#its absurd that we're hating on him for no reason

[miwiromantics]

It’s important that he made that video, no just because he’s a lawyer, but in fact because he’s a gay man who grew up in the 80’s and has personal experience with homophobia and heteronormativity during that time. His perspective is important.

Milevens always use the phenomena of straight women fetishizing gay men as a gotcha to discredit byler entirely. His mere existence forces them to drop that as an absolute truth and puts pressure on them and casual fans to actually consider it. Here we have someone that goes against that assumption and he’s using his own experiences and skills in law to make points that are very strong and deserve to be considered more broadly.

And let’s not pretend that a majority of us on here ourselves haven’t recycled stuff from years before, and have created our own interpretation through that. And good thing, because we’re better for it! It’s allowed us to rework a lot of earlier concepts and discover even more things people previously hadn’t. The reality is that a lot of stuff is understood now as not just one persons theory, but the reality of what the show may be trying to convey.

He’s also from this Tumblr himself and has been here for a while, so he is included in those that have provided evidence over the years. He’s not some outsider and to insinuate that he is, is just bullshit.

this!!! this is exactly how everybody should take it. why are we hating guys???? WHY ARE WE HATING???

thank you anon. thank you so much xxxx

[3416]

I really love equally 16-34-88.

It’s interesting the interchanging of the attitude of the fans and media towards William and Mitch.

For years, William was criticized over and over again. His relaxed and laid back attitude. His game. And his contract year back in 2018, he was in those trenches. And anyone who said anything positive about him was called crazy. And also, Don Cherry and his low key like discriminatory remarks due to the fact that he was Swedish and not the tough goon kind of playing style. He was also kind of the « guinea pig » (always changing line mates, and lines—and last year we saw that too, he’s always moving and they always throw new stuff) and he was , out of the core, the punching bag.

Now, Mitchy has always been criticized because of the toxic hyper masculine mindset of many hockey fans: he’s boyish and not buff and tough and all that jazz. But, he never got the hate and disrespect that he is getting at the end of last season and right now. He was however still well liked and respected and was often associated to Auston and scene in a more favorable light. He was second to Auston in the « it » boy factor. If this NHL documentary was made 2-3 years ago, Mitch would have been considered.

If you would have told that the Toronto fans and media would be all over William two seasons ago, I would have laughed. Like never would I have thought that I would see the day where people would actually give him credit and actually respect him and see the great things he adds. I love seeing that , but at what cost? For Mitch to become the punching bag of the team?

Fans are now saying how amazing Willy is and now figuring out that he is a good player and cool. But those same fans, a couple years ago were dragging him through the mud saying how useless he was and how he needed to get traded. And they liked Mitch. And they respected him. But now, you’ve « always hated Mitch Marner », « He should be traded ».

And I fear that it will always be this: once Mitch will be in the public’s good graces, something with William will happen and back to Mitch. It’s always been like this and will always stay this way. I don’t know why, I guess that’s the dynamic the city chose.

Even when it came to the core’s contracts: Willy and Mitchy always get this EXTRA je ne sais quoi. Like this extra negative energy and they can never satisfy anyone. They are greedy weaklings or whatever.

Also, I was thinking about Auston captaincy and it reminded me about how he was heavily considered in 2019 but the whole allegations and the story about him harassing this woman when he was drunk ruined that chance. And, people did criticize him and he got scrutinized. But, it kind of, I think, it fizzled away pretty quickly within the Toronto scene considering how heavy that story was. It doesn’t haunt him.

Now, if it was Mitch or William, people would bring it up and it would tarnish them way more. They could not escape it.

Sorry for the long ass rant, it’s just so funny and frustrating: if one gains recognition, the other one has to go down.

gonna start out by saying i don't think mitch/auston/other ppl weren't asked about the doc. i think they're way more private esp in a time that was gearing up for the playoffs, lol. and i think anyone with a brain right now knows mitch is still the second best player on the leafs. everyone just gets high off point totals alone from the prior seasons.. like i seriously saw ppl claiming matthew tkachuk would be drafted higher than auston after the 22-23 season, lolll.

i agree there's a divide about them in the coverage and i have a lot of thoughts of my own about this too. i'm not a longterm leafs fan beyond the past couple of years so i can't speak to how willy or mitch were treated before 2022 beyond old headlines/stuff i've seen but not lived through, but i've definitely been here for the shift about mitch lately and well...

i think some of it is by virtue of them playing the same position. everyone 'has an issue' with the core 4 (ive never understood who the fuck the core 4 even refers to.. sometimes its about the forwards, sometimes its about the leadership group flkdjsklf... whatever fits the current narrative ig) being all forwards and taking up the cap bc that's not 'proven', but it's such a bullshit excuse. i think if you look at their contract situations of the past, willy did a lot of things mitch is getting shit for now, lol. he did hold out into the season for money while mitch gets lambasted for using that as a negotiation tactic (which again.. i wasnt around for those negotiations and i get it was ugly to ... leak or use public perception or whatever but) on those first contracts. willy's father was also involved in his holding out in the most recent negotiations but that's not smth i see thrown around at him despite every comment under every post about mitch including paul's name without him so much as uttering the word contract, lol. it's frustrating to me to see the double standards at this point. i understand longtime fans have lived through shit about willy, but i have a hard time imagining the vitriol levels of right now being topped. it's just every single day about every single thing compounded by the fact that leafs fans have even less hope than they used to bc of how many years in a row they've lost.

i admittedly don't love them equally at all, and if anything, the fanfare about willy the past year has made me like him less. it's not really his fault but i do think he's slightly overpaid now (and watching ppl now claim mitch has to take willys deal or less is hilarious) and overhyped for what he actually brings. his playoff stats are being overrated too. since it all comes at a cost to mitch in the media, it's been way worse to watch for me and unavoidable that i come away feeling negative about him, lol.

i'd be interested to see if the tides ever do turn back toward willy now that he's bulked up, grown facial hair, proven he can score with an up-to-this-point useless clutchness. i doubt they will, but i have a hard time envisioning what's gonna happen after mitch signs an extension and who will become the scapegoat w players locked up for more years. the constant hate has to get exhausting at some point, right? like jflkjdsklf... but not with leaf fans so who knows what will happen. i can't really say what would have happened if mitch or willy were ever involved in scandal like that, but i think if it happened right now, ppl would be ready to forgive willy for anything and sentence mitch to death over nothing so. some people were blaming him for his own carjacking when it happened like.. lol. i can't see into the future but all i know is i'm VERY fed up with the way coverage and reaction is right now. and i don't even think the media is an accurate depiction of how a lot of fans feel about any of it, but if it's hammered home enough... idk.

[soodoonimin]

Wade Wilson and the self:

So I’ve stated before I’m not Deadpool’s #1 fan BUT I am reading some of his comics alongside Wolvie's so I thought I’d give a character analysis a shot. This is going to be shorter than my Logan one because unfortunately I’m just not as in tune with the character, I’m super sorry but I hope it’s still good! :)

Some imagines are kind of graphic and gross so beware.

Dear Wade Wilson,

Who are you? No really who are you? Because as you may already know you’ve had many writers over the years, your character has changed drastically in the 33 years you’ve been ink on a page. So who are you?

Deadpool is an enigma, except for the fact that he isn’t. He both is and isn’t a good person. He’s someone who keeps a blind elderly woman hostage in his apartment and someone who talks teenagers down from the literal ledge. He is actually a pretty smart person depsite the million different ways he acts like a complete dumbass.

So here’s what I find kind of funny (sad) about Deadpool. He seems to also believe himself to be a monster (which is something we talked about with Logan) but the difference is between Logan and Deadpool is also where they’re the same and this little bit about him comes up a lot. See Deadpool had a little more of a fighting chance than Logan when it came to living a "normal" life but because of circumstances outside of his control he was walked down the path he currently finds himself on and when he actually realized where he was and what he was to people, he was utterly mortified by it.

People react to these kinds of things diffrently and that reaction isn't static, it can change over time. For Wade I think his general view on his situation is kind of mix of nihilistic and absurd. And he regularly toes the line between caring, not caring and doing whatever for the lols. (of course this depending on who writing him bc Wade does change a lot depending on the writing BUT I think that just fits so well with his character).

Wade uses humor to distract from his pain (both physical and emotional) but I also kind of think that him being annoying, him letting people hate him is just a way he punishes himself for just existing. It's easy and it requires very little work on his part and in a weird way it gives him an excuse to not care about the world.

Especially because he believes he's not really a person, because he believes he's a comic book character.

And so I have this HC about him and his 4th wall breaking abilities. See, I don't think the reason he's “crazy” is because of the torture of the Weapon X (or weapon plus or whatever) program or because of his cancer. I think Wade is crazy because when he finally "woke up" and saw what was had happened to his life, when he saw what he'd become and all the terrible things he did, I think that's what what broke him. Because I think that for all the terrible terrible things Wades does/has done he is still a good person to some extent, he still has a good heart and so imagine you're a kind person, who looks back one day and you see all the terrible things you've done. All the people killed. Everything. How do you cope with that exactly? Well if. you're Wade Wilson, I think first you start by adopting a world view that makes those realities easier to swallow and two I think you stop believing in reality.

I think him breaking the fourth wall is in a way him disassociating into our reality the same way many of us disassociate into his. That's how he's able to have that connections with us but because we're unable to respond to him and because he can't *actually* see us it does very little to comfort him.

What worse about this though is he doesn't really have much if any connection with the people around him. Like yes, he does have his daughter and his friends but the things is, its impossible for him to truly connect with those people in his life because he doesn't see himself as worth that love.

