#is that flag anachronistic? lol

[themusicsweetly]

“I have lived through war and lost much. I know what's worth the fight, and what is not. Honor and courage are matters of the bone, and what a man will kill for he will sometimes die for, too... For the sake of love alone I would walk through fire again.”

—The Fiery Cross

[officialbruciewayne]

ooc. Okay bats out of the bag here, but yes, Bruce knows more internet lingo than he has been admitting to.

The title of World's Greatest Detective goes to the first person to identify all six reasons Bruce uses LOL for Lots of Love. They are all separate reasons with some overlap, send in asks or replies, have fun!

It's funny. ( @officialbernarddowd )

For the ditzy Brucie persona ( @damianwayne-thebloodson )

He is laughing very fondly ( @redrobinfr )

Anachronistic code in case timey-wimey happens ( @redrobinfr )

Its absence is a red flag ( @redrobinfr )

It is emotionally easier than saying I love you ( @officialbernarddowd )

[the-girl-who-didnt-smile]

Human Alastor (FTM trans headcanon)

Full size image

Commentary below:

Here, Alastor is shown at four different stages of his human life:

Childhood - around 12 years old

“Voodoo Killer” - late teenage years

Jazz Musician - early 20s

Radio Star - later adulthood to time of death

His career as a serial killer started when he was around 12 years old and continued up until his death.

The three stages of his adult life are supposed to correspond with different aspects of his demon form’s hairstyle.

During the “Voodoo Killer” stage, he straightened his hair and styled it similarly to his demon form’s hairstyle. However, he did not have an undershave. If viewed from the back, it would look like a simple bob. His appearance is inspired by Clementine Barnabet. I intended for his tignon to be tied in a similar manner to Clementine’s. Additionally, the bandages wrapped around his legs are meant to make him look a little like Voodoo Queen Lala from the 1930s. I gave him bandages instead to make him look like more of an edge lord (lol). The cross worn was originally his mother's. After she died, he painted it black in mourning. He wears it at all times, up until his death, to remember her.

During the “Jazz Musician” stage, he kept his hair short in order to pass for male. This is supposed to correspond with the back side of Alastor’s demon form, which is shaved short. His appearance is inspired by Jelly Roll Morton, one of my favorite Jazz musicians, who also happens to be Creole. Not visible in this pose, but Al wore black gloves that match the color of his hair. 

During the “Radio Star” stage, several aspects of Alastor’s appearance are inspired by the late, great Cab Calloway. Like Cab, Alastor styled his hair in a conk. His suit is also inspired by the iconic white suit worn by Cab Calloway.

That being said, creative liberties were taken with Al’s white suit, which is anachronistic for the 1930s. Cab famously wore zoots, but I don’t think that would be Alastor’s style. Since I know so little about 1930s fashion, I gave up and didn’t attempt to give him a historically accurate suit. Instead, his tuxedo is based on the one he wore in the pilot. There are several anachronisms present in Alastor’s canon design, so it might actually fit his character to wear a suit atypical of the 1930s. This could preserve the otherworldly, “Willy Wonka”-esque presence that he has, even on Earth. Still, it’s a pretty glaring historical inaccuracy. Once we get to see Al’s canon human form, I might redesign him.

Since Alastor would have more than one suit, I didn’t worry too much about the inaccuracies present in his clothing. The one thing I refused to compromise on was his microphone.  In the TV show, Alastor’s iconic microphone is a vintage ribbon mic. However, this “pill capsule” style looks more similar to models that were only invented after Alastor’s death. Here’s an example of a ribbon mic that was rolled out shortly before Alastor’s death: The RCA Type 77-A. As you can see, it’s a lot larger in size than Alastor’s microphone.

My first attempt at drawing human Alastor gave him a ribbon mic, seen here: https://www.deviantart.com/thegirlwhodidntsmile/art/Human-Alastor-ribbon-mic-1035514228

In order to be more historically accurate, I discarded this design. Instead, I gave him a spring microphone, technology that is more iconic of the 1920s/1930s. 

