#i think the TLDR of this would be along the lines of

[ask-artsy-oncie]

Actually I’m going to make my own post about it.

TOH fans, I feel for you, I really do, because it always sucks when this happens, and it sucks even more when the motivation is based in bigotry

but you guys, especially the younger guys, really need to learn to stop constantly pitting this show against other shows. I think in general it’s just not a good mentality to have in towards the TVA industry, regardless of what show you’re a fan of, but I’ve been noticing it a lot with TOH - first it was its achievements, and now it’s its marketability.

The TVA industry in general is really fucking hellish. There’s a lot I could say about it, but it would just derail the post. Regardless, while it especially sucks when shows get canceled for being “too progressive”, it’s really important to note that, had the show been devoid of anything of that nature, it’s very, very likely that a network exec would have just found another excuse to end it. 

A LOT of shows have been screwed over for little to no obvious reason. Ratings don’t always play a role, sometimes a network will push premiers to shitty timeslots or side-channels or streaming services to kill ratings as an excuse to end the show. Sometimes executives change over the course of a show’s airing and this new exec doesn’t like the show for whatever reason. Sometimes the creator is hard to work with. Sometimes the network just decides they don’t care (a lot of the times they just don’t care).

Almost every - if not every single show I’ve seen fans compare TOH to has been screwed over, cut short, or otherwise got extremely mistreated by its network. I know it’s a cynical take, but most animated shows are in the same, sinking boat, and it really doesn’t matter if that boat is rainbow-colored or not. 

It is 100% super important to talk about how going to great lengths to properly represent a marginalized demographic can be a death wish in the entertainment industry as a whole - and how that impacts TVA (which is typically geared towards younger audiences) especially - please, don’t let any word of this post discourage you from doing so. The point here is to better recognize the realities of the TVA industry and to avoid pulling others down to hoist yourselves up. Disney made a horrible decision, and a lot of it was motivated by bigotry. All that is true. Can we talk about it without displaying that we know little to nothing about the very industry we’re supposed to be discussing?

I’m getting really tired of seeing so much discourse spreading around about the TVA industry by people who don’t seem to care to much for actually learning about the TVA industry. If you’re really passionate about something, I think it’s important to take the time to really learn about the context through which it exists.

[david-talks-sw]

why do so many people hate on Mace Windu?

'Cause he's too much of a badass for them to handle! Jokes aside, this is a subject I came across a few times. If I had to guess why?

1. "Mace was a jerk to Anakin!"

A lot of people see Mace as "always being antagonistic towards Anakin". When - if you look at the facts - that's not really true.

In Episode I, sure, Mace initially votes to not let Anakin into the Jedi Order. But shortly after, when it's put to a vote a second time, Yoda is the only one still not wanting Anakin to join.

Implying... that Mace was cool with it!

Hell, there's even a non-canon comic that covered this, with Windu actually arguing letting Anakin into the Jedi Order against Yoda because he thinks Anakin will bring Balance to the Force.

In the comic, he also suggests giving Qui-Gon’s lightsaber to Anakin.

In Episode II, he's actually defending Anakin. He and the Council are confident in Anakin's ability to have his first solo mission, praising Anakin's skills and - in a deleted scene - even reminding Obi-Wan to have more faith in his Padawan.

Finally, in Episode III, at a first glance, it looks like Mace is indeed written in a way that makes him antagonistic to Anakin (the same Anakin who turns to the Dark Side in the same film, so maybe his instincts weren't so off after all...)

A lot of people say "he says he doesn't trust Anakin!" and I've already covered what that's really about here:

TLDR: he says he doesn't trust Anakin when he's 1) on a secret mission 2) with Palpatine. Which makes sense, because Anakin isn't exactly subtle and he has an emotional attachment toward Palpatine who everyone can see has Anakin wrapped around his finger.

Also, if you wanna count it... the novelization of Revenge of the Sith justifies this by the unbearable stress he is under.

A stress due to the Clone War and his whole Order being drafted into being warriors when they're supposed to be diplomats, thus causing hundred if not friends of his comrades to die (and don't even get me started on how hard the loss of clone lives must weigh on him).

Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu writer Matt Owens seems to echo this sentiment:

"The Jedi are like atomic bombs: they have so much power, but they really don’t want to use it. Mace is a masterful warrior who doesn’t relish fighting. Such use of his power goes against his code, but if he doesn’t use it, what will become of the Republic? As a member of the Jedi Council, he is under pressure because he is a leader. He’s forced into an uncomfortable situation where he is doing something he doesn’t entirely agree with for what he believes is ultimately the greater good. But he has to be sure of himself because he has so many others looking to him for direction." - Matt Owens, Star Wars Insider Special Edition, 2021

So it's not personal toward Anakin at all, but Anakin's whining and making it all about himself certainly isn't relieving the stress.

But hey, let's suppose he is a dick to Anakin in Episode III (he's not, but let's go along with it).

That's still one movie out of three. So if there's a change in attitude toward Anakin from Attack of the Clones to Revenge of the Sith...

... what spurred it?

What event would make Mace go from telling Obi-Wan to have faith in Anakin to having him be adversarial toward him?

It would've been nice to see that in an episode from The Clone Wars, which partially exists to fill in the gaps between AOTC and ROTS.

I mean, was there a time where, for example, Anakin prioritized saving Ahsoka over a bunch of people in a building, leaving Mace to do it himself?

Still, we get moments between them, and they're not all negative:

They have fun banter, at times, right? But then we hear Dave Filoni say that Mace had an issue with Anakin from day one.

"You see, Mace Windu’s the guy that tells little Anakin ‘no, he will not be trained’. You cut to Anakin and he’s like, ‘What??’ There’s this look on Anakin’s face like, 'I’m gonna remember that, you’re a negative, why are you doing that?’ So you have to look at it, the Jedi are - though they mean really well for Anakin – they’re always telling him 'no’. They’re always saying 'no, you’ll be expelled, you’ll have to leave the Jedi Order’. [...] So when you get to that point-- all these things I’m talking about get you to that point where Palpatine’s on the ground and Mace Windu has a lightsaber at his throat and he’s saying “he’s the traitor”. So Anakin’s there and he’s choosing between the guy that’s always told him “no” - that, while he respects him and [Mace’s] not a mentor, but he’s a fellow Jedi - and the father figure [of Palpatine] who holds the key possibly to immortality and you saving this person you love in Padmé." - Dave Filoni, Rebel Force Radio, Star Wars Fan Days III, 2009

So... I honestly don't know who to listen to.

If we're meant to see Mace as "negative toward Anakin" then the episodes failed to convey that properly.

If we're not, then why is Dave Filoni saying the above?

Same thing goes for the recently-published novel Brotherhood, written by Mike Chen.

Like, I want to give the novel the benefit of the doubt and say "yeah, but we're only seeing Mace through Anakin's eyes, so of course the opinion is biased and exaggerated." But then I hear Mike Chen say stuff like this...

"And, like, [Anakin’s] constantly pulled in every direction and the finally, when you go from that to Revenge of the Sith where it’s like “hey, my wife is going to die unless I listen to my cool uncle, who has never been mean to me” and then you have Mace Windu who’s like “TAKE A SEAT, SKYWALKER!” y’know, it’s like who’re you gonna listen to? It really makes sense, it feels very organic, from that perspective." - Mike Chen, Beyond the Blast Doors, 2021

... and it's clear my arguing "unreliable narration" would just be me expressing a headcanon.

2. "Mace represents everything wrong with the Jedi"

Then, another argument I heard once is that he embodies everything wrong with the Jedi Order. As said in this comment here:

Wow, that's a whole bunch of hate hurled in Mace's direction.

Also inaccurate.

The fact is, Mace is - like most Jedi - a space shaolin/buddhist monk. He's incredibly wise and spiritual as heck. But when it comes to it, he's a no-bullshit kind of guy, especially when considering the Jedi being forced into a war.

As Samuel L. Jackson put its:

"Mace is a voice of reason. He thinks before he speaks. He's pretty calculating, mostly even-tempered, and he's not to be trifled with. He knows that the war is coming and he has a pretty good idea who is behind it. [...] Mace Windu has known Obi-Wan Kenobi for a very long time. Mace was a contemporary of Qui-Gon Jinn. He understood his faults and admired his qualities and can see that Obi-Wan has taken on some of Qui-Gon's strongheadedness by wanting to train Anakin Skywalker." - Samuel L. Jackson, as reported in Star Wars Insider: The Skywalker Saga Collector’s Edition, 2021

That doesn't mean Mace isn't compassionate or empathetic. On the contrary:

Here’s Mace taking down a criminal who was using child soldiers.

See that teenager who shoots at him in the final panels? At the end of the comic, he tries to have her freed.

