#literally one of the most based takes on this entire blog

[real-raincode-takes]

If u guys are gonna insist on yakou f/athero then PLEASE give him a dad bod make him fat please please please give him a fucking beer belly p

.

[onesnoopyaday]

I AM AT MY LIMIT

Snoopy #90

30/12/2024

description under the cut

[description: a cartoon-style drawing of Snoopy's head. Snoopy is a white dog with black ears. His eyes are shut and his mouth is a horizontal line. There are two large blue teardrops, one under each eye. The text "I am at my limit" is handwritten across the top of the image.]

[glowettee]

do you have any posts abt decentering your life from men? i think i rely on male validation wayyyyyy too much lol. love your content btw ✨

✧˖° how to stop centering your life around men (because you have way better things to do)

(a guide to decentering men, breaking free from male validation & making yourself the main character for real this time)

so you’ve noticed it... the way your mood shifts depending on whether or not he texts you back, the way your confidence is high when you’re getting attention and low when you’re not. maybe you catch yourself subtly performing when guys are around, or maybe you find yourself molding into the kind of girl you think they’d want.

and honestly? same. we’ve all been there. society trains us to believe that being wanted is the ultimate achievement, that our worth is measured by how desirable we are to men. but that’s a lie. your life was never meant to revolve around them. you were always meant to be the sun, the main event, the entire storyline.

i really hope this post can help you understand you were never meant to revolve around them. love you - mindy

✧˖° step one: start seeing them for what they actually are

listen, it’s time to be so for real with yourself. ask: do I even like this man, or do I just like the attention? do I actually think he’s interesting, or do I just want him to think I’m interesting? do I want him, or do I just want to be chosen?

because half the time? the men we obsess over are painfully mediocre. and yet we assign them so much power. letting them dictate how we feel about ourselves, letting their validation (or lack of it) determine our worth.

take a step back. stop romanticizing them. start seeing them as human beings. flawed, regular, not the prize. the real prize? is you.

✧˖° step two: detox from male validation (yes, a real detox)

you don’t realize how much male validation fuels your self-worth until you cut it off. so let’s go cut. it. off.

for the next month, no:

dressing for male attention (dress for you instead).

posting just to see if he will like it.

checking who watched your stories.

replaying conversations to see if you sounded cool enough.

instead, every time you feel the urge to seek male validation, replace it with self-validation.

take pictures just for yourself.

romanticize your own opinion of you.

remind yourself that your value doesn’t shift based on their perception of you.

✧˖° step three: become the most interesting person you know

a lot of us center men in our lives because we have nothing else filling that space. so fill it. with things that actually excite you.

start a niche hobby that makes you feel alive (pottery, screenwriting, blogging (girlblogging to be exact), literally anything).

go to cafes alone, sit in the prettiest spot, and enjoy your own company.

build your dream life piece by piece, your wardrobe, your routines, your vibe.

when you’re truly obsessed with your own life, the need for male validation just… disappears. because suddenly, you’re so content, so full, that their attention feels like an afterthought.

✧˖° step four: unfollow the pick-me content (yes, even the guilty pleasure stuff)

what you consume matters. if your feed is filled with “how to make him obsessed with you” content, if you’re constantly absorbing media that glorifies male attention, you’re subconsciously reinforcing the idea that men = purpose.

so let’s cleanse. unfollow the pick-me content. mute the male gaze influencers. instead:

fill your feed with confident, self-sufficient women.

read books by powerful women who own their narrative.

watch movies where the female lead’s story isn’t about a man.

you are not the supporting character in a man’s story. start consuming content that reminds you of that. you are a goddess, an angel, the main character of YOUR story! please remember that <3

✧˖° step five: enforce the highest standards (with zero guilt)

decentering men doesn’t mean avoiding relationships, it just means refusing to settle. it means knowing that you don’t need male validation to be worthy. and that means setting real standards:

if he’s inconsistent? he’s gone.

if he makes you question your worth? he’s out.

if he needs you to shrink yourself to fit into his life? bye.

your love life should enhance your life, not become your life. you don’t need to be chosen. you need to be cherished. there’s a difference.

✧˖° mindy’s personal tips ✧˖°

some little things that helped me fully break free from male validation: ➝ talk to yourself like you’re the love of your life - hype yourself up in the mirror, take yourself on cute dates, write love letters to you.➝ wear perfume, do your hair, and put effort into your looks even when you’re alone. let your beauty be for you, not for male approval. ➝ when a guy doesn’t text back, shift your energy immediately. instead of spiraling, get up, put on music, do something fun. do not make him your focus.

✧˖° homework: shift your energy back to you

for the next week, every time you catch yourself seeking male validation, pause. redirect that energy inward. do something for yourself instead. and watch how your entire aura changes.

because when you stop chasing their approval? you start living for real.

love you <333 so sorry this reply was sooo late

xoxo mindy

[life-is-more-than-just-a-game]

○ Thanos in a relationship ○

A/N: As I said, I became a fucking Simp for Thanos aka. Choi Su-Bong, so le me HAS TO write some sweet Thanos being in a relationship with you Headcanons! UwU

This will only be an exception, after all, this is actually a blog for Alice in Borderland, but … let's see. 😋

Characters: Thanos aka. Choi Su-Bong aka. #230

POV: gn!neutral

Warnings: Contains topics from Squid Game season 2- if you haven't watched yet, this writing can contain slight spoilers!

Bro is a flirty little brat, but boy, when it comes to you, he has everything he needed in life.

For him you are the most beautiful human he has ever met in his entire life- and he met lots of people based on who and what he is.

Unlike other flirting attempts, for example with Kang Mi-na or Se-mi, he was different when he was trying his luck with you.

He didn't make up some rap to impress you.

He didn't even just chat you up from behind or from the side, how he is it doing most of the time with other players.

Instead, he held back a little, but can't deny that he's been watching you very closely for a while.

He made it his mission to impress you, but instead you did it faster with him, leaving him downright speechless.

In other words: he fell fast but hard for you although you haven't done anything special.

But enough of the prehistory, let's get down to the essentials. 😋

Based on the fact that you're more than just a flirt for him, a relationship with Thanos would probably be something really nice.

I see him as someone who would be very protective over you. So, whenever you have to play another game, he will stand by your side, making ever and ever again sure you are with him and not with someone else.

It's okay if he puts his trust in other people, but you don't have to put your trust in anyone else but him, because who knows if they wouldn't want to betray you.

Thanos has been through a lot in his past life. He knows that he has done many things that are unforgivable and that many people condemn him for them. All the more reason for him to appreciate the fact that you are still giving him a chance to prove himself.

He appreciates YOU and your time you take for him.

It's hard to believe, but he is grateful that you exist and grateful for your mere presence.

From the outside, he may always seem like a strong and tough guy who loves to bully and manipulate other people.

The truth is, he just wants to find someone who will stay with him and never let him go.

He may seem scary to some, but deep down he is just as vulnerable as anyone else.

He hates the fact that he shows himself to be so “weak”, especially towards you, and that he makes himself vulnerable to you - and to outsiders.

Thanos just so afraid. Afraid of losing his life, but most afraid of losing something he loves the most once again- he is afraid of losing you. 😭

Please, give him as much hugs as possible.

Hug him before a game starts.

Hug him while you guys are playing when it's possible.

And for gods sake, hug him RIGHT AFTER a game!

This is when he is at his most sensitive and more affectionate than EVER!

In the common room, he would retreat with you to a corner where you two can just be alone for at least five minutes.

Sit between his legs on the floor, so he can hug you as tight as possible from behind, hiding his face in your neck or your shoulder.

Sit next to him, so he can put one arm around your shoulders while he looks for your hand with the other to just hold it silently.

Please, gift him a smile and tell him that everything will be okay and that you feel fine after the game and safe with him in your presence.

And don't let anyone come to you during this time, he will literally frighten them away if he has to. 💀

With the right person by his side, Thanos is a real softy.

He loves you.

More than himself and that's nearly impossible ...

Hold him.

Smile at him.

Talk with him.

Ruin his hair if you feel like it.

And most important:

Please NEVER deny any kisses from him, that would break him when it's the perfect bad time ...

He's just a boy looking for someone who loves him with all his mistakes and flaws like he will love the perfect one with all their good and bad sides ...

[gb-patch]

Saw an ask about an apparent problem of people drawing Qiu whiter than he is and whitewashing. With that in mind, I think you should hold the same standard for Tamarack for artists that draw her darker than she is to outright black. Tumblr and Twitter in general have an obsession with coloring traditionally white/pale characters the complete opposite race or adding details like kinky/coiled hair and see no issue with it but raise hell the moment a poc is one hue lighter. It erases their identity just as much as everyone says whitewashing does but everyone constantly falls back on the "only whites can be racist so changing their identity in art is okay!!" pipeline

Tamarack comes from a German family and is white, so please take the same level of importance when artists "blackwash" her or any other character in your series.

You know generally, I don’t like to use this blog to as a place to act like I’m the best, most correct person in the world and respond to things where I’m simply telling an anonymous person they’re wrong. I’m just someone who has people following me because they like the stories this company makes.

However, this is something that people should know. If our POC players draw our characters having a darker skin tone than they do in-game and/or give them a different hair texture, that’s alright. I’ve fallen off on reblogging stuff on Tumblr but it’d still be liked or reposted on Twitter.

Whitewashing means far more than the literal act of a single individual making someone look white in a fanart. If a trans player wanted to headcanon a cis character was trans, that’s one thing. If a cis person decided to take the only trans character for miles and insist they are, in fact, cis, well that’s another matter entirely. Your experience with your race and your experience based on sexuality or gender aren’t the same things, it’s not a one-to-one comparison at all. But can people who don’t get it at least start to see how there can be a difference in impact here?

The people who are oppressed in this country aren’t hurting you by trying to enjoy the media that most of the time intentionally excludes them. POC weren’t the ones dehumanizing white people in horrific ways. The overwhelming majority of stories and representations of heritages out there have been and still are white people’s already. Anyone reading this who was thinking along the lines of what’s in this ask need to get comfortable understanding and accepting that. And if you don’t, maybe you should find another game because I’m not going to “protect white identities” from being drawn as people of color. In fact, I think it’s actually really nice if our characters are fun and comforting to people of color so much so that they’d like to imagine those characters being included in their own culture. I think it’s strange that someone would be angry about it.

[masonmtxo]

Miles High

Mason Mount x OC

Summary: Needy Mason on a plane

Words: 1.7k

Note: 18+! Based off this request from @mountttmase blog. Thank you Loz for letting me steal and being the best ever 🏌🏻 this is all for you 🩷

•••

Your boyfriend had a knack for getting turned on in the most inappropriate situations. He had been needy since he had woken up, waking you with kisses before fucking himself into you, sleepily thrusting from behind until you both reached your high, Mason falling back to sleep almost instantly.

