#it's a genuinely important story to me for a ton of reasons

[philsmeatylegss]

To be absolutely real, even if there was no science proving it, no people testifying to how important it is, I still would 100% support trans people. One of my core beliefs is that if someone is doing something that isn’t harmful to others or themselves, there is no reason to intervene. I don’t have to understand trans people even to support them. I believe so heavily in bodily autonomy that even if someone wanted to change their gender just to fuck around, I’d still support it. You cannot be for freedom of expression or pro bodily autonomy and be transphobic. Those ideologies literally contradict the other at its core. There has never been any proof that being trans causes someone to harm themselves, in fact, there’s an abundance of truth showing that not allowing a person to transition makes a person a fuck ton more likely to harm themselves. And I’ve never seen any proof that being trans directly correlates to hurting others. You see terfs pull news stories where (mostly) trans women commit horrific crimes, but don’t seem to realize there’s no connection between the gender and the crime. Like you can be trans and commit awful crimes. The two can coexist. And cases where men dress as women to commit crimes doesn’t count because they’re no trans women. They’re predators.

If you literally took away every single piece of medical and anecdotal evidence supporting being trans as a real thing, I still would support it unconditionally because I believe freedom of expression and complete bodily autonomy is a human right. Simple as that. Person wants to be a different gender and the process doesn’t involve harm to themselves or others, I genuinely cannot understand what argument there is left.

That’s why I always found it so interesting that most, if not all, terfs are pro choice. An opinion rooted in bodily autonomy and a process that causes harm to no one.

Idk. I just always think about how the first time I even heard of a trans person, i had no issue about it because of this very reason. Even at my young age of like 11, 12 maybe, before I understood anything behind it, I thought it was okay because I believe people have the right to exist as they want. I’ll be real. I’m cis. I believe it’s impossible for me to every fully grasp what a trans person even feels. To fully understand their experience that justifies transitioning. A lot of times I see shit about gender and whatnot and it makes no fucking sense to me. But I cannot find any logical reason for me, as someone who believes so heavily in bodily autonomy and freedom of expression, to deny their right to exist. It doesn’t matter if I understand or not. Because it has nothing to do with me. A person transitioning literally has no impact on me or my well-being. And if it’s safe and a person feels better, I just don’t see why it’s so hard to understand.

Idk, people like to say they’re for shit like freedom of expression until it comes to something they don’t understand or wouldn’t personally do. And that’s because they aren’t actually for freedom of expression. Same when it comes to bodily autonomy. It’s just one of those things that I don’t even understand why it is a big deal. Why it upsets so many people. You literally could not be less impacted personally by something than when it comes to a person transitioning. The only person that impacts is the person transitioning. It requires no involvement from you unless you force yourselves in. Idk, I just will never understand being against trans people as it just seems so logical to me

[mothbagel]

I honestly need to post my opinions on the nosleep story/podcast Borrasca but I don't wanna be dragged into bullshit

[jeffthekillerzblog]

a major plot point or like the entire thing about my au is just the creeps moving on and having their own character arcs throughout the years and finally heal from their past trauma

(rest is me rambling about my au...u don't have to read if u don't wanna its pretty long)

Jeff's arc is big on him finding his brother and coming to terms with what really happened. jeff is so incredibly stubborn and a big (very) egotistical. he finds it hard to open up and after what happened he feels that there's no point opening up anyway bc he's literally a famous asshole serial killer who's messed up SO many people's lives. another big thing about his arc is just owning up to his actions and apologizing to the people he's hurt. for example, nina. he led her on, treated her terribly for no reason, and was overall just an asshole. after they get into an argument he'll eventually apologize bc like he didn't HATE nina, he's was and prob still is in a terrible mindset and copes in such unhealthy ways. IDK OK I'm rambling but my point is he does eventually apologize to nina not because he needs her or like wants to use her again. he apologizes because he genuinely misses her and BOOM they become besties again after jeff properly apologizes and ya. BUT basically jeff's arc is him finally finding liu after all these years and yeah he apologizes to all the people he hurt (or the IMPORTANT ones) like nina, liu, and EVENTUALLY... jane. but that's WAY into the future (besides nina) he's way too full of himself to apologize now.

Nina's arc is her getting over JEFF. her love for Jeff began when she met him. she already admired him, but he turned into a full on crush. he did lead her on, and it hurt her a lot. shed spent tons of nights alone when jeff was supposed to be sleeping next to her, and she just felt so lonely, especially since jeff was so neglectful. She talks to clockwork about it and they help her realize her self worth and comforts her (she's terrible at it). Nina starts hanging out with Nat and toby more often, and it makes her feel SO much better about herself. Eventually she does get fed up of jeffs bs and they get into an argument and nina decides to leave. she kicks him out of her apartment and she doesn't let him come back. (she does....when he apologizes.....) She eventually learns to love herself and realize she doesn't need a stinky man's validation. Theres also a bit of her coming to terms with her own trauma, but I haven't fully fleshed that part out yet.

BEN's arc is probably my favorite. he's lost all his memories of his past life, and now after he accidentally found out he's NOT just a computer AI program, he decides to take it on himself to find out who his family was, how his life was, and how he died. I wont say as much bc I want to keep it a surprise, but in summary it fucks him up LMAO

ok that's it. OBVIOUSLY the rest of the creeps are healing as well BUT I have not fleshed out their stories yet...oops. so its just three for now. Except MUCH more stuff about the trio bc I love them with my all.. if u have any questions feel free to ask :3

[transmechanicus]

look this is really probably unnecessary, but I've seen tons of posts about how everyone is mad about the page that's going to post unmasked pics of the st guys and how outrageously disrespectful it is to them and well... I gotta say that it's just not that deep.

it's been pointed out that they've only ever said that 'their identities aren't important to the music or the story'. and that's it in terms of the "extreme lengths" they go to hide their identities.

i'm a regular follower of the reddit page where their identities are openly discussed and there is a decent amount of evidence that one of them or someone from their team lurks there and plays around a little with that community. ie, a few of the recent "the summoning solo shenanigans" were suggested in that thread and then seen on stage the next show. but who knows.

some of the guys are actually still participating in other media to a small extent. one of them still streams with a friend on twitch often. one of them just put out some older official music project on Spotify. one of them gets his new tattoos posted unmasked on his tattoo artist's page.

look, I'm not saying that this person who plans to bring this stuff to Tumblr shouldn't be warned about and of course everyone should have the opportunity to block and avoid it to keep their experience of the band how they prefer. that's no question how it should be.

but like... everyone is saying that this person who's starting the unmasked blog is like, evil and so disrespectful to the band. and I think that's just not right. it's their right to start whatever kind of page they want. it's everyone else's right to avoid it.

like I said, this is not really going anywhere, and it's not personal, I just have seen so many people bashing that person on a personal level and I just gotta tell someone, it's not that deep. thank you for reading

To me it is that deep, from what i’ve heard there was a major panic on Instagram in 2023 bc freaks were using info on there to harass II and his family. Hell he still alters his voice in videos, which you only do if you’re concerned someone is dedicated enough to scrape the internet with audio of your vocal patterns. I’ve seen video footage of Vessel cussing out a guy at a festival for yelling real names in the audience. There is direct evidence that the band members dislike off-stage info being known and shared, and that a portion of Sleep Token’s fanbase cannot be trusted to respect the secrecy that allows the band members to live comfortable lives relatively peacefully and out of the public eye.

In my personal opinion, your examples of how they’re still on other social media, and that you know that info abt them are reinforcement of my dislike for unmasked data aggregates. Unless the tattoo artist’s posts or the twitch stream is tagged #SleepToken there is probably a reasonable expectation that they don’t want band related attention for those things. Even if somebody does recognize them as the band members, it would be a minority population if it weren’t for subreddits and archives directly connecting dots between those things and Sleep Token, which is presumably why you have that info yourself in the first place.

By aggregating and collecting unmasked info, a resource is being provided that essentially says “Hey i know these guys have almost entirely retreated from the internet for their own safety and comfort…but here’s their names and faces and loved ones and colleagues and past projects and every little activity they do in their spare time. All gathered together and directly tagged and marked in relation to the band they’ve purposefully tried to anonymize and distance their real lives from”.

It’s stalker behavior, it’s unhealthy, it could be genuinely dangerous for the members if the wrong person made use of it, and i reserve the right to passionately condemn it.

[tocomplainfriend]

VIV is constantly criticized by her own fault.

TW: Mention of: SA, Rape, Transphobia, fat phobia, Antiblackness.

(Hey, i'mma probably do a post eventually about episode 4. Btw, awfully shit, worse than I thought it could be... BIG TW OF R-PE AND SA IF YOU'RE GOING TO SEE IT. AND TW of the minimization of those topics too.)

(SORRY FOR BAD ENGLISH IN THIS POST TOO)

BUT I NEED TO CALL ATTENTION TO THIS! One of the reasons I criticize a lot of Viv specifically is because of how much she puts herself out there. She sees something she posts on Twitter about it a shit ton (even on "threads" lol). AND because of how lacking of improvement she has being. (I personally know people I have considered terrible when we were teens, but I have seen legit improvement from them in recent years. They seem like people who struggle, but got to grow up and made up for any problems (or pain caused to me or others). People have the ability to change and become better. Something that matters at pointing out issues or discussing-is the idea of creating change on others. It is better to get someone to change for the better than to cast them into the forever jail of nothingness (unless, IDK, they Sexually Assaulted someone, for example). Specially when they are young people. Doesn't mean YOU have to stick with other people that hurt you, no. Doesn't mean people get to do what ever and get away with it.