So specifically in the WW3 comic I think the reason he picks Logan as the person to help him is because he kind of already knows Logan doesn't like him BUT he can't help but feel this kind of kinship with the mutant and he know Logan is a genuinely good person and wouldn't just leave him to die. It's a little manipulative but he's desperate.

The thing is (especially in that comic) he doesn’t see how him and Logan are different.

See Logan’s “monster” is more or less, real and it's something he had no control over. His mutation (the very thing he fears) would have always come to disrupt his life, would have always made him a monster in the eyes of others if not himself and so in some ways, Logan was set up for failure at the start.

Wade on the other hand is different in that like all of us he made choices (that were yes heavily influenced by bad circumstance) and there is a possibility that had he his childhood been significantly better or not gotten diagnosed with cancer, he may have walked a less destructive path. The “monster” that he'd become might not haven't never existed because there isn't anything wrong with Wade and there isn't anything about Wade (that doesn't have to do with the Weapon X program) that people would have any reason to inherently hate.

As it stands though, he knows he’s done bad things and although he knows he can’t make up for them, he also doesn’t know how to forgive himself, I doubt he'd even want to if he knew how. In the WW3 comic he almost spells out that he feels like a lesser version of Wolverine because of how he got his abilities.

To him every other hero, from his childhood hero (Captain American) to his current totally best friend (Spider Man) or his other best friend (Nate Summer) are all just a reminder to him of how inadequate he will always be. What's funny to me about the his relationship with all three of these people. (despite the fact that they all make him feel the same kind of inadequacy) is how he treats them.

W/ Cap he treats him the way you might treat your idol. Serious and with respect.

W/ Spidy, he literally fawns over him, is practically in love with him, he's constantly looking after him and in a weird way seeks to be like him.

W/ Cable is where it's interesting because Wade almost never misses an opportunity to mock Cable. Never misses an opportunity to try to a blow to his ego despite the fact that they are technically friends.

What the difference?

W/ Cap it’s because exactly as I said before, that’s his hero. The man he idolizes and will forever wish he could be.

W/ Spidy its more interesting bc I think his obsession w/ Spider-Man is more to do with the fact that he envies him. He envies his (for lack of a better work) innocence. He is envies his moral convictions and he in some respects envies the life he imagines spidy must live. But instead of letting that envy turn him green I think he unconsciously channels into that obsessive behavior.

And W/ Cable, I think it has a a lot to do with the fact that Cable (like many) does call Wade out on his shit, it isn’t necessarily about kill but it’s seems like when Wade and Cable butt heads, it’s less black and white philosophy on the ethics of killing and more the morality of actions and inaction and what that means for the people involved (we’ll get there don’t worry).

So here's kind of where I'm going to go into a soft rant about heroes in the Marvel universe. I think the no killing rule is fine. I understand the idea, especially for heroes like Spider Man, why "no killing" is a rule one is inclined to follow. What I do often find very frustrating is the moral superiority that certain heroes take on when following that rule and how they apply that to their fellow crime fighters. Yes I know Wade is a nitrous mercenary and so he isn't always killing for "moral" reasons but when he takes that skill set into the hero business I do feel like he gets shit on more than he deserves idk, maybe my hate for Spider-Man supersedes my (relative) disinterest in Deadpool that I’m willing to defend some murder if it means spiting the web head.

Back on track…

So in the WW3 comic, I think the real reasons Wade's 'becoming' (or his attempt to be human as he believed it to be) failed is because in some respects Delta was right. Wade put too much stock into the idea that he and Wolverine were one and the same and the issue is, he was wrong. Of course, not because Wolverine is a monster but because Logan and Wade face a similar challenge, just on a different plane of existence.

Logan's challenges are all about accepting who he and seeing the good within himself, seeing that yes the monster he's scared of does exist and it does live under his skin but that monster isn’t him in any meaningful way.

Wade's problems are more in line that he can't see the good that already exists in himself. He can’t see that his will and desire to change puts him leagues ahead of where he thinks he is. See I think what some people tend to forget in the idea of healing is that you do need to be able to forgive yourself for whatever you did in the past. I think Wade doesn’t understand that just because the world may never see him as nothing more than a “overpriced mercenary” that doesn’t necessarily mean that’s all he is.

I think Wade failed in the WW3 comic (and I think the reason his character struggles so much with himself) is because he underestimates his own humanity. And in the WW3 comic specifically he expected a quick fix to his perceived problem and when nothing changed he was faced with the reality that most of us have to face at some point or another. That there is nothing wrong with us. We might have flaws, yeah everyone does but in our core there’s nothing “wrong” and when Wade was faced with that reality I think he understood it (especially considering the ending of this comic) but I wonder if he was a real person, would he be able to apply that lesson to himself? Who knows…

However I think for his character, a bit of his self-image struggles may also have to do with what he sees in the mirror (literally) and that means something because aside from adding to the tragedy of his character I think his scarred face says something about how the world sees him rather than how he sees himself.

Why do I think that? Well here’s this thing right. In the Spidey-Deadpool comics, Wade makes a deal with his love (Lady Death) and basically in order to save Spider Man he has to “pay a price” so here’s the thing. In the very next set of comics Wade’s scars are gone he looks normal and I’ve seen a lot of people interpret this normal look at his outside reflecting his inside and all that and like yes BUT. What I really don’t see most people talk about is that his wife (Shiklah) over the course of the comics stops finding his attractive and like yeah some of this is a result of him trying to be a good guy but there are also times when she directly tells him he looks disgusting even though he looks normal. So for one reason or another death made him look normal but as a direct result of this, he essentially sacrificed his marriage.

This gets even more confusing because when he's forced to kill Itsy Bitsy, he basically immediately goes back to looking kind of gross again even though this was another sacrifice he had to make. I think maybe the way that he looks (at least in that Spider Man run is more of a reflection of his conscience) I think in a weird way Death cleared his guilt and thus gave him his face back but when he was forced to kill again (no matter how justified) that guilt overwhelmed him and boom his back to looking that way again.

I don't know if he would know this directly but I think its very fitting with his character that his outward appearance has less to do with his actual culpability and more about how he feels about that situation because again Deadpool does a lot of shitty things but more or less for the right reasons but regardless he never feels good about any of it.

This is also funny though, because of his lack of self esteem and desperate desire to be seen as a good guy, he’ll do things that would undoubtedly put in him on the wrong side of history for the express purpose of feeling better about his actions.

Take him being on the side of the Super Human Registration Act during Civil War. I don’t doubt that he justifies his actions to himself by saying “those kids that died could have been my daughter” (because he does say this) but during his fight with Cable (see told you we’d come back to him) it isn’t his ideals that are being challenged. No, actually what was being called into question was his morality and the very thing (at the time), that he’d put a lot of his self worth stock into was shown to be extremely corrupt (and by his best friend no less). Wade is looking for anything and everything to grasp onto that isn’t himself that will give his life meaning. Even if it is a corrupt system, he’s willing to look the other way if gives him the feeling of being more than he think that he is and yet I don't think he realizes that that thing he's been looking for has been right in front of him for a while now.

Part of me wonders how Wade sees his relationship with Ellie. Because unlike Logan, his relationship with her isn’t strained because sees too much of himself in her, in fact from what I can tell they have a very loving relationship despite the fact that Wade doesn’t believe himself to be worthy of being Ellie’s dad. And kind of going back to the WW3 comic, what I find super interesting and very sad is how Logan and Wade are so similar in so many way but also so very different. Where Logan sees his (many) children and sees all the ways he's failed them , all the things wrong with himself, all the ways he fucked up and all the things that were taken from him, and thus he tries to distance himself from them in every way possible.

Wade sees Ellie and he see the one and only good thing about him and like a truly good parent he nurtures that brightness in her (not a diss on Logan's parenting btw but this about Wade lmao) and although he does keep his distance because of the nature of his work and the nature of himself he doesn’t alienate her from his life. In some weird way, I think the fact that Wade does keep his distance from Ellie in the way that he does actually makes their relationship stronger and I think it speaks deeply to the goodness of Wade that he tried to deny exists.

The way I read Wade Wilson is a representation of, no matter how badly we may fuck up in life, no matter how many mistakes we might make or how many times we might make those same mistakes, we should never give up on being better even if it means losing people along the way. And we should recognize that “being better” is not only hard but also that it isn’t always contingent on what others think of you. You’re always going to be annoying, or rude, or obnoxious or whatever in someone’s eyes for whatever reasons (and sometimes they might be right) but at the end of the day if you are kind and you care and know that you did the best you could then what more could the world ask from you?

[cosmicjoke]

I swear to god, if I see one more person say Levi wanted to kill Zeke for "revenge" and blubber on about how revenge "blinded" him and that's why he got caught in the thunderspear explosion, I think I'll throw myself off a cliff.

It had nothing to do with revenge, or a desire for self-satisfaction. It was an entirely selfless pursuit, undertaken in the memory and in honor of his fallen comrades, the ones who gave their lives that day in Shinganshina. I've been over this so many times, I'm not going to go over it again in detail here. But anyone who doesn't yet understand that is, I'm sorry, fundamentally flawed in their understanding of Levi's character. This isn't an interpretation. Levi explicitly states that the reason he wants to kill Zeke is to prove his comrades deaths had meaning. He says it. Not only is the idea that Levi wanted Zeke dead for revenge and that he was "blinded" by that desire fundamentally flawed in its understanding of Levi's character, it also completely lacks logic. If Levi was really "blinded" by a quest for revenge, he would have just killed Zeke at the first opportunity he had, regardless of the consequences. He would have killed him in Shinganshina. He would have killed him in Liberio. He would have killed him in the forest. And yet, he didn't, specifically because he wasn't blinded by his need to kill Zeke at all. He had a calm and rational mind about it the entire time, one he continued to exercise to the very end.