You pulled yourself from his grasp after half an hour of listening to his quiet snores, unable to get back to sleep yourself and the urge to clean up the mess between your legs and have a shower taking over. You had only been under the warm water for five minutes when Mason stumbled in, rubbing his eyes and yawning before going for a wee, grumbling a sleepy “morning” as he paused to eye up your naked body. His lack of boundaries made you roll your eyes, even more so when you heard the shower door open and felt his naked body press into yours. Within minutes he had your back against the wall, one leg hooked around his waist, the other attempting to balance yourself as he pounded himself into you for the second time that morning.

You should’ve known it would get a bit messy at some point. Mason had days where he would be relentlessly needy for you, and today was very clearly one of them. You didn’t anticipate his neediness would continue as you and his family boarded a private plane to Greece, something you had tried to convince Mason not to do, but you couldn’t help but enjoy the luxury as you were handed a glass of champagne as you sat down. It started off okay, the pair of you sat together at the back, partially hidden away from his family who had congregated at the front of the plane to play a game on uno. You had politely declined their invite to play, desperate for a nap which Mason had opted to join you for. But within a quarter of an hour you noticed something was up, he was fidgety, more so than usual, and it was driving you crazy when he knocked into your legs every few seconds as you reclined back in you chair with your eyes shut.

“Mason,” you snapped, eyes pinging open to glare at him when you couldn’t tolerate another moment of him flinging himself around, “will you sit still!”

Instantly you recognised the look in his eyes, stomach turning as you took in his flushed cheeks and dark eyes. When he spoke, his voice was uneven, “I can’t help it,” he glanced down to his lap as he whispered, “I’m so fucking horny today, my dick is rock solid and it’s hurting so bad.”

“Are you serious?” You tried to keep your volume down but you couldn’t help your exasperation, “we literally had sex twice this morning.”

“I know,” he whined, “I can’t control it.”

You were quite literally lost for words, he continued to wiggle around in his chair, before reaching for your hand and pulling it into his lap, eyes searching yours.

“If you think I’m wanking you off on a plane with your entire family on board youre sorely mistaken Mason,” your words were sharp, and your movements were even sharper as you yanked your hand from his grip.

“Baby please,” he pleaded, “it’s hurting.”

“Go to the toilet and sort yourself out then,” you shrugged, once again shutting your eyes and attempting to ignore him as he shuffled around.

After another ten minutes he let out a loud huff as you felt him get up from his seat and dart into the bathroom, your eyes slowly opening as you came to the realisation he had actually gone to the toilet to get off. The thought made you squirm slightly, but you refused to let your thoughts wander any further, particularly when Debbie made her way over after a few minutes of Mason being gone.

“Is Mase okay?” She asked gently, “I saw him run into the bathroom and he looked quite flushed?”

You tried to keep your expression impassive as you answered, desperate to make sure your facial expression didnt give him away, “he said he was feeling a bit sick, I think he got himself a bit anxious about flying,” you falsely simpered in an attempt to cover your boyfriend’s arse, literally.

“Oh my baby, I’ll go check on him,” Debbie cooed.

“Its alright Deb, I’ll go,” you reached up to carefully touch her arm, “I was about to go and find him anyway,” you lied through your teeth, panic shooting up your spine as she stepped toward the hallway to the bathroom.

“Thank you my love,” she reached for your face, cupping your cheek fondly, “I’m sure he would rather it was you than me.”

You didn’t respond, simply nodding and smiling at your mother in law sweetly. You stood to your feet and made your way into the walkway, glancing behind you to see Debbie heading back to the others at the front of the plane.

Once she was back in her seat, you knocked carefully on the door, “Mase, it’s me, open up.”

You heard a shuffle and a click, giving the door a push you quickly slipped in the narrow opening. The bathroom was exactly that, a bathroom, with a shower cubicle and much fancier amenities than you were used to on flights.

After admiring the room briefly, your eyes fell on the sorry state that was your boyfriend who was back up against the counter. He was beyond dishevelled, cheeks flaming, sweat beading on his forehead as his chest seemed to be pulsing under his t-shirt as his heart hammered. But what got your pulse racing the most was the sight of his hand, knuckles white, wrapped around his angry cock that he had carelessly pulled from the waistband of his joggers, fist still slowly pumping himself once he realised it was you at the door.

“Shit Mase,” you groaned, “I thought you’d be done. Your mum nearly came looking for you!”

“Fuck,” he whimpered, “need you baby, please.” His eyes were watering, his hand gradually picking up the pace as he pumped his length in his vice like grip, “help me.”

His breathy whines as he touched himself, staring into your eyes in a desperate attempt to silently plead with you, had you folding. Quickly stepping towards him and pulling him into the shower cubicle, shutting the door behind in hopes it may help drown out his noises. The last thing you needed was to be caught.

“What do you need baby?” You soothed, deciding now was not the time to get annoyed, the man was clearly desperate and uncomfortable, too far gone to not have some form of release. He let go of himself, his dick hitting his stomach, twitching at even the slight contact with his own skin. The view made you shiver, although determined to not get yourself in a state of no return, you couldn’t help but get turned on as you admired the familiar sight of his length.

He took your hand in his, wrapping your hand firmly around his cock, in place of his own. Instinctively you thumbed over the slit, spreading the masses of precum that were already leaking from his tip, gently playing with the head as you admired the why his eyelids dropped in pleasure, his cheeks somehow becoming impossibly more flushed.

“Baby, please,” his voice cracked, hips snapping back to encourage you to keeo going, almost on the verge of tears. You knew he wouldn’t last long in this state, a minute or two max now he was in your warm, familiar hand.

You shushed him as his whimpers become louder, letting him burrow his head into the crook of your neck to muffle the sounds. Your hand found a steady pace, one you knew was guaranteed to get him to his high as quickly as possible, your other hand slipping into his boxers to gently fondle his balls. The sounds coming from him were relentless, small cries and whines falling from his mouth uncontrollably as his hips began to snap back and forth, essentially humping himself into your fist. You were silently pleading that the shower cubicle and bathroom door were doing enough to hide the slick sounds of the continous thump of your hand on his cock.

“Shit, fuck, fuck…” his groans began to get lower, a clear indication he was moments away from release, “baby, I’m gonna…”

Your eyes widened, brain working overtime as you considered the mess if he was to release over your hand and potentially both your clothing considering how closely you were pressed together. In a flash, you dropped to your knees, yanking his joggers and boxers down below his bum as you took his cock into your mouth, sucking his tip just the way he liked as your hand continued to stroke him.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” he moaned, shooting ropes of cum down your throat as he finally reached his peak, the feeling of your warm mouth wrapped around him sending him over the edge.

Swallowing his load, you stood to your feet, blushing when you felt Mason’s thumb wipe under your lip at a dribble you obviously missed, “fucking hell,” he murmured, his expression finally relaxed as he slowly came around from his sex induced haze.

“I can’t believe I just let you cum in my mouth on a plane with your entire family thirty foot away,” your eyes widened in realisation, shocked at how quickly you bended to his desires when he looked so fucked out and desperate. You couldn’t help yourself, there was something about seeing him a whimpering mess, desperate for your touch that had you going into overdrive.

His lips caught yours in a searing kiss, both of you giggling at the absurdity of the situation, “you’ll be the death of me one day.”

“Likewise,” you shot back, pecking his lips again for good measure as you pulled his trousers back over his slim hips.

He opened his mouth to speak when the voice of his mother outside the door broke you from your bubble, “Mason? Y/N? Is everything okay in there?”

•••

Thank you for reading! Please leave feedback as its what encourages us all the write 🩷

[grison-in-space]

It's never too late. We are beginning to think about how and why we exploit animals, and how it is not morally consistent with our values; several prominent anarchists and communist bloggers on Tumblr have admitted that veganism is ethically and financially superior on every level, though they don't participate in it, which is sad. All it takes is a little extra work. The collapse of capitalism will also bring the collapse of the animal industry, or vice versa. The meat plants subjugate both humans and animals, causing persistent trauma- in fact, it has the highest rate of trauma among every category of labor. If you support abolition, you should support all abolition: children, psych people, and animals. On a site like Tumblr, we have an opportunity to promote the breakdown of all positions of power. We are all equal.

Honey, you have the wrong fucking blog to the extent that I can only assume you are spamming this message to everyone you think might listen. I have gone on the record several times to say:

I am a pragmatic empiricist. I care much less about ideological consistency than I do about observed outcomes. There are traps there, too—sometimes people get too much into the weeds about observing proxies for desired goals—but essentially I do think that careful observation of the world around me is much more valuable than starting with a consistent ideology and assuming that good intentions will yield good outcomes.

I am motivated by animal welfare. For me, part of that involves meeting animals on their own level, using their own species-specific signals to assess stress and comfort, and understanding animals within their own social context. Therefore,

I am opposed to animal rights narratives that encourage people to project their own imagined emotional responses onto animals without assessing the animals' actual signals in context. Additionally,

I believe as a behavioral ecologist that, for good and for ill, humans are essentially animals participating in a broader ecosystem that includes us. I do not think humans are special or exist outside that broader web, and I think that ecological intervention works most effectively when we see ourselves as part of nature rather than as some kind of twisted unnatural personification of original sin. Conflict and death are part of life. You won't make a better world by pretending otherwise.

I am a disabled person ("psych people?!"), and more specifically an autistic and neurodivergent person. I literally spelled out for you last night that I have difficulties eating and that imposing more barriers to that ("a little extra work") is a significant burden for me. Your easy dismissal of this point is, in context, amazingly and blithely ableist. Wow.

"psych people?!" I am happy to critique coercive psychiatry and medicine more generally, but that one's new on me. If you're not brave enough to use the language of mad/crip pride, are you entirely sure you understand the points of the dialogue? Your demonstrated grasp of disability justice is already extremely poor; this ain't helping.

I am not anti-state (i.e. I am not an anarchist; I am a democratic socialist) and I routinely criticize daydreams about burning entire systems to the ground and replacing them with a vague new system. Those criticisms are usually based in historical analysis of attempts to do exactly that, which have typically resulted in a lot of bloodshed, generally from the most vulnerable people in society. They also often yield a new and not necessarily more egalitarian power structure that continues to oppress people, sometimes more aggressively than the institution preceding it.

For the same reason, I am not a communist. I think communism offers too many opportunities for unscrupulous people to seize power, creating more inequality under the banner of equality itself. Again, this position comes from reading the history of communist states from as many perspectives as I can get my mitts on.

I frequently critique assumptions that capitalism is the only root of social problems. This does not mean that I am pro-capitalism. It means that I think you have to think deeply about problems, especially when it makes you uncomfortable, to understand how to solve them. Many problems that capitalism exacerbates are actually rooted in problems about impulse control (as with Ideas Jerry the other day), basic human social dynamics, emotional regulation, complex traumas, and many other things. You must understand how these problems arise before you can construct a structure that guards against them effectively.

