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ranboo5 · 2 years ago

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sorry this ended up being so long and its a little over the place

i thought they really nailed the atmosphere from episode 1 and i was srly impressed w the set design and the pretty seamless transition between live bits and prerecorded bits (felt a bit like a pre-rendered cutscene in a viddy game) and the general gamey aspects of the audience participation. my first first first impression of the entire thing was i was reminded of like you know those kids shows that are live action and theres an grownup guy whos host and theyre walking around in weird surreal rooms that arent real rooms but just a set? do you get what i mean.

i get that whole point was like well the "show" is show and its meant to be off and have this like vibe of shallow entertainment but its like when the large chunks of the actual series is That it wasnt always super interesting to watch unless there was something else going on? but like conceptually i really liked all the different segments of the "show". theres almost an aspect to them where in some of them the entertainment comes out of like almost degrading and dehumanizing the participants? could be wrong. anyway no matter how entertaining i found those bits, having 2/3 of the series be That does make really good buildup for ep3 i dont think i wouldve enjoyed ep3 alone without having seen ep1 and ep2. like them just walking around on these like sets they had been in prior but now theyre empty and dark. and the sets on their own were already a bit freaky and ominious but with all the silliness on top you sort of buy it, but now theyre empty like FUCK. seeing the ep 1 set from that perspectove for example fucked w me. i rly like ep3.

i liked the little nod to jerma dollhouse. and i love how they make audience participation feel increasingly more sinister during the course of the series . i mean it was already sinister in jerma dollhouse because jerma dollhouse is a riff on sims and SIMS is sinister because you get to play god with little guys and thats on paper a little fucked up. i guess the audience has way less power in genloss but theyre sort of complicit in everything and almost contributing to the spectacle just by virtue of being there and watching? idk. thinking of ranboo yelling stop watching into charlies stream and throwing the camera into the floor. maybe thats the point

i havent thought tooo hard about but but i think the overall recurring theme feels slightly on the nose like the part where ranboo walks into the food court and its just this row of streamers it feels like just slightly a little bit corny. but then on the other hand id rather have that than like it being so ambiguous that the casual viewer would not Get it do you get what i mean.

umm i think my biggest consistent negative thing was the improv between characters felt a little chaotic and overwhelming and it seemed like some participants werent really responding to each other as much as just Saying things. and i think given the many different kinds of Situations and Predicaments they were in i was a bit disappointed that there wasnt as much good like not banter but back and forth as i wouldve hoped. and then i liked even less when there were too many streamers in one scene at once it was very overwhelming and chaotic and it seemed like everyone was just fighting for screentime (maybe this is not true but this is the impression i got). im fine w the acting tho i think it was suited for the story they wanted to tell. as always blown away by ranboos profiecience at playing a miserable sopping guy at the end.

the standout star of the series was the visuals goddd the sets and the cinematography and the way they utilize the entire space so well.like every single hallway and door . and like idk what to call them the like Guys with the masks just pouring out of these corners is so freaky and then the Wire tv creechers are so and its so actually i have one thing visualswise that i thought abt that stuck with me with like again idk if they have a name but the guys with the masks in general. ESPECIALLY that moment in the end when ranboo presses that red button and they all just kind of stop and shut down and just stand there eerily . VISUALLY it reminds me so much of magrittes golconda and i just keep thinking about it. like the way theyre all spaced and just standing it almost feels intentional maybe not referencing that work specifically but def trying to evoke a similar feeling. do you see the vision

idk. Thats my thoughts.i have not been super into the whole arg aspect and the binary code and wingdings and i have not dived super deep into like the hashtag LORE these r just my own observations and thoughtse. yayy

THIS IS AWESOME TBH.... I DIDN'T MAKE THE MAGRITTE CONNECTUION BUT YUOU'RE SO RIGHT AND IT WORKS SAUR FUCKING WELL LIKE WHAT IF I EXPLODE

I think I had a lot of patience for the show:tm: stuff because I was paying (probably too much/reading Into It) attention to the moments of like . Shaky camerawork or weird handling of confessionals. That whole energy that Showfall is not an actual media company but something playing at being a media company. IS SO

#hearts don't look

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ruumirmir · 8 months ago

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Object permanence is a real pain in the ass bc TRUE I too forget stuff unless it's literally in front of my face . also i need to start putting dividers amidst every other paragraph changing the topic of conversation 💀

omg bonus House of Wolves AU:

what do you think Loverboy's role would be in this AU? from what my little brain could understand from the animatic,, pantalone went to some kinda mora treasury vault? Alone? Arlecchino either followed him to ambush him,, or bc shes after a part of that wealth too.

omg what if Loverboy was dispatched to be on the other side, laying waste to the House of Hearth 👁👁 Gasp what if Arle stationed the magician siblings lyney lynette and freminny to protect the house. Gasp . idk im reaching at straws but this AU is anyways saur fascinating. 😭😭‼

AHAGAGHASJEJSS so far I'm noticing a pattern that dottore has found himself the number 1 targetted opp from roughly every harbinger ever 😭 in the same breath I think loverboy's prime target of harbinger murder would be Dottore as well. Saying this with the context of reader spending enough time in the Fatui to get to Know the other harbingers.

