#if you don’t know much then don’t make controversial statements that you can’t back up

[merp-blerp]

So… Rachel Zegler and Snow White… (My Thoughts)

(This is a long ass post, but I wanted to make myself clear)

Disclaimer: I just wanted to express my opinions on the controversy, as the Disney princesses, fairytales/folklore, and their influence on kids and adults is very important to me as someone who grew up with them and wants future generations to as well in the best way possible. My opinions are mine, so I can only speak for myself and my experience with girl-boss-feminism and other related topics. It’s okay if you feel differently and have different experiences than me. I’m not trying to tell anyone how they “should” feel. Just express yourself civilly and do not harass anyone, please.

Opinions under the cut ↓

If you don’t know the situation, in short, Rachel Zegler, who is cast to play Snow White in Disney’s remake of the animated film has made some statements on the original that have angered fans. Some of these statements include: “I just mean that it’s no longer 1937. We absolutely wrote a Snow White that ... she’s not going to be saved by the prince, and she’s not going to be dreaming about true love…” and “There’s a big emphasis on her love story, with a guy who literally stalks her. Ha, ha—weird! Weird! So we didn’t do that this time!” and “Cast a guy in the movie, Andrew Burnap, great dude. All of Andrew’s scenes could get cut—who knows! It’s Hollywood, Baby!”

I recommend watching the clips of her in these interviews. I can’t possibly give every controversial quote here.

Let me state right out of the gate that I have no issue with a WOC playing Snow at all, as a WOC myself. I’m not here to say she can’t. Yes, the fairytale traditionally states that she’s named after her white skin, but this is an adaptation and things can change in adaptations; they could easily change the reason for her namesake, like maybe she was simply born around winter. Outside of her name, Snow being white doesn’t have much bearing on the story. Even if you want to pull the historical accuracy card, fairytales aren’t meant to be history lessons like that. They’re fantasy, where any kind of reality is possible. Last I checked queens owning literal magic mirrors wasn’t very historically accurate to any place at any time. And of course there are other countries where people of ethnicities other than European ruled.

I also don’t enforce hate or harassment to Zegler for any reason. Just fair, constructive, criticism. I think she’s misguided, and I want to unravel that in this post, but I don’t hate her. I don’t suspect she’s sexist, just mistaken.

The issue many are having with these statements is that Zegler not only comes off as ungrateful to some, but that she disrespects and misrepresents the original movie. I personally don’t agree with her statements. There was nothing wrong with Snow being saved by the prince and he was definitely not stalking her. They had one conversion at the beginning of the film, he exits the film for most of it’s run time, with Snow barely mentioning him outside of the two scenes where she sings “Someday My Prince will Come”, and then he comes back at the end of the film once he hears of her death and kisses her goodbye when he thought she died, only for her to wake up; then she goes to live with him in his (likely metaphorical) castle in the sky on horse back (live with, not marry him, we never actually see them marry if they do). Due to sexism, AFAB people are often shamed for enjoying feminine types of media and activities , such as romance and princesses, so this has led to the “girl-boss” or “not like other girls (NLOG)” mentality in some AFAB people, causing an often aggressive rejection of femininity. This also led to the “Strong Female Character(s)” trope, which often preaches rhetoric similar to Zegler’s statements. Though I’ll of course never know, I suspect this rhetoric could be what’s going on with Zegler to some capacity. She’s somewhat around my age (Zegler’s 22, I’m currently 19, I’ll be 20 in Dec. 2023), so she and I grew up right when this girl-boss rhetoric was becoming popular. Snow is a very traditionally feminine character, so maybe that has made Zegler feel negative towards the character. Maybe—I’m not a Jiminy Cricket inside her head. There’s nothing wrong with wanting a man, you just shouldn’t be co-dependent on one, and Snow was not; as mentioned before, she spends most of the film getting along without him. Snow’s prince, along with most princes from this era of Disney, are more symbols of freedom rather than actual characters by todays standards; this is reflected in the fact they don’t even have names, apart from Prince Philip, who is more of a character. And of course Snow wants love, she has an abusive step-mother, with her biological mother and father out of the picture; the dwarfs and prince (and maybe the huntsman—if you count him) were her only true company. Her only source of love and kindness. I personally see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a story of survival. Snow’s vulnerable, being a princess who’s likely only ever lived in castle walls, and she’s been mistreated by a woman who was supposed to mother her, to the point of her having to run away to live on the woods for safety on a whim (as well as maybe due to her age if you believe she’s 14 years old, but Disney has never confirmed this odd internet rumor, so I don’t personally believe she’s 14—nor her prince being in his 30s—no clue where that comes from). But she adapted by coping with her fear and pain by calming herself by singing and finding refuge in her found family of the dwarfs and animals. She found the love she lacked in her life though the dwarfs and the prince. That’s strength if I’ve ever heard of it! She doesn’t need to be a “Strong Female Character” type to be strong. It’s sexist to imply that femininity equates to weakness. The new Snow White can be strong, but so is the original in her own beautiful way, as well as the other subsequent Disney princesses after her. I find that people who tend to have these sexist takes on the Disney princesses, especially the original three (Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora), tend to have not seen their films much if at all, and/or have only watched them passively, not truly computing the story because they feel like they know every beat from memory or cultural osmosis. Zegler has admitted to having only watched the film once when she was a little kid, being scared of it, and then only recently watching the film a second time after being cast for the remake.

She also seems to disregard the original film’s importance in history. Snow White as a character was seen as a beacon of hope during war times and the Great Depression. It was one of the first, if not the first feature-length animated film ever. And so much more! There Will Be Fudd has a great video essay on the importance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs as a film and also expanded on this topic I’m discussing here (I don’t claim any of this as a purely original opinion, I know many also view Disney Princesses this way, just throughing my own personal tidbit to the conversation). I think Zegler had failed to consider how she subtly insulted women who are more traditionally feminine by speaking of Snow this way, as well as people who enjoy this movie. I know that girl-boss-feminism made me feel really bad about myself as a kid who was naturally a bit more of a classic Disney princesses type of person rather than a kin to the newer Disney princesses that were coming out at the time, like Rapunzel or Anna. I just wasn’t super spunky or outgoing like them (not that they are bad at all—I love them). The Disney princesses have so much variety between them, so any kid is bound to relate to at least one of them a little bit; I should’ve been able to relate to Cinderella or Snow without shame, but the girl-boss rhetoric told me that they were bad and therefore I subconsciously thought I was too since I saw myself in them more. I attempted to force the more feminine traits away from myself and kind of become a blank slate, till i realized in my late teens that I didn’t know who I was. I’m still in the process of reclaiming myself from that phase of my life, trying to remember who I am. I’m not saying every personal issue I have was birthed from girl-boss rhetoric, but it did have an effect early on, and I don’t want anymore people to feel this way. I think Zegler’s statements can be harmful. Girl-boss-feminism is not what people need anymore if it was ever needed at all. We should let every person of every gender live as feminine or as masculine as they please, as long as no one’s harmed. Femininity is beautiful. Masculinity is beautiful. Just don’t be toxic.

Another thing I wanted to mention that I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone else bring up: the way she spoke about Andrew Burnap, her co-star playing the prince (EDIT: Apparently he’s actually playing a character replacing the prince… okay I guess…?), in one of the quotes I mentioned above, which was pretty bad. Another thing this kind of pseudo-feminism can enforce is putting down men because women are “superior” in someway, because they’re girl-bosses, all in the name of “feminism”. Burnap is just as worthy of having his work get displayed on screen as Zegler is. It would be really unfair if all he’s scenes were cut. It’s very… strange at best that she said that. I don’t think people are in the wrong for being upset at her words and I don’t think people are getting mad at her “over nothing”. It’s something.

[EDIT: I wanted to acknowledge that I am currently aware, and also was when I made this post originally, that other live action Disney Princesses cast members have said similar things akin to Rachel Zegler’s statements before. The reason why I didn’t initially mention it in this post was because I didn’t think it mattered to Zegler’s controversy as it had to do with other films, but after some thinking, I realized it does add some context and it could be debated in this conversation. I also don’t care for those statements for very similar reasons I don’t care for Zegler’s. I think the reason why Zegler’s words are being so scrutinized in comparison to the others is because 1) the pop-feminism movement as a whole being scrutinized in some aspects is something that’s happening only very recently, in the very late 2010s and early 2020s so far. It seemed like this girl-boss stuff really began to be condemned hard around when Mulan (2020) came out, which in part caused that film to flop. Zegler is only the third live action princess to have a film come out in the 2020s, if I’m correct. These ideals weren’t being so criticized when say, Lily James, made her statement(s?) on my favorite princess Cinderella in 2015. Zegler’s just happened to make her comments at the worst time. 2) It could also be the way Zegler’s said her comments. It’s not just the words but the way she said them that rubbed people the wrong way, and maybe that’s not fair, as tone can be very hard to fully decipher in a true way and sometimes your tone doesn’t match how you feel. I don’t agree with the idea that “Rachel HATES Snow White” as some have said, but I see how people think she does based on the really taunting tone of the viral clips, but a few clips don’t paint a full story; she probably doesn’t hate Snow White. 3) It might be racism for some people. A lot of people are upset to see Snow White being played by a WOC, especially since in the standard version of the story it was stated specifically that Snow was white, unlike, for comparison, the The Little Mermaid where Hans Christian Anderson never stated what race the mermaid was. Evil people want to be racist, but not called out as racist, so Zegler’s outdated sentiments gave a very easy scapegoat for hating her and her casting without being overtly racist. If Halle Bailey said something similar to Zegler she might’ve experienced the same hate train as Zegler is, not just because it's a sexist view, but because people also hated seeing her play Ariel as a black woman and wanted to do so openly, but couldn't without showing they're racist and being called out. Not saying every person criticizing Zegler is racist, however. 4) It’s the newest remake and people hate those. I don't think the concept of remaking films is bad at all, as if you don't keep telling stories they die. Many of the fairytales that Disney has adapted like Cinderella, Aladdin, Snow White and more wouldn't have existed in any way if people didn't tell them over and over in different countries and time periods till they were written down over and over. Remaking them over and over is a modern option to do that. Everyone has the right to remake Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, etc. if they want to because that’s how stories stay alive for generations to come (and because versions of those particular stories I mention are in the public domain). But the reason Disney’s remaking their films at the moment doesn’t seem to be so they can bring something new to the stories or showcase it to a new generation, but to make money, as a lot of these films have been making bank for some unholy reason. That's why so many of them fall short quality-wise. This is really an overall problem with Hollywood right now and Disney is arguably of how the biggest perpetrators of the issue. We are all overexposed to these low-quality remakes to the point where a lot of people hate the concept of them at all, calling them “unnecessary”, but I personally think this is a bit too pessimistic. The idea of remakes isn't bad, the executions of them are.]

There was also some controversy on the fact that they cut the seven dwarfs from the film; the remake is actually simply called Snow White, not Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs like the original. This was done (allegedly?) to not offend little people. They will be replaced by some magic creatures. Now, I am not a little person, so I can’t decide what’s offensive to little people, but I can repeat what I’ve heard from some little people online who’ve spoken on the topic; I recommend looking up more testimonials from them if you want more opinions from little people. It is very odd that, in order to not offended little people, Disney excluded them from one of the few roles Hollywood would allow them to play. It would’ve been better if they evolved the dwarfs from being mostly comic reliefs to being characters who were treated more like characters, along with hiring actually little people actors and having little people writers in the writers’ room. That is all I’ll say on this topic to the reasons I mentioned before.

It’s worth noting that Zegler has addressed the situation (yes, that link to an ET TikTok vid is the best place I could find it—I guess it’s the original source? If I find a better video I’ll change the link) and I don’t really know how to take it. (EDIT: I've been notified by an anon that this video was actually a response to something else; If so, sorry for the incorrect info. My feelings forward still stand when it comes to the idea of pardoning her actions.) While I understand she’s young and was pushed into notoriety very quickly, I feel like, specifically when it comes to her comments about Burnap, she should know better. You should know at age 22 that comments like that aren’t seen as very appropriate. I suspect Zegler wanted to come off as a down-to-earth and playful, cool girl, and assumed that the girl-boss takes on the Disney princesses from the 2010’s were still popular, not realizing that they’re more often condemned rather than uplifted, and rightfully so. All I know is that will likely be hard for Zegler to come back from this behavior. The internet is pretty hard on people who they see as “mean girls” and other phrases like that, sometimes to a really unwarranted level that leads to things like doxxing and death threats. Zegler doesn’t deserve treatment like that, but she does deserve constructive criticism, as does everyone when they do something that’s arguably wrong.

