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flower-boi16 · 11 months ago

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Lily Orchard's Takes on "Racism" in The Owl House Are Garbage and Here's Why

Hello. You may know me as the guy who made two whole posts debunking Lily Orchard's takes on Hunter. Although those posts are not perfect and I do think there are some things I could add or change about them, they still hold up as I still stand by every single point I made in them.

But to say that Lily's bad Owl House takes end with Hunter would be a lie. There is this particular narrative about both TOH fandom and the show itself that she tries to paint that really pisses me off, that being the whole "Racism" narrative. I talked about it briefly in my second Hunter post but this narrative has so much objectively wrong with it that it's best to make a whole post refuting it. Here I'm going to go over Lily's takes on three characters that she primarily uses to push this whole racism narrative; Amity, Hunter, and Luz. Without further ado, let's begin...

NOTE: This post is LONG. Like, very very very very long. Its the longest post I've ever made and the longest essay I have ever posted on the internet. If you don't want to read all of that then just skip to section 7 where I have a TLDR for those who don't want to read an 8375-word long post that takes at least almost a full hour to read. So...ya, let's begin.

1. Lily Orchard's Takes on Amity are Garbage and Here's Why

I'll be covering Lily's Video "An Incoherent Discussion About Main Characters" mainly TOH segment as its the video where she talks the most about Amity. This is where the problems with Lily's narrative begin, that being; Lily saying that white characters are popular because of white favoritism rather than the fact that they are actually well written characters.

Oh, you thought Hunter was the only character Lily accused people of being racist for liking, ya, no. In the beginning of the TOH segment, Lily tries to argue that there's no reason for the fandom to love Amity so much because she (supposedly) has little depth as a character....

"At this point, Amity had no depth outside of being the bully, It's only until a month later that that would change. But the fandom latched onto Amity the moment she was introduced and hyped her up incessantly. with only a few clips where her ego is bruised and nothing else. And the thing is, Amity had nothing to her at this point. It's a common complaint from people that the fandom reduces Amity these days to just gay panic and shipping, but as of season 2, that is what she is, love interest, abusive parents, and that's it"

"Amity is a one-note character, and I don't say that as a bad thing characters fit the role that they were made for and there really isn't anything wrong with that. Amity is an obstacle for Luz to overcome and then her love interest and then occasionally gets a few moments of depth."

This is...objectively incorrect. Note I was not in the fandom at the time season 1 was airing (I only got into The Owl House when the show had already ended) however, Lily tries to act as if Amity is a character with little depth and that the fandom has no reason to like her so much. This is likely done so Lily can gaslight you into thinking she has a point so she can paint the TOH fandom as racist. Amity does go through character development throughout the show, as in season 1 she gradually becomes a better person and even makes amens with Willow after cutting her off during childhood.

She has a lot of moments of depth in episode Convention, Lost in Language, Understanding Willow, Escaping Expulsion, Eclipse Lake, and Reaching Out that develop her as a character. These aren't just "a few moments of depth". Amity is a developed character, the fandom has a reason to like her. And maybe people latched onto Amity because they liked the idea of an enemies-to-lovers romance?

Again, I wasn't in the fandom at the time, but Lily doesn't consider any of these reasons that people may like Amity so she could try and paint Amity as a 1-dimensional character when really people like Amity for being a well-developed character and Lily's arguments that she is one note are just objectively incorrect. She's a girl raised in a prestigious and high-class family who has to meet high expectations from her parents and bullies people she can't feel any weakness, and was forced to cut off her childhood best freind because she wasn't strong enough for them.

However, throughout season 1 she becomes a better person thanks to Luz, makes amens with Willow and stands up to her abusive mom in Season 2, and in Season 2 Amity still has episodes developing her with conflict with her parents, she's not just Luz's girlfriend. This is a well-developed and three-dimensional character here, and there's a reason why Amity is a fan favorite in the fandom. But Lily ignores all of that depth and character development in favor of painting Amity as one-dimensional so her racism narrative could look like it holds more water than it actually does.

And for the "abusive parents" stuff Lily says this:

"Amity's relationship to her parents and her perfectionism only ever come out in the third act of any other episode with the exception of Escaping Expulsion and Eclipse Lake. Amity's abusive home life is a plot device more than anything else, something another character pulls on to get the story going, and the solution is almost always insultingly easy, and she's only ever brought into an episode because Luz drags her into it"

Once again...this is objectively incorrect. Amity still has a lot of episodes exploring her character as I already stated so the first sentance is already false. But then Lily says that Amity's abusive home life is a...plot device? Um, no? Its not a plot device, its an aspect of Amity's character that the show is dedicating episodes to exploring. And "the solution is almost always insultingly easy"??? What do you mean by "the solution is almost always insultingly easy"?? Lily doesn't give any examples here, she just says something critical and you're supposed to just accept that.

And now...we get the moment you've all been waiting for:

"So why do people get upset at the idea that Amity is just reduced to love interest when that is literally her role in the plot? Well, (and if this gets posted on The Owl House subreddit then uhh please cover your ears you delicate little flower children) white favortism"

And now we have Lily trying to paint the TOH fandom as racist for liking Amity.

"It's been a common refrain for a while that the show has a white and the fandom makes it worse. Amity was the first instance of that"

Ok so 1. The show doesn't have a "white favoritism" problem, this is something I'll get into more later but the reason why Amity gets focus is because she objectively has more importance than to the plot thank Willow and Gusm being Luz's love interest. And I already talked about the real reasons the fandom likes Amity that don't have anything to do with racism.

"When she first appeared in I Was A Teenage Abomination, the fan base instantly started hyping her up as the greatest thing since Eda the owl lady. They immediantly projected every fucking thing on the sun onto her, and Lumity was birthed from this"

What if people just again, like the idea of an enemies-to-lovers romance between her and Luz? And I don't think I've seen ANY ONE project things onto Amity, again there are clear reasons to like these characters. Then Lily says this:

"That was all it took. It's by sheer fucking luck that Dana was going in this direction with them anyway because there was zero basis for any of this. Amity was a minor antagonist at best, and Willow was the main spotlight of I was a Teenage Abomination"

"Zero basis for any of this"? Again, Lily is acting as if there aren't any reasons to like Amity when as I already explained there clearly is. And if she means no basis for Lumity then...Lily, Lumity was clearly being set up a lot throughout the first season. Its not exactly hard to see that.

"There's no reason for people to go absolutely this crazy over her when Willow was right there. Hell throughout season 1 Willow had more grounds for a romantic relationship then Amity did. But Willow was chubby and Korean and Amity was not and not"

I don't know about you but I'm pretty sure a lot of reasons for people liking Amity more than Willow is because they find Willow and Gus to be less developed than Amity, which is a perfectly fine opinion to have. Once Again Lily ignores reasons people may prefer Amity over Willow in favor of just jumping straight to racism instead. And there also isn't as much of a hyper-fixation on Amity as Lily says there is, yes she's a fan favorite character but characters like Luz are still very popular.

The rest of the segment really is not worth talking about. Basically after this point Lily just keeps on trying to reinforce her objectively wrong narrative of "Amity is liked because of white favoritism", her saying that she thought Eda was the main character instead of Luz, and she also talks about Luz and Hunter here but that'll be covered in their respective sections.

So Lily's whole narrative about Amity being liked because of "white favoritism" is wrong, there are real reasons that people like Amity, Lily simply chooses to ignore that because that would break her narrative. Now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about the next character Lily uses to push this whole racism narrative (and the most obvious).

2. Lily Orchard's Takes on Hunter are Garbage and Here's Why - PART III (...kind of)

Again, I've already made two whole posts debunking Lily Orchard's critiques of Hunter so go read those if you want the full analysis on why Lily's takes on this character are completely wrong, but in the second section of Part II I talked about Lily's whole narrative about Hunter's fans that she tries to paint, that they are racist and only like Hunter for being white. She does basically the same thing she did for Amity; ignore the reasons why people may like a character in favor of painting the fandom as racist, and she also tries to act as if Hunter is only liked because people push headcanon's onto him. I'll just paste this piece of text here since I already refuted it in my second Hunter post;

"In her video talking about Hunter, Lily says that the fandom only likes Hunter in spite of how he's written, which is basically her saying "if you like this character you actually don't like him...or your just racist". Ok so, I don't want to talk about this that much here, however, it's worth noting that Lily constantly calls people who like Hunter racist purely for liking a character she doesn't that also happens to white, which is a major yikes, as there are reasons that Hunter is well-liked in the fandom beyond his race. But Lily's response to that is "If you like Hunter you only like him because you push fanon ideas onto him when he's really a shallow poorly-written character".

Let me tell you why people like Hunter; he's a boy who was indoctrinated and raised his whole life into believing he was doing the right thing and that Belos loves him, and for his whole life he was had to prove his worth to the EC or he's just worthless, and a lot of people also see Hunter's arc as him realizing he was being abused. None of this is stuff that the fandom is making up, these are literally things that are communicated in the show itself, Lily is just choosing to ignore that just so she can paint this narrative that TOH fandom is a bunch of racists because they like Hunter, completely ignoring how people can have different tastes and opinions than each other. Oh ya, and someone did point this out to Lily once in a tumblr ask...Lily responded by saying "no" and then went on another rant about how the fandom is racist for liking Hunter and sidelines Gus and Willow, and says that if Hunter was black, people would ignore him like they do with Gus and Willow...that speaks for itself. I could not find a screenshot where Lily said this, but I do know that she did say that in response to an anon poking a hole into her narrative, which just shows how she reacts to criticism."

Like with Amity, Lily constantly acts as if there aren't any reasons for people to like Hunter, and the reasons people do have are just things that people make up through headcanons, when this is objectievely false. There are clear reasons for people to like Hunter, but Lily ignores that in favor of painting this narrative that Hunter fans are racist. She even calls than misogynistic and homophobic in her video on Hunter without showing any evidence of that. And NONE of the anons she showed say anything like Lily described.

She keeps on reinforcing the narrative that Hunter fans only like him in spite of how he's written rather than the idea that he is written well, which is objectively false because again, there are reasons to like Hunter as a character, and all of Lily's takes on him are just objectively wrong. This is just Lily treating her opinions like they are facts in a very narcissistic and smug way.

But again, I've already refuted this point so let's get into the other point about Hunter that Lily tries to use to push this whole racism narrative; that being that Hunter overshadows and sidelines the non-white characters and gets too much screen time.

"Season 2 only made this worse with the introduction of Hunter, who as a character has an effect on the fanbase comparable to Audo and Ren. Overshadowing every other character and causing white girls to squee about how much of a good boy he is, even though he definitely isn't one"

I already talked about how Hunter doesn't take up as much screen time as Lily likes to think he does in my first Hunter post, but I'll just put some comments that I got from my first Hunter post as they debunk Lily's whole take her pretty well:

"Hunter having dynamics with the rest of the cast is a good thing and while him, it’s not being “stapled” into them, he’s just interacting with them in a fucking episode. He parallels all of the main four teens in some way so it makes sense. Plus, he’s only in half or less of the season 2 episodes and wasn’t in season 1, he didn’t get the luxury of low-stakes filler episodes so he kind of has to make a mark during the episodes he’s in. Which is why he’s usually the focus or at least major in them, that’s understandable and he’s compelling enough to justify it."

"I'll never understand the criticism of a character taking screentime away from others, if this character is considered by the writers to be more important than others, then they have to feel like they really do matter, that's normal."

The reason why Hunter gets a lot of focus isn't because of racism, its because he's an important character and he doesn't even appear in that many episodes so he kinda of needs to make a mark in the ones that he's in, especially in season 2B where the show got cut short so the show needed to try and dedicate as much of its time to developing the character it just introduced in the first half of the season as much as it can while still developing the other characters and progressing the plot.

Also, here's a fun fact; as two comments on my second Hunter post pointed out, Hunter is a character that can ONLY work if he's white, because he is a clone of a 1600s witch Hunter. Just a little tid-bit I thought I'd mention.

Hunter doesn't sideline characters as much as Lily likes to think he does, in Hunting Palisman, Hollow Mind and Thanks to Them he gets paired up with Luz, the main character who is also a black girl who gets an equal amount of screen time with Hunter. This is an extension of the whole "Hunter is stapled onto other characters" criticism Lily has, where she complains about...Hunter being paired up and interacting with other characters. Again, I already covered this stuff in my two Hunter posts, but Lily's whole problem here is simply that Hunter is in an episode, regardless of the reason.

And we all know that Lily is entirely biased to hate Hunter purely for being an "angsty white boy" so I think I'm done here. Again, go check out my two Hunter posts if you want to see go more in-depth on this whole "Hunter takes up too much screen time" criticism.

But in short; Hunter does not take up as much screen time as Lily says he does, and the reason the show focuses on him is that he has more importance to the plot than Willow and Gus, and because he needs to make a mark in each episode he's in, and once again there are reasons for people to like Hunter that are not related to "white favoritism". Again, go check out my posts on Lily's critiques on Hunter if you want me to go more in-depth. But now, let's get into the final character that Lily tries to use to push this whole narrative, and that is...

3. Lily Orchard's Takes on Luz's are Garbage and Here's Why (short version)

Let me just say, Lily's takes on Luz, specifically her trauma...are awful. They are almost as bad as her takes on Hunter, and I'm actually planning on making a whole post refuting Lily's critiques of Luz like I did with Hunter, but for now, let's just talk about the whole narrative she tries to paint with how Luz's trauma is received; this time I'll be covering the Luz segment of her fandom torture video.

But lets cover the Luz part of the Discussion of Main Characters video first before get into that. Don't worry, this will be quick. Here Lily constantly tries to argue that people want to ignore Luz in favor of Amity and Hunter but they can't because she is the main character

"But the thing is, while Amity and Hunter caused Willow and Gus to be completely sidlined, (and even their episodes in season 2 have generally just been them playing second fiddle to one of those two) neither of them have managed to sideline Luz. Amity's entire role in the story is to be a supporting character to Luz everything she does is to help and further Luz's goals and Hunter is an antagonistic force in Luz's story, trying to stop her efforts because they interfere with the goals of emperor Belos."

"Amity is the supporting character and love interest, and Hunter is the villain. And I imagine that is something that probably sticks in the craw of the Amity-Hunter hype train, they fact that they can't just ignore Luz like they clearly want to because the characters they like come with Luz attached as a default."

Not only does Lily not give ANY evidence to support her narrative, she's also just... objectively wrong. Luz is a beloved character in the fandom, there's tons of videos about her that get a shit ton of views, there's a lot of fan art and fan works around Luz, etc etc. People who like Amity and Hunter probably also like Luz a lot too. Just look at the Luz Noceda Tumblr tag and you'll see that it has more followers than either of any of Hunter and Amity's tags do.

Lily does not give any evidence to support her whole narrative and acts as if the TOH fandom really wants to ignore Luz, but as I already said Luz is still a beloved and fan-favorite character within the fandom, its not exactly hard to see that. Just because people like Amity and Hunter doesn't mean they secretly dislike Luz or something, that's just stupid.

I could go on and on about this but you get my point; Lily's entire narrative that she tries to paint that People want to ignore Luz is just straight-up false and she does not support her claim with any evidence whatsoever.

But now, let's get into the real meat of things; the narrative that Lily tries to paint in her Fandom Torture video. Again, Lily's takes on Luz's trauma are just as awful as her takes on Hunter but I'll only focus on the racism narrative she tries to paint, that being that the fandom likes watching 14-year-old black girls suffer I'm not joking. This is the narrative that Lily actually tries to paint;

"But the truth is...ya fandom does love this shit. They love watching characters' angst forever. They love their three thousand-word slow-burn hurt with no comfort fix. They love watching characters suffer especially if they're women, and especially if they're black, and Luz is both."

.......Lily, fuck you. This is a lie, a straight-up lie. Lily is trying to trick you into thinking that the TOH fandom are sadistic monsters who enjoy watching 14-year-old girls who are also black suffer, and not only is that objectively incorrect, it's also just...so unbelievably gross given the real reasons why people like Luz's depression arc.

