#despair division

[annas-anya]

In the Marigold field

[aghw18]

Not even in his dream--

[nyxneon]

My DESPAIR DIVISION tshirt (inspired by the 3rd division in Bleach)

[withoutalice]

Okay so I bleached my hair like 5 times so it would be blonde enough for me to go metallic silver and something went wrong  😭  so now I have blonde hair with these silver chunks randomly ahhhaahahahhahahhhshshshsss

on another note i literally have Despair Division™️ hair now

[strawberry-seal77]

the fall of beacon was so so so cool ! THE REVEAL OF VELVETS SEMBLANCE WAS AMAZING TOOOOO AGHHH.

[happyendingsong]

watching the kickoff show first and um why is there a 25man rumble match on this card and not becky vs trish.

[memwazz]

MASTERPOST - Short summaries of all my Original Stories and links to their own dedicated Masterposts

SEVEN : DIVISION UNITED

This story is the one I currently focus on.

It follows the Seventh Division, a dysfunctional superheroes team protecting a fictive, slightly futuristic version of the USA ruled by a martial law. Most of the plot revolves around them and the teenage MC Erwan fighting different antagonists with or without special abilities, while trying to handle their chaotic daily life together.

Created circa 2019.

B-CLASS

B-Class is the only project I've completed so far, taking the form of two French novels and their spin-off.

The setting is a contemporary dystopia with a cast system discriminating and exploiting a group of people called the "B-Class". The main character Icare is a privileged journalist from the A who will change its viewpoint on oppression after falling in love with his own domestic slave Riùn. Then comes Abys the ACAB Boy and they all start a revolution 🔥

Very very queer and politic.

Created circa 2017 and completed in March 2018.

[B-CLASS Related] POUR UN RAYON DE SOLEIL

The spin-off I mentioned above focuses on Icare's past relationship with Ryse, a major antagonist in B-Class.

They used to date 5 years before the story and PURS explains how Icare became depressed and suic!d@l after a whole year of abuse.

Created and completed between November and July 2018.

AN EYE FOR AN EYE

This one has a special place in my heart since it's the first story I've ever created back in middle-school. Many things changed in 10 years but it still tells the journey of Daniil who rebels against and has to run away from his former boss.

At the beginning, Daniil works as a bodyguard for an important member of a criminal organization; but he loses his temper and tries to unalive him when he discovers Akito murd€red his late girlfriend 3 years before. And then they both chase and try to k!ll each other 🤷

May include shit like war flashbacks and Japanese mafia idk

Created circa 2012.

DE A à Z

Zephyr and Adriel are two angels who've lived as a couple in Heaven for thousands of years.

But when Babel, an artificial angel, is created by humans and sent to Heaven to communicate with God, everything collapses. Babel manages to kill God and takes Their place to impose his vision of right and wrong, influenced by the humans' misinterpretation of the Bible. From then on, all romantic and sexual relationships are forbidden, forcing the couple to hide.

When Babel discovers Adriel's love letters, he is kicked out of Heaven and has to find allies on Earth to overthrow Babel and get his lover back.

Created circa 2019.

42

42 tells the story of Mat, a young woman searching for Sara, her little sister who disappeared years ago. Her investigations lead her to "Number 42", a man who just escaped from a lab experimenting on humans. Since Mat's sister seems to be prisoner from the lab as well, the two of them helped by the amoral Director's oldest son, will try to save Sara and 42 himself.

Created circa 2015.

MINIUM Part. 1

This one is pure heroic fantasy; its universe and lore are my most extended so far.

Gailin, the adoptive son of Kel'Daran's king, passed a deal with him and has to save Kel'Daran from the Selv, an humanoid species invading the Kingdom. A mystic prophecy tells the war can't be won without a half-blooded Selv with mysterious powers.

Due to coincidences and quiproquos, Gailin is manipulated by Aldanys, a teenage thief who pretends she's the Chosen One.

Created circa 2015.

MINIUM Part. 2

According to my writing plan, Minium is supposed to have a second part taking place 5 years after the first one.

After Gailin killed his father/king at the end of Minium 1, he is exiled and his mentor Edelia takes Kel'Daran's throne. When a new war is suddenly started against the kingdom, Edelia realises someone she thought had died wants her dead too.

On the other side of the plot, another protagonist named Lavaan predicts a major antagonist's return through weird prophetic dreams.

Created circa 2017.

