#i know exactly what i'm talking about

[lizziestudieshistory]

I have most of my free lessons on Mondays (I actually hate it, I'm stuck in the staffroom for hours on end...) Anyway, I took the opportunity to finish Witches: James I and the English Witch-Hunts by Tracy Borman. The only good thing I can possibly say about this is that Borman had a core thesis and went for it. However, it resulted in an atrocious book, some key complaints:

It's only interested in presenting a black and white "evil men" and "powerless female victims" narrative. It only serves to strip the women accused of the little agency they had and dampen the echoes of their voices we've managed to pick up. These women are famously poor, social outcasts and it's hard enough to find out ANYTHING about them without reducing them to "innocent and powerless victims of privileged evil men".

When James is discussed at all, Borman is only interested in character assassination. If this is the only time you've met James VI/I then please, I'm begging you, read something else! James is not a "nice" person by modern standards, but he's not the man presented here. There is a reason he's my second favourite monarch (although I do have notoriously bad taste in monarchs *cough* Charles I *cough*)

This is riddled with unfounded, unsubstantiated claims and speculations. Borman does not have enough research or source material to support most of the "information" presented about the Belvoir witch trial, midlands court cases, the Duke of Buckingham, or English witch-hunts. Considering there IS a ridiculous amount of research on English witches I'm baffled by the limited bibliography and references.

She presents continental European sources to support claims about English witch-hunts. You just can't use Jean Bodin as a source for ENGLISH intellectual thoughts and legal proceedings. His work would have been read over here by the elite, but English and French writing about witches is very different and there are much better sources to consult for how ENGLAND thought about and hunted witches.

Hunting witches does not automatically make someone a sexual predator!!! Just because a profession can attract sadistic people with horrible motives does not mean that EVERYONE in that profession is a monster. I get the impulse, I really do. The witch-hunts are a tragic abuse of power that resulted in the wrongful conviction and execution of innocent people, most commonly poor women. But this is a completely different world to our own and it is NOT unreasonable for these people to sincerely believe in witches and the supernatural! Yes, there was serious doubt in the existence of witchcraft in this period. But is is entirely sensible for someone in this cultural and religious context to believe in witches and want to serve God by hunting them. THIS DOES NOT MAKE IT MORAL OR JUSTIFIED! I repeat, I am not defending witch-hunts. However, I am saying it is contextually rational and understandable! And to reduce the witch-hunts to acts motivated by a desire to enact sexual violence on women makes my blood boil.

It's full of unfocused tangents that do nothing except bog down an already convoluted book. For example, why am I reading about Buckingham's sex life? I love the Duke of Buckingham as much as the next person, but it's not exactly relevant to English witch-hunting?

An under appreciation of Daemonologie? That book is WILD! It's also the most relevant text you could reference for James I's views on witches? Why only mention it once or twice?

Just as a petty note, this did have better referencing than some other books I've read this year... However, reference your work! Over referencing is better than under referencing! Okay?

So, what I've learnt is...I can't read popular history! Great.

[keferon]

“Mistakes on mistakes until” ch 69 spoilers below!

Ahahahahahahah here I go again

Mistakes on mistakes until until I can draw Jazz with my eyes closed

I woke up, checked my phone, woke up for real and decided that whatever plans I had for this day yeah no they can wait a little bit kfkgnfk

Also. Consider listening this while reading. Or don't who am I to tell you what to do~

[iwasbored777]

I wanna know what's going on in the heads of everyone who watched Deadpool & Wolverine and think that the movie wasn't gay. Did you even watch the right movie?

[space-sheep08]

Actually so tired that people mainly focus on the bdsm when they talk about La Pianiste when we literally have this dynamic right here. Like, that's insane.

What if you were a little girl in her 40's who couldn't grow up because of your mother-wife who made you sleep in her bed and forced you to repress every sexual desires and thoughts of becoming your own person just to keep you close to her ? What if you fought back and yearned for dangerous things out of her reach ? But also, what if you let her because it's all you've ever known and been taught to want ?

[la-pheacienne]

I wish there was a way to actually convey in english the transition between the plural and the singular verbs used by Javert depending on who he's speaking to. In french (and in my own native language, greek) we have this thing where, if we are addressing someone important, or even someone we respect, we have to address them as if they're mutliple people? Idk how to explain this in english. In english we just have "you", but in french we have two words for "you": "vous" (plural of "you") et "tu" (singular of "you"). But in greek culture we don't care about this that much and it is very common to talk to the waiter for example or to a stranger who is your age, in a normal way, not addressing them as if they're multiple people. And this doesn't necessarily mean you disrespect them or that you consider them inferior to you, it's just a sign of friendliness and familiarity.

