#idk how many more 'i will make an exception because he looks very polite' i got left in me

[badnewswhatsleft]

(x) glassesless patrick is sometimes simply like a different creature entirely to me. just the biggest wettest shiniest anime eyes

[alleyskywalker]

I sat down to write my reaction post to the second ep of HOTD and…realized Idk how to approach it, where to start. And not because I hated every single thing about it – like with ep1 there were lots of good or at least interesting moments. There were other choices I wouldn’t have personally liked in any circumstance but that weren’t necessarily bad in and of themselves if they’d been in another show, surrounded with other context or other scenes. The problem is how ridiculously biased this writing is and how that bias and the ridiculousness of it permeates everything, even the parts that were good or fine or reasonably in character. We knew, of course, even from S1, that the writing was biased. But this season it feels especially blatant.

How am I supposed to feel about say…Jae’s funeral? On one hand, a gut-wrenching scene, carried so well by Olivia and Phia’s superb understated acting. It’s a scene that has every reason to be there – royal funeral processions/spectacles were (and still are) normal. And even if it’s not a regular occurrence in this universe (questionable), it’s a very good and smart play by Otto. On the other hand, is it not suspect that the funeral of this child was less of a melancholy moment of mourning like Luke’s funeral (despite the obviously grieving family) but focused on Helaena’s panic attack at being too close to too many people, and with the distraction of Jae’s cart getting stuck in the mud (was that supposed to be symbolic of something???). Do we not remember TB shrieking long before the episode aired that the Greens have a public funeral for Jae “just to make the Greens look bad”? These people are known for the worst faith takes, so what does it say that the writers apparently agree with them?

How am I supposed to feel about Alicent’s inability to successfully, if at all, to comfort her children? Is this a potentially interesting exploration of how her own grief, guilt, self-blame/low self-esteem, and complicated relationship with her kids due to their common and individual family traumas (and, in Helaena’s case…neurodivergence, I guess?) have and are affecting her? Or is it just a low-key attempt at character assassination, given that last season she was shown as perfectly capable of showing affection to her children (more than one with Aemond, hugging Helaena and making other attempts when she was less receptive, even kissing Aegon at the coronation despite their turbulent relationship)?

Is Alicent’s self-blame and guilt a potentially interesting exploration of how grief can affect people, of what happens when a person feels they are breaking some moral or ethical or religious code of conduct that they sincerely believe in/believe they can be punished for breaking? Or does the narrative blame her too/knows that a large chunk of the audience will too or at least will find the self-blame and guilt pathetic or unsympathetic (because goodness knows that’s all Twitter/X has to say on the matter, it seems).

How am I supposed to feel about Aegon hanging the ratcatchers? Of course, Otto is right – this was a terrible thing to do, not just because it was politically a misstep, but first of all because there were many innocent people executed without trial. It’s a canonical event, and in context of Aegon’s grief and fury, it’s interesting in and of itself, it’s part of the commentary on the wreckage that war and nobles’ games cause. I’d have no issue with it, except…. Why was this made into a literal cartoon-villain-esque kick the dog moment? By making me feel sorry for the sad, cute puppy am I supposed to think that hanging Cheese was somehow wrong? After he sawed off a child’s head? And why is it that the smallfolk get angry when Aegon hands the ratcatchers but not when Rhaenys trembles dozens of smallfolk in the dragon pit? How come Aegon is held accountable for all his mistakes, at least by the people closest to him, and Criston very specifically sends a kingsguard member to impersonate his twin and kill Rhaenyra, but the show removed maximum responsibility from Daemon and of course made sure that Rhaenya was just appalled by the whole thing. (And suddenly cares about Helaena? I actually rolled my eyes at that line so hard it hurt.)

What am I to think of the messy/awkward/complicated TG family dynamics? They’re interesting! They’re fun! They could make for some great television (and fic lol). I could/should/would enjoy this. But on the other hand, when TB get all these bonding moments, or the potential messiness (e.g. Rhaena feeling ignored by her father) is ignored in like 85% of situations? And when this imbalance is not at all in the book? (When it feels like they wanted to cut/held off on Daeron specifically because he was so sweet and mild tempered and beloved by everyone?) It becomes frustrating, not fun.

At what point do I need to decide that this show isn’t worth it? After all, I think the sentiment that “maybe this is just not telling the kind of story you want to hear/watch” is generally a wise approach. Except…that would hold if this was an original show or if it was one of those “loosely based on/inspired by” things that were not pretending to be adaptations. But when you’re advertised an adaptation, you’re not coming in blind. Ideally, you’re coming in knowing what sort of story you’re coming for, at the very least. Unlike  ASOIAF, the Dance is a fully finished story. There shouldn’t have been any “nasty surprises” like some people got in the last seasons in GoT…

But they mentioned Daeron by name. Tom’s acting is incredible. We know I’m not going anywhere for now lmao.

Maybe I won’t do my usual type of notes/reaction post this time, after all I’ve said so much of what I most feel right now anyway.

Sorry for the depression/pessimism guys. I’m just so tired.

[lmanburgseulogy]

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE IN UNIVERSE CULTURE OF LMANBERG

WORLD BUILDING GO (I have so many thoughts)

OHHHH MY GOSH. OKAY. OKAY

IDK HOW TO WORD MY THOUGHTS HELP IVE NEVER LIKE. WORLD BUILT BEFORE AT LEAST NOT INTENTIONALLY

I think a lot of their virtues would be surrounded around the Independence War. This idea is based on lmancrew reflecting so much on it during election arc (especially c!wilbur, who. Is in charge of the country so he kinda reflects their image a lot lol.) They’re VERY proud of their history, so ofc their culture heavily celebrates it.

No casual/working clothing goes below the knees due to the marshy land. The uniforms don’t apply to this rule, but those are only worn on special occasions anyway. Some examples of when the uniform is required are like. political events, any conflict related to the country, certain holidays, festivals, etc. Basically anytime where the whole nation is united, I guess. They use the identical clothing as a metaphor for being equals.

They have festivals often (sorry canon) to celebrate the different accomplishments they hit during the early days. For example, when Tubbo builds the docks, or the space center, or Niki’s bakery being opened.

L’manburg also hosts festivals on holidays relating to it’s folklore or history. Independance day is a huge deal. Everyone in the whole nation gets together and I imagine they would be (unfortunately) kinda judgey if you didn’t attend. phhaa they celebrate summer solstice too. Big time. Yes.!

FOOD. yummy!! obviously a lot of culture is centered around the environment near by, so cuisine is based around fresh water fish or other things found in their river. Water lily roots and salmon are viewed VERY highly despite being quite common. (salmon got them through some hard times put the respect to the fish name…) They also eat a lot of bugs, with crickets being an exception because of local stories about them. A large population of L’manburg citizens are pescatarian or entovegan.

THEY ARE OBSESSED WITH NATURE LEMME TELL YOUUUUU….. Everyday I think about L’manburg’s first rule being to never damage the trees. L’manburg would’ve put so many preservation acts in place to protect their precious redwoods…hallo. They work with the land and the land works with them.. i think disrespecting it is an act that gets you completely outcasted from society tbh. (I also think this got more extreme after the war because doing something that’s hurtful to their home, whether intentional or not, is similar to the smp. They also kick preservation into full gear after the l’manburg forest fire because they lost so much wildlife. Anyway. I’m normal.)

