#like for example i understand the choice i am making as a woman can and likely will have a negative impact on any future children i have

[ruraljew]

i haven't been able to stop thinking about something my "friend" said this past friday night. she and i were supposed to go to service together but missed the memo that there was no service that night, so we went to dinner instead.

we talked for a while and eventually got around to the topic of knowing when you're ready to officially complete the conversion process. she and my rabbi keep telling me that i am the only one who will know when i'm ready, and it's my job to let him (rabbi) know that i am ready. and since i am (that's why i reached out to him in the first place after four years of deep consideration and now four months of active study and practice) i tell this friend, "yes, i am ready"

but she tells me, "no, you're only just now ready to even consider commitment." telling me that i'm still in the honeymoon phase and this choice is something i have barely contemplated

keep in mind we have only actually met twice, and she barely knows me. it kind of floored me, stunned me. she keeps calling me a jew as if im already part of the tribe and then turns around and tells me how i feel as if she has any clue in the world about what this means to me. telling me that i only think that im ready. she hardly ever lets me get a word in through her presuppositions about my commitment simply because ive only been able to actively practice for just four months.

i suppose the only point of this was to rant since i don't really have anyone in my life who could understand the situation.

it just makes no sense - "only you will know when you're ready" "okay you're right i'm ready" "well no actually you're not" "okay then what does 'ready' really look like then? since my 'ready' doesn't fit your 'ready'" "see, since you're even asking that question at all it means that you aren't ready" LIKE WHAT HELLO

[ephemeralinstance]

Lavellan in Veilguard

The scenes with the Solas-romancing Lavellan in Veilguard are, for me, one of the writing highlights of the game. Of course there are limitations with her being an NPC, but I think that subject to the constraints of the structure of the game, the writer did a really great job of a very difficult piece of writing - creating a depiction of the character that fits with thousands of different versions of Lavellan.

First of all, Lavellan's dialogue is elegant and lyrical, matching the cadence in which Solas speaks and thus showing how in-tune they are even after all these years. One thing I loved about Inquisition was that the language was often really beautiful, so I enjoyed seeing that kind of poetic language return here, and I think the writer understood and captured the heart of what a lot of people loved about the Solas romance - the poetry and beauty of it.

In addition, we get a range of different emotions. Lavellan expresses sadness ('He meant that much'), passion ('You've felt the power of that mind'), anger ('He left me to clean up his mess'), self-doubt ('Am I the prideful one?'). Whatever reaction you personally envision your character as having, you can find it represented in what she says here. I know some people wished Lavellan could have more of an angry confrontation with Solas, but that probably wouldn't have been possible without just allowing us to directly control Lavellan; I think the writer achieved a good compromise by showing us her anger and hurt in this conversation. 

At the same time, she's shown to be mature, self-aware, and reflective. We see her questioning herself, asking 'Am I the prideful one, imagining his broken heart so I'd never have to face my folly?' Lavellan isn't deluded; she's not romanticizing what happened. If she chooses to go with him, it's clear that she isn't naive or being manipulated. She's making this choice in a fully aware, thoughtful manner. And although Lavellan loves Solas deeply, he isn't her first priority. It's important that when Rook asks her if she'd be willing to leave with Solas, she states, 'No. We have to save the world first.' We're shown very clearly that she has a life outside of Solas, and she prioritizes her duty to the people of Thedas: only once her task is done is she able to put herself first, and finally choose her own desires over her duty for once. It's also impressive how clearly she understands Solas, as evident in her speculation that he's left clues because part of him wants to be stopped. I particularly liked the fact that she's shown to have a deeper understanding of him than Rook, as seen in their exchange about 'lies of the heart.' Rook just sees one superficial version of Solas as 'god of lies,' whereas Lavellan understands that although Solas did lie to her, at a deeper level he isn't good at concealing what he really feels. Lavellan absolutely knows and understand Solas' flaws and the 'bad' side of him that Rook has seen, but she also knows a different side of him that no one else has seen. If Lavellan chooses to go with him, it's because she understands him completely: she sees all the good and all the bad in him, and she chooses him anyway.

Finally, sometimes I see people critiquing Lavellan for being passive or not having much going on apart from her connection with Solas. Now first off, this clearly isn't true, since she spends the whole game mustering the armies of the south and sending detailed missives about her military operations - no one in Thedas has more going on than this woman! 

But also, it's important to keep in mind that Lavellan isn't supposed to be a fully-fleshed out character: she's specifically left vague enough so that you can fill in the details with your own Lavellan. For example, we're not told much about what she's been up to in the last ten years, but of course that's not because she's done nothing but pine for Solas: it's simply left unspecified so it can be compatible with different headcanons. Lavellan is specifically written to allow us to fill in the details, and the measure of success is not whether she comes off as a fully-developed character to people who don't have their own Solas-romancing Lavellan (honestly, those people shouldn't even be commenting, this writing isn't for them); the measure of success is whether she works as a stand-in for all of our individual versions of Lavellan. And although of course it's never going to be possible to please everyone, I think the writer did a great job within the limitations of what was possible in the plot.

[yesimwriting]

I bet santiago is jealous to high heaven this lowly mortal woman has his maitres attention. He already was hostile towards Louis do you think he’s going to be way worse towards reader

bestie learning that she's just been lucky and that all vampires aren't willing to befriend her 💔

i love santiago as a character and am excited to give him his moment <3 (also first claudia interaction, i love her sm and i think i accidentally made that really obvious)

also i think this ended up being more vibes based than plot based

----

The instincts that guide one towards self preservation are much easier to suppress than most realize. For example, all it took to get you to agree to enter the heart of a coven of vampires without the one vampire that would care enough to keep something from happening to you was the invocation of your pride.

Things had seemed so simple, so straightforward when Armand first came to you. He told you that your presence at their show would be much less distracting if you were to sit in on their rehearsal first. The offer felt like an excuse to arrange some sort of accident to get rid of you without alienating Louis, but when Armand took your hesitation as a sign of fear, you weren't left with much of a choice.

You shift slightly, forcing your shoulders to relax against your seat. While you're not narcissistic enough to assume that your presence is enough to captivate an entire theatre of immortal beings, you are out of the ordinary; and while the vampires have been working through their show and taking Armand's notes with no true acknowledgement of your presence, there's a quality to their occasional glances that makes it difficult to believe that your every move and thought aren't being heavily scrutinized by every person on stage.

Letting out a breath, you carefully pull your hands apart. The desire to squeeze your fingers together again is a sign of nervousness that's difficult to ignore, so you settle for holding onto the armrest between you and Armand.

Your other hand finds your lap as you turn your attention back to the performers. Murderous glances aside, the group is almost entertaining enough to keep you from overthinking your presence.

Before you can convince yourself to solely focus on what's happening in front of you, something settles against the back of your palm. As subtly as you can manage, you tilt your chin just enough to see Armand's hand over yours.

Oh. You blink, turning your attention back to the stage. You don't know what to make of the unexpected contact, or the fact that his touch is not only not repulsive but also slightly assuring, and this isn't exactly a safe place for mental reflection.

"Santiago." Armand's voice is enough to keep you from your thoughts. "What is the point of redirecting your blocking if you're not going to follow it?" There's an irritation pressed into the words that you're not used to hearing.

A blond man, presumably Santiago, takes a step forward. You don't realize that you're studying his reaction until his eyes meet yours. He holds your gaze for less than a moment before returning his focus to Armand, "Are we not going to mention the girl?"

There's no way to shield yourself from such a direct comment. You blink, doing your best to ignore the traitorous warmth beginning to crawl up your neck. It's instinctual to try to discreetly pull your hand back onto your lap, but Armand's hold on you tightens.

"No," the word leaves no room for argument. If Armand's concerned about the curiosity of others he gives no indication of it, his expression as measured and blank as it was when he was discussing director notes. "We are not."

As either a way of proving his point or maybe reassuring you, Armand squeezes your hand once. "Instead of worrying about the girl, you should worry about your understanding of the final half of the show." He shifts slightly, his gaze shifting between the performers and the copy of the script on his lap. "Because the slightest distraction seems to be enough to shatter your understanding of what we've discussed, we'll be re-reviewing our performance from the beginning."

There's the briefest moment of stillness before the performers begin bending to his will. Their obedience lacks hesitation, but there's a quality to Santiago's movements that borders on overly tense.

You're not familiar enough with the dynamic that exists between a Maître and his coven to decide if the exchange was meant to be significant, but something about the way Santiago glances at you before turning tells you that he's blaming you for it.

In a weak attempt at dismissing any potential unease before it can root itself in your chest, you shift your focus onto a much more comfortable source of apprehension. Armand's focusing on the pages of the script in front of him. He has not let go of your hand.

"You're a greater distraction than you should be." There's a pointedness pressed into the syllables that you can't quite interpret.

Maybe this an opportunity for you to politely slip away before anyone's patience wears too thin. "I could go home, if that'd make things easier."

He straightens slightly, turning his head enough to look at you, "Already retreating?"

The comment, though incredibly transparent, is unfortunately effective. "No." He doesn't seem convinced, and you can't exactly blame him for his doubts. "I'd just--I'd hate to get in the way."

Something about his expression tells you that he doesn't exactly believe your defense. "If you're worried about being in the way, you could shadow Claudia."

The suggestion is more relieving than you'd ever admit to it being. Claudia, who did briefly smile at you after your arrival before noticing Armand by your side, is the only person here that definitely likes you.

You nod once, feeling a little better at the prospect of getting to be around Claudia, even if you have to help her clean the theatre, or whatever she's usually ordered to do. "Okay."

Armand turns his head towards the other side of the auditorium, where Claudia is dutifully sweeping. "Claudia." She immediately lifts her head at the sound of Armand's voice. "You're familiar enough with the girl, why don't you take her to the dressing room, and have her help you organize the makeup products?"

She nods, "Yes, Maître."

Even though Armand's instructed her to go with you, she picks up the dustpan and adjusts her hold on the broom so quickly, a part of you almost expects her to leave you behind. You wouldn't hold it against her if she did, her life here seems challenging enough without her having to worry about being marked as an associate of the strange mortal Armand is randomly subjecting his coven to.

Armand squeezes your hand once before letting you go. Doing all you can to keep your mind from lingering on the gesture, you push yourself to stand. You begin to cross the auditorium, and even though the performers are still preparing to restart their show, you can't let go of the feeling of being watched.

