#i know a lot of these spheres have overlap

[saintsmith]

i still really need to figure out exactly how magic works! i think the idea i used for my last project (where it’s predominantly a practice of calling upon elemental spirits to grant you the power to cast spells) probably won’t actually work here.

i have considered making proper magic a saint exclusive thing, with the only mortals capable of it being saintsworn. but i’d rather it not be so exclusive, i think. but idk how it’ll work, then. if it was just saints and their ‘sworn, then obviously the power comes from Raam. but how would a regular mortal command such powers?

maybe i should lean into what little i’ve already established, starting with velocimancy. maybe the “schools” or “spheres” of magic aren’t based on the elements of matter, but the elements of ENERGY. velocity is obviously an energetic concept. you could have stuff like, idk, thermomancy, which governs the temperature inhered in matter. entropimancy, which governs things like “decay,” and….idk….gravimancy, which would work quite differently from how gravity works in our universe. electromancy, command over electrostatic phenomena such as electricity, obviously, but also magnetism. photomancy, command over light, which also serves as a healing sphere. maybe even quantumancy, which governs “spooky action at a distance” as described by einstein - the practice of instantaneous travel. but it’s probably really difficult and energy-consumptive, but still makes velocimancers jealous.

[imfromthemiddlekingdom]

My biggest pet peeve when it comes to reading Chinese history metas written by westerners on tumblr is how they attribute very specifically Chinese culture shit with “East Asian™️”. Why must you attribute my country’s history to the entire sino sphere? We did influence the region with our culture and art and religions but there are still some very specific Chinese things that should not be attributed to the entire region but I don’t know why some people just automatically paint it as a “East Asian™️” thing instead of a Chinese thing, why are you so adverse to credit my country, my culture for our history? Why do you have to attribute my cultures success to the entire region when it has no connection to the bigger sino sphere?

[writingwithcolor]

Representing Biracial Black South American Experiences…Through a White/Asian Mixed Race Character in Europe

@colombinna asked:

I have a YA story that's in very early development - pre-alpha, if you will. For now what I have developed is the characters: one of the MCs is a biracial asian queer girl (her dad is thai-american and japanese, her mom's white), she has a medium/dark brown skin, and lives in a very white context in a fictional European country. The contact she has with her extended family is limited to phone calls and regular visits because her dad moved from the US to said fictional European country.

I'm a biracial black queer girl myself, living in a very white community in South America, my extended black family also lives in a different place, and I'm taking a lot of my experiences of being not white and queer whilst living in white communities into her story (the feeling of not belonging, the impostor syndrome, standing out as one of the only POC kids in class, etc) and thinking back to what I've heard asian friends and classmates say about their experiences in the same school/community context as mine. But I want to know how different her experiences as a dark-skinned asian girl would differ from mine and my friends' in a similar context (white community, small number of other asian people - and POC in general - in the social circles, and limited contact to her extended family), and what experiences could make sense if the character was biracial black like myself, but won't if she's biracial asian.

Why not write a biracial Black girl if those are the experiences you want to represent? 

This MC is straddling, like, 3 different cultures. Having multiple immigrant identities in not-Europe is not the same experience as being Black in South America; while both are complex minority experiences, there are too many differences in intersections and histories to compare. Not to mention, it really depends on what European culture(s) you’re basing your not-Europe on. 

I think you’ll find that the written result will ring much more genuine and rich in depth if you either translate your experiences more directly or pick a more narrow focus, instead of assuming that there is a universal for racism and colorism against biracial people that is transferable across contexts. Because there isn’t. There can be overlaps, but if you’re looking to cover the entire range of What It’s Like in general, it won’t work.

This isn’t to say that people can’t use other identities to write about specific experiences of their own, but in this case you need to think about what story you want to tell and what your reasons are. Marika’s commentary will go more into when and how this can be done effectively. 

Also, if the point is to make her a dark-skinned Asian, as a white/asian mix myself, I implore you: why must you make her 1/4 Japanese and 1/2 white? Even with the Thai ethnicity thrown in, Thai people very much range in skin tone and have their own domestic issues with colorism. It’s not impossible for dark-skinned examples of your MC’s ethnic makeup to exist, but still I don’t recommend it for two reasons: 

It's going to make researching people whose experiences fit that much more difficult. Most experiences of colorism, othering, and other forms of discrimination that mixed white asians tend to face are completely different from mixed race asians who tend to have darker skin & features.

There's enough Japanese & white mixed Japanese rep in the Asian rep sphere as is. Consider that this individual could be mixed Asian (not Japanese) with something else (not white)! 

But again, think over your motivations. I’ll spare you the copy/paste of our Motivations PSA, but re-read it and consider. Why do you wish to write a mixed Asian character to tell the story of your experiences as a mixed Black individual instead of a mixed Black character? What does it add to the story? Is it an effective vessel for the experiences you want to convey? 

~ Rina

I think Rina brings up some good points here: I’m not hearing a lot of specificity in your query. As you doubtless know firsthand, the more intersectional and complex an identity, the more of a chance the identity may come with unexpected baggage and nuances that fly in the face of what is common sense for less intersectional identities. This can make writing such characters challenging just because there is so much choice on which identity themes to emphasize. 

I once spent about 15 minutes explaining to a person the thought process I used to determine when I could wear jeans depending on which country I was living in as a mixed race person who is perceived as different things in different places. It might seem trivial, but it’s actually very important to me for the purposes of identity, safety and gender presentation, so I personally think it’s interesting. But will my readers think a character’s multi-page internal monologue on whether or not to wear jeans is especially compelling? Does the writer-version of me want to research the version of myself musing on my specific jeans conundrum to that extent? Or do I want to talk about other things related to attire a lot of other people would relate to? I think those are all YMMV questions, but hopefully, they provide some perspective that will help you be intentional about how you might want to tackle something potentially very time-consuming.

When I say intentional, I mean that when covering a complex identity with which you are peripherally familiar, it will always be more effective and easier to use it to tell a specific story extremely clearly than to be extremely broad in scope and try to include almost everything about your own experiences, especially because some of those experiences might not be as relevant for your character’s background as they are to yours.      

