#i truly never understand when people are like “the french are so mean!!!”

[sophsicle]

i feel like it is important that u know that i am a french apologist. people always complain about how mean they are. not me. go off madame. put me in my place. Liberté, Egalité, Cunté.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

Okay, so, there's one thing that I'm kind of tired of beating around the bush with white fans about, and it's this: if you pretend to "ignore" race in OFMD, you will miss a lot of what the story is trying to tell you.

Now, I do not truly believe that race is something you can ignore in a story. I just don't think it's possible, and when you try, what you wind up with is something like the conservative worldview of "not seeing color." Trying to ignore race will make you sound racist and ignore important racialized themes.

You can't understand Stede's need for character growth at the beginning of the show if you just focus on how he's "cringe" instead. When Stede makes his crew members of color serve them at dinner when the English board, this is gross, and their faces tell us exactly how they feel about it. Stede unlearning his biases here isn't subtle (guy who called him and Pete "fucking racists" I love you forever), and learning to take all of his crew members seriously as fully actualized people, moving away from the sort of Kindergarten-teacher behavior at the start to truly valuing them as people and taking their input and suggestions, it's an important aspect. Stede asking Abshir for intel at the party isn't just funny, it's also proof he's learned to see value in people in positions like Abshir's.

You can't understand the motivations behind Ed's actions, especially the violent ones, if you ignore the racist overtones. Ed is not a randomly violent person - he gets angry at a captain for calling him a "rich donkey," and if you think it's unreasonable for a brown man to want to get revenge on a white man for calling him that? Then fuck I'm glad you can't see the conversations I have with my other black friends, man. Ed's anger and frustration at the party aren't just because he fucked up with some spoons, lol, you can't get it unless you realize he's the only brown guest in that room. Yeah, he's ignoring Stede's advice, but he's immediately under a pressure Stede never has been. Ed's wanted posters in s2, too, rely on heavily caricaturizing Jewish features to make him look grotesque and monstruous. We're supposed to be horrified by that aspect.

And, yeah, when we ignore the racist tones to Izzy's behavior, I think that's undermining an important aspect of who he is as an antagonistic character. Him buying Ed from the English should feel like a gross violation, because it is. When he sits in front of the crew eating and making Fang and Ivan serve him, I think it's a pretty obvious parallel to how the crew members of color were similarly insulted in the pilot. It's impossible to ignore race in the way he dehumanizes Ed and tries to force him back into a caricature of behavior he hates and is horrified by - when he calls Ed a "wild dog" in s2, if that doesn't cause a visceral reaction of disgust in you, I dunno what to tell you. This doesn't mean that Izzy is irredeemable - just as Stede wasn't - but it does mean that racist biases are things Izzy had to unlearn.

OFMD so often takes so much care with how its characters of color are depicted. We get thoughtful, relatable moments (those French boat people getting humiliated and setting their boat on fire after they'd tried to touch Ed's beard is so satisfying, guys) and excellent, supportive friendships between men of color. The characters of color on OFMD are clean, smart, respected, and it's wonderful. And just because these things aren't always relatable to you specifically doesn't mean they're not important parts of the story.

[vintagesuga]

☆Nicknames Skz call you

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tags: Ot8 x gn!reader. Fluffy, Pet names, established relationships, cute short little thing

summary: These are nicknames/pet names I think the members would call you. Enjoy!

a.n: This is the first work that I am posting on Tumblr so idk what I'm truly doing here. This is also cross-posted on Ao3 under the same username.

Chan:

I feel like he isn’t too big on using pet names, so he just calls you by your name

However, if he is feeling particularly lovesick, he calls you Sweetheart or Beautiful.

If he wants to tease, he calls you cheesy gross names like Pookie Bear or Apple of my eye

When you're going all ‘Mom mode’ (as the members like to call it) he calls you Boss Lady

You’re saved as ‘Love Bug’ in his phone

Minho:

Calls you Honey, Dear, or My love (and this is why the members think you’re married)

If he wants to tease you, he calls you Sweet Stuff or Honey Bunches

Said something very serious to you and ended it with ‘Suger pie honey bun’ and started cackling like a witch

Sometimes he is an absolute menace if you call him by a cute nickname, will not answer you

People get confused when they see ‘Mother to my children’ in his contacts

Changbin:

Very buff man of him to call you like Doll or Toots.

When he is serious, he loves to call you Sunshine, Buttercup, or Pumpkin, tho

Called you Dumpling once, and you absolutely melted, Hearts for eyes frfr.

Has and will call you Wifey when you go out, finds it hilarious

He has you saved as ‘Queen💅’

Hyunjin:

He calls you short stuff

Unlike Chan, he is being 100% serious when he calls you the Apple of my eye

For real, tho he probably calls you something like Love or Darling, something really romantic.

Jokingly suggested he call you My Treasure or Aphrodite, not expecting you to actually like those names

Saved as ‘My muse’ with a gross amount of emojis

Jisung:

He calls everyone Baby, and that includes you, too.

Probably shortens it to Babe and just interchanges them.

Schnookums or Pookie if he wants to be a little shit.

If he wants something from you, he tries calling you the Love of his life. You see right through him, tho so his trick never works.

Jokingly saved you as ‘Nutter Butter’ in his contacts and found it hilarious, so he just hasn’t changed it.

Felix:

Mans calls you a whole bakery. Cupcake, Pudding, Cutie Patootie, Sugar Pie. The whole 9 yards.

If it is sweet, in his eyes, you are that sweet

I feel like he just switches his pet names for you like every other day, so it is never the same one twice.

He once called you Bubs for about 3 weeks, tho; you absolutely loved it. Favorite nickname.

Has you saved as ‘Muffin🥰’

Seungmin:

Calls you like Cold French Fries or Roach, you know mean things. Catch him dead before he calls you cute nicknames.

Definitely, one to call you Trouble. Especially when you call him by cute nicknames

You know he is being difficult, but names like Chicken Nugget??? Those aren't endearing

When it's just the two of you, he calls you stuff like Hon or Darling

You’re saved as ‘My only one😒’ in his phone.

Jeongin:

I feel like he is also not one for pet names

Calls you Baby, but it's like rarely

If he really wants you to understand how much he loves you tho he calls you Angel or Precious

Called you something like Bestie once, and you didn’t speak to him for hours

Has you saved as ‘Number one cuddler🫶’

©️vintagesuga Do not repost.

[noridoorman]

# Nuzi is not a pro-ship, I'm so tired that needs to be repeated #

I went on Twitter for like the first time (what a mistake) and saw again and again people complaining about how Nuzi is a pro-ship, Uzi is just a teen, N is an adult, yadda yadda and it gets so tiring at some point.

one point might be a bit controversial tho oops

"Uzi said herself that she's a teenager!"

Yes, she did. But teens can range from the ages of 13-20. It is a wide spectrum that is thankfully narrowed down by episode 3 when it is revealed that all classmates in her class are around the ages of 18-20. There's nobody younger than 18, meaning that it's highly unlikely that Uzi is 17 and even more unlikely that she's 16. She has to be around the ages of 18-20.

"But Uzi does to highschool, which only teens between the ages of 15-17 go to!"

That is if you assume that the drones only adopted the American school system. However, we've got a drone that only speaks Russian and a manuel for drone parents that is translated in French. In Germany, adults over the age of 18 can visit highschools. Heck, I'm 19 and currently in my 12th year of highschool. I'll be 20 in my final years where my prom will happen too, which, again, indicated that Uzi is older than what everyone assumes.

"How come Uzi is older than 18 if there are parent-teacher conferences?"

Again, my school also has parent-teacher conferences, even for the students that are adults. It's an optional thing and at this point in the story, Khan wanted to somehow reconnect with Uzi again which makes sense that he visits the parent-teacher conference.

"Uzi is shorter than her classmates, indicating that she's younger!"

Short adults exist, I don't need to elaborate further.

"Uzi's mom died shortly after she was made. N was already an adult at that time!"

We've seen through flashbacks from Doll that her parents died while she was a teen/not a pill baby. The same could have happened to Uzi, that Nori died while she was older. Also, N already being an adult is something I wanna unpack in the next argument.

"Uzi at some point asks about her mother, indicating that she never truly knew her! This implies that Uzi was a baby when Nori died!"

Yes, N could have also killed Nori while Uzi was a baby. But guess what?

N was a "baby" too.

Bear with me.

If we really wanna go by ages of the drones, we should remember that ALL the drones aged differently. Uzi was the only one that was a pill-baby before. N, V and J weren't, they were all in adult bodies. Yet, they were all around the same age of Uzi.

The way I understand the timeline is like this;

Uzi is made. N gets rescued from the scrapyard and saved by Tessa. I'd like to assume that he only got to live a few months before being discarded, as we can see that humans act very carelessly with their drones. So, Uzi is essentially a newborn while N is around 3-5 months old.

about 2 years pass. Both N and Uzi are two-years-old. However, ONLY UZI IS A PILL BABY DRONE. N was always in the default worker drone body. He can talk, move and do a bunch of things a 2-year-old shouldn't be able to do. However, if we base age on maturity and life experiences than he's no more an adult than Uzi was. All of his capabilities are programmed, he'll literally just die if he can't do those things cause otherwise he's defective. (BTW, NOT JUSTYFING PPL THAT GO "oh, you're mature for your age" OR SHIT LIKE THAT. I'M JUST SAYING THAT IN TERMS OF MATURITY, THEY WERE MOST LIKELY ON THE SAME LEVEL)

Uzi is now 3-years-old and the diassembly drones killed Nori. It'll make sense why she doesn't remember much of Nori and ask questions about her. N is also 3-years-old and he, along with V and J, are doomed to kill Worker Drones until they finish their job and die due to overheating.

By that logic, N AND UZI ARE AROUND THE SAME AGE.