And this idea that Levi getting caught in the thunderspear explosion was some sort of "comeuppance" for his violence or his blind desire for Zeke's blood is equally illogical and absurd, and again, completely misunderstands the source of Levi's rage in that moment. Anyone who claims so is engaging in some serious, holier than thou moralizing. Levi torturing Zeke in the cart on the way back to the Capital had nothing to do with his vow to kill him. Levi was grieving, and in a massive amount of emotional distress, because Zeke had just forced him to kill nearly 30 of his own comrades. Men and women Levi had, as with all his comrades, sworn to protect and people for whom he was directly responsible. People that posit this idea that Levi somehow deserved to "pay" for his anger in this moment are essentially claiming that it's always "wrong" to hate or be angry at someone when they've brutally wronged you. That we're always supposed to be "the bigger person" and "forgive" them and "turn the other cheek" and all that moralistic bullshit, and if you don't, then you deserve every bad thing that comes your way. Get the fuck out of here. Levi had EVERY right to be as angry as he was in that moment, and I'm sorry, but anyone who denies him that right is an asshole, and a hypocrite, because there's no such thing as anyone who wouldn't have been viciously, violently angry at someone who had just forced you into slaughtering your own friends and colleagues. Taken especially within the context of who Levi is, with the understanding of how driven he is by the need to protect life and help people, with how much value he places on people's lives, it puts into perspective just exactly how cruel it was what Zeke did to him. How exactly was Levi meant to react? Are we meant to judge him for being as angry as he was? For resorting to violence? Is anyone really going to sit here with a straight face and claim that they wouldn't have felt and done exactly the same in his shoes? I don't buy that for a minute. Most people wouldn't have even possessed Levi's level of restraint. They would have simply killed Zeke, and to hell with the consequences.

Further, Levi's very words to Hange about not understanding how prepared Zeke was to die show that he wasn't purely fueled by anger either, in this moment. It was a rational choice on his part to hook Zeke up to that thunderspear, insurance against his attempted escape, because he believed Zeke wasn't prepared to die, something I've talked about before, here: https://www.tumblr.com/cosmicjoke/746918499422781440/one-thing-i-dont-think-people-really-consider?source=share

Further still, if Isayama had intended for Levi’s desire to kill Zeke to be interpreted as revenge, and all the negative connotations of that, he would have had Levi realize the foolishness of his actions immediately after nearly being blown to Kingdom Come, and shown him remorseful and regretful in that moment over wanting Zeke dead, since, supposedly, him nearly dying was meant to be his lesson and punishment in the foolhardiness of revenge’s pursuit, according to these people. Yet Levi showed no such remorse or regret for wanting Zeke dead, only for him not understanding Zeke’s willingness to die. And Isayama himself wouldn’t have spoken about one of the reasons he didn’t kill Levi being how Levi’s journey wouldn’t be complete without him fulfilling his vow. Levi’s desire to kill Zeke was never framed in a negative light for a reason.

This total misinterpretation of Levi's motives with regard to Zeke is the source of so many of the negative and hateful views about his character that we see floating around, and yet it's continually perpetuated by people, over and over again, and I'm sick of it.

Levi never wanted revenge. He only ever wanted to ensure his comrades didn't die for nothing. It was a noble goal. Revenge isn't noble. But wanting to honor your friends and comrades memories and lives is. Levi never deserved to be punished for that, and honestly, fuck you to anyone who says he did. It takes a particular and acute lack of self-awareness and arrogance for anyone to make such a sickening and cruel claim.

[goodluckclove]

A Literary Hot Take I Fear Posting

A childhood friend who I've known since the second grade just texted me yesterday to ask why I was reading Atlas Shrugged in the eighth grade. I was 12 years old just casually reading Ayn Rand. He pegged this at the time as odd, but it took him another 15 years to ask me about it.

Such whiplash. Statue of limitations doesn't apply to books, I guess. I responded first by saying how I was already reading Kafka and Kerouac, so it's really not a crazy leap in terms of reading materials. I then went on to insist that Atlas Shrugged is a pretty fucking wild ride, an insane capitalistic melodrama written by the creator of a philosophy that sounds sort of, partially cool when only on paper and not applied at all. Atlas Shrugged is way more entertaining than The Fountainhead, as it was written once Objectivism was fully formed and Rand was comfortable giving a majority of her attention to just one of the most bonkers stories I've ever read.

Before I get into this if you are someone fully unfamiliar with Ayn Rand, one of her major controversies relates to repeated SA references in her writing. It's not the only thing I talk about but I kind of have to mention it so like tread careful.

There's a death ray in Atlas Shrugged. Literal death ray. It's mentioned in one chapter and I'm pretty sure it's dropped completely after that. There's a secret society of industrialists and creators who live in a mountain and hide their existence via invisibility force field. There is one point where it turns into a manifesto during John Galt's sixty page speech, but also around that time there's like a literal action movie recon mission with guns and explosives and a helicopter.

Listen. Listen to me. I do not think Ayn Rand is a great person. Her philosophy was helpful to me back when I had only read just the grimmest shit imaginable, but on its own it falls apart immediately. The average Ayn Rand hero is an industrialist and CEO who is also perfectly capable of manual labor in their industry and partakes in it whenever needed. This is fun to imagine but also not a thing I don't think actually exists.

If you really truly despise Ayn Rand (some people do hate her to a degree I always found a little off), I can't say you don't have your reasons. I do have a feeling that a fair amount of the people that really hate her, as well as really love her, probably never finished one of her 1000-page tombs. Which is fine. Her philosophy is so extreme, even if it was created as a product of her formative years in the Soviet Union, that it's bound to trigger strong emotions immediately. Plus Rand's view on gender was just - just so deeply strange. Misogynist, but - like - incoherently misogynist? Super odd.

People know about Ayn Rand's thinly-veiled rape kink. It's a lot, especially in The Fountainhead. It's also executed strangely. There is a clear argument that it fits within the motifs of the characters and the story as a whole. There is a repeated reference of things being broken, of beauty and the desire to hold onto beauty - either to hide it, destroy it, or destroy and rebuild it. It comes up a lot with multiple characters and arcs. In that way a rape works as an extension of the themes already established, but the fact that it's a meet-cute start of a romance that we're supposed to support as a reader is uh - oof! Weird for me!

Also she proudly called herself a "male chauvinist" which - I don't know, Ayn! I think that's an inside thought, my friend!

Once again - I'm not an Objectivist. If anything in terms of philosophy I'm still between Existentialism and Absurdism. Rand's whole thing (Which I must stress is more magic system than applicable ideology in terms of realism) is not doing great things for society because it is based on a foundation that is already not real. I found some sort of shy appreciation for fragments of her beliefs that struck me as novel as someone in a deeply abusive environment. I will always have a strong sentimental connection to The Fountainhead, even though it's riddled with faults, because I read it the first time after my mom's suicide attempt. It helped to have something idealistic and heroic to cling to, even if the power fantasy is only grounded in the real world in the sense that architects are a job some people can get.

However, I stand by the belief that in an alternate reality Ayn Rand would've produced the best soap opera of all time. Pretty much all her batshit plot developments would work perfectly in a soap opera setting. People wouldn't bat an eye, I swear to god.

[iridescentscarecrow]

self indulgent semi critical stream of consciousness thoughts on p2 & csm's writing style --

re: the comedy point: i do say this a lot but fujimoto uses the same tension for both comedy & horror -- the punchline of a Joke disrupts just as a rupture of tension -> horror occurs. & this is why i appreciate the writing last chapter, personally. the crassness/hilarity to it almost contributes to how i'm reading it. he hates his body/the body becomes a point of comedic objection. this kind of relies on being able to see how this meshing of telling & character overlap: which i find q. compelling re: how sexual trauma works, the way it kind of deprecates, lessens your sense of self. it's a story very lived in & deeply Felt wrt how all its characters are written (the butt of the joke refuses to simply Be that, if it makes sense. kobeni's distress in the family burger chs is hilarious but its also a haunting, empathetic, portrait of corporate/family violence; comedy further built on the hollowness of what the CSM being there/going through This Motion means.)

this for sure won't work for every reader, tbh, & i understand this because it's a fine line to tread between portraying this effectively & it just coming off as insensitive. i'm personally very interested in genres & working within genres|how horror/comedy/character presentations conflict, intersect so i'm enjoying it... but it's true that p2 often feels hollower of a story than p1 & this isn't Bad, per se: i think what fjmt is trying to say is a lot more ambitious, a lot more immersed in technique - that it often takes away from some of the contemplative rawness (which does, by contrast, feature in some of p2's more widely loved chapters) that fills p1. p2's ruptures of tension are more at the forefront, a lot of the frame behind it is *so* based on minimal technical nuance that it doesn't really nestle onto you in the same way, if that makes sense? i'm mostly positive about plot elements on main but i've been eyeing the asa erasure with skepticism for a while. it's really a much weaker story without her, no matter what thematic point that i think is being made here. i mean, perhaps because when you deplete the asa to the story you're left with denji - who is mostly *passive*, doesn't produce narrative (unlike asa/makima) which writes the story for you. denji's brilliance is in spurts, contrasted/set against other character's selves - often in refutation of them - in a desperate kind of <proof of life>, of having been imbued with thus written experience, of this being so deeply felt - & this is what gets to fans too, i feel. his life as visible through <written> form/against, caught within structure & other's wants. this is also why i think those nayuta chapters (as an extension of mkm) were so great because of what it did for nayuta & denji. you see him through her eyes, & then you see *him.* i think the issue with asa is that a large amt of her character also has like a (similar to denji) self hate, a repression which makes itself known very well when we're inside her head but atp rn we can't see that at all, because she's modelled herself (& i think this is rlly cool narratively) around the idea of the CSM she's meant to work as an extension of. & this self modelling paired w. being Out of her head makes her feel (to me) awfully flat. & this is upsetting, because i really like asa!