I think the sunrise would be a religious experience for them. I dunno. I just remember c!niki saying nights in l’manburg are long so maybe the sunrise is a crazy thing for them. The end of the darkness. The rays of light peaking through their walls. The yellow spanning across their home and making everything bright and clear……that’s be sorta holy, don’t you think?

ANYWAY THESE ARE KINDA BAD I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS (looking at you with big wet eyes)

[queenvhagar]

if they decide to make daeron a bastard imma scream... aside from the fact that it makes alicent even more of a hypocrite daeron being valyrian looking is actually pretty fucking important. in the books jace and daeron are only a few months apart in age and everyone was like "omg look at the queen giving birth to another targaryen looking baby while the princess had a baby that looks nothing like her or her husband!" also how the heck did daeron get a dragon if he's a bastard!?

first they give us no nettles now possibly this shit... I'm so over them adapting grrm's work into a version of whatever they think is cool.

also who the heck was princess aeriana. ik some folk are saying that it's possibly a made up character before aegon's conquest ... but the targaryen's weren't royalty at that point so wtf are the show makers high on, and i'm still mad at the stupid northern plot where they have jace talking about how aegon the conqueror went up north, plus cregan talking about how alyssane and jaehaerys visited winterfell during his dad's time which again makes zero fucking sense ... it was during alaric stark's time and he's probably cregan's grandpa or smth.

don't get me started on how they switched up addam and alyn's ages, plus didn't give us anything on marilda of hull ... oh and rhaenys apparently is totally cool with corlys having bastards and even thinks the boys mom must have been so pretty ...

this season is so boring and overall without context. daemon spends his time being high on harrenhal. alicent is going through major depressio arc. helaena is her usual mumbling self without any agency of her own. aemond is terrible. rhaenyra is ... idk what they're doing with her but i don't like it. aegon ii seems to be the only remotely interesting character but now he's gone.

so glad there's only one episode left of this disaster to get through ... can't believe they made us wait so long for this shit ... personally won't be waiting for season 3 because at this point it's probably going to be just as boring.

so disappointed we never got to see... jace negotiation with manderly's, sara snow, nettles, rhaenyra going mad with grief over luke, b&c going according to the books with helaena offering herself instead of her children, daeron in oldtown, book! accurate alyn and addam and daemon doing something instead of imagining how it'd be to fuck his mom...

sorry for the rant lol everything's just piled up for me since i waited until now to watch the shows and avoided spoilers to the best of my abilities. please do feel free to delete if you wish.

When people tell people that Game of Thrones was slow paced and technically very little happened and this season is just like that and to cope... nope.

As you mentioned in the second to last paragraph there were so many interesting things they could've done with this season to fill the time and expand on the story and characters... Instead there are 3 locations where morning scenes happen that don't grow the characters at all, nobody has any realistic motivations or emotions and reactions to events (and if they do they're framed as incorrect, like Jace or Aegon). It's oversimplified and redundant. No thoughts to be provoked. No depth to explore. No arcs for characters except maybe Daemon but it's been stretched way too far out and made irrelevant. No intrigue or politics. No scheming. Characters seem displaced from the setting...

I hope season 3 is the last season, and I won't be tuning into any other ASOIAF adaptations based on the crap fanfic quality of this one that they're trying to present as profound, deep, groundbreaking television.

[charbon-et-eau]

Hoenn boys brainrot is still going strong. I should have some new art to share next week. In the meantime, I was rambling about some headcanons on aethy and figured I'd share them here too.

If you're interested in my top/bottom and sexuality headcanons for Steven/Wallace/Brendan, they're below the cut. <3

When the Hoenn boys brainrot started, I quickly decided that Steven was 100% a top, whether he's with Brendan or Wallace. Seemed like the obvious conclusion to me. So it was very surprising when I started looking at fanart on pixiv and bottom Steven seemed to be much more common with all of his ships except Brendan.

I was wondering why this is. I've noticed that a lot of people like to make Steven their silly autistic babygirl and I guess that makes him a bottom by default? Idk. I think he's silly and autistic too, but I don't think that automatically translates to bottom. But another thing I've noticed is that many people make their fav character in a ship the bottom. One of the daimiku shippers on pixiv clearly adores Wallace and draws him a bit more than Steven, and they LOVE drawing Wallace getting absolutely destroyed. On the other hand, bottom Steven fans tend to focus on Steven more. I guess people prefer to see their favs getting wrecked instead of the other way around. Makes sense.

And I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons why a lot of people prefer bottom Steven. Everyone interprets and plays with characters differently. These are just some of the more common trends I've noticed.

As for my headcanons, Steven is a rich CEO's son who was most likely taught how to be in charge and probably didn't hear the word "no" very often, so being in control comes naturally to him. He canonically likes to play with people and see their reactions, and he can also be a bit arrogant (thinks he's "the best there is" and has a habit of taking on important tasks himself instead of asking for help). When he finds someone or something he likes, he can be VERY intense about it. All of these things translate well to being a top imo.

As for Wallace, he's a switch, but he prefers being a loud, dramatic, slutty bottom. This man is an overachiever - being hot, doing contests, being a gym leader and helping Steven keep his privilege in check. In the bedroom, he just wants to turn his brain off and let someone else be in control. However, he'll happily top Brendan when he's in the mood and Steven's busy.

Brendan is a bottom for now simply because he lacks experience. Wallace will teach him how to top eventually though. And then Brendan can be a switch.

Now for the sexuality headcanons.

Steven is one of the few male characters that I hc as 100% gay (I make most characters bi disasters like me). He has zero interest in women.

Before his dad realized that he was gay, he would set Steven up with random women that he met through work, telling Steven to take them home and show them his rock collection, *wink wink*. So Steven would invite them over, show them his rock collection, and then say good night and politely ask them to leave once it got late. Wallace almost died laughing when Steven told him about this. Everything eventually made sense when Steven invited Wallace over for the same reason, but they didn't actually look at the rocks until the next morning... after a very passionate night of sex.

Wallace is bi with a heavy preference for men, like 90% men, 10% women. He has a deep appreciation for the beauty and elegance of women, thinks they're all queens, and would happily have sex with one. But after a wild night at the club, he's probably taking a guy home.

Brendan is also bi with a slight preference for men, like 60-40. Due to his daddy issues and mommy kink, he tends to be more attracted to people who are older than him. He's slightly more aware of his attraction to men, especially after meeting Steven, until he starts spending time with Glacia. Brendan is a hot mess around Wallace since he is the most intoxicatingly gorgeous combination of masculine and feminine energy. It doesn't help that Wallace will mercilessly flirt with Brendan any chance he gets.

[gamerbearmira]

More spiderwoman au ideas!

First and foremost, Mirabel already has her own room. She got it when she was 7, but seeing as the room was still in the location of the nursery. Antonio still slept in there, but Mira didn’t mind, tonito was a cute and calm baby. 

After Antonio didn’t get a gift, he got an additional room in her room. Both have their own side for privacy & such. 

Casita hides both their spider suits once they come back from fighting crime. They know it would be rare for anybody except Dolores and Camilo to go into their room but just to be safe, Casita hides them. 