Then, here’s Mace going out of his way to save a Twi'lek girl.

And this post, right here, lists a ton of examples of Mace putting others before himself in The Clone Wars.

Oh, you wanna go Legends? Let's go Legends.

Here’s Mace before and after saving an old lady from thugs.

Here’s Mace being kind to a starving Sith worshipper who tried to start a mob to kill them, choosing talk and mercy over violence.

Here's Mace praising Anakin!

One time, Obi-Wan almost died on a mission. Mace stayed by Anakin's side the whole time Obi-Wan was undergoing surgery.

Here’s Mace calmly agreeing to disagree with a Jedi who thinks the Order shouldn’t have joined the Clone War.

Hell, here’s Mace being nice to animals.

Mace Windu embodies everything right about the Jedi Order.

3. Misc "arguments"...

A number of silly, small things I hear sometimes:

"Oh he called her 'citizen' what an asshole!" He refers to her the same way she referred to herself. Ahsoka's been gone for months she doesn't have context and letting her into the fold in that particular instant would spell disaster. It's not personal, Mace even gives her a respectful nod before the call ends.

Then there's:

"Mace never apologized for the way the Council treated Ahsoka!" Because Plo Koon apologized on behalf of the whole Council.

“You have OUR most humble Ahsoka.” Plural. He’s speaking for all of them, nobody contradicts him, thus showing they agree. It’s a 22-minute TCW episode, they’re not gonna have each Council member apologize individually. It’s common sense. I'd also hazard that the "this was your real trial" line lingered from the first draft of the script as originally, Ahsoka didn't leave the Order at the end of "The Wrong Jedi" and prolly got promoted to Jedi Knight.

Also:

"Mace Windu once believed himself to be the Chosen One, he was jealous of Anakin!"

Uh... I'm just gonna post this one again...

Then there's this one I read which just made me cringe:

*sigh*

Yeah that TOTALLY sounds like something Mace “You Can’t Kill The Zillo Beast 'Cause It’s An Innocent Living Creature” Windu would do.

Intentionally leading his Jedi brothers to slaughter is so typical Mace “Get The Men To Safety While I Risk My Life For Them” Windu behavior.

So, why do some fans not like him?

I honestly dunno.

The only other reason I can think of (like the other Jedi, he's not as flawed as Anakin, some see him and the Jedi as holier than thou, he's nothing like Luke Skywalker) is explored more in detail here:

[theophagie-remade]

I really have mixed feelings on the whole "parents should always monitor what media their kids engage with" discourse because, while obviously children should be taught to be responsible about what is age-appropriate for them and what isn't, and while there's a line they shouldn’t cross until they're older, I also can't deny that, if I had been precluded from engaging with a certain kind of content when I was little, I likely wouldn't have had the means to safely deal with some of my feelings

Some things I was drawn to out of genuine enjoyment regardless so they don't really count in this context (although natural tastes are often ignored in these kinds of discussions because of the false belief that coping with trauma is the only acceptable answer as to why someone would enjoy certain themes in fiction), but a series of underlying issues did make other things of comfort to me, very much so, and I get that I could consciously and safely watch and read about them in the first place only because I was responsible enough to know my limits even at a young age, that this isn't the case for many (most?) children. And yet, at the same time, I don't even want to think about what might have happened if the only "tools" capable of helping me had been taken away from me

[sailorsally]

dean and cas baby jack endgame is the most delicious thing actually and every time someone says something along the lines of "that's just boring. where is the conflict in domesticity? what would even happen in 200k post finale domestic deancas w jack fic?" im like "EVERYTHING" Dean would have to finally work thru he trauma of having had to become a parent to Sam at such an early age. He would have bad days and feel trapped in the role again but then he'd realise it's not the same as it was because this time he is not doing this alone, Cas is there with him. Dean would try to contain his anger bubbling but occasionally raise his voice at Jack when the kid starts throwing food because for Dean who grew up food insecure that is an unimaginable waste, even if he knows they are well off now. It's just ingrained in him at this point. He would of course feel super bad about these incidents and avoid Cas. Maybe decide to sleep on a couch. See? Another conflict!

And Cas!!!! Cas would have huge moments of self doubt because Jack is a human he is supposed to raise. But is he qualified? He hasn't even been human long enough for this. God what is he supposed to do?? Dean would tell him to calm down because he's doing great and Cas would turn back bitchfaced and say "I don't think you understand what a huge responsibility raising a child is Dean" More conflict!!!!!! Tldr; when you have men (angel?) with issues and throw in a baby the issues become more ... crunchy!!

[lavenoon]

Would it be too much to ask for more Eclipse tidbits?

👉🏻👈🏻🥺

So @ordinarydoodles had a brilliant idea that is now AU canon, check replies of this post or this tldr: Eclipse works for the same agency, but in the research & development department, and it's about as chaotic as you would imagine.

The lore around him is also growing - He's actually the first one to score a position in the agency, but couldn't keep his mouth shut. After some "You can't just tell us that, that was a secret!" reprimands, Sun and Moon however also want in on the deal, and after some very subtle (about as subtle as a brick to the face) inquiring he lands his brothers a job as field agents. The agency still doesn't like it too much, and transfer Sun and Moon to a different location, which all three are pretty happy with. They get a temporary accommodation before moving in with Y/N, and the plot kicks off!

The gremlin himself.

His lab assistants constantly suffer, but he's allover nice about it all (if a little too excited about blowing things up)

Eclipse: Lab safety isn't real and can't hurt me! Assistant: I don't think that's how it works -

Eclipse: No one expected my existence and now I can't die *blows something up* Assistant: Should we be concerned about this actually?

He's always first in the line of fire (literally, more often than not) too, so they figure just staying behind him while he does his thing at least ensures survival.

Y/N and him get along pretty well - on a purely platonic level. Still, there's some shenanigans with all three celestial boys vying for attention, given that their relationship isn't the best. All four are starved for affection/ attention so it's a predestined mess.

[blindbeta]

Trope Discussion: Blind Characters Feeling Faces

[A less-detailed summary or TLDR is provided at the end.]

This might be a funny one to many readers, although I feel like writing about it was inevitable.

Some would argue this topic isn’t exactly going to change the lives of blind people. It probably isn’t that serious to some, while others have argued strongly that it can negatively influence blind people’s perception of themselves. I have, however, never found a trope so commonly hated as this one. As diverse as our opinions are about certain topics, the trope of feeling faces is more likely to receive a negative reaction compared to other tropes that may draw mixed reactions.

Here are a few examples of blind people’s feelings on touching faces:

-an article by DeafBlind writer and activist, Elsa Sjunneson-Henry

-a Twitter post by a DeafBlind person with a few DeafBlind and blind people replying

The thread is started by Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, who states, “Y’all I need to do an entire fucking article on this whole “blind people touching faces” trope.” To which DeafBlind content creator, Kit Englard, responds that the trope is really weird and “not a thing”, at least outside of romantic or sexual contexts. Another blind Twitter user, @reannabaenana, also adds: “That trope always came off weird to me, even before I was diagnosed as blind. Like, how exactly does fondling somebody's face help you know them better?”

-this article on blindness in media includes the following about touching faces: “We don’t need to touch your face - often we don’t even care what you look like. I know a lot of media (including Daredevil) features the infamous “blind person touching their face” scene but this isn’t your average blind person behavior.”

-this article on top misconceptions about interacting with blind people includes this. “If the idea of someone groping your face gives you the heebejeebees, that’s normal… because it’s weird. People who are blind follow the same social conventions as anyone else, which means that it is highly unlikely they will want to have their hands all over the face of someone they are not intimately acquainted with. In fact, according to many visually impaired people, feeling someone’s face does not actually provide very much helpful information about a person’s looks. There are exceptions of course, such as for close family members or romantic partners. Parents who are blind will use their hands to familiarize themselves with their children’s features and children may feel the faces of the significant people in their lives.”

Another one on myths states this:

“People who are blind live by the same social conventions as everyone else. If you think having your face groped is weird, you’re right, and a blind person isn’t going to want to have their hands all over someone they aren’t intimately close with either. Some exceptions could include romantic partners, children with vision loss familiarizing themselves with significant family members, and blind parents getting to know their child’s features.”

On TikTok, Molly Burke, who is a blind YouTuber and influencer, had this to say: “There is a big misconception that blind people feel faces. As a blind person who has many blind friends I don’t personally know any blind person who feel faces. Not that they don’t exist. Some people who are blind and Deaf or who are blind and have cognitive disabilities do use that to connect with friends, family, loved one, but certainly none of us just go around feeling stranger’s faces.”

Molly adds that she has never felt anyone’s face outside of a joke.

