#like if that's a positive representation to you...

[hypermascbishounen]

Ime It's pretty easy to tell when an author doesn't care about your experiences as a queer audience member, but about how they personally look telling your story for you to other people.

Like, it's on a scale. There's definitely stuff that's well intentioned if a bit clumsy, vs stuff that's deeply cynical "praise me for including u, faggot". And sometimes there's also people really just trying to tell their own story and struggling.

But overall, I think a lot of it comes from a really cowardly position of just fully ceding ground to bigots on media interpretation. Because the idea that queer things aren't canon or real unless you fully halt the story to spell it out to the audience in painstaking detail, is also the position of every homophobe who denies queer subtext/implications in any work they happen to think should be about them by default. (It's also basically the position of erasing queer people from history and treating cisheterosexuality as default, but that's a deeper topic).

I simply do not think looking at a work bleeding with queer subtext so dense there's no cisheterosexual explanation for parts of the plot, and then declaring it "not canon" and thus not "real" representation, compared to a work with what amounts to shallow tokenism, is a progressive stance actually! Sometimes shit is just gay, and not admitting that is asinine. I think at best, people who've internalized "queer subtext is invalid" often go into writing not knowing how to show and not tell, when it comes to character identity or relationships - things that often go poorly when *just* told.

If it's really that difficult, and you're personally lucky enough to not have to deal with censorship(reminder that ability to publish uncensored queer work is often more just privilege than being particularly brave or creative), you can put it in a character bio.

at a phase in my life where when i get the sense a book is trying to offer me Representation (TM) i hiss and scream and start kicking and ripping bricks out of the wall. this character's Coherent Identity And Articulation Of Their Issues had Better fit in with the rest of the worldbuilding (it won't)

[lavenderangeltarot]

𝓌𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈' 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝑒𝓃𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒶𝒷𝑜𝓊𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒶𝓅𝓅𝑒𝒶𝓇𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 🪞🪷✩ // pick a card!

hey angels! 👼🏼 this will be a general pick a card reading on what people find enchanting about your appearance/how people view your appearance (physically & generally- usually these things naturally overlap). It's of course, not healthy to fixate on these things, however I think it can be uplifting to hear the nice things people might've thought of us. It's natural to be a bit curious! Pick the image you're most drawn to, proceed to your reading & take what resonates! If you're interested in a personal reading from me, check out my Etsy Store :) // https://www.etsy.com/shop/LavenderAngelTarot

#1 #2 #3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#1 - the Moon, Page of Swords & Knight of Wands 🌙

With the Moon card coming out first, I see people being heavily captivated by a sense of mystery surrounding you- you come across as introverted or at least, initially reserved. In your presence people are not so sure what you are thinking, but your demeanour remains peaceful and possibly very feminine. Dreamy & vaguely moody too, but with the Moon card it's like everything is a little concealed. I think for some of you, people can sense you're going through something heavy right now too since the Moon relates to psychological turmoil in some cases, but you hold yourself very gracefully. Physically I feel like you have very immediately pleasant features, people might find there's this 'beautiful darkness' to you- maybe some of you dress in a sort of gothic inspired aesthetic, or perhaps it's this mysterious/contemplative look in your eye.

With the Page of Swords (especially combined with the Moon) people immediately see you as intelligent. Very sharp minded and skilled at communicating (even if you're not a big talker, your speech or vocabulary is clear). Since in this reading we're focusing on appearance, despite the softness illustrated with the Moon card, you may also have some features that are slightly sharper. Like for example, having a very soft, rounded face but a sharp/edgy haircut, or piercings. Pages are also associated with youth, so people may see you as youthful in your appearance. A lot of you who picked this pile are very young too I'm getting- not sure if it's the reading, or just me talking but I have this urge to remind you guys to be safe online!

