#my parents have more in common with me and than with Americans their age

[doctor-peggy]

I’m surprised more people haven’t clicked the ‘other’ option. Technically these generations are based on USAmerican socioeconomic trends, right? Like yeah I could say what years my parents were born, but it would mean nothing in the context of this poll, especially since it specifically references the generations by name.

Most shared formative cultural experiences would not apply to generations before millennials, at best. At least, especially not for countries like mine that we’re recovering from centuries of colonial rule through the mid to late 1900s. So while I technically could answer this poll, it wouldn’t mean anything for the context in which this poll was written. Except MAYBE if my parents were millennials (they’re not), and millennials who grew up at least upper middle class at that. Or if my parents were gen Z (again, they’re not).

Either a very, VERY large majority of this website’s users are USAmerican (possible, but I doubt it’s as skewed as I’m thinking if people answered the poll the way I did), or there’s a bunch of people who have answered based only on the years mentioned. Which, as I explained, is somewhat meaningless unless the poll was only about how old people’s parents are (which it is not).

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[thechekhov]

Dungeon Meshi Quick Reacts: CH45

Slumber party!

Fair, but consider: She deserves a little murder. As a treat.

Kabru be like "IS THAT MY BACKSTORY???"

That sure is....a ship. With no one on it.

Ah, shit the Americans are here.

Two things: Toshiro being tended to like a pretty pretty princess is hilarious.

And also, the fact that they think the elves can kill Falin......... hmmm.... Pressing X to doubt.

............... oh. Laios. 😂

But also like. How was he MEANT to keep it silent? Put a little something in it? I thought since it was a magic bell you could code it to only ring when it's shaken with INTENT?

Fancy ass house.

Also, Namari...........are you hitting that yet? Both of that?

Oh, it's backstory time.

Okay one: that's fucking tragic, it sounds like the Elves are just forcing the dungeons closed with no regard for how the ecosystem compensates and what people suffer by being in close proximity......

And another thing: Kabru. Kabru, isn't that what YOU'RE after? Having all the power?

Why is this so much like that one meme where the girls at the party are looking at you.

It's the same picture.

Kabru that's. That's maybe not the way to go about it. you're going to give them MORE reasons to go in.

Nevermind the governor not being into this 'good boy, now sign' talk, Toshiro's kinda right. Ya fucked up Kabru.

No matter how far Laios runs, he cannot escape other people trying to tell him how to live his life. Poor guy. But at the same time...

Is this real? Or a red herring?

Laios' father and mother seemed to be living relatively pious lives. They clearly had a good house, but it didn't seem like they were extremely rich. Then again, perhaps he's just a cousin of royalty? Is that why his parents wanted him to have children?

They want to.... halt the growth of the dungeon? Is this another part of the natural ecosystem of things? Dungeons growing seems to point even more towards the idea that it's a gigantic, fleshpit-like creature instead of simply a construct.

Then again, constructs CAN be creatures. Like the golems.

Elves not understanding how old humans are continues to be hilarious because like.

As humans, we HAVE this same concept of variant aging. Like. Dogs. We understand that dogs live less than us, and mature a lot slower. But this is.... COMMON KNOWLEDGE. Most people do not make it into adulthood without understanding that dogs mature within 1-2 years of their birth.

The fact that elves, a species with FAR more time on their hands, who have lived alongside other races for AGES....... have STILL not got the general concept of aging down....means their education is atrocious. Or they're all not paying attention.

.......this. THIS is the most fascinating concept in this chapter.

The fallen.... turned into MONSTERS.

We know that dying inside the dungeon doesn't mean permanent death. But dying above-ground does.

We know that dying in the dungeon doesn't mean your body turns into a monster (aside from ghosts and ghouls?) ..... but dying aboveground.... DOES......?

WHAT'S THE TRUTH.

👁👁

Hm.

If Kabru and Laios fused, they could almost make one functioning human being.

Senshi just beginning to speak in the middle of his own internal monologue is so real.

...... what's going on there with the expression, buddy?

Bread.......are they STILL carrying around flour with them?! How are they getting bread?!

Also, it's awesome that the eggs are canonically hard to crack, because it makes sense that they don't break during their many fighting events.

Izutsumi really said ◉_◉

Don't tell me Laios, who is sensitive to ghosts has ALSO been seeing things?

Not gonna lie, that's highkey terrifying.

Props to that ghost that's been following Laios around, not ever giving up hope that it can bother him into acknowledging it.

And also - hey, it already saved them once! that means it's probably not evil!

That, or it's the king of the bloody dungeon. Wouldn't that be something!

[diopeitudo]

Dio is the textbook definition of a sociopath

As someone who's interested in psychology, I think it's fun to analyze the mental state of fictional characters, especially villains, to understand why they commit such atrocities. Dio is a particularly interesting case, as while I don't think he's a super complex character writing-wise, he's pretty fun to analyze psychologically. So, while I was researching personality disorders, I noticed that Dio exhibits pretty much all the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder.

So let's go through them, shall we?

Disregard for laws and social norms;

Consistent deceitfulness, lying, or manipulation for personal gain; 

Lack of empathy, guilt or remorse over harming others; 

Impulsive behaviors such as substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, etc; 

Hostility, aggressiveness, and frequent physical fights or assaults; 

Superficial charm/charisma used to manipulate others;

According to the American Psychiatric Association, a person needs to exhibit at least three of these symptoms before age 15 to be officially diagnosed with ASPD. In Part 1, we can see that Dio exhibits most of them as young as 12 years old. 

Now you might be thinking: "but it's very common for villains to have these traits, you can't just diagnose Dio based on that", and that's a fair point.

…But then I read an interview with Araki where he states:

"[...] Additionally, FBI psychological profiling was a hot topic around the time that I wrote this. Why do serial killers do what they do, scientifically speaking? I was inspired by that when I was working on Dio."

…Which leads me to believe that Araki did, in fact, research about this topic in order to write Dio.

Another interesting aspect of ASPD are the causes behind the disorder. As we all know, there's that pretty infamous scene in Phantom Blood where Speedwagon claims that Dio was born 'evil'. And what if I told you that he's half-right?

Let's look into the causes of ASPD:

First, we have the genetic factor, aka heritability, which is fairly straightforward: children of parents who suffer from ASPD have a way higher risk of developing it than children who don't; additionally, children of alcoholic parents are also at a higher risk. 

And who is Dio's father? Dario Brando—an alcoholic scumbag who abused his son and wife, and was essentially responsible for her death after forcing her to work tirelessly. He was also more than ready to leave an infant to die after stealing his parents' valuables; his visible lack of empathy, alcoholism and violent behavior leads me to think that Dario himself suffers from ASPD, which he passed on to his son, Dio.

Then, we have the neurological and physiological factors; basically, there's studies that indicate that people with ASPD have decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain that's responsible for emotional regulation, empathy, and impulse control.

Other studies show that imbalances in the neurotransmitter system, such as those involving serotonin and dopamine, have been associated with impulsivity, aggression, and antisocial behavior. 

But there's more. It is a known fact that our environmental influences, especially during early childhood, play a crucial role in shaping our behavior. Research shows that adverse experiences such as neglect, abuse, poverty and exposure to violence in childhood can contribute to the development of ASPD.

Dio has gone through pretty much all of it as a child. Alongside growing up poor, he was physically and verbally abused by his father; I also think it's very likely that kid Dio also had to go through a fair bit of neglect after his mother's death, as we all know that Dario wasn't at all concerned in actually raising him. 

So, was Dio actually born evil as Speedwagon claims? The answer is 'sort of'.

In my opinion, what happened was that Dio was born with some sociopathic tendencies (the genetic and neurophysiological factors I mentioned before) that were later exacerbated by his traumatic childhood experiences.

Of course, that isn't meant to excuse Dio's actions/behavior. He's an irredeemable monster, and that's part of why I like him so much. 

[brunhielda]

Because this is becoming THAT blog-

The one where I review old movies we all have already seen, but I personally, have not seen for years until recently.

I just watched “An American Tale.”

If you were a child of the 90s, you just thought- ���There are No Cats in America 🎶? THAT American Tale?”

Yes.

If you had that thought, you likely already know. If you have not had the absolute joy- buckle up. I am going to rant about a classic.

First of all- This is Don Bluth.

His movies do not get worse with age.

They get BETTER.

And American Tale is example number ONE.

No, it is not fond memories or nostalgia glasses, you can breath, and then go treat yourself to a viewing.

Secondly- the man did not dumb down or sanitize his history.

He said “I’m going to tell the immigrant story” and then opened with a fucking ethnic cleansing.

I said what I said.

The movie is set in the early Russian Empire, a time full of anti-Semitic sentiment and enforced laws, also seen in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Fiddler on the roof might actually be tamer on the subject.

Every other historical note in this movie is on point and easy enough to look up in a history book, if you have the common sense to realize that names have been altered.

The Statue of Liberty was not built by a pigeon, for example. It was built by a Frenchman. (Frederic Auguste Bartholdi).

I don’t know of an “honest John,” but I did guffaw out loud when he started taking names of the dead at funerals to add to his vote count. Ghost votes were very real, one of the reasons people are still so twitchy about voter fraud today.

I do not recall a moment in 1886 when the minorities of New York managed to run off prominate members of authority… but with how on point everything else is? It would not shock me.

Thirdly- Bluth DID NOT FLINCH

I don’t remember who said it first, but both Bluth and Spielberg had a belief that you could put very sad and scary things in children’s films, as long as the ending was happy.

This movie has multiple nightmare moments. Cats, monster waves, more cats, bugs and fish, and of course, the horrifying “Mouse of Minsk” (iykyk).

