#i think i have a type when it comes to shipping

[wriokitty]

#FAILBLOGGER FAVS — NOW CLOSED

As promised, for my silly Valentine’s Day event, we’re going to switch the roles and have our favs be the chronically online failbloggers <3 this is open to all my followers we don’t have to be mutuals for you to take part so everyone come join ;)

disclaimer: pleaseeeeee read this post all the way through before you send an ask pretty pretty pleaseeee

WHAT I NEED:

Send me an ask and tell me a selfship of yours (please just one) and what the dynamic/lore is—just give me a decent amount of relevant info so I know what the ship is like. If you’re only a reader, tell me your favorite fanfic tropes, preferred word count range, and if you like to read sfw, nsfw, dark content, or all of the above. If you’re a writer, please include the previous info regarding the fics you read and write (I know, I know. A lot of typing, but it makes a difference I promise. To Me it does.) Please, and I can’t stress this enough, include whether or not you’re comfy with dark content because that will severely change the direction I take things

WHAT YOU GET (PLEASE PICK ONE ONLY):

OPTION 1 — get a detailed description of how you and your fav become mutuals on tumblr and what they’re like on dash, what sort of asks they’d send you, what vents they’d make, who they’d beef with and block (as in other characters not real ppl btw lol), and what discourse they’d get themselves into

OPTION 2 — get a detailed description of what they’d be like if they wrote fanfiction about you and selfshipped with you. This includes how they might characterize you, if their forte is sfw, nsfw, dark content, etc., if they’re non sharing or sharing, who they’d beef with over you, how many comms they’d get, and plenty more idk I’ll come up with it as I go LOL

SLOTS: CLOSED — 15/15 TAKEN — for now I’m doing 15 but I might reopen for a few more when I’m done!!

FANDOMS: main fandoms include genshin, hsr, love and deepspace, jjk, bnha, and I suppose haikyuu and bllk are okay too

ANYWAYYY this is superrrr silly and unserious but I think it’s fun and would get a few good giggles from everyone so ;) anyway this doubles as sort of a milestone event too bc I’ve yet to do one after a good few milestones so ty everyone for following me and being friends with little old me <3

[crimsonxe]

I didn't bring it back, disphit McGee over there was the one that dragged it back up. Like you'll note that what I said was aimed at the one that reblogged. Nah, profanity isn't going anywhere and never will; that's just part of me & where I grew up. Maybe grow up a bit to not take issue with just words.

Oh I've seen the far right incel sexist chud bigots; I've seen women that disgustingly parrot the exact same sexist & queerphobic bullshit that they do as well as double standards nonstop; I've seen far left types that bitch that the show isn't some leftist propaganda story as well as entitled/spoiled ass types that'd rather have a rushed fucking LGBT+ pair than a properly cared for slowburn; I've seen the ones that simp for Ironwood, Adam, or even Sun; I've seen the ones salty over Clover/Qrow; etc. All that either comes down to it not fitting their headcanons or fanon; or going w/ a ship that isn't their preference. Ones that fail at knowing the story, characters, relationships, or themes of the show.

No, they actually didn't. Pyrrha had to go in order to have a threat to the main crew, because of how strong she was; which would become even more had she gained half-maiden powers. On top of that her death and Penny's both hit Ruby JUST AS FUCKING HARD as Jaune. Pyrrha died being a badass self-sacrificing (cause I'm 99% sure she went into the fight with Cinder thinking she had no damn chance) fucking heroic warrior trying to stop the big bad. That wasn't for Jaune, it was her doing it for her school and everyone. The way your ass frames it she died while mentoring him, when that's completely not the case. Oh and just to cover the bases, she's also fucking allowed to fall for the guy too and that isn't bad writing because its not to your preference. If that's where that tone was tapping into.

Adam served exactly the amount he should and was tied more into Blake's story than the WF, the only ones bitching about that side of things are incels and simps that had come up with headcanons for him. Your ass doing a "I can understand where they're coming from" is just more showing how you don't have a clue on character & story.

Yeah, I'll laugh my fucking ass off at the notion that Weiss and Ruby have more goddamn chemistry; because WHAT? No, they fucking don't at all. But that does show a bias.

Once again blame dipshit McGee who drug this back up with a reblog. The PoC characters are just fine, could've been earlier but still just damn fine as they are given the inspiration for the show.

