#i feel like i need to justify everything i do

[lesbianherald]

Based Jayce take tbh….also I’m gonna confess this on anon but one of my most pretentious takes when it comes to fandom is that everything would be way easier to enjoy if ppl understood story structure a little more. Like Jayce’s arc is a negative arc. He sucked on purpose! If you had bad feelings about him that was intentional and okay (I do think Jayce hate was overblown but I also get why it existed. Like the audience was just picking up on the feelings the show was putting down). But he was definitely Like That for a reason! Usually in good writing, characters are tools for the narrative first you know…you don’t need to justify his actions to like Jayce because he’s fictional and he’s not a real person youre stanning. But also fandom is for fun so I know this take is pretentious but also it’s my truth. My story structure….my characters who are intentionally challenging my theme….my character arc….

NO NO BUT YOU ARE COOKING ON EVERY LEVEL !!!!

(Note: This randomly turned into a very hasty analysis of the shots used in the bridge scene? Because I got on a tangent about how we interpret visual storytelling as well and oops!)

Story structure is so overlooked. The role characters are supposed to play in an overarching narrative is overlooked. So much gets ignored in the way information is presented both in the story structure and visually that sometimes it frightens me and it makes me really bummed! And it's nobody's fault! Most of us live in a society that devalues art and literacy on purpose!

I don't think it's pretentious to wish people better understood the building blocks of the story or at least understood how to take in general arcs. And I think if they did as a whole most fandom spaces would be a lot more interesting and have a lot less bizarre takes/infighting.

I also think that - where arcane's writing can get weird and murky - the visual language will cover it. (Almost to an extreme.)

It makes me think of one of my favorite scenes in the whole show and how misinterpreted it gets and how quick people are to defend jayce here despite how much it is playing on the themes of the show and how clearly he is painted as in the wrong both by the writing and the shots ok fuck -

I think all the time about the imbalance of power represented by that insane low angle on Jayce. You know what fuck it. I'm going to go get it. Fuck. This is about to become a whole thing. Okay.

If I brought an angle like this into a classroom setting, I would be laughed at for it being too obvious. But its one of my favorites because its so visceral. In fact, I've shown this to a lot of friends - the reaction to this shot is usually an audible "Woah!" or even nervous laughter! Because clearly! He's supposed to be intimidating here. This is supposed to be like. Oh. He is not who he used to be. Oh. Oh no. Its so co clearly a representation of power and corruption you may as well stamp it on his forehead.

He's not only Jayce here, he's a representation of piltover as a whole - in its physical and political positions over Zaun. In a position of power over someone he's close with, who just verbally told someone he would "understand." Now we are seeing that he very likely wont. (He will! But right now, we are supposed to be with Viktor in this scene. We are supposed to become convinced he won't right with him!)

Note that the angle we get for Viktor is way less extreme. Way more eye level. And less centered. I could go on about this too. But oooh boy. Like! Clearly we are supposed to be more with him in terms of who we find rational. Clearly he's the voice of reason here. We are level with him. He is at a safe distance. We are seeing how he is looking up at jayce without looking down at him.

In this shot, he is someone we as an audience are level with, who is gathering information, making a decision. He is remaining more measured than I think the audience is supposed to be given the angle we're getting on jayce.

The only time we do get the "reverse" of that Jayce shot on Viktor is when he is quite literally standing out of the frame almost immediately. Whose furious with the position Jayce is putting him in. This is Right after Jayce says, "They're dangerous." He's gathered the information he needs. He sees Jayce for what he is. Somebody he cannot trust. And he refuses to be put in this lower position.

Jayce is not supposed to be the one we are rooting for here. He is the person we are supposed to be disappointed in. We are supposed to question him here. This isn't only dramatically spelled out in the narrative but also in the shot choicesss!

And then we have the apology -

That's why i always question why people are like. Okay but he apologized. When the apology is framed like this! We don't even get to see viktor's face because the damage is done!! JAYCE ISNT EVEN LOOKING AT HIM !!!! It doesn't matter. We don't even get full access to Jayce here! What's at the center of this shot is the barricade that Jayce has ordered!!! This makes the apology, and "I've had a lot on my plate" purposefully look ridiculous in the context of the Narrative here! It's not enough!

Viktor is DYING. And jayce is standing here all prim and proper, with the Talis symbol very visible in that fuckass suit, saying he's had a lot on his plate. We're very clearly not supposed to look at this and go awww! baby boy <3. If this apology was a meaningful moment for either of them that changed either of their minds - it would not be framed like thisssss. These words are empty in the context of it all. Jayce may be genuinely sorry, but he's accidentally revealed way too much about how he views Viktor's people. Even if he didn't mean to. Even if he didn't realize how deeply his biases ran.

