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genericpuff · 2 years ago

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All That Glitters is Not Feminism - An Analysis of LO's Brand of "Feminism" and What Remains of its Fanbase (The Twist)

Alright y'all, I've been waiting a hot minute to talk about this because I wanted to see how it fully panned out before saying anything about it. And it's not even specifically about LO, but I do think it's very adjacent to it in a way that I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear. Much of it speaks to how we prop up white writers even at the expense of POC.

This is 'the twist' attached to my first post that I made just a couple hours ago that concerns an entirely other topic but I feel ties into this subject very well.

If you haven't heard, there's this author who recently fucked around in the Del Rey publishing scene.

Her name is Cait Corrain.

In the original tweet calling this person out, names were not dropped, but it was made very clear that what Cait did was unacceptable behavior.

You can read the entire thread that started it all from Xiran here:

There's also a GREAT recap thread from one of the affected authors, Bethany Baptiste:

I want to make it clear that Cait Corrain isn't just a debut author.

Cait Corrain is - or now, was (foreshadowing is a literary device that-) - a debut author who had an agent, a publishing deal with Del Rey (an imprint of Random House which is a MAJOR publisher) and even an upcoming Illumicrate deal - meaning, her book was going to be packaged in a monthly loot crate subscription shipped directly to people's doors, quite possibly one of the best marketing deals a debut author could ever get, usually unheard of in this industry. All the pre-reviews were strong and positive.

Cait's book was literally set up for success. All she had to do was sit back, relax, and watch the fruits of her labors roll in. She had written the book. It was ready for release. The hard part was technically over.

But I guess the racism brainrot got to her because as it turns out, since April - for EIGHT MONTHS - she's been making alternate accounts on GoodReads to review bomb the indie and debut works of her friends and peers, most of whom were POC and did not have the same opportunities set up for them as she did. There are loads of receipts to back this up that you can find in those above threads ^^^

To say that this is appalling is an understatement. This was an intentional and deliberate act of racism by a white queer writer who claimed to be "jealous" - of what, I can't imagine - so much so that she deliberately sabotaged her peers, people who had supported her and her book.

And then when she got caught? She doubled down on it and claimed it was a "friend", also an alternate account she made up.

The exchange between her and this made-up person is actually the funniest shit out of this entire thing, it's so poorly written and as soon as people noticed the time stamps were out of order, that was when it truly cemented her newfound clown status.

"oooooh he's standing right behind me, isn't he?" energy right here LMAO

yes keep expositing cait, that's really selling the "this is a genuine conversation that really happened with a real person" bit 🤡

Anyways, it became abundantly clear that Cait was just going to continue to dig her heels in over something she caused.

This has been a hot topic in the UnpopularLO Discord, not just because of how crazy of a situation it is that we had to talk about it - and we have people within the community who work in the literature and media sector - but because we noticed one very telling thing in the list of series that she had review bombed in her very own personal act of wrath.

You see, Cait made one fundamental mistake that led to her undoing - she didn't just review bomb the works of her peers, she positively reviewed her own book and others.

What's her book about though?

It's an Ariadne x Dionysus retelling set in space.

It's literally another "modern retelling" of Greek myth.

And wouldn't you know it, guess who else created a modern retelling of Greek myth that she included in her positive review raiding while she was sabotaging the work of her actual peers?

Now, I think it goes without saying that what I'm about to say should be taken with MOUNTAINS of salt, I'm sure a lot of you are reading the headline and going, "Ugh, really? You're gonna make this about LO? Could you give it a rest already???"

I need you to understand, with the current state of Rachel's fanbase and 'modern' Greek myth literature as a whole, at this point Lore Olympus - and the works that are literally inspired by it such as A Touch of Darkness - has basically become the shopping cart litmus test of basic decency. It's like when someone says they like Harry Potter - you can't take it automatically at good faith anymore, because there isn't a whole lot separating someone who simply liked Harry Potter as a kid and still rewatches the movies from time to time from someone who fully supports the politics and agenda of J.K. Rowling. No, not everyone who still watches the movies or reads the books fondly is a TERF by default, but it's justifiably a reason for suspicion when the consequences are often too dire to risk.

There's this thing that's been happening in the LO fanbase that I frankly saw coming, but has really recently started to hit its peak. It's what I call the "Kanye Effect", where the comic has become so absurd and backwards in its misogyny and white feminism that the only people who seem to be left supporting LO are the people who are legitimate white feminists and misogynists - because all the normal level-headed people fell off the comic ages ago (or transitioned into the critical side of the community).

I mentioned it in my last post, but it bears repeating - Rachel's fanbase has literally been shipping Hera, a victim of abuse, with her abuser, Kronos. I'm really hoping a lot of them realize how fucked up that is now that Hera herself has called it what it is - abuse - within the comic, but I also can't count on the LO fanbase picking up on that or even noticing it with how quickly people swipe through it each week, it's very apparent at this point that most of LO's readers don't know how to chew their food and don't pay attention when Persephone and Hades aren't onscreen.

But I'm digressing. Or am I? We're talking about Crown of Starlight after all. The debut Dionysus x Ariadne sci-fi/fantasy romance that was quite literally advertised using Lore Olympus as its baseline-

This. This is what the ongoing cultural erasure and white feminist uwu-fication of Greek myth is doing to the literary zeitgeist surrounding Greek myth as a whole. This is why we criticize Lore Olympus and works like it that are created by disingenuous people who only seek to use the assets of Greek myth material as a way to shoot themselves up into fame and stardom. This is why we demand better standards in the literature and webcomic industry, so that people like Rachel and Cait can't use their privileges to quite literally erase the source material that they used to make themselves famous in the first place.

If anything, Cait's actions didn't just affect the people she negatively review bombed, or the people she was affiliated with, but also the people she positively reviewed. While I don't support what Rachel creates, she wasn't the only one who Cait went out of her way to review positively from her alt accounts, there were many others as evident in the Google Doc - but all this really does is tarnish the legitimacy of these books and their ratings by artificially jacking up their numbers that are advertised to others.

Making Greek myth fanfiction or fun creative retellings was never the problem, but it's now being sabotaged alongside so many other genres and mediums by toxic white individuals who can't even keep themselves from committing hate crimes, let alone create something purely for entertainment that's transparent in its illegitimacy, lest it destroy the illusion that these people are qualified to speak over those whose voices are being stifled, often by these very same people. Many of these writers get caught and are still allowed to continue what they're doing - that was certainly what we feared with Cait.

Until today.

It was revealed today that Cait's book will no longer be featured in the Illumicrate May 2024 box.

Del Rey has dropped Crown of Starlight from their publishing schedule.

Daphne Press will be hopefully following suit.

And, most telling of all, Cait's own agent has severed ties with her.

For anyone not familiar with the inner workings of the publishing industry, Cait has essentially been blacklisted. Without an agent or a publishing house, she'll have to entirely rely on her own resources through self-publishing. Unless she manages to sneak her way back in under an alias (which I wouldn't put it past her to try) she no longer has access to the mainstream publishing industry that was already guaranteed for her before she let her 'jealousy' get the better of her.

Her career was already made for her. She had a red carpet laid out for her debut. Her book was getting good pre-reviews and she had quite literally nothing keeping her from her success. The best thing she could have done was nothing. Somewhere in her head, she made up a threat that didn't exist, and sealed her fate in acting on it, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think in these situations such as with Cait Corrain, Rachel Smythe, and - also recently and relevant - James Somerton, we need to become increasingly aware of how white voices are still overpowering POC voices, not just in their actions, but in the opportunities they're given over others which they then use to further stifle the voices of those they feel "threatened" by or feel entitled to speak over. While neither James nor Rachel have used sock puppet accounts to "take out the competition" (at least as far as we know lmao) James did quite literally steal the words and voices of queer writers who were deserving of their time in the spotlight, and Rachel's work is being quoted as "rewriting Greek myth" as if its blatant gentrification and appropriation should be marketed as some sort of positive.

It's all too common for these deeply-rooted prejudices to rear their ugly heads and for the people who carry them to act out in this way while justifying it as "jealousy" or "a mistake". This isn't jealousy. This isn't a mistake. This isn't someone "starting drama". This is genuine, targeted hate, with the intention of snuffing out the voices of others who should be empowered, not silenced.

All that time and effort, and for what? Racism and petty jealousy? It just goes to show, it doesn't matter how many opportunities you're given, how high up on the ladder you already are - it won't fix the deeply-rooted insecurity and racial pettiness that spurs people on to do such horrible things.

I've spent enough of my time and words today talking about Cait, and James, and Rachel. So to end this off, I want to join in with all the others who have highlighted the books that were review-bombed by Cait, and help in uplifting them so they can have successful debuts. I'll be pre-ordering a few of them, so I'll be happy to make dedicated posts for them in the future after they release. Please consider purchasing them for yourself if you want some new reading material <3

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste:

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole:

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang:

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White:

(I'm sure there are plenty others so if I missed any here, please let me know so I can add them here and check out their books!)

If there's any silver lining to this, I hope that it makes people aware of the media they consume and who it's being created by. I hope it makes people more willing to seek out the books that aren't getting the same opportunities as Cait Corrain and Rachel Smythe. I hope it's a wake-up call to the industry that matters like this need to be taken seriously and that POC writers are still being silenced under their own noses. And most of all, I hope it's a reminder that we shouldn't even need at this point that this behavior is not okay, no matter what level a person climbs to - that just because someone is part of one minority doesn't mean they're not capable of sabotaging another. It sucks that that has to be said, it sucks that despite these groups being so intersectional there are still people within them who submit to their deeply-rooted insecurities and find ways to feel threatened that they use to justify hateful behavior.

Having a platform is a privilege. It should never be weaponized against your own peers or those who you simply feel "threatened" by for no reason beyond your own imposter syndrome or doubts or internal struggles. Because as much as you may feel like you've earned where you are, that never gives you the right to weaponize your opportunities against others who were never given those same opportunities in the first place. "Feminism" is not using your power to crush "other women". "Progressiveness" is not exclusive to the progress that only benefits you.

I wish only the best to those who were affected by the actions of Cait Corrain. You deserve to be heard and seen and appreciated for the work you do and the abuse you've had to tolerate. I look forward to your debuts in 2024 <3

#cait corrain #support POC writers #crown of starlight #the poisons we drink #so let them burn #the voyage of the damned #mistress of lies #say isn't it funny how all the debut books cait tried to sabotage accurately describe her and her actions LOL #that's what we call irony #debut authors 2024 #booktok #webtoon critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

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suudbe · 6 months ago

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hi! i hope you don’t mind me asking but what happened with Akatsuki? im very out of the enstars loop so i feel a bit lost in understanding what all is going on 😅 feel free to ignore me if you don’t want to explain!

No problem at all! I'll explain to the best of my ability.

Recently, Enstars added 5 new idols. One of the new idols is Taki Ibuki and he is from Okinawa and is Ryukyuan. When Japan colonized the Ryukyu Kingdom, they forced the people to assimilate into Japanese culture. This process is called Japanization.

So, when rumors came out about the Ryukyuan character Ibuki possibly joining Akatsuki, a unit focused on Traditional Japanese aesthetics, people who know that history immediately called out the implications of writing such a thing. The head writer is known to write indigenous characters disrespectfully, but surely he wouldn't go this far?

It's been stated in several Akatsuki stories that Keito, Kuro, and Souma want it to only be them. There is a heavy emphasis on them having a bond stronger than blood. This is gonna be a one-off collab that leads to something bigger maybe Ibuki will go solo! Literally anything else BUT this please.

What followed was a story that mischaracterized every Akatsuki member. It was like all character development was reversed, for Keito, it seemed like he was a completely different dude.

The Enstars official twitter released a message to "Please not spoil the last few chapters for at least 4 days 🥺" they've never done this to my knowledge. It was blatant damage control for the shitstorm they had created themselves. Ibuki was brought into Akatsuki. What followed the next few hours were QRTs in all different languages absolutely GOING IN on Happyele, as they should. I saw so many people mourning the future of the franchise, many more leaving altogether, so much sadness and anger.

People connected the dots of releasing a Rei along with the event, since he's very very popular, and also announcing the PJSK collab. These would build up hype so maybe people would overlook it or it would draw them back in or some shit.

If I'm to sum it up in one sentence I'd say that Akatsuki was blatantly mischaracterized so they could fit their racist narrative of Indigenous people being "primitive" or "fixable" and needing to assimilate into Japanese culture.

Hopefully I explained the gist of it, I have a hard time phrasing and I've been told I explain things a bit unorganized. Here's a link to a twitter thread that most certainly explains way better than I could and two Wikipedia links that helped me learn.

A thread by @/gitsunegal on twitter written Oct. 10th when the rumors started. The last tweet in the thread is after the announcement, Jan 3rd.

A Wikipedia article on Japanization, contains summaries of not only Okinawa but also other areas that experienced Japan's colonization.

A Wikipedia article on the History of the Ryukyu Islands, I'd like to specifically point out the section Okinawa Prefecture, 1879–1937. Starting at the section Battle of Okinawa, the article discusses heavy topics such as rape, violence, and death.

If I missed anything or if any information is inaccurate please feel free to correct me or add on.

#ensemble stars #enstars #akatsuki enstars #ibuki taki

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thr0wnawayy · 9 months ago

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Rei-Demption: A problem and my solution (ft. Rei's trauma and Hori's bullshit)

Might as well give my shot at it.

My take on Rei's personality has always been based in suppression.