When you're finally standing next to Claudia, the set of her mouth angles itself upwards into an expression that's nearly a smile. She doesn't attempt to greet you any further before turning.

You follow her around the aisles and through a door. Claudia doesn't really look at you until the two of you are fully alone, "What are you doing here?"

Her tone's a little sharp, but not exactly harsh. You can't tell if she's more shocked or concerned. "I don't know." It's as honest an answer as you can manage. "Armand asked--"

She studies you for a second before continuing down the narrow hall. "And you said 'yes'?"

You let out a flat sigh as you move to follow her. "He didn't exactly accept a 'no'."

She's quiet for a moment, her lips pressing together as she takes in your response. "But you're--you're okay, right?"

The question leaves you feeling a little more sentimental than it should. Claudia's not exactly in the position to do much of anything, let alone defend you, an intruding mortal, and she's still trying to do what she can. It's enough to make you push against any instinctual unease.

"Yeah, I'm okay." You don't realize how much you mean the response until you've spoken it out loud. You've been more concerned about how you're being perceived than preserving your life. Things could definitely be a lot less okay. "I get to see you, and I saw some of the show and--everyone's really talented."

Claudia watches you for a second, but when your expression--or maybe even your mind--give no indication of genuine fear, she eases enough to turn her head forward. "Okay," she stretches out the word's last syllable. You're just starting to think that Claudia's going to leave it at that when she tacks on a quiet, "It might be nice to have some company."

You let yourself smile a little at that. "Yeah."

She pauses in front of another door, her hand reaching for the brass handle. "Does Louis know you're here?"

Hm. When Armand invited (or forced) you to accompany him to rehearsal, he didn't provide much context. Outside of informing you that Louis wouldn't be at the theatre for rehearsal, Armand hadn't mentioned him.

"I'd...assume so." Claudia briefly raises her eyebrows at that. "I mean, I can't imagine Armand asking me to do anything without telling Louis first."

"Optimistic."

You lift a shoulder in a partial shrug. The assumption that Armand hasn't mentioned it to Louis doesn't feel too far fetched, especially because Louis has yet to show up to pull you out of here or at the very least, passive aggressively follow you around you leave of your own free will. But nothing bad has happened to you yet, and it's hard to imagine Armand going through the trouble of keeping something from Louis just to let you be.

"If he doesn't tell him, I will." It feels like a fair enough response. You're not sure what Armand's intentions are, but you do know that you have no intention of keeping a long term secret from Louis. "I'll call him tonight."

Her eyebrows draw together slightly at that. "You didn't call him before?"

The suddenness of Armand's appearance didn't leave you with much time for long term thinking. He had been standing there, daring you to finally prove that no matter how much you might try to seem comfortable with what Louis and Claudia are, your humanity will always come first.

It wouldn't have been a difficult thing to run inside and call Louis, but doing so would have made you seem like a frightened pet. "I was already outside when Armand found me."

She watches you for another moment before finally pushing the door open. The room she's led you seems comfortable, the dim lighting and dark color pallet existing in the space between eerie and aesthetically fitting.

"I'm just reorganizing some stage makeup." Claudia steps into the room. "It's easy enough, you don't have to help if you don't want to."

The comment prompts you forward. You step forward, ignoring the over-awareness of the fact that you're not supposed to be here as you cross the door's threshold. "I don't mind." You exhale, permitting yourself to look around the room as you continue forward, "It might be nice to have something to do."

She's already next to the pile of makeup and used brushes resting on the nearest counter. "You're not used to this."

Something about her delivery of the words makes you feel like she isn't referencing the obvious. Still, you ask, "Used to what? The theatre?"

Claudia picks up one of the smaller palettes. "Feeling out of place."

The response leaves your skin feeling a little warmer than you were a moment ago. Of course you're that incredibly transparent. Not only can they tell that you're uncomfortable, they can also tell that you're not accustomed enough to the feeling to know what to do with it.

You keep your eyes focused on the counter. "Guess not." The admission feels strangely vulnerable. "I mean--there are plenty of places I don't fit..." The explanation feels oddly stiff. "I left home because I didn't really fit the--the life my parents wanted for me, and I don't fit the formal parties that are just my aunt's incredibly transparent attempts at finding me a husband but I'm used to knowing what I'm supposed to do."

That was...a bit more transparent than you needed to be. "That--that probably doesn't make much sense."

She pushes a few palettes towards you. "It kind of does." You focus on picking up some of the items that Claudia's distributed. "Guess it's not as easy as it seems to be so liked all the time."

Her tone makes things feel a little easier. "It's completely exhausting."

Claudia smiles a little at that, "Well, I hope you're not too exhausted to take those makeup palettes to the vanity over there."

"I'm definitely not too exhausted to try."

You grab the rest of your proportioned products before turning towards the vanity. Most of the products seem to be for exaggerating features rather than correcting anything. Not worrying about skin blemishes seems like a major benefit of immortality.

You lay out the palettes on the vanity while waiting for further instruction. Most of the palettes look like products meant to highlight and contour skin, but there are also a few fun shades of eyeshadow. There's a deep red, a shimmery purple, and a bright blue you know a little too well.

You pick up the eyeshadow palette, holding it out towards Claudia. "This color feels familiar."

She lifts her head enough to look at you. Once her eyes land on the palette, Claudia sighs. "I know." It's the kind of usual dismissive acceptance of the role she's been assigned. "I'm not sure eyeshadow's right for me."

You frown, attention shifting between the eyeshadow palette and Claudia. You know she hasn't been able to physically grow past the age of fourteen, but her features aren't so incredibly young that don't suit makeup at all. Besides, the point of the little girl costume is to make her look as exaggeratedly young as possible, of course the stage makeup she's supposed to wear with it is meant to further amplify her physical youth.

"I don't think so." You glance at the palette again. "If anything, the makeup's one of the better parts of your costume." She looks over at you again, unconvinced. "It's fun." When she doesn't seem to feel any better about it, you continue, "But if you want a more conventional look, I think the shimmery purple would look nice on you...or anything cool toned."

She's quiet for a second, her focus shifting onto some of the used brushes. "Really?"

"Yeah," you tell her, "There's a lot you can do with makeup." You tap your thumb against the palette's cover. "If you want, we can do makeup together sometime."

She smiles a little at that. "Yeah, we could do that sometime."

"Okay." The idea is actually really nice. "I could bring some of my makeup over, or you could come to my aunt's flat. We can tell her you're a friend from art school."

Her lips part, but before she can respond she's interrupted by the methodical sound of careful footsteps. Your body--ever the traitor-- immediately tenses. You squeeze the makeup palette in your hand.

The footsteps only come to an end when a figure appears in the doorway. Great. It's the blond guy that is definitely holding a grudge against you. "What's going on in here?"

You're a little too relieved when Claudia answers for you, "I'm just organizing the makeup."

He turns his head enough to briefly look at Claudia before refocusing on you. "And the girl's keeping you company?"

The question creates a silence you're not sure you're meant to fill. Santiago seems to take the lack of response as a sign of complacency because he begins to walk forward. "I haven't met the new pet yet."

It takes more effort than it should to keep from rolling your eyes. "Hi." The word is so flat it borders on passive aggressive.

Something behind his expression seems to change at that, the corner of his mouth tugging itself upwards in a way that might have felt like a smile if it wasn't for the sharpness of the look.

Santiago moves forward, his steps unhurried as he crosses the dressing room. He doesn't stop until he's directly in front of you. "It's a rare thing for us to entertain a guest like this." An aggravated tension coils itself around your lungs. You squeeze your fingers into your palm in an attempt at dismissing it. "Especially such a lovely one."

You remain as still as possible as he extends an arm towards you, his knuckles just barely grazing the side of your face.

"Santiago." The sound of Armand's voice comes strangely close to making you feel at ease.

You can't bring yourself to turn your had to look at who may or may not be helping you. Santiago returns his hand to his side. He takes a small step away from you, "I'm only introducing myself."

"Which is not what you were asked to do."

Santiago shifts slightly, angling himself to better face Armand. Now that you're not being openly watched, you feel comfortable enough to turn your head towards the doorway.

"We were given time, and I was going to touch up my concealer." The defense is delivered with a heavy flatness. "The girl was already in here. I was only being polite."

Please. You're so focused on keeping your facial expressions neutral, you almost don't notice Armand's gaze shifting onto you. It takes you a moment longer than it should to realize that he's waiting for you to corroborate this version of events.

While the thought of subtly pointing out Santiago's exaggerations isn't entirely unappealing, you're not looking to make enemies. Besides, there's no independence or maturity in immediately tattling.

"Yeah." The syllable borders on almost overly chipper. "He was just being polite."

Armand's expression doesn't ease, but he does hold your gaze for another moment before looking at Santiago again. "If that's all," he finally says, "You're dismissed." And then, without so much as turning to look at Claudia directly, he says, "Claudia, you're dismissed as well."

She's quick to nod, setting down the brushes in her hand before stepping towards the door. Her instinctual reaction must remind Santiago of his own obligations because he begins to move forward as well. Armand steps further into the room, creating the space needed for the others to leave.

The newfound solitude leaves you feeling like you're meant to say something. "Don't they need you out there?"

"We're taking a short break." Right. That's why Santiago came here. Armand takes another step forward. "Some of my performers stepped out for something to eat, I find it helps their energy." The set of his mouth morphs into what's almost a smile, like the reality of what they are is an inside joke the two of you share. "Either way, they can wait."

You nod once, a hesitant acknowledgment of his words. "Right." Once again, you're left with nothing to say. "I liked the parts of the show I saw."

"We've been working on it for some time." The unspecified amount of time could mean anything coming from him. He takes another step towards you. "Are you alright?"

You're not sure what to make of the question. It could be his way of reveling in your general uncertainty or another attempt at prodding at what he believes to be false bravery.

"Yeah." It's an honest enough response. Social uncertainty and confusion aren't exactly concerning, not when considering what this trip could have been. "I don't scare easy."

"Clearly," the response is delivered with the kind of complacent sustain you're used to. The familiarity is almost enough to be comforting.

The tired passive aggression you're used to is more easing than it should be, because it encourages you to bring up something that's likely best left alone...at least while you're here, your life completely at his disposal. "Can I ask you something?"

His expression remains neutral, but something about the silence that follows makes you feel like your formality has thrown him. "You might as well."

"Does Louis know I'm here?"

His eyebrows briefly draw together at that. "I thought you weren't his pet."

The response leaves an uncomfortable warmth burning its way up your neck. "I'm not."