Finally, the Knight of wands to me shows that people see you as healthy, athletic or just generally physically capable & attractive! You may look strong or agile- I'm getting some of you are dancers (or you look like you would dance, especially ballet!). Despite your calm, intellectual energy, you come across like you live a very active and adventurous lifestyle in some way. I also see that while you might not lead with it when you meet people (initially people noticing that mysterious, intellectual, perhaps shy aspect of you)- you have a very spontaneous and passionate nature that people reallyy love :)

2# - 3 of Pentacles, The Star, 9 of Wands 🌿

Immediately, this group is really emanating 'it girl' energy to me.

With the 3 of Pentacles, I see people being quite in awe of you and viewing you as a very hardworking, competent person. You inspire others in some way, people feel they have something to learn from you. Since the 3 of Pentacles is traditionally related to collaboration & learning, you could be someone who's always around other people, or maybe are a positive representation of your school/work out in public (like for example, often being out and about in your uniform, or being seen as part of a collective like a band or a certain friend group). Appearance wise, to me the 3 of Pentacles feels as though there is something artistic & skillful about your appearance- maybe you're really skilled at makeup, or your clothing is very beautiful and well coordinated.

The Star card speaks for itself! You stand out appearance-wise and garner attention whether you realise it or not! The Star card to me, especially combined with the 3 of Pentacles tells me that you inspire people a lot with your appearance alone but also in other ways. People feel there is something aspirational and 'untouchable' about you- it's sort of Gossip Girl 'Serena Van Der Woodsen' adjacent lol. Again, it could be that there's something about the way you dress that's very skillful and others are in awe of, it could also be that you're very popular or seem as though you would be from the way you carry yourself. A lot of you are very talented or just 'different' in some way and people notice that. (I wish I could specify a bit more but since it's a general reading it could be a variety of reasons people view you this way, follow your gut) :)

The 9 of Wands to me shows that you come across brave and ready for anything, very resilient. Maybe slightly wary or mistrusting too. It also shows that people can tell you're tired/exhausted- not necessarily in a bad way but it's like people can sense in the way you carry yourself that you're trying to keep strong despite struggles you are facing. Maybe you're not getting as much sleep as you need, or just work super hard. For some of you, it's as though people can sense in your expressions/posture/etc that despite being this abundant, inspiring person; you're not totally happy right now and there's something or many things getting to you. I see for some, what's going on is that you have a lot of expectations on you to be this 'perfect', skilled, hardworking, 'golden girl/boy' aspirational person and it is wearing you out deep down. I definitely do see things getting smoother for you with time 🤍

#3 - King of Cups, The Chariot, The Hierophant 🌊

The King of Cups as the first card tells me that you appear to people as somebody who is very in touch with their feelings & emotionally authentic. I don't see an obnoxious person who is always bawling their eyes out (lol), but I see someone who is very warm, welcoming and jovial. When you laugh, you laugh for real. When you smile, it is genuine and sweet. You may not always feel relaxed, but overall you do come across as a very relaxed and mature person and it's really attractive to people. The way you move could be very flow-y and sensual, you might prefer to wear flowing fabrics/styles rather than stiff or sharp ones. Whatever your age or gender is, I see you also come across very parental in the sense that people immediately feel they can trust you, like you're the person a little kid would want to come up to for help if they were lost 🥹

The Chariot tells me that something about the way you appear has a very positive and change-agent energy about it. It could be that you dress very bohemian, or wear very bright colours, or perhaps you do something different with your hair that really subverts expectations and inspires positivity in others. It's as though you stand for something- a certain cause or mentality that shines through in your demeanour. You come across very confident in your style, who you are and what you stand for- you're not afraid to look unique or be 'over the top' and that really makes people happy to see whether you notice it or not! As though you're the one person who wears a beautiful colourful dress/shirt in a sea of people wearing black and grey + looking 'done' with life. Again I'm seeing that the way you move stands out as attractive! While many walk kinda sluggish & dispassionately, you have a bit of a spring in your step, or appear very in command and in tune with your body.

