#not to say thats bad writing

[opens-up-4-nobody]

The 1st time I watched all of tos Turnabout Intruder was my favorite episode. Despite the pretty intense sexism and crazy shatner acting, I just find the idea really compelling.

[isasweetie]

need a jealous bsf!rafe x reader where he is possessive and doesn’t want other guys touching her even though he touches other girls, so she is basically over it and at a party, she dances on another guy and he gets mad

౨ৎ in which bsf!rafe just can’t help wanting to protect you.

you were done with rafe cameron. you’ve decided it. he was your best friend, sure, but he was controlling, mean, overly protective, and he acted like he owned you or something. so you were completely done with him, forever.

this is the third time you’ve promised yourself that, and news flash — you never dropped him.

it wasn’t your fault, you try to tell yourself every time. he just wouldn’t let you leave him, shutting you up whenever you’d even try and be reasonable with him, yelling louder than you or slamming his palm over your mouth. but a little part of you knows that you like the attention. you like that rafe cares so much about you, even if it does ruin your chances of getting a boyfriend. today is the day that you break the pattern though, and rebel against his constant authority.

parties are where rafe thrives. he’s like a celebrity, it always wonders you how much people love him. during parties, he keeps less of an eye on you, assuming you’re just busy gossiping with your friends. but little does he know, you’ve found a boy — it wasn’t often you’d get the opportunity to chat with a boy that wasn’t rafe, and you were loving every second of it. you felt so free from your friend’s gaze, listening to the boy talk, his deep voice vibrating your brain.

but the issue was, the boy was boring. he didn’t talk about cool things, like dirtbikes or his life or death adventures or money. you hated to say it, but he just wasn’t rafe. your mind kept flashing back to him, how much more you smile and enjoy his company. maybe rafe was right. you just didn’t need boys when you have him.

you’re so close to excusing yourself from the boy, going back to rafe’s arm and giggling with him and talking with your faces really close together. you glance back to where he is, ready to retreat, until you see it. you see her.

you’re not sure who she is, but she bothers you. her hair is so gorgeous and healthy, and you can’t see her face from behind but she must be gorgeous. her arm is on rafe’s bicep — your bicep, the one you always hang onto while you’re walking with rafe. you hate that you’re jealous. rafe’s your friend, not your boyfriend, you have no reason to be. but it’s like you can’t control it, your rage, and before you know it, you’re blinking back any potential tears and touching on this boy — this stranger — like there’s no tomorrow. tyla is blasting through the speakers, and yours and these boy’s hands are all over each other’s bodies. you really hope rafe sees you like this, drunk off the smirnoff pink lemonades and enjoying another mans company.

it really doesn’t take long for him to notice. he’s so predictable. shrugging the girls hand off of him, rushing over to his dear friend to get her away from this lowlife.

usually he’d reason with you. coax you away from the boy nicely and lecture you. but he’d had a few beers and a line of coke and he was in no mood for politeness. a rough hand pushes the boy away by the chest, and rafe isn’t muttering a word to anyone, grabbing your wrist and stomping away with you stumbling behind.

he pushes you into a spare bedroom, the first private place he could find. sitting you on the edge of the bed, he starts pacing in front of you and rubbing his face as if this was hurting his head. it’s like your brain flicks a switch, back to “rafe rafe rafe” as you’re sat there with tears brimming your eyes, fiddling with your manicure as you bat your eyelashes up at him, remembering the girl flirting with him, and now you making him mad, and now he’s got you in a puddle of guilt.

“shit— it’s like, you never do what i say, huh?” he mutters, still pacing. “you know i do everything to protect you, kid. you even know who that fuckin’ guy was? no, m’sure you don’t, cause you don’t think. thought by now my voice would be in your pretty head, there to help you make some smart decisions every once in a while. but nah, nah, you see one other boy and it’s back to square one with you,”

you go to speak, glossy lips parting, but he shuts you up with a quick “no”, and stopping pacing to go kneel in front of you.