One of my favorite childhood picture books is written and illustrated by a Nikkei writer-illustrator team. The book is titled Ashok by Any Other Name (link). The story features a desi child growing up in the US who wishes he had an American name his friends and teachers wouldn’t think was strange. It covers how being othered for his name makes him feel, and how he copes with that feeling. Speaking as someone both Japanese and desi, I think through the plot device of names perceived by the majority of Americans as foreign, this book aptly shows how many immigrant/diaspora creators are capable of relating to the pressures of assimilation experienced by other immigrant, even if the creator, the audience and the story’s subject’s backgrounds all don’t completely overlap 100%. 

There will be aspects of your Blackness, mixed identity, skin color, sexuality and living in a local community lacking diversity as a member of many minority groups that you will find resemble/ resonate with the experiences of mixed-race, Japanese individual in a Europe-themed setting, and I think any story that leans into those themes will be considerably easier for you to research. In other words, instead of asking us “How does my experience differ?” I would approach this issue by deciding what narrative you want to show about your own experience and then research the specific contexts within which your desired story overlaps with elements of mixed-race Japanese experiences. 

- Marika.

[literallyjusttoa]

Muses HC's!

Bc why not, the muses are awesome. Also! Just a quick refresher bc I know not everyone is insane and has all the muses memorized.

Clio: Muse of History

Eutyrpe: Muse of Lyric Poetry

Thalia: Muse of Comedic Poetry

Melpomine: Muse of Tragic Poetry

Terpsichore: Muse of Dance

Erato: Muse of Erotic Poetry

Polyhymnia: Muse of Religious Hymns

Urania: Muse of Astronomy

Calliope: Muse of Epic Poetry

I know that Hesiod said they were daughters of Zeus but you know what I say? I say NO. I instead listen to what some other poets said, which is that the muses are very powerful nymphs that burst forth from sacred streams. I like to think this happened like five months before Apollo was born, and everyone was very confused about these nymphs that seemed to have control over domains that no one else really had any claim over, and then Apollo was born and everyone was like “ohhh that makes sense, yeah.” In a way, they prophesized Apollo’s domains (haha get it, cuz he's the god of prophecy, I’m a genius guys i’m a comedic geni-)

Thalia and Melpomine argue about everything, but they’re also inseparable. You’ll often find them discussing heroes' stories and debating whether or not their lives should take a comedic or tragic turn. 

Calliope doesn’t just write epic poetry. No, she also appraises weapons and artifacts of bygone myths with Clio, maps out constellations with Urania, and watches over upcoming epic heroes with Apollo. She’s really the jack-of-all-trades of the group.

Soprano: Eutyrpe, Thalia Mezzo-Soprano: Terpsichore, Calliope, Erato Alto: Clio, Polyhymnia Contralto: Melpomine, Urania

(Obviously they can sing all the notes but this is like, their preferences when it comes to harmonizing) 

Eutyrpe and Terpsichore love to have mini shows, with Eutyrpe performing any new lyrics she’s cooked up and Terpsichore improvising dances to her songs. 

Clio’s kind of the unofficial leader of the muses. Like, Apollo is the official leader, but whenever he’s out of town Clio’s in charge. 

Whenever Apollo makes a new poem, he shows it to whoever’s sphere it falls into first, and then Urania, bc Urania just loves reading poetry and her praise will heal the bruised ego he might have if the first draft was not approved. 

 Whenever Urania makes a new constellation, the whole group has an overnight star-watching session, where they reminisce on old heroes and make smores. 

Polyhymnia and Erato actually have a lot of overlap. Especially because Polyhymnia was making religious hymns for greek gods and, well, you know how greek gods are. This is why Erato is the only one not surprised by Polyhymnia’s dirty jokes. The other sisters think Polyhymnia is “too pure”

Apollo has been with all of the muses, but it’s honestly more of a queer-platonic sort of thing (and/or a friends with benefits situation) he has a very fluid way of showing affection with all of them, since they’ve been some of his closest companions throughout his life. Also, the ten of them have single-handedly made it through the equivalent of thousands, if not tens of thousands of tech weeks together, and I don’t think anything could bond people together more than that.

[contentfarms]

ok, how about i talk just a bit about it?

"it" being...

YOUTUBE ANIME!

i'll talk a bit about youtube anime i like! this is not as fleshed out as i can make it, sorry

strap in, we're going down the youtube anime rabbit hole! or should i say... down the Plott hole?

youtube anime, as a genre, is simply low budget anime on youtube. these are NOT the same as a tv anime, and could be described as ONAs. they are also commonly called web anime

youtube anime tends to have either fully original characters, or are adaptations of existing manga or other properties, which makes them unique from other types of trend-hopper channels in this vein.

they have a unique aspect, in that they hop on pop culture trends that are current with kids in japan, so you can learn a lot about what's popular with kids overseas and what trends did make it over there

they also just have a lot of bizarre and unique content trends compared to english sphere channels, like the "trapped in a transparent house" trend, the "handcuffed together for 24 hours" trend, and the "yandere love potion" trend

there is one specific one of these that i am totally, truly, deeply obsessed with, and the manga it's adapting, but i'll dig my grave and lie in it when it's time.

but anyways, there ARE trends that overlap with english ones!

long lost twin siblings, turning into a dog or a cat, child characters growing up, adult characters aging down, all the characters being in school together, etc, etc.

now, you know how content farms will have bizarrely placed sexualized content? youtube anime has that too...

