#i got a couple messages about that

[little-pup-pip]

Hey everyone, small update!! I have one more exam tomorrow and then my semester is over!!! I can't wait!!

Also, we're about 60 followers away from 2000?? Out of nowhere??? I'm so excited, but I can't decide on what I should do to celebrate! I'll probably make a poll when we get closer.

[butterflysonnets]

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

[purplecelestial-buddy]

It's so funny to me that the fandom has come to see Hirano as a Sasamiya promoter of sorts because while he is, it took him some time to get accustomed to the idea of them together. And while he was never a hater Sasaki's actions towards Miyano certainly used to get on his nerves.

At first he was so worried and probably even felt a little guilty because (as mentioned in the following screenshot) because the only reason why Sasaki knows which class Miya is in, is thanks to him.

But like, that's not the face of a friend that's happy to play cupid and get their two acquaintances together. Not at all, that's the face of someone who puts his sempai-kouhai relationship with Miyano over his (pseudo) friendship with Sasaki.

Hirano from the first chapters would have jailed Sasaki if he were allowed to. (And he has his reasons, Sasaki has been something since the first chapters)

Anyway, the progression of events is really interesting.

He started, quite literally, shielding Miyano from Sasaki.

Then, he came to accept their relationship.

And at the end he really was rooting for them, to the point he ended up outright lying just so Miyano could meet Sasaki and they could talk it out and confess.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

My favorite thing about Jemrauth, last king of Arateph, is that he is so devoted to his wife and the concept of marital fidelity that it reshapes the politics of an entire planet. Unfortunately, he keeps falling out of any stories I try to tell in this setting, and even if I do manage to get him to show up, there's no way I'll be able to fit in any of this backstory. Which is an excellent reason to talk about it here.

Jemrauth's grandfather, King Evris, had no interest in ruling a planet and preferred to focus on his interest in landscaping, botany, zoology, etc. Which meant that by the end of his reign, the royal palaces had amazing gardens, but the planetary government was in shambles (because the ruling Houses had been able to run rampant without oversight).

Jemrauth's father, Hilath, (who basically started running the planet as soon as he was old enough to hold adult conversations), thus decided to value his duty to Arateph over any personal preferences. This included marrying a politically ideal woman that he didn't care two straws for.

Hilath thought the pursuit of virtue was irrelevant to ruling Arateph, and this philosophy spilled over into his private life. Once the succession was secure, he saw no reason to remain faithful to his wife, and openly filled his needs for companionship with an array of mistresses he housed in the palace.

Unfortunately, Jemrauth's mother did care for Hilath, and her husband's behavior broke her heart. (Especially since he'd string her along just enough to make her think he still cared for her and maybe they could fix things.)

(Also, it wasn't like she could have her own set of lovers, because while the king can do what he wants, cheating on the ruler of the entire known universe comes with extreme political, social and sometimes legal consequences).

After she gave her husband his heir and spare (Jemrauth's older brother and sister), Jemrauth's mother decided that this third child (conceived unexpectedly during one of those stringing-along periods) was hers. She took an active role in raising Jemrauth and was very close to him. Jemrauth was thus very aware of how much his father's behavior hurt his mother, and learned to view infidelity as one of the most heinous sins.

Jemrauth became his father's unfavorite--how could Hilath respect someone raised by his wife, who always took her side? It wasn't like Jemrauth was necessary anyway.

Except, um, surprise! Hilath lost his heir and spare to a plague in Jemrauth's late teenage years, which left Jemrauth as the only heir, despite not being raised for the role.

When it came to choosing a wife, Jemrauth knew he needed to marry a woman who he loved and respected and who he would always remain faithful to.

Not long after meeting Marastel, Jemrauth knew that she was the perfect complement to his personality and would make an ideal wife and queen, and he fell head-over-heels.

Hilath was outraged when he found out. Jemrauth had chosen possibly the most unsuitable woman on the entire planet. She was part of House Kepha, which was historically distrusted by the crown and the other houses because of a history of rebellion--and worse, she was on the lowest rungs of it. If he'd fallen in love with a commoner, it would have been better than this, because then at least she wouldn't come with the political baggage. As it was, her low-but-not-low enough rank was just enough to enrage people from every House, and Hilath forbid the relationship.

Jemrauth believed that the relationship had gone too far for him to honorably release Marastel--and besides, he didn't want to. He couldn't marry Marastel, but he refused to marry anyone else. This went on for years, with Jemrauth and Marastel remaining faithful to each other.

Finally, Jemrauth reached the age of ascension and took the throne. His father wasn't worried about the marriage question; an elder king still held a lot of political power, so even as king Jemrauth couldn't marry without his father's consent.

Except, tradition held that the king takes a virtue name upon coronation to define the virtue he holds most important to his reign. Jemrauth took a name that meant loyalty. Caring about people more than the power of the throne--openly declaring he was going to be the opposite of his father. Even worse, the name also had a layer of meaning that stated Jemrauth would remain loyal to Marastel specifically.