It’s statements like Zegler’s that are making me somewhat worn-down on Disney, or rather Disney-corporate, as I feel that this pseudo-feminism they’ve sprinkled in some of their modern films has been a problem for a while now. In highsight, I feel like in the early 2010’s Disney could’ve been on their way to another renaissance, with hits like Tangled, Frozen, and Wreck-it Ralph, plus adult interest in Disney sky-rocketing with social media. But the remakes got in the way of that. It doesn’t come off as Disney wanting to retell stories in a new way, but as Disney, due to the cynical takes on their past works from the 2010’s, trying to fix what wasn’t really broken out of almost shame. Like they want to prove a Buzzfead article from 2014 wrong rather than make a good story. They don’t seem to understand that this line of thinking is dangerous and sexist in and of itself. This isn’t an improvement, but a downgrade. You’re supposed to make characters, not walking, talking political statements; you can totally make political statements in film—they’ve always had them—but you need to do it carefully because they’re important topics, especially when you’re including it in media made for a general audience, as it could be someone’s first exposure to the topic and you want it to be correctly done. And you need to make the characters who make or represent these political statements well-rounded or you end up coming off as still offensive, but in a different way. Think about all the Disney original concepts for animated movies based on older fairytales such as Gigantic, Newt, or Hiawatha that were canned, with these often try-hard-y remakes in there places (I know Hiawatha was cancelled decades ago, but I still would’ve preferred Disney revive that in a more culturally sensitive time rather than what they’re doing). With the exception of Cinderella (2015) and maybe The Little Mermaid (2023), I feel like all the remakes are just Disney’s attempt at besting critics who either lacked media literacy or were just critiquing for shits and giggles. Other than the exceptions I mentioned, they all range from not awful but meh (like the 2016 The Jungle Book), to insultingly bad or bland (like the 2020 Mulan or the 2019 The Lion King). Even though this film is still in development and I know I can’t/shouldn’t truly have an opinion on it’s quality yet, I fear it’ll be more a kin to Amazon’s Cinderella rather than a good film. Amazon’s Cinderella had many of the issues with pseudo-feminism Zegler’s statements had. I don’t think this movie will be very good if Zegler’s sentiments reflect how the film’s themes will be. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I’m admittedly not too optimistic.

I don’t think it’s wrong that people care this strongly about Disney and the quality of their films. I’ve seen people ask “Well, when did people start caring about Snow White?” And my answer is that people have always cared, this situation is just making people speak up about it. That’s normal. And saying “It’s just a movie” negates it’s importance to the history of film, not just animation, and it’s role in the lives of people who enjoy it. It might not be important to you, and that’s okay, but it is to other people and you should respect that.

Well, I think that covers my thoughts, If you’re still here, thank you for getting this far. I appreciate that you seemingly care about my opinion that much. I just wanted to get these thoughts off my chest.

[ashironie]

Mag protocol ep 2 spoilers

AHHAHAHAHAHAH FUCKING MARTIN FUCKING JON I WONDER WHO THE THIRD VOICE IS IS IT MELANIE SHES I THINK THE ONLY OTHER PERSON WHO HAS READ OUT A STATEMENT ALSO THE FACT THEY NAMED THEM NORRIS AND CHESTER IS SENDING ME

THEN OH MY FUCK THEN ALICE THE GODDESS THE QUEEN I LOVE HER SO MUCH

GWEN IS GIVING S1JON MIXED WITH POST-JOB MELANIE MIXED WITH TIM’S SASHA AND I LOVE MELANIE SO SO SO MUCH (that who I see her most as)

Sam’s pretty chill ig, second favorite character, after Gwen

FUCK LENA IF GWEN HATES LENA I HATE LENA

Wait wait I interpreted Augustus as a fem name (the “he and Chester” comment must fucked with me a bit) but the more I realize the more that sounds like a male name…

ELIAS DUCHARD????

Also I had to read along with the transcript bc I couldn’t discern anyone’s voices.

Anyway

TEDDY LOVE EM SM HES SO EARLY TIM/SASHA CODED

COLIN IS SO POST JON STALKING TIM CODED I KINDA LOVE HIM KINDA HATE HIM. WHEN HE ACTS MORE LIKE TIM I HATE HIM BUT YK MAYBE THATS A MORE CONTROVERSIAL OPINION

I went fucking CRAZY for the “NORRIS’S STILTED TEXT-TO-SPEECH RHYTHM IS MORPHING INTO SOMETHING MORE HUMAN” like AHHHHH THATS MY MARTIN

Then “NORRIS NOW SOUNDS COMPLETELY LIKE A PERSON NARRATING A STORY, NOT COMPUTER-LIKE AT ALL”

Tbh I didn’t read that or the “HIS VOICE RESEMBLES THAT OF MARTIN BLACKWOOD FROM THE MAGNUS ARCHIVES” bc I decided to just soak in the statement.

ALSO HIS STATEMENT FEELS LIKE MARTIN SO SO MUCH. The yearning in there the not being able to handle whether her love is dead. (I read Harriet and Arthur’s relationship as romantic but I don’t think it says anything like that specifically) (She says “And that voice I have loved for twenty years answered:” so probably safe to say yes)

Then Jon’s statement is about the Magnus institute, about someone feeling watched with eyes all over them, about The Eye. This made Sam want to look into the Magnus institute more, making him more like S1 Jon, especially with the “blast from the past” comment.

Martin’s statement is more poetic, less focused on a single entity (The Lonely mixed with The Stranger? Lonely is obviously up Martins alley but The Stranger took two of his friends and seems like a bit of how he saw Jon, someone he knew but didn’t really, someone who was different, for better, or in this case, worse)

Jon’s case is pretty obvious. The Eye. You might be able to say other entities if you REALLY reach but no one can deny that’s an Eye statement. He also is saying it probably for Sam, knows he’s the type to go snooping for that stuff. I mean two voiced statements (what I’m assuming are true statements) on Sam’s first day? That can’t be a coincidence.

Also a long time ago I came up with an idea for an AU where in Somewhere Else Martin turns into an orange cat and Jon turns into a haunted tape recorder, and they go back in time to S1 (since I’m nothing if not basic). This is REALLY reminding me of that, except they are both haunted tape recorders. Tbh might (probably will) post about the AU since im probably not gonna make it but it is a really cool idea (to me at least)

[ferdifz]

Throwback from 2016 in Ello on the topic of "Burnout"

[Link to original: [+]

Me:

[WARNING: possibly controversial statement on mental health, follows.]

A major characteristic of burnout is the inability to disengage from stress, or more specifically an inability to disengage from a constant mental state of stressfulness.

And no, one can't just simply turn off PTSD like how one would turn off a faucet. One doesn't just "get over it". To suggest that it is possible to simply do so, is insulting. Hurtful, even.

[/end statement]

comment by Arxvis:

My partner has a burnout, it's almost taking me along - so heavy and difficult to heal!

comment by Dredmorbius:

I'd run across this description via HN a while back:

Burnout is caused when you repeatedly make large amounts of sacrifice and or effort into high-risk problems that fail. It's the result of a negative prediction error in the nucleus accumbens. You effectively condition your brain to associate work with failure.

Subconsciously, then eventually, consciously, you wonder if it's worth it. The best way to prevent burnout is to follow up a serious failure with doing small things that you know are going to work. As a biologist, I frequently put in 50-70 and sometimes 100 hour workweeks. The very nature of experimental science (lots of unkowns) means that failure happens. The nature of the culture means that grad students are "groomed" by sticking them on low-probability of success, high reward fishing expeditions (gotta get those nature, science papers) I used to burn out for months after accumulating many many hours of work on high-risk projects. I saw other grad students get it really bad, and burn out for years.

http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Burnout-is-caused-by-resentment.html#comment-478842490

I'm not entirely convinced that's it either (and there is a literature on the topic), but I do think that:

Stress.

Repeated failure.

Lack of downtime.

Are all key.

I burnt out. Hard. About four years ago. Still haven't returned. At first my level of focus was light TV sitcom material -- literally anything else just shut me down. I've worked back up to where I can deal with certain types of work -- some, true to my classic work style, I can't not do. But there remain a large class of things I simply cannot do. I contemplate them and my brain completely shuts off. I cannot even talk about them.

This is phenomenally difficult to communicate to to those around me (it's remarkably difficult to talk about something if you cannot even talk about it...), and of course there are people who simply cannot comprehend the concept of mental dysfunction (frequently those who've got a measure of it themselves, I've noticed, but that's another story).

A century or so back, this was called a "nervous breakdown". I'd always thought that term was fanciful and overly poetic, much like "tidal wave" seemed terribly inaccurate. Much as I've since seen video of the ocean rising inexorably as a tide following the 2004 Boxing Day and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes, I am finding that the notion of a breakdown of nervous capacity actually does seem to fit what I've experienced.

Physiologically or neurologically, I don't know what the specific mechanism is. But I strongly suspect that long-term levels of even moderate stress have far more profound impacts on us than we suspect. With, quite probably, significant variation among individuals, and also a probable high level of self-delusion among those who are actually experiencing strong negative consequences but denying it to others and even themselves. Dunning-Kruger or some variant.

Link to original post on Ello: [ello.co/ferdiz +] (link quite possibly dead by now)

[alyjojo]

Advice to Work on Yourself 🤷🏽‍♀️ in October 2023: Virgo

Page of Wands - Knight of Pentacles rev & 9 Cups rev - 9 Wands rev

Regarding: 9 Swords

This whole reading complements your intelligence, by telling you to use your head. Very smart & critical thinking skills aren’t being used, because you spend your time in anxiety, ruminating, talking yourself out of things, feeling very bitter, negative, out to prove a point, and mean…to yourself. Everyone is against you. Are they? Why are you mean to yourself? What did you do to you? This may be regarding other people as well, if you’ve been mean to others, you’ve pushed them away, particularly friends. This is about you more than them though, the “them” issue is easier to fix when you work on the “you” issue.

Page of Wands shows you feel inspired and excited to do something in your life that *means* something to you, whether a passion, hobby, goal or idea, but you get defensive about that too. Anything regarding taking the lead, bossing up, “showing off”, being social and confidently taking action makes you indecisive & unsure. You could literally freeze. It’s a confidence thing. Fire signs 🔥 may currently trigger you for this reason, because they don’t have that issue. Virgo risings are being highlighted especially in this reading, because of the Leo 12th House, you could have some placements there. Deeply craving recognition but you’re too shy, lacking confidence, or motivation, you can’t see how people just decide to do things, and then do them. And get support for it? People clap for this? It doesn’t make sense. You deeply crave attention & admiration but don’t like to be in the spotlight. You “can’t” just do the things. Except you can 💯 But you prefer to agonize & STRESS over them, and ultimately do nothing, and your negativity is showing up as jealousy, but I don’t think you’re actually jealous of particular people (could be), more how they operate and why you can’t be more like that. You could be someone that compares yourself to other people on social media, and watching your friends succeed pisses you off, because you don’t feel like you’re succeeding.

You hold your feelings back, you realize what’s mature and not mature, and though they do seem to bleed through into some sort of conflicts you’ve had with others, for the most part you keep them quiet, and let them burden you, ruminate, play them over and over, and keep yourself stuck in a sad sort of longing, wishing you could be different, not realizing how many gifts you have that others don’t.

Controversial statement (why is it idk but it is): 9 Swords can indicate mental health, and the turtle being there has nothing to do with being “slow”, for the smartasses out there 😋 That’s why intelligence is also being heavily highlighted here. Virgo rules the mind, and earth signs all have a susceptibility to depression, because they live in the 3D reality always - where the pressure never STOPS. You could be battling some war in yourself that you could manage a lot easier with the help of someone that knows what tf they’re talking about. That’s not me, I read cards. Depression would be the most obvious thing I can see, and whether that’s a long-time all your life battle (could be, with the Turtle 🐢), or because of an experience or trauma from who knows how long ago, caring for your mental health is as important as not drinking/eating milk/gluten/whatever cuz it makes you feel sick (Virgos and the dietary references 💯). Could be due to something you’re putting in your body causing a physical reaction too, especially with you guys. Could also be simply saying slow down. Same logic. When/if your mind feels sick, it needs a doctor to help. Or meditation videos, pick whatever lane feels best for you. Only you will know if and how that resonates for you 🧡

There’s a message here about giving too much, whether that’s you or other people, there is no balance in the way you’re giving and receiving with others. It could be negative or mean behaviors that aren’t deserved or warranted for the situation, or a lack of confidence causes judgmental attitudes towards those that do what “you can’t”. The advice here is Justice, Leonardo da Vinci, Become Foolproof. Use your head 💯 All of these things show an above-par intelligence, and Virgo rules the mind. You don’t have to listen blindly to whoever, or me, do your own research. Mental health seems to be the biggest focus, there are many many videos on YouTube from therapists, and interesting ones. I’m a big fan of Cinema Therapy, two entertaining people (one is a therapist) dissecting movies and “diagnosing” characters as examples, fo connect with people and try to make it less of a stigma & more of a conversation. Either you identify with something, or you just laugh and learn something, it’s wholesome fun.

7 Cups shows confusion on how to deal with something, too many paths, too many cups. Justice is emotionally detached, it’s the judge that holds the Ace of Swords, and cuts off excess options, cup by cup. Taking in all of the facts available to you to make a fair, balanced, and intelligent decision. Realizing your own mental dynamics, how this effects your relationships with others and your own actions, and removing what is not doing anything positive for you, what keeps you stuck, that nasty little voice that says you can’t, or “that’s stupid” or whatever the thing. It’s like a toxic habit you don’t need. Deciding on therapy or a support group, some sort of private research even, will help you because that’s the advice. Doing this will make you feel more inspired to take action, more powerful and in charge of your life, and more able to follow up on your dreams and ideas that you feel you can’t do for whatever reason. Things that bother you, bother you for a reason, but sometimes you think it’s *them*, whoever, when it’s really *you*. Goose wants you to practice shutting your mind off, electronics off, world 🌎 off, maybe drinking less caffeine if that’s something you do a lot of.

Mental health is the main story I’m getting, but not the only one. Any decision, goal, life event, personality dynamic in you or others that bothers you, research why. Anything you want to do, research how. Anything that confuses you, find out more. The only thing stopping you is not wanting to know, and doing nothing, when you feel a spiritual pull towards something you feel you can’t do, be, get, have, whatever. Don’t tell yourself you can’t, figure out how to.

Animal Oracle: Goose 🪶

“Take time to rest and recuperate rather than continuing your striving.”

