#hard-headed asshole.

[no-place-to-be-happy]

Drop a Huky Overlords brebnant out of my pocket.

Out of nowhere I became interested in Husk Overlord

I think it's time to get him prenints

[superbellsubways]

🍂

[mrmeepsmadmind]

SIDESWIPE 💥💥 DONT U TALK BACK TO UR reluctant MOTHER 😡?!??? EVEN THO HE STARTED IT BY BEING RUDE AS FUCK FOR NO REASON!! YOU HURT HIS HEART!!!

HES SO FUCKING SAD ????

[bookshelfdreams]

There were two great posts about Izzy yesterday, and I would like to expand on and add my 2 ct to the things said in them a little. One, by @celluloidbroomcloset (with additions by several others), about how Izzy immediately falls back into old patterns of manipulative behaviour after his supposed redemption in 02x07, only this time with Stede as the focus of said behaviours instead of Ed. The other, by @batsarebetterthanpeople, about how Izzy's behaviour in 02x06 and onward is more akin to the development a homophobe coming around to a queer loved one, than an arc of queer self-discovery.

Izzy's story isn't about himself. I think this is the first, fundamental mistake people make when engaging with it. He's not a protagonist; he doesn't exist in the story for his own sake. So when ofmd asks "How to reform a toxic person? What does it look like and is it even possible?", the starting point isn't one of empathy with Izzy.

It's one of empathy with Ed. ofmd is asking these questions not because it wants to understand Izzy better. What it wants to explore is the possibility of Ed having the relationship with Izzy Ed wants. Whether Izzy can be brought around to understanding Ed's wants and needs, whether he can understand the hurt he caused him.

This is a fundamentally different approach to how these stories are usually told. Usually, we start out with the unspoken assumption that the toxic person is well-intentioned, good at heart, and whatever pain they caused our protagonist is more akin to a misunderstanding than deliberate harm. Yes, they may have have caused hurt, but if you just see things from their perspective, you'll understand that they only had your best interest in mind, and that will enable you to forgive them.

Obviously this can't not veer off into victim blaming. "The abuser had a good reason for what they did, and therefore, it's your own fault. Or at the very least not theirs."

ofmd fundamentally rejects this. It is very careful to never let the bullies and abusers have a valid point. Abusers are abusive because they get something out of it. To truly reform an abuser, they would have to be willing to build a life for themselves that is a lot less comfortable. Where they have to consider other's feelings, communicate and compromise, meet other people on equal footing, instead of putting themselves in a position of authority. It means letting go of patterns of behaviour that they have so far been quite successful with*.

And Izzy - tries. He is interesting because part of him clearly wants to leave the toxicity behind. He gets to see what positive relationships, human connection, being part of a community look like; he's offered an outstretched hand, and, after biting it a few times, tentatively starts to take it.

But he can't quite get there. The temptation to fall back into what he knows is too strong. celluloidbroomcloset's post linked above talks mainly about 02x07, so I'm not gonna repeat all that, but I'm going to add two little scenes from 02x06 that further cement this. In the beginning of the episode, Izzy finds Ed as he's standing on deck, watching the sea, and the conversation that plays out is a clear mirror to, almost repeat of the Frankfurter clouds scene from 01x04. Ed tries to share an observation with Izzy in an attempt to reach out to him ("Something's wrong. Feels like a storm's coming but I can't see it."), which Izzy, of course, immediately dismisses ("Or maybe you're just a mopey twat and there is no fucking storm").

The second scene is, when Izzy is the only one discouraging Ed from following Stede to his cabin after he kills Ned Lowe. Discouraging support, discouraging connection and emotional honesty; Izzy will continue to try to isolate Stede.

Now, I do not think this, or the things happening in 02x07, are put in there deliberately to show that Izzy has ulterior motives. Rather, they are an illustration of how deep these maladaptive patterns of behaviour go. Izzy isn't able to fully admit to himself the extend of the harm he caused and this is what prevents him from truly changing his behaviour - even when he has just experienced the benefits of a loving, supportive community!

All of this is the explanation to the answer the show gives to our starting question: Is it possible for Ed to have the relationship with Izzy that Ed wants? And the answer is: No. Just because growth is possible, doesn't mean it is enough. Doesn't mean anyone's entitled to forgiveness. Sometimes, the only compassionate thing to do, is to take yourself permanently out of the other person's life.

