#it is amazing how a girl can be so clearly autistic and never get a diagnosis because she's a girl

[ijustwannaseemorecontent]

Kuki's parents are not diagnosed and they refuse to get a diagnosis for their daughter under the belief "there is nothing wrong with her"

I have a headcanon that Kuki Sanban is autistic. I’m also sure she has ADHD. I think it’s strange that I haven’t seen a lot of people headcanon Kuki as autistic. I’ll list autistic and adhd traits she shows in KND. By the way, I’m also autistic.

She’s very emotional. She gets angry, upset and joyful easily.

Kuki’s special interest is Rainbow Monkeys and plushies in general. She knows a lot about them and treats them like they’re humans.

She gets distracted a lot.

Doesn’t usually pick up on social cues.

She uses her imagination a lot.

She keeps her hands in her sleeves, which is likely sensory related.

Lots of these traits can seen in episodes like Iscream, Fast Food, Report, Saturn, Naughty, Home and many more. I’m pretty sure Kuki’s parents are also autistic.

[thougts-of-xena]

• Wakanda forever, Líik'ik Talokan and Glory to Ukraine •

[ ukrainian girl's perspective of the latest mcu movie ]

I watched [ Black Panter: Wakanda forever ] recently, and I can clearly tell - it's gonna be my favorite movie of the long long time. It's an amazing, really good action movie, one of the most epic I've seen. I loved it so much to see beautiful cultures, and all honor to Chadwick Boseman's memory made me very emotional every time. Like those silent moments whole audience was silent too, almost holding their breath.

And the most important for me was character of Namor, his arc and whole point about colonization. This period of time, colonization of America and erasing cultures hurted me so deep as an autistic child with history as an interest, and now I can relate so much with all this stories as an adult woman of the nation fighting for independence [ and survival basically ].

In our National Day of Dignity and Freedom want to talk with you about it. Why it is so important for me personally, and maybe for many conscious people of our nation as well.

Not for trying to compare who suffered more through the history. It never was, and never will be my goal, this would be awful thing to do. But to share history of my people and explain why this movie and character affected me so much.

For short - though Namor despites human kind in general I hope he might be pleased to see our "let's burn colonizators to the ground" resistance after hundreds of years of oppression, when old 'mighty' Europe only saying they're conserned and "let's just calm down and talk everybody". Heaven knows we tried everything, we tried to talk so many times. Russians do not want to talk with us - they want to make us assimilated part of their country, or they want us dead. And we just want to be left alone and live our lives.

For a bit longer story - just look at this monstrosity of a country. Is this normal for country to be THAT enormously big?

You can say: - Maybe. And I will say: - Only if all subjects having equal rights, impact and independence inside the union.

But things never in the history of russian expansion was like that,  and im going explain it, and hope you will get it why  I have used word "colonizators" earlier.

I really wanted to write a whole proper article or essay about this, but I'm without electricity for most of the time lately. "Thanks" to russian missiles damaging our power plants. And it become really hard for me to engage in deeper research, to translate and put in here sources that wasn't originally in english.

So instead it will be more little history lesson with knowledge from my head, and little documentaries from other intelligent people, which I recommend you to watch to illustrate my point. Videos was made by ukrainan creators, so yu can trust them, english subs that can be turned manually if you open them on YouTube, I'm still not sure how this works here.

I'll mostly use history of my country as an example since i know it better, I feel I have no right to talk about other nations at their behalf.

So Muskovy [ USSSR and modern Russia ] is like adopted offspring of the Golden Horde.

Golden Horde expanfion, you can spot something similar already

It expands only to consume resources, erasing native people of that lands. Do you think small swampy peace of land it originally was had all that gas, oil and wood they're bragging about nowadays?

Do you think there wasn't native people in that land who was exterminated, exiled or assimilated so russians can use resources this nation had? They didn't even had a clear access to big water.

Muskovy was a small part of Kyevan Rus' on a distant swampy land, but it wanted more influence in the world, a clear access to the big water - Black Sea that we had, since they didn't have it and felt like they missing up whole worldwide trading and invasive wars party.

To do so they tried to get all the land for themselves. Kyevan Rus' then was successful and strong country of its time but had an internal issues [ muskovy as one of them ] and was struggling with every neighbor wanted to get a part of its territory.

Interesting story for another time, let's focuse on a russian part of it.

So Muskovy put their eyes on not only territories of modern Crimea, wich was their own country that days  - Crimean Khanat, but all modern Odesa-Mykolaiv-Kherson-Mariupol lands. But they can't get there easily, they need to concuer all the land, wich is not bad itself as it has a lot of coal, forest ant great agricultural potential.

But my people don't wanted to give it up so easily, wanting our territories back, wanting a safespace for our culture and history, so fighted with their lifes. This leads to more than 300 years of  [ - give me your land! - no. ] and after becoming an Empire strong enough to overpower us [ - give us our independence back! - no. ] cycles of merciless wars.

And than Russian Empire coming up with a time proved strategy. I don't know did they make it by themselves or sneaked a peak of it by older empire-sisters but they're using it til now,  evolving from Russian Empire to USSR to Russian federation like some wicked Pokémon.

And here's coming the interesting part with the videos I prepared for you,  grab some snacks and let's go.

The first one is about how russia tried to erase our language

This one about them them trying to erase our culture and replace it with a fucking joke.

And the last one is about creating an image of our people as angry, stupid and degraded, with THEM as superior nation above us, mostly in our heads.

They knew what they were doing and did that on purpose. They wanted make us ashamed of our culture, to separated us from who we are and mash into a faceless "brotherhood nations" with recourses to use.

Unfortunately - it worked, and worked very well as whole nation has an inferiority complex now, simpy denying ourselves. Feeling like its better to be associated with them, to blend in what they are calling culture, than discover our own one, that was appropriated, stolen or forgotten for generations, almost fighting for not to be lost forever.

So-called "big brother of ours" enslaved our people with serfdom, suppressin our attempts to embrace our heritage, to gain independence, causing artificial hunger Holodomor in 1932-33 also known as Terror-famine in Ukraine, or by repressions like Executed Renaissance. Our culture is still alive and kicking, but you can see there was not big room for blooming.

Those who they couldn't execute - they calling heritage of their own. For example Treasure Island animation, dr. Livesey from it internet loved so much not so long ago - it's actually ukrainian made.

They simply called russain everyone talented or famous from so-called union. They made sure it's almost impossible for you to pursue your ambitions as a scientist, artist or musician anywhere but Russia, so if you work in Russia you will be seen as and caled russian, no matter where you from.

No matter wich culture certain traditional attires [ vyshivanka or papakha ] dish [ borsh or chebureki ] or other heritage  like giorgian dance woman lezghinka russians calling their beryozka now, came from - it all claimed by them as their general [ stolen ] russian culture.

They did it not only to us. I told I wouldn't be speaking of other nations but just take a look what was done to Crimean tatars.

If you thought I made up my point about them wanting access to the sea VERY BAD

You may search on YouTube or TikTok how russians treating their neighbor "former soviet union" countries [ like Republic of Kazakhstan or Georgia ] when visiting them.

Like "you should be grateful we bring civilization to your land" and "your native name is to hard for me to pronounce, I'll just call you Masha, Natasha, Ivan etc." Ask people of other Caucasian regiongs about how they was and still treated till now, ask belorusians about their language [ spoiler - it is dying ].

Its so unfair, that now we are screaming at the top of our lungs to be heard, for people to see us the nations of our own, to just let us be and cherish our culture.

But our voices are suppressed by voices of our oppressors telling us to calm down and listen to them since they know the better way for us to live and solve problems THEY CAUSED. With no regrets or reflexia.

And world prefers to listen to them, praising them, insted of listen to people who was offended, if not to say violated, by them. Not only us, many other nations,.

After all i said this story may sound familiar to black people, indigenous people of America, people of other colonized countrie - because IT IS.

Or you may say to me:

- I'ts just white's business, mind it on your own.

Ok, though its not very correct statement, but I'll take it for now. Let me show you this video, then - Russia is literally colonizing African countries right now for their woods. They won't stop. They simply don't want to, still thinking imperial way.

             •••• ••••   •••• ••••   •••• ••••

Thank you for reading all of this to the end.

My point here was not to make this movie and other people's trauma about my people, to take it away from you. This is YOUR history and YOUR experience.

I'm writing this not to impose ourself in your place, not to say that we can completely 100% clearly understand what are you feeling. I just wanted to share what are going through, to show why this movie in general and Namor in particular is so important and precious to me as.

I feel like he was right all along, just like us wanting nothing other than protect his land and people. Time is now for Ukraine and someone has to end this monster, burn those russian world | peace* they bringing everywhere they go, and we'll not hasitate.

* in russian there's one world for this term, basically it means "coercion some country to peace by violence and propaganda for expantion through the world"

I think it's really important to point some serious issues in movies like that. You may not like the movie, or actors or else, I respect that, but it's social commentary, it's impact you can't overestimate.

I believe some nations should be pointed at this on and on and on like "yes, YOUR nation did it. Yes. Yes it did. It's part of your history and responsibility is not going anywhere. Your way of thinking now is a part of the problem! Take it, rethink it and work it out,  like a mature nation should".

I believe that we can overcome this trauma, educate people [ though some of them may use the Clockwork orange therapy instead ], and in some time make world a better place without all this shit.

I've seen [ Wakanda forever ] two times at theaters already and I'm planning to go for it again. I want it to make a good income, I want corporations see at least financial benefit of educating people, of making an empathy gap smaller.

I want them to seek profit in making a good culture and history representation, to give voice for this people to talk to a wider group of people - its freaking Marvel, after all. To educate and unite those who suffering with generational and colonial trauma.

For example after "Encanto" someone might catch themselves wondering - who was those people that attacked Abuelas village and why would they do that?

Like "The Woman King" left me shaken . Movie may not be 100% historically accurate, as I'm aware, but it was good as the work of art, it showed culture, tradition, and the tragedy. It really drove me to this culture, I hope many people as well wanted to know more, and more.

Simple wandering who K'uk'ulkan may originally be, what a meaning his figure may originally have, may lead people to more serious research. To study, to respect and adore as this cultures in the way they deserve to. Like my childish adoration is booming and blooming now, bringing me so much joy, im eager to learn and resurch. I just hope books from my childhood aren't burned to ashes in occupied town where I left them.

And I'm only waiting for my salary to try to buy some books end explore world of Black Panter more. Same for comics in general - I was torn from pop-culture growing up, trying regaining this loss in past few years, taking friendly recommendations here, indigenous, POC or queer stories\creators is a priority.

I'm open for discussion, since my mind is a mess after this movie. I have so many thoughts, I love it - the movie and thinking thoughts -  very much.

We can also discuss how amazing it is to see celebration of any other than white european cultures on the big screen, how beautiful it is to see people of color on the leading roles, and black people in position of power through the plot. To show them as good and proud people, who know their worth, and will not tolerate any disrespect towards them. [ and how pleasing it is to see so pissed off people those empathy ends when starts conversation about the minority they can't associate themselves with. It's not about or for you, wolrd is changing, adjust a little, baby boy ]

We can discuss the messages from Black Panter movies that someone with the real power do not use it to cause harm, but the weak ones always seeking power to abuse the others. The message about loss and grief. Like now I have deeper understanding of our national motto "heroes never die".

Or we can share our love to Namor. As my sister told me after the movie - despite our shared thalassophobia we'd love be one of Talokan people. To have place then you'll be safe and secure, to have fatherly caring figure of K'uk'ulkan that always by your side protecting you, making sure that all will be well. Aqua papi? Aqua papa, por favor, gracias. And please - his little wooden house - isn't it adorable? Does his mother inspired him to make it? Does that mean his heart still have some little room for something from the surface? I don't need sleep, I need answers.

You can offer your theme to talk about, but if you coming to start some rude shit here - I'll not hesitate to block you immediately. Same goes for those who didn't like the movie as much as I did, I respect that, just chill out and pass by.

For the ones who read this to the very end - exclusive announcement. On my art acc I'll definitely draw my beloved feather serpent god, not once nor twice, since now it's a comfort character of mine and im going to embrace my urge for historicall, cultural and mythological studies as much as i can. But with some time pass. I have the ideas, now I need to gain some stability, mental at least. I'd love to share love for him with you, feel free to be my guest.