Do you want to know why this pisses me off so much? The actual reason why people like Luz's trauma arc isn't because they enjoy watching children suffer, its because aside from it being a realistic and believable depression arc, it also resonates with a lot of people. No joke, apparently there are a lot of people who relate to Luz and see themselves through her. Dana created a depression arc for a character that ACTUAL PEOPLE WITH TRUAMA AND SELF-LOATHING ISSUES CAN RELATE TO.

NOT TO MENTION the fact that a lot of people in the fan base actually sympathize with Luz her and her self-loathing issues. Luz's trauma arc is well-received because it was able to resonate with a lot of people, and the fact that Lily chooses to ignore that in favor of painting the TOH fandom as a bunch of racists who enjoy watching black women suffer is just...disgusting. Fuck you Lily, and I mean that very sincerely.

Oh wait, cuz I'm not done with this! Hunter, a character that has gone through just as much trauma as Luz, and whose trauma is also well received by the fandom as well, Lily just ignores. So its bad when Luz gets traumatized and people like it but when the same happens to Hunter it's ok? Oh wait, I forgot, Hunter is a white boy and Luz is a black girl, that's the difference.

Lily, I'm so fucking sick of your double standards. So its bad when a fandom likes a black girl getting traumatized but when it's a white boy you don't complain and don't go and call them racist? That's stupid.

You probably already get my point by now so I'll just end this section here; Lily's whole narrative of the TOH fandom liking Luz being traumatized because they are sadistic monsters who enjoy watching black girls suffer is both flawed and disgusting, so is her narrative about the fandom wanting to ignore Luz in favor of other characters which is also objectively incorrect. But wait, there is one last video of Lily trying to push this narrative that I have not mentioned yet...

... it's the white favoritism video mentioning Hunter

4. The White Favoritism Video is Garbage and Here's Why

So for this post I decided to go ahead and watch Lily's white favoritism video, specifically the Hunter segments. I went into this video with very low expectations, expecting it to just be Lily repeating the same points she already made over and over again. And...holy shit. This video is AWFUL. Like I knew it was going to be bad, but I was not ready for the amount of bullshit Lily was going to spew. I was left completely shocked and speechless by the end of the second segment at what Lily just said in those two segments.

Time for me to tear apart both of these awful segments. Let's start with the first one, and only 16 seconds in after reinforcing her whole "Hunter is only liked because of fandom shit" narrative, Lily already starts talking bullshit:

"Even his rebelling against an abuser in the canon is undercut by the fact that it's basically a preordained destiny because every golden guard has betrayed Belos."

WHAT????! Hunter would have never betrayed Belos in the first place in if the events of Hollow Mind had never happened, hell when Luz and Hunter saw the memories of Belos doing evil things Hunter constantly tried making excuses for Belos and spent most of it being in denial. And we don't even KNOW anything about the golden guards, maybe they could've eventually realized on their own that Belos was evil, that doesn't undercut Hunter breaking from his abuser!

Then Lily says this:

"Furthermore Hunter ended up being the vector for a lot of people to start caring about Willow, Daruis and Camila, insofar so they could be used to bolster Hunter's character with romance and adoption respectively before this point these characters were ignored or in some cases vilified"

I don't really know about Willow but for Darius and Camila this is just wrong, from what I've heard Camila starting getting popular once the episode Yesterday's Lie premiered, and the reason Darius was vilified before Any Sport in a Storm is because...in he was a villain in the show until this episode showed us he may not be. This isn't racism, Darius's last appearance before this has him as an antagonist, that's why he was "vilified" before Any Sport in a Storm. The rest of this segment is not worth talking about, its just Lily reinforcing her broken narrative about Hunter only being liked because of fandom stuff when that's literally not the reason why he's well-liked as I already explained so now let's move onto the second section...

....the second section is actually worse than the first one. The amount of bullshit Lily was speaking during that three minutes gave me a stroke. So Lily actually starts off by acknowledging the accusations she has been that she only hates Hunter for being white and would've liked him if he was black (which is an undisputed fact), since she constantly complains about him being a boring white boy. How does she respond to this? Does she try to refute this in some way?

....No. Instead, what Lily says next left my jaw wide open as I tried to process wtf I just heard. This is what Lily says:

"When I started criticizing Hunter it came around the time I became a lot more vocally invested in non-white characters and some people in a prime example of desperately trying to give me what they think is a taste of my own medicine came up to me and said with whole pussy "If Hunter was black, you'd like him" with a very simple truth, "If Hunter was black, you wouldn't" "

Holy shit. When I heard this I was at a loss of words. Do I even need to explain why this is awful? Not only is Lily once again accusing Hunter fans of being racist to further her narrative, not only does Lily not even TRY to refute the idea that she dislikes Hunter for being a white boy, but she also even says that if Hunter was black, people wouldn't have liked him...even though Luz, a black girl, is a beloved character in the fandom. Lily cannot gaslight me into thinking otherwise.

Lily then continues to push this idea that if Hunter was black, people wouldn't have liked him:

"If Hunter was black the fandom would not have ignored every skleazy thing he does, like his supposedly best episode according to fangirls that established Huntlow as a ship where...he uses the power the state to kidnap several children and force them to join the magic Gestapo. They would not view this action equally if dark-skinned and stop writing that well actually comment you will not convince me that they would. "

Hmm gee Lily I love how you ignore...

The fact that Hunter meant well and didn't know what he was doing was wrong as he thought that he was doing his friends a favor by getting them into the emperor's coven because of his indoctrination so thus he doesn't exactly know any better.

(And most importantly) The fact that Hunter realizes what he did was wrong and not only takes full responsibility of his actions but also goes out of his way to fix his mistake and get his friends out a situation he put them in AND risked his position as the golden guard AND ALSO was willing to take a lethal strike from Darius just so he could fix his mistake, something that is pretty selfless if you ask me (go check out this post if you want a more in-depth rebuttal to this bullshit claim. It's not directed towards Lily but it basically addresses Lily's whole statement)

Ya Lily I love how like all Hunter critics you just completely ignore that. Now Lily is trying to push this whole "racism" narrative even further, not even trying to give a counter argument to the rebuttles Hunter fans give and just calls them racist by saying "If Hunter was black, you wouldn't be defending him". That's not a good counterargument Lily.

THEN LILY SAYS THIS:

"Furthermore the main issue with Hunter is that the story spends a lot of time with him but spends no time developing him outside of making goofy faces for the internet"

hiuodshuviusdhfiudhfiudshfiuhqweqweqwe HUH?!?! The show doesn't develop Hunter as a character?!?! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?! ARE WE WATCHING THE SAME SHOW!?!? Either Lily's is THAT illiterate of she's deliberately lying. The show DOES clearly spend time developing Hunter, especially in Eclipse Lake, and the very episode that Lily criticized earlier, Any Sport in a Storm where Hunter goes through development and learns to make connections with others and has real friends.

HE GOES THROUGH AN ENTIRE ARC OF BREAKING FROM HIS ABUSER!!!! And no Lily you are not going to gaslight me into thinking that was all just fanon, because its not, its literally communicated within the show, you're just fucking lying. Do I even need to refute this point anymore? Anyone who's watched the show would now this is completely false so lets just move on to the next thing Lily says:

"Making him black wouldn't fix these problems, it would exacerbate them, because now you have a black character you are doing nothing with yet proudly displaying you are doing nothing with him, and that's a problem because its now the third time you've done that"

Shows a picture of Gus and Skara

Ok, so...

The show is clearly doing things with Hunter, I already refuted this stuff in my two Hunter posts

Oh, I'm sorry Lily, didn't you say that Hunter being black would make him more interesting?

Skara is a MINOR CHARACTER that doesn't have any real importance to the plot, yet you want to show to focus on her just because she's black? What???

Also, remember the Skara thing for later btw.

"But all this distracts from the real problem, Hunter is only allowed to get away with being such a nothing burger of a character, despite taking up so much screen time because he's white and male. This is the only element of his character that people like and everything else is fanon that they made up. What little there is to his character is just ideas that were stolen from Luz and Amity and yet Hunter eclipses them both in popularity"

Do I need to explain why this point is garbage? This whole narrative that Lily tries to craft revolves around the idea that Hunter is flat and boring and has nothing to his character and nothing to him and isn't interesting and everything that people like about him is just fanon, and ANYBODY who watched the show would know that this is completely objectively wrong.

Lily, will you please stop trying to fucking gaslight people into agreeing with you? Hunter is an abused boy who was groomed and indoctrinated into believing he's doing the right thing and then breaks from his abuser and ends up finding real friends. This is not fanon, these are things being directly communicated within the show, you can not gaslight me into thinking otherwise Lily. The fact that Lily just straight up says that Hunter is only liked for being a white male reinforces the already broken narrative she has about Hunter fans. And once again Luz and Amity are still incredibly popular characters, I don't think I need to talk about this further. This point sucks, lets move onto the next thing Lily says:

"Ironically The Owl House goes to make Hunter a useless non-character because all of his acts of rebellion end up being underwritten by the fact that every golden guard has turned on Belos in the same way. So Hunter isn't even operating on his own accord its just gut instinct"

Lily, can you go five seconds in this video without saying something extremely stupid? Like I already said Hunter wouldn't have betrayed Belos if the events of Hollow Mind hadn't happened because he wouldn't have a reason to, he wasn't just going to wake up one day and say "I'm going to betray Belos for no reason at all!". Also, I'm sorry Lily, wasn't one of your complaints about Hollow Mind that Hunter was in denial for most of the episode??? HOW TF could you THEN turn around and say "Hunter's acts of rebellion were just gut instinct" like??? Hunter spent most of Hollow Mind IN DENIAL of the idea of Belos being evil, just because the other golden guards betrayed Belos doesn't mean its just "gut instinct", their genetic clones, not reincarnations.

And like I already said, we don't even KNOW anything about the golden guards, maybe they could've eventually realized on their own that Belos was evil, that doesn't undercut Hunter breaking from his abuser. Sigh let's just move on...

Now Lily's talking about Skara yaaaaaaaay

"Meanwhile if you like a character who isn't a white guy just because you vibe with them your expected to answer for it. Hunter stans can freely fawn over a character just because he's pasty and blonde as long as they invent pages upon pages of cope. But If I like a character just because their VA is cool and I vibe with their energy I'm expected to justify that like I'm in fucking court. I quite like Skara because her design is cool Kimberly Brooks is one of my favorite VA's and I like this little quasi-recovery arc she's got going on in the background. But butthurt Hunter stans angry about my criticism of the character and always throw that back in my face because those shallow surface-level traits of the character are things I call them out for focusing on"

So now Lily is addressing the whole Skara allegations except she didn't mention what people like me are accusing her of; liking Skara for being a black girl. Call it uncharitable, but Lily has constantly complained about Hunter being a "boring white guy" and explicitly stated that making him black would make him more interesting, and when asked how to fix Skara she basically said to make him a black girl, and since Skara (a black girl) is a character that Lily heavily hyper-fixates on AND straight up replaced Hunter's name with in the season 2 round up video AND since IN THIS VERY VIDEO Lily complains about Skara not getting enough focus despite the fact the show has no reason to focus on her because she's a side character with little importance to the plot, Lily has not beaten the allegations that she hates Hunter for being a white guy and likes Skara for being a black girl.

I'll admit in my second Hunter post I was a bit too uncharitable towards Lily since she has now at least given actual reasons for liking Skara, however Lily has still not beaten the accusations she's getting over liking Skara for being a black girl. There's so much evidence that points towards that and Lily hasn't refuted it at all. Also remember when Lily complained about Skara being another black character who the show did "nothing with"? Well, now she says this:

"This ignores the fact that Skara is a tertiary character and is therefore allowed to be mostly surface level. Hunter is a main character with the exact same level of depth as a background character."

So you admit that Skara is a tertiary character and thus doesn't have much importance yet earlier you complain about the show not focusing on her more??? What????

"You can argue that this is because the show was canceled but when you spend eight episodes doing nothing to progress a character the problem isn't that didn't have enough time"

I'm sorry EIGHT?! Hunter's arc throughout season 2 spans over the course of five episodes, not eight. And once again Hunter isn't doing nothing here the show is developing him as a character every time he appears, but again I already refuted this in my first Hunter post.

After this point, Lily stops talking about Hunter and goes on about how female and non-white characters are nit-picked and people act like you the weird one for not caring about their nitpicks and continues reinforcing her already broken narrative...and also makes a star wars comparison, so the rest of this segment isn't really worth talking about because it's based on points and arguments that I've already refuted. Besides this section is getting long enough already so I'll just end it here.

Good GOD that video was awful. Like, I already had low-expectations going into it expecting to just be Lily repeating the same shit over and over again...and it was, but it was also Lily making some of the WORST critiques of this show I have ever seen. Lily, how do your takes on Hunter STILL suck? The whole narrative Lily tries to build is based on points that anyone who watched the show and payed even a little bit of attention to it would know is completely objectively false.

Literally every single thing Lily says here has something wrong with it, I was NOT ready for the bullshit this video contained...

But ya, you probably get the gist now; this video is awful, and I've now gone through every single point Lily has made about racism in The Owl House and refuted each of them...

...But I'm still not done. Because there is a certain trend I've been noticing throughout these three videos, especially the first and third one...

5. Gaslighting

These next few sections are probably going to be a lot shorter since this abomination of a post has gone on for long enough already, so sections 5-7 will hopefully be quicker. Anyways, a common tactic I've seen Lily use during these videos is gaslighting. This is a manipulative tactic that she uses to try and make it sound like she has a point but when you really look at it, she doesn't.

We can see this with her insisting that Hunter and Amity have no depth where she boils them down to simple character traits (or just straight-up lies) to make them sound shallow. She especially does this a lot with Hunter with the entire narrative of "Hunter is only well-liked because of fanon stuff" which anyone who watches the show would know is objectively wrong. Then there's the whole "spite-based enjoyment" she tries to paint with him, where Lily says that Hunter fans only like Hunter in spite of how he's written. And in her Hunter video she...says this:

"There are a lot of Reylos in Hunter's fan base who are obscenely racist misogynistic and homophobic. And I sure as fuck am not counting them In who I'm talking to today. Hunter is a magnet for fandom racism and misogony, but today I'm talking past those people to people with a very sincere love for the character. You don't love this character for how he's written. You love him in spite of how he's written. And you should be upset that his potential is routinely squandered in favor of just making more shots about him moping and sulking. You should expect better. Everyone would have BETTER if did not waste time on this character doing fucking NOTHING."

Typing that as I listened to Lily's video pissed me off. This narrative is entirely broken once you factor in how all of Lily's takes about Hunter are complete garbage, but even worse, Lily is trying to gaslight Hunter fans who are going to watch her video by saying "If you like this character, you actually don't like him cuz I said so"

Fuck right off Lily. There are real reasons for people to like Hunter that are not fanon things that are being made up, stop trying to gaslight Hunter fans into agreeing with ffs.

Lily also does this a lot with Amity too, insisting that she's just a one-note character with little to her and there is no reason for people to like her so much, when that is not true at all. There are actual reasons people have to like these characters that are NOT being made up unlike what Lily is trying to gaslight you into believing her. This is an incredibly manipulative and condescending way to frame your arguments, that if YOU like a character you actually don't and you should stop pretending that you do.

Fuck off Lily. The show DOES clearly use Hunter to his fullest potential, anyone who watches the show would know that, stop trying to gaslight people with your terrible arguments. Again, read my posts on Lily's takes on Hunter if you want the full context of why none of her takes on him are good, but needless to say Lily really likes to gaslight people into agreeing with her here and that is a VERY manipulative way to frame your arguments.

Oh wait, I'm still not done...because now its time to talk about...