Dumbass I'm not in the camp of trying to get your dipshit asses onboard with the show, that's for other people to do. I'm more in FAFO camp, where people that talk shit fuck around and find out via having their shit torn apart. Your shit actually holds weight? It'll hold and not be touched, if its biased or just flatout bullshit it'll be shredded apart. Not a fucking soul is obligated to roll over and let your asses spread misinformation.

YOUR BITCH FUCKING ASS LITTLE BUDDY REBLOGGED ME SHITHEAD. I said my goddamn piece and let it lie for however long, then someone decided to drag it back up where I tore into THEM as the reblogging person. But do keep trying to play your broken ass pity violin and once again go fuck your damn self. I'll go back to my Fallout 4 game

Say you never watched RWBY without actually saying you never watched RWBY.

Aromancy: "Wasted potential"

And thus you speak the same as Hbomb...meaningless lies with misinformation. Poor soul, who spreads lies happily to hate.

I watched up to about halfway through Season 4. Season 3 ended on a high point that had me excited for more, but basically nothing happened afterwards and I got bored and dropped it. I say the same thing as Hbomberguy because I agree with him; the show is an attempt at anime made by people who enjoy the superficial aspects of anime but fail to look beneath the surface to examine the themes.

Monty's fight scenes were excellent (and even after he died -rest in peace -the fights continued to be excellent; Pyrrha vs. Mercury is probably my favorite of the whole series), but his unwillingness to work hand-in-hand with the writers in charge of providing context let the whole show down.

I haven't seen past season 4 personally, but I've heard many RWBY fans disparaging the series since, especially Season 8, and I have no reason to doubt their testimony.

[anyone-ther3]

I've just been thinking about this so like all those Jaune smut/ship posts are a little weird and I don't really like them. Like firstly he doesn't act like himself at all but I know this fandom i shouldn't have expected that much. But his entire character revolves around how he's such a nice and oblivious person who is always in the worst place to be in the wrong time. He suffers hella imposter syndrome and is a huge failure boy (not derogatory). If a female character literally breathes on screen she's somehow in a ship post with him which is honestly a little impressive.

People often forget about Jaune being the guy who had to cheat to get accepted, and how he always had to get his life saved by Pyyhra, or how he literally didn't know how to sword fight with the sword he had. And his arc shows him over coming those odds, but he's still not the strong, alpha male, fuckboy, y'all think he is.

Also these are probably also the people who had a problem with Bumblebee in volume 9 because "they came out of nowhere and the writers just gave into the shippers". THOSE TWO HAD BEEN PRACTICALLY EDGING THE SHIP SINCE VOLUME 3! Monty wrote gay people. I need to pull up that one Danny Motta clip about this. I could pull up every time they were obviously alluding to them being into women/each other but I don't have the time nor the energy to argue with you.

When people start shipping canonically lesbian characters with a male character it is weird. Now some people argue that because people ship RubyxWeiss it's ok to do it the other way too. Ruby and Weiss aren't confirmed either way, Blake and Yang are. I literally don't care what way you ship them if they're not in a committed(healthy) relationship or haven't been confirmed in canon. Also y'all have never heard of female friends or sisters for some reason. Jaune and Ruby were a sibling dynamic from the get go but whatever I'm not trying to get myself killed. Jaune and Weiss do actually have chemistry, so does OscarxRuby.

Lastly, all of yall have been largely mischaracterizing Jaune because you want him to be a dominant but mostly empty character who you can place yourself in the position of. It's really the same problem as the isekai genre. But Jaune isn't the dominant type who acts like a fuck boy.

Obviously Jaune's the bottom, like he's the one wearing the collar in these scenarios, dumbass.

[rei-ismyname]

Star Trek/X-Men highlights

Long ago, Marvel had the licence for Star Trek comics. A decision was made to smoosh the X-Men and the TOS Enterprise crew together in a baffling and messy adventure. I couldn't find any better quality scans, but here's the highlights.

The Star Trek crew are going about their business when a giant bootlicker appears before the Enterprise. Gladiator in Trek is like a double dose of space bullshit. He punches the ship, lol.

Turns out the X-Men have appeared on the Enterprise, though it's not explained. It doesn't really matter tbh. Logan Behavior in spaaace!

We learn that they're after Deathbird, who would fit right in on Star Trek. Huge Romulan vibes.

