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ghostlycandydreamer · 4 months

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Rating the inner circle on how I think our first date would go

(A lot of Grammer mistakes are in the following)

Rhysand 4/10

I don't think it would go well he'd go way out too early and invite me to a high-class fancy restaurant. And that would make me uncomfortable. He probably can't find a person that's not a gold digger, and if he does find someone good, he will overwhelm them with how much money he has, leading to no second dates.

Will make me order the most expensive options on the menu.

Would get mad if I asked him on his dating history.

Is the type to call his ex crazy.

Would try to banter and be smug and smooth but I'll probably misinterpret that as him being mean(I have autism)

Would also say something like

"I can cure autism"

Def read my intrusive thoughts and think I'm insane.

Over all bad date and will not call me back.

But will call to make sure I got home safe.

Will tell the group chat about me, then have them throw shade on social media.

Feyre 6/10

Would probably do a chill date.

Like a movie at her place then dinner.

Dinner will be like pizza and some cool drinks.

Her emotional constipated touch starved ass will do that arm thing. You know the one, the yawns then puts their arm over your shoulder. It will be awkward.

The movie willlllll definitely be something like a blumhouse movie .

Will tell jokes that do not land. It will leave me like.

She gives off the vibes that she probably has no idea what she's doing, and it shows.

Ends up talking to much about how toxic her ex boyfriend and his friends where

Over all its nice but too awkward for a second date.

Cassian 2/10

Is Def the type to tell you to wear a dress then take you hiking.

Is the type to laugh at his own jokes then talk over you.

Unintentionally (intentionally) mansplains things to you.

Will laugh at me for being tired on a hike.

Will compliment me but it always sounds so back handed

"That dress isn't what I was expecting"

"Oh you look different"

"I think the dress really reflects who you are"

Definitely has a mini rant about modern women. It's never really misogynistic, but bordering it.

Will pay attention more to the wilderness then if I'm okay.

Will be surprised that I'm crying and tired.

Will call me to ask why the date didn't go well.

Will rant to Rhys about how he keeps getting blocked.

Azriel 7/10

It will be a nice pic nic date.

He's is the I know a spot guy. Beautiful view ,tent, food, fairy lights, and a boom box with a good mixtape ready.

Makes me feel special and heard.

Has the best date food.Not too heavy but not too light.

Gives me his coat of I get cold.

Takes beautiful pictures of me.

Is poetic

Will let me yap and speak on through the date.

The only red flag is that he's so secretive. He barely talks about his life,his goals,his day-to-day.

And that's very noticeable and suspicious.

Overall nice date .

Will call back and you will have a second date

The Morrigan 5/10

The best date ever

Nice restaurant with an awesome atmosphere.

Best conversationalist.

Compliments you in the best ways.

You fall for her immediately.

She makes you laugh, is so intelligent, is wonderful overall...

But then you mention politics.....oh boy

Will say that she's a girls girl, but you notice how she talks shit on Twitter to other women.

She's the type to talk about ALL WOMEN STRUGGLING if your a marginalized woman mentioning the discrimination you face.

She's also the type that says "they should just find a job"

"Or poor people should just work harder"

Great date, but our politics don't align and no second date.

Will probably kiss at the end of the date but her thick layer of lipstick will annoy me.

Armen -100/10

Worst date ever

Shows up fashionably late.

Doesn't understand why I'm mad

"You should know I'm a busy woman"

Will looks me up and down , making me feel self conscious.

Perpetual make unnecessary passive aggressive comments.

Will snap at the waiter for making a mistake.

Snaps her fingers at the waiter like he's a dog or something.

Talks business instead of romance.

Her flirting will come off like straight up insults

Will judge you for your interest

"Well I'm an artist-"

"You can't even draw"

😐😑

Will straight up just talk about work, is so bad at talking about anything else.

Definitely will make you feel poor

"I like your dress and neckla-"

"It's Balenciaga"

"....that's nice"🙃

If she does genuinely compliment me, it sounds ai generated.

"Your eyes are like the brown of freshly grown forest trees about to be cut down buy a lumberjack"

"Wow thanks. Your eyes are beautiful too"

"I know"

Will answer Rhysands calls during the date.

Will tip the staff at least but will say something like

"Be nicer next time and smile more"

Won't notice that I didn't call her back for a second date and goes on with life.

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benefits1986 · 9 months

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A Very Bad Good Girl x Rewind

Cinema is said to be a reflection of one's nation and its people. I say, any decent film is also a Mirror of Erised that's either too crass or too classy.

One of the reasons why I took up communication research is to deepen my roots on how frameworks are engineered and optimized to fit my current stance. It's not about the shiny badge of UPDi, it's just me being perpetually curious.

One of the things I did over the long holiday break is to randomly check content as I've been too out of touch. Of course, I'd definitely choose Ooku: The Inner Chambers over A Very Good Girl, however, I'd need to immerse myself in local mainstream films, because, one of my very few GCs is poppin' rainbows about an upcoming debrief. Kidding aside, it's my attempt to immerse in the perspective of my "audience of one" when it comes to work. Yes, work. More so, films are very easy access passes to what the pulse of the nation is, even when I'd have to yawn and laugh dryly so many times while at it.

In line with new stories for 2024, let me share my thoughts and feelings about A Very Good Girl. Alert: Spoilers incoming; however, I'd list down the stuff I gathered instead of lambasting and praising it straight up.

1 The male gaze is currently severely butchered but it's still a butch or femme butch scene, after all. Sorry, not sorry. I'd like to see an unapologetic ultra femme era of films in my lifetime, to be honest.

2 Women in films are on their way to find their safe space without sacrificing a safe space for all. Being immersed in feminism and postmodernism, the truth is that you can't advocate for safe space if you aim to silence the males in any social setting. As a reformed radical feminist, I'm still learning this ground. It's not easy, but it's for the greater good.

3 This film talks about how this country is still ruled by familial ties and feudalism.

4 Production and tiny details make or break the story even when your audience of one is but a passerby or a stranger.

5 While the film tackles the power struggle of females, the subtext I'm getting is that it's a class act involving the Philippines and her people. LOL. Money, fame and power are means to make you appear convenient; but, in reality, everything has a floor and a ceiling you can't escape nor evade. The poor and middle class clamor for these three pillars, however, it's all about being good even when you and the rest of universe make really, really bad choices each time.

Side Note: Sana lang, 'wag masyadong antagonized ang rich and poor masyado. 'Di naman kasalanan ng mahirap na mahirap sila in the same manner na 'di naman kasalanan ng mayaman na mayaman sila, right? And I think that this film has made a decent commentary about this topic.

6 As the media is silenced, harassed and policed with literal and figurative machineries, films are more experimental and more vibrant and dull, all together.

7 Scripts and deliveries do not exactly co-exist; but, I'd like to believe that we're probably off to better heights.

8 The agenda setting and unmuting the muted groups may be lost in translation because the dresses and the accessories seem to take the center stage. I know this is an attempt to put forward a more presentable cake to be eaten by the dogs and the underdogs, however, there should always be context so that the audience masticates is better.

9 Research as Paulo Coelho shares in one of his books is super duper integral to any literary work. I also believe that this is what's lacking in most films in the Philippines. 10 After the credits roll, what matters most is the lesson that the audience of one accepts or rejects. Period. Now, the question is: How deep did the film really go?

11 Not all women are meant to be mothers. But any woman can be a mother, so as long as there is a child who's willing or unwilling to be mothered.

12 Being a child is not bound by age, folio or social class. Being a child may be an adult's most "adulting" thing to down.

13 At times, women take too much heat in any kitchen. Asking for help especially when she can't cook is the cross in which women crucify themselves. This bit hits home a little too much, but hey, that's the truth, the hard pill I am downing, currently.

14 This film seems to be an attempt to shed light on dramatic and tragic-comedic existentialism. OPAK. Ako lang naman 'to since bias ko 'yan e.

Is there such a thing as a signature Filipino film style? This is something that I've been searching for since my biases are European or Japanese films. It's actually tough to answer a yes, but saying no seems tougher. There are a good number of films like Sakada, Serbis, Cuchera, Ekstra, Pamilya Ordinaryo, Nerseri, Posas, Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, Engkwentro, Moral, Anak, That Thing Called Tadhana and Muli that have a strong sense of what the Filipinos are made of. In the same manner, these films seem to remind me of foreign films at some level. I try my best not to compare, however, I guess that I'd have to be more forgiving in my next viewings.

More so, regional films are yet to be highlighted as I know so well that our culture beyond Manila is so rich, pure and worth the budget. As one of Anthony Bourdain's visits to PH says it, we are not even regional; we're archipelagic. I'd like to witness a Philippine cinema scene where there's a vibe of pride about the mundane. I'd like to move beyond fake resiliency, sex sells, more sex sells more even when the lighting and editing is really trashy. I'm hoping to see our own theater arts mold our film dreams, hopes, and fears.

---

I'd also like to share that dad watched Rewind and shared the whole story with me this morning. I told him that before he starts, I am on the verge of telling him to skip it the movie and his sharing, because it's gonna be a blood bath; however, this is me, letting him be.

Of course, he didn't bother checking the trailer and the reviews. And so, he gave a blow by blow account of this movie's story. In between bashing and laughing with him, he told me that he's been a very bad dad, all this time. He even enumerated the missed attendances because he was "too busy" with work that's actually manageable. He further confessed that he could have been more present in our lives when we were growing up instead of growling like a beast even at our slightest hiccups. He shared that he'd be more than willing to go back in time to make bawi for his misgivings. I flatly told him that he's not giving... giving up, now and until his forever ends, eventually.

It felt as though he's on his Walk of Shame era with a dog cone and butt naked as he goes around the UPDi Ikot and Toki route. But, I tried my best not to get too bored and tuned in. His sharing lasted for almost 45 minutes, I think.

I chuckled and told him several times that it's his first time to be a dad, a parent; so, naturally, things are always on beta test mode. He told me that if he could rewind our past, he could have chosen to give up his dear life for mom to live longer. He meant what he said. This broke my hypothalamus in the same manner that it gave me a piece of peace that I'm aiming at.

I joked him: Dad, 'di ka naman magso-sorry 'di ba? He said: Alam mo naman tatay mo, iiyak, pero 'di magso-sorry. Me: Sus. OK.

I breathed deeply and told him that everything happens for a reason and that I'd like him to be with me for a long while, perhaps, longer than my original ask. I'd like him to let go of the past and should we talk about the good, the bad, the pretty and the ugly, may those be parts of healthy kwentuhans and batuhans. I'm also sure that this is no longer about mother dragon's smirk alone. This time around, it's about me and him and my brother making it together and emerging better.

Ah, January 3, you're something weird, wonky and wonderful! Perhaps, one of the things I'd see in the Mirror of Erised is dad and I biking around Japan for two straight weeks. LOL. Huy, tigil mo na 'yan, back to regular programming ka na in a few hours. Let's go!

