#how many of these posts do you think it would take for the average viewer to get it

[ardentpoop]

[toastermuffles]

Hey guys welcome to my massive rant about q!Fit and how cc!Fit is incredibly talented and underrated. Since y'all kinda blew up my twitter post LOL.

There are SO many things I could touch on so it's probably gonna be scattered around a lot.

1) Fit had a great character set up from the beginning. From the very start many people knew Fits reputation as a 2b2t veteran, a place with a toxic environment and brutal people. He was no exception, he was closed off to relationships and was very cautious/closed off to many things. Not only that but his past made people distrust him in the beginning. I loved the suspense it brought with his character and the question of why he WAS actually here. Since the whole "vacation" thing was never very convincing. My favourite part was a lot of this was IMPLIED! He built on the character he portrayed in his YT videos and it worked so well, adding small comments about his character here and there (like when he said q!Fits hearing was bad BC of all the explosions he's experienced).

2) His RP skills were another level, not only was he in character almost the WHOLE time when he was live (even donos) when he first did lore he would tease elements of it by writing cryptic messages when others were live. SUCH a good idea when you have a smaller audience and want to create suspense. Not only that, he would have set dates and times for BIG lore stuff, this honestly made it so much easier to keep track of and engage in, not only alone but with friends too! His actual lore was very different from many others, it was cinematic and well planned, yet it still left room for sudden changes. The final result was a cohesive story line that the audience could interpret. I just loved how I could understand what was happening but also have questions/cliffhangers!

3) the fucking MUSIC. Throughout his lore and start of his streams I adored his choice of music, "Stranger in Paradise" being a personal favourite that was not only reoccurring in more than one language but fit SO WELL. I also think it was very clever how a lot of his music choices for his character didn't make sense until you understand the full story e.g. "Can't say goodbye to yesterday". All of this really added a new perspective on his character, almost through cc!Fits own eyes. Along with his music choice just being absolute bops OFC.

4) THE SYMBOLISM. My absolute favourite lore moment of his was at the end of the "Attachments" lore stream. Where the sun is setting over the mountain, slowly covering a patch of roses in darkness. ALL WHILE an instrumental Italian version of "Stanger in paradise" played. Roses of course being a symbol of not only his and Pac's relationship but love in general. His love for Ramon and his friends. The love he had to grow, just like a rose. While the darkness symbolizes his past catching up to him, more specifically his deadline. His time with his family and friends ending, his loves disappearing. Chefs kiss because it makes me cry everytime fr.

5) q!Fit's sexuality (gay). There is something so poetic about a gay guy from an extremely homophobic wasteland learning to come to terms with his own sexuality and love in general. Him slowly building a loving relationship with Ramon, Growing feelings for Pac, Nervously coming out to his son and then finally indulging in the first relationship and FAMILY he had ever had. Finally learning to love and to be loved in return. Even if he is scared about his mission, or taking things too fast. Just learning to live a normal life.

6) Fitmc is criminally underrated and overlooked. I still remember when Fit got his first proper piece of fanart in the museum. It was like... JULY? or something. And I think that says enough. People had no idea he was even doing lore at some points. Averaging at about 1-2k viewers in the beginning, until hideduo came into the mix. A lot but still compared to others very low. I think because his viewers consisted of his YT audience it didn't translate well. But I'm so glad he was able to build a loving community on twitch <3

Anyways it's 3am for me, I probably have more to talk about but this is basically what I meant when I posted that tweet. Feel free to reblog and add your own favourite observations or moments. I wanna hear them! ❤️

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

To piggyback off of @shunnedmorlock's post here about the relative justification for both the black and green causes, and how the show presents Rhaenyra's cause as sympathetic.

The in-world choice of who to support in an internecine conflict is, for a lot of lords, ultimately going to be based in self-interest rather than legal, ideological or moral justifications. This fandom fixates a lot on who is in the "right," but the houses that throw their support behind Rhaenyra or Aegon mainly do it for self interest or self preservation. Every lord is going to have multiple literal dragons breathing down their necks, many lords are going to be offered enticements from one side or the other, and some will be considering their own personal circumstances and the precedent their choice sets. A great number of the houses seem pretty determined to stay out of the conflict altogether, even several of the houses that pledge their support in theory, wait until the risk of being caught up in a dragon battle has passed to take any action.

For viewers, our reasons for supporting one side or another are different. Strictly speaking, looking at things from a modern framework, no one has a "right" to the throne. Usurpation is not a human rights violation or even a crime by our standards. Imagine fixating on women being unable to own slaves and thinking that a woman fighting for her right to do so is an expression of feminism. Ridiculous! Certainly it is bullshit within an already bullshit system that a woman comes after her brothers in a hereditary monarchy, but in a just system this conflict wouldn't exist in the first place, not because Rhaenyra would automatically be queen, but because Westeros wouldn't have a king or a queen at all. Liberation doesn't start at the top and trickle down, but rather the opposite.

That said, to modern viewers, Rhaenyra's cause is sympathetic because it feels like an injustice. Most of us don't live within a feudal system and do not have the framework to understand why it's not a form of oppression to be denied the throne. We see it more like a presidential race, in which Rhaenyra is the Hillary Clinton who might have defeated Trump in 2016 if not for misogyny, in which even if we didn't particularly like her, we were disgusted by the fact that that man beat a woman who was at worst no different from many of the men who had occupied the seat before her. To the average vaguely liberal American watching the show, it's insane for fans to support Aegon and the greens and clearly you'd only do it for horny or antifeminist reasons. And you see that a bit in even the showrunners' comments on Alicent being a "woman for Trump," how both they and much of the audience fail to fully understand the historical framework, but in a way that's kind of understandable, because while what happens to Rhaenyra might not be injustice, it is unfair.

If you're looking at things from a historical in-world framework, this is a world in which stability takes a higher priority than equality. Inequality is everywhere, completely baked into the system. If you want to bring about gender equality in a feudal monarchy with a large agrarian population, you have to have first the stability necessary for the rise of an urban middle class which allows for more women to move into the trades, you need the printing press for widespread literacy, which means that more women are getting educated, you need movements such as the reformation to challenge the divine right of kings, and you need to reform the political structure so that leadership is not based on birthright in the first place, because that concept inherently reinforces patriarchal norms even in modern countries that allow women to become queens regnant. So making one woman queen is not going to make things better for women across Westeros, but that woman going to war to reclaim her "stolen" birthright could make things a whole lot worse for a pretty much everyone. This is why you see a lot of history nerds on this site going well, yes but Rhaenyra does have the weaker claim because common law was a big deal in the medieval world and her becoming queen is going to lead to long term succession crises due to the circumstances of her children's birth, so the thing to do would be to take the peace deal. Because while on an emotional level you can understand why she doesn't, it's not the choice that prioritizes the good of the realm.

I think on some level Condal understands (and I think GRRM probably hammered this point home) that you can't really grant anyone the moral high ground in a war of succession if you want to approach the issue with any level of nuance; Rhaenys' speech in the previews for S2 seems to indicate as much. The problem with HotD is that it wants to have its cake and eat it too. It wants to say war for the throne bad, but HBO also wants to make up for the way GoT fumbled the ball with Dany and give the people their likeable dragonriding princess triumphant.