ECCHI FANSERVICE STYLE!

yeah, youtube anime is a concentrated dose of ecchi fanservice bullshit for clicks. this does include some uh, questionable content with underage characters and "pervy kid" tropes. any issue you can think of with the current state of the anime industry's various types of shows, youtube anime cranks it up to 100.

it is EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY rare for a youtube anime series to have english content. most prominent ones right now don't even have english youtube ccs.

this is mainly, to my understanding, because the market is very niche and not quite yet large enough for the money spent on english content to be worth it.

that being said, my FAVORITE english content youtube anime is the dub of "Grim Reaper Flag-chan", also known as 全力回避！フラグちゃん or Zenryoku Kaihi! Flag-chan. this was discontinued in favor of english CCs on the main japanese channel

it's about the "Flags", girls who are classified as shinigami or angels who appear to collect certain "flags" triggered by the horrid excuse of an npc training dummy, mobuo. think visual novel route triggers, that's what the "flags" are.

if you want a good english version of a youtube anime, i'll direct you towards teikou penguin's short-lived english chanel

this one did NOT end in favor of english CCs on the english channel. this one just suddenly stopped posting with no explanation

if you go watch teipen, there's something i need to explain because it's a bit lost in translation. "black company" is a literal translation, it's a term that means more accurately "evil/shady/illegal company". basically a corrupt workforce that discriminates heavily against it's employees.

i may delve into this more when more english content for these channels exists, but right now, not much is here. i'd need to translate a lot of things myself to show my followers.

but, someday. i'll talk about the one i'm insane for.

anyway. if you made it this far and have any questions, feel free to send them in!

[stirringwinds]

i know people talk a lot about the us and UK special relationship but it kind of fell after the Suez and France kind of sneakily stole it didn't he? I mean did the same before the wars

thanks for the ask! ngl, as a londoner, i've always personally felt the representation of the "Special Relationship" as this mega-close and affectionate dynamic is kind of...an un-holistic understanding of the UK or England, as well as of the United States. don't get me wrong, it's one of their most important relationships and there's a lot of deep history there—my issue is mostly with rose-tinted interpretations underpinning it and what biases they showcase. these were heavily biased by Churchill's (imperialist) gaze of envisioning Anglo-American affinity and leadership on the world stage. this interpretation quite significantly downplayed the rivalry, power struggles, conflicts and differences that historians existed between the US and the British Empire, or how US presidents tended to see it in far less majestic terms. like, Churchill rather downplays FDR's vehement disagreements with him over the issue of Indian independence lol or decolonisation (because the US was eyeing the world as a chessboard, re: new markets and also whether or not support for the old colonial power would be a bulwark against or risk soviet or other communist influence).

so, while you're right that Suez was a pretty low moment in US-Britain relations due to the US being pissed at Britain and France jeopardising its ostensible goal of swaying Egypt away from the Soviet sphere of influence (sidenote: Egypt itself was trying to navigate the mess of the Cold War rivalry to secure its interests), i don't really see it as "falling" after Suez or stolen by France simply because that dynamic Churchill painted a picture of never really existed in that way. plus, Europe (France included) and the ex-colonies of the British Empire (like the dominions and India) weighed heavily on British foreign policy/its national outlook too; i tend to find an overemphasis on a rose-tinted view of the "Special Relationship" leads to a lot of US-centrism that shuts out this understanding. to me, Arthur and Alfred's relationship is most interesting when we situate them properly amidst all these other imperial and geopolitical cross-currents. of which Francis is an important one, from the time he helped Alfred during the Revolutionary War, to the Entente Cordial, WWI and the post-WWII world of NATO, the EU and so on.

in hetalia-verse, it's one of the reasons I personally headcanon Arthur and Alfred as father and son. their bond is lasting, forged by the blood, steel and saltwater of empire, and all the familial, deep and troubling implications that implies. they are "stuck" with each other in some ways, because post 1945, it's a familial dynamic of the old king and the young, ambitious crown prince who thinks his father is out of time—and out of line. francis never really "steals" anything because he and arthur's relationship is on a very different axes: francis is the neighbour who has been by arthur's side as his enemy, friend, lover, rival in imperial douchebaggery, ally (for better and also for worse, like in suez...)—and everything in between. whereas arthur and alfred have some real patricidal/regicidal, titanomachy-level father-son power struggles going on, mixed in with this dysfunctional level of understanding and them also colluding together shadily (you are different from him in many ways, there are many things he'll never understand about you—but you are your father's son, alfred; to be powerful is to be tainted).

so in conclusion, i see alfred-arthur and arthur-francis as both very important foundational dynamics crucial to arthur's character, but conceptualised differently from that understanding of the "special relationship" because they're two different kinds of relationships, even if there is the overlapping dynamic of power, rivalry and empire. ✌🏼

[katiekatdragon27]

To my other followers: I am so sorry.

To my two new followers: *comes out with silver platter* Here! Eat uuuuupppp~~~~

This! *slams fists on table then slams face on table* This GODFORSAKEN MOVIE HAS ALTERED MY BRAIN CHEMISTRY I'M NOT JOKING.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT KIND OF "RECLAIMING MY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA" MINDEST MY BRAIN WAS ON BUT THE OBSESSION WITH THIS PIECE IF MEDIA IS ACTUALLY SCARING ME-

Most stuff below. Lots of rambling.

So. Flatland. It's a good book, and an amazing f*cking movie. I love this goddamned movie so much bro. It's not even like a "good" good movie I just really like it for no reason.

Some lore I have with this book, since I want to talk about it.

I watched this movie the first time when I was in 6th grade. It scared me so bad that I had nightmares about it for a week. I hated the style of the 2D world and was so scared about the amount of murder that I psychologically blocked it all out.

Now in the present (as an adult in college), my friend brought up the movie for us to watch during a movie night. I was way more excited to watch it than I thought I would be (cuz of my previous encounter with it and wanting to "reclaim" the movie), but we only got 4 minutes in before my other friends got bored and decided to watch something else. I sorta dropped it for a bit after that before @/goosesartblog posted their ONE - Flatland crossover and 10000 emotions flew over me. I then proceeded to watch it with my siblings, who also did not care about the movie.

Now, it has become a lifestyle of watching it every single day. Every. Single. Day. It's bad. I can't stop.

And it's on YouTube for free.

AND the book is on YouTube as an audiobook AND the actual PDF book is just there to read.

PLEASE. I NEED PEOPLE TO NOT BE NORMAL WITH ME.