At the time of Jemrauth's coronation, renewed societal interest in virtue had Hilath under political scrutiny for his lack of it. He couldn't keep his son from living up to his virtue name. Hilath was enraged, but had no choice but to relent.

Hilath died a short time after Jemrauth took the throne, so Jemrauth was able to rule without his father's interference (or his help, which actually would have been valuable).

As king, Jemrauth wasn't great at keeping his personal feelings separate from his need to cooperate with someone politically. If he found out that someone was unfaithful to their spouse, he immediately classed them as "absolute scum unworthy of respect" and would not work well with them.

The nobility quickly learned that if you want to get anywhere with the king, you either have to be faithful to your spouse or (more often) work really hard to keep the king from hearing about your philandering. This caused upheavals in the Great Houses as lords cast aside or tried to hide mistresses and illegitimate children.

When Marastel was struggling with miscarriage after miscarriage and Jemrauth refused to divorce her, some of the lords tried to set up Othello situations--since the king found infidelity horrendous, they tried to convince him that Marastel was unfaithful so he'd cast her off and marry someone more suitable. They didn't count on the fact that these two loved and trusted and communicated with each other, so none of the manufactured evidence had any ring of truth to it.

The nobility (and some later historians) tried to convince themselves that Jemrauth wasn't really faithful to that wife of his--he was just trapped by his virtue name. They tried to read a lot into Jemrauth's interactions with other women--sometimes the king attended social events while his wife was at home recovering from miscarriages/related depression--but though Jemrauth may have been a bit too sociable (especially when trying to distract himself from his own depression after the deaths of his children), he was never unfaithful and always madly in love with his wife. 1000% chose the right queen. Zero regrets.

This is my way-too-long no-one-read-all-of-this way of saying that I love that this guy's most enduring trait is how much he loves his wife and is dedicated to the concept of true--as in, faithful--love. And I think about it all the time.

[street-corner-felines]

Zero Day (2002)

[la-galaxie-langblr]

job rant incoming

[empty-blog-for-lurking]

if i can get even one person to listen to The Mechanisms i would have fulfilled my purpose

[georg-prime]

Is alcohol really needed to have fun?

I don't know how to tag this and if anyone will/could help but, I've seen people say before they wished there were places to gather that wouldn't have alcohol. I'm guessing in the way bars are opened in the evening/at night, while coffee shops usually close early (at least most of the time, since they usually open during the day).

The coffee shop Time Out Space I talked about here, was opening until 9-10pm, but they had almost no one showing up so at some point decided to change a bit their opening hours, but it still didn't work unfortunately.

Now the people who run it think it must be because they don't sell hard alcohol (except for one type of light Korean beer but people have to also buy something to eat with it, for license reasons). They see bars all around town completely full every night, like so crowded people can't even find sits sometimes, and would even stay standing outside some bars with their glass awkwardly hovering until a group leave.

I think they simply didn't find the right partrons yet, people who have money to spend and would be into pop culture and would rather have a nice calm place to eat and drink soft drinks, and be able to play games and/or discuss nerdy stuff. I believe people who don't like super noisy full of drunk people bars exist, and it's sadly just hard to reach people through social media if you're not constantly pumping content and sharing pretty things, but being able to sell alcohol still wouldn't help them.

Does someone have ideas to be able to attract the right regular clients attention? Or are they right and the problem is the lack of alcohol?

[replicastarglobe]

drawing Faren as other, slightly modified, races

(individuals below ⤵)

[alexturner2005]

WE HEARD FROM THE RITZ TO THE RUBBLE I CANT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!! AND TRANQUILITY BASE HOTEL + CASINO!!!!! AND OG 505 WITH ALEX ON PIANO!!!! no hello you tho :(((( i wanna be yours as the encore was very disappointing, but at least it was a little special bc alex sang the original words to the john cooper clarke poem instead of AM’s version!

[mc-tummy-blur]