Except Rhaenyra isn't triumphant, she is felled by her own Targaryen hubris and belief that nothing could possibly overcome the might of dragons. It's not Aegon that defeats her, truly, it's the people emboldened in various ways to act against Targaryen interests. It's the dragonseeds she hands dragons to who wonder why they have to take orders from a queen or king when they have control of the kingmaking weapons of mass destruction, it's the smallfolk who face down dragons with pitchforks because they've had enough. They've backed themselves into a bit of a corner with what @shunnedmorlock called the "engoodening" of the black faction, but they can turn it around by showing that it's not enough to be nice to your family, you have to actually care about the people and at the very least (the bar is on the floor, it's fuedalism!) not throw them into chaos, famine, and war for no reason. Give us payoff for Rhaenys' dragonpit scene, have Mysaria and Alys Rivers play a role in their sides' downfalls, show how resentment on Dragonstone allows Aegon to infiltrate. And yes, show Rhaenyra losing herself and becoming a worse person, but in ways that the audience can't excuse as justified. This is how you sow the seeds for that actual progressive change that people seem so desperate to find in the dragonshow, you show how the Dance emboldens the regular people who for the first time realize they can slay dragons, dovetailing into the new show, which stars Dunk, a commonborn man from Fleabottom, and Aegon V, the only Targaryen who ever cared about the smallfolk.

Can HBO pull it off? Ehh. But I remain eternally hopeful, against my better judgement.

[sflow-er]

I saw the YR confessions poll, and while I wouldn’t say I ship Walty, I enjoy reading them sometimes. And I particularly like your version of them! Please don’t despair. Your stories are wonderful and your versions of these characters are so compelling 🧡

Thank you anon for your incredibly kind words, and for reading and enjoying my stories about Henry and Walter! Your message made me smile 🧡

I'm sure there are people out there who, like you, enjoy the occasional Walty fic even if they don't ship them! But conversely, I think there are also a lot of people who will vote to ship on these polls (the more ships, the better!) but aren't actually interested in fics or posts about them.

[Putting a cut here because as usual, this turned into a rambling thought piece]

The fact is that most viewers simply don't get attached to minor side characters, and that's particularly understandable when it comes to the Hillerska students in YR. I've noticed that many fans are not only indifferent to these characters, but they actively dislike them. A lot of people never forgave them for shunning Simon in S1, and the glimpses we saw of their elitism in S3 didn't do them any favours either. They represent a world that Simon doesn't fit into and Wille is meant to break loose from.

I regularly see posts questioning how anyone could like these characters, and even the occasional bad faith take on why they are popular. I assume those people are in the minority; the majority just scroll past posts or fics about Walty, Stedrika & co because they simply have no interest in exploring them further. (I keep thinking of how someone once told me directly that they couldn't stand any of the privileged brats, which was why they hadn't read my fics.)

In the immediate aftermath of S3, there was in fact a small surge in enthusiasm for Walty, as the meadow scene moved their relationship from "strictly platonic" to "open to interpretation" in many people's eyes. In my poll on their canon status, the result of 42.9% shippers/fans was probably skewed by my followers being more likely to ship than the average YR fan, but there was also very real excitement on their tumblr and ao3 tags. Many new posts and fics (by non-Wilmon standards), good responses to those, and new kudos/hits on older fics too.

However, that surge was virtually over by May, and since then, interest seems to have plummeted. Walty still appear in some fics as a side ship or as part of an ensemble, and there's one post-S3 WIP focused on them that has 130 kudos, but there have been very few new tumblr posts or fics focused on them since the spring. When people do make posts or publish fics, they don't get much of a response.

Of course, the immediate reasons are many fans moving on from YR as a whole since canon ended, and summer happening in between. But if we disregard those and just look at the fandom at any given time, there is a definite "Wilmon only" trend that I feel has grown stronger as the fandom has grown smaller. (Here's a link to my thoughts on said trend after S2.)

Take, for example, the fic numbers for other ships on ao3 (for the sake of clarity, I'm only including fics tagged with /): 121 Salice, 110 Walty, 86 Stedrika, 28 Vingust, 23 Madirosh, 22 Nilcent, 21 Sigust, 5 Vindie, 2 Madisander, 2 Nilgust. Plus 106 Sircus and 92 Sargust, but few of them are shipfics.

Even if these were all separate fics focused on each ship, they would only make 420 (+198) to Wilmon's 4,799 fics as of this morning. In reality, most of them are either fics primarily focused on Wilmon with other ships on the side or in the background, or multi-ship fics.

To bring this back to Walty, those 110 fics make six pages on ao3. If you sort them by kudos, only five fics on the first page are primarily focused on them, with 1,227 (OPS in which Wilmon are prominent side characters), 561, 517, 469 and 423 kudos. There are way more Walty-focused fics on the second page, but the decline in kudos is pretty steep. The bottom of page two is already down to less than 200, and only the very top of page four is over 100.

As a non-Wilmon author, I do find it sad how often I see people say that they aren't interested in anything else. I don't blame anyone for feeling that way - it was Wilmon's story that hooked us all in the first place! Everyone should get to enjoy fandom in their own way, and there's a strong sense of community in people being obsessed with the same ship and keeping it alive with all their love and creativity.

But for those of us who are also interested in the other aspects, the heavy focus on Wilmon can become a demoralising cycle. New fans coming into the fandom don't see much enthusiasm for other ships or characters, which means they don't get invested in them, which means there's even less incentive to create more fanworks or posts about them. There are no subcommunities for us; just the outer perimeter of the already small YR community.

For me, personally... Let's just say it has been an adjustment to go from OPS, which had 700 to 1,200 hits per update, to TRD where 200 hits per update are a windfall. That's partly my own fault for taking too long between updates (creative burnout is a bitch) and insisting on such a niche angle (ace/allo fics simply aren't as popular as allo/allo). But interest in Walty has also been on a steady downward trend I would say since the long wait for S3, and the brief upturn after S3 was very likely the last one. It's good to set my expectations accordingly the next time I post something.

Which I fully intend to do! I still have one or two new stories to tell and one WIP to rework and finish, and the "write for myself" approach is working for now. The "share for others" part will be harder than ever, but I'm keeping faith in my small group of loyal readers. Some of them may have been swept away by other things, but some have already reassured me they'll be there.

So you don't have to worry about me throwing in the towel just yet, dear anon, but thank you again for your supportive message! It really means a lot in light of everything I wrote above 💜

[venka]

i think its kinda stupid to be mad at gifmakers for gifing pjo and those who rb it. is everyone just expected to do research on every single person involved in something they enjoy before theyre allowed to publicly enjoy it? the actors you mentioned arent even main characters.

so many viewers dont even know the names of the cast and creators let alone their views on palestine. be mad at the fucking president and people who can make a difference, not someone who enjoys a show and runs a blog.

i'm not asking anyone to do extensive research on who to support and who not to. disney is one of the BDS pressure targets, and making sure not to support content created by disney is quite literally the bare minimum an average consumer can do to support palestine. BDS has proven to be effective in ending different companies' ties with israel. people have been posting about how disney is one of the main targets to boycott for almost three months now. and while the call to boycott isn't strictly true, your average gifmaker who's "chronically online" would have definitely seen posts about it without doing any research at all. and mind you, most of the gifmakers i've seen on my dash creating pjo content are the same ones reblogging posts for awareness about palestine, with BDS being one of the most widely known ways to take a stand against israel. this, alone, should be enough for these creators to not engage with pjo content on their public blogs at all.

but since you seem to be in the mood for an argument, i think it's a pretty safe assumption that most of the people engaging with pjo content know that rick riordan authored the original books and he publicly posted about how he supports israel in their ongoing genocide against palestinians on his public blog, which again, isn't that hard to find.

beyond that, regardless of whether or not those actors are main characters or side characters, they are making money based on the success of the show. by streaming, by giffing, by doing any public promotion for the show at all, you are putting money into the pockets of people who support palestinian genocide.

and finally, i can be "mad at the president" but the average consumer also happens to be a "person who can make a difference," so forgive me for having the mental capacity to be mad at multiple things at once.