Speaking of Casita’s walls, Bruno doesn’t live in them. Yes, he disappeared, but he disappeared a few neighborhoods away from Casita. He has a good paying job and a nice living space, and yes, he still has rat babies. But not as many, he has about 3 of them. 

I feel Bruno had seen both spider bites before they even happened. So now Bruno just worries for them but still cheers them on from the sidelines. 

Because Gwen doesn’t really have a place to stay, she often stays with Mirabel. Though VERY discreetly. Casita also made a small living area for her, similar to Bruno’s in the movie but with more feminine touches. 

Isabela and Alma still be runnin their mouths about La Aranaposa and Arana nino. And as always, Camilo and Dolores be defendin the two heroes.

“Why is someone so young out there, that “Aranaposa” should be ashamed of herself for letting that child be so close to harm” - Isabela

“Si, he could get hurt at any moment” - Alma

*insert Mirabel and Antonio who just got back from fighting*

“Abuela, haven’t you ever stopped and considered that maybe they were both born with those powers and maybe thought they should put them to good use? haven’t you ever stopped and considered that maybe this whole city would be in shambles without them?” Dolores said politely but sternly

“And Isa, it’s been 6 years since Aranaposa came about and a year since Arana nino came around, don’t you have ANYTHING else to talk about? Anything, idk, NEW in your life?” Camilo added with an irritated tone as he also looked at Alma in the corner of his eye. 

“NO politics at the table please” Julieta kindly chimed in as she harshly softly slammed her fist against the table. Julieta has grown tired of these conversations every other breakfast, lunch, or dinner. 

I decided to change the family dynamics, everybody is fine with each other. Julieta and Pepa take time off when they need to and so do the gifted grandchildren. Alma is trying her best to be a good abuela. Before Bruno left he wrote a note addressing the families issues, how alma is the cause of most of them, and how they need to be fixed. So, for the past decade the family has been relaxing and only put their powers to use for emergencies or for fun. 

So Isabela and Alma talking about the spider heroes stems from a place of concern and worry, the family knows that, but it’s still annoying. 

I have a feeling Antonio is a very independent kid because of his duties. I mean yes, he still loves his parents and goes to them for advice, but he does a lot of things on his own. For example, he used to let Mira or his parents read him bedtime stories. But he’s so tired from helping with battles that he can barely stay awake for them. So he either grabs a book and reads it himself or just goes to sleep. 

 Hobie had said at some point that the one of the things that is known about spiderman is their independence. So Antonio held onto that with a tight grip. 

All the family hears from the boy now is “no thanks, I got it” “Nope, I got it” “It’s alright, I can do it”

If he wants something as simple as pb & j or just a sandwich he’ll make it himself, and seeing as he has an easy bake oven, he mostly makes lunch or food by himself. He’s actually a pretty good cook. I saw in your drawing that Antonio gave Miguel some Arepas, so let’s just say Antonio made those for him. 

When Miguel says to lego spiderman “your one of our best” I like to think that the other best he’s talking about is Jess, Mirabel, and Antonio. Like seriously, Jess can beat an enemy on a motorcycle WHILE PREGNANT. Mirabel can take out mysterio with one punch and Antonio can take out the hobgoblin with one kick. Which he has.

Oh yeah, they call Jess, Tia. Why wouldn’t they? She's Tia material. 

Mirabel and Antonio had caught about 3 anomalies together, and 3 anomalies on their own. 

“And there’s mysterio-” Lyla

“Caught that weirdo” - Mirabel

“Mz-stereo” Lyla

“I helped catch that one!” - Antonio

“Even though I told you not to” - Mirabel

“Was I supposed to let her wreck our town? I don’t think so” Antonio

Oh yeah, even though not everybody likes the two spider kids, people do like to do some stuff where they know they are appreciated. Such as painting the two on some walls, leaving gifts, etc. 

Gwen taught Mira how to play the drums and Hobie taught her how to play the electric guitar. And Antonio likes to help Pavitr feed the street dogs in his universe

Because the internet is a bit much Gwen started out small and gifted Dolores, Camilo, Mirabel, and Antonio Ipods. The spider teens love giving them song recommendations. 

Mirabel’s favorite song is self love by Coi leroy, recommended by Gwen

Antonio’s favorite song is hummingbird by Metro Boomin and James Blake, recommended by Miles

Camilo’s favorite song is silk & cologne by ei8ght and offset, also recommended by Miles. 

Dolore’s favorite song is link up by Don Toliver, it reminds her of hanging out with Mariano, recommended by Margo. When listening she just has to keep the music really low. 

I feel like Dolores, Mirabel, Camilo, and Antonio’s favorite music genres are R & B, modern pop, y2k pop, and 90’s rap with some occasional rock songs recommended by hobie. When it comes to listening to rock Dolores has to keep her noise canceling headphones on, then listen to it. 

Like every spiderman in school, the two are bound to miss some classes but thankfully they have good excuses. Just to let you know Mira missed about 6 classes and Antonio has missed about 4. 

Miles should have never given Mirabel, and by extension Camilo spray paint. He introduced them to the idea of graffiti; they were amazed by it. The two only use it for good things such as giving an old or new shop a touch up. The designs are always spectacular and match the theme of the shop so no one can really get mad. 

Antonio loves playing with mayday, he finds her adorable. He also likes to play with spider cat and spider rex. 

STOP THE SPIDER DUO HATE IN ENCANTO 2k23⁉️⁉️⁉️

No but seriously. Can’t keep letting this slide. Not that they others are letting it slide 😭 mfs went OFF, really came for them huh. And they just let it happen because they both know that the other two are right 💀

Also let Camilo have access to spray paint <333 don't withhold his supply, let him do graffiti❗ Also iPods. Omg i think my cousin had one and she gave it to me when i was like 8 or 9 😭 but their taste in music is peak, especially wit that R&B and Y2K 🦅🦅🦅

W to Antonio for being an independent kid, L for Alma and Isabela for obvious reasons

[naneun-no]

My (rainbow) Mura 🌈

Something must be wrong with me because I have tears in my eyes laughing this morning. To be very clear it’s NOT because JK’s poses are funny (except the bowling one b/c something about men bowling makes them inherently look like someone’s uncle), or because anyone’s sexuality is funny (although I gotta say there are kinks out there that are objectively hilarious but I digress) it’s because the goddamn heteronormativity and subconscious homophobia that plagues the minds of so many has compelled certain BTS fans, who are very likely perfectly clever and capable otherwise, into mentally forcing JK into a heterosexual box and yet again (because this is not the first time nor will it be the last) they have been made fools of by the very man himself.

Sheesh, that was wordy, here’s my point:

IMAGINE SWEARING UP DOWN AND SIDEWAYS THAT THIS MAN IS STRAIGHT AS AN ARROW BASED ON NOTHING BUT THE “VIBES” HE GIVES YOU (which like pffft okay 🥹) AND THEN HAVING TO CONTEND WITH THIS:

Sorry lemme just:

Our shrimp said LOOK AT ME BEING FANCY ON A ROOFTOP INFINITY POOL BISH.

He said 💅

He said 👑

LISTEN. He may very well be into women. I wouldn’t blame him. Have you seen women? I personally don’t know how everyone isn’t into them. He may be pansexual, or demisexual, or asexual.