Rei's whole life has been a balancing act of doing enough to protect her family, while still staying within the lines to not get disposed of.

She's everything Enji isn't. An iron will, a golden heart and a strong sense of empathy.

So with that in mind, hopefully it she'd light on it thought process with this post

A theory I have is that Rei was aware of the hospital's corruption

These panels always felt off too me, it always made me wonder: "does she know?"

The wording is very specific.

"I told him I liked it, around the first time we met. But only once"

It always struck me as odd, We're talking about the man who looked at his eldest death and kept going, man who destroyed multiple lives for a redundant pipedream.

It's not even why would he remember such a small detail, but rather how?

Unless... the doctors are feeding him information.

Think about it, who pays for all this. Surely it's not Fuyumi, on account of this being a massive money sink.

You really expect her to pay for all that on a teachers salary?

It can't be Natsuo because Enji has likely cut him off from everything to his name.

And that's assuming Enji even bothered to save up a college fund for any of them. Plus Natsuo is a full time student of medicine.

If the doctors are watching her every move, looking for any sign of deviation from the narrative then it makes sense for her to disguise her words.

Of course there's still more

Having PTSD isn't something you can keep someone institutionalized for. Especially when Rei's is very proportionate, given what she's gone through. (No, Japan's stigma of mental health wouldn't justify this)

I mean what are Rei's triggers?: Enji and that's about it.

"But we still... haven't met face to face, I'm still too afraid"

That's a standard reaction to have to your abuser (especially when he raped you multiple times)

('Just stop' gets a whole lot darker when you consider it's context)

Not to mention she's no longer fearful of anything resembling Enji, just Enji himself. So there is no real reason to keep her there unless they are afraid she might speak out.

This whole thing makes me think she's trying to tell Natsuo and Fuyumi what's really going on, in a way.

Subtly and under the calm, complacent mask she's expected to wear, in case anyone else is listening. Anyone who could report back to him.

It might also be she doesn't trust them. Fuyumi or Natsuo could blab or say something within earshot that could set Rei back months.

And she can't have that, not with how close she is to finally breaking free. She loves her children, all of them but the trust just isn't there, how can it be when when they don't have all the pieces.

So here's my theory: The hospital staff are in Enji's pockets. Either taking bribes (as recent as Dabi's Dance) or they were given a large sum of hush money when Rei was first hospitalized, with the goal of keeping her there as long as possible and possibly molding her to either keep her mouth shut or (sickeningly) gaslight her into returning to Enji.

(Note how she was only released when they could no longer keep a lid on things, the moment Dabi frops the bomb. She's out, no struggle)

This paints a picture of grotesque corruption, sloth and apathy (the very same cocktail that created Shigaraki) even by Hori's narrative standards. Shedding light on just how deep MHA's despotic nature goes.

The anime makes this even more apparent. Rei's fake smiles make the whole thing that much more viable. She seems so dead, it's like she smothered her soul or something.

I've seen both the sub and dub of this scene. The sub is the correct translation, the same as the Manga panel above.

The Dub however, while severly off mark, adds it's own flavour of dread. Rei sound so hollow, it was jarring the first time I heard it.

It sounded like she was reading a script (in-universe). Like she'd rehearsed this in her mind a million times, staring at the same 3 white walls + the window and waiting for an opening to finally speak.

That was supposed to be Shoto, until the dorms ruined that. Suddenly Rei's lifeline is gone, reduced to letters that don't even tell half the story.

10 years, 10 fucking years reduced to lines on a page.

Can you imagine the despair, dear reader?

The frustration. The sheer vitriol coursing thorough her veins, far hotter than Touya could ever manage.

Having to do the same thing she's been doing even before she was locked away. As the the skeleton in the closet of a criminal with a license.

Wearing masks for so long you can hardly breath and in the brief moments you can take them off. You can hardly recognize yourself, how you once were.

It must be the truest form of hell.

The Rei-demption Arc

Rei's redemption arc takes the attention of our theoretical arc without overtaking it.

The arc would mostly focus on the more domestic aspects of our trio being: Midoriya, Shoto and Uraraka.

A few minor changes would occur. The dorms never happen, allowing the characters to exist outside of UA.

There is solid confirmation that Fujiya is corrupt and is keeping Rei institutionalized on illegal grounds (ie: not meeting the criteria set up to ensure her silence)

The dinner scene would still happen only it would bd framed for what it really was. A pathetic attempt at creating a moment that never existed.

There's no family with Enji.

Just a family held hostage and a tyrant. I have my own grievances with Fuyumi, but I'll leave that for the future.

The only difference besides Natsuo being properly portrayed as a victim acting well within his right, the reasons for our trio going would be for Shoto's emotional wellbeing, because he asked them to.

Uraraka could have a moment where she realizes that money is as much as good as it is bad. An actually decent shift into her change of goals.

Here Enji motivates her to "watch the watchmen". Her need for money is still a crucial part of her reasons for becoming a hero, but she also has a more front and center goal.

I'd imagine she has a moment parallel to Midoriya's during the Sports Festival.

Where (alone in front of the Dojo after the failed dinner) she rightfully calls out Enji for being a self pitying piece of shit and that "sorry" doesn't cut it.

"You've hurt them in ways you can't imagine." Would probably be the last thing she says before walking away.

She may not know the whole story but she knows it hurt them and that's enough.

Rei's ascent

Rei's biggest hurdle is accepting that she was also an abuse victim. She's furious but she's only furious on her children's behalf and what they lost.

Her unintentionally harmful actions weigh on her, be it her neglect or the night she scalded Shoto, these events have impacted her deeply.

She learns to reconcile with her past, improve her relationship with Shoto and even meets Shoto's friends at one point.

Eventually she finds closure but that's later on.

She also acts as an advisor at times, having given Shoto the idea of using Ice projectiles (as seen in the Licensing Exam)

The second half comes from the Hospitals corruption, as Rei learns that she is long overdue for release (by about 8 years) among other horrific practices. This would play out as the arc's B plot, building up to what I call "The Summit"

The Summit

Eventually Rei fights Hood.

After gathering the evidence, she escapes the hospital. Planning to go to Natsuo for protection. As she's walking across a crosswalk however, she hears what sounds like an explosion.

Eventually she hears screaming and is forced to use her quirk as a bus is suddenly sent hurdling in her general direction.

As of her body moved on its own, she envelops it in her ice. Stopping the bus and saving those behind her in the process.

Only to see Hood land on top. They lock eyes and Rei can't help but see Touya in Hoods ambition.

In response to Rei holding her ground, Hood dashes. Rei counters this by manipulating her ice to send him crashing into an empty building, impaling him on the glaciers end.

Hood is impressed by Rei's proficiency and chooses to fight her.

Rei having no experience, fights for her life. Where as Rei avoids Civilians, Hood has no care for them which forces Rei to play the role of hero.

Rei uses every weapon in her arsenal in order to stave off Hood, who only gets more relentless as the battle stretches on. The upside is Hood's regeneration struggles in the cold, which Rei is constantly producing.

Each side gets blows in, with Rei taking them surprisingly well but still being worse for wear. Hood notes this saying "as if y-you've done t-t-this before" (close, Hood very close)

Eventually Hood gets the upper hand, towering over Rei in a manner that triggers her PTSD and leaves her stunned.

One of the civilians (Horoshi Tameda) emboldened by Rei's efforts, picks up a loose chunk of pavement and chucks it at Hood's back. It hits, causing Hood to look back.

Civilians begin making loud noise, others begin picking up anything they can find and throw it at Hood. Further catching him off guard long enough for Rei to snap out of her episode and strike back.

From here the fight kicks into high gear, with Rescue heroes & paramedics arriving on the scene and a camera crew recording the fight from above. Overall I imagine the scene to be very uplifting, with the Orchestra swelling as Rei prepares a final attack.

The move rivals that of Shoto's, arguably even surpassing it. Hoof is incased in a prison of Ice, covering an entire city block worth of destroyed buildings. And the fight finishes with Rei collapsing to her knees.

From here on out things change. Rei's newfound fame leads to the hospital being forced to do their job. Because of this Rei gets out early (around the time the Internship arc would started had I not scrapped it)

As for what this could lead to I'll let you decide. I'd love to read some suggestions.

Bonuses:

Theories:

The reason they kicked Fuyumi from her job is because she covered an abuser's ass for years. While Fuyumi is a victim, it doesn't excuse her complacency in regards to Enji's treatment of Shoto before and after his "self pity" arc.

Natsuo didnt go to someone because he wouldn't likely be believed, being seen as bitter and untrustworthy (his time away from home wouldn't help with pinning evidence).

Extra:

Hood survived the fight, Rei opted to capture him as opposed to kill him. That doesn't mean he didn't get frost bite. Police found out it is very difficult to question a Nomu.

Out of all her trauma. Rei accepting she was never given a choice will be the hardest to accept.

Rei's family is not inbred, rather her parents ran away so her father wouldn't be forced into a marriage with his cousin. Only to ironically do the very same to their daughter.

Hiroshi still becomes a meme, his 'Can't you see speech' leads to him becoming a motivational speaker.

The reason Hood appeared is because Dabi lost track of him. He nearly had a heart attack when he discovered his mom was holding the Nomu off.

#bnha critical #mha ewe #mha rewrite #anti enji todoroki #anti endeavor #anti bakugo katsuki #anti kohei horikoshi #bnha rewrite #mha critical #justice for rei himura #the nomu deserved better #destro didn't kill himself

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sterramidnight · 3 months ago

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I have long been attracted to the image of Elrond in this scene.

What could those symbols near his temples mean?

This episode is very symbolic, and I was wondering what message the second season conveyed through the image of Elrond.

The meta-analysis I've seen has mostly been limited to analyzing other aspects of this episode.

I'll just share my observations and thoughts.

In 2x01 and 2x02, we see Elrond trying to make sense of what happened, in which he also took part (1x08).

As a result, I see a dialogue with Cirdan at the beginning of season 2. He tries to understand not only the nature of the rings, but also the nature of Galadriel and Sauron's relationship. This question may follow from here:

- What is beauty, when it is born, in part, of evil [Elrond]

- No less beautiful [Círdan]

Fast forward to 2x08 and the fall of Galadriel.

I recently reviewed 2x08 very carefully.

The prism of the Fish Eye (Sauron) and the shadows that seem to descend from above. I think it's just an illusion of our perception.

I also thought they were shadows descending from above from Sauron to Gael. But if you look closely, they will appear on the right and closer to the center (@eye-of-mordor thank you for that detail), they become GG and Arondir.

GG tries to heal her, but it doesn't work. She goes to the world of shadows.

All this time the eye is watching. Sauron was very upset after her fall. He probably left something unfinished in connection with the crown wound. Everything was out of his control again.

Sauron had been standing at the top all this time and saw that GG was unable to save Gal. I don't think he had a goal for her to go completely into the shadow world.

After a while, we see Elrond, who sees Gal and almost immediately finds the ring next to her. Let me remind you that Adar stole the ring from Elrond. Elrond knew that the ring was not near Gal. A specific sound lets us know that the ring is calling Elrond.

Pay attention to his facial expression. I assume that either the ring itself communicates with him or Sauron, who is above through the ring.

Elrond says: I know how to save her.

Notice how he slowly looks away from the ring. It seems that someone upstairs is talking to him mentally.

We can

Elrond realizes something and decides to put the ring on himself. We remember that he was very against it.

I agree that Sauron really didn't want to kill Gal. The wound from the crown also changed something in the ring.

Thus, Gal's jump went out of control for both of them and was performed under the guidance of the ring.

I see an internal conflict in this: one part of Galadriel joined and chose the side of Sauron, and the other part of her, which did not want this, joined the ring. Therefore, Sauron was very surprised and upset. But he didn't leave. He probably didn't want her to go completely into the shadow world, so he stayed where he was and was able to telepathically tell Elrond what could be done to save her.

Maybe Sauron didn't finish something in the ritual after being wounded with the crown…

Perhaps Sauron didn't complete something in the ritual after she was injured by the crown... therefore, he had to act through the ring and with the help of Elrond.

I see some connection between Sauron, Galadriel, the ring, and Elrond. Hence the symbolism of 1x08, where Elrond stands. The image of the forge fire's connection to his head. Wounds on the cheeks can also tell us about this connection.

Thanks to the authors of the meta analysis for their inspiration @apoloadonisandnarcissus , @testyqwcde, @rey-jeyke-terapist, @fatcatlittlebox

#saurondriel #the rings of power #haladriel #galadriel x sauron #sauron #halbrand #galadriel #morfyyd clark #elrond

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fantasticalleigh · 2 months ago

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watching the new CVV interview with Bayley and i love it and i love her even more now here's some takeaways from it (i know a lot of you prob already know this but my love/appreciation for Bayley is relatively new so this is all new to me):

-AJ Lee was a heavy influence for Bayley growing up and potentially saved her from getting fired when B was struggling to adapt to WWE's work culture + her own identity (i.e not fitting in with the other Divas)

-the story behind the birth of Hugger Bayley (she hugged AJ Lee once during a match and the crowd popped so hard AJ told her to do it two more times but to run her into the post too)

-she's been struggling finding herself/her character as a face. she knows fans haven't responded to her recent character work/runs because of that and it frustrates her but she's trying her best. she also acknowledged her post WM 40 run wasn't what she hoped it would be.