But in France oh boy this is such a no no. If you address a stranger without respecting this formality it is so so deeply impolite. It's the equivalent of calling your Professor "bro". You just don't do it. However, if a state officer does it it's not just impolite, it's extremely offensive, it's perceived as an actual attack, which it is. It's saying "you are inferior, a second class citizen, and I will treat you as such and the state will treat you as such". And guess what, it still happens, but it happens almost exclusively to homeless people, immigrants or just non white people, mainly arabs and black people. These groups of people are often being addressed by the police for example as "one person" (singular of you) and not in plural, and it may sound ridiculous a to someone who is not familiar with that formality but here, it is an insidious but very real way of asserting authority over marginalized citizens while stripping them of their value and humanity.

And yeah Javert of course is extreeeemely polite to Valjean when he thinks he's Madeleine, because he's the Mayor, so he's a superior, so he addresses him using the plural form and of course he uses the singular form when talking to Fantine and of course he switches to singular form when he talks to Valjean later, once he discovers his real identity. This small detail really conveys how Javert treats Fantine and Valjean like actual flies that he can just squash with his boot. Also it should be noted that while Javert has started addressing Valjean in singular form, Valjean still continues to respect the formality, addressing him in plural. Perfect depiction of class hierarchy.

[kaeyachi]

Have you all imagined the days where Kaeya would scream in frustration when he tries to create a Khaenri'ahn dish, but the dish just doesn't taste quite right?

How about the helpless feeling he gets when he barely remembers what ingredients go in his homeland's dishes?

And what about the cravings that have never been satisfied since he was a child because his father didn't teach him how to make them?

For an adventurous food lover... perhaps forever losing your nation's food might just be the most painful thing.

[cogaytes]

on my hands and knees begging keepblr to put more thought into tam's clothing than just. things you would see a kpop idol wear. like every moodboard i see of him has the shirts with the first button undone and the multiple silver rings on each hand and i just. c'mon.

i would get it if i saw it applied more to other characters who canonically wear a lot of rings (sophie/fitz with the cognate rings + panic switches), probably accessorize a lot based on their character (biana), or might like something to fidget with (dex). but to see it with just tam, who is one of the few characters who hasn't been mentioned to wear rings in canon, makes it feel like those ideas came from...somewhere else.

[kurithedweeb]

Here's the real question I gotta ask myself.

Of those I imagine have their swords sheathed at their hip, which ones, aside from Laurance, do the thing where they casually rest their wrists against the hilt of their blade while resting all their weight on one hip and making a very good point and/or emotionally devastating someone with a few simple words?

[oregoncoastfox]

Just the two best lancers I own hanging out and having a great time bonding over being ancient, often-hated and almost always misunderstood beings who just want normal lives. Just a relaxing girls' day at the beach doing what anyone would enjoy.

Art by the eternally delightful @wishem

[camellcat]

stray thought but why didn’t they just let giles die in spiral? like... other than make buffy miserable what does he even do in the later seasons? I feel like it would've been better to just let him go out on a good note than waste away as a character

[wikitpowers]

it's actually so funny that basically every single art one can find of kit has him in that jacket like sorry but that makes me cackle so much

[marypsue]

Because I am literally never not thinking about weird meta, blurring lines between reality and narrative, and the whole concept of actors becoming their characters, I am now entertaining thoughts of a Shadow of the Vampire-style story wherein a late-2010s-style all-female The Lost Boys remake gets derailed when the lead actress suddenly starts not showing up to shooting because she's sleeping all day...

[evans-kinard]

Grumpy older brothers who pretend not to care but would actually burn the world down for their little brothers >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[dimonds456-but-only-hlvrai]

Okay Benrey making a deal with Bill Cipher is actually really fucking funny, though, because even if Benrey's eyes have always been yellow (or hell, even slitted), NO ONE would fall for Bill's bs for even a second. Cuz there is no one like Benrey. Bill is a TERRIBLE actor, man, I do not think he could pull off a Benrey impression if he took a semester on it.

At least with Ford, he just had to stay up late and do math. With Bipper, he had the excuse of Dipper being a kid and everyone being too distracted with the puppet show to really notice. Blendin just had to be anxious-adjacent long enough to get the Rift.