BUT All of this problem I have seen from Viv are from age 19-30. (you can change at anytime btw) And see constantly repeats herself and her actions. Seems to have never accepted criticism (said by herself too), and never able to see her own faults. The fact that is a continuous behavior is a problem, how she always responds is awful. My post of "Viv has being transphobic for 10 years", was to signal that. If she really had changed over those 10 years to a genuine thing- I could've taken that! But no, the shitty double standard against trans men... the weird treatment. THE MANY STORIES OF EMPLOYEES GETTING MISGENDERED HEAVILY, TOO.

(I know people who were transphobic [When they were teens mainly], that Genuinely improved and changed their beliefs. Now they treat trans people with respect and care! And still learning about gender-fluid people, too!)

It just seems to be further and further away from getting better! The fact that she only decides to take in account voices from SA victims that agree with her- it's painful as a victim, my self!

And yes, people who sent gore or dumbass shit to Viv (or the team) don't help. And go get help why you're looking and sending Gore to anyone. (Also, stuff like this does lead to people not listening to others people genuine callouts). The fact that I criticize something doesn't mean I agree with the people that go and do shit like the thing I just mention above.

AND ALSO A IMPORTANT THING HERE!

This drawing was created by DollCreep. BUT ALSO FUCKING REMEMBER this was done in response to the shit that Viv drew of him.

If you didn't know Viv drew a transphobic caricature of DollCreep using the name Jojo (his old nickname). This put together with a shitty anti-sjw meme video. DollCreep is a transman, Viv drew a character based on him. A furry wolf girl, If you can see in the image the main thing listed below the character name is the fucking "Sex=♀️". SO ON PURPOSE, CHRIST. Like... AND YES-is shitty from both to have drawn this (even if it was in respond) mainly immature in DC part. But that, or any toxicity coming from DC, doesn't delete the transphobia here. (imagine drawing a racist caricature of a poc person, because they are shitty to you). THE POST LINKED ABOVE SHOWS THE SITUATION, and in the end of the day. Viv says that DC is an abusive shitty person to her, but never realizing her own faults or anything she could'be possibly done wrong! (and again, any wrong done by DC in general can not be deleted by the fact of having being treated badly. If he did shitty stuff himself, that doesn't delete the wrong done in general to him or to others by viv)

Here about transphobia:

(this is like 8yrs old too)

Again, she never acknowledges anything that she might have done wrong. "She is a thoughtful person, that wants tor write queer and disabled characters! She wants to tell empowering stories of..." It doesn't even feel close to that when people bring up actual problems in her writing that are stereotyping or bad, and she just yells and cries. It all feels like empty sticks she is only interested in in the surface level, she doesn't want to actually deal with.

When she says "This characters is black guys ♡♡♡" and then the fucking 7th, a grayish character with zero black features. She can not actually try and draw a black person with a different hair texture, she'll faith is hair isn't straight and spiky (has done this so much too). She is all for positivity and diversity (can not draw more than 1 character that isn't a fucking stick with the same stupid face).

She can not write relationships in general. She cannot do gay couples, then don't lean on the stupid old uke uwu defenceless x big rough seme protector stuff. Again, all the interactions with Husk and Angel are sexual harassment. They are already a revealed future couple (and episode 4 is terrible for them, specially with that song). Stolitz is toxic, and predatory. That is not acknowledged, and all Stolas's predatory behavior and power dynamics are put in the background, cause- "look how sad Stolas is :(! HIS DAD IS SOOO MEAN, HIS WIFE IS A BITCH". All her gay characters are in pure surface: over-sexual twinks that are assholes, which also fit into the top/bottom as personality boxes.

Any other point includes sexual harassment as a joke. BUT KNOW SHE WANTS TO BE LIKE "GUYS SA STORIES MATTER, LOOK AT WHAT I WROTE" as if she didn't lean back into the problem of the diminishing of SA and r- (in general and done to men) with her jokes in HB. With all the sexual harassment that Angel Dust puts on Husk and others. (AND YES THERE IS NO WARNING IN EPISODE 4, FOR ITS HEAVY TOPICS! I do believe all series/movies with this need it. SPECIALLY IF IT'S SO GRAPHIC! "Sexual content" is not the same as a warning for SA or R-pe. An adult can see a movie with sex or sexual nutidy- when they see that- but it's different to get straight assault on screen. Victims can watch movies/series with sex in them all good, you cannot just group consensual sex in the same assault or R-pe...)

The thing where Mammon (the only fat character that isn’t from the fucking background.) is like FIZZ YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT. AS IF SHE COULD EVEN DRAW ANY DIFFERENT BODY SHAPE WITHOUT DYING. Like there is only Mimzy (hasn't appeared yet, not given any importance. In the female lead show). Mammon the piece of shit (does the same as Blitz, but he is actually fully bad.) His design is done with 80 fucking layers on top. Like all the test of the skinny character's clothes suck up to their body except for Mammon. His body is hidden in layers upon layers of clothing (that's all you got?). All you main guys need to fill "the skinny have nothing men" and "skinny woman with big hips and legs, but no fucking stomach"?

AND YES! VIV DOES DO THE FUCKING, "FAT = FOOD LMAOOO". You know the thing HH fans and hater where like the "Bee needs to fat thing is bad, cause of fat = food (only food) is reductive and shitty"

(Can I refer to how the show Bojack H, make Diane gain weight cause of anti depressants- and it wasn't a joke! And she was happier too?)

(mine, from post right below)

... like is a bundle of issues. And Viv will never accept that she might be /or is wrong. That's why it hits the fan with stuff. -And again I liked many of the little concepts and stuff in HB and the original pilot of Hazbin. Shit- I still like Sir Pentious and Nifty. I do like Mammon as much as he is a pack of problems to call out, I fucking love the piece of shit Australian jester- The artist work hard on it, and I'm happy it's an openly queer! (as limited as it gets, too....). I liked Huni-cast, I loved the original voice cast! -and that happens! I could be writing this about other stuff too, not only Hazbin... if I created this blog earlier- IT WOULD ALL BE ABOUT RWBY, DANGANRONPA, even svtfoe...Ladybug... or Agretsuko's ending too. So yeah, sorry for the long post (as if all my post weren't)

[laniemae]

Chances Ojima dies this chapter? /Genuine

Hate to admit it but the chances of Ojima dying this chapter are incredibly likely, I’d say around 80%.

I know I’m usually the one to scream about how Ojima is “certainly gonna die” like every chapter but this feels different as usually it starts off with me feeling safe about him and close to the bda he shows up a bit more and suddenly I freak out about death flags. But the motive hasn’t even dropped yet and he’s already got a ton of screen time, big scenes and info about his character. With the bleeding plot coming into play, his relationship with monomoko and being her favourite student, painting the balcony shutter, and us learning more about his trauma. Like legitimately we’ve gotten so much content of him so early on in the chapter I cannot believe how he won’t die this chapter because he’s been so important. I don’t think a tetro character has raised this many death flags up until now and I’m usually the type to say that we shouldn’t scream death flags at every scene, or we should wait until the motive, but like this is just so much Ojima content. Like I should be happy getting a lot more screen time with my favourite boy but I’m just in complete anxiety knowing that this most likely is his last development before he dies.

Like and even going to story themes, we’ve been getting a ton of development with monomoko and her empathising with the students and questioning the killing game. And since Ojima is her favourite student it makes so much sense for him to die this chapter which could lead monomoko into even more of a spiral as she values his life which could lead to her potentially standing up in the finale of chapter 5. And I could especially see this being the case if Ojima is a killer where she has to send him off to be executed himself, and with how much Ojima is saying how he believes he’s gonna die in the school but also saying that he knows he won’t kill anyone would be ironic.

Also with the mural he’s painting on the balcony, I can’t stop thinking of how perfectly devastating for him to die there would be if he’s a victim. Being killed in front of the painting of the outside world you’ve been yearning for, having your last chance of freedom stripped away like that. Just imagine the unique 5th bda with Ojima’s blacked out sprite in front of the colourful mural unique to that one location. It’s such a perfect setup for him to die there that I can’t possibly imagine that it could go any other way. I heard someone say that if this is the case the student reconvening at the body would be called [Sunset] and just ouch…

God just writing this is making me tear up. Even hearing any discussion or even mention of the likelyhood of Ojima dying this chapter just makes me feel sick despite how much I also say it myself. It just feels different this time as the signs are here right from the beginning of the chapter that I am so so confident he’s gonna die and can’t let myself rest as every day feels like I’m getting closer to my comfort character dying and never being able to see him in an episode again. Like I wanna give my reasons for maybe how he could not die this chapter but at this point it’s so certain I don’t wanna get my hopes up at all so I’m just gonna be sitting here until he dies this chapter and I’ll have to deal with the fallout. If anything I hope an Ojima interview is our one way of giving him some extra screen time before he’s gone forever.

