughn

Abigail would totally be the mysterious person that catches everyone’s eye when she appears. I mean personally when I first played the game I thought she was VERY pretty(until she annoyed me bc 1 heart convos are dumb and I found out she was paired with seb lmao) and I’m pretty sure literally EVERYONE (other than some people) is attracted to Jules.

Like she’s hooking up with people, dating, just being a very entrancing person and I think Abby could fit the role if she was more into the mysterious sexy vibe instead of the gothic(?) gamer girl vibe y’know? Like she’s there for the drama and laughing at it and she’s trying to not be a part of it until she’s breaking up with someone or sleeping with someone she shouldn’t

Sorry hers is short I just think the others fit more.

Shane-Rue Bennett

Rue is a teenage drug addict that is struggling to get clean, and honestly probably doesn’t even really want to because of how many mental problems she’s burdened by. Like I looked it up very briefly but I saw OCD, severe anxiety disorder, I think BPD like there’s a lot going on in her mind along with I’m pretty sure her father being dead. I just think she’s straight up not having a good time and while getting clean might be a good idea and the best road to go down, the fact is getting high probably feels better and is easier to do in order to deal with her issues. Shane is the same unfortunately, he’s an alcoholic that is just taking every day one by one but not very well. He works in a dead end job and lives with his aunt in a small boring ass town that probably doesn’t take mental health seriously seeing as the other alcoholic in the town was the towns bus driver before she crashed, and when the bus gets fixed they give her back the job instead of getting both of them help. Like they supply them with the beer and everything because making money is better than trying to rid them of their habits, and literally Pam and Penny live in a shitty ass trailer when literally everyone else(other than Linus) live in a good ass house. Like these two are similar with the fact that they are STRUGGLING and most people just see them as addicts instead of people who need help.

I also think that Shane would cause a distraction to get away from everyone trying to help bc it is too much to deal with at one time, like Rue and calling Cassie out about sleeping with Nate in front of everyone then taking off. I do think that Shane could be a very good friend outside of his alcoholism and is willing to get help. Also from what I’ve seen Rue might be high but she doesn’t lie(maybe she does idk) and I think Shane would be the same. Like yeah he’s drunk af and wants to die and he’s a little sarcastic but he’s not going to lie to you at all.

Elliott- Lexi Howard

All I know about Lexi is that she’s a writer and made a whole play about whatever was going on around her without anyone knowing, then putting it into production with the school again without telling the people it’s about. Like she’s just watching and taking notes and I think it’s funny. Because I feel like it’s something Elliott would do.

Is he a part of the drama? Nope! He’s standing back and watching everything burn while thinking to himself that this novel is going to be an absolute masterpiece because real tragedies are better than ones you make up. Also I do think he gives off that he would fall for someone that is the complete opposite of him, like how Lexi falls for a drug dealer(?). Like yeah his love life has to be something out of a book too. Nothing plain for him.

Alex- Nate Jacobs

I think this is self explanatory? Like who else would be Nate? Sebastian? Sam? HARVEY? Let’s bffr

Like Alex would be a popular guy in school(is he popular? Nate I mean?) and honestly while I don’t think Alex would be toxic and abusive especially bc of his upbringing, but I can see an alternative universe where he was raised by his shitty dad and became shitty in response.

Like high school football player who is toxic towards women as a result of his fathers influence and is probably obsessed with his now ex girlfriend and is trying to find what he had with her(even if it was fucked up) with someone who wishes they were her.

Like does he love the new girlfriend? No. But does he like the ego boost he gets from her? Yes. Dating someone who is so willing to change themself for him in ways that he this is comical and a little sad makes him feel good and somewhat fills the void. Especially when that person will let him treat them whatever way he wants including breaking up with them and getting back and everything he’s going to stay with them(I mean more like keeping them close to him) because he knows that he needs something that takes his mind off of how much he actually hates himself.