but at some levels i appreciate the ambition to p2's greater story that i can forgive individual characters being diluted in the fray. but this isn't true for everyone | shouldn't even be because csm is a story *felt* through its characters, within its absurdity... the reason most people like it is because aspects of it resonate with them. & this kind of jarr is pretty much fjmt's biggest writing issue - it's what i've personally criticised / seen others criticise w. p1 (power's character's writing towards the end) & it's why i see people rightfully criticise p2.

this is already a very self indulgent thread so i'm also going to bring up *why* i like characters such as reze, makima, togata: their character presentation compels enough to really intertwine with the flesh of them in ways that are... kind of hard to ignore to fully receive the story. if that makes sense: their surface is so much condensed trope.. in fact, this is true of even aki who i think i'd argue is the best written character in p1 functioning outside the (makima-denji) centre w. the revenge trope.

anyway: it's kind of also because of these reasons that i feel that p2 will just *work* better when read as a whole,, because of the frame fjmt has himself set up it becomes a little difficult to resonate w. it in individual moment, chapter to chapter, because atp you have to either be (a) incredibly aware of this larger structure which is... difficult to do for a weekly release at least to sustain a good amt of immersion or (b) recognise the narrative that emanates from trauma reltd. mechanism & since this is more personal: it's harder to find yourself here & it becomes.. disconnected, frustrating moment after moment where it becomes not just a <character work> but a <one character work>. & i find this hits in these instances w. people who empathise w. denji as do i! but i find little discussion of this as Implication rippling into story structure (although fjmt's story is built on/into his main character as it was in p1)... it's Hard without a writing force like mkm to make denji cohere into a largely invisible narrative.

honestly could talk more about this for ages:: even wrt. my issues with like... a large amount of the back half of Fire Punch which don't come from a place of thematic incoherency at all. i legit feel fujimoto needs a frame for his story to work <within instance> & i see him trying to bring in katana etc. here (& other male characters) in order to deploy what he's saying but their framings don't.. linger enough to really grip into you as Story imo. the single family callback into p1 makima shook me far more.

wishful thought but i think asa's head would be interesting to get into because we *have* yuko there as meaningful setup in order to really direction... i loved the yuko dialogue use in 165 but her ghost feels. Almost too subtle rn, imo. this is just like,,, a small portion of my thoughts regarding p2 & its criticisms rn;; bear in mind, i really like/hold bias towards the themes p2 is playing with [concurrs a lot w. my interests] but i also really enjoy going on & on about storytelling technique LMAO. i'm looking forward to seeing how this arc concludes.

[pokenoire]

What are some of your favorite episodes from the Pokémon series? Like from OS, JN, XY, etc.

Also do you play any of the Pokemon games? Or have? Or do you just watch the anime? : )

I was going to post it yesterday but I got very sleepy and the text was getting huge.

Well, let's take it one step at a time. My favorite XY is definitely 053 A Race for a Home. This episode has enormous importance for my emotional and personal life, it changed absolutely everything about me at the time of XY, Serena was already a favorite but this episode only consolidated my Kinnie even more.

OS - I can't really decide on favorites but I would definitely say the original Kanto trio, This saga was part of my childhood, so much so that's why I SIMPLY DEFEND IT WITH TOOTH AND NAILS. Wow it's just surreal how I can watch the original Kanto trio as many times as I can and still love them every time I rewatch each one. How much I admire the characters of Kanto-Jotho and Shudo's writing is some of the best in the show, I always say this but personally no one has written Pokemon like Shudo with such depth and such a world which I engaged so much, Of course it has its general flaws... but the world of Pokémon and humans was so palpable, so real, you could find ordinary people doing absurd things and still be the character of the day. They could be the vigilantes and help someone at the end of the day but not everyone had redemption or a reason behind it. I praise Shudo a lot for his writing 🥰

That said, if there wasn't Lucario movie 08, due to its themes, M01 would definitely take that podium.

We're not talking about the movies but I watched and repeated M03 on my old laptop like crazy on loop

Gotcha cath ya later definitely made me cry and still does for the farewell of the original trio, seeing them again in Alola and Mezase Pokemon Master was spectacular 🧡💚❤️ I MISSED THESE THREE TOGETHER SO MUCH

I Choose You marked my childhood a lot. I recorded and told all the references to this episode in Journeys while watching Journeys. It's simply special.

I can hear Rica San and Fábio Lucindo voice's when Ash saves Pikachu and Pikachu responds to this

Goodbye Pikachu THIS ONE MAKES ME TEARS TO THIS DAY, even though I know he's coming back, it still hits me SO DEEP.

I DESPISE THE MOVIE 20 sorry but even Masuda agreed (this movie totally disrespects my childhood)

LOL I SPENT A WHOLE THREAD PRAISING KANTO

I like the construction of Jotho I found out that people hate/don't likeJotho I was shocked 🤡💀

Well I like Charizard and Bayleaff despite the obvious jealousy towards Pikachu it never irritated me...One of the most important things about Jotho is that Ash trains his Pokemon in an unconventional way for the first time.

I have a whole blog about why Scraggy is my favorite BW Pokémon and this is one of my favorite ones:

https://www.tumblr.com/pokenoire/767063768884707328/i-will-never-understand-the-comparisons-between?source=share

Now we start with the peak: Diamond and Pearl

This saga is so complete, it has almost no flaws, it has exactly everything that I also love, the characters are captivating, the plot knew where it was working, and despite Torterra's arcs it will be my favorite starter despite people clearly having a fondness for infernape, i should really make a thread about how they had to be a dynamic duo

All Pokemon are captivating, they all have their screen space, they have their training spread throughout the complex plot that serves them.

Ash and Dawn have a group and duo dynamic that simply makes it clear how they are each other's co-progenitors.

TEARS OF CHINCHAR is another episode that brings rivers of tears

IRIS IS THE BEST OF BW AND HER HATERS CAN EXPLODE, I'm not a fan of Cillan unlike most, I don't hate him I just don't find him very interesting and neither do the episodes focused on him)

Hoeen - I have the same problem with OS, I can't decide on just one favorite episode, I love every part and character of this show with all my heart. However, I can say that it took me a month to rewatch Togetic's farewell. This broke my heart again, I like the conversation Max has with Misty in the battle frontier about siblings...I have nothing against Max, he's not bad as a character and people exaggerate because he's a kid. I like Torkal, no matter who says bad things about him, I think Pokemon with personality is wonderful.

Idk about SM I definitely get the whole Nebby arc, it's the first time I've JUST BEEN shocked by the deep relationship between Pokemon and legendary trainer after movie one and the special that absolutely no one saw it [this is hyperbole] (i was confused when people didn't know mewtho returns).

Anyway, I'll try to talk less lol, Journeys I love all the Goh episodes, I even rewatched some of the episodes I hate the most (Arceus and Sinnoh specials) just to remember Chloé/Koharu's development, I care about all the characters and don't want to go too far against their characterization in their specific series. Who knows when I'll need to defend Chloé lmao.

--

Answering your question yes I played emulated Pokemon on my PC in 2010, my cousin in particular is a genrwunner i'm not kidding lol so i made sure to learn how to play

Even though I love Kanto games I prefer GBC (Game by color) to Fire Red and Leaf Green

Even though I love generation 3 in the anime I HATE RSE GAMES SORRY HOEEN FANS.

Well my favorite region is Sinnoh in games, and my favorite games are BW and BW2

I finished the GSC - GBC but never did the HGSS Battle Frontier, only the Emerald one, ironically enough.

✨ One of my favorite things is that Pokemon Yellow was released in English in 1999, my birth year.

I have a game of Inazuma Eleven o 1 European It's funny how I got an NDS game of Ina11 before I got a Pokemon game

[unhingedkinfessions]

so like. we're in this discord server and its p sick lol theres not many issues with it tbh but there is smth thats been botherin me and ive gotta get it out somewhere so that i dont feel like an asshole for sayin it in the server itself its very 'kin focused, a lot of ppl in the server are otherkin. so we have a channel for ppl to talk about 'kin stuff. only issue is that its open to anyone who joins the server. which wouldnt be an issue if we didnt have the occasional person join whos a 'normie' and then they automatically have access to the kin channel. we're also all very anti-kff and are very open abt how those ppl arent welcome in our space and are fine with explainin the dif if needed this is context needed for what imma talk abt lol so theres this guy in the server, we'll call him G, and he's just some dude who is in the server and exists in our space. which is totes fine. but. G has a bad bad habit of thinking that being kin = relating to a character/having a comfort character. and we (several members of the server + the owner) have explained that he is wrong several times. he asks what 'kinning' is and we explain. we explain at least once a week atp but for some reason, it just isnt clickin for the guy. that or he is blatantly ignorin us anytime we explain it. but the thing is. he blames not understandin on his autism/adhd. which is genuinely the most bullshit thing ive ever heard bc like. most of us HAVE autism/adhd and we're like... come on dude.... i understand not gettin social norms and shit but at this point, its gettin absurd. it doesnt help that he also blatantly ignores ppl's boundaries and continues to post things that make ppl uncomfortable and then once again, blaming his neurodivergence for his actions. which again. most bullshit thing ive ever heard. i genuinely dont know why this fucker is still in the server atp. he doesnt respect any of us. he's even gone as far as to try and use tupperbox (which we have for system + kin use) for his 'fandoms' as he says. and then ignoring when i told him that he's NOT ALLOWED to do this. genuinely i cannot fucking stand this guy and i want him out of the server because fuck him. if you cant respect our space or us you can get the fuck out. stop acting like you're kin when you say you dont even know what being kin means. stop ignoring us when we try to explain it to you. stop acting like you're absolved from any repercussions just bc you're autistic and downt undewstand uwu fuckin. shut the hell up dude i hate your bitchass. petition for the server owner to ban his ass the next time he says some stupid bullshit

also ik someone from said server follows this blog so hiiii if u see this <333 ik u agree with me bc weve talked abt it before <3333 love you dude /p ur so cool

girl what the fuck

ruling:

[illusoryfem]

who said that

Is this about the Stanford Prison Experiment post? About it being a scam (read: good example of how not to run a scientific experiment. Its author kept riding on the thing because it offers an amusing, shocking narrative and therefore attention and money)? I hope it is. I love writing.