But if you are one of those people who has made the conclusion that he is straight purely based on the “vibes” he gives off, and you go around saying that to anyone who will listen… then idk who you’ve been looking at all these years, but it ain’t him.

And if you are one of those people who has quietly made the conclusion that he is straight because you haven’t been told otherwise by him and you think that’s the polite thing to do, then I challenge you to ask yourself why straight is the default in your mind. Why people must be straight until proven gay, rather than unknown until otherwise?

You don’t know.

And it’s okay for queer people to perk up and raise an eyebrow and maybe even raise a little rainbow flag and wave it around excitedly when they notice hints (and, if I may, in this man’s case hints and hints and hints) of queerness popping up around their favorite stars.

It doesn’t always have to be a giggly, blushy, side eye, 🤭 omg-does-he-know-how-that-looks “misinterpretation.”

This man is 25 years old. He is not a child anymore. He is not naive. Read the lyrics of My Time and remind yourself that in fact he is likely more worldly and mature than most 25 year olds because he stepped into a cutthroat, grown up industry from a young age and spent the majority of his time around people who were his seniors. It is infantilizing to suggest that he has no idea how his online behaviors and choices could be interpreted, even by an international audience.

Yikes. This started out with me laughing and turned into me preaching, sorry. I know I sound serious and I’m not trying to put more meaning into a sassy little poolside pose than it warrants, but I’m tired of people accusing queer fans of reading too much into things while simultaneously concocting entire narratives about each member’s supposed sexuality that hinge on actively ignoring their words, actions and behaviors.

Alright, alright. Back to smiling at JK’s adorable ass. Here’s the rest, and Ghandi:

[apatheticintrovert]

A rant for the void.

I'm definitely too apathetic because whoever wins, does it actually matter?? We never actually have any control when it comes to our government. No president cares about us even though they're "elected" to serve us, the people. No matter what happens, the world will keep on spinning. Palestinians will continue to be bombed. The world will continue to be unjust and unfair.

In Texas ted cruz has already won to stay senator until 2031. Everything feels hopeless all the time. Norhing about this election feels any difference from the last 2, except that I can't find it in me to care. I've been saying this but the only good politician is a dead one and no matter who our president is, our country is (and has been, since its conception really) an active participant in genocide, war, voter interference in other countries, etc. Etc.) We are more informed and aware of the propaganda than ever and our government still gets away with whatever it wants with little to no repercussions.

There are still so many people that can't be bothered to care about the state of the world they live in and that's by design, we are largely struggling to make it to each new day in this capitalist hellscape we live in, in the middle of a recession, with education, resources, literal human rights being not only on the chopping block every election cycle but actively being taken away.

Which I get it... I know why Kopmala is "better" but I'm so sick of the "lesser of two evils" being our only options every fucking election. (I voted 3rd party and socialist for the first time ever this year because I didn't have another "lesser of two very obviously bad and genocidal evils" left in me) Even Obama who was so well liked and praised had record breaking levels of deportation, and there was the drone strikes...

Every election cycles feels like a slap in the face. We need a fucking revolution, that's genuinely our only hope imo. And Americans will never organize well enough to execute it. Too many people are satisfied with the status quo and not bothered by things like the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Congo and Sudan because it's not directly impacting them (to their knowledge) A large amount of the average Americans will not be bothered to care until it's too late and policy is actually directly impacting them. Idk. I'm just word vomiting at this point and it's just to vent for my own benefit.

It's weird to me how little I truly care tonight, especially compared to other people in my life and others I see online. Looking back at memories of innocent little 19 year old me voting in my first presidential election in 2016, I was so confident the country wouldn't vote for that man (who is arguably worse now and looking like he might win again) I was so much more uninformed about Hillary and politics and the us government.... I was up all night anxious and watching live coverage and checking my phone constantly. Now 8 years later, it's just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ everything is awful and it will stay that way no matter who wins. We saw that well enough during this biden presidency. Not to mention how many people only vote during the presidential election cycle. As if all the others that impact is locally don't matter when they are oftentimes the most important and impactful, setting up city mayors, us representatives, etc.

Even with so many people out here organizing and doing the work all the time, outside of just election season, being community driven and helping out community with volunteer work and mutual aid ... It still feels so cyclical and unending.

And even though I didn't vote for her I do still understand why kopmala would be a better winner than the fascist cheeto (I live in Texas which is always solidly red anyways it's not like it made a difference other than I had the privilege to vote with my conscious and hopefully do whatever small part possible to push and uplift 3rd party candidates)... It's still just so frustrating that in this "democracy" we are saddled with the illusion of choice with our "two party system" (two sides of the same coin).

"heavy sigh*

All this to say.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ a bunch of nothing really. Just voicing my apathy and discouragement to the VOID.

[dapg-otmebytheballs]

Okay while i dont think that they are extremely rich, i do think their networth is well over a couple million, mainly just bc there is no way their house is worth less than a million pounds. A house like that? In london? It would not be cheap. Like they dont earn enough to live off it for the rest of their lives, but i also would not say they were struggling by any means. I mean they were able to go 5 years without many significant career endeavors and buy a house during it.

Oh yeah they aren't struggling whatsoever, they are one of the "successful" YouTubers, and they've had more steady income from other sources too, like the radio show. These guys very much are middle class (hence them making bougie jokes- bougie has always referred to middle class), being able to afford a house and all. But that's basically the point of that post, that people who aren't constantly financially struggling and people who have disposable income aren't the same as quote unquote "rich" people.

We're talking in terms of class analysis, yeah? The category of "rich" when used in such phrases as 'eat the rich' is convenient insofar as it helps us categorise the people for whose benefit a capitalist system works, whose interests are being taken into account when making policy, and who horde resources and mooch off of the labour of others. When we're just joking amongst ourselves it's understood what you mean when you call your middle class friends rich, or when you call YouTubers of this status rich (and again, they aren't even like Mr Beast levels of rich, who in turn isn't Hollywood A-listers level rich, who in turn aren't capitalist pig Bezzos level rich). But with a lot of people getting more involved in online activism these concepts are getting blurred and our perceptions of class are affected.

So while I've seen no one from like, our fandom do this, I've seen this happen to other YouTubers (and a friend and I were just talking about it today so it was on my mind) where people who haven't taken the time to understand class divides very well think that internet celebrities are genuinely hand to heart rich rich. On the same level as rich when we say the ruling class the elite the exploitative rich class. Except they aren't. They're middle class and upper middle class people. Even the millionaires amongst them are a far far cry from billionaires (we've seen the graphics explaining the massive difference between a million and a billion of course). And that skewed idea of "disposable income/being able to afford a house or good phone or bathtub or [insert item associated with Richness] means that this person is Rich" becomes dangerous when applied to clear political action in terms of class divide. Because then we're viewing these YouTubers as being the class that has their interests taken care of and are the ones exploiting people, rather than industry workers who are getting exploited by companies like YouTube.

And people very much are taking it too far, like that person who said John Boyega can't talk about class struggles and exploitation because he's also 'the rich'. He isn't. And these YouTubers aren't either but skewed ideas of what wealth looks like drives online hordes to view the wrong people as the enemy or as the exploitative class.