Here’s an image of Cab Calloway in front of a spring microphone, one year after Alastor’s death:

I took some creative liberties with the flag of Alastor’s microphone. Normally, it is supposed to say the radio station. Since I don’t know what radio station Al’s show aired on, I just had it read “ON AIR” in red.

Importantly, Alastor’s suit has to match the design of his microphone, which is an extension of himself.

It’s a little awkward how Alastor is holding his microphone, so here is how it looks from the back: https://www.deviantart.com/thegirlwhodidntsmile/art/Human-Alastor-back-of-mic-1035514255

The backside of the microphone is supposed to look like an eye, and have a bit of an ominous presence.

A headcanon I have is that Alastor had a severe case of stress-induced vitiligo. Because he was very egotistical, this was a source of shame for him, so he hid it with makeup and clothing. Here is how his face would have appeared shortly before his death: https://www.deviantart.com/thegirlwhodidntsmile/art/Human-Alastor-no-makeup-1035514264

Al’s colors are mostly browns, whites, and black, to keep with the deer theme. The black tips of his shoes are supposed to look a bit like deer hooves. I pictured his height as 5’10, one inch taller than Michael Dillon. Since the average male height was around 5’7, Al was still taller than most men, which made it easier to pass for male.

In addition to Clementine Barnabet, Jelly Barnabet, and Cab Calloway, FTM Al’s appearance is largely inspired by the famous biracial drag king Stormé DeLarverie.

I picture Alastor having a darker complexion than Stormé, or Cab Calloway for that matter. Compared to Stormé, his nose and eyes are different (his eyes are supposed to have the same shape as his mother’s. distinctly African, not European at all) but his mouth, jawline, and overall facial structure are similar. He’s basically supposed to be a much less white-passing version of Stormé DeLarverie. Because he was born around year 1900, Al would not have had access to any form of medical transition. He would be physically indistinguishable from a cisgender drag king.

I also picture his physical build being pretty similar, but he’s taller (I’m not sure how tall Stormé was, but I don’t think she was 5’10) and skinnier. He’s supposed to have a really striking appearance, where he’s really slender but really tall for someone born in his time, and he has an androgynous face.

In my more recent drawings, the drag king Alberta “Bert” Whitman has also served as visual inspiration for human Alastor:

Bonus image:

https://www.deviantart.com/thegirlwhodidntsmile/art/Alastor-kill-count-1035514155

[madecanary]

(  NICHOLAS  GALITZINE  |  CIS  MALE  |  HE  +  HIM  |  TWENTY  -  ONE  )  — — —  it's  just  been  another  long  week  in  boring  -  ass  hawkins.  isn't  that  right,  WILLIAM  BYERS?  shit,  i  guess  they  can't  hear  me  over  WHY  CAN'T  I  TOUCH  IT?  by  BUZZCOCKS  playing  through  the  headphones  of  their  walkman.  it  looks  like  they're  gonna  be  late  for  WORK  as  a  SALES  ASSOCIATE  at  FAMILY  VIDEO.  did  you  know  WILL  has  been  in  hawkins  for  HIS  ENTIRE  LIFE?  yeah,  their  family  and  friends  describe  them  as  GENTLE,  but  i've  seen  them  be  RESERVED  too  !  i  would  also  say  they  remind  me  of  a  wound  in  the  shape  of  a  boy, raw-bitten  lips  as  sweet  as  they  are  sour,  an  intolerable  tenderness  nestled  in  a  center  that  cannot  hold,  splotches  of  ink  littered  haphazardly  across  flushed  skin,  eyes  rife  with  mischief  and  melancholy  in  equal  amounts,  but  is  that  weird  ?  i  guess  nothing's  too  weird  for  this  little  town,  huh  ?  — — —  (  dev,  any,  25,  est  )