More than a few people said it. Erich Fromm was calling out its blatant flaws in 1972, and a little later on similar experiments ended very differently than the SPE did, which further shows that Zimbardo, the prof. in charge of the SPE, manipulated it. I say further because we know it for a fact already. He manipulated the entire thing. I'd point to Le Texier's paper, who conducted a good analysis of the study.

❤️ Free PDF for U. 👊 Really read that if you have the time.

Okay, the thing is, this is the SPE shows us how pop psychology can run wild. The idea that "if you give someone power they become evil" is an adage that is readily accepted by many people, so when folks at a famous university publish a paper claiming that that is correct (Human Nature is Evil! Everyone is Manipulated super Easy! Even nice kids can easily turn Evil! Everyone is Evil if you push them a little!), many people will accept it without thinking twice. The SPE and how the world reacted to it is more an example of confirmation bias than good, accurate science. It made headlines, books and movies. Prof. Zimbardo wanted to sell that, maybe because he really believed it, who knows, but the matter of the fact is that the SPE pointed to the opposite, even as manipulated as it was.

To give you the short of it on why the SPE is trash academia.

The guards didn't spontaneously begin abusing the prisoners, they were told to do so by prof. Zimbardo. And even then, two thirds were reluctant to abuse the prisoners.

The main thing to understand is that the guards did not know they were subjects in the study. When recruited, they thought the study's subjects were prisoners, and that the study was aimed at understanding how the prisoners would react when under extreme duress. Imagine how absurd it would be if someone paid you to punch someone (who was also getting paid and agreed to be punched), then you punched them, and all of a sudden the guy who paid you was going off Look at this nut punching people for no reason! This says something about human nature! We're all sadistic nuts deep down!

THIS IS NOT SERIOUS SCIENCE. THE GUARDS WERE ACTING.

(Jaffe, research assistant, has :0 jokingly :) called himself a "master sadist", by the way. Just so you know who helped run these things here. And sorry for yelling. I just hate that this thing still shows up in textbooks and informs peoples' view of the world.)

The men playing the guards needed money, and naturally they thought they needed to follow Zimbardo's instructions to stay on, even when they didn't want to.

The famous breakdown of one of the prisoners was faked because the guy wanted to leave.

Why?

Because he wanted to study and Zimbardo wouldn't let him out. He thought he'd be able to study inside. He wasn't.

Zimbardo barely kept notes. But that makes sense. If he actually wrote out the reality of the experiment (that the guards weren't acting truly sadistic and that the prisoners weren't that stressed out), him and his assistant wouldn't have material to "get on the media".

I could go on seriously I could but you get the picture. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a scam.

[pinchinschlimbah]

tysm for ur text post about noel... I'm seeing SO many people immediately hating on him and it's exhausting. he's not usually the type of person to speak up about things like this really (at least from what I've seen) so I doubt he's gonna say anything, but his comments on insta are now turned off/limited so its safe to say he knows what's happening and is probably horrified :/

Yes of course! Like I said in my previous post, I think it's incredibly dangerous to start condemning people purely by association and vague connections you've made in your own head without having any actual substantial evidence. I'm not going to assume Noel's current thoughts on the matter as much as I hope that he is indeed horrified, but I do know that it's fairly par for the course to close off public lines of communication and take longer than most would expect to formulate an official statement on something as sensitive as this because to do it right one should be consulting with their lawyers and agents and other knowledgeable people to make sure the statement is as airtight and well-informed as possible without room for further misinterpretation or complicating any possible legal endeavors at play, so it is absolutely not evidence of guilt that he hasn't said anything yet. As much as it would be nice to see him formally denounce Russell and support the victims, I agree with you that it's definitely not guaranteed and we shouldn't be holding our breath since he's generally such an offline and private person with very good reasons for mistrusting the tabloids still looking to demonize him whenever possible, and if he does end up not saying anything there's a million other reasons besides him being complicit as to why he did not speak out. And yeah, people assuming that the comments being turned off means he's definitely hiding something is absurd. First of all I think it's worth noting that most celebrities don't have exclusive access to their social medias and often have whole teams helping them run things because they themselves have better things to do, so it's very possible the comments being shut off wasn't even done or directed by Noel himself. Second, it would be extremely unwise right now for him to start responding off the cuff to random people in the comments just because they demand it. And third, my initial thought when I heard about it was well wouldn't anyone turn the comments off if they were being bombarded with harassment lobbing horrible accusations at them and pressuring them to speak publicly about something before they were ready? But hearing from multiple people that the comments were shut off after Russell's supporters started flooding the posts arguing Russell's innocence makes it make even more sense why the shutoff was done and less evidence of guilt. Also while I'm here something else I wanted to speak on is that since my previous post, a clip from BFQ 2007 has been going viral and reported on by tabloids as ~evidence~ of Noel being involved because rape jokes were being made that involved him, even though the only thing Noel says in the clip is "how dare you, we're not rapists" in response to Jonathan deciding for Lily that she needed to be forcibly kept away from Noel and Russell. (and if I may editorialize for a moment, news sources reported on Lily looking uncomfortable in the clip as a condemnation of Russell and Noel, but personally I think she seems more annoyed that Jonathan has declared this decision for her rather than letting her decide what she felt comfortable with, especially since later in the show she giddily brings up crimping and is clearly somewhat of a Boosh fan.) I hate to pull out the "it was a different time" excuse but I need y'all to remember or understand what things were like back then for context of what was going on there. Me Too hadn't happened yet and actual accusations of sexual misconduct were generally spread in whispers and kept pretty hush hush, it was unusual for such things to be made super public because public blame was much more likely to fall on the accuser than the accused. Since the recent accusations have come out, multiple people close to Russell at the time have gone on record as saying that while they were well aware of the scope of Russell's aggressive sexuality, they had no idea at the time that it was veering into nonconsensual behavior and were horrified to find out.

Rape jokes were, unfortunately, very common at that point, with the word "rape" being used pretty flippantly and not always accurately to how serious of an act the word is meant to convey. The push to eradicate rape jokes from comedy didn't start until several years later, my memory says somewhere around 2010-11? And at the time, "slut" (and similar terms) was one of the worst things you could call someone and promiscuity was highly demonized in popular culture. Again, the concept of "slut shaming" and push to normalize safe and consensual promiscuity didn't come up in popular culture until several years later. So what I see in that clip is Noel and Russell, who were both known for being sluts at that time, being demonized for that behavior (which was well known and well documented in the documentary) with what was meant to be a lighthearted joke that they wouldn't be able to help themselves around Lily, and Noel's internal thought process at that point was most likely something like "Well, I'm a slut who's been demonized for it but I'm not a predator, so I assume the same is true for Russell." I don't believe this clip shows any reasonable guilt or association on Noel's part.

I understand the impulse to not want to support anyone who's done anything terrible, but if we're deeming people guilty by association so anyone who's ever worked or been friends with someone who did something bad is also bad just purely by that association with no other hard evidence, soon you'll have boxed yourself into a corner of having nothing that's safe to enjoy or interact with, and that's no way to live. Like I said previously I'm fully ready to jump ship if actual problems directly involving Noel do arise, but for the moment I do believe the panic and vitriol towards him is unjustified and I'll be continuing business as usual until further notice.

[falsenote]

ok finally one good update that you can put a read more on posts in the app like you don't need to see this yessss

anyway i watched la piscine and face to face yesterday bc i had a realization recently that when i was binge watching the romy filmography and during that i've read her biography it really made me lose all motivation to watch la piscine in particular so i skipped just that one and when i was doing the same w the gian maria filmography and read his bio also the same thing happened w face to face jsvshwnjs. and it was such a funny connection to make so i was like what if... i watched these after all, back to back, even though i still don't care about either films? like the line of thought was that bc of this experiment it would make the films at least a little bit interesting. like two negatives making a positive. well did the films turn out to be good? no they were fucking annoying i was right all along. was making myself watch two films that i was sure i would hate, funny? yes a bit.