I mean theres only so much i can say about it with the minimal canon lore about unreleased harbingers + the mass delusion of headcanons ive seen everywhere. I might revise it again another time,, but as of now loverboy's opinion on the other harbingers should be something like:

Pierro - Big scary ancient fossilized man. Not a stick, he has the whole tree up his ass. 4/10

Capitano - Big scary eldritch horror. He's chill tho. Nods head in agreement when overhearing someone thirst over him. 6/10

Dottore - Explodes him with mind. Stay away from pantalone thats MY dysfunctional workplace situationship /jealousy. I hope your clones cannibalize you. 1/10

Columbina - So far so good. Let's keep it that way. Maintains approx distance of 20 meters whenever in vicinity. 3/10

Arlecchino - Threatning in the lowkey way. Not a fake bitch. Respectable single father of fifty kids. 7/10

Scaramouche - Something is so deeply wrong with this rat. I'd rather you were a fake smiley bitch than an upfront sadistic egomaniac. 2/10

Signora - There's worse women out there I'm sure. Having pretty priviledge is like god's saving grace if you were to interact with her. 4/10

Childe - He should be at the club. Relatively the sanest man to hold a conversation with. No i do not want to fight you- do you want me to inform Regrator that you're here to visit? He'd like to reach you about your car's extended warran- 9/10

Pantalone - His roman empire. ?/10

Sandrone - (As arlecchino mentioned that several fatuus have even yet to SEE her,, i think loverboy hasnt met Sandrone at all.)

Pulcinella - Pantalone was right actually. A mere 12 hours for the passing of a long-reigning Harbinger??? Even HE was weirded tf out. Hopefully the next coffin will be yours. 2/10

ok im actually laughing. "over time he's become a better guy :) <3" "-when it comes to hiding his emotions >:)"

plus one for character development ig 😭 his morals may be skewed but his pristine mask of porcelain sure ISNT.

MOVING ON- i fear you may be right it IS the sexy glasses with the metal chains. I like my men a little blind <3 Side note: if we're sticking with the delusion headcanon of Pantalone being a Gunsperson,, I think he's farsighted. You'll see him squinty eyed trying to count mora without his glasses, but he'll snipe a dude 20 blocks over.

Speaking of voices omg I had the most delicious thought ever: After reader leaves his Fatuu service, finally thinking hes free and that the worst and most hectic part of his life is OVER- (Spoiler: It isn't) What was that saying,, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder?". Ok what if I took that and adjusted it to be a little more fucked up. Having killed a man, and being complicit in killing several others, One does not Simply Escape The Harrowing Change that comes with it. I think it REALLY starts to set in after he's removed from the environment where death is so normalized. What if over time, Loverboy noticed the voice inside his head was slowly starting to sound like Pantalone. What then.

"You're very good at what you do."

okay. what if the next time it was a whisper telling him to snap a man's wrist in two because he was clearly trying to scam loverboy in broad daylight.

Rightt although its not in your rules list,, I'm guessing you don't write any sexual nsfw- STILL WANTED TO CONFIRM beforehand if you're cool with rambling about anything sexually explicit. because WELL lets just say my collection of twitter bookmarks would kill a catholic nun. I'll thoroughly indulge your vulgar way of speaking girl 👍💗

Pathetic sobby men will never not ignite SEVERAL sinful thoughts. Pantalone a stronger man than me bc i'd be pivoting that workplace situationship twink towards the bedroom immediately. anyways-

OKAY ABOUT THE FATUI MANPOWER BEING SO VAST,, I was thinking about the overall genshin public's prejudices and reaction to the Fatui,, or just Snezhnayans in general.

"Most of Snezhnaya's foreign relations are handled by the Fatui, though their aggressive negotiation style and constant political and economic encroachment have given them a negative reputation."

I wouldn't say that it made life HORRIBLE for loverboy to have connections to the fatui. But i'd say theres little scope for a satisfactory life outside Snezhnaya when you'll always be thrown a look of distrust every other day. Better to stick with your village, isnt it? Plus:

There also seems to be a large emphasis on familial relations, as the Snezhnayans who have mentioned their family have been shown to be very close to them. Camaraderie, cooperation and straightforwardness generally appear to be valued in Snezhnaya.

From reader's dad point of view, I'd assume he was a patriotic man + working under the man who might take over the economy in the future,, the salary would be Nothing to Scoff at.

simping for your own OC/ Reader/ Character is a different form of embarassing indulgence because theres a person in my head that I MADE UP and theyre ruining my life /affectionate. You can't even doomscroll content of them cause you have to make it yourself. 😩😔 At the rate this is going,, I might start to self-insert with PANTALONE cause lord help me I need to kabedon Loverboy so bad.

OMG LOVERBOY PISSING OFF PANTALON E i didnt even think about that But now that you metnion it youre so Right ( •̀ .̫ •́ )✧ I wouldnt be surprised if for a split second he had a passing thought to put a bullet in reader's skull too, but one deep breath later he had to compose himself. (Almost killing the other count: WHat is this? atleast the 4th time now?)

LMAO BUT WORRY NOT GOOD SIR your loverboy is infact going to develop a spine of Steel with SO MUCH survivcal instinct that Years down the line he's going to get you in Hot Shit with the Knave on pressumed account of him BETRAYING YOU (Gasp Gasp). For the sole reason of wanting to survive No Matter The Cost . Would you look at that. We've come full circle now.

Im imagining pantalone,, Now regrator,, looking at loverboy after a good 3-4 ish years and not recognizing the man for about a minute,, before he makes that mental connection that Ah. Its the soggy mop boy from years ago.

and his eyes dilate like a cat and he goes ‼‼‼‼ And oh no!!! THats where the obsession starts to snowball Like "holy shit babyboy that post-character development clarity looks positively Enchanting on you. I need you in ways that are So concerning to business ethics"

Like finding the most perfect diamond after leaving behind the same coal to crystalize under pressure.

wow this loverboy business is no joke ive never been this insane over Just a Guy. and to think it all started bc i accidentally sent the same req to two different writers 🥺

Ok lets go SImply reblogging your oneshot for my req isn't enough i need to analyze and annotate the entire thing like a literature professor and tell you Everything. (✿◡‿◡)

pantalone might be ooc

He's not!!!!!! by which i think this is fairly a Really Good portrayal of the guy considering the 5 sentences we know about him. He's strict!!! frankly a little scary!! And also chill and positive about loverboy!! But it felt Just Right!!!! ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

descriptions of blood

description so good i might as well have killed that man myself

...pretend that his lore has a spot where this fits perfectly

I think i can make it fit!! would you be cool with making minor changes if so?