Of course we can't get a clear timeline of events as Liam said that he doesn't want to write himself into a corner. But this is the one that makes me most sense to me unless somebody manages to proof me otherwise.

UZI WAS A PILL BABY, N WAS NOT.

N might aswell have been a pill baby this whole time and nobody would have batted an eye. Their physical bodies do not equal their mental maturity and age, those are completely seperate entities.

I might have fumbled on my words a lot, I'm not a native English speaker. I still hope this was easy to explain without me having said something wrong accidentaly.

"N x Uzi just came out of nowhere for fanservice!"

It was confirmed that the scirpt of Murder Drones was finished way back at episode 1 before the ship became even popular. Heck, Glitch posted a picture of Beau before the second episode dropped. Also, animations takes such a long time to do with lots of planing. Last minute changes are extremely risky to make and no professional studio like GLITCH would do that just to appease the fans.

"They killed of V to make Nuzi canon!"

I agree with the part that V should have gotten more screentime before her death.

But she wasn't killed off to make Nuzi happen.

She just went through an entire charachter arc from this drone that masks her trauma thorugh feiging apathy/joy in killing and always making decisions based on what she thought was right because she couldn't trust the people around her, not even N.

At the end, when V sacrificed herself, she finally recognized that Uzi is not CYN, she's as much as a victim as V was and that Uzi truly cares about N like she does. Her sacrifice was there to show how she finally manages to trust Uzi, even though she most likely knows how dangerous Uzi can get if she loses control. I just wished they build up towards that more cause it would have been so much better but she wasn't killed off to make Nuzi happen.

There are probably more arguments that I missed...

[thalialunacy]

[for the @calaisreno May Promptasmagorah; cw for schmoop like whoa.]

(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12) (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) (19) (20) (21) 22: (k)night (23) (24) (25) (26) (27) (28) (29) (30) (31)

John, for a split-second, thinks he's hallucinating. He's knackered to the point of swaying on his feet from a double shift followed by-- because apparently he'd been a bastard in a past life-- a bloody 'morale building' staff meeting that had made him want to gouge his eyes out.

Alright, he also might be a bastard in this life. But the point is, he hears Sherlock's voice despite there being no Sherlock in the room.

'Ibn is a rather naughty horse, isn't he?'

The sound is tinny but discernible, and John fwumps down into his chair to eye the baby monitor. The camera is aimed at Rosie's cot, of course, so it's mostly Sherlock's shoulder as he leans over with a book. John's tired brain flips through the rolodex of bedtime stories until it hits upon the one with a big white horse named, of all things, Ibn Rafferty.

'But he is fun to ride, and nice to everyone while being ridden.'

He hears Sherlock pause. 'Do you know, Rosamund, that's arguably the first definition of chivalry.'

John blinks. Not where he'd thought that was going, but all right.

'The word "chivalry" is derived from the Old French term "chevalerie,"' Sherlock continues. 'And it was meant to describe soldiers who fought on horseback.'

John snorts. His daughter is brilliant, obviously, but there's not a chance in hell she's understanding this. Unless Sherlock is drawing some truly impressive illustrations off-camera. Which, he supposes, is disturbingly plausible.

'These soldiers became standards of good behaviour, you see. On a horse, you're much taller than everyone else, aren't you? And horses can kick, or be otherwise very rude. So, the guideline for chivalry became, essentially, don't be rude to people who don't have a horse.'

'Don't be rude,' Rosie echoes, and John supposes that's what he'd want her to get out of this lesson, really.

But Sherlock's not finished. 'It had many iterations, of course, but eventually became a ritualised outlook on romantic love.'

John's brows shoot up. He'd've thought this subject to be one Sherlock would delete. Courtly love will likely never solve him a case, after all.

'One of the rituals, for example, was the High Minnie.'

Rosie is interested enough to ask through a yawn: 'Minnie Mouse?'

Sherlock chuckles. 'No, m-i-n-n-e. German. "Hohe Minne" colloquially means "high love."'

Yeah, clearly Sherlock is aware John can hear him. Even he's not going to use the word "colloquially" for the benefit of a toddler.

'It's when a knight-- the person on the horse-- goes through a series of trials to prove their love to someone. For instance, being willing to sacrifice themself to save the person they love. Making a long journey fraught with peril and hurt. Taking on a mighty monster.'

John's tired old heart clenches in his chest. Sherlock knows he's listening, all right.

'Now,' the detective continues, 'in the stories, after all these trials fail to win their beloved's heart, the knight finally accepts that their love is unrequited.'

He pauses. Rosie, John can see in the monitor, is languid with sleep, caught by Sherlock's rich voice and about to go under.

'And when love is unrequited, it can hurt very badly. But the knight knows those sacrifices were worth it, in the end, regardless. Because that's simply what love is, sometimes.'

John rubs absently at his chest. It's too much, he's so tired and so in love that it's almost too much.

On the monitor, Rosie's little brows seem to scrunch together, and she moves, rolls a little towards Sherlock. Who chuckles, wry but warm, as he rubs her tummy. 'It's alright, little bumble. Sometimes the knight does get their love, in the end. And it's the best reward in the world.' The shape of him on the screen leans in and kisses Rosie softly. 'Especially when it comes with little girls named Watson.'

John finds he has to look away from the monitor. His eyes are stinging, and now it's not just from exhaustion.

'You're a menace, Sherlock Holmes,' he calls quietly as he hears the stairs creak faithfully under Sherlock's socked feet.

'I know,' the detective says as he crosses the room. He leans on the arms of John's chair and kisses him briefly, their mouths clinging. 'But you found me worthy, in the end.'

'In the end, in the beginning, in the middle,' John counters. Sherlock raises an eyebrow. 'Alright,' John concedes. 'Maybe not in the middle, there, for a bit.' His smile is slow but genuine. 'But you prove yourself with every nappy, every boring case, every time you think before you throw yourself to the wolves.'

'I do try,' Sherlock deflects, his skin heating up. They've both about reached their limit for sentiment for the evening, John thinks.

'Then shut up and try this, you bastard.' And he pulls Sherlock down once more.

[❤️]

[I did mediaeval re-creation for 15 years, so this is where my brain went when I saw the prompt. The book Sherlock's reading from is 'Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm' by Alice & Martin Provensen. I learned of hohe minne in Leverage 4x15, 'The Lonely Hearts Job.']

[libraryofloveletters]

Love You From The Sidelines

Lewis Hamilton x Fem!Reader 

Warnings: long lost love, unrequited love, pining, lewis isn't sure if he’d hallucinating or not, reader is a little stubborn and a little rude, reader’s brother and bestie are their number one supporters, one mention of the silverstone accident (no graphic details), mentions of car accidents and parental death.

Word Count: 4.3k

Author’s Note: this has been sitting in my draft for months and I finally have the motivation to finish it. I'm not really sure what this idea is but go with it // also age gaps and timelines are definitely off, sorry! just go with it. 

-----

High school sweethearts -- not exactly. 

He wasn’t truly in school, making appearances here and there but focused on his career. The jump from F2 to F1 was a crucial time. 

You were his grounding spot. 

The bedroom window creaked when he snuck in, laying beside you in the tiny bed as his head rests on your stomach. The two of you living in a fantasy world for those few hours.  

“You’ll be by my side of course,” his fingers interlock with yours. He brings your hand up to his lips. “Married, 3 kids and a dog, a big house on the hill just like you always wanted.” He tells you, lips pressing to your ring finger.

“You mean that?” you asked, your own hand cupping his jaw as he looked up at you. 

“I promise.”

Of course you believed him, you were 18 years old. Young and stupid was the story of your life. Lewis’ jump from F2 to F1 went by in the flash of an eye. You both got wrapped in the whirlwind. 

You had watched him become an internationally known star; Sir Lewis Hamilton. 

The same Lewis Hamilton that promised you a big house on the hill, marriage and 3 kids. The same Lewis who you fell in love with the first time you spoke to him. The days went by, the distance growing between you two; they say absence makes the heart grow fonder but that’s not true when you’re 18 and 19, young and in love. 

Well, at least you were; you loved him so much it hurt. He was your first love, how could you not? 

The day he left etched in your memories. 

He used the front door and not the window; hint number one. 

You were sat on the staircase as he cupped your face. “I can’t, I have to focus on racing. You understand, don’t you?” 

You nod, knowing if you spoke, you’d cry. 

You didn’t hear from him after that day; no calls, no letters, no texts. A final goodbye and he let go of your hand, walking out your life. 

You did what any friend or ex-girlfriend did, you watched from the sidelines. You watched as Lewis grew into this amazingly talented and humble man, as he had always been to you, but it was nice to see others appreciating that. 

He was happy and successful and you were beyond proud. 

His name chanted through the streets when he won, an iconic win every time if not anything else. 

Lewis’s name is written across your heart as it was to millions of other people out there but for very different reasons. 

2022. 

You have grown over the years, a lot has changed since he walked out of your life. You went to college, you became a nurse, you took your little brother, Marcus,  in after your parents passed. 

It was Sunday today, half past 10 and the race was set to start in half an hour. 

The smell of french toast and coffee filled the house as your brother dragged his feet down the stairs. 

“Morning,” the boy yawns, sitting at the kitchen table. 

“Morning kiddo,” you smiled at him, sliding a mug of tea over to him. 

It had become a tradition; every Sunday morning, you two were up and watching the race. You had convinced yourself that you weren’t watching for Lewis, that you simply enjoyed the sport but who were you lying to? 

You got into F1 because of him. Had you not been watching for him, you probably wouldn’t have never watched a race in your life. 

Your brother got into it too, deeming the Brit his favourite racer. It warmed your heart to see him take such a strong liking to Lewis.  

If only he knew. 

He was much too young to remember the few months you and Lewis shared together. Before you were lovers, you were friends. You grew up together, you knew his parents and his siblings. Somewhere, buried deep down in a photo album, there are photos of you and Lewis as teenagers with your little brother in a baby blanket. 