@askablindperson also contributed the following:

“I am a high partial blind person with LCA since birth, and personally I have never felt faces nor felt particularly interested in doing so from a blindness perspective. Granted, my love language is definitely touch, and I’m also very physical with partners, so I am interested in touching faces in the sense of a lovers caress or poking their nose and things along those lines, but I’ve never felt particularly interested in touching faces for the sake of exploring them non-visually with my blindness in mind. I do have a lot of residual vision, so at least for me, I’ve never felt any particular need to satisfy my curiosity because I can always look at pictures and zoom in as much as I want, so I feel like I have a pretty solid library of what faces are like.

That being said though, I’ve also been heavily involved in blindness community for the last 10 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever met more than one or two blind people in all of the thousands I’ve encountered who have expressed an interest in touching faces. Typically, in my experience, most of the people I have seen take interest in touching faces have been new to blindness, or not very comfortable with their blindness, or maybe still in one of those early acceptance faces of romanticizing their blindness and thinking of it in the ways the media has taught them to. It often seems to be blind people who may be dealing with a lot of internalized ableism and still enjoying things like inspiration porn. I don’t think that’s universally the case for everyone, but it does seem to be the general trend in my own experiences.

I have never been fond of the portrayal of blind people feeling faces in media. It seems like it’s almost a staple for almost every blind character in media, even though in reality, I’ve only met maybe three out of a thousand who’ve ever expressed interest in doing so. At the very least it feels like a gross exaggeration and misrepresentation of the community and thinking of blind people as a monolith who must all universally want or need this experience.

Even more than that though, I think it reinforces this idea that knowing what a person physically looks like is a fundamental building block for understanding the world and finding fulfillment in it, which I do not believe to be true. It seems to reinforce the idea that you don’t truly know a person until you know exactly what precise configuration all of their fleshy face lumps happened to form into, which I just don’t jive with. I think it’s yet another way that the media often portrays blind people as fundamentally lacking something unless you give them some form of visual access, whether that’s seeing through the eyes of a magic animal, or relying on a dog or human guide over a cane, or describing family photos to them in detail, or having them feel all over a person’s face.

It reminds me of all of those sob stories about how tragic it is that you’ll never be able to see your family smile, as if seeing it makes the experience any more valid and real. As if that moment with that person is just about physically seeing the skin and meet on the face shift around, rather than hearing them smile through their voice or listening to them laugh or the simple fact that you are sharing a moment of joy with that person. Because, to me, at the end of the day, that relationship is built on the joy you are sharing, not on whether or not you can hear or see the physical manifestations of that joy. What matters is that you know that person is smiling and happy, not the way in which you know it.

I think it can be a harmful idea to put in the heads of real life blind people, too, because it can leave them getting caught up on whether or not they can physically see their family smiling on their birthday, leaving them feeling sad and lost on holidays instead of being able to fully be present in the moment and just enjoy the joy they are sharing with those people in that very moment. Not only does it tell sighted people that unless we feel faces, we are missing something fundamental and must all crave visual representations of things because vision must always be better and more trustworthy, but it also tells blind people that that’s what they should want and focus on and worry about when losing vision, which is a recipe for rumination and fixation and depression. It sells this idea that the experience isn’t complete without knowing the minute details of a person’s facial fat and muscle distribution, which is just silly when you think about it like that.

As you can tell, I have a lot of strong opinions about this particular topic. I don’t believe in casting judgment on those blind people who may be interested in touching faces, especially if it turns out they are still in the process of truly accepting their blindness or just have some idle curiosity, but seeing a face touching seen in the media is a pretty sure fire way to get me to grown out loud and close the show entirely for a few minutes to go rant about it.”

A Few Examples From Media

I cannot find a specific origin of this trope. However, it is so common that I often find it in media in addition to many things I beta read. For example, it is mentioned in Daredevil, according to this article. “Foggy says Matt has touched his face, Karen wants him to touch hers, and Foggy notes that Matt has touched the faces of many women he’s brought home. The show makes it seem as if this is the only way a blind person can get a visual of another person, or that it’s essential to relationships.”

And in the book Blind by Rachel DeWoskin, two blind characters feel each other’s faces to see what they look like. In the scene, both characters, Sebastian and Emma, attend a school for the blind. During a break imagining shapes of clouds, Sebastian asks to feel Emma’s face. The scene reads:

‘But then out of nowhere, Seb quit with the fake clouds and said, “I want to see what you look like.” Maybe he’d heard me hating it, hating him, hating Briarly, hating being blind.’

Emma gives permission and the description follows:

‘He reached over and took what seemed like hours, tracing my face with his fingers, moving them through my hair and then slowly down my forehead to where my sunglasses were.’

It continues: ‘Sebastian kept his on me, skipping the band around my eyes and feeling my mouth instead, my chin, my throat.’

Next, Sebastian invites her to touch his face, saying, “Here’s what I look like, Em.” What follows is a paragraph of what he looks like. Afterward, Emma thinks, ‘Maybe that new, 3-D feeling could become my own kind of vision’.

With such examples in mind, this trope is defined by the idea that blind people not only want but need to touch people’s faces.

Why Does This Matter?

This is not something blind people do regularly. This is not a typical greeting in blind spaces. This is not something unique to or necessary in blind culture. The scenes in media present touching faces as a natural, expected part of the blind experience, a way for us to connect. That is not considered authentic for many of us. Which means writers need to be more aware of their choices and the thought processes behind them.

Feeling faces happens constantly in media. It rarely happens in real life.

Why Don’t We Touch People’s Faces?

Several possible reasons include:

-cultural reasons

-hygiene

-injury, whether irritating an existing injury or accidentally causing one

-sensitivity to touch

-trauma

-cultural and individual values of personal space or lack of displays of public affection

-cultural and individual values of bodily autonomy

-lack of a desire to touch faces

-and more

Touching someone without permission is a bad idea. Again, this is not an established, expected part of blind communities. Portraying it as common for blind people in fiction is inaccurate, especially for strangers.

Blind people don’t need to touch faces. And blind people don’t need or necessarily want their faces touched either just because they are blind.

What Happens In This Trope?

This trope exists when a blind character touches another character’s face, usually because of a desire or need to see what the other looks like. The other character can be blind or not blind. Sometimes the other character touches their face in return.

In all the examples I can find, the blind character touching faces is totally blind.

Again, this trope is about the blind character learning what the person’s face looks like. This doesn’t work for a few reasons.

Blind people absolutely care about appearances and fashion, particularly their own. But not everyone is struck by the immediate need to know what their boss looks like. Or a stranger’s face. Or even their lover’s face, in some cases.

This isn’t something blind people need to do solely because they can’t see.

Another, bigger problem is the idea that blind people can only connect if they learn what the other person looks like. This is not true.

Markers of This Trope

The character who feels faces is portrayed as totally blind.

The character asks to feel someone’s face or is otherwise motivated by the desire to know what the other person looks like.

This is portrayed as a typical experience of blind people everywhere.

The touch allows the blind character to explore the other’s face. It is not a simple caress.

Touching faces is portrayed as allowing the blind person to connect with the other, such as in the example I provided from the novel, Blind.

Should Face-Touching Scenes Be Included in Stories?

I’m not entirely against it. Lovers often touch or hold each other’s faces. Caregivers may touch the faces of small children.

However, gently cupping someone’s face as a sign of affection is very different from the trope.

One difference is that people who aren’t blind also touch faces in that manner. It isn’t specifically connected to blindness.

Another difference is the motivation behind the action. The touch is not motivated by trying to figure out what the other person looks like.

The trope also usually shows the blind person running their fingers over the entire face, rather than focusing on one part. For example, it is usually, “Let me show you what I look like” rather than “One of my eyebrows is a funny shape. Wanna see?” or “Let me see your new earrings.”

Ideas For What To Do Instead

If you decide you don’t want to write the typical face-touching scenes, here are a few ideas for alternative scenes.

If your blind character wants to know what someone looks like, have someone give verbal descriptions. This can also help for things that are not tactile, such as make-up, tattoos, or other markings. Feeling someone’s face doesn’t tell you as much about appearance as one might think.

Another alternative is to give the character a motive for touching faces other than figuring out what someone looks like. Are they doing it to express affection? Are they trying to get someone’s attention? Are they teasing the other person?

It also helps to consider the character’s culture and how touching someone’s face is understood. Are they culturally permitted to touch anyone’s face or only a lover? What about family? And does the setting matter? Same with age: a child feeling the face of family member because they are curious is going to read differently.

I would also like to add that many writers write about touching faces and learning what someone looks like as a sign of intimacy between two characters. I wonder if writers could find other ways to show intimacy. I wonder if they might explore why their blind character feels the need to know what someone looks like. I wonder what alternatives are not being explored.