"You're very good at what you do."

Imagining the same voice as sebastian michaelis saying this with the sexiest buttersmooth voice is eviscerating me. Very self-indulgent but praise kinks will always slay so hard.

...on the verge of stabbing him a moment ago.

This,, and the small thing i wrote about loverboy launching them both out the window to escape an onslaught of assassins in my other req. get you a ship where one of them has completely normal knee-jerk reactions to kill the other <3

...as he crushes their hand beneath his shoe without mercy

Fatui Harbingers - House of Wolves - KIERU 0:15

...Instead, Pantalone looks unfazed by it all, stopping as he reaches the other side of you, free of most of the blood. He greets you with a knowing smile as he usually does.

hey ririto this is so ominous and eerie for some reason not known to me. Just the backdrop of grey and snow and probably a gruesome corpse right next to loverboy and Pantalone has a silent smile through everything. Delicious sentence 10/10.

"I knew making you a banker was a good idea,"

THIS IS SO. The confidence and quite calm assurance that pantalone says this with is SO. You'd never be sure whether to lean into it and let out a sigh of relief,, o r back up further becuase it sounds so good but all in the wrong ways.

...thumb brushing across your bottom lip slicked with blood.

fellas is it professional to feed double edged words of honey to your young inexperienced subordinate while kneeling in front of his battered and bruised self who killed someone for you,, and run a gloved thumb across his blood soaked lip. ( ͡• ͜ʖ ͡• )

"Who knew you had so many other talents,"

you are infusing these dialouges with crack cocaine giggling kicking my feet while being slightly concerned because Sir. What do you mean by that.

"Ah ah," he says, a harshness seeping into even just that sound. "Stay." You stay put,

thank you for making loverboy so Ouppy.

"Lord Harbinger," you try to say

yes,, this could be a minor thing to adjust: i think we could actually fit this oneshot somewhere AFTER he gets his vision,, and BEFORE Pantalone becomes the Harbinger Regrator. Can be a valid reason for Pantalone to see that reader failed to kill the assassin from their shitty negotiation meeting,, and wanting to newly test him again after he had his vision + ambitions awakened to see if he can get past the fear of killing NOW. (Even then,, maybe due to inexperience/unfamiliarity of using visions, reader didn't think to raise his advantage of supernatural powers against another visionless man in this scenario.)

I'd think his first kill was one of the factors that caused him to leave after his 3year duty, not sticking around for Pantalone's promotion to Regrator.

"You are much like your father."

Top 10 things Not to say to someone with daddy issues-

...they're as wet behind the ears as you are.

Dear diary, Today i learned a new speech of expression

...Pantalone's hand that rests on your chin moves... "Now, try again. Dear banker, whatever do you mean?"

this whole paragraph. What on earth do you mean 'ooc pantalone'. This is the MOST pantalone thing you could've written. Strict and intimidating about improving reader's meek attitude. a Push in the right direction.

"Is this a test?" you manage, words muffled by the way he squishes your face like putty beneath his fingers.

(thank you for making loverboy so Ouppy) x2

...and you know who, regardless of how 'anonymous' that source may have been in his words.

I MAY BE STUPID. （；´д｀）ゞ I CANT TELL. who you are hinting towards 😭😭

"Hold this," he adds, an unnervingly tender instruction for the way he was just behaving.

There he is. its reminding me of: the same pantalone that washed reader with a clock in my very first req to you.

...looking probably about as pathetic as you think you do.

POV: You're Pantalone looking down at Loverboy.

I forgot how much of a bug-eyed wet dog loverboy is before his time-skip "character development" so to say. Thanks i love him.

"next time someone approaches you from behind, don't wait to stab them. Don't reach for your wet knife with your wet hands, either. Both of those things will get you killed."

I think pantalone is entirely having too much fun with observing Loverboy try climbing the ropes to how REAL fatuus run business.

"Come now. You want to go home and back to Liyue, don't you? I'm tired of this cold."

Σ(っ °Д °;)っ back to liyue??? Loverboy is Liyuean??? pantalone stays in liyue??? I ALWAYS THOUGHT arlecchino called pantalone a bitch in Signora's funeral for "never leaving the comfort of his homeland?" Whuh-?

ALL IN ALL,, CLOSING THOGUHTS,, GOOD FOOD RIRITO DINNER HAS BEEN SERVED, ATE, AND LICKED CLEAN 10/10 ILY

I GOTT THIS JUST BEFORE I WENT TO SLEEP AND ONLY JUST GOT THE TIME TO ANSWER IT BUT I KNEWWW YOU WOULD GET THE HOUSE OF WOLVES REFERENCE

That is true actually and I realised after I posted it that like, wtf is in character for him?? 😭 he's said like two things and while I have memorised those things they're not a lot to go off but I'm glad you enjoy him (ﾉ´▽｀)ﾉ♪

Also if you can make it fit, feel free ☆(≧∀≦*)ﾉ I sorta only had a vague idea of where it might go, but at that point in time, loverboy works abroad in the Northland Bank. I'll also throw in that he travelled there for that job and unfortunately does not come from Liyue 😔 (unless he's supposed to?? I got the impression he was from Snezhnaya) it was more a "I bet you'd love to be back at a desk job rn" or something to that effect, loverboy is going back to the bank once things are settled where he belongs but Pantalone isn't going with him (hence why they're in Snezhnaya when this happenscause I also interpret at as him not liking to leave Liyue)

I'm so glad the J Michael Tatum love never stops but also you're so right praise kinks absolutely do. I also noticed that them trying to kill each other is like, a repeated theme so far 😭⁉️ LIKE WHEN PANTALONE WENT TO FIND HIM LAST ONESHOT HE WAS GONNA KILL THAT FUCKER