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bishiglomper · 1 year

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We had a nice day at the party thing. We had pulled pork sammiches, homemade potato salad, baked beans, tons of snickerdoodles 👀 watermelon. I brought my espresso machine and tea and some flavored syrups. I got to make a stranger a cup of coffee.

My friends didnt show, only Sissy's one friend with the 3 littles did. But 2 moms with kids on the spectrum showed up for nephew. One was apparently an overthinker and wanted to make a good impression so they bought 2 gifts for him that they could all play together. O: He liked those kids. One plays the same game he does so he'll have an online/offline buddy! Woo!

The other mom my sister doesnt like. Shes nice but shes dumb and self centered and a bad mom. We know of her because PD posted a notice once about a lost toddler. It was hers. He IS a wanderer but... 👀💦

She took this kid in to go potty and promptly left the building. He was super tiny but i think he was 4?? 5? He came out with his pants around his ankles asking for help. 😭 So i helped him pull his pants up. Made sure he was cool with that first. Because bodily autonomy. 👌 Speaking of which

And this mom, before she left, she was like "go give loves" and he comes around to hug me. Sort of. He placed his body next to mine obediently without looking at me. I did wrap and arm around him and gave him pats and an "aww, thank you"

But dude, why are you making your small child hug strangers. Like yeah, i helped him pull his pants up but you dont need to send him in for physical affection from someone he literally doesnt know 😤

The fam played CAH and Yahzee. And then Sissy and I colored for a bit. It was nice. Felt like camping, but if we spent the day inside the air conditioned rent-a-building. Which is pretty much what we did. Kids played outside a lot. Weather said it was 80 but it felt really nice out. It was a bit overcast and had a breeze so it was beautiful.

We were there from like 10am to 10:30pm. Long-ass day. I was hurty and uncomfortable for half of it. Tylenol, muscle relaxants and lorazapam helped keep me from getting too miserable. Almost resorted to tramadol but didnt.. Right now im just a little fibro achey and I move like a turtle with the chills 😐 Very slow and scrunched up.

The niece couldn't be bothered to spend any time with us even though its because of her we blew $150 on a building for a day for nothing. Good thing her friends didnt show up. I think my sister gave them a heads up..

Ohhhhh and Bro cut me and nephew's hair while we were there. We did it outside for ease of (not)clean up. We left the hair in the grass thinking maybe birds would appreciate the nesting material

My hair was maybe midback. Its to my shoulders now. But the first thing i always do when i get it cut shorter is 1, make sure i can still put it in a ponytail, and 2, make myself 2 pigtails because it makes me feel cute. 😁

And i perpetually wear bandanas now so two pigtails sticking out from under the "ears" on the bandana are just a bonus. My sister really liked that. It probably doesn't help my image age-wise though. 😂

#just rambling

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felikatze · 2 years

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officially reached the "perpetual screaming" part of my xbc3 playthrough

just beat chapter 4 and i gotta talk abt it or else i cant sleep

this was the point i rushed story and actually ignored sidequests cuz as soon as they said they're going to castle keves i Knewwww they were gonna meet melia and n and i HAAAAD to see that so bad

and oh boy. did it fucking deliver.

listen man at this point i was trying to get everyone to rank 10 in all the default classes so i accidentally went into the melia fight with THREE HEALERS + a healer hero and let me tell you. YIKES. sure did make reviving allies a cinch though.

iwas. gonna cry so bad. I LOVE MELIA. OKAY? and fighting her makes me sad. ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE USES THE SAME MOVES AS HER XBC1 KIT. I GOT BRAINBLASTED SO MANY TIMES. and that was painful emotionally and gameplay wise

don't fucking "I, Melia Antiqua," me

SO SHE WAS JUST. A ROBOT? and from N's reaction this was "the queen's feeble hope" so she pulled the switcheroo on HIM to let the ouroboros gang live? melia.... i love you sm.... i love the entire xbc1 cast so muchhhh

speaking of N. haha his goal is eternity which the ouroboros is a symbol for!! have thought the entire time that it's rlly fun irony how the names r kinda reversed. we, the ouroboros, symbol of infinity and perpetuity, are going around and breaking everyone else's loops and this whole fuckin perpetual motion machine we call society.

also GEEZ there's a mio-look alike too so she's head consul of agnus probably?

also fun how they're n and m which is also the letters melia and nia start with. almost as if this was a deliberate choice to name noah and mio this way

n gets MORE mysterious as noah gets sudden migraines bcuz of him and like IS THIS A CLONE SITUATION OR NAH? cuz eunie remembered HER past life so hard it gave her ptsd (great payoff to that this chapter too as she has an Actual Panic Attack when facing D again, BUT she uses her fear to bamboozle D with taion's help and that was EPIC and COOL because JESUS CHRIST DID NOAH AND MIO JUST GET BISECTED? YAS GIRL CUT OFF HIS ARM)

where was i. i love eunie also. high entia bias from melia? perhaps. eunie is also just great.

noah and n. what is this. i compared this to the shulk n zanza deal before (i should not use just n to shorten and when i am talking abt a guy named n) bcuz the current vibes with the 100% confirmation of reincarnation through ethel rlly makes it seem like noah is a reincarnation of N when N is. still alive. which is what shulk was to zanza kind of.

i gotta go to sleep now but xenoblade plot makes me go bark bark awooga. maybe i'll actually check out a xbc2 longplay after this and brave the anime-ness of it all for Lore

i rlly like that each game is its own thing and it only tells u the lore you need for This Specific Story like xbc1 doesnt need to tell you abt timeline split shenanigans cuz its Not Relevant Here u just need to know there was a guy named klaus who blew up the world once but the broader lore is still THERE if u wanna put it together

which i kinda dont cuz i'm an idiot. still rlly like it though :)

fav moment is when mio punched O & P in their dumb fucking faces and everyone angrily yelled at them abt ethics. well technically it was ethics but i feel calling it that undersells the sheer venom of "THAT'S OUR LIVES WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE! WE'RE NOT YOUR TOYS!" and then pushing a fucker off a cliff.

xbc3 good. gnight

#feli speaks

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stevenscookntrecipes · 2 years

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Cinnamon Instant Regret

Instant ramen, it's the go-to "I don't wanna move an inch" meal for many of us, it's incredibly to easy to prepare and helps us at least get through the day. So, although I don't eat it all too often anymore, it'll forever have its very own spot in my heart as the thing that has let me at least survive though many 'a tough day. Now, a long long time ago, in a place still relatively close by, I had some friends over for a sleepover. 'Course that meant we'd need to make food, like, edible food. Obviously, as the perpetually distracted high school teens we were, we hadn't really considered the possibility. "Wooo, sleepover! food? what's that? ...can I eat it?" So, we rummaged through the kitchen cabinets for anything vaguely edible ...that required at most half a spoon's worth of effort. In the end we managed to find some packs of Indomie brand instant noodles, which at the time and now still is my favourite instant noodle brand, and decided to just use those. But, in a sudden surge of curiosity, one of my friends asked themselves an absolutely horrid question: "How would this taste with cinnamon?" And as the endlessly curious person I am, I obliged them. So, for anyone who is at a sleepover, or intends to be at one, who wants to follow along with this utter trainwreck of a culinary journey, the recipe (though admittedly, entirely from memory) is as follows: Total Time: Approx. 10 mins Yield: 1 serving

Ingredients: - 1 Indomie brand instant noodle package - 1/2 a teaspoon of paprika powder - 2-3 teaspoons of Indonesian sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) - Too much cinnamon, adjust to personal distastes Instructions: 1. Boil Water: Fill a small pot with water and bring it to a boil. (For Indomie I believe it wants about 400ml of water, but I tend to just eyeball it.) 2. Mix the Spices: In the meantime, grab a bowl large enough to comfortably hold the noodles. In it, empty the flavour packet, mix in the paprika powder, and don't forget to accidentally put in far more cinnamon than any mere mortal should consume in a year let alone a single meal. 3. Cook Instant Noodles: When the water comes to boil, put in the dried noodles and follow the instructions on the packet. (Personally, I prefer just tasting once in a while until it has just the right amount of bite ...and temperature.) 4. Mix Noodles with Spices: Drain the water from the pot, and slowly add the noodles to the spice bowl, mixing with every step to ensure the spices evenly coat the noodles. About halfway through, add the sweet soy sauce. Continue mixing till all the noodles are in the bowl and seem evenly mixed. 5. Serve: Serve the bowl as-is to anyone stupidly brave enough to be willing to consume this abhorrent creation.

If you have none or must try it yourself for one reason or the other, remind yourself that crying is a great way to induce catharsis and in no way should you ever feel bad about crying or wanting to cry.

Crying is a normal part of life, and in depriving yourself of it you are blocking out one of the major ways to relieve stress after traumatic occurrences, which makes it harder to deal with them as they pile up until it finally spills over at the worst possible time.

So, when you feel like you need to, cry. Cry your heart out, let all those regrets and pains flow right out like the salty drops that'll fall. If you can, embrace a partner, a friend, a pet, your blahaj, or other plushie/pillow, and let them lend you their ear and shoulder as you embrace the cinnamon-sweetness of a good crying session.

And now, finally, rid yourself of all your worries by THROWING UP THIS HORRID HORRID DISH and NEVER even THINKING about consuming it EVER again.

Notes: - I tend to eyeball any and every measurement, so the ingredients are my best approximation of how much I generally put in. - If you're, like me, having a hard time distinguishing between the cinnamon and cayenne pepper shakers, just put a liberal amount of it directly on your tongue. You'll know. - If Indomie isn't available, please, by all means, feel free to replace it with an instant noodle brand of your choice. If done well, the cinnamon-flavoured regret should overpower the flavour packet contained within and make your choices seem as if they never mattered in the first place.

#cooking #recipes #food #cinnamon #crimes against cooking #serving tips addressed to a past me #instant noodles

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advocaado · 3 years

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Fiction does not exist in a vacuum and absolutely can and does affect reality.

HOWEVER

Before you pin on your thought police badge and march off to start attacking people on the internet for the media they consume and create, let’s take a minute to talk about nuance and identify some actual problematic trends in media which have real life consequences.

The big question you need to ask yourself before you decry a person or piece of media is: Is that person/piece of media promoting, validating, and normalizing trends or acts that hurt real people? Or is that person/piece of media exploring a dark theme in fiction/harmlessly indulging in a kink?

Below are some examples of cases where “problematic” content in fiction is a danger to real life people, and many where it isn’t. This will not be an exhaustive list. I don’t have endless amounts of time to sit here and talk about every problem in fictional media, and even if I did, I wouldn’t, because there are many more things I’d rather do with my time.

Disclaimer: No media is 100% problem free. No human is 100% problem free. Engaging with others online to discuss problems in media is totally fine. If you don’t like something, it’s your god given right to bitch about it. Bitch to your heart’s content. Just don’t be an absolute ass cloak about it.