When talking about "the rich" we should be thinking about the capitalists. Blurring these classes is an issue precisely because people online are now engaging with artists and creators with great contempt, entitlement, and misdirected "eat the rich seize their resources" calls to action.

Btw not at all saying you should stop making jokes about them being rich lol, that's again, something we understand as "they have monies now" amongst ourselves. It's more to understand and know how to counter any misdirected rage of the sort we've seen lot of other internet celebrities and actors face. Idk how clear I've made this but feel free to follow up with me!

[linipikk]

I was doing my silly lurking bit in twitter and this gem appeared:

and you know what? I am gonna say it:

His name was Giorgio Vasari , the renaissance painter, and I, personally, fucking hate that guy.

He was the one silly man to bring to modernity (well to the more modern times in the 1500s) the idea that artists had this "natural creative divine talent". It is his goddamn fault that artist is given the Born Genius treatment. Not sure he invented the myth, but he did the whole bit of "this poor little shepherd kid is drawing fruit so realistic with a stick in the mud flies are drawn to his scribbles, God gave him the innate artistic skills to fool nature with his Gift so he must follow his true calling as an Artist" and brought it back to the public imaginary.

You see, back in the more medieval days being a renowned artist was not common or looked after, but then many things happened, the printing press and money flowing to different classes in society, the pictorial interest shifted to imitating nature, blablabla, and, within the renaissance, Giorgio wrote this cursed thing: Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. A selected group of biographies of artists that created this narrative that artists are born and that talent was necessary to be an Excelent artist.

Long story short, this collection of biograpgies was for a long time, the primary source of the biography of many Renaissance artists and the base for writing about artists since "the guy who wrote it was an artist himself so he must be right ", making it the be all end all in terms of who is who in the history of art... And well, it is just full of Florentine and Roman artists that Giorgio liked very much himself. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Giotto, etc, some contemporaries of him, but it also included the ones that lived before him, and he knew nothing about it. Girogio did his research and wrote his book filled with his personal heroes.

My guy Vasari basically invented Art History as a Subject with capital S, but, as all guys set in a historical period, his views were painfully biased. Filling his book with anecdotes that were closer to gossip and in line with the idea of the renaissance at full speed, remarking the existance of this set progressive timeline where art evolves to imitate nature, elevating artists to an exceptional born-talented person who was put on this earth because, idk, the Holy Spirit illuminated them to partake in the adoration of God's perfect creation from the moment they exited the womb by drawing perfectly?? Not sure, I read it long ago. still, you get the point.

But, as we gotta do from our postmodernist perspective, we gotta ask about the context, the point of view: who was writing those biographies and why. And Vasari , helpfully, in his book of Most Excellent Artists... included himself. He positioned himself among his heroes, placing himself in the middle of his own narrative. He said, "Look at them and look at me." He had the political agenda to set his homestate (Florence and Rome ) and himself as the cradle and centre of the Good Arts and "not like those barbarian others. " Even if this belief was widely spread at the time, having it on print solidified it as some kind of undeniable truth. He was the first to write about it, widely publish it and subsequently he fucked up how people wrote about artists for the next centuries.

And if you ask yourself, "Who invented the idea that artists are jealous of each other and compete to get the attention of the rich and powerful and are nasty and cocky about it?" ..it was also him.

Fuck Vasari.

[surrexi]

so i've been working at my new job for a little over two months now. i'm supposed to be having weekly one-on-one meetings with my boss to track how i'm settling in etc but because he's outrageously busy (like, the kind of busy that indicates there really should be two people with his job) i'm really having them every two weeks or so.

anyway i had one today, about an hour and a half before the end of the day. and it was going all right, if a little awkward because i'm a socially awkward penguin and i don't know how to mask right yet in corporate land. we were going over the various projects i'm working on, pretty normal, except every so often my boss would make an aside comment that would make me worry Something Was Wrong.

finally at the end of the meeting he's like "so there's a couple things that have been brought to my attention" (did not specify what things, like if it was something i said or i way i handled a situation or work that i did). he sends me a link to a training module he's working on building and points out a specific section that talks about a particular business dude's book about how to be a good team member, which says the key is to be humble, hungry, and (people-)smart.

boss is like "before i talk to you about [the unspecified reasons i am being made to feel vaguely in trouble], i want you to look this over and think about it. and we'll pick this up in our next meeting."

which is currently scheduled for next friday, but he's traveling that day so he absolutely might put it off longer.

he also made sure to say multiple times that if someone doesn't agree with this business dude's take on team building it's fine but also it means they won't fit on boss' team and to mention that although "many states" are at-will employment states (meaning during your first 90 days an employer can fire you without having a reason; note that texas is one such state but he weirdly didn't mention it), the company we work for "doesn't do that," which boss thinks is "very generous" of them because when he was a disney exec disney would absolutely fire the shit out of people at the drop of a hat.

so now i have NO IDEA what i did to make someone upset and/or angry at me or what i did wrong, but by god i have at least a week to obsess over (a) what i did and (b) who the fuck narc'd on me without idk TALKING TO ME FIRST?!

boss has said way more about his weird libertarian politics than i have about my own politics, i have only mentioned my religion in passing/in the context of discussing easter weekend plans with a coworker. i don't think i've behaved inappropriately or confrontationally with any of my coworkers, like with my anxiety i'm always worrying about doing my best to be clear and polite and not make people hate me lolsob.

the only thing i've thought of so far is that i've been pretty firm about working 8-hour days/40-hour weeks unless there's a concrete reason to graciously donate my time since my company doesn't do overtime pay and i'm salaried/exempt. like i have never said i would never work overtime and there's already been several days where i worked an extra 30 minutes to an hour that, again, i do not get paid for. unsurprisingly, boss frames being salaried as "we get to work more than 40 hours a week without it being a hassle because of overtime rules." and i do make offhand pro-labor comments/jokes a lot, but i haven't actually, like, threatened to unionize my fellow office workers. i live in texas ffs, if you say the word union too loud the cops show up.

i just feel like this is unhinged levels of psychological warfare from my boss and it took me SO LONG to find this job but now i'm like... maybe i'm not a good fit for your humble/hungry/smart team, bro. but god knows i don't want to be unemployed again. i just got decent health insurance! i can pay my own rent! and buy groceries and medicine!

ugh. why is everything hard.

[variousqueerthings]

Okay, well, what would you prefer then? The Dustmen?

Sleep No More! this season's dedicated spooky episode. I feel like I ought to have vibed more with this one than I did and I dunno why it didn't work with me that well. maybe I powered through s9 too quickly (EDIT: I have now analysed why it didn't work so well for me, ey!)

also: is this the first out trans actor we've had on this show? definitely some things to say about that

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 10/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 4/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 6/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 3/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 3/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 9/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 10/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 6/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 4/10

FULL RATING: 61/100 (if I can count….)

ok ok let's get into it!

OBJECTIFICATION: see, cured!

