#double bow

[starlightbyashley]

Christmas thoughts have started to pop up in my mind. Check out my hand tied tree topper bows on etsy!

https://www.starlightbyashley.com

[carolinhairandmakeup]

Boston Kids Bathroom Large transitional kids' ceramic tile, gray floor and double-sink bathroom photo with recessed-panel cabinets, gray cabinets, an undermount sink, quartz countertops, gray countertops and a built-in vanity

[landofanimes]

She-ra and the Princesses of Power

Posters

[yingtan]

THE DOUBLE 墨雨云间 │2024, Ep. 40

[david-tennant-in-chairs]

Oh good, you're both here.

Now we can do this one at a time. Or, because it's my birthday...

[buildingmycottage]

I saw a post here on Tumblr once that went something like "in a world where god, Jesus, and the apostles are all men, that has to do something psychologically to women" and it made me think: The Netflix version of the show "She-Ra Princess of Power" is a show that is HEAVILY women centric. We know maybe three guys in power, King Micah (who, after his return from Beast Island, wasn't *really* in power), the head sorcerer in Mystacor, Hordak/Horde Prime. (please do correct me if I am wrong) The show, albeit about princesses, has the princesses have actual roles. Even the ones that are "weak" or perceived to be weaker than the others (read: Perfuma), are extremely powerful.

The two men whom we consistently meet in the show other than Hordak, Bow and Seahawk, are not the "macho man" in most shows. Seahawk sings an entire shanty as to how lonely he is and how he just wants to be friends with Mermista, and Bow cries and even hugs frequently all the other characters in the show. Both talk about their emotions and work through them in /relatively/ healthy ways (the Dragon's Daughters 1-3 will be sorely missed). My point being, is that the women in the show are shown as strong, beautiful, muscular, fierce, sad, frustrated, loving, traumatized, hurt, laughing, and more. They all have different body shapes/ types of bodies. There are three openly gay couples: Bow's dads, Spinerella and Netossa, and Catra and Adora. Incredible! In a kids show (and adults too lets be real) there are three openly gay couples. No one treats them any different. Bow is one of 13 kids of George and Lance. No one bats an eye. In fact, according to She-Ra Wiki page (https://she-raandtheprincessesofpower.fandom.com/wiki/LGBTQIAP%2B), so many characters are queer. Besides the ones listed above: - Scorpia and Perfuma are romantically involved - Bow is Bisexual - Glimmer is Bisexual - Mermista is Bisexual - Seahawk is Bisexual (dated Falcon) - Falcon is Gay - Lonnie is Poly and Bisexual (dating Rogelio and Kyle) - by extension Rogelio and Kyle are queer - Entrapta is bi - Jewelstar is trans - Peekablue is gender non-conforming - Double Trouble is nonbinary and there is MORE In the show, as there are a ton of non humans, almost any time we meet someone, she/her pronouns are used (see episodes when Best Friend Squad are in the crimson waste). Can't you see how amazing this is? A show where there are no one-dimensional characters, women are constantly having intelligent conversation with one another, women are leaders, women working together, openly queer characters, and a beautiful plot line where there's magic???? When the princesses work together, they turn into the colors of the rainbow and their powers are enhanced. Little girls are getting to see themselves as normal. Women aren't treated as secondary citizens. Hell, almost every Bright Moon guard we see is female. How would the world be different if shows like this were the norm? Where women are able to be magical, and they aren't dressed to show off their bodies? Where women's armor actually protects them? Where they grunt and are sweating after they fight? Where womens' love wins? Why can't this be normal? (Happy Pride!)

[cy-clondo]

Page 5 :)

[fake-married-my-dead-fiance]

I was scrolling through The Double tag and someone was complaining that Xue Fangfei never learned self-defence even though she was attacked so often and I was like, "No, I loved that they didn't pretend that a tiny stick of a woman could take on men twice her size because as much as I understand this genre isn't terribly complaint with physics (or biology), it would have been ridiculous."

We had two women who knew how to fight, Poison Princess and Arrow Friend (Lui?) so it wasn't like all women were portrayed as 100% helpless. But since a lot of Fangfei's revenge quests were about injustices that happen to women, who are generally weaker than men, her only have "soft" tools felt in keeping with the themes.

(We shall ignore that Fangfei managed to shoot Shen at like, 60 meters in the hand with a bow. That was for catharsis. There is no way that woman could shoot someone IN THE HAND, a super small target, after five minutes of sexy archery lessons.)