-talks very very positively about Lyra and knowing that if she left now she's leaving the women's division in great hands

-alludes to there being a larger problem behind her 2020 (or was it 2021) injury and credits that to why she was out longer than usual. also says that because of that injury there's a lot of things she can't do as well anymore (running/jumping etc)

-talks about why she changed her finisher after turning face. it's easier on her body and though she didn't say it outright, i got the feeling it affects her when people talk about how much they hate her current finisher :(

-talks about her special relationship with Michael Cole and how she loves talking to him/giving him notes about things they could do/say when she has matches. talks about you can't always be guaranteed to be able to talk to Triple H but Cole having such a wealth of information that not many people tap into but she genuinely loves working with him even when they rip on each other.

-(at chris's prompting) she does express frustration with feeling there's a lack of respect from the IWC towards her. "What am i missing? ...That's the one thing that still gets to me...." she talks about despite being one of the four Horsewomen (and wrestling Charlotte's first ever match and being signed to the company before Becky) that she still doesn't feel like she's on their level.

-Chris: "After the Rumble last year CM Punk said something like 'put some respect on her name'" Bayley: "yeah" (laughs) Chris: "He had a really good point. You won the Royal Rumble and you're not even in the press conference." Bayley: "yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of moments like that, I feel like. I don't get on the press conference, I don't get on the (WM 40) posters, I don't get to do the talk shows--you know, I don't know what else to do. And there's no heat backstage or anything like that. (talks about her good relationships with Hunter etc...)" Chris: "And how do you not take that personally? You're being told you're winning the RR and you win and do the point and everything. " Bayley: "Yeah." Chris: "And then it's like, 'what now?'" Bayley: (not making eye contact) "I know. It's like....by the time comes out this is gonna be even...um..." Chris: "What does that mean?" Bayley: (laughs) "It's hard. It's hard. Sometimes I think that's what keeps me here (holds her hand flat to measure up to mid-level). Is because I don't go freaking kicking doors down going, "I'm not doing that. Why would I do that? I'm fucking Bayley, why would I do that??' But I don't do that. Whatever they give me--and I learned this from Cena and from Rey--whatever they give you, it's like--make it work. So that's always what I've tried to do. And I'll come up with ideas and pitches and I've learned that like sometimes if you get told whatever the creative is and you're not happy with it and then i go and say 'hey, what if we do this instead?' and then they say no. I feel worse after that than i felt after the original creative. And then I'm like 'okay how bad do i want to feel today' or 'should i just accept what they gave me?' or should i just make it as best as i can and then they'll be like "damn, she made that work! let's go this way instead!"

listen if this is all groundwork for her turning heel again (which I doubt bc she genuinely looked and sounded like she was speaking from the heart/ repressing emotion even though she spoke so respectfully) then i'll happily let myself get worked over this but at the same time she deserves so much better and all the respect <3 :(

bayley guess what babe you've got a new superfan now!

💗💗💗😤💗💗💗

#wwe #bayley wwe #Leigh talks wrasslin #really enjoyed watching her as a heel in my raw 2020 archive watch but i think i need to look at her nxt stuff too #friday night smackdown #chris van vliet

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sundew199 · 1 month ago

Note

please id love!!! to hear about your rei ships in the brain <333 /nf

I'll save you from the horrors of my brain as a whole by just going over my new obsessions with Reiner ships, hehehe

Reikasa: I've known about this ship for a while but never felt strongly one way or another until recently, but man I am so interested in this dynamic, especially canon compliant and any AU. I really really wish Reiner and Mikasa interacted more, there was so much potential. But the idea of them getting together post-rumbling so now very special to me!! 🥹 I can see it happening in the way of Reiner offering his help, along with the other ambassadors where Mikasa lives, then it slowly turning into just Reiner helping her out. And he wouldn't expect anything from her at all and that just makes it easier for Mikasa to fall for him and it's mutual between them too. Reiner can't deny that Mikasa is beautiful, and he admires and respects her so much as an individual. But Reiner knew Eren just as well as her and Armin did so there would defiantly be some long talks between them, some closure and the acceptance that Reiner won't replace Eren but still be able to offer Mikasa some peace and love, because she deserves to be happy. They'd defiantly live a long life in the country-side together, helping the other heal and find peace in the new world without titans or the constant threat of danger.

Reihitch: I've always had this head canon that if Reiner and Hitch met in the show, there would be chemistry. Hitch would flirt with Reiner in front of Annie just to make her mad or smth idk 😭. But another head canon for them is that no matter the AU, Annie is the one setting them up, heheheh. They'd make sure a cute couple, Bimbo x Himbo and no one can change my mind!!! Reiner (in my mind) is such a girls girl and would embrace Hitch for who she is. Let's also think about Football Star!Reiner and Cheerleader!Hitch, they'd be the IT couple in school.

Reisasha: recently introduced to me and I'm in love tbh. I think everyone can recall their interactions in the OVA and tbh, yea they'd be adorable together. I also want to bring up the fact that when her, Jean and Connie were fighting against him in Shiganshina, she was devastated about it being Reiner they were trying to kill, I don't think a lot of ppl realize that everyone was friends and/or close with Reiner, so his betrayal cut deeper than expected and it was very obvious from the way Sasha and the other two reacted in that moment. Anyway, Reiner would 100% be Sasha's biggest supporter, getting her all her favorite snacks, cooking and baking for and with her, they're both kinda bubbly and everyone enjoys their presence.

Reiner is such a shippable character, and I have at one point enjoyed all his main and rare ships. I didn't mention Reijean because it's always on the brain and I talk about them a lot LMAO, but I've been getting an itch to write something for one of these rare pairs so we'll see 😏

Thank you so much for the ask Anon!!! ❤️

#reiner braun #rare ship #multishipper #anon ask <3 #sundew's asks

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shiningwonderland · 2 months ago

Text

Masato Hijirikawa (Repeat)

Translator: Raz (Twitter: agnadance)

Proofreader: Nadie (Twitter: NmoniaG)

Editor: Mae (Twitter: itoshikimaegirl)

QA: Rei (Twitter: wolfe_raine)

February - Passionate Fistel

(*Fistel is an abbreviation for Fistelstimme, which is the male head-voice and is sometimes equated with falsetto.)

It's February. I was worried what would happen when Hijirikawa-sama's father visited during the New Year, but…

Thanks to the principal, we've been allowed to keep working together until March.

Nothing much happened after that incident, so we've been able to focus on making our music.

The lyrics haven't been finished yet, but I've been promised that they will be done by the graduation audition.

I figure I can look forward to the finished lyrics when he sings onstage.

I can listen to the song with a fresh perspective that way.

Ringo Tsukimiya: Hello, everyone! Good morning! What a lovely day!

Male Student A: Good mooorning!

Haruka Nanami: Good morning!

Ringo Tsukimiya: Today, I have a happy announcement to make!

Ringo Tsukimiya: You all know what the TV show Song Station is, right?

Students: Yes, we do!

Song Station is an incredibly popular TV show that has brought wonderful music to many living rooms for over twenty years.

TV shows about music are said to be in a tough spot nowadays, but it miraculously still holds a high viewer rating.

Oh yeah, I think a lot of the idols who performed on that show were from the Shining Agency...

Ringo Tsukimiya: We've been given the opportunity to choose one pair of students go on a tour to see Song Station!

A Song Station tour!

D-d-d-does that mean that I could possibly meet HAYATO-sama…?

Ah!

I'm aiming to be a professional, so I can't just act like a fangirl…

… I have to keep it together…

Ringo Tsukimiya: Since only one pair is allowed, I think we'll have to decide by lottery but… Please raise your hand if you want to go!

Select the Phrase!

はいっ！Yes! (+10 Love, +15 Music)

Ringo Tsukimiya: Ah, that's a good response! I'll let you pull first!

・・・はい。... Yes. (+0 Love, +5 Music)

Ringo Tsukimiya: Oh my, if you want to go, you have to raise your hand high! There are times when it's important to be enthusiastic!

・・・どうしよう。... What should I do? (+0 Love, +0 Music)

I want to go, but…

Masato Hijirikawa: I do.

As I dawdle, Hijirikawa-sama raises his hand.

Ringo Tsukimiya: Oh my, I see Maa-kun wants to go too. I'll let you pull first!

We begin pulling papers from the box that Tsukimiya-sensei has provided us.

I hope I get it! Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-dump…

Ringo Tsukimiya: Okay, everyone! Did you get your papers? Please open them up at the same time!

Ringo Tsukimiya: Three, two, one… go!

I gently open my lottery paper.

Ah… Did I lose the lottery?

It reads, "No, you didn't lose, you won! Hurrah! Papa, tomorrow's a home run!"

*This is a reference to a very old Yoshinoya (a Japanese chain restaurant) commercial.

…

I don't really understand what this is talking about, but… Does this mean that I won the lottery?

Masato Hijirikawa: … What's wrong, Haru? Show me.

Hijirikawa-sama reaches out for my paper.

Haruka Nanami: Ah…!

His hand brushes the tip of my finger, and I accidentally drop the paper on the floor.

Masato Hijirikawa: … Don't pull back so suddenly… You dropped it…

Hijirikawa-sama is scolding me, but like mine, his cheeks are also light pink.

Masato Hijirikawa: … It's a strange sentence, but… I assume this means that you won.

Ringo Tsukimiya: Oh my, oh my. It seems like you two won the lottery! Hehe! I'll be going with you on the day of, so I'm looking forward to it!

The day we go on the Song Station tour happens to be Valentine's Day.

On Valentine's Day, girls give chocolates to the boy they like.

I don't know if that is allowed in our school that bans romance, but…

I've never been able to participate in this holiday, so I want to try it this year…

Recently, girls not only give chocolate to their crushes, but their friends too.

I think as long as I treat this like ochugen and oseibo—the customs in summer and the end of the year when people give each other gifts to express their gratitude, then maybe it's okay…?

As I think about that, my hands start moving by themselves…

When I come back to my senses, I've already knitted a scarf.

I didn't have many friends up until now, so I'm very good at hobbies that I can do by myself.

I wonder if what I made is good enough to give him…

It's the morning of the day we go on the Song Station tour.

Haruka Nanami: … Huh?

I notice that I've ended up in a place I've never been before. Why am I in this forest?

This morning, I remember from when I changed to when I left the dorm, but…

I'm supposed to meet up with Hijirikawa-sama at the front of the school gates…

This isn’t good. I can't remember anything after that.

Ren Jinguji: Did you finally wake up, Princess? ♪

I'm deep in thought when I hear a voice right beside me.

I see Jinguji-san sitting next to me.

But why is Jinguji-san here?

And where am I?

Haruka Nanami: How did I end up here?

Ren Jinguji: Who knows? How do you think you did?

He puts his hand on my cheek and has me look up at him as he whispers into my ear.

…

Haruka Nanami: Ah… Umm… W-was I sleepwalking?

Ren Jinguji: If that were the case, then that doesn't explain why I'm here.

Haruka Nanami: … Ahh, that's true…

Ren Jinguji: So let's assume that we're lost in the forest. The temperature is going to keep dropping, but neither of us have coats. What would you do in that situation?

Haruka Nanami: … I don't think there's anything we could do…

I don't understand the meaning of his question, but I feel like it would be rude not to try answering…

Ren Jinguji: Wrong! This is what you do…

He drapes his blazer over my shoulders and then hugs me tight.

Haruka Nanami: Um… Uh… What are you doing…?

Ren Jinguji: Sharing each other's warmth. That's the answer.

Haruka Nanami: Umm…

I-I don't understand what's going on at all.

Haruka Nanami: Umm, today I have an appointment to go wait at the school gate and head to Song Station, so…

Ren Jinguji: If I told you I wouldn't let you, what would you do?

Haruka Nanami: Huh?! I would be in a pinch!

I would feel so bad if I don't go because I managed to win the lottery.

Ren Jinguji: Heh, you're being difficult… Maybe I should go ahead and take you away by force. If I do that, would you pay more attention to me?

Jinguji-san loosens his embrace, looks into my eyes and smiles.

Haruka Nanami: Umm… Could it be that it was you that brought me here, Jinguji-san? Why?

Ren Jinguji: Heh… Did you finally figure it out? You're pretty dense. That's an easy answer. It's because I decided the moment I met you that I'd snatch you away.

Snatch…?

Haruka Nanami: Are you kidnapping me for ransom? I'm poor…

Ren Jinguji: That's such a bad joke. Who do you think I am? I would never do that. You're such a clueless lady.

Ren Jinguji: … Will you answer me differently if I ask you the same question as before?

Jinguji-san caresses my cheek.

Haruka Nanami: Kya! What do you mean by before…?

Ren Jinguji: I asked you why not choose me over him… you remember, right?

Haruka Nanami: You're doing all this just to ask me that?

Ren Jinguji: Perhaps? I ordered George to kidnap you. He dealt a light blow, knocked you out, and carried you to his car…

Haruka Nanami: Umm… Isn't that a crime?

Ren Jinguji: The end justifies the means, as long as you fall in love with me in the end. I'm confident that I can capture your heart.

Jinguji-san traces his index finger over the edge of my lips.

Haruka Nanami: I… I love Hijirikawa-sama. I won't belong to anyone else.

I flatly turn him down.

Ren Jinguji: Even if I told you that I'll leave you here if you don't become mine? Do you even know the way back?

Haruka Nanami: I'll do my best to return on my own.

I don't know where I am, but I'm confident my connection to Hijirikawa-sama will lead me back to him…

Ren Jinguji: … Is that guy really that good? Even better than me?

