#just surface level stuff

[jewishbarbies]

Hey! If you don’t mind me asking, could you share the music that you listened to replace TS? I don’t like her as a person at all but I’m just having a hard time letting go of her songs and I just don’t want to stream her things anymore. Thank you 🥲

sure! I’ve shared some recs before but I can’t the ask so I’ll post what I can remember!

noah kahan (stick season is my new and improved all too well)

paris paloma

devon cole

hozier

lewis capaldi

MARINA

sleep token

maneskin

conan gray

lana del rey

florence + the machine (listened to them since I was like 11 but nowadays they’re a problematic fave)

matt hansen

halsey

kim petras

there’s a bunch of singles sprinkled here and there but these are the artists I listen to multiple songs/albums from.

[starry-bi-sky]

this just in: danny fenton is just as much of a mask as Brucie Wayne? - another danyal al ghul au

Turns out, being placed in a civilian family who have no knowledge of your background is actually detrimental to the health and development of a child assassin due to lack of proper support! Surrounded by strangers in a foreign city, Danyal Al Ghul does as assassins do best. He hides. Espionage is one of many teachings one learns in the League, and it only takes half a day for Danyal to construct a new persona to hide behind: Daniel Fenton.

By the time dinner rolls around, Danyal al Ghul is safely and securely tucked behind the face of Danny Fenton; brand new adoptive child of the Fenton family who came from overseas. A shy, quiet little boy with a thick accent and curly hair, with brown skin and blue eyes, and an avid interest in the stars. The best fictions are always cobbled together in a little bit of truth, it's some of the only truth he ever lets through. He apologizes in a meek voice for his behavior early, he didn't mean to be rude, and he watches the three of them eat it up with coos.

Lies roll like silk against his lips, he struggles to meet their eyes and offers them his weakest, shyest smile. It's too easy. It's easy to go from there.

Danny Fenton, adoptive son, shy and awkward and unconfident but friendly. Who struggles in his classes and isn't the brightest, but tries his hardest. He makes bad jokes and has a quick tongue and a sarcastic mouth. He wants to be an astronaut. He's got the best aim in school, and is a terrifying dodgeball player. He's one of the least athletic kids in his grade.

It's like playing two truths and a lie, but there's only one truth, and the rest are lies. It's easy to pretend when he knows it's insincere.

Danyal Al Ghul, grandson to the Demon Head. Deadly, trained assassin. Has spilled blood, has had blood spilt from. Environmentalist, animal activist. He loves the stars. He owns a calligraphy set. A sharp tongue, an even sharper blade. He's clever, quick-witted, he would be top of his grade if he tried harder. He purposely doesn't.

He misses his family. He misses his mother, and he misses his brother. Mother visits a few times a year, so few times that he can count it on both hands. He cherishes every visit, as brief as they are. It helps remind him who he is.

Sam and Tucker are Danny's best friends. They've never met Danyal, but Danyal's met them.

It becomes routine to become Danny Fenton. As familiar and as easy as pulling on a shirt in the morning. Danyal wakes up and is always first to the bathroom in the mornings; stares at himself in the mirror until he can finally see Danny staring back at him. At night, he locks his door and sheds the mask.

Dying throws a wrench in his mask; splits a crack straight through the porcelain. He's able to smooth it over with sandpaper and liquid gold, but it's a little hard keeping his ghost form under wraps. It instinctively wants to shift to show his true self. Danyal can't have that, he's spent four years as Danny Fenton, he'll spend another four as him as well. Even if the feeling of the hazmat suit in his ghost form feels restrictive, like a too-small shirt suctioned to his skin that needs to be peeled off.

He'll live. Er-- well, you know what he means. It's frustrating however, trying to keep his Danny Fenton mask up even as Phantom - fighting in the air is something he needs to get used to, and the sudden propping of powers throws him off. But he is nothing if not adaptive, and he hates that he needs to slow his own skills down in order to keep pretenses up in front of Sam and Tucker.

The first time Danyal summons a sword when he's alone, is one of the few times Danyal gets to grin instead of Danny. He's fighting Skulker, and from an invisible hilt he draws a katana from thin air. It startles them both. Skulker takes a step back at the smile that spreads across his face.

