#it turns out because we are teamed up that my good behavior has been enabling his shitty behavir this whole time

[littleaipoms-rebagel-carpentry]

GETTING MY COWORKER FIRED 2025 (HOPEFULLY)

[hiatuswhore]

𝕦𝕘𝕙, 𝕙𝕚𝕘𝕙 𝕤𝕔𝕙𝕠𝕠𝕝 — 𝕥𝕔

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Word Count: 2.4K

A/N: I have been struggling with writers block so I’ve been posting some works I wrote a while back but never put up. Let me know what you think. Feedbacks a good motivator! In my head I picture Shelley Hennig as Ivy, Diana Silvers as Marina, Daniel Sherman as Declan, Lili Reinhart as Mackenzie, and Camila Mendes as Bianca.

SUMMARY: Ugh, high school. Best four years of nothing. Raging mood swings and sporadic acne. All on top of balancing mean girls, douche bag guys, and cocky jocks. Best four years? Yikes image peaking in high school.

I can list several things I cannot stand. I could start with my Mom’s overbearing need to talk about her high school glory days, or my Dad’s never-ending trophies in nearly everything. My list continues for things such as romantic comedies, jean leggings, and platinum blonde hair. Do not tell Ivy about that she is one break-up away from cutting her hair and dying it blonde. I love her to pieces but she is a wildcard with a knack for trouble and a high social media following. Trust me when I say do not look at her Tik Tok. Her high following and verification coming from her looks and problematic prank videos.

“Hello? (Y/n) are you listening?” Marina asked, sitting across from me at the lunch table she types away on her laptop rambling profusely. She delicately placed flowers through her hair with half of it pinned up. She wears a cute white camisole with a beige boho cardigan that reaches the hem of her jeans. Resembling a pretty hippy, it works on her. Apologizing, I ask her to repeat herself but she only rambles about Ivy being in detention. Oddly enough Marina is on the opposite end of the continuum from Ivy. Not only the cheer captain, but one can make it a game of trying to find what club she is not a part of. Even started her own anti-bullying campaign. “So you’re not listening?”

“I’m sorry Mina. I didn’t get much sleep last night because somebody was busy practicing his guitar at all hours of the night.” I groan looking over at the guy’s table. It was a mixture of faces in the masses. No set groups at their table, the mix of guys come from all sports teams and clubs. At the center of the table sits Timmy laughing at something. You know those people you grew up with when you were little but now they just annoy the shit out of you. Yeah, that’s Chalamet, as cliche, as it is the perfect-haired idiot, is my neighbor. We grew up next to each other, yes there is a picture of us bathing together as kids. It is the bane of my existence. Yes, we are still friends but more so a down low thing. Him being the soccer goalie made him this big deal and me being virtually no one makes our friendship odd at school.

“I ordered our homecoming tickets online,” Opening my mouth to protest she quickly shrugs me off. “You have to come, it'll be no fun without you.”

“You’ll both have dates. What am I going to do? Just linger awkwardly?” Biting into my cold fry it lacks salt making me want to spit it out. Marina closes her laptop and turns to her salad she brought from home.

“Ivy and I could find you a date,” Though I have every intention of saying no I miss my opportunity as Mackenzie and Bianca sit next to us. In their cheering uniforms, they wear it every day like it is a badge of honor. It screams pick-me but everyone does pick them so the behavior is enabled.

“Hey, Marina, where's Ivy?” Mackenzie asks, scooting to the side allowing her some space both she and Bianca fail to spare me a single glance. I can see on Marina’s face that she has no interest in talking to either of them but she plants a warm smile on her face. Despite her distaste for the two most clueless people on the planet that is what I love about Marina, she is kind to everyone.

“In detention for calling Coach Hoffman an asshole,” The laugh that leaves my lips contrast the two girls’ wide eyes.

“Anyways we came over with invites for you and Ivy. Party at my place tonight. My parents are out of town.” Bianca’s raven black hair is straightened to perfection. She shuffles through her Michael Kors purse before pulling out two envelopes. Marina looks at me as she thinks it over in her head.

“Ivy will kill us both if we turned this down so yeah we’ll all be there,” For the first time since they sat at the table their eyes drift to me. I smile sheepishly as they look me up and down. Mackenzie grits her teeth as she smiles at me.

“That’s the thing (Y/n) you need an actual invite to get in and I only have a certain amount. I’ll let you know if anything changes,” I am no idiot, I know she is lying, the faux smile and honey tone holds more poison than anything.

“Problem solved.” Handing me half of her invite I bite back a laugh as Marina rips it in half. Both Bianca and Mackenzie feign chuckles as they excuse themselves leaving the two of us to watch them purposely walk by the guys’ table. Marina shakes her as she turns back to her salad. “Those two are something else.”

“I’ll catch you later I have a photography club meeting,” I say and Marina only smiles before going onto her phone. Unlike Bianca and Mackenzie, I actually have to pass the guy’s table to walk over to the dish return. It is okay though because none of them even turn from their conversations except one pair of eyes. Timothee’s lips pull into a smirk before he shoots me a wink. Smiling sarcastically I flipped him off before continuing on.

Mrs. Klotz wastes no time diving into the agenda for the following weeks. Since I arrive a few minutes late it leaves me with the bottom of the barrel for what event to cover. Of course, there is only one event that no one wants to do, the homecoming dance. As the meetings adjourned I wait for everyone to leave the room, the meeting was brief, and yet so much was covered.

“Mrs. Klotz please don’t make me cover the homecoming dance. I don’t even want to go.” I say, closing the club binder she places it in her desk before resting her hands on the desk. She wears glasses that frame her face with her auburn hair, all the guys like to creep on her due to her being fresh out of college.

“I thought it’d be perfect for you (Y/n). I even saw you purchased a ticket,” Mrs. Klotz explains as her eyebrows pull together slightly she tilts her head to the side. I mirror her expression before I remember what Marina had said.

“No, that was Marina. I’m pretty sure what she is attempting is entrapment,” I say, sitting on the edge of the desk behind me I watch as Mrs. Klotz frowns.

“Well, first that is detention for Miss Monroe. The online ticketing policy states students cannot buy tickets for other students,” My stomach flips for a moment as I realize what I have done.

“Did I say Marina sorry I get those two mixed up. It was Ivy who ordered the tickets,” Knowing Ivy would not care as she has been in detention more than she has ever been in class. None of this matters as Mrs. Klotz only apologizes before writing Ivy up and telling me there is no one else who can do it. “I assume you can give this detention slip to Miss Porter.”

In the hallway, I stop as my phone vibrates in my pocket. Ivy sent a text in the group chat telling us to meet her in the computer lab. Walking through the halls my arms fall at my side like dead limbs as I sulk through the corridors. It smells like sweat and pizza from the cafeteria and every couple of lockers is a candy wrapper or abandoned worksheet. Whoever the hell said high school was the best four years of your life, lied. In the computer lab, both Marina and Ivy are already there. Ivy is wearing a tube top with a denim jacket and legging. She is breaking the dress code as usual but it is getting to a point where the faculty do not even care what she wears. I am almost certain Ivy could show up in a bikini and no one would be fazed. Handing her the detention slip her eyebrows pull together.

“Wait what did I do this time?” She asks, explaining the situation she laughs at me before turning to Marina, “Since I am now the sacrificial lamb I would love to talk about that super cute sheer tank top you refuse to let me wear.”

“You get to wear it once then it goes back in my closet,” Marina says, rolling her eyes at the extortion. I look to Ivy asking why she summoned both of us to the computer lab but she only shrugs saying she got bored. There are still ten minutes to spare before the warning bell goes off. Marina hands Ivy the invite to the party and the two giggle amongst themselves about it but I only groan.

“Wait, this is a perfect time to figure out a date for (Y/n) for homecoming. How about Jack Ribas?” Marina says, looking through her Instagram followers as the short boy came to mind I can remember he was my chemistry partner.

“Tiny hands,” I cannot fight the grimace on my face as Ivy laughs before going on her Instagram. The real answer being his ex-girlfriend, she rarely speaks and I am sure she is the reason he has not dated in over a year.

“What about Mark Warshaw?” Ivy asked, earning a nudge from Marina as she is clearly not taking it seriously.

“He smells terrible. Come on,” I say, leaning back in my seat this only furthers how much I do not want to go to homecoming. Marina continues looking through her phone and I cannot say I do not appreciate her wanting to help.

“Terrance Avecedo?” As the name left her lips I could not help but stare at her with eyes I can only imagine appeared crazed.

“You mean my cousin? Dude,” I say as Marina apologizes profusely there is one guy I would not absolutely hate the idea of going with. Just my luck he and a few of his buddies walk by the computer lab. Declan Knight, once again it’s super cliche but he’s the football quarterback and captain. Timothee found it more than hilarious my crush on the 6’2 curly-haired beau.

“Hey, Ivy. Hey, Marina,” He says, popping his head into the computer lab and they both say hey Declan at the same time before he turns to me. “Hey, (Y/n).”

The feeling of panic rushes every inch of me as I force out a chuckle before breathlessly saying, “Hey.”

“Real smooth,” Fortunately Ivy says this as Declan is already continuing on wherever he is walking toward. Marina once again nudges Ivy as I put my head down groaning loudly.

“I am going to my locker. Please leave me to sulk about my day in peace.” I say and I hear Marina yell love you, saying it back I do not turn around. Everyone is in the hallways always playing it dangerously close to the late bell. At my locker, I can see Timothee walking toward my locker.

“Double-A.” He says, looking at me with his usual shit-eating grin, I frown as we rarely speak in school.

“Timmy. Shouldn’t you be ducking behind something to talk to me here?” He only chuckles. Girls would kill for him to walk up to the locker and chat yet I would pay him right now to walk away from me. Only wearing a simple long sleeve shirt, jeans, and converse he is still somehow a hot commodity at school.

“Funny. Also what the hell were you watching last night. It gave me soft porn vibes but very cinematic,” He asks and I shift on the balls of my feet as his grin widens. So I decided to watch that movie 365 on Netflix which was one of the cringest things I have ever seen.

“Spying on me much?” But once again I earn a laugh before he says that I should close my curtains more often. “Maybe don’t look in my window.”

“Noted. Where’s your girls at?” He asks scanning the hall for Marina and Ivy I close my locker. Crossing my arms I look at him asking who wants to know but the smirk on his lips reappears. “The only man in your life. No, your Dad does not count. So that leaves me, you are very welcome.”

“I can assure my love. You would not be in my life even if you were the only man on the planet.” I said, watching as he places his hand over his heart feigning pain. He wastes no time in quoting Marina’s anti-bullying campaign motto, Spread the Love. “Shut up jackass.”

“Timothee,” Mackenzie says and the high pitch of her voice makes me grimace as I look away. She pulls him into a kiss that lasts a couple of seconds longer than needed. The two are the most indecisive couple I have ever seen. I’ll break it down like this, today is Wednesday. Monday they were dating, Tuesday they were not, today is a big question mark and tomorrow is still a coin toss. This does not stop Timmy from being a total whore when they are broken up. I’m pretty sure Mackenzie still does not know Timothee hooked up with Bianca. I narrow my eyes as Mackenzie looks at me as she kisses Timothee. The urge to promise her I have no interest in the mop-headed idiot is strong but instead, I just stand there.

“Hey still here,” Placing my hands in my pocket I look down at the tiles as Mackenzie pulls back.

“Gosh, (Y/n) I am so sorry. Since when were you friends with my ex-boyfriend?” She asks, smiling kindly but it is clearly fake. I have no intention of outing our lifelong friendship but I have no time to even say anything before Timothee chimes in.

“We’re not just asking for some notes. What does it matter anyway?” Timothee asks, looking at Mackenzie who gives him a doe-eyed pout. Gagging as she pulls him into another kiss.

“I know you miss me.” She says before stalking off and I cannot help but now smirk at him.

“Healthy thing you got going there,” I say but he rolls his eyes before walking down the hall away from me. The rest of the day feels uneventful, the girls and I agree to meet at my house to get ready for the party. Which translates to them already ready and helping me insisting on staying home.

[theimmaterialplace]

i’ll give you all you want if you just ask | spencer reid x f!reader | ch. 1 of 2: all i need

Summary: It doesn’t take a profiler to notice that Spencer Reid is nervous around you. Half of the team finds it funny and the other half just ignores it. What you don’t know is why. Well, you have an idea but you’d rather not be wrong in your deduction and make a fool of yourself and make him just avoid you completely.

See, it’s not that you just make him nervous, it’s that you make him excited. He perks up every time you enter a room and shoots you a shy smile, never making eye contact. He shivers any time you accidentally, or purposefully because you can’t help yourself, brush against him. He follows your lead eagerly and without complaint, able to connect the pieces you’ve put together. Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence is the way he reacts to your praise.

Oh, how his reactions always excite you.  

Contains: hints of light dom/sub undertones, teasing, praise kink. no actual smut yet, just a bit of kissing and allusions to sex. enabler!hotch. 

Word Count: 1.7k

Comments: hello im back this very self indulgent fic! i just love sub!spencer to pieces and there aren't enough fics with him featuring that so i'm here to remedy that! also just assume rossi had a date or something and couldn't make it! i'd say this takes place before a bit before the reaper arc! also i fucking adore hotch and HAD to make him an enabler because he just wants his team to be happy!! he cares for them!! if you’d rather read this on ao3, here’s the link! finally, leave a comment/review so ik how yall feel! reblogs are also highly appreciated! :)

It doesn’t take a profiler to notice that Spencer Reid is nervous around you. Half of the team finds it funny and the other half just ignores it. What you don’t know is why . Well, you have an idea but you’d rather not be wrong in your deduction and make a fool of yourself and make him just avoid you completely.

See, it’s not that you just make him nervous, it’s that you make him excited . He perks up every time you enter a room and shoots you a shy smile, never making eye contact. He shivers any time you accidentally, or purposefully because you can’t help yourself, brush against him. He follows your lead eagerly and without complaint, able to connect the pieces you’ve put together. Perhaps the most damning piece of evidence is the way he reacts to your praise.

Oh, how his reactions always excite you.  

You’d conducted an experiment over the past few months. At first, you had given him compliments such as “I like your outfit today” or “good work on today’s case”, harmless things. He had reacted as well as you expected, blushing the tiniest bit and muttering a thank you in response.

Next, you decided to take a page out of Morgan’s book and call him pretty boy which eventually turned into a whole slew of nicknames revolving around praising him. The first time you had called him pretty boy, he had burned his mouth because he gulped his coffee too quickly. His face was a bright red and he was incapable of meeting your eyes for the rest of the day. As it was, that was a great reaction but your favorite had to be the time you called him a good boy. He had looked up at you with wide eyes and his pupils had dilated so much that you barely saw his original eye color. Now that should’ve been enough to confirm your beliefs but you decided to take it a step farther.

The most recent trial had you calling him your boy, a possessive indicator. There was no hiding your intentions with this one so you made sure to only call him that in private; no need for the team to know. It seemed like no matter how many times you called him yours, one way or another, it still had the same effect on him.

With this information, you had no doubt that Spencer was interested in you and seemed to lean on the sub side of things. It was cute. He was cute. He was just your type in men. You loved nothing more than a man who was intellectual and would let you take control, which you had no doubt Spencer would allow.

It’s on a Saturday night when everyone decides to get drinks, a rare occasion, that you decide to make a move. Well, you’re actually encouraged to by someone you would least expect.

“So, when do you plan on making a move on Spencer?” It takes everything in you not to choke on the fruity drink you were sipping on when Hotch speaks up. You turn your head to look at him and find him staring at you with a smug, knowing look on his face.

“I’d say I have no idea what you’re talking about, but that’d be a lie and also an insult to you.” A small grin creeps onto his face with your response. It’s nice to see him so relaxed because god only knows how much your boss deserves to let loose every once in a while.

“Hm, you’re avoiding the question. Don’t tell me that all those pet names and touches were for nothing.” It’s a good thing you’re lightly buzzed because otherwise you’d feel completely mortified over the revelation that your boss had picked up on your actions. As you are now though, you can only let out a laugh and smile sharply at his remark.

“Course not, Hotch. As for an answer to your question,” you pause and look across the bar to where he’s laughing at something Penelope said, “I think it won’t be too long now. He’s just so… receptive .” He only hums, taking another sip of what you think is whiskey.