The irony of this card is that by resting and recuperating your energy, you can mobilize your internal resources for the next cycle of work and accomplish that much more. It’s critical to your health and well being to take regular time off, even though it’s hard to do in today’s world. Sleep in, get a massage, be with friends, go for a walk in the woods, anything that will bring you peace of mind. It’s most unnatural, but in this caffeinated society of where technology has created instant access to computers, cell phones, TV, emails, internet, it’s easy to give away your power of choice by reacting to a false sense of immediacy and urgency. Turn them all off, go watch the sunset. These periods of time to yourself don’t need to be a long time, but they do need to be implemented now, and more often.

Artist Oracle: LEONARDO DA VINCI

- I’m not a Renaissance Man. I’m a Renaissance, Man.

- Dissect what makes us human.

- Look into research like you would a crystal ball.

Advice:

- Become Foolproof

Charms:

Turtle 🐢 on 9 Swords is slow progress, or it can show something you’ve been battling for a long time, so long that it may be an unconscious habit more than a defining personality trait. Your inner voice is a mean tyrant, and The Devil rev shows they need to be shown where the door is, get out. Whether or not you’ll need help with that depends on your situation, but the more you learn about what is a healthy mindset, interactions, friendships/relationships, emotional responses etc., the more you’ll feel empowered to change your life or habits/emotions/goals in the way this Page of Wands shows you’re being called to, and probably have been for some time. Spirit has been trying to reach you and you’ve left them on read, there’s a fire burning inside of you that you don’t know how to work with. Trust you’ll be led to the right things, you just have to start somewhere & do your research. You’re a smart cookie, you decide what’s what, not me, and not anyone else either 🙏

[alltoowell-taylorsversion]

Okay I get what you’re saying that Taylor does get a lot of unnecessary hate but like I don’t agree with a lot of those points. It’s kinda that argument of “well if it didn’t happen to me or I didn’t know about it then it can’t be real.” But many many people in the biz have come out and talked about how awful d*vid or*ssell is (most famously Amy Adams). Taylor literally has a publicist who’s job it is to make sure this stuff doesn’t happen. A very cursory google search would bring up a whole bunch of his controversy so yes taylor gets used a lot for clicks but it was her choice to get involved with the movie with that awful man and to date this disgusting rat man

I’m not saying she doesn’t think it’s real (except mayhaps in the MH situation bc she has known him for years and he might show a different side of himself so that she likes him - like I know people who will pretend to be completely normal around certain people but then when you are alone with them they are crazy - but idk MH in person so he could be different) but I was saying she might not know. Like with the director idk how much research PR would do for a 2 min or less movie role. She didn’t have to go do press for it or support it in any way. Her and PR probably found out after the fact and then idk what statement she could’ve made to make anything better.

With MH she probably doesn’t know what he has said or done in his career. And with her experience with cancel culture she probably thinks the internet is lying bc she knows him. I am not saying this is right in any way. I’m just saying that SHE is the one getting the most hate for what MH has done when HE should be getting the hate. Yes in this case her and her team should be looking at everything and realizing that he has said problematic things (and a part of me wonders if they have because he wasn’t at last weeks shows and hasn’t been around this week/ but I could be wrong).

I understand why people are upset bc it may seem like she is aligning herself with those beliefs, but she just may not know until it happens and then she can’t walk it back. And I know I’m giving herself the benefit of the doubt but it is bc of what she has said herself about her views.

[tamaradoubraomonibeke]

Independent research

“I find it really insulting when people expect me to work for free” – Otegha Uwagba lays bare the inequities of the creative industry.

On it’s nice that, I came across Otegha Uwagba, a Nigerian female author. She studied at Oxford, faced many shortcomings e.g racism, classism and misogyny. In her statement, she talks about how all that contributed in her deciding to create her own path (a podcast and creative platform for women). There were two issues I noted in what she stated.

- The lack of privilege.

- The expectation to do her job for free.

My opinion.

Lack of privilege

I will first discuss about the lack of privilege. She spoke about interviews and how she was told it’d be like a ‘family’, only to be treated anything but not. It could be believed that the pandemic worsened things for black creatives. There are less scholarships and internships given by agencies. As a result, the process of streamlining candidates is more difficult. Many may argue it’s about talent, however, we know tue deep in our hearts, a person’s name already can disqualify them for even being offered a job. Obviously, I don’t have much experiences with industries, however, many black creatives I’ve seen have complained about the inequality. This is why I adore Jessica Walsh, not only does she look out for women but queers and people of color. I haven’t met her in person but the first step to realising you have any form of privilege ( like how I am abled), is acknowledging that just because I don’t witness any form of discrimination against a minority group or I’m not antagonist towards them doesn’t mean anything. Because others will still antagonise minorities.

The expectation to do her job for free

Firsthand, I can say I have experienced this with family. It’s understandable to an extent as they don’t expect too much from me or I have explicitly explained how these things take time. If good quality is what they seek. That’s not the annoying part, the annoying part is when non-creatives claim how design is easy. Sometimes, because I am an illustrator, there is this belief how easy it is. I’m speaking for my visual communication and any design course, we have to strategise. Realising design is everywhere (sometimes not great), and how much thought goes into these rules annoys me. This is why my main aim as a creative (aside from financial gain), is to make non-creatives understand more. Everyone moves too fast in this world that they don’t appreciate works or, give any thought to it. I can sadly say, we are all victims to it but I try more to always look outside instead to my phone. There’s also the notion design can be self-taught ( well technically, in this course, our studies are carried out on our own). I believe it’s one of the re-occurring problems setting design back. Design is always everywhere and since there are many, sometimes we end up doing work for free in desperation. Otegha spoke about how doing free internship wasn’t a choice for her due to finances. That’s the same for me. I cannot do a free internship, not because I’m a poor, it’s another financial burden especially in summer, paying for living cost when I could be at home. Also, I started learning Adobe when I came to uni, so it was all new to me and I can’t spend anytime on an unpaid venture. My way to curb the design is controversial. Thus, that’s where I end for the end.

Author: Jenny Brewer

8 July 2021.

Accessed: Saturday 8 April

[loser-lenny]

the guy who works at the tavern literally refuses to give traveler alcohol lmao, he only sells nonalchoholic drinks to us and even paimon was able to order an apple juice when you go there in diluc’s quest. there’s nothing in eula’s trailer that suggests that they’re drinking alcohol. not to mention this is one example of them POTENTIALLY being able to drink despite there being a dozen other instances in game where the traveler and others says that they’re not old enough for it. they even said it in thoma’s hangout— “we can get a drink together when you’re older”. i’m fine with people thinking what they want to think but you’re just flat out wrong

i dont read much of the lore but it's funny how some of these fans are insisting on saying that traveler is a minor from that scene where they were told not to drink. traveler was literally drinking with Eula in her trailer lmao

[purelyangenergy]

genshin ships- my thoughts

hey everyone, this is a little different to the usual! i figured i would share my thoughts and little headcanons about the various ships of genshin. i should also say, this won’t include every ship. maybe i’ll do a second part of this is well received! so, with that, let’s dive right into it.

chongyun x xingqiu (xingyun)

ah, these adorable boys. if you’ve read anything from my page before, you’ll know i adore this ship. since it’s canon that they get along really well, i would say that they act like an old married couple. bickering, and disagreeing on various matters (mostly chongyun’s dietary requirements), but still head over heels for each other, and would jump in front of a blade for each other without hesitation. my rating, 10/10, my genshin otp. would only be made better by xingqiu actually coming home.

chongyun falls asleep whilst xingqiu is reading, after a long unsuccessful ghost hunt overnight. so, xingqiu, smiles and moves the young exorcist’s head onto his lap, carrying on with his book quietly, one hand playing with chongyun’s fluffy blue hair.

the spirit hunts they go on usually end up turning more into dates when they realise that it’s another dead end. chongyun has chased xingqiu round with carrots numerous times, and it usually ends with a spicy popsicle.

so many evenings in the rain. it’s one of the times chongyun doesn’t have to worry as much about his condition, so it’s the almost closest he gets to his unrestrained self. they usually tend to sit near the adepti statues, just watching the rain fall, enjoying the other’s company.

they’re just generally sweet. they’ve always acted that way since they became friends, so people don’t usually realise they’re dating, unless they’re told. there are obviously a few exceptions to this statement.

kaeya x albedo (kaebedo)

ah yes, my favourite mondstadt boys that probably aren’t actually from monstadt (albedo was confirmed not to be after writing this, so i went back and added this note). they have very different personalities, but i feel as if it works for that exact reason. kaeya’s outgoing attitude, charisma and subtle manipulation clash with albedo’s calmer, softer personality, and it balances out for that reason precisely. kaeya wants to make it very obvious that they’re a thing, whilst albedo would rather not so he could do his work in peace without the cavalry captain clinging to his waist. overall, cute ship, and i don’t see any problems with it. 8/10

albedo definitely walks kaeya home after his nightly drinking spree at the taverns so he’s safe. not that kaeya can’t defend himself (even whilst ridiculously drunk), but albedo wants to make sure he’s okay. it’s become such a common occurrence that kaeya automatically starts walking to albedo’s place if he leaves earlier than the alchemist expected.

ice sculptures. dragonspine, a cryo user, and a talented artist. kaeya’s always happy to help if albedo wants to sculpt with ice, or to create anything with his vision if the alchemist can’t find a suitable muse. kaeya is ‘unaware’ that he’s usually the subject of albedo’s doodles when the man can’t concentrate.

diluc has once approached albedo and asked him how the hell he puts up with kaeya’s irritating self. albedo simply said he didn’t really know, and left.

albedo plaits (sorry, should say braids) kaeya’s hair whilst the taller is asleep. the result is either true elsa, or wavy haired kaeya. both of which are pretty.

kaeya always pays the check when they go out for food. every time.

kaeya x diluc (kaeluc)

this is certainly a controversial one. mostly through translation issues into english from chinese (from what i’ve gathered anyway), this ship is seen as uh…very morally dark. if you put aside the fact they regard each other as siblings (this applies in both the original and translations), these two have a very toxic relationship. kaeya’s been shown to try to manipulate him numerous times, and diluc is not exactly nice to him in return. their canon relationship doesn’t exactly give any favours for anyone trying to find reasons for this ship. admittedly, while i was very confused as to what their relationship was at, i thought they’d look decent together. however, with a few googles and delving into the lore more, i very obviously took this back. personally, i see these two as friends at most. they were once, and with a lot of therapy, they could probably be once again. i should add that i personally see these two as siblings anyway, so anything other than platonic affection between them is definitely not my cup of tea. if i was rating them as a strictly platonic, sibling-like relationship, it would be 6/10. but, as i’m rating these ships in a romantic sense, this gets 1/10. only reason for that is because of the great melt reactions from them being in the same party.

not comfortable writing for this one, for obvious reasons.

diluc x jean (jeanluc, i think?)

this is one of the more popular diluc ships i believe. they have a fair few interactions in canon, so the ship makes sense. and with that, they get along fairly well despite some very different opinions. so, it’s pretty reasonable to see these two as a pair. though, i do see them more as that pair of friends that everyone thinks are dating since they don’t hang out with many others. then again, romantically, it’s also a very sweet pair. they’re both very mature characters, so i think the best way to describe their relationship would be elegant, or almost regal. the kind you find in a fantasy book. overall, a solid 7/10, it would be more if i didn’t see it platonically!

klee wants them to get married. despite finding diluc a little weird (and grumpy), she sees how happy jean is with him, and she wants the dandelion knight to be as happy as she can be. the pair didn’t know how to react when the child randomly stated this in the middle of an important meeting. kaeya laughed and teased them after. jean was the only reason that diluc didn’t chase kaeya out of the room.

diluc is constantly checking up on jean, making sure she gets enough rest and eats something, under the disguise of reporting nearby hilichurls. it’s a little obvious that isn’t the reason, and every one of the knights knows it. but they don’t really mind, because it means that the acting grand master is taking care of herself a little better, and that’s the best thing they could ask for from diluc.

hilichurls fear them.

kaeya x childe (chaeya…?)

when i first joined the fandom, i absolutely despised our resident ginger. i’ve grown a little more tolerant now, probably since i didn’t understand him properly at that time. kaeya however, is one of my favourite characters, and has been from the start. my opinion on this ship has changed a lot since i first learnt of it. after playing around with it a little, i’ve discovered that i have a bit of a soft spot for it. two bois that are both traumatised as hell, both kind of a nightmare, finding that safe middle ground within each other. plus, their visions work well as a unit too, so it wouldn’t be hard to see them actually becoming friends if the traveler were to bring them both along. overall, a solid 8/10. would be higher if we got actual interactions.

they definitely spar a lot. people have reported their fighting so many times but, the authorities just brush it off since it’s normal. usually, these fights end with both of them frozen. so, they sit by the fire afterwards with a warm drink, teasing about any potential mistakes they saw.

this is one relationship that diluc certainly doesn’t approve of. which is why they tried to keep it as quiet as possible, since the knights wouldn’t be happy about it either. however, drunk kaeya happened, and suddenly the whole of mondstadt knows they’re a thing.

yet again, they’re both very highly traumatised. there’s a line of secrecy, so if they ever share any highly classified information, it never leaves the comfort of their embraces. doesn’t stop them from acting on it regardless, just not telling anyone why they know things that they shouldn’t.

zhongli x childe (chili)

now, this is one that i understand. whilst their canon relationship is…complicated, the interactions before the whole trying to destroy liyue thing are something. hence, why the zhongli broke joke is probably worse than it was before, since childe is basically his sugar daddy. these two are perfect candidates for an friends to enemies to lovers story, and i very much see why people love this so very much. however, i also see why people have reservations about this. there’s a rather large age gap, of literal thousands of years, despite zhongli’s youthful appearance. they would probably have that conversation pretty early on, and eventually reach an agreement to not treat it in that way. it’s a fun ship to play with too, since childe’s seen as a fairly playful character, in contrast to zhongli’s serious attitude and calm composure. it can be applied to so many aus, and it works so very well. overall, 7/10, a very nice ship.