[Minium Related] ST-ANRIEL

In Minium, Gailin and elves his kind believe in an entity named Altea and the Gods they gave birth to.

The Anriel is the equivalence of their Holy Bible and tells the story of the Gods and how the world was built from the beginning to the end. It takes the form of an anthology of poems and prayers.

Created circa 2017.

[MINIUM Related] JADE ET MOI

Another Minium spin-off, focusing this time on Osvald's coming out and transition as a trans man. The story takes place on sea as "Jade"/Osvald starts his journey as a pirate after running away from home.

Created circa 2018.

[MINIUM Related] GOLDEN-EYED BEAST

GEB is a Minium spin-off telling the backstory of Lavaan, a 12 years old protagonist. Born with a golden eye in a village who fears this feature after a terrible incident with a cruel golden-eyed enemy, he is treated as an outcast since his childhood.

His life changes when Kalras, a mysterious elf with black magic, destroys his village and murders everyone. Being the only survivor, Lavaan is made prisoner and tortured by Kalras but develops a Stockholm Syndrom and falls in love with him.

From then on, Kalras who turns out to be a cult leader, uses him as a slave a pet in a toxic relationship.

Created circa 2017.

[MINIUM Related] LA SAISON DES BOURGEONS

In Minium, Edelia has a little brother named Veidin who cursed himself to save her as a child. The curse caused him chronic pain, blood, heart and bones fragility and he's doomed to a very short life expectancy.

LSDB tells his love story with Jyëlven, another young man who was cursed and has flowers and thorns growing out of his skin.

Created circa 2017.

[MINIUM Related] THE WARMTH OF OUR COLD LANDS

Just like for the Anriel, Genkhìs will have their own religious texts written.

Inspired by vikings, the people of Genkhàr honour Gods similar to Scandinavians. Each one represents a value, the most worshipped one being Ero, God of Bravery.

Created circa 2017.

ODE TO ODD

My first and only story ever to look like a shonen anime lol--

One of the main characters Naemi is a highschooler with anxiety who just wants to live an ordinary and peaceful life.

But her goth and spiritism-obsessed best friend Sayaka accidentally summons Evelgard, a young necromancer in her living-room. Evelgard decides to befriend her and live in her closet, while trying to open a portal to the World of the Dead to save his late sister's soul. The two girls discover a whole new world after meeting necromancers, exorcists, witches and demons.

Created circa 2016.

SACRED DUST

Another heroic fantasy setting, but this universe is different from Minium's !

In this story, each kingdom worships a God-dess supposed to grant it their protection. When Lidala, the Goddess of Telaman, is murdered by a rival God, she turns to dust and leaves a devastated kingdom behind.

Fortunately, one of her ashes gives birth to a child, Saljän, who soon has to become the priest of Telaman. Aged 16, Saljän hates his responsibilities so much he finally runaways and travels around the world with a little demon named Orgos. Their goal is to gather all the Sacred Dusts to resurrect Lidala before it's too late.

Created circa 2016.

BAD ROMANCE

How to define Bad Romance without telling it's my most fucked-up story ? You can't. The two main characters are such assholes I can't name a protagonist, they're both antagonists.

Derek, a criminal, gangster and drug abuser, kidnaps Jay who sent him to jail 8 years before the story. He aims at mistreating him enough for Jay to kill himself, but he soon discovers that this guy who seems to live an ordinary and boring life is as much of a sociopath as him.

They start making each other's life hell then become addicted to each other, fuck, engage in a toxic relationship and even create a gang together at the end of the plot.

Created circa 2017.

LE ROYAUME DE GAHS

My first attempt to deal with astronomy eventhough I don't understand anything about it-

The story takes place in the sky and is about two stars and their father trying to discover why the Cosmic God decided to kill/destroy all the stars. Meanwhile, there seems to be a perturbation in the cosmos and some shooting stars start turning evil for no apparent reason...

Created circa 2024.

WE ARE THE WILD

The Lion King but with wolves, mixed with Prince of Persia and the COVID-19 pandemic before it existed--

The plot follows Sôkah, a 15 years old werewolf and the son of the Alpha, who's accused of murdering his big brother. The responsible is actually Akbar, his father's counselor who evicted the two sons to take his place when he dies.

Sôkah is banished from the pack and wandering in the forest, discovers the human world. Most humans are dying from a deadly virus nicknamed "white plague", and Sôkah gets rescued by the cousins Ludwig and Weiss. Weiss is a scientist who tries to find a cure to save Ludwig who caught the white plague, and soon discovers werewolves are immune to the disease...