[cowbilover]

lo and queer masc/man rep

or therefore the complete lack there of. which is incredibly insulting considering how common and prominent it was in original myth (although not always perfect but what greek myth is regardless of straight or gay). also i will be using queer in place of LGBT+ as an umbrella term so if you're not comfortable with that then sorry.

now rachel has made attempts at including queer rep through hestia and athena as lesbians and morpheus (and maybe chiron? idk) as trans women. which could be a whole separate post on its own with the problems that arise with them, but seeing as i am not a lesbian or trans woman, i will not be speaking on them in this post nor to the same degree if i do ever mention them.

what i am is a queer man, both bisexual and trans. i am also a big enjoyer of greek myth. i am not a big enjoyer of lore olympus nor of rachel's complete lack of representation when it comes to men like myself despite it being again very prominent within the original myths. now seeing how badly she has handled other forms of representation for other groups, i am partially glad she hasn't tried. but while i am a little happy, i am more so overall upset and annoyed at this. it comes off as nothing more than simple erasure.

the closest we've seen of rep for queer men/mascs is aged up storge who is more feminine then other men in the story, but this has not been explicitly confirmed therefore i will not be including this. besides men can be both feminine and still cishet. finally storge is a minor background character with little importance, so even if rachel did decide to make him canon queer we likely would not see much of that.

his brother eros is another annoying case as he is unarguably coded as a gay best friend stereotype. but without being gay. he is fashionable, witty, intelligent, dramatic, and always serves as a shoulder for his straight friend to cry on. but again he is not even fucking gay. he is married to a woman with a child. while i would like to see better representation then the gbf stereotype it is still insulting that rachel while coding eros to act like that couldn't even do the bare minimum of making him bisexual.

now it has been pointed out to me that names of male lovers to gods have been used and slapped on female nymphs. krokos (one of persephone's dead nympth friends) was a male spartan lover of hermes, and ampleus (the name pysche took as a nymph) was a lover of dionysus. now i am not upset that rachel didn't include the original stories since the story is already messy enough. i am upset that she took the names of two queer men from myth and slapped them on two woman. one of which ends up marrying a man, and the other dying. a quick google search could show that these names belonged to male lovers of gods, and so to me it comes off as at best lazy and at worst erasure.

i won't be discussing much of dionysus since he was only recently introudced. nor of apollo since the erasure of his queer identity is only one of many problems that occur with his character and how rachel wrote it, which could constitution a completely separate post.

i will be discussing hermes though. as both a character that we have seen a lot of, and as one that has not been completely villainized by the plot. he had an incredibly early appearance in the webtoon and had a handful of myths where he had male lovers or expressed homosexual love. but not a single mention or even passing comment has ever been made about this. it would be incredibly easy for rachel to just throw in one allusion to any of his male lovers (besides krokos who has been turned into a nymph for some reason) yet this never happens.

zeus is another character we have seen a lot of, especially in regards to his many affairs. all of which have canonically been with women. despite the many affairs he carried out with men. one of the most famous being ganymede and the foundation for the myth behind aquarius and the cup bearer. again it would not be so incredibly difficult for rachel to add any allusion to his male lovers. yet again though, nothing. (i will come back to this post after some fast passes become public and i can discuss his treatment as a pregnant man)

poseidon also had a couple queer lovers but besides the reference to the fact that he has a polygam "pod" we haven't actually seen any of his partners besides his wife.

the way rachel draws men with all perfect six pack bodies is also something that annoys me, and i'll be discussing it briefly here. people always comment on the lack of body diversity for the women in the comic but for the men it is much more severe. hermes, thanatos and eros who were all shown to be more skinny and not completely jacked in the beginning of the story are now all ripped with washboard abs. the men are all built like brick walls and it is just upsetting to see as a trans man who does not fit into that category. it sends the message that to be attractive a man must be perfectly fit. not scrawny or skinny or god forbid even fat.

also again as i said in the beginning many of the myths for queer men were just as fucked and problematic. it’s greek mythology it’s inevitable. but i’m more upset over the fact that if rachel can modernize and (attempt to) make hetero myths less gross, then where is that effort for homo myths

overall despite the overwhelming amount of queer man/masc rep that exists within the source material, rachel utilizes none of it. there has not been mention or allusion to a single queer god, forget any trans god. to me it comes off as purposefully ignorant and as erasure of queer men/mascs. which is fucking annoying considering how many of us see ourselves for once fucking represented in these myths. she has plenty of opportunity to include rep for people like myself but continuously chooses not to, instead adding another hetero-centric plot line for no reason. it is tiring and annoying to see so many gods that were queer in their myths not be represented as such. i will not make assumptions about why rachel chooses not to include this kind of rep, i will simply say to me it comes off as blatant erasure.

i could go on, and probably will come back to this post but for now i have said what i have wanted to say.