6. "Dana has a white favoritism problem" & Lily's Hypocrisy

Yes, you read the title of this section correctly. In Lily's TOH season 2 round-up video, she says this:

"I know we're all being very charitable to Dana but I think we all need to address the elephant in the room is that The Owl House fandom has a big white favoritism problem and SO DOES DANA"

"Dana is not doing anything to help if anything she's actively making it worse and I feel somebody probably needs to probably sit her down about that and just be like "hey Dana, stop""

.......there is no other way to look at this. There is no other way to interpret this, Lily is accusing Dana of being racist. Now, complaining about a show focusing on white characters too much despite any other reasons a show may have for focusing on these characters beyond racism is one thing, but to accuse somebody of bigotry for focusing on two white characters, ignoring any reasons the show may have for focusing on them beyond racism is just...

I don't even know how to even say it, it's just gross. Once again, there are reasons why Dana chooses to focus on Amity and Hunter as I've already explained, but Lily ignores those reasons and just casually calls Dana racist. Oh, and I'm sorry Lily, but if Dana supposedly had a white favoritism problem, why tf would she make a black Latina girl the main protagonist??? And also develop st. black latina girl a lot throughout the series making her a three-dimensional and well-developed character that a lot of people love and relate to?

Lily ignores all possible reasons that Dana may have for focusing on Amity and Hunter just calls her racist. Wow, as I couldn't have hated you more Lily. Oh wait, but I'm not done with this section, no no.

Now I'm going to be discussing Lily Orchard's hilarious hypocrisy here. I find it incredibly funny how Lily constantly accuses the TOH fandom and Dana of racial bias when she literally hates a character (Hunter) for being a white male. And when she constantly fetishizes black people and explicitly stated once that Hunter would have been more interesting if he was black. I can guarantee you that if Amity and Hunter were black and Luz, Willow and Gus were all white, Lily wouldn't complain about them taking up too much screen time like she currently does, you can't convince me that she would.

Lily so desperately wants to convince us how racist the TOH fandom and Dana are yet she hates a character for his skin color and gender and constantly complains about him being a "boring white guy". This comment from my first Hunter post sums it up best:

"Lily really just desperately needs a character to channel unjustified negativity into so she can act better than the fans who like that character. She found reasons to hate Amity that way too in season 1. She gets obsessive about how the series "could be better" (i.e. the series should do the specific thing that SHE wants even if it's not the creator's vision) and when things don't turn out that way she gets... weird.

Like she shipped WilLuz and was butthurt that the fandom mainly saw Willow and Luz as just friends and recognized that Dana was emphasizing Amity crushing on Luz ... but Lily was like, "How dare they ship Lumity and not WilLuz! This is the racist fandom hating PoCs!!!" without self-awareness to see that no one was being racist but her for assuming that people only shipped a thing they liked because one character looks Caucasian.

She'd get on her high horse and accuse Dana of "white favoritism" for having Amity be important and making the fandom like her... like, the leaps and bounds Lily will go through to turn herself into "the most noble person" in a fandom is shameless. She also would rip on Amity for being derivative of Malfoy or the spoiled girl from Little Witch Academia... when that character trope is what Amity was subverting by showing that Amity had depth beyond her snobby/type-A first impression since after her first impression she almost immediately started to show layers to her character.

I feel like Lily only stopped being so negative to Amity because even she had qualms against crapping on Amity when a) she realized that complaining about Amity being a bully long after Amity had since stopped and atoned for that behavior was getting really old, and b) shitting on one half of Lumity when it was probably one of the biggest, most wholesome LGBT couples in modern animation would be a hard sell for Lily (who as an LGBT person should be less harsh on earnest representation from an LGBT creator).

Along comes Hunter and Lily can't exist without having a designated hate-sink so she projects all her dislikes into Hunter for merely existing. His design being light-skinned and handsome was enough to repel Lily. Him being a genuinely good person who had a troubled life but still perseveres to protect the relationships he's forged... he's pretty much a perfect addition to the cast that kind of adds a missing quality to the series (like how Toph in Avatar the Last Airbender was kind of the special spice that elevated the series for the better by being added to the cast). But ignore all the good his character brings because he's a caucasian-ish character who used to be tricked into being on the bad-side. I'm also sure Lily was furiously spewing venom when she saw that Willow was paired with Hunter, since Lily wanted Willow to be with Luz."

Lily, if you constantly accuse people of being racist for liking a character you don't and also accuse the creator of being racist as well, but solely hate a character for being a white male, then I'm sorry, but nobody here is being racist except for you. (I could also mention her star wars fic but this post is getting long enough so let's just end it here)

7. Conclusion

TLDR for those who don't want to read this entire post:

There are clear reasons why people may like Amity and Hunter that have nothing to do with racism at all

There are also clear reasons why the show may want to focus on these characters due to them being important to the story

Luz is a beloved fan-favorite character and Lily does not give any good evidence to suggest otherwise.

Lily's take that people like watching black women suffer and that's why Luz's truama arc is well-received is completely false as it is well-received due to being able to resonate with a lot of people.

The white favoritism video is fucking awful

A majority of Lily's arguments are just her trying to gaslight you into agreeing with her

Lily complains about the TOH fandom and Dana having racial biases when she is racially biased herself

Lily Orchard remains my most hated YouTuber. She's a shit critic and an even shittier person, and I sincerely hope that one day, Lily's entire channel gets terminated and wiped off the face of the internet, because people like her do not deserve a platform. She has not improved and I don't think she EVER will. Thanks for reading this entire post, and...bye.

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khaopybara · 2 months ago

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Ok I have written and rewritten this trying to get all my thoughts together about affair so l apologize if im all over the place.

I am glad that wan ran away and im actually having second thoughts about wanting them to be together. One part of me understands and accepts that pleng has been slower at realizing her own feeling for wan (it happens) while wan has been all in since they were kids. The other half of me wants to slap pleng and shout at her "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE ONE FOOT OUT THE DOOR, CANT YOU SEE HOW MUCH WAN LOVES YOU!?!?" THIS WOMAN MARRIED A GUY SHE DIDNT EVEN LOVE TO KEEP HER PROMISE TO PLENG AND HAD HOPED THAT PLENG WOULD SEE THEIR WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT!!! Admittedly a little extreme but I guess that's love!

During the entirety of pleng reading wans letter I was like "mhm yep" "so right" "exactly!" Wan said it all perfectly imo.

I feel like wan should only accept her back and forgive her if she agrees to go to both individual and couples therapy.

(also that tattoo shop was as busy as deane's 😆)

-🤫

In a similar manner, I've also written and rewritten this lol but I've been having so many feelings about WanPleng and Affair for the past couple of weeks, like seriously. And mind you, I will make no sense in this post. I'll sound like an hypocrite at times, but trust the process.

There was not even one character in Affair that didn't piss me off at some point.

Pleng pushes the protagonist privilege with me the most, and Wan has probably annoyed me the least.

But also, gotta give credit where credit is due (I suppose). The name of the show is Affair, so from the very beginning, I assumed they'd be problematic and not your usual GL sweet protagonists. I did expect it to be a more problematic-together thing, though, as in them actually being part of the affair (I could go on a full rant about Eek, but I'll stop myself), but instead, we got emotionally immature and stagnant former rich kid Pleng running away from every single one of her problems and coming up with solutions (that involve Wan) completely by herself without consulting anyone first. And it's not exactly an insecurity thing she developed for losing both of her parents + her wealth. She has done that since they were kids. It feels like an entitlement she has over Wan's life from day one.

On the other hand, we got overachiever Plengpleasing Wan who has tricked an already emotionally constipated and loveless Eek into dating and marrying her just bc Pleng told her to do it. She has always made her intentions so clear to Pleng, but I also wish she had used her words more, especially after they became adults.

They both need so much therapy and counselling, because if they stay together, it'll only be because they have this wrong notion that they are only able to love each other in this lifetime. And it's an insecure love, because in that letter, you can hear how much resentment she still has for Pleng leaving.

And mind you, I say this with love! They are extremely unhealthy to each other, and Wan's mom is kind of right when she says Pleng clouds Wan's perspective. They love each other unhealthily and at this point, they both deserve each other (and it's not like their options are good with a bunch of dudes who are all pain the asses. I'm not even kidding, not even one of them if a good fit. I didn't even remember who that Frank guy was and then remembered he's the one in the bike who I thought wanted Pleng first and then saw that Wan became a pretty teenager!!! And decided to switch his attentions to her instead.)

Anyway. I love them, and I hope they learn the magic of words and therapy and solve their issues. (Maybe they should get a therapist to every character, too.) Or maybe not. Stay unhealthy girls, but be unhealthy to others and not each other, alright?

#th: affair #affair the series #🤫 anon

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summertimemusician · 2 years ago

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Thinking about The Original Attempted Calamity Hero and Ganondorf again and the implications of the Calamity even existing in the first place.

(Warning, this post has spoilers for basically all of the Zelda franchise and is pretty long, if there's a game or thing you did not read but would like to like the manga then please turn back, or stick around if you don't care lol)

I know there's a lot of theories about him floating around, that either he was half Gerudo, part of the Zonai tribe or at least half Zonai and Zonai raised or even Ganon himself because for some reason something might have happened to that era's Link, but that's a fairy better released at another day. But can y'all imagine being the guy back then? I don't think we discuss this enough to be honest.

So far, almost all of Ganon's incarnations have been at least somewhat mortal before BOTW, with the exception of obviously Demise who was a deity, and the whole thing with the Four Swords Adventures portion of the timeline that kind of itches at me that it has time travel involved though that's yet another fairy, but almost every single one of them started as a human even if they do get more and more animalistic over time. What with Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker's Ganondorf being by far the most human, but during the second part of Ocarina of Time and later on Twilight Princess they descend into Beast Form, which is a power boost yes but definitely a downgrade as it doesn't leave him as sane or cognitive, given that at the end of Twilight Princess Ganon returns to human form to fight Link rather than remain in that form. It's telling that he much prefers being human to being a feral boar.

Then we have OG Zelda's Ganon, the general downfall timeline Ganon that is, from A Link to The Past to Oracle of Seasons/Ages to A Link Between Worlds to the very first Legend of Zelda and Link's Adventure, it's clear that Ganon has fully descended into a feral state and that whatever bit of humanity there and cognition as a result was, he very rarely talks in LTTP, in a LBTW he's at his most coherent when Yuga fuses with him, by the OG Zelda he doesn't speak at all and twice in that time frame he had to be revived rather than come back on his own like his more human like iterations can if they wait and chill for a couple hundred years. He's basically no more than a feral animal, he isn't interested in ruling Hyrule, he's very darn interested in destroying the hero and making Hylia herself suffer and definitely doesn't care about burning Hyrule to the ground and killing anyone in his path if that does the trick, whatever sanity there was is too far gone.

Stick with me here, I'll get to the point.

It's an interesting descent and detail to pivot and follow after. It's obviously a result of Demise's corrupting divine fury and curse, you know what's technically a similar case? Zelda.

I think we can all agree that Zelda isn't Hylia, she's Hylia brought to earth or at the very least her vessel if we go by Breath of the Wild, because Zelda praying for herself wouldn't make any logical sense otherwise even if by order of her father, with no memories or rememberance of what she was, just that she is the holder of Hylia's divine power and her will and responsibility to protect the people and specially the Triforce/Light Force the Original Three left behind. No Cost Too Great you could say in the words of the Pale King from Hollow Knight, the only time she remembers in full is in Skyward Sword, it's confirmed that Zelda gets Hylia's knowledge and maybe even her memories after praying in the springs and it doesn't matter if she's just a vessel to her power or a reincarnation or if this is a Cú Chulainn situation where she is Hylia yet isn't (Schrodinger's Deity?), and her behavior shifts a bit then, not by much but it's definitely noticeable if you look at the text.

What if it's a similar case for Ganon? Zelda is what you get when you don't have the memories, when you take something barely comprehensible with a though process you can't even begin to understand with an intense capability for emotion that's practically suffocating and compress it into a mortal form to start again as a blank slate and it mostly remains that way. Ganon is what you get when the memories slowly seep back in as well as the intense, overwhelming, all consuming divine rage and fury and wish for vengeance seeps into a mortal vessel that very obviously can't fully hold it, couple that with Demise's curse and you have a cocktail for disaster, Ganon was doomed from the start just by being Demise's vessel, man never stood a chance. Though there's no way to say wether he fought against the influence or not, that's something we are unlikely to ever know since we only play and read from Link's and Zelda's perspective.

The Calamity and Malice is the result of when that divine fury breaks out, when there's a break in the already spilling over and cracked goblet. But it couldn't have broken on it's own you know? We see that cursed enemies were always a thing in Zelda games and as far back in the timeline as Skyward Sword it already existed, remember that corrupting and harmful 'water' at the Ancient Cistern's basement? The cursed enemies and dark crystals there? Possibly a leftover of Demise's power after the original break through the surface as seen in the First Hero's manga, a prototype of Malice, hence why Ghirahim was sniffing around there for a way to bring him back, it's the only other place in the franchise after BOTW we see a prominent number of cursed enemies, and the Malice is clearly a thing that can learn and evolve, it can possess enemies and technology, it can revive the dead and control it and possess people too and create beings from it (remember the Phantom Ganon in OOT and PH guys), but it's not a discernible pattern, we didn't know much about it at all until recently and that right there? Is some terrifying lovecraftian/ancient mythology thing.

Because we clearly see it puppeteering scattered pieces of Sheikah Tech in the form of the Blights, possessing the Divine Beasts and the Calamity Ganon form in BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom shows us how Ganondorf's corpse is still around and clearly was revived, like a lich being corrupted from it's own energy. It's not Ganondorf doing anything anymore, it's the curse, it's Demise's Will, and as his corpse has not fully perished yet it likely is but a puppet to it.

It was not a pattern anyone could have predicted much less the hero back then, would he and his Zelda have an inkling about the pattern of Ganondorf always reincarnating and maybe have tried to do something about it early? Absolutely, heck maybe Ganondorf was even sane enough to fight back and try to go off script. Would they have predicted that some kind of freaky kill switch would actívate to keep his reanimated corpse going only powered by the original curse Demise set up, which is basically fueled by pure divine will for vengeance on the one with the spirit of the hero who bested him not once but twice and the goddess that twarthed him at every turn from throwing that little green glad bastard at him with a sacred sword to seal him to basically sabotaging the Triforce so divine beings cannot use it and fury so strong it transcends time and space if we count games like Cadance of Hyrule and Hyrule Warriors (which we are doing here by the way) being a thing and presumably happening in different worlds? Absolutely not.

Honestly I see people compare BOTW and AOC Link to the guy back then and how they should have done better in game and that BOTW Link failed not living up to the standard he set up and how he stopped talking under the pressure and I'm just, y'all ever pause and think he wasn't anymore prepared than you people? Maybe I'm remembering it wrong due to sleep deprivation, I haven't slept well in months and woke up in a cold sweat at 3am to start writing this down but just- He didn't have Shrines to prepare him, he didn't have the Divine Beasts back then to weaken the Calamity before they were built by the Sheikah with presumably Zonai aid (and oh boy to I have thoughts and headcanons on that) and that would have taken time, it was basically just him, Zelda, the other races and Fi as the Master Sword (or heck even without her, we all know it always takes any Link time to get the Master Sword in the games, he likely didn't pull her out straight away like how presumably BOTW and AOC Link did) holding the fort against Malice enhanced monsters and likely revived undead because we know even while sane the previous Ganon's were definitely not above doing that.

So it was most likely a Phyrric Victory, the few times we hear about things that happened to previous heroes, is that we either don't know what happened to them at the end of the story (which is extremely concerning if you ask me because something should have been recorded right? They should have at least recorded how Zelda got her powers to give other Zelda's a better point of reference that just stay in a spring and pray to yourself apparently) Or that they just straight up died (The Hero's Shade being OOT Link, The First Hero being left behind rather than being able to ascend with the other humans to Skyloft, OG Zelda's previous Link most likely being killed in an attempt by Ganon's cult to revive him or to seal him away again), and we don't hear what happened to him or Zelda or the original Champions. History is written by the victors after all, Hylian history has a tendency of erasing details, take from that what you will.

