#definitely biased in my own favor for a character i very much relate to

[aileenjasperprince]

Trans Man Snape

It’s definitely a personal bias why I like this headcanon, but I think there are a lot of great points in the text that it adds a depth of character that there wouldn’t otherwise be.

I like to start out with young Severus wearing female clothes that don’t fit him. It makes a lot more sense that he was given his mother’s clothes if he was AFAB, even if he was presenting himself as a boy to muggles. It also makes Petunia’s comment about the “Snape boy” which emphasizes the fact that his boyhood is suspect (even if it is just gay coded).

Thinking of a trans boy at Hogwarts and how he is completely accepted as a boy and unquestioned is fabulous. The bullying that continues and goes on, not so much, but that might be where the dynamic between the Mauraders and Snape change. The werewolf incident was a discovering of each other’s secret and an unbreakable vow about not sharing said secret (the secret being Snape is trans and the Mauraders are unregistered animagi)...thus why Snape is worried about Black when everyone else isn’t because he knows Black is around but can’t tell anyone because of the unbreakable vow. Of course the Mauraders try and find a back door to this by pretending a harmless prank is harmless when they are really trying to expose what they promised to keep secret in a way that doesn’t break the promise (however, Severus had sought transition help before then so it isn’t as terrible as it might seem).

However, I do think the truth of Snape being trans did make it to the headmaster with the werewolf incident and Dumbledore admired the Mauraders for keeping his secret, making Snape promise to not tell on Lupin to be as honorable as them. I also think that Dumbledore is transphobic and that his opinion and view on Snape changed with that incident and Severus hated him for it. He felt belittled and disrespected and unable to have safety and help from the headmaster because the headmaster saw him as a girl playing with the big boys instead of as a boy growing up into a man.

I think it was this point that had Severus running to Voldemort’s ranks after graduation. Voldemort knew he was trans and supported that and did all he could to make sure no one else in his ranks even doubted Severus’s manhood. I like to think that he took an active roll in the ranks instead of being on the sidelines for this purpose. But as the violence grew, Voldemort started to be transphobic in concern about the growth of the magic population. Severus took refuge in Regulus’s attraction for him (even though Regulus never knew Severus was trans) and began taking the passive role to avoid confrontation.

Voldemort took this opportunity to try and place Severus as a spy, especially if Snape was to fulfill his role in helping the magical population grow. Dumbledore saw right through it when Severus came for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position (with Voldemort’s promise that if he did his part he would lift the curse on the position), and rejected Severus....until he had a prophecy that needed to be heard (stealing this one idea from a post I saw recently). A prophecy where he knew Lily, Snape’s ex-best friend, would be affected, a prophecy where he knew he could turn Snape into a double agent because Dumbledore could see how Snape had gone from being in the front lines to being in the background, knew loyalty was a problem.

The prophecy came at the worst time for Snape, Bellatrix had found out he was trans and Voldemort forced her into secrecy. Regulus had gone missing and from recent talks with Regulus, Severus knew he wasn’t coming back. The pressure was mounting from the Dark Lord to reproduce and get results from the passive role, so much that Severus resorted to potions in order to not lose his position entirely. The prophecy seemed like his redemption. The moment where he could be moved from the passive role to the active. Asking for Lily was not only for his care for his best friend, but to let the Dark Lord know that he had found a way to be fertile as a man through magic and didn’t need to be put back in the female role. In the end, the Dark Lord told him to take the same plea to Dumbledore and become the double agent.

From that moment, Severus knew he couldn’t trust Voldemort to save Lily or to care for him as a person. Names and pronouns was common human decency that even the headmaster gave him even though he patronized Severus. It was all a ploy to get him on their side. The attractiveness of being in control of information, becoming vital to both sides of the war, to having the option to choose what he really felt was right was what led him to the hillside on that windy, windy day. But he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t ask for the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. At that moment he knew that there was no place in the world where he would be accepted. He wanted to protect Lily and then be dead. He didn’t realize the prophecy was a set-up for him to take the role as double agent.

Dumbledore put him in the feminine position of potions, claiming it was due to the curse even though he was aware that Voldemort would lift the curse. Dumbledore really wanted Snape to remember that he was first and foremost female and planned on never fully trusting him until he reverted into his natural form. Severus did it for Lily and used her memory to keep himself alive. Luckily the staff, including those that had helped him transition, were much more supportive. Their support was what helped him survive Lily’s death. They gave him enough of a will to live that he moved his living to protect Lily to living to protect Harry. He also agreed with Dumbledore that Voldemort would come back due to Regulus’s ramblings, but he never shared anything of that part of his life with Dumbledore because he knew it would only have Dumbledore be more patronizing (Instead of a lesbian who felt she had to be a man to like women, he would be considered a straight woman just causing problems).

No foolish wand-waving are his words to his first years. Snape understands masculinity and its strength and weaknesses. He doesn’t want them to be like the Mauraders who used their masculinity to harm. He wants them to use it properly. He wants to show that masculinity and femininity go hand in hand in both the female and the male magical arts. Lockhart greatly reminded him of that imbalance.

The year with Lupin was the worst. The support from Dumbledore was dwindling because Snape had not forgiven the Mauraders. There were many fights where the truth finally spilled out that Dumbledore didn’t trust him because he wasn’t a woman, maybe not word for word, but Snape got the picture. Snape had done everything asked of him and still he was doubted and mistrusted. It was then that he had to decide whose side was he on. What did Severus really want?

Respect, common decency, and the ability to live his own life. Since he clearly would never have that in his own life he decided he would fight for that. He decided he would protect Harry even when those wanting him to were being cruel. Harry deserved to live and have his own life. It did help that the thought of getting revenge on Black and Lupin was part of that plan.

The support from Dumbledore still was not there the next year started, but Severus was better for he had found his own purpose. The warnings were coming that Voldemort was coming back and Snape was preparing and trying to get Dumbledore and McGonagall to prepare. It was McGonagall who pushed Dumbledore to realize that Snape was telling the truth and that Dumbledore was being unreasonable for expecting a man to stop being a man just because Dumbledore wanted him to. It didn’t really click for Dumbledore until Snape showed Fudge the mark on his arm. It was then Dumbledore started to realize and appreciate Snape and everything that he was instead of wanting him to be everything he wasn’t. He regretted not listening to him earlier because the imposter Moody would’ve been found out sooner if Snape had met support from Dumbledore instead of doubt.

After a year of Snape’s devoted courage, Dumbledore realized he was in the wrong. It didn’t help that he had many instances where he saw Snape’s defense against the dark arts knowledge used to save the day. Dumbledore almost regretted not having his current army more trained by having put Snape in that position to begin with and had Voldemort remove the curse. Dumbledore knew that with a limited life expectancy that he needed to rectify one last wrong and gave Snape the defense against the dark arts position. He knew it was symbolic to Severus as recognition of his manhood. It was the least he could do.

Killing Dumbledore was the last straw for McGonagall for Snape because it felt like Snape had to assert his dominance over Dumbledore for refusing to fully recognize him for so long. She said some fairly hateful and at times transphobic words to him in his reign as headmaster. While the position of headmaster secured his names and pronouns, he found that being expected to be evil while leading the school to be as painful as being expected to live as a woman. There was something painful about living contrary to who you are, but it was a price he was willing to pay for a short time to make it so that people would be free and not live as he had to live. It was the same justification he gave for the need for Harry to die.

Snape had hoped to die after giving Harry the necessary memory by dueling Voldemort as a distraction to give Harry time. As master of the elder wand (another gift from Dumbledore to assert Snape’s masculinity to Voldemort), Snape expected a duel to the death. A time to finally let his power shine and his masculinity be asserted, only losing because Voldemort could not die...perhaps leaving a time bomb of a curse to kill Voldemort once all the horcruxes (for he knew what they were now, no thanks to Dumbledore) were destroyed, including Harry.

But that was not so. Snape never got to Harry because Voldemort wouldn’t let him go and fight like a man. Voldemort was clinging to Snape as a broken woman. It hurt and Snape tried to not let it show because then his loyalty would be questioned, but it hurt enough to not have him fight back as Voldemort used the snake to kill Snape. Voldemort wouldn’t lift his want to kill him and it was the gravest insult. He would fail his feminine role because he wasn’t a woman.

Voldemort left and the relief of seeing someone who never acted like he knew he was trans arrived. It was a relief, it really felt like seeing Lily again. The first person who never questioned the fact that he was a boy. It was his chance to prove mastery of both femininity and masculinity is what wins and gave Harry what he needed before drifting out of a life of lies and deceit because people felt he was lying and deceiving for being who he was. The green eyes were a promise that people like Severus would never be treated this way again.

[sk1fanfiction]

the many faces of tom riddle, part 4

-attachment, orphanages, and yet more child psych: time to add yet another voice to the void-

FULL DISCLAIMER THAT THIS IS JUST MY OPINION OF A CHARACTER WHO DOESN’T HAVE THE STRONGEST CANON CHARACTERIZATION, AND THUS ALL THIS IS BASED ON MY CONCEPTUALIZATION.

I'm going to be super biased, because my favorite portrayal of Tom Riddle is actually Hero Fiennes-Tiffin as eleven-year-old Tom Riddle, in HBP and I get to chat about child psych in this one, sooo here we go.

First of all, I’m just so impressed that a kid could bring that much depth to such a complex character.

This is the portrayal, I feel, that brings us closest to Tom’s character. Yes, Coulson’s brought us pretty close, but by fifth year, the mask was on.

We don't really get to see Tom looking afraid very often, but it's fear that rules his life, so it's really poignant in our first (chronologically) introduction, he looks absolutely terrified.

The void being the fandom's loud opinions on a certain headmaster. I wouldn't call myself pro-Dumbledore, but I'm certainly not anti-Dumbledore, either. (Agnostic-Dumbledore??)

Since I'm not of the anti-Dumbledore persuasion, I decided to poke around in the tags and see what the arguments were, so I don't make comments out of ignorance.

Most of the tag seems to be more directed towards his treatment of Harry and Sirius, but a few people mentioned that Dumbledore should have treated Tom with ‘exceptional kindness’ and tried to ‘rehabilitate’ him.

As I said in Parts 2 and 3, I am 100% in favor of helping a traumatized kid learn to cope, and I don’t think Tom Riddle was solidly on the Path to Evil (TM) at birth, or even at eleven. Not even at fifteen.

Could unconditional love and kindness have helped Tom Riddle enough for the rise of Lord Voldemort to never happen? Possibly, but...

Yes, I'm about to drag up that Carl Jung quote, again.

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”

The problem with this is that if you��re going to blame Dumbledore for this, you also have to blame every other adult in Tom’s life: his headmaster, Dippet, his Head of House, Slughorn, his ‘caretakers’ at the orphanage, Mrs. Cole and Martha, and possibly more. In fact, if we're going to blame any adult, let's blame Merope for r*ping and abusing Tom Riddle Senior, and having a kid she wasn't intending to take care of.

Furthermore, you cannot possibly hold anyone but Tom accountable for the murders he committed. (I should not have to sit here and explain why cold-blooded murder is wrong.) And if you like Tom Riddle's character, insinuating that his actions are completely at the whim of others is just a bit condescending towards him. He's not an automaton or a marionette, he's a very intelligent human being with a functioning brain, and at sixteen is fully capable of moral reasoning and critical analysis.

I've heard the theories about Dumbledore setting the Potters up to die, and I'm not going to discuss their validity right now; but he didn't put a wand in Tom's hand and force him to kill anyone. Tom did it all of his own accord.

And while yes, I have enormous sympathy for what happened to Tom as a child, at some point, he decided to murder Myrtle Warren, and that is where I lose my sympathy. Experiencing trauma does not give you the right to inflict harm on others. Yes, Tom was failed, but then, he spectacularly failed himself.

We also have no idea how Dumbledore treated Tom as a student.

In the movies, it’s Dumbledore who tells Tom he has to go back to the orphanage, but in the books, it’s Dippet. We know that Slughorn spent a lot of time around Tom at Slug Club and such, yet I don’t really see people clamoring for his head.

I regard the sentiment that Dumbledore turned Tom Riddle into Lord Voldemort with a lot of skepticism.

But let's hear from the character himself -- his impression of eleven-year-old Tom Riddle.

“Did I know that I had just met the most dangerous Dark wizard of all time?” said Dumbledore. “No, I had no idea that he was to grow up to be what he is. However, I was certainly intrigued by him. I returned to Hogwarts intending to keep an eye upon him, something I should have done in any case, given that he was alone and friendless, but which, already, I felt I ought to do for others’ sake as much as his."

Now, assuming that Dumbledore's telling the truth, I'm not seeing something glaringly wrong with this. No, he hasn't pigeonholed Tom as evil, yes, I'd be intrigued, too, and it's a very good idea to keep an eye on Tom, for his own sake.

“At Hogwarts,” Dumbledore went on, “we teach you not only to use magic, but to control it. You have — inadvertently, I am sure — been using your powers in a way that is neither taught nor tolerated at our school."

Again, it seems like he's at least somewhat sympathetic towards Tom, and is willing to at least give him a chance.

More evidence (again, assuming Dumbledore is a reliable narrator):

Harry: “Didn’t you tell them [the other professors], sir, what he’d been like when you met him at the orphanage?” Dumbledore: “No, I did not. Though he had shown no hint of remorse, it was possible that he felt sorry for how he had behaved before and was resolved to turn over a fresh leaf. I chose to give him that chance.”

Now, I think Dumbledore is pretty awful with kids, but I don't think that's malicious. Yeah, it's a flaw, but perfect people don't exist, and perfect characters are dead boring. I am not saying that he definitely handled Tom's case well, I'm just saying that there's little evidence that Dumbledore, however shaken and scandalized, wrote him off as 'evil snake boy.'

It's also worth taking into account that it's 1938, and the attitudes towards mental health back then.

Why is Tom looking at Dumbledore like that, anyway? Why is he so scared? What has he possibly been threatened with or heard whispers of?

"'Professor'?" repeated Riddle. He looked wary. "Is that like 'doctor'? What are you here for? Did she get you in to have a look at me?"

"I don't believe you," said Riddle. "She wants me looked at, doesn't she? Tell the truth!"

"You can't kid me! The asylum, that's where you're from, isn't it? 'Professor,' yes, of course -- well, I'm not going, see? That old cat's the one who should be in the asylum. I never did anything to little Amy Benson or Dennis Bishop, and you can ask them, they'll tell you!

Tom keeps insisting he's not mad until Dumbledore finally manages to calm him down.

I'm really upset this wasn't in the movie, because it's important context. Instead we got these throwaway cutscenes of some knick-knacks relating to the Cave he's got lying around, but I just would have preferred to see him freaking out like he does in the book.

There was extreme stigma and prejudice towards mental illness.

'Lunatic asylums,' as they were called in Tom's time, were terrible places. In the 1930s and 40s, he could look forward to being 'treated' with induced convulsions, via metrazol, insulin, electroshock, and malaria injections. And if he stuck around long enough, he could even look forward to a lobotomy!

So, if you think Dumbledore was judgmental towards Tom, imagine how flat-out prejudiced whatever doctors or 'experts' Mrs. Cole might have gotten in to 'look at him' must have been!

Moving on to the next few shots, he is sitting down and hunched over as if expecting punishment or at least some kind of bad news, Dumbledore is mostly out of the frame. He’s trapped visually, by Dumbledore on one side, and a wall on the other, because he’s still very much afraid. uncomfortable, as he tells Dumbledore a secret that he fears could get him committed to an asylum (which were fucking horrible places, as I said).

It brings to the scene that miserable sense of isolation and loneliness to that has defined Tom’s entire life up to that point (and, partially due to his own bad choices, continues to define it).

And, when Dumbledore accepts it, his posture changes. he becomes more confident and more at ease, as he describes the... utilities of his magical abilities. 

"All sorts," breathed Riddle. A flush of excitement was rising up his neck into his hollow cheeks; he looked fevered. "I can make things move without touching them. I can make animals do what I want them to do, without training them. I can make bad things happen to people who annoy me. I can make them hurt if I want to."

Riddle lifted his head. His face was transfigured: There was a wild happiness upon it, yet for some reason it did not make him better looking; on the contrary, his finely carved features seemed somehow rougher, his expression almost bestial.

I do think Harry, our narrator, is being a tad bit judgmental here. Magic is probably the only thing that brings Tom happiness in his grey, lonely world, and when I was Tom's age and being bullied, if I had magic powers, you'd better believe that I'd (a) be bloody ecstatic about it (b) use them. And, like Tom, I can't honestly say that I can't imagine getting a bit carried-away with it. Unfortunately, we can't all be as inherently good and kindhearted as Harry.

Reading HBP again, as a 'mature' person, it almost seems like the reader is being prompted to see Tom as evil just because he's got 'weird' facial expressions.

So... uh...

Nope, let's judge Tom on his actions, not looks of 'wild happiness.'

To his great surprise, however, Dumbledore drew his wand from an inside pocket of his suit jacket, pointed it at the shabby wardrobe in the corner, and gave the wand a casual flick. The wardrobe burst into flames. Riddle jumped to his feet; Harry could hardly blame him for howling in shock and rage; all his worldly possessions must be in there. But even as Riddle rounded on Dumbledore, the flames vanished, leaving the wardrobe completely undamaged.

Okay, one thing I dislike is Tom's lack of emotional affect when Dumbledore burned the wardrobe, in the books, he jumped up and started screaming, instead of looking passively (in shock, perhaps?) at the fire. Incidentally, I can't really tell if he's impressed or in shock, to be honest. I think they really tried to make Tom 'creepier' in the movie.

This is one of the incidents where Dumbledore's inability to deal with children crops up.

I think he was trying to teach Tom that magic can be dangerous, and he wouldn't like it to be used against him, but burning the wardrobe that contains everything he owns was a terrible move on Dumbledore's part. Tom already has very limited trust in other people, and now, he's not going to trust Dumbledore at all -- now, he's put Tom on the defensive/offensive for the rest of their interaction, and perhaps for the rest of their teacher-student relationship.

Riddle stared from the wardrobe to Dumbledore; then, his expression greedy, he pointed at the wand. "Where can I get one of them?"

"Where do you buy spellbooks?" interrupted Riddle, who had taken the heavy money bag without thanking Dumbledore, and was now examining a fat gold Galleon.

But I'm not surprised Tom is 'greedy.' He's grown up in an environment where if he wants something, whether that's affection, food, money, toys, he's got to take it. There's no one looking after his needs specifically. I'm not surprised that he's a thief and a hoarder, and I don't think that counts as a moral failing necessarily, and more of a maladaptive way of seeking comfort. It would be bizarre if he came out of Wool's Orphanage a complete saint.

Additionally, I think given that the Gaunt family has a history of 'mental instability,' Tom is a sensitive child, and the trauma of growing up institutionalized and possibly being treated badly due to his magical abilities or personality disorder deeply affected him.