Haruka Nanami: Yes… And… you don't even actually love me, Jinguji-san…

Ren Jinguji: … That isn't true. I love you, Lady.

Haruka Nanami: I can tell… Jinguji-san's eyes are always looking through me and straight at Hijirikawa-sama.

Ren Jinguji: I throw in the towel. You're quite a princess… Yes, you're right. I don't like him.

Haruka Nanami: Why…?

Ren Jinguji: From the start, he’s had everything that I've ever wanted that I could never have, and yet he's trying to toss that all away.

Ren Jinguji: And yet, he can’t break ties with his family. He hates his household, and yet he can't disobey them. I think we're similar, to be honest.

Haruka Nanami: You two are similar…?

They're completely different, in my opinion.

Ren Jinguji: Yeah, but what we wish for is different. I want to be the heir to my family, but I can't. No matter how hard I try, I’m completely useless to them.

Ren Jinguji: On the other hand, he'll eventually become the head of his family even though he doesn't want to… I'm completely aware that what I'm feeling is just childish resentment.

Haruka Nanami: Jinguji-san…

Ren Jinguji: But if my rival suddenly finds happiness… if he manages to overcome the same emotional burden as I feel…

Ren Jinguji: I just… won't be able to bear it.

Ren Jinguji: Lady, the reason I had you kidnapped is probably not just because that old man asked me to…

Jiiya-san asked Jinguji-san…? He wants to separate me from Hijirikawa-sama that badly?

Ren Jinguji: I felt like somewhere in my heart that if you could change him, then you could change me too…

Ren Jinguji: But… it seems like there's no room for discussion.

Masato Hijirikawa: Haruka!!! Are you okay?!

Hijirikawa-sama ran towards me.

Masato Hijirikawa: Why you…!

Hijirikawa-sama sees us and throws a punch at Jinguji-san.

Ren Jinguji: Guh!

Haruka Nanami: Kya! S-stop!

Hijirikawa-sama's punch lands on his left cheek, and Jinguji-san falls on the ground.

Ren Jinguji: … Oww… Don't punch my face, I'm going to be an idol, after all.

The corner of his lip is cut and bleeding. Jinguji-san wipes some blood off as he gets back on his feet.

Masato Hijirikawa: Silence. You deserve a thousand deaths!

Masato Hijirikawa: I'm so sorry… I'm late. Were you scared?

Hijirikawa-sama takes my hand and pulls me close.

Masato Hijirikawa: Did he do anything to you?

Select the Phrase!

いえ何も・・・ No, nothing… (+0 Love, +0 Music)

Haruka Nanami: We just talked a little.

Masato Hijirikawa: … Really?

Haruka Nanami: … Yes.

Masato Hijirikawa: Then I suppose everything's okay…

ぎゅって・・・ He hugged me… (+20 Love, +0 Music)

Masato Hijirikawa: What?! … Then I'll have to bury you here…

Haruka Nanami: U-um… The only reason he hugged me was because it was cold. There was no other meaning behind it…

Ren Jinguji: I admit that when I was hugging her… the thought of taking her away crossed my mind.

Masato Hijirikawa: Why you–!!

Haruka Nanami: J-Jinguji-san…

Why is he riling him up…

Ren Jinguji: But the lady is not here in my arms right now. I've returned her to you. Isn't that good enough?

Masato Hijirikawa: … Yes. Don't go near her ever again.

大丈夫です。I'm okay. (+10 Love, +0 Music)

Haruka Nanami: Jinguji-san… is actually a good person…

Masato Hijirikawa: A good person? Jinguji?

Ren Jinguji: Yeah, I'm an ally of women. However, the lady is so charming that I thought that it would be a great chance to receive a single kiss from her.

He winks at me.

Masato Hijirikawa: … I really do have to bury you here…

Hijirikawa-sama grumbles under his breath.

Ren Jinguji: I'll pass. Also… I've already returned her to you. Isn't that good enough?

Masato Hijirikawa: … Don't go near her ever again.

Jii: Haa, haa, haa, I've finally caught up to you! I never knew that the young master is so fast!

Jii: So what did you think? Did you witness that lass' betrayal with your own two eyes?!

Masato Hijirikawa: Jii… That was uncalled-for.

Masato Hijirikawa: Even you know very well that she's not that kind of person.

Jii: But, Young Master… I'm so worried about you!

Jii: You're going to take over the family one day, and yet you're being deceived by this lass…

Masato Hijirikawa: I came to this academy on my own will. You understand that too, Jii.

Jii: …

Masato Hijirikawa: It's a miracle that I met her, a wonderful composer in this academy… No, I think it's destiny.

Masato Hijirikawa: I like her, and she likes me back.

Masato Hijirikawa: But these feelings are different from the romance between a man and a woman.

Masato Hijirikawa: We acknowledge each other's taste in music, we strive to improve our skills, and I respect her as a musician.

Masato Hijirikawa: I don't love her just because she's a woman.

Masato Hijirikawa: You should understand, because you competed with her music, just how much I, as a singer, need her…

Masato Hijirikawa: She makes one of a kind music in this world–she is my dream.

Masato Hijirikawa: I know this academy forbids romance. I'm an idol, so my net worth will drop if there are rumors that I'm frivolous.

Masato Hijirikawa: I am aware of that, but I don't recall any rule against feelings of love.

Jii: Well that's…

Masato Hijirikawa: Jii… You're the one who taught me music. Will you also be the one to take it from me?

Jiiya-san takes in Hijirikawa-sama's words and lets out a deep sigh.

Jii: … I admit defeat.

Jii: I've served the young master for seventeen years. I've lived this entire time thinking that the young master's happiness would be taking over for your father.

Jii: But… You found another path for yourself.

Jii: At first, I thought this was just a phase and that you'd quickly figure out that this was all a mistake… but it seems like that isn't the case.

Jii: I understand. I will always be on the young master's side.

Jii: I will report back to your father. Please, fight with all your might.

Masato Hijirikawa: … Jii. Thank you.

Jii: Young lady… I'll leave the young master to you.

Jii: Please make a wonderful song that will open up a bright future for the young master.

Select the Phrase!

はい、必ず。Yes, certainly. (+10 Love, +10 Music)

Jii: I see… My apologies for putting you through hardship. Let's hurry to Song Station!

Haruka Nanami: Yes, sir!

未来・・・か。The future… (+20 Love, +0 Music)

Jii: Yes, his future… Take the weight of it on your shoulders.

Masato Hijirikawa: There's no need to get worked up about it. I'll weave your future. We can link our futures with each other.

Haruka Nanami: Yes! I'll make sure to make a great song… For you and your future, not anyone else.

Jii: Yes! Then, let's go to Song Station! If we don't hurry, we'll be late!

頑張ります。I'll do my best. (+5 Love, +5 Music)

Jii: It's obvious that you're already going to try your best. I'm saying that you should produce good results!

Haruka Nanami: Yes! I promise that I will!

Jii: Good! Then, let's head to Song Station. Hurry!

We all arrive at the Song Station studio five minutes before it's about to start.

Ringo Tsukimiya: Ahh, you've finally arrived! You were all late, so I thought that you weren't coming! I was so nervous!

Masato Hijirikawa: I'm sorry we're late.

Ringo Tsukimiya: Anyway, I'm glad you made it. It's my turn to sing now, so watch closely!

Masato Hijirikawa: Understood.

Haruka Nanami: Yes, sir.

So this is a TV studio, huh?

It's so much larger than what’s visible on TV, and the ceiling is so high.

And, unlike a normal ceiling, it’s built like a mesh with many lights hanging from it.

Haruka Nanami: Wow…

Ryuya Hyuga: Hey, stop getting distracted. Your teacher's going to put on a good show, so you better pay attention.

He lightly pokes my head.

Haruka Nanami: Ah, Hyuga-sensei.

Ryuya Hyuga: Shh, it's about to start.

On stage, Tsukimiya-sensei is more dazzling than I've ever seen–his whole being is embodying his song.

There is a small, yet grand story told through the song.

The story dances, bounds, and bursts forth on the stage of melody.

He charms everyone who listens to him, pulling them into his dominating presence.

At times, he exudes such sex appeal that it makes my heart skip a beat.

When Tsukimiya-sensei finishes his song, the entire audience lets out a sigh of astonishment.

Haruka Nanami: … Amazing.

Masato Hijirikawa: Ahh, the aura he created pulled me in, keeping me spellbound.

Ryuya Hyuga: He's not exceptional at singing, but he has a presence.

Ryuya Hyuga: It's not enough to just be good at singing. Even if you aren't that good, a song that makes an impression will be praised. That's just how it is.

Hyuga-sensei taps his chest with his fist.

Ryuya Hyuga: It's different from just pure skill–it's being unique. There's countless people who are skilled, but there are a few people who have a distinct way of singing.

Ryuya Hyuga: That's a professional performance. He makes everyone happy… A professional idol who inspires dreams in everyone…

Ryuya Hyuga: Aim to be a real idol. Hone your individuality. What we need is an idol like that! Do your best!

Masato Hijirikawa: Yes, sir!

Haruka Nanami: Understood!

We walk back from Song Station without exchanging a word.

Tsukimiya-sensei's song was so mind-blowing that we're left bewildered.

Masato Hijirikawa: Professionals are on a whole different level. To be honest, I was shocked–dumbfounded, even.

Haruka Nanami: Yes, Sensei was so different from how he usually acts… So that's how a professional does their job…

Masato Hijirikawa: Haru… We must debut.

Haruka Nanami: I agree.

Ah, I just remembered. I should give him this…

I take out chocolate and a scarf, then hold them out to Hijirikawa-sama.

Haruka Nanami: … U-umm… Masato… kun… T-take this…

Masato Hijirikawa: What's this…?

Haruka Nanami: U-umm… Today's Valentine's, so… Um, I love y…

Masato Hijirikawa: Wait, let me say it.

Masato Hijirikawa: I love you. No matter what happens, even if we end up being torn apart by hardship…

Masato Hijirikawa: I vow to keep loving you. I have something for you, too…

Huh?! Today's Valentine's Day. Girls are supposed to give boys a present.

Hijirikawa-sama takes an omamori pouch from his uniform's pocket and opens the top.

There's an old ring inside of it.

Masato Hijirikawa: Your hand…

Hijirikawa-sama takes my hand and slides the ring onto my left ring finger.

Haruka Nanami: Umm…

Masato Hijirikawa: I won't ask you to keep wearing this. Even though we love each other, right now, we are just a singer and a composer.

Masato Hijirikawa: In public, we're work partners. We can't have others find out that we're in a relationship.

Masato Hijirikawa: But, one day… when I'm strong enough to cut my ties with my family and finally solve all my problems, then…

Masato Hijirikawa: I want you to be only mine for the rest of my life. This is the proof of my vow…

Haruka Nanami: Masato-kun…

Masato Hijirikawa: This ring is an heirloom from my grandmother. The family crest is engraved on it.

Masato Hijirikawa: This is a protective ring that is meant to be worn by my future wife, which is why I want you to keep this.

Select the Phrase!

………。 … (+0 Love, +0 Music)

Haruka Nanami: I'll take good care of it.

Masato Hijirikawa: Thank you.

プロポーズですか？ Is this a proposal? (+20 Love, +0 Music)

Masato Hijirikawa: I suppose you can take it as one. I can't say when at this moment… but this is a sign of my conviction.

Haruka Nanami: … Am I good enough for you? I'm sure someone else is more suited…

Masato Hijirikawa: Don't say such sad things. You're a wonderful woman.

Masato Hijirikawa: There's no woman better for me than you. I… like you the way you are. Please, I want you to be only mine.

Haruka Nanami: … Of course.

Masato Hijirikawa: Then, this is our vow…

Hijirikawa-sama takes my hand and kisses the ring that he just put on my finger.

そんな大切なもの...。 I can't keep something so valuable… (+10 Love, +0 Music)

Haruka Nanami: Is it okay for me to have this?

Masato Hijirikawa: Yes, I want you to keep it.

Haruka Nanami: Understood. I'll… keep it safe…

Masato Hijirikawa: As long as you have that, you'll always be mine.

I'm so happy that I could faint…

Ah! This is no time to space out! I have something to hand him too.

Haruka Nanami: Umm… would you mind taking this?

I hand Hijirikawa-sama the package containing the scarf.

Masato Hijirikawa: Of course… Thank you.

Hijirikawa-sama opens up the package.

Masato Hijirikawa: This looks so warm. However…

His outstretched arm pulls me into his chest.

Masato Hijirikawa: You're… the warmest of all.

Haruka Nanami: Masato-kun…

I can hear Hijirikawa-sama's heartbeat as my ear is pressed against his chest.

Ba-dump. Ba-dump. His heartbeat is a little fast, but it's pleasing to my ear.

Hijirikawa-sama's heartbeat and warmth permeate into my body...

Masato Hijirikawa: Haru, I want to walk with you like this for the rest of our lives. We need to debut at all costs. I'll be counting on you again tomorrow.

Haruka Nanami: Yes, I'll do my best!

I don't know what will happen here on out, but we can do this together. I'm sure we can overcome any obstacle.

I have utmost faith in us.

Haruka Nanami: I'm home~!

Tomochika Shibuya: Ohh, welcome back! So how was it?

Tomo-chan asks me with a curious look on her face right after I arrive to the room.

Haruka Nanami: I learned so much! Seeing a TV show live is so different. Tsukimiya-sensei was so cool~

Tomochika Shibuya: Ahh, no, not that, today's Valentine's Day, right? Did you give him the scarf?