TL;Dr My headcanon is that him and his Zelda were unwittingly cataclysms to the Calamity being unleashed in the first place, and that's why we don't hear much about what happened to them and, since 10000 years have passed there was likely a lot of time for erasure and cover up to happen by the crown. And that the man himself would be very proud of his descendants for being able to deal with at least part of the problem he unintentionally caused and surviving even with worse odds in spite of being better prepared unlike him who most likely died even if BOTW Link and AOC Link should get at least one sucker punch in if they're told that wasn't even the original goods they thought they dealt with as a treat if we go the LU route, in this essay I will-

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cedarbranch · 7 months ago

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OMG... tell your beloved fans about haunt me PLEASEEE + also "show me how you do that trick" + one dealer's choice :-D

WARGHH thank u <333

in response to the wip meme... putting this under a cut bc it got long lol

haunt me is my monstrosity of a stranger things wip, sitting around 90k and MAYBE 65% complete. if i'm lucky. it's fucking Long. the basic premise is that eddie dies and then steve starts dreaming about him and eventually comes to realize he is NOT dead, but in fact alive in the upside down and somehow psychically linked to steve... i won't get too deep into spoilers but it's kind of a kas!eddie fic but with a twist that's it's less kas and more similar to the pacific rim fic designations congruent with things (<= sentences that mean anything only to the most Niche Possible Audience). anyway the more complicated premise is steve's savior complex and how every single issue in his life connects back to it

show me how you do that trick is the sequel to my hellcheer fic, push the limit! (which. is fucking crazyy to me that that's the only stranger things fic actually posted on my ao3 given how much time i've spent working on haunt me 😭😭) anyway. it's as horny as the first in the series but with more feelings and plot. it's from eddie's pov and includes some actual proper kink negotiation and apologies following the insanity of the og fic, and also some RLY CUTE FLIRTING!!! a snippet for thee:

“I don’t like… weird dirty talk?” Chrissy says, wrinkling her nose. “Like, the stuff they say in bad pornos.” Eddie sighs in feigned exasperation. “God, it’s like pulling teeth here. Specifics, woman, I need specifics!” “I don’t know! Like,” Chrissy opens her mouth, then closes it again, flushing brilliantly. “No. I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t say any of it. I just—I don’t like the word ‘pussy,’ or ‘cunt,’ or anything like that, just—” She flaps her hands in the direction of her crotch—”Just don’t directly refer to it while we’re in the act? Like, if you’re having sex, it should speak for itself!” Eddie grins at her. “What?” she demands, all frustrated but laughing with her eyes. “I love that you have porn opinions,” he says fondly. “You asked!”

for dealer's choice... oooh this is tough... but i think i'll go with 5 + 1, the full title of which will one day be "5 times steve tried to teach eddie how to swim and one time it worked" or something of the like. this fic was born out of me a) wanting to write something with intense hot-summer-day energy, b) being really interested in water/swimming as the focal point of Multiple Traumatic Incidents in steve's life as of s4, and c) can you fucking imagine if part of the reason eddie was last to jump from the boat in lover's lake was that he couldn't swim. and then he DID IT ANYWAY. but yeah second snippet:

Eddie is, in fact, wearing boxer briefs, and nothing else. Seeing so much of his skin never gets less startling, no matter how many times Steve’s splashed around with him in the lake. He always forgets that Eddie’s shoulders aren’t as broad as the vest normally makes them look. He’s pale as a goddamn sheet, too, except for the pink-red scars that pockmark his stomach and chest. Eddie catches him looking. “Might not even be worth it to teach me to swim,” he says wryly. “Don’t think I can ever set foot at a public pool again with these bad boys.” “We could just go together,” says Steve. “Then we’d match.” His own wounds have healed up better than Eddie’s. The demobats tore him up pretty good, but the bites were shallow; as months passed by, they’ve smoothed over into pale, warped ripples of scar tissue. Without thinking about it, Steve touches one close to his hip. As if in a mirror, Eddie does the same, his fingertips brushing over his stomach. His boxers have little skulls on them.

your honor i fucKGIGN LOVE THEMMM!!! IDIOTS!!!!

#tyyyy hehehe one day you'll get to read all of haunt me <333 #been thinkin abt her lately...#answered #my writing #haunt me #n.txt

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autumnalwalker · 1 year ago

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The Archivist's Journal: Complete

Well, as complete as it's going to be at any rate. The original "journal entry a day for a year" project is now up at @thearchivistsjournal in its entirety and clocking in at just over 330,000 words.

To everyone who's read any of this story, whether keeping up with it as it updates, reading it archivally (pun intended), or just reading snippets in tag games: Thank you. I hope it brought you at least some small amount of joy

I don't know that I'll ever do a second draft/editing pass, given that the sort of raw "just a journal I was keeping"-ness of the whole thing is half the point. Or maybe I'm just too emotionally attached to what ended up being a far more personal project than I originally intended to bear making the cuts that proper editing would entail. Or maybe I'm simply too lazy and too eager to move on to the next thing.

Although if I'm being entirely honest, this is - in a way - the second editing pass that's up online.

Confession Time:

While it is true that The Archivist's Journal was written at a rate of one entry a day for a year (plus Days 365-380 all in one marathon writing session on the last day), the dates that the project ran from was from July 16, 2021 to July 15, 2022. On July 16, 2022 I made my first ever post on Tumblr and began putting The Archivist's Journal online one day at a time, with each entry going online on the anniversary of the day I originally wrote it.

There were some minor edits in this, but they were all of the nature of minor typographical fixes. Spelling errors, odd line breaks, words that were technically spelled right but not the one I meant, the occasional addition/subtraction/substitution of a word or phrase. That sort of thing. Nothing that actually changed the story, or even altered an individual scene.

I apologize if this has all come across as a misrepresentation of myself. The truth is, when I originally started this project it was something purely for myself and it wasn't until I was approaching the end that I realized that I had something that might possibly be worth sharing, even if only one person somewhere liked it. But I felt that the serial format of one entry a day keeping analogous between real time and story time so I kept the posts staggered in that way. Honestly, I don't think that I could have written this project and kept it up at the pace that I did if I'd also been trying to maintain an online presence at the time.

And speaking of the pace, that's perhaps the biggest reason I ended the story where I did rather than keeping it up indefinitely. Averaging around 800 words a day every single day straight when I also have a full-time job and other hobbies (even after cutting back on those hobbies in favor of writing) was not sustainable for me, and as much as Iove this project, I was burnt out by the end, mentally and emotionally (and physically given how it impacted my sleep schedule and ate the time I used to spend exercising). And then there was the weirder factor of the journal format combining with pandemic lockdowns/self-isolation to start to feel enough like a second life to make me mildly concerned for my mental health were it to keep going the way it was. As I said, it turned out to be an unexpectedly personal work, and the Archivist became far more of a self-insert (albeit obviously with certain traits idealized and certain flaws exaggerated) than originally intended.

So, what's next?

For the most part, continuing on with Empty Names as my current main focus project (once I finish up with my current writing hiatus to take care of various personal and IRL things). I don't particularly like working on two things at once. One day once Empty Names is finished (most likely a couple years from now, given my much more leisurely pace these days) I'd like to go back and revisit that "Untitled Solar Punk Witch Story" in some fashion. Assuming I don't get some other grand project idea before then.

That said, over the past year I have written a few sporadic entries for The Archivist's Journal. A sort of checking in every few months to see how that world and those characters are doing. I'll most likely post those as their anniversaries roll around to keep them in temporal sync with the rest of the online postings. These entries are more epilogue than sequel though, so Day 380 will remain the end of the "main story" of The Archivist's Journal.

So, yeah. That's all that. And again, I apologize for any misrepresentation of myself. While I don't know that I'll ever do anything quite like The Archivist's Journal again, it will always hold a special place for me. Among many other things, it taught me that writing is something I enjoy doing and that I wish to keep doing for a long time to come.

And if anyone happens to like what I write, that's pretty cool too.

Thanks for reading.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #my writing #The Archivist's Journal

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try-set-me-on-fire · 1 year ago

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omg so I can't read your bobby dies fic because I am incredibly emotionally unstable, but kudos on breaking everyone I have heard Horrible/pos things congrats. I wanted to ask about your outline system that you posted about the fic? It looked SO cool what's your process with that?

Have a good day, you are incredibly talented at words and images, thanks for creating!

Thank you hehehe!! I’m glad people are liking it, sorry for all the anguish everyone!

So for awhile my only outline for proposal fic looked like this:

But that’s all just really general ideas of a scene and gives me more work to do while I’m writing because I still have to think a lot of things through. For the Bobby fic the outline was a lot more thorough, with each scene plotted out beat by beat as much as I thought would be be helpful. So something like this (sorry its going to be a little sad):

Turned into something like this:

Buck goes back to work the following Tuesday. He'd only been superficially wounded, the scrapes on his face already fading, and he'd used his three (3) working days with pay, up to a maximum of five (5) days subject to the approval of the Department Head of bereavement leave. He comes over for dinner Sunday night and when Eddie asks if he's sure Buck gives him a look like he's had to answer that question from every single person they know, but then he softens out a little, gets a little honest.

"If I don't go back now I don't think I'll ever be able to," he says quietly into his beer.

So Buck goes back, and Eddie is told by the doctor that his ribs aren't healing as well as they should - there are some pointed comments about the importance of rest - and when he leaves the office he's staring at 6 full weeks of mandatory time off, and Buck is at work, and Eddie is at home, and Bobby is dead.

Mehta has been shuffled over from the 133 while they're in between captains. Eddie's glad it's someone they know, a good man who's easy to work with, who always has good control of a scene. Eddie sits at home and tries to tell himself it's fine. He's not there with Buck and he can't do anything if something goes wrong, he's not there and he can't have his back, but Mehta is a good captain, Ravi is still there, the rest of the station is still there. It's not like him being there made a difference last time, anyway. Eddie sits at home and is helpless, and Buck goes back to work.

It's fine. Buck says it's fine as he makes dinner in Eddie's house again after the first of two shifts he'll work alone before Hen returns. Chris is doing homework at the table, so Eddie doesn't really expect him to go into any gritty uncomfortable detail, but he seems like he’s telling the truth as he says it's weird, but fine. There was a small house fire, a few minor car accidents, a gas leak. All routine.

“I feel like Maddie or whoever might've been rerouting harder calls,” he says, stirring chili. “Heard there was a thing with hikers that got messy. Out of our range I guess, but we’ve been up in the hills before.”

“I’m sure somebody else was just closer.” Eddie is sitting at the table

“I guess.” His hand looks tense as he adds whatever spice is next in the recipe floating around his head.

Later, after dinner and after Chris has gone to bed when Buck is even softer and even more honest and a Dodgers game is quiet on the tv, he whispers like he’s at confession.

“I think it's better that no one is there. It doesn’t feel like real life.” He’s looking at the screen so Eddie is watching him in side profile, and he can’t tell if the shine in his eyes is just the reflected light. “Maybe I’m just still dreaming.”

The dream, where Bobby was dead and Eddie was gone and Buck was loved by his family but he was not here, not loved by the people here who are his family. “You’re n-“

“I know I’m not.” He looks at Eddie, away from the light and his eyes are still shining. “I know.”

“I’m sorry.”

Buck shrugs and settles into the couch, eyes on the score, locking that softness back away again. He doesn’t stay the night.

So now I’m going through and making a more thorough outline for proposal fic, which will hopefully help make writing it much easier! I have so many scraps of scenes that I need to connect and string together, actually planning out how to do that instead of just staring sadly at the google doc feels productive, at least!

Also for Bobby fic i made a version of the outline with just the scene titles and bullet points as a checklist, so I’ll do that again this time too because i love to check things off a list!

#wip #my process #asked and answered

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princesscolumbia · 5 months ago

Text

And on today's episode of "I was today years old when I found out that not everyone does it that way..."

I have been writing with varying degrees of productivity and mostly been really trial-and-error with what makes me a good writer. Sometime last November (more like late-October, but I only really noticed in November), some bit flipped and now I can just sit down and write, every day, whenever I want, for hours at a stretch sometimes.

I have, in fact, gotten to the point where I need to consciously NOT choose to write on days when I'm low on spoons or I'll burn myself out...again.

I kinda knew it was a bit exceptional when I had wrapped up what, in my mind, was the starting section, the first establishing story arc, of a novel...or at least it's one novel in my head. I threw the whole blob of text for the establishment of my setting, what makes this variant universe of the setting in which my fanfic is based unique, and I popped in an author's note saying, "Okay, setup's done."

My first comment was the following, single-line reply:

This was all SETUP?

And that made me realize that most novels usually don't take 45k words for the setup.

It also made me realize that I'd powered through an entire novel's worth of writing in around a month...right on the heels of another 110k+ word novel that I'd written in the course of about 2 months, right after I'd body-slammed the NaNoWriMo word-count in November and blew right past it with four short stories and an update to a WIP.

I currently have a word-count daily goal of 1,400 words...and I often rocket right past that without noticing. I have to intentionally take days off for my mental health and physical well-being or I will write.

I don't know what caused this, I don't know why I do it, I am very aware there are many authors out there that are insanely jealous of my ability and I've been asked for the secret sauce a dozen times, and I just haven't really known what to tell people...until reading this post and realizing that this is just the stuff that I do and I thought every author did it.

So without further ado, minor supplemental commentary of my take on the prev author's advice, with the assurance that everything they said is 100% correct and at this point I'm just gilding the lily:

1. Writing nonlinearly

Seriously, if you have ADHD and are pushing yourself to write linearly, stop. For 3 of the last five completed projects I did I had something like an epilogue or novel climax already written before I'd finished writing chapter 3. Yes, you may have an idea how you want a fic to go and you'll be conscious about making sure your writing gets there, but nothing helps an ADHD brain like a target to hyperfixate on.

1.a - Jump around! Jump around! Jump up, jump up and get down!

Now that I've shown my age; if you have ADHD (and maybe if you don't, not like I've never not been ADHD so I wouldn't know), your brain doesn't work linearly at all and you're only fighting yourself if you try not to follow the dopamine.

On my current WIP, I jammed through chapters 14 through 19 all in a row...then suddenly had a yen to do some text for the tentatively numbered chapter 25. I hammered out a daily-goal's worth of scene chewing (currently available as a sneak peak to all tiers, even free, on my Patreon /shameless_plug). I then bounced back to do ch. 20 before my brain locked in on exactly how I wanted to write the climax of the entire book and that took me all the way to the end (but before the epilogia). I'm not back to chapter 21 and practically pouring the words out from the full pitcher that is my brain because I allowed it to fill with content at the pace it works best at.

2. Rereading my own work

Of course I re-read my own stuff! I'm the only one who knows exactly what I want to read! 😋 Quite seriously, I have gone back to reading stuff I wrote, like, 10 or even 20 years ago because my brain is saying that's where it wants to be...and it turns out that was just what was causing me to not be able to write. Whether I just needed to take a break, needed to revisit a headspace, or I wrote something that reminded me of something else and I wanted to write it again, I've learned to let my brain lead me in the direction it needs to go.

3. Marinating in the headspace of the story

OP is probably right that this isn't a necessary thing for your writing. Heaven knows I've got a day job and can't just stew in my headspace for my fics all the time. But one thing that cannot be denied is sometimes it's hard to get back into the right headspace, and for me the solution turned out to be; playlists.

This is the playlist for my current WIP. Obviously, at a 2+ hour runtime, what you see above isn't the entire list. That list constitutes, however, all the music that I have, in whatever fashion, mentally associated with the headspace for Code of Ethics. I've done this for every WIP I have for nearly 20 years, and even if I decided to go back to one of those early, early fics that I haven't touched since before Trump was elected, all I need to do is dig up the playlist for it (even if that means re-launching iTunes for the first time in over a year) and hitting "play" and I'm back in that headspace.