Anyways, actual relevant doodles. These characters are A. Sphere (the objectively best character idgaf) and Carlton Cube(?). I saw something about them being John-locked and thought it was really funny. Also, I saw a meme about the two getting Starbucks or smth during the week I lingered, so here lol.

Some more doodles of concept stuff. Actual A. Square art and some style testing, Hex doodle, and more A. Sphere bc I love him so much. His ass is gay idk if you think I'm wrong just look at him.

Silly little idea I had about if Spherious *(the sphere from the other Flatland movie) and A. Sphere were in the same universe. It's unlikely, but I think Spherious would be the Messiah of 2000 and A. Sphere is the Messiah of 3000. They met at some point where their lives overlapped, and Spherious tried to give A. Sphere advice, to which he was completely ignored. A. Sphere's a bratty teen here and Spherious is a grandpa. They treat their apostles very differently.

Another silly idea I had was that when A. Sphere "died", he was actually picked up by a 4D being named A. Tesseract. He stays with her until the war is over in his dimension, and he is able to see A. Square one last time during his hallucination (that's why A. Sphere's innards are seen). Also also, A. Sphere learns how to treat people better b/c of A. Tesseract and the 4th dimensions' more liberal views on expression and gender. Development for the stupid shiny solid.

Thank you for looking at this mindless rambling. If anyone knows of more Flatland media, please send it to me I'm starving. Expect more, and have a great day :)

[lilyginnyblackv2]

Buddy Daddies - Episode 12 - SPOILERS! - Rei’s Injury and His Hobbies - A Deeper Look

I was thinking last night about Rei and his arm, about hobbies, and also about accessibility, and how those tend to overlap in regards to the stereotypically gendered spaces of said hobbies.

Specifically, Rei’s gaming hobby vs. Kazuki’s cooking hobby. Gaming has tons of people of all ages, genders, and sexes that play them. But the sphere itself is still largely male first and male dominated. There is also a lot of focus placed on skill level, and there are plenty of “gamers” out there that look down on people who play games on easy level or who struggle with certain aspects of games, saying stuff like “get gud!” or whatever. 

I love games! I enjoy playing them, but I am definitely more of a casual gamer and I enjoy playing games solo (Rei seemed to as well, or playing with Miri, he never seemed to engage in online game play - that was likely too risky).

My mother enjoyed playing games ever now and again too. She was a very casual gamer, basically just liking classic stuff like Mario and Donkey Kong or even arcade games like Pac-Man, etc. She didn’t play much as new gaming systems came out like Playstation and N64, but she did used to have the option to play a game if she wanted to. Until about 10 years ago.

She had a stroke (due to medication for her heart condition), and lost movement on the left side of her body. She has practically all of her face movement back and her left leg works well enough, but her left arm and hand has very little to no movement. The option and ability to play video games became extremely limited, basically just to the Mario Jump game or whatever on mobile. 

The gaming industry has an inaccessibility problem. There are some customized controllers out there for single hand game play usage, but the quality of them vary a lot and they don’t seem to be all that good. Many games are crafted with single hand game play in mind (or even as an available option either).

Of course, Rei was younger than my mom when he self-inflicted that injury on himself, and he was trained in a lot of areas and skills that might make it easier for him to recover a bit more arm movement and adapt more to being able to play some games with only one hand (I know there are some gamers out there who have learned how to do this!). But, generally speaking, the gaming hobby is a seemingly male dominated hobby space that lacks a lot in accessibility options.

Games being more of an actual hobby, as in for entertainment purposes solely, rather than a mixture of hobby and survival skill like cooking (Kazuki’s hobby) is, also likely plays an aspect in the difference between ease of entry, use, and accessibility that you find within the cooking hobby sphere.

Don’t get me wrong, there is elitism here in the sense of people looking down on others who use pre-made food or who do this or that, but there are a lot of gadgets and tools that can help with cooking. My mom can’t really play video games anymore, but she can still cook.

Cooking, while on a professional and culinary level has a lot of connection to famous male cooks, is still seen as a hobby and overall seemingly female dominated space. But it is also a space more welcoming to accessibility. Using guides, like recipes, are common and accepted instead of looked down upon (like in gaming), and so on and so forth.

In the 10 year time skip, we see that Rei is cooking. How much he cooks and if he really cooks anything outside of his signature dish is unknown to us. Does he still play games at all on any level? We don’t know and can’t really say. Not with the info we’ve seen and what has been given to us.

The fact that his amount of game play in the day was already being limited before the incident with his arm (1 hour per day) makes me think it was likely a hobby that he likely wasn’t engaging in with as much as he started learning and obtaining new skills (like cleaning and cooking).

There may be other hobbies that he picked up over the years as well too, but really does make sense to me that he would start engaging more with cooking as well. Since it is a hobby and skill that is more accommodating to him now.

Also, I’m only speaking from second-hand experience (my mother’s experiences with things like video games and cooking and the like), if you have your own experiences with something like this are okay with sharing or talking about it - please feel free to!

[aerodaltonimperial]

New stories are brewing, and you know what that means: it’s time for a deep dive ring post!

Now, obviously Danielson is going to go out on his back and put someone over on his way out, but who that ends up being is still up in the air. Given the looming retirement (and his contract being over), I assume he’s going to be dropping this belt sooner rather than later. The three people currently circling the title belt are all heavily connected in kayfabe, which is really cool and offers us a lot of possibilities for how things could all shake down. But we’ve also got several upcoming events within this same group that may need to be accounted for. So let’s look at some of these!

Alright, so heading into the fall and the World Title sphere, we have Bryan Danielson holding the belt, and our three people of interest:

Christian Cage, who won the Casino Gauntlet at All In and has an open challenge to use whenever he’d like,

Darby Allin, who won the Royale at Blood & Guts and has the challenge at Grand Slam in New York, and

Jack Perry, who answered Bryan’s open call and will presumably be challenging for the world title at All Out in a week and a half.

It’s hilarious how much these three are connected in kayfabe, all with varying levels of undying hatred (or something else, depending on your perspective). Now, worth noting that despite running the Jack 2.0 story last fall with Nick Wayne, AEW has never addressed the elephant in the room of how Christian stole a new protégé and replicated Jack’s entire situation. This is likely because he was out for the entirety of that story. But they ran so closely that his ghost hovered over the whole thing despite them only ever mentioning his name during those months, like, once.