And then we have Viktor lying. Viktor knowing he has to go about this alone. And this is the shot. This is the moment of fracture. Viktor looking back at him in disgust with Jayce's barricade in the background. HES ALONE!! JAYCE HAS FAILED HIM !!! This is so critical in understanding Viktor's entire everything moving forward, and it's so so critical for Jayce as well.

People talk a lot about that moment where jayce has his hand on Viktor's lower back because yaoi but that screencap is so hard to get because that moment is almost immediately interrupted by a protestor from zaun throwing a Molotov cocktail in their direction! And the touch, that reluctant familiarity, despite the conflict, gets broken.

Something that I think gets overlooked is Jayce's face after the (Molotov?) gets thrown by a protestor. ITS ANOTHER LOW ANGLE LIKE!!! Once again. Highlighting the power he has here.

We see Jayce in season 1 act 1 really highlighted with a lot of high angles. A lot of doe-eyed wonder. He looks young. Sweet. This is not the same jayce and it is very very clear in the way he is shot. This is the point !!!!!.

There are a lot of scenes i see misinterpreted but this is the big one. And its one of my favorite scenes. Because he's so wrong here! And he doesn't really fully grasp how much so yet.

I love jayce. I love my complex man. Because here's the thing. He needed this low to reach the character highs he does later. Jayce being as loving and determined to make things right as he is in season 2 wouldn't be nearly as compelling or tragic or exciting were he not like this in season 1. It's brutal to watch him get punished by the narrative! But it's also narratively satisfying!

Anyways anon i agree wholeheartedly sorry i made it into a whole thing.

[third-thoughts]

These people sound like they just do not understand kink. Yes, switches/verses exist, of course, and everything can exist in degrees, but "doms like being dominant" is very much Kink 101. The idea of dominance/topping and submission/bottoming being something "everyone takes turns with" sounds like a vanilla assumption to me. Like "power dynamics are fine, as long as everyone takes turns so it all turns out equal in the end so there's no actual power *imbalance*".

And demanding that someone have trauma to "justify" their sexual tastes is just messed up. First, I will say that if your tastes do relate to trauma, that's fine. By all means, take what you want from your own life and make it into something that brings you joy. But that isn't what that sounds like here. It sounds more like "well, we understand if they need to work out their Issues, but healthy people don't do that". That's WILDLY offensive. Think about that. Why would that be more reassuring to them than someone - god forbid (<- sarcasm) - being happy?

As for sexism and misogyny - that's coming from them, towards doms and subs. "Holes they can dominate" came entirely from their minds. Don't get me wrong, people enjoy that - but some of us can hold "holes to dominate" and "person worthy of respect" in our minds at once.

I'd also ask - if no one should want to be dominant all the time, then what about people who want to be full-time subs? Should they take time out of that be doms, even though they don't want to? Is there an assumption that they should want to, because if they're always submissive they're being "exploited"? Again, patronising, and showing a fundamental ignorance of kink. It all sounds like "kink's okay, as long as it still looks vanilla".

Many people are worried about being "used" or . The idea of someone having power over you during sex can be intimidating. If you're uncomfortable with that, you don't have to do it. If you want to take part in it but you need to change things up to feel safe and in control, you have the right to find a compatible partner. That's not a failing on your part, it's how you work, it's what makes you happy. But other things make other people happy, because those people do not work like you do. Putting your fears onto them crosses a line. Making doms into big scary bogeymen and subs into gullible victims is not okay, and people need to do better.

Is it normal or something to work on if someone doesn't want to sub and bottom at all? My friends/ acquaintances said it's kind of predatory and sexist/ misogynistic if this person has no trauma to justify never wanting to change the dynamics and only seek "holes they can dominate". Which rubbed me the wrong way but I'm ace and don't have sex period, my knowledge comes from text so I don't really feel confident to have an opinion. For the record since we all sound like stalkers, I have a crush on this dom person which I know won't go anywhere and they are the one who's open about their sex life.

hi anon,

I'm gonna try so hard to use my niceys words about this because it sounds like you and your friends are young, but this is wildly inappropriate on numerous levels

1.) nobody's sexual preferences are "something to work on" as long as they're treating their partners with care and respect. the person your friends are so worried about could be a huge shithole, but since none of you know it's extremely uncalled for to speculate.

2.) no one needs trauma to justify to their sexual interests or lack thereof. period.

3.) there is nothing inherently "predatory and sexist/misogynistic" about not wanting to bottom or be a sub. why the fuck are we acting like being a bottom or a sub is the default, neutral state of sexual being but topping and domming are suspect.