He’s 13 now, his 14th birthday in a few days and his one wish was to go to Silverstone and watch the race. 

How could you deny him that? 

You had the tickets hidden away in your bedroom, your best friend Jenny was coming with you two as well. He just didn’t know yet. 

The race has started, the Canadian GP title ran as you two settled in on the couch in front of the tv. Lewis was starting 4th, Carlos, Fernando and Max in front of him in that order.

You said a quiet little prayer in your head, hoping that someone out there was listening and would keep him safe. It was a stupid thing to do, he probably didn’t even remember you but you remembered him; he was your first love. 

You always held him in a special place in your heart. 

The race was going well, he's steady on the tyres and the strategy seems to be working. It was a long 70 laps, Carlos was so close to his first win that he could taste it and somehow managed to slip through his fingers. Max ended up in first place along with Carlos in second and Lewis in third.

“You know how your birthday is next week?” You asked Marcus, looking over at him; your brother's birthday was June 30, just in time for the Silverstone race weekend.

He nods, eyes fixed on the tv screen. The podium was running, Ted’s notebook on next, he was always so proud to see Lewis on podium; the smile on his face like no other. You reach over and pull something out of the side table. You have to run upstairs during the race under the guise of getting your phone charger, which you did but there was another reason you had gone up.

The three tickets dropped on the coffee table in front of him. The boy looks down at the tickets and takes a moment to figure out what was in front of him. When it registers to him that those are the tickets for next week's race, he looks over at you. “What- are you serious ?” He asks, holding back a grin. 

“No, obviously those are fake.” You teased, a smile on your face. 

The little boy, not so little anymore, wraps his arms around you and pulls you into a hug. “Oh my god! Thank you!!” He lets go of you and picks up the tickets, reading them off. “Wait, there’s three.” 

“Jenny’s coming with us.” You tell him and he smiles. 

Your brother loved Jenny as much as he loved you. You and Jenny had met in college, the two of you got lost on your way to psychology class and ended up spending the afternoon in the library.

Jenny was an only child, and her parents came from money. She was way more well off than you, so when she found out that you were going to school along with raising your brother, and managing the household; she couldn't resist the urge to help you. She helped in any way she could, whether it was watching Marcus so you could do an exam or for you to pick up an extra shift at work and sometimes, she even picked up bills when she knew you couldn't. 

You have always tried to pay her back but never did Jenny take a cent back  from you. It's like you've gained another sibling and Marcus loved her like he loved you.

---

Race Day; Silverstone 

The three of you were walking into the track, you and Jenny watched Marcus’s face light up with excitement as you walked through. He’s all decked out, his black Mercedes hat and shirt as you head down towards the grand stands. 

“Hold on,” Jenny calls for him, reaching into her purse for something. You’re both looking over at the woman, waiting to see what she pulled out. There’s a little blue envelope that she pulls out and hands over to Marcus. “Happy birthday,” she tells him, smiling. 

Marcus smiles at her and he opens the envelope. He was expecting a birthday card but instead finds 3 passes for the Mercedes meet and greet. Marcus looks at her and back at the passes. 

“Jenny!” He laughs, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a hug. 

She smiles, rubbing his back softly. “Go on, get in line.” She tells him, letting him run off to find the line. Both you and her are walking behind him. “Jen,” you start, looking over at her and she already knows what you were going to say. 

“Y/n, don’t. He’s a good kid, it’s the least I could do.” 

“It’s too much.” 

“You bought my ticket, it was the least I could do. It’s his birthday gift.” 

You two find Marcus in the line, the 3 of you patiently waiting to go through the line to meet the Mercedes drivers. You and Marcus go to see George first, he was kind and sweet; he signed your brother’s hat and yours, took a picture with your brother before you moved on to Lewis as Jenny moved up to meet George. 

Marcus is so shocked when he’s in front of Lewis, he’s gone quiet. You give him a nudge, letting him step towards the driver on the other side of the table. 

“Hi,” Lewis smiled at the boy in front of you, he glanced at you and he paused; you looked so familiar, did he know you from somewhere ? Nonetheless, he looked back at the boy, “did you want me to sign that?” He asks, nodding towards the hat in his hand. 

“Yeah, please.” Marcus hands the hat over and he’s so quiet and shy, you can’t help but chuckle. 

“Thank you,” you say to Lewis when he hands the hat back over to Marcus. “Marcus is one of your biggest fans, aren’t you?” You pinched your brother’s cheek and he swats your hand away, “y/n.” The boy groaned; you were embarrassing  him in front of his idol. 

“Sisters,” Lewis chuckles, “they’ll always baby you. Mine is like that too.” He tells Marcus with a smile. “Thank you for the support, it means a lot to me.” He smiles, a hand resting on his chest. 

Marcus thanks him once more for signing the hat and Lewis leans over and signs his top for him as well, telling him that he’ll see him around. Marcus’s face has lit up, smiling from ear to ear. “Best birthday present ever!” He says to you and you smile, your arm over his shoulders as you two walk off to the side, waiting for Jenny. 

Lewis can’t help that he overheard your conversation and he can’t shake the feeling that he somehow knows you from somewhere. 

You were chatting with Marcus while Lewis signed something for Jenny and you can feel him looking at you but you brush it off. Jenny came over and you three were ready to walk around for a bit more. You glance over your shoulder once more before you walk off and your eyes meet his; Lewis flashes you a smile, the same smile that used to make your heart skip a beat. 

The three of you end up wandering around for a bit, about to head towards the grandstand when a woman comes running after you three, shouting for you to stop. Her pristine white shirt catches your eye, as does the little Mercedes emblem stitched onto it. 

“Are you one of you Marcus ?” She asks and your brother’s brows furrow, slightly confused. “I am,” he says, sticking to your side. 

“Oh good, I found the right one.” The woman lets out a breath, smiling. “Here, for you.” She hands over 3 passes to you guys. 

Marcus reads the badges; passes for the paddock, the back says guests of L. Hamilton.

“Wait, what?” He asks, handing one to Jenny and the other to you. 

“They’re from Lewis,” the lady clarifies. “He said he wanted you three there.” 

Before you could ask the woman a question, Jenny and Marcus are following her like lost puppies towards the Mercedes garage. Your stomach is doing flips as you jog to catch up with them; god, you really hoped he didn’t remember you. Today was about Marcus, not Lewis trying to dig up ancient feelings, ones you pushed away a long time ago. 

Once you get to the garage, she shows you around for a little before telling you to help yourself to anything and set in before the race. You were watching as Marcus and Jenny poked around, you sat in your seat and waited for the countdown to the race to begin. 

You always felt nervous before the race start; the man you love -- loved, was about to get in a car and drive at ridiculous speeds; it’s human nature to worry. 

But you’d never felt it like that before. You felt like you were going to be sick when they sat next to you, talking about how the mechanics were telling them how fast those cars can really go. 

The numbers kept going higher and higher, as did your urge to throw up this morning’s breakfast. 

That’s when you see him; race suit hanging off his hips, black fireproofs clinging to his fit body, Angela running behind him. “Hi,” he stops in front of you guys and you barely look up. 

Marcus looks like he was going to freak out but he says hi nonetheless. 

Jenny is the only sane one currently.  

“Thank you for the passes,” Jenny says, Marcus nodding. 

Lewis waves them off, “it was nothing. I overheard you talking to your sister.” His eyes find you, you can feel his gaze burning into you and you finally glance up at the man. “You said it was the best birthday present, figured I'd give you the full experience.” 

“I hope we didn’t put you out.” You finally say and he shakes his head, smiling. 

“It was no problem at all. I had extra.” 

Angela tells him that he’d needed on the grid in two minutes and he says his goodbyes. Marcus wishes him good luck and Lewis thanks him and promises to be back after the race to chat some more. He heads towards the front of the garage but not without looking back at you once more, your eyes catching his and you look away. 

“Why does he keep looking at you like that?” Jenny asks you and you look at her confused. “What? Who?” 

“What’d you mean who?” Jenny rolls her eyes. “Lewis, duh. Seems like he likes you,” she wiggles her eyebrows. “What a man, you’d be so lucky.” 

“Oh like he wouldn't be lucky too.” You joked, earning a laugh from her. 

The race went well, Carlos took his first win which was an amazing thing to see and Checo was P2 with Lewis in P3. George unfortunately was not aloud to restart the race after stopping to help Zhou but he stopped for a good reason, it was nonsense and unfair that he didn’t get to, but rules are rules you suppose; even if they are stupid. 

Lewis had to get to press but when he returned, he found the three of you again and ended up talking to you; by you, I mean Jenny and Marcus for a good while. You smiled and nodded along, you didn’t have much to say, you didn’t know what to say. 

What were you supposed to say? Hey remember me? The girl you ditched when you started F1?

Yeah, I think not. 

Lewis gets Marcus one of his Mercedes team shirts, two actually; a black and a white, “for variety” he told the boy. He signs one of them and takes a few pictures with you guys. 

“Oh y/n, don’t you want to get in?” Jenny asks after you take the picture of her, Lewis and Marcus.

“It’s alright,” you smile, “I'm sure Lewis has places to be.” 

The man smiles, “not really, come on.” He nods towards Marcus, calling you over. Once again, your stomach is doing flips as you hand the phone to Jenny and stand on the other side of Lewis, the driver between you and Marcus. 

His hand rests on your back and the spot feels like it’s on fire. It’s the first time he’s touched you in years and still, you felt the same way; like you were 18 and in love again. 

It was getting late and all of you really needed to go. Traffic was surely going to be a madhouse to get out of there and you still needed to do dinner for Marcus. You all thanked him for his kindness today, his eyes lingering on you as you said your goodbyes. You can hear Angela telling him they’re doing a debrief which gives you a sense of relief; you can leave without the fear of him tracking you down and asking if he knew you from somewhere. 

