#im scared honestly

[ofstarsandmoonlightt]

heLP someone said jeremy is the gansey of aftg and now i can’t unsee it aasdffghjjkkll

[murdererofthumbs]

I think we can all agree, after this episode, that Roman is going down into incredibly dark spiral, which will only get worse, because he is not processing his grief, like, at all. I think Lukas’s words had to be ringing through Roman’s head this whole episode, when he said that if Logan was here now, he would be embarrassed (disappointed, always fucking disappointed) in what Kendall and Roman are doing with his legacy. It shows in the way that Roman aggressively tries to exert the control over his situation and his self-image, by firing people who he should be keeping close. All because he thinks that this is how his dad would behave, that this is what he would have wanted (and because everyone is seeing him as a failure, as ‘not good enough’ replacement for Logan, as a joke that he always was and always will be). There is a clear disconnect between his actions and his emotions, and everything in-between is just a dull afterimage of repressed guilt, and grief, and loss that he cannot possibly overcome. He is trying to regain power, even though he doesn’t want it, even though it was drilled into him that he can only be happy when all his control is taken away from him.

Roman does have lucid moments throughout this episode, where he realises that he pushed too far and made a mistake, but he doesn’t have the support that he needs to reel him back from the downward spiral of self-destructive power trips. Kendall is too wrapped up in his own manic sense of grandiosity, whereas Shiv attempts to keep herself from being pushed away from the business, by manipulating the situation to retain the sense of control. And Roman is left by himself in this sense of loss, where the only person who made him validated was gone forever; where he will never be able to get the same feeling of approval that only Logan was able to grant him. His sun is gone, and he is left stranded in the darkness, freezing in his own shame and self-hatred and sense of inadequacy. Roman Roy always gets it wrong.

The crucial problem is that Roman is never going to be able to comfortably emulate Logan. He is too guided by his emotions, too attached to the concepts of love and family, that the vulnerability that is an integral part of who he is, usually ends up being his downfall. His hurt feelings are always going to take the front seat, and guide his actions straight into self-destruction. In this episode, both of his attempts to imitate his dad ended with frenzied firing, and committing really two cardinal mistakes, one of them definitely bigger than the other. But most importantly, each time he did it, you could see a certain twitchiness about Roman (which was always there, like a background noise that could be easily missed if it wasn’t ringing so loudly), how his body inadvertently knows that this behaviour doesn’t fit, that it’s not really who he is, that he cannot possibly be a killer, when he spent so much of his life balancing on the edge of the knife. How his upbringing caused him to mistake abuse for love, to the point when he seeks that sense of degradation and shame as the only ways to reach fulfilment. To make him whole. Without Logan, Roman is just a landfill of shattered pieces, a puppet with his strings cut off, breaking at the seems. From episode to episode that grief for all he has lost, and for all he will never be able to get, keeps pouring out, and I don’t know how long it will be until there is nothing left to give.

[jonmartintrash]

Just a reminder that ep 30 will more than likely make or break the aro arthur headcanon

[nicetomeetmew]

I just watched the new Garfield trailer.

The Crisp-ratification of voice acting is terrifying.

[salted-clover]

doodles

[sea-of-machines]

so, finland is about to become mordor due to the elections we had, but I'm trying to keep my head up and thinking about Arjen Lucassen really helps because he's such a sweet sunshine. Also, I joined the leftist youth group today (well, sent the application today, it said that they'll contact me within a week).

Anyway, how has your week started?

[priest-exists-kinda]

finally telling my mom about my chronic pain (over text because I'm a pussy) because it was so bad today that i was crying and i really hope she doesn't get mad at me

[illuminatedferret]

post-canon fics where hua cheng gets amnesia'd back into wuming, who inevitably finds out His Beloved Is Married always read like the meme "I'll be his second husband." (what happened to the first?) "Nothing you can prove."

jump to xie lian, who knows exactly what mental contortions the love of his life would go to rather than recognize that xie lian loves him, deciding to humor wuming's murder fantasy for shits and giggles. 'you want to murder my husband, wuming? hm, i dont know... he is nice. except for the time he proposed to me and then immediately walked it back as a joke- oh, you'd treat me better than that? you'd never do something so cruel? well... im listening.'

cue hua cheng getting his memories back like "gege i thought we were over this. gege. gege stop laughing. gege please. i said sorry!"