Created circa 2018.

STAR-716

This story's plot is not very developed and I don't know much what will happen through it. But it's once again about someone looking for a missing family member, a mother this time.

Sacha is 13 and grew up in a circus, his mother being a dancer there. But she disappeared a year before (probably after a kidnapping) and Sacha doesn't know where to start his researches. He will be helped by Novak, an irresponsible sex-worker and hopeless romantic who fell in desperate love with the mother after sleeping with her once.

Created circa 2016.

DIMENSION OF DESPAIR

Are you surprised if I tell you this one is about another dimension ? No ?

Well, the MC Megane is a single mother who works hard to raise her 4 years old alone. One day, she wakes up in an unknown dimension ruled by Master, a mysterious person with psychic powers who created the dimension with their own mind.

Turns out it's actually a "harem" where Master gathers people and things he loves or wants. Megane will look for a way to escape and save a little girl named Kadd as well as Zoé, Master's "favorite".

Created circa 2018.

UNTIL SEPTEMBER

A more simple and less fucked-up story, I swear !!

Some sort of teenage literature, Until September focused around Nero, who's having hard times as a bullied 9th grader and discovers he has water powers. From then on, he befriends the other elementaries and has to deal with Hilda, the air elementary who wants to sacrifice all the children to create a Philosopher's Stone.

Created circa 2021.

SCARECREW

Another under-developed lore !

It's a basic apocalyptic/zombie novel with a disease turning all the adults into monsters. A bunch of pre-teens who survived and don't even know each other decide to fight together against the threat and to rebuild their own world.

Created circa 2020.

VIC'TEAM

Mostly shitpost, I don't want to turn it into a novel but more like a bunch of comic strips.

It follows the daily life adventures of highschoolers with teenagers problems like love, exams and family with a comedic tone. The MC's main problem is to be named Volvic (nicknamed Vic) and there are a lot of jokes about it, as well as absurd humor.

Created circa 2016-17.

Undeveloped shit with OCs waiting for their twisted up plot

Yeah, I love creating OCs and some of them have a background and design but no story for the moment. I'll just put them here and share random facts about them.

[PERSONAL DAILY LIFE SHITPOST] The ABSOLUTELY UNCHILLING Adventures of a Smol Angry Emo Birb

The parenthesis speaks for itself, I'll gather a few billets or illustrated jokes about funny things happening in my life.

[nyxneon]

Memento Mori (on ao3)

Fandom: Bleach

Ship: Rose/Kira (post TYBW)

Warning: it's a bit on the morbid side (related to Kira's wounds basically), religious imagery and kinda gothic sensibility.

Rated: M (non-explicit but nsfw stuff is implied + breathplay)

350 words

omg it’s FAN FICTION FRIDAY

Reblog and promote a fic of yours <3

[annas-anya]

Acrylic paint

Neon + black one of my favorite color palette

[aghw18]

If its modern au somehow i feel like gin would force izuru to get a tongue piercing ... likely to be done by gin himself

[nyxneon]

Ohh absolutely, I mean, i was...oversimplifying things because answers in the notes are meant to be short... they have a limit so, I was just trying to reach out because I used to be in a lot of bleach spaces in the past... 😅

That said, I'm not speaking as someone who is in the bdsm scene, i have some knowledge of that but it's not the kind of hands-on experience, so to say.

Anyway, yes, there is also the famous straight-jacket scene. And I...idk, I could ramble about all that for a while....

I am a huge fan of Kira and i do feel a lot of connection to the way he's characterised, and I love the importance that themes like pain, submission (in a very broad sense i mean), despair and even death have in the way he's been portrayed.

So, in short. I agree with you. You point out elements that are absolutely very important.

@nyxneon sorry to butt in like this but I saw your reply and I wanted to say I'm from the same age as you so I totally know what you mean,

and as someone who has been drawing/been a fan of Izuru for like idk 15+ years I got some thoughts.

Yeah, it's the poem illustration, but it's also, I think, the straight jacket he was in during the soul society arc, and also just his air of wanting to please someone with power over him, and his complete disregard for himself.

And his philosophy of pain, and his theme of suffering. i.e it's his inane connection to masochism and being punished.