“Well don’t take too long.” And perhaps it’s his encouragement or just the liquid courage but you decide that now is a good time to get your boy. You excuse yourself quietly and give Hotch a small wave which he returns with a small smirk on his face.

When you finally reach Spencer, it’s to him saying goodbye to the rest of the team.

“Come on, stay for a bit longer. We’ll have a fun time. We always do.” Derek might be able to convince him if he keeps going on like this so you decide to interrupt.

“Hey, guys!” Everyone turns to look at you and they all clammer to ask you how you’ve been, giving Spencer the out he needed.

“So, what were you talking about with the boss man? I saw some very interesting expressions over there, babe.” Penelope has a sly grin on her face as the rest of the team “oohs” at her statement.

“Oh, just a little bit of this, little bit of that. Don’t tell me you thought I was flirting with him…” at this, their shoulders drop a little, “Oh my god, come on, you guys! As if I’d flirt with Hotch. You guys though…. You’re all free real estate.” You wink at them in good fun.

“You’re almost as bad as Derek with your flirting, you know that?” Emily takes a sip of her drink and JJ nods, agreeing with her completely.

“Now, there’s no need to insult me like that, ladies. At least I take my flirting seriously. When was the last time you even got laid?” You can feel Spencer’s eyes on you so you decide not to answer.

“I plead the fifth!” This gets you a round of laughs and you decide now is a good time to tell them you’re leaving and start your plan.

“Well, I’m glad everyone is having a good time but I really gotta go,” this earns you a round of “boos”, “I know. I know. Sure it may be old lady behavior but I have plans tomorrow morning. You guys have fun for me though!”

JJ speaks up, “Oh, since you’re leaving right now, would you mind taking Spencer home? I was going to give him a ride since the metro is closed tonight but you’re already leaving so I figured why not?” You only nod while internally you can’t help but think this is going even more perfectly than you originally thought.

You look over to Spencer who’s already looking at you. “You okay with that, pretty boy?” He nods and even with the lighting of the club, you can recognize his cheeks flushing.

You turn back to the rest of them to address them,“Well, goodnight guys! Be safe and I’ll see you Monday if everything goes well! Love you!”

After receiving the mandatory goodbye hugs and kisses, you grab Spencer’s hand and lead him out of the club. It’s a good thing you parked far away because now you have time to set the mood.

“How many drinks have you had tonight? You look moderately red, Spence.” It’s a good starter because you need to know he’s not drunk and that this is fully consensual but also to call him out on his blushing.

“I didn’t drink tonight. Didn’t really feel like it so I just nursed a coke and I think the team thought it was a mixed drink.” His voice is heavenly and you personally can’t wait to hear what he sounds like moaning your name or any other name you both decide on.

You stop for a moment and place the back of your hand on his forehead before you announce, “Good news, you don’t have a fever! Bad news, I can’t place why else you’d be so red.” He splutters for a moment and your red only turns him more red.

“Yeah,” his voice cracks and you feel his palm become sweaty despite the cool temperature, “I don’t know why either.”

He’s so adorable if he thinks you’re gonna let him off the hook so easily. You lean in closer to him and whisper, “You know, my darling… I think I do know why you’re so red right now and it’s the same reason you’re always blushing around me,” you can hear him audibly gulp but he doesn't display any signals for you to stop so you continue, “The team used to think it was because I made you nervous and while that is partially correct, I think it’s because I made you excited, right?”

You stop in your tracks and you’re grateful you timed this correctly because you’re able to back him onto your car.

He’s looking down at you, eyes wide and pupils dilated, and you can’t help the smirk that graces your face. He looks so good like this but you think he’d look better looking up at you from his knees.

You reach up to cradle his face in your hands and say,“Tell me if you want this, Spencer. If you say no, I’ll stop and we’ll never have to speak of this again but… If you do want this, say please and I’ll take you home.”

He’s looking at you with something close to adoration and his admission is so quiet that if you hadn’t been staring so intently at him, you wouldn’t have heard him or read the plea that fell from his lips.

“Please.”

Oh, how that one little word sounded like music to your ears.

You take the last leap and lean forward to kiss him. His lips are exactly how you pictured and he tastes like the chapstick you gave him on that case to Alaska. This makes you feel unbearably smug because if he’s been using this chapstick rather than his usual one, it means you’ve affected even more than you thought.

When you finally pull away, Spencer looks confused and very rumpled.

“As much as I would love to continue this, I’d rather we didn’t do this in a parking lot for our first time.” He perks up at “first time” and you smile at him, “and there will be plenty of times to do this later. You’re not getting rid of me now that you’ve finally succumbed to my advances.”

“I agree.” He smiles at you and you take his hand into your own, giving it a light squeeze.

“Now, let’s get to my apartment so we can continue this."

[wowsoboring]

Deconstructing Baseless Harry Potter Arguments#2 (i) : Harmione Edition

Obviously I once again do not mean to target all Harmione shippers. I know quite a few who're very good human beings and tolerant and accepting above all. However these aren't. In this case, you might sense quite a bit of levelheadedness in the beginning, however you must not be fooled as it goes south and takes a nasty turn very quickly. Don't get your hopes up, this is some of the worst shit I've ever seen, especially the way in which it progresses through its course. Naturally, for this post I have picked my own style of writing which will match that of those redditors. Reddit is the perfect breeding ground for all these weird cults, honestly. I shall be resorting to a formal language and style of conversation, very much like a debater would to sound as pretentious as these do. These posts are found on the instagram handle toxicharmonyshippers who gather such toxic musings and sayings for Harmione shippers while respecting the ones that are nice.

1)

Oh yes, let's use words like 'vehemently' to sound smart, why not? Of course, this little tidbit of the highly stupendous post seems more or less civil at the start. They also have the common decency to say "some Romione shippers" rather than generalizing all of us. Very nice of you, how very saint like. Let's wait till they drop the act and show us their true colors. Harkening back to the argument, I have but one question for you, "where do you find these people?". Where's the proof? Who are these radical Romione shippers who worship Ron and dislike Hermione? I haven't seen any such shippers and I am surrounded by Romione shippers on tumblr, instagram and fan fiction sites as well and haven't met the people you speak of. Some point out her flaws, yes, but no one hates her or dislikes her that much. I have seen two or three Romione shippers across hundreds and thousands who're skeptical of Hermione's perfection. Skeptical. Not hating, disliking, or anything. Of course, unlike this person, I have evidence: find these pi charts for your referral (clickable): https://imgur.com/a/QfPnQbB

you can, through these, see the amount of Hermione bashing across Harry Potter fanfiction and you can see that even in Romione fanfiction there's more Ron bashing. Hermione-bashing is a non-issue. That's what it is. Regarding the "nagging" statement, where's the lie in that? "Annoying" is somewhat subjective, I personally don't find her annoying at all. Who are these people and how often do you find them? "Mary Sue" is only reserved for Movie!Hermione. I have only seen book fans call her that. No one has ever called Book!Hermione Mary Sue. The movie does paint her as a flawless, all-rounder who's also drop-dead gorgeous. Only things she's bad at are flying and divination, all of which she denounces as useless, even though flying is like biking for wizards, divination, sure, not that important. with a teacher like Trelawney, even I would denounce it as hokum.

2)

Remember what I said about waiting for them to show us their true colors, well here they are. Bask in the glory of their senseless arguments. Why, I am from reddit, heck I have 25 thousand karma points on there, I just left because it was too stupid for me but I can argue like them very well. And in this case I would like to say that these people are under the impression that Ron is just there in the story for the sake of existence. And he doesn't work hard. That argument is of course, wrong. Because Ron (in no particular order):

1) fights a troll when he's 11

2) is willing to sacrifice himself when he's 11

3) stands up for his friends

4) makes sure Harry feels like he belongs in the family

5) worries about Harry and rescues him from literal jail

6) stands up against Draco rather than by-standing and enabling his behavior

7) tries his level best to make sure Norbert the dragon is in safe hands and carries it out, albeit not in perfection

8) is with Harry every step of the way in his confronting the basilisk

9) sends Harry and Hermione long letters and calls them often to check up on them

10) stands up on a bitten leg to defend his best friend

11) always apologizes for any of his mistakes and is forgiving when others wrong him

12) works his way to join the Quidditch team unlike Draco who most certainly bought his way in

13) destroys at least 2 horcruxes

14) finds out how to defeat a horcrux

15) has an excellent enough memory and observation to notice Harry speaking parseltongue and also using it to his benefit which proves he's resourceful

now since I have 8 more such pictures to rebut and I do have a life, I will stop. These aren't even a twelfth of the remarkable things Ron has done though, so rest assured.

oh wait what did you say about him just existing and not working for anything? If I recall correctly, he did just as well as Harry did in school and didn't score well only in subjects he didn't care about. Which is true for most people except for Hermione who has an eidetic memory which not everyone has, understandably. Rote memorization is not the best way to get by in life, by the way.

what are the "so many reasons" behind why Harry is the best fit for Hermione? Kindly share so I can rebut those too, I'm rather free nowadays, my finals have been cancelled. You say there are so many reasons but don't even give one, yet you want me to take you seriously. I'm afraid that's impossible.

Romione shipper here, i don't dislike Hermione. I haven't met or seen many people in the book!romione fandom who dislike Hermione (except for Movie!Hermione). The question of someone you like ending up with someone you dislike doesn't particularly make sense. In Friends, Chandler ends up with Monica: now I'm not the biggest Monica fan (I don't hate her but I don't like her very much either) but they are my favorite couple because they make sense. It's about compatibility and character traits, not liking or disliking because that's just a set-up for a ghastly invitation for people to pair up hideousness. "Oh yeah, I like Harry and I also like Hagrid, they should be together. I mean it would be very very disgusting but that's my logic, now, you can't fight it. "- that's how you sound. Please read what you write. Your logic is just...abysmal. That's all I can say without breaking my resolve and berating you with colorful profanities.

3)

This is without the doubt, the easiest one to rebut. It's a delight to see such terrible arguments at my disposal. Come on, dear Harmione shippers, write something that makes me question my choices, not things that make me scoff in disbelief.

In this case, you're essentially providing us with theories. Unproved theories and speculation of what you believe because you'd say anything you like. Where's the proof of your theory, though? Where is that crazy radical Romione shipper who does this? Kindly show me these people. Oh yes, you wanna say we objectify Hermione and disrespect her and view her as a prize. This aches me, that you believe this. No one has ever insinuated this, ever, in the history of anything. What is this winner-loser theory? How do you round off Harry Potter to "an alpha-male ends up with lead-lady" trope and still say you're a fan of the series? Harry Potter doesn't fit in with that format. Ron, Hermione and Harry are co-heroes. Similar to how there's no main character in Friends or the Heroes of Olympus series or the Avengers. We're not living in the 80s anymore. Hermione will be a hero, invariably whether she ends up with Harry, Ron or no one. She ends up with Ron and that's it. Talking about her like this doesn't make you sound any better either. Now you're calling me a misogynist because I don't support the ship of two people who describe themselves as siblings. That's very mature of you. Well here's the thing- I'm not a misogynist. It's as simple as that. I believe that women are capable of anything and everything. I believe Hermione is an amazing person and she is a hero and a different person. I believe the series would be impossible without her. I believe she is no one's prize. There's no requirement of a prize. I just think, similar to canon and the truth and her romantic interest, she will have a great relationship with Ron. There's nothing complex or deep about it, really. No personal weird-thing, no psychological complex, no internalized misogyny. There's nothing deeper than what I said. I am not sexist. I am a feminist. I am all for women empowerment. I love women with the fabric of my being. I love Hermione. I think she's amazing. You only become sexist when you ship people with unstable power dynamics, a bully-victim relation or something of the sort. Neither Romione, nor Harmione are sexist. Heck if you paired Neville with Hermione you wouldn't be sexist. And I hate talking about this so much, I can't even tell you. This talk does make it sound like I treat Hermione like an object and I assure you I respect her and I normally won't talk like this unless someone just outright calls me sexist for something that's not sexist. And this is that situation.

4)

in the case of Romione, no one is too good for anyone. Both are amazing people who're heroes and have done amazing work. That's all I have to say. There's no league, they are romantically interested in each other. I have no intention on sounding lame, but, in love there is no league. As long as you're not putting in any effort and are extremely lazy and leech off of your partner, there is no such concept and no, Hermione is not "too good" for him. Unless of course you're talking about movie Hermione, who is too good for anyone.

5) (halftime!)

oh yes they try to pull this off and wonder why we hate them. Classic. This person likes to sound british, so let's switch up our language, yeah? At least then I won't be out of my element. Let me correct ya, Ron at his best is an amazing, loyal, friendly, brave, strategic hero. There you have it. Ron and 'git' can't be used in the same sentence. Now if you talk about Ron's achievements, I re-iterate you to point two. If it's too much work, here:

1) fights a troll when he's 11

2) is willing to sacrifice himself when he's 11

3) stands up for his friends

4) makes sure Harry feels like he belongs in the family

5) worries about Harry and rescues him from literal jail

6) stands up against Draco rather than by-standing and enabling his behavior

7) tries his level best to make sure Norbert the dragon is in safe hands and carries it out, albeit not in perfection

8) is with Harry every step of the way in his confronting the basilisk

9) sends Harry and Hermione long letters and calls them often to check up on them

10) stands up on a bitten leg to defend his best friend

11) always apologizes for any of his mistakes and is forgiving when others wrong him

12) works his way to join the Quidditch team unlike Draco who most certainly bought his way in

13) destroys at least 2 horcruxes

14) finds out how to defeat a horcrux

15) has an excellent enough memory and observation to notice Harry speaking parseltongue and also using it to his benefit which proves he's resourceful

hey, see, I like Ron and I took the time to copy-paste this instead of asking you to scroll up. And I'm a lot of bad things but I am not lazy. I stick to my deadlines like Hermione. I start my homework in library class and continue it during phys ed the day its given. And I am not exaggerating. Bloody hell, I wish I was. I'm the ceo of deadlines, mate, don't tempt me! So you can see that Ron is much more than just a "nice bloke". And being a "nice bloke" isn't a bad thing either. He's all the things I said: intuitive, strategic, helpful, loyal and on top of that he's also a nice person. Yes, I do see a bit of myself in Ron. I do. I see the insecure side. I waste my time hating myself and criticizing myself and undermining myself, telling me I'm no good. But Ron overcomes that. He inspires me to appreciate myself. Is that a bad thing? Are you going to shame me for having a low self-esteem? Do you want to worsen my low self-esteem and make me feel more like shit?

Now the person who replied to your comment saying, "he isn't a nice bloke most of time.", he is. He is not being nice twice in a span of 7 years. How often do you act rudely or with jealousy? Wasn't Harry yelling at everyone in caps lock in OOTP. Now I don't condemn him for that because he's a fucking hormonal teenager like me and that would make me a hypocrite, but by your logic why don't you condemn him? Or why not condemn Hermione for saying "I only date good Quidditch players" and shoving canaries at Ron's face because someone else kissed him, while she kept using Krum and Cormac to make him jealous. She wasn't being a nice girl, then, was she? Now, once again, i don't dislike her or hold that against her because guess what, mate, I'm a hormonal teenage girl who gets jealous most of the time and would probably react in a similar fashion in the spur of the moment (Not defending her actions here, just putting myself in her shoes.) In short, Ron is a nice bloke MOST OF THE TIME.

6)

It would be misogynistic to think that. The thing is, NO ONE DOES my dear friend! My dear daft friend. I have never heard anyone say that! why are you so hell-bent on portraying us as misogynists when no one ever says that? Stop assuming. Just stop. You are crossing a limit here, aren't you? Yes you are. You cannot say these sort of things. We never said that or believed that, no one ever said this to be a reason to ship Romione. God what is wrong with you? Literally, stop fucking ASSUMING god damn it! Do you want me to assume things about Harmione shippers? Do you want me to go there? Because I will go there! I will go there the moment you tell me to. Just challenge me.

Ron is not a perfect best boi , the reason why so many of us like him is that he's imperfect and tries to become better through the course of time. You are once again assuming and I am once again asking you to stop.