usually found trying his best to not visibly judge family video's patrons and their taste in film, doodling on scrap paper, bobbing his head to whichever mix he's listening to now, with his head in a book, getting away with being a little shit in the background, and being soooo normal 😁👍 (lies) prominent traits empathetic, coy, pragmatic, anxious, sweet, sensitive, pixyish, prone to keeping things in & then exploding, self-sacrificing, frank mini anachronistic playlist climbing up the walls (radiohead), i'm just a kid (simple plan), prey (the neighborhood), i wanna be adored (the stone roses), basket case (green day), good feeling (violent femmes), unloveable (the smiths), my love mine all mine (mitski)

bridging the gap

whatever dreams will had of going to college were momentarily completely and totally squandered by The Horrors and Their Consequences. he went through a lot, year after year, and leaving the nest to venture out into the great unknown by himself right after just... wasn't in the cards for him yet. he wasn't quite ready, didn't know how to reconcile what he felt with the life he was living and the one he wanted to live. so, he stuck around.

got a job at family video because if the abysmal reviews in the local paper were anything to go by, then clearly this town was in great need of at least one person with good taste to guide them, and who else could it be but him, your resident movie buff? he's been there for a minute—probably over a year now—and he likes it. he likes it a lot, actually, and probably abuses his employee discounts lmao.

a lot can happen in two years, especially two years of peace, so i'd like to think will continued his self-realization journey he was on in canon and is in a better place than he was. he's in this unique position of simultaneously being both hypervisible (widespread gay rumors & bullying have existed since forever, and his family dropped hints throughout the years lol) and invisible (it doesn't stop girls from barking up the wrong tree; some doubt still exists), and he'd use that to his advantage. it isn't safe to be fully out, but i think... that if you need to know, you'd know. ...you know? so, not out-out, but not making a concerted effort to appear otherwise. you either notice his flags and put two and two together, or you don't. does that make sense? his family absolutely knows, and i do imagine he'd want his chosen family to know and love the real him, too.

considering his unfathomably shitty luck in life, he probably spent most of that first year of peace waiting for the other shoe to drop, and only finally exhaled when november came and went without any issues. still doesn't know what he wants to do with his life (does he go the practical route and do something with computer science? or does he chase after his pipe dream and pursue art?), but he did enroll in some gen ed classes at the local community college with intentions to transfer someday, so that's progress. he still feels so behind, like he should have moved on by now, but baby steps are still steps.

so, y'know. he was living that small town life. getting by, shooting the shit, trying to not shit his pants thinking about The Future. everything was fine! so great, so normal. until. :)))))))) he started not being able to sleep as well as he used to. started feeling anxious, not entirely alone. he thought it was just... him, y'know? he knows he has ptsd, he knows that life isn't always as easy for him as it is for others — he made peace with that. but... he thought he was getting better, that things were finally starting to look up for him. and now this?

he hasn't told anyone. his options are both shitty: either he's so scared of growing up that he's getting bad again (and then he has to be the mentally ill one, ugh!) or it's not just him and they really are in danger (and now they have to fight for their lives again, great!). nightmare scenario no matter what. but it's probably fine. it's just his brain turning his fear of the unknown and unfamiliar into something that he does know and is intimately familiar with. it's — no, yeah. that's probably it. right...?

so, basically, old habits die hard and will has fallen back into the routine of pretending that everything is fine and soooo very normal, unaware that he looks and acts like a prey animal to anyone with eyes. if he has bags under his eyes, no he doesn't. if he's been listening to should i stay or should i go? again, no he hasn't. if he's extra quiet, extra jumpy, and a little more sensitive than usual, well. what happened to minding our own business, huh? 🤨 can't a man be a freak in peace? could someone going through it do this? (cue will giving himself a choppy wolf cut in shitty midnight bathroom lighting). it's literally so fine!!!!!!! (<- lying again)

he may... have to start opening up a little bit, though, given the latest murders. maybe. but only if you promise to not get mad... 🙄👉👈