[maxdibert]

i want to know what do you think about Remus since you already talk about James and Sirius i really need to know :3

When someone puts a big topic on the table, in Spain we say: sujétame la cerveza lol So yeah, Lupin is one of THAT topics. Here we go:

Look, I can deal with Remus Lupin having literally zero self-esteem and a massive inferiority complex, and for that reason using Sirius and James as his safety net at Hogwarts, not stopping them when they were complete jerks because he was afraid they'd reject him and he’d end up alone. I can deal with that, I can excuse being an accomplice to bullying just like I can excuse Severus for getting involved with the Death Eaters because he saw himself as vulnerable. I forgive him, seriously. I can even forgive him for being an absolutely irresponsible adult and not taking his potion—Merlin knows why. I can let that slide too. But there are two things I can’t let slide.

The first, and less important one, is that he justified James’ actions to Harry. I mean, it's the least important because I can understand not wanting to tarnish the kid’s image of his father, but when the same kid is telling you that his father and his friends (including you) were assholes, maybe you should admit that you were a total jerk. Or that at least your friends were, and you did nothing. I get why Sirius denied his guilt because, well, Sirius Black. Like, what are you going to expect from him? To him, there was nothing wrong with it. But Remus was aware that it was wrong, and as an adult, he can admit it. You don’t have to make up some story about Snape envying James over Quidditch (lolololol like Severus Snape would remotely care about that gym-bro crap). But anyway, I see this as almost the least serious thing.

What I will never, ever forgive him for in my entire fucking life is that at 36/37 years old, with gray hair already down there, HE WAS ALMOST FORTY YEARS OLD, PEOPLE, he got a woman in her twenties pregnant, had an existential crisis, and was considering leaving her WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD. WHAT IS HE DOING?? Like, I don’t even know how to express this in English because my language is Spanish, and I swear I have a ton of adjectives in that language to insult this man, but in English, it’s harder—but hello?? He was ALMOST FORTY YEARS OLD, HIS WIFE WAS TWENTY-FIVE, HE SLEPT WITH HER, GOT HER PREGNANT, AND LEFT??? HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE, REMUS LUPIN?? WHAT’S IN YOUR HEAD?? Like, if he was so terrified of passing on lycanthropy to the child, why didn’t he use a condom?? Or, I don’t know, the magical equivalent—HAVE YOU HEARD OF A VASECTOMY?? And if he really, truly felt so bad about impregnating A WOMAN IN HER TWENTIES—LIKE SERIOUSLY, LET'S PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE: SOMEONE THIRTEEN YEARS YOUNGER THAN HIM. THIRTEEN. DAMN. YEARS. Why didn’t he just NOT DO IT? Like, as the adult in the relationship, he could’ve genuinely said no. No, this is unacceptable. No. No, sorry. So many years of gender studies and feminist readings for this. SCREW THE NICE GUYS. Like, his whole “woe is me, I’m poor, I’m old, I’m ugly, I’m dangerous” schtick? Well, you should have gone off to Timbuktu then, but don’t get her pregnant only to then abandon her. A TEENAGER HAD TO GO. A TEEN-AGER had to tell him he was being a piece of shit. This is why I say Rowling doesn’t respect her female characters because if she really did, she would have had Tonks dump him and raise the child on her own because, seriously, what was she thinking?

Just talking about this makes me genuinely angry. It's just that Lupin is THAT KIND OF GUY, you know? The one who acts all nice and soft and like he’s never broken a plate in his life, and he’s all poor me, and I’m super nice and super sweet, but then he turns out to be a huge jerk, like a giant piece of work. He’s the textbook nice guy, and one of the worst, the kind who goes after young women. Look, I’m just saying that if Harry Potter were written today and the topic of Lupin came up, and Rowling didn’t condemn him to the stake in her books, she would have been canceled a long time ago. Seriously. There’s no way that in today’s fiction a man nearly 40 years old gets a twenty-something pregnant and threatens to leave her, and that this guy is seen positively by the narrative. Simply no. Canceled. I’m canceling you, Remus Lupin, not for myself, but for feminism. Thanks.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Something I noticed as a young adult and budding trans woman are that games with character customization, or at least character building in some way, are very overwhelmingly two different options: men only, or men and women only. Very few of these games were women only, and I kind of jokingly refer to them as "games that would have cracked my egg".

Now I want to preface this with two things: one, this absolutely could be a matter of the genres I was in; and two that not every game that has male AND female options is doing so in a way that is lazy and there are several which make the gender choice impactful in meaningful ways. I want to refute these to a point because I know they're going to be brought up.

First, I mean as a kid I typically played RPGs. I wasn't the type of person who absolutely was only in the "macho" genres that were out there, and I mean I played a shit ton of Final Fantasy 6 and 13. RPGs with female protagonists are very real (and was a big reason why FF13 failed with the Youtube reviewer crowd), but there are basically none with a customizable female only protagonist. In addition, even despite this, why the fuck does genre matter? If your video game genre makes sense for a customizable character, it can make sense to have a female only game in that genre!

Second, this isn't necessarily a point about whether customizable female characters exist in the space at all, but this is a point much rather about how male protagonists are considered the default, and a male protagonist default usually informs A LOT about the game design and the world built around that character. In addition, for every game that gets this right, there are usually five more that don't, and the female character is treated functionally identically to the male character except they have to Ctrl+F all the times they use "he" in the game's script. This is why you get games that are aggressively heterosexual but because they did relatively zero work integrating a female protagonist, they accidentally give off big lesbian vibes. It's the same principle for why the representation for your game shouldn't only be paper-thin bisexuality.

Games with female main protagonists are often notably less common than ones with male main protagonists, and many times, this is buffered a bit by the addition of an ensemble cast. What makes FF6 and FF13 notable amongst their peers, including games like FF16 which have "female protagonists", is that the strongest female protagonists often form the narrative core of the story. FF6 has a large ensemble cast, but it is the struggles and efforts of Terra and Celes that drive things forwards, and to go into how Lightning, Fang, and Vanille form the narrative and emotional core of FF13 is a subject to an entirely different post. But like they still exist.

So many games have self-insert male characters compared to female ones. I'm genuinely surprised when I find a game with a character creator that only has a female protagonist. It is something that says a lot on the general sexism and misogyny in gaming spaces, how the male video game player is still considered the defacto default audience, and how worlds often aren't considered through the lens of female characters, or even just the perspective of a female player.

But on a more personal note, it's just...sad. Genuinely. I probably would have realized I was trans a few years earlier than I did had there been games like that out there and more in the public consciousness. So many games provided a cover in having a male option (and especially since so many of these games are aggressively heterosexual lol, looking at you Mass Effect) that I never needed to confront my feelings. It makes me feel bad than even to this day an entire audience of players aren't really considered as important.

Why can't we have games for us, you know?

[nyx-thedragon]

okay, here's the post about my thoughts on Newsies 1992 that I promised, because I just remembered that I was gonna do that.

First of all, I didn't realize that Kenny Ortega directed the movie until the credits (I did like, zero research on the cast or crew, I just knew that Christian Bale played Jack Kelly) and I think that explains why it was so fucking good (and why Jack and Davey were so gay lmao)

Number 2: this one is just a thought about the story of Newsies in general, but I do not see the need for a romance subplot at all. especially in the movie, because Jack and Sarah barely interact with each other, and the "oooh they like each other he he he" little subplot start the first time they meet ? at least in the musical, Jack and Katherine interact a lot and they're friends before the romance stuff starts. idk. it just kind of irks me when media has a romance subplot for no reason.

Number 2.5: following up on the romance subplot; it could be completely taken out and the story would be exactly the same. "but what about at the end when Jack decides to stay in New York because of his love interest?" you may be asking. simple: he realizes that he has a family already in New York with the newsies and he doesn't want to leave them and be alone. this ending emphasizes the importance of familial and platonic relationships and bonds, which I think we just need more of in general.

Number 3: I love how the movie has the time and means to go more in-depth with Davey and how he reacts to Jack's betrayal and how he keeps the strike going without Jack and everything. I know that the live version is a musical, and therefore has more music, but still they kind of glossed over all that if I'm remembering correctly (I haven't watched livesies in a while and may be misremembering things oops)

Number 4: the scene where the rest of the workers join the crowd for the children's crusade is so much more powerful in the movie, because they were able to have a ton of extra people, as it is a movie and not a stage production with a smaller cast. I genuinely got some chills when I watched that scene it was awesome.

Number 5: all of these guys have beautiful voices. I didn't know that Christian Bale could sing (if it is him singing and not someone else because I know sometimes movies do that; have someone else sing for a character instead of their actor or voice actor). The songs are different than what I'm used to with the musical soundtrack, but I enjoyed them a lot. and the choreography was great too.

Number 6: I like Denton. he's awesome. it's great that the newsies have an actual adult that helps them instead of someone who is assumed to be close to Jack's age (Katherine).

Number 7: the scene in Medda's theater when Snyder and the police showed up was so- I don't even know, I just really like it. I was on the edge of my seat watching it. also, Davey kicking Snyder in the face on the swing was so badass. I love you movie Davey you're so cool

Number 8: there was way more romantic tension between Jack and Davey than between Jack and Sarah. I'm just saying. the scene where Jack was being carried away by the police after getting punched by Snyder, when Davey reaches for him and tries to get the police to let go of him? oh he wants that cookie so effing bad. Davey going after Jack by himself when he was taken to Pulitzer's from the Refuge? Gay. (also how did no one see him??) the alley scene? they should've kissed. Davey confronting Jack after he sold out to Pulitzer? they should've angry-kissed there. the scene at the end after Jack comes back on the governor's carriage and the way they stare at each other?? my homo-alarm was going off so loud. idk they just had so much tension and I thank Kenny Ortega for that, because I know damn well that he had everything to do with that.