We also need to look into two looming events that will eventually happen, but where and when we don’t know, connected to these players:

Luchasaurus will turn on Christian (I think we’re closer than we have been in awhile, due to him coming out as Luchasaurus in the Gauntlet, even though it was a bait & switch)

Jack is going to splinter from the Elite (he’s been used as far too much of a loose canon to remain with them for too long)

Now, I’m under no delusions that Jack is going to actually win the belt at All Out haha. I mean, would it be amazing? Yes. And could they do a lot of legitimately fascinating things with it? Also yes. But the probability is quite low, and I’m of the belief that this match may be something of an apology for cutting the coffin match short at All In. Being very honest, of the three of them, the person I see most likely to win (if any of them even will, which we have to consider that all three of them may lose only to have someone else entirely come in and actually take the belt from Bryan) is Darby. However. There are many cool possibilities being set up here.

Something to think about is that it’s very possible they are going to have Bryan not drop until WrestleDream, since that’s his home area, and that’s not until the end of October. They could just run him until then and have Swerve take the belt off him there, it’s completely within the realm of possibility. But it’s worth mentioning that Darby is also billed from Seattle, and last year he lost to Christian at WrestleDream so he may be due up for a win. Again, this doesn’t really work timing wise, since his title shot is guaranteed at Grand Slam, so either they pull him out of that entirely by October, or something keeps this storyline going until then.

We could have a situation where one of the other two muddles with the Jack v Bryan match so that Jack loses (possible). We could have a situation where nothing out of the ordinary happens at all, and Jack loses, and then Darby loses, and then Christian challenges Bryan and either wins or loses, and none of them overlap (boring, but totally, totally possible). We could have a situation where only two of the three ever end up connecting throughout this (also possible).

BUT. We also could have a storyline that manages to not only pull all three of them into the web, but ALSO manages to work in both of those looming events to the larger narrative, and I think that would be super fucking cool, so I wanna talk about it here hahaha. 

We have Jack challenging Bryan at All Out. Jack loses, but how? Let’s say interference. Let’s say Christian interference, since that’s such a festering wound for Jack. He’s pissed. He blames the Bucks for not coming out and stopping it (which we assume they wouldn’t, given them working with Christian already), which is what splinters them. This puts Jack on his own, still with the TNT title, just a furious, unhinged mess. He’s also a walking target without the Bucks to protect him, and is going to need to find other people fast.

Darby faces Bryan for the title at Grand Slam. Loses, either clean or also because of interference: Luchasaurus, maybe, on behalf of Christian? Or Nick, running that particular storyline back. As soon as Darby loses, Christian calls in his opportunity. Bryan’s probably been hit with, like, seventeen coffin drops and handfuls of thumbtacks at this point. He’s exhausted. Christian wins easily, gets the World Title. He is insufferable, and we love him.

Remember that Darby also doesn’t have anybody in his corner right now, with Sting out. Darby wrestles a lot, and will probably be on, like, every show, so his record could get really good again, really fast. He already had a shot, but that was against Bryan, and Christian’s got the belt now. He challenges Christian for the world title at WrestleDream. It looks like he’s about to lose, and then… interference. Jack interference. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and all: Jack helps Darby win, to get back at Christian for making him lose. (In all honesty, they have run this as so much of a blood feud that having them team up seems not unlikely, and also it would be insane and awesome. They really don’t often make teams of Heel/Face combos, but I think Better Than You Bay Bay proved that it’s a really, really solid thing to do.)

And then, a double betrayal: Luchasaurus turns on Christian. Jurassic Express reunited, only they get to be a trio with Darby, cause I think we should get the Fossil Express we dreamed of last year. (AND THEN! Trios champs! Haha, just kidding, they don’t need that many belts. … or do they.) And from here, you set up a whole host of possible feuds/stories: Jack v Nick, which I know has to eventually happen; Luchasaurus v Christian, what a pop that would get; Darby v Swerve, when Swerve comes back for his belt again; Jack & Darby v the Bucks, simply because why would we not want to see this; heel Jurassic Express v literally anyone on the roster except FTR, ‘cause no more; Luchasaurus v Okada, just because it would fucking slap. Copeland v Jack, once Cope is back from injury and wants his TNT belt back. Endless possibilities!

Anyway, I’m sure this won’t happen, but writing it out made me happy, which was really the point here. Aside from just noting that they have once again put these players in a bubble with each other to allow their stories to interweave a bit, and I’m delighted even if they don’t actually touch (tips) here. Fantasy booking is half the fun with wrestling, lol.

[apas-95]

Please bear in mind that I'm not disagreeing with you or anything like that, in fact I appreciate your views on Russia-Ukraine and this is why I just want to ask this. So, to simplify, you believe that the conflict is of two imperial powers, NATO vs Putin's Russia. Okay. What I struggle to understand is this, and um I myself am from Kazakhstan, so I guess bear that in mind. So if Russia is seeking new colonies (Crimea as the source of oil, famously), why wouldn't they rather colonize Kazakhstan? We are richer than Ukraine, our oil reserves are greater, we can mount no defense like Ukraine and obviously would not receive any help from NATO. In fact during January events we explicitly asked them to help us, their army entered, and then left (even though many claimed they would overturn our government). Idk how much you know about our country, so you might claim that Russia already has us as their colony, but I know for a fact that the most of oil reserves belong to Italian, German and American companies. Our president (Tokayev) while might seem like Putin's puppet, even during this war has gone against Putin - remained neutral about the conflict (like Belarus we technically could help), and also accepted the greatest number of refugees from Russia who refused to join the war (in my country many have argued that he's done more than the West to truly stop the conflict with this act). There are 14 Post-Soviet Republics, if not us, why not colonize any other country except the one that gets help from the States? (Armenia famously got their help during the whole Azerbaijan invasion) Also - you might say that Ukraine bc of their crimes against Russians gave a better reason, then we, too, have anti-Russia's movements that technically could provide a reason. Again, I'm not pro-Putin, obv, and mb this isn't important in the context, mb I shouldn't include such a narrow point of view, just, if you have anything to say about that, I would love to hear it, thanks!