[deathricedrawn]

i'm ready to try

[evelynpr]

Congratulations My Hero Academia for providing, possibly, the biggest and longest legit straightbaiting yet in shonen history.

Bonus points that their final chapter was released on yaoi day.

[primolovebot]

y’all ever just listen to someone talk, and literally feel your brain cells dying in the process?

[diamondnokouzai]

if magneto knew what the internet was then he would post to r/aita as often as possible and all his posts would be the top posts of the year. thats the kind of drama hes going through. he also gets permabanned from r/mutants for advocating violence

[emilyjunk]

"Kevin isn't that bad it's not like he beats her, why does she need to kill him or fake her death, just get divorced" you are the point of the show, you are missing the crucial reveal. Allison sees Kevin in every single scene as she does their last scene together, but we as the audience aren't privy to that and we only see sitcom Kevin which is Kevin's self perception. He is not suddenly becoming scary and threatening to her. He was like that the whole time. We only see Allison's feelings about Kevin and the aftermath of her interactions with Kevin -- this is the ONLY time we see Kevin from her POV except for the brief initial breaking of the sitcom cam. Every other time we see Kevin on screen it's from Kevin's POV. Even after she cuts her hand we only see the bandage in her singular pov when she is away from kevin, but when it shifts back to sitcom Kevin it's gone.... We do not see the reality of her interactions with Kevin, that's the point of the show!!! Because when Kevin is on screen, it's Kevin's world! We only see Kevin from anyone else's lens in ONE scene at the end, which is when Allison decides to leave, so yes the sitcom cam "softens his abuse" but it also just fully acts as an unreliable narration because we never literally see Kevin from anyone else's POV until the series finale so every time Kevin is on screen it isn't even an accurate portrayal of what's happening, it's Kevin's perception of what's happening. Allison has viewed him like that the entire show, we as the audience just did not get to witness that POV until the end

[starheirxero]

I saw this post and was immediately inspired LMAO

[pokeberry5]

(he's coming for your ass 🫣😳)

ive always wanted to do at least one (1) fake tim!robin cover

i have like. 3 versions of this:

[butchvamp]

okay i've played a bit more and i have a lot of thoughts about Taash and the way gender is being handled overall in this game...

first i will say the positives which is that i do really appreciate the attempt at incorporating trans characters both in the world as companions and allowing us to make those options in the cc. and as someone who also writes dark fantasy stories with trans characters i do understand how difficult it can be to incorporate these identities into a world that doesn't necessarily have the same language as we do; but overall the way they've approached this feels very... i've seen some people call it unpolished but i actually feel the opposite. it's almost clinical (therapy-speak in general has been a main criticism of this game) and it's way too polished, in my opinion, which is what makes it so jarring to see.

there has been a trans character established in game previously, there is already a precedent for these identities to exist in this world, and they have never used this language before. the way Iron Bull talked about Krem felt far more realistic and integrated into the world of Thedas comparatively. was it perfect? no, of course not, but i chafe at the idea that it needs to be perfect, anyways. this is another problem the game has; past characters have had their flaws completely ironed out (Isabela is now a paragon of friendship and returns cultural artifacts instead of looting them, Dorian has multiple codex entries wallowing about how he used to defend slavery, the Crows have suddenly become a big found family-- on and on and on) and while i have my criticisms of some of these flaws (Dorian's pro-slavery rant in inqusition still makes my eyes roll) i dislike the way they're handling these changes and just expecting us to ignore all of the lore and worldbuilding from previous games. and all of this "political correctness" only for the game to still be so racist.