[prognostic-santhanas]

on god they just want the fantasy of

'aww shes rambling about her cute childish interests! how quaint'

and 'aww she gets nervous like a widdle baby around scawy noises!'

and 'shes super good at math or whatever so shes actually worth something- i mean super smart!'

and 'by dating her im a good person because shes autistic and that means shes undesirable'

and 'she can be my manic pixie dream girl'

and 'shes so cute and huggable and i just wanna squish her cheeks like shes a baby!'

until she she decks her entire room out in her hyperfixation and has a meltdown because of a staticky radio.

and isnt good at math or anything in particular because she thinks shes horrible for making mistakes and feels little to no motivation for anything.

and asks you not to intorduce her as autistic because then people infantilize her or shes not your girlfriend by merit of transness or because you clearly dont see her as a person (and you become the guy who got dumped by an autistic person which is embarassing because autistic ppl are stupid and should have low standards).

and instead of dancing in the rain and telling you youre special and artistic and amazing, she doesnt make eye contact and has panic attacks at parties and forgets to shower and she overeats because shes bored or stressed and hates when you touch her.

autism isnt a cute trend or a fun quirk or a silly personality trait. autism is not only a neurodevelopmental condition, but a spectrum, and one that everyone bullied the traits of as middle schoolers and only mostly accept now because its bad to be ableist (unless theyre weird or on drugs or living with their parents or have a service job or arent savant or have childish interests or--) and that comes by way of infantilizing for the 'good' conditions (like autism or adhd) and therapyspeak for the 'bad' ones (any personality disorder, addictions which kind of count as a disability, and tics or shaking or more pronounced stimming)

the longer someone subscribes to 'aww silly pookie uwu autism gamer gf' the less they can accept real autistic people, or even any slightly weird person regardless of neurodivergency, and theyll never confront their ableism because they 'would totally date an autistic person' and assume everyone else is a dangerous druggie whos on the extreme end of 'weird' which obviously means theyre less-than.

autistic people are not a silly trend. treat us like people with needs and realize stereotypes of autistic people are made by someone who looked at an autistic person thorugh a foggy mirror, shit vision, and about 15 layers of biases and tiktok therapyspeak.

"uwu autistic gamer gf"

yeah autism is cute and sexy until you meet someone with high support needs or someone who has frequent breakdowns.

[royalminty]

,,,Gotta be honest the new HBO Velma is leaving a really bad taste in my mouth...

I’m gonna just start off with this: No, I don’t have an issue with most of the Scooby Gang being POC. The gang’s races has never been an integral part of their character, and adding in some cultural details could be a really fresh way of developing them as characters!

My issue is that... it feels like the people around this show are only calling it a Scooby Doo series for the brand recognition. The HBO Scooby Gang feel like entirely different characters with the Gang’s veneer slapped on top at the last minute.

Velma, for the most part, seems okay? From what I can find, they’re keeping her as the nerdy bookworm, so that’s good, the core of her character is still there. I think they’re also making her cynical, which I have no issue with, it’s been done before. Her design is also totally fine. She’s still recognizable as Velma, she’s appealing to look at, no problems there.

Next is Fred. I really don’t like them calling him the “White guy who takes the credit”. That’s not who Fred is, at least, not in the majority of adaptations. He’s the popular athletic guy who confidently lays out plans. More recent series have made him an overconfident but well-meaning himbo, and Mystery Inc made him an Autistic guy with traps as a special interest, which I loved!

Fred’s kind of a blank slate, you can do a lot with him, so finding out that he’ll be portrayed as kind of a vain asshole is... disappointing. It’s such a boring take on his character.

His design looks fine, though.

Now for Daphne. OUGH the showrunners have no respect for her! "She was attractive, but also… she wore purple. That’s it. Until now… Our Daphne is diverse." John Showrunner, you have clearly not studied your Scooby history. Your Scoobstory, if you will.

Daphne has been a lot of things in a lot of adaptations. Yes, Where Are You made her the clumsy damsel in distress. It was a 1960′s kids show with a Hanna Barbara budget. But subsequent series have built on that. She’s been a hyper-confident hyper-feminine woman who uses feminine things in creative and amazing ways, she’s an intrepid reporter overflowing with curiosity, she’s a femme fatale with expert martial art skills, she’s a hopeless romantic, she’s a fucking weirdo, she’s the leader of the gang!

She is not just “attractive and wears purple���.

It seems they’re going to portray her as a ruthless popular girl with a crush on Velma. Not the worst take they could go for, but she could be better. Take notes on how previous writers have handled her! Have her be the leader of the school newspaper, nosey and ruthless about getting that scoop!

I don’t know, just something that feels like Daphne.

Another character where the design is fine. Kinda wish her hair was a little different but... eh, not a huge deal.

And finally

Norville.

Now, I’ve seen some people complaining about a “name change” but no, Norville Rogers is canonically Shaggy’s real name, so kudos to the showrunners for knowing that!

So... I have some issues with Norville. I’ll start off by being positive: I kinda like the angle they’re going for with him being autistic and socially awkward. That, in my opinion, fits with Shaggy’s characterization! He would be weird, he would be an outcast!

...I really don’t like his design, though. The only thing he has in common with Shaggy is facial hair and a green shirt.

I get that they’re gonna change his hair style to fit Norville’s race, but couldn’t they pick a hairstyle that better suits Shaggy’s silhouette? Give him longer dreads or braids, hey, how about some jheri curls? I think that’d be a good choice, but I’m far from an expert.

Maybe make the chin hair sparser, make his forehead smaller and his chin more prominent?

Norville is also described as initially anti-drug, which makes me think they’re gonna have him eventually be a pothead because of all the stoner Shaggy jokes/theories/headcanons.

And I’m honestly a liiiittle concerned that the only black man in the cast is gonna be a drug-user, it feels a little... eh...

Honestly, it’s really disappointing that the people making a Scooby Doo show don’t seem to have ever actually watched Scooby Doo! They don’t seem to care about the franchise or the characters.

Not only that, but Daphne gets sexualized in the teaser. She’s literally naked with her bits covered by soap bubbles.

This is a prequel series. Fred is stated to be 16. If they’re going off the canon ages, that’d make Daphne 15 and Velma 14.

You see the issue, right?

[reidyoulikeabook]

48 from touch prompt list and 75 from prompt list 5 🥺🥺🥺 im so proud of you love such an amazing achievement i love you

-efirstly i love you thank you so much 🥺 secondly the PERFECT two prompts together you have a galaxy brain and i can truly not thank you enough for this!!

Ship: Fem! Reader x Spencer Reid

Word count: 1.4k

Warnings: Some mentions of alcohol consumption & brief olden-time being married young talk.

Prompts: #48 - Dancing with each other & #75 Talking in an Elizabethan style to woo somebody

A/N: I listened to the ‘So Close’ song from the Enchanted soundtrack the entire time I was writing this so...put that on if you want!

A reminder I’m taking prompts for my 1k celebration until May 21st! :)

If Penelope Garcia loved two things in this world - Derek and science fiction aside - it was costumes and parties. So it made sense that for her birthday, she’d decreed she’d be throwing an Elizabethan-style ball. And that everybody had to dress up accordingly. Derek, always eager to put a smile on her face, had offered to throw it at one of his houses.

So it was there that you were headed, on this glorious Saturday night. In a not-so-glorious and infact, quite heavy, Elizabethan era gown. It was a good job you’d elected to take an Uber, because quite frankly the dress weighed a ton. It would have been impossible to drive in.

Good job they didn’t have cars back in the Elizabethan era.

Not that women would have been allowed to drive them anyway.

You’re only a little late when you arrive. Fashionably late, you’d go so far as to say.

“____!” Penelope greets with a squeal, rushing out to embrace you into a hug. You don’t even make it all the way through the door before she’s on you with a flurry.

If you thought your dress was a lot, you have to hand it to the birthday girl. She could never be upstaged. How her gown actually fit inside the house was a mystery, it was huge - puffy with a corset that cinched her in tightly at the waist. Her hair was coiffed into perfect curls. She looked stunning; like she’d stepped right out of a painting.

“You look amazing!” You tell her, squeezing her tightly.

“So do you! I’m so glad you took the theme seriously!”

“I take all themes seriously when it’s you threatening me about them.”

She laughs. “Well Derek did too. And Spencer, the others...” She frowns, “Well, I’d like to say they tried, but Rossi definitely didn’t. He did, however, pay for a gazebo and a live band so I’m willing to let it slide.”

You smile, allowing her to take you inside. She babbles some more on her way in about all the decorations, food, and how next time she’s going to make everybody send her pictures of their outfits beforehand.

She’s right about the gazebo though - it’s beautiful. It has elegant fairylights adorning it, illuminating the place in a candescent glow. The live band is an instrumental one - there’s even a fiddle.

Where the hell did Dave find a fiddle?

He’s rich.

That has to be the satisfactory answer for now. There are far more pressing matters at hand: like everybody’s costumes.

Horch is wearing some fancy suit, Emily has one that’s similar, Rossi clearly is just dressed in his normal attire. J.J appears to have picked one up from a fancy dress shop, but if anyone could make that look good, it’s her. Derek looks an absolute dream - clearly dressed by Penelope. It’s Spencer though, unsurprisingly, who has gone all out. He has a miniature version of one of those puffy collars on, his suit a gorgeous maroon colour. He even has white tights on, with the boots that matched. If there were prizes for best costume - which knowing Penelope, there might well be - she’d be up against some fierce competition.

“Spence!” You chime, opening your arms to greet him, “I love your costume!”

“I love yours too!” He beams, hugging you tightly, “The skirt of your dress is very fitting to the period.”

“Thank you!” You say, reluctantly letting go of him to greet everybody else in turn.

It’s hard to keep your eyes off him though, and everybody knows it. You and Spencer had been dancing around each other for months, the epitome of the will-they-won’t-they, and you can’t help but hope that tonight you might finally cross that threshold.

It’s Penelope’s birthday.

Who are you kidding? Penelope would be ecstatic to claim credit.

***

You’re giddy, not just with the glass of wine in your system. With happiness, the exuberant kind that comes from watching all your friends exist among one another. It doesn’t hurt that Spencer barely leaves your side the entire night. He’s a veritable treasure trove of Elizabethan era facts. You’ve learnt more than any history class could possibly teach you.

A slow song comes on, which is when you decide to seize your opportunity.

Now or never.

You bump your shoulder against his. When you have his attention, you nod towards the dance floor, “Come and dance with me.”

He furrows his brows, clearly weighing up his options in his head.

You affect an Elizabethan lilt, “Thou art going to leave me alone at the ball, fair Lord Reid?”

“I could hardly dream of it,” He says, imitating you, “Would thou care to dance with me?”

He offers out his hand. You take it, noting how he gets the barest blush on his cheeks.

“Thou had me practically petrified, I thought you may never ask,” You tease, accepting his hand, squeezing it once for reassurance.

He laughs, nose crinkling. He rests his hand on your hip hesitantly, only solidifying his grip when you rest yours on his bicep. His other comes to rest on the other side, just above where your dress puffs out. The song playing sounds vaguely familiar, although it’s harder to place with it being an instrumental version.

You lean into him, side-stepping in time with him. He’s not a dancer by nature, that much is clear, but he is surprisingly good at leading.

It’s easy to let him guide you around the dance floor. You stutter a bit, almost tripping. His grip on your hip tightens.

“Be careful fair maiden,” He reprimands teasingly, “Thou wouldn’t want to fall.”

“Thou wouldn’t want to be seen with a maiden who has made a royal fool of herself.”

He shakes his head, “I could hardly bare it.”

“I do not know how you can bare to be seen with me regardless. I’m practically a haggard spinster,” You say, with a dramatic sigh.

He twirls you around, voice slipping back into his normal tone, “Actually it was mainly women from wealthy families who would marry young, from age 12. With poorer or middle class families it was most common for women to be in their mid-twenties by the time they got married, the average age was about 24.”

“Still younger than me,” You retort, stepping in time with him. You’re pressed up against his chest now.

His breath fans over your cheek, from the way he’s bent, from the way you’re leaning in to him. His big hand spans over your back, holding you close to him as he steps to the right.

“Well,” He says, affecting the English accent, “Thou art a lady of the highest stature. A commoner could not possibly hope to marry one such as yourself.”

You giggle, “Oh fair Lord Reid. Whenst will I possibly find a husband?”

With surprising ease, he dips you, allowing you to fall gracefully into his arms. He’s study, supportive. Before you know it, you’re back on your feet.

“Thou might be looking in the wrong places.”

“Pray tell, wherest would one suggest a lady like me ought to look?”

“Perhaps closer to ones home,” He says, English accent - if you could call it that - slipping a little, favouring sincerity.

“How much closer?”

His hands return to your waist, and yours to his chest. There’s only an inch between your bodies. He looks down at you with sincerity brimming in his eyes, “Perhaps a little closer.”

Your hand trails up to his chin. It dips at the mere weight of your thumb resting on it, “Gallant Lord Reid, perhaps this close?”

“Perhaps,” He swallows, voice morphing into the accent again, as if he’s afraid to be vulnerable, “Thou art a maiden, thou art to be courted before marriage.”

“And where would one court a fair maiden like me?”

“Where would the fair maiden like to go?”

“Wherever, as long as you’re the one taking her.”

He swallows. His eyes scan your face, watching how you deliberately look to his plump lips. He hesitates for only a moment longer, before leaning in and planting the most delicate kiss upon them.

If it wasn’t for the elated drunken giggles of everyone else around you, you’d have been lost in the bubble of a moment forever. It’s okay though, because at your wedding, Penelope is sure to tell the tale of the Elizabethan ball where you - the fair maiden - finally got together with your perfect Lord. You have to admit, it’s a good one.

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(message me to be removed - visit my taglist form to join!)