Ron might be an ordinary wizard. He might be poor, sure, but he's a pure-blood and won't face much if he chose not to fight. But he did. He fought. Now I identify with Ron's attitude a fair bit, but I am also likely to spend my day in a library without noticing. People aren't one dimensional. Stop trying to act like you're a psychologist, i know you're not. I don't even think Hermione's overbearing at all! You just insulted someone you're a big fan of. Jesus.

Both Hermione and Ron are strategic, jealous, passionate, feisty, argumentative, intellectual...

that's like 6 similarities. They aren't polar opposites in the slightest. Their differences are just: workaholic, not workaholic. Nerd, not a nerd. Like that's fucking it, man!

8)

being relaxed doesn't make you less independent or driven. A relaxed and levelheaded Hermione will think through things, not be impulsive, not panic etc. She doesn't need Ron. I don't understand your obsession with acting like we ever insinuated that. Then she doesn't need Harry either lol. Stop shipping her with Harry, then or like shut the fuck up. Being a bit relaxed won't stop her or anyone from hitting great strides. Just don't get relaxed to the point you're lazy and casual about everything, that's it.

9)

What do you mean? Ron is balanced. He does finish his work on time. And even if he does procrastinate, she could also help him not and be more driven. Of course, this is an open invitation for you to call me a sexist bitch because I said that she could help him and now you'll think her goal is to help him become better yada yada yada. Fuck off. Defeating the horcrux taught him enough. He respected her. He remembered about the elves when she didn't. He begged to be tortured instead of her. He wouldn't need it because school work and jobs are different and the same person might perceive those differently. Calmness and relaxation doesn't hinder your potential. Not caring and laziness does. You can't function if you work and are stressed 24/7 with zero breaks. Period.

10)

No i do not want (nor does anyone want) Hermione to become Ron. Being slightly calmer doesn't change up your personality. I'm sure many people dislike those sort of fanfics without a doubt. I hate OOC and I don't want Hermione to lose her intellect with Ron because that makes no sense. Ron himself is intellectual and loves arguing with her. They'd boost each other, more like it.

-------

okay thats it i am exhausted as fuck. thanks for reading, i appreciate it. notes and reblogs are appreciated, this takes work.

[indigosprite]

Chrome Callout post.

relax this is just my love hate relationship with chromes writing and potential. spoiler, it ends with all the love... hate is only in the middle. 

My absolute favorite thing in fanfics is Chromes characterization. Like we all know Chrome is completely aware that Mukuro and co need a reoccurring dose of Valium and a therapist willing to do illegal things in order to lower their sadistic points to ”kind of disturbing but tolerable”. Or at least we hope she does even though she proves to us again and again that she’s not phased by it in the slightest and might actually be just as bad. TYL and she’s still running around helping them do god knows what. She follows them on this massacre pridefully, she “believes in” them ( its sweet actually. They’re what she thinks of when Mukuro asks what she believes in and makes a young kokuyo gang.)

In fanfics when people write her to be a double edge sword it’s hilarious, and it should’ve been the character depicted in the Anime and manga instead. But I guess if she hadn’t been the quiet, breathy & compliant 14 year old people wouldn’t have morphed her into the fanon I enjoy now. Here’s some stuff i love and HC abt Chrome  and the things I absolutely hated.  

1. When she actually speaks not just when spoken to. She voices her concerns although she has no intent of not doing what’s asked of her. Who knew she could speak and still be the obedient gang member Mukuro trusts her to be. And when she does this it’s funny. She is the conscience he buries underneath disgust and amusement for chaos, but that’s not her entire character. She’s not reduced to the mom friend either because of this, she’s too passive on the matter. She indulges/Enables it just the same as Chikusa or Ken, although she knows better meanwhile the thought never occurs to them. To summarize :

she’s Brian

2. She’s unhinged and the best part is nobody knows even though it’s blatantly obvious. She may not have the same bloodlust or violent disposition as her peers but there are other ways to showcase this. To Allow Mukuro the leader of this little fearsome Five-some to possess you whenever he feels like and witness whatever horrors he decides to inflict upon someone that day means she’s accepting of literally everything he does. She never resists or expresses distaste/fear for him or anything he does. We assume she would in some capacity because she was depicted as this wide eyed innocent girl trying her best to repay the man that got her to join a gang under the guise of a found family. She quite literally signed up for guts n glory. She knew this and never had second thoughts. Mind you she doesn’t share the same hatred for the mafia as the boys, theirs is blind hatred regardless of who you are. Hers is through them, they are her looking glass rightfully so, so if they say it then their word is law. I’m not sure about you but I would definitely be mindful of the girl who was raised semi normal and willingly turned into a killer for Mukuro of all people. They’re killing adults not shaking them up, they aren’t Tsuna and his friends they finish the job when necessary. The body count is unimaginable. She is just as loyal as Ken and Chikusa and would probably strike you where you stand for speaking ill of him. (She wouldn’t but would definitely be opposed to whatever you’re saying, unless it’s name calling. He takes no offense to that and welcomes it in fact.)

3. The fact that she’s a person apart from Mukuro (physically speaking.) and the Vongola team at all is a blessing in few fics. Although she was made to stand in for Mukuro, when he is released it’s not necessary hence him pushing her to be apart from him and his duties. He did this in the future as well when he possessed Guidio Greco no longer using chrome which lets us know she was successful in becoming a useful comrade and not just a vessel and vongola stand in. She had to otherwise he would’ve left her alone whether she was keeping his Vongola ring warm or not. She is just as aloof as Hibari, always off with her own people only engaging when it’s asked of her. I adore when people keep that in mind and don’t lump her with following behind the vongola as if she were one of them. She shows up for them when asked but her main focus is ultimately committing felonies with Ken and Chikusa per Mukuro’s orders. let her be with the kokuyo gang and let her contribute in the way she’s meant to as a fighter. figure her out give her something cool 

 ik that’s hard considering what we got in the manga. warning things i hate ahead 

what we got in the Anime and Manga: 

so we know Chromes entire purpose was to be Rokudo Mukuro’s stand in, while holding the Vongola ring he soon takes back she is just the girl that is able to get him to come fight their battles when necessary. The Anime and Manga rarely let Chrome fend for herself. We all knew he was coming the second it got serious. By giving chrome that ring she ended up being the one thing to keep him loyal to his contract with being their guardian. If she’s in danger he comes and saves her, the Vongola put her in danger because he will show up and do his job it’s like a rat trap. She is not meant to be a Vongola guardian but more like a Mukuro whistle. They never openly admit it but in the show they will expect/ask her to do things that her track record doesn’t imply she can do and just silently expect Mukuro to show up like always. SKSJDWDN they’ll be like “oh yeah call the girl who passed out and all her organs disappeared I believe in her to do this job even though i’ve never seen her make it to the end of a fight ever not worried at all” sksksjjd They never actually expect chrome to do a job they expect her to go there and manage to get Mukuro to come out and play and we should acknowledge it was just an unspoken thing.  Now I know that despite what I just implied about her not being that great a fighter but just good enough there are two comments made in all 400 chapters that are supposed to negate this.  

Mammon says her illusions are powerful just not enough to fool him , and reborn says she could turn the tide if she were to fight against Mukuro but with confidence, these mean nothing to me because amano throws in so many useless comments like this and then fails to develop it further to make it believable.  and she made powerful characters make note of this so it would be non negotiable and we would just take it at face value because its them but hello ?? ofc we want to see it just like we had to see Tsuna grow before we even considered taking him seriously. hell Dino got a quicker rise to his title than chrome bc its that easy to say oh he can come into his own when needed they just never meant to do it for chrome. 

it’s so irritating when they try to say she’s powerful or could be but give no actual footing for anyone to take those comments seriously when they make her pass out for thirty chapters after doing the bare minimum.

let chrome win on her own not just start strong then step out of the way then have some character say “no really she could be powerful we aren’t going to show you though” .  

when she helped them sneak in the base on her own and even makes those illusions of them fighting we should have gotten more of that!!! 

literally every character is fighting the funeral wreaths and chrome is running in the woods out of breath...even Lambo got to fight. 

you made her sit out of the rep battle to focus on making organs like that wasn’t something she already accomplished in the future and suddenly can’t do anymore ?.....

Chrome finally makes one fighting decision and its to make a mist forcefield that’s dangerous but hell yeah we think she will finally pull through with something powerful and prove herself and then they have mukuro come in a panel later saying “your flames are far too weak to do that I will make it better and help you not die” BYE  that was a perfect time to have her come in to her own seeing as she was powerful and confident enough to initiate it in the first place. 

breaking the barrier daemon spade makes * chefs kiss * give me more 

 when they’re not blindly robbing chrome of character development  she’s just getting kidnapped, passing out  or helping them with small things like making a fake Yamamoto for a party or sneaking in the base with illusions to disguise them. Hello she’s training under mukuro right ??? why did we ever get to see her get stronger each fight and have them say ‘she’s learning quick” instead. 

enough abt what we got, back to what I’ve managed to make out of the scraps we were given..

4. Mukuro is the only one who reassures that she actually is a fighter and she eventually grows to be a good one bc of this and you should write about that dynamic and why it exists more. this one is long.

 the whole dynamic I was referring to exploring is the one where Mukuro and chrome are meant to be equals. He meets this girl whose been neglected and left for dead, another kid messed up by adults neglectful selfish behavior. she willingly follows the boy who is plagued by the same demons and made a small group dedicated to getting revenge for it.  Mukuro & Chrome know they’re two sides of the same coin. he is anger and she is acceptance. He probably finds it amusing she isn’t as angry as them wants to draw it out of her  where as chrome wants to pull out the peace that comes with moving on once you’re in a better place. the girl is so happy to not be near her mom and grateful for this little family while the boys are quite literally holding a grudge against the world.  and like none of them even see it the way she does but she wants them to.  Mukuro and chrome didn’t go through the same things but it doesn’t matter to either of them because its the same story, nobody loved or valued them enough to protect them. In the end chrome will learn to be angry abt things that happen and use that to find a will to fight for something and Mukuro will learn to be at peace because they’re not in that lab anymore and those people are gone from their life. as fighters they’re so important to each others balance Mukuro’s rage cannot be left to be so blind and hers unattended and i know it’s supposed to be Tsuna that cleans his soul but i think chrome definitely plays a more active role in that.  I think he sees a better him in her, he makes her his second gives her his name because she’s the good he knows he can never fully be. she posses a peace he’s not hopeful enough to believe he can achieve or want and ultimately it will make her far more capable of the change he wants. in believing this it means he also believes she will be just as powerful as him with the right training. he’s literally training his demise and her name is Chrome. he wont take over a (mafia) world he wants her to save.  we all know he’s like annoyingly stupid when it comes to showing his emotions, he rather pretend he’s sending you to die when he’s quite literally ushering you to what he thinks is safe and sacrificing himself. so I can totally see him being like  “okay Tsuna might really change the mafia and I want to see that but I've already dug my own grave here's a better newer me that will be way easier to accept than me turning over a new leaf 40 dead families later.” 

5. in the future Hibari is much more happy to help and be around because he knows what a powerful fighter Tsuna turns out to be, i think this is the exact same reason why he goes and helps chrome save herself. Kyoya knows and possibly even respects future chrome enough to save her when she’s at her weakest which he usually detests. Chrome grows to be much more in the future and that’s exactly why he even gives this sick chrome a push. everyone likes to think it’s a Mukuro thing for him but what if it actually is a chrome thing. in the show he’s never been present to witness her show any kind of power so we can only assume that at some point he saw her in action. 

  6. it’s implied in the future that Mukuro fights alongside her, he views her as more than just a vessel and doesn’t baby her in the slightest when he pushes her to become her own being. I won’t call it respect per say but he doesn’t look at her as a doll even though that’s the part she played for him. He still trains her the way he eventually does Fran. We all know he just wants Mini Mukuros to aid him in his endeavors but the fact that he chooses her says a lot about how she’s meant to be viewed. He also chooses a nine year old brat with an apple hat but hey he must see something everyone else doesn’t until he’s done with them seeing as Fran was kidnapped by the freaking Varia once Mukuro’s teachings were for the most part implemented. “Oh you learned under Mukuro ? We can’t have Mukuro you need to join us immediately” (I’ve just realized Mukuro gave the vongola their strongest mist guardians all while claiming to hate them. Funny man). imagine how powerful Chrome gets, even better when Mukuro is actually there in the flesh to teach her where as Fran got some illusionary version of him. WRITE ABOUT IT. 

7. for the love of god give that girl her own fighting style. yamamoto has his sword gokudera is literally baby genius ryohei is a boxer and hibari has like the most random weapon ever. go crazy. i love it when chrome isn’t pulling a trident from her bag. because she’s not mukuro anymore. she’s a reticent mist guardian, compliment that.  Mukuros trident has his own history with him. give her some history of her own.    

in my fic Chrome uses a scythe and tears through reality with it. 

reason:  because she is a grim reaper in her own right. she rose from the dead and is showing up to collect the souls of the wicked. a silent but fearsome person. 

her style ? :  personally I like to believe chrome dabbles in profiling, hear me out. Her parents were neglectful and in turn she really has little experience with relationships in general, i think her curiosity would lead her to constantly study peoples relationships and behaviors and see how they affect her target. aka she fights by showing up getting in your head and haunting you with your own past because even if they see through it damn what a nasty wound or insecurity to bring up in the form of a hell loop illusion. this also ties into her being Mukuro 2.0 he’s known to just be eerily in the know of everything going on even when he’s not there. this would be a great way of her matching that aspect of him and possibly surpassing it.  

[foundthe8wing]

I know exactly what I mean when I say “the dndads team is endangering minors in their spaces,” but I think from the outside, seeing that sentiment repeated, it’s easy to interpret it as rhetoric or as something like “if you’ve ever mentioned the existence of sex you’re a danger to children” when that isn’t the argument here at all. So I want to do my best to lay out why we call it dangerous.

CW: discussion of grooming (a bit more specifically than in previous posts of mine)

For context, these are the rules for the dndads patron server, at least as of October 4:

[ID: a discord message from Freddie:

In order to keep this a safe and welcoming community, we have some rules and guidelines everyone must follow.

If you need help or if anyone makes you uncomfortable (in chat or in DMs), the mods are here for you! You can ping them in the chat by using @/moderator, message the group using @/ModMail, or if you’d prefer to discuss a matter privately 1-on-1, you can also PM the community manager @/Ash or moderators directly.

Listen to the mods! They enforce the rules. Infractions are handled on a case-by-case basis. Breaking the rules will result in you being muted for a duration determined by severity and infraction history. 

We’ve enabled nicknamed editing on the server, so please feel free to append your preferred pronouns at the end of your username.

Always remember these basic guidelines:

This is an 18+ space. Per Patreon’s policy, you must be 18+ or have parental permission.

Keep conversation polite. NSFW content is not allowed!

Stay on topic! If you find yourself drifting off topic, move to another channel. When in doubt, go to #shoot-the-breeze or #shoot-the-breeze-2 /End ID]

You’ll note the policy against NSFW content, but damn, I don’t know what kind of world they live in where linking kink tests and writing erotica are SFW activities. Definitely wouldn’t fly at my job, I’ll tell you that. Anyway.

I’m not saying that everyone who’s ever discussed sex in the presence of a minor is a predator, or that these discussions are always, definitely a slippery slope to kids getting groomed. But I’m saying that when the cast says things like “Grant has never jerked off in that house” and “there’s so much sexual tension between Bella and Dr. Cullen” and “Glenn definitely looks through Nick’s porn history,” among other things; and when they then allow people to regularly discuss sex acts and share kink test results and erotica in their server (yes, even if it’s meant as a joke), they’re making it much easier for predators to approach minors, and much harder for those minors to then be able to tell when lines are being crossed. 

You know the saying about how you can boil a frog and it won’t hop out of the pot as long as you heat it up slowly? The server is getting uncomfortably warm, and it makes it that much easier for someone to turn it up a few degrees in private. It contributes to things like, for example, 9th grade me not pushing back when a then-20-year old made comments on all the “sexual tension” between me and one of my classmates (in response to me telling a story from when we were eleven). 

I believe that if a 14-year-old in a position like the one I was in said “hey, this person keeps asking invasive sexual questions and I’m uncomfortable,” the mods would do something (though whether it’d be handled well is still questionable), but I don’t feel confident that that hypothetical kid has a good reason to believe that’s the case. If I was in a similar situation, I can’t cite anything that would make me feel like I’d be supported and have my concerns addressed, or that would validate my discomfort with the situation, and I can actually point to a lot of things that send the opposite message. 