Going to tag on one more thing that works for me 99% of the time:

4. Read OTHER PEOPLE'S work!

I write because I was inspired to write. There's other ways to tell the stories I want to tell and be creative and be good at it. I chose writing because other people wrote stuff that 'spoke' to me. Fission came about because I had some ideas that I knew could work because @burgerbecky had already done similar stuff with her writing. I knew Deviation was a thing that could be successful because I'd read plenty of Omegaverse fics. Double Isekai was going to be written by someone and so I figured I might as well get in there first because I'd already read DOZENS of isekai fics. And Code of Ethics came out of, "Okay, but what about...?" while I was reading QuietValerie's Troubleverse. Whatever inspired you to write, sometimes you just gotta go back in and read it again, read the sequel, read more of whatever it was that got you into writing so you remember, "...oh yeah, that's why I write!"

How I learned to write smarter, not harder

(aka, how to write when you're hella ADHD lol)

A reader commented on my current long fic asking how I write so well. I replied with an essay of my honestly pretty non-standard writing advice (that they probably didn't actually want lol) Now I'm gonna share it with you guys and hopefully there's a few of you out there who will benefit from my past mistakes and find some useful advice in here. XD Since I started doing this stuff, which are all pretty easy changes to absorb into your process if you want to try them, I now almost never get writer's block.

The text of the original reply is indented, and I've added some additional commentary to expand upon and clarify some of the concepts.

As for writing well, I usually attribute it to the fact that I spent roughly four years in my late teens/early 20s writing text roleplay with a friend for hours every single day. Aside from the constant practice that provided, having a live audience immediately reacting to everything I wrote made me think a lot about how to make as many sentences as possible have maximum impact so that I could get that kind of fun reaction. (Which is another reason why comments like yours are so valuable to fanfic writers! <3) The other factors that have improved my writing are thus: 1. Writing nonlinearly. I used to write a whole story in order, from the first sentence onward. If there was a part I was excited to write, I slogged through everything to get there, thinking that it would be my reward once I finished everything that led up to that. It never worked. XD It was miserable. By the time I got to the part I wanted to write, I had beaten the scene to death in my head imagining all the ways I could write it, and it a) no longer interested me and b) could not live up to my expectations because I couldn't remember all my ideas I'd had for writing it. The scene came out mediocre and so did everything leading up to it. Since then, I learned through working on VN writing (I co-own a game studio and we have some visual novels that I write for) that I don't have to write linearly. If I'm inspired to write a scene, I just write it immediately. It usually comes out pretty good even in a first draft! But then I also have it for if I get more ideas for that scene later, and I can just edit them in. The scenes come out MUCH stronger because of this. And you know what else I discovered? Those scenes I slogged through before weren't scenes I had no inspiration for, I just didn't have any inspiration for them in that moment! I can't tell you how many times there was a scene I had no interest in writing, and then a week later I'd get struck by the perfect inspiration for it! Those are scenes I would have done a very mediocre job on, and now they can be some of the most powerful scenes because I gave them time to marinate. Inspiration isn't always linear, so writing doesn't have to be either!

Some people are the type that joyfully write linearly. I have a friend like this--she picks up the characters and just continues playing out the next scene. Her story progresses through the entire day-by-day lives of the characters; it never timeskips more than a few hours. She started writing and posting just eight months ago, she's about an eighth of the way through her planned fic timeline, and the content she has so far posted to AO3 for it is already 450,000 words long. But most of us are normal humans. We're not, for the most part, wired to create linearly. We consume linearly, we experience linearly, so we assume we must also create linearly. But actually, a lot of us really suffer from trying to force ourselves to create this way, and we might not even realize it. If you're the kind of person who thinks you need to carrot-on-a-stick yourself into writing by saving the fun part for when you finally write everything that happens before it: Stop. You're probably not a linear writer. You're making yourself suffer for no reason and your writing is probably suffering for it. At least give nonlinear writing a try before you assume you can't write if you're not baiting or forcing yourself into it!! Remember: Writing is fun. You do this because it's fun, because it's your hobby. If you're miserable 80% of the time you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong!

2. Rereading my own work. I used to hate reading my own work. I wouldn't even edit it usually. I would write it and slap it online and try not to look at it again. XD Writing nonlinearly forced me to start rereading because I needed to make sure scenes connected together naturally and it also made it easier to get into the headspace of the story to keep writing and fill in the blanks and get new inspiration. Doing this built the editing process into my writing process--I would read a scene to get back in the headspace, dislike what I had written, and just clean it up on the fly. I still never ever sit down to 'edit' my work. I just reread it to prep for writing and it ends up editing itself. Many many scenes in this fic I have read probably a dozen times or more! (And now, I can actually reread my own work for enjoyment!) Another thing I found from doing this that it became easy to see patterns and themes in my work and strengthen them. Foreshadowing became easy. Setting up for jokes or plot points became easy. I didn't have to plan out my story in advance or write an outline, because the scenes themselves because a sort of living outline on their own. (Yes, despite all the foreshadowing and recurring thematic elements and secret hidden meanings sprinkled throughout this story, it actually never had an outline or a plan for any of that. It's all a natural byproduct of writing nonlinearly and rereading.)

Unpopular writing opinion time: You don't need to make a detailed outline.

Some people thrive on having an outline and planning out every detail before they sit down to write. But I know for a lot of us, we don't know how to write an outline or how to use it once we've written it. The idea of making one is daunting, and the advice that it's the only way to write or beat writer's block is demoralizing. So let me explain how I approach "outlining" which isn't really outlining at all.

I write in a Notion table, where every scene is a separate table entry and the scene is written in the page inside that entry. I do this because it makes writing nonlinearly VASTLY more intuitive and straightforward than writing in a single document. (If you're familiar with Notion, this probably makes perfect sense to you. If you're not, imagine something a little like a more contained Google Sheets, but every row has a title cell that opens into a unique Google Doc when you click on it. And it's not as slow and clunky as the Google suite lol) When I sit down to begin a new fic idea, I make a quick entry in the table for every scene I already know I'll want or need, with the entries titled with a couple words or a sentence that describes what will be in that scene so I'll remember it later. Basically, it's the most absolute bare-bones skeleton of what I vaguely know will probably happen in the story.

Then I start writing, wherever I want in the list. As I write, ideas for new scenes and new connections and themes will emerge over time, and I'll just slot them in between the original entries wherever they naturally fit, rearranging as necessary, so that I won't forget about them later when I'm ready to write them. As an example, my current long fic started with a list of roughly 35 scenes that I knew I wanted or needed, for a fic that will probably be around 100k words (which I didn't know at the time haha). As of this writing, it has expanded to 129 scenes. And since I write them directly in the page entries for the table, the fic is actually its own outline, without any additional effort on my part. As I said in the comment reply--a living outline!

This also made it easier to let go of the notion that I had to write something exactly right the first time. (People always say you should do this, but how many of us do? It's harder than it sounds! I didn't want to commit to editing later! I didn't want to reread my work! XD) I know I'm going to edit it naturally anyway, so I can feel okay giving myself permission to just write it approximately right and I can fix it later. And what I found from that was that sometimes what I believed was kind of meh when I wrote it was actually totally fine when I read it later! Sometimes the internal critic is actually wrong. 3. Marinating in the headspace of the story. For the first two months I worked on [fic], I did not consume any media other than [fandom the fic is in]. I didn't watch, read, or play anything else. Not even mobile games. (And there wasn't really much fan content for [fandom] to consume either. Still isn't, really. XD) This basically forced me to treat writing my story as my only source of entertainment, and kept me from getting distracted or inspired to write other ideas and abandon this one.

As an aside, I don't think this is a necessary step for writing, but if you really want to be productive in a short burst, I do highly recommend going on a media consumption hiatus. Not forever, obviously! Consuming media is a valuable tool for new inspiration, and reading other's work (both good and bad, as long as you think critically to identify the differences!) is an invaluable resource for improving your writing.

When I write, I usually lay down, close my eyes, and play the scene I'm interested in writing in my head. I even take a ten-minute nap now and then during this process. (I find being in a state of partial drowsiness, but not outright sleepiness, makes writing easier and better. Sleep helps the brain process and make connections!) Then I roll over to the laptop next to me and type up whatever I felt like worked for the scene. This may mean I write half a sentence at a time between intervals of closed-eye-time XD

People always say if you're stuck, you need to outline.

What they actually mean by that (whether they realize it or not) is that if you're stuck, you need to brainstorm. You need to marinate. You don't need to plan what you're doing, you just need to give yourself time to think about it!

What's another framing for brainstorming for your fic? Fantasizing about it! Planning is work, but fantasizing isn't.

You're already fantasizing about it, right? That's why you're writing it. Just direct that effort toward the scenes you're trying to write next! Close your eyes, lay back, and fantasize what the characters do and how they react.

And then quickly note down your inspirations so you don't forget, haha.

And if a scene is so boring to you that even fantasizing about it sucks--it's probably a bad scene.

If it's boring to write, it's going to be boring to read. Ask yourself why you wanted that scene. Is it even necessary? Can you cut it? Can you replace it with a different scene that serves the same purpose but approaches the problem from a different angle? If you can't remove the troublesome scene, what can you change about it that would make it interesting or exciting for you to write?

And I can't write sitting up to save my damn life. It's like my brain just stops working if I have to sit in a chair and stare at a computer screen. I need to be able to lie down, even if I don't use it! Talking walks and swinging in a hammock are also fantastic places to get scene ideas worked out, because the rhythmic motion also helps our brain process. It's just a little harder to work on a laptop in those scenarios. XD

In conclusion: Writing nonlinearly is an amazing tool for kicking writer's block to the curb. There's almost always some scene you'll want to write. If there isn't, you need to re-read or marinate.

Or you need to use the bathroom, eat something, or sleep. XD Seriously, if you're that stuck, assess your current physical condition. You might just be unable to focus because you're uncomfortable and you haven't realized it yet.

Anyway! I hope that was helpful, or at least interesting! XD Sorry again for the text wall. (I think this is the longest comment reply I've ever written!)

And same to you guys on tumblr--I hope this was helpful or at least interesting. XD Reblogs appreciated if so! (Maybe it'll help someone else!)

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sweetpumpkinpieinwithcoffee · 1 month ago

Text

"I" - a letter to let go of an impossible crush

I think it is time for me to put in words what I have been feeling for this damned human being (read boy) for quite some months now. Like, it won't make it hurt less that he quite friendzoned (worst colleaguezoned) me a week ago but maybe I will learn to let it go once I'll have put it out of my chest (and he will never know anyway). "I". I refuse to write your full name here, probably because I refuse to imagine an alternative universe in which you end up finding this post, track me down and know the full story behind my weird smile and my absent stares. So "I" you will be. How convenient that in the English language it is also the letter to identify myself.

"I", I haven't known you for long and therefor it is complicated for me to fully understand how down bad I am for you. Because you see "I", I am down bad. Not down bad in the sense that I want to have sex every single day with you, more like, you have infiltrated all my thoughts, all my dreams and every seconds of my fucking life.

And yet, up to a certain point I fought it "I". Up to a certain point I was determined to hate you. I thought "this guy has been recommended by this dude I don't like so of course he's going to be the worst kind of person on Earth." But "I", I was wrong. Oh so damn wrong because you are quite literally the softest person I've met in a very long time. And I kinda hate you for deceiving me like that. How dare you being kind, and smart, and interesting? How dare you make me laugh and calling me out on my bullshit? Just how dare you sitting here listening to me with kind eyes and telling me how interesting I sound? How dare you remembering what I like and don't like to the point you will leave raspberries for me -my favourite- when you love them just as much?

Truth be told, four months ago I thought I will never be your friend, I would never engage with you and we were born to be work enemies (we already have talked about how quickly I make my mind on people and change it so you won't be offended by that).

Four months ago, I called you for the first time. I was so freaking nervous. You were one of the first person I had ever interviewed for a position within our company. I was pretty new myself in it, barely a month. And of course I had never, ever, hired anyone in my life. I remember I had written everything I had to tell you. But thank the Lord I ended up on your voicemail. I could just leave a message you would probably never listen to and move on with my life. But you listened to it, and you had the nerve to call me back, when I was in the fucking train, so fucking tired after touring new offices for our now boss. I was still soooooo nervous when you presented yourself, I think I chuckled at some point cuz your name sounded so weird out of your mouth and I thought that it was the case every times someone present itself for the first time. I remember asking you if I could called you back when I'll be at my place because talking from the train wasn't practical and I didn't had my notes with me. I remember YOU laughed at that. It was the first time I made you laugh. I remember thinking "he has a nice laugh" but not thinking much of it. How stupid of me. I remember calling you back not 30 minutes after. I remember holding a plushie because I was that scared of the whole process of recruiting someone. I remember thinking, with your resume in front of me, that you looked like a guy I could walk by and never think about again. I thought you looked like the part for the position. Another IT guy, fine, not my fancy but we needed one so I was going to find one. I remember making you laugh cuz I was struggling to find my words and how kind you were when I profusely excused myself about the whole situation. Honestly, look at us now and tell me you had thought I'd be a great colleague for you? Even, dare I say it, a friend? I don't know what we are right now to be honest. Everything is so fucked up in my head and I can't talk about all of this with you for obvious reasons.

In the end, you got the job and I started planning for your arrival. It was ok, I was doing fine. My life in the office was already Hell because I hated the place and our boss and my desk-neighbor. So I was fine, one more person I could despise in my head, it was fine. And then you arrived. From the starting point, something clicked. I don't know what it was. Maybe it was because you had already remembered we were living in the same neighborhood (kinda) and asked me about great places to visit. Maybe it was how you couldn't stand me always doing everyone's chores and how you make it a point to not leave me alone. Maybe it was the way you make it a point to keep talking to me even if I wasn't really responsive. So "I" I started liking you. Especially when you started talking about cinema.

"I", I think I never said it to your face and I probably never will, but you change entirely when you start talking about cinema. Your eyes become more focused, your words more precise, and yet you are so full of life. Your hands move a little more wildly, your speech speeds up, and sometimes it's hard for me to keep up with your thoughts. But it's beautiful to listen to you. I adore it. I don't have even 1% of your knowledge on the subject, yet you treat what I say as if it's interesting. I like how we disagree on small things, like how I can hate fiercely an actor or a actress just because I don't like their face, or how I won't watch a movie if someone I dislike is in it.

Anyway, this led to the first time I thought maybe I was seeing things in the way you were with me. The first time we talked about cinema, you kind of asked me to go to a movie with you right then and there (because I told you I missed going to the movie theater with my bestie). We hadn't even known each other for more than a day, and I was a bit taken aback. Who ask a colleague to go to the movies when they've known them for less than a day? Who does that? I didn't respond. I just acted like I hadn't heard you, and you let it go. In my head, it was perfect because, honestly, what the hell had just happened? Then the next day, while we were still talking about Paris and how much I love exploring it, you asked me if I ever wanted to explore it with you. Again, we'd known each other for less than a week- what was that? And once again the scared girl I am said nothing. "I", I want you to know that I regret it now.

I think things accelerated after that. I think I started noticing more and more signs. You were always talking to me at lunch break, and increasingly you got me to talk about what I was reading, what I was listening to. You asked about sewing and my passion for fashion. You listened to me ramble on about so many seemingly pointless things. And there were always those little comment you'd make: "I knew that if I could talk about this subject with someone, it would be you," "Ilove when you info dump, it's always on topics I can discuss with my parents," "I'm countin on you to give me all the gossip from the fashion world, and I'll teach you everything I know about geopolitics." I like that.

"I", I think the first time I thought "I like him" was when you looked me straight in the eyes and told me "I wish you weren't that hard with yourself. You deserve so much better." We were talking about our disastrous love lives and how we both had bad relationships in the past. I felt seen. You were hunching in your seat so you could talk to me eye to eye and I thought I would cry. I may have cried later, in another train, thinking, "fuck how can someone I barely know see me like that?". I kinda hated you for this. But I also remember telling my best friend "I think I like him".

