#it's about standards and values

[blatantlyhidden]

sometimes gatekeeping is good and healthy and necessary for a subculture <3

[from-ib-to-asshai]

me when people give canonically conventionally unattractive characters instagram face

[fromtheseventhhell]

I love how people are only ever interested in defending Arya's right to be weird-looking. It's never defending her intelligence from people who claim she's incapable of thinking for herself, highlighting her importance to the plot and refusing to see her as just a prop, acknowledging how much of her story gets stolen and given to other characters, talking about her trauma or how often it gets erased and overlooked, seeing her as more than just an attack dog/bodyguard, etc. Nope. It's just a "why can't people let Arya be ugly/unconventional looking? :(" post every other week because people are, for whatever reason, obsessed with how Arya is visually perceived. One of the most misinterpreted characters yet the issue is only ever with her being portrayed as "too pretty" or the wrong "type" of pretty. This fandom will entirely rewrite a character's motivations, values, and role in the story to the point that they consider references to canon "hate" but! The true injustice to canon is we acknowledge that she is described as pretty several times. Arya simply existing as her pretty, important, and non-conforming self is too complex and confusing for people to comprehend 😔.

[shadowtraveled]

this is a largely meaningless observation but, based on the fleki uniform demonstration comic, mithrun seems to wear the default style of the canary uniform, probably because he has no desire to personalize it or preference for how to do so, etc. when he does seem to pick his own clothes, though, they don’t look super in-line with what we’re shown of elven clothing styles in his region: high collars look like they’re fairly popular with elves in general, but out of uniform he tends to be a lot more covered up than everyone else—long sleeves, long pants, boots rather than sandals, and he dresses that way both prior to getting eaten and after the events of the series. anyway it’s kind of cute that after everything that happened to him, someone cared enough to remember what his clothing preferences used to be.

[persimmontea]

A small gif set of *that* part of Shoma's programs the past few seasons ⋆˙⟡♡

Happy birthday Shoma! Your skating is truly special and unmatched. Wishing you the best in your journey towards finding your self-satisfaction~ Hope you have a great year ahead of you! ⋆˙⟡♡

[whetstonefires]

A fantastic thing about Wangxian is that they both have vast, bulletproof, towering edifices of self-esteem.

They know they're hot shit, they know almost nobody can compare; nothing changes their minds about this at any point. Even at their lowest they think highly of themselves; they're confident in their capabilities and judgments, and that they can outperform their peers.

They're arrogant, and they can back that shit up, and they have backed it up so often they're unshakeable on the subject of their own excellence.

This enormity of self-esteem is not at all incompatible with compromised self-worth, especially on Wei Wuxian's part, because the titanic self-destructive hubris that combination instills is the engine that drives his epic tragic backstory. But that's different! Thinking you're expendable and thinking you're inferior are separate judgements, that can certainly influence but don't force one another.

And one of the reasons this is cool is how the story holds them up against characters that are mostly pretty confident if not necessarily secure about their own value, but have very fragile self-esteem.

In varying ways, this is more or less what's up with Su She, Jiang Cheng, and Wen Chao.

Xue Yang also, but he's so weird about it it feels wrong to group him with those three.

Jin Guangyao is hard to place on this scale, because he shares wangxian's overweening sense of being better and more capable than other people as a rule, but he's not quite secure about it, and he shares Xue Yang and Su She's insane levels of conviction that he deserves to get what he feels is his due, at any cost to anybody.

But he definitely has a more complex relationship to that belief than either of them; su she's just like 'it's not fair!!!!!!!!!' about literally anything that doesn't go his way and xue yang is like 'obviously my finger is worth more than hundreds of lives because. it was mine.'

[aliusfrater]

you know the more i think about the events of season eight from sam's perspective the more i think. yeah id want to kill myself too

[rohirric-hunter]

JRR Tolkien: This is my fantasy race that I invented

JRR Tolkien: They come of age at 33. I've made this a plot point

The fandom: Okay........ but......... obviously they're considered adults at 18-21.

JRR Tolkien: They come of age at 33. Hope this helps <3

The fandom: No, no, no, don't be silly. People become adults at 18-21

JRR Tolkien: In this fictional culture that I've invented people come of age at 33.