And there are points where it seems that Dumbledore is quick to judge Tom.

"He was already using magic against other people, to frighten, to punish, to control."

"Yes, indeed; a rare ability, and one supposedly connected with the Dark Arts, although as we know, there are Parselmouths among the great and the good too. In fact, his ability to speak to serpents did not make me nearly as uneasy as his obvious instincts for cruelty, secrecy, and domination."

"I trust that you also noticed that Tom Riddle was already highly self-sufficient, secretive, and, apparently, friendless?..."

And while this is all empirically true, these are (a) a product of Tom's harsh environment, and (b) do not necessarily make him evil. But the point remains that child psych didn't exist as a field of its own, and psychology as a proper science was in its infancy, so I'd be shocked if Dumbledore was insightful about Tom's situation.

But I've gone a ton of paragraphs without citing anything, so I've got to rectify that.

Let's talk about Harry Harlow's monkey experiments in the 1950-70s.

If you're not a fan of animal research, since I know some people are uncomfortable with it, feel free to scroll past.

Here's the TL;DR: Children need to be hugged and shown affection too, not just fed and clothed, please don't leave babies to 'cry out' and ignore their needs because it's backwards and fucking inhumane. HUG AND COMFORT AND CODDLE CHILDREN AND SPOIL THEM WITH AFFECTION!

I will put more red writing when the section is over.

This is still an interesting experiment to have in mind while we explore the whole 'no one taught Tom Riddle how to love' thing and whether or not it's actually a good argument.

Andddd let's go all the way back to the initial 1958 experiment, featured in Harlow's paper, the Nature of Love. (If you're familiar with Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, him and Harlow actually collaborated for a time).

To give you an idea of our starting point, until Harlow's experiment, which happened twenty years after Dumbledore meets Tom for the first time, no one in science had really been interested in studying love and affection.

"Psychologists, at least psychologists who write textbooks, not only show no interest in the origin and development of love or affection, but they seem to be unaware of its very existence."

I'm going to link some videos of Harry Harlow showing the actual experiment, which animal rights activists would probably consider 'horrifying.' It's nothing gory or anything, but if you are particularly soft-hearted (and I do not mean that as an insult), be warned. It's mostly just baby monkeys being very upset and Harlow discussing it in a callous manner. Yes, today it would be considered unethical, but it's still incredibly important work and if you think you can handle it, I would recommend watching at least the first one to get an idea of how dramatic this effect is.

Dependency when frightened

The full experiment

The TL;DW:

This experiment was conducted with rhesus macaques; they're still used in psychology/neuroscience research when you want very human-like subjects, because they are very intelligent (unnervingly so, actually). I'd say that adult ones remind me of a three-year old child.

Harlow separated newborn monkeys from their mothers, and cared for their physical needs. They had ample nutrition, bedding, warmth, et cetera. However, the researchers noticed that the monkeys:

(a) were absolutely miserable. And not just that, but although all their physical needs were taken care of, they weren't surviving well past the first few days of life. (This has also been documented in human babies, and it's called failure to thrive and I'll talk about it a bit later).

(b) showed a strong attachment to the gauze pads used to cover the floor, and decided to investigate.

So, they decided to provide a surrogate 'mother.' Two, actually. Mother #1 was basically a heated fuzzy doll that was nice for the monkeys to cuddle with. Mother #2 was the same, but not fuzzy and made of wire. Both provided milk. The result? The monkeys spent all their time cuddling and feeding from the fuzzy 'mother.' Perhaps not surprising.

What Harlow decided next, is that one of the hallmarks being attached to your caregiver is seeking hugs and reassurance from them when frightened. So, when the monkeys were presented with something scary, they'd go straight to the cloth mother and ignore the wire one. Not only that, but when placed in an unfamiliar environment, if the cloth mother was present, the monkeys would be much calmer.

In a follow-up experiment, Harlow decided to see if there was some sort of sensitive period by introducing both 'mothers' to monkeys who had been raised in isolation for 250 days. Guess what?

The initial reaction of the monkeys to the alterations was one of extreme disturbance. All the infants screamed violently and made repeated attempts to escape the cage whenever the door was opened. They kept a maximum distance from the mother surrogates and exhibited a considerable amount of rocking and crouching behavior, indicative of emotionality.

Yikes. So, at first Harlow thought that they'd passed some kind of sensitive period for socialization. But after a day or two they calmed down and started chilling out with the cloth mother like the other monkeys did. But here's a weird thing:

That the control monkeys develop affection or love for the cloth mother when she is introduced into the cage at 250 days of age cannot be questioned. There is every reason to believe, however, that this interval of delay depresses the intensity of the affectional response below that of the infant monkeys that were surrogate-mothered from birth onward

All these things... attachment, affection, love, seeking comfort ... are mostly learned behaviours.

Over.

Orphanages, institutionalized childcare, and why affection is a need, not an extra.

His face is lit the exact same was as Coulson’s was in COS (half-light, half-dark), and I said I was going to talk about this in Part 3. I think perhaps it's intended to make Fiennes-Tiffin look more evil or menacing, but I'm going to quite deliberately misinterpret it.

Now, for some context, Dumbledore has just (kind of) burned his wardrobe, ratted out his stealing habit, and (in the books only, they really took a pair of scissors to this scene) told him he needs to go apologize and return everything and Dumbledore will know if he doesn't, and, well, Tom's not exactly a happy bugger about it.

But interestingly, in the books, this is when we start to see Tom's 'persona,' aka his mask, start to come into play. Whereas before, he was screaming, howling, and generally freaking out, here, he starts to hide his emotions -- in essence, obscure his true self under a shadow. So this scene is really the reverse of Coulson's in COS.

And perhaps I'm reading wayyy too much into this, but I can't help but notice that Coulson's hair is parted opposite to Fiennes-Tiffin's, and the opposite sides of their faces are shadowed, too.

Riddle threw Dumbledore a long, clear, calculating look. "Yes, I suppose so, sir," he said finally, in an expressionless voice.

Riddle did not look remotely abashed; he was still staring coldly and appraisingly at Dumbledore. At last he said in a colorless voice, "Yes, sir."

Here's an article from The Atlantic on Romanian orphanages in the 1980s, when the dictator, Ceausescu, basically forced people to have as many children as possible and funnel them into institutionalized 'childcare', and it's absolutely heartbreaking.

There's not a whole lot of information out there on British orphanages in the 30s' and 40s', but given that people back then thought you just had to keep children on a strict schedule and feed them, it wouldn't have a whole lot better.

The only thing I've found is this, and it's not super promising.

The most important study informing the criteria for contemporary nosologies, was a study by Barbara Tizard and her colleagues of young children being raised in residential nurseries in London (Tizard, 1977). These nurseries had lower child to caregiver ratios than many previous studies of institutionalized children. Also, the children were raised in mixed aged groups and had adequate books and toys available. Nevertheless, caregivers were explicitly discouraged from forming attachments to the children in their care.

Here's a fairly recent paper that I think gives a good summary: Link

Here, they describe the responses to the Strange Situation test (which tests a child's attachment to their caregiver).

We found that 100% of the community sample received a score of “5,” indicating fully formed attachments, whereas only 3% of the infants living in institutions demonstrated fully formed attachments. The remaining 97% showed absent, incomplete, or odd and abnormal attachment behaviors.

Bowlby and Ainsworth, who did the initial study, thought that children would always attach to their caregivers, regardless of neglect or abuse. But some infants don't attach (discussed along with RAD in Part 2).

Here's a really good review paper on attachment disorders in currently or formerly institutionalized children : Link

Core features of RAD in young children include the absence of focused attachment behaviors directed towards a preferred caregiver, failure to seek and respond to comforting when distressed, reduced social and emotional reciprocity, and disturbances of emotion regulation, including reduced positive affect and unexplained fearfulness or irritability.

Which all sounds a lot like Tom in this scene. The paper also discusses neurological effects, like atypical EEG power distribution (aka brain waves), which can correlate with 'indiscriminate' behavior and poor inhibitory control; which makes sense for a kid who, oh, I don't know, hung another kid's rabbit because they were angry.

Furthermore...

...those children with more prolonged institutional rearing showed reduced amygdala discrimination and more indiscriminate behavior.

This again, makes a ton of sense for Tom's psychological profile, because the amygdala (which is part of the limbic system, which regulates emotions) plays a major role in fear, anger, anxiety, and aggression, especially with respect to learning, motivation and memory.

So, I agree completely that Tom needed a lot of help, especially given the fact that he spent eleven years in an orphanage (longer than the Bucharest study I was referring to), and Dumbledore wasn't exactly understanding of his situation, and probably didn't realise what a dramatic effect the orphanage had on Tom, and given the way he talks to Tom, probably treated him as if he were a kid who grew up in a healthy environment.

In case you are still unconvinced that hugging is that important, there's a famous 1944 study conducted on 40 newborn human infants to see what would happen if their physical needs (fed, bathed, diapers changed) were provided for with no affection. The study had to be stopped because half the babies died after four months. Affection leads to the production of hormones and boosts the immune system, which increases survival, and that is why we hug children and babies should not be in orphanages. They are supposed to be hugged, all the time. I can't find the citation right now, I'll add it later if I find it.

But I think it's vastly unrealistic to say that Dumbledore, who grew up during the Victorian Era, would have any grasp of this and I don't think he was actively malicious towards Tom.

Was Tom Riddle failed by institutional childcare? Absolutely.

Were the adults in his life oblivious to his situation? Probably.

Do the shitty things that happened to Tom excuse the murders he committed, and are they anyone's fault but his own? No. At the end of the day, Tom made all the wrong choices.

And, for what it's worth, I think (film) Dumbledore (although he expresses the same sentiment in more words in the books) wishes he could go back in time and have helped Tom.

"Draco. Years ago, I knew a boy, who made all the wrong choices. Please, let me help you."

[bean-na-farraige-agus-foraoise]

Do you have any particular resources for “Eostre” being Bede’s own creation? I know there’s no other attestation and that there are debates among scholars as to this hypothetical goddess’s existence, but if you have the time/energy, I’d love to see more resources on it being definitively a joke / fake from Bede, rather than just a possible goddess we know very little about.

It’s more the use of basic logic, so I’m just going to spell out my argument. I only have one direct quote so one citation, because again, my argument is based on logic and the way one ought to approach medieval sources that then get picked up by 19th century scholars. (I also discussed this at length with an old professor of mine who focuses on medieval theology so much of this is from my notes rather than like textbooks).

I first look at the author, Bede himself. He, like most historians of his day, is not exactly known for being accurate- his other most famous history, the  Ecclesiastical History of the English People is just chock full of propaganda, omissions, and his own personal agendas- he literally avoids talking to native Britons as he’s heavily biased against them. Bede has also been described as having “often used figures of speech and rhetorical forms which cannot easily be reproduced in translation, depending as they often do on the connotations of the Latin words (1)"- which in companion with the propaganda and his own personal agendas makes it very likely that someone unfamiliar with Bede’s writing style like... perhaps a certain German, possibly one by the name of Grimm, would take what he said at face value without taking into account any of the historical and ecclesiastical influences on Bede’s writing. 

The work that Eostre originates in is known as The Reckoning of Time, and focuses on one of Bede’s favorite topics... calendars. And I don’t want y’all to say that I’m making Bede out to be an idiot, because he isn’t, what I’m saying that the man is significantly more reliable as a scientist and a linguist than as a historian. The Reckoning of Time, written in 725, discusses things that a lot of modern day people think that those in the middle ages couldn’t possibly know such as an explanation of how the spherical Earth influenced the changing length of daylight, of how the seasonal motion of the Sun and Moon influenced the changing appearance of the new moon at evening twilight, and a quantitative relation between the changes of the tides at a given place and the daily motion of the Moon.

But the thing with Eostre is that the arguments made by proponents of Eostre’s reality don’t seem to add up. They argue that Eostre is a survival of the goddess  h₂éwsōs, who has a set mythology and role, she is the bringer of dawn, an opener of the doors of heaven, and a goddess of light- and while I have no linguistic scruples with the possibility that linguistically Eostre evolved from h₂éwsōs I do think that there are some issues with this argument. Eostre has no such role and indeed, according to proponents of her existence, like Grimm, has an entirely different role as a goddess of spring, of rebirth, a theme that by the first century AD was associated with Easter (aka several hundred years before we see Eostre being attested, and over a thousand years separated from Grimm’s claims). The associations with Easter and rebirth are what brings the rabbit and the egg into the picture. Furthermore when constructing an image of Eostre, Grimm and Holtzmann the individuals most responsible for the modern view of Eostre, just kinda..... pull aspects of goddesses from other cultures- they pull a little bit from Aphrodite, snag an aspect or two from Freyja. And in fact one of the most popular myths surrounding Eostre, that she turned a bird into a rabbit and that’s why the Easter rabbit lays eggs, was once described as “one of the oldest myths in the world” despite it being a recent fabrication as of 1900. 

Several older texts that mention Ostara such as the Althochdeutsches Schlummerlied announced in 1859 by Georg Zappert is considered a forgery. Grimm, Zappert, and Holtzmann were looking were a common thread of Germanic connection on which to build a German national mythology. Germany would not be a unified state until 1871 and was instead a region of disparate and often un-unified small states that were frequently invaded by larger nations, such as France. A German national mythology and a German national history came to be key points in the unification of Germany, and later became a focal point of German fascism. 

Furthermore much of the arguments in favor of Eostre seem to rely on what appear to me, to be flimsy linguistic claims that were only thought up in relation to Bede’s posited goddess Eostre and Grimm’s claims of Eostre’s importance in Germany despite his.... making up the things about her..... but I digress- many of the things that are held up as “proof” of Eostre’s existence seem to come from hypothetical linguistics, it’s very much an attempt to connect certain sounds and popular German names to a figure who’s existence was not mentioned prior to Bede’s work, who was popularized by a German nationalist, and then whose holiday was taken and used in what was asserted to be a survival of ancient religion (Wicca- as published in Gardner’s Witchcraft Today) just four years prior to the discovery of the artifacts that are shown as proof of Eostre’s existence in 1958. And while many of these inscriptions have been attributed to Eostre, many of the inscriptions are also incomplete, and several of them have been attributed to a social group rather than a deity. Claiming that a deity exists because you see what is believed to be a linguistic connection to their name (which again was not attested to until the 8th century) is just.... it’s like the Danu situation for Gaelpol all over again. Basing linguistic studies off of hypothetical goddesses with highly debatable origins just doesn’t feel like proof to me. 

But back to Bede, Eostre is not the only deity he just creates while writing The Reckoning of Time. And Eostre is not the only deity that Grimm grabs up as being a real Germanic figure who is otherwise unattested- Rheda is also just brought into existence and shoved into a similar situation as Eostre- made into a fertility goddess because of which month Bede ascribed them to and preconceived notions of what would be celebrated at that time of year based on over a thousand years of Christian influence and associations already held with the Easter holiday. Also, Grimm does the same thing to Rheda that he does to Eostre, in that, because nothing is given of her, he pulls aspects from other deities to flesh out her character- giving her similarities to the Roman Mars. 

And even beyond Bede’s writing- some arguments have posited that the age in which Bede was raised (shortly after the conversion was completed) would have allowed him to talk to people about aspects of religion that would have not have fully died out. Which is fair, but one must also keep in mind that Bede was sent to live in a monastery when he was 7 years old, and that he and the Abbot who raised him were among the only survivors of a plague that struck when Bede was 14. This was not a life that allowed for much other than ecclesiastical education- and Bede cites local pagan authors in his his other writing, but none of them discuss Eostre or Rheda. It seems to me as though when writing The Reckoning of Time, that Bede, who was also discussing Greek and Roman cosmology and mythology might have seen the space for a goddess of spring in Anglo-Saxon mythology and just filled in the gaps utilizing the Germanic word for Easter as his base (remember, Bede was a linguist). 

But beyond this, it’s important to me that people remember that medieval monks were human. They were political beings, they were capable of having a sense of humor, they had agendas- Bede’s agenda was calendars, but it was an agenda nonetheless. And historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, they all have agendas, they have opinions, things that influence their arguments- don’t just take what they say at face value but examine why. 

But I raise the bar to you now- why do you believe in a hypothetical goddess, what evidence do you have that says she’s real? 

Ultimately my only dog in this fight is historical literacy and accuracy because I don’t follow the Germanic gods, I’m a Gaelic polytheist. It doesn’t matter to me what gods people follow even if I think they don’t exist, that’s not my fight- but seeing people claim that a holiday was stolen from a hypothetical deity really grinds my gears- particularly when those arguments are coming from people who couldn’t give me a single academic argument for their stance that hasn’t been disproven a thousand times over. 

1. Colgrave, Bertram; Mynors, R.A.B. "Introduction". Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969).

[miraculouscontent]

If it's not too much to ask, and if you have free time, what are your thoughts on each of the characters in the girl squad? Of course, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, I just like reading your analysis/critics. 😅

I internally cringe when I see the phrase “girl squad,” kill me.

Marinette

She’s a soft girl who feels very inherently likable, partly from her own personality traits and partly because she gets tormented so much from the show itself that you just want to hug her. I keep being told that I’m similar to her so maybe I find her relatable?

She has a lot of flaws, but considering most of them relate to Adrien, I see them as flaws that will disappear within time. She’s punished by the show so often that I mostly just overlook her flaws because it’s like criticizing someone after they got stabbed in the stomach.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her (referring to how she acts rather than the episodes/moments themselves) - “Origins,” “Mr. Pigeon,” “Reflekta,” “Guitar Villain,” “The Collector,” “Captain Hardrock,” “Frightningale,” “Silencer,” “Ladybug,” “Heart Hunter”

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her - any of her second-hand embarrassment episodes or ones where she’s babysitting

Alya

Honestly, she was never a character I was super into. I liked that she had a blog and everything, but she came off as pushy/invasive, which I get is the idea/joke since her “best friend” can be a doormat, but it just made me uncomfortable.

I felt like she got worse as time went on. Stuff that I kept seeing as acceptable/tolerable just got more noticeable. I remember seeing a PV storyboard of her being told Marinette’s identity and thinking, “ah, so she was like that even back then.”

Sometimes her friendship with Marinette feels more like a coincidence than an actual bond forming.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her - “Darkblade,” “Befana,” “Glaciator”

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her -“Stormy Weather,” “The Pharaoh,” “Lady Wifi,” “Timebreaker,” “Animan,” “Gamer,” “Volpina,” “Despair Bear,” “Gigantitan,” “Frozer,” “Catalyst,” “Chameleon,” “Desperada,” “Reflekdoll” “The Puppeteer 2″

Rose

I’m a fan of sugary-sweet characters, so I like Rose… enough. Even though I like sweet, there does come a time where it becomes too much and just gets obnoxious. She seems to have hobbies (which is cool) and, being a member of Kitty Section, I find it hard to fully dislike her.