They're both silent as Danyal examines his new sword.

"Do you know what people like me do to people like you, poacher?" Danyal finally asks him, the accent he began to hide a few months in slipping through. He drops all pretense, dragging the flat end of the blade slow and appreciatively against his palm. It's a good make, and when he cuts it through the air, it slices through like butter. He looks up at Skulker with a smile; "are you ready to find out?"

When Sam and Tucker ask about why Skulker seems so skittish around Danny now, Danny shrugs at them and says with a playful smile; "I don't know, I guess I kicked his butt too hard after our last fight." and he watches as Sam rolls her eyes exasperatedly, and Tucker snickers with his own joke.

By the time he reunites with Damian before their 15th birthday, Danyal is buried beneath so many layers of Danny Fenton that his brother will need a shovel to dig him out. He's not sure what he'll find.

[llapasllaly]

ive just watched a youtube video about disco elysium and now i feel like this

[bigskydreaming]

Imagine looking at a character whose entire premise is that in every stage of his life, he's made every version of himself into someone that inspires people to such a degree that EVERY SINGLE VERSION OF HIM has people wanting to literally follow in his footsteps in some way or another.....

And coming to the conclusion that like.....the most important things about him are the sum of all his trappings. His entirely homemade developed from scratch could not exist if not for what he already was and brought with him BEFORE crafting this newest version of himself trappings, with his greatest trait throughout all of it being his adaptability; his ability and willingness to roll with the punches and not try to simply weather any opposition or changes to his life but instead reshape himself as needed to better fit INTO whatever new shape his life and the world around him takes. All while managing to carry the most innate, fundamental and necessary aspects of himself from one version to the next. Thus every single version of himself is different but simultaneously every single version of himself is also undeniably the same person.

The strength of this character, to me, will always be that he can be so many versions of himself, he can become so many things, all without ever actually losing or discarding any of the aspects of himself he considers most essential, the things he's not willing to lose or give up just to keep going. Finding that road not taken by most, usually because most never even think to look for it as an option. But one that he's always able to find because the one trick he's mastered in his tumultuous life is threading that needle of not just digging in his heels in an unproductive way but rather being selective about when and where he makes a stand and decides "this is not a thing I'm willing to compromise about" but here are places and ways I can and will change and evolve and adapt in order to make it possible for me to hold onto these parts and keep them as they are.

And that's why its always so mind-boggling to me that so many writers can't seem to think of anything else to do with Dick Grayson other than invent some new reason for him to just....not be that person, or to like just take the character whose most basic fundamental trait he's NOT about to compromise on is willingly giving up his spot in the driver's seat of his own life.....and make him just a passenger in his own life and stories.

Dick Grayson at age nine....at age nineteen...at age twenty nine....the one core thread running through all versions of him is the only way he's standing back and letting you call the shots for him or putting him on the sidelines in some way is over his dead body.

HOW he goes about that, what that looks like, who he becomes and what aspects of himself he plays up at some times and what traits he lets fall by the wayside at other times when they offer less in service to his primary goal here....that changes constantly. He changes constantly.

But those changes are almost always (or at least they used to be/should be IN MY OPINION) made with the intention of keeping certain things about him or his life as consistent as possible.

That's the duality of Dick Grayson that I'm here for. The inherent contradiction of him that COULD allow for endless conflict and breaking new narrative ground in all sorts of ways if mined properly:

His eternal willingness to compromise....but only ever in pursuit of doubling down on the ways he's not willing to compromise.

Forever walking that tightrope in ways that only a kid born and raised in a circus could ever hope to.

[yourlocalabomination]

Song - Taking What’s Not Yours by Tv Girl.

(I learnt my lesson from last time so here’s the animated version in the original post)

[marc--chilton]

ruhgh the pilot. the pilotttt.......... the patient getting wilson to reflect on house's actions and he barely has to examine before determining with a little smile that "yeah, he cares about me :) " like it's such a little thing. utterly precious. but also very smoothly gets the audience to think similarly: people will say anything, it's what they do that really shows what they mean and how they feel. love is a verb love is a doing word

[rotating-hyperfixations]

Teen Yellowjackets Niche Specific NJ Headcanons:

Watching Yellowjackets has me reflecting on my own teenage hood and I grew up in NJ, so therefore I constantly think way too much about dumb shit they could do that’s specific to growing up in New Jersey and thus this list was born:

Growing up Nat was a CEO catholic (Christmas and Easter only). Her parents don’t really believe, but there’s enough Catholic guilt there from their childhoods that they feel like they should go for the big holidays. They stop going when her dad dies.