PLOT-POINT: I mean, it's a standalone episode that doesn't do much beyond the episode itself, so it doesn't really need to give Clara much development. still, I think in a season in which Clara doesn't have many emotional beats, considering what's coming up in the very next episode... I'd have liked something perhaps

COMPLEXITY: it's complexity lies in its structure and I am nooot convinced by it. there's nothing wrong as such with found footage, but it feels gimmicky very fast, and I think there should have been more done with the fact that the dust was "watching" them

the fact that it's basically the beats of a low-budget horror should have meant I vibed with it more, but I think because in the end a lot of it is just running from place to place while going "whaat is even happening here" makes it feel a bit thin

also the ending is probably an "either you like it or you don't" type ending, so I have nothing against it as such. I think the single-episode characters were thinner than a lot of the other ones we've seen throughout the years, which is kind of a shame, because there is some interesting Stuff to dig into with the wider world they inhabit (which we'll get to) but these are all -- with the exception of Nagata I think -- relatively threadbare. this might also be a feeling arising from the other episodes being two-parters, so we got more time with the "under the lake" gang idk. but maybe actually that's why I'm judging it a bit harsher -- this is a concept I've seen before a few times, done better

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: nothing much here either, although there is a delightful little exchange between Clara and the Doctor right at the beginning that goes like this --

CLARA: Looks like a Japanese restaurant. Oh! Have you brought me to a space restaurant? DOCTOR: People never do that, you know? CLARA: Do what? DOCTOR: They never put the word space in front of something just because everything's all sort of hi-tech and future-y. It's never space restaurant or space champagne or space, you know, hat. It's just restaurant, champagne or hat. Even if this was a restaurant. CLARA: What about spacesuit? DOCTOR: Pedant.

I just think that gives me more on them as characters than often exists in their episodes together, which often feel like they go so fast and are so specific to Plot things, that I've often struggled to engage with their dynamic as ostensibly good friends. this was actually something I highlighted in "the girl who died" which was the way everything with them was constantly framed around danger and high stakes and how that takes me out of understanding what draws Clara to travelling, and this is a little counterpoint to that

COMPANIONS MATTER: ehhhh not really from my memory. she's there.

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor just fully runs around like a headless chicken in this one. no that's not fair, he solves most of the puzzle. crucially not the really important piece at the end though, but I'd assume that happened offscreen, as the implications of that ending have never been brought up again on this show to my knowledge

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: couple of tiny references. actually it's more of a big send-up to league of gentlemen, considering Gatiss wrote it and Shearsmith plays the main bad guy

“SEXINESS”: again, cured!

INTERNAL WORLD: I think if this had had more world-building and less attempts at being a PG horror movie it might have been more horrifying actually, because the implications are already horrifying enough. but yeah, this, because of the characters, is quite a thinly built world, made all the more noticeable because the ideas within it are kind of compelling as heck and I do want to know more!

POLITICS: there's a couple of things in this, the first and more intentional of which is it brings up some good horrific capitalist world-building, and I wiiish whatever the story was was actually more about that. I mean, actually there's a really good TV concept on its own in it, that this episode didn't have the time or focus or ability to tell, because it's Doctor Who, we're not spending a season dwelling on the implications of functionally removing sleep from people, but ooooh I'd be interested in a story that did!

the other thing is that this has the somewhat dubious honour of featuring the first ever out trans actor in a lead role, played by Bethany Black, and... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm I mean. I mean. she's a vat-grown grunt referred to with "it" pronouns (and not, I get the sense, because of personal choice, if personal choice came into this in the first place), who "cannot speak properly" because these "grunts" are frequently not... bred well enough? there's a loooot of episodes on Doctor Who that are about personhood and respecting that, and this... is not one of those episodes. 474 is never a focus of the Doctor in this episode, and in fact relatively early on both (she?) and this cis guy who frequently insults her the most (whom she is in love with???) are separated from the others. she then sacrifices herself for this guy, but it doesn't really matter because he's killed anyway shortly afterwards

it's just kinda messy and badly thought-out, but Bethany Black is great, and we know it's going to get better at some point. I want to make a point though as well that Bethany is fat and was in her 30s during this episode I think, and her character is presented in a relatively genderless way and smeared with camouflage paint or oil or smthin (and again, referred to with "it" pronouns), so I don't think a lot of people casually watching would have noticed that this character was a woman (if indeed, the episode understood that), in the sense that obviously trans people should get to play everyone and not "just" have to be prettified in order to be allowed onscreen, but it's a shame we couldn't see a fat trans woman being respected as a woman in this story, or youknow... get to assert her personhood, considering this is Doctor Who, and I hope that the wonderful onscreen transness we're getting will not be equated with thinness and youth exclusively in the future

but like, they could fully bring Bethany Black back as another character and I don't think people would recognise her as having been on the show before, so... do it cowards. you did it with fuckn Capaldi and Gillan and Cribbins and and and...

FULL RATING: 61/100 (if I can count….)

so I did actually check what the feedback to this episode was, and apparently at the time it was the lowest rated episode apart from Love & Monsters, which if anyone has been on this blog for a bit, you know I'm so into that episode. and I think that's worthy of a little comparison, because the thing about Love & Monsters is that while it is a bit gimmicky in format and to the left of a traditional episode, it does all of this in service to something. it's about specific people who exist in the sphere of the Doctor's influence, and that in turn explores a tertiary character (Jackie) who herself occupies a difficult space in this universe. it is, fundamentally, a very very human, softly tragic tale that builds up ideas that we'll return to many times over the course of the show

this episode does not have that. it's characters aren't very fleshed out, its world-building is shallow, and its purpose as the episode before a Very Important Episode seems to be to just. be there. and I think that's its fundamental weakness. if this were in another season, and given some tightening here and there to give it some kind of focus (my preference would be on giving some emotional insights on the Doctor and whoever the Companion is and/or making this very much about the single-episode characters For A Purpose, with the Doctor and Companion taking a backseat) I would have liked it better

as it is I don't dislike it, it's just oddly situated and relatively forgettable to me. Bethany Black should come back though

[czolgosz]

vivian i have to ask: as a czolgosz enjoyer what do you think of this whole situation?

(this was sent shortly after the trump assassination attempt. i slacked severely... btw i am rambling in the below post; i don't feel like editing it. & maybe not everything i say about the more recent assassination is true idk)

my official opinion on the mckinley assassination is "well that (like all assassinations without an actual movement behind them) was pointless and therefore leon czolgosz shouldn't have done that However how can i be expected to sympathise with william mckinley." same sentiments toward this. except the motives of this recent assassin are unclear so maybe just the last part.

well another difference is that some anarchists at the time of the mckinley assassination said that it caused some people to look into anarchy seriously. i don't know if that's even true and if it is i don't think that outweighs the other negative (for anarchism in the usa) consequences. the circumstances here are quite different considering that both the perpetrator and victim are of the same political party, but there seems to have been almost no effects, not even a noticeable change in polls. the only thing i've really seen is that many people thought that an upcoming trump presidency was more likely.

so i guess the main conclusion to be made in regards to the two assassinations when set side by side is that the mckinley one had a larger impact, but that's unsurprising considering that that one was actually successful; the attempted assassination of theodore roosevelt didn't even get him a third term, after all, while he too tried to make a big moment out of it...