[melbatron5000]

The Clues of Good Omens are trolling us

I didn't reblog this post I saw a few days ago, and now I'm regretting it. Not like, I'll be on my death bed full of thoughts of this post, but like, it made a solid point and I think it's worth repeating.

I had already been thinking about some of the stuff various Ineffable Mystery Game Players are noting, and wondering how important some of this stuff is. There are some wild little details that people are chasing down.

I think that's fascinating. I also think it's not the slightest bit important to figuring out the hidden story; and if it leads to anything, it's going to circle back to things that can be found in other, easier-to-spot Clues. That's NOT to say I don't think people should be doing it. I am; at least somewhat. It's FUN.

I DO think a lot of layers of detail and intricacies have been added to the show to trip up people looking for what's going on. Much like digging for dinosaur bones, there's nothing to be found in the top layer, interesting stuff that's probably not dinosaurs under that, and real dinosaurs under that. Look too deep, though, and you bypass the dinosaurs entirely and start finding more interesting stuff that's also not dinosaurs. If you're just digging for joy, great. Have at it. There's a ton there. If you're looking for dinos, though, you need to know how far to dig and where to stop.

The post I mentioned said, paraphrasing: "It's a TV show. Whatever's going on has to be quickly explainable to the casual viewer. Most of the TV audience isn't digging this deep or going to be able to follow some of these really crackpot theories."

This is true. This is absolutely true.

So far, all my own theories do fit inside an easy-to-explain-in-a-few-seconds model. And I intend to work to keep them that way. Are some of my Clues a little off-the-wall? Sure, but wherever I found them, they're still dinosaurs. Several of them have easier Clues than what I dug up, but they all lead back to the same place: a story that will make sense when explained quickly.

Two Crowleys? Just have to have the second one walk on screen. Secret twins have been done before on many shows. Done.

Gabriel stole records from Heaven that Aziraphale will use to take them down? A quick flashback will show us that -- we might not even need that much. "The records Gabriel stole when he left," Aziraphale says, and a bunch of the picture snaps into place for the casual viewer. Maybe not the entire thing, but enough that they can follow.

Saraqael has been working with Crowley and Aziraphale? Show the three of them talking not in code about literally anything, it becomes clear they're cooperating.

Missing scenes? Again, a short sequence showing us that something got jumped over -- and how it got jumped over -- will put that to rest. We don't have to necessarily know what got jumped over, just that something did.

Nina is Jesus 2.0? Listen to what I just said -- how quick was that? How difficult to understand?

The whole entire picture doesn't have to be drawn out in intricate detail for the casual audience to follow the gist. I think plenty of Ineffable Mystery will be left intact for us to keep mining for years and years. But the main points, the important plot points, will be quickly summed up.

I'm going to keep digging willy-nilly, because it's fun. There's a lot to find. But I'm also going to try to keep my thoughts based in the story as it would be told to someone interested in sci-fi/fantasy TV. Viewers like that tend to be brighter than the average bear, but not all of us are mystery sleuths. I'm not looking for Atlantis, I'm looking for dinosaurs. If I find Atlantis while I'm down there, cool. But I'm not going to hang that from a wire and put it on display at the Smithsonian in the paleontology wing.

Nobody would get it.

[princesscatherinemiddleton]

why do you think william's comments about this year being brutal/the hardest of his life have been received differently than meghan's comments in SA when she was post-partum? i remember people losing their minds then

I don't know if this ask is in good faith or not but I'm answering it anyway.

A whole bunch of reasons:

Racism - Meghan is a woman of colour and people are less likely to take a person of colour's comments about their lives seriously than a white person's

Sexism - Meghan is a woman and women are famously viewed as more emotional (and therefore prone to exaggeration) than men

Popularity - don't shoot the messenger and I'm not a religious poll follower but William has always polled significantly higher than Meghan and people are more likely to be sympathetic to someone they like

Phrasing - William said "It's been dreadful. It's probably been the hardest year in my life" which is a statement about the year and how it's impacted him. It's almost passive. Meghan said "And, also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I'm OK" which, rightly or wrongly, lots of people interpreted as a dig at others

Timing - Meghan's comments came at the end of a documentary about a royal tour (their official work paid for by the tax payer) when it could be assumed the focus should be on the work and the people of Africa. Her comment also came when the press was really pushing the "Everyone hates Meghan" angle so, when it sounded like Meghan had issues with people, people jumped on it. William's comments were given in an interview, where it can reasonably be assumed someone might be asked more personal questions. They also came out the week of the US election so it's not had anywhere near the coverage Meghan's comments got

What's come before - Meghan's tour of South Africa (Harry was also there) was almost universally praised after a tricky year or so, until the Sussexes announced they were suing the Mail on Sunday during the final day of their tour. Even people who agreed with them for doing it thought it wasn't necessarily the best time to release the statement. The statement contained the phrase "The contents of a private letter were published unlawfully". Then, in a documentary about their work, Meghan spoke about her private feelings to a reporter. People were already feeling annoyed or frustrated and this was ammunition. Even when people could see that the press were treating Meghan badly, no one had seen the royals "mistreat" her so there was nothing to support her claim. William's comments came at the end of a year which has been visibly tricky. His father and wife have both been fighting cancer. Both Charles and Catherine have been out of action for most of the year. William is also fairly well-liked, especially by the average person. Whether you like William or not, everyone can agree that having two close family members fight for their lives would be "brutal".

Other - William's interview was also full of other soundbites - he spoke about his role as Prince of Wales. He spoke about his beard. He spoke about wanting to do good. The coverage I've seen was initially all about the bad year but a lot of it has now moved to Charlotte and his beard. There were a lot of light-hearted positive comments. William also didn't really talk about himself, apart from to say it had been hard. Meghan was following Harry talk about his PTSD from camera flashes and him verbally confirming a rift with William. She then spoke about real issues but through her lens, which doesn't sit as well with British viewers as I imagine it would with an American audience. She said "any woman especially when they are pregnant, you're really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging. And then when you have a newborn - you know. And especially as a woman, it's a lot" and that's all true - but it was also her recent life so I know lots of people who viewed it just as a rich person moaning.

[zytes]

Question from someone just starting with creating and then posting art to Tumblr, do you think I should be watermarking my pieces?

I’ve always disliked watermarks as they naturally tend to dissuade people from interacting with art in a natural manner; it depends very heavily on the size and placement of the mark, obviously. BUT, often times an artist will overzealously obscure their work with identification and it has a somewhat repulsive effect on the average viewer - a wall has been erected between the viewer and the art, in a sense. Watermarks, to me, exist to prevent very specific situations from unfolding with your work - almost all of those reasons seem to be financially motivated, like preventing strangers from printing your art out at home or reposting without attribution. Situations that could affect your ability to profit off of your work.

Admittedly, much of my perception about this issue was inspired by an article included in the book “Context” by Cory Doctorow, wherein he writes about how he’s benefitted from “thinking like a dandelion”, which is an idea that was inspired by conversation the author had with Neil Gaiman — I’ll try and summarize the parts of the point that are more relevant to visual arts; since portions of the allegory refer more specifically to certain qualities of written media.

He begins with, “Mammals worry about what happens to each and every one of their offspring, but dandelions only care that every crack in every sidewalk has dandelions growing out of it. The former is a good strategy for situations in which reproduction is expensive, but the latter works best when reproduction is practically free — as on the Internet.”

So how do you “think like a dandelion” then?