AND ANOTHER THING it's obvious Ballisters questioning/judgemental statements of Nimonas shape-shifting abilities is suppose to mirror how in real life people who fall under the transgender/nonbinary umbrellas are constantly questioned and judged about their gender identity/sex like can you be normal for a second i think it would be easier if you were a girl because he cant comprehend how she can constantly changes how she presents herself and one of his firsts questions is asking her how she is able to shape-shift in the first place being under the impression that she was cursed in some way so Nimona begins to tell him a story that leads him to think he is going to get a answer that satisfies and in turn the audience thinks they are going to get that too because honestly now a days when it comes to unanswered questions/mysteries in media there's a loud group of people that get all mad that their questions weren't answered or were answered but not in the way that they wanted but much to Ballisters disappointment as well as probably an amount of the audience that wants to be spoonfed information her story is just basically it's none of your damn business how and why I am able to shape-shift which is the exact reasoning that I and many people people who are trans/nonbinary/ whatever use because really it isn't anyone's business how we present ourselves or how we transition it's something that you have to respect and of course as the story goes on Ballister begins to respect/accept Nimonas shape-shifting abilities which hopefully at this point the audience does too and while this in itself is a lovely progression and message to take away about queer people and queer acceptance the main reason why I am bringing this up first was to talk about a detail that I needed a minute to realize it was there when it cuts to Nimonas traumatic flashback to the past with Gloreth 1000 years ago we see that Nimona has been shape-shifting for that long so to me at least it's heavily implied/ that Nimonas shape-shifting abilities have just always been there and that she was born with them because we as the audience don't get an origin story for how she got the shape-shifting abilities and in a typical story fashion people are expecting to get in a flashback/exposition to explain why something is like that so if the movie wanted to confirm that she got her powers from a curse or a wish or what have you that flashback wouldve been the perfect time to explain it but they didn't and so it's very likely that the general audience can only draw the conclusion that she was born with them considering she's had them for 1000 years and that is just such an important thing for queer people in general because it's not some type of curse that we are gay or trans nothing has happened to us that changed who we were we were just born that way and figured it out at some point during our lives like how Nimona was born that way and probably realized what she could shape-shift into as she got older and its just it's so I have never felt more seen with a movie why the fuck isn't it in more theatres Netflix please you'll make more money releasing it to a wider range of theatres instead of a few select ones COME ON

[cockringvarric]

you know when someone kinda corny comments on your post almost intentionally obtuse and condescending without even a touch of whimsy? they should just make a linkedin page I swear to god that is your perfect golden platform

[capn-twitchery]

old letters

2 letters i gotta write and then i'm done and i can send them all off! all...20something of them......

anyway, heads up that i'm gonna decline all of the old menace helps in my inbox (and a couple of nonspecific CCs) just to clear things up! if you've sent me one with a sentence or two and i never responded, i'm super sorry i never got to it!

i'll try to be better responding after this, i promise

[sandwhich-lady]

bro pisanio is like THE character of all time. Like my guy's loyal to a fault, but still has a moral compass enough to idk not kill an innocent woman accused of adultery. He's sassy, he knows where his loyalties lies, he's smart. My man keeps on getting on royalty's bad side and he's just like there, like that's all he's done. His first logical plan is to have imogen disguise herself as a guy to win back her husband like my main man pisanio really said go big or go home i got you babe

[face-breaker]

sorry for disappearing on anyone i was talking to yesterday — discord had me in baby jail !!

[katyspersonal]

I know we don't talk and there's stuff we may not agree with. But I am truly sorry you've dealt with a lot of drama over fictional crap. And I'm sorry if my posts in the past ever contributed to that. Hope you have a better day.

Hey... That's all fine, don't worry! After all, it takes a lot of time and Insight to realise that Gehrman is a very gentle and respectful man and Godrick is an absolute gigachad kdkdkshdffhhgfds /lh /lh

But yeah, on a serious note. It was quite frustrating to find out the real motivation under all that... mess was something so pathetic, but at the same time this is what happens when people make engagement with media and fandoms a moral, political act. Not necessarily a problem, after all, I was the one who concluded that the way a fan judges fictional characters and other fans will very well reveal how cruel they are to real people who do something bad, or how much they will forgive based on personal sympathies. And my mad ravings about caring about female characters! I think the problem comes when a fan is so insecure that they have nothing else besides this defence of ideals through fandomry. If your only way to assert yourself is to be a good guy punishing the bad guys, and that mad raving loredigger discovers there is NO bad guy, what is left of you?

This is why it is crucial to have passion for nurturing rather than for undermining! I think if you speak like this, you've found this truth too? This is true that I don't know you very much (mutual-in-law thing), but to be honest.. you didn't poison my fandom experience at all? I tend to never be aware about discourse until someone basically calls me for help fhdhgsdgdfs Can't scout the fandom tag regularly!

But not only it actually was a quite long ago I saw a "negative" post from you, but also I've seen through the posts that my friends liked or reblogged from you that you've actually became very eager person to defend people's passion and interests! I think the post that particularly got stuck with me was when you resented seeing someone's light die after some Redditor asshole "well aktualy"'d a thing they were excited about creating (not exact wording but maybe you remember too)? Like... you are fine, man. At that point I realised that you were a good fan and in the end valued people's creativity and passion over personal preferences. That you never wanted to be THAT guy, even if your interpretation could not be further from someone else's. Coming to terms with what actually matters in fandomry is very mature and I am happy to see this attitude!

I am still glad that you messaged me about this though; I did not expect this, but thank you! I think I will continue getting involved in fictional discourse because my autistic senses cannot ignore factually incorrect takes with a clear insidious motive, and.. eh, sooner or later, I'll piss off the wrong guy again. Don't feel bad for me when it inevitably happens :p I've accepted the shortcomings when I decided to be the debate guy. Simply laughing at some gremlin starting a discourse with the girls in DMs and not stressing over it is only funny until I realise that newer fans could get misinformed right off the bat.