Fundamentally, I think you are probably optimistically spamming this message to anyone that you think will listen. I invite you to consider how effective that is as a tactic to advance your politics: when you pick the wrong person, at best you leave the impression that people serving your ideology are essentially self centered and bad at listening. At worst, you wind up pissing people off enough to sit down and lay out exactly how many points they disagree with you on. Coalitions of solidarity are based on listening carefully to one another and finding the places we agree on; shit like that is antithetical to building them because it sends a very effective signal that you are either very, very bad at listening or uninterested in doing so.

Either way, get out of my house.

[helloaugustmoon]

·˚ ◌༘͙[nsfw alphabet] ! ˊ

this is about as steamy as I’m gonna get outside of blogging other people’s works w the most unhinged commentary imaginable so 18+ only below the cut! ♡

A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex)

his middle name isn’t Joseph actually that’s a coverup and he’s not the King of Pop either that’s a secondary coverup bc his full name and title is Michael Aftercare Jackson, the King of Aftercare. even when he’s less experienced, taking care of you comes like you do with him breathing does to him; he’ll run you a bubble bath, light candles, form a pathway of red rote petals TO the bath, then carry you to lie you down in the hot water, and he’ll either join you or sit right beside the tub with your hand in his, his thumb caressing your knuckles. anything that’s even slightly too sore for you to reach to wash on your own, he’s doing for you with the most love in the world. you’ll have a hard time convincing this man to let you lift a finger around him in general, but after he’s rocked with you? oh. oh no. sit your pretty self down.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

as we all know, Michael is very deeply insecure, so probably won’t ever verbally admit this, but if he had to aka you denied him kisses until he answered, he’d confess he likes his eyes most, and it’s 100% because of the way you lose yourself in them.

now, getting him to admit his favourite body part of yours is entirely impossible for the polar opposite reason. someone could hold this man at gunpoint and he wouldn’t budge on this.

“Say it! Say your favourite part of her body right now, or we’ll shoot!”

“If you think I’ll objectify my girl before letting someone shoot me, you’re not only wrong, you’re stupid. Hit me with your best shot.”

this mf can and will write a love song dedicated to your pinky finger, and you want to ask him to CHOOSE?? unfathomable. literally unthinkable. if you ask him, he’ll just laugh and list every part of you, but if you insist on it, he’ll just pacing. literally doing laps around Neverland. bc he cannot answer you and now you’ve got him stressed bc on the one hand he never wants to disappoint you by not answering a question you give him but you’re an actual angel. for the love of this poor man’s sanity, do not ask him this question.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically)

prefers it in you and prefers the lack of mess, too. does enjoy seeing you kneeling and waiting for it, though.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

this coming from the man who tried to say his dancing wasn’t dirty? please. he’d fight tooth and nail to suggest that you sucking his fingers was a solely innocent activity. unbelievable.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?)

heavily era dependent, so based on that: virgin pre-otw era, and if you don’t tie him down in good time he’ll probably get curious w some high end ladies of the night, but it doesn’t take him long to realise he values an emotional connection when it comes to intimacy, so will have only had a handful of serious relationships. however, this man does learn quick.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying)

say it with me now: missionary! being able to look in your eyes, caress your face with his fingertips, kiss you, feel all of you against him, your legs around his waist omg the man categorically cannot and will not get enough.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.)

definitely can start off either super goofy or super romantic, but the longer you go for, the more romantic the moment becomes. there’ll be giggles and goofs in the midst of it all, but for the most part, he’s very sentimental about it. considers you and your body to be sacred and will worship at your altar.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.)

era dependent, actually. otw and thriller he’s got a lil trimmed somethin somethin, bad and dangerous he tried out shaving, then invincible he decides he can’t be bothered with the upkeep of shaving it but he keeps it trimmed and neat.

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect)

same as G, really; intimacy is the priority.

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon)

super shy and from an extremely religious household?? pls. otw era Michael would probably actually rather ask a girl out (and that’d take some convincing from his brothers). depending on when you meet him, you might consider actively encouraging him and he may or may not be super into the idea of you ‘teaching’ him, and then only ever being able to think of you when he does, but even that would be rare. definitely prefers you.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks)

bro omg. where do we start.

he is the sweetest, sweetest lover, so everything he does is purely loving. there are few things he wont try for you, but in terms of what kinks he already has/discovers he’s super into with you: breeding, spanking, choking (but not hard, mainly just holding you there), having you ride his thigh; anything that involves dominating you will have him intrigued.

L = Location (favorite places to do the do)

mf was the most famous man on the planet and he’d rather never speak or sing again than share you intimately, in any capacity, so the location will be private and with top security. that said, he can make any location private and secure, you just say the word.

oh, a super fancy restuarant?

“No problem, baby. Security? Clear it. Yeah, kick everybody out and pay for the inconvenience.”

oh, a public movie theatre?

“Already rented the whole place, sweet thing. Every individual viewing room, in case you couldn’t decide.”

he is ready to go at a moment’s notice.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going)

he is ready to go at a moment’s notice x2

literally anything you do like if you smile at him he’s both the most in love he’s ever been and bricked are you surprised. but, in particular, seeing you all dolled up, especially just for him rather than some kind of official vent will have him dropping to his knees to propose and also remind you that the M in Michael stands for munch.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

slap you. spanking is a little different bc he can understand the dominance of that and in the heat of the moment, shocking you with a spank appeals to him, he loves the sounds you make, but with the abuse he suffered, he can never bring himself to slap you, your face specifically. if he ever held your jaw slightly too hard and left a mark, he’d feel physically sick until it healed. something about seeing your face with marks just absolutely kills him inside.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.)

this one is a bit of a wild card but I’d put good money on Michael being a hardcore munch who is actually way more shy/hesitant to receive that kind of intimacy than give it; even in otw era, he’d happily go down on you for hours on end while he remains literally fully clothed. he might be a bit nervous to begin with, but he gets the hang of things pretty quick - your body is his most favourite instrument, and he’ll master it, you can count on that.

that said, when he’s confident enough to receive, there is something about seeing you on your knees for him that gets him every time. but, overall, he prefers anything that makes you feel good.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.)

ever the dancer, he can match whatever pace you or the mood calls for, but he prefers a slow, sensual and deeply emotional hour of lovemaking.

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.)

understands their functionality and convenience - stress relief, post-show bliss, spur of the moment, etc - and enjoys them for what they are, but much prefers to take his time with you.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.)

will gladly try almost anything for you with very few restrictions, but won’t do anything that risks you being exposed to anyone else’s eyes; the media has been hounding him his entire life, your body is the one thing he wants to keep just for himself.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?)

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?)

remembering the more traditional period that Michael comes from, toys would be a little out there for him, and if you brought them up pre-Bad era he’d be like a deer in headlights who couldn’t make eye contact with you for several hours. but, when he sees what they can do upon using them on you…well, he’s no stranger to fine tuning an instrument.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

is this even a question. this man will deliberately have you side stage at his concerts just to tease you for the ENTIRE show. all those girls screaming for him? ripping his shirt mid-song? and his definitely-not-dirty dancing? PLEASE. he literally lives to tease you for his whole set, just so that he can stroll up to you when the show’s over, all sweaty and panting for breath with a shit eating grin, only to wrap his arms around your waist and act deliberately oblivious.

“Oh, hey baby! Enjoy the show?”

“You know what you did. We need to get to your dressing room, like, an hour ago.”

“An hour ago? My girl, I’d just started the show, I couldn’t possibly-“

and you cut him off by dragging him by the hand to his dressing room while he laughs.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.)

oh yeah. his bedroom’s a whole floor specifically for his time with you.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character)

gets very into degrading you when he sees and hears how much you love it, but will only say things that are equally as sweet as they are filthy.

“Do you hear yourself, sweet girl?”

“Oh my love, look at the mess you’ve made.”

“Yeah? Is that it, pretty girl? Like this?”

“Oh, you like that, don’t you? So good for me, my little love.”

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes)

a gentleman never tells.

gold pants.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?)

this is another era specific one that entirely depends on which era you meet him in bc you can assume from getting used to your company, his libido reaches new heights, but for starting in each era:

otw - categorically will not initiate intimacy for like the first year of your relationship bc he’s convinced he’ll misread your body language as wishful thinking when in actual fact you’re lady-bricked 25/8 around him bc who wouldn’t be hello

thriller - a little smoother with it, a little more open to initiating things based on trusting his own instincts, a little more willing to admit that he wants you without you having to ask first.

bad - oh he’s getting it now fr. all that leather? yup. he actually gets more shy when you initiate it in this era and that’s wholly bc he gets blindsided whenever you want him enough to bring it up in conversation.

dangerous/botdf - breeding kink in full swing we havin babies out here, he wants you literally every chance he gets and he WILL make that clear. I’m talkin pressed up behind you at the kitchen counter type beat.

invincible - this entire album should tell you everything you need to know but for those of us who enjoy it being spelt out: the things he whispers in your ear to invite you somewhere more private will leave you speechless.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

considering this man’s stamina, if you last long enough to tire him out, he’ll be sleeping pretty soon after that, but usually you tap out first and that is one of the rare moments you’ll actually see Michael smug.

“All tired out, baby? My poor love. Did I do too much?”

[isabelawritesthings]

Mortal Kombat and the missed opportunity for more LGBTQ+ representation

Special thanks to @bump-inthe-night for inspiring me to make this blog based on a blog she made about NRS Studios being afraid of LGBTQ+ representation (to be honest, I don't even remember which blog it was 🤣 but I'll give credit for my inspiration anyway).

One of the things I liked about MKX was that Kung Jin was gay, but that wasn't entirely all he was, of course, he was an arrogant jerk, but if you were a kid or teenager in the late 2000s and early 2010s (like me) and watched a lot of TV shows, you might remember that when a character was rarely LGBT, he was rarely more than that. For example Santana Lopez on Glee, I know her coming out arc was important and the whole Brittany thing but Ryan Murphy made a point of telling us to our faces everytime that she was a lesbian, and the fact that he always gave the most important storylines to Rachel and didn't develop the other characters, doesn't help.

What I'm trying to say is that since then many characters (especially female characters) have been written solely for the purpose of taking money from minorities, of course this isn't always the case, but take Disney for example, they spent decades putting black people in racist stereotypes in their cartoons and now they want to convince us that they care about non-Caucasian people by putting Ariel to be played by a black woman. I rarely meet a minority character whose personality isn't entirely that of that minority, and I'm glad that NRS Studios gave Kung Jin more personality than just "he's gay bruh".

But what's the point of impressing everyone ten years ago by making one of the most famous fighting games in history finally have gay representation if the character in question doesn't even appear in the next games? He's mentioned a few times in MK11 and MK1 but that's it, and considering that the franchise has over 50 characters, some of them more popular and requested, I think it's unlikely he'll return in a future game.

But all is not lost, as we still have Mileena and Tanya.