extra tidbits

it's very important to me that will has a little gay hoop earring that someone gave him at like three am during a sleepover on a random whim. sometimes he wants to buy a pearl and serve full on girl with a pearl earring realness, but he also doesn't want to get hatecrimed, so. little innocuous hoop it is 💛

joining the war on smoking on the side of smoking by following in s1's historical accuracy footsteps and making will an occasional smoker. and yes, he does still bum cigarettes knowing full well he has a pack of his own on him (we love a scammer) + it's been a lil bit more than occasional ever since the return of The Horrors :(

i'll still be writing will as a sweetheart of course, but bitchy will is so near and dear to me. his season three WHO CARESSSSSS 🙄 & cracking up at the boys getting dumped & you weren't with her? 🤨😒 & general #imwithher vibes and season four sighing and rolling his eyes and calling others out etc mean Everything to me. get their ass, william!!! sigh and bitch and moan and complain, as is your right!!!

will had that hair you see in the second gif, but he cut it recently and now it looks like the first and third gif. is this because i'm indecisive? perhaps....

he still loves dnd + still the same old geek + still loves [video] games + please hang out with him he wants to hang out can he come over to hang out or do you want to come over to hang out when are y'all gonna hang out bc he just told me he wants to hang out. btw

[figmentof]

nah. You're the fucking moron and also fucking racist. You see someone Chinese and you reach for the only Chinese pirate you've ever bothered learning about.

Yeah. This show is anachronistic (so proud of you for knowing a big word, but you're still a moron). It also plays with race! Blackbeard wasn't Māori. So the fact that you're so fucking stupid you can't see beyond that she is Chinese is a big racist flag.

You immediately jump to "Chinese? must be this one Chinese pirate that is the only one I ever bothered to learn about that was born 70 years later."

Fucking racist idiot loser.

saw that my post was getting some notes and the ask had people saying you’re being stupid got you big mad huh :((

i wanted Chinese pirates because i myself am Taiwanese and wanted to see Asians in the show, plus from what i could see of the costuming made sense. and seeing that David Jenkins brought Calico Jack into the show and referenced Hornigold could imply that he wants more famous pirates to show up while Stede remains the lesser known one. with Ed’s talking about going to China, a lot of people earlier this year already speculated that they might run into Chinese pirates had they gone (maybe Ed even knew some of them considering how well known he is, and maybe that’s why he said China of all places). judging by the response to my post, people are just as intrigued at the idea of Zheng Yi Sao as she really is popular and indeed one of the well known woc pirates who at least still lived in the 1700′s even though it was during the later part of that century. if they want to bring in other Chinese pirates? that’s cool too? the point of my post was about Chinese pirates in general not Cheng Yi Sao in specific lol

if i’m wrong, and i’m not even afraid to be wrong, i’ll just be one of the many people who just speculated on a small detail that didn’t happen on the show; which surprise, is a thing people in fandom do during hiatus and there’s limited info on the next season of a show. we speculate!! i can't believe my silly little post and my response to your dumb harassment of me got you this pissed for you to send me three asks where you stoop down to transphobic/transmed and racist remarks towards me (and where the fuck did “arab fetishizer” even come from that’s not even the topic of discussion rn what the fuck lmaoooo). but hey, i’m sure you must be very miserable irl, so here's the attention you wanted since you seem to need it 😘 i hope things work out for you soon because this? is pathetic

[technecat]

Another old OC, Mao, showing off her pride flags! This one is a little anachronistic for 2005 because the Pan pride flag didn't get into popular use until the 2010s, I believe, and the Trans flag existed as well but was not well known. But if she'd had them, she would have flown 'em!

Mao was originally a male character in the script, but that left a huge imbalance of genders in the cast that didn't sit well with me now that I'm an adult. I waffled on whether to make a brand new character or change an existing one. The cast already had 15(!) characters so I decided to redesign an existing one, and Mao, whose main trait when I wrote him in high school was "getting mistaken for a girl, lol" seemed like a prime candidate to update.

