#kind of blah

[innovacancy]

Frog Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA 28 June 2024

[razena8]

THIS.

JUST. THIS.

THIS IS WHO SHADOW IS. THE GUN AGENT IS IN HIS WAY, AND SO HE WILL DEFEAT HIM TO GET TO HIS OBJECTIVE. BUT HE WILL DO SO IN A MANNER THAT SAVES AS MANY LIVES AS POSSIBLE, INCLUDING THAT GUN AGENT. BECAUSE HE KNOWS THAT ULTIMATELY, THE AGENT IS INNOCENT IN THIS SITUATION. HE IS SIMPLY DOING HIS JOB AND SHADOW UNDERSTANDS THAT. HE DOES THINGS HIS OWN WAY BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES.

JUST

GAH.

[booasaur]

Special Ops: Lioness - 1x07

[astrobei]

in my heart of hearts mike wheeler is absolutely an athena kid but i also have to offer up a concept that i think has extreme comedic and dramatic potential aka: repressed gay teenager mike showing up at camp half blood unsure of who his godly parent is and feeling insecure about not having powers and one day when he’s making not-so-secret heart eyes at his best friend and son of apollo will byers is when a bunch of glowing floating hearts show up above his head. and that’s how mike gets claimed by none other than aphrodite, the goddess of love and sexuality, and is in full denial about it for three days because he thinks it’s some kind of sick and twisted JOKE

(on aphrodite’s end, she’s upset mike is throwing away the gift of true love and keeps trying to trick him out of repression by making more and more improbable and hilarious gifts appear when he and will are hanging out. mike hands will a book and it turns into a box of chocolates and he has to fling it away like a frisbee before will sees it. they’re having lunch and romantic music starts playing. she gives mike the same blessing she used to claim piper and will can’t even look in his direction for a full day because he starts blushing so hard. fifty bouquets of flowers show up at the apollo cabin’s doorstep with a note that says love, mike and by the end of it, mike isn’t even repressed and unsure about his sexuality anymore — he’s just trying to not throw himself into the bonfire out of sheer embarrassment)

[pumpumdemsugah]

I watched the behind the scenes about the animation of Blue Eye Samurai and spoilers If you care but the fact some of you are pissed off the creators state Mizu is a woman over and over again is dumb. At this point, some ppl are so strangely sexist you do not think women are complex characters you can relate to or would never put revenge or being in disguise for safety (and ease of travel ) above conformity or femininity.

Mizu's mother told her two things: don't leave the house or they will kill us and don't let them know you're a girl because they're looking for a girl and will kill you. Mizu disobeys one of these and her hut gets set on fire with her mother in there. It's not hard to imagine why she'd continue dressing up as a boy for safety. If you really think a girl or woman would never dress up as a man to avoid being hunted down and killed, something is wrong with your brain. Women and girls famously don't like being brutally murdered.

That woman and child weren't allowed in the city to sell their goods and avoid starving because no male chaperone. How is Mizu supposed to get revenge if she needs a male chaperone to travel?

Some are denying central themes (because Mizu is relatable) like: the narrow paths women have- being a wife or an ' improper woman' ( working in a brothel ) to the point not even a princess was in control. Akemi is working within the confines of being a wife and we'll see how that goes. Disappointment doesn't mean bad writing because you don't think women would ever do that ( they do ) or God forbid you relate to someone different from you. She would have never ended up with Akemi because they're on very divergent paths. They were never going to scissor 😔 shame because it might fix her lol

Ideas get popular online and you're meant to treat pet theories like holy scripture. If you think the experiences of Mizu is too cool to be explored in a woman, first of all wooow!!, 2nd you're ignoring the story and it's a you problem.