Finally, The Hierophant tells me that you appear spiritual, religious or just having a very strong moral conviction in some way to others. For some of you it could be your facial expressions & the way you react to your environment that leads people to think this. For others, it's more overt things like perhaps adorning yourself in religious or spiritual symbols. The Hierophant also speaks of traditionalism, so you could be someone who prefers slightly more traditional dress styles and values in a way- for a lot I'm seeing dressing in vintage fashion :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thankyou !! 💞🔮

[lurkingshan]

Spare Me Your Mercy, Love in the Big City, and the Trap of Pursuing Mainstream Popularity for Queer Art

I read this excellent post by @waitmyturtles yesterday tackling the frustrating failures of Spare Me Your Mercy, a show that was one of my most anticipated of the year, but that ended up so lost in its own confusing blend of sauces that I didn't even finish it. I appreciated her clarity that despite the show receiving strong ratings and finding popularity with the mainstream domestic audience, that doesn't actually make it a success as a piece of narrative storytelling. And if anything, its popularity underlines why it was a failure as a queer narrative, in particular.

Because here's the thing about great queer art—it's almost never popular with mainstream audiences, especially in socially conservative countries. High quality, well-executed, honest and authentic queer art is more likely to be protested than celebrated in places where real queer people are not safe to live free lives. For an illustration of this, look no further than another highly anticipated queer drama of this year in Love in the Big City. Easily the queerest show to ever get made and aired on Korean television, it drew major protests before it even started, forcing the production to release it quickly in one go to ensure it would reach audiences. And why were those conservative groups so afraid of this little old drama? Because even just in its trailer and promotional materials, it was clear this was no sanitized, G-rated drama created to make gay people seem more palatable to the masses (unlike the film version with the same name, which not coincidentally has been much more warmly received by the Korean media establishment). This show was real, and raw, and QUEER in a way that terrified those bigots, because they know one of the most important ways the oppressed can advocate for themselves is by demonstrating their humanity through art. 

Which brings me back to turtles’ post, and the importance of separating the concerns of art and commerce when discussing the different ways media can succeed. This is something I had some good dialogue about with @biochemjess @pharawee @clairedaring @flowerbeasblog and turtles (and even more of you in the tags) when I was still watching and posting about Spare Me Your Mercy. I originally posted to unpack why the show was flopping narratively, which turned into a discussion of the fact that it was getting good ratings from the domestic audience despite this. And while I appreciated understanding how the show is landing with its priority audience, for me, it’s very important to keep a distinction between these two different kinds of success. Especially in discussions of queer art, and especially for a show whose creators explicitly said they were intentionally downplaying the queer romance part of the queer romance ( @benkaben) to avoid “distracting” from their other messaging goals. 

The important thing to keep in mind is that for queer stories, when they are popular with a mainstream audience it’s often because they are stripping any authenticity from the representation of queer people. Turtles addressed this well in her review of 2gether when she posited that part of the reason it was such a phenomenon in conservative Asian countries (aside from the timing of its release in the early days of the global pandemic), was because its presentation of queerness was mostly unrecognizable to real queer people, stripped of any true notion of queer sexuality or the realities of homophobia. Compare the reception of The Miracle of Teddy Bear—a show that absolutely refused to make its central queer character palatable for a mainstream audience, because the fact that he wasn’t palatable was the point—to that of Spare Me Your Mercy, a show whose creators chose to censor their own story. The ugly truth is that when we’re talking about queer dramas, the best and most vital shows are pretty much anathema to mainstream ratings success.

The impulse to pursue mainstream popularity and commercial success for queer art inevitably leads to watering down queer stories ( @twig-tea) to make them more light, comfortable and familiar to a majority heterosexual and socially conservative audience. And yes, of course, some degree of commercial success is necessary for queer art to get made in the first place. This is how the Thai BL market took off, by recognizing that there was an audience beyond queer people who were open to watching stories about boys falling in love, as long as it didn’t get too real. But there is a careful line to walk here, and it’s so important not to confuse popularity with artistic merit. Queer people won’t win liberation by self-censoring queer media to make it more palatable for mainstream audiences. We win when we make queer art so good and so honest that the mainstream is forced to acknowledge it. We win by challenging the mainstream perspective on queer people and how they should behave, not by catering to it. As @bengiyo said in a completely different discourse, the question is not whether the audience can love queer characters whose actual queerness is suppressed for their comfort. That kind of respectability politics is old hat and it never fucking gets us anywhere. The real question he posed is this: “Do you love us when we’re ugly, when we’re sick, when we’re old, when we’re being mean or catty?”