“Your work needs to be easily copied, to anywhere whence it might find its way into the right hands. That means that the nimble text-file, HTML file, and PDF (the preferred triumvirate of formats) should be distributed without formality — no logins, no e-mail address collections, and with a license that allows your fans to reproduce the work on their own in order to share it with more potential fans. Remember, copying is a cost-center — insisting that all copies must be downloaded from your site and only your site is insisting that you — and only you — will bear the cost of making those copies. Sure, having a single, central repository for your works makes it easier to count copies and figure out where they’re going, but remember: dandelions don’t keep track of their seeds. Once you get past the vanity of knowing exactly how many copies have been made, and find the zen of knowing that the copying will take care of itself, you’ll attain dandelionesque contentment.”

The rest of the allegory more specifically applies to written work, but I’ll link it here for the sake of posterity. Essentially: every wall or pre-requisite that you establish before allowing a fresh set of eyes to fall upon your work actually may deter people from engaging with the work and sharing it with others. Signatures, subtle watermarks that are “baked” into the work, or maybe like.. a well-placed QR code that links people back to you — all of those would be my suggestion for someone who wants to leave a lasting, linking thread between a given work and it’s artist. If the right person sees your art and connects with it, there SHOULD be a way for them to follow that thread back to you and discover more; but if you over-prioritize demonstrating ownership over your work, you’re likely to drive those coveted genuine connections away.

On the other hand, if your primary goal is to sell prints or other products, brazenly watermarking your work will protect your bottom line from the kind of low-level art-scraping that drives all those shady redbubble shops and etsy stores that sell stolen works on cheap t-shirts and hankies. For me, art is a primarily social interest in which I prioritize the sharing of culture and ideas. I don’t want financial factors to take precedence and alter how/why I created something; it feels like I’d have to take much of myself out of my art in order to make it palatable for consumer spaces.

You should determine your priorities and then strive to make art that fulfills those priorities without compromise. I think you’ll find that self-satisfaction manifests readily at different points in the midst of that process.

[aemiron-main]

“Reasonable People”: How Many Times Do We Have To Teach You This Lesson, ST Tumblr?? Look At What You’re Being Shown Instead Of Focusing On What You’re Being Told (ft Matt Duffer’s “Pyschopath” Interview About Henry)

It never fails to drive me slightly insane that so many people will watch the “look at what you’re being shown instead of listening to what you’re being told because people WILL lie to you to cover things up” show and then proceed to ignore what they’re being shown and only focus on what they’re being told.

And I’m bringing this up because I want to take a look at this article because I’ve seen some people talking about it & acting like it’s end-all be-all evidence that they were right about Henry being a psychopath & being born evil etc etc.

SO! Matt Duffer called Henry a psychopath- that must mean that’s the case, right? Case closed, Matt’s telling it as it is, right? It’s canon now, right? Nope!

First of all, right before Matt talks about Henry, Matt says “from an audience perspective,” which gives us our first clue that Matt is simply fuelling the GA, surface-level interpretation of Henry that they set up in S5 (and that’s going to be twisted around in S5.) He doesn’t preface this as an objective truth, he prefaces it as being from the perspective of the audience, or from the perspective of a “reasonable person”- and the reasonable person line really does make me laugh because a core part of ST is that the majority of the time, the people who aren’t reasonable are the ones that are right.

Joyce wasn’t reasonable in S1. Multiple people tried to reason with her, but she tossed reason out the window repeatedly- and she was RIGHT, and tossing reason out the window was the very thing that saved Will.

This isn’t the “reasonable people are always right,” show- it’s basically the opposite. I talked about this/the way that ST treats the idea of “reasonable” people & how ST treats Ocam’s Razor more in this post.

Everything Matt is saying here is literally being said with the preface of “from a general audience’s POV/from your average viewer’s POV,” and yet for some reason, some people are treating it as if it’s some sort of inherent truth/gospel?? Matt literally prefaced it in a way that’s meant to prevent it from being taken as an objective truth.

The other thing is here is that what Matt’s saying doesn’t actually align with what we see in the show. Henry/Edward does display reason and logic throughout his 1979 monologue, and his behaviour throughout S4 doesn’t align with sociopathy or pyschopathy. I could talk about this at more length/provide more evident, but instead, I’m going to direct you to James, because James @henrysglock made a fantastic post here about this topic and how Henry’s behaviour and scenes in the show absolutely do not align with psychopathy whatsoever.

It’s also interesting to me that people think that the Duffers a.) wouldnt lie to their audience/interviewers and b.) that they’re going to give away key S5 plot twists (such as the Henry-Edward-Brenner stuff and Henward not being born evil) in an interview.

Like, they didn’t even tell Raphael Luce that he was playing 001 until the day it got fake-tattooed onto him- and yet people think that the Duffers are just going to give away S5 Henry-related plot twists in an interview and tell the truth to their audience all the time?? The show itself distorts the audience’s perspective and messes with them CONSTANTLY, and yet for some reason, people think that the guys who created that very show are incapable of doing the same thing??

If Matt Duffer said that mileven was endgame, you guys would be SO fast to say that “of course Matt’s just saying that, he has to keep the GA believing that they’re endgame, otherwise the twist is spoiled!! and we’re supposed to look at the show, not listen to what people are saying, and the evidence in the show demonstrates that byler is endgame,” but for some reason, as SOON as it comes to Henry, that logic goes out the window entirely for some of you guys, and it’s frustrating as hell.

This sort of interview doesn’t change my thoughts on Henry whatsoever. I read this interview MONTHS ago. This interview is not news to me whatsoever!!! My Henry posting has all been done with the knowledge of this interview in mind- because I know that when it comes to ST, you can’t rely simply on what you’re being told- you have to look at what you’re being shown, and what we’re being shown does not line up whatsoever with Henry being a pyschopath or a sociopath.

And it’s not that Matt’s just wrong or an idiot or that I disagree with him about his thoughts on his character anything of the sort, not at all- it’s that like I already said, Matt is simply fuelling the GA, surface-level interpretation of Henry that the Duffers purposefully set up in S4 because fuelling that is going to make the S5 twists even better/they have to continue that established narrative lest they spoil S5 things. It’s the exact same idea as the straightbait.

Anyway! There’s some thoughts for you guys!

[asherlockstudy]

just a new fan of rhett and link coming through😄… i want you to know that i've become obsessed with reading you'r posts about them.. btw i think you can't watch and know their story and NOT ship them.. i'm sorry, i mean LOOK at them. every thing they've gone through together, all the changes.. but the only constant is them, together every step of the way….i just- agghhhhh it drives me crazy.

But anyway i was reading one of you'r posts where you said something about their cutest phase being arond 2013- 2014. you also talked about it with an anon a couple of days ago, so i had to share my thoghts on that. and i completely agree, going back and watching that period you can really see it. rhett was being so cute and giggly, all the time about anything link would say, and he could BERELY take his EYES off of link.. and the eye contact was wild… I just.. i love it so much😳 But do you think that same feelings is as strong today? I wonder.. some times i feel like now when they would get a bit.. intimate it's a bit… performative…idk i might be wrong.. i just loved the stoling glanses, soaked with love, that i feel like there were so many of them back then.. but please till me if you think i'm just reading the whole situation wrong😌..

Hello! I am glad you have been enjoying the posts!

I don't think you read the situation wrongly, in fact I believe you are totally correct. There are several potential reasons for this change however and I find perhaps all of them reasonable and normal.

Like I wrote in that post you mentioned, according to the theory 🤷🏻‍♀️ their affair must have started some time in 2014 or early 2015 at most. Their situation back then was critically different than it is now:

The time they really started being romantic was also the time they started getting shipped. Incidentally. Or maybe not. However they were still very new at this game at the time, both how to handle their audience and how to behave with each other under their new status were completely new tasks. They didn't have a good understanding of how they appeared to their viewers and they were completely oblivious to how obvious they were. This is why they were more candid in the past. Now they are painfully aware, especially Rhett, so much so that they even maximise various interactions in their minds. It was a lesson slowly learned and still not perfected - have you seen their constant look of horror every time they watch back episode favourites with Rhink moments every christmas?

