#literally just looks the same as canon all the time

[just-sg]

So much.

Short/vague answers: It's about sword lesbians in a universe that not so casually runs on necromancy. It's about love, in every form, not just romantic: platonic to a soulmate degree, familial, polyamorous, and even enemies-as-a-FORM-of-lovers. It's about how the price of love is grief, how love has teeth and claws and it is impossible to care for anyone or anything without inviting pain, and how it will often drive you to hurt others and yourself as well, and you'll desperately chase it anyway. It's about religious trauma in a way that neither condemns religion nor seeks to excuse it, but seeks understanding and recontextualization of faith. It's about trauma in general and severe mental illness. It's about looking death and despair in the eye and continuing to fight anyway, because what else are you gonna do? It's about connection and healing and becoming better together even as you continue to suffer through the universe burning around you.

More specific answers:

Every book follows a different protagonist, is an entirely different vibe, and has a different mix of genres. Every narrator is severely unreliable in unique ways. It is all the same consecutive story (except when it's not, see: unreliable narrators, don't worry about it).

Parts of it are breathtakingly poetic and evocative, and other parts read like a tumblr shitpost, and this is entirely on purpose, used to masterfully control the tone. Practically every third line has bonus layers of meaning to a point you can reread multiple times and still be finding things that make you go "Jod DAMMIT". It is not possible to catch everything on a first read.

It's about:

There are literal memes everywhere and most of them are woven in to such a degree that if you don't recognize them they'll fly fully under the radar. At one point a guy brings fanfiction to a magic undead gun fight and wins. God is literally Just Some Guy and is canonically an Evanescence fan. The books also teach us that cows have best friends and watch sunsets.

If this raises more questions than it answers, good. If you're kind of interested but feel like you've been too spoiled, no you haven't. Please give the books a try. 🙏 (Also the audiobooks are great.)

I bet all the Cohort officials are sick to death of the Tower Princes. Imagine being forced to work for a shitty 20 year old nepo baby with a perceptually bad attitude because she can't get over her ex and her horrible toxic frenemy/rebound who has the personality of a snake trapped in a pillowcase. And you can't say shit about it because they are literally god's kid and a saint respectively.

Meanwhile god is busy crashing out and banging his way through your coworkers.

[secretmellowblog]

Inspector Javert is canonically a furry (not joking, not clickbait)

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables is canonically a furry and I’m not joking even a little. His fursona is extremely symbolically important, and you need to understand it to understand the book. I’m serious, let me explain. (You can also view this post in Video Essay format at this link.)

In the novel, Javert is always compared to a dog– but specifically, a dog who is the son of wolves. I’ll explain why in a minute. But the important thing is that Victor Hugo emphasizes this dog metaphor literally every time Javert is on page. I can’t overstate how much Hugo compares Javert to a dog at literally every single opportunity.  It’s the first thing we learn about him when he’s introduced;

he’s described as looking like a dog:

other characters compare him to a dog,

there are chapter-long extended metaphors comparing the way Javert hunts criminals to the way hunting dogs pursue their prey. 

His sideburns are described as whiskers, his hands are described as claws, he’s always barking, snarling, and growling. Any time Hugo sees an opportunity to compare Javert to a dog, or to have Javert act dog-like:  he takes it. Javert:

But like…why?

Let’s look at Javert’s first appearance in the novel. So when Victor Hugo first introduces Javert in Volume 1, he’s literally like “so this guy name was Javert and– wait, back up, I need to explain the concept of fursonas.”

Then Hugo interrupts Javert’s introduction with a multi-paragraph digression about how everyone has an animal that symbolizes their soul. And that animal is unique for each person. Sometimes people just are an anthropomorphic animal.

It is our conviction that if souls were visible to the eyes, we should be able to see distinctly that strange thing that each one individual of the human race corresponds to some one of the species of the animal creation; and we could easily recognize this truth, hardly perceived by the thinker, that from the oyster to the eagle, from the pig to the tiger, all animals exist in man, and that each one of them is in a man. (...)

And he goes on for a while, but if you know what a furry is, you already understand what he’s getting at. After explaining furries, Hugo goes on to explain Javert’s symbolically important fursona. Quote: 

“Now, if the reader will admit, for a moment, with us, that in every man there is one of the animal species of creation, it will be easy for us to say what there was in Police Officer Javert.

The peasants of Asturias are convinced that in every litter of wolves there is one dog, which is killed by the mother because, otherwise, as he grew up, he would devour the other little ones. Give to this dog-son of a wolf a human face, and the result will be Javert.”

So Javert is a dog who is the son of wolves. He is a wolf that has become domesticated– and is now a hunting dog, serving humans, devouring his wild wolf siblings. (That’s an edgy emo DeviantArt sparkledog backstory if I’ve ever heard one.)

But what does that symbolic backstory mean? It means that Javert is what the kids call “a class traitor.” 

In the next part of his introduction, Hugo elaborates that Javert was born inside of a jail, the son of an imprisoned mother and a galley slave father. He was born into the same traumatizing poverty, stigma, and intense criminalization as characters like Jean Valjean. In fact, Jean Valjean himself is often compared to a “wolf”-- because in the novel, wolves are often used to symbolize criminals, outcasts, and the people who society oppresses and treats like monsters.