[hxhhasmysoul]

You've frequently said that Yuuji is like a shoujo protagonist. Could you elaborate on that? I don't read shoujo and the last shoujo anime I watched was years ago so I'm not very familiar with it but I'm very fascinated as to why you think Yuuji's like a shoujo heroine. I don't think I've ever heard anyone else describe him as such.

I think I've seen some people talk about him in the context of a shoujo manga, though it might have been more in the context of him being a shoujo love interest which from what I recall of shoujo isn't really apt, Megumi with his aloof personality fits that bill more. but maybe others compared him to a protag too.

As you can see I'm also not some shoujou manga, or any manga category, expert. And I'm sure there's at least one, but more likely several, in-depth academic analyses of shoujo as a category, or what a shoujo protagonist is. And as with any such broad category there are surely exceptions, possibly even very popular ones.

With the above caveats, what I mean when I say "Yuuji is a shoujo manga heroine" is that he kinda fits the bill of what I picture when I think of a shoujo heroine. But also it's a bit of a sad joke, because, le sigh, patriarchy.

So historically, and maybe even today, not an expert, the manga categories were very strongly targeted at very particular demographics. Which any form of media like that, you of course get a lot of stereotypes baked into it. Stereotypes about what these groups may want to see which are based on societal norms and expectations for these groups. And the main manga categories are gendered and divided by age into shoujo - manga for adolescent women, josei - manga for adult women, shounen - manga for young men, seinen - manga for adult men.

From what I've gathered, the adult categories, I think especially the seinen category, are more flexible in what they allow for in terms of topics. Like adults can be interested in whatever they want, especially when it comes to men.

The categories directed at the youth feel more rigid when it comes to what they should depict. In gross simplification, girls should be exposed to relationships while boys should be exposed to action.

It's not like you don't get any action in shoujo, like you can get a lot of it, but it's framed differently than what you get in shounen and I will get to that. But the relationship will be at the forefront, and there's usually romance as an important part of the story.

You also get relationships in shounen, the already cliche power of friendship and so on, though rather no romance. It's a running joke that we get epilogues where we find out the protag who had the most dramatic and kinda romantic moments with his male friend/rival/enemy is happily married to one of the girls that cheered on him from the sidelines. Heteronormativity needs to be maintained. It's also a cliche that any romance that happens in shounen is played for laughs and kinda cringe, or downright laced with some really creepy shit like pedophilia (older women taking interest in young boys usually but it's "just a joke" or even depicted as cool) or incel shit (like male characters harassing and stalking female characters).

Gege doesn't do any of that, and will be very good about it if they stay on course and not make the "and they were all heterosexual" epilogue. I wrote a more detailed post about it, one that also delves into a lot of gender stuff, though it's a bit of a questionable one due to its origins and it's a bit old, etc. etc., proceed with caution if you choose to check it out. (A side note too, Hell's Paradise is quite interesting with it's premise of the protag loving his wife even if it's not executed well. Generally Kaku tries a lot of interesting things, though doesn't always manage to stick the landing).

A shoujo heroine often isn't the brightest when it comes to school stuff, or strongest in terms of physical strength, if there's magic involved her powers usually don't seem to be the most devastating in their effects. What she will usually have is an ability to deliver moments of very high vulnerability. She will also usually have a huge heart and ability to bring people together. These 3 combined is how she usually will win fights. A shounen character often can also have the last two, but usually the vulnerability he delivers is a bit one note, sometimes feels almost performative with the "I'm not strong enough". (also I'm sure that there a plenty of shoujo that also fail these). And the shounen character uses his vulnerability moment to charge the final attack while a shoujo heroine can win just through being vulnerable. (There's obviously shounen which has done this too, like categories this big will have everything, Killua wins with Palm through showing vulnerability, he does that with Illumi too.)

You might already see where I'm going with this.

Yuuji is built around his very strong humanity, his compassion. It's in his name. He is extremely good at delivering moments of devastating vulnerability, moments that are not power ups for him at all. He's also built around his loneliness and desire for connection, for being surrounded by people. He's very people oriented, has a warm personality and brings people together. He's capable of deep compassion and love. He has very high emotional intelligence. And he's capable of winning a fight through that alone, actually.