Consider alternate motivations for your characters and perhaps a different way of doing things than you may have previously.

Maybe instead of touching each other’s faces, Sebastian and Emma could have held hands and actually talked about their feelings. Or maybe Emma, as a newly blind person, believes the stereotype about touching faces and wants to try it for herself. Perhaps Seb has a different opinion on it.

Rather than touch Karen’s face in Daredevil, Matt doesn’t need to do so to feel connected to her. Perhaps the show could show intimacy through little moments, such as the couple doing sighted guide without needing to talk about it.

Perhaps instead of relying on overused and often disliked tropes such as this one, writers could use their creativity to explore something new.

Maybe instead of assuming all blind people feel faces, stories could explore the different attitudes toward it, the different conditions under which people do it, like the various attitudes from blind people I shared at the start of this post. Although this would require more than one blind character, which many creatives are surprisingly hesitant to include.

Additional Thoughts on Blindness

I wrote that the characters touching faces are almost always totally blind. I feel that it would be a lost opportunity for readers if I didn’t mention that most blind people can see.

Percentages of totally blind people vary according to source, but the American Foundation For the Blind estimates about 15% of blind people are totally blind. Some sources say 20%. That leaves roughly 80% to 85% of blind people with light perception, at least. This includes people with more vision than that as well.

This means that the idea that all blind people have no idea what their loved ones look like isn’t strictly true. Remembering that many people on the blindness spectrum have some remaining vision is important to portraying blindness. Additionally, vision is not static. It can change over time.

I would like add another alternative here.

Perhaps your blind character has some remaining vision. Imagine the new things they could discover about someone they love when they can get close enough. That, to me, is much more realistic and intimate than touching someone’s face.

In the end, it is up to each writer if they want to include such scenes in their work. I hope that this post can provide some questions to consider and perhaps spark some fresh ideas. Writers who choose to include it might even do so in a unique way. As with everything on this blog, all I want is for writers to think about what they write and why.

TLDR:

Blind people typically dislike face-touching scenes or often feel unsatisfied with them, as they reinforce the idea that blind people cannot connect with others, prioritize visual information over other forms of connection, ignore different types / stages of blindness, and rarely show differences in opinions of blind characters regarding feeling faces. Feeling faces also does not provide as much information as people may assume, such as about make-up or facial markings. Alternatives include:

-consider different ways your characters can gain information about appearances

-show differences in blindness

-consider that many blind people have some vision

-show blind characters having different opinions on feeling faces - for example: Molly Burke, a blind YouTuber, suggests that some DeafBlind people may feel faces to connect with others, whereas Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, who is DeafBlind, states in a Twitter thread about blindness and feeling faces: “none of us do it”. As another example, @askablindperson writes that some people who are new to blindness may feel faces either because of discomfort with their blindness or because of internalized ideas from media. While the idea of feeling faces was largely given pushback in everything I found about it, some people suggested times where it might be used. Show this diversity of opinion, if not action, in your blind characters as well.

-factor in culture, age, etc

-write different ways of showing intimacy between characters

-consider motivations for touching faces that aren’t based in figuring out what the other person looks like

-consider any bias in the idea that seeing loved ones is the only way to connect with them

I hope this helps.

[For anyone reading who doesn’t already follow me, I provide sensitivity reading for blind characters and answer questions for writers. See my pinned post for more information.]

This post has been cross-posted onto WordPress where it was previously shared here.

[anonymous-dee]

Ranpo! Is! Autistic Coded!

Hear me out! I definitely think Ranpo from BSD is Autistic coded! It only occurred to me during my second watch-through but a lot of his mannerisms actually match up a lot with my own experiences as someone with ASD! :0

I found a whole article explaining a lot of different things that make him Autistic coded so I'll link it here! But I'll also make a TLDR version too in case the link doesn't work!

BASICALLY!

1.Infodumping/Overtalking

2.Missing tons of social cues

3.Obliviousness in many situations

4.Not understanding/feeling/expressing emotions the same as others

5.Comfort objects and stimming

6.Meltdowns

7.Sensory issues (especially with clothing)

8.Hand flapping

9."Childish" or unusual interests/hyperfixations

I love him so much! (Even though Akutagawa is my ultimate favorite character)! I would love to elaborate on the points made above but the article does a better job than me!

UPDATE!! I JUST STARTED WATCHING SEASON 4 SO UNDERNEATH HERE WILL BE S4 SPOILERS!!! PROCEED WITH CAUTION!!!

So based off of all of the Ranpo LORE revealed in the first episode his Autism beams are stronger than ever because HEAR ME OUT!!!

So it's revealed that Ranpo always gets perceived as childish even when he doesn't wish to be perceived that way (I know he's 14 but he says something along the lines of like "Here we go again, getting treated like a child") which is something many people with Autism (me included) have to deal with from our NT peers

AND! Not to mention the particular eating habits from when Fukuzawa was taking him out to eat red bean bowls with mochi in them and he didn't eat any of the mochi (in any of the 20 bowls)

AAAAAND! This is the spiciest part! It was revealed that Ranpo kept getting fired from jobs because of how blunt he was with the truth and how he would easily confront his superiors about their past or their crimes! It's so hard for many Autistic people to keep a job oftentimes because many of us don't understand social cues!

Another thing was that Ranpo automatically assumed that all of the tiny details he noticed were common knowledge and that everyone was on the same page as him, when in actuality he was noticing things that nobody else had yet to pick up on!

There were many other moments where Ranpo either didn't pick up on social cues or said/acted in ways that were out of pocket or not "normal" if that makes sense, and it only strengthens the argument that Ranpo is Autistic coded!

FUKUZAWA IS SUCH A NICE ADOPTIVE FATHER TO HIM OKAY AAAAH I'M ONLY ONE EPISODE IN BUT LITERALLY I LOVE RANPO SO MUCH! HE JUST LIKE ME FR FR

OKAY SO ANOTHER EDIT/UPDATE!

IN EPISODE 2 RANPO SAYS SOMETHING VERY DISTINCT AND APPLICABLE TO MOST PEOPLE WITH AUTISM AND IT WAS THAT "There's something that everyone else gets that I don't"

And then he has a small meltdown in the theater and you can clearly see people are starting to stare if you look closely

I literally relate to him so much so much so much

IN EPISODE 3, Ranpo also notes that he can't pay attention to things he has no interest in, which is something I personally really struggle with (especially as a college student RIP)

I'm not 100% sure if his breakdown at the end of episode 3 would constitute as something that should be added to this list, but I think it's noteworthy because I myself have also had similar meltdowns that went very similar to Ranpo's and I want to mention it.

I know I keep expanding this list as I find more and more content but somehow Ranpo's existence and the way he is unanimously respected and loved by the ADA is somehow really validating and comforting to me at the same time. I know BSD is fiction but somehow I see myself in Ranpo and yearn to be loved in the way that he is by all of his friends.

[bunjywunjy]

Humane fishing anon here- Sorry I caused you to get that shitty response on my last ask 🙃

I was initially thinking more along the lines of scooping fish into a bucket straight from the water. Would that stress them too badly?

no worries! and yeah honestly, the tldr of this whole thing is "removing the fish from the water in any way is stressful and harmful for them, better to put yourself in the water with them to get pictures"

if the water is shallow enough, you could put a camera with a remote trigger into a clear container and set that in the water, then start taking pics from shore once you see fish start to show up to investigate!

[yvtro]

Very much feels like a lot of people are ignoring Jason’s foundation. Like I think it’s important to pay attention to the later Robin runs for him. Felipe is actually I think an interesting place to start w Jason because it shows a wealthy, connected, powerful man assaulting multiple women, getting away with it, mocking those victims, causing one to kill herself, and there’s nothing Batman or the police or Bruce himself can do about it. That’s what Jason sees and I don’t think the comics touched on it as much as they should but I think it’s pretty clear that a lot of Jason’s motivation comes from seeing that. How do you say “don’t kill, they’ll get there justice from the criminal justice system” when the powerful won’t. And I really don’t see how “don’t deal to children” and controlling the supply is like. Anti-poor people? He has a different stance on crime, esp things like drug crimes, than bruce, who isn’t even from Gotham and is a billionaire CEO who had one shitty day in crime alley that apparently defined his entire existence. If you wanna talk abt shitty characterizations given the background of the characters, it seems crazy to start w Jason and not Bruce, who thinks he knows best and doesn’t do what he can with his resources to fix Gotham.

okay, first of all: i talk about jason and not about bruce because jason is my favourite character. i have plenty of thoughts about bruce re: classism that i could talk about, if asked – but i don't spend much time writing about it, simply because it's not something that gives me a dopamine hit. but if you're curious about my thoughts on bruce – ask me, and i will talk. but since here you're focusing mostly on jason, i will explain my thought process a bit further.