Confident possibly mildly degrading Pantalone is literally my favourite thing, like I chew on him. I chew on him being unnervingly calm because what would he have in the eyes of a wet mop boy besides an unwavering poker face. Get yourself a man who uses the blood of your enemies like your lipstick and knows he made good choices stationing you at his shady probably money laundering black hole of debt he calls a bank

Yk I agree actually I was trying to figure the timeline out in my head and realised it would've made more sense to happen before he was a Harbinger so I agree with this revision that actually makes it fit the lore and if I ever decide to make it a longer multichapter fic I'll definitely fix that 💀 t'was a victim of laziness

YES YES THIS Pantalone basically shaping him up so he doesn't literally die and being strict with it get so him. He'll prompt him to say it again but won't let it slide because that behaviour isn't going to be beneficial, especially not with someone who may be working under him long-term

I went back to read the part about the anonymous source line came from, and I think I figured out what happened here, so allow me to explain (;ﾟдﾟ) Ok so, it has a bit to do with the weird way I wrote this because when I said I wrote this on the train that was half a lie. I wrote some of it on the train and the rest at the library where I also edited what I already had because the spelling mistakes were atrocious. I did write down who it was but cut it when I decided it cluttered the story a bit which retrospectively was also a mistake because I didn't think about the fact it would seem like I was hinting at something at the time (ﾟ▽ﾟ*) the shorter, boring answer is that there's no one Ririto did a big silly and cut context in the chaotic editing this suffered

LMAO NOT THE CLOCK AGAIN

I love him the wet mop boy. I was like I want him to be at least a lil pathetic rn because his concerns are completely different. He's thinking about how to not die, and how much he misses his mom and his much fatui dick his dad must've been riding before death to think this career path was worth it (slash JOKING but he is still wondering why his father would have done this job willingly) that and I think men who whimper are cute thanks for coming to my Ted talk

HE IS ENJOYING IT and I love it sm

Hehe I am glad to know you haven't gone hungry today (^o^) and such high ratings for the banker and loverboy

#genshin impact #genshin #pantalone #genshin x reader #➳❥ eluxcastar #genshin impact x reader #➳❥ ooh lover boy #pantalone x reader #➳❥ rumour rants #fatui

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phoneticgrip · 4 years ago

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Too many bad opinions not enough listening and asking for context

#i know ur teachers told you not to use wikipedia but it helps my friends #also just like— mayb do a little research before you post #i dont pretend to have answers but some of the chatter thats out there is so uninformed and no context for how musicians ha dle themselves #and how the industry works #im not saying to be complicit when theres something wrong #im just saying that like #the entertainment industry is a business #and while we gotta call out injustice and exploitation like #a lot of things arent actually bad #or record labels sabotaging #or sony trying to demolish gay star crossed lovers #like its a lot of times the artist fucking around or experimenting #or getting a small audience #or just doing what they want #also a lot of boring business stuff #anyway this isnt abt any one thing in particular its just like #get off twitter and fucking enjoy the music #709

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girldraki · 5 years ago

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sorry if this is annoying but how would you go about getting into scp? ive been interested for awhile but when i try to i get lost on where to start

its not annoying!! im flattered that you asked me tbh ^^

it depends on what you really want to focus on wrt scp because its a very wide range of content but split into a few options:

-if you want to focus on the individual anomalies themselves in a... fandom-y? way (im not sure how to phrase it):

theres some fairly popular scps (mostly from series 1) with a lot of content. off the top of my head the biggest ones are 049, 682, 173, 079, 035, 1233 sort of? 096 and 106. most characterization for these guys is fan based.

anomalous characters who are fairly popular and have like legitimate characterization include 105, 073 and 076, 166 (there’s a couple of rewrites of her article, since the original one is... gross. they’re listed as -166, -4166, and -0166 respectively and like. trigger warning for sexual assault especially on the first two), and 590 (his file is pretty damn ableist, but most people who write him don’t have the same brain rot as deposed author bright)

the little misters by doctor wondertainment are a series of connected scps who vary in popularity.

-if you want to focus on individual anomalies in a twilight zone “fucked up if true” way:

just scrolling through the mainlist is good, tbh. click on those eye catch titles!

there’s a fairly comprehensive tagging system if you want to see specific types of scps (cataloguing stuff such as type of anomaly, what it physically is, particular anomalous groups who made them etc)

tvtropes is good for getting more specific if youre willing to read through the list of tropes

-if you want to focus on anomalies made by specific groups of interest or characters from those groups

the groups of interest page explains who these all are. theres a pretty damn wide range of them so theres probably at least something youre interested in

goi formats (documents created by the groups themselves) are underutilized, but they exist!

i touched on it briefly before, but groups of interest also have tags you can filter

i don’t recall if there’s any more, but at least two canons (dread and circuses and what a wonderful world) are directly centered around gois (the circus of the disquieting and dr. wondertainment respectively), so if you find you’re interested in either of those you can check those out

-if you want to focus on the characters who work for the foundation itself:

obligatory “they also have tags” because yes, they also have tags.

foundation characters have a lot of content compared to other scp stuff, although you’re still kinda shit out of luck for any but the most popular ones

some of them have personnel files but also those files are terribly sorted and you will never find them on your own and i am very, very sorry about that and i wish it was different too

tales, by their nature, mostly focus on foundation employees and canons mostly focus on particular facets of the foundation, so like. go there

you have to read scp-3001 and scp-3999. actually even if you’re doing the other three things you have to read those. 3001 and 3999 are required fucking reading