He takes another step in your direction. "If you don't need his permission, why does it matter where I take you?"

While it's true that you don't need Louis's permission to do anything, he is your friend, and he does worry. Even beyond that, this is more his world than it'll ever be yours...it just seems like a good idea to let him know.

However, you're not sure how to make these points without sounding like exactly what Armand is accusing you of being. Besides, the two of you have been getting along perfectly fine, and you'd like to keep it that way.

"I..." You begin slowly, struggling to undo a tension you didn't mean to create, "I guess it doesn't."

He watches you for a moment before responding, "Do you know what you're wearing tomorrow night?"

The change in topic, though abrupt, isn't unwelcome. Discussing outfit choices is much easier than worrying about accidentally offending him. "I have a few options, but I'm leaning towards the red dress I wore out with Louis about a week ago."

"Hm," he hums once in acknowledgement. "If you'd like, I could stop by your flat and help you find something to wear."

'Like' feels like a strong word for the situation he's describing. While you've had Louis over, and you definitely don't mind the idea of Claudia being inside of your home...it isn't easy to imagine offering Armand the same courtesy.

He's never hurt you, but you have other people in your home--and it doesn't feel right to potentially turn them into targets.

You frown, allowing yourself to openly watch him. Thinking that he'd get himself invited to your great aunt's flat for the sole purpose of killing everyone inside isn't...as fair as you should be. Objectively, he's likely a lesser risk than Claudia, or even Louis, because he's lived long enough to have greater control. And...he already knows where you live. If he wanted to hurt anyone in your home, he could manage doing so without an invitation.

Still, as long as you're staying with your aunt you live by certain rules. There is no lie that you could tell that would make a strange man visiting you so late in the evening okay.

"My aunt would--" Right. He possesses every ability that Louis has. "You can come in through the window, same as Louis." The summary is more for yourself than for him.

"Okay." The acceptance feels fragile. "That um--that sounds nice."

----

i love the paris timeline and lore sm

also armand getting ready to steal claudia's friend 😭 he can never let her be

[yingdu-lover]

Cause I got nothing to lose : Xia Fei, my new hero in Link Click

before any serious shit wrecks havoc I want to ramble a bit

oh my god, I love xia fei. I mean I knew I would love him but that was for a different reason. He is probably gonna die in the near future, probably lu guang's action triggering his death (or he may not die at all! maybe he survives in this timeline, changing a major node! I hope, I hope), he is already a struggling student economically helpless abroad, his 'Emma' vibes are strong, he assures his worrying mother even though he goes through financial hardships. He is smart enough to know he is being exploited (and tbh the theme of surveillance and making him the 'morbid' object of gaze, I say morbid because in the last scene of his pv, it's a dead shot, his eyes look so dead, the camera's battery is dead. But yk what remains? his face card. The like button continually popping with likes made me very uncomfortable. The cinematography, symbolism and metaphor- link click's visual storytelling just never ceases to amaze.) Also how him being a model is not due to his passion, he desperately needs this money to survive (sounds familiar?)

But really...link click was really link clicking when we got xia fei's first appearance. Subtle social commentary at its finest. Not a woman, but a man is being made fun of for his astronomical career growth in exchange for supposed 'sexual favours'. Those ladies were not, in fact, subtle about it. I'll dive deeper into Xia Fei's psychology later but this encounter shows the harsh reality of the entertainment industries, mostly for those who did not join for passion but rather who had no choice.

Also the scene where his roommate. Man. It's important to address how 'casually' harassment can happen and an AMAB person can be a victim too. Anyway when the roommate tells him about ' the gig that pays quick money and they would like a hottie like you!' I couldn't help but flinch, I understand his rage. Of course, it's again insinuated to be something sexual. That's the first impression Xia Fei also has.

His pv is translated as 'lending body' or 'lending skin', ik it may have multiple meanings but one of them is very prominent.

Selling your face. Or maybe selling your body.

The way the camera fixes its gaze on Xia Fei continually, it's not really for fanservice merely. He is this object people ogle at. (and the way liu xiao and vein ogle at him in his pv makes me sick nvm). Even though it's his own body and beauty that makes him famous, he has no autonomy whatsoever. He realises it. That's why he says

Cause I have got nothing to loose

I don't really think link click is about time traveling. It's that archtexual exercise that constantly subverts genres at its level best. You know what, defamiliarise, many people do not like uncool stuff, for example : issues struggling young people actually face in real life, in this late stage capitalism. That's why link click should not reach that demographic of people. I hope it never does. I hope it gets famous within a community who actually understand and resonate with this show.

Also Xia Fei's story talks about another important theme of the donghua; photo! How photos taken in private spheres are meant to preserve memories of the loved ones, loved encounters. How you capture someone you love in that still image, alive with the emotion you associate with them, giving it an afterlife. The photo becomes the literal and metaphorical medium through which Lu Guang can rewrite history. Forget-me-not, remembrance. It empowers him.

On the contrary, for Xia Fei, it is the panopticon seizing his life and rendering it absurd. The emotive power and affect for lu guang changes into viscous institutionalised power politics for Xia Fei. Brilliant! 😭

I can't help but quote a few lines from a poem by Ama Codjoe

On Seeing and Being Seen

I am touching the photograph of my last seduction. It is as slick as a magazine page, as dark as a street darkened by rain.

When I want to remember something beautiful, instead of taking a photograph, I close my eyes. Desire made you beautiful. I closed my eyes.

.... Tonight, I am alone in my tenderness. There is nothing in my hand except a certain grasping. In my mind’s eye, I am stroking your hair with damp fingertips. This is exactly how it happened. On the lit-up hotel bed, I remember thinking, My body is a lens I can look through with my mind.

Lmao I didn't want to write all of this I'm so sorry 😭

So yeah, that was all the impressions hmph before yingdu ep 3. Now.

I want Xia Fei to be my bestie and go with me on friendship dates. Don't get me wrong, I love Cheng Xiaoshi, but he personally feels to be more like a brother to me, who is infuriating at times and that dumb bitch I'll protect at all costs. I want to befriend Xia Fei and it's serious 😭.

Also I would want, in another timeline, Cheng Xiaoshi and him being complete besties, two dumb twinks twinking with each other. Dumb gays basically. We have got INTJ nerd in Lu Guang, it's refreshing to see ENFP nerd in Xia Fei. Xia Fei could effortlessly be the best regular visitor of the time photo studio. I do not want to tear up thinking about him right now but I really want him to be happy...in another timeline. Blooming with happiness, close to his friends and loved ones, content and safe...

talking about loved ones...

I want an AU where he

fixes this mf

I want Vein to experience at least 1/5th of Lu Guang's anguish and melancholy for Xia Fei. I know, I know maybe Vein will kill Xia Fei when he defects, he is just using him from the very beginning but my love, that's what I am saying! In that AU, they will start off all toxic yaoi shit but at the end it will be...he was a cannibal and he was just a guy, their inter-timeline love will change your perception of love!

I mean no sorry, Xia Fei deserves to be loved and why Vein? because that's his punishment. Melancholic love can be the greatest punishment for someone who goes like a vendor and asks random people " would you like some punishment?" no, sir, thank you sir, would YOU like some sincere human emotions that chomp on your conscience? It's called love, it's limited edition but I'll arrange some for you!

Ok, I have got another fic to write 😭

returning to this post because @whispersoflullaby and I were discussing Xia Fei's body dysmorphia which seems specific to AFAB people and queer people. He isn't someone who is proud of his 'beauty', welp, that's odd for a typical handsome cishet person? His 'beauty' is turned against him. Ngl he reminds me of Ash Lynx a bit. You might say that he had a history of abuse and that's why he assumed the 'gig' his roommate mentioned as sex work. But there is more to it. He is definitely not a typical cishet boy, he is not projected to be one either. Even in the short span of ep 3, it's established that Xia Fei has some intimate connections to Vein, irrespective of whether Vein is using him or not. His anger at his roommate's remark feels very close to violating his identity as a queer person. The assumption that queer people are naturally 'lecherous', and they have no morality or anything whatsoever. But when Xia Fei is well established in the industry, this body politics is slightly changed. Money talks in the entertainment industry and money is the power in capitalist business. So those girls gossiping about the rumour that Xia Fei sleeps with the director for his career growth doesn't bother him like before. The most important thing is, he doesn't deny any rumours. He straight up says "Unlike some people, I always go for the best, whether it's a project or connection, isn't it right, boss?" His reply actually reinforces those speculations...it's giving " Yes I am a sugar baby, but ykw I can cry in my Tesla when you can't afford therapy". It's funny how at the end he says, "Right, boss?" to Vein! Link click...when I get you Link Click... *kowtows*

Also, I really wanna know what exactly did Vein say through the phone to get this reaction out of Xia Fei and cancel his plans to return home.

he is pleasantly shocked! You can see his eyes...that's some sincere emotions and then after the shock subsides, a soft look overcomes his expression. He softy sighs.

And also, idk if I am hallucinating but there is a little blush visible near his eyes (it's no longer there when he sighs)...I want to know what Vein said to him 😭 that interaction is shot in a very *jabsjksksdjnd* way, you can't deny it's intimate.

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Hey have you broken down Marinette's crush on Adrien and the ways in which it

A) misrepresents how teen girls get crushes on people they actually know and

B) sets Marinette up to seem really weird in a way the show literally cannot address because the universe thinks it's fine?

I know you can't prevent people from misinterpreting your show, but i think at the point where a significant portion of your audience and people with secondhand knowledge think of your main character as a stalker, that's a breakdown of communication on the writers part.

I've mentioned it offhand a few times, but I can go into it in more depth because it is a pretty massive writing flaw for reasons we're about to get into.

Marinette is not written like a teenager with a crush on her friend. She's not even written like a stalker. She's written like a teenager with a celebrity crush or a crush on a fictional character. In fact, if you go read fics from when the show first started airing, then you'll find that a lot of people assumed that Marinette's crush came from before she met Adrien or that it was rooted in a love of his professional work. That she was a fan who suddenly got to meet her idol and didn't know how to handle that.

I completely understand why that read was so popular. It's the only thing that makes sense! I assumed that was the case, too, until we got to Origins and her crush suddenly went from "obvious celebrity crush" to "crush with actual depth that's just been badly written."