 But unlike Jean Valjean, Javert turns his back on his ‘wolf siblings.” He turns his back on people from his class. He domesticates himself– by becoming a lowranking police officer, and enforcing the same system that imprisoned his family and destroyed his life.

 He rigorously defends a hierarchy that he is at the bottom of. He serves an authority that views him as subhuman, like a dog defending its masters. Society will never treat him as an equal, and Javert knows this–-  but society tolerates him because he is useful, because he hunts down the wolves. Javert would arrest his entire family to please authority, and he would do it with no other feeling except for the pleasure of obedience. He’s a dog, happy to devour his criminal wolf siblings.

And the reason Victor Hugo goes so overboard with the canine imagery is to emphasize how much the metaphor is the key to his entire character and how he interacts with other people from his own class.

And recognizing that metaphor really deepens your understanding of the novel. For example, it’s one of the many ways that Javert parallels Eponine– another character who describes herself as a dog from a family of wolves.

The dog imagery also has layers of meaning that change over time.  For example:  in the original book, Javert is not obsessed with Jean Valjean. The idea that “Javert makes it his life goal to catch Jean Valjean and spends all his time pursuing him out a personal revenge quest” is actually something that adaptations invented– largely as a way to avoid engaging with Victor Hugo’s systemic  criticisms of the police. [rant redacted.] In the original book, Javert follows up on Jean Valjean whenever he coincidentally happens to pick up his scent– and yes it’s described that way, as picking up his scent, because he’s a dog. Otherwise Jean Valjean isn’t really a person to him, he’s just an extremely difficult piece of prey. There's nuance, there are things that specifically stick out to him and frustrate him in a unique way, mainly the way that Jean Valjean is able to camouflage himself so well as a bourgeois. But overall-- no, he's not making a Sacred Promise to dedicate his life to finding him. Quote:

But after Jean Valjean saves his life, that changes. Javert suddenly develops deep intense wildly overcomplicated emotions for him, emotions that are described using the metaphors of dogs and wolves. The scene after they reunite, when Javert lets Jean Valjean go, is described like this:

 “He felt something between a wolf that has found its prey and a dog that has found its master again.” (...)  “To be the watch-dog, and to lick the intruder's hand!” (....) “He was tempted to fling himself upon Jean Valjean, seize him, and devour him– that is, to say, arrest him.”

{insert vore joke.] In a previous chapter he boasted about how his hands were claws:

In this chapter, he views his clawed hands with disgust and self-loathing.

But here’s the thing: it’s more than just a symbolic metaphor in the narration. The characters in the novel often seem to be aware that Javert is a dog. Like, Jean Valjean has that whole inner monologue about how Javert is quote a  “frightful hunting dog.” Javert describes his own hands as claws and thinks about himself in dog metaphors. When he’s being executed at the barricades, the rebels tie a rope around his neck to use as a leash. There's a bit where Javert's eyes are described as having "the feline phosphoresence of birds of the night," as if he literally has tapeta lucidum.  Javert also canonically wears a leather collar with a buckle— which I don’t think is supposed to be related to the dog thing, but it FEELS related. And I’m gonna be honest: I don’t know what to do with that. But Ao3 does. 

And in a very different way: so does Takahiro Arai, the creator of a recent Les Mis manga adaptation. Arai draws Javert’s soul as a massive frightening wolfdog, that emerges to symbolize his emotional state in critical parts of the story. And it shows how understanding the deeper meaning of this imagery leads to a more complete understanding of Javert’s character.

Thank you for reading! I feel like Javert being a furry is a Known Thing on Tumblr, but it’s gotten to the point where everybody takes it for granted. And so: a post was necessary, to archive the lore.

[But if you want even more furry Javert content, I recommend joining the @lesmisletters readalong! Les Mis has 365 chapters, and this email subscription sends you one chapter a day for a year. We also have a discord server linked in the pinned post on our tumblr blog! It’s never too late to join. ]

[hotvintagepoll]

Madhubala & Dilip Kumar (Mughal-e-Azam, Tarana, Sangdil, Mahal, Devdas)—Madhubala and Dilip Kumar had an IRL relationship for 8 years. Their irl love and chemistry made them one of the most beloved couples of 1950s cinema. Dilip was ready to marry her during the filming of Dhake ki Malmal in 1956 with the condition that she never saw her father again (he didn't approve of the relationship). She refused and they broke up soon after in 1957. The film Naya Daur starring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala was originally supposed to have Madhubala in it, her father refused to let her star in it despite her already having the contract, leading to a drawn out court case where Dilip testified against Madhubala. This spelled the end of their relationship and both of them married other people. Madhubala died in 1969 at only 36 years old. Despite their frosty breakup Dilip Kumar visited her one last time at her deathbed. Forever one of the most iconic couples of Indian cinema with a love story that still attracts a lot of speculation and is full of the romance and tragedy their films were known for.