Huh? Did she say s-scarf…?

Select the Phrase!

なんで知ってるの！？ Why do you know that?! (+5 Love, +0 Music)

Tomochika Shibuya: Hoho. Bulls-eye… I knew that you knitted a muffler, so I hazarded a guess.

Tomochika Shibuya: Hmm, I see…

Haruka Nanami: Um, ah… you're… not wrong, but romance is banned, so…

Uuu… Right after I decided to get my act together, this happens…?

I'm too careless! H-how can I cover this up…?

うん。Yes. (+10 Love, +0 Music)

Tomochika Shibuya: Hoh…

Tomo-chan gleefully narrows her eyes.

Haruka Nanami: Huh? Ah, no, I didn't mean to say “yes”, it's actually…

Tomochika Shibuya: You were knitting that scarf with such a serious look on your face, so I thought that maybe that was the case, but to think I was actually right… Ah, youth…

な、何のこと？ W-what are you talking about? (+5 Love, +0 Music)

Tomochika Shibuya: The scarf you were knitting this whole time! So what did you do with it? You didn't give it to anybody?

Haruka Nanami: Uh, no… actually…

Anything I say is going to sound like an excuse, because I don't have it on me anymore.

Umm, umm…

Tomo-chan bursts out laughing when she sees how troubled I am.

Tomochika Shibuya: It's okay, I'm not so tasteless where I'll ask you who you gave it to. So? What happened when you gave it? Did they take it?

Haruka Nanami: Y-yes…

Tomochika Shibuya: I see, that's great… But you gotta be more careful if you're this easy to read.

Haruka Nanami: Uu…

Yes, I am well aware.

Tomochika Shibuya: I want you to be happy, so this is just a warning from your best friend.

Tomochika Shibuya: Listen carefully. If you're dealing with romance, no matter how happy you might be, you shouldn't get over excited!

Tomochika Shibuya: I know this will be difficult because you're no actor, but if you want to make your relationship work, you better hide it no matter what!

Tomochika Shibuya: If you don't, you won't be able to achieve your dreams. You don't want to be expelled before the graduation audition, right?

Tomochika Shibuya: If there's anything I can help with, I'm your girl! Just don't get expelled.

Haruka Nanami: Thank you… But why are you being so kind to me?

Tomochika Shibuya: Because I like your music! My secret scheme is for us to get into Shining Agency together and make you compose music for me.

Tomochika Shibuya: Do you have any complaints?

Haruka Nanami: No, of course not… I'll do my best!

I see, Tomo-chan likes my music. I'm so happy!

Tomochika Shibuya: If you're expelled, there's a certain someone who won't be able to debut anymore. You're not just affecting yourself.

Tomochika Shibuya: I want to enter Shining Agency with Otoya, Masayan, Natsuki, and you! We're friends, after all!

Haruka Nanami: Yes, of course… You're right.

I shouldn't get too excited. Hijirikawa-sama gave me his ring because he believes in me. I can't stomp on those feelings.

No matter how happy I may be, I won't show it on my face. I won't let people find out.

I swear to myself tonight.

Mini Game

Ringo Tsukimiya: Haa, time flies! The entrance ceremony for this term feels like it was yesterday, but now it’s almost graduation…

Ringo Tsukimiya: One year is so short. We all grow so close, and yet we’ll part so soon.

Ringo Tsukimiya: But if you manage to get into Shining Agency, you’ll be my kouhai! I want everyone to do their best to get hired!

Ringo Tsukimiya: You have to polish your song even more to be able to get a good score on your graduation audition.

Ringo Tsukimiya: I’ll do my best to give you advice, so let me hear what you have so far.

Ringo Tsukimiya: So, are you ready? Then let’s begin!

S Rank

Masato Hijirikawa: I would expect no less. I can relax when I watch you. You're stable and don't make many mistakes. Your music comforts me.

Haruka Nanami: Thank you very much. I'll try even harder!

Chapter End

#utapri #repeat #masato hijirikawa #masatorepeat

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d-lanx · 3 months ago

Text

Wrestlemania Predictions

Ok now smackdown is done I'm doing final predictions before mania tomorrow :) i have no doubt 90% of this will be wrong.

Jey Uso vs Gunther

Really hoping this match has some blood, cos if Gunther doesn’t try to do the same to Jey as he did to Jimmy, that’d be stupid. I feel like Jey is defo gonna win this, maybe due to Gunther being too busy showboating instead of focusing on the match. Cos he’s been real keen on mocking Jey recently. Possible a Jimmy return too, but I hope he doesn’t get too involved, cos Jey needs to win this clean if he’s gonna be taken seriously as new champ, cos a lot of people are doubting him. I still want Gunther to win though, just cos he’s my dude and I will support all his rights and wrongs.

Preditction: Jey Uso Who I Want: Gunther

War Raiders vs New Day

I don’t have as much in the way of theories for this one. I think New Day need the win cos so far all they do is whine and not much else. They need a win for some credibility and I’d like to see their first heel title run. The only way I can see them losing rn in a way that would be interesting is if Big E came back and did some shenanigans to cost them the match. And as great as it would be, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.

Prediction: New Day Who I Want: New Day

Rey Mysterio vs El Grande Americano

This whole schtick has had some funny moments, I’ll admit, but I don’t see this going beyond mania, especially with the controversy behind it. I just don’t think it’s worth it. I think Rey’s winning and gonna unmask him and that’ll be it. Although it would be kinda funny if on the raw after mania, Gable and Americano come out and stand next to each other and are two different people, or if when the mask comes off in ring it isn’t Gable. But I don’t think that’s gonna happen tbh. Just end it at mania and we can all move on with our lives.

Prediction: Rey Mysterio Who I Want: Rey Mysterio

Jade Cargill vs Naomi

Honestly I have no idea. I think Jade could do with a win since coming back but Naomi also could do with the credibility as a heel. It could go either way in my mind. But I do think Jade has a better chance for her to get some revenge. But still, I feel like it could defo go either way.

Prediction: Jade Cargill Who I Want: Jade Cargill

LA Knight vs Jacob Fatu

Hoping they’re finally gonna pull the trigger on Fatu as a solo act, cos his stuff’s been really cool so far. I also feel like Knight doesn’t really need the title and could probably move on to fighting for a world title instead. So YEAH.

Prediction: Jacob Fatu Who I Want: Jacob Fatu

Tiffany Stratton vs Charlotte Flair

Very excited for this one considering all the supposed backstage drama with it. I hope they kill each other. I also hope WWE have realised from the rampant booing of Charlotte that she does not need another title and that it is in fact Tiffy Time.

Prediction: Tiffany Stratton Who I Want: Tiffany Stratton

Roman Reigns vs CM Punk vs Seth Rollins

Oh god this is gonna be messy and I have a LOT of thoughts. Tbh I’m not really sure how this one will go. Part of me thinks Punk might get the win on account of the fact that it’s his first mania main event. Another part of me says Seth’s gonna win via Paul Heyman shenanigans even though he said he had no intention of getting the favour he claimed to be owed from Heyman. I definitely feel like this is gonna be the start of some new feud or extending this one in some way. I've wondered if Heyman might wind up with Seth and Roman & Punk try to save him, but that might be a bit too campy. The most likely thing in my mind, is that Roman and Seth try to work together to beat Punk, but Punk beats them, as he's done so many times before. And this sets up some feud with Roman and Seth, since their old SHIELD bullshit is still getting in the way of their lives, and they need to just put it to bed. I really hope this happens, cos I want Punk to be rid of shield related storylines and people whinging about him leaving over a decade ago because he had a staph infection and got fired. I just wanna move on and get feuds with Gunther or Cena or just about anyone else. But if this really is the end and all three just go their seperate ways afterwards, then I have no idea what will happen. I expect we'll be getting Roman Reigns vs CM Punk at some point down the line, but not sure how this match will lead to it, if it does (I'm writing this past 4am so maybe I'll get a better idea when I've slept). Also I feel like out of everyone, Heyman is the only outright face in this story. So I'm sort of judging everyone on how they treat him. Seth has been nothing but a bitch the Heyman, and out of the lot, I'm getting the most sinister vibes from him. Like he's so obsessed with removing the man he deems a cancer (Punk) that he doesn't realise he's becoming a cancer himself. Reigns is a bit muddy because he isn't outright evil, but him getting quite angry at Heyman is a red flag. And of course with Punk, they had the whole battered wife thing with Heyman and Punk coming to Heyman's aid (even if it was unsuccessful) on two occasions. So I'd say in this feud, Punk is the closest thing to a face, and Seth to a heel. But I'm sure people on here could argue about that till the cows come home. Because obviously none of them are really a face or a heel, which is why this is so hard to determine. They're all pretty grey in this so it's hard to say for certian, but yeah, for now I'll say Punk, just cos I'm hoping he will feud with someone else next, and he's closest to being a face out of the lot.

Prediction: CM Punk Who I Want: CM Punk

Iyo Sky vs Bianca Belair be Rhea Ripley

I'll be honest, this feels kinda obvious to me. I'm betting Iyo wins. They've been disrespecting her SO MUCH I just feel like at this point, she needs the win to remind them who's boss. I think maybe Rhea and Bianca will be too busy spatting, and Iyo will take advantage, just how she did when she won the title in the first place. She's gonna fight to be taken more seriously as a champion and I'm here for it.

Prediction: Iyo Sky Who I Want: Iyo Sky

Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez vs Bayley & Lyra Valkyria

I dunno. All the talk about "they're not even a real tag team" from Liv is making me think that Bayley and Lyra will win with the power of friendship. It's hard to say, to be honest, since this match was decided so late and had very little build. But here we are. Still hoping for Liv and Raquel to win, cos I love those little shits.

Preditction: Bayley & Lyra Valkyria Who I Want: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez

AJ Styles vs Logan Paul

Ok, as is tradition, I'll probably go for a piss or get something to eat since LP is gonna be on my screen. Can't stand him. But I also have a gut feeling he's gonna win. Dunno why. Tbh I don't really know anything about this feud cos it's another that hasn't had much going on, and when I is on screen, I either busy myself with something else, or marvel at how much the crowd is booing. I'll be honest, I don't actually know at this point what this feud is even about. But I have a scray feeling LP is gonna win because of course he will (I'm probably just being paranoid). But I really don't want him to.

Prediction: Logan Paul Who I Want: AJ Styles

Bron Breakker vs Penta vs Finn Bálor vs Dominik Mysterio

I think this match should be called "The Destruction Of The Judgement Day". Cos Liv and Raquel are always off doing their own thing now. Carlito is just a side character anyway. JD is gone. Finn and Dom have been getting pissy. I feel like Dom is on the rise right now, and is gonne win this. Finn might be happy that judgement day won, but I think he's gonna be more pissed about him not winning. Judgement Day is definitely on it's last legs, and I feel like the story with Dom and Finn is the only thing holding it together now. So I'm betting shenanigans will happen, and Finn and Dom will start feuding, and the Judgement Day will be no more. As for who I want, even though I don't think either will get it at all, I'll be rooting for Penta because I just really fucking like him, and also Bron mostly because of the parody of Steiner Math that he did on the kickoff show today. I'm just really fucking with that guy right now. Also his spear and his speed are always peak. But I'm happy with a Dom win because that makes a lot more sense story-wise, anyway.

Prediction: Dominik Mysterio Who I Want: Penta/Bron Breakker

Damian Priest vs Drew McIntyre

I'm really not so sure who's gonna win this one. All I know is I want Drew to win, because that's my fucking guy. I think the crowd is definitely behind him, and part of me is wondering if he may end up turning face again, but being the Little-Shit™ type of face. I think he deserves his revenge against Damian. But at the same time, I feel like Damian's gonna win to get his necklace back. So unless this is gonna be the start of a multi-match feud, then I think Damian's gonna be winning this one :(

Prediction: Damian Priest Who I Want: Drew McIntyre

Cody Rhodes vs John Cena

Ok, and now the big one. I will always be a Cena fan. I've been watching WWE since '06, and been properly invested since '09. So Cena was always a childhood hit. I want him to win his 17th title. I'm really not too precious about Cody or his championship reign. And tbh, after all the fuss of him winning it, it needed to be something big to lose it, and this would definitely work. Also, usually the heel regularly gets one over on the face in a feud, to make them more of a threat for the actual match. And yet Cody has repeatedly overpowered Cena with ease. He quite famously has to do a crossrhodes multiple times to get anyone to stay down. And yet TWICE a single crossrhodes has killed Cena. So now Cena's looking almost like an underdog. I feel there's gonna be some shenanigans in the match on the day. Probably involving the Rock. But I think story-wise it also makes sense for Cena to win, because you can then do the whole thing of everyone trying to win the title back so he can't retire with it at the end of the year. Like a big countdown timer. Also I can't help but notice the parallels to CM Punk. Cena winning this title and retiring with it feels a lot like MITB 2011. But also, the idea of him winning the belt and there being a countdown to him leaving and people trying to win it back so it stays in the company, also feels a lot like the Summer of Punk. It's making me feel like there could be a Punk feud coming up after this. Maybe not immediately, but soon (maybe MITB?). So yeah, I just feel like having Cena win would give more options for storylines for the rest of his retirement tour.