Number 9: THE FUCKING HARMONIES HELLO. I feel the same way about the harmonies in livesies, but the ones in 92sies are different from those, which I'm used to, and it was just so fun listening to them. god, I love music, can you tell?

Number 10: Spot Conlon. that's it, really. I like him, he's funny, "on the grounds of Brooklyn, your honor". I just love him. so much.

Number 10.5: Racetrack Higgins. he does so much more in the movie than in the stage production, and I love that. he's also very funny and has incredibly witty lines and I love it.

Number 11: I love getting to see more of the other newsies, and especially Davey's interactions with them. I don't remember getting to see much of that in livesies, and I think it really helps the viewer to connect with the characters and story more.

ummm, I think that's all I can think of that I wanted to share. if I think of more things, I will come back to share them. I think I'm probably gonna watch it like ten more times in the coming week and try to get my younger brother to watch it cause he's only seen the stage production so far (my town's high school is doing Newsies for their musical this year and he's gonna audition !!!!).

alrighty chat, that'll wrap up this tumblr post. have a great day and keep being cool :3

[damnfandomproblems]

Posting a compilation of responses to Fandom Problem #5234

Anon:

PLEASE watch the Contrapoints video on Twilight. It is by a trans person named Natalie Wynn.

(anon includes a link to a YouTube video titled "Twilight | ContraPoints")

This video has changed the minds of tons of people who initially thought Twilight was "rape and stalking abuse", by explaining the history of where all this panic comes from and why people are drawn to dark fantasies. It changed my mind and I'm hoping it'll change your mind too.

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Anon:

going through every point bc this personally ticked me off for literally no reason but i have nothing better to do. so. sorry if this seems overly pissy /genuine. (also typed this in my notes app so sorry for the lack of italics/caps in place of italitcs) 1. not wanting to see incest/whatever isnt purity culture. blocking tags/accounts that make you uncomfortable is something that is HEAVILY ENCOURAGED. the only people i have ever seen discouraging this are antishippers. what IS purity culture, however, is saying that EVERYONE ELSE should not make something because it makes you personally uncomfortable. as someone who was literally raised within purity culture, that is exactly the kind of shit they say. 2. fiction DOES affect reality! but not in the way you think it does. yes, propaganda works! but that is because it is specifically constructed to convince people of a certain view. representation is important because people who arent cishet white men exist and deserve to see themselves in fiction. but i think the best way i can explain it is this; if you were to watch Hannibal, would you automatically assume that cannibalism is okay? what if you watched a John Wick movie or Deadpool? Is mass murder okay? the answer is obviously an astounding no, because you are able to think about the media you consume. this is expected of any media that isnt literally a show aimed at children. There's at least one media btw. i'm not entirely sure about Hannibal because i've never seen it. 3. that is literally a coping mechanism therapists recommend. those are all UNHEALTHY and SELFDESTRUCTIVE coping mechanisms. you cannot compare the two. 4. if you are getting mad about porn then that is an entirely Puritan viewpoint. 6. "make the story frown upon it." if you cannot gauge for yourself that these things are bad then you should not be engaging with those stories. 7. last point isnt a proship issue, its a jerkwad issue. people who dont tag things are dicks, at least we can agree on that. however if someone doesnt tag something it is on you to block them. YOU need to curate YOUR online experience. (it may also be worth it to KINDLY send an ask about it. its the same as tagging flashing. sometimes people just dont think about it and sometimes people are doing it on purpose to be a douche. you need to block the latter as they are not worth your time or energy.) Last point was something you did not mention so im not including it in the list itself; if you were to ask a proshipper if they supported pedophilic/incestual/abuse relationships irl, they would most likely say no. If they say yes then they are just a pedo/someone who is okay with incest/an abuser. those people are not bad people because of the fiction they consume/create. they are bad people because they want to hurt people and do not see anything wrong with it/are not willing to see why they are in the wrong. apologies for any typos, ive reread through it but i tend to miss things.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Anon:

Op really just compared writing fictional scenarios with fictional dollies, a method of processing trauma that is recommended by psychologists and actually -is- effective at helping people process stuff, to alcoholism, street drugs, and socon which can and do kill people. You ever seen someone withdraw from alcohol abuse? I have. You actually spoken to a psychologist about friends who write things to cope after being raped at a party? I have. Are you still a clueless child? Yes. So take your moral panic and shove it. You're a kid but if you want to get involved in serious adult conversations, you need to be prepared to accept discussing serious, real things. You can't even look at a rapefic without getting triggered (I use this word in the proper sense, not hyperbolic sense) and ascribing blown-out-of-proportion, emotional judgments on people who, if you passed them on the street, wouldn't stand out to you at all. Because these are normal people. This to me is a huge sign you're just not ready for this kind of conversation.

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Anon:

"...really ticks me off how someone can say "It's really fucking gross how you wanna see a minor and an adult make out" and proshippers can be like "UGH PURITY CULTURE" Like, how is not wanting to see pedophilia and incest purity culture. Especially when you're a minor. dumbass I was a minor when I wanted to se OCs modeled after myself hooking up with the hot adult leads from my shows. I wasn't stupid enough to think it was OK to happen in real life but if Dream of the Endless was in an arranged marriage with my OC for reasons I wanted to see it. Like. "Minors" have sex. A lot. And yeah, age gaps can be problematic in real life but on paper? Who cares? It's fake. It's not real. It's a story. Acting like minors are sexless little angels until the day they turn 18 is crazy. Minors want to see boning and they want to see people their own age boning, and sometimes they want to see people their own age boning That Old Man or Milfs or 1000 year old vampires or whatever. Not even gonna bother with the rest. Others can get that.

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Anon:

Where to even start here? I guess I should start by saying that proshipper doesn't mean what you think that it means OP! It doesn't mean that we support incest or pedophilia, it simply means that we're anti harassment. I don't like incest or pedophilia. It's weird to me, and yet one of the most popular series, Game of Thrones, features both incest and pedophilia. Romanticizing villainy? Can I ask what your definition of romanticizing is? What if the story revolves around the villain? Like Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes? Are stories like that not supposed to exist? What about the anime and manga called Overlord? What About Hannibal Lecter? What about the Joker movie? Do none of these have any value? Do you expect the villain to deadpan into the camera every 10 minutes confessing that he knows his actions are wrong but he's doing it anyways? And if the writers don't make their characters do this, are you going to accuse them of condoning their characters actions? Because I think it would be pretty dumb to make a villain out of character for the sake of, "I know this is wrong, but I'm doing it anyways!" Do you want no villains in stories? Is that what you prefer? For everything to be sunshine and rainbows all of the time? Because that would be really boring. Are there any true heroes without a villain. A bad coping mechanism? Really? So now you're a psychologist who knows everyone on the planet that knows exactly what everyone needs to get better? Coping mechanism looks different from person to person. What is important is that the coping mechanism helps you process your emotions and what happened to you and sometimes it is helpful to write your emotions out in the form of writing and sometimes that can be fanfiction. I am someone who had been diagnosed with trauma and depression and I'm currently doing therapy for this and taking medicine. You know what's helped me all of these years before I started going to therapy on a regular basis? Characters with a lot of baggage like me. They can be hero or villains. I don't care which it is. If they have a tragic back story and I'm all over that. Fiction doesn't effect reality? It can and sometimes does. You're right. But you know who's problem that is? Your parents, the school system, and whoever else never taught you that fiction is fiction. That characters aren't real. If your parents let the TV or Internet babysit you growing up instead of being a parent and teaching you right from wrong, or being able to tell fiction from reality, well then that is the fault of your parents. Do you know who's not at fault? Stranger on the Internet. We're not here to hold your hand, you are not entitled to that. It is up to you to curate your own experience and mind your own business. If you don't like something, blacklist the tag, block the person posting it or log off of that site and find something else to look at. You think you've debunked everything, but really you're just naive and living in a fantasy world. The world is not an idealistic place, nor will it ever be and that is why these stories exists to begin with. Covering up everything that is bad in the world won't ever make it go away and that is reality. Period. Let people cope the way they need to, and unless you have degrees in psychology, you have no right to tell people what they can and cannot enjoy. Again, I myself would never write or read about some of the things that you've posted about OP, but will I continue writing about my trauma? I sure will, because it is something that I am still dealing with many years after it happened and I'm sure others will do the same with the things that they've had experience with, too.

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Anon:

OP, one of your top posts is an AO3 reference and contains a link to an AO3 fic. In case you didn't know, AO3 was directly created to be a host for fanworks that got censored by other sites. Functionally, it is an archive, like a library. And like libraries, it hosts anything that is legal to host under US law. One major driving factor behind AO3's creation was the "Livejournal Strikethrough Boldthrough", an incident where "concerned parties" successfully lobbied to get Livejournal, a site that hosted writing, to remove its "yucky fics". Guess what? Gay fiction got removed in the process because, surprise, certain parties found that yucky too. (I'm talking about conservative groups who are obviously very anti-gay and anti-LGBT.) Here's one post about it: https://pretentioussongtitle.tumblr.com/post/624690560646676480/like-wathever-antis-delete-your-blogs-pls-thx So... You can't say you're okay with calling to censor things, without looking at the full picture and where it ultimately leads. You're asking for a lot of collateral damage. And like someone else said, engaging in discussions about heavy, adult topics with strange adults on the internet (and most of us are adults, OP) is very dangerous. There have been a lot of cases where someone has cried foul about certain kinds of fictional writing, only for an "anti proship" person to walk up to them and groom them, and it worked because the kid was under the pretense that the person was a "safe, good person". Please do not put yourself in danger and get out of the spaces you frequent.