How would you explain that to Marcus and Jenny? Oh yeah, no biggie but I dated seven time world champion Lewis Hamilton when I was in high school. 

Marcus was exhausted by the time you three got back to your place and frankly so were you. You opted out of a fancy dinner, ordering takeout and Marcus says you can do dinner at a restaurant another day. 

Dinner was eaten on the couch, watching the reruns of Ted’s Notebook whilst you three chatted about the day. You were in the kitchen, sticking candles into Marcus’s birthday cake, 14 to be exact when the doorbell rang. 

“I'll get it!” Jenny shouts, walking towards the door. 

You hear the door open and it's quiet, so you venture off to see who’s at the door. The kitchen towel swung over your shoulder and you brushed the frosting off your fingers as you walked over, “Jen, who’s at the -” 

You stopped like deer in headlights. 

Jenny takes a step back, still in the entryway but you and Lewis are face to face. “What're you doing here?” You ask. 

“So it is you. I thought I had been losing my mind all day.” 

“Why are you here, Lewis?” You pass a hand through your hair, nervously shifting from one foot to the other. “How'd you even find me?” 

“You haven’t moved, y/n.” He glances around, “lived in the same house your whole life.” 

“Yeah, not all of us are well off like you are.” 

The words come flying out before you could stop yourself. You see the look on his face; you knew how he grew up, what his parents did to keep him in karting, what he faced before he even got a chance. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.” 

“No,” he says, “it’s fine.” 

“I don’t have time to chat, the cake will melt.” 

“So invite me in.” He says it as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. 

“Lewis-” You get cut off by Marcus saying the same thing, the boy coming down from his bedroom. You couldn’t say no now, Marcus has already seen him. You step aside, letting Lewis come in and Jenny has walked ahead to pull Marcus into the living room and you’re absolutely sure they were forming their own theories as to why he was there. 

He looks around as he walks in, admiring the pictures on the wall. “You kept it up.” He smiles, a photo he had taken of you sitting on a bench in the park, a bright yellow dress on. “It was my mum’s favourite.” You tell him. 

“Was?” He says quietly, looking over at you. “Yeah,” you breathe, “she and dad passed in an accident when Marcus was 4.” 

“Oh. Y/n, I didn’t know. I'm so sorry.” 

“It’s okay, life happens.” You shrug, walking off to get the cake from the kitchen.  Lewis follows you, “wow nothing’s changed.” He looks around. 

“Don’t have the time to change it,” you tell him, stepping past him towards the living room. Marcus was sitting on the couch when you and Lewis walked in, you set the cake on the coffee table and Jenny lit the candles, the three of you singing him happy birthday, counting to 14 before he blew out his candles. 

“I’ll get plates, hold on.” You get up, walking off to the kitchen. 

Marcus exchanges a glance with Jenny and that’s when Marcus turns to Lewis. “How do you know my sister?” He asks the driver and Lewis looks confused. 

“Y/n never told you?” 

“Told me what?” 

“We dated when we were in high school.” 

Marcus’s mouth forms an O, excusing himself and rushing off to the kitchen. “YOU DATED LEWIS ?!” Marcus shouts and you turn to face the boy, “what?” 

“Lewis said you guys dated, how come you never told me?” 

“Lewis told you that ?” Your arms folded across your chest and you see the accused peeking into the kitchen, “hi,” he says quietly and you give Marcus a look, one he knows too well; time for him to go. 

Lewis replaces Marcus in the kitchen and you two are standing across from each other. “Why would you tell him that? Honestly, why are you even here?” You ask him. 

You’re also 100% sure that Jenny and Marcus were eavesdropping but that's the least of your concerns. 

“I’m not sorry for coming back, if that’s what you’re asking me.” He says, leaning on the wall. 

“It’s not what I'm asking.” You say, gathering the plates to take to the living room. As you go to step out, Lewis blocks the doorway. “Move.” You go to step past him and he doesn’t move.

“Y/n, please. I remember, you know.” His eyes meet yours and everything in you wants to believe that. “I promised you I’d come back, we’d get married, 3 kids and a dog, big house on the hill.” He sighs, his gaze burning a hole into you. “I'm sorry for not coming back.” 

“You don’t have to apologize, we're both grown. We have our own lives, I didn’t expect you to come back.” 

Lewis sighs, his hand resting on yours. “I wanted to. I love you, y/n, I always have. I just- my focus shifted, but it doesn’t mean I forgot about you. I got caught up in my career but I never stopped loving you. No one ever came close to you.” 

“I don’t need an apology, Lewis.” 

“I love you, y/n. It’s always been you. Can’t we at least try?” 

Your heart is telling you yes, run back to him; Lewis was the love of your life and just like he had said, you had never found anyone that compared to him. 

No one came close to him. 

Logically, you should say no. Tell him to leave and wish him well. You couldn't put yourself through that again. 

“Okay.” You say, nodding. “We can try.” 

“Okay,” he smiles. “That’s all I wanted.” 

----

5 years later. 

“Is everything ready?” You called from the kitchen, Marcus and Jenny hanging the banner the girls made on the wall. 

“Should be ready now!” Your brother called back. 

You and Lewis ended up working things out, he went on to win another championship, putting him at a world record of 8 championships and you were all beyond proud. 

Later that same year, you found out you were pregnant. Twins the first go around; Stella and Victoria. The two girls are four now and they are everything like their father. 

You moved while you were pregnant, a big house on a hill. It wasn't too far from where you two had grown up. Lots of yard space for the kids to play and for Roscoe to run around. 

Marcus was living with the four of you even though he was 19 now; he will always be your first baby. 

Speaking of babies, your little man was active, jabbing you in the side with his foot. You were due soon, this one makes 3. A little boy this time. 

“Stel! Vic! Daddy’s going to be home soon! Come in!” You shout to the girls in the backyard when you hear the door open. You can hear Jenny and Marcus talking to your husband and the girls come running in. 

“Daddy!” They shout at the same time, the man dropping to his knees to hug his girls. 

“Hi babies! I missed you two soooo much.” He says, kissing them on the cheek. 

Roscoe was nudging Lewis’s leg with his head and Lewis pats the dog’s side, cuddling with him for a moment. You come walking into the entryway, your hand resting on your bump and Lewis smiles when he sees you. The diamond ring on your finger catches his eye. 

“Mrs. Hamilton,” he says, getting up to give you a kiss. 

“How was the flight?” You ask him, your hand on his jaw when he leans down to kiss your bump. The girls have run off with Jenny, Marcus and Roscoe. “It was fine,” he says, standing behind you now.

You lean back onto your husband, his hands on either side of your bump, your hand coming down to rest on his. “Welcome home baby.” You whisper to him. 

He smiles, kissing your cheek. “Thank you, darling.” 

-----

taglist: @timetoracewrites​ @diorleclerc​ @lickmeleclerc​ @halsteadssneakylink​ @dragon-of-winterfell​ @benedictscanvas​ @elisaa-shelby​ @hnmaga-blog​ @czechoslovakiandisco​ @dr3lover​ @troybolton14 @Lovingroscoee @compulsiveshit​ @somanyfandomsbruh​  @damnyoulifee​ @barzysreputation​ @vickyofalltrades @yeolsbubbles​ @barzysreputation​ @thybulleric​ @valkyrie418​ @ricsaigaslec​ @idkiwantchocolatee​  @sessgjarg @molliemoo3​ @bisexual-desi​ @sunf1owerrq​ 

[utilitycaster]

Wow your Orym tags really are an eye-opener. You are totally right and now I understand the bitterness about this character a little better. I've seen a lot of "...but C3 is supposed to be this and that" takes and I guess a lot of people think they are owed a certain storyline?

Yeah. People feeling as though they're owed a certain storyline is not new nor exclusive to Critical Role; it's been pretty common in fandom for years (see this excellent post that I still think about). But the particular blame being placed on Orym is a fun new twist on this theme.

I'm sure there's people who hate Orym for other reasons; shipping wank is another very common form of entitlement to a particular storyline. I must admit when it comes to Twitter I think some people just yell random lies out into the void to hear their own voice because there is no underlying logic to any of it. But I do think a large number of people who have been blaming Orym for everything for what is now the majority of the campaign are doing so because he has consistetly refused to entertain the idea that Ludinus makes any valid points from the start, and the narrative has pretty much only rewarded him for that.

A lot of people really thought that Campaign 3 "all bets are off" didn't mean like, messing with the narrative structure (they hate when that happens by the way. they acted like Downfall and the Solstice Split and the fact that this has been a very plot-driven campaign rather than one about character backstory are all fucking violations of the Geneva convention the way they carried on, and I say this as a person who can complain) but rather that Critical Role, a D&D-based fantasy, would shed those pesky two previous campaigns of canon (unless of course earlier canon helps them make a point. I truly cannot believe someone made like 5 alts and harassed me and all my mutuals for an entire evening over hypocrisy for...liking one ship more than another when these idiots exist) in order to become some kind of deeply pathetic "French Revolution Except Instead Of Kings It's Gods" historical re-enactment.

We're at the point where like, nothing has validated them and everything they've claimed the gods have done, Ludinus or the Weave Mind have done like, tenfold. As mentioned, the people who were like "oh my god STOP SAYING HUBRIS anyway obviously Bells Hells would NEVER see the gods as relatable" just watched Laudna and Imogen be like "wow, they're flawed and conflicted and a fucked up family just like us." I shit you not, I saw someone criticize FCG's relationship with the Changebringer because "he had to work for it" as if that's not like...how literally all relationships work if you're not an utter black hole of entitled self-absorption. The Kreviris Imperium wants to straight up colonize all of Exandria but they turn a blind eye. There's someone out there talking about putting Rashinna's head on a pike for being willing to endanger the poor Ruidusborn children that...Liliana (probably to some extent coerced by Ludinus to be fair) could have left alone to live out their lives on Exandria. People genuinely channel some anti-abortion "but What About The Disabled Children? Shouldn't Pregnant People Be Forced To Carry And Parent Them" style arguments at Alma's "hey, we have people delay birth for like half an hour so their children don't have The Psychic Migraine Disorder That Made Imogen Possibly Suicidal". The arguments have devolved into "well, canon isn't real" and "but the status quo" as if there aren't ALIENS FROM SPACE SPEAKING AT THE DRAGON VATICAN. How STUPID do you have to be to think that wouldn't change the entire world. Or, to get back to this ask, how desperate are you to maintain the illusion that you are going to get a wish-fulfillment campaign that never once existed? So yeah. They blame Orym because otherwise they have to blame literally the entire cast, and themselves.

