#is not a valid critique

[jayktoralldaylong]

I love that the villain of Mouthwashing is not some outer space monster, it's not a science experiment broken free from a lab, it's not even a man with an obvious stereotypical mental illness.

It's a man with self esteem problems. A selfish cowardly man who so badly wanted to be praised for doing the bare minimum. A man who let envy bite through the hand that fed him. Cause sometimes the worst monsters are the ones that are the most human. And everyone died and suffered because one man (Curly this time) kept making excuses for that one weak link (Jimmy).

I also love that the crew in Mouthwashing didn't die because Jimmy went around hacking them up. They died because of his poor leadership decisions. The leadership that he so badly believed that he could do better than Curly.

- Anya was already stressed out from the assault and she was on the edge of a mental breakdown, Jimmy responded to that by shouting at her. 💀 Girl chugged down that pill bottle like it was water.

- Daisuke was an intern, he just did whatever he was told, eager to impress Jimmy. Jimmy says climb the vents, Daisuke climbed the vents. The vents collapsed on Daisuke.

Jimmy then tries to disinfect the wound with Mouthwashing, mind you Anya had earlier mentioned that using the chemical would only make wounds worse. Swansea reminded him of this. Jimmy ignores him. Proceeds to aggravate Daisuke's wounds so bad they Swansea has to mercy kill him.

- Swansea is an old man and 'life in prison' does not mean so much to him anymore. Plus, Jimmy has stepped on his last nerve. Swansea tries to kill Jimmy. Jimmy shoots him.

A domino of events that look like accidents, all avoidable if Jimmy listened, if Jimmy calmed down, if Jimmy did not act so darned arrogant and demanding all the darn time. And now he's left in a ship of corpses, but Curly is still there........

So Jimmy does what he does best.

He blames Curly (and then Jimmy finally has a mental breakdown).

[normalaboutmediaa]

Oh I'm sorry, did the 'corporations are exploitative and parasitic' show spend too much time showing how exploitative and parasitic its fictional corporation is? Sounds horrible.

[utilitycaster]

I love reading TV Tropes and Goodreads as an ego boost like thank god I'm not that stupid

[tangerinelabyrinth]

Its crazy to me that people paint Martha as a predator who just doesn't respect the Doctor's boundaries, because quite literally, after he tells her to stop flirting with him, she does.

She stops flirting, and he's the one that shows up with all those mixed signals, and it's the people along the way that mention and notice Martha has feelings for him; she does not even mention it until she tries to get John Smith to turn back into the Doctor.

If you hate Martha, just keep it to yourself; I don't need to see that.

[dukeofthomas]

"Jason just needs to see things from his family's perspective and understand how much they love him (despite them never actually communicating or showing him through their actions)" is out. "The batfamily putting a single bit of effort into understanding Jason and reconciling with him on his own terms" is in.

[nostalgic-shamefest]

Also fuck the idea that MCD is a brave writing move. You're an american show with a latino character. You want to make a brave writing choice? Address the deportation crisis in your own fucking country. Take a single political stand against fascism. Otherwise stfu about being brave. Be the comfort people seek in this time or take a fucking stand. Brave? Babe whattt. Where? You wanna be edgy then do it. I'm all for it. But have the dignity to do it with some backbone. Like if you want me to take you seriously I'll take you seriously. Let's get serious.

[le-bon-pamplemousse]

A TV SHOW THAT IS ACTIVELY LEANING INTO THE ANYONE CAN DIE TROPE CANNOT BE DOING THE BURY YOUR GAYS TROPE AT THE SAME TIME

people be gay and when anyone can die that means that some gay people will die! this is not that hard of a concept to grasp! I am so sick of this particular line of discourse!

[fahye]

Swordcrossed - UK cover reveal

THE SWORDS. THE DRAMA. THE PINK AND GREEN.

(I am, no lie, wearing a pink & green striped jumper today and it was entirely unintentional. it's just a perfect colour combination.)

UK preorder links

US preorder links

The inestimable @sarahreesbrennan was hypnotised via dastardly means into reading it, and said, "Freya Marske's books catch my heart with a butterfly net, because I believe in her characters so utterly . . . Swordcrossed proves there's nothing in fantasy – or queer romance – Marske can't do."

And if you've only just wandered in here and are wondering what the hell the book's about (beyond......swords. crossing.), read on:

Mattinesh Jay, dutiful heir to his struggling family business, needs to hire an experienced swordsman to serve as best man for his arranged marriage. Sword-challenge at the ceremony could destroy all hope of restoring his family’s wealth, something that Matti has been trying – and failing – to do for the past ten years. What he can afford, unfortunately, is part-time con artist and full-time charming menace Luca Piere. Luca, for his part, is trying to reinvent himself in a new city. All he wants to do is make some easy money and try to forget the crime he committed in his home town. He didn’t plan on being blackmailed into giving sword lessons to a chronically responsible – and inconveniently handsome – wool merchant like Matti. However, neither Matti’s business troubles nor Luca himself are quite what – or who – they seem. As the days to Matti’s wedding count down, the two of them become entangled in the intrigue and sabotage that have brought Matti’s house to the brink of ruin. And when Luca’s secrets threaten to drive a blade through their growing alliance, both Matti and Luca will have to answer the question: how many lies are you prepared to strip away when the truth could mean losing everything you want?