Most of her more intolerable moments are when she’s being more “hyper” or just completely oblivious to the world. The latter is a natural character trait when she’s such an airhead, but it can be really irritating when it kills the mood completely, leading her to come off as insensitive.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her - “Reflekta,” “Princess Fragrance,” “Befana,” “Reflekdoll”  

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her -“Gigantitan,” “Frozer,” “Zombizou,” “Chat Blanc”

Juleka

Juleka has one of my more favorite designs out of the girl squad. Personality-wise, I really like that her wanting to be a model conflicts with her former photo curse and how she hates being in the spotlight; it’s easily one of my favorite things out of the members of the girl squad excluding Marinette.

Also out of the members of the girl squad excluding Marinette, she probably has the least moments that get on my nerves. At the same time though, when she does get on my nerves, she really gets on my nerves.

Still, if I had to pick a favorite out of Marinette’s girl squad friends, it’d probably be Juleka.

Being part of the Couffaine family definitely makes me biased towards her admittedly.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her -“Reflekta,” “Befana,” “Horrificator”

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her -“Gigantitan,” “Frozer,” “Reflekdoll”

Mylene

She’s the least memorable out of everyone, but I guess that’s kind of the point? She’s quiet and cowardly and just sort of there. She doesn’t even really have any notable interactions with Marinette despite being in the girl squad.

She’s like… she’s fine. She’s just fine. I don’t dislike her, but I don’t really like her either. Maybe if more of her adoration for the environment/politics showed up more, she’d feel more… defined? I do want a reason to like her because she’s Ivan’s girlfriend and I like Ivan, but she’s sort of like Nino where she gets more relegated to the background in favor of the other side of the ship.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her -Don’t have any.

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her -“Gigantitan,” “Frozer,” “Chameleon”

Alix

Ugggh, Alix.

I mean, okay, like, I don’t have any inherent problem with tomboy characters. Honestly, I think we need more.

My problem is that Alix falls too far into the stereotype where she’s really abrasive, and abrasive characters annoy me fast.

I was also never a fan of her being gifted with a miraculous from the beginning and then it just so happening to be the same episode where she becomes a time travel akuma. What’s Alix’s relationship to time anyway? Does she like that sort of thing? Does she even use time wisely? Her future self says in “Chat Blanc” that she was picked by Ladybug because she can keep a secret, but like… and???

Plus, her being the time travel hero is irritating because it automatically makes her more important than everyone else and I don’t dig that. That and she’s tall despite regular Alix being heckin’ short.

She’s also the character I most dislike in the girl squad (outside of Alya, who’s her own can of worms), again, not because she’s a tomboy, but how she’s kind of all over the place with her character interactions. She has a rival in Kim and she’s friends with Nathaniel and I want to see more of that rather than her being in the girl squad. I already don’t like the girl squad in general, but it’s like… Alix, you have other groups.

Episodes that Have My Favorite Moments of Her - Don’t have any.

Episodes That Have My Least Favorite Moments of Her -“Timebreaker,” “Gigantitan,” “Frozer,” “Reverser,” “Chat Blanc”

[furin-chwan]

LuTen fic recommendations: a few favorites.

So I spent the last month falling in love with LuTen, Yukten, Tencas, whatever you want to call it. I read through the Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten/Wong Yukhei | Lucas tag on AO3 in English, then doubled around to google translate all fics in languages that is not English because that is how much whipped I am for this pairing.

In the process, I discovered some gems that broke my heart, some healed my soul, some got me howling in laughters and some made me falling even deeper in love with LuTen.

Now that I’m pretty much up-to-date with the tag, I want to compile a short list of my All-Time-Favorites, Favorites, and Honorable mentions. I’ll try not to talk about the defails, so you don’t get spoiler and can enjoy it to the fullest. (I also want to say, I love reading things with Angst, but I mostly can’t stand if if it’s not Happy End. So there will be a couple that will hurt, as a warning)

This is gonna be lengthy since I ramble a lot! So I’ll keep it to top 3 and a few honorable mentions. They will all be completed works.

First off,

In Shades by the munchking.

This work. I cannot, CANNOT, recommend it enough. I have so much to say about it, but at the same time, I don’t know what really to say. It left me a broken, sobbing mess after reading it. I don’t think I was ever really the same anymore. This is truly one of the best work I have read, across all of the fandoms. There was a recess period where I cannot even think about it because it would hurt in the best way, but it was still too much. I love it with all my heart, so much that I was so sad after reading it, then so mad, then I now just re-read it every other day.

The characters, the world-building, the writings, they are just absolutely unparalleled. There is so much depths to everything, and everytime I read it, I would catch something about the story, the foreshadows, the tiny tibbits of brilliance that I never did before. I have this work always open on my phone browser, just so I can go back and quickly read it whenever the urge hits me. It has everything from angst, fluff, the smexy stuffs, the badass-ness, everything.

While I will quote the whole fic to find a favorite part, since it is that brilliant, I can’t do that hear because that’ll be spoilers, so here’s a snippet:

The trouble with love, Ten thinks, is that it blinds you. It’s the most powerful force in the world, and according to Ten’s first law of motion, objects in love tend to stay in love. Ten really doesn’t want to fight.

If I ever have to pick an absolute favorite Luten fic, it would HAVE to be this. This is bookmarked in my account as “All Time Favorite” tag with a “THIS ONE FUCKED ME UP, FUCK” in the note. So yes.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20926073

Next, we have

Eyes Closed to the Wreckage by caesiumlight

This is the first Luten fic that got an “All Time Favorite” tag from me. I have an immense weakness for Spies/Super Agents AUs and darker-tone AUs in general, so this hits home right on first ball throw. The thrill, the badass-ness, the tension. I live for this (especially when we got SuperM’s concept of suits and gadgets, super agents/spies/soldier looking photoshoots and trailer, I am weak okayy?)

I am in love with how Lucas is written in here. The characterization is well done, and the interactions between characters is also such a feast to dive in. And even though it was in Lucas’ perspective, we still get to see so much of Ten despite everything.

Favorite part

There’s a presence at his side suddenly, and Lucas is pulled into an embrace. Ten cradles him securely with one hand gripping his. He doesn’t say anything, only strokes the back of Lucas’ neck. Lucas shakes harder in relief, breath stuttering, because he doesn’t know if he’d be able to pull himself out of this black hole alone. Ten holds him until he has nothing left, no tears left to soak the bloodied ground.

I have re-read this work five times, and even translated it into Vietnamese. So you know how whipped I for them.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14311836

Then, it’s

I, who was chosen by love, begin to moonwalk by zimriya

I’m a simple fan who likes ABO verse, especially the old school Alpha/Omega pairing (hey, sometimes I just want to read the PWP). Then this work came at me with something completely different and hit me with substance not just style, and I was ended just like that. It breaks the norm for this type of setting, and I loved every second of it.

The ache in here is real, it doesn’t hurt like In Shades, but this one you feel a constant humming of the sweetest type of aches. But then it just... dissipate into this warmth of softness and love and it will be the best thing ever. Ten is also written differently in here than how most would portray him in other works which was interesting refreshing to see.

Even when the setting is not real, their troubles and thoughts still feel real, relatable, and believable, and I think that’s the best thing you can achieve in writing. And while it’s an installment of a larger series, it doesn’t make you feel like you are missing out on information, it feels full like a stand alone piece. (However I do recommend other installments of this series even though they are all in different pairings, Ten and Lucas do make pretty great cameos).

A couple part stood out to me, but this is one of my faves for sure:

like Yukhei didn’t worm his way in close to him like some sort of overgrown, over-dimpled weed, with bad manners and bad Mandarin and even worse ideas about personal space and how friends with benefits were even supposed to work. Like Yukhei wasn’t what he saw when he woke up more often than not, or the last thing in his sight before he fell asleep. Like he wasn’t the one who brought Ten coffee how he liked it and humored all his little issues with any and all fruits; taught him tiny bits of Cantonese like it was second nature and then turned around and acted like he was the worst at languages.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21839893

That’s my top three most memorables! Now, here are some honorable mentions:

Stories no one believes in yet by umiwomitai

A very cute AU with good balance of humor, fluffs, and feelings. It is well written and I’d come back to this for a pick-me-up kind of moment.

“See, I may not look like Einstein, but I’m not stupid either. Xuxi is my dog, and you, though you might behave like one, are not a dog. Answer my question now,” he kicks the man in the thigh as he says so, earning a puppy look that makes him want to sigh in despair. What had he done to deserve this?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19724677

I Regular by umiwomitai

This work is fascinating to me, it touches upon really interesting subjects (unlearning prejudices and biases) and has subtle but great the world-building. What stood out in this work for me is the great and believable character development. It’s definitely an emotional ride, but it’s a full filling one.

In the bright fake yellow light, Lucas’s hair appear more blond than brown and Ten wonders if it would feel just the same as his if he ran his hands through it. If it would hurt if he pulled. If it would curl back into place if he tried to style it differently.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24288823

The Cure to Insomnia by Daydreamgirl

Softest thing ever. Seriously whenever I’m sad or hurt from reading too much angst, this heals me. It’s very wholesome too. Very much recommended.

Lucas immediately looked away from his phone and looked up at Ten. Ten was satisfied. He was sure Kun usually had to call Lucas three times to get him away from the phone.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461449

signs of my vitamin U deficiency by sugarcoats

Fun, cute, smexy time with fruit-phobia Ten and personal trainer Lucas, there was a banana bj involved what more do I need to say.

Can’t quote anything from this one because I thought the summary is enough to hook you.

In which Ten is afraid of fruits and Lucas, his nutritionist, finds it worrisome but adorable.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18694945

the art of sales and falling in love by actuallyshua

Good old cat-and-dog style banter. Super charming writing. Bonus point with office AUs. It’s fun, it’s charming, it’s a gem.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20132332

And that’s it, my friends. That is my list of recommendations for LuTen.

I hope you will enjoy them as much as I did. If there’s any work you love that I haven’t mentioend the price, please don’t hesitate to let me know through asks, comments/mentions, or dms. Please check out the fics above and give them much love and support from us!

P.s: I didn’t mention in the list, it’s just because I assume everyone who knows LuTen have read through that series multiple time. If you haven’t, please do yourself a favor and go read it.

[innuendostudios]

[edit: the video was false-flagged as “hatespeech” on YouTube, so I have swapped the embed with a mirror on Vimeo. I will swap them back when I get the YouTube version reinstated/replaced in a re-edited form.]

It would not be possible to continue The Alt-Right Playbook without sitting down and defining fascism, so here we are. I know I said the next one would be shorter, and I was proven a damned liar. Maybe the next one! As ever, keep this series, and all my other videos, coming out steadily by backing me on Patreon.

Transcript below the cut.

"Fascism" is a term I've heard thrown around since I was a kid, but, most of the time, idiomatically. "Fascist" is what you called your Type A, passive-aggressive roommate: "Stop being such a fascist, Debra." Through osmosis, I knew its literal meaning was among a cluster of related words: Authoritarianism, totalitarianism, white supremacy, nationalism, dictatorship. But, for much of my life, if you pressed me to define any of these words, I could have only said, "You know, Nazis. Hitler, the Gestapo... you know, Nazis!"

This colloquializing of fascism, and its association with the cultural shorthand for pure evil, makes it very hard to discuss as an ideology, because even using the word, "fascism," sounds both hyperbolic and like a punch below the belt. To call a person, group, or idea "fascist" is to exaggerate for the purpose of dragging them.

Counterintuitively, this prevents us from criticizing fascist groups, even though most everyone agrees fascism is terrible, because, saying it, you sound ridiculous. You’re talking about Indiana Jones villains. So I'm going to be using the word, "fascism," kind of a lot in this video, hoping that we can semantically satiate it just enough that its connotative meanings - irreverent sarcasm and the envisioning of stormtroopers - are dulled to the point that we can talk about fascism as a system of beliefs, and as a mode of political organizing, and about who practices it today.

Our work necessitates a conversation about fascism; specifically, white fascism.

(Fascism, fascism, fascism.)

I. Fascism

Central to fascism is the belief that some people are more deserving of power than others, and that society’s appropriate structure is a hierarchy where increasingly smaller groups of betters rule over the lessers. This is not unique to fascism; this is the organizing principle of many social systems.

The difference between systems is whom each hierarchy says should be at the top. In a feudal monarchy, the top is the king and his family, and they get there by royal bloodline. In a capitalist free market (*cough*), people earn their place at the top by success in business. In fascism, the ones at the top should be “us,” whomever “us” happens to be, and they should get there by any means available.

The most succinct definition of fascism comes from Roger Griffin: “palingenetic ultranationalism,” a wonderful term because it fits a great many ideas into only two roots and a bunch of affixes, and a terrible one because both words need definitions of their own. (That’s not how efficiency works, Rog!)

So, OK: Palingenesis is the idea of rebirth, with some frankly Biblical overtones. The word “palingenesis” is used to refer to reincarnation, or the remaking of the world after Judgment Day. In terms of fascism, it is the notion that “we,” as a unified people, are ancient, that our former glory has waned, and that we are due to rise again. The implications that this rebirth will come by purging the world in fire with boiling seas and a blood-red sky are not entirely accidental. It is the granting of “us” with mythological importance.

Nationalism is, in the broadest sense, thinking of oneself through the lens of national identity. A single person holds a lot of identities: White, male, gamer, New Englander, cyclist, sports racer, and so on. Nationalism is the lens through which thinking of oneself as, for instance, American, is distinct from being Canadian, Liberian, Chilean, and that putting stock in this distinction is desirable. This can play out a lot of ways: Nationalism can be a colonized people forming an identity distinct from the ruling class and arguing that this people should have its own state, as in the American or Haitian Revolutions; Black nationalism has argued, at times, that Black Americans, while coexisting with other Americans, should maintain a distinct identity rather than be assimilated into white culture; and where Black nationalism has also sometimes argued for the repatriation of Black Americans to African nations, white nationalism typically argues that whites should have a nation of their own, not by returning to Europe, but by removing non-whites from the US (something Native Americans have opinions about). This would be an example of ultranationalism: The emphasizing of national identity as among the most, if not the most, important.

(These are not rare traits, and I want to stress that it is not the presence but the confluence of them that gives fascism its character.)

So, palingenetic ultranationalism: The belief that the nation is of the utmost importance, that the people running the nation should be a narrowly defined “us,” and that “we” should rule because it’s, more or less, our destiny.

The religiosity of this framing is intentional. Most hierarchical systems will make some case for why society should be structured a certain way: The king has been groomed for his role since birth, Steve Jobs did real good at the business factory. Fascism suspends the need for explanation: We belong at the top because we just do. Destiny. When pressed, fascists will offer pseudo-rational justifications for why they should be in charge which fall apart under the barest scrutiny, but debunking these claims is largely ineffective because, while they follow the cadences of reasoned argument, they’re operating on the level of emotion, faith, and a sense of belonging.

There’s a reason fascist regimes rely heavily on propaganda: Propaganda traffics not in arguments but in symbols. For the Nazis, it was the German soldier; for the Soviets, it was the worker. Propaganda relies on inspiring imagery that evokes cherished aspects of the culture, like the family or the countryside - “the babe in his cradle is closing his eyes, the blossom embraces the bee” - and ties those images to fascist ideals - “but soon, says a whisper, arise, arise, tomorrow belongs to me.” All of this is meant to make one swell with pride in such a way that it’s very hard to think about what is actually being said. Racist caricatures of Black and Jewish people - or whomever is “not us” in a given system - serve the same purpose by evoking hatred, or fear of what might happen to “us” if “they” were in control.

Jason Stanley calls this “affective override,” the moment where emotion shuts down critical thinking. If you’ve ever had a conversation with a conservative about, like, healthcare or something, and after a few exchanges they’re chest-beating about how “this is the nation of freedom and choice, the greatest nation that ever was, and I’m not going to let you take from me my god-given…” you’ve seen this in action. Fascism depends on this passionate fervor because it can’t convincingly pretend to be rational. The reason why one particular “us” should be at the top of the hierarchy, or why there should even be a hierarchy in the first place, is arbitrary. It’s that way because a particular “us” wants it that way.

II. Authority

We usually associate fascism with the image of state violence, be it the punishing of The Other, the policing of citizens, or the conquering of other nations, and, while this is almost always the case, fascism is not, as a rule, militant. In practice, fascists are not authoritarians or pacifists. For that matter, they're not capitalists or anti-capitalists. They're not statists or anarchists. They're not monarchists, oligarchists, or plutocrats. They are Whatever Puts Us In Power-ists.

For instance: Capitalism is a hierarchical system, and so fascists will often try to influence policy such that the capitalist hierarchy starts to resemble the desired fascist one, but only until the point that it stops suiting their needs. The “us” of fascism is always defined by essential qualities like race or heritage, qualities that don’t change. A poor person can become less poor, but a Black person can’t become less Black, so, no matter how biased and stratified capitalism becomes, so long as it is still technically possible for someone from the lower classes to rise above their station, there will come a time when fascists must leave capitalism behind in favor of a system fully without social mobility.

Similarly, if fascists have the ability to take governmental control through nonviolent means, they will often do so - remember, Mussolini took power in a coup but Hitler was elected. If democracy and nonviolence can be put to fascist ends, they will be. But instituting a system that benefits the few while the many suffer and where, by design, no one suffering is allowed to improve their situation, might as well be writing ad copy for guillotines, and that’s how you get the SS. So, yes, fascist power trends towards authoritarianism because, on a long enough timeline, it will be the only way fascism can maintain itself.

But, also, fascists and authoritarians think power, brutality, and subjugation are sexy in more or less identical ways, so, while not all authoritarians are fascists, most fascists are authoritarians. And state violence is often a way of getting people invested in a hierarchy that doesn’t directly benefit them: “You may not be at the top, but if you’re somewhere around the middle, we can employ you as military or police to keep the lower classes in line.” Many people will relinquish their rights to fascists in exchange for being “the arm of the law,” and, the more powerful the state becomes, the more vicarious power they get to wield. So long as they’re not at the bottom, they have some investment in the system continuing as is, because it authorizes them to fuck people up.

The other way fascism justifies itself to the masses is to insist that the only alternative is death. “We are a great and noble people with an illustrious history, and if we achieve our fated rebirth we will form the most glorious nation in all of history and take our rightful place as world leader, and if we fail we will be eradicated.” There is no in between. “They are coming for us, they are everywhere, we can beat them, but this is the only way.” Race war is the usual go-to, claiming Black people are savages and razing our cities to the ground is their nature, or that they want revenge for slavery (which, I mean…). Sometimes they go with a Jewish conspiracy as revenge for the Holocaust. Or both at the same time. Right now Islamophobia’s in fashion. Each depends on downplaying slavery or the Holocaust or the Crusades as the horrific acts that they were, insisting that the crimes are greatly exaggerated by history, because these are all pretty damning counterarguments to “us” being the greatest people who have ever lived.