Which is why a show like Love in the Big City ultimately won by being so excellent, and so true, and so undeniable, that it broke through with audiences around the world and achieved some measure of recognition in spite of how very unpalatable it was to its domestic audience. Unlike Spare Me Your Mercy, this show did not get amazing domestic ratings, but its message was heard far beyond those who watched it on Korean television. And that is the point. Making authentic art that advances the struggle of queer people and making nominally queer art that can achieve mainstream popularity are completely different pursuits, and we must keep that in mind when we discuss whether and how these shows succeeded or failed. And while both must exist in a healthy media ecosystem, one will always be more vital for the survival of queer people than the other. 

[drdemonprince]

Maybe it’s a little creepy eh like bits of it are parasocial as fuck but also how many people in the public eye do we get that are gay, trans, Autistic, mad, fighting capitalism and shit, not pretending wannabe raging lefties so yeah let the gay boys write stories and stuff.the pedestal stuff is weird as fuck but hopefully the minority. the rest of us mad fucks need you

thats the problem dog. I cant BE what you need. i NEED all that shit just as much! I am just as affected by all those loci of oppression, just as under-represented, just as tired of not being legible to other people and having to explain and advocate for and represent myself. i CANNOT be a positive symbol of a bunch of identity groups for you. i am a PERSON trying to live their one individual life without the burden of all of that. its not fair to expect me to resolve these massive societal problems for you. it's not any different experientially from cishets or allistics tokenizing me. both completely make me into my group memberships and assign me with the burden of representation and prevent me from being a HUMAN with a ton of my own shit going on.

like whatever enjoy the porn obviously i think that's funny but you cant NEED me for shit. i am not yours. you dont know me. no person should be reduced like that.

[thenightshadowqueen]

Death for a Dollar watchthrough thoughts

Holy shit, this was unhinged. I loved it so much. (That’s too many italics, but I don’t care.) I’m kind of speechless; the number of times I actually covered my mouth in shock (usually because of Sam, but Tom was insane in this one, too) was staggering. I adore this play.

Anyway, I’m going to get into my actual thoughts instead of just rambling.

Just to start, ‘Death for a Dollar’ is a great title, so kudos to whoever came up with that

Oh my god, Hank and Gareth 2.0!!!!

“You don’t know what he did for this place.” “That—Tell me!” This is off to a strong start

“Where was your showmanship?” I love it when they work mini games of Change into the plays

Mr. Twilliger is an incredible name

“This is me being the bartender, getting the stories out of the customers, so they reveal things, and then they want to drink more because they’re reliving their trauma.” I mean, it’s a valid tactic to get more money; yay, capitalism! (sarcasm)

AJ forcing Tom to be musical… Caesar and Juliet, anyone?

I love that Luke knows off the top of his head how many keys a piano has (I’m honestly not surprised)

Is Sam’s hair a little longer than normal? Because it looks really good

“I got three keys, three teeth, three toes. I’ve been through a lot.” I love Tony the piano player (who was also referred to as Bill once)

“My mind can take an awful lot; there’s not a lot in there” I love him, actually

“You ain’t trying to seduce him!” “But I get bigger tips when I do!” Sam

Can I just thank whoever edited this for giving us that little shot of Tom laughing? Because I love it when we get to see him actually laugh.