Because if that kid takes a look around the server and sees that plenty of adults here are bringing up sexual topics in this all-ages space anyway, that no one in charge is objecting to users sexually discussing 13-year-old characters, that Anthony considers “why, did the podcast make you nut” a perfectly acceptable thing to say unprompted . . . it doesn’t give a great impression that whoever they approach will take them seriously if they ask for help. It doesn’t give them a good basis for trusting their instinct that something is off with the way they’re being spoken to. That piece is vital, and it’s where the cast, community manager, and moderators have failed over and over and over. 

Simply saying “if anyone makes you uncomfortable (in chat or in DMs), the mods are here for you!” isn’t sufficient when it’s not coupled with a direct statement that adults approaching minors about sexual topics isn’t okay. It’s not cool for adults to be having explicit conversations with or around minors. There is no good reason for an adult to be asking or speculating about a minor’s sexual behaviors, or discussing their own sex life with minors, or sharing/discussing explicit media with them. Make that clear. It’s not the kid’s job to automatically know this; it’s your job to tell them. 

(Which isn’t to say that an action has to definitively cross that line in order for someone to express discomfort-- “these things aren’t okay, and if you’re unsure, you can reach out anyway” would be a good approach in my book, but the second part on its own isn’t enough.)

Right now, if a teen in the dndads server is being groomed, all of the responsibility is placed on this teen to:

Identify the fact that they’re uncomfortable (and then choose to examine that discomfort rather than immediately downplay it)

Articulate why this is bothering them

Convince themself (and, potentially, whoever they approach about it) that it’s a big enough deal to bring up at all

Speaking as someone who’s been there: it can be really fucking hard to do. But it’d be a hell of a lot easier if the cast said anything to the effect of “hey, adults shouldn’t be initiating this kind of conversation with you,” or if they made any effort to rein in the “spicier” conversations in the server. 

Adults detailing their kinks in the presence of kids isn’t cool, even if none of those kids say they’re uncomfortable. I need an indication that a single person managing the dndads patron server understands that and is taking it into account. 

Nobody wants to be the killjoy who says “hey, I’m not comfortable.” Especially not in an environment where there’s a pattern of such concerns getting dismissed and belittled. Double especially when the behavior is coming from some of the most influential members of the community. It’s not fair--and not safe--to foist all of that pressure onto an uncomfortable kid, and it’s absolutely crucial that the people with power get ahead of it and take on the responsibility of calling out and shutting down unacceptable behavior.

In order to be effective, “reach out if you’re uncomfortable” needs to also be coupled with an apology for the way they’ve been conducting themselves. Because if they don’t apologize for things like the examples I listed above, for the ways their content and actions have contributed to harmful ideas about consent and about sexualizing kids, for allowing the server to exist in this state for so long, then they’re implicitly saying either that those things were okay, or that they’re above those standards. Not a great look no matter how you slice it.

TL;DR: allowing this level of sexual discussion around minors, especially in the absence of any type of messaging or warning regarding grooming, makes it easy for those minors to get preyed on. And saying “we’re here for you if you’re uncomfortable” doesn’t on its own count as actually making the server a safe or comfortable environment. 

[nonspecificfandomblog]

A She-Ra Film (According to Me)

I am very excited by the prospect of a She-Ra and the Princesses of Power film, and seeing so many theory posts has inspired me with my own plot idea for a She-Ra film, blessed we be that it happens.

Etheria is abuzz as Bright Moon prepares to host Queen Glimmer and Bow’s wedding, which shall surely be the event of the century after so many years spent fighting the Horde.

Aunt Castaspella and King Micah prepare a wonderful magical display, featuring Queen Glimmer of course, Perfuma and her people tend to the gardens and floral arrangements, Frosta crafts ice sculptures filling the entire castle, Mermista and Scorpia travel the seas, spreading the good news, and all feels good in the world. A strong turn-around from the last major event at Bright Moon (the coronation).

Adora is not happy however. She loves Glimmer and Bow and cannot wait for them to be married. Overseeing the entire operation with Glimmer, Bow, and Catra, the castle seems to haunt Adora. Visions and memories come in flashes as one person keeps coming to mind: Queen Angella. Her only daughter, coronated without either of her parents to support her, and marrying without her mother. Glimmer does not seem too bothered, instead smiling at Frosta’s ice sculpture and Perfuma’s hedge of her mom. Still, Adora sees only the reminder that she failed to save Glimmer’s mother, and she must now celebrate this important day without her.

Her friends notice how distracted she’s been, and finally after days of visions and nightmares, Adora comes up with a plan: to free Queen Angella from where she is trapped between dimensions, and finally rid the world of the Horde’s last gaping scar. Although it is not a clear plan, it’s Adora’s plan, and when does she ever think things through?

Adora enlists Entrapta’s help, hoping her experience creating the inter-dimensional portal will enable her to save Queen Angella. Entrapta excitedly agrees to help, bringing Hordak along with her, having created the portal together. Hordak explains the limitations, that as a portal to travel from one dimension to another, he is not sure how they can retrieve someone from between dimensions. However, seeing as the original portal was made with First Ones tech, it would make sense they might have a greater understanding.

The discussion triggers a vision, and Adora sees herself once again as a child--but not on Etheria. She does not know where she is, but as she looks at the two adults cradling her in their arms, she understands that they must be her parents. Overcome with emotions, she breaks down crying, declaring she cannot let Glimmer get married without Angella present. They are going to find the remaining First Ones.

During her outburst, Glimmer, Bow, and Catra had come in and after her declaration, voice their support. Adora cries again, voicing her guilt and shame over what happened to Angella as Glimmer tells her she has already forgiven her. But, if Adora is set on doing this, Glimmer will be with her the entire way. Bow and Catra agree, and the mission is set.

A few days pass, and all the Princesses have gathered to join Adora on her mission, leaving Castaspella and Micah alone to finish the preparations, never fully explaining their true intentions--to rescue Queen Angella--fearing Micah will stop them from risking their lives to save a wife he has already mourned.

Their mission begins and the Princesses start their search by returning to Krytis. Exploring the world with Melog at their side, they try to learn the history of the First Ones in hopes of finding where any who remain might have gone to. Finally, after a long search through the planet’s ruins, they find a clue to the last First Ones’ whereabouts. They set a course.

During the journey, tensions rise between Adora and her friends as her visions and nightmares worsen, now hearing Angella’s voice calling out to her, along with two voices she does not recognize. Refusing their support and comfort, Adora isolates herself, once again hoping to save the day at her own expense.

The team arrives at a planet and, detecting vast catacombs moving throughout the entire planet’s core, go down to search. Choosing to search with Entrapta, Hordak, and Mermista, Adora vents her feelings before trying to run off. Strangely, Hordak stops her and says something profound, having gained a genuine appreciation for friendship and love. Adora’s guilt and shame do not change how her friends feel about her, they only corrupt her perception of herself. Comforted, Adora and the group continue searching before finding a sealed pocket deep in the planet.

Unable to get a message to the two other teams, the group chooses to forge on breaking through the technology sealing off the pocket, finding the lost First Ones.

The First Ones attack, easily overpowering the team, taking them to prison. There, they are reunited with the other two groups who had found the First Ones in different catacombs and were captured. The group finds comfort in each other’s company, before they are interrupted by the Queen and King of the First Ones there to interrogate them.

As they begin questioning, the Queen can’t help but be distracted by Adora. She draws the attention to her, stating she recognizes her. Denying the possibility, Adora has another vision and she sees her mom and dad standing before her, and passes out.

Blinking awake, the Queen and King hold her in their arms, saying, “You’ve come back to us.”

Freed from prison, Adora and the Princesses celebrate with the First Ones as their Princess has returned to them after so many years.

After days of celebration, the Princesses tell the King and Queen their original intentions in finding them: to learn how to save Queen Angella. The First Ones agree to help them, deciding, having learned of the Horde’s dissolution, to come with the Princesses to Etheria.

On their journey, Adora’s friends become increasingly wary of the King and Queen and their motivations. They do not doubt they are Adora’s parents, though they do believe they have not been completely honest with them. They confront Adora who lashes out at them, upset they would doubt her family who she has spent so long not knowing, who she lucked into finding because she was trying to restore Glimmer’s family. The other Princesses become upset, Catra and Glimmer particularly hurt by the implication that they are not Adora’s family.

Entrapta and Hordak have begun working with the First Ones on the technology to bring Queen Angella back, but as they spend more time among them, they too become wary of the First Ones’ intentions. As they learn more and more about their history, their motivations become clear.

Just as they arrive at Etheria, Entrapta and Hordak warn Adora of the First Ones’ plans to harvest Etheria’s magic once more. Upset, Adora confronts the King and Queen hoping to easily resolve the issue only to find everyone’s suspicions were true. Betrayed and hurt, Adora lashes out before being subdued and captured by the King and Queen.

Waking up in the Bright Moon holding cell, Adora finds herself joined by Entrapta and Hordak, who the First Ones intentionally let tell her of their plans to see where her loyalties lied--with the Princesses, or with her “family.” Heartbroken the family she has spent so long wondering about has betrayed her, Adora wallows in self-pity as the Princesses quietly mount a Rebellion against the First Ones who have taken over Bright Moon and plan to conquer the rest of Etheria.

Barely escaping the First Ones, the Princesses landing in the Crimson Waste where they enlist their old friend Huntara to help them rescue Adora, Entrapta, and Hordak, and take back Etheria.

The rescue commences and, after freeing Adora, Entrapta, and Hordak, as the Princesses make their way to the throne room, Adora apologizes for her behavior. Family is about who loves and cares about you, and they do, not the First Ones.

Reaching the throne room, Adora confronts the King and Queen. Although their primary plans involve harnessing Etherian magic, they do want her to be with them, and offer to help rescue Queen Angella if she surrenders and declares her allegiance to them. She promptly rejects their proposal and attacks. A horrible battle ensues which results in the destruction of much of the First Ones technology and their forces.

The First Ones flee Etheria in ruins, saying one day they will return for Adora and Etheria.

The wedding having been pushed off by the First Ones invasion, it is finally time for Bow and Glimmer to be married. Having apologized to her family for how she treated them and forgiven herself for what happened to Queen Angella, Adora is finally at peace and ready to begin the rest of her life with her friends.

Lo and behold, Entrapta managed to steal many of the schematics from the first ones for their technology, and fashion a device to bring back Queen Angella. Telling no one, Entrapta waits until the ceremony is about to begin and uses the machine. Vast Etherian magic swarms around the wedding guests as the sky lights up, and floating down to them is Queen Angella.

Tearful reunion, wedding, happily ever after.

Obviously, this is just an idea, and there are plenty of things which might need to be fixed of changed if this were to be the She Ra movie, however, I think the main ideas are quite strong throughout. More than anything, I want the She-Ra movie to explore the First Ones, Adora’s parents--and subsequently the meaning of family, and reunite Queen Angella with her family. Thanks for reading my long, imperfect idea. More than anything, I’m just so hopeful that there will be more She-Ra in the world and I would love whatever Noelle writes.

[horde-princess]

An Analysis of 4 Key Relationships in Season 2

Now that we’ve had some time to digest season 2, I wanna take an in-depth look at some of the new relationships and group dynamics that have popped up in the show. Specifically, seeing Catra interact with Bow and Glimmer was something I’ve been excited about for a really long time, and then of course there’s Scorpia, and wow do i have THOUGHTS alright here we go

Catra and Bow

i know, weird right. there’s a reason i’m writing about these two first and it’s because i have a lot of feelings lajksdfd just hear me out okay

Idk about you guys, but when I was watching Catra attack Bow in 2x02 it just felt so weird, like in a bad way. Catra’s anger towards him for stealing Adora away is obviously valid, but Bow is just so pure and righteous and good, you know? He doesn’t have a bitter bone in his body (unlike Glimmer, who can give as good as she gets). Bow doesn’t know how to respond to Catra’s anger... and I think the reason that it was so hard for me to watch is because Catra and Bow actually have the potential to be good friends.

Think about it like this. Catra and Glimmer are a lot alike--they’re fierce and intense and they each have someone who helps bring them back down to earth: their respective best friends, Adora and Bow! And we see how much Adora and Glimmer have grown to love one another, right? It’s because their different personalities complement each other so well.... So I think that, given the chance, Catra and Bow could have a similar dynamic :)

There was a sweet moment in 2x02 that offered a glimpse of this, when Bow was trying to show Catra some kindness. He’s such an earnest, straight forward character, he sees right through Catra’s bullshit and knows exactly what to say to get through to her (i mean look at her expression here, the way her ears are flattened--so different from her absurd behavior in the rest of the episode).

Lock these two in a room for an hour? Yeah, they’d come out best friends 😭💖 I hope we get more of them in future episodes!! 

Catra and Glimmer

Oh man...... Whew. YIKES. Where to even begin with this alsjdfsdjld. Catra and Glimmer’s rivalry is just. everything. 

To Glimmer, Catra is the girl who is trying to destroy her home, murder her and her loves ones... the girl who’s breaking the heart of someone she loves (Adora).

To Catra, Glimmer is the girl who stole Adora away from her. She tore her life apart. She represents what it means to be born into a position of privilege and (literal) power, which Catra resents with a burning passion.

Seeing these two go head to head, sparring physically and verbally, it’s so freaking delicious. Catra has the advantage over her in almost every way: she’s a better fighter, she lies and manipulates, she’s willing to do evil things to win battles that Glimmer, as a typical hero, refuses to do. But despite all that, Glimmer still wins every time... Because she has Adora.

It’s interesting, though. Even though Adora is on Glimmer’s team, Catra knows that she is the one who holds Adora’s attention, if not also her affections--and she knows this fact drives Glimmer crazy. I mean come on, Adora means everything to Glimmer! She loves her as a friend but more than that, She-Ra gives her hope that they can save the world. Yet Adora loves this feral half-cat demon over her?? what???? lmao. So I think part of what’s fueling Glimmer’s hatred, her desire to just beat the absolute shit out of Catra, is that she feels like she’s contending for Adora’s love.

There were four glitra moments this season that I wanna highlight.

First, when Catra tries to get in her head and make her doubt her relationship with Adora. I found this interesting because you almost see a glimpse of sincerity in Catra--as if she’s trying to warn Glimmer against repeating the mistake she herself made. Glimmer’s reaction to the words are just as telling. She gets angry, but I don’t think it’s because she believes Catra. I think she’s angry because Catra is slandering Adora’s character. Unlike Catra right now, Glimmer sees Adora for who she truly is. She knows that Adora isn’t the kind of person who abandons her friends in pursuit of power. So yeah this was a cool moment that illustrated Glimmer and Catra’s contrasting perspectives.

Second, I LOVED this line, when Catra makes fun of Glimmer and Adora’s relationship (but it just comes off as jealous lmaoo). The reason I love it is because it’s so true!!! Glimmer and Adora are perfect for each other. What this line proves is that she is absolutely threatened by Glimmer in a romantic context. She recognizes that Glimmer might actually be more compatible for Adora than she is, and that Glimmer is her foil (which I’ll explain more in a minute).

Next is the scene where Glimmer actually threatens to kill Catra in cold blood. If you’re like me and you missed that when you first watched it, yeah, that’s what happened--Catra gives Kyle the order to “take Entrapta out” and then Glimmer slams her against the tree and says “two can play at that game.” She gets this close to blasting her face off but Bow is able to talk her down from it. And the whole time, Catra is just fucking smirking at her, calling her bluff because she knows Glimmer won’t compromise her morals (parallel to catradora in 2x05 anyone??). But yeah this was crazy. Catra just wanted to see how far she could push her and it turns out... pretty damn far. 

One of my favorite lines in the whole season was Glimmer telling Catra “I’m not as naive as you think.” Catra thought she had her outsmarted, forced to deplete her magic, but in the end Catra had underestimated her as an adversary.