The thing is, it’s not even how they are drawn. Like, yes, the image is scary, but it’s the storytelling around it. It’s the lighting change. The soundtrack. The horrific sound effects. Seriously- whoever did foley on this film deserves all the awards- you make me scared of the kitty kats, and I LOVE cats. 🐈

Some people will question whether or not it is appropriate for small children. I would say maybe wait until they are six, and watch it with them, but they should watch scary things if they can. Being scared in appropriately safe space teaches you how to react to fear and handle moments when you are scared in real life. It is my major argument for Halloween. But each parent has to do as they think is best for each individual child. In any case, watch this one first before showing it to your kids- definitely more scary than you remember.

Finally- the animation on this film is a national treasure. I honestly hope this film is in the Library of Congress collection.

There are animation techniques here that don’t exist anymore.

Sparks. Sparkles. Glimmers. Stars in the Night Sky. Smoke billows.

Actually, I almost paused the film on a smoke billow. Sony is doing some things in the recent “Spiderverse” trilogy that are insane- and part of it is their mixed animation.

All the smoke billows? Hand drawn.

They look the same as Bluth’s smoke in this film, which is making me wonder if one of their artists studied under him. Maybe not- maybe they just did their homework on good hand drawn cloud formations. Either way, realizing how close they got to the master work in this film made me appreciate them even more.

Speaking of insane animation-

I don’t know WHO Bluth felt he had to show off to, but this man could DRAW WATER and he fucking knew it.

Like water is hard to do, ok? Like hands, Da Vinci had notebooks full of sketches of the substance, proving it to be the bane of the artistic existence.

Most water in hand drawn animation comes in two forms-

Flat water color with pretty things floating in it to distract you-

Or drawn over a live video of water that they spliced into the image.

Even that was hard to do, and they used a technology no longer available to us. It looks pretty cool honestly.

But no, not DON fucking BLUTH.

Not only can this man hand draw water without the underlying video, but he draws it moving in multiple different ways. He shows it from the top, side, and sinking underneath (with moving bubbles and shifting light, no flat blue for him).

He turns it into a NIGHTMARE FUEL WAVE MONSTER.

He ADDS it to SCENES it DIDNT HAVE TO BE IN!

The more I watched this film, the more I realized that if Milt Kahl had the head swaggle, Don Bluth had water, and by God was he going to use it.

He wrote plots AROUND the idea of water, so he could showcase it in every scene. “Rock-a-doodle,” and “Pebble and the Penguin” come to mind. “Anastasia,” “Thumbelina” and “All Dogs Go to Heaven” all feature action scenes in water. Heck- the one in “All Dogs Go To Heaven” came out of no where, and makes so much more sense if it was just Bluth wanting to show off.

“An American Tale” had the travel by boat sequence and our main hero being thrown over board. He could have left it there. NOPE. There were puddles and sewers and fire hoses and action scenes at the docks.

And the few scenes without water? Let’s throw some scary sparks in there. Maybe some smoke billowing. For funzies.

Also- we’re going to have a Love Song with the most incredible Night Sky you have ever seen and a Comedic song featuring fun house mirror distorted reflections because WHY NOT???

I think he was trying to make sure Disney regretted him leaving, the way you dress up when you know your toxic ex will be there, and I love that for him. 🩷

Also- the backgrounds are all beautiful water color. I love a good water color.

Also- yeah, the sound track holds up. The songs are just as catchy as they ever were- if you have ever seen this movie you WILL find yourself singing along.

As previously mentioned, when it comes to the scary parts, the composer UNDERSTOOD THE ASSIGNMENT and the music easily fits into a good horror film.

And finally- the music at the finale when everything is made right, and the happy ending is finally here, is the most heart breaking thing you will ever hear. You will cry. Watch the movie, but bring the tissues. 🤧

This movie is definitely worth a watch.

This movie is more than worth a watch, it should be mandatory for elementary history and college animation classes alike.

But also it’s just fun. 🤩

[palestinegenocide]

Losing the Prophetic

Marc H. Ellis

This week Jewish theologian Marc H. Ellis died at the age of 71 following an extended illness. Marc’s work strived to define a Jewish theology of liberation. His writing and speaking over several decades influenced a countless number of people all over the world, myself included.

We were very lucky to have Marc as a writer at Mondoweiss for several years where he wrote a column called Exile and the Prophetic. That name speaks to a great theme of Marc’s work: the battle between Empire and the prophetic within contemporary Jewish life.

For Marc, the prophetic, or the challenge to power, was the true meaning of Judaism. This is a topic he and I would debate. His belief in a Jewish particularity versus my admittedly secular belief in the universality of the call to justice (which in truth he would never deny). And yet, he would insist that it was this prophetic imperative that Jews are uniquely called to wrestle with, especially in the present age with the advent and domination of Zionism. In his first column for us he wrote, “The prophetic is our indigenous. It is exploding right before our eyes.” This is the story he told through the decades of his work.

To Marc, the true core of Judaism was being sacrificed at the altar of Zionism, or as he often called it Constantinian Judaism, the toxic marriage of religion with state power. If you ever saw him speak or read his writing you are likely familiar with the vision he would recount of imagining an Apache helicopter gunship flying out of a Torah ark during a sabbath service. As you can imagine his work is more relevant today than ever.

There is one article of his that we published more than 10 years ago that I’ve thought about often over the last 8 months of the Gaza genocide. In that article, titled “Burning Children,” Marc returned to one of the great themes of his work – how American Jewish life and theology has been shaped by the experience of the Nazi Holocaust and the challenge that Jewish oppression in Palestine presents to this worldview. In the article he references Rabbi Irving Greenberg who helped shape post-Holocaust Jewish theology in the U.S. and writes:

It was in a 1974 essay that Rabbi Greenberg first wrote about the burning children of the Holocaust as a challenge for the Jewish future. I have quoted this passage often: “After the Holocaust, no statement, theological or otherwise, should be made that is not credible in the presence of the burning children.” Rabbi Greenberg’s invocation of burning children came to life in a different way for me when I visited Palestinian hospitals during the first Palestinian Uprising in 1988 and 1989. There I saw Palestinians of all ages but mostly teenagers who had been shot by Israel’s “rubber” bullets. Some were struggling for life. Others were already brain dead. I visited with the parents and siblings of the injured. Above the beds were martyr photos of the children framed by kefiyas. After I left the hospitals, I wrote a poem about my experience. I used Rabbi Greenberg’s haunting word about burning children to express my experience in the hospitals. In the poem I asked if these Palestinian children weren’t, like the children of the Holocaust, burning too. I felt the Palestinian children I saw were in many ways “our” children. We share a common humanity as starters but for Jews I knew that their “burning” was our responsibility. Though unintended by Rabbi Greenberg, his Holocaust statement has broadened to include Palestinians who are “burning,” this time at the hands of Jews. What theological statement can we make about God that makes sense to the burning children of the Holocaust – and Palestine?”

And he ended the article, written in 2014:

Chastened by history, indeed, Jews are – by the Holocaust and now by Palestine. For in Gaza right now children are burning everywhere.

I thought about Marc often this past week as we published, and imagined the discussions we would have had. How can one not mourn and rage at the unimaginable crime of burning children after reading Reem Hamadaqa’s devastating recounting of the Israeli attack that killed 14 members of her family, or in the essential reporting Tareq Hajjaj shared from the massacre in Nuseirat refugee camp. In that report, 11-year old Tawfiq Abu Youssef told Mondoweiss, “I stayed under the rubble for hours. I did not think for a moment that I might survive and see life again. I had lived through death enough while I was under the rubble. That was death.” I imagine Marc would summon these stories to demonstrate the fight against empire remains central which is why the repression we face, even in the U.S. continues to deepen.

He would also be the first to point out that the prophetic, even if weakened, refuses to submit. I know he would have responded vigorously to Anna Rajagopal’s searing indictment of the discourse over “Jewish values,” and despite the Jewish community’s overwhelming embrace of “Empire Judaism” he would raise up those charting a different path forward.

One moment I will never forget with Marc was a conversation he and I had years ago, as I was editing one of his articles. He told me, whether we knew it or not, our work at Mondoweiss was documenting the end of Jewish ethical history. I was struck then at the power of the statement and remain so today. As I reflect on Marc’s passing this is not a responsibility I take lightly.

Marc will be missed deeply and yet it has never been more clear that his legacy and work will live on. As Marc would likely say, the prophetic cannot die. In fact, Marc told us as much in his own words, “The Jewish prophetic will survive; it will continue to accompany and haunt those Jews who enable and perpetuate injustice against Palestinians.”

[blade-liger-4ever]

Airborne - One of the Best Supporting Joes, and a Great American Indian Character

So, by now, I'm pretty sure everyone knows I love Airborne, at least if you typed #airborne, #gijoe airborne, or #gi joe airborne into my search engine. Admittedly, I first fell in love with the character through being a fan of Peter Cullen. He brought Airborne to life in a way that made the character approachable, endearing, and familiar to me, given he used a voice that, to my ears, sounded like a cross between Optimus and Ironhide.

But upon my (many) rewatches of Airborne's debut, Operation: Mind Menace, and his other guest star roles, I've come to love him for who he is as a character.

To summarize his history, Airborne, birth name Franklin Talltree, was born in the Navajo Nation. His parents were oil rich, often indulging him with skydiving lessons from a young age. Despite this love for the air he nurtured, Airborne, as he was later known, decided to at first (I believe) take classes to become a lawyer. He passed all the exams, and would've gone into the business except he didn't like the idea of signing legal papers day-in and day-out. Instead, he enlisted as an airborne infantryman/paratrooper in the Army, hence his call-sign when he transferred to G.I. Joe.