I love Mrs. Prostitute (and I love Tom for including positive representation of sex work)

“This is what feminism looks like” West End Big Boys flashbacks

“My mum is crazy” SAM

Also I think my favourite thing about the microphones is that we can hear them laughing so much more clearly (brought to you by Luke, on this occasion)

I adore Sam’s weird little harmonica thing he does in western-genre pieces

Ooh, younger versions of characters being played by different actors; I don’t think we’ve seen that before

I love Sam being confused and Tom’s response being to start clapping

I love Sam being annoyed and retaliating at AJ with a bald joke

“I told my daddy that I was real fast with a pistol, and that maybe I could go and work in law enforcement, but he wouldn’t have it.” “No! No son is going to go work for the government!” AJ trying to paint his father as the villain and Sam trying his very best to make the audience like him… This is gorgeous

“Telling a man if he’s allowed to own people or not” okay, never mind, I take that back

I don’t know why Sam picked the Watson-clown voice, but I’m glad he did (also I love that the voice made Luke break)

“Many Fingers Pussy” Jesus Christ, Tom

“They thought I had the devil in me” god damn it, now I feel bad for Bill

Sam is so good at playing wide-eyed innocent characters

“God, I wish they had that law in America in the modern day” I wish I had enough faith in people’s judgement to wish that

“I didn’t know you could do magic” I love it when Sam causes trouble

I can never see a reference to a one-man band like that and not think of Mary Poppins

“I can’t wait to hear those four white boys do those accents” oh dear

Luke speaking Spanish!!!

You know what, that vaguely Mexican accent could have been a hell of a lot worse, so well done, Sam

“So you can work on a farm, or you can jerk people off” oh my god, Sam

“He offered me a job” and then AJ realising what it sounded like and walking it way back

Tom entering the scene and waiting for a moment to join in and then Sam just throwing him in without warning is amazing

“I work here jerking people off” Tom

“She said she helps people el secrete-o” SAM

“Hand stuff Jesus is okay with” Sam

I don’t know why the fact that Tom knows little bits of Spanish brings me so much joy, but it does

Holy shit, Luke speaking Spanish with an American accent might be my new favourite thing

I love Maria, the bank robber/prostitute

You know what, I get Bill; the little, slightly mosquitoy “yeah”s are alluring

Half-kiss!!!

“A beautiful flower turns to a crooked leaf” I fucking adore AJ’s weird little sayings

“It’s a well-known expression” and then the advert with the merch saying ‘more well-known expressions’

“Something went worse than wrong. It went really wrong.” Gorgeous.

Sam’s slip oh my god

I know I already said Sam’s hair looks good, but Sam’s hair looks really good

I already said it but I will never be over Luke’s Spanish-in-an-American-accent. Never.

“I’ll keep my hands moist for you” it seems like Tom like using the word moist (the moisturiser fairy comes to mind)

I love audience participation

I’m sorry, as someone who struggles with mental math, that quick multiplication from Luke was impressive

“Got a lot of spunk in you, have you?” I love Tom using his English degree to make dirty jokes (obviously this doesn’t require an English degree; I just mean that it’s a wordplay joke)

I love Sam making sure to bring the story full-circle, with Tony losing his teeth and toes

Jesus, Tom

“Have we invented the electric chair yet?” I looked it up, and it looks like it was invented in the 1880’s, so not quite, but it wasn’t nearly so far off as I thought it might be

“I’ma travelling electric chair salesman” … honestly, I’m not even surprised at this point

Tom is right; this is really dark

I don’t think Sam knows how electric chairs work (affectionate)

Okay who the fuck let Sam wink like that

“Well, I guess that’s the end of the Shoot from the Hip show” I love when they get meta

“What could go wrong with giving a southern American teenager a pair of guns? I’ve got school tomorrow!” Holy fucking shit; may I present Sam Russell, the king of risky jokes

“…when we faked my death…” I love Tom so much

“I think this is the first time we’ve used the principle of the unreliable narrator” I actually love this so much; this is such a cool concept, especially for an improv show

Tom is unhinged in this one and I love it

I love this so much

I already made as post saying this, but it bears repeating: this is BUS levels of insane

[monsters00km]

That post was so perfect and encapsulated everything I’ve been saying as well. People, who think they can’t be homophobic because they are queer, needs to familiarize themselves with the words “internalized homophobia/queerphobia” and heteronormative. I’ve seen a bunch of queer men being lesbiphobic and sexist as hell - not just in this fandom but overall. Like that’s a real issue. This also bleeds into the sexism issue we are seeing.