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Anon:

It's interesting you use Lolita as an example of what to do "right" when it comes to depicting things. You believe tons of media must be censored or kept away from the light of day, yet Lolita is an example of what to emulate to prevent that from happening? You would be very shocked to discover Lolita is among, if not the, most notorious piece of fiction for censorship groups to attack. So I really don't know if you fully understand what it is you're arguing for, here. You're just a kid, so I'm assuming you haven't actually read Lolita. That's the first thing. The second thing is, given the fact virtually all people who are invested in censoring and banning media actually hate Lolita, but you seem to have a totally opposite, 180-degree opinion about it, I have to wonder if you've happened to find a lot of random stuff from around the internet, but have yet to actually put it all together and cross-check everything to see if it actually makes sense. There's a lot of stuff in your post that is either plain out wrong, poorly strung together, or contradictory.

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Anon:

I'm going to look real tinfoil-hatty in two seconds, but I swear some of y'all antis in the notes are following tags like "pedophilia" and "incest" and that's the only reason you found this confession. Cause I haven't seen half of you here before. And if so, that's kind of weird. I hope I'm wrong. To be fair there's no way to confirm either way but I just thought it was funny because I can see it happening if not for the antis here, than for others. Gotta get that daily dose of outrage.

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Anon:

""Fiction doesn't affect reality" So why is representation so important? Why has propaganda worked so well?" you're taking this statement too literally. fiction obviously affects reality. if you cry over your favourite character's death, well there ya go. fiction has just changed reality. it made you feel sad things. representation is important because it makes those represented feel acknowleged and because it makes their existence more known to the world. propaganda is designed SPECIFICALLY to heavily affect reality. a doujin artist does not sit down and think "hmm. today i will draw a loli hentai to turn people into paedophiles". ""Well I'm not gonna become a murderer just because I've seen people murder in pieces of media" Name one piece of media where murder was portrayed as unironically, fully okay." as someone not well-versed in shooters, fortnite. murder is encouraged in fortnite. the point of the game is to kill people. i'd also like you to name one piece of media where rape is portrayed as perfectly fine and dandy. ""I'm coping with trauma" Well that's an awful coping mechanism. If you have been traumatized by incest, abuse, or pedophilia, why are you creating/consuming content where those are all romanticized?" because the fact that they're not alone in their suffering is comforting to them? as an abuse victim, i like characters with abusive parents. it gives me a character to sympathise with and characters to absolutely loathe with all my being. now that i think about it, i like that i'm not suffering alone. other people acknowledge the things i, and other victims, have to deal with. there are other reasons, but that's one i thought up ""You're ableist for criticizing our coping mechanism!" ... You know what else is a coping mechanism? Self-harm. Alcoholism. Excessive drug use. Those are frowned upon EVERYWHERE, because they're self-destructive. So why is thinking adults and minors should be cute together (sometimes real life adults and minors, but I'm not gonna get into the whole RPF discourse because RPF is even more fucking disgusting) suddenly okay?" there is a difference between doing things that being actual harm and because the latter is harmless. besides... isn't this circular logic? this argument is based on the conclusion you draw from it. "proshipping as a coping mechanism is bad because proshipping is bad". ""Rule 34 and gross ships is always gonna exist!" In our current world, bigotry is always gonna exist. Doesn't mean we should stop getting mad about it." bigotry excludes a specific group of often-innocent people for no reason. rule 34 is just porn of fictional characters. completely incomparable ""I'm exploring unhealthy relationships in fiction!" Okay then! That's great! Don't romanticize it. Tag it accordingly. Make the story frown upon it. Lolita, the book, frowned upon the pedophilia and thought it was disgusting. Do that." nobody romanticises anything. most loli hentai just... depict a loli having sex. it doesn't depict it as this amazing thing that you should dp. most lolicons that talk nabout wanting to fuck... idk, klee from the funny gacha game don't actually wanna have sex with kids. it's omly romanticised in-universeww, if you will. it doesn't say anything about it being good to do irl. and on nhentai, we use tags. we have a lot of 'em, including the recent 'kodomo doushi'. you jujst have to take a look at the tags section of a doujin and search for any tag you may not want you can also filter them in the search bar. we tag our shit, it's just your fault for being an irresponsible fuck. "But you're not gonna do that, are you." we will. the importance of tagging can NOT be stressed enough anon, i am gonna be blunt here. you are not smart. you did not debunk shit. god will slam the pearly gates of heaven on you for this post

[samsblades]

if it’s a quiet day at the bunker sam is so so clingy, liek he’ll be out on a morning run and when he gets back ur cooking for him and he comes in once he’s showered and wraps his arms around your waist and caresses you all the way down to your love handles (i have a whole headcanon abt sam and love handles) and he’d kiss all the way up the side of your face and neck and slap your ass. after if you’re having quiet time in the library he’d come and talk to you and stare at you like a lovesick puppy and just lay in front of you waiting for ur attention, if you’re wearing a low-cut shirt he’d kiss ur sternum, i feel like he likes kissing from ur sternum and all the way down your body. then you guys would cuddle and have heart-to-hearts and deep conversations discussing everything and nothing (deep convos and heart to hearts r deffo a big thing in the relationship) and he talks to you in a rlly deep and velvety voice as you’re laid on top of him and his hands run over your ass and hips. then when you guys have showered he’d cuddle in bed and i feel like he’d definitely squeeze ur boobs and make a “honk honk” kinda sound bc he’s silly like that and yeah i think he js does it for laughs tbf. anyways then he’s like “wanna… you know😏😉” and then before you guys get to the foreplay you mention something and he mentions something and you guys just end up talking abt some random nerdy and weird thing one or the other saw and end the night by starting a tv show the two of you said u were gonna start like 3 years ago when you guys first got together

-💽

TOUCHY CLINGY SAM MY BELOVED AHHHH !!!! he's not always like this... but when is... AWOOGA I NEED HIM SO BADLYYY crying he's so so soft and so loving and genuinely back hugs with sam is one of my favorite things to think about in the whole world, giving or receiving!!! he really really loves them a lot, especially in a context like this, they just feel so domestic and lovely <333

huge agree i think he lovesss love handles so very much he's genuinely oh so very obsessed !!!!! and i loveee the thought of him always kissing your sternum too that's so lovely <33 i think he loves that area a lot, he also really adores kissing your collarbone area!!! ugh so so good, truly <33

no because what you said about him giving the puppy dogs for your attention while you're sitting in the library... this reminds me or a story that jensen told about jared and gen LOL i think he was talking about one of the times he realized that jared liked gen before they started dating where gen was sitting in her cast chair reading a book and jared went and literally SAT AT HER FEET AND LOOKED UP AT HER AND ASKED HER ABOUT HER BOOK LIKE T_T i love them so much, and sam would totally totally do that kind of thing :,)

another huge huge agree that deep convos and that sorta thing is really important in your relationship; i think sam values that a ton a ton!! as he gets sleepier and comfier he gets touchier and touchier like ugh i'm melting into the floorboards rn. and one of his fave cuddle positions is definitely one of you laying on the other <3

almost having sex with sam and then derailing because one of you thought of something else and went on a long tangent about it is SO TRUE AND CUTE AND ADORABLE TO MEEE AHHHHH

that last thought makes me so :((( even just starting the little goals and going through with the smallest of things with him makes me so emotional for some reason. like maybe the world is falling apart around you, but you're trying and you're doing it together <333

[spacelazarwolf]

Seeing how you're responding to a lot of insensitive asks from Christians, I was wondering if I could ask a good faith question as a change of pace?

I am religiously a liberal quaker, so one of the most important things to me spiritually is learning about how other people engage with god/their higher power. By listening to their experiences and making a strong effort to understand their perspective, I feel more connected with God and my community. Specifically, I want to learn how individuals engage in their faith and not just the "by the book, this is what x religion believes" you find online.

I've always had a deep respect for Judaism, and I want to approach the people in my circle and try to have those good faith learning experiences if they are willing, especially since the Jewish faith is so rare where I live.

Unfortunately, with a lot of my ethos and language being derived from Christ (even if I'm not a christian), it makes it feel like a minefield to even start the conversation. I'm queer, and the man who raised me was native American. I'm very aware of how being connected to Christianity, even only tangentially, will immediately raise red flags for people. And for good reason.