zhongli is constantly explaining various random topics to childe. despite not really understanding what his partner is going on about, childe eagerly listens, occasionally chiming in from his experiences.

eventually, zhongli manages to teach childe how to use chopsticks. it takes a while, but with perseverance and slight bribery, he manages it. what were the bribes, you say? they had a contract, in which everytime childe managed to improve his precision, zhongli would give him a kiss.

zhongli is basically permanently using childe’s savings to buy stuff, and there have been a few times that the fatui have asked childe why exactly he keeps spending so much on pointless things. childe just sighs and says not to question it at that point.

they’ve sparred once and it was an obvious victory to zhongli. however, he felt a bit bad since childe was so determined to beat him. so he let himself get a little more hurt than usual. before throwing a meteor at his partner. the only rule was that childe wasn’t allowed to use his foul legacy form, as zhongli didn’t want him to hurt himself.

ningguang x beidou (beiguang)

two of liyue’s girl bosses in a relationship? yes please. similar to chili, this is very much an ‘opposites attract’ or enemies to lovers scenario. they canonically have a bit of a rivalry going on, and their personalities also rather different. aside from both being fairly competitive individuals, they don’t have much in common in terms of opinion. ningguang is stern, calm and goal oriented, whilst beidou (though equally as ambitious) is much more carefree and passionate. ningguang abides by the rules, beidou couldn’t care less for them. despite all of this, they do seem to get along underneath the guise of rivals. and of course, their appearances balance each other out in this way too. this also, the fan art for this one is incredible. i’ve seen so much gorgeous art for these two. their looks are also probably where part of the whole ‘kazuha’s mums’ thing comes from, aside from his motherly relationship with beidou. overall, it’s a ship which you can play with in so many different ways, and that’s what makes it so great. it works well every time i’ve tried to. a solid 7/10, i only wish more content in-game with them!

i wholeheartedly support the kazuha’s mums agenda. ningguang probably spoils him when she gets given the chance, much to beidou’s dissatisfaction, as her partner seems to prefer her ‘son’ to her. ningguang does usually buy stuff for beidou, but she doesn’t directly hand it to her. instead, she allows kazuha to discreetly place it in beidou’s quarters.

the confession happened over a particularly heated game of chess. ningguang was having yet another rematch with the captain, but couldn’t focus on the match because of beidou’s stare. when beidou teased her about it, ningguang quite calmly responded, saying that it was hard to focus with such a beauty staring at her. this subdued beidou into silence for a moment, before she leapt from her seat and crouched down in front of ningguang, clutching one of her hands between her own. that was how beidou somehow managed to turn a chess match into a date.

ningguang believes that beidou has kept their relationship secret. only a select few of her companions know. these are ganyu, keqing (who overheard the conversation with ganyu) and zhongli. meanwhile, beidou overshares absolutely everything with anyone who was willing to listen. the entirety of the crux knew, kazuha obviously knew, the traveler and paimon knew, even gorou and kokomi knew. it was a feat that the whole of tevyat didn’t know yet.

kazuha x kazuha’s friend(tomo??) (i have no idea what the name for this ship is)

i’ve heard of a few people calling him tomo, so i might just call him that for the sake of writing this. though we don’t really see much of this one for obvious reasons *cough* tomo’s dead *cough*, it’s obvious that these two had a very strong friendship. we don’t know much about how long, or why they became friends, but it’s clear to all that they meant a lot to each other. purely based upon kazuha’s reaction to tomo’s death being so strong, it wouldn’t be hard to believe that these two could have potentially been a little more than friends. whether it’s written pre-raiden, canon divergent, or a whole different au, chemistry between these two wouldn’t be too far from the truth. there isn’t much to say here, since we don’t know as much as i wish we did, but from the small glimpse i’ve gotten into people’s work on this, it seems wholesome. and tragic because we all know the canon. so, 6/10, would like to know more about this one!

👏friends👏to👏lovers👏

tomo has a cat. we all know this. said cat is more or less their child, as they take it everywhere they go, and only the most trusted folk are allowed to hold the little feline. tomo was highly reluctant to let gorou pet the cat since he’s partially enemies by nature with said creature.

kazuha being kazuha, writes love poems and signs them with a maple leaf. when tomo wakes up to find these on his window sill, they bring a smile to his face. they always made a bad day good, and a good day better.

snuggles. they camp outside a lot, and during the colder months, they snuggle together for warmth. since tomo’s a fair bit taller than kazuha, the anemo user always feels safe in his arms, as they stare up at the starry sky, waiting for sleep to consume them.

scaramouche x kazuha (kazuscara)

this is one of the ships i discovered shortly after arriving in inazuma. from what i’m aware, these two have never actually been specified to have even met in canon, so my assumption is they’re literal strangers. i know that some believe that scaramouche was the master kazuha had before he turned into a wanderer (and outlaw), but the timelines don’t match up too well for that to actually be the case. regardless, i believe this dynamic would be one of those two friends that you have no clue on how they are still, or even became friends. these two young men are so incredibly different, the only thing that they really share is a deep dislike for the raider shogun, although for very different reasons. so i suppose you could say they’re a case of opposites attracting and balancing out their many personal flaws. it’s a fun ship to play with, and i revel in the idea that scaramouche has a soft spot for a certain soft-spoken samurai. 7/10, i quite enjoy it, though it would be higher if we actually got any sort of canon interaction. of course, if there has been, and i’m wrong, please tell me.

they met on a battlefield, and may have tried to kill each other initially. then kazuha felt bad and sent him a cake as an apology. and so, a cycle of exchanging gifts and letters later, they unconsciously fell for each other.

dates…in public? during the daytime? being an outlaw and a harbinger, going out into public to spend time together would not only result in death to random guards, but a lot more publicity then scaramouche would appreciate. if they do leave a private space, hoods and discreet clothing is a must.

there have been times that they’ve just sat down and ranted about all of their raiden shogun related trauma. tea has literally been spilled in shock a few times.

no one knows. with the exception of gorou, who burst into kazuha’s accommodation soon after kazuha reunited with him, and ended up walking in on the pair cuddling. the doggy general was and still is being bribed with sweets to keep quiet about this whole thing. gorou wouldn’t have told a soul anyways, but appreciates the payment of confectionery every two months.

kazuha x gorou (kazugorou??)

ah yes, most people’s favourite inazuman good bois. one literally being part dog, and the other just being really nice. these two have a solid, canonical friendship and balance each other out so well. canon divergence is easy to write, the friends to lovers consumers are happy, and they’re just generally cute? they just work, i don’t know how else to put it. they have a slightly teasing, mostly platonic and a pinch of romance within their relationship within my head canons anyway. as if, they’re so close that people believe they’re together, even if they actually aren’t. 8/10, no potential toxicity needs to be removed, and it’s very wholesome in general (pun not intended).

cuddles. so, so many cuddles. despite still being sensitive about anyone touching his canine extremities, gorou is quite a touchy person. when they sleep over at the other’s place, they’ll fall asleep in each other’s arms. occasionally, kazuha pets his partner’s ears whilst he sleeps, helping with the occasional night terrors from being involved in wars. (seeing the people who trusted you die around you has to be pretty traumatic, and i believe gorou mentions feeling guilty in his hangout.)

when they aren’t talking strategy, kokomi has been known to tease her general about his relationship. she’s happy that he’s found something to look after outside of work. beidou has attempted to kidnap gorou numerous times, by setting sail with him still on board. fortunately, kazuha notices before they’re too far from land and uses his vision to make sure that gorou doesn’t have to swim all the way back to sure.

mountain climbing and picnic dates. when both men have the time, they’ll go on a long walk, and sleep under the stars. gorou finds that kazuha’s most beautiful words come out when they’re doing so. plus! it’s still kind of training, just in case one day, they have to fight on a cliff side.

itto x gorou (…i don’t have a clue. ittorou? ittogorou?)

this is obviously a fairly new ship in general. however, my goodness. it’s so good? whilst there isn’t as much fanon for this quite yet (time will prove me wrong eventually), the canon is intriguing. as i’m sure most of us know, gorou is (unknowingly) using the alias ms hina to answer letters for the advice column of yae miko’s magazine. many people believe that itto might have a crush on ms hina, and mentions that when he’s near gorou, he gets a warm feeling, and that he feels like he could tell him anything. maybe i’m paraphrasing slightly, but that’s the rough outline. so. there’s been a huge eruption of this ship in fanfics relating to the ms hina situation lately, and from what i’ve read (which is quite a bit of it), they’re so good? these two have a very playful dynamic and it’s very easy to see how they could potentially end up romantically involved. their skill sets within the game are basically made to work together, further adding reason for this ship. whilst i did actually quite like the sound of this one before i found out about the ms hina thing, that did solidify it in my mind. only complaint? can people…pLEASE write more fan fiction that isn’t smut? a fair portion of their tag on ao3 is rated e, and i really would rather not read it. 9/10, give me more content, talented humans of the fandom.

weirdly enough, despite adoring this ship, i don’t know what to write for it? so i’ll summarise. fluffy, itto being a himbo, getting caught in a storm after being idiots. oh, and ridiculously flirtatious letters to ms hina that yae miko has to censor so people don’t figure out that the one may perhaps know what the columnist looks like. and that they’re in a relationship.

and that’s all for now! i might do more (if you have any suggestions of ships to rate, that would be great), but as of this moment, my brain has given up on me. i hope you all had very happy holidays (if you celebrate, of course) and have a very happy new year. that’s all from me, signing off!

-☁️

[redrobin-detective]

Ok, I’ve tried and tried and tried to write this fic because I see it so clearly in my mind but it’s just not going no matter what I do. But I don’t want the idea to die with me. The closest this came to being written was exile which was an attempt to bleed out some of the energy of this au.

Anyway, so it starts off vaguely similar to canon only more aggressive. There had been underlying tension between ghosts and humans for a while, the dead jealous/angry at the living for disrespecting them. The successful creation of the Fenton ghost portal (and another halfa) was considered an act of war and so the ghosts responded in kind. So basically all of S1 occurs fairly close to canon except ghost attacks are more violent and have increasingly more consequences as time passes. Also the attacks aren’t just in Amity Park with ghosts becoming a worldwide issue but Amity is a focal point. Regular people know the ghosts hate them though they don’t know why. Phantom is very much a controversial figure as he is a ghost but also clearly is fighting off the more violent ghosts. 

One day, not long after the events of Control Freaks, Amity Park wakes up to find three of their own are gone. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley are nowhere to be found. There’s a massive manhunt, the parents go on TV and beg for information but they cannot be found. Curiously enough, town hero Phantom was also missing. There’s some evidence they left of their own volition so the Mansons and Foleys eventually relent that the kids fled on their own. The Fentons are 100% certain the kids were stolen/killed by ghosts as a statement. And the fact that Phantom went missing around the same time means he was the one who killed them. Jazz knows Danny was Phantom but had no idea what was going on and knew her parents wouldn’t listen she just, kept quiet and privately tried to piece together what happened. 

Three years pass and finally it looks like the Ecto War is coming to a close. Young, naive ghosts attempted to raise Pariah Dark in a bid to win. It went disastrously but Phantom (who was periodically spotted around the world, deep in the worst battles of the war) and group of loyal allies subdued the king. By the law of ghosts, Phantom was named heir apparent and he declared that the fighting would stop. Humans and ghosts would have to negotiate and co-exist in peace. But he’s not king yet, no he needs to be crowned at the place where it began, Amity Park’s Fenton portal (”where it all began” has a double meaning of the beginning of the war but also symbolically where Phantom began as Kings assume the crown where their living life ended to show their abandonment of their first life and the commitment to their second). Amity is NOT happy to hear that their former hero is coming home.

Amity has been through the wringer, ghost attacks got pretty bad. The Fenton’s throw themselves into their work to cancel out the grief, they create a group of ghost hunters nicknamed the Reds (for their red blood, ghosts are nicknamed Greens) to control the threat. Valerie heads the young adult division and is considered one of the best, she drops out of school to devote herself to it full time. Oh also her dad is now the Mayor as most have died or didn’t want the job. There are still people who like Phantom and see him as a hero (a lot of Casper Kids) but it’s generally an unpopular opinion in town. Maddie and Jack are ready to obliterate the ghost that took their son’s life the moment he’s within city limits. It’s a powder keg ready to blow. It all comes to a head when Phantom and his entourage arrive.

First off, Phantom looks very different, much less human looking than when he left. He’s clearly aged like a normal teen but his eyes look much, much older.  His skin is dead white with a blue tinge to it from his ice core and his aura is super cold. His hair is longer and is very misty that kind of swirls around him and his has fangs and claws. When he’s deep in battle or his obsession, his sclera turn black and he looks scary af. His entourage is ghosts who have sworn loyalty to him, who he picked up along the way after battling beside them for 3 years. Fright Knight, Skulker and Frostbite are recognizable allies. They are not happy that their future King is back in Amity (secretly fearing they’ll lose him once more to his human life). J&M have a shot and are going for the kill when they see something that shocks them; Sam and Tucker are in Phantom’s entourage.

There had been whispers that Phantom interacted with humans, that humans were in his inner circle but this is something else together. And so are Sam and Tucker. Sam is Phantom’s General, she is talented and collected and half feral. She used to be a pacifist but the trials of war and understanding that peace sometimes needs to be fought for made her compromise. She’s covered in scars and an extremely talented fighter. She’s missing her right hand up to her forearm, she can form a ‘phantom limb’ (basically borrowing ectoplasm from her future ghost) to do some things with some powers. Tucker is the support, he uses human and ghost tech to organize, weaponize and generally keep things running. He’s covered in homemade tech (shields and weapons and computers) and he rarely removes. Both he and Sam have kinda forgotten how to interact with and really BE human after so long among the dead. They had attempted to conceal themselves but they had forgotten how strong parental love and recognition is. J&M want to know about Danny, the teens don’t know how to respond but assure them he’s alive. Phantom can’t bring himself to look at them.