From this point, it was inevitable for me that we were made to be friends. I started reaching out to you, started watching movies you would recommend, read stuffs you'd mentioned and we started talking about it. Exchanging our view on every piece of media we would consume. I remember thinking from time to time "I should have said yes to that first proposition for the movies."

Then faith intervened and we would always be on each others path. Even when we shouldn't have. You would show up on the train platform right before I would got on the train. You would show up the moment I would go on our tiny balcony at work. You would send me messages on Teams right when I was feeling the lowest. You would stay with me on lunch break even if you didn't had to. You were everywhere I go and I didn't even questioned it. It was just nice. Something a nice colleague would do.

Then the texts started. Truth be told it was my fault, I sent the first one. But truth be told you never stopped.

Or at least you did not up until a week ago.

It all started innocently, talking about a show you recommended and I had started to watch. It all started with me complaining about episodes during more than 1h. And you laughed and we talked. We talked up until midnight that day and you admitted the only reason you stopped responding was because you had fell asleep and you apologized.

From this moment we were always texting, always pushing back what was only professional. Now I stay far from my phone, turn the notifications off and hope no one will reach for me. I started taking note of patterns in your favorite subjects, so I started researching them to know what you were talking about and what I could add to the conversation. I love how you were teaching me stuffs without making me feel dumb. I love how you would take interest in my point of view.

Everything went even more quickly when I fired that dumb proposition. You hadn't watch the last episodes of this show and I asked if you wanted to watch it with me since you wanted to give me your thought on them. You said yes. I came to your place. I never told you how I love what you've made out of it. It is cosy, you can easily feel at ease in it.

You were so sick that night, I was kinda sorry for you. But we talked. A lot, beside watching the show of course. It was nice. I felt at ease with you. I was still debating with myself on what I was feeling. I went home and just was happy to have spent that time with you. You had taken my mind off of my current situation. I thanked you for it. You said we should do it again. At the end of the week, on a Friday, I asked you if you wanted to meet again. You were already taken but you asked if I was free the next Sunday after the charity event I was participating in. I said yes, sure. My only thought was having another chill night with you, just talking laughing and complaining about our generation and how cursed we are.

That's one of my favorite things about you. How easy you make everything feels. How I felt safe enough to tell you how bad it was at work for me that I was already considering quitting. I loved that you didn't judge and just offered me comfort and advices. I loved that you asked about what made me feel so awful there and how you asked if you could do anything to help. I loved how you laughed at my impersonation of our colleagues. I loved how you got pissed at how some were treating me and judging the way I dress. I loved how you went straight to my defense when I try to brush it off. I loved how your eyes drifted, from times to times, to my lips. How sometimes you would bump into me on purpose in the streets, even when no one was around us and there was no reason to bump into me. And gosh, does everyone knows how I can be shy when it comes to let someone touch me. I felt safe with you. I felt like when we were talking it was just us in the world. How everything faded and I could just concentrate on what you were saying. On your body language. On your laugh. On your eyes. They felt welcoming and always thinking, wondering, pondering. Occasionally drifting from my eyes to my lips. One time I caught you staring at me. For the briefest time but you did. I could feel your eyes on my body and it made me warm. Not like if I wanted to hide. It only happened once. Or I do not know about the others times.

On that fatal Sunday, I didn't went straight to your place after the event. I went to my family. It was a nice time. I was already in my head, thinking about the evening I would have with you. I told my favorite cousine that I thought, no, was sure, I had a crush on you. She was so happy for me. Three of my others friends already knew and where thinking that from what I was describing it was more than likely that you had one on me too. I tried to not think about it. I tried to not get my hopes up. How silly of me. I'm a lover girl, of course I already had fantasies about our first kiss and how we would hide it at work. How wonderful it would be to quit my job and have a life out of this office and talking about it with you. Of course I couldn't stop myself imagining how our lives could melt into one and the other and how we would go out, watch movies, read to each others even if we do not read the same kind of books, how we would recommend new medias to each others. Of course I had already planned in my head a future as cosy as your freaking place. Of course I had planned how sleeping next to you would be like constantly being in a dream. How warm you were and how I would feel always safe from the rest of the world.

Of course I had to checked if you were still on our plans. You were. But you had a question and my heart drop so low in my stomach I thought I was gonna puck right there.

See, "I", I've lied to you. And I'm starting to think I'm pretty good at it because you never caught me. I once told you I'm not good at acting or lying. Recent events proved me wrong. I lied. Outrageously.

You asked me if I was coming to your place for more than just watching the show. You didn't said for what more but it was pretty obvious. I lied there and then. An half lie if you want my point of view. I hadn't imagine anything more than watching that show and talking and laughing. Nothing more. Or not in the sexual sense of wanting more. Intimacy? Yes. Physically? I couldn't even imagine it. So I lied. I said I wasn't interested and I thought it was already embarrassing enough. But you shot me then. Back stabbed me and twist the knife to be sure I wouldn't get up. You told me you were seeing someone. It was pretty fresh. And you thought it wouldn't be a good idea for me to come if I wanted more because of it. I think I almost cried at this message.

You had never talked about her. Ever. I can almost remember all the conversations we had, the one on romantic relationships were pretty recurrent and we laughed about it cuz we were both not looking for anything, and we both had been single for quite some times now. And I thought you would have been happy to talk about something nice in your love life if someone had shown up. I thought you would have never paint me parallel lives where we had to share a flat, mixed our books, a life where clearly we were an item. I thought you wouldn't have sent me pictures of your day or told me you didn't wanted me to thought you didn't like talking to me over the phone or how you woke up thinking about not answering me the previous night and wanting to fix it right there and then, even on a Saturday morning. I thought you would never have told me all of that if there had been someone. And it kinda broke me.

It's with sadness in my very soul that I went to your place that night. With sadness that I asked you to tell me what made you think I could be interested because if caught I was I had to change what had sold me. You didn't really answer, you said "a vibe and I wanted to check because there is no other way to be sur" so I lied again. Saying I wasn't interested, that you weren't my type. When I don't even have a type. I fall for words, not for a particular type. And we "brush it off". I think if someone deserve a medal for acting it is I. I was on my best behavior that night. Acting like a friend, or an annoying little sister. But at least you laughed and we talked and it was nice.

Inside, I was dying.

I lied the next morning at work. I needed to protect myself from any kind of reputation or gossip. I lied and said I was with someone. I put his picture on my desk and grin all day. And your attitude toward me changed. When he would come up in the conversation, brought by our mutual colleagues, you would turned your back, ignore me. You started breaking all the rituals we had. You didn't waited for me on lunch break, didn't show up on the train platform anymore. Didn't text me. It was as if from one day to another nothing was ever the same and I couldn't ask you about it.

And I felt like my heart was sinking.

"I", I envy you. I envy you so much for not feeling as much as I do all the time. I envy you for being poised enough that you don't run your mouth dumbly. I envy you for your calm. I envy you because "I" you will never know how you hurt me.

In front of you, I will forever brush it of. But inside me? "I", know that looking you in the eyes is now the hardest thing I have to do. Every times it reminds me that soon you will be reunited with her and you will go on. She will be the one in this alternative life where you mix your books, where you read together, where you watch movies and talk about your separate work life. And I will have to watch it and be the supportive friend. Sorry, the supportive colleague. Because that is the truth isn't it?

I will never be for you anything else than that. A colleague. One who came and go in your life.

And maybe, "I", in a month or two we will not know each others anymore. But "I", know that you marked my life. Somehow.

You don't believe in love at first sight, you think any relationship, may it be a friendly or romantic one, is constructed. But I would stay certain of one thing "I". While maybe we aren't meant for each other, it was cursed at first sight, and I was doomed to fall.

So, I'm sorry for lying "I", it was my only way to not break in front of you.

#personal #Gaëlle's talk #“I”

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talkingtothetallman · 6 months ago

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It comes full circle

One of the surprising blessings of becoming older is that you see people face up against the exact same things you faced, things so frustrating and awful at the time but now in hindsight you see how God used them to make you grow. That's part of the blessing; the hindsight.

The other blessing is actually being there to support and guide the dear ones who are currently standing before the things that you yourself did years ago... and guess what? They're feeling the same way as you did. And it sucks for them, it truly does. But it's also an opportunity for you to share your life experience and how the Lord helped you in that trying time.

I've been an accountability partner with my friend (who I'll keep anonymous) for a few years now, and it's certainly a symbiotic relationship. We hold each other up in prayer, share what God has been doing in our lives, call each other each week, you know... doing Galations 6:2 kind of stuff - "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." It's been a tremendous blessing getting to know him. I'm thankful to the Lord for bringing us together and allowing him to accept Christ and to come to our church!

Earlier this week, I called him on the drive home from work to catch up after a difficult weekend for him... actually, a kinda difficult preceding few weeks. The details I'll leave out, but the gist of it has to do with him not dating a girl anymore. And yeah, it painful. It hurts, it's frustrating, and it's also an opportunity to lean into Christ Jesus more. This was the counsel I gave him. And in hindsight, it's kinda sorta the mountain I had to scale over five years ago.

Golly, it was a hard mountain to climb. But as I turn my back now and look at those peaks in the distance, down below in the heavy mist where I used to be, I can breathe a sigh of thankfulness to God for carrying me through those trials. One of the ways God carried me through was giving me time and energy and desire to write. So many times I would open my old Asus laptop and find a spot to sit there and type out my heart. It was a means of comfort, peace, and a way to point my heart away from the doubt and emptiness, and rather reset my focus on my Lord and Savior.

I still read those old blog posts from time to time. In fact, as my eyes glide across the words I penned so many years ago, I can bring myself back to the ways I felt. How truly crazy! The loneliness, the bitterness, the sadness, it's all there. And yet now I look at those and smile, knowing that 19-year-old Jack didn't know how much his Heavenly Father was going to bless him with in just five short years! Thank you God, praise be to You! But I didn't know what I didn't know, and as they say: hindsight is 20/20.

So I told my brother to find something that he can do to find peace. He's a gifted musician so I pointed him there first, and also told him to maybe try writing like I did. And I also sent him a few of my writings from the olden days, in hopes that maybe he'd glean some small nugget of encouragement. That would be so cool to me, to write something that was meant to encourage me, but ended up with a twofold purpose of encouraging someone else!

I guess that's how I felt about Adam Young's blog posts. Many of them were so encouraging to me, so I actually sent one to my friend. In fact, I even quoted to him part of what I would consider probably one of the most encouraging things I read during that period of singleness:

"She is out there. My Cinderella. She is real. She exists. I pray for her constantly. May God satisfy the desires of her heart, draw her close, consume her. May He claim her passions, her identity, her refuge, her hopes, her strengths and weaknesses, every fiber of her being. May she treasure and cherish her Savior more than anything of this world and cling to His will with every ounce of her stamina. By all that she is, does, and strives to be, may He draw near to her and she to Him."

Adam Young

Golly, what sweet and lovely words! In fact, I just sent it off to my accountability group text to encourage them too!

Lord, thank you for blessing me with a wife who loves you and is perfect for me. Thank you for allowing me to reflect on the path that led me here, that I can remember the many parts of it, both good and bad, and yet still give You the glory. Help me to take no part in the the story, but rather give You all the glory!

So yes, things can and often do come full circle. But to borrow lyrics from a Tim McGraw song, "When you get where you're going, turn right back around and help the next one in line. Always stay humble and kind."

#christian #how to live #jesus christ #single #singleness #waiting #living for jesus

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isitthemoon · 11 months ago

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✧ Musical Thoughts & Opinions ✧

Discography Review - The Boyz

This post involves me stating my personal opinions and thoughts while listening to the artist's discography, separated by era/release and pointing out my favorite song from each release. At the end of each section I'll give a score based on my enjoyment of the release as a whole, as well as a final score for the entire discography.

This is not an introduction to the artist, these are just my opinions posted on the internet for fun and should not be taken seriously.

Disclaimers and Rating System

The Boyz Edition: official korean and japanese discographies are included.

OSTs and Special Singles are not included.

Word Count: 3218

Originally posted on 01/11/23 and 22/11/23 as two separate posts in a sideblog.

A Bit About Me:

Something I do regarding kpop songs, mini albums and full albums is that I mostly listen to title tracks only. I follow about 200 kpop artists (including groups, sub units and soloists) give or take, so I limit myself to the title tracks so it's easier to check out their releases.

Still, I want to listen to all of their discographies, hence why I made this series.

My History With The Boyz:

I've been following them since their debut, actually. So every time they released something, I downloaded the title track. Ironically, I actually only stopped to learn their names in 2021, probably after the release of Drink It and before Thrill-Ing. That's also when Juyeon became my bias.

Thrill-Ing was their first mini album I listened to fully and some of these reviews won't be a first listen, but more of a revisit.

With that said, let's begin.

The First

I remember watching the MV for Boy the first time and then finding out it was released that daykkkk I don't know why but I definitely have a different "bond" with the groups I follow since their debut. It's a different feeling, even if I don't follow them everywhere.

For a debut I think they established themselves pretty good actually. The mini album gives off their style and does a great job at introducing them. Still, it doesn't really "pull me in", even if I think it's neat overall.

My favorite song is Walkin' In Time and looking at the other releases I can definitely see some callbacks to this mini album. I call it 'Classical The Boyz' Style, and when it appears in the newer releases (post Reveal) I think it's a nice nod.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

The Start

Now... I don't know why but I just didn't vibe with this mini album. My theory is that I didn't like it because I think these songs could've been released with their debut. For a first comeback, that's not something I want. I felt like they didn't expand on their style, but stayed on the same lane and speed instead. Maybe it was a smart marketing move, but still one I didn't enjoy.

I don't think it's a bad thing, it's good to have a brand. But for a first comeback I want something a bit more daring, I guess. Still, I don't hate these songs and my favorite is Just U (it does make me happy).

Also believe me when I say it's pretty difficult for me to actually dislike a song.

》 ☆☆ (Two Stars)

The Sphere

I have no idea what people say about this mini album but I WILL defend it at all costs. No one touch it. Keeper is my baby. This song gives me immense joy. There is not a sad day with this mini album. It has the energy, the style, the fun, the loveable vibes. No one will ruin this song for me.

Besides Keeper, I do think the three songs are great as a whole, even if I don't listen to the other two as much. Also Right Here was more captivating than Giddy Up for me (I will ALSO defend Giddy Up at all costs, don't try me).

As a final thought, if you hate Keeper, I'm sorry that you're not happy :(

》 ☆☆☆☆ (Four Stars)

The Only

This mini album gave us No Air, which in itself is a win. However, the other songs didn't grab my attention, and in this case, the title track won't raise the overall score.

With that said, this is the kind of album that I think of on rainy days and set aside a specific time to listen to it on its own. No Air still is my favorite song from this release.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Bloom Bloom

If you hate Bloom Bloom, I'm sorry that you're not happy :(

It was their first win FOR A REASON! The only people allowed to hate this song are The Boyz themselves, and even them won't escape it for the rest of their lives. If this song has one fan, it's me. If this song has no fans, it's because I'm no longer in this world.

Unfortunately, the title track won't raise the overall score, since Butterfly is not a song I usually go to and Clover is too cheesy for me. It will, however, earn this release our very first Moon Badge. Bloom Bloom is THAT song.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars) + 🌙 (Moon Badge)

Dreamlike

Now... *breathes deeply* Talented, Brilliant, Incredible, Amazing, Showstopping, Spectacular, Never The Same, Totally Unique, Completely Not Ever Been Done Before, Unafraid To Reference Or Not Reference, Put It In A Blender, Shit On It, Vomit On It, Eat It, Give Birth To It.

If there's one thing The Boyz can do no wrong in, is in a Summer Comeback. This mini album is everything I need and more. The songs perfectly fit with one another. I even dare to say it has the best opening (Water) AND ending (Daydream) songs from their entire discography.