“everything i do — for you, okay? for you. my girl,” he often calls you that, it makes you weak every time. he grabs your hands. “stop fiddling, paid for this polish.” you stop instantly. “i know— i know you think that my protectiveness is, uh, stupid, but i need to be like this, or you’re gonna get hurt. i know you, baby. i need to be all over you for you to even have a slight awareness to not do stupid things. so i do take some ownership over you in that sense—“

you cut him off, muttering a, “don’t want you to take ownership.”

he huffs. “yeah, but i do, so…” he shrugs. “you’re mine. my friend, my girl. so i don’t like it when someone else touches my girl, or when you’re the one intiating it. makes me so fuckin’ angry, kid, makes me wanna, like—“ he cuts himself off. “so i need you to knock it off.”

you wanna argue so badly, but your brain turns to mush around him. so you sniffle and nod hesitantly.

“no, i want a ‘yes rafe.’ need your words.”

“i just think that—“ you try.

he cuts you off. “yes rafe. say it with me.”

“..yes, rafe.” you both say.

he squeezes your hands and gets up. “yeah, there you go, good girl. now do you, uh, need a minute, fix your makeup, or d’you wanna go back down there and hang out with me?”

your hand goes to his bicep as you stand up with him, and a ghost of a smile appears on his lips. “wanna go with you,” you say softly, leaning into him a bit.

“yeah, that’s what i thought.”

[idiotsonlyevent]

i wonder where the idea of chilchuck being a deadbeat came from when theres like. no textual evidence for it ?

he knows what all of them are up to; he still writes to flertom and she sent him his neckwarmer, so that to me implies that they at least have a somewhat positive relationship?

its more ambiguous with meijack and puckpatti, but since meijack is also a picklock, i wouldn't be surprised if he taught her himself, considering how trades are often passed down through families, and because he talks about sending people to her if he dies.

also the way he talks about puckpatti is very like... it's obvious he wants her to take things more seriously, but he's accepting, and his tone here reads more fond to me than anything else.

like, he keeps his daughters' old toys under his desk? that doesn't scream 'deadbeat' at all, it screams 'empty nester' who doesn't know how to reach out or is scared to do so

EDIT: i know a lot of the 'deadbeat dad' stuff is jokes, but some people are Not joking and genuinely think chilchuck is a bad dad. this post is not saying that you cant joke about it; it is just outlining what canon shows regarding his (clearly positive) relationship with his kids.

[sugarcoatednightshade]

thinking about how Humans Are Space Orcs stories always talk about how indestructible humans are, our endurance, our ability to withstand common poisons, etc. and thats all well and good, its really fun to read, but it gets repetitive after a while because we aren't all like that.

And that got me thinking about why this trope is so common in the first place, and the conclusion I came to is actually kind of obvious if you think about it. Not everyone is allowed to go into space. This is true now, with the number of physical restrictions placed on astronauts (including height limits), but I imagine it's just as strict in some imaginary future where humans are first coming into contact with alien species. Because in that case there will definitely be military personnel alongside any possible diplomatic parties.

And I imagine that all interactions aliens have ever had up until this point have been with trained personnel. Even basic military troops conform to this standard, to some degree. So aliens meet us and they're shocked and horrified to discover that we have no obvious weaknesses, we're all either crazy smart or crazy strong (still always a little crazy, academia and war will do that to you), and not only that but we like, literally all the same height so there's no way to tell any of us apart.

And Humans Are Death Worlders stories spread throughout the galaxy. Years or decades or centuries of interspecies suspicion and hostilities preventing any alien from setting foot/claw/limb/appendage/etc. on Earth until slowly more beings are allowed to come through. And not just diplomats who keep to government buildings, but tourists. Exchange students. Temporary visitors granted permission to go wherever they please, so they go out in search of 'real terran culture' and what do they find?

Humans with innate heart defects that prevent them from drinking caffeine. Humans with chronic pain and chronic fatigue who lack the boundless endurance humans are supposedly famous for. Humans too tall or too short or too fat to be allowed into space. Humans who are so scared of the world they need to take pills just to function. Humans with IBS who can't stand spicy foods, capsaicin really is poison to them. Lactose intolerance and celiac disease, my god all the autoimmune disorders out there, humans who struggle to function because their own bodies fight them. Humans who bruise easily and take too long to heal. Humans who sustained one too many concussions and now struggle to talk and read and write. Humans who've had strokes. Humans who were born unable to talk or hear or speak, and humans who through some accident lost that ability later.