Lottie was informally adopted by an elderly Italian couple who owns a deli. In middle school she started going there nightly for dinner when her parents were out of town, and the owners were so confused/disgusted that they always made sure she had a meal free of charge, even though she could pay. Even into high school they give her extra food, she usually pawns it off on Van or Nat, or sometimes Shauna if her mom’s working the night shift at the hospital.

Van worked at a pizza place. She hates it, but they let her take slices home for free and she likes that it feels like one of those jobs a character would work in an 80s coming of age movie.

Jackie’s parents have a beach house in LBI. The soccer team takes it over for one week every summer

Shauna likes to drive down Ocean Ave late at night listening to her mixtape that she made specifically for those drives (this basically a right of passage for teenagers who grew up by the shore, myself included).

There is infighting amongst the team about which is better: Dunkin Donuts or Wawa. They had to put a moratorium on the topic because things were getting too personal.

Van looks up to Kevin Smith and loves Clerks because he was also from a small town in NJ and was able to get his movie made.

Tai is ready and willing to kick anyone’s ass who tries to defend Pineapple on pizza, she thinks it’s a crime against pizza and it should be outlawed. Jackie is a pineapple on pizza enjoyer, this causes problems.

They all live in central Jersey and fight with opposing teams at tournaments and matches about whether or not that section of the state exists.

Nat is a transplant from North Jersey and they all give her shit for her accent that she just can’t shake.

Misty is an NJ transit defender, even though the service barely functions.

Shauna is banned from watching the Giants and Yankees because she has anger issues and spends their entire game yelling at the tv.

Nat and subsequently Van (Nat-Van childhood best friends you are very dear to me) call it Taylor Ham, whereas the rest of the team calls it Pork Roll. Each side has attempted to convert the other, but have yet to be successful.

They were all devastated when Action Park at Vernon Valley closed because it meant they could no longer get shitty cheap beer without being carded.

[californiannostalgia]

seems to me like zac oyama is repping some experiences of asian american schoolkids, defined by such hits like 'regulate your anger,' 'communicate clearer to deliberately misunderstanding assholes,' and 'perpetual sense of unbelonging in both the american part and the asian part of your life.'

[oscargender]

Heartbreaking: “problematic” danmei everyone told you to avoid is actually pretty decent and has mildly interesting things to say about poverty and class

[starfall-isle]

I hate limited availability I hate artificial scarcity I hatee it. Unfortunately I love items and objects

[fideidefenswhore]

so tired of tudor dramas where there are no women… and even when there are women… there aren’t…ykwim?

[sweetandglovelyart]

[steveharrington]

i really love mikes mic because unlike some 👁️ youtubers he never makes the shows he’s discussing into a Joke. like a lot of youtubers will pick a show or movie to discuss and the entire joke of the video is this ironic “ha ha isn’t it sooo funny that i’m making a video about this like im sooo random for having a serious discussion about this media that’s so surface level and dumb” NO he truly genuinely loves the shows he discusses and you can tell that he is passionate about the writing and characterization and plot elements…it’s just truly refreshing to see someone make authentic and genuine content while also being really funny….like idk i don’t really watch a lot of the shows and movies he discusses but his love and interest in them does genuinely convince me and it comes from such a sincere place

[fairly-odd-takes]