I would say that there are a few main points that should be got across.

First: taking it as given that the Russian Federation is an imperialist country, in the Marxist sense of the term, we would have to conclude that it's a much weaker imperialist country than the USA.

From the start of the Russian Federation, it was a very impoverished country, one that survived mainly by selling off its natural resources and cannibalising the industrial base it took from the USSR. However, imperialism relies more on the wealth of the capitalist class than the country as a whole, and there was a lot of Soviet wealth and expertise to cannibalise. In Marxist terms, the key feature of imperialism is the export of capital, rather than resources or commodities, becoming the key part of the economy. The bourgeoisie of the Russian Federation has been able to build up enough capital to begin making this possible.

As it stands now, in the cases of CSTO countries, while the RF is often not even the largest investor, it is still a substantial investor, when looking at Foreign Direct Investment figures. Kazakhstan specifically has far more European investment (in part because of its resources compared to other countries), but it's undeniable that the RF is an influence - that we could describe the CSTO as, broadly, the RF's sphere of influence. While the US's sphere of influence is basically the entire world; and the EU's sphere of influence is all of Europe, most of Eurasia, and most of Africa; the Russian Federation would have a comparatively much smaller sphere of influence with a lot of overlap.

The second thing is: the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine is not, principally, an attempt at simple economic expansion, but motivated primarily by competition with the US imperialist bloc.

You are right - if the RF was looking to just invade and directly take control of whatever country it wished, it wouldn't choose Ukraine, it would choose somewhere closer to home. However, direct colonisation isn't how modern imperialism operates. Financial control with the threat of military action is far easier to maintain, once you've built up the capital. Being an imperialist country is exactly what makes 'primitive accumulation' through seizing territory no longer necessary. The reason the Russian Federation invaded Ukraine in 2022, and began military action against the country in 2014, is specifically because the prior neutral government was overthrown in a US-backed coup which installed a right-wing, nationalist government, which was explicitly hostile to Russia.

This isn't fueled by a simple, moral justification of 'well they hate Russians, so we should invade them' - it's a political move based on the fact that this new government was explicitly allied with the USA. From the USA's side, it was a move specifically to split the EU and RF blocs. The EU was becoming less interested in the alliance with the USA, and more interested with closer ties with the Russian Federation - the USA provoking a war both weakens the RF, as well as demonstrates its military dominance to the EU. Had the Kazakh government instead called for NATO to assist it, the Russian response may have been different. Imperialism is fine with nominal independence - it wants influence, not direct control - but when that influence is threatened, when a country takes a hard, military stance against it, then it acts violently.

So, again, I'd say the character of this conflict is inter-imperialist competition, instigated mainly by the US imperialist bloc, in order to weaken ties between the RF and EU imperialist blocs. The war is fought between the capitalists of each nation over which group of them gets market access to which territories, and the working people gain nothing either way. The workers, once united under a socialist state, now kill each other, so that the oligarchs that keep them poor can get richer. Neither side of this conflict fights for the workers.

Hope this helps explain my position! Also, for what it's worth, I lived in Kazakhstan for a time as a child, in Almaty.

[markiafc]

i love and appreciate western media very much, but there really are some feelings only chinese media can tap into. it's the eternal tension between conforming to long-established tradition v. defying it all and being something new, something deviant. we find that conflict in the ideological battles between chinese philosophies; the criticisms and derivations between confucianism, buddhism, daoism, mohism, etc. we find it in the way chinese states are always torn between honoring traditional values v. loosening their grip to accommodate those at the margins. we find it in people like myself; i grew up in a very religious chinese buddhist family, having to studiously study buddhism and some prominent confucian texts. inside the cultural consciousness, there are real living people. and they want so badly to break free from convention, its suffocating and painfully limiting. at the same time, it feels so important and they want to keep engaging with it, they can't abandon something so close to their identity and heart.

mlc also dedicates itself to discussing this push and pull. and it lives in this grey area, this overlap of tradition and nonconformity. fanghua exemplifies this wonderfully, by embodying the traditional and non-traditional family all at once.

lxy is fdb's master, his role model. he is the ideal patriarch of jianghu (as @seventh-fantasy very rightly points out, lxy is the ideal picture of a mohist leader, mohism is the ideological inspiration behind wuxia fiction and all). on the other side of this same coin, llh serves as fdb's protector and guardian. he takes fdb under his wing and roof, looks out for fdb and passes his teachings down to him. llh raises him as a fair, wise and dependable jianghu figure, so much so that llh names fdb as his successor in the farewell letter. fdb inherits everything that was llh's, his house, dog, his skills and his legacy.

to fdb, he is both lxy and llh's heir. he owes them a lot. he wants to do right by them. he is their charge, the seed they both nurtured.

lxy/llh is also 长辈 an elder to 晚辈 the junior, fdb. there is an age gap between lxy/llh and fdb. in addition to his canonical status as master, guardian and uncle in a way, llh is a member of the older generation and fdb is a youth of the new age (the era of lxy's sigu sect v. the era of baichuan's sigu sect). tianji is fdb's family in regular society and llh is fdb's family in the jianghu world. and fdb is lucky to have parental figure(s) in both spheres.

to lxy/llh, fdb is his responsibility. fdb is his burden and also his pride. he is the naive youth that llh accepts into his home to mentor. lxy/llh holds seniority. and there is a certain amount of distance he expects from fdb. even if fdb refuses to abide. similar to the princess zhaoling who was kept at arm's length by the older girls in the mansion, fdb is kept at arm's length by llh.

so traditional dynamics and social roles lie at the root of fanghua. and yet there is:

a) an explicit rejection of blood family (fdb rejects sgd and lxy/llh chooses his adopted jianghu family over bloodline) wherein the family & marriage is said to be a foundational unit of chinese society,

b) an ambiguity, it is hard to slap one single label on fanghua because they embody multiple things at once. their dynamic derives from the traditional chinese concepts of family and seniority. there is duty and obligation that goes both ways. but the boundaries delineating each form of that are broken down. fanghua resembles father/son, and mother/son, and uncle/nephew, and master/disciple in one package. fdb also believes them to be shoulder to shoulder in friendship, equal partners, and that adds another layer of ambiguity.

there is a unique mobility and ability to traverse between definitions, and that marks them as non-traditional. an elusive quality that is built on top of the traditions that we know.