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

medialog july 2k24

watched

the seven samurai - classic that holds up IMO!! like lawrence of arabia, one where you can see why basically every person to make a movie since cites it as a formative influence. lots of really beautiful shots but what really stood out to me was how human it felt - small scale but not in a way that means "minor," in a way that emphasizes that even the smallest of scales is everything to the people living it. every character feels so real and carries such a sense of a life lived, thanks to both the writing and the absolutely wonderful performances. it feels so empathetic and compassionate and warm even though it's ultimately a war movie - one of those movies where you get the sense a fundamental love for humanity is one of the animating creative impulses. also toshiro mifune, one of the hottest people ever to live, spends the back half of this movie, to quote nick, dressed like hercules with his ass hanging out and it's incredible.

tank girl - every single Look and Aesthetic in this movie is an absolute 100/10 and lori petty is a foul-mouthed delight, but wow was I not prepared for how much of this movie is about the discovery of a secret underground society of kangaroo people

read

megan whalen turner, the thief - a pair of friends of mine basically shoved this into my hands when i was at their apartment with the promise of great craft & an ending that goes crazy. the first in the series of six, this one is more or less a sturdy and fairly straightforward middle-grade adventure story, and while it was at times a little heavy on descriptions of the characters making their way across various types of terrain, overall my interest was sustained by a few things: a clean, deliberate writing style that washed me in nostalgia for the middle-grade classics of my own youth (which this could have been - it came out in 1996 - but somehow i never came across it); a setting deliberately out of any real historical time but clearly influenced in Vibes by (among other places) ancient greece, which contributed to the nostalgia; glimpses of a convincingly rendered mythology (and the fascinating choice, which continues throughout the series, to render the characters' occasional glimpses of the actual divine as more unsettling than anything else); and a wonderfully compelling set of characters, above all gen, the book's narrator and the series' central character (although not most of the books'), who as i said a while ago is a classic blend of clever, brave, and incredibly annoying to everyone he meets.

monique wittig, the straight mind - collection of essays by a french lesbian feminist/theorist i first heard of, to be very honest, because adele haenel was one of the panelists at an event at the local french bookstore and i wanted to see her in person, lmao. the first essay in the collection opens with a call to abolish the concept of sex, which is one of those claims i'm not sure i actually endorse or even fully understand but find really invigorating to read, all of which more or less applies to my experience of the collection as a whole (including the part where i was not sure i was always following it). i did particularly appreciate her interest as a writer (she was a novelist as well as a theorist) in language and the role it plays in upholding gender/the work of imagining a way to play a role in dismantling it. and i found her general rejection of "the myth of woman" quite bracing.

rick emerson, unmask alice: LSD, satanic panic, and the imposter behind the world's most notorious diaries - i heard about this book on an episode of you're wrong about before i stopped listening and it was in fact an incredibly entertaining and fascinating bit of light nonfiction about a truly bonkers episode in american publishing history. go ask alice is the obvious draw here, but a large chunk of the book is devoted to "editor" and professional liar beatrice sparks's follow-up, jay's journal, which emerson reveals to have, in fact, started as the actual diary of a suicidal teenager whose family entrusted it to her in the hopes that their dead son's pain might somehow be able to help other families prevent similarly tragic outcomes... only to have sparks expand his few dozen entries into a story of the absolute most insane satanic panic ground zero nonsense (this book predates michelle remembers!), but somehow leave in enough identifying details that everyone in the family's small mormon town knew exactly who it was about. truly truly monstrous and if emerson sometimes veers a little close painting sparks as a cartoon villain, it's honestly hard to blame him given how much time he spent contemplating this unbelievably heinous act.

courtney summers, i'm the girl - the simplest way to describe this book is to paraphrase the author in some interview i can't remember as a story about a girl who confuses beauty for power because that's what the world has told her is true; it's emotionally rough but highly readable, and as always i just so admire summers' lack of interest in morality tales or lessons learned, her keen understanding that having a sixteen-year-old being groomed come suddenly and fully into a perfect feminist analysis of what's happened to her would make the book more palatable to some but ultimately be a betrayal of the character she'd created. summers has alluded in her newsletter to this book, loosely based on research about the epstein/maxwell case & the testimony of their victims, closing the chapter on the first arc of her career as a writer - eight thorny, painful novels about interior lives of teenage girls struggling with themselves and the world they live in - and it feels like a fitting capstone, one that both calls on the skills she's developed over the years and feels like it digs even more deeply than the project into an area of interest that feels fitting for an author who started writing YA in her early 20s and is now in her late 30s, namely, how to write a book that makes space for real empathy with a young person naive enough - some might say, and indeed some have said, stupid enough - to be well and truly taken in? (and i think one of the smartest things the book does is foreground early on how badly its protagonist doesn't want to be thought of as stupid, which is part of what makes her vulnerable and part of what makes processing the reality of what's happening to her so difficult.) also, despite the fact that romance has never been a huge or simple part of summers's novels, she's always had a knack for crafting a YA dreamboat love interest, and as someone who it turns out was figuring out her sexuality in her 30s around the same time summers was - it was great to see her do it again but this time with a girl :)

ted chiang, exhalation - my friend recommended me this because i was looking to read more sci-fi short stories but running into my perennial problem with sci-fi which is that frequently the writing is bad. ted chiang is pretty good! i liked how much he clearly conceives of or intuits that form & story are one and the same - almost all the stories in this collection take the form of a document that has some in-world reason to exist, which keeps the style feeling fresh and which he often uses to merge character work & sci-fi concepts in a cool way (as in a story with the fascinating premise that creationism is real but earth is not god's favored planet). it was unfortunate that the longest story in the collection was by far my least favorite, being both the most subject to sci-fi bland prose disease and focused on a concept it is impossible for me to muster interest in (the ethics of digital sentience... they're pictures on a screen...). the last story, the only other one written in the third person, suffered a little stylistically as well, but made up for it with an INSANELY good premise, which is that it's a multiverse story focused on a variety of psychological challenges people might have in response to learning for sure parallel universes are real - there's a support group for people addicted to checking in on their parallel selves! that's the most awesome multiverse concept i have ever come across.

evelline adams, astrology for everyone - astrology got less fun when the ratio started shifting of people viewing it as A Fun Pretend Thing to people taking it very seriously, but i do retain the same aesthetic appreciation for the particular kitsch of vintage astrology writing that i did when i borrowed this from my friend several years ago.

patrick radden keefe, rogues: true stories of grifters, killers, rebels and crooks - a collection of 12 of keefe's new yorker #longreads that i read because (a) i liked empire of pain, his book on the sackler family, a lot (b) i'm trying to get back into my library ebook habit to keep me away from Scrolling and hopefully learn some things and substantive-but-still-easy-to-read journalistic nonfiction is my favorite genre for this purpose because i don't feel i lose anything by reading it in 5 minute snatches while waiting for the train, and (c) his other books had all the licenses checked out. anyway this gave me what i wanted! i think my favorite was the one about wine fraud just because i think wine fraud is funny because anyone shelling out crazy money on wine deserves to be scammed so it's basically a victimless crime. the book closes with his profile of anthony bourdain, which is a really lovely read although incredibly sad in retrospect because bourdain comes across as so full of life and would die the year after it was published.

megan whalen turner, the queen of attolia - book two in the series, and everything is growing up a bit, as we shift from an adventure story to a war story, from gen's narration to an expertly deployed omniscient/shifting third, and from an irrepressible protagonist to one Truly Going Through It. this book kicks off strong by opening with a set of circumstances that permanently and painfully changes gen's circumstances, and the question of how he's going to process this and move forward drives a lot of the emotional suspense of the book. it also upends our understanding of a character introduced in the first book en route to an absolutely insane romance that shouldn't work but in its quasi-mythical context absolutely does. i tend to prefer hard copies for fiction, but starting here and for every book after i got to the end and went straight to the library app so i could keep going.

megan whalen turner, the king of attolia - THIS BOOK SLAPS SO HARD IT'S UNBELIEVABLE!!!! at first you're like, WHY is the narration primarily focused on some random no-name member of the royal guard we have never met before? but then you realize it's so that the entire book can be propelled by the dramatic irony wherein we, readers of the series, know gen well at this point and also know exactly how and why things went down the way they did at the end of the last book, but almost no one else does and (partly because of the ways he is annoying) many assumptions are being made... so a lot of the "suspense" in this book comes from, like, when is this new guy's understanding of gen going to start aligning with ours? it's soooo cool and something i don't remember reading in a series before (although i don't read a ton of series), and this book is, like, relentlessly entertaining on its way to its insanely satisfying conclusion, and also contains two of the most romantic paragraphs i have read in my LIFE despite the fact that the couple they center on barely appears together in the book.

megan whalen turner, conspiracy of kings - we catch up with a character from the first book who's been having a rough go of it and now needs to toughen up a bit in response to his circumstances. i think as a novel this is maybe the weakest of the set but as a character i love my sweet baby sophos so much i would have read 500 more pages. also contains one of the DUDES ROCK scenes of all time.

