#i think the racism part was interesting and i loved to see that focused on don't get me wrong

[artsycloudysleepy]

a game i loved from years back got a sequel. played it and i didn't like it at all. but my main issue with it?

they. took. away. the. option. to. pet. the. dog.

i am beyond angy >:(

[deeplyobsessed]

ok so i’m gonna ramble in sections

section 1: cgi moustache

FUCKING HILARIOUS like it was so bad it was funny HELP also buck’s hair was season 8 hair too it’s so funny like WHY did they reuse this HAHA

section 2: confession part 1

as short of a scene as it was, this was really nicely shot imo. and the tears in eddie’s eyes when he spoke like RYAN GUZMAN UR SO GOOD. but also how does buck (best friend) rank about girlfriend like hmmmmmmm

section 3: FUCKING ABBY

I CLOCKED IT I KNEW IT i know we always joke about 911 having continuity issues but THIS was such a good way to call back season 1 like insane writing tim minear and i love u for it

section 4: the divorce call

i wish they did more with this call like there was potential to call back to eddie/shannon but they didn’t. other than that i think honestly this is one of the grossest calls they’ve ever been on like genuinely icked the hell out of me with the guts like ugh gross

section 5: josh’s speech

as much as people hate on tommy, i do think josh’s explanation of things does give some sort of context to the way tommy acted in the past. like yeah racism and sexism is bad don’t get me wrong, but tommy did make an effort to change. it’s just that with society and his own work place back then, tommy prob had a lot of internalised homophobia that he expressed negatively outward to others (chim and hen in particular). but josh made a very good point with his speech about pre glee and post glee world (great reference, 10/10) and i think this was one of my favourite parts of this episode

section 6: confession part 2

ok first of all there was literally NO NEED to add that “im straight” “im celibate” part. like that was intentionally written into the script for something bcos that entire section could have been done without the sexuality mention. tim minear i see you. other than that FATHER BRIAN YOU ARE SPEAKING FACTS. my fav line he said was “but we can’t take care of others if we don’t first take care of ourselves”. bcos this is true!! and also a line used in therapy a lot cough. anyway i think the conversation eddie had with the priest was like a wake up call to eddie to start getting his head out of his ass and start working towards something. love this scene 10/10

section 7: brothers and pipes

most of this call was focused on the brothers part more than the well scene call back, tho there was a throw away line from bobby to eddie about how (eddie) wouldn’t fit this time. i do wonder if this happened irl would fire departments legally be authorised to allow children to help with rescues tho. otherwise honestly this was a very cute scene that helped chim get some introspection. i do wish there was more of a well scene call back tho :(

section 8: buck tommy breakup

as a buddie fan, i am overjoyed. but as a buck fan, i am devastated. tommy is actually one of my favourite love interests for buck, and its not just because he’s a dude and sexual awakening all that. i genuinely do think buck and tommy could have had a lot of potential if the show had decided to go through with it, but at the same time ending it here was also a relatively good note. i think in this relationship it wasn’t actually buck who wasn’t ready, it was tommy. tommy is afraid of things not working out in the long run bcos he doesn’t believe in buck’s affection for him being long term. this whole breakup was bcos tommy wasn’t ready imo. i do see the point tommy was trying to make but i also think it was a bit of a dick move to do the whole breakup immediately after buck asked tommy to move in with him. like the timing could have been better tommy. tommy being the one who decided to end things did surprise me tho. but now i feel really sad for buck bcos buck did like tommy a lot, and also as a queer person your first queer relationship is always going to mean a lot to you

section 9: MADNEY MADNEY MADNEY

HOLY MOTHER OF- i didn’t see this coming i didn’t but i am so here for it. the amount of trust and communication between chim and maddie is literal relationship GOALS like they lay out the boundaries and have healthy discussions about having another kid and it’s just so UGHHHH I LOVE YOU also maddie already being pregnant FJSJCKSK MORE BABIES

section 10: eddie, the moustache, and the dance

this. was. everything. the significance of shaving off the moustache. the dancing at the end?? no pants too was a choice. like when eddie flops back onto the couch and you see his smile, it’s like you truly see him deciding to finally forgive himself. maybe not completely, because there’s always going to be some guilt he carries around, but he’s moving forward and i’m so, so happy for him. it’s just a fun goofy feel good scene and i love love love this.

special mention: buddie and the couch

i actually think this is the first time both of them are on the couch together. like sitting next to each other with no one else. RETURN OF THE COUCH THEORY WELCOME BACK. ok but the ending scene?? the way they don’t even need words to communicate like- buck not even bothering to question why eddie doesn’t have pants, and eddie not even questioning why buck is here with beer in the first place. the level of mutual understanding has my HEART IN PIECES

overall this is honestly my fav ep this season and one of my fav eps of all time. i can’t wait to see how the story moves on from here ahhhhhhh

[autisticjoshrusso]

ok ok ok. a post about josh, buck, and maddie at dispatch as promised. (and because i dont feel like writing a whole separate post or repeating myself etc, if im pointing something out as evidence for my autistic josh headcanon, it'll be in parenthesis like this) also this is long because im going basically line by line in some places so just be prepared for that and such.

the first thing i wanna say before anything else is that like... as far as how this conversation fits into the larger narrative, i was fairly disappointed, due to the way that including this scene like this is kinda implying that the racism was fine because of being closeted etc. HOWEVER. luckily for my sanity it is pretty clear that from a character perspective, that's not at all what's being said by josh himself here, and we can be pretty certain that he is not aware of tommy's past behaviors. in fact he has almost no facts or context about the situation, which i'll get into later.

now that the disclaimer is out of the way, im gonna move onto character analysis and will not be touching on what i think the narrative might have meant etc. any further. like this is going to be purely talking about character dynamics and dissecting the dialogue etc.

we start out right away by skipping all the exposition right into a hard cut of maddie reacting to the news that tommy and abby were engaged. LOVE this set up we get right into the important part quickly and we as the audience only have to hear information that is new to us, not the information being repeated back to the character for whom the information is new.

and oh maddie. i love you so bad. she's like DAMN thats crazy, and then makes the obvious turning people gay joke. her energy here is sooo like it didn't make sense until looking at it in retrospect, but she's shocked and invested yet not taking it very seriously as a concern for buck, because well, she's having a baby and this is objectively not that serious comparatively <3 but i do love that she sees buck's reaction and quickly reins it in and is like woah im kidding im not actually being homophobic holy smokes. which. it kinda still is a little. but i think she's allowed <3

and then... josh enters the scene. he apparently only walked in as buck was saying "-kissed a boy" so of course he had to be like huh? gay shit? something gay? boys?? what's going on over here? and i love that for him. and i love that maddie immediately is like oh hi bestie i catch u up to speed on the tea <3 the maddiejosh bestieism is so back we never lose <3 and that fact that she's like. feeding in the facts in a way to dramatically amp up the tale i love it. she really said man the things my baby brother gets himself caught up in are wild.... anyway <3 true sibling behavior is finding the perfect balance between being supportive and being so so annoying <3

and she is supportive still. like when it becomes clear that there's something deeper going on here she does try to help him work through it. and its so interesting to me the way she is sort of seriously contemplating his words and is shocked when josh not only speaks up but is being very serious and equally focused on the problem at hand. it's like... she's trying so hard to figure out how to help her brother with something she doesn't fully understand that having someone else speak up to help them kind of shocks her and boy does that say something about their lives and the buckley sibling dynamic!

side note, the way josh is jokingly like "she didn't bring her personal life to work, unlike SOME people" and maddie's little look of mock offense?? they're so cute i cant handle it.

i also really love how the shots are framed during this conversation. at first, even when she's not talking and is just listening to josh talk, maddie is still in frame, we're still getting her reaction, she's an active participant in what's going on. and then there is the one shot where she's talking and josh is out of frame, hidden by buck, because whatever reaction he might be having isn't important, it's a buckley sibling moment. (he's not an active participant at that point; he's entirely observing and reacting and gathering information, not dictating the direction of the conversation whatsoever.)

it's only when josh gets very serious and it starts to turn into a heart to heart moment just between him and buck that maddie is allowed to leave the frame. it still goes back to her in very brief cuts when her reaction is relevant, but she steps back out of focus and let's josh handle the conversation. and i love that so much. thank GOD someone else is helping buck sort out his problems that isn't his parentified sister or just generally someone more marginalized than him. it was kind of getting irritating to watch, as much as i love buck so much. like dude... the emotional labor. watch it.

and man. this conversation guys. everything about it makes me an insane crazy person. ive already mentioned this in the tags of some other posts but like... its so fascinating because on the surface it is such a cohesive conversation, but when you really break it down and analyze both of their expressions and body language alongside what they're saying, you can start to see the cracks in it. what one of them is saying is not what the other one is hearing, in both directions. they are having two different conversations and i think it's critical to analyze both of those conversations and how they are interacting with each other. what josh says, what josh hears, what buck says, and what buck hears are four entirely separate things happening alongside each other.

the first part is josh trying to get a sense for how serious this relationship is to buck. when buck falters at the question of "do you love him?", he elaborates with follow-up questions that, to josh, define "love" or close enough to it. answering "yes" to those questions is close enough to a "yes" to the question of "do you love him?".