I think it's also that when it comes to BDSM, the role of the sub is kinda cathartic, for the sub (also for the dom actually but anyway). BDSM is as much about mental and emotional relief as well as physical, and I suppose Izuru fans feel like he deserves some of that in a safe, controlled way haha

[nyxneon]

💖

[ragesin]

❝ it’ll be all right because we’re together. ❞ ( genshin verse )

► UNPROMPTED

         It's tranquil, peaceful. Grounded senses laid open to the world around him — the slight breezy currents fluttering against his skin, sweeping through his hair and clothes. Rustling of the undergrowth and leaves. The hints of wood, grass, a light graze of floral intermingled with scent of the bubbling creek. The air was almost disgustingly fresh, filled to the brim with a cloying sweetness that should rot teeth. Everything's clear in his mind, from the nighttime sounds of the sleeping forest they resided beside to the waves of ambient energy flowing free all around.

         Soft even breaths, the faint, slowing rate of a single heart beating echoing against eardrums. Hallmarks of a losing fight against the pull to the realm of sleep. It's a wordless melody interrupted by a drowsy yawn fruitlessly half stifled, a hand faltering in its rhythmic movements, confirming the state of his adventuring companion.

         Eyes opened, half hidden between the tanned cheek smooshed into a folded arm and a mess of flaxen bangs, piercing in the low light of the flickering campfire as they blinked up in silent question. A reassuring curve of the lips framed by silver strands, luminescent under the glow of the moon, was given in return to nothing asked. Emerald hues blinked back at cerulean, unmistakably smitten soft. Those dainty fingers of hers resume combing through his wild hair while he's occupied with recovering from the smile ( how something that simple still made hearts skip a beat was beyond him ), scraping his scalp with firm but tender strokes as pleasant shivers danced up and down his spine, and wow. It never ceased to amaze how Elizabeth wielded a knack for that, making nerves buckle under the weighty force of satisfied bliss bearing down on them and forcing tension wound in muscles to dissipate. Subtle warmth enveloped him in a soothing embrace. Safe, not yet like the cresting sun peaking at blistering light. He's a boneless wreck. The tide of lethargy pulled at him with laughable ease with her assistance. Tingling content weighed heavily upon hooded lids, deep set rumble vibrating in his chest. He hoped it would never cease... Hell, as if. Like all good things it did end sooner rather than later.

❝ it’ll be all right because we’re together. ❞

         As her hand slipped from gold locks, that sigh parted her lips as she drifted off with that endearing smile in place, feather light syllables wrapped in her refreshing touch, spaces between heartfelt and overflowing with care so inexplicably Elizabeth. It'd make anyone bearing some semblance of a soul melt at the sincerity packed away the words thoughtlessly, freely given away. It could end the wars if men knew how to look at it.

         A feeling emerged from the yawning emptiness situated in the hollow caverns of his chest. It's like when he was a fledgling, transfixed in odd fascination as fissures crawled along the wall after it weathered a hit, foundation shifting and crumbling, a web of deep cracks scarring the surface. It's the same now. Detached, Meliodas observed as the same happened inside of him.

         She's right. They're together. Hearts ached, jagged and wretched, stiffening relaxed muscles to a paralyzing and stringent degree. That's the problem, isn't it ?

         Illusion of normalcy splintered, fragmented. A heaviness settled into the pit of his stomach. It twisted, writhed like a den of hissing vipers, poison seeping into blood vessels. The horror stared back through the lucent haze of moonlight with invisible unblinking eyes, looming, consuming, cutting through the dark, all gnashing teeth grinding bones.

         ( i love you, it growls sickeningly soft from the depths of his cursed soul. i love you, elizabeth. forever and always )

         It'll be alright — a repeated falsehood without end the demon told himself every time, moment to moment, desperately willing it to be true so that one day perhaps he could lose himself within the lie and believe it. One spoken with such maddening intensity that for a brief window of time even he'd forgot the woes latent and ripe with unseen tragedy entwined between them.