This is where I start to lose track of things but there will be parallels of Valerie/Maddie vs Sam as female warriors on opposite sides who are willing to go behind, possibly compromising the things important to them, for victory. Tucker will be contrasted against Jack/Jazz as the one making weapons but also generally keeping the human parts of the team mentally/physically afloat. *Severe* PTSD for all three of them. They’re also unnaturally codependent on each other, get super anxious when one of the trio is out of sight and sleep in a big cuddle pile. They will fucking Kill You if you look at one of them wrong. Vlad will be involved, he had been jailed for war crimes but convinced Walker to stage a coup to overthrow Danny and take the crown before he’s actually declared King and is too powerful. Vlad is more unhinged here, more ghost than human (a hint on what could happen to Danny if he’s not careful). He is eventually defeated but he sacrifices his life for ghost power which, in the end, is what makes him able to be beaten.

 There’s lots of ideas on what it means to be live or dead and where the divide really is, is it a heartbeat or it is how you choose to use your existence. On how duty shouldn’t mean you need to give up everything. Because Jack and Maddie believe that Phantom killed their son and, in a way, they’re right. Before they left, the ghost war had gotten so bad and the rumors of Dark being resurrected were going around. Amity attacks were at an all time high, people in their school were being killed just because Danny went there. He realized he had to choose between Fenton or Phantom and he chose to protect the world. He abandoned his human identity and went off to fight in war. Tried to convince Sam and Tucker to stay but they followed him through hell and back. Because Danny spends so much time as Phantom, Fenton is severely neglected. His long hair is cool and floaty as Phantom but is unkempt and stringy, hanging in his face as Fenton. He’s wan and underweight and looks like a walking corpse. He knows his human half will give out soon if he doesn’t give it more attention but he just can’t there’s too much to do, too many people to save.

It would end with Danny being outed to the town, not the world, just the town. Jack and Maddie need to recon with the fact that their boy DID leave of his own choice but only because their failure to protect him (from both the portal and ghosts) made him feel he had to take all this responsibility on his shoulders. Danny also has to recognize that he (and Sam/Tuck) can’t do all this on their own and they can trust and rely on the people around him. Phantom is crowned King but he decides Amity will be his base. The trio eat more, sleep some, catches up on school all the while continuing their duties as King and court. The ghosts also see that Phantom’s humanity isn’t a weakness but a strength and will bring peace to the Earth/Zone so they also take some of the burdens off his shoulder. 

Basically I load up heavily with angst at the beginning and end with all the love and comfort imaginable. I just can’t fucking figure out the middle and my motivation will not let me write this shit out. But I can’t let this AU die bc it fucking keeps me up at night.

[atpaftmoom-bily]

Thoughts about Erik, why Wilhelm wasn't allowed to come out, and more.

Be warned, this is long, confusing, and I'm not even sure if I made any valid points. But I had thoughts on Young Royals, with no one to talk to, so here you go.

I've seen various different takes on Erik and what people thought his reaction would have been if Willie had come out to him, most of them being positive, and some as well saying how sad it was that Willie never got to come out to his brother. I have a different take, but bear with me it's gonna take a second to get there.

Something that I found interesting in the first place was that when August found out it was Simon and not a girl, he just seemed shocked, but not in a homophobic way that I had kind of been expecting.

Additionally, let's take a look at the comments on the video, I've split them up into three different groups. General comments (disbelief, surprise, pity, etc.), comments sexualizing them, and negative comments. (I've translated these as well as I could as they were not all captioned, but if I've made a mistake feel free to let me know!)

General Comments "OMG Have you seen this?? The Prince is gay!!!!" "Who's the other guy?" "I'm dead" "Finally some news to put Sweden on the map!" "Poor boys, I feel sorry for them" "So clumsy to get caught on film" "I know where he lives!" "I think the video is fake" "Love for the boys"

Sexualizing Comments "Royal porn" "Sexy" "Love" "Sexiest video ever"

Negative Comments "How will the monarchy survive this?" "The end of the royal family, time for Sweden to become a republic!" "Never been ashamed about being Swedish until now" "Class traitor! Your mother cries for your sins"

Now, there are quite a few things I want to point out about Sweden that I feel should be taken into account here. Of course, we don't know the exact dates that the show took place, but we do know it is modern-day, and though it is a work of fiction, I am going to assume that anything that is currently true in Sweden at the moment, give or take a few years, would also be true in the Young Royals universe.

The first point I would like to make is that Sweden is one of the most LGBT-friendly countries, even being named the most friendly country in 2019. Looking back in history, 1944 was when Sweden decriminalized sexual relationships between consenting adults of the same sex, though it was still thought to be an illness. However, in 1979 it was no longer considered an illness. Fun unrelated fact, but Sweden was the first country to legalize gender change in 1979. (If you'd like to read more on LGBT rights in Sweden here are some resources. One. Two.) If Sweden is that progressive and is that LGBT-friendly, then I wondered what the problem was with Willie coming out, so I dug some more.

I'm American, so my understanding of many parts of the world is unfortunately skewed or incomplete, but I'm working on changing that. However, because of this, one thing that surprised me in my research was that the monarchy in Sweden is more of a unifying symbol than anything else. They have no political affinity or formal powers, but rather "the King’s duties are mainly of a ceremonial and representative nature." Of course in the case of Young Royals, the Queen inherited the throne, and Wilhelm would after her.

Something else I found interesting about the monarchy in Sweden is that the current Queen, Queen Silvia, did not come from a line of nobility, so when Queen Silvia and King Carl Gustaf married in 1976, it was highly unusual. (See more on the Swedish monarchy here.)

There is one last thing I want to point out about the current King and Queen. "In summer 2000, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden made history when they ate under the rainbow flag at Djurgårdsterrassen, a Stockholm restaurant owned by gay owner Arto Winter. At that time, the decision was seen as controversial, and played a valuable role in moving conversations forward – while making the royals’ position abundantly clear." (Source)

Now, of course, I understand the difference between a fictional work and real-life situations, but at least in my opinion, these same ideals should carry through to the show that we see. If the King and Queen in real life have been openly supportive of the LGBT community since at least 2000, then although specifics might not be the same, some of those ideals should carry through to Young Royals, so what is the problem, right?

I'm not trying to erase the reality of homophobia altogether, because of course, that exists. We even see in the show through comments that there are some people who are worried about the state of the monarchy, are disgusted, or downright still think that not being straight is a sin, but we also see other comments as well. If Wilhelm were to come out, what would happen? Would there be some backlash? 100%. Would there be people who would support him? Also 100%. Would it make his life harder? Probably, but would he be happier? In my opinion, yes, but I guess that's a question that Wilhelm would have to gauge on his own.

Now I want to look deeper at the conversation that Wille has with his mother, the Queen, in the car on the way home so he can give a statement to the media. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Wilhelm: Why can't I just have a relationship with him? And not say anything. Just live a normal life.

Queen: You're the crown prince. And that's a privilege, not a punishment.

Wilhelm: Yes, but I didn't ask for this!

Queen: Well, nobody has ever, ever asked for this! You are the only one who can take over the throne after Erik. Don't you understand that? You are so young. When you're young, love feels like the most important thing in the whole world. When I was your age, I too had an unfortunate romance. That was before I met your father. What I mean is, is it worth it? If you feel that the attention you've been getting so far is unacceptable, it's nothing compared to what you will endure for the rest of your life. We have a chance to cover this up, I urge you to take that chance. You may not get another."

---

Something I find interesting is how much Willie just wants to live a normal life, which I get. He is under so much pressure, from being a role model, his brother's death that he hasn't even had time to process, preparing to be king someday, and (kind of) being outed to the entire world, but at least his school. It's enough to make anyone want to live normally. I think the biggest thing we have to think about here is the Queen's question as well. Is it worth it? She is right of course, the attention he will get will always be there, but I do think that Willie would be able to find a way to be happy along with being King. It shouldn't have to be a case of either-or, and ultimately I don't think it is.

Now I'm going to move back to Erik, and really, this ties everything back to the start where I mentioned I had a different take on Erik's reaction to Willie being not straight. I think that Erik already knew. It would make sense for a variety of reasons. In the show, it is obvious that the two of them have a good relationship. We also hear Erik tell Willie, "you can trust him, he's like a brother," in episode one when speaking about August, showing that trust is something strong between them as brothers. I'm not exactly sure how old Wilhelm is meant to be in the show, but I estimate somewhere around sixteen. I would like to assume that sometime before attending Hillerska, he may have had a crush or felt some attraction to a guy. We also can see from their phone call in episode three, that they're not afraid to joke around with each other about such things, meaning that Erik would most likely be the first person that Willie would go to about such things.

Another thing that makes me believe Erik already knew has to do with people assuming that Simon is the first guy that Willie has liked. Now, I know things are not the same for everyone, but if we consider what happens when the video is posted, and Willie had to deny it is him, we can conclude that being anything other than straight in their family is not okay, simply because they are royals, and the media attention will be too much. Imagine you've known your whole life, you can't be something, the first instance you encounter that, you're probably not going to give in right away. I'm talking at least some minor internalized homophobia here or something.

So put that into the context of Simon and Willie's first kiss in episode two. Simon kisses Willie twice before Willie says "Well, I'm not... I'm not... Stop! Wait, wait, wait!" and immediately pulls Simon back towards him. Let's reflect back to episode one where Willie says "I’m not… I’m not allowed to speak about political issues." I'm not allowed. Of course, there are TONS of restrictions on what he can and can not do, kissing guys, probably being one of them. But if he was going to say I'm not gay or I'm not like that, why would he instantly pull him back in, contrasting what he was just going to say. In episode three, Willie does say, "I'm not like that," which makes sense. He's had time to think and isn't in the heat of the moment. What other explanation can he give? Sure, he could say he's not allowed to be like that but saying that would admit that he is. It's a circle, a very messy circle, but it is a... loop.

Going back to what I'm supposed to be talking about here, Erik. This isn't Willie's first rodeo, but Erik was there for the first. One last thing I want to talk about is the phone call that Erik and Willie have in episode three. Below is an excerpt from their dialogue.

---

Erik: You've met someone.

Wilhelm: I, uh... Yes, okay, but I... I don't think we're a couple or anything. I don't know what it is but can we just...

Erik: I get it. I get it. You don't have to tell me any... I don't wanna hear any details. Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions and-

Wilhelm: They don't care about me. 'Cause you're the Crown Prince that they have opinions.

Erik: I don't get it. Why are you sitting in your room sulking when you have a crush to hang out with?

---

Firstly, Erik refers to Willie's crush as completely gender-neutral. "You've met someone" could very easily be "you've met a girl". The same goes for "you have a crush to hang out with". Very well could have been "you have a girl to hang out with". Sure, it could be completely coincidental, but we live in such a heteronormative society that it would just make sense for Erik to use female-gendered words. Unless, of course, he knew.

Secondly, "Hey. Willie, enjoy yourself. Soon enough people will start having opinions". This sounds very much to me like, enjoy your time while you can be yourself without backlash because soon you won't have that privacy. While I feel that, yes, the same may happen with anyone Willie was to date, him having a same-sex partner multiplies that, by a lot.

In conclusion, Erik knew Willie was not straight, Willie should come out, but when he is ready, and August is a really deep character that people don't give enough credit to. Gosh, I hope I covered everything, I probably forgot so much, but it's fine. Please let me know your thoughts if you've made it this far into the post.

One last thing. I hope you'll notice how in this post, I never referred specifically to Wilhelm's sexuality, and I did that for a reason. I often see gay used to label him, and though I am unsure if that's being used as an umbrella term or specifically as in he only likes men, I think it's really important to realize that they're specifically making him unlabeled. In this youtube video Edvin Ryding, the actor who plays Wilhelm, says "What we're trying to do... We're not labeling Wilhelm's sexuality. I think that's good because it's like, it portrays that it's okay that way too. You don't have to. You shouldn't have to come out. It should be allowed to be a bit fluid, a bit out there." I just think that it is important as it's another type of representation that is not seen often.