III. Whiteness

Race is like gender and money: It’s real, but only because we make it real. But fascism necessitates the belief that whatever makes “us” us is not only extremely real, in the biological and/or spiritual sense, but that people can be ranked by it. And, when stacking the hierarchy, white fascists put themselves at the top. So: What is whiteness?

The short answer is that whiteness is whatever it needs to be. Whiteness was created to differentiate one people from the people they were oppressing. Whiteness is a means to an end. The people most fixated with the definition of whiteness are racists, but there is no anti-racist definition. Racists invented whiteness, and all white people are folded into it.

And the way white people conceive of whiteness is fundamentally different from how they conceive of other races. A common example of this phenomenon is Barack Obama: Obama had one Black parent and one white parent. But, while he can call himself the first Black President, he could never call himself a white President. (Or, well, he could call himself whatever he wanted, but white people wouldn’t agree, and no one would treat him like a white President.) White people are only white if they’re purebreeds, or if non-whiteness is far enough back in their family tree that one can pretend it isn’t there. These rules of purity don’t apply to other races: When Black and white people have children, those children are allowed to be Black, or any number of (often racist) terms for mixed-race children. But, whatever they are, they can’t be white.

This frames interracial families as an increase of one race and a decrease in whites. So, by this logic, where other races spread, whiteness has to be maintained.

White people don’t consider whiteness a race; it is the absence of race. The undiluted form of which all other races are deviations. And, if it goes, it can’t be brought back.

This is, of course, nonsense. It’s a bunch of made-up rules to justify white supremacy. There’s only so long fascists can insist, “If we don’t strike first, they’re going to kill us all,” before people start to notice that the race war they’ve been promising for a century doesn’t seem to be happening. So, then, the terms have to be updated: Now the existential threat is a generational project. Now Black people even existing near white people is the race war. They’re literally going to fuck us out of existence.

And, because whiteness is made up, it can be endlessly redefined. A tension inherent to fascism is that rather a lot of people are required to bring it into existence, but, by design, only a small number of people will run it once it exists. So, commonly, the definition of “us” is broadened while building coalitions, and gets progressively narrower the more fascist society becomes.

White fascists in the US and Europe go back and forth on whether or not Jewish people get to be white. For a while it was kiiiind of a soft yes, and now it’s tipping the other way as they gain influence. Ethnic groups formerly considered non-white, like Italians and the Irish, became white when white culture feared marginalized immigrants might ally with slaves in revolt.

Bigotry is intersectional; there aren’t a lot of single-issue bigots, people who hate Mexicans but fight for everyone else’s rights. People generally don't apply this hierarchical thinking to just one aspect of their lives. So - commonly - racism is comorbid with anti-Semitism is comorbid with misogyny is comorbid with transphobia is comorbid with homophobia is comorbid with religious intolerance. I mean, just listen to a Klansman talk about Catholics sometime, or, better yet, don’t. Any marginalized group may be inducted into the tribe to consolidate against a common enemy, but, should that enemy be defeated, the inductees become the new enemy.

We can see the history of social progress in the US as successively disenfranchised groups demanding and, sometimes, gaining their rights one by one, with reactionaries trying to beat back the tide. Transphobia is recently rampant in fascist circles and conservative politics because, with the legalization of same-sex marriage, the battle against homosexuality is thought to be lost - or, at least, at a ceasefire. This gives some cause to welcome gay transphobes into the ranks. But, should they seize enough power to strip what few protections trans people have gained recently, and the alliance is no longer useful, their gaze refocuses, and it’s last hired, first fired for the homosexuals. And then the African-Americans, and then the women, and on and on, stripping rights from social groups in the order opposite to which they were gained, like the plot of Final Destination 2.

IV. Goals

You might be thinking the endgame here is a nice, homogenous group of white men to sit at the top of the pyramid, and the white fascists would be thinking the same. But, in reality, there is no endgame. It’s not like, if the fascists get their ethnostate, they’re just gonna call it a day. It’s the flaw in obsessing over racial purity: Whiteness is defined by what it’s not. If it isn’t contrasted with something else, it ceases to be an identity. So, if the whites kick all the non-whites out of their country, suddenly the Irish and Italians aren’t white anymore. And then maybe the albinos, or the brunettes, or the Virginians, it doesn’t matter, the rules are made up. One way or another, the pyramid grows thinner.

The authoritarian mindset is one that just likes stripping rights from people. Leave authoritarians no one to strip rights from and they start stripping them from each other. (And yes, that’s what the research says.) The other outlet for this restless energy is war, invasion, colonization: Deport all the Mexicans and then follow them into Mexico. Go seeking an Other to define yourself against.

You’ve maybe noticed that these three drives - the seeking out of conflict, the need to subjugate more and more people, and the shrinking of one’s base of power - is not a recipe for success. Most hierarchical systems seek equilibrium, finding the point where the masses are just happy enough that they don’t disembowel you. But the trajectory of fascism is to make enemies, cast out allies, narrow the gene pool, and stuff your ill-gotten wealth into the military until you’re fully stocked with the kinds of weapons that ensure mutual destruction.

I’m not the first to say: white fascism is a suicide cult.

The history of fascism is one of atrocity followed by failure followed by disgrace, so modern fascists operate in a cycle of constant reinvention as they try to distance themselves from movements that came before. The ideology doesn’t change, but the rhetoric does, primarily by stealing rhetoric from the Left, because it’s, flatly, more popular. White nationalists calling themselves “identitarians” is an appropriation of progressive identity politics. The rhetoric of “white power” is an intentional bastardization of Black power movements. Even the Nazis, while installing a dictatorship, knew to call themselves socialists, and, despite German antifascism being formed predominantly by socialists and the first death camp being originally built to throw communists in, some people still believe this?

This appropriation of rhetoric is how each generation of fascists rebrands itself. “We’re not like those fascists who got hanged for what they did; we’re young, hip, and successful! Come back, baby, it’ll be different this time.”

V. The Administration

So, with all this explanation of what fascists believe and how they operate, I hope it’s clear that there is no workable definition of fascism that does not include the Alt-Right. They are, to the letter, a white fascist movement. That’s neither a diss nor an exaggeration, it’s a simple statement of fact.

So, then, to ask the trickier question: “Is the current administration fascist?” And, well, that depends on where you draw the line between “fascist” and “opportunist.”

Consider the evidence: The administration has staffed multiple fascist figureheads. It’s repeated a number of fascist slogans. It employs a nationalist thinking in which the nation should always get more out of any deal than the other participants. It holds the hierarchical belief that the President need not follow the same laws as the citizens. It relies on fear and demonization of a racial Other and portrays their mere presence in society as an invasion. It permits and makes justifications for violence against dissenters. It threatens to strip rights from opponents and members of the press. It relies on nostalgia for a mythologized past to sell a narrative of cultural rebirth. And its followers are intersectionally bigoted against women, the poor, Muslims, Black people, trans people, and queer people.

The only hesitance I feel around saying “this is fascism” centers around intent. How much of what they do and say do they believe in, and how much is just riding a wave of fascist sympathy to fuel a narcissistic lust for power and ram through policies that make them rich? But, ultimately, while there is some tactical value in this distinction - you have to deal with an opportunist differently from a true believer - in most contexts, the difference doesn’t matter.

Many will just tell you, “The correct term for ‘Nazi sympathizer’ is ‘Nazi,’” but if you won’t take that leap, consider this: Even if they have no particular plan or aptitude for creating a fascist government, any body in power that uses fascist rhetoric, lays the groundwork for future fascism, and empowers fascist movements needs to be at least viewed through the lens of fascism. Whether or not they’re fascists in their hearts is a question for historians. Whatever they are, they are, some percentage of the time, doing fascism. And, for our purposes, that's all we need to know.

[comicteaparty]

December 30th, 2019-January 5th, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from December 30th, 2019 to January 5th, 2020.  The chat focused on Reading Days by Sergio Ragno.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Week Long Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Reading Days by Sergio Ragno~! (https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Remember, though, that while we allow constructive criticism, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic. Below you will find four questions to get you started on the discussion. However, a new question will be posted and pinned everyday (between 12:01AM and 6AM PDT), so keep checking back for more! You have until January 5th to tell us all your wonderful thoughts! With that established, let’s get going on the reading and the chatting!

QUESTION 1. What has been your favorite strip in the comic so far? What specifically did you like about it?

QUESTION 2. Of the ongoing strips connected by the same characters or themes, which one do you like the most and why?

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. At the moment, who is your favorite character? What about that character earns them this favor?

QUESTION 4. Which of the jokes related to literature, novels, and/or libraries caught your attention the most? What about that strip in general stuck out to you in how it was executed?

Eightfish

1. Unfortunately, even if I've heard of or read the books referenced in this comic I'm not sure I really "get" the strips. I feel like most of the punchlines are going over my head. But I liked this once: https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/judging-a-book-by-its-cover-the-dragon-and-the-george/ It reminded me of me and my friends making fun of the trashy action and romance paperbacks at the free books section of the library. Those campy titles and detailed art have a lot of charm and character to them.(edited)

RebelVampire

QUESTION 5. What has been your favorite illustration in the comic so far? What specifically about it do you like?

QUESTION 6. Which of the pop culture joke strips was your favorite and why? In what ways do you think this comic succeeds in using pop culture for humor in general?

RebelVampire

1) My favorite strip so far is probably this one. https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/what-science-goes-there/ Not only is it a sneaky callback to a very famous sci-fi story, but anything with science cat entertains me. I also like just the...kind of weird dramatic tone this comic has until the last panel where its flipped to deliver the comedy. 2) My fave ongoing series is definitely Science Cat's. I'm just...really biased towards cats. Plus, I really just love the combination between having something education, something comedic, and also something with hints of both science and cat behavior. I love both topics, so for me it's a match made in heaven. 3) Science Cat is my favorite character. Legit, how can you not love a science cat? 4) I actually really like the Judging a Book By its Cover series. Such as this strip for example. https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/judging-a-book-by-its-cover-the-last-dark-elf/ Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of great references and such to literature that I adore (such as my fave strip), but I really like this series focusing on covers. I've personally always thought a lot of book covers, while well illustrated, and really, really weird given the title and contents of the book. So I'm really tickled pink by this series that's kind of pointing that out. Plus, it really does kind of demonstrate the impression a book cover gives us and why it's kind of important to consider the first impression book covers give. Which is why I think it works since it's based on these strange first impressions we might get.

5) My favorite illustration is definitely this strip. https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/dr-science-cat-cat-scientists-tour-of-the-elements-berylium/ Besides my bias for space, I really love the lighting on this one. It really sells the location for me and gives it a nice sense of presence. Not necessarily needed, but I do love interesting lighting so I'll take it. 6) There are a lot of great pop culture jokes, but I'm gonna go with this Peanuts joke one https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/every-time/ Besides the fact it's a classic, it was not the direction I expected it to go. Plus, that Lucy face just really sells it for me. Like its so horrifying in some way, which just makes it all the funnier to me. As for in general, I think this comic really just kind of knows how to balance the elements of pop culture while taking it unexpected directions like this. Where it makes sense in the universe/kind of fits in, yet exaggerates and plays on how ridiculous it could potentially be.

Tuyetnhi

1. I'm fond of the space odyssey parody like lmao. I'll post the link when I find it lol. I think it's just something as midwesterner that likes dry humor, it's a given lol.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 7. Which characters do you enjoy seeing interact the most? What about their dynamic interests you?

QUESTION 8. What was one educational thing you learned from Dr. Science Cat? Overall, what do you think we can learn from the comic in regards to combining education and comedy?

snuffysam

I find the interaction between Reginald and Gina to be really fun. I love the strips where Reginald tries his best to teach everyone meaningful life lessons (e.g. "reading is good") and then Gina comes with an attempt to loudly and completely undermine it. e.g. https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/reginald-powers-in-the-root-of-all-yachts/ But, like, the interaction between them inadvertently teaches other lessons - that not everyone who shares your interests will do so in the same way. Gina and Reginald both like books, but they act on it in very different ways (like, Reginald would not likely break open a water main due to something he read on the spine of a book).

RebelVampire

QUESTION 9. What sorts of art or writing details have you noticed in the way the comic is crafted that you think deserves attention?

QUESTION 10. In what ways do you feel this comic stands apart from other gag of the day style comedy comics? Also, how do you feel the comic succeeds in making everything feel part of one thematically connected series?

RebelVampire

7) I probably enjoy seeing Science Cat interact with anybody really. I don't really have a particular preference where this one is concerned. Though I do somewhat enjoy more science cat interacting with other scientists, cause that allows science cat to be the silly one a bit more than usual. 8) The educational thing I learned was definitely the strip on Beryllium https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/comic/dr-science-cat-cat-scientists-tour-of-the-elements-berylium/. Beryllium is just an element I never really see talked about at all, so off the top of my head I don't know much about it other than it exists. I think this comic does show that comedy and education don't have to be enemies though. The more fun you make education, the easier it is to swallow. Plus, education doesn't have to be serious and boring all the time.

9) There isn't a specific detail I appreciate so much as the overall effort in so many pop culture references. There's a huge mix of books, anime, movies, video games, and so on. Despite how much we consume on a regular basis, it's still hard to know things so in depth to make jokes about them (since most people move on and consume more, which is totally fine of course). So I just appreciate that effort to store enough knowledge that these scenarios can be created. 10) I think this comic stands apart from other gag of the style days in terms of its variety. While there are certainly gag a day style comics that can be pretty varied, I feel this one kicks it up a notch more than usually with just how much it covers. I also think it succeeds more than a lot of other comics due to the sort of thematic connection the whole comic has. Though I can't put it into words, there's a real sense of writing style that is unique and present in all the strips. So in the end it makes the entire theme feel like a really cohesive comedy comic despite only some of the series being connected by the same characters.

Tuyetnhi

8. me answering questions out of order since I think rebel kinda cemented how I feel about the comic in general and Science cat but lmao. Me too about the Beryllium strip. It's kinda funny that a lot of folks who aren't in the education field don't think it's mutually inclusive to have humor and education content together. Yet a lot of educators are calling this connection to help with memory retention. rip speaking as a future educator, it's important to have these works.

science and art, they're closely related than most people think lol.

Tuyetnhi

10. Reginald's Character design for me stands out compared to other gag comics (tbh I wouldn't expect an octopus pop up frequently so kudos for it same for science cat lol). On terms of books read in my high school days, references in pop culture, and overarching moods about reading books and lit. is done well. I think it's just reminding me of the days I'd think about when I was a school kid, and it's kinda nostalgic that way imo.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 11. What do you think are this particular comic’s strengths? What do you think makes this comic unique? Please elaborate.

QUESTION 12. Overall, what do you think we can learn from the comic in regards to comedy writing and how to take inspiration from real life? In other words, how has your perspective on comedy been changed (even if only a little)?

keii4ii

11. I agree that this comic has HUGE variety going on. It covers so much stuff. Admittedly that's a barrier to entry for me, as most of the stuff that's being referred to, I am not familiar with. But even if I don't get it, I honestly think that's admirable and unique. It's a core part of its identity, and it's quite something to see how much fun the comic/author seems to be having, exploring all these different interests!

RebelVampire

QUESTION 13. What are you most looking forward to in the comic? Also, do you have any final thoughts to share overall?

QUESTION 14. What other topics or themes are you hoping to see addressed in the comic? Why do you think it would suit the comedic style the comic is going for?

RebelVampire

11) I think, as I've said before, it's the variety plus the knowledge that's going into the jokes. Want pop culture? It's there. Want literature? It's there. Want educational science stuff? It's there. There's just so much this comic offers in general that I think it adds to the overall charm. 12) For me, as ties into above, this comic kind of reminds me that you can have successful comedy even if not every joke connects with you. I am personally not a huge fan of comedy as a genre, as most stuff just isnt too my taste. However, with comics like this, it's okay if not everything was to my taste. Because of the variety, there were still strips I really liked. So at the end, the comic as a whole did not need to connect with me to be, as an overall thing, something that succeeded as comedy for me. And I think that's a good takeaway for comedy writing in general. Comedy is probably the most divisive of all genres, so it's nice to see when that doesn't really hinder someone making it.

13) Science cat. I need more science cat in my life teaching me about elements. Cause goodness knows I haven't had a good refresher on the periodic table since high school since it isn't relevant to my life. 14) I really hope to see more of the judging book by its cover series, because there are so many great book covers to choose from. Literal interpretation is a comedic form I'm also a fan of and since this comic already has a lot of that, I think it fits right in.

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- WEEK LONG BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Reading Days this week! Please also give a special thank you to Sergio Ragno for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Reading Days, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: https://thirteenthchild.net/readingdays/

Sergio’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/SergeXIII

Sergio’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/sergexiii

Sergio’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/sergexiii

[cornyregans]

Young Love in Veronaville

  DISCLAIMER: Given the title, it should be rather obvious that this essay is about shipping. As someone who has been part of a plethora of fandoms over the years, I know from experience that this topic has a tendency to be a very slippery slope. As such, there are two things I want to make clear before we go any further. First of all, I do not ship all of the ships that are covered in this essay. That being said, I tried my best to be as objective as possible when it comes to analyzing everything despite any biases I may have. Second of all, just because I don’t cover your ship here doesn’t make it any less valid. Most of the things I’m going to look at in this essay are from a narrative perspective rather than an interpretive or personal perspective (with minimal exceptions). With that out of the way, I hope you enjoy!~

Obligatory Disclaimer Word Count: 157 words Essay Word Count: 2,246 words Obligatory Thank You Word Count: 126 words Total Word Count: 2,529 words

  Most of the premade families in The Sims 2 have ties to other households in their home neighborhood. This statement is also true in Veronaville where two-of-the-three premade extended families are involved in a generation-spanning feud, while the other household gets along with practically everyone. Much like in other neighborhoods, the relationships among the sims in Veronaville run the gamut in terms of how they can be classified; as there are acquaintances, enemies, friends, family, and romantic interests.

  While The Sims 2 is essentially a sandbox game where you get to decide how your sims live their lives, the developers have structured the premade neighborhoods so that some of these relationships are easier to achieve than others. This is especially true of the romantic relationships, as it takes much less work and effort to have sims already romantically involved with one another engage in romantic interactions than those who aren’t. When playing Veronaville for the first time, the romantic relationships are mostly set-in-stone among the adults and elders, with most being either married or widowed with no sign of moving on. The teenagers, on the other hand, are different story due to both their youth and the limited pool of interactions they can engage in while playing a mod-free game.