Anyway, I love Mao and her cute 2000s Disney Channel Starlet fashion sense (she already wore these kind of clothes in her original design anyway). Her speciality is social engineering, btw. 😸

[patternwelded-quill]

With everything going on I don't talk about my wips much, other than posting updates of chapters for my fanfics, but here's a bit of an overview. If it's not apparent, I like writing series, lol.

As per the reblog, I tend to write descriptive fight scenes, violence, and explicit language. My characters are flawed, many of them presenting some PTSD flags. (And I love rock and metal.)

I'm also trying to draw items and people from my stories, even if my art is pretty basic.

---

Red Angel Saga (original fantasy trilogy): the story of Relarial, an elven mercenary warlord in an anachronistic late-classical world. Using her as my profile pic. Her arc covers the concepts of vengeance, healing, and reconciliation of truth vs comfortable lies.

Blades of Fate (original sci-fi trilogy): follows disgraced Cpt. Malekah Thaynn and her (eventual) ragtag band of former-legion misfits on a quest to recover an archeotech relic from the height of humanity's power before her father's former bff gets it first. Her virtues are violence, spite, pettiness, and banter. Her vices are alcohol, sex, and violence.

Once We Were Warriors (ao3 fanfic trilogy... at least): a response to an injoke in a writer's group on twitter/discord about our OCs being Sailor Senshi. In this case Relarial getting isekai'ed from her world to a '96 Tokyo shared by Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon (with other cameos and easter eggs thrown in for Stargate, 40k, InuYasha, and several others.)

Wet Behind the (Long) Ears (ao3 fanfic): what if it wasn't the 'spring of drowned girl,' that Ranma was knocked into, but the 'spring of drowned *elf* girl?'

My dash is dead and I need way more writeblr's to follow and play tag games with so...

Pls rb/like this post if you're a writeblr and post about any of the following:

Writes adult fiction

Primarily writes romance/fantasy/scifi/paranormal/etc.

LGBT+ themes and characters

A monster fucker (bonus points if you write about angels, demons, or dragons)

Write graphic violence and sex scenes

Write about mental illness

or

you like rock and roll

And I'll check you out and give you a follow! I follow from @mercurialsmile so if you see that username hi its just me.

[creativepup]

Felt like doing some self-indulgent Pride art for some of my characters today. More info + pin closeups below the cut because I feel like rambling.

(These also ended up being a really good excuse to do more queer history research lol)

Gwbdolyb the pescetarian mindflayer archaeologist & her shrimp wife 'Robert'. Robert gets to have a colored dress since lavender has historical queer connotations. [An argument could be made that Gwyb is also trans since her original host body was male, but considering the process of ceremorphosis is all about erasing the host's identity I don't view it as 'counting'.] I've made pin-up art with them before.

Ra-Im Moon / 문라임, aspiring fashion designer (wearing one of her signature designs, the "skuit"). Technically she's an NPC moreso than my own character, but I couldn't have Seungmin without her big sister. The double-moon pin is another bi symbol (+ moon/Moon pun :)).

Seungmin Moon / 문승민, escaped corporate mercenary (her face was replaced with an electronic screen after an explosion). Ra-Im designed her demiromantic hanbok for her. I had a hard time searching for Korean-specific queer symbols, but I noticed multiple people with this flag at the Seoul Pride Festival so I went with that.

'Maddie' Moon, the 1970s Bionic Kid teen AU variant of Seungmin. Some close-ups of her buttons below. Maddie is Korean-American but also spent several years living in Berlin. I never fully figured out out if she's lesbian or bi (part of the reason I was initially looking at the double-moon is because it's preferred in Germany over the double triangles) so I tried to go with period-appropriate symbols that could work for both. The lambda was made an international symbol for gay & lesbian rights in 1974, and the pink color obviously has historical connotations as well. The labrys is often used as a lesbian feminist symbol. I'm admittedly not sure exactly what year the German pin is from but the sentiment is perfect. Wasn't able to dig up any other German/European-specific symbologies (although I did learn that organized queer groups were called friendship leagues / freundschaftverbände).