[charmixpower]

Oh sense s4 is obviously not gonna give me any more good content for my girls, I thought I'd rank them based on how much I subjectively like them ^^

Musa: This one is obvious. Musa is very clearly my favorite girl... She's so pretty y'all, and she reminds me a lot of myself?? She's very relatable and in s1-2 she has almost all of my favorite outfits. Musa's sense of humor is absolutely peak as well. I love how she's both kinda upright about school rules but also clearly wants to challenge every soical convention. "Cheating on tests? Why, academic dishonesty only harms you. Follow the dress code? Fuck you fight me." Musa is also a bit unhinged, she wakes up and chooses violence. I esp love how a lot of her stuggles are her own emotions...girl me too

Stella: Stella is best girl. She's my second favorite but she's also best girl. She's funny, she's pretty, she has a deep emotional side? Get you a girl that can do it all. I really love how Stella functions 100% on emotions, girl will not give up on her friends/boyfriend for nothing. Stella is that bitch, she has probably punched one of the Trix before and I love her for it. Not to mention how confident she is while also being super insecure, that complexity is such an amazing layer to her personality

Aisha: Aisha reminds me of my mom but like with more of my personality. My mom is veteran and ultra protective and Aisha free climbing a palace to save the pixies? Hell or high water, Aisha never gives on someone she loves. Her strength is contrasted with her anxiety and I love that?? Aisha is the epitome of the mom friend anxiety override, and I love her for it. Tho my favorite part of her is how she goes into her own little world when she dances, she feelin herself, everyone else can leave this is her dance floor. Also Aisha's fashion being girly sports champion is so good

Bloom: I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about Bloom but that mostly bc she's the main character. Like Bloom has so many interesting things about her, I esp love the Roxy parallel and the idea of her having to take responsibility in a culture she's never seen before. It's sooo interesting. I wish the weird art girl thing was leaned into more, oh and Bloom's anger. Bloom growls at people and I respect that. Aside from that I'm kinda meh on Bloom, I don't dislike her but she doesn't make me think about her for multiple hours on end like everyone above her does

Tecna: if Tecna wasn't surrounded by characters that all act like her (Timmy and Digit) and didn't have one character arc she keeps repeating (learning to be more emotional) she'd be higher than Bloom. I love the concept of Tecna! Autistic girl is always connected to the internet, ostracized by all her peers she develops a hard outer shell and a strange way of communicating because she was nomrally around adults. Like? Yes, amazing. We were robbed of seeing Tecna's Omega Dimension adventure. I wish more of her dorky side was shown, the mini winx thing is adorable and her clear love of romance once she starts expressing herself is do cute

Flora: if Flora kept her mad scientist traits I would like her more, but after s1 Flora was like just kinda sweet. Also her being super shy around Helia felt ooc to me?? Idk Flora seems to be the most self secure of the girls, and she's also completely unafraid to mock and sass people, I could see her being shy but not that shy... I simply do not think about her all that much 😔

[baku-bowl]

broke 1,000 followers (the fuck? I don't even make content people), so decided to write up a list of some (but not all, I'll make other lists later) of my favorite Bakugou-centric fic recs. my tastes run towards hurt/comfort, as you'll probably figure from the list. if there are some Baku-centric fics that you've enjoyed that aren't on here, please add them - this is definitely not a complete list of the ones I've read and love, but I'm always up for some recs. <3

fair warning, most of these are wips.

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

Social Media 101 by WindsChild8178

Part 1: Survival Guide to Fucking Up

[Solely Bakugou’s point of view]

Katsuki Bakugou doesn’t have a gentle bone in his body. He’s aggressive in everything he does and does everything with 100% of his heart in it. After the Sport’s Festival, Katsuki starts to get harassed by strangers for his unheroic demeanor. It starts with letters but it doesn’t end there. The moment Katsuki realizes the harassment has entered dangerous territory and he needs to tell someone, it’s already too late.

Part 2: Post Traumatic Life Disorder

[Point of View opens up to Bakugou, teachers and classmates]

When the Dorms are finally built, everyone is settling in well, but things become tense as people begin to realize something isn’t right with the recently rescued Bakugou.

[Cannon compliant right up to after the License Exam]

hands down my favorite fic in the fandom right now. it’s the one that converted me into a Bakugou lover. if you have any fondness for Bakugou as a character then it’s likely you’ve read this one already, but if not, I can’t recommend it enough. incredibly depressing, but with the hope that comfort is coming soon in the next few chapters.

The Kids Will Be Alright, Eventually by NotWithThatAttitude

Bakugou is spiraling in the aftermath of Kamino and his friends are starting to notice. He's stubborn, aggressively independent, and less than willing to dig into his past, but after a breakdown that ends with a painful secret revealed, he starts to get help.

Whether he likes it or not.

Meanwhile, a new kind of villain threatens an uneasy peace following the loss of Allmight. Whispers build as a new narrative slowly takes shape:

Hero society needs to change.

Feat. Therapy, Dadzawa, best boy Kirishima, dysfunctional families, healing, growing up, and the mortifying ordeal of being known

guys.. the medical accuracy of this fic is just... *chef’s kiss*

I rarely see mental health genuinely handled well in fics, but this one goes above and beyond. kudos to the author for doing such excellent research into psychology, and making the application of it in here not-boring. also, while this one does have abusive!Mitsuki, it’s done in a way that feels realistic, and how I usually will see it occur in real life, rather than just for the hurt/comfort feels.

fair warning, the fic can be incredibly triggering (themes of severe depression, PTSD, panic attacks, rape survival, abuse survival, suicidal ideation/attempted suicide, among other things), so be safe and heed the tw’s if you decide to read. legitimately one of my Top Favorite fics in this fandom.

Lock and Key by autochorystalize

Bakugou made a choked, gravelly noise before croaking out a low, “You can’t be serious.” His fingers ached to blow up everything in the room.

“I’m sorry, young man, but you can’t change reality! This sometimes happens.” Recovery Girl clicked through his file, adding a new symbol in a previously empty slot.

- - -

A pair of eyes discreetly locked on to an explosive blond plowing his way forward, parting people in his path. He recognized the kid, of course. Anyone in the underbelly of society would recognize him, after the publicity of both UA’s Sports Festival and the events leading up to All Might’s fall. The uniform he was wearing cast away any doubts about the young man’s identity.

It was a bit of a surprise that the little firecracker presented as an omega.

- - - - - - - - -

Or: there are certain types of evil that seemed too distant, archaic violations and perversions that would never actually threaten bright-eyed heroes-in-training in the clean, modern world...but sometimes those evils aren't as distant as one might think.

remember when I said that I love a/b/o fics that are full of plot and world-building and gender-induced tension? that’s this one. the OC’s are fabulous and you love to hate ‘em. also, it’s the fic that made me fall head-over-heels for the TodoBaku dynamic, so it’s got a special place in my cold, dead heart. 

be warned, there are rather explicit non-con scenes between an adult (OC) and a minor (Bakugou) in this one, but the author warns for them in advance, and you could likely skip those parts without missing too much if you need to.

Never and Always, Eventually by Wawa_Boonliang

"Katsuki can remember the exact moment that he and Deku…that he and Midoriya Izuku became friends. He can also remember the moment he and Izuku became fierce rivals, a time when they were almost enemies.

However, what he remembers most clearly about their relationship is the moment that they moved passed rivals and became something more close than mere friends. Something more like brotherhood, something forged in fire and secured in the middle of a battlefield or in the midst of natural disaster where the number of the dead was climbing ever higher. And then it was torn from him."

Katsuki is given a second chance. A chance to save everyone. A chance to change everything.

But should he?

y’all. I’m a slutty, slutty whore for time travel fics. a time travel fic with autistic!coded Bakugou? it was love at first read.

Lessons Learned by Sif (Rosae)

Rather than the police station, Katsuki's friends bring him to a hospital after rescuing him from the villains. His wounds were minor, but it didn't make having them treated any less important. As it would so happen, Best Jeanist was also brought to this hospital after the attack.

Sometimes, small choices have a big impact on how a story plays out.

classic Bakugou hurt/comfort. this fic opened me up to the potential that could be a genuinely good Best Jeanist & Katsuki mentor-mentee relationship, and I kind of dig it and search ravenously for it in other fics now. I’m also a huge fan of the behind-the-scences Pro Hero Chat group.

Slope by sunfleurmoon

“I’m not a hero. Or a good person,” Katsuki says, giving Aizawa a pointed look, “So leave me alone. I don’t care about the League or UA, or you—” The two years he’s been away have been fine, more than fine, fucking fantastic actually if you ignore the bi-monthly near-death experiences. He doesn’t need this place. He doesn’t miss this place.

And yet, longing, a childish desire to tear up, or maybe blow something to bits, they all twist in his chest like a band of traitors regardless. “—I just want to go home.”

Or: the one where Katsuki and Izuku fail the first term exam, Aizawa discovers their pasts, and Katsuki is booted from UA. Featuring questionable descriptions of villain organizations, a slightly illegal moving shop, and your favorite emotionally constipated badass in distress with a newly discovered penchant for collecting strays.

paaaaaaiiiiiiiin. the hurt is ALIVE in this one. lots of tortured, angsty exploding child goodness. the OC’s are excellently crafted, and the Bakugou & Eri relationship? beautiful. definitely deserves a read.

Ground Zero by WindsChild8178

In the wake of Kamino, Katsuki is tested more than anyone could imagine. Bound by a villain’s quirk to keep his silence or die, he lives each day knowing it might very well be his last. He continues to work towards becoming a hero, keeping his secret from his classmates and teachers, focusing on making it through each day and trying not to allow the panic or depression to get the best of him. When the villain finally corners him with demands in exchange for his life, there is really only one answer Katsuki Bakugou can give.

honestly don't know which I want updated more - social media 101 or ground zero. this author's fics are amazing, and I really wasn't expecting the twist in this one. can't wait for windschild to come back to this fic some day.

The Defect by LadyGreenFrisbee

"Why do you want to win the Sports Festival so badly?" 

Because I want to see if the defect could usurp the masterpiece.

(In which Endeavor holds a terrible secret and Bakugo has to suffer since childhood for it.)

a great concept, and I adore the shouto and Katsuki sibling interaction here. hoping the author will come back to this one some day.

A Name That You'll Remember by Heronfem

Kirishima Eijirou is a Hero. Bakugou Katsuki... is not. Trapped in his toxic workplace and increasingly desperate to get out, Red Riot's days are only brightened by a new villain known as Caution, who's not exactly villainous and keeps accidentally doing good deeds. But when a real villain appears, a threat from the past that demands that Red Riot make the ultimate sacrifice to keep the public safe, Bakugou is forced into saving the day... and eventually, Red Riot himself.

sob story good guy villains are my weakness, this fic is a gem, and I'd kill for the sequel.

Our Hero by AnonymousTwit

He felt everything jerk to the side and throw his balance off before he saw anything, dust clouding his vision and irritating his lungs as the earth itself opened up to swallow them whole. For a single moment, in a millisecond's time, his wild eyes locked with Raccoon Eyes', hers alight with fear and adrenaline-fueled desperation. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized that it was the first time she'd looked at him with something other than long-deserved hatred in days.

And then he was free falling.

Or

After a particularly nasty encounter between childhood friends, the class learns about Bakugou and Midoriya's dark history and practically ostracizes Bakugou while trying to defend Midoriya. An earthquake during an outing has all sides regretting their decisions.

just fucking tear apart my self-sacrificing faves in every way imaginable while their loved ones watch on in terror. 💖🥰💖 this one is heavy on the Bakusquad and Class-1A feels, and VERY heavy on the Mina & Bakugou relationship (platonic).

Running back the tape, watching it replay by Faralyne

For someone ripped from their time, ripped from the few but strong relationships built by time and personal development, by self-reflection and swallowed pride, ripped from the one thing that made him feel worthwhile and needed and put-together, and forced to forge everything over again—Katsuki thinks he is handling it pretty fucking well.

Or

A villain’s quirk sends a 29-year-old Bakugou back in time to his middle school days.

am I a sucker for time travel? yes. am I a sucker for vigilante!bakugou? also yes. am I a sucker for this fic? literally refreshing the page in wait for an update as we speak.

Liability by sandelf

After All-Might dies rescuing Bakugou from the League, Bakugou is determined to prove it wasn't for nothing.

But the world is against him, his grief is overwhelming, and his stability is splitting at the edges.

very self-indulgent bakugou angst. tw for harassment, severe depression, and suicidality.

Special Mentions:

How To Win The Sport Festival: A Step By Step Guide by mhwright

Short re-imagining of the Sports Festival Arc if Shinso had planned a little better and worked a little harder to win the Sports Festival and if the match-ups had been slightly different. Self-indulgent fic of watching him succeed.

this is completely Shinsou-centric, not Bakugou-centric, but I love and adore it and am dying for a sequel. Shinsou is Best Boy here and you'll be rooting for him the whole time.

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

How Bad is Sia’s “Music” really?

I watched it illegally (because there was no way I was paying for that bullshit) and found out. It’s not as bad as we thought... It’s worse.

TW for ableism, Sia, drugs, alcohol, just in general a terrible movie, meltdowns, blackface

Literally the first thing you hear while they’re showing the production companies is THOSE stereotypical noises. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know what I mean.