But back to my point, Fangfei's weapons are self-control, quin-playing, intelligence, diplomacy, and suicidal-risk taking. When attacked, she either is helped by an alliance she has formed (with Duke Su or her cousin), or by her words. She talks her half-sister into hitting her one attacker with a rock, which was great! It wouldn't have been half so satisfying if she just started pulling out martial arts moves that she'd learned in the like, six months max that this series happens over? Especially since many of the men have clearly been practising martial arts/sword-fighting their entire lives and have um, muscle tone and at least a foot of height on this tiny, tiny woman. There is a reason professional sports have weight classes.

I mean obviously it's not a bad idea to learn self defence, but if you learn it from a genuine expert the advice is, "Break out of their grip and run like hell" which wouldn't have worked in about half of the situations where Fangfei finds herself in danger. She was better served by sticking to what she was good at and delegating the physical fighting to people who knew what they were doing. It doesn't make her pathetic, it just means she knows her strengths.

[hibiscuit-rose]

the bottom catra image is probably my fave that ive made shes just soooo

that group shot was evil tho but fun

[your-red-buddy]

My rushed Halloween themed doodles

II characters + double down hosts cause why not

[starlightbyashley]

[tromroan]

Some more of Siddal, my DnD bard of whispers... just a regular human man. The saw is duel purpose (literally)

[vigilskept]

Saw your tags on the last few posts and hard agree! Between the ever present Fen'harel foreshadowing AND Sandal's prophecy AND Mythal's reckoning? It always seemed like the Veil coming down was that proper big bang finish that would rewrite all the rules in a satisfying and interesting way. One of my issues with Veilgaurd is I feel like it took the series' opportunity for a destinct ending away. Personally, I believe good stories end. I don't want 30 DA games in a MCU verse. And now, to have the series end they have to come up with a stopping point that makes more sense than the Veil. Or revisit the Veil. And what would be the point in that when they wasted all the foreshadowing?

yes, exactly!! i felt like i was going insane on my soapbox there, thank you!! it really feels like they ran up against the natural end point for the franchise and just decided to do a little shimmy around it. i just don't see what exactly that achieves except to set up a new, bigger bad which we have no real stake in.

was i curious about the executors prior to veilguard? yes! but i expected them to appear in this game since they clearly had an interest in solas' plans!! not for them to have 3 completely missable interactions followed by the worst idea of a post credit scene i've ever seen. whatever curiosity i had about what they were up to & how the kossith relate to what's across the sea is pretty much gone at this point.

a "shadowy cabal" who's secretly responsible for all of the evil enacted in this world by people in power is not a plot i care to see play out in bioware's hands. it's a stupid, elders of zion ass direction to take things and was not worth trashing over a decade of build up.

there is nowhere they could take that plot thread (already relying on the worst possible trope...) that would give dragon age a more satisfying conclusion than dropping the veil.

it would've resolved or set up a potential resolution for all of the major conflicts that have been established up to now!! (mages under the chantry, tevene class structure/slavery, oppression of elves, the blights, the waking titans, etc. etc. i could go on!)

and with the way veilguard ends... it looks to me like they wanted to somehow get the implied resolutions that would come out of dropping the veil without committing to it. that's why no matter what you do, dorian or mae will become archon and singlehandedly restructure tevinter society. the load bearing piece of "mageocracy can't function if everyone's a mage now" is gone, so we have to have a poorly executed sideplot to resolve this plot thread for us instead...

i'm sure people will feel differently, but i personally would've found it more satisfying if the veil fell and the franchise wrapped up there. for good or ill, it changes everything and we can all have the time of our lives speculating about the Implications thereafter.

if they really wanted to(/needed to promise EA they could) make more games in this setting — they could've gone backwards! there's lots of stories you could tell throughout thedas in the gap between the fifth blight and solas' ritual! there's lots of stories you could tell about the centuries between andraste's rebellion and the fifth blight! there's so much happening in the background here that they've hinted at through codices that if they really wanted more content in this setting, there is so much room to expand on those.

could they set up world shattering events like "tearing down the veil" again? no. but i think that was a very obvious one and done situation, and i don't think anyone came into this franchise expecting their dragon age games to have stakes that apocalyptic until trespasser! i think there absolutely would've absolutely been an audience for a game about the assassination of queen madrigal or the fog warriors' resistance on seheron if they hadn't fumbled this....

[lastofthe20thcenturygirls]

the perfection this episode was

[snarkyassholeenthusiast]

SPOP Textposts part 3

Part 1 | Part 2

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[elainiisms]

spop x article titles pt.2