(which. ok. the particular choice of questions makes me insane because they do essentially boil down to "do you prefer this person to solitude and grant them an equal or greater importance to yourself?" which is sooo... it's said from the point of view of someone who greatly values their solitude and would not easily grant someone that level of importance.)

unfortunately, well, buck is NOT someone who greatly values his solitude, and puts other people before himself quite easily. buck would answer "yes" to those questions for basically anyone. josh does not know or understand this about buck and takes buck's answers at face value, while buck is taking this as sort of... it's hard to explain, and i think others have done a better job of capturing buck's perspective already tbh. he's convincing himself that he loves tommy here because josh is unknowingly handing him that information and expectation, and buck loves to mold himself to fit an expectation etc.

and then comes the second part, which... i think this is where it is most critical to realize that josh has none of the context about tommy, abby, and buck and those respective relationships. by his own admission, he didn't really know much about abby or about her breakup with tommy beyond the fact that it was upsetting. he didn't hear the way tommy talked about abby to buck at dinner, and he definitely didn't get to see any of the real fallout and damage to her psyche that tommy leaving her caused.

but buck did! im not inclined to rewatch s1 to get any exact quotes or anything but from what i remember, she either outright said or implied that she was so heartbroken because tommy left her because of her mother's illness. buck is understandably very upset because he understands exactly what she went through and how, unless abby was lying to not out him, he didn't exactly come clean with the breakup, and left her feeling like it was her fault, like there was something wrong with her or she was being weighed down by caring for her mother. he calls tommy's behavior exactly what it is: dishonest and cruel.

but josh doesn't know this. all he is hearing is a young, freshly out bisexual calling a gay man "dishonest and cruel" for having been engaged to a woman for his own protection. and he responds exactly how you'd expect! he reminds him of queer history and the fact that he doesn't really have a right to judge the people who grew up and had to survive in a world that was much less safe to come out in.

(and i said in my other post that's still doing numbers that "pre-Glee/post-Glee" is an actual queer discourse talking point and makes sense that it'd be used here, as awkward and cheesy as it seems, but it's also a win for my television/film/popular media/hollywood culture/etc. as a special interest headcanon. <3 we love to see it)

and it kills me because of course buck is just going to take this at face value and decide he needs to stop feeling the discomfort he's feeling, leading to the subsequent doubling down and over committing that is typical of his unhealthy relationship patterns.

(and then at the end of the speech josh has to literally announce that he's leaving DSJFHJKDSKJ. because walking away/ending conversations is so awkward and difficult and the easiest way to mitigate that is to lean into the Dramatic Homosexual Stereotype mask or whatever <3 i've long been of the opinion that josh is someone who uses the behaviors associated with queer men and queer masculinity as the blueprint for his neurotypical mask, which is why he often comes across as being just a little bit off from the Funny and Bitchy Gay vibes that it seems like he's going for. and boy did his exit from this scene just reinforce that headcanon so hard!)

they wrap the scene with a little bit more levity too which is kind of nice to like. move on from that. because it got kind of heavy there for a second.

overall i do like what this scene accomplished, but like i said at the start, i think it has some really unfortunate implications that weigh it down for me. still, always nice to get more josh content, especially when it's pretty consistent with his character as established AND not at all related to doing his job. we got to see him and maddie being goofy and maddie being allowed to let someone else deal with buck's problems for a second. and the whole thing was very well shot! excellent camera work going on throughout.

i don't actually know how to end this post so yknow. im gonna make a dramatic exit now or whatever <3

[concerningwolves]

For this module's final assignment I need to write an exploration of the non-neutrality of art, and it has been really eye-opening.

Initially I conceived of the question in terms of something being politically non-neutral – until it occurred to me that audiences often want to politicise art instead of engaging with it from a place of empathy, interest or artistic and/or cultural appreciation. Most of us online (or in real life) have encountered people who engage with art from other cultures or minorities as a sort of... moral duty, I guess. Not because they're appreciating the art on its own merit, but because they think this will make them a better activist, and therefore a better person. They treat the art as if it is made for their education, their consumption, their political agenda. Little to no thought is given to the people who made it, or to the art itself.

In an 1975 interview, two black South African actors and playwrights, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, try to explain to their interviewers that their play The Island is in no way, shape or form intended as a political play, regardless of the political pressures and movements happening around it. The interviewers really struggle to grasp this. It isn't until page 16 of the transcript that they start to see what Kani and Ntshona are saying.

The Island is about two prisoners who put on a production of Antigone. It is deeply, deeply rooted in the cultural and social context of apartheid South Africa; it was illegal to represent or discuss prison conditions, making this an extremely transgressive and dangerous performance. To the interviewers, who are members of the African Activists Association and A Journal of African Studies, this must surely be a political statement. They even suggest that there should have been more overt or explicit political themes added in. Ntshona and Kani both respond by repeating the phrase "art is life and life is art".

What you’re going to see on stage is never no ghosts, no apparitions; those are human beings talking about their lives, their immediate surroundings. — Winston Ntshona We will invite the people to come and see into our lives, the way it is. — John Kani

For them, The Island was an exploration and expression of "life at home [in South Africa] as blacks" (Winston Ntshona); politics and all the rest are just "labels". More than that, it's about the art itself, and the process of making it. About the South African languages and cultures, and their love of these things, and about the time, effort and energy they put into honing their craft to tell this story. As soon as you make it about politics, you start to lose the all-important human aspects of the art.

Here is what really gets me: It's easy to say that the issue of politicising art is an issue of Western/white/colonial powers viewing the rest of the world through a dehumanising political lens. (In other words, people from privileged nations see art and people from other places as products or as props for political discussion, without considering their worth in their own right.) – and yes! A big part of the problem is rooted in colonialism, racism and orientalism! In the global north we tend to hear about the global south only when the news is reporting on tragedies, politics, unrest and more politics. You know, you get human interest stories from your own country that highlight and uplift your immediate culture, but everything you hear about the global south is overwhelmingly negative and focused on situations and politics rather than people. That, and colonial legacies and current imperialist policies are inherently political, in that they're going to require serious political reforms to solve.

But more than that, I think, it is really really difficult for anyone to transport themselves into someone else's shoes when those shoes are made for very different feet. Within the interview, a commenter from Nigeria says that although they are Black and have lived under the yoke of colonialism, they are probably as ignorant of life in South Africa specifically as an American is. On a more global scale, so much art is informed by the world around it, and unfortunately "globalisation" so often means "imposition of western culture"; the rest of the world gains at least a passing familiarity with the West because they have to, but it's a one-way street. On a smaller scale, two people from two different neighbouring countries in, say, Europe can have very different cultural ideas of how things "should" be done simply because that's how they live and what they're used to. Think about all the discourse about whether you should smile at strangers in public! Crucially, in the interview, you can really see the interviewers grappling with the non-universality of their own experiences, even though there is solidarity founded in racism and colonialism. That's what opens up a more productive conversation. Not talk of politics, but of people – and a willingness to listen to those people.