although they varied a little like w face to face i knew it'd be a blatant didactic eye rolling moment and in the first place i didn't want to watch bc in the bio they say almost a comical amount of times how much he hated doing these westerns and i was like fine fine i won't watch any more of them then. on this note there's almost something sad about reading the letterboxd reviews calling this his best performance but what can you do. and well the film in question was not very good yes. rather annoying i would argue. the way it was put together was kind of sending me like the unbelievable dialogue, gian maria blue eyes moment (i was very hurt by that) tomas milian in an absurd wig leading the people out of the desert jshzvsubsjzjsjs uh purgatory city? random sex crazed underage girl who i think was supposed to be the mary magdalene of the group?gian maria fascist speech? him eating those weird little outfits up? so it had the potential to be trashy fun but it was too much of a mess that it became kind of a drag. but i won't lie looking back it's almost a fun film in its own bizarre way. in a sense a two star classic

but what was more enraging actually was la piscine bc i was expecting a lot of bad things (namely the presence of the lead actor in question hence my reason for not watching it before. like i really don't care to see them together. at least in christine there was jean claude brialy camping it up and in the assassination of... uh. there was richard burton also. camping it up. anyway.) but the final straw was not giving romy enough screen time like are we out of our minds. like yes the (barely existent) plot was annoying, the characters made no sense, the dialogue was verging on terrible, i only care about 2 people out of the 4 in here, but i suspected all that. and to think even in her limited screentime she tried her best and there is that confrontation at dinner scene where i was like yesss finally go give us everything queen but then we're back to alain delon staring at nothing with a nondescript expression. maurice ronet at least tried to do something, i like his performances and he had a good chemistry w romy in all their films. but people always have to hype up untalented people so tragic. and like it's literally miserable that this is one of romy's more famous roles like this is not all that she can give.... the people need to wake up. eh. also i really don't get why this film has so many remakes like what reason is there to watch besides the cast (ehhh) and the late 60s vibes. well one star for romy being cute but otherwise this was. torturous!

all in all wasn't really worth it that much but at least it reinforced in me what i already knew. and we must take all the little scraps of entertainment while we can i suppose. this was me to myself while watching these

[nobodys-muffin]

ok so ik that having siblings has its ups and downs but honestly what seems to bother me most is that you are STUPID and try to act like you're cool or smart or as if I'm the dumb one.

I got this conclusion at last because I'm snapping at my little brother and I'm trying to hard to honestly understand his perspective but he doesn't seem to even try to do that for me and as someone that is also a younger sibling towards my older siblings it's frustrating.

These last few days haven't really been the best since I lost my new headphones which frustrates me because I always end up losing my stuff and honestly it's not my fault I have always have had bad memory and they end up giving me comments I cannot even express because if I do I'd be in trouble, but anyways back to the point lol.... yesterday me and my little brother were playing games like guess what animal I am or person I am at my aunt's home and he did me then I was like ok bet so I did and the end it was 3 him 2 me and then I decided to stop bc what's the point of arguing let's have fun to then today we had church and I had a seat at the corner which I love but my family hates bc they think that makes me less involved to church lol I think it's absurd but I see why they think that way, and so I left for a moment to the restroom and had a small talk with myself to the mirror lol and when I went back I found my little brother sitting on the seat I was on and I know it shouldn't be a bit deal but he saw me sitting there and still decided to sit there even when I came back he could've been like oh sorry and moved to the other seat but no he was like what? you left 🙄 and my sister was like what? it's true.. and so that bothered me a whole lot because you don't just go on around taking somebody else's seat just bc they left you would've told them oh excuse me I'm sitting there or that's my seat or something right?

Not just that I kept giving him the cold shoulder but at the end of the day I decided it shouldn't really bother me he's a kid and I'm not so I tried not to even though they were acting like I was being extra and weird like omg is she angry why idk she's about to get her period probably like B**** no TF I'm not I had it 2 weeks ago it ain't coming till 2 more weeks or so like why does a period always have to be the reason of me being emotional like tf!?!?

When we came back home it was time to sleep I tried expressing myself to my little brother and then again he always tries to make me feel dumb and less. Like is that the only word you know like why don't you say the a word the s word or the f word

Like oh shit my bad but I'm not tryna hurt your feelings bc if I did you would never forget what i said but I hold back my younger for the sake of how much I don't want to hurt you but it bothers me how you try to be a smartass with me when you know I'm right and the fact that you want to be right when you're wrong and it's obvious you are like just shut up.

At the end I didn't want to argue anymore its bed time so why even go to sleep mad so I said out loud you should go and brush your teeth idk why you're still here petting my dog and he was like ok ok ok interrupting me and he said I'll leave you and your phone then yeah you and your phone continuously interrupting me tryna get me in trouble bc he knows we're not allowed to use the phones after 8.

[espionn]

people are so scared of the "cishet sneaking into the community to Do Things" boogeyman but like. what kind of argument even is that. it doesn't make sense to any degree.

first of all, assuming this was a real thing that was happening, what can a couple random people posing as queer possibly do that's harmful? its not like we get government benefits for being queer. its not like we have a limited number of chairs like the person above me says. its not really like we have super secret clubhouses that you have to know the gay password to get into. if your concern is that they'll invade our spaces to hurt us, they can do that without "pretending" to be queer. if your concern is that they're just annoying and attention seeking, sorry, annoying and attention seeking people will always exist in every space. there is no reason why these people are a threat to you.

second, this just isnt a thing that happens en masse. has some random cishet person claimed they "suffered the queer struggle" once? probably. but again, that doesn't actually harm anyone, and there isnt some huge movement to invalidate queer people. if someone isnt adversely affected by heteronormative society, the reality is that they don't really want to be here either. cishets arent frothing at the mouth to sneak into queer circles. again, we dont get any huge benefits, so why would they? the only reason these spaces might be valuable is if someone is affected by our heteronormative culture and wants a safe place to explore queerness. otherwise there's just no reason to be "invading our spaces". sorry.

third, like people have already touched on, excluding people for not appearing "queer enough" is just really fucked and antithetical. it forces people to out themselves unsafely and doesn't allow space for questioning and learning. this "in or out" attitude literally helps no one. if cishet-appearing people can't interact with queer circles, then we're gonna have a lot more queer people hating themselves and not understanding whats wrong with them.

finally, the most powerful argument of all: i dont give a shit. if cishet jacob wants to hang out in gay bars and call himself queer, i genuinely dont care. i cannot express enough how little difference that makes to me. as long as he isnt harassing anyone, cishet jacob can call himself queer all he wants. if he gets some kind of fulfillment out of it, good for him.

i think it's absurd to claim that aspec people don't suffer from heteronormativity, and they are absolutely as queer as any of us. but the point im trying to make is that this boogeyman that exclusionsists are so afraid of does not exist. its not rational at all. you're just hurting people and being some kind of weird purist about it.

does anyone else remember when peoples talking point against asexuality being a queer identity was to make up a cisgender heterosexual but aromantic man who wanted to get in to all the lgbt society meetings or was that just an embarrassing thing people i knew did

[al-hekima-madara-blog]

This post is so refreshing thank you ! I've never been a Minato fan, I've always seen his choice of putting a demon inside his first son as an act normally associate with those of... a villain first category. If you know Black Butler, Dororo ect... but I've never put his act next to those of the Kazekage !

Naruto and Gaara were on purpose written like a mirror of each other. Same destiny as Jiinshuriki, one turns good and the other one turns bad until he's saved by the hero. Problem as usual with Narutoverse : the Inconsistency ! And this time I'm gonna talk about the value system in Naruto. As a shonen it's very important, the hero must reflect those high values : friendship, loyalty, kindness, generosity, resilience, empathy ect...

On paper Naruto is suppose to be this hero moved by the most noble and generous motivations. But the more you read the story the more you realise that intrinsically Naruto doesn't really have any of those he's mostly very egoist : being acknowledge by everyone included those who doesn't care like Sasuke. Systematically any subversive actions done by those uplifting the Will of fire will always been justify by a higher need to protect the village at all cost. Literally tomorrow Naruto is raping someone or eating a baby alive (God forbids), they will find a way to explain that it was the only way to prevent konoha from being engulf by a volcanic explosion. You think I exaggerate? but it's the tiresome and absurd explanation they gave us to justify Uchiha's ethnic cleaning and most readers think it's unfortunate but perfectly fine.

So I was chocked when I realise that Gaara's father is often called one of the worst father of the year for two reasons : making Gaara a junchuriki, and trying to kill him a multiple time when he was getting out of control.

But when Konoha's founder is ready to do the same it's alright. To protect children from war, better to kill my own child if necessaries :

And by the way in Boruto, Naruto now an Hokage is contemplating the same idea and if not him, Sasuke will kill his son if he's getting out of control (we're back again into this Shadow Hokage/ Light Hokage nonsense where the loser is serving the winner. It's so sad that Sasuke is reduced to be Naruto's personal garbage holder. And I'm so proud Madara saw through the scam, resigned and gave the dirty job to Tobirama.

So seriously why did we all hate Gaara's father already? He did to his son exactly what Minato did to Naruto with a twist he makes him orphan of both parents while he could have avoid it. He did what Hashirama had sworn to do, what Itachi did, what Naruto should do, and what Sasuke is now ready to do. the Kazekage protects his village from Ichibi being out of control, taking into account Gaara did kill many people in suna.

For this reason most popular Konoha enthusiast are really hard for me to feel close to on top of the list Hashirama, Hiruzen, Minato. With the exception of Tsunade, Kakashi and Sasuke who are for me victims and broken by this system. This opportunism in the storyline is annoying specially when you think it targets a young public. Genocide is ok, harassing people is ok, toxic relationship is the epithome of love Sakura/Sasuke, murdering is family is also ok no real consequences. They never held accountable for nothing. No lesson needs to be taken from the hero from all that have happened in the past. But trying to reform a system who broke so many lifes? Oh Lord ! Burn to hell or repent till the end of boruto time.

While villains offers a lot of solution to improve the system. That's their role after all, being an opponent is being an opposition that force the hero to defend and revaluate his paradigm and improve it if needed.

Pain emphases the absence of empathy in Konoha, how self-centered is their politics.

Tobi/Obito pushes in purpose the shinobi system to its limit to bring into surface their hypocrisy and their own perversion : Shinobis needs war to prosper. When they said they want peace they blantanly lie. War makes their life meaningful.