Paul Newman & Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting)—My god, their chemistry. It's iconic. And very very sexy. They're kind of canonically in a throuple in the first one, so that's kind of like playing an actual romance. But also, they're the central relationships of both films and their inexplicable devotion to each other is a key driving force in them. Those blue eyed bastards. I love them.

These are the quarterfinals of a mini tournament. Each poll lasts for a week. Please reblog with propaganda for your favorite hot couple. To vote in all the polls, click here.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut]

Madhubala and Dilip Kumar:

Redford and Newman:

The following propanda was submitted by the anon who lives in my vents:

[drags self out of the vents reeking of stale gasoline] SO ABOUT THAT NEW MINI POLL.......may i suggest: ROBERT REDFORD and PAUL NEWMAN in BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID. MY REASONING:

thagt was some of tha gayest shit i've ever seen in my entire life and i'm only 23

but for realsies, that movie was literally a love story between butch n sundance. every single thing they did, they did together

THEY'RE EVEN PERFECT OPPOSITES IN PERSONALITY—butch is the optimistic guy who never shuts up and is less intimidating than he looks; sundance is the pessimistic brooder who looks harmless because he's pretty, but is the most dangerous guy you'll ever meet

AND THEN,,,,,, EVEN WHEN THEY (SPOILERS) HAD THAT THROUPLEY THING GOING ON WITH ETTA IN BOLIVIA, AND ETTA EVENTUALLY WANTED TO LEAVE, SUNDANCE STILL CHOSE TO STAY WITH BUTCH AND DIE RATHER THAN LIVE A SEMI-SAFE LIFE WITH HIS GIRLFRIEND!!!!!!!! LIKE!!!!!! GIRL WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!

AND THE FINAL SCENE I—i need to stare at a WALL—

plus the fact that paul newman and robert redford were actually besties irl meant that their chemistry was OFF THE CHARTS. even when i was A VERY STUPID LITTLE KID and i watched that movie for the first time, i was like ".......so um... are they, like, in love with each other and that lady?"

PLUS THE FACT THAT THE MOVIE WAS DIRECTED BY THE SAME GUY WHO WOULD LATER DIRECT THE STING AND THAT MOVIE WAS JUST AS, IF NOT MORE GAY, I—

O-|-< (← me lying dead on the ground)

THE TRUST, THE INTIMACY, THE BANTER, THE LOYALTY, THE INHERENT HOMOEROTICISM OF DYING SIDE BY SIDE—

they're gay, your honour.

ergo, dear mod, i humbly ask that you consider two of my blorbos for the mini poll bracket <3 if you need more information, literally just dm me or tag me, i'll be hangin' out in the vents 😎🤙🏼 as usual (unless my house explodes into bats)

[lover-of-mine]

I agree that they would never do permanent unrequited Buddie (basically Buck realizes he has feelings for Eddie and Eddie doesn't return them). Now I have seen a lot of people speculate that they would do a temporarily unrequited Buddie. Like, Buck thinks Eddie wouldn't return his feelings so he doesn't confess. Or, Buck confesses but Eddie is still in denial/confused about his sexuality, rejects him gently, and then struggles with it and realizes later that he does love him.

Out of the two scenarios, I would really hate the second one if it stretches more than one episode. Literally one is all I could handle 😂 Can you imagine how toxic and demoralizing it would be in fandom?? Think about how people misinterpret the very obvious queer-coded 'I'm straight' line in 8x06. I also think the GA would get whiplash if Eddie is like, 'Sorry, I'm straight!' then a few episodes later is like, 'Wait...' I just think it would be tricky to tell that kind of a storyline, and I'm not sure the show can do it well enough. I ordinarily would have more faith, but I think there are a lot of factors that could make it risky.

What are your thoughts? Would you accept a temporary situation where Buck realizes first and then either decides to keep it himself or tell him and potentially face short-lived rejection?

Imma be honest with you, either of those 2 possibilities would piss me the fuck OFF. None of the main pairings of the show were put as unrequited for any amount of time, honestly, there isn't a pairing that was put as unrequited, just as not suited for the long run, the closest you can get to "unrequited" is Buck looking upset when Taylor called him a friend, even Tommy dumping Buck the first time was resolved within the same episode. The idea that they would torture Buck like that is drama for the sake of drama. Buddie has consistently been written as fully in sync and to place them in a space where they seem impossible, temporarily or not, is stupid. "Oh bUt i wAnT PiNiNg" bestie, we can still get pining if Buck figures it out after Eddie comes out. We can still get pining if they figure it out in parallel. I'm not saying make them figure it out and immediately confess, I'm just saying the audience needs to at least be aware that Eddie is queer before Buck figures it out, or else it's just cruel. Painting them as impossible for the audience is cruel. It's why I keep saying give me a parallel thing, because you can have the characters thinking is unrequited, having the audience think that too would suck.