Tree Shaper, my beautiful mutton-chopped firblog (also nicknamed Branches). Exclusively they/them. I love them a lot.

Len my ghost boy! Len's look is supposed to be a bit anachronistic since he's originally from the 1980s but ghosted around through 2018 before traveling back in time to the 80s again (long story). The most commonly used trans symbol only came around in the 90s, but I did find this variant that was used by the FTM magazine Metamorphosis in the early 80s as well as on the pin below. Their activist friend Krysta would definitely have gotten him the Anita Bryant pin. (It would probably be a little more in-character for Len to have an ace ring instead of the pin, but I didn't make their hands very visible so)

& last but not least, Kraner the half-drow busker (not shown outside on a sunny day). He can normally make his tattoos glow in a variety of colors (good for putting on a performance) but I think he'd enjoy coordinating them specifically to match the pride flag. He's still coming to terms with his asexuality, but he'll get there eventually.

If you're reading this, thanks for listening & I hope you enjoyed!

[epersonae]

Dies Irae, or Day of Wrath

I have been thinking about this for weeks, and I’m just going to dump out the jumble of thoughts in my head, without necessarily trying to come to any kind of conclusion. I am not a musicologist or a music historian, just a former orchestra nerd who watched Amadeus probably a few dozen times as a teenager (30 years ago lol), so grain of salt and all that.

Dies Irae! Blackbeard’s dramatic theme! Sounds amazing as the backdrop to the Hot Topic Boat, and also the backdrop to Black Pete’s 1000% bullshit Blackbeard story!

So there’s the first thing, right? It’s the music for the legend, not the guy. It’s big blustery music that goes with a big blustery persona, in contrast to the tenderness of Gnossiene #5.

It’s also, of course, just a little bit anachronistic: composed by Mozart in 1791 as part of the Requiem that was unfinished at the time of Mozart’s death. Not quite as anachronistic as Gnossiene, but not period either. (As far as I can tell, the only classical music in the soundtrack that’s actually period is a Telemann concerto that I think plays during one of the King George bits.)

And Dies Irae does actually translate to Day of Wrath; it’s a medieval Latin text (ecclesiastical Latin, even!) about the judgement day, used in Catholic funeral masses for centuries until the reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s.

The day of wrath, that day, will dissolve the world in ashes: (this is) the testimony of David along with the Sibyl. How great will be the quaking, when the Judge is about to come, strictly investigating all things!

Etc, etc. Very dramatic, death, judgement, fire. Again, works perfectly with a guy with a head made of smoke, flaming eyes, big scary flag, yadda yadda.

The other thing about the Requiem is the unfinished part: famously, it was one of the last pieces of music that Mozart wrote, and in fact only the first part of it was fully completed, so even this part was missing some of the final touches. And it’s got all this mythos around it, mostly because his wife needed for him to have finished it so she could get paid the rest of the commission, but then all of the mythology about whether he thought he was being poisoned, or being paid to write his own funeral mass, etc, etc.

Which brings me back around to Amadeus, because that’s the most popular version of that myth, based on a play which got turned into an opera that got turned into a play that became a movie. (Which as I said, I saw a bunch of times as a teenager. Yes, we were a nerdy household.)

It’s music that goes with a legend, an idea of a genius and how he fell!

And also, and this may be one of those [I’ve connected the dots/you haven’t connected shit] moments, but: every time I watch the manic montage in the party boat, it reminds me of something in Amadeus. It’s been enough years since I’ve watched it that I couldn’t tell you the exact scene, but something with the fisheye lens and the costuming and the face powder, and then specifically the playing with the coat as if pretending to fart? Definitely an Amadeus thing.

Something about someone who is at the peak of his game, professionally, but also perceived as being a little bit out of control? I dunno. Someone who is more myth than man? Perhaps.

(Also something something Salieri - Izzy something something?)

The music choices are just all so INTERESTING, is what I’m saying.