i do think that felipe's storyline is extremely important when it comes to jason's development of his own moral code. but i also think that people forget that what jay focused in this situation was 1. the victim 2.as you said, the fact that the wealthy and connected can get away with their crimes. thus, i think the most reasonable course for jason would to become extremely wary of that power imbalance and the way it corrupts people. but what happens with jason in utrh is not that: jason might say that he is after people who will find their way out of prison easily, but in reality his killing seems completely indiscriminate. his moral code is made into a joke. post utrh there are issues where he kills random goons (the anarky/batcat wedding storyline, for example), blames lower class people for engaging with crime (batman urban legends, if i'm not wrong; "a thief will always be a thief" or something along these lines, said by a man who stole to survive as a kid no less).

i'm not against jason killing per se; if he was a robin hood kind of figure, traveling around and dealing with those in power, if he even became a sort of revolutionary, i would be delighted. but he doesn't become any of these things in his comics. what he does is assuming the power himself and becoming an authoritarian figure. and i think, re: drugs, for example: someone whose mother died of OD should be socially aware enough to know that policing drugs doesn't really help the communities any, right? what helps with drug abuse is healthcare and prevention work, not creating arbitrary laws and targeting dealers at the lowest level of a drug business ladder. "how is controlling the drug supply anti-poor people" well, do you think, realistically, people in the community would have any trust in the person who controls the drug supply?

so, tldr, i think it's specifically the positon of power that i have an issue with. it isolates him from the people, it makes their issues into an abstract that he no longer has ways of relating to. it alienates the victims further. and it strips jason off his sensitivity.

since you mentioned bruce, i will say it creates an ironic situation where there's a 1% character who has more compassion towards petty criminals than a person who comes from that background. jason's answer to bruce's attempt at fixing the system is strikingly similar in some ways because they both conform to regular, uncritical perception of crime, retribution and rehabilitation. they both still work within that system, it's just that jason is more unhinged about it. and i don't know, i think jay should be more aware of the ways society pressures people to commit crimes, but also about how acts that are labeled criminal often aren't even inherently immoral but rather target marginalised groups. but no, the way he's written is just: head empty. crime bad.

i will finish this answer here before i get deep into strain theory, but i hope it makes my stance on it more clear.

[tired-twili]

OK, so I've been having some more thought about oot zelink.

This is more of a rant than anything else so if that's just not what you want to hear then please roll right along. This is mostly me getting just a tad frustrated with some people who feel the need to bring up "how Malink is cannon" on oot zelink things. No hate to the ship at all, if you ship them there rlly is no problem <3

So, I'm sure if your big into oot zelink you've heard the "Oot zelink cant be cannon becasue tp Link is the decendant of oot Link" and then bring in the fact that he lives on ranch. For starters, Lon Lon Ranch and Ordon Ranch are not the same place and just because Link lives there litteraly proves nothing. It is a Ranch...that's not even in Hyrule.

Moving on. As for the royal family, tp zelda isn't necessarily a direct decendant of oot Zelda. What if oot Zelda happend to die without kids, or what if she went missing? A close relative like a cousin, aunt, or uncle could take over the throne and it would still be decendants of the royal line...if you see what I mean. And it's quite obvious that the events of tp take place quite a bit after oot. So say Link and Zelda got married and had a few kids. In the next couple of generations thoes kids own lines would be pretty distant and maybe one would be on the throne and another would have settled down in some village.

I guess my whole point of this is, please don't attack somones ship if you deem your own to be "cannon". The beauty (and sometimes frustrating part haha) of loz is how ambiguous the fates of each hero tends to be, and it gives us fans a chance to seek out our own ending for them. Oot zelink really has just as much chance of being cannon as any other ship <3

TLDR and pls don't try to turn this into a debate or anything. This is my own personal opinion, and if you think I'm spewing nonsense that's ok :) you don't need to interact

[robbyrobinson]

Lesley's Role in the DHMIS TV Show

So what of Lesley? I agree with the idea that DHMIS could be about a man who had the idea for a TV show which he is laughed off until Roy, being a television producer with a lot of influence, heard him out. However, Roy would gradually corrupt the original vision of the show by selling out merchandise and advertising heavily. This would make Red Guy feel enraged because it was his baby, to begin with, and yet, he made a deal with the Devil and signed off his creation to a network. It is legally not his own anymore. So, he left.

With the Yellow Guy, he is Roy's son in a metaphorical and literal sense. He may be based on his real-life son, and by having the rights to DHMIS, he technically is the "father" of the Yellow Guy. Part of the reason why things go wrong in the first 6 videos is that Roy makes everything about lining his pockets. The show grows darker and darker until it eventually forgot what its sole purpose was. Whatever the case, the show starts to decline in quality maybe because of low ratings or failure to generate toys to increase their revenue, which forces the cancellation of the show. For whatever reason, Red Guy learns of it and decides to return. I guess maybe Roy grants this because there was not much there to make bank on. Thus, Red Guy ends the show on his own terms represented by him literally pulling the plug.

And the show would be off the air for years...until a reboot comes along. A lot of things get reboots nowadays, so why would Roy NOT decide to profit off it? He would remember how big and impressive the show was back in its early years and he hopes to get the gravy train running again. But Red Guy, having integrity, does not return neither do any of the writers or cast members.

This is where Lesley comes in. Contrary to what some believe, I don't think Lesley is the true overarching threat since there were more stairs that extend past the attic. She holds a lot of power, but she is merely the writer with the replica of the house being the storyboard. However, she is inexperienced with how to go about writing for a show such as this. It'd be pressure since some older fans especially would be critical if the show is not the same as the original.

What can a writer do with those big shoes to fill? She tries to use nostalgia hence the use of legacy characters and familiar moments. Old teachers are just there as nostalgic bait along with some small references like Duck Guy saying "pesky bee!"

However, that use of nostalgia is a double-edged sword: straying too close to the show may placate old fans but it would alienate the newer generation. The show would lack its own identity and bite completely missing the point of what made the original so special. By appealing to gimmicks and trends, the show would be dated fast and lack substance. Lesley would then introduce new teachers as well, but the audience would not have a reason to care about this new cast of characters as their attention is strictly on the legacy characters. This would also be the reason the teachers lack real weight. The teachers from the original series always got away with their actions and were genuine threats. However, the newer teachers lack those malicious intentions and are almost easy to dispose of. It would give the audience no stakes. No reason to care about whether Duck Guy, Yellow Guy, or Red Guy get into a conflict.

But ultimately, here is the TLDR: Red Guy pitched the idea of a show he wanted to make. He was passionate about it, but no one gave him the time of day. All would be lost, but Roy, as the television producer, would take him up on the offer. Red Guy would be happy to have accomplished his dream, but he realizes that by giving the idea over to the hands of the network, the show was no longer his creation. Red Guy leaves (as symbolized by his head exploding in DHMIS 4) because the final product does not match his vision.

The show tanks and Red Guy comes back to give the show an ending he thought it deserved. The show is off the air for years until the rise of reboots and remakes featuring legacy characters and nostalgia bait to get butts in seats. The show gets a reboot, but the new staff has no idea what they want to do with the show. They rely on nostalgia and it works for a while until the cracks start to show.

[kaymarie-bell]

Chapter 6 theories: Is Actually Diasomnia Brainrot edition

So I made a brief summary of a couple of the newest chapters, including the scene with Malleus and Lilia having a chat under the stars [here]. This is my own translation so there’s bound to be mistakes, but that combo gave me a lot to think about so this is going to be an analysis based on my own interpretation (so canon might prove me wrong afterwards and y’all can bring me the clown shoes then.)

TLDR; I wrote an essay on Silver’s lifespan and Lilia’s cryptic words, and how they might lead to Malleus’ overblot in chapter 7. Also pulled some stuff from the Magical Archives. It’s midnight and I should have been working on actual academic stuff so this might not even make sense, read at your own discretion.

There has been many discussions about the angst potential the Diasomnia boys have, but when we’re talking about lifespans in specific the topic almost always focuses on Silver in specific. We can infer that since he is the only human in his family, he is the most likely to grow old and die first. This line of thought leads to the angsty fic ideas about Lilia and Malleus (plus Sebek) saying goodbye to Silver; however that conversation made me (and many others I’m sure) start thinking that: what if instead of having Lilia say goodbye and move on with his life he has already decided that when Silver goes he goes with him?