-some general notes about the bullshit the community does

my fucking god. many of these bitches in some way bigoted and much older content is kind of.... palpably dated. bad for them bad for them. theres a lot of people who are cool and gay though its not all bad

the staff are bad people, full stop. at the least theyre complicit in the other staff member’s actions

djkaktus is a rabid dog and needs to be beaten to death with a stick. some of his earlier articles are good (actually when i say this i mostly mean 049-j ngl) and a lot are iconic (1730 aka what happened to site 13, i do not recognize the bodies in the water) but now he mostly just spends his time writing shitty insensitive political skips with snl tier humor. if someone recommends 4444 4911 or 5004 they are both wrong and have shit taste

this all doesnt mean you cant get into scp. obviously, i love scp, for the things that all the people who aren’t shitty make, and because of how the site works even the stuff shitty people make is often salvageable, but you gotta acknowledge the degree of bullshit in order to engage

#anonymous #ask

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bigskydreaming · 6 years ago

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A lot of the discussions about AoX and the stuff said about the X-Tremists has altered my view of some elements of all that, I’m not gonna lie. The X-Tremists definitely isn’t what I initially thought it was, and in the context of all the X-Men being heavily brainwashed and operating based on a selectively altered sense of self and reality, even if I still don’t agree with it, I GET the intention behind picking gay and bi characters to be the cast of this particular book.

Like, I can understand how when focused on the end goal rather than the set up, there’s a satisfying payoff to it being gay and bi characters pissed at being shoved back into the closet who are the ones best positioned to figure out what’s really going on and fight back against it once they do. I can connect those dots, see how that story choice makes sense and has the sense of catharsis Williams talked about getting from writing it. From the angle of gay/bi characters fuck shit up because they’re not gonna take society or some higher authority determining who they can and can’t love, that fits.

In a lot of ways, its the compulsory sexuality story I’ve ranted for months about wanting to see in regards to Bobby’s situation and the fact that Jean’s actions are ultimately the reason he spent so long in the closet.

BUT. At the same time....that’s kinda the problem?

Because that story I talked about wanting to see with Bobby, it didn’t come from nowhere, I didn’t just go ‘oh hey what if.’ It came from just putting together the pieces that were already there. Everything needed to tell this particular story about being pissed at someone overriding your own sense of self and telling you who you needed to be for the sake of society, the timeline, whatever....it was already there. In the main universe. Already written. Every single element needed to tell that specific narrative was already in place.

Completely unacknowledged.

And I think that’s a big part of where my cynicism comes from, beyond just not trusting Marvel as a whole. Because the fact that this specific narrative was already laid out, already in play, hell, already the fallout of a Grey’s choices and mucking around with Bobby’s head.....without it ever being addressed, its hard to see how a five issue mini (that needs at least an issue or two to set up the revelations to the characters) can do for that narrative spread out among three gay/bi characters what nobody bothered to do with just one character in three years worth of opportunities.

(And if in the end it turns out by the time all of this is over NOBODY in-story has drawn the parallel between this and Bobby’s own narrative even before all this, like.....that’s gonna bug.)

But anyway. When you look at it from that perspective, as essentially the same narrative that was already set up and put in place and then completely overlooked for Bobby already.....then its hard to see this as anything other than gratuitous. Because that was already this same narrative, WITHOUT the fascist imagery and associations. Bobby already had every reason to be pissed - just needed those reasons to be raised and acknowledged - WITHOUT needing the trauma of being made unwillingly complicit in storm trooper actions heaped on top of how much he would already be fucked up from just the forced closeting. The painful catharsis of watching a gay hero push back against forces trying to make him something other than he is and wants to be, it was already locked and loaded ready to go - WITHOUT the trauma part of that narrative needing to be added to two other characters’ narratives additionally.

It just feels...unnecessary.

Like, I can’t stop fixating on that damn armband, is one of the things. I understand the in-story logic, that its ultimately one of the clues that makes them wake up to the realization something is very wrong, for Bobby to be wearing that. I understand that the intention there is for it to be a motivating factor for Bobby’s anger, making him intensely furious that this was done to him, put on him. But the thing I can’t understand is what makes the armband necessary to do all that?

Its not needed in order to leave bread crumbs for them to see how things are messed up and where. There are other options available, other ways to portray how things are different or wrong. I’ll never agree its necessary for THAT to be the thing that makes Bobby enraged. Like look at everything I was saying about his main universe storyline. Why not just use this to allow Bobby to have a different perspective on his lack of agency in all that and the how and why of his staying repressed for so long, have this second instance of telepathic meddling with his sense of self make the first more clearly obvious to him. Isn’t that already more than enough to make Bobby furious and intent on beating the fucking shit out of Nate Grey because he’s sick of not knowing how much of his sense of self is actually HIM and how much of it is the result of telepaths sticking their nose where they don’t belong, without any hint of remorse?

When its your perspective that the more offensive elements of this story aren’t necessary, its all but impossible to look at anything else. They’re the elephant in the room. The things your eye can’t stray from in those ‘what in this picture doesn’t belong’ games once you find them, because its so painfully obvious then that they don’t belong.

And the other thing, the big thing that I’m really upset at seeing so many other white LGBTQ+ readers dismiss or just trivialize....personally, I find it impossible to find empowerment in three white gay/bi characters who are used to police the romantic and sexual relationships of characters of color and especially LGBTQ+ characters of color. I get that this isn’t on Williams, that it wasn’t her choice to have the X-Tremists arrest Bishop and Bling specifically, that those happened in other books. But this is an area where editorial oversight - used properly - would not only be useful, but I honestly believe was NECESSARY. If you’re gonna tell a story like this, do an event like this, play with these themes specifically and talk about how its meant to explore intersectionality, about how intersections of power affect how an individual interacts with society and its institutions....you need to bring your fucking A game, and this event just didn’t. At all.