Dreamlike is the mother I never had. She is the sister everybody would want. She is the friend that everybody deserves. I don't know a better person.

This release gave us Water which is easily my favorite The Boyz song of all time. It gave us D.D.D which is just absolute fun. It gave us Juyeon singing a chorus. It gave us a dance break. The aesthetic, the MV. This is easily one of my favorite The Boyz's releases. It altered my brain chemistry. Dreamlike is THAT girl.

》 ☆☆☆☆☆ (Five Stars) + 🌙 (Moon Badge)

Tattoo

I remember being so confused with this release: I saw the MV but then realised they weren't promoting it anywhere? And then found out it was their Japanese debut??? But then the song was in KOREAN?????

I didn't listen to this song after 2018, and now with the first listen of the album, I can't say I missed *that* much. HOWEVER! This era gave us Stupid Sorry, which is my favorite japanese release from them. And it's also one of my favorite b-sides from their discography as a whole.

Still, one song won't raise the rating. l think the album is nice, though.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Reveal

Now... *sighs* Yes I was one of the people that didn't like the concept change. It just wasn't it for me. Especially because this was their first korean release right after BLOOM BLOOM and D.D.D which is already established that I love them.

I wouldn't say I was disappointed... or maybe I was. At the time I didn't know this was their first full album. I still thought the song was nice. I only listened to the album as a whole this year.

I'll also reveal (see what I did there?) some details on how my opinions have changed with the Chase section.

It's a good album, sure. My favorite song is Shake You Down because my girl Kenzie would never disappoint me. Also Kenzie and Moonshine on the same song in itself is a win. This album also gave us Goodbye and Spring Snow, which is nice. The other songs didn't catch my eye.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Chase

Now here, ladies and gentlemen and fellow non-binary folk, is how you make a successful concept. I think one of the let-downs of Reveal for me was that it didn't stick out to me because it was just a "dark" concept.

For a long time, actually, I liked Reveal more than The Stealer due to the chanting in the chorus (which is one of my pet peeves in songs). I only started liking The Stealer last year. And after listening to Chase as a whole, I look at my past self and think "How on EARTH did you think that Reveal was better than Chase?"

This era has the concept, the songs, the execution, the choreography, the storyline. It defeated Reveal in every aspect for me. I'm so sorry to the Reveal enjoyers who might be reading this (i'm sorry yumi), your tastes are still valid.

My favorite song is Shine Shine because MY GIRL KENZIE NEVER DISAPPOINTS!!! She also wrote the lyrics to The Stealer which is just the cherry on top.

All of this is still ironic considering that I disliked this era for two whole years.

》 ☆☆☆☆ (Four Stars)

Breaking Dawn

I don't think there's a lot I'll be able to say about this era. I don't have any strong opinions about it besides not liking Breaking Dawn (the song) and having nightmares about the MISBHV shirt (please... i'm exhausted... someone burn this shirt... I see it everywhere....)

My favorite song is Hush which is not exactly saying a lot. In this album's defense, I don't give much attention to their japanese releases as a whole.

》 ☆☆ (Two Stars)

Drink It

Technically speaking Special Singles don't count in this review, but...

THIS IS A PLEAD FOR THE BOYZ TO PLEASE PERFORM THIS SONG LIVE, THE UNIVERSE APP AND COMPANY CAN JUST SCREW OFF, GIVE US THE SONG AGAIN 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

》 ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆~ (ALL the Stars, please perform this song live, I'm begging 😭😭😭😭😭😭)

Thrill-Ing

As I said before, this was the first mini album of The Boyz I heard in full. As I also said before, The Boyz simply know how to make a good summer comeback.

The concept photos? The MV? The songs? The aesthetic? The outfits? They slayed, your honor. This mini album is cohesive in everything it does. It was also the first comeback with me actually knowing all their names and following the teaser schedule.

The only song I didn't like at first was Dancing 'Til We Drop. Nowadays, I can enjoy it. It's still the last in my ranking from this release, but now I don't hate it. My number one slot is forever occupied by Bet On You.

As a closing thought, I'll say this: I really do like Merry Bad Ending, but that song is overrated.

》 ☆☆☆☆☆ (Five Stars) + 🌙 (Moon Badge)

Maverick

To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I think the let-down of it all was worse because this was 2 months after Thrill-Ing. You gave us the best summer comeback of the year and then released this song with chanting in the chorus and lyrics that don't make a lot of sense??

I did learn to appreciate the pre-chorus but that's about it. Safe to say I'm not the biggest fan of Maverick the song. The other two songs didn't capture me enough to give it three stars. It's just not my cup of tea and not the kind of style I like from The Boyz.

With that said, It's funny that I'm going off about this release on its 2 year anniversary. Happy Birthday Maverick!

》 ☆☆ (Two Stars)

She's The Boss

I don't know what it is with their japanese releases that just confuse me. When I listen to this song I don't like the way the verse is all aggressive and the chorus gets kinda chill.

Besides the title track, this release didn't stick out to me, even among the japanese comebacks. My favorite song is Why Why Why, which is not saying a lot. I did like the aesthetic of the title track MV and concept pictures.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Be Aware

This comeback... was.... something... yeah. It really was something. Definitely one of the releases of all time.

Besides the Eric hiatus, this era didn't feel quite right to me. Whisper felt like it was a Thrill Ride 2.0 that went wrong. It's definitely not for me. I do think it's funny that The Boyz seem to ignore this song too.

For the mini album as a whole... I don't hate the songs but I'd rather listen to their other releases. I think this is just out of spite because I don't like Whisper. My favorite song from here is Timeless.

》 ☆☆ (Two Stars)

Be Awake

Now, if they had Roar ready even before they released Whisper... then why did they even release Whisper????

I know that it's supposed to be some kind of Duology, I guess? But I don't see a lot of connections besides thinking that Blah Blah could be a Be Aware b-side.

Now, if you followed me when this was released you would know that I didn't like it at first. I had to listen to it like 10 times before liking it. I'm still glad I did because now I really appreciate the song. The MV is a masterpiece. And Kenzie wrote the lyrics, which is always a nice touch.

As for the rest of the mini album, I think the songs go great together. For someone who "doesn't like" The Boyz darker concepts, this was a nice surprise. My favorite song is Horizon.

As a final thought, I think IST should hire me to do their line distributions, I'm 100% sure I would be able to make a fair line distribution according to their voice timbrers and vocal technique levels. Please let Juyeon and Haknyeon sing more, I love their voices so much 😭😭😭😭😭

》 ☆☆☆☆ (Four Stars)

Delicious

This was... a bit of a whiplash experience because there were like four different types of songs?? Every two songs it felt like the vibe changed. It didn't make me dislike them, though. It was just a bit of a shock.

With that said, my favorite song is Lip Sync. I literally listened to it today before writing this, so I don't have much to say about this album.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Christmas In August

Say it with me: THE 👏 BOYZ 👏 KNOW 👏 HOW 👏 TO 👏 MAKE 👏 A 👏 GOOD 👏 SUMMER 👏 COMEBACK 👏.

Like, I don't know how they do it. They simply kill it every time. Dreamlike, Thrill-Ing and Christmas In August is THE Holy Trinity for me. If you don't like it, I'm sorry you don't know how to have fun :(

Jokes aside, when I first listened to this album, I pratically liked all the songs. I did get a bit disappointed by Fantasize because I thought it would have a more energetic chorus. But girl (gender neutral), when I listened to Fire Eyes...

When I tell you I jumped from my bed and started dancing and flailing around my arms and legs, you best believe me because that's exactly what it happened. This song is everything I wanted and more. It solidified this album as a favorite for me.

This album is just really good overall. Ugh I love it, I really do. Unfortunately it didn't quite get the five stars because not all the songs are my absolute favorites (including Lip Gloss, I'm so sorry my dear). With time it'll probably evolve into a Five-Star, but for now this is all I can offer.

As a final thought, I don't know why they decided to call it a Second Full Album divided in three parts?? Like, just say it's three mini albums? Especially if the concepts are gonna be different? Also if it doesn't reach the 30-minute mark, it's not a full album. But maybe it's just a me thing.

》 ☆☆☆☆ (Four Stars)

Sixth Sense

First, the marketing leading up to this release left me SO nervous and desperately hoping that we woudn't get a Maverick 2.0. I'm a lot more "forgiving" on the b-sides, but given the fact that The Boyz's members were talking about "bad boy" concept (and not the Red Velvet kind)... yeah, you can say I was at least a bit nervous, since I already said that I'm not the biggest fan of The Boyz's "darker" concepts.

As for the title track itself, Watch It is NOT a Maverick 2.0 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏. It's definitely not my favorite title track of them and I really prefer Roar to this, but it's also NOT my most disliked song! And for me, that's both a relief and a good thing to say, because I actually had some enjoyment listening to the song, although it didn't quite get past the "nice" territory.

I was scared it would be an anti-drop (which I'm tired of), but since there was no percussion on the first pre-chorus, there was no tension or buildup to resolve. However, on the second pre-chorus we had a bit more buildup, and I was a bit disappointed (but not really surprised) that the second chorus didn't add anything else beside an extra synth layer. I think I would've liked it better if there was more energy, in a similar way to You Calling My Name by GOT7, to give an example.

Also, on the end of the bridge there was a tempo change leading to the high note?? Out of nowhere???? And I can't believe they DIDN'T GO ALL THE WAY. They went back to the chorus. With an extra synth layer. No change in the percussion. That didn't make me disappointed, it made me sad 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭. It could've been SO much more, they could've gone full Silent Night by Dreamcatcher, and I would've loved EVERY SECOND.

As for the rest of the album... why didn't they make Bad Luck the title track 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭, like yeah, I can see why Watch It is the title track, considering their marketing strategy, but I liked Bad Luck so much more... It has a break of expectation and it's so much more dynamic in my opinion. Crying&Laughter is my second favorite and honestly this track name just sums me up so well.

The mini album is really cohesive (and I love using the word cohesive) and you can definitely (another word I love using) see the vision they had for this release. Unfortunately, it's not a vision that I particularly enjoyed. So, this album is gonna have to go into a pretty familiar category: It's Nice But That's About It.

As a final thought, I'm gonna say this again: why are you gonna release 6 songs at a time with entire different concepts and call it a Full Album? Just say it's three mini albums or release a complete Full Album, please.

》 ☆☆☆ (Three Stars)

Final Scoring

As a whole, I almost rated this discography as three stars only, but after thinking a bit, even if I don't listen to every song (or most of them, at least), the ones I love and that I consider my favorites are enough to raise the score as whole. I may not love all the songs, but the ones I do, I love them with all my heart and they'll always be a special memory.

》 ☆☆☆☆ (Four Stars)

Final Thoughts

Again, I wanna say this was just for fun. I wanted to document my "process" as I navigate through my favorite artists' careers and maybe find a new perspective. I consider listening to music as my personal hobby, and so I wanted a fun way for me to do it.

I hope that those who read everything search a bit about The Boyz and their songs, if you haven't already ^^

Until the next post and happy listening 💜✨️

~ Gio🌙

#🌙 gio talks #🌙 mto #🌙 discography review #the boyz

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jesslockwood · 3 years ago

Text

Photo Opportunities

Word Count: 2.7k

Pairing(s): Tom Holland x Actress!Reader

Warnings: FLUFF with a slightly (barely) suggestive sentence towards the end

A/n: damn I can't write anything except actress reader? smh but this is for @londonspidey ‘s sit-com Writing challenge (ik I'm early lol) but I was so excited I wrote the whole thing in one go lmao the prompt is bolded!

Calling yourself a fan was an understatement. You were obsessed with anything and everything marvel. And oddly enough, you could after today say you were in the club. It wasn’t a public fact yet, until later that day actually, at the Marvel panel at comic con that you were being announced as the actress for the character, Felica Hardy and no one else knew except for the people who cast you and your best friend who signed an NDA. You were technically still a known actress for your roles on television mainly as Thalia on the PJO Disney + series and a couple of still decently sized films.

You were currently wrapping up signing autographs for fans of yours for today. Your team had planned it out so it wasn’t suspicious that you were at the con with a few of your castmates scattered doing other junkets and press so people wouldn’t guess who they were acting as the cast for new marvel projects.

You had been planning to go meet your best friend, who wasn’t in the industry before getting a text that she bought you both a photo-op with someone and she wouldn’t tell you who. You couldn’t only assume it was a marvel actor that you would indeed, freak out.

Y/b/n: btw I brought you a mask. I get the wig lol.

You: please tell me it doesn’t cover my full face. Also, how are we posing?

Y/b/n: I bought as many photo ops as I could so a lot of different ones, And if I tell you the poses it’ll spoil it.

You: is this with the money I pay you to be my assistant with? Lol fine I’m omw with security

Y/b/n: maybe…

Y/b/n: and they’ll need more backup security for who we’re getting a photo op with than you do for your hellfire.

You roll your eyes before taking your stuff and exiting the booth, before heading out the backways with staff security and your detailed security for the day. You only had security because you wanted to explore the con when you weren’t needed.

Your best friend had also been your assistant for the con weekend, but you didn’t want her to be confined to you the whole three days so when she could, you would let her explore it, at least she could experience it as a fan, right?

When you made it to that part of the building, you wanted to wait in line with her, which your security didn’t agree to so she texted you when there were about five people ahead of her. She was one of the last in line, with you asking her to be kind, so others would get their chance to be first with whomever it was.

When she texted you and your detailed exit, getting a few stares and others taking their phones out to either take photos or tweet, you wave at them before joining your best friend in line.

“Here,” she says before handing you none other than a black cat mask before she puts on a red wig.

You glare at her slightly trying to not make a scene, before putting it on.

“I’m assuming you're Mary Jane?” you laugh figuring out that it had to be someone from Spider-Man.

“How’d you- never mind.” She laughs with you.

She then explains how she’s going to pose for your five photo ops, joking in between how she should “get a raise for this”.

You catch sight of him before sucking in your breath. This was either going to go down amazingly or terribly, there was no in-between with you.

“Excuse Me, are you Y/n Y/l/n?”

You turn around and are met by some fans who were standing in line behind you.

“I am! How’s your con going?” you ask politely to the two of them.

“It's going amazing! We love you as Thalia! Could we maybe get a picture? Only if it’s okay?”

“Of course! Thank you for supporting me!” your best friend grabs their phone to take the photo, before you take off the mask, and stand between the two fans, and your best friend snaps a few photos.

“Thank you so much! And Are you fans of Tom?”

You start slowly walking back to catch up to the line.

“Yeah, I love him as Spiderman, but I also enjoy his other roles. He's very talented, I'd love to work with him one day!”

“Have you seen him in Uncharted? We love Him as Nathan drake!”

“I have, he was amazing per usual! How are you two posing with him?”

They show you their innovative pose. You laugh and tell them it's great before you have to wish them goodbye before heading up for your turn for the photo op.

“How do we want to pose- hang on, I recognize you!”

You freeze slightly before your friend mouths for you to flirt. You look down at the mask in your hand before getting into character and saying “Of course you do Spidey, I'm always causing you trouble.” you put on the mask and wink.

He seems slightly stunned, laughing, feeling like he’s seen you somewhere, not only because he found you extremely gorgeous, while in his peripheral vision he sees his brother/ assistant, Harry waving like a madman on the side.

Your friend directs you both through the poses, first, one both him putting “webs” onto you as she looks over his shoulder, the second one, both of you kissing his cheeks, the third, all jumping in the air in your best superhero poses, the fourth one she gets a photo op alone and the last one she gives to you,

“Seriously, who are you?”

“Your Wildest dreams, baby,” you say, taking off the mask.

Your best friend yells “freestyle” from the sidelines before Tom dips you, gently, with you shocked, holding the mask out with your free arm and the photo captures that moment.

He gently helps you stand back up fully, not before you drop the mask.

“Nice moves Spider-Man.”

“Not so bad yourself, Black Cat.”