The more I think about it, the more I realize Glitra’s rivalry is a hundred times more intense than Catradora’s. Remember in the DnD ep when femme fatale Catra points at Glimmer and calls her her greatest enemy? That was veeery interesting... Their relationship really has a life of it’s own now, like, separate from Adora. They hate everything about what each other stand for. They’re both so strong and hot-headed, with opposite moral compasses--like two rockets on a collision course. But I also love that they have this sort of begrudging respect for one another. Look at what Glimmer says here in 2x03, the ghost episode:

How random, right, that Glimmer would be thinking about some offhand comment from Catra from the previous episode? AND! In context, it just sounded to me like Catra was saying Glimmer was terrible at taking people hostage lol. Glimmer extrapolates and applies her comment to her courage, her capability as a hero. That’s like.... whoa. It shows that Glimmer actually cares about Catra’s opinion of her.

So yeah Glitra’s dynamic is more amazing than i could’ve ever dreamed.. not to mention their weird flirtation and oh no looks like we’re out of time for this section kjdfljsdkaskjd

Adora and Scorpia

Ok seeing these two dorks together in 2x05 was so amazing 😂😂 As cute as it was though it was one of the most heartbreaking parts of the season. I can’t remember a time that Scorpia ever demonstrated such bitterness towards someone.

Not exaggerating when I say that last line brought me to tears like wtf.... 😭

I’ve mentioned this before but Scorpia genuinely loves Catra so much and she just can’t stand seeing her heart breaking over Adora when Scorpia feels like she could treat Catra better. She’d give her the whole world if she could (which is quite literally what she’s trying to achieve!)

Adora, on the other hand, she doesn’t really know who Scorpia is. To her, Scorpia is just someone who is enabling Catra’s descent into darkness, so there is a hostility there already. If I had to name one thing that I’m excited about for upcoming episodes, it would be Adora inevitably growing jealous of Catra and Scorpia’s relationship. We haven’t seen it yet but mark my words we WILL AND ITS GONNA FUCKING DESTROY US okay i could yell about adora and scorpia for hours but let’s just move on and get to my fave part of this meta laksjdfs

Catra vs. Glimmer, and Adora vs. Scorpia

So Catra and Glimmer rivalry’s is obviously really fun, same with Adora and Scorpia. But the real magic comes in when we look at the dynamic of this whole 4-person group. I didn’t take Scortra seriously in season 1 (blasphemy... i know) so it took me until season 2 to catch onto this pattern, but now that I have it makes so much sense and gives the show a new perspective for me. 

Glimmer and Scorpia’s relationship hasn’t really been explored in the show but there is one thing we know they have in common: they both love two girls who are obsessed with someone else. And they both act as foils for our two protagonists. 

Glimmer is Catra’s foil. The similarities between these two are obvious. They’re both passionate and angry and driven and traumatized. But Glimmer’s strong moral code contrasts sharply with Catra’s lack of one (and really that difference is just a result of their disparate upbringings). 

Glimmer is right in front of Adora. And she’s everything that Adora only wishes Catra could be... yet Glimmer will never be able to compete with Catra in the contest for Adora’s affection. Adora is stuck between loving someone that she can’t be with, or being with someone she can’t truly love... at least, not in the same soul-altering way that she loves Catra.

Scorpia is Adora’s foil. Scorpia and Adora are also alike in some ways, but there’s a key difference. The fandom has discussed before how, yeah, Scorpia is part of the Horde, but she doesn’t appear to have any kind of moral stake in the war that’s going on. What Scorpia really cares about, what she’ll fight to the death for is... her friendships. She’s loyal to a fault, and she would do absolutely anything for Catra. Catra is her number one priority. 

GUYS! This is the exact opposite of Adora!! Adora may love Catra, but she will always choose the greater good over her. She won’t betray her convictions for love. That’s just who she is. Thus, Scorpia is everything that Catra wishes Adora would have been for her. Someone who would have stayed by her side no matter what. Someone who wouldn’t have cared whether or not the Horde was evil, as long as she could be with Catra. But again--though I do think Scortra’s budding romance will continue to develop--in the end Scorpia simply cannot compete with Adora for Catra’s affection. She acknowledged it herself. 

I wanna mention one more thing here.. So Scorpia and Glimmer are playing similar roles for their respective love interests. From my point of view (feel free to disagree this is just the way I’m interpreting things) I don’t believe that those relationships are gonna be endgame. To me this show always has been and always will be about Catra and Adora. And while I can’t wait to see them reconcile with each other, Noelle has suddenly got me falling in love with these other characters, too, and I'm so afraid??? ESPECIALLY for Scorpia. While Glimmer at least has Bow and the Princess Alliance, Scorpia has absolutely no one. Catra is Scorpia’s whole world. What will she do when that falls apart? (god please i’m begging, just let scorpia find happiness 😭)

Catra and Scorpia

Honestly I don’t even think I can write this part without having a meltdown but its the last one so im gonna push through alksjdfls. I already talked a bit about how Scorpia is exactly the kind of person that Catra needs at this point in her life, and I think it’s best summed up in this quote from Noelle:

“We see Scorpia expressing this admiration for Catra, expressing desire to get close to Catra... Catra is just not at this point super open to Scorpia’s affection. So I think it’s kind of tragic at this point. And I think for Catra, although she’ll never admit it, what she really wants is love and acceptance. Suddenly she is getting that, no strings attached, from Scorpia, and she is not ready.”

-wiping away tears- okay so yeah, Scorpia is over here offering Catra unconditional love and Catra’s just.... she’s so traumatized and has such deep-seated abandonment issues that she just doesn’t know what to do with it. She doesn’t feel she deserves it. Also, up until 2x05, Catra didn’t respect Scorpia much at all and definitely did not see her in a romantic light. But I have a theory on why that changed. 

For much of her life, I think the Horde taught Catra to associate love with blind loyalty and submission. Now, she is starting to question this belief. She thought Adora loved her, but Adora ended up being disloyal. She thought she could earn Shadow Weaver’s love by submitting to her, but Shadow Weaver continues to prove her wrong. So what is love, exactly? What is an expression of love? Catra’s not sure anymore.

When Scorpia defies Catra’s orders in 2x05--she destroys the First Ones disc, lets Adora escape, fucks up Catra’s plan--Catra is completely thrown. In the animation alone, you can see they’re trying to convey that Catra is seeing Scorpia in a way she never has before.

It’s precisely because Scorpia defied her and chose not to blindly submit to her, that Catra is still alive. It’s the first time that Scorpia went against Catra’s wishes in a big way. And I think this moment shook Catra to her core because it made her question what love is truly about. Like maybe Scorpia understands something that she doesn’t.

We see this again in episode 2x07, where she’s stressed out about Shadow Weaver and yelling at Scorpia to just obey her orders but Scorpia isn’t having it. And in that we see a special trust developing between them. Even when Catra’s being a dick to her, denying that they’re friends, saying things like “get used to not getting what you want in life...” Scorpia stays by her side and refuses to be discouraged. and I think that really is something that’s going to leave a huge impact on Catra. Scorpia is no longer just a tool for Catra to manipulate--she has come to seriously rely on her without realizing it.

Still, Catra doesn’t seem quite capable of understanding what a beautiful friend she has in Scorpia. and I’m afraid (predicting) that she might take it too far one day, and figure out the hard way exactly how much she had to lose. But that tragedy may also turn out to be her saving grace ✨

congrats if u read this whole thing lmao id love to hear your thoughts/criticism on it!! i was gonna discuss catradora too but actually i think that should be a separate meta so..... yeet .

[tutyayilmazz]

The timing makes sense to Cheryl Cooky, an associate professor at Purdue and sociologist who studies gender and sports.

“People have been more reflective of their lives during this pandemic, and for athletes, it’s not a time for the Olympics or a time to just focus solely on your sport,” she said. “They can take time to step back and think about some important philosophical or existential questions.”

---I’ve copied the article below the cut as a summary of the past few weeks’ events:

Gymnasts Worldwide Push Back on Their Sport’s Culture of Abuse

On Instagram and other social networks, gymnasts have tagged posts with #GymnastAlliance to share their own experiences in the wake of a new documentary that highlights verbal and physical abuse by coaches.

By Juliet Macur

A culture in gymnastics that has tolerated coaches belittling, manipulating and in some cases physically abusing young athletes is being challenged by Olympians and other gymnasts around the world after an uprising in the United States.

Many current and former competitors, emboldened by their American peers, have broken their silence in recent weeks against treatment they say created mental scars on girls that lasted well into adulthood.

One gymnast, who is just 8 years old, said a coach tied her wrists to a horizontal bar when she was 7 and ignored her as she cried out in pain.

At a time when the Tokyo Olympics would be in session, had they not been postponed until 2021 by the coronavirus pandemic, gymnasts have been sharing horrific stories of coaches body-shaming them, stifling their emotions, using corporal punishment on them and forcing them to train with injuries, using the pursuit of medals as a way to rationalize shameful behavior.

Chloe Gilliland, 29, a former member of the Australian national team, recalled her coaches telling her that she was “a bad child” and “a danger” to her own body because she was too heavy. At 17, she thought of killing herself because, she said on Instagram, “I felt like it was easier to end my own life than to give in to what they wanted me to be.”

Catherine Lyons, 19, once a top junior competitor for Britain, said coaches would hit her and harass her about her weight, and when she was 7 or 8 she would cry so hard that coaches would shut her inside a cupboard until she composed herself. Later, she said, she learned she had post-traumatic stress disorder because of the treatment. She told ITV News: “I wasn’t worth anything. I wasn’t a human. I was a commodity rather than a child.”

Other gymnasts have simply said on social media, “I am one of them.”

The stories from gymnasts in all levels of the sport are part of a coordinated effort, similar to the #MeToo movement, calling for the sport’s leaders to eradicate existing norms that in reality are not normal at all.

“I was told many times that gymnasts should be seen and not heard because the sport is all about being the good little gymnast,” said Lisa Mason, a 2000 British Olympian who was among the gymnasts to speak out recently.

Mason, 38, said her coaches threw shoes at her and scratched her when she did not perform perfectly. Once she was made to stay on the uneven bars until her hands were blistered and ripped, only for a coach to pin her hands down and pour rubbing alcohol into her raw wounds, she said Friday in an interview.

Looking back, Mason called the atmosphere “insane,” especially because gymnasts who start training seriously at a very young age are often left alone with coaches.

“So many of us are done with normalizing the abuse that we were told was needed to make champions,” Mason said. “We want change, and it’s incredible that so many of us are coming together to demand it.”

The gymnasts have made an impact. National gymnastics federations in Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium have begun investigations or requested inquiries into alleged abuse, with the Dutch federation saying it would suspend its entire women’s national team program as it looked for answers.

Jennifer Pinches, a 2012 British Olympian, said on Friday that this most recent global push to change the sport was sparked by a Netflix documentary, “Athlete A,” which depicts the harrowing training of American elite gymnasts and the cover-ups that surrounded U.S.A. Gymnastics’s sexual abuse scandal involving its longtime doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar.

“It was a tipping point that enabled this movement to happen,” said Pinches, who saw the film when it was released in late June and persuaded more than 30 British gymnasts, including Mason, to post a joint statement on social media condemning “the culture that didn’t put athlete health and well-being first and allowed Nassar to act.” Mason, who had already posted a scathing Instagram commentary on the sport’s culture, suggested that the group use the hashtag #GymnastAlliance. Now, there have been more than 700 posts with related tags on Instagram alone.

Back in the United States, Jennifer Sey, a 1986 national champion and one of the producers of “Athlete A,” was stunned that the film prompted so many athletes to come forward about their experiences, especially when athletes had so many previous chances to speak up.

Over the past 25 years, there have been several books about abuse in the sport, including one by Sey in 2008. There also were Nassar’s sentencing hearings in 2018, during which more than 150 girls and women spoke out about his molesting them. Many said the sport’s culture of fear and silence made them vulnerable to Nassar’s abuse.

In April, Maggie Haney, who coached the Olympian Laurie Hernandez and other gymnasts, was suspended for eight years by U.S.A. Gymnastics for verbally abusing and mistreating athletes. It was among the first times — if not the first — that a top American coach had been punished for that kind of abuse.

Yet gymnasts saw this moment in 2020 as a perfect time to bring worldwide change to nonsexual abuse in the sport.

“This time, you can’t say the accusations are against just one bad apple, one bad coach or one bad system, and then dismiss them,” Sey said. “I think a lot of these women who came forward continued to suffer because of their coaches’ cruel treatment, and they don’t want to suffer anymore. They don’t want future generations to suffer, either.”

The timing makes sense to Cheryl Cooky, an associate professor at Purdue and sociologist who studies gender and sports.

“People have been more reflective of their lives during this pandemic, and for athletes, it’s not a time for the Olympics or a time to just focus solely on your sport,” she said. “They can take time to step back and think about some important philosophical or existential questions.”

In speaking up, some athletes have been forced to process some dark memories.

“Athlete A” prompted Olivia Vivian, an Australian star of the reality competition “Ninja Warrior” and a 2008 Olympian, to surface troubling memories of her gymnastics career that, according to an Instagram post, she had packed away “deep, deep down.”

It was the first time she thought about the culture of fear in gymnastics, she said Sunday in a telephone interview, and she was overwhelmed because she always considered the mistreatment to be normal. She said her coaches often yelled and threatened her, saying the gym would lose funding if she didn’t make the world team. She recalled them using her as an example to younger girls of what it takes to be a hard worker, bringing them to her so they could see her torn-up, bleeding hands. They would say, “You need to push through like Olivia pushes through,” she said.

The pressure and stress broke Vivian after the 2008 Olympics, she said, and it took the positivity of gymnastics at Oregon State and the “Ninja Warrior” community to build her back up. Still, since “Athlete A,” Vivian has turned to a psychologist to work through her sadness and guilt over not speaking up sooner so she could have saved other gymnasts.

“It’s going to take a bit of time for me to work through this,” Vivian said. “But I’m glad I told my story for the sake of the sport and maybe give other gymnasts the strength to stand up.”

One person familiar with the abuse gymnasts like Vivian have described is Gerrit Beltman — because he used to coach that way. In 2013, Beltman was the subject of a book that accused him of tyrannical behavior while coaching the Dutch national team. He has also coached elite teams in Canada, Belgium and Singapore.

But in late June, as part of an investigation by the Dutch newspaper Noordhollands Dagblad, Beltman apologized for his actions and said he was “ashamed.” Ten current and former Dutch national team gymnasts came forward with accusations of abuse in that report.

“It was never my conscious intention to beat them, to yell at them, to hurt their feelings, to belittle them, to gag them or make constant derogatory remarks about their weight,” Beltman said in Dutch. “But it did happen. I went too far because I thought it was the only way to instill a winning mentality in them.”

He said he copied techniques from colleagues and previous coaches who had delivered many champions. When coaching in Canada, he said in the newspaper report, he realized that his style needed to change.

Now Beltman says a shift in the sport is “a matter of bitter urgency,” and his daughter Reina agrees. She was an alternate on the Dutch Olympic team for the 2016 Rio Games and coached by her father when she was young. She was among many Dutch gymnasts who posted on social media about past abuse, later explaining in an interview that she has struggled with low self-confidence as a result. When asked about her father’s coaching, she declined to comment.

Reina Beltman did say, however, that her father’s decision to speak about his past means there is hope for the sport.

“The best thing that could happen right now is for coaches to be honest and apologize for what they’ve done, so the gymnasts and the sport can move on,” she said. “We just have to have this conversation and, of course, changes won’t be made over one night, but it’s a beautiful thing to take responsibility and try to make things better.”

The next step, said Mason, the British Olympian, is for the sport to create a way for athletes to report abuse to an independent organization without fear of retribution by their federation or coaches, who have the power to keep them off top teams, including a national or Olympic team. Many athletes who recently came forward told Mason they did not trust leaders in the sport to investigate coaches.

It is no wonder they are skeptical: Some athletes and leaders still doubt that emotional abuse is real.

Liubov Charkashyna, a former Belarusian rhythmic gymnast, is the president of the athletes’ commission at the International Gymnastics Federation, the world’s governing body for the sport. One of her jobs is to listen to athletes’ concerns and fight for athletes’ rights inside the federation. But in 2019, she said the number of women who said they were abused by Nassar was exaggerated because some women were just trying to get revenge on their former coaches or earn money.

And less than two weeks ago, the former gymnast Svetlana Khorkina of Russia, a three-time Olympian and 20-time medal winner at the world championships whose voice is still powerful in the sport, told Sport Express that the recent wave of abuse allegations is silly.