You need to be conscious of the fact that Marvel has given its readers, particularly its most marginalized ones, NO reason to have any faith in them, give them any benefit of the doubt, after they’ve spent the better part of 20 years deliberately driving this franchise into the ground because they didn’t get any of the X-Men movie profits. Editorial absolutely NEEDED to be aware of the nuances of this story and be prepared to step in where necessary to prevent things like what happened with Bishop and Bling interfering with the intended point of the X-Tremists mini and costing it more readers. There should have been someone watching all the pieces, someone whose JOB it was to look at the script for NextGen and hand it back and say no, Ed, you can’t have the X-Tremists arrest Bling, you need to pick someone else, pick a straight white character. We’re not having three white gay/bi cops arrest a black lesbian teen for impure thoughts. Nuh uh, no way. Not happening. Same with Bishop. If he absolutely had to be imprisoned in order for the events of Prisoner X to unfold, there should have been a different reason, rather than a random out of the blue pairing with Jean Grey that gets him locked up and her a slap on the wrist. Like, how about the fact that Nate Grey - being from the Age of Apocalypse - is aware that Bishop being a time traveler enabled him to know the AoA wasn’t how events were supposed to happen, and preemptively locked him away because he was afraid Bishop would be similarly able to see through this altered reality and warn people?

Like, when you have a character LITERALLY playing God, as in that’s the entire narrative....deus ex machina isn’t a problem. It’s your actual story engine. You can set the stage however the hell you want and Bishop can be wherever the hell you need him to be with the only reason being Nate Grey arranged for him to be there because that’s where he wanted him to be, fearing he could be a threat.

But seriously, white LGBTQ+ fans need to shut the absolute fuck up about the instances with Bishop and Bling and stop talking over fans of color when they bring them up. Stop trying to minimize it or handwave it away as no big deal, like, that is ugly. That is just, plain UGLY. Stop telling fans of color and LGBTQ+ fans of color any issues they have with white characters arresting black characters for ‘impure’ and ‘barbaric’ thoughts and relationships...like, stop acting like these things are no big deal or that they’re not big ENOUGH of a deal to take away from the empowerment you get from three white gay/bi characters’ narratives. Stop saying the latter is what they should be focusing on, as if its the only variable here that matters, and that they’re just blowing things out of proportion. Some readers developing a dislike for Bobby because they have to read and see him being depicted the way he is at the expense of characters of color - even if its not ‘his fault’ - like, some readers not wanting to read or see Bobby in stories for awhile or ever because they just can’t get that image out of their head, that’s a valid and understandable reaction to what’s on the page, what they can’t avoid if they want to take in this story on any level at all. Its a reaction EARNED by the narrative choices made overall, and if its not a reaction the narrative wanted to earn, different narrative choices needed to be made.

Honestly, the more I think about it, if this event was going to happen like it or not, if writers had to just make the best of it as much as they could, knowing editorial wasn’t going to be interfering on their behalf when other writers used their characters in ways detrimental to the first writer’s intentions....Bobby, Jean-Paul and Betsy should have been in the cast of Prisoner X, I think. Like, they shouldn’t have been the secret police, the guilty parties motivated by outrage at being used to hurt others like them, they should have been part of the ones who already had plenty of motivational outrage based entirely on experience with being told their love was impure and wrong.

LGBTQ+ characters IMO were already a natural fit for seeing through Nate Grey’s changes to reality, to be arrested for engaging in romantic and sexual relationships in defiance of society’s laws and arbitrary morals. It could have easily been built into the event itself that Nate Grey (who has never identified as anything other than straight) viewed the world through a heteronormative lens. And thus when ‘eliminating’ love and memories of it and things like that, he did so according to a straight person’s perception of what that looked like...and thus potentially overlooked where LGBTQ+ peoples’ experiences had taught them how to keep a secret part of themselves hidden away at the core of their being, their mind, where no one would stumble across any truths they weren’t ready to reveal. LGBTQ+ characters were already a natural fit to be caught breaking the rules of this society instead of keeping it to themselves and staying safe if they started to suspect something was wrong with the way things were....because they were the ones who had already defiantly pushed back against unjust rules and restrictions the first time they realized something wasn’t right with the way society told them they should feel.

The same is true of characters of color of any sexual orientation, given past laws against interracial relationships - I’m not expanding on that not to exclude them, but just because imprisonment narratives have a different context and history with characters of color and that’s not my lane.

But like, if the event was structured to remove the variable of mutant oppression and thus explore intersections of power when everyone was on the same field in that respect, its disingenuous to make up forms of oppression to highlight the flaws in a dystopian society when existing marginalizations already exist once the mutant metaphor is removed. Those already marginalized in our society should be the ones marginalized in that society, else you end up with a ‘what if straight white people were the oppressed and sympathetic’ narrative that nobody asked for. And I do suspect that part of the way AoX is structured IS intended to reflect that, to have LGBTQ+ characters like the X-Tremists and characters of color like Bishop play key roles in toppling Nate Grey’s dystopian vision....I just don’t believe making any of them the secret police works in FAVOR of that rather than against. If your marginalized characters are united by common experiences of being oppressed by straight white mutants once they in turn are no longer oppressed by humans, then you also eliminate the stuff I was talking about earlier, the issue of having an oppressed group fight to put things back to where they were more oppressed. Instead of SPLITTING your characters’ identities along different axes, with the world according to Nate Grey being better for them in the sense that they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants but worse for them because it tries to restrain their sexualities...they don’t need to prioritize between their marginalizations at all. These characters don’t have to ‘sacrifice’ a world in which they aren’t oppressed for one where they are, if they’re still oppressed by that society as gay and bi individuals even though they’re no longer persecuted for being mutants. That’s still messy as hell for a variety of reasons this long fucking post doesn’t need to see their unpacking added to it, but like....

Sigh. Thing is, I know I have a tendency to go off and running in some AU direction like “this is what I would do if I were writing this story” every time I’m critical of shit. Its honestly not because I think I’m the greatest writer ever or oh my ideas are so much better than everything else.

Its just....I don’t know how else to say it, even though it fails to sink in every damn time I have a variation of this argument...I’m not critical so I can hate things, I’m critical cuz I want them to be better. I don’t come up with different ideas for how else to tell a story BECAUSE I’m critical of it and hate it as is. Its the reverse. I’m critical of stuff BECAUSE I can’t turn off my writer brain and I can see where things could be better or at least fail in new and different ways than the same old repeated mistakes (and thus at least get us closer to better, by eliminating more of what doesn’t work).