And yes, she does this for the WHOLE fucking movie

What was the need to show her in her underwear? Maddie Ziegler was 14 when this was made, so what was the need??? And why did Sia prolong the scene by having her hitting herself?

Less than a minute in and my reaction was already “what the fuck is this shit?”

So the opening number not only had stereotypical exaggerated facial expression, it has Maddie in BLACKFACE?!? And with culturally appropriated hair?!?

The exaggerated facial expressions are literally constant and I took photos during the film to show it, more later, but I’ll keep mentioning it

ITS LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING TIME SHE IS ON SCREEN

Even her way of walking is fucking offensive, Jesus Christ

The vocalisations just had me cringing so hard, I cannot describe how awful it made me feel

Why do all the neighbours need to be paid off and help her when she goes for a walk? I don’t-

Yes, by about the five minute mark I was already seriously debating all my life decisions. It was that bad.

Kate Hudson really didn’t give a fuck that her grandma died

I will keep saying it but WHY are the facial expressions/vocalisations CONSTANT?!! Literally they do not stop at all. I work with a child who is actually similar to this in that he’s nonverbal and he makes similar noises/faces, but the way they’re in this movie is so over-exaggerated?!? And even the kid I work with doesn’t do it 24/7?!?

Sia, calling your characters Zu and Music doesn’t make them interesting in the slightest. They’re still painfully terrible and one dimensional

Literally ONE minute after being left alone with her autistic sister, Zu calls the mental health service asking if they could “theoretically” “pick up” her sister?!? Like she wants to get rid of her already?!?

“A magical little girl” - autism isn’t a magical power?!? And Music is a young woman, not a little girl?!? Why are you infantilising her?!?

Okay I’m not being funny but this choreography is NOT hard. ANYONE can do it, so claiming that you needed to hire a dancer to be Music because of the numbers is literally bullshit (and even so, there are so many amazing autistic actors and dancers?!?)

20 minutes in and I wanted to give up

So she had her first meltdown because her hair didn’t get braided immediately and that’s... certainly interesting??

The fact that Leslie Odom’s character says “I’m going to crush you now”?!?

AND THEN HE FUCKING PICKS HER UP AND FULL-BODILY PINS HER DOWN ONTO THE FLOOR

“I’m crushing her with my love” - oh fuck you, just fuck you

So Sia lied, the restraint scenes were NOT removed and there was no warning. She’s a fucking POS liar

I have no idea why he’s called Ebo or why he has such a cliche African accent?!? I might have missed out on why because I was busy trying not to bang my head into the table while I watched this film but just... yikes

“He (his brother) liked to be held” - YEAH, HELD. NOT FUCKING CRUSHED

“He is dead now” - IM NOT FUCKING SURPRISED IF YOU CRUSHED HIM LIKE THAT

The constant babying and patronizing of the autistic character is so exhausting to watch. I’m so tired

“Planning on sending her to the people pound but I guess I’ll keep her a little longer” - SHE WAS JOKING BUT THAT WAS NOT EVEN REMOTELY A FUNNY JOKE. NOT EVEN IN AN AWKWARD WAY

STOP THE FACES IM-

^ YEAH, Sia, totally a fucking love letter to the autistic community here ^

So Zu finds this necklace she made as a kid that had a little dog on it, and she says to Music, “He had seizures too, just like you”... MELTDOWNS AND SEIZURES ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY THE SAME FUCK THIS MOVIE-

It’s like Sia is trying to make the movie funny but it’s really not at all

Is Zu implying that Music is autistic because the mum was a junkie?!?

For real though, the dialogue in general is so fucking awful and cringey. Whoever wrote this should never be allowed to write again

Did she seriously leave her autistic sister alone to talk to who I’m presuming was her dealer or loan shark?!?

Also why is he - a white dude - wearing cornrows?!?

So who is the film really about? The autistic girl or the older sister saviour? I think we all know the answer to that one

WHY IS SHE WALKING AROUND WITH HER TEETH JUTTING OUT LIKE THAT ALL THE TIME

The musical numbers are literally so painful to watch. The overly bright colours, the flashing... my eyes were hurting and so was my brain

Autism representation aside for a second, the musical numbers/choreography are all fucking atrocious. Ditto for the costumes

LIKE WHAT THE FUCK WERE THE PINK OOMPA LOOMPA FRUIT THINGS?!? THEY LOOK LIKE THE PINK VERSIONS OF VIOLET BEAUREGARDE THE BLUEBERRY

I wanted to cry by this point, this movie is far more awful than I thought

“I’m not saying she doesn’t want to change, I’m saying she can’t” - FUCK YOU. Why is it okay for him to assume what she can or can’t do

Can I just say that autistic people aren’t constantly in a coked up wonderland state?!! We don’t see the world as a wonderland fantasy world 24/7?!!

“She can hear you from two rooms away” / *shows her listening through two brick walls to a conversation* — Also, we don’t have super fucking sonic hearing?? WE CANT HEAR THROUGH FUCKING BRICK WALLS?!?

“She can understand everything you’re saying to her” - she’s autistic not fucking deaf

Less than 45 minutes in, there’s another meltdown in the park

“I’m not climbing on top of a small screaming white girl in public” - yeah please fucking don’t

So Zu fucking pins her down with her weight 🤦‍♀️

“She doesn’t know who she’s hitting” - IM SORRY WHAT

EBO LITERALLY SAID “TREAT HER LIKE A BEAR” when talking her through the prone restraint, I fucking CANNOT

“Tell her she’s safe” - NOT IF YOU FUCKING RESTRAIN HER LIKE THAT SHE IS NOT

The fact that she gets up, smiling and happy after a meltdown and immediately is excited to get a snow cone... I can honestly say that after a meltdown, I am in no way happy or smiling. I am often not very verbal and I’m withdrawn/not myself for at least several hours, usually the rest of the day. Fuck this film

This film is literally just about Zu, and Music is there for a plot device to give her character development. That’s all she’s there for.

Love how Sia shoehorned Zu being suicidal in there. You know, just to try and make her more easy to sympathize with (it doesn’t work)

This film is literally just a 1 hour 47 minute Sia music video with ZERO plot

WHY WERE THEY WEARING PILLOW DIAPERS IN ONE NUMBER-

I really did not feel into the side plot with that guy who was fighting but it was still better than the actual movie so...

I am SO DONE with the NON STOP CONSTANT vocal shit. So tired.

LOJ’s only role in this film is to be the stereotypical wise black guy who assists a white woman’s story. There’s like hardly any other depth there

The Ebo/Zu romance is so fucking stupid and pointless and out of NOWHERE. I couldn’t even tell if they were into each other or not

I was already so bored of the musical numbers by this point. They added NOTHING to the plot but they pretended they did, and I was so over it. And it’s not because I’m not “creative enough” or anything to understand, I love musicals and I think it could have been cool if done right... but it wasn’t. They were a mess. It’s just bad.

Sia really tried to pretend her movie was deep but really it’s a shallow mess

So Zu is meeting rich drug clients and says to Music “try not to have one of your freak outs up there” and “if you could try to get it out now”... FUCKING YIKES. It’s not an on/off button, shut the fuck up

YEP THIS WAS THE SIA CAMEO FUCK THAT BITCH

The fact that she just calls “DRUG DEALER?!? DRUG DEALER IS THAT YOU”, fucking end this please-

I fucking hate this bitch I’m dead serious

“We’re gonna send them to Haiti cause there’s been an earthquake. All these buildings fell down, children’s bones were dislocated” - WHY WAS SHE SO CHEERFUL ABOUT IT

“Gonna buy a shit load of pain meds, gonna but them on my private plane” - FUCKYOUFUCKYOUFUCKYOU

“Pop stars without borders” - Sia thinks she’s so clever but I would give anything to punch her I swear-

ANOTHER MUSICAL NUMBER JUST STOP IM BEGGING YOU

There’s this awkward conversation/bit with Zu and her drug dealer/loanshark about his outfit that was clearly meant to be funny but was just flat and painful

Yep, Sia really showed Music eating chewing gum off the underside of a park bench. Of course.

Look, the kid I work with does similar stuff by putting literally anything and everything in his mouth but like... why would you put that in your movie?

And there’s no indication before this that Music puts everything and anything in her mouth, she just randomly decides to get on her knees, under the bench and eat chewing gum, like she calculates that it’s there and gets it???

She has a THIRD meltdown after an allergic reaction to a bee sting and her sister just yells at her before realizing... I’m not here for this movie, I feel like I drifted off and was not really there

So Zu got angry because she left the drugs at the park but she’s not that upset that her sister had an allergic reaction???

Zu gets absolutely drunk because a) she lost Sia’s drugs and b) she’s stressed out by her autistic sister... wow, great message, Sia!

She really fucked off and left her sister alone to go clubbing/on a bender

The less said about the musical number here the better

Sia’s movie also checks the box of having stereotypical Asian parents, specifically stereotypical Asian dad being harsh/angry and hitting his wife!

ALSO HE PUSHED AND KILLED HIS SON WTF IS HAPPENING

Less than 3 minutes after the last, there’s a musical number that I think was about this side character going to heaven... another shitty Sia-esque number

The patterns during the number made my brain hurt.

Also there are so many autistic actors who can also dance, and yet Sia chose the neurotypical one because ✨ N E P O T I S M ✨

I just want to know how it was deemed necessary to show the fact the autistic character peed/wet herself? I mean... ??? It’s just so undignified and not at all necessary to the plot. Nothing happens after that, it just moves onto the next scene and it didn’t do anything

“I have no one” - 1) YOUR FUCKING SISTER. 2) GEE I FUCKING WONDER WHY, couldn’t be that you’re a shitty human being?!?

There’s a scene where Music is walking and she does ALL the stereotypical behaviours at once... just YIKES

Zu somehow stopped another meltdown just by grabbing Music by the shoulders and sitting her down???

Aaand yep. Another shitty musical number

Zu really goes to put her sister in a fucking facility and claims it’ll be “better for her” - BULLSHIT. Better for Zu, maybe, not Music.

Ah yes - the girl who the characters have said has problems with routines being changed/change in general... you’re now going to fuck up her routine by dumping her in a facility. Perfect Plan.

The nonverbal autistic girl suddenly speaking to say “don’t go” - you can just predict it from the off, can’t you?

Love that as soon as Music starts talking, Zu is like “fuck it, I’ll keep her!”

Zu really went and crashed Ebo’s brothers wedding... in a fucking bralette... YIKES

“I almost gave Music away” - SHE IS NOT A DOG YOU DONT GIVE PEOPLE AWAY

“We should sing a song” - PLEASE DO FUCKING NOT

Also that kiss/romance montage between Zu and Ebo was the CRINGIEST fucking shit ever

This movie seems to be implying that Music has locked in syndrome or something, like she’s locked in her own head or whatever it’s called, and I just... *sigh*

Oh and now Music magically fucking sings in a room FULL of strangers... this is literally embarrassing, please let this end

I mean it, this movie was fucking painful to watch on ever level

She got a service dog puppy which... okay?

Oh look, it’s the only decent song on the soundtrack but with an absolutely shitty over-stimulatory music video with the credits!

I can only name 5 characters in this film. Maybe 7 at a push, but even then I would be guessing

AND YEP SHE THANKED AUTISM SPEAKS OVER THE CREDITS. FUCK YOU SIA 🖕🏻

Let me reiterate: this is a movie about a neurotypical former drug addict whose character development comes from the autistic character, from having an autistic sister she has to take care of. I’m so tired.

We are NOT plot devices or tools for character development. Not once does anyone in this film treat Music like a human being - she’s treated as a burden, a problem, and then like a pet that they decide to keep. Not once is the film focused on how she is feeling - it’s always about Zu or Ebo. The performance itself was so over exaggerated and it made me want to cry when I watched it because this is how the world sees us, and this movie will make it ten times worse. It’s stuff like this that made me think “I don’t want to be labelled as autistic because people will think I’m a certain way”, that made me wait so long before going to the GP to get a referral.

As I said, poor autistic representation aside, the movie is just so appallingly bad. It truly is one of the worst films I’ve watched. If you’re going to watch it, please don’t - or, if you want to because you want to see how bad it is/to raise awareness/critical posts, at least do it illegally. Do not give Sia your money.

[takerfoxx]

The Owl House, Season 2, Episode 12, "Elsewhere and Elsewhen," First Impressions!

In which new familial bonds are formed, old ones are repaired, and we are treated to the world’s most obvious plot twist (that still works)!

So we finally get a full Lilith episode! Hey girl, been a hot minute! Congrats on the whole “coming out” as one of the few aroace reps in a children’s cartoon! Man, The Owl House is bound and determined to hit all the colors, ain’t they?

Lilith has really grown on me over this last season. I never really disliked her, but she was firmly on the stuffy antagonist side for all of season one, so it was hard to really dig into her, even with her relationship with Eda. But here in season two we’ve been able to slowly peel away those layers. We’ve gotten to see her softer side with her lovely friendship with Hooty, we’ve seen her try make up for how much she’s hurt Eda (while still never really being let off the hook for it, which I appreciate). And most of all, as she is no longer the head of the Emperor’s Coven, she’s finally been able just be herself and reveal my favorite part of her: her geeky side.