[rivetgoth]

Tbh I think one aspect of goth club environments that I find a bit frustrating, though generally keep to myself/my close circles who know I'm not coming at this from some massively judgmental angle but more passive observation and ultimately minor grievance, is that I think there's two pretty distinct camps in most of them where Camp 1 is "people who love goth [or otherwise dark alternative] music who want to hear it played loudly and dance while socializing with other individuals who love this music as much as them," and Camp 2 is "people who are weirdos and freaks [affectionate] who wanted to find a place where they could express themselves comfortably and safely and meet other weirdos and freaks." And these aren't completely separate spheres, but the two circles of this Venn diagram are not nearly as overlapping as you would think.

I consider myself first and foremost Camp 1 as the one and only reason I became goth and began participating in this community was the love of the music, the music has kept me alive and shaped me into the person I am today, the reason I go out to these events is for the music, and every close friend I've made in this scene has been through the love of the music, but I don't have any negative feelings towards Camp 2 and I relate to them in many ways as well. I think goth clubs are fantastic accepting spaces for queer people, kinky and sex posi people, autistic and other neurodivergent people, and people who otherwise just do not fit into the norm, whether it be due to something outside of their control or just having Weird Person Interests that have gotten them kinda stigmatized by wider society. I totally found solace in the goth scene due to being a lot of those things myself. But I still connect first and foremost with the people who love the music. That is THE THING that has kept me going. While when it comes to the exclusively Camp 2 people, a loooot of them kind of come out to these spaces specifically to be amongst other likeminded individuals and feel accepted for their weirdness, and the music is practically, just, like, incidental lol. Ironically they don't necessarily realize how much of the reason that these spaces ARE historically safe for them is due to what the music itself, the musicians making it, and the fans of the music have stood for.

The thing is I don't really think anything needs to be "done about this" or whatever, I hesitate to call it a problem at all, firstly I think that the dark alternative scene SHOULD be a safe space for individuals who exist outside of the norm and I don't think they should need to pass some sort of knowledge test in order to gain entry to these spaces, second of all I think many of them over time do come to love the music, even just by being around it enough to develop positive association, and third I think that supporting these spaces with physical bodies, generating financial revenue, etc is the best way of keeping them alive so ultimately it doesn't really matter how much or how little they know if they're showing up and materially supporting the scene. But I do think it's like... person to person, a little sad, I guess, that the dark alternative scene is so muddled with just the general broad category of humans that is "people who are weird and don't fit the norm" that it's kinda difficult to find people who are there because they love the music and a lot of the people who I get excited to connect with because they're openly trans or something reveal quite quickly they don't really listen to any of the bands I'm there to hear, they just heard from a friend who heard from a friend that you can meet other cool queer people and be GNC safely there. And that's great! It really is. But I do wish that the people who were going to these spaces without knowing much about the music would spend some time exploring it. I think they'd probably find a lot to love about it honestly.

[ysolt]

hello i was just wondering if it would be okay for cis women to like/share your posts about transmisogyny? i’m a woc and i’ve found that a lot of the experiences between trans women and woc overlap in the misogyny sphere but i don’t want to make you uncomfortable or feel like i’m co-opting your struggles so if it’s not okay please let me know like it’s all chill and i understand completely why you might be uncomfortable with it!! your blog is one of my favourites and i really hope you have a nice day x

Absolutely! There is so much overlap between the different angles of misogyny it only makes sense that women of different social groups relate to one another and recognize their own struggle in that of others, even if they are different in certain key aspects. I try to only talk about things that affect me directly and that im educated in but i can relate to a lot experiences by woc shared online, but incidentally im also nervous about accidentally making it about myself so i feel you :-)

[mirrorgrets]

goncharov is fascinating to dissect as a communications student.

to truly understand how goncharov came to be you have to look at tumblr as its own ecosystem first and how it deals with memes, inside jokes, and how it views media in general. then you get to the user bases social spheres and how they're divided and how they overlap. if you want to be thorough you could also add in a brief history on fandom (specifically western english speaking fandom) and introduce specific tumblr fandom just to really set goncharov up. this might include supernatural, superwholock, dracula daily, and how fandom Can be incredibly divorced from the source material.

and then discuss the history of goncharov via shoe, and its spread two years later through thorough research of what the first popular posts on it were to the subsequent adoption of goncharov as a real film due to the original posts popularity and the fact that a lot of people already know about the joke and explanation behind the shoe. this leads to fanmade posters, in-depth analyses and escalates to widely agreed upon character casts, original osts, fake vhs tapes and many users agreeing that it's real because everyone wants to be part of the joke.

there should also be explanations that this may not be entirely comfortable for the entire population of tumblr because it may be hard to differentiate fact from fiction when a frightening amount of people claims it to be real when it actually isn't.

this event also coincidences with the apparent mass exodus of twitter users to tumblr since it's seen as a good alternative due to the former site and app appearing to be highly unstable at the moment due to new management. tumblr was seen as a "dead" social media site by the vast majority of users before but with the rise of goncharov and with twitter users using both sites now, tumblr gains traction as a somewhat puzzling yet captivating social media site. tumblr management uses the rise of goncharov as a marketing strategy fkr their own site since tumblr's well defining characteristic is that it is a site with inside jokes that only tumblr users may only understand.

at this point i'm not entirely sure what this paper would really focus on but i know there's something in that that could be used to make the most insane paper my 50 year old professor would read in a while

[sasoxichomoshi]