  Out of the seven premade teens in Veronaville, the developers offer the player quite a few prospects for most of them. To keep things organized, I will go through each suggested couple individually, from the most obvious to one that could happen should the player wish to go along with it. In each example, I will go over two things: their relationship in the game, and any parallels these potential couples may have to a work by William Shakespeare.

Romeo Monty & Juliette Capp

  Romeo and Juliette's relationship is at the center of the Veronaville narrative, making them the most obvious choice for each other within this batch of crazy kids. Upon first playing the Capp Manor, you will notice that Juliette already has a crush on Romeo and wants to go steady with him. This want is easy to achieve, as Romeo is practically guaranteed to accept. The Monty Ranch's tutorial involves Romeo inviting Juliette over for a make-out session, and Juliette is also practically guaranteed to accept both his invitation and his advances.

  Given the names of both sims, it should be obvious to anyone that the Shakespeare couple closest to these two would be the titular characters from Romeo & Juliet. These similarities are reflected in not only the neighborhood’s established narrative but also in both of their first and last names. There isn’t much else for me to explain here, as the parallels between both couples are far from subtle.

Puck Summerdream & Hermia Capp

  While Romeo and Juliette are the most obvious pre-established pairing among the Veronaville teens, Puck and Hermia are not too far behind. Upon first playing the Capp Manor, a look at Hermia’s relationship panel will show that she has romantic feelings for both Mercutio Monty and Puck Summerdream, but a closer look shows that she has a higher relationship with Puck than she does Mercutio. Should you choose to follow the tutorial at the Summerdream home and have Puck initiate his first kiss with Hermia (which is something both sims want), they will be caught by a jealous Mercutio, solving any love triangle these three were a part of.

  While both of these sims are based on two characters from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, there are some differences between how they are portrayed in the game and in the play. Unlike Romeo and Juliette, whose roles are relatively unchanged, there were definitely some alterations that were made in Puck and Hermia’s case. While Hermia’s transition between stage and Sims is largely left intact, Puck’s role in The Sims 2 is more akin to that of Lysander when it comes to him being Hermia’s intended love-interest.

  In A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Hermia is caught between two men, her choice (Lysander) and her father’s choice (Demetrius). At the end of the play, however, she ends up with Lysander due to some fairy magic.

Mercutio Monty & Miranda Capp

  If you decide to follow the tutorial at the Summerdream’s house and put Hermia with Puck, you still have another easy choice for Mercutio in the form of Miranda Capp. While Miranda’s feelings for Mercutio are rather one-sided upon first playing Goneril’s family, a few romantic interactions between the two can easily fix that problem due to already having a good rapport with each other.

  Unlike other examples, the Mercutio/Miranda coupling seems to have its roots in two of Shakespeare’s plays. If you look at them with the aforementioned love triangle in mind, then these two serve as a parallel to A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Demetrius and Helena. Mercutio, like Demetrius, starts the game with feelings for Hermia, while Miranda’s feelings for Mercutio are unrequited. However, much like how Demetrius and Helena ultimately ended up together, Mercutio and Miranda could easily become a couple should you have them pursue a romantic relationship.

  Without the love triangle in mind, Mercutio and Miranda’s relationship in TS2 could very well be a nod to The Tempest’s Ferdinand/Miranda coupling. In The Tempest, Miranda is the daughter of Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan; while Ferdinand is the son of Alonso, Prospero's usurper. Despite the tension between their fathers, Ferdinand and Miranda fall for each other over the course of the play and are married by the end. Mercutio and Miranda's situation is somewhat similar, with the former being a Monty and the latter a Capp; however, any marriage between them would have to wait in a mod-free game due to both starting off as teenagers.

Mercutio Monty & Hermia Capp

  As I said before, The Sims 2 is a sandbox game. While you could follow the tutorial at the Summerdream house and put Puck and Hermia together, you could also choose to forgo their first kiss and stick Hermia with Mercutio instead.

  By taking the love triangle involving these two and Puck into account, this coupling seems to mirror Demetrius and Hermia from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. While not as unrequited in this case, the fact that Hermia seems to favor Puck upon first glance seems to place Mercutio into the role of the romantic-false-lead. However, Mercutio could easily become the Lysander and Puck the Demetrius should you choose to pair Hermia off with the former instead.

Romeo Monty & Hermia Capp

  Unlike the other examples on this list, Romeo and Hermia do not have any sort of romantic feelings for one another upon first playing their lots. In fact, the only indication the developers give us regarding these two is that Romeo has a want to flirt with Hermia upon first playing the Monty Ranch.

  If we look at them from a Shakespearean point of view, it’s quite easy to see them as being a parallel of Romeo and Rosaline (Juliet’s cousin and Romeo's never-seen first love). Despite being what is referred to as a “ghost” character, Rosaline is the only female character outside of Juliet that Romeo is shown to have feelings for. This is paralleled in TS2 because Hermia is the only sim outside of Juliette that Romeo has a want to flirt with when first playing his lot.

What about Tybalt?

  Six of the seven playable teens in Veronaville have at least one pre-established romantic interest upon first playing their households. The exception to this rule is Juliette and Hermia's older brother Tybalt. While you are able to break up one of these couples and replace any of the girls with Tybalt (he cannot have a relationship with any of them in normal gameplay since he's related to all three girls by blood); the fact remains that the game itself does not hint that this is something you’re supposed to do.

  That being said, I do not think we should start any sort of debate here regarding any Veronaville resident’s sexuality, as that could be a topic all on its own. However, according to both SimPE, and a (mostly accurate) list I found on Tumblr, Tybalt is pre-programmed as having a slight preference for females. As a result, it’s unlikely that the developers intended for him to be romantically involved with Romeo, Puck, or Mercutio due to both his pre-established gender preference and the zeitgeist of the mid-2000s (mind you, this is coming from a Tycutio shipper). With Tybalt’s default sexuality in mind, let’s take a look at why he doesn't have a romantic partner preprogrammed into the game.

  First of all, Shakespeare’s Tybalt also lacks an obvious romantic interest. Sure, he has some sexual tension with both Mercutio and Romeo, but both instances are left up to interpretation. Much of his banter with Mercutio is laden with sexual innuendos; while the most obvious instance of his tension with Romeo occurs during his final scene before being killed. In addition to Mercutio and Romeo, the Baz Luhrmann film adaptation implies that he is involved in an affair with Lady Capulet (his aunt). That being said, given how the game is programmed, it is impossible for Tybalt Capp to do the same with either Goneril or Regan in a mod-free game (if there even is a mod for that at all).

  Personally, I think part of the reason Tybalt Capp doesn’t have an obvious love interest preprogrammed into the game can be found in his biography. Should you look at Tybalt's biography, you will see that he is “proud” to carry the Capp name. While carrying on his family legacy seems like something Tybalt would be keen on doing given his Capp pride, lineage is shown to be carried down the Capp line through the mother.

  This hypothesis regarding Tybalt’s biography is further supported when we look at the other premade families in Veronaville. Should Tybalt wish to potentially keep his Capp name and possibly pass it down to his offspring, he would probably have to marry a girl from a patrilineal family should the player choose to maintain the status-quo. Unfortunately for Tybalt, Bianca and Beatrice Monty are the only premade female sims in Veronaville to fit that description. While it is definitely possible to match Tybalt up with either of these sims, doing so betrays one of Tybalt’s other pre-established character traits: hating the Montys. In addition, the only non-Monty premade female sims in Veronaville who could serve as an option for Tybalt are Titania and Bottom Summerdream, both of whom are members of another matrilineal family. Should the player pair Tybalt up with either sim and choose to stick to the status quo, he would lose the Capp surname upon marriage, rendering him unable to pass it down to another generation.

  While the developers may not have chosen to give Tybalt a romantic story arc, that doesn’t mean he’s destined to remain single forever. Like I said before, TS2 is a sandbox game, meaning you get to choose how he lives his life regardless of the game’s programming and presented narrative. While Tybalt’s default gender preference shows that he prefers female sims, having him romantically interact with male sims can easily change that (since sexuality runs on a spectrum in TS2 rather than being fixed). As for Tybalt’s anti-Monty views, they can also be disregarded should you put the work into having him (and possibly the partner of your choice) make amends. However, if you decide romance isn’t for Tybalt and instead make him a literal prince of cats, that’s also completely valid. Like with all ships in TS2, there is no right or wrong answer on how to play the game. Ultimately, all ships and interpretations are valid because you, not the developers, are the one who decides how the story plays out.

Final Thoughts

  I will be the first to admit that I do not ship all of the implied pairings listed in this essay. Much like with other essays I have posted, as well as those that are still in progress, I always try to cast aside any biases I may have in order to show as many available options and interpretations as possible. In doing so, I feel like I can at least offer something to those of you whose views on Veronaville differ from my own.

  Naturally, I always refer to outside material in these essays in order to back up the claims. There is often a connection to be found, even if they don't align with my interpretation. I think this is especially true when it comes to the relationships between the premades, as many of them connect to Shakespeare or other relevant sources.

  I wanted to keep things simple for this essay, so I decided to give more of an overview of all the potential couples. While I could have picked apart every little detail, some of these relationships play a large part in Veronaville’s narrative that I believe they may need to be looked at separately from this particular entry. Many of Veronaville’s couples, whether they are mentioned in this essay or not, tend to have multiple layers in terms of both their dynamics and their Maxis-created story arcs. With that in mind, you will definitely see some, or possibly all of these couples covered more at length in the future.

Thank you so much for reading this essay! I hope you enjoyed even though this particular entry is nowhere near as long as my previous two. In fact, I think the entries on the Feud and the Tragedies will probably be the longest ones I’ll post on here; that being said, I do have a multipart project that I’m currently working on right now that I hope to post soon. 

As for next week’s entry, I’m thinking I might make it a two-parter since the essays work better as a unit. If I can get both done in time, I plan to post the first next Saturday and the second next Sunday. Once again, thank you so much for reading, I really hope you enjoyed!

[apartmentforrentdistrict2]

The Way to Do a Sales Pitch at Commercial Real Estate

In commercial property, you may undertake a number of presentations, even in many different circumstances. The majority of them are business-like in character, focusing upon the requirements of the renter, the house purchaser, or even the home vendor. Get into the heart problems Every one of those groups has exceptional real estate needs and points of attention. It's their demands that must be recognized and clearly addressed at the sales pitch or presentation. Many successful commercial realtors will have a preliminary interview with the customer or client so they can identify key topics and concerns. This permits the industrial agent to come back to the customer or client in a couple of days using a structured proposal which addresses the requirements of their client or customer. It's about THEM, not YOU! If you look for an investment or industrial real estate proposal for demonstration, the record ought to be 90 percent relation the house and the customer. Often you find this rule broken or disregarded up with the suggestion record being mostly regards the bureau along with the employees. Rarely is your property trade a very simple matter of their house lease, the real estate cost, or even the bodily elements of their property. In the majority of situations, it's the combo of those things that have to meet a basic equation of demand which the client or customer has. In acquiring them to the basic requirement, you may determine a component of pain which the client or customer is undergoing. That is exactly what you concentrate on. They can be Experienced It's intriguing to remember that lots of customers and clients in commercial property are fairly comfortable in conditions of business discussion. This means that they might not let you know that the complete huge image or all of the components of a trade till they are prepared. Conversation and link in the demonstration procedure ought to be biased towards your customer or client using well chosen questions that enable the agent to translate the body language stemming in the customer's answer. When you think you've identified the part of customers pain linked to the home trade, you begin to reevaluate the issue concerning the market today, then supplying stable and plausible answers your property service company can supply to the customer or client. Simultaneously, the commercial property trade in today's market centers on fiscal issues like: High Metrics variables Other land options and Odds can be found Underperforming rentals Unstable money flow Unstable tenancy mix Tenanted battle Escalating construction operating costs A change in demographics that exposes the land into a shaky future Mortgage payment pressures Age of this advantage Needs for refurbishment or expansion Competition properties bringing tenants from the Topic land This sort of interpretation and information necessitates your own intimate understanding of their local area. This can be by both land type and by place. Here is the greater value which you bring into the client or customer. Becoming in a position to clearly specify local market consciousness is a significant benefit in almost any industrial property demonstration or sales pitch. You ought to be viewed as the very best knowledgeable remedy to the issue.

From Experience After several years working in the industrial property business, I discovered that my distinctive ability was in market understanding and the screen of the in any formal presentation to the customer. Being in a position to discuss market trends and fiscal performance in a strong and solid way will assist the customer understand they want your services. Coupling that having a comprehensive and appropriate database of enquiry obviously reveals the customer they want you. A wonderful commercial property demonstration is a part and equilibrium of plenty of items. Things such as: A well recognized pre-planning procedure is a tactical advantage for each and every business property demonstration. Plan is all about in commercial property. Every home presentation necessitates preparation. Making certain that you are asking the ideal questions of their customer or potential. Plan your queries relative to this subject property so you assist the customer consider changes and opportunity which are possible. Using your marketplace wisdom and giving great answers. Have many different market facts and tendencies accessible to predict on. Feed them in your presentation; details are almost always helpful. They may also be utilized as a station to guide the conversation once the customer is forcing you to justify your strategy or your expertise. Confidence and management has to be the simple rule of your house demonstration. After the customer manages this demonstration you've lost.

Using your expertise from the market so you are telling important tales of success in comparable properties. Stories of different properties will constantly interest of their customer.

Making certain that your private demonstration is optimized for your link from the demonstration. It may be that you're employing a combo of this proposal record, the advertising record, and computer slide presentation, samples of your database, photos of this subject land projected to slides, and even photos of similar properties projected to slides.

Choosing the positioning of individuals in the dining table or positioning them at the area is obviously significant. Much was written concerning where you must sit to the customer. The fundamental rule is adjoining to the customer instead of across a place of barrier like a desk. Being inside arm's reach permits you to pass instruction to the customer at the suitable moment. Documentation shouldn't be supplied to the customer till you're prepared to allow them to critique it; differently it's a diversion of the focus.

Make certain your suggestion is easy and yet well guided using a clearly defined results of lease or sale. Many proposition files in commercial property are far too wordy so the primary messages are dropped and never clearly defined. The best hints are somewhat less wordy and more descriptive. The very best equilibrium of a business property proposition is a combination of 25% figures, 25% images, 25% charts, along with 25% white area. This really becomes a record that's clearly understood and read.

Combine superior illustrations and photos of this subject property to the proposal or demonstration in order that any extended paragraphs or descriptions are divided. This may definitely keep interest of the customer on your own documentation.

Make certain your advertising package is worth money, and reaching the target audience the property functions or desires to draw. Frequently, we see cases of generic advertising by the business property representative to the wider and less specific market. Showing the customer that you know and will bring greatest the target marketplace will always allow your conversion to an expected listing. Be very particular about the target audience and the way you'll attain it.

Ensure your commission prices are just and reasonable for your place. In the majority of situations, dismissing your commission shouldn't be a choice since it will make you bad and eliminate or detract from the excitement for the lease or sale. 'Cheap' way'cheap and without focus' and the customer should understand this. The house deserves greater. You aren't cheap since you're the very best and you also do a fantastic job. An honest commission is paid to get a favorable property result.

Always supply testimonials which are linked to the home trade. When you mix pertinent history and specifics of happy clients right into your presentation you may make the customer feel comfortable.

Always exhibit sound and clear market knowledge that contrasts the customer relative to your own property. This may consist of extensive comprehension of similar properties which compete with all the subject land. You ought to be in a position to speak solidly about land costs, corresponding rents, leasing growth, returns on investment, modifications into the future demographics of the region, and possessions in the immediate precinct of value. Oftentimes, it is worth it to walk round the neighborhood area only before some property demonstration so you bring instant and clear images of this precinct into the dialogue. Many times this was of significant benefit in my demonstration processes. Speaking about Arabian lands localises the customer and their thought processes.

Come up with Many Different Approaches to serve the Customer. Innovation and value will constantly impress. In the modern market, this can be comparatively simple considering that the advertising opportunities and resources supplied by the internet and technology. Be proactive on your premises marketing processes so the list for lease or sale stands distinctively distinct in its own advertising campaign in others in the region. This doesn't need to be pricey to the customer or to a workplace, provided the net and digital technology is cost effective. In the modern market, the standard procedures of publicising the house in the home pages of their neighborhood newspaper, has become less significant in the advertising effort. Most commercial real estate buyers and renters research the marketplace from the Internet first of all.

Almost every home service will state they have exceptional communication and link skills to encourage the house marketing procedure. By experience, this can be mostly wrong and generally the typical business salesperson or leasing individual will exercise regular communication stations with the customer. Place yourself in the shoes of their customer. They also expect and deserve regular updates about the advertising of their property even if nothing is occurring or if the ads are generating small reaction. When a real estate effort isn't generating the results, it's necessary that you behave or adapt with different recommendations and tactical modifications to the promotional effort for the customer to think about. Rarely could you reach the house effort right from the very first week. It's in this period you have to consider good tuning the marketing process so the target audience has been attained in a timely and powerful way. This usually means that each and every property enquiry made out of your own promotions have to be tabulated so you know what stations of advertising work most efficiently with the house in question.

When Shifting the customer or the customer group in an official home demonstration, the replies and information you provide should be delivered nicely and offer pertinent good real estate understanding, at a practiced and expert shipping. Any earnings or demonstration tools relative to this house has to be important and you need to be aware of how to use them together with exceptional skill. Fumbling and faking information isn't tolerated by the customer.