Okay, I strongly believe that in MKX Tanya was only with Mileena for her own gain while what Mileena felt was genuine (after all, we have her intros in MK11), but even if their relationship was "sex for power purposes" it was still a sort of LGBT representation. In MK11 it is revealed that Kotal killed Tanya and Mileena wants revenge, and in the tower ending of Mileena, Tanya is restored and forms a family with Mileena.

To be honest, unlike Kung Jin, I have nothing to complain about the two of them, except that the hetero relationships in MK1 like Ashrah x Reptile and Bi-Han x Sektor receive more attention than them, which unlike them is already an established relationship from two games ago (but we know that NRS loves to please incels and regions where being gay is literally a crime, so I didn't expect anything less than that).

The fact that Tanya has more scenes with Rain in Khaos Reigns than with Mileena in the story mode doesn't help much, I saw a lot of people saying that NRS turned her straight, but for the love of god, you should already know at this point that she's CANONICAL bisexual, but it wouldn't be the first time I've had someone doubt a bi woman's sexuality if she starts dating a man.

We know that, as I mentioned, not all countries in the world are progressive when it comes to LGBT people, so obviously the studio will censor some things. To be honest, I don't even judge NRS for that because it's not their fault.

What could be done to change the scenario

Add more representation to my point of view.

The heterosexual intros in MK11 are pretty weird, we have Sindel and Shao Kahn wanting to have sex with Jax and Cassie, we have Skarlet with Erron Black and she wanting to marry her own adoptive father (🤮), Kotal and Jade coming from I don't know where and the only normal ones of all these couples: Sonya x Johnny and Liu Kang x Kitana.

Many have theorized that MK11 Kuai Liang was asexual, and it would have been nice if they had implied that he actually was (he may still be in this new timeline, him being attracted to Harumi has nothing to do with asexuality, romantic attraction is different from sexual attraction). Geras is also strongly implied to be asexual, but again, there is no dialogue that suggests this. I don't know if my next representation candidate is a serious consideration, but I would put Ermac on this list, he's literally a body with thousands of souls inside, can't he be genderfluid? Johnny even asks if he uses neutral pronouns.

In MK11, Jacqui could be bi or pan, that would definitely make her character more interesting, or even Cassie could be a lesbian, these are small details, but very important for all the LGBT fellas who play the game.

But I'll go further, and suggest a relationship between Jade x Kitana, they grew up together in the first and second timeline, that would be a good addition, and as for MK1, if KP3 isn't officially canceled, they can develop a relationship, they don't even need labels, because sapphics without labels exist and are valid.

We know that NRS Studios is cowardly enough to only have Mileena x Tanya in their representation box, but as we say in my country, poor is the one who can't dream big.

[gonnalosemydougdimmadomedamnmind]

I deserve financial compensation every time I have to read a post that posits that Jason is actually the good big brother that's there for his siblings and Dick is the big mean golden child that can do whatever he wants and turns his siblings away when they need help. I'd have like a gajillion dollars now.

This bothers me so much specifically because it's the exact opposite of canon, in Dick's case anyway. Ain't nobody going to Jason for help in the first place. I really can't get past the backwards logic of it all. No, the utter lack of logic. Like it's the Exact Opposite.... The Exact Opposite!!! How did you come to this conclusion???

Well, I mean, I know- you don't read the comics AND you take everything at face value. I get it, when I first entered the fandom- the way people talk about Dick and Jason and Tim and Damian? They'd have you believe that Jason and Tim were delivered to Earth by angels with a chorus singing in the heavens and a light following them everywhere their delicate, innocent feet went. Everything they do is either Justified or Morally Correct. Nothing is Ever Their Fault. They deserve your sympathy and awe, and nothing short of worship is an attack on their character. They'd have you believe that Dick is a Monster, that Everything is his fault, that he's an inherently bad and selfish person because He Tried but He Didn't Devote Himself Entirely to Jason and Tim and Thats Bad and He Deserves To Be Punished For It and that Damian is a Demon, that he's always going to make the choice that serves himself and hurts others, that even though he's a 10 year old boy with a complicated, abusive upbringing, Everything is His Fault Entirely and He Doesn't Deserve Understanding or Mercy.

That's what you see and hear when you enter this fandom. And unless you actually read the comics or do the research by looking through blogs with meta commentary on the comics (with panels provided) or interact with fan media that is based on the comics And Not The Fanon- this is the false opinion that remains.

It drives me crazy that people refuse to engage with the actual canon of something they claim to be a fan of. What are you a fan of if you have no idea what you're talking about? It drives me crazy, because theres so much of this fanon content, you have to literally dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig to find the truth. And the truth is so Unbelievably, Undeniably

Not That.

In fact, in most cases whatever you read- the opposite is what actually happened. Or what you read is Entirely Made Up to make one character, (Dick and Damian), look bad in order to prop up the other character, (Jason and Tim). Then people get angry when you point that out, for ruining 'the fun' or their false perception of their fave character. Well I'm angry for having to do it in the first place.

[kquil]

hi pretty baby!! I have a very important question for you:

the year is coming to a close and it has brought us many great things (like your sweet sweet stories) and I'm simply dying to know.... if you were to do a 12 fics for 12 months sort of wrap up of your own blog, what would be your 12 most memorable fics of the year? which of your pieces really stood out to you? I'm eager to hear what my friends' proudest works are!

xx

i'm a pretty baby? my stories are sweet? ( /)///(\✿) AHHHHHHHH!

and that's such a fun thing to do as a way of rounding off the year omg! this requires some thought though, so i hope you don't mind if i take a while to answer

these fics aren't in any particular order but would say that the following are my 12 most memorable fics this year... (i will also include fics from my side blogs as those are my works too hehe~)

DIVORCING ORION BLACK CHAPTER 5

this was the fic that i first posted when i came back from my hiatus so it holds a special place in my heart~

DIVORCING ORION BLACK CHAPTER 6

DIVORCING ORION BLACK CHAPTER 7

i'm including all updates for the DOB series because i honestly think it's my magnum opus and i managed to stay consistent with updates until the end of the year ever since coming back from my hiatus

JAMES POTTER | HOW TO DRESS (nsfw)

this is from my nsfw side blog ; it took me an entire year to write this oneshot for james and it's 16k words long, which makes it the longest fic i have ever written AND it's the first ever NSFW oneshot I've ever written and posted haha! so it represents a big milestone for me

SIRIUS BLACK | BIKER BOY

this was dedicated to one of my dearest moots and close friends here @somewereinthegalaxi / @thebestofoneshots and was a fun little way of showcasing an interest we both share motorbikes, biker boy boyfriends and sirius black (づ> v <)づ♡ 

REGULUS BACK | HOLD HER PART 2

i've always loved the trope of characters being given insight into their futures somewhat, in fact, a niche of fanfiction i adore reading is based on that e.g marauders watching/reading the harry potter movies/books or harry traveling back in time and interacting with the marauders -- this is my little way of finally dabbling in the trope without writing another fix-it fic atop DOB (ᵕ—ᴗ—)

REMUS LUPIN | ONE NEGRONI

this combined a guilty pleasure of mine, mob boss aus and the marauders, mainly featuring our beloved Remus Lupin -- it just seemed natural making him the mob boss  (˵ ¬ᴗ¬˵) hehe~

JAMES POTTER | GENUINE

i literally couldn't sleep until i wrote this and i'm so happy i did too because you darlings seemed to really enjoy it too! now i have a deep love for the actor james x singer reader trope (๑>◡<๑)

JAMES POTTER | LIKE LOVERS DO

this was sooo self-indulgent ( /)///(\✿) it's a manifestation of my love for james potter and the friends to lovers trope -- this fic is secretly how i want to my relationship with james to blossom in another universe where he's no longer fictional and i have a chance at making him mine!

JAMES POTTER | BOUDOIR PHOTOSHOOT

i've been seeing tiktoks of this on my fyp for a long time and i kept thinking of james every time i saw it, my real life responsibilities kept getting in the way of me writing it until i finally committed writing it even if it meant sleeping super late again (๑˃́ꇴ˂̀๑)   

GROUP EFFORT SERIES

this imagines series is from my mcu + misc. side blog and i predict having a lot of fun with it in the future ; i'm writing it from a random thought i had during my hiatus when i got into the mcu fandom, it went along the lines of: i wonder how the avengers would handle babysitting a baby like Jack-Jack from the Incredibles -- i slapped my love for single mother reader tropes on it and this imagines series was made!

THE PRINCESS' SEVEN MERCENARIES

after getting into the mcu fandom during my hiatus, i also fell in love with many of Chris Evans' characters and started reading fics about them too, combine that with my love for fairy tale aus, drawing inspiration from a writer with a phenomenal nsfw fairy tale series and you get this snow white au series with seven of my favourite Chris Evans characters (。>\\<)♡

damn... look at this list makes me realise how much i've written this year despite my hiatus -- i need to give myself more credit since half the time i feel like i'm not writing enough omg! thank you so much for prompting me to do this, my love!

[hdusa]

Hi Zam, I wrote a whole analysis/essay on my blog about why I think Eclipse is still so loved by the community since you were talking about it on stream the other day and it's still such a beloved plot in my heart. It's about what brings a viewer in to a story: basically that you let us into your thoughts, wrestle with difficult situations and weigh what matters most to you, and then make a decision which moves the plot forward. You do it so well. Absolutely no pressure to read it though!

Hello I just read it and I loved it. This has inspired me to also read the mer essay which I will find time to do one day but this was very well put. My favourite aspects of story telling are based around character growth so it’s interesting to see how that carried over into Eclipse. I mainly thought about the dynamic of going from a brave fearless heroic character in season 3 to a more afraid character that hides from conflicts and worries about literally everything. It’s interesting to see how my character continued to evolve in believable (I think) ways despite me not really putting much thought into it. (It probably came from me trying to take everything as seriously as I possibly could and acting like everything happening is literally happening to me)

I love the section where you mention the other people that contributed to the story because you’re absolutely right. Without any of those people it wouldn’t have been anywhere near the same story. Subz having an entirely different character arc that you can view through his streams is also one of my favourite parts of the story. Multiple perspectives added a lot to our interactions because through every conversation you would’ve seen what made him act the way he did and I think that’s beautiful.

I already believed it before, but man. If I made a video for season 4 that only centred around the eclipse federation and was more accurate to the streams, it’d be a completely different video. Thank you for making this, I’m so excited to take certain things I did here on accident into account for next season :333

[chaos0pikachu]

Two Flavors of Japanese (BL) Cinema

Recently I came across a post that proposited that Japanese cinema hadn't changed since the 1950's and came in, essentially, two types. 

Let's discuss that. 

I can’t go into the history of all Japanese cinema in a singular blog post like that’s just not possible, there’s literal books and classes you can take on this subject, and I will be linking further reading down at the bottom of the post so you can do just that. 

This fact alone, should already disprove the point that Japanese cinema hasn’t changed since the 1950’s. Other than the fact that like, Japan isn’t a static society that is forever unchanging because human beings do not work like that. 

Which is why I’m writing this essay at all. 