[simplepotatofarmer]

technoblade: a takedown - pt. 1

(not clickbait)

aka i go over every argument people make against c!techno one by one and determine whether they’re valid, false, or a mixture of both. i rewatched every single stream/video, including those on his alt channel, so i could approach this with the most information possible. i’ll be breaking this up into parts because there’s just too much otherwise. all about the characters unless stated.

techno believes in a ‘dog eat dog’ world - false

this is an argument i see used a lot when people discuss techno so i wanted to address it first. luckily, the stream in which he says this is only his fifth stream on the server. there’s one major reason why this argument falls apart and one minor reason that isn’t objective like the first.

first and most importantly: techno has never acted on this. even at the beginning - which is when this comment was made - he was helping his allies, from building railings to keep them from falling, making a potato farm, and all the gear he grinded for to equip his allies in pogtopia with. moving forward, he’s also helped out plenty of people: giving tommy a place to stay and items, telling phil to reach out to ranboo after doomsday, as well as giving both tommy and ranboo food when asked. there’s more, of course, but the point is he’s never once followed up on this statement. he teamed up with quackity to stop the egg. he spoke to niki about how he was giving anarchy a bad reputation because of the violence and wanted to take a different approach which he has.

when people use this argument to insist that techno is the villain, it doesn’t hold up because it’s merely taking one statement he made and upholding it as a main part of his character when his actions and later statements have shown that he doesn’t actually believe in this randian view point. objectively, i can’t see how this argument can extend beyond ‘well, he said it’. regardless of what he said during the pogtopia arc, he’s said the opposite later - wanting everyone to live free with no oppression or imperialism - and has never acted on it nor brought it up later. this take honestly seems disingenuous and was in fact the driving factor of this post.

second and not as critical, techno mentions multiple times during each of his first streams that he’s not sure who all is on his side. this is a reoccurring point for him. he makes the comment about wanting a dog eat dog world during the red festival stream, while speaking to bad and sam. the first part of the conversation is techno asking about state secrets since they’re (as far as techno knows) on manberg’s side. bad mentions schlatt killing cats and techno launches into a spiel about massive anarchy and the weak being huddled in fear, asking them how does that sound. bad says as long as there’s no cat murder, perhaps. bad then asks techno what his ‘single issue’ is and techno responds that he wants to destroy the government. to me, the context of the conversation, who he’s speaking to and what his opinion of those people is, is an important thing to consider.

techno’s ‘we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it’ comment means he was always going to betray pogtopia/l’manberg - valid but not how you think it is

i’ve seen people say that techno saying ‘we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it’ is a clear sign that he was always intending to betray pogtopia/l’manberg which, yeah? 

but i wouldn’t call it a betrayal. 

he says the ‘we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it’ line at the end of the ‘eve of revolution’ stream while he’s talking to quackity, ponk, and sam. the conversation is as follows:

techno, to quackity: i’m glad we could get to know each other. i heard you’re on our side now. i heard you betrayed schlatt.

quackity: yeah, that’s right. are you betraying anyone?

techno: no. i would never betray my personal ideals.

[some chatter from ponk and quackity]

sam: what does that mean? what if the people you’re fighting along [sic] have different ideals than you, though? doesn’t that mean you’d betray them?

techno: listen... we’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.

then techno states that he ‘said what he said’ when sam questions him about his choice of metaphor.

he actually uses the same malaphor at the beginning of the ‘revolution’ stream when they (quackity and tubbo) question him again and in that case techno definitely avoids the subject which isn’t a good thing but considering everyone was so worked up about the possible traitor, i can completely understand.

overall, techno is extremely upfront about his intentions. yes, there is definitely some miscommunication between all the parties because none of them were on the same page but that doesn’t make techno the bad guy here nor does it mean he betrayed anyone. he was upfront about his intentions from the start.

in his first two streams, he makes a joke that if they happen to set up a new government/president that he would just take that one down and it would be a never-ending cycle. over and over, he says that he wants to do destroy the government/manberg. when tommy mentions taking it back, techno says, ‘what do you mean, take it back?’ though this kind of gets lost in the middle of everything else - dsmp (lack of) communication strikes again. 

the takeaway that i see here a lot is that techno always intended to betray them because he knew tommy wanted to take back l’manberg and knew that he would go against them if they set up a new government. and this is true to an extent! he did know that tommy wanted l’manberg back and he did know that he would go against them if they set up a new government. but wilbur was also telling techno that he was on board with the whole anarchy thing. 

none of them were on the same page and that surely led to a big chunk of what happened and hurt feelings on both sides but that doesn’t mean techno betrayed anyone or that he was the bad guy for doing exactly what he said he would do from day one.

techno destroying (l’)manberg was wrong - it’s complicated

the first thing to address here is that for most anarchists, destroying a government isn’t a bad thing. in fact, taking down the government/state is basically our goal. now, i don’t speak for all anarchists, of course, but overall the general feeling is that violence in the name of overthrowing an oppressive government is not inherently bad. there’s no way to do a one-for-one here because it’s minecraft but the general sentiment remains. so while violence enacted against the state is a bad thing for people who aren’t anarchists, techno has no reason to and would not view it as inherently bad.  

but it did hurt people and techno himself acknowledges that fact. he’s acknowledged what he’s done when confronted about it. he hasn’t said he was wrong because understanding that it was hurtful doesn’t mean he believes he was wrong. to him, he wasn’t. destroying what he viewed as an oppressive system was the right thing to do, even if it hurt people.

(also this isn’t any kind of meta but i think it needs to be pointed out that wilbur had already set off the tnt and techno summoned two killable mobs which did plenty of damage but he didn’t say wilbur was the great who came before them for no reason.)

again, this is going to be the most controversial part of this post because i don’t believe destroying government is a bad thing and i don’t believe techno is wrong for believing that as well. there are better ways to address the problem and techno is adjusting his tactics but if another government was to be established, i don’t believe he would be in the wrong to destroy it because he’s an anarchist.

the tl;dr of this section honestly could just be summed up with ‘watch less marvel, read more ursula k. le guin’.

‘techno is the villain because he called tommy the hero’ - so very false 

this is a take i’ve seen that to this day i don’t understand.

techno calling tommy the hero does not mean he was setting himself up as the villain in any capacity. it was merely pointing out tommy’s habit of putting himself at the forefront of almost every conflict, trying to shoulder everything, no matter how it hurts tommy himself. the speech was directed at that and nothing else. it doesn’t mean techno is the villain, it doesn’t even mean there is a villain; there are more stories to be told than the classic hero-villain and the hero-villain narrative doesn’t always apply to stories. (i’d certainly argue that it doesn’t apply to the dream smp but that’s a different conversation.)

techno is to blame for tubbo’s death - false

i think this one has been done to death but what would a techno post be without it?

no, techno is not to blame.

he said over and over that he was outnumbered and believed that if he had done anything, everyone would’ve turned on him and ‘torn him to shreds’. even if that wasn’t the case, it is what techno believed. he had no reason to think that he could take the entire crowd out until he actually fired the rocket launcher. and remember, he tested the rocket launcher earlier during the festival on niki (who volunteered) and it didn’t kill her. when he realized the amount of splash damage it did, he gives a surprised laugh and then begins firing into the crowd. 

as for saying he was under ‘mild’ amounts of peer pressure, techno has a habit of minimizing. not just the things he’s done, but often situations that he’s been in that were stressful. he stated that he deals poorly with high stress situations and one of the cognitive distortions that can come with anxiety is minimization. techno doesn’t actually believe it was ‘mild’ peer pressure - it was a situation that caused him enough distress that he brings it up later at doomsday - but it’s easier to deal with a situation when you downplay it, it’s easier for techno to keep up that calm façade when he’s acting as if whatever happened wasn’t that big of a deal even if it was. again, the way he speaks about it on doomsday was clearly upset and emotional. 

the only person to blame for tubbo’s death is schlatt. he was the one pulling the trigger and techno was the gun.

if you made it this far, thank you for sticking it out! i spent so many hours rewatching all the streams, some of them multiple times, while taking notes to be able to do this. i’m extremely passionate about techno and i feel as if a lot of the arguments against him tend to miss the nuance of his character. this project is on-going and i’ll be going over the butcher army/retirement storylines next. feel free to submit any points you’d like to see addressed! 

[homosexuhauls]

Joanna Moorhead

Culture of silencing any challenge to prevailing ideology is damaging academic freedom, says professor

The press release that accompanies Prof Kathleen Stock’s new book says she wants to see a future in which trans rights activists and gender-critical feminists collaborate to achieve some of their political aims. But she concedes that this currently seems fanciful. As far as she is concerned, the book, Material Girls, sets out her stall – and she knows a lot of people will find it distasteful.

Stock, a professor of philosophy at the University of Sussex, says the key question she addresses – itself offensive to many – is this: do trans women count as women?

Whatever else about her views is controversial, she is surely on firm ground when she writes that this question has become surrounded by toxicity. But the problem for her is, at least partly, that many people do anything they can to avoid answering it. “Very few people who are sceptical talk about it directly, because they’re frightened,” she says. “It’s so hard psychologically to say, in reply: ‘I’m afraid not.’”

Stock is at pains to say she is not a transphobe, and also that she is sympathetic to the idea that many people feel they are not in the “right” body. What she says she opposes, though, is the institutionalisation of the idea that gender identity is all that matters – that how you identify automatically confers all the entitlements of that sex. And she believes that increasingly in universities and the wider world, that is a view that cannot be challenged.

“There’s a taboo against saying this, but it’s what I believe,” she says. “It’s fair enough if people want to disagree with me, but this is what I think.”

That last statement is loaded, too, because the gender identity row is closely linked, especially on university campuses, with freedom of speech. Campuses are a minefield for those wanting to discuss these issues, she says, and she has faced calls for her university to sack her. So she is supportive of the government’s controversial plans for a free speech bill, which critics including English PEN, Article 19 and Index on Censorship have argued will have the opposite effect.

In a joint letter, they argued that the legislation “may have the inverse effect of further limiting what is deemed ‘acceptable’ speech on campus and introducing a chilling effect both on the content of what is taught and the scope of academic research exploration”.

But Stock backs the bill: “I think vice-chancellors and university management groups have shown that they can’t manage the modern problems around suppression of academic freedom. I think there are some genuine instances of unfair treatment of controversial academics, and those academics should be able to seek meaningful redress.”

This week the University of Essex apologised to two professors, Jo Phoenix and Rosa Freedman, after an independent inquiry found the university had breached its free speech duties when their invitations or talks were cancelled after student complaints.

Stock grew up in Montrose, Scotland, the daughter of a philosophy lecturer and a newspaper proofreader, and studied for her degree at Exeter College, Oxford, going on to do an MA at the University of St Andrews and a PhD at Leeds.

Having come out as gay relatively late in life, she now lives in Sussex with her partner and two sons from her previous marriage. She regards her OBE, awarded earlier this year for services to higher education, as a signal that her views have at least some backing in the establishment.

“Academics being online, students being online – it’s introduced a whole new landscape for dealing with controversial ideas, especially when those ideas are controversial within your peer group or a student body. Threats to academic freedom don’t just come from China, or millionaires trying to buy a library wing for your college; they also come from students whipping up a petition within seconds of you saying something and trying to get you fired.”

Sometimes, she claims, it is more insidious than sackings: “For academics [the gender identity debate] has a chilling effect, because academics believe their careers may suffer in ways that are less visible: they don’t get promoted, or they’re removed from an editorial board.” The net result of all this, she says, is an impoverishment of ideas and knowledge, and damage to the dissemination of information.

Because another of Stock’s key arguments in her book is that her own profession, academia, has failed to look in detail at some claims made by trans activists. She questions some of the data that gets shared regarding violence against trans people, saying that a lot of it is produced by groups that adhere to a particular narrative.

“I don’t doubt that transphobic crime occurs, but I want to know to what extent it occurs in a way that could help the trans community better understand the problem it faces.” She’s disappointed, she says, in some fellow academics for not rising above the fray. “I thought the point of philosophy was that you would be able to argue things without resorting to ad hominem attacks – I thought that was the point of our training.”

How, then, in her view, have we got to where we are? Stock takes issue with Stonewall, the LGBTQ+ charity, which campaigns for trans inclusion and opposes the views of gender-critical feminists. The charity’s Diversity Champions programme is very popular on campuses, and Stock believes this has in part “turned universities into trans activist organisations” through their equality, diversity and inclusion departments.

Beyond this, the introduction of student fees has played its part in the current situation, Stock believes. “As soon as students started to pay, they became customers, and universities became much more deferential. They started talking about coproduction of knowledge, giving them much more choice over the whole experience.” The problem with that, she believes, is that “some young people come along with fixed ideas about gender identity theory, and it’s awkward – especially when universities are branding themselves as LGBT-friendly and queer-friendly.”

Philosophy is a vast space, most of it without risk of abuse. So what keeps her in this particular arena? “I was bullied as a child and I think that gave me experience of social ostracisation and toughened me up,” she says. “I’ve also got amazing support. Sure, some philosophers and colleagues are against my views, but others are very supportive.

“Plus it’s personal for me: I’ve struggled with my body in terms of femininity. I could easily aged 15 have decided I was non-binary or even a boy. And I feel very worried for teenagers who are now foreclosing reproductive possibilities and their future, or damaging their bodily tissues in irreversible ways, based on an idea that they may come to relinquish at a later date.”

One tragedy of the gender identity debate is how hate-filled and polarised it has become. Stock says she has suffered online abuse, but makes it clear that she is going to continue to state her case.

Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism by Kathleen Stock is published by Fleet

[ialwaysgobacktoit]

idk how you'd write a one shot for this cause idk how to properly word it, but gwynriel being soft but in a way that almost domestic? reading books together all scrunched up together and then debating those books and their conflicting views because what's a good couple if not banter? and then agreeing to disagree, but not really because neither of their competitive asses can actually let it go

For Gwynriel Appreciation Week: Reading together

AAAAAhhhh!!! It's being some rough couple weeks, therefore I'm not as active as I wanted in terms of writing, but I'm loooving to read all your content. Gwynriel Week is awesome!

I know this is AU day, so I tried to make this as "freely" as possible, and it can (if you squint, I guess) be fitted in AU! I originally wanted to post this on day 3 (Identity) but life had other plans... Anyways, this is just a snippet, a little scene I loved to write and think about, and aaah what do l care, it's Gwynriel after all!!!!!

Hope you like my contribution to Gwynriel Week and remember, my ask is always open for prompts and ideas! <3 keep on rocking, keep on going :)

---------------

"This is absolutely ridiculous."

"What?"

Gwyn closed the book with a thud, shutting her eyes and massaging her temples in frustration: "There's no way this could actually happen. Not like this."

"Which page are you on?"

She opened her eyes and stared at him from across the couch. They were a confusion of tangled legs, sharing a blanket, lying comfortably in a C-shaped love-seat in Azriel's bedroom.

"One hundred and forty."

Azriel snorted and shook his head:

"There's still a lot of ground to cover." He said casually, returning to his copy of the novel, but that smirk on his face told Gwyn there was more.