You laugh before, taking off with your best friend, well more her dragging you to the printing station leaving the mask behind. Tom picks it up before shoving it in his back pocket to hopefully give back if he could find you.

`You were sitting in the green room, trending on Twitter before you were actually supposed to be trending on Twitter, and god knows where else.

Someone had snuck a video of you and Tom, up till him dipping you, and a video of you interacting with the fans in the line.

Your Y/b/n was currently reading off some tweets out loud

“‘A kind queen we stan.’ I agree, I also agree with ‘Date her if you can't date me tom!!!’.

‘THALIA AND PETER PARKER??? My two fandoms have collided.’ same, same. Oo this one says, ‘if she ain’t playing black cat I will sue marvel.’ I'm dying at the reply ‘She needs to post the photos or I'll sue her!’. This one’s funny, ‘she could squash him like a bug in heels but he liked his queen like that.’.”

She pauses watching you texting.

“Y/n? Y/n?”

“What? Sorry I was only half listening. I was texting my publicist. She said to stay on the DL until tonight.

“Well we should get food, you haven't eaten since this morning.”

“By the way, your show has shot to number one on Disney +. Also, you have like three times the followers you had before, probably cause you're trending on every platform, even Tumblr!”

“Wow you should just become my social media manager now.” you joke trying to ease the joy yet weirded out feeling in your stomach.

“Does that come with a raise? Because after today I've spent way too much of what I'm paid.” she jokes back.

After finishing his photo ops Tom asked Harry who she was and to find out. By the time he finished autographs for the day, Tom and Harry walked to the panel room in the back for announcements, one that included him for the new Avengers movie, while Harry gave him the rundown.

“So she’s an actress, she plays Thalia on Disney plus’ Percy Jackson series, and that's her most known project. The other girl with her is her assistant best friend, and now she's trending everywhere. People dug up some old photos of her being a marvel/Spider-Man fan, so there's that. And she's here at the con for the rest of the weekend. She's doing photo ops tomorrow at one, and yes she's single from what I gather since you were looking at her like this.” he makes a weird face before tom smacks him.

“And plus you have time in your schedule to get a photo op with her, that is if you eat lunch quickly.”

That gave Tom an idea.

“Harry I’m going to need you to book me one, oh and help me find a Spider-Man costume!” He says, before leaving harry to do ‘assistant’ work. entering the green room for the announcements, watching them announce a new movie.

“We are so excited to announce to the Marvel Universe, and spider-verse-” that perked tom’s ears, “-directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, and today we are announcing our amazing Miss Felicia Hardy, please give a warm welcome to the stage, Your Black Cat!”

You suddenly emerged in an aisle way, dressed in all black with a leather jacket, black ankle boots, and of course black sunglasses indoors.

The music is marvel music until it suddenly changes after a recorded laugh from you into “I can’t be tamed by Miley Cyrus”.

You start owning the music while saying hi and touching fans’ hands. You decide to take off your sunglasses and throwing them to a fan, for them to keep, before getting on stage.

“What a Performance from the one the only Y/n Y/l/n!”

You laugh, being met with the loudest applause you had heard all con before being handed a Mic.

“Thank you but I'm a terrible dancer.” You Joke.

Tom was staring at the screen stunned. You had been the black cat all along. You were in the marvel universe and spidey one, so he'd definitely be seeing more of you. The hard part is that you seemed so genuine when you talked, interacted with fans and was no doubt, stunning.

“Better close your mouth or the flies will get in.” Tom turns around to find the voice of none other than his friend slash bully, Sebastian Stan, along with Anthony Mackie.

“Looks like the kid has a crush!” Anthony laughs, pointing to the screen you were on.

“I-I don’t! I don’t even know her!” Tom tries to come to his own defense, hopelessly.

“She’s got you whipped already don’t even deny it.” Harry comes in, joining the teasing of one, Tom Holland.

“Maybe we can invite her out for drinks tonight, then fanboy over here can meet her, and then probably scare her off!” Anthony mentions.

“You haven’t looked on the internet? They’ve already met.” Seb says, before showing Anthony twitter.

Anthony stands there slightly shocked before bursting into laughter.

“Well, she’s damn well a keeper for Tom since she obviously likes him.”

A staff member peaks their head in the green room to tell Tom he’s up next.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave you two!”

On the other hand, you were on an adrenaline high from being on stage, and seeing all the fans. You knew tomorrow was going to be crazy, as you expected people to book your photo op left and right since the announcement.

You had decided to decline an offer from your fellow marvel universe castmates, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie, which they so graciously told you that whenever you’re free, the offer still stood.

You had gotten to your hotel room seeing your phone blowing up on the social media apps for the second time that day.

You responded to the important stuff, before heading to bed, knowing it was going to be hectic.

You had been right, it was absolutely insane, the number of people who showed up. You had fully booked all your time slots for photo ops. You had seen so many people dressed up in marvel cosplay, ranging from Loki to Ironman, even some people dressed up as your character, which was wildly insane to see.

You had been nearing the end of the line and had enjoyed every moment with the fans, and you couldn’t wait for your autographing session later that day, to truly get a chance to talk to the fans and connect with them and how they felt about you being their beloved Black Cat.

After a few more photos, posing how they wanted, you see a fully dressed, head to toe, mask and all, Spider-Man. You had seen some spider-mans but most took off their masks to snap a picture. The person was the last in line.

“Hey Black Cat.” The southern American accented voice tells you, seeming very familiar.

“Hey, Spider, what poses do you have up your sleeve?” you ask kindly.

“I bought a few, Cat.” they laugh.

“Okay, You can do whatever a spider can right?” you pull out a line out of the comics jokingly.

“I can do flips if that’s what you’re asking.”

“Is that some kind of nerd pick-up line? Because it’s only kind of working.” you laugh.

“I really can, but this is one.”

He gets down on one knee, holding a black cat mask instead of a ring. The photographer captures the shocked expression on your face.

“I- Don’t- What- Spider I-”

“Ow My feelings…” Suddenly their voice changes into a British accent before they pull off the mask to reveal-

“Tom?”

“I guess you don’t have a spidey sense darling?” The photographer captures the moment without warning eating the moment up.

You laugh at that.

“I guess you found out my true identity Spider. And it’s nice to officially meet you, Tom.”

He laughs, just as nervous as you, he notices he has gotten closer to you and a strand of hair loosely is blowing in your face, so naturally, he pushes it behind your ear. Another snap of the camera can be heard.

“NOW KISS!” a voice belonging to your best friend yells from the side, mid-eating a churro.

You both laugh really hard at that.

The both of you calm down, slowly leaning lost in the moment. The camera snaps again. You both look at the photographer weirded out, and they just shrug.

“Wait can you actually do a flip?” you ask, pulling away, not wanting prying eyes aka the photographer, to pry in your business.

“I can, though I’d show you later, maybe in the greenroom?”

“That sounds naughty, but, sure.” you joke around.

He laughs before, you both take off from the area going to grab the photos.

After spending most of the day together when you could, you get Tom’s number, before heading back to your hotel room. He texts you as soon as you get back.

Spider: I had fun today, minus finding our assistants making out.

You: we should ‘snog’ too, it’ll gross them out ;)

You: I had fun too btw. Are you leaving tomorrow?

Spider: lol we should. And yeah an early flight, 6 am to be exact. Hbu?

You: Yeah me too... another day another dollar lol

Spider: ill miss you, Cat.

You: stop talking like we’ll never see each other again lol. As a matter of fact, come to my room, we’re watching a movie!

Spider: alright, I’ll order snacks.

You sigh smiling at your phone. You haven’t felt this giddy in a long time.

Your phone pings with a few Instagram notifications.

Tomholland2013 has started following you.

Tomholland2013 has tagged you in a photo.

You open Instagram to find the photo of him “proposing” to you posted.

“Ow, my leg, my- feelings...Welcome to the Universe, Cat.” the photo is captioned. You decide to post, the photo of him dipping you.

“So what do you say, Spider? Wanna help me pull off the Heist of the Heist of the Century?” you caption it, Before getting comfortable to watch a movie.

What an opportunity ;)

Tags:

@lolooo22 @webmeupspiderdaddy @harryhollandsgirlfriend @spideyspeaches @greenorangevioletgrass @queenofthepouges @sheranatic111 @keithseabrook27

#tom holland #peter parker #marvel #spider-man #tom holland fic #tom holland x reader #tom holland fanfic #tom holland fanfiction #tom holland x y/n #tom holland imagine #tom holland one shot #comic con #ace comic con seattle #ace con #comiccon #Katies4kwc

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nicanario · 3 years ago

Text

this post is a product of its time

tw: discussion of racism, homophobia, misogyny and a short mention of sexual abuse.

ok, this is basically gonna be a very long rambling post about my not fully developed thoughts on the justification many people give to bigotry when talking about the past: "it was a product of its time"

it would be fair to say, with me being a raging SJW socialist scumbag, that I don't think this is a very good argument and is most of the time actually an excuse to not think about the problems inherent to our society, historical or not, and, by extension, the problems with ourselves. but I do think that sometimes, just sometimes, this can be a valid point, or at least one that raises some interesting questions.

I'm going to cite examples from several pieces of media, but fear not, I'll try to make this as accesible as I can.

so, let's take Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS) as our first case study. this show has, correctly, been called progressive by everyone except for clueless people who don't know much about Star Trek's history, Star Trek's crew, Star Trek's cast, or, frankly, Star Trek. because if you ignore the clear, sometimes in-your-face political history and present of the franchise, I don't think you know much about it at all. I do think you can call yourself a fan if you like it, you may have watched every single episode for all I know. but lots of mental gymnastics are needed to ignore the political progressiveness Star Trek has had since its very beginning.

episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield are obviously anti-racist, at least in their intention. but the episode in question really is "a product of its time," and at the very end fails to uphold its ideals. the episode ends with the two aliens (who are LITERALLY. BLACK ON ONE SIDE. AND WHITE ON THE OTHER. BUT IN THE OPPOSITE SIDES.) fighting each other on their devastated planet, and the crew is like, "oh yeah if they both would give up on their hatred that they both share both of them equally" when it has been firmly established that one is the oppressor and the other one is the oppressed.

and that's a lot of Star Trek, not just TOS. even Discovery, one of the most recent series, has done Bury Your Gays (and Trans) TWICE (though both times literally rectified it, which is cool). there are episodes of the franchise that are overtly racist, or misogynistic, etc. TOS is lauded, mostly justifiably, as very progressive, especially for the standards of the time. they put a woman of colour as one of the senior staff, for fuck's sake. of course, when you analyse that same character, as with most of their intentions at being progressive, you'll see that she was relegated and sometimes even outright mistreated when she had the potential to be much more. but, at that time, it was a lot.

I had a friend (emphasis on "had") who, after I told him about TOS's both progressiveness and constant misogyny, told me something like "imagine feminists trying to complain about a show from the 60s." so, with unearned spite, he was, in some way, trying to make the argument that it was a product of its time.

you could say Star Trek, all of Star Trek, is "a product of its time" in the sense that it's not always perfect. uh, yes, I would agree. but that doesn't mean people have to accept it. well, I mean, the show is kinda over, you have to accept it's that way. but you don't have to accept that it's not wrong just because it was a product of its time.

H. P. Lovecraft, as another example, was a greatly influential writer whose works still shape a lot of people's ideas to this day. I have only ever read like one of his stories, so don't expect me to have an opinion on his works. but I can have an opinion on what I know about him as a person (he did have a life outside his writing, after all). and, yeah, he was a huge asshole. if you want to know more in depth about the subject, please watch Hbomberguy's video on him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8u8wZ0WvxI

but basically, he was incredibly racist & homophobic. some people might even say, "he was a product of his time." well, there are two possible rebuttals to that. the surface level one, and the one that examines why that argument is wrong to the core.

The Surface Level Response to "it was a product of its time": um, no it wasn't. Lovecraft was more racist than a lot of people even in his time. he wasn't just a guy who carried the racist beliefs of his society like everyone else, he was a reactionary who actively thought and discussed how racist he was, and how right he was for being that way. but that's only applicable to Lovecraft. one can't argue the same for Star Trek: TOS, because TOS did try to be more progressive and more anti-racist than the rest of its society. that leads us to the next response.

The Response that Actually Deals with the Fact that No Matter How Progressive You're Trying to Be, Your Failings Can Still be Criticized: the thing is, trying to excuse Lovecraft's or Star Trek's bigotry because they were "products of their times" misses the fact that racism is still wrong, and some people knew that in those times as well. people from these times weren't all naive or stupid or whatever. they had the capacity for rational thinking. they could stop and think, "hey, maybe what we're doing is wrong." and the fact is, some people did. not perfectly, not to our standars, but they did. everyone could have stopped and think. but most of them didn't, and we can criticize them for it. racism, homophobia, sexism, etc. HURT PEOPLE. horribly. massively.

also, even if you agree with the "it's a product of its time" argument, some people aren't criticising people's or work's bigotry: they're explaining why they don't want to experience it.

The Talons of Weng-Chiang is a 1977 Doctor Who serial, and it's one of the show's more racist stories. almost all the villains are Chinese, every single Chinese person is a villain. there's yellowface, slurs, stereotypes, the Doctor speaking nonsense words instead of actual Chinese, and a general belittling of Chinese culture.

note that I'm neither Chinese nor of Chinese descent. I have been searching for hours for a few posts I've read a while ago (some by people who are of Asian descent) about this episode and I can't find them. sorry.

suffice it to say, even though I love Jago & Litefoot (the audio series and the characters), it's not an acceptable episode at all. but it's also important to remark that, because of it, some people aren't going to want to watch it. sometimes, people aren't saying "the episode shouldn't be this way," which causes others to answer that it was "a product of its time." sometimes, people are just saying, "this is an episode that attacks real people. I don't want to see it. I don't care if it was common in that era to be racist, i don't want to experience it."

however, there is an interesting point to the "it's a product of its time" argument. after all, everything is influenced by its society, for better or worse. and we can't change it anymore. TOS sometimes didn't quite understand the political themes it wanted to explore. Lovecraft was a horrible bigot. Talons was racist towards Chinese folks. and that's that. I don't think we should change the episodes/stories or anything. edit them in any way. that would be, in a sense, changing history. and we wouldn't learn anything from it, about how we can do better.

I think there are two solutions to this:

1. warnings before starting the text: this was done with The Talons of Weng-Chiang. on Britbox, where you can watch Classic Who, this serial has a content warning before the start. that's good.

2. the removal as a whole of the text from some places: I think before applying this one, there should be a lot of thought put into each case. I don't think removing a whole serial of Doctor Who or Lovecraft's stories from anything would be, well, fair. especially on tv episodes a lot more people worked on those, not just the writers and the directors. Lovecraft's writing influenced thousands. we shouldn't erase them or anything. but sometimes, for some cases, we should.

those in the US might seen a Confederate statue being taken down. that is, in a way, a form of removal of a piece of history.

but that is a good removal. statues glorify. one sees a statue and probably thinks "this was a person worthy of admiration." they should be taken down, maybe even with a permanent mark of why this was done (a plaque that reads "a statue of X was here, but he didn't deserve it because of Y" could be put in place of the statues, for example).

another example is the removal from DVDs of the short episode A Fix with Sontarans, a Sixth Doctor minisode that featured Jimmy Savile, a presenter who was later found out to be sexually abusing children.

the removal of that minisode is good, actually. it's not a full episode (it's not even Doctor Who). some might say that's "erasing history" but, like, you can still find it online or information about it if you want. this minisode deserves removal from DVDs and Blu-Rays and whatever more than content warnings. it's not an important part of the show and it prominently features a horrible person who did horrible things during that time.

so, after all that, I have explained why I don't like the "it's a product of its time" argument. it is an interesting point that deserves to be examined, but it's not very good.

I have had this in Drafts for so long I've probably forgot some of the points I was going to make, but eh, what can you do? hope you enjoyed reading this.

bye

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