Also, Eddie's arc is about finding joy, I don't know where the fuck the idea that Eddie is drowning in internalized homophobia and would reject Buck comes from, but it doesn't come from canon. Also, buddie needs to be different from every other relationship Buck had before, if Eddie chases him away and then they eventually get together, you have Buck ending up with someone who rejected him once again, hello hamster wheel. I understand the apprehension about Eddie queer arc, but they got Buck out in one episode, they can build up to Eddie figuring it out. Will it be a 160k word fanfic arc? No, but they can just talk about how he didn't realize it. Eddie doesn't know he's queer and he's gonna be put in a position to figure that out and then we can go from there.

[sexiestpodcastcharacter]

Sexiest Podcast Character 2024 — Scripted Redemption Bracket — Round 2.5

Propaganda

Graham Casner (The White Vault):

White Vault spoilers:

[Coughing violently]

Graham Casner survived the Forrmynður, the thing that will stop at nothing to sacrifice you

He deserves this as a break and a reward

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

Yaretzi (Hello from the Hallowoods):

Give it up for the werewolf lady Yaretzi. She's in a streamy romance with a vampire and co-parents her skull-floating-in-a-giant-metal-suit son with her demon former blood enemy. Also she wears dangly gold jewelry and IS strong enough to princess carry you.

Additional propaganda below the cut:

Graham Casner (The White Vault):

Peter Joseph Lewis hottest voice of all time

#I know he's gonna lose but gotta go with Graham

#I am tma girlie and I dropped The White Vault at season something #but Graham is sexier!!! (In reference to Tim Stoker)

#Look from the allos I know. The people voting have NOT heard TWV

#WHAT are these results #I understand that we're pitting the canonically sexiest men from each series against each other. But casner!!!! #Graham 'going to protect all of you if it kills me' Casner #Graham 'brooding in the corner but it's brooding like a mother hen' Casner #Come to think of it interesting that they both sort of kind of died the same way?? #Anyway pokemon go to the polls to vote for casner

#im sorry but have you people HEARD graham casner's voice #i think that might be the sexiest voice of every podcast ive ever listened to and that is. many #like i love tma and i love tim but this is specifically for sexiness and graham casner wins by a MILE. the injustice ...

#VOTE GRAHAM PLEASE GOD #i love tim so much but hes nothing put against Graham #im so sorry TMA girlies but i need you to listen to more than TMA #YOU SIMPLY DO NOT KNOW

With zero hesitation, it’s Graham. #sad strong Russian dad vibes #he’s such a gem

#Graham Casner #his voice is hot and he fought a giant arctic squid (and won???)

#i'm begging y'all listen to more than just tma #tim's voice isn't even that sexy compared to graham #graham got shit done #sorry tim #but i know you'd fuck graham too #AND YOU WOULDN'T SURVIVE

#it's graham casner #you're all wrong and i won't apologise

#rip casner I still love you

#Graham casner did not survive the nobody gets out alive ritual twice for nothing

Yaretzi (Hello from the Hallowoods):

#star werewolf with found family is very sexy

#yarezti is literally canonically big and butch and hairy. how much hotter can a fictional woman get

#YARETZI MY BELOVED#SHES SHORT SHES STONGG SHES HAIRY SHE CAN TURN INTO A GIANT WOLF

#GIVE YARETZI WHAT SHE DESERVES #SHES GAY #SHES DOING THE WEREWOLF VAMPIRE LESBIAN ROMANCE #SHES IN A QPR RAISING A KID WITH THE DEVIL #SHES BLESSED BY A HOT FEMMEBUTCH INDESCRIBABLE BEING

[damnfandomproblems]

Fandom Problem #7559:

Look, I understand the "you don't always need to use non-human characters for stories based on real-world historical bigotry. You can just write about said historical bigotry," kind of writing advice. Write the stories you want to write about.

I understand it on paper. In execution, most of my problems stem from the fans.

Nothing is more annoying than seeing the fans look at a fictional story full of different fictional beings and the fans believe they know exactly what kinds of real world instances of discrimination the writers drew from, over said writers.

For example, MAYBE the writers DID NOT draw on the US' history of racism towards other races for the story they wrote. Maybe they drew inspiration from literally ANY OTHER nation on the planet.

Or MAYBE, the writers DID NOT base the slavery depicted in this story on US slavery. That's not the only historical instance of slavery.

And MAYBE this fantasy race is based on a racist depiction from history, or MAYBE they're NOT, and you're just wrong, but too stubborn to admit it or realize.

MAYBE this fantasy world took inspiration from real world human historical events of discrimination, OR you just don't know history OR its purely original with NO real world basis.

It gets even more annoying when these same fans ignore all the evidence they're wrong and still think they're right.

The Writers: We drew inspiration from what the Soviet Union did to Russia, Russian culture and its people as a base for most of the lives the protagonists lived and the kind of villains they're trying to defeat. In fact! Most of our staff grew up under the cruel times of communism or heard stories from our parents.

The fanbase: CLEARLY! THIS IS ALL MEANT TO BE BASED ON THE US GOVERNMENT OPPRESSING BLACK PEOPLE! AND YOU ARE A RACIST IF YOU DISAGREE!

Or only use one example. I would take SOOO many more discussions around this discourse seriously if audiences did not cry, "Why do so many fantasy stories rewrite whites oppressing blacks!?" And if fans could show they knew more history, did not ignore any evidence that said otherwise and/or did not say this about two fictional races who aren't even human or based on said example.