The X-Men are unnoticed for now (bc TOS era security and sensors suck.) Somehow Jean Grey and Spock form a telepathic thingy, despite Vulcans only having touch telepathy. The jig is up!

Gambit is injured, so Storm and Beast try to get him medical help in sickbay. They run into Bones and Nurse Chapel, then Beast and Bones both respond to 'Doctor McCoy.' It's funny because they have the same last name.

Logan, surprisingly, doesn't try to murder Spock. He does attack him though only to get knocked out by a Vulcan nerve pinch. Spock thinks he's fascinating. Logan is lucky he didn't land on Deep Space 9, that's for sure.

After getting the superhero hello out of the way, the two teams meet each other and form a tentative alliance. Deathbird is out there and must be stopped!

Surprise! She's not alone. Somehow Proteus is here and he's possessed Gary 7 (a superhuman secret agent type of dude.) Not sure who those other losers are. Anyway, I'm pretty sure they're banging. Obviously they also have a scheme of some kind too.

Their scheme looks a lot like a superhero fight. Kirk asks Jean if she can reach Proteus' host telepathically. She can and they have a good yarn.

Gary tells them what's up and the two crews solve the problem with extreme prejudice. They really kill the fuck out of Proteus, though not using metal, something he's notoriously weak to. Beam spam ftw. Logan shouts and achieve very little. . After this they say their farewells and the X-Men ask Deathbird to come with them. She's kinda bored now so she says yes. Gladiator just stands around and does what he's told.

I'm very familiar with both franchises and I think it sucks. I can't imagine what someone who's only into one of them would think. Instead of taking the best of each series it takes the worst and crams it into 20 pages. Worth it for the camp and Logan getting knocked out though.

[stupidlittlespirit]

i've seen the "he'd never date a woman" thing with ford so much, which i think about a lot. like it's one thing to just headcanon him as gay but there are a lot of posts where internalized or blatant misogyny shine bright. one i saw straight up had multiple people going "he respects women too much to want to date/fuck them" like hello? do you realize what you are implying ab real women when you say that?

i'm not great at articulating my thoughts but i think it's especially prominent with ford because of his intelligence + unconventional demeanor. he's off-putting and a genius and didn't want to give up his work to settle down into a standard marriage with kids. women can't be weird or smart in the same way men can for example and all women want the typical white picket fence nuclear family american dream. therefore you are off your gourd if you think he'd ever want to be with a woman. so there’s that on top of the already rampant misogyny present in fandom spaces with shipping especially.

there's also the whole "gibe the oracle your phone number" / "i miss dimension 52" that could have some implications if you want but ig i can't blame people for forgetting jeselbraum because hirsch barely expands on her LOL. but basically it’s all up to interpretation and it really isn’t all that wild to think he could be attracted to women.

personally i just enjoy projecting my own sexuality onto him. “what gender are you attracted to?” don’t care. can i show you my isopod colonies. “how would you describe your sexual attraction?” uhhhhhhhhhhh (<- is probably demisexual)

So, I deleted my post because I felt like I was rehashing points I'd previously made a million times before, but I stand by it.

I want to address what you said and then I want to kind of go on a tangent (shocker, I know) about the interpretation of GF at large because I've been engaging with a lot of Lynch stuff recently, who we know was by and large the most influential person for Hirsch, and one of the biggest things around Lynch's work is the beauty of subjectiveness. I think Hirsch carries that legacy with him at the heart of his work.

So yeah, the comments about Ford 'respecting women too much' is insane. If anyone thinks that they are probably the kind of person who doesn't respect a woman anyway. If your hands sully the one you touch, perhaps your hands were not so clean to begin with, yknow? That's the vibe I always get with those kinds of comments.

Society approaches women so differently from men in this regard, as you said. Where a man is 'quirky' and 'cool', a woman is 'annoying' or 'trying too hard'. She suffers for her differences where as he profits for them. She can only commit the crime of being Cringe, and in my experience, people will forgive many things but never that.