Example 1: Huckleberry Finn

This book famously contains racism. Is this a problem? No, not really. Listen. This book is literally about how racism is bad. The message is to not be a racist piece of shit. That’s the takeaway. If you got any other message from this book you need to work on your reading comprehension. Books that teach lessons are good things and impact society in positive ways. This book does literally the opposite of normalizing, promoting, and validating racism. It’s taught in schools for this exact reason. It’s not sugarcoated and that’s exactly what makes it powerful.

Example 2: Fairy Tail

The famous complaint about this and other works by Hiro Mashima is that the women are overly sexualized. Over sexualization of women is a big problem in media across the globe, but particularly in the media that comes out of Japan. It’s a problem that absolutely does affect real women. More on that later. But is Mashima really the big perpetuater of the kind of gross male reader voyeurism that has such a fierce grip on the anime industry? Actually, no. Not really. Yes, almost all the female characters in Fairy Tail are hot and have big boobs in a way that appeals to men. However, the lens through which Mashima tells his stories is not voyeuristic. He doesn’t go out of his way to draw panty shots or sexualize female characters nonconsensually. 9 times out of 10 the women are sexy because they want to be and do it in a way that is empowering for them. There are occasional exceptions, but by and large Fairy Tail is not the big offender of female objectification in anime. Moreover, almost all its male characters are hot and have six packs and idol hair in a way that appeals to women. Everyone is hot. There is no deeper meaning here. Enjoy this series if you like to watch hot people having fun and going on adventures together.

Example 3: Goblin Slayer

Oh, boy, Goblin Slayer. Now here’s a can of worms. Many upon many have decried GS for its inclusion of rape scenes and mentions. The goblins in GS have no females of their own species so they must impregnate human women to continue their race. This sounds utterly awful and it is. But is this finally our shining example of a dark theme in fiction that is problematic in a way that is dangerous to real people? Sorry, but no. Firstly, the concept of a fantasy creature who needs to use humans to reproduce was not invented by Kumo Kagyu and is in fact common in folklore around the world. He didn’t make it up as a way to condone rape. Could he have? Sure. But that’s not the reality of the series. The assault by goblins on human women is not treated as a good thing by Kagyu. It is shocking and horrific and has big consequences within the narrative for both the goblins and their victims. It isn’t treated lightly and does not serve to normalize, validate, or promote rape in real life. The reader/viewer is meant to be disgusted by the goblins, and these scenes, which are few and brief, serve their intended purpose. Nobody is going out and assaulting women in real life because they thought it was cool when the goblins did it in GS.

Oh, but Goblin Slayer, I’m not done with you just yet. Because while it would be a huge stretch to label the inclusion of rape in the series a danger to real life people, there’s something else that you don’t need to stretch nearly so much to identify as such. Remember when I talked about the voyeuristic male gaze being a concerning trend in anime? Well, GS has that in spades. The normalization of sexually objectifying women in non sexual situations is very much present in the series. Describing in loving detail the chest size/shape of every female character often and with gusto is a big part of the light novels. Kagyu loves to describe what a girl’s boobs are doing while she’s sitting at a table eating or doing any other mundane thing for no reason other than to sexualize her for the reader. He made the intentional decision to make Sword Maiden, a rape victim, very overtly sexual for the male gaze without the character having any agency in it. Sword maiden isn’t trying to be sexy. She doesn’t own her sexuality. Hell, she’s blind. Being sexy doesn’t empower her. She’s just fap fodder for the male reader. These things normalize objectifying women and are part of a longtime trend in anime which have real world consequences for both women and men. The sexualization of nonconsenting women is a huge problem in Japan and very much promoted through their media. Anime and light novels continue to send and perpetuate the message that objectifying women is okay and natural for boys to do, and while Kagyu certainly isn’t the worst offender, he’s happily hopped aboard that trolly because he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. And he can’t, because it’s been SO normalized.

Example 4: The Birth of a Nation.

This movie, while entirely fictional, is straight up anti-black propaganda intentionally made to spread hate and fear of black people. Obviously this is incredibly problematic and harmful to real black people. This movie was designed to be that way. The message is very clear. It’s a movie meant to rally whites against blacks, and it did. Horrifically so. Typically media containing hateful messages is less overt about it today, but abusing stereotypes and caricatures of real groups of people and otherwise intentionally perpetuating harmful ideas through fiction is a shitty thing to do and should be wholeheartedly condemned. (Note the keyword “intentionally”. If an author does this out of ignorance, which is all too common, rather than condemn we should seek to educate. People are capable of learning and growing and canceling them for mistakes made in ignorance is every bit as shitty as the mistake they made in the first place.)

Example 5: Fanfiction and shipping

At last, we come to fan media. This is where “don’t like don’t read” becomes the golden rule. Indulging in a kink or exploring dark themes in fanfiction is harmless 99.9% of the time. Fanfiction simply doesn’t have the reach, and thereby the influence, that mainstream media has. If someone wants to write something really fucked up, that’s their choice and nobody is making you read it. Unless the author is outright condoning harming real people, it’s really not your business what they choose to write about. Furthermore, deciding to read fucked up fanfiction does NOT make you a bad person. As stated before, the human psyche is messy and the world is not squeaky clean or a safe place. People are drawn to dark things and there’s really nothing wrong with that so long as real people aren’t being harmed. If something makes you uncomfortable, don’t engage. Protect yourself. You’re not making the world a better place by harassing people online. You’re just being a jerk and honestly doing far more harm to real ass people than that 20 year old writer on AO3 who wanted to write a story about Sasuke having sex with Naruto’s son because of 10 years of repressed sexual impulses toward Naruto.

I could say more but I’m tired and ready to celebrate my Friday by getting drunk. Feel free to interact if you want, just do everyone a favor and don’t be a dick.

TLDR

Things that make you a bad person:

Murdering people

Sexually assaulting/harassing people

Having sex with children

Creating or indulging in porn of real minors

Harassing and sending death threats to real people over the fictional media they create and consume

Espousing, condoning, or perpetuating hate toward marginalized peoples

Espousing, condoning, or perpetuating hate toward anyone tbh

Using fiction as a vehicle to promote, validate, and normalize causing harm to real people

Generally being an ass cloak

Things that DON’T make you a bad person

Consuming media that contains problematic elements

Creating media that contains problematic elements so long as you aren’t promoting, validating, and normalizing harmful acts toward real people

Writing fanfiction

Reading fanfiction

Shipping whatever you goddamn want to ship

#there’s been so much discourse surrounding this that I finally needed to weigh in #pro ship #we’re allergic to nuance here #tumblr I love you but

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sneakydraws · 4 years

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Well, here it is - a lengthy explanation of each card in my mdzs major arcana deck and what I meant to convey/what i would have changed in retrospect/what alternatives i considered! It’s a bit messy and my typing style is lazy but hopefully it will be an interesting read to some of you :)

And so you don’t say I didn’t warn you - jiang cheng’s section (11 justice) is absurdly long lmao