It gets worse when they yell at other fans and believe those fans who dare to disagree or try to give their own take are bigots themselves. And all the exclusion is justified in their eyes.

"Can you all stop saying (insert fictional race here) is based on black people? There's entire discussions that show they're not with truth to them."

"THAT'S RACIST! YOU'RE RACIST!"

Also, gotta love when they presume certain fans that disagree all suffer from internalized bigotry or something along those lines.

Yes. There are black fans who don't see orcs as being based on black people and just have fun. What's your excuse?

TLDR: Stop substituting what you believe happened in canon for what actually happened and stop using it as a chance to other bully fans.

[kanansdume]

The Jedi are taught to LET GO of their grief, to acknowledge it, to feel that pain and recognize the truth of their feelings, and then refuse to let it control them. What we see in most of these examples are Jedi who DO struggle with their grief, who struggle with letting go of their pain, and how they ultimately have to recognize the consequences of that and choose to let it go once they do. Anakin simply never does (he obviously does choose to turn on Palpatine and sacrifice himself in the very very end, but I'm not entirely convinced that this is a result of him letting go of his own pain or truly acknowledging his own grief given how quickly it happens).

With Obi-Wan, if we look at the Kenobi show (which is the best exploration of Obi-Wan's grief we've gotten in a canon piece of media), his grief DOES hurt people. When a Jedi shows up on Tatooine and is being chased by Inquisitors and asks for Obi-Wan's help, Obi-Wan refuses, and the man's body is hung in the middle of the town the next morning. It's possible that if Obi-Wan had tried to help, he would've simply been killed alongside him, but it's possible he could've saved them both, and the only reason Obi-Wan refuses is because his grief has convinced him that he CAN'T help. We see this twice more within that first episode when he refuses to stand up to his corrupt boss at the meat factory when he cuts someone's pay, and when he initially refuses to help save Leia. Obi-Wan has, in many ways, given up, even though I think he's trying to convince himself that he hasn't and that he's just putting all of his efforts towards Luke, but the truth is that his guilt and his grief have consumed him and become uncertainty and doubt and defeat. They cripple him, and another Jedi is dead as a result. The entire show is a story of him OVERCOMING that grief and choosing to let it go by embracing hope and faith instead.

The other obvious example of a Jedi's grief pulling them down along with everyone else around them is also in the Kenobi show: Reva Sevander. Reva's grief over the murder of her family causes her to turn on quite literally everybody, from the person responsible for killing them to fellow Inquisitors to innocent civilians to surviving Jedi. Her grief causes her to become the monster she seeks to destroy, and it's not until she truly sees that and starts to let go of that grief and pain can she say "no more" and walk a different path. She calls it justice but that's so clearly not what it is. It's not until she lets go of the need to avenge her family's death that she is able to honor those she's lost.

Ezra's turn to darkness in the middle of the series isn't really about grief so much as it is about his insecurity in his identity as a Jedi and his relationship with Kanan, but we DO see him manage his grief later on towards the end of the series, twice. The first time is after Kanan dies, and we see him in the world between worlds with Ahsoka, insisting that he can pull Kanan out of time and save him, without realizing that doing so would kill Hera, Sabine, and himself, and it would be disrespectful to the sacrifice that Kanan chose to make. If Ezra hadn't chosen to listen to Ahsoka, or if Ahsoka hadn't been there to calm him down, Ezra would've brought down several people with his guilt, including himself.

We see him manage his grief over his parents several times during the series, struggling more early on when he has to face the person he blames for their incarceration, but the lesson he learns when he forgives Tseebo allows him to better handle that grief when he learns later on that his parents recently died, making his peace with their choices and the consequences of them. And, of course, all of this leads to the final choice he has to make when Palpatine offers to let him bring his parents back to life somehow and Ezra recognizes this for the trap that it is, and makes the opposite choice to Anakin when given this same option by the same person. Ezra lets them go rather than undo everything they fought and died for.

Kanan's grief is also something that's more of an ongoing storyline than just what we see with Rex. I'd argue his feelings are a little more complicated than just being rightfully angry with the clones, given that the clones had no more choice in what was done to them than the Jedi did. His grief and pain and feelings of betrayal are all entirely valid, obviously, there's a reason he feels that way and struggles with trusting and working with Rex, but this is also something he has to learn to let go of in order to move forward. The first half of season two is fairly focused on Kanan's struggle with this relationship and how he slowly learns to separate the way he felt during Order 66 and its immediate aftermath with the truth of what actually happened and how he wants to move forward with Rex, now.