Like, I’m just so fucking tired of being talked about like I’m this bitter angry dude who just hates everything and is never happy with any content ever. I’m not angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking like “This thing you like offended these three people and thus its fucking terrible and you should feel bad!” I’m angry and loud when I criticize shit because I’m thinking “This thing you like offended these three people AND IT DIDN’T FUCKING HAVE TO. THAT CAN BE AVOIDED.”

I don’t posit all these alternative scenarios when I criticize shit because I’m thinking that doing it any way other than my way is bad, and I’m just an egotistical jackass who will never be satisfied with any work other than his own. (LMAO, hell no, I’m insecure as hellllllll about my work, like lolol. How critical I am of other shit is nothing compared to how critical I am of my own).

Point is, when I do that, I’m only doing it to say like....see, look. Here are alternatives. If I can find some, other writers can too.

But other writers have to LOOK for alternatives in order to find them. They have to have a REASON to write things differently than what they already wrote. THAT’S WHAT CRITICISM IS FOR. TO GIVE THEM THAT REASON. TO TELL THEM THIS DOESN’T WORK THE WAY IT IS, BUT IT COULD WORK IF YOU DO SOME OF THESE THINGS DIFFERENTLY.

And when people say “lmao some of you just need to go the fuck outside, like calm down and let people enjoy shit for a change,” what that ACTUALLY sounds like to some of us is “well this thing works for me as is, and thus I see no reason to care about it being better for the people it doesn’t work for or actively offends.”

It’s honestly depressing as hell how many people on this site smugly reblog that “I don’t know how to explain to you that you should care about other people” post, only to turn around and five posts later complain about criticisms of a show they like and are perfectly comfortable with as is.

Its not about telling you that you should never enjoy anything ever. Its not about saying well this thing offends us, and if we can’t enjoy it, nobody should.

Its just like.....its great that you enjoy this thing but wouldn’t it be better if you could still enjoy it and all these people who AREN’T able to enjoy it because of these reasons could now enjoy it more too?

People shutting up about the ways content offends or hurts them or people just settling for sucking it up and dealing with the microaggressions in a creative work, like those things shouldn’t be necessary in order for you to enjoy content or be comfortable with what you’re reading or watching.

And if it is, that’s a you problem and if you could PLEASE stop projecting it on to people who just want things to be better and more enjoyable across the board - like that’d be great kthxbai.

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theythemsam · 6 years ago

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spn 1x14 (cause i completey skipped 1x13, cause its a bad fucking episode y’all), liveblog, collected posts (all 12 of them) or as i like to call it: I Am In Hell, Why Does This Show Hate Abuse Surviviors So Much, also i triggered myself so uh that’s always nice, tw for discussions of child abuse and suicide, bc that’s what happens in this piece of shit episode and once again Sam Winchester is the only good thing about this episode & I am so angry. Also Max did nothing wrong and deserves better:

Oh Fuck Yeah, more psychic!sam

#heck yeah i love it!!! #also my beautiful boy max who deserves so much better

also killing abusers. Now Thats A Sexy, Sexy Episode.

#just watching that bastard die is... very... very... satisfying

priest!boys. Nice.

#also sam all styled and stuff #with his hair slicked back it looks great

“so what was your dad like?”

Max, visibly going from bitter laugh to fake sad: “you know, just a normal dad”

#god that poor boy #he deserves so much better #supernatural and abuse victims #its not a good mix 95% of the time #but i think with him they at least did a kinda okay job? #not good bc lmao should have let him survive and go to therapy please!!! #but at least hes portrayed as sympathetic but flawed #something which many other abuse surviviors (bela. the kids in family remains etc) dont get and i hate it

Planting some heads in flower crates. Maybe some nice buds can sprout from that assholes brain.

#i feel literally 0% empathy #i cheer when the father & uncle die #like hmmm yes more pls

ughhh i hate that episode so much, it makes me so angry

#like not only did the stepmom do nothing and honestly? she deserves to die for that #but the police never helped even when they were called a shitton of times by neighbors #the system very rarely protects abuse surviviors #anyway what im saying is: max did nothing wrong

like I get it, there’s a lot of cases where the woman can’t stand up for a child, cause they are also abused or they don’t see a way out, and in real life I would definitely treat that a bit differently, but the fact that she stayed, that she’d didn’t stop it, that she didn’t take the child and run away, makes her complicit and nearly just as a bad as the actual abusers and that’s the tea and also why she deserves to die

#i have 0 tolerance for that #like... if you notice something like that and youre not willing to fight like hell to protect the victims... youre not a person i'll like #and she deserves whats coming for her #FUCK i forgot how angry that episode makes me

also the fact that she stood by and watched… like it wasn’t like she wasn’t in the room or didn’t notice it, she just… didn’t care.

#kill her max youre doing amazing sweetie #fuck me i hate abusers so much

Dean: “it doesn’t justify murdering your entire family”

me:

#it does #anyway hot take of the day: all abusers deserve to die #its ptsd Oh Hour for me over here folks lmao #and dean then just going: we gotta kill him #like... dean you lay a finger on my boy and im gonna tear you apart limb by limb

that fact that sam knows so well how to calm abuse surviviors down (giving them the choice of what’s going to happen, being calm and non-threatening) etc is definitely also one of my fav things about him

#like hes just so gentle and good #and fuuuuck im still angry #cause max deserves so much better

god, Max makes so much sense to me and honestly? i support him wholeheartedly

#'it wasn't about getting away. it was about not being afraid' #like sure... you know.... getting away is healthier in the long run but #knowing your abuser is still out there? maybe hurting others? maybe planning to at some point come after you? its fucking terrifying #theres a kind of relief you can only get knowing that they are gone for good #Max Deserves Better

also like… you know… of course killing your abusers is not going to not make you scared anymore, but… especially if somebodies been forced into that situation for such a long time, never knowing when the next beating was coming, never knowing how long you’d be safe and never able to feel safe? fuck, i get why he thinks it’s the only way, no matter how illogical it seems from the outside.