Then it's also the natural flow of time. Back then everything was new to them. Their decades long friendship was becoming something new, something even more intense. They were exploring their sexualities anew in ways they were once determined not to, in ways that until then they considered sinful and damning. At the time there wasn't any thought of getting open about it (even now this is a challenge). All this was very fresh and even though Link seems to believe that they started hopelessly late, let's not forget that at the time they were still young men at their mid thirties and given all the emotional, circumstantial and physical parameters the excitement and passion they felt must have been on the extremes. They once had a moment between them on GMM when Rhett said "You know how early in the relationship you behave like rabbits?" and Link agreed with a knowing look. This is also supported by their scripted videos; Link says in Digging A Hole that the reason they failed so bad at making a medium sized hole was that they succeeded so much at digging that they made a huge one instead. In short, these years and the ones to come up to 2019-2020 they were at their sex crazed phase, which is typical of most couples at first, let alone them who are way beyond your average couple in love.

If you notice, they are indeed sweet and soft in late 2013 till early 2016 and then from 2016 to 2021 they are straight out horny. I mean, they are always both but at first sweetness was more overpowering and then it was the horniness. This is also explained in their lore as their sexual affair went through a lot of trial and error, so you can see when sex started getting awesome and also when they finally could start setting aside their inhibitions, guilt (especially Link) and religious concerns and enjoy more unapologetically each other.

From 2020-2021 onwards, since the purchase of the creative house, I believe we have entered a new era, more mature, more contained. Things change; they are in their mid forties now, they have been together for quite a bit and also they have decided to come out, which casts the shadow of fear and severe anxiety in their relationship. Furthermore, they are not exactly on the same page (Rhett wouldn't mind not ever coming out had it not been for Link) and this wears them down and their interactions. All the fear of the future and the unknown must consume a considerable amount of their private time together. Age, getting used to each other and critical challenges are what makes them appear less lovestruck than they used to. They still do though, much more than your average 45 year old in a relationship does. I mean, it was only a year ago when Link sexily said he would FIGURATIVELY feed Rhett with words for a word game and Rhett stupidly opened his mouth to actually swallow the plastic piece with the word that Link was holding, like the proper solitary horny braincell that he is. It's just that such unbelievable levels of thoughtless horniness and love have become more sparse now that they have aged a bit and have a better understanding of how they are perceived publically. But I am happily firm in my belief that they remain extraordinarily ridiculous.

On the other hand, sometimes when they do something gay, it indeed is performative at this point. Maybe even most of the times. This is because of what they are planning to do, this has killed the spontaneity between them a great deal. Now it's more likely that they will consciously throw hints here and there than that they will slip badly due to their excessive romantic enthusiasm.

[mrbigbrother]

A Serbian Film, is either pathetically ignorant, or brutally honest about the Entertainment Industry.

There will be no Gifs included with this post. I do not wish to feature this film anymore than necessary. I almost didn't write this review, but I needed to. I needed to get it out. This may be the most nuanced and fair review that the film will ever receive, and it really doesn't even deserve that. So here it goes:

I was unfazed by A Serbian Film. 

Well, that's not to say that I wasn't upset after watching it. Just for different reasons than the average viewer, who would be reasonably appalled by the scene of an actor performing with a fake rubber baby. (it helps to remember that.) It harkens back to the Exorcist, when theaters had to play a short video for the audience, should the film cause them to panic, to just repeat "it's only a movie". And that is true here as well...Except that maybe Serbian Film doesn't really count as a movie, as much as a challenge. Can you stomach it? I imagine that the filmmakers were advised to not make the effects look TOO convincing, as it could have brought on criminal investigations, which might have happened anyway. Many would even argue that the film deserves to be censored, and I can't disagree. It should at least be a film that one would have to seek out and find, and certainly catch it on Tubi by mistake. I have never heard of a film before or since A Serbian Film that not only failed to be a remotely digestible picture, but also failed to be artistic, and failed to offer anything of value to anyone. 

But, if I may play devil's advocate, I will attempt to be fair with the director, and assume his best intentions: which was to show us a world of unchecked indulgence. That a society can rot itself to the very core of the souls of its people, when it is built upon indulgence of the most disturbed of luxuries. Did you know, in ancient persian societies, that they had pornographic shows that would draw huge crowds and fill up stadiums, to see young slave girls marched out to on front of these huge crowds, and then starving lions would be released onto the slave girls to be torn apart? The audience would get a sadistic kick out of this too. Now I ask, would these shows have even happened if there were not a sizable audience for it? The director says, nothing has really changed about the entertainment industry. Public discourse and taste have changed...And I like to think that's because our morals have changed too, but A Serbian Film might be proof that that is just not true.

There are only two ways to really look at A Serbian Film. It could be a film that aims to shock you out of your desensitized stupor from the over consumption of media, and shows how the modern and the ancient persian entertainment industries are really no different, and only ever abide by what the audience will pay to see. And that is a statement worth making. That has value. It throws shade on the nature of our own sensibilities, and how entertainment has always been rooted in some form of human suffering. 

But, that is just simply not the film we all saw. We saw a cheaply made film that's only claim to fame is that it gets to be the most disturbing film ever made...it is not. Maybe for you. I feel like that title should go to "Come And See" (A great film that takes anyone who dares to observe its true horrors, to the very bottom of the abyss.) 

Frankly, if you read the synopsis before watching A Serbian Film, it won't be so shocking. In fact, the imagery that the wikipedia plot summary conjures up is far more traumatic than what the filmmakers were able to bring to the screen. If I tell someone exactly what happens  in the film scene by scene, they would probably be more appalled by my telling, than they would be if they watched it. You see, the film only has shock value up its sleeves. Is it spoiling the film? How can you spoil a film that is already rotten to its very core? 

On a technical level, it really isn't good. Any reviewer who claims that "it is at least well made," is full of shit. It might be well made considering the nature of the production, but then again I have heard things behind the scenes that suggest that it wasn't a very indie film at all. So it doesn't get to hide behind a low budget. 

At its best, it's a film that sets out to remind us all of the horrible monster that is an unchecked entertainment industry, and how we as the audience dictate its mutations, good or bad. It's a hard pill to swallow, but we are all partially to blame for its very existence. 

At its worst, it is a pretentious, gratuitous, ugly, mean spirited piece of shit that was a waste of time to make, a waste of time to watch, and only really succeeds in doing one thing: it takes the fun, and even the joy out of our truly brilliant instinct to Create and watch Movies.

I think the latter is most true.

And that is why I can't recommend this thing to even cold hard bastards like me. The film goes to the furthest lengths of its untalented production to depict its heinous imagery...but the power of suggestion would have been a far more effective means. Good filmmaking would have also made the story more effective maybe. The story feels like a series of gross and tasteless jokes that the filmmakers made up on the spot, and then spent the day filming just that. Nothing is really explored about these things, nor is anything really learned; Just exploited for cheap shocks. Bottom line being: this film is little more than a cheap trick.

Oh...and about why I was unfazed by the film's attempts to shock me...

Well, I have watched a lot of movies. And a lot of disturbing and dark films about real dark things that really happened, that were handled with great care and understanding of human tragedy, so as to elicit in us the audience, not a carnal satiation of sadism and torture, but pleading moments of empathy and self discovery of our own decency in the fleeting moments we get to beautify our own actualization in such a weary world.