         Her lingering words of comfort served as both the sweetest knife and the most horrific pleasure. Dulled blade sawing through dried blood and digging into worn, perfect flesh; a reminder he / she / they were alive, bound by their precious connection and shackles. An age-old agonizing cathedral of constant wounds, comprised of festering gore that never fully closed, pried open just a little more each time it began to heal. He always let her: tear him apart, break him to pieces, and stitch him back together good as new  ( because that's what she's always been good at, fixing, while his world encompassed little aside from violence, atrocities, and destruction ). They could do this song and dance together for eternity. He deserved it, Meliodas supposed. For selfishly holding on to what's his his HIS with a vice grip until they both bleed out, rivulets dripping from the punctures beneath his nails, a sea of crimson blooming beneath each flourishing step taken. His memories, his promise guided his quest, devotion cruel enough to push his soul to move forward and fulfill it no matter how he stumbled. The man's but a living corpse daring to thread fingers with hers, a corruption burying himself flush against her smooth neck and deliriously intoxicating scent, begging through perforated lungs filled with stagnant air and iron painted lips for it all to end / for more please give him more / for her to love him despite wary suspicion of falsified emotion the curse instilled into her soul each repetition.

         He wanted to tear out his hair until scarlet flowed and let the tears well up. To rage out against the injustices that befall her time and again, doomed the second they met. To scream as hearts squeeze and squeeze so tight he's certain they're going to burst.

         Meliodas remained an image of chilling stillness, curled upon the bed of grass, temple pressed into the crook of an arm with soundless breathing wavering every so often. He didn't know how long he stayed like that, resting like the dead.

         When was the last instance time truly imposed impassable consequences outside of the bounds of a three day grace ?

         It's a simple motion when he finally moved, the moon having crossed some distance in the blanket of stars above. Wordlessly, he reached to hold her sleep-slackened hand. Calloused fingertips pressed, traced, caressed lines crisscrossed along her palm. Some strokes were firm, as though seeking to engrave his memory upon her flesh via mindless shapes. Others ghosted a fleeting imprint of hopeless longing, phantom touches questioning whether he'd ever been present at all. The intimate brushes of skin did not betray the tremors roiling beneath the surface.

         Love. The core of every action. It's love that coaxed his fortified guard to statter to dust and expose his vulnerabilities. Love made him look at her with reverence and fondness in equal strokes despite himself all those years ago. Love's what loosened his sinful tongue to sing her name like a prayer and present himself at her altar, offering flesh while pleading forgiveness. Love allowed the memories and centuries of pain caked onto his skin to be washed away into sweet scintillating oblivion.

         They're together. Who cared if Meliodas already knew what awaited him at the end of their written path, the steep cliff she unfailingly pushed him down with each loss tearing the earth and sky out from underneath his shaky feet ?  It was of no import that whenever he awakened from this sweet dream the cold reality would unerringly slam him with a force thrice harder for his fool damned indulgence and forgetting to brace himself. She couldn't ever be allowed to know this fate.

         Gaze cut to the new presence in their midst, assessing the form standing over him, green clashing against gold. A grin bloomed to life, filled with beaming mirth he couldn't really bring himself to muster inside and stretched across his face from ear to ear. His free hand shifted, index finger raised to his lips, a reticent and wholly unnecessary gesture to keep quiet. The narrowed eye roll from the adeptus was a well deserved one.

         The demon and yaksha made an unlikely duo, a companionship unexpected  ( and close. are they close ?  something in his chest nudges in the direction of the affirmative )  after coming to these lands and yet it's welcomed all the same. He really really liked the guy, harsh and biting as his demeanor may outwardly seem. Weirdly enough, their conflicting personalities meshed better than he initially presumed might ever happen upon their first encounter. In any case, the demon's glad someone else had the strength and capability to protect Elizabeth in areas he may falter.

         Retracting his hand from Elizabeth's, Meliodas languidly propped himself up despite the numbing exhaustion and yawned, using it to make even more of a tangled mess of his hair as he ran it through the mused locks, dislodging accumulated small blades of green. As he did, Xiao took a seat next to Elizabeth on her other side, taking up the mantle of guard duty for the remainder of the night.

         A part of him — a dark wisp curled in a dark corner of his mind — demanded this emptying vessel of his to reach right out and close his hands around that slim, delicate throat. An animosity misplaced but it still screeched, begging to throttle the other man, dig in powerful claws, crush the windpipe and reduce pristine snowy skin to red pulp. This intruder, you invader, it snarled, an ugly blackness, you don't belong. But, the part in control mused, wasn't that Meliodas ?  Is he himself not the foreign entity in this equation ?  The odd piece out not meant to fit into the picture ?  He could see it. Crystal clear in the depth of the ardor pooled in her blue irises when set upon Xiao. The adeptus had known this Elizabeth far longer than he. It burned obvious and bright in the ease with which he slotted himself to her side — like it was where Xiao belonged.