4.) once again re: "seek[ing] "holes they can dominate"" do you know ANYTHING about this person that would indicate that they treat their partners badly? anything at all? or are we just assuming doms are too scary?

4a.) even if this particular individual were a proven asshole that's a matter of their personal choices rather than their sexual proclivities, and you can't extrapolate that behavior to every other top and/or dom in the world.

tl;dr tell your friends to grow up, get a grip, and mind their business.

[heavensentenced]

THE LAW CANNOT FAIL ME

The Law of assumption determines the principles of human life and our role in the universe. It is a law because it has rules the man has to abide to in order to use it to his advantage. The law cannot be contradicted; it cannot fail man. It cannot fail you. Imagine it like this: man is God and the law is Abraham. Whether you’re religious or not, you know that in the Bible, Abraham is asked by God to sacrifice his only biological son, Isaac. Despite his sufferance, Abraham stands firm and decides to follow God’s orders. Now in this scenario, like we mentioned, you are God. God is the one who makes the ultimate decision and whatever He decides has to be done. No matter how it is done, God’s choices are always respected. You, being the god of your reality, create the rules that will play out in your everyday reality: whether it’s choosing an outfit for the day, what you’re doing to eat or if you’re going to keep living a life which does not benefit you. The law is the tool you have knowledge of that will serve you and make your desires solidify into concrete matter. It is the faithful disciple that abides whatever command it is given.

You are capable of creating a multitude of realities, parallel universes, shifting from one another and switching old ones off. The law cannot fail you. It cannot fail me. Nothing can fail God. God can’t fail. You have to step into the next missing link that will help you understand your power in order to manifest effortlessly whatever your heart desires. Everything you search for already exists within you, you just have to be brave enough to let yourself accept its existence. Be faithful of imagination, as it is the sole place alive and breathing. The outer world is a mere reflection of what imagination believes to be true. Change thyself in order to change thy world. The power man holds is immense, you being the man, the “I AM”, have the infinite ability to sustain a favourable change. Make the right choice today. Persist in having faith within imagination, play out the outmost perfect scenario and replay it in your mind as if it pays rent. Live in your mind, remind yourself that whatever circumstances your physical self is currently experiencing are simply temporary. Nothing lasts forever if you don’t want it to be.

I would like to add a couple of helpful quotes that I scrapped from Neville’s lectures, enhancing the concept of Belief, Self and Faith:

“[…] You walk in the consciousness of being that which you want to be, no one sees it as yet, but you do not need a man to roll away the problems and the obstacles of life in order to express that which you are conscious of being. That state has its own unique way of becoming embodied in this world, of becoming flesh that the whole world may touch it”.

“[…] The state I seek to embody is personified in the story as Jesus the Saviour. If I become what I want to be then I am saved from what I was. If I do not become it, I continue to keep locked within me a thief who robs me of being that which I could be”.

“[…] Because consciousness is the only reality I must assume that I am already that which I desire to be. If I do not believe that 1 am already what I want to be, then I remain as I am and die in this limitation.

Man is always looking for some prop on which to lean. He is always looking for some excuse to justify failure. This revelation gives man no excuse for failure. His concept of himself is the cause of all the circumstances of his life. All changes must first come from within himself; and if he does not change on the outside it is because he has not changed within. But man does not like to feel that he is solely responsible for the conditions of his life”.

[brothersfuck]

I cannot BELIEVE I just saw someone saying Sam was ungrateful for everything Dean did for him. He was a kid, fending for himself, and Dean was also a kid who shouldn't have been expected to mother anyone, but it's not right to think that only Dean was the person who grew up too fast.

The only thing we know about the past and how Sam acted childishly and "pure" was snippets of DEAN'S memories. In Sam's own memories, he's well adjusted, looked like he'd already been through adulting, and also grew up too fast. Even then they were keeping secrets, because they were young!

Sam was an adult before he even had the chance to hit age five because his dad couldn't look at him, his brother barely came by to give him food (I do not blame dean for this, he was also a kid), and money (he understands, even as a child then) was tight.

He grew up. He just never told Dean, and we were never directly told, because people keep referring to Dean's version of it to justify Sam being selfish as a child..let's be for real.

Sam knew how to sustain himself as soon as his brother wasn't there, and for the most part, Dean wasn't, because Dean tried very hard to live a childhood life, and I applaud him for that, I do, I never and could never blame him for taking a breather or playing games or not being able to get food because he was a child, children shouldn't even need to know how to survive without a parent in the first place.