So, how do I disarm myself? I want to hear people's stories, I want to know the Light in them because I truly wish to love and understand them as they are. How do I approach and ask for consent for such a thing without it feeling like I'm waving a torch in their face?

i would start with gauging your level of awareness and education when it comes to general jewish stuff like history and practices and holidays. if you want to get more into the nitty gritty with hearing people's stories you'll need that foundation first if you really want to understand them. there's tons of books, websites like myjewishlearning, and you could even try contacting a rabbi and asking for an in person or phone appointment with them to ask some questions and get some suggestions for what resources to use. once you have that foundational level of understanding of judaism and the jewish people, it'll be much easier to talk to jews about more personal things.

in terms of actually approaching people, if they're your friends, then hopefully they already have a good idea of what kind of person you are and if they're comfortable sharing with you. if you don't know them as well, make sure you're not just going into the encounter with the goal of "learn jew stuff" and that's it. they're whole people, and you don't want to treat them like a jewish encyclopedia.

we can usually tell when someone is being genuine and when someone has weird or bad motives, so as long as you're respectful and honest about what you want from the conversation, and maybe share a bit of yourself as well, most of us are happy to talk about it.

also quakerism and quakers have always seemed very cool to me. i heard it's much more about a way of life instead of a set faith, which feels a lot like judaism to me. also y'all have the public universal friend so u r winning.

[bronx-bomber87]

Happy Thanksgiving Eve to those who celebrate Turkey Day tomorrow :) The introduction of Genny Bradford. I love her so much. I was so excited for her to come onto the show. You all know how much I love Tim’s past and history. She is a massive part of that. I go off on this one cause I relate to him so much. Sorry sorta ha Also Lucy getting to meet her and them getting along is the best. Let’s get started shall we?

4x08 Hit and Run

The ep starts off with Nolan coming up to our duo at the kit room. Complaining that he can’t believe he’s polling behind Smitty. Tim is amused and says that’s embarrassing LOL. Nolan then says it would help if someone established endorsed him. Tim says no. Never endorsed anyone and that’s not changing. Voting is private he doesn’t want part of any of it.

We meet the lovely Genny Bradford outside in the parking lot. Their hug is super adorable. He genuinely looks so happy to see her. I’m sure Lucy is so very confused at first who this person is. Genny tells Tim he looks skinny ha Asks if he’s been eating? Such a sister thing to ask. I love it. Tim asks how she got in? It’s restricted back here. Apparently Smitty let her in without a second thought. Of course he did. SMH.

Tim immediately asks what she’s doing here? Genny replies with a weak answer of just wanting to see her big brother. Lucy doesn’t let Tim answer back but jumps in. Oh I love you Lucy. The very minute she hears ‘big brother’ She has tunnel vision. Her excited Oh! And inserting herself into the conversation. Gotta love it.

Doesn’t hold back whatsoever in introducing herself and asking for embarrassing content straight away. No shame at all in asking right off the bat. I love her so much. I wish I had her confidence haha I mean future in-laws and all that is happening right here. Lucy is too cute wanting these stories about Tim. So thirsty to have any Tim content in her life. I feel this. Me too Lucy. Me too.

The look Tim gives cuts Lucy's sentence off. He looks haunted and conflicted. Trying to decide what his next move is. He continues with some suspicious glances before asking ‘So you just wanted to see me?’ Not trusting it being just that reason. Excited she is there but also worried for the reasoning. So he follows up with he didn’t even know she was in town…

You can see he is tense we just don’t know why yet. Genny shoots back he’s been ignoring her messages and emails about it. So naturally he wouldn't know she was in town. Tim gets even more bristly and says he knows why she’s really here. That he hasn’t changed his mind. His position on it is very clear. Genny presses him some more. Telling him they have to talk about it.

Tim tries to blow her off and say they could get dinner later. He has to work right now. Being his sister she knows him well and refutes that offer. Love me some Genny. Not backing down in the slightest. Says she can do a ride along that way they have the whole day to catch up. She came ready to play for this conversation. Gotta admire that.

Tim tries to get out of it again saying it’s a ton of paperwork. Needs someone to sign off on it etc. Lucy steps in and says he’s a Sergeant now he can just do one. If looks could kill.... The one he gives Lucy LMFAO. Look at these important ladies in his life just running it without his say haha I love it sfm.

Lucy can’t help but ask one more thing before Genny gets into the shop. If Tim had any nicknames growing up? Genny doesn’t push her luck and just gets in the car. Tim is so irritated but not old s1 Tim irritated which is growth believe it or not LOL He is exasperated with Lucy more than anything else. That she see's her shot and is taking it. His baby sister is a treasure trove of his past she must know about.

Genny doesn’t take long before she’s spilling Tim’s past. Lucy is soaking it up like a sponge and beaming. It’s beyond adorable how excited she is by all this. She just wants to know him better so badly. Will take any morsel she can about him. Genny lets it slip Tim tried to highlight his hair before prom. That he ended up looking like slim shady LMFAO

Lucy is so happy about all of this embarrassing info. Tim is just sitting there trying not to lose his damn mind haha It’s like Genny is her sister in law already the way they are bonding. Genny says she thinks she has a photo of said highlights. Lucy is so excited she’s bouncing around in her seat. Poor Tim lol

I love Genny supporting Lucy’s never ending quest to find everything she’s can about Tim. You’d think they were already dating the way Genny and Lucy are acting. It’s amazing. Such a girlfriend thing to do. Bond with the sister and get all the embarrassing dirt you can on your BF haha These interactions are the actual best.

Tim protests to her showing Lucy the photo. She does a great sibling move using the pic as leverage. That if he doesn’t want Lucy to see it they need to talk about their dad. Tim tenses up completely and replies that he has nothing to say. She asks for Lucy’s number so she can text it to her. Tim isn’t happy about it.

Says they don’t need her distractions. Police work is serious. Then they roll up on an adult on a child sized bike holding up traffic….They pull up and she tips over. Lucy tells her she almost caused an accident. Tim asks her if she’s been drinking? Tells her if she doesn’t cooperate he can cite her for a DUI. She goes OFF on Tim. I’m dying her calling him a Ken-doll LOL Lucy thinks it’s hilarious too with her reaction.

Genny steps in like a calm bad ass. Gets her to settle down. Even has her to apologize to Tim. He looks impressed as hell with her. Lucy also comments on how impressive she was. Genny comments she teaches 4th grade ha My oldest sister is a teacher for young kids so this is pretty accurate. She then passes out right after. The drinking question answered for them. heh

They’re dragged into Nolan and Lopez’s situation. A crazed armed gunman is on the loose. He assaulted an IRS agent two days prior. Shot at Lopez/Nolan with an automatic weapon when they came to see him. Everyone is involved in the manhunt now. Tim directs everyone like the sexy leader he is and they get back into the shop. Genny asks what’s going on? Tim tells her it’s too dangerous he’s bringing her back to the station. They have to drive around looking for this guys long list of cars on the street. He could be in any of them and they could be armed to the teeth.

Genny refuses to leave until they talk about their father. Tim says she’s impossible which is rich coming from him LOL Genny tries to pull Lucy into it. Asking her who is more difficult her or Tim? He is so mad. Pops off saying of course Lucy is going to pick him. She knows him and how damn stubborn he is. I can empathize with Tim on this one. One of my worst qualities is how stubborn I can be. Genny pokes at him saying this is why he’s still single...

Tim in the heat of the moment reveals he’s not single. I don’t think this is how he wanted Lucy to find out. Lucy tries to act supportive says with a smile on her face 'You're seeing someone?..' Now with Rachel I think she truly supported it. Wanted him to be happy. No jealously involved.

With Ashley it’s a different ball game. So much has changed between them since Rachel. Tim being defensive af tells them they need to focus. Lucy backs off without delving into it further. An awkward silence falls over them. The last gif she looks upset about this news. Also like to note how Genny looks back and forth between them. Knowing there is something deeper going on between them but she doesn’t know what…

When they’re back on the road Lucy asks what plans she has while she’s in L.A.? We finally find out why she’s in town. To sell their childhood home. Genny mentions their dad hasn’t been able to live in it for a while. Lucy is empathetic and tells her sorry not knowing the dark history attached to it. Genny brings up it’s a lot for one person…

Then Lucy in true wife fashion speaks for Tim. Says she’s sure Tim will help out with that. He won’t let her do it alone. Tim isn’t on board for fixing it up. Says it’s a tear down. Better just to sell it. Genny fights him on it says it has good bones.

This is where Lucy and Genny really become instant besties. Talking about house hunters. How they bond over which one they like the most. It's super adorable watching them get along so easily. For Tim it's that moment when your work wife and sister become friends and you can’t stop it Ha

I adore this next part. Tim reaches out to Nolan thinking it’s going to back his POV. So desperate to get out of renovating this house. Nolan starts listing stuff off and Tim think’s it’s going in his favor. Lucy rolls her eyes at him knowing that's exactly what he's thinking. So when his reply is all cocky 'It’s a teardown right? 'Nolan shuts him down and uses the same phrase Genny did ‘Good Bones.’ That simple repairs could double the value of the house.

Lucy and Genny start to celebrate knowing they were right. This is your future Tim you just don’t know it yet. Ha It is very sweet and kind of Nolan to offer to come and look at it for them. Free of charge. I will give him that. See I can be nice to him sometimes. It probably won’t happen often but still very kind of him to say he can help.

This next section is where we get to the heart of how Tim is really feeling. Genny and Lucy are talking about their childhood homes. Genny doesn’t want to let it go. Lucy empathizes with her and says she still thinks about her childhood home as home. Tim can’t take it any longer and pulls over abruptly. Here is where Eric crushes this episode. Breaks my damn heart into a million and one pieces.