So there you have it. These are a few of the crucial skills to utilize in a business property demonstration. Whilst many realtors feel they are the very best choice in the marketplace to advertise sell and lease commercial real estate, the truth is that they don't receive the message across as it matters most in the front of the customer. To be the most effective commercial realtor in your town, you need to demonstrate that you're only so, and you also do this at the first 10 minutes at this time your demonstration takes. The customer will have formed an impression . Be ready to wander away from some other requirements for ignoring the customer or client needs. Inside this marketplace they require a fantastic commercial property agent supplying a fantastic job; blowing off isn't an alternative. Show pride in the own services and walk off whenever the customer needs discount in lower or marketing commissions. For more info Click here

[unproduciblesmackdown]

harvest, fireside, cider, maize

harvest - what fictional character do you most identify with? Why?

hmm i think Uuuusually if i have a really strong Fave Character (i draw them lol) it’s the one i’m also vibing really hard with. (though that’s not always the case and just as a sidenote i’m biased in favor of characters who are maybe treated as Less Important / like they don’t need to be taken as seriously or smthing. or if they’re kind of like, in their own bubble b/c they’re Weird. which can go just hand in hand with that previous point.) i definitely seem to have a pattern of latching on to / relating hard to characters who might come across a little standoffish / quiet on the surface but are deeply emotional and social and even excitable! this is not a mystery, this is very Like Me. but once again, if the whole character is taken Very Seriously i actually will Not like a sorta “standoffish but Actually Not” type, such as like, oo the scary guy who’s Actually Nice. i’ll be like, fuck i hate that bastard (or just don’t give a shit lol). and if a character is just very cool-tempered through and through i’ll be like well shit i can’t do anything with that. just like in real life!

fireside - if you had your dream wardrobe, what would it look like?

idk like sometimes i think it’s fun to wear more exciting outfits but just Jeans And Tees does seem to be my most natural wardrobe basis. but i wish i had more of them and more varied ones. and idk yeah if i’d ever go for that Gay Outer Layer b/c i’ve just never tried it!! i think i didn’t really think of it as much cuz like, i do want sleeves Above The Elbows, and like, i need some breeziness in there, i need the cut of the sleeve to not be Right up against the pits there, but i just like, forgot that yeah you can find shirts that fit that bill. rollupable / short sleeves and a fit that doesn’t just hug your shoulders and pits for dear life. i also like sandals and shorts, and i’d like to have Glasses Options, different frames and stuff. that’s it i think

cider - a food that you disliked as a child but now enjoy?

i guess just like certain vegetables which i’m big on now but wasn’t enthused abt back then. for example i had to just force myself to get through salads as a kid. and just today i saw salad in the fridge and was like oh hell yes! salad!!!

maize - share the weirdest encounter you’ve had with a stranger on the street.

hmm once i was walking my parents’ dog, who was a smallish newfoundland and Not stronger than me but most people thought i was a girl and thought they were hilarious with a “are you walking the dog or is the dog walking you aaaaaaa” number, and then one day some like. 70something guy comes up and informs me how it is wrong for me, a girl, to wear pants. i was just like. Uh-huh. yknow like what do you do when some rando tells you your pants are immoral. you’re dealing with the wrong turn-of-the-century scandal??? try a century ago???? and where do you get off lecturing strangers anyways, buddy. what a weirdo

[truthbeetoldmedia]

Good Trouble 1x13 “Vitamin C” Review

In its first season, Good Trouble has provided endless drama and laughs while re-introducing characters from the hit Freeform drama The Fosters in an entirely new chapter of their lives. While it was a giant risk to throw them into a loft with people the viewers have never met before, and rely on just two original characters to pull it all together, it paid off. Big time. In the final episode of the first season, we see new relationships between said characters blossom, old ones fall apart, and some are left hanging. Because after all, what is a good season finale without a few cliff-hangers?

At the end of Episode 12, three major plot twists occured. First, the head of HR at Speckulate, Angela, gave Mariana a list of all the male employees at the company and their salaries. Second, Malika had a mysterious family emergency, one that caused her to uncharacteristically skip out on the Black Lives Matter protest she helped organize. And third, Dennis took his ex-wife’s malicious words to heart and appeared to be on the metaphorical and literal edge.

Thankfully, light is shed on each of these situations fairly quickly in the finale. We discover that Malika’s mother has had an aneurysm and is essentially brain-dead. This causes yet another rift between Malika and her brother, who refuses to take her off of life support. Malika meanwhile knows that it’s time for them to let her go.

At Speckulate, Mariana questions Angela’s motives and decides to confront her. Angela confides in her, telling her that when she was first hired years ago, the same optimistic thought went through her mind about the engineering culture shifting. However, nothing came of it. She wants to help the cause, but knows that if she is outed for her involvement, she’ll lose her job and probably never find another one, making her unable to care for her child. This was a heartwarming moment of female solidarity, thankfully not a rarity in this show.

Back at the loft, Dennis is still missing. Davia seems to be the only one worried about him, and has called every jail and hospital in the area to no avail. Her mind is soon taken off of her friend’s disappearance, though, when her student whom she and Malika suspect is homeless shows up at the front door. Though this storyline seemed random at first, it serves as the motivation Davia needs going into the second season to make the right decision regarding her future. She’s been considering leaving LA to go back home and live with her boyfriend, who up until this point, has been making the empty promise of leaving his wife. However, despite her lack of confidence, she’s a great teacher. Her students need her.

The chaos in the Coterie continues as Sumi is about to get married on the rooftop. The whole event has been orchestrated by resident pushover Alice, who must keep up the facade that she’s straight and definitely not dating Joey, I mean, Joanna, when her parents stop by with a congratulatory present for Sumi. Alice manages to get them out of the Coterie without suspecting she’s in a relationship with Joey, or that Sumi is the bride marrying another woman. However, she’s left with more weight on her shoulders than before.

At the courthouse, Callie continues to question if Judge Wilson has ethical motives as he withholds personal information belonging to one of the police officers accused of wrongly shooting and killing a black boy, Jamal Thompson. Callie and Jamie conspire that he’s made a deal with the LAPD following his own son’s arrest, allowing his son’s charges to be dropped in exchange for biased favoring in the court.

Because Callie has no proof of this, she considers rummaging through Judge Wilson’s desk drawers and finding the private files for herself. However, she decides against it, the clerk beating out the social justice warrior in her.

Also facing an internal conflict is Mariana, who isn’t sure whether she should take the opportunity she’s been given by the CEO himself, Evan, to create an app and recruit women and people of color to help her, or publicly release the company’s salaries. Her greatest concern is inciting positive change, and Callie reminds her that she can convince herself of anything, she’ll know what the right decision is by listening to her gut. At first, Mariana does just that, telling herself and her sister that the app is the best decision. She soon realizes though that she’s being too safe, and that posting the salaries is the right move.

Though Callie and Mariana aren’t biological siblings, it’s very clear at this point that they were both raised to act with the greater good in mind. Without Stef and Lena acting as major characters in the series, moments like this one are nice callbacks to them and the morality they’ve instilled in their children.

While they’re talking, Callie mysteriously (or not so mysteriously?) receives an envelope that was left for her earlier, full of the personal information she almost stole out of Judge Wilson’s desk drawer. Regardless of who delivered the envelope, it’s in her hands now (though she struggles with what to do with it). Within the envelope is a document stating that the Chief of Police in the city said it’s cheaper for the city to let victims of police shootings die, a detail that if revealed to the public, could help Jamal’s family win the case.

We see Callie argue with herself, unsure of whether or not to give the files to Jamal’s attorney. She doesn’t get a chance to make a decision, as she’s interrupted by a newly single Gael. He confesses to Callie that he broke up with Bryan because she’s the one he loves, and questions her relationship with Jamie. Callie says nothing in response, but seems a bit shaken.

Davia, meanwhile, finally meets the father of her student, who reveals that the two are in fact homeless. He begs Davia not to tell anyone, and also tells her that she’s his daughter’s favorite teacher. Without her, he says, she would hate going to school. Davia  makes learning fun. This one small moment seems to cause a lightbulb to go off in Davia’s head, that she should stay in LA and continue teaching, but also that’s she’s worthy. For too much of the season, she’s struggled with her own self-worth, and while countless characters have tried to steer her away from actions rooted in self-loathing, like staying with a man who isn’t entirely committed to her and wants her to give up her professional dreams for him, it turns out she just needed to hear that her students needed her.

The next day, Mariana arrives at work and overhears coworkers talking about Evan’s interest in another employee and how she ended up being fired. She confronts Raj, who she yelled at days prior for warning her about Evan’s possible motives. Raj only wants what’s best for her, and seems not to have any questionable motives himself.

Knowing Raj will always have her back, Mariana attempts to convince the members of Byte Club that publishing the salaries is the right move. While Casey opts out, fearing that all the work she’s put in over the years will have been for nothing, the other women decide to back Mariana up.

It goes about as well as any of them expect, when Josh demands the perpetrator come forward. However, things take a turn when he blames Angela for not bringing the wage gap issue to his attention (obviously bullshit) and fires her. Mariana immediately stands up, taking the blame for hacking into the system and getting the salaries. Soon, a wave of people standing in solidarity (including Raj) washes over the room, forcing Josh to rethink firing Angela. Several women also call out Josh for trying to kiss them, flipping the script.

And though Evan tries to keep her from leaving, Mariana decides that she should say goodbye to Speckulate and move on with her career, maybe even create her app on her own. Unfortunately, Evan tells her that if she leaves, she can’t take the app with her. It belongs to him now.

Back at the loft, Meera reveals to Alice that Sumi has called off the wedding. When Sumi finally returns, Alice must tell her that she doesn’t love her back, even if she isn’t with Meera anymore. She does remind her friend though that she shouldn’t marry someone she isn’t sure about.

And in her own moment of bravery, Alice comes out to her parents via FaceTime, who reveal they knew all along that she was gay. They’ve suspected she was in love with Sumi, and tell Alice that they just want grandkids. With so many cross-cultural coming outs gone wrong, it was nice to see Alice face her fears and come out the other side better than okay. This moment left me hopeful that maybe she’ll be able to get Joey back, who wasn’t impressed with her closeted behavior, and have a happy, authentic relationship in Season 2.

As the Jamal Thompson trial continues, the files have been released to his attorney. This leaves the courtroom a bit shaken, and ultimately causes Judge Wilson to call a recess for the time being. It looks like it’s Callie versus Judge Wilson now, though he doesn’t know (yet) that she’s working against him. This will definitely get interesting next season.

Having made a professional decision, Callie is still unsure of what to do in her personal life. This episode included a great choreographed dream sequences which showcases Callie dancing with several partners, all of whom play important roles in her life currently: Judge Wilson, Malika, Gael and Jamie. They seem to be pulling her in every which way, and although cheesy, this play on conscious thoughts bleeding into the unconscious in the form of a dream portrays to us viewers just how torn Callie is in her life currently. As a young woman, she’s understandably lost and questioning herself more often than not. This allows Callie to be extremely relatable to young viewers (even if they aren’t clerks secretly meddling with a case or in the middle of a love triangle).

Despite my dislike for Gael and Callie’s relationship and his portrayal as a bisexual man who’s unable to commit to one partner, I can’t deny that she’ll probably end up with him next season. This isn’t to say that their relationship will last, but I’m definitely seeing more chemistry between them than between her and Jamie. I love her and Jamie together, I really do, but this is one battle I’m prepared to lose.

Across town, Davia finally finds Dennis checked into a hospital after nearly committing suicide. He tells her that her voice had been running through his head, telling him not to be an idiot, and the two share a sweet moment together. Davia doesn’t tell the others back at the Coterie where Dennis really is, lying instead and saying he’s on a road trip and didn’t have service for a while. During a rooftop hangout, she also reveals to her friends that she’s decided to stay in LA, despite her boyfriend coming by and telling her he broke up with his wife, finally.

And while Callie is still unsure who she wants to be with, Mariana has made some moves in the love department. In a moment I’ve been waiting for all season, she kissed Raj on top of the Coterie roof, finally bringing their adorably supportive friendship to the next level. It’s clear that Raj has a lot of respect for Mariana, and really just wants what’s best for her. Though he inappropriately tried to kiss her earlier in the season during a work project, his redemption arc has been steady. Raj has proved that he’s not some slimy dude, like the rest of the guys at Speckulate, but he has genuinely innocent intentions. He respects Mariana as an engineer, but he also has feelings for her.

I can’t wait to see their feelings explored in Season 2, and hopefully see Callie choose a suitor as well. I’m also totally rooting for Davia and Dennis, because ever since their duet on the rooftop, I refuse to believe these two are platonic.  

And so, the first season of Good Trouble is over. Starting as a The Fosters’ spinoff, this show has caught the attention of many as a show that can stand on its own. Though Callie and Mariana are familiar faces, and there are occasional cameos from Adams-Foster family members, the show is about so much more. The Coterie members come from all walks of life and each serve a purpose to each other and to the audience, to educate us on the lives of people we may not interact with every day. Issues of intersectionality, sexual harassment, biphobia, police brutality, racism, and mental health have all been discussed in just 13 episodes, making it clear that Good Trouble isn’t just here to be entertaining.

Going into Season 2, I’m so excited to see some character dynamics grow and change, but also to learn more about their experiences and see them be their true, authentic selves. Character creation is where this show really shines, and I’m confident it will continue to do that in seasons to come through the reinvention and evolution of everyone in Callie and Mariana’s lives.

Some stray thoughts on the season:

I wish we got to see more of Jazmin. Having a trans voice amongst the sea of characters was so, so, important, not to mention a trans woman of color. I hope we’ll see her return in Season 2.

Irrelevant to the plot, but Mariana’s outfits were consistently on point. I’m sure no one is surprised, though.

As much as I want to love Gael, I really haven’t been able to get there yet. I feel like he’s been shrouded in his identity as a bisexual man and his seemingly subsequent inability to commit, which is frustrating to watch. I know he’s more than that, and more than anything, I wish his story had been handled differently (Say it with me: Bisxuals are not noncomittal by nature!)

Season 2 of Good Trouble airs on Tuesday, June 18th at 8/7c on Freeform.

Jessica’s episode rating: 🐝🐝🐝🐝

[dent-de-leon]

ok, so real quick, just a few things: this is my own personal opinion and about my own preferences. We all like different things. So if you like k/l, great! I fully support that. And there are definitely plenty of people who are multishippers and love both k/l and s/k or ship s/k/l. But I mean, the short answer is...you won’t find any k/l on this blog. (I’m also using a screenshot of your ask so this doesn’t appear when you search k/l, because I feel that wouldn’t be fair to fans)

anyway, long answer: 

Now, there’s k/l in canon and k/l in fanon, which I feel are two very different things, so I’ll address them both. But again, these are my own personal opinions. I’m not telling you not to ship it, or that it’s wrong to ship it. This is just how I feel personally, and I hope you understand. Okay, so:

Just from watching the first season, it really didn’t click for me. I’m not someone who really likes rival ships in the first place, but their interactions reminded me more of me and my brothers than anything. I just didn’t see it romantically you know? 

I still want them to continue getting closer and be very good friends though. I liked their character development in season 3 and feel like they’re finally really working past this whole rivalry thing, which makes me very happy. And again, I see those kinds of scenes as platonic rather than romantic. Especially when compared to s/k scenes. 

But at the same time, for a long time, there was also this insistence that Lance had to be bi and k/l had to be canon and as a bi guy, this did’t sit right with me. Obviously there are plenty of bi people who disagree with me, and that’s understandable. Their opinion is just as valid, and we all see things differently. But there was something that made me personally just...extremely uncomfortable at the thought that Lance was somehow well written bi representation in canon. He feeds into a number of stereotypes that really bother me. For one thing, he flirts excessively--the bi stereotype that, if you’re attracted to more than one gender, of course you’re a playboy. 

But it also covers this idea that you’re “straight with an exception.” Because said excessive flirting is exclusive to girls. Yes, he’d flirt with every girl he saw, but of course he’d leave every one of them in a heartbeat for Keith. There’s also something very disconcerting about the fact that Lance is very flighty and moves on right from one girl to another, continuing to flirt despite whether or not it offends them, and even having fantasies of girls on their knees clinging to his leg while he stands in some male power pose 

and yet?? A lot of fanon still made it seem like, if Lance were with Keith instead, it wouldn’t just be passing interest of a fling or flirting, it would be something profoundly deep and automatically just be a longterm, steady relationship. I don’t like this idea that Lance can quickly move on from one girl to another but somehow being with a guy would make him “the one,” and out of nowhere Lance would be really invested in having him as a partner. 

Because again, I’m bi. It doesn’t feel right to me that Lance flirting with girls 98% of the time isn’t supposed to mean or amount to anything, but the first guy he likes will be his soulmate. It perpetuates this idea that you’re only bi if you end up with someone of the same gender, or that you have to “choose a side” and honestly that bothers me. I saw this further compounded by the idea that Lance could only be shipped with Keith for the longest time. Like, there was this notion he was bi, but also, no one wanted him shipped with any girls for quite a while. 

Going back to how I don’t like rivalry ships, I never liked this idea that somehow them fighting with each other was some sort of “sexual tension.” It’s another stereotype I don’t like--this idea that a boy who likes another boy will feel insecure about it and try to like pick fights with the guy they’re interested in. I’ve never seen internalized homophobia that actually caused someone to do this, and by reinforcing the stereotype that it does, well, I just think that’d be very harmful to children. There’s nothing about the rivalry that ever felt romantic to me. It’s only ever hurt both of them, and I think the only way for them to grow closer is to work past it. 

It also kinda seemed to me like k/l fanon was always sorta more centered around Lance while Keith was just sort of his prize? I think it’s kind of because Lance is more relatable to a lot of people so it’s easier for fans to see themselves in his position. (ironically I can’t relate to Lance at all but do heavily relate to Keith lmao, but I definitely feel like who you understand more affects your interpretation of the characters.)

Anyway--when season 2 came out, it seemed a lot of people who liked k/l were mad that Keith got so much screentime and character development, as if it only mattered if either of those things happened in relevance to Lance or k/l and Keith shouldn’t be able to grow and develop on his own. After all, this was after season 1, where Keith had literally no background or character development and the least amount of lines out of anyone on Team Voltron (yes, that includes Allura and Coran). He deserved that development the most. 

And it made me kind of uncomfortable to see s/k scenes that were dismissed as platonic but then people edited Lance in and claimed the situation was suddenly romantic and these edits were praised as being so much better than the actual writing and well developed character interactions in those scenes we had gotten. While k/l definitely isn’t the only ship where fanon does this, I will say season 2 fanon definitely gave me the vibe that Keith was meant to be seen and not heard. I’ve seen fans hate the BOM episode and even say that watching it was unnecessary, and claim that Keith didn’t deserve to be written beyond the flat, one-dimensional image we had of him. 

But at the same time fanon loved Keith in the marmora suit because it made for a pretty picture, but Shiro often got replaced by Lance in fanworks even though it didn’t make sense because it was just “better.” There’s this idea perpetuated in fanon that Keith is just a pretty boy, someone who’s meant to be seen and not heard. And I feel in a lot of k/l Keith is almost robbed of his agency to just have him act ooc. I know I myself am guilty of often talking about Keith just in terms of his relationship with Shiro (as his life has obviously been so inexorably tied to Shiro’s, and we know Shiro has really had this great impact on him, has changed his life). 

But I do also try to ensure I write Keith as his own person, and want Keith to continue to get the well thought out character development he deserves. But in some fanon k/l I feel this often isn’t the case and much of Keith’s identity is sacrificed in favor of focusing on Lance. Canon k/l interactions in season 3 are much more preferable to me because you see them each develop as their own person apart from just how they react to each other. 

I also really dislike the sense of entitlement that came with k/l being so popular. (And also, this is more due to its huge fanbase than the actual ship itself). But anyway, it seemed to me that people were insisting k/l was somehow queerbaiting if it didn’t become canon, and kept pressuring the studio that k/l was somehow the only viable option, despite the fact that animation is done so far in advance it’s literally too late to make any big changes. 