It takes work. I wholeheartedly believe that humans are by and large inherently empathetic or sympathetic, or at least pack-bonders. But I also believe (and maybe this is the autism) that these are skills you have to consciously cultivate. We have a responsibility to one another to do so. Talking in the abstract and large-scale terms of politics may be more comfortable because it doesn't require you to push fellow feeling beyond your immediate cultural context, but politics aren't everything. People are. And art is the oldest and deepest expression of who we are as people that we have.

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 09/01/2024

Happy Audiodrama Sunday! Right now there are so many shows I follow that are releasing an episode every other week. It’s great! But it does mean I have a lot to write about. This week - Electromancy relisten, lots of werewolves, the arc finale of WBN, and more!

NEW SHOW ALERT Spout Lore’s spinoff Mall Brats is no longer Patreon exclusive! Mall Brats is a Blades in the Dark actual play about 3 kids who live in a giant shopping mall in a fantasy world and do crimes. This is a relisten for me, a year or so ago I subscribed to their patreon for a month and binged the whole thing. My only criticism is that the new version of the theme song isn’t as good as the old one.

I relistened to @electromancypodcast this week. I love this show, it feels so thorough in it’s approach to the setting and core conflict. Electromancy would adapt so well to a tv show, I can see so many of the scenes in my head. I don’t know how else to say it, the show feels like it was written like a tv show. Don’t get me wrong it’s great in an audio medium, but it would also be great as a tv show.

In @storiesfromylelmore this week poor Rion! He’s like Molly from Epithet Erased except he’s overworked by choice, and he also has to deal with werewolf racism. He didn’t even get a hug! The luck charm was really cool worldbuilding but also such an incredibly meaningful gesture from Keryth. Literally giving someone your luck because you care about them is so powerful.

@worldgonewrongpod also had an episode focused on werewolves this week. It has a very different interpretation of werewolves to Ylelmore, but both used them as an allegory for actual marginalized groups. Werewolves are so versatile.

Starwhal Odyssey released it’s second episode this week. It’s officially moved away from 5e, the new system seems cool. I loved the audio design for gamer space, and the gaming chair spelljammer helm is such an inspired choice.

I have a lot of distinct thoughts about the arc finale of @worldsbeyondpod. First off is that they have trains? That’s not something I expected from this setting. Immediately following that revelation was another party split, the rest of the party really is so irresponsible without Suvi. Stealing anything other than the coven wand was so dumb, Indri can curse the shit out of them for that. There was a complete tone shift in the last half hour of this season, at least Suvi isn’t going to be as upset this time.

We had part 5 of @midnightburgr’s Welcome to the Horizon. Everyone is high! I’m glad Verge is enjoying themselves, Verge and Deidre is fun. I guess Verge has a thing for humans, first Leif and now Deidre.

Case study: IREC-A59 released its third episode this week. It’s really good so far, it’s making me want to reread Project Hail Mary. I love that no one knows the captains name, that’s a great detail.

I listened to part 3 of Moonward, the @midstpodcast AP miniseries. For some reason I didn’t expect it to lean into horror, but given the setting, I shouldn't be surprised that it did.

We went to the Paris Olympics this week in Mission Rejected. That was a fun episode, I loved the image of two random Olympic athletes taking on a bunch of kidnappers and destroying them. Interesting to see the nation of Val Verde again. Mcgrath hitting up Athena for a gadget was great.

I didn't get through all the new shows that came out this week, there's still some more for next week. I also want to try to catch up on The Once and Future Nerd, I think I need to start from the beginning of book 2.

[blacclotusss]

And That's the End of It. There's Nothing Else

The End of an Era

And that's the end of it...literally. It's bittersweet to see this show, or should I say book, come to the end of its rope. Firstly, this show has become one of my favorites in the past year and a half and I wish I could shout from the rooftops about how much it has changed the way I view a number of things in life. Also, despite the annoyance of this fandom space, I have met so many beautiful spirits who are just as insane about the show as I am and I'd like to say that I have made some lasting connections. Now, onto discussing everything about this finale. 

Louis

I just want to go on record and say that my love for Louis has never gone away. Everything about him from the way he dresses to the way he loves those around him has embedded him in my mind as an all-time favorite character, and of course its thanks to Jacob for breathing a new life into the character. With all that being said, it should come as no surprise that Louis was my favorite part of the finale. The many ways in which Louis shows his rage (and any emotion, really) are astounding, and it's interesting to see the similarities and differences of it in New Orleans and in Paris. In Paris, it's more severe because of the location and the reasoning. Paris was slightly more inviting and welcoming than New Orleans so we hadn't seen him as on edge and pissed off with those he's had to interact with as much. Again I sawy slightly because we can still see the racism in certain comments and those plays. But, his anger and rage is fully ablaze when it comes to Claudia and the way she's being handled. He was able to set ablaze an entire beloved theatre (and its vampires) without the guilt he felt to that at the end of episode three in season one.  

I do, however, think it's also a combination of the fact that Louis is always a step behind and a bit too late and this is how his emotions are come out similarly in both seasons (in regards to Claudia). He'll wait it out until it reaches the tipping point to then do something and that did make me frustrated with him in this episode. Like yeah, let's burn it to the ground, but baby you should have been on this when Claudia came to you about Armand and that coven earlier in the season.  

With all of that being said, I am proud of Louis for finally getting away from everyone else and focusing on himself. I absolutely loved him going back home and seeing how much the city changed since he was there. That little interaction with the Uber driver was the cutest thing ever and something that I had missed in the previous eight episodes. What I mean is that this was such a Black moment from the comfortability between the two and the subject matter of the conversation. Someone tweeted that they missed how unapologetically Black season one was and I hadn't realized what was missing until I read it, so it was nice to have this little moment here. And, in my opinion, Louis looked his best here at home where he now has a better understanding of himself and has lived. Now, I do think another setting other than Dubai could have been good for him, but I love that he's being watched over by his family (Claudia and Paul) and can have a bit of peace now; and that's all I could ever ask for with Louis. 

Louis & Lestat

Two words: Fan service. You can curse me out all you'd like, but you cannot convince me that this little "reunion", even the moments Lestat were present in Louis' mind were purely for the book fans. We all knew Louis was not going to be able to let Lestat go quick, but it's weird and questionable to have Louis in a new space claiming that he's finding himself and getting into this new relationship with that man still floating around. What is his reason for being there other than to appease to the masses? Back to the reunion, nothing about it moved me. This man claims that he cannot get Claudia out of his head and I hope she continues to haunt him for the rest of his days. I don't believe that "daughter" crap for one second because he still listened to that bat signal and skipped on over to Paris to watch her die. When he had the opportunity to save somebody, he let her die. I don't buy it and I wish they didn't have Louis buy it either because yeah, he saved you, but he still let y'all daughter die when he has that ancient blood in him. I'm sure deep down Louis wanted her to live a happy life and yet he's hugging one of the people responsible for it. He still chose you over her, Louis. Come on! I'm just glad Louis ended up by himself and not back with that man. Oh! And the little redemption arc they're trying to give him with saving Louis and the season one revisits...it's not working! 

Louis & Armand

...I'm confused. This relationship has had me on the edge of my seat the entire season, all for it to come crumbling down like that. I just want to know what the purpose on this relationship was? Their sweet moments, both in Dubai and Paris, where adorable. It was like watching high school sweethearts grow older together. But, when you get behind the curtain you begin to question what it really was beyond sex. The sweet moments we see in the beginning of the season has Louis with his mind clouded with Lestat, so was he really into Armand for who he was? Or was he just a placeholder (I hate the idea of this)? And then once Louis washes him away, those moments are limited and it goes downhill from there. In Paris, it just seems like their relationship was out of convenience. And then in this episode it's revealed that the whole "we've been together 77 years" thing was basically a revenge plot...*head scratch*. So I ask again...what was this relationship for? To move the plot along? And it's clear from interviews that no one talked about this as a collective as everyone's answers are different. Even if there are differing opinions, there's usually one cohesive answer. But, I guess I'll just have to take what the creatives have given. 