I love watching her nerd out over her studies. Like, she is just so better suited for academia instead of her old job. And okay, I know it’s kind of a somewhat problematic stereotype the Venn diagram between aroace and autistic characters is kind of a circle, but screw it, I’m aro, I’m autistic, and right now I’m feeling that autistic vibe from her and loving it.

But she’s also taken numerous blows to the ol’ ego. Yes, she’s repaired her relationship with her family and I’m sure that she’s secretly glad to be away from Belos, but with no magic and her name now being mud, that doesn’t leave someone as ambitious as her with very many job opportunities. So she’s basically having to start over, taking a scrub job at the museum. Still, I can see her rising through the ranks to become head curator or whatever, but it’s clearly going to be a climb, and it’s clear that she isn’t happy with how far she’s fallen, though I’m glad that so many people came out to support her, including her biggest simp. Hey, Steve!

…

Get it?

Because he’s voiced by Matt Chapman?

Hey, Steve? The obscure Homestar Runner character? Like, his name was literally Hey, Steve?

I thought it was funny.

But also in the party is another new character, Flora Explora (and yes, the Dora thing is totally intentional and lampshaded. Apparently she’s voiced by the same person that voices Dora’s mom or something, ha), who was Lilith’s mentor before Lilith turned away from exploring and academia, and while she’s glad that Lilith is back on “the right path,” she’s also kind of condescending about it, and seeing how sensitive Lilith is about her fall from grace, it just gives her the drive to prove herself.

Naturally, there’s someone nearby that knows exactly how that feels, someone on a quest of her own, who is still stinging over recent failures and could use someone with a vast wealth of knowledge.

Now that they’re no longer enemies, I really like Luz and her new Cool Aunt Lilith. And it might be blasphemy to say so, but they actually kind of click a little better than Luz and Eda did. Lilith is just into more of the same things that Luz is, and the two have a lot of chemistry when it comes to rooting out secrets, such as the Time Pools.

Though to be honest, I thought the Time Pools would be a bigger thing than they were, but nope. Just the device to send them back in time to finally meet with Philip Wittebane. That whole business about paradoxes and the Bloodyfly Effect (heh)? Never even becomes an issue. But given how much they packed into this episode and how little fat it has, they really had to keep things moving.

And yes, the dead reveler gag was amazing.

Anyway, Philip, our mysterious journal-writing human from the past! We finally get to meet him, and in the process we learn a few things!

First, the time of Wild Magic? Actually pretty cool, and people who use it regularly are pretty nice. Actually, things seem a bit more advanced and civilized than Belos’s nightmare world.

Also? It apparently took him years to find all the glyphs that he has, while it only took Luz a few weeks. Almost as if the island was hiding them from him…

Okay, look: he’s Belos. Everyone called it, including me. He got stranded in the Boiling Isles like Luz, he sought out to learn about magic through glyphs like Luz, but because he’s a fucking manipulative asshole who is very much a British Imperialist, he ended up becoming a despotic monster. Those weird mutations Belos has been dealing with? Came about because he tried writing glyphs on his own flesh. Not a good idea. And hey, did’ja notice that blue tooth in his bag, along with the stolen Palisman? Remember the demons that were pushing him around, one with a green tooth and one with a red tooth, and how they mentioned that they got their friend Blue Tooth killed? Guy is a straight up serial killer, only interested in how he can exploit everything and everyone around him. I already suspected that was the case, but when Lilith noted how uncomfortably familiar his mannerisms were, that cinched it.

But that does raise quite a few questions. I’m assuming that he actually figured the portal out fairly early, and could have gone home at any time afterward. But he hints that he has greater aims than simply finding a way home, what with the Day of Unity thing. Obviously it will be an invasion of some kind, and will also involve the Collector, but in what capacity is impossible to say.

As for the aforementioned Collector, I’m getting serious Bill Cipher vibes. As if in, this is going to be the ultra-powerful wildcard threat, the chaotic evil that will likely be a major part of the finale. We know very little about him though, other than his affinity for celestial body symbols (as do the Blights, just pointing that out), and that he was the one originally responsible for turning the Owlbeast into a cursed scroll. Other than that? Not a whole lot.

And does he remember Luz and Lilith? Does he know that Lilith was the one who broke his nose? Was that what all of Belos’s cryptic mentions of them meeting again were all about?

Also! We get another brief glimpse of Philip’s brother, who yes, still looks a whole lot like Hunter. And we also see what seems to be an early Grimwalker recipe in Philip’s lab. So it looks like the theory of Hunter being a magical clone of Philip’s brother is proving to be correct. It did say that he needs Stonesleeper lungs for the recipe. And, uh, I guess we now know how he got them (yikes). Though let me just say that when Lilith made an offhand reference to Stonesleeper’s weak spot, I knew it would come back later in the episode.

But what is Hunter for? Did Belos simply miss his brother, or does he have some other purpose for the kid? He kept mentioning sacrifices. Like, is he going to sacrifice Hunter to the Collector or something?

In the B-Plot, we finally meet Eda’s dad, who she’s been running from ever since her curse was tripped and she unintentionally attacked him. Apparently, he was an expert Palisman carver, but the injuries she inflicted upon him made it impossible.

Man, this family just has so much guilt. Lilith felt terrible for cursing Eda and spent so much time trying to help her (but went about it in very much the wrong way). Gwen feels bad for letting her daughters down, causing her to make even more mistakes. And Eda feels awful for hurting her father, leading her to run from him for decades!

And what really hurts is that it isn’t like she feels that he hates her or whatever. No, she knows full well that he has already forgiven her. It’s that she feels that she doesn’t deserve his forgiveness, and so won’t let him give it to her.

But I’m glad that they finally got the chance to talk. It’s clear that he’s come to terms with things and just wants his daughter back. That was really nice. Dell is a good dude.

Also, Eda is totally going to take up his mantle and help Luz with her Palisman, isn’t she?

And we also get another interesting bit of information. The Owl House is Dell’s old tower, now repaired! But Hooty wasn’t a part of it then! How did he and Eda meet, I wonder?

This season continues to fire on all cylinders, and each new episode is the highlight of my week. I am so going to miss it when it’s gone.

[laughing-drawing-aces]

This is going to be a long ask I'm sorry in advance.

I guess my major problem with shipping in general is I always ship people that have chemistry in canon and I always make sure ships make sense for the characters in that relationship. Like I know fandom is all about headcanon and alternative universes and it's definitely a me problem that I probably don't have the imagination when it comes to fanon ships like Steddie or Ronance.

Ronance for example just doesn't make sense to me because of what you mentioned, people entirely dismiss Robins feelings and when they talk about Ronance it's about how this ship mostly benefits Nancy. Nancy isn't even queer, I know people headcanon her as bi and if lesbians or queer people identify with her that's amazing but Nancy always gave me homophobic vibes. In the show Nancy is a very judgy person, who sometimes says and does hurtful things but the show never truly adresses her faults so she gives me this weird vibe. The way she talked to Robin also makes me believe she would have problems with her autistic traits, again the way she looked (eye rolling, visibly annoyed) and talked to Robin was just not it. And once again she doesn't apologize for it later, like how she never apologized for cheating on Steve. However, all the characters seem to like her sm she can't do wrong, but as an audience member Nancy kinda frustrats me and I personally want someone better for my girl Robin. Robin is clearly enamored with Vickie, in fact Vickie made her feel normal about her own rambling, which she describes to Nancy as flaws because she felt so judged by her. But this gets largely ignored by the fandom as unfortunately Vickie has not enough screentime, however if she were a dude and we would talk about a gay relationship you bet the fandom would come up with thousands of headcanons for her.

The timing is also off because Nancy hasn't been single since she was like 15, she literally dumped Steve (not clearly) and moved on to Jonathan in two days, and now she seems to be unsure again and makes eyes at Steve. Nancy doesn't know what she wants, she needs to be single and figure out who she is before she keeps hurting people. Being thrown into another relationship, this time a queer one, which she didn't show any signs before would put additional struggle on her self discovery. Like she obviously can explore her sexuality, but she has to deal with her own shit before she can be a good girlfriend to anyone. Like someone made this brilliant analysis how Robin is the first girl friend she was open with after Barb, how probably lonely she is and longs for a friend but then bam they make this post into a shipping one and I'm like please listen to yourself.

I think a lot of Ronance manifesting also comes from the actress pushing for it and idk it got to a point where it's kinda queerbaity with how she phrased Robin is an option for Nancy even though in the canon show Nancy never showed romantic feelings for girls. (On the same note it's kinda queerbaity of the actor of Tommy to come out after years yeah Tommy was gay for Steve even though in the show we never saw that play out. Kinda think he said that to be relevant and bc again every white dude that breathes at Steve is gay)

As for Steddie, well that's like so personal to me because Steve is my favorite. I always watch shows, where I have a comfort character, imagining myself as a character so in reality I basically ship nobody with Steve because I gotta put me first lmao. However my point still stands the fandom wouldn't go this crazy if Eddie wasn't played by Joe Q. If he was played by Eduardo there would be way less discourse about it. Also again in canon Steve was uncomfortable by Eddie invading his personal space and he's so hung up on Nancy (also extremely anti Stancy on my part it honestly ruined s4 for me) he didn't even care that much about Eddie's death.

And again most of the headcanons suck because people mischaracterizes both Eddie and Steve. Like first of all people make out that Steve is in a toxic relationship with Billy before Eddie scoops in or they make him or Eddie the toxic one. Like it's all over the top, especially because people are so obsessed with the whole sub/dom dynamic in that ship. Making Steve some inexperienced loser who never smoked weed for example even tho he was the first character in canon who admitted to smoking in s3, plus he was literally underage drinking in s1. Idk in general people just don't really give a fuck about getting the characters right.

I can see Steve as bi like there are little moments in the show (more than for Nancy) but Steddie still doesn't make sense to simply because Steve looked so disgusted when Eddie was near him. I too wish they would have explored Steve's feelings about how Dustin seemed to replace him with someone better but unfortunately the writers decided to put their focus on a dead relationship and make Steve soley into Nancy's love interest again. (Can you tell I'm still bitter about it?)

It's just frustrating being in the fandom because everyone shoves those ships down your throat, you can't go on tiktok because every tiktok about Steve slowly turns into a Steddie theory and I can't listen to it anymore. I already blocked the respective tags on twitter or tumblr but still. I wish I could be on board with it because it wouldn't annoy me every day and I would love some peace.

Before I joined the fandom for me Stranger Things was always about friendship but now there is a shipping war for every character in that show.

It’s all good I love asks! And I love discussing things. Honestly I love the way you view shipping and seeing if it makes sense for the characters. Honestly it’s all good with not having imagination with fanon ships. I honestly only came up with one at one point and then others I just see floating around and I’m either like ‘cool or nah I don’t vibe with that’ lol.

Honestly yeah I get what you’re saying about Nancy and those vibes that she gives off. Ngl I don’t think a lot about character’s sexualities if it isn’t clearly stated in canon so whenever I saw headcanons about Nancy I was like ‘okay cool’ and then kind of moved on lol. And also everything you said about Nancy. Like I never used to see her interactions with Robin as being bad but then I saw other people stating that they didn’t like the way Nancy reacted Robin. And I can totally see why people believe that way. And why it came off as weird interactions cuz now it comes off to me that way too. Also I agree about Nancy sometimes frustrating you cuz sometimes I can get that way too. But I also think all the main characters in st have moments where you get frustrated at them so I don’t like to be too nit picky about them ya know?

Okay everything you said about Vickie making Robin feel comfortable about her rambling. Like they’re both able to ease each other about their rambling and it just goes to show how complimentary they are. Like Robin also validated Vickie’s feelings about rambling. And Robin listened to vickie too when vickie was rambling. So Robin can ramble but she can also listen when other people ramble and give them that comfort too. I agree about that last comment in that paragraph. Cuz you’re sooo right if it was two dudes talking and it was clear that they liked each other in a romantic way people would go nuts.

Yes yes yes I agree about the whole Nancy thing not being single. And about her wanting to be single. Cuz I’m honestly a firm believer that she should end up single. Cuz she’s very goal oriented in her own goals but when it comes to romance she just doesn’t know entirely what she wants. Yeah like I think Nancy going into a queer relationship especially in that period could also drag Robin down too if ronance happened. Like Robin is so sure of who she is now and what she wants in her romance life. And yet Nancy doesn’t. So it would just end up not being a good mentality for Robin. I think I saw that analysis too and I thought the same thing. Like I was soo annoyed about it cuz the friend thing was amazing and then suddenly romance was in there. And it just tainted the whole thing for me.

Honestly yeah I can totally see why your frustrated about the actress and actor. (Honestly the whole thing with Tommy’s actor was weird. Cuz not only did he state that Tommy had some romantic feelings for Steve, he also stated that Tommy would do anything for Steve. Despite canon not showing that in the slightest and instead in the show Tommy drops Steve like a hot potato). Also ngl I think some of the fandom just doesn’t understand that actors have their own headcanons for their characters too. Especially when the main actors have been on for years at this point. Like it’s obvious that they’re going to have headcanons about their characters just like we have headcanons. And they’re going to have wishes just like we do. But ultimately it’s up to the duffer bros and people need to understand that.