I wanna cry watching this scene. Tim’s childhood trauma always hits me deep in my gut. He had both emotional and physical abuse. To have one is damaging enough to have both? I can’t even imagine. I relate to Tim a lot and we have a lot in common. Especially with our childhoods and how we were raised. The physical abuse is the one thing I am grateful we don’t have in common.

The tears in Tim’s eyes when he finally speaks about how he's feeling kills me. You can see how tense he is when he pulls over. Vibrating with anger. He has reached his boiling point about this situation and it's spilling out. This whole thing is tearing him up inside. It’s eating him alive she is trying to save a place that caused him so much pain. To him there is nothing redeemable about that place. He can't handle this conversation about creating happy memories in that house. This whole situation pulling at the emotional sutures he's created for himself about their father.

His line about a family cuddling up under the broken plaster his father slammed his head against. Ugh. My heart. I just wanna hug and kiss away all his pain. Lucy’s reaction kills me as well. Because she had zero idea about this. When today started she thought it would be all funny and lighthearted stuff. Nothing this serious. I will say even though this scene is painful it’s growth for Tim. To be able to be this vulnerable and talk about such deeply personal stuff openly. Just shows how much he trusts and feels safe around Lucy. To have this family spat on patrol of all places.

Genny saying their childhood wasn’t all bad. I hate that. My two older sisters don’t view our childhood the way me and my baby sister do. They're in deep deep denial about it. Want to just sweep it under the rug. They also weren't treated as badly as me and my baby sister were. This line struck a chord with me for that reason. To say it wasn’t all bad...To me that comes across as being ok with what was done. To what happened to them both. Because it wasn't 24/7 abuse. Now we don’t know if he laid hands on them both. I assume he did. We for sure know he did to Tim.

Even if he didn’t hurt her seeing your sibling abused is just as damaging. Trust me I know. Tim is hurting because it seems like she’s trying to sweep away all he did. To candy coat their childhood and he can’t stand it. I don’t blame him. When the emotional damage runs as deep as it does for him it’s unforgivable. I’m getting emotional writing this up. When you clearly see the damage your parent inflicted and a sibling doesn’t. Or won’t acknowledge how bad it was. It’s very triggering and angers you. I know it did for me with my 2 older sisters. This whole thing is like re-opening that wound.

I could not relate more to him not wanting to deal with it. To keep his demons and damage in the past. This house brings up a plethora of bad memories for him. He would rather just sell the damn place and be done with it. Genny tries to plead with him. Tell him their dad has changed. The way Tim clutches the wheel and his jaw clenches. *heart clutch* Lucy's reaction to it all is so telling as well. She is trying to process it along him.

Genny suggests visiting their dad. Tim would see he has changed. All Tim sees is a monster who knocked them around. Emotionally abused them. You can tell the news of him dying affects him. Eric is incredible in this scene. His face is holding so many emotions. Mainly he's torn between anger and wanting to cry. My poor damaged boy. Tim holds steady and says that’ll never happen. He then pulls back out onto the road. The conversation in his mind is over.

Lucy breaks the silence and tells Genny that she has a good bereavement counselor If she needs it. Genny thanks her and says she already has someone. They’ve helped her a lot to process what happened to them as kids. Tells Tim he should try therapy. Tim’s reply is spot on to what I uses to say before going to therapy. When it was brought up as an idea to help me. ‘I’m good..’

When I was clearly was anything but good. I was radioactive and emotionally unstable when it came to my parents. Anytime stuff from my childhood or my parents were brought up I was just like Tim. Nuclear in my reaction and not in a good place mentally. I’m not 100 percent where I wanna be about them but I am better than pre-therapy.

Genny continues saying there is no way he doesn’t carry that trauma with him. I think his reaction this entire time is proof of that. She brings up a childhood story. How he dropped Tim off at Griffith park with nothing but a compass to get home. Tim defiantly replies 'Which I did.’ Lucy then has the worst slip of her tongue. With a little laugh says ‘A Tim test.’ The deep hurt in his eyes when he turns to Lucy is CRUSHING. His biggest fear is turning into his father. Being like him in any way. It feels like a gut punch to your stomach. An attack on your identity. The last thing when you have history like Tim does is to be ANYTHING like your parent’s.

I relate to this all too well. My mom growing up whenever I did something she didn’t like. She would say ‘You’re just like your father.’ It was meant to be an insult. I sure received it that way. I sure as hell didn’t want to be like him. He was cold, had a temper, and was emotionally not there for us as kids. Let our mom emotionally abuse us all. Because he was too emotionally stunted to see it was wrong. My sisters still like to make jokes i’m like him. They think it's funny. When it’s a deep wound they don’t realize they’re picking at. It's the same for Tim in this moment.

For him to hear that comparison from one of his favorite people is devastating. We’ll see in the next episode how that small off handed comment eats away at him. You can see Lucy immediately knows she’s said something wrong. Can see the hurt plastered all over his face. The pre-tears in his eyes. Lucy rubs her ribs where her tattoo is. Something I noticed she does when she upset or nervous/unsure of herself. Ever since 2x11. Like she's grounding herself in the moment. You can tell she knows she stepped in it. Lucy doesn’t get a chance to rectify it because of radio interrupting. This ep is so good but damn it’s emotional af.

We rejoin them at that station finally done for that day. I LOVE this scene. First off Lucy getting jazzed to know he’s an uncle. She's so cute. It’s written all over her face how giddy this makes her. Saying Genny is taking a moment to call his nephews. She then gets serious with Tim. Telling him his sister needs him. Tim using her first name once again in a warning tone. (be still my heart BTW. With rewatching this fully I forgot how much I love him doing this after three seasons of ‘Chen’ and ‘Boot’)

He’s trying to warn her she is on thin ice even bringing this up. Lucy goes for it anyways. Because she wouldn't be her if she didn’t. Also this a much more calm and receptive Tim than ever before. Light years better than first time she told him something he didn’t want to hear. Lucy knew then it was what he needed. The same remains true in this moment SO much growth for Tim since then. Telling him yes he got the brunt of it growing up. That much is obvious. But that she lived through it with him.

That as children of abuse it might be better instead of arguing how bad he is or isn’t that they support one another instead. This is the best advice she could give him honestly. This kind of thing either divides or unites people. For me my baby sister and I are close. Very close actually. Like best friend level close. It’s because we went through the same thing together. Support one another and it’s forged a bond my parents can’t ever break. To be validated in how you feel but not let it consume you because you have that support is everything.

Now the sad part of this kind of thing is the sisters I mentioned earlier (I have 3 btw. 2 older one younger) They refuse to acknowledge what happened to us as kids. Rather stow it away in a box and have a relationship with our parents I simply can’t have. Therefore I am not as close to them. We have a surface level relationship and that is it. So Lucy’s advice here was super solid for Tim. To have him support her and bond over what they survived together instead of letting it tear them apart.

Genny rejoins them and Lucy gives him a sweet smile before walking away. I love how Tim's eyes follow her before returning his attention back to his sister. He applies Lucy's advice immediately and apologizes for today. That he wasn’t listening more to her. I’m once again a lot like Tim. When I think I’m right on something especially when it’s emotional or moral. I dig my heels and am super stubborn. So stubborn I can ignore completely the other person and their feelings.

I don’t mean to it just happens. Same for our Timothy. It’s why it was so important Lucy gave him that advice. To say hey what you went through was horrible. There is no denying it but she went through it too. That she needs him even if she acts like she doesn’t emotionally. I love them being a place where Lucy can give him such meaningful advice he absorbs like he did here. Genny thanks him and says it means a lot. Tim reinforces not seeing their father though. You can tell she wants to fight him on it but doesn’t.

Nolan walks by and Tim introduces her to him. John is having an episode where I like him. It’s rare. Maybe it’s because he’s helping Tim out lol Coloring my normal sassy POV of him. Tim ask’s if he’s free this weekend to come check the house out? Nolan says yes he would be happy to come down give them an estimate. Genny thanks him profusely. So grateful for any help with this.

Genny light's up when Tim says 'We.' So happy he is going to be helping her out with this. HIs sweet smile when he says they can pull a profit on it. Telling her it shouldn't fall all on her just because she is willing to be around their father and he isn't. It's a very sweet moment. Lucy's advice really hitting home for him in the best way.

Then Tim does something so integrous I want to jump his bones haha He's such a good man it's so insanely sexy to me. To thank John for being so willing to help he endorses him. The one thing he said he would never do. Gives a really kind and nice speech as well. Truly love him for doing this for Nolan. Knowing how badly John wanted this for his campaign. He knows his opinion carries weight and uses it to help Nolan out. Because he’s doing the same for him without hesitation. Tim says trust has to be earned and even though he and Nolan don't always see eye to eye. He has Tim's trust as a cop and that's pretty damn huge.

I love the look he throws Lucy’s way when he’s done talking. It’s subtle. This gif above captures it better than my hand made one did ha Tim looking at her being like 'Hey he earned it.' Little Chenford crumb I adore so much. Gah such an emotionally good episode I can not.