         It's that final thought that spurred his body to stand up, a breathless heave chasing his step and perfectly concealed irritation / affection bittersweet on the tongue. Unsaid exchange passed between the two men, drops slipping through the tenuous cracks of the taciturn lull before Meliodas ignored the dagger of his own design slipped between his ribs that chafed and maimed and turned on his heel, walking off into the dead of night away from the light of his life and the pangs of envious rancor / painstaking relief toward his friend. They'll be fine until morning. He'll return to camp when the sun greeted a new day over the horizon. Elizabeth would not even notice his absence.

         ( wrong. something is wrong wrong wrong. everything is fine. this is right. she can't be elizabeth. she's been alive too long. your elizabeth. not your elizabeth. your hearts sing a lie when you touch. it's the only truth that matters in this damn world )

         It'll be alright. They're together. Whether they wished for it or not.

@triskeleyes

[mesetacadre]

107 years ago today an organized group of workers in the Russian Empire decided they had had enough of war, misery, the oppression of women, and of a corrupt democracy that had promised much and changed nothing, the Tsar still in his palaces, the workers still giving their life for a cause foreign to the working class of Europe and the world. Most bolsheviks were industrial workers, with an insufficient formal education, precarious salaries and conditions. The working class in the Russian Empire had tried liberal democracy, had seen its hipocrisy in the months following the election of the provisional government, and understood their historic goal of progressing further beyond the democracy of the landowner, businessman and aristocrat. It wasn't the first time the proletariat had attempted to take power, both worldwide and in the Russian Empire, but this time they were ready, educated, an organized enough.

The armies of 14 imperialist powers combined could not stop the will of a mass of workers that had realized their worth, their potential, and most importantly, their dignity. They no longer had to bow down to paternalism, electoralism, and the capitalists to whom they sold their labor, no armed intervention, no amount of propaganda, no adventurist distraction, could take away from that fact. This isn't a fantasy, it isn't idealistic, it's a historical fact, that revolutions are possible, have happened, succeeded, and that the opportunity presents itself sooner than most expect. The only task at hand is to organize towards it. Agitation, education, an actual dual power structure predicated on a unified will, not on voluntarism and horizontalism.

I understand the topic at hand for the last 2 days and many more to come will be the results of the US election. But the US is not the only liberal democracy that increasingly creates disappointment among the social majority. After all the posting about the various liberals that make up the US electoral environment, it is imperious that nobody falls into despair. Not in a self-care way, not in the way most left-liberals have been talking about, referring to an abstract sense of "preparing", but because of the simple necessity for this election to further erode any popular faith in reformism, whether it's Trump's reforms, Harris' reforms, Bernie's reforms, or Stein's reforms. Wallowing in despair is as useful as placing yet more stake into whoever is wheeled out next to promise even less, in what will most certainly be also called the most important elections of our lifetimes.

Return to the working class of the Russian Empire, of a fractured and hungry China, to the colony of Indochina, to the plantation island that was Cuba. And I urge you to exercise some perspective. These masses of people had suffered more than you for longer than you. Nobody's asking you to feel guilty about your economic position in the world, we're asking you to realize that, for as long as there have been modes of production predicated on the exploitation, division and discrimination of a producing class, there have always been options, better options than sinking into despondent depression. They have managed to cast off their yoke and build towards a society not based on exploitation. They're not utopias, and mistakes have been and will be committed, but they all realized and understood that it's better to commit our own mistakes, than to toil under the rational oppression by another class for any longer.

[torchwood-99]

There's a bit of a role reversal with Faramir and Eowyn, in terms of how their narratives include tropes and plot points that are often traditionally applied to characters of the other sex.

Eowyn goes to war because she refuses to be left behind to be burned inside the house when the battle is done, as is often the fate of women.

Faramir actually is nearly burned alive at the hands of the patriarch of his family when said patriarch believes the battle is over and hope is lost. While Eowyn is out on the battlefield, fighting, Faramir is stuck inside the home, burning.

Between the two, Eowyn is the one we see go on more of an inner journey. She changes more over the narrative, and has to deal more with her own flaws and personal demons, as well as the injustices inflicted upon her. The climax of her story comes with a great moment of heroism and courage in battle. She is rescued by a hobbit, but as an ally in battle, not as a damsel in distress.

Faramir in the books doesn't feel tempted by the ring, and is almost a paragon of virtue. About as much as a Man in Middle Earth can be. He's closer to Arwen and Galadriel than Eowyn is, in his near perfection, in how he inspires and guides others. He is also rescued by a hobbit, but in that moment he is helpless, a damsel in distress. He is rescued because others love him for his virtue and goodness.