I love cinema, I love storytelling and filmmaking. And, frankly, I may not be an expert but I am annoying. I own that. 

Japanese cinema has held influence over many directors, writers, animators, and so forth. 

Just watch this playlist of Sailor Moon references across various cartoons. Or how Satoshi Kon influenced the work of Darren Aronofsky and Christopher Nolan. Or how James Cameron and the Wachowskis were both influenced by Mamoru Oshii’s 1995 Ghost in the Shell. And then there’s Akira Kurosawa who’s been cited as a major influence for directors like: Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Martin Scorsese and a slew of others.

I want folks to know there’s a slew of amazing films from Japan and that distilling the industry - the blood, sweat and tears of its creators - to a strict dichotomy of this or that, either/or is disrespectful at best and xenophobic at worst. 

It’s also just a shame because, like, guys there’s so many great films from Japan! There’s also probably a lot of great live action shows from Japan but I’m not super knowledgeable about them - I mainly watch anime so that’s not a great metric in terms of Japanese television - so I’m just talking about films in this post. 

Ok so main points I’m gonna address: 

Japanese Cinema hasn’t changed since the 1950s 

Japanese film style falls under an extreme dichotomy of cinematic/sweeping (described as “atmospheric”) or cartoonish/slapstick (described as “live action manga”)

Baby does any of this have to do with BL? (no, but it IS more gay than you think)

With these four films: The Hidden Fortress (1958), Lady Snowblood (1973), Gohatto (1999), and Kubi (2023). 

I picked these four because they’re all “period pieces” taking place feudal Japan - or with the aesthetics of feudal Japan, The Hidden Fortress nor Lady Snowblood aren’t based on actual historical events, like Gohatto and Kubi are, however loosely, but take place in an amorphous 15th to 18th century Japan - and I think they strongly show the development of this singular genre in Japanese cinema. 

Plus the latter two films, Gohatto and Kubi, are gay as fuck and I know my people. 

[you can also read this post on this blog post which includes additional links as tumblr has a limit and for easier readability as this is a long post]

The Hidden Fortress 

Released in 1958, directed by Akira Kurosawa it’s probably the most well-known film on the list. It’s a film that exists within the “Golden Age” of Japanese cinema alongside films like Kurosawa’s own Seven Samurai (1954), Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story (1953) and Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu (1953). 

It was also the era where, after the American Occupation post-WWII a boom of movie distribution took place with new film studios such as: Toho (y’all know them from any Godzilla movie ever made), Toei (if you know One Piece you know Toei but they’ve done a ton of films both animated and live action) and others. 

The story is straight forward, two peasants, Matashichi and Tahei who bicker their asses off like an old married couple the entire film, happen upon a Very Hot Man with the Only Thighs Out (Toshiro Mifune was a BABE) named Rokurota and his companion a icy young woman named Yuki. 

Matashichi and Tahei have just escaped like, a ton of ~circumstances that include failing to become samurai, being broke as fuck, getting captured and forced into servitude - don’t worry that lasted like 6 hours tops - and then find gold hidden in a stick on a mountain. 

Turns out Rokurota has all the stick gold they could want! So they team up neither realizing Rokurota and Yuki are actually part of a clan that’s been recently wiped out and they’re on the run from a rival clan who has wiped theirs out. Yuki is the princess of said clan and it’s only survivor, while Rokurota is her samurai general and retainer. 

Tahei and Matashichi, living in ignorance of these facts, try to steal the gold away from them because they live that hustle life until the end when all is revealed and Yuki grants them both with a gold piece to share (this is a really big piece of stick gold). 

There’s other things that happen, like a fight scene between Rokurota and rival clan member, Yuki owning every single scene she in - I fucking love her - but that’s the gist. 

The story is, again, pretty uncomplicated, it balances the comedy of Tahei & Matashichi with the stoicism of Rokurota and Yuki well, and all the acting is strong. In terms of its film style, by modern day standards it’s not especially “cinematic” Kurosawa doesn’t favor fanetic camera movements, his camera is often very still and the movement he employs is often in individual character ticks, and/or background set pieces. This film has a lot of great set pieces. 

Kurosawa didn’t employ camera techniques like panning, he doesn’t really do extreme close ups, there's no swooping shots or fancy tricks, I’d say a majority of the camera shots in The Hidden Fortress are a combination of mid, and wide, with a few mid-close ups. One thing to notice is Kurosawa’s use of scene cuts; instead of a cut he used pan sweeps to change scenes. If you’ve ever watched a Star Wars film you know exactly what I mean. 

The Hidden Fortress, first and foremost, is an action adventure film. It has more in common tonally with Top Gun Maverick or Star Wars A New Hope, in that it's straight forward, sincere, and grand in scale, grounded by a very honest set of characters who are strongly motivated. 

I feel like in modern day discussions we association “action/adventure” films in a sorta of negative way; this is probably due, in part, to the oversaturation of the high budget blockbusters of the last ten years - oh MCU, how you’ve fallen - that are overly bombastic, overly complicated, overly connected, and the root of what audiences connect with - the characters - tends to be lost. 

Scott Lang's motivations in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania are to protect his teenager daughter and the family he's built, which are simple, strong, and relatable character motivations. However, they got lost in the conventions of the plot, the frantic energy of the film, the simple amount going on around Scott that his motivations become less a central focus and thus he becomes small within his own film. We, the audience, become distant and it grows more difficult to connect with what's happening. This can still work on some level, the Fast and Furious franchise isn't successful because it's sophisticated, but the Fast-chise has embraced it's cheesier conventions and spectacle, while blockbusters like the MCU's output, simple juggle to much all at once. It also helps that while the cast keeps growing in the Fast and Furious films, there's still less than ten characters you have to actually know and care about. To fully understand and connect with the characters of The Marvels, you have to watch Ms. Marvel and WandaVision on Disney+ and the task becomes more akin to homework than simply the enjoyment of watching a movie. 

The epic scale grows so large it feels daunting, rather than exhilarating. 

I think this is why a film like Winter Soldier, more so than most MCU films of the last decade, has continued to be a fan favorite of the universe and of blockbuster lovers whether you are a fan of the MCU or not. At its root, Winter Soldier is character driven, with deeply motivated characters,  which is what makes the action and adventure aspects stick. 

The Hidden Fortress is similarly character driven with a simple and straightforward story that is about honor, loyalty, a princess, a loyal samurai/knight, rebuilding a decimated clan, and two “normal” characters to keep everything grounded and relatable. Which in turn, helps make it timeless. While the filmmaking itself isn't grandiose as what modern audiences may be used to, Kurosawa knows how to direct a scene and more than that, direct his actors. Mifune is commanding as always, but for me, it's really actress Misa Uehara as Princess Yuki that steals the movie. 

Lady Snowblood

Released in 1973 and based on a manga of the same name by Kazou Koike and Kazuo Kaminura, directed by Toshiya Fujita, Lady Snowblood and its sequel Lady Snowblood: Love Song of Vengeance are considered cult classics. Lady Snowblood, famously, is Quentin Tarantino’s inspiration for his Kill Bill saga (like, a freaking lot). 

Lady Snowblood is a part of the era of “new wave” and “pink films” that were emerging in Japan and elsewhere. Stateside I think a close equivalent to both the style and content of Lady Snowblood and other films like it are exploitation films. In fact while watching Lady Snowblood I couldn’t help but get exploitation film vibes just off the aesthetics and thematics of the film itself. 

To break down Lady Snowblood’s plot it goes like this: Yuki is tasked with getting revenge on four people who had a hand in her father, and older brother’s murder, and her mother’s rape (which is seen on screen so warning for y’all this is def a Does the Dog Die movie). 

Yuki’s mother kills one of her rapists, but is imprisoned before she can kill the others and while in prison she purposely gets pregnant so her child can carry on her revenge after she dies. Yuki is born, and raised by one of the fellow inmates and a priest who trains her in martial arts. She’s raised as a “demon”, whose only purpose is revenge for her mother, father, and brother. And boy does she get revenge the film is violent and graphic (even if by modern day standards the blood looks fake as fuck the emotions are there). 

Like The Hidden Fortress this film is very character driven, with a highly motivated protagonist but it’s also revels far more in it's violence and the spectacle of that violence. Yuki, in comparison to her earlier counterpart Princess Yuki, is the driver of the action in the story. She's an active participant in the plot, and the story centers around her. Princess Yuki is commendable, she's compassionate, and she makes decisions, but the story is more about what she represents - a fallen princess - than what she does. She's symbolic, the embodiment of a leader, a samurai spirit of nobility who becomes a leader worth following. Yuki, on the other hand, needs no protection from others, she's a much more direct and active part of the story since the story is hers - and her mothers - she's more elegant than regal, and there's nothing necessarily 'noble' about her.  She's not seeking to rebuild her clan as a leader, her motivations are singularly about her revenge quest to fulfill her mother's dying wish. 

In some ways, they're very similar - Yuki also feels compassion for another woman who's been used by the men around her as Princess Yuki does - and in others they are very different and speak to the changing expectations and idealizations of women from the 1950s to 1970s. 

Lady Snowblood is also way more violent than any Kurosawa film I’ve watched including The Hidden Fortress. While there is action in The Hidden Fortress, it’s all employed with specific purpose. Which is one of Kurosawa’s strengths as a director. It’s calculated and singular. Yes blood spurts up in Yojimbo but it's limited; quick and efficient, with more in common with John Wick or Collateral than the more fantastical and aesthetic Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez fare. 

Lady Snowblood revels in the aesthetic violence, there’s no “purpose” for Yuki to cut an already dead person in half, she does it out of pure frustration and for the glory of showing the audience that internal rage. Of a body hanging, dripping blood and gore onto the clean floor as the curtain draws to a close. 

The film also features on screen rape, sex, and nudity which The Hidden Fortress does not. There’s an implication that characters in the film would assault Princess Yuki if they could, but nothing ever goes beyond brief implication (still gross tho guys come on). Whilst in Lady Snowblood, the rape is brutal, the violence is brutal, and the emotions are far more intense because of it all. 

The allowance - for lack of a better term - of this kind of material showcases a cultural shift overall in the terms of visual storytelling filmmaking began experimenting with in telling, and in what audiences were responding too. Lady Snowblood was a beloved success for its overall low budget. In comparison to the two, The Hidden Fortress is filmed better, with more technique and focus, Lady Snowblood almost seems rustic in comparison, but it's a sort of rustic that speaks to experimentation. 

Low angles from a characters pov staring high above her, extreme zooms on Yuki's burning eyes, the oversaturated colors of red-orange blood or green walls or white clothes, the starless pitch black sky as powdery snow falls. The images are arresting even if at times they're choppy, and while the film opts for non-linear chapter breaks to create a story flow in comparison to Kurosawa's iconic screen swipes and straight forward narrative, yet, both work. 

Gohatto

Behold, the promised gay cinema I promised. 

Gohatto is a 1999 film directed by Nagisa Oshima based on the short story, Shinsengumi Keppuroku by Ryotaro Shiba. 