Akatsuki is the natural product of this perversion. They are pyromaniac firemen and get profit off the chaos. And some members like Deidara and Hidan find joy and euphoria in murder.

Madara kindly propose to annihilate that sh**t system once and for all lol

Dark Sasuke is actually the only one who did a synthesise of all protagonist. Pro and cons. while it's not his job, he's not the hero and he offers an alternative solution.

What did Naruto propose in the end? Except the mantra believe me I'm the messiah. I mean seriously what did he brings new to the table after 700 chapters? At least Hashirama brings a village for what it's worth. How fundamentally different is Narutoverse since the first chapter to the last one?

Those reading Boruto knows that absolutely nothing change. Don't be blinded by neons, skycrappers, subway, and burger kings in Konoha, that's just cosmetic. But the darkness overshadowing the village that Madara was talking about in vain, did not move at all. And the Otsutsuki's plot is a perfect way to divert attention from this ugliness. Mmh? Shinobi system? child soldiers? Ame village promise? Oroshimaru still playing with kids? Konoha public responsibility in Uchiha downfall? Ao a veteran of the 4th turning villain (and an other one !) disgusted by the shinobi system? After chakra now using technology for killing more people?

OH LOOK WHITE ALIENS ARE DESCENDING FROM THE SKY! WE NEED EVERY ONE, WAR CRIMINAL, INCLUDED TO HELP US FIGHTING THEM, BELIEVE IT! BELIEVE IT!!!!

And the circus must go on.

[soyouthinkucanwrite]

The money thing (part 1/2) - Daniel Ricciardo

It's always the little things, isn't it? The smallest stupidest things make almost no difference and then make all the difference in the world. They make everything special, but they also have the power to tear everything appart.

You and Daniel fight about money for the thousand time and he's had enough of it.

Warnings: super angst, but with a happy ending :)

Guys, this turned out WAY BIGGER than I expected, so I'm just gonna do a part 2, okay? Okay, thanks for understanding!

Song that inspired me: A list by HVOB

You and Daniel had been dating for a couple months now, having met through a common friend and hitting off almost instantly. You lived in Amsterdam and he, well he lived all over the world really, but his "time off" (meaning not racing) was spent between Monaco and London (for work), and Amsterdam now too, of course.

The changes were small and subtle at the beginning, like your weekends being spent traveling to meet him wherever in the world he was and consequently spending almost all your savings on plane tickets. You never complained to him (you planned on spending the money traveling anyway, so you didn't see the point), but didn't accept when he offered to buy your tickets, either. There's been some awkwardness around the subject but it usually died on its own.

*beginning of flashback*

"You’d have gotten here in time if you'd gotten the early flight like I told you" you remembered him saying that time you got in the paddock after the qualifying session had begun and couldn’t kiss him good luck.

"Baby, I told you. It was crazy expensive! Absurd even!"

"(y/n) for god's sake! What are we saving money for? I told you, you have my credit card number, I've offered to get you one, this is ridiculous, I can't believe I literally earn millions and my girlfriend wasn't there with me because the ticket was too expensive! I'll fucking fly you private if I have to!" he was almost yelling in his driver's room. You could only stare from the corner.

He took a deep breath running his hands through his hair. "Sorry. It's just... it was crap out there. I needed you" you grimaced at his words.

"Sorry. I really am..." you tried to approach him. "I'm here now?" you touched his arm. "It can't have been that bad, you're still on the top 10 and we both know what you can do from the 8th car..." you smiled at him.

*end of flashback*

He started to spend much more of his time off with you at your place, so you decided to get a place by yourself (having a roommate was great for company and splitting the rent, but having a roommate there while you guys just wanted some much-needed privacy was not working). Then there were more traveling to meet him, furniture for the new place, clothing for all the events (GPs or not), uber rides here and there... all of that without mentioning that you weren't being able to get the freelance jobs you used to get to make some extra money, so yeah, to say things were tight was an understatement. You tried to do all your shopping alone, so he wouldn't offer and you wouldn't refuse or be awkward about it, but Daniel seem to be glued to you whenever you were in the same city (not that you’re complaining).

He started to spend much more of his time off with you at your place, so you decided to get a place by yourself (having a roommate was great for company and splitting the rent, but having a roommate there while you guys just wanted some much-needed privacy was not working). Then there were more traveling to meet him, furniture for the new place, clothing for all the events (GPs or not), uber rides here and there... all of that without mentioning that you weren't being able to get the freelance jobs you used to get to make some extra money, so yeah, to say things were tight was an understatement. You tried to do all your shopping alone, so he wouldn't offer and you wouldn't refuse or be awkward about it, but Daniel seem to be glued to you whenever you were in the same city (not that you’re complaining).

The thing is, you always had trouble dealing with money. Sure, you liked to pay for your own stuff so as to not owe anything to anyone (especially boys), but it was so much deeper than that. Ever since a kid, you hated asking for money from your parents, and sometimes even the thought of buying stuff that was a bit more expensive made you sick. You couldn't explain why, you just felt guilty having so much and knowing that most people have never even seen that amount. It's not that you didn't want to spend it and save for the sake of it, you just didn't handle the idea of money very well. Needless to say, dating a millionnaire was bound to cause trouble in the relationship for you.

You were currently at his place in Monaco. It was the summer break and you had decided to spend some days just chilling at home, just the two of you - which you were glad since going out means hair, makeup, clothes, accessories, shoes... and, let's be honest, the kind of places he usually took you is not the kind of places you just throw something together last minute (the Instagram models and other driver's girlfriends looking you up and down were enough to make you think about spending money you did not have to hire a stylist or something like that). The whole situation was really stressing you out and you knew you would have to be honest with him eventually, instead of only dodging the subject and refusing most of his offers to pay. You tried to. You kind of tried. You suggested staying at home, in bed, most of the time, and he gladly agreed, but that strategy wasn't gonna work forever. You had to be honest with him. But at the same time, you knew what he was going to say and do, and the thought of him spending money on you, even if just by handling the restaurant bill, wasn't something you were much more comfortable with. Besides, it was only a matter of time before the "gold-digger" term starts to fly around in the small world that was the F1's.

You were laying on his couch, the Olympics playing on the TV but you were too busy overthinking the money thing to pay attention. Daniel was laying with his head on your lap, absently caressing your thigh and watching the TV. His phone went off and he moved to pick it up.

"Hello?" you watched as he answered the phone. "Hey mate, how's it going? Uh nothing, we're just chilling at home. Getting some rest... Yeah, I'm getting rested, you dirty-minded son of a bitch" you rolled your eyes while he laughed out loud on the line with someone. "Yeah, I know... the 19th is it? No, it's fine. Yeah, yeah. I'll be there. Alright, mate. Thanks for calling. Have a good one! Bye!" he hanged up and leaned in to peck you on the lips.

"Good news?" you asked him.

"Not really. Just wanted to kiss you" he shrugged, smiling. You smiled back and hugged him, pulling him in for another kiss. He was always so caring with you, always finding an excuse to kiss or touch you. You knew some people didn't like it, but you loved it. Physical touch was definitely one of your love languages.

"What's happening on the 19th then?" you asked him once you guys set apart from the kiss.

"Gotta be in London. Gonna run some testings and other boring race stuff..."

"Hum..." you hummed in understanding.

"You know what would make it less boring though?" he asked and you just looked at him, you already knew what he was going to ask you and it wasn't that you didn't want to spend every minute of the day with him, but you simply couldn't afford any more traveling, especially not in such short notice. "If you came with me. Huh? What do you say? A week in the Queen's land? Then we can fly together to Spa and after the race, I can go with you to Amsterdam. The next one it's the Dutch GP anyway, I'll just get there sooner" he laughed. It was crushing you, the man of your dreams was literally beaming at making plans with you, talking about spending the next few weeks glued together and you couldn't say yes.

"Dan, I have to work" you smiled sadly.

"Can't you work from distance? Or, I don't know, I mean... I know it's tiring, but you could come to London and fly home a bit early, then just meet me in Belgium?" great, his solution includes even more flying. And the thing is, you really didn't mind the flying. You always slept during the whole thing anyway, so you never got tired and the jetlag was minimal. You could work from distance, sure. Your boss wouldn't mind, as long as you got there eventually to check in on everything. But the whole logistics were just too expensive. There was no way you could afford it.

"I... sorry, I don't think I can" you said sadly and watched as his face dropped.

"That's fine, baby. I get it. I'm asking too much, all this traveling... don't worry about it" he tried to mask his emotions but you knew better. He knew you could in fact work from distance, so he was probably thinking the reason you couldn't do it was because you didn't want to.

He got up from the couch and walked into the kitchen. Meanwhile, you couldn't help but bury your face in your palms. This was so frustrating!

"You wanna go for a run or something? Maybe get something to eat?" he called from the kitchen, already moving on from the subject. You knew this whole thing was only gonna keep build up till he got tired of your excuses or you blowing up, probably the former, but you just keep going.

"Yeah, sure" you answered, getting up from the couch.

You and Daniel were both very active so going for a run, hiking, riding bikes, or whatever in the middle of the day was really routine for you. The Monaco summer weather was as beautiful as always and the sun was shining bright. You enjoyed the rest of your afternoon racing each other, kissing in the harbor, and just taking in the views, spending quality time together. Money wasn't even a thing in your bubble for a while.

"I'm getting hungry" he said on the way back home.

"Me too, and I'm super hot. I could go for a juice or something right now" you were all sweaty from the running, but you didn't care, he was too.

"You're always hot baby, I don't think juice gonna help with that" he grinned at you and you just rolled your eyes at him.

