#how fucking cool does that sound

[xserpx]

Genuinely think "Leo is NOT Glokta 2.0" is the hill I'm willing to die on in the First Law fandom.

And like, I am also willing to admit I could be wrong about this, if Abercrombie decides to literally turn Leo into Glokta, like some people suggest, then fine. I shall eat my words with grace. But I don't think he will and I certainly don't think he should.

I think it's so cheap and easy to look at Leo's disabilities, to read the line about stairs (having to go down sideways) and "click, tap, grunt" and draw those comparisons to Glokta, but if you think about it for two seconds the differences between them are stark and nigh insurmountable (not gonna go over it tbh, it's a whole separate post).

Worse is people who say "well, he obviously can't physically fight anymore, so he can't be a warrior". It's that same thing as annoyingly interpreting "strong female characters" as "women who fight". Someone who is in hospital fighting for their life is a warrior. Someone who stands up against oppression is a warrior. You don't need to physically swing a sword to be called a warrior, because it's a state of mind rather than an objective truth.

I also find the 'warrior' vs 'thinker' dichotomy as it's presented in the series interesting because it's sort of gendered in that warriors are considered to be strong men while thinkers tend to be weak and feminine. Ever since the Heroes, the term "warrior" comes with a whole ton of toxic baggage about manliness and respect - Stour, Scale, Leo, Gorst. "Thinkers" tend to be more representative of marginalised groups or odd ducks - Finree, Glokta, Calder. So when people call Leo a thinker, to me it strips him off his entrenched beliefs about masculinity, as if gender doesn't matters to his character, as if it's purely an analysis of their approach to problem solving rather than a worldview that has a knock-on effect into every aspect of their lives. Likewise, it uncouples his bigotry from that warrior mindset, when his bigotry, in turn, is turn a symptom of his ignorance and desire to see the world in oversimplified black and white terms. Thinkers don't think like that. In fact, I think Leo almost has to be a warrior purely on that basis. Not to say Glokta and Calder are perfect social justice warriors by any means - they're both sexist as fuck - but their bigotry is not indelibly linked to their identity the way Leo's is. If Leo isn't obsessing/angsting over his manly status - of which being a warrior is a massive part - he's not Leo.

He also doesn't want to be smart. Leo repeatedly ignores facts and rationality in order to feel more passion and anger. He enjoys pain to a certain extent, he experiences the world through physical sensations. He's at his happiest when everything is very simple and he doesn't have to think - yes, even in TWOC!

On a different note, get a similar feeling about the Leo/Glokta comparisons as I do when people cite TBI's "Questions" as their favourite chapter in the whole series. Questions, as in the third chapter in the first book in a 10 book series? If that's your favourite you're essentially saying it's all downhill from there, and if that's the case then the series must've been pretty damn disappointing.

Likewise, as much as I like Glokta I think this desire people have for Leo to literally become him betrays Abercrombie's progress as an author. My gripe with TWOC is that it's too Glokta-centric, I wanted Abercrombie to let the new characters shine but I think ultimately he leaned too heavily into reiterating LAOK that it took away from the brilliance of the new characters & plot. Add to that the fact that the contingent of hardcore first trilogy stans are desperate to find something good to say about the new trilogy, people reach for Glokta comparisons because it makes the incredibly hateable Leo more palatable, and it makes them like AoM more. I'm sure that's quite assumptive, not everyone thinks that, but that's just how it comes across to little old, cantankerous, Leo-obsessed me a lot of the time.

[itischeese]

the entire naruto series is angsty self-insert rpf fan fiction obito wrote while he was stuck in the cave with his long suffering grandfather. it’s true. he told me himself.

[feline-evil]

Never gonna be over how unutterably pathetic and in dire need of ANY kind of companionship or friendship that doesn't revolve around their band the entirety of dethklok are. I love these horrible idiots who are so devoid of any real connections outside of themselves that they will latch onto anyone unfortunate enough to get too close to any one of them! And GOD help anyone they latch onto!!

[caluupin]

Father!!! 🔥🔥🔥🔥

[syncogon]

hibike euphonium s3 ep 12 - HOLY SHIT

i was doing the "can i guess who's who" and from both narrative and sound editing and in-universe-vote perspective i was pretty sure kumiko was the second player so when rEINA PICKED THE FIRST-

[tastycitrus]

What a rip-off! Grrrr...DC betrayed us!

gotham war sure was a lot of nothing huh

[thebookworm0001]

a lot of people complaining about the lack of media literacy in the general population stopped paying attention in class when they got to the part about how to effectively communicate their thoughts to diverse audiences and it fucking shows

[fox-stuck]

it’s such a shame that so much media was focused on creating a weird geek vs nerd dynamic which also became a Star Wars vs Star Trek argument because I’m rewatching the original 3 right now and it’s so clear that both series were doing entirely different types of sci-fi. They explored similar often overlapping themes but the universes feel entirely different and were clearly going for different things? Which makes it feel like media & critics really saw two sci-fi franchises with Star in the title and said we must make them opposing interests!!!! what a dumb idea!

It almost makes me wish they’d have called Alien Star Beast like they originally intended just to see if we could get her into the debate as well.

[utilitycaster]

obscure sorrow word needed: finding that a voice actor you've never seen has wildly different hair than you expected

[ikilledamanforthisurl]

when blacksails uses maritime terminology and does fun interesting shit with the ships' functions its awesome. when it actually shows to you by active example what the fuck Knots are as a speed measurement it makes you splooge

[ishikawayukis]

watching people from the states fight over who had the biggest earthquake when they don't even go over 7 is kinda funny

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[leatherbookmark]

dear google duckduckgo how to love and feel loved because i'm at my wits' end at this point

[bluebellthesponge]

imagining outfit ideas i saved on pinterest on some guy from a band i enjoy is weirdly such a helpful way for me to be more confident and try the outfit

[phagodyke]

i keep getting irrationally miffed at ppl 😐😐

[devotedlystrangewizard]

the corpse of king minos is very fucking big and Scary but you can parry his punches pretty easily and thats the easiest way i can explain how good ultrakill feels