Aliens visit Earth, and do you know what they find? Humanity, in all its wholeness.

[cookiecakecookie-cake]

Some food for thought on Self Aware AUs

cws: psychological horror elements, existentialism, ddlc mention and some use of machine lingo. this is mainly focused towards cookie run self aware aus, but this could apply to any fandom, really.

thinking about how horrifying a self aware au would be, strictly speaking. like, no magic, no multiversal shenanigans, just "these are characters INSIDE A GAME that become aware of the fact that they're in a game." of course you kinda have to take some liberties, but what would they be able to do, realistically? i understand the appeal of the idea, but i feel people take way more liberties than what would actually happen.

i mean, their options are extremely limited. you would think "well, why can't they just change their code?" but in effect, that'd be like trying to perform surgery on yourself while you're still awake.

speaking as a programmer, it's nearly impossible to edit anything inside of a program while it's running. you HAVE to shut it off before making ANY change. there are some cases where you can edit a program while its running, but you would be unable to see the effects until you reboot the software, and there's a good chance that any half-baked edits may cause a game breaking bug. they're insanely common in just small programs, god forbid a whole-ass game.

the best case for being able to make a significant change while a game is running would be using console commands/dev tools. you know that black box monika pulls up whenever she deletes a character? that's what i'm talking about. she can't change or add anything significantly new to the game, but a console? a console is completely different.

while trying to edit code while a program is running is, again, practically impossible, accessing console commands is a whole different ballpark. a game like crk has to have a console, they're basically mandatory to make any bug-testing actually feasible. the only drawback is that you're limited to the actual commands available, which is probably just simple stuff. there's also a good chance that a dev tool like that would be removed from the public releases of the game.

stuff like this probably means that only cookies who already have some programming experience under their belt would be the ones able to do anything significant. cookies like strawberry crepe, clotted cream, and mozzarella (or the cheese empire cookies in general) probably have the most power here. i could also see black sapphire or butter roll having some knowledge on this end too, but they probably have more experience on the hardware end, rather than the software end.

meanwhile the beasts and ancients (minus golden cheese) have to squint at the screen old man style wondering what the fuck those youngins are doing.

that leaves us with the topic of the player. i mean, we all know that the player must be a godlike figure to them, but they can't really learn anything about them asides from how they interact with the world. again: anything they aren't already programmed to do would be basically impossible to achieve, so no checking the camera or looking up browser history. (and thank fuck for that too, i do NOT need a bunch of cookies seeing the shit ive searched up.)

they probably do what they can to make things easier for you, to keep you engaged, without scaring you off. a couple more materials and soulstones here and there, cutting down the timers on a couple things, sending you more notifications than usual (or even turning your notifications ON if you previously had them off.) to have more and more of your attention.

most of the cookies probably have mixed feelings about some sort of god having such an effect on their lives, but even then, you don't have as much of an effect as they think. you don't control the story. their fate is left up to the whims of faceless gods who only wish to use their likenesses as a motive to make more profit for themselves. they're entertainment. they're money. and the player is just another consumer, indulging on what is in front of them.

some of them want to be mad, but they can't. it's not like they know why they were designed this way. shadow milk especially hates your guts, but that's only because that means there's someone more powerful than him. he's the one most likely to try to do something, anything, to finally be able to one-up their oh-so wonderful and powerful god, but inadvertently breaks things beyond repair.

i'm not saying that the way self-aware aus are done right now are BAD, but i do think some people are missing their true potential. i hope that people see this and get inspired to write something beautifully horrifying, just for fun.

[kaocat-tatatat]

The real reason is that the Joker is DC's cash cow, so he must have the most plot armour possible.

In canon however, things are different. I dont care too much for super realism in comics, the nature of comic books means that a lot if disbelief has to suspended for stories to work. But honestly, as much as I love Batman, it makes no sense how he hasn't died yet, even without Jason, Bruce, on any of the other batfamily members killing him.