0 the fool I elaborated on this in the post itself but yeah basically jin ling is kind of representative of all the damage and trauma caused by the past, and there’s a kind of danger there of him falling victim to the same vices as the older characters and repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating the cycle of war and misery (the cycle that we already see with how the jin sect became the new wen sect, and later with how jgy became the new wwx) and he has a lot of room to grow! He grows so much over the course of the novel, comes to realise the complexities of the past and gets a harsh life lesson in how nothing is as black and white as it seems. But ill save talking about his progress for the end, for now whats important is that he has room to grow and also a dog. I don’t really have a justification for the sun, i mostly just thought it looked sick? It made its way to the next card as well, where it makes a bit more sense, but then i realised it was a dumb motif to include 1 the magician I still very much like wwx for the role, and that illustration would have probably had him raising a corpse on his left and pointing threateningly to the sun on his right. I considered including the table as well, with some mdzs relevant items replacing the card suits. Anyway, like i said wwx got a few cards to himself already so i went with the alternative wq design, since i think she fits the card as well. Both she and wwx are highly skilled people, extremely driven once they set their mind to something. The card to me symbolises the creative mind as well as a general drive for action, which fits them both - wwx was famously a prolific inventor, and wq came up with a previously unheard of surgery, after all. This card strays pretty far from the rider-waite deck design, largely because i was still figuring out how i wanted to approach this series, but you can still see the influence. 2 the high priestess I was actually going to skip this card at first because I couldn’t think of a fitting character, but once i considered a qings character post death, it all fit pretty well. She was already a highly intuitive person in life, and in sharing her memories with wwx she is, in a way, relaying a kind of secret knowledge. Anyway she’s one of my fav characters so im glad i got a chance to include her. The coffins could be interpreted to be xxc and sl or xxc and xy 3 the empress Theres other mother figures in mdzs who got to be mothers for a longer time, but jyl definitely embodies the positive aspects of this card the best. She’s nurturing, kind, emotionally supportive, she already mothered wwx and jc quite a bit when she was young. Plus i liked that the rw card had both water and flowers, making an easy lotus connection. In retrospect the stars look kind of out of place and i should have replaced them with something more relevant... Also, i should have had her hold a lotus seed pod instead of a flower, haha 4 the emperor Like i said I considered jc for the role but hoching bullied me into admitting that nmj was better… they’re both more of an inverted emperor than an upright one but then again theres hardly any character in mdzs who would fit upright emperor so. Jgs was also considered but he’s even uglier than nmj so i couldn’t bear to draw him 5 the hierophant It was pointed out to me that lqr would have fit this card better and the truth if that statement haunts me to this day. Unfortunately I have no space in my brain for lqr so lxc got the role instead. My main reason was his role during the wen destruction of gusu lan, when he ran away with the contents of the library - this is why there’s bookshelves behind him. The keys, take, from the rider-waite deck, are meant to represent the gusu pendants that allow you to enter 6 the lovers Im sure many people would have chosen wangxian here but I uhh don’t really care abt wangxian personally? And also their love story is so convoluted that jyl and jzx seem idyllic by comparison lol. Also i didnt really have an idea for who to put in the angel’s place for wangxian… mme jin certainly did not get these two together in the end but undeniably she and mme yu did initially give them a chance to fall for each other so. Thats something i guess. Anyway the trees became their sects’ flowers and the mountain became the burial grounds - an omen of their tragic fate, basically 7 the chariot There might have been other characters who fit this card better but i couldn’t really think of another card for lwj and i thought it would be weird to not include him… anyway i don’t really care for current timeline lwj BUT i do like that he was clearly influenced by wwx to walk his own path in life based on his moral convictions rather than follow his sect’s rules blindly. The chariot is to me a card of self control, self determination and focused action, so it seemed fitting. The composition felt kind of empty without the actual chariot so i padded it out with the guqin, the cloud recess in the bg (it doesn’t look great but i tried to replicate the drama design….) and the bunnies which conveniently fit the colour scheme of the sphinxes in the rider-waite design 8 strength Like i said before, my interpretation of this card is more… morally ambiguous than the quote unquote official meaning, so i thought about manipulative or duplicitous characters more than kind characters whose strength is expressed through gentleness (though i did consider jyl briefly for the latter interpretation). As such, i considered both jgy and nhs, but ended up going with jgy largely because i couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put the nie sect’s beast as the lion. 9 the hermit My thoughts immediately went to bssr lol. It may be an overly literal interpretation but whatever, i like it just fine. And i like that i managed to echo the rider-waite silhouette in the mountain and the tree (and even in bssr herself) 10 wheel of fortune God i love the parallels between these 2… this card to me is about how you cant trust your current situation, good or bad, to last forever, and these 2 embody that perfectly imo. Wwx went from son of a well off servant and a powerful cultivator, to street rat orphan, to adopted son of sect leader jiang, to double orphan, to MIA, to terrifying but admired warrior, to terrifying and despised traitor, to dead, to, at the very end, suddenly respected and trusted again. The dishonesty and cheapness of whatever the public’s current opinion of him is is portrayed beautifully as far as im concerned. And jgy of course claws his way up to power only to instantaneously become public enemy number one, to the point that he’s probably blamed for stuff there’s no reason to believe he had a hand in. Wei wuxian’s silent astonishment at how quickly the cultivation world turns against jgy and towards him again is a delicious moment of thematic resonance. 11 justice I settled on this card for jc after he got booted from the emperor seat but i do think it fits, in a somewhat convoluted way. I turned both the sword and the scales into visual representations of the golden core transfer (can you tell im obsessed with it). According to biddy tarot, the justice card is partly about searching for the truth, and the scene where jc finds out about the transfer is of course a big deal. I was also very influenced by the reversed meaning again - which is about being reluctant or unwilling to face or accept the consequences of your actions. I feel on an intuitive level that this fits jc but I’m not sure how well i can explain it - it’s something about how he’s a little too comfortable scapegoating wwx for things that were also, if much less so, influenced by his actions, and also something about the way he keeps wwx at an arm’s length emotionally but still leans on him and accepts his support when he really needs it, and somewhat hypocritically expects wwx to put the needs of him and the jiang sect before the needs of others. And also something about the core exchange is the consequence and proof of wwx’s deep - terrifyingly deep, even - love and care for him, which is something jc doesn’t seem to let himself acknowledge. Maybe even something about how you could argue that the way all of the jiangs acted around wwx - jfm’s favouritism that left him with the feeling of a debt he needs to repay, mme yus insistence that he be a servant more than a brother to jc, prepared to give his life for jc, and jc’s own unwillingness - or inability, he was a child after all - to clearly acknowledge wwx as an equal to himself, enabling wwx’s self sacrificial and protective tendencies - that all of this was what caused wwx’s complete and unquestioning willingness to do whatever it took to protect jc, and therefore paved the way to the golden core transfer. And i don’t mean this to be scapegoating jc - especially considering how young he was when this all went down, it wouldn’t be fair to expect this level of emotional perceptiveness, awareness and maturity of him - but i think adult jc has to grapple with the fact that the chain of cause and effect was not as simple as wwx fucking everyone’s lives up to be a martyr, and that both jc and his parents had a role in that story as well. I don’t even necessarily think this is something that jc only realised in the current timeline - i think it’s something he felt on some level this whole time, and it probably led to a lot of feelings of guilt - but the suibian reveal definitely puts it in sharp focus, and i think he’s now better equipped to handle this introspection than he was as a recently orphaned, traumatised teenager, lol. ANYWAY the window with the fabric is both a nod to the rider-waite design and a reference to the destruction of lanling - i actually did some basic ass research for this, and it seems that in ancient china fabric would indeed be hanged in a window if the normally used paper was damaged. The design of the window, as well as the very idea to use it to imply the reconstruction of lanling, was taken from this great piece of jc angst by my pal moroll1! Oh yeah also the covered window kind of works as a denial of forgiveness for jc because it’s like a halo but covered up... Also I completely forgot to put a blindfold over his eyes which would be perfectttt because blind justice and the core exchange......... ok moving on 12 the hanged man I always have issues with this card because i cant find a satisfactory summary of what it’s really about. Best i can tell it symbolises a need to hit pause, surrender or let go of something… ive also seen it tied to sacrifice? So mo xuanyu doesn’t fit perfectly, but sacrifice is definitely there in a surface level reading kind of way, and the idea that you have to surrender or let go in order to achieve your goal does fit the whole deal of getting revenge but giving up your life in exchange and not being there to see it 13 death This is probably one of my favourite cards, definitely not because I have huge issues with change or anything…. I see this card as signalling the necessity of change or putting an end to something / leaving something in the past in order to start anew? At first i considered putting past wwx, mxy and current wwx here as a kind of transformation and one cycle flowing into the next... But firstly, I’d already used mxy in the very previous card, so putting him in again would feel like overkill, and secondly, the longer I thought about it the less convinced I was that this would even fit with the card’s meaning? Because coming back from the dead doesn’t like... trigger an internal transformation within wwx or anything? Anyway, fun fact: the design I ended up going with was actually originally intended for judgement! I thought I was being very clever with the whole “figure plays an instrument and the dead rise” parallel, but apparently I’d just completely forgotten that the judgement card had a completely different composition... Truly I was boo boo the fool... But yeah anyway at the end of the day I figured the design would kind of work for death as well, with Wen Ning and the theme of transformation, (since in his case coming back as a fierce corpse does actually mark a certain transformation in behaviour) and Wei Wuxian’s protection of the Wen people essentially signifying an attempt to break the cycle of oppression if that makes any sense? Like, wwx is trying to revolutionise the way the world works a bit, if you catch my drift 14 temperance The centrist card! Again this is probably going off track from the “official” interpretation, but to me this card has a certain “don’t commit fully; do everything in moderation; don’t take either side” flavour to it that i personally find infuriating irl and that i very much assign to lxc. It’s entirely possible that I’m misinterpreting his character because i didn’t really pay him (and the 3zun in general) much mind while reading, but hell, I’m allowed to pick favourites and choose who i want to interpret deeply vs shallowly. Again, i wish id chosen lqr for hierophant because its so annoying for a character i don’t care about to get two cards…. But oh well 15 the devil My alternative idea for this was jgy as the devil and lxc plus nmj as the figures, but since all three had been featured already (multiple times, even!) i figured I’d go with xy instead, especially since he’s among my faves lol. I think the devil signifies something along the lines of unhealthy attachment, obsession or addiction, which isn’t 100% accurate in the case of xxc and a-qing, but if i stretch it a bit to cover toxic relationships in general, and especially manipulation or negative influence, i don’t think it’s half bad. My main struggle here was to choose who amongst the xxc/sl/aq trio to choose for the human figures. 16 the tower Arguably jin zixuans death and the following massacre of nightless city were the final and most direct reason for the siege of burial mounds, and the tiger seal is good shorthand for wwx’s loss of control over his powers, which led to the deaths of jzx and jyl. When reimagining major arcana i like to feature some kind of building in this card (spoilers for a possible future project but in my rose of versailles major arcana set the tower is bastille) and even if it’s not a tower, the image of wwx looming over the gathered crowd from atop a rooftop is so good i couldn’t resist 17 the star Struggled with this one - considered both jin ling and lsz for it, as symbolising a hope for the future, but that was kind of covered by the world so it wouldn’t make sense to include here as well... As usual when I struggle with interpreting a card (as opposed to understanding it but struggling with matching a character to it, like with death or moon) I went to biddy tarot and read all the details about its meaning. What i got was that this card signifies an incoming period of introspection and inner peace following a time of turmoil, as well as a general moving on into a new, better phase of one’s life or finding new meaning and purpose. The figure also suggests someone vulnerable, but possessing a keen sense of intuition as well as a good degree of practicality and common sense. Given all those, I settled for mianmian because IM LOVE HER..... I also kind of see her as a prelude to the “just one person is enough” theme present in tgcf!! And i think her decision to abandon her sect because she saw the toxicity and corruption in it is a very inspiring action - even if it didn’t make a large visible impact, i think the appearance of her and her idyllic family at the very end of the novel - paralleling and mirroring wangxian - implies that at the end of the day, it was a meaningful one 18 the moon Another card i ALWAYS fuxking struggle with - this time less because i can’t grasp its meaning and more because I can never find a character that fits it well. I usually get fixated on the “dreams and subconscious” part, but if i lean more on the “disguise, deceit, anxiety and fear” part, i eventually figured the whole yi city arc wouldn’t be a bad fit. I say the entire arc because it really does encompass all those themes if you include both the past and the present - xue yang’s disguise, his tricks with the villagers, a-qing’s lies and even xxc’s reluctance to talk about his past as well as xue yang pretending to be xxc all fit the disguise and deceit angle, and the general mystery and creepiness of the current timeline yi city work well with the anxiety and fear - the mist, the slow uncovering of the past, even a-qing being revealed to be an ally after scaring the shit out of the protags. I definitely struggled with including all the elements and characters, and even moreso with making them vaguely fit the rider-waite composition, but i think it ended up okay ish. OH and i completely forgot to draw mist swirling around them :( 19 the sun I was considering mianmian’s family for this one, but since I used her for star, I ended up with wwx and his parents instead. Once again I’m reinterpreting the card a bit - normally I think it symbolises incoming times of pure happiness and abundance, as well as a connection with the inner child, but I gave it more of a nostalgic or sentimental twist - wwx looking back at the brief glimpse of his happy childhood. 20 judgement another card that i struggle to interpret a bit... Here i actually used the tgcf tarot zine as a reference! In it judgement is summarised as “rebirth, following duty, absolution” SO i figured that nhs, mxy and wwx all together would fit pretty neatly... wwx achieving (public) absolution through clearing his own name after being reborn, and nhs sort of calling on wwx to expose jgy’s crimes... It’s a bit messy but not bad I think! 21 the world This ties very closely to my read on mdzs as a story - which is that it’s, at the end of the day, largely about cycles, and about how hard it is to break them, but how we gotta keep trying and have hope anyway. Or maybe more precisely, that the people directly involved with and influenced by the trauma of the past might not be able to get over said trauma and that the hope for healing from it will be shouldered by the new generation. Or something like that… Basically what i mean is that jc and wwx and lwj and lxc and nhs and jgy and all these people who were in the thick of the sunshot campaign and the siege are so profoundly affected by it that it genuinely feels by the end of the story like there is little hope for them to ever truly overcome that trauma and build a better future without repeating the same old mistakes - but there is a glimmer of hope in the new generation, specifically in jl and lsz. And it’s a bit paradoxical, because they have also been directly impacted by the past tragedies - lsz having his entire clan wiped out after wwx failed to protect them, jl losing both his parents to wwx’s mistakes - but despite that loss, and despite coming from arguably the two opposing sides of the past conflicts, they are both, in the end, capable of moving past that tragedy, of recognising the complicated nature of those conflicts (jl’s moment of clarity at the end is both heartbreaking and hopeful) and forging friendships between clans in the process. I honestly think that the extra where jl is struggling to assert his authority as sect leader, to treat his subjects well and to cooperate with other sects in a truly amicable way is the single hopeful ending note for the larger themes of the novel - it allows us to imagine that maybe these kids can learn from the mistakes of their elders rather than getting sucked in by resentment at those mistakes, and actually build a brighter future for the cultivation world. And sidenote, this is also why i have a soft spot for jin ling and lan sizhui as a ship... speaking of which their poses were directly referenced from the lovers card ehehe

Looking back, I’d like to add some symbol of jin ling’s trauma so that it mirrors baby wen yuan in the tree stump... maybe his father’s sword?