Lmao about the Steve part and wanting to put you first about the shipping cuz like that’s valid. Honestly I totally agree with you about if it wouldn’t have been joe Q they probs wouldn’t have gone crazy about it. Yes like Steve was soo uncomfortable with Eddie but he was just being who he was and helping out eddie. And everyone turned that into shipping. Ngl I would have been fine if Steve finally had another guy friend his own age. Anyway yeah I’m also bitter about the whole stancy thing. I legit hate the toxic aspects of Steve and anyone together. Like idk why they even need to put billy and Steve together as exes when Steve legit would have never even got together with billy in the first place. Like it feels sooo unnecessary.

I also don’t understand why they make Steve or Eddie be the toxic one especially when they like the ship soo yeah making one of them be incredibly toxic is weird. Yeah the whole sub/dom thing is sooo weird also. Yep you hit it right about the Steve characterization part and how people don’t care about his characterization at all. Ngl I think Steve is one of the most mischaracterized in fandom out of all the mains. Mainly cuz of shipping but that’s just my opinion so you don’t have to agree lol.

Yeah I totally see Steve as bi too. Like I think there are some good moments in there to have evidence of it. Yep honestly you’re right. Like steddie makes no sense especially cuz they didn’t even like each other. Sure they came together and stuff but also their foundation only seems to me like ‘we could have been friends if the story ended differently and if Eddie didn’t die.’ Ya know? And even if they were friends it would have been a very basic thing to me. Like I don’t see them being besties besties and close like that.

I’m also bitter about the whole stancy thing ngl. Like I get the intentions of trying to bring them back and why they would try to since this is like the first time in a while that they’re in the same place together on screen. And their relationship ended with a lot of baggage. But I wish it could have been less screen time. Especially because a lot of Steve’s emotional scenes were with Nancy and it just bothers me how he couldn’t get one with Dustin or Max or Lucas. Especially because this little group looked soo promising in the promos.

You’re right like the shoving down the the throats of it all is majorly annoying. Especially because sometimes they use it as weapons too. Like if you don’t like the ship then sometimes you can get called homophobic despite that not being the reason you don’t like that ship at all. Yeah I legit blocked the tags too cuz it’s just been sooo annoying. I also filter out these tags whenever looking for fics so I don’t have to see it. That last sentence is everything!!!! Like st has always been about friendship and yet now all you see is discourse about shipping and etc about shipping. And it’s just the worst.

[trashboatprince]

It’s Sunday night, you know what that means!

John’s useless commentary about Around the World in 80 Days, this time for episode six! The island episode!

I’m live blogging it this week, rather than just writing everything up at the end, cause I know this is a heavy episode

-I have every right to be angry about the cliche of ‘it could be worse’ and then a storm happening

-I still can’t believe they did a ‘I can still hear his voice’ joke

-Phileas continues to avoid hugging people, even though he clearly wants to. Sir, you are very autistic / adhd coded, and in this house, we love and respect you (and relate to you, haha)

-YES THEY PLAYED MY FAVORITE SONG FROM THE SOUNDTRACK THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT COULD BE IN GOOD OMENS!

-Hilariously played over them walking and Abigail realizing she has FEELINGS for our beloved Passepartout

-The continuous jokes of Abigail wanting a bath, girl, you are a mood

-Another damn cliche of them following their own foot prints. I hate this show (I love this show)

-Phileas is allowed to have a tantrum, he deserves it. All of them do, actually.

-Bellamy needs to be kicked in the taint

-THE FUCKING DORIAN(sp?) FRUIT! Just plug your noses, guys, enjoy the custard texture 

-’I can’t eat this. I’m French!’

-This episode has absolutely amazing music in it. Hell, this whole show does, the soundtrack is amazing 

-Everyone has guilt~! And are stuck together with their guilt~! 

-Abigail and Passepartout’ relationship development brings me joy 

-The fact that they speak about depression with a very serious tone makes me happy, depression (melancholy) was not a topic people liked to address back then

-I feel bad for Passepartout, but I hope he feels a bit better having told the truth, finally. 

-Valet. Why did you pronounce the T? 

-Phileas deserves this tantrum as well. Seriously, it’s only been a few days and he’s found out he’s been betrayed several times from people he considered his friends.

-You guys kept talking about fanservice with DT in this show, there are a lot of shirtless moments for IK as well??? 

-Literally drawing a line in the sand, alright, now you’re a child, Phileas 

-Their friendship... it just...

-How the hell am I going to make this episode work in my fanfic? Like, I have to write for SIX CHARACTERS, NOT THREE! Phileas is upset, Passepartout feels like shit, Abigail is caught in the middle, and what do I do with Aziraphale, Crowley, and Will? I know this is the episode where I want Will and Phileas to finally kiss in the story, but what do I do with Crowley and Aziraphale??? I think that’s when they finally fully reveal who they are though. 

-’Always making you the joke of his butts’. Passepartout, never change, I love you

-I love that this episode is basically what causes Phileas to finally snap and allow himself to show more emotions rather than trying to hide them. 

-Abigail, you beautiful, beautiful woman, I am so happy that you have the brain cells on this island 

-Ooooh... why did you have to play that song over Passepartout building the raft... 

-How did... you find a sail, Passepartout??? 

-Fortescue, you poor man. Bellamy, you twat 

-Well, it’s nice that the Reform Club wanted to honor Phileas. Does everyone call him Foggy? Poor guy. 

-Interesting that Phileas has some medical knowledge. :o But it’s also nice that he’s trying to help Passepartout, even thought he spent all of yesterday being rightfully upset

-Phileas is 46??? 

-Only David Tennant can move like such a wet noodle, and that’s honestly how he got the role of Crowley, so it’s fantastic 

-Passepartout and Abigail...! *clutches chest* I need to draw them 

-How the hell are they gonna get their luggage? 

-Gosh, I think this is my favorite episode so far, I love it. 

-Also, the preview for the next episode...! Bass Reeves! Another historical figure! :D 

[ardellian]

I. Am very ANGRY.

For all the trans people who read this - you are amazing, you are brave, and fuck everyone who dares to tell you how you are allowed to express who you are.

Anyway I went through JKRs essay on trans issues and tried to deconstruct it because a prominent Swedish political figure just supported it and these are EXACTLY the kind of arguments I have had to counter and it SUCKS. I will have to sit through this shit being thrown at me again not far from now. So this is... venting, I guess. 

This is going to be long and if you want to understand it I guess you should read what she’s written; it’s on her homepage. But also don’t read it because it will probably make you sad and angry. It’s transphobic and ignorant, and just, please, stay away from it if you know that will make you feel like shit. I’m also going to be quoting her in the text below, so I’m putting it under a cut. 

M’kay. 

First, what even is she trying to say with this essay? She says she’s worried about the “new trans activism.” What exactly is worrying with this new activism? Well, she doesn’t say it outright, but it seems to be that she believes it’s getting too easy to transition. That the “rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation” is being eroded, and this is bad.

Through the essay I can find two main arguments she has to support this claim.

1. Cis youth (in particular cis girls) will be fooled into to thinking they’re trans. 

The UK has experienced a 4400% increase in girls being referred for transitioning treatment. Autistic girls are hugely overrepresented in their numbers. 

Littman mentioned Tumblr, Reddit, Instagram and YouTube as contributing factors to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, where she believes that in the realm of transgender identification ‘youth have created particularly insular echo chambers.’

She also supports this idea by sharing a personal history of being uncomfortable with gender roles, and confusing that with gender dysphoria: 

“The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge. I struggled with severe OCD as a teenager. If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.” 

“Fortunately for me, I found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians who reassured me that, in spite of everything a sexist world tries to throw at the female-bodied, it’s fine not to feel pink, frilly and compliant inside your own head; it’s OK to feel confused, dark, both sexual and non-sexual, unsure of what or who you are.” 

3. A concern that fake trans women invading women’s spaces would make “natal women” less safe:

“A man who intends to have no surgery and take no hormones may now secure himself a Gender Recognition Certificate and be a woman in the sight of the law. Many people aren’t aware of this.”

“When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth.”

Okay. 

Let me make an observation here before I try to counter these points. She’s having very different problems with the ease of transitioning for trans women and trans men. If it’s too easy for trans women to transition, men will use this as an opportunity to prey on women. If it’s too easy for trans men to transition, young girls will be in danger of forsaking their womanhood. She clearly identifies with the young afab people who question their gender, but not with trans women who want to be recognized as such. Let that sit with you for a bit and I’ll see if I come back to it. 

Let’s see if I can argue against these two points first. 

1.  Cis youth (in particular cis girls) will be fooled into to thinking they’re trans.

Her statistics aren’t wrong. There has been a huge increase in trans youth. This increase is especially prevalent in neurodivergent afab people. Trans health care, at least where I live, is struggling with how to deal with this. Those diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders often have difficulties with feeling comfortable in their bodies and the language used around that can be similar to the language used around gender dysphoria. Many people are concerned, as JKR obviously is, that these people might think that transitioning would get rid of these symptoms, when in fact they stem from something completely different. These people may transition and still have these symptoms. They may be disappointed. 

The conclusion you’re implicitly supposed to draw from these statements, and those like what I quoted above, that these young trans people aren’t really trans. That they’re somehow being tricked by trans activists. You have to believe two other things for that: that young neurodivirgent people can’t interpret their own lived experience in a correct way, and that transitioning is harmful. 

Because why would it be a problem if a young person questions their gender, identifies as trans, transitions, and then changes their mind? Who cares if they have an autism diagnosis? It is only a problem if transitioning is bad for you. And the part that people like JKR seems to think is harmful is that they might have “altered their bodies irrevocably, and taken away their fertility”. But the unaltered body holds no moral superiority over the altered one. While fertility is something many people desire and something many who lack it grieve, it is not something that inherently gives your life more value. To JKR, the inherent harm of transitioning can only be justified if the person is really trans.

The tendency of a specific group to display a higher prevalence of identifying as trans is then used to cast doubt on their experiences. It’s a “social contagion” - they’re not really trans. But why does any of that matter? So what if a person identifies as trans because they see themselves in another’s story and go - that’s true for me too? Why can’t you believe them? 

Well. Because you don’t really believe trans people are real. You believe that when young people speak of dysphoria, they are referring to the experience you had when you were young. And you’re happy with being a woman now. So surely they just need to accept themselves for what they are and they won’t be trans anymore. 

I get it. I recognize myself in what JKR writes here. I felt “mentally sexless.”  I also “found my own sense of otherness, and my ambivalence about being a woman, reflected in the work of female writers and musicians” and this reassured me. Find a woman who has not during a period of their life hated their body, I dare you. The world we live in does cause women to have strange relationships with their bodies. And it’s very easy from there to make the logical leap to the idea that young trans men are just girls who never found that reassurance! I might have also thought so, if I hadn’t connected with trans men in my teens, and actually tried to understand their experience, and realized that my negative feelings about my body not living up to some standard of beauty, about not being woman enough in some way, and not wanting to be “pink and frilly”, was not the same as their experience. I mean - I didn’t like my body because I thought it should look like a beautiful woman’s body, but they felt bad about their bodies because they thought they shouldn’t look like women at all!  Young boys don’t find reassurance in texts about womanhood. Because they’re not women.

So I feel a bit sorry for her. Because I think that she sees herself in these young people, and it terrifies her - what if I could have turned out to be trans? But that would only be a problem if you think being trans is a problem. So maybe you could have been trans, JKR. Why does that bother you?

And god, if you want to talk about things that pressure young people into irrevocably altering their bodies, how about the  “rigorous process of evaluation, psychotherapy and staged transformation“ that tries over and over again to make sure, double sure, triple sure, that you really are what you say you are. Trans people who want access to gender-affirming care have to show no weakness - if you slip up and say that you might not want surgeries, that can be used against you and you get nothing. Trans people repeatedly say they have to perform their gender to the extreme in order for health care providers to believe them. They’re being questioned and doubted and pushed and to get through that, you have to dig in and fight. This is not a process that encourages careful consideration and doubts - it’s a system that says: all or nothing, hesitate and you’re out. 

So we get to her second argument:

3. A concern that fake trans women invading women’s spaces would make “natal women” less safe:

Here she draws a line between real trans women, who have passed through some rigorous testing process, and men who fake it. She uses her history of abuse as a cause to be worried about the safety of women if the gender binary were relaxed. The only argument she makes here is the one I already copied up there: 

When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside. That is the simple truth. 

Let’s be charitable and say that she means men who would fake being women when she writes “any man who believes or feels he’s a woman“, and not trans women who just don’t perform womanhood according to her standards. But still the question remains - why oh why are you so scared of seeing a body that doesn’t agree with your ideas of a woman in a changing room? If that “fake trans woman” is there, and doing nothing wrong, then why are you so bothered about it? Why? Is the sight of male secondary sex characteristics inherently harmful to women? No! Are you afraid that someone might experience sexual attraction when looking at your body? Then do you think lesbians should also have separate changing rooms? No, you obviously don’t! Sexual harassment is never acceptable, and just because you have a same-sex space doesn’t make that space immune to it. Opening it up to non-conforming bodies does not make sexual harassment somehow acceptable. Those who enter spaces with sexual harassment in mind should be dealt with - but the presence of non-normative bodies is not sexual harassment. 