The GCPD is supposed to be corrupt as hell, right? So why hasn't a corrupt GCPD officer not decided to shoot him in custody, or for there to be an 'unfortunate accident' or 'unforseen medical emergency' in Arkham Asylum? How come he hasn't killed himself via government agency issued sniper rifle? Im pretty sure in one comic Deadshot got a contract to assassinate his ass, and over the past few decades of his existence, you're telling me he has avoided all of them??? Don't get me wrong, if you one day just shot the Joker in the head there'd probably be a few problems, crime empires don't just fall after one (bad) day after all, and the Joker can be extremely scary and ruthless to those who try and stop him (obviously). Therefore, most people would be afraid of the consequences of killing him, even those who aren't that smart about it or know the Joker that we'll could price together that if you fail, you would be in for a bad time.

However:

realistically, with all the shit he has done, I have a feeling that some people really, really don't give a shit about that, like theyd rathter die trying to kill him for the greater good, or revenge, or something....so am I supposed to believe that out of a population of billions, nobody has tried at all? or am I supposed to believe that no one has ever been successful (once again, over how many years??) yeah, he uses fear to get what he wants and for people to stay out his way, corruption, coercion, bribery, etc. but that can only go so far, especially for some people who are solely focused on killing him, which, would probably be a lot of people.

Of course, instead of being led to believe that the majority populous are incompetent, not driven at all by blind emotion and short sightedness when it comes to killing the Joker, or/and every single one deeply affected by the Joker's intimidation techniques; you could argue instead the Joker is just incredibly competent at avoiding being killed by people. This has its own problems though. Like as I previously said, with the amount of people that presumably would want him dead, over years and years of his life of crime, no one has managed to successfully murder him?? the universe where magic is real, where a man can fall from the moon in nothing but kevlar and leather and survive, and a super-powered kid from the 60's can punch so hard he breaks time and can bring people back to life - but suddenly assassinating one of most well known criminals of all time is too much of a challenge? like even if we take the Batman side of things as more grounded than other DC properties, the Joker could not be that lucky, that skilled, and have that many reasources to have managed to avade being killed for so long (I know he robs banks like every other week, but tax avasion is how they got Al Capone, and all that money probably wouldnt stop the multidue of shadowy cabals pulling the strings of society in the DC universe from trying to get him out of the way). Like, even in the own rules of the DC universe does it not make that much sense. Too many people (people which statistically, more than one person would probably be skilled and have enough resources) want him dead, and so much could be made from his death that its not like even those with no care for the greater good wouldnt rather have him die and take the spoils for themselves.

Gotham is in New Jersey, which doesn't have the death penalty, but the Joker has committed crimes in other states and countries which absolutely do, where he would most likely be tried, and it is extremely unlikely he could get off on an Insanity plea every single time (once again, about corruption, in some places it would more likely get him the death penalty than anything else).

It doesn't even have to be on purpose. The Joker lives a very dangerous life, and a lot of people seem to forget that the Joker is only human. His body, although fucked up in some ways via chemicals, does still have some human limits? Your telling me with all the running around Gotham at night, with no formal training like Batman, that he hasn't managed to accidently slip and fall the wrong way in the city where it always rains??? That he hasn't hit his head to hard after fighting batman or anyone else (even fighting civilians)??? All of the chemicals and shit he messes around with for his crimes in his many makeshift labs hasn't poisoned him yet??? And that's just in gotham, not mentioning all of the constant Justice League threats around and about which Joker, still majority human, could fall prey to (I don't think genocidal aliens care if a man looks like a clown)

Taking all of this into account, the only reason the Joker could have survived this long in canon is that the only people who most likely to try to kill him are the same people who are not afraid enough of him, his wrath, or any fallout of his death, blinded by emotion, and therefore not skilled enough and too stupid/hubristic/too naive to kill him: and everyone else either thinks he is useful to them and their own plans, to scared to even touch a hair on his head, or just unlucky to have their plans not work due to circumstances (which includes batman saving his life, as he has done multiple times).

This reason is fine, it can be really interesting but also makes the Joker more like some sort of annoying, murderous cockroach that just. won't. die. even after he is caught in an exploding helicopter crash, or stabbed and shot a million times, he inexplicably survives because... he's just that good! It makes no sense if you think about it critically for more than 5 seconds, and personally, it really cheapens alot of batman stories by having him always come back in one way or another, completely fine. (Where's the comic where the Joker's stuck in ICU for a year and loses his criminal fortune to the American health care system?) It's plot armour so obvious it's even worse than Batman's, and it kinda sucks.