Lilia has lived for a long time, he always makes sure to remind the players that, and when he thinks about humans he seems to navigate towards their short lifespans almost every time. During that conversation Malleus voices both his loneliness (he basically feels a sense of companionship with ruins since they are also “left behind in history” along with fae) and his discomfort at not having MC around, and Lilia’s immediate reaction is to remind him how fae have extremely long lifespans unlike humans so he must cherish the memories he makes. This could feel like Lilia trying to stop Malleus from getting too attached to MC as they are human, but Lilia himself has familial ties with another human so it’s possible that this is a reflection of something he has been thinking about for a while now…

Lilia is aware of the differences between humans and fae, so he is undoubtedly aware of Silver’s most likely future. His comment about how this might be the last time he wishes on the aligned stars came out of nowhere, and even Malleus was confused. The amount of years between this date and the last time the stars aligned might be important, the 18 years was a direct reference to Hercules so that is not worrying, but then he says it could’ve been either 100 or 300 years ago…So let’s say that this only happens once every one hundred years at the very least, that many years seem to be nothing for a fae- but it happens to be right around the life expectancy of a human. So unless Lilia has been suffering from some illness or curse that even Malleus is unaware of that makes him think he is running out of time, then it could be tied with how long Silver has left to live.

On the topic of curses, what if Silver’s tendency to fall sleep anytime is a curse and Lilia is aware of that? Silver seems to represent the sword used to slain Maleficent, yet the sleeping (plus being raised by fairies) is closer to Princess Aurora. Which is interesting because if the things Silver’s character is meant to represent are the direct enemy of what Malleus represents, then what’s going to happen between them during Chapter 7? The other characters who also have the hero-aligned/villain thing going on did follow their counterparts’ story (Jamil controlling Kalim like Jafar and the Sultan, Rook and Vil and the Huntsman’s betrayal) causing the overblot, but I doubt that Silver would willingly turn against Malleus as their relationship seems closer to the live-action movie “Maleficent” than the animated “Sleeping Beauty.”

I wrote all of that to establish the background as to how I think Malleus will overblot: something will happen to Silver (or maybe is already happening) and Lilia will either be affected as well or he will straight up sacrifice himself in exchange for Silver. This was reinforced to me by Idia’s musings about the causes of OBs, how is not only based on overuse of magic plus the state of emotional distress at the time but also on the individual’s entire past. He says that rather than a single moment, is more like a chain of events plus a trigger, and the trigger is difficult to identify or control because it depends on each individual’s heart (plus there’s also his comment of someone possibly causing OBs on purpose...might be a red herring, might be foreshadowing.) Malleus is too OP to possibly OB by overusing magic, so the emotional distress influenced by his past seems more likely. And it just so happens that every single thing we learn about Malleus’ past is about how lonely he has been growing up. Overblot cause? Malleus’ loneliness and despair at being faced with losing the people he cares about the most.

I think that this is how Silver would fulfill his part as the hero-aligned character that leads to the overblot, and how Lilia’s influence would not be able to stop it. What about Sebek you say? He’s going to be our newest addition to the “save the day” squad.

-Something I’d like to use for this argument is the Magical Archives (art book/ guide for the game.) The Archives have character profiles and the way they are arranged seems deliberate. First they go by dorms which is to be expected, but then the characters from each dorm are placed by what it seems relevancy to their respective chapters.

Each section starts with the Dorm Leaders, the ones overblotting (Kalim being the exception, but as we know Jamil was supposed to be the dorm leader so I’m counting it)

Then the dorms with more than two characters have the Dorm Leader being followed by the character that influences them the most: Riddle —> Ace / Leona —> Jack / Azul —> Jade / Vil —> Epel. And Diasomnia? Malleus is followed by Silver.

I considered reasons why they would be arranged like this and concluded that:

1. Is not Leader —> Vice-leader as this only works with Octavinelle and two-character dorms

2. Is not Leader —> 1st year, 2nd years, 3rd years because while it could be argued that other the dorms follow this pattern, Diasomnia goes Malleus (Leader) Silver (2nd) Sebek (1st) and Lilia (3rd)

The Archives were released around the same time as Scarabia chapter, so main story info ends there. However, Pomefiore followed the pattern of Dorm Leader —> Most Relevant Character, so I think it’s safe to say that it is the same case for Diasomnia.

[dickmus1k]

For the longest time I thought Laurent wore leather gloves because he didn't like to touch people and then I realised in my head I was confusing him with Kaz Brekker.

And now I am thinking about the similarities Kanej and Lamen share with each other. Both Kaz and Laurent see their love interest as a transaction at first (Although Damen was a gift in Laurents case) and both are also very distrustful and tense when it comes to touch- whether sexual or otherwise. (Laurent literally had Damen whipped when he touched him that first time)

Kaz and Laurent both bond with their respective love interests over how useful they can be. Damen is extremely useful from a military standpoint and Inej's athletic abilities are invaluable to the Crows.

I also believe that when they start to develop feelings for their love interests, they both hold themselves back to some degree. In Kaz's case it is very explicit that he does this but I think in Laurent's case its more subtle (I'll post about this seperately later maybe)

As for Inej and Damen. Well. Both of them think somehing along the lines of "Is he fucking crazy?" At some point so thats a start.

But both Inej and Damen genuinely believe that their love interests can be good people despite everything Kaz or Laurent have done or said. A HUGE example of this in CaPri is the line, "I think if I gave you my heart, you would treat it tenderly." I think the reason why its so significant to Laurent and so many readers is that throughout the series, Laurent appeared to have done anything but.

This is the longest thing ive ever posted and possibly the most incoherent but i hope people enjoy this LMFAO

TLDR SoC/Capri solos

[golden-wingseos]

give me a love like no other

how they'd confess.

featuring —

✧ chongyun, venti, zhongli (separate) x gn!reader

warnings ―

✧ not proofread

notes ―

✧ chongyun nation RISE!

chongyun is super nervous. he's fiddling with his fingers, eating popsicles, taking deep breaths... anything to forget the thought that you were coming to meet him in 30 minutes

thank rex lapis you weren't the type to meet up with him 30 minutes early!

... right?

chongyun stops his jitters and looks around for you

... nope! okay, back to panicking

xingqiu and xiangling are hidden in the bushes by the dock of liyue harbor, watching their friend reciting his lines of confession over and over again like a mantra.

they deadpanned. first of all, you weren't even here! second of all, you'd be coming in... 29 minutes! man up, chongyun!

(fun fact: he could not man up in time. in the middle of the 500th recitation, you appeared)

now introducing: chongyun! king of panicking!

"Uh!..." Chongyun pauses his brief (long) lapse of anxiousness, staring at you with those same icy eyes as he eyes you up and down.

"Oh, hey Chongyun! Did I keep you waiting?"

". . ." He short-circuited, steam leaving his reddened face as he completely forgot what he was reciting minutes prior.

"... Chongyun?" You step closer, worried hands reached out to feel his forehead in a worried gesture, completely oblivious to the way he's stuttering and muffling his words like a ghost could hear it.

"AYO!! CHONGYUN!!! HURRY UP!" You hear from the bushes, shocked once Xiangling and Xingqiu appear like groundhogs from the ground, their expressions desperate from writhing in agony.

But Chongyun already fainted, hitting the floor with a thump!

"To think he didn't even eat a chili!" Xiangling groaned, facepalming once Xingqiu dragged the icy exorcist away like a sack of potatoes.

"Is he... uh... okay?" You sweatdropped, tilting your head to get a good view of Xingqiu... throwing Chongyun into the ocean?

"Yep!" Xiangling grinned, making a thumbs-up as Xingqiu came rushing back to you, letter in hand.

"Here, my liege! I knew Chongyun wouldn't be able to complete his task, so I have written it for you!"

(tldr: xingqiu confesses on behalf of chongyun. chongyun recovers from being thrown across the harbor, chongyun passes out again once you tell him you accept his confession.)

the most eccentric one of them all

yes, he just prepared an entire love poem for you. yes, he just gathered every dandelion seed to this very spot so they'd grow.

would he do it again? uh, YEAH!

"Oh, [Name], you're here!" Venti grinned, waving excitedly once he saw your figure, beckoning for you to come join him under the tree at Windrise.

Giving you no time to respond, the bard quickly whipped out his lyre, azure eyes sparkling with mirth as he cleared his throat loudly.

"O' my dearest, this song is for you!"

spewing his feelings out to you in a melodic way, you couldn't help but look around

like. no way venti the bard was confessing to you... right?

maybe he was confessing to those dendro slimes over there! or those hydro slimes?! no way this was happening...

watching your face flicker with shock and confusion, venti would quickly, lift you up with the winds, a playful grin on his face as he continued to sing about his undying love for you

and then, you relished in this feeling. this feeling of adoration and love directed towards you

yes, it was incredibly embarrassing. yes, venti did laugh once he pretended to leave you stranded on top of the tree at windrise

but the fact he. made. a song. for you???

incredible.

now, the only question is:

will you say yes?

the most straightforward of them all

as traditional as zhongli is, he will invite you out to dinner. then, he will tell you his feelings while walking out at the docks

to be in love with you, zhongli knows there's no time to waste. he will arrive with a wallet and a lot of mora, the best suit he can find (just his regular clothes but ironed out), and his hair as silky as possible

oh, and a brilliant silkflower bouquet.

zhongli is not one to disappoint!