While I'm ace, most of my friends are not, so I am very familiar with the experience of teenage girls getting crushes. I'm also deeply familiar with the experience of teenage girls getting crushes on celebrities and fictional characters. I, unfortunately, also know quite a bit about stalking. The three experiences are wildly different. For now, let's focus on the first two.

Celebrity crushes and crushes on fictional characters are experiences rooted in fantasy. You can be as over the top as you want because you know that nothing will come of this. You can go to a concert and scream the cute boy's name or have his posters all over your walls or publicly squeal about him with your friends without caring if people overhear because you don't expect him to ever care or even learn about your behavior. You know that you will never actually date him. He's a dream. A fantasy. A thing that will never be. That's the fun of this kind of crush. There's freedom in it. (This isn't unique to hetero crushes, btw, this was just an example based on my lived experience.)

I have strong memories of my best friend acting like Marinette, but only when it came to fictional men. When she was crushing on guys that she actually knew? The experience was wildly different because it was real. This could actually be a thing. She's not the only woman that I can say that about, either. I had many friends who had a celebrity or fictional crush and none of them ever carried that behavior over to their "real world" crushes. The stakes with the "real world" crushes were far too high for that sort of freedom.

Writing Marinette like someone with a celebrity crush is a terrible call on multiple levels. The most obvious issue is that it makes her look unhinged and creepy. While I don't agree with this take, I'm not surprised that people label her a stalker because celebrity crush behavior feels really creepy when it's applied to a person that you actually know. Whenever stories do the thing where someone meets their celebrity crush and actually gets to know them, there's normally a noticeable shift in their behavior as the character mentally goes, "Oh shit, you're real now." They lose the freedom that came with this being a mere fantasy.

The other issue with this writing choice is that it makes Marinette's crush feel superficial. The show spends hours letting her fantasize and obsess over Adrien, but rarely lets her actually spend time with the poor guy! It's incredibly awkward writing. You could have Adrien be a celebrity that Marinette never met and a lot of the episodes wouldn't change. That's not a great choice if your goal is to write an actual romance. Romances generally let the romantic leads interact.

As creepy and awkward as Marinette's writing can be, I will stand by my statement that she's not a stalker. She's nowhere near that unhinged. She's not stealing Adrien's things or following him home every day or breaking into his private spaces because she knows that they have a "special connection". We're never once made to feel like she's making him uncomfortable or harassed. Those are the kinds of things that stalkers do. They're delusional and divorced from reality. Do any of you really believe that Marinette would keep pursuing Adrien if he told her to back off? Hopefully the answer is "no" and, if so, then she's really not written like a "true" stalker because true stalkers just get dangerous when you say "no." They don't respect things like firm boundaries or restraining orders.

Watching Adrien's public appearances isn't violating his privacy and that's mostly what Marinette does. The rare occasions where she follows him somewhere private mostly revolve around someone else doing something questionable first, making Marinette's actions less "I want to see Adrien" and more "I'm worried for Adrien's safety and I'm doing something questionable because of that". The first is the behavior of a stalker, the second is... well, I'm not going to call it good behavior, but it's certainly not straight up bad behavior because the show isn't treating these moments as wrong so it's less Marinette being wrong and more the writers making really questionable writing choice. I mean, one of her break-ins was literally forced on her and orchestrated by her friend group! (See: Gabriel Agreste)

In fact, most of Marinette's creepiest behaviors fall under the "questionable writing choice" category as they're often just very obvious jokes of questionable quality. For example, I've seen people freak out about her having Adrien's schedule and it's like, guys, you do realize that was literally impossible, right? She claimed it was his schedule for the next three years! Nathalie doesn't even have that! You don't schedule things that far in advance unless it's a major event. It's impossible to take this claim seriously if you think about it for five seconds.

If you wanted to treat this schedule claim seriously and have it match the show's tone, then you'd have to tone Marinette's claim down, too. It would go from having his schedule for the next three years to just being aware of what he does on a weekly basis because they're friends and in the same class and you just sort of learn this stuff if you pay attention. How does Marinette know that Adrien has fencing on Wednesday? Because he has fencing every Wednesday. That's how this stuff tends to work.

I don't blame anyone for disliking the way that Marinette's crush was written. I don't like it either! It leaves a lot to be desired! The show would have been much better if they scrapped using Marinette's crush as the main source of comedy, but then they would have had to let Marinette and Adrien become close and we can't have that because it breaks the formula. The simple truth of the matter is that Marinette is written the way she is as a stalling tactic, which the episode Simpleman straight up admits:

Marinette: What am I doing, honestly? The truth is, I'm scared that Adrien will reject me if I tell him how I feel about him. That's why I over complicate everything, so that moment never comes.

In this scene, Marinette is claiming that this is a her thing, but it's really more of a writing thing. Miraculous is a formula show. Part of the formula is the akuma/sentimonster of the week and part of the formula is Marinette trying and failing to confess her crush. The show makes this pretty obvious, but if you want a more official source that this is what's going on, then here you go:

[The writing director] sold the Miraculous series to broadcasters as a formula show.... [This is why] Marinette tries to confess her love for Adrien in every episode, but is unable to do so.

They made Marinette's failure to confess part of the weekly formula which means that there can never be any romantic progress, thus Marinette being written like a fan obsessed with her idol instead of a teenage girl with very real feelings for her kind sweet friend. The first makes for an easy formula, the second won't work in that model. It requires there to be progress and a planned endgame. I'm not against formula shows, but this is a terrible element to make part of the formula!

The same issue plagues Adrien, too. It's the main reason why Chat Noir can come across as overly pushy. He's not allowed to move on just like Marinette isn't allowed to confess her feelings because they're the endgame couple. But we keep pushing back the endgame by adding seasons and so it's all become a total mess with terrible pacing and awkward, unhealthy relationships dynamics that really aren't suited to the genres or audience that Miraculous is clearly aiming for.

[sophsicle]

Okay, I understand hating Snape as an adult. He's a bully. But as a kid? As a teen? The result we see of Snape, him as a shitty adult, is an imperfect victim. Someone who had a bad life, made bad decisions, and was impacted by everything that happened to him. Not everyone can be abused, bullied, grow up in extreme poverty, and then pull through to be amazing people. SOME people can, and that's so amazing, but I don't think it's healthy to look at a child/teen with literally every social determinant of health against them and say 'well, they should've been able to do better'.

Does Snape suck as an adult? Yes. Did he also make decisions which saved Harry's life and allowed them to end the war? Also yes. Does he ultimately sacrifice his life for Harry? Yes. Does young Snape have a lot of potential, especially in spaces such as fanfiction, to explore the effects of one's upbringing and subsequent choices/life path (which you have explored so beautifully, carving out a life for a character in your stories with the very same themes)? Definitely.

I'm not saying he is a perfect person, or even a good guy, but a lot of people can and do relate to him as imperfect victims of bullying and abuse. Sometimes you can't rise above life's circumstances on your own, and you aren't this 'amazing' person. And that's okay. It's okay for victims of things like abuse to struggle, and it's good for people to acknowledge that things like bullying AREN'T okay and have lifelong consequences for their victims. Snape is a good example of what happens to a lot of people who aren't able to 'rise above' the things that happen to them and make mistakes. I think blind hatred for him is a very narrow-minded view, and ignores a lot of his story and nuances.

So two things a) I think perhaps you are missing some of the silly fun spirit I was attempting to infuse into my hatred of snape who is a character not a person

b) listen, I think snape is a super interesting character to play with because he offers a counter point to the marauders especially where issues of class are concerned, even the insults the marauders use against him, about him being "dirty" have clear class connotations and I think that allows you to critique the biases of the "heroes" of the story so to speak and that’s something I really like, so I’m not trying to suggest that he should just be dismissed because I don’t think he should be necessarily

What I am suggesting, is that JKR writes a grown adult teacher who abuses his students consistently and brutally for seven books (students he knows are already traumatized because the group he was a part of tortured or murdered their parents) and at the end of the series we are meant to forgive him because he loved a woman one time kind of maybe I guess

Now, fanfiction can do whatever it wants and make characters whoever it wants

But I have a fundamental problem with the way that snape is used in canon and the way that people accept that narrative

His behaviour as an adult towards the children he is in charge of is gross and unforgivable, but is absolutely forgiven by the narrative of the original text (without, I would argue, any of the nuance you are suggesting)

So I just find it less compelling to use fanfiction to continue to forgive this character

And like maybe if JKR didn’t explicitly write him as someone I was supposed to love I would feel differently, but because she does I don’t

I think you’re giving this character a lot more depth than he has

Which you totally can do with any character you wish, but for me, personally, not universally, cause there is no universal truth about a fictional character who does not exist, he deserves to be hated, in my opinion, again, cannot stress this enough, I’m not saying there is a right way to feel about this character because I don’t think you can say that about characters , but this is my way and I hate him and these are my reasons

Like you can hate characters without being narrow minded

I fear this is a thing you can do

[microknifeyuri]

A lot of the neg claims about II are really just making a problem really big/treating it as , or taking things out of context, so let's talk about some of them, ESPECIALLY because of a certain someone(s) lately. Let me clarify that I know that II's writing ISN'T perfect, but nothing is perfect really, and most of these issues are misinterpretation, the choices of the fandom and/or even AE TRYING to fix the writing of a character because a certain SOMEONE was fired on early stages of the writing of said character.

So.

Let's talk about Inanimate Insanity Invitational, and the usual claims that come with it.

1. Cabby's Writing, Interpretations of Her Relationships, and ableism.

Cabby is one of the most... "controversial" characters when it comes to talk about III's writing, which it really shouldn't be like that at all, although I get where people are coming from expressing their concerns when it comes to the writing of her. Let me clarify something. Yes, I am aware that Cabby's writing changes A LOT and that it isn't perfect by any means, but I think that what people fail to understand most of the time is that Taylor was the one that started the Cabby-Test Tube storyline as a whole, and at some point as early s3 was being made, Taylor was fired from the team due to. Well, you guys know it. Pretty bad stuff. So of course, they had to figure out what direction they could go with Cabby as a whole, and to giving her character more depth than her just using her files for the game.

Now, it is obvious that they didn't plan from the start to have Cabby as a disabled character, but again, writing isn't always perfect. They had to somehow make things work. And even IF it wasn't planned, you guys have to remember the other factors that came with the writing on general. So of course her writing isn't as consistent as the writing of the other character on s3, but on later episodes it does get more better. I can see why people don't really like her arc, but those factors really matter when criticizing a form of media.

Cabby's writting and her disability isn't bad. Yes, it could've had better ways of execution, but it's not bad.