But Izzy did learn, and he did grow. It's just that the purpose of said growth wasn't to heal him; it was to enable him to understand the hurt he caused to Ed. That doesn't have to mean people like Izzy can never be reformed, it just means that this isn't a story about the reformation of a toxic person. It's the story of leaving this toxicity behind.

And this is why Izzy's heartfelt apology followed by his immediate death is a positive ending. It represents the conviction that no relationship is so broken it can't be mended, but also the assurance that no relationship is so important it can't be ended.

Ed gets to hear the things he needs to hear most - I am sorry, I was wrong, you didn't deserve this - and then Izzy disappears from his life, and with him, all the toxicity he represents.

They can part on good terms, but part they must. So Ed can go into the rest of his life, unburdened.

*read Lundy Bancroft's "Why does he do that", seriously. The whole thing is on archive.org.

[simcardiac-arrested]

wait, that elias?

[paginacentosessantuno]

life has to be so easy if you're a piece of shit

[thebluebygracieabrams]

can someone PLEASE write fox jean and kevjean falling in love all over again and foxes are just sitting there shocked because WHO IS THIS GUY THIS IS NOT OUR KEVIN

[reneesbooks]

9 lines 9 people

ok confession these games scare me bc tagging people still intimidates me but i'm being brave today here's some lines i wrote a while back from the dragons of kiltide. just fabin having a little teenage angst. also this is 9 (11 but shh the context!!) paragraphs bc i still don't know how to shut the fuck up. thank you @space-writes for the tag <3

the raedoran cycle

[Fabin] tilts his head, pressing his forehead to the window frame. “What are dreams like?” he asks quietly.

Emilia sits across from him, watching how his eyes stare through the window but see nothing. She thought he'd left that behind in the weeks and months after their parents were killed, thought the long silences were finally over. She tucks her arms against her sides. “They're...like memories. Only more vivid.”

His fingers close around the hilt of his sword. “What do you dream about?”

She rolls her shoulders. “Places I've never been. Things I've never seen.”

One of his hands presses against the glass. “Do you ever dream of...of humans?”

She studies him with a worried frown. “Is there something you want to talk about?”

He recoils, his expression twisting with anger before it closes off. “No. I'm fine. I don't have dreams.” He turns away from her. “Never mind.”

Emilia sighs. “I talked Muiris down. He doesn't want to kill you anymore.”

“Good for him.”

“You should apologize for breaking his foot.”

Fabin turns to face her again, his eyes wide. “I actually broke it?”

tagging @oh-no-another-idea @zmwrites @akindofmagictoo @writinglyra @k--havok @lyssa-ink @aether-wasteland-s @ink-flavored @avrablake to share 9 (or more or less or however many you feel like!) lines of writing <3

[diathadevil]

Dia, I have a question about Aideen. She's the type of pyromancer that starts to heat up when flustered, right? So, in the beginning when she didn't have much control over it, would you say that there was at least once instance where Zapp - being the guy who normally looks after new Libra members and who might of been assigned to look after Aideen at one point or another - thought it'd be a great idea to carry around a bucket of ice cold water to stick her head in or a super soaker to spray her with whenever she inadvertently started setting off fire alarms by just thinking about Klaus?

LMAO now you see Aideen hadn't thought about Klaus that way during the first couple of months before their friendship could truly bloom since she was getting used to her powers and living in an alien (literal) city for the first time.

BUT of course Zapp was persistently too upfront in other ways, he'd just annoy her by coming up to her unnoticed. He'd always get burnt.

And he'd always get hospitalized for singes and 2nd degree burns.

Then he'd stay away from her for a good week or two afterwards.

(and then he'd use water buckets and sprays to prank her with because he wanted to keep his distance, and seeing her react in silent surprise as she got covered in water was the funniest shit to him.)

[ulteri0rm0tives]

You know that fact that Johnny would use sex as a way to keep the band together or 'boost morale'? Yeah.. just makes me think about his potential abandonment issues 💀

[femmesourdough]

Y'know, it's fascinating to me to watch how now, by and large in fandoms, heteronormativity in society isn't an excuse for unlearning your biases enough to treat relationships that aren't m/f with respect and depth...but sexism and patriarchy in society is the one thing that suddenly we can't be expected to even try to. It's just too harrrrrd.