What really makes him stand out, especially compared to the more common Native representative Spirit, is how Airborne is such a fun personality. He makes jokes, he teases his fellow Joes, and often approaches life with a smile and a quip. It makes him feel down-to-Earth in a way that Spirit usually lacks [except Spirit's appearance in Sigma 6; that was a good spin on his usual characterization.] Seeing an American Indian with this relatable, relaxed manner about him makes Airborne stand out and feel like someone you could be comfortable around.

Despite his "normality", though, Airborne actually has a more serious side. One paired with a trait that Spirit seemingly lacks:

He has telepathic/ESP abilities.

Airborne has a younger brother, Tommy, who's roughly ten to twelve years younger than him, given that he was a teenager in Airborne's debut. Because of this strong familial tie, Airborne and Tommy share a psychic link that allows them to be aware of where the other is and what's happened to him. Additionally, Airborne can sometimes experience remote viewing, which allows him to see where a person - regardless of their personal meaning to him - is and what danger is threatening them. Obviously, this is a trait he keeps under wraps, as too much talking about it either "spooks people" (especially if he appears to be randomly staring right into your soul), will get him pulled into a psi-ops division rather than the frontlines, or have him become the target for some testing due to his powers and their unpredictability. It's no wonder why he hardly talks about his gifts.

Combining all of these traits, Airborne manages to be a fun, interesting, and friendly Navajo character. He's never seen being a "stereotype", or harping on his special shaman powers like Spirit does. Merely, he's an "ordinary Joe" who will get into the thick of a fight with his friends, or wrestle with them for grins and giggles. And if there's an apt joke to be made - whether about his powers or something else - you can bet your back pocket dollar Airborne will jump to make it first. He's just truly fun and underrated, and I wish we had more content with Airborne. He's one of a kind in the American Indian representation department, if you ask me, and I wish we had more guys like him in media, who's heritage just happened to be Native.

That's all I really have to say about him. Airborne deserves more love, especially since his old Wikipedia file has been deleted. I hope you enjoyed this, and that it inspires any artists who find it interesting to draw him some more.

Til then -

"Yooooooo, Joe!!!"

[imagitory]

Review: Wish (2023) [SPOILERS]

Evening, everyone! Tonight my mother and I went to go see Disney's most recent film, Wish, which fortunately came to theaters in my area right before its formal American release date. I'd been very curious to see how this tribute to Disney's last 100 years of filmmaking would turn out, and now that I've seen it...well, I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed. I want to be very clear both that I was going into this with a rather sunny outlook and that there are things I really liked in this film...but overall, it felt like a lot of the good ideas it had were only half-baked, and I found myself -- forgive me -- "wishing for something more" than what we got.

For a more comprehensive deep-dive...a cut!

The Good!

+The single best element in this film for me was Chris Pine's performance as our villain, Magnifico. There are definitely some things I can critique about Magnifico's overall storyline and "character arc" further down, but Chris was clearly having a grand old time being an egotistical, sassy jerkwad, and it totally showed. Even in his villain song This is The Thanks I Get?, which just screamed "passive-aggressive abusive parent," you can hear how much fun Chris was having in the studio, recording it. I just about always enjoyed when Magnifico was on screen, and I actually did really like the idea that a lot of his villainy is rooted in him being obsessed with control over everyone and everything. In a weird way, Magnifico's turn to the Dark Side parallels Anakin Skywalker's in the sense that he lost so much in the past that he's determined to never lose anything important to him again -- especially the power he's accrued to make himself feel strong, after having felt so powerless. I find that very interesting, and I kind of wish that aspect was really highlighted more in the story, but we'll talk about that later.

+Asha was a likable enough heroine, even if I found her to be a lot like a two-way fusion of Mulan and Anna placed in a vaguely Snow-White-ish role in her clearly Seven-Dwarf-inspired friend group. Ariana DeBose portrayed her rather well, both acting and singing-wise. I also liked the "social justice" bent to Asha's character where she wants better things not just for herself and her family, but also Rosas overall -- in the French translation of her main song "This Wish," they even push this further by having Asha wish "to see the world happy again someday." We haven't seen a heroine really express this kind of desire for a positive change in the world since Esmeralda in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and that's cool! Plus representation in mainstream media for previously underrepresented groups is always nice. ^.^

+As much as I don't think they all got enough focus as individuals, I liked Asha's friend group! Especially the fact that it is a friend group made up of people that are around the same age as our protagonist, which -- let's be honest -- isn't that common for Disney heroines. Often with "sidekick groups," you're more likely to have situations like Cinderella with the mice (who are more like cutesy sidekicks than equals) or Snow White with the Dwarfs (who are all quite a bit older than our heroine)...so a friend group made up of peers with their own personalities and motivations was kind of fun.

+The setting of Rosas itself could be pretty. I liked a lot of the Mediterranean-inspired architecture, especially inside Magnifico's tower.

+The combination of 3D and 2D-esque animation was also interesting! It really served to give the film its own distinctive visual style that sets it apart from other Disney projects, which I always appreciate.

+Star was...cute. Obviously just designed to sell plushies and definitely reminded me way too much of Kirby, but cute enough. I do think it's kind of cool that they're never gendered at all in the entire movie, because it'd be silly to think of a sweet little androgynous ball of stardust as being specifically male or female.

+I liked the idea of Simon "betraying" Asha, only to be turned into a pawn by Magnifico in the process, but not being treated unsympathetically by the story for it. Didn't love the full execution of the idea, but hey, that's what the negative section is for.

+The idea of everyone finding the power inside of themselves to stand up against Magnifico (because they're "all stars," and presumably all have the magic needed to make their wishes come true) was a little predictable, but still sweet. I have problems with how the film wrote it (which we'll get to), but the idea itself was wholesome and fitting.

+I like several of the songs, just on their own -- I added This Wish and Knowing What I Know Now on my ITunes as soon as I first heard them prior to the film's release, and now I've added At All Costs too: it's a really pretty duet! (Gorgeous work, Chris and Ariana!) I'll leave my praise here, though, because sadly the soundtrack is going to get a lot of discussion in the less positive section.

The Not-So-Good...

+This film being "Disney's 100th anniversary film" really got in the way of this movie telling a compelling and unique story sometimes. The whole movie really twisted itself into a pretzel trying to check off all the usual Disney tropes, and there were points that certain choices made the story seem incredibly stilted. For instance, one common Disney trope is a dead parent, so of course Asha has lost her father -- but we learn so little about him and he ends up playing such a small role in Asha's arc and story that it seems like an unnecessary detail. Asha's grandfather honestly plays more of a role in Asha's motivation throughout most of the film, so it would've made just as much sense to have Asha's grandfather be the one who believed in stars having power, rather than her father. Another example is the concept of the cute animal sidekick who's just there to make jokes -- as much as Valentino the goat didn't annoy me personally, he added just about nothing of value to the story whatsoever aside from comic relief, in contrast to other funny sidekicks like Sebastian from The Little Mermaid or Olaf from Frozen, who also serve a plot purpose and have a developed relationship with the protagonists. Then there's Asha being cut from the same "naive, awkward, wide-eyed idealist" cloth as many of our Disney Revival heroines like Anna, Rapunzel, and up to a certain point even Mirabel are; Star being in a similar vein to cutesy, innocent sidekicks like Pua, Crikee, and Baymax while Valentino is more akin to sassier, comic ones like Mushu and Sisu; her friends literally being based on the Seven Dwarfs from Snow White; our heroine getting a pretty standard "I Want" song and the villain getting his own solo number that doesn't really take any risks...oh yes, and we mustn't forget the trope of the Storybook opening, which (I'm sorry) I know was supposed to be a reference to Snow White, Cinderella, and Enchanted, but just gave me Shrek vibes the entire time. I was waiting for Shrek to rip out the page and use it for toilet paper any minute. It just felt a lot of the time like the movie was very paint-by-numbers, rather than throwing in much that was surprising or different.

+This isn't even touching all of the pointless meta references to other Disney movies. Asha wearing the Fairy Godmother's cloak and getting a wand like hers at the end -- the mushrooms crowing "we love crazy!" the way Hans did in Love is an Open Door -- Asha riding the reindeer the way Kristoff did in Frozen 2 -- Magnifico using green smoke hands a la Ursula -- the ending with those obvious Wendy and Peter Pan look-alikes, come on, really??? That was just painful.

+As much as Magnifico was an awesome idea for a character and Chris Pine's performance was beyond entertaining, the movie did not always write him as well as they could've. From the very start, we see this guy is an egotistical control freak -- obsessed with his own image, incredibly hard-to-please, arrogant, vain, desperate for attention and unwavering praise and adoration from all of his subjects, and determined to keep an iron grip on everyone else's wishes because of the power it gives him. He's ALREADY a terrible person, from the start -- and yet the film tries to introduce this dark magic book that gets no explanation or backstory whatsoever and has no real characterization or presence, so it leaves no real impact on the audience corrupting him and making him a bad person, when it didn't need to! Magnifico was already the villain this film needed! Just let him fall head-first into madness without the book prompting anything! Even if Magnifico "lost everything" in the past, that doesn't make him a good person, if he takes everyone's wishes away from them and hoards them all to himself, only to grant a few now and again when it would make him look good.