But this isn't the only time that his grief from Order 66 is an issue. The entirety of season 1 and most of his narrative across the whole show is about Kanan learning to let go of the pain of what happened to him. In season 1, it's shown through his doubts about being a teacher for Ezra and how he has to let those doubts go for Ezra's sake because Ezra is picking up on them and it's hurting him. Kanan, to some degree, seems to blame himself for having run rather than recognizing the sacrifice Depa made for him, and it's not until much later that we see him truly start to understand why she made the choice she did. I could probably keep going with examples for Kanan, how we see him manage his fears about Hera when she gets captured and how we see everyone ELSE react to their grief over Kanan himself in the immediate aftermath and even to their grief over Ezra's own sacrifice and the ways it shows growth for other characters, most notably Sabine (just to clarify, this is ONLY within Rebels, all of this nice thematic growth got tossed out in the window in the Ahsoka show, may it burn in the fiery pits of hell).

So I don't know that I'd say that the Jedi use their grief and pain in such a way that it never causes anyone any pain, I think we have multiple examples of how these characters' pain DOES cause harm to themselves and others when they struggle with it, but that we also see how true Jedi will ultimately choose to LET GO of their grief and pain so as to keep from harming others, while Anakin chooses to bottle his up and marinate in it because he often feels like it's all he has left and he doesn't WANT to let it go and would rather bring everybody else down with him just because he can, which causes him more pain and grief that he continues to bottle up and so the cycle goes on and on.

None of the Jedi characters are perfect, they all struggle with things and have their own flaws that make them interesting characters, but what makes them Jedi is the willingness to look at their struggles and flaws and actively choose to RISE ABOVE THEM, because that's what being a Jedi MEANS, while the Sith take the easier path of no resistance and it only ever brings them down.

The way Anakin expresses his grief vs. how Obi-Wan does is such an interesting difference. And I think the contrast revolves around how the Jedi handle grief.

They have both experienced very similar losses, yet Anakin's grief is the destructive kind that pulls everyone down with him, while Obi-Wans is destructive but it only pulls him down. And it's not completely pulling him down. When he needs to help others, he'll still do it. He'll act on his goodness, but just not on his negative emotions.

He is incredibly aware of how powerful of a Jedi he is. He's incredibly aware of the fact that he could potentially kill Anakin/Vader, and fall doing so. So he doesn't.

Even in his anger, and his sadness when Anakin betrayed him, he refused to kill him.

And not just Obi-Wan vs Anakin, but the remaining Jedi in general. Their grief and pain is incredibly selfless, and only when Vader becomes Anakin (and by extension, a Jedi) again does he do a selfless act in his grief and in his pain.

Ezra goes dark, but regrets it and spends the rest of his time making up for it. Kanan has the chance to kill Rex and the other clones because he (wrongfully) blames them for what happened during Order 66, but even at the crux of his anger he doesn't hurt them. Even when they point their guns at him (He evil kill Crosshair despite Crosshiar actively trying to kill him).

And Rex becomes incredibly close to him in a way he never was with Anakin.

Obi-wan still misses Cody even without knowing why he turned on him.

Anakin's grief is a Force that hurts almost everyone in his path, even those people he's supposed to protect. even his own children.

Obi-Wan's is a motivator to protect others. Kanan's is a motivator to protect others. And when they're too depressed to do anything, they never hurt people in their anger.

[little-pondhead]

I have a simple fascination and joy in the thought that, for the Ghost King AU, most of the time Danny is literally so normal compared to other ghosts.

Like, he’s a kid. He looks like a kid. Going by canon appearances, he is the most human looking ghost we see (aside from Ellie). Even Plasmius is more inhuman, which is where all the vampire jokes come from. Every single one of this enemies is off even in a human disguise. They’re not human, and people don’t expect them to be.

So aside from the implications of Danny looking like a child ghost, I wonder what other characters would think if they summon the Ghost King, expecting this huge monstrosity worse than anything they’ve ever seen, and getting a totally normal human-looking kid.

I’d be terrified. Because if horror movies have taught us anything, it’s that the most innocent and normal looking people are the worst monsters you’ve ever seen.

Like, what is he hiding??

[silusvesuius]

testing out drawing maormer 🪸🐚🪸 and a nelvas 🧣📜🩷 i'll ramble about maormer a bit in the tags

[lupins-hehim-pussy]

I wanna know ur Fontaine msq criticisms 👁️👁️👂I’m all ears

I'm not sure if you wanted me to talk about this secretly or publicly but! Here I go!

The TLDR: Fontaine MSQ aestheticised prison, poverty, child abuse, the justice system/court and didn't properly address any of it.

More:

Focalors/Furina has way too much of a sympathetic angle for a dictator who's lets people drown with her inaction.

Neuvillette feels Bad for sentencing some people to death/prison, but that's it. He's one of the most powerful people in Fontaine. If he felt like there are systemic injustices, I.E sending an abused Child to prison, he should be the first person to DO something about it, not just cry and be sad so the audience can be like aw, that's complex character writing isn't it? No it's not! And guilt doesn't absolve you!!!!!!! (These are stuff we deal with in OTCOJ read my fic now /j)

Meropide has children in it, both Sentenced there (Wriothesley) and BORN THERE (Lanoire), and this is just a quirk of the place. Not only that, Meropide accepts prisoners of all genders and crimes. There are abusers and abuse victims in one place. Do you know how bad that is? How much potential for crimes to happen in a place like that— oh wait, Meropide isn't under Fontaine's jurisdiction. If you are assaulted as an inmate it literally means nothing to the court.