anyway now i'm just comparing because i don't really have any other opinions. in both cases the security was strongly criticised for not preventing it. and the reason why the guards at least initially ignored the assassin are similar. in the mckinley assassination the guards were basing their concerns on the "general appearance and looks" of the people in the line and therefore didn't pay attention to leon czolgosz because he was white and otherwise inoffensive-looking to them; in this assassination the guards didn't initially see the assassin as a significant threat because of his appearance (from what i've heard at least). the difference here is that the police apparently knew he was there and was considered suspicious, unlike with leon czolgosz; the few people who said that they noticed the handkerchief simply thought it was a bandage. also after that assassination the secret service, while it did already exist and was present at the event, was given more responsibility and basically became what it is today. obviously that didn't happen again...

another similarity: post- mckinley assassination, william randolph hearst was censured for publishing a poem the previous year that had called for the assassination; however, this poem was actually anti-assassination, and it was no coincidence that the leading decriers were from political & business rivals of hearst. and some time before the attempted trump assassination, joe biden said "it's time to put trump in a bullseye" which was very obviously not advocating for assassination, but some republicans said it was, though i honestly doubt they all believed that. however this is also different because the backlash against hearst was far worse & had relatively substantial consequences for him. <-also emma goldman &c. got a lot of backlash as well that was far far worse, but the comparison is less direct as they weren't having quotes misinterpreted. and i didn't think of them at first tbh.

i guess another similarity is widespread ardent condemnation of political violence, including by people you wouldn't expect it from, but that's pretty typical...

one last small thing because i can't think of any more: george w bush called the assassination attempt a "cowardly attack on [trump's] life" which i still do not understand. why is everyone always calling assassinations cowardly?.. how are they?!

now another thing that's off-topic so it doesn't count: apparently the trump assassin (can you tell i don't remember his name?) didn't seem to initially care between assassinating trump or biden which reminds me of giuseppe zangara and his ambivalence toward whether he should assassinate herbet hoover or franklin d roosevelt... maybe they had similar motives then...

[lahooozaherr]

I’m posting this here because I want to gather my thoughts on it somewhere but….

I do empathize with those who are pressuring celebs to say more. To an extent. There are celebs higher up on the “food chain” that would probably receive less consequences than others for speaking out (or not idk I could be wrong, it’s just my observation). But it’s obvious now that most of the time they’ve been receiving some kind of consequence and they’re not entirely immune to it.

I mainly empathize because when speaking out about this lately I’ve felt almost alone, like I’m screaming into a void. I know I’m not REALLY alone in it, especially on company I keep on social media. Also, with the way the media has been, suppression of Pro-Palestinian sentiment (suspecting this is happening on my insta), etc.

HOWEVER….

As I’ve seen similar opinions on here, I agree that we can’t rely on famous people to save us and do the work. Would having their voice help? Sure, but when they actually know what they’re talking about and not contributing to the cesspool of misinformation.

But that isn’t a reason to become complacent and not do our own work. Celebrities have always disappointed us and will continue to.

In regard to Pedro, we don’t know and we may never really know what his situation is. I don’t personally feel like it’s our business, like I do with all things in his personal life! As much as I love him, and even I hope someday we get to hear his voice on things again, he’s not going to save us. I’m not going to ride hard on celebs having exceptions, but they’re human as well and just as fallible. Although, I did want to point out that:

Pedro and his family were political refugees. I’d like to think (I’m not assuming or asserting either) that he has an idea of what he’s doing. We can’t act like he hasn’t been in these shoes somewhat before, or at least seen it through his parents.

He now has several siblings in spotlights and gaining notoriety aside from him. I’m sure he considers their safety just as much as any of us would with our own families.

He might also be very popular on the internet and wanted for all kinds of projects, but he doesn’t have the influence some prominent figures do. I’ve seen this factor pointed out in several posts as well. Pedro is definitely someone that isn’t immune to the backlash he could receive.

I understand with all of this, everything going on, is extremely difficult to witness and try to reconcile with on the inside. I know I’m probably just repeating what many have already said and fumbling over myself a little. I don’t (or at least no longer) subscribe to a lot of celeb culture and have learned to no longer look to them for things like this. It doesn’t make it any less frustrating when they don’t use their voices. But I just don’t think it’s that black and white. Although I usually err to not feel bad for rich people.

SO! With that being said, I’m feeling the pain as well. It’s been very difficult for me to learn how to mourn and feel like I’m not losing my mind over Gaza and how too many people are not treating it as serious as it is. Or don’t see how connected we all really are (nor do I ever assert that my pain could even compare to Palestinians and those with more proximity to the situation).

But we’re privileged with free speech ourselves (I say that with a shakey hand gesture in some cases). It’s our duty to use it for those who can’t and, if anything, especially when celebs or figures with more of a platform can’t or won’t.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to properly describe the pain I know a lot of us feel over this. I understand how easy it is to react rather than respond, become angry (a lot of the anger in general is valid), to get wrapped up in the online politics over whose saying or not saying what.

But the best thing we can do about it is to do that work ourselves.

I’m lowkey nervously posting this because I don’t typically write up posts like this on here but I’m trying to move past that discomfort. I know it’s just another layer of white supremacy to not say or do anything for fear of not getting it right the first time. I’m sure there’s many good points against what I’ve said and I do my best to continue to be an “always evolving and learning” kind of person.

But just to bring it back to what I’m saying: we have free speech and can use it, and we should. Our words have power even when we don’t feel like they do. Maybe sometimes I empathize to my detriment (working on that lol) but I digress.

We can’t rely on celebs to do it all for us. ACTUALLY, we need that energy focused on our elected officials. Because if anything, this is an even BIGGER mask off moment for them. That’s a whole other problem I won’t get into on here, but still.

If you read this and write me off as just trying to justify silence for my fave celeb, then you’re allowed to have that opinion. If I’m ever proven wrong I have no problem owning up to that. I’m just not waiting around for them to say something before I do.

[trainingdummyrabbit]

Idk if your still takin the AU asks, but I've been slowly building an AU where the Kamados have a sixth sense. In summary, Tanjiro sees ghosts and acquires many ghost friends over the course of canon (including some very angry demons and former Hashira who want to see him punch Muzan in the face)

!! oh Hellyeah ill still take these!!! [cracks knuckles] ill see what i can do!

the amount of time it takes a ghost to manifest post-death depends on the person-- sometimes its Immediate, other times they Take A While if they're particularly stubborn about realizing it. the amount he can see them changes depending on how focused he is-- being clear and legible when he's looking for them or extremely tired, or barely a whisper if he's in Go Time mode. they cant interact Much physically-- the most they have is Mild Ghost Shenanigans if they try really hard.

so obviously the interludes with tanjiro's family showing up are just For Real instead of Ambiguously Metaphorical. theyre the first to show up, and offer moral support occasionally :)! [they primarily tag along with nezuko to keep her company... and also to maybe possibly help her wake up more. theyre worried about her :( ] this is followed by sabito and makomo, who are Slightly more active and tag along to keep an eye on him and make sure he stays safe. (they were originally surprised tan could Continue Seeing Them and were originally going to just fade off with their work done, but... well, they felt compelled to stay. something about this kid, yknow.)