"Allow me," Zhongli shared the faintest of smiles, pulling your seat out as he gestured for you to sit.

"Eh... Zhongli? Don't you think this restaurant is quite..." You paused, looking around, "Expensive?"

Zhongli made both your pockets and heart hurt.

"Nonsense. I have brought enough mora for the both of us."

Your face light up, eyes sparkling at the thought of eating at the pavilion's restaurant.

after you both are finished eating, zhongli will be quick to offer up a walk

with the way he asked (politely, a small smile and a hand outstretched), it was no question once you took his gloved hand, allowing him to usher you along liyue harbor

while telling you stories, he could not help but spare a few glances at you. you and your [e/c] eyes, you and your wide grin

if it wasn't set in stone earlier, this is the moment zhongli realizes i'm in love. he's in love, he's in so much love for your adoring self and incredible mind

so when the moon is high and the spirits of old are laid to rest, zhongli stares at you. he stares at you like you're the only thing in the world, he stares at you like how he stared so fondly at liyue while telling his stories.

"[Name], I apologize if this is abrupt, but I thought I'd let you know. I harbor romantic feelings towards you, and I completely understand if you do not wan—"

cutting him off with a squeeze of reassurance from your hand that was still in his, you shushed the older male with a soft smile

"And here I'd thought you'd never ask."

somehow, zhongli's face managed to rival the color of those silkflowers.

[cuhcuhcuhcory]

The Cool Economy- An Analysis of Cosplaying as Poor

I wrote an essay about this concept and it got 100% My teacher gave me the ultimate compliment by asking if she could use it as an example paper in future classes. Sooo I've never posted any of my own lengthier writings on fb before but here goes! I'd love to hear what any of yall think!

TLDR is that these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. We are a culture that is bombarded with advertisements and this compass presents a sort of new visual shorthand. FFO fashion, pop culture, cultural analysis, media literacy, celebrity culture, etc

I wrote an essay about this concept and it got 100% My teacher gave me the ultimate compliment by asking if she could use it as an example paper in future classes. Sooo I've never posted any of my own lengthier writings on fb before but here goes! I'd love to hear what any of yall think!

TLDR is that these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. We are a culture that is bombarded with advertisements and this compass presents a sort of new visual shorthand. FFO fashion, pop culture, cultural analysis, media literacy, celebrity culture, etc

When celebrity figures do something noteworthy, not only are there tens of thousands of recreation looks and how-to videos that sweep across social media, but there are also tens of thousands of commentary videos picking apart the content with the kind of scalpel sociologists would approve of. One of my favorite TikTok creators in this genre goes by the name of CozyAkili aka Akili Moree. His videos center around concepts of fashion and design that exist along an axis from high to low cost and discuss where they intersect with the concepts of private pleasure versus public display. Within this framework, he evaluates celebrity culture through social media with a special focus on what facets of the celebrity lifestyle they are selling back to us at any given moment and how that lands on this scale. This is important to understand because since we are integrated and inundated we are with visual messages as a society, having a quick metric to make sense of what we are seeing has never been more crucial. This evaluation system is a tool to dissect the subliminal so that we can continue to maintain a watchful eye on the ever growing discrepancy between the wealthy and the working class, or more specifically, how the wealthy use symbols from the working class to blur the line between performing wealth and performing poverty.

The four quadrants of this evaluation system pull from a variety of sources, both cultural and sociological and are each named to encapsulate the spirit of the intersections. On the low cost side of things, we have the concept of Domestic Cozy, reminiscent of the Danish concept of Hygge. Domestic Cozy rejects discomfort, danger, ceremony and deprivation and embraces things soft, luxurious and effortless. This concept was coined by writer Venkatesh Rao alongside its sister concept of Premium Mediocre in his blog RibbonFarm in 2019. Rao writes that these phrases are stylistic fingerprints of the world that act as a sort of instant classification system– a combination of visual symbols where a simple glance tells you how much something is trying to fit in with or eschew the norm (Rao). Within this dichotomy, Premium Mediocre is like bedazzling the norms, whereas Domestic Cozy is indifferent to the norms altogether. Premium Mediocre is the finest bottle of wine at Olive Garden whereas Domestic Cozy is more like a hot cup of tea in your favorite mug. At its heart, the former style is mediocre with a superfluous touch of premium but not enough to ruin the delicious essential mediocrity (Rao). Because these two concepts are rooted in the medium, the remaining quadrants represent the extremes.

High Peasant and Thrift Store Realness both exemplify the other end of this stylistic spectrum. Thrift Store Realness is at the intersection of public display and low cost, covering the bulk of people living to look hot and get by without pretense of fanciness, just casual and classic at low cost. In terms of larger social themes, Thrift Store Realness makes practicality look good but not so flashy that it takes away from its functionality. Things can even be cluttered and a little grimy aesthetically but not in a way that inhibits its undeniable edge– it's the spirit of finding (or being) a diamond in the rough. Think Macklemore’s 2012 hit– “I wear your GrandDad’s clothes. I look incredible.” High Peasant, on the other hand takes a more direct style over substance approach, but one that intentionally grounds itself by marrying the fantastical to the established in an attempt to blur the lines between wealthy and working people.

High Peasant is maximalist and artistic in a way that appears more original than Premium Mediocre but equally lofty. For instance, if Domestic Cozy is a grocery store bag salad eaten out of the bag and Premium Mediocre is eating salads from the “fresh” menu at fast food place in between side hustles, High Peasant is doing a pop up, high concept, high fashion photoshoot inside a McDonalds and salad is the concept. It visually ties the trappings of the working class with the access and privilege of the wealthy. This puts emphasis on the grunge amidst the pastoral to act as a shared language between class lines. Though I am a fan of fashion, there are things about this aesthetic concept specifically that are worthwhile to examine.

High Peasant presentations are ultimately still a fiction. The artistry of this aesthetic lies in making recognizable symbols feel alien and otherworldly in levels of cool but outside of that constructed reality, it also touches on the bitter truth that an ultra wealthy life for most of us is truly an alien concept. Otherworldly is also apt because the wealthy play with visual cues that don’t exist in their world. By playing with trappings of normalcy, in some cases they actually reinforce their otherworldliness– cementing their celebrity in this extremely visual and social world with almost nostalgia-like bait. This explains why some attempts at High Peasant as an aesthetic fall flat to their audiences because their artistic rendering highlights the differences between us instead of unifying us through intention.

While celebrities use aspects of working class culture to make themselves seem approachable, it is crucial to remember that they are not and do not want to be working class– and though the fiction they construct might look similar to something you lived through, at the end of the day your compassion and recognition of these shared symbols is really a way to make you forget how large the inequality gap has grown– to feel familiar and forget the debt that separates us. There is a supreme irony to me in the idea that the best way for brands and celebrities to see and sell themselves or package products to appeal to the masses is by looking poor or by taking ideas from people who are poor or exist within the Thrift Store Realness category.

The contradiction of new things manufactured to look old and articles of clothing priced out of the range of the people who it's modeled after comes off darkly comedic because as Akili points out, “instead of wealthy people lifting other people out of poverty, wealthy people try to make themselves feel better about being so wealthy by acting like they’re poor” (Moree). For wealthy people, the reality of being poor does not exist and maybe hasn’t existed for generations in your family due to the prevalence of nepotism in celebrity culture. Therefore it is a novelty to eat cup noodles when you’ve never had to wonder where your next meal would come from. It is boundary pushing to pose in a dingy house with a busted couch and 70s brown vertical paneling if you are worth $2.1 Billion dollars (Forbes). Moree calls High Peasant cosplaying as poor– cosplay, as in fantasy characters, comic book conventions or some other halloween-esque costume that one can put on and play or act as the character they're dressed as. In these scenarios, their positive gain is the freedom that comes with donning a costume and the spirit of camaraderie that grows naturally between avid fans of the same thing.

Translating this to wealthy celebrities, the gain is similar but often pointed in the direction of commerce. The end result differs on what the purpose of the post is– as so much marketing happens via brand endorsements on social media. The concepts explored by Akili Moree and Venkatesh Rao and other theorists represent the newest pop culture metric to evaluate how social media is used to evoke responses from its audience and what symbols it uses. This evolving framework of media literacy is an important step in being cognizant of the world around us as we become increasingly digital. The commerce piece of the puzzle is one of our current economy’s most obvious ticking time bombs and social media makes it possible to not only see this happen but also to track how its sold back to us.