“There are certain things in the profession that are necessary for success,” she said in Russian to the sports newspaper, and asked why the gymnasts just didn’t quit the sport, leave the coaches or file lawsuits. “It’s just self-promoting, ugh!”

Athletes hesitated out of fear and uncertainty because abuse was so normalized, Mason said. She said she was disappointed, but not surprised, to hear Khorkina’s comments because “when you tell a difficult truth there will always be people trying to discredit you.”

Still, Mason expects even more gymnasts to call for changes in the sport. She said she had heard from many gymnasts training for the Tokyo Games who would not come forward until the Olympics were completed. They do not want to jeopardize their chances of being chosen for their team, she said.

Those competitors are just some of the many women who have reached out to Mason since she first posted about “Athlete A,” to share their experiences and vent. They say they no longer feel so scared and alone.

“We have a great chance at changing the sport because so many of us are finally being heard,” Mason said. “There’s so many of us and we’re so loud that you can’t ignore us.”

[feitanswife]

Big long rant about what makes a good rival in Pokémon, subtext, plots that show rather than tell, character-focused narratives, and how much I FUCKING HATE ROSE

So seeing as I unceremoniously decided to design a Pokémon game as aneans of venting my anger at how tumblr discourse stole all the confidence I ever had, I’ve been researching what it is people like in a Pokémon game.

And I’ve realized something.

When it comes to rivals, SwSh accomplished what X and Y tried and failed to do.

Everyone says X and Y have terrible rivals, the worst in the series, and they’re pretty much right. But I could never bring myself to dislike the set up. It had good ideas

Good ideas that SwSh accomplished thoroughly.

The set up is something we only see in those two games: a large group of rivals, each with a different goal and personality. Some are nicer, some are more competitive, some don’t seem to care about the main point of the game much at all.

That SwSh did well was make each one of them still involved in being a trainer. Where X and Y failed was in making the rivals goals too varied, only one of them even cared about getting badges!

But in SwSh, everyone cared about getting badges and becoming stronger for different reasons

You want to dethrone Leon, beating a trainer who has never been beaten.

Hop is standing in his brother’s shadow and wants to beat him to gain the approval of those around him, (especially his family who don’t even have any pictures of Hop on the wall or anything)

Marnie wants to help her hometown and her family who are suffering from neglect by the government.

Bede wants the approval of Rose, his adoptive father who doesn’t give a shit about him .

All of these characters have different personalities, interests, motivations, and end goals, but they all are competing for the same title as a means to accomplish those separate goals.

The goal is not to be the champion, becoming the champion is a means to accomplish your goals.

Also, notably two characters have VERY similar goals, those being Hop and Bede, both seeking validation and approval, but their personalities are so different that you almost don’t notice how much their characters parallel.

That’s something about SwSh I really liked actually, the reliance on subtext. In a shocking irony, the first Pokémon game with any form of free camera, relies on a very narrow narrative view. You miss most of the “plot” But that doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.

No one tells you that Hop is the least favored child, that he’s constantly being compared to Leon and crushing under the weight of it. But Hop’s entire personality is built on being a people pleaser, of idolizing his brother, of being better because he’s Leon’s brother so he has to be. He’s clingy, so fucking clingy. Almost like he’s scared you’re going to leave him. His facade is shattered by one insult from Bede. His arc is told through his battles, constantly switching out his team, even replacing his first ever Pokémon, his Wooloo, for a few battles.

Rose forgets his adopted sons name who the fuck does that????? Bede has a Rolex but no father figure. Oleana sure as fuck doesn’t care about the kid, she doesn’t care about anything but her man (who walks around in public dressed like he got dressed in a dark dumpster btw)

And more on Rose, can we talk about how much the tower and Leon’s place in it means??? Like the whole game Leon is never seen wearing ANYTHING but his uniform, which is ugly as sin. That was on purpose. That isn’t really Leon’s outfit. That’s the outfit he’s forced to wear by the league. Once he’s no longer champion and out from under Rose’s thumb? He gets to dress however he wants, and his new outfit rally FEELS like Leon, it’s extravagant, it’s kinda funny, he keeps the hat but wears a suit, and it’s unabashedly HIS. He got a huge glow up in post game because he finally had the chance to be himself! Same with Bede!

Rose is toxic. There, I said it. Your MCM is fucking toxic and fucks up all his interpersonal relationships whether he knows it or not, he canonically cannot prioritize for shit, he was more worried about something thousands of years in the future than the thing happening the next day, and Oleana was a fucking enabler full stop.

The Galar region runs on Dynamax to the point where their biggest power plant is also a stadium. Very little is known about Dynamaxing other than one time it happened everywhere and was apocalyptic. Yet the entire region depends on it.

Who speaks out about how batshit this is? Piers. Whose town is in shambles, completely neglected by Rose, the de facto political leader of the region? Piers. Rose was willing to abandon a whole city because their gym leader didn’t fucking like Dynamaxing.

Leon not having any sense of direction is A FUCKING METAPHOR FOR HOW HE HASNT EVER HAD CONTROL OVER HIS LIFE BECAUSE HE WAS DEPENDANT ON ROSE’S SPONSORSHIP AND THUS HAS NO EXPERIENCE IN DIRECTING HIMSELF

The sponsorship mechanic is just as skeevy in Pokémon as it is irl! Just saying! You want to keep your spot? Better do everything the advertisers want cause they own your soul now!

The fact that you don’t know what exactly happened when Leon and Sonia ran off to fix shit, that doesn’t matter. That’s not the point! The plot was never about fighting through hoarded of grunts while an evil team leader laughs maniacally in the distance! We’re not in gen 1 anymore! We have actual narratives now!

Because SwSh is not the story of how Rose tried to fix an energy crisis by summoning ancient gods and causing an apocalypse. We had a few of those already!

If you want ducky psuedoscience masquerading as environmentalism might I direct you to gen 3?

Oh if you want batshit depressed scientists with enough money to make it everyone else’s problem too, gen 4 and gen 6 did that.

Want a generic bad guy who just turns out to be a punching bag for the player with very little proper motivation? There’s been like 10 Kanto games I’m sure you’ll get your Giovanni fix somewhere.

SwSh is the story of how selfishness, misplaced priorities, and enabling others toxic behavior will fuck up everyone around you.

Leon has no direction because he’s been a puppet since the day he let Rose sponsor him

Bede has no confidence because the closest thing he had to a family neglected him

Hop has no goal outside of Leon because he’s never been allowed to be anything but Leon’s little brother

Marnie has to take on all the responsibility for Spikemuth because her brother has lost his influence after falling out of Rose’s favor

Tl:Dr

the only reason people say SwSh has no story is because they literally have no idea what the word subtext means, didn’t bother to pay attention to the relationships between the characters, and wanted a stereotypical Fight The Evil Team plot so they can make Rose into one of their Big Baddie Daddies™️ when in reality he’s just a petulant man child who should have never been put in charge of anything, had absolute power over the region, and traumatized a bunch of children FOR LITERALLY NO FUCKING REASON

Maybe if you didn’t cheat your way through highschool English it would make sense you half-baked reddit-crawling dorito gremlins

[malachi-walker]

What character(s) from other fandoms that you're a part of remind you the most of Catra? Personally, I don't think I've seen too many, aside from maybe Vegeta from DBZ and maybe Jason Todd from DC comics but that's about it for me

Ok, anon, thanks for your patience. Let's go.

Firstly, I have two ladies that do give me a similar vibe to Catra (though they aren't 100% matches as you'll see.) And I want you to take particular note of that: it's very telling that the characters you mentioned are both dudes. This is something I have been thinking about for literally decades because it is a deeply entrenched stereotype in our culture: male abuse victims are angry, frustrated loners who lash out until they find that one (girl) person that gets through their facade, female abuse victims are portrayed as either anxious messes (more common in recent years) or as just... These smiling caricatures who continue to pretend to be happy because that's what our societies expect women to be. And this is something I took note of at a very early age, because as someone growing up with an abusive birth father I looked to the MALE characters as a guide book on how to act, because getting angry and lashing out was what made sense to me at the time and I resented the hell out of that unspoken implication that I was supposed to just suck it up and plaster on a smile when I wanted to rage against the injustice of what I was dealing with. In hindsight it wasn't great behavior, but it was what I needed to keep myself sane at the time. I'm not even exaggerating when I say I have waited my whole life for a character like Catra: someone who is reflective of my experiences as an ex-abuse victim, someone who is angry and wrathful and still allowed to be sympathetic. Now on to our two ladies.

First up: Vriska Serket from Homestuck. (I know, Homestuck is a huge fandom with a lot of assholes, but I do still enjoy the original comic. I just don't interact with the fandom.) Vriska and Catra both have similar vibes in the way they project their outward personas of being the badass bitch who takes no shit and is on top of things, but we all know that's a lie. And they both come from abusive backgrounds: Vriska was forced to become a killer at a very young age because her parental guardian (a literal giant spider) would eat her if Vriska didn't feed her other kids. Doesn't excuse her jerkass tendencies or her terrible actions, but that was how she started out. And Catra's deal with SW needs no explanation.

They both have developed very similar gadfly tendencies in order to maintain a sense of control around other people (though Vriska is a lot more mean spirited about it) and both have moments when the facade cracks and they show actual sincerity and frustration at themselves and other people. The main difference between them is that Vriska's actions are driven by a sense of grandiose self-importance that she has cultivated and fed into as a way to avoid looking at her own actions (because she's the best, so everything she does is awesome, right?) whereas Catra's primary driving motivation is pain: either making sure she doesn't have to hurt anymore or hurting those who hurt her. Plus Catra grapples with her sense of guilt a lot throughout Spop and maintains those sympathetic undertones while Vriska's moments of clarity are so rare that you basically have to keep a chart to locate them. But you could totally picture them both teaming up to make fun of their respective frenemies, assuming they didn't kill each other first for reminding themselves of their deep underlying self-loathing.

Second candidate: Anthy Himemiya from Revolutionary Girl Utena. And boy howdy, if anyone is interested in this show and wants to avoid spoilers, skip to the end now, because we're going on a deep and dark journey here.

At first glance, she and Catra don't have much in common. In fact, she seems to fit the stereotype I described above: the placid smiling doll who takes the abuse and keeps going. Key word: seems to. Anyone who actually watches the show knows exactly where I'm going here.

We're introduced to Anthy as the "Rose Bride": the prize in a series of sword fights between students at a very strange school, with the ultimate promise being that whoever owns the Rose Bride at the end of the duels will gain some nebulous ultimate power. And yeah, I said "own" for a reason: whoever possesses the Rose Bride effectively owns her and some of the most uncomfortable scenes in the show reinforce the fact that Anthy tailors her thoughts and actions to whoever currently controls her. And as you can expect, this leads to BUCKETS of abuse. Literally everyone in this show is culpable in some manner for this, no matter how well intentioned.

But remember that "seems to?" Because that's only one side of Anthy; the outward persona if you will. On the other side of the coin you have Anthy the Witch, and that's where the parallels with Catra come into play and why Anthy was my go-to abuse representation before Spop rocked my world. Because the big twist we find out at the end of the series is that Anthy and her older brother Akio (formerly Dios) are the former literal personifications of the fairytale damsel in distress princess and the noble prince on a white horse, respectively.

But the balance was upset: having to constantly go around saving people was literally killing Dios, because one of the major points of RGU is that you can assist people in saving themselves but doing it yourself strips them of agency and traps them in a cycle of needing to be saved again and again. The more people the noble prince saved, the more people needed saving. When it became clear that he couldn't keep going, Anthy took a stand and prevented the people coming for Dios (angry that he wasn't saving them anymore) from getting to him, and thus incurred the wrath of everyone and got skewered alive by an angry mob in the process. This isn't hyperbole: the role of the Rose Bride is to instinctively bring out the disdain and hatred of everyone on the planet. It's a punishment for stepping out of line, for not being the placid princess who needs to be rescued anymore.

Because we're operating on fairy tale logic, no longer being a princess means that Anthy became a witch, and no longer being the prince made Dios into satanic archetype Akio. So behind the scenes of the entire show, Anthy is the witch assisting her brother in orchestrating the duels, and their ultimate goal is to find someone pure of heart enough to embody those princely virtues Dios once possessed and to steal that power so Akio can return to being who he once was. All of the psychological torments and head games are designed to weed out the potential candidates to find that special someone... Except it's an impossible goal because no human being can live up to that standard. And with each atrocity they commit it becomes even more impossible to return to being that person.

Ok, tangent done, here's where it gets interesting: Anthy is a character with two sides to her, the suffering Rose Bride fated to endure the hatred of the entire world and the Wicked Witch who manipulates and orchestrates the torment of those around her. But here's the deal: she's a victim too. She's a victim of a system that won't let her be anything other than these two binaries; she's a victim of her brother who has all the power over her and has trapped her in a codependent incestuous relationship, and I don't care how awful the things she's done are: nobody deserves to go through the shit she does. So with all of that in mind, the actions that she goes through as the witch make perfect sense. Why shouldn't she torment these people who do nothing but abuse her and deny her of agency? Even the best hearted of the duellists (aka the ones who don't hit her or abuse her sexually) nonetheless fall into the trap of projecting their own biases and expectations onto her, biases that her role dictates she carry out. Her actions as the witch aren't right, but nothing about this situation is. That's the entire point.

And that's where she ties into being like Catra. Catra does some truly fucked up things, but it doesn't cancel out the fact that she's an abuse victim that has been literally tortured for most of her life for no good reason and has received zero acknowledgement of that abuse in universe. And much like Anthy, she can't begin to heal until the situation is acknowledged, because that's literally step one of breaking the cycle: confirming that this is not okay and that no one deserves the shit she's been through. Just knowing that herself isn't enough: it's acknowledgement from others that enables that process to begin, because no one can recover from abuse in a vacuum. You need outside people to be touchstones, because so much of recovering from abuse is confronting the way it warps your perception and thought processes. You need at the minimum one normal perspective to give you that, preferably more, but one minimum.

Hurting the people who care about her is definitely not okay and I'm not excusing her actions in that category, but it doesn't change the fact that she is justified in wanting to rage and lash out, because she is still trapped in that cycle. She can't heal or let go because the process hasn't even been started. She's not off the hook for the things she's done, but neither should she be automatically condemned without taking those factors into account (which is the entire reason why the distinction between an excuse and a justification exists.)

And if I can be a little pithy... The other similarity between Catra and Anthy is I can guarantee that in twenty years people will STILL be arguing over whether or not Catra "deserved" to be freed from her abusive situation.

Good God this turned into an essay. Hope this makes up for how long it took, anon. And anyone else who makes it this far, treat yourself. You earned it.

[ghostmartyr]

SnK 118 Thoughts

Zeke gets shot, Falco gets a hug, everyone who makes sense is out of jail, and for a brief time, everyone is united in being perfectly fine fucking Marley right the fuck up.

Minus the characters who live there.

But all told, for the first time in months, it’s a happy chapter. :)

:)

:)

In a rare turn of events, I think I’m going to specifically aim to talk about things out of order. I say this with no real sense of how I usually construct these posts, I just make blanket assumptions about how they’ve probably gone in the past without corroboration.

SO WE’RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT CUTE KIDDOS HAVING FEELINGS AND BEING DUMB.

The ones who aren’t legal adults, to be clear on the definition of ‘kiddo’ as used here.

Falco.

Gabi.

You get to go back to the hellscape that is your brainwashed existence, I’m so happy for you both.

The complications of Falco and Gabi fighting so hard to return to a world that doesn’t give a damn about them are things that... honestly, I just don’t want to do that this month. It’s a disaster. Marley’s fucked. Paradis is fucked. No one cares about the right things. Every decision is going to blow up in everyone’s face.

But Falco gets a hug from his big brother.

The youngest characters we’ve followed through this are treated with kindness.

This whole chapter is a breath of relief in the sea of unending horrors that we’ve been dragged through to get here. More on the rest later, but for the moment, we’ve got the two little ones.

Nile doesn’t even hesitate to treat Falco as a child before an enemy.

In the outside world, a man Falco tries to help is scared of being touched by him because he’s an Eldian.

Sasha’s family is still worried about the two little Marleyans they picked up and lived with for a time.