(tl;dr - two disasters fall in love! freya did a lot of research about the wool industry and is going to show it off! and someone does, in fact, put the point of their sword under someone else's chin.)

[paarthursass]

There are valid critiques to be made about Castlevania: Nocturne but i swear every time I see someone who vehemently hates it I go to their blog and their biggest gripes are "Maria used swear words" "Maria wasn't delicate enough" "Maria didn't conform to the ideals of white femininity enough" and then their biggest complaint about season 4 of Castlevania is that Alucard flirted with Greta which forever taints his character because he's supposed to only love the delicate white lady. And then I go ah ok.

[will-pilled]

Why is Angel's SA literally the only one taken "seriously" (if you can even call it that.) Every other one is either made into a joke or punchline (Pent or Mox) or completely ignored and they pretend it isn't happening (Blitz) Why is Angel's the only one that matters???

[shedidntevenswear]

I enjoy discourse around pretty much everything Taylor does here in this space because I can trust that everyone involved actually knows what they're talking about and has some level of investment in the fandom, but going on more algorithm-driven sites and having to see every human who ever lived spout their opinion about every breath she takes with wild amounts of unearned confidence that they know enough to be speaking is SO EXHAUSTING like truly too many people in our family business

[solisitude]

if you people don't start tagging your anti-ship posts as anti-ship posts i'm gonna start tracking you down, and beating basic fandom etiquette into you

[galpalaven]

The NPCs not talking to Rook isn’t the end of the series as we knew it — the cumulative of every bad decision made in Veilguard sets a precedent that can only be the end of the series as we knew it. They’re not gonna walk it back in DA5 and give us something like Origins or 2 again just because we asked. The Dragon Age we all loved is over. They also explicitly said they are done with Thedas and everyone in it (Dalish elves in general included) as a whole, which is also an explicit End.

Hope that helps

[pizzapasta23045]

Bitches on tiktok when you say you think Caitlyn was in the wrong for using the smog in the undercity that used to litterally cripple a fair majority of them as a weapon to make cilvilians leave the streets to catch one bad guy and a very clear parallel to IRL police brutality and the fact her mom died and she's grieving doesn't excuse it:

[lenny-zesty]

when im in a give a shitty excuse to hate a female character competition and my opponent is an uzi hater

[choccy-milky]

bruh i need to vent about a rude comment i got on my recent chap and also about clora, cuz its something thats been on my mind for a while now. it has spoilers to my most recent chap tho so im putting it below

so in my most recent chap clora gets hit by the killing curse but thanks to seb sacrificing himself for her, it doesn’t work/she survives. and I got a rly rude comment about how that’s super cringe and that clora is a "shoe horning of every possible manifestation of Mary-Sueism I have ever seen." theyre dropping my fic after almost 500k words bc apparently THAT’S where they draw the line and that "just somehow pulling it out the bag and surviving a killing curse from the power of love. In simpler terms, it’s absolutely cringe worthy" and "forgive me if I rolled an eye at the yet again invincible nature of Clora Clemons-the-one-eighth-Veela-extraordinaire"

BUT LIKE LMAO TELL ME U DIDN’T READ/WATCH HARRY POTTER WITHOUT TELLING ME. that’s literally what happens to harry??but its only cringe when it happens to our "mary-sue" clora? like yeah sure love magic might be a bit cringe but IM LITERALLY JUST PULLING FROM THE SOURCE MATERIAL. of all the things to take issue with in my fic and interpretations, theyre taking issue with something that’s canon BAHAHA.

and since im on the topic of clora being mary sue can I just say I hate the misogyny/internalized misogyny that i've seen some people (NOT A LOT, THANKFULLY) treat her with. like i get it, im not pale and blonde and as conventionally pretty as clora is, but even if I was, is that a reason to hate me?? and does being beautiful and well-liked = mary sue? bc as far as I know, mary sue is a chara who is just naturally amazing at everything and doesnt need to try hard and theyre just inexplicably great for no reason (like mc in the base game BAHHAA) if anything the mary sue in MY fic is seb LMAO (but hes a boy so its ok). like clora has worked hard and studied magic all her life due to being a squib and wanting to make up for not being able to DO it. she isnt good at flying, seb is still better at her than duelling, shes really short sighted when it comes to doing/thinking whats best for others and can be a huge idiot.... and like. the only guys that have even shown interest in clora on a real scale have been seb and leander (and then lawley for blackmail purposes, and also bc he hates seb) so its not like literally everyone is falling over themselves for her?? like her interactions with the main cast of boys (ominis, garreth, amit) theyre all indifferent to her LMAO but still, the fact that shes pretty and guys here and there might look at her and go o shes cute! doesnt make her a mary sue SORRy thats just called being attractive idk its just annoying that ppl automatically see a nice kind beautiful female character without any VISIBLE flaws and go SHES TOO PERFECT!! MARY SUE!! WAH IM JEALOUS! and like I get it bc when I was younger I probs would have been annoyed by clora as well due to my own insecurities and internalized misogyny but hey, how about u just realize that’s ur own problem and your own jealousy, and not a real one HAHAH anyway ive since evolved bc I used to be a ‘not like other girls’ type girl back in highschool. trying to be super tomboy-y bc I thought being feminine was cringe and too basic but now ive embraced it and love girly things and dresses and charas like clora who are still strong and showcase their strengths and weaknesses in subtler ways, and I want to smooch her and make out with her. get behind me clora ill protect you🤺🤺🤺