I started to call him a shoujo heroine after the Junpei battle, because he literally wins that by making himself vulnerable in front of Junpei and talking Junpei down. That's why what happens next is all the more devastating. He makes himself vulnerable in front of Higuruma.

If you apply shounen logic to JJK you get all those fans shitting on Yuuji because he's not the strongest. Because he doesn't have flashy powers like Gojou or Sukuna or Megumi. The cold takes like: "he loses several battles, omg he's not really the protagonist", or "he doesn't get amazing power ups", or "he's not driven to be the strongest, he's not proactive in achieving some lofty goals, climbing to the top of the hierarchy", etc. etc. blah, blah.

However if you apply a more shoujo logic to JJK, Yuuji is the clear and only protagonist. He's the heart of the story, he's the most people-oriented, relationship-oriented, vulnerable character. People are drawn to his warmth, not his power (Toudou's fanfiction about Yuuji is about Yuuji being his emotional support, about Yuuji letting Toudou be vulnerable together!).

All of the themes of the story converge onto him. He's emotionally tied to both major villains, and to their victims. His subtle personal, highly vulnerable goal, screams shoujo manga.

That's why I call him a shoujo heroine.

Why I say this is all a bit of a sad joke. While everything I wrote above, I stand by with my full conviction, the joke is that it all hinges on buying into patriarchy.

The division between shounen and shoujo is based on the societal norms for the gender binary. The idea that girls should like certain things, should behave a certain way... boys should like other things, behave in a different way etc. etc. In a system like that even personality traits are gendered. Men are stoic, calm, collected, decisive, forward, intellectual, high-minded, practical, project strength, they should feel comfortable taking up space blah blah. Women are emotional, fragile, caring, supportive, they don't care about practicality but are interested in the trivial and pretty things, they should be shy and quiet, feel good in the background, blah blah blah.

One of the principal traits of a shoujo and shounen protagonists is their gender. Because girls should read about girls and boys should read about boys.

This is why it's a bit of a sad joke, because calling Yuuji a shoujo heroine feels a bit like calling him a girl. And while I do it with love, and with my highly internally processed views on gender, I do it in public. I do it on this website where so many people perform a lot of feminism or queer activism in ways that are full of internalised misogyny and queerphobia of various stripes. In a patriarchal society calling a boy a girl is an insult, it's a form of devaluing him because girls are seen as less than. It's implying that he's failing at being a man. And Yuuji gets a lot of shit from the fandom for not being strong enough, for failing as a shounen protag. For failing to be that idealised, aspirational version of a boy. One that can overcome anything, one that's always strong, that is always driven.

I will quote here what I wrote about Yuuji in the post I linked above not to repeat myself:

"Yuuji is written more like a female character than a male one if we take the gender stereotypes into consideration, especially those that pervade the shounen genre. He’s built around compassion, cooperation and orienting himself towards others. These are stereotypically female coded traits. He doesn’t have a self aggrandising goal like so many shounen protagonists. His goal is intimate, it’s about his emotional needs. I forgot to mention that Yuuji is quite passive compared to a typical shounen protag. He rarely takes action on his own and only when the situation really forces him to do it. He’s reactive not proactive. He has this goal of eating all fingers but he waits for instructions, follows them. He doesn’t go out in the world seeking out the fingers. Same goes for his missions to kill curses. The reality had to hurt him real bad for him to become more active and still even now he falls in line, he’s not driven in the way shounen protags usually are. Passivity is associated with the concpet yin, which is also associated with femininity. Why do I mention this concept? Because jujutsu sorceres are kinda the successors of onmyōji, or more literally the yin-and-yang masters. He doesn’t have much of an ego. He knows he’s good at fighting but he’s not arrogant about it like Gojou or Sukuna are. He’s tactile, he has an open body language. His best friend is Nobara. The way they are close is astounding. All their idiot to idiot moments. All their physical contact. The way they complement each other while fighting. The way Nobara can just text Yuuji to come and he does. Nobara being gone really affects Yuuji deeply, to the point where he uncharacteristically lashed out at Hana. And it’s completely not sexual or romantic. Compared to that his friendship with Megumi is pretty shit and not really close. He’s been very clearly socialised as a boy in a pretty misogynist society on shit like shounen manga. He has “a type” when it comes to girls, that he can invoke instantly because that’s how young boys are socialised, it’s expected of them. And yet that type is just an aesthetic preference. It’s not really what he’d even want from a potential girlfriend. He treats women like people. Naturally, instinctively not in the fake “nice guy” way. He’s such a well rounded role model of young masculinity. He is that because Gege doesn’t build him on the stereotypes of what masculinity should be according to the conservative patriarchal viewpoint. Yuuji is a human who’s entitled to emotions, who’s not a total victim of his socialisation, who doesn’t strive to live up to societal expectations. No status quo, the mantra of JJK."