[bitchslapblastoids]

having a hard time seeing how it’s invasive to ask about their relationship status esp when I feel like it was asked pretty tactfully and their whole brand is now one another/their whole joint Thing and these days they basically turn on the camera and film 15 mins of horseshit to send to an editor but we eat it up bc they’re so busy hearteyesing one another the whole video that we don’t even notice/care that it’s mostly horseshit content plus they’re now doing a tour about the whole joint Thing and their whole horned up history which is the reason they’re even doing this press and there’s rly no more smoke and mirrors around discussing #phan bc how open will the door be so there’s only one remaining question so it seems goofy to not ask tbh

[aerithisms]

i understand what people are saying when they talk about fandom overstating the importance of farcille to the dunmeshi narrative and that their frustrations are related to a larger frustration with fandom in general prioritising shipping over other relationships/narrative themes. HOWEVER i do find it a little suspect and annoying that the one time the Big Tumblr Thing Of The Month has a popular f/f ship that the fandom is over-extrapolating from in the same way that fandom usually over-extrapolates m/m relationships i'm suddenly seeing all these posts complaining about it

[wrenkos]

new and old

[ahappydnp]

being a full adult during ii was so funny

like just sat there while dan and phil worked it out in the remix with the 14 year olds who were yelling at them to kiss

[midnightmah07]

Daisy pre twst!

[innovacancy]

Frog Warehouse XI, Somerville, MA 16 March 2024

[statementlou]

Tbh i am not surprised that a person who openly talked about having drinking problems since 1d days, because of how crazy 1d worked has been agressive. What surprises me is people being surprised (they never seriously saw drunk person?). But i am also confused about this whole book. Apparently Maya said that that book is not fully bout Liam but compilation about her exes and some of the worst parts are not about him. But recently she said that the book is “ofc about him” so what is true then? Or did she meant it that ofc some parts are about him or that whole book is about him?

Sorry, just confused

I also am not surprised- we've learned so much more about the real stories of things and about the guys' actual lives over the last years, and the story that has unfolded around Liam has been totally consistent throughout if you've been following it, and so the information Maya is telling us is shocking and upsetting but not difficult to believe. I got an anon yesterday saying they were worried about getting similar revelations about the other boys, like "if Liam could be doing this we just don't know, any of them could", and while in a way that's always true I guess, anyone could be doing anything in private like... that doesn't really concern me. Because none of these Liam revelations are coming out of nowhere, there have been many MANY steps along the way leading us here if you've been watching, and he has talked openly about both his mental health struggles and his addiction issues. So to answer that anon... to find out something similar about Louis would in contrast contradict everything we know about him and no I'm not worried about it. Is he probably very irritating, absolutely, but an abuser or a loose cannon, well that news would shock me. But anyway as for the book I don't find it strange that she was nervous when it came out and treading lightly and later decided, fuck it. In the absolutely on point tiktok she dropped today (YES👏GIRL👏FUCKING TELL THEM👏) she even mentions attempts to keep her from publishing the book, presumably by Liam's team, that I am riveted by and cannot WAIT to hear more details about actually- like I said I don't find it at all strange that she was nervous and downplayed it a bit then. But if she says now that it's just about Liam, well, I would say it's been clear from the beginning that the book is their story. Maya herself brought up the parallel of songs being written about stuff and I think it's the same thing; it's true (she was in an abusive relationship that involved certain kinds of events) but maybe not 100% literal (I'm sure details were changed to make the story work, it's not like a word for word timeline of their interactions or whatever).

[epickiya722]

You know what, I feel like Yuji's technique was always meant to be literally touching souls.

I think back to when Mahito was shocked when Yuji got a punch on him and he (Mahito) bled. Mahito had realized that Yuji can perceive the shape of a soul. Fast forward many chapters later, Yuji is using Shrine to sever the connection between Sukuna's and Megumi's souls to save the latter (successful).

It makes sense though that Yuji's true technique is something in which allows him to touch souls. It fits into his character. He's someone that people will say "touches souls". Think about how some of the characters interact with him.

Thinking about his Domain Expansion... what if it's not a DE that just goes through memories? It's one where he can choose whether a not someone who enters that Domain has their soul redeemed based on their actions once he offers them that chance to?

I know some people may just chalk it up as "Well, actually he was Sukuna's vessel so of course, he can touch souls 🤓".

But what if that was all along made to be believed?

Yeah, Yuji and Sukuna are two halves of the same whole. But that's just it, they're also two halves. They're still their own being. Sukuna is Sukuna just as Yuji is Yuji.

Yuji can use Shrine because well, it's practically in his DNA. But his soul technique could just be something that is individual to himself.

And what if the reason why Mahito only was able to touch Sukuna's soul and not Yuji's wasn't because Sukuna possessed his body, it's because Yuji (subconsciously) can protect his own soul?