Also see the same people trying to prop up TimeShit because it’s interracial. As if Caitlyn/Vi isn’t, as if Jayce/Mel isnt. And honestly this is common, fans “caring” representation for men of color but dismissing representation for women of color

They cover their homophobia and racism with concerns over “socioeconomic statuses” but defend Jayce over Caitlyn like you said (both in terms of how they treated Zaun and their dynamic with Viktor and Vi).

I agree. It's so fascinating to me to see so many haters of characters of the show.

Mainly bc they did a wonderful job of showing that it was the society around them that shaped them. That's the point of the AU. To show that people are not inherently bad. But some people have no support if that's familiar or societal or both. That can shape you.

And im not saying you have to like/love each character. But in a show that SHOWS you that. It's baffling to love a character like Jayce/viktor/jinx and hate characters like caitlyn/Vi/Mel. Especially the characters that are neither good nor bad.

I understand people that don't like the characters like Silco or Ambessa. Bc Ambessa was not apart of the Au and we don't know why Ambessa was the way she was (in the show). And Silco bc of what he did to Jinx and Vi. As much as they are grey characters they showed up as villians and left the show as villians.

But to love Silco and hate Ambessa. Is ehhhh. Especially since most people just hate Ambessa. Like most people don't talk about how Ambessa parallels Silco and manipulated Caitlyn like Silco did to Jinx. Mainly bc they hate Caitlyn. Which makes their hatred seem to be either sexism or racism.

And yes. The erasure of race by the fans is so disgusting. Like I get liking Ekko and Jinx. But we should not prop that ship up for being biracial when SOOOO many ships in Arcane are biracial.

People who hate Jayce and Mel..... like just say it. If you hate Mel in general. Like??? She follows a character arc that alot of Male heros follow. Its like the fallen prince. A person in position of power who is ambitious but callous. Who throughout the story learns to be compassionate. Goes on a level up journey. Comes back and helps save the day against their parent bc it is the right thing to do.

Just say you hate her bc she black or a woman. Bc if that was a white man you'd love it.

I try not to engage with these people. It is just so frustrating to see.

[cynicalclairvoyantcadaver]

Percy Jackson and Harry Potter

We need to talk about the simple fact that Percy Jackson, while being as good as Harry Potter if not a little better, is nearly as problematic as Harry Potter.

If you are in the PJO fandom or you do anything related to PJO, you have absolutely no right to criticise people for liking and doing things related to Harry Potter.

Why? Well, Rick is a misogynistic and racist man whose portrayals of POC and WOC is straight up fucked at times.

HE USED FUCKING WORLD WAS TWO AS A PLOT POINT. HE REDUCED TO A FIGHT BETWEEN THE SONS OF FUCKING GREEK GODS.

The Greeks were heavily affected by World War II. To make their enemies, the Nazis, children of the Greek Gods..........I can't even use WORDS to describe how egregious that is.

He portrays Piper and Hazel in a racist way by giving them light coloured eyes and hair to make them look more attractive when dark hair and eyes would have sufficed.

He portrays his Chinese character (Frank Zhang) as chubby but has his fatness magically go away when he glows up. Fatphobia.

And Frank Zhang is the only major Asian character in the series. The rest are minor characters, with them either being downright mean (Mrs Chase, Drew Tanaka, Sherman Yang) or them barely having a personality and only the most BASIC personality traits. (Emily Zhang who's dead and we barely know anything about her except that she's a loving and caring mother. Alice Miyazawa whom we barely know anything about except that she likes to prank people. Billie Ng who's kind, caring and helpful.)