In a world not steeped through with patriarchy this wouldn't matter. In a world without such rigid standards as to what is masculine and what is feminine, calling Yuuji a shoujo manga heroine wouldn't stand out. Because it wouldn't feel like a thing. Yuuji wouldn't draw anyone's disappointment or ire. There wouldn't be a feeling of him crossing gender norms because the norms either wouldn't exist or would've been very very wide and flexible.

_____

tldr: Yuuji is a shoujo manga heroine because he also has pink hair and is capable of extreme cuteness, and have you seen him holding the bunny so adorably? Very Usagi coded.

[kneelingshadowsalome]

Hey 🥺 I'm finally coming here 😩 I've read Just friends so many times it marked a before and after in my life LETMME tell you that you're the greatest writer ever ?? This Yandere Konig just will live with me forever and I will cherish him forever😩 I'm literally the lyric ,"my old man is a thief and I'm gonna stay with him till the end" (I'm sorry I'm a Lana del Rey enthusiastic)

Girl I can't STOP stressing the fact that that fanfic is life-changing hell, even now that I'm talking bout it I want to read it again (I wish I could read it for the first time again 😩) like just thank you thank you for making so many incredible written masterpieces caUSE IM READING also the ghost bodyguard and im LIVING for it ok?? My ass was shaking with the las update fucking mind-blowing and PERFECT.

So returning to my man König, you know I'm Hispanic (you didn't know but hey I'm Hispanic) and I would like really want to know how would König react or behave having a darling that is Hispanic (? (This is pure self indulgence, like I want to fucking put myself there) I mean, I don't want to appropriate any stereotypes but when sometimes can be a lot and we donate pretty different from everyone else(? So idk I just like would like to know kajsosib

Thank you again for making so many good content I told you before and I tell you know you're my cult leader 🙏

Hey babe you're too sweet! I can't believe my crazy story and crazy interpretation of König has had such an impact 🩷💕😭 Thank you for telling me, I'm just so glad that we can all buzz about this hot, insane man! And cult leader!? Haha omg this sounds dangerous (I love it, let's gather the whole toxic König crew and go to Austria together and build a shrine for this man, we can share headcanons thrice a day, dinner is served right after the compulsory fanfic writing workshop)

As for your ask, I'm sorry, I don't think I know enough about Hispanic culture to go too deep into detail & I wish to tread very carefully with stereotypes too, I hope this take is ok 🩷😘

The way I see it, there's two ways this thing would go….

An emotional, lively, feminine woman who has strong family values would be a dream come true for König. If you identify with the concept of marianismo at all, if you're loving and loyal and want to support your husband-to-be (König won't settle being just your 'boyfriend'), want to get married too and embrace your femininity while he gets to be The Man, your provider and protector, well, damn. This guy is on his knees! König will worship you, return your support and love tenfold, hundredfold. It will be the love story of a lifetime (and a story of traditional gender roles too but König would only view it as romantic 🩷)

But if you're "a lot", perhaps more outgoing than König thinks is appropriate, if you don't give a shit about his Ordnung muss sein-mentality and laugh at his attempts to cage you…? Sorry but you'll drive the poor man crazy!

He needs to possess protect you, which means your "temper" is a weed in the garden of your love. It needs to be pulled out, and you need to be tamed. König will go out of his mind as he tries to both please your every wish and try to put you on a leash. Lots of arguments ensue as you try to explain to this man that he's overreacting (and König is like Was?? He's not overreacting or hysterical, you're hysterical), lots of passionate reconciliation sex follows as he tries to prove you that you're his and his alone and no other man is allowed to even look at you.