Gohatto is a pretty late entry in the new wave/pink films of its heyday but those films were Oshima’s bread and butter. Often dubbed as one of Japan’s cinema outlaws for his anti-establishment films, one of his films, Night and Fog in Japan (1960) was pulled from theaters all together. Most people in the west will probably know him even tangentially for his queer film Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence starring David Bowie and Beat Takeshi or for this absolutely banger quote from the New York Times article, A Japanese Film Master Returns to his Cinema: 

(If you’re a BTS fan, the composer Suga and RM like, Ryuichi Sakamoto, both starred and composed the main theme of Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence Forbidden Colors, he plays the guy in love with David Bowie’s character)

Gohatto combines the setting of a Kurosawa film, with the more experimental storytelling of Lady Snowblood, whilst imbuing the film with more surrealistic elements and more complexity. And making it gay like - for real for real. 

Gohatto goes like this: it’s the late 18th century in Japan, everything politically is on shaky ground, and the shinsengumi are looking for newbies to join ranks. Welp, they find two promising newbies and wouldn’t ya know it one newbie, Kano, is like, hella pretty. He’s got bangs. 

He’s so pretty in fact that all these other dudes in the shinsengumi crew wanna smash, I mean down bad like the Taylor Swift song or whatever I don’t listen to Taylor Swift. 

This is all treated with a lackadaisical normality; there’s teasing about “I never considered sleeping with a man before, but damn that Kano kinda…” but there’s never a moment of “omg they’re GAY?”

Beat Takeshi’s - who’s also in this film, he’s been in a lot fo queer films I'm noticing - character Vice-Commander Hijikata Toshizo often asks other characters not if they’re attracted to Kano - the implication being that they are - but rather if they are in love with Kano. Because lust is fleeting, but love is dangerous to your duty. 

Kano also might be a spy, or a murderer, it’s all very ambiguous and the ending isn’t a “happy” one. This isn’t a film about a love story of any sort, it has more in common with erotic thrillers than the action adventure of The Hidden Fortress, or the rape revenge fantasy of Lady Snowblood. Where as the former films have definitive endings, Gohatto ends ambiguously. 

What actually happened? And why did it happen? What did it all mean, in the end? The film offers no strict answers to these questions, asking instead, that its audience to come to their own conclusions. It’s also much more historical than the previous two films, taking real life historical figures like: Hijikata Toshizo, Okita Soji, and Kondo Isami and asking the question, “hm, what if they all maybe fell in love with this super pretty man before being overthrown and what does that mean metaphorically?” 

The Hidden Fortress doesn’t ask its audience to interrogate society in any meaningful way and that’s not a knock against it, it’s just an observation. Lady Snowblood specifically presents the plight of women, and a slight take on classism within the system, through the lens of violence and destruction. Gohatto is much more metaphorical, it’s not providing the audience with a direct message like the former two films, but presenting it’s thematics in a much more abstract way. The Hidden Fortress is an action adventure, with heroes who achieve their goals and overcome their obstacles. Lady Snowblood is a rape revenge with an understandable protagonist who succeeds in her bloody revenge. Gohatto has no heroes, and offers no straightforward catharsis at the end of its story story. 

Its film style is also far more atmospheric compared to the epic scale and straightforwardness of The Hidden Fortress, or the lower budget charming violence of Lady Snowblood. 

There’s lots of mood lighting, overhead shots of characters dimly lit, camera cuts to rain after two characters have sex, extreme close ups of one character observing Kano’s eyes and lips. It’s not a black and white film like The Hidden Fortress, but it’s not nearly as saturated in color and brightness as Lady Snowblood. 

Lady Snowblood drips with color, and light, even at night there always almost seems to be a spotlight on Yuki with an empty starless sky in the background. Gohatto is much more grounded in realism than high visual aesthetics, opting to create more of a lingering dreamlike trance or fog to the cinematography when the story’s final act begins to unfold. 

Yet, one thing Gohatto has in common with both The Hidden Fortress and Lady Snowblood is its violence; operating somewhere between the two. Like The Hidden Fortress the violence is quick, purposely, and specific, and like Lady Snowblood blood spurts, gushes, and heads are displayed proudly and grotesquely.

Kubi

Kubi is a 2023 film directed by Takeshi Kitano aka Beat Takeshi - this is the third time his name has been dropped in relation to a queer film in this post go Beat Takeshi - based on a novel of the same name that Kitano also wrote. 

Kubi is like Beat Takeshi’s sengoku period slash RPF fanfic come to gruesome bloody (literal, not British) life. A period piece epic; Kubi is both about samurai warlords and a historical event known as the honno-ji incident, which took place in 1582. It features various historical figures like Oba Nobunage - if you’ve watched some anime or played some JRPGs you’ve probably at least heard of this name before - and other prominent historical figures of the time. 

The basic gist of the movie is Oba Nobunage is both really good at his job, so he’s super powerful politically, but he’s also a grade-a asshole whom all the other important samurai lords fucking hate. However, they also all fucking hate each other and all want to take Nobunage’s place and get all that sweet, sweet power for themselves. The honno-ji incident involved one of these guys doing a coup for reasons still unknown today and then pretty much almost immediately dying swiftly after leaving another samurai lord to take over. 

Kubi takes these historical events, and is like “okay but what if we added some gay innuendo and gay sex to this drama?” with more beheadings than a French revolution. 

Out of all the films on this list Kubi is, admittedly, the one I enjoyed the least, however, it’s an interesting retrospective on the growth of both the Japanese film industry and this specific genre in and of itself. 

Kubi’s film style is very modern, it’s beautiful, it’s sleek, it’s expensive looking. And yet there’s specific scenes that feel like callbacks to the Kurosawa era, like the black and white flashback between Nobunage and his fellow samurai lords. One of Kurosawa’s top films was Kitano’s Hana-Bi (1997), and Kitano has worked with Kurosawa’s daughter on costume design on four other films as well, so these references feel not only purposely because of general influence but also referential in a way. 

In terms of story and tone, Kurosawa’s The Hidden Fortress is sincere and straightforward, Lady Snowblood is experimental and fearless, Gohatto is introspective and suspenseful, whilst Kubi is unrelenting and even feels mocking at times. There is no break in Kubi's violence, there's almost no tenderness or softness, characters are selfish, and self-centered. The selfish, but joyful peasants in The Hidden Fortress don't exist here, and are replaced with a peasant character who murders his own friend and then rejoices over being relived of his family once he discovers they were murdered too. At times, Kubi feels like a subversion of the more glamourous depictions of the samurai in film. Which feels as though following similar footsteps established in Gohatto which also explored, subtextually, the faults within the samurai media persona. 

At times the film feels almost like a dark comedy, it doesn’t glamorize these samurai warlords, nor their clans, nor their ideals in the way The Hidden Fortress does, nor does it interrogate them in the way Gahotto does. Instead the story at hand is presented with a brutal realism, objective if a bit mocking with a side order of gay sex. Which isn’t presented in a mocking way so much as just an everyday aspect of life. 

When Mitsuhide and Murashige are caught by spies sleeping together there’s no shock or awe about it, just a calm report and the bigger issue is Mitsuhide hiding a fugitive more so than him sleeping with a man.

Similarly, when Nobunage is literally fucking one of his vassals in front of Mitsuhide, it’s not to disgust the other man, but rather a powerplay of sorts to make the latter jealous - at one point Nobunage promises if Mitsuhide accomplishes a mission for him, he’ll sleep with him - and it seemingly works to some degree. There’s subtext throughout the film that Mitsuhide might be, if not in love with Nobunage, want him in an obsessive way all the same (including being down to bone). 

Like with Gohatto the queerness is inherent, just a part of the culture. It’s not “romance” by any means, but it is simply a part of life and the culture itself. 

In terms of characters, Kubi's characters couldn't be more different from the characters in the previous mentioned films. The Hidden Fortress characters like Princess Yuki and Rokurota are easy to like, honorable, quiet, steadfast; while Matashichi and Tahei are less outright likable they offer a grounding and relatable to the big presence that are the former two. In Lady Snowblood, Yuki is quiet, calculating and menacing in her own right, truly embodying the idea of cold vengeance which makes her intriguing. In Gohatto Kano is elusive, which adds to his sensual allure, Okita is playful yet clearly hiding a more sinister air about him, and you just feel bad for Tashiro who’s pushy but seemingly sincere in his affections for Kano. 

Kubi has no by-the-by “likable” characters, every character is out for themselves in some way shape or form. So much so that the brief tenderness between Mitsuhide and Murashige is like a balm to a burn. Though I did absolutely enjoy the scene-chewing of Ryo Kase who played Nobunage. While Nobunage isn't a "likable" character by any means, he was so fun and engaging to watch he became a highlight of the film. 

Stylistically, this is a very modern epic film; it’s the type of film in terms of scale I imagine Kurosawa could have made if he had access to the same technology, but also wouldn’t because there’s no stillness or sincerity to it. The violence is also more in line with Lady Snowblood, but with a budget. Heads are lopped off with ease and at times with glee, dead bodies, headless bodies with crabs crawling out of the necks, a literal pile of heads for trophies it’s all here. It’s beautifully and dynamically filmed, it has a similar scale of a Lord of the Rings, or a Creation of the Gods I: Kingdom of Storms. 

Big set pieces, big costumes, big landscapes, big battles, and bigger body counts. It also has the largest cast of any film on the list - kinda neat that Kitano and Asano Tadanobu were both in Kubi and Gohatto together - and the best costumes of the bunch. 

It also, in my opinion, has the most complicated plot of all the films because of the heavy political intrigue - though this, admittedly, could be because of the culture gap as I’m not overly familiar with Japanese history. 

Okay so like, where does all this leave us in terms of those original bullet points? 

The Original Bullet Points

Japanese Cinema hasn’t changed since the 1950s 

If there's one thing - well okay many things cause I'm greedy but overall - I hope I've been able to outline here with these four films is that obviously Japanese cinema has changed since the 1950s. And thoroughly at that. Not just in terms of style, but in terms of character presentation, tone, stories technology, experimentation, and a growing reflection of the shifting and developing culture. 

It’s not simply that all four of these films are different stories, but that all four of these films are addressing different aspects of their modern culture via these period pieces, as well as, viewing this time period in ways that reflect the filmmakers own experiences and how they feel or felt about the world. 

Kurosawa was born in 1910 to Kitano’s 1947, Fujita and Oshima’s 1932. Kurosawa’s father was a member of an actual samurai family, his worldview would be thoroughly different from someone like Oshima, or Kitano, or Fujita’s. Some overlap, sure, but also still thoroughly different. 

And I feel that you can see that in their films; Kurosawa’s samurai films are almost referential at times, not always, but his work with Toshiro Mifune often leans that way; in The Hidden Fortress Mifune’s Rokurota is deeply loyal to his lord, the Princess Yuki, to the point that he won’t shed tears over his own sister being executed in her place. He spares the life of a rival because he respects him even though they stand on opposing sides. 