Prediction: John Cena Who I Want: John Cena

So there we go. Chances are 99% of this could be wrong. And as it always happens when I post any pre-PLE predictions, someone will comment about something I completely forgot about that ends up making me change my mind. But for now, I'm gonna leave it at that. Otherwise I'll be theorising all night. And I wanna watch HOF and just go to bed right now. So yeah :)

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hvaneyflowers · 2 years ago

Text

Italian Girl ************

Carlos Sainz Jr. x femOriginaCharacter! fashioninfluencer!

Instagram au ---- Part 3

Carlos goes to Italy for vacation, meets a beautiful young girl, falls in love, and marries her in less than three weeks.

f1news

liked by 50.000

tagged: carlossainz55, francescadistefano_official

f1news: BREAKING NEWS! Carlos Sainz has tied the knot! The Ferrari driver announced he had married an Italian fashion influencer, Francesca Di Stefano, of 22. The Spanish, who is 28, had recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend, Isa Hernáez (almost a month ago). Rumors say that he and Francesca met at a wedding in Italy 3 weeks ago, and now they're married. Congratulations to our Smooth Operator!

view all 250 comments.

username788: Wait! What?!

username199: OMG!!! WHAT?!

username1829: WTF?!!

username992: He's really a Smooth Operator!

username919: Congratulations, I guess...

username9829: He got married to a girl he just met? WHAT?!

username819: He just met? I don't know. Maybe he cheated on Isa with her. username8902: I don't think so. She doesn't look like the homewrecker type. Actually, she's very kind and polite. She's old money.

username749: I feel sorry for his ex-girlfriend. They were together for 6 years, and she wanted to marry him. I wonder what she's thinking about this.

username578: Imagine being with him for almost a decade, and he never proposed, but he met this girl on his vacation, and three weeks later, he married her.

username89: I don't know what to think about this.

username56: This is... unexpected, completely unexpected.

francescadistefano_official

liked by charles_leclerc, chiaraferragni, and 700.890 more.

francescadistefano_official: It's true, I married a man I met three weeks ago. I know it sounds crazy, and it was, but my heart told me it was the best decision I could have made. Carlos and I met at our friends' wedding, and we immediately liked each other. The next day we went on our first date, and since that, we haven't left each other side. He proposed to me after three weeks of going out, and I said yes, because, why not? I love him and he loves me back. The truth is that the heart wants what it wants. I don't know what the future holds for us, but I've never been so in love with a man as I'm with him. I love him. I really, really love him. And I love every minute that I'm with him. I just want to be with him, no matter what.

view all 400 comments.

carlossainz55: Love you, babe! We'll be together 'till death do us part. It's a promise.

charles_leclerc: Carlos is the best man you could ever know in your life! Congratulations to both of you! I'm hoping to meet you soon!

chiaraferragni: The heart wants what it wants! Congratulations! Bring him to dinner soon. Fedez, me, and the kids are dying to meet him!

username899: Do you know he cheated on his ex-girlfriend? He would do the same with you. Just saying.

username890: Oh, shut up! We don't know what really happened between him and his ex.

francescadistefanofans: I'm very happy for you, my princess! Wishing you the best!

username16: I wonder what your kids would look like! You both are so gorgeous!

username09: Imagine a little Carlitos and a little Francesca! I can picture them running in the paddock to hug their dad after a race! username16: OMG! SO CUTE!! NOW, I WANT TO SEE THAT! username78: Francesca said that she wanted to be a mother before 30, so it's about time! username67: I know she would be the most beautiful pregnant woman! username7: Francesa wants kids, but we don't know if Carlos feels the same. username16: I hope yes. They'd make beautiful kids!

username1: Congratulations! He's a lucky guy!

username3: You'll be my new top couple! Such old money vibes!

username45: They give me Lana del Rey's vibes username3: I KNOW!! Power couple!

username567: Congratulations! I wish the best for you both!

carlossainz55

liked by landonorris, fernandoalo_oficial, carlossainzoficial, and 800.780 more.

tagged: francescadistefano_official

carlossainz55: They said you'll know when you meet the one, and they were right. When I first saw Fran, I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I don't know what had me the most. Was her charisma? Or her kindness? Or her laugh? I don't know but I completely fell in love with her. Marrying her after three weeks of knowing each other was the craziest decision I've made, but I know it was the best. I love you, babe, to the moon and back. I can't wait to see what the future holds for us!

view all 5000 comments.

landonorris: WAIT! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID IT!

charles_leclerc: He's the smooth operator, what did you expect? landonorris: An invitation to the wedding!

fernandoalo_oficial: Felicidades, amigo! Espero que seas muy feliz en tu nueva vida! / Congrats, my friend! I hope you'll be very happy in your new life!

username8999: I CAN'T BELIEVE! What about Isa?

username788: He doesn't care about her anymore, and I think she feels the same.

username75: Congrats! I guess... This was unexpected.

username890: I hope you didn't make a mistake.

lewishamilton: Congratulations, mate! I wish you the best!

alex_albon: We need to do a bachelor party!

charles_leclerc: YES! I agree with that!

lance_stroll: Congratulations! She seems nice!

scuderiaferrari: Congratulations Carlos! Looking forward to meeting her!

username777: Alex said something about a bachelor party, I need that to happen!

maxverstappen1: Wow, unexpected, but happy for you, mate! Congrats!

landonorris: BACHELOR PARTY AT MINE'S!

francescadistefano_official

liked by carlossainz55, valentinaferragni, and 900.890 more.

tagged: carlossainz55, maisonvalentino

francescadistefano_official: Mr. & Mrs. Sainz 7/25/23

view all 600 comments.

valentinaferragni: Absolutely gorgeous! Love U!!

francescadistefano_official: Love u too! ❤️

username887: I don't know why, but now this is my dream wedding!

username81: Right? It looks so beautiful!

francescadistefanofans: YOU LOOK SO BEAUTIFUL, MRS. SAINZ!

maisonvalentino: What an honor to have been chosen for your special day! Congratulations!

username45: Waiting to see you in the paddock next race!

username3: Are you going to live in Spain or he's moving to Italy?

francescadistefano_official: I'm moving to Spain next week! username72: You'll love Spain! francescadistefano_official: Can't wait!

francescadistefano_official

liked by carlossainz55, scuderiaferrari, and 600.578 more.

francescadistefano_offical: Maldives, you are incredible! #honeymoonlife

view all 500 comments.

carlossainz55: You look absolutely stunning! Can't take my eyes off you, nena!

francescadistefano_official: You too, Mr. Sainz! Love you so much! carlossain55: Love you, too, Mrs. Sainz! ❤️

username781: So they went to the Maldives for their honeymoon. Are we seeing her in the paddock next week?

username17: I hope so. I want to know how their relationship is! username22: I don't like her. She's doing what Carlos doesn't like. Sharing his private life! username18: We don't know them! And Carlos looks like he is okay with that!

scuderiaferrari: Recharging energy for the next race!

f1: Ready for Zandvoort? Hope to see you there, Mrs. Sainz!

username199: You both look so happy! Wish you the best!

username23: Happy for you! And jealous! You have Carlos Sainz as your husband! So lucky.

francescadistefanofans: Beautiful as always!

#f1 fanfic #f1 instagram au #f1 imagine #f1 social media au #f1 #carlos sainz #carlossainzsocialmediaau #ferrari #scuderia ferrari

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siravalondulac · 16 days ago

Note

Ok 214 GO!

214. cerelle and balon in star wars 9

how the fuck do i explain this

okay, so... i've been on a cerelle x balon swann hyperfixation trip these last few weeks, and as such am imagining several different possibilities for their story to go in au's. a long time ago, i came up with a story in which jon and cerelle die and get transported into the world of the star wars sequels (episode 7, to be exact). and recently i thought: hey, let's do that with my new babies.

the story goes as such: cerelle and balon somehow (don't ask me how. possibly by dying) end up on one of the planets in the star wars galaxy, where they get attacked and are then captured by the first order. they want to kill cerelle because they assume she has the force, yet in the last moment cerelle and balon are saved by the resistance who take them to their base.

they bond a lot trying to get used to this new world they have been thrust into - trying to make sense of blasters and space ships and lightsabers and holograms and the force isn't easy. but all of this makes them stick even closer together (balon still sees himself as cerelle's sworn sword, even if her title holds no meaning here). cerelle actually is actually force-sensitive, as it turns out, and so she gets trained by rey and finn, whom she befriends really quickly. balon hits it off with poe, and once the final battle with the first order rolls around, they agree to help.

this au is very much an excuse to rewrite episode 9 with canon endgame reylo, stormpilot, and rose/connix (you can pry this ship from my cold, dead hands), but also me forcing cerelle and balon to finally admit their feelings for each other. separated from the court and the kingsguard and looming betrothals, and exploring an all-new world together while being very much different from everyone around you is the perfect excuse to finally make these two lovebirds kiss.

#yes i am a sequel truther #nothing beats watching the reylo throne room fight sequence in cinemas #nor the reylo kiss ARE YOU KIDDING ME I FLIPPED OUT #oc: cerelle baratheon #fic discussion: stars above songs below #asoiaf oc #game of thrones oc #ask #sammybirdseed

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genericpuff · 2 years ago

Text

The Elephant in the Room - Queer Erasure and Westernization in Lore Olympus (and all its horrid stepchildren)

This is one people have been asking me for a while now, and I've been waiting for the right inspiration to hit, as is required for my ADHD hyperfixation-fueled rants. After recently watching a video that did an objective review of Cait Corrain's Crown of Starlight, I felt now was the time, because Crown of Starlight effectively proves exactly what Lore Olympus - and other Greek myth interpretations like it - has issues with.

And I want to preface this post with one question - why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

Buckle up, because this one's HEFTY.

In that aforementioned review of A Crown of Starlight, there were a lot of points that came up about how Cait wrote the female protagonist - Ariadne, wife of Dionysus - where I immediately stopped and went, "Wait, this sounds awfully familiar."

It should be mentioned briefly for anyone who's unaware - Cait Corrain is an author who was recently (and still) under fire for using sock puppet accounts on GoodReads to intentionally sabotage the ratings of other debut authors, many of whom were her own peers or from the same publishing imprint as her (Del Rey), and most of whom were POC. I mentioned in that previous essay that I just linked that Cait Corrain is a fan of Lore Olympus and decided to give it 5 star ratings from these alt accounts, not just de-legitimizing the reputation of the books she bombed, but also the ones that she praised (including her own book, because of course she had to leave an obvious calling card LMAO). I felt it necessary to tie Cait into my discussion of white feminism in LO and its fanbase because people like Cait are exactly who we're talking about when we dissect the intent and consequences of LO's writing - much of its brand of "feminism" seems to only be catered to a specific kind of woman (i.e. white women who fetishize queer people/relationships) and seem to encourage/embrace violence towards women if those women aren't "behaving correctly" or just aren't fortunate enough to be white and rich - and so Cait choosing to give Lore Olympus 5 stars in her hate-raiding and even have it visibly in the background of her headshot photos was... not exactly disproving my argument that these are the types of people LO caters to and encourages, to say the least.

But then I watched Read with Rachel's "Did It Deserve 1 Star" review of Crown of Starlight and it cemented my assumptions and concerns regarding Cait's intentions and influences even more.

youtube

As a brief tangent, I've read A Touch of Darkness by Scarlett St. Claire. It very obviously is using Lore Olympus as its blueprints, but it's not super obvious that if you didn't read Lore Olympus or weren't aware of it, you probably wouldn't notice. It's still not a great book on its own, it's riddled with writing problems, but at least it can call itself its own thing to some degree.

Crown of Starlight is just blatant Lore Olympus fanfiction pretending to be original, even down to its marketing (which I'll get to shortly) but swapping out Hades and Persephone with Dionysus and Ariadne, and setting the entire story in space. Why is it in space? There doesn't seem to be any actual necessary reason for this, it just is, go with it. I'd be willing to accept this because changing up the setting of pre-existing stories can be fun (god knows I loved the premise enough of Lore Olympus being a modern day Greek myth retelling that I had to go and make my own version of it that's still in that modern setting) but as RWR says in her review:

"... we're told that it's the 'island' of Crete, but then we talk about commbands, airlocks, [holo-shields] and it wasn't really written in a way that I felt meshed 'Greek retelling' and 'sci-fi' in a cohesive way."

Needless to say, Crown of Starlight unsurprisingly suffers from the same problems Lore Olympus does, where it will try to "subvert" the original myths by changing their setting and characters and then doing absolutely nothing interesting with them to justify those changes.

To really drive my point home that Crown of Starlight is undoubtedly Lore Olympus fanfiction, Lore Olympus was literally used as a comparison point in Crown of Starlight's marketing which is a fair tactic to use to advertise to a specific niche or demographic, and while some have argued that Cait isn't technically the one to come up with that marketing jargon, it's made much more clear that she used that comparison herself when writing and pitching the book because it is quite literally just Lore Olympus with a different couple in space, right down to the main female protagonist being part of a purity cult. And of course it wouldn't be a bad Wattpad romance if it didn't have our main female protagonist Ariadne talking about how inconvenient her MASSIVE BREASTS are and of COURSE Ariadne is a poor innocent uwu babygirl who needs a man to come in and rescue her from the evil purity cult and of COURSE it hints at them eventually having raunchy sex just for it to wind up being milquetoast bondage and of COURSE it all just winds up taking traditionally queer characters and stories and turning them into this sanitized Disney-esque plotline where the boy and girl were always meant to be together and nothing else matters except their love-

And that, at its core, really just screams "this is bad LO fanfiction". From the stylization of the book's writing which never outgrew its "adorkable fanfiction writing" phase-

"Realizing that I'm being gaslit by my entire world doesn't make it easier to deal with, but hey, at least I still have some part of my soul!" - an excerpt from Crown of Starlight quoted from RWR's review timestamp 13:03

-to the "creative" choices made to turn Ariadne into a chastity cult girl whose resolution is obviously going to be to have what's implied to be dirty raunchy sex just for it to be like... the most tame level one bondage stuff;

-to the classic "she breasted boobily down the stairs" focus on Ariadne's body and breasts and sex appeal that's being kept in check by that pesky purity club.