megan whalen turner, thick as thieves - this one picks up with a minor character from book two that i was happy to see again, because he really punched above his weight in terms of interest. it kind of combines the adventure-story of the first book with the dramatic irony as suspense of the third, and both the narrator and the central dynamic between the two main characters are delightful. this book has the least gen of all the books and i did miss him but it was funny how intensely his whole Deal hung over the circumstances regardless, and also despite the fact that the ending of literally all of these books so far has involved the reveal of some five-dimensional chess magic trick, so to speak, and thus i knew logically it was coming, i once again found myself so swept up that i was fully :O when it all went down.

megan whalen turner, return of the thief - an incredibly satisfying ending to the series, even if it left me sad that it was over! as was often the case with these books, it was, like, so satisfying that part of me almost felt like it should feel like cheating... but it didn't and i was just so happy to be there rooting for all my close personal friends. also the narrator of this one is a new character who is both physically disabled and nonverbal, and a) i thought that was generally pretty cool and the way the text engaged with people underestimating him was interesting and b) the descriptions of him as a kid being fascinated by triangles & numerical patterns was THEE most endearing thing i have read in my life.

listened

willow, empathogen - i don't know why willow decided to put out the best tori amos record since scarlet's walk? but i'm glad she did, because this album rocks! (and, like, seriously, if you're a tori person, you owe it to yourself to check this out - the influence is strong and undeniable, IMO, and on its own merits the album sounds gorgeous and takes you on a rich and textured sonic journey, even if you do maybe get the sense that being the very rich daughter of two incredibly famous millionaires in the entertainment industry is an impediment towards having all that much to say as a lyricist.)

other

anna di resburgo - my friend had an extra ticket to a short-lived production of this, the only surviving bel canto opera by a woman (recently assembled for performance from its discovery in some archive). it was only her second aria and as per the program notes kind of flopped, possibly partly due to its thematic similarity with another opera first produced around the same time by donizetti, by then an acknowledged master of the form while di resburgo was a novice (she had previously composed one opera, which has since been lost, and none after, although iirc she did some other composition) (also disclaimer that i know very little about opera, like just barely enough for all that to kind of make sense to me lol). anyway the work is uneven and (as my friend pointed out) oftentimes the music, while pretty and sometimes interesting, is at odds tonally with the plot - the plot is in theory quite dramatic with life-or-death stakes but for much of the runtime the music feels more suited to a farce - and the libretto is... not a piece of well constructed drama overall or scene to scene or line by line (there are some, like, accidentally comical exposition dumps along the lines of "father, do you remember that mysterious orphan that showed up on our doorstep all those years ago?"). but it was not without its highlights, and we agreed that as a second outing it showed promise we wish the composer had received support for the way men with similarly Just Alright second operas did.

inwood shorts - we went with some friends (actually the same friend as above) to see some shorts by local filmmakers at a place in inwood with an incredible view of the river featuring on that day an unbelievably gorgeous sunset and while nothing really wowed me a nice time was had by all & there was a big laugh in the crowd when the guy in a short giving a little "tour of my neighborhood" schtick said "for a while i lived in this place upstate called yonkers." :)

[solsays]

okay guys hello hi so a (more serious) post before we’re back to the sillies but like I’ve seen a bit of this in the QSMP community recently and I feel like it needs to be addressed

you’re free to dislike a creator/cc’s fanbase, but don’t lump them all together. Every fanbase has its different parts, and that means that not everybody is the same. I’ve seen this most with Wilbur and Phil mains, how people are like “oh you’re oblivious and don’t care to watch other streamers” or whatever it is, and often they get accused of summing characters/creators up to all they know them as through Phil or Wilbur or their relationships with other characters. This isn’t to say that doesn’t happen, but it’s not nearly as common as many seem to think!

This is coming from someone who has been watching Phil for going on four years now; we know more than you think, and often there are actual reasons for why we don’t watch other ccs. For me, it’s because I can rarely tune in when people are actually live thanks to school and work and such, so I take to watching vods and clips to keep caught up on the events. I am also not fully bilingual (English, and I speak partial Spanish but fast Spanish still confuses me sometimes) which makes it hard to watch people like the Brazilian or French players (I don’t speak either language) outside of clips where they’re playing with the English or Spanish speakers! As a result, my knowledge of many of them (Mike, Bagi, Antoine, etc) is pretty limited. I try my best to keep up with everyone on character stuff, but it can be hard if we’re busy. Another thing is that a large part of (especially) Phil’s fanbase are adults, who have families or college or work and they can’t always keep up with every minute detail or trait of characters, and I know this is true for many other cc’s fanbases as well.

of course, everybody is allowed to have their own opinions, and it’s okay if you aren’t a fan of a cc or their fans! All I’m asking is that we don’t hate on those creators or their fans, especially if it’s because you’ve had not great experiences with some of their fans. Often I think the former DSMP members fans are seen as stupid little kids who are toxic and childish, while in reality most of us are over 16 or even adults. Phil, Foolish, Slime, Quackity, etc were never really the problematic part of the dsmp fanbase, which was kind of split into Techno’s friends and their fans (who were always pretty chill for the most part) and then dream’s friends and their fans (who were and still are pretty problematic a lot of the time). I never was a huge dsmp enjoyer, so I never really watched the lore and preferred to watch their other stuff, but I always disliked the dream team and their little group, they always rubbed me the wrong way.

I only truly watch Phil’s streams, but I’ve taken up watching Cellbit and Fit as well, even if I can’t understand Cellbit sometimes, so remember that we won’t know everything niche about characters because of the language barriers! Don’t be a dick or rude to people who are unaware of certain parts of lore and such because they don’t watch multiple creators, we want to keep the QSMP fandom a chill safe place where people don’t feel hated or excluded just because of which creator(s) they watch, so in summary just be nice to everyone and don’t hate on people just because they don’t do things the same way as you. This community was created with the purpose of bringing people together and breaking barriers, so let’s try and keep that moral in mind while interacting with other fans!

TLDR: you’re free to dislike creators or their fans, just don’t lump them all together and say they’re all clueless or don’t care about any other characters! Let’s keep the point of the QSMP fandom what Quackity intended—breaking language barriers and bringing people together/lifting them up instead of putting them down :)

[sparvverius]

i do feel for louis capet and i don't think he was a "bad person" (not that i believe in such a thing anyways) he truly seems to have been a decent guy. but that is so entirely not the point of why he was killed and i do get genuinely angry when people are like "poor louis xvi actually wanted to free all the slaves he just didn't manage it in his short rule plagued by the revolution 😔" because that doesn't actually matter. as the french (and haitian) revolutionaries discovered there is actually a ceiling to what can be accomplished without revolutionary action and louis capet opposed that revolutionary action. it doesn't matter what reforms he or any other royals wanted. the system he staked his life and his family's life on was unreformable and he either never realized this or turned away from the realization because it was inconvenient. no matter what he wanted to happen he opposed what could have/did actually realize it and was therefore an enemy to progress and liberation. that's the whole reason he had to die and it doesn't mean you can't be sad about it but you gotta understand it didn't happen because the revolutionaries were a bunch of meanies who didn't know louis was actually a very nice young man who just had a special interest in locks or anything. to use the common parlance, deeply unserious!

[lyralit]

writing characters who speak other languages

> similar sounding words.

if it sounds the same (table in french and table in english) or similar, the speakers of the other language often interject the word in that other accent into the phrase. 

> grammar

grammar isn’t the same in all languages! it’s very easy to translate something literally and have the words completely switch up to make no sense. adjectives often switch sides—so you can go from “run fast” to “fast run”.

> accents

[this is my personal experience] but I’ve never meet a French person speak with a sterotypical “ze toilettes iz zat way” accent. actually a lot of them speak with faint British accents, with a lilt toward more French-sounding words. and just because you speak another language doesn’t immediately equal have a thick accent.

> accents (ii)

also another note: if you speak spanish and french, for example, a lot of people will speak french with the spanish accent on certain words, or vice versa: whichever you know better. if your tongue is used to pronouncing a word that looks exactly the same a certain way, it’s easy to forget to switch accents.

> limits

maybe the character understands Mandarin, but can’t speak it for the life of them. knowing a language isn’t always having every base down! a lot of the time, especially if it’s not your first language, you tend to be stronger in certain areas: understanding, reading, writing, speaking.

> searching for a word

another thing would be forgetting a word in their weaker language: they’ll probably interject the word they know in their strong language with an (as an example) english-sounding accent. or, they run through a really absurd list of words to find the right one: it involves a lot of muttering, one seconds, and held up fingers.

> switching languages (i)

I don’t see people do this often. or at all. unless it’s expressed, or they give up speaking in their weak language and convert entirely to their stronger one. there’s no switching back and forth, half sentences in each language.

> switching languages (ii)

I do this. personally. I know a bunch of languages—english, french, mandarin, spanish—and when I’m writing, or occasionally speaking, in a weaker language, sometimes I will mix them up in the middle of the phrase. this is more for writing, and speaking I can usually manage. I have turned in more than one fremanglish test. (also when I’m speaking, I’m more likely to call my spanish teacher 老师 instead of señora, rather than switch languages completely)

> education

my first language is english, but I had a french education: so many subjects, such as maths and science, I only know the french terms for—even though I know english better. and they don’t always add up. (a triangle (?? I think that’s what it’s called in english) in geometry is an equère. and don’t ask me what a rapporteur is in english.)

other fun things that I too often suffer from ! :

very stupid-sound descriptions for the simplest object because the word FLIES from your brain

freaking grammar again. it was on the list, but french grammar is KILLER and it confuses me so much in english. chinese grammar is almost nonexistent, as far as I know.

jokes! they don’t translate well. my science teacher made a joke about a poisson pané and no one laughed.

slang. you don’t often run around speaking how you do at school. (something that confused other language speakers, I found is that “what’s up” is used to say “hello”, and the speaker doesn’t usually truly mean it)

swear words often convert back to their mother tongue

[tepkunset]

A little bit of history of the Mi’kmaq in Newfoundland

My name is Lydia-Isaac. I was born in Ktaqmkuk, but have spent most of my life in Sipekne'katik and Kespukwitk. As far as most people are concerned, that means I’m a Newfie raised Nova Scotian, but Newfoundland and Nova Scotia are simply built on top of the same territory known as Mi’kma’ki. As far as I’m concerned, despite moving around a lot growing up, I can at least say I’ve never had to leave my people’s homeland.