There is NO WAY Bill would be able to pull Benrey's "idgaf" attitude AT ALL. Bill is too expressive for it. He'd walk into a room with too much energy and everyone would be onto him before he even said anything.

Then he opens his mouth and says a moderately normal sentence and it's joever

[meowcifer-nails]

To elaborate more on this without spamming op's post, if you think about it, Harry himself is not entirely unlike Lena.

Even if thorough the whole game you manage to pick the least shitty options possible in terms of his behavior and thoughts, even if you stray as far as possible from the racist routes, even if you do your best to play him as a kind person whenever possible and to always be nice to Kim in particular, there is a specific instance (I'll keep it vague but if you know you know) where you might say the wrong thing on 'accident'.

[Important to note, this is NOT an outright player choice, you will have NO clue about how badly you are about to fuck up if you never came across it and weren't spoiled about it. You can go the whole game denouncing racism at every chance you're given to do so, and it will not change this outcome. ]

If this happens, Kim will not only be furious about it, he will snap and remark on several things Harry ALREADY did or said that made him wonder about Harry's stance and prejudices, telling you about how he overlooked it both because he wanted to be professional and because he assumed it was at least partly influenced by Harry's condition, but still hurt him nonetheless.

Now, I'm fairly sure he points out more things if you picked more "bad" dialogue options through the game, but it's important that you will still get called out even if you didn't.

Harry canonically says and does racist things even if he (or you, the player) means no ill by it, simply out of ignorance. It's not entirely outright, you might not even notice them, but he does and you cannot avoid this. He canonically disrespects Kim because of his ethnicity on multiple occasions, whether you want to or not, whether you notice it or not, but one thing is for sure: Kim sure as hell fucking notices. He just doesn't SAY anything about it all that time unless you fuck up so badly he cannot hold back anymore.

And once Harry is faced with this, he is stunned, because he never had a clue that he was hurting Kim. You can at this point pick the way he responds to this, but not the fact that he is shocked by the news, because he was never fully aware of it.

This is part of what makes the commentary of this game so good in my opinion, because not only it examines the more outright racism (the big 3 main racists) as well as the less aggressive and seemingly benevolent kind (Lena being the prime example), but also the kind that's so ingrained and subtle that someone not only does not do it on purpose but has absolutely no awareness of it, and having this be examined using the main protagonist is such a powerful way of showing it, as well as the way they throw this at you (a lot of the ways the game "punishes" you for picking "bad choices" is simply to let you know you are disappointing Kim, so this particular instance feels extra bad because it turns out you've been low key disappointing him all along without even realizing it).

[a-tale-of-legends]

( random conversation I thought of, not sure if it's something that I would consider canon. Might be ooc for characters)

Blue: Aaaaand that's everything that happened today! Which.... isn't a lot but whatever.

Red: ....

Blue: .....( Leans back) Sooooooooo. How's things for you? You haven't, ah, really said much since you came back down Mt. Silver...( Tries to perk up a bit,forcing a smile) You're usually such a chatter box, you know?! Gotta be something interesting for ya today, right?

Red: .....

Blue: ........( Grimaces slightly, still trying to keep smiling. His voices lowers, as if the whole world would hear if he goes any louder) Come on Red, you- throw me a bone here, something-

Red: ( his eyebrows furrow slightly) .....

Blue: ( immediately back pedals) O-only if you wanna, I don't - you don't - ( he sighs, exasperated) Green? H-have you at least talked to Green?

Red: ( he flinches at that. The punch to his face still fresh in his mind. It was a year ago. And even so-) .....

Blue: ( he should back off. He really should-) Your mom? Have you at least talked to your mom?

Red: ( that causes him to outright glare at his....friend? Rival? Babysitter? What are they now? He doesn't know. But he doesn't like this conversation.) . . . .

Blue: R-right! Right, of course you- ( he takes in a breath. Why does he feel so sweaty.) Sorry. Sorry, that was just- Let's just forget I said anything, yeah?

Red: ( his glare softens, looking at his....whatever they are to each other, with concern. He doesn't know if he'll get used to Blue Oak apologizing for anything ever. He raises his hand to sign-)

Blue: ( he raises his hand before Red does, eyes pleading) Let's just forget I said anything, okay? ( Please )

Red: ..... ( He lowers his hand. He hates the look blue is giving him. He blames himself for it, as always) ( Okay )