And that's really disappointing because I had seen people say, "Yeah, Cait did an awful thing and deserves to be removed from her publishing schedule, but it's a shame that that book was written by Cait because it's actually a really good book!" because now it's just making me even more sus of people's Greek myth adaption recommendations (I'm still mad at BookTok for convincing me that A Touch of Darkness was worth reading). All I could think while listening to some of the excerpts quoted by RWR was that if I didn't know about Cait Corrain and read Crown of Starlight blind, I'd undoubtedly assume it was being written by a heterocis guy... but it's in fact being written by a queer woman.

And this is where I segue into talking about the root of this problem, where the calls are really coming from - Lore Olympus and its erasure of queer identities and relationships, despite also being written by a queer woman who should know better.

I could think of no better character to help carry this essay than Eros.

Unlike many of the characters in LO that Rachel has managed to straightwash by changing their motives entirely or straight up changing their identity from the source material (ex. Zeus, Apollo, Crocus who was turned into a flower nymph, Dionysus and Achilles because they're both literally babies, the list goes on), Eros has largely remained the same on paper who had zero reason to not be queer within the story.

Eros is still the god of love in this, he's still a guy and presumed to be an adult, but we NEVER see or explore him having relationships with anyone other than Psyche, aside from a brief mention of organizing orgies in the beginning that's used as a quick joke and then promptly never mentioned again.

Just like with Crown of Starlight and A Touch of Darkness and all these other "dark romance" stories, it's that brand of "pretends to be sexually liberating but isn't actually" writing, where they'll briefly mention orgies or sex-related things and then beat around the bush or avoid involving them entirely like a kid at Sunday school who doesn't want to say the word "penis".

(fr out of all the corny and awful slang for genitals I've seen used in stories like this, "a certain part of my anatomy" is definitely one of the most boring and stupid, like for god's sakes Hades you're both adults and at the beginning of this comic you thought she wanted to bang in the kitchen, why are you suddenly talking like a 7 year old boy LOL)

All that aside, while Eros might still be hinted at being queer and sex-positive, it's only as vaguely as possible so that the story can quickly move on to focus on him and Psyche or, better yet, Hades and Persephone. When Eros isn't deadset on finding Psyche, he's being the gay best friend for Persephone, who he has NO right having a friendship with when he introduced himself by intentionally getting her as drunk as possible with the intent of dumping her in Hades' car as per his mom's command. It's brushed off later as "well Aphrodite maaade him do it, for Psycheee!" but Eros still agreed to potentially put Persephone in danger over a relationship that had NOTHING to do with her and was also mostly his fault in its fallout (which Artemis calls him out for, but of course, like all the other times characters have called out the actual issues in the story they're inhabiting, they get brushed aside so that Persephone can talk about Hades):

Now, the Eros and Psyche plotline is one I've talked about before here and not the focus of this essay so I'll keep this tangent brief, but it's absolutely wild to me that Rachel took a story about a woman going to the ends of the earth to prove her love for someone whose trust she broke (a common theme in a lot of Greek myth stories, such as the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice) and turned it into... woman of color gets turned into a nymph slave for Aphrodite to 'test' Eros, a test that isn't clear at all in what it's trying to achieve, and wait hold up, didn't Eros actually fail that test by kissing Ampelus while completely unaware that it was Psyche-

This is just that episode of Family Guy where Peter justifies emotionally cheating and eventually physically cheating on Lois because "well you were the phone sex lady the whole time so no harm done!", isn't it? (×﹏×)

youtube

Anyways. It's all very convenient that the comic will hint at queer rep just to either have it be a constant question of whether or not they're actually queer (ex. Morpheus) OR to have it be promptly swept under the rug to make way for other characters/plot points. It's like when mongie tried to be "inclusive" by writing a stereotypical vaguely Asian character with no specific ethnicity just to get angry at her fanbase for calling her out on this that you can't just call a vaguely Asian character "representation" of anything (because Asia is MASSIVE and covers so many different ethnicities and languages and cultures).

Eros is only as gay as he needs to be to fill the role of "gay best friend" for Persephone.

Krokos is no longer a male lover of Hermes but a flower nymph created by Persephone because... apparently we can't dare imply that Hermes would be into anyone besides his unrequited childhood love, Persephone.

Achilles is introduced as a baby even though it makes no sense in the comic's own timeline where Odysseus is presumably already a well-known hero in Olympus, so much so that he was invited to the Panathenea.

Apollo is turned into a flat-out rapist who's only concerned with getting Persephone at all costs and when that doesn't work, he tries to get ANOTHER flower nymph (Daphne) who's actually genuinely interested in him (contrary to the original myth, there's that "swap it subversion" Rachel is known for) to cut her hair so she'll resemble Persephone more because we can't have a single plot point not resolve around Persephone.

Despite there being loads of genderbent characters already, Morpheus is supposedly the only one we're supposed to assume is specifically trans and not just a gender-flipped version of a Greek myth character. Why? Not because Rachel stated so explicitly, not because the comic has actually explored her identity as a trans woman, but because the readers just assumed it in good faith and Rachel was clearly fine with taking credit for trans representation that's only there via assumption (and only confirmed via her mods in Discord, which is... not how you establish canon information in your comic, Rachel.)

Hestia and Athena are part of a chastity club, until uh oh how convenient that they're secretly in a relationship with each other even though it further vilifies them and their morals, particularly Hestia who was promptly called out for being a hypocrite for taking Persephone's coat gifted to her from Hades while secretly being in a relationship the whole time. Not only does the Hestia and Athena relationship manage to commit queer erasure - of two gods who are considered icons in the aroace communities - but it also makes the only two lesbians in the story come across as assholes AND ON TOP OF THAT ALSO manages to somehow invalidate queer sex and relationships as being legitimate due to the even deeper implication that breaking their chastity vows "doesn't count" because it's not a male x female relationship. It's the 'ole poophole loophole all over again.

And then there's Artemis, who has MORE REASON THAN EVER TO BE IN THE PLOT but keeps being conveniently ignored. Her finding out about Hestia and Athena doesn't get any more screentime than her going "oh you're in a relationship, okay" , we never see her question the true intentions of TGOEM or what it means to her, we never see her have any opportunity to carve out her identity beyond just being Apollo's twin sister (it tries to at times, but then immediately goes nowhere with it, amounting to just poetic word salad), and she really just comes across as what a lot of people assume aroace people to be - alone and standoffish, because obviously someone who's nice and a good person would be in a relationship, there has to be a reason they don't want to have sex or fall in love, and that reason obviously has to be that they just hate everyone and want to be alone forever (￢_￢;) Then again, like many of the queer characters in LO, I don't know if I can definitively call her aroace because it's kept as vague as possible, and - going by Rachel's answers to these questions way back in her Tumblr era - apparently people can't be gay and ace at the same time-

There are undoubtedly loads more examples that I could cover here but that goes for practically any essay I write about LO - the more you peel it apart, the more you start unearthing some really questionable and frankly mean-spirited stuff. Queer people feel largely ignored in LO, alongside many of its derivative offspring such as A Touch of Darkness and Crown of Starlight, and it really speaks to how so many people - queer women, no less - have somehow managed to bastardize and sanitize what were traditionally very queer stories with queer characters. It's like these people think "olden times" and can only get as far as "women were slaves and men were rich assholes". Like, yeah, okay, that was the case for many cultures, but not all of them, and for some of them it wasn't as clear cut as that, many had misogynist power struggles in them while also still celebrating women and queer people in their own way. Greek myth is full of stories of women being forced into marriage or being made the victims of assault, but many of them are supportive of women and their struggles, unlike works like LO that somehow manage to be less feminist and sympathetic to women and queer people than these works from thousands of years ago.

This is another topic that's surely meant for another post, but it really speaks not only to the straightwashing and whitewashing of Greek myth, but also the Westernizing of it. That's not to say Rachel Smythe and Cait Corrain and Scarlett St. Claire are intentionally trying to whitewash another culture's works here, but if you're raised predominantly on Western media, you're undoubtedly going to absentmindedly adopt ideas about society that are primarily molded around Western beliefs .

And this is apparent in LO, while Rachel is from New Zealand, you can tell she grew up on a lot of Western media and its influences are sorely showing through LO's worldbuilding, character designs, and narrative choices. That "modern setting" that I mentioned before is much less Greek and a lot more adjacent to The Kardashians which lends to the theories that most of the media that Rachel consumes is American. Rather than actually going to the effort of doing her research on Greek culture, she seems to just prefer defaulting to the easiest assumption of how modern society is across the board - a generic Los Angeles clone with big glass skyscrapers and pavement walkways. She rarely ever draws food or clothing from those time periods; despite this story being about gods she's spent so little time on the people who passed on the stories about those gods, the mortals, and the gods themselves rarely feel like gods, rather just like Hollywood celebrities covered in body paint. The clothing feels very generic and uninspired with often very little Greek influence, even though Greek clothing is designed around Mediterranean living which you could do a lot with, to such an egregiously Western degree that Hades and Persephone's wedding was Christian-coded. The food... well, there ISN'T any because as we've seen, like the stereotypical American child, Persephone apparently only wants chicken nuggies and Skittles for dinner, so we never see her eat; and not only do we not see Persephone eat, but Rachel weirdly tries to use Persephone's vegetarianism as some kind of anti-capitalist characterization when much of the Greek diet is predominantly vegetarian. It's NOT HARD or uncommon to be a vegetarian in Greece!

(it looks like they're literally all eating the same thing so IDK what Hera is referring to here, it looks like they're all eating toast and lettuce LMAO)

All that's to say, much of LO - and the books like it that I've gone over here - are written with this idea that every culture - including the one that it's trying to adapt - was subject to the same ideas that Western culture lives by in the modern day - that being a vegetarian is "counterculture" in every culture, that the notion of sexual purity is enforced in the same way it's enforced in the Western education system (cough Christianity cough), that queer or otherwise "unconventional" relationships should stay inside the bedroom and not be seen. As much as Rachel claims she wants to "fight the patriarchy" and "deconstruct purity culture", all she winds up doing is reinforcing it through a Westernized lens, which is, as I've talked about before, very indicative of right-leaning white feminism and what it embraces and promotes - being a "good woman" who follows the rules and willingly becomes part of the system that's oppressing them because that's what "good women" do. Women who are confidant in their sexuality are evil and should be shunned for being "sluts". Women who are in relationships with other women "don't count" as real relationships the same way heteronormative relationships do, and cannot be trusted because they're likely trying to spread an agenda that's designed to brainwash heterocis women. Women should only aim to achieve marriage and their entire personality has to be built around their true love. Women are allowed to be kinky, but only as kinky as roleplaying the exact same gender structures that puts the man in a position to dominate a woman, and it should always and only ever be with her first love who she marries immediately, no one else.

This is exactly what the critics are getting at when they hold LO - and its creator - accountable for the messages it's been sending for five years to its audience of middle aged women and young girls. Having a demographic is fine, if this were just a comic for girls it would be fine, but it becomes a lot more problematic when that demographic is being fed toxic power fantasy stories based on a culture that's being gentrified and sanitized of all its original messaging and characterization right before our eyes. It feels blatantly misinformed from the very beginning in its intention to be a "feminist retelling" of Greek myth, because somehow Lore Olympus manages to be less feminist than these stories drafted and written by men from 2000+ years ago.

I opened this essay with a question: why do we keep getting these Greek myth adaptations written by queer women that still wind up perpetuating toxic heteronormative culture?

I think cases like these really highlight how deep the heteronormative brainwashing from childhood onward goes. That, despite these writers being queer or women, still manage to reinforce the same ideas and tropes and harmful predisposed notions that were designed to be used explicitly against queer people and women. These are things that we can't ever stop challenging, and asking, and truly deconstructing, because it runs deep in many of us who grew up on popular media even as innocent as Disney. Learning about more complex social concepts like sexism and misogyny and queerphobia doesn't automatically absolve us of those very same biases that have been both blatantly and subtly ingrained into us since childhood. All that said, Rachel being bisexual does not mean she's not capable of straightwashing; Cait Corrain being a queer debut author with a POC main character didn't stop them from targeting other POC debut authors at their own imprint; being part of any minority group or identifier does not automatically protect you from perpetuating the cycle that you, too, likely had enforced upon you at some point or another in your life. The fact that these creators and writers are still perpetuating that cycle to begin with is indicative of why it's a cycle at all - it takes work to break on a subconscious level because those cycles are specifically designed to target and hijack the subconscious.

At its worst, do you really think Lore Olympus can claim to be a feminist retelling that's "deconstructing purity culture" when the creator herself admittedly never fully identified or understood sexism until her mid-30's and has the audacity to say her audience is "harsh" on the female characters that she constantly vilifies through her own narrative?