So please don't torture him too much ❤️, he's not used to women's company and has a lot of suppressed energy and emotion, he just wants to take care of you and be the head of the house (and that you two worship each other 24/7 and carry each other's blood in small little vials or something omg)

[glittter-vamp]

3!

Thank you for requesting! 🖤

Based on the song Wasn’t Me By Shaggy.

Warnings: Angst. Cheater!Joe X Reader. Explicit language. Mention of Sex & Alcohol. Sorry for any mistakes, I wrote this up on my lunch break earlier lol

Word count: 1,161

You left the house fuming and in tears. You couldn't believe what you had just walked into. Your Fiance Joe was throwing a party when you were away which he didn't tell you about. You walked into your house filled with people you don’t know, after being out of town for work. You thought it would be a cute idea to surprise Joe but you came home to a crazy house party and seeing something you didn't think you would of ever seen. "Hello?" Your best friend Liz answers the phone groggily. "Hey Liz, I'm sorry if I woke you up but could I crash at your place tonight?" You sniffle. "Y/N? Are you crying? What's going on?" You hear her wake up more. "I just needed to leave, I couldn't look at him." Is all that comes out trying to hold in a sob. "Yeah, yeah...come over but please drive safe. You shouldn't be crying and driving." She says. Of course your best friend would know when you're calling her from your car. "I'll be there in 5." You say before hanging up. 

You make it safely to Liz's house and as you pull into her driveway she opens the front door in her pajamas. You felt like shit for waking her up at 12AM but you just didn't know where to go. "I'm really sorry for coming here like this." You sniffle as Liz hugs you and lets you in. " You don't have to apologize, but what happened?" She asks as you follow her to the kitchen. "I came home early from my work trip. Instead of leaving tomorrow morning, I left tonight so surprise Joe and he had some fucking party going on." You say taking a breath before continuing. "I couldn't find Joe, I asked everyone around the house and they hadn't seen him either. So I went upstairs to our room and heard this noise coming from the bathroom. So I open the door and there he was with the fucking neighbor… fucking on the bathroom sink" You say getting livid all over again and Liz gasps. 

"Wait...the one that you told me about that was always a little too nice with Joe?" Liz asks and you nod. "Oh Y/N...I'm so sorry." Liz says hugging you again which made you cry again. "5 years Liz...we were supposed to get married in a few months." You sniffle. "He's gonna pay, you're going to have the last laugh in the end. I promise you that." Liz says rubbing your back. "I should of listened to my dad about dating a fucking NFL player." You mutter as she goes over to make some tea for you. "Man, I thought he'd be different...guess when you get that type of fame and money you get cut by that shitty cookie cutter. becoming the stereotype" Liz shakes her head as she turns on the stove and puts the kettle on it. "I already bought my dress, that was specially made." You sigh rubbing your face. "Girl, all you gotta do is sell that shit online and tell the story behind it. There's a facebook page of women in your situation and they sell like hot cakes. People love drama and supporting heartbroken women." She says making you chuckle. 

"Did he see you though?" Liz asks. "Yeah after quite sometime. Once he noticed me, I threw my ring in his face and ran downstairs leaving in my car before he could get dressed and even process me there." You scoff. "I'm just saying, when I see him...I might hurt him. Just letting you know." Liz says making you laugh. "I turned my location off, he shouldn't be showing up here." You shake your head. You and Liz enjoy your cup of tea and she tries her best to take your mind off things. Talking about movies, concerts and whatever else but you could feel your phone vibrating in your pocket. "Okay, Y/N...either turn the phone off or I'm calling him and cussing him out myself." Liz says and you sigh. " I'll give you a minute. I gotta go pee anyways. "Liz says living you in her kitchen. 

You unlock your phone and see, a sea of missed texts and calls from Joe. You open the messages up and read the messages. 

J🧡-Please answer the phone Y/N. I'm so sorry, that wasn't me

J🧡-Just let me talk for a few minutes

J🧡-Please pick up

J🧡- That wasn't me, just let me explain.