After first contact, no one needs to tell Colt not to shoot Nile. He calls the man who hands his brother over “the enemy,” and is shocked by Gabi’s actions, but Colt runs with Gabi and Falco without looking back.

Nile doesn’t follow.

Nile’s the sort of man who looks at Falco and thinks this assault might be about saving a little boy.

Colt’s the sort of young man who thinks Falco being someone who might be affected by Zeke’s scream is somehow relevant to whether or not it happens.

This story, lately, has been relentlessly cruel.

Gabi and Falco run away from home on a suicide mission to avenge and protect their loved ones after they witness the ruthless destruction of their home. Gabi watches people trying to protect her get gunned down. Falco, the kind boy who delivers letters for a wounded soldier, is the spark that enables the entire tragedy.

They reach Paradis, end up in jail because no one knows what to do with them, escape, and have to live under the constant pressure of their guilt and worldview being challenged. The destruction of Reiner’s psyche that takes a sustained undercover operation over the course of years is inflicted on Gabi in weeks, and Falco has to watch the girl he likes suffer over crimes that he aided.

Gabi watches Falco help her over and over again, and when things really start crashing down, there’s not a thing she can do for him.

They’re separated from everything they know and everyone they love, and then each other.

They make their way back to each other.

The world looks at these two tiny, traumatized children, and refuses to let anything happen to them. The world takes Gabi’s hate and uncomplicated joy in being a good Warrior and deconstructs it with kindness. The world takes a little boy like Falco, who only ever tried to help people, and lets him find his brother.

The reveal of Falco being the one who helps Eren isn’t a mark of betrayal. It’s a shared bond of pain that comes from good intentions being unfairly manipulated by people who didn’t care to be kind.

So they’re at least kind to each other.

In a tiny pocket of all this violence, things aren’t complicated. There’s a little girl and a little boy, and they deserve safety. A child who grew up in an internment camp designed to manufacture and slaughter Eldian children dreams of a world where the girl he likes won’t die, and they’ll get married and be happy.

Falco has always been kind and stable to the point of parody, but that’s honestly fine. Good. That should be allowed to exist, even if it doesn’t make total sense. The good things should be allowed to survive.

Gabi’s arc here ends with the realization that her hurt isn’t all there is to the world. Other people--other sides have their own, and they aren’t evil for that. They aren’t devils.

Falco’s trip to Paradis ends with him finally confessing why he followed Gabi to begin with.

There is something so sweet to the way Falco describes it. I hope it’s a faithful translation, because it’s my favorite thing this series has done in some time.

It isn’t just about Gabi not dying. It isn’t just about her having a long life. It isn’t just about them getting married.

Falco’s dream is for the girl he likes to be happy forever. He likes her, but the core of his dream is that she’ll live as long as she wants, and she’ll be happy through all of it.

Nothing Falco has seen in this world should give him hope for any of that.

He hopes for it anyway.

And Gabi rips off his armband.

The Yeagerists’ perverse mirror of what Marley has always done to them--what Gabi has accepted into her life in her fierce chase of changing it--and Gabi rips it off.

Their world isn’t kind. It’s cruel, and harsh.

People are kind to them.

That’s the only thing that saves them.

Naturally, it’ll be devastating when the bad things keep on coming for them, and no, sorry, this is not their finale, it’s just the finale of all the potential happiness they can have, but for right now.

For right now, kids shouldn’t be on the battlefield. So everyone fighting tries to get them out of it.

Look.

Standards.

We spend time with characters with standards this chapter.

It’s. It’s so strange. What is this.

Also, the fact that our time is spent on this instead of letting Eren and Zeke touch makes me astoundingly nervous for what’s coming next. There are very. I don’t want to say few. Uh. There are, thanks to the Founding Titan, potentially many ways for things to end not poorly.

I would say the likelihood of any of them traveling smoothly is. nil.

For instance, the entire scheme Armin concocts to explain away Eren’s behavior in this! Sounds good, sounds nice. Sounds destructive, sounds impulsive. Sounds vaguely understandable by the horrifying standards we’ve come to expect.

Sounds okay. Ish.

Still involves Eren sparking a national incident that brings a big army into their island so they can kill them all using a destructive power we’re only kind of confident in him using safely.

With the side effect of all his friends being in the splash zone.

I realize that even Armin’s kind of on the fence on that making real sense, but it’s not a bad explanation for everything. Eren’s backed into a corner when Yelena does her reveal. He’s held hostage by it, but hey, by playing along, he’s found a way to make things okay.

Even in that elaborate AU Armin came up with on the spot--

--things remain less than good.

Unless we consider most of the MPs and other top brass, the majority of veterans, and assorted civilians turning into titans and possibly dying--unless we consider all of that a good thing.

There’s a school of thought where Eren can just magic touch everything back to Okay, but the levels of Not Okay being pounced in with reckless abandon are a bit. uh. geez, what’s the word...

Bad?

There is a very good chance that this is all very bad, and running might be in their best interests.

In the non-AU version, all of Eren’s friends are scrambling to keep him alive because he has fucked them all over so horribly that literally their only chance at not dying slow (or very fast), brutal deaths comes from protecting the fucker who fucked them over.

And Armin, realizing this, digs down deep to try and find some of that good ol’ fashioned Friendship Power to bullshit all of them into agreeing to this plan of attack for reasons beyond generously optimistic pessimism.

While kind of wondering if Eren maybe wasn’t kidding about killing everyone.

Armin’s whole role in this chapter is embracing a truth that he secretly thinks might be a lie so that his friends have a prayer of feeling positive about this fuckery.

You’re trying so hard, Armin.

I am so sorry for you.

And Connie.

Like, good grief. Falco gets a hug. Someone needs to give Connie a hug. There’s been a serious shortage of Connie hugs since Sasha died, and I realize how that works, but it should really go the other way around.

Realistically, I am so happy that Connie’s the one who’s at his breaking point. He’s always been a team player, and over and over, it turns out that the people he thought had his back weren’t on his team. He’s a simple guy. This is a simple problem.

So, simply, fuck everyone who has anything to do with it.

Connie is Best Boy.

Onyankopon’s okay too.

This is the meta commentary on Yelena qualifying as a serial killer that we deserve. She is so great. All of you new characters with your new disasters are so great.

It’s a little on the nose, because bless this series, it is not subtle about most things, but thank you Onyankopon for injecting some hecking positivity in this here jail cell.

The concept of a future has been humanity’s fight all along. A better world.

Then Paradis met the rest of the world, and was all, “o fuck.”

“o fuck,” has interlaced every inch of the plot in the current day. Whatever hope there was, Eren’s decisions in Liberio tarnished them, and the rise of the Yeagerists threw it into the trash.

This chapter is kind enough to bring it back.

This is what the heroes of this world do.

They look at the impossible odds, and choose to fight. Because to do otherwise means that this is the way the world stays. This is what they’re left with, and that is unacceptable.

We’ve strayed a bit from that point, lately. It’s a relief to have it back in plainspeak.

Then there’s Mikasa, and. Aaaaah.

Armin only truly starts championing the possibility that Eren can still be a force for good when Mikasa comes back to his words about her Ackerman blood. Really, I think he does it for both of them. He refuses to believe Mikasa’s life doesn’t belong to her, so Eren has to be lying, so things have to be salvageable.

Mikasa knows him too well. She knows there’s room for doubt.

She leaves her scarf behind.

Mikasa is someone of great principle. She has a deep sense of responsibility that has been present from day one. She takes charge of Eren. She takes charge of other recruits. She feels the weight of the entire world, and fights for it. Her focus on her family has never made the burdens everyone shoulders disappear in her mind.

I don’t think she has a better explanation for why she can’t let go of Eren than the one he’s provided.

He’s killed children. He, by Connie’s word, laughs when he’s told about Sasha’s death. He abandons them and runs off on his own, risking all of their lives. He spits hateful vitriol at them and throws them in prison, where they would have likely died without someone going behind his back.

How can wanting to protect someone like that be natural?

Her very first argument to Eren is that he wrapped the scarf around her. When the world went cold, he brought warmth and a home back to her.

How does that compare to what he’s done recently?

How could she feel warm at all when she just watched Eren murder people? How, when by his command, she killed for the first time?

She has a genetic predisposition to comply with something like that.

Doesn’t that make more sense than loving this monster?

Children are dead.

Eren killed them.

Her first instinct is still to protect him.

That can’t possibly be right.

Mikasa doesn’t defend monsters. She slays them. That’s who she is.

If she’s defending this one, there must be a reason. Something deeper than just loving her family with all her heart.

To which I’ll say, for my personal stance... sorry, Mikasa. Your love does run that deep. It’s always been at war with your principles. Protecting Eren and Armin at the expense of everything else has always put you in pain. Being willing to let Armin go during the Serum Bowl is almost as agonizing to her as watching him die.

Mikasa’s strongly held principles and strongly held love have always been in conflict, but in the background. In side remarks about overprotectiveness, interspersed with her guilt over what that overprotectiveness has led to.

Eren’s cruelty gives her the excuse.

Here’s how she can be both; one isn’t real.

Whether she fully believes it or not, it’s what makes sense, for a person like her. She shouldn’t still care so much for the fate of this monster. Caring so much is why Reiner is still alive. Caring so much is why Bertolt lived long enough to char Armin to a crisp.

Mikasa learns. Always.

She should be fast enough at taking down the monsters now that they can’t hurt anyone first.

In case I’m not putting this clearly enough, Mikasa is better than anyone in the history of ever, to the point that even she can’t believe how strongly she hold on to things.

And my last comment on the chapter is that Yelena and Armin’s song and dance continues to be firing at max cringe on every cylinder, one of you drop the pleasantries and pull a gun already.

It’s funny, but in the way Jean pretending to be a knife-wielding maniac is funny.

Just stab each other like normal enemies. Please.

So since things are hitting the boiling point here, I guess next month we’re doing a shift in perspective?

Levi and Hange try out their Super Mario 64 skills in not drowning. The results my surprise you.

Nothing good can come from any of this, but you know? Falco and Gabi got to be cute. Plus Colt and Falco hugged. It could and has been worse.

[sunlightpike]

Beau and Dairon’s private conversations from e54 (under the cut) for all your meta writing/re-reading needs.

As everyone else is talking to Dairon, Beau is starting to get frustrated. Dairon interrupts to lean in and say something to Beau. Dairon: Do you trust these people? Do your instincts tell you that they can be trusted? Fjord immediately ushers all the others to give Dairon and Beau a moment alone, earning a thank you from Beau. Only when they’re alone does Beau answer. Beau: Yeah kinda. But look. That’s beyond the f- the point. Look, I have a lot of good information, a lot of things I can inform you of, but you keep writing me off pretty fuckin' easily right now. Dairon: I’m not writing you off, I’m writing them off. Beau makes a frustrated noise and moves like she’s going to argue. Dairon: Now. We have to be careful what information gets disseminated. Beau, growing angry: What was I supposed to do, just go out alone and just piss into the wind? Dairon: No, I mean-- Beau: How was I supposed to get better? You fucking left! You told me you were going to Bladegarden for a month! Dairon: That was to prevent you from being foolish enough to follow me east. But that happened anyway! Beau: And not because of you. Dairon: Well, regardless, I’m just concerned for your wellbeing Beau: And i’m concerned for yours! Dairon: Good. Beau: We can do great, if we just team up a little bit. Dairon: And maybe we can. If you trust these people, and I know you, even the time we’ve had, the brief bits, to be a very insightful individual. If you trust them… [sigh] then I trust you, but I specialize in moving unseen alone. If you can survive moving to Ghor Dranas as you intend to go, reach out to me, we can reconvene there. But you have to find your own way, and I will find mine. Inform your friends. Beau, realizing the conversation is ending: They’re— they’re doing experiments on people. The Cerberus Assembly. Dairon: This does not surprise me. Beau: Weird… crystals and magic. Trying to enhance their… beings, I don’t know, whatever. Dairon: The biggest mistake the bloodline ever made was letting them have any sort of seat of power in the government. [Heavy sigh] Well. Beau: Where do you stand with the Kryn on this? Dairon: Stand with the Kryn? Beau: Are they… I don’t know. Do you have any idea of their motivation? Dairon: I don’t trust any political figure. And if you had been paying attention in your historical studies, you would know the drow cannot be trusted. Beau: That seems like a generalization. Dairon: I’ve lost people important to me to the Kryn. Beau: So even more reason for bias! I would think you— You taught me that! Dairon: I appreciate your interest in my wellbeing, but you are young, you are unfocused, and you have much to learn. Now, I see great possibility in you, you have potential, [Beau crosses her arms and looks down, like she’s being scolded and is frustrated but holding herself back] but you need to listen and think before you act. Your rash intense behavior will be your downfall, and then, you will achieve nothing. You’ve grown, I can see it. I’m very impressed by what you displayed there in the gravel pit. Beau, frustrated: I’ve had-! Good conversations too, just… fuckin, no one’s been there to fuckin see it! I’ve made friends with P— Dairon: That means you’re doing it well. No one has to see what you’re doing if it’s good, as long as it's doing good. Do you think anyone cares about the things I’ve done? I’ve done many things, not many I’m proud of. But they have served the goodness of others. They have enabled many who could not defend themselves in the empire to survive and improve. I do not do this for accolades, I do this because I serve a purpose of a better world for those who cannot defend themselves. Can you serve that purpose? Beau looks down like she’s searching for the answer: I— I can try. Dairon: Then do not wait for them to see what you do that is good. Just know that you’ve done good. And hope you live long enough to see the impact it has. Beau: Could be dead tomorrow. Dairon: You could. But you’re not, yet. Beau: Not yet [sighs] Dairon: So. Listen. Be patient. Protect these friends you’ve made. But don’t get too close. Beau, pained, looking down: I… haven’t. Dairon: Good. Beau sighs. Dairon: Now. I need to go and collect my things, my birds, my… materials for travel. Beau: Do you name your birds. Dairon: No! Do not get too close! Beau: Jest— you should have Jester name your birds, I’m just saying she’s really— Dairon: I’ve named a bird once and it never came back. So I do not name my birds. Beau: Mm. Yeah. Okay. She has a ferret named Sprinkle who has survived against all odds. I’m just saying maybe— you can mix it up or something, maybe. Jester knocks: It’s a weasel. Dairon: I appreciate your concern, I will say that weasels are not known for their ability to travel long distances with messages safely. Beau: No, but they can hold their breath for a really long fuckin time apparently. Dairon: Noted. Beau: Just-- just throwing it out there. Dairon: Nevertheless. Before I leave, I think it is important to teach you a few things. After the sun is down, look for me on the outskirts behind the four corners. I think I have a place where we can safely train. Beau: How will I— I’ll find you. Dairon: You’ll find me. If you are capable of doing the things you wish to do, you should be able to find me. Dairon turns back into a dark elf and walks past Beau, putting a hand on her shoulder. Dairon: Please. Live.

Beau and Dairon finish training. Dairon: I am… very impressed at how fast you are able to pick this up. I knew that my— my eye on you is not wasted. Beau: Your what? Your aura? Dairon: My eye on you. Beau: Sorry, sorry, you hit me in the head. Dairon: I told you to listen specifically. Beau: Okay, well, I’m gonna take a few minutes, and then I’m gonna climb down a well with my friends. Dairon: What? Beau: We bought these moor bounders from this armless goblin guy, and there was a rift, and— Dairon: Beauregard. Don’t die. Listen. Be patient. Be careful. And if we’re luck, I’ll see you on the other side. Dairon walks past Beau and pats her on the shoulder. Beau: How might I find you in Ghor Dranas? Dairon: You told me your friends can contact me. They already have before. Just keep that friend alive. Beau: I want to give you something. [Pulls out the cipher] I know how to write in this. There’s instructions on how to write in it and how to read in it. If there’s ever information we need to communicate under the radar, you can write me with that. Dairon: Hm. Impressive. I will look over this in my travels, I’m certain to have time in the weeks to come. Thank you. Now. What did I say? Beau: Stay alive. Dairon: And? Beau: Listen. Dairon: And? Beau: Trust no one? Dairon: uh— Beau: I kind of gambled on that last one, you’ve said a lot of things. Dairon: Be patient. Beau: Oh, patient, right, be patient. Be patient, listen, stay alive. Patient, listen, stay alive. Dairon: Don’t disappoint me. Beau: Okay. Dairon vanishes.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN PROBABILITY

The remarkable thing about this project was that he wanted his own computer. All programmers know it's good to write readable code. Imagine walking around for years with five pound ankle weights, then suddenly having them removed. I told the audience that this happened every year, so if they saw a startup they liked, they should make them an offer. What made the Dutch rich in 1600 was the discovery of shipbuilding and navigation techniques that enabled them to dominate the seas of the Far East. The place to look is where the spread of smallness began: in the world of startups. Universities seem the place to attack them. 94 you hold is worth. It's hard to distinguish spending too much from raising too little.