When it comes to relationships, I have seen someone seeing Cabby's relationship with Test Tube as a canonically sapphic thing because apparently Cabby's VA had that sort of intent, and therefore even claiming that Cabby suffers from lesbophobia(via claiming that she had a crush on Test Tube) and misogyny.

And that's not true. First of all, Cabby's and Test Tube's relationship is pretty much an example of friendships that don't work, and Test Tube pretty much exposed Cabby to the world and made her feel bad about herself for the rest of the episodes. A headcanon doesn't mean that the whole thing changes on canon, it's just that, a headcanon/interpretation, and claiming that what they did to her was lesbophobic is. Pretty weird. Since it is shown that Test Tube hurted Cabby a lot. As well, just because the Voice Actor had an intention, IT DOESN'T mean that the writers had said intention.

When it comes to the claims of misogyny, I still don't quite get why people try to see what isn't there.

The thing is that there isn't a lot of femenine characters on II and such, but Cabby isn't treated like that because "she doesn't do anything for men", she helps everyone on general, she cares about people. But she isn't put as a bad woman because of this. What you guys tend to forget is that. Cabby WAS kind of a prick on early s3. She DID commit mistakes and wasn't a great person, but that doesn't mean that misogyny is there just because for that. Just because people treat a fem character badly/not great BECAUSE OF HER PAST ACTIONS, doesn't mean that there's misogyny. The cast on general didn't like Cabby at all until she "redeemed" herself/changed/was true to herself. So that claim is. Pretty out of nowhere.

Now... with the ableism. I do get where you guys are coming from, but if you look into it deeply, they genuinely did have other intentions. The thing that people usually tend to forget is that the II characters aren't all white and black, they're gray. They do messed up stuff when they don't understand things. What the characters do to Cabby before she becomes more open about her disability is NEVER glorified and they always end up learning about it one way or another. Is it reasonable? Yes, was it ever justified on canon terms? Nope! People can be assholes without knowing that they're assholes and THEN learn! Things like that happen all of the time. Writers don't condone the actions of the characters.

Let's take an example at the scene with Bot and Cabby on episode 14. The main problem here was Bot giving fake information to Cabby, which yes, I agree that was a very bad move to do and you should NEVER do that to a disabled person (especially taking in count that Cabby suffers from a sort of memory disorder), but they didn't have an malicious intent whole doing so at all. Bot was still figuring out themselves and didn't want to be written down by somebody (because. THAT'S WHAT TEST TUBE AND FAN DID.), and Cabby doing the file thing was also easy to take on a bad light, but after Justin's explanation, it makes sense.

Could've it been treated on a better way? Yes. And YET, Bot apologizes for what they did to Cabby and DOES the disability aid themselves for her, and apologizes on EPISODE 15, just a few hours later probably or some days later. And on the same episode, Lifering tells Cabby that she shouldn't be ashamed of using her aids and that she shouldn't feel bad about those. Test Tube RESPECTS Cabby's space once she gets that she was wrong about her too. She knows she messed up too badly.

Later on, on episodes 16 and 17, everyone finally gets Cabby's files and respects them, because they finally saw that she actually needs those and that hey, she changed a lot. They treated her good. Characters can be human and can make mistakes, but they can also get better and learn. Although Cabby's arc is not flawless, it is still good. And all of the issues are easily explained just like that.

2. Bot's creation, and how it's never justified by them.

One of the main points that some people tend to bring on "III's poor writing" is the fact that Bot was pretty much built based on a parasocial relationship of sorts. However said people dare to say that AE portrays it as something good/thought that it was okay, and never did anything else to show Bot being uncomfortable by it, but this is NOT TRUE.

Ever since Bot found out that they were a replica of someone, they knew it was pretty fucked up coming from Test Tube and Fan. Meanwhile it is not explained the loss these two went through (The Shimmer egg probably does not count, since traces of "Bowbot" have been seen on early-mid s2), we know for a fact that what happened was pretty bad for the two of them. But, Bot never really forgave Test Tube. "What about the chat they have where Test Tube apologizes to them?", Bot is willing to give her another chance for the fact that Test Tube offered to help them to be themselves.

Even then Bot explains on their interview that the main reason they acted poorly towards Cabby, was because they got attached to Test Tube, the "only" person that could've helped them to change at the moment. However, again, III doesn't justify what Test Tube and Fan did. Sure, Bot considers them their parents, but they just created them and even when Bot was discovering themselves, Test Tube was. Still pushing the fem terms on them.

So, Bot is fully aware about their existence being fucked up, but they're just trying to live their life as well. These claims do not make any sense despite it being the easiest part to look into.

3. Invitational's writing. (And how The Bright Lights not being themselves is part of the fandoms fault, but also what happens when you try to expand an character who's arc is over).

Ah... one of the most... complicated points here. People tend to absolutely want to kill AE over the writing feeling weird or unprofessional on S3, but I think that all of you just kind of forget many factors at hand that came with it.

The reason as to why the most of the main Bright Lights were there IS because of viewer voting. The Bright Lights had their arcs finished on s2, and trying to have an story where something is going on with characters that are pretty much done in their stories is VERY difficult, and should not even happen at all. The only characters that did have something going on were Nickel, Balloon and Yinyang on s2 terms. Even OJ was just not having it.

So of course the viewer voting getting those 3 Bright Lights there kind of made things so much more mid on a building up relationships term. Other characters had a lot going on that needed to be solved, not them. I do think that AE should NEVER let the viewers do anything anymore because that's one of the weakest points of s3: most of the s2 characters. When you try to develop characters who's arc is closed, you kinda pretty much go nowhere with it. But you can't just have them sitting doing nothing till their elimination.

However... it's not bad when you forget those 3 characters (Fan, Paintbrush and Test Tube) and have the remaining s2 guys and the new characters. It isn't bad at all. In fact, their arcs are pretty consistent for the most part (except for Cabby's if we count the start of it), and the arcs of Nickel & Balloon AND Yinyang show some real growth and ARE proof that AE does know how to write characters. As long as they ACTUALLY HAVE something going on for them.

As well, something that people forget a lot when it comes to III's writing, is that it is more lighthearted on comparison to S2. Which I can get to an extent, but then, let's remember this: AE made S3 because they were burnt out from S2's writing.

They wanted to make something more fun, something that was more S1 like, and meanwhile I do get people not liking S3 at all because of this, please do remember that S3 is meant to be more silly. More funny. Less serious stuff. Until the last episodes dropped that is, but it is still it's main intention.

4. ...Transphobic? Allegations/accusations.

This point makes me feel so SO tired at this point and it's how people say "AE gets the trans characters out just when they came out" and get so SO tired of people missing the point with Bot's design, but also missing the whole Paintbrush thing.

The reason as to why they get eliminated is because they get closure to their arc, and they have to get growth off-screen. On both of Paintbrush's eliminations, they were gone as a way to have closure, because the competition wasn't a healthy place for them, and Paintbrush's growth off screen is subtle, but it is still there. Back on s2 they were scared of saying their identity, but after they got eliminated, they got comfortable enough to the point of having the non binary flag on their shared room with Fan, and are pretty respected by the whole cast afterwards.

On s3, their elimination is pretty much the same, but it's them knowing that they don't have it on themselves to keep competing in the show. They get closure with Mephone4 instead.

When it comes to Bot, I have genuinely seen people complain about AE getting rid of the "fem traits" because Bot is... nonbinary. But. That's. That's fucking dumb at this point. The pink and the EYELASHES are FROM BOW. Bot's whole arc is about finding themselves and showing their true self to the world, and Justin has confirmed that Bot still DOES like those things, but that they're trying to find themselves! Trying to be their own person! And them getting out was also them getting closure because they finally know who they are, and they know that no matter what, no one can change that for them.

And for the last part of this... it is pretty obvious that s1 and early-mid s2 had quite some poor humor regarding Painty's gender, but this can be explained by two things: 1- They were still quite young when these seasons were made, 2- Taylor was still on the team (and he was the main reason as to why there were slurs on II, please do correct me if I'm wrong), but they ended up getting treated with respect and decency despite all things. Again. It wasn't perfect. But they managed to fix it and make it work.

Now, are those factors worth pointing out? Yes, they are, but are they arguments to try and say that AE is transphobic on actual times? No. They showed growth and tried to fix their mistakes. And meanwhile it isn't flawless, it's still pretty good.

5. Nickel's Writing Is Actually Good, You Guys Are Just Too Convinced In Your Own Headcanons

Oh boy, now, if you are quite familiar with the plots I usually analyze here, you must know already how strongly I feel about Nickel as a character and his arc with Balloon as a whole. Because everyone gets them so so wrong and misses the whole point of it. You may know this but people complain a lot about Nickel's arc taking "too long" or "being way too rushed", and both of those takes are pretty much wrong. Some also say that Nickel was worthy of a big villain just because, oh, what was his crime? Sucking at communication and trying to protect his alliance from someone he saw as dangerous at the time? That's called being a complicated character. That's literally it. Some even complain about him "not getting what he deserves" but he pretty much does get called out on the series, but also yelling at him and telling him to die won't help.

That's now how it works. Nickel's arc makes sense and it was long because he had to solve a lot about himself and about learning how to be a good, genuine friend. He became soft because he ended up having people (ex: Box) that told him to get his shit together and to stop putting his petty feelings first to focus on the team. Nickel's whole arc is about knowing what you did was wrong, and wanting to become a better person despite all odds. Even if those who you care about might never forgive you. It was necessary for The Grand Slams arc to make sense and to keep on growing.

You guys want a character to get better, but then complain when one character does become a better person, a more genuine version of themselves. And no, Nickel's actions were never justified by the show or by himself, although he did excuse his actions with fear at some point, but even then, he fully recognizes that his actions were terrible and understands if Balloon won't forgive him.

Just because you hate a character it doesn't mean you can just mischaracterize them and or forget the whole point of their arc. Nickel's arc alongside Balloon's MAKES sense and it's pretty much the best arc on s3 all factors considered.

6. Is Invitational a bad season overall?

It isn't a bad season. Yes, I keep repeating myself, it is not perfect, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad season. It doesn't stand up to the point where s2 is, but that's the goal, it's meant to be a season made for fun and to chill, and meanwhile I can agree that there are things that can be better or could've been executed on different ways, and it got way better on later episodes due to better structure.

I can get people not liking s3 because of it's flaws but it's not the WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED AND A MOCKERY, it's genuinely just something made for fun. And people tend to forget that.