The thing is, Sam was never selfish or ungrateful or childish for feeling like he wanted to escape either by dying (a personal headcanon of mine is that Sam was already deep in suicidal ideation as a kid, when he found out things could die and how peaceful it could be from a person he talked to) or by escaping this place, he was a kid trying to make it feel like he wanted to live, because at that point in time, he didn't..he was a CHILD, a CHILD!

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Heck, the writers wouldn't have even needed to make it about identity shenanigans, even though that would've been preferable. There were two perfectly good Adrienette scenes they could've used: the cheek kiss in Mayura, and the second umbrella scene in Mr. Pigeon 72.

The problem here isn't so much Adrien and Marinette not having many good romantic moments to use as it is the writers not recognizing that there's a time and place for gags, and this isn't one of them. The show is just. Really bad with its management of tone. This is also where takes like "Marinette is a stalker" come from—the writers are trying to both derive humor from characters acting in absurd over-the-top ways and have moments of drama and angst that demand you empathize with those exact same characters. Those two things just don't mesh.

(Post that spawned this ask)

While I will maintain my stance that the Glaciator 2 confession scene is the best choice, I agree that there were other moments that made for quality choices. Mr. Pigeon 72's umbrella scene is a little too far from the crush flip for me to call it a great choice, but it's still a lovely parallel to when Marinette fell in love. If they'd gone with that, I'd have technical nitpicks, but no major complaints.

If I had to pick an Adrienette moment, I'd probably go for the start of Risk where Marinette saw that Adrien was upset when no one else did. That's close enough to the flip to make it feel like a solid choice and it fits a similar niche to Glaciator 2 with Marinette doing something that makes Adrien feel seen. Obviously he didn't know Marinette was talking about him in Glaciator 2, but her confessions was heartfelt enough that you could make him wish that it was about him. Wanting a confession to be for him is really all you need to make something as massive as a crush flip feel justified.

I also fully agree that the show struggles to balance comedy and drama/angst. A story can have both of those elements, but you need to be really careful about how you mix them. Miraculous is way too slapdash in its approach. Nothing is sacred, everything can be a joke, and that leads to a lot of viewers getting upset with characters like Marinette when she's used for a joke when it's completely inappropriate to tell one.

To go with the example from the post that spawned this ask, I would never have Adrien fall in love with Marinette during a moment like the statue scene. While this is him falling in love with her at her most quirky and I can see the appeal from that point of view, it's also making the moment he fell in love a memory that she hates! Generally speaking, that's a terrible call unless you're doing a meet ugly. (The way my partner met me was mortifying, btw, but it would technically work for a story because it was how we met. It's the start of the story. Picking a hated moment mid-relationship is just weird.)

If we compare the statue scene to Glaciator 2, we see that Marinette was at her most quirky in both episodes, but she wasn't embarrassed by it in Glaciator 2. She chose to show Chat Noir her fan girl side. That's part of why I like Glaciator 2 for the crush flip. It's a lovely balance of humor and romance. We see Adrien accepting Marinette at her most fan girl, but the moment where he starts to fall in love is the moment when she's her most sincere. Then you can bring the humor back in by having him be unable to confess that this is the moment when he fell in love, so he picks something ridiculous to tell Marinette while the audience gets to know that it was actually a far sweeter moment.

Of course, if I went this route, I'd have it lead to a reveal where Marinette got to learn the truth, too. That's the ultimate payoff for Adrien having to lie! I think the joke works even without the payoff so long as you play it lighthearted, but it works best when it's paired with an identity reveal in the not too distant future. That's the evergreen problem with identity shenanigans. A lot of them require a reveal to shine but I will be shocked if we get a reveal before the final season. They are dragging that sucker to the ground because of the rule that Marinette and Adrien must always have a secret between them. The identities is the setup the show is using to maintain the secrets and cause drama.

[bevydev]

It's like there's never going to be a time that people will log onto Tumblr and not collectively decide to throw this unwarranted hate at Our Flag Means Death is there?

There's this post going around about how people are only consuming media that only features one type of trope or theme then complaining about how those are the only themes or tropes that they see are being made nowadays. It gives examples on how narrow-minded it is if you're only consuming vampire media instead of branching out to other forms of YA, or listen to female rappers of you want rappers that aren't misogynist.

Then acts like ofmd fans think that the show is first time there's ever been gay people in television in the first time in the history of forever.

This isn't a case of fans 'celebrating the first gay character on television ever' but making it one of the many shows that are adamant to make gay characters front and center without them being 'left for interpretation' or something that can easily thrown to the side without affecting anything, or sanitized through censorship hell and back until it practically doesn't exist.