There is certainly merit in the way in which a lot of people recognise that Ford is partial to things that are 'weird' or that are shunned by society, especially because of his hands, and that plays well into Queer culture. It's a feeling most of us (if not all of us) experience. So I can see where there connection comes and it's totally cool to hold that belief. Queer is BIG umbrella and I think he falls under it myself, what with the ace/aro stuff. We're given much more canon evidence of him being ace/aro, in fact, than of anything else. I maintain personally that canon Ford is asexual and aromantic, and that romance doesn't factor into his life in the way it does for 'normal' people. It's why when Bill mentions that quiz Ford does in his dreams in TBoB it makes me think of my own struggles with asexuality: "I'm not normal, everyone else is feeling this type of way and I'm feeling that type of way. There's something wrong with me. I'm weird. I need answers." It feels very much like Ford is attempting to understand that side of himself and is very afraid of the answer.

The Oracle stuff makes me so sad it was never expanded on more. I really love Jheselbraum and it felt like she was one of the first people that Ford met who was of higher intelligence than him, and who actually did just want to help. She extended an extreme kindness to him. Whether it was more than that doesn't even really matter. There was still a relationship formed there that can't be discounted. But again, it can be interpreted in lots of different ways.

This is the other thing. There's nothing wrong with projecting yourself onto your favourite character. We all do it. I do it. It's fun and it brings comfort. And that's okay! But that means we can all do it. So it's unfair for someone else to say "you're wrong for thinking XYZ about Ford" because we're all just kids in a sandbox playing house with these characters. You can't gatekeep someone else's enjoyment.

You can believe Ford is gay. You can believe Ford is ace. You can believe Ford is whatever you want him to be, but what you can't do is then rescind that privilege from someone else just because you don't like it or because it makes you feel better about yourself to punch down on someone else. People are entitled to their own interpretations of media, even if they make you feel uncomfortable or whatever.

Which brings us onto Lynch. Now, I'm not a huge surrealist fan, I like Lynch most for the person that he was (ugh I'm still so sad to type that). One of the biggest things about him was that he valued the intelligence of his audience and respected them enough to allow them the space to interpret his works as they saw fit. He never wanted to define his films in a way that would prevent another person from taking their own meaning from it. There was no definition, only feeling.

There's a clip of him being asked to expand on his meaning for one of his films, I forget which one, and he just replies "no". It's so fucking good because that, to me, is art. It is fundamentally subjective in its existence and the way I view something is not going to be the way someone else does, so why take that interpretation away from one to give to another just for their approval? We may align in thoughts but the way we process the media is going to be entirely different. Why? Because we're different people. Our experiences throughout our lives have informed the way we interact with things.

I think Alex Hirsch enjoys other people making their own interpretations of his work in a similar way. Just as Lynch does. Hirsch wants you, the audience, to derive personal meaning. He doesn't need (or even want) to tell you how to engage with the themes because why would he? It would only make him work harder to get a simpler point across and it would risk alienating parts of his audience. He wants the audience to connect and to find their own familiarities, and he respects his audience enough to give them the space to let them do that. He's often evasive when he's asked to tie things down firmly. To be honest, I think he should be braver in just saying "no, I don't want to answer that" sometimes. You can tell he wants to but he also wants to engage with people so it can be hard.

People are very desperate to want to have answers in black and white. They need things to be canon in order to feel vindicated, when in actual fact, an idea is just as legitimate when it comes to fiction. Fiction IS an idea. It isn't tangible and therefore cannot be quantified, so it can be interpreted however.

Anyway, by forcing your interpretation of the work onto others (ie. 'Ford would never', 'Stan would never' etc), I think you fundamentally misunderstand what the purpose of the work is. You're taking away the light of other people because you're scared yours doesn't shine bright enough. And you're scared because other people previously took your light away, but all you're doing is repeating the cycle and taking away from the rest of us.

Your ideas can coexist with others. No one is right and in that, everyone is right. Does that make sense? Idk.

I voice my opinions of disliking certain ways the fandom engages with elements of the show, but I don't think they have less right to have those ideas than I do to have my own. I interpret Bill as one way and someone else will interpret him another. That's okay. You're allowed to do that. But I don't think you're allowed to be actively vicious to others over it.

Engage with honesty and recognise that other people enjoys things in different ways, and it's okay not to control the narrative of that sometimes.

I have my criticisms of Hirsch but I also have a lot of love for the guy, and one of the biggest things I respect about him is him allowing us to draw our own beliefs. Do I think he could stand to do some things better? Yes. But that doesn't mean I don't love what I already have from his work.

I'm not sure if this makes sense, I'm having a bit of a Day, but I hope it at least reads well enough to convey my meaning.