There is not a media that is perfect. Inanimate Insanity isn't by any means.

But man. Isn't it a good show anyway? Isn't it a show that made you feel for the stories and it's characters? Isn't it imperfectly perfect on it's own way? Isn't it made with care and love? Isn't the fact that it has flaws makes it feel more genuine?

I personally think it is. But that's just me.

Thank you for reading.

[evidence-based-activism]

I wish the women jumping on the 4B bandwagon would understand these points: 

https://www.tumblr.com/femtoscooter/766688743202684928?source=share

https://youtu.be/b3KswFqFwt8?si=bidXJHUHJ32v5YcH

Anon, you are the one with a fundamental misunderstanding of 4B.

The post and video you sent me both cover the same topics, so I'll simply address them as one.

First, the author of that post is genderkoolaid. This is the same individual who posted a factually incorrect, misrepresentation of abuse statistics, in opposition to women's separatism. After my thorough explanation of how and why they were wrong, they chose to block me rather than admit to their misrepresentation.

All of this is to say, I am entirely unsurprised at their misrepresentation of another female separatist movement.

Sex strikes and 4B

Both posters erroneously compare the 4B movement to a sex strike. This is a fundamental misunderstanding of the movement. A sex strike is a transient protest meant to induce political or social change. For example, women may organize a sex strike to be concluded only once particular abortion protections are passed. (Like all protests, historical sex strikes have had mixed success.)

The 4B movement is not transient. Women who commit to 4B do not stop and later return to men. It is also not designed to directly induce a specific political or social change. The 4B movement was fundamentally a reaction to the intensely patriarchal culture in South Korea. The women who joined this movement did so because they believed that a life without men would be better than a life with men. They are not "withholding sex" until South Korean men stop being misogynistic; they have taken stock of their reality and decided that completely separating themselves from men is the only feasible reaction to their circumstances.

Yes, this focus on women's lives and circumstances, and the mass social rejection of the status quo, is likely intended to bring about social change (i.e., make men stop acting as they do), but this is a byproduct of the movement, not the origin.

All of this is to say: the 4B movement is not a means to an end, it is both the means and the ends.

But American women aren't doing it this way

Some are, some aren't. I'm entirely unsurprised that in a culture steeped in postmodernist theory, some women are attempting to distort the meaning of the movement. While I do not read Korean, I imagine this is frustrating to the woman who created and committed to 4B.

The continuation of this postmodernist pattern is unfortunate, and I truly wish the women who meant "sex strike" said so, rather than co-opting another movement. That being said, the mainstreamed discussion of female separatism is still positive as it brings women's attention to the possibility of alternate choices. (And having men's typical, misogynistic, violent reactions on display to the mere suggestion of such an action have been, as always, enlightening.)

Comparison with political lesbianism

Again, this is a misunderstanding of both the 4B movement and political lesbianism.

Political lesbianism is a practice where heterosexual or bisexual women falsely claim to be homosexual.

This is not the same as bisexual women practicing female separatism (i.e., only forming relationships or having sex with other women) while still indicating they are bisexual. It is also not the same thing as heterosexual women choosing to forgo all romantic and sexual relationships (e.g., major parts of the 4B movement).

The issue with political lesbianism is the homophobia inherent in intentionally claiming you are homosexual when you are not and the associated sentiments (e.g., claiming you can "choose" your sexuality).

The "male" loneliness crisis

The video repeats the misinformation concerning the "male" loneliness crisis/suggests men are uniquely affected by social isolation. Again, this is patently false. There is a general loneliness epidemic – one that affects women and men equally – not a male-specific crisis.

General rejection of female separatism

The rest of their commentary is the standard rejections of female separatism (sprinkled with pseudo-liberal buzzwords).

I'm not going to re-hash every defense and benefit of separatism here, but here are a few highlights:

The same post from above using data to show how female separatism would result in an unprecedented reduction in violence against women

Someone else's post about the difference in segregation and separation

Someone else's post about the framing of separatism as an option

My post about how many men are misogynistic

My post about the fatal effects of misogyny

Actually just the entirety of my #male violence tag and #patriarchal culture tag

In any case, the 4B movement is a form of female separatism. (And notably, not a conservative movement. It is specifically designed to disrupt the current status quo and prioritize women who are marginalized under conservative ideology.)

Conclusion

So, no, women do not need to "understand these points", because "these points" are either factually inaccurate, a misunderstanding of the terms and movements involved, or a simple rejection of feminist principles with a pseudo-liberal veneer.

References below the cut:

The history of sex strikes. (2019, May 16). BBC Three. https://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/1fc04f3e-3128-4be7-a78a-28ea31db4101

057. Lysistratic nonaction. (n.d.). Global Nonviolent Action Database; Global Nonviolent Action Database. https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/category/gene-sharps-198/057-lysistratic-nonaction

Palmer, O. (2022, January 31). Political lesbianism remains a contentious debate in lesbian feminist circles—Is there a generational divide? Feminist Current. https://www.feministcurrent.com/2022/01/30/political-lesbianism-remains-a-contentious-debate-in-lesbian-feminist-circles-is-there-a-generational-divide/

Kuk, J., Park, H., & Norma, C. (2018, November 8). Radical feminism paves the way for a resurgent South Korean women’s movement. Feminist Current. https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/11/07/radical-feminism-paves-way-resurgent-south-korean-womens-movement/

Lee, J., & Jeong, E. (2021). The 4B movement: envisioning a feminist future with/in a non-reproductive future in Korea. Journal of Gender Studies, 30(5), 633-644.

[dedalvs]

I don't think that any of your conlangs are progressive enough to express being trans, but if they were, how would they? What about other gender/sexuality things?

That first clause is quite a thing to say. Languages aren't progressive. Their users may be, but the languages aren't anything. They're just languages. If you mean they're not modern (i.e. a lot of the languages I create are for cultures that are somewhat antiquated compared to our world), this is true, but that doesn't necessarily mean the languages won't have terminology for different gender identities.

There is a major assumption here, though. My understanding (and please do note: I am a cis man; please feel free to correct), cis and trans individuals, as opposed to nonbinary and genderfluid, are similar in that neither have any doubt about what gender they are, identifying with either male or female. So if any language I've created has a word for "man" or "woman", then there's sufficient vocabulary for a trans individual to express their identity that way.

However, there is a terminological difference, and it's both an individual choice and societal preference: Whether to identify as one's chosen gender identity, as trans, or both (e.g. "I am a woman", "I am trans", or "I am a trans woman"—and then preferring to use one of those or all of those, or some other combination of the three). My personal language preference (as a user and language creator) is fewer distinctions are better (why have three third person singular pronouns—or four or twelve—when you can have one?), because it's less to memorize, less work to use, and demands less specificity of the user—and allows the hearer/reader to make fewer assumptions. Unless the situation calls for it (e.g. the gender system hard-coded into Ravkan in Shadow & Bone), I prefer lumping rather than splitting. This is especially useful as I'm often not in charge of the culture I create languages for.

For example, the languages I've created for A Song of Ice and Fire were for cultures created and maintained by George R. R. Martin. Whatever cultural innovations I have made in creating the languages are, at best, pending—that is, true until George R. R. Martin says otherwise, which he is free to do at any time, as it's his world. As a result, I don't feel confident enough to say what life is like for a trans individual in his world, and how that might be reflected in the languages there. There's simply not enough information.

Where I might be in charge of the culture, you do know my preference now (i.e. fewer distinctions), but, as I am not trans, I'd prefer to leave it to the trans community to decide, and then do what I can to support those decisions linguistically (i.e. to make it work within the language). Any term chosen highlights some aspect of the experience while downplaying others. In English, trans, coming from transition, highlights the change from one identity to another. Other ideas for how to come up with a term might be using a root that refers to "true", highlighting the transition to one's true gender expression. Perhaps another root to look for would be "choose", framing it as one's chosen gender expression—IF one wishes to look at it that way.

In many ways, both the term and the experience are highly individual, and it's difficult to come up with a blanket term and say "this is the term". It's especially difficult since this isn't a life experience I share. It feels both disingenuous and a bit icky to come up with a term to describe an experience that is decidedly not my own.

My own preference in this regard is a twofold approach:

Allow trans users of whatever language to figure out what term works for them, and then support them in creating a term that obeys the various language rules (i.e. the phonology is correct, derived words are derived correctly, etc.). Those users, however, will be operating under the same "rules" that I operate under, e.g. the one who's creating the culture has the final say, if they care to weigh in, and so the result may end up not being canon, at which point it's up to the user to decide whether they care or not. (Note: I shouldn't have to explain it here on Tumblr, but, of course, you don't have to care if the creator of the canon says something isn't so, no matter how many billions they have.)

Allow polysemy. There will never be a term that is THE term. It may be an individual's preferred term, but someone else may like another, in which case it should be allowed.

A very important language-specific note (and the same is true of fandom, generally). By agreeing to work within a language, we're essentially agreeing to rules of a game. The rules can always be broken. When rules are broken, the question language users have to answer is if they've been broken so egregiously that they're no longer playing the game, or if it's fine. For example, if you look at fanfic, there's plenty of fanfic with gender-swapped characters, or the same characters in a radically different setting. Some readers may decide they don't want the characters to be gender-swapped. Others may decide that if it's not in the same setting they're not interested. And that's fine! Both the writers and the readers are deciding which rules of the game can be broken while still calling it the same game. This works very, very well so long as no one gets mad at anyone else. If someone says, "I don't enjoy this because it breaks the rules in a way that ruins my enjoyment", that's perfectly fine. If that same person says, "You're not allowed to break the rules in this way", that's not fine.

So hopefully this all makes sense. And, furthermore, when I say I want to support those who wish to create their own terms, I do mean it. If anyone has suggestions or needs help coining a possible word, feel free to message me! But do bear (2) above in mind. I'm not going to say any term is THE term, and have that be the end of it. It'll be one possibility amongst a rainbow of possibilities.

[kundaquarius]

I'm not much of a complainer, but I'll speak up anyway.

You know I read RC and SHS, and I can't stop comparing certain things & reader reactions to some characters in books on both platforms.

I read a few days ago how RC readers were complaining that there is a LI in the new book that is violent, as he bashes MC's head in or something (I won't read the book because 1 the theme is not my cup of tea and 2 I saw pictures of the LI and he is physically the cheap version of Doran Basu + the GOE actor) anyway, let's move on.... There are readers who are angry at the writer because how can he choose someone like that to be LI, when NO ONE is forcing you to choose him in the first place.