J🧡- Why did you turn off your location? Are you somewhere safe?? At least tell me that

J🧡-Please come back home, I'll leave if you need space

You scoff at the dozens and dozens of messages like those and decide to call him. You take a deep breath and made the call. Almost immediately he answers. "Hello!? Y/N, Jesus are you okay?" Joe frantically asks. "How could I be okay, I just walked into my Fiance fucking our neighbor." You scoff. “I’m so sorry baby, that wasn’t me. I never meant for that to happen.” Joe says sounding broken himself but it really didn’t do anything for you. “You keep saying it wasn’t me, do you have some type of clone I didn’t know about? What excuse is that?!” You roll your eyes. “I was out of character, I had way too much to drink and I wasn’t thinking right- Joe, you are not blaming this on alcohol. I’ve gone out with my friends multiple times getting shit faced and I never even looked at another guy while I was with you!” You snap back.

“Just tell me what I need to do to regain your trust again, you can’t just throw 5 years away of us away. We can go to therapy,Move houses, whatever you want.” Joe practically begs over the phone. “Joe, the only person who threw this all away was you. Don’t worry about the house, I’ll be getting my stuff out this week. I’m Liz can help with finding me a place in such short notice.” You tell him holding back tears.

“Don’t do this Y/N, please.” Joe says his voice breaking at the end. “I’ll be over to get my stuff while you’re at practice, I’ll leave the keys in the garage and whatever else you’ve given me in the house.” You sniffle before you hang up knowing he was going to put up a fight and you just didn’t want to hear it right now.

“Are you okay?” Liz asks peeking into the kitchen where you were crying. “Nope but I can’t allow him to disrespect me like this and take him back.” You shake your head. “I’m proud of you, and of course I’ll help you find a place. I’m only the best realtor in Cincinnati.” She jokes making you smile. Here’s to starting all over again.

[chemicalarospec]

my dad invited me and my brother to watch Firefly with him and it's actually really good??? (idk why I expected it not to be-- probably because the last time I tried one of his old Spaceship Shows (the one with the puppets) it was too sexist and too slow to get through.) First of all it should have been ILLEGAL for them to not have a single Chinese character in this show, but as a Chinese person I do like the aesthetics of the show and how they mashed up traditional Western and Chinese styles. The pronunciation is hilariously bad (IF ONLY THEY HAD A CHINESE ACTOR, HUH), but I like it because it's funny. (Me and my brother do laugh out loud every time.)

But the characters are actually so good?? First of all we got THREE FOUR (I didn't count right lmao) female main characters, no smurfette principal here! One of them doesn't even have any implied romance so far okay technically River doesn't but I was thinking of Kaylee and she has a crush on Simon lol. Kaylee, my favorite -- I LOVE how her appreciation of girly feminine stuff is portrayed as something that should NOT be mocked and does not negate her more "masculine" role as the mechanic and that she can nerd out WHILE being feminine. There's also how Mal, the main character, and Zoe, his first mate, have a longstanding and deep connection that's entirely platonic! Men and women CAN just be friends! Do note, Zoe (who is awesome btw) is married to another man, the pilot who is honestly so far the most boring character, and Mal is interested in Inara. Who, speaking of, I also love how so far Inara's profession as a (unionized it seems!) sex worker is treated with respect. River is the most ~okay~ in terms of sexist writing as a weak and mysterious and mentally unwell but sexy woman, but since she's not the only woman it doesn't feel like a big deal. (I feel like she's going to become more grounded, at least I hope so because I want to see more of her personality!) Misogynistic comments are challenged when made! Of course the writing isn't perfect but it's a LOT better than what I expected (and if a modern show didn't do the things I'm praising here I would be offended btw).

Also River's brother Simon is a complete dandy (I think it would be stereotyping for me to call him gay lmao), I love that for him. Episode one he bleeds from his mouth like a dying c-drama boy-- I just had a Vision of the resemblance and now I can't get it out of my head, all he needs to do his open his eyes super wide and then he'd be a dying c-drama boy. He cares for his sister so much, it's super sweet even though he REALLY sucks at dealing with psychosis(? would that be the term to describe her episodes?). Book is an instant icon of course, he's just there forcibly being the moral compass lol. Christianity in space smh. Despite being mr sexism I also love Jayne's character - he's funny (love a guy who's always trying to kill) and the question of his loyalty is intriguing. Mal is a kind of a Generic Protagonist Man but his backstory is solid enough that means his brooding attitude actually makes sense. The "Badger" side character is funny/interesting too, and my bro says he looks like Captian Sparklez haha. (Wash (Zoe's husband) is there. Sometimes he's funny.)