Like anytime someone wants to mourn how anything queer is being taken down no matter how popular or beloved it was because execs would rather die than to accept it, I wonder why people on here harp on how much they're so glad ofmd got cancelled as if that wasn't one of its main reasons that it was.

Or when somebody critiques a show that's obviously forcing anything queer through this strained hatred for it at the same time, I wonder why ofmd is still one of the shows people being thrown under the bus as if it was anything even close to that criteria especially when the show's creator, the actors, writers, etc. were all pouring as much love in it's story as much as possible.

Like..... just look at what Disney did by when they tore down an episode with a trans character in it from being viewed online, then later when trying to make a public statement of hosting anything lgtbq on their shows: "We realize that families may want to 'explain' queer people to their children instead and that's why need to remove any instance of their existence throughout our programs" think that it sounds anywhere near as innocent, reasonable, and professional as they're trying to make it. Knowing fully well that's it's just a paper-thin excuse to make sure they never have to deal with the idea that they ever have to show or cater to anything even slightly queer on their channel ever again.

This just feels like one of those times that people hate a show to the point that they point out on everything negative about it and claim that's it's what all the show has to offer. Even if it wasn't just their own personal dislike for it, the main issue is much more likely of what goes wrong when with fandom when a show tries to be at least a little bit progressive. Because at the same time, so many unchecked biases in the fandom aren't being addressed in the slightest and then get blown out of proportion or at least exaggerated to the point that its what the show is associated with as a whole. So their negative impression with the show feels vindicated and everyone that doesn't like it gets to justify why it was so horrible in the first place.

If that really was the case, then that would mean tearing down every single new queer media out there at least making an attempt to get past every single obstacle out there trying to remove it off the face of the planet. Or disregarding others in the past that tried to do the same thing but didn't get anywhere near as far.

Tl;dr:

If you hated our flag means death so much, fine 😮‍💨. If there were certain aspects of the fandom that bothered you, that will never be something that's new when getting into any fandom. But in all honestly, out of all the media actually causing those issues, ofmd isn't anyone's greatest concern and if anything, really doesn't need to targeted that much as if it is. And at very very least, it doesn't need to be torn left and right on how it was TRYING to make virtually everything about it as openly gay as possible. That's all.

[thestarseersystem]

Honestly, out of the term "syskid" vs "little", I prefer little because our littles are more similar to an "inner child" than to actual children.

They know of kink, they understand suicide, they know of dark and mature topics, and while yes, some seem like actual children, I can assure you that we are bodily adults, and wish to be treated with the respect and authority that adults have.

I don't want to keep reiterating this. But we're not kid safe, child safe, despite having little alters.

And finding a safe space for them is not the same as having a space for bodily children.

And yes, some systems are different, some systems want their syskids/littles to be treated like actual children, seen like actual children, be in a space for actual children.

But we've been hypersexual since we were 5 years old, and stuff like kink is comforting and is a safe space for us. It's been the only space to be openly small for a long time. In our childhood it was not safe to be a child, so child spaces with child boundaries can feel triggering.

Being a little is more similar to regressing than it is to become a child.

So I will tell you, don't treat us like children, despite the innerworld age. Until it's free and safe for us to be complete children, we don't want you to trigger our regression in any way. Be kind to systems like me, they have no choice.

We want as much choice and freedom and power that we can get. We need adult boundaries more than we need comfort.

[snails-in-spaceships]

[faithchel]

finished hera & started lady macbeth and we have got to start blaming women for shit again for real

[kaleidoscope1967eyes]

im really trying to be accepting of myself, but being acespec is yet another damper on my ability to interact with people

[dewgongs]

ughh why do i have to have njghtmares about them

[lorephobic]

this is the funniest thing that sits and rots in my drafts because its been four months atp and i still have not thought of a single headcanon for these two

[scrambledjenny]

Depression, dysphoria, and dysmorphia is going hard tonight.

[finalgirlgretchen]

can i be honest i do think i should just kill myself. like i genuinely do believe most people's lives would be a lot better and easier (in the long run) if i just fucking. killed myself already. but i'm not going to do that because i cannot leave my siblings behind i just can't. so for the rest of my life i will be living with the shame and remorse of not having killed myself. but by god i will be living. even though i should not be. or something

[megaclubdiolis]

柄本 佑 || 「光る君へ」 (2024) · 第三十八回 「まぶしき闇」 ​​​

[telesodalite]

I've got like 5+ other creative projects i want/need to do, but holiday cookies gotta be made, lol. Started with almond cloud cookies <3

Ft. A lump of soon to be choc chip cookies