While I can see why everyone jumped on Perirep at the start, I think they've kinda forgotten the reasons why the two of them are even interesting to start with, other than being toxic yaoi lol. I wish people would explore the way both of them have ended up acting just like their parents due to the expectations society put on them, and that they'd probably have obligations that they couldn't throw away even if they did like each other. I'd want to examine how stagnant fairy society must be with no new generations being born to propose new ideas or change things, so much so that both sides unconsciously shoved all their hopes and dreams on to these two guys the moment they were born. The Anti-Fairies want Irep to destroy Peri and set them free, and Fairies want Peri to be a perfect Godparent like his parents. Neither of them seem very happy doing these things, but they're so deep in it they don't even realize they aren't happy. I certainly don't want to single anyone out or police what they make, but in general I wish there was less "I'm kicking my gay son out"/"Da Rules says you can't date"/"I'm Pregnant" telenovela conflict in fanworks, and more exploration of Peri and Irep becoming aware of why they're so miserable and trying their best to either change it or at least make it less painful together. Their relationship probably won't solve any of these problems by itself either, but it's a start to figuring out what might be causing the rift between their species. Additionally, part of me thinks that some of Irep's problems (divorced from Peri) are SUPER under-explored by fandom. Peri's a celebrity child, sure, but Irep is essentially an ersatz prince (since Anti-Jorgen isn't doing anything) who's clearly had to take on some degree of leadership for Anti-Fairies, even if you interpret Anti-Cosmo as still technically in charge in the finale. I'm also interested in the fact that Irep immediately bonded with Dev and clearly wanted to be a godparent himself. Sure, he might want to do it for the power *at first*, but it raises the question if an Anti-fairy could be capable of loving and caring for a godchild the same way a fairy might (again, divorced from Peri). I always thought it was funny that all Pixies and Anti-Fairies ever wanted half the time was to become parents in the original, so I'm shocked people haven't latched onto that aspect yet. What if they bring stuff to the table that Fairies can't? Anyway. I just think that taking these things into consideration would go a long way to making the ship feel less stale overall, though it's just my opinion.

.

[pseudophan]

tumblr please stop recommending me christian communities i can't take it anymore why are there so many of them 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[charmwasjess]

So I finished the Glass Abyss! Some thoughts under the cut, mainly about Jedi sexual relationships 

Overall, fun, engaging book that clearly ADORES Mace Windu and spends time seemingly deliberately answering popular fandom complaints about him with positive depictions. 

The worldbuilding is really fresh, you kind of think you’ve seen everything in Star Wars and then they roll out a glassified (solar flares) world of spider people and mushroom zombies. 

I didn’t love the romance narratively; it felt kind of tacked on, but I did love how it contributes to a larger picture of how Jedi treat sexual and romantic relationships. This isn’t Rael just meeting his sexual needs in unattached hookups, Mace *loves* the spider lady. He’s also Master of the Jedi Order, the leader of the fucking Council. And significantly, he doesn’t think about this even once as a problem or conflict of interest. There is no “but aughhh I am a Jedi boo hoo forbidden romance” subplot, or the implication that he’s doing something wrong by falling in love and pursuing a romantic, physical relationship during a long mission. And at the end, it’s clear that both characters understand that their greater duty is to their respective peoples, but if their decision to prioritize that over the relationship changes, they’ll find each other again. That Mace is free to make that decision, to have the relationship, and choose to return to the Jedi Order without it, or stay and keep it.  I thought this was an interesting detail in a book that also has the whole: Anakin: the Jedi must ignore their feelings!!! Mace: uh, what? I think you might’ve misunderstood that kiddo …with the implication that Anakin is maybe not the most reliable narrator about the actual rules of the Jedi, and the further implication that the problem with him and Padme is the secrecy and the lying (and legal/conflict of interest that probably make such a marriage between a Jedi and a senator a problem), not the fact of a romantic relationship itself. Which explains more of Obi-Wan’s relaxed attitude toward it - okay, Anakin and Padme are clearly involved, but what’s the harm in that if he’s being a responsible adult about it?  Rael wants to just sleep around. Mace is free to follow his heart and fall in love. Their romantic and sexual options are choices, not mandates. And I love that, by contrast, in Master and Apprentice, same book as Rael’s sexual openness, Qui-Gon is horrified by the idea of Jedi having relaxed attitudes toward sex. It feels more realistic to me that different Jedi have their own individual different convictions, interpretations, and histories around the subject of sex and relationships. Especially contrasting Rael and Qui-Gon, who were taught by the same person and presumably given the same message about it but took it in two extremes. (Although. Okay, it’s kind of funny if Rael-era Dooku (still friends with Sifo-Dyas) gave him a sex positive messages and Qui-Gon-era Dooku (NOT friends with Sifo-Dyas, very sad about it) gave him a sex negative message.)