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #tarot

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recurring-polynya · 3 years

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As we all know, I am Perpetually Rewatching Bleach, and I hit the Reigai Arc a while ago, but I didn’t feel like recapping it, because recaps are a ton of work and I am Tired, but Bleach 333 might be the Bleachiest episode in all of Bleach, so I had to.

In the immortal words of Gideon the Ninth: “Things were happening too much.”

So, this is pretty deep into the arc-- all the lieutenants are in the World of the Living and all the (real) captains are in Soul Society, Nozomi has just unlocked her zanpakutou, and Reigai Zaraki and Byakuya showed up to start shit.

At the end of the last episode, all the lieutenants put their reiatsu in Nozomi’s sword (why does some variation of this happen every filler arc??) and she blew up Zaraki and Byakuya. The episode opens with Renji muttering “Did we get ‘em?” which is really how every episode should open. It looks like they successfully KO’d Zaraki, but Reigai Byakuya survived, and he proceeds to take out all the lieutenants with a single Soren Sokatsui.

This seems bad, but then, the Captain Commander shows up out of nowhere and sets Reigai Byakuya on fire. Yes. Really.

Ichigo and Rukia get Yamamoto up to date, but the best part of this scene is that Renji is just...lying there in the middle of it, like a sleepy boi.

All of sudden, more Reigai show up, and there’s a split screen reaction shot, but... it’s just of the unconscious lieutenants. Friends, I literally screamed. They made this episode just for me. We’re also going to start counting SSRS’s, because this episode has... a lot of them.

I also want to point out the Ichigo, Nozomi and Kon seem to be entirely uninjured; Rukia, Chad and Uryuu are able to get themselves up, Renji is Hanging In There, and all the other lieutenants are toast. I am pretty sure this Says Something About the Lieutenant Class.

Oh God, there is so much Peak Renij Dialogue in this episode.

At this point, Renji attempts to sit up, and falls down again.Good hustle, buddy, you tried.

Somewhere around here, my husband got up to let the dog out and he said, “pause it if anything good happens.” I had to pause it almost immediately because Reigai Ukitake and Kyouraku showed up and then this happened:

There’s like 4 minutes straight of releasing, literally everything is on fire, and after being told to stay back like 5 times, Nozomi jumps into battle and we get split screen reaction shot #2.

Nozomi attacks Kyouraku and Ichigo goes after Ukitake. Yamamoto literally grumbles “Those darn kids...” and then Unohana comes out of nowhere and casts four different binding in a row on Yamamoto while an electric bass guitar plays. I say this all the time, but this is exactly how I would fight if I were a shinigami fighting another shinigami: just bind the fuck out of them and then attack them while they’re down. This scene was incredibly gratifying to me, Unohana is the GOAT.

How’s Renji doing?

Keep working at it, you’re doing great, pal.

The true purpose of filler arcs is more fights for characters that we didn’t get to see fight enough, and this episode delivers with some excellent Kyouraku and Ukitake throw-downs. Whoops, here’s reaction shot #3:

Because his spiritual energy has been on its last legs this whole arc, Ichigo is supposed to use his powers very carefully, for example, not going to bankai or using Getsugas, except when he can’t think of anything else, which is constantly. #4.

Did I mention that Fake Ukitake and Fake Kyouraku are Very Real Husbands this episode? Because they are.

We cut back to Rukia and Renji (still prone) and Kon. Kon is Big Sad because he can’t help. I have no love for Kon, but I respect this great compliment he lays on Rukia after she punches him.

Rukia and Renji decide they gotta go help and-- and Renji is UP! The man is up!

Except that Yamamoto abruptly busts out of his wards and Rukia has to breathlessly gasp “What is this reiatsu?” as per her contract.

SHIT FAM the real Unohana is here and she’s got Dramatic Singers! Fake Unohana is literally about to pee herself and so would you if you say this coming for you:

Wards still be exploding, Obligatory Renji Protects Rukia (and Kon) Shot!

Split Screen Reaction Shot #5: Karakura Kids Edition

Then, um this happened.

AHEM.

This was my favorite SSRS in the episode because it was kinda high concept. Rukia starts talking in the left panel, but you can still see her arm moving the middle panel. Didn’t they do this in Pacific Rim, with the heads-up displays? Or maybe that was Voltron. I don’t care, I love this shit.

Anyway, when Renji picks up the dialogue, BAM, he takes over the middle.

The fireball has done nothing to the Reigai, so we get a walking-thru-flames drama shot that ends with... yet another SSRS.

They start to attack Yamamoto who is 1000% ready to throw down, but then Kageroza shows up and declares that he will be taking on the old man himself.

Ichigo gets real concerned that Kageroza will use Yamamoto’s power against him (Yamamoto is like, ‘whatever’). Nozomi volunteers to act like a decoy, and Kageroza does his villainous laugh, “you’ll never steal my spiritual pressure-- NANI??” It turns out Nozomi already charged her sword up with the Head Captain’s spiritual pressure when Kageroza...was...checking his phone? I do not know how me missed this sneaky, sneaky maneuver:

I guess he didn’t see anything because they were behind Ichigo’s back. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Anyway, it’s not enough, so Yamamoto attacks. That’s not enough, so Ichigo unleashes his final Getsuga (not, like, the Final Getsuga, just like, the last one he has. Very confusing naming scheme here.)

Does this count as another SSRS? It doesn’t do the BAM/BAM/BAM, so maybe Rukia/Renji/Kon have been in split screen mode this entire time, and it’s just a revisit. Whatever, I’m gonna count it. We’re up to 8.

Ichigo is now spent. He mumbles “Did I get ‘im?” and then falls out of the sky.

“I NEED RENJI TO CATCH HIM,” I scream, while my husband winces and pinches the bridge of his nose. “GET UP, RENJI!” I yell. “YOU CAN DO IT.”

He’s thinkin’ about it!

Oh, no, Ichigo, did not, in fact, “get ‘im.” Kageroza appears to have survived, which I guess justifies a SSRS #9.

Look at Renji’s face. He’s ready. He’s goin’.

And he’s off!!!! I LOVE THIS MAN.

UGH, we have to sit through Kageroza explaining how he survived the attack by absorbing Nozomi’s attack and Ichigo’s Getsuga who cares who cares who cares, get to the good stuff--

yaaaasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Kageroza is powering up his attack, we’re gonna get the “To Be Continued..” any second, but NO there is STILL TIME FOR ONE MORE!

Ten. TEN. This episode is only 22 minutes long and they managed to fit in 10 split screen reaction shots. I suspect this may be the record.

This entire episode was just split screen reactions shots, people powering up, shots of my OTP, and Renji catching Ichigo and then cradling him lovingly. Perfect episode. 1000/10.

#bleach filler #reigai arc #the reason i don't get angrier about renji throwing himself in front of rukia all the time #is that he is obviously a tank #and she is a wizard #he's got like 900 HP and she's got 3 #but she's better at dealing damage #even when he's beat to hell he's still got more HP than her #his primary functions are absorbing damage and catching people #let a man do his job #y'know the art was really good this episode #everyone just feeling cute today #except for reigai byakuya #who is on fire

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behindthestrings · 3 years

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THINGS I’D LIKE MY RP PARTNERS TO KNOW

tagged by : several @deivorous I think was the most recent.

tagging: All of YOU

» I like to be called: Vix I honestly feel like its more my name than my given one sometimes. Maybe one day I’ll change it, when all people in my bloodline who’d care are gone. I enjoy living authentically. Inside-outside. I have seen a great deal and have little to hide about my own identity. If you always tell the truth...you have far fewer stories to keep track of.

» One thing you should know about me: I’m a licensed medical professional. I work night shift, always 7 10-hour shifts followed by a week off, and am expected to take call, so my scheduling and availability is often hella weird. Sometimes I’m here and say I’ll be here...only to find out that I’m a lying bastard...and need to be dressed and in surgery in the next 20 minutes or sooner and I just drop everything and run. If I’m “ignoring you”, it’s not because I hate you. I’m likely not there, tied up in something, or just too fucking tired and am merely surviving.

» Things you should know about rping with my characters: Well...my two oldest muses are Szayelaporro and Shutara and I’ve written them for 7 continuous years and I’m sure I’ll do so for much much longer.. To work with them means that while I’m interested in creating with you--I’m long past the ‘getting to know my own muses’ phase and I tend to be interested in deeper and introspective work because of it. Coming to me and saying “I don’t agree with blablabla” or “I don’t find x concepts canon” or whatever is an easy way to get a swift boot in the ass from me...because I really don’t care. But don’t take that the wrong way--If you don’t like an aspect of my portrayal or don’t wish to touch a certain part of my interpretation of my muses, we can simply use a different timeline, work in an AU, or just never work in situations where you’d need to acknowledge it. I’m flexible and expect the same. I’m more or less baffled when people get upset when I won’t drop important headcanons of mine...when like, I’ll never demand that they do the equivalent. Kisuke is ‘newer’ but it’s more true that I’ve not had the time to put towards him in a public setting like this blog--I’ve written him in fiction for 16 years and RP’ed him for 4...so learning his “voice” in working with other people as opposed to the voice he as for fic writing in my head...is where I’m at with him.

» Age range: under 13 | 14–17 | 18–22 | 23–25 | 26–29 | 30+ | 40+ | 70+ I am roughly 35. I’m too old for a lot of shit. Please don’t follow me if you’re a minor, and don’t try to interact with me either.

» Okay with NSFW?: Yes. I enjoy dark topics. I’ve seen a lot of terrible things and it feels good to release pent up and unprocessed emotions related to things like gore, trauma, triggering psychological situations. I’m ALSO super down with the kind of NSFW where you use exploration of sexuality to crack open a character. I have written erotica publicly for 17ish years and enjoy it very much. I claim a trans-nb identity as well as a queer one...and am sex positive and unbothered by writing situations including characters who are similarly not cisgender or heterosexual. If I feel like you are using your own characters or mine for fetish material or to perpetuate stereotypes...I will call you out on it.

*Bold for YEAH BABY, Italic for sometimes and strikethrough for I’m bad at it.