So often it's the other way round. Not only is the woman usually the one trapped inside, in need of rescue, while the man is out there fighting, the woman's heroism traditionally comes from the list of virtues she possesses, while the man's heroism comes from his deeds and the things he accomplishes. The man fights, the woman inspires.

But during the Battle of Pelennor fields, it is Eowyn who fights, and while she does inspire Merry, she inspires him not as a paragorn, but as an example of courage that Merry finds himself compelled to live up to. He is inspired to fight by her side, instead of fighting for her.

Faramir is sick and unconscious. His agency is denied him by his father, who decides on his behalf there's nothing left for him to live for. And it is a rush for the heroes; Pippin and Beregond, to save Faramir, and it is explicitly stated that Beregond only broke the law because he was inspired to do so out of his great love for Faramir, which is shared by all. In that moment, Faramir's role is closer to the traditional fairy tale princess, whose goodness inspires the heroes into fighting for her during her peril.

And afterwards, it is Eowyn who has to fight to find meaning in life again, to choose joy and hope over despair, which Faramir, with his loving kindness, wisdom, and gentleness, inspires her to do.

I love that, and love thinking on how that affected their relationship going forward.

Eowyn must have liked that with Faramir, she's not being married to someone who will require her to take on every aspect of the so called "woman's role" (necessary, but limiting) which has been inflicted on her at her own expense by the men in her life, so they can be free to partake in the "man's role". Perhaps in turn, Eowyn's predisposition for more martial pursuits; even if she has embraced healing and gardening and no longer lives for battle, would also mean she can take on some of the certain necessary duties that Faramir finds taxing.

Between the two, there must have been a more equal division of labour and responsibilities, and therefore more freedom on both sides. Neither one of them fully suits the roles that society has assigned to them due to their gender, and in marrying each other, they no longer have to.

[solarpoweredpunkpossum]

having complicated feelings about the politics of rage

like that specific kind of debate bro whose videos are all "liberal DESTROYED raging feminist OWNED by calm facts and logic haha i'm so smart and cool" who thinks anyone not in a perfect stoic state must immediately be wrong (and by proxy their ability to "argue" about things that don't affect them divisive topics calmly means they must be right)

seeing people finding their ways to scream into the void for reaping week or vent the anger and indignity at how screwed up our world is... why is it so taboo? why is it so bad to be upset at, yknow, things that should upset any rational, compassionate person?

because yeah, anger isn't rational and tends to find targets rather than solutions, but for fluff's sake it doesn't just go away! you can't turn off your passion! and you shouldn't! you should be upset! you should be upset about climate change and billionaires and rising fascism! you should be upset that the world is unjust!

but we've created, or accepted, or failed to question, this framework where being calm makes you more correct and being visibly passionate or upset is a bad thing, where being riled up by someone who thinks you don't deserve rights is a sign of weakness, where caring loudly and vibrantly is somehow bad optics because being angry looks bad.

angry people are dangerous. angry people can't be trusted. angry people shouldn't be listened to. angry people can't control their emotions. angry people should just calm down. angry people should be subdued.

just shut up and take it already, won't you?

like. look. the doomerism and despair is strong outside of communities like this. so often i find myself asking where is your rage!? where is your hope?! your joy, your passion, your conviction that a better world will be made!

i spent a long time drowning in some pretty rough crap. when i managed to crawl out of it, the first thing i felt was relief. the second was burning, white-hot rage that i had lived like this, that i had been allowed to live like this. anxiety makes you want to shrink down, be as small as possible, as unintrusive, as unnoticeable. anger told me to be loud, be bright, be visible, shout from the rooftops that i deserved better, turn passion into action instead of wallowing.

yes, i am angry at the world and i should be. i am upset that people who have more money than i can even conceive of can run the planet into the ground and blame me for using too much plastic. i am upset that my existence is someone else's political fodder they can fearmonger about for engagement. i am upset that people are dying over numbers on a graph and lines on a map. i am upset that billions of dollars for guns and tanks gets written off without question, but the single mother of two on food stamps is what's draining the budget. i am upset and i'm not going to apologize for it, because that isn't "letting my emotions control me," it's having basic fluffing compassion for other people.

sorry i can't be calm like you while you're holding a gun to my head. it must be easier when it's your finger on the trigger.