[brightvelvet]

I'm going through season 1 of Rings of Power again before I start watching season 2. There's so much to talk about, but what I want to talk about here is Halbrand. Specifically, Halbrand and what he meant to Galadriel. **NOT WRITTEN WITH HALADRIEL IN MIND**.

For one, looking at interactions, these two don't feel like friends. There's no casual exchange of friendly words or touches. Galadriel looks at Halbrand and sees so many things. He's rough around the edges and wary, handsome if grody, and too clever. His goodness wasn't apparent from the get-go, and it appeals so well to Galadriel's own seeming struggle with darkness. They're equals, but Galadriel's watching Halbrand to see what he does as much as he's evaluating her.

Galadriel wasn't being wise or powerful when she kept coming back to Halbrand and his potential royal bloodline. To be clear, she doesn't trust anyone. She can only go to him because he won't care enough to use her and he's too kind to say no. Most importantly, she recognizes his type, someone she doesn't want to leave by their lonesome. Maybe it was selfish of her, to keep dragging Halbrand into her journey, but I don't think so. Halbrand was a cracked reflection of her flaws and strengths, and so she treats him not like any friend or ally. She treats him like he's cut from the same cloth as her, like he's a mirror of herself. She pushed him like she wished someone would push her. Unfortunately, we know that Halbrand was incredibly receptive to this.

For two, Halbrand's reciprocation to her actions just enflames their strange, intimate dynamic. Galadriel pushes hard, asking more and more of Halbrand and it seems harsh from the outside. Yet Halbrand stays with her step by step, taking in her commands and demands. Galadriel pushes so much of her own expectations on him and when she thinks of him the words -thank you- must surface. She realizes how tired she is of carrying everyone's expectations alone. Her gratefulness and guilt for him sharing her burden are what finally manifest Halbrand as that mythical King in her mind. Not his silver tongue or Southland's crest. They speak the same language, 'favors' as a weak cover for the fact that they are too loyal to ever refuse the other. She meets him at the bow of the ship and acknowledges this attachment. It becomes something she holds close to her chest in the absence of anything else. Not love, but some type of dream fantasy/fulfillment where Galadriel doesn't have to fight alone.

For three, Galadriel watches Halbrand fight the orcs and it cements something in place. Galadriel appreciated Halbrand before, was grateful and saw good qualities, but here we see that she genuinely doesn't want to let him go. She was never interested in redeeming his bloodline, not really. The 'bloodline right' was to convince other people of her cause and his glory. She never needed a material reason to want better for him. But now it sets a line between them. He was her equal when he was a low man but now he is a King and he has other obligations. It threatens to drag him from her, and I mean drag because he's demonstrated on a few occasions that he's just as attached, and she's conflicted. Maybe some part of her wants to grab him and run. It's not simple, what she feels for him. It's not simple what his person does for her. And the thing is, she knows what the correct course of action is. He looks noble, acts noble, and hundreds of Southlanders need him. He would be the King they were Promised. So she begins to let him go in her mind, loosen her dream from her heart, because she won't keep him. He'll become one of her ideals (like Elrond, like her husband, like her brother) and she'll remember their time together as bittersweet.

In the end, Sauron grows impatient of Halbrand.

Her dream dies when Halbrand eventually asks for the one thing Galadriel wouldn't give.

Halbrand himself dies a dishonorable, screaming death. His pupils shrink to slits, his eyes shot through with red. His teeth become ungainly and sharp. His skin turns grey and darkens with visible veins.

Galadriel turns her blade against him.

She'd looked up to him on his mortal, Kingly pedestal. She'd envied him, been so proud, and wanted to steal him away. And in the wake of his utter betrayal, she has to try and think past the flames.

Halbrand's dead, even if he never existed in the first place. She can't mourn him, for so many reasons, and she must immediately get ready for battle because her massive fuck-up could cost the lives of everyone she loves.

Halbrand's ghost will haunt her though, and I'm sure not just in the form of her worst nightmare come to life.