» rp friendly?: Ahaha. God I hope so. I know that I can be intimidating...and sometimes appear a bit gruff in mannerisms. But it’s a lie. I LOVE working with people and building worlds together, one thread at a time. :)

#behind the curtain (ooc)#munday

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jaxsteamblog · 3 years

Text

I’ll Save You from the Pirates

Click here to read the entire fic on AO3

Katara made sure everything was zipped and buttoned before stepping out of the small control building. She was grateful for the early morning survey trip; being in the South Pole brought in a lot of things too close for comfort.

The village she had selected for the initial drilling was on the northern side of the mountains watched over her childhood. On an especially clear day in summer, it was possible to see the far distant peaks of the Air Nation archipelago.

Or else, that’s what she assumed those smudges on the horizon were.

Shaking her head, Katara forced a smile at the workers waiting for her at the dock. She assumed she had a touch of midnight sun sickness, since her body was used to the perpetual darkness of the northern winter at the moment. Even with the new simulated nighttime, Katara was not adjusting as quickly as she had hoped.

It made her head feel like a balloon despite her body feeling sluggish.

“Shall we?” Katara asked, looking from man to man. They were unfamiliar to her, but so were many of the people she met in the South Pole.

The only time she had ever left her village was the once. And she hadn’t properly returned from that trip.

A lifetime ago, Katara had stepped onto a different sort of rickety boat. This one was made of metal, required some sort of crew to operate, and was probably more likely to survive a squall in the open ocean.

But her head still rocked violently when she was fully onboard.

“Gum, Majesty?” One of the men offered. Katara smiled in a closed lipped, queasy sort of way. Taking the thin rectangle of foil, her fingertips felt numb while unwrapping it. The gum was a pale pink, like the meat of any arctic fish.

That image didn’t help her head.

Her jaw worked slowly, feeling the gum nearly disintegrate between her teeth. The flavor was odd, but there was enough mint to calm her a bit.

Sitting on a box of supplies, Katara looked over the edge as the ship pulled away from the dock. The Beifong representative had been complaining of pirates for weeks. Small, quick boats that harassed their supply ships. Usually the attacks were pointless; the expensive equipment had been installed months ago. But medical supplies, shelf stable food, and other minor sundries were beginning to add up on the list of pirated goods.

Fire Nation engineers weren’t bothered by the pirates. Many of them were former military and were not at all subtle over their wish to interact with sea bandits.

Not to be inferred as wanting to fight Water Tribals of course, your Highness.

They were a congenial sort, in their own way.

As they continued on, Katara rubbed her eyes. A migraine was building at her forehead and she called up the cold water to attempt to heal it.

The brain was tricky, and sometimes she had trouble healing herself as she often didn’t think it was bad enough to worry over. Pressure pounded, but the pain stayed as that cloudy prophecy of worse to come.

In her mouth, the gum quickly lost its flavor, so Katara spat out the wad into her palm. The pink was long gone, and the wrinkled gray lump looked foul.

“What even was that?” She muttered and turned around. The man who offered her the gum was standing next to her, a bag in his hands.

Thinking it was trash, Katara moved to shake out the used gum.

The bag went over her head.

When she came to, the sun was setting. This meant two things: that she had been unconscious for a very long time and that they were no longer in South Pole waters.

And noting that she was also in a straight jacket, bound to a tree, Katara figured she was in the Earth Kingdom.

The pirates, as she assumed them to be, were near enough by that Katara could see them at their small fire. The light faded before it got to her, and so she couldn’t make out faces or words.

Looking around, and trying to shift into a comfortable position, Katara knew she was in the woods and far from the ocean. The straight jacket kept her arms and hands from bending, and her legs were shackled tightly together.

Rohan had told her stories about how the late King Bumi could earthbend by wriggling his eyebrows, but Katara wasn’t that skilled. Yet.

Sighing, Katara looked back at the fire.

Historical pirates had been her people, but they were effectively wiped out during the war. Airbender Bumi had created his Sky Pirates, and now they had been replaced by Earth Kingdom citizens. A counterclockwise Avatar cycle.

Bound and still feeling sick, the night air was at least steadying her senses. But she really didn’t know what to do next.

And yet, she really didn’t feel the need to plan. The situation almost made her feel calm. It took the sudden figure behind her to tell her why.

“I’ll save you from the pirates.” A soft voice whispered into her ear.

Katara snorted, turning it into a sneeze in case she was overheard. She was, and one of the pirates got up to investigate.

“Oh no. A ruffian approaches. Whatever shall I do.” Katara said robotically.

The man frowned as he neared.

“Don’t think of calling for help.” He said.

“Wouldn’t dream of it.” Katara replied and smiled broadly.

“You think something’s funny? I’d like to see you try your bending now.” He said.

“Neither of us needs bending to kick your ass.” The shadowed man said.

The pirate straightened just as the hilt of a sword smashed into the side of his head. The man collapsed as his assailant moved into the dusky light.

The blue oni mask sent electricity through Katara’s veins.

“Let me help you out.” Zuko said, crouching next to her and slicing through the straps.

“You might want to focus on them.” Katara said, wiggling out of the restraint.

Zuko stood and turned, separating his dual swords and rotating his wrists to loosen them.

“Be right back my love.” He said and darted forward.

Katara watched as closely as she could, shoulder off the straightjacket. Zuko moved quickly, as he always did, and many of the pirates were unable to even reach their guns. Those that did nearly lost a hand before Zuko knocked them prone.

To her surprise, there was an actual Earthbender among the group and Katara wondered if she should intervene. She was working on the shackles on her ankles when the cannonball of earth slammed Zuko into a tree. But the Blue Spirit leapt back onto his feet and kicked debris into the Bender’s face. By the time Katara snapped off the frozen metal, the Bender was face down on the ground.

Zuko paused to put out the small fires made when he kicked their cook fire before walking back to Katara. He held out his hand to help her up and she dusted off the back of her pants as he sheathed his unified sword.

“How did you get here so quickly?” She asked.

“Sokka helped.” He explained.

“But this?” Katara questioned, gesturing to his costume.

“I had plans.”

“Plans?” She stepped in close, running her fingers along the edge of his mask. “Did it involve a veil?”

“For you it involved only veils.” He answered, putting a warm hand on her lower back.

“KATARA!” A man’s voice bellowed and they jumped apart.

“My dad?” Katara choked out.

“It would make sense that others would be responding to this incident, yes.” Zuko said stoically, like he was also just realizing this.

“You need to go.” She hissed, shoving at Zuko’s side.

“Where?” He whispered back. “I don’t really know where I am!”

“KATARA!” Hakoda called again, much closer now.

“They can’t see you! You’re a wanted man!” Katara continued to shove, but Zuko didn’t move.

“My boat is that way!” He said, pointing past her to where Hakoda’s voice had come.

“KATARA!” Hakoda sounded desperate, and it actually raked at Katara.

“You have to get-” She stopped as she heard multiple people run into the clearing.

“GET AWAY FROM MY DAUGHTER!” Hakoda yelled. Katara turned, spreading her arms wide.

“He saved me dad!” She yelled back.

Hakoda halted and looked around. Seeing the very recent carnage, Hakoda made quick gestures. The others with him ran forward, securing the unconscious pirates.

“Who are you?” Hakoda asked cautiously, walking slowly up to them.

“This is the Blue Spirit. I’ve actually met him before, during the war.” Katara explained haltingly. She lowered her arms and glanced upward. “He’s….mute?”

“Well then.” Hakoda was awkward and his words were just as fumbled. “Thank you.”

He then made a sort of pained face, tilting his head slightly. “Are you really a spirit?”

“Probably not.” Katara said and heard Zuko huff behind his mask.

“At least, the Fire Nation thinks he’s just some traitor.” She added.

“I haven’t much cared for the opinion of the Fire Nation.” Hakoda muttered and Katara frowned.

“But I thank you for rescuing my daughter.” He continued. “Man or not, I must thank you properly for your help. It’s my duty as a chief, and a father.”

As Katara started to protest, Zuko moved from behind her and bowed. It was a modified gesture from the typical Fire Nation salute. It was meant to show respect to other nations.

“Great, now we can see what a spirit eats.” Katara growled, her jaw clenched.

“You know, we should hope he is a spirit.” Hakoda said as they started to walk in the direction Katara assumed the boats had moored.

“Why’s that?” Katara asked in exasperation, knowing Zuko would want to ask himself.

“You said you’ve met before. I don’t think the Fire Lord would appreciate the competition.” Hakoda finished.

Zuko huffed again and Katara sighed.

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#zutara #fanfiction #jax writes #modern au #the fic that prompts built #zutara month 2021

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thatfunkyopossum · 4 years

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whys it a worthless video essay? genuinely curious on your thoughts :0

The racism mostly!

Disclaimer: i’m white, and not meaning to speak for any person of color! My opinions on this are formed based on what i noticed in combination with what i know about racism, and I believe that in this case i’m right about what i’ve observed. That said, my observations are open to criticism from any black people who might be reading this and feel like weighing in, as my only personal experiences in bigotry are with my identity as a queer person. In short: i’m not an expert, but i do have eyes and what they see is repulsive. Anyway this will be rambly.

First and foremost, The Tragedy of Droids by @popculturedetective’s editing directly connects the Droids in Star Wars with the atrocities of chattel slavery in the americas, and the perceived connection is at times hinted at in the script.

@4:10 into the video “...they’re also bought and sold like cattle” is a quote i caught when trying to find the following time stamps, because the editing is the real beast here.

There’s also @ 4:35 “you can probably guess where i’m going with this, because the social arrangement i’ve just described is one of property and owner. And a property relationship between two intelligent beings that gives one absolute power over the other is called slavery.”

In this video essay, there are multiple times when the visuals cut between Roots and the droids of Star Wars. This is important because Roots is a mini series based off the family history of the black man who wrote the book, Alex Haley, and the scenes being directly juxtaposed with Star Wars droids are the scenes from it where black people are on slave ships or being sold at auction. TToD essay, which was at the very least presented by a white man, wants the viewer to connect robots and black people for the sake of the essay’s argument. TToD essay wants the connection between real black human beings who actually lived and suffered and died in the real damn world to, i cannot stress this enough, machines.

To anyone who is reading this and not seeing why thats fucked up, because they view the droids as people, here’s the problem. Droids aren’t people. No matter how you slice it, no matter how much you love them, theres actually no way for us to be sure that 99% of droids are sentient beings, that are self aware, and that feel things. Droids in the Star Wars universe are constructed to be tools that talk to you and have fun personalities. Some droids might be self aware and sentient, but the likelihood is that the vast majority aren’t due to being what they are. Tools. This is in stark contrast to black people, because black people are, uh, people!!

At 4:00 into the video essay, we start to see the cuts between Roots and Star Wars. Pop Culture Detective cuts between C-3PO/R2-D2 being sold to Luke’s family and a black woman being put in front of a crowd of white people to be auctioned off. This same sequence of cuts is used again later in the video essay.

At 28:20 into the video, a clip from Star Trek: The Next Generation is used wherein Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg, a black woman) is talking about slaves and slavery, how there have been disposable people in history. This clip on its own is so, so good. It aired in 1989, and I have no idea what the political climate was like for black people then (im not as well versed in history as i would like) but i can guess it probably wasn’t good!