Trans women are women, JKR says, and I sympathize with them - but only if they display their womanhood in a way that agrees with my idea of it. And they’re not like me. Only if they have the right kind of bodies, have gone through medical procedures, want to do these surgeries, will I extend my pity.

And fuck that.  

Look, the kind of logic she presents here paints trans people into a corner where the only acceptable way of being is to subscribe to a certain kind of body. Which harms the very people she claims she wants to protect - young people questioning their gender. Especially non-binary people, whom she doesn’t even acknowledge. 

And now let’s stop being charitable - JKR doesn’t believe trans people exist. She believes that those who say they are trans are tragically confused and we should only accept their words because we are nice. We should accept their delusions because we pity them. She doesn’t understand her own opinions this way, I’m sure. But fuck her understanding. 

She’s upset because the idea of “womanhood” is moving away from her. She feels - I’ve felt this too! - that this push for increased inclusiveness is taking the focus from the real issues. Things that affect all women. But claiming that women have “unifying realities that make them a cohesive political class” is something that white women say. When anyone talks about “the real issues”, they usually mean “issues that affect me.”

I mean that’s privilege 101, people. 

Ugh.

In conclusion, I’m still angry. 

[devondraws]

Megastar shippers are mad again :o!! big shocker

TW ed // abu$e // Megastar clearly // a$sault  // $elf H@rm

So it’s been made clear to me I was ‘exposed’ on Twitter for hating Megastar here's the main thing. none of yall expose me, I'm open about hating this toxic abusive ship, I don’t hide it and I never once have. You don’t need to censor my name in fact, I prefer you don't. I never said or would ever to say to a victim, I have no regard or sympathy for what they went through especially not as one myself through multiple abusers. What I DONT have sympathy for is disregarding other victims for your arguably coping strategy. I would take away anyone's abuse if I could, but when you choose to ‘cope’ by promoting, fet!shizing, and romanticizing the awful terrible experience that is abuse, I will tell you to your face the damage you do to others. 

I’ll start with the big argument, it’s a coping mechanism, but coping doesn’t mean good and it is VERY dangerous to think so. One of the many I coped with the abuse from my longest abuser was starving myself and not taking my medication. It made me feel strong, and feel like I was in total control, but that did not make it good. Especially being chronically ill, I was quite literally abusing MYSELF. When it comes to a much less physical way, I coped by making fun of others when I was around 13-15 especially ‘SJWs’ I made fun of kids that are autistic (knowing I was myself but not wanting to admit to that mentally) I made fun of people really who just weren’t like me, furries, band kids, scene kids. It was a lot of self-hatred and it did in a way heal me and do what I wanted it to do a coping strategy but it wasn’t okay, it wasn’t good, and importantly it was intensely unhealthy and worsed what I went through in the long run. Heres where Megastar shippers may be shocked I did megastar. Not long, but I did, around the age of 11-12. I idolized it, and I listened to the fandom really, I said it made me feel good and it made me happy hell I even said I wanted a ‘Megatron’ in my life. Boy did I get one. and because of the ship at that. I met a much older girl and we would DM on Insta, she sent things I shouldn’t have seen and audios I shouldn’t have heard. She said outright I was her ‘Starscream’ and that Megatron did ‘he had to’ to keep Starscream as his own and that he did what he did out of pure love and I ate it up. If being abused love I wanted to be abused, I just wanted to belong. But looking back the fandom's idea and admiration for megastar was very bad on my 11-year-old mind. KEEP IN MIND the show is not for adult audiences, I was a targeted consumer and I listened and learned from the adults, from the fandom, as any child does. So when I saw both the fet!ishzation of MLM and of abuse. I learned that to be normal. And from that, I learned that to be how I should COPE when I’m sad, I should be just like them because everyone says they are happy. I'm not the only, though other people's stories aren't my to tell, I can say they mention a$sault, physical abuse, mental, etc. I shouldn’t have to explain to mostly 15-25-year-olds, why that's not true and why just because you cope with something doesn’t make it healthy.

A second big ‘argument’ I see is, ‘fiction doesn’t affect reality’ ‘it’s fictional’ ‘its a cartoon’. I don’t understand this ��debate’ because we have seen SO. MANY. TIMES. OF. FICTION. AFFECTING. (guess what) R E A L I T Y. Take, for example, finding Nemo and both the mass flushing of pet fish and also the mass abuse of Clownfish because every child wanted a ‘Nemo’. We see this again when we look into dinosaurs actually! In mainstream media the idea of dinosaurs being scaly, reptile-like, etc. that's not true and we’ve known it's not true! Dinos are ‘speculated’ to be feathered and colorful hence why they came to be BIRDS. But that idea, because we saw in movies, stuck. And most people who don’t research (and that's most people) only saw the fictional version, that version is what stands out in their minds, to them that is a dinosaur. After 101 Dalmatians so many, I mean SO MANY, kids wanted a Dalmatian. They are amazing dogs but the thing is they need a little more training, well parents didn’t want a real dog they wanted a movie dog, a cartoon dog, and so they got puppies. When those puppies grew and became ornery and no effort was put in place to train them, they were given away in mass. We KNOW fiction affects reality, we know human brains can’t process some fictional characters (especially in anime) as cartoons. We cry over fiction, we laugh over it, we learn from it, we put morals in it for kids, I don’t get why some people still argue it doesn’t happen and I’m not going to argue with ignorance. 

Essentially here's the points. You CAN cope with Megastar, but you shouldn’t, it provides no actual help it can actually soften you to abusers, it warps the idea of abuse, it romanticizes it, (a big part of it is YOAI which is fet!shizaton of MLM) and it NORMALIZES it by being commonly consumed and a large part of the Transformers, and TFP’s specifically, fandom. Fiction DOES affect reality what you do online, say online, show online, especially to minors, is heavily altering to a mindset and to people in correlation with what's being shown. You can hate me all you want, censor my name all you want, but no one is arguing besides ‘I like it and I said so’ you can say so, I can’t silence you and I wouldn’t, but when you neglect and turn down what is blatant problems and obvious issues in front of you? That is no problem of mine :)

You ship abuse and if you are gonna keep doing it, at least own up <3

(also you guys can ship abuse without it affecting reality but I can’t make a joke hrm hmm)

edit: for context for the last part I made a joke about STARSCREAM killing megastar shippers. I said killing yes but how is that death wish did yall really think i was like. bout to summon the guy I’m confused by you guys make it make sense.

Edit 2: in the future i WILL clarify jokes better ill put that slash thing i think its /j. To me and my friends it was and still is obvious but i understand the concern. Ive gotten multiple ACTUAL threats of being doxed, assulted, etc. so clarifying wasnt a need in my head and ill be better at doing so next time i totally get how to some people specially those with truama it could have been seen as scary and im sorry i didnt clarfiy as i should!

[growingupautie]

Storytime: "An Ignorant Proposal"

When I was a bit younger, I was grocery shopping with the rest of the Wallmartians in an unnamed superstore. *cough* I often people watch when I am out and about because it helps me (an Autistic person) learn how to navigate different personality types, situations, etc based on what I/we observe. So that is what I was doing.

That day, nothing was out of the ordinary for most of my trip until suddenly I overhear a clearly upset young woman being bullied by everyone in her family. They were calling her unattractive, telling her she was a nerd, and would "never get a man." They called her stupid using a more vulgar term and made fun of various other aspects about her.

My ears and face were turning red not because I was embarrassed for her, but instead because I was enraged at how she was being treated by her own family. I too knew that feeling as I was also the go too whipping boy in my family, and I was making it pretty clear that I was unhappy about this happening to her. At least to me.

Honestly, they could've thought I was upset that they were noisy, or in the way, or many other reasons, but before I could take the time to clarify, the "dad" gives one more "you'll never get a man" joke and then looks at me.

I gave my signature raised eyebrow look with a tinge of "ok?..." and missing my pretty obvious facial expressions he said "Hey!" and decided to bring me into their conversation. "Hey! Let me ask you a question!" he said as he put his arm around her in a jokingly caring way.

He yelled at me continuing his Comedy Central roast of his daughter. "Can you tell my daughter why no man like you would ever want to date her?" he laughed to himself probably not expecting an answer. "Uh...Sure actually." I said back putting something in my cart. His face lit up clearly thinking I had planned to tear her down with the rest of them family.

The girl was visibly upset by that time. She had tears in her eyes and I felt the familiar ache in her heart. The mom, dad, and younger sister had obviously been picking on her for a while. I walked closer to her. She had glasses like me, long brownish blackish hair, she seemed incredibly intelligent which to me explained the ignorant bullying by those around her, and then I realized there was a good chance she herself was Autistic..."Ok..." I said after taking everything in.

"Your daughter is..." I started, as her dad leaned in with an ignorant look. "a beautiful person..." I continued as his face became confused. "She has her own style, she has an amazing personality, and she seems like an extremely brilliant person." His face soured with an even more confused look which turned into a somewhat embarrassed ignorant grimace.

"Honestly, if I wasn't completely spoken for, I would definitely consider dating her." She smiled and a sort of unspoken "Thank you" not for saying that I would, but for standing up for her and proving them wrong. I paused.

"There is one glaring drawback though..." I said. But before anyone could ask me what it was I added: "Her dad is a huge prick." her entire family's mouths fell open in absolute shock. "Yeah. Doesn't feel so great does it." I said to him. I looked back at her and told her something that took me a long time to learn.

"Never confuse your worth with the inability of the people around you to see it."

I glanced at her family and back at her. I nodded at her with a smile and said "Miss" to excuse myself, looked back at him and nodded in a similar fashion but with a disgusted look. "Human" and walked off to continue shopping.

The moral here isn't "Cool guy Nathan does it again." It's what I said earlier. People are not good at judging worth. They are only good at judging worth as it pertains to their wants and needs. (and even then it's questionable.)

And some people use their ignorance to parade their ignorant opinions of what has value or not as fact when in fact it can barely be classified as opinion half the time because it is probably being parroted from an equally ignorant source.

So as I said before. Don't confuse your worth with the inability of the people around you to see it. And don't confuse people's opinions as facts no matter how adamant they seem. This is a common Autistic pitfall as we take other people's certainty as fact. It is not. Oh lord, it is not.

You are and have always been worth more than any opinion anyone has ever had about you.

-Nathan McConnell

Stay tuned for an important message from [Growing Up Aspie]

[wormmomma]

MIDSOMMAR SPOILER REVIEW: this movie fucking broke me

CW:RAPE, ABUSE, PEDOPHILLIA

“Midsommar” is a grimm fairytale of sorts. A fairly different homage to the cult film the “wicker man”. “The wicker man” is about a european cult being investigated by a british christian cop, “midsommar” avoids the christian indictment of pagan/occult religious practices. midsommar attempts to be an out and out horror film unlike the a genre bending murder mystery/horror/thriller roots of “The wicker man”. Director ari aster obviously wanted to add to the annals of folk horror by creating an ambitious beautifully horrific and sometimes downright psychedelic film. Ari aster wanted to make a film where you can’t hide from the horror as it all happens in front of you. It's also a breakup movie for some reason? As someone who has seen the theatrical cut twice and the director's cut once I can assure you it misses the mark when taking both concepts. If you're wondering  whether not to watch the film i think that on a technical level “midsommar” is beautiful and has amazing cinematography, but the answer is yes, but no. Jordan Peele was shown an advance copy of the film and told Aster "I think you’ve made the most idyllic horror film of all time" that high praise. But that  being said for personal reasons this will be my final time seeing the film. I think the director's cut is a gorgeous and amazing three hour film. But as someone personally affected by rape, pedophillia, and the victimization mentally or physically handicapped people i cant reccomend this film wholeheartedly. I'm far from squeamish and love films that revel in shock, horror and extremity but I cannot in good conscious recommend a film I almost walked out on. I think Ari Aster has backpedaled immensely in his ability to create horror that exhibits empathy for his characters and the triumphs and tragedies that he subjects them too. “Hereditary” had an amount of emotional pathos for its characters that was almost completely removed from “Midsomer”. The fim feels unreasonably cruel even for a horror movie. Although enjoyable, proceed with caution “Midsommar” is a beautiful, slow, horrific but ultimately controversial mess of a film. 8/10

 (the rest of this review is a plot synopsis and a meditation on the more controversial passages in the movie and is to be read for those who have actually seen midsommar. Spoilers abound!) 

So what’s it  about? 