Armand

Girl...what are we going to do with you? I haven't read the books so I will just have to judge the character as he is on the show, but I have talked to some people who have read and some of the things they've noticed are the same that I have noticed. But, it seems like Armand has little to no characterization throughout this entire season once you really look at it. Yes, he and Louis were able to explore things in their relationship (especially in a sexual nature) but that's really it. He's still the same menacing coward that we meet in episode two in Paris. Did I think that Armand was going to turn his back on that coven? No. But, I also think that unnecessarily explodes beyond fixing. Him being apprehensive about leaving the coven after centuries is on brand. However, that mixed in with directing the death of his lover and his sister, deleting memories from his lover's mind, omitting information in multiple decades, etc. doesn't seem crazy to anyone but me? It smells like the big R, but I'll just keep my mouth shut on that for right now. Maybe we'll see more of this character in future seasons (don't know if I'll be there), but yeah his characterization was just...eh. It seems like he was just there to wreak havoc and I know he's more than that. It's okay to have a villain, but make them make sense.  

Finale Thoughts

I am quite grateful to be alive in a time where there are three lead actors of color in the fantasy genre as well as playing queer characters. I don't know when I'll see it again, so this show and season will be in my heart forever. And, I'm hoping to see Jacob, Delainey, and Assad in more things as the time goes on because this cannot be the end. I won't give for it! And I want them as the leads with their faces plastered everywhere. The show has breathed a new life into me and now I'm excited to watch good television again. The writing, acting, the directing, etc. has been phenomenal so far and I'm sure it will continue to be. However, certain things besides what I talked about above seem like they were there for plot. I will simply blame it on the fact that there wasn't enough time to flesh things out the way they should be so it falls flat in some areas. Now, it seems like season three will be focused on Lestat and right now I don't have anything really keeping me to continue the show. Maybe as the season approaches there will be something to interest me enough to watch. It was a great time with you all (especially the ones I've become close with)! I'll still be around reblogging posts about the show and writing, but this is my last meta post. See ya'll around!

[njwinterquartz]

I’m gonna make some loosely based predictions or possibilities for next season. I’m not expecting anything to actually happen or any details to be right. It’s just some ideas I’ve had or things I want to see.

(Gerrard is the most straight forward so this part mostly focuses on what the hell i think they could be using him for.) Obviously we know Gerrard is going to be terrible. But like there’s a lot of ways they can go. I think he might try and make them turn on each other, but I really doubt that’d work

We got the still from Tim of Ortiz and Gerrard so definitely a connection there, god I hope whatever plan that woman has backfires because you don’t have to ignore your pain but lashing out in this way has to lead to consequences for her. But this means he might target Hen again with more pointed bigotry and racism because Ortiz might of had a hand in bringing him back. So he might be out for her specifically. Which I’d hate but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Chim and Ravi he’ll obviously be racist and rude towards but the details I don’t really know. Well chim he’ll probably make the cleaning boy again after what Chim said to him at the ceremony. But Ravi being the newest of the bunch from A shift he might haze and treat like a probie and just discredit everything Ravi does.

Buck and Eddie are the interesting ones here. For Buck it’s Tommy. Like they’ve already established a connection between Tommy and Gerrard. So I think Gerrard will be rude and homophobic towards Buck because he’s dating Tommy. I could see him trying to make Buck doubt he knows Tommy and that’ll have Buck and Tommy really sit down and talk about each other and who they are. But I doubt that’ll be anything major because I doubt Buck would let Gerrard make him doubt Tommy.

Also with Buck being the only white man in their group with Bobby being gone, he’s kinda in that spot Tommy was in in the begins episodes. Buck won’t put up with Gerard’s racism and bigotry but still there’s a parallel there.

Eddie I think will be interesting to see the direction they take with him losing Chris for a bit and also him trying to figure out who he is outside of being a firefighter and a parent. And I think Ryan has already talked about Gerrard a bit in connection to where Eddie is at the end of the season. Something about Gerrard kinda being like the man Eddie was raised to be in a way, no emotions macho man, obviously minus the racism and bigotry. So that’ll be something I look forward to them exploring. Like I mean figuring it what Ryan meant not Eddie and Gerrard interacting.

I don’t really know where they’re gonna go with the councilwoman Ortiz plot line so I’m not going to make any guesses on that. And Eddie, I think it’ll be rough for him but I do think this storyline will end with him finally figuring out who he is when he is alone. And Bobby and Athena obviously need a new home, but I can’t predict anything for them it’s just too open. But please give Athena plot lines that don’t center around her being a cop, the season finale was way more than I was comfortable with.

Now on to some happier things I want to see.

I want more Buck and Tommy conversations, dates, and things showing how they’re growing as people and as a couple. And I don’t know why but I’d love to see them go on a date and go stargazing. Like I dunno that would be stupidly cute.

More Mara and Denny, please just more of them. I love how they’re portrayed.

On that train of thought, I want more Henren family time with Mara. I also kinda want to see if Jee will be a part of the Denny, Mara dynamic now that the Hans (Chim and Maddie) are fostering her. More madney and Henren interactions too, I adored how Karen and maddie are being shown with the hen and chim dynamic.

Obviously more Ravi and different Ravi dynamics shown with the cast.

We’ve gotten a tiny bit of Tommy lore from before the begins episodes. But obviously I want more and more of his dynamics with the others. Gimme more Chim, hen and Tommy.

Also I think it would be good to show Eddie and Tommy’s dynamic again. Especially since Eddie is pretty alone right now. I could see Tommy helping Eddie start the process of figuring out who you are. Not saying this as in Eddie realizing he’s not straight, but like figuring out who you are outside of your job, past, and family. With their shared military background I think Tommy could help Eddie with that.

There’s a lot more thoughts to this but my brain is bad at explaining them so this is what I’ve got. Wish I could do more on the predictions and possibilities like more than just what a terrible person Gerrard is going to be. But that’s all way too up in the air for me to make any cohesive thoughts and predictions on.

[read-chill-wine]

Welcome to reviews of...

✨️Books Liz Loves that you should buy if you are in the US before the orange one takes office✨️

Tw - banned books, spoilers, politics, racism, oppression, and many other potentially uncomfortable topics

Read Liz's original banned books post here

On today's discussion, a book that truly gives me chills just reading the title:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is one of the most well-known and to some controversial, members of the black rights movement and women's rights movement. Angelou, rest her soul, was known for her work with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcom X during the Civil Rights Movement. She made over 80 appearances in lectures, was an actress, an American poet, and director. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is one of her most prized to Liz autobiography works. I genuinely cry every time I read this book. Maya Angelou is also the most banned author on the banned books list.

The book is focused on a young Maya and is a coming of age story with a focus on overcoming adversity, racism, and trauma. The book begins with a 3 year Maya and her brother, forced to move to Arkansas with her grandmother. This book follows her journey as she is SA by her mother's boyfriend, as she hides her uncle from KKK raiders, as she is forced to change her name to Mary by a racism boss, as she slowly turns the narrative with herself. Maya shows a story of progression from victim to a strong self spoken young woman who is able to look prejudice in the face.

Just when readers believe they will find comfort towards the end of this book, Maya presents the next challenge she faces: motherhood as a black woman living in the US.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings is the first part of a seven book series in Angelou's autobiography, with each of the 7 books addressing different points in the author's controversial and courageous life.

This book has been unfire since it was published in 1969 with many claiming it cannot be an autobiography due to Angelou's writing styles and storytelling, and more importantly, because it shows the racial divide that has existed in the US since Christopher Columbus decided he evidently found a new world.

This book has been banned for being: anti-white, sexually explicit, for portraying acts of violence and racism, and for addressing issues involving censorship.

I easily would consider I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in my reading top ten, and I think if you are interested in the birth of the Civil Right's Movement, interested in challenging your own comfort zone, and interested in seeing life from the perspective of a member of one of our most oppressed communities, this is a difficult but fantastic place to start. I highly recommend the copy with a forward from Oprah. Something about one of the most powerful women in history opening one of the most powerful books I've read makes my heart flutter, and I think it will make yours flutter, too.

[fumifooms]

Hello! Anon Asker again here. Recently got through the latest volume on Kindle with the Dungeon Master arc.

(Spoilers ahead for others...?) Now that we got most of the characters' backstories, I feel the earlier black magic ritual they did for Falin makes a lot more sense.

Marcille is desperate to keep the people she loves alive given her sense of loss and persisting dread about outliving everyone she knows.

Laios (apart from loving his sister) has lingering guilt from having left Falin behind before, exacerbated by her sacrifice and the way she always puts him first.