Ive seen SO many responses to the "Why do so many fandoms seem to actively dislike or just want to ignore the women in a piece all of a sudden" but the one I'm thinking of now is the insistence that not only are ALL women badly written (all of them. In every movie book or show. Never mind what actually happened in canon, don't go looking! This female romantic lead or protagonist is sooooo much worse written than other-male side character who appears for 5 minutes or was the 2d villain who I gave an entire backstory to!) But actually, I can't be expected to want to write about women even if I'm a woman myself because patriarchy had taught me to sympathize with men!!!!

And I'm like...okay but. Hasn't it also taught you everybody should be straight?? Yet that doesn't seem to be an issue. If people tried to say "well this m/f ship is better written than the m/m ship/more canon" even if it was TRUE, nowadays they'd get crucified. They'd actually get skinned alive. Also, being attracted to men doesn't seem to stop romance writers in a HUGE book industry from writing from the pov of women attracted to men. Idk, just. Literally every excuse given as to why this is such a trend, meant to refute "its misogyny" ends up being such complete bullshit if you think about it for more than two seconds, or it's something that sounds entirely like a This Commenter Specific Problem. Either way, none of this makes me think any less that the issue is misogyny, maybe internalized but still there and nobody wants to admit it.

[folkloregirlfriend]

i just feel like. i'm happy with my own company or i have very high standards for relationships with people because i don't like anyone and people piss me off very quickly and i let go of them soooo easily it doesn't even matter to me

[scificrows]

Thinking about Murderbot and ART again and how Murderbot is so adamant that ART is not its friend and that they can't be friends and okay fine it'll tell the stupid space ship about its traumatic past but only because it keeps pestering it! And alright, maybe ART can help Murderbot and do a little surgery on it and assist with uncovering the Dark Secrets™ of Murderbot's past but it's and asshole and NOT Murderbot's friend!!!

And then when Murderbot mentions ART to its clients on RaviHyral it just immediately goes for the word "friend"??? And I understand that it couldn't exactly say "there's this giant research transport AI in my feed that helps me pretend to be a human" but like. Murderbot, darling, you could have used anything. You're cosplaying as pretending to be a professional human security consultant, you could have said something like "associate" or "assistant" or whatEVER but "friend" just rolled right off the tongue there, didn't it?

Bonus from Network Effect:

[dykedvonte]

you make really good points, I think I used the term karmic wrong sorry. I think of it more as not how I personally think he deserved all that happened to him (which thinking back os exactly what karma means, I messed up sorry), but as his fate being directly tied/parallel to anyas. I handnt noticed the toxicity of jimmy and curlys relationship, from the first playthrough I watched and the first interactions I had w fandom I saw so many ppl just. dismiss the terror Anya went through and focus too much on him as the "ultimate victim" and that just didn't sit well w me. I really dislike seeing ppl go "oh well nothing could've been done" I think it's much more complex than that. also I forgot to mention in the last ask that I really appreciate you bringing the point that this game isn't just about the harm of patriarchy but also very very critical to capitalism, I haven't seen too many ppl touch on this. I hadn't thought too deeply about how it makes "he deserved to become disabled as punishment" come up and I agree that's really messed up. I'll try watching a playthrough again with all of this in mind. but either way thanks! I really appreciate your answer 🫶🏼

I guess this is just part of being in a fandom like this. I've noticed a lot of people don't actually see posts outside of their curated view. So some people only get like anya posting or jimmy or curly and it can make it seem like that is what is saturating the conversation.

I mainly just follow the general tags and look for anything new because I'm like obsessed but I know some are only looking for what they want or believe to be the case and can get weird about other ideas.

Sorry if I came off mean its just a last few of the asks have been like circular conversations like this and its not draining per say but seeing all the nuance and details get overlooked to fit a straightforward and basic narrative really sucks cause there's a lot to explore character and theme wise.

[sudoscience]

Look, intellectually, I understand that voting should be the beginning of one's political action and not the end, and that my individual vote is extremely unlikely to have a meaningful impact on its own, but goddamn, it would be nice if at least one of the candidates I voted for could have won.

[selfinflictedgunshotwound]

trying to finish reading dungeon meshi now that it's done and just seeing everyone in the comments talking about ships. gun to my head