Pre-Colonization Travel

Evidence says that the Mi’kmaq of Unama’ki (Cape Breton) travelled across the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to Ktaqmkuk (Newfoundland) for seasonal hunting and fishing at least as early as the 16th century. Oral history says this goes back even further.

Relationship with the Beothuk

There are mixed historical analyses on what the relationship between the Beothuk and the Mi’kmaq was like. There is a common myth among settlers that the Mi’kmaq are responsible for the Beothuk genocide, pushing in on their territory and killing them on behalf of French settlers, whom the Mi’kmaq were allied to. This should be highly scrutinized and criticized for what it truly is: Displacement of blame onto another Indigenous Nation as a scapegoat. Most tales of hostilities between the Mi’kmaq and Beothuk come from English accounts. The one explanation we have from a Beothuk source, the captured woman known as Shanawdithit, said to one Bishop Inglis: “Originally they [the Beothuk] had intercourse with the Mi'kmaq and they could partially understand each other, and that the Mi'kmaq who have been visitors here for centuries were formerly on friendly terms but their enmity has been implacable and of the deadliest character for about 150 years.” According to this, hostilities only began after outside colonial pressures were in place. Make no mistake that those responsible for the Beothuk genocide are the settlers who hunted them and their resources, and spread deadly diseases.

Colonial Changes

The relationship between the Mi’kmaq and the land/its other living beings is not just one of harvesting resources, but a spiritual connection and responsibility. The principles of this relationship is known as Netukulimk, which guides the Mi’kmaw way of life. One of the core understandings of Netukulimk is the concept of Msit No’kmaq; the understanding that all spirits are related. (It is also worth mentioning that everything that casts a shadow has a spirit.) Therefore, a person is responsible to respect the life around them—that of the land, of the flora, of the fauna—just as you would respect another family member. When you harvest, you only harvest what you need. When you hunt/fish, you only hunt/fish what you need. And you offer thanks to that which you have taken from, every time. This way of life is one of sustainability!

Unfortunately, that sustainability was catastrophically interrupted by colonizers when Newfoundland came under British control. The caribou herds for example, which were a staple reliance for the Mi’kmaq and originally numbered up to 300,000, went near extinct. With this, so too came the astronomical death of the Mi’kmaq. John G. Millais wrote of Steve Bernard, a Mi’kmaw hunter and wilderness guide: “Steve is the sole survivor of eleven children born to old Joe Bernard, late chief of the Newfoundland Micmacs, all of whom have died from the bottle, consumption, or strains, the three principal causes which decimate the red men.” One survivor in a family of eleven children.

Those that survived this period of death were forced to largely assimilate into the settler’s society, but this too the settlers made a challenge. Getting a job as a Native person was near impossible, save for ill-paid work on the docks and boats. This is where the Newfinese slur jackatar/jack-o-tar comes from, the insinuation being that you are a poor grunt worker because of your race. (Employers denying work to Natives is still a problem today by the way, and the very reason that my family moved to NS.) It was not uncommon for communities of congregated Mi’kmaq to be forcefully relocated and then destroyed, such as Crow Gulch. In the 1870’s, Newfoundland established five reserves to try and control congregation: Conne River, Codroy Valley (Grand River), Halls Bay, St. George’s, and Gambo. But the only one still considered reserve land today is Conne River (Samiajij Miawpukek).

Joseph Fucking Smallwood

In 1949, Newfoundland joined Canada. When asked about the island’s Native population, Premier Joseph Smallwood falsely claimed there were no Indians in Newfoundland. This meant that the Mi’kmaq living on the island were not registered under the Indian Act, enabling the new province to ignore the People’s existence and rights. It also meant settlers were taught in schools the myth that all Indigenous peoples of Newfoundland were killed off, for a very long time.

Miawpukek First Nation

It wasn’t until 1987 that Miawpukek First Nation (Conne River) was federally recognized, after a long-time campaign from Indigenous activists on the island insisting they were not, in fact, ghosts.

But Samiajij Miawpukek is just one of many traditional Mi’kmaw communities, and that’s not even counting those living in urban areas. What about them?

Qalipu First Nation

Qalipu First Nation was established in 2011 by the federal government as an “easy” solution to catch all the rest of the Mi’kmaq in Newfoundland. The problem is, they were not expecting very many applicants—because of that old Joseph Smallwood-sourced myth—so they decided that the checks for applying for Status and membership were not required. This was a huge mistake, as it opened up doors for over 100,000 people to apply. Naturally, the Mi’kmaq of other provinces were rightfully cross with the government for this, and questioned the legitimacy of the Band.

It took nearly a decade for Qalipu leadership to sort out membership, limiting the number of members down to those actually involved with the Band, and making cultural participation a requirement. In 2019, the First Nation was recognized by the Mi’kmaw Santé Mawio’mi (Grand Council).

Today

Thanks to revitalization efforts, the Mi’kmaw language is making a come-back on the island after many decades of near extinction. With this comes the revival of practicing traditional songs, dances, artwork, and other expressions of cultural identity. To paraphrase from my uncle: it’s about relearning what was taken from us for so long.

What should come next, in my opinion, is the restoration of Netukulimk on a large scale. There are many who agree and are working on just that, so we’ll see what comes in the future of the island.

[rawliverandgoronspice]

hey! do you have any thoughts on demise as a looser/more fluid/symbolic/metaphorical figure in the context of the story of the series- like thoughts on what he represents, and stuff like what his curse could mean thematically rather than the more essentialistic absolutistic "literal satan" interpretation that most of the (at least western) audience seems to take?

i know he may be somewhat contentious as a choice introduced by the writers especially considering from an outside perspective what he kind of did to the majority of fandom analysis and discourse, but i've been thinking about how it's quite possible the writers had a more paganistic approach to what it means to be a deity and how demise doesn't even really have a NAME so much as he is supposed to be some sort of manifestation/personification of the concept of demise, and maybe also of hatred, and also i don't know, like, what the point of that hatred is or why there has to be demise/what implications there could be of this worldbuilding

hope that was coherent enough to make sense of anything i just said but yeah i was just curious if you do!

Heyy sorry never replied, replying now!! Thanks for the ask!

Yeah it's exactly how I'm taking Demise, and I think what you mention connects more to what little I know and understand of shintoism.

In French, Demise has an absurdly long name and is basically called "The Avatar of the Void", which I think is... interesting? It makes me extremely curious as to how Demise is called in original japanese --because to me, "Void" is about the absence of things more than their destruction. It's about the absence, not the inevitability of things crumbling down that comes with Demise. I don't know which of these concepts are the closest to the original vision (if it's Void rather than Demise I think it recontextualizes everything we thought we know about this world and characters, but in my opinion it feels too incoherent with the rest of the world, so my guess is that it was a poorly thought-out translation --but I might be wrong!), but to me it's all in the title: Demise. The curse is that every golden era must end with a reckoning.

I think the curse is extremely compelling in that mythological sense, the way Demeter and Persephone's tale is about the joy and pain of passing seasons; it's the given cause for this world's fate as it is condemned to rise and die continuously; and that their eternal, bright future will always be opposed. To be honest, I'm not even sure it's a *bad* thing. Conflict is not only inevitable, it needs to rise to the surface instead of being suppressed to ensure things do not remain stagnant and shortcomings are being acknowledged and addressed --which is also partially why the suggestion of TotK's golden forever after really doesn't sit right with me, especially since nothing was learned and nothing truly changed in the course of its runtime.

I think the curse sucks when people think it means that Ganondorf is a generic evil demon man without motive of his own. It especially grinds my nerves since I somehow never hear this argument being made for *any* other villain in the franchise. I know they look alike the most (and TotK didn't help matters here), but I never *ever* saw people arguing that Vaati doesn't have motive, for example. Or Majora. Or Zant. Or even literal nothing characters like Bellum, who by all means looks more like a primal demonic evil acting on instinct than anyone else. Somehow, we get to assume they have internal motives that, while obviously wicked and self-serving, are their own! But somehow, Ganondorf, the actual main antagonist of his series with the most amount of games hinting at his backstory and internal moral code, gets flattened as an evil puppet with no internal life whatsoever. It's genuinely bizarre.

Anyway sorry sorry! Thanks again for the ask!

[rosesocietyy]

Brilliant people have said everything that needs to be said about this much much better and I don't got anything substantial to add but I just have to get this off my chest cause y'all I'm still in disbelief

like this is a grown ass person btw oh I simply have to laugh😭

this perfectly exemplifies literally everything cringe af and wrong with these "assigned welcomers". this is just my scapegoat but there are way worse I've seen

First of all, get a job. how, at your fossil age, do you have time to spend all day scrolling through every single iwtv related post and arguing with people who say anything even slightly damning about lestat (which mind you, is literally just objective facts about things he did). I'll dm you a McDonald's application hell I'll even put in a referral for you out of the goodness of my heart.

Second, Lestat is not a real person. he's fake, a made up character, the figment of someone's imagine, non-existent, people hating him will not affect your life in anyway shape or form. He didn't assign you as his PR agent I promise you'll live. "They'll never accept him" ok and?!?

Question, and I'm genuinely asking, is this their first time in a fandom? why is someone having a different opinion about a character they love enough to send them into hysterics like?? 13 year olds on anime twitter have a better grasp on reality that y'all do get a grip!