Then there's Senshi and Chilchuck who have on more than one occasion shown a distaste for magic.

Yet Senshi didn't fight it much and stood by them, because he himself is not a stranger to loss, especially when it comes to loved ones who have sacrificed for others so that one might survive.

But Chilchuck I'm not so sure. He was the most vocal in how against black/ancient magic he was, but also didn't really stop it. Maybe we can attribute it to his own abandonment issues by his wife, or just that he could imagine what it might be like if it was one of his daughters (as we saw in a small chapter art where he had a nightmare of his daughters dead). But I wanted to hear your take on this if in case you do.

Sorry for taking so long to get back to this ask! It’s a layered topic so I procrastinated on polishing my answer.

I think this is super interesting! Especially because we’re coming at this from totally different angles, since reading the manga I never thought that using dark magic didn’t make sense considering the situation or was weird. You’re coming at this at an angle of what personal reasons would make a character do this, while I looked at it in an angle of what social reasons would make a character let it happen. Post gonna be a lil long so I put it under cut! Tldr with your angle though, I think you’ve pretty much got it spot on and I don’t have much to add, I think your take it’s very interesting, and true.

So, why not do dark magic?

Throughout the whole manga, very early on too, we see our characters testing their society’s perception on morality in ways that we see that the moral wall was pretty baseless in the first place, mainly the disgust towards eating monsters for instance. Or sometimes, the morality of characters is lacking to our standards, having a perception we’d see as twisted, like in the kobold extra. Like Marcille talks about in the barometz/direwolves chapter, eating something "filthy" will make you filthy too and that’s why Marcille was innately so opposed to eating monsters. We also see it with the orcs’ chapter for example, Kui tackles a lot of difficult themes with nuance like racism, both the orcs and the elves have their perspective and their big faults in their part in their conflict, but in the end who’s right and who’s wrong isn’t spelled out for the readers. The point is that morality in the manga isn’t set in stone, it’s something that as the reader you draw the line on yourself, and we see that our characters aren’t infallible moral compasses either. The use of magic, too, is left up in the air on how good and moral it is to use, "unnatural" vs efficent vs cheap cop-out vs harmless or harmful.

So for me, when Marcille explained dark magic, how it works and why it’s forbidden, ‘yeah there’s probably a hidden catch in there’ I thought but I was super on board with it. To me, not using dark magic because it’s different and less known would be like not wanting to eat monsters for the same reason: more born out of fear and ignorance than reasonable and rational.

So we’re coming at this from different angles like I said, while you focused on character motivations for being fine with such an unholy act of magic I thought of it in an ambiguous morality and consequences way. So instead of "why should/would they do it?" to me it’s "why not?". And to me it’s a bit like "Well, no one should steal! But if the person really needs to for food, well I could let it go" for the characters’ thought process, though of course the instinctive revulsion and the stakes are much higher. They have all worked really hard to get there, and if there’s a chance it’ll go well then they would try it. Senshi and Chilchuck are much more reticent than the others like you said, but they’re able in the end to either rationalize doing it enough, or just prefer to listen to the directives and see how it goes by taking a more passive role. Not unlike how peer pressure can get you to participate in something you don’t want to do. But to me it’s a lot about growing accustomed to the unknown, hearing about it from Marcille who researches dark magic instead of the half-foot anecdotes about "dark elves" and "dark magic" used to nefarious ends. Which, presumably dark elves don’t even exist, we don’t know exactly what the half-foot definition of dark elves is, it’s a misconception and it’s a boogeyman, which is part of my point.

Where does Chilchuck’s distaste of magic come from? Elves. But by then Marcille, by being an elf herself and being trustworthy and friendly thus far, has started to chip away at these preconceived notions. Maybe what he heard wasn’t foolproof, after all. Under pressure and stakes like they were, people with even an usually very rigid morality may bend a little, steal, etc. To me, even if Chilchuck brought it up later, still very uneasy with it, it didn’t mean that him doing it was unrealistic or weird. People do things half-heartedly or unsure on if it’s the right thing to do sometimes, especially under pressure. Their will wavered while Laios and Marcille’s didn’t, and ultimately that’s what decided what they would do. What’s the other option? Marcille and Laios weren’t going to back down, so what, fight them so they don’t do it? Otherwise they’ll do it anyways with or without you, and then is there even a point to putting up a fight about it or even leaving? You can see the raationalization being done in real time, if you reverse engineer it.

Ironically enough I think this scene set after they do it depicts it perfectly: Chil lays out why he doesn’t like the thought of it, she responds on why dark magic being bad is up for debate, and he goes to argue but ultimately chooses not to and goes along with the group.

But yes it’s an interesting topic! Marcille researches positive uses for ancient magic so of course she’d be ready to use it to revive Falin, Laios has normalized reviving and magic a lot and overly relies on it, and Senshi doesn’t want to do it, but it’s because of his ideal- because of his instinctive recoil at anything that is magical or "unnatural"… Except for the golems. Because of how he sees himself as part of a larger ecosystem and cycle of life that humans shouldn’t have control over, that should know how to sustainably live with nature without getting greedy or cocky… Except for when he idealized Anne the kelpie as his best friend that even though is a monster would never hurt him. He tends to pull away from others socially needlessly, not letting himself grow too close to people or a community, too. Point is, Senshi has his pitfalls and isn’t as inflexible as we might think, and not everything he does is rational or even consistent with his own beliefs under his normal circumstances, though I do think he’s the one who was/should be the most opposed to the reviving character wise.

And I said that Chilchuck’s reason for not liking dark magic is rooted in superstitions and elves and history- and that’s certainly true but it isn’t the full story either. While Senshi’s preoccupied about morals and his world view, Chilchuck is SCARED of it, he thinks of the CONSEQUENCES, not the act itself (though it also def doesn’t charm him either). And not just the direct consequences of what a dark magic resurrection means either, it comes up a lot that Chilchuck is worried for others and for himself, about careers or the law and generally the future, and tends to micromanage them or be on their case because of it. Made a lil compilation below, notice the trend, he’s very focused on what others will do if they learn that they did dark magic, he’s focused on hiding that they did, not grappling with the morality of it as much. He’s very worried about the legality of it. He sees it as a crime but not something that shatters his worldview y’know. And even after Marcille did it and uncovered that she researched dark magic, he still trusts her and her judgement, is only wary of her a but for a bit before going right back to being thick as thieves together.

I was gonna talk about racism as a plot point and through arcs in the series here but I think I made my point without it, so that’ll be a topic for another day. But yeah… Spoilers for the last volume stop here and skip to the last paragraph if you still haven’t read ut all (bless your Kindle reader soul, good luck waiting for the next chapters). Is the winged lion bad? He’s harmful, certainly, but he’s not evil, and at its base it’s an entity without a sense of morality. Dunmeshi tackles morality in a really interesting, typical of seinens way, and unity is another big theme, as much as racism is a narrative tool and plot point the lesson is that putting efforts into befriending people you don’t understand is good. And with some, like the winged lion, that’s not gonna pay off, but everyone deserves to be understood regardless. Narratively that’s why Laios is the character he is, and why we get to learn about Kabru, the orcs, the canaries, Thistle, even the demon, and see it under new lights. Kui is big on critical race theory and sociopolitical issues used in/for storytelling, and it shows. During canon Chilchuck is growing closer to an elf coworker and tentatively giving her his trust, which pays off, and that is enough to make him reconsider wether dark magic is that bad, and think of how much risk he’s willing to get into for the party. Whew got sidetracked by the narrative genius of Dunmeshi and Kui but, the point is that in the story, characters changing their mind on issues and having their viewpoints challenged is very much common and important.

Sooo yeah! As I said I do enjoy your perspective as well, I’d never thought of it that way so it was interesting. Hopefully this is an insightful post and not just a load of nothing that wasn’t relevant to your question haha. But yeah, while reading I truly approached it from a "why not" angle, instead of a "why yes". They don’t like the method but they do want Falin to live, which makes it easier to dirty their hands for. Wash your hands of it and don’t think about it too much afterwards. (Top 10 reasons why it’ll backfire! none of them will surprise you 🌟)

[jetwhenitsmidnight]

The Eyes are the Best Part by Monika Kim

Release date: 25 June 2024

Genre: adult psychological horror

If you like:

Female serial killers

Female rage

Revenge

Cannibalism

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐💫/5

Synopsis

Ji-won’s life tumbles into disarray in the wake of her Appa’s extramarital affair and subsequent departure. Her mother, distraught. Her younger sister, hurt and confused. Her college freshman grades, failing. Her dreams, horrifying… yet enticing.