There is one character in particular in one of the SHS books that believe me, RC villains are vanilla in comparison. Last night, I decided to read the two chapters of the last update. And believe me, the trauma is REAL. Because the scenes with that character, for the most part are free, I mean, whether it's your LI or not, they show it anyways.

W A R N I N G

In the first chapter he literally has oral sex with MC while she was passed out, then he abuses a maid while asking her to tell him how she bathed MC, he's not only a murderer but a rapist, etc. I understand the RU fandom complained about this, and asked them to do something to make his personality less grotesque. SHS gave this character a little daughter, in order for us readers to feel some kind of I don't know, affection?

Let's move on... In the next chapters (I'm still not talking about paid choices or if he's your LI, this all happens for free), he wanted to kill MC by shooting her with an arrow as if she was a hunting animal, as MC dared to answer him, he wanted to take it out on his sister-in-law's maid, wanting to rape her in front of everyone to which his father, replies that why all the fuss if she's a maid and his son can do whatever he wants with her (I understand it's based on another culture and other times)..In the last chapters, not only does he continue to harass MC with looks, etc. but also MC can see how he treated the women who rejected him. Leaving them naked, burning in the sun, without food and water, climbing a tree, because for him they were his rebellious birds. Not only MC witnesses the brutality of his actions but also how the poor woman from exhaustion falls from the top of the tree and dies.

As you can see here on Tumblr there aren't many SHS readers and I don't follow other social media to know what they think of this update. Now, where am I going with all this? I don't want to say that RC readers complain about everything, but I do want to say that they complain about things they can avoid.

You're not going to tell the creator of The Handmaid's Tale, hey, I think it's a bit too much I'd like you to cancel the show. No, you just DON'T WATCH IT, because you know it's brutal. If RC is giving you the option to avoid some scenes or characters and you still choose them and on top of that you COMPLAIN, my god shut up.

Believe it or not, there are people who end up feeling a kind of romance with their abusers. But that doesn't make it not real, so why do you want to fuck with a writer, go read novels from the last century and tell me about it. Writing is an art and these platforms give you the possibility to avoid unpleasantness or go on under your own will. So stop complaining, or what are you? 15 years old? Oh, my God.

One thing is that they give you the possibility to avoid characters or situations and another is that it is directly part of the story (example the character in the SHS book I mentioned before) AND YET, I am the one who keeps reading it even knowing that it is going to cause me repulsion. YOU DON'T HAVE TO READ ALL THE BOOKS, NO ONE IS POINTING A GUN AT YOU. If something is too much for you, stop reading it.

And yes, I complained to the SOTCN scene leak because they never put a freaking WARNING WHAT YOU'RE ABOUT TO READ IS A LITTLE TRAUMATIC. Anyway. Grow up a bit and before complaining ask yourselves if you are the one choosing or not, and even then if it makes you uncomfortable stop reading it.

That's it, goodbye. Love, V.

[moirindeclermont]

Why am I fascinated with Dark!Colin?

There is a scenario I did not explore much in past posts, but it deserves some space. I like to place characters in scenarios and situations where their worst traits take over. The concept of Dark!Colin is familiar, as many people explored it in fanfiction, but I want to play with it because it tickles my brain in the best way.

Disclaimer: These are not traits to look for in reality, IMO. I do avoid people with these traits in real life. But in fiction, we can engage with those fantasies safely. If it is not your cup of tea, I do understand; please take care of yourself. Furthermore, I love the Colin we know, the sweet, empathetic man we embraced and celebrated for all the right reasons. While the show will probably continue on that route (which is good, IMO), I want something darker today.

Jealousy is one of the first things that comes to my mind. People have said that Colin would never share Pen, and while I disagree on principle (but that's another post), in this particular version of Colin, he does not share, and he is jealous of every interaction Pen has with other men, especially now that everyone seems to have open their eyes on her beauty.

Right away, there is possessiveness—fierce, blind possessiveness. Pen is his (as much as he is Pen's), and you know that a darker version of Colin would go to unhinged ends to mark Pen as his. Bites and hickeys are mostly in places where no one can see, but sometimes he does leave some small token of his affection when they have to go to social events so no one can get the wrong idea.

Is Dark!Colin capable of unspeakable things? Absolutely! Pen writes in her diary, "There is something to be said about the desire and love of a man that is used to do the worst things", and while there are certain boundaries, Dark!Colin would not pass - he considers himself if not a gentleman, at least a man of honour when it comes to his family - those are very few. Forcing a woman is the fastest way to get to the wrong side of Dark!Colin very quickly, for example.

But the part that interests me most is that show!Colin could quickly go under this road if the armour were to rust, for example. The fact that he has the flaws of being a Dark Character, but he is not, speaks to me about choice and intentionality. Being kind, empathetic, and overall good is a very intentional choice real people make every day. Colin is a good person because, in the show, he chooses to be one.

I like flawed characters who choose to be better, to be good. Show!Colin is primarily good, but I like the cracks that I see. They make me wonder... what if? And that's one of the most fascinating questions you can explore with a character. What do you think of Dark!Colin? Does it tickle you?

If you have fics, please link them; I need more Dark!Colin in my life

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere! Self-Aware! Markus/RK200 (Detroit: Become Human) with gamer darling. It can be depicted as romantic or platonic. Always enthusiastic with the choices made for him and doesn’t mind if darling made some mistakes either. However I’d like the darling to be female, of course if that doesn’t bother you.

The cool thing is this doesn't really require much knowledge about what happens on his route. I'm mostly focusing on how he'd react in this so no need for many spoilers or anything :)

I'd love to experiment with this idea even if I am not the best with Self-Aware yanderes!

Yandere! Self-Aware! Markus (RK200) with Player! Darling

Pairing: Romantic/Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Female Darling, Self-aware yandere, Obsession, Yearning/Pining, Dubious feelings/relationship, Game character comes to real world, Protective behavior mentioned briefly, Isolation, Delusional behavior, Slight worshipping yandere behavior, Slight possessive behavior.

Honestly, with a game like DBH a self-aware yandere actually seems very interesting.

Why, you may be asking?

Compared to other video game characters, games that require you to make choices like DBH affect the outcome and the character.

Essentially, a character in DBH is dependent on their player to develop themselves.

Sure, many self-aware yanderes feel guided by their player.

In DBH it feels more intense because your choices actually develop their personalities.

Although it would only be this intense if they're a player character like Connor, Kara, or Markus.

These characters are ones you play as in DBH, which means you as the player shape their story.

You shape how they act.

You shape them.

These three as self-aware yanderes would be intense due to this.

Like in this example;

Self-aware! Markus can either be a pacifist or choose violence in how he deals with people.

His darling chooses that for him.

Honestly, Markus was already one of the most self-aware player characters in the game.

He was the first to go deviant, funnily enough he'd be the first to grow self-aware too.

It's an experience for him.

Not only does he learn he can be much more than an android, he also learns he's in a game.

He feels he has control, yet you're the one making decisions.

It's a conflicting feeling but he begins to not mind it when you guide him.

He actually... likes it when you shape him and his personality with your choices.

When he does see you he's intrigued by this woman who guides him with such wonder.

Markus does accept every choice you make with slight excitement and curiosity.

He understands if you make a mistake but for the most part he looks forward to what you'll say in certain situations.

Part of him wonders if the others, Connor and Kara, know your presence.

Part of him is actually jealous of the thought and hopes they don't.

Markus accepts the fact that you two need each other in a way.

In order to play the game, you need him.

In order to find just who he is, Markus needs you.

Markus assumes the personality you shape for him is to your taste at times.

Did you want him to be a pacifist? Did you want him to be violent?

He assumes you're shaping him to your tastes... he finds it endearing in a way.

Markus, like most yanderes in a video game, would want to meet his player face to face.

Markus feels he wants to meet the partner who has shown him many paths.

You've shown him kindness, you've shown him violence, what has he learned from all of these choices?

In the end, he is yours.

He actually doesn't mind it too much.

For the most part Markus would watch you through a camera on your device or accept the fact he can only adore you from afar.

Yet let's get... hypothetical and unrealistic.

Let's say by some means, Markus came into the real world.

He'd be curious on finally meeting you and would look you over.

You're a female human as he's seen before briefly... you look about as adorable as he's remembered.

He can't believe you've been guiding him all this time.

He greets you like you're long time partners, which works for platonic or romantic.

He wants to be close with you, he wonders if you can still help each other in this new world....

You may be panicking but Markus tries to reassure you that everything is okay.

He's experienced in taking care of humans, he'll take care of you, his player.

Markus would treat you with care regardless of how you shaped his personality.

He owes it to you, after all.

He... he's indebted to you after everything you've done together.

You made him this way, he's yours.

Markus hasn't seen other humans like you and would probably isolate you.

You're his whole world.

He doesn't care about the other humans in this world, or the fact he's the only android, all he cares about is feeling you in his arms.

He's protective of his yandere but depending on the route you took with him he'll either be violent or calm with it.

Markus wants to keep up the idea of you just relying on him.

He has only ever known you as his partner... the same should be with you.

When Markus enters the real world, he begins to isolate you.

He feels it should just be you and him.

You could be a girlfriend or just a close companion, Markus dedicates himself to you either way.

Markus may even think of ways to bring you back to his world.

He doesn't ever want to part from you again.

But, why do you look at him with so much fear?

There's no need to be scared of him...

Markus is your partner... your host in the game... yours...

You're his partner... his player... all his until the end... aren't you?

[iam-lnt]

📬: How do you think France felt about Louis XIV growing up and becoming a womanizer?

I feel like France is a 50/50 guy with complicated relationships. He is a man who enjoys romance/sexual adventures, but I still think France really focuses on maintaining his personal image.

However, Louis XIV's affairs with different women really upset a lot of people in the royal family… not to mention Louis XIV had a lot of illegitimate children…

I would love to hear your thoughts, whether serious or funny about this 🥰🫶🏻

It is interesting because this didn't strike me as a problem at all until you pointed it out, so I went back to try and figure out why is that I don't see the "Louis XIV having multiple relationships with women" upsets me, or even surprise me a bit...

...and oh yeah, because Chinese emperors had been doing the exact same thing since their existence lol. I guess when it comes to securing the imperial bloodline, they have similar ideas.