The samurai in Gohatto and Kubi aren’t nearly so idealized nor idolized, there’s very little “honor” in Kubi and even less loyalty. Whilst in Gohatto there’s a deep and subtle interrogation of the strict and oppressive bylaws of the shinsengumi. In one such scene, Kano is having drinks with a man who is interested in him, Yuzawa, who’s passionately talking about how the shensengumi uphold oppressive ideals including classism. 

[And then he jumps Kano’s bones I guess politics got the dude going lmao]

The Hidden Fortress’ Princess Yuki is at first, masculine - in story she was raised as a man rather than a princess - from the way she walks to the way she talks. She’s fierce, and upstanding, while also being compassionate to other members of her clan; even saving a young woman who’s a member of her clan that had been sold. There’s a regal quality to Princess Yuki. 

In comparison, Yuki in Lady Snowblood is elegant, and feminine, before striking out violently. Princess Yuki never has an “action scene” and in fact for a chunk of the film has to pose as a deaf woman to hide her identity. While not a passive participant in the plot, nor does she directly drive the action herself. While Yuki, well the entire movie is driven by her actions and the actions of her mother. The story is first and foremost, hers. 

Meanwhile women just like, they don’t exist in Gohatto or Kubi they’re like, in the ether~~~ they’re drifting, keeping out - or kept out? - of the drama. 

Given the vast differences in both style, tone, story and execution, how can you say wholeheartedly that Japanese cinema hasn’t changed since the 1950s? 

Japanese film style falls under an extreme dichotomy of cinematic/sweeping (described as “atmospheric”) or cartoonish/slapstick (described as “live action manga”)

I’m just…not gonna get into the overall history of Japan's adaptation of manga into live action films cause it would derail this conclusion and I ain’t got the time for that. I would like to note, Lady Snowblood is a live action film based on a manga of the same name - and it is not slapstick. It doesn’t even have comedic elements, it is a violent rape revenge story; I don’t think there’s a single moment where I chuckled. The Hidden Fortress is far lighter in tone, while Gohatto has more in common with Lady Snowblood - deeply and sincerely serious - and Kubi goes for a darker sort of comedy. 

This is just incorrect information. Personally I’m of the mind that “cinematic/sweeping is too broad a spectrum to even quantify as a film genre they are descriptors. 

That said, I don’t think Lady Snowblood is cinematic or sweeping. Gohatto is the only one on the list that’s even close to “atmospheric” though all four films have atmosphere - because atmosphere is a film technique it’s not a genre of film - The Hidden Fortress and Kubi are the only two I could qualify as “cinematic/sweeping” because they’re going for a larger bombastic scale. Though I feel folks watching The Hidden Fortress in the modern day might not find it cinematic because of how static and slow the film can be at times - the first act is long and drags quite a bit. 

To place such a strict dichotomy on an entire industry of filmmaking is simply bad film critique at best and xenophobic at worst given the context here. I’ve only talked about four films in one singular genre, I didn’t mention the countless other new wave films, or the birth of the kaiju genre with Godzilla, the expansion into horror and grindhouse - where does a film like Tag (2015) fit into such a strict dichotomy? -  nor the long, long history of animated works from various insanely highly influential and/or successful directors like Satoshi Kon, Makoto Shinkai, Hideaki Anno, Rintaro, Mamoru Hosoda, Mamoru Oshii, Isao Takahata, I mean the list goes on and on. 

If you expand your horizons you’ll find so many amazing films that do not flatly sit in this one or the other imposed categorization. Think about what queer cinema you may be missing out on by adhering to this imposed binary. 

Baby does any of this have to do with BL? (no, but it IS more gay than you think)

So, in the end, what does this have to do with BL? I would say it has both little and a lot to do with BL/GL which are genres all their own in Japan and other neighboring countries; as such their subject to the same waves, exploration and expansion as the four aforementioned films. 

It’s easy, if intellectually dishonest and academically lazy, to look at The Novelist and What Did You Eat Yesterday and say “BL only comes in two shapes and sizes”. 

There’s chocolate or vanilla and that’s it. When in reality there’s lots of ice cream flavors available, even if chocolate and vanilla are the best sellers it doesn’t mean strawberry or mint chocolate chip don’t exist. 

Where does animated BL fall into this western imposed binary? How does capitalism affect the output of what gets made for the screen and how? How does the political climate affect what’s being financed? Are BL and GL works that are being made somehow unaffected, existing in a stasis state, by the works across the film industry? Even from other queer works of film? What are we, as outsiders, not considering when we engage with this media? 

If we’re only looking at BL/GL for “queer representation” what films and/or television are we missing out on from these countries? What BL/GL are we missing by only engaging with what's put in front of us, and not diving deeper into learning more, expanding our individual knowledge, and experiencing stories that might take some work towards seeing? Stories that might be outside of our direct comfort zones because they don't fall into those strict if seemingly comforting boxes. What exploration into queer identity are we denying or ignoring the existence of because of these imposed binaries? 

I know some folks who are more well versed in BL history that would and do consider Gohatto and Kubi BL or BL adjacent, but I also know most western, especially American, audiences would consider neither of these films BL. 

So where does that leave them?

Further Reading: 

Cinematic History: Defining Moments in Japanese Cinema, 1926-1953

A Brief But Essential Introduction to Japanese Cinema

Filmmaking from Japan: The Golden Age of Japanese Cinema

Nagisa Oshima: Banishing Green

JAPANESE SOFTCORE: THE LAST OF TOKYO'S PINK EIGA THEATERS

The Last Samurai: A Conversation with Takeshi Kitano

The Evolution of the Japanese Anime Industry

Check out other related posts in the series:

Film Making? In My BL? - The Sign ep01 Edition | Aspect Ratio in Love for Love's Sake | Cinematography in My BL - Our Skyy2 vs kinnporsche, 2gether vs semantic error, 1000 Stars vs The Sign | How The Sign Uses CGI | Is BL Being Overly Influenced by Modern Western Romance Tropes? | Trends in BL (Sorta): Genre Trends

[ialwaysknewyouwerepunk]

queer signalling: louis and harry living their beautiful queer lives, collected by me

since we must take note of our fellow queers when they signal that they are very much one of us, despite being closeted. since i've had a very very queer few years thanks to them, thanks to their signalling, thanks to them being brave.

(!! this list isn't exhaustive, and if i've forgotten your favorite, by all means let me know. there's always room for another edition. it's been a while since i made a compilation and felt there was a need of a new one on my blog. this one goes a few years back, since my last one dates from 2021 :'o. so yeah. here we go.)

harry in my policeman, playing a closeted queer man, based on the book that's long been one of his favorites. lauded by the director and co-stars for how well he portrayed this character, how well he understood.

harry wearing a green flower on his chest for the mp premiere, placing himself (once again) in the same line of history as oscar wilde.

louis's green flowers on his initial 28clothing jersey at the first afhf, which includes bonus roses and 28s all around

the entire late night talking mv bc!!!!!

louis's rainbow stage lights during sibwawc. he really did that. every single night.

the entire dazed magazine happening. “I’ve always tried to compartmentalise my personal life and my working life,” he explains. / “I have unlocked an ability to be myself completely, unapologetically,” he says with conviction." / “I think through my own sense of self and personal journey, I am realising that happiness isn’t this kind of end state.”

louis's gay exit songs: most notably 'ever fallen in love (with someone you shouldn't've)'

harry flirting with stanley tucci

louis and his gay ass tank tops !!! we must point it out !!!!!!

all along

harry kissing a pride flag during harry's house ono in nyc

rainbow flare during the btm mv

harry being gifted a mask of his own face at munich n2, which prompted him to say that he feels like he's wearing a mask sometimes

28 in a triangle for 28clothing!!!!!!!!

kit connor soft launching 28 clothing. a young actor starring in a queer coming-of-age series, who was forced to come out after being accused of queerbaiting. he was the first one, besides louis, to wear 28clothing

harry's grammy's speech "people like me" (which ppl sadly misunderstood), echoing what he's been saying on tour for years. this doesn't happen to people like him. if they only knew, right?

harry's freddie-inspired outfit for the grammy carpet (which also brought back his theme for clown/jester fits, like harryween 2021 n2. wonder why)

louis's merch graphic where a boy is trying to smash a glass ceiling

harry posing for david hockney, actual living legend, gay artist of the ages. "Styles seems to know how lucky he is, adding, with a tinge of disbelief: “I’m in awe of the man with enough one-liners for a lifetime.” As to what those one-liners might be? Styles and Hockney’s mutual silence on that question suggests that what happens in the studio, stays in the studio."

louis having suspicious visuals during back to you, the only visuals of that type on tour

harry's 2022 harryween outfit: dressed as danny (literally. he did that. he went grease on us.) but wearing sandy's jacket

louis at barricade aka held safely in the arms of strong security personnel

harry singing man, i feel like a woman and still the one with shania twain. while wearing a rainbow discoball jumpsuit (parallel with kacey musgraves wearing a rainbow dress to sing it with him years ago.)

louis's gay ass merch for the away from home festival

harry dressed in nina ricci by harris reed, an explicitly gender-fluid line. "At 18 I found myself living in london creating ruffle blouses, corsets, fabric flowers and flares from my kitchen floor (...). My creations at the time were met with nothing but criticism for being “too feminine” or “costume”, teachers said I should focus on “menswear” or “womenswear”. l remember it really wasn’t until I started dressing for myself and who I was that it all clicked. @harrystyles was my first ever client who embraced the fun, fluid and expressive clothing I was creating."

continuous bluegreening. to name a few: harry's werchter fit, all this time lights, satellite caps in two colors only, louis's smiley flickering bluegreen on tour in 2022, the james cordon shit, louis in uncasville. enjoy this post here

harry's snl shoot unseens: him as ariel

louis out in amsterdam at a gay bar

harry going to the women's only swimming pond (on a day it was open for men, but this is important to me okay)

harry's use of orchids in his visuals during 'she' during love on tour '23

the 'hairy mermaid' tour visuals

harry as a mermaid during the mfasr mv. as a supreme physical manifestation of harry as the mermaid he truly is inside. but in his true form he gets chopped up and consumed. literally

as it was mv and its parallels with the matrix, hints to harry as the woman with the red dress.

louis jumping up on barricade against the one spot where a pride flag was draped over it

oh yeah that exact same thing happened in 2022 too

harry forming a skirt with a pride flag in brasil after his pants ripped

that gay ass denim getup with the fur collar?? while wearing the fucking peace ring????

harry and phoebe breaking gender norms in the tpwk mv dance. no i'm not over it yet shut up

louis wearing a basquiat t-shirt, another famously queer artist joining the ranks

harry bought an actual genuine basquiat. flex

harry dressed in skirts for gucci

"happy pride! happy pride! 'tis the season! can you tell i'm relaxed?"