Wriothesley had no qualifications when he took over. Depending on how long he lived on the streets, how old he was when he killed his parents, how old he was when he was first taken in by the orphanage, etc, the man might never have more than 4–5 years of formal education. Sigewinne probably had to teach him how to write reports. And do Meropide's spreadsheets. Edit because I forgot to elaborate on this one: This isn't a point brought up anywhere, which is bad, because when poverty and incarceration robs you of a proper education (and the rights to vote in many places too, too, by the way), it reduces your prospects for jobs, reduces many people's ability to get a home etc etc. Wriothesley was just, narratively, Given his position.

Meropide is an industrialized prison, and they portray this as a good thing. Prisoners are paid in coupons for their labour, and this is also portrayed as a good thing.

The One-Meal-A-Day reform was something Paimon gushed about being so great of a perk, that people might want to go to jail for food (could be interesting and reflective of systemic poverty if MHY had brains, but they don't, so I was just Pissed because essentially all Paimon wanted to say was "Prison isn't so bad, but still don't go to prison guys! Prison labour is really hard!"). By the way, in most real-world prisons they are obligated to feed you three meals a day. Because that's how much food a human needs. MHY went with one meal just so they can say "if you want to eat more, you have to work." And then the welfare meal is a goddamn gacha. So imagine you're a starving child who's too weak to work in the fucking robot assembly line, and you wander up for your first meal in 24 hours, only to luck in with a shit one. I'd kill myself.

They wrote Wriothesley, who's a victim of the system, into a guy who's say shit like "I'm the Duke I can do whatever I want" for a cool moment where he choke-slams an inmate (I know he was a bad guy. But also, in copaganda when cops are violent/disregarding protocols, they are always only portrayed to do that against bad guys, so what does our critical thinking tells us about this one?) They wrote Wriothesley, who was an inmate of a prison so bad, so notorious that it is the literal boogeyman of Fontaine, that has a legal (???) fighting pit, with an administrator who abuses his position to be unreasonable, to willingly stay in the place and become an Administrator who would choke-slam an inmate while saying a cool line about how he has the power to do whatever he wants. They wrote him, the guy who had to be fed on the streets by melusines, to think one-meal-a-day was a good enough reform (while he spends god-knows how much on his boat). This wasn't a victim-turns-into-abuser narrative either, they want all this to be seen as positive character growth.

And then, the final kicker is, they gloss over his entire abuse. You can only read about these shit in his profile, which most people don't because they don't Have Him or doesn't care to unlock it/read it online, and they jammed his entire backstory into a flaccid info-dump at the end of his character story quest. This man isn't Allowed to feel abused and neglected and show any reaction to it within the narrative of Fontaine itself, because if they actually Gave Weight to what happened to him, they'd have to confront THE FUCKING JUSTICE SYSTEM they had NO PLANS on criticising. I don't think they ever explicitly said the fucking Crime-Theatre nonsense was Bad either.

I could go on, but this is already so long. But yeah, I hope this gave you an idea.

[chipthekeeper]

There has never, in the history of characters, been a character that means more to me than Vel Sartha. I’ve been finding it difficult to express that feeling. That feeling of being so thankful and so appreciative that this fictional person has somehow made their way into your life and your heart. How is it even possible (much less healthy) to love someone that doesn’t exist so much? I still don’t know. I may never know. And I may go on a mile long rant now that doesn’t even begin to help you understand what she means to me. But all I can do is try.

If you follow me, you probably already know some of what I love to yell about Vel regularly:

She’s a world class yearner, she’s a sad little puppy, she’s a born rebel, she’s a spoiled rich girl. She’s a trusted leader, she’s a bitchy ex girlfriend, she’s a doting “aunt.” She’s pretty, pathetic, puppydog eyes (and oh my GOD her eyes!!). She cares. She loves. She fights. She makes mistakes and doesn’t trust herself as much as she should, but she trusts others and knows when to use their gifts over hers. She’s insecure but she’s commanding, she’s tough but understanding.

I hope you’ll forgive the weird venture into lyricism but it just came out that way. The point is, Vel is so interesting because she’s so contradictory, because she changes, because she puts on a different mask and becomes a different person but she's always the same at her core. She shapeshifts but she is also just fundamentally changed by what happens to her and her team. And that’s merely a piece of what I love about her.

Because it’s one thing just to get a Star Wars character who’s a woman who has so many sides and layers, but it’s an entirely other, more life-altering thing that that character is like me. That her first rebellion was against her own society, her own family, just because of who she is. I’m actually sobbing writing this because never in my life did I think I’d get to see something like this on screen in my favorite media. A real, canonical, undeniably, unapologetically queer woman with a whole personality AND a girlfriend. A character whose sexuality can’t be brushed away no matter how hard “they” might try to do so because IT IS ESSENTIAL TO WHO SHE IS. It is essential to her arc, her story, her motivations, to her interactions with other characters. And it’s not cheesy or preachy or boring or “toxic.” It’s real. It’s just real. It’s relatable. And it means the fucking world to me.