Midsommar is about Dani, an anxious and vulnerable young woman dating an emotionally abusive and reserved boyfriend named christian. After her bipolar sister commits suicide and murders both there parents, Dani goes on a european excursion with cristian with his anthropologist friends as they study a swedish cults midsommar summer solstice tradition. Dani reeling not only from having her parents taken from her by their favorite child, but also from the lack of any real emotional support goes on a gorgeous, psychedelia, induced nightmare of the cult horror variety. Immediately after touching down on the swedish cult's beautiful grassy commune christian manipulates dani into taking psychedelics. Christian although quite emotionally stunted and quite meek at his core is very sly and amazing at working people. Watching Christian make Dani do psychedelic drugs (mushrooms i believe) to make her clear refusal to take them into something that not only affects christian but also his friends and everyone around them is almost scary in its hilariously methodical toxicity. This leads to dani having a panic attack and from there the hits just keep on coming. Dani then has to watch as two cultist commit ritual suicide. This traumatic incident further escalated when one jumped off the mountain on his leg and needed to have his head crushed by cult members till it turns to meat and dust. To make a long three hour story with icelandic pacing short lets race to the finish line:

Christian begins to be pursued by a cult member named maja. Dani still reeling from seeing two people commit suicide has her worries invalidated by christian and all of his anthropologist bros. The anthropology bro argues about who deserves to break basically every rule of basic anthropology as they try to see who gets PAID for perverting a culture they were invited to study not disturb. Christian eats one of majas pubes. After pissing on a ceremonial tree for the dead, and taking photos of the forbidden religious text (written by an inbred autistic oracle boy) our two american secondary characters are chopped off. Dani and christian are the final outsiders left standing. Dani joins a dance competition (yes really) and becomes this year's may queen. forever to be immortalized in the annals of white female faces shown in portraits plastered in the sleeping quarters of this matriarchal cult commune. Christian is then raped as we discover how all the bodies of our other character are disposed of. Dani, inebriated and vulnerable, discovers christian being raped by the cult and forced to sleep with the 16 year old maja. Disgusted dani vomits and syncs her cries of pain with the cult sister and finally has her trauma validated. She is given the choice to then murder christian as hes trapped in a paralyzed state. Dani decides to burn christian alive in the body of a bear, finally defeating and overcoming her emotional abuser. Dani smiles as the cult writhes in pain from the death of the cult members burning alive with christian.Dani is happy. She has family. She is home.

So lets (finally) talk about maja

“Look at it from an academic perspective it would provide a unique glimpse into our sexual rights.”

“Can i not have a unique glimpse without participating?”

This is a conversation that is awkwardly cut from the theatrical version of midsommar. Christian is being offered to have sex with maja. Maja is a sixteen year old girl. The closest aster ever comes to revealing this fact is offhandedly mentioning maja having her first period. Christian refuses sex and is raped by maja, and the cult while a fourteen year old disabled child watches. There's a lot wrong with this scene. I’ll be honest for personal reasons I was really disgusted by this scene. I feel like im projecting but rape and pedophellia are really delicate topics and should be treated sensitivity. Ive seen alot of extreme very difficult horror films, i've seen rape, pedophillia, and violence explored in meaningful interesting and empathetic ways even ari asters own work like “meet the johnsons”. But watching maja rape christian with what i would assume are her older siblings, aunts, grandmothers, mother and other cult members as a 14 year old boy watches just made me feel fucking dirty. The weird part: it isn't horrific. While cristian was being raped, the audience I was watching it with were laughing. It wasn't scary. it was funny. It's a cognitive dissonance. The audience isn't aware of christians being raped or majas age. Most people assume he's cheating and deserves to be burned alive by dani. Making christian the bad guy of his own a rape is horrific but i shouldn’t need to hunt down that information and watch the film three times to understand that. It makes the movie feel as if its really bad at relaying basic information, at worst it's dishonestly hiding it to make the film more palatable. After putting all the pieces together I was disgusted. Ari aster crossed a line. I felt queasy and never wanted to see this film ever again. The fact ari aster could have made maja of age, or take the disabled 14 year old out the scene entirely, or not have had christian be raped in the first place while reaching a more understandable and tragic ending annoys me to know end, it feel like i watched these characters be used and mistreated for no reason. Just to shock me. It lacks value, it’s  gross and uninteresting. much like christian and everyone involved i feel violated and it's really hard for me to enjoy watching what is an otherwise (although flawed) very interesting and compelling work or art. I’m  still morbidly curious of the next film ari aster makes but i really hope he learns for this mistake and doesn't objectify children in another weird fetishistic male rape comedy routine. It just leaves me confused, disgusted and only makes it more challenging to analyze the more interesting implications of the film. I really appreciated hereditary as someone who has a very emotionally abusive family and has a very hard time processing death. I found hereditary horrific as it is cathartic. As someone who had to quite recently confront a pedophile, midsommar just left me hurt, and trapped. I was reliving some of the worst parts of my trauma as an audience sits around and laughs at it. It all felt so tragic and meaningless. I want to actually give ari asters work an honest critique but he's produced the only work of film that really hurt me and left me feeling violated. I really love his work and I know I'm exaggerating but I hope art never has such a negative effect on my mental health or anyone else’s ever again. I don't blame Maja or christian or the actor who portrayed them. I respect their performances although I have zero respect for how utterly tasteless midsommar ended up being for me. I think I need to learn how not to take art so seriously and try not to invest myself in other people's work. It's a difficult habit to kick. Needless to say, I cannot recommend this movie. If you're able to separate art from the artist and read this whole review without watching the film you're not a bad person for watching it, midsommar is a compelling, difficult experience.

I hope you enjoyed this review and I'm sorry if it got wayyy too personal in the end there. The movie clearly struck a raw nerve for me. if you enjoy this or any review  i've dones let me know. I may reveiw hereditary in the future.if your also having issues with death, rape, abuse or mental health i hope this review didnt make it worse. Everyone is deserving of love, family, community and I hope everyone can find that. Have a good day, and have a safe quarantine.   

[kokoinupi]

Jitterbug (Hashiya Nanashi, feat. Hatsune Miku & MEIKO) analysis, from an autistic point of view

Disclaimer: This is based on my personal experience growing up with autism, and the experiences of the people around me. This song is also really gay by nature, so if MikuMei isn't your thing, this is your warning. Obviously this is in no way any sort of official analysis, and actually, ironically due to my autism, I may misinterpret some things or have a hard time not taking lines literally, so don't get mad at me if I get something clearly wrong. I'm just very passionate about this interpretation, and this song comes very close to representing a real (canon) autistic experience. No one else seems to comment on it from that point of view though, so naturally I had to write this up! This is also my first full analysis, and I'm not good at being concise, so please bear with me!

[[MORE]]

Overview: The video, for me, is a major factor in how Jitterbug comes across as an autistic narrative. The name itself, while it is still a reference to a 1920s dance (befitting of the electroswing style of the song), doubles as a meaning for someone who can't sit still, and actually on a personal note was an affectionate nickname my family called me as a kid, so that tipped me off right away. All throughout the video, I noticed most of all, the way Meiko moves her hands while she dances is very close to stimmy behavior, not really like how a neurotypical would normally dance (nor is it a part of the jitterbug itself). While Meiko is moving her hands like that, Miku very often has something in her mouth, either a kind of stick, or the laser pointer, definitely suggesting an oral fixation. Of course, both girls obscure their eyes with sunglasses (I think Meiko's aviators look so cool), and while that definitely has some metaphorical meaning as others have pointed out in their analyses of the song, it's really not uncommon for autistic people to wear shaders and/or noise dampeners to combat overstimulation and sensory issues. None of these things on their own prove anything, of course, as the video is often a small part of a song's meaning, so let's dive into the main course!

Lyric analysis:

I can't talk about any wishes, nor my ideals

Giving out the same, invariant answer all the time

For being the first line in this song, this really already punches home the idea that Miku is dissatisfied with herself, and, as is often the case with autistic people, doesn't even know how she's supposed to navigate the world. She either doesn't know her aspirations in life, or doesn't know how to talk about them without being judged.

You don't need a rotten yesterday

Dump it before you get betrayed

Meiko, being the free spirit in contrast to the masking, frustrated Miku, assures her that she can't just hold onto bad things that happened, being judged or not knowing herself, she needs to dump her perfectionist tendencies and learn to live as herself a little before her own precariously-built persona comes crashing down on her.

Just fully utilize it, tame it

Can't give it away nor dye it tomorrow

I'm fully ready

Meiko tells Miku that she has to learn to work with herself the way she is, find her talents and use them fully, rather than constantly trying to change or push her feelings deep down. She can't give away her personality, and she can't truly make herself different inside, no matter how hard she masks on the outside.

Hungry critics that can't even move

are just glancing at you sideways

The people who would judge Miku for who she is are just hungry for something to laugh at, someone to other or exclude, but when it comes down to it, they're no real threat. If she can just get over that initial hurdle, she'll realize her haters are just pathetically lapping at any entertainment they can get, and they're really not that scary at the end of the day.

Who cares! Ignore those idiots

Given this is the first line they sing together, it almost feels like an admission on Miku's part, she wants to believe Meiko and stand up for herself for once, even if it is just among them for now.

Come at nights, grab my hand and dance

The girls are obviously fond of each other (just gals being pals), and in a way, understand one another on a deeper level than other people understand them, having similar neurotypes. Dancing itself is sort of a wild, energetic activity, that can help express a wide variety of pent-up emotions, and the jitterbug itself is a pretty manic dance that fits the image rather well.

Use your eyes only for me and let's light it up,

Your one and only, scorching laser light

This line is honestly just gay. I don't think there's any deeper meaning to the laser light specifically, but it is a cute thing to call your funky spunky girlfriend, isn't it? It actually may be a reference to how Miku really is on the inside, bright and strange, and often blinding and scorching to others. She hides that side of her pretty well normally, but with Meiko it's not only fine to be bright and weird and full of personality, but actually encouraged.

Fitfully ranking things and aligning them vertically

Abandoning my heart, I convert them to numbers out of impulse

Honestly, upon my first translated listen of this song, I didn't think absolutely anything autistic was happening until this line hit me. This is so autistic in nature, I'm surprised that a lot of analyses leave it out. Miku not only sees the world in sets and orders and numbers like many autistics do, but actually feels (most likely from outside influence) that by her brain being wired to see the world like that, she's abandoned her humanity and become a robot.

The magic gradually faded out

Instead, pessimism flowed in and was entrenched

I'm taking a little liberty here, but many autistics with savant syndrome (and/or gifted kid syndrome) are praised in their youth for the amazing things they can do, such as doing complex math quickly or reading at a faster speed than their peers, but later in life, when those skills are either no longer relevant or have averaged out, the things they used to be praised for become seen as annoying, not something to brag about, or a burden. Miku no longer sees the way her brain works as magical and special anymore, it's a curse and proof to her that she's not like the people around her.

Struck speechless by the awful scenery,

Very clearly overstimulation.

I linger in the raining streets, soaked from head to toe

Some wait for the sun, some grumble about the rain

All pointing at me inside their umbrellas

This line could very well be taken literally, but it's most clearly just a way of describing how different Miku is truly. She doesn't see the same things as bad as other people, she doesn't see the same things as good either. She could be the type that embraces darkness in life, both literally and figuratively. People may not actually point, but she can feel eyes on her, and it makes her feel even more alienated. Even when she tries so hard to fit in, there are some parts of her that are too obvious to change, and she knows she draws attention anyway.

Who cares! Ignore them right now

Let's smile, choose my hand and sing

Feel the rhythm with your heart and dance

I'm not sure exactly why, but the line about feeling the rhythm with your heart made me feel really connected to the song. It might just be because of my own personal music stim habits, but either way it's another line about leaving behind your facade, being as true to your nature as possible, and just dancing out your worries to the beat of the song.

On this rainy stage, as bright as the scorching light

This line embraces the idea of Miku preferring the rain. No one else has to like the stage they set for themselves, because when they're together, it's just about them and what they want to do. Miku can soak herself in rain and bright, scorching light, and just exist with no one around to point and stare.

Eyes go dim and words are lost

While this can just be a reference to depression in general, it's worth noting that many autistics have trouble showing expressions, and/or go nonverbal, often in response to stress or unusually upsetting circumstances.

The colors of today have faded out

Still, it couldn't end because of someone

This can be a way of insinuating that Miku is actually suicidal due to how she's seen by others, and Meiko is the one thing keeping her here, or it could just mean that Meiko stopped her days from getting too bad in a moderate sense. Either way, pretty gay, and shows more how much the girls depend on each other in mutual understanding.

Who cares! Ignore those idiots!

Come at nights, dance and grasp your aspirations

Referring back to the first line, Meiko does assure Miku that not everything needs to be worked out for others' sake, but by spending time with your true self and unpacking your feelings, the future you're supposed to have and the things that truly make you happy will become clear.

I shall dedicate my entire life to you

Let's shine on, like the scorching light

Reach your hands out, until the very end

Miku is in lesbians with her. Ending the song on such a gay note is never a bad thing of course, but it is a little anticlimactic for this analysis. Though, the line of reaching your hands out might actually refer to their hand movements in the video, symbolizing to keep being weird and authentic as long as you can, but that may be a bit of a stretch (or a reach, if you will)

Final thoughts: I have seen other analyses (though not as in-depth) about the meaning of the song, and while they definitely do have some meaning and I can see it from that point of view, there are just some obviously autistic cues that I couldn't ignore that just swayed my perception of the song entirely that direction. I'm not sure if I only picked up that meaning because of my own experiences biasing my view, or if I actually am onto something with the original intention of the song. If you guys have any insight to offer on any of the lyrics, or if I missed or misinterpreted something, feel free to let me know! Thanks for reading this far, honestly! 🌸