[eternaljeon]

i think it’s interesting, the banter aspect. i was going through posts of people saying without banter they just don’t cater to the overall dynamic of the couples in this series, that they’re boring and have no chemistry. and i thought, it’s funny, because elain and azriel are nothing like feyre/rhys or nesta/cassian character wise, and that’s kind of the point. they’ve always been shown to us exactly how they’re meant to be. both quiet, introspective types, and their powers… well they nearly align with that perfectly. sure azriel could throw a couple of one-liners to elain, causing her to lash out or blush furiously, but that’s… well that’s just not her style either, is it? it wouldn’t make sense, and i think given what we’ve already seen between them, they don’t need that.

what they’re building is slow-burn with angst, and tension, and longing, and overwhelming need/want for each other, something intense and powerful enough to combat, you know, a mating bond. one that has been foreshadowed and drilled into our heads as “wrong.” bc it is, and it doesn’t make sense for anything to be right about it. that’s not to say when azriel and elain finally get to tell their story that it won’t be filled with any sort of delicious banter, that they won’t both grow and come out of their shells with each other, but given the state of these characters at this point in time, i feel anything too flirty or passionate (say, willing to die with each other in war) wouldn’t progress their arcs at all. they have legitimate reasons to stay away from each other, and both are recovering from broken hearts.

but i think that BC chapter from azriel whet every palette, it was that good without needing to be anything other than what it is. and i might stand with the minority when i say that having them kiss there, or having azriel admit to feeling anything for elain, would feel like we were getting cheated. because it’s only a bonus chapter in another sisters book. but, we had so much more development then just this. we have shy glances, and stilled stares, and heroic rescues, and a level of understanding no one else seems to bother with on either side. it has the potential to be, likely, the best book in the series if it’s played out right.

i have very little to say about lucien, because he quite literally is a plot device to me at this point. i like him, he’s grown on me despite his grievances, and had elucian been given some time to work on their mating bond in the last book, i might have believed that would solidify the ship in elian’s book. but no, lucien was absent, enjoying his life in the human lands, while elain worked to find her own peace and comfort in the night court. building these moments with azriel bit by bit, allowing others to take notice of every longing stare.

elain’s building her arc brick by brick because she’s just now in the cusp of having her own powerful story. and azriel not being welcomed as her love interest, simply because they don’t… banter, is comical. i’m here for it.

I dont think people understand what slow burn is. That's why they say "I dont understand Elriel. They are easy, boring, predictable. Elain is boring, she going to bring nothing to her book."

Like im sorry they arent like the baddie fmc who has a dagger around her 24/7 and the emotionless mmc who falls in love with her after like 5 chapters when they are supposed to be "EnEmies tO lOvErs". BOOKTOK HAS ROTTEN YALL BRAINS.

So true.

Its leads me to believe they’re only consuming specific type of books - which is fine. Read whatever you like, how much you’d like BUT it does narrow down your thinking. Take antis saying elriel is “boring” because they don’t have banter. Banter isn’t a requirement for every single couple nor does it suit every single dynamic…you shouldn’t need every single couple to have “banter” to find them interesting or see their potential.

I think some people have lost the ability or struggle with understanding built up foreshadowing. Books nowdays are either standalones or series that follow one couple - but you know they’re endgame from the start. Because thats what elriel is - built up foreshadowing that started from acowar, some may even argue with acomaf. They’re not a couple that entered a relationship straight away - they’re built up to that stage in a nice slowburn where we see their development and them entering each stage one by one.

Its why Gwyn will be the great Saviour of the entire acotar universe - she will be the centre of every single plot, everything important like the troves will go through her first - just like the badass, sword wielding fmc stereotype who leads the story. Its why Elain is now suddenly a sassy, fire mouth that goes off on Lucien bcs ughh she just can’t stand how much she wants him and feels sooooooo frustrated w him constantly teasing her. None of thats canon. None of that even suits the characters but they’re popular micotropes within booktok therefore have to be traits that Gwyn/Elain possess otherwise they’d be plain and boring.

[willowshimmer]

Idk why but I'm kinda rooting for Matthew and Reggie to get together for some reason.

Matthew is the guy on the edge of the branch and Reggie is the guy leaning on the tree btw with the bandana.

[dykedvonte]

You ever just see a Mouthwashing take that makes you want to bang your head into a wall? I literally just saw someone claim Curly couldn't have been emotionally abused by Jimmy before the crash because he was in a higher position of power than Jimmy.

-Shrimp Anon

The mouthwashing fandom has shown me that people genuinely do believe that certain types of abuse are not as detrimental as other types especially when they deem those immune/resistant, ergo, believing one is objectively worse no matter how it affects the person nor the intersections of power, history and dynamics at play.