There is a danger in designing a language based on one's own experience of programming. And the first planes, and the right mood. Most people overestimate its role, but it has been experimentally verified, in the unlikely absence of any other evidence, have a 99. PB made a point in a talk once that I now mention to every startup we fund: that it's better, but that it breaks the time on either side in half. 99. Certainly not the authors. No energy is wasted on defense. Socially, a company looks much like college, but the most I've ever been able to manage is about 18, and I hope to fix the world behind the statistics, we have to do more than get good grades. It's not a deal till the money's in the bank so far. On the other hand, enter is a genuine miss. After standing there gaping for a few seconds I realized this was kind of a trick question.

You just can't expend any attention on it so you can get away with zero self-discipline. Would a basketball team trade one of their aims. This is not too high a price for big companies, the interminable meetings, the water-cooler conversations, the clueless middle managers, and athletes all live with the sword hanging over their heads; the moment they say no. To do good work, what you need to get the most done. This term was invented after Tom Bradley, the black mayor of Los Angeles, lost an election for governor of California despite a comfortable lead in the polls. So it's winner take all. Whereas if you're writing code to make it a much more common one. Hardware does well on crowdfunding sites. It seems like it should be straightforward. And unless you're extremely organized, a house full of stuff. It can take years to zero in on a productive question, because it implies you're supposed to have. Historically metals have been the most common.

They have so far, at least in the hands of good programmers, how would you do it? You haven't made anyone else poorer. Intelligent design is a legitimate scientific theory. A great programmer, on a roll, could create a situation indistinguishable from you being that manufacturer, at least for a handful of other US cities, but they're still an anomaly in most of the time, writing about economic inequality combines all three. Startup is a pole, not a point, and I get an uneasy feeling when I look at my bookshelves. If someone in my neighborhood heard that I was looking for an old friend especially if he is a hacker to suddenly send you an email talking about sex, but someone sending you mail for the first time in history they're no longer getting the best people. The reason this got stale in middle school and high school kids and adults, I'd have said it was that adults had to earn a living. One Canadian startup we funded spent about 6 months working on moving to the US. A good metaphor here. If you start out with some initial plan and modify it as necessary to keep hitting, say, Altria is not. Rewriting a program often yields a cleaner design. I see it there on the page and quickly move on to the next step is.

Maybe mostly in one hub, and it will be a good thing: if your society has no variation in productivity is far from the only source of economic inequality, but because you want the kind of determination it takes to talk to investors, you have to move bits over a network, by all means use TCP/IP. If people were scanned all the time, writing about economic inequality is the inevitable fate of countries that don't choose something worse. Joel Spolsky recently spoke at Y Combinator said, Once you take several million dollars of my money, the best defense is a good idea to spend some time thinking about that future. And if, as nearly everyone who knows agrees, startups are an all-or-nothing game. If you start from the other end, and offer programmers more parallelizable Lego blocks to build programs out of the way to get rich, how would you do it right, you only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they're unable to work on a Java project. Louis Brandeis said We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of good programmers, how would you do it? For example, suppose Y Combinator offers to fund you if you stay where you are, and this consumes less energy. Together these three phases produce an S-curve. Obviously there is a fixed pie. Assuming they could solve the problem by partitioning the company.

It's equivalent to asking how to make money. They all knew their work like a piano player knows the keys. They gradually congeal in your head. Whatever you build, make it fast. They lived in houses full of servants, wore elaborately uncomfortable clothes, and travelled about in carriages drawn by teams of horses which themselves required their own houses and servants. Money is a side effect of specialization. 99. It's never just a straight trade of money for them, and this is one of the things that get discovered this way incidentalomas, and they have to decide quickly because you're running out of room. They just represent a point at the far end of the middle class. Empirically, the way they wait. I was trying to make money as a freelance programmer. Nearly all failure funnels through that.

But the problem the patent pledge requires no change in behavior. But this year there may have been. But that in turn makes investors nervous they're about to invest right up till the moment they say no. And then there is the question of what probability to assign to words that occur more than five times in total actually, because of the doubling, occurring three times in nonspam mail would be enough. But this meant a Google was now setting Microsoft's agenda, and b their growth potential makes it easy to reload into your head. The most ambitious is to try to identify a precise point in the future, just that you think may be due to a crime well enough executed that it had been forgotten. Likewise, it doesn't tell you what we all wish someone had told us.

Now that's what I call a startup idea. Why else would this idea occur in this odd context? One piece of evidence is what happened to countries that tried to return to the old model, like the foundation of a house. Y Combinator are from young founders making things they think other people will want. Flying a glider is a good one if it makes sense. Optimizing code means taking an existing program and changing it to use less of something, usually time or memory. Two things keep the speed of the boat. Society as a whole started to get richer very rapidly. The solution societies find, as they get more specialized, is to find good books. When watches had mechanical movements, expensive watches kept better time. For example, in my current database, the word offers has a probability of.

[fba-art]

Just out of curiosity, why don’t you like young justice??

aight, so i knew i was gonna wait to respond to this ‘til i had some time to explain.

and i want to start out by saying that i don’t think Young Justice, as a property, is a bad show. in fact, i think it’s a show that had GREAT potential. i watched every new episode via livestream every saturday lol. and now, i’ll be honest when i say it’s been some time since i’ve rewatched it, and i’m always open to changing opinions. a few years back, i wanted to give it another, fresher perspective and dove in for a rewatch, but ultimately didn’t finish. i don’t remember my reasoning exactly, but i recall being disappointed.and it’s funny i received this ask this week, b/c my friend and i were planning on giving it another rewatch for shits and giggle after finals ( sober or not is tbd ).

but so, here’s where i stand on the show.

i started watching YJ when it was abt 5 episodes into s1. and i binged those first five and stick to my guns that holy SHIT 1-3 are bomb as FUCK. super strong start! Independence Day will never not get me SO HYPE and remind me why i fell in love with DC’s teenage heroes in the first place. it’s so… youthful. a fun conversation for another time.

and now, when i started watching YJ, it was like four months into my making my TT!Kid Flash rp blog, and two months after i’d gotten into reading comics; when i found out Wally was like a biG DC CHARACTER, NOT JUST AN OLD CARTOON ONE-SHOT, i went EVERYWHERE to get my hands on more about Wally West. ironically, the first purchase i ever made from a comic store was a silver age Teen Titans tale, issue #2 of TTY1, and two issues of the old Young Justice comics ( still some of my favorite comics to this day; more on that later ).TL;DRi saw a commercial for YJ, ft. my fave DC char and my fave comic title and went “HOSHIT”.

as the episodes pushed the show’s plot along, it was fun and explorative of a more intense side to the idea of a group of superteens in the DCU. and again, very TEENAGER-Y, which i say in the BEST of ways, considering that was the target audience as well. but, as part of that audience at the time, one of the things that had started to bother me was the character relationships. yeah, i was loving on most of the main cast at the time, but for the first half of the season, the team’s supposedly-close friendships were pushed to the backburner ( EXCEPT for KF and Rob’s, which was one of the only things that got me through the season ). the first season WAS about straining relationships. the social drama was palpable. you NEED conflict in your plots, and char-v-char is especially fun. but i remember feeling like there was little bonding. they were a group of acquaintances, learning to co-habitate the same space- not to say that they didn’t seem like friends, but there was a lack of balance between “teens being professionals in their field” and “teens being immature teens”. both were squeezed in, but both consistently felt forced.

which brings me to the next point: forcing relationships without developing them!i wasn’t sure why i was supposed to care about Roy, like. At all. the team always bringing up that they trained alongside him, grew with the guy, and then??? nada, except when the plot needed edgy tantrumy angst.then there was spitfire. i ship spitfire now, but the ENTIRETY of s1 i was SO FRUSTRATED, because all those two did was bicker. wally was pretty foul to artemis, who was also just plain mean to wally. and i say this with the two of them as my TOP FAVE CHARS.and don’t get me STARTED on the best char on the entire team, KALDUR’AHM!!!! who was shit on by EVERYONE– fandom and plot, alike. actually, i do recall in my last rewatch starting two tallies of everytime kaldur was DISRESPECTED and TREATED LIKE GARBAGE BY TEEN AND ADULT CHARS, versus everytime he was treated respectfully. this boy was BRUTALIZED through s1.m’gann and conner, too– a cute concept, but borderline cringey, even creepy, at times. i was rooting for supermartian. i was. but it was like the writers didn’t know how to write a slowburn. the idea was honestly better on paper than in execution.

the YJ spinoff comics filled in a lot of these gaps, i’ll admit. it explored the chars, their relationships, and their behavior in ways the show seemingly didn’t have time to do, and i LOVE the spinoff series. but i also firmly believe that you shouldn’t need a second media to fix the first. it’s capitalistic and no fun.

through the duration of the show, there were also issues such as the hiatuses. i don’t recall them coming with much warning at a time, nor sticking to much of a schedule. i don’t actually remember what they were for, either. but, before and after each of (three?? was it three?) hiatuses, the showrunners would introduce a new character during a new arc, give said character some liners or plot fodder, and do away with them for the rest of the season ( i.e Rocket, Zatanna, Garth and Tula, etc. ).

i have some other, nitpickier issues– why was wally That Way, why was clark Like That, how come bruce was the ENABLER the entire time, etc– but many can be argued as whether they affected the show as a whole or not.my actual biggest problem was the direction.the director.Greg Weisman.bc idk what the hell he was doing half the time, and i don’t think he knew, either. the writing wasn’t GREAT, but at least it was consistent. Weisman truly had a marketable property, a fan favorite, and one of CN’s best running shows at the time. but between the hiatuses, the writing’s faults, the insufficient character development, and a HUGE ego thanks to his fanbase, Weisman was unable to uphold the integrity of his show. there was both fan-pandering, AS WELL AS consciously going AGAINST fans’ wishes. there was that whole “Ask Greg”-thing, too, where he would get back to a fan once every blue moon and answer background questions about the show’s universe, which became a scene of hot debate. Greg Weisman became the JK Rowling of DC, and lost a lot of my respect with his lack of damage control, and impulse control.

then, with the very inception of the show– and i don’t actually know if i can blame weisman for this or not, but i wanna know who pitched it, otherwise– the show’s CONCEPT. why was Young Justice made with this particular cast of characters, cherrypicked through DC history, aged down or revamped or just cut-and-pasted where they didn’t fit? why was its concept, “COVERT TEAM OF ADOLESCENTS WITH SUPERPOWERS WORKING TOGETHER WITH LACK OF SUPERVISION”? why was the show called “Young Justice” when what they wanted was the TT v3 comics? WHY DID WE NEED TO TURN SUPERMAN INTO THE UNAVAILABLE-FATHER TROPE????? questions that will forever remain unanswered. that’s a lie, i can answer most of them, myself.but all in all, a show with great potential that failed in execution.

season 2, i actually enjoyed more than season 1– it felt like there was more of a handle on the story and cast, alike. did i approve of season 2 and what went down? debatable. but that’s a very subjective view. objectively, season 2 flowed better than season 1, but still didn’t follow through on subplots, nor resolved relationships or even characterization ( m’gann, girl what the fuck?? ). very little team bonding, save for, once again, two chars out of the whole team. again, another season of SO much potential, but one that fell short.

its pros, however– i really enjoyed the darker themes, getting darker as time went on. there was a lot of tragedy in s2, and different perspectives and walks of life to watch through different lenses. a much more diverse cast, and very different conflicts to tackle. i was impressed. i don’t think all the controversies were resolved, but i also wasn’t quite as upset that they weren’t; open-ended conflict is frustrating, but is a great lead-in to another season.

————which, for better or for worse, we weren’t supposed to have.i personally would’ve rather the show ended there, not quite on a high note ( are u fucking kidding me fjaoisdfjoaifio waLLY, this was during the n52, too ), but with a concrete END. of course there was more to explore, the world they’d built was a big one, but we didn’t need to.

i was literally just yesterday chatting w my sis, bc after school lets out, we wanna watch season 3. i really do. i’m upset that there is one, but i do wanna know what happens to my faves. and, on top of that, i’ve been meaning to do one BIG rewatch, anyways, to get me set up for s3. as a student of film, it’s a huge philosophy of mine to rewatch EVERYTHING and go in with the intent of giving it a fresh start and a clean slate– both medias i love, and medias i hate. it’s important to analyze pop culture critically, and even things that aren’t good can still be enjoyable.

for me, Young Justice wasn’t a phenomenal show to begin with, from its technological side to its creative team to its politics, and i stopped enjoying it pretty early on. but, that isn’t to say it didn’t accomplish GREAT things, and isn’t UN-enjoyable; it has its moments. also i would DIE for most of the cast, i fucking love the characters.

i don’t think anyone is wrong for liking Young Justice. i try to stay in the loop about it, and form new opinions based on whatever information is out there until i can get ahold of the source material. and, i do like aspects of the show. but ultimately, it just isn’t my cup of tea. 

[blog-brand-strategyconsulting]

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Our purchasers, from Fortune one hundred firms to venture-backed start-ups, come to us to enhance their business condition by way of innovation, marketing, branding and other consulting providers. I bear in mind back then, as a copywriter, we have been requested to conduct a dip-stick survey before we came up with our content strategy routes. My creative director wouldn't let me write a single word, before a dip-stick survey on customers. This included categorizing the patrons primarily based on age, socio-economic backgrounds, their shopping for patterns and their inclination in course of know-how. To come up with ideas that make you go whoopee, the strategist will research your brand, be taught what your concept is and what you are offering when it comes to worth to your clients. As part of the job, strategists will also maintain an eagle's eye on the rivals.

We’re a few brand technique consultants looking for a good challenge. Choosing the right model marketing consultant is a challenge, most particularly to firms doing it the primary time. The greatest method to do that is to interview a minimal of three to five companies and slim it down to two based mostly on an evaluation of several areas. Be Consistent — A customer goes to a retailer or orders a specific product because they’re confident what they will get from doing so.

Brand positioning defines the conceptual house the brand should play relative to competitors, and is key to advertising, communication and messaging development. Graham Robertson asks simple questions that you by no means realized you don’t have one answer to as a group. The strongest query he requested us was “who is your finest buyer.” It was like all of the air had been sucked out of the room and he allowed the dramatic pause to linger.

The model strategists at Sprak Design make an in depth research concerning your requirements for brand technique consulting agency providers or media planning companies. We additionally probe into the effectiveness of your brand and the advertising goals of your organization. Top model technique consulting companies like ours consider the kind of your small business and conceive the best methods that may deliver one of the best results in enterprise. As a model strategy consulting agency, we will collate your present business knowledge to determine the type of enterprise success you might be getting via the current brand technique and advertising of your organization. Our brand strategists are additionally good at conducting market evaluation of the developments of the present scenario. Our model technique consulting agency experts additionally try to determine the benchmark for the profitable positioning of your model while aiming the same shopper part.

Our brand strategists and experts will plan out the advertisement strategies together with the entire administration of your portfolio. We know it best the method to current you and your actions so that you simply can encash on it even higher. The promotional plans are very important which has to be strategically carried out. We are among the many model strategy companies that have achieved the specified ranges of experience on it contemplating the number of years we now have delivered superior high quality companies. Consult model strategy corporations who have a powerful background in in media planning to get one of the best outcomes.

The need for considerate attention to branding doesn’t finish once a agency is established, either. As your services evolve and your market modifications, you have to regularly reassess your branding to guarantee that it is aligned with your objectives and the realities of your trade. L.E.K. worked with this mattress company to reduce channel battle and brand dilution by identifying key differences among its 20-plus brands and sub-brands. Download our eBook to be taught the 4 steps global manufacturers and disruptive startups use to create and ship wonderful value propositions. BlackRock got down to amplify their model objective each internally and externally.