of course, not every ghost is exactly Friendly. like the swamp demon for example. this is where sabi+mako come in! Tanjiro Protection Squad. tanjiro cant exactly fight a ghost even if he Can see them, so they have to take care of it. and they do a damn good job of it. ...also members of the Tan Protection Squad is the Kamado Family, which the fox duo were a little concerned about, but its Shocking how effective a scolding from a Genuinely Disappointed Mother (+Equally Disappointed Children) can be to disarming a ghost. even with the protection squad on duty though, tanjiro is actually Pretty Good at dealing with Ghost Shenanigans because. hes him. its hard to feel spite over someone who genuinely cares so much, against someone who sympathizes even with creatures like demons. Hes Got Such Kind Baby Eyes. a lot of the time, ghosts are free to just... pass on. some stick around, some dont, but they're usually offered at least some kind of peace.

i cannot even fucking Imagine the chaos that happens when they accidentally run into muzan in the city.

ghosts dont just tether to tanjiro! sometimes he will meet someone and they'll have several ghosts following them about. they dont always speak to them, but he can Feel them-- how they're feeling, what they're holding onto. he has a reputation in the corps for mysteriously appearing, saying something ominous (yet oddly reassuring) or bringing a gift and Leaving... and then you realize youve never spoken to him before, how did he know about your favorite food? favorite animal? where did he learn this..?

on a similar line, whenever a ghost decides to tag along (temporary or otherwise,) tanjiro tends to pick up little trinkets or charms for them that they'd like. it feels polite somehow. they seem to like it, anyway. this means he has little charms on his belt and such all the time! :) he doesnt have a lot of space on him to carry them with, so he rotates them every so often (with a few exceptions he keeps on him at all times.)

its a heavy burden to bear, but he can handle it. he's the eldest son, after all.

. anyway this is a ridiculously fun concept-- i tried to keep it to Important Things(tm) but i am constantly in a state of doing Everything All The Time Always ! so theres a handful of misc stuff under th cut <33

rengoku becomes part of the Permanent Ghost Squad, but he kinda just... haunts Everybody, Always. all those rengoku flashbacks/manifestations? Theyre Canon Now. rengoku jumpscare <33

muzan has a ridiculous amount of ghosts tagged onto him-- theres so many of them you can't really tell where one starts and another ends, just that they are truly, deeply enraged. he seems entirely unbothered.

yoriichi is a bit of a fickle ghost. he rarely shows up-- only in those echoes and flashbacks + when tanjiro utilizes sunbreathing. he tends to wordlessly leave immediately after. (maybe theres some sort of lingering guilt there...)

. anyway i just think that Team Ghost Gang should get the chance to kick the shit out of muzan post-canon. they deserve it. ghost violence <33

[kukuandkookie]

Man I should’ve gone to sleep ages ago or at least enjoyed myself by reading more danmei or manhua before I do so but…

I ran across a tweet asking if there’s any Chinese actors who can compare visually to a specific Korean actor and it did kind of strike a nerve with me.

But that wasn’t even that big of a deal. Some people like Korean actors and some people like Chinese actors. You can share some pretty Chinese actors and see what others say, whatever.

Ignoring the political tensions OP may have been stoking—as in, I’m of Chinese descent and I always hate seeing any Korea vs China posts crop up; besides being more popular than China anyway, I just have bad experiences in the past with nationalists spiralling this kind of thing out of control and making me sad to realize that quite a number of Korean people actually really hate/look down on China. So ignoring all that, who cares, right?

Except I found some care being piqued when I saw a qrt pretty rudely claiming Chinese actors are so weak they can’t lift their female partners and that they also can’t sing or act—and if OP could have, I’m sure they’d claim they can’t dance either.

Like hello??? We’re really pretending a country of 1.7 billion people isn’t going to have some skilled or strong people in acting??? Hell, some of these so-called “can’t sing/act” Chinese actors have actually found success in Korea for doing the thing that person thinks they can’t (eg Wang Yibo, literally). So is this apparent Korean entertainment fan just going to ignore that fact about the Korean entertainment industry???

Even all of that is technically whatever, but what rubbed me the wrong way was that they sounded so petty and weird about it too???? It’s one thing to say, “I don’t think Chinese actors are that impressive because they’re not very strong or skilled at their craft”—that’s still a bizarre claim to make even as an opinion (because it’s written as a broad, generalizing, sweeping statement instead), but it nevertheless sounds a lot less asshole-ish than whatever the hell their actual tweet is:

So this time I was petty and ended up responding ffjhskdjs.

Idk if they’re going to start arguing with me but hey at least it led me to find some cute clips of actors carrying actresses:

I also found some fun facts about actors; some of which I knew, and some of which I didn’t: Song Weilong knows martial arts, Luo Yunxi knows ballet, Li Xian dives, Wallace Chung plays sports (volleyball, tennis, baseball), Huang Jingyu does Brazilian jiu jitsu…

Like those are all skills that just so happen to require strength.

And even skinny people can be strong (Luo Yunxi can be easily labelled thin, but he’s not without muscle. Like ballet isn’t an easy sport at all).

Then we have the opposite side of the spectrum with the fact that China has a whole martial arts movie industry. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen… Whether you think their strength is practical or not, martial arts still takes a form of strength.

Plus you know how Asia is about “men needing to be manly.” Even with the flower boy trend in both China and Korea, there’s still an emphasis on some traditional gender roles, and quite a number of Chinese men do work out.

There’s just so many different forms of strength.

My younger brother works out and he can physically pick me up (he actually did it today to force me to get out of bed lol), but he’s often lamented being skinny, so the muscle doesn’t show—or take form—as easily. In fact, both my brothers are their own forms of gym bros so I know a bit about physical strength, and there’s obviously the fact there are many different kinds of strength.

A man who works out regularly and has visible muscles can likely pick up a woman, but that doesn’t mean he’ll necessarily be great in a fight or at a certain sport (eg my brother is good at working out, can lift heavy things to be fixed or carried, is technically alright at basketball, but cannot really do long-distance running).

My older brother then looks bigger than my younger brother but he can’t easily beat him in an arm wrestling match. My dad isn’t that muscular but he can also hold his own in an arm wrestling match against my brothers.

It’s almost as if different bodies and different types of strength exist! The exact same way that beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!

Back to the flower boys thing—with there being a trend in China where people prefer more “delicate” men (remember when Simu Liu got cast as Shang-Chi and a number of articles came out about some Chinese netizens not finding him all that attractive?), then of course Chinese actors may not be as bulked out as some western ones. But that’s also whatever—it’s a cultural difference.

As I already described, there are Chinese actors with muscles, or who work out, or who are strong in other/not immediately obvious ways, or who can carry actresses…

But whether they can or can’t, including whether they’re muscular or thin, I don’t think it matters. In fact, if anything, I’m glad that despite the government’s efforts to “ban” flower men, the blur between masculine and feminine—at least when we follow the western standards—still exists in China.

And I emphasize that even more since China and Korea can buy into beliefs about gender that imo are too traditional. So I am glad that even if Chinese men are “smaller” than Korean men—or at least the actors are (in that person’s eyes), they’re defying gender expectations somewhat. Especially what with Korea fervently continuously getting the spotlight for misogyny in the workplace or by fans/incels (eg recently with Arknights’ more independent Korean division despite Arknights coming across as rather feminist, the whole ordeal with Furina’s designer, the whole 🤏 controversy, actual sexual scandal cases…).

And well oops that went into another tangent.

Technically it’s not that serious, but it is also a slippery slope. And anyway, the tweet in general was just baffling enough it made me want to respond lol.