+This above point actually leads nicely into one change I really, really wish the film had been ballsy enough to make -- have Asha already be Magnifico's apprentice, not trying to become it at the start of the story. Give our villain and hero a real relationship, with history that started before the events of this film! Asha lost her father at the age of 12...how interesting would it have been -- whether to make Magnifico more of an anti-villain or show how manipulative he really is -- if he'd tried to fill that fatherly role for our main character and twist her to serve his ends? What if At All Costs was rewritten to be about Magnifico not just being determined to hold onto all of the kingdom's wishes, but also this apprentice he sees as an extension of him and his legacy, while Asha is determined to protect this Star she's accidentally summoned and the suppressed wish of hers it represents? This change would've made Asha's break with Magnifico so much more powerful for both of them -- it would've both justified Magnifico's descent into madness and given Asha more reason to feel like it was her responsibility to stop Magnifico. You even could've then played more with Asha's relationship with Queen Amaya too, in this kind of a scenario.

+Oh yeah, and on that note, Queen Amaya. OOH, this really annoyed me -- okay. So this woman is supposed to be a good guy, in this story. But as I touched on earlier, Magnifico was already a pretty awful person, hoarding people's wishes away in order to make himself powerful. Was Amaya truly so blind to that? Did she truly never question anything, ever? But no, really, she only turns on Magnifico after he starts using the dark magic book and actively threatens her. Only that makes her turn from him, and it's pretty damn immediate. Now okay, I hear you saying, it's like Amaya sings in Knowing What I Know Now, right? "The good in him, I've watched it melt // I was blinded by the love I felt"? Excuse me, lady -- but Magnifico wasn't a good person, before. He was just playing a part so as to stay powerful and adored by the masses. And if the story wants to claim otherwise, and act like that dark magic book was responsible for Magnifico going bad, then why would our Queen decide to keep him locked up in his staff's crystal forever? If the book was responsible, then Magnifico would be the Frodo or Golum to the book's One Ring -- he'd be a victim, in such a scenario: one in need of help and pity, not punishment. So either Amaya is a selfish person who only cared about her husband's mistreatment of others when it affected her, or she's a needlessly cruel person who decides to punish her husband for a vice that anyone could fall prey to. Either way, I don't want this woman ruling anyone! Make this woman a straight-up villain, same as her husband, and have the whole monarchy come crashing down after she and Magnifico both go down in flames! VIVE LA RESISTANCE! (Playing into my idea with Asha being Magnifico's apprentice all along, maybe there could even be a twist on the Evil Stepmother trope with Amaya, where she's jealous of how much Magnifico has tried to groom Asha as his apprentice, rather than spending time and/or starting a family with her or something.)

+As I touched on earlier, there wasn't even close to enough time to develop all of these characters properly. Since our heroine and friends are most similar to Snow White and her friends the Seven Dwarfs, let's compare cast size. Snow White is 83 minutes long and has a cast of ten (Snow, the Prince, the Queen, and the Dwarfs) -- Wish is 95 minutes long and has a cast of fourteen (Asha, Magnifico, Star, Valentino, Amaya, Asha's mum and grandpa, and our seven Friends). This results in us getting the vague idea that "Grumpy" role Gabo is sweet on our "Bashful" role Bazeema, but no time to develop their relationship or give it any kind of conclusion; the others saying "Sneezy" role Safi apparently loves the castle chickens with no sympathetic explanation why, to the point that he gets super excited about a chicken growing to a giant size for no real reason; "Doc" role Dahlia having a crush on Magnifico that is then dropped immediately after Asha turns against him; oldest kid and "Sleepy" role Simon feeling incomplete without the dream he gave Magnifico and "betraying" Asha as a result in an attempt to get it back, only to get stabbed in the back by Magnifico, and then have no time for a proper redemption after he's unhypnotized; Asha's grandfather turning on a dime about whether or not he wants to know what his wish was if Magnifico thought it was dangerous; Magnifico getting some justification in his backstory for his bad behavior, but Amaya's backstory being a complete black hole before she married Magnifico when you'd think it'd explain all the more why she stuck with him so long; and Asha's mum having her wish crushed to dust by Magnifico and then given back without us EVER LEARNING WHAT IT EVEN WAS IN THE FIRST PLACE, even after we see just about everyone else's wishes as soon as somebody picks it up and Asha's mum's wish gets picked up multiple times!! Come on, if you're going to set up NOT showing it, you may as well have a pay-off for it!! At least give us some moment where Asha's mum hugs her in relief and acknowledges that her daughter was her wish! That would've been a nice "aww" moment for everyone!

+Okay, I said I was going to talk about my problem with the songs, so here goes. As I said before, I listened to the soundtrack before watching the movie, and even when I did, I could immediately sense a problem: these songs did not tell me much of anything about the movie, just on their own. Welcome to Rosas, which is pretty much just an exposition dump about the kingdom and how Magnifico founded it, didn't really paint a picture of our setting or characters much at all, the way opening songs like Belle or The Family Madrigal do. This Wish, although pretty, was something I could hear just as easily on the radio -- it didn't feel as tied or necessary to understanding our heroine the way something like Part of That World does. I'm a Star, quite frankly, felt like a lot of inspirational word salad, rather than anything particularly memorable or revelatory -- why else wouldn't it even be worthy of a musical salute in the reprise, where Asha remembers that she and everyone else are stars during the climax? Even after reading summaries of the plot and spoilers from the storybook for this film, I could not figure out for the life of me how At All Costs would fit organically into such a story, being sung by our villain and hero. It wasn't until I saw the film that I saw how the filmmakers decided to fit it in and honestly...the song didn't help tell that particular scene at all. It's a really pretty song and I like it a lot -- but it lacked any of the irony or contrast that kind of a scene that introduces the difference in focus between our hero and villain required. If the scene itself is needed to understand what's supposed to be going on while the song is playing, then the song is not effectively telling the story and is therefore unnecessary. There wasn't even a particularly Spanish or Mediterranean flair to the soundtrack to help set the stage, aside from the occasional flourish of castanets -- instead it sounded very contemporary, which I guess is appropriate, since it was largely written by pop composers rather than any musical theater talent.

+There were also points where the songs felt the urge to shove in a bunch of extra words just because, rather than have the words flow well and really mean something. I'm a Star is most guilty of this, of course, but even in This is the Thanks I Get?, we hear Magnifico gripe that "I let you live here for free and I don't even charge you rent" -- mate, THAT MEANS THE SAME THING! If you live somewhere for free, then you are NOT paying rent!

+Knowing What I Know Now is a bop and I like it (aside from Amaya's stupidity), but I'm sorry, all I can think when I hear it is "This is clearly trying to be Ready as I'll Ever Be from Tangled the Animated Series, but that song blows this out of the water." However fun the song can be, it would've been so much stronger if it actually addressed the contrast between the characters and revved us up for a big final battle, instead of it just being our eight underdeveloped characters psyching each other up.

+The idea of everyone being stars was a lovely idea, but the execution of Asha remembering this fact and using it to defeat Magnifico was terribly handled. First off, there was no revelatory phrase or action that prompted Asha to remember this fact, so her suddenly saying that "they're all stars" came out of nowhere. Second, even putting aside that there'd be no way any of her friends could hear Asha from all the way up on the tower if they're stuck in the courtyard below, there's no reason I can see for Asha's friends or family to know what the hell she was even TALKING about. They weren't there when the I'm a Star number happened! And the way that number made it seem, just based on the visuals, it looked like the "star" power came from a person's dream, since it's the same glow that returns to Asha's grandfather when he gets his dream back, but most of the town's dreams have been already yanked out by Magnifico at this point! I think the idea is that since everyone is a star, even with that big piece of them and the power accompanying it taken out, they still have enough stardust inside of them to be powerful enough to chase their heart's desires...but yeah, I'm sorry, for all the word salad I'm a Star threw around, this world-building aspect was really not made clear, and because of that and the lack of a proper callback to this plot turn, the climax didn't hit as strong as it should've.

Overall, this film felt a lot like a batch of unbaked chocolate chip cookies that someone decided to throw a bunch of brightly colored sprinkles on top of, just because they could. A lot of ideas just don't feel like they were fully developed, and there was a lot tossed in that didn't contribute to the overall taste or bring the disparate elements together in a cohesive whole, instead feeling more like a distraction than anything of actual substance. That doesn't mean I couldn't eat it -- I like eating cookie dough as much as the next person -- but that doesn't mean it felt like a complete, finished product worthy of great praise. Instead I'm left looking at the wasted potential and wishing the movie had carved out its own path more, one distinctive to itself, rather than just be a mashup of previous Disney concepts and tropes. I won't act like there's nothing to like here, nor that it's completely lacking in heart: I actually would love to see fandom for this movie re-imagine it in ways that could've improved the story and characters, because there were SO many good ideas here...but for me personally, this movie left me colder than it should've and -- like Asha after meeting Magnifico -- a bit disappointed.

So I make this wish...to have Disney make a film better than this.

Overall Grade: C-

[outofinitiative]

every time i get really interested in a movie, i do this obsessive thing where i watch youtube reactions to the movie

i almost always have thoughts but most of the time i just talk them out into the empty air but there was some common stuff this time so here this is for probably no one but me:

reactions to turning red reactions

the quotes are all obviously paraphrased and when i say i watched a sHIT TON of reaction videos, i'm not kidding so if it sounds like im only targeting one person im not. most of these reactions are from multiple videos and im very much aware that most of the people reacting on youtube are coming from different experiences than me so it's really no biggie.