In them, Ji-won walks through bloody rooms full of eyes. Succulent blue eyes. Salivatingly blue eyes. Eyes the same shape and shade as George’s, who is Umma’s obnoxious new boyfriend. George has already overstayed his welcome in her family’s claustrophobic apartment. He brags about his puffed-up consulting job, ogles Asian waitresses while dining out, and acts condescending toward Ji-won and her sister as if he deserves all of Umma’s fawning adoration. No, George doesn’t deserve anything from her family. Ji-won will make sure of that.

For no matter how many victims accumulate around her campus or how many people she must deceive and manipulate, Ji-won’s hunger and her rage deserve to be sated.

CW book cover with eye related gore under the cut

Content warnings

Violence

Blood, gore, body horror

Cannibalism

Racism, fetishisation of East Asian women

Misogyny

Sexual harassment

Pedophilia (brief)

Stalking

Psychosis

Hospital/medical content

Alcohol consumption

Review

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC! 🔪👁️🍽️

I loved this so much!

The chapters are rather short and the writing was accessible, which made this a quick and easy read, although at times I found some of the dialogue to be a little awkward.

I am not easily grossed out, but the writing and the descriptions of some of the gory bits were legit gruesome, but also impossible to look away from.

I loved how Ji-Won's descent into madness/cannibalism/serial killing was portrayed. The way her internal narration was written, of growing obsession and paranoia and justification of her actions, paired with the dream sequences, creates an immersive atmosphere of unreality that was unnerving to read.

I found myself relating a lot with Ji-Won's struggles to make and maintain friendships, as well as her struggles to handle all the changes in her life. Although she's manipulative and does some truly awful things (outside of murder), I can't help rooting for her.

I wished Ji-Won's attraction to Alexis was explored more. Given how much the book focuses on male entitlement and the fetishisation of East Asian women, I think it would have been interesting to see how Ji-Won navigates her own feelings of attraction towards women (or just one particular woman) as well as how this attraction affects the way she is viewed by men/society. But I understand that this is not the focus of the book so its fine.

The way the different elements of the story come together and culminates in that ending was sooo satisfying to read.

I know this book is a standalone, and I am not one to advocate for sequels to things that wraps up by itself, but I would LOVE to read a sequel to this.

[omniflows]

The Deepest Berry

I was on Facebook looking for someone to spend time with when I saw someone that I knew only in passing when I was in high school.

This guy was notorious in the school. The girls seemingly loved him because he was always well dressed and I’ll even assume that there may have been other reasons behind the scenes why they loved him..

To the girls at that school, he was black.. but inside he struggled with accepting that part of himself due to systematic racism in his culture.

It led me to question myself and my own thoughts about blackness and skin color. I am an esthetician and my practice deals with skin.. I haven’t been able to practice as long as some other estheticians but I still consider myself a skincare specialist by trade.

I am a black woman of olive to caramel complexion and rarely faced problems because of my skin color but I have a mother who also struggles with colorism.

In her mind, she just wants to have smooth skin. I look at her skin every other day.. To me her skin is very smooth, velvety.. She uses skin lightening creams to change her skin color to a lighter complexion. Her natural color is of a chocolate brown.

Why is it so important to me to speak of colorism and blackness? I wondered if the insecurities that black people face required them to experience a deeper form of love.

Women who are of a lighter complexion rarely face the same experiences as women of color in the dating scene. They are preferred and less rejected. They have their own issues but at least in personal ads and dating sites they don’t have to worry about changing their ethnicity to white or latino to just speak to someone of quality.

When I say quality, I do not mean that black people are not quality. The algorithms on dating sites tend to choose a particular audience when you put down that your ethnicity is of black descent.

I decided to overall leave the dating scene in order to take care of myself better so that when I go back into the scene, I am a fit choice and not a burden.

However, the last couple times that I went on Facebook dating.. There was this one particular guy who was interested in me every time.

I was looking for a man who was either my complexion or darker than my complexion, but this guy was very fair with light eyes and light hair.

How do I feel about that? It was very important for me to be with someone who was around my age, attractive, interesting, and most notably able to produce black children in the future.

I have dated black guys but the ones that I dated only saw me as a beautiful woman because of skin complexion.

They wanted someone to have beautiful children with but they did not care about the development of my mind and the experiences that I wanted to have in order to obtain and nurture my intelligence. Very important to me.

I took a break from caring so deeply about my outside appearance because I wanted to know what it felt like to be a woman focused on her mind. Looking back, you don’t have to neglect yourself in order to be intelligent.. You can be intelligent and beautiful at the same time.

So when I saw that this guy was interested in me, I looked at his profile and thought.. I don’t know if this guy is for me.. “He is decent..” I would think even though I was decent..

I took a bite of the fruit..

Instantly, his interest was proven because we decided to see each other immediately that week. I saw him maybe a day after the first match.. I was not disappointed.. He was actually way more attractive in person.

I couldn’t help myself but to want more and other things spiritually were going on that led me to believe there was something deeper going on about this situation..

For instance, before him I was having menstrual issues but after I was intimate with him for the first time.. I was able to bleed. I’m calling it “the Introduction to Berry”

We did not keep in touch because he was a busy guy and swore up and down that “I don’t want to be in a relationship.. I just want to experience you..”

I was not hurt by that because my focus was really on building myself up.. I was just lonely and wanted someone to enjoy life with.. but we went back and forth about that situation until I decided to block and discontinue talking to him for a while.

What is berry to you? I think of Tupac’s song Keep Your Head Up which speak of the still occurring troubles women face in black love.

Still today, some black women are battling to be loved and respected by black men.. Welfare, baby daddy and baby mama issues, failure to progress into marriages.. Still today..

After not speaking with that guy, I didn’t have any experiences with anyone else either.. I wasn’t in a good space though I tried. My insecurities around neglecting myself caused me to no longer seek men out or out myself out there.

Other men I dealt with did not treat me at all.. All of a sudden I began to struggle with getting actual dates.. I didn’t go on a date with him either but at least I was enjoying his company. He was a gentleman..

It wasn’t until the month of October 2024 that we reconnected and because of his interest in me again. I was surprised to even see him like me after our argument.. But I was happy to see the message.

“You still remember me?”

“Of course I did..” He said.. “How could I forget my fire..?”

It didn’t take us too long to meet again..

I remember when I asked the Lord to not allow it to be too late for me to cry about something.. This time when we were intimate.. I was just shocked… This guy really told me to take off everything.. I was going to wear my dress..

To cover the stretch marks, the fat, the hair.. Everything.. I know he knows it.. but he told me to take everything off..

He didn’t appreciate it all that day.. but.. I have a feeling that there will come a time that he will because my spirit began to cry and wail..

Usually when you cry the tone is of one tone.. Unless the pain or pleasure is deep..

That day, I heard multiple cries and the tears actually fell down my face.. He didn’t even do his BIG one yet! Most importantly, when I tried to move him away from me.. He stood right in place.

“The long way..?”

“The long way..”

I began to question.. If he could love me like this and I’m only olive.. What was he giving to the other woman that he told me he experienced with the dark skin, dark hair, and dark eyes?

The deepest berry..

I believe in love to get the best of you, these men will pick and probe at all your issues..

All I can say is.. Let him make you cry.. Let him fix it like he usually does.. Experience intimacy like you said you wanted.. Dark and brown skin.. You are the deepest berry.

Allow yourself to be.

[georges-chambers]

for the character asks...ishmael, ofc :3

Idk when you sent this but I wish I had seen it earlier because !!! VERY glad to do this!!