The fandom: Okay but clearly what you mean when you say that is something else. I don't know what you mean by it but obviously it's something other than coming of age. Something made up, probably. It's definitely not important.

JRR Tolkien: It's hugely important and I spend a whole chapter setting it up

The fandom: But an 18 year old is an adult, tho......

[emersonfreepress]

How did you decide which characters would be gender selectable vs fixed? That’s always been so fascinating to me!!

I actually couldn't decide 😅 I knew I wanted to have an even amount of gender ROs and needed 1 more boy and 1 more girl. But I couldn't decide: did I want to stick with writing Vivian or explore Vincent? Did I want R to be the rebellious bad boy or bad girl?

So I didn't decide! I wanted to write both versions of those characters 😄 and here we are. Overwhelmed lololololol

I initially had the silly idea of having all the cisgender ROs be gender selectable. Then I started learning how to code this shit and realized that was NOT going to happen 😆 I still kind of love the idea of f!Gabe, f!Jack, and gender-swapped Emersons... but it was scrapped way before it was ever serious. Nothing about personality would have changed, but too many backstories and childhoods needed to be assessed and changed depending on gender. Like, fascinating stuff that I would love to write and explore — but it's just too much writing. There's a whole crime plot waiting on me!

Like, the childhood Gabe had would spit f!Gabe out quite differently... I kinda don't wanna think about it 😐 since I won't commit to writing it anyway. m!Jessie's childhood would be super different from a spiritual standpoint... f!Jack would be under a lot of pressure from her dad's side of the family to fit in and be popular... The Emersons would have to be completely — just completely rewritten oh my gosh. This I actually do kinda wanna explore on my own 'cause I think it'll give me a fuller read on their parents. Plus, how does m!Heidi's character develop since his dad actually gives a shit what he does and invests in his future?? What's a f!Curt like with basically no familial attention and oversight??? I have no idea but I kind of want to!! 🤣

[bowenoke]

dog idc we went through the "don't try to fix your partner" arc already and I refuse to believe we're doing it again. trying to fix someone's bone malunion because they hurt and you can do magic IS misguided but it's not the same as blorbofying your partner. you can't fix him but not in like a metaphor for a savior complex way. it's more because you don't understand osteotomies

[discjude]

SO funny that the only explanation for why Aric stabbed Rhian is, in Japeth's words, "because [Rhian] said things about [his and Aric's] friendship" (the full actual quote is "because you said things! About him and me! About our friendship!"). Which is such a funny way of phrasing it because that could mean LITERALLY anything. Soman why would you phrase it like that. genuinely

The only other elaboration we get on the stabbing ever is right after the first line and it's vague as to what it's actually talking about, which is where Rhian says "Because he was a monster / a sadist with no soul" (which. yeah lmao), but that could be either "he stabbed me because he was a monster" OR "I said those things because he was a monster", and the rest of the line supports the second interpretation, so we just???? don't know what made aric do it??????? This is the single most influential event in the series it literally doubled the series' length what do you MEAN there's only ever two lines about it????? ? ? ??? arbed prequel when hello

[valewritessss]

I’m hoping (I’m praying) that once the insecurities society has created for people—mainly women— becomes too much, the world will kind of reset and we’ll realize this is ridiculous and stop caring so much about appearance.

[sleepynegress]

Love this interview... I have been semi-checking in on Zawe's journey since before certain stans were feeling some kinda way about her recent familial additions. I do for certain Black actors/creators especially, who seem to be moving in interesting ways in entertainment/film media...

-A remnant from a period when I used to go to screenings and blog about films (and was published a few times in a major national newspaper)... So, I knew of Zawe through the grapevine of her mentorship, i.e. she is the reason why Rege Jean Page of Bridgerton fame got to work in U.S. markets, as she sponsored him. And she is known, as one of those "good eggs" who will be accessible and help/advise especially young actors of color. ...But, I have some other stuff to say. This isn't about proving that she's an amazing human being. It's about a certain brand of misogynoir that some of these people far beneath her in self-knowledge, self-love, and just plain grown-ass-woman-personhood...keep letting fly in what they *think* are compliments, but actually are just trite microaggressions. Saying things like "as long she makes [T-blank H-blank] happy then she's alright" as if he's the centered human and her attachment renders her worthy somehow. Babies, as long as SHE'S happy. Yall. He's marrying up.