(also u should know im korean american so when i talk about asian experiences im not speaking on something i dont know. its obviously not a one-to-one with her story (even if i was chinese it wouldn't be cause everybody is different) but many asian and immigrant parents and families share similar experiences. it's why seeing stories that might be even just adjacent to yourself is so important)

- "oh god, why is her mother doing that? she's crazy. she's a stalker" (at the mother arriving at school with the pads): okay, so i will say: this is way past the point that my own mother would do (and i'd say my mom has quite a bit more social tact) but showing up at school? helicoptering? very familiar feeling to me.

story time! during my high school years, i was in the tennis team. (varsity captain actually heheh) but i was also struggling with anemia at the time. so after one particular scare my freshman year, my mother was reminiscent of ming: candy bars, water, towel-anything i needed as soon as i needed it all of the time. she became team mom, not because she was particularly dedicated to the sport or my success but because she was worried about me fainting again, throwing up again, or having to go to the hospital again and her not being there this time.

so, obviously not as mortifying or intense as ming, but it's not exactly unbelievable, just exaggerated.

- "why are they acting like that about 4-town?": *nervously looks over to my deep rooted history with fangirling* so... how do i really...

- "why do they keep hammering that she thinks she's an adult or that she thinks she's gonna become a woman?? she's 13!": that's,,, kind of the point? like was there never a time in your tween/teen life where you were like iM AN ADULT AND MATURE AND I KNOW WHAT IM DOING or was that just me? it's short-sided and inaccurate for us now obviously but that's because we are watching as people who are past that age, but it's similar to the thing with middle school or high school where you think that's your entire life, that everything is banking on how you are and how you feel right now even though years down the line you don't think about it at all.

- "what's up with the dad? just speak up": so,,, this might just be me projecting again with my own experiences of having a quiet and/or absent father, but in this dynamic, it's not really his place. ming has taken control, become the matriarch and it is she that has domains, moves, and opinions on what happens with mei mei.

is it a bit neurotic and in this case slightly detrimental? yes.

is it wholesale inaccurate? no.

- "what's wrong with you, mei mei? stand up for your friends!": i'm gonna start this again with obviously it's fucked up. like you should be able to defend your friends, the ones that actually provide solace and comfort to you at this age. but also that does on some level erase the reality of what this character is. we learned early on that above all else she follows her mother, deeply values the image of who she should be to her family to the point of unable to stand up for herself, take responsibility for what she has done, set boundaries and separate herself from the expectations of her family, and very specifically, her mother.

(for example, with the daisy mart incident, one person might have confronted their mother saying, "it's not my fault i have a crush on devon and it was crossing a line to not only pry into my business but also confront him even when i said i didn't want that to happen and i'm really upset that you did so" but mei mei goes directly to attributing it privately to her own self-control and follies since she knows devon is not to blame the way her mother thinks.)

as messed up as it might be to abandon her friends, it is keeping in line with who she is up to this point. she is spunky and outgoing when she is separate from her family and their obligations, but when she is in these structures and places, she has always up to this point fallen in line.

(she already has abandoned her friends in one way at this point, actually. the first evening, we learn that her mom thinks miriam is odd and that she might disapprove of her. mei mei makes no real move to defend her friend.)

mei mei views her mother as an unmovable object. she may be unstoppable at school or with her friends, but it is not until the end that mei even attempts to really push against the supposed rigidness of her mother and the generational patterns that lay in her way. (honestly, i might speak about this more later but there is a bit also here about how her mother views her and how that affects her own view of herself)

- "why did all of the aunties and grandma and her mom just get to walk through when it was so hard for mei?": i mean one logic that was brought up in the video was that meilin kept on using it over and over, but like everyone else also already banished their spirits. these spirits technically already belong to the astral plane. although they were able to utilize it for a little bit, they all successfully already had their initial ceremonies. they already made choices. even with the loophole of being able to use it in crisis by breaking the artifact that holds it, i doubt that any of them (other than mei obviously), would even really be able to maintain a level of control over it at this point. they have separated themselves from that part of themselves and even if it is a part of their blood, it's not one that they are thoroughly in sync with anymore. the separations for them is how it should be. and what they decided for themselves.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Jennigje “Jennie” Van Slyke (NY state, in blue) Henry/Massachusetts (in the red) could never make me hate you ❤️ . (Elise/New Jersey in the yellow).

I made this comic back in November lol - a bit outdated for a couple things, but I think it clearly illustrates some important relationships within my nor’easter lore so 🥸 jump below the cut

Alfred is NOT raised by Arthur in this universe. The British colonies operated under salutary neglect and part of this is cause England was either A) fighting itself or B) fighting someone else. So I doubt Arthur really had much time to actually raise Alfred himself.

When working on Alfred, I think a lot about how / when we “begin” US history so we almost always begin with Plymouth colony. Hence how I ended up with puritan Alfred. Alfred began life as Plymouth colony.

Now Alfred is NOT a brother to Matt— it just doesn’t make sense for the vision I have (tl;dr- I begin with the most significant early English settlement in Canada being in Nova Scotia so I can also tie into the French presence. Basically Matt is half Acadian / half English). They are cousins and they become like brothers much later on. But they’re NOT biological brothers.

Alfred is born to human parents, but as the story goes, one day he just stopped aging and it was obvious he was something else. Similar situation for his maternal cousins, but it was always clear that Henry was Massachusetts, Rosalie was Rhode Island , & Josh was Connecticut. Alfred they always assumed was Plymouth colony, but it was always felt that role was too small for him.

Anyways Alfred was primarily raised by his older cousin Henry. Henry did his best with Alfred given that Henry was a child himself. He tried to raise him to be a good puritan. But Alfred always had his mind elsewhere and while he was well-educated, he never paid too much attention. Henry took this as he had to be harsh with Alfred so Alfred would grow up to be a functioning adult. Henry is very critical and short tempered and that’s also his parenting style- heavy on the punishment.

Henry was also a bit of a paranoid kid. I mean how could one not be in that environment ? It led to a lot these anger issues and fiery temper while he attempted to hide it behind this more educated cool facade.

Alfred trying to be a good puritan boy would heavily respect his elders as Henry was physically older than him and raising him- Henry was his elder. And Alfred was very beholden to his opinion of him and tbh Henry had the most influence on Alfred until the American revolution (Alfred’s personality is shaped by his experiences with his states).

Henry also especially did not like his then-Dutch neighbor, Jennie / New Netherlands & her siblings Elise (later New Jersey) & Will (then Beverwijck now Albany). He had to work with her, but he never liked her and was always suspicious of her especially cause she was not a puritan and also not English. Plus he didn’t like how indifferent she was to other religions and cultures in her own colony.

Jennie always enjoyed trolling Henry lol. She’s usually quite direct and a more serious businesswoman, but with Henry she quickly picked up on the fact his temper was really hiding the fact he’s scared.

Henry does deceive her into trusting him as an ally, which eventually leads her to becoming a British colony. Jennie didn’t really think Henry was going to be an actual threat to her cause she perceived him as stupid cause he was so angry all the time and also they had common enemies- Charles/ New France & his sister Denise/ eventually Quebec. Alas she learned quickly he wasn’t all that stupid.

Now I’ll keep this short for this post. Arthur wanted easier administration of his colonies so he decided to make the Dominion of New England by combining the New England colonies and New York and New Jersey. Personally, I’ve interpreted that Jennie & Henry were married. Albeit in name only ( this is akin to how royal families would “marry” kids but they weren’t expected to do anything cause like lol that’s ew). I do however think these two were expected to at least talk to each other. This went as well as you could imagine given they both highly dislike each other and that Henry has a short temper and Jennie likes to troll him (hence this comic). It’s annulled.

Anyways I’m mentioning all of this is cause while Henry is Alfred’s earliest influence, Jennie eventually becomes one of his most trusted advisors and most significant influences. However as Alfred basically followed Henry on everything as a kid, he was a bit nervous around Jennie and believed whatever Henry said about her.

I’ll get more into this when I get into my revolutionary war arc, but Jennie does eventually gain Alfred’s trust given she put herself on the line so he could become a nation and eventually he learns she does have good financial and trade advice. She knows what she’s doing. And she isn’t afraid to tell him off. Although most of his early states are a bit older than him so tbh none of them are afraid to speak their mind to him. But Jennie is a bit different cause she also remains a close family friend of Alfred’s. In many ways, she becomes like this weird older sister to him. Jennie also later introduces Alfred to Lynn/ Manhattan who also has similarly good advice regarding trade and is more naturally charismatic than Jennie or Alfred (Alfred is naturally like an awkward grumpy New Englander lolll), which has proven to be extremely useful.

Now I mention Henry here as well, and a bit with his relationship especially his dislike of Jennie cause Jennie and Henry are like genuinely two people Alfred trusts fully even if Henry and Jennie are usually fighting and contradicting each other lol. Cause he knows those two have his best interests, and they don’t bullshit him. Even if he doesn’t always like their advice. Also Henry and Jennie do have a couple of romantic relationships when they’re adults - however tbh that’s more like comp het and confusing friendship with romance but they’re messy and I’ll discuss them another time.

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

Hi sex witch, i realise that this is not an actual sex ed related question and I hope this isn't overstepping any bounds.

I'm sort of in a weird spot right now a la my sexuality and am trying to figure out if I actually want a relationship and if what I feel is romantic attraction or Friendship levelled up. I've known for a long time that I'm Demisexual or Ace, and I thought I knew that I still felt romantic attraction but now I'm less sure.

How did you come to realise that you were aromantic? In that discovery did you ever wonder if it was a sort of 'mental block' or something similar that would be better off working through? (I ask because I'm sort of stuck in that state of mind right now, and I'm just curious to see if it's a common experience or not)

I realise that this is a fairly sensitive topic, and I really don't mean offense by asking.

I also realise that no two people's experiences will be the same but I was interested in hearing about it from another person's perspective.

I hope you have a great day whether or not you give this ask the time of day.