I know bullshit when I see it. And Serbian film is bullshit. However, this film did manage to stir some of my shit up. And I can even say that it has given me something to talk to my therapist about. You see, the true horror for me in A Serbian Film, is the fact that it only thinks that it understands the snuff industry...It does not. You don't understand it until you've been truly horrified by the depths of human depravity at the age of 13...

and you begin to have nightmares about such horrible things. I have never sought, nor ever wanted to witness humans suffering in this way, or any other way. And I have learned to never trust the internet, as a truly safe place. I won't tell you what I saw back then...But it was on a legal adult site called RedTube, that is still around today and supposedly has better security measures to ensure that nothing else like that ever slips through the cracks again...all I will say, is that when even A Serbian Film doesn't faze me...you could probably imagine how truly abominable a "slip up" Redtube allowed to happen. 

And are you not entertained?

[onewomancitadel]

I have shipped Knightfall for about three years now and I wrote a post in my head this morning which was to the effect that interestingly enough what has ended up being the most 'convincing' evidence to me of its canon likelihood (not merely Rhodopis or The Indecisive King) is the thematic thrust of Ozlem in the story.

The reason I say this is because the auxlliary allusions are, well, just that - they can only service what the story is already interested in, and in my opinion you can only read how relevant those influences are based on what they're servicing. Most interestingly the way R/WBY handles its influences is what convinces me - it's not like Sappho's brother is going to literally buy Rhodopis' freedom, and I don't know if we'll actually get to see them married onscreen, but the idea of freedom, Sappho's brother, Rhodopis, and romance seem to be connected. But you can't really reason that that would be relevant in any way if we didn't already know that knights and maidens and freedom and change and fairytales made 'real' are actually at stake in the story.

I think even if all those influences outlined in my Knightfall masterpost bar for Ozlem weren't there, the pairing still works perfectly. Their characters are already written in such a way as to complement each other's arcs. Cinder's redemption is already set up by the eventual resolution of Ozlem and even without that she's clearly a character coded for it, influences or not, Cinderella or not, really - she'd be a Maiden either way. All of it is just supplemental and adds flavour and probably gives the storytellers ideas, but it's not really as relevant for us, except for getting into arguments on the Internet and trying to puzzle out the story. Because I sincerely doubt Knightfall is on the average viewer's mind or even active fandom participant's - partly intentional, in my opinion, because if it does happen it'll be a polarising even if happy twist, but like other twists in the story there was foreshadowing narratively and that foreshadowing was complemented by its influences (though R/WBY does it their way, e.g. the Tin Man always had a heart but denied its existence, because that's servicing something greater, not a retreading of The Wizard of Oz).

What's interesting about The Indecisive King (or, Indecisive Queen, if you will) is that we already know Cinder's Relic is the Crown and we already know Jaune and Cinder are the two survivors of the first confrontation over the 'Beacon Relic', or first Vault fight. That's begging for a reprisal - especially since by that point the Vault fight for that Relic has already been had! That leaves room for something nonviolent. A major confrontation that might have... a unique resolution. The Indecisive King is complementary to what we already know to be true, although not of speculative import to many.

It's very interesting to me, because it really means... the extra work is just extra flavour. To me, Knightfall embodies major thematic resolution of the story and answers their character arcs in ways that make perfect sense and completely align with the other romances in the story and what the eventual narrative epoch will be.

The extra work, the extra flavour, is just a way to prove the storytellers have considered it, and to aid in interpretation. You can't argue Rhodopis isn't an influence - Rhodes alone is enough evidence, non-Knightfall shippers have pointed out Rhodopis (easy: she's on Cinderella's Wikipedia page). I don't think Rhodopis marrying Sappho's brother is the argument for Knightfall, though, it just goes with everything that's already there, and it probably means they've thought about it because Jaune's sister is Sappho. The rest of Rhodopis - the twice-enslavement, the two masters, the second one she found relative 'success' under even still imprisoned - well, that describes Cinder, doesn't it, so how far do we take it?

Still, the thematic priority of R/WBY is what's it for me, and it's kind of beautifully simple like that.

[jonfarreporter]

Sonoma Artist Makes ‘Pollinator Garden’ Accessible The second floor of The Sonoma Community Center was busy early Tuesday morning as a crew was helping local artist Sig Rundstrom prepare for his “Pollinator Garden series” opening on July 20.

“I knew Sig had shown his art work at SCC previously some time ago,” said Visual Arts Program Director, Jill Valavanis. “Yet it was his postings on social media of his work during COVID-19 that really caught my attention,” said Valavanis as she took a few moments from her busy schedule to speak with The Sonoma Valley Sun.

Mentioning Sig’s versatility as well as his ability to use textures in a painting, Valavanis said. “I think what pulls me to Sig’s art is his ability to highlight the subject matter in such a way that the subject he focuses upon is an accurate artistic representation.”

She explained further by saying, “a description of Sig’s work that comes to mind is “‘accessible’.”

“‘The Pollinator Garden Series’ is just one example of how Sig’s work in essence can make the viewer feel as a visitor to the actual garden.” “As a visitor we get a taste of what Sig sees,” said Valavanis. “As the garden blooms, takes shape and changes within the season, Sig makes this clear.”

“This includes layers, textures allowing the average person to experience the garden in an artistic sense and appreciate it.” “As I said, Valavanis reiterated, Sig makes it accessible.”

Explaining further what pulled Valavanis to Sig’s work particularly, especially as COVID-19 continued, she said. “I’ve always been a fan of the natural world and of course animals.” “I enjoyed his series on dogs,” she said while pointing to Sig’s painting of “Maggie” a dog that Sig and his wife Charlene took into their home just as the pandemic hit in March of 2020.

It was during the pandemic that Sig’s creative energy reached an unprecedented peak. Often referring to the wave of energy as “Mr. Mojo.”

Initially, as Sig and ‘Maggie’ took many walks together during COVID, Sig was inspired to paint a portrait of a neighbor’s dog they met; and then another and then another. What was a pastime to deal with the boredom of the pandemic, unexpectedly turned into a series, and then another.

As Sig would finish each series he would post his accomplishment on social media, much to the delight of Valavanis and many others.

“I was impressed that Sig was committed to making a series of works, even if it occurred a bit spontaneously,” said Valavanis.

“But it was when Sig got to doing his ‘Pollinator Garden’ series that’s when I realized something like this is important and should be featured.”

“I’ve been aware of the importance of ‘a Pollinator Garden’ said Valavanis. And, I’ve known for quite some time that bees are struggling environmentally,” she explained. “Bees are major pollinators and their are more species of bees than just the honey bees. Did you know there are ‘Solitary bees?’ “Most bees in the wild, uncultivated are Solitary bees,” Valavanis said.

The formal name for a bee keeper is called “an apiarist.” Most people don’t realize that bees and other insects are vital for the harvest of an abundant produce of vegetables as well as fruit and pretty-much all plant life.

Rokus Armonas and his wife, Kelli, manage Bay Area Bee Company. As a small but dynamic and devoted group of bee keepers, they know firsthand the importance a pollinator garden has upon the local ecosystem. “Local plant life factors into the honey-making process. It has an effect upon everything from flavor and taste to the quality of the honey,” said Armonas.

This is something that few people realize and this is one of the reasons Valavanis wanted to spotlight Sig’s work at SCC.

Getting a little “preview glimpse” of some of the paintings as they were going up on the wall at SCC, Sig sent out photos of the gallery space in preparation via email to friends and relatives. Sister-in-law, Jo Ann Ryon responded and exclaimed. “Those are absolutely beautiful!” “The color is perfect,” she added.

Fellow Sonoma resident, longtime friend of Sig, and someone who was among those instrumental in establishing a Pollinator Garden in Sonoma, David Herrema agreed with Ryon as he told The Sun.