I always love analyzing episodes about Tim and his past. His trauma because it is so eerily similar to mine. Also we have a lot of the same personality traits as well. Next up Is my favorite episode of the entire season. I hope I do it justice ❤️

~~~

Side Notes-Non Chenford

Hate Nyla having to battle Donovan for Lila. He’s such a tool. I loved Aaron trying to not let her give up. That it’s not fire to continually compare her to her past. She is not that person anymore. She really isn’t her growth is crazy and so good. Just like Tim. Aaron loaning her his lawyer to help her I love it so much. He really came into his own with her as the season progressed. I love it.

Thank you to all who continually like, comment ( I love me some comments), and reblogs. They mean so much to me. See you all in 4x09 :)

[barrenclan]

begging some of yall not to idolize deepdark and defiance how you do. i have a friend who’s actually lived through a cult’s wrath and they r mega not cool. like i know defiance is narratively AMAZING but we. shouldn’t put it on a pedestal of “oh this thing is so cool and its leaders are amazing” because ultimately it’s safer for everyone if we start recognizing that while yea defiance + deepgang are cool… theyre still a cult. and we should not be viewing them positively at all. cults are inherently models of rigorous and severe repeated abuse, and by romanticizing them you are inherently romanticizing abuse. i don’t think you’re bad for letting this happen, raz, i just think that if you have any sympathy for cult survivors you should have stopped it before now. Especially as the comic ramps up towards the inevitable climax of the cult in it doing many awful things to the main characters. I know no one here intended to romanticize it, but by treating deepdark and other leaders of this cult as silly uwu murder cult guys we are actively doing that.

thank you for listening if you did, and i hope this feedback helps us all grow.

Well, thank you for sharing your concerns, I appreciate it a lot, as well as explaining the reasons this is important to you. Nothing you said is incorrect or invalid! I do have a few other thoughts I wanna share along with this ask.

Firstly; Defiance is fictional, and more than that it's not based on any real world cult. I obviously had to do some research and take some general real-world influence, mostly because I wanted to capture the kind of personality that exists in cult leaders with Deepdark, but in the end it's a completely made-up group. I actually based their group structure much more on a mafia-like organization than a traditional religious cult. There is a sliding scale for these sorts of things in stories of course, topics that are treated with varying levels of severity based on our culture, and everyone is going to be affected by them differently based on personal experience anyways. I refer to Defiance as a "combination death cult and mafia" sort of flippantly (which is my own fault) because just calling it a "group" is sort of vague, non-descript term. But its structure and actions are way, way more dramatic and obvious than any cult that exists today, or existed previously.

With the kind of fanbase I've gathered, I would like to believe my readership is able to separate the difference between talking about real-world cults and fictional ones. No one I've seen is actually idolizing Defiance as something to genuinely be admired, outside of talking about and making up in-universe characters who do so. Deepdark is fun, and dramatic, and over-the-top, because I made him that way, so it's natural that people like him. But no one is saying that it's good to be like Deepdark, or that he's some sort of aspirational goal (I hope! If you are, we'll have words!). I do believe that in the story itself I've pretty thoroughly conveyed how cruel and malicious Defiance & its members are. In fact I've pretty intensely tried to emphasize the insidious way that cults hurt people, and the danger of charismatic leaders like Deepdark! Maybe I've failed a bit in that regard, then.

But besides all that - your points are very valuable and worth repeating, and I will be more on the lookout for anything treating Defiance's impact irreverantly, and either delete or correct it. I have a feeling people are not going to be happy with them anyways, as they continue to hurt more of our main characters.

Real-life cults are not as obvious and over-dramatic like Defiance. Many ordinary people like you and me are deeply hurt by them all the time, and any time you joke about Deepdark's murdering or silly lieutenant shenanigans, it's always important to keep in mind that there are tons of real-life people like Deepdark out there. I never wanted to come across as unsympathetic for real-world victims of cults. Making people think more deeply about the various shades of gray and subtle acts of evil that exist in our world, as well as the inherent humanity that exists in people who do terrible things regardless, are some of my goals with creating PATFW in the first place.

[atomicdarc]

Your au designs are literally so cool! Could you tell me more about them? I’m genuinely very interested

Oh hello there! Or course!

I don't have too much information to give for now, but there some things about the principal trio of the Decepticons: Demolisher, Cyclonus and Starscream! — I love how disastrous they look in armada, so I will bring that chaos to my story too! >:]

First of them, Demolisher. Well, Demolisher had a big devotion to Megatron, sacrificing himself a lot for him. He was considered Megatron's right arm on the Decepticons, army. For him being so devotional to Megatron's will, he had a lot of jealous stares at him, but he didn't care! Well, not for so long...

Have in mind that at this time he had his both eyes, he lost one or his eyes because Megatron punished him for slipping a little bit, and with a little bit I mean, for his teammates fault, one important war prisoner has escaped from one of the cells — I still deciding who it will be btw, but it will probably be a wrecker — Megatron was furious, that prisoner could bring a ton of important information, the first person that Megatron saw in his choleric walk was Demolisher, and then the worst happened... That was one of the first times that Megatron really snapped and abused of his power with one of his soldiers.

In this AU he doesn't hates Megatron, but he blames himself for his failure everyday, he has a perfectionist personality and he panicks when everything goes out of his hands, when Starscream meet with him for the first time he didn't understood why Demolisher was so damn afraid of failure, like, he didn't wanna loose and fail, but when Starscream turns into Megatron's second in command he starts to know exactly what is going on.

And how do Cyclonus feels about all of that? He feels bad for his friend and that he could do nothing to help, but he tells dumb and idiot jokes trying to rip a smile of Demolisher's face. Demolisher acts like he doesn't care and that he's indifferent, but he really enjoys his jokes and loves Cyclonus presence. Cyclonus can feel that.

Now about Cyclonus! Well, he's a yong boy! — kinda 22 yroish — he is a bit inexperienced in combat and it's slow to get some information, since his attention span is low, Demolisher always have to explain him things in the most careful and slowly way possible and he's very patience about that, Cyclonus feels very lucky to have a friend that finally comprehend his condition.

Demolisher rather's explain things to Cyclonus one million of times than see his friend suffering like he did in the past, Decepticons can be ignorant, stupid and sadistic sometimes, they would probably smash his brain with information since he is pretty easy to confuse and manipulate, and then they would use it to laugh in the lunch break.

Cyclonus is pretty interested about human comedy and internet culture, it's like hiperfixation for some reason, nor even demolisher understands it, but Demolisher enjoys watching pet videos with him, his favorite type of videos of this kind are about birds, while Cyclonus favorite pet videos includes cats and dogs. He tells to Demolisher that he looks like a soggy cat everyday.

Cyclonus is not so close to Starscream as Demolisher, but he doesn't mistreat him. Starscream can look a bit scary for him since he is almost all the time quiet and he just observes him with a glare when he needs to say something important to him. But with all the things that are happening because of Megatron, he tries to finally get along with him. It's a hard work, but he's trying his best with Demolisher's help.

And finally, we have Starscream dude, that guy is the definition of an LInking Park 2016 AMV, Just like in armada! But his quieter than normal, well, he's cold forged, and his brothers too, almost every cold forge has some mental of physical issue because of the bad development of the spark and by the fact that the spark sometimes feels despersonalizated, so sometimes you can see him fazed by his on thoughts.

He's a strong and pretty intelligent soldier, that got Megatron's eyes and he put the seeker's versatility on proof. Megatron puts him as his second in command, since it would he great if they separated the army by ground and air.

Starscream, his brothers and other seekers joined the cons because they hated their creators who subjected them to so much pain and Megatron knew it, his twisted mind took advantage of that and made the seeker go to the same crooked way as him, doing questionable things against his morals and conceptions of freedom

At the start, he doesn't get along with Demolisher and Cyclonus, but when he see and feel them treating and caring of his wounds caused by Megatron's unfounded rage he started to tolerate their presence at the start, then he finally accepts them as his friends. — he secretly watches videos about kittys without "Cyclonus discovering it" (Cyclonus already knows and he finds it kinda cute) —

That's it, their dynamic. There's a lot of things that I need to fix, add and complement, but for now it's only that!

And one more thing, sorry if my english sounds a little cracked, english is not my first language.

— Thanks for the ask! :]

[lyril]

i am of the opinion that there was plenty of stuff "wrong" with steven universe, whether from a writing standpoint or a poor/untasteful decisions standpoint, but i have to say: keeping up with all the hazbin hotel/helluva boss drama (a set of shows that are legitimately very rough in all aspects of its handling, from writing, to sensitive topics, to creator involvement) as well as looking at sugar's writing on adventure time is like... making me appreciate how well a lot of it was done still

this show had tons of great songs, interesting characters and stories, lots of perfectly well done emotional beats, and rebecca sugar also... stayed out of the discussions around stuff LOL. they are genuinely a talented writer, some of adventure time's most beloved episodes, songs, and emotions are from them, even before they left to start their own show. but because of how much of a shitshow the discourse was, it's like, tainted all the actually good things in the show for a lot of people, even though these discussions can totally coexist. i really don't think it's "irredeemable media" by a long shot. and like, i'm serious in that i 100% believe there are justified conversations about how they handled things, regarding actual important topics like racism -- i kept up with the critical community when it was big on here! but i also think it is true that it has become kind of a "cringe" sore spot as well, that people no longer want to associate with it or feel like they're allowed to enjoy it casually, even for nostalgia reasons, because of discourse rather than the weight of the actual material itself. that's definitely how i've felt for a long time, at least, to the point where i feel like i even have to clarify these things and the issues i also have with it, even though it's truly just a cartoon with issues like any other and not something to specifically be held on a pedestal... i haven't seen it in a long time now, but one day i would like to rewatch it, and hopefully in a bit more peace