"isn't all of this sparkly bi music?"

satellite mv rainbow planet tshirt

louis's bigger than me promo where he's literally george michael like??? IM SORRY???????

harry kissing lewis capaldi at the brits

harry kissing nick kroll at the dwd premiere. lol

and... harry as friend of D O R O T H Y. sang over the rainbow. we all cried. especially me at this clip of harry glancing in relief at his band after over the rainbow.

[mindfulstudyquest]

starve your ego, find your peace

these are my personal thoughts, an outburst. if you want to share your opinion in the comments, i welcome it, but please be kind. if you just want to insult, go elsewhere. if you're not interested, don't read <3 i remind you that english is not my first language, so there may be a few mistakes.

ego, what an interesting word. it is a latin lemma which literally means "I", it indicates

the self, especially with a sense of self-importance.

(psychology, freudian) the most central part of the mind, which mediates with one's surroundings.

a person's self-esteem and opinion of themselves.

in a society like ours, we fight against our ego every day, the anxiety of constantly being in the spotlight, the overwhelming thought of having all eyes on us.

the idea we have of ourselves is the strongest chain that prevents us from freeing ourselves from this mental cage. both positively and negatively. if you have a distorted idea of yourself and low self-esteem, you will never be able to become your higher-self, to take that extra step that allows you to transform your daydreams into a solid reality, if you think you are unintelligent, you will tend to take this truth for granted. "i'm not smart enough for this" and you'll give up your dreams of a higher education, or of getting all A's on your finals, or of having a great and fulfilling job.

but sometimes we think too highly of ourselves too. i always joke that i make study plans like i'm a genius who studies 200 pages in a day, but the truth is, i'm not joking at all.

many of you will recognize themselves in the stereotype of the burned-out gifted kid, especially when you move to a higher level of education (from middle school to high school, or from high school to university) and at that moment all certainty of your acclaimed intelligence collapses. you are no longer in the pond with the small fish, now you are in the big tank with the big fish, relating to a much bigger world (at least in italy, the difference between high school and university is abysmal) and your brain will do everything to maintain an accurate simulacrum of your self-image.

in fact, your brain spends less energy processing two pieces of information that agrees rather than disagreeing information and since our biology is based on self-preservation, your mind will do everything to preserve its rightness. when i started university i was incredibly afraid of taking my first exam, why? because i didn't want to find out that i wasn't good enough for a more advanced education, that i wasn't the straight A's student i thought i was.

but waiting for the fear to go away will lead to you staying in the same place forever, because the fear only goes away if you face what you are afraid of, and yes, being afraid of exams may seem silly, but i'm sure many people who follow this blog will understand what it means to identify so much with your grades and to crave academic validation more than anything else.

so i did it, even though i was scared, i had to have the certainty that this was the right place for me, i studied hard, and i definitely rocked my exams. but then the spring exam session arrived, and the fear returned. tired and burned-out from the winter session i had little or no desire to study, so when the exam date approached, i was afraid of not achieving the same results as just two months before, so i postponed, i procrastinated, until the day before, i knew i had to study otherwise i wouldn't pass the exam, yet my brain continued to do everything to protect itself, to protect that completely crazy idea of myself that i could study the entire program in two days (i wish). i don't even have social media (tumblr and pinterest excluded), which is why i found every excuse possible not to study. i didn't want to sit at my desk and realize that i wasn't going to pass that exam, that i should have studied harder, try harder.

that is until i realized that it wasn't laziness or procrastination that was stopping me, or rather, procrastination was just a symptom of a bigger cause: a distorted image of myself. understanding this in my first year of university will perhaps change my next academic years, or perhaps not. i don't know how many of you have drawn these things or reached these conclusions, i just hope that you soon understand that you are not lazy, nor procrastinators, you are just humans who are afraid of failure like all other humans.

the problem arises now, how to change this image? i don't know yet, honestly, but i won't let it stop me from living my life.

uptade in the end i was so fucking lucky and got a 30/30 on my exam yesterday, but still at the cost of a lot of sanity, sleep and unjustified stress.

[imagionationstation]

Hey so sorry to bother you but… just saw you listen to Epic??? I know you’re a turtle nerd, as am I but… I NEED to know your favorite Epic song/favorite character right NOW PLEASE! You’re like one of the coolest people so to find out you also listen to Epic is…. Mmmmmmmm anyways I hope this isn’t weird or anything but PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW😭🙏🏻❤️

NOT WEIRD! LOVE THIS ASK! THANK YOU!

SERIOUSLY! I WOULD BE RANTING ABOUT EPIC 24/7 IF THIS WASN’T A TURTLES BLOG BELIEVE YOU ME

Alike to turtles, I have problematic views!! I look at things that 3/4 of the fandom shares a view in and go: That’s not what’s happening.

The people in my life have heard me ramble I cannot shut up:

I went to this event months ago and it did Trivia and a round was Greek Mythology and everyone in my group was like, “Neko, this is all on you. Don’t let us down” and I got 9/10 right. Go me ✨

Gonna see my bested friend soon! We never get to see each other so we’re making a day out of hanging out. We’re gonna watch the full saga. All of the two hours of it. I am collecting animatics. Silly goose thinks it’s an optional suggestion (it’s not <3)

(Don’t worry, I’m exploring outside interests too. It’s mutual 😜)

Asking me to pick a favorite song is like asking me to pick a favorite fanfiction child. All my children have gifts of their own to share and I love them all with everything that I have!!!

But if you’re asking what song I most commonly have played on repeat and/or belted on the top of my lungs when I’m alone…

I’m Not Sorry For Loving You tops everything else.

Based off this, I wanna say that Calypso is my favorite character. 🤔

I mean, I created a blog where our only purpose in life is to be safe in our horror and empathy for her situation and to acknowledge that she has so much nuance that the fandom doesn’t touch.

But I think if I’m being honest, it’s not her.

At the end of the day, my angsty heart is drawn to Athena.

DISCLAIMER: Controversal opinions ahead. Do not come yell at me if you do not agree. Tell me why I’m wrong, absolutely! But do it kindly and thoughtfully, and maybe we can have a conversation :D

I am passionate about this character. No aggression to the musical. Every song in the musical rocks. It’s merely my passion speaking.

Everything about her breaks my heart. She’s a goddess in a disfunctional family who doesn’t understand mortal ways.

Also, her dad is the most toxic dude alive.

I mean, there’s this one line that people portray in so many ways, but you watch how Zeus interacts with her and recall the fact that he literally didn’t want her to live when she was conceived- he is SUCH a bully and her respect only stems from him being ‘king of the gods’.

None of the gods step in during God Games. At no point does anyone go “dad you can’t threaten your daughter because she did exactly what you asked her to do”. Not even ARES.

He’s the one who says, mortified, “is she dead?” So he didn’t WANT that turn of events. He cares about her and her state of being.

She’s the only one willing to challenge Zeus and he literally says, “you won, I don’t care, I’m going to heavily punish you because I’m unhappy that you said a true statement I didn’t like”

I've no respect for bullies, those who impose their will I've seen plenty enough to truly understand this kind of filth

DO YOU SEE MY VISION?

Literally her entire life- no one’s been on her side! NO WONDER she doesn’t want to take Ody’s offer of friendship. Clearly no one has ever really given her trust or empathy that she can lean on.

She expects people to lack empathy. She doesn’t understand that he’s not that kind of person and her lessons won’t click.

Have you forgotten to turn off your heart? This is not you I see you changing from how I've designed you

Why would she trust a moral when she can’t trust the gods?

And she has such a temper which is so relatable.

They were in two different spectrums and that’s why they clashed.

She was running off of a mentor mindset. He was running off a friendship mindset. Neither was doing what the other needed for the relationship because they were not on the same page.

And then they hit the ditch in the road and everything cracked.

I mistook you for a general What a waste of effort spent

I'll remind you I saw you as a friend But now we're done

And Athena’s proclamation literally is a prediction for herself:

One day, you'll hear what I'm saying One day, you might understand One day, but not today

Time skip: the way that Athena talks to Telemachus says that she’s been stewing in regret because she KNOWS they were good friends and she didn’t want to admit it to herself. She understands why they clashed and now she doesn’t know what to do about it.

So this kid is like “I think you should help him even if he hates you. If he won’t accept your friendship then I’ll be here waiting.”

(*insert waiting, waiting, waiting mantra*)

AND THAT’S LITERALLY EXACTLY WHAT SHE NEEDED TO HEAR?

SHE LITERALLY JUST NEEDED TO KNOW SHE HAD ONE PERSON ON HER SIDE? ONE FRIEND WHO CARED ABOUT HER?

I’m a sucker for ‘doing everything for the people you care about but platonically’ and Athena is the PICTURE of ‘oh wait I would platonically die for my friend’ and like?? That’s beautiful??? 😭

My only qualm with EPIC is the way that the Ithaca Saga handled Athena because you cannot convince me that it did not do her dirty. I have read and scrolled and chewed on all the arguments.

That. Beautiful. Goddess. Went. Above. And. Beyond. To. Mend. Her. Mistake and he outright denied her friendship.

That was not a “oh yeah we can be friends later” very well.

That’s a voice cracking, heartbroken: “I took a thunderbolt for you and you don’t want me in your life” very well. LIKE.

Yes. Oddy went through a lot. No denying that.

But he called out for HER. After everything, he called out for HER HELP. Showed a belief in her. Counted on her to save him

AND SHE DID WHAT HE NEEDED. TOOK A THUNDERBOLT. BEGGED ON HER KNEES WHILE SUFFERING AND IN AGONY.

I can't help but wonder What this world could be If we all held each other with a bit more empathy I can't help but feel like I led you astray What if there's a world where we don't have to live this way?

{I messed up. I want to do better. Is that still possible?}

If that world exists It's far away from here It's one I'll have to miss For it's far beyond my years You might live forever So you can make it be But I've got one endeavor There's a girl I have to see

{No. You have thousands of years to make other friends. There’s no world where we can mend who we used to be. You do what you need to do. My only want is to be with my wife.}

LIKE if they were going to try, the song would SAY that they plan to try. Jorge is not afraid to strongly imply things or outright say them. Ody doesn’t WANT to try and be friends. All he wants is wife. Which would be valid if SHE DIDN’T TAKE A THUNDERBOLT FOR HIM

ONE THAT SCARRED HER EYE AND KNOCKED HER OUT FOR SEVERAL SONGS SO SHE COULDN’T BE THERE TO HELP

There was no reason, no obligation, nothing but her love and affection for him that drew her to take that punishment from Zeus.

There is no way, after everything, she’s asking him to be her warrior.

She’s literally saying she messed up. She wants to mend their relationship. She wants to do better for him.

He could have said, “I’m not a man who does empathy anymore but we can try” instead of “I have other plans, gonna have to miss this friendship train” because that is an awful diss. Straight painful.

This amazing song did her so dirty and I will never get over it.

Thank goodness for Telemachus. She’ll needs his optimism and joy and willing friendship after the sting from that bite.