Ashlesh analysis

Since im the only person in the face of this world that is deranged enough about Nilah to go beyond the mortal realm seeking for answers, i felt i had the responsibility to write this post with as much info as i could

frequently i feel like people dont know how to address or read ashlesh since 1) he's subortinated to nilah (as if he was an accessory, and not an entirely different entity, but i understand why this overlap happens) and 2) it's not like we have a lot of info on him to begin with

or that's i think people like to believe; i mean, yes he has less lore that directly mentions him than fiddlesticks, but i believe that with a bit of reading we can infer a lot from ashlesh, and that's why im here writing this post

1. DUALITY

first i would like to point out something interesting that (so far) just happened with ashlesh: the fact that he has two different titles

for me, it speaks about ashlesh complexity as a character - he resonates in duality, joy under his influence can mean multiple things, his waters cut deep but they also veil against harm, he gives power but takes the soul

i feel like (at some point) ashlesh was closer to humanity (meaning that he helped humans thrive at the same time he fed on them, yk like cattle) than to his siblings - The Ten Kings - and that's why he was granted two titles, he seems to go beyond the "just consume" that we see from fiddle, yes he fed on humans but he understand how to do this

the devil is smarter

this of course is a past that we'll probably never know about ashlesh; if it was once written, the river of fate has likely washed it away long ago

2. AMBITIONS

despite mysterious, ashlesh seems to have a clear and audacious goal: fight the heavens

it's transparent like water that ashlesh harbours resentment towards the celestial realm above and it has a good reason: it was the celestials that trapped him

here's the story

For those who dont know, the new fiddlesticks and zoe got a small connection in lore - in one of the old splasharts, fiddle carries a key, but upon receiving his rework, it was not there anymore

so people started noticing that the key that once belonged to fiddle was now in the hands of a mischievous little (and too powerful) girl

(this lore event is also present in fiddle's biography)

but after all, what this key was for?

Carnivalnites (or Jared Rosen), the main writer behind fiddle rework, rell, viego and nilah, answered it in an old tweet (now deleted) what the key was for

note 1: "beautiful and terrible in its joy", the duality concept strikes again

note 2: by the way it's put and by the way jared talks about the "something else" (that we now know it's ashlesh), it seems that at early stages the demon of joy was meant to be a lesser demon that was under fiddle sphere of influence (this concept is confirmed by the demonology annotation image from noxus that came out with fiddle rework) but with nilah release they have since moved from this concept cause now ashlesh is one of the ten kings alongside fiddlesticks

with all this information we can confirm that ashlesh is deeply tied with targon, or more specific to the celestial realm beyond

celestial beings trapped ashlesh for some unknown reason, possibly the demon was posing some kind of direct threat to them so he had to be locked

...

my personal theory is that ashlesh got kicked from the celestial realm, tried to build up his own "kingdom" below on runeterra, but also got denied this option and the celestials locked him away as a final punishment

"She read of the mad king Viego and his tragic fall, the genesis of the first dragons, and the foundation of the universe in the Kathkan tradition."

how is this possible? cause ashlesh himself is a star that once resided on the celestial realm and upon coming to the world below, he turned into the demon we know

Ashlesha (or Āśleṣā) is the 9th nakshatra (constellation) of the Hindu astrology; it's symbol is the sea serpent and its element is water. The head of the snake (in Hydra constellation) corresponds to the star Āshleshā.

interestingly, fiddlesticks bio also mentions this strange and otherworldly nature

An evil gone from the world for numberless centuries—long enough that the warnings of a nascent humanity passed into rumor, then myth, then legend… until all that remained were simple fables. An entity so utterly alien that it defies almost all contemporary knowledge of magic.

note 3: about the "turning into a demon" part, fiddle's bio is full of "it got turned into" imageries, of men and animals transforming with demonic power, so i dare say that is not impossible for ashlesh turning into a demon;

last, but not least, to make this even joyful (and funnier) i present you all the Star Guardian Version of the story (Jared worked on Another Sky novel for SG 2022 event too, so the thematics overlap)

ashlesh the STAR of joy

remember how fiddlesticks and zoe were (also) related in Another Sky? yup yup

(i feel somehow that zoe also was the key to free ashlesh in this AU too)

with these i finish my thoughts, thank you for those who read it !

[kharrisdawndancer]

For someone new to following! What is this about new timelines? I want to know EVERYTHING but that’s not a realistic ask! So what’s the highlight for an introduction into it! If you don’t mind of course!

OK! This a moderately involved OOC story, but honestly not SUPER interesting, lol. I'm putting it under a cut so that people who aren't interested don't have to scroll for it:

Originally I rolled Kharris on Shadow Council back in early Burning Crusade. She become one of my RP main characters and had a very full and lively time on Shadow Council with a lot of people in her life. Eventually, the player that played her husband decided they were leaving the game for what they thought was going to be forever, so Kharris got played less and less, but I still liked her character and wanted to play her. So I rolled a new version of Kharris on Wyrmrest Accord. MOST of her history was the same, but obviously who she knew and life experiences started to branch. This was not Kharris-ShC, this was a new version, Kharris-WrA.

So off and on for several years, I played both versions of the character, and both got into shenanigans. Both were still named Kharris at this time. Then Cross Realm Zoning (CRZ) started to happen in WoW. And my main RP hub for both versions of Kharris was Silvermoon City. And Silvermoon City was gettin CRZ'ed with Wryrmrest and Shadow Council together. So I would RP on WrA-Kharris with her history and friends and someone from Shadow Council would see her and act like she was ShC-Kharris. It got confusing and funny and the different spheres of each verison of Kharris started to overlap. I wasn't sure how to handle it. Eventually I name changed WrA to Khaeris to help differentiate them. Then CRZ'ing went away in favor of Sharding technology in WoW, and we didn't get smooshed together anymore really. So the In-Character story is that Khaeris somehow got pulled into another timeline--Kharris's timeline. And I had to try to figure out some storylines for that to make it work IC. I have a tag called "y2k" (Why two K's) if you really want to dig in. Big Kid K = Kharris, Shadow Council origin (though now she's on WrA too lol) Baby Karrots = Khaeris, Wryrmest Accord original