You passed by one of his favorite spots for food, nearby his place and he suggested getting some take-out, to which you agreed.

"Green juice, and a chicken wrap?" you tried to decide while the both of you waited in line.

"I'll never understand how you drink that"

"I've seen you drink that too, it's actually very refreshing"

"Because I'm forced to, I'm a high-performance athlete baby. But I'm on a break, so I'll have a coke, thank you very much" you laughed at him. He was holding your hand and tried to kiss you, wrapping his arm around you, you didn't dodge his kiss, you would never, but still laughed at the fact he wanted to kiss the sweaty mess you were right now.

"I'm gross, only you" you laughed.

"That's my baby, with no makeup she a ten" he rapped shrugging and grinning.

"Alright Lil Wayne, I know that one, don't even finish the verse" you laughed at him, making him laugh out loud, getting everyone's in the restaurant's attention.

"It's true, though"

"Sure..." You just shook your head smiling. Then you heard someone call his name.

"Hey! Daniel!" you both turned around to see Charles and Charlotte sitting in a corner, him waving at you two. You had met Charles a couple of times before but never spoke too much to him. They seemed to be leaving anyway, so they walked towards you guys, instead of towards the door.

"Hey mate, how's it going?" Daniel greeted him with a handshake. "Hey, Charlotte! You know (y/n) yet?"

"Hi! I don't think so, hi! How are you?" she greeted you smiling.

"Hi! Nice to meet you. Hi, Charles!" you said.

"Hey, (y/n). You're keeping him in line during the break? Char won't let me cheat my diet either" he laughed.

"Oh, that ship has sailed long ago! Daniel will just roll into the paddock if it's up to him" you laughed back.

"Hey! I think I've earned the right to some extra calories, we've been working out extra hard lately" Daniel said waving his eyebrows suggestively, making Charlotte giggle, Charles rolls his eyes and you go even redder than you were from the actual workout, while he just laughed out loud.

"I don't even want to know" Charles said. "Always great running into you mate" he was getting ready to say goodbye.

"Are we seeing you guys tomorrow?" Charlotte asked you.

"Tomorrow?" you asked her.

"Stefano's birthday" she said like it was obvious. Stefano Domenicali was the President and CEO of Formula 1, but you didn't know that yet - still, her tone made it seems like it was someone Daniel knew, so you just looked at him. He just rubbed his neck, looking a little embarrassed. "Oh, wait. Please tell me I didn't just said something I shouldn't" she looked at Charles.

"No, no. He invited me. Us, actually" Daniel reassured her. "I don't think we're going though, forgot to mention to you" he said looking at you.

"Uh mate, I wouldn't skip that if I were you. He didn't even invite all the drivers I heard" Charles said. "Maybe just stop by to say hello?"

"Stop by... a yacht... at the sea?" Charlotte said grinning at him. Daniel looked at you.

"You feel like going? It should be fun" he asked you.

"Sounds fancy... I mean, I don't mind if you go" you said.

"Common... I’m not going alone" he nudged you.

"I don't even have anything to wear, Dan" you told him.

"Oh! We can go shopping together!" Charlotte said and you had almost forgotten they were still there.

"Perfect!" Daniel answered for you. You could only imagine the types of stores she shopped.

"Tomorrow morning, then? Daniel can text your address to Charles for me? I'll pick you up!" she was being really nice about it.

"I thought you wanted to go today?" Charles said.

"That's when I thought I would have to go shopping with you, so I could use the extra time since you're the worst shopping partner ever!" she laughed at him.

"Burn!" Daniel laughed.

"His fashion taste is not the most reliable, let's face it" she laughed and kissed his cheek. "It's a date then (y/n)?" she looked expectantly at you. You didn't want to let her down, it was so hard to make friends with the girlfriends of other drivers, they were usually so... not nice. You could always just help her and find something to wear in your own stuff later.

"Yeah, sure! See you tomorrow, at 10?" you said simply.

"Perfect!" she beamed.

>>> end of part 1 <<<

[itsclydebitches]

Chapter 12, about the Relics: “I think it’s something we wanted to do cause they were sentient and because they were from the God of Light and.. in essence - even though they’re supposed to be impartial - they do want humanity to succeed." Okay. I'd wish they were impartial but I don't mind this. So why is it that Oz is treated worse when he uses them? You know, the one your creator tasked with the job? Yet they're not only more lenient with Ruby, but Cinder, the one working for Salem.

Yeah, for me Ozpin is the big stumbling block here. We see Jinn allowing Ruby to pseudo-cheat by stopping time, Oscar is offered the same loophole, they overtly cheat with Ambrosius to an absurd extent, and though Jinn answers Cinder's question, she doesn't look happy when she does it.

I think it's easy to infer that the Relics are hero-aligned based on these things, though like so much else in RWBY, it's not very well executed. I would have preferred some in-world acknowledgement of this bias considering that these sentient beings could, at any point, simply tell the heroes that they want them to succeed. I personally don't want the heroes' obstacles erased simply because these beings happen to like them, that's just not a compelling story. And if we're meant to understand that the Relics are helping the heroes because they're anti-God of Darkness/Salem/grimm, we have the problem that Ruby never told Jinn that she's out to destroy Salem. She just asks what Ozpin is hiding from them. What about that interaction tells Jinn that Ruby is her ally? This is all very messily done, but there are other details (the cheating, the sad expressions when Cinder calls her) that do help forward the writers' intent, so it's a case where I might have been able to say, "It has its problems, absolutely, but I got the overall message." There's no hand-holding, so to speak.

Or rather, I would have taken that position if not for Ozpin.

He's the outlier here. Though the Relics seem to instinctively support the group who only just found out that Salem exists and they should maybe do something about that, Jinn is downright cold toward the man whose entire purpose is to deal with her and unite humanity. How does that make sense? I've spoken about this in other metas, how the less than kind nickname for Ozpin ("Old Man"), amusement at him begging on his knees, and a useless, one sentence answer ("You can't") compared to Ruby's 20 minute vision (which just happens to air all Ozpin's trauma, further hurting him) all send the message that Jinn hates the guy. Or, more accurately, at the time it sent the message that these beings were impartial and, like the genies and djinns of myth, prone to twisting your wishes in horrible ways. Remember Ozpin frantically trying to keep Ruby from using the Lamp, to the point where the ran at her to take it? At the time I theorized that this wasn't just because he had a secret to keep, but because there was some severe downside to using the Relics at all. That would fit with his extreme reaction, Jinn's uncomfortable treatment of him, and it would put a much needed limitation on the all-powerful, magical objects. I believed something more was going on because, at the time, I still had faith that the writers were putting effort into their story. But instead, it turns out that there is no downside, Ozpin just freaked out over the Salem secret, Jinn loves Ruby for reasons only established in the commentary, and she dislikes Ozpin because... just because.

So we've got this cycle of conflicting characterization going:

Oh cool, these Relics are kind of cold and aren't useful unless you're careful about exploiting their rules

Wait never mind, this one adores Ruby. Why is that?

Hmm, maybe it was a fluke? Jinn is pretty stern now about Ruby not being allowed to cheat anymore.

That was a lie! Oscar is able to summon her again without a question. What's going on?

Okay, new Relic, new rules. We get an entire scene detailing how crazy hard it is to get what you want from Ambrosius.

...never mind, their wish was nonsensical and broke all the rules. He also gave Penny a body for free. This is ridiculous.

We've been saying that for months now, but most of the fandom is bending over backwards to try and explain how, actually, the heroes are just that smart and talented.

Well, would you look at that. The writers have admitted that the group cheated. Glad they're owning up to that, but why are they allowed to cheat?

Apparently because the Relics want the good guys to win. Okay, the motivation is solid, I've argued that reading myself, but it would have been nice if that had actually been established in the show.

And even if it had been, why haven't they helped Ozpin in the same way they've helped Ruby? You know, the guy whose entire existence revolves around winning this war?

Beyond the obvious fact that the writers are not planning ahead and thus whatever idea they next introduce is likely to contradict what came before it, I honestly believe that this Ozpin problem is a result of everyone hating Ozpin in Volume 6. The show made it crystal clear that no one was allowed to sympathize with him. Out of a cast of ten, including a total stranger who had no personal beef with him (Maria), not a single character took a position other than, "Yeah he's the worst and I'm glad he's gone. Why would we try and get him back?" So with this single reaction driving the entire Volume and beyond, why would Jinn be any different? Having her be kind, or even just neutral, messes with the blanket perspective Volume 6 was going for. Jinn acts cruel towards Ozpin because Ozpin, in that moment, is supposed to be hated by everyone, regardless of whether that makes sense or not. It's a characterization based on the badly constructed tone of the Volume, rather than Jinn's own personality, backstory, goals, etc. And that decision has now, Volumes later, severely impacted our ability to go, "Okay yeah. The Relics are pro-heroes. I'll buy that even if we haven't done as much with that idea as we could have."

I swear, though RWBY obviously had the seeds of these problems planted long before (badly written racism allegory, semblance rules keep changing, boring Volume 5 with inactive heroes, etc.) I personally think RWBY went off the rails in "Uncovered." The biggest problems we have with the show now can be traced right back to those snow episodes where the story decided to make the heroes entirely uncaring of an ally's extreme pain, respond to world-shattering news with identical reactions, refuse to admit that they might be out of their depth here, ignoring 20 minutes of lore outside of a single line, another mentor character is introduced that doesn't amount to anything, the start of Qrow's turn from drinking as a joke to alcoholism, introducing the idea that we don't just have macguffins, but sentient macguffins with ill-thought-out characterizations and rules the writers don't actually want to follow... those episodes introduced so much that is still haunting RWBY two Volumes later.