That's all. They're minor characters who barely show up. That is not representation.

Hazel, the main black character, died decades ago and somehow spent DECADES in what was essentially solitary confinement because she couldn't talk to anyone without going mad.

I will state that there are other black characters besides Hazel that have screen time and a personality-Austin Lake and Josephine from TOA. Blitzen from Magnus Chase. Carter and Sadie Kane from the Kane Chronicles are biracial (White mother, black father) and it briefly touches on their struggles.

He depicts nearly all his fat characters as ugly and violent. The one good fat character loses his fat in his glow up (Frank again).

He takes an ADULT NYMPH in the original myths and turns her into a teenager AND PUTS HER IN A RELATIONSHIP WITH ANOTHER TEENAGER, WHICH IS STRAIGHT UP PREDATORY.

He's sexist in nearly every portrayal of his female. His misogyny is too long for one post only, so I will trust you to SEARCH IT UP. And please, please inform yourself on this if you don't already know.

And don't get me started on how well he's able to write TOXIC RELATIONSHIPS. Nearly every major relationship in the PJO franchise (Percabeth, Caleo, Jiper, Solangelo). Luke and Thalia were originally great, but he rammed their relationship bloody against the rocks.

And the one good relationship (Frazel) without ANY toxic behaviour WHATSOEVER has a controversial age gap (I'm not saying that it's bad, I'm saying that it's controversial because some people like it and some people don't.)

AND he straight up wrote it to be 3 years even if it was only 2 years apart, which is still controversial.

When asked and confronted about Samirah and Piper's racist stereotypes, he blatantly denies doing that.

Not to mention, besides all of this, HE TAKES AND BASTARDISES GREEK CULTURE AND THE PORTRAYAL OF THE GODS.

If you think Rick's Greek Gods are the real thing and have only read about Greek Mythology through PJO, do yourself and the rest of us a favour and don't think that Rick's egregious interpretations of the Greek Gods are actually the real Greek Gods.

(Not saying that you're bad if PJO was your first introduction to Greek Mythology-please just don't think that the PJO Greek Gods are the real ones. Read the OG Greek myths.)

He forcibly outs his main gay character and the forcible outer doesn't receive any consequence despite Rick being in a position to do this, leaving many queer readers with a sour taste in their mouth.

Rick Riordan is disgusting and pathetic and he's only a little better than JK Rowling. Keep that in mind when you yell at Harry Potter fans from your PJO corner next time.

[lady-corrine]

You know, I always suspected that the tvd fandom wasn't the brightest in terms of media literacy, but seeing some specific shippers claim that Lisa portrayed the relationship between Damon and Elena in a positive light in her continuations is certainly... interesting? To say the least. Because:

He’s saying that right now Elena is up for grabs.

But at the mention of Elena, Damon felt at a flush of pure greed that started in his jaws and spread outward.

If I have to, I’ll Influence you to agree with me. I probably should have done that in the beginning. I seem to remember promising I wouldn’t, but I believe that promise also had a time limit that ran out.

Now to each their own, but 😬

[baristabomb]

dungeon meshi characters taking care of each other

:’)

bonus:

[embras-grace]

One thing I truly adore about Palia is the polyamory and general queerness. It's so nice that we can romance everyone so we don't miss any plots or items, but also its nice as a poly-queer person to see some representation in a game.

There is no jealousy. There is no hateful or painful breakups (as I understand it, if you break-up it is not mentioned and you restart the romance plot-line). No one makes negative comments about two pins or switching out pins.

It's so nice to see positive rep in a game and honestly such a breath of fresh air.

[karrakincavalrycollege]

The Ungrateful movements of Sanjak and other locations do not have representation as they have chosen not to be members of The Karrakin Trade Baronies. You don't see Aunics nominating members of Centcomm, you also don't see ungratefuls being offered a seat on Centcomm despite Union claiming dominion over the territory they occupy.