Anyway, back to the courts of Versailles, from my experiences of watching BBC Versailles and reading memoirs/bibliography, I'm thinking that people mostly view the mess of a relationship Louis XIV has as a consensus which should not be talked about, since it often indicates side-taking (support/against the king), leading to unwanted chit-chat, leading to Big Oopsie In Court, leading to...in best cases banishment. Also, I'd like to think that if royal family primarily consider marriage as not a connection of love but as a political alignment, then they would be on the lower end when condemning Louis XIV's out-of-marriage relationship. (More opinion can be added here, I feel like I'm biased/one-sided/not seeing the whole picture but I don't know where)

And Francis, well, he'd know all that for being the oldest antique in the palace. Would he shook his head when he see Louis XIV make poor choices that did indeed end up hurting women he used to love? Yeah, he probably would, since he value beautiful people. But would he actively try to talk Louis out of it? Hard to say, they may have tried a few talks, but ultimately that area of conversation become a "we don't talk about it unless absolutely necessary" thing.

And honestly, is it really Francis's duty to call Louis out, aside from a rather modern viewpoint of morality? Funnily I find this part rather sweet, like on one hand, Louis is like the dear son for Francis, someone he wants to be a caring gentleman and also a capable leader--this urges Francis to have Le Dad Talk with Louis about women in his life; on the other hand, he really should know when to let go, and at some point Louis has grown into a very strong king, someone Francis know he should trust and respect --because Louis XIV needs his trust and respect to run the country. In other words, if Francis (I assumed) granted Louis XIV the right to claim "I am the state", then Francis should leave Louis the freedom of governing his love life as well as his country.

Urgh did Louis XIV turn out to be capable of his relationship? I was going to start giving examples of Madame de Montespan and Madame the Maintenon but then I realized I understand their existence mostly as that portrayed in BBC Versailles, which should be used as historical arguments with caution, so meh. Maybe, maybe not, since I can't quite grade people in the 17th century using modern moral standards.

This is all just my headcanon/opinion, and I fear it has take a turn to a very Me™️ way of thinking about relationships in general LOL...... also did I understand "womanizer" right? I just assume it's something about Louis and his ton of relationships...hope this topic gets little attention so I don't get cancelled /hj

[humanpurposes]

maybe you're interested in what i have to say, maybe not.

I feel really disheartened that someone expressing their dislike and skepticism for a trope managed to spark such a volatile few hours on here.

For Em's original point, liking or not liking the bimbo!reader trope is a matter of preference. Calling it anti-feminist can still technically be an opinion, and if you disagree that's fair. For me, bimbofication can fall into the illusion of Choice Feminism, that being a woman and making a choice does not make that choice inherently feminist when it could be contributing to harmful stereotypes or unrealistic standards. For example, the pursuit of beauty standards. Me bringing this up isn't to say that wearing makeup, spending a lot on skincare, or making physical alterations to your body is morally wrong, but we don't exist in a vacuum. We should do what feels right, but we can still question why it feels right. I'm a woman. I like to think I'm intelligent. I also like to think I'm hot as fuck. None of these contradict one another.

I would still hope that we as writers can critically assess what we're actually putting out. And most of us are operating in the HotD fandom where problematic tropes are kinda the norm, but then when I read a dark fic, I am under no impression that what I'm reading is healthy, acceptable or empowering outside of fiction.

Characterisation and accuracy is something I have a lot of thoughts on but we've already seen how well that conversation goes on here. All I'll say is that I personally think that Michael Gavey would hate a bimbo character, especially because he seems to value intelligence (or academic performance at least) over visual appearance or social status. But we all have our own interpretations of the character, and it's Ewan Mitchell in glasses, that's the main reason why most of are writing for this character.

Anyway, the really cool thing about freedom of expression is that we get to like and dislike things. I can understand that if you're someone who enjoys reading or writing this trope that the original post might have made you feel angry or upset, but we as adults can control how we react to people who disagree with us. Some people on here take Tumblr way too seriously and take it way too personally when someone disagrees with them. I've said it before, but "don't like, don't read" can be applied to opinion posts. Someone posting an opinion about a trope on their own blog isn't an attack on anyone, but condemning people for that comes across as very hypocritical to me. Write what you want, no one is stopping you.

[k-elzbeth]

why has the reading + writing community become this toxic?

I have been putting this off for a while, mainly because I didn't think it was necessary and I always thought that people are entitled to their own opinions but as someone who is a book lover, a writer, and appreciates people wanting to share their art, I think something needs to be said about how we view and criticize people's work and people's interest.

The book reading community is LARGE and there are a variety of sub-genres and sub-communities within the book community. We have those who write and love deep emotionally driven books that require analyzing and a lot of effort to read and then on the other end of the spectrum we have readers and writers who are just simply doing it for the entertainment the art brings. Aside from the argument of anti-intellectualism, I do think we need to change the way we view and criticize the art of reading and writing because it does come in different shapes and forms and not everyone is alike.

For the sake of the argument and because it is all anyone ever seems to talk about, I'll use Colleen Hoover as an example. I have only read one of her books, Ugly Love. I read this not fully understanding the hate surrounding her and her writing and I am not ashamed to say that I enjoyed reading the book! This book is the one with the infamous line about the couple making a comment about their newborn child's balls and then the couple getting into a serious accident resulting in a car crash. As a reader (and also a parent), I didn't find anything wrong with this scene. In fact, this scene was the most realistic scene in the entire book. After doing research, I now understand personally why people dislike Colleen Hoover, but professionally, why are we hating on a woman who is writing books and is finding a publisher who is willing to give her a chance and publish her books?

Are we giving the same hatred to Wattpad books that are lining the shelves at Barnes & Noble? Not from what I've seen.

Being a writer is a tough job, we cannot cater to all audiences and writers create stories that make them happy. If we ever get the opportunity to publish and have our work acknowledged it is an accomplishment and we should celebrate it, not trash it because our writing isn't the best, because like all skills, it takes time to build it and finesse it.

When it comes to readers, why are we bashing people who prefer the 350-page romance with fun and relatable (and sometimes diverse) characters over the 500-page literature that takes time to dissect and analyze in order to fully understand the material?

Reading isn't a competition. Writing isn't black and white and not one author is the best writer with their first published books. Publishing houses are simply publishing the books they believe will be popular and market well.

If we have an issue with books and with the author, we shouldn't give them the attention we believe they don't deserve. Not spending hours online talking about why someone shouldn't read the book, flipping book covers over at bookstores, or shaming readers for their choice of books.

We should celebrate authors who decide to put themselves out there and celebrate the fact that we can read a variety of stories. If a story doesn't resonate with you, don't read it - but do not shame writers for writing it, and do not shame readers for enjoying it. Much like how we treat music and visual art, we should do the same for books. They are sacred, and as we have seen with our government, the freedom to read and write what we want can be taken away.

[agust-june]

Let's talk about KIM DOYOUNG...

I just came here to say if I CATCH yall defending Doyoung out here it's blocked on fucking site. I need yall Ncitzens and Kpop stans to STAND THE FUCK UP.

Out here posting pictures of ugly ass snowmen with MCDONALDS BS. GFTOFH. I saw this yesterday but Koreaboo pissed me off and these tweets of these fucking weirdos made me mad. So imma talk about it here.

Imma post screen shots of tweets and for those of you that are clearly not assholes or not delusional, let's point and laugh.

Fuck the first tweet bc though he is not supposed to be making political statement. That's what he's doing. And I will drop that man like a trash bag into the dumpster. The SECOND TWEET FUCK KIM DOYOUNG'S FEELINGS. Fuck him what about the feelings of the Palestinian fans that he has? What about the people you are actively dying from bombs? starvation? Dehydration? What about them? Out here actively making SNOW MEN using McDonald's shit FUCK HIM. AND FUCK YOU TOO WEIRD ASS BITCH.

The first tweet here. It's not about his family or friends. Doyoung is in the public posting pictures of McDonald's snowmen. He's fucking weird. And if we find out about his family and Friends they can get the smoke too. They ain't special. The last tweet on the bottom...yall spend too much online into kpop. I need people to be educated and up-to-date in the world bc what do you mean does that country exists??? I need people to WAKE UP GO TO FUCKING SCHOOL OR GET HOBBIES OUTSIDE OF KPOP PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

We knew SM wasn't shit. We knew. Doyoung, I am not shocked he's in SM. I like to give people chances but once you fuck up you fuck up. And THIS??? Oh baby you lucky SM needs you for they check which is why I will not be supporting Doyoung and I will give you the Wendy treatment bye bitch.

Hell isn't hot enough. That's all imma say.

On that note, I want to add that as a K-pop fan and Ncitizen, I am greatly disappointed, but I am not surprised. I had a FEELING someone in NCT was gonna do this bs. For once, I was hoping to be proven wrong. But that hoes to show you... we don't know these groups. He isn't the only one supporting these companies. Other idols are, too.

Here's some links to other idols

I also want to note that I will be taking my Doyoung post down even though it had Johnny in it. I'm clutching my pearls like a southern white woman and leaving. I can't get rid of the merch I bought, especially my DoJaeJung albums, but I won't be buying anymore. I understand some of these idols are under contract. For example, New Jeans they have a contract with Coca-Cola, and they just had a meal with McDonald's. That I completely understand. But ACTIVELY spending money to McDonald's and Starbucks and posting it!?!? Nah, you gotta go. Idc who you are. I don't care you have godly teir vocals you're done. It's not that hard to TRY to do something good. I am actively avoiding Starbucks, McDonald's, actively staying up to date on what's going on in the world. It's not just Palestine. It's Congo. Sudan. Yemen. If I can do all of that work a job. Go to school. Watch One Piece (an anime that actively talks about corrupt governments, genocide, war, propaganda, etc). Kim fucking Doyoung and other kpop idols can do it too. They just don't care and want to keep rolling their checks (he probably need to with that pocket change he probably getting). I AM BEGGING yall K-pop stans who still don't get it to STAND UP. Get a life. Read a fucking book. Because yall look dumb as hell, and I'm sorry, but my EGO MY PRIDE will not allow me to be dumb and continue to turn a blind eye when I know people are dying in a genocide. And for those of you saying "well just educate the idol." Baby, there's a reason why college is for adults, and it's not a mandatory if grown adults want to make the choice to learn they'll do it. These idols are GROWN it's not my job to educate adults who are older than me, and it shouldn't be your job either, especially FOR FREE.

I hope yall have a good day today, and I hope yall stay safe out there!