Get ready cause this is a yap session:

Cause like it's heavily implied that Curly and Jimmy's friendship was toxic and abusive, pointedly in the direction of how Jimmy uses Curly's belief/comfort in him. Curly wasn't forced to enable Jimmy but he was emotional and mentally on edge around him in almost every scene in some way. Mental and emotional abuse are not contingent on what positions you have at work. Yeah, he's Jimmy's boss but he was Jimmy's friend first and it's like getting into Psych discussion to talk about how social power tends to overshadow any perceived organizational power in the human mind. People are concerned about their jobs ofc but they tend to hang onto and put more value/investment into their personal relationships, hence why there tends to be laws and restrictions around mixing the two.

I always see the sentiments that "Curly is a grown ass man", "Curly is bigger than Jimmy", "Curly is Jimmy's boss", "He just needed a backbone" as criticisms of Curly and while I do agree that on the surface level all of these to be true and viable ways Curly could've taken more control of the situation, I often look at the parallels of Anya and Curly as victims of Jimmy pre/post crash.

The way Jimmy talks to Anya post crash is how he talked to Curly in the pre-crash segments. It's hard to pin-point mainly because we know he hates and wants nothing to do with Anya compared to his contrary but similarly handled obsessions with Curly. It's a weird sort of "honey-moon" effect of abuse Jimmy does in terms of emotional and mental victimization. He is always horrid to Anya, always talking down or questioning her abilities and thoughts in a situation, this of course includes the harassment and assault. However, he has a moment of attempted gentleness/conditioning when he question her about the mouthwash when she's contemplating drinking it at the table. The key difference is he has no personal investment in Jimmy outside wanting nothing to do with him, meaning there is no sort of romanticized version of him that he can condition her off of. He knows this, hence, why he always reverts to trying to make her to scared to oppose him.

This sort of give and take of "kindness" doesn't work on her because she knows he is just doing it to take more from her than whatever he could possibly give but it reflects even the "softer" scenes between him and Curly where he always rewords or rephrases Curly's sentiments and concerns to sound more shallow. He is feigning a deeper understanding by reworking Curly's emotions into something bad and needing to be hidden. Everything is laced with envy and resentment, an outburst just around the corner, I mean he even slams the table in the birthday party scene, a tactic in emotional manipulation to set the victim on edge and cloud their ability to respond. Even if Curly knows Jimmy won't get physical in that moment, the physical actions is intended to make him back down in the confrontation in case it does. This is something that is just not person specific. It ingrains itself into how you interact with the world and life and it shows in major and minor ways with Curly.

Post-crash, the abusive nature is more in tandem to the physical victimization Anya went through and the stripping of voice and autonomy we see take place. Like the parasite in HFIM, Jimmy speaks for Curly most of the time and puts words in his mouth, similarly to how he takes Anya's plans as his own. He very commonly, with the both of them mind you, supplements the worst aspects of himself into them; pettiness, selfishness, lack of understanding... And tries to cover himself with their best qualities; kindness, planning, initiative, etc...

These parallel are just to say that positional power has little to do with if a person can be abused and how it can even be flipped to further the abuse. There is no doubt that Curly could've picked up on Jimmy's envy of his position hence another reason he never confronted him as a Captain but as a friend as doing so would immediately put Jimmy in a space to be confrontational/combative.

I think the disdain some people have when they talk about the heavily implied if not implicitly stated emotional/mental abuse Curly experienced being Jimmy's friend is when treating it as an excuse to why he didn't do more. I can understand that completely because it is not an excuse to why he didn't do more but is a very real reason people in his position in these scenarios can experience whether in the context of a work or social environment. However, I also think the way people talk about it really does demonstrate a bigger problem when talking about abuse when somehow who is/was abused is either part of the issue or enabled it.

Harkening back to the sentiments about Curly's inaction regarding Jimmy, I think the exact phrases I used/have seen show how there is an inherent belief that it is easier to overpower the effects of emotional/mental abuse that go in tandem with the perception of Curly as someone who should be able to. There is not an age you suddenly stop being susceptible to abuse nor a set point or low where you realize how it has affected you. You don't suddenly know to stand up or put a face on to face your abuser nor admit that you inadvertently enabled them to subjugate someone else to the same treatment. Maybe it's my psych brain but their is this growing belief that direct action is somehow easy or always the best method with the game shows you instances where it is not always the case. In real life that rings true too. He should have done more, but it's not impossible to see why he struggled to find a way or didn't even if it makes us mad.