In conclusion: the plot contrivances do be contrived, so the clown lives

How is it that Bruce Wayne can come up with 100+ plans to handle Superman but he can't keep the Joker locked up in Arkam?

Why can't someone just shoot the Joker's brains out yet? How is this clown still alive?

[hudson-fabulous-hornet]

> Old men who can't go three seconds without being snarky to anyone four feet from them...

> I have no idea if cars have some grey base coat that's temporary like the human equivalent to casting but if so thats so epicsauce. Comics are not for the weak (Me I am the weak).

[tenderjock]

The end was soon To Bethlehem, it slouched And then, must've caught a good look at you

[courfee]

look at that!! i've talked about it so much and now chapter 1 actually exists in real life!!

[realmrooikat]

haiiii guess who made a trmsp uquiz :3

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

Ponyboy “If I raise my voice could I- could I change the way it is” Curtis

[xulips]

aktyweek, day 2; gaming

in which akito finds out about bad make up game ads

[scribz-ag24]

i doubt this holds any interest, because they are such a minor character, but i would like to bring Spiritomb to attention, even though their relationship with Dusknoir is very vague? If only because it is a character that rarely gets talked about, despite them being one of the only Dark Future Pokémon we ever meet, even taking the place of the prototypical pokemon in that time during Episode 14.

I think their vague status between "random Dark Future Pokémon" in the main story and then "dusknoir's servant" in se5 can make a fun example of how Dusknoir treats regular pokémon in his native time (i know the doylist explanation of why spiritomb is here is probably character economy, reusing concepts from the main plot to make the plot tidier, but let me ramble for a bit). Or, at least, it helps emphasize the casual cruelty dusknoir is able to display at this point.

Despite how eagerly Spiritomb jumped Grovyle in the main story, the way they speak makes pretty clear that this attack was not their own initiative. In fact, Spiritomb seems reluctant to even bring up their desire to leave. all in all they sound like a reluctant intern who's trying not to fuck up but really does not want to be here?

They clearly seem intimidated, or at least respectful of Dusknoir. They address him with suspension points, as if unsure, and once again states their desire to leave, despite not wanting to sound insubordinate. Rather than respect, I simply believe he's fearful. Which, uh, is probably understandable considering he's been ordered to keep Celebi hostage after she was captured by dialga and he's witnessing how much agony Dusknoir can cause to his enemies.

Nevertheless, their desire to leave could not be treated with less indifference from Dusknoir, who, in all fairness, is probably entering a big high thanks to his plan's success. Hell, he can't even stop himself from laughing (in satisfaction? or perhaps anticipation for his big evil laugh soon after) before ordering Spiritomb to stay.

"Remain with us a little longer!", he exclaims. The simultaneous downside and upside of text without voice acting is that the tone of the dialogue is heavily dependent on how we read it. In my own view, though, I'd say he's trying to sound like an affable host, kindly inviting Spiritomb to stay, as if they were friend. And of course, he has his followers block Spiritomb's path immediately so they cannot escape. The threat seems pretty clear to me in the scene, and for that reason I do not think it's a reach to say that Dusknoir would have ordered Spiritomb to be threatened or physically hurt if they expressed any more intentions to withdraw.

(the reason for wanting Spiritomb to stay is also left unstated, iirc? The most pragmatic reason would be assuming if spiritomb left, celebi would be left free, and dusknoir doesn't want that. However, we are given no indication that the sableye could not move celebi or that spiritomb needs to stay exactly there to neutralize celebi. Idk i think dusknoir's just being petty. "look at what i did everyone i am so proud of myself i am the smartest most cleverest boy that ever lived"<- about to get an existential revelation so great it kicks him out of the closet into the wrath of god)

From the casual manner in which he acts this way, I tend to accept this as Dusknoir's behaviour in situations where kindness won't get him what he wants. And accounting for his indifference towards Spiritomb despite them neutralizing a legendary pokemon that only Dialga could chase down, I hardly believe Dusknoir would treat the sableye any better if they ever showed signs of hesitation while following orders.