But even if you're not like me and that representation is cool to see but doesn't have the same effect on you, there is still plenty to appreciate about Vel Sartha. And actually, I really need to you appreciate her because -- and I know I'm biased but the numbers don't lie -- she is literally one of the most underrated characters on the show. With the third-highest amount of screen time behind only Cassian and Luthen, she should be up there among the most loved people in the series. And yet she's constantly overlooked and misunderstood. She never made a big speech and she didn't die interestingly or heroically. She didn't get to stab anyone or hit anyone with a brick. She just goes through some very real trauma and has a very real response to it, and people like to think that makes her weak and therefore not interesting as a rebel. Fortunately, though, it has become my life's duty to make everyone see the error in that logic.

When we first meet Vel, she is already so interesting as the leader of this little rebel band. She's the smallest one there but she has such a big presence. We find out right away that she wanted to lead, she wanted to be doing more and putting herself on the line. And she is good at it!! The men are resistant to the change she brings them but not because they don't respect her. She can command them with just a look, and she makes it known that even the big bad Imperial officer is not the boss, she is. Plus she's competent at the skills she needs -- she's a good shot and she looks right with the gun in her hands. You'd never know from watching that first arc that she started out as a spoiled rich girl.

Even when we see her weakness, though, it makes her more interesting. I love her insecurity as she watches Clem flirt with Cinta, I love the small looks of apprehension the day before the heist. I love how torn she is over how much to tell the team. And I especially love when the entire five-month-long operation nearly comes to a grinding halt as she looks down in fear from the top of the dam. But, to paraphrase my own fanfic, I don't think it's the height that causes Vel to hesitate, it's the weight. The weight of the biggest operation the rebellion has ever pulled, all on her shoulders. The weight of having to actually, finally make this decision to go or not, to send her team, her friends, into the unknown, to set off a chain of events that could turn the whole galaxy on its head. That’s SO much weight for such a small moment, and she almost crumbles under it. And even though she ultimately doesn't, I know it continues to weigh on her after the job because if she hadn't wasted all that time up there, maybe they'd have all made it out alive.

And this is where the switch happens for Vel. After all her men are dead and she's only barely made it out to see another day with Cinta, she's completely different. She's small again, scared and unsure. The confident, gritty leader she became on Aldhani died with the rest of them. She still puts on the masks when she has to and she's still a rebel, still dedicated to the cause, but she needs a break and some time to process her guilt. That's something I think people don't take into account enough with Vel. It was never that she was "cosplaying a rebel" or whatever people started to think once they learned who she is, it's that she feels responsible for losing almost her entire team.

But she has Cinta to remind her that there's not really time to take a break, and, because they are complementary halves of each other, she also reminds Cinta later that it is important to rest. I don't need to get into another ridiculously long rant about them as a couple (you can see my presentation for more if you need it), but suffice to say....this is a huge part of her character. Her love and devotion to Cinta might appear as a weakness to some, but to me it's an absolutely essential element of Star Wars: saving what you love, not fighting what you hate. Vel goes through most of the second half of the season timid and anxious, but when she thinks Cinta's life could be in danger, she literally sprints into the fire to try to find her, to save her. What could be braver than that?

I truly could go on and on for days about her, as I have for the past 800-plus days already (I took fully 10 pages of notes to prepare for this and we have BARELY scratched the surface here), but I'm sure I've lost most people already. The last thing I need to talk about though is that I owe Faye Marsay my life. She did such an amazing job with Vel, playing all the different sides of her so perfectly and conveying so many emotions and thoughts with just her face or her eyes. And beyond that, it's incredibly moving to see an actually queer actor playing a queer character in a franchise this big, and to see her be so proud of that work of "normalizing the normal" is equally thrilling. I would kill to have her play Vel for decades, selfishly, but I'll continue to be so ridiculously happy with every single moment of them both that I do get.

In conclusion (for now), please please please appreciate this tiny but monumental character, because my mental health depends on it but also because she absolutely deserves it.

"Everyone has their own rebellion," Vel tells us, and mine is destined to be against everyone who dares to underrate her.

Character Appreciation Friday - Vel Sartha

Name: Vel Sartha Played by: Faye Marsay Appearances: Aldhani, The Axe Forgets, The Eye, Announcement, Narkina 5, Nobody's Listening!, Daughter of Ferrix, Rix Road

Happy Friday and happy VELENTINE'S DAY, gang!!! Look I'm not gonna act like this is a normal one because that would be very dishonest of me. This is the most important day of the year for me, and I'd really really really love if everyone would help out with spreading appreciation and love for my number one sad girl rebel.

Please let me know what you appreciate about dear Vel in a reblog, comment, or ask!

Next week: Brasso

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[kaidanalenkosprmanager]

THE BEST OF SHENKO 1/?

The end of the world has a way of reminding you of all the things you forgot to say do. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (2021)

[doyoueverstopandthink]

what does it say about me if i cry about frankenstein’s creature every time i get even slightly tipsy

[deus-ex-mona]

such is the tale of a ✨chronically online hypocrite✨

[villainsidestep]

ah., evil thoughts hour