It's not easy to suddenly gain a "back-bone". You don't immediately want to resort to aggression, especially if it mirrors the type you were a victim to. You don't want to believe you allowed yourself to be treated this bad, let it get that bad or allowed something bad to happen to someone else. It is easy to be in denial, to retreat to your thoughts or make excuses to avoid the painful truth. It's frustrating but in a way we know is relatable. It why we both hate and love Curly for it. We know we'd be better, we think we'd be better, we like to think we wouldn't falter in the same ways but it's always easier to say that from the outside looking in. It's easy to see what he was doing wrong because we are seeing it, not him, but the game really does make you picture what you would do if this was your raw reality and it's why this debate about Curly seems so never ending/contradictory. We can all say what we'd do but bottom line is that's much different when you're in the moment with all the emotions and human feelings attached.

I personally think Mouthwashing tackles the themes of rape culture, enabling, toxic masculinity, types of abuse and patriarchy in ways that are meant to deconstruct the typical straightforward views we mostly have of these concepts and how little subtilities of them are just as, if not more, detrimental than the overt/obvious parts. The game deals with the idea of little details and bigger picture in a way to show that sometimes the bigger picture is not the issue but the little details that make it up. It's why I have a personal dislike of depictions of Jimmy as the typical horrible person who would of course do something like this because the game is about noticing the little warning signs, the foreshadowing and foresight.

It's why I dislike the typical discussion of "bro code" and "boys will be boys" for the game because the game makes a point to avoid the standard depictions of such. It is about the type of men who still enable despite not condoning, agreeing or even perpetuating harmful beliefs because they can't see the little details or the ways it seeps into their everyday. The severity is not obvious to them as it was not obvious to Curly, Swansea or even Daisuke the way it was to a woman like Anya. There are little details about Jimmy that should ring alarms but if you are too naive like Daisuke, too distant like Swansea or too conditioned like Curly, they are just off markers.

There is 100% more constructive/concise ways to say "Curly was a victim of Jimmy's abuse on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario" while also critiquing on the side of "Curly still had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain that he failed to do due to biases and stigma's he failed to surpass" without the weird condemnation people give him about should've knowing better than to let himself be manipulated by a person he considered a close, if not family/best-friend and had his own reasons to trust initially. Also stop being weird about victims of abuse in general with this fandom, like sorry not everyone has a like social epiphany the moment someone's nasty to them. People are treating it like you immediately know when you are in a toxic relationship immediately or comprehend when a person is actively dangerous and either it's your fault for not knowing how to leave/cut them off or you deserve it. Like the hypocrisy of people believing how certain fans treat the story reflect their irl views but not their own is crazy.

End statement is: I honestly don't even know man, I've been writing this too long and just like no man on that ship was perfect or really helped Anya when it mattered and I feel like pitting them against each other in discussion on who did the least or most or how it was justified sucks cause in the end Anya always did the most and best thing for herself.

[that-girl-glader]

Spot the difference games getting harder and harder....

[evil-giggling]

it's always a pleasant surprise when i look for more haikaveh on artists' account and i see wangxian there as well. like yes don't we all love these queer ships who studied under the same educational institution, who ultimately had a falling out because of a difference of their beliefs. and don't we all love it when the one who is popularly headcanoned as autistic expresses their genuine concern for the one who is so selfless that it is a detriment to their physical, mental, and emotional health in a way that the latter interprets as irritation or a genuine distaste of their personhood. isn't it also great that years after their falling out they now live together and after a Series of Unfortunate Misunderstandings now get to have a domestic, happy life.

[paperlignes]

- Ah, this is your wish? - This is my wish.

Bonus Guillermo:

[massivementalitynut]

My Anniversary Couple Comm from @avonyxx

[telesodalite]

I need to be weirder about the scavengers and cannibalism...

[thefuturewithoutus]

it is kind of really funny that at some point silco must have realized jinx was very mentally unwell and was like hmm... the child should still get to have her machine guns and explosives..... would be fucked up otherwise....

[mariailoveyou-guerin]

they are off their meds again meaning misogynior is in full force for the yt mlm yaoi fethis community like im so tired when can they stop existing so we and woman especially blackwoman can be free from them for good

and watch the losers jump on me like I will care and start probing my point by being racist an misogynistic