I've asked you other things in the past and it's always been brilliantly helpful. Thanks a lot for everything you do.

hi anon,

no worries about overstepping boundaries :) this is a pretty reasonable thing to ask of someone, and I'm happy to talk about it!

there's a funny story that I tell about the moment I probably should have known, but didn't yet have the language. in sixth grade my class had an assignment that involved making a collage timeline of the rest of our lives (a proto-vision board of sorts) and I think I was the only kid in the class who didn't put getting married on my timeline. everyone else did, as far as I can remember, and most of them also included having kids. being a pedantic little fuck I pointed out to several of my friends that it was really unreasonable to assume they would find someone they liked enough to marry who liked them back, to which everyone told me (paraphrasing) to shut the fuck up and stop being a little bastard.

but it still seemed very strange to me, because even when I was very young - back when I barely had the language to conceptualize being gay, let alone aromantic - I never imagined my life with a romantic partner. romantic pairings were interesting in stories, sure, I ate that shit up from a very young age! the star-crossed lovers shit going on in American Dragon: Jake Long did a number on my developing brain, and my Barbies and Littlest Pet Shops got up to INSANE relationship drama, but for myself it never really felt, like, relevant? not unpleasant, just uninteresting.

but I still had crushes on people as I grew up, and more importantly I had crushes on people of various genders, so during my teen years I was WAY more preoccupied with repressing my burgeoning bisexuality than drawing any conclusions about my romantic orientation

spoilers: the bisexuality won.

in college I had a friend who identified as asexual at the time, who spent maybe a year trying to convince me that I was aromantic. and I didn't want to hear it! I don't know why, honestly; maybe some part of me, despite loving the community I had found coming into my queerness, was still subconsciously afraid of being too different and grappling with the consequences.

so instead I did this uuuuh real dirtbag thing where instead of just acknowledging to myself that I was pretty fundamentally uninterested in romantic relationships and that that's fine, I spent the first half of college leaning hard on self-deprecation to explain my single status. oh, me? why aren't I dating? well, I'd probably be a really bad partner. yeah, I suck. I mean, I'm so busy all the time! and I'm weird.

(at the time I know I definitely had friends who assumed I was Like That because my parents were divorced, which is hilarious old-fashioned and also categorically untrue. I was Like This way before my parents got divorced!)

it actually took a relationship ending pretty badly to make peace with the idea that maybe I didn't want a relationship at all. I won't get into the details on that, because it involves another person and we were both very young and accidentally hurt each other a lot in ways we didn't mean and I don't think anyone was the villain, but I don't want it to come across like I had one bad breakup and then swore off romance, a thing I'd previously been interested in, forever. it was more like I found myself in a really heightened situation - they really desperately needed a good and attentive romantic partner after getting out of a bad relationship, I wanted our friendship to stay exactly the same but with a sexual component - that made very, very obvious what I was actually looking for in non-platonic relationships. which was, I guess, actually pretty platonic relationships, but with genitals involved.

haha just kidding, I actually didn't get that part through my skull until I spent an entire summer crying constantly, dissociating frequently, and spending way too much time on BAD dates having even worse sex that made me feel gross! but we got there eventually.

that part probably isn't super relatable to you if you're somewhere in the ace realm, sorry about that.

anyway, once the dust settled and I felt halfway human again I was feeling vulnerable and open to change - finally willing to see myself in a new way and reckon with parts of myself that I hadn't been before. I remembered what my buddy had always said about me seeming Really Aromantic, and I let it settle on me. how would I feel, if I actually was aromantic? how would it change my life, how I thought about myself?

and if I can use a cliche with you? it felt like a weight rolling off my shoulders. I suddenly had a whole sturdy base to build a better understanding of myself on, an easy way to justify the way I lived that didn't require throwing myself under a bus.

thinking of myself through the lens of aromanticism felt like a huge, HUGE relief, and frankly I think that, more than anything, is the best way for anyone to decide if they should be applying any identity label to themselves. which brings us back to you! I actually don't believe in the model of sexuality and gender that posits a secret innate Right Answer buried in each person that they'll discover if the just find the right terminology. all of the words we use are the result of our time and place, right? people like us existed all through history with different words for themselves, and they'll exist way after us calling themselves things we can't imagine.

so basically: I came to realize I was aromantic because calling myself aromantic felt like loving myself, and if that's the case for you than I strongly recommend you do it, too.

happy pride xoxo

[flo-nelja]

Arranged marriage for the meme!

Yay! I don't have a vivid imagination for this trope, so more than half are cases where the arranged marriage is totally canon.

Thorn/Ophélie (La passe-miroir/The Mirror Visitor)

It's very classic arranged marriage (for supernatural reasons) turns into resentment that stops them from realizing the good things about the other turns into alliance turns into unspoken love (painful for the reader) and maybe more? It fully worked on me. I especially loved how the description of Thorn (the book is Ophélie PoV) turn from uncharitable descriptions of an average looking man to very horny descriptions of an average looking man.

If you don't know the series, I can advertise it more. It's good French fantasy.

2. Louis/Caesar (Kimi o Shinasenai tame no Monogatari)

Yeah I have at least one m/m canon arranged marriage, is a dystopian future where romantic partners and reproduction partners are totally disconnected. It's a painful case of arranged marriage with love only on one side, it's a mess and they don't make it work. I enjoyed it though. ^^

3. Xavin/Karolina (Runaways)

In the category: arranged marriage to end a war. This one starts with love only one one side (it helps that one of them was raised to see this marriage as a positive thing and the other never heard about it), but they make it work. For a while. Because they're separated because you can't get peace that easily. Not the main romance for Karolina, but my fave.

4. David/Josiane (L'homme qui rit)

This one has a creepy age difference, but the relationship is fun despite it. They're capricious nobility of the kind "we could have loved each other so much, but the fact that our parents decided this for us is totally ruining the concept". I have hope for them in the future.

5. MIlly/Lloyd (Code Geass)

They are a case who absolutely don't fall in love with each other and break the engagement. I think their personalities go well together, though, and that they could have been good friends if not for the "ugh" reaction of being arranged engaged.

6. Khonnen/Leah (The Dybbuk)

Tragic version! Their parents engaged them to each other before they were born, and because of this they feel drawn to each other (it's a world with magic) and fall in love. Leah's uncle has forgotten about the promise and wants his niece to marry a rich man. The boy dabbles in dark magic to get her anyway and dies, but his ghost is possessing her. It's absolutely not healthy. Still shipping it.

7. Philip/Elizabeth (The Americans)

Communist spies in the eighties who are technically work colleagues but have a marriage licence and actual children. It's a slow burn romance and I love it.

8. Eponine/Marius (Les Misérables)

This one is absolutely not canon! I don't know why, I came across the idea of Marius thinking he has to marry Eponine out of gratefulness for Thénardier saving his father, either because he's naive, or because Thénardier is manipulating him, and I thought it had potential for being absolutely awful (complimentary)!

9. Ciel/Elizabeth (Black Butler)

You know, they're cute (they're cousins but I don't care). As of recently in the manga it's more complicated than this, but if anything it made me ship it even more.

10. Twilight/Yor (Spy x Family)

Both got married to have a cover for their (opposite sides) spy activities. Neither knows about it. It's written as cute anyway, on the arranged marriage that becomes real side, with their common affection for their (arranged) daughter a big part of the feelings. It works for me.

[randomfoggytiger]

"Doesn't Make Him Less of a Miracle"

(Fictober, Day 30)

Fictober's almost over, and I haven't tackled the very genre that lured me into fic in the first place: S9 AU.

*****

William took after his father in many ways: he was very bright, unnaturally articulate for his age, and immaculately opportunistic: a born-and-raised schemer (though said schemes were often undercut by his innate inability to lie believably-- which Mulder ribbed Scully about, mercilessly.) He was also an incredibly fast runner with a propensity to dive head-first into the nearest kerfuffle. 

And Fox Mulder, the intelligent progenitor of this intelligent child, exploited that propensity to its fullest whenever he needed a few hours of unbroken concentration. Thus, Skippy’s Bouncy Castle and Ball Pit Stadium became the local haunt for the Mulder-Scully family’s operations. 

Alternating his afternoons between sifting through poached documents and worming his way into various mummy or nanny groups, Mulder learned just as much about thumb sucking habits as he did the ever-changing factions and movements of the crumbled Consortium empire. It wasn't a leap to apply his hostage negotiation tactics to toddler tantrum mitigation; and, to his surprise, he seemed more popular outside of the Bureau than in it, constantly getting interrupted by a child or their guardian with yet another situation that needed diffusing.

But like all aspects in life, there were prices to be paid for peace; and little William Mulder-Scully chose closing time on an already hectic Monday to exact that price.

*****

“Willaaaaaaaaaaaaay!” Mulder dropped his hands out of their airhorn position, pivoting to watch, helplessly, as hordes of well-behaved, snot-nosed, and spit-curled children of all ages wobbled out after their parents. The very picture of the Rockwell American dream. Staff members were whipping out mops or picking up stray toys-- one particularly under-tipped teenager glowered at him from her post near the light switch-- and still William did not appear from the midst of the ball pit. 

For a split second the old fear rushed irrationally back, cold sweat breaking out on his neck, "Fox!" clamoring in his mind-- but Will’s sudden outburst of giggles grounded him in reality, shook him involuntarily with relief. Deal with it another day.  Annoyance at his unexpected fear-- and annoyed he was annoyed-- spurred Mulder into action.

"Will, outta the ball pit-- we gotta go pick up food.” ‘Pick up food’: the universal unspoken for quick-and-easy greasy garbage from the nearest burger joint. Another thing father and son had in common.  