“Sig’s definitely got the essence of the pollinator garden. I especially like the different painting techniques used and the different styles from realistic to the more abstract. Each one is unique, he said, never the same.”

Valavanis is pleased that she and Sig maintained contact throughout the pandemic and since then. “It usually takes about six months to get a show like Sig’s put together,” she said.

Even though the current protocol to getting an art exhibit up at the SCC isn’t as “regimented as it used to be,” (it still takes considerable effort) said Valavanis; “I have scheduling of local artists of at least a year or more in advance.”

“My artwork utilizes a wide variety of mediums, techniques and surfaces,” said Sig, speaking about the exhibit. “It includes oil, cold wax, acrylic, alcohol inks, water color and enamel paint done on canvas, scratchboard, aquabrd, wood panels and glass.”

The exhibit includes a years’ worth of work of over fifty paintings and is inspired by the Creekside Pollinator Garden in Sonoma. A reception will be held from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM the opening day of the exhibit.

Sig Rundstrom’s “Pollinator Garden Series” will be on display in Gallery 212 at The Sonoma Community Center from July 20 through August 25. The SCC is located at 276 East Napa Street, two blocks from the historic plaza.

For more information visit the SCC website. Or call 707-938-4626.

[juliame11o]

Save the Bay needs to save their social media accounts

blog 2: Julia Mello

The nonprofit that I chose is local to Rhode Island. Save The Bay is out of Narragansett Bay. Save The Bay’s goal is to protect and improve the conditions of Narragansett Bay. They want to make it a healthy bay that is accessible for everyone to swim and fish. It is a nonprofit who solely wants to educate the youth and clean up the habitats and community surrounding the Bay. 

Today I took a look at some of the vanity metrics on Save the Bay’s social media sites. While they do not have a YouTube account, they did have Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook accounts. In the simplest terms, vanity metrics are the metrics that make you look really good but don’t actually contribute to the overall success of the business, things like the number of followers.

As of today, the Save The Bay instagram account has 6,931 followers. This may seem like a big number, but when you look a little bit closer, you will begin to notice the lack of follower interaction on their posts. 91 likes and one comment, 82 likes and no comments, 75 likes and no comments, 39 likes and no comments. For reference, my own personal Instagram account has a little over 600 followers and I average about 150-200 likes per post, you would expect an account with almost seven thousand followers to at least be in the hundreds. 

The Save the Bay Twitter account has less followers than the Instagram account, coming in at 4,829. Although it is less than the instagram account, almost five thousand is still a lot. But when you look at the statistics of their tweets, you’ll notice they are not doing very well at all. 9 likes and 3 retweets, 4 likes and no retweets, 3 likes and no retweets. Occasionally they will get no likes at all. 

Lastly, the Save The Bay Facebook account comes in with the most followers, 15,000!! You would think that this account would be doing the best of all with thousands of likes and shares for every single post. 12 likes and no shares, 5 likes and no shares, 7 likes and 3 shares, 13 likes and 5 shares. This account is doing better than the Twitter account but not better than their instagram account. 

I think that Save The Bay could improve upon these metrics by hiring a social media manager. I have seen on Tik Tok, and other platforms, many brands have begun hiring younger people to manage their social media platforms. It is no secret that everything is online now and without having up to date functional and relevant social media accounts, it is likely that businesses won’t perform as well as they could. Most of the time I see brands and companies have their social media managers keeping up with the slang and the trends to stay relevant which is something very important. If Save The Bay could work on this then they would probably see an improvement in engagement especially from the younger generations. 

Save The Bay’s instagram account specifically could include a collaboration network, links to everyone who volunteers there, donates there, articles, websites, everything, and all of these people and places and websites can link the instagram account there. The account will gain traction and more people will become aware of what they are trying to do. The Instagram account could also take a look at their demographic of followers and the people who share, like and interact with the account and tailor their content towards them. By doing this they could look and see how different their interaction was and consider doing this more often or try more ways to use the channel metrics to increase the popularity of the account. Lastly, the Save The Bay Instagram account should take a look at their behavioral metrics and should look at the amount of people they get to sign up for beach cleanups vs where it is posted. If they only post on instagram but have more followers and viewers on facebook then they are more likely to get more people to sign up by posting on facebook as well. The Save The Bay Twitter account could be improved by all the same things as the Instagram account, by looking at the different metrics like advanced, channel, and behavioral. 

[thegeminisage]

one of many reasons castiel spent the first year of knowing dean trying not to strangle him: dean's weird little winchester-only dialect

i’m fucking obsessed with this right now, so buckle in for a meta. a cool fun (horrible) thing about dean's dialogue is that a good 90% of what comes out of his mouth is:

a pop culture reference ("you're just gonna take some divine bong hit, and shazam, you're roma downey?")

references to real life phenomenon ("i don't wanna wake up missing a kidney in a bathtub full of ice" "try new mexico, i hear he’s on a tortilla")

these also often take the form of nicknames, and dean has a tendency to give people nicknames in general or call them something besides their given name, whether it’s affectionate or rude ("easy there, van damme" "so i’m girl interrupted" furthermore castiel = cas, ezekiel = zeke, etc, see also frequent use of "chucklehead" "asshat" and on the nicer/endearments end "buddy" "pal" "sunshine" etc)

an idiom ("a snowball's chance" "if it smells like a duck...")

slang ("drinking the koolaid" "jonesing for some hooch" not to mention the literal endless amount of words dean uses to refer to killing - gank, waste, juice, ice, etc)

a metaphor ("power up your batteries" "fly me back to my page on the calendar")

a euphemism ("cloud seeding" "i'd have given you an hour alone with her first")

sarcasm (his habit of replying "peachy" or "super" when asked how he is)

wordplay (see: the entire "vampirate" and "werepire" debacles)

completely nonsensical (guessing what happened to a magical artifact: "it was dug up by tomb raiders? it was seized by the king of the dead by warlords?")

said at lightning speed - if you pay attention, dean actually talks a LOT, usually a mile a minute (this makes me feel a way when you recall him being nonverbal for a year at age 4 but that’s another post)

slang IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE (casual usage of “guano,” etc)

a lie, a deflection, a joke, etc

or worse, something dean’s NOT saying, deliberately, because he’s one of the most repressed people on earth

the end result of all this being:

dean winchester is utterly infuckingcomprehensible. 

think about this. there's an ENTIRE SECTION on EVERY SINGLE EPISODE PAGE of the spn wiki devoted to JUST explaining dean's pop culture references, because the average viewer won't have seen everything he's talking about either. they have a whole page for this called “hunter’s lingo,” but honestly, it’s not all hunters, just sam and dean’s fucking batshit communication style. even i don't understand dean half the time. SAM gets it, sam speaks it back to dean a lot in the early seasons, but that's because sam and dean are 1. practically two halves of the same person 2. FREAKS. every time we get an episode that involves outsider POV is devoted to them going "what the fuck is WRONG with them?"

enter castiel. technically speaking, the show implies that angels are omnilingual. castiel should understand every language known to man, but knowing the meaning of words doesn't help him understand the following:

pop culture references

references to real life phenomenon

nicknames

idioms

slang

metaphors

euphemisms

sarcasm

wordplay

you get the idea.

listen to me. look me in the eyes. castiel cannot understand a single fucking word that comes out of dean's mouth. my guy laid a hand on dean winchester in hell and immediately fell in love with him and has no fucking idea what he's talking about ever. because not only is dean winchester's way of speaking CLINICALLY insane, and sometimes incomprehensible even to other human beings who are not sam, castiel is an angel, and someone prone to taking things even more literally than other angels do

go back and watch and watch seasons 4-5 especially. the reason cas does so much squinting and head tilting is because every time dean opens his mouth castiel has to open up his mental "dean winchester dictionary" and translate entire paragraphs on the fly, because again, dean never shuts up!