[ineffableigh]

OK I thought about it more but forgot to come back and post about it LOL my bad

It's hard to read the posters in either of the first two Beelzebub scenes, so if anyone knows what the posters in the Russian cafe say let me know!

But I'd be willing to bet that the Russian cafe is weirdly anachronistic precisely BECAUSE this is one of Gabriel's memories, and he doesn't particularly give a shit about Earth, so maybe his memories don't retain environmental detail and fill in the blanks with stereotypical shit.

I feel like this fits for the American cafe as well, as it's got an American flag on the wall, a bunch of license plates, a pool table, wallpaper that's just American dollar bills, etc. Seems pretty reductive lol.

This, if true, really highlights that there's SOMETHING special about that pub in Edinburgh. The environment looks just like it does when Aziraphale visits to investigate, right down to the barkeep's outfit being nearly identical.

SUSPICIOUS! xD

Edit: I also find it very interesting that all the other scenes he 'sees' along the way are from Season 1 - we se no scenes from season 2. Except, 2-3 frames RIGHT at the end of the above example video, of a blonde woman in what looks like a hotel room? I can't remember what that scene is for the life of me

The Ineffable Detective Agency presents: Gabriel's memory

We're working on something HUGE, but in the meantime, here's something interesting! When Gabriel gets his memory back in s2e6, there are a lot of images that flash through his mind/our screen, mixed in with the longer clips about the almost-Armageddon and meetings with Beelzebub. Death makes an appearance FOUR times, and it seems that Crowley points to Death (in acknowledgement ?).

Plus there are several scenes where Aziraphale is the primary focus. Nothing is cut from this clip, although some sections are sped way up, speed way down, and/or zoomed in. Enjoy!

If you have theories - especially about Aziraphale's three appearances at the beginning, middle, and end, which aren't chronologically in line with the other clips (which all DO seem to be in order) - or about Death's many appearances - or about the switch from red to blue - we'd love to hear them!

With contributions from @noneorother, @thebluestgreen, and @embracing-the-ineffable

See more of our posts plus a link to a Google doc with metas and clues from all over the fandom, here!

[keldabekush]

Giving the CG Wildly Genre-Inaccurate Weapons is absolutely justifiable in-universe through a "deep roots in tradition honoring Galactic Republic heritage" lens. Pulling guys for a ceremonial mounted color guard with polearms or something similar to stand around and look pretty is EXACTLY the kind of thing a lot of senators would do for appearances (and just the sort of thing Fox would hate wasting his own time with, lol.)

You’re absolutely right, the Senate is ostentatious and ridiculous of COURSE they would insist on a ceremonial Colour Guard. All the Corrie Guard Shinies have to do their time on Colours rotation carrying around a big stupid flag on parade every time there’s a festival or a holiday or an Important Visitor, or just stand in front of the senate GUARDING the FLAGS 

Everyone complains about having to stand round a pedestal for hours with the big, unweildy, hopelessly anachronistic weapons ("They’re not even vibroblades its just a stick with a sharp end, Force”) until one of the Guard Commanders spots a wanted criminal passing right by and clotheslines the guy right off his speederbike with his Halberd, and then all the Shinies go absolute bonkers for it.  Yeah we love the Halberds, actually, your Commander could NEVER (nobody tell them about Rex and the Javlin Throw) 

[voltagefag]

wanna just start using transsexual as a identifier at this point cuz i remain not feeling like i have transed my gender but feeling like i have have transed my sex

like legit the golden rule of separation of sex and gender i feel necessitates this distinction for me uk like. i feel. like my experiences as a person have been shifted deeply and my relationship with myself has been shifted deeply by my changing body and my relationship to that and the worlds perception of that and. that was spurred by gender and expression and such but. idk. as a nb slightly androgynous masc slightly fem who gets 50/50 pronouns. like. people don't know or care abt my gender but i read as tr*nny no matter which way they think i'm going lol.

might i add 50/50 he/she and for each 50/50 trying to misgender/trying to correctly gender

so. uk. also why do i have to explain so much just to be anachronistic like so what leave me alone lol anyway i'm gonna design a flag maybe

[tuulikki]

But there is a narrative that Game of Thrones is (in some way? lol) faithful to history. More generally, “historical accuracy” is a popular excuse for creators accused of writing gratuitous amounts of violence, misogyny, racism, and general brutality.