WAY UP and the fact that he knows this? Actually elevates him. She's been there.

She tells a story in the above interview that reminds me of Uzo Aduba's anecdote about her name , - of an incident when she was called to an early job (at 6!) and someone there said she wasn't pretty because of her gap and her Ugandan mother took her on past this person and into the room, ANYWAY.

... She learned a specific self-knowledge and self-love, that is necessary in very white western spaces that constantly pressures a narrow sense of worthiness and beauty, especially from Black women, something a lot of these small-minded stans don't even have a notion of seeing beyond. Zawe is biracial, and her features, aside from her skin tone are very African. So while she benefits from colorism, featurism is something I've seen those bigoted stans, pick on as well. She knows those features are what makes her beautiful and knew that, w/o and before her partner saw that too. And people who aren't blind narrow-minded ignoramuses can *also* see that. This is why I assert the fact of featurism needing to be in the conversation of light/dark privilege conversations. Lips, nose, gap, and even the set of her eyes are ethnic beauty markers within quite a few spaces in the Black African diaspora... My mom was an absolute stunner because of her gap.

Even the old school white model Lauren Hutton got there because of her gap. Uzo Aduba, who I have already mentioned has a deeper skintone and has similarly large round striking eyes, gap, and a non-pinched-nose *rightly* played Glinda in NBC's production of The Wiz a few years back, with Dorothy saying she's so beautiful *because* of those features, not despite them as a very narrow white-washed gaze would wrongly assert.

And while we're here that includes sizes and shapes too. I'm saying your boy is enjoying all that plush. A lot of yall need to read or reread Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman, for comprehension.

Anyway... All this to say I know Zawe is and will be fine regardless.

P.S. Maya Angelou *also* had height, and gap and was very much known for her beauty/magnetism as a woman when she was alive. :

[despazito]

Listen I'm a bit of a hater and I do have some reservations with the concept surrounding conformation and animal fancy as an institution but horses are one of the LAST animals you can really criticize for their conformation standards and just calling it eugenics. Unlike most dog breed standards, horse conformation is more predicated on their ability to function and perform work, or to carry a wholeass person on their backs so it's really important they got good structure!!! Sure there's halter horses bred purely for show and that's where you start getting the wonky dish faced Arabians and BBL quarter horses but unlike pugs the vast majority of horse breed standards do in fact keep the horse's best interests in mind.

[iceyrukia]

Women’s self-image is as negative as ever despite the “body positivity” wave of choice feminism. Why?

I think one of the biggest reasons as to why women’s beauty standards and self-image are worse than even is because you can preach about unfair beauty standards all you want and tell women not to make fun of another woman’s looks but you can’t take away the social status and praise that women who are “beautiful” get from society (both men and women). You give them clout and praise them. Something both “body positivity” and “body neutrality” feminists do btw despite all the talk about acceptance.

It’s like saying you don’t support the ethics behind a product and yet still consume and buy it. In this case “beauty” being a luxury achieved via consumerism where women become the products (objects) that other women admire and obsess over. There is a demand so there is a supply PERIOD.

Women might not directly pursue beauty (“I do it for myself”) for men but nonetheless it’s definitely ingrained as a sign of status and that’s enough to cause a negative self-image in women who don’t participate. Men might have been the original perpetrators of installing unrealistic beauty standards for women but the victims (women) have also turned into perpetrators who can’t let go of the misogynistic status symbol of having value from appearances because it’s considered “culture”.

[toskarin]

there's a lot of "setting bible" type lore for vesalblood that I kind of want to release somewhere, but don't want to run the risk of the entire thing coming off as a worldbuilding dump. the agony.

at some point, maybe the site will include the massive lists of like... "every single saint + their pygmalion's inherited aspect" and "notable divisions of the orbital crusades along with their mottos"

maybe I'll just have an actual setting material bible style release at some point that elaborates on political processes and government divisions of the nightmarish KHU mercantile republic council-board system too