That fact makes the Sableye's seemingly long-time wishes of saving planet almost heart-breaking. If you talk to them before entering Vast Ice Mountain, they say it's hard to be brave, and it's curious to me how Dusknoir -while also being unable to be brave and see the point of sacrifice until the end of se5- was unwittingly contributing to the Sableye being unable to find that determination too. Both of them were contributing to keeping the future in darkness, not just physically by attacking the insurgents, but mentally, as not a spark of hope could ever flourish when their mission was to crush that very dream they held somewhere deep in their hearts.

I personally really like the way he acts so affable and welcoming while putting the sableye on spiritomb's back. It overall feels like a perfect encapsulation of his plan with Hero and Partner in Treasure Town: putting the front of a friendly, powerful, humble explorer while waiting for the chance to take Grovyle and the young explorers to their execution. Now he invites Spiritomb to stay as if this was their collective success, while ensuring he will keep this audience for his evil speech. Much like him going "or is it? ;)))" before kidnapping hero/partner, this playful attitude of his seems to suggest he's truly pushed his morals deep down so he can ultimately feel some sort of joy or triumph from these heinous actions. All in name of keeping his own dull existence going a little longer.

This clash between his kind persona and dark identity, which is toyed with and finally a key component of his development in se5, where he finally shows his inner goodness, is very compelling to me. And imagining him trying to connect with others in more genuine ways after se5 makes me soft.

[this was a reblog i did for the sableye&dusknoir post, but the post was weirdly formatted and it was bothering me so im putting it separately]

[wackywatchdotcom]

something i genuinely adore about tadc is how painfully flawed everyone in the circus is. and not in a small way

everyone does SOMETHING that negatively impacts the others. but it makes the fact that you are supposed to sympathize with and really connect with them all the more potent. because its easy to want to put a bunch of characters in a bad situation together and to just have them all be nice to each other and everyone and never make mistakes because theres no reason to hurt each other, and most of them dont TRY to, but the way they cope is so, so realistic for each of their personalities, and it doesnt always mesh with the others, and sometimes it exceeds self destructive and Just Hurts Others, Too

they still generally care about each other and the mistakes they make and the ways they end up hurting each other dont lose their weight but like. it doesnt take away from their humanity and the fact that they are all trying so hard to manage in an awful situation

and the characters seem to have sooome sort of understanding of this too. not fully, because the characters dont tend to be 100% communicative, but when they hurt each other, it often makes EVERYONE uncomfortable. because these are the only people they have. these are their friends. and theyre all coping. but it doesnt change how much it affects them (best illustrated by ragathas lines at the start of ep 2 or gangles 'i love her, but after a while it gets kinda hard to tell how genuine shes actually being'). its not all like this, theres a good amnt of variety, but characters knowing this but not really knowing what to do about it is very painful in an effective way

(i think a subtle example of this is how zooble handles gangles situation in ep 4- they were so genuinely trying to help her because they care. but could tell as the day went on that oh, this is not working at all and its making things worse, and they leave gangle alone- something that very genuinely couldve been the moment she abstracted, because of the mask zooble gave her- and we dont get to have a super blatant explanation of zoobles thoughts on it, but they reach a fairly healthy conclusion about it that helps both of them, and i like that a lot, because on paper zooble could be placed at fault but the narrative doesnt dwell on it excessively, because thats not the point. i dont know if that tangent makes sense but i think about it sometimes. i think zooble wasnt 'to blame' but it was still a mistake, which is a hard balance to strike, and having them help at the end feels extremely effective at rounding it off!!!)

but like. in general its complicated balancing making characters in a bad situation act flawed because it can run the risk of seeming like the story is scolding them or blaming them for the situation theyre in, or like youre expected to not sympathize with them despite it (though the inverse also has complications- if characters in a bad situation never mess up, it feels unrealistic and hard to relate to, and can imply that their innocence is why whats happening to them is bad at all), but the show handles it so well

even the characters who are genuinely trying all try in different ways- some of them have similar outlooks or attitudes towards these thing but theres vital differences for ALL of them- sometimes it works and sometimes it doesnt. in fact some of the more painful mistakes characters have made in the show have come from them so genuinely trying (like the thing i mentioned w zooble, or basically Everything Ragatha Does, or pomnis first attempt at helping gangle, etc), which hits harder than if every mistake characters made had wholly selfish and cruel goals.