As unprofessional as it was, an interviewer asked about k/l because of how popular it was and wanted to know if the ship would be “teased” for the fans. That’s not representation. That is queerbaiting, which the showrunners responded to and straight up said they would not do, as well as explaining that they couldn’t just change the script and make it so that “and now they’re in love.” (source) Again, I just want to clarify that I think this attitude was brought about by how huge the fanbase is rather than the actual content of the ship itself. But still, it’s a mindset prevalent enough to kind of turn me off from the ship

I feel I should probably clarify that I probably wouldn’t dislike k/l so much if there wasn’t this notion that it would be the epitome of representation as is in canon, and that everyone should be obligated to ship it. But there is absolutely nothing about the idea of k/l being together romantically that I like. And I’m past the point where I would ever ship it. But again, that’s just me. 

I also want to mention that while it’s important to acknowledge certainly not all k/l fans are antis (and in fact a good many of them also ship s/k or s/a ect) the only antis who have harassed me here all happened to be k/l fans. So I’m definitely not unbiased or impartial. That kind of thing sticks with you, and has definitely caused me to dislike the ship even more. My opinion is a biased and not objective one, and I’m not trying to force anyone to see things my way. This is just my own personal opinion, and why you won’t see me creating content for k/l--though I am more than happy to discus how these two characters have gotten closer platonically. I’m sorry, and I hope you all understand 

[seyaryminamoto]

Who do you think are the most overrated characters in ATLA?

What a controversial question xD Well, probably under the cut, for the best.

DISCLAIMER: if you adore any of the characters on this list, this is NOT an attempt to attack you or your peers, merely criticism on how the fandom behaves regarding certain characters.

Undeniably, the #1 overrated character is Iroh. A lot of people give him much more credit than he’s due, and he’s much more problematic than he seems on first sight. No doubt he has his fair share of good points, but he is far from perfect and he definitely isn’t the soul of the show for me, despite it seems he is for a lot of people. Proof of how overrated he is? His mere reappearance in LOK made people who had dropped the show return to it just because of him. Because SOMEHOW Iroh being there makes it all better.Truth is, no, it doesn’t make LOK all better. But how to argue with people who adore Iroh and refuse to see his faults?Iroh is not all wisdom, and he’s definitely not infallible. He’s also not the strongest firebender ever, sorry not sorry to burst that bubble but it’s a fact. Iroh was very questionable at many points in the show, and his relationship with his family is very complicated to say the least. Assuming he’s the only pure and good person in the Fire Nation Royal Family just because he was nice to Zuko is one of the fandom’s biggest mistakes and one of my biggest gripes with this character’s interpretations. Not because Bryke decided to sanctify him in LOK, and make him the franchise’s most enlightened character of all, does it mean he really was that perfect. A genuine analysis of who he is and what he did during ATLA can prove as much. So… Iroh is very overrated. Very. I’m certainly interested in hearing about his past, as any fan would be, but I do think there are far more important things the show and comics should deal with than expanding on Iroh’s life. People who would rather hear about his past than about the grown-up lives of the Gaang (… or about Azula’s uncertain future) really baffle me as Iroh’s endgame is clearly what the show gave us. Do we really need to know more about his past than we need to know about everyone else’s futures? I’d like to know more about his past, as I said, but it is far from a priority for me compared to every other main character on the show. 

Zuko would be my #2, of course, only because Iroh’s fans tend to be louder and more annoying when you get them going. But the constant praise to Zuko’s development, and ESPECIALLY the praise to his extremely flawed redemption that still leaves a ton of room for him to improve, and that also made him worse in many ways, makes me roll my eyes more often than not. That recent viral tweet about him getting the best redemption arc in the history of TV makes me wonder how much TV did that person watch at all. If Zuko’s the best redemption TV can do, I guess we’re really facing a terrible time for television shows.Mainly, Zuko is overrated because, just as Iroh, he’s credited for a ton of things that aren’t true. There’s a lot of problems with his character that go unaddressed, and a lot of people are happy to describe him with a lot of praising adjectives that I have no idea what relation they could possibly have with his character. Proof of the messed-up understanding fans have of Zuko can be found easily in fanfiction: have you ever wondered why Zuko’s characterization varies so drastically from fic to fic? Whether fics trying to portray him in a good light or in a bad one, more often than not it feels like people are portraying him as who they think he should be, and not who he really is. Having a grasp on his character is difficult, way more difficult than many people believe, but it’s on great measure because of how hard so many people have it to actually see his flaws for what they are.I am not saying loving Zuko is a terrible thing, it isn’t, but some people love and praise the idea of him, and not who he really is. Careful, less biased inspection of his character can reveal he leaves a lot to be desired for a man who changed his ways and became the ruler that would bring peace to a nation he hardly knows or understands. His character development is a rollercoaster, and that’s mainly because of how deeply flawed he is: but you ask the fandom and he’s a cinnamon roll who never did anything wrong, or at least, whose every misdeed can and should be blamed on everyone but him. Because he is perfect, and so is his character arc. So, overrated, or misunderstood character? Hell knows, but the fandom really has turned me off Zuko’s character altogether.

The third most overrated character would be Toph, who, for all her great traits, often gets praised as a fully rounded character when, uh… to put it bluntly, out of the five top-billed Gaang members, Toph is the one who evolved the least. Her growth was exclusively about developing more bending skills, about becoming a stronger fighter, but she has some serious personality flaws that are never explored the way they should be. She barely ever faces consequences for her wrongdoings, which are often framed as funny, and when she’s in the middle of serious conflicts, she is absolutely never in the wrong, just as it is with her every conflict with Katara. In the end… she barely grows in anything but power level. Yet you look around and find a ton of people praising her as the greatest character of the franchise. While I see the appeal, and in her case I like her a lot better as a character than either Iroh or Zuko, I also think she’s not given a chance by the story to actually grow, and that stunted her as a character. Which doesn’t seem to bother anyone because she’s praised for anything and everything to no end. I appreciate her comic relief moments, the message she gives in regards of disabilities, but the show could have made better use of her character and didn’t, and nobody really seems to notice or care.

This one’s going to get me stoned I’m sure (if the first ones didn’t already :’DDDD) but my #4 goes to Kyoshi. Yep. You read that right.Kyoshi is no doubt a hardass, I’ve seen a ton of people praising her as the greatest Avatar of all. There’s a million Chuck Norris-esque memes with her, presenting her as the most unstoppable force in the Avatarverse, and you see people everywhere dissing Avatars like Kuruk, for being so lazy, or Roku, for not being decisive, blah blah blah, and saying she’s awesome for being 100% the opposite of that.What these funny people fail to notice, or maybe they simply don’t know the Avatarverse’s timeline, is that Kyoshi allowed Chin the Conqueror to take over the entire Earth Kingdom and only made a move against him to save HER island. She didn’t act until then, allowing Chin to take over whatever the hell he wanted to take during his rebellion, which, as far as I know, was practically the entire continent, with only Kyoshi Island and Ba Sing Se as exceptions.And the whole thing to help the Earth King to deal with the Earth Kingdom’s problems, by creating the Dai Li for his protection? It happened AFTER Chin died, she didn’t even do this to save Ba Sing Se from him because this is posterior to Chin’s mad quest. She did NOT act to protect the Earth Kingdom from a raving, rising tyrant until it affected herdirectly, and didn’t involve herself with the politics of HER OWN NATION until after they had boiled over and the Earth King had a peasant revolt in his hands. If she couldn’t be bothered to move to save her own people until the last moment, what guarantees that she did anything to help anyone else? How is she that great an Avatar?Sure, people think that, since she actually got involved in worldly events no matter how late she did, she was better than Roku or Kuruk. But in Kuruk’s favor he apparently had no war to deal with, and his wife’s loss is an unexpected tragedy for him. Roku actually kept Sozin at bay for years, and Sozin only dared act openly with his conquest of the world once Roku was out of the way. Kyoshi had a major war brewing in her nation and her best idea to deal with it was to split off her island so she wouldn’t have anything more to do with it. Because a separatist mentality is the best way to handle your Avatar duties (the greatest illusion is the illusion of separation, anyone?). Seriously, if Chin had been standing just a bit futher back? If he hadn’t fallen to his death? He probably would have taken Ba Sing Se later anyways and Kyoshi would’ve been chilling in her village until she noticed that the Earth King was dead. Oops.Long story short, Kyoshi is considered way too great for the reality of her actions and decisions. The fandom’s concept on her duty as an Avatar is absurdly messed up, and as cool as her character design is, as great as her displays of power were, she was actually a pretty bad Avatar if you get objective about what she allowed Chin to do for so long. So in my very humble opinion, the fandom’s circlejerk around her is more than undeserved.

I was planning on making this a top 5, but tbh I don’t think anyone else gets acclaim to the extreme in the way these four do. Everyone else seems to have a more moderate fanbase, or at least enough detractors that the people who praise them don’t come off as loud and annoying as they do for these four. 

I’m not saying loving any of them is wrong, but there’s such abundance of praise for them, often for things they never even did, let alone for values they never represented, and yet they get interpreted by the fandom in whichever way the fans decide they like best. And somehow, the fanon interpretations grow more popular than what’s really there… which is truly annoying because these characters are fine the way the show actually portrayed them. They’re flawed, they make mistakes, their actions can be judged, they’re far from perfect: yet the fandom would have you believe otherwise.

[aj-allen97]

A Queen’s Peril Review

*Spoilers* *Maybe?*

Let us be honest for a moment; in the whole entire Star Wars universe my favorite character is Padmé Naberiee Amidala and it’s not just a recent love. I have looked up too and adored this character since I was a little girl. To the point my own dad once tried to make me a Amidala Halloween costume when I was little. Yet, Amidala merchandise and related literature was hard to find and still is. If I wanted Amidala I had to be content with watching the three movies to get my Amidala fix and when the internet started to become more reliable and easier to access I was able to look up trivia or Fanfiction on her. So to hear that Disney has authorized not just one book about her but two? I got excited real fast.

Which leads us to EK Johnson third Star Wars Novel “A Queens Peril”, which I was excited for because I thought at long last I can find out how she got elected to Queen of Naboo, see how the handmaidens became a force to be reckoned with and why Naboo loved Amidala to the degree they wanted her to run for a third term and when she refused made her the first senator to have access to the Queen's Jewels.

My expectations did not meet reality. I was so disappointed I questioned how EK Johnson managed to write two Star Wars novels that were successful enough to warrant a third book. Queens Peril left me disappointed enough I went back and read the Queens Shadows to have a basis to start off with in figuring out what went wrong and if maybe I am being to harsh in my critique and after reading Queens Shadow EK Johnson has no excuse for such a poorly executed novel that is A Queens Peril.

Don’t get me wrong it was great in its own quaint way, but it was definitely a come down from her other works. While I found the Padme Amidala and her Handmaidens were fleshed out as much as they could be given the time restraints. But, she also seemed to be also cramming in every character that played a part in the movie, not as fleshed out characters but there just because, and creating new characters as needed. Though I will admit Queen Amidala did have more personality and character quirks then the Queen to be from my American Royals review.

But, it also felt rushed at times, I honestly think they could have turned this into a small series given how diverse Amidala's and her Handmaidens background is. In my humble opinion she kept introducing characters and plot points that had no impact to the main plot. This whole book hinges on the fact the reader has seen The Phantom Menace - I honestly do not believe a newcomer could read this and not come away lost because of all the scene skips and random conversations that happen in the novel and again how reliant EK Johnson seems on the bet the readers have already seen The Phantom Menace.

If I didn't know better I would say these were all scenes that were left on the cutting board floor during the editing of The Phantom Menace, just because they all seemed like filler scenes. They have no strong support through the novel, and some of them could even be removed and the plot would not even take a hit from their deletion.

I have seen The Phantom Menace and this book still left me disconnected and disappointed by the lazy writing. The only new thing EK Johnson gave us was the prisoner camps on Naboo, which were fleshed out and engaging to read, because it was interesting and thought out. It was a snippet on what was going on in Naboo during the Blockade. Sadly that was the only good part of the book outside of the handmaidens and Padmé bonding and plotting time.

After success like Queens Shadow and Ashoka I feel that EK Johnson had no excuse for this poorly planned novel and I honestly believe if she was not up to the challenge of fleshing out The Phantom Menace by keeping it solely in the point of view of Queen Amidala and her handmaidens with the odd pop in of Darth Sideous or the Captain of her Guard, than she should not have attempted this project. Instead we get the point of views of several characters (some who had frankly little impact on the story or who felt like unfinished stories) and the unfortunate mess of time skips.

Instead of giving us a novel that added to The Phantom Menace and fleshed out Queen Amidala and her handmaidens character arc, she gave us slices of life segments and filler scenes. While skipping any other scenes that were crucial and would have had an impact on the reader if they could have seen or experienced it through Padmé Amidalas eyes.

At the pace they were going they could have honestly skipped the whole Tatooine scene because they skipped Amidala interacting with Anakin (important because Anakin ends up as her future husband and because it inspires her on wanting to free the slaves of the outer rim), the pod race, and meeting Maul for the first time, but they kept filler scenes like learning Sabé hates sand that had no bearing on the novel. They could have skipped the scene in Coruscant since all they kept was filler like gossiping on the fact Amidala overthrown the Chancellor instead of showing it.

Yet, we had time to hear about how Anakin Skywalker pod races for Watto on the side and how he likes to fly.

Yet, we had time to hear how Jar Jar Binks day went.

Yet, we had time for a pointless discussion between Mace Windu and Yoda that had very little bearing to the plot.

Yet, we had time to introduce Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan, but they were so in the background they might as well have not existed. The same with Maul.

In the end what we got was a short novel that felt rushed or incomplete at some scenes. It had so much potential and yet it felt incomplete or they were beginning scenes of a story arc that never had the green light for their own independent novel, and oftentimes Johnson included characters like Anakin/Shimi or Maul or the Jedi when at times they didn’t feel necessary to the plot. They added scenes that helped at times and they added scenes that my brain said skip and skip I did and the story lost nothing from me skipping those parts. Other times they skipped parts I felt were needed for the story line and characterization since those scenes had an impact on the main character and on the whole Blockade plot.

I honestly think the most redeeming parts of the novel were when Amidala and her Handmaidens worked together as one entity and when they were just hanging out as friends.

Yet, we only get a week of that bonding time before the blockade happens. We only get a week of seeing how Amidala acted as Queen before they are forced into action. Watching the movies I honestly thought Queen Amidala was at least a year if not two into her reign at the start of the movie, yet here I came to find out she was only a week into her reign.

Not only that but even though Queens Shadow and Queens Peril were written by the same author and follows the same people they have different facts on what went down before the Blockade. They have different definitions on how the Handmaidens were picked and trained, even the way the story is presented feels different.

With how Queens Shadow and Queens Peril seem to disagree on several plot points, I wonder if they can be considered to exist in the same universe as one another even though they were written by the same author.

And while I may found the story enjoyable to a degree and some parts even funny, by the end of the book I felt cheated. This is the type of easy to read fluff I would have read in elementary. I felt disappointed and let down, I wanted more, not just more of The Phantom Menace, but more of Padmé Naberiee Amidala as a Queen.

Queens Peril feels more like in the author went screw it, everyone has seen The Phantom Menace and then wrote the book for that type of audience and thus allowing for lazy writing and the loss of relevant plots point in favor of non-relevant plot points.

So should you go out and read it? Indeed it’s funny and a great book for those that vaguely know Star Wars, especially if you're looking for an easy to read book that’s basically fluff and filler. Yet, for those that are fans of Amidala and have done your research on her like I have you might be like me and be a bit disappointed in how the whole thing played out.

Am I being over Biased and/or over critical? Maybe. But after reading Queen’s Shadow and seeing how it only focuses on Padme Amidala and Sabe PoV and is not all over the place with scene skips and what not I feel like I have the right to feel cheated with how this latest EK Johnson novel played out.

But I honestly would suggest reading EK Johnson’s Queens Shadow if you want something more coherent and not all over the place with differing points of views and pointless conversation or scenes.

Agree, Disagree? Drop me a comment and let me know! Until next time.

Signed AJ Allen

[demigodofhoolemere]

I just got back from seeing Thor: Ragnarok and I desperately need to get out my thoughts. Warning: they're not positive and my opinions may be biased or could be perceived as harsh. This movie was one I was looking so forward to for so many reasons and personally, for me, it was disappointing, no matter how much good I keep trying to find in it.

The spoiler free version: there were things they did with the plot that I vehemently dislike and the characterizations were very, very off.