'How I feel about this character': So Much. In general. What can't I say about him? On one hand, as many point out, he's an almost definitely some kind of undiagnosable neurodivergent and due to this is incredibly relatable. ACCIDENTALLY CLICKED POST WHEN I MEANT TO SAVE THIS TO DRAFTS. ANYWAYS. I HAD MUCH MORE: He Also Suvks!!! He knows a lot but that doesn't mean he actually believes in objectively true things! Hes aware of his own faults but we get the feeling he's not too concerned with changing them very much! I also feel like some fans of Moby Dick kind of choose to gloss over the ways in which, beautifully as he puts it, his love for Queequeg is also almost definitely through a very warped lens due to the way he just thinks of Queequeg, and at times it also seems almost obsessive. And another important part of him, I think, is that he becomes just as obsessed with things that are important to him as someone like Ahab, just in a way that doesn't lead to relentlessly chasing them down and trying to kill them. Well, breaking down a door to 'save them' is. I'm sure you can see the similarities. But of course there's the way he writes obsessively about minor details about the whole voyage and people on it and Moby Dick himself in a way that implies he has a fascination with it all borne from the trauma it gave him. Which reminds me of how much he seems to actively want to hide any part of himself and his past from the reader but where it starts slipping out are often memories that seem kind of. Worrying(?) Definitely not Pleasant anyways. Which again, he seems to zero in on a bit. Also to me he is Not Cis. Of course.

'All of the people I ship romantically with this character': Ishmael's one of the very few instances where I think the only romantic ship I have of him are with the canon love interest (Queequeg of course). Aside from probably 2 ships or so, but those are either rather RPF (about someone who is dead but nonetheless real. I mean. He's kinda implied to exist in Moby Dick too, but he's very much real, its based on the real version) focused or Angst Heavy, so I would only share those in DMs at request.

Now as for potential sexual relationships? Another entire area I will leave to DMs.

'My non-romantic OTP for this character': Okay nevermind, I lied. I could Never explain it fully because its Not in the book and not based on anything in the book, but the 2011 movie. Showed me a whole layer to the potential of whatever was going on between Ahab and Ishmael and god. The toxic workplace relationship he had with that old man. That whole movie became Their Movie to me. Queequeg can of course become involved. I also like the idea of him and Bulkington of course.

'My unpopular opinion about this character': Its hard to say what'd be considered unpopular for this kind of a fandom, but I feel like the fact that the racism from his POV was progressive for its time only makes it even more immersive to him as a character. Its the sort of thing that's like . 'This is a fascinating indication about the time and the author writing in this time' and 'This could be considered a part of the character narrating all of this and how they view the world' Can very much coexist here. To me they feed into each other and I love it. Less like that, though, since that'd probably be the more popular of the two: I feel like a lot of adaptations are a bit less than accurate to what I personally think of with Ishmael because they often make him (even including the 2011 to some degree) a lot more overtly 'benevolent' than really fits. In the book, he does shit like contemplate just boarding up the room he's in and basically steal it from its original owner, and just the near frantic, almost aggressive tone he often takes with fucking Cetaceans, In General, towards his audience, I love, and really wish there had been like. Any of, in most adaptations, which seem to want him to be a much more 'relatable nice hero' which he just Fundamentally Isn't. There are so many times reading this book and rereading it where I've just gone, 'Ishmael, whoever you're having this argument Isn't here right now. I love you, but Please.'

'One thing I wish would happen/had happened with this character in-canon': I feel like actually learning more about what he did in his Past would kind of spoil some enjoyable and very fitting mystery and ambiguity so really what I wish we knew more about were his travels and life in general between the wreck of the Pequod and when he's writing that. Actually, no, if I absolutely Had to choose to actually be told 1 more thing about him? When and where was he a stone-mason. I love how hes very intentionally like, 'At Some Point in Time, For Some Point In Time, Neither of Which You Need To Know, I was a stone-mason.' And its just like. Actually no. Normally there'd be nothing odd about that but no, now I really do need to know what he could be hiding with that.

Once again Thank you so much for asking this and once again encouraging me to ramble incoherently about Moby Dick

[empressgeekt]

Future Voltron Multiverse fic plans

There are many tropes that I love in fanfiction. However one of my favorites is dimension travel, So, I was stoked when VLD introduced the rifts and multiverse...and then I was severally disappointed when they didn't dig into that further. So! I'm doing it myself!!!

The fic will be taking place a year post-canon, but Allura will still be alive, because she deserves a happy ending with her goofy red paladin. Yes, I'm keeping Allurance, I'm giving the ship the chance it deserves, and I don't care what anyone thinks, this is a canon-ship, and I'm tired of Klance trying to snuff out any other possible ships in this fandom. Ships, I will also include will, be Kacxa, Krolia/Keith's Father (I'll be naming him Kenneth in this, as that is what Keith's father was named in other continuties of voltorn), Hunk/shay (minor), Ezor/Zethrid, Shiro/Adam (maybe I'm still working on how to fit in their storyline), Kolivon/Antok (only in flashbacks so far cause Antok is still dead)...and will see what else happens, This is most going to be focusing on the Gen Relationships (AKA Friendships/Family relationships) in the story.

The main plot will be kicked off after two blade agents from another, dying reality end up traveling to the main one. After the fact the two realities, the main one and scrapes of whatever was left of the dying one, merge, destabilizing space. Now rifts to other realites are opening and shutting at random, and letting things from other worlds in, the timeline is shifting, bringing people back form the dead, and sending our heroes to other ones.

Currently I'm planning on three different main travel archs, One to the Voltron Force universe, one to the 80s Voltron universe, and one to a universe where voltron is newly created and the orginal VLD paladins are still in control.

This fic will also include, Blade/Good!Lotor, Keith grows fangs, Humans are f-ing weird, Blade!Acxa, Blade!Ezor, Blade!Zethrid, Krolia has claimed Shiro as her own even if no one else realizes it, BlackPaladin!Keith, Galra head-canons, Trying to understand what the heck is Altean Alchemy, Altean!Vince?, Pidge being a master of Chaos, Good sibling relationships!, Minor/Major OCs, There's going to be a lot of head-canons in this, Coran gets to be a Pop-pop in the epilogue, Awkward as f Zarkon, Mild Themes of Racism towards Half-breeds, The holts take no sh*t from anyone, Voltron teams interacting with their dobblegangers, Garret makes an appearance, the rift creatures will try to kill everyone, Nerdy!Lotor, Pidge, hunk and Lotor are bros, Shenajens and Hijinks, ShortHaired!Allura, Team Voltron sticks together, laughs together, and fights together, Cultural differences, some parts will be funny, some parts are super sad.

Let me know if your interested in this future work, and I will post a link when I upload the first chapter

[lazaruspiss]

DC Pride 2022

wee! i don't remember liking this one as much, but we'll see.

the foreword is very sweet, i'm endeared by it. The first story though... not so much.

"Pride's been a party for decades" - Jon Kent

Gay marriage in the United States was legalized in 2015. This story came out only 7 years after same-sex couples were legally recognized nationwide. We have also been actively dealing with anti-lgbtq legislation for a while now. It's some head in the sand bullshit.

I have strong and complicated feelings about this story. First off, I wonder how much say authors get in which character they're in charge of? Could they just not find any queer writers who knew who Jon was? This is probably the worst story I've ever seen from Devin Grayson, it's just so weirdly and blatantly tone deaf. I saw some people critique her portrayal of Damian on a racial basis when this first came out, but honestly I think it could be chalked up to that he was raised by assassins, I don't think it's an immediate racism-red flag if he's characterized a little too violently. He also very quickly shifts gears to telling Jon his dad would be proud of him, and caring about him in his own Damian way. I'm more hung up on how it's... Some of these stories are lighthearted and don't touch on oppression, but this story actively dismisses the idea of oppression. It almost feels sarcastic, a part of me yells that it's mocking Jon's shallow worldview, but that doesn't really make sense. It's weird. Damian is written off as strange and paranoid, and Jon is meant to be the main character, but it's Damian's perspective that I'm able to most relate to it through. This is also just a weird story for Devin Grayson to be writing. She thrives the most in angst/tragedy/drama, not... whatever that was.