“...They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because its too difficult or too hazardous. You don’t have to think about their welfare. You don’t think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.”

And then Pop Culture Detective uses this (to me) powerful line about atrocities done to human beings... and cuts to R2-D2 serving drinks to Jabba’s crew. PCD says some bullshit about how star wars is using the droids as an allegory for slavery but has nothing to say with the metaphor, and then it cuts back to Guinan to finish her speech. Might i say: what the fuck. What the fuck.

I can’t find it right now, but i distinctly remember there is also a bit where the visuals cut straight from a black man’s face to the face of an astromech.

And the cherry on top is that the clones are in this video... and never mentioned. Okay actually i’m going to talk about this video’s treatment of the clones and how utterly fucked up it is because i was so caught up in the “this essay wants you to think of the horrors of chattel slavery done to black people as being even remotely comparable to the existence of R2-D2” that i forgot to talk about the clones.

Okay so this video does not mention the clones at all. It uses clips from the clone wars and clips from the prequels movies with clones in them, but the clones aren’t even so much as talked about in passing. The closest we get is this brushing off of the issue in general @29:50:

“Remember, this is a universe where humanoid slavery exists as well, but its presented as unambiguously negative, though not exactly something the heroes are in a rush to abolish.”

Which is said about Anakin and his mother. And its not like they forgot about the clone wars and to talk about it at all! No, they had this to say on it @15:10. See if you notice anything.

“...But what about Battle droids?... Well, the separatist droid army in the prequels seems specifically designed as little more than canon fodder. Making the bad guys unfeeling robots avoids the messy moral complications and mass casualties that would result from an interstellar war. If battle droids aren’t alive then the audience doesn’t have to care when thousands of them are killed in extended battlefield scenes. Indeed we’re encouraged to think of these types of droids as mere objects and to cheer at their dismemberment.”

Drink it in y’all, i’m still absorbing it. I’ll note that sections of this were played over clips from the first battle of geonosis, and there were clones on screen. So, PCD completely sidesteps the issue of the clones, seemingly unaware of the actual explicit enslavement of brown men who are unquestionably living thinking feeling people, in favor of projecting humanity onto every single droid including the infamously poorly programed B1 Battle droids.

I don’t know what else I can say on that besides the fact that some obscure ass clips from the clone wars are used to humanize the robots, implying that PCD watched tcw and missed the episode where Slick calls the Jedi slavers.

There’s other problems with it as a whole, like the essayist completely failing to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that all droids are sentient, or that even most droids are. No consideration is given to the purpose, construction, or make/model of droid into the question of “are they sentient”? And we’re left with the implication that your average mouse droid is at all relatable to a black person.

In fact, PCD in this essay seems to actually imply that r2-d2 and bb8 being sentient-ish robots we’re supposed to empathize with, and the battle droids being not that, is due to a failure/breakdown of internal logic. And not that they’re, you know, different machines...?

I have so much to say on this mess, but this is long enough as it is. In conclusion, Pop Culture Detective’s video essay should have been about the clones, but it chose to focus on droids instead and in doing so dehumanized black people in an attempt to humanize robots.

I’ll leave you with this quote from the video, but edited slightly to be instead about the clones.

“[Slick]’s observations about [clone] slavery could have been an opportunity for Star Wars to finally grapple with the uncomfortable fact that...the good guys seem to have been keeping sentient beings in a state of perpetual servitude.”

#long post #racism #slavery #star wars

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vaskianmountains · 3 years

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20 fic tag game

Thank you so much for tagging me @veretianstarburst 💕💕

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

1. Missing

It was already late into the evening when Laurent’s governess Vivienne came to Auguste’s chambers.

2. Not Like the Other Blonds

“You really are unfairly attractive in scrubs,” Nikandros said.

3. Fascinating Reports

“Come to bed, Laurent,” Damen whispered into Laurent’s ear.

4. Your Breath in My Lungs

Damen tried to breathe, but no matter how much air he tried to suck in, there still wasn’t enough of it.

5. Of Soulmates, Books, and Spilled Guacamole

“You are my soulmate?”

6. The Downsides of Having a Teenage Baby Brother

When Auguste first learned that Laurent had found himself a boyfriend, he was overjoyed.

7. what never was and never will be

The baths were too humid, not leaving enough air for Laurent to breathe.

8. The Truth About Our Marriage

“I thought you guys weren’t coming to the faculty drinks?” Erasmus asked Ancel and Nicaise.

9. Our Unconventional Courtship

“Hey, asshole!” Damen said as he roughly elbowed Auguste in the side.

10. Veretian Roses

“How did this happen, Laurent?” Auguste asked when Laurent presented him the cut on his finger.

11. Take Care of It Myself

It was the third day of Damen and Nikandros’ business trip to Ios.

12. Moments Like These

Nikandros was tired.

13. The Kyros’ Unexpected Desire

At the end of the evening meal, the kings of Akielos and Vere excused themselves from the table.

With six out of thirteen of these starting with dialogue, I’d say that’s definitely a pattern. Those six plus some other ones also make it clear that I tend to start immediately with the ‘action’, rather than first setting up the scene before that. On the one hand that’s also specifically a preference for me when I’m writing (and probably also when reading), because I can immediately get to what I wanted to write and what other’s are probably coming to my stories for. But then on the other hand, I also do think some of my stories could maybe do with some additional detail to make them a bit richer, and first taking the time to set up the scene before jumping into the action could maybe do that. Although I suppose there’s also other ways to do that.

Relatedly to starting out with the action, all of these lines immediately start with the characters rather than with describing surroundings or something. Some of them is the characters actually doing something and others are more about things happening to them/about them experiencing emotions. Then, of course, there’s the ones where they’re talking, and we’re back at the often starting with dialogue 😂

I think one thing that’s also interesting is that there’s two openings about breathing and then also both specifically about there not being enough air. At the same time, Your Breath in My Lungs is about Damen having a panic attack after waking up from a nightmare, and what never was and never will be starts with Laurent being triggered in the bath scene from chapter 3 of the first book, so with them dealing with a similar topic it’s not that strange that they’d start similarly. I think it perhaps says something about how I tend to write panic attacks, and that kinda leads back to one of the questions from the ask meme that I answered yesterday, about whether any of my fics are inspired by personal experiences. When I wrote both of these fics, I didn’t write them with the purpose of writing about something I’d experienced myself, but now looking back I can still see that they do in part reflect my own experiences of having had panic attacks, because the times I’ve had those they’re mostly characterized by affecting my breathing (although there are also very much still differences between my own experience of them and how Damen and Laurent experience it in these fics. (Yes, I went a little off topic here. I don’t think this really counts as still being about opening lines 😅)

Choosing a favorite is difficult. I think most of them work well for their accompanying fic, and choosing a least favorite one is honestly easier. The one that would fit that description is from The Kyros’ Unexpected Desire. If I were to ever rewrite that fic, the absolute number one thing I’d do differently is its opening. Like I already said, I normally prefer to just almost immediately start with the action, and that’s not really what I did in this fic. I do think it does require a little bit of set up, and while what’s there right now isn’t actually long, I still think it would have been better if I’d condensed it somewhat. (And getting off topic here again, but while I think I should have written the opening to the fic differently, it does also contain a line that I’m actually really fond of, and that I was reminded of just now as I reread that part: After all, Nikandros had, against his will, learned well enough by now how to recognize when a proposal made by the Veretian king contained any undertones of a proposition of a different kind.)

I also don’t feel too much for the first line of Take Care of It Myself. I don’t think it and the rest of the two opening paragraphs are necessarily bad, but I’m also not sure they do particularly well at grabbing a reader’s attention and pulling them in, so that leaves the need for the premise promised by the summary and the tags to be interesting enough that they’ll still keep reading. (And I do hope people keep reading, because I think the rest of the fic is really fun! (And hot, also really hot.))

But then on to lines I do actually like. I feel kind of partial to the first line of Moments Like These, because I feel being tired is a perpetual mood for Nikandros, although that’s mostly the ‘I’m so done with this’ kind of tired, rather than the ‘I want to sleep’ kind of tired which he feels at the start of this fic. I wouldn’t call the line my favorite though by any means, as I’m not sure this line is going to particularly make people want to keep reading. I do think the immediate next couple of sentences do well enough in establishing what kind of fic this is going to be, so it’s not too big of a deal if the exact first line maybe doesn’t do that.

I think all the other lines do well enough in either setting up what the fic will be about, or getting the reader interested in finding out more, or both of those. I’m not going to be able to choose just one favorite from them, but the ones I like most are I think those from Fascinating Reports, Your Breath in My Lungs, and The Downsides of Having a Teenage Baby Brother. The line for Fascinating Reports has a sweetness and softness to it that I really love, and that combined with it also having a certain suggestiveness, does well in setting up the tone for how Damen is going to treat Laurent in that fic. The opening sentence for Your Breath in My Lungs immediately captures the kind of panic that Damen feels really well, and I like that it’s both the first thing you read when you open the fic, as well as the first thing Damen is aware of when he wakes up. I really love the first line to The Downsides of Having a Teenage Baby Brother. It has Auguste being happy for Laurent, which is always good, and the other thing that I love about it is that you can already hear a but in it, which also immediately gets followed through on in the next sentence.

I didn’t think I’d have that much to say on the opening lines to my fics, but this got unexpectedly long, so congratulations if you read all of this! I’m supposed to be tagging people now, but all the people I can think of right now have been tagged already... I do think this was a really good way to reflect on my writing though, so if there’s anyone who would like to do this, but hasn’t been tagged, I really think you should still do it, and if you want to you can consider yourself tagged by me :)

#tag game #my writing #mine #i feel like i should maybe apologize for how long this got #but i thought it was really interesting to reflect on my writing this way #so i just kept talking on and im not actually sorry for that #so while the urge to apologize might be there a little bit im opting to ignore it #also fun fact #the opening line of fascinating reports might be one of my favorites #but the title for that fic is absolutely one of my least favorites #i still cant think of a better title though so the fics stuck with it

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delusionland · 3 years

Note

👫 boop

-jason has a habit of putting all his eggs in one basket. Yeah, he can be a super smart chess master---but that is the game of an anal retentive, emotionally constipated obsessive.

-When he calls wally the first time, its pretty much on an ALMOST healthy whim bc wally reached out to him on dick's behalf to let him know he was there to talk just like he was in the young justice days and they could still be friends. Jason blows him off, but he's always had kind of a thing for a guy and he really does trust him. So jason ends up in a tight spot, unable to defuse a bomb before it goes off, after getting everybody out of the apartments upstairs, but not entirely wanting people to lose their homes or their shit---jason decides to call in help. However, he's sort of insane???? And still mentally unstable even at 22. He spends 4 of the 10 minutes wally has to get to Gotham and defuse the bomb doing a phone sex bit.