The spoiler filled version is a heaping list and you should not click to read more until you've watched the movie or if you don't want to read any negativity about it.

~~~~~~

I’ll start with the elephant in the room: Hela.

She was the main source of my hype for this movie, partly because I just like her anyway but mostly because I was ecstatic to see how they went about her relationship with Loki. The subject of Loki and his children is one I could go on about for hours and I was SO looking forward to seeing the reveal that he's a father and that their new adversary is his daughter, and I wanted to see how/if they explained his other children (like Fenrir, another thing I was excited about). The big thing I'd been looking forward to since the moment they confirmed Hela would be in this movie.

And then all of a sudden, Odin gave truth to the niggling fear that had been festering in the back of my mind: that Hela wouldn't be Loki’s daughter. But honestly, if she had just been unrelated to the family entirely, I could have lived with it because I would still be able to pretend that she's his daughter but that they just didn't discuss it. What they decided to do completely squandered my enjoyment of the movie -- they made her Odin’s daughter.

... What?!

Out of complete nowhere, Thor and Loki have an older sister that they never knew about, and there’s a contrived backstory about how Hela and Odin used to rule together but suddenly he cast her out for reasons that don't go beyond her just being too powerful and so this is why she's so angry and wants Asgard for herself. I remember I was upset about Ultron not being Hank Pym’s creation, but it turns out that that's nothing comparatively. (Also, why would she care about ruling Asgard? She's already got Helheim to run -- oh, wait, Helheim was never once brought up or even alluded to. Which is another problem in itself, because they don't portray her as the dutiful queen of the dead, they portray her as a destructively violent and furious mass murderer. Maybe she's more like that in comics and/or myths that I just don't know about, but in my knowledge of her character, she's not especially... well, like that.)

Trying to find the right words for how much that choice bothered me would leave me sitting here for the next fifty years, so I'll just stop there and move on to the next problem. (EDIT: honestly, as of a few months later, I'm mostly over this problem; the rest of the list is what really gets me.)

Humor and timing. While everyone else in the theater kept laughing their heads off, this was actually a big problem for me. The movie is supposed to be about the end of all things, but it never went a minute without injecting humor into a situation, including (perhaps especially) where it didn't belong, and some jokes were repeated way too often (and a couple were weirdly inappropriate and just uncomfortable, which I wouldn't bat an eye at in a Guardians movie but it doesn't fit at all here). In the end the gravity of the situation is never felt. Things got played for laughs that should not have been played for laughs. When there are serious or heartfelt moments (and I adored the ones that did come up), they don't last long because the humor is soon reintroduced. Far too many scenes were filled with jokes that ruined the mood, and it definitely had a bad influence on characterization. Personalities were completely altered for the sake of jokes.

Characterization. Oh my stars, characterization. I can't speak for the people I don't know very well, like Valkyrie or the Grandmaster, but other people... oh boy. (The more I think about this issue the more I realize it actually bothers me more than Hela’s new origins. I'd rather that be incorrect than the personalities of established characters.)

I’ll start with Thor himself because it was the most horrifying to me. To put it simply, I didn't feel like I was watching Thor at all. He had brief moments that were true to who he is (all to do with honor and bravery, and one blessed scene even had humility), but they were few and far between. For the most part, I couldn't take him seriously because he wasn't taking hardly anything seriously. The jokes that came from him were near constantly at the wrong time, and his priorities were super screwed up. A guy gets killed by being melted into goop, and Thor cares more about the fact that it smells bad than that some poor guy was just murdered in front of him. He also had an over-the-top adoration and protectiveness of his own hair. He literally seemed to care more about his hair being cut than he cared about losing his eye. Similarly he seems to talk far more about missing Mjolnir than he does the predicament of his home and his people.

And it was like all the growth he's gone through since his first movie was flushed down the toilet. Not only were his negative character traits from the first movie that he grew out of brought back, but they were even accentuated and turned into his core personality which gives a sense of devolution, like he hasn't learned anything. And he really wasn't nice, for some reason?? In any adaptation of him, he’s always so friendly and respectful and filled with hope, and that's what I love so much about him, but I didn't really see that in this movie. He wasn't a very good friend to the Hulk or to Bruce (constantly insulting both of them and then turning around with false compliments so that they’ll still do what he wants), but what shocked me was his attitude towards Loki. It's one thing to be distrustful, and he would be entirely justified in it, but it's another thing to electrocute him, throw away the switch, and leave him there to convulse for who knows how long until somebody found him (and openly mock him with a smile while he does it). If anyone else had done it, I wouldn't think it strange and I wouldn't still be thinking about it because nobody else would have any reason to put any measure of faith in him, but Thor is the one person who I can't see doing that. Thor really wasn't brotherly or optimistic at all in regards to Loki which is not in his nature (another weird instance is Thor trying to prove that Loki has never been trustworthy by telling a story from their childhood in which Loki stabbed him for his own amusement; Loki wasn't like that yet as a child, and if he'd done that then I think some red flags would have been raised a whole lot sooner), and in an interesting turn of events, Loki actually seemed like the one who was trying to make an effort (which is sweet but also kind of weird considering the alterations that his character went through as well).

Which brings me to Loki. He was probably about half-and-half (in writing, anyway, since Tom’s acting did a lot to salvage the final product). He was definitely allowed to have more serious moments where you see more of the deep feelings under the surface (enough of them that I can't actually count them all off the top of my head, so that's good, although again, it's often less about the actual writing and more about the emotion that Tom injects into his performance), and his humor was usually fairly in character, but then at other times it was so ridiculous in almost a cartoon villain sort of way (he literally puts on an Ember Island Players-style production about himself, which is perhaps fitting since watching this movie felt like I was watching an Ember Island Players version of these characters). He kept trying to sell Thor out at nearly every opportunity, which wouldn't be so weird if it had only happened maybe once and if he had a real reason, but he kept doing it even when it would be in his best interest to not do that, and for reasons that felt very contrived and made no sense for his character (and then in other scenes he would very clearly show how much he does love his brother, which I appreciate but oh my goodness the inconsistency). He kept acting a bit like a leech, immediately taking hold of something he considered advantageous, which would be perfectly in character if it were not for the fact that the things he kept trying to take advantage of were things that, in any other movie, would be of such painfully little consequence to him. (I did like, at least, that he had Thor in mind when he was coming up with his scheme to use the Grandmaster to get himself to the top of the food chain, so at least in that scene -- since his personality seemed to vary from scene to scene -- it wasn't only self interest and he was planning on having Thor be side by side with him as his brother again).

Amazingly, dear sweet Bruce went pretty untouched by the characterization issue (he still got used for laughs, and so did his anxiety which I didn't appreciate, but far and away he was the most intact - if I have any complaints I'd say he lost a bit of his depth in favor of making him a bit of a joke; they amped up the timidity and awkwardness to the point where I'm not sure that this is the same Bruce that told Wanda he could choke the life out of her and never change a shade... but at least I still felt like I was watching Bruce at all) and I treasured every moment he was on screen because he still got to be his adorable self (and I totally related to his close encounter with a panic attack), but the Hulk was a little strange (and far too excited about having spent the last 2 years killing people, especially when he's always been so afraid of becoming the monster people think he is). Aside from providing muscle when necessary, he was basically just there for comic relief, and in a movie where almost everything is already being played comically, it just becomes too much. 

Pointless deaths. I have so many questions here. You’d think that killing people off would help to feel the dire stakes, but they all die so quickly and pointlessly that it doesn't.

Isn't Odin supposed to, y’know, fight in Ragnarök? Die in battle? Never mind, he just randomly dies of old age because... actually, why did that happen?? It helps Thor with his lightning powers somehow, but in the plot as a whole there really isn't much purpose. As he dies he provides his sons with information that could just as easily be given if he were to live, and while there's a nice several moments of Thor and Loki being brothers and mourning their father together (and I really do appreciate seeing Loki still caring about Odin, and it was really touching that Odin regarded them both equally as his sons and that he told Loki that Frigga would be proud of him), it really doesn't seem to propel them on a journey. It just kind of happens and they move on from there.

I'm really, really unhappy about the Warriors Three. That was so unnecessary and so sudden. Volstagg and Fandral are killed in seconds before they can even defend themselves. Hogun is at least given a fighting chance, only to end up with an even more gruesome death. Not only is it a sad waste of good characters, but Thor hadn't even seen them in 4 years and now he’ll never see them again (not that he ever seems to mourn his friends or even learn that they've been killed, because they're never brought up by a single person). I'm just gonna pretend that not seeing Sif means she made it out alive, because I don't want to consider the possibility that she died off-screen (or at all).

Skurge didn't need to die either, but at least he had his own nice little character arc, and I really appreciate that they tried to emulate his iconic and powerful last stand from the comics (though there's far less gravity; in this movie no one really knew or cared about him, no one noticed his change of heart and sacrifice). He was actually one of the few things I really enjoyed and whose characterization I had no issue with. I really liked the way he was portrayed, because it definitely reminded me of his history with Amora the Enchantress, how he wasn't hurting people for any cause or just for the sake of it but because he was in love with Amora and would do anything for her (not that he was in love with Hela, but the emotions he displayed towards hurting people were familiar). But speaking of Amora, there's sadly probably no chance that she’ll show up now, now that Skurge is gone. Although there is one other, much bigger problem...

LITERALLY THE WHOLE OF ASGARD?! Why?! Sure, whatever, Asgard is where their people are and that's a sweet sentiment and I'm glad there was a successful evacuation, but that doesn't mean it's okay if their entire realm is destroyed! And it didn't seem like there were all that many people on the getaway ship, so how many people died? Does Yggdrasil lose a limb? How empty does Heimdall feel with an entire realm, his home, missing from his sight? How will the Asgardians adapt to life on Midgard? Why do Thor and Loki seem remarkably unmoved by their home being completely obliterated? (Also, while this is finally the kind of drama befitting the end of the world, even this scene was ruined by misplaced humor. They literally tried to soften the blow and make light of the destruction of Asgard. What the heck.)

other weird things:

- Surtr was only used as a plot device. Surtr.

- why in the world would Thor and Jane break up?! I know the studios had problems with Natalie Portman but the least they could have done was not write the character off so unceremoniously. There’s nothing that can be said to make me believe that Thor and Jane would break up.

- Loki apparently sent Odin to a home for the elderly and then Odin didn't want to come back to Asgard???

- I have no idea if the giant dragon-like creature at the beginning of the movie was meant to be Jörmungandr but I hope not because that would be very awkward if Thor unknowingly killed his own nephew

- Fenrir didn't seem to be Loki’s kid either, which I don't blame them for not bringing up, but I do think it's a little weird that he's been featured on Loki’s armor before and now there's no recognition of their relationship (and also the fact that such care was put into involving mythology that his kids were depicted on his armor makes me feel even weirder about the fact that they could just change who Hela is)

- also I’d love to see how they explain Hela and Fenrir still sharing Loki’s color scheme and physical features when they're not supposed to have anything to do with him

- ���I like women, sometimes I think I like them too much’ what the heck

- ^ on that note, the ‘it’s about time’ line made me cringe so hard because the Valkyries are not from 2017 Midgard, this hasn't been an Asgardian problem and saying ‘it’s about time’ doesn’t make sense in that context, especially when the Valkyries have been around since long before Thor was ever born

- I totally get why Loki would make a statue of himself but I fail to understand why there was no statue of Frigga as well.

- Loki revealed a weird amount of personal information to completely random people. An entire play about his backstory and fake death, both of which I doubt he'd care to publicize as those are incredibly close to him (and I'm not sure the citizens actually knew of his bloodline, so he probably outed himself), and on Sakaar he tells total strangers the story of how he let go and floated into space at the end of the first movie, but with smiles and laughter as if it's a fun story with no deeper meaning to him. I read that as more or less being a suicide attempt, I can't see why he'd share that.

- character inconsistencies within a single scene; when Thor and Loki are in the elevator, they have a very moving moment where you can see that Loki truly cares for his brother and gets hit with the realization that Thor truly cared about him as well (I’m more than sure that Thor still does, but he was speaking in past tense) and Loki gets emotional, albeit in his quiet way that he can't put words to. Then in the next scene he’s suddenly willing to sell Thor out for his own cunning gain, which frankly I’m not sure he would have done anyway (under their circumstances at least), but especially not after a scene like that. (To a lesser extent there are things like when Thor is fighting the Hulk, sometimes Loki looks really truly worried for him but seconds later when he gets beaten to a pulp he's joyfully shouting, “YES! NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS!”, even though the fact that Loki knows how much pain Thor must be in should make him feel worse for him - however this one could probably be explained away by saying Loki’s just terrible at empathy) 

- Bruce landing on the bridge got the most laughs of all out of the theater but I was very confused by that, since turning into the Hulk is about getting his heart rate up too high, and maybe it's just me but I feel like falling from a great height with the impending crash into a messy battlefield on a thin bridge would get someone’s heart rate skyrocketing.

- I had to see the Hulk’s butt with my own two eyes

- You would think that there would be a big emotional moment when Thor realizes that Loki is actually alive. There isn't. You have Thor realizing that he's been pretending to be Odin and confronting him, but it's played as more ‘of course it was you, what did you screw up this time’ and you don't see Thor feel anything about Loki other than a frustration that felt far too casual for someone who just learned that their brother who died 4 years ago is alive. And of course, he's well within his rights to be frustrated and angry, but there should have been weight and emotion to the realization and confrontation and there isn't any.

- for a movie that tries to be about Asgard and the deep meaning of it, they sure spend a lot of time (read: almost the entire movie) on a completely different planet where they barely talk about Asgard at all

- I know everyone seem to love the dark backstory they gave to Asgard and I get that it was meant to be a lesson about colonialism, and I know it's important to Taika, who I respect, but it really rubs me the wrong way and I don't think this was the right movie to send that message in. Suddenly the Asgardians used to be cruel conquerors, just because we say so now. There was never any indication of that before, because that story did not exist before, and it bugs me that you could suddenly just rewrite their history on a whim. That was not Asgard.

positives:

- Those blessed but few moments where Thor and Loki got to be in character at the same time and had nice interactions with each other. It was really, really nice to see them standing together at the end of the movie, just as brothers. I was especially fond of the times when Loki is the one extending a hand, such as when he truly does show up in person to be with Thor, or in the elevator when he's awkwardly mentioning how there's no need for them to ever see each other again and could not be more obviously trying to nudge Thor for an out so that they don't actually have to do that. As far as humor goes, I did think the ‘Get Help’ routine was hilarious, and I just about died at, “I have been FALLING, for THIRTY MINUTES!”

- Stephen Strange gracing the screen with his presence for maybe 3 minutes

- Heimdall lived! And thank goodness, he was completely in character. He got to be the honorable hero who hid the refugees and protected them, which was one of the very few things in the movie that was never played for laughs. You can take him seriously and you can take his parts of the plot seriously.

- I did think the character of the Valkyrie was quite interesting. I liked seeing her flashbacks and her decision to come home to help.

- I’d be lying if I said I didn't like Korg. He’s purely a comedic character and he definitely ruined some potentially good moments because of it, but forgetting that, I did still find him endearing.

- Even though this movie has a problem with choosing flash over substance, I’d also be lying if I said that Thor mowing people down with his lightning powers didn't look pretty cool.

- There’s a giant bust of Beta Ray Bill’s head on the side of the tower on Sakaar and I was very happy to see him.

- I think Loki was probably a little too scared of the Hulk, but it was interesting nevertheless to see his reaction to the memory of getting hurt like that.

- Speaking of Loki reacting to the memory of pain, oh my word, the end credits scene that sets up Infinity War. The Chitauri would definitely dredge up some things he doesn't want to remember. And since we see in the Infinity War trailer that Thor is drifting around in space but there's no sign of anyone else, I don't know about the other Asgardians but I can only assume that Loki will get taken aboard the Chitauri ship to be brought to Thanos, either to be punished or controlled again or both. I don't want to see him in that situation but I'm fascinated from a character growth standpoint. (Also considering we see him look at the Tesseract before Asgard’s destruction and the fact that he’s holding it in the Infinity War trailer, I assume he swiped it, which would definitely make Thanos want to find him).

~~~~~

Anyway. I think they kind of tried to be the Thor version of a Guardians movie (heck, even Guardians certainly knows when to drop the fun and raise the tension, and they do it fantastically), but to me it ended up feeling like OOC fanfiction. The acting is still fantastic but there's only so far you can carry a scene when the writing isn't helping anybody’s characters, so sometimes it feels sort of like you're watching the shell of these characters but not the meat inside. What’s sad is that there really are some good things in this movie, but not enough to save it, and it gives you a sense of the great potential the rest of the movie had to be something amazing but they just didn't take the opportunity. I want so badly to love it the way I expected to, and there are things from it that I truly did like, but overall I’m just left feeling sort of betrayed.

[sandydragon1]

13, 18, and 19 for the salty meme, please!

This’ll be fun! I’m going to ramble a lot here...

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

Zira is actually a more interesting villain than Scar.

They’re both well written, but Zira strikes me as more unique and terrifying, especially as far as Disney villains go.

Scar is a good foil to Simba (like Scar, Simba initially has a childish, idealized idea of what it means to be king), and his willingness to throw anyone under the bus to get what he wants makes him pretty scary. However, he’s not as interesting once he gets what he wants. After he becomes king, he becomes more childish than scary. Not a bad villain by any means mind you, but not the most gripping one either.

Zira on the other hand... she scares me. She’s terrifyingly unhinged, especially considering she’s in a Disney movie. She’s still calculating and cruel, like Scar, but she takes things to a whole other level. She weaponizes her children (and straight up abuses them!!!). Scar has lackeys too, but his treatment of the hyenas strikes me as less frightening. Both parties clearly have something to gain in his case (Scar gets the throne and the hyenas get food, at least at first). With Zira, while Kovu would have gotten the throne and her pride would have gotten to live in the Pridelands if she had succeeded, things don’t feel as balanced since Zira would still control her pride with an iron paw and her children would still be treated as mere tools, almost certainly dealing with more of her abuse regardless of how things went.

Basically, Scar and Zira are both tyrannical in their own way, but Scar is less interesting since his behavior seems less extreme, or at the very least it’s not as disturbing to me since I still can’t get over the fact Disney made Zira as terrifyingly abusive as she is. Physical abuse (striking Kovu), emotional abuse (treating Nuka like utter garbage and neglecting him until he was literally dying), raising Kovu in such a way as to give him no concept of what fun is... sheesh. The only other characters I can think of off the top of my head who were that mindblowingly awful as parents is Rasa from Naruto and Show Tucker from Fullmetal Alchemist. Granted, I almost always stick to child friendly works, but still...

18. Does not shipping something ‘popular’ mean you’re in denial and/or biased?

Definitely not in denial, but definitely biased. 

Everyone is biased in some way whether they support popular ships or not since people tend to value different aspects of relationships more than others. What makes two characters seem like a good match to one person might not seem compelling to another, and that’s without even getting into how people interpret characters’ personalities and such differently.

For example, I tend to like ships where characters help each other work through trauma and/or start off as friends before slowly becoming romantically involved over a long period of time. Meanwhile, I don’t care about characters’ physical attraction to each other much, and I often find relationships both in real life and fiction extremely rushed to a frightening degree. This is reflected by my own romantic experiences (it took me three years of being best friends before I felt any romantic attraction to the only person I’ve ever been interested in, and we went through a lot together in terms of emotional baggage), so there isn’t a doubt in my mind other people have biases too regardless of who they ship. 

19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

I’ll discuss a couple of my fandoms since I don’t have a main one.

It bugs me how fixated the Naruto fanbase is on the portrayal of female characters and, on a related note, ships. I agree Kishimoto could have done a better job with them, although I do think the issue is exaggerated to at least some degree (for example, I don’t think people acknowledge how freaking awesome Temari is enough. The fact she could summon Kamatari as a genin still amazes me considering how strong of a summon he was). I wish the fanbase discussed other aspects of the work more, whether negatively or positively. It feels like there’s a lot people don’t discuss in favor of tearing into one or two topics.

For Pokemon, it irks me that the fanbase seems so creatively sterile. People regurgitate many of the same opinions without bringing much new to the table. Sure they do at least try to add their own spin on things like new evolutions they’d like to see, but I seldom see anything super memorable or creative, which is a shame since their are plenty of aspects of the franchise that have a lot of room for more creative and original content. Maybe I’m just watching the wrong Poketubers... 

I wish several things I like had more active fandoms. For example, Craig of the Creek is amazingly fun and has a great sense of childlike wonder, and Speechless is basically More of This Please the show, at least for me and other people with disabilities. I’d kill to hear more people talk about them!

In general, I hate how focused on romance many fandoms are. Romance isn’t a bad topic to explore by any means (although I often have trouble getting invested in it myself), but I’d like to see more aspects of works explored in depth. Give me more explorations of family dynamics, more deep friendships, and more brief yet interesting interactions. I prefer when romance is at most a subplot, so it can be frustrating to see it brought to the forefront at the expense of many other things. 

Thanks for asking! Feel free to ask me other stuff or message me any time (just about had a heat attack when I got your asks since I’ve been a fan of your fics for ages now).