We are in an era unlike any before. The interconnectedness of the internet and the growing reliance/addiction to social media has opened up a game of uncertainty. In this world, all interested players take advantage of aesthetics to drive participation and compete for our attention– all tracked and monetized down to the millisecond. Shadow marketing practices have existed since the 1980s, where the creators of the advertisement try to sell you something all while making it a secret that you are being sold something at all (Barbaro). Substantial deregulation of advertising that took place in the Reagan Era, as well as the rise of product placement as an overall film trend, and commercialization of two of the primary social media platforms (facebook adding the marketplace feature in 2016 and instagram replacing the home button with the shop button in 2020) has led us to this moment– the ultimate fusion between being marketed to and being entertained (Barbaro). This is the beauty of the chart at this moment in time and the wisdom in listening to those who are young enough to see the veil as it grows alongside them.

With supreme wealth inequality growing exponentially each year it is important every day, every hour, every flick of the thumb to be aware of what you’re being sold and who is doing the selling. The gen-Z/tiktok generation and creators like Akilli Moree are especially unique and valuable to listen to about matters like these because they are the test generation of interconnectedness in society on the level that we live now. They are the first truly cradle to grave internet generation, as they were coming up after most of the large technological advances had already been made. In addition to the technology, they grew up after all the deregulation of advertising practices in the 80s led to the full commercialization and study of child spending habits as a system to control spending habits of Americans on a larger scale (Barbaro). The children, who grew up in the 24 hr ad cycle have grown into young adults unphased by the prevalence of advertisements and sponsored posts in their hunt for authenticity. They came up in it so they are less fooled by it.

If Premium Mediocre is extended legroom on an airplane and Domestic Cozy is bringing your own pillow and blanket to the flight, High Peasant would be buying out your whole row or section but maybe not your whole flight. Thrift Store Realness represents road tripping or communal transit such as bus or train. These concepts can function bigger theoretically than the world of celebrity culture but they are the easiest examples to see since they tend to range into the cartoonish. Some try for art and land amongst the tacky. Some embrace tacky to the point of camp and it feels effortlessly cool, while others try to be effortlessly cool and it just doesn’t land at all. In all scenarios, this compass of private pleasure to public display vs the money factor helps us evaluate how this game of aesthetics is being used to market people and trends to the masses. This is important to think about because these are the new major trends in aesthetics and advertisements. Being a culture that is bombarded with advertisements has major downsides, so adapting a new shorthand to categorize will help individuals have an easier time navigating authenticity in this new economy of cool.

/////end pls clap//////

Works Cited

Barbaro, Adriana. “Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood.” Jeremy Earp. 2008. Uploaded to Youtube in 2017. youtube.com/watch?v=tMaRsR7orTk

Facebook Business. “Reach People Where They’re Already Shopping with Ads in Marketplace.” June 4, 2018. facebook.com/business/news/reach-people-where-theyre-already-shopping-with-ads-in-marketplace

Forbes. “Inside the 21 billion dollar Kim Kardashian-Kanye West Divorce.” Stories. 2022. www.forbes.com/stories/billionaires/inside-the-21-billion-kim-kardashiankanye-west-divorce/

Jennings, Rebecca. “Why Are So Many Brands Pivoting To Coziness?” Vox.com. Jan 15, 2020. www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/1/15/21063670/hygge-self-care-domestic-cozy-marketing-brands-haus

Lorenz, Taylor. “The Instagram Aesthetic is Over.” The Atlantic. April 2019. www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/04/influencers-are-abandoning-instagram-look/587803/

Macklemore. “Thrift Shop.” Ryan Lewis. The Heist. 2012. Lyrics accessed via genius.com. /genius.com/Macklemore-and-ryan-lewis-thrift-shop-lyrics

Mahamba, Joy Anelisiwe. “Aesthetics of Today: ‘High Peasant’ Fashion and What it Means.” Bubblegum Club. February 2022. bubblegumclub.co.za/discourse/aesthetics-of-today-high-peasant-fashion-and-what-it-means/

Moree, Akili. “Cosplaying as Poor” Tik Tok. 2/14/2022. www.tiktok.com/t/ZTR53Fm54/

Moree, Akili. “Kim Kardashian’s Sink” Tik Tok. 10/8/2021 tiktok.com/t/ZTR53BtEn/ 

Rao, Venkatesh. “Domestic Cozy.” RibbonFarm Blog. Volumes 1-7. 2019. ribbonfarm.com/series/domestic-cozy/

Rao, Venkatesh. “The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial.” RibbonFarm Blog. August 2017. ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/

Stanton, Liz. “Instagram is phasing out the Shop tab” Hootsuite Blog. September 2022. blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-updates/instagram/instagram-is-phasing-out-the-shop-tab

Stanton, Liz. “Instagram Reels in 2022: A Simple Guide for Businesses” Hootsuite Blog. August 2022.

[kathanisharma]

Speaking of Episode 6/the wedding, do you still watch that one when you rewatch the show?

I was rewatching it today and completely forgot that Anthony says Kate is a ‘thorn easily removed from the blossoming flower of our lives’ - I forget how many times he pissed me off watching it because he so quickly makes up for it again and makes me love him again, damn that man.

What did you think of this line? I loved Edwina’s subtle reaction - I kind of read it as her realising she’d have to give up her sister to be with this man and almost wish there had been a line where she said something along the lines of ‘never see my sister again?’ But also she’s mad at Kate then so it may have jarred.

What do you think Anthony’s motivations are here? Do you think he is still acting in Kate’s interests or is he genuinely worried about their reputations? I thought there might be some relief based on the previous episode. I assume he is still lying to himself/wearing that mask.

Soaking of Edwina & Kate - if they were doing Austen parallels I kind of wish they’d had an Edwina weeping over Kate like in Sense & Sensibility with Eleanor & Marianne but then that is one of my fave scenes ever and makes me cry everytime - but Charithra would have smashed that

i— i can't tell if you're joking i literally went on a spiral about this yesterday so i'm just going to copy paste what i said but essentially i LOVED that line about the thorn AND I LOVE EPISODE 6 from a kate and anthony standpoint and here's why:

"the man was on the verge of a complete breakdown and only years of pushing away his own emotions for his duty/for the good of his family got him through that day like?? this man was not ok"

"every word out of anthony's mouth was literally him trying to build his walls up. 'she has plans that do not include me' clearly suggested that if kate even hinted at wanting him in her life, he would do anything for her. he was literally going through with this wedding because of her begging, using his name for the first time, him to. he restates the thorn line because he's forcing himself into thinking of her that way because if he doesn't? he would end up completely broken on the outside. he literally states that this is what i now know for what will happen with kate post wedding because he cannot ever say that that is what he wants. at the first hint of her being vulnerable to him as well, in the closet, anthony grab's kate's wrist and looks deep into her eyes, begging for just another moment with her."

"i maintain that thorn line in episode 6 was delicious because it really emphasized how much pain anthony was in over what kate said about their feelings fading and he was there saying that to edwina but actually desperately trying to convince himself"

"HIS MOUTH SAYS ONE THING BUT HIS EYES SAY ANOTHER THE MAN WAS IN PAIN IT WAS DELICIOUS AND IT HURT SO MUCH LIKE WHAT DO YOU NOT GET!! HE WASN'T JUST BEING CRUEL ABOUT KATE HE WAS BEING CRUEL TO HIMSELF ANY AMOUNT IT HURT US IT HURT HIM 10x WORSE LIKE??? HE WAS LITERALLY LOOKING INTO SPACE IN THE PICTURE ON THE LEFT HE WAS IN HIS HEAD IMAGINING KATE LEAVING FOR INDIA AND HE WAS IN PAIN"

TLDR; anthony was forcing himself back into the duty mindset because he believes kate doesn't care for him/doesn't want a future in which he is a part of and so that's why he was saying those things. to convince others, sure, but more to convince himself and honestly the person he was hurting the most was himself.

in terms of edwina, i struggled in this episode, i won't lie. i think her hurt and anger are justified, but i struggled with understanding her motivations and i think that's a fault of the writing. especially in her confusion that anthony doesn't love her and then her saying that kate pushed her into this when kate was against it from the start and only gave in when edwina took a stand for herself and said this is what she wants. like i will always be a little bothered we never truly delved into that and again, i think it's a fault of the writing trying to make her speech as big and dramatic as they could without actually paying attention to the content. they could have gotten that same scene with different lines.

i think when watching episode 6, i kind of ignore literally everyone except kate and anthony (and honestly that's how i watch the show) so to me, 6 was an excellent episode for the kathony content it delivered. it was peak repression and DESPERATION on both of their parts and the angst?? the sweet sweet angst!!