#i only care about max now #this is now the max blog #like not only does that child have cptsd for sure #i dont think he ever knew what safety felt like #not being safe in your own home must be the worst #cause you have no where to turn #especially as a child #and the fact that there were so many people who could have helped but /didnt/ or where nothing came from it #hell im bitter and its just a story to me

i’m still angry that she got to survive and max killed himself because honestly? she deserved worse and he deserved better.

(also her going: “I lost everyone.” does not make a single bit more sympathetic to me)

#hell im always on the side of abuse victims and surviviors and she was part of the abuse #i think im gonna take a break cause i think i actually triggered myself so uhhhh.... yeah....

#spn 1x14 #collections #this is the angriest a supernatural episode has made me in a loooong time #still pissed but at least no longer blowing up i gotta punch a wall angry #ughhhhhhh i think i gotta watch some sweet vicious to get a dose of my abuse surviviors getting kill their abusers #and being treated well in the narrative for it #or jessica jones #both are good #more please!#sam liveblogs

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Ivanka Trump is complicit in her dads mission to get rich at the USs expense | Arwa Mahdawi

Shes an attractive package, appealing to Trumps heartland while simultaneously appeasing liberals. But dont be fooled

I hope you are ready to improve and expand your vocabulary today because I am about to drop a very complicated word. Complicit | km-pli-st | adjective. Merriam-Webster defines it as helping to commit a crime or do wrong in some way. One could, for example, say that Ivanka Trump is complicit in her dads mission to enrich himself at the expense of the US.

Indeed, Saturday Night Live said just that on, er, Saturday night. The comedy show, which has been making headlines in recent months with its lampooning of the Trump regime, featured a parody advert for an Ivanka Trump perfume. Complicit: The fragrance for the woman who could stop all of this, but wont. As Ivanka, played by Scarlett Johansson, slinks sultrily through glamorous party scenes, a voiceover narrates: Shes a woman who knows what she wants. And knows what shes doing. Complicit.

The sketch has caused quite a stir. Not least because it has finally exposed the shocking fact, long ignored by mainstream media, that many Americans, even the SNL-watching coastal elites, arent entirely sure what complicit means. The show spurred a large spike in searches for of the word online. As of Tuesday morning, its still among Merriam Websters top trending words along with neophyte, incredulous and refute. I dont want to refute the dictionarys data but I am incredulous that so many Americans are lexical neophytes. As the president would say: sad!

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Scarlett Johansson as Ivanka Trump in SNLs Complicit perfume sketch on 11 March 2017

Anyway, Im not here to make a mockery of the American educational system. Thats Betsy DeVoss job. Im here to say: finally! |f-nl-, fn-l | adverb. Finally, it looks as if we might have stopped giving Ivanka the benefit of the doubt, which she has enjoyed for far too long. Ivanka has certainly not been immune to criticism (see, eg, the 73,461 articles explaining why she is not a real feminist), but the liberal media has been eager to see the best in her. There seems to be a widespread desire to view Ivanka as Trumps moral compass, a voice of reasonableness, a moderating guide.

Part of this is just desperation. Trump is a loose cannon; its calming to think theres a safety mechanism in place ensuring he doesnt go off. And so we clutch at any straws we can to reassure ourselves that Ivanka is smart, she hangs out with liberals, shell make everything OK.

And Ivanka has been very savvy in ensuring that there are just enough straws to clutch at. Last month, for example, it was reported that Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, persuaded Trump not to sign an executive order that would have rolled back LGBT rights. Much of this coverage was sickeningly gushing and quick to reassert the notion that Ivanka and Kushner are somehow independent from the president. The New York Times, for example, reminded us that: Mr Kushner, a lifelong Democrat, and Ms Trump, an independent, travel in liberal social circles and have long supported LGBT rights. Funnily enough, all this reporting about LGBT saviours Mr Kushner and Ms Trump seemed to stem from multiple sources with knowledge of the situation, which one imagines was probably Ms Trumps PR people.

Its also hard to think of Ivanka as being a terrible person when much of the criticism of her centred on her profiting from her lifestyle brands. Her peddling of kitten heels and suede tote bags and her saccharine-sweet Instagram account make her seem less like a woman complicit in the serious destruction of millions of peoples rights and more like a girl just trying to have fun, as her dad tramples democracy.

Ivanka Trump may have a jewellery and fashion line but her real brand is herself, and it is an impressive balancing act; theres something there for everyone. A mum, a daughter, a wife, an educated businesswoman married to a Jew. She appeals to Trumps heartland while simultaneously appeasing liberals. She is an attractive package.

And attractive, really, is the operating word. One wonders whether the media would have cut Ivanka quite so much slack if she werent so photogenic. Were all affected by beauty bias and multiple studies show that were more likely to be forgiving towards attractive women who behave unfairly. Ivanka isnt the only woman close to an authoritarian figure who has been protected by pretty woman privilege. Vogue published a flattering profile (A Rose in the Desert) on Asma al-Assad in 2012, for example, as her husband Bashar al-Assad was murdering Syrians. And we seem more keen to view Melania Trump as a victim than as possessing any agency. Her miserable demeanour at the inauguration led to #freemelania trending and widespread expressions of sympathy.

Ivanka and Melania dont deserve our sympathy. They are not victims, theyre profiteers. And Ivanka deserves far better than our excuses. She is far more than a daughter stuck in a difficult position. She is an intelligent woman who has shrewdly benefited from sexist notions of women as nurturers rather than murderers. If we continue to allow her that narrative then we too are complicit.