His precious miracle cackled. “Daddy, I’m a sea monster. You have to come hunt me.” 

“Sir--”

Mulder jolted at the sudden, vicious tug on his sleeve. Light switch teenager, frosted lips curling even further downward, had somehow learned teleportation and wasted that ability by scaring the daylights out of him. “The ball pit's closed. Grab your kid and go.” 

The ghosts of each and every one of Scully’s long-suffering eyerolls flashed through his mind; and he counted them, likely by tens, in an attempt to remain calm. Losing his cool exterior while hopped up on too many cups of coffee would only damage any potential future discount-- not to mention the years of ammunition Scully would have on him as their son inched slowly towards the plague of puberty.

“Yeah, just a minute, my--”

Losing interest in Light Switch Girl, Mulder covered the last few feet in a light jog, skidding across a wet patch on the floor but recovering his footing with a couple of hairy maneuvers.

Red ball, green ball, blue ball, green, green, blue, purple? Red, blue-- 

Red hair. The sea monster was just submerging on the other end of the pool, upgrading his chortles to belly laughter. 

“William, we can play the sea monster game tomorrow, but we’ve got to leave now.” Mulder was pleased to note that his son’s head paused, recognizing that ‘William’ and ‘got to’ were a big deal compared to ‘Will’ and ‘gotta’. The head bobbed up and down, wavering between losing the battle with honor or fighting the war with outright rebellion. 

Since logic seemed to be winning over wheedling-- a trait Scully would rib him over, mercilessly-- Mulder doubled down. “C’mon, Buddy, the workers have to clean up and go home. They want to eat, spend time with their families. …Watch a movie.” Well, a little wheedling wouldn't hurt.

The sea monster was drifting closer, his thoughtful Scully scowl and blue eyes rising above three green balls perfectly resembling algae-speckled rocks. What are the odds. “Is it… dirty in here, too?” 

YES. “Yeah, Will, it’s pretty gross in there. Probably has a few cooties, too.” 

His son may have had the genes of a scientist, but he hadn’t quite figured out the finer points of germ pathology. William breeched, fast, which gave his dad scant seconds of catch time before nearly faceplanting on the floor. “Cooties!” he chanted while wildly flinging his arms about, forcing Mulder the Triumphant to dodge a few accidental nose wallops.

Cooties really did come in handy. 

“Sir--”

Great. Light Switch Girl was back. 

“--your laptop and bag were moved to the front desk. If you could please grab them, we need to finish closing up.” She crossed her arms, sneered at his wiggling son, and began to brusquely tap her foot. 

In moments like these, Mulder wondered why he bothered trying to save the planet.  

“Thanks.” Readjusting Will-- who was attempting to climb, face first, down his back-- and offering an equally charming lip twitch of his own, Mulder skidded his retreat across the room, sorted and collected his things-- with the hand not currently grabbing his four-year old’s ankle-- and hoisted all of his belongings-- sea monster included-- over both shoulders before making his grunting exit. 

“Willy, I think you’re getting too big to be able to lug around anymore. Soon you'll have to help drag me back to the car.” 

Sea monsters and cooties forgotten, William puzzled this new idea while getting situated in his car seat. Mulder let him pursue it in silence-- another neat wrangling trick-- as he buckled, unbuckled, and rebuckled straps; then, since the gears were still turning in his son's head, he slid the bag onto the floor and slid himself into the front seat. The driver's safety belt was clicked into place when Will jerked upward, waving his hands and beaming at his father in the rearview mirror.

“It’s not me, it's the laptop! It becomes heavier every time you save another part of the world!” 

Mulder chuffed a laugh, enamored with the flawless logic of the young and uneducated. “You’re too smart for your old man,” he assured, proudly. 

“Can we get chicken?”

Just like that-- subject over and burgers out the window. “Sure, buddy. My treat.” 

*****

Fighting Colonization, catching sea monsters, and hunting down KFC may not, exactly, be a day in the life of the average American family; but it certainly enabled him to strum up an interesting moral out of the Flukeman and its excitement to go home. On second thought, Will would probably be incentivized to try hitchhiking to the ocean himself.

Now there's something Scully and I can't take credit for: possible obsessions with sewer tanks.

Somehow, Mulder didn't think she'd like that, either.

*****

Thank you for reading~

Enjoy!

Tagging @today-in-fic and @xffictober2023 and @fictober-event

[beardedmrbean]

[Huey Zoomer Anon]

You the whole attacks on Jewish people…tbh there was several signs the left never gave a damn about indigenous or marginalized people.

Shall I use Woman King as example?

“Oh Hollywood finally using a proper African kingdom and not the Pan Africa bs that interesting- African Americans to the Dahomey is WHAT?!”

The thing that piss me off the most that a bunch of white people knew that shit vs me who descended from the victims of the Dahomey slave trade

Also how many African Americans education professors knew about the Dahomey for decades but purposefully left that out in our curriculum?

Also yes I know the Yoruba tribe (the primarily genome of African American diaspora) had an empire and slave system too. We are all descendants of murderers and thieves

Also I heard the Bantu tribes are second more common genome in my people disporia, though more common in like Louisiana. Didn’t the Bantu create the Mali Empire?

There a creole/Manu masa joke somewhere…

But thing is that the left idea for indigenous is the Hollywood Stone Age noble savage. Because indigenous people can’t modernize themselves to contemporary times?

Wait I think I hear fuckton of tribes in the americas, India, Asia, and Africa screaming in rage.

Well at least a good chunk of Jewish people prepared themselves for when the world turns against them for round #27421973135852197324752247744842!

Ugh they gave the world so many gifts despite the pain humanity inflicted upon them. Yet still the world still prefer weeping for the dead Jews and despise those who are still alive

You the whole attacks on Jewish people…tbh there was several signs the left never gave a damn about indigenous or marginalized people.

Dakota access pipeline protest, didn't want a oil pipeline because it would polloute.

Which even if they hadn't trashed area they're dumb anyhow, the oil is gonna get moved, without the pipeline it's getting moved by truck which not only pollutes more it also costs more in the end.

Also how many African Americans education professors knew about the Dahomey for decades but purposefully left that out in our curriculum?

Depending on the level they're teaching at it could go from very few of them to most of them, I'd hope some of the college ones would have included the whole thing but not sure how much that hope is worth at all.

Wonder what the 'middle eastern studies' Profs in colleges taught about all that too, there's obscenely wide gap in the high and low estimates of number of black African slaves that were brought into the area through the Arabic slave trade, nobody really kept records of the numbers there like they did with the trans Atlantic slave trade.

Arabic one ran longer and in all likelihood had a way higher number than the one bringing them here to the Americas, that and them raiding the european coast to pick slaves up or the stealing children from their parents in the Balkans as a form of a tax and then forcing them to fight in the sultan's army.

Also yes I know the Yoruba tribe (the primarily genome of African American diaspora) had an empire and slave system too. We are all descendants of murderers and thieves

Sooner folks accept that the sooner we can move forward more as a species.

Also I heard the Bantu tribes are second more common genome in my people disporia, though more common in like Louisiana. Didn’t the Bantu create the Mali Empire? There a creole/Manu masa joke somewhere…

I don't know about that one so I couldn't say,

But thing is that the left idea for indigenous is the Hollywood Stone Age noble savage. Because indigenous people can’t modernize themselves to contemporary times?

Whole thing is wild because I see places all over the world where they engage in some traditional celebration with all the trappings including food and dress and activities and all that good shit and then when that's all done they return to current year.

Culture and history celebrated while still remaining in current year

I hate all the noble savage crap.

Well at least a good chunk of Jewish people prepared themselves for when the world turns against them for round #27421973135852197324752247744842!

Ya, there's a whole 'we've got nowhere left to go' mentality added into the 'this is our homeland' one they've got that's got them constantly on their guard and in a state of readiness.

Ugh they gave the world so many gifts despite the pain humanity inflicted upon them. Yet still the world still prefer weeping for the dead Jews and despise those who are still alive

It really does feel that way at times for sure.

Wonder what the name for a prejudice like that is, nit just Jewish people it happens with after all.

[melungeonculture]

The Melungeon Phenotype:

Article published on Medium, by Curt Leon Johnson

When you are Melungeon or researching about Melungeon people, the topic of phenotypes is frequently center stage: What does “Melungeon” look like? There must be a common phenotype among our communities if they are so easily identified as Melungeon by our peers, right? Why is my [insert ancestor here] so swarthy? Why did they have this nose, or those cheekbones? What do Melungeons look like today? These are questions nobody wants to answer, it feels like walking on eggshells. During my raising I was easily clocked as a “Melungeon” because of how I looked. So what about me was spilling my beans?

I can be pretty sure when it came to me that it wasn’t my swarthy complexion. The swarthiest thing about me is the two million and one freckles that grew their army a little more each summer I spent in the sun. I grew up a fair child with hair as copper as a brand new penny. When it came to color, I looked little different than the average Scot. If not color of my skin or hair then what is it? This is what brings me to phenotype. While phenotypes can include the colors that our hair, skin, and eyes present as; today we will be referring to traits and features such as eye and nose shape and bone structure. It’s these pieces of phenotype that I tend to see reigning common among most Melungeon people, regardless of our colors.

If you have never met a Melungeon you might have a hard time categorizing us. We often come off as ambiguous, you can tell we are “something else”, meaning something other than your average white American, but you can’t quite put your finger on it. We get the age old questions all the time:

“What are you?”

“What country are you from?”

“No, I mean what country are your parents from?”

“Are you mixed with something?”