i mean, there is a selfishness to many of the characters' actions but imo not in a way thats not warranted. because all of them are in a horrible setting. its uncomfortable to watch characters be selfish. but it is a natural instinct to survive. its not the foundation of most of their actions, but when it is, its uncomfortable but hard to completely disparage them for in a way that makes you feel kinda conflicted

and like. it hurts to be doing your best and for that to make things worse, but its what happens often in the show. because no one in a bad situation is gonna handle it well. by the very nature of trying to survive something is gonna give, but it makes the themes of the show so much more powerful. that making sure the people around you dont feel unloved, cherishing them and finding meaning with others is no less important just because everyone is fucking up. it complicates things, for sure, but it doesnt make those characters exempt fromt this. theres a reason pomni tells gummigoo that she doesnt want "anyone" to feel like theyre nothing, and that kinger doesnt add ANY quallifiers to making sure people feel wanted and loved (not that i think either of them were thinking SUPER super hard, but it conveys smth from the perspective of the narrative

it gets complicated when you add in jax for sure, since i think on the surface he IS the exception to this concept- none of the characters like him, including pomni or kinger. but i think this is something thats gonna be examined further down the line, bc hes the main complicating factor in this reading of the show, but i feel like thats on purpose. hes universally disliked (and so is caine, in a different way) and his actions arent mistakes. they are him coping. the show has made it clear that he can be a complex person AND also a piece of shit. his actions dont detract from the fact that hes a person and the show reminds us of this. so it makes things so messy, but im genuinely super excited to see how the show examines that. where his character goes is, imo, going to be a massive piece of how this show fleshes out this concept

[spookygibberish]

Dogstock are typical of what are often deemed the ‘evil’ races in many other fantasy works. They were created by some higher force to be slaves, they are carnivorous by nature, they resemble animals other than human in dentition and build. They growl and bite and walk behind.

The Uhasr (a dogstock culture) are descendants of such slave-infantry that was abandoned when the empire that used them to capture the steppes decided the land wasn’t so profitable after all, and more pressing matters drew their attention elsewhere. Like tools left spent on the ground, the unneeded, excess dogstock were left to survive on their own in Hochkiskuph. The native peoples, of course, did not welcome them any more, or see them any less as oppressors when the hand released the lead. To the Hochkiskuph peoples, the Uhasr are a predatory ghost, an echo that consumes them even in absentia. To the Uhasr, one human is much like another, differing in number and equipment, but never in essence. Uhasr are a species of wild animal with a human face. Humans are prey on two legs. Humans smoke and poison uncovered dens on principle, Uhasr abduct and consume men and women and children all the same.

A common trend I have noticed in media which aims to humanize monsters, is that it often relies on passivity. Humanity is contingent upon kindness. The monster that is A Person only so long as they are a harmless thing at heart, something which can be understood and befriended. Their violence is reluctant, their hearts noble. Grace is a concession to the dominated. Only the toothless beast, declawed and pinioned and caged, is one which has earned its personhood. The ontological enemy supersedes the ontological man.

[spitblaze]

Listen. Listen to me. Having privilege in one form or another, even situational and conditional privilege, doesn't de facto make you a bad person. A transmasc that applies to a job with their chosen name, whether or not that transmasc passes otherwise, will have privilege over a transfem applying to that same job, because of societal sexism. That doesn't suddenly mean that transmasc is a violent asshole putting transfems at risk, it just means that as a transmasc you gotta be more cognizant of how you navigate the world. It doesn't mean you don't experience oppression. It doesn't even mean you don't experience oppression unique to being transmasc! What it DOES mean is that whether you like it or not, your relationship to women and non-men are inherently different than they would be if you were a woman. And you're gonna have to reckon with that. You can't stop women you don't know from viewing you as a potential threat, but you can use what privilege you may have if you're stealth or pass to advocate for women, and trans women, and other trans men, and to. Y'know. Check yourself once in a while and make sure you're not falling into the toxic masculinity and patriarchal mindset so many of us have already suffered at the hands of.