-wally is extremely intelligent. It takes him 4 minutes to get to Gotham. Less than thirty seconds to defuse the bomb. Jason stays there the whole time just waiting.

-he doesn't know why. Maybe a part of it is a death wish. Maybe a part of it is he is always just perpetually curious about how things work, what would happen if he did this or that---but most of all, he just wants to put wally to work. See if he can put his money where his mouth is. See if anybody really cares enough to try to keep him alive from his own foolishness.

-wally does. And after that Jason just keeps calling? Almost every night for a week, and then multiple times a week after. But this time not about anything dangerous, though he pretends it is.

-wally gets pretty good at differentiating "an old lady needs to cross the street / a cat is stuck in a tree" and "I am really going to die bc I just have no care for my life. Are u going to do something about it? Are you going to be my hero, wally? Do you really care that much about Jason todd, bad robin?"

-if this sounds crazy and weird, it is. But on the slow nights---the nights where Jason isn't killing people, which is a lot of nights... they spend a lot of time just walking around and talking about the good old days. They talk about their mentors, their hobbies. They're both nerds, so they talk a LOT about science, and pop culture. Despite everything, it feels like dates, or at least... friend dates

-so when wally gets down. Real down. He just. Shows up at Jason's place. Jason feeds him. He's a really good cook, but also he keeps all these tasty healthy trader joes snacks around. He starts keeping alcohol around for wally too. And he just. Listens. When wally needs someone to listen. And talks. When wally needs someone to jabber endlessly. And its nice

-jason would never admit his flirting is for real. But he does flirt. With wild homoerotic abandon.

-jason considers wally his best friend, but never says as much out loud as he assumes wally's best friend is dick. Awkward...

-jason will put his whole life in wally's hands but he won't tell him how he feels. Just gets him flowers and an insane rich person amount of chocolate for any holiday or birthday bc. Thats what friends do. Of course. Friends!!!

-one time jason is forced to help wally up and they're both in their costumes so glove on glove touch and jason re-reads romeo and juliet so he can re-read "oh if only I were the glove that touched that cheek" over and over again. And nsfw things may happen from there but u didn't hear it from me.

#dynamic: pride&prejudice; insufficent pretensions | jaywally | likeablur #ooc: hc #ch: jason #fandom: dc #fandom: superheroes #suicide tw #suicidal impulses tw

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ffamranxii · 3 years

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Sailor Stars thoughts:

1. The anime does its absolute best to make the Starlights unlikable. Taiki is a fucking asshole (he won’t even give a dying girl, who he explicitly was taken to visit, an autograph, and tells a bunch of children that their grandfather’s theory about souls becoming stars is dead wrong), Seiya is a Nice Guy who hits on Usagi constantly despite being told multiple times she has a boyfriend, and Yaten is a mildly sarcastic cardboard cutout. I know the manga doesn’t expand on them much but the anime is supposed to help make these people real. Counterexample is Chibi-Chibi, who hardly speaks in the manga and relies on her cuteness alone to be likable. They gave her a very cute voice because it was literally all they had to work with, given how often Chibi-Chibi actually appears

2. The dub cast for the Starlights is frankly awful. As civilians, Taiki alternates between a woman trying too hard to make her voice deep and having a bad cold, Seiya sounds like a prepubescent boy, and Yaten sounds like a woman (which they’re not, as civilians); as Starlights their voices are VERY high pitched, especially Yaten’s. Their sub voices just sound like woman talking a bit deeply and then normal women.

3. Why the FUCK did Toei think literally changing sex was less controversial than crossdressing? The Starlights are women and have always been women. Plus, them being male civilians in the anime creates a paradox, because if they’re men with sailor crystals who can become senshi, why can’t Mamoru - who is confirmed multiple times throughout the series as carrying the earth’s star seed and thus being Sailor Earth - do the same? Naoko said Mamoru can’t be a sailor senshi because he’s a man, but the Starlights don’t abide by this rule, they change their fucking biological sex

4. Why is absolutely no one concerned that Chibi-Chibi, a THREE YEAR OLD, just goes off on her own and has her own little adventures? She wanders into some strange old man’s house and they’re all “oh that’s just Chibi-Chibi,” and no one is worried that a literal stranger invites a three year old into his house where he gives her toys and candy? The 90s were WILD, man

5. Why does Chibi-Chibi, again who is THREE YEARS OLD, have a thigh gap?

6. This one’s on Naoko because it’s like this in the manga, but the anime is supposed to expand on the universe so I blame them too: Why does literally nobody question Chibi-Chibi’s motives? Some strange pink haired child who fucking falls out of the sky one day up and brainwashes Usagi’s mom into thinking she’s her second daughter, and nobody bats an eye at this? That’s sus as fuck and literally the only question anyone has is “is she your kid or Chibiusa’s?” She doesn’t even have a NAME, “chibi” is just a random word she says!

7. I am DIGGING the mobster feel of the Animamates’ civilian forms. Especially Iron Mouse and Tin Nyanko, who clearly launder money through a shady car dealership.

8. The Starlights’ only redeeming qualities are their snazzy entrance music and Seiya’s red suit

9. Why is Aluminum Siren the only Animamate who understands that a senshi has a pure star seeds? Like, y’all killed the senshi of your home planets to take their star seeds so YOU could be senshi (which is presumably why Galaxia wants more seeds, to make more Animamates with them), shouldn’t you know that?

10. Aluminum Siren/Lead Crow are trying their damn hardest to give Harumichi a run for their money in the quest to become the Best Space Lesbians.

11. So the Moon Kingdom fosters loyalty through child soldiers. I’m assuming Queen Serenity has her own senshi in the form of our senshi’s mothers, etc. (Which begs the question of if the Asteroid Senshi are supposed to be the future kids of our senshi or if they too are child soldiers from the asteroids they’re named after.) Kinmoku seems to foster loyalty by having the Kakyuu’s senshi fall in unrequited love with her. (In the manga it’s stated Kakyuu has a husband who died when their planet was destroyed.) I mean, whatever works, right?

12. I LOVE Tin Nyanko’s dub voice. She’s only around Usagi’s age and she sounds it

13. The dub actress for Lead Crow seems like she’s half assing it. Her voice doesn’t raise properly when she yells, she never sounds really angry, and it’s just so odd. I find a lot of dub voices do this, while the original Japanese VAs will scream their lungs out into the mic

14. On the reverse, Galaxia’s voice actress is a badass. She’s supposed to have a deep menacing voice but I like the one they gave her in the dub. She’s quiet, and sounds almost kind, and that’s a fucking TERRIFYING sort of villain we don’t see a lot of. Even when she’s pissed she doesn’t raise her voice.

15. Why are Lead Crow and Tim Nyanko the same height? Lead Crow is like 5’10 and Tin Nyanko is 4’11 like Sailor Moon

16. As an aside, Tin Nyanko and Lead Crow don’t like each other, which reminds me of the cats vs crows trash can showdown in Haikyuu lol

17. Haruka’s hate boner for Seiya gives me life

18. FINALLY someone calls the Starlights out on being assholes but it’s only after Makoto sees them harassing a THREE YEAR OLD (Chibi-Chibi). Literally everyone BUT Usagi thinks they’re assholes. “They sing such beautiful songs!” Bro. You can sing pretty and still be a fucking dick.

19. Lead Crow goes after Sailor Moon only after reading Siren’s notebook. Ditzy SIREN is the smartest Animamate, lord help them

20. Kakyuu’s dub voice is SO GOOD. She’s my favorite minor character, I’m still bitter they didn’t show Sailor Kakyuu

21. Seiya’s crush on Usagi was so awkwardly shoehorned in. I hate it. Jesus fucking Christ Usagi is sobbing in the goddamn rain about how much she misses Mamoru and Seiya is STILL coming onto her.

22. It is literally so fucking funny to me that Mamoru spends all of Stars fucking dead. He’s just a perpetual damsel in distress.

23. Rei literally lectures Usagi about leading Seiya on and how “you need to do the right thing and tell him you already have someone,” AS IF USAGI HASN’T BEEN DOING THAT AT EVERY AVAILABLE OPPORTUNITY. THE FIRST TIME THEY MET SHE SAID SHE HAD A BOYFRIEND, SHE’S TOLD SEIYA OVER AND OVER THAT SHE ISN’T INTERESTED IN HIM, THAT SHE’S GOT A BOYFRIEND, THAT SHE LOVES HER BOYFRIEND. The fucking MISOGYNY here, like it’s Usagi leading Seiya on instead of Seiya being a fucking Nice Guy who can’t take no for a goddamn answer. Shut the fuck up, Rei.

24. Pretty sure under Kakyuu’s headdress is a pair of odango

25. The fact that Iron Mouse and Aluminum Siren both die when their bracelets are removed yet Tin Nyanko doesn’t implies that Tin Nyanko was the original Sailor Mau. Mouse and Siren dying implies that forcing senshi powers on a civilian is dangerous and that Galaxia’s bracelets are the only thing keeping them alive (albeit brainwashed). Yet Tin Nyanko seems to revert to “good” when one of her bracelets is destroyed. Galaxia has to intervene and kill her personally. Tin Nyanko may have offered her senshi powers to spare Mau (this applies only in the anime; in the manga she’s explicitly said to have killed Sailor Mau)

26. Oooh Galaxia’s angry voice is so commanding and sexy

27. Don’t gimme that “we love Usagi but we love you Starlights just as much.” No you fucking don’t. The whole death scene in the anime is just so... ugh. Bad.

28. The Outers fighting Galaxia is hilarious. They’re supposed to be stronger than the Inners yet Galaxia never even has to get out of her chair to kick their asses. The writers were trying real hard to make us fear the worst and back the senshi into a corner but literally they’ve made this an impossible battle to win that only becomes winnable due to plot armor.

29. Rewatching Stars and classic after Eternal and Crystal makes me miss the battle damage the fuku took. The new series always has them looking pristine, but in classic they actually get roughed up and battle scarred. It makes it more real.

30. Aww how come Uranus and Neptune got to keep their names when they joined Galaxia? I wanna know what whack ass Animamate name they would’ve gotten. (Also Galaxia literally just sent them out like Pokémon, wtf)

31. I feel like Saturn dying shouldn’t be possible since she’s literally a senshi of death but... whatever, go off I guess.

32. So.... Uranus and Neptune joining Galaxia to try and take her star seed is a cool idea that absolutely did not happen in the manga, and needed more than half an episode of development. Would’ve been a cool plot if it wasn’t so rushed.

33. So much of this season was rushed so they could tie the series up at a beat 200 episodes. If they really didn’t want to go over 200, they should’ve cut the Nehelennia arc (which isn’t in the manga anyway) and and focused on developing the Animamates, this sweet Harumichi betrayal plot, and explaining Chibi-Chibi??? Her existence makes no sense without Sailor Cosmos, and they just... didn’t include her??? Wtf

#sailor moon #ffamran watches anime

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