"What do you mean?" It was her turn to ask, and she ignored how high her pitch was at the statement. "On which page are you?"

They started doing that the last couple of months, eventually borrowing two copies of the same book and reading it together. An amusing experience, especially considering how competitive both of them were. Not that they minded, anyway.

"Keep on reading." He answered, eyes darting from the page to her.

But his smirk only grew wider:

"And..." He paused, pretending to check. Gwyn saw right through him. He knew all too well in which page he was; they had the habit of tracking each other's progress: "Two hundred and thirty two."

"What?! That's impossible!" Her eyes widened "We started it yesterday, and got to the same page."

Azriel shrugged irreverently. "I'm a fast reader. And since we're on that... You should keep on reading."

Gwyn scoffed, feigning irritation. How was it possible he read so quickly already? They spent the day busy and that was only the second night both sat down to read. Unless...

"What did you do?" Her tone was accusatory. "You kept on reading after I fell asleep, was it? Or..."

He had shut down his copy now, but said nothing. Gwyn sat up straight, retreating her legs and crossing them, and ignoring the strange sensation of not having the weight of his legs against hers:

"You have read this already, haven't you?"

As he didn't respond immediately, she pressed: "Shadowsinger."

He straightened, features changing slightly as he blinked, looking at the ground.

"I knew it!" She leaned over to tap on his shoulder playfully. "I can't believe it! Why didn't you say so?"

"To be fair, Gwyn" He raised his hands in surrender "I only remembered I've already read this in the last hour. It's not like I don't have five hundred years on my back. "

She shook her head, but couldn't hide her smile.

As he watched her schooling her expression into a serious one once again, Azriel realized he didn't plan to tell her about it for two reasons. The first was that he really couldn't remember almost anything from the plot, so it wasn't that big of a deal. And the second, and that one was hidden deep within him, he didn't want the precious expression from the moment she first read the synopsis out loud to fade if he told her the truth. That excitement and pure joy only Gwyneth Berdara could express.

Besides, he was more than content in casually sitting beside her, feeling the smooth touch of her legs against his or her feet atop his knees, in comfortable silence as they both read; it almost didn't matter which book they were reading. Not that he would admit that.

Not just yet.

"Anyways" Gwyn's face was dead serious now, as she returned to the subject in question. "Since you read it, we might as well discuss it already. For Mother's sake, why did Aliana lie to Milfred?"

Azriel frowned in confusion, waving his hand for her to remind him, trying to retrieve the scene of a book he'd read over two centuries ago. "Again, Gwyn. Five hundred years on my back."

She sighed, and unconsciously fell back against the cushions, extending her legs to their previous spot. She didn't let herself dwell on how Azriel's expression softened at that, as if he'd also been missing their touch:

"They are best friends, and Aliana chose not to tell Milfred she knew about what she truly was, even if it could change the entire plot; and their entire friendship was based on trust! Cauldron, why do authors keep on doing that? She should have told her from the first time Milfred saw the Oracle."

"I can see your point" Azriel murmured after he drew on a breath, cocking his head.

"But?" Her eyes narrowed.

His expression was cautious for a moment, but when he spoke, he was assertive: "Sometimes we have to lie to the ones we love, even if it hurt us to do so."

"I'm aware of that, but that's beyond the point. It's controversial to Aliana's character. Not to say it would've probably reduced a lot of the drama and angst. They are stronger together, and this should be obvious to both of them."

They were in a dangerous territory, Azriel could feel.

Truth is a delicate matter, Shadowsinger.

His shadows coiled around his ear, whispering. He ignored them and studied Gwyn. Her copper hair in a messy braid, clad in her usual robes. The priestess he have come to call a friend. Best friend, even.

"Is it?" The corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily as she crossed her arms against her chest, and he kept on "Controversial to her character? I mean, I know that they value trust above everything, but sometimes feelings may come in the way. And that doesn't necessarily mean they are controversial, just... Flawed."

Gwyn huffed, and something about the way the Shadowsinger averted his gaze at the last word, hazel eyes flashing a glimpse of pain, urged her to talk. Or hug him. Which she wouldn't do.

Not now, at least.

She opted for the former:

"If well written, yes. It does show complexity in a character. But I haven't advanced enough so far to determine that, so... To me, right now it only screams inconsistency." She shrugged, trying to lighten the mood.

To make the brooding Spymaster smile again.

"Ah, and lack of originality, of course."

It worked.

He chuckled and grabbed his book, that frown going away and almost making Gwyn sigh with relief:

"So you should keep on reading." He nodded to her copy, that crooked smile still on his face. "To confirm your opinions, that is. Not because I've said it three times already."

It was like Azriel couldn't control himself when he actually winked at her. But he enjoyed it, almost too much.

"I guess I should. Meanwhile, let's settle on agreeing to disagree." She opened her book once again. Her eyes glinted with mischief, but her blushing cheeks gave her away.

And damn him if the thought of making her flush didn't spread his smile even further.

"Besides" She added, brows high, eyes never leaving the page "It's obvious I'm reading for this sole purpose."

"Of course you are." His answer matched the tone of her statement, and they fell into comfortable silence once again. Effortless, like they could just be around each other, without second thoughts.

But the words she said before still ringed in Azriel's ears. Were echoed by his shadows.

They are stronger together, and this should be obvious to both of them.

And as he kept his gaze on her for a moment longer, who now was absorbed by the story, he realized maybe he should start admitting some things.

[lucemferto]

Niki Nihachu & Barbara Kean

Gonna drop something controversial real quick.

Niki Nihachu is the most tragic character on the Dream SMP – and I don’t mean in the sense of her having a tragic story (though she is up there), but in the sense that she is tragically mishandled.

I want to start out by saying that this essay is by no means an attack on the content creator Niki Nihachu or her abilities as a performer. She is frequently one of the strongest actors on the SMP and I have no idea how much of her character writing was within her power. How much of it was improv, how much pre-planned, how much something she genuinely wanted to do and how much stuff she just stumbled into or – in the worst-case scenario – was forced upon her. I don’t know.

The Dream SMP is not very transparent when it comes to their creative process. As such I can only judge it as a discerning viewer and English major dropout, who retained some half-remembered stuff about narratology.

So, a few weeks ago, I tumbled on here that Niki’s character journey reminded me a lot of the character Barbara Kean from the hit TV-show Gotham. Then I got an ask asking me to elaborate. This is the elaboration.

Barbara Kean

So, a quick crash course for people who haven’t seen Gotham (the greatest comic book show on Television, seriously, what are you doing with your life?!): Barbara Kean was a major female character throughout all five seasons of Gotham – and not once during those five seasons did the writers ever figure out what they wanted to do with her.

Every 10-12 episodes or so, Barbara’s role shifted completely. She started out as cop-protagonist Jim Gordon’s girlfriend at home and moral compass, then became part of a bisexual love triangle, then a hard-drinking jealous party girl with a backstory as repressed, lonely rich kid, before being kidnapped by a serial killer and ultimately making her perfect metamorphosis into the psychotic ex-girlfriend trope.

And that was Season 1.

Since then, she became the pseudo-Harley Quinn to the pseudo-Joker, a whip-wielding dominatrix, the obligatory female member in a supervillain squad, some sort of information broker, a mafia kingpin, the leader of a girl-power posse and – my favourite – the reincarnated wife of an ancient immortal who also controls all of Gotham and transferred that control over to her before that plot-point was dropped harder than a half-dead Oswald Cobblepot of the Gotham piers.

Also, she’s Batgirl’s mom.

In short, it’s a mess – but that’s what makes Gotham kinda fun.

Character Cohesion

Now, obviously, Niki’s character journey has not been quite as extreme. But it falls into the same traps, I find. Namely, that there’s just a distinct lack of character cohesion or character continuity.

Now, character cohesion or character continuity doesn’t mean that the arcs these characters undertake can’t be explained in a logical way. Barbara’s character journey is logical in the sense that you can explain it all with in-universe logic – but it’s not logical from a narratological sense now, is it?

Character Cohesion basically means that a character’s journey is reflected in their personal conflict – their Want vs. Need. Their arc is the natural continuation of what was set-up in previous sequences. Everything falls into a whole with Set-up, Confrontation, Resolution – we set up the character’s Want, their Want and Need are conflicting, the Want vs. Need is resolved. Ideally this coincides with the plot beats of the large conflict surrounding the cast.

When you look at Barbara in Season 1 of Gotham, you’re not thinking “This one right here – she’s the reincarnated wife of Ra’s Al Ghul”. Because why would you? There was no set-up; it’s not part of what her character was about in this moment – or any moment before that concept was introduced. It’s not needed for her character conflict (or any thematic conflicts for that matter).

It’s quite transparently just something that is affixed to her so that she has something until the writers come up with the next at which that first thing will dropped, underdeveloped.

Niki in Season 1

Niki follows the same route, unfortunately. She’s set-up as the resistance in L’Manburg, allies herself with Eret and HBomb until – oops – it doesn’t end mattering, because that entire side of the “plot” is completely underdeveloped. Just be a damsel until Wilbur can swoop in and save you, Niki.

Okay, but now she has a big moment with Tommy and Tubbo just after the pit-scene. “We’ll figure something out”, she says. “We need L’Manburg back”. This is all before the backdrop of Wilbur completely giving in to his role as a villain and Techno’s apparent “betrayal”.

So, now, surely, Niki is gonna affect change in Pogtopia and will have some influence on either Tommy or Wilbur, the two people she’s closest to. What’s this? Her biggest contribution is holding a birthday party where Quackity convinces Wilbur to hold off on his TNT-plan? And after that … she’s just gonna be part of the Pogtopia-masses?

Now, I like Wilbur’s writing and Season 1 generally, but when it comes to Niki (and Eret) something went terribly wrong. Both of them provided many a set-up – none of which were taken advantage of, unfortunately.

And, just to be clear, I’m not putting the blame on Niki here (or at least not most of it). Season 1 was pretty firmly in Wilbur’s hand … and Season 2 was a train wreck.

Niki in Season 2

Niki is – for the most part of Season 2 – a nothing character. She has no real conflict, no character beats, no arc. This is because through some unfortunate writing decisions, Season 2 is pretty squarely focused on a specific set of characters – and even fewer of those characters are granted a fully explored, completed character arc.

It all culminates in her Doomsday villain arc – a moment that can be logically explained from both an in-character perspective and a meta-perspective, but unfortunately, it’s not justified from a technical writing point of view.

Niki burning down the L’Mantree is her “Ra’s Al Ghul’s reincarnated wife”-moment. It’s a big statement that put her character on the map for a large part of the audience again. It was a striking visual. It could not be ignored.

Most of that was because it was a stark departure from her characterization in Season 1. Now, such a departure doesn’t necessarily have to be bad. The problem comes in when

a.) The full potential of the character in their previous narrative role had not yet been fully or even partly exhausted

b.) It cuts into an on-going character arc and drastically changes its course

c.) It’s not foreshadowed or developed properly.

And most of those are true for Niki’s character. She was not necessarily underdeveloped but underexplored in Season 1 and had no consistent storyline going on in Season 2. She was a witness to Tommy’s trial, but that was never worked into an on-going storyline for her. No matter how much we retroactively pretend like this turn to villainy, this breakdown, was brewing deep inside of her – there was no foreshadowing.

The reason, why I said it’s understandable from a meta-perspective, is that the content creator Niki Nihachu had a self-admittedly hard time getting her foot in in Season 2 – because Season 2, for as much love as I will heap upon Tommy’s and Dream’s storyline, was a pretty messy.

So, the villain arc was not well foreshadowed and Niki’s turn was developed, but what happened after she was in it?

Niki in Season 3

Well, unfortunately that problem of an inconsistent storyline never really went away for her. In the beginning of Season 3, she hatched her wagons with Jack Manifold, which was a pretty big tonal shift – from darkly tragic to cartoonish villainy.

But as Jack kept developing his character in that lane and following up on big plot development with corresponding character moments, Niki again just … vanished. She then changed gears again, joining the Syndicate – a great idea if only the Syndicate actually streamed together and developed a storyline and group cohesion.

As it stands right now, Niki’s character exists in the negative space of the fandom imaginations. We are given some scraps and good character moments – her sleeping in a jail cell, “I started baking again”, her secret city – but those moments never coalesce into a full-fledged storyline.

Her character’s journey is still as fragmented and underexplored as it ever was. I really hope that – with Wilbur’s revival and the new character conflict that seems to arise from that for her – she manages to finally get the foot in and get the storyline and dynamic arc she deserves.

[cooloddball]

JIB9 (JIBCON 2018) ANALYSIS PART 2

Go read part 1 of jib9 analysis if you haven’t read it already.

Continuing from where we left off...

Misha says no, he doesn’t think that Cas feels like part of the family and Jensen smirks and looks down while Jared smiles

Jensen helps Misha along with his answer 

Jensen defends Sam and Dean after Misha says they don’t show emotion saying things like “I love you so much”

Jens: “There are a few scenes where you know,”

Jared: “Didn’t you see the one with the whole if we die we will do that together too?”

Jens: “Yeah that was emotional”

This is getting serious people. Remember this is season 13 they are talking about.

Jens keeps going on “you know there was embracing, and then there was a lot-I mean…” This whole time Jensen is looking at Misha

Misha is like “All I’m saying…”

And Jensen cuts Misha  off and says, “Did you miss that?”

Look at Jared’s face here though. He’s like are you guys having a lovers’ quarrel? Am I missing something?

Misha tries to talk again but Jensen is adamant, unrelenting to give up on that there was an emotional scene between Dean and Cas. 13x05???  “Were you not there?”