Additionally, the KTB doesn't allow for abject serfdom legally speaking. Slavery as a practice is as illegal here as in Union, as shown by the punishments leveled against House Ludra.

Violent Revolts quite frequently occur under democratic systems, as you would likely know thanks to the formation of Harrison Armory. Some people simply see their opinion as more important than that of the public, and take violent action because of that.

If you wish to speak of tone-deafness, your attitude regarding Union's methods of expansion is frankly laughable when mentioned to a Karrakin Governmental Body. Union's expansion into Karrakin Space consisted of heavy military force, nuclear bombing of civilian centers and treaties signed at gunpoint. Union's current government granted governance of the Dawnline Shore to the Karrakin Trade Baronies as recompence for this, and it only became a militarily contested territory when Union refused to reign in Harrison Armory's aggression in the region.

The Karrakin Trade Baronies currently offer more rights to NHPs than Union, rendering the Horizon Collective's attention more valuable in Union Space. The Horizon Collective is also a civilian effort, not a facet of Union's Government. Union's body for dealing with NHPs exists entirely to regulate and shackle them, that is the only official stance they have endorsed. NHPro has also frequently come into conflict with Horizon and refers to their actions as illegal, claiming them as a part of your government is like the Baronic Council claiming that The Ungratefuls work for them.

Your explanation of our governmental structure is woefully ill-informed. The ignoble house and Baronic Council function as a Bicameral Legislature, with the Barons being a separate pool from the Ignoble House. The Ignoble house handles the vast majority of our legal governance and appoints our functioning head of government, with the Baronic House existing largely to handle the affairs of nobles and foreign policy.

Centcomm is not a fully elected body, as it does not require democratic election of representatives. This means that no official that it appoints is even adjacent to a fully democratic position. Arguably the most powerful of Union's Agencies, the Administrative Department, is also notable for being chosen through a classified process that is apparently detached from Centcomm, and involves selecting officials when they are children, which doesn't sound very democratic to me.

The Karrakin Trade Baronies have dedicated an entire branch of our government to the voices of the people through The Ignoble House. Meanwhile Union's closest equivalent is Centcomm, which consists of a mix of elected and unelected leaders from different worlds, making it's structure far closer to The Baronic Council that you all love to complain about.

The Karrakin Cavalry College is proud to announce that our political theory department has found that the Baronic Council is in fact a more fully democratic government than that of the Union Central Committee!

[cogcltrcorn]

are we as a society gonna talk about how tos is a show made in the middle of cold war and has at its center a positive character from a communalist culture that appears withdrawn and cold to the human [american] pov characters, and is materialist in its core philosophy. what I am saying is: are we gonna talk about spock essentially fulfilling the role of the soviet communist in the narrative. are we gonna talk about vulcan as ersatz-ussr (again, communalist, philosophically materialist, but, because of rodenberry's utopic vision of the future, an ally)

[rangersoup]

Ranger Soup and Mrs. Soup love being parents 😌 and love having all of their little souplings running around 😌 and they have absolutely zero regrets whatsoever 😌 and this is very important to me.

[sainteclectic]

and btw whole is soul's fp... if this isn't obvious in how i write them smiles. he's so so normal about that man and definitely doesn't have any fears of abandonment. he definitely doesn't freak out whenever whole isn't in his line of sight, terrified that the loop will start again and he'll lose him. he definitely doesn't rely on whole for a sense of identity, definitely doesn't only feel like a person through him, definitely doesn't have any issues idolizing whole to the point that not seeing his flaws causes very real problems. he for sure has a normal and healthy attachment to whole (lying) (lying) (lying) (ly

[sneeb-canons]

heart has severe asthma and cannot do any physical activity without needing his inhaler. Also he cannot bind because if this (transmasc heart woooo)

Headcanon #624

[articskele]

“...Wrong? Why would anything go wrong?”

Without further ado, a stimboard for @ask-the-biggering-onceler!

x|x|x x|x|x x|x|x