Still nobody can tell me which features it is that make us such a mystery? I am not fooled. To the contrary, I am pretty sure I know.

I won’t pretend that I can’t see the similarities in both sides of my family, biological and adopted, even though they aren’t DNA relatives to each other. I won’t pretend like I am ignorant to the features that helped me fit right into my adoptive family like I was born of their own flesh and blood.

When kids made fun of my nose growing up, I held a lot of disdain toward my own face. I would’ve given anything for a rhinoplasty so that I could have a nose like the pretty German boys, instead of this fleshy hook of beak I was blessed with. I have grown to appreciate my nose, it is proof of the people I come from. From the front my nose is relatively large, it is both wide and long. From the side, it is quite straight and flat, but still rather long. This is my Melungeon nose and I find a comfort in the familiarity of it when I see it on the face of other Melungeons.

Though it took me a long while to find solace in my nose, I attribute my luck with women to my unique eye shape and sharp cheek bones. When I was a teen and young man, my fleeting lovers would swoon over my eyes and cheeks. Raving about the mystery and romance in my gaze and the chiseled sculpt that were my cheeks. Boy, did I pride myself on those. I reveled in the attention my younger, less confident self never received. I was always told these traits came from our Native American ancestors. I suppose those genes must be pretty strong since they are decently far back, and Melungeon is the only tribe we have any claims to.

I suppose I always thought I got my eyes from my mother, but I learned later I was adopted. A fact that was hard for me to fathom because I was always told by kin and strangers alike just how much I look exactly like my mother. I think the eyes more than any other trait, give us Melungeons away the most.

Us Melungeons have what I call heavy eyes. I think they make us look wise, they are very soothing for me, when I see these kinds of eyes, they make me feel like I am safe with this person, like they know where home is.

When I say we have heavy eyes, what I am referring to is how our eyes are both downturned as well as hooded, meanwhile most of us are, oddly, not sporting any epicanthal folds.

In my opinion this specific combination of eye shape is unique to Melungeon people. I don’t see very it often in other ethnicities, if at all. I can’t say I am the most traveled person, but I know a good lot of people from a good lot of backgrounds.

Other features I find to be common to the Melungeon phenotype is short square jaws, and high sharp cheeks. When I see Melungeon folk art, I often see these traits being the most accentuated and revered. I believe Melungeon communities historically associated these traits with beauty and attractiveness.

When you combine all these traits together, you can get a general idea of what Melungeon people look like. These traits live on pretty strong among our more isolated pockets into current day.

DISCLAIMER: Melungeon people as a whole are very mixed up, with some pockets carrying different traits than others, Melungeon identity is determined by ancestry and cultural upbringing and not by physical appearance. Someone not fitting the “typical” Melungeon phenotype does not negate their Melungeonity, and also does not imply someone who has a similar phenotype is automatically Melungeon. This is merely pattern recognition observed in a handful of isolated Melungeon communities.

[bijoumikhawal]

Cardassian Worldbuilding: Name Days

This is based on a throw away reference from ASIT: "“And Limor Prang will get you started. This is Elim Garak, our newest junior probe,” Tain said to Limor, whose facial expression appeared permanently set to reveal nothing. Tain turned back to me; the smile was gone. “You will no longer live at home. Visits to your family will be limited to holidays and name days. You are never to say anything to anyone about your work other than your designation as a research analyst in the Hall of Records..."

IRL, a name day is a celebration mostly found in European and Latin American countries where you celebrate the day of the year associated with the Saint who bears or is associated with your baptismal name. Some counties celebrate this and birthdays, while others do not. I, like most people, don't think normative Cardassian society is theistic by the time that Garak lives, and that includes the idea of saints that have officially recognized days.

The way I choose to interpret this is simply that Cardassians do not celebrate birthdays. Looking further at ASIT (this topic is not mentioned at all in the show to my recollection), I found this quote. "My name as a child was “Sleg” after the sleg corgan, a huge crawling beast that in certain seasons would barely move at all." The distinction made by calling it a "name as a child" and not a nickname to me implies that the name day is a celebration of the day one receives their "adult" name.

The adult name is picked and formally recognized when a child is around 2 years of age. This time is culturally recognized by Cardassians as when a child has crossed a threshold and is now unlikely to die of illness, and by this time most children no longer need adults to help them maintain body heat at all (in fact for many this need ceases much earlier).

This age is when it's expected a family will start collecting items for the dower and dowry of a child- delayed for the same reason as the delau of naming. These are collected in a chest and filled as the child grows, with the items needed to start a house (dishes, linens, crockery) as well as items primarily of value and decoration (jewelry, art, fabric for clothes). If a parent dies before one or more of their children has had use of their dower/dowry and is past their age of emergence, it's not uncommon for them to be given a small box containing a portion of it that the parent considers particularly important (see Garak's little red box that Tolan gave him). These small boxes are often very decorative.

Prior to receiving an adult name children are usually referred to by a slightly insulting nickname (such as Sleg). This is an old tradition that most Cardassians would not admit is intended to keep evil intent away from the child by referring to them in unappealing terms. It'd still common for a child to be called their child name by their parents even into adulthood as an expression of affection. Adult names have more blatantly positive meanings.

The first name day is celebrated by announcing the name to a gathering of family and friends, and many parents will commission a painter/calligrapher (one usually trains as the other) to paint something relevant to their child's name and write it out. This is displayed similar to a family photo in a common area of the home. This is sometimes also used as a basis to commission a piece of jewelry with the name on it, either as the primary decoration or an engraving. Gifts on subsequent name days may also feature an engraving of the name, now that it is known to others. Even if two people have the same name, the way a calligrapher writes it and the painting they create are unique (by this point personality is fairly familiar to their parents and they may talk about their child's personality to the artist, influencing the final piece).

In addition, it's common for children to bring a small treat for their school mates on the school day closest to their name day, and similar goes for workplaces. The celebrant gets their own sweets and gifts at their celebration. Depending on the families social status, the family may provide food at the celebration as well as the treat the child shares, while others provide something at the celebration but expect guests to bring dishes as well in a potluck style celebration.

Name days are celebrated every other dleiha (a period of time lasting 130 days, so name days are every 260 days). Dleiha are named after a constellation, and if one is named after one as well (which is not uncommon) they often will have an especially elaborate name day celebration during the corresponding dleiha.

[gisellelx]

Voice Lessons, Part 2: That's Intense

Voice Lessons, Part 1

One of the fastest changing parts of English are intensifiers. This is probably not a category you learned in English grammar; if you learned them at all, they were under the general category of adjectives and adverbs. Intensifiers are the way we indicate how "intense" a particular thing is: you can run kinda fast, or you can run very fast, or you can run extremely fast, and in each case, the intensifier is telling you just how fast you're running.

So voice tip 2: using different intensifiers can drastically change the age, gender, ethnicity or other social group of the character you're writing

Intensifiers vary a lot across regions and language varieties—if you're a southern Californian, for instance, you might have encountered hella, an intensifier which had a brief spread further north and throughout the USA, but which has ultimately stayed pretty focused among a particular subset of southern Californians. Or if you are a speaker of African American English, you might have encountered mad in constructions like, "That's mad cool," or "That movie was mad popular."

They also vary a lot across age. Older people are more likely to use certain intensifiers and younger people use different ones. For instance, one that is currently being charted as on the rise is super, which is an intensifier I use extensively--I come home and my dog is "super happy to see me" or I'm "super excited" about what I'm going to teach this week. But someone much older than me (and I'm not particularly young!) is not super likely to use super; they are much more likely to use something like really or very.

Picking the right intensifier for the character you're writing is an instant way to make them sound like they are from the age or region you want, or part of the community group you want. Conversely, picking the wrong one, even if everything else you write sounds on point, can throw a reader out of the character's voice.

Intensifiers are the #1 thing I edit after writing a post on the ole' sideblog. I am a user of so, really, and very often these days, super. But none of those are right for a nearly 400-year-old person who is a different gender than I am. So I often go back in and change things like really and sometimes even very to older intensifiers like quite or rather. (Rather is also more common in British English, and so it rings a little differently to an American reading ear.) Contrast that to if I am voicing Renesmee in 2023, who is a Gen Zer—she's going to be a super speaker or a so speaker, more often than not, and she needs to sound a little younger than I am! So I use the intensifiers that are most on the cutting edge. It's a very easy, and subtle, way to make a speaker sound like they are from the group they're from.

How do you figure out what intensifier a character would use? There are also a couple of tools you can use. A favorite free one is Google NGram, which will show you the frequency of words in books published since the 1800s. It can give a quick view of a flipping point, such as with really and rather which switched top spots sometime in the 2000s.

The Corpus of Contemporary American English/Corpus of Historical American English is another great source for finding out how words are trending: a free account allows you a few limited searches for trends, like this one for really that shows it's mostly used in spoken language, and is on a slight rise since 1990.

But the top tool is one is a good rule for writing more generally—make sure you listen! Take note of the way that people around you sound, and think about it in relation to the characters you are writing. If you're writing an older character, well, you want to think about the things your parents or even grandparents say that confuse you or doesn't sound the same way that you do. Those are the kinds of things you want to put in as a writer—they'll give your character a sense of remove or age. Same thing in the other direction—a younger character right now might be "super into that" whereas an older character might be "so into that" and a really old character might be "very much into that." (And probably doesn't use into that at all.)

Intensifiers are a super fast (see what I did there?) way to change the voice of a character from young to old, from one gender to another, from one ethnic group to another. They are well worth paying attention to so that you end up with a voice that makes sense for whomever you're writing. And if you just went "hmm that's weird" when you read "whomever you're writing"...well that's going to be Voice Lesson #3.