I mean, it's revealed in a fanbook that Yuji doesn't even interact with Sukuna at all when he's sleeping. And when Sukuna first possessed Yuji, Yuji was able to suppress him. Healthy mind, yes. But also, because that's just what his technique can do? Protect his own soul and over the course of the story, he strengthens it?

Metaphorically, Yuji does touch souls. Sukuna isn't responsible for that. Yuji always been that way even before Sukuna was acknowledged.

Think about how some of the techniques reflect the characters.

But hey, that's just me.

[wetterfishguts]

Owen and Courtney and Izzy in clown costumes for a request

i mean i guess

[sacrificethemtothesquid]

Me: okay, just an easy little fic, something fun, purely self-indulgent, no guidelines, no pressure, good vibes only

Me, 45 mins and 32 browser tabs later: now that I've found the rest of the engineering schematics, I can finally go back to that pubmed article on metabolic pathways

Also me: wait...what's a synonym for "and"

[aerithisms]

i think my problem with this dw season arc accusing the audience of fanbrain for theorising about ruby is that it both feels deceitful and isn't actually that compelling from a character perspective. the season goes out of its way to build up supernatural mystery around ruby and even invokes susan more heavily than ever before in a way that is deliberately trying to get the audience to make those connections. and then it turns around and says you stupid idiot why would you ever try to connect these dots i have deliberately tried to get you to connect.

building up a mystery only for the character to be ordinary is an impossible girl arc redux only this time accusing the viewer of failing to see the humanity of the companion, whereas the impossible girl arc was turning that accusation on the doctor. 7b didn't really blame the audience for viewing clara as a puzzle and in fact several times spells out the fact that clara is perfectly ordinary before the big reveal to give the audience a chance to catch on. as 7b goes on, instead of laying the mystery on thicker, the audience just gets more and more affirmations that clara is a normal human being (rings of akhaten, journey to the centre of the tardis, hide). i found this approach compelling because it was rooted in character, focusing on the doctor's disconnection from humanity/the gendered dynamic of a man treating a woman as his manic pixie mystery to pull him out of grief. s14's meta approach of accusing the viewer feels both unfair, given it has deliberately led the viewer towards theorising, and personally less compelling to me because it wasn't tied into character in any way.

the thing about rey's parentage in tlj is that the reason rian johnson chose to go for that reveal was that it was the only answer that was interesting. none of the theories - rey is a skywalker, rey is a kenobi, and even the eventually canonical rey is a palpatine - were interesting or satisfying because they brought nothing compelling to the table for the story being told. the only satisfaction to be gained from those answers was a fanbrained "omg rey is important because she's related to that guy from the other movie." on top of that, rey desperately wants her parents to have been important, to give her life and her abandonment some kind of significance. so them being ordinary provided the most compelling trajectory for her character because it was the thing she least wanted to hear. it forced her to do the most introspection and growth, as well as tying into the film's themes about the capacity of ordinary people to be special. it wasn't just a choice made to "gotcha" the viewer, it was rooted in character.

i don't think ruby's mother being ordinary accomplishes the same thing. by invoking susan, s14 is engaging with the most egregious example of the doctor's streak of abandonment, which has potential to be very compelling in relation to ruby (and now also the doctor's) own abandonment issues. theories that ruby might be susan, or be somehow related to susan, or somehow related to the doctor, weren't just fanbrained "omg she's related to that guy i know from the classic series." they were theories genuinely rooted in character and the potential to explore both the doctor and ruby's issues with abandonment. and this is something the show willingly led fans towards by invoking susan so much in the first place. so for the show to turn around and act like they were shallow out of nowhere ideas when they were not shallow and were based on potential character conflicts the show itself deliberately invoked, feels misguided.

as well as that, ruby's mother being ordinary does not require that same growth from ruby as it did for rey because it is exactly what ruby wanted to hear. she never wanted her mother to be important, she just wanted to know who her mother was and have a connection with her. so finding out she was a normal woman who still loves her and wants to be a part of her life is everything she's ever wanted. it doesn't introduce interesting conflict for her the way rey's parents being ordinary did for her, because they were written as different characters with different hangups over their abandonment.

tl;dr i don't necessarily dislike ruby's mother being ordinary as an idea but compared to the things it was inspired by - 7b and star wars - it is not nearly as compelling in terms of how it relates to the characters or themes. and the meta angle, while conceptually interesting, doesn't quite work for me because it feels a little manipulative of the audience.