GRRM specifically says he grounded his stories in history! So it’s worthwhile to flag everything that isn’t based in history when authors make these generalised claims. This is especially true given that Western-European-flavoured fantasy often perpetuates outdated “history” that reflects the anachronistic worldviews of scholars whose visions of the past were imbued with their Eurocentric, colonialist, racist, Orientalist, and misogynistic ideas.

It’s to the benefit of the genre for people to know this so we can get more vivid, imaginative fantasy worlds instead of regurgitating the same Ren Faire-lite tropes over and over. Like, I gotta assume the people clinging to these grimdark mud-spattered versions of medieval life are the same people who get angry when they see art of dinosaurs with feathers.

In short: a lot of “historical accuracy” in fantasy is outdated scholarship at best, and at worst it’s poisonous, pitifully anachronistic, genre-perpetuated bullshit. That’s worth talking about.

Can you point me to an explanation as to why GRRM's castles are unrealistic?

Casterly Rock is a single building the size of San Francisco. 

The castle system that comprises the Eyrie stretches up some three vertical miles; for point of reference, that would be like building a castle on top of Mount Elbrus or Mont Blanc. There are very few places in the world today built that high, because it becomes incredibly difficult to breathe at those elevations.

If Harrenhal was real, it would be one of the largest buildings in the world, easily four times the size of the biggest castles in existence. 

And so on. 

[koffeewithkjo]

Thoughts on Kjo's column regarding nepotism?

You can really tell when someone has never scrubbed a toilet in their life, can’t you? lol

I do appreciate his honesty in saying that he’ll do whatever he has to do to insure the financial success of a film, and if that means hiring star kids, that’s what he’ll do because his company is his legacy. Very rarely are people so frank about the commercial side of cinema, we sit here talking about art and merit and acting talent when in reality, they’re only thinking about the bottom line. And star kids drum up interest before a release in a way that no outsider ever could. I guess this whole nepotism discussion sort of needed that type of candidness. 

But I don’t believe that he auditioned thousands of girls and Alia Bhatt was the ONLY girl he could find who was good (especially since she was patently TERRIBLE in Student of the Year). I don’t believe that the only girls he’s auditioned for SOTY2 who are even passable are star kids. It’s pretty tone deaf to suggest that star kids should just stop acting because they happened to be born into acting families. No one is even saying that! All people want is acknowledgement that they have had it easy, and that there are literally thousands and thousands of men and women across the country who are doing everything they can to get what those kids can get with just a single phone call.

Karan, to me, seems like someone whose perception of reality is colored by the fact that he and all his friends have never actually lived in the real world. He’s not wrong in saying that he’s not running a charity and he can do whatever he wants, but it’s short-sighted and quite frankly, limits the type of stories he can tell. Of course all his protagonists are going to be rich, because what do any of these people know about poverty? The anachronistic elements of his films that people rightly point out as being out of touch with reality come from the fact that I don’t think he or any of these other mega rich big shots actually know what real people live like. So if it’s showing in your movies, and people are consistently pointing out those flaws, then you don’t have the formula as nailed down as you think you do.

He basically complains that finding new talent is hard and nepotism is easy. Okay, fair enough, I can’t argue with that. But making a movie isn’t supposed to be easy? You’re supposed to get it right, and nepotism leads to soooo many people putting out products that could have been a lot better if they’d put in a little bit of extra effort.

It really isn’t fair that Karan is taking the blame for being the “flag bearer” of nepotism, because he’s really just one of many in a long history of people who have made the industry so insular. He’s right that it’s not his sole responsibility to foster new talent. Buuuuuut....the fact that he obviously doesn’t even want to try, and sees no value in trying, is what worries me.