Going back to the design, I am partial to Victorian or whatever aesthetics, so I love how they threw that in along with the cowboy thing, and there's a lot of individual pieces merging Chinese aesthetics with that that I think do a great job. It speaks to my mixed heart <3. The costuming is actually so fun (mostly speaking to crowd scenes), so many characters get to wear distinctive outfits . Also kind of Killjoys vibes because they say "shiny" haha. I respect how space shots have no environment noise, only cowboy music lollll. Visual effects are interesting; you can always Tell but it does seem to me the best they could do at the time.

Wow this post turned out longer than I expected. So a recommendation for Firefly I guess! Forewarning, the parts with the "Reavers" are pretty dark/grotesque -- actually, there's significant violence throughout the show, the Reavers are just the worst.

[atla-confessions]

I tried to appreciate LoK, to go beyond the stereotypical American 1920s aesthetic, to not even try to create a unique aesthetic suitable for that fascinating fusion of Asian, Amerindian and European cultures typical of that Universe, but... I couldn't. That is: the romantic relationships are unrealistic and poorly written (more than in original show, when they were realistic but written badly, cause the useless "shipping" where crack ships are possible like canon ships, and I admit of being part of the problem), and a lot of characters go from one transformation to another in an excessive and almost unnatural way, erasing any form of character development (like Korra who if If it had been well written I would have appreciated it), and this is when they have a character (Asami isn't a real character)! And those who say "this is how people act in reality, this is how love relationships work in real life"... if you are Americans, I inform you that half of your fellow citizens use psychotropic drugs. Clear proof that many people have problems.

I'll leave it up to you how to interpret my words about "acting real."

But in the end, one thing I hated the most, and I'm not just talking about LoK but also about comics, and this heck of post-apocalyptic sequels (in a period in which post-apocalyptic no longer attracts, but probably Di Martino thinks he is still in the 80s, when he was still a kid), is the continuation of a flaw that was also partly present in the original series: the reduction of the cultures and religions of Asia to Buddhism, the Chinese and Japanese Mahayana fused with Tibet's lamaism, with at most Shintoism fused with the American and Altaic of animistic visions .

But Asia is much larger and richer. Just speaking of peoples, there are the Turks such as Kazakhs and Uzbeks, or Iranian populations such as Tajiks, Pashtuns, Baluchis, and the Arab populations of Persia and India, the Mongolians, or the Austronesian populations of the Philippines, of the Indonesian islands, of Borneo, of Malaysia; and this obviously without mentioning Vietnamese, Khmer, and that universe of cultures of so-called India, from Indo-Aryans such as the Hindis to the Dravidian populations and pre-aryans like the Tamils.

And then the religions: between Mongolian and Turkish Tengrism, Mazdaism in India and China with its influences on Buddhism, Indian Jainism and the visions that precede Buddhism, Jainism and the like, which derive from the Hindu śramaṇa. Not to mention my two favorite religions in Asia, namely Islam and Syriac Christianity. The latter arrived in China as early as the 5th-6th century AD, forming the first communities called Hui and which flourished under the Tang Dynasty. And without talking about the Malabarian Churches in India, prior to the arrival of the European Jesuit missionaries. And let's not talk about Islam, with its Iranic, Turk, Indian and Chinese Sufi Confratenities, Chinese Islam is also very present in areas such as Martial Arts, in the case of Baijiquan, developed by a Muslim general (and which, if I'm not mistaken, partly influenced Firebending movements, particularly Azula's, creating my figure of a "Sufism-themed Azula's Redemption Arc" with the company of Haru as in some famous storyboards; especially since Islamic ascetics could continue to work, marry, and were often also warriors, as in the case of the "first Sufi", Abu Da'ur Al-Ghīfarī, who is among those dearest to God, together with those who pray after a hard journey and those who give alms without having interests, he put "who fights until Victory").

But no: we have a mediocre fake-buddhism with western sauce, and the stupid incoherence called Raava and Vaatu, a fusion among Mazdean Dualistic view and Chinese Yin and Yang. That's because Konietzko and Di Martino are agnostics or atheists, and probably they believed themselves to be "deep in their knowledge" and that "religions are for moron".

X