which brings me back to Taash.... Taash is very strange character, lacking agency around both their gender and their culture. they are simply a mouthpiece for the writer. while yes, it should always be made undeniable that your character is trans or gay or xyz, Taash really does only exist to be nonbinary. and to be clear, a nonbinary character like them could be very interesting, if their writing wasnt so... white. we know that the Qun has different ideas about gender than Rivain (and elsewhere) and this could have been a very interesting exploration of that; however, it is obvious that the Qun (and Taash's mother) are meant to be depicted negatively, and ultimately it ends with the player (not Taash) choosing between their two cultures. their gender is clearly far more important to the writer and the only facet of their identity they seemed willing to explore, which makes me question why even make this character qunari to begin with...

Neve and Rook are also the two that spur Taash into exploring their gender. this, on the surface, is not a problem for me. i'm playing as a trans Rook and while the dialogue was again very overpolished and clunky i found it kind of endearing. but the way Neve is used as this "foil" for Taash really rubbed me the wrong way. this assumption that Neve has no complicated feelings about her gender or being a woman (which i highly doubt considering the world she lives in & how misogynistic it is) and the implication from Taash that she only dresses the way she does for her mother/other people (which Neve doesn't even get to challenge) is extremely narrow-minded. Taash is the Only character that acknowledges gender; so far, even when flirting with other characters, it's only been Taash that i've been allowed to specify with that my rook is trans, despite Taash already knowing that from our previous conversation (i hope that this changes once i lock in with a specific character so feel free to correct me if it does).

but no one else really seems to have an opinion except that Neve drags Taash around to meet Maevaris, and we get the very goofy note that's just a list of modern gender identities and their definitions. i do partly sympathize with the writers here; again i've had to find a way to incorporate lgbt identities in my own writing and it can be difficult depending on your audience. i understand wanting to be very clear and concise. but this is... just goofy. and this desperation to be so correct around gender while simultaneously writing such an offensively racist narrative is really frustrating.

there's also an inconsistency that comes from this with Taash's character-- they are portrayed as this rough but awkward character that is bossed around by their mother, they are bashful with flirting early on and are almost child-like in comparison to the other characters. and then suddenly you get a scene with them where they very directly ask if you want to have sex and suddenly pin you against the wall. this scene was so jarring to me i referred to it as a jumpscare because WHERE has this character been this entire time? i want to see more of this, more of this character who takes what they want and knows exactly who they are (which they even say multiple times when you first meet them... but then need Neve and Rook to hold their hand about it?)

i do really like Taash, i like the idea of them, of this very self-assured and almost cocky character who is also a little silly, this person who is so sure of who they are but has to deal with their mother undermining them while also navigating a culture they feel disconnected from, and i also like that the player can help them through it... but the execution is awful, shallow, and racist. the idea that someone can only choose One culture is so offensive and also a laughable conclusion when compared to their coming out as nonbinary. the writer clearly understands that people don't exist within these little boxes when it comes to gender, but can't wrap their head around it when it comes to someone's culture-- which is also a very important part of a person's identity and often contributes directly to their gender and how they feel about it. all of these different characters have different experiences, come from different places, Davrin and Bellara are Dalish and even have differing opinions on what that means for themselves, but the game doesn't touch on any of it. all we get is a lecture from the writer that is completely removed from the world it's presented in.

i wish i could understand what it was this character was meant to convey. i stand by saying that it doesn't need to be perfect; i know there are people that had problems with Krem in inquisition, but at least Krem was his own person. Taash doesn't even get that here... i harp a lot about character agency when i give writing advice on my other blog but it really is so so so important for marginalized characters-- both gay, trans, and especially characters of color-- to have their own agency around their identities that is completely separate from the player & player choice, that allows them to exist as their own person within the world you've created, and i think Taash's character and story is an unfortunate example of exactly what not to do.