And like the above posts have talked extensively about, I most definitely noticed whose posts a specific bunch of them love to go under to share their dog shit "explanation" that nobody asked for. When a black person sees Louis being brutalized by his white lover what do you expect their reaction to be? oaur wow this white french slut is so pussy cunt slay period queen? "but louis is flawed too" do you hear yourself? do you listen to yourself when you speak? can you activate the barest hint of brain activity to understand why we would react differently to what we're watching than you would and that knowledge of the source material has nothing to do with it? Just because you read those shitty books and posses no empathy for black people in media doesn't mean you gain some higher understanding of "gothic romance ".

"No but the thing is you don't understand this is a gothic romance and they're supposed to be monsters and lestat has suffered saur much and he's also the real main character so you must love him" so now how exactly does that negate their point about him being an abuser? quickly! sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up when black people are sharing their thoughts on the show cause who the fuck are you fr and what convinced you that you have the right to argue with them about THEIR experiences. that tweet that said white people act like God left them in charge, yeah.

Funny enough, half the people that are so gung ho about him now didn't even fw him at all when they only read the first book. wow it's almost like you were allowed to sort out your feelings about him on your own without insects disguised as people in your mentions calling you slow for not licking his feet.

I despise so much in this fandom. From the bottom of my heart I really truly do. I don't know what I was expecting, I guess more common sense and maturity because the average age in the fandom is quite high compared to other fandoms I've been in but nah, just mfs screaming and crying bc ppl don't jump up and down and scream yipee! everytime their white fav commits abhorrent, disgusting crimes.

I was so caught up in the euphoria of an anne rice property finally being given to skilled creators who'll pick it apart and say something poignant with it that for a moment, I forgot I lived in a world where majority of its audience would sadly be the anne rice crowd.

[kexing]

so i started watching enchante for the first time because i enjoy the forcebook chemistry very much in only friends and im very much enjoying myself, it's such a feel good show and it's so pretty and also akk. as i'm watching i'm going through old posts and i came across one about a lot of hate that either forcebook or enchante seemed to have gotten? and im so confused bc it just seems like a normal gmmtv show? would you mind explaining what happened there?

hi there! glad you’re enjoying yourself! as i’ve always said, enchanté is warm and the world is cold, so i hope it keeps you warm as well!

dearest, i wish i could explain it to you but there’s no actual solid explanation for this issue that plagues our every move to this day.

like. one could argue enchanté has a really flawed ending, which is true, but the show got SEVERE hate throughout its entire run.

people mocked book’s french accent from the start, absurd shit tbh. and then proceeded to pick the show apart for no fucking reason.

i understand if enchanté isn’t your type of show, whatever. if you have issues with it, whatever. nobody’s obligated to like it. but the amount of hate it got? unjustified. especially when they never tried to make it a revolutionary show, like you said, it’s a FEEL GOOD SHOW but like seven people got the fucking message.

and that has TRAGICALLY affected forcebook’s reputation back then and now. people hate on them all the time for no fucking reason.

“they have no chemistry!” “they’re bad actors!” “they don’t know how to kiss!” and even more offensive takes from mfs who clearly didn’t watch enchanté at all.

2022 was a really difficult year for them. they barely got work after enchanté because of all the nonsensical backlash.

it hurt my heart to see everyone saying they were sure forcebook were done for, that they were never getting another show. like. i’ve always respected everyone’s faves?? but god forbid people respecting mine 🫠🫠🫠

admittedly, 2023 has brought forcebook a lot of good things and new fans but the stupid hate continues and it insists on tarnishing everything.

it’s like no matter what force and book do, they’re never good enough to just be allowed to exist in peace. and it gets tiring, you know?

i mean, forcebook are graceful beings. they’ve always been the kindest throughout this entire mess. they get all that hate and give it all back in love and hard work. i truly admire their strength! but i’m honestly beyond tired of reading the worst possible takes about them all the time.

my point is: no, enchanté isn’t the worst bl out there and no, forcebook haven’t killed anyone that i’m aware of. but everyone will keep on acting like they did.

have a lovely weekend! 🩷

[jewishvitya]

CW - talking about antisemitic depictions and about the house elves and the depiction of slavery in the books.

I'm having a frustrating day with a lot of physical pain, so I'm not the best at judging currently if I should be posting all of these thoughts. It's a response to multiple arguments by rude anons that I blocked (not for being rude, for being transphobic), but the arguments themselves stay on my mind and I just. Need this out. Ignore this, it will be all over the place, I'm basically venting. Hoping it'll be the last bit of HP criticism I post.

I'll tag it for you to block, as usual.

I've been asked what I expect of Rowling, since my criticism of the goblins included the books. She already wrote the books, they're printed and they're out there. She can't just change them, criticism does nothing because she has no path to correct her mistake.

First of all, with her transphobia - as far as I'm concerned she has blood on her hands at this point. The way she emboldens transphobia endangers lives and erodes queer rights. Anyone who contributes to the current push against trans people is complicit in trans genocide - and she made herself a symbol of that movement. Even if she did a 180 on her issues with Jewish stereotypes, she wouldn't redeem herself.

But she isn't the only one who wrote a story and then realized that her story has deep issues. What does it look like, if an author doesn't want to perpetuate those?

From what I know of Tolkien (and I know nothing LOTR or anything, just heard this from other Jewish creators who discussed this issue, treat this paragraph like I'm repeating a rumor) - Tolkien did stumble on an antisemitic depiction while writing his dwarves. Then he course-corrected by creating a more complex and nuanced picture of the society in his future works. Basically, he leaned into the idea of his dwarves as a Jewish allegory and made it a better and more respectful allegory. They have wonderful cultural details, like having foreign-language names used outside of their community - and names in their own native language that they call each other. Half of my family comes from France, and my mom was born there. She had a Hebrew name and a legal French name. That's extremely common among Jews in some areas of the world.

This response is what I would have expected if an author cares about being respectful of Jewish people. Acknowledge the issue, and try to do better.

But what if the issue was brought to your attention after you completely finished your story? In that case: "Yes, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was writing an antisemitic narrative with my depiction of this fantasy race." Support the voices criticizing your work, and apologize. Let it be an example of tropes to avoid, and encourage others to be careful of the same pitfalls.

What you don't do, is act horrified and say "Oh, how could you, I never intended to make the goblins an antisemitic allegory! Surely if I don't mean it, it can't be hurtful!"

Also, if you truly care, you don't then abuse the memory of the holocaust when you write spin-offs of your original story, including its imagery to support a bigoted villain's argument.

Marginalized people understand that not everyone knows what we do. The stereotypes and the harmful ideas that weaved themselves into popular culture are about us. We know that it's invisible to people who aren't the target, and as a result aren't forced to learn these things. To many people, it's just a trope they're used to seeing. Like villains have hooked noses - it's practically a shorthand for an evil character.

All the stories we tell are based in some measure on stories we heard. Narratives and tropes feed off each other between different pieces of media. It's easy to pull together a harmful narrative without realizing, when the tropes that make it up usually go together, and are so common they're everywhere. So we know a person who means no harm can create something really hurtful, without knowing it.

That's why we criticize media: we want you to see and be aware.

In addition to this, I've been accused multiple times of ignoring the fact that these books discuss bigotry and condemn it. I'm not ignoring it, I know they do - or they try to. But Rowling wrote a story against racism without understanding it and without interrogating it in herself. She only knew to condemn it when it's rude and violent and outright hateful. Not the foundations of it.

So, sure, say she didn't mean to write something harmful. What does she do when she learns she did? Nothing. And not just about the issue of the goblins - about everything. I detailed the problems with her depiction of lycanthropy, but she did the same thing with the house elves.

There's lore about creatures called brownies. They'll perform chores for you, but they'd rather not be seen while they do. If you try to pay them, they'll get offended. If you give them clothes, they'll leave. This is a very partial description, but you can see the inspiration here.

And then she turned them into a slave race. They're bound to their enslavers, possessing powerful magic but using it in their service, forced to punish themselves for disobedience and endure extreme abuse. Kreacher actively wishes to have his head put on display when he's too old and weak to be of use.

To show the reader the horrors of freedom for an elf, JKR turned poor Winky into a depressed drunk with no purpose in her life. Winky's story is horrifying.

Only Dobby takes care of Winky for that whole year. She never recovers during it. Then she's made to witness the interrogation of Barty Crouch Jr., which upsets her and causes her distress. As a result, she hears about Crouch's death through a toneless forced confession - and the interrogation continues around her. That same day, she watches the last member of the household she loved have his soul taken by a dementor, and then she's left alone with the body while Dumbledore argues with Fudge. Only after, he sends Madam Pomfrey to do what she can for Winky, and take her to the kitchens where Dobby will take care of her again.

And Rowling wrote all of this. Did she think this is an example that even compliant house elves suffer and get neglected, even by the sympathetic wizards? Was this a lesson that even those who don't seek freedom suffer and lack agency in this system?

No. Rowling turned it into a cautionary tale against freeing slaves. Unless they're "weird" like Dobby.

Maybe she didn't try to be racist, but this fits disturbingly well with the arguments against ending slavery in reality. That enslaved people will turn into aimless drunks. That they need to be enslaved to have purpose. That those who want freedom have something wrong with them.

And I know this was criticized. What was the response to the criticism? Nothing direct as far as I know, but after all of this - there was an article published on Pottermore to argue that Winky's story is a warning against freeing the elves. It was taken down fortunately, but after this article the arguments against freedom are no longer the opinion of characters within the world - it's a message given to us by real people.

She doubles down. Every time. People keep yelling that she had nothing to do with Hogwarts Legacy, she's not responsible for the way it builds on her original canon. Well, she seems to approve of it. It continues painting the same line with the same brush - just bolder.

She doesn't care about the racism, she doesn't care about antisemitism - she just wanted to use the nazis as her easy villains. She doesn't have the imagination for any other kind.