what makes this extra hilarious to me is this gem:

this line is from 5.13. at this point cas has known dean for AN ENTIRE YEAR AND A HALF. what you see here is my guy SNAPPING. cas made an EFFORT in this scene. he asked who glenn close was. he's telling dean that he can't understand him. he is doing his level best to have a normal conversation with this guy he has a crush on and for the life of him he cannot do it (equal but opposite energy to cas blowing up the gas station and motel room in 4.01, tbh)

yes, cas can understand dean's tone. he can use context clues, and he usually gets the general idea. and when cas DOES understand dean's jokes, he laughs at them. the first time we ever see him smile is during their 4.07 heart-to-heart when dean says "it was a witch, not the tet offensive." since cas has knowledge of human history, he knows what the tet offensive is; he got the joke, and he laughed.

but as far as actual dialogue goes, he consistently struggles to keep up. even after metatron gives castiel the pop culture knowledge in season 9, cas struggles to put it to put it to proper use (dean: "you wanna just walk right into the death star?" cas: "what does a fictional battle station have to do with this?"). whenever he asks dean to clarify it's always when he’s most annoyed, like most of the time he knows it would be futile but he's too annoyed to care. (dean: "i don't know who's on first, what's on second!" cas: "what IS second???") i’m pretty sure he spends seasons 4-6 wanting to shake dean by the shoulders and ask him why he is LIKE THIS. 

it takes cas - who, again, is omnilingual - YEARS to begin to acclimate to dean’s speech and start speaking that language back to him. it's season 8 before we start really hearing him use slang, season 9 before he begins to understand wordplay, season 10 before he starts using pop culture references (to other angels, who immediately fail to understand him, which disappoints him immensely), and season 11 before he really gets into metaphors. i don't remember what season he started using "yeah" instead of "yes" but i do know it took a really damn long time. 

and honestly, i don't think cas truly got the hang of it until at least season 11-12. that's something like 7 or 8 YEARS. it’s more than half the time they’ve known each other at the point of the series finale. 

so what's true romance, fellas? it's falling completely and totally in love with the most inexplicable person you will ever meet in your whole 4.5 billion year life, even though you have yet to understand a single thing he's ever said to you. thank you for coming to my ted talk

[spn masterpost]

[unfoundhoney]

being tommyinnit’s younger sister ↠

↠ tommyinnit x younger sister!reader ; fluff

↠ masterlist

↠ older sister ver.

↠ @ochabby @kiritokunuwu @pyrotechnics84

if you think for one second this child would not take every chance imaginable to remind every person in existence that he is the eldest child of his family you're dead wrong

not even like he’s constantly bringing you up more just like "well A C T U A L L Y"

“you call me a child but there is, in fact, people younger than me” that kind of thing

tbh he's not that much of a very stereotypical big brother

shocking i know but he’s actually really caring

he’s just always been very careful around you

like there’s this clip from a home video he posted on twitter ages ago of little 2 y/o tommy very carefully helping little infant you learn to walk

wholesome siblings moments

we love to see it

but like also we know tommy is a lot more emotionally aware/in tune than he lets on

you get to see that side a lot more than the internet

ik we all want the hotheaded tommy who would fight someone for hurting you

but i think if you ever got your heart broken, tommy would be right there to tell you you’re worth so much more than anything they could have given you

...

that’s enough of that

tommy’s a loser okay??

doesn’t matter how many subscribers he has or how much money he makes

he’s a loser

you will take every chance to remind him of this

(tommy) *says anything remotely cringey*

(you) god, you’re so lame

(tommy) HEY

it’s so great

anytime you’re on a stream w/ him you two play up the sibling bickering

you really don’t argue all that much in real life but it’s for the content

for the sake of comedy

one time wilbur jumped in a call bc he wanted to meet you

he adores you immediately

what are the simons children doing to him???? send help

(wilbur) i’m not saying you’re wrong- you’re completely right actually- but why are you so intent on reminding tommy he’s a loser?

(you) someone has to keep him humble, otherwise his head will get bigger than it already is

(tommy) I INVITE YOU ONTO MY STREAM AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME

speaking of being on streams

tommy was really hesitant to stream with you the first time

you’d been in the background of some of his earlier streams from like 2018/early 2019 or smth

but after he’d blown up he wasn’t sure if he wanted the internet to see you

there are some fucked up people on the internet & in a typical tommy fashion, he wanted to protect you from them

you (& his fans) eventually wore him down

for the sake of fiction, let’s say you start streaming on your own

you get a lot of support from tommy’s fans & tommy is your tech support anytime something goes wrong

there are a lot of compilations

once you get into the groove of things, you start averaging a couple thousand viewers per stream

bc the fans were threatening to riot, you did a stream with lani

lo and behold you two became really good friends

you two start streaming on an smp together, just basic survival

you call it smth like “little smp” bc you guys are tommy & tubbo’s little sisters idk it’s kind of endearing & cute tho

your guys’ house is the cutest thing ever

you even get tommy to convince dream to give you drista’s ign so you can add her to the server you had created (read: tommy created for you)

you three together is so chaotic it’s great

phil would adore you

it’s inevitable

kristin too

you unashamedly refer to them as your “internet parents” & the fans love it

if she wanted, you’d let kristin on the smp

(kristin) *laughs* you want me on little smp?

(you) yes!

(lani) of course!

(you) it’s a very exclusive invitation, kristin

(lani) very exclusive, once in a lifetime even

(kristin) i feel like the entire internet would hate me if i said no

(lani) they would.

(you) yeah, they would. so either you accept now or we guilt trip you into accepting later

(kristin) you two are definitely your brothers’ sisters. alright, send me the ip

you really thriving off that mumza content

with tommy & his analytical nerd side, you could probably become pretty popular

but you don’t accept all of his help bc you want to be your own creator, ya feel?

people respect that about you

there are of course the people who accuse you of only being somewhat popular bc of tommy

but you would have haters regardless or if you were related to one of the biggest minecraft streamers/mcyts right now

if it ever got really bad, tommy would talk about it

no matter how much he tries to stay away from serious talks/issues on his streams, he would tell people to back off w/o a second thought

especially if it was really affecting you

tommy would be ready to fight the world if any kind of hate online ever made you cry

other content creators always speak highly of you

you don’t have a massive following but you are very well known throughout the minecraft/streaming community

older cc’s have this instinct to defend you from hate & whatnot

there are plenty of compilations & they are all v cute

(minx) tommy’s baby sister is doing great recently. i don’t even know her but i’m seriously proud of her. she’s kind of popping off, one could say

or

(ranboo) “thoughts on s/n?” she’s doing really well. she’s doing really well… i’ve talked to her briefly & she’s great. she’s really great

honorable mention from the chuckle sandwich podcast w/ tommy (where they talked about you briefly):

(charlie) anytime i see someone hating on your sister i want to retweet their tweet & just let hellfire rain down upon them

when tommy would finally address it, he would be very clear how he does not tolerate any hate towards you

soon after, neither do his fans

people who hate on you are mass reported & just drowned out by people making edits & other fan content for you

tbh tho most people who are fans of tommy like your content

even if they don’t follow you regularly, they can enjoy the stuff you put out when it comes across their page

it’s cute & wholesome

not nearly as in-your-face comedic as tommy’s content but still funny

you really are doing well for yourself

if you pursue it later into your life, you could become big no doubt

but for now you’re just chilling having fun w/ streaming