"I feel like female characters in general, people will be a little harsher on them and sometimes way harsher on them, and I used to be like.. before I started writing the story and like making a story I was like yeah, sexism is not that bad, and [now] I was like oh it's bad. It's quite bad [laughs], so like, I don't know, I feel like the female characters in the story don't get so much of a pass. But this isn't consistent across the board, it's not all the time" - Rachel Smythe, in an interview with Girl Wonder Webtoon Podcast

If Lore Olympus truly was just a series meant to be for fun "no thoughts head empty" drama and spice, that would be fine. I've said it time and time before on this blog and I'll say it again: I wouldn't have an issue if Rachel was just writing a story exclusively revolving around heterocis men and women. I'm just frustrated and tired and annoyed that she keeps lying about it, and doubly so that this comic and its creator who claim to be "feminist" have inspired other people in the same headspace to continue to perpetuate that cycle through works that are clearly inspired by LO and never challenged the things LO promoted - violence towards "unconventional" women, violence towards POC, and erasure of queer people. And worst of all, for writers like Cait Corrain, it's more than just writing a really bad book with really bad messaging, it's going so far as intentionally targeting those same groups of people that are regularly vilified in works like LO - people who are just existing, who don't pose a threat to anyone, but had the misfortune of becoming the target of a white woman's insecurity.

I don't know what the answer to this problem is. I don't know what form the solution will come in, if any, to address the ongoing issues with Greek myth adaptions that are being sorely written through an "America as the default" point of view and praised for "rewriting the script of Greek mythology", quite literally cultural appropriation happening live right before our eyes all for the sake of cheap entertainment. Maybe it'll take the failings of works like Crown of Starlight to really get people talking about it. But so long as the roots of these works - such as Lore Olympus - are still being protected and marketed en masse by the same kinds of people who don't see the issue in Americanizing other cultures and their stories, then Lore Olympus and Crown of Starlight will not be the last ones to cause harm to the source material - and the cultures that source material is born from and a part of - they're taking from.

I opened this post with a question, and I'm going to close it with another to really leave it as food for thought. That question comes from another video that I'll link here for you to watch at your convenience that spends even more time diving into and discussing the nature of works like this that have seemingly attempted to "deconstruct" the very dogmas that they still wind up reinforcing all the same.

Does the romance genre have a white supremacy problem?

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(yes. yes, it does.)

#lo critical #anti lore olympus #lore olympus critical #cait corrain #a touch of darkness #crown of starlight #scarlett st claire #Youtube

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spanishskulduggery · 6 months ago

Note

Hi! Do you have any insight into when and why a "g" is pronounced as "g" vs. as a "w" or an "h"???

(For context: I'm a Texan Chicana who has been around Spanish all my life but is nowhere near fluent. None of my immediate family speaks it bc of assimilation and stuff.)

Like, growing up I always thought a g in Spanish never sounded like an English g, it was either the w sound from agua, guacamole, guapo; or the h sound like gente, gimnasio, girar. (If there's no "u" following)

But then I realized words like grito, guerra, and guitarra all have the g sound like they would in English. And recently I've noticed some people pronounce Guadalupe with a "gwa-" sound, where I've always thought it was just a "wha-".

Is this, like, a regional thing? Are there rules about it? Am I missing something? Is it just a matter of preference? Or rote memorization?

Thanks for your help! 💕 (and also sorry if you've talked about this before! 😅)

This is going to be a little bit linguistic so bear with me - I'm also going to highly recommend you check out the IPA pronunciations of things or check out how people pronounce some of the words I mentioned either on youtube or Forvo just so you can hear it better

It has to do with the vowel sounds themselves. G is interesting in that depending on the vowel combinations you get different phonemes [different sound particles] compared to other letters

I would also specifically mention that the G+vowel or GU+vowel are considered their own syllables for the sake of pronunciation and in poetry for counting syllables

You aren't pronouncing guerra like "gu-er-ra" it's more like guerr-a; where UA, UE, UO, and UI are all diphthongs [two vowels that form a single syllable]; the same principle applies to many vowel combinations just in general

(Also ü shows up with G sometimes; I'll touch on that towards the end)

In general:

GA, GO, GU [just gu no other vowel after] have a hard G sound like you're expecting:

la gaviota = seagull agotar = to drain, to deplete la gula = gluttony

GE, and GI will have the aspirated sound that is more familiar with the English H sound:

genial = great, amazing el girasol = sunflower

GU- with different vowel sounds can depend, and some regional accents are slightly different

But in general...

GUA- and GUO- are pronounced like "gwa" and "gwo" for English:

el guante = glove [two syllables; guan-te] ambiguo/a = ambiguous [three syllables - am-bi-guo/gua]

And GUI- and GUE- have the U sound omitted so you get closer to a G sound in English

la guitarra = guitar [three syllalbes - gui-tarr-a] la guerra = war [two syllables - guerr-a]

Side-Note: There are also certain words or names from English that are approximated into Spanish with G in place of W. Most commonly is "William" which is Guillermo, so any King William is (Rey) Guillermo. Another very common one in fantasy is "wyvern" is sometimes written into Spanish as el guiverno with a more distinct W sound

There's also a secret extra vowel combination which is the Ü [the marks there are called "umlaut" or "dieresis"]; which in Spanish is only really with the U. It really only comes up with G that I know of, but it's used as GÜ- to have a GW- sound in places where it's necessary but wouldn't be expected

As an example:

antiguo/a = ancient / antique la antigüedad = antiquity [sometimes capitalized la Antigüedad is like "Ancient Times" which is usually a go-to word for saying like BC times] ambiguo/a = ambiguous la ambigüedad = ambiguity

The idea of the ü is primarily to make a WEH sound in a place where you wouldn't expect it, usually in words or phrases that have GUA or GUO but for whatever reason the suffix changes or part of the word changes

Here, the suffix -dad is added and the way that it works is that a word like antiguo/a now needs a W sound to make sense; Spanish-speakers say it without thinking, but if you knew the phonetic rules and saw "antiguedad" you would pronounce that GUE as omitting the U

In other words, to make sure you have the GW- sound required by antiguo and still following the suffix rules you add the ü to make it clear to anyone reading it how to pronounce it

Spanish's written language is kind of extremely standardized and works backwards - it takes what people are actually saying and then approximates the sound into the alphabet using what phonemes they have available

Similarly, and this is a bit of subjunctive knowledge, verbs ending in -guar will also face the same issues with preterite and subjunctive

If you know preterite tense -car, -zar, and -gar verbs go through a change in spelling to preserve the sounds - that's what I mean by working backwards; so practicar turns to practiqué "I practiced" so that CE isn't used

With pagar which has the strong G sound it's pagué "I paid" to keep that hard G sound so you aren't saying GE which has the H sound

...With -guar it's the same idea, just with ü attached:

averiguar = to ascertain averigüé = I ascertained Es posible que alguien lo averigüe. = It is possible that someone will figure it out. desaguar = to drain (water) el desagüe = drainage, drainpipe Desagüé el canal. = I drained the canal. Es imposible que el canal desagüe tan rápido. = It's impossible for the canal to drain so quickly.

In these cases, you're trying to impose grammar rules onto a verb that has a GW sound; so you add the ü to show everyone "this has the W sound; I know the vowel is an E but just so you know"

These are things Spanish-speakers know or do without thinking, the phonetics and spelling changes are for people reading; it's a very considerate language it just doesn't feel like that unless you know the phonics of things

...

But just know sometimes the accent pronounces things a bit differently

As an example guau can have a harder GWA sound in some places, or it can have a purer W sound... guau coincidentally is "wow" in Spanish (or "bow-wow" the sound of a dog barking)

Some places really lean into the W sound. I have heard guau pronounced exactly like "wow", I have heard it come out like "gwow"; it is very accent dependent in places

#asks #spanish #langblr #learning spanish #vocabulario #la gramatica #long post

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satansdarlin · 2 years ago

Text

Op men as dads

IM NOT DEAD! I've been working on requests and also doing school so I havent had much time to post much recently but I thought I'd drop this little treat for you all while I work.

(I was inspired ✨️)

Sanji, zoro, luffy, usopp, ace

Warnings: talk of pregnancy, talk of labor, talk of neglect, talk of anxiety, talk of premature baby's, talk of premature side effects.

Masterlist

Sanji- twin daughters

Girl dad to the extreme

Okay okay so let's start off when you were pregnant

He was incredibly doting, literally wouldn't let you lift a finger for anything

Tons of research on safe foods for pregnancy and also learning how to properly make baby food

When the girls were born it was the first time sanji discovered that feeling of such a need to protect them

They were so tiny and had his blonde hair and blue eyes

Either gives them zeffs last name or yours

Their names? Éclaire (or Claire for short) Sora and Suzette Rei

Very much princess standard

Spoils them as much a humanly possible

When they grow up he teaches them all the stuff he knows how to cook and actually begins making a cookbook soley so his girls can have it when they are adults

Claire tends to be the flirter one out of the twins often making sanji chase off all sorts of boys and men from his princess

Suzette tends be more withdrawn. She prefers to stick to the kitchen helping her dad anywhere she can

Both of them are huge daddies girls

Zoro- triplets, two boys one girl

Zoro through most of the pregnancy was calm and collected.

Another one who refused to let you do anything without his hand on your hip

He did the pregnant belly lift for you all the time

All shit goes down when you actually give birth

Zoro had been expecting one baby but when two more popped out he panicked

Absolutely wants to train them personally

Their names? Shogi Korushiro Roronoa, Menko Arashi Roronoa, and his daughter Karuta kumia Roronoa

Shogi is the eldest of the triplets and even though it's only by a few minutes he really takes being the eldest sibling seriously. He looks over his siblings and trains the most so he can protect them and be as great as his dad one day

Menko tends to be the lazy one. Menko can and will take a nap everywhere and anywhere he can. Sanji once found him sleeping in kitchen cabinet on a bag of rice.

Karuta feels the need to stay on her brothers level. She takes her training even more seriously than shogi does. Zoro is more than pleased to train her but even he worries about her over doing it to keep up.

The triplets also see chopper almost as a older brother

Zoro decided if he was to pass away ever each of the triplets would get one of his swords.

Luffy- two sons

Lord.

During your pregnancy it was really confusing for luffy about around the time you started showing he began to realize

He is constantly lettering Sabo filling him in and asking questions

Luffy became more protective of you when you were pregnant literally barked at someone for getting too close once

When you go into labor he is right by your side.

After you gave birth to your first son, Monkey D Ace luffy was suprised at how small he was.

Luffy was surprisingly gentle but that didn't change much of his childish ways

The baby would scream sometimes just because luffy would scream back (there's this video of twins who yell to figure out if the other is near, kinda like that)

When you got pregnant the second time when ace was around age two luffy understood it a lot more.

He did his best to not stress you with the baby and this time it went a lot smoother.

He knew what to expect in the delivery room the second time when your second son, Monkey D Ademir, came into the world

Ace tends be rambunctious, running into trouble much like his father with a similar appetite, but he also knows the weight of his name and so he holds it with pride

Ademir is similar to his brother and father, but he also tends to be far more brutally honest than ace.

Both boys tend to lean towards you though. Surprisingly, they tend to listen to you more than their father although it's a shocking sight when luffy is actually telling them to do something

Usopp- premature boy

Anxiety ten times higher than normal

When you found out you were pregnant usopp used his anxious energy to start making things

Baby clothes? Got it. Crib? Got it. Toys? Got it. With the help of Franky converted a large storage closet into a baby room.

Imagine his panic when the baby room wasn't even half done when you went into labor.

The labor was brutal on both you and usopp. But eventually his son, Shinji took in his first breaths.

For the first few months of life the crew fussed over shinji constantly due to his prematurely he had a hard time breathing and needed far more cuddling than a normal baby.

Usopp would stay up all night just making sure his son was breathing after he had read a book that said children born premature could pass away easily

Shinji pulled through. And unfortunately became the most brutally honest person anyone had ever met. He gave luffy a run for his money about not being able to tell a lie

Shinji would run and tell you all about the acts his father wasn't supposed to get up to even small ones like sneaking a extra treat after dinner.

Even so usopp coddled his son constantly

When shinji took a interest in art and carving usopp nearly cried because they had a shared interest.

Becoming a father made usopp realize how truly messed up what his own father did was.

Usopp understood having his own goal while being a parent would make it harder but he would never abandon his son or you to achevie them. He'd prefer to achieve them with you by his side.

Ace- daughter

Ace panicked when he found out you were growing his child inside of you.

The ship was on fire type of panic

Ran you straight to Marco who checked you out and congratulated you when he confirmed the pregnancy.

Ace similarly to luffy was incredibly protective.

You were never out of his sight and if you were he had someone checking on you hourly.

His coddling was almost suffocating.

When you went into labor, more fires had to be put out on the ship.

Marco nearly had to remove ace from the room because he was freaking out more than you were.

The one time ace settled down was when his newborn daughter nuzzled her face against his warm chest, Rouge D Portgas named after his mother.

Rouge lived up to her name, she frequently made the ship panic because no one could find her only to find her snuggled up in between some barrels.

Ace sworn the night Rouge was born he would never let her go through the things he did as a child.

Ace was a amazing father often having her up on his shoulders and would cry with her when she had to go get her shots or got scrapes.

Spoilers ahead

When ace died Rouge went into Marco's care. The only thing she had left of her father was his hat which she wears constantly.

Although Rouge goes through a similar thing of being bullied for her father she is prideful of his father and who he was.

Spoilers over

Overall ace tries to be the best dad he can be.

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