Misha being who he is and not backing down either he says, “NO” rather defiantly. 

Jared’s face here though. He stopped talking and is watching these two lovers go at it. (No, not the sexy kind)

Jensen doesn’t look too thrilled about what Misha said. Jared laughs Jensen is basically done at this point. Look at his face.

Misha continues “That was Castiel”

And Jensen just looks appalled, he raises his eyebrows looks down at his hands [0.43 insert Jensen’s face atm] and since Misha is looking at him and he sees that Jensen is unhappy he adds “I’m very method.”

Jensen goes to say something but stops himself, Jared senses the tension, Misha is still looking at Jensen and Jensen hasn’t looked at Misha since he asked him “were you not there?”

IDK what is going on here but it fees like more than just about Dean and Cas and more like it’s about Jensen and Misha. I mean Jared and Misha are having fun with it and Jensen just seems adamant to prove they care A LOT about Cas which is weird considering the fact that the moment Misha was asked that question Jensen agreed with Jared that they are not as pleased that Cas was back (this was a joke) . So what has changed since then? Only a few seconds have passed.

Jensen presses on, “I mean was Cas there? I know he was there physically but was he there emotionally? Because it doesn’t sound like it.”

The way Misha is holding his microphone he looks scared. Jensen can’t take his eyes off Misha.

Misha says, “see this is what I’m talking about” I think he realizes Jensen is getting too emotional and personal on stage and he decides to guide the conversation to the funny side.

Jensen laughs .

Misha says “ I don’t think he [Cas] lets himself feel worthy or wanted” and Jensen keeps looking at a fixed spot on the floor and I don’t know what’s so interesting there. Jared says “smart” in reference to Misha’s statement and Jensen nods.

Jared tries to make fun but Misha is not having it, he [Misha]  looks at an imaginary watch and says  “That said-uh…that said I think this season he’s felt more part of the team and the family…probably *looks at Jensen* more than ever before” Now I talked about that moment here but I have to reiterate, something is off here tbh. I don’t know what was going on with Jensen but something was definitely off.

I have been thinking about what the causation of Jensen’ s behaviour could be and I have come to a very weird and maybe kind of controversial conclusion, IDK. But  here’s what I think. Maybe Misha finally told Jensen that he didn’t feel like he was part of the family because of the way they treated him and talked shit about him at J2 panels? Like how he pretended to gag when he saw Misha on screen during the jib9 j2 panel the previous day. Or the extreme pranks Jared played on him and Jensen just stood aside? The way some  j2 fans send hate to him and that it gets to him. Maybe he finally opened up. Because if that is the case then,  Jensen blamed himself for making Misha feel like that when he didn’t have any intention to? I hope I’m making sense. Or maybe it could be something else entirely but I feel like since 2017 Jensen had stopped going along with Jared’s attempts to make fun of Misha at their panes. So maybe this was him feeling bad that he ever played a part in that??? Okay my head hurts I have to move on. 

Since that moment Jensen doesn’t look okay, even when Mishalecki are bantering with the next fan, Jensen just seems sad? Sad is not the right word but he seems kind of upset 

So the fan makes a small mistake in what she’s asking and Misha laughs  then Jensen turns to look at him for a brief second, it’s literally for a second and Misha looks at him with his big blue eyes but Jensen looks away rather quickly. I think they can both feel the weight of the previous answer Misha gave simmering beneath the surface but they can’t talk about it atm. 

Now Jared says something rather weird to me, “A man who goes to sleep with an itchy butt wakes up with a smelly hand.”   (I know it’s a saying or whatever but it’s just a strange thing to say or maybe it’s just me) Jensen is nodding along to that but Misha doesn’t look amused. I think it’s an interesting thing to say when two of your best friends who play with each other’s butts are seated on stage with you. I’m not sorry I said that because it had to be said.

For a literal microsecond, Misha looks at Jensen but Jensen is looking at a fixed spot on the floor as has become norm in the last 2 minutes. Mish suppresses a smile because he knows Jensen still feels bad about earlier.

Jared says that’s why he thinks the brother’s and Cas have to die in order for the show to end and Jensen’s face is just stoic. Dude wtf?? 

Jensen joins in the banter and makes a joke about a man who stands on a toilet while high on pot he’s not crazy he’s just high? J2 make another joke about a man going backwards to Bangkok or something. Misha manages to laugh at those jokes.

Jared asks Misha  if he has anything to add and Jensen looks at Misha smiling look at the way he’s looking at Misha. It’s like he wants to stuff him in his pocket and take him home with him.

Jensen is laughing so hard now because Misha says that the only sayings that come to mind are the only ones he doesn’t want to say.

They try to pronounce the German word and it’s hilarious AF.

So Jared makes a joke of a sound that the fan is helping them pronounce and Jensen is just done. Completely done because he looks away and scratches his beard like he wants to be anywhere but there. JFC What is going on? He was happy again.

OMG husbands whispering at each other while Jared is engaged with a fan. Gossipy Jensen. Also I’m glad whatever tension was there after the Cas question is finally gone and they are back on track again.

They are in there own little world because IDK what Misha whispered to Jensen but Jensen is unicorn laughing. Aww J

 “We just said some really bad shit” I like it when Jensen curses. Now I want to know what they said because when Misha whispers it to Jared, he laughs really hard as well. Oh to be a tiny ant crawling around, listening to their whispered secrets. A girl can dream am I right?

7.33 Jared asks the fan what her “that German/Austrian word” was that morning and I am inclined to think whatever the husbands were whispering to each other had something to do with a sex-related orifice because of the way Jensen reacts.

The fan puts Jared in his place. Look at Jensen’s reaction.

He’s like you go girl.

Jensen wants to whisper something to Misha so bad but he stops himself.

Okay so Jensen says he did bicycle touring and he did take part in some of the quests. Is he talking about GISHWES because he never can pronounce that word. LOL.

So Jared interrupts Jensen starts telling his story and Jensen just shuts down just look at his face the entire time Jared is telling it.

Misha and Jared are talking about how it’s so hot on stage and Jensen is just miming to the fans how it’s not hot. I love when he does that. Naughty boy.

Misha moans and he and Jared just rush off to point the fan in their direction while Jensen just stands over the fan on his side of the stage and cools his balls off.

OMG!!!! Misha is doing the mating dance while making fiery eye contact with Jensen and sips from the bottle. Jensen heeds his husband’s call to mate and walks briskly in long manly steps to wards him and he takes the drink off his hand while looking at him like he wants to eat him [it’s called a mating dance for a reason] and inhales the drink whatever it is and it must be really strong because he looks away and says something to Jared. Misha walks away says something to Jared and goes to sit down.  Jensen starts twerking his booty. Misha your man wants to mate on stage do something. Anyway Jensen pours the drink that Misha had sipped directly from the bottle in a shot glass  and does the rck on sign and sips it. The entire time Mishalecki are just looking at Nesnej and laughing not understanding what is going on.

Jared sniffs the drink and says “poker face” and Jensen says “thanks Lady Gaga” IDK if this was a snide comment or just banter but now we know Jensen listens to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry (re: jib8).

This part is really funny when the fan thanks Misha for sending a recovery message to her friend but Misha says that  he had no choice but to do it because the fan just held out the phone to Misha and Misha was like “oooh, heeey”

I think Jared asks Misha what happened and Misha explains because Jared folds over laughing.

Jared starts talking before Jensen can answer the question and again Jensen doesn’t look too amused. This guy keeps stealing his thunder.

Jensen manages a smile when he hears that Misha did a German accent 

Misha asks Jensen if he wants some tips on accents and Jensen smiles and says no. Ouch. Sorry Mish, your man doesn’t want your help. He’d rather wing it.

Misha is not backing down and compliments Jensen by listing all the accents that Jensen can do. We love a supportive husband. Hype your man Mish.

Jensen says that he speaks French and he has a little have a  tête-à-tête in français. I find it funny how Misha pretends not to know Jensen speaks French yet he just listed all the accents Jensen can do. Sure Jan.  And after the French interaction which Misha adds a flair of a French accent when he talk as and , Jensen tries really hard  not to smile. Someone’s excited. #accent kink ;)

Jensen says he doesn’t think Michael is going to need an accent and Misha says yes he will in French accent and Jensen is just trying really really hard not to smile.

Look at Jared’s face though he’s like dude are you seriously turned on by Misha’s weird accent right now? It’s not even funny and Jensen can’t stop smiling.

Jensen is done with Misha’s shenanigans so he just cuts him off and Misha is exasperated and Jensen proceeds to ask his question.

Fan says she would improve on Misha’s German accent and Misha gasps scandalized and  even Jensen is not happy about that but he takes this moment to make fun of Misha so the comment doesn’t seem as harsh 

Look at Misha’s face

and here is Jensen’s face  he can’t believe someone was mean to his baby.

Anyway, in an attempt to make it less painful for his man he tries to make and joke and says, “I didn’t send that out with the insult in mind but I’m really glad that happened.” 

The joke makes it worse and Misha  doesn’t seem to feel better. Poor Misha.

It’s over.

Time for the closing ceremony

Jensen and Briana singing.

 Misha and Adam

I love their friendship, makes me think of the possibilities that could’ve been between Cas and Mick on the show.

OMG Jensen you naught boy, yeah I see you have experience humping and spanking. Go on Rockstar we love to see it.

Even Jason Mann’s sees Jensen humping the air and Misha and Jensen turn to look at Jason. Jensen is  smirking at him after what he just did. OMG.

The way Jensen is looking at Rob when Rob tries to sing the remaining verses of carry on my wayward son. Jensen you need apple juice. Jensen is me. He is insane and he is me and I love him. JENSENKIN!!!!

Why are Jensen and Misha gravitating towards each other unconsciously? Do their hearts have magnets that pull towards each other?

Speaking of them why does Jensen seem extremely tall here and Misha looks so tiny.

Am I the only one who doesn’t like the guy who played Ketch? OMG he just rubs me off the wrong way.

 OMG is Jared trying to touch Jensen’s hand? Eww He touched Jensen’s arm and Jensen didn’t even look at him. This is embarrassing. Jensen hasn’t looked at him once/ HELP.

Misha and Jensen are standing the same way at the exact same time and they aren’t even looking at each other. OMG!! This is insanity.

Jensen turns to smile at Misha. Aww J

Jensen looks at Misha with a smile on his face when Daniela says they’ll be back the next year the year that gave us straddle gate and boners.

It’s over guys. 

So I have come to the conclusion that something was going on between Jensen and Jared at jib 9.

See you on the next one.

Part 1

[xz1005fanblog]

Hi! I’m hoping this isn’t annoying or asking too much (please just ignore me if that’s the case 😅) but i’ve seen some screenshots going around from xz’s old weibo, like the tan lina stuff. I don’t know chinese, anything about weibo, and i feel like I can’t determine whether this is real or not. I know that lots of people have … a truly intense hatred for him, so it wouldn’t be shocking if antis were just slandering him. But it’s confusing with tan lina even acknowledging it?? I saw you say in an earlier post that antis were blowing his old posts out of proportion and making up stuff, so i was wondering if you could correct the record?? ;___; thank you for reading this confused ask

Hi!

So for those who don't know about Tan Lina, she's a half-Indian, half-Chinese actress. The controversy was about this screenshot circulating on wb with XZ's old ID, where he allegedly was opposed to her playing a character and used defamatory words.

This was the alleged screenshot, when weibo shares a post to there own wall, the last person sharing the post can add their own reply to the front of what was said before. So basically in this screenshot:

Date: 2011-08-15

4th reposter: My Blake! I want to punch you! First it's Princess of the Returning Pearl (another classic character) Now it's my precious!

// (this is what is between each reposter's statements) 3rd reposter: This... Wasn't it supposed to be Feng Jie who was going to play~ Feng Jie has so much more appeal than any of them!!! //

2nd reposter: What have they changed the name to again. //

1st reposter (allegedly XZ's old ID): What! They found an Indian black girl to play s, , , //

Original poster: OMG Gossip Girl!!!! I don't want to say anything anymore...

The following screenshot is what the search bar gives when you try to search the content of that post on weibo again. We cannot find this post or any of the reposts anymore.

So many things lead us to think that the original screenshot was fake. The first is that the number of reblogs shows up as 0, which is fairly suspicious since the screenshot itself shows at least 4 reposters.

The other suspicious thing is the space between the ID and the statements, generally weibo gives automatically a double space between the colon : and the ID, which is not consistent in this screenshot.

This is a post by a non-fan who added a group chat to get paid to post/repost things on weibo for money. It basically says that she got pulled into another private group to repost that first screenshot and pour oil to the fire. The person refused to do this task against their conscience.

Whether or not the first screenshot was real, you can be assured that Xiao Zhan does not discriminate against black people.

On his weibo account in 2015 he liked this post of a African-American child who got bullied for cosplaying as Elsa for Halloween. He also liked albums released by African-American singers, and took selfies with people of color. These can still be found by scrolling far enough through his "liked posts" on weibo (I have personally verified this in 2020 when all these rumors came out).

Serena in Gossip Girls was originally characterized as a classical blond haired girl with blue eyes, I think someone who can appreciate a black-skinned child putting a costume as Elsa from Frozen would not be so scandalized with a half-Indian woman playing Serena.

I fairly suspect the actress Tan Lina to have been duped by XZ's haters and that first screenshot, and while I do sympathize with her difficulties with discrimination in her area of work (let's face it, people of color do not have it easy in any industry), I do not believe XZ personally discriminated against people of color.

Pictures dating back to his university days (that haircut is unmistakable hahaha)

Sources:

https://m.weibo.cn/status/4487238824153644?sourceType=weixin&from=10C3095010&wm=9006_2001&featurecode=newtitle

XZ's weibo