Second of all, I can never get past Jon/Jay. Jay seems to be a queer asian character that was introduced by, as far as I'm aware, a white cishet author, and was introduced through a three page school shooting which was used solely as a plot device to make Jon look #badass. Every time Jay comes up, all I can think about is Tom Taylor's hack work and that damn school shooter introduction. Congrats to anyone who can get over that, but I cannot.

i'm too unfamiliar with the characters to properly enjoy it, but i do love the recognition for the absolute gayness that is wrestling.

i do have a soft spot for the queer stories that touch on the complexity of parent-child relationships. hawke's not really hostile but incredibly uncomfortable relationship with ollie hits a specific nerve. a few of the stories in '21 were like that too, where they build onto some specific yet relatable struggles that children and their parents run into. the letter, the metaphors, everything about this one is so sweet. another tear-jerker for me tbh. seeing damian and hawke interact at the end is so cute, and i do kinda wish that the gang from lazarus island could've stuck around and been damian's "ensemble cast" so to speak. ah well. they'll have a groupchat in my heart.

not to be a downer again, but the stories that reference the very real struggles that queer people still face really serve to make the first story feel worse and worse. anyways, god i love alysia. yeah i don't have anything interesting to say, this comic was more action focused which isn't my strong suit, but it's a fun read.

it's nice to see a light-hearted meeting the family scene every once in a while. i'd say this story does a better job than the last one of making me feel for jackson, and gives a bit about his backstory. i don't know how it lines up with the rest of his comics, but it stands alone nicely. it also ventures into feelings of displacement, home, family. i like it.

are noir wlw a thing now. they should be a thing. i think as far as stories that're in direct reference to a different series go, this one manages to not be too confusing when going in blind. the cannibalism could very well be a metaphor, and the story touches on what is pretty specifically a biphobia thing, which is all pretty interesting. im also a sucker for "monochromatic comic gains color at the very end to portray a change for the better" ngl.

they act like ray shunned his bf but like. he gently blocked a kiss and whispered that he didn't want to in front of the team. i get that the message is about internalized shame and all that, but what they call "freak out" i call "gently setting a boundary".

simple, to the point, made me tear up. again.

tim story :/ i like him i swear, he's just been so boring recently. it's simple fluff. there's just none of the insanity or weirdness that made me like tim and bernard in the first place is all.

i absolutely adore the art in this one. are they play fighting to figure out who gets to top? it sounds like they're play fight to see who gets to top. harlivy canon prey roleplay and/or CNC kink? very cute end, if not a bit corny. we now know they're top4top.

both jesse's stories end up feeling more "flash" than "pride", but they're still fun. also holy shit earth-11 dami and jon are SO cute what the hell??? dami w the buns and the sleeveless top and the belt, jon w the headband and the ripped leggings under her shorts, ohhh im so in love. fem klarion is also super cute. i wasnt expecting the masc donnaraven but ill take it.

you know that thing in shows where the single tear rolls down? yeah. it's a must read, really. devastating and healing all the same.

[cloudbrooksblog]

i am :pinched_fingers: THIS CLOSE to blocking the hazbin/helluva critical tags. its so fucking irritating to read that shit, cause most of it is just nonsense! things that don't matter! "Oh no viv likes the main character and his love interest! is this why people who hate the main character are portrayed as antagonists?" like holy shit its so annoying. the show is called "helluva boss" guess who the boss is.

and then with hazbin hotel, some of the criticism i understand (like specifically the parts about racism are points i can't argue against. cause every POC i see is agreeing with it and im white so like,, who the fuck would i be to say "erm actually" about it) but the other criticism is like... "theres too many stereotypes" "angels theme song is too stereotypical" like ok some things are stereotypes but look at the parts of the characters that you're laser-focused away from. people talk shit about the bad queer rep, but like. idk man, hazbin hotel as a show hasnt come out yet. Helluva boss has some criticism against it i guess, not as much as hazbin... that might be because there's less to criticise, but i also feel like that might be because hazbin isn't out yet lmao.

and this is the thing i hate about the internet, they dont enjoy new media, they analyse it to see if theres anything that annoys them, and then if too much annoys them they shit on it endlessly because shitting on things as a group is fun.

literally people are seeing how a24 is agreeing to the asks of the unions and the first thing they do is post about how they hope vivziepop promotes the show more.

maybe wait until the show comes out! stop making yourself stressed about the future of the show! have a little patience! I know its been "yeeeears" but for fucks sake we GOT a release date. vivziepop never promised a release date before now, and now we have an estimated release date, so why not chill? why feel so entitled?

i swear. whenever a new episode of helluva boss comes out, i race to the socials to just have fun with the community that enjoys the same show i do. i think "oh boy i sure do hope i've gotten here before the haters". if it wasn't like this, maybe i'd be less irritated about the more general discourse, but this is the situation we are stuck with. Do these people realise there's an actual... regular fanbase? Like, there's a fanbase for this show that engages with it normally. We speculate on where it might go, we talk about what we like about the show, and some of the things that missed the mark (in discord servers etc). Then inevitably a viv anti comes in the discord, causes a storm in the "discussion" channel, and leaves declaring that we are brainwashed. chill maybe

[late-sundown]

When people say the message of Avatar is "Enviromental harm bad" separate from Indigenous people's issues, they're probably right... (+other related issues).

A family member of mine told me the lesson of the movie was "Humans destroy everything." (Meaning nature). That take ignores how the Na'vi are Indigenous peoples, and also ignores that real life Indigenous humans are at the forefront of climate change activism and environmentalism.

1️⃣ Here's the thing, the Indigenous people being represented only by the Na'vi, and the fact that they're creatures- non human with cat ears, cat eyes and a tail- people can interpret them not as Indigenous, but instead, just intelligent alien animals. Aliens whose closeness to nature is just obvious because they Are Nature, like animals are.

And well, the film doesn't help with that idea when the Na'vi do act like animals, and I don't mean that as an insult, it's just how they will express themselves anyways- their ears flop down, their tails swish, their pupils dilate, they hiss. I like that about their design, but to uncritical consumers, it can contribute to dehumanizing Indigenous people... The things the antagonistic humans say remind you of real life racism: "They're monkeys", "Savages." Etc. That's a deliberate writing choice. Cameron admits so.

If they're more like animals instead of people, we can see helping them as part of saving nature. That's where the indegeniety becomes a background theme for those who don't already care about Indigeniety.

You Know already how some people will see this, "Humans are the virus", "Nature's revenge" type of mentality. Again, ignoring how sustainability does exist outside of capitalism & colonialism.

2️⃣ In other related issues... The main heroes, helping the Na'vi, namely Jake Sully and Dr. Grace, are white (centering white PoV). Add to that, the appropiation Jake does,

A.becoming Toruk Makto by force (title sacred to Na'vi of people who ride the Lenopteryx), how they weren’t going to (quote Cameron) "fight harder" unless Sully interferred,

B.wearing dreads, and the theme of Avatars in general where these white humans can become "one of them" by giving Na'vi minimum decency... This IS white saviorism.

The Na'vi are there for aesthetic and serving as love interest or supporting cast for Jake, as well to expand the (very aesthetic) world building of Pandora. It makes people feel good to watch a successful revolt in which in the real world they feel compelled to do nothing.

3️⃣ IF meant to be a "show, don't tell" method here, why are we focusing on how this white guy experienced all of this, especially starting with how he fell in love with a native woman? Why did we start with Magical cure for disability? Why do we continue to add to the mythification of Indigenous people? Why didn't Way of Water evolve? I know there are limitations to making film, but sheesh... those where certainly choices that Don't help the message.

The mythification helps with the idea that white people can become another's culture (because under racism they're the "blank slate") instead of looking inside or to their own ancestry for meaning and spirituality. "This drab human world is just nothing compared to Pandora! I want to be Na'vi, not human!" Goes indirectly towards appropriation, doesn't it?

4️⃣ What about Earth? Humans, we could say, have a connection to Earth as much as Na'vi have to Eywa. We are dependent of nature and a part of it. But that's Not what a colonized mind thinks.

In Avatar there's no theme of acknowledging Earth's colonial history, of noting how this has happened before, of humans sharing solidarity with Na'vi because they know where it's leading- and if they don't take action or don't know, talk about WHY that is!

⏭️ Tldr: The story is still done through a colonized lens. We can't talk about (fantasy) racism without addressing race, we can't talk about the exploitation of land and nature without addressing how the people who originally cared for it were pushed out, colonized, assimilated, and exploited as well. Colonialism & capitalism are closely linked.